transcriber's note: phonetic characters are represented by the following symbols: [xt] = any letter "x" with inferior inverted "t" [=x] = any letter "x" with superior macron [x=] = any letter "x" with inferior macron [=oo] = "oo" with superior macron [)x] = any letter "x" with superior breve [)oo] = "oo" with superior breve [.x] = any letter "x" with superior dot (semi-dieresis) [x.] = any letter "x" with inferior dot (semi-dieresis) [x:] = any letter "x" with inferior double-dot (dieresis) questions and answers on orthography and reading. by b.a. hathaway, _author of the " question and answer book series._ the burrows brothers company, cleveland, ohio. * * * * * in the same series. questions and answers on u.s. history, (including the federal constitution and amendments.) questions and answers on geography. (embracing descriptive, physical, and mathematical geography.) questions and answers on grammar. (with copious illustrations, parsing and analysis.) questions and answers on arithmetic. (including nearly test examples, with solutions.) questions and answers on the theory and practice of teaching. (the latest and most exhaustive book on this subject ever published.) questions and answers on physiology and hygiene. (containing a separate and exhaustive chapter on the physiological effects of alcohol and narcotics.) questions and answers on orthography and reading. questions and answers on general history. questions and answers on botany. questions and answers on test examples in arithmetic. extra cloth, price c. each. postage prepaid. any assorted for $ . , postpaid. any assorted for $ . , postpaid. the assorted $ . postpaid. published by the burrows bros. company, cleveland, ohio. * * * * * entered according to act of congress, in the year , by b.a. hathaway, in the office of the librarian of congress at washington, d.c. * * * * * prefatory note. _in presenting this, the seventh book of the " question and answer series," we feel that a great want is partially met. it is evident, from the number of inquiries made for such a book, that the works devoted to the subject of orthography are very limited._ _we are also aware that the authors of the different grammars devote such a limited space to the subject of orthoepy and technical orthography, that both teacher and pupil turn away from the subject in disgust._ _in preparing this list of questions and answers we have consulted the best authority of the present day, and believe we have gone over the ground in such a way that it will meet the approval of all interested._ _the questions and answers on reading we trust will add to the interest of the book, and only hope that it will be received with as gracious a welcome and hearty approval as the rest of the series._ b.a.h. april, . * * * * * contents. page. letters, orthoepy, substitutes, definitions and words, rules and terms, numerical values of the letters, capitals and italics, abbreviations, accent and punctuation, diacritical marks, prefixes and suffixes, promiscuous questions, reading and elocution, miscellaneous exercises, * * * * * letters. . _what is orthography?_ the science and art of the letters of a language. . _of what does orthography treat?_ the nature and power of letters, and correct spelling. . _from what is the word orthography derived?_ two greek words, signifying "to write right." . _what is a letter?_ a character used to represent an elementary sound, or combination of sounds. . _what is an alphabet of a language?_ a complete list of its letters. . _what is the origin of the word alphabet?_ it is derived from the first two letters of the greek alphabet: alpha and beta. . _where did the alphabet originate?_ the english comes from the greek, which was brought by cadmus from phoenicia, about the year b.c. . _what was the first alphabet ever used?_ the hebrew. _how many letters were in the original alphabet?_ sixteen. . _where did the other letters originate?_ they have been added since the time of cadmus, as their use became necessary. . _what was the last letter added to the english alphabet?_ w. . _why was it called w?_ on account of it being composed of two u's, or a double u. . _how many letters in the english alphabet?_ twenty-six. . _how many in the latin alphabet?_ twenty-five. . _what is the difference between the latin alphabet and the english?_ the latin omits the letter w. . _what alphabet has the greatest number of letters?_ the chinese. . _how many letters in the chinese alphabet?_ over two hundred. . _what is a perfect alphabet?_ one which contains the same number of letters that it has elementary sounds. . _is the english a perfect alphabet?_ it is not. . _how many elementary sounds in the english language?_ about forty-three. . _what is an imperfect alphabet?_ one in which the number of sounds exceeds the number of letters. . _what is an equivocal alphabet?_ an imperfect one. . _what is an unequivocal alphabet?_ same as perfect. . _is the english alphabet equivocal or unequivocal?_ equivocal. . _what is a univocal alphabet?_ one that has a separate character for each elementary sound. . _what is an alphabetic language?_ a language in which the characters represent separate articulate sounds. . _what is a phonetic alphabet?_ one in which there is a separate character for each elementary sound. . _is there any phonetic alphabet of the english language?_ there have been several published, but they are not in general use. . _how many letters in the english phonetic alphabet?_ forty-three. . _what is the name of a letter?_ the appellation by which it is known. . _what is the difference between a letter and its name?_ the letter is the character, and the name is its appellation. . _what letters name themselves?_ the vowels a, e, i, o, and u. . _how are the letters divided?_ into vowels and consonants. . _what are vowels?_ those letters which represent only pure tones. . _name all the vowels._ a, e, i, o, u, and in some situations w and y. . _what is a consonant?_ a letter that represents an interruption of sound or breath. . _why called consonants?_ because they cannot be used alone in a word, but must be connected with a vowel. . _how many kinds of consonants are there?_ two; single letters and combinations. . _name the consonant letters._ b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z. . _name the consonant combinations._ th, sh, ch, zh, wh, and ng. . _name the two orders of the consonants._ mutes and semi-vowels. . _what are mutes?_ those letters which admit of no escape of breath while the organs of speech are in contact. . _name the mutes._ b, d, k, p, t, and c and g hard. . _what other term is often applied to the mutes?_ close consonant. . _what are semi-vowels?_ those letters that admit of an escape of breath while the organs of speech are in contact. . _name the semi-vowels._ f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v, w, x, y, z, and c and g soft. . _are the combinations mutes or semi-vowels?_ they are all semi-vowels. . _what letters are called nasals?_ m, n, and ng. . _what other term is often applied to the semi-vowels?_ loose consonant. . _what letters are called liquids?_ l, m, n, and r. . _why are the liquids so called?_ because of their flowing sound, which readily unites with the sound of other letters. . _what are sibilants?_ letters which have a hissing sound; as, s and z. . _what letter is called the mute sibilant?_ the letter x. . _what letters represent no sound of their own?_ c, q, and x. . _what are these letters called?_ redundant letters. . _why are they so named?_ because they are not necessary for the completion of the alphabet. . _by what letters are the sounds of c represented?_ k and s. . _what letters represent the sound of q?_ kw. . _what letters represent the sound x?_ ks. . _what letters of themselves form words?_ a, i, and o. . _spell all of the consonants._ bee, cee, dee, eff, gee, aitch, jay, kay, ell, em, en, pee, kw, ar, ess, tee, vee, double-u, ex, wy, and zee.--_goold brown_. . _what letters are called the twins?_ q and u. . _why so called?_ because q is always followed by u in english spelling. . _is there any exception to this rule?_ the word leeclercq is sometimes given as an example, but in english it is spelled leeclerc. . _what is meant by style of letters?_ different type; as, roman, script, italics, etc. . _how many forms have letters?_ two. . _what are they?_ small letters and capitals. . _what are the natural divisions of consonants?_ subvocals and aspirates. . _what are subvocals?_ those consonants which produce an undertone of voice when their sounds are uttered. . _name the subvocals._ b, d, g hard; j and g soft; l, m, n, r, v, w, y, z, zh, and ng. . _what are aspirates?_ mere whispers made by the organs of speech and breath. . _name the aspirates._ c, f, h, k, p, q, s, t, x, ch, sh, and wh. . _what combination is both aspirate and subvocal?_ th. . _what are cognate letters?_ those which are produced by the same organs of speech in a similar position. . _give an example of a cognate letter._ d is a cognate of t. . _what are quiescent letters?_ those that are silent. . _how many uses have silent letters?_ five. . _what are they?_ to modify vowels; to modify consonants; to determine signification; to determine origin; and to distinguish words of like signification. . _what are explodents?_ those letters whose sound cannot be prolonged. . _name the explodents._ b, d, g, j, p, q, t, and k. . _what are the principle organs of speech?_ lips, teeth, tongue, and palate. . _what is meant by organical division of the consonants?_ pertaining to those particular organs used in their pronunciation. . _name the organical divisions._ labials, dentals, linguals, and palatals. . _what are labials?_ those letters whose sounds are modified by the lips. . _name them._ b, f, m, p, v, w, and wh. . _what are dentals?_ those letters whose sounds are modified by the teeth. . _name them._ j, s, z, ch, sh, zh, c and g soft. . _what are linguals?_ those letters whose sounds are modified by the tongue. . _name them._ d, l, n, r, t, y, and th. . _what are palatals?_ those letters whose sounds are modified by the palate. . _name them._ k, q, x, ng, c and g hard. . _what letters have no organical classification?_ h, and all the vowels. . _what is an aphthong?_ a silent letter or combination. . _how many kinds of aphthongs?_ three. . _what are they?_ vowels, consonants, and combinations. . _what letters are never silent?_ f, j, q, r, and x. . _in what words is v silent?_ sevennight and twelvemonth. . _in what word is z silent?_ rendezvous. . _what letters are never doubled?_ x and h. . _how many words contain all the vowels in regular order?_ two. . _what are they?_ abstemious and facetious. . _what is a diphthong?_ two vowels sounded together in the same syllable. . _name the diphthongs._ ou, ow, oi, and oy. . _how many sounds do they represent?_ two. . _what are the sounds called?_ diphthongal sounds. . _how many kinds of diphthongs are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ separable and inseparable. . _which ones are separable?_ oi and oy. . _what is an improper diphthong?_ the union of two vowels in a syllable, one of which is silent. . _by what other name are they known?_ digraph. . _how many digraphs are there?_ twenty-five. . _name them._ aa, ae, ai, ao, au, aw, ay, ea, ee, ei, eo, eu, ew, ey, ie, oa, oe, oi, oo, ou, ow, ua, ue, ui, and uy. . _what is a trigraph?_ a union of three vowels in one syllable, two of which are silent, or all three representing one sound. . _how many trigraphs are there?_ eight. . _name them._ awe, aye, eau, eou, eye, ieu, iew, and uoi. . _what is a tetragraph?_ union of four vowels in one syllable. . _how many tetragraphs are there?_ one. . _what is it?_ ueue in the word queue. . _may the terms digraph, etc., be used with the consonants?_ they may. . _give example of consonant digraph._ gh, in the word laugh. . _give example of consonant trigraph._ thr, in the word throw. . _give example of consonant tetragraph._ phth, in the word phthisic. . _what is a regular triphthong?_ a vowel trigraph in which all three of the vowels are sounded. . _give an example._ quoit. orthoepy. . _what is orthoepy?_ that science which treats of the elementary sounds and the pronunciation of words. . _what is phonology?_ the science of the elementary sounds uttered by the human voice in speech. . _what is an elementary sound?_ one that cannot be divided so as to be represented by two or more letters. . _what is sound?_ a sensation produced on the auditory nerve by the rapid vibratory motion of any elastic substance. . _what is the least number of vibrations that will produce an audible sound?_ sixteen per second. . _what is the greatest number that can be heard?_ about forty thousand per second. . _what is voice?_ sound produced by the vocal chords. . _what is an articulate sound?_ one made by the organs of speech and used in language. . _what is a vocal sound?_ one that is modified but not obstructed by the articulatory organs. . _what is a simple vocal sound?_ one made without any change in the position of the articulatory organs during its emission. . _what is a coalescent?_ an articulate sound that always precedes and unites with a vocal. . _what is a guttural sound?_ one that is modified by the soft palate. . _what are unarticulate sounds?_ the sounds of the vowels. . _how many elementary sounds do the vowels represent?_ fifteen. . _how many do the consonants represent?_ eighteen. . _how many do the combinations represent?_ seven. . _how many do the diphthongs represent?_ only one, as oi and oy only repeat sounds already represented by a and i. . _how many sounds has a?_ five. . _what are they?_ long, short, medial, flat, and broad. . _how many sounds has e?_ two. . _what are they?_ long and short. . _how many sounds has i?_ two. . _what are they?_ long and short. . _how many sounds has o?_ three. . _what are they?_ long, short, and slender. . _how many sounds has u?_ three. . _what are they?_ long, short, and medial. . _how many sounds has b?_ one; as heard in the word babe. . _how many sounds has c?_ none that may be properly called its own. . _how many sounds has d?_ one; as heard in the word did. . _how many sounds has f?_ one; as heard in the word flew. . _how many sounds has g?_ two; as heard in the words go and age. . _how many sounds has h?_ one; as heard in the word high. . _how many sounds has j?_ none of its own, but represents one; the sound of g. . _how many sounds has k?_ one; as heard in the word key. . _how many sounds has l?_ one; as heard in the word lily. . _how many sounds has m?_ one; as heard in the word money. . _how many sounds has n?_ one; as heard in the word nat. . _how many sounds has p?_ one; as heard in the word pie. . _how many sounds has r?_ one; as heard in the word roar. (rem.--some authors give r three sounds.) . _how many sounds has s?_ one; as heard in the word same. . _how many sounds has t?_ one; as heard in the word tight. . _how many sounds has v?_ one; as heard in the word view. . _how many sounds has w?_ one; as heard in the word we. . _how many sounds has x?_ none of its own, as it is a redundant letter. . _how many sounds has z?_ one; as heard in the word ooze. . _how many sounds has th?_ two; as heard in the words thigh and the. . _how many sounds has ch?_ one; as heard in the word church. . _how many sounds has sh?_ one; as heard in the word ash. . _how many sounds has zh?_ one obscurely; represented by _si_ in such words as fusion, _zi_ in glazier. . _how many sounds has wh?_ one; as heard in the word what. . _how many sounds has ng?_ one; as heard in the word sing. . _what are regular sounds?_ the long sounds of the letters. substitutes. . _what is a substitute?_ a letter representing a sound usually represented by another. . _what are equivalent letters?_ letters representing the same sound. . _what properties do substitutes assume?_ the properties of the letter whose sound it represents. . _how many substitutes has a long?_ four. . _what are they?_ _e_ in tete; _ei_ in feint; _ey_ in they; and _ao_ in gaol. . _how many substitutes has a middle?_ two. . _what are they?_ _e_ in there; and _ei_ in heir. . _how many substitutes has a broad?_ two. . _what are they?_ _o_ in cord; and _ou_ in sought. . _how many substitutes has e long?_ three. . _what are they?_ _i_ in marine; _ie_ in fiend; and _ay_ in quay. . _how many substitutes has e short?_ two. . _what are they?_ _a_ in says; and _u_ in bury. . _how many substitutes has i long?_ two. . _what are they?_ _y_ in chyme; and _oi_ in choir. . _how many substitutes has i short?_ six. . _what are they?_ _y_ in hymn; _e_ in england; _u_ in busy; _o_ in women; _ee_ in been; and _ai_ in captain. . _how many substitutes has o long?_ two. . _what are they?_ _eau_ in beau; and _ew_ in sew. . _how many substitutes has o short?_ one. . _what is it?_ _a_ in what. . _how many substitutes has u long?_ one. . _what is it?_ _ew_ in new. . _how many substitutes has u short?_ three. . _what are they?_ _e_ in her; _i_ in sir; and _o_ in son. . _how many substitutes has u medial?_ one. . _what is it?_ _o_ in wolf. . _how many substitutes has f?_ two. . _what are they?_ _gh_ in laugh; and _ph_ in philosophy. . _how many substitutes has j?_ three. . _what are they?_ _g_ in rage; _di_ in soldier; and _d_ in verdure. . _how many substitutes has s?_ two. . _what are they?_ _c_ soft, as in central; and _z_ in quartz. . _how many substitutes has t?_ one. . _what is it?_ _ed_ final, after any aspirate except t. . _how many substitutes has v?_ one. . _what is it?_ _f_ in of. . _how many substitutes has w?_ one. . _what is it?_ _u_ in quick. . _how many substitutes has x?_ one. . _what is it?_ _ks_ in exist. . _how many substitutes has y?_ one. . _what is it?_ _i_ in alien. . _how many substitutes has z?_ three. . _what are they?_ _s_ in was; _c_ in suffice; and _x_ in xebec. . _how many substitutes has ch?_ two. . _what are they?_ _ti_ in question; and _t_ in nature. . _how many substitutes has sh?_ six. . _what are they?_ _ce_ in ocean; _ci_ in social; _si_ in mansion; _ti_ in motion; _ch_ in chaise; and _s_ in sugar. . _how many substitutes has zh?_ four. . _what are they?_ _si_ in fusion; _zi_ in brazier; _z_ in azure; and _s_ in rasure. . _how many substitutes has ng?_ one. . _what is it?_ n generally before palate sounds; as, conquer, etc. . _what letters have no substitutes?_ b, d, g, h, l, m, n, p, and r. . _what combinations have no substitutes?_ th and wh. . _why is x never doubled?_ it already represents the sounds of k and s. . _what letter ends no english word?_ j. definitions and words. . _what is language?_ any method for the communication of thought and feeling. . _what is natural language?_ instinctive methods of communicating thought or feeling. . _what is artificial language?_ that which must be learned before it can be used. . _is the english language natural or artificial?_ artificial. . _how many kinds of artificial language?_ two. . _what are they._ spoken and written. . _what is spoken language?_ that produced by the vocal organs. . _what is written language?_ any method of communicating thought or feeling by the use of written or printed characters. . _what are the messengers of thought?_ sentences. . _what is a sentence?_ an assemblage of words conveying a thought. . _what is a word?_ a sign of an idea. . _what is lexicology?_ that science which treats of the meaning of words. . _what is etymology?_ that science which treats of the origin and derivation of words. . _what is orthogeny?_ that science which treats of the classification of words into parts of speech. . _what is syntax?_ that science which treats of the relation and connection of words in the construction of a sentence. . _what is prosody?_ that science which treats of punctuation and the laws of versification. . _of what is a word composed?_ a syllable or combination of syllables. . _what is a syllable?_ a letter or letters uttered by a single impulse of the voice. . _what is the essential part of a syllable?_ a vowel. . _can there be a syllable without it containing a vowel sound?_ there cannot. . _what is syllabication?_ that branch of etymology which treats of the division of words into syllables. . _how many methods of syllabication are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ english and american. . _what is the object of the english method?_ to separate words into their elementary parts without regard to pronunciation; as, a-tom. . _what is the object of the american method?_ to indicate the proper pronunciation by separating affixes from the roots. . _what is a word of one syllable called?_ a monosyllable. . _what is a word of two syllables called?_ a dissyllable. . _what is a word of three syllables called?_ a trisyllable. . _what is a word of more than three syllables called?_ a polysyllable. . _what is the ultimate syllable of a word?_ the last syllable. . _what is the penultimate syllable?_ next to the last syllable in a word. . _what is the antepenultimate syllable?_ the last syllable but two in a word. . _what is the preantepenultimate syllable?_ the last syllable but three in a word. . _what other way may the syllables be described?_ in their numerical order; as, first, second, etc. . _how many syllables can a word have?_ as many as it has vowels or diphthongs sounded. . _how many words in the english language?_ about one hundred and twenty thousand. . _how are words divided in reference to form?_ into simple and compound. . _how are they divided in reference to origin?_ into primitive and derivative. . _what is a simple word?_ one that is not composed of two or more whole words. . _what is a compound word?_ one that is composed of two or more distinct words. . _what is a primitive word?_ one in no way derived from another in the same language. . _what is a radical word?_ same as primitive. . _what is a derivative word?_ one formed by joining to a primitive some letter or letters to modify its meaning. . _what is analysis?_ separating a word or syllable into its elements or parts. . _what is synthesis?_ the process of combining elements to form syllables and words. . _what is the base of a compound word?_ that word representing the fundamental idea. . _what is the modifier in a compound word?_ that word which describes the other. . _what is the base of a derivative word?_ the primitive from which it is derived. . _what is the modifier in a derivative word?_ the affix. . _what is an affix?_ that part of a derivative word attached to the root. . _how many root words in the english language?_ over one thousand. . _what is a prefix?_ that part of a derivative word placed before the root. . _what is a postfix?_ that part of a derivative word placed after the root. . _what is a suffix?_ same as a postfix. . _what are affixes?_ prefixes and postfixes together are called affixes. . _how many kinds of derivatives are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ regular and irregular. . _what is a regular derivative?_ one that is formed by the addition of affixes without changing the letters in the primitive part (except final _e_ silent). . _what is an irregular derivative?_ one in which the letters of the primitive part are changed. . _in using affixes, what rule should be observed?_ the affix and root should be from the same language. . _is the same rule to be observed in forming compound words?_ it is. . _what is a mongrel compound word?_ one formed contrary to the rule. . _give an example._ cable-graph and cable-gram. . _what are barbarisms?_ same as mongrel. . _when use the hyphen in compound words?_ when they are not permanently compounded. . _what is an obsolete word?_ one gone out of date. rules and terms. . _what is spelling?_ a distinct expression of the letters or sounds of a word in their proper order. . _how many kinds of spelling?_ two. . _what are they?_ orthographic and phonic. . _what is orthographic spelling?_ an expression of the letters of a written or printed word in their proper order. . _what is phonic spelling?_ an expression of the elementary sounds of a word in their proper order, according to established usage. . _what is meant by good usage?_ the usage, or custom, of the best speakers and writers of the times. . _how do we know when we have spelled a word correctly?_ by reference to the dictionary? . _what is a lexicographer?_ an author of a dictionary. . _can we spell by rules?_ we cannot. . _why?_ because there are too many exceptions. . _what makes a rule in orthography?_ whenever a letter is silent, or usually so, a rule is formed. . _why is c placed before r in acre, massacre, etc.?_ to preserve the hard sound of c. . _what is the rule for digraphs?_ a digraph must have one vowel silent. . _give rule for e final._ e final is silent when another vowel precedes it in the same syllable. . _what effect does final e have on the preceding vowel?_ it usually preserves its long sound. . _when is b silent?_ before _t_, or after _m_, in the same syllable. . _when is c silent?_ before _k_ in the same syllable; also, before _z_, _l_, or _t_, in a few words. . _when is d silent?_ before _g_ in the same syllable. . _when is g silent?_ before _m_ or _n_ in the same syllable. . _when is h silent?_ after _g_ or _r_ in the same syllable; and _h_ final after a vowel is always silent; also, in a few words after _t_, and initial in a few words. . _when is l silent?_ after _a_ when followed by _f_, _m_, _k_, or _v_, except in the word valve; also, before _d_ in could, etc. . _when is m silent?_ before _n_ in a few words. . _when is n silent?_ final after _l_ or _m_. . _when is p silent?_ initial before _n_, _s_, or _t_. . _when is s silent?_ in a few irregular words; as, _isle_, _puisne_, _viscount_, _corps_, etc. . _when is t silent?_ before _ch_ in the same syllable; also, in _christmas_, _eclat_, _mortgage_, etc. . _when is v silent?_ in two words only--_sevennight_ and _twelvemonth_. . _when is w silent?_ before _r_ in the same syllable also, in _whoop_, _sword_, _two_, etc. . _when is gh silent?_ after _i_ in the same syllable; also, after _au_ and _ou_ in some words. . _when is ch silent?_ in a few words; as, _drachm_, _yacht_, etc. . _when is z silent?_ in one word only--_rendezvous_. . _what letters are never silent?_ f, j, q, and r. . _what is meant by antecedent part of a syllable?_ that part before the vowel. . _what is the consequent part of a syllable?_ that part which follows the vowel. . _how many words end in ceed?_ three. . _what are they?_ exceed, proceed, and succeed. . _how many of the english words are derived from the latin?_ about, three-fourths. . _what language is called "our mother tongue?"_ anglo-saxon. . _from what language do we get most of our scientific terms?_ the greek. . _how many english words begin with_ in _as a prefix?_ two hundred and fifty. . _how many begin with im?_ seventy-five. . _how many begin with un?_ about two thousand. . _were final e not silent, what would be the result?_ another syllable would be formed. . _when is final e dropped in spelling?_ before vowel terminations mostly. . _why is the final e retained in such words as changeable and traceable?_ to preserve the soft sound of the c or g. . _in the words fleeing, seeing, etc., why retain both es?_ to determine the proper meaning of the word. _what is a figure of orthography?_ any departure from the ordinary spelling of a word. . _how many figures are there?_ two. _what are they?_ archaism and mimesis. . _what is archaism?_ the spelling of a word according to ancient usage. . _what is mimesis?_ the spelling of a word in imitation of a false pronunciation. . _when is i used as a consonant?_ when followed by a vowel in the same syllable; as in alien, etc. . _when is y final changed to e?_ before the suffix ous; as in beauteous. . _when is y final changed to i?_ before the suffix ful; as in beautiful. . _what is a redundant prefix?_ one that does not change the signification of the root; as, _a_ in the word adry. . _when is ie changed to y?_ before the ending _ing_. . _when use the digraph ei in spelling?_ ei follows c soft, and begins words. . _when use ie in spelling?_ ie follows consonants (except c soft), and ends words. . _in changing the word hoe to hoeing, why retain the e?_ to preserve its signification. . _what is the origin of the suffix less?_ anglo-saxon. . _what is the origin of the word english?_ it is derived from the word angles. . _who were the angles?_ they were a tribe of people who came from the land of the low germans and settled in britain in the fifth century. . _what does the word england mean?_ "the land of the angles." . _why is our language sometimes called the "teutonic language"?_ because it is derived from the ancient germans, who were called teutons. . _what kind of words end in ize?_ verbs derived from the greek. . _what kind of words end in ise?_ most words derived from the french. . _why is the english called a composite language?_ because it is derived from so many different sources. . _does adding a single consonant to a word ever make an additional syllable?_ it does. . _give examples._ grade, grad-ed; confide, con-fi-ded. . _can a word be compound and derivative at the same time?_ it can; as, ball-player. . _how distinguish between an affix and a part of a compound word?_ if all the parts retain their literal signification they form a compound; if not, the part which loses its signification becomes an affix in a derivative. . _is the word outside compound or derivative?_ it is compound. . _is the word outrun compound or derivative?_ it is derivative. . _what is derivation?_ that branch of etymology which treats of the sources of the words of a language. . _how many kinds of derivation?_ two. . _what are they?_ paronymous and historical. . _what is paronymous derivation?_ that part of etymology which treats of present sources of english words. . _give examples of paronymous derivation._ kingdom, from king; manly, from man, etc. . _what is historical derivation?_ that part of etymology which treats of the foreign sources of the english language. . _give examples of historical derivation._ book, from boc; moon, from mona, etc. . _when use a, and when an, in a sentence?_ use a before all words beginning with a consonant sound, and use an before words beginning with a vowel sound, _h_ mute, or _h_ initial, if the accent is on any other syllable than the first. . _why do words in the english language become obsolete?_ because it is a living language. . _what is a new word?_ one that has recently come into use. . _name some new words._ outsider, intensify, repudiate, and idiom. . _what is meant by suspended animation of a word?_ a word that passes out of use for a while and then resumes its place in literature. . _give examples of suspended words._ the words reckless, abate, and abandon, fell into disuse in the seventeenth century, but have since been revived. . _what letters are called the pivots?_ y and w. . _why are they so called?_ because of their peculiar sounds in changing from vowels to consonants. . _what kind of new words should be avoided?_ any word formed contrary to the genius of the language. . _what is meant by idiom?_ a peculiar mode of expression. . _what is diction?_ diction treats of the selection and right use of words. . _when is our diction pure?_ when we use only such words as belong to the idiom of our language. . _what are synonyms?_ words having a similar signification. . _what is a synonymicon?_ a dictionary of synonymous words. . _what is meant by a reputable word?_ one that is used by educated people. . _what is an anacoluthic word?_ one that is unnecessary to the completion of a sentence. . _what is an idiomatic word?_ a word belonging to an individual language. . _what is an ideographical language?_ one in which the characters represent ideas rather than sounds. . _can there be a derivative word without an affix?_ there can; as, brought from bring. . _what is dactylology?_ the art of spelling words with the fingers. . _what is the pythagorean letter?_ y.--_am. cyclopedia_. . _why so called?_ because its greek original represents the sacred triad used to designate the diverging paths of virtue and vice. numerical values of the letters. . _what is meant by the numerical value of letters?_ its value as a numeral used in the notation of different languages. . _have all the letters numerical value?_ all except j, u, w, and y. . _what is the numerical value of a?_ . . _by whom used?_ the ancient european nations. . _what is the numerical value of b?_ . . _by whom used?_ the romans. . _what is the numerical value of c?_ in the roman notation. . _what is the numerical value of d?_ in the roman notation. . _what is the numerical value of e?_ . . _by whom used?_ the ancient greeks. . _what is the numerical value of f?_ in some of the ancient notations; in the arabian; and , in the armenian. . _what is the numerical value of g?_ . . _by whom used?_ the latins. . _what is the numerical value of h?_ in the greek notation; and in the latin. . _what is the numerical value of i?_ in the roman notation; and in some of the ancient notations. . _what is the numerical value of k?_ in the greek notation; and in the semitic. . _give the numerical values of l._ in roman, and in semitic notation. . _what are the numerical values of m?_ as a roman numeral, , ; greek and hebrew, . . _what is the value of n as a numeral?_ in the greek notation, ; roman, ; and by some other, . . _what is the numerical value of o?_ in the greek; and in the ancient latins. . _what is the numerical value of p?_ in the greek notation, ; in the latin, ; and in the roman, by some authors, , by one, , and by still another, . . _as a numeral, what is the value of q?_ . . _by whom used?_ several of the ancient nations of europe. . _what is the numerical value of r?_ . _by whom used?_ the ancient romans. . _what is the numerical value of s?_ . _by whom used?_ the ancients. . _give the values of t as a numeral._ in the greek notation; in the latin, . . _what is the numerical value of v?_ in the roman notation. . _what are the values of x as a numeral?_ in the roman, ; in the greek, . . _what are the numerical values of z?_ in the greek notation; and , in the roman. . _why have j, u, w, and y no numerical values?_ because they have been introduced into the alphabet since the science of arithmetical notation was invented. . _what effect does it have on the value of a letter to draw a line above it?_ in most cases it increases its value a thousand times. . _is a line ever drawn beneath a letter for the same purpose?_ in some instances it is. . _what effect does it have on a letter as a numeral to repeat it?_ repeats its value as often as it is repeated. capitals and italics. . _what is a capital letter?_ a large letter. . _what is an italic letter?_ a form of oblique letters derived from the italians. . _what is rule for the use of capitals?_ title pages and headings of chapters should be entirely in capitals. . _give rule ._ the first word of every book, tract, essay, letter, etc., should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ the first word of every sentence should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ clauses separately numbered should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ the first word after an interrogation point should usually begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ the first word of a clause, or sentence, given as an example, should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ in quoting a title of a book, each important word of the title should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ first word of a direct question should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ the first word of a direct quotation should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ all letters used as numerals should be written or printed in capitals. . _give rule ._ the pronoun i should always be a capital. . _give rule ._ the vocative particle o should always be a capital. . _give rule ._ the first word of every line of poetry should begin with a capital. . _give one exception to rule ._ in humorous poetry, when a word is divided at the end of a line, the detached syllable at the beginning of the next line should begin with a small letter. . _give rule ._ all names and titles of the deity should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ all proper names should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ all words derived from proper nouns should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ titles of honor and distinction should begin with capitals. . _give rule ._ the words father, mother, sister, brother, aunt, etc., when followed by a proper noun, should always begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ all words referring to the bible should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ all proper adjectives should begin with a capital. . _give rule ._ the names of famous events, historical eras, noted documents, etc., should begin with a capital. . _what establishes a rule for capitals?_ good usage, or custom. . _give rule for the use of italics._ words for emphasis should be printed in italics. . _give rule ._ names of books, poems, etc., are usually printed in italics. . _give rule ._ words from foreign languages are printed in italics. . _give rule ._ words in the bible supplied by the translators are printed in italics. . _how are written words marked that are to be printed in capitals?_ by underscoring the words with two lines. . _how are written words marked that are to be printed in italics?_ by underscoring the words with one line. . _when use the interjection o?_ the letter o is a vocative particle, and should always be used before nouns or pronouns in the absolute case by direct address.--[_ridpath._] . _when use oh?_ in all cases where it is not followed by nouns, or pronouns, in the vocative case.--[_ridpath._] abbreviations. . _what is an abbreviation?_ one or more of the letters of a word standing for the whole word. . _what is the signification of a.c.s.?_ american colonization society. . _give meaning a.b.c.f.m._ american board of commissioners for foreign missions. . _what is the signification aaa.?_ amalgamation. . _what is the signification of ang.-sax.?_ anglo-saxon. . _give signification of a.t._ arch-treasurer. . _what is the signification of c.a.s.?_ fellow of the connecticut academy. . _what is the signification of c.c.?_ county court, or county commissioner. . _what is the meaning of d.c.l.?_ doctor of civil law. . _what is the signification of d.m.?_ doctor of music. . _what is the signification of a.u.c.?_ in the year of the city. . _what is the meaning of f.e.s.?_ fellow of the entomological society. . _what is the signification of h.r.i.p.?_ here rests in peace. . _what is the signification of l.c.j.?_ lord chief justice. . _what is the signification of n.u.?_ name unknown. . _what is the signification of p.a.?_ participial adjective. . _what is the signification of p.v.?_ post village. . _what is the signification of qy.?_ query. . _what is the signification of ro.?_ righthand page. . _what is the signification s.c.l.?_ student of the civil law. . _what is the signification of s.r.i.?_ holy roman empire. . _what is the signification of s.j.c.?_ supreme judicial court. . _what is the signification of u.s.s.?_ united states ship. . _what does u.k. signify?_ united kingdom. . _what does v.r. signify?_ queen victoria. . _what does v.g. signify?_ for example. . _what does xt. signify?_ christ. . _what does xmas. signify?_ christmas. . _what is the signification of y.b.?_ year book. . _what is the signification of zoöl.?_ zoölogy. . _what does yt. signify?_ that. . _what is the signification of s.t.p.?_ doctor of divinity. accent and punctuation. . _why is a word divided into syllables?_ for the purpose of showing their proper pronunciation and etymological composition. . _what is accent?_ a greater stress of voice placed on one syllable of a word than the others. . _what kind of words have no accent?_ monosyllables. . _why?_ accent implies comparison, and there can be no comparison with one syllable. . _how many kinds of accent?_ common, emphatic, and discriminating. . _what is common accent?_ ordinary accent of spelling. . _how many kinds of common accent?_ two. . _what are they?_ primary and secondary. . _what is primary accent?_ the principal accent. . _what is secondary accent?_ the partial accent. . _what kind of accent is essential to every word of more than one syllable?_ primary. . _how close can primary and secondary accent come together?_ not closer than two syllables. . _how many primary accents can one word have?_ only one. . _how many secondary accents can a word have?_ two. . _in case of two secondary accents, where are they placed?_ on the first and third. . _in case of two secondary, where is the primary accent?_ on the last but two. . _do the primary and secondary ever change places?_ they do. . _in words of two syllables, where is the accent?_ usually on the first. . _in trisyllables, what syllable is accented?_ usually the first. . _are there any exceptions?_ there are. . _in polysyllables, where is the accent?_ on the antepenult usually. . _in all words ending in ation, where is the accent?_ on the syllable next to the last. . _what is emphatic accent?_ accent used for emphatic distinction. . _have monosyllables any accent?_ they have sometimes an emphatic, or poetic. . _what is discriminating accent?_ that used to determine parts of speech. , _give some examples._ au'gust, au-gust'; reb'el, re-bel'. , _what is punctuation?_ the use of certain characters to aid the reader in determining the thought of the writer. . _how many kinds of punctuation are there?_ four. . _what are they?_ rhetorical, etymological, for reference, and for the printer. . _what is rhetorical punctuation?_ that used for rhetorical effect. . _what is etymological punctuation?_ that used in orthography and orthoepy. . _what is reference punctuation?_ that used to refer the reader to the margin of the page. . _what is punctuation for the printer?_ that used by the writer to inform the printer the kind of type to use. . _what are the principal etymological points?_ apostrophe, caret, dieresis, macron, breve, tilde, grave accent, acute accent, circumflex accent, hyphen, and period. . _what is the use of the apostrophe?_ to indicate the omission of a letter, or letters, of a word. . _what letter is omitted in the word o'clock?_ the letter f. . _what is the use of the caret?_ to correct an error of omission. . _is the caret used in printed copy or manuscript?_ in manuscript. . _for what is the dieresis used?_ to separate two vowels which would otherwise form a diphthong. . _give an example of the use of the dieresis._ zoölogy, and diëresis. . _what is the use of the macron?_ to mark the long quantity of syllables. . _what is a long syllable?_ one in which the vowel has the long sound. . _what is the use of the breve?_ to mark the short quantity of syllables. . _what is a short syllable?_ one in which the vowel has the short sound. . _what kind of a mark is the tilde?_ a spanish mark. . _how many uses has the tilde?_ two. . _what are they?_ placed over _n_ it gives the sound of _ny_ as, in cañon. in english it indicates certain sounds of the vowels. . _how many accent marks are there?_ three. . _what are they?_ grave, acute, and circumflex. . _what is the use of the grave accent?_ to mark the falling inflection. . _what is the use of the acute accent?_ to mark the primary accent, and the rising inflection. . _what is the use of the circumflex?_ to mark the peculiar inflection of the voice in the pronunciation of a word. . _how many uses has the hyphen?_ three. . _what are they?_ to separate the parts of a compound word; to separate a word into syllables; and to divide a word at the end of a line. . _when should the hyphen be used in a compound word?_ when the word has not become permanently compounded. . _when use the dieresis instead of the hyphen?_ when the syllables are divided by the hyphen, there is no hyphen used between the vowels of the digraph. . _what is the use of the period?_ to denote an abbreviation. . _are there any other uses of the period?_ there are. . _where else is the period used?_ in rhetorical punctuation. . _name the points used in reference punctuation._ asterisk, obelisk, parallels, section, paragraph, and index. . _are these marks ever doubled?_ they are. . _are letters ever used for reference?_ they are. diacritical marks. . _what are diacritical marks?_ characters indicating the different sounds of letters. . _name the diacritical marks._ macron, breve, dieresis, semi-dieresis, caret, tilde, cedilla, and the inverted t. . _make the diacritical marks in the order named:_ (¯); ([breve]); (¨); (·); ([caret]); (~); (¸); ([t]). . _what does the macron indicate?_ over a vowel, its long sound; under e, the sound of a, long; across c, the sound of k; over g, the hard sound; across th, the subvocal sound, and over oo, the long sound. . _what are the uses of the breve?_ over vowels, it indicates their short sound, and over oo, its short sound. . _what does the dieresis indicate?_ over a, its italian sound; under a, its broad sound; over i, the sound of e, long; under u, when preceded by r, makes it equivalent to o, italian. . _what is the use of the semi-dieresis?_ over a, gives it the medium sound; under a, the sound of o, short; over o, the sound of u, short; under o, the sound; over g, the soft sound; and under u, the sound of italian o. . _where is the cedilla used?_ under c, to give it the sound of s. . _what is the use of the caret as a diacritical mark?_ over a, it indicates the flat sound; over e, the sound of a, flat; over u, the sound of e, in her. . _where is the tilde used?_ over n in spanish words it indicates that the sound of y immediately follows. it is also used over e in such words as her, and over i in sir, etc. . _what is the use of the inverted [t]?_ under s, it gives it the sound of z; under x, it gives the sound of gz. . _give some words illustrating the use of the macron._ m[=a]te, b[=e]am, f[=i]ne, b[=o]at, t[=u]be, r[=oo]d, [=g]o, and pr[e=]y. . _give words showing the use of the breve._ m[)a]t, s[)e]t, l[)o]t, t[)u]b, and f[)oo]t. . _illustrate the use of the dieresis._ cär, polïce, f[a:]lling, and tr[u:]e. . _give words showing the use of the semi-dieresis._ m[.a]sk, wh[a.]t, m[.o]ney, [.g]in, w[o.]lf, and b[u.]sh. . _illustrate the use of the caret._ fâir, thêre, sûrge, and sometimes over o as in stôrm. . _give words showing the use of the tilde._ m[~e]rge and cañon. . _illustrate the use of the cedilla._ Ã�ell and çhaise. . _give some words showing the use of the inverted t._ wa[st] and e[xt]ist. . _are there any other names for the inverted t?_ it has been given different names by different authors. . _what are they?_ "the perpendicular," "suspended macron," etc. . _is the letter y ever marked by diacritical marks?_ it is, sometimes. . _what marks are used for y?_ macron and breve. . _give examples where y is marked with the macron._ sp[=y], sl[=y], st[=y], etc. . _give example where y is marked with the breve._ h[)y]mn. . _what mark is used to cancel silent letters?_ short bar, similar to the macron. prefixes and suffixes. . _what is the signification of a as a prefix?_ on, in, at, to, or towards. . _is a as a prefix ever redundant?_ it is. . _give examples._ adry and ameliorate. . _what does the prefix ab signify?_ from. . _what does ab signify?_ away from. . _what is the signification of ante?_ before. . _name all the prefixes meaning to._ ad, ac, af, ag, al, an, ap, ar, and at. . _what does anti signify?_ against. . _what does bis signify?_ twice. . _what other prefix means the same?_ dis, from the greek. . _what does be signify?_ upon. . _what does circum signify?_ around, as circumscribe. . _what is the meaning of cis?_ on this side, as cisalpine. . _what prefixes signify with?_ con, com, co, col, and cor. . _what prefixes signify against?_ contra and counter. . _what does di signify?_ two, as ditone. . _what prefixes signify out of, or from?_ e, and ex. . _what does dys signify?_ ill, or difficult, as dysentery and dyspepsia. . _what does enter signify?_ between or among. . _what does epi signify?_ on, as epitaph; during, as ephemeral. . _what prefix signifies equal?_ equi, as equidistant. . _what does extra signify?_ beyond, as extraordinary. . _what is the signification of eu?_ well, or agreeable, as euphony. . _what does gain signify?_ against, as gainsay. . _what is the signification of hex?_ six, as hexagon. . _what does hyper signify?_ over, as hypercriticism. . _what does hypo signify?_ under, or beneath, as hypotenuse and hypocrite. . _what prefixes signify not or in?_ in, im, il, and ir. . _what is the signification of inter?_ in the midst of, or between, as intellect and intermarry. . _what does intra signify?_ within, or on the inside of. . _what other prefix means the same as intra?_ intro. . _what is the signification of juxta?_ joined to, or next, as juxtaposition. . _what does mal signify?_ bad, as malpractice and maladministration. . _what is the signification of meta?_ in the middle, after, and with. . _what does mis signify?_ amiss, or wrong, as misapply and mishap. . _what is the signification of mono?_ one, as monotheistic. . _what prefixes signify many?_ multi and poly, as multiform and polysyllable. . _what does non signify?_ not, as nonsense, nonessential, etc. . _what other prefixes signify not?_ neg, as in negative, and ne, as in nefarious. . _what does ob signify?_ in the way of, as obstruct. . _what does oct signify?_ eight, as octagon. . _what does omni signify?_ all, or complete, as omnipresent. . _what is the signification of out?_ beyond, as outlaw, outbid, outbalance, etc. . _what does over signify?_ above, as overseer, overreach, etc. . _what does ovi signify?_ an egg, as oviform. . _what does para signify?_ beside, as parallel, paragraph, etc. . _what is the signification of pene?_ almost, as peninsula--almost an island. . _what does per signify?_ through, or by, as permit, perchance, etc. . _what does peri signify?_ around, as perimeter, periosteum. . _what does pleni signify?_ completeness, or full, as plenitude, etc. . _what does post signify?_ after, or backwards, as postfix, and postpone. . _what does pre signify?_ before, as prefer, prefix, etc. . _what is the signification of preter?_ beyond, as preternatural. . _what is the signification of pro?_ before, forth, and for. . _what does pros signify?_ to, as proselyte. . _what is the signification of proto?_ first, as protocol, protoplasm, etc. . _what does quad signify?_ four, as quadrangle, etc. . _what does re signify?_ back, or again, as react, recollect, etc. . _what prefixes signify right?_ rect and recti. . _what does retro signify?_ backwards, as retrospect and retrograde. . _what does se signify?_ by itself, as separate, seclude, etc. . _what prefixes signify half?_ semi, demi, and hemi, as semicircle, demitone, and hemisphere. . _what does sine signify?_ without, as sinecure. . _what does stereo signify?_ solid, as stereotype. . _what does sub signify?_ under, or inferior, as subterranean and subordinate. . _what does super signify?_ over, above, or beyond, as supernatural, etc. . _what does suf signify?_ less or after, as suffix, etc. . _what does supra signify?_ same as super. . _what does sur signify?_ more than, as surcharge. . _what prefixes signify together?_ syn, sy, syl, and sym, as in syntax, system, syllable, and symbol. . _what does trans signify?_ beyond, across, and again, as transalpine, transatlantic, and transform. . _what does tra signify?_ across, as traverse. . _what is the signification of tri?_ three, as trisyllable, triangle, etc. . _what does ultra signify?_ beyond, as ultramarine. . _what does un signify?_ not, as unhappy, unable, etc. . _what is the signification of under?_ below, as undercurrent, underrate, etc. . _what does ve signify?_ no or not, as vehement. . _what does vice signify?_ instead of, as vice-president. . _what does with signify?_ against or back, as withstand, withdraw. . _what other signification has with in some words?_ near, as within; together, as withal, etc. . _what suffixes signify "able to be"?_ able, ible, and ile, as curable, audible, and visible. . _what suffixes signify rank, or office?_ acy, ate, ric; dom, and ship, as in curacy, pontificate, bishopric, kingdom, and clerkship. . _what is the signification of age?_ act of, as marriage, passage, etc. . _has the suffix age any other signification?_ from the latin ago, it means collection. . _what does an signify?_ one who, or the person who acts, as equestrian, pedestrian, etc. . _what does ana signify?_ a collection of memorable sayings, as franklinana--the sayings of franklin. . _what does ant signify?_ being, and has the force of ing, as dominant, verdant, etc. . _what is the signification of the suffix art?_ one who, as braggart. . _what does ary signify?_ place where, or place which, as library, aviary, etc. . _what does ate signify?_ full of, or abundance, as desolate, passionate, etc. . _what is the signification of celli?_ little, as vermicelli, etc. . _what other suffixes also signify little?_ cle, cule, el, en, kin, let, ot, ling, ock, and ie. . _what does ene signify?_ belonging to, as terrene, etc. . _what is the signification of eous?_ full of, as beauteous, etc. . _what does ed signify?_ when added to a verb it signifies did, as played; but to a participle, was, as completed. . _what is the signification of er?_ more or often, as brighter, glimmer, etc. . _what does erly signify?_ direction of, as northerly. . _what does es signify?_ more than one, as foxes, etc. . _what does escent signify?_ growing or becoming, as convalescent. . _what does esque signify?_ belonging to, or like, as picturesque, etc. . _what does ess signify?_ feminine when added to nouns, as tigress. . _what does est signify?_ greatest or least, as largest, smallest, etc. . _what does head signify?_ state or nature, as godhead. . _what does ics signify?_ things relating to, as optics, etc. . _what does ides signify?_ resemblance, as alkaloides, etc. . _what is the signification of im?_ more than one, as cherubim. . _what does ina signify?_ feminine, as czarina. . _what does ing signify?_ continuing, as singing, etc. . _what is the signification of ior?_ more, as superior. . _what does ique signify?_ belonging to, as antique. . _what is the signification of ish?_ like, as boyish, girlish, etc. . _what does isk signify?_ little, as asterisk, etc. . _what does ite signify?_ that which, as appetite. . _what does ive signify?_ able to do, as adhesive, etc. . _what does ion signify?_ state or act, as location. . _what does ism signify?_ doctrine, as calvinism, etc. . _what does ix signify?_ feminine of nouns, as testatrix. . _what does kin signify?_ a son of, or little, as lambkin. . _what does kind signify?_ race, as mankind. . _what does less signify?_ without, as guiltless, breathless, etc. . _what does ling signify?_ young, as duckling, etc. . _what does ly signify?_ like, or in a manner, as manly, calmly, etc. . _what does most signify?_ greatest or furthest, as hindmost. . _what does ment signify?_ state or act, as settlement, judgment, etc. . _what does ness signify?_ the quality of, or state of, as whiteness, etc. . _what does ock signify?_ small or young, as hillock, bullock, etc. . _what does oid signify?_ likeness, as spheroid, etc. . _what does or signify?_ one who, as actor, director, etc. . _what does ory signify?_ having the quality of, as vibratory, etc. . _what does on signify?_ large, as million, etc. . _what does ous signify?_ having the quality of, as solicitous. . _what does ot signify?_ little, as idiot. . _what does re signify?_ same as _er_, as it is another form of it. . _what does red signify?_ those who, as kindred, etc. . _what is the signification of ress?_ feminine of nouns, as instructress. . _what does ric signify?_ office of, as bishopric. . _what does ry signify?_ place where, or things collectively. . _what does se signify?_ to make, as cleanse. . _what does san signify?_ the person who, as partisan, etc. . _what does ship signify?_ the condition, as professorship. . _what does some signify?_ full, as quarrelsome. . _what does ster signify?_ the person who, as teamster. . _what does teen signify?_ ten to be added, as fourteen. . _what is the signification of tude?_ the state of being, as similitude. . _what does ty signify?_ to multiply into, as seventy, forty, etc. . _what does ude signify?_ same as _tude_, the state of being. . _what does ule signify?_ little, as globule. . _what does ward signify?_ direction of, as eastward, etc. . _what does ways signify?_ manner, as crossways, lengthways, etc. . _what does the suffix y signify?_ plenty, as smoky; also abounding in, as wealthy. . _are there any exceptions to the meaning of the foregoing prefixes and postfixes?_ there are some, and therefore great judgment must be exercised in applying them to the analysis of words. . _what is meant by the term "good bye"?_ god be with you. . _what does the suffix ster signify?_ feminine, as spinster. promiscuous questions. . _is a the first letter of all written alphabets?_ all but one, the abyssinian. . _what number is a in the abyssinian alphabet?_ the thirteenth. . _is double a ever written together as a word?_ it is, as a proper noun. . _what is aa the name of?_ about forty small rivers in europe.--_cyclopedia._ . _is b the second letter of all alphabets?_ all except the ethiopic. . _what number is b in the ethiopic?_ ninth. . _give a word in which p has the sound of b._ cupboard. . _what letter is the sonorous counterpart of t?_ the letter d.--_cyclopedia._ . _give the periodic changes of the english language._ saxon, semi-saxon, old english, middle english, and modern english. . _give date of "saxon period."_ previous to a.d. . _give date of "semi-saxon period."_ to . . _give date of "old english period."_ to . . _give date of "middle english period."_ to . . _give date of "modern english period."_ time since . . _what constitutes a period in language?_ any great change in the literature of a people. . _what causes these changes?_ mostly national invasion. . _what is assimilation of consonants?_ when an aspirate and subvocal comes together, it is necessary to change the sound of one or the other, to make the combination pronounceable. . _what is meant by an element of speech?_ an indivisible portion of language. . _what is a sonant sound?_ one uttered with intonated or resonant breath. . _in changing the word traffic to trafficked, why supply the letter k?_ to preserve the proper sound of c. . _under what condition is a consonant never doubled at the end of a word?_ when immediately following a diphthong.--_webster._ . _when is c followed by k in spelling?_ words ending with the sound of k, and in which c follows the vowel. . _give some examples._ back, black, fleck, etc. . _are there any exceptions?_ there are, as sac, arc, etc. . _why is the word humbugged spelt with two g's?_ to prevent sounding the g like j. . _give some words spelled differently in the u.s. and in england._ woolen--woollen, honor--honour, etc. . _when do words, ending in double e, drop one e on taking an additional syllable?_ when the suffix begins with e. . _why?_ to prevent three e's coming together. . _does pluralizing a word ever change the accent?_ sometimes it does. . _give an example._ an'tipode--antip'odes. . _in such words as defense, which is correct, se or ce for the termination?_ se, because the s belongs to the words from which they are derived.--_webster._ . _should words of english origin end in ise or ize?_ ize; same as those from the greek. . _are there any exceptions to these rules?_ there are; as advertise, from english, etc. . _are the words ox, calf, sheep, and pig of french or saxon origin?_ saxon. . _from what language do the words beef, veal, mutton, and pork come?_ the norman-french. . _what is a lexicon?_ a dictionary. . _what is an irregular sound?_ sound of a redundant letter. . _how are words divided as regards specie?_ primitive and derivative. . _how may the meaning of a word be changed?_ by accent; as aug'ust, august'. . _what is an irregular derivative?_ one in which the letters of the root are changed in forming the derivative. . _what is pronunciation?_ the distinct utterance of the sounds of a word. . _what are the significant parts of a word?_ root, prefix, and suffix. . _how are words divided as to variety?_ italic, roman, old english, etc. . _name some compound word in which both parts retain their own accent._ writ'ing-mas'ter. . _name some word in which one part loses its accent._ gentle-manly. . _can all the vowels form syllables themselves?_ all except w. . _when has r a rough sound?_ when it begins a word. . _how are words distinguished?_ by their forms and uses. . _why do consonants ever unite?_ to form complex sounds: as rr in burr. . _from what language are most words derived that end in less?_ anglo-saxon. . _is z the last letter of all alphabets?_ all except the greek, and hebrew. . _what is its place in the greek alphabet?_ sixth. . _what is its place in the hebrew?_ seventh. . _what letter is the sonorous counterpart of s?_ the letter z.--_cyclopedia._ . _what is spelling of z in england?_ zed, and also izzard. . _what language has two letters representing the sound of z?_ the russian. . _when was the letter w first used?_ about the end of the seventh century. . _what changes the sound of a vowel from long to short?_ the absence of the accent. . _in what situation is gh always silent?_ after i in the same syllable. . _how many words of two syllables are changed from nouns to verbs by accent?_ about eighty. . _what word contains a consonant tetragraph?_ phthisic. . _what is philology?_ the science of language. . _when is ue final, silent?_ after g and q; as fatigue and oblique. . _what are the elements of spoken language?_ vocal and articulate sounds. . _what are hybrid words?_ mongrel compounds. . _what is terminology?_ a treatise on technicalities. reading and elocution. . _what is reading?_ silent perusal or distinct utterance of thought and feeling, as seen expressed in written language. . _how many kinds of reading are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ silent and audible. . _what is silent reading?_ the perusal of language without utterance. . _what is audible reading?_ the utterance of thought and feeling, as seen expressed in written language. . _what is elocution?_ the science and art of the delivery of composition. . _how many kinds of delivery are there?_ three. . _what are they?_ speaking, declamation, and oratory. . _what is speaking?_ the utterance of thought and feeling without reference to the written page. . _what is declamation?_ the delivery of another's composition. . _what is oratory?_ the delivery of one's own composition. . _how many kinds of oratory are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ prepared and extempore. . _what is prepared oratory?_ that which has been studied previous to delivery. . _what is extempore oratory?_ that which is accomplished simultaneously with the delivery. . _what is vocal culture?_ the training of the organs of speech for effective delivery. . _what should be the primary object in audible reading?_ to convey to the hearer the ideas and sentiments of the writer. . _in order to accomplish this, what should the reader do?_ endeavor to make the feelings and sentiments of the writer his own. . _what are some of the essential qualities of a good reader?_ to read slowly, observe the pauses, give proper inflections, read distinctly, and with expression. . _what is enunciation?_ the utterance of words. . _under how many divisions should the subject of reading be treated?_ six. . _what are they?_ articulation, inflection, accent, emphasis, the voice, and gesture. . _what is articulation?_ distinct utterance of the elementary sounds, and of the combinations. . _name four common faults in articulation._ omitting an unaccented vocal, dropping the final sound, sounding incorrectly an unaccented vowel, and omitting syllables. . _what is inflection?_ sliding of the voice upward or downward. . _how many kinds of inflection are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ rising and falling. . _what is the rising inflection?_ an upward slide of the voice. . _what is the falling inflection?_ a downward slide of the voice. . _are the rising and falling inflections both ever given to the same sound?_ they are. . _how is such inflection marked?_ by the circumflex. . _how many kinds of circumflex?_ two. . _what are they?_ rising and falling. . _what is the rising circumflex?_ the sliding of the voice downward and then upward on the same sound. . _what is the falling circumflex?_ the sliding of the voice upward and then downward on the same sound. . _what is a monotone?_ reading without sliding the voice either upward or downward. . _give rule for falling inflection._ propositions which make complete sense require the falling inflection. . _does emphasis ever reverse this rule?_ it does sometimes. . _give rule ._ emphasis generally requires the falling inflection. . _where the sense is dependent, what inflection is generally used?_ the rising. . _does emphasis ever affect this rule?_ relative emphasis sometimes reverses it. . _what kind of inflection should be used at the end of an interrogative sentence?_ falling, if it cannot be answered by yes or no. . _negative sentences require what kind of inflection?_ rising. . _does emphasis ever affect this rule?_ it does; often reversing it. . _imperative sentences have what inflection?_ usually the falling. . _what kind of words require opposite inflection?_ words or members expressing antithesis or contrast. . _what is a series?_ a number of particulars following one another in the same construction. . _how many kinds of series?_ two. . _what are they?_ commencing and concluding. . _what is a commencing series?_ one that commences a sentence. . _what is a concluding series?_ one that concludes a sentence. . _what inflection is given to the members of a commencing series?_ the rising. . _what inflection is given to the members of a concluding series?_ the falling. . _are there any exceptions to these rules?_ there are. . _what causes the exceptions?_ emphasis. . _what is a parenthesis in reading?_ a sentence, or clause, set off by curves from the context. . _how should the parenthesis be read?_ in a lower tone and more rapidly. . _what is the use of the circumflex?_ to express irony, or sarcasm. . _what meaning is always suggested by the circumflex?_ doubtful or double meaning. . _what is the use of the monotones?_ to produce an effect in grave and solemn subjects. . _what is accent in reading?_ increase of force on certain syllables of a word. . _give an example of emphatic accent._ this corrup'tion must put on in'terruption. . _what does pitch signify?_ the place in the musical scale on which an element is sounded. . _what is force?_ that property of the voice which relates to loudness of sound. . _how many different kinds of force?_ five. . _what are they?_ suppressed, subdued, ordinary, energetic, and vehement. . _to what does stress relate?_ different modes of applying force. . _how many kinds of stress?_ three. . _what are they?_ expulsive, explosive, and vanishing. . _what is meant by quantity?_ length of time the voice dwells on a word. . _what is quality?_ that property which relates to the kind of voice. . _what is movement?_ the degree of rapidity with which the voice moves from one word to another. . _how many kinds of movement?_ six. . _what are they?_ very slow, slow, moderate, lively, rapid, and very rapid. . _what does expression comprehend?_ the practical application of all the principles of reading and elocution. . _what is cadence?_ the natural dropping of the voice at the end of a sentence, denoting completeness of thought. . _what is a rhetorical pause?_ a suspension of the voice for rhetorical effect. . _what is emphasis?_ giving force and energy to certain words. . _how many kinds of emphasis?_ two. . _what are they?_ absolute and relative. . _what is absolute emphasis?_ emphasis made without any contrast with other words. . _what is relative emphasis?_ emphasis used where there is antithesis either expressed or implied. . _is a whole phrase ever made emphatic?_ it is often. . _for what purpose?_ to give it great force. . _what is the emphatic pause?_ pause made for emphasis. . _what is antithesis?_ two or more words opposed to each other in meaning. . _what is a climax?_ a series of particulars increasing in importance to the last. . _what is anti-climax?_ a series of particulars decreasing in importance to the last. . _what is meant by transition?_ any sudden change in reading. . _what is emphatic repetition?_ words repeated for emphasis. . _what is an interrogation?_ a statement, or assertion, put in the form of a question. . _what is an exclamation?_ a statement denoting strong emotions. . _what is personation?_ one person imitating the actions and manners of some other person or persons. . _how many kinds of style in reading?_ five. . _what are they?_ description, argument, narration, persuasion, exhortation. . _what should be characteristic of the descriptive style?_ the speaker should use the same manner that he would if he were actually describing the thing spoken of. . _what should be characteristic of the argumentative style?_ directness and earnestness. . _what should characterize the narrative?_ the reader should proceed as though relating his own experience. . _what the persuasive?_ those tones, looks, and gestures which bring conviction to the hearer. . _what should characterize the exhortative?_ the performer should appeal, beseech, and implore, as the case may require. . _what is the slur?_ the smooth gliding of the voice in parenthetic clauses, etc. . _how are emphatic words distinguished?_ by different styles of printing. . _how many kinds of letters are used to denote emphasis?_ three usually. . _what are they?_ italics, small capitals, and capitals. . _what is antithetic emphasis?_ same as relative. . _what is modulation?_ variation of the voice in speaking and reading. . _what is pure tone?_ a clear, flowing sound, with moderate pitch. . _what is the orotund?_ pure tone intensified. . _for what is it adapted?_ to express sublime and pathetic emotions. . _what is the aspirated tone?_ an expulsion of breath, the words being spoken in a whisper. . _what is the guttural quality?_ deep undertone. . _what does it express?_ hatred, contempt, loathing, etc. . _what is the trembling tone?_ a constant waver of the voice. . _what does it express?_ an intense degree of suppressed excitement, or personates old age. . _what are pauses?_ suspensions of the voice in reading or speaking. . _how many kinds of pauses are there?_ two. . _what are they?_ grammatical and rhetorical. . _what is suspensive quantity?_ prolongation of the voice at the end of a word without making an actual pause. . _what does quantity embrace?_ force and rate. . _what quality of voice is mostly used in speaking and reading?_ pure tone. . _what is meant by prose?_ all composition which is not written in verse. . _what are some of the varieties of prose?_ letters, essays, travels, history, and discourses. . _what is a letter as a variety of prose?_ a written communication addressed by the writer to some other person. . _what is an essay?_ a written discourse on some special subject. . _what are travels?_ records of journeys. . _what is history?_ a record of past events. . _what is a discourse?_ a performance read or spoken to an audience. . _should the voice agree in style with the different varieties of prose?_ it should, and the performer should endeavor to produce the exact sentiments of the writer. . _what is poetry?_ a discourse written in verse and metrical language. . _what is a verse?_ a single line of metrical language. . _is it correct to use the term verse in speaking of a division of prose?_ it is not. . _what should we call such division?_ paragraph or division. . _what is a stanza?_ a number of metrical lines, or verses, combined according to a regular system. . _how many kinds of metrical language?_ two. . _what are they?_ rhyme and blank verse. . _what is rhyme?_ that language in which the concluding syllables of the verses have a similarity of sound. . _how many kinds of rhyme?_ two. . _what are they?_ perfect and imperfect. . _what is a perfect rhyme?_ where the vowels have the same sound. . _what is an imperfect rhyme?_ where the vowels have a different sound. . _what is blank verse?_ a kind of metrical language in which there is no similarity of sound. . _what is the cæsura pause?_ a rhythmic pause occurring in a verse. . _how many rules should be observed in the use of the cæsura?_ three. . _give rule ._ the pause should be near the middle of the verse. . _give rule ._ it should never divide a word. . _give rule ._ should not separate words from their modifiers, as adjectives from nouns, adverbs from verbs, etc. . _do all verses have the cæsura pause?_ they do if over three feet in length. . _what is meant by a foot in verse?_ a certain portion of a line divided according to accent. . _when melody comes in contact with accent, which should yield?_ accent. . _is there any other rhythmic pause than the cæsura?_ there is; the demi-cæsura is sometimes used. . _how many kinds of poetry are there?_ seven. . _what are they?_ epic, dramatic, lyric, elegiac, didactic, satiric and pastoral. . _what is an epic poem?_ a poetical recital of some great and heroic enterprise. . _are there many epic poems?_ there are not; most nations have one. . _name the three epics of greatest note._ homer's iliad, virgil's Ã�neid, and milton's paradise lost. . _what language were these poems written in?_ the iliad in greek, Ã�neid in latin, and paradise lost in english. . _what does the iliad describe or narrate?_ the downfall of troy, which was the most memorable event in the early history of the trojans and greeks. . _what does the Ã�neid narrate?_ the perils and labors of Ã�neas, who was the reputed founder of the roman race. . _what does paradise lost describe?_ the downfall of not only the human but of the angelic host. . _what is a dramatic poem?_ one similar in many respects to an epic. . _name some point of difference._ epic relates past events; the drama represents events as taking place at the present time. . _name the greatest dramatic writer of the english._ shakespeare. . _what is a drama called that is set to music?_ an opera. . _what is a melodrama?_ a dramatic poem some parts of which are spoken and some are sung. . _what is lyric poetry?_ it is the oldest kind of poetry, and was originally intended to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. . _what are sonnets?_ a kind of lyric poems. . _what is an elegy?_ a poem of a mournful kind, usually celebrating the virtues of some person deceased. . _what is an epitaph?_ a short elegy inscribed on a monument, or written in praise of any one. . _what is a pastoral poem?_ one that describes country life. . _what is a didactic poem?_ one the aim of which is to give instruction. . _what is meditative poetry?_ a kind of didactic poetry. . _name two noted didactic poems._ bryant's "thanatopsis," and campbell's "pleasures of hope." . _what is a satire?_ one that holds up the follies of men to ridicule. . _is a satire personal?_ it is not. . _what is a lampoon?_ a poem that attacks individuals. . _what is gesture?_ expression given to language by movements of the body, limbs, etc. . _what kind of gesture is most appropriate?_ that which is natural. . _what attitude should be used in reading and speaking?_ standing. . _which hand should hold the book?_ the left, if possible. . _should a reader keep his eyes on the book constantly?_ he should not; but cast the eyes away from the page as often as possible. . _should a gesture be made while the eyes are looking on the book?_ it should not. . _in what kind of language are gestures inappropriate?_ didactic or unimpassioned discourse. . _should a speaker begin to gesticulate as soon as he begins his discourse?_ very seldom, before he has entered fully into the discourse. . _how many positions are recognized for the hand when not used in gesticulating?_ three. . _what are they?_ hanging naturally at the side; resting upon the hip with the elbow thrown backward; and resting on your bosom. . _what are descriptive gestures?_ those used in describing objects. . _what are significant gestures?_ those which have special signification. . _name some significant gestures of the head._ it drops in grief and shame, and nods in assent; shakes in dissent, and leans forward in attention. . _name some significant gestures of the eyes._ raised in prayer, weep in sorrow, burn in anger, and are cast on vacancy in thought. . _name some of the passions of the mind._ love, anger, joy, sorrow, fear, and courage. . _what tone of voice should be used in the expression of love?_ soft, smooth, and languishing voice. . _what tone of voice should be used to express anger?_ strong, vehement, and elevated voice. . _where is the best place to practice elocution and reading?_ in the open air, or in a well ventilated room. . _should a reader or speaker pay strict attention to the rules of elocution?_ he should not, but study nature rather. . _what is the soul of oratory?_ emotion. . _what is meant by the compass of the voice?_ the range in which it can be properly controlled. . _how may the compass of the voice be increased?_ by continued practice on a very low and very high key. . _should a reader or speaker drink any liquid while exercising the voice?_ he should not, for it is injurious to the vocal chords. . _what effect does tobacco have on the voice?_ it enfeebles the nervous system and breathing organs, and makes the voice dry, harsh, and ungovernable. . _what effect do stimulants have on the voice?_ irritate and inflame the vocal organs, which results in hoarseness and produces too high a key, which terminates in a squeaking tone. . _in faulty articulation what sounds are usually mispronounced?_ the vowel sounds of the unaccented syllables. . _what consonants are often incorrectly dropped?_ the final consonants. . _how may distinct articulation be acquired?_ by continued practice of the elementary sounds. . _what are the most prominent elements of all words?_ the vowels. . _which sounds should be practiced first?_ the vowels; as they are the most easily uttered. . _can the sounds of the consonants be given alone?_ they can by practice. . _what is the source of the greatest defect in articulation?_ improper sounding of the consonants. . _what kind of inflection is generally given to words of great emphasis?_ the falling; unless the sentiment requires the rising. . _when is the inflection of a question changed from the falling to the rising?_ when it is repeated or made emphatic. . _in the introductory part of a sentence, where the sense is incomplete, what inflection is used?_ unless great emphasis is required, the rising should be used. . _the names of persons addressed in formal speech require what inflection?_ the falling should always be used in such cases. . _general statements require what inflection?_ the falling. . _for the sake of harmony, what principle should govern the reader?_ when a sentence ends with the falling inflection, the rising should precede it. . _when sentences commence with verbs, what inflection is required?_ mostly the rising. . _what is meant by an echo in reading?_ interrogative exclamations, where the question is repeated. . _give an example of echo._ what's the trouble? what's the trouble? trouble enough. . _what inflection should be given to members of sentences connected disjunctively?_ first member, the rising; second member, the falling. . _when several emphatic words or members come together, how should they be inflected?_ the most emphatic, the falling; and the others the rising. . _what is a simple series in reading?_ a series of particulars that is composed of single words. . _what is meant by a compound series?_ one that is composed of clauses is called compound. . _what determines accent?_ the usage of our best speakers and writers of the present. . _to whom does it belong to determine and record such usage?_ the lexicographers. . _are there any cases in which we can trace the reason for the accent?_ there are; in discriminating accent where it is used to determine the parts of speech. . _do we ever have two sets of antitheses in the same sentence?_ we do; as each member may contain an antithesis. . _give an example._ john was hurt; william escaped. . _how many sets of antitheses may be used in one sentence?_ often three; but seldom more. . _should there be any difference in the tone of voice used in reading verse and prose?_ there should be a difference. . _what different style ought to be used?_ the monotone and rising inflection are more frequently used in verse than in prose. . _what is the greatest difficulty met with in reading or declaiming poetic selections?_ in giving it that measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a continued monotone. . _what is a good method to break up this habit?_ reduce the selection to prose, and deliver it in an earnest, conversational style. . _why should there be a short pause at the end of each line of poetry, even where the sense does not require it?_ in order that the measure of the poem may be more perceptible to the ear. . _what is it that constitutes the melody of a poem?_ the pauses and accents chiefly. . _what rule should govern the reader in the use of pauses and accents?_ use variety, and not make them too prominent. . _what tone of voice should be used in reading a simile in poetry?_ the simile should be read in a lower tone than the rest of the passage. . _what, with regard to the voice, is an important object to every speaker and reader?_ the important object is to have a full, even tone of voice. . _what key of the voice should be most diligently improved?_ the natural key, or that which is used most. . _what is meant by the natural key or pitch?_ that which is peculiar to the individual, and in which he can use most easily to himself, and most agreeably to others. . _how can the natural tone of voice be strengthened?_ by reading and speaking as loud as possible, without suffering the voice to rise into a higher key. . _what is the best method of strengthening the natural key?_ by speaking and reading strong, animated passages in a small room. . _how may low tones be acquired?_ by continued practice in a lower key than the natural. . _how may a high key be acquired?_ in the same manner as a low key; by pitching the voice first a little higher than the natural, and mastering that thoroughly, then still higher and higher. . _what is meant by rotundity of the voice?_ that peculiar form of tone which the romans called "ore rotundo," which signifies "round mouth." . _in what kind of sentences is the rotundity of the voice exemplified?_ in the hailing of vessels, and is used especially by sailors and officers. . _which is the most difficult: to raise the voice to a higher pitch, or to bring it to a lower?_ the lowering of the voice is more difficult, and requires great care and practice. . _what is a common fault with most public speakers?_ to run the voice into too high a key, and thus weary the hearers. . _what is a good rule by which to govern the voice?_ to start on a key lower than the natural, and thus avoid running too high. . _what are the principal styles of different reading selections?_ descriptive, narrative, senatorial, moral, didactic, dramatic, and amusing. . _what tone of voice should be used in reading a descriptive selection?_ the ordinary, natural tone, with a careful use of emphasis. . _what tone of voice is best adapted to the reading of a narration?_ the conversational tone, with as little reference to the printed page as possible. . _what style is the best adapted to senatorial reading?_ an imitative style and tone, being careful in the use of the emphatic pause. . _what tone is best adapted to the reading of moral and religious selections?_ low and moderate tone, expressing feeling and sentiment, being careful not to read too fast. . _what style is best adapted to didactic reading?_ that peculiar style which is best adapted to impart instruction, laying special stress on the important idea. . _what style and tone are best adapted to the reading of dramatic selections?_ a style and tone which are entirely imitative in character. . _what tone or character of voice is best suited to the rendering of amusing selections?_ that which will bring out the mirthful sentiment, to the exclusion of all rules for accent, emphasis, etc. . _should all persons use the same tones of voice and style in reading selections?_ they should not; as individuals are differently constituted, so they have different ways of expressing their ideas and sentiments. miscellaneous exercises. spelling alphabetically arranged. . abaissement. . abductor. . abelmoschus. . aberration. . abies. . ablepsy. . abnormal. . abouchement. . abscess. . abscission. . absinthium. . abstergent. . abominable. . aborigines. . abridgment. . absinthe. . abstemious. . abstrusely. . abysmal. . acacia. . academician. . acanthus. . acarpous. . acaulous. . accede. . accelerate. . accessible. . accessory. . accomplice. . accostable. . accoutre. . acephalous. . acerbity. . acescent. . acetify. . acetometer. . ache. . achievable. . achromatic. . acicular. . acolyte. . acoustic. . acquiesce. . acquittal. . acreage. . acrobat. . acropolis. . acrostic. . actualize. . aculeate. . baa. . bacchanal. . backsheesh. . baconian. . bagatelle. . balk. . bandelet. . barbican. . baryta. . barru. . basalt. . basic. . basilica. . basilisk. . bastile. . baccae. . caboodle. . cacoethes. . cacophony. . cadaverous. . cadenza. . caducus. . caduceus. . caique. . caisson. . cæcal. . calaboose. . calciferous. . caffeine. . calcined. . caldarium. . caligo. . calorimeter. . caltha. . calx. . catechu. . cellular. . chemosis. . chiastre. . chilblain. . chymification. . cilium. . clematis. . cochineal. . codeia. . contagious. . coronoid. . dacryoma. . dahline. . daphne. . datura. . deciduous. . decollation. . dactylology. . dahlia. . decumbent. . degmus. . dawdle. . dengue. . deltoid. . debut. . decastyle. . deliquium. . decennial. . dentatus. . dentagra. . demesne. . diaphysis. . diastole. . didym. . desuetude. . echinus. . echinops. . ecarte. . ebullition. . eclat. . edacious. . eclysis. . ecphlysis. . eider. . eke. . effete. . elysian. . egophony. . empiric. . empyrean. . encaustic. . enceinte. . elaine. . encore. . encyclical. . encysted. . elephas. . enmity. . ensconce. . facet. . facetious. . facial. . factitious. . falderals. . falsetto. . fantasia. . fascicle. . fauces. . fauna. . febrile. . felly. . felloe. . fuzz. . gala. . gamboge. . gamut. . ganoid. . gaol. . garrote. . gawk. . gelatine. . gelid. . gemini. . genial. . geode. . geognosy. . geodesy. . georama. . hegira. . heifer. . helix. . helve. . hernia. . hexahedron. . hexastyle. . hockle. . hone. . hookah. . horologe. . icarian. . ibis. . ibex. . ichor. . ichneumon. . ichthyolite. . ides . idiom. . idyl. . ignescent. . iguana. . ileum. . impede. . impennate. . indocile. . inebriate. . insidious. . jabber. . jacinth. . jackal. . jaconet. . jalap. . jaguar. . janitor. . jeer. . jejune. . jujube. . junket. . juno. . kale. . katydid. . kistvaen. . kyanize. . lac. . labyrinth. . lachrymal. . landwehr. . limbo. . llama. . loo. . mab. . macaw. . machinate. . madrigal. . magenta. . monolith. . nard. . naphtha. . nadir. . naiad. . niggard. . nympha. . obesity. . obloquy. . obverse. . occiput. . ochre. . pabulum. . palanquin. . paletot. . replevin. . resuscitate. . sabaoth. . sacerdotal. . sacrum. . sadducee. proper nouns to spell. . aaron. . abdiel. . abiezer. . adolphus. . albion. . alexander. . alonzo. . alpheus. . alvah. . alwin. . ammi. . amos. . andronicus. . antony. . apollos. . aristarchus. . artemas. . azariah. . augustus. . asher. . baldwin. . barnabas. . barnaby. . bartholomew. . basil. . benedict. . benoni. . barnard. . bertram. . brian. . bruno. . cæsar. . caleb. . calvin. . cephas. . clarence. . claudius. . clement. . cornelius. . crispus. . cyril. . cyrus. . daniel. . darius. . demetrius. . denis. . dionysius. . donald. . duncan. . ebenezer. . edgar. . edwin. . elbert. . eleazer. . elias. . elisha. . ellis. . elnathan. . eneas. . enoch. . enoz. . erasmus. . erie. . esau. . everard. . erwin. . fernando. . festus. . frederic. . gamaliel. . germanie. . gershon. . godfrey. . gregory. . guy. . hannibal. . heman. . hercules. . herbert. . hezekiah. . hillel. . homer. . hubert. . hugo. . immanuel. . ingram. . ivan. . jabez. . jairus. . japheth. . jason. . jeremy. . jerome. . jess. . joel. . jonah. . josiah. . jotham. . judah. . julius. . justus. . justun. . jonathan. . kennett. . marion. . philip. . philander. words to spell and define, arranged promiscuously. . sirup. . skyey. . proxy. . piquant. . pibroch. . monkery. . irascible. . conceit. . controllable. . coquet (verb). . coquette (noun). . cyclopedia. . fascine. . steelyard. . precious. . seize. . beeves. . civilize. . resuscitate. . heinous. . contemptible. . transitory. . conspiracy. . feminine. . petite. . police. . valise. . verdigris. . routine. . douche. . whorl. . truffle. . debut. . cæsura. . connoisseur. . sumac. . hymeneal. . keelson. . coterie. . recipe. . sapphire. . cognac. . restaurant. . homicide. . patricide. . fratricide. . regicide. . suicide. . matricide. . infanticide. words to be marked diacritically. . sice. . says. . phthisic. . ennui. . vignette. . cortege. . myrrh. . chamois. . sergeant. . boudoir. . hiccough. . bureau. . again. . discern. . bijou. . flambeau. . said. . croquet. . salon. . suave. . shew. . strew. . bouffe. . enough. . suffice. . squirrel. . busy. . cough. . buoy. . many. . pretty. . canon. . chapeau. . menage. . once. . cafe. . colonel. . cuirass. . gunwale. . dahlia. . soiree. . sapphire. . cognac. . sacrifice. . escritoire. . barege. . soldier. . fortune. . nephew. . lettuce. . entree. . regime. . physique. . protege. . sleuth. . blonde. . coiffure. . afghan. . glebe. . chenille. . chasseur . gyves. . guy. . banyan. . lapel. . kerchief. . gnostic. . corymb. . chevron. . eleve. . touch. . chintz. . meerschaum. . buhr-stone. . camphene. . cigar. . deleble. . polyglot. . diamond. . courier. . sorcery. . extirpate. . gaseous. . docible. . alias. . potpourri. . soprano. . apparel. . palaver. . anchovy. . hygiene. . alchemy. . ascendant. . syzygy. . barbecue. . proboscis. . carbine. . disown. . forbade. . farewell. . resource. . extol. . diverge. . contour. . bourgeois. . disarm. . whither. . water. . larynx. . soul. . crypt. . fleche. . weevil. . lacquer. . phenix. . roguish. . wheyey. . sachel. . rhymer. . psychic. . ptisan. . calker. . depot. . catarrh. . condemn. . bristle. . wriggle. . christen. . naphtha. . chalky. . gherkin. . fraught. . qualm. . vault. . knob. . papaw. . gauging. . cologne. . quadrille. . skyish. . sorghum. . survey. . victuals. . scissors. . gnomon. . ghastly. . phlegm. . gnarl. . gnash. . tertian. . phantom. . livre. . lyrist. . nuisance. . scheme. . chief. . siege. . keyed. . caucus. . college. . leather. . caught. . skein. . coerce. . policy. . legacy. . codicil. . domicile. . hypocrite. . tortoise. . mortise. . porridge. . eagle. . greasy. . pardon. . poleax. . deanery. . mechanics . dialogue. . inveigher. . solstitial. . official. . reprieve. . barter. . succeed. . accede. . salmon. . verger. . wooed. . sausage. . pigeon. . chloral. . balance. . silence. . fallible. . prelacy. . foretell. . going. . chyle. . fascinate. . secrecy. . vacillate. . paralyze. . advertise. . ecstasy. . exertion. . cynical. . article. . city. . busily. . guttural. . scholar. . sibyl. . abscess. . guinea. . voracity. words to be defined. . acts. . ax. . poll. . pole. . roe. . row. . gate . gait. . main. . mane. . bough. . bow. . hue. . hugh. . bear. . beech. . dear. . deer. . wright. . write. . right. . rite. . all. . awl. . bay. . bey. . ark. . arch. . colonel. . kernel. . ruff. . rough. . might. . mite. . rode. . road. . seen. . scene. . corps. . core. . mold. . mould. . great. . grate. . sun. . son. . break. . brake. . dough. . doe. . night. . knight. . sweet. . suite. . four. . fore. . bier. . beer. . beat. . beet. . currant. . current. . viol. . vile. . sent. . scent. . sear. . seer. . lane. . lain. . able. . abel. . knot. . not. . raise. . raze. . hoard. . horde. . lyre. . liar. . symbol. . cymbal. . hawk. . hough. . sine. . sign. . rain. . rein. . lo. . low. . hie. . high. . assent. . ascent. . lute. . loot. . lore. . lower. . sell. . cell. . sail. . sale. . lode. . load. . loan. . lone. . fete. . fate. . lien. . lean. . layer. . lair. . hay. . hey. . idle. . idyl. . hart. . heart. . bass. . base. . bale. . bail. . heel. . heal. . sight. . cite. . haul. . hall. . hale. . hail. . lac. . lack. . nay. . neigh. . altar. . alter. . day. . dey. . hair. . hare. . lye. . lie. . council. . counsel. . mean. . mien. . ate. . eight. . aught. . ought. . wrack. . rack. . reek. . wreak. . wreck. . reck. . rime. . rhyme. . ring. . wring. . wrote. . rote. . rest. . wrest. . hole. . whole. . leek. . leak. . wave. . waive. . week. . weak. . fort. . forte. . soul. . sole. . strait. . straight. . seed. . cede. . seen. . seine. . seize. . cease. . see. . sea. . cole. . coal. . bourne. . born. . bite. . bight. . floe. . flow. . bell. . belle. select reading. . the most skillful gauger i ever knew was a maligned cobbler, armed with a poniard, who drove a peddler's wagon, using a mullein stalk as an instrument of coercion to tyrannize over his pony shod with calks. he was a galilean sadducee, and he had a phthisicky catarrh, diphtheria, and the bilious intermittent erysipelas. . a certain sibyl, with the sobriquet of "gypsy," went into ecstasies of cachinnation at seeing him measure a bushel of peas and separate saccharine tomatoes from a heap of peeled potatoes, without dyeing or singeing the ignitible queue which he wore, or becoming paralyzed with hemorrhage. . lifting her eyes to the ceiling of the cupola of the capitol to conceal her unparalleled embarrassment, making him a rough courtesy, and not harrassing him with mystifying, rarefying, and stupefying innuendoes, she gave him a couch, a bouquet of lilies, mignonette, and fuchsias, a treatise on mnemonics, a copy of the apocrypha in hieroglyphics, daguerreotypes of mendelssohn and kosciusko, a kaleidoscope, a dram-phial of ipecacuanha, a teaspoonful of naphtha for deleble purposes, a ferrule, a clarionet, some licorice, a surcingle, a carnelian of symmetrical proportions, a chronometer with a movable balance-wheel, a box of dominoes, and a catechism. . the gauger, who was also a trafficking rectifier and a parishioner of mine, preferring a woolen surtout (his choice was referrible to a vacillating, occasionally occurring idiosyncrasy), wofully uttered this apothegm: "life is checkered; but schism, apostasy, heresy and villainy shall be punished." the sibyl apologizingly answered: "there is a ratable and allegeable difference between a conferrable ellipsis and a trisyllabic diæresis." we replied in trochees, not impugning her suspicion. select reading. . one enervating morning, just after the rise of the sun, a youth bearing the cognomen of galileo glided into his gondola over the legendary waters of the lethean thames. he was accompanied by his allies and coadjutors, the dolorous pepys and the erudite cholmondeley, the most combative aristocrat extant, and an epicurean who, for learned vagaries and revolting discrepancies of character, would take precedence of the most erudite of all areopagite literati. . these sacrilegious _dramatis personæ_ were discussing in detail a suggestive and exhaustive address, delivered from the proscenium box of the calisthenic lyceum by a notable financier on obligatory hydropathy, as accessory to the irrevocable and irreparable doctrine of evolution, which had been vehemently panegyrized by a splenetic professor of acoustics, and simultaneously denounced by a complaisant opponent as an undemonstrated romance of the last decade, amenable to no reasoning, however allopathic, outside of its own lamentable environs. . these peremptory tripartite brethren arrived at greenwich, wishing to aggrandize themselves by indulging in exemplary relaxation, indicatory of implacable detestation of integral tergiversation and exoteric intrigue. they fraternized with a phrenological harlequin who was a connoisseur in mezzotint and falconry. the piquant person was heaping contumely and scathing raillery on an amateur in jugular recitative, who held that the pharaohs of asia were conversant with his theory that morphine and quinine were exorcists of bronchitis. . meanwhile, the leisurely augustine of cockburn drank from a tortoise-shell wassail cup to the health of an apotheosized recusant, who was his supererogatory patron, and an assistant recognizance in the immobile nomenclature of interstitial molecular phonics. the contents of the vase proving soporific, a stolid plebeian took from its cerements a heraldic violoncello, and, assisted by a plethoric diocesan from pall mall, who performed on a sonorous piano-forte, proceeded to wake the clangorous echoes of the empyrean. they bade the prolyx caucasian gentlemen not to misconstrue their inexorable demands, while they dined on acclimated anchovies and apricot truffles, and had for dessert a wiseacre's pharmacopoeia. thus the truculent pythagoreans had a novel repast fit for the gods. . on the subsidence of the feast they alternated between soft languors and isolated scenes of squalor, which followed a mechanist's reconnaissance of the imagery of uranus, the legend of whose incognito related to a poniard wound in the abdomen received while cutting a swath in the interests of telegraphy and posthumous photography. meantime an unctuous orthoepist applied a homeopathic restorative to the retina of an objurgatory spaniel (named daniel) and tried to perfect the construction of a behemoth which had got mired in pygmean slough, while listening to the elegiac soughing of the prehistoric wind. select reading. . geoffrey, surnamed winthrop, sat in the depot at chicago, waiting for his train and reading the tribune, when a squadron of street arabs (incomparable for squalor) thronged from a neighboring alley, uttering hideous cries, accompanied by inimitable gestures of heinous exultation, as they tortured a humble black-and-tan dog. . "you little blackguards!" cried winthrop, stepping outside and confronting them, adding the inquiry, "whose dog is that?" . "that audacious caucasian has the bravado to interfere with our clique," tauntingly shrieked the indisputable little ruffian, exhibiting combativeness. . "what will you take for him?" asked the lenient geoffrey, ignoring the venial tirade. . "twenty-seven cents," piquantly answered the ribald urchin, grabbing the crouching dog by the nape. . "you can buy licorice and share with the indecorous coadjutors of your condemnable cruelty," said winthrop, paying the price and taking the dog from the child. then catching up his valise and umbrella he hastened to his train. winthrop satisfied himself that his sleek protege was not wounded, and then cleaned the cement from the pretty collar, and read these words; "leicester. licensed, no. ." . hearing the pronunciation of his name, the docile canine expressed gratitude and pleasure, and then sank exhausted at his new patron's feet and slept. . among the other passengers was a magazine contributor, writing vagaries of indian literature, also two physicians, a somber, irrevocable, irrefragable allopathist, and a genial homeopathist, who made a specialty of bronchitis. two peremptory attorneys from the legislature of iowa were discussing the politics of the epoch and the details of national finance, while a wan, dolorous person, wearing concave glasses, alternately ate troches and almonds for a sedative, and sought condolence in a high, lamentable treble from a lethargic and somewhat deaf and enervate comrade not yet acclimated. . near three exemplary brethren (probably sinecurists) sat a group of humorous youths; and a jocose sailor (lately from asia) in a blouse waist and tarpaulin hat was amusing his patriotic, juvenile listeners by relating a series of the most extraordinary legends extant, suggested by the contents of the knapsack which he was calmly and leisurely arranging in a pyramidal form on a three-legged stool. above swung figured placards, with museum and lyceum advertisements, too verbose to be misconstrued. . a mature matron of medium height, and her comely daughter, soon entered the car, and took seats in front of winthrop (who recalled having seen them on tuesday, in february, in the parquet of a theater). the young lady had recently made her debut into society at a musical soiree at her aunt's. she had an exquisite bouquet of flowers that exhaled sweet perfume. she said to her parent, "mamma, shall we ever find my lost leicester?" . geoffrey immediately addressed her, saying, as he presented his card-- "pardon my apparent intrusiveness; but, prithee, have you lost a pet dog?" . the explanation that he had been stolen was scarcely necessary, for leicester, just awakening, vehemently expressed his inexplicable joy by buoyantly vibrating between the two like the sounding lever used in telegraphy (for to neither of them would he show partiality), till, succumbing to ennui, he purported to take a recess, and sat on his haunches, complaisantly contemplating his friends. it was truly an interesting picture. . they reached their destination ere the sun was beneath the horizon. often during the summer winthrop gallantly rowed from the quay, with the naive and blithe beatrice in her jaunty yachting suit, but no coquetry shone from the depths of her azure eyes. little less, their jocund confidante and courier (and who was as sagacious as a spaniel), always attended them on these occasions, and whene'er they rambled through the woodland paths. while the band played strains from beethoven mendelssohn, bach and others, they promenaded the long corridors of the hotel. and one evening, as beatrice lighted the gas by the etagere in her charming boudoir in their suite of rooms, there glistened brilliantly a valuable solitaire diamond on her finger. . let us look into the future for the sequel to perfect this romance, and around a cheerful hearth we see again geoffrey and beatrice, who are paying due homage to their tiny friend leicester. select reading. . a sacrilegious son of belial, who suffered from bronchitis and diphtheria, and had taken much morphine and quinine, having exhausted his finances, in order to make good the deficit, resolved to ally himself to a complaisant, lenient, docile, young woman of the caucasian race. buying a calliope, a coral necklace, an illustrated magazine, and a falcon from asia, he took a suite of rooms, whose acoustic properties were excellent, and engaged a malay as his coadjutor. . being of an epicurean disposition, he threw the culinary department of his hotel into confusion by ordering for his dinner vermicelli soup, a bologna sausage, anchovies, calf's brains fried, and half a gooseberry pie. for the resulting dyspepsia he took acetic and tartaric acid, according to allopathy, and when his aunt, a fair matron of six decades, called, he was tyrannic and combative, and laughed like a brigand until she was obliged to succumb to his contumacy. . etiquette being thus annihilated, he became amenable to tenderer passions. he sent a letter, inviting his inamorata to a matinee, together with an eighteen-carat gold ring. she revolted at the idea of accompanying him, and sent a note full of piquant raillery, which led her suitor to procure a carbine and a sword, with some apparatus, and to declare that he would not forge hymeneal chains upon any one. . so proceeding to an isolated spot, without comrades, he severed his jugular vein, and discharged the carbine into his abdomen. when inquiry was made, he was found dead, and the coroner sat on the debris and did his exact duty, though it was no couch of eider he occupied. . had the misguided youth read ovid less often, and given precedence to hemans and ingelow, his fate might have been different. true, he might have hung on a greasy gallows like a highwayman, in squalor, and been the sport of canines for aye; while now, disarmed by death, he lies in a splendid mausoleum, far from the wharves and haunts of men, and can't accent his antepenults, and afford the greatest discrepancies extant in pronunciation. select reading--the blackboard and chalk. . learned sages may reason, the fluent may talk, but they ne'er can compute what we owe to the chalk. from the embryo mind of the infant of four, to the graduate, wise in collegiate lore; from the old district school-house to harvard's proud hall, the chalk rules with absolute sway over all. . go, enter the school-room of primary grade, and see how conspicuous the blackboard is made. the teacher makes letters and calls them by name, and says to the children, "now all do the same;" mere infants you see, scarcely able to walk, but none are too feeble to handle the chalk. . we visit the school of much higher pretension, the blackboard here claims undivided attention; the walls, dark as erebus, first greet the eye, before them bright misses and lads we espy; and the sound of the crayon's irregular tappings reminds us of spirits' mysterious rappings. . one has pictured a vessel, with streamers unfurled, another is making a map of the world; a third has a problem in fractions to solve, a fourth is explaining how planets revolve; while a young physiologist, skilled in the art, is sketching the muscles, the lungs, and the heart. . in the midst of this bustle the school-master stands, and, lo! he's a crayon in each of his hands; and the chalk in _his_ hand has a magical power: a teacher might reason and talk by the hour, but naught would avail all his reason and talk-- the truth is made plain by the use of the chalk. . and the teacher of music the blackboard employs, the chalk must be used e'en in training the voice; be it rhythm or melody, accent or force, he always insists on the regular course; declaring the secret of musical skill is found in the blackboard, the chalk, and the drill. . see the chalk in the hand of the artist. behold what beauteous forms as by magic unfold! the store-house of nature he swiftly displays, till the dazzled beholder is lost in the maze; designs without number appear to the view, and show what the chalk and the blackboard can do. . o wise pestalozzi! we place on thy brow a coronet, bright and unfading; for thou a legacy rich hast bequeathed unto men: our _one_ feeble talent by thee is made _ten_; we prize thy rare gift, but we never may know how much to thy matchless invention we owe. . o chalk! what a powerful monarch thou art! in this age of reform how important thy part; those minds that are swaying the world unrestrained in childhood and youth in thy empire were trained. of the wonderful power of the press we may talk-- it never can vie with the blackboard and chalk. . an engine so powerful, so mighty to aid, so simple in structure, so readily made, a helper so potent in training the young-- 'tis meet that thy praise by the muse should be sung; for though sages may reason, and orators talk, they can ne'er make their mark without blackboard and chalk. * * * * * the burrows brothers company, cleveland, ohio. * * * * * christian science. its truths and its errors. by the rev. h. melville tenney. neatly bound in paper-cloth. price twenty-five cents. send for circulars giving testimonials. * * * * * shakespeare versus ingersoll. by j.g. hall. neatly bound in paper. price twenty-five cents. the cover is very odd and attractive. the contents of the book will be found of the utmost interest to all shakespearian scholars, as well as to all religious teachers. * * * * * avery's ancestral tablets. in stout manilla portfolio. price fifty cents. a collection of diagrams so arranged that any number of generations of the ancestors of any person may be recorded in a simple and connected form. additional sheets may be had separate at five cents each; or fifty cents a dozen, postage paid. * * * * * indexed map of ohio. the best! the cheapest! the latest! price ten cents. at the date of publication this is the most complete, the most accurate, the latest and the cheapest map of ohio in existence. * * * * * indexed map of cleveland. price ten cents. over fifteen thousand copies have been sold in the last two years of this map. this is a greater number than have been sold of any previous map, or maps in the last ten years. this fact alone speaks for its excellence, and the price is below any thought of criticism. * * * * * the game of solo-sixty. by junius. price twenty-five cents. edited from traditional sources. bound in white vellum paper, with a remarkably odd and neat cover design in five colors. _one of the most attractive souvenirs or dainty gifts of the year._ please send for a sample copy. one dealer has had one thousand copies, and many others very liberal quantities. * * * * * rusk's model selections. six numbers, paper, each fifteen cents. no. contains a chapter on the principles of elocution, embracing the subject of elementary sounds, pitch, volume, quality, movement, accent, emphasis, articulation, gesture, etc. no. is devoted to selections for the young. nos. and are just out, and have many fresh and attractive pieces. lithographed covers, about pages, mo., in each number. * * * * * the morgan one piece adjustable book cover. patented may , . this is the only perfect one piece adjustable book cover _ever made, and it is destined to work a_ revolution in book covering with adjustable covers. the latest! the best! made in the most workmanlike manner from very high grade manilla; 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" " size c, for books from to ins. (geographies) . " " samples mailed without charge to dealers and librarians. _liberal discounts to dealers._ the burrows brothers company cleveland, ohio. * * * * * publications of the burrows brothers company , , euclid avenue, cleveland, o. 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"_fascinating_" is the word used in describing it by every one who has studied the art. the _text-books_ have been so arranged and simplified that _self-instruction_ is a positive pleasure and recreation and _has been successfully accomplished in thousands of instances_. teachers should learn phonography, not only that they may be possessed of the enormous advantage of being able to write five times as fast as by the ordinary method, but that they may be able to teach the art. phonography is rapidly finding its way into the public schools, and the demand for teachers of the regular branches who can also teach phonography is now _far in advance of the supply_. the manual of phonography. [ th thousand.] by benn pitman and jerome b. howard. this work is designed for self-instruction in the phonographic art and is the proper book for the beginner. it contains a complete exposition of the system, from its simplest principles to the reporting style, arranged in alternate and opposite pages of explanation and phonographic exercises. every principle is copiously illustrated with engraved examples for reading, and exercises in the ordinary type for writing practice. a large number of pages of engraved reading matter are included in the book. boards, c.; extra cloth, $ . . for sale by all booksellers, or sent post-paid by us on receipt of price. complete catalog of other aids to the study of phonography, free. * * * * * the phonographic magazine. edited by jerome b. howard. a twenty-four page monthly, each number of which contains eight pages ( ¾ x ½ in.) of finely engraved phonography, mostly in the brief reporting style, besides original and contributed articles of general phonographic interest. the magazine is a periodical complement to the series of text-books, and is the authentic organ of the benn pitman system of phonography. subscriptions may begin with any number. specimen copy free. price, per annum--invariably in advance--$ . . address the phonographic institute, cincinnati, ohio. * * * * * whiting paper company, of holyoke, massachusetts, are now putting up the fashionable line of "whiting's standard" writing papers, in neat boxes, with envelopes. the most perfect production of the paper-maker's art. cream and azure, rough and smooth finish, all sizes. for sale by all fine stationers. a minniature ov _inglish orthoggraphy_. * * * * * to' dheir royal highnesses, dhe prince and princes _ov wales_; dhe duke and dutches _ov york_: onnored az undouted patrons and patterns ov evvery propriety: dhis minniature ov inglish orthoggraphy, _umbly hopes universal acceptance;_ from dhe benign permission ov being so inscribed, by dheir royal highnesses devoted servant, _james elphinston_. * * * * * a minniature ov inglish orthoggraphy: deddicated to' _dhe prince and princes of wales_, dhe duke and dutches ov york: * * * * * by james elphinston. * * * * * _london_: sold (price shilling and pence) by w. ritchardson, royal exchainge; t. boosey, n. , braud-street, dhare; f. and c. rivvington, n. ; st. pauls churchyard; j. deighton, n. , holborn; w. clark, n. , bond-street. * * * * * . * * * * * contents. . _introduccion_ . _orthoggraphy ascertained in dhe vowels, and dheir serviles_ . _vocal substitucion, licenced and licencious_ . _ov open and shut vowels_ . _ov dhe aspirates and dheir insertives_ . _ov redundant serviles_ . _ov impracticabel articulacion_ . _ov false aspiracion_ . _dhe guttural aspirate lost, or transmuted by moddern organs_ . _old _r_ aspirate_ . _oddher antiquated idellers_ . _final fantoms, or dubblers ov final forms_ . _oddher falsifiers, medial or final; licquids or sibbilants; particcularly _ti_ for a sibbilacion_ . _dhe orthoggraphy ov propper names_ . _dhe fundamental principel ov orthoggraphy_ . _the orthographic riddle_ * * * * * a minniature ov _inglish orthoggraphy._ . introduction. hwen evvery oddher language, and at last our own, haz been reduced to' science; rendered accountabel to' natives, and accessibel to' straingers; hwence iz it, dhat our practice, growing daily more a contrast dhan an exemplificacion ov our theory, tempts ignorance to' speak, az blind habbit spels; raddher dhan to' dream ov spelling, az propriety exhibbits her unremitted harmony, hweddher in word or writing? for propriety, hwarevver herd, can be seen onely in her picture: nor can dhis be duly drawn, but from dhe oridginal; or dhe likenes long prezerved, in dhe coppies ov vulgarrity. scarce creddibel doz it seem, to' dhe anallogists ov oddher diccions, dhat hiddherto', in inglish exhibiscion, evvery vowel and evvery consonant ar almoast az often falsifiers az immages ov dhe truith. hetteroggraphy indeed, or false litterary picture, can arize onely from won, or a combinacion, ov foar cauzes: redundance, defiscience; mischoice, or misarraingement. * * * * * . orthoggraphy ascertained in dhe vowels, and dheir serviles. it iz not now new, dhat evvery inglish vowel haz, not onely a longuer and shorter, but even a different sound, az open or shut by a consonant; dho _a braud_, open and shut, differ but in quantity. nor iz it yet a secret, dhat certain mutes, or silent letters, (espescially vocal quiescents,) ar named _serviles_; rendering essencial az vizzibel service, boath to' vowels and consonants. hware such gards ar wanted, dhey doutles wil attend; and, hwen dhey proov superfluous, az reddily widhdraw. dhus dhe open vowel ov dhe simpel shuts, and dhe serviles vannish, in dhe penultimate ov dhe compound: _shake_, _shakspear_; _chear_, _cherfool_; _vine_, _vinyard_, and dhe like. so formatives: _stare_ and _stair_, _starling_; _steer_, _sterling_; _shere_, _sherrif_; _child_, _children_; _kind_, _kindred_; _know_, _knollege_; and dhe rest. evvery open ear must allow dhe aspiracion (_h_) to' articculate iniscially dhe braud vocal licquid (_w_); nor longuer imadgine dhat _wh_, apparent, can becom _hw_ real; or dhat _what_, _whale_, _wheels_, can rascionally paint dhe power ov _hwat_, _hwale_, _hweels_. dhe braud licquid (_w_) haz no place in _hoal_, total; or in _hore_, prostitute; distinct alike, to' dhe eye, from _hole_ and _hoar_. but _wh_, iniscial, may wel prommise _hw_; if _le_ and _re_, boath final, may picture _el_ and _er_: az we admire, not onely on dhe _little theatre_, but in dhe _centre_ ov dhe _battle_! dho a tutch ov rezons wand wil restore dhe buty ov truith; at wonce to' dhe _littel theater_, and to' dhe _center_ ov dhe _battel_; az such buty beamed in dhe former century. dhe french _table_, _chambre_, _ancien_, _danger_, ar dhe unexcepcionabel parents ov dhe inglilh _tabel_, _chaimber_, _aincient_, _dainger_; hoo ar too apt scollars, not to' lern from parental exampel, to' show dhemselvs hwat dhey ar; widhout wondering, dhat won tung iz not anoddher, or dhat each must hav her own essence and semblance; and dhat in ours, az in oddher picturage, _an open vowel must not appear a shut won_. indispensabel dhen az dhe servile (_i_) in dhe three last exampels, iz it in _aingel_, dho inadmissibel in _angellic_; in evvery _ainge_ and _ainger_, like _rainge_ and _rainger_; az wel az in _caimbric_ and _caimbridge_; dho nedher in _cam_ nor _cambray_. if _a_ slender, open, must hav in such case its gardian; _a_ slender, even shut, hwen protracted, requires its protracting aspiracion (_h_): az in _ah! mahlah_; so in _pahtric_, _fahdher_, _pappah_, _mammah_, and _ahnt_; so distinct (dho safe enuf ungarded) from _ant_ dhe emmet. but _gahp_, herd, iz dhus no longuer seen _gape_. _hant_, _hanch_, and dheir fellows, admit not dhe braudener; hwich iz indispensabel to' _wrauth, wauter_, and _vauz_; nor need dhe protracting aspirer, more dhan doo _chant_ and _branch_. _o_ must hav its own medial servant, to' ascertain its opennes; in _poark_, _poart_, _spoart_, _foart_, _foard_, _goard_, _soard_, (wonce _sword_), _foarth_, _foarce_, _foarge_; _boast_, _coast_, _goast_, _moast_, _poast_, and _boath_; justly az in dhe annimal _boar_, in _board_, _boast_, and dheir fellows; dho _slow_ gender _slowth_, reggularly, az _grow, growth_. widh _poart_ and _poast_, _poartal_, _poarter_; _poastage_, and dhe like. better no attendant, dhan a false won. _o_ direct (dhe common _o_) can nedher assume _o_, dhe servile ov _o_ depressive (_oo_); nor _u_, hwich wood seem its partner in a dipthong. _doar_, _floar_, and _moar_, ar dhus reggular and safe; _dore_, _flore_, and _more_, widh equivvalent servile, leve _more_ coincident; yet compounds prefer dhe final servile: az _batteldore_,[ ] _blacmore_, _hwitmore_; and _strathmore_, scottishly strong on dhe latter syllabel. _soll_, spirrit, avoids occular union widh _sole_, alike, and _soal_: by adopting dhe servile ov _poll_, _boll_, _toll_, _roll_ (widh _controll_,) _scroll_, and _droll_. like dipthongal dainger precludes _u_ from dhe servile funccion, duly undertaken by _a_ in _soar_, _moarn_, _boarn_, distinct from _boren_ or _bor'n_, dhe compannion ov _woren_ or _wor'n_, _sworen_ or _swor'n_, _toren_ or _tor'n_, _shoren_ or _shor'n_, and clear, az open and shut, ov _born_; in _coart_, _goard_, _coarse_, and _soarce_. _coarce_, dhe ded _boddy_, dies no more in _corpse_; hwen dhus _boren_ decently to' interment. dhis precaution suffers _o_ open, to' understand or omit, dhe servile before _l_ and anny oddher consonant: az in _old colt_, wonce seen and herd _ould coult_. if _old colt_ now suffice, _oald coalt_ iz understood. for dhis rezon, _goald_ must no longuer be robbed ov its depressive servile, wonce legally seen in _gould_. _au_, widh les plea, suppresses its servile in like sittuacion; az _salt_ and _alder_; except in dhe singuel _assault_! _saut_ and _vaut_ being, now, duly out ov dhe question. if _ou_ cannot now paint _o_ direct, much les can it picture _o_ depressive (_oo_); in _you_, _youth_, _uncouth_; _should_, _would_, or _could_: for _yoo_, _yooth_, _uncooth_; _shood_, _wood_, or _cood_. hwen _ou_ inglish transferred its equivvalence from dhe french _ou_ to' dhe german _au_, hwich compounds _a_ braud, widh _o_ depressive (_au_ widh _oo_); az itself cood no more be frenchly interchaingeabel widh _oo_; nedher ov its parts waz more likely to' becom so. _do_ or _who_ can no more dhan _doe_ or _hoe_, (boath better employed!) or dhan _shoe_, _canoe_, _lose_, _move_, _prove_, _behove_; _rome_, _coke_, _pole_, or simmilar; prezent dhe prezzent _doo_, _hoo_, _shoo_, _canoo_, _looz_, _moov_, _proov_, _behoov_, _room_, _cook_, _pool_, or dhe like: for truith fears notthing from coincidence ov sound, and falsehood always leads astray. _b_ may distinctively open dhe vowel, in _climb_ and _comb_; but cannot render it also depressive in _comb_, _tomb_, _bomb_, and _womb_; for _coomb_, _toomb_, _boomb_, and _woomb_. hwatevver _u_ may hav been in lattin vocallity, dhat figgure cannot guiv _oo_, even open, in inglish; far les _oo_ shut, in _pull_, _bull_, _full_; _butcher_, _put_, _pudding_, _puss_, _push_, _bush_; _bushel_, _cushion_; for _pool_, _bool_, _fool_, _bootcher_, _poot_, _poodding_, _poose_, _poosh_, _boosh_, _booshel_, and _coossion_: in all ov hwich, dhe _oo_ iz doutles short az shut; and distinct az _foolling_ and _fooling_. if _u_ cannot prommise _oo_ shut, no more can _oo_ proxy _u_ shut, in dhe singuel _foot_ for _fut_. no servile can attend a shut vowel; and _truith_ must hav her own, like _suit_ and _fruit_: in dhe french _bruit_ it iz also distinctive. alreddy hav we seen _o_ direct disguized, no les dhan _o_ depressive; and can we longuer bair dhe gallic _beau_, for dhe brittish _boe_; more dhan dhe dubble falsifier _beauty_, for dhe inglish _buty_, dhe sweet compannion ov _duty_? _sew_, _shew_, and _strew_, wer dhe preddecessors, so cannot be dhe identities, ov _soe_, _show_, and _strow_: dhe first dhus occularly clear ov _sow_, so different verb and noun! dhe latter, distinct to' dhe ear by dhe dipthong, hwich also distinguishes _slough_, no more swallowing _sluf_: _toe_ and _tow_ (no more jostling widh _tough_, now _tuf_), _doe_ and _dough_, _floe_ and _flow_, being respective coincidents; clear indeed to' dhe eye, boath ov boddy and mind. _ow_ final iz dipthongal in _how_, _now_! _bow_ bend; _cow_, noun or verb; _sow_, the noun; in _vow_, verb or noun; and in _allow_, _endow_. dhe dipthong distinguishes also _slough_, _plough_, and _bough_ branch. _o_ remains merely simpel in _dough_, az if _dow_. _bo!_ or _boh!_ interjeccion, coincides widh _boe_ and _bow_, boath nouns: dhe latter leving dhe dipthong to' dhe verb, or its accion, hwence dhe ball derives it in _bowl_; dhe open vowel distinguishing dhe _bowl_ or bason, coincident widh _boll_ and _bole_. * * * * * . vocal substitucion. dho won semblance may exhibbit, not onely two' senses, but two' sounds; won symbol must not pretend to' paint anoddher, unles by distinctive substitution. _e_ proovs dhus dhe lawfool substitute ov _a_, in _heigh-ho!_ moddernized _hey-ho!_ in _heighday_, now _hey-day!_ _weigh_, _wey_, _hwey_, _prey_, _bey_, _dey_; _dhey_, _dheir_, _eir_, _eight_, and _freight_; widh _obey_, _inveigh_, _convey_, _survey_, and _purvey_; az wel az hwen febel, in _parley_, _barley_, _harley_, _chudleigh_, and dheir fellows. but _e_ cannot be _a_, widh dhe servile dhat distinguishes _e_: _tear_ cannot be clas-mate, at wonce to' _fear_ and _fair_. if dherfor _e_ cannot be _a_, widh _a_ servile; and _a_ need no substitute in dhe verbs _tair_, _wair_, _swair_, and _bair_; _peir_, dhe fruit, and _beir_, dhe beast, claim dhe substitute vowel, widh due servile; _pair_, _pare_, _bair_ and _bare_, being engaged. for like rezon, _braik_ and _grait_ admit no vocal substitute. _where_ and _there_ no more puzzel dhan bely, in dheir own shape, ov _hware_ and _dhare_. _e_ fairly substituting dhe forrain _i_, in _pier_, _bier_, _mien_, _lief_, widh _belief_, _believ_; _relief_, _reliev_; and dhe rest; so distinct from _peer_, _beer_; _mean_, _leaf_; or so connected by alliance, forrain or domestic; dhe substitucion simmilarly prevails in _shriek_, _fiend_, _fief_, _brief_, _chief_, _atchiev_; _thief_, _thiev_; _repriev_, _retriev_; _pierce_, _fierce_, and _tierce_: ettymollogy howevver, scorning alike substitucion and superfluity, in _receiv_, _receit_, and dheir collaterals. forrain semblance belied dhe adoptives, _oblige_, _marine_, _machine_, _magazine_, _fatigue_, _intrigue_, _antique_, and _shire_; til londoners began to' treat dhem az natives ov ingland; not dreaming dhat dheir essence cood not here be prezerved, but in dhe guize ov _oblege_, _marene_, _mashene_, _maggazene_, _fategue_, _intregue_, _anteke_ (or _anteek_, _mareen_, and dhe rest,) joined by _legue_, _twegue_, and _shere_: hwich last, dho dhus sevvered from _sheer_ and _shear_, boath coincident in sound, waz beguinning, in dhe false shape ov _shire_, (like _oblege_, in dhat ov _oblige_,) to' violate inglish harmony in evvery british nacion. dhe same propriety, dhat dhus gards dhe inglish vowel (_e_), prezervs, no les _piously_, dhe parental equivvalent (_i_), in _obligacion_, _marriner_, _mackinate_, _mackinacion_, _indefattigabel_, _anticquity_, az wel az _antiquary_; and evvery forrain buty, consistent widh domestic truith. if dhe prezzent century hav made manny improovments, in orthoggraphy and elsehware; it haz certainly made manny alteracions, dhat wer dhe verry reverse ov improovment. som eying truith, onely in her parents, wood _allege_ dhat _virtue_ alone cood _persuade_; havving lernedly perfwaded dhemselvs, dhat _vertue_ might hav _sweetnes_, widhout partaking _suavity_, by hwich dhey pictured _swavvity_. it seems howevver high time dhat a certain kingdom, at length panting after evvery propriety, shood know and confes, dhat her name iz no more _england_, dhan _engelonde_ or _angland_; or dhan her sovverain iz _king ov france_! since won symbol must no more usurp dhe office ov anoddher, _o_ wil no longuer pretend to' paint _a braud_ open (_au_); in _ought_, _nought_, _brought_, _thought_, _sought_, _fought_, _bought_; for _aught_ (now indeed _aut_), and dhe rest: nor wil _groat_ and _broad_ expect anny more, to' be acknolleged _graut_ and _braud_. nedher _tongue_ nor _tong_ (alreddy won ov a pair) can picture _tung_; dho _u_ stil employ dhe distinctive substitucion ov _o_ in _son_, male issue; nor les propperly dhe ettymolodgic in _yong_, _mong_, _mongrel_, _monk_, (widh _monkey_,) and _monday_; in _monney_, _bonney_, _conney_, _condit_, _constabel_; az in _yolk_, so in _covver_, _hovver_, _plovver_; in _lovver_ and _glovver_, from _lov_ and _glov_. _cullor_ (nevver _colour_) avoids coincidence equally widh _collar_ and _coller_; dhe latter greekly, not frenchly, affected _choler_. but surely a vocal groop cannot shrink into' an inglish shut vowel: nor cood dhe following french, or almoast french, be suppozed inglish words: _souple_, _couple_; _double_, _trouble_; _nourish_, _flourish_; _courage_, _courteous_, _country_, _cousin_; _journey_, _journal_; _sojourn_, _adjourn_, and _touch_; more dhan such oddities claim continnuance, az _young_, _rough_, or _tough_: for _suppel_ (alreddy almoast inglish in _supple_,) _cuppel_; _dubbel_, _trubbel_; _nurrish_, _flurrish_; _currage_, _curteous_; _contry_ (ettymolodgical substitute ov _cuntry_; like _yong_, ov _yung_;) _cozzen_ az _dozzen_, no more _dozen_! _jurney_, _jurnal_; _sodjurn_, _adjurn_, widh _tutch_; _tuf_ and _ruf_: not to' reprezent dhe so duly exploded, az _authour_, _succour_, _superiour_ for _author_, _succor_, _superior_; hweddher agent, accion, or adjective. * * * * * . ov open and shut vowels. az vocallity must often depend on articulacion; consonants, like vowels, must nedher be too manny, too few, nor oddher dhan dhemselvs. if sounds open must not seem shut, sounds shut must not appear open. no servile can attend a shut vowel; hwich, on dhe contrary, must show dhe consonant dhat shuts it. hwen a consonant concludes dhe syllabel, after an open vowel; a servile must gard dhe vowel from dhe consonant, hwich else wood shut it. a shut vowel dhen must show dhe shutter, or be left apparently open. dhe first vowel (_a_), slender or braud, may doutles be more or les so, by dhe prezzence or absence ov dhe _stres_, or vocal exercion. _a_ slender, self or substitute, iz open az garded, in _fain_, _fein_, and _fane_; _wail_, and _wale_; open az unshut, in _paper_, _favor_, _braver_, _bravest_, _braving_, _braved_: so in _fainer_, _feiner_; az wel az _faining_, _feined_; _wailing_, _wailed_; _waling_, _waled_; articculated _pa-per_, _fa-vor_, _bra-ver_, _bra-vest_; _fai-ner_, _fei-ner_, and so on: for _a singuel consonant_, natturally (dhence nescessarily) _articculates dhe following, _not dhe preceding_ vowel_. _a_, slender, iz shut in _fan_, _fanning_; and the like. _a braud (au)_ haz its own distinctive servile in _faun_ and _fawn_, in _all_ and _awl_, _ball_ and _bawl_. dho _l_ remain dhe servile in _balling_, az wel az dhe _w_ in _bawling_; it iz no servile, but dhe effective shutter, in _ballot_, _bal-lot_, or dhe like. _a braud_, shut, plays its own part, hwen articculated by _w_ or _qu_ (vertually _cw_,) in dhe propper _waller_, az in _wallet_ or _quallity_; in _war_, _quarrel_; _wart_, _quart_; _wan_, _want_, _quantity_, and such. _a braud_, shut, not so articculated, substitutes _o_ shut: dhus dhe _o_ ov _cord_ iz perfetly coincident, or unison, widh dhe _a_ in _ward_. hware _a_ performs its own braud-shut part, _o_ becoms dhe substitute ov _u_ shut, az in _won word_; _quoth_ and _quod_. _e_ iz dhus open in _mean_ and _mien_, _tiend_ and _fiend_, _siev_ and _seiz_; widh _grief_, _griev_; _relief_, _reliev_; _receiv_, _receit_, and dheir fellows. open iz _e_ likewize in _meat_, _meet_, and _mete_; (three coincident!) _meeting_, _meting_, and _meter_; shut in _men_, _pen_, _fen_; _met_, _set_; _penny_, _fennel_; _penning_, _setting_: and so foarth. _i_ iz open in _fine_, _finer_, _finish_; _dine_, _dining_, and _diner_; _rime_, _riming_, and _rimer_; _fi-ner_, _fi-nish_, and so on: shut in _fin_, _finnish_; _din_, _dinner_; _brim_, _brimmer_; _fin-nish,_ and simmilar. _o_ iz open in _po_, _pole_, _polar_, and _polish_; _mode_, _modish_; _soal_, _sole_, and _soll_; shut in _sollace_, _pollish_, and _moddest_; _po-lish_, _pol-lish_, and dhe like. _u_ iz open in _unit_, _unite_; _tune_, _tunic_, _punic_, _studious_; shut in _studdy_, _unabated_: _u-nit_, _stu-dent_, _stud-dy_, _un-a-ba-ted_; such compounds being licenced to' take in dhe singuel consonant ov dhe prepoziscion. so hear we, and so see we, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, open; _ar_, _er_, _il_, _on_, _us_, shut; _may_, _me_, _my_, _mow_[ ], _mew_; _mas_, _mes_, _mis_, _mos_, _must_. so _mary_, _marry_; _even_, _sevven_; _ivy_, _livvy_; _odor_, _odder_; _student_, _studdy._ if dhen open vowels must appear open, shut vowels must appear shut. forrain, even parental, diccions cannot rule dhe picture ov dhe native: for picture can hav but won oridginal. widh parrity ov rezon may (and must often) dhe parental vowel be open, and dhe descendant shut. to' edher iz _popes_ laconnic line applicabel: _dhis dhey, dhat know me, know; dhat lov me, tel._ to' keep inglish, dhus like french and lattin, or spelling dhe contrast ov speech; our litterature haz hiddherto' no likenes ov our language; and haz continnued inaccessibel to' evvery native, az much az to' evvery strainger. for, hwile we lernedly lov to' see aloe, melon, lily, solemn, carol, very, spirit, coral, borough, manor, tenant, minute, honor, punish, clamor, blemish, limit, comet, pumice, chapel, leper, triple, copy, habit, rebel, tribute, probate, heifer, profit, cavil, revel, drivel, novel, hovel, city, pity, british, critic, madam, credit, idiom, body, study, tacit, licit, hazard, ezad, lizard, closet, bosom, vicar, liquor, liquid, rigor, rigid: we shrewdly hope to' hear, alloe, mellon, lilly, sollemn, carrol, verry, spirrit, corral, burrow, mannor, tennant, minnute, onnor, punnish, clammor, blemmish, limmit, commet, pummice, chappel, lepper, trippel, coppy, habbit, rebbel, tribbute, probbate, heffer, proffit, cavvil, revvel, drivvel, novvel, hovvel, citty, pitty, brittish, crittic, maddam, creddit, iddiom, boddy, studdy, tascit, liscit, hazzard, ezzad, lizzard, clozzet, buzzom, viccar, liccor, licquid, riggor, ridgid. hwile dhus notthing but _s_ can dubbel soft _c_, or sibbilantly shut dhe preceding vowel; and render _precious_, or _vicious_, hwat dhey ar; but _prescious_, or _viscious_; dhe sibbilants direct simpel figgure may not onely becom, in dhe ostensibel _physic_, _visit_, and _vision_, a dubbel depressive; in dhe real _phyzzic_, _vizzit_, and _vizzion_; but work equal wonders, in _polysyllables_ ov anny extension; pretending, in dhe verry name, to' paint _pollysyllabels_. and dhus dhe trokees grow innumerabel, dhat shut and sharpen, shortening dhe former vowel; hwich dhey hav hiddherto' pretended to' exhibbit slowly and smoodhly open: so leving singuel dhe intermediate articulacion, hwich must be audibly dubbel, (must shut az wel az articculate,) and continnue dhe equal impossibillity, ov reading and writing our language. for, _hwen_ our _diccion_ attains, like _oddhers_, _dhe_ happy _habbit_ _ov_ appearing hwat it iz; alternate strength and febelnes must prezent _mallice_ and _maliscious_, _sollemn_ and _solemnity_, _morral_ and _morallity_, _mannor_ and _manorial_, _limmit_ and _limmitacion_, _habbit_ and _habittual_, _spirrit_, _spirritual_, and _spirrituallity_. so evvery consequencial, hweddher ov trocaic or dactyllian stres: _orrigin_, _oridginal_, _oridginality_, or _originallity_, _reallity_, _quallity_, _equallity_, _verrity_, _verrily_, _ennemy_, _ammity_, _appathy_, _probbity_; so, widh _propphet_, _propphesy_, and _propphecy_; but, by penultimate or antepenultimate ennergy, (dhe stres on last but won, or last but two',) _prophettic_, or _prophettical_: widh _philossophy_, _philossopher_, and _philosopphic_; widh _avvarice_, _avvariscious_; _lodgic_, _logiscian_; _phyzzic_, _phyziscian_; _immage_, _imadgine_; _madjesty_, _majestic_. az _alliment_, _saccrament_; az _orrifice_, _saccrifice_, and _orrator_, widhout violacion ov aught _sacred_, or chainge ov _oracion_. * * * * * . ov dhe aspirates, and dheir insertives. _oracion_ indeed iz dhus kept _sacred_ az _orrator_: for _t_ cood nevver sibbilate (or play _s_) in _orthoggraphy_, aincient or moddern; nor a dubbel articulacion pretend to' look singuel, more dhan a singuel a dubbel won. dhe dactyl _orthodox_ admits littel chainge in dhe dubbel trokee _orthodoxy_; like _mellancolly_, vulgarly _melancholy_: but _orthoggraphy_ and _orthograpphical_ ar, widh equal harmony, subject to' antepenultimate power. like propriety dherfor inserts dhe shutter we hear, in dhe duplication, az ov evvery simpel, so ov evvery aspirate, duly dubbled by dhe simpel insertive. dhus _p_ dubbels _ph_, and even _f_, _f_; in _propphet_, and _proffit_. but, az _ph_ became _f_; so _bh_, universally _v_, nescessarily dubbelled in _provverb_. az _s_ or _z_ dubbels dhe soft sibbilant aspirate, (_sh_ or _zh_) in _prescious_, _decizzion_, _t_ or _d_, respectively, dubbled dhat dhey rendered equal to' _tsh_ or _dzh_: az _tutching_ dhe _madjesty_ ov _relidgion_. but dhe inglish tung, (raddher teeth,) enjoying dhe _dental aspirate_, direct and depressive (_th_ and _dh_), beyond perhaps anny oddher language, aincient or moddern; can no longuer be denied dhe appearance, hware it so peculiarly pozesses dhe reallity, ov dubbling az wel az depressing its power. no more dhen can be confounded dhe aspirates ov _oath_, _oadhs_; ov _bath_, _badhs_, and _badhe_; ov _otho_ and _oddher_, _clotho_ and _clodhier_, _dhis thing_ and _dhat thing_; _dheze things_ and _dhoze things_: misaspiracion wil no more embarras, dhan misarraingement, _dhe theater_. * * * * * . ov redundant serviles. if _defiscience_ ov symbols hav been so ezily and so amply exampelled; a ballance may be proffered in _redundance_; ov consonants, no les dhan ov serviles. hwen evvery mute minnister waz supplied to' vocallity; dhe hardening gard ov _g_, at least, shood not hav been forgotten. if _i_ waz indispensabel in _aingel_ and _dainger, u_ iz az recquizite in _anguel_ and _anguer_, az in _guerdon_. _guet_ and _guiv_ demand dhe (_u_) hardener, az boldly az _gues_ and _guilt_. so redundance alreddy recalls, in order to' explode, _guess_ and _give!_ widh dhis not onely _seeing_ (for _seing_) and dhe like; but dhe falsifying final ov _are_, _were_; _awe_, _owe_; _some_, _come_; _above_, _dove_, _love_, _glove_; _throve_, _drove_, _shrove_, _shove_, _hove_; for _ar_, _wer_; _aw_, _ow_; _som_, _com_; _abov_, _dov_, _lov_, _glov_; _throv_, _drov_, _shrov_, _shov_, _hov_: hwere _o_ for _u_ guivs to' the ear, _sum_ distinctive, widh _cum_, _abuv_, and dhe rest. superfluous, dhence obstructive, (distractive indeed!) dhe _i_ ov _either_, _neither_; _heifer_ and _friend_; dhe _o_ ov _people_ and _yeoman_; _leopard_ and _jeopard_; dhe _u_ ov _eulogy_, az ov _eulogium_; ov _conduit_, vertually _cundit_: _a_, obviously useles, after an oddherwize open vowel, in _season_, _reason_, _treason_, _treacle_, _creature_; in _eave_, _heave_, _weave_, _leave_, _cleave_, _reave_, _greave_; _cease_, _lease_, _crease_, _grease_; _teaze_, _ease_, _please_; like dhe _e_ final to' _sieve_, _grieve_, _relieve_, _receive;_ dhe second _e_ in _sleeve_, _geese_, _fleece_, _freeze_, _breeze_, _squeeze_, _cheese_: for _edher_, _nedher_; _heffer_, _frend_; _pepel_ and _yeman_, _leppard_, and _jeppard_; _ellogy_, az _elogium_; widh _condit_: so _sezon_, _rezon_, _trezon_, _trekel_, _creture_; _eve_, _heve_, _weve_, _leve_, _cleve_, _reve_, _greve_; _cese_, _lese_, _crese_, _grese_; _teze_, _eze_, _pleze_: _siev_, _griev_, _reliev_, _receiv_; _sleve_, _guese_, _flece_, _freze_, _breze_, _squeze_, _cheze_. but, like dhe _i_ ov _heifer_ and _friend_, dhe _o_ ov _leopard_ and _jeopard_; dhe _u_ ov _eulogy_; iz dhe _a_ ov _leap_-year and ov _neap_-tide; for _lep_-year and _nep_-tide; nay, shamefoolly, like dhe superfluity in all dheze, haz dhe _a_ hiddherto' remained in _health_, _wealth_, and _stealth_; becauz it stil iz nescessary in _heal_, _weal_, and _steal_! and doutles, for som simmilarly cogent rezon, doz kind _a_ continnue to' gard dhe same _shut vowel_! in _realm_, _earl_, _pearl_; _earn_, _learn_; _early_, _earnest_; _earth_, _dearth_, _hearth_, _heard_, _hearse_, _rehearse_, _searce_, _search_, _threat_, _deaf_, _dead_, _head_, _bread_, _tread_, _dread_, _thread_, _stead_, _lead_, _read_; _ready_, _steady_, _heady_, _meadow_; _zealous_, _jealous_, _weapon_, _leaven_, _heaven_, _endeavour_; _pleasure_, _measure_, _treasure_, _leasure_ or _leisure_! for _helth_, _welth_, _stelth_; _relm_, _erl_, _perl_; _ern_, _lern_; _erly_, _ernest_; _erth_, _derth_, _herth_, _herd_, _herse_, _reherse_, _serce_, _serch_; _thret_, _def_, _ded_, _hed_, _bred_, _tred_, _dred_, _thred_, _sted_, _led_, _red_; _reddy_, _steddy_, _heddy_, _meddow_; _zellous_, _jellous_; _weppon_, _levven_, _hevven_, _endevvor_, _plezzure_, _mezzure_, _trezzure_, _lezzure_. how (alas!) wil brittish libberty moarn her novvel chains, hwen she must not onely speak az she thinks, but write as she speaks; hwen _rove_, _lov_, and _moov_, can chime no more togueddher; hwen _lead_ and _led_, _read_ and _red_, _live_ and _liv_, _tear_ and _tair_, ar found oppozite, az _east_ and _west_; nay, az open and shut vowels! * * * * * . ov impracticabel articulacion. no les embarrassing iz dhe redundance ov impracticabel articulacion, iniscial, medial, or final, (in dhe beguinning, middel, or end, ov words:) dhe first indeed chiefly in forrain names, titels, or terms, hware a consonant, uncombinabel (mediately or immediately) widh a vowel, remains a ded rellic: az dhe _c_ ov _czar_ (dho contracted from _cezar_), dhe _p_ ov _ptollemy_ (mere _tollemy_), or _ptisic_ (for _tizzic_), dhe _b_ ov _bdellium_, herd onely _dellium_; and even dhe _p_ ov psalm, herd but _sahm_, dho dhe _l_ be stil audibel in _psalmist_ and _psalmody_, all effective beside dhe labial (_p_). * * * * * . ov false aspiracion. but no exampel can warrant dhe aspiring ideller, dhat pretends to' lead _heir_, _heritage_, _heritable_, _heritor_; _herb_, _herbage_, _herbalist_; _honour_, _honorary_, _honourable_; and even dhe _humble humour_ ov dhe _passing hour_; insted ov _eir_, _erritage_, _erritabel_, _erritor_; _erb_, _erbage_, _erbalist_; _onnor_, _onnorary_, _onnorabel_; widh dhe _umbel umor_ ov dhe prezzent _our_; hwich doutles can alone be called _our our_. yet aspiracion cannot be denied to' _inherrit_, _inherritance_, _inherritor_, _heredditary_. * * * * * . dhe guttural aspirate lost, or transmuted by moddern organs. dhe consonants dhat subjoin aspiracion (_h_), ar dhe labial, dental, lingual, and guttural; or dhe articculants from dhe lips, teeth, tung, and throat: _p_, _t_, _s_, and _k_; by dhe lattins turned into _c_: az in _philadelphus_ and _philadelphia_, _thales_ and _thalia_, _sharon_ and _sheba_, _charon_ and _chilo_, hoom dhe inglish, havving smoodhed away dhe aspiracion, ar fain to' call _caron_ and _kilo_. aincient organs, howevver, dubbelled occazionally dhe guttural, az wel az dhe labial aspirate; dooing equal justice to' _bacchus_ and to' _sappho_: moddern also, (peculiarly the inglish,) dhe oddher two'; dhe simpel always sufficing to' dubbel dhe aspirate. new dialects softening, lost dhe guttural aspirate; til dhe spannish probbably recovvered it from dhe morish. the itallian and spannish, and from dhem dhe inglish, endevvored to' make up dhe los, by prefixing dhe simpel dental to' dhe lingual or sibbilant aspirate, hwich dhe gallic ear preferred widhout dhe dental; preferring dherfor dhe vertual _sh_ and _zh_ to' _tsh_ and _dzh_. inglish organs loozing, like french, dhe guttural aspirate, edher dropt dhe aspiracion, az in _carracter_ and _kemmist_ or _kymmist_; from _character_ and _chemist_ or _chymist_; or turned dhe hoal ruf guttural into' dhe smoodh labial aspirate. so softening _cough_, _hough_, _trough_, _through_, _though_; _rough_, _tough_, _slough_, _chough_, widh dhe proppers _hough_, _brough_, and _loughborough_; into' _cof_, _hof_, _trof_; _throo_ or _thro'_, and _dho_: _ruf_, _tuf_, _sluf_, _chuf_; _huf_, _bruf_, and _lufburrough_ or _lufburrow_. but _gough_ perhaps orrigin recalled into' _goffe_ or _gof_; hwile _lough_ became inglishly _luf_, and dhe guttural graddually melted in _burrow_, ov hwatevver kind. aincient ellocucion depressed no aspirate; sattisfied widh _ph_ or _f_, _th_, _sh_, and _kh_ or _ch_; widhout _bh_ or _v_, _dh_, _zh_ or _gh_. dhe labial aspirate gennerated dhe eollic digamma f (howevver turned), hwich by and by gave birth to' dhe lattin v. if primmitive tungs gain dhus at length won depressive aspirate; succeding expression, particcularly dhe inglish, came to' dubbel dhe depressive _v_ az wel az dhe direct _ph_ or _f_. french articculacion havving no more occazion for such dubbling dhan her parent lattin, dhe inglish acute or sharp accent askt it _evvery_ moment; but seing no _prescedent_ in oddher picturage, forbore to' _exhibbit_ it, even until dhe _prezzent our_, dhat inglish anallogy, matured at last, rezolved to' be _seen_, az wel az _herd_; to' reggulate practice by theory, and realize theory in practice. * * * * * . dhe old aspirate ov r. som greeks, followed by som lattins, fancied to' ad rufnes to' dhe licquid _r_, or to' paint its innate rufnes more foarcibly, by subjoining aspiracion. hence rushed dhe _rhine_ and dhe _rhone_, dhe _rhemi_ and _rheims_, _rhoda_ and _rhodes_; _rhomb_, _rhumb_, _rheum_, and _rhubarb_. dhe _rhine_ brought _rhenish_; az _rhythmus_ _rhythm_, _rhyme_ and _rhime_; til at length harmonious _rezon_ introduced _rime_, boath into' french and inglish; hwence dhe regennerated _rine_, pouring purified _rennish_, rouzed dhe rappid _rone_ to' rezistles emmulacion; brought _roda_ to' _rodes_, and _rubarb_ to' _reumatism_. dhe verry _rinosceros_ disdains now alike to' ruffen hiz horn widh adscitiscious snorting, and to' stifel even hiz moddern sibbilacion. hwen dhe guttural aspirate lost dhe aspiracion, dhe simpel guttural alone cood remain: az in _caron_, _kiron_, _akilles_, _cloe_, _cronus_; widh _carracter_, _corus_, and _coral_, stil quite clear ov _corral_: wonce seen, because wonce herd, _charon_, _chiron_, _achilles_, _chloe_, _chronus_, _character_, _chorus_, and _choral_. * * * * * . oddher antiquated idellers. among medial idellers, hiddherto', not onely suffered, but sanccioned, even after parental ejeccion, ar[ ] dhe _s_ ov _isle_; _l_ ov _fault_ and _vault_, _p_ ov _receipt_, _b_ ov _debt_ and _doubt; c_ ov _perfect_ and _verdict_[ ]; here at last fairly seen _ile_, _faut_, _vaut_, _receit_, _det_, _dout_, _perfet_, _verdit_. alike idel iz dhe raddical _g_ ov _feign_ and _deign_, for _fein_ and _dain_; and, werse (if possibel) dhan idel, dhe _g_ ov _foreign_ and _sovereign_, for _forrain_ and _sovverain_, from _forain_ and _souverain_; az dheze from _foraneus_ and _supraneus_. * * * * * . final fantoms, or dubblers ov final forms. how manny final fantoms, in articculating shape, must truiths torch beam away! how manny dubblers ov a singuel clozer, espescially _l_, _f_, _s_, and _c_! az _ill_, _off_, _ass_, _back_; so _err_, _inn_, _ebb_, _add_, _odd_, _egg_: really no more, nor capabel ov being more, dhan _il_, _of_, _as_, _bac_; _er_, _in_, _eb_, _ad_, _od_, _eg_. _shall_, for _shal_, doz addiscional mischief, by inviting ignorance to' brauden dhe vowel. * * * * * . oddher falsifiers, medial or final, ov licquids or sibbilants; particcularly, _ti_ for a sibbilacion. our misrepprezented consonants seem reducibel to' dheze. . licquid for licquid: _l_ for _r_, in dhe french _colonel_ for dhe inglish _curnel_; _n_ for _m_, in dhe unutterabel _banff_, for dhe good town ov _bamf_. here too may enter for explozion, dhe _n_ ov dhe indeffinite artikel, hweddher before a licquefaccion or an aspiracion; nedher ov hwich iz a vowel: so can we no more say _an unicorn_ dhan _an horse_, for _a unicorn_ or _a horse_. . direct for depressive; _f_ for _v_, in _of_ for _ov_; _s_ for _z_, in _as_, _has_, _was_, _is_, _his_; for _az_, _haz_, _waz_, _iz_, _hiz_: in dhe verbs, _house_, _use_, _peruse_, _abuse_, _excuse_, _amuse_, like _muse_, noun or verb; _chuse_ or _choose_, widh dhe _dubbly_ fallacious _lose_ and _vase_: for _houz_ (like _brouz_), _uze_, _peruze_, _abuze_, _excuze_, _amuze_, _muze_, _chuze_ or _chooz_, _looz_, and _vauz_. dhe verbs dhus, duly sevvered from dhe nouns, lead to' distinguish dhe verb _refuze_ from dhe adjective _refuse_, az wel az from dhe substantive _reffuse_. _profuze_ and _profuse_, _diffuze_ and _diffuse_, ar simmilarly distinguishabel. az we saw _s_ play _dubbel z_ in _visit_ and _vision_, for _vizzit_ and _vizzion_; so see we dubbel _s_ for _z_ in dhe middel, and for won _s_ in dhe end ov _possess_, for _pozes_; hwich hwile oppozite stres secures to' dhe ear from dhe formative ov _poze_, az _cares_ from dhat ov _care_, dhe context may wel guide dhe eye ov attension to' dhe undouted meaning. no wonder if dhe direct figgure ov dhe sibbilant frenchly _rose_, and _occasionally rises_, for dhe depressive reallity; _s_ for _z_ in _rose_ and _rises_, _occasionally_ between vowels; for _occazionally roze_ and _rizes_; nay for dhe dubbel depressive in _risen_, for _rizzen_. dhis rivals indeed _stephen_ for _steven_, and even _nephew_ for _nevvew_. if _stephanus_ pretended to' pattronize dhe won, _neveu_ (not _nepos_) must command dhe oddher. but dhe french acaddemy, so exemplary in evvery exhibiscion ov its language, set nohwere so fatal or so followed an exampel, az in pretending to' conjure _ti_ into' _si_ before a vowel: a combinacion indeed! hwich inglish picturage ventured onely to' constitute, raddher substitute, a sibbilant aspirate; dhe same groop _condition_ prezenting in won picturage _condicion_; and dhence in dhe oddher _condiscion_. yet french led not inglish into' dhe dissolucion ov _x_ into' _ct_, in _flexion_, _reflexion_; hwich dhe former nevver violated into' _flection_, _reflection_, or dhe like. * * * * * . dhe orthoggraphy ov propper names. innocent howevver wer oddher tungs ov mispainting, az ov mispronouncing dhe dental aspirate; hwich not attempting to' substanciate even direct, far les depressive, dhey aught not, at least need not, to' paint at all: az dhe french _tomas_, if les like hiz parent dhan _thomas_, wood be so much liker himself; hwile _tommas_ alone can tel inglish truith. but dhat _tommas_, dho a gennerous confessor ov conviccion, iz not dhe alone brittish truith-teller; dhat he iz rivalled indeed by evvery oddher propper aincient and moddern, can be no novvelty to' anny crittic ov litterary natturalizement; hoo must onnor at wonce dhe, hware possibel, prezerved ennergy ov orrigin; and dhe inviolate prezzervacion ov inglish anallogy; in dhe unchainged compannions ov _euphrates_, _darius_, _heraclitus_, _berea_, _thalia_, and dhe rest; az wel az in dhe irreffragabel buties ov _horrace_, _terrence_, _cezar_, _ciscero_, _senneca_, _soccrates_, _democcritus_, _empeddocles_, _heroddotus_, no les dhan ov _jon_, _phillip_, _robbert_, _parris_, widh _hellen_, _elizzabeth_, and dheir oddher anglicized frends. * * * * * . dhe fundamental principel ov orthoggraphy. such iz dhe system ov inglish orthoggraphy, braught widhin dhe compas ov a few pages, on dhe unfailing principel, hwich aught to' govvern evvery plan ov litterary improovment: first, to' make no chainge dhat can rascionally be avoided; and dhen to' make precisely evvery variacion, from vulgar practice, dhat can be demonstrated indispensabel. nor iz dhis aught else dhan a completed minniature ov inglish propriety _ascertained in her picture_: two quarto-vollumes graciously received by hiz prezzent brittish madjesty, from dhe same umbel hands; at st. jameses, in . dhe end. * * * * * the orthographic riddle. preface. these emanations of the british muse, where english thoughts could english dress refuse, were once presented to another press, though thence borne back, as hopeless of success. what honest critic e'er could credit eligible, riddles to his researches unintelligible? when ready caution guards the lit'rate realm, never shall foreign floods these isles o'erwhelm: orthography the mother-tongue shall give, ever, as every where, with truth to live; truth, reason, beauty shall o'erspread the nation; shall solve the riddle, with one contemplation. the public monitor of truth, sworn enemy to what's uncouth, with blockheads similarly spells, (orthography with pleasure tells) that thus the force of ridicule should laugh the learned back to school. what then should cause that laughter strange? what should occasion gen'ral change? orthography the answer gives, to satisfy whoever lives. the honest will confess the pity, court, country, citadel with city; that ancients, with the giddy young, should study still the latin tongue; should leave to levity, to dolour, the unproficient english scholar; should give the very stranger dread, of gibberish, that ne'er was read; that ne'er was heard, without derision, eschewing ocular revision. this one example well will prove, will lib'ral laughter doubtless move: when pedantry shall cease to swell, honour'd humility will spell. the beauty then, of british truth, resistless shall enamour youth; shall evidence th' asseveration, throughout th' etymologic nation; that one poetic exhibition could, without lit'ral intuition, fill ev'ry literary article, though never spell one single particle: could faithfully the whole present, without[ ] once shad'wing what were meant. * * * * * dhe solucion ov dhe orthograpphic riddel. prefface. dheze emmanacions ov dhe brittish muze, hware inglish thaughts cood inglish dres refuze, wer wonce prezented to' anoddher pres, dho dhence bor'n bac az hopeles ov succes. hwat onnest crittic ehr cood creddit elligibel, riddels to' hiz reserches unintelligibel? hwen steddy caucion gards dhe litt'rate relm, nevver shal forrain fluds dheze iles o'rhwelm: orthoggraphy dhe moddher-tung shal guiv, evver, az evv'rihware, widh truith to' liv; truith, rezon, buty shal o'rspred dhe nacion; shal solv dhe riddel, widh won contemplacion. dhe pubblic monnitor ov truith, swor'n ennemy to' hwat'z uncooth, widh blockheds simmilarly spels, (orthoggraphy widh plezzure tels) dhat dhus dhe foarce ov riddicule shood laf dhe lerned bac to' scool. hwat dhen shood cauz dhat lafter strainge? hwat shood occazion genn'ral chainge? orthoggraphy dhe anser guivs, to' sattisfy hooevver livs. dhe onnest wil confes dhe pitty, coart, contry, cittadel widh citty; dhat aincients, widh dhe guiddy yong, shood studdy stil dhe lattin tung; shood leve to' levvity, to' dollor, dhe unprofiscient inglish scollar; shood guiv dhe verry strainger dred, ov guibberish, dhat nehr waz red; dhat nehr waz herd widhout derizzion, eskewing occular revizzion. dhis won exampel wel wil proov, wil libb'ral lafter doutles moov: hwen peddantry shal cese to' swel, onnor'd humillity wil spel. dhe buty dhen, ov brittish truith, rezistles shal enammor yooth; shal evvidence dh' assevveracion, thro'out dh' etymmolodgic nacion; dhat won poettic exhibiscion cood, widhout litt'ral intuiscion, fil evv'ry litterary artikel, dho nevver spel won singuel partikel: cood faithfoolly dhe hoal prezent, widhout[ ] wonce shadd'wing hwat wer ment. * * * * * notes [ ] if not vulgarized from _batteller_. [ ] ov _mow_ dhe vowel and servile coalesce, (az in _sow_,) into' a dipthong, in dhe compound noun _barley-mow_. [ ] from dhe old barbarous french _isle_[ ], _faulte_, _voulte_, _recepte_, _debte_, _doubte_; _parfaict_, _vraidict_: now duly _île_, _faute_, _voute_, _recette_, _dette_, _doute_, _parfait_, and _vraidit_ from _verè dictum_. [ ] inglish propriety, and indeed common-sense, must also protest against two' late _misnomers: th'isleworth_ for _thistelworth_; and dhe forrain affectacion ov _st. mary la bonne_ (or even _borne_) for _marribone_. [ ] without one particle, representing what is read. [ ] widhout won partikel, repprezenting hwat iz red. stories that words tell us by elizabeth o'neill, m.a. author of "the world's story," "a nursery history of england," etc. london: t. c. & e. c. jack, ltd. paternoster row, e.c. and edinburgh * * * * * contents i. some stories of british history told from english words ii. how we got our christian names and surnames iii. stories in the names of places iv. new names for new places v. stories in old london names vi. words made by great writers vii. words the bible has given us viii. words from the names of people ix. words from the names of animals x. words from the names of places xi. pictures in words xii. words from national character xiii. words made by war xiv. proverbs xv. slang xvi. words which have changed their meaning xvii. different words with the same meaning, and the same words with different meanings xviii. nice words for nasty things xix. the moral of these stories * * * * * stories that words tell us. chapter i. some stories of british history told from english words. nearly all children must remember times when a word they know quite well and use often has suddenly seemed very strange to them. perhaps they began repeating the word half to themselves again and again, and wondered why they had never noticed before what a queer word it is. then generally they have forgotten all about it, and the next time they have used the word it has not seemed strange at all. but as a matter of fact words _are_ very strange things. every word we use has its own story, and has changed, sometimes many times since some man or woman or child first used it. some words are very old and some are quite new, for every living language--that is, every language used regularly by some nation--is always growing, and having new words added to it. the only languages which do not grow in this way are the "dead" languages which were spoken long ago by nations which are dead too. latin is a "dead" language. when it was spoken by the old romans it was, of course, a living language, and grew and changed; but though it is a very beautiful language, it is no longer used as the regular speech of a nation, and so does not change any more. but it is quite different with a living language. just as a baby when it begins to speak uses only a few words, and learns more and more as it grows older, so nations use more words as they grow older and become more and more civilized. savages use only a few words, not many more, perhaps, than a baby, and not as many as a child belonging to a civilized nation. but the people of great civilizations like england and france use many thousands of words, and the more educated a person is the more words he is able to choose from to express his thoughts. we do not know how the first words which men and women spoke were made. people who study the history of languages, and who are called _philologists_, or "lovers of words," say that words may have come to be used in any one of three different ways; but of course this is only guessing, for though we know a great deal about the way words and languages grow, we do not really know how they first began. some people used to think that the earliest men had a language all ready-made for them, but this could not be. we know at least that the millions of words in use in the world to-day have grown out of quite a few simple sounds or "root" words. every word we use contains a story about some man or woman or child of the past or the present. in this chapter we shall see how some common english words can tell us stories of the past. in reading british history we learn how different peoples have at different times owned the land: how the britons were conquered by the english; how the danes tried to conquer the english in their turn, and how great numbers of them settled down in the _danelaw_, in the east of england; how, later on, the norman duke and his followers overcame harold, and became the rulers of england, and so on. but suppose we knew nothing at all about british history, and had to guess what had happened in the past, we might guess a great deal of british history from the words used by english people to-day. for the english language has itself been growing, and borrowing words from other languages all through british history. scholars who have studied many languages can easily pick out these borrowed words and say from which language they were taken. of course these scholars know a great deal about british history; but let us imagine one who does not. he would notice in the english language some words (though not many) which must have come from the language which the britons spoke. he would know, too, that the name _welsh_, which was given to the britons who were driven into the western parts of england, comes from an old english word, _wealh_, which meant "slave." he might then guess that, besides the britons who were driven away into the west of the country, there were others whom the english conquered and made to work as slaves. from the name _wealh_, or "slave," given to these, all the britons who remained came to be known as _welsh_. yet though the english conquered the britons, the two peoples could not have mixed much or married very often with each other; for if they had done so, many more british words would have been borrowed by the english language. to the english the britons were strangers and "slaves." we could, too, guess some of the things which these old english conquerors of britain did and believed from examining some common english words. if we think of the days of the week besides _sunday_, or the "sun's day," and _monday_, the "moon's day," we find _tuesday_, "tew's day," _wednesday_, "woden's day," _thursday_, "thor's day," _friday_, "freya's day," _saturday_, "saturn's day," and it would not be hard to guess that most of the days are called after gods or goddesses whom the english worshipped while they were still heathen, tew was in the old english religion the bravest of all the gods, for he gave up his own arm to save the other gods. woden, the wisest of the gods, had given up not an arm but an eye, which he had sold for the waters of wisdom. thor was the fierce god of thunder, who hurled lightning at the giants. freya was a beautiful goddess who wore a magic necklace which had the power to make men love. we might then guess from the way in which our old english forefathers named the days of the week what sort of gods they worshipped, and what kind of men they were--great fighters, admiring courage and strength above all things, but poetical, too, loving grace and beauty. but, as everybody knows, the english people soon changed their religion and became christians; and any student of the english language would soon guess this, even if he knew nothing of english history. he would be able to guess, too, that the english got their christianity from a people who spoke latin, for so many of the english words connected with religion come from the latin language. it was, of course, the roman monk st. augustine who brought the christian religion to the english. latin was the language of the romans. the word _religion_ itself is a latin word meaning reverence for the gods; and _mass_, the name given to the chief service of the catholic religion, comes from the latin _missa_, taken from the words, _ite missa est_ ("go; the mass is ended"), with which the priest finishes the mass. _missa_ is only a part of the verb _mittere_, "to finish." the words _priest_, _bishop_, _monk_, _altar_, _vestment_, and many others, came into the english language from the latin with the christian religion. even, again, if a student of the english language knew nothing about the invasions of england by the fierce danes, he might guess something about them from the fact that there are many danish words in the english language, and especially the names of places. such common words as _husband_, _knife_, _root_, _skin_, came into english from the danish. but many more words were added to the english language through the norman conquest. it is quite easy to see, from the great number of french words in the english language, that france and england must at one time have had a great deal to do with each other. but it was the english who used french words, and not the french who used english. this was quite natural when a norman, or north french, duke became king of england, and norman nobles came in great numbers to live in england and help to rule her. sir walter scott, in his great book "ivanhoe," makes one man say that all the names of living animals are english, like _ox_, _sheep_, _deer_, and _swine_, but their flesh when it becomes meat is given french names--_beef_, _mutton_, _venison_, and _pork_. the reason for this is easy to see: englishmen worked hard looking after the animals while they were alive, and the rich normans ate their flesh when they were dead. england never, of course, became really norman. although the english were not so learned or polite or at that time so civilized as the normans, there were so many more of them that in time the normans became english, and spoke the english language. but when we remember that for three hundred years french was spoken in the law courts and by the nobility of england, and all the english kings were really frenchmen, it is easy to understand that a great many french words found their way into the english language. as it was the normans who governed england, many of our words about law and government came from the french. englishmen are very proud of the "jury system," by which every british subject is tried by his equals. it was england who really began this system, but the name _jury_ is french, as are also _judge_, _court_, _justice_, _prison_, _gaol_. the english parliament, too, is called the "mother of parliaments," but _parliament_ is a french word, and means really a meeting for the purpose of talking. nearly all titles, like _duke_, _baron_, _marquis_, are french, for it was frenchmen who first got and gave these titles; though _earl_ remains from the danish _eorl_. it is a rather peculiar thing that nearly all our names for _relatives_ outside one's own family come from the french used by the normans--_uncle_, _aunt_, _nephew_, _niece_, _cousin_; while _father_, _mother_, _brother_, and _sister_ come from the old english words. in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the real "middle ages," the french poets, scholars, and writers were the greatest in europe. the greatest doctors, lawyers, and scholars of the western lands of europe had often been educated at schools or universities in france. those who wrote about medicine and law often used french words to describe things for which no english word was known. the french writers borrowed many words from latin, and the english writers did the same. sometimes they took latin words from the french, but sometimes they only imitated the french writers, and took a latin word and changed it to seem like a french word. if we were to count the words used by english writers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we should find that quite one-tenth of these are words borrowed from other languages. after this time fewer words were borrowed, but still the english language has borrowed much more than most languages. some people think that it is a pity that we have borrowed so many words, and say that we should speak and write "pure english." but we must remember that britain has had the most wonderful history of all the nations. she has had the greatest explorers, adventurers, and sailors. she has built up the greatest empire the world has ever seen. it is only natural that her language should have borrowed from the languages of nearly every nation in the world, even from the chinese and from the native languages of australia and africa. ever since the middle of the sixteenth century england has been a great sea-going nation. her sailors have explored and traded all over the world, and naturally they have brought back many new words from east and west. sometimes these are the names of new things brought from strange lands. thus _calico_ was given that name from _calicut_, because the cotton used to make calico came from there. from arabia we got the words _harem_ and _magazine_, and from turkey the name _coffee_, though this is really an arabian word. we had already learned the words _cotton_, _sugar_, and _orange_ from the arabs at the time of the crusades. from the west indies and from south america many words came, though the english learned these first from the spaniards, who were the first to discover these lands. among these words are the names of such common things as _chocolate_, _cocoa, tomato_. the words _canoe_, _tobacco_, and _potato_ come to us from the island of hayti. the words _hammock_ and _hurricane_ come to us from the caribbean islands, and so did the word _cannibal_, which came from _caniba_, which was sometimes used instead of carib. even the common word _breeze_, by which we now mean a light wind, first came to us from the spanish word _briza_, which meant the north-east trade wind. the name _alligator_, an animal which englishmen saw for the first time in these far-off voyages, is really only an attempt to use the spanish words for the lizard--_al lagarto_. when the english at length settled themselves in north america they took many words from the native indians, such as _tomahawk_, _moccasin_, and _hickory_. in england and in europe generally history shows us that there were a great many changes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. this new love for adventure, which gave us so many new words, was one sign of the times. then there were changes in manners, in religion, and in the way people thought about things. people had quite a new idea of the world. they now knew that, instead of being the centre of the universe, the earth was but one of many worlds whirling through space. the minds of men became more lively. they began to criticize all sorts of things which they had believed in and reverenced before. during the middle ages many things which the romans and greeks had loved had been forgotten and despised; but now there was a sudden new enthusiasm for the beautiful statues and fine writings of the ancient greeks and romans. it was not long before this new great change got a name. it was called the _renaissance_, or "new birth," because so many old and forgotten things seemed to come to life again, and it looked as though men had been born again into a new time. one of the chief results of the renaissance was a change in religion. the protestants declared that they had reformed or changed religion for the better, and the change in religion is now always spoken of as the reformation; just as the reform of the catholic church which soon followed was called the _counter-reformation_, or movement against the reformation--_counter_ coming from the latin word for "against." in england the renaissance and reformation led to great changes not only in religion but in government, and the way people thought of their country and their rulers. people came to have a new love for and pride in their country. it was in the sixteenth century that the old word _nation_, which before had meant a race or band of peoples, came to be used as we use it now, to mean the people of one country under one government. in the sixteenth century englishmen became prouder than ever of belonging to the english "nation." they felt a new love for other englishmen, and it was at this time that the expressions _fellow-countrymen_ and _mother-country_ were first used. the seventeenth century was, of course, a period during which great things happened to the english state. it was the period of the great civil war, in which the parliament fought against the king, so that it could have the chief part in the government of the country. all sorts of new words grew up during the civil war. the word _royalist_ now first began to be used, meaning the people who were on the king's side. the royalists called the men who fought for the parliament _roundheads_, because of their hair being cropped short, not hanging in ringlets, as was the fashion of the day. the people who fought against the king were all men who had broken away from the english church, and become much more "protestant." they were very strict in many ways, especially in keeping the "sabbath," as they called sunday. they dressed very plainly, and they thought the followers of the king, with their long hair and lace and ruffles, very frivolous people indeed. it was the men of the parliament side who first gave the name _cavalier_ to the royalists. it was meant by them to show contempt, and came from the italian word _cavaliere_, which means literally "a horseman," coming from the late latin word _caballus_, "a horse." it is a curious fact that we now use the word _cavalier_ as an adjective to mean rude and off-hand, whereas the cavaliers of the seventeenth century certainly had much better manners than the roundheads; and at the end of that century the word was sometimes used in the general sense of gay and frank. both sides in the civil war invented a good many new words with which to abuse the enemy. milton, who wrote on the side of the parliament, made a great many; but the royalists invented more, and perhaps more expressive, words. at any rate they have been kept and used as quite ordinary english words. the word _cant_, for instance, which every one understands to mean pious or sentimental words which the person who says them does not really mean, was first used in this way by the royalists to describe the sayings of the parliament men who were much given to preaching and the singing of psalms. before that time the word _cant_ had meant a certain kind of singing, and also the whining sound beggars sometimes made. in the eighteenth century, when parliament was divided into two great parties, their names were given to them in the same way. the _tories_ were so called from the name given to some very wild, almost savage, people who lived in the bog lands of ireland; and the name _whigs_ was given by the tories, and came from a scotch word, _whigamore_, the name of some very fierce protestants in the south of scotland. at first these names were just words of abuse, but they came to be the regular names of the two parties, and people forgot all about their first meanings. the great growth in the power of the peoples of europe since the french revolution has brought about great changes in the way these countries are governed. it was the french revolution which led to the widespread opinion that all the people in a nation should help in the government. it was in writing on these subjects that english writers borrowed the words _aristocrat_ and _democrat_ from the french writers. _aristocracy_ comes from an old greek word meaning the rule of the few; but the french revolution writers gave it a new meaning, as something evil. before the revolution the name _despotism_ had been used for the rule of a single tyrant, but it now came to mean unjust rule, even by several people. the french revolution gave us several other words. we all now know the word _terrorize_, but it only came into english from the french at the time of the revolution, when the french people became used to "reigns of terror." but if the french revolution gave us many of the words which relate to democracy or government by the people, england has always been the country of parliamentary government, and many terms now used by the other countries of europe have been invented in england--words like _parliament_ itself, _bill_, _budget_, and _speech_. nearly all the words connected with science, and especially the "ologies," as they are called, like _physiology_ and _zoology_, are fairly new words in english. in the middle ages there was no real study of science, and so naturally there were not many words connected with it; but in the last two centuries the study of science has been one of the most important things in history. we shall see more of these scientific words in another chapter. perhaps we have said enough in this chapter to show how each big movement in history has given us a new group of words and how these words are in a way historians of these movements. chapter ii. how we got our christian names and surnames. we can learn some interesting stories from the history of our own names. most people nowadays have one or more christian names and a surname, but this was not always the case. every christian from the earliest days of christianity must have had a christian name given to him at baptism. and before the days of christianity every man, woman, or child must have had some name. but the practice of giving surnames grew up only very gradually in the countries of europe. at first only a few royal or noble families had sur-names, or "super" names; but gradually, as the populations of the different countries became larger, it became necessary for people to have surnames, so as to distinguish those with the same christian names from each other. in these days children are generally given for their christian names family names, or names which their parents think beautiful or suitable. (often the children afterwards do not like their own names at all.) the christian names of the children of european countries come to us from many different languages. perhaps the greatest number come to us from the hebrew, because these jewish names are, of course, found in great numbers in the bible. the conversion of the countries of europe to christianity united them in their ways of thinking and believing, and they all honoured the saints. the names of the early saints, whether they were from the hebrew, greek, latin, celtic, teutonic, or slavonic, were soon spread throughout all the countries of europe, so that now french, german, english, italian, spanish names, and those of the other european countries, are for the most part the same, only spelt and pronounced a little differently in the different countries. the english _william_ is _guillaume_ in french, _wilhelm_ in german, and so on. _john_ is _jean_ in french, _johann_ in german, and so on, with many other names. but in early times people got their names in a much more interesting way. sometimes something which seemed peculiar about a little new-born baby would suggest a name. _esau_ was called by this name, which is only the hebrew word for "hairy," because he was already covered by the thick growth of hair on his body which made him so different from jacob. the old roman names _flavius_ and _fulvius_ merely meant "yellow," and the french name _blanche_, "fair," or "white." sometimes the fond parents would give the child a name describing some quality which they hoped the child would possess when it grew up. the hebrew name _david_ means "beloved." the name _joseph_ was given by rachel, the beloved wife of jacob, to the baby who came to her after long waiting. _joseph_ means "addition," and rachel chose this name because she hoped another child would yet be added to her family. she afterwards had benjamin, the best beloved of all jacob's sons, and then she died. the name joseph did not become common in europe till after the reformation, when the catholic church appointed a feast day for st. joseph, the spouse of the blessed virgin. towards the end of the eighteenth century the emperor leopold christened his son joseph, and this, and the fact that napoleon's first wife was named josephine, made these two names as a boy's and a girl's name very popular. we have both joseph and josephine in english, and the french have fifine and finette as well as josephine, for which these are pet names. in italy, too, joseph, or giuseppe, is a common name, and peppo, or beppo, are short names for it. these pet names seem very strange when we remember rachel's solemn choosing of the name for the first joseph of all. sometimes the early nations called their children by the names of animals. the beautiful old hebrew name _deborah_, which became also an old-fashioned english name, means "bee." in several languages the word for _wolf_ was given as a personal name. the greek _lycos_, the latin _lupus_, the teutonic _ulf_, from which came the latin _ulphilas_ and the slavonic _vuk_, all mean "wolf." the wolf was the most common and the most treacherous of all the wild animals against which early peoples had to fight, and this, perhaps, accounts for the common use of its name. people were so impressed by its qualities that they thought its name worthy to give to their sons, who, perhaps, they hoped would possess some of its better qualities when they grew up. sometimes early names were taken from the names of precious stones, as _margarite_, a greek name meaning "pearl," and which is the origin of all the margarets, marguerites, etc., to be found in nearly all the languages of europe. among all early peoples many names were religious, like the hebrew _ishmael_, or "heard by god;" _elizabeth_, or the "oath of god;" _john_, or the "grace of the lord." the romans had the name _jovianus_, which meant "belonging to jupiter," who was the chief of the gods in whom the romans believed. in some languages names, especially of women, are taken from flowers, like the greek _rhode_, or "rose," the english _rose_, and _lily_ or _lilian_, and the scotch _lilias_. a great many of the hebrew names especially come from words meaning sorrow or trouble. they were first given to children born in times of sorrow. thus we have _jabez_, which means "sorrow;" _ichabod_, or "the glory is departed;" _mary_, "bitter." the jews, as we can see from the bible, suffered the greatest misfortunes, and their writers knew how to tell of it in words. the celtic nations, like the irish, have the same gift, and we get many old celtic names with these same sad meanings. thus _una_ means "famine;" _ita_, "thirsty." the greek and roman names were never sad like these. some old greek names became christian names when people who were called by them became christian in the first days of the church. there are several names from the greek word _angelos_. this meant in greek merely a messenger, but it began to be used by the early christian writers both in latin and greek to mean a messenger from heaven, or an angel. the greeks gave it first as a surname, and then as a christian name. in the thirteenth century there was a st. angelo in italy, and from the honour paid to him the name spread, chiefly as a girl's name, to the other countries of europe, giving the english _angelina_ and _angelica_, the french _angelique_, and the german _engel_. besides this general name of _angel_, the name of michael, the archangel, and gabriel, the angel of the annunciation, became favourite names among eastern christians. the reason _michael_ was such a favourite was that the great emperor constantine dedicated a church to st. michael in constantinople. the name is so much used in russia that it is quite common to speak of a russian peasant as a "michael," just as people rather vulgarly speak of an irish peasant as a "paddy." michael can hardly be called an english name, but it is almost as common in ireland as patrick, which, of course, is used in honour of ireland's patron saint. _gabriel_ is a common name in italy, as is also another angel's name, _raphael_. _gabriel_ is used as a girl's name in france--_gabrielle_. no christian would think of using the name of god as a personal name; but _theos_, the greek word for god, was sometimes so used by the greeks. a greek name formed from this, _theophilos_, or "beloved by the gods," became a christian name, and the name of one of the early saints. the name _christ_, or "anointed," was the word which the greek christians (who translated the gospels into the greek of their time) used for the _messiah_. from this word came the name _christian_, and from it _christina_. one of the early martyrs, a virgin of noble roman birth, who died for her religion, was st. christina. in denmark the name became a man's name, _christiern_. another english name which is like christina is _christabel_. the great poet coleridge in the nineteenth century wrote the beginning of a beautiful poem called "christabel." the name was not very common before this, and was not heard of until the sixteenth century, but it is fairly common now. another favourite christian name from the name of _christ_ is _christopher_, which means the bearer or carrier of christ, and we are told in a legend how st. christopher got this name. he had chosen for his work to carry people across a stream which had no bridge over it. one day a little boy suddenly appeared, and asked him to carry him across. the kind saint did so, and found, as he got farther into the stream, that the child grew heavier and heavier. when the saint put him down on the other side he saw the figure of the man christ before him, and fell down and adored him. ever afterwards he was known as _christopher_, or the "christ-bearer." another christian name which comes from a greek word is _peter_. _petros_ is the greek word for "stone," and _petra_ for "rock." the name _peter_ became a favourite in honour of st. peter, whose name was first _simon_, but who was called _peter_ because of the words our lord said to him: "thou art peter, and upon this rock i will build my church." when the barbarian tribes, such as the english and franks, broke into the lands of the roman empire and settled there, afterwards being converted to christianity, they chose a good many latin words as names. in france names made from the latin word _amo_ ("i love") were quite common. we hear of _amabilis_ ("lovable"), _amadeus_ ("loving god"), _amandus_, which has now become a surname in france as _st. amand_. in england, _amabilis_ became _amabel_, which is not a very common name now, but from which we have _mabel_. _amy_ was first used in england after the norman conquest, and comes from the french _amata_, or _aimée_, which means "beloved." another latin word of the same kind which gave us some christian names was _beo_ ("i bless"). from part of this verb, _beatus_ ("blessed"), there was an old english name, _beata_, but no girl or woman seems to have been called by it since the seventeenth century. _beatrix_ and _beatrice_ also come from this. the name _benedict_, which sometimes became in english _bennet_, came from another word like this, _benignus_ ("kind"). _boniface_, from the latin _bonifacius_ ("doer of good deeds"), was a favourite name in the early church, and the name of a great english saint; but it is not used in england now, though there is still the italian name, _bonifazio_, which comes from the same word. both christian names and surnames have been taken from the latin _dies natalis_, or "birthday of our lord." the french word for christmas, _noël_, comes from this, and, as well as _natalie_, is used as a christian name. _noël_ is found, too, both as a christian name and surname in england. at one time english babies were sometimes christened _christmas_, but this is never used as a christian name now, though a few families have it as a surname. perhaps the most peculiar christian names that have ever been were the long names which some of the english puritans gave their children in the seventeenth century. often they gave them whole texts of scripture as names, so that at least one small boy was called "bind their nobles in chains and their kings in fetters of iron." let us hope his relatives soon found some other name to call him "for short." everybody has heard of the famous cromwellian parliament, which would do nothing but talk, and which was called the "barebones parliament," after one of its members, who not only bore this peculiar surname, but was also blessed with the "christian" name of _praise-god_. cromwell grew impatient at last, and praise-god barebones and the other talkers suddenly found parliament dissolved. these names were not, as a rule, handed on from father to son, and soon died out, though in america even to-day we get christian names somewhat similar, but at least shorter--names like _willing_. it is often easier to see how we got our christian names than how we got our surnames. as we have seen, there was a time when early peoples had only first names. the romans had surnames, or _cognomina_, but the barbarians who won europe from them had not. in england surnames were not used until nearly a hundred years after the norman conquest, and then only by kings and nobles. the common people in england had, however, nearly all got them by the fourteenth century; but in scotland many people were still without surnames in the time of james i., and even those who had them could easily change one for another. once a man got a surname it was handed on to all his children, as surnames are to-day. it is interesting to see in how many different ways people got their surnames. sometimes this is easy, but it is more difficult in other cases. the first surnames in england were those which the norman nobles who came over at the conquest handed on from father to son. these people generally took the name of the place from which they had come in normandy. in this way names like _robert de courcy_ ("robert of courcy") came in; and many of these names, which are considered very aristocratic, still remain. we have _de corbet_, _de beauchamp_, _de colevilles_, and so on. sometimes the _de_ has been dropped. sometimes, again, people took their names in the same way from places in england. we find in old writings names like _adam de kent_, _robert de wiltshire_, etc. here, again, the prefix has been dropped, and the place-name has been kept as a surname. _kent_ is quite a well-known surname, as also are _derby_, _buxton_, and many other names of english places. the normans introduced another kind of name, which became very common too. they were a lively people, like the modern french, and were very fond of giving nicknames, especially names referring to people's personal appearance. we get the best examples of this in the nicknames applied to the norman kings. we have william _rufus_, or "the red;" richard _coeur-de-lion_, or "lion-hearted;" henry _beauclerc_, or "the scholar." these names of kings were not handed down in their families. but in ordinary families it was quite natural that a nickname applied to the father should become a surname. it is from such nicknames that we get surnames like _white_, _black_, _long_, _young_, _short_, and so on. all these are, of course, well-known surnames to-day, and though many men named _long_ may be small, and many named _short_ may be tall, we may guess that this was not the case with some far-off ancestor. sometimes _man_ was added to these adjectives, and we get names like _longman_, _oldman_, etc. sometimes these names were used in the french of the normans, and we get two quite different surnames, though they really in the first place had the same meaning. thus we have _curt_ for _short_, and the quite well-known surname _petit_, which would be _short_ or _little_ in english. the name _goodheart_ was _bun-couer_ in norman-french, and from this came _bunker_, which, if we knew nothing of its history, would not seem to mean _goodheart_ at all. so the name _tait_ came from _tête_, or _head_; and we may guess that the first ancestor of the numerous people with this name had something remarkable about their heads. the name _goodfellow_ is really just the same as _bonfellow_. the surname _thin_ has the same meaning as _meagre_, from which the common name _meager_ comes. names like _russell_ (from the old word _rouselle_, or "red"), _brown_, _morell_ ("tan"), _dun_ ("dull grey"), all came from nicknames referring to people's complexions. _reed_ and _reid_ come from the old word _rede_, or "red." we still have the names _copperbeard_, _greybeard_, and _blackbeard_. sometimes names were given from some peculiarity of clothing. _scarlet_, an old english name, probably came from the colour of the clothing of the people who were first called by it--scarlet, like all bright colours, being very much liked in the middle ages. so we hear of the name _curtmantle_, or "short cloak," and _curthose_, which was later changed to _shorthose_, which is still a well-known name in derbyshire. the names _woolward_ and _woolard_ come from the old word _woolard_, which meant wearing wool without any linen clothing underneath. this was often done by pilgrims and others who wished to do penance for their sins. many surnames have come down from nicknames given to people because of their good or bad qualities. this is the origin of names like _wise_, _gay_, _hardy_, _friend_, _truman_, _makepeace_, _sweet_, etc. the people who have these names may well believe that the first of their ancestors who bore them was of a gentle and amiable disposition. names like _proud_, _proudfoot_, _proudman_, _paillard_ (french for "lie-a-bed") show that the first people who had them were not so well liked, and were considered proud or lazy. another way of giving nicknames to people because of something noticeable in their character or appearance was to give them the name of some animal having this quality. the well-known name of _oliphant_ comes from _elephant_, and was probably first given to some one very large, and perhaps a little ungraceful. _bullock_ as a surname probably had the same sort of origin. the names _falcon_, _hawk_, _buzzard_, must have been first given to people whose friends and neighbours saw some resemblance to the quickness or fierceness or sureness or some other quality of these birds in them. the names _jay_, _peacock_, and _parrott_ point to showiness and pride and empty talkativeness. a very great number of surnames are really only old christian names either with or without an ending added to them. a very common form of surname is a christian name with _son_ added to it. the first man who handed on the name _wilson_ (or _willson_, as it is still sometimes spelt) was himself the "son of will." any one can think of many names of this kind--_williamson_, _davidson_, _adamson_, etc. sometimes the founder of a family had taken his name from his mother. this was the origin of names like _margerison_ ("marjorie's son") and _alison_ ("alice's son"). this was a very common way of inventing surnames. the norman _fitz_ meant "son of," and the numerous names beginning with _fitz_ have this origin. _fitzpatrick_ originally meant the "son of patrick," _fitzstephen_ the "son of stephen," and so on. the irish prefix _o'_ has the same meaning. the ancestor of all the o'neills was himself the son of _neill_. the scandinavian _nillson_ is really the same name, though it sounds so different. the scotch _mac_ has the same meaning, and so have the welsh words _map_, _mab_, _ap_, and _ab_. one very interesting way of making surnames was to take them from the trade or occupation of the founder of the family. perhaps the commonest of english surnames is _smith_. and the word for _smith_ is the commonest surname in almost every country of europe. in france we have _favier_. the reason for this is easy to see. the smith, or man who made iron and other metals into plough-shares and swords, was one of the most important of all the workers in the early days when surnames were being made. there were many smiths, and john the smith and tom the smith easily became john smith and tom smith, and thus had a surname to pass on to their families. as time went on there came to be many different kinds of smiths. there was the smith who worked in gold, and was called a "goldsmith," from which we get the well-known surname _goldsmith_, the name of a great english writer. then there was the "nail smith," from which trade came the name _nasmith_; the "sickle smith," from which came _sixsmith_; the "shear smith," which gave us _shearsmith_--and so on. in mediæval england the manufacture of cloth from the wool of the great flocks of sheep which fed on the pasture lands of the monasteries and other great houses, was the chief industry of the nation. this trade of wool-weaving has given us many surnames, such as _woolmer_, _woolman_, _carder_, _kempster_, _towser_, _weaver_, _webster_, etc. some of these referred to the general work of wool-weaving and others to special branches. any child can think in a moment of several names which have come in this way from trades. we have _taylor_ for a beginning. but many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from old english words which are now seldom or never used. _chapman_, a common name now, was the old english word for a general dealer. _spicer_ was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common surname. the well-known name of _fletcher_ comes from the almost forgotten word _flechier_, "an arrowmaker." _coltman_ came from the name of the man who had charge of the colts. _runciman_ was the man who had charge of horses too, and comes from another old english word, _rouncy_, "a horse." the _parkers_ are descended from a park-keeper who used to be called by that name. the _horners_ come from a maker of horns; the _crockers_ and _crokers_ from a "croker," or "crocker," a maker of pottery. _hogarth_ comes from "hoggart," a hog-herd; _calvert_ from "calf-herd;" and _seward_ from "sow-herd." _lambert_ sometimes came from "lamb-herd." but we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest surnames. for instance, every person named _smith_ is not descended from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word _smoth_, or "smooth," and this is the origin of _smith_ in _smithfield_. a great many english surnames were taken from places. _street_, _ford_, _lane_, _brooke_, _styles_, are names of this kind. sometimes they were prefixed by the old english _atte_ ("at") or the french _de la_ ("of the"), but these prefixes have been dropped since. _geoffrey atte style_ was the geoffrey who lived near the stile--and so on. nearly all the names ending in _hurst_ and _shaw_ are taken from places. a _hurst_ was a wood or grove; a _shaw_ was a shelter for fowls and animals. the chief thing about a man who got the surname of _henshaw_ or _ramshaw_ was probably that he owned, or had the care of, such a shelter for hens or rams. names ending in _ley_ generally came into existence in the same way, a _ley_ being also a shelter for domestic animals. so we have _horsley_, _cowley_, _hartley_, _shipley_ (from "sheep"). sometimes the name was taken from the kind of trees which closed such a shelter in, names like _ashley_, _elmsley_, _oakley_, _lindley_, etc. surnames as well as christian names were often taken from the names of saints. from such a beautiful name as _st. hugh_ the normans had _hugon_, and from this we get the rather commonplace names of _huggins_, _hutchins_, _hutchinson_, and several others. so _st. clair_ is still a surname, though often changed into _sinclair_. st. gilbert is responsible for the names _gibbs_, _gibbons_, _gibson_, etc. sometimes in scotland people were given, as christian names, names meaning _servant_ of christ, or some saint. the word for servant was _giollo_, or _giolla_. it was in this way that names like _gilchrist_, _gilpatrick_, first came to be used. they were at first christian names, and then came to be passed on as surnames. so _gillespie_ means "servant of the bishop." some surnames, though they seem quite english now, show that the first member of the family to bear the name was looked upon as a foreigner. such names are _newman_, _newcome_, _cumming_ (from _cumma_, "a stranger"). sometimes the nationality to which the stranger belonged is shown by the name. the ancestors of the people called _fleming_, for instance, must have come from flanders, as so many did in the middle ages. the _brabazons_ must have come from brabant. perhaps the most peculiar origin of all belongs to some surnames which seem to have come from oaths or exclamations. the fairly common names _pardoe_, _pardie_, etc., come from the older name _pardieu_, or "by god," a solemn form of oath. we have, too, the english form in the name _bigod_. names like _rummiley_ come from the old cry of sailors, _rummylow_, which they used as sailors use "heave-ho" now. but many chapters could be written on the history of names. this chapter shows only some of the ways in which we got our christian names and surnames. chapter iii. stories in the names of places. the stories which the names of places can tell us are many more in number, and even more wonderful, than the stories in the names of people. some places have very old names, and others have quite new ones, and the names have been given for all sorts of different reasons. if we take the names of the continents, we find that some of them come from far-off times, and were given by men who knew very little of what the world was like. the names _europe_ and _asia_ were given long ago by sailors belonging to the semitic race (the race to which the jews belong), who sailed up and down the Ã�gean sea, and did not venture to leave its waters. all the land which lay to the west they called _ereb_, which was their word for "sunset," or "west," and the land to the east they called _acu_, which meant "sunrise," or "east;" and later, when men knew more about these lands, these names, changed a little, remained as the names of the great continents, europe and asia. _africa_, too, is an old name, though not so old as these. we think of africa now as a "dark continent," the greater part of which has only lately become known to white men, and with a native population of negroes. but for hundreds of years the north of africa was one of the most civilized parts of the roman empire. before that time part of it had belonged to the carthaginians, whom the romans conquered. _africa_ was a carthaginian name, and was first used by the romans as the name of the district round carthage, and in time it came to be the name of the whole continent. _america_ got its name in quite a different way. it was not until the fifteenth century that this great continent was discovered, and then it took its name, not from the brave spaniard, christopher columbus, who first sailed across the "sea of darkness" to find it, but from amerigo vespucci, the man who first landed on the mainland. _australia_ got its name, which means "land of the south," from portuguese and spanish sailors, who reached its western coasts early in the sixteenth century. they never went inland, or made any settlements, but in the queer, inaccurate maps which early geographers made, they put down a _terra australis_, or "southern land," and later, when englishmen did at last explore and colonize the continent, they kept this name _australia_. this latin name reminds us of the fact that latin was in the middle ages the language used by all scholars in their writings, and names on maps were written in latin too, and so a great modern continent like australia came to have an old latin name. there is a great deal of history in the names of countries. take the names of the countries of europe. _england_ is the land of the _angles_, and from this we learn that the angles were the chief people of all the tribes who came over and settled in britain after the romans left it. they spread farthest over the land, and gave their name to it; just as the _franks_, another of these northern peoples, gave their name to france, and the _belgæ_ gave theirs to _belgium_. the older name of _britain_ did not die out, but it was seldom used. it has really been used much more in modern times than it ever was in the middle ages. it is used especially in poetry or in fine writing, just as _briton_ is instead of _englishman_, as in the line-- "britons never, never, never shall be slaves." the name _briton_ is now used also to mean irish, scotch, and welsh men--in fact, any british subject. we also speak of _great britain_, which means england and scotland. when the scottish parliament was joined to the english in some name had to be found to describe the new "nation," and this was how the name _great britain_ came into use, just as the _united kingdom_ was the name invented to describe great britain and ireland together when the irish parliament too was joined to the english in . we see how gaul and britain, as france and england were called in roman times, had their names changed after the fall of the roman empire; but most of the countries round the mediterranean sea kept their old names, just as they kept for the most part their old languages. italy, greece, and spain all kept their old names, although new peoples flocked down into these lands too. but though new peoples came, in all these lands they learned the ways and languages of the older inhabitants, instead of changing everything, as the english did in britain. and so it was quite natural that they should keep their own names too. most of the other countries in europe took their names from the people who settled there. germany (the roman _germania_) was the part of europe where most of the tribes of the german race settled down. the divisions of germany, like saxony, bavaria, frisia, were the parts of germany where the german tribes known as saxons, bavarians, and frisians settled. the name _austria_ comes from _osterreich_, the german for "eastern kingdom." holland, on the other hand, takes its name from the character of the land. it comes from _holt_, meaning "wood," and _lant_, meaning "land." the little country of albania is so called from _alba_, or "white," because of its snowy mountains. but perhaps the names of the old towns of the old world tell us the best stories of all. the greatest city the world has ever seen was rome, and many scholars have quarrelled about the meaning of that great name. it seems most likely that it came from an old word meaning "river." it would be quite natural for the people of early rome to give such a name to their city, for it was a most important fact to them that they had built their city just where it was on the river tiber. one of the best places on which a town could be built, especially in early days, was the banks of a river, from which the people could get water, and by which the refuse and rubbish of the town could be carried away. then, again, one of the chief things which helped rome to greatness was her position on the river tiber, far enough from the sea to be safe from the enemy raiders who infested the seas in those early days, and yet near enough to send her ships out to trade with other lands. thus it was, probably, that a simple word meaning "river" came to be used as the name of the world's greatest city. others among the great cities of the ancient world were founded in a quite different way. the great conqueror, alexander the great, founded cities in every land he conquered, and their names remain even now to keep his memory alive. the city of _alexandria_, on the north coast of africa, was, of course, called after alexander himself, and became after his death more civilized and important than any of the greek cities which alexander admired so much, and which he tried to imitate everywhere. now alexandria is no longer a centre of learning, but a fairly busy port. only its name recalls the time when it helped in the great work for which alexander built it--to spread greek learning and greek civilization over europe and asia. another city which alexander founded, but which afterwards fell into decay, was _bucephalia_, which the great conqueror set up in the north of india when he made his wonderful march across the mountains into that continent. it was called after "_bucephalus_," the favourite horse of alexander, which had been wounded, and died after the battle. the town was built over the place where the horse was buried, and though its story is not so interesting as that of alexandria, as the town so soon fell into decay, still it is worth remembering. another of the world's ancient and greatest cities, constantinople, also took its name from a great ruler. in the days when the roman empire was beginning to decay, and new nations from the north began to pour into her lands, the emperor, constantine the great, the ruler who made christianity the religion of the empire, chose a new capital instead of rome. he loved eastern magnificence and eastern ways, and he chose for his new capital the old greek colony of byzantium, the beautiful city on the golden horn, which constantine soon made into a new rome, with churches and theatres and baths, like the old rome. the new rome was given a new name. constantine had turned byzantium into a new city, and it has ever since been known as _constantinople_, or the "city of constantine." we can nearly always tell from the names of places something of their history. if we think of the names of some of our english towns, we notice that many of them end in the same way. there are several whose names begin or end in _don_, like _london_ itself. many others end in _caster_ or _chester_, _ham_, _by_, _borough_ or _burgh_. we may be sure that most of the places whose names begin or end in _don_ were already important places in the time before the britons were conquered by the romans. the britons were divided into tribes, and lived in villages scattered over the land; but each tribe had its little fortress or stronghold, the "dun," as it was called, with walls and ditches round it, in which all the people of the tribe could take shelter if attacked by a strong enemy. and so the name of london takes us back to the time when this greatest city of the modern world, spreading into four counties, and as big as a county itself, with its marvellous buildings, old and new, and its immense traffic, was but a british fort into which scantily-clothed people fled from their huts at the approach of an enemy. but the british showed themselves wise enough in their choice of places to build their _duns_, which, as in the case of london, often became centres of new towns, which grew larger and larger through roman times, and on into the middle ages and modern times. the great french fortress town of verdun, which everybody has heard of because of its wonderful resistance to the german attacks in , is also an old celtic town with this celtic ending to its name. it was already an important town when the romans conquered gaul, and it has played a notable part in history ever since. its full name means "the fort on the water," just as _dundee_ (from _dun-tatha_) probably meant "the fort on the tay." by merely looking at a map of england, any one who knows anything of the latin language can pick out many names which come from that language, and which must have been given in the days when the romans had conquered britain. the ending _caster_ of so many names in the north of england, and _chester_ in the midlands, _xeter_ in the west of england, and _caer_ in wales, all come from the same latin word, _castrum_, which means a military camp or fortified place. so that we might guess, if we did not know, that at lancaster, doncaster, manchester, winchester, exeter, and at the old capital of the famous king arthur, caerleon, there were some of those roman camps which were dotted over england in the days when the romans ruled the land. here the roman officers lived with their wives and families, and the roman soldiers too, and here they built churches and theatres and baths, such as they were used to in their cities at home in italy. here, too, it was that many of the british nobles learned roman ways of living and thinking; and from here the roman priests and monks went out to teach the britons that the religion of the druids was false, and instruct them in the christian religion. another common latin ending or beginning to the names of places was _strat_, _stret_, or _street_, and wherever we find this we may know that through these places ran some of the _viæ stratæ_, or great roman roads which the romans built in all the provinces of their great empire. there are many remains of these roman roads still to be seen up and down england; but even where no trace remains, the direction of some, at least, of the great roads could be found from the names of the towns which were dotted along them. among these towns are _stratford_ in warwickshire, _chester-le-street_ in durham, _streatham_, etc. then, again, some of the towns with _port_ and _lynne_ as part of their names show us where the romans had their ports and trading towns. it is interesting to see the different names which the english gave to the villages in which they dwelt when the romans had left britain, and these new tribes had won it for themselves. nearly all towns ending in _ham_ and _ford_, and _burgh_ or _borough_, date from the first few hundred years after the english won britain. _ham_ and _ford_ merely meant "home," or "village." thus _buckingham_ was the home of the bockings, a village in which several families all related to each other, and bearing this name, lived. of course the name did not change when later the village grew into a town. buckingham is a very different place now from the little village in which the bockings settled, each household having its house and yard, but dividing the common meadow and pasture land out between them each year. _wallingford_ was the home of the wallings. places whose names ended in _ford_ were generally situated where a ford, or means of crossing a river or stream, had to be made. oxford was in old english _oxenford_, or "ford of the oxen." towns whose names end in _borough_ are often very old, but not so old as some of those ending in _ham_ and _ford_. there were _burhs_ in the first days of the english conquest, but generally they were only single fortified houses and not villages. we first hear of the more important _burghs_ or _boroughs_ in the last hundred years or so before the norman conquest. _edinburgh_, which was at first an english town, is a very early example. its name means "edwin's borough or town," and it was so called because it was founded by edwin, who was king of england from to . the special point about boroughs was that they were really free towns. they had courts of justice of their own, and were free from the hundred courts, the next court above them being the shire court, ruled over by the sheriff. so we know that most of the towns whose names end in _burgh_ or _borough_ had for their early citizens men who loved freedom, and worked hard to win their own courts of justice. there are other endings to the names of towns which go back to the days before the norman conquest, but which are not really english. if a child were told to pick out on the map of england all the places whose names end in _by_ or _thwaite_, he or she would find that most of them are in the eastern part of england. the reason for this might be guessed, perhaps, by a very thoughtful child. both _by_ and _thwaite_ are danish words, and they are found in the eastern parts of england, because it was in those parts that the danes settled down when the great king alfred forced them to make peace in the treaty of wallingford. after this, of course, the danes lived in england for many years, settling down, and becoming part of the english people. naturally they gave their own names to many villages and towns, and many of these remain to this day to remind us of this fierce race which helped to build up the english nation. the normans did not make many changes in the names of places when they won england, and most of our place-names come down to us from roman and old english times. the places have changed, but the names have not. but though towns and counties have had their names from those times, it is to be noticed that the names of our rivers and hills come down to us from celtic times. to the britons, living a more or less wild life, these things were of the greatest importance. there are several rivers in england with the name of _avon_, and this is an old british name. the rivers _usk_, _esk_, and _ouse_ were all christened by the britons, and all these names come from a british word meaning "water." curiously enough, the name _whisky_ comes from the same word. from all these different ways in which places have got their names we get glimpses of past history, and history helps us to understand the stories that these old names tell us. chapter iv. new names for new places. we have seen in how many different ways many of the old places of this world got their names. some names go so far back that no one knows what is their meaning, or how they first came to be used. but we know that a great part of the world has only been discovered since the fifteenth century, and that a great part of what was already known has only been colonized in modern times. with the discovery of the new world and the colonization of the dark continent and other far-off lands, a great many new names were invented. we could almost write a history of north or south america from an explanation of their place-names. in learning the geography of south america we notice the beautiful spanish names of most of the places. the reason for this is that it was the spaniards who colonized south america in the sixteenth century. very little of this continent now belongs to spain, but in those days spain was the greatest country in europe. the proud and brave spanish adventurers were in those days sailing over the seas and founding colonies, just as the english sailors of queen elizabeth soon began to do in north america. let us look at some of these names--_los angelos_ ("the angels"), _santa cruz_ ("the holy cross"), _santiago_ ("st. james"), all names of saints and holy things. any one who knew no history at all might guess, from the number of places with spanish names spread over south america, that it was the spaniards who colonized this land. he would also guess that the spaniards in those days must have been a very great nation indeed. and he would be right. he would guess, too, that the spaniards had clung passionately to the catholic religion. here, again, he would be right. any great enthusiasm will make a nation great, and the spaniards in the sixteenth century were filled with a great love for the old church against which the new protestantism was fighting. the pope looked upon spain as the great bulwark of catholicism. the new religious feeling, which had swept over europe, and which had made the protestants ready to suffer and die for their new-found faith, took the form in spain of this great love for the old religion. the nation seemed inspired. it is when these things happen that a people turns to great enterprises and adventure. the spaniards of the sixteenth century regarded themselves, and were almost regarded by the other nations, as unconquerable. the great aim of elizabethan englishmen was to "break the power of spain," and this they did at last when they scattered the "invincible armada" in . but before this spain had done great things. the portuguese had been the first great adventurers, but they were soon left far behind by the spanish sailors, who explored almost every part of south america, settling there, and sending home great shiploads of gold to make spain rich. and wherever they explored and settled they spread about these beautiful names to honour the saints and holy things which their religion told them to love and honour. it was the great discoverer christopher columbus who first gave one of these beautiful names to a place in south america. he had already discovered north america, and made a second voyage there, when he determined to explore the land south of the west indies. he sailed south through the tropical seas while the heat melted the tar of the rigging. but columbus never noticed danger and discomfort. he had made a vow to call the first land he saw after the holy trinity, and when at last he caught sight of three peaks jutting up from an island he gave the island the name of _la trinidad_, and "trinidad" it remains to this day, though it now belongs to the british. as he sailed south columbus caught sight of what was really the mainland of south america, but he thought it was another island, and called it _isla santa_, or "holy island." it might seem curious that as columbus had discovered both north and south america, the continent was given the name of another man. as we have seen, its name was taken from that of another explorer, amerigo vespucci. the reason for this was that columbus never really knew that he had discovered a "new world." he believed that he had come by another way to the eastern coast of asia or africa. the islands which he first discovered were for this reason called the _indies_, and the _west indies_ they remain to this day. it was amerigo vespucci who first announced to the world, in a book which he published in (three years after christopher columbus had died in loneliness and poverty), that the new lands were indeed a great new continent, and not asia or africa at all. people later on said that amerigo vespucci had discovered a new continent, and that it ought to be called by his name. this is how the name _america_ came into use; but of course the work of vespucci was not to be compared with that of the great adventurer who first sailed across the "sea of darkness," and was the real discoverer of the new world. though it was the spaniards who discovered north america, it was the english who chiefly colonized it. it is interesting to notice the names which the early english colonists scattered over the northern continent. we might gather from them that, just as the love of their church was the great passion of the sixteenth-century spaniards, so the love of their country was the ruling passion of the great english adventurers. (of course the spaniards had shown their love for their old country in some of the names they gave, as when columbus called one place _isabella_, in honour of the noble spanish queen who had helped and encouraged him when other rulers of european countries had refused to listen to what they thought were the ravings of a madman.) the english in reformation days had a very different idea of religion from the spanish. naturally they did not sprinkle the names of saints over the new lands. but the english of elizabeth's day were filled with a great new love for england. the greatest of all the elizabethan adventurers, sir francis drake, when in his voyage round the world he put into a harbour which is now known as san francisco, set up "a plate of brass fast nailed to a great and firm post, whereon is engraved her grace's name, and the day and the year of our arrival there." the indian king of these parts had freely owned himself subject to the english, taking the crown from his own head and putting it on drake's head. sir francis called his land _new albion_, using the old poetic name for england. but the colonization of north america was not successfully begun until after the death of elizabeth, though one or two attempts at founding colonies, or "plantations," as they were then called, were made in her time. sir walter raleigh tried to set up one colony in north america, and called it _virginia_, after the virgin queen whom all englishmen delighted to honour. virginia did not prosper, and raleigh's colony broke up; but later another and successful attempt at colonizing it was made, and the same name kept. virginia--"earth's only paradise," as the poet drayton called it--was the first english colony successfully settled in north america. this was in the year , when two hundred and forty-three settlers landed, and made the first settlement at a point which they called _jamestown_, in honour of the new english king, james i. the first settlers in virginia were men whose chief aim was to become rich, but it was not long before a new kind of settler began to seek refuge in the lands north of virginia, to which the great colonizer, captain john smith, had by this time given the name of _new england_. it was in that the "pilgrim fathers," because they were not free to worship god as they thought right at home, sailed from southampton in the little _mayflower_, and landed far to the north of virginia, and made a settlement at a place which smith had already called _plymouth_. before long new colonies began to spring up all over new england; and though we find some new names, like the indian name of the great colony _massachusetts_, we may read the story of the great love which the colonists felt for the old towns of the mother-country in the way they gave their names to the new settlements. a curious thing is that many of these new towns, christened after little old towns at home, became later very important and prosperous places, while the places after which they were called are sometimes almost forgotten. many people to whom the name of the great american city of boston is familiar do not know that there still stands on the coast of lincolnshire the sleepy little town of boston, from which it took its name. boston is the chief town of massachusetts; but the first capital was _charlestown_, called after king charles i., who had by this time succeeded his father, james i. the place on which charlestown was built, on the north bank of the charles river, was, however, found to be unhealthy. the settlers, therefore, deserted it, and boston was built on the south bank. it was not long before the massachusetts settlers built a college at a place near boston which had been called _cambridge_. this is a case in which the old town at home remained, of course, much more important than its godchild. if a person speaks of cambridge, one's mind immediately flies to the english university city on the banks of the river cam. still the college built at the american cambridge, and called "harvard college," after john harvard, one of the early settlers, who gave a great deal of money towards its building, is famous now throughout the world. it was natural and suitable that the early settlers should use the old english names to show their love for the mother-country; but it was not such a wise thing to choose the names of the great historic towns of europe, and give them to the new settlements. to give the almost sacred name of _rome_ to a modern american town seems almost ridiculous. certainly one would have always to be very careful to add "georgia, u.s.a." in addressing letters there. the united states has several of these towns bearing old historic names. _paris_ as the name of an american town seems almost as unsuitable as rome. but this mistake was not made by the early colonists. if we think of the names of the colonies which stretched along the east of north america, we find nearly always that the names are chosen to do honour to the english king or queen, or to keep the memory fresh of some beloved spot in the old country. in the catholic lord baltimore founded a new colony, the only one where the catholic religion was tolerated, and called it _maryland_, in honour of charles i.'s queen, henrietta maria. just after the restoration of charles ii. in , when the country was full of loyalty, a new colony, _carolina_, was founded, taking its name from _carolus_, the latin for "charles." afterwards this colony was divided into two, and became north and south carolina. to the north of maryland lay the _new netherlands_, for holland had also colonized here. in the seventeenth century this little nation was for a time equal to the greatest nations in europe. the dutch had very soon followed the example of that other little nation portugal, which, directed by the famous prince henry of portugal, had been the first of all the european nations to explore far-off lands. holland was as important on the seas as spain or england; but this could not last long. the dutch and the english fought several campaigns, and in the end the dutch were beaten. in the new netherlands were yielded up to england. the name of the colony was changed to _new york_, and its capital, new amsterdam, was given the same name. this was in honour of the sailor prince, james, duke of york, afterwards the unhappy king james ii. another of the stuarts who gave his name to a district of north america was prince rupert, the nephew of charles i., who fought so hard for the king against cromwell. in the land round hudson bay was given the name of _rupertsland_. sometimes, but not often, the new colonies were given the names of their founders. william penn, who founded the quaker colony of _pennsylvania_, gave it this name in honour of his father, admiral penn. _sylvania_ means "land of woods," and comes from the latin _sylvanus_, or "woody." but it is not only in america that the place-names tell us the stories of heroism and romance. all over the world, from the icy lands round the poles to the tropical districts of africa, india, and australia, these stories can be read. the spirit in which the early portuguese adventurers sailed along the coast of africa is shown in the name they gave to what we now know as the _cape of good hope_. bartholomew diaz called it the _cape of storms_, for he had discovered it only after terrible battlings with the waves; but when he sailed home to tell his news the king of portugal said that this was not a good name, but it should instead be called the _cape of good hope_, for past it lay the sea passage to india which men had been seeking for years. and so the _cape of good hope_ it remains to this day. after this it was not long before the portuguese explored the south and east coasts of africa and the west coast of india to the very south, where they took the _spice islands_ for their own. from these the portuguese brought home great quantities of spices, which they sold at high prices in europe. it was the great explorer ferdinand magellan who first sailed round the world, being sure, as he said, that he could reach the spice islands by sailing west. and so he started on this expedition, sailing through the straits which have ever since been known as the _magellan straits_ to the south of south america, into the pacific, or "peaceful," ocean, and then ever west, until he came round by the east to spain again, after three years of great hardship and wonderful adventure. the adventures of the early explorers most often took the form of seeking a new and shorter passage from one ocean to another, and so many straits bear the names of the explorers. the elizabethan explorer, martin frobisher, sought for a "north-west passage" from the atlantic to the pacific, and for a time it was thought that he had found it in the very north of north america. but it was afterwards found that the "passage," which had already been given the name of _frobisher's straits_, was really only an inlet, and afterwards it became known as _lumley's inlet_. frobisher never discovered a north-west passage, for the ships of those days were not fitted out in a way to enable the sailors to bear the icy cold of these northern regions. many brave explorers tried later to discover it. three times john davis made a voyage for this purpose but never succeeded, though _davis strait_ commemorates his heroic attempts. hudson and baffin explored in these waters, as the names _hudson bay_ and _baffin bay_ remind us. it was nearly two hundred years later that sir john franklin sailed with an expedition in two boats, the _erebus_ and _terror_, determined to find the passage. he found it, but died in the attempt; but, strangely enough, his name was not given to any strait, though later it was given to all the islands of the arctic archipelago. the winning of india by the british in the eighteenth century did not give us many new english names. india was not, like the greater part of america, a wild country inhabited by savage peoples. it had an older civilization than the greater part of europe, and the only reason that it was weak enough to be conquered was that the many races who lived there could not agree among themselves. most of the place-names of india are native names given by natives, for centuries before france and england began to struggle for its possession in the eighteenth century india had passed through a long and varied history. when we remember that the natives of india have no name to describe the whole continent, it helps us to understand that india is in no way a single country. the british government have given the continent the name _india_, taking it from the great river indus, which itself takes its name from an old word, _sindhu_, meaning "river." in the days of the early explorers, after the islands discovered by columbus were called the _west indies_, some people began to call the indian continent the _east indies_, to distinguish it; and some of the papers about india drawn up for the information of parliament about indian affairs still use this name, but it is not a familiar use to most people. the mistake which columbus and the early explorers made in thinking america was india has caused a good deal of confusion. the natives of north america were called indians, and it was only long afterwards, in fact quite lately, that people began to write and speak of the natives of india as _indians_. when it was printed in the newspapers that indians were fighting for the british empire with the armies in france, the use of the word _indian_ seemed wrong to a great many people; but it is now becoming so common that it will probably soon seem quite right. when it is used with the old meaning we shall have to say the "indians of north america." some people use the word _hindu_ to describe the natives of india; but this is not correct, as only _some_ of the natives of india are hindus, just as the name _hindustan_ (a persian name meaning "land of the hindus," as _afghanistan_ means "land of the afghans"), which some old writers on geography used for india, is really the name of one part of the land round the river ganges, where the language known as _hindi_ is spoken. the place-names of india given by natives of the many different races which have lived in the land could fill a book with their stories alone. we can only mention a few. the name of the great range of mountains which runs across the north of the continent, the _himalayas_, means in sanskrit, the oldest language used in india, the "home of snow." _bombay_ takes its name from _mumba_, the name of a goddess of an early tribe who occupied the district round bombay. _calcutta_, which stretches over ground where there were formerly several villages, takes its name from one of these. its old form was _kalikuti_, which means the "ghauts," or passes, leading to the temple of the goddess kali. in australia, where a beginning of colonization was made through the discoveries of captain cook towards the end of the eighteenth century, the place-names were sometimes given from places at home, sometimes after persons, but they have hardly the same romance as the early american names. _botany bay_ was the name chosen by captain cook in a moment of enthusiasm for an inlet of new south wales. he gave it this name because of the great number of plants and flowers which grow there. in africa a good deal of history can be learned from the place-names. although the north of africa had for many hundreds of years had its part in the civilization of the countries round the mediterranean sea, the greater part of africa had remained an unexplored region--the "dark continent," as it was called. in the fifteenth century the portuguese sailors crept along the western coast, and afterwards along the south, as we have seen, past the cape of good hope. but the interior of the continent remained for long an unexplored region. the dutch had, very soon after the discovery of the cape, made a settlement there, which was known as _cape colony_. this was afterwards won by the english; but many dutchmen still stayed there, and though, since the boer war, when the boers, or dutch, in south africa tried to win their independence, the whole of south africa belongs to the british empire, still there are naturally many dutch names given by the early dutch settlers. some of these became very well known to english people in the boer war. _bloemfontein_ is one of these names, coming from the dutch word for "spring" (_fontein_), and that of jan bloem, one of the farmers who first settled there. another well-known place in the transvaal, _pietermaritzburg_, took its name from the two leaders who led the boers out of cape colony when they felt that the english were becoming too strong there. these leaders were pieter retief and georit maritz. this movement of the boers into the transvaal was called the "great trek," _trek_ being a dutch word for a journey or migration of this sort. since the days of the boer war this word has been regularly used in english with this same meaning. like the english settlers in america, the dutch settlers in south africa sometimes gave the names of places in holland to their new settlements. _utrecht_ is an example of this. up to the very end of the nineteenth century no european country besides england had any great possessions in africa. the portuguese still held the coast lands between zululand (so called from the fierce black natives who lived there) and mozambique. egypt had come practically under british rule soon after the days of napoleon, and in the middle of the nineteenth century the great explorers livingstone and stanley had explored the lands along the zambesi river and a great part of central africa. stanley went right across the centre of the continent, and discovered the lake _albert edward nyanza_. _nyanza_ is the african word for "lake," and the name albert edward was given in honour of the prince consort. _victoria nyanza_, so called after queen victoria, had been discovered some years before. it was all these discoveries which led to the colonization of africa by the nations of europe. in the great german statesman, prince bismarck, set up the german flag in damaraland, the coast district to the north of the orange river; and soon after a german colony was set up in the lands between the portuguese settlements and the equator. this was simply called german east africa. at the same time the other nations of europe suddenly realized that if they meant to have part of africa they must join in the scramble at once. there were soon a british east africa, a portuguese east africa, a portuguese west africa, a german south-west africa, and so on. all these are names which might have been given in a hurry, and in them we seem to read the haste of the european nations to seize on the only lands in the world which were still available. they are very different from the descriptive names which the early portuguese adventurers had strewn along the coast, like _sierra leone_, or "the lion mountain;" _cape verde_, or "the green cape," so called from its green grass. still, romance was not dead even yet. there is one district of south africa which takes its name in the old way from that of a person. _rhodesia_, the name given to mashonaland and matabeleland, was so called after mr. cecil rhodes, a young british emigrant, who went out from england in very weak health and became perfectly strong, at the same time winning a fortune for himself in the diamond fields of kimberley. he devoted himself heart and soul to the strengthening of british power in south africa, and it is fitting that this province should by its name keep his memory fresh. the story of the struggle in south africa between boer and briton can be partly read in its place-names; and the story of the struggle between old and new settlers in canada can be similarly read in the place-names of that land. the first settlers in canada were the french, and the descendants of these first settlers form a large proportion of the canadian population. many places in canada still have, of course, the names which the first french settlers gave them. the italian, john cabot, had sailed to canada a few years after columbus discovered america, sent by the english king, henry vii., but no settlements were made. thirty-seven years later the french sailor, jacques cartier, was sent by the french king, francis i., to explore there. cartier sailed up the gulf of st. lawrence as far as the spot where montreal now stands. the name was given by cartier, and means "royal mount." it was cartier, too, who gave canada its name; but he thought that this was already the indian name for the land. a story is told that some red indians were trying to talk to him and making signs, and they pointed to some houses, saying, "cannata." cartier thought they meant that this was the name of the country, but he was mistaken. they were, perhaps, pointing out their village, for _cannata_ is the indian name for "village." cartier, like cabot, sailed away again, and the first real founder of a settlement in canada was the frenchman, samuel de champlain, who made friends with the indians, and explored the upper parts of the river lawrence, and gave his name to the beautiful _lake champlain_, which he discovered. it was he who founded _quebec_, giving it this breton name. sailors from brittany had ventured as far as the coast of canada in the time of columbus, and had given its name to _cape breton_. and so french names spread through canada. later, in one of the wars of the eighteenth century, england won canada from france; but these french names still remain to tell the tale of french adventure and heroism in that land. we have seen many names in new lands, some of them given by people from the old world who settled in these lands. in the great european war we have seen people from these new lands coming back to fight in some of the most ancient countries of the old world. the splendid australian troops who fought in gallipoli sprinkled many new names over the land they won and lost. one, at least, will always remain on the maps. _anzac_, where the colonials made their historic landing, will never be forgotten. it was a new name, made up of the initial letters of the words "australian and new zealand army corps," and will remain for ever one of the most honoured names invented in the twentieth century. children who like history can read whole chapters in the place-names of the old world and the new. chapter v. stories in old london names. it is not only in the names of continents, countries, and towns that stories of the past can be read. the names of the old streets and buildings (or even of new streets which have kept their old names) in our old towns are full of stories. especially is this true about london, the centre of the british empire, and almost the centre of the world's history. it will be interesting not only to little londoners, but to other children as well, to examine some of the old london names, and see what stories they can tell. naturally the most interesting names of all are to be found in what we now call "the city," meaning the centre of london, which was at one time all the london there was. we have seen that london was in the time of the britons just a fort, and that it became important in roman times, and a town grew up around it. but this town in the middle ages, and even so late as the eighteenth century, was not at all like the london we know to-day. london now is really a county, and stretches away far into four counties; but mediæval london was like a small country town, though a very important and gay and busy town, because it was the capital. many of the names in the city take us back to the very earliest days of the capital. this part of london stands on slightly rising ground, and near the river thames, just the sort of ground which early people would choose upon which to build a fortress or a village. the names of two of the chief city streets, the strand and fleet street, help to show us something of what london was like in its earliest days. a few years ago, in a famous case in a court of law, one of the lawyers asked a witness what he was doing in the strand at a certain time. the witness, a witty irishman, answered with a solemn face, "picking seaweed." everybody laughed, because the idea of picking seaweed in the very centre of london was so funny. but a strand _is_ a shore, and when the name was given to the london _strand_ it was not a paved street at all, but the muddy shore of the river thames. then _fleet street_ marks the path by which the little river fleet ran into the thames. the river had several tributaries, which were covered over in this way, and several of them are used as sewers to carry away the sewage of the city. there is a _fleet street_, too, in hampstead, in the north-west of london, and this marks the beginning of the course of the same little river fleet which got its water from the high ground of hampstead. this river has given us still another famous london name. it flowed past what is now called king's cross, and here its banks were so steep that it was called _hollow_, or _hole-bourne_, and from this we get the name _holborn_. the city being the centre of london had a certain amount of trading and bargaining from the earliest times. in those times there were no such things as shops. people bought and sold in markets, and the name of the busy city street, _cheapside_, reminds us of this. it was called in early times the _chepe_, and took its name from the old english word _ceap_, "a bargain." at the end of cheapside runs the street called _poultry_, and this, so an old chronicler tells us, has its name from the fact that a fowl or poultry market was regularly held there up to the sixteenth century. the name of another famous city street, _cornhill_, tells us that a corn market used to be held there. another name, _gracechurch street_, reminds us of an old grass market. it took its name from an old church, st. benet grasschurch, which was probably so called because the grass market was held under its walls. _smithfield_ is the great london meat market now; but its name means "smooth field," and in the middle ages it was used as a cattle and hay market, and on days which were not market days games and tournaments took place there. later its name became famous in english history for the "fires of smithfield," when men and women were burned to death there for refusing to accept the state religion. many london names come from churches and buildings which no longer exist. the names help us to picture a london very different from the london of to-day. one of the busiest streets in that part of the city round fleet street where editors and journalists, and printers and messengers are working day and night to produce the newspapers which carry the news of the day far and wide over england, is _blackfriars_. this is a very different place from the spot where the dominicans, or "black friars," built their priory in the thirteenth century. in those days the friars chose the busiest parts of the little english towns to build their houses in, so that they could preach and help the people. they thought that the earlier monks had chosen places for their monasteries too far from the people. there were grey friars and white friars, austin friars and crutched friars, all of whose names remain in the london of to-day. there were many monasteries and convents in the larger london which soon grew up round the city, and in the city itself we have a street whose name keeps the memory of one convent of nuns. the street called the _minories_ marks the place where a convent of nuns of st. clare was founded in the thirteenth century. the latin name for these nuns is _sorores minores_, or "lesser sisters," just as the franciscans, or grey friars, were _fratres minores_, or "lesser brethren." and so from the latin _minores_ we get the name minories as the name of a london street, standing where this convent once stood. the name of the street _london wall_ reminds us of the time when london was a walled city with its gates, which were closed at night and opened every morning. many streets keep the names of the old gates, like _ludgate hill_, _aldersgate_, _bishopsgate_. the great _tower of london_ still stands to show us how london was defended in the old feudal days; but _tower bridge_, the bridge which crosses the river at that point, is a modern bridge, built in . the name _cripplegate_ still remains, and the story it has to tell us is that in the middle ages there stood outside the city walls beyond this gate the hospital of st. giles-in-the-fields. it was a hospital for lepers; but st. giles is the patron saint of cripples, and so this gate of the city got the name of cripplegate, because it was the nearest to the church of the patron saint of cripples. this church of st. giles-in-the-fields no longer remains; but we have _st. martin's-in-the-fields_, to remind us of the difference between trafalgar square to-day and its condition not quite two hundred years ago, when this church was built. it must be remembered that even at the very end of the eighteenth century london was just a tiny town lying along the river. at that time many of the nobles and rich merchants were building their mansions in what is now the west central district of london. the north side of queen square, bloomsbury, was left open, so that the people who lived there could enjoy the view of the highgate and hampstead hills, to which the open country stretched. even now this end of queen square is closed only by a railing, but a great mass of streets and houses stretches far beyond hampstead and highgate now. _trafalgar square_ itself got its name in honour of nelson, the hero of the great victory of trafalgar. the great column with the statue of nelson stands in the square. this brings us to one of the most interesting of old london names. on one side of the square stands _charing cross_, the busiest spot in london. at this point there once stood the last of the nine beautiful crosses which king edward iii. set up at the places where the coffin of his wife, eleanor, was set to rest in the long journey from lincolnshire, where she died, to her grave in westminster abbey; and so it got its name. a fine modern cross has been set up in memory of edward's cross, which has long since disappeared. the district of westminster takes its name, of course, from the abbey; and the name _broad sanctuary_ remains to remind us of the sanctuary in which, as in many churches of the middle ages, people could take refuge even from the law. _covent garden_ took its name from a convent garden belonging to the abbey. one of the oldest parts of london is _charterhouse square_, where, until a year or two ago, there stood the famous boys' school of this name. the school took its name from the old monastery of the charterhouse, which king henry viii. brought to an end because the monks would not own that he was head of the church instead of the pope. they suffered a dreadful death, being hanged, drawn, and quartered as traitors. the monastery was taken, like so many others, by the king, and afterwards became a school. but the school was removed in to an airier district at godalming. part of the old building is still used as a boys' day school. the word _charterhouse_ was the english name for a house of carthusians, a very strict order of monks, whose first house was the grande chartreuse in france. not far from the charterhouse is _ely place_, with the beautiful old church of st. ethelreda. this was, in the middle ages, a chapel used by the bishop of ely when he came to london, and that is how ely place, still one of the quietest and quaintest spots in london, got its name. people who go along ludgate hill to st. paul's must have noticed many curious names. perhaps the quaintest of all is _paternoster row_. this street, which takes its name from the latin name of the "our father," or lord's prayer, got its name from the fact that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many sellers of prayer-books and texts collected at this spot, on account of it being near the great church of st. paul's. paternoster row is still full of booksellers. _ave maria lane_ and _amen corner_, just near, got their names in imitation of paternoster row, the _ave maria_, or "hail, mary!" being the words used by the angel gabriel to the blessed virgin at the annunciation, and _amen_ being, of course, the ending to the _paternoster_, as to most prayers. not far from st. paul's is the church of _st. mary-le-bow_. it used to be said that the true londoner had to be born within the sound of bow-bells, and the old story tells us that it was these bells which dick whittington heard telling him to turn back when he had lost hope of making his fortune, and was leaving london for the country again. the present church of st. mary-le-bow was built by sir christopher wren, the great seventeenth-century architect, who built st. paul's and several other of the most beautiful london churches after they had been destroyed by the great fire of . but underneath the present church of st. mary-le-bow is the crypt, which was not destroyed in the fire. this crypt was built, like the former church, in norman times, and the church took its name of _bow_ from the arches upon which it was built in the norman way, it being the first church in london to be built in this way. the church is generally called "bow church." another famous old london church, the _temple church_, which is now used as the chapel of the lawyers at the inns of court, got its name from the fact that it belonged to and was built by the knights templars in the twelfth century. these knights were one of those peculiar religious orders which joined the life of a soldier to that of a monk, and played a great part in the crusades. king edward iii. brought the order to an end, and took their property; but the temple church, with its tombs and figures of armoured knights in brass, remains to keep their memory fresh. we may mention two other names of old london streets which take us back to the middle ages. in the city we have the street called _old jewry_, and this reminds us of the time when in all the more important towns of england in the early middle ages a part was put aside for the jews. this was called the _ghetto_. the jews were much disliked in the middle ages because of the treatment of our lord by their forefathers; but the kings often protected them because, in spite of everything, the jews grew rich, and the kings were able to borrow money of them. in , however, edward i. banished all the jews from england, and they did not return until the days of cromwell. but the name of the old jewry reminds us of the ghetto which was an important part of old london. another famous city street, _lombard street_, the street of bankers, got its name from the italian merchants from lombardy who set up their business there, and who became the bankers and money-lenders when there were no longer any jews to lend money to the english king and nobles. as time went on london began to grow in a way which seemed alarming to the people of the seventeenth century, though even then it was but a tiny town in comparison with the london of to-day. the fashionable people and courtiers began to build houses in the western "suburbs," as they were then called, though now they are looked upon as very central districts. it was chiefly in the seventeenth century that what we now know as the _west end_ became a residential quarter. some parts of the west end are, of course, still the most fashionable parts of london; but some, like covent garden and lincoln's inn fields, have been given over to business. most of the best-known names in the west end date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. the most fashionable street of all, _piccadilly_, probably got its name from the very fashionable collar called a _pickadil_ (from the spanish word _picca_, "a spear") which the fine gentlemen wore as they swaggered through the west end in the early seventeenth century. _pall mall_ and the _mall_ in st. james's park took their names from a game which was very fashionable after the restoration, but which was already known in the time of charles i. the game was called _pall-mall_, from the french _paille-maille_. after the restoration charles ii. allowed the people to use st. james's park, which was a royal park, and londoners used to watch respectfully and admiringly as charles and his brother james played this game. _spring gardens_, also in st. james's park, reminds us of the lively spirits of restoration times. it was so called because of a fountain which stood there, and which was so arranged that when a passer-by trod by accident on a certain valve the waters spurted forth and drenched him. we should not think this so funny now as people did then. at the same time that the west end was growing, poorer districts were spreading to the north and east of the city. _moorfields_ (which tells us by its name what it was like in the early london days) was built over. _spitalfields_ (which took its name from one of the many hospitals which religious people built in and near mediæval london) and _whitechapel_ also filled up, and became centres of trade and manufacture. the games and sports which amused the people in these poorer quarters were not so refined as the ball-throwing of the princes and courtiers. in the name _balls pond road_, islington, we are reminded of the duck-hunting which was one of the sports of the common people. as time went on and london became larger and more crowded, the fashionable people began to go away each summer to drink the waters at bath and tunbridge wells. but in london itself there were several springs and wells whose waters were supposed to be good for people's health, and these have given us some of the best-known london names. near _holywell street_ there were several of these wells; and along _well walk_, in the north-west suburb of hampstead, a procession of gaily-dressed people might regularly be seen in charles ii.'s time going to drink the waters. _clerkenwell_ also took its name from a well which was believed to be mediæval and even miraculous. _bridewell_, the name of the famous prison, also came from the name of a well dedicated to st. bride. many of the great streets and squares of the west end of london have taken their names from the houses of noblemen who have lived there, or from the names of the rich owners of property in these parts. _northumberland avenue_, opening off trafalgar square, takes its name from northumberland house, built there in the time of james i. _arundel street_, running down to the embankment from the strand, is so called in memory of arundel house, the home of the earl of arundel, which used to stand here. it was there that the famous collection of statues known as the "arundel marbles" was first collected. they were presented to oxford university in . just near charing cross there is a part of old london called the _adelphi_. this district takes its name from a fine group of buildings put up there in the middle of the eighteenth century by the two famous brother architects robert and william adam. _adelphi_ is the greek word for "brothers," but the name seems very peculiar applied in this way. the name of _mayfair_, the very centre of fashion in the west end, reminds us that in this magnificent quarter of london a fair used to be held in may in the time of charles ii. this gives us an idea of how the district must have changed since then. _farm street_, in mayfair, has its name from a farm which was still there in the middle of the eighteenth century. the ground is now taken up by stables and coach-houses. _half-moon street_, another fashionable street running out of piccadilly, takes its name from a public house which was built on this corner in . these old names give us some idea of what london was like at different times in the past; but another very interesting group of names are those which are being made in the greater london of to-day. one of the commonest words used by londoners to-day is the _underground_. if an eighteenth-century londoner could come back and talk to us to-day he would not know what we meant by this word. for the great system of underground railways to which it refers was only made in the later years of the nineteenth century. the _twopenny tube_ was the name of one of the first lines of these underground railways. it was so called because the trains ran through great circular tunnels, like the underground railways which connect all parts of london to-day. it has now become quite a habit of londoners to talk of going "by tube" when they mean by any of the underground railways. one of these lines has a very peculiar and rather ugly name. it is called the _bakerloo railway_, because it runs from baker street to waterloo. it certainly makes us think that the londoners of long ago showed much better taste in the names they invented. chapter vi. words made by great writers. as we have seen, languages while they are living are always growing and changing. we have seen how new names have been made as time went on. but many new words besides names are constantly being added to a language; for just as grown-up people use more words than children, and educated people use more words than uneducated or less educated people, so, too, _nations_ use more words as time goes on. every word must have been used a first time by some one; but of course it is impossible to know who were the makers of most words. even new words cannot often be traced to their makers. some one uses a new word, and others pick it up, and it passes into general use, while everybody has forgotten who made it. but one very common way in which people learn to use new words is through reading the books of great writers. sometimes these writers have made new words which their readers have seen to be very good, and have then begun to use themselves. sometimes these great writers have made use of words which, though not new, were very rare, and immediately these words have become popular and ordinary words. the first great english poet was chaucer, and the great english philologists feel sure that he must have made many new words and made many rare words common; but it is not easy to say that chaucer made any particular word, because we do not know enough of the language which was in use at that time to say so. one famous phrase of chaucer is often quoted now: "after the schole of stratford-atte-bowe," which he used in describing the french spoken by one of the canterbury pilgrims in his great poem. he meant that this was not pure french, but french spoken in the way and with the peculiar accent used at stratford (a part of london near bow church). we now often use the phrase to describe any accent which is not perfect. but though we do not know for certain which words chaucer introduced, we do know that this first great english poet must have introduced many, especially french words; while wyclif, the first great english prose writer, who translated part of the bible from latin into english, must also have given us many new words, especially from the latin. the english language never changed so much after the time of chaucer and wyclif as it had done before. the next really great english poet, edmund spenser, who wrote his wonderful poem, "the faerie queene," in the days of queen elizabeth, invented a great many new words. some of these were seldom or never used afterwards, but some became ordinary english words. sometimes his new words were partly formed out of old words which were no longer used. the word _elfin_, which became quite a common word, seems to have been invented by spenser. he called a boasting knight by the name _braggadocio_, and we still use the word _braggadocio_ for vain boasting. a common expression which we often find used in romantic tales, and especially in the novels of sir walter scott, _derring-do_, meaning "adventurous action," was first used by spenser. he, however, took it from chaucer, who had used it as a _verb_, speaking of the _dorring-do_ (or "daring to do") that belonged to a knight. spenser made a mistake in thinking chaucer had used it as a noun, and used it so himself, making in this way quite a new and very well-sounding word. another word which spenser made, and which is still sometimes used, was _fool-happy_; but other words, like _idlesse_, _dreariment_, _drowsihead_, are hardly seen outside his poetry. one reason for this is that spenser was telling stories of quaint and curious things, and he used quaint and curious words which would not naturally pass into ordinary language. the next great name in english literature, and the greatest name of all, is shakespeare. shakespeare influenced the english language more than any writer before or since. first of all he made a great many new words, some very simple and others more elaborate, but all of them so suitable that they have become a part of the language. such a common word as _bump_, which it would be difficult to imagine ourselves without, is first found in shakespeare's writings. _hurry_, which seems to be the only word to express what it stands for, seems also to have been made by shakespeare, and also the common word _dwindle_. some other words which shakespeare made are _lonely_, _orb_ (meaning "globe"), _illumine_, and _home-keeping_. many others might be quoted, but the great influence which shakespeare had on the english language was not through the new words he made, but in the way his expressions and phrases came to be used as ordinary expressions. many people are constantly speaking shakespeare without knowing it, for the phrases he used were so exactly right and expressive that they have been repeated ever since, and often, of course, by people who do not know where they first came from. we can only mention a few of these phrases, such as "a daniel come to judgment," which shylock says to portia in the "merchant of venice," and which is often used now sarcastically. from the same play comes the expression "pound of flesh," which is now often used to mean what a person knows to be due to him and is determined to have. "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," "to gild refined gold," "to wear one's heart upon one's sleeve,"--these and hundreds of other phrases are known by most people to come from shakespeare; they are used by many who do not. they describe so splendidly so many things which are constantly happening that they seem to be the only or at least the best way of expressing the meanings they signify. but not only have hundreds of shakespeare's own words and phrases passed into everyday english, but the way in which he turned his phrases is often imitated. it was shakespeare who used the phrase to "out-herod herod," and now this is a common form of speech. a statesman could now quite suitably use the phrase to "out-asquith asquith." the next great poet after shakespeare was milton. he also gave us a great many new words and phrases, but not nearly so many as shakespeare. still there are a few phrases which are now so common that many people use them without even knowing that they come from milton's writings. some of these are "the human face divine," "to hide one's diminished head," "a dim religious light," "the light fantastic toe." it was milton who invented the name _pandemonium_ for the home of the devils, and now people regularly speak of a state of horrible noise and disorder as "a pandemonium." many of those who use the expression have not the slightest idea of where it came from. the few words which we know were made by milton are very expressive words. it was he who invented _anarch_ for the spirit of anarchy or disorder, and no one has found a better word to express the idea. _satanic_, _moon-struck_, _gloom_ (to mean "darkness"), _echoing_, and _bannered_ are some more well-known words invented by milton. it is not always the greatest writers who have given us the greatest number of new words. a great prose writer of the seventeenth century, sir thomas browne, is looked upon as a classical writer, but his works are only read by a few, not like the great works of shakespeare and milton. yet sir thomas browne has given many new words to the english language. this is partly because he deliberately made many new words. one book of his gave us several hundreds of these words. the reason his new words remained in the language was that there was a real need of them. many seventeenth-century writers of plays invented hundreds of new words, but they tried to invent curious and queer-sounding words, and very few people liked them. these words never really became part of the english language. they are "one-man" words, to be found only in the writings of their inventors. yet it was one of these fanciful writers who invented the very useful word _dramatist_ for "a writer of plays." but the words made by sir thomas browne were quite different. such ordinary words as _medical_, _literary_, and _electricity_ were first used by him. he made many others too, not quite so common, but words which later writers and speakers could hardly do without. another seventeenth-century writer, john evelyn, the author of the famous _diary_ which has taught us so much about the times in which he lived, was a great maker of words. most of his new words were made from foreign words, and as he was much interested in art and music, many of his words relate to these things. it was evelyn who introduced the word _opera_ into english, and also _outline_, _altitude_, _monochrome_ ("a painting in one shade"), and _pastel_, besides many other less common words. robert boyle, a great seventeenth-century writer on science, gave many new scientific words to the english language. the words _pendulum_ and _intensity_ were first used by him, and it was he who first used _fluid_ as a noun. the poets dryden and pope gave us many new words too. dr. johnson, the maker of the first great english dictionary, added some words to the language. as everybody knows who has read that famous book, boswell's _life of johnson_, dr. johnson was a man who always said just what he thought, and had no patience with anything like stupidity. the expression _fiddlededee_, another way of telling a person that he is talking nonsense, was made by him. _irascibility_, which means "tendency to be easily made cross or angry," is also one of his words, and so are the words _literature_ and _comic_. the great statesman and political writer, edmund burke, was the inventor of many of our commonest words relating to politics. _colonial_, _colonization_, _electioneering_, _diplomacy_, _financial_, and many other words which are in everyday use now, were made by him. at the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great revival in english literature, since known as the "romantic movement." after the rather stiff manners and writing of the eighteenth century, people began to have an enthusiasm for all sorts of old and adventurous things, and a new love for nature and beauty. sir walter scott was the great novelist of the movement, and also wrote some fine, stirring ballads and poems. in these writings, which dealt chiefly with the adventurous deeds of the middle ages, scott used again many old words which had been forgotten and fallen out of use. he made them everyday words again. the old word _chivalrous_, which had formerly been used to describe the institutions connected with knighthood, he used in a new way, and the word has kept this meaning ever since. it has now always the meaning of courtesy and gentleness towards the weak, but before sir walter scott used it it had not this meaning at all. scott also revived words like _raid_ and _foray_, his novels, of course, being full of descriptions of fighting on the borders of england and scotland. it was this same writer who introduced the scottish word _gruesome_ into the language. later in the century another scotsman, thomas carlyle, made many new words which later writers and speakers have used. they are generally rather forcible and not very dignified words, for carlyle's writings were critical of almost everything and everybody, and he seemed to love rather ugly words, which made the faults he described seem contemptible or ridiculous. it was he who made the words _croakery_, _dry-as-dust_, and _grumbly_, and he introduced also the scottish word _feckless_, which describes a person who is a terribly bad manager, careless and disorderly in his affairs, the sort of person whom carlyle so much despised. the great writers of the present time seem to be unwilling to make new words. the chief word-makers of to-day are the people who talk a new slang (and of these we shall see something in another chapter), and the scientific writers, who, as they are constantly making new discoveries, have to find words to describe them. some of the poets of the present day have used new words and phrases, but they are generally strange words, which no one thinks of using for himself. the poet john masefield used the word _waps_ and the phrase _bee-loud_, which is very expressive, but which we cannot imagine passing into ordinary speech. two poets of the romantic movement, southey and coleridge, used many new and strange words just in this way, but these, again, never passed into the ordinary speech of english people. one maker of new words in the nineteenth century must not be forgotten. this was lewis carroll, the author of "alice in wonderland" and "through the looking-glass." he made many new and rather queer words; but they expressed so well the meaning he gave to them that some of them have become quite common. this writer generally made these curious words out of two others. the word _galumph_ (which is now put as an ordinary word in english dictionaries) he made out of _gallop_ and _triumph_. it means "to go galloping in triumph." another of lewis carroll's words, _chortle_, is even more used. it also has the idea of "triumphing," and is generally used to mean "chuckling (either inwardly or outwardly) in triumph." it was probably made out of the words _chuckle_ and _snort_. but great writers have not only added new words and phrases to the language by inventing them; sometimes the name of a book itself has taken on a general meaning. sir thomas more in the time of henry viii. wrote his famous book, "utopia," to describe a country in which everything was done as it should be. _utopia_ (which means "nowhere," more making the word out of two greek words, _ou_, "not," and _topos_, "place") was the name of the ideal state he described, and ever since such imaginary states where all goes well have been described as "utopias." then, again, a scene or place in a great book may be so splendidly described, and interest people so much, that it, too, comes to be used in a general way. people often use the name _vanity fair_ to describe a frivolous way of life. but the original _vanity fair_ was, of course, one of the places of temptation through which christian had to pass on his way to the heavenly city in john bunyan's famous book, the "pilgrim's progress." another of these places was the _slough of despond_, which is now quite generally used to describe a condition of great discouragement and depression. the adjective _lilliputian_, meaning "very small," comes from _lilliput_, the land of little people in which gulliver found himself in swift's famous book, "gulliver's travels." then many common expressions are taken from characters in well-known books. we often speak of some one's _man friday_, meaning a right-hand man or general helper; but the original man friday was, of course, the savage whom robinson crusoe found on his desert island, and who acted afterwards as his servant. in describing a person as _quixotic_ we do not necessarily think of the original don quixote in the novel of the great spanish writer, cervantes. don quixote was always doing generous but rather foolish things, and the adjective _quixotic_ now describes this sort of action. a quite different character, the jew in shakespeare's play, "the merchant of venice," has given us the expression "a shylock." from dickens's famous character mrs. gamp in "martin chuzzlewit," who always carried a bulgy umbrella, we get the word _gamp_, rather a vulgar name for "umbrella." we speak of "a sherlock holmes" when we mean to describe some one who is very quick at finding out things. sherlock holmes is the hero of the famous detective stories of conan doyle. it is a very great testimony to the power of a writer when the names of persons or places in his books become in this way part of the english language. chapter vii. words the bible has given us. a great english historian, writing of the sixteenth century, once said, "the english people became the people of a book." the book he meant was, of course, the bible. when england became protestant the people found a new interest in the bible. in catholic times educated people, like priests, had read the bible chiefly in latin, though the new testament had been translated into english. but most of the people could not even read. they knew the bible stories only from the sermons and teaching of the priests, and from the great number of statues of biblical kings and prophets which covered the beautiful churches of the middle ages. but the new protestant teachers were much more enthusiastic about the bible. many of them found the whole of their religion in its pages, and were constantly quoting texts of scripture. new translations of the new testament were made, and at last, in , the wonderful translation of the whole bible known as the "authorised version," because it was the translation ordered and approved by the government, was published. about the same time a translation into english was made for catholics, and this was hardly less beautiful. it is known as the "douai bible" because it was published at douai by catholics who had fled from england. from that time the bible has been the book which english people have read most, and it has had an immense influence on the english language. even in the middle ages the bible had given many new words to the language. names of eastern animals, trees, and plants, etc., like _lion_, _camel_, _cedar_, _palm_, _myrrh_, _hyssop_, _gem_, are examples of new words learned from the bible at this time. but the translations of the bible in the reformation period had a much greater effect than this. many words which were already dying out were used by the translators, and so kept their place in the english language. examples of such words are _apparel_ and _raiment_ for "clothes." these words are not used so often as the more ordinary word _clothes_ even now, but it is quite probable that they would have passed out of use altogether if the translators of the bible had not saved them. there are many words of this sort which were saved in this way, but they are chiefly used in poetry and "fine" writing. we do not speak of the "firmament" in an ordinary way; but this word, taken from the first chapter of the bible, is still used as a more poetical name for _sky_. but the translators of the bible must also be put among the makers of new english words. sometimes the translator could not find what he considered a satisfactory word to express the meaning of the greek word he wished to translate. he, therefore, made a new word, or put two old words together to express exactly what he thought the greek word meant. the word _beautiful_ may not have been actually invented by the translator, william tyndale, but it is not found in any book earlier than his translation of the new testament. it seems a very natural and necessary word to us now. it was tyndale who first used the words _peacemaker_ and _scapegoat_ and the compound word _long-suffering_; and another famous translator, miles coverdale, who invented the expressions _loving-kindness_ and _tender mercy_. but the great effect which the bible has had on the english language is not in the preserving of old words and the making of new. its chief effect has been in the way many of its expressions and phrases have passed into everyday use, so that people often use biblical phrases without even knowing that they are doing so, just as we saw was the case with many phrases taken from shakespeare's works. every one knows the expression to _cast pearls before swine_, and its meaning, "to give good things to people who are too ignorant to appreciate them." this expression, taken from the gospel of st. matthew, has now become an ordinary english expression. the same is the case with the expression, _the eleventh hour_, meaning "just in time." but perhaps not every one who uses it remembers that it comes from the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, though, of course, most people would. other common biblical expressions are, _a labour of love_, _to hope against hope_, _the shadow of death_, and so on. when a child is described as the _benjamin_ of the family, we know that this means the youngest and best loved, because the story of jacob's love for benjamin is familiar to every one. again, when a person is described as a _pharisee_ no one needs to have a description of his qualities, for every one knows the story of the pharisee and the publican. the bible is, of course, full of the most poetical ideas and the most vivid language, and the fact that this language has become the everyday speech of englishmen has been most important in the development of the english language. without the bible, which is full of the richness and colour of eastern things and early peoples, the english language might have been much duller and less expressive. but the religious writers of the reformation period gave us another kind of word besides those found in the translations of the bible. many of these writers thought it was their duty to abuse the people who did not agree with them on the subject of religion. tyndale himself, who invented such beautiful words in his translations, was the first to use the word _dunce_. he called the catholics by this name, which he made out of the name of a philosopher of the middle ages called duns scotus. the protestants despised the catholic or scholastic philosophy. but duns scotus was quite a clever man in his day, and it is curious that his name should have given us the word _dunce_, which became quite a common word as time went on. other new words which the protestants used against the catholics were _romish_, _romanist_ (which luther had used, but which coverdale was the first to use in english), _popery_, _popishness_, _papistical_, _monkish_, all of which are still used to-day, and still have an anti-catholic meaning. it was then that rome was first described as _babylon_, the meaning of the protestants being that the city was as wicked as ancient babylon, the name of which is used as a type of all wickedness in the apocalypse, and these writers often used the words _babylonian_ and _babylonish_ instead of _roman_. the name _scarlet woman_, also taken from the apocalypse, was also often used to describe the catholic church. the expression _roman catholic_, to which no one objects, was invented later, at the time that it was thought that charles i. was going to marry a spanish princess, and, of course, a catholic. it was invented as being more polite than the terms by which the protestants had so often abused the catholics, and it has been used ever since. other new words came from the breaking up of protestantism into different sects. _puritan_ was the name given to those who wished to "purify" the protestant religion from all the old ceremonies of catholicism. the calvinists (or followers of the french reformer, john calvin) believed that souls were "predestined" to go to heaven or to be lost. the people who were predestined to be lost they described as _reprobate_, and this word we still use, but with a different meaning. a reprobate nowadays is a person who is looked upon as hopelessly bad, and the word is also sometimes used jokingly. the name _protestant_ itself is interesting. it was first used to describe the lutherans, who "protested" against, and would not agree with, the decisions made by the emperor charles v. on the subject of religion. the names of the different forms of protestantism are often very interesting, and were, of course, new words invented to describe the different forms of belief. the first great division was between the _lutherans_ and the _calvinists_. the meaning of these names is plain. they were merely the followers of martin luther and john calvin. but later on there were many divisions, such as the _baptists_, who were so called because they thought that people should not be baptized until they were grown up. they also administered the sacrament in a different way from most other churches, the person baptized being dipped in the water. at one time these people were called _anabaptists_, _ana_ being the greek word for "again." but this was supposed to be a term of abuse similar to those showered on the roman catholics, and in time it died out. then there were the _independents_, who were so called because they believed that each congregation should be independent of every other. perhaps the most peculiar name applied to one of the many sects in the england of the seventeenth century was that of the _quakers_. this, too, was a name of abuse at first; but the "society of friends," to whom it was applied, came sometimes to use it themselves. they were a people who believed in great simplicity of life and manners and dress, and had no priests. at their religious meetings silence was kept until some one was moved to speak. the name was taken from the text, "quaking at the word of the lord." the names chosen by religious leaders, and those applied to the sects by their enemies, can teach us a great deal of history. chapter viii. words from the names of people. many words have been taken from the names of people, saints and sinners, men who have helped on human progress and men who have tried to stand in its way, from queens and kings and nobles, and from quite humble people. one large group of words has been made from the names of great inventors. all through history men have been inventing new things. we realize this if we think of what england is like to-day, and what it was like in the days of the early britons. but even by the time of the early britons many things had been invented which the earlier races of men had not known. perhaps the greatest inventor the world has ever known was the man who first discovered how to make fire; but we shall never know who he was. the people who discovered how to make metal weapons instead of the stone weapons which early men used were great inventors too; and those who discovered how to grow crops of corn and wheat, and so gave new food to the human race. but all this happened in times long past, before men had any idea of writing down their records, and so these inventors have not left their names for us to admire. but in historical times, and especially in the centuries since the renaissance, there have been many inventors, and it will be interesting to see how the things they invented got their names. the word _inventor_ itself means a "finder," and comes to us from the latin word _invenio_, "i find." the greatest number of inventions have been made in the last hundred and fifty years. the printing-press was, of course, a great invention of the fifteenth century, but it was simply called the _printing-press_, and did not take the name of its inventor. yet this was a new name too, for the people of the middle ages would not have known what a printing-press was. several early printers have, however, had their names preserved in the description of the beautiful books they produced. all lovers of rare books are admirers of what they call _aldines_ and _elzevirs_--that is, books printed at the press of aldo manuzio and his family at venice in the sixteenth century, and by the elzevir family in holland in the seventeenth century. we speak of a _bradshaw_ and a _baedeker_ to describe the best-known of all railway guides and guide-books. the first takes its name from george bradshaw, a map engraver, who was born in manchester in , and lived there till he died, in . in he published on his own account "bradshaw's railway time table," of which he changed the name to "railway companion" in the next year. he corrected it a few days after the beginning of each month by the railway time sheets, but even then the railway companies sometimes made changes later in the month. in a short time, however, the companies agreed to fix their time tables monthly, and in december bradshaw was able to publish the first number of "bradshaw's monthly railway guide." six years afterwards he published the first number of "bradshaw's continental railway guide." the famous series of guides now called _baedekers_ take their name from karl baedeker, a german publisher, who in the first half of the nineteenth century began to publish this famous series. members of parliament still speak of the volumes containing the printed record of what goes on in parliament as _hansard_. this name comes from that of the first publisher of such records, luke hansard, who was printer to the house of commons from until he died, in . his family continued to print the reports as late as , and though the work is now shared by other firms, the name is still kept. not only books but musical instruments are frequently called after their makers. the two most famous and valuable kinds of old violins take their names from the italian family of the amati, who made violins in the sixteenth century, and antonio stradivari, who was their pupil. an _amati_ and a _stradivarius_, often called a "strad" for short, are the names now given by musicians to the splendid old violins made by these people. the names of many flowers have been taken from the names of persons, and this still goes on to-day when new varieties of roses or sweet peas are called after the person who first grew them, or some friend of this person. these modern names are not, as a rule, very romantic, but some of the older ones are interesting. the _dahlia_, for instance, was called after dahl, a swedish botanist, who was a pupil of the great botanist linnæus, after whom the chief botanical society in england, the _linnæan society_, is called. the _lobelia_ was so called after matthias de lobel, a flemish botanist and physician to king james i. the _fuchsia_ took its name from leonard fuchs, a sixteenth-century botanist, the first german who really studied botany. there are many more new things and names to-day than in earlier times, names which our grand-parents and even our parents did not know when they were children. we talk familiarly now about _aeroplanes_ and the different kinds of aeroplanes, such as the _monoplane_, _biplane_, etc. but these are new names invented in the last twenty years. some of the names of airships and aeroplanes are very interesting. the _taube_, for instance, is so called from the german word meaning "dove," because it looks very like a bird when it is up in the sky. the great german airships called _zeppelins_ took their name from the german count zeppelin, who invented them; and the splendid french airships called _fokkers_ also take their name from their inventor, and so does the _gotha_--name of ill-fame. the man who first discovered gunpowder is forgotten, but many of the powerful guns which are used in modern warfare are called after their inventors. the _gatling gun_ is not much talked of to-day, but it was a famous gun in its time, and took its name from the american inventor, richard jordan gatling, who lived in the early nineteenth century, and devoted his life to inventions. some were peaceable inventions, like machines for sowing cotton and rice; but he is best remembered by the great gun to which he gave his name. another famous gun of which we have heard a great deal in the great war is the _maxim gun_, which again took its name from its inventor, sir hiram maxim. the _shrapnel_, of which also so much was heard in the great war, the terrible shells which burst a certain time after leaving the gun without striking against anything, took its name from its inventor. the chief peculiarity of shrapnel is that the bullets fall from above in a shower from the shell as it bursts in the air. but there are many other names which we should not easily guess to come from the names of inventors. people talk of a macadamized road without knowing that these roads are so called because they are made in the way invented by john m'adam, who lived from to . the name _macadam_ is often used now to denote the material used in making roads. sometimes this material is of a sort which john m'adam would not have approved of at all, for he did not believe in pouring a fluid material over the stones, or in the heavy rollers which are now often used in making new roads. another useful article, the homely _mackintosh_, takes its name from that of another scotsman, charles macintosh, who lived at the same time as m'adam. it was he who first, in , finished the invention of a waterproof cloth. in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many great discoveries were made in science, and many names of discoverers and inventors have been preserved in scientific words. _galvanism_, one branch of electricity, took its name from luigi galvani, an italian professor, who made great discoveries about electricity in the bodies of animals. every one has heard of a galvanic battery, but not everybody knows how it got its name. _mesmerism_, or the science by which the human mind is influenced by suggestions from itself or another mind, took its name from friedrich anton mesmer, who first made great discoveries about animal magnetism. another famous discoverer of the powers of electricity, and one who is still a young man, is guglielmo marconi, a native of bologna. it was he who invented the great system of wireless telegraphy which is now used in nearly all big ships. in he first succeeded in sending a message in this way from england to france, and in the next year he sent one right across the atlantic. now ships frequently send a _marconigram_ home when they are right in the middle of the ocean; and many lives have been saved through ships in distress having been able to send out wireless messages which have brought other vessels steaming up to their aid. in fact, this invention of marconi's is, perhaps, the greatest of all modern inventions, and it is but right that it should preserve his name. a different kind of invention has preserved the name of the fourth earl of sandwich, an eighteenth-century nobleman, who was so fond of card games that he could not bear to leave the card table even to eat his meals, and so invented what has ever since been called by his name--the _sandwich_. not unlike the origin of the name sandwich is that of _abernethy_ biscuits, so called after the doctor who invented the recipe for making them. it was another doctor, the french physician, joseph ignace guillotin, who gave his name to the _guillotine_, the terrible knife with which people were beheaded in thousands during the french revolution. guillotin did not really invent it, nor was he himself guillotined, as has often been said. the guillotine is supposed to have been invented long ago in persia, and was used in the middle ages both in italy and germany. the frenchman whose name it bears was a kindly person, who merely advised this method of execution at the time of the french revolution, because he thought, and rightly, that if people were to be beheaded at all, it should be done swiftly and not clumsily. but many things are called by the names of persons who were not inventors at all. sometimes a new kind of clothing is called after some great person just to make it seem distinguished. a _chesterfield_ overcoat is so called because the tailor who first gave this kind of coat that name wished to suggest that it had all the elegance displayed in the clothing of the famous eighteenth-century dandy, the fourth earl of chesterfield. so the well-known _raglan_ coats and sleeves took their name first from an english general, baron raglan, who fought in the crimean war. both wellington and blücher, the two generals who fought together and defeated napoleon at waterloo, gave their names to different kinds of boots. _bluchers_ are strong leather half boots or high shoes, and _wellingtons_ are high riding boots reaching to the bend of the knee at the back of the leg, and covering the knee in front. wellington is supposed to have worn such boots in his campaigns. another article of clothing which was very popular with ladies at one time was the _garibaldi_ blouse, which was so called after the red shirts which were worn by the followers of the famous soldier who won liberty for italy, garibaldi. the rather vulgar name for ladies' divided skirts--_bloomers_--came from the name of an american woman, mrs. amelia jenks bloomer, who used to wear a skirt which reached to her knee, and then was divided into turkish trousers tied round her ankles. a great many different kinds of carriages and vehicles have been called by the names of people. the _brougham_, which is still a favourite form of closed carriage, got its name from lord brougham. the old four-wheeled carriage with a curved glass front got its name from the duke of clarence, who afterwards became king william iv.; and the carriage known as the _victoria_ was so called as a compliment to queen victoria. we do not hear much of this kind of carriage now; but the two-wheeled cab known as the _hansom_ is still to be seen in the streets of london, in spite of the coming of the taxicab. this form of conveyance took its name from an architect who invented it in . an earlier kind of two-wheeled carriage invented a few years before this, but which was displaced by the hansom, was the _stanhope_, also called after its inventor. the general name for a two-wheeled carriage of this sort used to be the _phaeton_, and this was not taken from any person, but from the sun-chariot in which, according to the old greek story, the son of helios rode to destruction when he had roused the anger of the great greek god, zeus. the names of old greeks and romans have given us many words. we speak of a very rich man as a _croesus_, a word which was the name of a fabulously rich tyrant in ancient greece. a person who is supposed to be a great judge of food, and devoted to the pleasures of the table, is called an _epicure_, from the old greek philosopher epicurus, who taught that the chief aim of life was to feel pleasure. the word _cynic_, too, comes from the name given to certain greek philosophers who despised pleasure. the name was originally a nickname for these philosophers, and was taken from the greek word _kunos_, "dog." we describe a person who chooses to live a very hard life as a _spartan_, because the people of the old greek state of sparta planned their lives so that every one should be disciplined and drilled to make good soldiers, and were never allowed to indulge in too much comfort or too many amusements, lest they should become lazy in mind and weak in body. a _draconian_ system of law is one which has no mercy, and preserves the name of draco, a statesman who was appointed to draw up laws for the athenians six hundred and twenty-one years before the birth of our lord, and who drew up a very strict code of laws. the word _mausoleum_, which is now used to describe any large or distinguished tomb, comes from the tomb built for mausolus, king of caria (in greek asia minor), by his widow, artemisia, in b.c. the tomb itself, which rises to a height of over one hundred and twelve feet, is now to be seen in the british museum. the verb _to hector_, meaning "to bully," is taken from the name of the trojan hero hector, in the famous old greek poem, the iliad. hector was not, as a matter of fact, a bully, but a very brave man, and it is curious that his name should have come to be used in this unpleasant sense. the other great greek poem, the odyssey, has given us the name of one of its characters for a fairly common english word. a _mentor_ is a person who gives us wise advice, but the original mentor was a character in this great poem, the wise counsellor of telemachus. from the names of great romans, too, we have many words. if we describe a person as a _nero_, every one knows that this means a cruel tyrant. nero was the worst of all the roman emperors, and the story tells that he was so heartless that he played on his violin while watching the burning of rome. some people even said that he himself set the city on fire. again, the name of julius cæsar, who was the first imperial governor of rome, though he was never called emperor, has given us a common name. _cæsar_ came to mean "an emperor;" and the modern german _kaiser_ and the russian _tsar_ come from this name of the "noblest roman of them all." an earlier roman was fabius cunctator (or "fabius the procrastinator"), a general who, instead of fighting actual battles with the carthaginian hannibal, the great enemy of rome, preferred to tire him out by keeping him waiting and never giving battle. his name has given us the word _fabian_, to describe this kind of tactics. the name by which people often describe an unscrupulous politician now is _machiavellian_, an adjective made from the name of a great writer on the government of states. at the time of the renaissance in italy, machiavelli, in his famous book called "the prince," took it for granted that every ruler would do anything, good or bad, to arrive at the results he desired. another common word taken at first from politics, but now used in a general sense, is _boycott_. to boycott a person means to be determined to ignore or take no notice of him. a child may be "boycotted" by disagreeable companions at school. another expression for the same disagreeable method is to "send to coventry." but the political boycotting from which the word passed into general use took place in ireland, when any one with whose politics the irish did not agree was treated in this way. the first victim of this kind of treatment was captain boycott of county mayo in . so useful has this word been found that both the french and germans have borrowed it. the french have now the word _boycotter_, and the germans _boycottieren_. another irish name which has given us a common word is burke. sometimes in a discussion one person will tell another that he _burkes_ the question. this means that he is avoiding the real subject of debate. or a rumour may be _burked_, or "hushed up." in this way the subject is, as it were, smothered. and it was from this meaning that the name came to be used as a general word. william burke was an irish labourer who was executed in , when he was found guilty of having murdered several people. his habit had been to smother them, so that their bodies did not show how they had died, and sell their bodies to a doctor for dissection. from this dreadful origin we have the new use of this fine old irish name. people who love books are often very indignant when the editors of a new edition of an old book think it proper to leave out certain passages which they think are indecent or unsuitable for people to read. this is called "expurgating" the book; but people who disapprove often call it to _bowdlerize_. this word comes from the name of dr. thomas bowdler, who in published an edition of shakespeare's works in which, as he said, "those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." sometimes a badly-dressed or peculiar-looking person is described as a _guy_. this word comes from the name of guy fawkes, the gunpowder plotter, through the effigies, or "guys," which are often burned in bonfires on november th. certain christian names have, for reasons which it is not easy to see, given us words which mean "fool" or "stupid person." the word _ninny_ comes from innocent. _noddy_ probably comes from nicodemus or nicholas. both these names are used to mean "foolish person" in france, and so is _benêt_, which comes from benedict. some saints' names have given us words which do not seem at first sight to have any connection with them. the word _maudlin_, by which we mean "foolishly sentimental," comes from the name of st. mary magdalen, a saint whose name immediately suggests to us sorrow and weeping. the word _maudlin_ suggests the idea of being ready to weep unnecessarily. in this way a word describing a disagreeable quality is taken from the name of one of the most honoured saints. the word _tawdry_, by which we mean cheap and showy things with no real beauty, comes from st. audrey, another name for st. etheldreda, who founded ely cathedral. in the middle ages st. audrey's fair used to be held at ely, and as fairs are always full of cheap and showy things, it was from this that the word _tawdry_ came. _st. anthony's fire_ is a well-known name for erysipelas, and _st. vitus's dance_ for another distressing disease. these names came from the fact that these saints used to be chosen out as the special patrons of people suffering from such diseases. in the same way the disease which used to be called the _king's evil_ was so named because people formerly believed that persons suffering from it would be cured if touched by the hands of the king or the queen. on certain occasions, even down to the time of queen anne, english kings and queens "touched" crowds of sufferers from this disease. so in these words taken from the names of people we may read many a story of love and sorrow and wonder, of disgust and every human passion. chapter ix. words from the names of animals. it is easy to see how names of persons have sometimes changed into general words. but we have also a great number of general words which are taken from animals' names. most often these words are used to describe people's characters. sometimes people are merely compared with the animals whose qualities they are supposed to have, and sometimes they are actually called by the names of these animals. thus we may say that a person is "as sly as a fox," or we may call him an "old fox," and every one understands the same thing by both expressions. the cause of this continual comparison of human beings with animals is that long ago, when these expressions first began to be used, animals, and especially wild animals, played a great part in the lives of the people. in the middle ages great parts of england, now dotted over with big towns, were covered with forest land. wolves roamed in the woods, and the fighting of some wild animals and the taming of others formed a most important part of people's lives. the same thing was, of course, the case in other countries. so familiar were people in those days with animals that they thought of them almost as human beings and believed that they had their own languages. it was people who believed these things who made up many of the old fairy tales about animals--stories like "red riding hood" and the "three bears." we often say that we are "as hungry as a wolf;" but we who have never seen wolves except behind the bars of their cages at the zoological gardens do not know how hungry a wild wolf can be. those, however, who first used this expression thought of the lean and hungry wolves who prowled round the farms and cottages in the hard winter weather, driven by starvation to men's very doors. we also have the expression, "a wolf in sheep's clothing." by this we mean a person who is really dangerous and harmful, but who puts on a harmless and gentle manner to deceive his victim. another use of the word _wolf_ is as a verb, meaning to eat in a very quick and greedy manner, as we might imagine a hungry wolf would do, and as our forefathers knew by experience that they did do. most of the people who use the names of the wolf and the fox in these ways do not know anything of the habits of these animals, but the expressions have become part of the common language. the same thing is, of course, true about the lion, with which even our far-off english ancestors had never to fight. but the lion is such a fierce and magnificent animal that it naturally appeals to our imagination, and we find numerous comparisons with it, chiefly in poetical language. we say a soldier is as "brave as a lion," or describe him as a "lion in the fight." a less complimentary comparison is an expression we often hear, "as stubborn as a mule." only a few of the people who use this expression can have had any experience of the stubbornness of mules. sometimes a stubborn person is described quite simply as a "mule." another compliment of the same sort is to call a person who seems to us to be acting stupidly a "donkey." we may say a person is as "greedy as a pig," or describe him with disgust as a "pig," which may mean either that they are very greedy or that they are behaving in a very ungracious or unmannerly way. a more common description of a person of this sort is "a hog." every one has heard of the "road hogs," who drive their motors regardless of other people's convenience or safety; and of the "food hogs," who tried to store up food, or refused to ration themselves, and so shortened other people's supplies of food in the great war. other common expressions comparing people with animals are--"sulky as a bear," "gay as a lark," "busy as a bee." we might also call a cross person a "bear," but should not without some explanation call a person a "lark" or a "bee." we may say a person "chatters like a magpie," or we may call him or her a "magpie." a person who talks without thinking, merely repeating what other people have said, is often called a "parrot." sometimes names of common animals or birds used to describe people are complimentary, but more often they are not. it seems as though the people who made these metaphors were more eloquent in anger than in love. a very nice child will be described by its friends as a "little duck." a mischievous child may also be described good-temperedly as a "monkey;" but there are far more words of abuse taken from the names of animals than more or less amiable words like these. a bad-tempered woman is described as a "vixen," or female fox; a lazy person as a "drone," or the bee which does no work. a stupid person may be called a "sheep" or a "goose" (which is not quite so insulting). _dog_, _hound_, _cur_, and _puppy_ are all used as words of abuse; and contempt for some one who is regarded as very mean-spirited is sometimes shown by describing such a person as a "worm," or worse, if possible, a "reptile." a "bookworm," on the other hand, the name of a little insect which lives in books and eats away at paper and bindings, is applied to people who love books in another way--great readers--and is, of course, not at all an uncomplimentary word. a foolish person who has been easily deceived in some matter is often described as a "gull," or is said to have been "gulled." _gull_ is now the name of a sea-bird, but in early english it was used to describe any young bird, and from the idea that it is easy to deceive such youngsters came the use of the word to describe foolish people. another name of a bird used with almost the opposite meaning is _rook_. this name is given to people who are constantly cheating others, especially at card games. it was earlier used, like _gull_, to describe the person cheated. it then came to be used as a verb meaning "to cheat," and from this was used to describe the person cheating instead of the person cheated. other names of birds not quite so common used to describe stupid people are _dotterel_ and _dodo_. the dotterel is a bird which is very easily caught, and it was from this fact that it got its name, which comes from _dote_, to be "silly" or "feeble-minded." when the name of the bird is used to describe a silly person, the word is really, as an interesting writer on the history of words says, turning "a complete somersault." the same is the case with _dodo_, which is also used, but not so often, to describe a stupid person. this bird also got its name from a word which meant "foolish." it comes from the portuguese word _doudo_, which means "simpleton." we have a few verbs also taken from the names of animals and birds. we say a person "apes" another when he tries to imitate him. this word comes, of course, from the fact that the ape is always imitating any action performed by other people. a person who follows another persistently is said to "dog" his steps. this expression comes, of course, from the fact of dogs following their masters. another expression is to "hound" a person to do something, by which we mean persecute him. this comes from the idea of a hound tracking its victim down. another of these words which has the idea of persecution is _badger_. when some one constantly talks about a subject which is unpleasant to another, or continually tries to persuade him to do something against his will, he is said to be "badgering" him. the badger is an animal which burrows into the ground in winter, and dogs are set to worry it out of its hiding-place. the badger is the victim and not the persecutor, as we might think from the use of the verb. the verb _henpeck_, to describe the teasing of her husband by a disagreeable wife, comes, of course, from the idea of the continual pecking of a hen. many common articles are named after animals which they resemble in some way. a "ram" is an instrument, generally of wood, used to drive things into place by pressure. in olden days war-ships used to have a "battering-ram," or projecting beak, at their prow, with which to "ram" other vessels. the romans called such a beak an _aries_, which is the latin for "ram," a male sheep. this was probably from the habit of rams butting an enemy with their horns. the romans often had the ends of their battering-rams carved into the shape of the head of a ram. a "ramrod" gets its name from the same idea. it is an instrument for pressing in the ammunition when loading the muzzle of a gun. the word "ram" has now several more general uses. we speak of a person "ramming" things into a drawer or bag when we mean pushing them hastily and untidily into too small a place. or a man may "ram" his hat down on his head. again, we may have a lesson or unpleasant fact "rammed" into us by some one who is determined to make the subject clear whether we want to hear about it or not. and all this comes from the simple idea of the ram butting people whom it considers unpleasant. more commonplace instruments having animals' names are the "clothes'-horse" and "fire-dogs." we have other words, which we should not guess to be from animals' names, but which really are so. we say that a person who is always changing his mind, and wanting first one thing and then another, is "capricious." or we speak of a curious or unreasonable desire as a "caprice." these words really come from the latin name for a goat--_caper_. the mind of the capricious person skips about just like a goat. at least that is what the word _capricious_ literally says about him. the word _caper_, meaning to "jump about playing tricks," comes from the latin word _capra_, a "she-goat." the word _coward_ comes from the name of an animal, but _not_ the cow. in a famous french story of the middle ages, in which all the characters are animals, the "roman de renard," the hare is called _couard_, and it is from this that the word _coward_ ("one who runs away from danger") comes. all these words from the names of animals take us back, then, to the days when every man was a kind of naturalist. in those early days, when town life hardly existed, everybody knew all about animals and their habits. their conversation was full of this sort of thing. and so it is that in hundreds of our words which we use to-day, without thinking of the literal meaning at all, we have a picture of the lives of our ancestors preserved. we have, too, words taken from the names of some animals which never existed at all. the writers of the middle ages told many tales or fables of animals and monsters which were purely imaginary, but in which the people of those days firmly believed. we sometimes hear people use the expression a "basilisk glare," which other people would describe as a "look that kills," meaning a look of great severity or displeasure. there is a little american lizard which zoologists call the "basilisk," but this is not the basilisk from which this expression comes. the basilisk which the people of the middle ages imagined, but which never existed, was a monstrous reptile hatched by a serpent from a cock's egg. by its breath or even its look it could destroy all who approached it. another invention of the middle ages was the bird called the "phoenix." we now use the word _phoenix_ to describe some one who is unique in some good quality. a commoner way of expressing the same idea would be that "there is no one like him." it was believed in the middle ages that only one of these wonderful birds could exist in the world at one time. the story was that the phoenix, after living through five or six hundred years in the arabian desert, prepared a funeral pile for itself, and was burned to death, but rose again, youthful and strong as ever, from the ashes. in these words we are reminded once again of another side of the life of our ancestors. chapter x. words from the names of places. we have already seen something of the stories which the names of places, old and new, can tell us. but the names of places themselves often give us new words, and from these, too, we can learn many interesting facts. many manufactured things, and especially woven cloths, silks, etc., are called by the name of the place from which they come, or from which they first came. _cashmere_, a favourite smooth woollen material, is called after cashmir, in india. _damask_, the material of which table linen is generally made, takes its name from damascus; as does _holland_, the light brownish cotton stuff used so much for children's frocks and overalls, from holland, and the rough woollen material known as _frieze_ from friesland. _cambric_, the fine white material often used for handkerchiefs, takes its name from cambrai in france, the place where it was first made. the word _cambric_, however, came into english from _kamerijk_, the dutch name for cambrai. so the other fine material known as _lawn_ got its name from laon, another french town. another fine material of this kind, _muslin_, takes its name from mussolo, a town in mesopotamia, from which this kind of material first came. another commoner kind of stuff is _fustian_, made of cotton, but thick, with a short nap, and generally dyed a dark colour. the word _fustian_ has also come to be used figuratively to describe a showy manner of speaking or writing, or anything which tries to appear better than it is. the word comes from fustat, a suburb of cairo. a more substantial material, _tweed_, which is largely made in scotland, really takes its name from people pronouncing _twill_ badly; but the form _tweed_ spread more quickly because people associated the material with the country beyond the river tweed. another kind of stuff which we generally associate with scotland is _tartan_, because this woollen stuff, with its crossed stripes of different colours, is chiefly used for scottish plaids and kilts, especially of the highland regiments. but the word _tartan_ does not seem to be a scottish word, and probably comes from _tartar_, which was formerly used to describe almost any eastern people. perhaps the fact that eastern peoples love bright colours caused this name to be given to these bright materials, though there is nothing at all eastern in the designs of the scottish tartans. another material with an eastern name is _sarcenet_, or _sarsenet_, a soft, silky stuff now chiefly used for linings. often in tales of olden times we read of people hiding behind the "arras." this was a wall covering of tapestry, often hung sufficiently far from the wall to leave room for a person to pass. the word _arras_ comes from arras, a town in france, which was famous for its beautiful tapestries. we know the word _tabby_ chiefly as the name of a kind of striped cat, but this use of the word came from the old french word _tabis_, and described a material with marks which the markings on a "tabby" cat resemble. the french word came from the arab word _utabi_, which perhaps came from the name of a suburb of the famous city of baghdad. _worsted_, the name of a certain kind of knitting-wool, comes from the name of the town of worstead, in norfolk. the close-fitting woollen garments worn by sailors and often by children are known as _jerseys_--a word which is taken from the name of one of the channel islands, jersey. sometimes, but not so commonly, they are called _guernseys_, from the name of the chief of the other channel islands, guernsey. another piece of wearing apparel, the turkish cap known as a _fez_, gets its name, perhaps, from fez, a town in morocco. besides woven stuffs, many other things are called by the names of the places from which they come. _china_, the general name for very fine earthenware, is the same name as that of the great eastern country which is famous for its beautiful pottery. another kind of ornamented earthenware is the italian _majolica_, and this probably gets its name from the island of majorca; while _delf_ is the name of the glazed earthenware made at delft (which in earlier times was called "delf"), in holland. the beautiful leather much used for the bindings of books, _morocco_, takes its name from morocco, where it was first made by tanning goatskins. it is now made in several countries of europe, but it keeps its old name. another old kind of leather, but whose name is no longer used, was _cordwain_, a spanish leather for the making of shoes, which took its name from cordova in spain. _cordwainer_ was the old name for "shoemaker," and is still kept in the names of shoemakers' guilds and societies. many wines are simply called by the names (sometimes altered a little through people mispronouncing them) of the places from which they come. _champagne_ is the wine of champagne, _burgundy_ of burgundy, _sauterne_ of sauterne, _chablis_ of chablis--all french wines. _port_ takes its name from oporto, in portugal; and _sherry_, which used to be called "sherris," comes from the name of xeres, a spanish town. many less well-known wines have merely the name of the place where they are produced printed on the label, and they tend to be called by these names--such as _capri bianco vesuvio_, etc. _malmsey_, the old wine in which the duke of clarence was supposed to have been drowned when his murder was ordered by his brother, and which is also called _malvoisie_, got its name from monemvasia, a town in the peninsula of morea. not only wine but other liquids are sometimes called after the places from which they come. the oil known as _macassar_ comes from maugkasara, the name of a district in the island of celebes. this oil was at one time very much used as a dressing for the hair, and from this we get the name _antimacassar_ for the coverings which used to be (and are sometimes still) thrown over the backs of easy-chairs and couches to prevent their being soiled by such aids to beauty. _antimacassar_ means literally a "protection against macassar oil," _anti_ being the latin word for "against." the tobacco known as _latakia_ takes its name from the town called by the turks latakia, the old town of laodicea. (laodicea also gives us another common expression. we describe an indifferent person who has no enthusiasm for anything as "a laodicean," from the reproach to the church of the laodiceans, in the book of revelation in the bible, that they were "neither cold nor hot" in their religion.) both the words _bronze_ and _copper_ come from the names of places. _bronze_ is from _brundusium_, the ancient name of the south italian town which we now call brindisi. the latin name for this metal was _aes brundusinum_, or "brass of brindisi." _copper_ was in latin _aes cyprium_, or "brass of cyprus." some coins take their names from the names of places. the _florin_, or two-shilling piece, takes its name from florence. _dollar_ is the same word as the german _thaler_, the name of a silver coin which was formerly called a _joachimstaler_, from the silver-mine of joachimstal, or "joachim's dale," in bohemia. the _ducat_, a gold coin which was used in nearly all the countries of europe in the middle ages, and which was worth about nine shillings, got its name from the duchy (in italian, _ducato_) of apulia, where it was first coined in the twelfth century. it was an italian town, milan, which gave us our word _milliner_. this came from the fact that many fancy materials and ornaments used in millinery were imported from milan. many old dances take their names from places. we hear a great deal nowadays of the "morris dances" which used to be danced in england in olden times. but _morris_ comes from _morys_, an old word for "moorish." in the middle ages this word was used, like "turk" or "tartar," to describe almost any eastern people, and the name came, perhaps, from the fact that in these dances people dressed up, and so looked strange and foreign. the name of a very well-known dance, the _polka_, really means "polish woman." _mazurka_, the name of another dance, means "woman of masovia." the old-fashioned slow dance known as the _polonaise_ took its name from poland, and was really a polish dance. the well-known italian dance called the _tarantella_ took its name from the south italian town tarento. the word _canter_, which describes another kind of movement, comes from canterbury. _canter_ is only the short for "canterbury gallop," an expression which was used to describe the slow jogging pace at which many pilgrims in the middle ages rode along the canterbury road to pray at the famous shrine of st. thomas becket in that city. several fruits take their names from places. the _damson_, which used in the middle ages to be called the "damascene," was called in latin _prunum damascenum_, or "plum of damascus." the name _peach_ comes to us from the late latin word _pessica_, which was a bad way of saying "persica." _currants_ used to be known as "raisins of corauntz," or corinth raisins. _parchment_ gets its name from pergamum, a city in asia minor. _pistol_ came into english from the old french word _pistole_, and this came from an italian word, _pistolese_, which meant "made at pistoja." we do not think of _spaniels_ as foreign dogs; but the name means "spanish," having come into english from the old french word _espagneul_, with that meaning. a derivation which it would be even harder to guess is that of the word _spruce_. we now use this word to describe a kind of leather, a kind of ginger beer, and a variety of the fir tree, and also in the same sense as "spick and span." the word used to be _pruce_, and meant "prussia." the name of the famous london fish-market, _billingsgate_, has long been used to mean very violent and abusive language supposed to resemble the scoldings of the fishwomen in the market. another word describing a certain kind of speaking, and which also comes from the name of a place, is _bunkum_. when a person tells a story which we feel sure is not true, or tells a long tale to excuse himself from doing something, we often say it is all "bunkum." this word comes from the name of the american town of buncombe, in north carolina, and came into use through the member for buncombe in the house of representatives insisting on making a speech just when every one else wanted to proceed with the voting on a bill. he knew that he had nothing of importance to say, but explained that he must make a speech "for buncombe"--that is, so that the people of buncombe, who had elected him, might know that he was doing his duty by them. and so the expression _bunkum_ came into use. another word which may go with these, because it also begins with the letter _b_, is _bedlam_. we describe a scene of great noise and confusion, as when a number of children insist on talking all together, as a "perfect bedlam." the word _bedlam_ comes from bethlehem. in the middle ages there was a hospital in london kept by monks of the order of st. mary of bethlehem. in time this house came to be known as "bedlam," and as after a while the hospital came to be an asylum for mad people, this name came to be used for any lunatic asylum. from that it came to have its modern use of any great noise or confusion. the sport of shooting pheasants is very english, and few people think that the pheasant is a foreign bird, introduced into england, just as in fact the turkey, which seems to belong especially to the english christmas, came to us from america. the _pheasant_ gets its name from the river phasis, in the eastern country of pontus. it may seem peculiar that a bird coming from america should be called a _turkey_; but we saw in an earlier chapter how vague the people of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were about america. when columbus reached the shore of that continent, people thought he had sailed round by another way to the "indies." in nearly all european countries the turkey got names which show that most people thought it came from india, or at least from some part of the "indies." even in england it was called for a time "cok off inde." in italy it was _gallina d'india_ (or "indian hen"). the modern french words for male and female turkeys come from this mistake. in french the bird was at first known as _pouille d'inde_ (or "indian fowl"). the name came to be shortened into the one word _dinde_, and then, as people thought this must mean the female turkey, they made a new word for the male, _dindon_. but though so many words come from the names of places, and some of these would not seem to do so at first sight, there are other words which seem to come from place-names which do not do so at all. _brazil_ wood is found in large quantities in brazil, but the wood is not called after the country. on the contrary, the country is called after the wood. this kind of wood was already used in europe in the twelfth century, and its name is found in several european languages. when the portuguese adventurers found such large quantities in this part of south america they gave it the name of _brazil_ from the wood. the island of _madeira_ got its name in the same way, this being the word for "timber," from the latin word _materia_. again, guinea-pigs do not come from guinea, on the west coast of africa, though guinea-fowls do so. guinea-pigs really come from brazil. the name _guinea-pig_ was given to these little animals because, when the sailors brought them home, people thought they had come from africa. but in the seventeenth century a common voyage for ships was to sail from english or other european ports to the west coast of africa, where bands of poor negroes were seized or bought, and carried over the atlantic to be sold as slaves in the american "plantations." the ships naturally did not come home empty, but often people were not very clear as to whether the articles they brought back came from africa or america. again, _india ink_ comes, not from india, but from china. _indian corn_ comes from america. _sedan chairs_ had nothing to do with sedan in france, but probably take their name from the latin verb _sedere_, "to sit." in these words, as in many others, we can see that it is never safe to _guess_ the derivation of words. many of the old philologists used to do this, and then write down their guesses as facts. this caused a great deal of extra work for modern scholars, who will not, of course, accept any "derivation" for a word until they have clear proof that it is true. chapter xi. pictures in words. everybody who has thought at all about our ways of speech must have noticed that we are all constantly saying things in a way which is not literally true. we say a child is a "sunbeam in the house;" but, of course, we only mean that she is gay and happy, and cheers every one up by her merriment. or we describe some one as a "pearl among women," meaning that by her splendid qualities she is superior to most women as a pearl is to common stones. or, again, we may read in the newspaper that a statesman "spoke with sudden fire;" by which, of course, we understand that in the course of a calm speech he suddenly broke out passionately into words which showed how keenly he felt on the subject of which he was speaking. our language is full of this kind of speaking and writing, which is called "metaphorical." the word metaphor comes from two greek words meaning "to carry over." in "metaphorical" speech a name or description of one thing is transferred to another thing to which it could not apply in ordinary commonplace language. by means of metaphors we express more vividly and strikingly our feelings on any subject. we draw our metaphors from many different sources. many of them naturally come from nature, for the facts of nature are all around us. we speak of a "sea of trouble" when we feel that the spirit is overwhelmed by sadness so great that it suggests the vastness of the sea swallowing up all that it meets. or we speak of a "storm of anger," because what takes place in a person's soul in such a state is similar in some way to the confusion and force of a storm in nature. again, an expression like a "torrent of words" is made possible by our familiarity with the quick pouring forth of water in a torrent. by this expression, of course, we wish to suggest a similar quick rushing of words. other expressions of this kind are "a wave of anguish," the "sun of good fortune," and there are hundreds of which every one can think. another source from which many metaphors have come is war, which has given men some of the most vivid action possible to humankind. thus we speak of "a war of words," of a person "plunging into the fray," when we mean that he or she joins in a keen argument or quarrel. or we speak more generally of the "battle of life," picturing the troubles and difficulties of life as the obstacles against which soldiers have to fight in battle. shakespeare has the expression, "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." we have a great many metaphorical expressions taken from painting, sculpture, and other arts. thus we speak of "moulding" one's own life, picturing ourselves as sculptors, with our lives as the clay to be shaped as we will. shakespeare has a similar metaphor,-- "there's a divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." we may, he says, roughly arrange our way of life, but the final result belongs to a greater artist--god. again, we speak of "building our hopes" on a thing, of "moulding" a person's character, of the "canvas of history," imagining history as a picture of things past. we speak of a person describing something very enthusiastically as "painting it in glowing colours," and so on. we also describe the making of new words as "coining them." but not only are the sentences we make full of metaphors, but most of our words--all, in fact, except the names of the simplest things--are really metaphors themselves. the first makers of such words were speaking "in metaphor," as we should say now; but when the words passed into general use this fact was not noticed. a great many of the metaphors found in words are the same in many languages. many of them are taken from agriculture, which is, of course, after hunting, the earliest occupation of all peoples. we can easily think of many words now used in a general sense which originally applied to some simple country practice. we speak of being "goaded" to do a thing when some one persuades or threatens or irritates us into doing it. but a _goad_ was originally a spiked stick used to drive cattle forward. the word _goad_, then, as we use it now, is a real metaphor. again, we speak of our feelings being "harrowed." the word _harrow_ first meant, and still means, the drawing of a frame with iron teeth (itself called a _harrow_) over ploughed land to break up the clods. from this meaning it has come to have the figurative meaning of wounding or ruffling the feelings. another word connected with agriculture which has passed into a general sense is _glean_. we may now speak of "gleaning" certain facts or news, but to glean was originally (and still means in its literal sense) to gather the ears of corn remaining after the reapers have got in the harvest. we speak of a nation groaning under the "yoke" of a foreign tyrant, or again of the "yoke" of matrimony, and in the bible we have the text, "my yoke is easy." in these and in many other cases the word _yoke_ is used figuratively to denote something weighing on the spirit; but the original use of _yoke_, and again one which remains, was to name the wooden cross-piece fastened over the necks of two oxen, and attached to a plough or wagon which they have to draw. the word _earn_ reminds us of a time when the chief way of earning money or payment of any kind was field-labour; for this word, which means so many things now, comes from an old teutonic word meaning field-labour. the same word became in german _ernte_, which means "harvest." another common word with somewhat the same meaning as _earn_ is _gain_; and this, again, takes us back to a time when our early ancestors won their profits by the grazing of their flocks. the word _gain_ came into english from an old french word, but this word in its turn came from a teutonic word meaning to graze or pasture. the first people who used the word _earn_ for other ways of getting payment than field-labour, and the word _gain_ in a general sense, were really making metaphors. some of our commonest words take us back to a time before our ancestors even settled down to cultivate the land, or perhaps even before the days when they had learned to tame and give pasturage to their flocks. some of our simplest words contain the idea of _travelling_ or _wandering_. the word _fear_, which would not seem to have anything to do with journeying, comes from the same root-word as _fare_, the old english word for "travel." probably it came to be used because people travelling through the wild forests and swamps of europe in those far-off days found much to terrify them, and so the word _fear_ was made, containing this idea of moving from place to place. but again this was a metaphor. until after the norman conquest the word _fear_ meant a sudden or terrible happening. only later it came to mean the feeling which such an event or the expectation of it would cause. we may become tired in mind or body from many causes; but when we say we are "weary" we are literally saying that we have travelled far over difficult ground, for the word _weary_ comes from an old english word meaning this. some of our words are really metaphors showing the effect which different aspects of nature had on the men who made them. when we say we are astonished we do not mean that we are "struck by thunder," but that is what the word literally means. it comes from the latin word _attonare_, which means this. the words _astound_ and _stun_ contain the same hidden metaphor, which we use in a plainer way when we say we are "thunder-struck," meaning that we are very much surprised. in the middle ages people believed that the stars had a great effect on the lives of men. if the stars were in a certain position at the time of a person's birth, he would be lucky all his life; if in another, he was doomed to unhappiness. from this belief we still use the expression "born under a lucky star" to describe a person who seems always to be fortunate. but the same metaphor is contained in single words. we speak of an unfortunate enterprise as "ill-starred," and the metaphor is clear. but when the newspapers speak of a railway "disaster," very few people realize that they are speaking the language of the mediæval astrologers, men who studied the fortunes of nations and individuals from the stars. _disaster_ literally means such a misfortune as would be caused by adverse stars, and comes from the greek word for star, _astron_, and the latin _dis_. the words _jovial_ and _mercurial_, used to describe people of merry and lively temper, are metaphors of the same kind. a person born under the planet jupiter (the star called after the roman god jupiter or jove) was supposed to be of a merry disposition, and a person born when the planet mercury was visible in the heavens was expected to be lively and ready-witted. when we use these words now to describe people, we do not, of course, mean that they were born under any particular star, but the words are metaphors which literally do mean this. the word _auspicious_ comes from a similar source. we speak of an "inauspicious" undertaking, meaning one which seems destined to be unlucky. but really what the word _inauspicious_ says is that the "auspices are against" the undertaking. and this takes us back to roman times, when no important thing was done in the state without the magistrates "taking the auspices." this they did from observing the flight of certain birds. in war the commander-in-chief of the roman armies alone had the right to "take the auspices." we should think such a proceeding very foolish now, but in the words _auspicious_ and _inauspicious_ we are literally saying that the auspices have been favourable or unfavourable. one of the common practices of the scholars who studied astrology and other sciences in the middle ages was the search for the philosopher's stone, which they believed had the power of giving eternal youth. they would melt metals in pots for this purpose. these pots were called by the old latin name of _test_. from this word we now have the modern word _test_, used in the sense of _trial_--another metaphor from the middle ages. many common english words are really metaphors made from old english sports, such as hunting and hawking. it is curious to think how these words are chiefly used to-day by people who know nothing of these pastimes, while the people who made the words were so familiar with them that they naturally expressed themselves in this way. we speak of a person being in another's "toils," when we mean in his "power." the word _toils_ comes from the french _toiles_, meaning "cloths," and also used for the nets put round part of a wood, in which birds are being preserved for shooting, to prevent their escaping. the expression to "turn" or be "at bay," by which we mean that there is no chance of escape, but that the person in such a situation must either give in or fight, comes from hunting. the hare or the fox is said to be "at bay" when it comes to a wall or other object which prevents its running farther, and so turns and faces its pursuers. _bay_ is the deep barking of the hounds. the word _crestfallen_, by which we mean looking ashamed and depressed, comes from the old sport of cock-fighting. the bird whose crest (or tuft of hair on the head) drooped after the fight was naturally the one which had been beaten. the word _pounce_ comes from hawking, _pounces_ being the old word for a hawk's claws. the word _haggard_, which now generally means worn and sometimes a little wild-looking through grief or anxiety, was originally the name given to a hawk caught, not, like most hawks used for hawking, when it was quite young, but when it was already grown up. such a hawk would naturally have a wild look, and would never become so tame as the birds caught young. several words meaning to entice a person come from fowling. we speak of persons being "decoyed" when we mean that they are deceived into going to some dangerous place. the person who entices them away is called a "decoy;" but the first use of the word was to describe a duck trained to induce other ducks to fly or walk into nets laid over ponds by trappers. another word of this kind is _allure_, which means to persuade a person to do something by making it seem very attractive. this word really means to bring a person (originally an animal) to the "lure" or "bait" prepared to catch him. the word _trap_, which may now mean to show a person to be guilty by a trick, or to put him in the wrong in some way, is a metaphorical use. the word literally means to catch an animal in a trap. many words contain metaphors drawn from the older and simpler trades. we speak of a thing being "brand-new"--that is, as new as though just stamped with a "brand" or iron stamp. another expression which has changed its meaning a little with time used to have exactly the same meaning. we now say a person looks "spick and span" when he or she is very neatly dressed. formerly the expression was "spick and span new"--that is, as new as a spike (or spoon) just made or a chip newly cut. we may safely say that very few people who now use the expression "spick and span" have any idea of what it means literally. the metaphor is well hidden, but it is there. another metaphor, connected with metals and coins, is contained in the word _sterling_. we speak of "sterling qualities" or a "sterling character" in praising people for being straightforward and truthful, and not boastful. but the expression originally applied only to metals and coins. sterling gold or silver is gold or silver of a certain standard of purity and not mixed with too much of any base metal. even the art of the baker has given us a word with a hidden metaphor. we speak of sending out another "batch" of men to the front; but _batch_ originally meant, and still means, the loaves of bread produced at one baking. it is now used generally to describe a number of things coming together or in a set. the butcher's shop has given us the word _shambles_, by which we now mean a place of slaughter. thus we speak of a terrible battlefield as a "shambles." this metaphor is really due to a mistake. people came to think that a shambles was a singular noun meaning slaughter-house, or place where cattle were killed; but really the shambles were the benches on which the meat was spread for sale. we speak of a person being the "tool" of another, and this is a metaphor taken from the general idea of work. the "tool" is merely used by the other person for some purpose of his own, just as a workman uses his tools. the greatest poem, or book, or picture of a poet, writer, or painter is often described as a "masterpiece." this word now means a "splendid piece of work," but in the middle ages a "masterpiece" was a piece of work by which a person working at a trade showed himself sufficiently good to be allowed to be a "master." before that he was a "journeyman," and worked for a master himself, and, earlier still, an apprentice merely learning his trade. we often now use the expression to try one's "'prentice hand" on a thing when we mean that we are going to do a thing for the first time. the commonest actions have naturally given us most metaphorical words, for these were the actions of which the word-makers were most easily reminded. we speak of our passions or emotions being "kindled," taking the metaphor from the common action of lighting a fire. the two words _lord_ and _lady_ contain very homely metaphors. the lord was the "loaf-keeper," in old english _hlaford_, the person on whom the household depended for their food. the lady might even make the bread, and often did so; and the word lady comes from _hlæfdige_--_dig_ being the old english word for _knead_. the common word _maul_ may mean to beat and bruise a person, but it means more often merely to handle something carelessly and roughly. literally it means "to hit with a hammer," and comes from _maul_ or _mall_, the name of a certain very heavy kind of hammer; so that when a child is told not to "maul" a book, it is literally being told not to hit it with a heavy hammer. we have made many metaphorical words from joining together two latin words and making a new meaning. we speak of a person having an "obsession" about something when he is always thinking of one thing. but the word _obsession_ comes from the latin word _obsidere_, "to besiege;" and so in the word _obsession_ the constant thought is pictured as continually trying to gain entrance into the mind. we use the word _besiege_ in the same metaphorical sense. we speak of being "besieged" with questions, and so on. another word used now most often metaphorically comes also from this idea of siege warfare. in all fortified places there are holes at intervals along the walls of defence, through which the defenders may shoot at the attackers. these are called "loop-holes." this word is now used much oftener in a figurative sense than to describe the actual thing. when two persons are arguing and one has plainly shown the other to be wrong, we say he has "not a loophole" of escape from the other's reasoning. or if a person objects very much to doing something, and makes many excuses, every one of which is shown to be worthless, we again say he has "no loophole for escape." every child has heard of the crusades, in which the nobles and knights and soldiers of the middle ages went to fight against the turks to win back the holy sepulchre. these wars were called "crusades," from the cross which the crusaders wore as badges. the word was made from the latin word _crux_, which means "cross." but _crusade_ has now become a general word. we speak of a "temperance crusade," of a "peace crusade," and so on. the word has come to have the general meaning of efforts made by people for something which they believe to be good; but literally every person who works for such a "crusade" is a knight buckling on his armour, signed with the cross, and sallying forth to the east. this word _sally_ also comes from siege warfare. a "sally" means a rush of defenders from a besieged place, attempting to get past the besiegers by taking them by surprise. it also has the more general meaning of an excursion, such as the going forth to a crusade. it means literally a "leaping out," and comes from the latin word _salire_, "to leap." the word _sally_ is also used to mean a sudden lively remark generally rather against some person or thing. it is interesting to notice that the fish salmon also probably takes its name from this latin word meaning "to leap." any child with a dictionary can find for himself many hidden metaphors in the commonest words; and he will learn a great deal and amuse himself at the same time. chapter xii. words from national character. there is one group of metaphorical words which is specially interesting for the stories of the past which they tell us if we examine into their meaning. many names of ancient tribes and nations, and some names of modern peoples, have come to be used as general words; but the new meanings they have now tell us what other peoples have thought of the nations bearing these names in history. one of the best things that can be said about a boy or a girl is that he or she is "frank," by which we mean open and straightforward. the franks were, of course, the teutonic tribe which conquered gaul (the country we now call france) in the sixth century. unlike the english when they conquered the britons, the franks mixed with the gauls and the roman population which they conquered; but for a long time the franks were the only people who were altogether free. from this fact the word _frank_ came into use, meaning "free." a "frank" person is one who speaks out freely and without restraint. the name _frank_ has given us a word with a very pleasant meaning, but this was not the case with all the teutonic tribes which broke in upon the roman empire. a person who is very uncivilized in his manners is sometimes called a "goth." the word is often especially used to describe a person who does not appreciate pictures and books and works of art. sometimes architects will pull down beautiful old buildings to make place for new, and the people who appreciate beautiful things describe them as "goths." more often, perhaps, the word _vandal_ is used to describe such people. the goths and vandals were two of the fiercest and most barbaric of the german tribes which overran the roman empire from the third to the fifth century. they showed no respect for the beautiful buildings and the great works of art which were spread over the empire. they robbed and burned like savages, and in a few years destroyed many of the beautiful things which had been made with so much care and skill by the greek and roman artists. so deep an impression did their destructiveness make on the world of that time that their names have been handed down through sixteen centuries, and are used to-day in the unpleasant sense of wilful destroyers of beautiful things. the words _barbarian_ and _barbarous_ are used in the same way. we describe a child who behaves in a rough way as "a little barbarian," or a grown-up person without ordinary good manners as "a mere barbarian." and the word _barbarous_ has an even worse meaning. it is used to describe very coarse, uncivilized behaviour; but most often it has also the sense of cruelty as well as coarseness. thus we speak of the barbarous behaviour of the germans in belgium. but when the word _barbarous_ was first used it meant merely "foreign." to the greeks there were only two classes of people--greeks, and non-greeks or "barbarians." the name _barbarian_ meant a bearded man, and came from the greek word _barbaros_. the greeks were clean-shaven, and distinguished themselves from the "bearded" peoples who knew nothing of greek civilization. the romans conquered greece, and learned much from its civilization. to them all who were not greeks or romans were "barbarians." some roman writers, like cicero, use the word in the modern sense of unmannerly or even savage, but this was not a common use. st. paul was a roman citizen, for he belonged to tarsus, a city in asia minor which had been given full roman rights; but he was a greek by birth, and he uses the word in the greek way. he speaks of all men being equal according to the christian religion, saying, "there is neither greek nor ... barbarian, bond nor free." the word _slave_, again, contains in itself whole chapters of european history. it comes from the word _slav_. the slavs are the race of people to which the russians, poles, and many other nations in the east of europe belong. the great war has been partly fought for the freedom of the small slav nations, of which serbia is one. the slavs have a long history of oppression and tyranny behind them. they have been subject to stronger nations, such as the turks, and, in hungary, the magyars. the first "slaves" in mediæval europe belonged to this race, and the word "slave" is only another form of _slav_. the word gives us an idea of the impression which the misfortunes of the slavs made on the people of the middle ages. the words _turk_ and _tartar_ have almost the opposite meaning to _slave_ when they are used in a general sense. we call an unmanageable baby a "young turk," and in this expression we have the idea of all the trouble the turks have given the people of europe since they swarmed in from the east in the twelfth century. the word _turk_ in this sense is now generally used amusingly to describe a troublesome child; but a grown-up person with a very quick temper or very difficult to get on with is often described also, chiefly in fun, as a "tartar." tartar is the name of the race of people to which the turks, cossacks, and several other peoples belong. the name by which they called themselves was _tatar_; but europeans changed it to _tartar_, from the latin word _tartarus_, which means "hell." this gives us some idea of the impression these fierce people made on mediæval europe--an impression which is kept in memory by the present humorous use of the word. it is chiefly eastern peoples whose names have passed into common words meaning fierce and cruel people. our fairy tales are full of tales of "ogres." it is not quite certain, but it is probable that this word comes from _hungarian_. the chief people of hungary are the magyars; but the first person who used the name _hungarian_ in the sense of "ogre" probably did not know this, but thought of them as huns, or perhaps tartars, and therefore as very fierce, cruel people. the first person who is known to have used it is perrault, a french writer of fairy tales in the seventeenth century. the great war has given us another of these national names used in a new way. many people referred to the germans all through the war as the "huns." the huns were half-savage people, who in the early middle ages moved about in great hordes over europe killing and burning. they were at last conquered in east and west, and finally disappeared from history. but their name remained as a synonym for cruelty. the kaiser, in an unfortunate speech, exhorted his soldiers to make themselves as terrible as huns; and when people heard of the ill-treatment of the belgians when their country was invaded at the beginning of the war, they said that the germans had indeed behaved like the huns of long ago. the name clung to them, and during the war, when people spoke of the "huns," they generally meant the germans, and not the fierce, half-savage little men who followed their famous chief attila, plundering and burning through europe about fifteen centuries ago. another name with a somewhat similar meaning is _assassin_, which most people would not guess to have ever been the name of a collection of people. an assassin is a person who arranges beforehand to take some one by surprise and kill him. but the original assassins were an eastern people who believed that the murder of people of a religion other than their own was pleasing to their god. the arabs first called this sect by the name _hashshash_, which the scholars of the middle ages translated into the latin _assassinus_. the arab name was given because these people were great eaters of "hashish" or dry herbs. the name _arab_ itself has come to be used with a special meaning which has nothing to do with the people whose name it is. a rough little boy who spends most of his time in the streets is described as a "street arab," and this comes from the fact that we think of the arabs as a wandering people. the "street arab" is a wanderer also, of another sort. another name of a wandering people has also come to have a special meaning in english. the french word for gipsy is _bohemien_, and from this we have the english word _bohemian_. when we say a person is "a bohemian," we mean that he lives in the way he really likes, and does not care whether other people think he is quite respectable or not. it was the novelist thackeray who first used the word _bohemian_ in this sense. _bohemia_ is, of course, the name of a country in germany, but it is also used figuratively to describe the region or community in which "bohemian" or unconventional people live. the word _gipsy_ itself is used to describe a very dark person, or almost any kind of people travelling round the country in caravans. but _gipsy_ really means "egyptian." when the real gipsies first appeared in england, in the sixteenth century, people thought they came from egypt, and so gave them this name. another name often given to very dark people is _blackamoor_, a name by which negroes are sometimes described. this really means "black moor," and shows us how confused the people who first used the word were about different races of people. the moors were a quite different people from the negroes, being related to the arabs. but to some people every one who is not white is a "nigger." _nigger_ comes, of course, from _negro_. the moors inhabited a part of north-west africa. it was also a north african people, the algerians, who gave us the word _zouave_. every one has seen since the great war began pictures of the handsome and quaintly-dressed french soldiers called "zouaves." perhaps some children wondered why they wore such a strange eastern dress. it is because the zouave regiments, which are now chiefly composed of frenchmen, were originally formed from an algerian mountain tribe called the zouaves--algeria being a french possession. the name is almost forgotten as that of a foreign tribe, but has become instead the name of these light infantry french regiments. the name of the most famous of eastern nations now spread all over the world, the jews, has become a term of reproach. for hundreds of years after the spread of christianity over europe the jews were looked upon as a wicked and hateful people. in many countries they were not allowed to live at all; in others a portion of the towns was set apart for them, and they were allowed to live there because they were useful as money-lenders. naturally the jews, persecuted and distrusted, made as much profit as they could out of the people who treated them in this way. perhaps with the growth of their wealth they grew to love money for its own sake. in any case, before long the jews were looked upon as people who were decidedly ungenerous in the matter of money. everybody knows the story of the jew shylock in shakespeare's great play "the merchant of venice." nowadays a person who is not really a jew is often described contemptuously as a "jew" if he shows himself mean in money matters; and some people even use a slang expression, "to jew," meaning to cheat or be very mean over a money affair. another name of a nation which stands for dishonesty of another sort (and much more excusable) is _gascon_. the gascons are the natives of gascony, a province in the south of france. it is proverbial among other frenchmen that the gascons are always boasting, and even in english we sometimes use the word _gascon_ to describe a great boaster, while _gasconade_ is now a common term for a boastful story. another word which we use to describe this sort of thing is _romance_. we often hear the expression, "oh, he is only romancing," by which we mean that a person is saying what is not true, inventing harmless details to improve his story. the word _romance_ has now many meanings, generally containing the idea of _imagination_. a person is called "romantic" when he or she is full of imaginings of great deeds and events. or we say a person is a "romantic figure" when we mean that from his looks or speech, or from some other qualities, he seems fit for adventures. but _romance_, from which we get romantic, was at first merely an adjective used to describe the languages which are descended from the latin language, like french, italian, and spanish. in the middle ages scholars wrote in latin, but poets and taletellers began to write in the language of the people--the _romance_ languages in france and italy. the tales of adventure and things which we should now call "romantic" were written in the "romance" languages; and from being used to describe the language, the word came to be used to describe the kind of story contained in these poems and tales. gradually the words _romantic_ and _romance_ got the meaning which they have to-day. we have seen in another chapter that we have a number of words taken from the names of persons in ancient history. we have also a modern and special use of words formed from the names of some of the ancient nations. we saw that we use the word _spartan_ to describe any very severe discipline, or a person who willingly uses such discipline for himself. there are several other such names used in a more or less complimentary way. we speak of "roman" firmness, and every one who has read roman history will agree that this is a good use of the word. on the other hand, we have the expression "punic faith" to describe treachery. the romans had had many reasons for mistrusting their great enemy, the carthaginians, and they used this expression, _fides punica_, which we have simply borrowed from the latin. we use the expression "attic (or athenian) salt" to describe a very refined wit or humour. the romans used the word _sal_, or "salt," in this sense of _wit_, and their expression _sal atticum_ shows the high opinion they had of the athenians, from whom, indeed, they learned much in art and in literature. it is this same expression which we use to-day, having borrowed and translated it also from the latin. we speak of a "parthian shot" when some one finishes a conversation or an argument with a sharp or witty remark, leaving no chance for an answer. this expression comes from the story of the parthians, a people who lived on the shores of the caspian sea, and were famous as good archers among the ancient nations. the way in which the names of nations and peoples have taken on more general meanings gives us many glimpses into history. chapter xiii. words made by war. since the earliest ages men have made war on one another, and we have a great crowd of words, new and old, connected with war. some of these are very simple words, especially the names of early weapons; some are more elaborate and more interesting in their derivation. the chief of all weapons, the sword, has its simple name from the old english language itself, and so has the spear. but it was after the norman conquest of england that war became more elaborate, with armoured knights and fortified towers, and nearly all the names connected with war of this sort come to us from the french of that time. the word _war_ itself comes from the old french word _werre_. _battle_, too, comes from the french of this time; and so do _armour_, _arms_, _fortress_, _siege_, _conquer_, _pursue_, _tower_, _banner_, and many other words. all of these words came into french originally from latin. _knight_, however, is an old english word. the french word for knight, _chevalier_, never passed into english, but from it we got the word _chivalry_. the great weapons of modern warfare are the gun and the bayonet. there are, of course, many kinds of guns, small and large. formerly it was the fashion to call the big guns by the name of _cannon_, but in the great european war this word has hardly been used at all. they are all "guns," from the rifles carried by the foot soldiers to the maxims and the great howitzers which each require a company of men to serve them. the word _cannon_ comes from the french _canon_, and is sometimes spelt in this way in english too. it means "great tube." the derivation of the word _gun_ is more interesting. gunpowder was not really discovered until the fifteenth century, but long before this a kind of machine, or gun, for hurling great stones, or sometimes arrows, had been used. these instruments were called by the latin word _ballista_ (for the romans had also had machines of this sort), which comes from the greek word _ballo_, meaning "throw." in the middle ages weapons of this sort were called by proper names, just as ships are now. a common name for them was the woman's name _gunhilda_, which would be turned into _gunna_ for short. it is probably from this that we get the word _gun_. the most interesting of all the guns used in the great war has only a number for its name. it is the famous french ' , and takes this name merely from a measurement. the special weapon of the foot soldier, or infantryman, is the bayonet. this is a short blade which the foot soldier fixes on the muzzle of his rifle before he advances to an attack. in the trenches his weapon is the rifle; before the order is given to go "over the parapet"--that is, to climb out of the trenches, to run forward and attack the enemy at close quarters--he "fixes his bayonet." the word _bayonet_ probably comes from _bayonne_, the name of a town in france. the word _infantry_ itself, now used to describe regiments of foot soldiers armed with the ordinary weapons, comes to us, like most of our words connected with war, from the french. we have already seen that the words of this sort which we borrowed in the middle ages were norman-french words descended from latin. but after the use of gunpowder in war became general there were many new terms; and as at this time the italians were the people who fought most, and wrote most about fighting, many words relating to the methods of war after the close of the middle ages were italian words. it is true that we learned them from the french, for the great writers on military matters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were frenchmen. but they borrowed many words from the italian writers of the fifteenth century. one of these words is _infantry_, which means a number of junior soldiers or "infants"--the regiments of foot soldiers being made up of young men, while the older and more experienced soldiers made up the cavalry. this, again, is a word which we borrowed from the french, and which the french had borrowed from the italians. _cavalry_ is, of course, the name for horse soldiers, and the italian word _cavalleria_, from which it comes, was itself derived from the latin word _caballus_, "a horse." the general weapon for a cavalryman is the "sabre," a sword with a curved blade. this, again, comes to us from the french, but was probably originally an eastern word. it is quite common for officers, in reckoning the number of men in an army, to speak of so many "bayonets" and so many "sabres," instead of "infantry" and "cavalry." many of the words which people began to use familiarly during the great european war first came into english in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time when it seemed to be the ordinary state of affairs for some, at least, of the european countries to be at war with one another. _bivouac_ is a word which was used a good deal in descriptions of earlier wars. it is a german word, which came into english at the time of the thirty years' war ( - ) in germany. it means an encampment for a short time only (often for the night), without tents. it plainly has not much connection with modern trench warfare. another word which came from the german at the same time may serve to remind us that the german soldier of to-day is not very much unlike his ancestors of three hundred years ago. the word _plunder_ was originally a german word meaning "bed-clothes" or other household furnishing. from the fact that so much of this kind of thing was carried off in the fighting of this terrible war, the word came to have its present sense of anything taken violently from its rightful owner. it must be confessed that the word was also used a great deal in the english civil war, which was, of course, fought at the same time as the end of the thirty years' war. it was also in the english civil war that we first find the word _capitulation_, which now generally means to surrender on certain conditions. before this, _capitulation_ had more the meaning which it still keeps in _recapitulation_. it meant an arrangement under headings, and the word probably was transferred from describing the terms of surrender to describing the surrender itself. one of the many words connected with war which came into the english language from the french in the seventeenth century was _parade_, which means the showing off of troops, and came into french from an italian word which itself came from the latin word _parare_, "to prepare." another of these words which has been much used in descriptions of the battles of the great war, and especially in the "battle of the rivers" in the autumn of , is _pontoon_. pontoons are flat-bottomed boats by means of which soldiers make a temporary bridge across rivers, generally when the permanent bridges have been destroyed by the enemy. the word is _ponton_ in french, and comes from the latin _pons_, "a bridge." most words of this sort in french ending in _on_ take the ending _oon_ in english. thus _ballon_ in french becomes _balloon_ in english. _barracks_ also comes from the french _baraque_, and the french had it from the spanish or italian _barraca_ or _baraca_; but no one knows whence these languages got the word. the word _bombard_, also much used during the great war, came into english at the end of the seventeenth century from the french word _bombarder_, which came from the latin word _bombarda_, an engine for throwing stones, and which in its turn came from the latin word _bombus_, meaning "hum." even a stone hurled with great force through the air makes a humming noise, and the "singing" of the bombs and shells hurled through the air became a very familiar sound to the soldiers who fought in the great war. the word _bomb_, too, comes from the french _bombe_. the words _brigade_ and _brigadier_ also came from the french at this time. so, too, did the word _fusilier_, a name which some british regiments still keep (for example, the royal fusiliers), though they are no longer armed with the old-fashioned musket known as the _fusil_, the name of which also came from the french, which had it from the latin word _focus_, "a hearth" or "fire." it is curious how the names of modern british regiments, not even carrying the weapons from which they have their names, should take us back in this way to the days of early rome. the word _patrol_, which was used very much especially in the early days of the great war, has an interesting origin. it may mean a small body of soldiers or police sent out to go round a garrison, or camp, or town, to keep watch; or, again, it may mean a small body of troops sent on before an advancing army to "reconnoitre"--that is, to spy out the land, the position of the enemy, etc. the word _patrol_ literally means to "paddle in mud," for the french word, _patrouille_, from which it came into english in the seventeenth century, came from an earlier word with this meaning. the word _campaign_, by which we mean a number of battles fought within a certain time, and generally according to a plan arranged beforehand, also came from the french word _campagne_ at the beginning of the eighteenth century--a century of great wars and many campaigns. the word was more used in those earlier wars than it is now, because in those days the armies used practically never to fight in the winter, and so each summer during a war had its "campaign." the earlier meaning of the french word _campagne_, and one which it still keeps besides this later meaning, is "open country," the kind of country over which battles were generally fought. _recruit_ is another word which came into english from the french at this time. it, again, is a word which has been used a great deal in the european war. it came from the french word _recrue_, which also means a newly-enlisted soldier. the french word _croître_, from which _recrue_ came, was derived from the latin word _crescere_, "to increase." all these words, we should notice, have now a figurative use. we speak of "recruits" not only to the army, but to any society. thus we may say a person is a valuable "recruit" to the cause of temperance, etc. a "campaign" can be fought not only on the field of battle, but through newspapers, meetings, etc. it is in this sense that we speak of the "campaign" for women's suffrage, etc. many words relating to the dress and habits of our soldiers have curious origins. we say now quite naturally that a man is "in khaki" when we mean that he is a soldier, because the peculiar yellow-brown colour which is known as "khaki" is now the regular colour of the uniform of the british soldier. in earlier days the british soldier was generally a "redcoat," but in modern trench warfare it is so important that the enemy should not be able to pick out easily the position of groups of men in order to "shell" them, that the armies of all nations use gray or brown or other dull shades. _khaki_ is a word which came into english through the south african war, when the policy of clothing the soldiers in this way was first begun on a large scale. it comes from a hindu word, _khak_, which means "dust." the object of this kind of clothing for our soldiers is that they shall not be easily distinguished from the soil of the trenches and battle-fields. when a soldier or officer or any other person who is generally in uniform wears ordinary clothes we say he is "in mufti." this, again, is an arab word meaning "mohammedan priest." the soldiers in the great war used many new words which became a regular part of their speech. they were chiefly "slang," but it is quite possible that some of them may pass into good english. we shall see something of them in a later chapter. chapter xiv. proverbs. every child knows what a proverb is, though every child may not, perhaps, be able to say in its own words just what makes a proverb. a proverb has been defined as "a wise saying in a few words." at any rate, if it is not always wise, the person who first said it and the people who repeat it think it is. most proverbs are very old, and take us back, just as we saw that words formed from the names of animals do, to the early days before the growth of large towns. in those days life was simple, and people thought chiefly of simple things. when they thought children or young persons were going to do something foolish they gave them good advice, and tried to teach them a little lesson from their own experience of what happened among the common things around them. a boy or a girl who was very enthusiastic about some new thing was warned that "new brooms sweep clean." when several people were anxious to help in doing one thing, they were pushed aside (just as they are now) with the remark that "too many cooks spoil the broth." the people who use this proverb now generally know very little about broth and still less about cooking. they say it because it expresses a certain truth in a striking way; but the first person who said it knew all about cooks and kitchens, and spoke out of the fullness of her (it must have been a woman) experience. again, a person who is discontented with the way in which he lives and is anxious to change it is warned lest he jump "out of the frying-pan into the fire." again the wisdom comes from the kitchen. and we may remark that these sayings are difficult to contradict. but there are other proverbs which contain statements about birds and animals and things connected with nature, and sometimes these seem only half true to the people who think about them. we sometimes hear it said of a person who is very quiet and does not speak much that "still waters run deep." this is true in nature. a little shallow brook will babble along, while the surface of a deep pool will have hardly a ripple on it. but a quiet person is not necessarily a person of great character or lofty thoughts. some people hardly speak at all, because, as a matter of fact, they find nothing to say. they are quiet, not because they are "deep," but because they are shallow. still, the proverb is not altogether foolish, for when people use it about some one they generally mean that they think this particular quiet person is one with so much going on in his or her mind that there is no temptation to speak much. "empty vessels make most sound" is another of these proverbs which is literally true, but is not always true when applied to people. a person who talks a great deal with very little to say quite deserves to have this proverb quoted about him or her. but there are some people who are great talkers just because they are so full of ideas, and to them the proverb does not apply. another of these nature proverbs, and one which has exasperated many a late riser, is, "the early bird catches the worm." many people have inquired in their turn, "and what about the worm?" but the proverb is quite true, all the same. again, "a rolling stone gathers no moss" is a proverb which has been repeated over and over again with many a headshake when young people have refused to settle down, but have changed from one thing to another and roamed from place to place. and this is quite true. but we may ask, "is it a good thing for stones to gather moss?" after all, the adventurous people sometimes win fortunes which they could never have won if they had been afraid to move about. and the adventurous people, too, win other things--knowledge and experience--which are better than money. of course the proverb is wise to a certain degree, for mere foolish changing without any reason cannot benefit any one. but things can gather _rust_ as well as moss by keeping still, and this is certainly not a good thing. "where there's a will there's a way." so the old proverb says, and this is probably nearly always true, except that no one can do what is impossible. "look before you leap" is also good advice for impetuous people, who are apt to do a thing rashly and wonder afterwards whether they have done wisely. the most interesting thing about proverbs to the student of words is that they are always made up of simple words such as early peoples always used. but we go on repeating them, using sometimes words which we should never choose in ordinary speech, and yet never noticing that they are old-fashioned and quaint. it is true that there are some sayings which are so often quoted that they seem almost like proverbs. but a line of poetry or prose, however often it may be quoted, is not a proverb if it is taken from the writings of a person whom we know to have used it for the first time. these are merely quotations. no one can say who was the first person to use any particular proverb. even so long ago as the days of the great greek philosopher aristotle many proverbs which are used in nearly every land to-day were ages old. aristotle describes them as "fragments of an elder wisdom." clearly, then, however true some quotations from shakespeare and pope and milton may be, and however often repeated, they are not proverbs. "a little learning is a dangerous thing." this line expresses a deep truth, and is as simply expressed as any proverb, but it is merely a quotation from pope. again, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread" is true enough, and well enough expressed to bear frequent quotation, but it is not a "fragment of elder wisdom." it is merely pope's excellent way of saying that foolish people will interfere in delicate matters in which wise people would never think of meddling. here, again, the language is not particularly simple as in proverbs, and this will help us to remember that quotations are not proverbs. there is, however, a quotation from a poem by patrick a. chalmers, a present-day poet, which has become as common as a proverb:-- "what's lost upon the roundabouts we pulls up on the swings." the fact that this is expressed simply and even ungrammatically does not, of course, turn it into a proverb. though many of the proverbs which are repeated in nearly all the languages of the world are without date, we know the times when a few of them were first quoted. in greek writings we already find the half-true proverb, "rolling stones gather no moss;" and, "there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," which warned the greeks, as it still warns us, of the uncertainty of human things. we can never be sure of anything until it has actually happened. in latin writings we find almost the same idea expressed in the familiar proverb, "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush"--a fact which no one will deny. st. jerome, who translated the bible from greek into latin in the fourth century and wrote many wise books besides, quotes two proverbs which we know well: "it is not wise to look a gift horse in the mouth," and, "liars must have good memories." the first again deals, like so many of the early proverbs, with the knowledge of animals. a person who knows about horses can tell from the state of their mouths much about their age, health, and general value. but, the proverb warns us, it is neither gracious nor wise to examine too closely what is given to us freely. it may not be quite to our liking, but after all it is a present. the proverb, "liars must have good memories," means, of course, that people who tell lies are liable to forget just what tale they have told on any particular occasion, and may easily contradict themselves, and so show that they have been untruthful. it is necessary, then, for such a person, unless he wishes to be found out, to remember exactly what lies he has told. many proverbs have remained in the english language, not so much for the wisdom they contain as for the way in which they express it. some are in the form of a rhyme--as, "birds of a feather flock together," and "east and west, home is best." these are always favourites. others catch the ear because of their alliteration; that is to say, two or three of their words begin with the same letter. examples of this are: "look before you leap." the proverb "a stitch in time saves nine" has something of both these attractions, though it is not exactly a rhyme. other examples of alliteration in proverbs are: "delays are dangerous," "speech is silvern, silence is golden." a few proverbs are witty as well as wise, and these are, perhaps, the best of all, since they do not, as a rule, exasperate the people to whom they are quoted, as many proverbs are apt to do. usually these witty proverbs are metaphors. chapter xv. slang. every child has some idea of what is meant by "slang," because most schoolboys and schoolgirls have been corrected for using it. by slang we mean words and expressions which are not the ordinary words for the ideas which they express, but which are invented as new names or phrases for these ideas, and are at first known and used only by a few people who use them just among themselves. there are all kinds of slang--slang used by schoolboys and schoolgirls in general, slang used by the pupils of each special school, slang used by soldiers, a different slang used by their officers, and even slang used by members of parliament. the chief value of slang to the people who use it is that at first, at any rate, it is only understood by the inventors and their friends. the slang of any public school is continually changing, because as soon as the expressions become known and used by other people the inventors begin to invent once more, and get a new set of slang terms. sometimes a slang word will be used for years by one class of people without becoming common because it describes something of which ordinary people have no experience, and therefore do not mention. the making of slang is really the making of language. early men must have invented new words just as the slang-makers do to-day. the difference is that there are already words to describe the things which the slang words describe. it may seem curious, then, that people should trouble to find new words. the reason they do so is often that they want to be different from other people, and sometimes because the slang word is much more expressive than the ordinary word. this is one reason that the slang of a small number of people spreads and becomes general. sometimes the slang word is so much better in this way than the old word that it becomes more generally used than it, and finds its way into the ordinary dictionaries. when this happens it is no longer slang. but, as a rule, slang is ugly or meaningless, and it is very often vulgar. however common its use may become, the best judges will not use such expressions, and they remain mere slang. a writer on the subject of slang has given us two good examples of meaningless and expressive slang. the people who first called marmalade "swish" could have no reason for inventing the new name except to seem odd and different from other people. _swish_ is certainly not a more expressive or descriptive word than _marmalade_. the one means nothing, while the other has an interesting history coming to us through the french from two old greek words meaning "apple" and "honey." the expressive word which this writer quotes is _swag_, a slang word for "stolen goods." there is no doubt that _swag_ is a much more expressive word than any of the ordinary words used to describe the same thing. one gets a much more vivid picture from the sentence, "the thieves got off with the _swag_," than he would had the word _prize_ or even _plunder_ or _booty_ been used. yet there is no sign that the word _swag_ will become good english. expressive as it is, there is a vulgar flavour about it which would make people who are at all fastidious in their language very unwilling to use it. yet many words and phrases which must have seemed equally vulgar when first used have come to be accepted as good english. and in fact much of our language, and especially metaphorical words and phrases, were once slang. it will be interesting to examine some examples of old slang which have now become good english. one common form of slang is the use of expressions connected with sport as metaphors in speaking of other things. thus it is slang to say that we were "in at the death" when we mean that we stayed to the end of a meeting or performance. this is, of course, a metaphor from hunting. people who follow the hounds until the fox is caught and killed are "in at the death." another such expression is to "toe the mark." we say a person is made to "toe the line" or "toe the mark" when he or she is subjected to discipline; but it is a slang phrase, and only good english in its literal meaning of standing with the toes touching a line in starting a race, etc., so that all may have an equal chance. we say a person has "hit below the belt" if we think he has done or said something unfair in an argument or quarrel. this is a real slang phrase, and is only good english in the literal sense in which it is used in boxing, where it is against the rules to "hit below the belt." the term "up to you," by which is expressed in a slang way that the person so addressed is expected to do something, is a slang expression borrowed from cards. even from these few examples we can see that there are various degrees in slang. a person who would be content to use the expression "toe the line" might easily think it rather coarse to accuse an opponent of "hitting below the belt." there comes a time when some slang almost ceases to be slang, and though good writers will not use it in writing, quite serious people will use it in merely speaking. it has passed out of the stage of mere slang to become a "colloquialism." the phrases we have quoted from present-day sport when used in a general sense are still for the most part slang; but many phrases taken from old sports and games, and which must have been slang in their time, are now quite good english and even dignified style. we speak of "wrestling with a difficulty" or "parrying a thrust" (a metaphor taken, of course, from fencing), of "winning the palm," and so on, all of which are not only picturesque but quite dignified english. a very common form of slang is what are called "clipped" words. such words are _gov_ for "governor," _bike_ for "bicycle," _flu_ for "influenza," _indi_ for "indigestion," _rec_ for "recreation," _loony_ for "lunatic," _pub_ for "public house," _exam_ for "examination," _maths_ for "mathematics." all of these words are real slang, and most of them are quite vulgar. there is no sign that any of them will become good english. the most likely to survive in ordinary speech is perhaps _exam_. yet we have numbers of short words which have now become the ordinary names for certain articles, and yet which are only short forms of the original names of those articles. the first man who said _bus_ for "omnibus" must have seemed quite an adventurer. he probably struck those who heard him as a little vulgar; but hardly any one now uses the word _omnibus_ (which is in itself an interesting word, being the latin word meaning "for all"), except, perhaps, the omnibus companies in their posters. again, very few people use the full phrase "zoological gardens" now. children are taken to the _zoo_. _cycle_ for "bicycle" is quite dignified and proper, though _bike_ is certainly vulgar. in the hurry of life to-day people more frequently _phone_ than "telephone" to each other, and we can send a wire instead of a "telegram" without any risk of vulgarity. the word _cab_ replaced the more magnificent "cabriolet," and then with the progress of invention we got the "taxicab." it is now the turn of _cab_ to be dropped, and when we are in haste we hail a _taxi_. no one nowadays, except the people who sell them, speaks of "pianofortes." they have all become _pianos_ in ordinary speech. the way in which good english becomes slang is well illustrated by an essay of the great english writer dean swift, in the famous paper called "the tatler," in . he, as a fastidious user of english, was much vexed by what he called the "continual corruption of the english tongue." he objected especially to the clipping of words--the use of the first syllable of a word instead of the whole word. "we cram one syllable and cut off the rest," he said, "as the owl fattened her mice after she had cut off their legs to prevent their running away." one word the dean seemed especially to hate--_mob_, which, indeed, was richer by one letter in his day, for he sometimes wrote it _mobb_. _mob_ is, of course, quite good english now to describe a disorderly crowd of people, and we should think it very curious if any one used the full expression for which it stands. _mob_ is short for the latin phrase _mobile vulgus_, which means "excitable crowd." other words to which swift objected, though most of them are not the words of one syllable with which he declared we were "overloaded," and which he considered the "disgrace of our language," were _banter_, _sham_, _bamboozle_, _bubble_, _bully_, _cutting_, _shuffling_, and _palming_. we may notice that some of these words, such as _banter_ and _sham_, are now quite good english, and most of the others have at least passed from the stage of slang into that of colloquialism. the word _bamboozle_ is still almost slang, though perhaps more common than it was two hundred years ago, when swift attacked it. even now we do not know where it came from. there was a slang word used at the time but now forgotten--_bam_, which meant a trick or practical joke; and some scholars have thought that _bamboozle_ (which, of course, means "to deceive") came from this. on the other hand, it may have been the other way about, and that the shorter word came from the longer. the word _bamboozle_ shows us how hard it is for meaningless slang to become good english even after a struggle of two hundred years. we have seen how many slang words in english have become good english, so that people use with propriety expressions that would have seemed improper or vulgar fifty or ten or even five years ago. other interesting words are some which are perfectly good english as now used, but which have been borrowed from other languages, and in those languages are or were mere slang. the word _bizarre_, which we borrowed from the french, and which means "curious," in a fantastic or half-savage way, is a perfectly dignified word in english; but it must have been a slang word at one time in french. it meant long ago in french "soldierly," and literally "bearded"--that is, if it came from the spanish word _bizarra_, "beard." another word which we use in english has a much less dignified use in french. we can speak of the _calibre_ of a person, meaning the quality of his character or intellect; but in french the word _calibre_ is only in ordinary speech applied to things. to speak of a "person of a certain calibre" in french is very bad slang indeed. again, the word _fiasco_, which we borrowed from the italian, and which means the complete failure of something from which we had hoped much, was at first slang in italian. it was applied especially to the failure of a play in a theatre. to break down was _far fiasco_, which literally means "make a bottle." the phrase does not seem to have any very clear meaning, but at any rate it is far removed from the dignified word _fiasco_ as used in english. the word _sack_ as used in describing the sack of a town in war is a picturesque and even poetic word; but as it comes from the french _sac_, meaning "pack" or "plunder," it is really a kind of slang. on the other hand, words which belong to quite good and ordinary speech in their own languages often become slang when adopted into another. a slang word much used in america and sometimes in england (for american expressions are constantly finding their way into the english language) is _vamoose_, which means "depart." _vamoose_ comes from a quite ordinary mexican word, _vamos_, which is spanish for "let us go." it is very interesting to find that many of our most respectable words borrowed from latin have a slang origin. sometimes these words were slang in latin itself; sometimes they were used as slang only after they passed into english. the french word _tête_, which means "head," comes from the latin _testa_, "a pot." (we have seen that this is the word from which we get our word _test_.) some romans, instead of using _caput_, the real latin word for "head," would sometimes in slang fashion speak of some one's _testa_, or "pot," and from this slang word the french got their regular word for head. the word _insult_ comes from the latin _insultarc_, which meant at first "to spring or leap at," and afterwards came to have the same meaning as it has with us. the persons who first used this expression in the second sense were really using slang, picturing a person who said something unpleasant to them as "jumping at them." we have the same kind of slang in the expression "to jump down one's throat," when we mean "to complain violently of some one's behaviour." the word _effrontery_, which comes to us from the french _effronterie_, is really the same expression as the vulgar terms _face_ and _cheek_, meaning "impudence." for the word comes from the latin _frons_, "the forehead." an example of a word which was quite good english, and then came to be used as slang in a special sense, and then in this same special sense became good english again, is _grit_. the word used to mean in english merely "sand" or "gravel," and it came to mean especially the texture or grain of stones used for grinding. then in american slang it came to be used to mean all that we mean now when we say a person has "grit"--namely, courage, and strength, and firmness. this use of the word seemed so good that it rapidly became good english; but the american slang-makers soon found another word to replace it, and now talk of people having "sand," which is not by any means so expressive, and will probably never pass out of the realm of slang. an example of a word which was at first used as slang not many years ago, and is now, if not the most elegant english, at least a quite respectable word for newspaper use, is _maffick_. this word means to make a noisy show of joy over news of a victory. it dates from the relief of mafeking by the british in . when news of its relief came people at home seemed to go mad with joy. they rushed into the streets shouting and cheering, and there was a great deal of noise and confusion. it was noticed over and over again that there was no "mafficking" over successes in the great war. people felt it too seriously to make a great noise about it. a slang word which has become common in england during the great war is _sträfe_. this is the german word for "punish," and became quite familiar to english people through the hope and prayer to which the germans were always giving expression that god would "sträfe" england. the soldiers caught hold of the word, and it was very much used in a humorous way both at home and abroad. but it is not at all likely to become a regular english word, and perhaps will not even remain as slang after the war. besides the fact that slang often becomes good english, we have to notice that good english often becomes slang. one of the most common forms of slang is to use words, and especially adjectives, which mean a great deal in themselves to describe quite small and ordinary things. to speak of a "splendid" or "magnificent" breakfast, for instance, is to use words out of proportion to the subject, though of course they are excellent words in themselves; but this is a mild form of slang. there are many people now who fill their conversation with superlatives, although they speak of the most commonplace things. a theatrical performance will be "perfectly heavenly," an actress "perfectly divine." apart from the fact that nothing and no one merely human can be "divine," divinity itself is perfection, and it is therefore not only unnecessary but actually incorrect to add "perfectly." a scene or landscape may very properly be described as "enchanting," but when the adjective is applied too easily it is a case of good english becoming slang. then, besides the use of superlative adjectives to describe things which do not deserve such descriptions, there is a crowd of rarer words used in a special sense to praise things. every one knows what a "stunning blow" is, but few people can ever have been stunned by the beauty of another's clothes. yet the expression "stunning hat" or "stunning tie" is quite common. expressions like a "ripping time" are even more objectionable, because they are even more meaningless. then, besides the slang use of terms of praise, there are also many superlatives expressing disgust which the slangmongers use instead of ordinary mild expressions of displeasure. to such people it is not simply "annoying" to have to wait for a lift on the underground railways; for them it is "perfectly sickening." _horrid_, a word which means so much if used properly, is applied to all sorts of slightly unpleasant things and people. when one thinks of the literal latin meaning of this word ("so dreadful as to cause us to shudder"), the foolishness of using it so lightly is plain. people frequently now declare that they have a "shocking cold"--a description which, again, is too violent for the subject. another form of slang is to combine a word which generally expresses unpleasant with one which expresses pleasant ideas. so we get such expressions as "awfully nice" and "frightfully pleased," which are actually contradictions in terms. this kind of slang is the worst kind of all. it soon loses any spice of novelty. it is not really expressive, like some of the quaint terms of school or university slang, and it does a great deal of harm by tending to spoil the full force of some of our best and finest words. it is very difficult to avoid the use of slang if one is constantly hearing it, but, at any rate, any one who feels the beauty of language must soon be disgusted by this particular kind of slang. chapter xvi. words which have changed their meaning. we have seen in the chapter on "slang" how people are continually using old words in new ways, and how, through this, slang often becomes good english and good english becomes slang. the same thing has been going on all through the history of language. other words besides those used as slang have been constantly getting new uses. many english words to-day have quite different meanings from those which they had in the middle ages; some even have exactly opposite meanings to their original sense. sometimes words keep both the old meaning and the new. in this matter the english language is very different from the german. the english language has many words which the germans have too, but their meanings are different. the germans have kept the original meanings which these words had hundreds of years ago; but the thousands of words which have come down to us from the english language of a thousand years ago have nearly all changed their meanings. we have two of these old words which have now each two exactly opposite meanings. the word _fast_ means sometimes "immovable," and sometimes it means the exact opposite--"moving rapidly." we say a key is "fast" in a lock when we cannot get it out, and we say a person runs "fast" when we mean that he runs quickly. the first meaning of steadiness is the original meaning; then the word came to be used to mean "moving steadily." a person who ran on, keeping up a steady movement, was said to run fast, and then it was easy to use the word for rapidity as well as steadiness in motion or position. this is how the word _fast_ came to have two opposite meanings. another word, _fine_, has the same sort of history. we speak of a "fine needle" when we mean that it is thin, and a "fine baby" when we mean that it is fat. the first meaning is nearer to the original, which was "well finished off." often a thing which had a great deal of "fine" workmanship spent on it would be delicate and "fine" in the first sense, and so the word came to have this meaning. on the other hand, the thing finished off in this way would generally be beautiful. people came to think of "fine" things as things to be admired, and as they like their babies to be fat, a fat baby will generally be considered a fine baby. it was in this kind of way that "fine" came to have its second meaning of "large." the common adjectives _glad_ and _sad_ had quite different meanings in old english from those they have now. in old english glad meant "shining," or "bright," but in a very short time it came to mean "cheerful." now it means something rather different from this, for though we may speak of a "glad heart" or "glad spirit," such expressions are chiefly used in poetry. generally in ordinary speech when we say that we are "glad" we mean that we are pleased about some special thing, as "glad that you have come." _sad_ in old english meant to have as much as one wanted of anything. then it came to mean "calm" and "serious," perhaps from the idea that people who have all they want are in a mood to settle down and attend to things seriously. already in shakespeare's writings we find the word with its present meaning of "sorrowful." it has quite lost its earlier meaning, but has several special new meanings besides the general one of "sorrowful." a "sad tint," or colour, is one which is dull. "sad bread" in the north of england is "heavy" bread which has not risen properly. again, we describe as "sad" some people who are not at all sorrowful. we say a person is a "sad" liar when we mean that he is a hopeless liar. the word _tide_, which we now apply to the regular rise and fall of the sea, used to mean in old english "time;" and it still keeps this meaning in the words _christmastide_, _whitsuntide_, etc. one common way in which words change is in going from a general to a more special meaning. thus in old english the word _chest_ meant "box" in general, but has come now to be used as the name of a special kind of box only, and also as the name of a part of the body. the first person who used the word in this sense must have thought of the "chest" as a box containing the lungs and the heart. _glass_ is, of course, the name of the substance out of which we make our windows and some of our drinking vessels, etc., and this was at one time its only use; but we now use the name _glass_ for several special articles--for example, a drinking-vessel, a telescope, a barometer, a mirror (or "looking-glass"), and so on. _copper_ is another word the meaning of which has become specialized in this way as time has gone on. from being merely the name of a metal it has come to be used for a copper coin and for a large cauldron especially used in laundry work. another example of a rather different kind of this "specialization" which changes the meaning of words is the word _congregation_. _congregation_ used to mean "any gathering together of people in one place," and we still use the word _congregate_ in this sense. thus we might say "the people congregated in trafalgar square," but we should never think of speaking of a crowd listening to a lecturer there as a "congregation." the word has now come to mean an assembly for religious worship in a chapel or church. some words have changed their meaning in just the opposite way. from having one special meaning they have come by degrees to have a much more general sense. the word _bureau_, which came into english from the french, meant at first merely a "desk" in both languages. it still has this meaning in both languages, but a wider meaning as well. it can now be used to describe an office (a place associated with the idea of desks). thus we have "employment bureau," and can get english money for foreign at a "bureau de change." from this use of the word we have the word _bureaucracy_, by which we describe a government which is carried on by a great number of officials. a better example of how a word containing one special idea can extend its meaning is the word _bend_. this word originally meant to pull the string of a bow in order to let fly an arrow. the expression "bend a bow" was used, and as the result of pulling the string was to curve the wooden part of the arrow, people came in time to think that "bending the bow" was this making the wood to curve. from this came our general use of "bend" to mean forcing a thing which is straight into a curve or angle. we have, of course, also the metaphorical use of the word, as when we speak of bending our will to another's. another word which has had a similar history is _carry_. when this word was first borrowed from old french it meant to move something from place to place in a cart or other wheeled vehicle. the general word for our modern _carry_ was _bear_, which we still use, but chiefly in poetry. in time _carry_ came to have its modern general sense of lifting a thing from one place and removing it to another. a well-known writer on the history of the english language has suggested that this came about first through people using the word in this sense half in fun, just as the word _cart_ is now sometimes used. a person may say (a little vulgarly), "do you expect me to cart all these things to another room?" instead of using the ordinary word carry. if history were to repeat itself in this case, _cart_ might in time become the generally used word, and _carry_ in its turn be relegated to the realm of poetry. words often come to have several meanings through being used to describe things which are connected in some way with the things for which they were originally used. the word _house_ originally had one meaning, which it still keeps, but to which several others have been added. it was a building merely, but came in time to be used to mean the building and the people living in it. thus we say one person "disturbs the whole house." from this sense it got the meaning of a royal family, and we speak of the house of york, lancaster, tudor, or stuart. we also use the word in a large sense when we speak of the "house of lords" and the "house of commons," by which we hardly ever mean the actual buildings known generally as the "houses of parliament," but the members of the two houses. the word _world_ has had almost the opposite history to the word _house_. world originally applied only to persons and not to any place. it meant a "generation of men," and then came to mean men and the earth they live on, and then the earth itself; until it has a quite general sense, as when we speak of "other worlds than ours." many words which are used at present to describe bad or disagreeable things were used quite differently originally. the word _villain_ is, perhaps, the most expressive we can use to show our opinion of the depths of a person's wickedness. yet in the middle ages a villain, or "villein," was merely a serf or labourer bound to work on the land of a particular lord. the word in saxon times would have been _churl_. as time went on both these words became terms of contempt. the lords in the middle ages were certainly often more wicked than the serfs, as we see in the stories of the days of robin hood; but by degrees the people of the higher classes began to use the word _villain_ more and more contemptuously. many of them imagined that only people of their own class were capable of high thoughts and noble conduct. gradually "villainy" came to mean all that was low and vulgar, and by degrees it came to have the meaning it has now of "sheer wickedness." at the end of the middle ages there were practically no longer any serfs in england; but the word _villain_ has remained in this new sense, and gives us a complete story of the misunderstanding and dislike which must have existed between "noble" and "simple" to cause such a change in the meaning of the word. the word _churl_ has a somewhat similar history. we say now that a sulky, ungracious person is a "mere churl," or behaves in a "churlish" manner, never thinking of the original meaning of the word. here, again, is a little story of injustice. the present use of the word comes from the supposition that only the mere labourer could behave in a sulky or bad-tempered way. _knave_ is another of those words which originally described persons of poor condition and have now come to mean a wicked or deceitful person. a knave, as we now understand the word, means a person who cheats in a particularly mean way, but formerly the word meant merely "boy." it then came to mean "servant," just as the word _garçon_ ("boy") is used for all waiters in french restaurants. another word which now means, as a rule, some one unutterably wicked, is _wretch_, though it is also used rather contemptuously to describe some one who is not wicked but unutterably miserable. yet in old english this word merely meant an "exile." an exile was a person to be pitied, and also sometimes a person who had done something wrong, and we get both these ideas in the modern uses of the word. the word _blackguard_, which now means a "scoundrel," was also once a word for "scullion;" but it does not go back as far as "knave" and "villain," being found chiefly in writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. another word in which the "villeins" and "knaves" and "churls" seem to have their revenge on the "upper classes" is _surly_. this word used to be spelt _sirly_, and meant behaving as a "sire," or gentleman, behaves. originally this meant "haughty" or "arrogant," but by degrees came to have the idea of sulkiness and ungraciousness, much like _churlish_. several adjectives which are now used as terms of blame were not only harmless descriptions originally, but were actually terms of praise. no one likes to be called "cunning," "sly," or "crafty" to-day; but these were all complimentary adjectives once. a _cunning_ man was one who knew his work well, a _sly_ person was wise and skilful, and a _crafty_ person was one who could work well at his trade or "craft." two words which we use to-day with a better sense than any of these, and yet which have a slightly uncomplimentary sense, are _knowing_ and _artful_. it is surely good to "know" things, and to be full of art; but both words have already an idea of slyness, and may in time come to have quite as unpleasant a meaning as these three which have the same literal meaning. _fellow_, a word which has now nearly always a slightly contemptuous sense, had originally the quite good sense of _partner_. it came from an old english word which meant the man who marked out his land next to yours. the word still has this good sense in _fellowship_, _fellow-feeling_, etc., and as used to describe a "fellow" of a college or society. but the more general use is as a less respectful word for man. one man may say of another that he is a "nice fellow" without any disrespect; but the word has no dignity, and people, even though they use it of an equal, would not think of using it to describe a superior, and the more general use is that of blame or contempt, as in the expressions, "a disagreeable fellow" or "a stupid fellow." the word _bully_ was at one time a word which showed affection, and meant even "lover." in english now, of course, a bully is a person, especially a boy, who tyrannizes over people weaker than himself; but the americans still use the word in a good sense when they say "bully for you," meaning "bravo." we have seen many words whose meanings have become less dignified than their original meaning; but sometimes the opposite happens. every one now speaks with respect of a "pioneer," whether we mean by that people who are the first to venture into strange lands, or, in a more figurative sense, people who make some new discovery in science or introduce some new way of thinking or acting. yet "pioneers" were originally merely the soldiers who did the hard work of clearing the way for an advancing army. they were looked upon as belonging to a lower class than the ordinary soldiers. but this new and at first figurative use of the word, applied first to geographical and then to scientific and moral explorers, has given the word a new dignity. a group of words which had originally very humble meanings, and have been elevated in an even more accidental way, are the names of the officials of royal courts. the word _steward_ originally meant, as it still means, a person who manages property for some one else. the steward on a ship is a servant; but the steward of the king's household was no mean person, and was dignified with the title of the "lord high steward of england." the royal house of stuart took its name from the fact that the heads of the family were in earlier times hereditary stewards of the scottish kings. so _marshal_, the name of another high official at court, means "horse boy;" _seneschal_, "old servant;" _constable_, "an attendant to horses' stalls," and so on. some of these words have kept both a dignified and a commoner meaning. _constable_, besides being the name of a court official, is also another term for "policeman." the word _silly_ meant in old english "blessed" or "happy," but of course has wandered far from this meaning. on the other hand, several words which once meant "foolish" have now quite different meanings. _giddy_ and _dizzy_ both had this sense in old english, and so had the word _nice_. but later the french word _fol_, from which we get _foolish_, was introduced into english, and these words soon ceased to be used in this sense. before this the two words _dizzy_ and _giddy_ had occasionally been used in the sense in which they are used now, to describe the condition of a person whose head "swims;" this now became their general meaning, though _giddy_ has gone back again to something of its old meaning in its later use to describe a person's conduct. a _giddy_ person is another description for one of frivolous character. the word _nice_ has had a rather more varied history. it had its original meaning of "foolish" from the literal meaning of the latin word _nescius_, "ignorant," from which it was derived. gradually it came to mean "foolishly particular about small things;" and we still have a similar use of the word, as when we say a person has a "nice taste in wines," or is a "nice observer," or speak of a "nice distinction," by which we mean a subtle distinction not very easily observed. but this is, of course, not the commonest sense in which we use the word. by _nice_ we generally mean the opposite of _nasty_. a "nice" observer was a good observer, and from this kind of idea the word _nice_ came to have the general sense of "good" in some way. _nice_ is not a particularly dignified word, and is little used by good writers, except in its more special and earlier sense. it is, perhaps, less used in america than in england, and it is interesting to notice that _nasty_, the word which in english always seems to be the opposite of _nice_, is not considered a respectable word in america, where it has kept its earlier meaning of "filthy," or absolutely disgusting in some way. again, the word _disgust_, by which we express complete loathing for anything, used merely to mean "dislike" or "distaste." in the same way, the word _loathe_, by which we mean "to hate" or feel the greatest disgust for, originally meant merely "to dislike." the stronger meaning came from the fact that the word was often used to describe the dislike a sick person feels for food. every one knows how strong this feeling can be, and it is from this that _loathe_ and _loathsome_ took the strong meaning they now have. curiously enough, the adjective _loath_ or _loth_, from the same word, has kept the old mild meaning. when we say we are "loth" to do a thing, we do not mean that we hate doing it, but merely that we feel rather unwilling to do it. in old english, too, the word _filth_ and its derivative _foul_ were not quite such strong words as _dirt_ and _dirty_. again, the words _stench_ and _stink_ in old english meant merely "smell" or "odour." one could then speak of the "sweet stench" of a flower; but in the later middle ages these words came to have their present meaning of "smelling most disagreeably." we saw how the taking of the word _fol_ from the french, meaning "foolish," caused the meaning of several english words which before had this meaning to be changed. the coming in of foreign words has been a very common cause for such changes of meaning. the word _fiend_ in english has now a quite different meaning from its original meaning in english, when it simply meant "enemy," the opposite to "friend." when the word "enemy" itself was borrowed from the french, the word _fiend_ came to be less and less often used in this sense. in time _fiend_ came to be another word for _devil_, the chief enemy of mankind. but in modern times we do not use the word much in this sense. it is most often now applied to persons. it sounds rather milder than calling a person a "devil," but it means exactly the same thing. the word _stool_ came to have its present special meaning through the coming into english from the french of the word _chair_. before the norman conquest any kind of seat for one person was a "stool," even sometimes a royal throne. the word _deer_ also had in old english the meaning of "beast" in general, but the coming in of the word _beast_ from the french led to its falling into disuse, and by degrees it became the special name of the chief beast of chase. again, the latin word _spirit_ led to the less frequent use of the word _ghost_, which was previously the general word for _spirit_. when spirit came to be generally used, _ghost_ came to have the special meaning which it has for us now--that of the apparition of a dead person. a great many words have changed their meaning even since the time of shakespeare through being transferred from the subject of the feeling they describe to the object, or from the object to the subject. thus one example of this is the word _grievous_. we speak now of a "grievous wrong," or a "grievous sin," or a "grievous mistake," and all these phrases suggest a certain sorrow in ourselves for the fact described. but this was not the case in the time of queen elizabeth, when it was decreed that a "sturdy beggar," a man who could work but begged instead, should be "grievously whipped." in this case _grievously_ merely meant "severely." on the other hand, the word _pitiful_, which used to mean "compassionate," is no longer applied to what we feel at seeing a sad thing, but to the sadness of the thing itself. we do not now say a person is pitiful when he feels sorry for some one, but we speak of a "pitiful sight" or a "pitiful plight." the word _pity_ itself is used still in both ways, subjectively and objectively. a person can feel "pity," and there is "pity" in the thing for which we feel sorry. this is the sense in which it is used in such expressions as "oh, the pity of it!" the word _hateful_ once meant "full of hate," but came to be used for the thing inspiring hate instead of for the people feeling it. so, _painful_ used to mean "painstaking," but of course has no longer this meaning. one very common way in which words have changed their meanings is through the name of one thing being given to another which resembles it. the word _pen_ comes from the latin _penna_, "a feather;" and as in olden days the ordinary pens were "quills" of birds, the name was very good. we still keep it, of course, for the steel pens and gold pens of to-day, which we thus literally speak of as feathers. _pencil_ is a word with a somewhat similar history. it comes from the latin _penicillus_, which itself came from _peniculus_, or "little tail," a kind of cleaning instrument which the romans used as we use brushes. _pencil_ was originally the name of a very fine painter's brush, and from this it became the name of an instrument made of lead which was used for making marks. then it was passed on to various kinds of pencils, including what we know as a lead-pencil, in which, as a writer on words has pointed out, there is really neither lead nor pencil. the word _handkerchief_ is also an interesting word. the word _kerchief_ came from the french _couvre-chef_, "a covering for the head." another similar word is one which the normans brought into england, _curfew_, which means "cover fire." when the curfew bell rang the people were obliged to extinguish all lights and fires. the "kerchief" was originally a covering for the head. then the fashion arose of carrying a square of similar material in the hand, and so we get _handkerchief_, and later _pocket-handkerchief_, which, if we analyse it, is rather a clumsy word, "pocket-hand-cover-head." the reason it is so is that the people who added _pocket_ and _hand_ knew nothing of the real meaning of _kerchief_. there are several words which used to mean "at the present time" which have now come to mean "at a future time." this can only have come about through the people who used them not keeping their promises, but putting off doing things until later. the word _soon_ in old english meant "immediately," so that when a person said that he would do a thing soon he meant that he would do it "instantly." the trouble was that often he did _not_, and so often did this happen that the meaning of the word changed, and _soon_ came to have its present meaning of "in a short time." the same thing happened with the words _presently_ and _directly_, and the phrase _by-and-by_, all of which used to mean "instantly." _presently_ and _directly_ seem to promise things in a shorter time than _soon_, but _by-and-by_ is a very uncertain phrase indeed. it is perhaps because scotch people are superior to the english in the matter of doing things to time that with them _presently_ still really means "instantly." in all the examples we have seen of changes in the meaning of words it is fairly easy to see how the changes have come about. but there are some words which have changed so much in meaning that their present sense seems to have no connection with their earlier meaning. the word _treacle_ is a splendid example of this. it comes from a greek word meaning "having to do with a wild beast," and this seems to have no connection whatever with our present use of the word _treacle_ as another word for _syrup of sugar_. the steps by which this word came to change its meaning so enormously were these. from the general meaning of "having to do with a wild beast," it came to mean "remedy for the bite of a wild beast." as remedies for wounds and bites were, in the old days, generally thick syrups, the word came in time to mean merely "syrup," and lastly the sweet syrup which we now know as "treacle." another word which has changed immensely in its meaning is _premises_. by the word _premises_ we generally mean a house or shop and the land just round it. but the real meaning of the word _premises_ is the "things already mentioned." it came to have its present sense from the frequent use of the word in documents drawn up by lawyers. in these, which very frequently dealt with business relating to houses, the "things before mentioned" meant the "house, etc.," and in time people came to think that this was the actual meaning of _premises_, and so we get the present use of the word. the word _humour_ is one which has changed its meaning very much in the course of its history. it comes to us from the latin word _humor_, which means a "fluid" or "liquid." by "humour" we now mean either "temper," as when we speak of being in a "good" or "bad" humour, or that quality in a person which makes him very quick to find "fun" in things. and from the first meaning of "temper" we have the verb "to humour," by which we mean to give in to or indulge a person's whims. but in the middle ages "humour" was a word used by writers on philosophy to describe the four liquids which they believed (like the greek philosophers) that the human body contained. these four "humours" were blood, phlegm, yellow bile (or choler), and black bile (or melancholy). according to the balance of these humours a man's character showed itself. from this belief we get the adjectives--which we still use without any thought of their origin--_sanguine_ ("hopeful"), _phlegmatic_ ("indifferent and not easily excited"), _choleric_ ("easily roused to anger"), and _melancholy_ ("inclined to sadness"). a person had these various temperaments according as the amount of blood, phlegm, yellow or black bile was uppermost in his composition. from the idea that having too much of any of the "humours" would make a person diseased or odd in character, we got the use of the word _humours_ to describe odd and queer things; and from this it came to have its modern meaning, which takes us very far from the original latin. it was from this same curious idea of the formation of the human body that we get two different uses of the word _temper_. _temper_ was originally the word used to describe the right mixture of the four "humours." from this we got the words _good-tempered_ and _bad-tempered_. perhaps because it is natural to notice more when people are bad-tempered rather than good, not more than a hundred years ago the word _temper_ came to mean in one use "bad temper." for this is what we mean when we say we "give way to temper." but we have the original sense of "good temper" in the expression to "keep one's temper." so here we have the same word meaning two opposite things. several words which used to have a meaning connected with religion have now come to have a more general meaning which seems very different from the original. a word of this sort in english is _order_, which came through the french word _ordre_, from the latin _ordo_. though the latin word had the meaning which we now give to the word _order_, in the english of the thirteenth century it had only the special meaning (which it still keeps as one of its meanings) of an "order" or "society" of monks. in the fourteenth century it began to have the meaning of "fixed arrangement," but the adjective _orderly_ and the noun _orderliness_ did not come into use until the sixteenth century. the word _regular_ has a similar history. coming from the latin _regula_, "a rule," its modern general meaning in english of "according to rule" seems very natural; but the word which began to be used in english in the fourteenth century did not take the modern meaning until the end of the sixteenth century. before this, it too was used as a word to describe monastic orders. the "regular" clergy were priests who were also monks, while the "secular" clergy were priests but not monks. the words _regularity_, _regulation_, and _regulate_ did not come into use until the seventeenth century. another word which has now a quite different meaning from its original meaning is _clerk_. a "clerk" nowadays is a person who is employed in an office to keep accounts, write letters, etc. but a "clerk" in the middle ages was what we should now more generally call a "cleric," a man in holy orders. as the "clerks" in the middle ages were practically the only people who could read and write, it is, perhaps, not unnatural that the name should be now used to describe a class of people whose chief occupation is writing (whether with the hand or a typewriter). people in the middle ages would have wondered what could possibly be meant by a word which is common in scotland for a "woman clerk"--_clerkess_. the words which change their meanings in this way tell us the longest, and perhaps the best, stories of all. chapter xvii. different words with the same meaning, and the same words with different meanings. we have seen that there are great numbers of words in english which come from the latin language. sometimes they have come to us through old french words borrowed from the latin, and sometimes from the latin words directly, or modern french words taken from the latin. the fact that we have borrowed from the latin in these two ways has led sometimes to our borrowing twice over from the same word. different forms going back in this way to the same origin are known as "doublets." the english language is full of them, and they, too, can tell us some interesting stories. many of these pairs of words seem to have no relation at all with each other, so much has one or the other, or both, changed in meaning from that of the original word from which they come. a familiar pair of doublets is _dainty_ and _dignity_, both of which come from the latin word _dignitas_. _dignity_, which came into the english language either directly from the latin or through the modern french word _dignité_, has not wandered at all from the meaning of the latin word, which had first the idea of "merit" or "value," and then that of honourable position or character which the word _dignity_ has in english. _dainty_ has a quite different meaning; though it, too, came from _dignitas_, but through the less dignified way of the old french word _daintie_. the english words _dish_, _dais_, _desk_, and _disc_ all come from the latin word _discus_, by which the romans meant first a round flat plate thrown in certain games (a "quoit"), and secondly a plate or dish. in old english this word became _dish_. in old french it became _deis_, and from this we have the english _dais_--the raised platform of a throne. in italian it became _desco_, from which we got _desk_; and the scientific men of modern times, in their need of a word to describe exactly a round, flat object, have gone back as near as possible to the latin and given us _disc_. it is to be noticed that the original idea of the latin word--"having a flat surface"--is kept in these four descendants of a remote ancestor. the words _chieftain_ and _captain_ are doublets coming from the late latin word _capitaneus_, "chief;" the former through the old french word _chevetaine_, and the latter more directly from the latin. _frail_ and _fragile_ are another pair, coming from the latin word _fragilis_, "easily broken;" the one through old french, and the other through modern french. both these pairs of words have kept fairly close to the original meaning; but _caitiff_ and _captive_, another pair of doublets, have quite different meanings from each other. both come from the latin word _captivus_, "captive," the one indirectly and the other directly. _caitiff_, which is not a word used now except occasionally in poetry, means a "base, cowardly person;" but _captive_ has, of course, the original meaning of the latin word. another pair of doublets, which are quite different in form and almost opposite to each other in meaning, are _guest_ and _hostile_. these two words come from the same root word; but this goes further back than latin, to the language known as the aryan, from which nearly all the languages of europe and the chief language of india come. _hostile_ comes from the latin _hostis_, "an enemy;" but _hostis_ itself comes from the same aryan word as that from which _guest_ comes, and so these two words are doublets in english. they express very different ideas: we are not generally "hostile" or "full of enmity" against a "guest," one who partakes of our hospitality. another pair of doublets not from the latin are _shirt_ and _skirt_, which are both old germanic words. _skirt_ came later into the language, being from the scandinavian, while _shirt_ is an old english word. the word _cross_ and the many words in english beginning with _cruci_--such as _crucial_, _crucifix_, and _cruciform_--the adverb _across_, as well as the less common word _crux_, all come from the latin word _crux_, "a cross." the word _cross_ first came into the english language with christianity itself, for the death of our lord on the cross was, of course, the first story which converts to christianity were told. it came through the irish from the norwegian word _cros_, which came direct from the latin. all the words beginning with _cruci_ come straight from the latin. _cruciform_ and _crucifix_ refer to the form of a cross, and so sometimes does the word _crucial_. but, as a rule, _crucial_ is used as the adjective of the word _crux_, which means the "test," or "difficult point," in deciding or doing something. the romans did not use _crux_ in this sense; but it is interesting to notice that they did use it in the figurative sense of "trouble" just as we do. this came from the fact that the common form of execution for all subjects of the roman empire except roman citizens was crucifixion. two such different words as _tavern_ and _tabernacle_, the one meaning an inn and the other the most sacred part of the sanctuary in a church, are doublets from the latin word _tabernaculum_, "tent." the first comes from the french _taverne_, and the second directly from the latin. the words _mint_ and _money_ both come from the latin word _moneta_, which was an adjective attached by the romans to the name of the goddess juno. the place where the romans coined their money was attached to the temple of juno moneta, or juno the adviser. from this fact the romans themselves came to use _moneta_ as the name for coins, or what we call money. the word passed into french as _monnaie_, which is still the french word both for _money_ and _mint_, the place where we coin our money. in german it became _munze_, which has the same meanings. in english it became _mint_. but the english language, as we have seen, has a fine gift for borrowing. in time it acquired the french word _monnaie_, which became _money_ as the name for coins, while it kept the word _mint_ to describe the place where coins are made. the words _bower_, formerly the name of a sleeping-place for ladies and now generally meaning a summer-house, and _byre_, the place where cows sleep, both come from the old english word _bur_, "a bower." the word _flour_ (which so late as the eighteenth century dr. johnson did not include in his great dictionary) is the same word as _flower_. flour is merely the flower of wheat. again, _poesy_ and _posy_ are really the same word, _posy_ being derived from _poesy_. _posy_ used to mean a copy of verses presented to some one with a bouquet. now it stands either for verses, as when we speak of the "posy of a ring," or more commonly a bunch of flowers without any verses. the words _bench_ and _bank_ both come from the same teutonic word which became _benc_ in old english and _banc_ in french. _bench_ comes from _benc_, but _bank_ has a more complicated history. from the french _banc_ we borrowed the word to use in the old expression a "bank of oars." from the scandinavians, who also had the word, we got _bank_, used for the "bank of a river." meanwhile the italians had also borrowed the old germanic word which became with them _banca_ or _banco_, the bench or table of a money-changer. from this the french got _banque_, and this became in english _bank_ as we use it in connection with money. the latin word _ratio_, "reckoning," has given three words to the english language. it passed into old french as _resoun_, and from this we got the word _reason_. later on the french made a new word direct from the latin--_ration_; which, again, passed into english as a convenient name for the allowance of food to a soldier. it has now a more general sense, as when in the great war people talk of the whole nation being put "on rations." then again, as every child who is old enough to study mathematics knows, we use the latin word itself, _ratio_, as a mathematical term. another latin word which has given three different words to the english language is _gentilis_. from it we have _gentile_, _gentle_, and _genteel_. yet the latin word had not the same meaning as any of these words. _gentilis_ meant "belonging to the same _gens_ or 'clan.'" it became later a distinguishing term from _jew_. all who were not jews were _gentiles_, and this is still the meaning of the word _gentile_ in english. it came directly from the latin. but _gentilis_ became _gentil_ in french; and we have borrowed twice from this word, getting _gentle_, which expresses one idea contained in the french word, though the french word means more than our word _gentle_. it has the sense of "very amiable and attractive." the last word of the three, _genteel_, is rather a vulgar word. it means "like gentlemen and ladies have to do," and only rather ignorant people use the word seriously. doublets from latin words for the most part resemble each other in meaning and form, though, as we have seen, this is not always the case. we could give a long list of examples where both sense and form are similar, but there is only space to mention a few. _poor_ and _pauper_ (a miserably poor person) both come from the latin _pauper_, "poor." _story_ and _history_ both come from _historia_, a word which had both meanings in latin. _human_ and _humane_ are both from the latin _humanus_, "belonging to mankind." _sure_ and _secure_ are both from the latin _securus_, "safe." _nourishment_ and _nutriment_ are both from the latin _nutrimentum_. _amiable_ and _amicable_ are both from the latin _amicabilis_, "friendly." examples of doublets which are similar in form but not in sense are _chant_ and _cant_, which both come from the latin _cantare_, "to sing." _chant_ has the original idea, being a form of singing, especially in church; but _cant_ has wandered far from the original sense, meaning insincere words, especially such as are used by people pretending to be religious or pious. the word _cant_ was first used in describing the chanting or whining of beggars, who were supposed often to be telling lies; and from this it got its present use, which has nothing to do with singing. _blame_ and _blaspheme_, both coming from the latin _blasphemare_, itself taken from a hebrew word, are not, perhaps, quite so different in sense; but _blame_ means merely to find fault with a person, while _blaspheme_ means to speak against god. _chance_ and _cadence_ both come from the latin _cadere_, "to fall," but have very little resemblance in meaning. _chance_ is what happens or befalls, and _cadence_ is movement measured by the fall of the voice in speaking or singing. but the most interesting doublets of all are those which have neither form nor sense in common. no one would guess that the words _hyena_ and _sow_, the names of two such different animals, are doublets. both come from the greek word _sus_ or _hus_, "sow." the saxons, when they first settled in england, had the words _su_, "pig," and _sugu_, "sow;" and later the word _hyena_ was taken from the latin word _hyaena_, itself derived from the greek _huaina_, "sow." the words _furnish_ and _veneer_, again, are doublets which do not resemble each other very closely either in sound or in sense. both come from the old french word _furnir_, which has become _fournir_ in modern french, and means "to furnish." the english word _furnish_ was taken direct from the french, while the word _veneer_, which used to be spelt _fineer_, came into english from a german word also borrowed from the french _furnir_. no one would easily guess that the name _nutmeg_ had anything to do with _musk_; but the word comes from the name which latin writers in the middle ages gave to this useful seed--_nux muscata_, "musky nut." it seems strange, when we come to think of it, that great english sailors like admiral jellicoe and admiral beatty are called by a title which is really the same as the name of an arabian chieftain--_emir_. _admiral_ comes from the arab phrase _amir al bahr_, "emir on the sea." just the opposite to doublets which do not resemble each other are many pairs of words which are pronounced alike and sometimes spelled alike. very often these words come from two different languages, and there are many of them in english through the habit the language has always had of borrowing freely whenever the need of a new word has been felt. the word _weed_, "a wild plant," comes from an old english word, _weod_; while "widows' weeds" take their name from the old english word _woede_, "garment." the word _vice_, meaning the opposite of _virtue_, comes through the french from the latin _vitium_, "a fault;" while a "_vice_," the instrument for taking a perfectly tight hold on anything, comes from the latin _vitis_, "a vine," through the french _vis_, "a screw." yet another _vice_, as in _viceroy_, _vice-president_, etc., comes from the latin _vice_, "in the place of." _angle_, meaning the sport of fishermen, comes from an old english word, _angel_, "fish-hook;" while _angle_, "a corner," comes from the latin word _angulus_, which had the same meaning. we might imagine that the word _temple_, as the name of a part of the head, was a metaphor describing the head as the temple of the mind, but it has no such romantic meaning. _temple_, the name of a place of worship, comes from the latin _templum_, "a temple;" but _temple_, the name of a part of the head, is from the latin word _tempus_, which had the same meaning in latin, and also the earlier meaning of "the fitting time." it has been suggested that in latin _tempus_ came to mean "the temple," because it is "the fitting place" for a fatal blow, the temple being the most delicate part of the head. _tattoo_, meaning a "drum beat," comes from the dutch _tap-toe_, "tap-to," an order for drinking-houses to shut. but _tattoo_, describing the cutting away of the skin and dyeing of the flesh so common among sailors, is a word borrowed from the south sea islanders. _sound_ meaning "a noise," and _sound_ meaning "to find out the depth of," as in _sounding-rod_, are two quite different words. the one comes from the word _son_, found both in old english and french, and the other from the old english words _sundgyrd_, _sund line_, "a sounding line;" while _sound_ meaning "healthy" or "uninjured," as in the expression "safe and sound," comes from the old english word _sund_, and perhaps from the latin _sanus_, "healthy." the existence of so many pairs of words of this sort, which have the same sound and which yet come from such different origins--origins as far apart as the speech of the people of holland and that of the south sea islanders, as we saw in the word _tattoo_--illustrates in a very interesting way the wonderful history of the english language. chapter xviii. nice words for nasty things. in the days of queen elizabeth there were in england certain writers who were called "euphuists." they got this name from the title of a book, "euphues," written by one of them, john lyly. the chief characteristic of the writings of these euphuists was the grandiose way in which they wrote of the simplest things. their writings were full of metaphors and figures of speech. the first euphuists were looked upon as "refiners of speech," and queen elizabeth and the ladies at her court did their best to speak as much in the manner of euphues as they could. but all men at all times are unconscious euphuists, in so far as they try to say ugly and unpleasant things in a way which will make them sound pleasant. this tendency in speech is called "euphemism," a word which is made from two greek words meaning "to speak well." it is a true description of what the word means if by "well" we understand "as pleasantly as possible." the word _euphemeîte_, "speak fair," was used as a warning to worshippers in greek temples, in the belief that the speaking of an unfortunate word might bring disaster instead of blessing from the sacrifice. every day, and often in a day, we use euphemisms. how often do we hear people say, "if anything should happen to him," meaning "if he died;" and on tombstones the plain fact of a person's death is nearly always stated in phrases such as "he passed away," "fell asleep," or "departed this life." people often refer to a dead person as the "deceased" or the "departed," or as the "_late_ so-and-so." the fact is that, death being to most people the unpleasantest thing in the world, there is a general tendency to mention it as little as possible, and, when the subject cannot be avoided, to use vague and less realistic phrases than the words _death_, _dead_, or _die_. one reason for this avoidance of an unpleasant subject is the superstitious feeling that mentioning a thing will bring it to pass. or, again, if a misfortune has happened, many people feel that it only makes it worse to talk about it. while everybody avoids speaking on the subject, we can half pretend to ourselves that it is not true. we might imagine that this kind of "refinement of speech" (which when carried to excess really becomes vulgar) was the result of modern people being so "nervous." but this is not the case. complete savages have the same custom. if civilized people have a superstitious feeling that to mention a misfortune may bring it to pass, savages firmly believe that this is the case. not only will they not mention the subject of death in plain words, but some will not even mention the name of a dead person or give that name to a new-born child, so that in some tribes names die out in this way. many civilized people have this same idea that it is unlucky for a new-born child to be called by the name of a brother or sister who has already died. the subject of death has gathered more euphemisms around it than almost any other. some of them are ugly and almost vulgar, while others, from the way in which they have been used, are almost poetical. to speak of the "casualties" in a battle, meaning the number of killed and wounded men, seems almost heartless; but to say a man "fell in battle," though it means the same thing, is almost poetical, because it suggests an idea of courage and sacrifice. the expression, "roll of honour," is a euphemism, but poetical. it suggests the one consoling thought which relieves the horror of the bald expression, "list of casualties." another cause of the use of euphemisms, besides the superstitious fear of bringing misfortune by mentioning it too plainly, is the fear of being vulgar or indecent. through this feeling words which are quite proper at one time pass out of use among refined people. english people do not freely use the word "stomach" in conversation, and are often a little shocked when they hear french people describing their ailments in this region of the body. in the same way, names of articles of underclothing pass out of use. the old word for the garment which is now generally called a "chemise" was _smock_; but this in time became tinged with vulgarity, and the word _shift_ was used. this in its turn fell out of use among refined people, who began to use the french word _chemise_. even this, and the word _drawers_, which was also once a most refined expression, are falling into disuse, and people talk vaguely of "underlinen" in speaking of these garments. the shops which are always refined to the verge of vulgarity only allow themselves to use the french word _lingerie_. again, the faults of our friends and acquaintances, and even the graver offences of criminals, are matters with which we tend to deal lightly. such offences have gathered a whole throng of euphemisms about them. when we do not like to say boldly that a person is a liar, we say the same thing by means of the euphemism a "stranger to the truth." other lighter ways of saying that a person is lying is to say that he is "romancing," or "drawing the long bow," or "drawing on the imagination," or "telling a fairy tale." a thief will be described as a "defaulter," and we may say of a man who has stolen his employer's money as it passed through his hands that he is "short in his accounts." especially among the poorer or less respectable people, to whom the idea of crime becomes familiar, the use of slang euphemisms on this subject grows up. a person for whom the police are searching is "wanted." a man who is hanged "swings." these expressions may seem very dreadful to more refined people, but their use really comes from the same desire to be indulgent which leads more educated people to use euphemisms to cover up as far as possible the faults of their friends. again, misfortunes which come not from outside happenings but from some defect in a person's mind and body are often the subject of euphemisms. in scotland a person who is quite an imbecile will be described as an "innocent"--a milder way of saying the same thing. _insane_ and _crazy_ were originally euphemisms for _mad_, but now have come to be equally unpleasant descriptions. so for _drunken_ the euphemism _intemperate_ came to be used, but is now hardly a more polite description. we would not willingly speak of a person being "fat" in his presence. if it is necessary to touch on the subject, the word "stout" is more favoured. in the absence of the fat person the humorous euphemism may be used by which he or she is said to "have a good deal of _embonpoint_." many words are euphemisms in themselves, just as many words are complete metaphors in themselves. the word _ill_ means literally "uncomfortable," but has come to have a much more serious meaning. _disease_ means literally "not being at ease," but the sense in which we use it describes something much more serious than the literal meaning. the word _ruin_ is literally merely a "falling." one result of words being used euphemistically is that they often cease to have their milder original meaning, and cease therefore to seem euphemistic at all. _vile_, which now means everything that is bad, is in its literal and earlier use merely "cheap." _base_, which has the meaning of unutterable meanness, is literally merely "low." _mercenary_ is not exactly a complimentary description now. it means that a person thinks far too much of money, but originally it merely meant "serving for pay," a thing which most men are obliged to do. _transgression_ is generally used now to describe some rather serious offence, but it literally means only a "stepping across." the "step" which it describes being, however, in the wrong direction, the word has come to have a more and more serious meaning. the study of euphemisms can teach us much about men's thoughts and manners in the past and the present. chapter xix. the moral of these stories. most stories have a moral. at least grown-up people have a habit of tacking a little lesson on to the end of the stories they tell to children. and as a rule the children will listen to the moral for the sake of the story. and so even the stories which words tell us have their lessons for us too, and, let us hope, the stories are sufficiently interesting to pay for the moral. one thing that these stories must have shown us is that the english language is a very ancient and wonderful thing. we have only been able to get mere glimpses of its wonderful development since the days when the ancestors of the peoples of europe and many of the peoples of india spoke the one aryan tongue. all the history of europe and of india--we might almost say of the world--is contained in the languages which have descended from that aryan tongue. another point which these stories have impressed upon us is that language is a kind of mirror to thought. for every new idea people must find a word, and as ideas change words change with them. these stories have given us some idea of the wonderful growth of ideas in the minds of men in the past; they have shown us men daring all dangers for the sake of adventure and discovery and for pride of country; they have shown us the growth of new ideas of religion and kindness, new notions about science and learning: in fact, they have given us glimpses of the whole story of human progress. the great lesson which these stories ought to teach us is respect for words. seeing as we do what a beautiful and wonderful thing the english language has become, it ought to be the resolution of each one of us never to do anything to spoil that beauty. every writer ought to choose his words carefully, neither inventing nor copying ugly forms of speech. we have seen also from these stories, especially in the chapter on "slang," how people have misused certain words, until speakers and writers of good taste can no longer use them in their original sense, and therefore do not use them at all. there are many other faults in speaking and in writing which take away from the beauty and dignity of the language. we shall see what some of these faults are; but one golden rule can be laid down which, if people keep it, will help them to avoid all these faults. no one should ever try to write in a fine style. the chief aim which all young writers should keep before them is to say exactly what they mean, and in as few and simple words as possible. if on reading what they have written they find that it is not perfectly clear, they should not immediately begin to rewrite, but instead set themselves to find out whether their _thoughts_ are perfectly clear. there is no idea which has no word to fit it. of course some writers must use difficult language. the ordinary reader can sometimes not understand a sentence of a book of philosophy. this is not because the philosophers do not write clearly, but because the ideas with which they have to deal are very subtle, and hard for the ordinary person to understand. but for ordinary people writing on ordinary things there is no excuse for writing so as not to be clearly understood, or for writing in such a long and round-about way that people are tired instead of refreshed by reading. nor is there any excuse for the use of words and phrases which are vulgar or too colloquial for the subject; yet how often is this done in the modern newspaper. it may seem unnecessary to speak to boys and girls of the faults of newspaper writers. but the boys and girls of to-day are the newspaper writers and readers of the future, and the habits which young writers form cling to them afterwards. of course many of the faults which the worse kind of journalists commit in writing would not occur to boys and girls; but one fault leads to another. the motive at the root of most poor and showy writing is the desire to "shine." the faults which seem so detestable to the critical reader seem very ingenious and brilliant to the writer of poor taste. to the journalist, as to the schoolboy and the schoolgirl, the golden rule is, "be simple." let us see what some of the commonest faults of showy and poor writers of english are--always with the moral before us that they are to be avoided. one great fault of newspaper writers and of young writers in general is to sprinkle their compositions thickly with quotations, until some beautiful and expressive lines from the greatest poetry and prose have almost lost their force through the ear having become tired by hearing them too often. some such phrases are-- "tell it not in gath;" "heap coals of fire upon his head;" "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof:" all fine and picturesque lines, the apt quotation of which must have been very impressive, until, through frequent repetition, they have become almost commonplace. a similar hackneyed fault is the too frequent application of the name of some historical or biblical personage to describe the character of some person of whom we are writing. it is much more expressive now to describe a person as a "doubter" than as a "doubting thomas," though the latter phrase may serve to show that the writer knows something of his new testament. the first man who called a sceptic a "doubting thomas" was certainly a witty and cultivated person; but this cannot now be said of the use of this hackneyed phrase. again, it is better to say a "traitor" than a "judas," a "wise man" than a "solomon," a "tyrant" than a "nero," a "great general" than a "napoleon;" for all these names used in this way have lost their force. a similar fault is the describing of a person by some abstract noun such as a "joy," a "delight," an "inspiration"--a way of speaking which savours both of slang and affectation, and which is not likely to appeal to people of good taste. of course it is quite different when the poet writes-- "she was a vision of delight;" for poetry has its own rules, just as it has its own range of ideas and inspiration, and we are speaking now of the writing of mere prose. another bad fault of the same kind, but more colloquial, and more often met with in speaking than in writing, is the too frequent use of a word or phrase. some people say "i mean," or "personally," or "i see," or "you see," or similar expressions, at nearly every second sentence, until people listening to them begin to count the number of times these expressions occur, instead of attending to the subject of conversation. another very common fault in writing made by newspaper writers, and even more so by young beginners in composition, is the use of long words derived from latin instead of the simpler words which have come down from the old english. this does not mean that these words are not so good or so beautiful as the old english words. as we have seen, these words were borrowed by our language to express ideas for which no native word could be found. but a person who deliberately chooses long latin words because they are longer, and, as he thinks, sound grander, is sure to write a poor style. a saying which is perhaps becoming almost as "hackneyed" as some of the quotations already mentioned in this chapter is, "the style is the man." this means that if a person thinks clearly and sincerely he will write clearly and sincerely. if a person's thoughts are lofty, he will naturally find dignified words to express them. no good writer will deliberately choose "high-sounding" words to express his ideas. all young writers should avoid what have been called "flowery flourishes." again, young writers should be very careful not to use really foreign words to express an idea for which we have already a good word in english. sometimes the foreign word comes first to our pen, but this may be because of the bad habit which has grown up of using these words in place of the english words which are quite as correct and expressive. sometimes, on the other hand, the foreign word expresses a shade of meaning which the english word misses, and then, of course, it is quite right to use it. for instance, _amour propre_ is not in any way better than "self-love," _bêtise_ than "stupid action," _camaraderie_ than "comradeship," _savoir faire_ than "knowledge of the world," _chef d'oeuvre_ than "masterpiece," and so on. one disadvantage of borrowing such words is that they often come to be used in a different sense from their use in their native language; and people with an imperfect knowledge of these languages will say rather vulgar or shocking things when using them in the english manner in those languages. thus, to speak of a person of a certain "calibre" in french is exceedingly vulgar; and refined people do not use the word _chic_ as freely as the english use of it would suggest. examples of foreign words which we could hardly replace by english expressions are _blasé_, _tête-à -tête_, _brusque_, _bourgeois_, _deshabille_. these have been borrowed, just as words have been borrowed all through its history, by the english language to fill gaps. they have really become english words. but there are many foreign expressions now scattered freely through newspapers the sense of which can only be plain to those who have had a classical education. unfortunately it is only the minority of readers who have had this. the effect is to make whole passages unintelligible or only half intelligible to the majority of readers. this is not writing good english. thus people will write _le tout paris_ instead of "all paris," _mémoires pour servir_ instead of "documents," _ipsis hibernis hiberniores_ for "more irish than the irish." such phrases are quite unsuitable to the general reader, and as perfect equivalents can be found in english, there would be no point in using them, even if writing for a learned society. modern english, and especially colloquial english, has borrowed a great deal from the american way of speaking english. the people of the united states, though their language is that of the mother-country, have modified it so that it is, as it were, a mirror of the difference between american and english life. in america there is more hurry and bustle and less dignity. it is this difference which makes americans and the american way of speaking appear interesting and piquant to english people. but this is no good reason for the adoption of american mannerisms into the english language. a typically american word is _boom_, meaning a sudden coming into popularity of something. thus one may speak of a "boom" in motors, and the word has become quite common in english; but it is not beautiful, and we could easily have done without it. words which sound quite natural when used by americans often seem unnecessarily "slangy" when used by english people. * * * * * transcriber's note: typographical errors have been corrected. a list of the corrected errors is found at the end of the text along with a list of inconsistently hyphenated words. the literary world seventh reader by john calvin metcalf professor of english literature in the university of virginia sarah withers principal elementary grades and critic teacher winthrop normal and industrial college rock hill. s.c. and hetty s. browne extension worker in rural school practice winthrop normal and industrial college [illustration] johnson publishing company richmond, virginia copyright, b. f. johnson publishing company _all rights reserved_ l.h.j. acknowledgments for permission to use copyrighted material the authors and publishers express their indebtedness to the macmillan company for "a deal in bears" from _mctodd_, by w. cutcliffe hyne, and for "sea fever," by john masefield; to duffield & company and mr. h. g. wells for "in labrador" from _marriage_; to the john lane company for "the making of a man" from _the rough road_, by w. j. locke; to dodd, mead & company and mr. arthur dobson for "a ballad of heroes," and to dodd, mead & company for "under seas," by count alexis tolstoi; to g. p. putnam's sons for "old ephraim" from _the hunting trips of a ranchman_, by theodore roosevelt; to houghton mifflin company for "a greyport legend," by bret harte, "midwinter," by john townsend trowbridge, "the first snowfall," by james russell lowell, "among the cliffs" from _the young mountaineers_, by charles egbert craddock (mary n. murfree), and for "the friendship of nantaquas" from _to have and to hold_, by mary johnston; to harper & brothers for "the great stone of sardis" from _the great stone of sardis_, by frank r. stockton, and to harper & brothers and mr. booth tarkington for "ariel's triumph" from _the conquest of canaan_. table of contents legends of our land rip van winkle _washington irving_ the great stone face _nathaniel hawthorne_ the courtship of miles standish _henry w. longfellow_ the friendship of nantaquas _mary johnston_ home scenes harry esmond's boyhood _wm. makepeace thackeray_ the family holds its head up _oliver goldsmith_ the little boy in the balcony _henry w. grady_ ariel's triumph _booth tarkington_ nature and animals the cloud _percy bysshe shelley_ new england weather _mark twain_ the first snowfall _james russell lowell_ old ephraim _theodore roosevelt_ midwinter _john townsend trowbridge_ a georgia fox hunt _joel chandler harris_ rain and wind _madison julius cawein_ the southern sky _matthew fontaine maury_ daffodils _william wordsworth_ dawn _edward everett_ spring _henry timrod_ moving adventure among the cliffs _charles egbert craddock_ a deal in bears _w. cutcliffe hyne_ lochinvar _sir walter scott_ in labrador _h. g. wells_ the bugle song _alfred tennyson_ the siege of the castle _sir walter scott_ modern wonder tales sea fever _john masefield_ a greyport legend _bret harte_ a hunt beneath the ocean _jules verne_ under seas _count alexis tolstoi_ a voyage to the moon _edgar allan poe_ the great stone of sardis _frank r. stockton_ sketches of the great war a stop at suzanne's _greayer clover_ the making of a man _w. j. locke_ in flanders fields _john mccrae_ in flanders fields (an answer) _c. b. galbraith_ a ballad of heroes _austin dobson_ dictionary [illustration: [see page ] he was tempted to repeat the draught] [illustration] rip van winkle i whoever has made a voyage up the hudson must remember the catskill mountains. they are a branch of the great [v]appalachian[ -*] family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the goodwives, far and near, as perfect [v]barometers. at the foot of these fairy mountains the traveler may have seen the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. it is a little village of great age, having been founded by some of the dutch colonists in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good peter [v]stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow bricks brought from holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. in that same village, and in one of these very houses, there lived, many years since, while the country was yet a province of great britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of rip van winkle. he was a descendant of the van winkles who figured so gallantly in the [v]chivalrous days of peter stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of fort christina. he inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. i have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband. certain it is that he was a great favorite among all the goodwives of the village, who took his part in all family squabbles; and never failed, whenever they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on dame van winkle. the children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. he assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and indians. whenever he went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a troop of them, hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. the great error in rip's composition was a strong dislike of all kinds of profitable labor. it could not be from the want of perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. he would carry a fowling piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. he would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking indian corn, or building stone fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. in a word, rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. his children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. his son rip promised to inherit the habits, with the old clothes, of his father. he was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off breeches, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in bad weather. rip van winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. if left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ear about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. he shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. this, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house--the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband. rip's sole [v]domestic adherent was his dog wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master; for dame van winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of his master's going so often astray. true it is, in all points of spirit befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods; but what courage can withstand the ever-enduring and all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? the moment wolf entered the house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground or curled between his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong glance at dame van winkle, and at the least flourish of a broomstick or ladle he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation. times grew worse and worse with rip van winkle as years of matrimony rolled on. a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. for a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a [v]rubicund portrait of his majesty george iii. here they used to sit in the shade of a long, lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories about nothing. but it would have been worth any statesman's money to have heard the profound discussions which sometimes took place, when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing traveler. how solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by derrick van bummel, the schoolmaster,--a dapper, learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the dictionary! and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some months after they had taken place! the opinions of this [v]junto were completely controlled by nicholas vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun, and keep in the shade of a large tree; so that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as by a sun-dial. it is true, he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. his adherents, however (for every great man has his adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions. when anything that was read or related displeased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent, and angry puffs; but, when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds, and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would nod his head in approbation. from even this stronghold the unlucky rip was at length routed by his [v]termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquility of the assemblage, and call the members all to naught; nor was that august personage, nicholas vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness. poor rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only [v]alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the contents of his wallet with wolf, with whom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. "poor wolf," he would say, "thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst i live thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee." wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master's face; and if dogs can feel pity, i verily believe he [v]reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. in a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the catskill mountains. he was after his favorite sport of squirrel-shooting, and the still solitudes had echoed and reëchoed with the reports of his gun. panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. from an opening between the trees he could overlook all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. he saw at a distance the lordly hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands. on the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild and lonely, the bottom filled with fragments from the overhanging cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. for some time rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually advancing; the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the terrors of dame van winkle. as he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, "rip van winkle! rip van winkle!" he looked round, but could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary flight across the mountain. he thought his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when he heard the same cry ring through the still evening air: "rip van winkle! rip van winkle!"--at the same time wolf bristled up his back, and giving a low growl, skulked to his master's side, looking fearfully down into the glen. rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he carried on his back. he was surprised to see any human being in this lonely and unfrequented place; but supposing it to be some one of the neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it. on nearer approach he was still more surprised at the [v]singularity of the stranger's appearance. he was a short, square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. his dress was of the antique dutch fashion,--a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist, and several pair of breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the sides. he bore on his shoulder a stout keg that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for rip to approach and assist him with the load. though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, rip complied with his usual [v]alacrity, and relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. as they ascended, rip every now and then heard long, rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. he paused for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient thundershowers which often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded. passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a small [v]amphitheater, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the brinks of which trees shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud. during the whole time rip and his companion had labored on in silence; for though the former marveled greatly, what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and incomprehensible about the unknown that inspired awe and checked familiarity. on entering the amphitheater new objects of wonder presented themselves. on a level spot in the center was a company of odd-looking personages playing at ninepins. they were dressed in a quaint, outlandish fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches, of similar style with that of the guide's. their visages, too, were peculiar: one had a large head, broad face, and small, piggish eyes; the face of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. they all had beards, of various shapes and colors. there was one who seemed to be the commander. he was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with roses in them. the whole group reminded rip of the figures in an old flemish painting, in the parlor of [v]dominie van shaick, the village parson, which had been brought over from holland at the time of the settlement. what seemed particularly odd to rip was that, though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. as rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at him with such fixed, statue-like gaze, and such strange, uncouth countenances, that his heart turned within him, and his knees smote together. his companion now emptied the contents of the keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the company. he obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. by degrees rip's awe and apprehension subsided. he even ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage, which he found had much of the flavor of excellent hollands. he was naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. one taste provoked another; and he repeated his visits to the flagon so often that at length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. ii on waking he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen the old man of the glen. he rubbed his eyes--it was a bright, sunny morning. the birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze. "surely," thought rip, "i have not slept here all night." he recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. the strange man with a keg of liquor--the mountain ravine--the wild retreat among the rocks--the woe-begone party at ninepins--the flagon--"oh! that flagon! that wicked flagon!" thought rip; "what excuse shall i make to dame van winkle?" he looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean, well-oiled fowling piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. he now suspected that the grave revelers of the mountain had put a trick upon him and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. he whistled after him, and shouted his name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was to be seen. he determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. as he rose to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual activity. "these mountain beds do not agree with me," thought rip, "and if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, i shall have a blessed time with dame van winkle." with some difficulty he got down into the glen; he found the gully up which he and his companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. he, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the wild grapevines that twisted their coils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path. at length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs to the amphitheater; but no traces of such opening remained. the rocks presented a high, impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad, deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. here, then, poor rip was brought to a stand. he again called and whistled after his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's perplexities. what was to be done?--the morning was passing away, and rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. he grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve among the mountains. he shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps homeward. as he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the country round. their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. they all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. the constant recurrence of this gesture induced rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! he had now entered the skirts of the village. a troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray beard. the dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. the very village was altered; it was larger and more populous. there were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. strange names were over the doors--strange faces at the windows--everything was strange. his mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. surely this was his native village, which he had left but the day before. there stood the catskill mountains--there ran the silver hudson at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been. rip was sorely perplexed. "that flagon last night," thought he, "has addled my poor head sadly!" it was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of dame van winkle. he found the house gone to decay--the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. a half-starved dog that looked like wolf was skulking about it. rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. this was an unkind cut indeed. "my very dog," sighed rip, "has forgotten me!" he entered the house, which, to tell the truth, dame van winkle had always kept in neat order. it was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. he called loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence. iii he now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village inn--but it, too, was gone. a large, rickety wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "the union hotel, by jonathan doolittle." instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall, naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes; all this was strange and incomprehensible. he recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of king george, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but even this was singularly changed. the red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large characters, general washington. there was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that rip recollected. the very character of the people seemed changed. there was a busy, bustling tone about it, instead of the accustomed drowsy tranquility. he looked in vain for the sage nicholas vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches; or van bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper. in place of these, a lean fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens--elections--members of congress--bunker's hill--heroes of seventy-six--and other words, which were a perfect jargon to the bewildered van winkle. the appearance of rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. they crowded round him, eyeing him from head to foot with great curiosity. the orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired "on which side he voted?" rip stared in vacant stupidity. another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear, "whether he was federal or democrat?" rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before van winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded, in an austere tone, "what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels; and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?"--"alas! gentlemen," cried rip, somewhat dismayed, "i am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, god bless him!" here a general shout burst from the bystanders--"a tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" it was with great difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and having assumed a tenfold [v]austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, and whom he was seeking! the poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in search of some of his neighbors. "well--who are they? name them." rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "where's nicholas vedder?" there was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a thin, piping voice, "nicholas vedder! why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years! there was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone, too." "where's brom dutcher?" "oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was killed at the storming of stony point; others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of anthony's nose. i don't know; he never came back again." "where's van brummel, the schoolmaster?" "he went off to the wars, too, was a great militia general, and is now in congress." rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends and finding himself thus alone in the world. every answer puzzled him, too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of matters which he could not understand: war--congress--stony point. he had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, "does nobody here know rip van winkle?" "oh, rip van winkle!" exclaimed two or three, "oh, to be sure! that's rip van winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up the mountain--apparently as lazy and certainly as ragged. the poor fellow was now completely confounded. he doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man. in the midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name. "god knows," exclaimed he, at his wits' end; "i'm not myself--i'm somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else got into my shoes--i was myself last night, but i fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and i'm changed, and i can't tell what's my name, or who i am!" the bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. there was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. at this critical moment a fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. she had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "hush, rip," cried she, "hush, you little fool; the old man won't hurt you." the name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in his mind. "what is your name, my good woman?" asked he. "judith gardenier." "and your father's name?" "ah, poor man, rip van winkle was his name, but it's twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the indians, nobody can tell. i was then but a little girl." rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice: "where's your mother?" "oh, she, too, had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a new england peddler." there was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. the honest man could contain himself no longer. he caught his daughter and her child in his arms. "i am your father!" cried he--"young rip van winkle once--old rip van winkle now! does nobody know poor rip van winkle?" all stood amazed until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, "sure enough! it is rip van winkle--it is himself! welcome home again, old neighbor. why, where have you been these twenty long years?" rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him but as one night. the neighbors stared when they heard it; some were seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks: and the self-important man in the cocked hat, who when the alarm was over had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of the head throughout the assemblage. it was determined, however, to take the opinion of old peter vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. he was a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the province. peter was the most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. he recollected rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. he assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the catskill mountains had always been haunted by strange beings. it was affirmed that the great hendrick hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the _half-moon_; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name. his father had once seen them in their old dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder. to make a long story short, the company broke up and returned to the more important concerns of the election. rip's daughter took him home to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout, cheery farmer for a husband, whom rip recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb upon his back. as to rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on the farm; but showed an hereditary disposition to attend to anything else but his business. washington irving. =helps to study= "rip van winkle" is the most beautiful of american legendary stories. washington irving, the author, taking the old idea of long sleep, as found in "the sleeping beauty" and other fairy tales, gave it an american setting and interwove in it the legend of henry hudson, the discoverer of the hudson river, who was supposed to return to the scene of his achievement every twenty years, together with the shades of his crew. i. where is the scene of this story laid? in which paragraph do you learn when the incident related in the story took place? why does irving speak of the mountains as "fairy mountains"? in which paragraph do you meet the principal characters? give the opinion you form of rip and his wife. read sentences that show rip's good qualities--those that show his faults. what unusual thing happened to rip on his walk? how was the dog affected? give a full account of what happened afterward. tell what impressed you most in this scene. read aloud the lines that best describe the scenery. ii. describe rip's waking. what was his worst fear? how did he explain to himself the change in his gun and the disappearance of wolf? how did he account for the stiffness of his joints? what was still his chief fear? describe the changes which had taken place in the mountains. with what feeling did he turn homeward? why? how did he discover the alteration in his own appearance? how did the children and dogs treat him? why was this particularly hard for rip to understand? what other changes did he find? what remained unaltered? how did rip still account for the peculiar happenings? describe rip's feelings as he turned to his own house, and its desolation. iii. what change had been made in the sign over the inn? why? what important thing was taking place in the village? why did the speech of the "lean fellow" seem "perfect jargon" to rip? why did he not understand the questions asked him? what happened when rip made his innocent reply to the self-important gentleman? how did he at last learn of the lapse of time? what added to his bewilderment? how was the mystery explained? note the question rip reserved for the last and the effect the answer had upon him. how did peter vanderdonk explain the strange happening? what is the happy ending? do you like rip? why? supplementary reading urashima--graded classics iii. vice versa--f. anstey. peter pan--james barrie. the legend of sleepy hollow--washington irving. a christmas carol--charles dickens. enoch arden--alfred tennyson. footnote: [ -*] for words marked [v], see dictionary. [illustration: photograph by aldrich the great stone face] the great stone face i one afternoon when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the great stone face. they had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. and what was the great stone face? the great stone face was a work of nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance. it seemed as if an enormous giant, or a [v]titan, had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. there was the broad arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. it was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with the great stone face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow of a vast, warm heart that embraced all mankind in its affections, and had room for more. as we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their cottage door, gazing at the great stone face, and talking about it. the child's name was ernest. "mother," said he, while the titanic visage smiled on him, "i wish that it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice must be pleasant. if i were to see a man with such a face, i should love him dearly." "if an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we may see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face as that." "what prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired ernest. "pray tell me all about it!" so his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her, when she herself was younger than little ernest; a story, not of things that were past, but of what was yet to come; a story, nevertheless, so very old that even the indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had heard it from their forefathers, to whom, they believed, it had been murmured by the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among the tree tops. the story said that at some future day a child should be born hereabouts who was destined to become the greatest and noblest man of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear an exact resemblance to the great stone face. "o mother, dear mother!" cried ernest, clapping his hands above his head, "i do hope that i shall live to see him!" his mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it was wisest not to discourage the hopes of her little boy. she only said to him, "perhaps you may," little thinking that the prophecy would one day come true. and ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. it was always in his mind whenever he looked upon the great stone face. he spent his childhood in the log cottage where he was born, and was dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. in this manner, from a happy yet thoughtful child, he grew to be a mild, quiet, modest boy, sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more intelligence in his face than is seen in many lads who have been taught at famous schools. yet ernest had had no teacher, save only that the great stone face became one to him. when the toil of the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of kindness and encouragement in response to his own look of [v]veneration. we must not take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the face may have looked no more kindly at ernest than at all the world besides. for the secret was that the boy's tender simplicity [v]discerned what other people could not see; and thus the love, which was meant for all, became his alone. ii about this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley that the great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to the great stone face, had appeared at last. it seems that, many years before, a young man had left the valley and settled at a distant seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had set up as a shopkeeper. his name--but i could never learn whether it was his real one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success in life--was gathergold. it might be said of him, as of [v]midas in the fable, that whatever he touched with his finger immediately glistened, and grew yellow, and was changed at once into coin. and when mr. gathergold had become so rich that it would have taken him a hundred years only to count his wealth, he bethought himself of his native valley, and resolved to go back thither, and end his days where he was born. with this purpose in view, he sent a skillful architect to build him such a palace as should be fit for a man of his vast wealth to live in. as i have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley that mr. gathergold had turned out to be the person so long and vainly looked for, and that his visage was the perfect and undeniable likeness of the great stone face. people were the more ready to believe that this must needs be the fact when they beheld the splendid edifice that rose, as if by enchantment, on the site of his father's old weather-beaten farmhouse. the exterior was of marble, so dazzling white that it seemed as though the whole structure might melt away in the sunshine, like those humbler ones which mr. gathergold, in his young playdays, had been accustomed to build of snow. it had a richly ornamented portico, supported by tall pillars, beneath which was a lofty door, studded with silver knobs, and made of a kind of variegated wood that had been brought from beyond the sea. the windows, from the floor to the ceiling of each stately apartment, were each composed of but one enormous pane of glass. hardly anybody had been permitted to see the interior of this palace; but it was reported to be far more gorgeous than the outside, insomuch that whatever was iron or brass in other houses was silver or gold in this; and mr. gathergold's bedchamber, especially, made such a glittering appearance that no ordinary man would have been able to close his eyes there. but, on the other hand, mr. gathergold was now so accustomed to wealth that perhaps he could not have closed his eyes unless where the gleam of it was certain to find its way beneath his eyelids. in due time, the mansion was finished; next came the upholsterers, with magnificent furniture; then a whole troop of black and white servants, the harbingers of mr. gathergold, who, in his own majestic person, was expected to arrive at sunset. our friend ernest, meanwhile, had been deeply stirred by the idea that the great man, the noble man, the man of prophecy, after so many ages of delay, was at length to appear in his native valley. he knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand ways in which mr. gathergold, with his vast wealth, might transform himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a control over human affairs as wide and [v]benignant as the smile of the great stone face. full of faith and hope, ernest doubted not that what the people said was true, and that now he was to behold the living likeness of those wondrous features on the mountain side. while the boy was still gazing up the valley, and fancying, as he always did, that the great stone face returned his gaze and looked kindly at him, the rumbling of wheels was heard, approaching swiftly along the winding road. "here he comes!" cried a group of people who were assembled to witness the arrival. "here comes the great mr. gathergold!" a carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round the turn of the road. within it, thrust partly out of the window, appeared the face of a little old man, with a skin as yellow as gold. he had a low forehead, small, sharp eyes, puckered about with innumerable wrinkles, and very thin lips, which he made still thinner by pressing them forcibly together. "the very image of the great stone face!" shouted the people. "sure enough, the old prophecy is true." and, what greatly perplexed ernest, they seemed actually to believe that here was the likeness which they spoke of. by the roadside there chanced to be an old beggar woman and two little beggar children, stragglers from some far-off region, who, as the carriage rolled onward, held out their hands and lifted up their doleful voices, most piteously beseeching charity. a yellow claw--the very same that had clawed together so much wealth--poked itself out of the coach window, and dropped some copper coins upon the ground; so that, though the great man's name seems to have been gathergold, he might just as suitably have been nicknamed scattercopper. still, nevertheless, with an earnest shout, and evidently with as much good faith as ever, the people bellowed: "he is the very image of the great stone face!" but ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled shrewdness of that visage and gazed up the valley, where, amid a gathering mist, gilded by the last sunbeams, he could still distinguish those glorious features which had impressed themselves into his soul. their aspect cheered him. what did the benign lips seem to say? "he will come! fear not, ernest; the man will come!" the years went on, and ernest ceased to be a boy. he had grown to be a young man now. he attracted little notice from the other inhabitants of the valley, for they saw nothing remarkable in his way of life, save that, when the labor of the day was over, he still loved to go apart and gaze and meditate upon the great stone face. according to their idea of the matter, however, it was a pardonable folly, for ernest was industrious, kind, and neighborly, and neglected no duty for the sake of this idle habit. they knew not that the great stone face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment which was expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, and fill it with wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts. they knew not that thence would come a better wisdom than could be learned from books, and a better life than could be molded on the example of other human lives. neither did ernest know that the thoughts and affections which came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, were of a higher tone than those which all men shared with him. a simple soul,--simple as when his mother first taught him the old prophecy,--he beheld the marvelous features beaming down the valley, and still wondered that their human counterpart was so long in making his appearance. by this time poor mr. gathergold was dead and buried; and the oddest part of the matter was that his wealth, which was the body and spirit of his existence, had disappeared before his death, leaving nothing of him but a living skeleton, covered over with a wrinkled, yellow skin. since the melting away of his gold, it had been very generally allowed that there was no such striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the ignoble features of the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the mountain side. so the people ceased to honor him during his lifetime, and quietly forgot him after his decease. once in a while, it is true, his memory was brought up in connection with the magnificent palace which he had built, and which had long ago been turned into a hotel for the accommodation of strangers, multitudes of whom came, every summer, to visit that famous natural curiosity, the great stone face. the man of prophecy was yet to come. iii it so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years before, had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of hard fighting, had now become an illustrious commander. whatever he may be called in history, he was known in camps and on the battlefield under the nickname of old blood-and-thunder. this war-worn veteran, being now weary of a military life, and of the roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet that had so long been ringing in his ears, had lately signified a purpose of returning to his native valley, hoping to find repose where he remembered to have left it. the inhabitants, his old neighbors and their grown-up children, were resolved to welcome the [v]renowned warrior with a salute of cannon and a public dinner; and all the more enthusiastically because it was believed that at last the likeness of the great stone face had actually appeared. a friend of old blood-and-thunder, traveling through the valley, was said to have been struck with the resemblance. moreover, the schoolmates and early acquaintances of the general were ready to testify, on oath, that, to the best of their recollection, the general had been exceedingly like the majestic image, even when a boy, only that the idea had never occurred to them at that period. great, therefore, was the excitement throughout the valley; and many people, who had never once thought of glancing at the great stone face for years before, now spent their time in gazing at it, for the sake of knowing exactly how general blood-and-thunder looked. on the day of the great festival, ernest, and all the other people of the valley, left their work and proceeded to the spot where the banquet was prepared. as he approached, the loud voice of the rev. dr. battleblast was heard, beseeching a blessing on the good things set before them, and on the distinguished friend of peace in whose honor they were assembled. the tables were arranged in a cleared space of the woods, shut in by the surrounding trees, except where a vista opened eastward, and afforded a distant view of the great stone face. over the general's chair, which was a relic from the home of washington, there was an arch of green boughs and laurel surmounted by his country's banner, beneath which he had won his victories. our friend ernest raised himself on his tiptoes, in hopes to get a glimpse of the celebrated guest; but there was a mighty crowd about the tables anxious to hear the toasts and speeches, and to catch any word that might fall from the general in reply; and a volunteer company, doing duty as a guard, pricked with their bayonets at any particularly quiet person among the throng. so ernest, being of a modest character, was thrust quite into the background, where he could see no more of old blood-and-thunder's face than if it had been still blazing on the battlefield. to console himself he turned toward the great stone face, which, like a faithful and long-remembered friend, looked back and smiled upon him through the forest. meantime, however, he could overhear the remarks of various individuals who were comparing the features of the hero with the face on the distant mountain side. "'tis the same face, to a hair!" cried one man, cutting a caper for joy. "wonderfully like, that's a fact!" responded another. "like! why, i call it old blood-and-thunder himself, in a monstrous looking-glass!" cried a third. "and why not? he's the greatest man of this or any other age, beyond a doubt." "the general! the general!" was now the cry. "hush! silence! old blood-and-thunder's going to make a speech." even so; for, the cloth being removed, the general's health had been drunk amid shouts of applause, and he now stood upon his feet to thank the company. ernest saw him. there he was, over the shoulders of the crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and embroidered collar upward, beneath the arch of green boughs with intertwined laurel, and the banner drooping as if to shade his brow! and there, too, visible in the same glance, appeared the great stone face! and was there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified? alas, ernest could not recognize it! he beheld a war-worn and weather-beaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an iron will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender sympathies were altogether wanting in old blood-and-thunder's visage. "this is not the man of prophecy," sighed ernest to himself, as he made his way out of the throng. "and must the world wait longer yet?" the mists had gathered about the distant mountain side, and there were seen the grand and awful features of the great stone face, awful but benignant, as if a mighty angel were sitting among the hills and enrobing himself in a cloud vesture of gold and purple. as he looked, ernest could hardly believe but that a smile beamed over the whole visage, with a radiance still brightening, although without motion of the lips. it was probably the effect of the western sunshine, melting the thin vapors that had swept between him and the object that he had gazed at. but--as it always did--the aspect of his marvelous friend made ernest as hopeful as if he had never hoped in vain. "fear not, ernest," said his heart, even as if the great face were whispering him--"fear not, ernest." iv more years sped swiftly and tranquilly away. ernest still dwelt in his native valley, and was now a man of middle age. by slow degrees he had become known among the people. now, as heretofore, he labored for his bread, and was the same simple-hearted man that he had always been. but he had thought and felt so much, he had given so many of the best hours of his life to unworldly hopes for some great good to mankind, that it seemed as though he had been talking with the angels, and had imbibed a portion of their wisdom unawares. it was visible in the calm beneficence of his daily life, the quiet stream of which had made a wide, green margin all along its course. not a day passed by that the world was not the better because this man, humble as he was, had lived. he never stepped aside from his own path, yet would always reach a blessing to his neighbor. almost involuntarily, too, he had become a preacher. the pure and high simplicity of his thought, which took shape in the good deeds that dropped silently from his hand, flowered also forth in speech. he uttered truths that molded the lives of those who heard him. his hearers, it may be, never suspected that ernest, their own neighbor and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; least of all did ernest himself suspect it; but thoughts came out of his mouth that no other human lips had spoken. when the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were ready enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a similarity between general blood-and-thunder and the benign visage on the mountain side. but now, again, there were reports and many paragraphs in the newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the great stone face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent [v]statesman. he, like mr. gathergold and old blood-and-thunder, was a native of the valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up the trades of law and politics. instead of the rich man's wealth and the warrior's sword he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both together. so wonderfully eloquent was he that, whatever he might choose to say, his hearers had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like right, and right like wrong. his voice, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest music. in good truth, he was a wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other imaginable success,--when it had been heard in halls of state and in the courts of princes,--after it had made him known all over the world, even as a voice crying from shore to shore,--it finally persuaded his countrymen to select him for the presidency. before this time,--indeed, as soon as he began to grow celebrated,--his admirers had found out the resemblance between him and the great stone face; and so much were they struck by it that throughout the country this distinguished gentleman was known by the name of old stony phiz. while his friends were doing their best to make him president, old stony phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was born. of course he had no other object than to shake hands with his fellow-citizens, and neither thought nor cared about any effect which his progress through the country might have upon the election. magnificent preparations were made to receive the [v]illustrious statesmen; a cavalcade of horsemen set forth to meet him at the boundary line of the state, and all the people left their business and gathered along the wayside to see him pass. among these was ernest. though more than once disappointed, as we have seen, he had such a hopeful and confiding nature that he was always ready to believe in whatever seemed beautiful and good. he kept his heart continually open, and thus was sure to catch the blessing from on high, when it should come. so now again, as buoyantly as ever, he went forth to behold the likeness of the great stone face. the cavalcade came prancing along the road, with a great clattering of hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust, which rose up so dense and high that the visage of the mountain side was completely hidden from ernest's eyes. all the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback: militia officers, in uniform; the member of congress; the sheriff of the county; the editors of newspapers; and many a farmer, too, had mounted his patient steed, with his sunday coat upon his back. it really was a very brilliant spectacle, especially as there were numerous banners flaunting over the cavalcade, on some of which were gorgeous portraits of the illustrious statesman and the great stone face, smiling familiarly at one another, like two brothers. if the pictures were to be trusted, the resemblance, it must be confessed, was marvelous. we must not forget to mention that there was a band of music, which made the echoes of the mountains ring with the loud triumph of its strains, so that airy and soul-thrilling melodies broke out among all the heights and hollows, as if every nook of his native valley had found a voice to welcome the distinguished guest. but the grandest effect was when the far-off mountain precipice flung back the music; for then the great stone face itself seemed to be swelling the triumphant chorus, in acknowledgment that, at length, the man of prophecy was come. all this while the people were throwing up their hats and shouting with such enthusiasm that the heart of ernest kindled up, and he likewise threw up his hat and shouted as loudly as the loudest, "huzza for the great man! huzza for old stony phiz!" but as yet he had not seen him. "here he is now!" cried those who stood near ernest. "there! there! look at old stony phiz and then at the old man of the mountain, and see if they are not as like as two twin brothers!" in the midst of all this gallant array came an open [v]barouche, drawn by four white horses; and in the barouche, with his massive head uncovered, sat the illustrious statesman, old stony phiz himself. "confess it," said one of ernest's neighbors to him, "the great stone face has met its match at last!" now, it must be owned that, at his first glimpse of the countenance which was bowing and smiling from the barouche, ernest did fancy that there was a resemblance between it and the old familiar face upon the mountain side. the brow, with its massive depth and loftiness, and all the other features, indeed, were bold and strong. but the grand expression of a divine sympathy that illuminated the mountain visage might here be sought in vain. still ernest's neighbor was thrusting his elbow into his side, and pressing him for an answer. "confess! confess! is not he the very picture of your old man of the mountain?" "no!" said ernest, bluntly; "i see little or no likeness." "then so much the worse for the great stone face!" answered his neighbor. and again he set up a shout for old stony phiz. but ernest turned away, melancholy, and almost despondent; for this was the saddest of his disappointments, to behold a man who might have fulfilled the prophecy, and had not willed to do so. meantime, the cavalcade, the banners, the music, and the barouches swept past him, with the shouting crowd in the rear, leaving the dust to settle down, and the great stone face to be revealed again, with the grandeur that it had worn for untold centuries. "lo, here i am, ernest!" the benign lips seemed to say. "i have waited longer than thou, and am not yet weary. fear not; the man will come." v the years hurried onward, treading in their haste on one another's heels. and now they began to bring white hairs and scatter them over the head of ernest; they made wrinkles across his forehead and furrows in his cheeks. he was an aged man. but not in vain had he grown old; more than the white hairs on his head were the wise thoughts in his mind. and ernest had ceased to be obscure. unsought for, undesired, had come the fame which so many seek, and made him known in the great world, beyond the limits of the valley in which he had dwelt so quietly. college professors, and even the active men of cities, came from far to see and converse with ernest; for the report had gone abroad that this simple farmer had ideas unlike those of other men, and a tranquil majesty as if he had been talking with the angels as his daily friends. ernest received these visitors with the gentle sincerity that had marked him from boyhood, and spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay deepest in his heart or their own. while they talked together his face would kindle and shine upon them, as with a mild evening light. when his guests took leave and went their way, and passing up the valley, paused to look at the great stone face, they imagined that they had seen its likeness in a human countenance, but could not remember where. while ernest had been growing up and growing old, a bountiful providence had granted a new poet to this earth. he, likewise, was a native of the valley, but had spent the greater part of his life at a distance from that romantic region, pouring out his sweet music amid the bustle and din of cities. often, however, did the mountains which had been familiar to him in his childhood lift their snowy peaks into the clear atmosphere of his poetry. neither was the great stone face forgotten, for he had celebrated it in a poem which was grand enough to have been uttered by its lips. the songs of this poet found their way to ernest. he read them after his customary toil, seated on the bench before his cottage door, where for such a length of time he had filled his repose with thought, by gazing at the great stone face. and now, as he read stanzas that caused the soul to thrill within him, he lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming on him so benignantly. "o majestic friend," he said, addressing the great stone face, "is not this man worthy to resemble thee?" the face seemed to smile, but answered not a word. now it happened that the poet, though he dwelt so far away, had not only heard of ernest, but had meditated much upon his character, until he deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this man whose untaught wisdom walked hand in hand with the noble simplicity of his life. one summer morning, therefore, he took passage by the railroad, and, in the decline of the afternoon, alighted from the cars at no great distance from ernest's cottage. the great hotel, which had formerly been the palace of mr. gathergold, was close at hand, but the poet, with his carpetbag on his arm, inquired at once where ernest dwelt, and was resolved to be accepted as his guest. approaching the door, he there found the good old man, holding a volume in his hand, which he read, and then, with a finger between the leaves, looked lovingly at the great stone face. "good evening," said the poet. "can you give a traveler a night's lodging?" "willingly," answered ernest. and then he added, smiling, "methinks i never saw the great stone face look so hospitably at a stranger." the poet sat down on the bench beside him, and he and ernest talked together. often had the poet conversed with the wittiest and the wisest, but never before with a man like ernest, whose thoughts and feelings gushed up with such a natural freedom, and who made great truths so familiar by his simple utterance of them. angels, as had been so often said, seemed to have wrought with him at his labor in the fields; angels seemed to have sat with him by the fireside. so thought the poet. and ernest, on the other hand, was moved by the living images which the poet flung out of his mind, and which peopled all the air about the cottage door with shapes of beauty. as ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the great stone face was bending forward to listen, too. he gazed earnestly into the poet's glowing eyes. "who are you, my strangely gifted guest!" he said. the poet laid his finger on the volume that ernest had been reading. "you have read these poems," said he. "you know me, then,--for i wrote them." again, and still more earnestly than before, ernest examined the poet's features; then turned toward the great stone face; then back to his guest. but his countenance fell; he shook his head, and mournfully sighed. "wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet. "because," replied ernest, "all through life i have awaited the fulfillment of a prophecy; and when i read these poems, i hoped that it might be fulfilled in you." "you hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me the likeness of the great stone face. and you are disappointed, as formerly with mr. gathergold, and old blood-and-thunder, and old stony phiz. yes, ernest, it is my doom. you must add my name to the illustrious three, and record another failure of your hopes. for--in shame and sadness do i speak it, ernest--i am not worthy." "and why?" asked ernest. he pointed to the volume. "are not those thoughts divine?" "you can hear in them the far-off echo of a heavenly song," replied the poet. "but my life, dear ernest, has not corresponded with my thought. i have had grand dreams, but they have been only dreams, because i have lived--and that, too, by my own choice--among poor and mean realities. sometimes even--shall i dare to say it?--i lack faith in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in human life. why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou hope to find me in yonder image of the divine?" the poet spoke sadly, and his eyes were dim with tears. so, likewise, were those of ernest. at the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, ernest was to speak to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open air. he and the poet, arm in arm, still talking together as they went along, proceeded to the spot. it was a small nook among the hills, with a gray precipice behind, the stern front of which was relieved by the pleasant foliage of many creeping plants, that made a [v]tapestry for the naked rock by hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles. at a small elevation above the ground, set in a rich framework of verdure, there appeared a [v]niche, spacious enough to admit a human figure. into this natural pulpit ernest ascended and threw a look of familiar kindness around upon his audience. they stood, or sat, or reclined upon the grass, as seemed good to each, with the departing sunshine falling over them. in another direction was seen the great stone face, with the same cheer, combined with the same solemnity, in its benignant aspect. ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and mind. his words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the life which he had always lived. the poet, as he listened, felt that the being and character of ernest were a nobler strain of poetry than he had ever written. his eyes glistening with tears, he gazed reverentially at the venerable man, and said within himself that never was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as that mild, sweet, thoughtful countenance with the glory of white hair diffused about it. at a distance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in the golden light of the setting sun, appeared the great stone face, with hoary mists around it, like the white hairs around the brow of ernest. at that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, the face of ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so full of benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms aloft, and shouted: "behold! behold! ernest is himself the likeness of the great stone face!" then all the people looked and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said was true. the prophecy was fulfilled. the man had appeared at last. nathaniel hawthorne. =helps to study= the great stone face is a rock formation in the franconia notch of the white mountains of new hampshire, known as "the old man of the mountain." i. what picture do you get from part i? tell in your own words what the mother told ernest about the great stone face. who had carved the face? how? find something that is one hundred feet high, and picture to yourself the immensity of the whole face, judging by the forehead alone. describe ernest's childhood and his education. ii. what reason had the people for thinking that the great man had come in the person of mr. gathergold? explain the reference to midas. what was there in mr. gathergold's appearance and action to disappoint ernest? what comforted him? why were the people willing to believe that mr. gathergold was the image of the great stone face? what caused them to decide that he was not? what was there to indicate that ernest would become a great and good man? iii. what new character is now introduced? wherein was old blood-and-thunder lacking in resemblance to the great stone face? compare him with mr. gathergold and decide which was the greater character? how was ernest comforted in his second disappointment? iv. what kind of man had ernest become? what figure comes into the story now? find a sentence that gives a clew to the character of stony phiz. compare him with the characters previously introduced. why was ernest more disappointed than before? where did he again look for comfort? v. what changes did the hurrying years bring ernest? what sentence indicates who the man of prophecy might be? who is now introduced in the story? give the opinion that ernest and the poet had of each other. find the sentence which explains why the poet failed. who was the first to recognize in ernest the likeness to the great stone face? why did hawthorne have a poet to make the discovery? in what way was ernest great? how had he become so? what trait of ernest's character is shown in the last sentence? the story is divided into five parts. make an outline telling what is the topic of each part. supplementary reading the sketch book--washington irving. old curiosity shop--charles dickens. pendennis--william makepeace thackeray. the snow-image--nathaniel hawthorne. the legend beautiful--henry w. longfellow. william wilson--edgar allan poe. [illustration: priscilla and john alden] the courtship of miles standish i in the old colony days, in plymouth the land of the pilgrims, to and fro in a room of his simple and primitive dwelling, clad in [v]doublet and hose, and boots of [v]cordovan leather, strode, with a martial air, miles standish the puritan captain. buried in thought he seemed, with hands behind him, and pausing ever and anon to behold the glittering weapons of warfare, hanging in shining array along the walls of the chamber,-- cutlass and corslet of steel, and his trusty [v]sword of damascus. short of stature he was, but strongly built and athletic, broad in the shoulders, deep-chested, with muscles and sinews of iron; brown as a nut was his face, but his russet beard was already flaked with patches of snow, as hedges sometimes in november. near him was seated john alden, his friend, and household companion, writing with diligent speed at a table of pine by the window; fair-haired, azure-eyed, with delicate saxon complexion. youngest of all was he of the men who came in the may flower. (standish takes up a book and reads a moment.) suddenly breaking the silence, the diligent scribe interrupting, spake, in the pride of his heart, miles standish the captain of plymouth. "look at these arms," he said, "the warlike weapons that hang here burnished and bright and clean, as if for parade or inspection! this is the sword of damascus i fought with in flanders; this breastplate, well, i remember the day! once saved my life in a skirmish; here in front you can see the very dint of the bullet. had it not been of sheer steel, the forgotten bones of miles standish would at this moment be mold, in the grave in the flemish morasses." thereupon answered john alden, but looked not up from his writing: "truly the breath of the lord hath slackened the speed of the bullet; he in his mercy preserved you to be our shield and our weapon!" still the captain continued, unheeding the words of the stripling: "see how bright they are burnished, as if in an arsenal hanging; that is because i have done it myself, and not left it to others. serve yourself, would you be well served, is an excellent [v]adage; so i take care of my arms, as you of your pens and your inkhorn. then, too, there are my soldiers, my great, invincible army, twelve men, all equipped, having each his rest and his matchlock, eighteen shillings a month, together with diet and pillage, and, like caesar, i know the name of each of my soldiers!" all was silent again; the captain continued his reading. nothing was heard in the room but the hurrying pen of the stripling writing epistles important to go next day by the may flower, ready to sail on the morrow, or next day at latest, god willing, homeward bound with the tidings of all that terrible winter, letters written by alden and full of the name of priscilla, full of the name and the fame of the puritan maiden priscilla. every sentence began or closed with the name of priscilla, till the treacherous pen, to which he confided the secret strove to betray it by singing and shouting the name of priscilla! finally closing his book, with a bang of its [v]ponderous cover, sudden and loud as the sound of a soldier grounding his musket, thus to the young man spake miles standish the captain of plymouth: "when you have finished your work, i have something important to tell you. be not however in haste; i can wait; i shall not be impatient!" straightway alden replied, as he folded the last of his letters, pushing his papers aside, and giving respectful attention: "speak; for whenever you speak, i am always ready to listen, always ready to hear whatever pertains to miles standish." thereupon answered the captain, embarrassed, and culling his phrases: "'tis not good for a man to be alone, say the scriptures. this i have said before, and again and again i repeat it; every hour in the day, i think it, and feel it, and say it. since rose standish died, my life has been weary and dreary; sick at heart have i been, beyond the healing of friendship. oft in my lonely hours have i thought of the maiden priscilla, patient, courageous, and strong, and said to myself, that if ever there were angels on earth, as there are angels in heaven, two have i seen and known; and the angel whose name is priscilla holds in my desolate life the place which the other abandoned. long have i cherished the thought, but never have dared to reveal it, being a coward in this, though valiant enough for the most part. go to the damsel priscilla, the loveliest maiden of plymouth; say that a blunt old captain, a man not of words but of actions, offers his hand and his heart, the hand and heart of a soldier. not in these words, you know, but this in short is my meaning; i am a maker of war, and not a maker of phrases." when he had spoken, john alden, the fair-haired, [v]taciturn stripling, all aghast at his words, surprised, embarrassed, bewildered, trying to mask his dismay by treating the subject with lightness, trying to smile, and yet feeling his heart stand still in his bosom, thus made answer and spake, or rather stammered than answered: "such a message as that, i am sure i should mangle and mar it; if you would have it well done--i am only repeating your maxim-- you must do it yourself, you must not leave it to others!" but with the air of a man whom nothing can turn from his purpose, gravely shaking his head, made answer the captain of plymouth: "truly the maxim is good, and i do not mean to gainsay it; but we must use it discreetly, and not waste powder for nothing. now, as i said before, i was never a maker of phrases. i can march up to a fortress and summon the place to surrender, but march up to a woman with such a proposal, i dare not. i'm not afraid of bullets, nor shot from the mouth of a cannon, but of a thundering no! point-blank from the mouth of a woman, that i confess i am afraid of, nor am i ashamed to confess it! surely you cannot refuse what i ask in the name of our friendship!" then made answer john alden: "the name of friendship is sacred; what you demand in that name, i have not the power to deny you!" so the strong will prevailed, subduing and molding the gentler, friendship prevailed over love, and alden went on his errand. ii so the strong will prevailed, and alden went on his errand, out of the street of the village, and into the paths of the forest, into the tranquil woods, where bluebirds and robins were building towns in the populous trees, with hanging gardens of [v]verdure, peaceful, [v]aerial cities of joy and affection and freedom. all around him was calm, but within him commotion and conflict, love contending with friendship, and self with each generous impulse. so through the plymouth woods john alden went on his errand; saw the new-built house, and people at work in a meadow; heard, as he drew near the door, the musical voice of priscilla singing the hundredth psalm, the grand old puritan anthem, full of the breath of the lord, consoling and comforting many. then, as he opened the door, he beheld the form of the maiden seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool like a snow-drift piled at her knee, her white hands feeding the ravenous spindle, while with her foot on the treadle she guided the wheel in its motion. so he entered the house; and the hum of the wheel and the singing suddenly ceased; for priscilla, aroused by his step on the threshold, rose as he entered, and gave him her hand, in signal of welcome, saying, "i knew it was you, when i heard your step in the passage; for i was thinking of you, as i sat there singing and spinning." awkward and dumb with delight, that a thought of him had been mingled thus in the sacred psalm, that came from the heart of the maiden, silent before her he stood. "i have been thinking all day," said gently the puritan maiden, "dreaming all night, and thinking all day, of the hedgerows of england,-- they are in blossom now, and the country is all like a garden; thinking of lanes and fields, and the song of the lark and the linnet, seeing the village street, and familiar faces of neighbors going about as of old, and stopping to gossip together. kind are the people i live with, and dear to me my religion; still my heart is so sad that i wish myself back in old england. you will say it is wrong, but i cannot help it; i almost wish myself back in old england, i feel so lonely and wretched." thereupon answered the youth: "indeed i do not condemn you; stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter. yours is tender and trusting, and needs a stronger to lean on; so i have come to you now, with an offer and proffer of marriage made by a good man and true, miles standish the captain of plymouth!" thus he delivered his message, the dexterous writer of letters,-- did not [v]embellish the theme, nor array it in beautiful phrases, but came straight to the point and blurted it out like a schoolboy; even the captain himself could hardly have said it more bluntly. mute with amazement and sorrow, priscilla the puritan maiden looked into alden's face, her eyes dilated with wonder, feeling his words like a blow, that stunned and rendered her speechless; till at length she exclaimed, interrupting the ominous silence: "if the great captain of plymouth is so very eager to wed me, why does he not come himself and take trouble to woo me? if i am not worth the wooing, i surely am not worth the winning!" then john alden began explaining and smoothing the matter, making it worse as he went, by saying the captain was busy,-- had no time for such things;--such things! the words grating harshly, fell on the ear of priscilla; and swift as a flash she made answer: "has he not time for such things, as you call it, before he is married, would he be likely to find it, or make it, after the wedding?" still john alden went on, unheeding the words of priscilla, urging the suit of his friend, explaining, persuading, expanding. but as he warmed and glowed, in his simple and eloquent language, quite forgetful of self, and full of the praise of his rival, archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter, said, in a tremulous voice, "why don't you speak for yourself, john?" with conflicting feelings of love for priscilla and duty to his friend, miles standish, john alden does not "speak for himself," but returns to plymouth to tell standish the result of the interview. then john alden spake, and related the wondrous adventure, from beginning to end, minutely, just as it happened; how he had seen priscilla, and how he had sped in his courtship, only smoothing a little and softening down her refusal. but when he came at length to the words priscilla had spoken, words so tender and cruel: "why don't you speak for yourself, john?" up leaped the captain of plymouth, and stamped on the floor, till his armor clanged on the wall, where it hung, with a sound of sinister omen. all his pent-up wrath burst forth in a sudden explosion, e'en as a hand grenade, that scatters destruction around it. wildly he shouted and loud: "john alden! you have betrayed me! me, miles standish, your friend! have supplanted, defrauded, betrayed me! you, who lived under my roof, whom i cherished and loved as a brother; henceforth let there be nothing between us save war, and implacable hatred!" so spake the captain of plymouth, and strode about in the chamber, chafing and choking with rage; like cords were the veins on his temples. but in the midst of his anger a man appeared at the doorway, bringing in uttermost haste a message of urgent importance, rumors of danger and war and hostile incursions of indians! straightway the captain paused, and, without further question or parley, took from the nail on the wall his sword with its scabbard of iron, buckled the belt round his waist, and, frowning fiercely, departed. alden was left alone. he heard the clank of the scabbard growing fainter and fainter, and dying away in the distance. then he arose from his seat, and looked forth into the darkness, felt the cool air blow on his cheek, that was hot with the insult, lifted his eyes to the heavens and, folding his hands as in childhood, prayed in the silence of night to the father who seeth in secret. iii. a report comes to the settlement that miles standish has been killed in a fight with the indians. john alden, feeling that standish's death has freed him from the need of keeping his own love for priscilla silent, woos and wins her. at last the wedding-day arrives. this was the wedding-morn of priscilla the puritan maiden. friends were assembled together; the elder and magistrate also graced the scene with their presence, and stood like the law and the gospel, one with the sanction of earth and one with the blessing of heaven. simple and brief was the wedding, as that of ruth and of boaz. softly the youth and the maiden repeated the words of betrothal, taking each other for husband and wife in the magistrate's presence, after the puritan way, and the laudable custom of holland. fervently then, and devoutly, the excellent elder of plymouth prayed for the hearth and the home, that were founded that day in affection, speaking of life and death, and imploring divine benedictions. lo! when the service was ended, a form appeared on the threshold, clad in armor of steel, a somber and sorrowful figure! why does the bridegroom start and stare at the strange apparition? why does the bride turn pale, and hide her face on his shoulder? is it a phantom of air,--a bodiless, spectral illusion? is it a ghost from the grave, that has come to forbid the betrothal? long had it stood there unseen, a guest uninvited, unwelcomed; over its clouded eyes there had passed at times an expression softening the gloom and revealing the warm heart hidden beneath them. once it had lifted its hand, and moved its lips, but was silent, as if an iron will had mastered the fleeting intention; but when were ended the troth and the prayer and the last benediction, into the room it strode, and the people beheld with amazement bodily there in his armor miles standish, the captain of plymouth! grasping the bridegroom's hand, he said with emotion, "forgive me! i have been angry and hurt,--too long have i cherished the feeling; i have been cruel and hard, but now, thank god! it is ended. mine is the same hot blood that leaped in the veins of hugh standish, sensitive, swift to resent, but as swift in atoning for error. never so much as now was miles standish the friend of john alden." thereupon answered the bridegroom: "let all be forgotten between us,-- all save the dear old friendship, and that shall grow older and dearer!" then the captain advanced, and, bowing, saluted priscilla, wishing her joy of her wedding, and loudly lauding her husband. then he said with a smile: "i should have remembered the adage,-- if you would be well served, you must serve yourself; and, moreover, no man can gather cherries in kent at the season of christmas!" great was the people's amazement, and greater yet their rejoicing, thus to behold once more the sunburnt face of their captain, whom they had mourned as dead; and they gathered and crowded about him, eager to see him and hear him, forgetful of bride and of bridegroom, questioning, answering, laughing, and each interrupting the other, till the good captain declared, being quite overpowered and bewildered, he had rather by far break into an indian encampment, than come again to a wedding to which he had not been invited. meanwhile the bridegroom went forth and stood with the bride at the doorway, breathing the perfumed air of that warm and beautiful morning. touched with autumnal tints, but lonely and sad in the sunshine, lay extended before them the land of toil and privation; but to their eyes transfigured, it seemed as the garden of eden, filled with the presence of god, whose voice was the sound of the ocean. soon was their vision disturbed by the noise and stir of departure, friends coming forth from the house, and impatient of longer delaying. then from a stall near at hand, amid exclamations of wonder, alden the thoughtful, the careful, so happy, so proud of priscilla, brought out his snow-white bull, obeying the hand of its master, led by a cord that was tied to an iron ring in its nostrils, covered with crimson cloth, and a cushion placed for a saddle. she should not walk, he said, through the dust and heat of the noonday; nay, she should ride like a queen, not plod along like a peasant. somewhat alarmed at first, but reassured by the others, placing her hand on the cushion, her foot in the hand of her husband, gayly, with joyous laugh, priscilla mounted her palfrey. onward the bridal procession now moved to the new habitation, happy husband and wife, and friends conversing together. down through the golden leaves the sun was pouring his splendors, gleaming on purple grapes, that, from branches above them suspended, mingled their odorous breath with the balm of the pine and the fir-tree, wild and sweet as the clusters that grew in the valley of [v]eshcol. like a picture it seemed of the primitive, pastoral ages, fresh with the youth of the world, and recalling rebecca and isaac, old and yet ever new, and simple and beautiful always, love immortal and young in the endless succession of lovers, so through the plymouth woods passed onward the bridal procession. henry w. longfellow. =helps to study= miles standish was one of the early settlers of plymouth colony. he came over soon after the landing of the _mayflower_ and was made captain of the colony because of his military experience. the feeble settlement was in danger from the indians, and standish's services were of great importance. he was one of the leaders of plymouth for a number of years. longfellow shaped the legend of his courtship into one of the most beautiful poems of american literature, vividly describing the hardships and perils of the early life of new england. i. where is the scene of the story laid? at what time did it begin? what is the first impression you get of miles standish? of john alden? read the lines that bring out the soldierly qualities of the one and the studious nature of the other. what lines show that standish had fought on foreign soil? read the lines that show john alden's interest in priscilla. what request did standish make of alden? how was it received? why did alden accept the task? ii. what time of the year was it? how do you know? contrast alden's feelings with the scene around him. what were priscilla's feelings toward alden? quote lines that show this. how did he fulfill his task? with what question did priscilla finally meet his eloquent appeal in behalf of his friend? how did standish receive alden's report? what interruption occurred? iii. what report brought about the marriage of john alden and priscilla? read the lines that describe the beauty of their wedding-day. what time of year was it? how do you know? what custom was followed in the marriage ceremony? look in the bible for a description of the marriage of ruth and boaz. find other biblical references in the poem. who appeared at the end of the ceremony? how was he received? contrast his mood now with the mood when he left to fight the indians. what adage did he use to show the difference between his age and priscilla's? describe the final scene of the wedding--the procession to the new home. tell what you know of early life in massachusetts. supplementary reading gareth and lynette--alfred tennyson. the courtin'--james russell lowell. evangeline--henry w. longfellow. the friendship of nantaquas this story is taken from mary johnston's novel, _to have and to hold_, which describes the early settlement of virginia. the most important event of this period was the indian massacre of . for some years the whites and indians had lived in peace, and it was believed that there would be no further trouble from the savages. however, opechancanough, the head chief of the powhatan confederacy, formed a plot against the white men and suddenly attacked them with great fury. hundreds of the english settlers were slain. the author of the novel, taking the bare outline of the massacre as given in the early histories, has woven around it the graphic story of captain ralph percy and his saving of the colony. percy, unlike miles standish, is not a historical character. i. a man who hath been a soldier and adventurer into far and strange countries must needs have faced death many times and in many guises. i had learned to know that grim countenance, and to have no great fear of it. the surprise of our sudden capture by the indians had now worn away, and i no longer struggled to loose my bonds, indian-tied and not to be loosened. another slow hour and i bethought me of diccon, my servant and companion in captivity, and spoke to him, asking him how he did. he answered from the other side of the lodge that was our prison, but the words were scarcely out of his mouth before our guard broke in upon us, commanding silence. it was now moonlight without the lodge and very quiet. the night was far gone; already we could smell the morning, and it would come apace. knowing the swiftness of that approach and what the early light would bring, i strove for a courage which should be the steadfastness of the christian and not the vainglorious pride of the heathen. suddenly, in the first gray dawn, as at a trumpet's call, the village awoke. from the long communal houses poured forth men, women, and children; fires sprang up, dispersing the mist, and a commotion arose through the length and breadth of the place. the women made haste with their cooking and bore maize cakes and broiled fish to the warriors, who sat on the ground in front of the royal lodge. diccon and i were loosed, brought without, and allotted our share of the food. we ate sitting side by side with our captors, and diccon, with a great cut across his head, even made merry. in the usual order of things in an indian village, the meal over, tobacco should have followed. but now not a pipe was lit, and the women made haste to take away the platters and to get all things in readiness for what was to follow. the [v]werowance of the [v]paspaheghs rose to his feet, cast aside his mantle, and began to speak. he was a man in the prime of life, of a great figure, strong as a [v]susquehannock, and a savage cruel and crafty beyond measure. over his breast, stained with strange figures, hung a chain of small bones, and the scalp locks of his enemies fringed his moccasins. no player could be more skillful in gesture and expression, no poet more nice in the choice of words, no general more quick to raise a wild enthusiasm in the soldiers to whom he called. all indians are eloquent, but this savage was a leader among them. he spoke now to some effect. commencing with a day in the moon of blossoms when for the first time winged canoes brought white men into the [v]powhatan, he came down through year after year to the present hour, ceased, and stood in silence, regarding his triumph. it was complete. in its wild excitement the village was ready then and there to make an end of us, who had sprung to our feet and stood with our backs against a great bay tree, facing the maddened throng. much the best would it be for us if the tomahawks left the hands that were drawn back to throw, if the knives that were flourished in our faces should be buried to the haft in our hearts; and so we courted death, striving with word and look to infuriate our executioners to the point of forgetting their former purpose in the passion for instant vengeance. it was not to be. the werowance spoke again, pointing to the hills which were dimly seen through the mist. a moment, and the hands clenched upon the weapons fell; another, and we were upon the march. as one man, the village swept through the forest toward the rising ground that was but a few bowshots away. the young men bounded ahead to make the preparation; but the approved warriors and the old men went more sedately, and with them walked diccon and i, as steady of step as they. the women and children for the most part brought up the rear, though a few impatient hags ran past us. one of these women bore a great burning torch, the flame and smoke streaming over her shoulder as she ran. others carried pieces of bark heaped with the [v]slivers of pine of which every wigwam has store. the sun was yet to rise when we reached a hollow amongst the low red hills. the place was a natural amphitheater, well fitted for a spectacle. those indians who could not crowd into the narrow level spread themselves over the rising ground and looked down with fierce laughter upon the driving of the stakes which the young men had brought. the women and children scattered into the woods beyond the cleft between the hills and returned bearing great armfuls of dry branches. taunting laughter, cries of savage triumph, the shaking of rattles, and the furious beating of two great drums combined to make a clamor deafening me to stupor. above the horizon was the angry reddening of the heavens and the white mist curling up like smoke. i sat down beside diccon on the log. i did not speak to him, nor he to me; there seemed no need of speech. in the [v]pandemonium to which the world had narrowed, the one familiar, matter-of-course thing was that he and i were to die together. the stakes were in the ground and painted red, the wood was properly fixed. the indian woman who held the torch that was to light the pile ran past us, whirling the wood around her head to make it blaze more fiercely. as she went by she lowered the brand and slowly dragged it across my wrists. the beating of the drums suddenly ceased, and the loud voices died away. seeing that they were coming for us, diccon and i rose to await them. when they were nearly upon us, i turned to him and held out my hand. he made no motion to take it. instead, he stood with fixed eyes looking past me and slightly upward. a sudden pallor had overspread the bronze of his face. "there's a verse somewhere," he said in a quiet voice,--"it's in the bible, i think--i heard it once long ago: 'i will look unto the hills from whence cometh my help.' look, sir!" i turned and followed with my eyes the pointing of his finger. in front of us the bank rose steeply, bare to the summit,--no trees, only the red earth, with here and there a low growth of leafless bushes. behind it was the eastern sky. upon the crest, against the sunrise, stood the figure of a man--an indian. from one shoulder hung an otterskin, and a great bow was in his hand. his limbs were bare, and as he stood motionless, bathed in the rosy light, he looked like some bronze god, perfect from the beaded moccasins to the calm, uneager face below the feathered head-dress. he had but just risen above the brow of the hill; the indians in the hollow saw him not. while diccon and i stared, our tormentors were upon us. they came a dozen or more at once, and we had no weapons. two hung on my arms, while a third laid hold of my doublet to rend it from me. an arrow whistled over our heads and stuck into a tree behind us. the hands that clutched me dropped, and with a yell the busy throng turned their faces in the direction whence had come the arrow. the indian who had sent that dart before him was descending the bank. an instant's breathless hush while they stared at the solitary figure; then the dark forms bent forward for the rush straightened, and there arose a cry of recognition. "the son of powhatan! the son of powhatan!" he came down the hillside to the level of the hollow, the authority of his look and gesture making way for him through the crowd that surged this way and that, and walked up to us where we stood, hemmed round but no longer in the clutch of our enemies. "you were never more welcome, nantaquas," i said to him, heartily. taking my hand in his, the chief turned to his frowning countrymen. "men of the [v]pamunkeys!" he cried, "this is nantaquas' friend, and so the friend of all the tribes that called powhatan 'father.' the fire is not for him nor for his servant; keep it for the [v]monacans and for the dogs of the [v]long house! the calumet is for the friend of nantaquas, and the dance of the maidens, the noblest buck and the best of the fish-weirs." there was a surging forward of the indians and a fierce murmur of dissent. the werowance, standing out from the throng, lifted his voice. "there was a time," he cried, "when nantaquas was the panther crouched upon the bough above the leader of the herd; now nantaquas is a tame panther and rolls at the white men's feet! there was a time when the word of the son of powhatan weighed more than the lives of many dogs such as these, but i know not why we should put out the fire at his command! he is war chief no longer, for [v]opechancanough will have no tame panther to lead the tribes. opechancanough is our head, and he kindleth a fire indeed. we will give to this man what fuel we choose, and to-night nantaquas may look for his bones!" he ended, and a great clamor arose. the paspaheghs would have cast themselves upon us again but for a sudden action of the young chief, who had stood motionless, with raised hand and unmoved face, during the werowance's bitter speech. now he flung up his hand, and in it was a bracelet of gold, carved and twisted like a coiled snake and set with a green stone. i had never seen the toy before, but evidently others had. the excited voices fell, and the indians, pamunkeys and paspaheghs alike, stood as though turned to stone. nantaquas smiled coldly. "this day hath opechancanough made me war chief again. we have smoked the peace pipe together--my father's brother and i--in the starlight, sitting before his lodge, with the wide marshes and the river dark at our feet. singing birds in the forest have been many; evil tales have they told; opechancanough has stopped his ears against their false singing. my friends are his friends, my brother is his brother, my word is his word: witness the armlet that hath no like. opechancanough is at hand; he comes through the forest with his two hundred warriors. will you, when you lie at his feet, have him ask you, 'where is the friend of my friend, of my war chief?'" there came a long, deep breath from the indians, then a silence in which they fell back, slowly and sullenly--whipped hounds but with the will to break that leash of fear. "hark!" said nantaquas, smiling. "i hear opechancanough and his warriors coming over the leaves." the noise of many footsteps was indeed audible, coming toward the hollow from the woods beyond. with a burst of cries, the priests and the conjurer whirled away to bear the welcome of okee to the royal worshipper, and at their heels went the chief men of the pamunkeys. the werowance of the paspaheghs was one that sailed with the wind; he listened to the deepening sound and glanced at the son of powhatan where he stood, calm and confident, then smoothed his own countenance and made a most pacific speech, in which all the blame of the late proceedings was laid upon the singing birds. when he had done speaking, the young men tore the stakes from the earth and threw them into a thicket, while the women plucked apart the newly kindled fire and flung the brands into a little nearby stream, where they went out in a cloud of hissing steam. i turned to the indian who had wrought this miracle. "art sure it is not a dream, nantaquas? i think that opechancanough would not lift a finger to save me from all the deaths the tribes could invent." "opechancanough is very wise," he answered quietly. "he says that now the english will believe in his love indeed when they see that he holds dear even one who might be called his enemy, who hath spoken against him at the englishmen's council fire. he says that for five suns captain percy shall feast with him, and then shall go back free to jamestown. he thinks that then captain percy will not speak against him any more, calling his love to the white men only words with no good deeds behind." he spoke simply, out of the nobility of his nature, believing his own speech. i that was older, and had more knowledge of men and the masks they wear, was but half deceived. my belief in the hatred of the dark emperor was not shaken, and i looked yet to find the drop of poison within this honey flower. how poisoned was that bloom, god knows i could not guess! by this time we three were alone in the hollow, for all the savages, men and women, had gone forth to meet the indian whose word was law from the falls of the far west to the chesapeake. the sun now rode above the low hills, pouring its gold into the hollow and brightening all the world besides. a chant raised by the indians grew nearer, and the rustling of the leaves beneath many feet more loud and deep; then all noise ceased and opechancanough entered the hollow alone. an eagle feather was thrust through his scalp lock; over his naked breast, which was neither painted nor pricked into strange figures, hung a triple row of pearls; his mantle was woven of bluebird feathers, as soft and sleek as satin. the face of this barbarian was as dark, cold, and impassive as death. behind that changeless mask, as in a safe retreat, the subtle devil that was the man might plot destruction and plan the laying of dreadful mines. i stepped forward and met him on the spot where the fire had been. for a minute neither spoke. it was true that i had striven against him many a time, and i knew that he knew it. it was also true that without his aid nantaquas could not have rescued us from that dire peril. and it was again the truth that an indian neither forgives nor forgets. he was my saviour, and i knew that mercy had been shown for some dark reason which i could not divine. yet i owed him thanks and gave them as shortly and simply as i could. he heard me out with neither liking nor disliking nor any other emotion written upon his face; but when i had finished, as though he had suddenly bethought himself, he smiled and held out his hand, white-man fashion. "singing birds have lied to captain percy," he said. "opechancanough thinks that captain percy will never listen to them again. the chief of the powhatans is a lover of the white men, of the english, and of other white men. he would call the englishmen his brothers and be taught of them how to rule and to whom to pray"-- "let opechancanough go with me to jamestown," i replied. "he hath the wisdom of the woods; let him come and gain that of the town." the emperor smiled again. "i will come to jamestown soon, but not to-day or to-morrow or the next day. and captain percy must smoke the peace pipe in my lodge above the pamunkey and watch my young men and maidens dance, and eat with me five days. then he may go back to jamestown with presents for the great white father there and with a message from me that i am coming soon to learn of the white man." for five days i tarried in the great chief's lodge in his own village above the marshes of the pamunkey. i will allow that the dark emperor to whom we were so much beholden gave us courteous keeping. the best of the hunt was ours, the noblest fish, the most delicate roots. we were alive and sound of limb, well treated and with the promise of release; we might have waited, seeing that wait we must, in some measure of content. we did not so. there was a horror in the air. from the marshes that were growing green, from the sluggish river, from the rotting leaves and cold black earth and naked forest, it rose like an [v]exhalation. we knew not what it was, but we breathed it in, and it went to the marrow of our bones. the savage emperor we rarely saw, though we were bestowed so near to him that his sentinels served for ours. like some god, he kept within his lodge, the hanging mats between him and the world without. at other times, issuing from that retirement, he would stride away into the forest. picked men went with him, and they were gone for hours; but when they returned they bore no trophies, brute or human. what they did we could not guess. if escape had been possible, we would not have awaited the doubtful fulfillment of the promise made us. but the vigilance of the indians never slept; they watched us like hawks, night and day. in the early morning of the fifth day, when we came from our wigwam, it was to find nantaquas sitting by the fire, magnificent in the paint and trappings of the ambassador, motionless as a piece of bronze and apparently quite unmindful of the admiring glances of the women who knelt about the fire preparing our breakfast. when he saw us he rose and came to meet us, and i embraced him, i was so glad to see him. "the rappahannocks feasted me long," he said. "i was afraid that captain percy would be gone to jamestown before i was back on the pamunkey." "shall i ever see jamestown again, nantaquas?" i demanded. "i have my doubts." he looked me full in the eyes, and there was no doubting the candor of his own. "you go with the next sunrise," he answered. "opechancanough has given me his word." "i am glad to hear it," i said. "why have we been kept at all? why did he not free us five days agone?" he shook his head. "i do not know. opechancanough has many thoughts which he shares with no man. but now he will send you with presents for the governor, and with messages of his love for the white men. there will be a great feast to-day, and to-night the young men and maidens will dance before you. then in the morning you will go." when we had sat by the fire for an hour, the old men and the warriors came to visit us, and the smoking began. the women laid mats in a great half circle, and each savage took his seat with perfect breeding: that is, in absolute silence and with a face like a stone. the peace paint was upon them all--red, or red and white--and they sat and looked at the ground until i had made the speech of welcome. soon the air was dense with fragrant smoke; in the thick blue haze the sweep of painted figures had the seeming of some fantastic dream. an old man arose and made a long and touching speech, with much reference to calumets and buried hatchets. then they waited for my contribution of honeyed words. the pamunkeys, living at a distance from the settlements, had but little english, and the learning of the paspaheghs was not much greater. i repeated to them the better part of a canto of master spenser's _faery queen_, after which i told them the moving story of the moor of venice. it answered the purpose to admiration. the day wore on, with relay after relay of food, which we must taste at least, with endless smoking of pipes and speeches which must be listened to and answered. when evening came and our entertainers drew off to prepare for the dance, they left us as wearied as by a long day's march. suddenly, as we sat staring at the fire, we were beset by a band of maidens, coming out of the woods, painted, with antlers upon their heads and pine branches in their hands. they danced about us, now advancing until the green needles met above our heads, now retreating until there was a space of turf between us. they moved with grace, keeping time to a plaintive song, now raised by the whole choir, now fallen to a single voice. the indian girls danced more and more swiftly, and their song changed, becoming gay and shrill and sweet. higher and higher rang the notes, faster and faster moved the dark feet; then quite suddenly song and motion ceased together. from the darkness now came a burst of savage cries only less appalling than the war whoop itself. in a moment the men of the village had rushed from the shadow of the trees into the broad, firelit space before us. they circled around us, then around the fire; now each man danced and stamped and muttered to himself. for the most part they were painted red, but some were white from head to heel--statues come to life--while others had first oiled their bodies, then plastered them over with small, bright-colored feathers. diccon and i watched that uncouth spectacle, that virginian [v]masque, as we had watched many another one, with disgust and weariness. it would last, we knew, for the better part of the night. for a time we must stay and testify our pleasure, but after a while we might retire, and leave the women and children the sole spectators. they never wearied of gazing at the rhythmic movement. i observed that among the ranks of the women one girl watched not the dancers but us. now and then she glanced impatiently at the wheeling figures, but her eyes always returned to us. at length i became aware that she must have some message to deliver or warning to give. once when i made a slight motion as if to go to her, she shook her head and laid her finger on her lips. presently i rose and, making my way to the werowance of the village, where he sat with his eyes fixed on the spectacle, told him that i was wearied and would go to my hut, to rest for the few hours that yet remained of the night. he listened dreamily, but made no offer to escort me. after a moment he acquiesced in my departure, and diccon and i quietly left the press of savages and began to cross the firelit turf between them and our lodge. when we had reached its entrance, we paused and looked back to the throng we had left. every back seemed turned to us, every eye intent upon the leaping figures. swiftly and silently we walked across the bit of even ground to the friendly trees and found ourselves in a thin strip of shadow. beneath the trees, waiting for us, was the indian maid. she would not speak or tarry, but flitted before us as dusk and noiseless as a moth, and we followed her into the darkness beyond the firelight. here a wigwam rose in our path; the girl, holding aside the mats that covered the entrance, motioned to us to enter. a fire was burning within the lodge and it showed us nantaquas standing with folded arms. "nantaquas!" i exclaimed, and would have touched him but that with a slight motion of his hand he kept me back. "well!" i asked at last. "what is the matter, my friend?" for a full minute he made no answer, and when he did speak his voice matched his strained and troubled features. "my _friend_," he said, "i am going to show myself a friend indeed to the english, to the strangers who were not content with their own hunting-grounds beyond the great salt water. when i have done this, i do not know that captain percy will call me 'friend'." "you were wont to speak plainly, nantaquas," i answered him. "i am not fond of riddles." again he waited, as though he found speech difficult. i stared at him in amazement, he was so changed in so short a time. he spoke at last: "when the dance is over and the fires are low and the sunrise is at hand, opechancanough will come to you to bid you farewell. he will give you the pearls he wears about his neck for a present to the governor and a bracelet for yourself. also he will give you three men for a guard through the forest. he has messages of love to send the white men, and he would send them by you who were his enemy and his captive. so all the white men shall believe in his love." "well!" i said drily as he paused. "i will bear the messages. what next?" "your guards will take you slowly through the forest, stopping to eat and sleep. for them there is no need to run like the stag with the hunter behind it." "then we should make for jamestown as for life," i said, "not sleeping or eating or making pause?" "yes," he replied, "if you would not die, you and all your people." in the silence of the hut the fire crackled, and the branches of the trees outside, bent by the wind, made a grating sound against the bark roof. "how die?" i asked at last. "speak out!" "die by the arrow and the tomahawk," he answered,--"yea, and by the guns you have given the red men. to-morrow's sun, and the next, and the next--three suns--and the tribes will fall upon the english. at the same hour, when the men are in the fields and the women and children are in the houses, they will strike--all the tribes, as one man; and from where the powhatan falls over the rocks to the salt water beyond accomac, there will not be one white man left alive." he ceased to speak, and for a minute the fire made the only sound in the hut. then i asked, "all die? there are three thousand englishmen in virginia." "they are scattered and unwarned. the fighting men of the villages of the powhatan and the pamunkey and the great bay are many, and they have sharpened their hatchets and filled their quivers with arrows." "scattered!" i cried. "strewn broadcast up and down the river--here a lonely house, there a cluster of two or three--the men in the fields or at the wharves, the women and children busy within doors, all unwarned!" i leaned against the side of the hut, for my heart beat like a frightened woman's. "three days!" i exclaimed. "if we go with all our speed, we shall be in time. when did you learn this thing?" "while you watched the dance," the indian answered, "opechancanough and i sat within his lodge in the darkness. his heart was moved, and he talked to me of his own youth in a strange country, south of the sunset. also he spoke to me of powhatan, my father--of how wise he was and how great a chief before the english came, and how he hated them. and then--then i heard what i have told you!" "how long has this been planned?" "for many moons. i have been a child, fooled and turned aside from the trail; not wise enough to see it beneath the flowers, through the smoke of the peace pipes." "why does opechancanough send us back to the settlements?" i demanded. "it is his fancy. every hunter and trader and learner of our tongues, living in the villages or straying in the woods, has been sent back to jamestown or his home with presents and fair words. you will lull the english in jamestown into a faith in the smiling sky just before the storm bursts on them in fullest fury." there was a pause. "nantaquas," i said, "you are not the first child of powhatan who has loved and shielded the white men." "pocahontas was a woman, a child," he answered. "out of pity she saved your lives, not knowing that it was to the hurt of her people. then you were few and weak and could not take your revenge. now, if you die not, you will drink deep of vengeance--so deep that your lips may never leave the cup. more ships will come, and more; you will grow ever stronger. there may come a moon when the deep forests and the shining rivers will know us, to whom [v]kiwassa gave them, no more." "you will be with your people in the war?" i asked. "i am an indian," was his simple reply. "come against us if you will," i returned. "nobly warned, fair upon our guard, we will meet you as knightly foe should be met." very slowly he raised his arm from his side and held out his hand. his eyes met mine in somber inquiry, half eager, half proudly doubtful. i went to him at once and took his hand in mine. no word was spoken. presently he withdrew his hand from my clasp, and, putting his finger to his lips, whistled low to the indian girl. she drew aside the mats, and we passed out, diccon and i, leaving him standing as we had found him, upright against the post, in the red firelight. should we ever go through the woods, pass through that gathering storm, reach jamestown, warn them there of the death that was rushing upon them? should we ever leave that hated village? would the morning ever come? it was an alarm that was sounding, and there were only two to hear; miles away beneath the mute stars english men and women lay asleep, with the hour thundering at their gates, and there was none to cry, "awake!" i could have cried out in that agony of waiting, with the leagues on leagues to be traveled and the time so short! i saw, in my mind's eye, the dark warriors gathering, tribe on tribe, war party on war party, thick crowding shadows of death, slipping through the silent forest ... and in the clearings the women and children! it came to an end, as all things earthly will. when the ruffled pools amid the marshes were rosy red beneath the sunrise, the women brought us food, and the warriors and old men gathered about us. i offered them bread and meat and told them that they must come to jamestown to taste the white man's cookery. scarcely was the meal over when opechancanough issued from his lodge, and, coming slowly up to us, took his seat upon the white mat that was spread for him. through his scalp lock was stuck an eagle's feather; across his face, from temple to chin, was a bar of red paint; the eyes above were very bright and watchful. one of his young men brought a great pipe, carved and painted, stem and bowl; it was filled with tobacco, lit, and borne to the emperor. he put it to his lips and smoked in silence, while the sun climbed higher and higher and the golden minutes that were more precious than heart's blood went by swiftly. at last, his part in the solemn mockery played, he held out the pipe to me. "the sky will fall, and the rivers will run dry, and the birds cease to sing," he said, "before the smoke of this peace-pipe fades from the land." i took the symbol of peace and smoked it as silently and soberly as he had done before me, then laid it leisurely aside and held out my hand. "come to jamestown," i said, "to smoke of the englishman's pipe and receive rich presents--a red robe like your brother powhatan, and a cup from which you shall drink, you and all your people." but the cup i meant was that of punishment. the savage laid his dark fingers in mine for an instant, withdrew them, and, rising to his feet, motioned to three indians who stood out from the throng of warriors. "these are captain percy's guides and friends," he announced. "the sun is high; it is time that he was gone. here are presents for him and my brother the governor." as he spoke, he took from his neck the rope of pearls and from his arm a copper bracelet, and laid both upon my palm. "thank you, opechancanough," i said briefly. "when we meet again i will not greet you with empty thanks." we bade farewell to the noisy throng and went down to the river, where we found a canoe and rowers, crossed the stream, and entered the forest, which stretched black and forbidding before us--the blacker that we now knew the dreadful secret it guarded. ii after leaving the indian village, captain percy and diccon found that their guides purposely delayed the march, so that they would not reach jamestown until just before the beginning of the attack, when it would be too late for them to warn the english, if they suspected anything. percy and diccon, in this dilemma, surprised the indian guides and killed them, then hurried on with all possible speed toward jamestown. as they hastened through the forest, diccon was shot by an indian and mortally wounded; captain percy remained with him until his death, and again took up the journey, now alone and greatly fearing that he would arrive too late. the dusk had quite fallen when i reached the neck of land. arriving at the palisade that protected jamestown, i beat upon the gate and called to the warden to open. he did so with starting eyes. giving him a few words and cautioning him to raise no alarm in the town, i hurried by him into the street and down it toward the house that was set aside for the governor of virginia, sir francis wyatt. the governor's door was open, and in the hall servingmen were moving to and fro. when i came in upon them, they cried out as if it had been a ghost, and one fellow let a silver dish fall to the floor with a clatter. they shook with fright and stood back as i passed them without a word and went on to the governor's great room. the door was ajar, and i pushed it open and stood for a minute on the threshold. they were all there--the principal men of the colony, the governor, the [v]treasurer, [v]west, [v]john rolfe. at sight of me the governor sprang to his feet; through the treasurer's lips came a long, sighing breath; west's dark face was ashen. i came forward to the table, and leaned my weight upon it; for all the waves of the sea were roaring in my ears and the lights were going up and down. "are you man or spirit!" cried rolfe through white lips. "are you ralph percy?" "yes," i said, "i am percy." with an effort i drew myself erect, and standing so, told my tidings, quietly and with circumstance, so as to leave no room for doubt as to their verity, or as to the sanity of him who brought them. they listened with shaking limbs and gasping breath; for it was the fall and wiping out of a people of which i brought warning. when all was told i thought to ask a question myself; but before my tongue could frame it, the roaring of the sea became so loud that i could hear naught else, and the lights all ran together into a wheel of fire. then in a moment all sounds ceased and to the lights succeeded the blackness of outer darkness. when i awoke from the sleep into which i must have passed from that swoon, it was to find myself lying in a room flooded with sunshine. for a moment i lay still, wondering where i was and how i came there. a drum beat, a dog barked, and a man's quick voice gave a command. the sounds stung me into remembrance. there were many people in the street. women hurried by to the fort with white, scared faces, their arms filled with household gear; children ran beside them; men went to and fro, the most grimly silent, but a few talking loudly. i could not see the palisade across the neck, but i knew that it was there that the fight--if fight there were--would be made. should the indians take the palisade, there would yet be the houses of the town, and, last of all, the fort in which to make a stand. i believed not that they would take it, for indian warfare ran more to ambuscade and surprise than to assault in the open field. the drum beat again, and a messenger from the palisade came down the street at a run. "they're in the woods over against us, thicker than ants!" he cried to west, who was coming along the way. "a boat has just drifted ashore, with two men in it, dead and scalped!" i looked again at the neck of land and the forest beyond, and now, as if by magic, from the forest and up and down the river as far as the eye could reach, rose here and there thin columns of smoke. suddenly, as i stared, three or four white smoke puffs, like giant flowers, started out of the shadowy woods across the neck. following the crack of the muskets--fired out of pure bravado by the indians--came the yelling of the savages. the sound was prolonged and deep, as though issuing from many throats. the street, when i went out into it, was very quiet. all windows and doors were closed and barred. the yelling from the forest had ceased for the moment, but i knew well that it would soon begin with doubled noise. i hurried along the street to the palisade, where all the men of jamestown were gathered, armed and helmeted and breast-plated, waiting for the foe in grim silence. through a loophole in the gate of the palisade i looked and saw the sandy neck joining the town to the mainland, and the deep and dark woods beyond, the fairy mantle giving invisibility to the foe. i drew back from my loophole and held out my hand to a woman for a loaded musket. a quick murmur like the drawing of a breath came from our line. the governor, standing near me, cast an anxious glance along the stretch of wooden stakes that were neither so high nor so thick as they should have been. "i am new to this warfare, captain percy," he said. "do they think to use those logs they carry as battering rams?" "as scaling ladders, your honor," i replied. "it is possible that we may have some sword play after all." "we'll take your advice the next time we build a palisade, ralph percy," muttered west on my other side. mounting the breastwork that we had thrown up to shelter the women who were to load the muskets, he coolly looked over the pales at the oncoming savages. "wait until they pass the blasted pine, men!" he cried. "then give them a hail of lead that will beat them back to the pamunkey." an arrow whistled by his ear; a second struck him on the shoulder but pierced not his coat of mail. he came down from his dangerous post with a laugh. "if the leader could be picked off"--i said. "it's a long shot, but there's no harm in trying." as i spoke i raised my gun to my shoulder, but west leaned across rolfe, who stood between us, and plucked me by the sleeve. "you've not looked at him closely," he said. "look again." i did as he told me, and lowered my musket. it was not for me to send that indian leader to his account. rolfe's lips tightened and a sudden pallor overspread his face. "nantaquas?" he muttered in my ear, and i nodded yes. the volley that we fired full into the ranks of our foe was deadly, and we looked to see them turn and flee, as they had fled so often before at a hot volley. but this time they were led by one who had been trained in english steadfastness. broken for the moment by our fire, they rallied and came on yelling, bearing logs, thick branches of trees, oars tied together--anything by whose help they could hope to surmount the palisade. we fired again, but they had planted their ladders. before we could snatch the loaded muskets from the women a dozen painted figures appeared above the sharpened stakes. a moment, and they and a score behind them had leaped down upon us. it was no time now to skulk behind a palisade. at all hazards, that tide from the forest must be stemmed. those that were among us we might kill, but more were swarming after them, and from the neck came the exultant yelling of madly hurrying reinforcements. we flung open the gates. i drove my sword through the heart of an indian who would have opposed me, and, calling for my men to follow, sprang forward. perhaps thirty came at my call; together we made for the opening. a party of the savages in our midst interposed. we set upon them with sword and musket butt, and though they fought like very devils drove them before us through the gateway. behind us were wild clamor, the shrieking of women, the stern shouts of the english, the whooping of the savages; before us a rush that must be met and turned. it was done. a moment's fierce fighting, then the indians wavered, broke, and fled. like sheep we drove them before us, across the neck, to the edge of the forest, into which they plunged. into that ambush we cared not to follow, but fell back to the palisade and the town, believing, and with reason, that the lesson had been taught. the strip of sand was strewn with the dead and the dying, but they belonged not to us. our dead numbered but three, and we bore their bodies with us. within the palisade we found the english in sufficiently good case. of the score or more indians cut off by us from their mates and penned within that death trap, half at least were already dead, run through with sword and pike, shot down with the muskets that there was now time to load. the remainder, hemmed about, pressed against the wall, were fast meeting with a like fate. they stood no chance against us; we cared not to make prisoners of them; it was a slaughter, but they had taken the [v]initiative. they fought with the courage of despair, striving to spring in upon us, and striking when they could with hatchet and knife. they were brave men that we slew that day. at last there was left but the leader--unharmed, unwounded, though time and again he had striven to close with some one of us, to strike and to die striking with his fellows. behind him was the wall; of the half circle which he faced, well-nigh all were old soldiers and servants of the colony. we were swordsmen all. when in his desperation he would have thrown himself upon us, we contented ourselves with keeping him at sword's length, and at last west sent the knife in the dark hand whirling over the palisade. some one had shouted to the musketeers to spare him. when he saw that he stood alone, he stepped back against the wall, drew himself up to his full height, and folded his arms. perhaps he thought that we would shoot him down then and there; perhaps he saw himself a captive amongst us, a show for the idle and for the strangers that the ships brought in. the din had ceased, and we the living, the victors, stood and looked at the vanquished dead at our feet, and at the dead beyond the gates, and at the neck upon which was no living foe, and at the blue sky bending over all. our hearts told us, and truly, that the lesson had been taught, and that no more forever need we at jamestown fear an indian attack. and then we looked at him whose life we had spared. he opposed our gaze with his folded arms and his head held high and his back against the wall. slowly, as one man and with no spoken word, we fell back, the half circle straightening into a line, and leaving a clear pathway to the open gates. the wind had ceased to blow, and a sunny stillness lay upon the sand and the rough-hewn wooden stakes and a little patch of tender grass. the church bell began to ring. the indian out of whose path to life and freedom we had stepped glanced from the line of lowered steel to the open gates and the forest beyond, and understood. for a full minute he waited, not moving a muscle, still and stately as some noble masterpiece in bronze. then he stepped from the shadow of the wall and moved past us, with his eyes fixed on the forest; there was no change in the superb calm of his face. he went by the huddled dead and the long line of the living that spoke no word, and out of the gates and across the neck, walking slowly, that we might yet shoot him down if we saw fit to repent ourselves. he reached the shadow of the trees: a moment, and the forest had back her own. we sheathed our swords and listened to the governor's few earnest words of thankfulness and recognition; and then we set to work to search for ways to reach and aid those who might be yet alive in the plantations above and below us. presently there came a great noise from the watchers on the river-bank, and a cry that boats were coming down the stream. it was so, and there were in them white men, nearly all of whom had wounds to show, and cowering women and children--all that were left of the people for miles along the james. then began that strange procession that lasted throughout the afternoon and night and into the next day, when a sloop dropped down from [v]henricus with the news that the english were in force there to stand their ground, although their loss had been heavy. hour after hour they came as fast as sail and oar could bring them, the panic-stricken folk, whose homes were burned, whose kindred were slain, who had themselves escaped as by a miracle. each boatload had the same tale to tell of treachery, surprise, and fiendish butchery. before the dawning we had heard from all save the remoter settlements. the blow had been struck and the hurt was deep. but it was not beyond remedy, thank god! we took stern measures for our protection, and the wound to the colony was soon healed; vengeance was meted out to those who had set upon us in the dark and had failed to reach the heart. the colony of virginia had passed through its greatest trial and had survived--for what greater ends, under providence, i knew not. mary johnston. =helps to study= i. describe the situation in which percy and diccon found themselves. what preparations did the indians make for the death of the two men? how were they interrupted? tell what happened after the appearance of nantaquas? how were the five days spent? how did nantaquas come to the rescue of the white men a second time? what did opechancanough do to try to deepen the impression of friendship? ii. what happened on the way to jamestown? describe the scene when percy entered the governor's house. give an account of the fight at the palisade. why was nantaquas spared? what was the result of the indian attack? give your opinion of nantaquas. of what indian in _the last of the mohicans_ does he remind you? of whom does opechancanough remind you? find out all you can of life in virginia at the time this story was written. compare the life there with the life in plymouth colony. supplementary reading prisoners of hope--mary johnston. my lady pokahontas--john esten cooke. the wept of wish-ton-wish--j. fenimore cooper. hiawatha--henry w. longfellow. old virginia and her neighbors--john fiske. harry esmond's boyhood _henry esmond_, by william makepeace thackeray, is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of historical novels. it describes life in england during the first years of the eighteenth century, dealing chiefly with people of wealth and high position. "harry esmond's boyhood" narrates the early career of the hero, who was a poor orphan and an inmate of the family of his kinsman, the viscount of castlewood. harry esmond had lived to be past fourteen years old; had never possessed but two friends, and had a fond and affectionate heart that would fain attach itself to somebody, and did not seem at rest until it had found a friend who would take charge of it. at last he found such a friend in his new mistress, the lady of castlewood. the instinct which led harry esmond to admire and love the gracious person, the fair apparition whose beauty and kindness had so moved him when he first beheld her, became soon a devoted affection and passion of gratitude, which entirely filled his young heart that as yet had had very little kindness for which to be thankful. there seemed, as the boy thought, in every look or gesture of this fair creature, an angelical softness and bright pity--in motion or repose she seemed gracious alike; the tone of her voice, though she uttered words ever so trivial, gave him a pleasure that amounted almost to anguish. it cannot be called love, that a lad of fourteen years of age felt for an exalted lady, his mistress, but it was worship. to catch her glance; to divine her errand, and run on it before she had spoken it; to watch, follow, adore her, became the business of his life. meanwhile, as is the way often, his idol had idols of her own, and never thought of or suspected the admiration of her little adorer. my lady had on her side three idols: first and foremost, [v]jove and supreme ruler, was her lord, harry's patron, the good [v]viscount of castlewood. all wishes of his were laws with her. if he had a headache, she was ill. if he frowned, she trembled. if he joked, she smiled and was charmed. if he went a-hunting, she was always at the window to see him ride away. she made dishes for his dinner; spiced his wine for him; hushed the house when he slept in his chair, and watched for a look when he woke. her eyes were never tired of looking at his face and wondering at its perfection. her little son was his son, and had his father's look and curly brown hair. her daughter beatrix was his daughter, and had his eyes--were there ever such beautiful eyes in the world? all the house was arranged so as to bring him ease and give him pleasure. harry esmond was happy in this pleasant home. the happiest period of all his life was this; and the young mother, with her daughter and son, and the orphan lad whom she protected, read and worked and played, and were children together. if the lady looked forward--as what fond woman does not?--toward the future, she had no plans from which harry esmond was left out; and a thousand and a thousand times, in his passionate and impetuous way, he vowed that no power should separate him from his mistress; and only asked for some chance to happen by which he might show his [v]fidelity to her. the second fight which harry esmond had was at fourteen years of age, with bryan hawkshaw, sir john hawkshaw's son, who, advancing the opinion that lady castlewood henpecked my lord, put harry in so great a fury that harry fell on him and with such rage that the other boy, who was two years older and far bigger than he, had by far the worst of the assault. it was interrupted by doctor tusher, the clergyman, who was just walking out of the dinner-room. bryan hawkshaw got up bleeding at the nose, having indeed been surprised, as many a stronger man might have been, by the fury of the attack on him. "you little beggar," he said, "i'll murder you for this." and indeed he was big enough. "beggar or not," said harry, grinding his teeth, "i have a couple of swords, and if you like to meet me, as man to man, on the terrace to-night--" and here, the doctor coming up, the [v]colloquy of the young champions ended. very likely, big as he was, hawkshaw did not care to continue a fight with such a ferocious opponent as this had been. one day, some time later, doctor tusher ran into castlewood house, with a face of consternation, saying that smallpox had made its appearance at the blacksmith's house in the village, which was also an alehouse, and that one of the maids there was down with it. now, there was a pretty girl at this inn, called nancy sievewright, a bouncing, fresh-looking lass, whose face was as red as the hollyhocks over the pales of the garden behind the inn. somehow it often happened that harry esmond fell in with nance sievewright's bonny face. when doctor tusher brought the news that the smallpox was at the blacksmith's, harry esmond's first thought was of alarm for poor nancy, and then of shame and disquiet for the castlewood family, lest he might have brought this infection; for the truth is that mr. harry had been sitting in a back room for an hour that day, where nancy sievewright was with a little brother who complained of headache, and was lying crying in a chair by the corner of the fire or in nancy's lap. little beatrix screamed at the news; and my lord cried out, "god bless me!" he was a brave man, and not afraid of death in any shape but this. "we will take the children and ride away to walcote," he said. to love children and be gentle with them was an instinct rather than merit in harry esmond; so much so that he thought almost with a feeling of shame of his liking for them and of the softness into which it betrayed him. on this day the poor fellow had not only had his young friend, the milkmaid's brother, on his knee, but had been drawing pictures and telling stories to the little frank castlewood, who was never tired of harry's tales and of his pictures of soldiers and horses. as luck would have it, beatrix had not on that evening taken her usual place, which generally she was glad enough to have, on harry's knee. for beatrix, from the earliest time, was jealous of every caress which was given her little brother frank. she would fling away even from the [v]maternal arms, if she saw frank had been there before her; insomuch that lady esmond was obliged not to show her love for her son in presence of the little girl, and embrace one or the other alone. beatrix would turn pale and red with rage if she caught signs of intelligence or affection between frank and his mother; would sit apart and not speak for a whole night if she thought the boy had a better fruit or a larger cake than hers; would fling away a ribbon if he had one, and would utter [v]infantile sarcasms about the favor shown her brother. so it chanced upon this very day, when poor harry esmond had had the blacksmith's son and the [v]peer's son, alike upon his knee, little beatrix, who would come to him willingly enough with her book and writing, had refused him, seeing the place occupied by her brother. luckily for her, she had sat at the farther end of the room, away from him, playing with a spaniel dog which she had, and talking to harry esmond over her shoulder, as she pretended to caress the dog, saying that fido would love her, and she would love fido and nothing but fido all her life. when, then, the news was brought that the little boy at the blacksmith's was ill with the smallpox, poor harry esmond felt a shock of alarm, not so much for himself as for his mistress's son, whom he might have brought into peril. beatrix, who had pouted sufficiently, her little brother being now gone to bed, was for taking her place on esmond's knee. but as she advanced toward him, he started back and placed the great chair on which he was sitting between him and her--saying in the french language to lady castlewood, "madam, the child must not approach me. i must tell you that i was at the blacksmith's to-day and had his little boy on my lap." "where you took my son afterward," lady castlewood said, very angry and turning red. "i thank you, sir, for giving him such company. beatrix," she said in english, "i forbid you to touch harry esmond. come away, child; come to your room. and you, sir, had you not better go back to the alehouse?" her eyes, ordinarily so kind, darted flashes of anger as she spoke; and she tossed up her head (which hung down commonly) with the [v]mien of a princess. "heyday!" said my lord, who was standing by the fireplace, "rachel, what are you in a passion about? though it does you good to get in a passion--you look very handsome!" "it is, my lord, because mr. harry esmond, having nothing to do with his time here, and not having a taste for our company, has been to the blacksmith's alehouse, where he has some friends." my lord burst out with a laugh. "take mistress beatrix to bed," my lady cried at this moment to her woman, who came in with her ladyship's tea. "put her into my room--no, into yours," she added quickly. "go, my child: go, i say; not a word." and beatrix, quite surprised at so sudden a tone of authority from one who was seldom accustomed to raise her voice, went out of the room with a scared face and waited even to burst out crying until she got upstairs. for once, her mother took little heed of her. "my lord," she said, "this young man--your relative--told me just now in french--he was ashamed to speak in his own language--that he had been at the blacksmith's all day, where he has had that little wretch who is now ill of the smallpox on his knee. and he comes home reeking from that place--yes, reeking from it--and takes my boy into his lap without shame, and sits down by me. he may have killed frank for what i know--killed our child! why was he brought in to disgrace our house? why is he here? let him go--let him go, i say, and [v]pollute the place no more!" she had never before uttered a syllable of unkindness to harry esmond, and her cruel words smote the poor boy so that he stood for some moments bewildered with grief and rage at the injustice of such a stab from such a hand. he turned quite white from red, which he had been before. "if my coming nigh your boy pollutes him," he said, "it was not so always. good-night, my lord. heaven bless you and yours for your goodness to me. i have tired her ladyship's kindness out, and i will go." "he wants to go to the alehouse--let him go!" cried my lady. "i'll be hanged if he shall," said my lord. "i didn't think you could be so cruel, rachel!" her reply was to burst into a flood of tears, and to quit the room with a rapid glance at harry esmond, as my lord put his broad hand on harry's shoulder. in a little while my lady came back, looking very pale, with a handkerchief in her hand. instantly advancing to harry esmond, she took his hand. "i beg your pardon, harry," she said. "i spoke very unkindly." my lord broke out: "there may be no harm done. leave the boy alone." she looked a little red, and pressed the lad's hand as she dropped it. "there is no use, my lord," she said. "frank was on his knee as he was making pictures and was running constantly from harry to me. the evil is done, if any." "not with me," cried my lord. "i've been smoking." and he lighted his pipe again with a coal. "as the disease is in the village--plague take it!--i would have you leave it. we'll go to-morrow to walcote." "i have no fear," said my lady. "i may have had it as an infant." "i won't run the risk," said my lord. "i'm as bold as any man, but i'll not bear that." "take beatrix with you and go," said my lady. "for us the mischief is done." my lord, calling away doctor tusher, bade him come in the oak parlor and have a pipe. when the lady and the boy were alone, there was a silence of some moments, during which he stood looking at the fire whilst her ladyship busied herself with the [v]tambour frame and needles. "i am sorry," she said, after a pause, in a hard, dry voice--"i repeat i am sorry that i said what i said. it was not at all my wish that you should leave us, i am sure, unless you found pleasure elsewhere. but you must see that, at your age, and with your tastes, it is impossible that you can continue to stay upon the intimate footing in which you have been in this family. you have wished to go to college, and i think 'tis quite as well that you should be sent thither. i did not press the matter, thinking you a child, as you are indeed in years--quite a child. but now i shall beg my lord to despatch you as quick as possible; and will go on with frank's learning as well as i can. and--and i wish you a good night, harry." with this she dropped a stately curtsy, and, taking her candle, went away through the tapestry door, which led to her apartments. esmond stood by the fireplace, blankly staring after her. indeed, he scarce seemed to see until she was gone, and then her image was impressed upon him and remained forever fixed upon his memory. he saw her retreating, the taper lighting up her marble face, her scarlet lip quivering, and her shining golden hair. he went to his own room and to bed, but could not get to sleep until daylight, and woke with a violent headache. he had brought the contagion with him from the alehouse, sure enough, and was presently laid up with the smallpox, which spared the hall no more than it did the cottage. when harry esmond had passed through the [v]crisis of the [v]malady and returned to health again, he found that little frank esmond had also suffered and rallied from the disease, and that his mother was down with it. nor could young esmond agree in doctor tusher's [v]vehement protestations to my lady, when he visited her during her [v]convalescence, that the malady had not in the least impaired her charms; whereas, in spite of these fine speeches, harry thought that her ladyship's beauty was very much injured by the smallpox. the delicacy of her rosy complexion was gone; her eyes had lost their brilliancy, her hair fell, and she looked older. when tusher in his courtly way vowed and protested that my lady's face was none the worse, the lad broke out and said, "it is worse, and my mistress is not near so handsome as she was." on this poor lady castlewood gave a [v]rueful smile and a look into a little mirror she had, which showed her, i suppose, that what the stupid boy said was only too true, for she turned away from the glass and her eyes filled with tears. the sight of these always created a sort of rage of pity in esmond's heart, and seeing them on the face of the lady whom he loved best, the young blunderer sank down on his knees and besought her to pardon him, saying that he was a fool and an idiot. doctor tusher told him that he was a bear, and a bear he would remain, at which speech poor harry was so dumb-stricken that he did not even growl. "he is my bear, and i will not have him baited, doctor," said my lady, putting her hand kindly on the boy's head, as he was still kneeling at her feet. "how your hair has come off! and mine, too!" she added with another sigh. "it is not for myself that i care," my lady said to harry, when the parson had taken his leave; "but am i very much changed! alas! i fear 'tis too true." "madam, you have the dearest, and kindest, and sweetest face in the world, i think," the lad said; and indeed he thought so. for harry esmond his benefactress' sweet face had lost none of its charms. it had always the kindest of looks and smiles for him--and beauty of every sort. she would call him "mr. tutor," and she herself, as well as the two children, went to school to him. of the pupils the two young people were but lazy scholars, and my lord's son only learned what he liked, which was but little. mistress beatrix chattered french prettily, and sang sweetly, but this from her mother's teaching, not harry esmond's. but if the children were careless, 'twas a wonder how eagerly the mother learned from her young tutor--and taught him, too. she saw the [v]latent beauties and hidden graces in books; and the happiest hours of young esmond's life were those passed in the company of this kind mistress and her children. these happy days were to end soon, however; and it was by lady castlewood's own decree that they were brought to a conclusion. it happened about christmas-tide, harry esmond being now past sixteen years of age. a messenger came from winchester one day, bearer of the news that my lady's aunt was dead and had left her fortune of £ , among her six nieces. many a time afterward harry esmond recalled the flushed face and eager look wherewith, after this intelligence, his kind lady regarded him. when my lord heard of the news, he did not make any long face. "the money will come very handy to furnish the music-room and the [v]cellar," he said, "which is getting low, and buy your ladyship a coach and a couple of horses. beatrix, you shall have a [v]spinet; and frank, you shall have a little horse from hexton fair; and harry, you shall have five pounds to buy some books." so spoke my lord, who was generous with his own, and indeed with other folks' money. "i wish your aunt would die once a year, rachel; we could spend your money, and all your sisters', too." "i have but one aunt--and--and i have another use for the money," said my lady, turning red. "another use, my dear; and what do you know about money?" cried my lord. "i intend it for harry esmond to go to college. cousin harry," said my lady, "you mustn't stay any longer in this dull place, but make a name for yourself." "is harry going away? you don't mean to say you will go away?" cried out beatrix and frank at one breath. "but he will come back, and this will always be his home," replied my lady, with blue eyes looking a celestial kindness; "and his scholars will always love him, won't they?" "rachel, you're a good woman," said my lord. "i wish you joy, my kinsman," he continued, giving harry esmond a hearty slap on the shoulder, "i won't balk your luck. go to cambridge, boy." when harry esmond went away for cambridge, little frank ran alongside his horse as far as the bridge, and there harry stopped for a moment and looked back at the house where the best part of his life had been passed. and harry remembered, all his life after, how he saw his mistress at the window looking out on him, the little beatrix's chestnut curls resting at her mother's side. both waved a farewell to him, and little frank sobbed to leave him. the village people had good-bye to say to him, too. all knew that master harry was going to college, and most of them had a kind word and a look of farewell. and with these things in mind, he rode out into the world. william makepeace thackeray. =helps to study= tell what you find out about the household in which harry esmond lived. what impression do you get of each person? what trouble did harry bring upon the family? what change occurred in his life and now? supplementary reading the virginians--william makepeace thackeray. the sir roger de coverley papers--steele and addison. the family holds its head up the story is an extract from oliver goldsmith's famous novel, _the vicar of wakefield_. in this book goldsmith describes the fortunes of the family of doctor primrose, a church of england clergyman of the middle of the eighteenth century. the novel is considered a most faithful picture of english country life in that period. the home i had come to as [v]vicar was in a little neighborhood consisting of farmers who tilled their own grounds and were equal strangers to [v]opulence and poverty. as they had almost all the conveniences of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or cities in search of [v]superfluity. remote from the polite, they still retained the [v]primeval simplicity of manners; and, frugal by habit, they scarce knew that temperance was a virtue. they wrought with cheerfulness on days of labor, but observed festivals as intervals of idleness and pleasure. they kept up the christmas carol, sent love-knots on valentine morning, ate pancakes on [v]shrovetide, showed their wit on the first of april, and religiously cracked nuts on [v]michaelmas-eve. being apprised of our approach, the whole neighborhood came out to meet their minister, dressed in their finest clothes and preceded by a [v]pipe and [v]tabor: a feast, also, was provided for our reception, at which we sat cheerfully down, and what the conversation wanted in wit was made up in laughter. our little habitation was situated at the foot of a sloping hill, sheltered with a beautiful underwood behind, and a prattling river before; on one side a meadow, on the other a green. my farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land. nothing could exceed the neatness of my little enclosures, the elms and hedgerows appearing with inexpressible beauty. my house consisted of but one story, and was covered with [v]thatch, which gave it an air of great snugness; the walls on the inside were nicely whitewashed, and my daughters undertook to adorn them with pictures of their own designing. though the same room served us for parlor and kitchen, that only made it the warmer. besides, as it was kept with the utmost neatness,--the dishes, plates and coppers being well scoured and all disposed in bright rows on the shelves--the eye was agreeably relieved and did not want richer furniture. there were three other apartments: one for my wife and me; another for our two daughters within our own; and the third, with two beds, for the rest of the children. the little republic to which i gave laws was regulated in the following manner: by sunrise we all assembled in our common apartment, the fire being previously kindled by the servant. after we had saluted each other with proper ceremony--for i always thought fit to keep up some mechanical forms of good breeding, without which freedom ever destroys friendship--we all bent in gratitude to that being who gave us another day. this duty performed, my son and i went to pursue our usual industry abroad, while my wife and daughters employed themselves in providing breakfast, which was always ready at a certain time. i allowed half an hour for this meal, and an hour for dinner, which time was taken up in innocent mirth between my wife and daughters, and in [v]philosophical arguments between my son and me. as we rose with the sun, so we never pursued our labors after it was gone down, but returned home to the expecting family, where smiling looks, a neat hearth, and a pleasant fire were prepared for our reception. nor were we without guests; sometimes farmer flamborough, our talkative neighbor, and often a blind piper, would pay us a visit and taste our gooseberry wine, for the making of which we had lost neither the recipe nor the reputation. these harmless people had several ways of being good company; while one played, the other would sing some soothing ballad--"johnny armstrong's last good-night," or "the cruelty of barbara allen." the night was concluded in the manner we began the morning, my youngest boys being appointed to read the lessons of the day; and he that read loudest, distinctest and best was to have an halfpenny on sunday to put into the poor-box. this encouraged in them a wholesome rivalry to do good. when sunday came, it was, indeed, a day of finery, which all my [v]sumptuary edicts could not restrain. how well soever i fancied my lectures against pride had conquered the vanity of my daughters, yet i still found them secretly attached to all their former finery; they still loved laces, ribbons, and bugles, and my wife herself retained a passion for her crimson [v]paduasoy, because i formerly happened to say it became her. the first sunday, in particular, their behavior served to mortify me. i had desired my girls the preceding night to be dressed early the next day, for i always loved to be at church a good while before the rest of the congregation. they punctually obeyed my directions; but when we were to assemble in the morning at breakfast, down came my wife and daughters, dressed out in all their former splendor--their hair plastered up with [v]pomatum, their faces [v]patched to taste, their trains bundled up in a heap behind and rustling at every motion. i could not help smiling at their vanity, particularly that of my wife, from whom i expected more discretion. in this [v]exigence, therefore, my only resource was to order my son, with an important air, to call our coach. the girls were amazed at the command, but i repeated it, with more solemnity than before. "surely, you jest!" cried my wife. "we can walk perfectly well; we want no coach to carry us now." "you mistake, child," returned i; "we do want a coach, for if we walk to church in this trim, the very children in the parish will hoot after us." "indeed!" replied my wife. "i always imagined that my charles was fond of seeing his children neat and handsome about him." "you may be as neat as you please," interrupted i, "and i shall love you the better for it; but all this is not neatness, but frippery. these rufflings and pinkings and patchings will only make us hated by all the wives of our neighbors. no, my children," continued i, more gravely, "those gowns must be altered into something of a plainer cut, for finery is very unbecoming in us who want the means of [v]decency." this remonstrance had the proper effect. they went with great composure, that very instant, to change their dress; and the next day i had the satisfaction of finding my daughters, at their own request, employed in cutting up their trains into sunday waist-coats for dick and bill, the two little ones; and, what was still more satisfactory, the gowns seemed improved by this [v]curtailing. but the reformation lasted but for a short while. my wife and daughters were visited by the wives of some of the richer neighbors and by a squire who lived near by, on whom they set more store than on the plain farmers' wives who were nearer us in worldly station. i now began to find that all my long and painful lectures upon temperance, simplicity, and contentment were entirely disregarded. some distinctions lately paid us by our betters awakened that pride which i had laid asleep, but not removed. our windows again, as formerly, were filled with washes for the neck and face. the sun was dreaded as an enemy to the skin without doors and the fire as a spoiler of the complexion within. my wife observed that rising too early would hurt her daughters' eyes, that working after dinner would redden their noses, and she convinced me that the hands never looked so white as when they did nothing. instead, therefore, of finishing george's shirts, we now had the girls new-modeling their old gauzes. the poor miss flamboroughs, their former gay companions, were cast off as mean acquaintance, and the whole conversation ran upon high life and high-lived company, with pictures, taste, and shakespeare. but we could have borne all this, had not a fortune-telling gypsy come to raise us into perfect [v]sublimity. the tawny [v]sibyl no sooner appeared than my girls came running to me for a shilling apiece to cross her hand with silver. to say the truth, i was tired of being always wise, and could not help gratifying their request, because i loved to see them happy. i gave each of them a shilling; after they had been closeted up with the fortune-teller for some time, i knew by their looks, upon their returning, that they had been promised something great. "well, my girls, how have you sped? tell me, livy, has the fortune-teller given thee a penny-worth?" "she positively declared that i am to be married to a squire in less than a twelvemonth." "well, now, sophy, my child," said i, "and what sort of husband are you to have?" "i am to have a lord soon after my sister has married the squire," she replied. "how," cried i, "is that all you are to have for your two shillings? only a lord and a squire for two shillings! you fools, i could have promised you a prince and a [v]nabob for half the money." this curiosity of theirs, however, was attended with very serious effects. we now began to think ourselves designed by the stars to something exalted, and already anticipated our future grandeur. in this agreeable time my wife had the most lucky dreams in the world, which she took care to tell us every morning, with great solemnity and exactness. it was one night a coffin and cross-bones, the sign of an approaching wedding; at another time she imagined her daughters' pockets filled with farthings, a certain sign they would shortly be stuffed with gold. the girls themselves had their omens. they saw rings in the candle, purses bounced from the fire, and love-knots lurked in the bottom of every teacup. toward the end of the week we received a card from two town ladies, in which, with their compliments, they hoped to see our family at church the sunday following. all saturday morning i could perceive, in consequence of this, my wife and daughters in close conference together, and now and then glancing at me with looks that betrayed a [v]latent plot. to be sincere, i had strong suspicions that some absurd proposal was preparing for appearing with splendor the next day. in the evening they began their operations in a very regular manner, and my wife undertook to conduct the siege. after tea, when i seemed in fine spirits, she began thus: "i fancy, charles, my dear, we shall have a great deal of good company at our church to-morrow." "perhaps we may, my dear," returned i, "though you need be under no uneasiness about that; you shall have a sermon, whether there be or not." "that is what i expect," returned she; "but i think, my dear, we ought to appear there as decently as possible, for who knows what may happen?" "your precautions," replied i, "are highly commendable. a decent behavior and appearance in church is what charms me. we should be devout and humble, cheerful and serene." "yes," cried she, "i know that; but i mean we should go there in as proper a manner as possible; not like the scrubs about us." "you are quite right, my dear," returned i, "and i was going to make the same proposal. the proper manner of going is to go as early as possible, to have time for meditation before the sermon begins." "phoo! charles," interrupted she, "all that is very true, but not what i would be at. i mean, we should go there [v]genteelly. you know the church is two miles off, and i protest i don't like to see my daughters trudging up to their pew all blowzed and red with walking, and looking for all the world as if they had been winners at a [v]smock race. now, my dear, my proposal is this: there are our two plough-horses, the colt that has been in our family these nine years and his companion, blackberry, that has scarce done an earthly thing for this month past. they are both grown fat and lazy. why should they not do something as well as we? and let me tell you, when moses has trimmed them a little, they will cut a very tolerable figure." to this proposal i objected that walking would be twenty times more genteel than such a paltry conveyance, as blackberry was wall-eyed, and the colt wanted a tail; that they had never been broken to the rein, but had an hundred vicious tricks, and that we had but one saddle and [v]pillion in the whole house. all these objections, however, were overruled, so that i was obliged to comply. the next morning i perceived them not a little busy in collecting such materials as might be necessary for the expedition; but as i found it would be a business of time, i walked on to the church before, and they promised speedily to follow. i waited near an hour in the reading desk for their arrival; but not finding them come as i expected, i was obliged to begin, and went through the service, not without some uneasiness at finding them absent. this was increased when all was finished, and no appearance of the family. i therefore walked back by the horseway, which was five miles round, though the footway was but two; and when i had got about half-way home, i perceived the procession marching slowly forward toward the church--my son, my wife, and the two little ones exalted on one horse, and my two daughters upon the other. it was then very near dinner-time. i demanded the cause of their delay, but i soon found, by their looks, that they had met with a thousand misfortunes on the road. the horses had, at first, refused to move from the door, till a neighbor was kind enough to beat them forward for about two hundred yards with his cudgel. next, the straps of my wife's pillion broke down, and they were obliged to stop to repair them before they could proceed. after that, one of the horses took it into his head to stand still, and neither blows nor entreaties could prevail with him to proceed. they were just recovering from this dismal situation when i found them; but, perceiving everything safe, i own their mortification did not much displease me, as it gave me many opportunities of future triumph, and would teach my daughters more humility. oliver goldsmith. =helps to study= describe the neighborhood and the home to which the vicar took his family; also their manner of living. relate the two attempts the ladies made to appear at church in great style. what happened to raise the hopes of better days for the daughters? how were these hopes encouraged? what superstitions did the wife and daughters believe? give your opinion of the vicar and of each member of the family. supplementary reading the school for scandal--richard brinsley sheridan. she stoops to conquer--oliver goldsmith. life of oliver goldsmith--washington irving. david copperfield--charles dickens. barnaby rudge--charles dickens. some have too much, yet still do crave; i little have, and seek no more. they are but poor, though much they have, and i am rich with little store: they poor, i rich; they beg, i give; they lack, i leave; they pine, i live. sir edward dyer. the little boy in the balcony my special amusement in new york is riding on the elevated railway. it is curious to note how little one can see on the crowded sidewalks of this city. it is simply a rush of the same people--hurrying this way or that on the same errands, doing the same shopping or eating at the same restaurants. it is a [v]kaleidoscope with infinite combinations but the same effects. you see it to-day, and it is the same as yesterday. occasionally in the multitude you hit upon a [v]_genre_ specimen, or an odd detail, such as a prim little dog that sits upright all day and holds in its mouth a cup for pennies for its blind master, or an old bookseller, with a grand head and the deliberate motions of a scholar, moldering in a stall--but the general effect is one of sameness and soon tires and bewilders. once on the elevated road, however, a new world is opened, full of the most interesting objects. the cars sweep by the upper stories of the houses, and, running never too swiftly to allow observation, disclose the secrets of a thousand homes, and bring to view people and things never dreamed of by the giddy, restless crowd that sends its impatient murmur from the streets below. in a course of several months' pretty steady riding from twenty-third street, which is the station for the fifth avenue hotel, to rector, which overlooks wall street, i have made many acquaintances along the route, and on reaching the city my first curiosity is in their behalf. one of these is a boy about six years of age--akin in his fragile body and his serious mien--a youngster that is very precious to me. i first saw this boy on a little balcony about three feet by four, projecting from the window of a poverty-stricken fourth floor. he was leaning over the railing, his white, thoughtful head just clearing the top, holding a short, round stick in his hand. the little fellow made a pathetic picture, all alone there above the street, so friendless and desolate, and his pale face came between me and my business many a time that day. on going uptown that evening just as night was falling, i saw him still at his place, white and patient and silent. every day afterward i saw him there, always with the short stick in his hand. occasionally he would walk around the balcony, rattling the stick in a solemn manner against the railing, or poke it across from one corner to another and sit on it. this was the only playing i ever saw him do, and the stick was the only plaything he had. but he was never without it. his little hand always held it, and i pictured him every morning when he awoke from his joyless sleep, picking up his poor toy and going out to his balcony, as other boys go to play. or perhaps he slept with it, as little ones do with dolls and whip-tops. i could see that the room beyond the window was bare. i never saw any one in it. the heat must have been terrible, for it could have had no ventilation. once i missed the boy from the balcony, but saw his white head moving about slowly in the dusk of the room. gradually the little fellow became a burden to me. i found myself continually thinking of him, and troubled with that remorse that thoughtless people feel even for suffering for which they are not in the slightest degree responsible. not that i ever saw any suffering on his face. it was patient, thoughtful, serious, but with never a sign of petulance. what thoughts filled that young head--what contemplation took the place of what should have been the [v]ineffable upspringing of childish emotion--what complaint or questioning were living behind that white face--no one could guess. in an older person the face would have betokened a resignation that found peace in the hope of things hereafter. in this child, without hope or aspiration, it was sad beyond expression. one day as i passed i nodded at him. he made no sign in return. i repeated the nod on another trip, waving my hand at him--but without avail. at length, in response to an unusually winning exhortation, his pale lips trembled into a smile, but a smile that was soberness itself. wherever i went that day that smile went with me. wherever i saw children playing in the parks, or trotting along with their hands nestled in strong fingers that guided and protected, i thought of that tiny watcher in the balcony--joyless, hopeless, friendless--a desolate mite, hanging between the blue sky and the gladsome streets, lifting his wistful face now to the peaceful heights of the one, and now looking with grave wonder on the ceaseless tumult of the other. at length--but why go any further? why is it necessary to tell that the boy had no father, that his mother was bedridden from his birth, and that his sister pasted labels in a drug-house, and he was thus left to himself. it is sufficient to say that i went to coney island yesterday, and watched the bathers and the children--listened to the crisp, lingering music of the waves--ate a robust lunch on the pier--wandered in and out among the booths, tents, and hub-bub--and that through all these pleasures i had a companion that enjoyed them with a gravity that i can never hope to [v]emulate, but with a soulfulness that was touching. as i came back in the boat, the breezes singing through the [v]cordage, music floating from the fore-deck, and the sun lighting with its dying rays the shipping that covered the river, there was sitting in front of me a very pale but very happy bit of a boy, open-eyed with wonder, but sober and self-contained, clasping tightly in his little fingers a short, battered stick. and finally, whenever i pass by a certain overhanging balcony now, i am sure of a smile from an intimate and esteemed friend who lives there. henry w. grady. ariel's triumph[ -*] this story is taken from booth tarkington's novel, _the conquest of canaan_, which gives an admirable description of modern life in an american town. joe louden, the hero, and ariel tabor, the heroine, were both friendless and, in a way, forlorn. how both of them triumphed over obstacles and won success and happiness is the theme of a book which is notable for keen observation of character and for a quiet and delightful humor. i ariel had worked all the afternoon over her mother's wedding-gown, and two hours were required by her toilet for the dance. she curled her hair frizzily, burning it here and there, with a slate-pencil heated over a lamp-chimney, and she placed above one ear three or four large artificial roses, taken from an old hat of her mother's, which she had found in a trunk in the store-room. possessing no slippers, she carefully blacked and polished her shoes, which had been clumsily resoled, and fastened into the strings of each small rosettes of red ribbon; after which she practised swinging the train of her skirt until she was proud of her manipulation of it. she had no powder, but found in her grandfather's room a lump of magnesia, which he was in the habit of taking for heartburn, and passed it over and over her brown face and hands. then a lingering gaze into her small mirror gave her joy at last; she yearned so hard to see herself charming that she did see herself so. admiration came, and she told herself that she was more attractive to look at than she had ever been in her life, and that, perhaps, at last she might begin to be sought for like other girls. the little glass showed a sort of prettiness in her thin, unmatured young face; tripping dance-tunes ran through her head, her feet keeping the time--ah, she did so hope to dance often that night! perhaps--perhaps she might be asked for every number. and so, wrapping an old water-proof cloak about her, she took her grandfather's arm and sallied forth, with high hopes in her beating heart. it was in the dressing-room that the change began to come. alone, at home in her own ugly little room, she had thought herself almost beautiful; but here in the brightly lighted chamber crowded with the other girls it was different. there was a big [v]cheval-glass at one end of the room, and she faced it, when her turn came--for the mirror was popular--with a sinking spirit. there was the contrast, like a picture painted and framed. the other girls all wore their hair after the fashion introduced to canaan by mamie pike the week before, on her return from a visit to chicago. none of them had "crimped" and none had bedecked their tresses with artificial flowers. her alterations of the wedding-dress had not been successful; the skirt was too short in front and higher on one side than on the other, showing too plainly the heavy-soled shoes, which had lost most of their polish in the walk through the snow. the ribbon rosettes were fully revealed, and as she glanced at their reflection, she heard the words, "look at that train and those rosettes!" whispered behind her, and saw in the mirror two pretty young women turn away with their handkerchiefs over their mouths and retreat hurriedly to an alcove. all the feet in the room except ariel's were in dainty kid or satin slippers of the color of the dresses from which they glimmered out, and only ariel wore a train. she went away from the mirror and pretended to be busy with a hanging thread in her sleeve. she was singularly an alien in the chattering room, although she had been born and had lived all her life in the town. perhaps her position among the young ladies may be best defined by the remark, generally current among them that evening, to the effect that it was "very sweet of mamie to invite her." ariel was not like the others; she was not of them, and never had been. indeed, she did not know them very well. some of them nodded to her and gave her a word of greeting pleasantly; all of them whispered about her with wonder and suppressed amusement, but none talked to her. they were not unkindly, but they were young and eager and excited over their own interests,--which were then in the "gentlemen's dressing-room." each of the other girls had been escorted by a youth of the place, and, one by one, joining these escorts in the hall outside the door, they descended the stairs, until only ariel was left. she came down alone after the first dance had begun, and greeted her young hostess's mother timidly. mrs. pike--a small, frightened-looking woman with a ruby necklace--answered her absently, and hurried away to see that the [v]imported waiters did not steal anything. ariel sat in one of the chairs against the wall and watched the dancers with a smile of eager and benevolent interest. in canaan no parents, no guardians or aunts were haled forth o' nights to [v]duenna the junketings of youth; mrs. pike did not reappear, and ariel sat conspicuously alone; there was nothing else for her to do, but it was not an easy matter. when the first dance reached an end, mamie pike came to her for a moment with a cheery welcome, and was immediately surrounded by a circle of young men and women, flushed with dancing, shouting as was their wont, laughing [v]inexplicably over words and phrases and unintelligible [v]monosyllables, as if they all belonged to a secret society and these cries were symbols of things exquisitely humorous, which only they understood. ariel laughed with them more heartily than any other, so that she might seem to be of them and as merry as they were; but almost immediately she found herself outside of the circle, and presently they all whirled away into another dance, and she was left alone again. so she sat, no one coming near her, through several dances, trying to maintain the smile of delighted interest upon her face, though she felt the muscles of her face beginning to ache with their fixedness, her eyes growing hot and glazed. all the other girls were provided with partners for every dance, with several young men left over, these latter lounging [v]hilariously together in the doorways. ariel was careful not to glance toward them, but she could not help hating them. once or twice between the dances she saw miss pike speak appealingly to one of the [v]superfluous, glancing, at the same time, in her own direction, and ariel could see, too, that the appeal proved unsuccessful, until at last mamie approached her, leading norbert flitcroft, partly by the hand, partly by will power. norbert was an excessively fat boy, and at the present moment looked as patient as the blind. but he asked ariel if she was "engaged for the next dance," and, mamie, having flitted away, stood [v]disconsolately beside her, waiting for the music to begin. ariel was grateful for him. "i think you must be very good-natured, mr. flitcroft," she said, with an air of [v]raillery. "no, i'm not," he replied, [v]plaintively. "everybody thinks i am, because i'm fat, and they expect me to do things they never dream of asking anybody else to do. i'd like to see 'em even _ask_ 'gene bantry to go and do some of the things they get me to do! a person isn't good-natured just because he's fat," he concluded, morbidly, "but he might as well be!" "oh, i meant good-natured," she returned, with a sprightly laugh, "because you're willing to waltz with me." "oh, well," he returned, sighing, "that's all right." the orchestra flourished into "la paloma"; he put his arm mournfully about her, and taking her right hand with his left, carried her arm out to a rigid right angle, beginning to pump and balance for time. they made three false starts and then got away. ariel danced badly; she hopped and lost the step, but they persevered, bumping against other couples continually. circling breathlessly into the next room, they passed close to a long mirror, in which ariel saw herself, although in a flash, more bitterly contrasted to the others than in the cheval-glass of the dressing-room. the clump of roses was flopping about her neck, her crimped hair looked frowzy, and there was something terribly wrong about her dress. suddenly she felt her train to be [v]grotesque, as a thing following her in a nightmare. a moment later she caught her partner making a [v]burlesque face of suffering over her shoulder, and, turning her head quickly, saw for whose benefit he had constructed it. eugene bantry, flying expertly by with mamie, was bestowing upon mr. flitcroft a commiserative wink. the next instant she tripped in her train and fell to the floor at eugene's feet, carrying her partner with her. there was a shout of laughter. the young hostess stopped eugene, who would have gone on, and he had no choice but to stoop to ariel's assistance. "it seems to be a habit of mine," she said, laughing loudly. she did not appear to see the hand he offered, but got on her feet without help and walked quickly away with norbert, who proceeded to live up to the character he had given himself. "perhaps we had better not try it again," she laughed. "well, i should think not," he returned with the frankest gloom. with the air of conducting her home, he took her to the chair against the wall whence he had brought her. there his responsibility for her seemed to cease. "will you excuse me?" he asked, and there was no doubt he felt that he had been given more than his share that evening, even though he was fat. "yes, indeed." her laughter was continuous. "i should think you _would_ be glad to get rid of me after that. ha, ha, ha! poor mr. flitcroft, you know you are!" it was the deadly truth, and the fat one, saying, "well, if you'll excuse me now," hurried away with a step which grew lighter as the distance from her increased. arrived at the haven of a far doorway, he mopped his brow and shook his head grimly in response to frequent rallyings. ariel sat through more dances, interminable dances and intermissions, in that same chair, in which it began to seem she was to live out the rest of her life. now and then, if she thought people were looking at her as they passed, she broke into a laugh and nodded slightly, as if still amused over her mishap. after a long time she rose, and laughing cheerfully to mr. flitcroft, who was standing in the doorway and replied with a wan smile, stepped out quickly into the hall, where she almost ran into her great-uncle, jonas tabor. he was going toward the big front doors with judge pike, having just come out of the latter's library, down the hall. jonas was breathing heavily and was shockingly pale, though his eyes were very bright. he turned his back upon his grandniece sharply and went out of the door. ariel reëntered the room whence she had come. she laughed again to her fat friend as she passed him, went to the window and looked out. the porch seemed deserted and was faintly illuminated by a few japanese lanterns. she sprang out, dropped upon the divan, and burying her face in her hands, cried heart-brokenly. presently she felt something alive touch her foot, and, her breath catching with alarm, she started to rise. a thin hand, issuing from a shabby sleeve, had stolen out between two of the green tubs and was pressing upon one of her shoes. "sh!" warned a voice. "don't make a noise!" the warning was not needed; she had recognized the hand and sleeve instantly. it was her playmate and lifelong friend, joe louden. "what were you going on about?" he asked angrily. "nothing," she answered. "i wasn't. you must go away; you know the judge doesn't like you." "what were you crying about?" interrupted the uninvited guest. "nothing, i tell you!" she repeated, the tears not ceasing to gather in her eyes. "i wasn't." "i want to know what it was," he insisted. "didn't the fools ask you to dance! ah! you needn't tell me. that's it. i've been here, watching, for the last three dances and you weren't in sight till you came to the window. well, what do you care about that for!" "i don't," she answered. "i don't!" then suddenly, without being able to prevent it, she sobbed. "no," he said, gently, "i see you don't. and you let yourself be a fool because there are a lot of fools in there." she gave way, all at once, to a gust of sorrow and bitterness; she bent far over and caught his hand and laid it against her wet cheek. "oh, joe," she whispered, brokenly, "i think we have such hard lives, you and i! it doesn't seem right--while we're so young! why can't we be like the others? why can't we have some of the fun?" he withdrew his hand, with the embarrassment and shame he would have felt had she been a boy. "get out!" he said, feebly. she did not seem to notice, but, still stooping, rested her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. "i try so hard to have some fun, to be like the rest--and it's always a mistake, always, always, always!" she rocked herself slightly from side to side. "i'm a fool, it's the truth, or i wouldn't have come to-night. i want to be attractive--i want to be in things. i want to laugh as they do--" "to laugh, just to laugh, and not because there's something funny?" "yes, i do, i do! and to know how to dress and to wear my hair--there must be some place where you can learn those things. i've never had any one to show me! it's only lately i've cared, but i'm seventeen, joe--" she faltered, came to a stop, and her whole body was shaken with sobs. "i hate myself so for crying--for everything!" just then a colored waiter, smiling graciously, came out upon the porch, bearing a tray of salad, hot oysters, and coffee. at his approach, joe had fallen prone on the floor in the shadow. ariel shook her head to the proffer of refreshments. "i don't want any," she murmured. the waiter turned away in pity and was reëntering the window when a passionate whisper fell upon his ear as well as upon ariel's. _"take it!"_ "ma'am?" said the waiter. "i've changed my mind," she replied quickly. the waiter, his elation restored, gave of his viands with the [v]superfluous bounty loved by his race when distributing the product of the wealthy. when he had gone, "give me everything that's hot," said joe. "you can keep the salad." "i couldn't eat it or anything else," she answered, thrusting the plate between the palms. for a time there was silence. from within the house came the continuous babble of voices and laughter, the clink of [v]cutlery on china. the young people spent a long time over their supper. by and by the waiter returned to the veranda, deposited a plate of colored ices upon ariel's knees with a noble gesture, and departed. "no ice for me," said joe. "won't you please go now?" she entreated. "it wouldn't be good manners," he joked. "they might think i only came for the supper." "give me the dish and coffee-cup," she whispered, impatiently. "suppose the waiter came and had to look for them? quick!" a bottle-shaped figure appeared in the window, and she had no time to take the plate and cup which were being pushed through the palm-leaves. she whispered a word of warning, and the dishes were hurriedly withdrawn as norbert flitcroft, wearing a solemn expression of injury, came out upon the veranda. "they want you. some one's come for you." "oh, is grandfather waiting?" she rose. "it isn't your grandfather that has come for you," answered the fat one, slowly. "it is eskew arp. something's happened." she looked at him for a moment, beginning to tremble violently, her eyes growing wide with fright. "is my grandfather--is he sick?" "you'd better go and see. old eskew's waiting in the hall. he'll tell you." she was by him and through the window instantly. mr. arp was waiting in the hall, talking in a low voice to mrs. pike. "your grandfather's all right," he told the frightened girl quickly. "he sent me for you. just hurry and get your things." she was with him again in a moment, and seizing the old man's arm, hurried him down the steps and toward the street almost at a run. "you're not telling me the truth," she said. "you're not telling me the truth!" "nothing has happened to roger tabor," panted mr. arp. "we're going this way, not that." they had come to the gate, and as she turned to the right he pulled her sharply to the left. "where are we going?" she demanded. "to your uncle jonas's." "why?" she cried, in supreme astonishment. "what do you want to take me there for? don't you know that he doesn't like me--that he has stopped speaking to me?" "yes," said the old man, grimly; "he has stopped speaking to everybody." these startling words told ariel that her uncle was dead. they did not tell her what she was soon to learn--that he had died rich, and that, failing other heirs, she and her grandfather had inherited his fortune. ii it was sunday in canaan--sunday some years later. joe louden was sitting in the shade of main street bridge, smoking a cigar. he was alone; he was always alone, for he had been away a long time, and had made few friends since his return. a breeze wandered up the river and touched the leaves and grass to life. the young corn, deep green in the bottom-land, moved with a [v]staccato flurry; the stirring air brought a smell of blossoms; the distance took on faint lavender hazes which blended the outlines of the fields, lying like square coverlets on the long slope of rising ground beyond the bottom-land, and empurpled the blue woodland shadows of the groves. for the first time it struck joe that it was a beautiful day. he opened his eyes and looked about him whimsically. then he shook his head again. a lady had just emerged from the bridge and was coming toward him. it would be hard to get at joe's first impressions of her. we can find conveyance for only the broadest and heaviest. at first sight of her, there was preëminently the shock of seeing anything so exquisite in his accustomed world. for she was exquisite; she was that, and much more, from the ivory [v]ferrule of the parasol she carried, to the light and slender foot-print she left in the dust of the road. joe knew at once that nothing like her had ever before been seen in canaan. he had little knowledge of the millinery arts, and he needed none to see the harmony of the things she wore. her dress and hat and gloves and parasol showed a pale lavender overtint like that which he had seen overspreading the western slope. under the summer hat her very dark hair swept back over the temples with something near trimness in the extent to which it was withheld from being fluffy. it may be that this approach to trimness, after all, was the true key to the mystery of the lady who appeared to joe. she was to pass him--so he thought--and as she drew nearer, his breath came faster. and then he realized that something wonderful was happening to him. she had stopped directly in front of him; stopped and stood looking at him with her clear eyes. he did not lift his own to her; a great and unaccountable shyness beset him. he had risen and removed his hat, trying not to clear his throat--his everyday sense urging upon him that she was a stranger in canaan who had lost her way. "can i--can i--" he stammered, blushing, meaning to finish with "direct you," or "show you the way." then he looked at her again and saw what seemed to him the strangest sight of life. the lady's eyes had filled with tears--filled and overfilled. "i'll sit here on the log with you," she said. "you don't need to dust it!" she went on, tremulously. and even then he did not know who she was. there was a silence, for if the dazzled young man could have spoken at all, he could have found nothing to say; and, perhaps, the lady would not trust her own voice just then. his eyes had fallen again; he was too dazed, and, in truth, too panic-stricken now, to look at her. she was seated beside him and had handed him her parasol in a little way which seemed to imply that, of course, he had reached for it, so that it was to be seen how used she was to have all such things done for her. he saw that he was expected to furl the dainty thing; he pressed the catch and let down the top timidly, as if fearing to break or tear it; and, as it closed, held near his face, he caught a very faint, sweet, spicy [v]emanation from it like wild roses and cinnamon. "do you know me?" asked the lady at last. for answer he could only stare at her, dumfounded; he lifted an unsteady hand toward her appealingly. her manner underwent an april change. she drew back lightly; he was favored with the most delicious low laugh he had ever heard. "i'm glad you're the same, joe!" she said. "i'm glad you're the same, and i'm glad i've changed, though that isn't why you have forgotten me." he arose uncertainly and took three or four backward steps from her. she sat before him, radiant with laughter, the loveliest creature he had ever seen; but between him and this charming vision there swept, through the warm, scented june air, the dim picture of a veranda all in darkness and the faint music of violins. _"ariel tabor!"_ "isn't it about time you were recognizing me?" she said. * * * * * sensations were rare in staid, dull, commonplace canaan, but this fine sunday morning the town was treated to one of the most memorable sensations in its history. the town, all except joe louden, had known for weeks that ariel tabor was coming home from abroad, but it had not seen her. and when she walked along the street with joe, past the sunday church-returning crowds, it is not quite truth to say that all except the children came to a dead halt, but it is not very far from it. the air was thick with subdued exclamations and whisperings. joe had not known her. the women recognized her, [v]infallibly, at first sight; even those who had quite forgotten her. and the women told their men. hence the un-sunday-like demeanor of the procession, for few towns held it more unseemly to stand and stare at passers-by, especially on the sabbath. but ariel tabor had returned. a low but increasing murmur followed the two as they proceeded. it ran up the street ahead of them; people turned to look back and paused, so that ariel and joe had to walk round one or two groups. they had, also, to walk round norbert flitcroft, which was very like walking round a group. mr. flitcroft was one of the few (he was waddling home alone) who did not identify miss tabor, and her effect upon him was extraordinary. his mouth opened and he gazed [v]stodgily, his widening eyes like sun-dogs coming out of a fog. mr. flitcroft experienced a few moments of trance; came out of it stricken through and through; felt nervously of his tie; resolutely fell in behind, and followed, at a distance of some forty paces, determined to learn what household this heavenly visitor honored, and thrilling with the intention to please that same household with his own presence as soon and as often as possible. ariel flushed a little when she perceived the extent of their conspicuousness; but it was not the blush that joe remembered had reddened the tanned skin of old; for her brownness had gone long ago, though it had not left her merely pink and white. there was a delicate rosiness rising from her cheeks to her temples, as the earliest dawn rises. joe kept trying to realize that this lady of wonder was ariel tabor, but he could not; he could not connect the shabby ariel, whom he had treated as one boy treats another, with this young woman of the world. although he had only a dim perception of the staring and whispering which greeted and followed them, ariel, of course, was thoroughly aware of it, though the only sign she gave was the slight blush, which very soon disappeared. ariel paused before the impressive front of judge pike's large mansion. joe's face expressed surprise. "don't you know?" she said. "i'm staying here. judge pike has charge of all my property. come to see me this afternoon." with a last charming smile, ariel turned and left the dazed young man on the sidewalk. that walk was but the beginning of her triumph. judge pike's of a summer afternoon was the swirling social center of canaan, but on that particular sunday afternoon every unattached male in the town who possessed the privilege of calling at the big house appeared. they filled the chairs in the wide old-fashioned hall where ariel received them, and overpoured on the broad steps of the old-fashioned spiral staircase, where mr. flitcroft, on account of his size, occupied two steps and a portion of a third. and ariel was the center of it all! booth tarkington. =helps to study= i. describe ariel's pitiful attempts at beautifying herself when dressing for the dance. when did she realize her failure? how were her anticipations of the dance realized? what kind of girl was mamie pike? give reasons for your answer. at what point were you most sorry for ariel? with what startling news did the evening end? ii. give an account of the meeting between the old playmates. describe the scenes as they walked along the street. what do you think was the greatest part of ariel's "triumph?" was she spoiled by her wealth? how do you know? supplementary reading little women--louisa m. alcott. pride and prejudice--jane austen. footnote: [ -*] copyright by harper & brothers. the cloud i bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, from the seas and the streams; i bear light shade for the leaves when laid in their noonday dreams. from my wings are shaken the dews that waken the sweet buds every one, when rocked to rest on their mother's breast, as she dances about the sun. i wield the flail of the lashing hail, and whiten the green plains under; and then again i dissolve it in rain; and laugh as i pass in thunder. i sift the snow on the mountains below, and their great pines groan aghast; and all the night 'tis my pillow white, while i sleep in the arms of the blast. sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers lightning, my pilot, sits; in a cavern under is fettered the thunder; it struggles and howls at fits. over earth and ocean, with gentle motion, this pilot is guiding me, lured by the love of the [v]genii that move in the depths of the purple sea; over the rills and the crags and the hills, over the lakes and the plains, wherever he dream, under mountain or stream. the spirit he loves remains; and i all the while bask in heaven's blue smile, whilst he is dissolving in rains. i am the daughter of the earth and water, and the nursling of the sky; i pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; i change, but i cannot die. for after the rain, when, with never a stain, the pavilion of heaven is bare, and the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams, build up the blue dome of air,-- i silently laugh at my own cenotaph, and out of the caverns of rain, i rise and unbuild it again. percy bysshe shelley. =helps to study= make a list of the things the cloud does. read aloud the lines in which the poet tells of each of these. why is lightning spoken of as the pilot of the cloud? where does it sit? where is the thunder? how is the cloud "the daughter of the earth and water"? how "a nursling of the sky"? explain "i change, but i cannot die." a cenotaph is a memorial built to one who is buried elsewhere. why should the clear sky be the cloud's cenotaph? how does the reappearing of the cloud unbuild it? new england weather there is a [v]sumptuous variety about the new england weather that compels the stranger's admiration--and regret. the weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see how they will go. but it gets through more business in spring than in any other season. in the spring i have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather within four and twenty hours. it was i who made the fame and fortune of the man who had that marvelous collection of weather on exhibition at the centennial, which so astounded the foreigners. he was going to travel around the world and get specimens from all climes. i said, "don't do it; just come to new england on a favorable spring day." i told him what we could do in the way of style, variety, and quantity. well, he came, and he made his collection in four days. as to variety, he confessed that he got hundreds of kinds of weather that he had never heard of before. and as to quantity, after he had picked out and discarded all that was blemished in any way, he not only had weather enough, but weather to spare, weather to hire out, weather to sell, weather to deposit, weather to invest, and weather to give to the poor. old probabilities has a mighty reputation for accurate prophecy and thoroughly deserves it. you take up the paper and observe how crisply and confidently he checks off what to-day's weather is going to be on the pacific, down south, in the middle states, in the wisconsin region. see him sail along in the joy and pride of his power till he gets to new england, and then see his tail drop. _he_ doesn't know what the weather is going to be in new england. well, he mulls over it, and by and by he gets out something like this: "probable northeast to southwest winds, varying to the southward and westward and eastward and points between; high and low barometer, swapping around from place to place; probable areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded by earthquakes with thunder and lightning." then he jots down this postscript from his wandering mind, to cover accidents: "but it is possible that the program may be wholly changed in the meantime." yes, one of the brightest gems in the new england weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it. there is certain to be plenty of weather, but you never can tell which end of the procession is going to move first. but, after all, there are at least two or three things about that weather (or, if you please, the effects produced by it) which we residents would not like to part with. if we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries--the ice storm. every bough and twig is strung with ice beads, frozen dewdrops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white like the [v]shah of persia's diamond plume. then the wind waves the branches, and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires; which change and change again, with inconceivable rapidity, from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold. the tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels, and it stands there the [v]acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence. one cannot make the words too strong. month after month i lay up hate and grudge against the new england weather; but when the ice storm comes at last i say: "there, i forgive you now; you are the most enchanting weather in the world." mark twain. =helps to study= mark twain's humor was noted for exaggeration. find examples of exaggeration in this selection. old probabilities was the name signed by a weather prophet of the period. how was he affected by new england weather? at what point did twain drop his fun and begin a beautiful tribute to a new england landscape? how does the tribute close? supplementary reading three men in a boat--jerome k. jerome. the house boat on the styx--john kendrick bangs. [illustration: silence deep and white] the first snowfall the snow had begun in the gloaming, and busily all the night had been heaping fields and highway with a silence deep and white. every pine and fir and hemlock wore ermine too dear for an earl, and the poorest twig on the elm tree was ridged inch deep with pearl. from sheds new roofed with carrara came chanticleer's muffled crow, the stiff rails were softened to swan's-down and still fluttered down the snow. i stood and watched by the window that noiseless work of the sky, and the sudden flurries of snowbirds, like brown leaves whirling by. i thought of a mound in sweet auburn where a little headstone stood; how the flakes were folding it gently, as did robins the babes in the wood. up spoke our own little mabel, saying, "father, who makes it snow?" and i told of the good all-father who cares for us here below. again i looked at the snowfall, and thought of the leaden sky that arched o'er our first great sorrow, when that mound was heaped so high. i remembered the gradual patience that fell from that cloud like snow, flake by flake, healing and hiding the scar on our deep-plunged woe. and again to the child i whispered, "the snow that husheth all, darling, the merciful father alone can make it fall." then, with eyes that saw not, i kissed her; and she, kissing back, could not know that _my_ kiss was given to her sister, folded close under deepening snow. james russell lowell. =helps to study= when did the snow begin? how do you know? what time is it now? is snow still falling? read the lines that show this. of what sorrow does the snow remind the poet? read the lines which show that peace had come to the parents. make a list of the comparisons (or similes) used by the poet. read the lines which show that the storm was a quiet one. which lines do you like best? old ephraim for some days after our arrival on the bighorn range we did not come across any grizzly. there were plenty of black-tail deer in the woods, and we encountered a number of bands of cow and calf elk, or of young bulls; but after several days' hunting, we were still without any game worth taking home, and we had seen no sign of grizzly, which was the game we were especially anxious to kill, for neither merrifield nor i had ever seen a bear alive. sometimes we hunted in company; sometimes each of us went out alone. one day we had separated; i reached camp early in the afternoon, and waited a couple of hours before merrifield put in an appearance. at last i heard a shout, and he came in sight galloping at speed down an open glade, and waving his hat, evidently having had good luck; and when he reined in his small, wiry cow-pony, we saw that he had packed behind his saddle the fine, glossy pelt of a black bear. better still, he announced that he had been off about ten miles to a perfect tangle of ravines and valleys where bear sign was very thick; and not of black bear either, but of grizzly. the black bear (the only one we got on the mountains) he had run across by accident. merrifield's tale made me decide to shift camp at once, and go over to the spot where the bear-tracks were plentiful. next morning we were off, and by noon pitched camp by a clear brook, in a valley with steep, wooded sides. that afternoon we again went out, and i shot a fine bull elk. i came home alone toward nightfall, walking through a reach of burnt forest, where there was nothing but charred tree-trunks and black mold. when nearly through it i came across the huge, half-human footprints of a great grizzly, which must have passed by within a few minutes. it gave me rather an eery feeling in the silent, lonely woods, to see for the first time the unmistakable proofs that i was in the home of the mighty lord of the wilderness. that evening we almost had a visit from one of the animals we were after. several times we had heard at night the musical calling of the bull elk--a sound to which no writer has as yet done justice. this particular night, when we were in bed and the fire was smoldering, we were roused by a ruder noise--a kind of grunting or roaring whine, answered by the frightened snorts of the ponies. it was a bear which had evidently not seen the fire, as it came from behind the bank, and had probably been attracted by the smell of the horses. after it made out what we were, it stayed round a short while, again uttered its peculiar roaring grunt, and went off; we had seized our rifles and had run out into the woods, but in the darkness could see nothing; indeed it was rather lucky we did not stumble across the bear, as he could have made short work of us when we were at such a disadvantage. next day we went off on a long tramp through the woods and along the sides of the canyons. there were plenty of berry bushes growing in clusters; and all around these there were fresh tracks of bear. but the grizzly is also a flesh-eater, and has a great liking for [v]carrion. on visiting the place where merrifield had killed the black bear, we found that the grizzlies had been there before us, and had utterly devoured the carcass, with cannibal relish. hardly a scrap was left, and we turned our steps toward where lay the bull elk i had killed. it was quite late in the afternoon when we reached the place. a grizzly had evidently been at the carcass during the preceding night, for his great footprints were in the ground all around it, and the carcass itself was gnawed and torn, and partially covered with earth and leaves--the grizzly has a curious habit of burying all of his prey that he does not at the moment need. the forest was composed mainly of what are called ridge-pole pines, which grow close together, and do not branch out until the stems are thirty or forty feet from the ground. beneath these trees we walked over a carpet of pine needles, upon which our moccasined feet made no sound. the woods seemed vast and lonely, and their silence was broken now and then by the strange noises always to be heard in the great pine forests. we climbed up along the trunk of a dead tree that had toppled over until its upper branches struck in the limb crotch of another, which thus supported it at an angle half-way in its fall. when above the ground far enough to prevent the bear's smelling us, we sat still to wait for his approach; until, in the gathering gloom, we could no longer see the sights of our rifles. it was useless to wait longer; and we clambered down and stole out to the edge of the woods. the forest here covered one side of a steep, almost canyon-like ravine, whose other side was bare except for rock and sage-brush. once out from under the trees there was still plenty of light, although the sun had set, and we crossed over some fifty yards to the opposite hillside, and crouched down under a bush to see if perchance some animal might not also leave the cover. again we waited quietly in the growing dusk until the pine trees in our front blended into one dark, frowning mass. at last, as we were rising to leave, we heard the sound of the breaking of a dead stick, from the spot where we knew the carcass lay. "old ephraim" had come back to the carcass. a minute afterward, listening with strained ears, we heard him brush by some dry twigs. it was entirely too dark to go in after him; but we made up our minds that on the morrow he should be ours. early next morning we were over at the elk carcass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had eaten his fill of it during the night. his tracks showed him to be an immense fellow, and were so fresh that we doubted if he had left long before we arrived; and we made up our minds to follow him up and try to find his lair. the bears that lived on these mountains had evidently been little disturbed; indeed, the indians and most of the white hunters are rather chary of meddling with "old ephraim," as the mountain men style the grizzly. the bears thus seemed to have very little fear of harm, and we thought it likely that the bed of the one who had fed on the elk would not be far away. my companion was a skillful tracker, and we took up the trail at once. for some distance it led over the soft, yielding carpet of moss and pine needles, and the footprints were quite easily made out, although we could follow them but slowly; for we had, of course, to keep a sharp look-out ahead and around us as we walked noiselessly on in the somber half-light always prevailing under the great pine trees. after going a few hundred yards the tracks turned off on a well-beaten path made by the elk; the woods were in many places cut up by these game trails, which had often become as distinct as ordinary footpaths. the beast's footprints were perfectly plain in the dust, and he had lumbered along up the path until near the middle of the hillside, where the ground broke away and there were hollows and boulders. here there had been a windfall, and the dead trees lay among the living, piled across one another in all directions; while between and around them sprouted up a thick growth of young spruces and other evergreens. the trail turned off into the tangled thicket, within which it was almost certain we should find our quarry. we could still follow the tracks, by the slight scrapes of the claws on the bark, or by the bent and broken twigs; and we advanced with noiseless caution. when in the middle of the thicket we crossed what was almost a breastwork of fallen logs, and merrifield, who was leading, passed by the upright stem of a great pine. as soon as he was by it, he sank suddenly on one knee, turning half round, his face fairly aflame with excitement; and as i strode past him, with my rifle at the ready, there, not ten steps off, was the great bear, slowly rising from his bed among the young spruces. he had heard us, but apparently hardly knew exactly where or what we were, for he reared up on his haunches sideways to us. then he saw us and dropped down again on all-fours, the shaggy hair on his neck and shoulders seeming to bristle as he turned toward us. as he sank down on his fore feet, i had raised the rifle; his head was bent slightly down, and when i saw the top of the white bead fairly between his small, glittering, evil eyes, i pulled trigger. half-rising up, the huge beast fell over on his side in the death throes, the ball having gone into his brain, striking as fairly between the eyes as if the distance had been measured. the whole thing was over in twenty seconds from the time i caught sight of the game; indeed, it was over so quickly that the grizzly did not have time to show fight. he was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any i have seen since. as near as we could estimate, he must have weighed above twelve hundred pounds. theodore roosevelt. =helps to study= theodore roosevelt, president of the united states from to , was one of the greatest hunters of the present generation. as he was in weak health as a young man, he went west and lived for some time the life of a ranchman and hunter, killing much wild game. in later years he went on a great hunting trip to africa, and finally explored the wilds of the amazon river, in south america, in search of game and adventure. "old ephraim" narrates one of his earlier hunting experiences, and is taken from the book, _the hunting trips of a ranchman_. give an account of the capture of the grizzly bear. why did not merrifield fire? compare the weight of the bear with that of the average cow or horse. tell of any bear hunt of which you know. supplementary reading watchers of the trail--charles c. d. roberts. monarch, the bear--ernest thompson seton. wild animals i have known--ernest thompson seton. african game trails--theodore roosevelt. midwinter the speckled sky is dim with snow, the light flakes falter and fall slow; athwart the hill-top, rapt and pale, silently drops a silvery veil; and all the valley is shut in by flickering curtains gray and thin. but cheerily the chickadee singeth to me on fence and tree; the snow sails round him as he sings, white as the down of angels' wings. i watch the slow flakes as they fall on bank and briar and broken wall; over the orchard, waste and brown, all noiselessly they settle down, tipping the apple-boughs, and each light quivering twig of plum and peach. on turf and curb and bower-roof the snow-storm spreads its ivory woof; it paves with pearl the garden-walk; and lovingly round tattered stalk and shivering stem its magic weaves a mantle fair as lily-leaves. all day it snows: the sheeted post gleams in the dimness like a ghost; all day the blasted oak has stood a muffled wizard of the wood; garland and airy cap adorn the sumach and the wayside thorn, and clustering spangles lodge and shine in the dark tresses of the pine. the ragged bramble, dwarfed and old, shrinks like a beggar in the cold; in [v]surplice white the cedar stands, and blesses him with priestly hands. still cheerily the chickadee singeth to me on fence and tree: but in my inmost ear is heard the music of a holier bird; and heavenly thoughts as soft and white as snow-flakes on my soul alight, clothing with love my lonely heart, healing with peace each bruised part, till all my being seems to be transfigured by their purity. john townsend trowbridge. =helps to study= when did this storm begin? read lines which show this. give reasons for your answer. what comparisons are used by the poet in describing the snowfall? which comparison do you like best? what healing thought does the storm bring to the poet? compare it with the same thought in _the first snowfall_. a georgia fox hunt[ -*] i in the season of , the rockville hunting club, which had been newly organized, was at the height of its success. it was composed of men too old to go in the army, and of young men who were not old enough, or who, from one cause and another, were exempted from military service. ostensibly, its object was to encourage the noble sport of fox-hunting and to bind by closer ties the congenial souls whose love for horse and hound and horn bordered on enthusiasm. this, i say, was its [v]ostensible object, for it seems to me, looking back upon that terrible time, that the main purpose of the association was to devise new methods of forgetting the sickening [v]portents of disaster that were even then thick in the air. any suggestion or plan calculated to relieve the mind from the weight of the horror of those desperate days was eagerly seized upon and utilized. with the old men and the fledgling boys in the neighborhood of rockville, the desire to escape momentarily the realities of the present took the shape of fox-hunting and other congenial amusements. with the women--ah well! heaven only knows how they sat dumb and silent over their great anguish and grief, cheering the helpless and comforting and succoring the sick and wounded. it was a mystery to me then, and it is a mystery to me now. about the first of november the writer hereof received a long-expected letter from tom tunison, the secretary of the club, who was on a visit to monticello. it was brief and breezy. "young man," he wrote, "they are coming. they are going to give us a [v]ruffle. their dogs are good, but they lack form and finish as well as discipline--plenty of bottom but no confidence. i haven't hesitated to put up our horn as the prize. get the boys together and tell them about it, and see that our own eleven are in fighting trim. you won't believe it, but sue, herndon, kate, and walthall are coming with the party; and the fair de compton, who set all the monticello boys wild last year when she got back from macon, vows and declares she is coming, too. remember the th. be prepared." i took in the situation at a glance. tom, in his reckless style, had bantered a party of jasper county men as to the superiority of their dogs, and had even offered to give them an opportunity to gain the silver-mounted horn won by the rockville club in hancock county the year before. the jasper county men, who were really breeding some excellent dogs, accepted the challenge, and tom had invited them to share the hospitality of the plantation home called "bachelors' hall." if the truth must be confessed, i was not at all grieved at the announcement in tom's letter, apart from the agreeable change in the social atmosphere that would result from the presence of ladies in "bachelors' hall." i was eagerly anxious to test the mettle of a favorite hound--flora--whose care and training had cost me a great deal of time and trouble. although it was her first season in the field, she had already become the pet and pride of the rockville club, the members of which were not slow to sound her praises. flora was an experiment. she was the result of a cross between the henry hound (called in georgia the "birdsong dog," in honor of the most successful breeder) and a maryland hound. she was a grand-daughter of the famous hodo and in everything except her color (she was white with yellow ears) was the exact reproduction of that magnificent fox-hound. i was anxious to see her put to the test. it was with no small degree of satisfaction, therefore, that i informed aunt patience, the cook, of tom's programme. aunt patience was a privileged character, whose comments upon people and things were free and frequent; when she heard that a party of hunters, accompanied by ladies, proposed to make the hall their temporary headquarters, her remarks were ludicrously indignant. "well, ef dat marse tom ain't de beatinest white man dat i ever sot eyes on--'way off yander givin' way his vittles fo' he buy um at de sto'! how i know what marse tom want, an' tel i know, whar i gwineter git um? he better be home yer lookin' atter deze lazy niggers, stidder high-flyin' wid dem jasper county folks. ef dez enny vittles on dis plan'ash'n, hits more'n i knows un. en he'll go runnin' roun' wid dem harum-skarum gals twell i boun' he don't fetch dat pipe an' dat 'backer what he said he would. can't fool me 'bout de gals what grows up deze days. dey duz like dey wanter stan' up an' cuss dersef' case dey wuzent borned men." "why, aunt patience, your marse tom says miss de compton is as pretty as a pink and as fine as a fiddle." "law, chile! you needn't talk 'bout de gals to dis ole 'omen. i done know um fo' you wuz borned. w'en you see miss compton you see all de balance un um. deze is new times. marse tom's mammy useter spin her fifteen cents o' wool a day--w'en you see miss compton wid a hank er yarn in 'er han', you jes' sen' me word." whereupon, aunt patience gave her head handkerchief a vigorous wrench, and went her way--the good old soul--even then considering how she should best set about preparing a genuine surprise for her young master in the shape of daily feasts for a dozen guests. i will not stop here to detail the character of this preparation or to dwell upon its success. it is enough to say that tom tunison praised aunt patience to the skies; and, as if this were not sufficient to make her happy, he produced a big clay pipe, three plugs of real "manufac terbacker," which was hard to get in those times, a red shawl, and twelve yards of calico. the fortnight that followed the arrival of tom's guests was one long to be remembered, not only in the [v]annals of the rockville hunting club but in the annals of rockville itself. the fair de compton literally turned the heads of old men and young boys, and even succeeded in conquering the critics of her own sex. she was marvelously beautiful, and her beauty was of a kind to haunt one in one's dreams. it was easy to perceive that she had made a conquest of tom, and i know that every suggestion he made and every project he planned had for its sole end and aim the enjoyment of miss carrie de compton. it was several days before the minor details of the contest, which was at once the excuse for and the object of the visit of tom's guests, could be arranged, but finally everything was "[v]amicably adjusted," and the day appointed. the night before the hunt, the club and the jasper county visitors assembled in tom tunison's parlor for a final discussion of the event. "in order," said tom, "to give our friends and guests an opportunity fully to test the speed and bottom of their kennels, it has been decided to pay our respects to 'old sandy'." "and pray, mr. tunison, who is 'old sandy'?" queried miss de compton. "he is a fox, miss de compton, and a tough one. he is a trained fox. he has been hunted so often by the inferior packs in his neighborhood that he is well-nigh [v]invincible. he is so well known that he has not been hunted, except by accident, for two seasons. he is not as suspicious as he was two years ago, but we must be careful if we want to get within hearing distance of him to-morrow morning." "do any of the ladies go with us?" asked jack herndon. "i go, for one," responded miss de compton, and in a few minutes all the ladies had decided to go along, even if they found it inconvenient to participate actively in the hunt. "then," said tom, rising, "we must say good night. uncle plato will sound 'boots and saddle' at four o'clock to-morrow morning." "four o'clock!" exclaimed the ladies in dismay. "at four precisely," answered tom, and the ladies with pretty little gestures of mock despair swept upstairs while tom brought out cigars for the boys. my friend little knew how delighted i was that "old sandy" was to be put through his paces. he little knew how carefully i had studied the peculiarities of this famous fox--how often when training flora i had taken her out and followed "old sandy" through all his ranges, how i had "felt of" both his speed and bottom and knew all his weak points. ii morning came, and with it uncle plato's bugle call. aunt patience was ready with a smoking hot breakfast, and everybody was in fine spirits. as the eager, happy crowd filed down the broad avenue that led to the hall, the fair de compton, who had been delayed in mounting, rode by my side. "you choose your escort well," i ventured to say. "i have a weakness for children," she replied; "particularly for children who know what they are about. plato has told me that if i desired to see all of the hunt without much trouble, to follow you. i am selfish, you perceive." we rode over the red hills and under the russet trees until we came to "old sandy's" favorite haunt. here a council of war was held, and it was decided that tom and a portion of the hunters should skirt the fields, while another portion led by miss de compton and myself should enter and bid the fox good morning. uncle plato, who had been given the cue, followed me with the dogs, and in a few moments we were very near the particular spot where i hoped to find the venerable deceiver of dogs and men. the hounds were already sallying hither and thither, anxious and evidently expectant. five minutes went by without a whimper from the pack. there was not a sound save the eager rustling of the dogs through the sedge and undergrowth. the ground was familiar to flora, and i watched her with pride as with powerful strides she circled around. suddenly she paused and flung her head in the air, making a beautiful picture where she stood poised, as if listening. my heart gave a great thump. it was a trick of hers, and i knew that "old sandy" had been around within the past twenty-four hours! with a rush, a bound, and an eager cry, my favorite came toward us, and the next moment "old sandy," who had been lying almost at our horses' feet, was up and away with flora right at his heels. a wild hope seized me that my favorite would run into the shy veteran before he could get out of the field. but no! one of the jasper county hunters, rendered momentarily insane by excitement, endeavored to ride the fox down with his horse, and in another moment sir reynard was over the fence and into the woodland beyond, followed by the hounds. they made a splendid but [v]ineffectual burst of speed, for when "old sandy" found himself upon the blackjack hills he was foot-loose. the morning, however, was fine--just damp enough to leave the scent of the fox hanging breast high in the air, whether he shaped his course over lowlands or highlands. [illustration: the beginning of the fox hunt] in the midst of all the confusion that had ensued, miss de compton remained cool, serene, and apparently indifferent, but i observed a glow upon her face and a sparkle in her eyes, as tom tunison, riding his gallant gray and heading the hunters, easily and gracefully took a couple of fences when the hounds veered to the left. "our jasper county friend has saved 'old sandy,' miss de compton," i said, "but he has given us an opportunity of witnessing some very fine sport. the fox is so badly frightened that he may endeavor in the beginning to outfoot the dogs, but in the end he will return to his range, and then i hope to show you what a cunning old customer he is. if flora doesn't fail us at the critical moment, you will have the honor of wearing his brush on your saddle." "youth is always confident," replied miss de compton. "in this instance, however, i have the advantage of knowing both hound and fox. flora has a few weaknesses, but i think she understands what is expected of her to-day." thus bantering and chaffing each other, we turned our horses' heads in a direction [v]oblique to that taken by the other hunters, who, with the exception of tom tunison and jack herndon, now well up with the dogs, were struggling along as best they could. for a half mile or more we cantered down a lane, then turned into a stubble field, and made for a hill crowned and skirted by a growth of blackjack, through which an occasional pine had broken, as it seemed, in a vain but noble effort to touch the sky. once upon the summit of the hills, we had a majestic view upon all sides. the fresh morning breezes blew crisp and cool and bracing, but were not uncomfortable after the exercise we had taken; and as the clouds that had muffled up the east dispersed themselves or were dissolved, the generous sun spread layer upon layer of golden light upon hill and valley and forest and stream. away to the left we could hear the hounds, and the music of their voices, toyed with by the playful wind, rolled itself into melodious little echoes that broke pleasantly upon the ear, now loud, now faint, now far and now near. the first burst of speed, which had been terrific, had settled down into a steady run, but i knew by the sound that the pace was still tremendous, and i imagined i could hear the silvery tongue of flora as she led the eager pack. the cries of the hounds, however, grew fainter and fainter, until presently they were lost in the distance. "he is making a straight shoot for the turner [v]old fields, two miles away," i remarked, by way of explanation. "and pray, why are we here?" miss de compton asked. "to be in at the death. (the fair de compton smiled [v]sarcastically.) in the turner old fields the fox will make his grand double, gain upon the dogs, head for yonder hill, and come down the ravine upon our right. at the fence here, within plain view, he will attempt a trick that has heretofore always been successful, and which has given him a reputation as a trained fox. i depend upon the intelligence of flora to see through 'old sandy's' [v]strategy, but if she hesitates a moment, we must set her right." i spoke with the confidence of one having experience, and miss de compton smiled and was content. we had little time for further conversation, for in a few minutes i observed a dark shadow emerge from the undergrowth on the opposite hill and slip quickly across the open space of fallow land. it crossed the ravine that intersected the valley, stole quietly through the stubble to the fence, and there paused a moment, as if hesitating. in a low voice i called miss de compton's attention to the figure, but she refused to believe that it was the same fox we had aroused thirty minutes before. howbeit, it was the [v]veritable "old sandy" himself. i should have known him among a thousand foxes. he was not in as fine feather as when, at the start, he had swung his brush across flora's nose--the pace had told on him--but he still moved with an air of confidence. then and there miss de compton beheld a display of fox tactics shrewd enough to excite the admiration of the most indifferent--a display of cunning that seemed to be something higher than instinct. "old sandy" paused only a moment. with a bound he gained the top of the fence, stopped to pull something from one of his fore feet--probably a cockle bur--and then carefully balancing himself, proceeded to walk the fence. by this time, the music of the dogs was again heard in the distance, but "old sandy" took his time. one--two--three--seven--ten--twenty panels of the fence were cleared. pausing, he again subjected his fore feet to examination, and licked them carefully. then he proceeded on his journey along the fence until he was at least one hundred yards from where he left the ground. here he paused for the first time, gathered himself together, leaped through the air, and rushed away. as he did so, the full note of the pack burst upon our ears as the hounds reached the brow of the hill from the lowlands on the other side. "upon my word!" exclaimed miss de compton; "that fox ought to go free. i shall beg mr. tunison--" but before she finished her sentence the dogs came into view, and i could hardly restrain a shout of triumph as i saw flora running easily and unerringly far to the front. behind her, led by captain--and so close together that, as uncle plato afterward remarked, "you mout kivver de whole caboodle wid a hoss-blanket"--were the remainder of the tunison kennel, while the jasper county hounds were strung out behind in wild but heroic confusion. i felt strongly tempted to give the view-halloo, and push "old sandy" to the wall at once, but i knew that the fair de compton would regard the exploit with severe [v]reprobation forever after. across the ravine and to the fence the dogs came, their voices, as they got nearer, crashing through the silence like a chorus of demons. now was the critical moment. if flora should fail me--! several of the older dogs topped the rails, and scattered through the undergrowth. flora came over with them, made a small circle, with her sensitive nose to the damp earth, and then went rushing down the fence. past the point where "old sandy" took his flying leap she ran, turned suddenly to the left, and came swooping back in a wide circle. i had barely time to warn miss de compton that she must prepare to do a little rapid riding, when my favorite, with a fierce cry of delight that thrilled me through and through, picked up the blazing [v]drag, and away we went with a scream and a shout. i felt in my very bones that "old sandy" was doomed. i had never seen flora so prompt and eager; i had never observed the scent to be better. everything was auspicious. we went like the wind. miss de compton rode well, and the long stretches of stubble land through which the chase led were unbroken by ditch or fence. the pace of the hounds was simply terrific, and i knew that no fox on earth could long stand up before the white demon that led the hunt with such splendor. five--ten--fifteen minutes we rushed at the heels of the rearmost dogs, until, suddenly, we found ourselves in the midst of the pack. the scent was lost! flora ran about in wide circles, followed by the greater portion of the dogs. to the left, to the right they went. at that moment, chancing to look back, i caught a glimpse of "old sandy," broken down and bedraggled, making his way toward a clump of briars. he had played his last [v]trump and lost. pushed by the dogs, he had dropped in his tracks and literally allowed them to run over him. i rode at him with a shout; there was a short, sharp race, and in a few moments [v]_la mort_ was sounded over the famous fox on the horn that the jasper county boys did not win. joel chandler harris. =helps to study= this gives a good picture of a fox hunt in the south in the long ago. tell what you like best about it. who is telling the story? was he young or old? how do you know? what opinion do you form of the "fair de compton"? see if you can get an old man, perhaps a negro, to tell you of a fox hunt he has seen. supplementary reading in ole virginia--thomas nelson page. old creole days--george w. cable. swallow barn--john p. kennedy. the prophet of the great smoky mountains--charles egbert craddock. footnote: [ -*] from the _atlanta constitution_. rain and wind i hear the hoofs of horses galloping over the hill, galloping on and galloping on, when all the night is shrill with wind and rain that beats the pane-- and my soul with awe is still. for every dripping window their headlong rush makes bound, galloping up and galloping by, then back again and around, till the gusty roofs ring with their hoofs, and the draughty cellars sound. and then i hear black horsemen hallooing in the night; hallooing and hallooing, they ride o'er vale and height, and the branches snap and the shutters clap with the fury of their flight. all night i hear their gallop, and their wild halloo's alarm; the tree-tops sound and vanes go round in forest and on farm; but never a hair of a thing is there-- only the wind and the storm. madison julius cawein. the southern sky presently the stars begin to peep out, timidly at first, as if to see whether the elements here below had ceased their strife, and if the scene on earth be such as they, from bright spheres aloft, may shed their sweet influences upon. sirius, or that blazing world argus, may be the first watcher to send down a feeble ray; then follow another and another, all smiling meekly; but presently, in the short twilight of the latitude, the bright leaders of the starry host blaze forth in all their glory, and the sky is decked and spangled with superb brilliants. in the twinkling of an eye, and faster than the admiring gazer can tell, the stars seem to leap out from their hiding-places. by invisible hands, and in quick succession, the constellations are hung out; first of all, and with dazzling glory, in the azure depths of space appears the great southern cross. that shining symbol lends a holy grandeur to the scene, making it still more impressive. alone in the night-watch, after the sea-breeze has sunk to rest, i have stood on deck under those beautiful skies, gazing, admiring, rapt. i have seen there, above the horizon at once and shining with a splendor unknown to other latitudes, every star of the [v]first magnitude--save only six--that is contained in the catalogue of the one hundred principal fixed stars. there lies the city on the seashore, wrapped in sleep. the sky looks solid, like a vault of steel set with diamonds. the stillness below is in harmony with the silence above, and one almost fears to speak, lest the harsh sound of the human voice, reverberating through those vaulted "chambers of the south," should wake up echo and drown the music that fills the soul. orion is there, just about to march down into the sea; but canopus and sirius, with castor and his twin brother, and [v]procyon, argus, and regulus--these are high up in their course; they look down with great splendor, smiling peacefully as they precede the southern cross on its western way. and yonder, farther still, away to the south, float the magellanic clouds, and the "coal sacks"--those mysterious, dark spots in the sky, which seem as though it had been rent, and these were holes in the "azure robe of night," looking out into the starless, empty, black abyss beyond. one who has never watched the southern sky in the stillness of the night, after the sea-breeze with its turmoil is done, can have no idea of its grandeur, beauty, and loveliness. matthew fontaine maury. =helps to study= do you know any of the stars or the constellations mentioned? some of them are seen in our latitude, but the southern sky maury describes is south of the equator. the "southern cross" is seen only below the equator. the "magellan clouds" are not far from the south pole. daffodils i wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills, when all at once i saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils,-- beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze. continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of the bay. ten thousand saw i at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance. the waves beside them danced, but they outdid the sparkling waves in glee,-- a poet could not but be gay in such a [v]jocund company. i gazed, and gazed, but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought. for oft, when on my couch i lie, in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude; and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils. william wordsworth. dawn i had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from providence to boston; and for this purpose i rose at two o'clock in the morning. everything around was wrapped in darkness and hushed in silence. it was a mild, serene, midsummer night,--the sky was without a cloud,--the winds were [v]whist. the moon, then in the last quarter, had just risen, and the stars shone with a luster but little affected by her presence. jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of the day; the [v]pleiades, just above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the east; lyra sparkled near the [v]zenith; andromeda veiled her newly discovered glories from the naked eye in the south; the steady pointers, far beneath the pole, looked meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign. such was the glorious spectacle as i entered the train. as we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister-beams of the pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged. steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn. the blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. faint streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we reached the blue hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. in a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, began his state. i do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient [v]magians, who, in the morning of the world, went up to the hilltops of central asia, and, ignorant of the true god, adored the most glorious work of his hand. but i am filled with amazement, when i am told that, in this enlightened age and in the heart of the christian world, there are persons who can witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the creator, and yet say in their hearts, "there is no god." edward everett. =helps to study= what experience did everett describe? what impresses the mood of the early morning? in what latitude did everett live? what stars and constellations did he mention? trace the steps by which he pictured the sunrise. why did he not wonder at the belief of the "ancient magians"? what thought does cause amazement? spring spring, with that nameless [v]pathos in the air which dwells with all things fair-- spring, with her golden suns and silver rain, is with us once again. out in the lonely woods, the jasmine burns its fragrant lamps, and turns into a royal court, with green festoons, the banks of dark [v]lagoons. in the deep heart of every forest tree, the blood is all aglee; and there's a look about the leafless bowers, as if they dreamed of flowers. yet still, on every side we trace the hand of winter in the land, save where the maple reddens on the lawn, flushed by the season's dawn; or where, like those strange [v]semblances we find that age to childhood bind, the elm puts on, as if in nature's scorn, the brown of autumn corn. [illustration: the woods in spring] as yet the turf is dark, although you know that, not a span below, a thousand germs are groping through the gloom, and soon will burst their tomb. in gardens, you may note, amid the dearth, the crocus breaking earth; and near the snowdrop's tender white and green, the violet in its screen. but many gleams and showers need must pass along the budding grass, and weeks go by, before the enamored south shall kiss the rose's mouth. still there's a sense of blossoms yet unborn, in the sweet airs of morn; one almost looks to see the very street grow purple at his feet. at times, a fragrant breeze comes floating by, and brings, you know not why, a feeling as when eager crowds await before a palace gate some wondrous pageant; and you scarce would start, if from a beech's heart, a blue-eyed [v]dryad, stepping forth, should say, "behold me! i am may!" henry timrod. among the cliffs it was a critical moment. there was a stir other than that of the wind among the pine needles and dry leaves that carpeted the ground. the wary wild turkeys lifted their long necks with that peculiar cry of half-doubting surprise so familiar to a sportsman, then all was still for an instant. the world was steeped in the noontide sunlight, the mountain air tasted of the fresh [v]sylvan fragrance that pervaded the forest, the foliage blamed with the red and gold of autumn, the distant [v]chilhowee heights were delicately blue. that instant's doubt sealed the doom of one of the flock. as the turkeys stood in momentary suspense, the sunlight gilding their bronze feathers to a brighter sheen, there was a movement in the dense undergrowth. the flock took suddenly to wing,--a flash from among the leaves, the sharp crack of a rifle, and one of the birds fell heavily over the bluff and down toward the valley. the young mountaineer's exclamation of triumph died in his throat. he came running to the verge of the crag, and looked down ruefully into the depths where his game had disappeared. "waal, sir," he broke forth pathetically, "this beats my time! if my luck ain't enough ter make a horse laugh!" he did not laugh, however; perhaps his luck was calculated to stir only [v]equine risibility. the cliff was almost perpendicular; at the depth of twenty feet a narrow ledge projected, but thence there was a sheer descent, down, down, down, to the tops of the tall trees in the valley far below. as ethan tynes looked wistfully over the precipice, he started with a sudden surprise. there on the narrow ledge lay the dead turkey. the sight sharpened ethan's regrets. he had made a good shot, and he hated to relinquish his game. while he gazed in dismayed meditation, an idea began to kindle in his brain. why could he not let himself down to the ledge by those long, strong vines that hung over the edge of the cliff? it was risky, ethan knew, terribly risky. but then,--if only the vines were strong! he tried them again and again with all his might, selected several of the largest, grasped them hard and fast, and then slipped lightly off the crag. he waited motionless for a moment. his movements had dislodged clods of earth and fragments of rock from the verge of the cliff, and until these had ceased to rattle about his head and shoulders he did not begin his downward journey. now and then as he went he heard the snapping of twigs, and again a branch would break, but the vines which supported him were tough and strong to the last. almost before he knew it, he stood upon the ledge, and with a great sigh of relief he let the vines swing loose. "waal, that warn't sech a mighty job at last. but law, if it hed been peter birt 'stid of me, that thar wild tur-r-key would hev laid on this hyar ledge plumb till the jedgmint day!" he walked deftly along the ledge, picked up the bird, and tied it to one of the vines with a string which he took from his pocket, intending to draw it up when he should be once more on the top of the crag. these preparations complete, he began to think of going back. he caught the vines on which he had made the descent, but before he had fairly left the ledge, he felt that they were giving way. he paused, let himself slip back to a secure foothold, and tried their strength by pulling with all his force. presently down came the whole mass in his hands. the friction against the sharp edges of the rock over which they had been stretched with a strong tension had worn them through. his first emotion was one of intense thankfulness that they had fallen while he was on the ledge instead of midway in his [v]precarious ascent. "ef they hed kem down whilst i war a-goin' up, i'd hev been flung down ter the bottom o' the valley, 'kase this ledge air too narrer ter hev cotched me." he glanced down at the somber depths beneath. "thar wouldn't hev been enough left of me ter pick up on a shovel!" he exclaimed, with a tardy realization of his foolish recklessness. the next moment a mortal terror seized him. what was to be his fate? to regain the top of the cliff by his own exertions was an impossibility. he cast his despairing eyes up the ascent, as sheer and as smooth as a wall, without a crevice which might afford a foothold, or a shrub to which he might cling. his strong head was whirling as he again glanced downward to the unmeasured [v]abyss beneath. he softly let himself sink into a sitting posture, his heels dangling over the frightful depths, and addressed himself resolutely to the consideration of the terrible danger in which he was placed. taken at its best, how long was it to last? could he look to any human being for deliverance? he reflected with growing dismay that the place was far from any dwelling, and from the road that wound along the ridge. there was no errand that could bring a man to this most unfrequented portion of the deep woods, unless an accident should hither direct some hunter's step. it was quite possible, nay, probable, that years might elapse before the forest solitude would again be broken by human presence. his brothers would search for him when he should be missed from home,--but such boundless stretches of forest! they might search for weeks and never come near this spot. he would die here, he would starve,--no, he would grow drowsy when exhausted and fall--fall--fall! he was beginning to feel that morbid fascination that sometimes seizes upon those who stand on great heights,--an overwhelming impulse to plunge downward. his only salvation was to look up. he would look up to the sky. and what were these words he was beginning to remember faintly? had not the [v]circuit-rider said in his last sermon that not even a sparrow falls to the ground unmarked of god? there was a definite strength in this suggestion. he felt less lonely as he stared resolutely at the big blue sky. there came into his heart a sense of encouragement, of hope. he would keep up as long and as bravely as he could, and if the worst should come,--was he indeed so solitary? he would hold in remembrance the sparrow's fall of scripture. he had so nerved himself to meet his fate that he thought it was a fancy when he heard a distant step. but it did not die away, it grew more and more distinct,--a shambling step that curiously stopped at intervals and kicked the fallen leaves. he sought to call out, but he seemed to have lost his voice. not a sound issued from his thickened tongue and his dry throat. the step came nearer. it would presently pass. with a mighty effort ethan sent forth a wild, hoarse cry. the rocks [v]reverberated it, the wind carried it far, and certainly there was an echo of its despair and terror in a shrill scream set up on the verge of the crag. then ethan heard the shambling step scampering off very fast indeed. the truth flashed upon him. it was some child, passing on an unimaginable errand through the deep woods, frightened by his sudden cry. "stop, bubby!" he shouted; "stop a minute! it's ethan tynes that's callin' of ye. stop a minute, bubby!" the step paused at a safe distance, and the shrill pipe of a little boy demanded, "whar is ye, ethan tynes?" "i'm down hyar on the ledge o' the bluff. who air ye ennyhow?" "george birt," promptly replied the little boy. "what air ye doin' down thar? i thought it was satan a-callin' of me. i never seen nobody." "i kem down hyar on vines arter a tur-r-key i shot. the vines bruk, an' i hev got no way ter git up agin. i want ye ter go ter yer mother's house, an' tell yer brother pete ter bring a rope hyar fur me ter climb up by." ethan expected to hear the shambling step going away with a [v]celerity in keeping with the importance of the errand. on the contrary, the step was approaching the crag. a moment of suspense, and there appeared among the jagged ends of the broken vines a small red head, a deeply freckled face, and a pair of sharp, eager blue eyes. george birt had carefully laid himself down on his stomach, only protruding his head beyond the verge of the crag, that he might not fling away his life in his curiosity. "did ye git it?" he asked, with bated breath. "git what?" demanded poor ethan, surprised and impatient. "the tur-r-key--what ye hev done been talkin' 'bout," said george birt. ethan had lost all interest in the turkey. "yes, yes; but run along, bub. i mought fall off'n this hyar place,--i'm gittin' stiff sittin' still so long,--or the wind mought blow me off. the wind is blowing toler'ble brisk." "gobbler or hen?" asked george birt eagerly. "it air a hen," said ethan. "but look-a-hyar, george, i'm a-waitin' on ye an' if i'd fall off'n this hyar place, i'd be ez dead ez a door-nail in a minute." "waal, i'm goin' now," said george birt, with gratifying alacrity. he raised himself from his [v]recumbent position, and ethan heard him shambling off, kicking every now and then at the fallen leaves as he went. presently, however, he turned and walked back nearly to the brink of the cliff. then he prostrated himself once more at full length,--for the mountain children are very careful of precipices,--snaked along dexterously to the verge of the crag, and protruding his red head cautiously, began to [v]parley once more, trading on ethan's necessities. "ef i go on this errand fur ye," he said, looking very sharp indeed, "will ye gimme one o' the whings of that thar wild tur-r-key?" he coveted the wing-feathers, not the joint of the fowl. the "whing" of the domestic turkey is used by the mountain women as a fan, and is considered an elegance as well as a comfort. george birt [v]aped the customs of his elders, regardless of sex,--a characteristic of very small boys. "oh, go 'long, bubby!" exclaimed poor ethan, in dismay at the [v]dilatoriness and indifference of his [v]unique deliverer. "i'll give ye both o' the whings." he would have offered the turkey willingly, if "bubby" had seemed to crave it. "waal, i'm goin' now." george birt rose from the ground and started off briskly, [v]exhilarated by the promise of both the "whings." ethan was angry indeed when he heard the boy once more shambling back. of course one should regard a deliverer with gratitude, especially a deliverer from mortal peril; but it may be doubted if ethan's gratitude would have been great enough to insure that small red head against a vigorous rap, if it had been within rapping distance, when it was once more cautiously protruded over the verge of the cliff. "i kem back hyar ter tell ye," the [v]doughty deliverer began, with an air of great importance, and magnifying his office with an extreme relish, "that i can't go an' tell pete 'bout'n the rope till i hev done kem back from the mill. i hev got old sorrel hitched out hyar a piece, with a bag o' corn on his back, what i hev ter git ground at the mill. my mother air a-settin' at home now a-waitin' fur that thar corn-meal ter bake dodgers with. an' i hev got a dime ter pay at the mill; it war lent ter my dad las' week. an' i'm afeard ter walk about much with this hyar dime; i mought lose it, ye know. an' i can't go home 'thout the meal; i'll ketch it ef i do. but i'll tell pete arter i git back from the mill." "the mill!" echoed ethan, aghast. "what air ye doin' on this side o' the mounting, ef ye air a-goin' ter the mill? this ain't the way ter the mill." "i kem over hyar," said the little boy, still with much importance of manner, notwithstanding a slight suggestion of embarrassment on his freckled face, "ter see 'bout'n a trap that i hev sot fur squir'ls. i'll see 'bout my trap, an' then i hev ter go ter the mill, 'kase my mother air a-settin' in our house now a-waitin' fur meal ter bake corn-dodgers. then i'll tell pete whar ye air, an' what ye said 'bout'n the rope. ye must jes' wait fur me hyar." poor ethan could do nothing else. as the echo of the boy's shambling step died in the distance, a redoubled sense of loneliness fell upon ethan tynes. but he endeavored to [v]solace himself with the reflection that the important mission to the squirrel-trap and the errand to the mill could not last forever, and before a great while peter birt and his rope would be upon the crag. this idea [v]buoyed him up as the hours crept slowly by. now and then he lifted his head and listened with painful intentness. he felt stiff in every muscle, and yet he had a dread of making an effort to change his [v]constrained position. he might lose control of his rigid limbs, and fall into those dread depths beneath. his patience at last began to give way; his heart was sinking. the messenger had been even more [v]dilatory than he was prepared to expect. why did not pete come? was it possible that george had forgotten to tell of his danger. the sun was going down, leaving a great glory of gold and crimson clouds and an [v]opaline haze upon the purple mountains. the last rays fell on the bronze feathers of the turkey still lying tied to the broken vines on the ledge. and now there were only frowning masses of dark clouds in the west; and there were frowning masses of clouds overhead. the shadow of the coming night had fallen on the autumnal foliage in the deep valley; in the place of the opaline haze was only a gray mist. and presently there came, sweeping along between the parallel mountain ranges, a somber raincloud. the lad could hear the heavy drops splashing on the tree-tops in the valley, long, long before he felt them on his head. the roll of thunder sounded among the crags. then the rain came down tumultuously, not in columns but in livid sheets. the lightnings rent the sky, showing, as it seemed to him, glimpses of the glorious brightness within,--too bright for human eyes. he clung desperately to his precarious perch. now and then a fierce rush of wind almost tore him from it. strange fancies beset him. the air was full of that wild [v]symphony of nature, the wind and the rain, the pealing thunder, and the thunderous echo among the cliffs, and yet he thought he could hear his own name ringing again and again through all the tumult, sometimes in pete's voice, sometimes in george's shrill tones. ethan became vaguely aware, after a time, that the rain had ceased, and the moon was beginning to shine through rifts in the clouds. the wind continued unabated, but, curiously enough, he could not hear it now. he could hear nothing; he could think of nothing. his consciousness was beginning to fail. george birt had indeed forgotten him,--forgotten even the promised "whings." not that he had discovered anything so extraordinary in his trap, for it was empty, but when he reached the mill, he found that the miller had killed a bear and captured a cub, and the orphan, chained to a post, had deeply absorbed george birt's attention. to [v]sophisticated people, the boy might have seemed as [v]grotesque as the cub. george wore an unbleached cotton shirt. the waistband of his baggy jeans trousers encircled his body just beneath his armpits, reaching to his shoulder-blades behind, and nearly to his collar-bone in front. his red head was only partly covered by a fragment of an old white wool hat; and he looked at the cub with a curiosity as intense as that with which the cub looked at him. each was taking first lessons in natural history. as long as there was daylight enough left to see that cub, did george birt stand and stare at the little beast. then he clattered home on old sorrel in the closing darkness, looking like a very small pin on the top of a large pincushion. at home, he found the elders unreasonable,--as elders usually are considered. supper had been waiting an hour or so for the lack of meal for dodgers. he "caught it" considerably, but not sufficiently to impair his appetite for the dodgers. after all this, he was ready enough for bed when a small boy's bedtime came. but as he was nodding before the fire, he heard a word that roused him to a new excitement and stimulated his memory. "these hyar chips air so wet they won't burn," said his mother. "i'll take my tur-r-key whing an' fan the fire." "law!" he exclaimed. "thar, now! ethan tynes never gimme that thar wild tur-r-key's whings like he promised." "whar did ye happen ter see ethan?" asked pete, interested in his friend. "seen him in the woods, an' he promised me the tur-r-key whings." "what fur?" inquired pete, a little surprised by this uncalled-for generosity. "waal,"--there was an expression of embarrassment on the important freckled face, and the small red head nodded forward in an explanatory manner,--"he fell off'n the bluffs arter the tur-r-key whings--i mean, he went down to the ledge arter the tur-r-key, and the vines bruk an' he couldn't git up no more. an' he tole me that ef i'd tell ye ter fotch him a rope ter pull up by, he would gimme the whings. that happened a--leetle--while--arter dinner-time." "who got him a rope ter pull up by?" demanded pete. there was again on the important face that indescribable shade of embarrassment. "waal,"--the youngster balanced this word judicially,--"i forgot 'bout'n the tur-key whings till this minute. i reckon he's thar yit." "mebbe this hyar wind an' rain hev beat him off'n the ledge!" exclaimed pete, appalled and rising hastily. "i tell ye now," he added, turning to his mother, "the best use ye kin make o' that boy is ter put him on the fire fur a back-log." pete made his preparations in great haste. he took the rope from the well, asked the [v]crestfallen and browbeaten junior a question or two relative to the place, mounted old sorrel without a saddle, and in a few minutes was galloping at headlong speed through the night. the rain was over by the time he had reached the sulphur spring to which george had directed him, but the wind was still high, and the broken clouds were driving fast across the face of the moon. by the time he had hitched his horse to a tree and set out on foot to find the cliff, the moonbeams, though brilliant, were so [v]intermittent that his progress was fitful and necessarily cautious. when the disk shone out full and clear, he made his way rapidly enough, but when the clouds intervened, he stood still and waited. "i ain't goin' ter fall off'n the bluff 'thout knowin' it," he said to himself, in one of these [v]eclipses, "ef i hev ter stand hyar all night." the moonlight was brilliant and steady when he reached the verge of the crag. he identified the spot by the mass of broken vines, and more positively by ethan's rifle lying upon the ground just at his feet. he called, but received no response. "hev ethan fell off, sure enough?" he asked himself, in great dismay and alarm. then he shouted again and again. at last there came an answer, as though the speaker had just awaked. "pretty nigh beat out, i'm a-thinkin'!" commented pete. he tied one end of the cord around the trunk of a tree, knotted it at intervals, and flung it over the bluff. at first ethan was almost afraid to stir. he slowly put forth his hand and grasped the rope. then, his heart beating tumultuously, he rose to his feet. he stood still for an instant to steady himself and get his breath. nerving himself for a strong effort, he began the ascent, hand over hand, up and up and up, till once more he stood upon the crest of the crag. and, now that all danger was over, pete was disposed to scold. "i'm a-thinkin'," said pete severely, "ez thar ain't a critter on this hyar mounting, from a b'ar ter a copperhead, that could hev got in sech a fix, 'ceptin' ye, ethan tynes." and ethan was silent. "what's this hyar thing at the end o' the rope?" asked pete, as he began to draw the cord up, and felt a weight still suspended. "it air the tur-r-key," said ethan meekly, "i tied her ter the e-end o' the rope afore i kem up." "waal, sir!" exclaimed pete, in indignant surprise. and george, for duty performed, was [v]remunerated with the two "whings," although it still remains a question in the mind of ethan whether or not he deserved them. charles egbert craddock. =helps to study= tell what happened to ethan tynes one day when he was hunting. how was he rescued? what qualities did ethan show in his hour of trial? give your opinion of george birt; of pete. find out all you can about life in the mountains of east tennessee. supplementary reading the prophet of the great smoky mountains--charles egbert craddock. the little shepherd of kingdom come--john fox, jr. june--john fox, jr. the poetry of earth is ceasing never: on a lone winter evening, when the frost has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills the cricket's song, in the warmth increasing ever, and seems to one in drowsiness half lost, the grasshopper's among some grassy hills. john keats. a deal in bears when a whaling ship is beset in the ice of davis straits, there is little work for her second engineer, once the engines have been nicely tallowed down. now, i am no man that can sit in his berth and laze. if i've no work to do, i get a-thinking about my home at [v]ballindrochater and the ministry, which my father intended i should have adorned, and what a fool i've made of myself, and this is depressing. i was not over-popular already on the _gleaner_ on account of some prophecies i had made in anger, which had unfortunately come true. the crew, and the captain, too, had come to fear my prophetic powers. at last i bethought me of sporting on the ice. there was head-money offered for all bears, foxes, seals, musk-oxen, and such like that were shot and gathered. so i went to the skipper, and he gave me a henry rifle, well rusted, and eight cartridges. "show me you can use those, mctodd," says he, "and i'll give you more." i made a big mistake with that rusty old gun. i may be a sportsman, but before that i'm an engineer, and it seemed to me that heaven sent metal into this world to be kept bright and clean. so i took the rifle all to pieces and made the parts as smooth and sweet as you'd see in a gun-maker's shop, barring rust-pits, and gave them a nice daubing of oil against the arctic weather. then i put on some thick clothes i had made, and all the other clothes i could get loaned me, and climbed out over the rail on to the [v]floe. the _gleaner_ lay in a bay some two miles from the shore, and let me tell you, if you do not know it, that arctic ice is no skating-rink. there are great hills, and knolls, and bergs, and valleys spread all over, and even where it's about level, the underfoot is as hard going as a newly-metalled road before the steam-roller has passed over it. the air was clear enough when i left the bark, and though the [v]mercury was out of use and coiled up snugly in the bulb, it wasn't as cold as you might think, for just then there was no wind. it's a breeze up in the arctic that makes you feel the chill. there was no sun, of course; there never is sun up there in that dreary winter: but the stars were burning blue and clear, and every now and then a big [v]catherine wheel of [v]aurora would show off, for all the world like a firework exhibition. my! but it was lonely, though, once you had left the ship behind! there was just the scrunching of your feet on the frost [v]rime, and not another sound in the world. even the ice was frozen too hard to squeak. and overhead in that purple-black heaven you never knew who was looking down at you. out there in that cold, bare, black, icy silence, i had occasion to remember that neil angus mctodd had been a sinner in his time, and it made me shiver when i glanced up toward those blue, cold stars and the deep purple darkness that lay between and behind them. it may be that i was thinking less of my hunting than was advisable, for of a sudden i woke up to the sound of heavy feet padding over the crisp frost rime. i turned me round sharply enough, but as far as the dim light carried there was nothing alive to be seen through the gloom. as soon as i stopped, the footsteps stopped, too, and i don't mind admitting that my scalp tickled. however, when i'd hauled up the hammer of the henry, and it dropped into position with a good, wholesome _cluck_, my nervousness very soon filtered out. there's a comfort about a heavy-bore rifle like a henry--which is the kind always used by whalers and sealers--that you can't get from those fancy little guns. and then, as it seemed that the animal, whatever it might be, wasn't going to move till i did, i shuffled my high sealskin boots on the crisp snow to make believe that i was tramping again. the creature started after me promptly. it was hard to tell the direction, because every sound in that icy silence was echoed by a thousand bergs and hummocks of ice; but presently from behind a small splintered ridge of the floe there strolled out what seemed to me the largest bear in the arctic regions. you must know that the night air there has a [v]deceptive light--it enlarges things--and the beast appeared to me as standing some five feet six inches high at the shoulder, and measuring some twenty feet from nose to tail. there was myself and there was the bear in the dark middle of that awful loneliness, with no one to interfere; and as there was only one of us to get home, i preferred it should not be he. so i took a brace on myself, and stood with the henry ready to fire. there was nothing you might call [v]diffidence about that bear. he slouched along up to me at a steady walk, with the hair and skin on him swinging about as though it was too large for his carcass and he was wearing a misfit. he seemed to look upon me as dinner, and no hurry needful. there was a sort of calm certainty about him that made me angry. i was not what you might call a marksman in those days, and so i set a bit of [v]hummock about ten yards off as a limit where i could not very conveniently miss, and waited until the bear should come opposite that. well, he came to it right enough in his own time. there was, as i have said before, no diffidence about the creature. and then i raised the henry and fired her off. _cluck_ went the hammer on the nipple, but there was no bang. my! it was a misfire, and there was the bear coming down on me as steady and unconcerned as a [v]traction engine! i clawed out that cartridge and crammed in another. the bitter cold of the metal skinned my fingers like escaping steam. then i cocked the gun again, shouldered it, and pulled trigger again. once more she wouldn't go off! the bear was now nearly on top of me and was beginning to rear on its hind legs. somehow the rifle came into my hand muzzle-end, and i hit the great brute across the eyes with the butt hard enough to have felled an ox. i might as well have struck it with a cane. _whack_ came a big yellow-white paw, the henry went flying, and my wrists tingled with the jar; and there was i left looking, i've no doubt you'll think, very humorous. the bear might have finished me then if it had chosen. but it must needs turn aside to go snuffling at the rifle and lick the oil off the locks. i turned and footed it. now, at the best of times, i am no [v]sprinter, and in the great mountain of clothes one wears up there in the cold arctic night, no man can make much speed. besides, the way was that uneven it was a case of hands and scramble more often than plain running over the sharp, spiky level. the bear, once he had finished his snuffle and lick at the henry, came on at a dreadful pace, making nothing of those obstacles that balked me,--he had been born up there, you know. he laid himself out--i could see over my shoulder--like one of those american trotting horses, caring nothing for the ups and downs and ankle-breaking ice. in about two shakes he was snorting at my heels again, till i could almost feel his hot breath. the bundle of clothes hampered me. i stripped off my outer over-all and let it drop behind me. the bear stopped and snuffed that, but i didn't stay to watch him. i got a good fifty [v]fathoms ahead of him whilst he was thus occupied. but presently, when he'd got all his satisfaction out of that, on he comes again, and i had to give him my coat. i hadn't a chance of equaling him in pace, but the trick with the clothing never tired him. fifty fathoms was the least gain i made over a single piece, and as i got lower down toward my skin he stayed over the clothes longer. but still the _gleaner_ was a long way off, over very tumbled ice, and there i was careering on in a costume which was barely enough for decency, and certainly insufficient for the climate. however, it was little enough the bear cared for such refinements as those. i stripped off my last garment as i ran, and gained nigh on two hundred yards whilst he investigated it; and there were the bark's upper spars showing above the hummocks half a mile away, with me in nothing but my long seal-skin boots! but there was no help for it. up came the hot breath behind me, and i leaned up against a hummock and stripped off a boot. i hailed the _gleaner_ with what breath i had left, but no one gave heed. away went the other boot, and there i was running, mother-naked, over the jagged floe, leaving blood on every footmark. right up to the vessel did the outrageous beast chase me, and then when i got on board and called for guns, it slunk away into the shadows of a berg and was seen no more. my feet were cut to the bone; i was frost-nipped in twenty places, and you may imagine i had had a poor enough time of it. but the thought of that canvas over-all which i had thrown away first kept me cheerful. it was indeed a very humorous circumstance. ye see it was a borrowed one. i got down below to a berth, and the steward, who was rated as a doctor, tended me. but captain black put sourness on the whole affair. he came down to my bunk and said, "where's that henry?" "lying quiet on the ice," said i. "do you mean to say you left that rifle behind? my rifle!" "i did that same. the thing wasn't strong enough to fire a cartridge. i tried two." and then black used violent and unjustifiable language. i was in no condition to give him a fair exchange. besides, i made an unfortunate admission. i owned up to taking the rifle apart and cleaning her. i owned up, too, that i'd been free with the oil. black stuck out his face at me, and his fringe of beard fairly bristled. "and you call yourself an engineer! you talk about having gone through the shops! put your filthy engine-room oil on my henry's locks, would you? why, you idiot, have you yet to learn that oil freezes up here as hard as cheese, and you've made up the lock space of that poor rifle into one solid chunk?" "i never thought of that." "to look at your face, you've yet to start thinking at all." so we had it out, and as i was now aroused, i gave him some words on the inefficient way he ran his ship. at last i threatened to prophesy again, and this cooled him off. i offered to go hunting bears for him and he became quite polite. "i'll make you an offer touching those bears," he said. "for every skin you bring here aboard, i'll give you seven shillings [v]bonus above your share as a member of the ship's company. i'll give you another rifle, two rifles if you like, and a fine bag of cartridges. but, you beggar, i make one condition. you take yourself off and away from the ship to do your hunting. you may make yourself a snow house to stay in, and live on the meat you kill." "you wish to murder me?" "i wish to be rid of you, and that's the truth. man, i believe you're jonah resurrected. we've had no luck since first you put your foot on my deck planks. and, what's more, the crew is of my way of thinking. so, refuse my offer, and i'll put you in irons and keep you there till i can fling you ashore at [v]dundee." now there is no doubt black meant what he said, and so i did not waste dignity by arguing with him. i had no taste for the irons, and as for being turned out on the ice--well, i had a plan ahead. but i didn't intend to leave black more comfortable than i could help. so i shut my eyes and said that the ship would have very bad luck that winter, that there would be much sickness aboard. (this was an easy guess.) i said, considering this fact, i was glad to leave such an unwholesome ship. the crew were just aching to get rid of me. this prophesying sort of grows on a man; once you've started it, you've got to go on with it at all costs, and i could no more resist just letting my few remarks slip round amongst the men than i can resist eating when i'm hungry. the nerves of the _gleaner_ people were in strings from the cold and the blackness of the arctic night, and it put the horrors on the lot of them. the one thing they wanted was to see the last of me. they gave me almost anything i fancied, but my means of transport were small. there was a bit of a sledge, which i packed with some food, two henry rifles and a few tools, five hundred cartridges, and the clothes i stood in. no more could be taken. then i went on deck into the bitter cold and over the side, and stood on the ice, ready to start on my journey. the crew lined the rail to see me off, and i can tell you their faces were very different. the older ones were savage and cared little how soon jonah might die. the younger ones were crying to see a fellow driven away into that icy loneliness, far from shelter. but for myself i didn't care. i had method in all this performance. soon after we were beset in the ice, a family of esquimaux had come on the _gleaner_ to pay a polite call and get what they could out of us. they were that dirty you could have chipped them with a scaling hammer, but they were very friendly. one buck who stepped down into the engine room--[v]amatikita, he said his name was--had some english, and came to the point as straight as anything. "give me a [v]dlink, cappie," says he. "this is a dry ship," says i. "plenty dlink in that box," says he, handling an oil-can. "oh, if that's what you want, take it," i told him, and he clapped the nozzle between his lips, and sucked down a gill of [v]cylinder lubricating oil as though it had been water. "you seem to like it," i said; "have some more." but that was his fill. he thanked me and asked me to visit his village when i could get away from the ship. and just then some of his friends were caught pilfering, and the whole crew of them were bundled away. now i had noted that most of these esquimaux had bits of bearskins amongst their other furs, and it was that i had in mind when i fell out with captain black. amatikita had pointed out the direction in which his village lay, and it was to that i intended making my way with as little delay as possible. but i kept this to myself, and let no word of it slip out on the _gleaner_. indeed, when i was over the bark's rails, i headed off due north across the ice. i climbed and stumbled on in this direction till i was well out of their sight and hearing amongst the hummocks, and then i turned at right angles for the shore. the cold up yonder in that arctic night takes away your breath; it seems to take the manhood out of you. you stumble along gasping. by a chance i came on an esquimaux sealing, and he beat and thumped me into wakefulness. then he packed me on to his dog-sleigh, and took my own bit of a sled behind, and set his fourteen-foot whip cracking, and off we set. well, you have to be pretty far gone if you can stay asleep with an [v]innuit's dog-sledge jolting and jumping beneath you, and i was well awakened, especially as the esquimaux sat on top of me. and so in time we brought up at the huts, and a good job, too. i'd been tramping in the wrong direction, so it turned out, and, besides, if i had come to the village, i might well have walked over the top of it, as it was drifted up level with snow. there was a bit of a rabbit-hole giving entrance to each hut, with some three fathoms of tunnel underground, and skin curtains to keep out the draught, but once inside you might think yourself in a [v]stoke-hold again. there was the same smell of oil, and almost the same warmth. i tell you, it was fine after that slicing cold outside. it was amatikita's house i was brought to, and he was very hospitable. they took off my outer clothes and put them on the rack above the soapstone lamp to dry, and waited on me most kindly. indeed, they recognized me as a superior at once, and kept on doing it. they put tender young seal-meat in the dish above the lamp, and when it was cooked i ate my part of the stew, and then got up and took the best place on the raised sleeping-bench at the farther side of the hut. i cut a fill for my pipe, lit up and passed the plug, and presently we were all smoking, happy as you please. amatikita spoke up like a man. "very pleased to see you, cappie. what you come for? what you want?" "you're a man of business," i said. "you waste no time. i like that. what i want is bearskins. the jackets of big, white, baggy-trousered polar bears, you know; and i brought along a couple of tip-top rifles for you to get them with. now, i make you a fair offer. get me all the bears in the north polar regions, and you shall have my henrys and all the cartridges that are left over. and as for the meat, you shall have that as your own share of the game." "you want shoot those bears yourself?" "not if i can help it. i'm an engineer, and a good one at that. but as a sportsman i've had but little experience, and don't seem drawn toward learning. it is too draughty up here, just at present, for my taste. i'll stay and keep house, and maybe do a bit of repairing and inventing among the furniture. i've brought along a hand-vice and a bag of tools with me, and if you can supply drift-wood and some scrap-iron, i'll make this turf-house of yours a real cottage." the deal was made. i worked away with my tools, and whenever those powdering winter gales eased for a little, amatikita and his friends would go off with the howling dog-sledges and the henrys, and it was rare that they'd come back without one bear, and often they'd bring two or even three. these white bears sleep through the black winter months in hollows in the cliffs, and the esquimaux know their lairs, though it's rare enough they dare tackle them. small blame, too, you'd say, if you saw the flimsy bone-tipped lances and harpoons, which are all they are armed with. with a good, smashing, heavy-bore henry rifle it is a different thing. the esquimaux were no cowards. they would walk up within a yard of a bear, when the dogs had ringed it, and blow half its head away with a single shot. and then they would draw the carcass up to the huts with the dog trains, and the women would skin and dress the meat, and amatikita and the others would gorge themselves. at last the long winter wore away. amatikita dived in through the entrance of the hut one day and told me that the ice-floe was beginning to break. the news affected me like the blow of a whip. i went out into the open and found the sun up. the men were overhauling their skin canoes. the snow was wet underfoot and seafowl were swooping around. the floe was still sound where it joined the shore, but two seaward lanes of blue water showed between the ice, and in one of them a whale was spouting pale gray mist. it was high time for me to be off. so the bearskins were fastened by thongs to the sledges and word was shouted to the dog leader of each team. the dogs started, and presently away went the teams full tilt, the sledges leaping and crashing in their wake, with the drivers and a certain scotch engineer who was unused to such [v]acrobatics clinging on top of the packs. my! but yon was a wild ride over the rotten, cracking, sodden floe, under the fresh, bright sunshine of that arctic spring morn! presently round the flank of a small ice-berg we came in view of the _gleaner_. she was still beset in the ice; but the hands were hard at work beating the ice from the rigging and cutting a gutter around her in the floe, so that she might float when the time came. they knocked off work when we drove up. "good-day, captain black," i said. "i've been troubling myself over bearskins, and i'll ask you for seven shillings head money on twenty-nine." "you've shot twenty-nine bears? you're lying to me." "the skins are there, and you can count them for yourself." his color changed when the esquimaux passed the skins over the side. and i clambered aboard the ship along with them. w. cutcliffe hyne. =helps to study= tell this story briefly, using your own words. what mistake did mctodd make in preparing for the hunt? what amused you most? how did mctodd show his shrewdness, even if he was not a good hunter? what do you learn about the arctic region? supplementary reading the frozen pirate--w. clark russell. the casting away of mrs. leeks and mrs. aleshine--frank r. stockton. lochinvar oh, young lochinvar is come out of the west:-- through all the wide border his steed was the best, and save his good broadsword he weapons had none; he rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. so faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, there never was knight like the young lochinvar. he stayed not for [v]brake, and he stopped not for stone, he swam the esk river where ford there was none; but ere he alighted at netherby gate the bride had consented, the gallant came late: for a laggard in love, and a dastard in war was to wed the fair ellen of brave lochinvar. so boldly he entered the netherby hall, among bride's-men and kinsmen and brothers and all: then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword (for the poor craven bridegroom said never a word), "oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, or to dance at our bridal, young lord lochinvar?" "i long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;-- love swells like the solway, but ebbs like its tide-- and now am i come with this lost love of mine, to lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. there are maidens in scotland more lovely by far, that would gladly be bride to the young lochinvar." the bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up, he quaffed of the wine, and he threw down the cup. she looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, with a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye. he took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,-- "now tread we a measure!" said young lochinvar. so stately his form, and so lovely her face, that never a hall such a [v]galliard did grace; while her mother did fret, and her father did fume, and the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume, and the bride-maidens whispered, "'twere better by far to have matched our fair cousin with young lochinvar." one touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, when they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near; so light to the [v]croup the fair lady he swung, so light to the saddle before her he sprung! "she is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and [v]scar; they'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young lochinvar. there was mounting 'mong græmes of the netherby clan; fosters, fenwicks, and musgraves, they rode and they ran; there was racing and chasing on cannobie lea, but the lost bride of netherby ne'er did they see. so daring in love, and so dauntless in war; have ye e'er heard of gallant like young lochinvar? sir walter scott. =helps to study= read the poem through and tell the story briefly. where is the scene laid? _border_ here means the part of scotland bordering on england. who is the hero? give your opinion of him. find the expressions used by the poet to inspire admiration for lochinvar. give your opinion of the bridegroom. quote lines that express the poet's opinion of him. what word is used instead of _thicket_ in the second stanza? a _loiterer_? a _coward_? why do you suppose the bride had consented? why did her father put his hand on his sword? what reason did lochinvar give for coming to the feast? why did he act as if he did not care? was the bride willing to marry "the laggard in love"? how do you know? describe the scene as the two danced. what do you suppose was the "one word in her ear"? read aloud the lines describing lochinvar's ride to netherby hall. read those describing the ride from the hall. notice the galloping movement of the verse. in labrador i trafford and marjorie were in labrador to spend the winter. it was a queer idea for a noted [v]scientist and rich and successful business man to cut himself loose from the world of london and go out into the arctic storm and darkness of one of the bleakest quarters of the globe. but trafford had fallen into a discontent with living, a weariness of the round of work and pleasure, and it was in the hope of winning back his lost zest and happiness that he had made up his mind to try the cure of the wilderness. marjorie had insisted, like a good wife, on leaving children and home and comfort and accompanying him into the frozen wilds. the voyage across the sea and the march inland into labrador were uneventful. trafford chose his winter-quarters on the side of a low razor-hacked, rocky mountain ridge, about fifty feet above a little river. not a dozen miles away from them, they reckoned, was the height of land, the low watershed between the waters that go to the atlantic and those that go to hudson's bay. north and north-east of them the country rose to a line of low crests, with here and there a yellowing patch of last year's snow, and across the valley were slopes covered in places by woods of stunted pine. it had an empty spaciousness of effect; the one continually living thing seemed to be the river, hurrying headlong, noisily, perpetually, in an eternal flight from this high desolation. for nearly four weeks indeed they were occupied very closely in fixing their cabin and making their other preparations, and crept into their bunks at night as tired as wholesome animals who drop to sleep. at any time the weather might break; already there had been two overcast days and a frowning conference of clouds in the north. when at last storms began, they knew there would be nothing for it but to keep in the hut until the world froze up. the weather broke at last. one might say it smashed itself over their heads. there came an afternoon darkness swift and sudden, a wild gale, and an icy sleet that gave place in the night to snow, so that trafford looked out next morning to see a maddening chaos of small white flakes, incredibly swift, against something that was neither darkness nor light. even with the door but partly ajar, a cruelty of cold put its claw within, set everything that was movable swaying and clattering, and made marjorie hasten shuddering to heap fresh logs upon the fire. once or twice trafford went out to inspect tent and roof and store-shed; several times, wrapped to the nose, he battled his way for fresh wood, and for the rest of the blizzard they kept to the hut. it was slumberously stuffy, but comfortingly full of flavors of tobacco and food. there were two days of intermission and a day of gusts and icy sleet again, turning with one extraordinary clap of thunder to a wild downpour of dancing lumps of ice, and then a night when it seemed all labrador, earth and sky together, was in hysterical protest against inconceivable wrongs. and then the break was over; the annual freezing-up accomplished; winter had established itself; the snowfall moderated and ceased, and an ice-bound world shone white and sunlit under a cloudless sky. one morning trafford found the footmarks of some catlike creature in the snow near the bushes where he was accustomed to get firewood; they led away very plainly up the hill, and after breakfast he took his knife and rifle and snowshoes and went after the lynx--for that he decided the animal must be. there was no urgent reason why he should want to kill a lynx, unless perhaps that killing it made the store-shed a trifle safer; but it was the first trail of any living thing for many days; it promised excitement; some [v]primitive instinct perhaps urged him. the morning was a little overcast, and very cold between the gleams of wintry sunshine. "good-by, dear wife!" he said, and then as she remembered afterward came back a dozen yards to kiss her. "i'll not be long," he said. "the beast's prowling, and if it doesn't get wind of me, i ought to find it in an hour." he hesitated for a moment. "i'll not be long," he repeated, and she had an instant's wonder whether he hid from her the same dread of loneliness that she concealed. up among the tumbled rocks he turned, and she was still watching him. "good-by!" he cried and waved, and the willow thickets closed about him. she forced herself to the petty duties of the day, made up the fire from the pile he had left for her, set water to boil, put the hut in order, brought out sheets and blankets to air, and set herself to wash up. she wished she had been able to go with him. the sky cleared presently, and the low december sun lit all the world about her, but it left her spirit desolate. she did not expect him to return until midday, and she sat herself down on a log before the fire to darn a pair of socks as well as she could. for a time this unusual occupation held her attention and then her hands became slow and at last inactive, and she fell into reverie. thoughts came quick and fast of her children in england so far away. what was that? she flashed to her feet. it seemed to her she had heard the sound of a shot, and a quick, brief wake of echoes. she looked across the icy waste of the river, and then up the tangled slopes of the mountain. her heart was beating fast. it must have been up there, and no doubt trafford had killed his beast. some shadow of doubt she would not admit crossed that obvious suggestion. the wilderness was making her as nervously responsive as a creature of the wild. there came a second shot; this time there was no doubt of it. then the desolate silence closed about her again. marjorie stood for a long time, staring at the shrubby slopes that rose to the barren rock wilderness of the purple mountain crest. she sighed deeply at last, and set herself to make up the fire and prepare for the midday meal. once, far away across the river, she heard the howl of a wolf. time seemed to pass very slowly that day. marjorie found herself going repeatedly to the space between the day tent and the sleeping hut from which she could see the stunted wood that had swallowed her husband up, and after what seemed a long hour her watch told her it was still only half-past twelve. and the fourth or fifth time that she went to look out she was set a-tremble again by the sound of a third shot. and then at regular intervals out of that distant brown-purple jumble of thickets against the snow came two more shots. "something has happened," she said, "something has happened," and stood rigid. then she became active, seized the rifle that was always at hand when she was alone, fired into the sky, and stood listening. prompt came an answering shot. "he wants me," said marjorie. "something--perhaps he has killed something too big to bring!" she was for starting at once, and then remembered this was not the way of the wilderness. she thought and moved very rapidly. her mind catalogued possible requirements,--rifle, hunting knife, the oilskin bag with matches, and some chunks of dry paper, the [v]rucksack. besides, he would be hungry. she took a saucepan and a huge chunk of cheese and biscuit. then a brandy flask is sometimes handy--one never knows,--though nothing was wrong, of course. needles and stout thread, and some cord. snowshoes. a waterproof cloak could be easily carried. her light hatchet for wood. she cast about to see if there was anything else. she had almost forgotten cartridges--and a revolver. nothing more. she kicked a stray brand or so into the fire, put on some more wood, damped the fire with an armful of snow to make it last longer, and set out toward the willows into which he had vanished. there was a rustling and snapping of branches as she pushed her way through the bushes, a little stir that died insensibly into quiet again; and then the camping place became very still. trafford's trail led marjorie through the thicket of dwarf willows and down to the gully of the rivulet which they had called marjorie trickle; it had long since become a trough of snow-covered, rotten ice. the trail crossed this and, turning sharply uphill, went on until it was clear of shrubs and trees, and, in the windy open of the upper slopes, it crossed a ridge and came over the lip of a large desolate valley with slopes of ice and icy snow. here marjorie spent some time in following his loops back on the homeward trail before she saw what was manifestly the final trail running far away out across the snow, with the [v]spoor of the lynx, a lightly-dotted line, to the right of it. she followed this suggestion of the trail, put on her snowshoes, and shuffled her way across this valley, which opened as she proceeded. she hoped that over the ridge she would find trafford, and scanned the sky for the faintest discoloration of a fire, but there was none. that seemed odd to her, but the wind was in her face, and perhaps it beat the smoke down. then as her eyes scanned the hummocky ridge ahead, she saw something, something very intent and still, that brought her heart into her mouth. it was a big gray wolf, standing with back haunched and head down, watching and scenting something beyond. marjorie had an instinctive fear of wild animals, and it still seemed dreadful to her that they should go at large, uncaged. she suddenly wanted trafford violently, wanted him by her side. also, she thought of leaving the trail, going back to the bushes. but presently her nerve returned. in the wastes one did not fear wild beasts, one had no fear of them. but why not fire a shot to let him know she was near? the beast flashed round with an animal's instantaneous change of pose, and looked at her. for a couple of seconds, perhaps, woman and brute regarded one another across a quarter of a mile of snowy desolation. suppose it came toward her! she would fire--and she would fire at it. marjorie made a guess at the range and aimed very carefully. she saw the snow fly two yards ahead of the grisly shape, and then in an instant the beast had vanished over the crest. she reloaded, and stood for a moment waiting for trafford's answer. no answer came. "queer!" she whispered, "queer!"--and suddenly such a horror of anticipation assailed her that she started running and floundering through the snow to escape it. twice she called his name, and once she just stopped herself from firing a shot. over the ridge she would find him. surely she would find him over the ridge! she now trampled among rocks, and there was a beaten place where trafford must have waited and crouched. then on and down a slope of tumbled boulders. there came a patch where he had either thrown himself down or fallen; it seemed to her he must have been running. suddenly, a hundred feet or so away, she saw a patch of violently disturbed snow--snow stained a dreadful color, a snow of scarlet crystals! three strides and trafford was in sight. she had a swift conviction that he was dead. he was lying in a crumpled attitude on a patch of snow between [v]convergent rocks, and the lynx, a mass of blood-smeared, silvery fur, was in some way mixed up with him. she saw as she came nearer that the snow was disturbed round about them, and discolored [v]copiously, yellow, and in places bright red, with congealed and frozen blood. she felt no fear now and no emotion; all her mind was engaged with the clear, bleak perception of the fact before her. she did not care to call to him again. his head was hidden by the lynx's body, as if he was burrowing underneath the creature; his legs were twisted about each other in a queer, unnatural attitude. then, as she dropped off a boulder, and came nearer, trafford moved. a hand came out and gripped the rifle beside him; he suddenly lifted a dreadful face, horribly scarred and torn, and crimson with frozen blood; he pushed the gray beast aside, rose on an elbow, wiped his sleeve across his eyes, stared at her, grunted, and flopped forward. he had fainted. marjorie was now as clear-minded and as self-possessed as a woman in a shop. in another moment she was kneeling by his side. she saw, by the position of his knife and the huge rip in the beast's body, that he had stabbed the lynx to death as it clawed his head; he must have shot and wounded it and then fallen upon it. his knitted cap was torn to ribbons, and hung upon his neck. also his leg was manifestly injured--how, she could not tell. it was evident that he must freeze if he lay here, and it seemed to her that perhaps he had pulled the dead brute over him to protect his torn skin from the extremity of cold. the lynx was already rigid, its clumsy paws asprawl,--and the torn skin and clot upon trafford's face were stiff as she put her hands about his head to raise him. she turned him over on his back--how heavy he seemed?--and forced brandy between his teeth. then, after a moment's hesitation, she poured a little brandy on his wounds. she glanced at his leg, which was surely broken, and back at his face. then she gave him more brandy, and his eyelids flickered. he moved his hand weakly. "the blood," he said, "kept getting in my eyes." she gave him brandy once again, wiped his face, and glanced at his leg. something ought to be done to that, marjorie thought. but things must be done in order. the woman stared up at the darkling sky with its gray promise of snow, and down the slopes of the mountain. clearly they must stay the night here. they were too high for wood among these rocks, but three or four hundred yards below there were a number of dwarfed fir trees. she had brought an ax, so that a fire was possible. should she go back to camp and get the tent? trafford was trying to speak again. "i got--" "yes?" "got my leg in that crack." was he able to advise her? she looked at him, and then perceived that she must bind up his head and face. she knelt behind him and raised his head on her knee. she had a thick silk neck muffler, and this she supplemented by a band she cut and tore from her inner vest. she bound this, still warm from her body, about him, and wrapped her dark cloak round his shoulders. the next thing was a fire. five yards away, perhaps, a great mass of purple [v]gabbro hung over a patch of nearly snowless moss. a hummock to the westward offered shelter from the bitter wind, the icy draught, that was soughing down the valley. always in labrador, if you can, you camp against a rock surface; it shelters you from the wind, guards your back. "dear!" she said. "awful hole," said trafford. "what?" she cried sharply. "put you in an awful hole," he said. "eh?" "listen," she said, and shook his shoulder. "look! i want to get you up against that rock." "won't make much difference," replied trafford, and opened his eyes. "where?" he asked. "there." he remained quite quiet for a second perhaps. "listen to me," he said. "go back to camp." "yes," she said. "go back to camp. make a pack of all the strongest food--strenthin'--strengthrin' food--you know?" he seemed unable to express himself. "yes," she said. "down the river. down--down. till you meet help." "leave you?" he nodded his head and winced. "you're always plucky," he said. "look facts in the face. children. thought it over while you were coming." a tear oozed from his eye. "don't be a fool, madge. kiss me good-by. don't be a fool. i'm done. children." she stared at him and her spirit was a luminous mist of tears. "you old _coward_," she said in his ear, and kissed the little patch of rough and bloody cheek beneath his eye. then she knelt up beside him. "_i'm_ boss now, old man," she said. "i want to get you to that place there under the rock. if i drag, can you help?" he answered obstinately: "you'd better go." "i'll make you comfortable first," she returned. he made an enormous effort, and then, with her quick help and with his back to her knee, had raised himself on his elbows. "and afterward?" he asked. "build a fire." "wood?" "down there." "two bits of wood tied on my leg--splints. then i can drag myself. see? like a blessed old walrus." he smiled and she kissed his bandaged face again. "else it hurts," he apologized, "more than i can stand." she stood up again, put his rifle and knife to his hand, for fear of that lurking wolf, abandoning her own rifle with an effort, and went striding and leaping from rock to rock toward the trees below. she made the chips fly, and was presently towing three venerable pine dwarfs, bumping over rock and crevice, back to trafford. she flung them down, stood for a moment bright and breathless, then set herself to hack off the splints he needed from the biggest stem. "now," she said, coming to him. "a fool," he remarked, "would have made the splints down there. you're--_good_, marjorie." she lugged his leg out straight, put it into the natural and least painful pose, padded it with moss and her torn handkerchief, and bound it up. as she did so a handful of snowflakes came whirling about them. she was now braced up to every possibility. "it never rains," she said grimly, "but it pours," and went on with her bone-setting. he was badly weakened by pain and shock, and once he spoke to her sharply. "sorry," he said a moment later. she rolled him over on his chest, and left him to struggle to the shelter of the rock while she went for more wood. the sky alarmed her. the mountains up the valley were already hidden by driven rags of slaty snowstorms. this time she found a longer but easier path for dragging her boughs and trees; she determined she would not start the fire until nightfall, nor waste any time in preparing food until then. there were dead boughs for kindling--more than enough. it was snowing quite fast by the time she got up to him with her second load, and a premature twilight already obscured and exaggerated the rocks and mounds about her. she gave some of her cheese to trafford, and gnawed some herself on her way down to the wood again. she regretted that she had brought neither candles nor lantern, because then she might have kept on until the cold night stopped her, and she reproached herself bitterly because she had brought no tea. she could forgive herself the lantern, for she had never expected to be out after dark, but the tea was inexcusable. she muttered self-reproaches while she worked like two men among the trees, panting puffs of mist that froze upon her lips and iced the knitted wool that covered her chin. "why don't they teach a girl to handle an ax?" she cried. ii when at last the wolfish cold of the labrador night had come, it found trafford and marjorie seated almost warmly on a bed of pine boughs between the sheltering dark rock behind and a big but well-husbanded fire in front, drinking a queer-tasting but not unsavory soup of lynx-flesh, which she had fortified with the remainder of the brandy. then they tried roast lynx and ate a little, and finished with some scraps of cheese and deep draughts of hot water. the snowstorm poured incessantly out of the darkness to become flakes of burning fire in the light of the flames, flakes that vanished magically, but it only reached them and wetted them in occasional gusts. what did it matter for the moment if the dim snowheaps rose and rose about them? a glorious fatigue, an immense self-satisfaction, possessed marjorie; she felt that they had both done well. "i am not afraid of to-morrow now," she said at last. trafford was smoking his pipe and did not speak for a moment. "nor i," he said at last. "very likely we'll get through with it." he added after a pause: "i thought i was done for. a man--loses heart--after a loss of blood." "the leg's better?" "hot as fire." his humor hadn't left him. "it's a treat," he said. "the hottest thing in labrador." later marjorie slept, but on a spring as it were, lest the fire should fall. she replenished it with boughs, tucked in the half-burnt logs, and went to sleep again. then it seemed to her that some invisible hand was pouring a thin spirit on the flames that made them leap and crackle and spread north and south until they filled the heavens with a gorgeous glow. the snowstorm was overpast, leaving the sky clear and all the westward heaven alight with the trailing, crackling, leaping curtains of the [v]aurora, brighter than she had ever seen them before. quite clearly visible beyond the smolder of the fire, a wintry waste of rock and snow, boulder beyond boulder, passed into a [v]dun obscurity. the mountain to the right of them lay long and white and stiff, a shrouded death. all earth was dead and waste, and the sky alive and coldly marvelous, signalling and astir. she watched the changing, shifting colors, and they made her think of the gathering banners of inhuman hosts, the stir and marshaling of icy giants for ends stupendous and indifferent to all the trivial impertinence of man's existence! marjorie felt a passionate desire to pray. the bleak, slow dawn found marjorie intently busy. she had made up the fire, boiled water and washed and dressed trafford's wounds, and made another soup of lynx. but trafford had weakened in the night; the soup nauseated him; he refused it and tried to smoke and was sick, and then sat back rather despairfully after a second attempt to persuade her to leave him there to die. this failure of his spirit distressed her and a little astonished her, but it only made her more resolute to go through with her work. she had awakened cold, stiff and weary, but her fatigue vanished with movement; she toiled for an hour replenishing her pile of fuel, made up the fire, put his gun ready to his hand, kissed him, abused him lovingly for the trouble he gave her until his poor torn face lit in response, and then parting on a note of cheerful confidence, set out to return to the hut. she found the way not altogether easy to make out; wind and snow had left scarcely a trace of their tracks, and her mind was full of the stores she must bring and the possibility of moving trafford nearer to the hut. she was startled to see by the fresh, deep spoor along the ridge how near the wolf had dared approach them in the darkness. ever and again marjorie had to halt and look back to get her direction right. as it was, she came through the willow scrub nearly half a mile above the hut, and had to follow the steep bank of the frozen river. once she nearly slipped upon an icy slope of rock. one possibility she did not dare to think of during that time--a blizzard now would cut her off absolutely from any return to trafford. short of that, she believed she could get through. her quick mind was full of all she had to do. at first she had thought chiefly of trafford's immediate necessities, of food and some sort of shelter. she had got a list of things in her head--meat extract, bandages, [v]corrosive sublimate by way of antiseptic, brandy, a tin of beef, some bread, and so forth; she went over it several times to be sure of it, and then for a time she puzzled about a tent. she thought she could manage a bale of blankets on her back, and that she could rig a sleeping tent for herself and trafford out of them and some bent sticks. the big tent would be too much to strike and shift. and then her mind went on to a bolder enterprise, which was to get him home. the nearer she could bring him to the log hut, the nearer they would be to supplies. she cast about for some sort of sledge. the snow was too soft and broken for runners, especially among the trees, but if she could get a flat of smooth wood, she thought she might be able to drag him. she decided to try the side of her bunk, which she could easily get off. she would have, of course, to run it edgewise through the thickets and across the ravine, but after that she would have almost clear going up to the steep place of broken rocks within two hundred yards of him. the idea of a sledge grew upon her, and she planned to nail a rope along the edge and make a kind of harness for herself. marjorie found the camping-place piled high with drifted snow, which had invaded tent and hut, and that some beast, a wolverine she guessed, had been into the hut, devoured every candle-end and the uppers of trafford's well-greased second boots, and had then gone to the corner of the store-shed and clambered up to the stores. she took no account of its [v]depredations there, but set herself to make a sledge and get her supplies together. there was a gleam of sunshine, though she did not like the look of the sky and she was horribly afraid of what might be happening to trafford. she carried her stuff through the wood and across the ravine, and returned for her improvised sledge. she was still struggling with that among the trees when it began to snow again. it was hard then not to be frantic in her efforts. as it was, she packed her stuff so loosely on the planking that she had to repack it, and she started without putting on her snowshoes, and floundered fifty yards before she discovered that omission. the snow was now falling fast, darkling the sky and hiding everything but objects close at hand, and she had to use all of her wits to determine her direction: she knew she must go down a long slope and then up to the ridge, and it came to her as a happy inspiration that if she bore to the left she might strike some recognizable vestige of her morning's trail. she had read of people walking in circles when they have no light or guidance, and that troubled her until she bethought herself of the little compass on her watch chain. by that she kept her direction. she wished very much she had timed herself across the waste, so that she could tell when she approached the ridge. soon her back and shoulders were aching violently, and the rope across her chest was tugging like some evil-tempered thing. but she did not dare to rest. the snow was now falling thick and fast; the flakes traced white spirals and made her head spin, so that she was constantly falling away to the southwestward and then correcting herself by the compass. she tried to think how this zig-zagging might affect her course, but the snow whirls confused her mind and a growing anxiety would not let her pause to think. marjorie felt blinded; it seemed to be snowing inside her eyes so that she wanted to rub them. soon the ground must rise to the ridge, she told herself; it must surely rise. then the sledge came bumping at her heels and she perceived that she was going down hill. she consulted the compass and found she was facing south. she turned sharply to the right again. the snowfall became a noiseless, pitiless torture to sight and mind. the sledge behind her struggled to hold her back, and the snow balled under her snowshoes. she wanted to stop and rest, take thought, sit for a moment. she struggled with herself and kept on. she tried walking with shut eyes, and tripped and came near sprawling. "oh god!" she cried, "oh god!" too stupefied for more [v]articulate prayers. she was leaden with fatigue. would the rise of the ground to the ribs of rock never come? a figure, black and erect, stood in front of her suddenly, and beyond appeared a group of black, straight antagonists. she staggered on toward them, gripping her rifle with some muddled idea of defense, and in another moment she was brushing against the branches of a stunted fir, which shed thick lumps of snow upon her feet. what trees were these? had she ever passed any trees? no! there were no trees on her way to trafford. at that marjorie began whimpering like a tormented child. but even as she wept, she turned her sledge about to follow the edge of the wood. she was too much downhill, she thought, and must bear up again. she left the trees behind, made an angle uphill to the right, and was presently among trees again. again she left them and again came back to them. she screamed with anger and twitched her sledge along. she wiped at the snowstorm with her arm as though to wipe it away; she wanted to stamp on the universe. and she ached, she ached. suddenly something caught her eye ahead, something that gleamed; it was exactly like a long, bare, rather pinkish bone standing erect on the ground. just because it was strange and queer she ran forward to it. as she came nearer, she perceived that it was a streak of barked trunk; a branch had been torn off a pine tree and the bark stripped down to the root. and then came another, poking its pinkish wounds above the snow. and there were chips! this filled her with wonder. some one had been cutting wood! there must be indians or trappers near, she thought, and of a sudden realized that the wood-cutter could be none other than herself. she turned to the right and saw the rocks rising steeply, close at hand. "oh ragg!" she cried, and fired her rifle in the air. ten seconds, twenty seconds, and then so loud and near it amazed her, came his answering shot. in another moment marjorie had discovered the trail she had made overnight and that morning by dragging firewood. it was now a shallow, soft white trench. instantly her despair and fatigue had gone from her. should she take a load of wood with her? she asked herself, in addition to the weight behind her, and immediately had a better idea. she would unload and pile her stuff here, and bring him down on the sledge closer to the wood. the woman looked about and saw two rocks that diverged, with a space between. she flashed schemes. she would trample the snow hard and flat, put her sledge on it, pile boughs and make a canopy of blanket overhead and behind. finally there would be a fine, roaring fire in front. she tossed her provisions down and ran up the broad windings of her pine-tree trail to trafford, with the sledge bumping behind her. marjorie ran as lightly as though she had done nothing that day. she found trafford markedly recovered, weak and quiet, with snow drifting over his feet, his rifle across his knees, and his pipe alight. "back already"-- he hesitated. "no grub?" the wife knelt over him, gave his rough, unshaven cheek a swift kiss, and rapidly explained her plan. marjorie carried it out with all of the will-power that was hers. in three days' time, in spite of the snow, in spite of every other obstacle, they were back in the hut, and trafford was comfortably settled in bed. the icy vastness of labrador still lay around them to infinite distances on every side, but the two might laugh at storm and darkness now in their cosy hut, with plenty of fuel and food and light. h. g. wells. =helps to study= i. describe the location of trafford's camp; also the coming of winter. give in your own words an account of the adventure that befell the two. ii. name some characteristics marjorie showed in the critical situation. what did she do that impressed you most? what would you have done in similar circumstances? supplementary reading youth--joseph conrad. prairie folks--hamlin garland. northern lights--sir gilbert parker. the bugle song the splendor falls on castle walls the snowy summits old in story; the long light shakes across the lakes, and the wild cataract leaps in glory. blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. o hark, o hear! how thin and clear, and thinner, clearer, farther going! o, sweet and far from cliff and scar the horns of elfland faintly blowing! blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. o love, they die in yon rich sky, they faint on hill or field or river; our echoes roll from soul to soul, and grow for ever and for ever. blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying. and answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. alfred tennyson. the siege of the castle this story is an extract from sir walter scott's novel, _ivanhoe_, which describes life in england during the middle ages, something more than a century after the norman conquest. the hatred between the conquering normans and the conquered saxons still continued, and is graphically pictured by scott. _ivanhoe_ centers about the household of one cedric the saxon, who was a great upholder of the traditions of his unfortunate people. wilfred of ivanhoe, cedric's son, entered the service of the norman king of england, richard i, and accompanied him to the holy land on the third crusade. his father disowned the young knight for what he considered disloyalty to his saxon blood. ivanhoe, returning to england, participated in a great tournament at ashby, in which he won fame under the disguise of the "disinherited knight." among the other knights who took part in the tournament were the normans, maurice de bracy, reginald front-de-boeuf, and brian de bois-guilbert, a knight templar. two sides fought in the tournament, one representing the english, the other representing the foreign element in the land. an unknown knight, clad in black armor, brought victory to the english side, but left the field without disclosing his identity. an archery contest held at the tournament was won by a wonderful bowman who gave his name as locksley. ivanhoe, who fought with great valor, was badly wounded. cedric had been accompanied to ashby by his beautiful ward, the lady rowena, whose wealth and loveliness excited the cupidity of the lawless norman knights. "the siege of the castle" opens with cedric's discovery of his son's identity, and recounts the stirring incidents that follow the tournament. it gives a wonderful picture of warfare as it was hundreds of years ago, before the age of gunpowder. i when cedric the saxon saw his son drop down senseless in the great tournament at ashby, his first impulse was to order him into the care of his own attendants, but the words choked in his throat. he could not bring himself to acknowledge, in the presence of such an assembly, the son whom he had renounced and disinherited for his allegiance to the norman king of england, richard of the lion heart. however, he ordered one of the officers of his household, his cupbearer, to convey ivanhoe to ashby as soon as the crowd had dispersed. but the man was anticipated in this good office. the crowd dispersed, indeed, but the wounded knight was nowhere to be seen. it seemed as if the fairies had conveyed ivanhoe from the spot; and cedric's officer might have adopted some such theory to account for his disappearance, had he not suddenly cast his eyes on a person attired like a squire, in whom he recognized the features of his fellow-servant gurth, who had run away from his master. anxious about ivanhoe's fate, gurth was searching for him everywhere and, in so doing, he neglected the concealment on which his own safety depended. the cupbearer deemed it his duty to secure gurth as a fugitive of whose fate his master was to judge. renewing his inquiries concerning the fate of ivanhoe, all that the cupbearer could learn was that the knight had been raised by certain well-attired grooms, under the direction of a veiled woman, and placed in a litter, which had immediately transported him out of the press. the officer, on receiving this intelligence, resolved to return to his master, carrying along with him gurth, the swineherd, as a deserter from cedric's service. the saxon had been under intense [v]apprehensions concerning his son; but no sooner was he informed that ivanhoe was in careful hands than paternal anxiety gave way anew to the feeling of injured pride and resentment at what he termed wilfred's [v]filial disobedience. "let him wander his way," said cedric; "let those leech his wounds for whose sake he encountered them. he is fitter to do the juggling tricks of the norman chivalry than to maintain the fame and honor of his english ancestry with the [v]glaive and [v]brown-bill, the good old weapons of the country." the old saxon now prepared for his return to rotherwood, with his ward, the lady rowena, and his following. it was during the bustle preceding his departure that cedric, for the first time, cast his eyes upon the deserter gurth. he was in no very placid humor and wanted but a pretext for wreaking his anger upon some one. "the [v]gyves!" he cried. "dogs and villains, why leave ye this knave unfettered?" without daring to remonstrate, the companions of gurth bound him with a halter, as the readiest cord which occurred. he submitted to the operation without any protest, except that he darted a reproachful look at his master. "to horse, and forward!" ordered cedric. "it is indeed full time," said the saxon prince athelstane, who accompanied cedric, "for if we ride not faster, the preparations for our supper will be altogether spoiled." the travelers, however, used such speed as to reach the convent of saint withold's before the apprehended evil took place. the abbot, himself of ancient saxon descent, received the noble saxons with the profuse hospitality of their nation, wherein they indulged to a late hour. they took leave of their reverend host the next morning after they had shared with him a [v]sumptuous breakfast, which athelstane particularly appreciated. the superstitious saxons, as they left the convent, were inspired with a feeling of coming evil by the behavior of a large, lean black dog, which, sitting upright, howled most piteously when the foremost riders left the gate, and presently afterward, barking wildly and jumping to and fro, seemed bent on attaching itself to the party. "in my mind," said athelstane, "we had better turn back and abide with the abbot until the afternoon. it is unlucky to travel where your path is crossed by a monk, a hare, or a howling dog, until you have eaten your next meal." "away!" said cedric impatiently; "the day is already too short for our journey. for the dog, i know it to be the cur of the runaway slave gurth, a useless fugitive like its master." so saying and rising at the same time in his stirrups, impatient at the interruption of his journey, he launched his [v]javelin at poor fangs, who, having lost his master, was now rejoicing at his reappearance. the javelin inflicted a wound upon the animal's shoulder and narrowly missed pinning him to the earth; fangs fled howling from the presence of the enraged [v]thane. gurth's heart swelled within him, for he felt this attempted slaughter of his faithful beast in a degree much deeper than the harsh treatment he had himself received. having in vain raised his hand to his eyes, he said to wamba, the jester, who, seeing his master's ill humor, had prudently retreated to the rear, "i pray thee, do me the kindness to wipe my eyes with the skirt of thy mantle; the dust offends me, and these bonds will not let me help myself one way or another." wamba did him the service he required, and they rode side by side for some time, during which gurth maintained a moody silence. at length he could repress his feelings no longer. "friend wamba," said he, "of all those who are fools enough to serve cedric, thou alone hast sufficient dexterity to make thy folly acceptable to him. go to him, therefore, and tell him that neither for love nor fear will gurth serve him longer. he may strike the head from me--he may scourge me--he may load me with irons--but henceforth he shall never compel me either to love or obey him. go to him and tell him that gurth renounces his service." "assuredly," replied wamba, "fool as i am, i will not do your fool's errand. cedric hath another javelin stuck into his girdle, and thou knowest he doth not always miss his mark." "i care not," returned gurth, "how soon he makes a mark of me. yesterday he left wilfred, my young master, in his blood. to-day he has striven to kill the only other living creature that ever showed me kindness. by saint edward, saint dunstan, saint withold, and every other saint, i will never forgive him!" at noon, upon the motion of athelstane, the travelers paused in a woodland shade by a fountain to repose their horses and partake of some provisions with which the hospitable abbot had loaded a [v]sumpter mule. their repast was a pretty long one; and the interruption made it impossible for them to hope to reach rotherwood without traveling all night, a conviction which induced them to proceed on their way at a more hasty pace than they had hitherto used. the travelers had now reached the verge of the wooded country and were about to plunge into its recesses, held dangerous at that time from the number of outlaws whom oppression and poverty had driven to despair and who occupied the forests in such large bands as could easily bid defiance to the feeble police of the period. from these rovers, however, cedric and athelstane accounted themselves secure, as they had in attendance ten servants, besides wamba and gurth, whose aid could not be counted upon, the one being a jester and the other a captive. it may be added that in traveling thus late through the forest, cedric and athelstane relied on their descent and character as well as their courage. the outlaws were chiefly peasants and [v]yeomen of saxon descent, and were generally supposed to respect the persons and property of their countrymen. before long, as the travelers journeyed on their way, they were alarmed by repeated cries for assistance; and when they rode up to the place whence the cries came, they were surprised to find a horse-litter placed on the ground. beside it sat a very beautiful young woman richly dressed in the jewish fashion, while an old man, whose yellow cap proclaimed him to belong to the same nation, walked up and down with gestures of the deepest despair and wrung his hands. when he began to come to himself out of his agony of terror, the old man, named isaac of york, explained that he had hired a bodyguard of six men at ashby, together with mules for carrying the litter of a sick friend. this party had undertaken to escort him to doncaster. they had come thus far in safety; but having received information from a wood-cutter that a strong band of outlaws was lying in wait in the woods before them, isaac's [v]mercenaries had not only taken to flight, but had carried off the horses which bore the litter and left the jew and his daughter without the means either of defense or of retreat. isaac ended by imploring the saxons to let him travel with them. cedric and athelstane were somewhat in doubt as to what to do, but the matter was settled by rowena's intervention. "the man is old and feeble," she said to cedric, "the maiden young and beautiful, their friend sick and in peril of his life. we cannot leave them in this extremity. let the men unload two of the sumpter-mules and put the baggage behind two of the [v]serfs. the mules may transport the litter, and we have led-horses for the old man and his daughter." cedric readily assented to what was proposed, and the change of baggage was hastily achieved; for the single word "outlaws" rendered every one sufficiently alert, and the approach of twilight made the sound yet more impressive. amid the bustle, gurth was taken from horseback, in the course of which removal he prevailed upon the jester to slack the cord with which his arms were bound. it was so negligently refastened, perhaps intentionally, on the part of wamba, that gurth found no difficulty in freeing his arms altogether, and then, gliding into the thicket, he made his escape from the party. his departure was hardly noticed in the apprehension of the moment. the path upon which the party traveled was now so narrow as not to admit, with any sort of convenience, above two riders abreast, and began to descend into a dingle, traversed by a brook, the banks of which were broken, swampy, and overgrown with dwarf willows. cedric and athelstane, who were at the head of their [v]retinue, saw the risk of being attacked in this pass, but neither knew anything else to do than hasten through the defile as fast as possible. advancing, therefore, without much order, they had just crossed the brook with a part of their followers, when they were assailed, in front, flank, and rear at once, by a band of armed men. the shout of a "white dragon! saint george for merry england!" the war cry of the saxons, was heard on every side, and on every side enemies appeared with a rapidity of advance and attack which seemed to multiply their numbers. both the saxon chiefs were made prisoners at the same moment. cedric, the instant an enemy appeared, launched at him his javelin, which, taking better effect than that which he had hurled at fangs, nailed the man against an oak-tree that happened to be close behind him. thus far successful, cedric spurred his horse against a second, drawing his sword and striking with such inconsiderate fury that his weapon encountered a thick branch which hung over him, and he was disarmed by the violence of his own blow. he was instantly made prisoner and pulled from his horse by two or three of the [v]banditti who crowded around him. athelstane shared his captivity, his bridle having been seized and he himself forcibly dismounted long before he could draw his sword. the attendants, embarrassed with baggage and surprised and terrified at the fate of their master, fell an easy prey to the assailants; while the lady rowena and the jew and his daughter experienced the same misfortune. of all the train none escaped but wamba, who showed upon the occasion much more courage than those who pretended to greater sense. he possessed himself of a sword belonging to one of the domestics, who was just drawing it, laid it about him like a lion, drove back several who approached him, and made a brave though ineffectual effort to succor his master. finding himself overpowered, the jester threw himself from his horse, plunged into a thicket, and, favored by the general confusion, escaped from the scene of action. suddenly a voice very near him called out in a low and cautious tone, "wamba!" and, at the same time, a dog which he recognized as fangs jumped up and fawned upon him. "gurth!" answered wamba with the same caution, and the swineherd immediately stood before him. "what is the matter?" he asked. "what mean these cries and that clashing of swords?" "only a trick of the times," answered wamba. "they are all prisoners." "who are prisoners?" "my lord, and my lady, and athelstane, and the others." "in the name of god," demanded gurth, "how came they prisoners? and to whom?" "they are prisoners to green [v]cassocks and black [v]vizors," answered wamba. "they all lie tumbled about on the green, like the crab-apples that you shake down to your swine. and i would laugh at it," added the honest jester, "if i could for weeping." he shed tears of unfeigned sorrow. gurth's countenance kindled. "wamba," he said, "thou hast a weapon and thy heart was ever stronger than thy brain. we are only two, but a sudden attack from men of resolution might do much. follow me!" "whither, and for what purpose?" asked the jester. "to rescue cedric." "but you renounced his service just now." "that," said gurth, "was while he was fortunate. follow me." as the jester was about to obey, a third person suddenly made his appearance and commanded them both to halt. from his dress and arms wamba would have conjectured him to be one of the outlaws who had just assailed his master; but, besides that he wore no mask, the glittering baldric across his shoulders, with the rich bugle horn which it supported, as well as the calm and commanding expression of his voice and manner, made the jester recognize the archer who had won the prize at the tournament and who was known as locksley. "what is the meaning of all this?" the man demanded. "who are they that rifle and ransom and make prisoners in these forests?" "you may look at their cassocks close by," replied wamba, "and see whether they be thy children's coats or no, for they are as like thine own as one green pea-pod is like another." "i will learn that presently," returned locksley: "and i charge ye, on peril of your lives, not to stir from this place where ye stand until i have returned. obey me, and it shall be the better for you and your masters. yet stay; i must render myself as like these men as possible." so saying, he drew a [v]vizard from his pouch, and, repeating his charges to them to stand fast, went to reconnoitre. "shall we stay, gurth?" asked wamba; "or shall we give him [v]leg-bail? in my foolish mind, he had all the equipage of a thief too much in readiness to be himself a true man." "let him be the devil," said gurth, "an he will. we can be no worse for waiting his return. if he belongs to that party, he must already have given them the alarm, and it will avail us nothing either to fight or fly." the yeoman returned in the course of a few minutes. "friend gurth," he said, "i have mingled among yon men and have learned to whom they belong, and whither they are bound. there is, i think, no chance that they will proceed to any actual violence against their prisoners. for three men to attack them at this moment were little else than madness; for they are good men of war and have, as such, placed sentinels to give the alarm when any one approaches. but i trust soon to gather such a force as may act in defiance of all their precautions. you are both servants, and, as i think, faithful servants of cedric the saxon, the friend of the rights of englishmen. he shall not want english hands to help him in this extremity. come then with me, until i gather more aid." so saying, he walked through the wood at a great pace, followed by the jester and the swineherd. the three men proceeded with occasional converse but, for the most part, in silence for about three hours. finally they arrived at a small opening in the forest, in the center of which grew an oak-tree of enormous magnitude, throwing its twisted branches in every direction. beneath this tree four or five yeomen lay stretched on the ground, while another, as sentinel, walked to and fro in the moonlight. upon hearing the sound of feet approaching, the watch instantly gave the alarm, and the sleepers as suddenly started up and bent their bows. six arrows placed on the string were pointed toward the quarter from which the travelers approached, when their guide, being recognized, was welcomed with every token of respect and attachment. "where is the miller?" was locksley's first question. "on the road toward rotherham." "with how many?" demanded the leader, for such he seemed to be. "with six men, and good hope of booty, if it please saint nicholas." "devoutly spoken," said locksley. "and where is allan-a-dale?" "walked up toward the [v]watling street, to watch for the prior of jorvaulx." "that is well thought on also," replied the captain. "and where is the friar?" "in his cell." "thither will i go," said locksley. "disperse and seek your companions. collect what force you can, for there's game afoot that must be hunted hard and will turn to bay. meet me here at daybreak. and stay," he added; "i have forgotten what is most necessary of the whole. two of you take the road quickly toward torquilstone, the castle of [v]front-de-boeuf. a set of gallants, who have been [v]masquerading in such guise as our own, are carrying a band of prisoners thither. watch them closely, for, even if they reach the castle before we collect our force, our honor is concerned to punish them, and we will find means to do so. keep a good watch on them, therefore, and despatch one of your comrades to bring the news of the yeomen thereabouts." the men promised obedience and departed on their several errands. meanwhile, their leader and his two companions, who now looked upon him with great respect as well as some fear, pursued their way to the chapel where dwelt the friar mentioned by locksley. presently they reached a little moonlit glade, in front of which stood an ancient and ruinous chapel and beside it a rude hermitage of stone half-covered with ivy vines. the sounds which proceeded at that moment from the latter place were anything but churchly. in fact, the hermit and another voice were performing at the full extent of very powerful lungs an old drinking-song, of which this was the burden: come, trowl the brown bowl to me, bully boy, bully boy; come trowl the brown bowl to me: ho! jolly jenkin, i spy a knave drinking; come trowl the brown bowl to me. "now, that is not ill sung," said wamba, who had thrown in a few of his own flourishes to help out the chorus. "but who, in the saint's name, ever expected to have heard such a jolly chant come from a hermit's cell at midnight?" "marry, that should i," said gurth, "for the jolly clerk of copmanhurst is a known man and kills half the deer that are stolen in this walk. men say that the deer-keeper has complained of him and that he will be stripped of his [v]cowl and [v]cope altogether if he keep not better order." while they were thus speaking, locksley's loud and repeated knocks had at length disturbed the [v]anchorite and his guest, who was a knight of singularly powerful build and open, handsome face, and in black armor. "by my beads," said the hermit, "here come other guests. i would not for my cowl that they found us in this goodly exercise. all men have enemies, sir knight; and there be those malignant enough to construe the hospitable refreshment i have been offering to you, a weary traveler, into drinking and gluttony, vices alike alien to my profession and my disposition." "base [v]calumniators!" replied the knight. "i would i had the chastising of them. nevertheless, holy clerk, it is true that all have their enemies; and there be those in this very land whom i would rather speak to through the bars of my helmet than bare-faced." "get thine iron pot on thy head, then, sir knight," said the hermit, "while i remove these pewter flagons." he struck up a thundering [v]_de profundis clamavi_, under cover of which he removed the apparatus of their banquet, while the knight, laughing heartily and arming himself all the while, assisted his host with his voice from time to time as his mirth permitted. "what devil's [v]matins are you after at this hour?" demanded a voice from outside. "heaven forgive you, sir traveler!" said the hermit, whose own noise prevented him from recognizing accents which were tolerably familiar to him. "wend on your way, in the name of god and saint dunstan, and disturb not the devotions of me and my holy brother." "mad priest," answered the voice from without; "open to locksley!" "all's safe--all's right," said the hermit to his companion. "but who is he?" asked the black knight. "it imports me much to know." "who is he?" answered the hermit. "i tell thee he is a friend." "but what friend?" persisted the knight; "for he may be a friend to thee and none of mine." "what friend?" replied the hermit; "that now is one of the questions that is more easily asked than answered." "well, open the door," ordered the knight, "before he beat it from its hinges." the hermit speedily unbolted his portal and admitted locksley, with his two companions. "why, hermit," was the yeoman's first question as soon as he beheld the knight, "what boon companion hast thou here?" "a brother of our order," replied the friar, shaking his head; "we have been at our devotions all night." "he is a monk of the church militant," answered locksley; "and there be more of them abroad. i tell thee, friar, thou must lay down the [v]rosary and take up the [v]quarter-staff; we shall need every one of our merry men, whether clerk or layman. but," he added, taking a step aside, "art thou mad--to give admittance to a knight thou dost not know? hast thou forgotten our agreement?" "good yeoman," said the knight, coming forward, "be not wroth with my merry host. he did but afford me the hospitality which i would have compelled from him if he had refused it." "thou compel!" cried the friar. "wait but till i have changed this gray gown for a green cassock, and if i make not a quarter-staff ring twelve upon thy pate, i am neither true clerk nor good woodsman." while he spoke thus he stript off his gown and appeared in a close buckram doublet and lower garment, over which he speedily did on a cassock of green and hose of the same color. "i pray thee [v]truss my points," he said to wamba, "and thou shalt have a cup of sack for thy labor." "[v]gramercy for thy sack," returned wamba; "but thinkest thou that it is lawful for me to aid you to transmew thyself from a holy hermit into a sinful forester?" so saying, he accommodated the friar with his assistance in tying the endless number of points, as the laces which attached the hose to the doublet were then termed. while they were thus employed, locksley led the knight a little apart and addressed him thus: "deny it not, sir knight, you are he who played so glorious a part at the tournament at ashby." "and what follows, if you guess truly, good yeoman?" "for my purpose," said the yeoman, "thou shouldst be as well a good englishman as a good knight; for that which i have to speak of concerns, indeed, the duty of every honest man, but is more especially that of a true-born native of england." "you can speak to no one," replied the knight, "to whom england, and the life of every englishman, can be dearer than to me." "i would willingly believe so," said the woodsman; "and never had this country such need to be supported by those who love her. a band of villains, in the disguise of better men than themselves, have become masters of the persons of a noble englishman named cedric the saxon, together with his ward and his friend, athelstane of coningsburgh, and have transported them to a castle in this forest called torquilstone. i ask of thee, as a good knight and a good englishman, wilt thou aid in their rescue?" "i am bound by my vow to do so," replied the knight; "but i would willingly know who you are who request my assistance in their behalf?" "i am," said the forester, "a nameless man; but i am a friend of my country and my country's friends. believe, however, that my word, when pledged, is as [v]inviolate as if i wore golden spurs." "i willingly believe it," returned the knight. "i have been accustomed to study men's countenances, and i can read in thine honesty and resolution. i will, therefore, ask thee no farther questions but aid thee in setting at freedom these oppressed captives, which done, i trust we shall part better acquainted and well satisfied with each other." when the friar was at length ready, locksley turned to his companions. "come on, my masters," he said; "tarry not to talk. i say, come on: we must collect all our forces, and few enough shall we have if we are to storm the castle of reginald front-de-boeuf." ii while these measures were taking in behalf of cedric and his companions, the armed men by whom the latter had been seized hurried their captives along toward the place of security, where they intended to imprison them. but darkness came on fast, and the paths of the wood seemed but imperfectly known to the [v]marauders. they were compelled to make several long halts and once or twice to return on their road to resume the direction which they wished to pursue. it was, therefore, not until the light of the summer morn had dawned upon them that they could travel in full assurance that they held the right path. in vain cedric [v]expostulated with his guards, who refused to break their silence for his wrath or his protests. they continued to hurry him along, traveling at a very rapid rate, until, at the end of an avenue of huge trees, arose torquilstone, the hoary and ancient castle of reginald front-de-boeuf. it was a fortress of no great size, consisting of a donjon, or large and high square tower, surrounded by buildings of inferior height. around the exterior wall was a deep moat, supplied with water from a neighboring rivulet. front-de-boeuf, whose character placed him often at feud with his neighbors, had made considerable additions to the strength of his castle by building towers upon the outward wall, so as to flank it at every angle. the access, as usual in castles of the period, lay through an arched [v]barbican or outwork, which was defended by a small turret. cedric no sooner saw the turrets of front-de-boeuf's castle raise their gray and moss-grown battlements, glimmering in the morning sun, above the woods by which they were surrounded than he instantly augured more truly concerning the cause of his misfortune. "i did injustice," he said, "to the thieves and outlaws of these woods, when i supposed such banditti to belong to their bands. i might as justly have confounded the foxes of these brakes with the ravening wolves of france!" arrived before the castle, the prisoners were compelled by their guards to alight and were hastened across the drawbridge into the castle. they were immediately conducted to an apartment where a hasty repast was offered them, of which none but athelstane felt any inclination to partake. neither did he have much time to do justice to the good cheer placed before him, for the guards gave him and cedric to understand that they were to be imprisoned in a chamber apart from rowena. resistance was vain; and they were compelled to follow to a large room, which, rising on clumsy saxon pillars, resembled the [v]refectories and chapter-houses which may still be seen in the most ancient parts of our most ancient monasteries. the lady rowena was next separated from her train and conducted with courtesy, indeed, but still without consulting her inclination, to a distant apartment. the same alarming distinction was conferred on the young jewess, rebecca, in spite of the entreaties of her father, who offered money in the extremity of his distress that she might be permitted to abide with him. "base unbeliever," answered one of his guards, "when thou hast seen thy lair, thou wilt not wish thy daughter to partake it." without further discussion, the old jew was dragged off in a different direction from the other prisoners. the domestics, after being searched and disarmed, were confined in another part of the castle. the three leaders of the banditti and the men who had planned and carried out the outrage, norman knights,--front-de-boeuf, the brutal owner of the castle; maurice de bracy, a free-lance, who sought to wed the lady rowena by force and so had arranged the attack, and brian de [v]bois-guilbert, a distinguished member of the famous order of [v]knights templar,--had a short discussion together and then separated. front-de-boeuf immediately sought the apartment where isaac of york tremblingly awaited his fate. the jew had been hastily thrown into a dungeon-vault of the castle, the floor of which was deep beneath the level of the earth, and very damp, being lower than the moat itself. the only light was received through one or two loop-holes far above the reach of the captive's hand. these [v]apertures admitted, even at midday, only a dim and uncertain light, which was changed for utter darkness long before the rest of the castle had lost the blessing of day. chains and shackles, which had been the portion of former captives, hung rusted and empty on the walls of the prison, and in the rings of one of these sets of fetters there remained two moldering bones which seemed those of the human leg. at one end of this ghastly apartment was a large fire-grate, over the top of which were stretched some transverse iron bars, half devoured with rust. the whole appearance of the dungeon might have appalled a stouter heart than that of isaac, who, nevertheless, was more composed under the imminent pressure of danger than he had seemed to be while affected by terrors of which the cause was as yet remote and [v]contingent. it was not the first time that isaac had been placed in circumstances so dangerous. he had, therefore, experience to guide him, as well as a hope that he might again be delivered from the peril. the jew remained without altering his position for nearly three hours, at the end of which time steps were heard on the dungeon stair. the bolts screamed as they were withdrawn, the hinges creaked as the wicket opened, and reginald front-de-boeuf, followed by two saracen slaves of the templar, entered the prison. front-de-boeuf, a tall and strong man, whose life had been spent in public war or in private feuds and broils and who had hesitated at no means of extending his [v]feudal power, had features corresponding to his character, and which strongly expressed the fiercer and more evil passions of the mind. the scars with which his visage was seamed would, on features of a different cast, have excited the sympathy due to the marks of honorable valor; but in the peculiar case of front-de-boeuf they only added to the ferocity of his countenance and to the dread which his presence inspired. the formidable baron was clad in a leathern doublet, fitted close to his body, which was frayed and soiled with the stains of his armor. he had no weapon, except a [v]poniard at his belt, which served to counter-balance the weight of the bunch of rusty keys that hung at his right side. the black slaves who attended front-de-boeuf were attired in jerkins and trousers of coarse linen, their sleeves being tucked up above the elbow, like those of butchers when about to exercise their functions in the slaughter-house. each had in his hand a small [v]pannier; and when they entered the dungeon, they paused at the door until front-de-boeuf himself carefully locked and double-locked it. having taken this precaution, he advanced slowly up the apartment toward the jew, upon whom he kept his eye fixed as if he wished to paralyze him with his glance, as some animals are said to fascinate their prey. the jew sat with his mouth agape and his eyes fixed on the savage baron with such earnestness of terror that his frame seemed literally to shrink together and diminish in size while encountering the fierce norman's fixed and baleful gaze. the unhappy isaac was deprived not only of the power of rising to make the [v]obeisance which his fear had dictated, but he could not even doff his cap or utter any word of supplication, so strongly was he agitated by the conviction that tortures and death were impending over him. on the other hand, the stately form of the norman appeared to dilate in magnitude, like that of the eagle, which ruffles up its plumage when about to pounce on its defenseless prey. he paused within three steps of the corner in which the unfortunate hebrew had now, as it were, coiled himself up into the smallest possible space, and made a sign for one of the slaves to approach. the black [v]satellite came forward accordingly, and producing from his basket a large pair of scales and several weights, he laid them at the feet of front-de-boeuf and retired to the respectful distance at which his companion had already taken his station. the motions of these men were slow and solemn, as if there impended over their souls some [v]preconception of horror and cruelty. front-de-boeuf himself opened the scene by addressing his ill-fated captive. "most accursed dog," he said, awakening with his deep and sullen voice the echoes of the dungeon vault, "seest thou these scales?" the unhappy jew returned a feeble affirmative. "in these very scales shalt thou weigh me out," said the relentless baron, "a thousand silver pounds, after the just measure and weight of the tower of london." "holy abraham!" returned the jew, finding voice through the very extremity of his danger; "heard man ever such a demand? who ever heard, even in a minstrel's tale, of such a sum as a thousand pounds of silver? what human eyes were ever blessed with the sight of so great a mass of treasure? not within the walls of york, ransack my house and that of all my tribe, wilt thou find the [v]tithe of that huge sum of silver that thou speakest of." "i am reasonable," answered front-de-boeuf, "and if silver be scant, i refuse not gold. at the rate of a mark of gold for each six pounds of silver, thou shalt free thy unbelieving carcass from such punishment as thy heart has never even conceived in thy wildest imaginings." "have mercy on me, noble knight!" pleaded isaac. "i am old, and poor, and helpless. it were unworthy to triumph over me. it is a poor deed to crush a worm." "old thou mayst be," replied the knight, "and feeble thou mayst be; but rich it is known thou art." "i swear to you, noble knight," said isaac, "by all which i believe and all which we believe in common--" "perjure not thyself," interrupted the norman, "and let not thy obstinacy seal thy doom, until thou hast seen and well considered the fate that awaits thee. this prison is no place for trifling. prisoners ten thousand times more distinguished than thou have died within these walls, and their fate has never been known. but for thee is reserved a long and lingering death, to which theirs was luxury." he again made a signal for the slaves to approach and spoke to them apart in their own language; for he had been a crusader in palestine, where, perhaps, he had learned his lesson of cruelty. the saracens produced from their baskets a quantity of charcoal, a pair of bellows, and a flask of oil. while the one struck a light with a flint and steel, the other disposed the charcoal in the large rusty grate which we have already mentioned and exercised the bellows until the fuel came to a red glow. "seest thou, isaac," said front-de-boeuf, "the range of iron bars above that glowing charcoal? on that warm couch thou shalt lie, stripped of thy clothes as if thou wert to rest on a bed of down. one of these slaves shall maintain the fire beneath thee, while the other shall anoint thy wretched limbs with oil, lest the roast should burn. now choose betwixt such a scorching bed and the payment of a thousand pounds of silver; for, by the head of my father, thou hast no other [v]option." "it is impossible," exclaimed the miserable isaac; "it is impossible that your purpose can be real! the good god of nature never made a heart capable of exercising such cruelty!" "trust not to that, isaac," said front-de-boeuf; "it were a fatal error. dost thou think that i who have seen a town sacked, in which thousands perished by sword, by flood, and by fire, will blench from my purpose for the outcries of a single wretch? be wise, old man; discharge thyself of a portion of thy superfluous wealth; repay to the hands of a christian a part of what thou hast acquired by [v]usury. thy cunning may soon swell out once more thy shriveled purse, but neither leech nor medicine can restore thy scorched hide and flesh wert thou once stretched on these bars. tell down thy [v]ransom, i say, and rejoice that at such a rate thou canst redeem thyself from a dungeon, the secrets of which few have returned to tell. i waste no more words with thee. choose between thy [v]dross and thy flesh and blood, and as thou choosest so shall it be." "so may abraham and all the fathers of our people assist me!" said isaac; "i cannot make the choice because i have not the means of satisfying your [v]exorbitant demand!" "seize him and strip him, slaves," said the knight. the assistants, taking their directions more from the baron's eye and hand than his tongue, once more stepped forward, laid hands on the unfortunate isaac, plucked him up from the ground, and holding him between them, waited the hard-hearted baron's further signal. the unhappy man eyed their countenances and that of front-de-boeuf in the hope of discovering some symptoms of softening; but that of the baron showed the same cold, half-sullen, half-sarcastic smile, which had been the prelude to his cruelty; and the savage eyes of the saracens, rolling gloomily under their dark brows, evinced rather the secret pleasure which they expected from the approaching scene than any reluctance to be its agents. the jew then looked at the glowing furnace, over which he was presently to be stretched, and, seeing no chance of his tormentor's relenting, his resolution gave way. "i will pay," he said, "the thousand pounds of silver--that is, i will pay it with the help of my brethren, for i must beg as a mendicant at the door of our synagogue ere i make up so unheard-of a sum. when and where must it be delivered?" he inquired with a sigh. "here," replied front-de-boeuf. "weighed it must be--weighed and told down on this very dungeon floor. thinkest thou i will part with thee until thy ransom is secure?" "then let my daughter rebecca go forth to york," said isaac, "with your safe conduct, noble knight, and so soon as man and horse can return, the treasure--" here he groaned deeply, but added, after the pause of a few seconds,--"the treasure shall be told down on this floor." "thy daughter!" said front-de-boeuf, as if surprised. "by heavens, isaac, i would i had known of this! i gave yonder black-browed girl to sir brian de bois-guilbert, to be his prisoner. she is not in my power." the yell which isaac raised at this unfeeling communication made the very vault to ring, and astounded the two saracens so much that they let go their hold of the victim. he availed himself of his freedom to throw himself on the pavement and clasp the knees of front-de-boeuf. "take all that you have asked," said he--"take ten times more--reduce me to ruin and to beggary, if thou wilt--nay, pierce me with thy poniard, broil me on that furnace, but spare my daughter! will you deprive me of my sole remaining comfort in life?" "i would," said the norman, somewhat relenting, "that i had known of this before. i thought you loved nothing but your money-bags." "think not so vilely of me," returned isaac, eager to improve the moment of apparent sympathy. "i love mine own, even as the hunted fox, the tortured wildcat loves its young." "be it so," said front-de-boeuf; "but it aids us not now. i cannot help what has happened or what is to follow. my word is passed to my comrade in arms that he shall have the maiden as his share of the spoil, and i would not break it for ten jews and jewesses to boot. take thought instead to pay me the ransom thou hast promised, or woe betide thee!" "robber and villain!" cried the jew, "i will pay thee nothing--not one silver penny will i pay thee unless my daughter is delivered to me in safety!" "art thou in thy senses, israelite?" asked the norman sternly. "hast thy flesh and blood a charm against heated iron and scalding oil?" "i care not!" replied the jew, rendered desperate by paternal affection; "my daughter is my flesh and blood, dearer to me a thousand times than those limbs thy cruelty threatens. no silver will i give thee unless i were to pour it molten down thy [v]avaricious throat--no, not a silver penny will i give thee, [v]nazarene, were it to save thee from the deep damnation thy whole life has merited. take my life, if thou wilt, and say that the jew, amidst his tortures, knew how to disappoint the christian." "we shall see that," said front-de-boeuf; "for by the blessed [v]rood thou shalt feel the extremities of fire and steel! strip him, slaves, and chain him down upon the bars." in spite of the feeble struggles of the old man, the saracens had already torn from him his upper garment and were proceeding totally to disrobe him, when the sound of a bugle, twice winded without the castle, penetrated even to the recesses of the dungeon. immediately after voices were heard calling for sir reginald front-de-boeuf. unwilling to be found engaged in his hellish occupation, the savage baron gave the slaves a signal to restore isaac's garment; and, quitting the dungeon with his attendants, he left the jew to thank god for his own deliverance or to lament over his daughter's captivity, as his personal or parental feelings might prove the stronger. iii when the bugle sounded, de bracy was engaged in pressing his suit with the saxon heiress rowena, whom he had carried off under the impression that she would speedily surrender to his rough wooing. but he found her [v]obdurate as well as tearful and in no humor to listen to his professions of devotion. it was, therefore, with some relief that the free-lance heard the summons at the barbican. going into the hall of the castle, de bracy was presently joined by bois-guilbert. "where is front-de-boeuf!" the latter asked. "he is [v]negotiating with the jew, i suppose," replied de bracy, coolly; "probably the howls of isaac have drowned the blast of the bugle. but we will make the [v]vassals call him." they were soon after joined by front-de-boeuf, who had only tarried to give some necessary directions. "let us see the cause of this cursed clamor," he said. "here is a letter which has just been brought in, and, if i mistake not, it is in saxon." he looked at it, turning it round and round as if he had some hopes of coming at the meaning by inverting the position of the paper, and then handed it to de bracy. "it may be magic spells for aught i know," said de bracy, who possessed his full proportion of the ignorance which characterized the chivalry of the period. "give it to me," said the templar. "we have that of the priestly character that we have some knowledge to enlighten our valor." "let us profit by your most reverend knowledge, then," returned de bracy. "what says the scroll?" "it is a formal letter of defiance," answered bois-guilbert; "but, by our lady of bethlehem, if it be not a foolish jest, it is the most extraordinary [v]cartel that ever went across the drawbridge of a baronial castle." "jest!" exclaimed front-de-boeuf. "i would gladly know who dares jest with me in such a matter! read it, sir brian." the templar accordingly read as follows: "i, wamba, the son of witless, jester to a noble and free-born man, cedric of rotherwood, called the saxon: and i, gurth, the son of beowulph, the swineherd--" "thou art mad!" cried front-de-boeuf, interrupting the reader. "by saint luke, it is so set down," answered the templar. then, resuming his task, he went on: "i, gurth, the son of beowulph, swineherd unto the said cedric, with the assistance of our allies and confederates, who make common cause with us in this our feud, namely, the good knight, called for the present the black knight, and the stout yeoman, robert locksley, called cleve-the-wand: do you, reginald front-de-boeuf, and your allies and accomplices whomsoever, to wit, that whereas you have, without cause given or feud declared, wrongfully and by mastery, seized upon the person of our lord and master, the said cedric; also upon the person of a noble and free-born damsel, the lady rowena; also upon the person of a noble and free-born man, athelstane of coningsburgh; also upon the persons of certain free-born men, their vassals; also upon certain serfs, their born bondsmen; also upon a certain jew, named isaac of york, together with his daughter, and certain horses and mules: therefore, we require and demand that the said persons be within an hour after the delivery hereof delivered to us, untouched and unharmed in body and goods. failing of which, we do pronounce to you that we hold ye as robbers and traitors and will wager our bodies against ye in battle and do our utmost to your destruction. signed by us upon the eve of saint withold's day, under the great oak in the hart-hill walk, the above being written by a holy man, clerk to god and saint dunstan in the chapel of copmanhurst." the knights heard this uncommon document read from end to end and then gazed upon each other in silent amazement, as being utterly at a loss to know what it could portend. de bracy was the first to break silence by an uncontrollable fit of laughter, wherein he was joined, though with more moderation, by the templar. front-de-boeuf, on the contrary, seemed impatient of their ill-timed [v]jocularity. "i give you plain warning," he said, "fair sirs, that you had better consult how to bear yourselves under these circumstances than to give way to such misplaced merriment." "front-de-boeuf has not recovered his temper since his overthrow in the tournament," said de bracy to the templar. "he is cowed at the very idea of a cartel, though it be from a fool and a swineherd." "i would thou couldst stand the whole brunt of this adventure thyself, de bracy," answered front-de-boeuf. "these fellows dared not to have acted with such inconceivable impudence had they not been supported by some strong bands. there are enough outlaws in this forest to resent my protecting the deer. i did but tie one fellow, who was taken red-handed and in the fact, to the horns of a wild stag, which gored him to death in five minutes, and i had as many arrows shot at me as were launched in the tournament. here, fellow," he added to one of his attendants, "hast thou sent out to see by what force this precious challenge is to be supported?" "there are at least two hundred men assembled in the woods," answered a squire who was in attendance. "here is a proper matter!" said front-de-boeuf. "this comes of lending you the use of my castle. you cannot manage your undertaking quietly, but you must bring this nest of hornets about my ears!" "of hornets?" echoed de bracy. "of stingless drones rather--a band of lazy knaves who take to the wood and destroy the venison rather than labor for their maintenance." "stingless!" replied front-de-boeuf. "fork-headed shafts of a cloth-yard in length, and these shot within the breadth of a french crown, are sting enough." "for shame, sir knight!" said the templar. "let us summon our people and sally forth upon them. one knight--ay, one man-at-arms--were enough for twenty such peasants." "enough, and too much," agreed de bracy. "i should be ashamed to couch lance against them." "true," answered front-de-boeuf, drily, "were they black turks or moors, sir templar, or the craven peasants of france, most valiant de bracy; but these are english yeomen, over whom we shall have no advantage save what we may derive from our arms and horses, which will avail us little in the glades of the forest. sally, saidst thou? we have scarce men enough to defend the castle. the best of mine are at york; so is your band, de bracy; and we have scarce twenty, besides the handful that were engaged in this mad business." "thou dost not fear," said the templar, "that they can assemble in force sufficient to attempt the castle?" "not so, sir brian," answered front-de-boeuf. "these outlaws have indeed a daring captain; but without machines, scaling ladders, and experienced leaders my castle may defy them." "send to thy neighbors," suggested the templar. "let them assemble their people and come to the rescue of three knights, besieged by a jester and swineherd in the baronial castle of reginald front-de-boeuf!" "you jest, sir knight," answered the baron; "but to whom shall i send? my allies are at york, where i should have also been but for this infernal enterprise." "then send to york and recall our people," said de bracy. "if these [v]churls abide the shaking of my standard, i will give them credit for the boldest outlaws that ever bent bow in greenwood." "and who shall bear such a message?" said front-de-boeuf. "the knaves will beset every path and rip the errand out of the man's bosom. i have it," he added, after pausing for a moment. "sir templar, thou canst write as well as read, and if we can but find writing materials, thou shalt return an answer to this bold challenge." paper and pen were presently brought, and bois-guilbert sat down and wrote, in the french language, an epistle of the following tenor: "sir reginald front-de-boeuf, with his noble and knightly allies and confederates, receives no defiances at the hands of slaves, bondsmen, or fugitives. if the person calling himself the black knight hath indeed a claim to the honors of chivalry, he ought to know that he stands degraded by his present association and has no right to ask reckoning at the hands of good men of noble blood. touching the prisoners we have made, we do in christian charity require you to send a man of religion to receive their confession and reconcile them with god; since it is our fixed intention to execute them this morning before noon, so that their heads, being placed on the battlements, shall show to all men how lightly we esteem those who have bestirred themselves in their rescue. wherefore, as above, we require you to send a priest to reconcile them with god, in doing which you shall render them the last earthly service." this letter, being folded, was delivered to the squire, and by him to the messenger who waited without, as the answer to that which he had brought. iv about one hour afterward a man arrayed in the cowl and frock of a hermit, and having his knotted cord twisted around his middle, stood before the portal of the castle of front-de-boeuf. the warder demanded of him his name and errand. "[v]_pax vobiscum_," answered the priest, "i am a poor brother of the [v]order of st. francis who come hither to do my office to certain unhappy prisoners now secured within this castle." "thou art a bold friar," said the warder, "to come hither, where, saving our own drunken confessor, a rooster of thy feather hath not crowed these twenty years." with these words, he carried to the hall of the castle his unwonted intelligence that a friar stood before the gate and desired admission. with no small wonder he received his master's command to admit the holy man immediately; and, having previously manned the entrance to guard against surprise, he obeyed, without farther scruple, the order given him. "who and whence art thou, priest?" demanded front-de-boeuf. "_pax vobiscum_," reiterated the priest, with trembling voice. "i am a poor servant of saint francis, who, traveling through this wilderness, have fallen among thieves, which thieves have sent me unto this castle in order to do my ghostly office on two persons condemned by your honorable justice." "ay, right," answered front-de-boeuf; "and canst thou tell me, the number of those banditti?" "gallant sir," said the priest, "[v]_nomen illis legio_, their name is legion." "tell me in plain terms what numbers there are, or, priest, thy cloak and cord will ill protect thee from my wrath." "alas!" said the friar, "[v]_cor meum eructavit_, that is to say, i was like to burst with fear! but i conceive they may be--what of yeomen, what of commons--at least five hundred men." "what!" said the templar, who came into the hall that moment, "muster the wasps so thick here? it is time to stifle such a mischievous brood." then taking front-de-boeuf aside, "knowest thou the priest?" "he is a stranger from a distant convent," replied front-de-boeuf; "i know him not." "then trust him not with our purpose in words," urged the templar. "let him carry a written order to de bracy's company of free companions, to repair instantly to their master's aid. in the meantime, and that the shaveling may suspect nothing, permit him to go freely about his task of preparing the saxon hogs for the slaughter-house." "it shall be so," said front-de-boeuf. and he forthwith appointed a domestic to conduct the friar to the apartment where cedric and athelstane were confined. the natural impatience of cedric had been rather enhanced than diminished by his confinement. he walked from one end of the hall to the other, with the attitude of a man who advances to charge an enemy or storm the breach of a beleaguered place, sometimes ejaculating to himself and sometimes addressing athelstane. the latter stoutly and [v]stoically awaited the issue of the adventure, digesting in the meantime, with great composure, the liberal meal which he had made at noon and not greatly troubling himself about the duration of the captivity. "_pax vobiscum_!" pronounced the priest, entering the apartment. "the blessing of saint dunstan, saint dennis, saint duthoc, and all other saints whatsoever, be upon ye and about ye." "enter freely," said cedric to the friar; "with what intent art thou come hither?" "to bid you prepare yourselves for death," was the reply. "it is impossible!" said cedric, starting. "fearless and wicked as they are, they dare not attempt such open and [v]gratuitous cruelty!" "alas!" returned the priest, "to restrain them by their sense of humanity is the same as to stop a runaway horse with a bridle of silk thread. bethink thee, therefore, cedric, and you also, athelstane, what crimes you have committed in the flesh, for this very day will ye be called to answer at a higher [v]tribunal." "hearest thou this, athelstane?" said cedric. "we must rouse up our hearts to this last action, since better it is we should die like men than live like slaves." "i am ready," answered athelstane, "to stand the worst of their malice, and shall walk to my death with as much composure as ever i did to my dinner." "let us, then, unto our holy [v]gear, father," said cedric. "wait yet a moment, good [v]uncle," said the priest in a voice very different from his solemn tones of a moment before; "better look before you leap in the dark." "by my faith!" cried cedric; "i should know that voice." "it is that of your trusty slave and jester," answered the priest, throwing back his cowl and revealing the face of wamba. "take a fool's advice, and you will not be here long." "how meanest thou, knave?" demanded the saxon. "even thus," replied wamba; "take thou this frock and cord and march quietly out of the castle, leaving me your cloak and girdle to take the long leap in thy stead." "leave thee in my stead!" exclaimed cedric, astonished at the proposal; "why, they would hang thee, my poor knave." "e'en let them do as they are permitted," answered wamba. "i trust--no disparagement to your birth--that the son of witless may hang in a chain with as much gravity as the chain hung upon his ancestor the [v]alderman." "well, wamba," said cedric, "for one thing will i grant thy request. and that is, if thou wilt make the exchange of garments with lord athelstane instead of me." "no," answered wamba; "there were little reason in that. good right there is that the son of witless should suffer to save the son of hereward; but little wisdom there were in his dying for the benefit of one whose fathers were strangers to his." "villain," cried cedric, "the fathers of athelstane were monarchs of england!" "they might be whomsoever they pleased," replied wamba; "but my neck stands too straight on my shoulders to have it twisted for their sake. wherefore, good my master, either take my proffer yourself, or suffer me to leave this dungeon as free as i entered." "let the old tree wither," persisted cedric, "so the stately hope of the forest be preserved. save the noble athelstane, my trusty wamba! it is the duty of each who has saxon blood in his veins. thou and i will abide together the utmost rage of our oppressors, while he, free and safe, shall arouse the awakened spirits of our countrymen to avenge us." "not so, father cedric," said athelstane, grasping his hand--for, when roused to think or act, his deeds and sentiments were not unbecoming his high race--"not so. i would rather remain in this hall a week without food save the prisoner's stinted loaf, or drink save the prisoner's measure of water, than embrace the opportunity to escape which the slave's untaught kindness has [v]purveyed for his master. go, noble cedric. your presence without may encourage friends to our rescue; your remaining here would ruin us all." "and is there any prospect, then, of rescue from without?" asked cedric, looking at the jester. "prospect indeed!" echoed wamba. "let me tell you that when you fill my cloak you are wrapped in a general's cassock. five hundred men are there without, and i was this morning one of their chief leaders. my fool's cap was a [v]casque, and my [v]bauble a truncheon. well, we shall see what good they will make by exchanging a fool for a wise man. truly, i fear they will lose in valor what they may gain in discretion. and so farewell, master, and be kind to poor gurth and his dog fangs; and let my [v]coxcomb hang in the hall at rotherwood in memory that i flung away my life for my master--like a faithful fool!" the last word came out with a sort of double expression, betwixt jest and earnest. the tears stood in cedric's eyes. "thy memory shall be preserved," he said, "while fidelity and affection have honor upon earth. but that i trust i shall find the means of saving rowena and thee, athelstane, and thee also, my poor wamba, thou shouldst not overbear me in this matter." the exchange of dress was now accomplished, when a sudden doubt struck cedric. "i know no language but my own and a few words of their mincing norman. how shall i bear myself like a reverend brother?" "the spell lies in two words," replied wamba: "_pax vobiscum_ will answer all queries. if you go or come, eat or drink, bless or ban, _pax vobiscum_ carries you through it all. it is as useful to a friar as a broomstick to a witch or a wand to a conjurer. speak it but thus, in a deep, grave tone,--_pax vobiscum_!--it is irresistible. watch and ward, knight and squire, foot and horse, it acts as a charm upon them all. i think, if they bring me out to be hanged to-morrow, as is much to be doubted they may, i will try its weight." "if such prove the case," said his master, "my religious orders are soon taken. _pax vobiscum_! i trust i shall remember the password. noble athelstane, farewell; and farewell, my poor boy, whose heart might make amends for a weaker head. i will save you, or return and die with you. farewell." "farewell, noble cedric," said athelstane; "remember it is the true part of a friar to accept refreshment, if you are offered any." thus exhorted, cedric sallied forth upon his expedition and presently found himself in the presence of front-de-boeuf. the saxon, with some difficulty, compelled himself to make obeisance to the haughty baron, who returned his courtesy with a slight inclination of the head. "thy penitents, father," said the latter, "have made a long [v]shrift. it is the better for them, since it is the last they shall ever make. hast thou prepared them for death?" "i found them," said cedric, in such french as he could command, "expecting the worst, from the moment they knew into whose power they had fallen." "how now, sir friar," replied front-de-boeuf, "thy speech, me thinks, smacks of the rude saxon tongue?" "i was bred in the convent of saint withold of burton," answered cedric. "ay," said the baron; "it had been better for thee to have been a norman, and better for my purpose, too; but need has no choice of messengers. that saint withold's of burton is a howlet's nest worth the harrying. the day will soon come that the frock shall protect the saxon as little as the mail-coat." "god's will be done!" returned cedric, in a voice tremulous with passion, which front-de-boeuf imputed to fear. "i see," he said, "thou dreamest already that our men-at-arms are in thy refectory and thy ale-vaults. but do me one cast of thy holy office and thou shalt sleep as safe in thy cell as a snail within his shell of proof." "speak your commands," replied cedric, with suppressed emotion. "follow me through this passage, then, that i may dismiss thee by the postern." as he strode on his way before the supposed friar, front-de-boeuf thus schooled him in the part which he desired he should act. "thou seest, sir friar, yon herd of saxon swine who have dared to environ this castle of torquilstone. tell them whatever thou hast a mind of the weakness of this [v]fortalice, or aught else that can detain them before it for twenty-four hours. meantime bear this scroll--but soft--canst thou read, sir priest?" "not a jot i," answered cedric, "save on my [v]breviary; and then i know the characters because i have the holy service by heart, praised be saint withold!" "the fitter messenger for my purpose. carry thou this scroll to the castle of philip de [v]malvoisin; say it cometh from me and is written by the templar, brian de bois-guilbert, and that i pray him to send it to york with all speed man and horse can make. meanwhile, tell him to doubt nothing he shall find us whole and sound behind our battlement. shame on it, that we should be compelled to hide thus by a pack of runagates who are wont to fly even at the flash of our pennons and the tramp of our horses! i say to thee, priest, contrive some cast of thine art to keep the knaves where they are until our friends bring up their lances." with these words, front-de-boeuf led the way to a postern where, passing the moat on a single plank, they reached a small barbican, or exterior defense, which communicated with the open field by a well-fortified sally-port. "begone, then; and if thou wilt do mine errand, and return hither when it is done, thou shalt see saxon flesh cheap as ever was hog's in the shambles of sheffield. and, hark thee! thou seemest to be a jolly confessor--come hither after the onslaught and thou shalt have as much good wine as would drench thy whole convent." "assuredly we shall meet again," answered cedric. "something in the hand the whilst," continued the norman; and, as they parted at the postern door, he thrust in cedric's reluctant hand a gold [v]byzant, adding, "remember, i will flay off both cowl and skin if thou failest in thy purpose." the supposed priest passed out of the door without further words. front-de-boeuf turned back within the castle. "ho! giles jailer," he called, "let them bring cedric of rotherwood before me, and the other churl, his companion--him i mean of coningsburgh--athelstane there, or what call they him? their very names are an encumbrance to a norman knight's mouth, and have, as it were, a flavor of bacon. give me a stoop of wine, as jolly prince john would say, that i may wash away the relish. place it in the armory, and thither lead the prisoners." his commands were obeyed; and upon entering that gothic apartment, hung with many spoils won by his own valor and that of his father, he found a flagon of wine on a massive oaken table, and the two saxon captives under the guard of four of his dependants. front-de-boeuf took a long draught of wine and then addressed his prisoners, for the imperfect light prevented his perceiving that the more important of them had escaped. "gallants of england," said front-de-boeuf, "how relish ye your entertainment at torquilstone? faith and saint dennis, an ye pay not a rich ransom, i will hang ye up by the feet from the iron bars of these windows till the kites and hooded crows have made skeletons of you! speak out, ye saxon dogs, what bid ye for your worthless lives? what say you, you of rotherwood?" "not a [v]doit i," answered poor wamba, "and for hanging up by the feet, my brain has been topsy-turvy ever since the [v]biggin was bound first around my head; so turning me upside down may peradventure restore it again." "hah!" cried front-de-boeuf, "what have we here?" and with the back of his hand he struck cedric's cap from the head of the jester, and throwing open his collar, discovered the fatal badge of servitude, the silver collar round his neck. "giles--clement--dogs and varlets!" called the furious norman, "what villain have you brought me here?" "i think i can tell you," said de bracy, who just entered the apartment. "this is cedric's clown." "go," ordered front-de-boeuf; "fetch me the right cedric hither, and i pardon your error for once--the rather that you but mistook a fool for a saxon [v]franklin." "ay, but," said wamba, "your chivalrous excellency will find there are more fools than franklins among us." "what means this knave?" said front-de-boeuf, looking toward his followers, who, lingering and loath, faltered forth their belief that if this were not cedric who was there in presence, they knew not what was become of him. "heavens!" exclaimed de bracy. "he must have escaped in the monk's garments!" "fiends!" echoed front-de-boeuf. "it was then the boar of rotherwood whom i ushered to the postern and dismissed with my own hands! and thou," he said to wamba, "whose folly could over-reach the wisdom of idiots yet more gross than thyself. i will give thee holy orders, i will shave thy crown for thee! here, let them tear the scalp from his head and pitch him headlong from the battlements. thy trade is to jest: canst thou jest now?" "you deal with me better than your word, noble knight," whimpered forth poor wamba, whose habits of [v]buffoonery were not to be overcome even by the immediate prospect of death; "if you give me the red cap you propose, out of a simple monk you will make a [v]cardinal." "the poor wretch," said de bracy, "is resolved to die in his vocation." the next moment would have been wamba's last but for an unexpected interruption. a hoarse shout, raised by many voices, bore to the inmates of the hall the tidings that the besiegers were advancing to the attack. there was a moment's silence in the hall, which was broken by de bracy. "to the battlements," he said; "let us see what these knaves do without." so saying, he opened a latticed window which led to a sort of projecting balcony, and immediately called to those in the apartment, "saint dennis, it is time to stir! they bring forward [v]mantelets and [v]pavisses, and the archers muster on the skirts of the wood like a dark cloud before a hail-storm." front-de-boeuf also looked out upon the field and immediately snatched his bugle. after winding a long and loud blast, he commanded his men to their posts on the walls. "de bracy, look to the eastern side, where the walls are lowest. noble bois-guilbert, thy trade hath well taught thee how to attack and defend, so look thou to the western side. i myself will take post at the barbican. our numbers are few, but activity and courage may supply that defect, since we have only to do with rascal clowns." the templar had in the meantime been looking out on the proceedings of the besiegers with deeper attention than front-de-boeuf or his giddy companion. "by the faith of mine order," he said, "these men approach with more touch of discipline than could have been judged, however they come by it. see ye how dexterously they avail themselves of every cover which a tree or bush affords and avoid exposing themselves to the shot of our cross-bows? i spy neither banner nor pennon, and yet i will gage my golden chain that they are led by some noble knight or gentleman skillful in the practice of wars." "i espy him," said de bracy; "i see the waving of a knight's crest and the gleam of his armor. see yon tall man in the black mail who is busied marshaling the farther troop of the rascally yeomen. by saint dennis, i hold him to be the knight who did so well in the tournament at ashby." the demonstrations of the enemy's approach cut off all farther discourse. the templar and de bracy repaired to their posts and, at the head of the few followers they were able to muster, awaited with calm determination the threatened assault, while front-de-boeuf went to see that all was secure in the besieged fortress. v in the meantime, the wounded wilfred of ivanhoe had been gradually recovering his strength. taken into her litter by rebecca when his own father hesitated to succor him, the young knight had lain in a stupor through all the experiences of the journey and the capture of cedric's party by the normans. de bracy, who, bad as he was, was not without some [v]compunction, on finding the occupant of the litter to be ivanhoe, had placed the invalid under the charge of two of his squires, who were directed to state to any inquirers that he was a wounded comrade. this explanation was now accordingly returned by these men to front-de-boeuf, when, in going the round of the castle, he questioned them why they did not make for the battlements upon the alarm of the attack. "a wounded comrade!" he exclaimed in great wrath and astonishment. "no wonder that churls and yeomen wax so presumptuous as even to lay leaguer before castles, and that clowns and swineherds send defiances to nobles, since men-at-arms have turned sick men's nurses. to the battlements, ye loitering villains!" he cried, raising his [v]stentorian voice till the arches rang again; "to the battlements, or i will splinter your bones with this truncheon." the men, who, like most of their description, were fond of enterprise and detested inaction, went joyfully to the scene of danger, and the care of ivanhoe fell to rebecca, who occupied a neighboring apartment and who was not kept in close confinement. the beautiful young jewess rejoined the knight, whom she had so signally befriended, at the moment of the beginning of the attack on the castle. ivanhoe, already much better and chafing at his enforced inaction, resembled the war-horse who scenteth the battle afar. "if i could but drag myself to yonder window," he said, "that i might see how this brave game is like to go--if i could strike but a single blow for our deliverance! it is in vain; i am alike nerveless and weaponless!" "fret not thyself, noble knight," answered rebecca, "the sounds have ceased of a sudden. it may be they join not battle." "thou knowest naught of it," returned wilfred, impatiently; "this dead pause only shows that the men are at their posts on the walls and expect an instant attack. what we have heard was but the distant muttering of the storm, which will burst anon in all its fury. could i but reach yonder window!" "thou wilt injure thyself by the attempt, noble knight," replied the attendant. then she added, "i myself will stand at the lattice and describe to you as i can what passes without." "you must not; you shall not!" exclaimed ivanhoe. "each lattice will soon be a mark for the archers; some random shaft may strike you. at least cover thy body with yonder ancient buckler and show as little of thyself as may be." availing herself of the protection of the large, ancient shield, which she placed against the lower part of the window, rebecca, with tolerable security, could witness part of what was passing without the castle and report to ivanhoe the preparations being made for the storming. from where she stood she had a full view of the outwork likely to be the first object of the assault. it was a fortification of no great height or strength, intended to protect the postern-gate through which cedric had been recently dismissed by front-de-boeuf. the castle moat divided this species of barbican from the rest of the fortress, so that, in case of its being taken, it was easy to cut off the communication with the main building by withdrawing the temporary bridge. in the outwork was a sally-port corresponding to the postern of the castle, and the whole was surrounded by a strong palisade. from the mustering of the assailants in a direction nearly opposite the outwork, it seemed plain that this point had been selected for attack. rebecca communicated this to ivanhoe, and added, "the skirts of the wood seem lined with archers, although only a few are advanced from its dark shadow." "under what banner?" asked ivanhoe. "under no ensign of war which i can observe," answered rebecca. "a singular novelty," muttered the knight, "to advance to storm such a castle without pennon or banner displayed! seest thou who they are that act as leaders? or, are all of them but stout yeomen?" "a knight clad in sable armor is the most conspicuous," she replied; "he alone is armed from head to foot, and he seems to assume the direction of all around him." "seem there no other leaders?" demanded the anxious inquirer. "none of mark and distinction that i can behold from this station," said rebecca. "they appear even now preparing to attack. god of zion protect us! what a dreadful sight! those who advance first bear huge shields and defenses made of plank; the others follow, bending their bows as they come on. they raise their bows! god of moses, forgive the creatures thou hast made!" her description was suddenly interrupted by the signal for assault, which was the blast of a shrill bugle, at once answered by a flourish of the norman trumpets from the battlements. the shouts of both parties augmented the fearful din, the assailants crying, "saint george for merry england!" and the normans answering them with cries of "[v]_beauseant! beauseant!_" it was not, however, by clamor that the contest was to be decided, and the desperate efforts of the assailants were met by an equally vigorous defense on the part of the besieged. the archers, trained by their woodland pastimes to the most effective use of the longbow, shot so rapidly and accurately that no point at which a defender could show the least part of his person escaped their [v]cloth-yard shafts. by this heavy discharge, which continued as thick and sharp as hail, two or three of the garrison were slain and several others wounded. but, confident in their armor of proof and in the cover which their situation afforded, the followers of front-de-boeuf, and his allies, showed an obstinacy in defense proportioned to the fury of the attack, replying with the discharge of their large cross-bows to the close and continued shower of arrows. as the assailants were necessarily but indifferently protected, they received more damage than they did. "and i must lie here like a bedridden monk," exclaimed ivanhoe, "while the game that gives me freedom or death is played out by the hands of others! look from the window once again, kind maiden, but beware that you are not marked by the archers beneath--look out once more and tell me if they yet advance to the storm." with patient courage, rebecca again took post at the lattice. "what dost thou see?" demanded the wounded knight. "nothing but the cloud of arrows flying so thick as to dazzle mine eyes and hide the bowmen who shoot them." "that cannot endure," remarked ivanhoe. "if they press not on to carry the castle by pure force of arms, the archery may avail but little against stone walls and bulwarks. look for the sable knight and see how he bears himself, for as the leader is, so will his followers be." "i see him not," said rebecca. "foul craven!" exclaimed ivanhoe; "does he blench from the helm when the wind blows highest?" "he blenches not! he blenches not!" cried rebecca. "i see him now; he heads a body of men close under the outer barrier of the barbican. they pull down the piles and palisades; they hew down the barriers with axes. his high black plume floats over the throng, like a raven over the field of the slain. they have made a breach in the barriers--they rush in--they are thrust back! front-de-boeuf heads the defenders; i see his gigantic form above the press. they throng again to the breach, and the pass is disputed hand to hand, and man to man. have mercy, god!" she turned her head from the lattice, as if unable longer to endure a sight so terrible. "look forth again, rebecca," urged ivanhoe, mistaking the cause of her retiring; "the archery must in some degree have ceased, since they are now fighting hand to hand. look again; there is less danger." rebecca again looked forth and almost immediately exclaimed: "holy prophets of the law! front-de-boeuf and the black knight fight hand to hand in the breach, amid the roar of their followers, who watch the progress of the strife." she then uttered a loud shriek, "he is down! he is down!" "who is down?" cried ivanhoe; "tell me which has fallen?" "the black knight," answered rebecca, faintly; then shouted with joyful eagerness, "but no--the name of the lord of hosts be blessed!--he is on foot again and fights as if there were twenty men's strength in his single arm. his sword is broken--he snatches an ax from a yeoman--he presses front-de-boeuf with blow on blow. the giant stoops and totters like an oak under the steel of a woodsman--he falls--he falls!" "front-de-boeuf?" exclaimed ivanhoe. "front-de-boeuf!" answered the jewess. "his men rush to the rescue, headed by the haughty templar--their united force compels the champion to pause--they drag front-de-boeuf within the walls." "the assailants have won the barriers, have they not?" ivanhoe eagerly queried. "they have! they have!" answered rebecca; "and they press the besieged hard on the outer wall. some plant ladders, some swarm like bees and endeavor to ascend upon the shoulders of each other. down go stones, beams, and trunks of trees on their heads, and as fast as they bear the wounded to the rear, fresh men supply their places. great god! hast thou given men thine own image, that it should be thus cruelly defaced by the hands of their brethren!" "think not of that," said ivanhoe. "this is no time for such thoughts. who yield--who push their way?" "the ladders are thrown down," replied rebecca, shuddering; "the soldiers lie groveling under them like crushed reptiles; the besieged have the better." "saint george strike for us!" exclaimed the knight; "do the false yeomen give way?" "no," exclaimed rebecca, "they bear themselves right yeomanly--the black knight approaches the postern with his huge ax--the thundering blows he deals you may hear above all the din of the battle. stones and beams are hailed down on the bold champion--he regards them no more than if they were thistle-down or feathers!" "by saint john of acre," cried ivanhoe, raising himself joyfully on his couch, "methought there was but one man in england that might do such a deed!" "the postern-gate shakes," continued rebecca; "it crashes--it is splintered by his blows--they rush in--the outwork is won! oh, god! they hurl the defenders from the battlements--they throw them into the moat--men, if ye indeed be men, spare them that can resist no longer!" "the bridge--the bridge which communicates with the castle--have they won that pass?" "no," replied rebecca. "the templar has destroyed the plank on which they crossed--few of the defenders escaped with him into the castle--the shrieks and cries you hear tell the fate of the others! alas! i see it is more difficult to look on victory than on battle." "what do they now, maiden?" asked ivanhoe. "look forth yet again; this is no time to faint at bloodshed." "it is over for the time," answered rebecca. "our friends strengthen themselves within the outwork which they have mastered; it affords them so good a shelter from the foeman's shot that the garrison only bestow a few bolts on it from interval to interval, as if to disquiet rather than to injure them." "our friends," said wilfred, "will surely not abandon an enterprise so gloriously begun and so happily attained. oh, no! i will put my faith in the good knight whose ax hath rent heart-of-oak and bars of iron." vi during the interval of quiet which followed the first success of the besiegers, the black knight was employed in causing to be constructed a sort of floating bridge, or long raft, by means of which he hoped to cross the moat in despite of the resistance of the enemy. this was a work of some time. when the raft was completed, the black knight addressed the besiegers: "it avails not waiting here longer, my friends; the sun is descending in the west, and i may not tarry for another day. besides, it will be a marvel if the horsemen do not come upon us from york, unless we speedily accomplish our purpose. wherefore, one of you go to locksley and bid him commence a discharge of arrows on the opposite side of the castle, and move forward as if about to assault it; while you, true englishmen, stand by me and be ready to thrust the raft end-long over the moat whenever the postern on our side is thrown open. follow me boldly across, and aid me to burst yon sally-port in the main wall of the castle. as many of you as like not this service, or are but ill-armed, do you man the top of the outwork, draw your bowstrings to your ears and quell with your shot whoever shall appear upon the rampant. noble cedric, wilt thou take the direction of those that remain?" "not so," answered the saxon. "lead i cannot, but my posterity curse me in my grave if i follow not with the foremost wherever thou shalt point the way!" "yet, bethink thee, noble saxon," said the knight, "thou hast neither hauberk nor corslet, nor aught but that light helmet, [v]target, and sword." "the better," replied cedric; "i shall be the lighter to climb these walls. and--forgive the boast, sir knight--thou shalt this day see the naked breast of a saxon as boldly presented to the battle as ever you beheld the steel corslet of a norman warrior." "in the name of god, then," said the knight, "fling open the door and launch the floating bridge!" the portal which led from the inner wall of the barbican, now held by the besiegers, to the moat and corresponded with a sally-port in the main wall of the castle was suddenly opened. the temporary bridge was immediately thrust forward and extended its length between the castle and outwork, forming a slippery and precarious passage for two men abreast to cross the moat. well aware of the importance of taking the foe by surprise, the black knight, closely followed by cedric, threw himself upon the bridge and reached the opposite shore. here he began to thunder with his ax on the gate of the castle, protected in part from the shot and stones cast by the defenders by the ruins of the former drawbridge, which the templar had demolished in his retreat from the barbican, leaving the [v]counterpoise still attached to the upper part of the portal. the followers of the knight had no such shelter; two were instantly shot with cross-bow bolts, and two more fell into the moat. the others retreated back into the barbican. [illustration: [see page ] he began to thunder on the gate] the situation of cedric and the black knight was now truly dangerous and would have been still more so but for the constancy of the archers in the barbican, who ceased not to shower their arrows on the battlements, distracting the attention of those by whom they were manned and thus affording a respite to their two chiefs from the storm of missiles, which must otherwise have overwhelmed them. but their situation was eminently perilous, and was becoming more so with every moment. "shame on ye all!" cried de bracy to the soldiers around him; "do ye call yourselves cross-bowmen and let these two dogs keep their station under the walls of the castle? heave over the coping stones from the battlement, an better may not be. get pick-ax and levers and down with that huge pinnacle!" pointing to a heavy piece of stone-carved work that projected from the parapet. at this moment locksley whipped up the courage of his men. "saint george for england!" he cried. "to the charge, bold yeomen! why leave ye the good knight and noble cedric to storm the pass alone? make in, yeomen! the castle is taken. think of honor; think of spoil. one effort and the place is ours." with that he bent his good bow and sent a shaft right through the breast of one of the men-at-arms, who, under de bracy's direction, was loosening a fragment from one of the battlements to precipitate on the heads of cedric and the black knight. a second soldier caught from the hands of the dying man the iron crow, with which he had heaved up and loosened the stone pinnacle, when, receiving an arrow through his headpiece, he dropped from the battlement into the moat a dead man. the men-at-arms were daunted, for no armor seemed proof against the shot of this tremendous archer. "do you give ground, base knaves?" cried de bracy. "[v]_mountjoy saint dennis_! give me the lever." snatching it up, he again assailed the loosened pinnacle, which was of weight enough, if thrown down, not only to have destroyed the remnant of the drawbridge, which sheltered the two foremost assailants, but also to have sunk the rude float of planks over which they had crossed. all saw the danger, and the boldest, even the stout friar himself, avoided setting a foot on the raft. thrice did locksley bend his shaft against de bracy, and thrice did his arrow bound back from the knight's armor of proof. "curse on thy spanish steel-coat!" said locksley; "had english smith forged it, these arrows had gone through it as if it had been silk." he then began to call out: "comrades! friends! noble cedric! bear back and let the ruin fall." his warning voice was unheard, for the din which the black knight himself occasioned by his strokes upon the postern would have drowned twenty war-trumpets. the faithful gurth indeed sprang forward on the planked bridge to warn cedric of his impending fate, or to share it with him. but his warning would have come too late; the massive pinnacle already tottered, and de bracy, who still heaved at his task, would have accomplished it, had not the voice of the templar sounded close in his ear. "all is lost, de bracy; the castle burns." "thou art mad to say so," replied the knight. "it is all in a light flame on the western side," returned bois-guilbert. "i have striven in vain to extinguish it." "what is to be done?" cried de bracy. "i vow to saint nicholas of limoges a candlestick of pure gold--" "spare thy vow," said the templar, "and mark me. lead thy men down, as if to a sally; throw the postern-gate open. there are but two men who occupy the float; fling them into the moat and push across to the barbican. i will charge from the main gate and attack the barbican on the outside. if we can regain that post, we shall defend ourselves until we are relieved or, at least, until they grant us fair quarter." "it is well thought upon," replied de bracy; "i will play my part." de bracy hastily drew his men together and rushed down to the postern-gate, which he caused instantly to be thrown open. scarce was this done ere the portentous strength of the black knight forced his way inward in despite of de bracy and his followers. two of the foremost instantly fell, and the rest gave way, notwithstanding all their leader's efforts to stop them. "dogs!" cried de bracy; "will ye let two men win our only pass for safety?" "he is the devil!" replied a veteran man-at-arms, bearing back from the blows of their sable antagonist. "and if he be the devil," said de bracy, "would you fly from him into the mouth of hell? the castle burns behind us, villains! let despair give you courage, or let me forward. i will cope with this champion myself." and well and chivalrously did de bracy that day maintain the fame he had acquired in the civil wars of that dreadful period. the vaulted passages in which the two redoubted champions were now fighting hand to hand rang with the furious blows they dealt each other, de bracy with his sword, the black knight with his ponderous ax. at length the norman received a blow, which, though its force was partly parried by his shield, descended yet with such violence on his crest that he measured his length on the paved floor. "yield thee, de bracy," said the black knight, stooping over him and holding against the bars of his helmet the fatal poniard with which knights despatched their enemies; "yield thee, maurice de bracy, rescue or no rescue, or thou art but a dead man. speak!" the gallant norman, seeing the hopelessness of further resistance, yielded, and was allowed to rise. "let me tell thee what it imports thee to know," he said. "wilfred of ivanhoe is wounded and a prisoner, and will perish in the burning castle without present help." "wilfred of ivanhoe!" exclaimed the black knight. "the life of every man in the castle shall answer if a hair of his head be singed. show me his chamber!" "ascend yonder stair," directed de bracy. "it leads to his apartment." the turret was now in bright flames, which flashed out furiously from window and shot-hole. but, in other parts, the great thickness of the walls and the vaulted roofs of the apartments resisted the progress of the fire, and there the rage of man still triumphed; for the besiegers pursued the defenders of the castle from chamber to chamber. most of the garrison resisted to the uttermost; few of them asked quarter--none received it. the air was filled with groans and the clashing of arms. through this scene of confusion the black knight rushed in quest of ivanhoe, whom he found in rebecca's charge. the knight, picking up the wounded man as if he were a child, bore him quickly to safety. in the meantime, cedric had gone in search of rowena, followed by the faithful gurth. the noble saxon was so fortunate as to reach his ward's apartment just as she had abandoned all hope of safety and sat in expectation of instant death. he committed her to the charge of gurth, to be carried without the castle. the loyal cedric then hastened in quest of his friend athelstane, determined at every risk to himself to save the prince. but ere cedric penetrated as far as the old hall in which he himself had been a prisoner, the inventive genius of wamba had procured liberation for himself and his companion. when the noise of the conflict announced that it was at the hottest, the jester began to shout with the utmost power of his lungs, "saint george and the dragon! bonny saint george for merry england! the castle is won!" these sounds he rendered yet more fearful by banging against each other two or three pieces of rusty armor which lay scattered around the hall. the guards at once ran to tell the templar that foemen had entered the old hall. meantime the prisoners found no difficulty in making their escape into the court of the castle, which was now the last scene of the contest. here sat the fierce templar, mounted on horseback and surrounded by several of the garrison, who had united their strength in order to secure the last chance of safety and retreat which remained to them. the principal, and now the single remaining drawbridge, had been lowered by his orders, but the passage was beset; for the archers, who had hitherto only annoyed the castle on that side by their missiles, no sooner saw the flames breaking out and the bridge lowered than they thronged to the entrance. on the other hand, a party of the besiegers who had entered by the postern on the opposite side were now issuing into the court-yard and attacking with fury the remnant of the defenders in the rear. animated, however, by despair and the example of their gallant leader, the remaining soldiers of the castle fought with the utmost valor; and, being well armed, they succeeded in driving back the assailants. crying aloud, "those who would save themselves, follow me!" bois-guilbert pushed across the drawbridge, dispersing the archers who would have stopped them. he was followed by the saracen slaves and some five or six men-at-arms, who had mounted their horses. the templar's retreat was rendered perilous by the number of arrows shot at him and his party; but this did not prevent him from galloping round to the barbican, where he expected to find de bracy. "de bracy!" he shouted, "art thou there?" "i am here," answered de bracy, "but a prisoner." "can i rescue thee?" cried bois-guilbert. "no," said the other. "i have rendered myself." upon hearing this, the templar galloped off with his followers, leaving the besiegers in complete possession of the castle. fortunately, by this time all the prisoners had been rescued and stood together without the castle, while the yeomen ran through the apartments seeking to save from the devouring flames such valuables as might be found. they were soon driven out by the fiery element. the towering flames surmounted every obstruction and rose to the evening skies one huge and burning beacon, seen far and wide through the adjacent country. tower after tower crashed down, with blazing roof and rafter. the victors, assembling in large bands, gazed with wonder not unmixed with fear upon the flames, in which their own ranks and arms glanced dusky red. the voice of locksley was at length heard, "shout, yeomen! the den of tyrants is no more! let each bring his spoil to the tree in hart-hill walk, for there we will make just partition among ourselves, together with our worthy allies in this great deed of vengeance." sir walter scott. =helps to study= i. tell what you find out about cedric and his son, ivanhoe, or the "disinherited knight." what impression do you get of cedric's character? of athelstane's? what was the first adventure the travelers had? who was "the sick friend" the jews were assisting? what further adventure befell the travelers? how did gurth show his true character? who came to the aid of gurth and wamba? what did wamba mean by "whether they be thy children's coats or no"? what impression do you get of the stranger? describe the scene in the hermit's abode. what impression do you get of him? of the black knight? ii. who had made cedric's party prisoners? why? tell what cedric said when he discovered who his captors were. what disposition was made of the prisoners? describe the scene in isaac's cell. how was front-de-boeuf interrupted? iii. what challenge did the knights receive? how did they answer it? iv. who came in the character of a priest? what plan did he carry out? how? how did cedric act his part? describe the scene when the escape was discovered. how was front-de-boeuf prevented from doing wamba harm? v. how did ivanhoe fall to the care of rebecca? where did rebecca take her station? describe the scenes she saw. what knight led the assault? how did rebecca describe him? can you guess who the black knight was? whom did ivanhoe think of when he said, "methought there was but one man in england that might do such a deed"? vi. what plan did the black knight make? how was it executed? which of the assailants proved themselves especial heroes? what was de bracy's plan? how was its accomplishment prevented? what plan for escape did the templar have? how did it end? tell how ivanhoe, rowena, athelstane and wamba were liberated. tell what became of the knights. who do you think locksley was? all of the party were rescued except rebecca, who was carried off by bois-guilbert and accused of witchcraft. you will have to read the novel, _ivanhoe_, to learn of the further adventures of her, rowena, the black knight, and ivanhoe. supplementary reading the talisman--sir walter scott. the white company--a. conan doyle. when knighthood was in flower--charles major. the last of the barons--edward bulwer-lytton. don quixote--miguel de cervantes. the idylls of the king--alfred tennyson. scottish chiefs--jane porter. sea fever i must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all i ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; and the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, and a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking. i must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; and all i ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, and the flung spray and the blown [v]spume, and the sea-gulls crying. i must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, to the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife; and all i ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, and quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over. john masefield. a greyport legend they ran through the streets of the seaport town; they peered from the decks of the ships that lay: the cold sea-fog that comes whitening down was never as cold or white as they. "ho, starbuck, and pinckney, and tenterden, run for your shallops, gather your men, scatter your boats on the lower bay!" good cause for fear! in the thick midday the hulk that lay by the rotting pier, filled with the children in happy play, parted its moorings and drifted clear; drifted clear beyond reach or call,-- thirteen children they were in all,-- all adrift in the lower bay! said a hard-faced skipper, "god help us all! she will not float till the turning tide!" said his wife, "my darling will hear _my_ call, whether in sea or heaven she abide!" and she lifted a quavering voice and high, wild and strange as a sea-bird's cry, till they shuddered and wondered at her side. the fog drove down on each laboring crew, veiled each from each and the sky and shore; there was not a sound but the breath they drew, and the lap of water and creak of oar. and they felt the breath of the downs fresh blown o'er leagues of clover and cold gray stone, but not from the lips that had gone before. they came no more. but they tell the tale that, when fogs are thick on the harbor reef, the mackerel-fishers shorten sail; for the signal they know will bring relief, for the voices of children, still at play in a phantom-hulk that drifts alway through channels whose waters never fail. it is but a foolish shipman's tale, a theme for a poet's idle page; but still, when the mists of doubt prevail, and we lie becalmed by the shores of age, we hear from the misty troubled shore the voice of the children gone before, drawing the soul to its anchorage! bret harte. =helps to study= read the poem and tell the story found in it. why was every one so "cold and white"? what was the great danger? what happened to prevent the sailors' getting to the hulk? what is the tale that is told? what is the thought the poet leaves with us in the last stanza? a hunt beneath the ocean this story is taken from _twenty thousand leagues under the sea_, the book that foreshadowed the modern submarine. monsieur aronnax, a scientist, with two companions, ned land and conseil, was rescued at sea by a strange craft, the _nautilus_, owned and commanded by one captain nemo, who hated mankind and never went ashore on inhabited land. monsieur aronnax remained on the submarine for months in a kind of captivity and met with many wonderful adventures. it should be noted that modern inventions have already outstripped many of the author's imaginings. on returning to my room with ned and conseil, i found upon my table a note addressed to me. i opened it impatiently. it was written in a bold clear hand, and ran as follows: "november , . to professor aronnax, on board the _nautilus_: captain nemo invites professor aronnax to a hunting party, which will take place to-morrow morning in the forest of the island of crespo. he hopes that nothing will prevent the professor from being present, and he will with pleasure see him joined by his companions." "a hunt!" exclaimed ned. "and in the forests of the island of crespo!" added conseil. "oh, then the gentleman is going on [v]_terra firma_?" asked ned land. "that seems to be clearly indicated," said i, reading the letter once more. "well, we must accept," said ned. "once more on dry land, we shall know what to do. indeed, i shall not be sorry to eat a piece of fresh venison." i contented myself with replying, "let us see where the island of crespo is." i consulted the [v]planisphere and in ° ' north latitude, and ° ' west [v]longitude, i found a small island recognized in by captain crespo, and marked in the ancient spanish maps as rocca de la platta, or silver rock. i showed this little rock lost in the midst of the north pacific to my companions. "if captain nemo does sometimes go on dry ground," said i, "he at least chooses desert islands." ned land shrugged his shoulders without speaking, and conseil and he left me. after supper, which was served by the steward, mute and impassive, i went to bed, not without some anxiety. the next morning, the th of november, i felt on awakening that the _nautilus_ was perfectly still. i dressed quickly and entered the saloon. captain nemo was there, waiting for me. he rose, bowed, and asked me if it was convenient for me to accompany him. i simply replied that my companions and myself were ready to follow him. we entered the room where breakfast was served. "m. aronnax," said the captain, "pray share my breakfast without ceremony; we will chat as we eat. though i promised you a walk in the forest, i did not undertake to find hotels there; so breakfast as a man should who will most likely not have his dinner till very late." i did honor to the repast. it was composed of several kinds of fish, and different sorts of seaweed. our drink consisted of pure water, to which the captain added some drops of a fermented liquor extracted from a seaweed. captain nemo ate at first without saying a word. then he began: "professor, when i proposed to you to hunt in my submarine forest of crespo, you evidently thought me mad. sir, you should never judge lightly of any man." "but, captain, believe me--" "be kind enough to listen, and you will then see whether you have any cause to accuse me of folly and contradiction." "i listen." "you know as well as i do, professor, that man can live under water, providing he carries with him a sufficient supply of breathable air. in submarine works, the workman, clad in an [v]impervious dress, with his head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by means of forcing-pumps and [v]regulators." "that is a diving apparatus," said i. "just so. but under these conditions the man is not at liberty; he is attached to the pump which sends him air through a rubber tube, and if we were obliged to be thus held to the _nautilus_, we could not go far." "and the means of getting free?" i asked. "it is to use the rouquayrol apparatus, invented by two of your own countrymen, which i have brought to perfection for my own use and which will allow you to risk yourself without any organ of the body suffering. it consists of a reservoir of thick iron plates, in which i store the air under a pressure of fifty [v]atmospheres. this reservoir is fixed on the back by means of braces, like a soldier's knapsack. its upper part forms a box in which the air is kept by means of a bellows, and therefore cannot escape unless at its [v]normal tension. in the rouquayrol apparatus such as we use, two rubber pipes leave this box and join a sort of tent which holds the nose and mouth; one is to introduce fresh air, the other to let out foul, and the tongues close one or the other pipe according to the wants of the [v]respirator. but i, in encountering great pressures at the bottom of the sea, was obliged to shut my head like that of a diver in a ball of copper; and it is into this ball of copper that the two pipes, the inspirator and the expirator, open. do you see?" "perfectly, captain nemo. but the air that you carry with you must soon be used; when it contains only fifteen per cent of oxygen it is no longer fit to breathe." "right! but i told you, m. aronnax, that the pumps of the _nautilus_ allow me to store the air under considerable pressure; and the reservoir of the apparatus can furnish breathable air for nine or ten hours." "i have no further objections to make," i answered. "i will only ask one thing, captain--how can you light your road at the bottom of the sea?" "with the ruhmkorff apparatus, m. aronnax. one is carried on the back, the other is fastened to the waist. it is composed of a [v]bunsen pile, which i do not work with bichromate of potash but with sodium. a wire is introduced which collects the electricity produced, and directs it toward a lantern. in this lantern is a spiral glass which contains a small quantity of carbonic acid gas. when the apparatus is at work, this gas becomes luminous, giving out a white and continuous light. thus provided, i can breathe and i can see." "captain nemo, to all my objections you make such crushing answers that i dare no longer doubt. but if i am forced to admit the rouquayrol and ruhmkorff apparatus, i must be allowed some reservations with regard to the gun i am to carry." "but it is not a gun for powder," he said. "then it is an air-gun?" i asked. "doubtless. how would you have me manufacture gunpowder on board, without saltpeter, sulphur, or charcoal?" "besides," i added, "to fire under water in a medium eight hundred and fifty times denser than the air, we must conquer a very considerable resistance." "that would be no difficulty. there exist guns which can fire under these conditions. but i repeat, having no powder, i use air under great pressure, which the pumps of the _nautilus_ furnish abundantly." "but this air must be rapidly used?" "well, have i not my rouquayrol reservoir, which can furnish it at need? a tap is all that is required. besides, m. aronnax, you must see yourself that during our submarine hunt we can spend but little air." "but it seems to me that in this twilight, and in the midst of this fluid, which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could not go far or easily prove fatal." "on the contrary," replied nemo, "with this gun every blow is mortal; however lightly the animal is touched, it falls dead as if struck by a thunderbolt." "why?" "because the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little cases of glass, of which i have a large supply. these glass cases are covered with a shell of steel and weighted with a pellet of lead; they are real [v]leyden jars, into which electricity is forced to a very high tension. with the slightest shock they are discharged, and the animal, however strong it may be, falls dead." captain nemo then led me aft; and in passing before ned and conseil's cabin, i called my two companions, who followed immediately. conseil was delighted at the idea of exploring the sea, but ned declined to go when he learned that the hunt was to be a submarine one. we came to a kind of cell near the machinery-room, in which we were to put on our walking-dress. it was, in fact, the arsenal and wardrobe of the _nautilus_. a dozen diving-suits hung from the partition, awaiting our use. at the captain's call two of the ship's crew came to help us dress in these heavy and impervious clothes, made of rubber without seam and constructed expressly to resist considerable pressure. one might have taken this diving apparatus for a suit of armor, both supple and resisting. it formed trousers and waistcoat; the trousers were finished off with thick boots, weighted with heavy leaden soles. the texture of the waistcoat was held together by bands of copper, which crossed the chest, protecting it from the great pressure of the water and leaving the lungs free to act. the sleeves ended in gloves, which in no way restrained the movement of the hands. there was a vast difference noticeable between this dress and the old-fashioned diving-suit. captain nemo and one of his companions, conseil and myself, were soon enveloped in the dresses; there remained nothing more to be done but inclose our heads in the metal boxes. captain nemo thrust his head into the helmet, conseil and i did the same. the upper part of our dress terminated in a copper collar, upon which was screwed the metal helmet. three holes, protected by thick glass, allowed us to see in all directions by simply turning our heads in the interior of the head-dress. as soon as it was in position, the rouquayrol apparatus on our backs began to act; and, for my part, i could breathe with ease. with the ruhmkorff lamp hanging from my belt, and the gun in my hand, i was ready to set out. but to speak the truth, imprisoned in these heavy garments and glued to the deck by the leaden soles, it was impossible for me to take a step. this state of things, however, was provided for. i felt myself being pushed into a little room next the wardrobe-room. my companions followed, towed along in the same way. i heard a water-tight door, furnished with stopper-plates, close upon us, and we were wrapped in profound darkness. after some minutes, a loud hissing was heard; i felt the cold mount from my feet to my chest. evidently from some part of the vessel they had, by means of a tap, given entrance to the water, which was invading us and with which the room was soon filled. a second door cut in the side of the _nautilus_ then opened. we saw a faint light. in another instant our feet trod the bottom of the sea. how can i retrace the impression left upon me by that walk under the waters? words are impotent to relate such wonders. captain nemo walked in front, his companion followed some steps behind. conseil and i remained near each other, as if an exchange of words had been possible through our metallic cases. i no longer felt the weight of my clothing, or of my shoes, of my reservoir of air, or my thick helmet, in the midst of which my head rattled like an almond in its shell. the light which lit the soil thirty feet below the surface of the ocean astonished me by its power. the solar rays shone through the watery mass easily and dissipated all color, and i clearly distinguished objects at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards. beyond that the tints darkened into fine gradations of [v]ultramarine and faded into vague obscurity. we were walking on fine, even sand, not wrinkled as on a flat shore, which retains the impression of the billows. this dazzling carpet, really a reflector, repelled the rays of the sun with wonderful intensity, which accounted for the vibration which penetrated every atom of liquid. shall i be believed when i say that, at a depth of thirty feet, i could see as well as if i was in broad daylight? for a quarter of an hour i trod on this sand; the hull of the _nautilus_, resembling a long shoal, disappeared by degrees; but its lantern would help to guide us back when darkness should overtake us in the waters. soon forms of objects outlined in the distance became discernible. i recognized magnificent rocks, hung with a tapestry of [v]zoophytes of the most beautiful kind. it was then about ten o'clock in the morning, and the rays of the sun struck the surface of the waves at rather an oblique angle; at the touch of the light, decomposed by [v]refraction as through a prism, flowers, rocks, plants, and shells were shaded at the edges by the seven solar colors. it was a marvelous feast for the eyes, this complication of colored tints, a perfect [v]kaleidoscope of green, yellow, orange, violet, indigo, and blue! all these wonders i saw in the space of a quarter of a mile, scarcely stopping and following captain nemo, who beckoned me on by signs. soon the nature of the soil changed; to the sandy plain succeeded an extent of slimy mud; we then traveled over a plain of seaweed of wild and luxuriant vegetation. this sward was of close texture and soft to the feet, rivaling the softest carpet woven by the hand of man. while verdure was spread at our feet, it did not abandon our heads. a light network of marine plants grew on the surface of the water. we had been gone from the _nautilus_ an hour and a half. it was near noon; i knew this by the [v]perpendicularity of the sun's rays, which were no longer refracted. the magical colors disappeared by degrees and the shades of emerald and sapphire were effaced. we walked with a regular step, which rang upon the ground with astonishing intensity; indeed the slightest noise was transmitted with a quickness and vividness to which the ear is unaccustomed on earth, water being a better conductor of sound than air in the [v]ratio of four to one. at this period the earth sloped downward; the light took a uniform tint. we were at a depth of a hundred and five yards. at this depth i could still see the rays of the sun, though feebly; to their intense brilliancy had succeeded a reddish twilight, but we could find our way well enough. it was not necessary to resort to the ruhmkorff apparatus as yet. at this moment captain nemo stopped and waited till i joined him, pointing then to an obscure mass which loomed in the shadow at a short distance. "it is the forest of the island of crespo," thought i, and i was not mistaken. this under-sea forest was composed of large tree-plants; and the moment we penetrated under its vast [v]arcades i was struck by the singular position of their branches: not an herb which carpeted the ground, not a branch which clothed the trees was either broken or bent, nor did they extend in a [v]horizontal direction; all stretched up toward the surface of the sea. not a filament, not a ribbon, however thin, but kept as straight as a rod of iron. they were motionless, yet when bent to one side by the hand they directly resumed their former position. truly it was a region of perpendicularity. i soon accustomed myself to this fantastic position, as well as to the comparative darkness which surrounded us. the sights were very wonderful. under numerous shrubs as large as trees on land were massed bushes of living flowers--animals rather than plants--of various colors and glowing softly in the obscurity of the ocean depth. fish flies flew from branch to branch like a swarm of humming-birds, while swarms of marine creatures rose at our feet like a flight of snipes. in about an hour captain nemo gave the signal to halt. i, for my part, was not sorry, and we stretched ourselves under an arbor of plants, the long thin blades of which stood up like arrows. i felt an irresistible desire to sleep, an experience which happens to all divers. my eyes soon closed behind the thick glasses and i fell into a heavy slumber. captain nemo and his companion, stretched in the clear crystal, set me the example. how long i remained buried in this drowsiness i cannot judge; but when i woke, the sun seemed sinking toward the horizon. captain nemo had already risen, and i was beginning to stretch my limbs when an unexpected sight brought me briskly to my feet. a few steps off, a monster sea-spider, about forty inches high, was watching me with squinting eyes, ready to spring on me. though my diver's dress was thick enough to defend me from the bite of this animal, i could not help shuddering with horror. conseil and the sailor of the _nautilus_ awoke at this moment. captain nemo pointed out the hideous creature, which a blow from the butt end of a gun knocked over; i saw the claws of the monster writhe in horrible convulsions. this incident reminded me that other animals more to be feared might haunt these obscure depths, against whose attacks my diving-clothes would not protect me. indeed, i thought that this halt would mark the end of our walk; but i was mistaken, for instead of returning to the _nautilus_, we continued our bold excursion. the ground was still on the incline; its declivity seemed to be getting greater and to be leading us to lower depths. it must have been about three o'clock when we reached a narrow valley between high walls; thanks to the perfection of our apparatus, we were far below the depth to which divers ever penetrate. at our great depth the darkness thickened; ten paces away not an object was visible. i was groping my way when i suddenly saw a brilliant white light flash out ahead; captain nemo had turned on his electric torch. the rest of us soon followed his example, and the sea, lit by our four lanterns, was illuminated for a circle of forty yards. captain nemo still plunged onward into the dark reaches of the forest, whose trees were getting scarcer at every step. at last, after about four hours, this marvelous excursion came to an end. a wall of superb rocks rose before us, a heap of gigantic blocks, an enormous granite shore. it was the prop of the island of crespo. it was the earth! the return now began. captain nemo resumed his place at the head of his little band and directed the course without hesitation. i thought we were not following the road we had come, on our return to the _nautilus_. the new way was very steep and consequently very painful; we approached the surface of the sea rapidly, but this ascent was not so sudden as to cause a too rapid relief from the pressure of the water, which would have been dangerous. very soon light reappeared and grew, and as the sun was low on the horizon, the refraction edged all objects with a [v]spectral ring. at ten yards deep, we walked amid a shoal of little fishes, more numerous than the birds of the air; but no [v]aquatic game worthy of a shot had as yet met our gaze. suddenly i saw the captain put his gun to his shoulder and follow a moving object into the shrubs. he fired; i heard a slight hissing and the creature fell stunned at some distance from us. it was a magnificent sea-otter, five feet long and very valuable. its skin, chestnut-brown above and silvery underneath, would have made one of those beautiful furs so sought after in the russian and chinese markets. i admired the curious animal, with its rounded head ornamented with short ears, its round eyes, and white whiskers like those of a cat, and its webbed feet and nails and tufted tail. this precious beast, hunted and tracked by fishermen, has now become very rare and has sought refuge in the northern parts of the pacific. captain nemo's companion threw the sea-otter over his shoulder, and we continued our journey. for an hour a plain of sand lay stretched before us, which sometimes rose to within two yards of the surface of the water. i then saw our image clearly reflected, drawn inversely, and above us appeared an identical group reflecting our movements: in a word, the image was like us in every point, except that the figures walked with their heads downward and their feet in the air. for two hours we followed these sandy plains, then fields of [v]algae very disagreeable to cross. candidly, i felt that i could do no more when i saw a glimmer of light, which for a half-mile broke the darkness of the waters. it was the lantern of the _nautilus_. before twenty minutes were over we should be on board, and i should be able to breathe with ease, for it seemed that my reservoir supplied air very deficient in oxygen. but i did not reckon on an accidental meeting which delayed our arrival for some time. i had remained some steps behind, when presently i saw captain nemo come hurriedly toward me. with his strong hand he bent me to the ground, while his companion did the same to conseil. at first i knew not what to think of this sudden attack, but i was soon reassured by seeing the captain lie down beside me and remain immovable. i was stretched on the ground, just under shelter of a bush of algae, when, raising my head, i saw some enormous mass, casting phosphorescent gleams, pass blusteringly by. my blood froze in my veins as i recognized two formidable sharks. they were man-eaters, terrible creatures with enormous tails and a dull glassy stare--monstrous brutes which could crush a whole man in their iron jaws! i noticed their silver undersides and their huge mouths bristling with teeth, from a very unscientific point of view and more as a possible victim than as a naturalist. happily the [v]voracious creatures do not see well. they passed without noticing us, brushing us with their brownish fins, and we escaped by a miracle from a danger certainly greater than that of meeting a tiger full-face in a forest. half an hour later, guided by the electric light, we reached the _nautilus_. the outside door had been left open, and captain nemo closed it as soon as we entered the first cell. he then pressed a knob. i heard the pumps working in the midst of the vessel. i felt the water sinking from around me, and in a few minutes the cell was entirely empty. the inside door then opened, and we entered the vestry. our diving-dress was taken off, not without some trouble; and fairly worn out from want of food and sleep, i returned to my room in great wonder at this surprising excursion at the bottom of the sea. jules verne. =helps to study= what was the hunt to which the adventurers were invited? describe the preparations for it. what kind of gun did the hunters carry? describe the descent to the bottom of the sea and the walk. what impressed you most? would you care to take a nap at the bottom of the sea? what were the main incidents in the return trip? find out all you can about divers and about life on the floor of the ocean. supplementary reading the mysterious island--jules verne. thirty strange stories--h. g. wells. the great stone of sardis--frank r. stockton. roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean--roll! ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; man marks the earth with ruin--his control stops with the shore; upon the watery plain the wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain a shadow of man's ravage. lord byron. under seas this story is a realistic description of a submarine cruise in the recent war. the _kate_ was a russian underwater boat operating against the german fleet in the baltic sea. her experiences in this terrible mode of fighting were the same as those of hundreds of submarines belonging to the various warring powers. it may be observed from the description how marvelous has been the advance of science in the last generation. what jules verne imagined in his book, _twenty thousand leagues under the sea_, the _kate_ accomplished. this story of actual war is not less wonderful than the vision of the romancer. men were placed at the water-pumps, the oxygen containers, air-purifiers and [v]distilling machinery, and the [v]hatchways were thoroughly examined; the gunners took their posts at the torpedo tubes. the order had been given to move about as little as possible, to keep in the berths when not on duty, and not to talk and laugh. then the watchman left the [v]conning tower, and the main hatchway was [v]hermetically closed. captain andrey gave the order to submerge and went over to the navigating compartment. water rushed into the [v]ballast tanks, the boat grew heavy, and its rolling and pitching ceased: the _kate_ sank and ran ahead under water, steering by means of the [v]periscope. andrey pushed a button and a cone of pale blue rays poured from the tube. the [v]screen of the periscope grew alive with tiny waves, passing clouds, and a tail of smoke on the skyline. with his chin resting on his arm, andrey scanned the image of the sea which lay before him. presently the smoke vanished, and on the right hand appeared the hazy outline of land. at nightfall, the boat, taking advantage of the darkness, rose to the surface of the sea and sailed without lights. andrey stood on the bridge throughout the night. the water was placid, the stars were screened by a light mist, and far away to the south the pale blue gleam of an enemy searchlight moved through the clouds. the boat was now approaching a mine field. at dawn, when the greenish-orange light began slowly to pervade the fleecy clouds, the _kate_ sank to a great depth at a definitely fixed point in the sea. steering solely by compass and map, she commenced to pick her way under the mines. yakovlev was in charge of the steering apparatus, while prince bylopolsky calculated the [v]side drift and reported to the chief engineer in charge of the motors. andrey, leaning over the map, gave orders to the man at the wheel. there was no sensation of movement, and it seemed as if the _kate_ stood still amidst the eery darkness. the men for the most part were stretched on their backs, seeking to consume as little oxygen as possible. in spite of this precaution, however, the air was thick, and the sailors felt a tingling sensation in the ears. suddenly the boat's keel struck against something hard, and a grating sound broke the stillness. "stop! stop!" called out andrey, dashing forth from the navigating cabin. the pinions cracked and the motors ceased to pulsate. immediately the air became hot, as in a turkish bath. andrey entered the water-tight conning tower, which was flooded with diluted, greenish light from the ports provided for the purpose of giving a view of the surrounding waters. he peered through the glass pane. vague, blurred forms and shadows gradually became visible in the twilight of the deep. one of the shadows wavered and glided along the window, and the round, tragic eyes of a fish glanced at andrey. the fish disappeared in the depths below the boat. evidently the _kate_ had not run aground, nor were there any submerged reefs in that quarter. andrey gave an order to raise the boat several feet. then numerous shadows leaped aside and scattered, and the captain plainly saw a jumbled heap of ropes and ladders. it was obvious that the _kate_ had blundered into the remains of a sunken ship. the halt was unfortunate--indeed, might prove fatal. the uniform motion of the boat had been disturbed, the [v]orientation lost; the inevitable small error made at the point of submerging must have increased in the course beneath the waves. the _kate_ had lost her way, and something must be done. andrey drummed nervously on the window-pane as he thought. it was impossible to stay under water any longer, and yet to rise to the surface meant to be seen and attacked by enemy warships. only in this way, however, was it possible to determine the boat's position. andrey, giving an order for the boat to rise slowly, returned to his observation point. the water gradually grew clearer. suddenly a dark ball moved down to meet the craft. "a mine!" flashed across andrey's mind, and, overcoming the torpor which had begun to oppress his brain, he ordered the submarine to be swerved from her course. the ball moved away, but another appeared on the right. there was another change of direction. and now everywhere in the midst of the greenish twilight cast-iron shells lay in wait. the _kate_ was in the toils of a mine net! sea water, when viewed from a great height, is so transparent that large fishes can even be seen in it. owing to this fact, the _kate_ was discovered by two enemy [v]hydroplanes as she rose among the mines toward the surface of the bay. the aircraft were seen, however, and the boat dived again to a great depth. the _kate_ now blindly groped her way forward. the motors worked at their top speed, and the body of the boat trembled. hundreds of demons called horsepowers fiercely turned the various wheels, pinions, and shafts. the air was hot and stuffy; the men at the engine, stripped to the waist, worked feverishly. speed was necessary, for only oxygen enough to sustain the crew for one hour remained in the lead cylinders. yakovlev still sat at the compass, his elbows on his knees and his hands pressing his head. the men lounged in the cabins and corridors, their faces livid with suffocation. prince bylopolsky remained leaning over his [v]logarithmic tables, which had now become useless. from time to time he wiped his face, as if removing a net of invisible cobwebs. finally he rose to his feet, took a few steps, and fainted dead away. giving the order to proceed at full speed, andrey hoped to pass the mine zone, even though some of his men succumbed for lack of air. pale and excited, his hair in disorder, and his coat unbuttoned, he was everywhere at once, and his voice sustained the failing strength of the half-suffocated crew. seeing the prince stretched unconscious on a berth, andrey poured a few drops of brandy in his mouth and kissed his wet, childlike forehead. in making too rapid a movement, lurid flames danced before his eyes, and he bent back, striking his head against a sharp angle of an engine. he felt no pain from the blow. "bad!" thought andrey, and crawled over to the emergency oxygen container. he opened the faucet and inhaled the fragrant stream of gas. his head began to swim and a sweet fire ran through his veins. with an effort he rose to his feet. the outlines of the objects around him were strangely distinct, and the faces of the men imploringly turned to him--some of them bearded and high-cheekboned, others tender and childlike--seemed to him touchingly human.... in the corridor andrey came upon a man standing against the wall and gulping the air like a fish. seeing the commander, he made an effort to cheer up and mumbled, "beg pardon, sir; i'm a bit unwell." the captain leaned over and looked into his eyes, which a film of death was already beginning to veil. andrey, turning to the telephone tube, gave a command to rise. the _kate_ shook all over and dived upward. the ascent lasted four minutes and a half, at the end of which time the boat stood still and light fell on the screen of the periscope. the sailors crawled up to the main hatchway and unscrewed it. cold salt air rushed into the boat, swelling the chests of the sufferers and turning their heads; the sensation of free breathing was delicious after the suffocation they had so long endured. andrey, leaping on the bridge, found the evening sun suspended above vast masses of warm clouds and the sea quiet and peaceful. he began to take observations with the [v]sextant, which shook in his trembling hand. presently a loud buzzing was heard in the sky, followed by the measured crackling of a machine gun; from the hull of the boat came a sharp rat-a-tat, as if some one was throwing dry peas on it. a hydroplane was circling above the _kate_. andrey bit his lip and kept on working; a squad of his men loaded their rifles. the hydroplane swooped down almost to the surface of the sea, then soared with a shrill "f-r-r-r" and flew right over the boat. a clean-shaven pilot sat motionless, his hands on the wheel; below him an observer gazed downward, waiting. suddenly the latter lifted a bomb and threw it into a tube. the missile flashed in the air and plunged into the sea at the very side of the boat. one of the crew fired his rifle, and the observer threw up his leather-covered arms with outspread fingers. slowly circling under the fire of the submarine crew, the aircraft rose toward the clouds and sailed off. over the sky-ridge another aeroplane appeared, looking like a long thin line. meantime the _kate_ picked her way with graceful ease across the orange-colored waters as if cutting through molten glass. andrey, buttoning his coat, said with a grimace, "well, yakovlev, the mines are behind us, but what are we going to do now?" "this region is full of reefs and sandbanks," replied yakovlev. "that's just the trouble. i wouldn't risk sailing under the water. wait a moment." he raised his hand. a violent whizzing sound came from the west; andrey ordered greater speed. a [v]grenade hissed on the right, and a jet of water spurted up from the quiet surface. the _kate_ tacked sharply toward the purpling horizon in the west, and behind, in her shadowy wake, another bomb burst and blossomed out into a small cloud. the boat then turned east again, but now in front of her, on both sides, everywhere, shells burst and sputtered fire. the scouting hydroplane dashed over the submarine like a bat; two pale faces looked down and disappeared. then right above the stern of the _kate_ a grenade exploded and one of the sailors dropped his rifle, clutched his face, toppled over the railing, and disappeared beneath the water. "all hands below!" cried andrey; and, watching where the shells fell thickest, he began to give his orders. the _kate_ circled like a run-down hare, while all along the darkening skyline the smoking stacks of mine-layers and destroyers were visible as the enemy's ruthless ring rapidly tightened about the submarine. having had her wireless mast shot off by a shell, the _kate_ now dashed toward the rocky shore, running awash. six sparks shot up in the dark and six steel-clad demons hissed above the boat. the long shadow of a ship glided along the shore. the _kate_ shook, and a sharp-nosed torpedo detached itself from her hull and glided away under the water to meet the [v]silhouette of the vessel. a moment passed, and a fluffy, mountainous mass of fire and water rose from the spot where the stacks of a mine-layer had projected shortly before. the mountain sank and the silhouette disappeared. the _kate_ entered a baylet among the rocks, submerged, and lay on the sandy sea-bed. two weeks the submarine remained in the inlet, completely cut off from the rest of the world. by day she hid in the deep, and only under the cover of night did she rise to the surface to get a supply of air. the greatest precautions were necessary, for there was little likelihood that the enemy believed the submarine to be destroyed. at the end of that time some action was inevitable, as the boat's supplies had given out; for three days the crew had fed on fish which one of the men had caught at great risk. audrey decided to leave the bay and make a supreme effort to run the enemy's cordon. about daybreak, as the _kate_ was nearing the surface of the sea, the crew became aware of a tremendous muffled cannonade; and when the boat emerged into a white fog, the whole coast shook and echoed with the roar and crash of a sea battle. broadsides and terrific explosions alternated with the crackling of guns. it was as though a multitude of sea-devils coughed and blew and roared at each other. "quick, sir," shouted yakovlev, holding on to the railing; "we can break through now!" his teeth rattled. the preparations for the dash had been completed. a strong gale swept away the fog and drove its torn masses over the sea, laying bare the rocky shore. the _kate_ dashed out of the bay into the open. the firing was now heard behind and on the right; the road to the port was open at last. the submarine rushed along, ripping in twain the frothing waves. in this moment of exaltation, to return safely to base, simply to do one's duty, seemed too little to these fearless men. the feeling that possessed them was not enthusiasm but a greediness, a yearning for destruction. "we cannot go away like this," yakovlev shouted in audrey's ear; "turn back or i will shoot myself!" the man was completely beside himself; his pale face twisted convulsively. just then the sun arose, turning the rolling sea into a dull orange. near at hand invisible ships thundered against each other. suddenly a gray mountain-like shape emerged from the fog, enveloped in flame and smoke. above its turrets, stacks, and masts fluttered a flag bearing a black eagle. mad with the thought that the opportunity had come at last, andrey rushed down the hatchway, knocking over yakovlev on the way, and loaded the torpedo tube. the _kate_ submerged a little, and sailing awash, headed straight for the enemy vessel. the shadow of the hostile ship glided along the periscope screen, every now and then wrapping itself into a cloud pierced with fiery needles of shots. the _kate_ fired a torpedo but missed her aim. leaning over the screen and biting his lips to bleeding, andrey examined the tiny image of the vessel, one of the mightiest of battleships. the distance between the _kate_ and the enemy vessel continued to decrease; the image of the ship already occupied half of the periscope screen. "another torpedo!" shouted andrey. at that very instant a blow was struck the boat and the periscope screen grew dark. andrey ran out from the navigating compartment and shouted: "the periscope is shot away! full speed forward!" the engineer seized the handle of a lever and asked, "which way?" "forward! forward!" andrey went into the conning tower; straight in front of him foamy eddies whirled furiously. the dark hull of a ship appeared, obscuring the light. "stop!" shouted andrey. "fire another one! full speed backward!" he closed his eyes. for a moment it seemed to him that the end had come. he was hurled by the explosion of the torpedo into the corridor and dashed against the wall. the outcries of the men were drowned by the muffled thud of the inrushing water. the light went out; the _kate_ began to rotate and sink. the boat did not stay long in the deep; freed from the weight of two torpedoes, she slowly began to rise, stopped before reaching the surface, and commenced to sink again as the water continued to leak into her hull. a sailor found andrey in a narrow passage unconscious, though breathing regularly. the man dressed the captain's wounds, but could not bring him to his senses. another sailor tried to revive yakovlev, but soon saw that that officer was dead. all the available hands toiled at the pumps, while the engineer and his two assistants worked frantically at the engine. the _kate_ was near the surface, but as the periscope and the indicator had been destroyed, it was impossible to tell precisely where she was. on the other hand, to unscrew the hatch and look out would subject the boat to the risk of being flooded. finally, the engineer reported that it was necessary to replace the cylinder, but that this was difficult to do because the supply of candles was giving out. kuritzyn, a sailor who had assumed command, ordered the men at the pumps to pump until they dropped dead, if necessary, but to raise the boat at least one yard. the men obeyed in grim silence. presently the last candle went out. "it's all over, boys," said some one, and the pumps stopped. the only sound that now broke the silence was the monotonous splash of water leaking down on the periscope screen. "follow me," said kuritzyn hoarsely to two of the men. "let us unscrew the hatches. what's the use of fooling any longer?" feeling their way in the darkness, several men followed the leader into the corridor and up the spiral staircase in the main hatchway. when they reached the top, they grasped the bolts of the lid. "here's our finish," said one of the men. just then the sound of footsteps on the outside of the boat reached their ears. some one was walking on the _kate's_ hull! "down to the ballast tanks!" kuritzyn ordered. "when i fire, blow them out. we are ordered not to surrender the boat." with his revolver between his teeth, he pressed the bolt. the lid yielded; light and air rushed into the opening. "hey, who is there?" kuritzyn shouted. "russians, russians," replied a voice. "thank god!" said kuritzyn in a tone of intense gratitude. count alexis tolstoi. =helps to study= tell of the preparations made for the submerging of the _kate_. describe the scene within the vessel. what accident halted the boat? describe the events that followed. where did the _kate_ find anchorage? describe her exit from the bay. what flag was it that bore a black eagle? what was the fate of the ship bearing that flag? supplementary reading twenty thousand leagues under the sea--jules verne. the pilot--j. fenimore cooper. a voyage to the moon the moon, being the nearest to the earth of all the heavenly bodies, has always occupied the imagination of men. many fanciful accounts have been written of voyages to the moon, of which the following story by edgar allan poe is among the best. so wonderful has been the advance of science that it is conceivable that at some distant time in the future the inhabitants of this world may possibly be able to visit the beautiful body which lights the night for us. i after a long and arduous devotion to the study of physics and astronomy, i, hans pfaal of rotterdam, at length determined to construct a balloon of my own along original lines and to try a flight in it. accordingly i had made an enormous bag out of cambric muslin, varnished with caoutchouc for protection against the weather. i procured all the instruments needed for a prolonged ascent and finally prepared for the inflation of the balloon. herein lay my secret, my invention, the thing in which my balloon differed from all the balloons that had gone before. out of a peculiar [v]metallic substance and a very common acid i was able to manufacture a gas of a density about . less than that of hydrogen, and thus by far the lightest substance ever known. it would serve to carry the balloon to heights greater than had been attained before, for hydrogen is the gas usually used. the hour for my experiment in ballooning finally arrived. i had chosen the night as the best time for the ascension, because i should thereby avoid annoyances caused by the curiosity of the ignorant and the idle. it was the first of april. the night was dark; there was not a star to be seen; and a drizzling rain, falling at intervals, made me very uncomfortable. but my chief anxiety was concerning the balloon, which, in spite of the varnish with which it was defended, began to grow rather heavy with the moisture. i therefore set my assistants to working, and in about four hours and a half i found the balloon sufficiently inflated. i attached the car and put all my implements in it--a telescope, a barometer, a thermometer, an [v]electrometer, a compass, a magnetic needle, a seconds watch, a bell, and other things. i had further procured a globe of glass, exhausted of air and carefully closed with a stopper, not forgetting a special apparatus for condensing air, a copious supply of water, and a large quantity of provisions, such as [v]pemmican, in which much [v]nutriment is contained in comparatively little bulk. i also secured a cat in the car. it was now nearly daybreak, and i thought it high time to take my departure. i immediately cut the single cord which held me to the earth, and was pleased to find that i shot upward with [v]inconceivable rapidity, carrying with all ease one hundred and seventy-five pounds of leaden ballast and able to have carried as much more. scarcely, however, had i attained the height of fifty yards, when roaring and rumbling up after me in the most [v]tumultuous and terrible manner, came so dense a hurricane of fire and gravel and burning wood and blazing metal that my very heart sunk within me and i fell down in the car, trembling with terror. some of my chemical materials had exploded immediately beneath me almost at the moment of my leaving earth. the balloon at first collapsed, then furiously expanded, then whirled round and round with sickening [v]velocity, and finally, reeling and staggering like a drunken man, hurled me over the rim of the car; and in the moment of my fall i lost consciousness. i had no knowledge of what had saved me. when i partially recovered the sense of existence, i found the day breaking, the balloon at a [v]prodigious height over a wilderness of ocean, and not a trace of land to be discovered far and wide within the limits of the vast horizon. my sensations, however, upon thus recovering, were by no means so [v]replete with agony as might have been anticipated. indeed, there was much of madness in the calm survey which i began to take of my situation. i drew up to my eyes each of my hands, one after the other, and wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling of the veins and the horrible blackness of the finger nails. i afterward carefully examined my head, shaking it repeatedly and feeling it with minute attention, until i succeeded in satisfying myself that it was not, as i had more than half suspected, larger than the balloon. it now occurred to me that i suffered great uneasiness in the joint of my left ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began to glimmer through my mind. i began to understand that my foot had caught in a rope and that i was hanging downward outside the car. but strange to say! i was neither astonished nor horror-stricken. if i felt any emotion at all, it was a sort of chuckling satisfaction at the cleverness i was about to display in getting myself out of this [v]dilemma. with great caution and deliberation, i put my hands behind my back and unfastened the large iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my pantaloons. this buckle had three teeth, which, being somewhat rusty, turned with great difficulty on their axis. i brought them, however, after some trouble, at right angles to the body of the buckle and was glad to find them remain firm in that position. holding with my teeth the instrument thus obtained, i proceeded to untie the knot of my cravat; it was at length accomplished. to one end of the cravat i then made fast the buckle, and the other end i tied, for greater security, tightly around my wrist. drawing now my body upward, with a prodigious exertion of muscular force, i succeeded, at the very first trial, in throwing the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as i had anticipated, in the circular rim of the wicker-work. my body was now inclined toward the side of the car at an angle of about forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood that i was therefore only forty-five degrees below the [v]perpendicular. so far from it, i still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon, for the change of position which i had acquired had forced the bottom of the car considerably outward from my position, which was accordingly one of the most extreme peril. it should be remembered, however, that when i fell from the car, if i had fallen with my face turned toward the balloon, instead of turned outwardly from it as it actually was--or if, in the second place, the cord by which i was suspended had chanced to hang over the upper edge instead of through a crevice near the bottom of the car--in either of these cases, i should have been unable to accomplish even as much as i had now accomplished. i had therefore every reason to be grateful, although, in point of fact, i was still too stupid to be anything at all, and hung for perhaps a quarter of an hour in that extraordinary manner, without making the slightest farther exertion, and in a singularly tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment. this feeling, however, did not fail to die rapidly away, and thereunto succeeded horror and dismay, and a sense of utter helplessness and ruin. in fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels of my head and throat, and which had hitherto buoyed up my spirits with delirium, had now begun to retire within its proper channels, and the distinctness which was thus added to my perception of the danger merely served to deprive me of the self-possession and courage to encounter it. but this weakness was, luckily for me, of no very great duration. in good time came to my rescue the spirit of despair, and with frantic cries and struggles, i jerked my body upward, till, at length, clutching with a vice-like grip the long-desired rim, i writhed my person over it and fell headlong and shuddering within the car. when i had recovered from the weakness caused by being so long in that position and the horror from which i had suffered, i found that all my implements were in place and that neither ballast nor provisions had been lost. it is now high time that i should explain the object of my voyage. i had been harassed for long by poverty and creditors. in this state of mind, wishing to live and yet wearied with life, my deep studies in astronomy opened a resource to my imagination. i determined to depart, yet live--to leave the world, yet continue to exist--in short, to be plain, i resolved, let come what would, to force a passage, if possible, to the moon. this was not so mad as it seems. the moon's actual distance from the earth was the first thing to be attended to. the mean or average interval between the centers of the two planets is only about , miles. but at certain times the moon and earth are much nearer than at others, and if i could contrive to meet the moon at the moment when it was nearest earth, the above-mentioned distance would be materially lessened. but even taking the average distance and deducting the [v]radius of the earth and the moon, the actual interval to be traversed under average circumstances would be , miles. now this, i reflected, was no very extraordinary distance. traveling on the land has been repeatedly accomplished at the rate of sixty miles an hour; and indeed a much greater speed may be anticipated. but even at this velocity it would take me no more than days to reach the surface of the moon. there were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe that my average rate of traveling might possibly very much exceed that of sixty miles an hour. the next point to be regarded was one of far greater importance. we know that at , feet above the surface of the earth we have passed one-half the material, or, at all events, one-half the [v]ponderable body of air upon the globe. it is also calculated that at a height of eighty miles the [v]rarefaction of air is so great that animal life can be sustained in no manner. but i did not fail to perceive that these calculations are founded on our experimental knowledge of the air in the immediate vicinity of the earth, and that it is taken for granted that animal life is incapable of [v]modification. i thought that no matter how high we may ascend we cannot arrive at a limit beyond which no atmosphere is to be found. it must exist, i argued, although it may exist in a state of [v]infinite rarefaction. having adopted this view of the subject, i had little farther hesitation. granting that on my passage i should meet with atmosphere essentially the same as at the surface of the earth, i thought that, by means of my very ingenious apparatus for that purpose, i should readily be able to condense it in sufficient quantity for breathing. this would remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the moon. i now turned to view the prospect beneath me. at twenty minutes past six o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation of , feet, or five miles to a fraction. the outlook seemed unbounded. i beheld as much as a sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe. the sea appeared as unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the telescope, i could perceive it to be in a state of violent agitation. i now began to experience, at intervals, severe pain in the head, especially about the ears, due to the rarefaction of the air. the cat seemed to suffer no inconvenience whatever. i was rising rapidly, and by seven o'clock the barometer indicated an altitude of no less than nine miles and a half. i began to find great difficulty in drawing my breath. my head, too, was excessively painful; and, having felt for some time a moisture about my cheeks, i at length discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums of my ears. these symptoms were more than i had expected and occasioned me some alarm. at this juncture, very imprudently and without consideration, i threw out from the car three five-pound pieces of ballast. the increased rate of ascent thus obtained carried me too rapidly into a highly rarefied layer of atmosphere, and the result nearly proved fatal to my expedition and myself. i was suddenly seized with a spasm, which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when this in a measure ceased, i could catch my breath only at long intervals, and in a gasping manner--bleeding all the while copiously at the nose and ears and even slightly at the eyes. the cat mewed piteously, and, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, staggered to and fro in the car as if under the influence of poison. i now too late discovered the great rashness of which i had been guilty in discharging my ballast, and my agitation was excessive. i expected nothing less than death, and death in a few minutes. i lay down in the bottom of the car and endeavored to collect my faculties. in this i so far succeeded as to determine upon the experiment of losing blood. having no lancet, i was obliged to open a vein in my arm with the blade of a penknife. the blood had hardly commenced flowing when i experienced a sensible relief, and by the time i had lost about half a basin-full most of the worst symptoms were gone. the difficulty of breathing, however, was diminished in a very slight degree, and i found that it would be soon positively necessary to make use of my condenser. by eight o'clock i had actually attained an elevation of seventeen miles above the surface of the earth. thus it seemed to me evident that my rate of ascent was not only on the increase, but that the progress would have been apparent to a slight extent even had i not discharged the ballast which i did. the pains in my head and ears returned at intervals and with violence, and i still continued to bleed occasionally at the nose; but upon the whole i suffered much less than might have been expected. i now unpacked the condensing apparatus and got it ready for immediate use. the view of the earth at this period of my ascension was beautiful indeed. to the westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as i could see, lay a boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which every moment gained a deeper and deeper tint of blue. at a vast distance to the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of great britain, the entire atlantic coasts of france and spain, with a small portion of the northern part of the continent of africa. of individual edifices not a trace could be found, and the proudest cities of mankind had utterly faded away from the surface of the earth. at a quarter-past eight, being able no longer to draw breath without the most intolerable pain, i proceeded forthwith to adjust around the car the apparatus belonging to the condenser. i had prepared a very strong, perfectly air-tight gum-elastic bag. in this bag, which was of sufficient size, the entire car was in a manner placed. that is to say, the bag was drawn over the whole bottom of the car, up its sides and so on, up to the upper rim where the net-work is attached. having pulled up the bag and made a complete inclosure on all sides, i was shut in an air-tight chamber. in the sides of this covering had been inserted three circular panes of thick but clear glass, through which i could see without difficulty around me in every horizontal direction. in that portion of the cloth forming the bottom was a fourth window corresponding with a small aperture in the floor of the car itself. this enabled me to see straight down, but i had been unable to fix a similar window above me and so i could expect to see no objects directly overhead. the condensing apparatus was connected with the outer air by a tube to admit air at one end and by a valve at the bottom of the car to eject foul air. by the time i had completed these arrangements and filled the chamber with condensed air by means of the apparatus, it wanted only ten minutes of nine o'clock. during the whole period of my being thus employed, i endured the most terrible distress from difficulty of respiration, and bitterly did i repent the foolhardiness of which i had been guilty in putting off to the last moment a matter of so much importance. but having at length accomplished it, i soon began to reap the benefit of my invention. once again i breathed with perfect freedom and ease--and indeed why should i not? i was also agreeably surprised to find myself, in a great measure, relieved from the violent pains which had hitherto tormented me. a slight headache, accompanied by a sensation of fulness about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly all of which i had now to complain. at twenty minutes before nine o'clock, the mercury attained its limit, or ran down, in the barometer. the instrument then indicated an altitude of twenty-five miles, and i consequently surveyed at that time an extent of the earth's area amounting to no less than one three-hundred-and-twentieth part of the entire surface. at half-past nine, i tried the experiment of throwing out a handful of feathers through the valve. they did not float as i had expected, but dropped down like a bullet and with the greatest velocity, being out of sight in a very few seconds. it occurred to me that the atmosphere was now far too rare to sustain even feathers; that they actually fell, as they appeared to do, with great speed, and that i had been surprised by the united velocities of their descent and my own rise. at six o'clock p. m., i perceived a great portion of the earth's visible area to the eastward involved in thick shadow, which continued to advance with great rapidity, until at five minutes before seven the whole surface in sight was enveloped in the darkness of night. it was not, however, until long after this time that the rays of the setting sun ceased to illumine the balloon, and this fact, although, of course, expected, did not fail to give me great pleasure. in the morning i should behold the rising [v]luminary many hours before the citizens of rotterdam, in spite of their situation so much farther to the eastward, and thus, day after day, in proportion to the height ascended, i should enjoy the light of the sun for a longer and longer period. i now resolved to keep a journal of my passage, reckoning the days by twenty-four hours instead of by day and night. at ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, i determined to lie down for the rest of the night; but here a difficulty presented itself, which, obvious as it may appear, had escaped my attention up to the very moment of which i am now speaking. if i went to sleep, as i proposed, how could the air in the chamber be renewed in the meanwhile? to breath it more than an hour at the farthest would be impossible; or, even if this term could be extended to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous consequences might ensue. this dilemma gave me no little anxiety; and it will hardly be believed that, after the dangers i had undergone, i should look upon this business in so serious a light as to give up all hope of accomplishing my ultimate design, and finally make up my mind to the necessity of a descent. but this hesitation was only momentary. i reflected that man is the slave of custom and that many things are deemed essential which are only the results of habit. it was certain that i could not do without sleep; but i might easily bring myself to feel no inconvenience from being awakened at intervals of an hour during the whole period of my repose. it would require but five minutes to renew the air, and the only difficulty was to contrive a method of arousing myself at the proper moment for so doing. this question caused me no little trouble to solve. i at length hit upon the following plan. my supply of water had been put on board in kegs of five gallons each and ranged securely around the interior of the car. i unfastened one of these and, taking two ropes, tied them tightly across the rim of the wicker-work from one side to the other, placing them about a foot apart and parallel, so as to form a kind of shelf, upon which i placed the keg and steadied it. about eight inches below these ropes i fastened another shelf made of thin plank, on which shelf, and beneath one of the rims of the keg, a small pitcher was placed. i bored a hole in the end of the keg over the pitcher and fitted in a plug of soft wood, which i pushed in or pulled out, until, after a few experiments, it arrived at that exact degree of tightness at which the water, oozing from the hole and falling into the pitcher below, would fill the latter to the brim in the period of sixty minutes. having arranged all this, the rest of the plan was simple. my bed was so contrived upon the floor of the car as to bring my head, in lying down, immediately below the mouth of the pitcher. it was evident that, at the expiration of an hour, the pitcher, getting full, would be forced to run over and to run over at the mouth, which was somewhat lower than the rim. it was also evident that the water, falling from a height, could not do otherwise than fall on my face and awaken me even from the soundest slumber in the world. it was fully eleven by the time i had completed these arrangements, and i at once betook myself to bed with full confidence in my invention. nor in this matter was i disappointed. punctually every sixty minutes i was aroused by my trusty clock, when, having emptied the pitcher into the bung-hole of the keg and filled the chamber with condensed air, i retired again to bed. these regular interruptions to my slumber caused me less discomfort than i had anticipated; and when i finally arose for the day, it was seven o'clock and the sun was high above the horizon. i found the balloon at an immense height indeed, and the earth's roundness had now become strikingly manifest. below me in the ocean lay a cluster of black specks, which undoubtedly were islands. overhead, the sky was of a jetty black, and the stars were brilliantly visible; indeed they had been so constantly since the first day of ascent. far away to the northward i saw a thin, white and exceedingly brilliant line, or streak, on the edge of the horizon, and i had no hesitation in supposing it to be the southern disc of the ices of the polar sea. my curiosity was greatly excited, for i had hopes of passing on much farther to the north, and might possibly, at some period, find myself directly above the pole itself. i now lamented that my great elevation would, in this case, prevent me from taking as accurate a survey as i could wish. my condensing apparatus continued in good order, and the balloon still ascended without any perceptible change. the cold was intense, and obliged me to wrap up closely in an overcoat. when darkness came over the earth, i went to bed, although it was for many hours afterward broad daylight all around me. the water-clock was punctual in its duty, and i slept until next morning soundly, with the exception of the periodical interruptions. april th. i arose in good health and spirits, and was astonished at the singular change which had taken place in the appearance of the sea. it had lost, in a great measure, the deep tint of blue it had hitherto worn, being now of a grayish-white and of a luster dazzling to the eye. the curve of the ocean had become so evident that the entire mass of water seemed to be tumbling headlong over the abyss of the horizon, and i found myself listening on tiptoe for the echoes of the mighty cataract. the islands were no longer visible; whether they had passed down the horizon to the southeast, or whether my increasing elevation had left them out of sight, it is impossible to say. i was inclined, however, to the latter opinion. the rim of ice to the northward was growing more and more apparent. the cold was by no means so intense. april th. i beheld the singular sight of the sun rising while nearly the whole visible surface of the earth continued to be involved in darkness. in time, however, the light spread itself over all, and i again saw the line of ice to the northward. it was now very distinct and appeared of a much darker hue than the waters of the ocean. i was evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity. i fancied i could again distinguish a strip of land to the eastward, and one also to the westward, but could not be certain. april th. i was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very moderate distance, and an immense field of the same material stretching away off to the horizon in the north. it was evident that if the balloon held its present course, it would soon arrive above the frozen ocean, and i had now little doubt of ultimately seeing the pole. during the whole of the day i continued to near the ice. toward night the limits of my horizon very suddenly and materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth's form, which is round but flattened near the poles. when darkness at length overtook me, i went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to pass over the object of so much curiosity when i should have no opportunity of observing it. april th. i arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld what there could be no hesitation in supposing the northern pole itself. it was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately beneath my feet; but alas! i had now ascended to so vast a distance that nothing could with accuracy be made out. indeed, i estimated that at four o'clock in the morning of april the seventh the balloon had reached a height of not less than , miles above the surface of the sea. at all events i undoubtedly beheld the whole of the earth's diameter; the entire northern hemisphere lay beneath me like a chart, and the great circle of the equator itself formed the boundary line of my horizon. april th. i found a sensible diminution in the earth's size, besides a material alteration in its general color and appearance. the whole area partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some portions had acquired a brilliancy even painful to the eye. my view was somewhat impeded by clouds near the earth, but nevertheless i could easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the great lakes in north america and was holding a course due south which would soon bring me to the tropics. this circumstance did not fail to give me the most heartfelt satisfaction, and i hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate success. indeed, the direction i had hitherto taken had filled me with uneasiness, for it was evident that had i continued it much longer, there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the moon at all, which revolves around the earth in the plane of the equator. april th. to-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. the balloon kept steadily on her course to the southward, and arrived at nine p. m. over the mexican gulf. april th. a singular alteration took place in regard to the direction of the balloon, and, although fully anticipated, afforded me the very greatest delight. having reached, in its former course, about the twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an acute angle to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day, keeping nearly, if not altogether, in the exact plane of the moon's path around the earth. april th. great decrease in the earth's apparent size. the moon could not be seen at all, being nearly above me. i still continued in the plane of the moon's path, but made little progress eastward. april th. extremely rapid decrease in the size of the earth. to-day i became strongly impressed with the idea that the balloon was holding the direct course which would bring it immediately to the moon where it comes nearest the earth. the moon was directly overhead, and consequently hidden from my view. great and long continued labor was necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere. april th. to-day, looking upward as well as i could, through each of the side windows alternately, i beheld, to my great delight, a very small portion of the moon's disk protruding, as it were, on all sides beyond the huge bulk of the balloon. my agitation was extreme, for i had now little doubt of soon reaching the end of my perilous voyage. indeed, the labor required by the condenser had increased to such a degree that i had scarcely any respite from exertion. sleep was a matter nearly out of question. i became quite ill, and my frame trembled with exhaustion. it was impossible that human nature could endure this state of intense suffering much longer. april th. this morning proved an epoch in my voyage. it will be remembered that on the thirteenth the earth had diminished; on the fourteenth, it had still further dwindled; on the fifteenth, a still more rapid decrease was observable; and on retiring for the night of the sixteenth, the earth had shrunk to small size. what, therefore, must have been my amazement, on awakening from a brief and disturbed slumber on the morning of this day, the seventeenth, at finding the surface beneath me so suddenly and wonderfully increased in volume as to seem but a comparatively short distance beneath me! i was thunderstruck! no words can give any adequate idea of the extreme, the absolute horror and astonishment, with which i was seized, possessed and altogether overwhelmed. my knees tottered beneath me--my teeth chattered--my hair started up on end. the balloon then had actually burst! these were the first ideas which hurried through my mind. the balloon had burst! i was falling--falling with the most impetuous, the most wonderful velocity! to judge from the immense distance already so quickly passed over, it could not be more than ten minutes at the farthest before i should meet the surface of the earth and be hurled into annihilation! but at length reflection came to my relief. i paused, i considered, and i began to doubt. the matter was impossible. i could not, in any reason, have so rapidly come down. besides, although i was evidently approaching the surface below me, it was with a speed by no means commensurate with the velocity i had at first conceived. this consideration served to calm my mind, and i finally succeeded in looking at the matter in its proper point of view. in fact, amazement must have fairly deprived me of my senses when i could not see the vast difference in appearance between the surface below me and the surface of my mother earth. the latter was indeed over my head and completely hidden by the balloon, while the moon--the moon itself in all its glory--lay beneath me and at my feet! i had indeed arrived at the point where the attraction of the moon had proved stronger than the attraction of the earth, and so the moon now appeared to be below me and i was descending upon it. it lay beneath me like a chart, and i studied it with the deepest attention. the entire absence of ocean or sea, and indeed of any lake or river, or body of water whatsoever, struck me at the first glance as the most extraordinary feature in its appearance. april th. to-day i found an enormous increase in the moon's apparent bulk--and the evidently increased velocity of my descent began to fill me with alarm. i had relied on finding some atmosphere at the moon and on the resistance of this atmosphere to [v]gravitation as affording me a chance to land in safety. should i prove to have been mistaken about the atmosphere, i had nothing better to expect than to be dashed into atoms against the rugged surface of the earth's [v]satellite. and indeed i had now every reason to be terrified. my distance from the moon was comparatively trivial, while the labor required by the condenser was diminished not at all, and i could discover no indication whatever of a decreasing rarity of the air. april th. this morning, to my great joy, about nine o'clock, the surface of the moon being frightfully near and my fears excited to the utmost, the pump of my condenser at length gave evident tokens of an alteration in the atmosphere. by ten, i had reason to believe its density considerably increased. by eleven, very little labor was necessary at the apparatus; and at twelve o'clock, with some hesitation, i ventured to open the car a little and suffered no inconvenience. i finally threw aside the gum-elastic chamber and unrigged it from around the car. as might have been expected, spasms and violent headache were the immediate consequences of an experiment so rash. but this was forgotten in consideration of other things. my approach was still rapid in the extreme; and it soon became certain that although i had probably not been deceived in the expectation of finding a fairly dense atmosphere, still i had been wrong in supposing that atmosphere dense enough to support the great weight contained in the car of the balloon. i was now close upon the planet and coming down with the most terrible rapidity. i lost not a moment, accordingly, in throwing overboard first my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my condensing apparatus and gum-elastic chamber, and finally every article within the car. but it was all to no purpose. i still fell with horrible speed, and was now not more than half a mile from the surface. as a last resource, therefore, having got rid of my coat, hat, and boots, i cut loose from the balloon the car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and thus clinging with both hands to the net-work, i had barely time to observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was thickly sown with small habitations, ere i tumbled headlong into the very heart of a fantastic city and into the middle of a vast crowd of ugly little people. i turned from them, and gazing upward at the earth so lately left, and left perhaps forever, beheld it like a huge, dull copper shield, fixed immovably in the heavens overhead and tipped on one of its edges with a crescent border of the most brilliant gold. edgar allan poe. =helps to study= describe the balloon hans constructed. how did he extricate himself from each difficulty he encountered? what characteristic did this show? note the changes in the appearance of the earth as he made his journey. on what day did he see the north pole? in what region was he when he saw the moon? what did he find when he reached that body? supplementary reading from the earth to the moon--jules verne. the war of the worlds--h. g. wells. the great stone of sardis[ -*] this fanciful tale is taken from frank r. stockton's _the great stone of sardis_. in this book the hero, roland clewe, is pictured as a scientist who had made many startling discoveries and inventions at his works in sardis about the year . one of his inventions was an automatic shell. this was an enormous projectile, the peculiarity of which was that its motive power was contained within itself, very much as a rocket contains the explosives which send it upward. the extraordinary piece of mechanism was of [v]cylindrical form, eighteen feet in length and fourteen feet in diameter. the forward end was [v]conical and not solid, being formed of a number of flat steel rings, decreasing in size as they approached the point of the cone. when not in operation these rings did not touch one another, but they could be forced together by pressure on the point of the cone. one day this shell fell from the supports on which it lay, the conical end down, and ploughed its way with terrific force into the earth--how far no one could tell. clewe determined to descend the hole in search of the shell by means of an electric elevator. margaret raleigh, to whom he was engaged, had gone to the seashore, and during her absence, clewe planned to make his daring venture. on the day that margaret left sardis, roland began his preparations for descending the shaft. he had so thoroughly considered the machinery and appliances necessary for the undertaking and had worked out all his plans in such detail, in his mind and upon paper, that he knew exactly what he wanted to do. his orders for the great length of chain needed exhausted the stock of several factories, and the engines he obtained were even more powerful than he had intended them to be; but these he could procure immediately, and for smaller ones he would have been obliged to wait. the circular car which was intended to move up and down the shaft, and the peculiar machinery connected with it, together with the hoisting apparatus, were all made in his works. his skilled artisans labored steadily day and night. it was ten days before he was ready to make his descent. margaret was still at the seashore. they had written to each other frequently, but neither had made mention of the great shaft. even when he was ready to go down, clewe said nothing to any one of an immediate intention of descending. there was a massive door which covered the mouth of the pit; this he ordered locked and went away. the next morning he walked into the building a little earlier than was his custom, called for the engineers, and for bryce, who was to take charge of everything connected with the descent, and announced that he was going down that day. bryce and the men who were to assist him looked very serious at this. indeed, if their employer had been any other man than roland clewe, it is possible they might have remonstrated with him; but they knew him, and they said and did nothing more than what was their duty. the door of the shaft was removed, the car which had hung high above it was lowered to the mouth of the opening, and roland stepped within it and seated himself. above him and around him were placed [v]geological tools and instruments of many kinds, a lantern, food, and drink--everything, in fact, which he could possibly be presumed to need upon this extraordinary journey. a telephone was at his side by which he could communicate at any time with the surface of the earth. there were electric bells; there was everything to make his expedition safe and profitable. finally he gave the word to start the engines; there were no ceremonies, and nothing was said out of the common. when the conical top of the car had descended below the surface, a steel grating, with holes for the passage of the chains, was let down over the mouth of the shaft, and the downward journey began. in the floor of the car were grated openings, through which clewe could look downward; but, although the shaft below him was brilliantly illuminated by electric lights placed beneath the car, it failed to frighten him or make him dizzy to look down, for the [v]aperture did not appear to be very far below him. the upper part of the car was partially open, and bright lights shone upon the sides of the shaft. as he slowly descended, clewe could see the various [v]strata appearing and disappearing in the order in which he knew them. not far below the surface he passed cavities which he believed had held water; but there was no water in them now. he had expected these pockets, and had feared that upon their edges might be loosened patches of rock or soil, but everything seemed tightly packed and hard. if anything had been loosened, it had gone down already. down, down he went until he came to the eternal rocks, where the inside of the shaft was polished as if it had been made of glass. the air became warmer and warmer, but clewe knew that the heat would soon decrease. the character of the rocks changed, and he studied them as he went down, continually making notes. after a time the polished rocky sides of the shaft grew to be of a solemn sameness. clewe ceased to take notes; he lighted a cigar and smoked. he tried to imagine what he would come to when he reached the bottom; it would be some sort of a cave, he thought, in which his shell had made an opening. he began to imagine what sort of a cave it would be, and how high the roof was from the floor. clewe then suddenly wondered whether his gardener had remembered what he had told him about the flower-beds in front of the house; he wished certain changes made which margaret had suggested. he tried to keep his mind on the flower-beds, but it drifted away to the cave below. he thought of the danger of coming into some underground body of water, where he would be drowned; but he knew that was a silly idea. if the shell had gone through [v]subterranean reservoirs, the water of these would have run out, and before it reached the bottom of the shaft would have dissipated into mist. down, down he went. he looked at his watch; he had been in that car only an hour and a half. was that possible? he had supposed he was almost at the bottom. suddenly his mind reverted to the people above and the telephone. why had not some of them spoken to him? it was shameful! he instantly called bryce, and his heart leaped with joy when he heard the familiar voice in his ear. now he talked steadily on for more than an hour. he had his gardener summoned, and told the man all that he wanted done in the flower-beds. he gave many directions in regard to the various operations at the works. there were two or three inventions in which he took particular interest, and of these he talked at great length with bryce. suddenly, in the midst of some talk about hollow steel rods, he told bryce to let the engines run faster; there was no reason why the car should go so slowly. the windlasses moved with a little more rapidity, and clewe now turned and looked at an indicator which was placed on the side of the car, a little over his head. this instrument showed the depth to which he had descended, but he had not looked at it before, for if anything would make him nervous, it would be the continual consideration of the depth to which he had descended. the indicator showed that he had gone down fourteen and one-eighth miles. clewe turned and sat stiffly in his seat. he glanced down and saw beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading away at the bottom. then he turned to speak to bryce, but to his surprise, he could think of nothing to say. after that he lighted another cigar and sat quietly. some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down through the gratings in the floor of the car. the electric light streamed downward through a deep [v]crevice, which did not now fade away into nothingness, but ended in something dark and glittering. then, as he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, clewe saw that it was his automatic shell, lying on its side; only a part of it was visible through the opening of the shaft which he was descending. in an instant, as it seemed to him, the car emerged from the shaft, and he seemed to be hanging in the air--at least there was nothing he could see except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him. but it was impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! he rang to stop the car. "anything the matter?" cried bryce. "nothing at all," clewe replied. "it's all right; i am near the bottom." in a state of the highest nervous excitement, clewe gazed about him. he was no longer in a shaft; but where was he? look around on what side he would, he saw nothing but the light going out from his lamps, light which seemed to extend indefinitely all about him. there appeared to be no limit to his vision in any direction. then he leaned over the side of his car and looked downward. there lay the great shell directly under him, although under it and around it, extending as far beneath it as it extended in every other direction, shone the light from his own lamp. nevertheless, that great shell, weighing many tons, lay as if it rested upon the solid ground! after a few moments, clewe shut his eyes; they pained him. something seemed to be coming into them like a fine frost in a winter wind. then he called to bryce to let the car descend very slowly. it went down, down, gradually approaching the great shell. when the bottom of the car was within two feet of it, clewe rang to stop. he looked down at the complicated machine he had worked upon so long, with something like a feeling of affection. this he knew; it was his own. gazing upon its familiar form, he felt that he had a companion in this region of unreality. pushing back the sliding door of the car, clewe sat upon the bottom and cautiously put out his feet and legs, lowering them until they touched the shell. it was firm and solid. although he knew it must be so, the immovability of the great mass of iron gave him a sudden shock of mysterious fear. how could it be immovable when there was nothing under it--when it rested on air? but he must get out of that car, he must explore, he must find out. there certainly could be no danger so long as he clung to the shell. he cautiously got out of the car and let himself down upon the shell. it was not a pleasant surface to stand on, being uneven, with great spiral ribs, and clewe sat down upon it, clinging to it with his hands. presently he leaned over to one side and looked beneath him. the shadows of that shell went down, down, down into space, until it made him sick to look at them. he drew back quickly, clutched the shell with his arms, and shut his eyes. he felt as if he were about to drop with it into a measureless depth of atmosphere. [illustration: he put out one foot] but he soon raised himself. he had not come down there to be frightened, to let his nerves run away with him. he had come to find out things. what was it that this shell rested upon? seizing two of the ribs with a strong clutch, he let himself hang over the sides of the shell until his feet were level with its lower side. they touched something hard. he pressed them downward; it was very hard. he raised himself and stood upon the substance which supported the shell. it was as solid as any rock. he looked down and saw his shadow stretching far beneath him. it seemed as if he were standing upon [v]petrified air. he put out one foot and moved a little, still holding on to the shell. he walked, as if upon solid air, to the foremost end of the long [v]projectile. it relieved him to turn his thoughts from what was around him to this familiar object. he found its conical end shattered. after a little he slowly made his way back to the other end of the shell, and now his eyes became somewhat accustomed to the great radiance about him. he thought he could perceive here and there faint signs of long, nearly horizontal lines--lines of different shades of light. above him, as if it hung in the air, was the round, dark hole through which he had descended. he rose, took his hands from the shell, and made a few steps. he trod upon a horizontal surface, but in putting one foot forward, he felt a slight incline. it seemed to him, that he was about to slip downward! instantly he retreated to the shell and clutched it in a sudden frenzy of fear. standing thus, with his eyes still wandering, he heard the bell of the telephone ring. without hesitation he mounted the shell and got into the car. bryce was calling him. "come up," he said. "you have been down there long enough. no matter what you have found, it is time for you to come up." "all right," said roland. "you can haul me up, but go very slowly at first." the car rose. when it reached the orifice in the top of the cave of light, clewe heard the conical steel top grate slightly as it touched the edge, for the car was still swinging a little from the motion given to it by his entrance; but it soon hung perfectly vertical and went silently up the shaft. seated in the car, which was steadily ascending the great shaft, roland clewe took no notice of anything about him. he did not look at the brilliantly lighted interior of the shaft; he paid no attention to his instruments; he did not consult his watch, or glance at the dial which indicated the distance he had traveled. several times the telephone bell rang, and bryce inquired how he was getting along; but these questions he answered as briefly as possible, and sat looking down at his knees and seeing nothing. when he was half-way up, he suddenly became conscious that he was very hungry. he hurriedly ate some sandwiches and drank some water, and again gave himself up entirely to mental labor. when, at last, the noise of machinery above him and the sound of voices aroused him from his abstraction, and the car emerged upon the surface of the earth, clewe hastily slid back the door and stepped out. at that instant he felt himself encircled by a pair of arms. bryce was near by, and there were other men by the engines, but the owner of those arms thought nothing of this. "margaret!" cried clewe, "how came you here?" "i have been here all the time," she exclaimed; "or, at least, nearly all the time." and as she spoke she drew back and looked at him, her eyes full of happy tears. "mr. bryce telegraphed to me the instant he knew you were going down, and i was here before you had descended half-way." "what!" he cried. "and all those messages came from you?" "nearly all," she answered. "but tell me, roland--tell me; have you been successful?" "i am successful," he answered. "i have discovered everything!" bryce came forward. "i will speak to you all very soon," said clewe. "i can't tell you anything now. margaret, let us go. i wish to talk to you, but not until i have been to my office. i will meet you at your house in a very few minutes." and with that he left the building and fairly ran to his office. a quarter of an hour later roland entered margaret's library, where she sat awaiting him. he carefully closed the doors and windows. they sat side by side upon the sofa. "now, roland," she said, "i cannot wait one second longer. what is it that you have discovered?" "when i arrived at the bottom of the shaft," he began, "i found myself in a cleft, i know not how large, made in a vast mass of transparent substance, hard as the hardest rock and as transparent as air in the light of my electric lamps. my shell rested securely upon this substance. i walked upon it. it seemed as if i could see miles below me. in my opinion, margaret, that substance was once the head of a comet." "what is the substance?" she asked, hastily. "it is a mass of solid diamond!" margaret screamed. she could not say one word. "yes," said he, "i believe the whole central portion of the earth is one great diamond. when it was moving about in its orbit as a comet, the light of the sun streamed through this diamond and spread an enormous tail out into space; after a time this [v]nucleus began to burn." "burn!" exclaimed margaret. "yes, the diamond is almost pure [v]carbon; why should it not burn? it burned and burned and burned. ashes formed upon it and encircled it; it still burned, and when it was entirely covered with ashes it ceased to be transparent and ceased to be a comet; it became a planet, and revolved in a different orbit. it still burned within its covering of ashes, and these gradually changed to rock, to metal, to everything that forms the crust of the earth." she gazed upon him, entranced. "some parts of this great central mass of carbon burn more fiercely than other parts. some parts do not burn at all. in volcanic regions the fires rage; where my great shell went down it no longer burns. now you have my theory. it is crude and rough, for i have tried to give it to you in as few words as possible." "oh, roland," she cried, "it is absurd! diamond! why, people will think you are crazy. you must not say such a thing as that to anybody. it is simply impossible that the greater part of this earth should be an enormous diamond." "margaret," he answered, "nothing is impossible. the central portion of this earth is composed of something; it might just as well be diamond as anything else. in fact, if you consider the matter, it is more likely to be, because diamond is a very original substance. as i have said, it is almost pure carbon. i do not intend to repeat a word of what i have told you to any one--at least until the matter has been well considered--but i am not afraid of being thought crazy. margaret, will you look at these?" he took from his pocket some shining substances resembling glass. some of them were flat, some round; the largest was as big as a lemon; others were smaller fragments of various sizes. "these are pieces of the great diamond which were broken when the shell struck the bottom of the cave in which i found it. i picked them up as i felt my way around this shell, when walking upon what seemed to me solid air. i thrust them into my pocket, and i would not come to you, margaret, with this story, until i had visited my office to find out what these fragments are. i tested them; their substance is diamond!" half-dazed, she took the largest piece in her hand. "roland," she whispered, "if this is really a diamond, there is nothing like it known to man!" "nothing, indeed," said he. she sat staring at the great piece of glowing mineral which lay in her hand. its surface was irregular; it had many faces; the subdued light from the window gave it the appearance of animated water. he felt it necessary to speak. "even these little pieces," he said, "are most valuable jewels." "roland," she suddenly cried, excitedly, "these are riches beyond imagination! what is common wealth to what you have discovered? every living being on earth could--" "ah, margaret," he interrupted, "do not let your thoughts run that way. if my discovery should be put to the use of which you are thinking, it would bring poverty to the world, not wealth, and every diamond on earth would be worthless." she trembled. "and these--are they to be valued as common pebbles?" "oh no," said he; "these broken fragments i have found are to us riches far beyond our wildest imagination." "roland," she cried, "are you going down into that shaft for more of them?" "never, never, never again," he answered. "what we have here is enough for us, and if i were offered all the good that there is in this world, which money cannot buy, i would never go down into that cleft again. there was one moment, as i stood in that cave, when an awful terror shot into my soul that i shall never be able to forget. in the light of my electric lamps, sent through a vast transparent mass, i could see nothing, but i could feel. i put out my foot, and i found it was upon a sloping surface. in another instant i might have slid--where? i cannot bear to think of it!" frank e. stockton. =helps to study= what happened to clewe's automatic shell? what did he decide to do? tell of the preparations he made for his descent. what occurred when he reached the end of the shaft? of what was clewe thinking so intently while making his ascent? why did he go at once to his office? what conclusion did he reach as to the central part of the earth? what did he have to prove the correctness of his theory? why was he unwilling ever to make the descent again? this story was written about the end of the nineteenth century: what great scientific discoveries have been made since then? supplementary reading a journey to the center of the earth--jules verne. the adventures of captain horn--frank r. stockton. footnote: [ -*] copyright by harper & brothers. a stop at suzanne's the author of this sketch, a young american aviator, a resident of richmond, virginia, was killed in battle in august, . suzanne is a very pretty girl, i was told, but the charm of "suzanne's" wasn't with her alone, for, always, one spoke of the deliciously-tasting meal, how nice the old madame is, and how fine a chap is her _mari_, the father of suzanne. then of the garden in the back--and before you had finished listening you didn't know which was the most important thing about "suzanne's." all you knew was that it was the place to go when on an aeroplane voyage. at the pilotage office i found five others ahead of me; all of us were bound in the same direction. we were given [v]barographs, altimeters and maps and full directions as to forced landings and what to do when lost. we hung around the voyage hangar until about eight in the morning, but there was a low mist and cloudy sky, so we could not start out until afternoon; and i didn't have luncheon at "suzanne's." after noon several of the others started out, but i wanted to plan my supper stop for the second point, so i waited until about four o'clock before starting. almost before i knew it a village, which on the map was twelve kilometers away, was slipping by beneath me and then off to one side was a forest, green and cool-looking and very regular around the edges. pretty soon i came to a deep blue streak bordered by trees, and was so interested in it--it wound around under a railroad track, came up and brushed by lots of back gates and, finally, fell in a wide splash of silver over a little fall by a mill--that i forgot all about flying and suddenly woke up to the fact that one wing was about as low as it could get and that the nose of the machine was doing its best to follow the wing. long before i came to the stopping point, i could see the little white hangar. the field is not large, but it is strange, so you come down rather anxiously, for if you can't make that field the first time, you never will be able to fly, they tell you before leaving. i glided down easily enough, for, after all, it is just that--either you can or you can't--and made a good-enough landing. the sergeant signed my paper, and a few minutes later away i went for "suzanne's." the next stop is near a little village--suzanne's village--so when i came to the field and landed i was sure to be too tired to go up again immediately. instead, off i went to town after making things right with the man in charge. that wasn't a bit difficult, either, for all i did was to wink as hard as i could, and he understood perfectly. i knew where "suzanne's" was, so i made directly for it. it was a little early, but you should never miss the [v]_apertif_. with that first, success is assured; without it, it is like getting out of bed on the wrong foot. up i marched to the unimposing door and walked in to the main room--a big room, with long, wooden tables and benches and a zinc bar at one end, where all kinds of bottles rested. it isn't called "suzanne's," of course; it only has that name among us. as i closed the door behind me and looked about, a _bonne_ was serving several men at a corner table, and behind the bar a big, red-faced, stout man was pouring stuff into bottles. he looked at me a moment and then with a tremendous "_tiens!_" he came out from behind the tables and advanced toward me. "_bon jour_," he said; "do you come from far?" "oh, no," i answered, "only from ----." "_tiens!_" he repeated; then, "ah, you are from the school." _l'ecole_, he called it. from _l'ecole_, i admitted, and, taking me by the arm, he led me to a door at the rear. through this he propelled me, and then in his huge voice he called "_suzanne, un [v]pilote!_" and i was introduced. as he shut the door, i could just see the corner table with the three old men staring open-mouthed, the wine before them forgotten, the bread and cheese in their hands untasted; then, down the stairs came light steps and a rustle of skirts, and suzanne was before me with smiling face and outstretched hand. her instant welcome, the genuine smile! almost immediately, i understood the fame of this little station, so far from everything but the air route. her charm is indescribable. she is pretty, she is well dressed, but it isn't that. it is a sincerity of manner, complete hospitality; at once you are accepted as a bosom friend of the family--that is the charm of suzanne's. after a few questions as to where i came from, how long i had been there, and where i was going, suzanne led me upstairs to be presented to [v]"_ma belle mere_," a white-haired old lady sitting in a big, straight-backed chair. then, after more courtesies had been extended to me, suzanne preceded me down to the garden and left me alone while she went in to see that the supper was exceptionally good. a soft footstep on the gravel walk sounded behind me, and i turned to see one of the most beautiful women i ever beheld. she was tall and slender, and as she came gracefully across the lawn she swung a little work bag from one arm. all in black she was, with a lace shawl over her bare head. like every one in that most charming and hospitable house, there was no formality or show about her. she came, smiling, and sat on the bench beside me, drawing open her work bag. i could not help noticing, particularly, her beautiful eyes, for they told the story, a story too common here, except that her eyes had changed now to an expression of resigned peace. then she told me about suzanne. long before, ages and ages ago it seemed, but really only four years, a huge, ungainly bird fell crashing to earth and from the wreck a man was taken, unconscious. he was carried to "suzanne's," and she nursed him and cared for him until he was well again. "suzanne was very happy then," madame told me. and no wonder, for the daring aviator and suzanne were in love. she nursed him back to health, but when he went away he left his heart forever with her. they were engaged, and every little while he would fly over from his station to see suzanne. those were in the early days and aviation--well, even at that, it hasn't changed so much. one day a letter came for suzanne, and with a catch at her throbbing heart she read that her _fiancé_ had been killed. [v]"_mort pour la patrie_," it said, and suzanne was never the same afterward. for many months the poor girl grieved, but, finally, she began to realize that what had happened to her had happened to thousands of other girls, too, and, gradually, she took up the attitude that you find throughout this glorious country. only her eyes now tell the sad story. one evening two men walked into the café and from their talk suzanne knew they were from _l'ecole_. she sat down and listened to them. they talked about the war, about aviation, about deeds of heroism, and suzanne drank in every word, for they were talking the language of her dead lover. the two aviators stayed to dinner, but the big room was not good enough. they must come back to the family dinner--to the intimacy of the back room. they stayed all night and left early next morning, but before they left they wrote their names in a big book. to-day, suzanne has the book, filled full of names, many now famous, many names that are only a memory--that is how it started. when the two pilots went back to _l'ecole_, they spoke in glowing terms of "suzanne's," of the soft beds, of the delicious dinner, and, i think, mostly of suzanne. visitors came after that to eat at "suzanne's," and to see her famous book. they came regularly and, finally, "suzanne's" became an institution. always, a _pilote_ was taken into the back room; he ate with the family, he told them all the news from _l'ecole_, and, in exchange, he heard stories about the early days, stories that will never be printed, but which embody examples of the heroism and intelligence that have done their part to develop aviation. soon, we went in to dinner, and such a dinner! truly, nothing is too good for an aviator at "suzanne's," and they give of their best to these wandering strangers. they do not ask your name, they call every one _monsieur_, but before you leave you sign the book and they all crowd around to look, without saying anything. your name means nothing yet, but a year from now, perhaps, who can tell? in the first pages are names that have been bywords for years and some that are famous the world over. after dinner, suzanne slipped away, presently to reappear with a special bottle and glasses. i felt sure this was part of the entertainment afforded all their winged visitors, for they went about it in a practised manner; each was familiar with his or her part, but to me it was all delightfully new. our glasses were filled, and suzanne raised hers up first. without a word, she looked around the circle. her eyes met them all, then rested with madame. she had not said a word; it was "papa" who proposed my health, and as the bottoms went up, suzanne and madame both had a struggle to repress a tear. they were drinking my health, but their thoughts were far away, and in my heart i was wishing that happiness might again come to them. suzanne certainly deserves it. when i returned to school, they asked, "did you stop at 'suzanne's'?" and now to the others, just ready to make the voyage, i always say, "be sure to stop at 'suzanne's'." greayer clover. the making of a man i marmaduke, otherwise doggie, trevor owned a pleasant home set on fifteen acres of ground. he had an income of three thousand pounds a year. old peddle, the butler, and his wife, the housekeeper, saved him from domestic cares. he led a well-regulated life. his meals, his toilet, his music, his wall-papers, his drawing and embroidery, his sweet peas, his chrysanthemums, his postage stamps, and his social engagements filled the hours not claimed by slumber. in the town of durdlebury, doggie trevor began to feel appreciated. he could play the piano, the harp, the viola, the flute, and the clarionette, and sing a mild tenor. besides music, doggie had other accomplishments. he could choose the exact shade of silk for a drawing-room sofa cushion, and he had an excellent gift for the selection of wedding-presents. all in all, marmaduke trevor was a young gentleman of exquisite taste. after breakfast on a certain july morning, doggie, attired in a green shot-silk dressing-gown, entered his own particular room and sat down to think. in its way it was a very beautiful room--high, spacious, well-proportioned, facing southeast. the wall-paper, which doggie had designed himself, was ivory white, with trimmings of peacock blue. [v]vellum-bound books filled the cases; delicate water-colors adorned the walls. on his writing-table lay an ivory set: inkstand, pen-tray, blotter, and calendar. bits of old embroidery, harmonizing with the peacock shades, were spread here and there. a spinet inlaid with ivory formed the center for the arrangement of other musical instruments--a viol, mandolins, and flutes. one tall, closed cabinet was devoted to doggie's collection of wall-papers. another held a collection of little dogs in china and porcelain--thousands of them; he got them from dealers from all over the world. an unwonted frown creased doggie's brow, for several problems disturbed him. the morning sun disclosed, beyond doubt, discolorations, stains, and streaks on the wall-paper. it would have to be renewed. then, his thoughts ran on to his cousin, oliver manningtree, who had just returned from the south sea. it was oliver, the strong and masculine, who had given him the name of doggie years before, to his infinite disgust. and now every one in durdlebury seemed to have gone crazy over the fellow. doggie's uncle and aunt had hung on his lips while oliver had boasted unblushingly of his adventures. even the fair cousin peggy, with whom doggie was mildly in love, had listened open-eyed and open-mouthed to oliver's tales of shipwreck in distant seas. doggie had reached this point in his reflections when, to his horror, he heard a familiar voice outside the door. "all right," it said. "don't worry, peddle. i'll show myself in." the door burst open, and oliver, pipe in mouth and hat on one side, came into the room. "hello, doggie!" he cried boisterously. "thought i'd look you up. hope i'm not disturbing you." "not at all," said doggie. "do sit down." but oliver walked about and looked at things. "i like your water colors," he said. "did you collect them yourself!" "yes." "i congratulate you on your taste. this is a beauty." the appreciation brought doggie at once to his side. he took oliver delightedly around the pictures, expounding their merits and their little histories. doggie was just beginning to like the big fellow, when, stopping before the collection of china dogs, the latter spoiled everything. "my dear doggie," he said, "is that your family?" "it's the finest collection of the kind in the world," replied doggie stiffly, "and is worth several thousand pounds." oliver heaved himself into a chair--that was doggie's impression of his method of sitting down. "forgive me, doggie," he said, "but you're so funny. pictures and music i can understand. but what on earth is the point of these little dogs?" doggie was hurt. "it would be useless to try to explain," he said, with dignity. "and my name is marmaduke." oliver took off his hat and sent it skimming to the couch. "look here, old chap," he said, "i seem to have put my foot in it. i didn't mean to, really. i'll call you marmaduke, if you like, instead of doggie--though it's a beast of a name. i'm a rough sort of chap. i've had ten years' pretty tough training. i've slept on boards; i've slept in the open without a cent to hire a board. i've gone cold and i've gone hungry, and men have knocked me about, and i've lost most of my politeness. in the wilds if a man once gets the name, say, of duck-eyed joe, it sticks to him, and he accepts it, and answers to it, and signs it." "but i'm not in the wilds," objected marmaduke, "and haven't the slightest intention of ever leading the unnatural and frightful life you describe. so what you say doesn't apply to me." oliver, laughing, clapped him on the shoulder. "you don't give a fellow a chance," he said. "look here, tell me, as man to man, what are you going to do with your life? here you are, young, strong, educated, intelligent--" "i'm not strong," said doggie. "a month's exercise would make you as strong as a mule," returned oliver. "here you are--what are you going to do with yourself?" "i don't admit that you have any right to question me," said doggie. "peggy and i had a talk," declared oliver. "i said i'd take you out with me to the islands and give you a taste for fresh air and salt water and exercise. i'll teach you how to sail a schooner and how to go about barefoot and swab decks." doggie smiled pityingly, but said politely, "your offer is kind, oliver, but i don't think that sort of life would suit me." being a man of intelligence, he realized that oliver's offer arose from a genuine desire to do him service. but if a friendly bull out of the fulness of its affection invited you to accompany it to the meadow and eat grass, what could you do but courteously decline the invitation? "i'm really most obliged to you, oliver," said doggie, finally. "but our ideas are entirely different. you're primitive, you know. you seem to find your happiness in defying the elements, whereas i find mine in adopting the resources of civilization to defeat them." "which means," said oliver, rudely, "that you're afraid to roughen your hands and spoil your complexion." "if you like to put it that way." "you're an [v]effeminate little creature!" cried oliver, losing his temper. "and i'm through with you. go sit up and beg for biscuits." "stop!" shouted doggie, white with sudden anger, which shook him from head to foot. he marched to the door, his green silk dressing-gown flapping about him, and threw it wide open. "this is my house," he said. "i'm sorry to have to ask you to get out of it." and when the door was shut on oliver, he threw himself, shaken, on the couch, hating oliver and all his works more than ever. go about barefoot and swab decks! it was madness. besides being dangerous to health, it would be excruciating discomfort. and to be insulted for not grasping at such martyrdom! it was intolerable; and doggie remained justly indignant the whole day long. ii then the war came. doggie trevor was both patriotic and polite. having a fragment of the british army in his house, he did his best to make it comfortable. by january he had no doubt that the empire was in peril, that it was every man's duty to do his bit. he welcomed the newcomers with open arms, having unconsciously abandoned his attitude of superiority over mere brawn. it was every patriotic englishman's duty to encourage brawn. he threw himself heart and soul into the entertainment of officers and men. they thought doggie a capital fellow. "my dear chap," one would protest, "you're spoiling us. i don't say we don't like it and aren't grateful. we are. but we're supposed to rough it--to lead the simple life. you're treating us too well." "impossible!" doggie would reply. "don't i know what we owe you fellows? in what other way can a helpless, delicate being like myself show his gratitude and in some sort of way serve his country?" when the sympathetic guest would ask what was the nature of his malady, doggie would tap his chest vaguely and reply: "constitutional. i've never been able to do things like other fellows. the least thing bowls me out." "hard lines--especially just now!" the soldier would murmur. "yes, isn't it?" doggie would answer. doggie never questioned his physical incapacity. his mother had brought him up to look on himself as a singularly frail creature, and the idea was as real to him as the war. he went about pitying himself and seeking pity. the months passed. the soldiers moved away from durdlebury, and doggie was left alone in his house. he felt solitary and restless. news came from oliver that he had accepted an infantry commission and was in france. "a month of this sort of thing," he wrote, "would make our dear old doggie sit up." doggie sighed. if only he had been blessed with oliver's constitution! one morning briggins, his chauffeur, announced that he could stick it out no longer and was going to enlist. then doggie remembered a talk he had had with one of the young officers, who had expressed astonishment at his not being able to drive a car. "i shouldn't have the nerve," he had replied. "my nerves are all wrong--and i shouldn't have the strength to change tires and things." but now doggie was confronted by the necessity of driving his own car, for chauffeurs were no longer to be had. to his amazement, he found that he did not die of nervous collapse when a dog crossed the road in front of the automobile, and that the fitting of detachable wheels did not require the strength of a hercules. the first time he took peggy out driving, he swelled with pride. "i'm so glad you can do something!" she said, after a silence. although the girl was as kind as ever, doggie had noticed of late a curious reserve in her manner. conversation did not flow easily. she had fits of abstraction, from which, when rallied, she roused herself with an effort. finally, one day, peggy asked him blankly why he did not enlist. doggie was horrified. "i'm not fit," he said, "i've no constitution. i'm an impossibility." "you thought you had nerves until you learned to drive the car," she answered. "then you discovered that you hadn't. you fancy you've a weak heart. perhaps if you walked thirty miles a day, you would discover that you hadn't that, either. and so with the rest of it." he swung round toward her. "do you think i'm shamming so as to get out of serving in the army?" he demanded. "not consciously. unconsciously, i think you are. what does your doctor say?" doggie was taken aback. he had no doctor, having no need for one. he made confession of the surprising fact. peggy smiled. "that proves it," she said. "i don't believe you have anything wrong with you. this is plain talking. it's horrid, i know, but it's best to get through with it once and for all." some men would have taken deep offense, but doggie, conscientious if ineffective, was gnawed for the first time by a suspicion that peggy might possibly be right. he desired to act honorably. "i'll do," he said, "whatever you think proper." "good!" said peggy. "get doctor murdoch to overhaul you thoroughly with a view to the army. if he passes you, take a commission." she put out her hand. doggie took it firmly. "very well," he said. "i agree." "you're flabby," announced doctor murdoch, the next morning, to an anxious doggie, after some minutes of thumping and listening, "but that's merely a matter of unused muscles. physical training will set it right in no time. otherwise, my dear trevor, you're in splendid health. there's not a flaw in your whole constitution." doggie crept out of bed, put on a violet dressing-gown, and wandered to his breakfast like a man in a nightmare. but he could not eat. he swallowed a cup of coffee and took refuge in his own room. he was frightened--horribly frightened, caught in a net from which there was no escape. he had given his word to join the army if he should be passed by murdoch. he had been more than passed! now he would have to join; he would have to fight. he would have to live in a muddy trench, sleep in mud, eat in mud, plow through mud. doggie was shaken to his soul, but he had given his word and he had no thought of going back on it. the fateful little letter bestowing a commission on doggie arrived two weeks later; he was a second lieutenant in a battalion of the new army. a few days afterward he set off for the training-camp. he wrote to peggy regularly. the work was very hard, he said, and the hours were long. sometimes he confessed himself too tired to write more than a few lines. it was a very strange life--one he never dreamed could have existed. there was the riding-school. why hadn't he learned to ride as a boy? peggy was filled with admiration for his courage. she realized that he was suffering acutely in his new and rough environment, but he made no complaint. then there came a time when doggie's letters grew rarer and shorter. at last they ceased altogether. one evening an unstamped envelope addressed to peggy was put in the letter-box. the envelope contained a copy of the _gazette_, and a sentence was underlined and adorned with exclamation marks: "royal fusileers. second lieutenant j. m. trevor resigned his commission." * * * * * it had been a terrible blow to doggie. the colonel had dealt as gently as he could in the final interview with him. he put his hand in a fatherly way on doggie's shoulder and bade him not take the thing too much to heart. he--doggie--had done his best, but the simple fact was that he was not cut out for an officer. these were merciless times, and in matters of life and death there could be no weak links in the chain. in doggie's case there was no personal discredit. he had always conducted himself like a gentleman, but he lacked the qualities necessary for the command of men. he must send in his resignation. doggie, after leaving the camp, took a room in a hotel and sat there most of the day, the mere pulp of a man. his one desire now was to escape from the eyes of his fellow-men. he felt that he bore the marks of his disgrace, obvious at a glance. he had been turned out of the army as a hopeless incompetent; he was worse than a slacker, for the slacker might have latent qualities he was without. presently the sight of his late brother-officers added the gnaw of envy to his heart-ache. on the third day of his exile he moved into lodgings in woburn place. here at least he could be quiet, untroubled by heart-rending sights and sounds. he spent most of his time in dull reading and dispirited walking. his failure preyed on his mind. he walked for miles every day, though without enjoyment. he wandered one evening in the dusk to waterloo bridge and gazed out over the parapet. the river stretched below, dark and peaceful. as he looked down on the rippling water, he presently became aware of a presence by his side. turning his head, he found a soldier, an ordinary private, also leaning over the parapet. "i thought i wasn't mistaken in mr. marmaduke trevor," said the soldier. doggie started away, on the point of flight, dreading the possible insolence of one of the men of his late regiment. but the voice of the speaker rang in his ears with a strange familiarity, and the great fleshy nose, the high cheekbones, and the little gray eyes in the weather-beaten face suggested vaguely some one of the long ago. his dawning recognition amused the soldier. "yes, laddie, it's your old phineas. phineas mcphail, m. a.--now private p. mcphail." it was no other than doggie's tutor of his childhood days. "very glad to see you," doggie murmured. phineas, gaunt and bony, took his arm. doggie's instinctive craving for companionship made phineas suddenly welcome. "let us have a talk," he said. "come to my rooms. there will be some dinner." "will i come? will i have dinner? laddie, i will." in the strand they hailed a taxi-cab and drove to doggie's place. "you mention your rooms," said phineas. "are you residing permanently in london?" "yes," said doggie, sadly. "i never expect to leave it." a few minutes later they reached woburn place. doggie showed phineas into the sitting-room. the table was set for doggie's dinner. phineas looked around him in surprise. the tasteless furniture, the dreadful pictures on the walls, the coarse glass and the well-used plate on the table, the crumpled napkin in a ring--all came as a shock to phineas, who had expected to find marmaduke's rooms a reproduction of the fastidious prettiness of the peacock and ivory room in durdlebury. "laddie," he said, gravely, "you must excuse me if i take a liberty, but i cannot fit you into this environment. it cannot be that you have come down in the world?" "to bed-rock," replied doggie. "man, i'm sorry," said phineas. "i know what coming down feels like. if i had money--" doggie broke in with a laugh. "pray don't distress yourself, phineas. it's not a question of money at all. the last thing in the world i've had to think of has been money." "what is the trouble?" phineas demanded. "that's a long story," answered doggie. "in the meantime i had better give some orders about dinner." the dinner came in presently, not particularly well served. they sat down to it. "by the way," remarked doggie, "you haven't told me why you became a soldier." "chance," replied phineas. "i have been going down in the world for some time, and no one seemed to want me except my country. she clamored for me at every corner. a recruiting sergeant in trafalgar square at last persuaded me to take the leap. that's how i became private phineas mcphail of the tenth wessex rangers, at the compensation of one shilling and two pence per day." "do you like it?" asked doggie. phineas rubbed the side of his nose thoughtfully. "in itself it is a vile life," he made answer. "the hours are absurd, the work is distasteful, and the mode of living repulsive. but it contents me. the secret of happiness lies in adapting one's self to conditions. i adapt myself wherever i happen to be. and now, may i, without impertinent curiosity, again ask what you meant when you said you had come down to bed-rock?" all of doggie's rage and shame flared up at the question. "i've been thrown out of the army!" he cried. "i'm here in hiding--hiding from my family and the decent folk i'm ashamed to meet!" "tell me all about it, laddie," urged phineas, gently. then doggie broke down, and with a gush of unminded tears found expression for his stony despair. his story took a long time in the telling, and phineas interjected a sympathetic "ay, ay," from time to time. "and now," cried doggie, his young face distorted and reddened, his sleek hair ruffled, and his hands appealingly outstretched, "what am i going to do?" "you've got to go back home," said phineas. "you've got to whip up all the moral courage in you and go back to durdlebury." "i won't," said doggie, "i can't. i'd sooner die than go back there disgraced. i'd sooner enlist as a private soldier." "enlist?" repeated phineas, and he drew himself up straight and gaunt. "well, why not?" "enlist?" echoed doggie, in a dull tone. "as a tommy?" "as a tommy," replied phineas. "enlist!" murmured doggie. he thought of the alternatives--flight, which was craven; home, which he could not bear. doggie rose from his chair with a new light in his eyes. he had come to the supreme moment of his life; he had made his great resolution. yes, he would enlist as a private soldier in the british army. iii a year later doggie trevor returned to durdlebury. he had been laid up in hospital with a wounded leg, the result of fighting the german snipers in front of the first line trenches, and he was now on his way back to france. durdlebury had not changed in the interval; it was marmaduke trevor that had changed. he measured about ten inches more around the chest than the year before, and his hands were red and calloused from hard work. he was as straight as an indian now, and in his rough khaki uniform of a british private he looked every bit a man--yes, and more than that, a veteran soldier. for doggie had passed through battle after battle, gas attacks, mine explosions, and months of dreary duty in water-filled trenches, where only brave and tough men could endure. he had been tried in the furnace and he had come out pure gold. doggie entered the familiar deanery, and was met by peggy with a glad smile of welcome. his uncle, the dean, appeared in the hall, florid, whitehaired, benevolent, and extended both hands to the homecoming warrior. "my dear boy," he said, "how glad i am to see you! welcome back! and how's the wound?" opening the drawing-room door, he pushed doggie inside. a tall, lean figure in uniform, which had remained in the background by the fireplace, advanced with outstretched hand. "hello, old chap!" doggie took the hand in an honest grip. "hello, oliver!" "how goes it?" asked oliver. "splendid," said doggie. "are you all right?" "tip-top," answered oliver. he clapped his cousin on the shoulder. "my hat! you do look fit." he turned to the dean. "uncle edward, isn't he a hundred times the man he was?" in a little while tea came. it appeared to doggie, handing round the three-tiered cake-stand, that he had returned to some forgotten existence. the delicate china cup in his hand seemed too frail for the material usages of life, and he feared lest he break it, for doggie was accustomed to the rough dishes of the private. the talk lay chiefly between oliver and himself and ran on the war. both men had been at ypres and at arras, where the british and german trenches lay only five yards apart. "i ought to be over there now," said oliver, "but i just escaped shell-shock and i was sent home for two weeks." "my crowd is at the somme," said doggie. "you're well out of it, old chap," laughed oliver. for the first time in his life doggie began really to like oliver. oliver stood in his eyes in a new light, that of the typical officer, trusted and beloved by his men, and doggie's heart went out to him. after some further talk, the men separated to dress for dinner. "you've got the green room, marmaduke," said peggy. "the one with the chippendale furniture you used to covet so much." "i haven't got much to change into," laughed doggie, looking down at his uniform. "you'll find peddle up there waiting for you." when doggie entered the green room, he found peddle, who welcomed him with tears of joy and a display of all the luxuries of the toilet and adornment which doggie had left behind at home. there were pots of [v]pomade and face cream, and nail polish; bottles of hair-wash and tooth-wash; half a dozen gleaming razors; the array of brushes and combs and [v]manicure set in [v]tortoise-shell with his crest in silver; bottles of scent; the purple silk dressing-gown; a soft-fronted shirt fitted with ruby and diamond sleeve-links; the dinner jacket and suit laid out on the glass-topped table, with tie and handkerchief; the silk socks, the glossy pumps. "my, peddle!" cried doggie, scratching his closely-cropped head. "what's all this?" peddle, gray, bent, uncomprehending, regarded him blankly. "all what, sir?" "i only want to wash my hands," said doggie. "but aren't you going to dress for dinner, sir?" "a private soldier's not allowed to wear [v]mufti," returned doggie. "who's to find out?" "there's mr. oliver; he's a major." "ah, mr. marmaduke, he wouldn't mind. miss peggy gave me my orders, sir, and i think you can leave things to her." "all right, peddle," laughed doggie. "if it's miss peggy's decree, i'll change my clothes. i have all i want." "are you sure you can manage, sir?" peddle asked anxiously, for the time was when doggie could not stick his legs into his trousers unless peddle helped him. "quite," said doggie. "it seems rather roughing it, here at the deanery, mr. marmaduke, after what you've been accustomed to at the hall," said peddle. "that's so," replied doggie. "and it's martyrdom compared to what it is in the trenches. there we always have a major-general to lace our boots and a field-marshall to hand us coffee." peddle looked blank, being utterly unable to comprehend the nature of a joke. a little later, when doggie went downstairs to dinner, he found peggy alone in the drawing-room. "now you look more like a christian gentleman," she said. "confess: it's much more comfortable than your wretched private's uniform." "i'm not quite so sure," he replied, somewhat ruefully, indicating his dinner jacket, which was tightly constricted beneath the arms. "already i've had to slit my waistcoat down the back. poor old peddle will have a fit when he sees it. i've grown a bit since these elegant rags were made for me." oliver came in--in khaki. doggie jumped up and pointed to him. "look here, peggy," he said; "i'll be sent to the guard-room." oliver laughed. "i did change my uniform," he said. "i don't know where my dinner clothes are." "that's the best thing about being a major," spoke up doggie. "they have heaps of suits. poor tommy has but one suit to his name." then the dean and his wife entered, and they went in to dinner. it was for doggie the most pleasant of meals. he had the superbly healthy man's whole-hearted appreciation for unaccustomed good food. there were other and finer pleasures--the table with its exquisite [v]napery and china and glass and silver and flowers. there was the delightful atmosphere of peace and gentle living. and there was oliver--a new oliver. most of all, doggie appreciated oliver's comrade-like attitude. it was a recognition of him as a soldier. he had "made good" in the eyes of one of the finest soldiers in the british army, and what else mattered? to doggie the supreme joy of that pleasurable evening was the knowledge that he had done well in the eyes of oliver. the latter wore on his tunic the white, mauve, and white ribbon of the military cross. honor where honor was due. but he--doggie--had been wounded, and oliver frankly put them both on the same plane of achievement, thus wiping away with generous hand all the hated memories of the past. when the ladies left the room the dean went with them, and the cousins were left alone. "and now," said oliver, "don't you think you're a bit of a fool, doggie?" "i know it," doggie returned cheerfully. "the army has drummed that into me at any rate." "i mean in staying in the ranks," oliver went on. "why don't you apply for the cadet corps and get a commission again?" doggie's brow grew dark. "i will tell you," he replied. "the only real happiness i've had in my life has been as a tommy. i'm not talking foolishness. the only real friends i've ever made in my life are tommies. i've a real life as a tommy, and i'm satisfied. when i came to my senses after being thrown out for incompetence and i enlisted, i made a vow that i would stick it out as a tommy without anybody's sympathy, least of all that of the people here. and as a tommy i am a real soldier and do my part." oliver smiled. "i'm glad you told me, old man. i appreciate it very much. i've been through the ranks myself and know what it is--the bad and the good. many a man has found his soul that way--" "heavens!" cried doggie, starting to his feet. "do you say that, too?" the cousins clasped hands. that was oliver's final recognition of doggie as a soldier and a man. doggie had found his soul. w. j. locke. in flanders field in flanders fields, the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row, that mark our places. in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly, scarce heard amid the guns below. we are the dead. short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie in flanders fields. take up our quarrel with the foe! to you, from failing hands, we throw the torch. be yours to lift it high! if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies blow in flanders fields. john mccrae. in flanders field (an answer) in flanders fields, the cannon boom and fitful flashes light the gloom, while up above, like eagles, fly the fierce destroyers of the sky; with stains the earth wherein you lie is redder than the poppy bloom, in flanders fields. sleep on, ye brave. the shrieking shell, the quaking trench, the startled yell, the fury of the battle hell shall wake you not, for all is well. sleep peacefully, for all is well. your flaming torch aloft we bear, with burning heart an oath we swear to keep the faith, to fight it through, to crush the foe or sleep with you in flanders fields. c. b. galbraith. a ballad of heroes because you passed, and now are not,-- because in some remoter day your sacred dust from doubtful spot was blown of ancient airs away,-- because you perished,--must men say your deeds were naught, and so profane your lives with that cold burden? nay, the deeds you wrought are not in vain! though, it may be above the plot that hid your once imperial clay, no greener than o'er men forgot the unregarded grasses sway,-- though there no sweeter is the lay from careless bird,--though you remain without distinction of decay,-- the deeds you wrought are not in vain! no. for while yet in tower or cot your story stirs the pulse's play; and men forget the sordid lot-- the sordid care, of cities gray;-- while yet, beset in homelier fray, they learn from you the lesson plain that life may go, so honor stay,-- the deeds you wrought are not in vain! envoy heroes of old! i humbly lay the laurel on your graves again; whatever men have done, men may,-- the deeds you wrought are not in vain! austin dobson. dictionary =a byss´=: a deep gulf. =ac´ me=: height. =ac ro bat´ ics=: gymnastics; athletic exercises. =ad´ age=: saying; proverb. =a e´ ri al=: airy. =a lac´ ri ty=: eagerness; spryness. =al´ der man=: here, a saxon nobleman. =al´ gæ=: seaweeds. =al ter´ na tive=: a second choice. =a´ ma ti ki´ ta=: an esquimau. =am´ i ca bly ad just´ ed=: arranged peacefully. =am´ phi the a ter=: a circular building with tiers of seats arranged around an open space. =an´ chor ite=: a hermit. =an´ nals=: records. =aped=: imitated. =ap er tif´= (teef): an appetizer. =ap´ er ture=: opening. =ap´ pa lach´ ian=: a chain of mountains in the eastern united states. =ap pre hen´ sions=: fears. =a quat´ ic=: of the water. =ar cade´=: an arched gallery. =ar tic´ u late=: in regular words. =at´ mos phere=: air pressure at sea level used as a unit. =au ro´ ra=: the northern lights, the red glow in the sky in the far north. =aus ter´ i ty=: soberness; sternness. =av a ri´ cious= (rish us): greedy of gain. =bal lin droch´ a ter=: a scotch village. =ban dit´ ti=: outlaws; bandits. =bar´ bi can=: a tower over a gate or bridge. =bar´ o graph=: an instrument for recording changes in the atmosphere. =ba rom´ e ter=: an instrument that determines the weight of the air, and thereby foretells changes in the weather. =ba rouche´=: a low, open carriage. =bau´ ble=: a wand carried by jesters. =beau seant= (bo sa on´): "well-seeming," an ancient french war cry. =be nig´ nant=: kind; helpful. =big´ gin=: a child's cap. =bois-guil bert= (bwa guel bare´): a knight of the order of the temple. =bo´ nus=: an extra payment not included in wages. =brake=: a thicket. =bre´ vi a ry=: a book containing a church service. =brown-bill=: a weapon consisting of a long staff with a hook-shaped blade at the top. =buf foon´ er y=: jesting; clownishness. =bun´ sen pile=: an electric cell containing zinc covered with sulphuric acid at one end, and carbon surrounded by nitric acid at the other. =buoyed= (booed): kept up; supported. =bur lesque´= (lesk): humorous; not serious. =byz´ ant=: a large gold coin. =ca lum´ ni a tor=: a slanderer. =car´ bon=: one of the chemical elements; charcoal is its best known form. =car´ di nal=: a priest of high rank who wears a small red cap. =car´ ri on=: decaying flesh. =car´ tel=: a defiance; a challenge. =casque= (cask): helmet. =cas´ sock=: a close-fitting garment resembling a modern coat. =catherine wheel=: a firework that turns around when lighted, throwing off a circle of sparks. =ce ler´ i ty=: quickness; promptness. =cel´ lar=: here, a wine-cellar. =che val-glass= (she´ val): a large mirror swinging in a frame. =chil how´ ee=: a high mountain in east tennessee. =chiv´ al rous=: knightly; warlike. =churls=: low, rude persons. =circuit-rider=: a preacher who ministers to a number of churches. =cloth-yard=: a yard in length. =col´ lo quy=: a discussion. =com punc´ tion=: remorse; repentance. =cone=: a body tapering to a point. =con´ ning tower=: a raised part of a vessel giving an outlook on the sea. =con strained´=: restricted; unfree. =con´ va les´ cence=: period of recovery. =con ver´ gent=: coming nearly together. =cope=: a long robe. =co´ pi ous ly=: plentifully. =cord´ age=: the ropes on a ship. =cor´ do van=: made in cordova, a spanish city. =cor me´ um e rue ta´ vit=: "the heart of me burst forth." =cor rob´ o ra ted=: confirmed; agreed with. =cor ro´ sive sub´ li mate=: a substance containing mercury and useful for cleaning wounds. =coun´ ter-poise=: a weight used to pull up the drawbridge. =cowl=: a monk's hood. =cox´ comb=: a piece of red cloth worn by jesters on their caps. =crest fall´ en=: humiliated; humbled. =crev´ ice=: hole; opening. =cri´ sis=: critical period. =croup=: the space behind the saddle. =cur tail´ ing=: cutting down. =cut´ lery=: knives and forks. =cyl´ in der=: a part of machinery, like a piston, longer than broad and with a round surface. =cy lin´ dri cal=: shaped like a cylinder, that is, long but with a round surface, as a lead pencil. =decency=: here, a good appearance. =de cep´ tive=: misleading. =dep re da´ tion=: theft; despoiling. =de pro fun´ dis cla ma´ vi=: "i cried from the depths," a latin psalm. =dif´ fi dence=: shyness. =dil´ a to´ ri ness=: slowness; delay. =dil´ a to ry=: slow. =di lem´ ma=: difficulty. =dis cerned´=: saw; understood. =dis con´ so late ly=: unhappily. =dis til´ ling=: for condensing sweet water from sea water. =dlink=: drink, in broken english. =doit=: a coin of small value. =do mes´ tic=: of the home. =dom´ i nie=: a name sometimes given clergymen or schoolmasters. =doub´ let=: a garment covering the body from neck to waist. =dough ty= (dou´ ty): valiant; useful. =drag=: the scent of a fox. =dross=: money spoken of contemptuously, as something of no account. =dry´ ad=: a wood nymph. =du en´ na=: chaperon. =dun=: brownish. =dun dee´=: a scotch seaport. =e clipse´=: darkening; obscuring. =ef fem´ i nate=: womanish. =e lec trom´ e ter=: an instrument which indicates the presence of electricity. =em a na´ tion=: a flowing forth. =em bel´ lish=: ornament; touch up. =em´ u late=: rival. =e´ quine=: pertaining to a horse. =esh´ col=: a scene in the bible. =ex ha la´ tion=: fumes; vapor. =ex hil´ a ra ted=: lifted up; greatly pleased. =ex´ i gence=: emergency. =ex or´ bi tant=: unreasonable; excessive. =ex pos´ tu la ted=: protested. =fath´ om=: a measure six feet in length. =fer´ rule=: the piece at the end of a parasol or umbrella. =feu´ dal=: relating to a lord of the middle ages. =fi del´ i ty=: faithfulness. =fil´ ial= (yal): due from a child to a parent. =first mag´ ni tude=: largest size; most importance. =floe=: the ocean frozen into an ice-field. =fort´ a lice=: a small fortress. =frank´ lin=: a saxon gentleman. =front-de-boeuf= (front de beuf´): a norman baron. =gab´ bro=: a kind of limestone rock. =gal´ liard= (yard): a gallant, valiant man. =gear=: affair; concern. =ge´ ni i= (e): spirits. =gen re= (zhan´ r): dealing with everyday life. =gen teel´ ly=: like gentlefolk; properly. =ge´ o log´ i cal=: relating to the substance of the earth. =glaive=: a weapon resembling an ax. =gra mer´ cy=: thanks. =gra tu´ i tous=: useless; unnecessary. =grav´ i ta´ tion=: the attraction of great bodies, such as the earth, for other bodies. =gren ade´=: a small bomb. =gro tesque´= (tesk): absurd; unsightly. =gyves= (jives): fetters; irons. =hatch´ way=: an opening in a deck. =hen´ ri cus=: a settlement on the james river some distance above jamestown. =her met´ i cal ly=: tightly; impenetrably. =hi la´ ri ously=: uproariously. =hor´ i zon´ tal=: on a level with the ground. =hum´ mock=: a knoll, or hillock. =hy´ dro plane=: an aeroplane which also moves on the water. =il lus´ tri ous=: distinguished; noted. =im port´ ed=: brought in from without. =im per´ vi ous=: impenetrable; not to be pierced. =in´ con ceiv´ a ble=: beyond the understanding. =in ef´ fa ble=: very great; beyond measure. =in´ ef fec´ tu al=: unavailing; without effect. =in ex´ pli ca bly=: not to be explained. =in fal´ li bly=: unerringly. =in´ fin ite= (it): immeasurable. =in i ti a tive= (in ish´ i a tive): an act which begins something. =in´ nu it=: an american esquimau. =in ter mit´ tent=: unsteady; not regular. =in vin´ ci ble=: not to be conquered. =in vi´ o late=: unbroken; undefiled. =jave´ lin= (jav): a short spear used for throwing. =joc´ u lar´ i ty=: mirth. =joc´ und=: merry; sportive. =jove=: the king of the gods; here, the chief person of the household. =jun´ to=: a group of men; a council. =ka lei´ do scope=: an instrument in which small pieces of colored glass slide about and form pleasing shapes. =ki was´ sa=: a name for the great spirit, or god. =knights templar=: an order of knights serving in palestine and taking their name from a palace in jerusalem called solomon's temple. =la goons=: lakes connecting with the sea. =la mort= (mor): "death," sounded on a horn when the game is killed. =la´ tent=: hidden; not revealed; also, in preparation. =leg-bail=: escape by flight. =ley´ den jar=: a glass bottle used to accumulate electricity. =log´ a rith´ mic tables=: mathematical tables used to calculate a ship's position. =long house=: a name for the iroquois indians, derived from their long communal houses. =lon´ gi tude=: distance on the earth's surface from east to west. =lu´ mi na ry=: a body that gives light. =ma belle mere= (mare): "my pretty mother." =ma´ gi ans=: wise men of ancient persia. =mal´ a dy=: disease. =mal voi sin= (mal vwa zan´): a norman baron. =man´ i cure set=: instruments used on the finger nails. =man´ tel et=: a movable shelter of wood. =ma rau´ ders=: robbers. =mar´ i=: husband. =masque= (mask): a kind of theatrical performance. =mas´ que rad´ ing=: going in disguise. =ma ter´ nal=: motherly. =mat´ ins=: a morning service of the ancient church. =mer´ ce na ry=: a hired soldier; a hireling. =mer´ cu ry=: quicksilver, used in the thermometer. =me tal´ lic=: composed of metal. =michael mas eve= (mick´ el mas): september . =mi´ das=: a king in greek myth whose touch turned everything to gold. =mod´ i fi ca´ tion=: change. =mon´ a cans=: an indian tribe originally living west of richmond, virginia. =mon´ o syl´ la ble=: a single syllable. =mort pour la patrie=: "dead for country." =mount joy st. dennis= (den ny´): the war cry of ancient france. =muf´ ti= (ty): ordinary clothes. =na bob=: a millionaire: a wealthy man from india. =na´ per y=: table linen. =naz´ a rene=: a name sometimes applied to christians, from jesus of nazareth. =ne go´ ti a ting=: bargaining. =niche= (nitch): an opening in a wall. =no´ men il´ lis le´ gi o=: "the name of them is legion." =nor´ mal=: accustomed; usual. =nu´ cle us=: a central mass. =nu´ tri ment=: nourishment. =ob´ du rate=: not to be moved. =o bei sance= (o ba´ sans): a bending of the body; a bow. =ob lique´= (leek): a slanting direction. =old fields=: fields no longer cultivated. =o´ pa line=: the color of opals; grayish-white. =o´ pe chan´ ca nough= (no): the leading indian chief in virginia in the early period. =op´ tion=: choice. =op´ u lence=: wealth. =order=: a society of monks, with an organization and convents. =o´ ri en ta tion=: adjustment. =os ten´ si ble=: apparent; professed. =pad´ u a soy´=: a rich, heavy silk. =pa mun´ keys=: an indian tribe originally living along the pamunkey and york rivers in virginia. =pan´ de mo´ ni um=: the place of devils; also, and usually, a riotous scene. =pan´ nier= (yer): a wicker basket. =par´ ley=: talk; discussion. =pas´ pa heghs= (hays): an indian tribe of virginia. =patched=: adorned with small patches of black cloth. =pa´ thos=: sadness. =pa visse´=: a large shield. =pax´ vo bis´ cum=: "peace be with you!" =pem´ mi can=: powdered meat pressed into cakes. =per´ i scope=: an instrument projecting above a submarine which gives a view of the sea surface. =per´ pen dic´ u lar=: straight up and down. =per´ pen dic´ u lar´ i ty=: straightness up and down. =pet´ ri fied=: turned to stone. =phil´ o soph´ i cal=: wise; learned. =pil´ lion= (yun): a cushion used by women in riding horseback. =pi lote= (pe loat´): an aeroplane pilot. =pin´ na cle=: summit. =pipe=: a musical instrument resembling a flute. =plain´ tive ly=: complainingly. =plan´ i sphere=: the representation of the earth on a plane; a map of the world. =ple ia des= (ple´ ya dees): a group of six stars in the constellation taurus. =pol lute´=: to stain; to befoul. =po made´=: a perfumed ointment. =po ma´ tum=: a perfumed ointment. =pon´ der a ble=: weighable; having heaviness. =pon´ der ous=: heavy; unwieldy. =pon´ iard= (yard): a dagger. =por´ tents=: signs; omens. =pow´ ha tan=: the james river; also the name of opechancanough's predecessor. =pre ca´ ri ous=: uncertain; dangerous. =pre´ con cep´ tion=: a foreshadowing; an idea of something to come. =pri me´ val=: original. =prim´ i tive=: original; coming down from afar. =pro´ cy on= (si): a first-magnitude star. =pro di gious= (pro dij´ us): immense. =pro ject´ ile=: something projected with force, or fired. =pur veyed´=: brought. =quarter-staff=: a short pole, used as a walking-staff and a weapon. =ra´ di us=: the distance from the center of a body to its surface. =rail´ ler y=: jesting. =ran´ som=: a sum paid for the release of a prisoner. =rar´ e fac´ tion=: the making thin; less dense. =ra´ ti o=: rate; measure. =re cip´ ro ca ted=: returned. =re cum´ bent=: lying down. =re fec´ to ry=: a dining-room in a convent. =re frac´ tion=: the bending from a straight line which occurs when a ray of light passes out of the air into water. =reg´ u la tor=: a contrivance for controlling motion. =re mu´ ner a ted=: rewarded; presented with. =re nowned´=: famous. =re plete´=: filled. =rep´ ro ba´ tion=: condemnation; disapproval. =res´ pi ra´ tor=: a device covering the mouth and nose and preventing the breathing of outside air. =ret´ i nue=: a train of attendants. =re ver´ ber a ted=: reflected; echoed. =rime=: hoarfrost. =rolfe, john=: the first englishman to plant tobacco in virginia; the husband of pocahontas. =rood=: cross. =ro´ sa ry=: a string of beads used in counting prayers. =ru´ bi cund=: ruddy; red. =rucksack=: a napsack worn by arctic travelers. =rue´ ful=: sad; distressed. =ruffle=: a contest. =sar cas´ ti cal ly=: ironically; humorously. =sat´ el lite=: an attendant; also, a body revolving around another, as the moon. =scar=: a cliff. =sci´ en tist=: one learned in the natural sciences, as chemistry, physics, etc. =screen=: a surface on which the reflection from the periscope is thrown. =sem´ blance=: likeness. =serf=: a kind of slave; an unfree laborer. =sex´ tant=: an instrument used to determine a ship's position by observing the sun and other objects. =shah=: ruler; king. =shrift=: confession made to a priest. =shrovetide=: the days just before the beginning of lent. =sib´ yl=: prophetess. =side drift=: the drift of a vessel to one side or the other of a course. =sil hou ette= (sil oo et´): the black shadow of an object. =sin´ gu lar´ i ty=: strangeness. =smock race=: a race in which the contestants are hampered by garments. =sliv´ er=: a long splinter. =sol´ ace=: comfort. =so phis´ ti ca ted=: experienced; worldly-wise. =spec´ tral=: of graded colors. =spin´ et=: a musical instrument like a piano. =spoor=: trail; foot-marks. =sprint´ er=: a runner; a foot-racer. =spume=: froth; foam. =stac ca´ to=: disconnected; jerky. =states´ man=: one concerned in the governing of a country. =sten to´ ri an=: loud; thundering. =stodg´ i ly=: with distended eyes. =sto´ ic al ly=: patiently; without complaint. =stoke-hold=: the room containing a ship's boilers. =stra´ ta=: the layers of rock composing the crust of the earth. =strat´ e gy=: the use of artifice; clever planning. =stuy´ ves ant=: a dutch colonial governor of new york. =sub lim´ i ty=: grandeur; magnificence. =sub´ ter ra´ ne an=: beneath the earth; in a cavity. =sump´ ter mule=: a beast of burden. =sump´ tu a ry=: relating to expense. =sump´ tu ous=: plentiful; extravagant. =su´ per flu´ i ty=: more than is needed. =su per´ flu ous=: not needed. =sur´ plice=: a white outer garment worn by priests. =sus´ que han´ nocks=: an indian tribe originally inhabiting maryland and pennsylvania. =sword of damascus=: a sword made from steel wrought in damascus, syria. =syl´ van=: of the woods. =sym´ pho ny=: harmony; music. =ta´ bor=: a small drum. =tac´ i turn= (tas): silent. =tam´ bour frame=: frame for embroidery. =tap´ es try=: a curtain for a wall ornamented with worked pictures. =tar´ get=: a small shield. =ter´ ma gant=: quarrelsome; scolding. =ter´ ra fir´ ma=: the firm earth. =thane=: a saxon land-owner. =thatch=: straw or reeds. =ti´ tan=: a giant of greek myth. =tithe=: a tenth. =tor´ toise-shell=: the shell of a turtle. =traction engine=: a locomotive that draws vehicles along roads. =treasurer=: george sandys. =tri bu´ nal=: a court of justice. =trump=: the card that takes other cards in a game. =truss=: tie. =tu mul´ tu ous=: riotous; very noisy. =ul´ tra ma rine´=: deep blue. =uncle=: a familiar form of address used by jesters. =u nique´= (neek): singular; unusual. =u´ su ry=: unlawful, or excessive interest. =vas´ sals=: subjects; dependents. =ve´ he ment=: passionate; forceful. =ve loc´ i ty=: speed. =vel´ lum=: leather. =ven´ er a´ tion=: respect; reverence. =ver´ dure=: vegetation; green growth. =ver´ i ta ble=: true; unmistakable. =vic´ ar=: a clergyman in charge of a parish. =vis´ count= (vi): a nobleman. =viz´ ard=: a mask. =viz´ or=: here, a mask. =vo ra´ cious= (shus): greedy; very hungry. =wat´ ling street=: a roman road running from dover to chester. =wer´ o wance=: a chief of the virginia indians. =west, francis=: afterward governor of virginia. =whist=: still. =yeo´ man= (yo): a free laborer; often a small land-owner. =ze´ nith=: highest point; summit. =zo´ o phytes=: small sea animals growing together, as coral. transcriber's note the following printer's errors have been corrected: mountain" changed to mountain." all unwarned! changed to all unwarned!" he shall" changed to he shall," good-bye changed to good-by ruffllings changed to rufflings reëentering changed to reëntering processsion changed to procession calculatued changed to calculated langauge changed to language but to seaward changed to but two seaward majorie changed to marjorie attemped changed to attempted altogther changed to altogether miller," changed to miller?" accomodated changed to accommodated rescue?' changed to rescue?" norman, and let changed to norman, "and let father, said changed to father," said "fiends!' changed "fiends!" "'nothing changed to "nothing of proof." changed to of proof. stop them." changed to stop them. april. th. changed to april th. hugh changed to huge the bottom. changed to the bottom." everything! changed to everything!" said; do you changed to said; "do you unwieldly changed to unwieldy spoor; changed to spoor: other errors infantile not included in vocabulary section peer not included in the vocabulary section mien not included in the vocabulary section contingent is not defined in the vocabulary section ballast is not defined in the vocabulary section corroborated not marked in the text mari not marked in the text pinnacle not marked in the text inconsistent hyphenation foot-marks / footmarks north-east / northeast seal-skin / sealskin snow-flakes / snowflakes water-proof / waterproof white-haired / whitehaired austral english a dictionary of australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-australian and maori words which have become incorporated in the language and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in australasia by edward e. morris m.a., oxon. professor of english, french and german languages and literatures in the university of melbourne. introduction contents i. origin of the work first undertaken to help o.e.d. the standard dictionary ii. title and scope of the book not a slang dictionary iii. sources of new words:-- . altered english . words quite new to the language:-- (a) aboriginal australian (b) maori iv. the law of hobson-jobson is austral english a corruption? v. classification of words vi. quotations. their purpose vii. books used as authorities viii.scientific words ix. assistance received x. abbreviations:-- . of scientific names . general i. origin of the work. about a generation ago mr. matthew arnold twitted our nation with the fact that "the journeyman work of literature" was much better done in france--the books of reference, the biographical dictionaries, and the translations from the classics. he did not especially mention dictionaries of the language, because he was speaking in praise of academies, and, as far as france is concerned, the great achievement in that line is littre and not the academy's dictionary. but the reproach has now been rolled away--nous avons change tout cela--and in every branch to which arnold alluded our journeyman work is quite equal to anything in france. it is generally allowed that a vast improvement has taken place in translations, whether prose or verse. from quarter to quarter the dictionary of national biography continues its stately progress. but the noblest monument of english scholarship is the new english dictionary on historical principles, founded mainly on the materials collected by the philological society, edited by dr. james murray, and published at the cost of the university of oxford. the name new will, however, be unsuitable long before the dictionary is out of date. its right name is the oxford english dictionary (`o.e.d.'). that great dictionary is built up out of quotations specially gathered for it from english books of all kinds and all periods; and dr. murray several years ago invited assistance from this end of the world for words and uses of words peculiar to australasia, or to parts of it. in answer to his call i began to collect; but instances of words must be noted as one comes across them, and of course they do not occur in alphabetical order. the work took time, and when my parcel of quotations had grown into a considerable heap, it occurred to me that the collection, if a little further trouble were expended upon it, might first enjoy an independent existence. various friends kindly contributed more quotations: and this book is the result. in january , having the honour to be president of the section of "literature and the fine arts" at the hobart meeting of the australasian association for the advancement of science, i alluded to dr. murray's request: a body like this section, composed of men from different parts of scattered colonies, might render valuable help in organising the work of collecting authorities for our various peculiar words and usages. twenty or thirty men and women, each undertaking to read certain books with the new dictionary in mind, and to note in a prescribed fashion what is peculiar, could accomplish all that is needed. something has been done in melbourne, but the colonies have different words and uses of words, and this work is of a kind which might well extend beyond the bounds of a single city. at first it may seem as if our words were few, as if in the hundred years of australian life few special usages have arisen; but a man with a philological turn of mind, who notes what he hears, will soon find the list grow. some philologers speak, not perhaps very satisfactorily, of being "at the fountains of language": we can all of us testify to the birth of some words within our own memory, but the origin of these, if not noted, will in time be lost. there are many other words which the strictest cannot condemn as slang, though even slang, being the speech of the people, is not undeserving of some scientific study; words, for instance, which have come into the language from the aborigines, and names of animals, shrubs, and flowers. it might even be possible, with sufficient co-operation, to produce an australian dictionary on the same lines as the new english dictionary by way of supplement to it. organisation might make the labour light, whilst for many it would from its very nature prove a pleasant task. these suggestions were not carried out. individuals sent quotations to oxford, but no organisation was established to make the collection systematic or complete, and at the next meeting of the association the section had ceased to exist, or at least had doffed its literary character. at a somewhat later date, messrs. funk and wagnall of new york invited me to join an "advisory committee on disputed spelling and pronunciation." that firm was then preparing its standard dictionary, and one part of the scheme was to obtain opinions as to usage from various parts of the english-speaking world, especially from those whose function it is to teach the english language. subsequently, at my own suggestion, the firm appointed me to take charge of the australian terms in their dictionary, and i forwarded a certain number of words and phrases in use in australia. but the accident of the letter a, for australian, coming early in the alphabet gives my name a higher place than it deserves on the published list of those co-operating in the production of this standard dictionary; for with my present knowledge i see that my contribution was lamentably incomplete. moreover, i joined the editorial corps too late to be of real use. only the final proofs were sent to me, and although my corrections were reported to new york without delay, they arrived too late for any alterations to be effected before the sheets went to press. this took the heart out of my work for that dictionary. for its modernness, for many of its lexicographical features, and for its splendid illustrations, i entertain a cordial admiration for the book, and i greatly regret the unworthiness of my share in it. it is quite evident that others had contributed australasian words, and i must confess i hardly like to be held responsible for some of their statements. for instance-- "aabec. an australian medicinal bark said to promote perspiration." i have never heard of it, and my ignorance is shared by the greatest australian botanist, the baron von mueller. "beauregarde. the zebra grass-parrakeet of australia. from f. beau, regarde. see beau n. and regard." as a matter of fact, the name is altered out of recognition, but really comes from the aboriginal budgery, good, and gar, parrot. "imou-pine. a large new zealand tree. . . . called red pine by the colonists and rimu by the natives." i can find no trace of the spelling "imou." in a circular to new zealand newspapers i asked whether it was a known variant. the new zealand herald made answer--"he may be sure that the good american dictionary has made a misprint. it was scarcely worth the professor's while to take notice of mere examples of pakeha ignorance of maori." "swagman. [slang, austral.] . a dealer in cheap trinkets, etc. . a swagger." in twenty-two years of residence in australia, i have never heard the former sense. "taihoa. [anglo-tasmanian.] no hurry; wait." the word is maori, and maori is the language of new zealand, not of tasmania. these examples, i know, are not fair specimens of the accuracy of the standard dictionary, but they serve as indications of the necessity for a special book on australasian english. ii. title and scope of the book. in the present day, when words are more and more abbreviated, a "short title" may be counted necessary to the welfare of a book. for this reason "austral english" has been selected. in its right place in the dictionary the word austral will be found with illustrations to show that its primary meaning, "southern," is being more and more limited, so that the word may now be used as equivalent to australasian. "austral" or "australasian english" means all the new words and the new uses of old words that have been added to the english language by reason of the fact that those who speak english have taken up their abode in australia, tasmania, and new zealand. hasty inference might lead to the remark that such addition is only slang, but the remark is far from being accurate; probably not one-tenth of the new vocabulary could fairly be so classified. a great deal of slang is used in australasia, but very much less is generated here than is usually believed. in a literary policeman in melbourne brought out a small australian slang dictionary. in spite of the name, however, the compiler confesses that "very few of the terms it contains have been invented by australians." my estimate is that not one word in fifty in his little book has an australian origin, or even a specially australian use. the phrase "australasian english" includes something much wider than slang. those who, speaking the tongue of shakspeare, of milton, and of dr. johnson, came to various parts of australasia, found a flora and a fauna waiting to be named in english. new birds, beasts and fishes, new trees, bushes and flowers, had to receive names for general use. it is probably not too much to say that there never was an instance in history when so many new names were needed, and that there never will be such an occasion again, for never did settlers come, nor can they ever again come, upon flora and fauna so completely different from anything seen by them before. when the offshoots of our race first began to settle in america, they found much that was new, but they were still in the same north temperate zone. though there is now a considerable divergence between the american and the english vocabulary, especially in technical terms, it is not largely due to great differences in natural history. an oak in america is still a quercus, not as in australia a casuarina. but with the whole tropical region intervening it was to be expected that in the south temperate zone many things would be different, and such expectation was amply fulfilled. in early descriptions of australia it is a sort of commonplace to dwell on this complete variety, to harp on the trees that shed bark not leaves, and the cherries with the stones outside. since the days when "adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field" never were so many new names called for. unfortunately, names were not given by the best educated in the community, but often by those least qualified to invent satisfactory names: not by a linguist, a botanist, an ornithologist, an ichthyologist, but by the ordinary settler. even in countries of old civilisation names are frequently conferred or new words invented, at times with good and at times with unsatisfactory results, by the average man, whom it is the modern fashion to call "the man in the street." much of australasian nomenclature is due to "the man in the bush" --more precise address not recorded. givers of new names may be benefactors to their language or violators of its purity and simplicity, but in either case they are nearly always, like the burial-place of moses, unknown. iii. sources of new words. of australasian additions to the english language there are two main sources, which correspond to the twofold division of them into new words and new uses of old words. . altered english. the commoner origin of australasian english words is the turning and twisting of an already existing english name. the settler saw a fruit somewhat like a cherry. though he knew well that it was not a cherry, he christened it the "native cherry." it may here be remarked that the prefix native is not a satisfactory distinguishing adjective. native bear, native cherry, may teach the young australian that the bear and the cherry so named are not as the bear of the arctic regions or the cherry of europe. but in the british museum the label does not help much. the settler heard a bird laugh in what he thought an extremely ridiculous manner, its opening notes suggesting a donkey's bray--he called it the "laughing jackass." his descendants have dropped the adjective, and it has come to pass that the word "jackass" denotes to an australian something quite different from its meaning to other speakers of our english tongue. the settler must have had an imagination. whip-bird, or coach-whip, from the sound of the note, lyre-bird from the appearance of the outspread tail, are admirable names. another class of name brought the australian word nearer to its english use. "robin" for instance is applied to birds of various species not known in europe. bird-names, fish-names, plant-names, are sometimes transferred to new species, sometimes to a new genus, sometimes to an entirely different natural order, bearing a resemblance to the original, either real or fancied, as for instance "magpie." it is hardly necessary to dwell longer on this point, for almost every page of the dictionary bears witness to it. . words new to the language. (a) aboriginal australian. many of the new australasian words are taken from the languages of the aborigines, often with considerable alteration due to misunderstanding. such words are either australian or maori. whilst in new zealand careful attention has been paid by competent scholars to the musical maori language, it can hardly be claimed that the australian family of languages has ever been scientifically studied, though there is a heap of printed material--small grammars and lists of words--rudis indigestaque moles. there is no doubt that the vocabularies used in different parts of australia and tasmania varied greatly, and equally little doubt that the languages, in structure and perhaps originally in vocabulary, were more or less connected. about the year , professor sayce, of oxford, wrote a letter, which was published in the argus, pointing out the obligation that lay upon the australian colonies to make a scientific study of a vanishing speech. the duty would be stronger were it not for the distressing lack of pence that now is vexing public men. probably a sum of l a year would suffice for an educated inquirer, but his full time for several years would be needed. such an one should be trained at the university as a linguist and an observer, paying especial attention to logic and to comparative philology. whilst the colonies neglect their opportunities, and sibylla year by year withdraws her offer, perhaps "the inevitable german" will intervene, and in a well-arranged book bring order out of the chaos of vocabularies and small pamphlets on the subject, all that we have to trust to now. the need of scientific accuracy is strong. for the purposes of this dictionary i have been investigating the origin of words, more or less naturalised as english, that come from aboriginal australian, in number between seventy and a hundred. i have received a great deal of kind assistance, many people taking much trouble to inform me. but there is a manifest lack of knowledge. many supplied me with the meanings of the words as used in english, but though my appeal was scattered far and wide over australia (chiefly through the kindness of the newspapers), few could really give the origin of the words. two amongst the best informed went so far as to say that australian words have no derivation. that doctrine is hard to accept. a word of three syllables does not spring complete from the brain of an aboriginal as athene rose fully armed from the head of zeus. it is beyond all doubt that the vocabularies of the aborigines differed widely in different parts. frequently, the english have carried a word known in one district to a district where it was not known, the aboriginals regarding the word as pure english. in several books statements will be found that such and such a word is not aboriginal, when it really has an aboriginal source but in a different part of the continent. mr. threlkeld, in his australian grammar, which is especially concerned with the language of the hunter river, gives a list of "barbarisms," words that he considers do not belong to the aboriginal tongue. he says with perfect truth-"barbarisms have crept into use, introduced by sailors, stockmen, and others, in the use of which both blacks and whites labour under the mistaken idea, that each one is conversing in the other's language." and yet with him a "barbarism" has to be qualified as meaning "not belonging to the hunter district." but mr. threlkeld is not the only writer who will not acknowledge as aboriginal sundry words with an undoubted australian pedigree. (b) maori. the maori language, the italian of the south, has received very different treatment from that meted out by fate and indifference to the aboriginal tongues of australia. it has been studied by competent scholars, and its grammar has been comprehensively arranged and stated. a maori dictionary, compiled more than fifty years ago by a missionary, afterwards a bishop, has been issued in a fourth edition by his son, who is now a bishop. yet, of maori also, the same thing is said with respect to etymology. a maori scholar told me that, when he began the study many years ago, he was warned by a very distinguished scholar not to seek for derivations, as the search was full of pitfalls. it was not maintained that words sprang up without an origin, but that the true origin of most of the words was now lost. in spite of this double warning, it may be maintained that some of the origins both of maori and of australian words have been found and are in this book recorded. the pronunciation of maori words differs so widely from that of australian aboriginal names that it seems advisable to insert a note on the subject. australian aboriginal words have been written down on no system, and very much at hap-hazard. english people have attempted to express the native sounds phonetically according to english pronunciation. no definite rule has been observed, different persons giving totally different values to represent the consonant and vowel sounds. in a language with a spelling so unphonetic as the english, in which the vowels especially have such uncertain and variable values, the results of this want of system have necessarily been very unsatisfactory and often grotesque. maori words, on the other hand, have been written down on a simple and consistent system, adopted by the missionaries for the purpose of the translation of the bible. this system consists in giving the italian sound to the vowels, every letter--vowel and consonant--having a fixed and invariable value. maori words are often very melodious. in pronunciation the best rule is to pronounce each syllable with a nearly equal accent. care has been taken to remember that this is an australasian english and not a maori dictionary; therefore to exclude words that have not passed into the speech of the settlers. but in new zealand maori is much more widely used in the matter of vocabulary than the speech of the aborigines is in australia, or at any rate in the more settled parts of australia; and the maori is in a purer form. though some words and names have been ridiculously corrupted, the language of those who dwell in the bush in new zealand can hardly be called pigeon english, and that is the right name for the "lingo" used in queensland and western australia, which, only partly represented in this book, is indeed a falling away from the language of bacon and shakspeare. iv. law of hobson-jobson. in many places in the dictionary, i find i have used the expression "the law of hobson-jobson." the name is an adaptation from the expression used by col. yule and mr. burnell as a name for their interesting dictionary of anglo-indian words. the law is well recognised, though it has lacked the name, such as i now venture to give it. when a word comes from a foreign language, those who use it, not understanding it properly, give a twist to the word or to some part of it from the hospitable desire to make the word at home in its new quarters, no regard, however, being paid to the sense. the most familiar instance in english is crayfish from the french ecrevisse, though it is well known that a crayfish is not a fish at all. amongst the mohammedans in india there is a festival at which the names of "hassan" and "hosein" are frequently called out by devotees. tommy atkins, to whom the names were naught, converted them into "hobson, jobson." that the practice of so altering words is not limited to the english is shown by two perhaps not very familiar instances in french, where "aunt sally" has become ane sale, "a dirty donkey," and "bowsprit" has become beau pre, though quite unconnected with "a beautiful meadow." the name "pigeon english" is itself a good example. it has no connection with pigeon, the bird, but is an oriental's attempt to pronounce the word "business." it hardly, however, seems necessary to alter the spelling to "pidjin." it may be thought by some precisians that all australasian english is a corruption of the language. so too is anglo-indian, and, pace mr. brander matthews, there are such things as americanisms, which were not part of the elizabethan heritage, though it is perfectly true that many of the american phrases most railed at are pure old english, preserved in the states, though obsolete in modern england; for the americans, as lowell says, "could not take with them any better language than that of shakspeare." when we hear railing at slang phrases, at americanisms, some of which are admirably expressive, at various flowers of colonial speech, and at words woven into the texture of our speech by those who live far away from london and from oxford, and who on the outskirts of the british empire are brought into contact with new natural objects that need new names, we may think for our comfort on the undoubted fact that the noble and dignified language of the poets, authors and preachers, grouped around lewis xiv., sprang from debased latin. for it was not the classical latin that is the origin of french, but the language of the soldiers and the camp-followers who talked slang and picked words up from every quarter. english has certainly a richer vocabulary, a finer variety of words to express delicate distinctions of meaning, than any language that is or that ever was spoken: and this is because it has always been hospitable in the reception of new words. it is too late a day to close the doors against new words. this austral english dictionary merely catalogues and records those which at certain doors have already come in. v. classification of the words. the dictionary thus includes the following classes of words, phrases and usages; viz.-- ( ) old english names of natural objects--birds, fishes, animals, trees, plants, etc.--applied (in the first instance by the early settlers) either to new australian species of such objects, or to new objects bearing a real or fancied resemblance to them--as robin, magpie, herring, cod, cat, bear, oak, beech, pine, cedar, cherry, spinach, hops, pea, rose. ( ) english names of objects applied in australia to others quite different-as wattle, a hurdle, applied as the name of the tree wattle, from whose twigs the hurdle was most readily made; jackass, an animal, used as the name for the bird jackass; cockatoo, a birdname, applied to a small farmer. ( ) aboriginal australian and maori words which have been incorporated unchanged in the language, and which still denote the original object--as kangaroo, wombat, boomerang, whare, pa, kauri. ( ) aboriginal australian and maori words which have been similarly adopted, and which have also had their original meaning extended and applied to other things--as bunyip, corrobbery, warrigal. ( ) anglicised corruptions of such words--as copper-maori, go-ashore, cock-a-bully, paddy-melon, pudding-ball, tooky-took. ( ) fanciful, picturesque, or humorous names given to new australasian natural objects--as forty-spot, lyre-bird, parson-bird, and coach-whip (birds); wait-a-while (a tangled thicket); thousand-jacket, jimmy low, jimmy donnelly, and roger gough (trees); axe-breaker, cheese-wood, and raspberry jam (timbers); trumpeter, schnapper and sergeant baker (fishes); umbrella-grass and spaniard (native plants), and so on. ( ) words and phrases of quite new coinage, or arising from quite new objects or orders of things--as larrikin, swagman, billy, free-selector, boundary-rider, black-tracker, back-blocks, clear-skin, dummyism, bushed. ( ) scientific names arising exclusively from australasian necessities, chiefly to denote or describe new natural orders, genera, or species confined or chiefly appertaining to australia--as monotreme, petrogale, clianthus, ephthianura, dinornis, eucalypt, boronia, ornithorhynchus, banksia. ( ) slang (of which the element is comparatively small)-- as deepsinker, duck-shoving, hoot, slushy, boss-cockie, on-the-wallaby. vi. quotations. with certain exceptions, this dictionary is built up, as a dictionary should be, on quotations, and these are very copious. it may even be thought that their number is too large. it is certainly larger, and in some places the quotations themselves are much longer, than could ever be expected in a general dictionary of the english language. this copiousness is, however, the advantage of a special dictionary. the intention of the quotations is to furnish evidence that a word is used as an english word; and many times the quotation itself furnishes a satisfactory explanation of the meaning. i hope, however, i shall not be held responsible for all the statements in the quotations, even where attention is not drawn to their incorrectness. sundry australasian uses of words are given in other dictionaries, as, for instance, in the parts already issued of the oxford english dictionary and in the century, but the space that can be allotted to them in such works is of necessity too small for full explanation. efforts have been made to select such quotations as should in themselves be interesting, picturesque, and illustrative. in a few cases they may even be humorous. moreover, the endeavour has been constant to obtain quotations from all parts of the australasian colonies--from books that describe different parts of australasia, and from newspapers published far and wide. i am conscious that in the latter division melbourne papers predominate, but this has been due to the accident that living in melbourne i see more of the melbourne papers, whilst my friends have sent me more quotations from books and fewer from newspapers. the quotations, however, are not all explanatory. many times a quotation is given merely to mark the use of a word at a particular epoch. quotations are all carefully dated and arranged in their historical order, and thus the exact chronological development of a word has been indicated. the practice of the `o.e.d.' has been followed in this respect and in the matter of quotations generally, though as a rule the titles of books quoted have been more fully expressed here than in that dictionary. early quotations have been sought with care, and a very respectable antiquity, about a century, has been thus found for some australasian words. as far as possible, the spelling, the stops, the capitals, and the italics of the original have been preserved. the result is often a rich variety of spelling the same word in consecutive extracts. the last decade has been a very active time in australian science. a great deal of system has been brought into its study, and much rearrangement of classification has followed as the result. both among birds and plants new species have been distinguished and named: and there has been not a little change in nomenclature. this dictionary, it must be remembered, is chiefly concerned with vernacular names, but for proper identification, wherever possible, the scientific name is added. in some cases, where there has been a recent change in the latter, both the new and the older names are recorded. vii. authorities. the less-known birds, fishes, plants, and trees are in many cases not illustrated by quotations, but have moved to their places in the dictionary from lists of repute. many books have been written on the natural history of australia and new zealand, and these have been placed under contribution. under the head of botany no book has been of greater service than maiden's useful native plants. unfortunately many scientific men scorn vernacular names, but mr. maiden has taken the utmost pains with them, and has thereby largely increased the utility of his volume. for tasmania there is mr. spicer's handbook of tasmanian plants; for new zealand, kirk's forest flora and hooker's botany. for australian animals lydekker's marsupials and monotremes is excellent; especially his section on the phalanger or australian opossum, an animal which has been curiously neglected by all dictionaries of repute. on new zealand mammals it is not necessary to quote any book; for when the english came, it is said, new zealand contained no mammal larger than a rat. captain cook turned two pigs loose; but it is stated on authority, that these pigs left no descendants. one was ridden to death by maori boys, and the other was killed for sacrilege: he rooted in a tapu burial-place. nevertheless, the settlers still call any wild-pig, especially if lean and bony, a "captain cook." for the scientific nomenclature of australian botany the census of australian plants by the baron von mueller ( ) is indispensable. it has been strictly followed. for fishes reliance has been placed upon tenison woods' fishes and fisheries of new south wales ( ), on w. macleay's descriptive catalogue of australian fishes (proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales, vols. v. and vi.), and on dr. guenther's study of fishes. for the scientific nomenclature of animal life, the standard of reference has been the tabular list of all the australian birds by e. p. ramsay of the australian museum, sydney ( ); catalogue of australian mammals by j. o. ogilby of the australian museum, sydney ( ); catalogue of marsupials and monotremes, british museum ( ); prodromus to the natural history of victoria by sir f. mccoy. constant reference has also been made to proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales, proceedings and transactions of the royal societies of victoria and tasmania, and to the journal of the field naturalist club of victoria. the birds both in australia and new zealand have been handsomely treated by the scientific illustrators. gould's birds of australia and buller's birds of new zealand are indeed monumental works. neither gould nor sir walter buller scorns vernacular names. but since the days of the former the number of named species of australian birds has largely increased, and in january , at the brisbane meeting of the australasian association for the advancement of science, a committee was appointed to draw up a list of vernacular bird-names. by the kindness of a member of this committee (mr. a. j. campbell of melbourne) i was allowed the use of a list of such vernacular names drawn up by him and col. legge for submission to the committee. viii. scientific words. the example of the century has been followed in the inclusion of sundry scientific names, especially those of genera or natural orders of purely australasian objects. although it is quite true that these can hardly be described as australasian english, it is believed that the course adopted will be for the general convenience of those who consult this dictionary. some of these "neo-latin" and "neo-greek" words are extraordinary in themselves and obscure in their origin, though not through antiquity. in his student's pastime, at p. , dr. skeat says "nowhere can more ignorant etymologies be found than in works on botany and `scientific' subjects. too often, all the science is reserved for the subject, so that there is none to spare for explaining the names." a generous latitude has also been taken in including some words undoubtedly english, but not exclusively australasian, such as anabranch, and antipodes, and some mining and other terms that are also used in the united states. convenience of readers is the excuse. anabranch is more frequently used of australian rivers than of any others, but perhaps a little pride in tracking the origin of the word has had something to do with its inclusion. some words have been inserted for purposes of explanation, e.g. snook, in australasia called barracouta, which latter is itself an old name applied in australasia to a different fish; and cavally, which is needed to explain trevally. ix. assistance received. there remains the pleasant duty of acknowledging help. many persons have given me help, whose names can hardly be listed here. a friend, an acquaintance, or sometimes even a stranger, has often sent a single quotation of value, or an explanation of a single word. the editors of many newspapers have helped not a little by the insertion of a letter or a circular. to all these helpers, and i reckon their number at nearly , i tender my hearty thanks. various officers of the melbourne public library, and my friend mr. edward h. bromby, the librarian of this university, have rendered me much assistance. i have often been fortunate enough to obtain information from the greatest living authority on a particular subject: from the baron von mueller, from sir frederick m'coy, or from mr. a. w. howitt. [alas! since i penned this sentence, the kind and helpful baron has been taken from us, and is no longer the greatest living authority on australian botany.] my friend and colleague, professor baldwin spencer, a most earnest worker in the field of australian science, gave many hours of valuable time to set these pages right in the details of scientific explanations. mr. j. g. luehmann of melbourne has kindly answered various questions about botany, and mr. a. j. north, of sydney, in regard to certain birds. mr. t. s. hall, of the biological department of this university, and mr. j. j. fletcher, of sydney, the secretary of the linnaean society of new south wales, have rendered me much help. the rev. john mathew, of coburg, near melbourne, has thrown much light on aboriginal words. the rev. e. h. sugden, master of queen's college in this university, has furnished a large number of useful quotations. his name is similarly mentioned, honoris causa, in dr. murray's preface to part i. of the `o. e. d.' mr. r. t. elliott of worcester college, oxford, has given similar help. the master himself,--the master of all who engage in dictionary work,--dr. murray, of oxford, has kindly forwarded to me a few pithy and valuable comments on my proof-streets. he also made me a strong appeal never to pass on information from any source without acknowledgment. this, the only honest course, i have striven scrupulously to follow; but it is not always easy to trace the sources whence information has been derived. when gaps in the sequence of quotations were especially apparent on the proofs, mr. w. ellis bird, of richmond, victoria, found me many illustrative passages. for new zealand words a goodly supply of quotations was contributed by miss mary colborne-veel of christchurch, author of a volume of poetry called the fairest of the angels, by her sister, miss gertrude colborne-veel, and by mr. w. h. s. roberts of oamaru, author of a little book called southland in . in the matter of explanation of the origin and meaning of new zealand terms, dr. hocken of dunedin, mr. f. r. chapman of the same city, and mr. edward tregear of wellington, author of the maori polynesian dictionary, and secretary of the polynesian society, have rendered valuable and material assistance. dr. holden of bellerive, near hobart, was perhaps my most valued correspondent. after i had failed in one or two quarters to enlist tasmanian sympathy, he came to the rescue, and gave me much help on tasmanian words, especially on the flora and the birds; also on queensland flora and on the whole subject of fishes. dr. holden also enlisted later the help of mr. j. b. walker, of hobart, who contributed much to enrich my proofs. but the friend who has given me most help of all has been mr. j. lake of st. john's college, cambridge. when the dictionary was being prepared for press, he worked with me for some months, very loyally putting my materials into shape. birds, animals, and botany he sub-edited for me, and much of the value of this part of the book, which is almost an encyclopaedia rather than a dictionary, is due to his ready knowledge, his varied attainments, and his willingness to undertake research. to all who have thus rendered me assistance i tender hearty thanks. it is not their fault if, as is sure to be the case, defects and mistakes are found in this dictionarv. but should the book be received with public favour, these shall be corrected in a later edition. edward e. morris. the university, melbourne, february , list of abbreviations of names ait. . . . aiton. andr. . . . andrews. b. and l. . barere and l. bail. . . . baillon. bechst. . . bechstein. benth. . . bentham. bl. . . . bleeker. bodd. . . . boddaert bp. ) ) . bonaparte. bonap. ) r. br. . . robert brown brong. . . brongniart. cab. . . . cabanis. carr. . . . carriere. castln. . . castelnau. cav. . . . cavanilles. corr. . . . correa. cunn. ) ) . a. cunningham a. cunn. ) cuv. . . . cuvier. de c. . . . de candolle. dec. . . . decaisne. desf. . . . desfontaines. desm. . . . desmarest. desv. . . . desvaux. de tarrag. . de tarragon diet. . . . dietrich. donov. . . donovan. drap. . . . drapiez. dryand. . . dryander. endl. . . . endlicher. fab. . . . fabricius. forsk. . . forskael. forst. . . forster. f. v. m. . . ferdinand von mueller g. forst. . g. forster. gaertn. . . gaertner. gaim. . . . gaimard. garn. . . . garnot. gaud. . . gaudichaud. geoff. . . geoffroy. germ. . . germar. gmel. . . gmelin. guich. . . guichenot. gunth. . . guenther. harv. . . harvey. hasselq. . . hasselquin. haw. . . . haworth. hens. . . henslow. herb. . . herbert. homb. . . hombron. hook. . . j. hooker. hook. f. . . hooker fils. horsf. . . horsfield. ill. . . . illiger. jacq. . . . jacquinot. jard. . . . jardine. l. and s. . liddell and scott. lab. ) ) . labillardiere. labill. ) lacep. . . lacepede. lath. . . . latham. lehm. . . lehmann. less. . . lesson. l'herit. . . l'heritier. licht. . . lichtenstein. lindl. . . lindley. linn. . . . linnaeus. macl. . . . macleay. mcc. . . . mccoy. meissn. . . meissner. menz. . . menzies. milne-ed. . milne-edwards. miq. . . . miquel. parlat. . . parlatore. pers. . . . persoon. plan. ) ) . planchol. planch. ) poir. . . poiret. q. . . . quoy. rafll. . . raffles. rein. . . . reinwardt. reiss. . . reisseck. rich. ) ) . richardson. richards.) roxb. . . roxburgh sal. . . . salvadori. salisb. . . salisbury. schau. . . schauer. schl. ) ) . schlechten schlecht.) selb. . . . selby. ser. . . . seringe. serv. . . . serville. sieb. . . . sieber. sm. . . . smith. sol. . . . solander. sow. . . . sowerby. sparrm. . . sparrman. steph. . . stephan. sundev. . . sundevall. sw. ) ) . swainson. swains. ) temm. . . temminck. thunb. . . thunberg. tul. . . . tulasne. v. and h. . vigors and horsfield. val. . . . valenciennes. vent. . . . ventenat. vieill. . . vieillot. vig. . . . vigors. wagl. . . . wagler. water. . . waterhouse. wedd. . . . weddell. willd. . . willdenow. zimm. . . . zimmermann. other abbreviations q.v. quod vide, which see. i.q. idem quod, the same as. ibid. ibidem, in the same book. i.e. id est, that is. sc. scilicet, that is to say. s.v. sub voce, under the word. cf. confer, compare. n. noun, adj. adjective. v. verb. prep. preposition. interj. interjection. sic, "thus," draws attention to some peculiarity of diction or to what is believed to be a mistake. n.o. natural order. sp. a species, spp. various species. a square bracket [ ] shows an addition to a quotation by way of comment. o.e.d. "oxford english dictionary," often formerly quoted as "n.e.d." or "new english dictionary." australasian dictionary a absentee, n. euphemistic term for a convict. the word has disappeared with the need for it. . jas. mudie, `felonry of new south wales,' p. vii.: "the ludicrous and affected philanthropy of the present governor of the colony, in advertising runaway convicts under the soft and gentle name of absentees, is really unaccountable, unless we suppose it possible that his excellency as a native of ireland, and as having a well-grounded hibernian antipathy to his absentee countrymen, uses the term as one expressive both of the criminality of the absentee and of his own abhorrence of the crime." acacia, n. and adj. a genus of shrubs or trees, n.o. leguminosae. the australian species often form thickets or scrubs, and are much used for hedges. the species are very numerous, and are called provincially by various names, e.g. "wattle," "mulga," "giddea," and "sally," an anglicized form of the aboriginal name sallee (q.v.). the tree peculiar to tasmania, acacia riceana, hensl., (i>n.o. leguminosae, is there called the drooping acacia. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "we possess above a hundred and thirty species of the acacia." . dr. j. shotsky, quoted in `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "yet, australian sky and nature awaits and merits real artists to portray it. its gigantic gum and acacia trees, ft. in girth, some of them covered with a most smooth bark, externally as white as chalk. .. ." . l. leichhardt, letter in `cooksland,' by j. d. lang, p. : "rosewood acacia, the wood of which has a very agreeable violet scent like the myal acacia (a. pendula) in liverpool plains." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the acacias are innumerable, all yielding a famous bark for tanning, and a clean and excellent gum." . mrs. meredith, `a tasmanian memory,' p. : "acacias fringed with gold." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the name acacia, derived from the greek, and indicative of a thorny plant, was already bestowed by the ancient naturalist and physician dioscorides on a gum-arabic yielding north-african acacia not dissimilar to some australian species. this generic name is so familiarly known, that the appellation `wattle' might well be dispensed with. indeed the name acacia is in full use in works on travels and in many popular writings for the numerous australian species . . . few of any genera of plants contain more species than acacia, and in australia it is the richest of all; about species, as occurring in our continent, have been clearly defined." acrobates, n. the scientific name of the australian genus of pigmy flying-phalangers, or, as they are locally called, opossum-mice. see opossum-mouse, flying-mouse, flying-phalanger, and phalanger. the genus was founded by desmarest in . (grk. 'akrobataes, walking on tiptoe.) aepyprymnus, n. the scientific name of the genus of the rufous kangaroo-rat. it is the tallest and largest of the kangaroo-rats (q.v.). (grk. 'aipus, high, and prumnon, the hinder part.) ailuroedus, n. scientific name for the genus of australian birds called cat-birds (q.v.). from grk. 'ailouros, a cat, and 'eidos, species. ake, n. originally akeake, maori name for either of two small trees, ( ) dodonaea viscosa, linn., in new zealand; ( ) olearia traversii, f. v. m., in the chatham islands. ake is originally a maori adv. meaning "onwards, in time." archdeacon williams, in his `dictionary of new zealand language,' says ake, ake, ake, means " for ever and ever." (edition .) . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "akeake, paulo post futurum" . w. yale, `some account of new zealand,' p. : "aki, called the lignum vitae of new zealand." . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "the ake and towai . . . are almost equal, in point of colour, to rosewood." . j. hector, `handbook to new zealand,' p. : "ake, a small tree, to feet high. wood very hard, variegated, black and white; used for maori clubs; abundant in dry woods and forests." alarm-bird, n. a bird-name no longer used in australia. there is an african alarm-bird. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "lobivanellus lobatus (lath.), wattled pewit, alarm bird of the colonists." alectryon, n. a new zealand tree and flower, alectryon excelsum, de c., maori name titoki (q.v.); called also the new zealand oak, from the resemblance of its leaves to those of an oak. named by botanists from grk. 'alektruown, a cock. . a. domett, `ranolf,' i. , p. : "the early season could not yet have ripened the alectryon's beads of jet, each on its scarlet strawberry set." alexandra palm, n. a queensland tree, ptychosperma alexandrae, f. v. m. a beautifully marked wood much used for making walking sticks. it grows or feet high. alluvial, n. the common term in australia and new zealand for gold-bearing alluvial soil. the word is also used adjectivally as in england. . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "the whole of the alluvial will be taken up, and the terrible hollow will re-echo with the sound of pick and shovel." ambrite (generally called ambrit), n. mineral [from amber + ite, mineral formative, `o.e.d.'], a fossil resin found in masses amidst lignite coals in various parts of new zealand. some identify it with the resin of dammara australis, generally called kauri gum (q.v.). . f. von hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "although originating probably from a coniferous tree related to the kauri pine, it nevertheless has been erroneously taken for kauri gum."--[footnote]: "it is sufficiently characterised to deserve a special name ; but it comes so near to real amber that it deserves the name of ambrite." [this is the earliest use of the word.] anabranch, n. a branch of a river which leaves it and enters it again. the word is not australian, though it is generally so reckoned. it is not given in the `century,' nor in the `imperial,' nor in `webster,' nor in the `standard.' the `o.e.d.' treats ana as an independent word, rightly explaining it as anastomosing, but its quotation from the `athenaeum' ( ), on which it relies,is a misprint. for the origin and coinage of the word, see quotation . see the aboriginal name billabong. . col.jackson, `journal of royal geographical society,' p. : "such branches of a river as after separation re-unite, i would term anastomosing-branches; or, if a word might be coined, ana-branches, and the islands they form, branch-islands. thus, if we would say, `the river in this part of its course divides into several ana-branches,' we should immediately understand the subsequent re-union of the branches to the main trunk." col. jackson was for a while secretary and editor of the society's journal. in feb. he resigned that position, and in the journal of that year there is the following amusing ignorance of his proposed word-- . `condensed account of sturt's exploration in the interior of australia--journal of the royal geographical society,' p. : "captain sturt proposed sending in advance to ascertain the state of the ana branch of the darling, discovered by mr. eyre on a recent expedition to the north." no fewer than six times on two pages is the word anabranch printed as two separate words, and as if ana were a proper name. in the index volume it appears "ana, a branch of the darling." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the river itself divided into anabranches which . . . made the whole valley a maze of channels." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. p. : "what the major calls, after the learned nomenclature of colonel jackson, in the `journal of the geographical society,' anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels coming out of a stream and returning into it again." . `the athenaeum,' may , p. (' o.e.d.'): "the loddon district is called the county of gunbower, which means, it is said, an ana branch [sic]." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' p. : "a plain bordering an ana-branch sufficient for water." anchorwing, n. a bird-name, falco melanogenys, gould. the black-cheeked falcon, so called because of the resemblance of the wings outspread in flight to the flukes of an anchor. anguillaria, n. one of the vernacular names used for the common australian wild flower, anguillaraa australis, r. br., wurmbsea dioica, f. v. m., n.o. liliaceae. the name anguillarea is from the administrator of the botanic gardens of padua, three centuries ago. there are three australian forms, distinguished by robert brown as species. the flower is very common in the meadows in early spring, and is therefore called the native snow drop. in tasmania it is called nancy. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' : "spotted anguillaria. nancy. the little lively white flower with blue spots in the centre, about inches high, that everywhere enlivens our grassy hills in spring, resembling the star of bethlehem." . w. r. guilfoyle, `australian botany,' p. : "native snowdrop. anguillaria australis. the earliest of all our indigenous spring-flowering plants. . . . in early spring our fields are white with the flowers of this pretty little bulbous-rooted plant." ant-eater, n. ( ) i.q. ant-eating-porcupine. see echidna. ( ) the banded ant-eater (q.v.). ant-eater, banded. see banded ant-eater. antechinornys, n. scientific name for the genus with the one species of long legged pouched-mouse (q.v.). (grk. 'anti, opposed to, 'echivos, hedgehog, and mus, mouse, sc. a mouse different to the hedgehog.) it is a jumping animal exclusively insectivorous. antipodes, n. properly a greek word, the plural of 'antipous, lit. "having feet opposed." the ancients, however, had no knowledge of the southern hemisphere. under the word perioikos, liddell and scott explain that 'antipodes meant "those who were in opposite parallels and meridians." the word antipodes was adopted into the latin language, and occurs in two of the fathers, lactantius and augustine. by the mediaeval church to believe in the antipodes was regarded as heresy. `o.e.d.' quotes two examples of the early use of the word in english. . `trevisa barth. de p. r.,' xv. lii. ( ), p. : "yonde in ethiopia ben the antipodes, men that have theyr fete ayenst our fete." . `recorde cast. knowl.,' : "people . . . called of the greeks and latines also 'antipodes, antipodes, as you might say counterfooted, or counterpasers." shakspeare uses the word in five places, but, though he knew that this "pendent world" was spherical, his antipodes were not australasian. in three places he means only the fact that it is day in the eastern hemisphere when it is night in england. `midsummer night's dream,' iii. ii. : "i'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored, and that the moon may thro' the centre creep and so displease his brother's noontide with the antipodes." `merchant of venice,' v. : "we should hold day with the antipodes if you would walk in absence of the sun." `richard ii.,' iii. ii. : "who all this while hath revell'd in the night, whilst we were wandering with the antipodes." in `henry vi.,' part , i. iv. , the word more clearly designates the east: "thou art as opposite to every good as the antipodes are unto us, or as the south to the septentrion." [sc. the north.] but more precise geographical indications are given in `much ado,' ii. i. , where benedick is so anxious to avoid beatrice that he says-- "i will go on the slightest errand now to the antipodes that you can devise to send me on. i will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of asia; bring you the length of prester john's foot; fetch you a hair of the great kam's beard; do you any embassage to the pygmies rather than hold three words conference with this harpy." now the pygmies lived on the upper nile, near khartoum, prester john in india, and the great kam (khan) in tartary. the word antipodes in modern use is applied rather to places than to people. geographically, the word means a place exactly opposite on the surface of the globe, as antipodes island (eastward of new zealand), which is very near the opposite end of the diameter of the globe passing through london. but the word is often used in a wider sense, and the whole of australasia is regarded as the antipodes of great britain. the question is often asked whether there is any singular to the word antipodes, and `o.e.d.' shows that antipode is still used in the sense of the exact opposite of a person. antipod is also used, especially playfully. the adjectives used are antipodal and antipodean. . richard brome [title]: "the antipodes; comedy in verse." [acted in , first printed t . .] ant-orchis, n. an australian and tasmanian orchid, chiloglottis gunnii, lind. apple and apple-tree, n. and adj. the names are applied to various indigenous trees, in some cases from a supposed resemblance to the english fruit, in others to the foliage of the english tree. the varieties are-- black or brush apple-- achras australis, r. br. emu a.-- owenia acidula, f. v. m.; called also native nectarine and native quince. petalostigma quadriloculare, f. v. m.; called also crab-tree, native quince, quinine-tree (q.v.) kangaroo a.-- see kangaroo apple. mooley a. (west n.s.w. name)-- owenia acidula, f. v. m. mulga a.-- the galls of acacia aneura, f. v. m. oak a.-- cones of casuarina stricta, ait. rose a.-- owenia cerasifera, f. v. m. . john oxley, `journal of two expeditions into the interior of new south wales,' p. : "the blue gum trees in the neighbourhood were extremely fine, whilst that species of eucalyptus, which is vulgarly called the apple-tree . . . again made its appearance. . . ." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "it builds its nest of sticks lined with grass in iron-bark and apple-trees (a species of angophora)." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the apple-trees resemble the english apple only in leaf." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "in looking down upon the rich flats below, adjoining the stream, i was perpetually reminded of a thriving and rich apple-orchard. the resemblance of what are called apple-trees in australia to those of the same name at home is so striking at a distance in these situations, that the comparison could not be avoided, although the former bear no fruit, and do not even belong to the same species." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "i have heard of men employed in felling whole apple-trees (angophera lanceolata) for the sheep." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. ; "red apple, quonui, affects salt grounds." . j. d. lang, `phillipsland,' p. : "the plains, or rather downs, around it (yass) are thinly but most picturesquely covered with `apple-trees,' as they are called by the colonists, merely from their resemblance to the european apple-tree in their size and outline, for they do not resemble it in producing an edible fruit." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the musk-plant, hyacinth, grass-tree, and kangaroo apple-tree are indigenous." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "pomona would indignantly disown the apple-tree, for there is not the semblance of a pippin on its tufted branches." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "sandy apple-tree flats, and iron-bark ridges, lined the creek here on either side." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "the desolate flats where gaunt apple-trees rot." apple-berry, n. the fruit of an australian shrub, billardiera scandens, smith, n.o. pittosporeae, called by children "dumplings." . j. e. smith, `specimen of botany of new holland,' pp. , : "billardiera scandens. climbing apple berry. . . . the name billardiera is given it in honour of james julian la billardiere, m.d., f.m.l.s., now engaged as botanist on board the french ships sent in search of m. de la peyrouse." apple-gum, n. see gum. apple-scented gum, n. see gum. apteryx, n. [grk. 'a privative and pterux, a wing.] a new zealand bird about the size of a domestic fowl, with merely rudimentary wings.see kiwi. . g. shaw, `naturalist's miscellany.' c. xxiv. p. (`o.e.d.'): "the southern apteryx." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the present apterix or wingless bird of that country (new zealand)." . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. [letter from rev. w. colenso, waitangi, hawke's bay, new zealand, sept. , : "you enquire after an apteryx. how delighted should i be to succeed in getting you one. three years ago owen expressed a similar wish, and i have repeatedly tried, but failed. yet here they still are in the mountain forests, though, doubtless, fast hastening towards extinction. i saw one in its wild state two years ago in the dense woods of the interior; i saw it clearly. . . . two living specimens were lately taken by the acheron, steamer, to sydney, where they died; these were obtained at the bay of islands, where also i once got three at one time. since then i have not been able to obtain another, although i have offered a great price for one. the fact is, the younger natives do not know how to take them, and the elder ones having but few wants, and those fully supplied, do not care to do so. further, they can only be captured by night, and the dog must be well trained to be of service." . f. p. cobbe, in `littell's age,' nov. , p. (`standard'): "we have clipped the wings of fancy as close as if she were an apteryx.' arbutus, native, n. see wax-cluster. ardoo, n. see nardoo. artichoke, n. name given to the plant astelia alpina, r. br., n.o. liliaceae. ash, n. the name, with various epithets, is applied to the following different australasian trees-- black ash-- nephelium semiglaucum, f. v. m., n.o. sapindaceae; called also wild quince. black mountain a.-- eucalyptus leucoxylon, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. blue a.-- elaeodendron australe, vent., n.o. celastrinae. blueberry a.-- elaeocarpus holopetalus, f. v. m., n.o. tiliaceae. brush apple-- acronychia baueri, schott. (of illawarra, n.s.w.). crow's a.-- flindersia australis, r. br., n.o. meliaceae. elderberry a. (of victoria)-- panax sambucifolius, sieb., n.o. araliaceae. illawarra a.-- elaeocarpus kirtonia, f. v. m., n.o. tiliaceae. moreton bay a.-- eucalyptus tessellaris, hook., n.o. myrtaceae. mountain a. (see mountain ash). new zealand a. (see titoki). pigeonberry a.-- elaeocarpus obovatus, g. don., n.o. tiliaceae. red a.-- alphitonia excelsa, reiss, n.o. rhamnaceae. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the moreton bay ash (a species of eucalyptus). ..was here also very plentiful." assigned, past part. of verb to assign, to allot. used as adj. of a convict allotted to a settler as a servant. colloquially often reduced to "signed." . `captain robinson's report,' dec. : "it was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to their dress; which very much assisted the crime of `bush-ranging.'" . j. d. lang, `new south wales,' vol. ii. p. "the assigned servant of a respectable scotch family residing near sydney." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "of the first five persons we saw to van diemen's land, four were convicts, and perhaps the fifth. these were the assigned servants of the pilot." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "under the old practice, the convicts, as soon as they arrived from britain, were assigned among the various applicants. the servant thus assigned was bound to perform diligently, from sunrise till sunset, all usual and reasonable labour." assignee, n. a convict assigned as a servant. the word is also used in its ordinary english sense. . `penny cyclopaedia,' vol. xxv. p. , col. : "it is comparatively difficult to obtain another assignee,--easy to obtain a hired servant." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "any instance of gross treatment disqualified him for the future as an assignee of convict labour." assignment, n. service as above. . c. darwin, `journal of researches' ( ), c. xix. p. : "i believe the years of assignment are passed away with discontent and unhappiness." . john west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "that form of service, known as assignment, was established by governor king in ." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the assignment system was then in operation, and such as obtained free grants of land were allowed a certain proportion of convicts to bring it into cultivation." asthma herb, queensland, n. euphorbia pilulifera, linn. as the name implies, a remedy for asthma. the herb is collected when in flower and carefully dried. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "this plant, having obtained some reputation in australasia in certain pulmonary complaints, has acquired the appellation to the colonies of `queensland asthma herb'. nevertheless, it is by no means endemic in australasia, for it is a common tropical weed." aua, n. maori name for a new zealand fish, agonostoma forsteri, bleek. another maori name is makawhiti; also called sea-mullet and sometimes herring; (q.v.). it is abundant also in tasmanian estuaries, and is one of the fishes which when dried is called picton herring (q.v.). see also maray and mullet. agonostoma is a genus of the family mugilidae or grey-mullets. aurora australis, n. the southern equivalent for aurora borealis. . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "sept. , . about half after six in the evening, we saw an aurora australis, a phenomenon uncommon in the southern hemisphere." austral, adj. "belonging to the south, southern. lat. australis, from auster, south-wind." (`o.e.d.') the word is rarely used in australasia in its primary sense, but now as equivalent to australian or australasian. . wentworth's cambridge poem on `australasia': "and grant that yet an austral milton's song, pactolus-like, flow deep and rich along, an austral shakespeare rise, whose living page to nature true may charm in every age; and that an austral pindar daring soar, where not the theban eagle reach'd before." . barron field, `first fruits of australian poetry,' motto in geographical memoir of new south wales, p. : "i first adventure. follow me who list; and be the second austral harmonist." adapted from bishop hall. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "for this, midst austral wilds i waken our british harp, feel whence i come, queen of the sea, too long forsaken, queen of the soul, my spirit's home."--alien song. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "every servant in this austral utopia thinks himself a gentleman." . c. harpur, `poems' (ed. ), p. : "how oft, in austral woods, the parting day has gone through western golden gates away." . j. b. o'hara, `songs of the south,' p. : "what though no weird and legendary lore invests our young, our golden austral shore with that romance the poet loves too well, when inspiration breathes her magic spell." . ernest favenc [title]: "tales of the austral tropics." . [title]: "the austral wheel--a monthly cycling magazine, no. , jan." . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. "our austral spring." [title of an article describing spring in australia.] australasia, n. (and its adjectives), name "given originally by de brosses to one of his three divisions of the alleged terra australis." (`o.e.d.') now used as a larger term than australian, to include the continent of australia, new zealand, tasmania, fiji and islands. for peculiar use of the name for the continent in , see australia. . charles de brosses, `histoire des navigations aux terres australes,' tom. i. p. : "on peut de meme diviser le monde austral inconnu en trois portions. .. .l'une dans l'ocean des indes au sud de l'asie que j'appellerai par cette raison australasie." . callander, `terra australis,' i. p. (translation of de brosses)(`o.e.d.): "the first [division] in the indian ocean, south of asia, which for this reason we shall call australasia." . g. shaw, `zoology,' iii. p. (`o.e.d.'): "other australasian snakes." . subject for english poem at cambridge university: `australasia.' [the prize (chancellor's medal) was won by winthrop mackworth praed. william charles wentworth stood second.] the concluding lines of his poem are: "and australasia float, with flag unfurl'd, a new britannia in another world." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "how far had these ideas been acted upon by the colonists of austral asia?" [sic.] . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. . p. : "`the austral-asiatic review,' by murray, also made its appearance [in hobart] in february, ." . tennyson, `the brook,' p. : " katie walks by the long wash of australasian seas far off, and holds her head to other stars, and breathes in converse seasons." [altered in edition of to "breathes in april-autumns."] . daniel bunce [title]: "australasiatic reminiscences." . `the australasian,' oct. , first number [title]: "the australasian." . alfred r. wallace [title]: "australasia." [in stanford's `compendium of geography and travel.'] . david blair [title]: "cyclopaedia of australasia." . e. w. hornung, `bride from the bush,' p. : "it was neither cockney nor yankee, but a nasal blend of both: it was a lingo that declined to let the vowels run alone, but trotted them out in ill-matched couples, with discordant and awful consequences; in a word, it was australasiatic of the worst description." . `victorian consolidated statutes,' administration and p.obate act, section : "`australasian colonies,' shall mean all colonies for the time being on the main land of australia. ..and shall also include the colonies of new zealand, tasmania and fiji and any other british colonies or possessions in australasia now existing or hereafter to be created which the governor in council may from time to time declare to be australasian colonies within the meaning of this act." . edward jenks [title]: "history of the australasian colonies." . j. s. laurie [title]: "the story of australasia." australia, n., and australian, adj. as early as the th century there was a belief in a terra australis (to which was often added the epithet incognita), literally "southern land," which was believed to be land lying round and stretching outwards from the south pole. in `proceedings of the royal geographical society of australasia,' sydney, jan. , is printed a paper read at the geographical congress at berne, by e. delmar morgan, on the `early discovery of australia.' this paper is illustrated by maps taken from `nordenskiold's atlas.' in a map by orontius finoeus, a french cosmographer of provence, dated , the terra australis is shown as "terra australis recenter inventa, sed nondum plene cognita." in ortelius' map, , it appears as "terra australis nondum cognita." in gerard mercator's map, , as "terra australis" simply. in the spaniard fernandez de quiros gave the name of terra australis del espiritu santo to land which he thought formed part of the great southland. it is in fact one of the new hebrides. the word "australian " is older than "australia" (see quotations, and ). the name australia was adapted from the latin name terra australis. the earliest suggestion of the word is credited to flinders, who certainly thought that he was inventing the name. (see quotation, .) twenty-one years earlier, however, the word is found (see quotation, ); and the passage containing it is the first known use of the word in print. shaw may thus be regarded as its inventor. according to its title-page, the book quoted is by two authors, the zoology, by shaw and the botany by smith. the botany, however, was not published. of the two names--australia and australasia--suggested in the opening of the quotation, to take the place of new holland, shaw evidently favoured australia, while smith, in the `transactions of the linnaean society,' vol. iv. p. ( ), uses australasia for the continent several times. neither name, however, passed then into general use. in , robert brown the botanist speaks of "terra australis," not of "australia." "australia" was reinvented by flinders. quotations for " terra australis"-- . r. burton, `anatomy of melancholy' (edition ), p. : "for the site, if you will needs urge me to it, i am not fully resolved, it may be in terra australis incognita, there is room enough (for of my knowledge, neither that hungry spaniard nor mercurius britannicus have yet discovered half of it)." ibid. p. : "terra australis incognita. ..and yet in likelihood it may be so, for without all question, it being extended from the tropic of capricorn to the circle antarctic, and lying as it doth in the temperate zone, cannot choose but yield in time some flourishing kingdoms to succeeding ages, as america did unto the spaniards." ibid. p. : "but these are hard-hearted, unnatural, monsters of men, shallow politicians, they do not consider that a great part of the world is not yet inhabited as it ought, how many colonies into america, terra australis incognita, africa may be sent?" early quotations for "australian" . `nouveau voyage de la terre australe, contenant les coutumes et les moeurs des australiens, etc.' par jaques sadeur [gabriel de foigny]. [this is a work of fiction, but interesting as being the first book in which the word australiens is used. the next quotation is from the english translation.] . `new discovery, terra incognita australis,' p. (`o.e.d.'): "it is easy to judge of the incomparability of the australians with the people of europe." . callander, `terra australis' (translation of de brosses), c. ii. p. : "one of the australians, or natives of the southern world, whom gonneville had brought into france." quotations for "australia" . g. shaw and i. e. smith, `zoology and botany of new holland,' p. : "the vast island or rather continent of australia, australasia, or new holland, which has so lately attracted the particular attention of european navigators and naturalists, seems to abound in scenes of peculiar wildness and sterility; while the wretched natives of many of those dreary districts seem less elevated above the inferior animals than in any other part of the known world; caffraria itself not excepted; as well as less indued with the power of promoting a comfortable existence by an approach towards useful arts and industry. it is in these savage regions however that nature seems to have poured forth many of her most highly ornamented products with unusual liberality." . m. flinders, `voyage to terra australis,' introduction, p. iii. and footnote: "i have . . . ventured upon the readoption of the original terra australis, and of this term i shall hereafter make use, when speaking of new holland [sc. the west] and new south wales, in a collective sense; and when using it in the most extensive signification, the adjacent isles, including that of van diemen, must be understood to be comprehended." [footnote]: "had i permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "new south wales (or australia, as we colonials say)." . c. darwin, `naturalist's voyage' (ed. ), p. : "farewell, australia! you are a rising child, and doubtless some day will reign a great princess in the south; but you are too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for respect. i leave your shores without sorrow or regret." . a liverpool merchant [title]: "a guide to australia and the gold regions." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. viii. (new ed.) p. : "the colonies are determined to be separate. australia is a term that finds no response in the patriotic feeling of any australian. . . . but this will come to an end sooner or later. the name of australia will be dearer, if not greater, to australian ears than the name of great britain." [mr. trollope's prophecy has come true, and the name of australia is now dearer to an australian than the name of his own separate colony. the word "colonial" as indicating australian nationality is going out of fashion. the word "australian" is much preferred.] . f. p. labilliere, `early history of the colony of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "in a despatch to lord bathurst, of april th, , governor macquarie acknowledges the receipt of captain flinders's charts of `australia.' this is the first time that the name of australia appears to have been officially employed. the governor underlines the word. . . . in a private letter to mr. secretary goulbourn, m.p., of december st, , [he]says . . . `the continent of australia, which, i hope, will be the name given to this country in future, instead of the very erroneous and misapplied name hitherto given it of new holland, which, properly speaking, only applies to a part of this immense continent.'" . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. : "it is pleasant to reflect that the name australia was selected by the gallant flinders; though, with his customary modesty, he suggested rather than adopted it." . h. m. goode, `the argus,' oct. , p. , col. : "condemning the absurd practice of using the word `colonial' in connection with our wines, instead of the broader and more federal one, `australian.' in england our artists, cricketer, scullers, and globe-trotters are all spoken of and acknowledged as australians, and our produce, with the exception of wine, is classed as follows:--australian gold and copper, australian beef and mutton, australian butter, australian fruits, &c." ibid. p. : "merops or bee-eater. a tribe [of birds] which appears to be peculiarly prevalent in the extensive regions of australia." australian flag, n. hot climate and country work have brought in a fashion among bushmen of wearing a belt or leather strap round the top of trousers instead of braces. this often causes a fold in the shirt protruding all round from under the waistcoat, which is playfully known as "the australian flag." slang. australioid and australoid, adj. like australian, sc. aboriginal--a term used by ethnologists. see quotations. . j. lubbock, `prehistoric times,' vol. xii. p. : "the australoid type contains all the inhabitants of australia and the native races of the deccan." . e. b. tylor, `encyclopaedia britannica,' vol. ii. p. : "he [professor huxley] distinguishes four principal types of mankind, the australioid, negroid, mongoloid, and xanthochroic, adding a fifth variety, the melanochroic. the special points of the australioid are a chocolate-brown skin, dark brown or black eyes, black hair (usually wavy), narrow (dolichocephalic) skull, brow-ridges strongly developed, projecting jaw, coarse lips and broad nose. this type is best represented by the natives of australia, and next to them by the indigenous tribes of southern india, the so-called coolies." austral thrush, n. see port-jackson thrush. avocet, n. a well-known european bird-name. the australian species is the red-necked a., recurvirostra nova-hollandiae, vieill. aweto, n. maori name for a vegetable-caterpillar of new zealand. see quotation. . e. wakefield, `new zealand after fifty years,' p. : ". . . the aweto, or vegetable-caterpillar, called by the naturalists hipialis virescens. it is a perfect caterpillar in every respect, and a remarkably fine one too, growing to a length in the largest specimens of three and a half inches and the thickness of a finger, but more commonly to about a half or two-thirds of that size. . . . when full-grown, it undergoes a miraculous change. for some inexplicable reason, the spore of a vegetable fungus sphaeria robertsii, fixes itself on its neck, or between the head and the first ring of the caterpillar, takes root and grows vigorously . . . exactly like a diminutive bulrush from to inches high without leaves, and consisting solely of a single stem with a dark-brown felt-like head, so familiar in the bulrushes . . . always at the foot of the rata." . a. bence jones, in `pearson's magazine,' sept., p. : "the dye in question was a solution of burnt or powdered resin, or wood, or the aweto, the latter a caterpillar, which, burrowing in the vegetable soil, gets a spore of a fungus between the folds of its neck, and unable to free itself, the insect's body nourishes the fungus, which vegetates and occasions the death of the caterpillar by exactly filling the interior of the body with its roots, always preserving its perfect form. when properly charred this material yielded a fine dark dye, much prized for purposes of moko." [see moko.] axe-breaker, n. name of a tree, notelaea longifolia, vent., n.o. jasmineae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "axe-breaker. wood hard, close-grained and firm. its vernacular name emphasizes its hardness." b baal, or bail, interj. and adv. "an aboriginal expression of disapproval." (gilbert parker, glossary to `round the compass in australia,' .) it was the negative in the sydney dialect. . j. f. hogan, `robert lowe,' p. , quoting from `the atlas' (circa ): "traces, however, of the egyptian language are discoverable among the present inhabitants, with whom, for instance, the word `bale' or `baal' is in continual use . . . ." [evidently a joke.] babbler, n. a bird-name. in europe, "name given, on account of their harsh chattering note, to the long-legged thrushes." (`o.e.d.') the group "contains a great number of birds not satisfactorily located elsewhere, and has been called the ornithological waste-basket." (`century.') the species are-- the babbler-- pomatostomus temporalis, v. and h. chestnut-crowned b.-- p. ruficeps, hart. red-breasted b.-- p. rubeculus, gould. white-browed b.-- p. superciliosus, v. and h. back-blocks, n. ( ) the far interior of australia, and away from settled country. land in australia is divided on the survey maps into blocks, a word confined, in england and the united states, to town lands. ( ) the parts of a station distant from the frontage (q.v.). . anon. `glimpses of life in victoria,' p. : ". . . we were doomed to see the whole of our river-frontage purchased. . . . the back blocks which were left to us were insufficient for the support of our flocks, and deficient in permanent water-supply. . . ." . j. mathew, song--`the bushman': "far, far on the plains of the arid back-blocks a warm-hearted bushman is tending his flocks. there's little to cheer in that vast grassy sea: but oh! he finds pleasure in thinking of me. how weary, how dreary the stillness must be! but oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me." . e. w. horning, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "`down in vic' you can carry as many sheep to the acre as acres to the sheep up here in the `backblocks.'" . m. gaunt, `english illustrated, `feb., p. : "the back-blocks are very effectual levellers." . haddon chambers, `thumbnail sketches of australian life,' p. "in the back-blocks of new south wales he had known both hunger and thirst, and had suffered from sunstroke." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "although kara is in the back-blocks of new south wales, the clothes and boots my brother wears come from bond street." back-block, adj. from the interior. . rolf boldrewood, `sydneyside saxon,' vol. xii. p. : "`what a nice mare that is of yours!' said one of the back-block youngsters." back-blocker, n. a resident in the back-blocks. . `the argus,' march , p. , col. "i am a bushman, a back blocker, to whom it happens about once in two years to visit melbourne." . e. w. hornung, `under two skies,' p. : "as for jim, he made himself very busy indeed, sitting on his heels over the fire in an attitude peculiar to back-blockers." back-slanging, verbal n. in the back-blocks (q.v.) of australia, where hotels are naturally scarce and inferior, the traveller asks for hospitality at the stations (q.v.) on his route, where he is always made welcome. there is no idea of anything underhand on the part of the traveller, yet the custom is called back-slanging. badger, n. this english name has been incorrectly applied in australia, sometimes to the bandicoot, sometimes to the rock-wallaby, and sometimes to the wombat. in tasmania, it is the usual bush-name for the last. . `the picture of australia,' p. : "the parameles, to which the colonists sometimes give the name of badger. . . ." . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "that delicious animal, the wombat (commonly known at that place [macquarie harbour] by the name of badger, hence the little island of that name in the map was so called, from the circumstance of numbers of that animal being at first found upon it)." . james bennett clutterbuck, m.d., `port phillip in ,' p. : "the rock wallaby, or badger, also belongs to the family of the kangaroo; its length from the nose to the end of the tail is three feet; the colour of the fur being grey-brown." . rev. j. g. wood, `natural history,' vol. i. p. : "the wombat or australian badger as it is popularly called by the colonists. . . ." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "with the exception of wombats or `badgers,' and an occasional kangaroo . . . the intruder had to rely on the stores he carried with him." ibid. p. : "badgers also abound, or did until thinned out by hungry prospectors." badger-box, n. slang name for a roughly- constructed dwelling. . `proceedings of the royal society of tasmania,' september, p. [`port davey in ,' by the hon. james reid scott, m.l.c.]: "the dwellings occupied by the piners when up the river are of the style known as `badger-boxes,' in distinction from huts, which have perpendicular walls, while the badger-box is like an inverted v in section. they are covered with bark, with a thatch of grass along the ridge, and are on an average about x feet at the ground, and or feet high." bail, n. "a framework for securing the head of a cow while she is milked." (`o.e.d.') this word, marked in `o.e.d.' and other dictionaries as australian, is provincial english. in the `english dialect dictionary,' edited by joseph wright, part i., the word is given as used in "ireland, northamptonshire, norfolk, suffolk, hampshire and new zealand." it is also used in essex. . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "in every milking yard is an apparatus for confining a cow's head called a `bail.' this consists of an upright standiron, five feet in height, let into a framework, and about six inches from it another fixed at the heel, the upper part working freely in a slit, in which are holes for a peg, so that when the peg is out and the movable standiron is thrown back, there is abundance of room for a cow's head and horns, but when closed, at which time the two standirons are parallel to each other and six inches apart, though her neck can work freely up and down, it is impossible for her to withdraw her head . . ." . w. m. b., `narrative of edward crewe,' p. : "the former bovine female was a brute to manage, whom it would have been impossible to milk without a `bail.' to what man or country the honour of this invention belongs, who can tell? it is in very general use in the australian colonies; and my advice to any one troubled with a naughty cow, who kicks like fury during the process of milking, is to have a bail constructed in their cow-house." bail up, v. ( ) to secure the head of a cow in a bail for milking. ( ) by transference, to stop travellers in the bush, used of bushrangers. the quotation, , shows the method of transference. it then means generally, to stop. like the similar verb, to stick up (q.v.), it is often used humorously of a demand for subscriptions, etc. . mrs. chas. meredith, `notes and sketches of new south wales,' p. : "the bushrangers . . . walk quickly in, and `bail up,' i.e. bind with cords, or otherwise secure, the male portion." . alex. marjoribanks, `travels in new south wales,' p. : ". . . there were eight or ten bullock-teams baled up by three mounted bushrangers. being baled up is the colonial phrase for those who are attacked, who are afterwards all put together, and guarded by one of the party of the bushrangers when the others are plundering." w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. ii. p. : "so long as that is wrong, the whole community will be wrong,-- in colonial phrase, `bailed up' at the mercy of its own tenants." . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "`come, sir, immediately,' rejoined murphy, rudely and insultingly pushing the master; `bail up in that corner, and prepare to meet the death you have so long deserved.'" . w. j. barry, `up and down,' p. : "she bailed me up and asked me if i was going to keep my promise and marry her." . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "his troutship, having neglected to secure a line of retreat, was, in colonial parlance, `bailed up.'" . g. walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "the kelly gang . . . bailed up some forty residents in the local public house." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "did i ever get stuck-up? never by white men, though i have been bailed up by the niggers." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "a little further on the boar `bailed up' on the top of a ridge." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "one of the young cows was a bit strange with me, so i had to shake a stick at her and sing out `bail up' pretty rough before she'd put her head in. aileen smiled something like her old self for a minute, and said, `that comes natural to you now, dick, doesn't it ?' i stared for a bit and then burst out laughing.it was a rum go, wasn't it? the same talk for cows and christians. that's how things get stuck into the talk in a new country. some old hand like father, as had been assigned to a dairy settler, and spent all his mornings in the cow-yard, had taken to the bush and tried his hand at sticking up people. when they came near enough of course he'd pop out from behind a tree, with his old musket or pair of pistols, and when he wanted `em to stop, `bail up, d-- yer,' would come a deal quicker and more natural-like to his tongue than `stand.' so `bail up' it was from that day to this, and there'll have to be a deal of change in the ways of the colonies, and them as come from `em before anything else takes its place between the man that's got the arms and the man that's got the money." bailing-up pen, n. place for fastening up cattle. . r. m. praed, `romance of station,' vol. i. c. ii. [`eng. dial. dict.']: "alec was proud of the stockyard and pointed out . . . the superior construction of the `crush,' or branding lane, and the bailing-up pen." bald-coot, n. a bird-name, porphyrio melanotus, temm.; blue, p. bellus, gould. the european bald-coot is fulica atra. ballahoo, n. a name applied to the garfish (q.v.) by sydney fishermen. the word is west indian, and is applied there to a fast-sailing schooner; also spelled bullahoo and ballahou. balloon-vine n. australian name for the common tropical weed, cardiospermum halicacabum, linn., n.o. sapindaceae: called also heart-seed, heart-pea, and winter-cherry. it is a climbing plant, and has a heart-shaped scar on the seed. balsam of copaiba tree, n. the name is applied to the australian tree, geijera salicifolia, schott, n.o. rutaceae, because the bark has the odour of the drug of that name. bamboo-grass, n. an australian cane-like grass, glyceria ramigera, f. v. m. ; also called cane grass. largely used for thatching purposes. stock eat the young shoots freely. banana, n. there are three species native to queensland, of which the fruit is said to be worthless-- musa banksii, f. v. m. m. hillii, f. v. m. m. fitzalani, f. v. m., n.o. scitamineae. the bananas which are cultivated and form a staple export of queensland are acclimatized varieties. banana-land, n. slang name for queensland, where bananas grow in abundance. banana-lander, n. slang for a queenslander (see above). banded ant-eater, n. name given to a small terrestrial and ant-eating marsupial, myrmecobius fasciatus, waterh, found in west and south australia. it is the only species of the genus, and is regarded as the most closely allied of all living marsupials to the extinct marsupials of the mesozoic age in europe. it receives its name banded from the presence along the back of a well-marked series of dark transverse bands. . g. krefft, `mammals of australia': "the myrmecobius is common on the west coast and in the interior of new south wales and south australia: the murrumbidgee river may be taken as its most eastern boundary." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' p. : "thus we have here [w. australia] alone the curious little banded ant-eater (myrmecobius fasciatus), which presents the nearest approach in its dentition to the most ancient known mammals whose remains are found in the oolite and trias of the mesozoic epoch." banded-kangaroo, i.q. banded-wallaby. see lagostrophus and wallaby. banded-wallaby, n. sometimes called banded-kangaroo. see lagostrophus and wallaby. bandicoot, n. an insect-eating marsupial animal; family, peramelidae; genus, perameles. "the animals of this genus, commonly called bandicoots in australia, are all small, and live entirely on the ground, making nests composed of dried leaves, grass and sticks, in hollow places. they are rather mixed feeders; but insects, worms, roots and bulbs, constitute their ordinary diet." (`encyclopaedia britannica,' th edit., vol. xv. p. .) the name comes from india, being a corruption of telugu pandi-kokku, literally "pig-dog," used of a large rat called by naturalists mus malabaricus, shaw, mus giganteus, hardwicke; mus bandis coota, bechstein. the name has spread all over india. the indian animal is very different from the australian, and no record is preserved to show how the anglo-indian word came to be used in australia. the bandicoots are divided into three genera--the true bandicoots (genus perameles, q.v.), the rabbit bandicoots (genus peragale, q.v.), and the pig-footed bandicoots (q.v.) (genus choeropus, q.v.). the species are-- broadbent's bandicoot-- perameles broadbenti, ramsay. cockerell's b.-- p. cockerelli, ramsay. common rabbit b.-- peragale lagotis, reid. desert b.-- p. eremiana, spencer. doria's b.-- perameles dorerana, quoy & gaim. golden b.-- p. aurata, ramsay. gunn's b.-- p. gunni, gray. less rabbit b.-- peragale minor, spencer. long-nosed b.-- perameles nasuta, geoffr. long-tailed b.-- p. longicauda, peters & doria. north-australian b.-- p. macrura, gould. port moresby b.-- p. moresbyensis, ramsay. raffray's b.-- p. rafrayana, milne-edw. short-nosed b.-- p. obesula, shaw. striped b.-- p. bougainvillii, quoy & gaim. white-tailed rabbit b.-- p. lesicura. thomas. pig-footed b.-- choeropus castanotis, gray. . d. collins, `account of new south wales', vol. ii. p. (bass's diary at the derwent, january ): "the bones of small animals, such as opossums, squirrels, kangooroo rats, and bandicoots, were numerous round their deserted fire-places." . w. c. wentworth, `description o new south wales,' p. : "the animals are, the kangaroo, native dog (which is a smaller species of the wolf), the wombat, bandicoot, kangaroo-rat, opossum, flying squirrel, flying fox, etc. etc." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. "the bandicoot is about four times he size of a rat, without a tail, and burrows in the ground or in hollow trees." . bischoff, `van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "the bandicoot is as large as a rabbit. there are two kinds, the rat and the rabbit bandicoot." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the common people are not destitute of what wordsworth calls `the poetry of common speech,' many of their similes being very forcibly and naturally drawn from objects familiarly in sight and quite australian. `poor as a bandicoot,' `miserable as a shag on a rock.'" ibid. p. : "there is also a rat-like animal with a swinish face, covered with ruddy coarse hair, that burrows in the ground--the bandicoot. it is said to be very fine eating." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the bandicoot is the size of a large rat, of a dark brown colour; it feeds upon roots, and its flesh is good eating. this animal burrows in the ground, and it is from this habit, i suppose, that when hungry, cold, or unhappy, the australian black says that he is as miserable as the bandicoot." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals, p. : "the bandicoots are good eating even for europeans, and in my opinion are the only australian mammals fit to eat. they resemble pigs, and the flesh tastes somewhat like pork." bangalay, n. a sydney workmen's name for the timber of eucalyptus botrioides, smith. (see gum.) the name is aboriginal, and by workmen is always pronounced bang alley. bangalow, n. an ornamental feathery-leaved palm, ptychosperma elegans, blume, n.o. palmeae. . j. henderson, `excursions in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. "the bangalo, which is a palm. . . the germ, or roll of young leaves in the centre, and near the top, is eaten by the natives, and occasionally by white men, either raw or boiled. it is of a white colour, sweet and pleasant to the taste." . w. r. guilfoyle, `australian botany,' p. : "the aborigines of new south wales and queensland, and occasionally the settlers, eat the young leaves of the cabbage and bangalo palms." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : you see he was bred in a bangalow wood, and bangalow pith was the principal food his mother served out in her shanty." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "bangalow. . . . the small stems sometimes go under the name of `moreton bay canes.' it is a very ornamental, feathery-leaved palm." bang-tail muster. see quotation. . w. s. s. tyrwhitt, `the new churn in the queensland bush,' p. : "every third or fourth year on a cattle station, they have what is called a `bang tail muster'; that is to say, all the cattle are brought into the yards, and have the long hairs at the end of the tail cut off square, with knives or sheep-shears. . . the object of it is. . .to find out the actual number of cattle on the run, to compare with the number entered on the station books." banker, n. a river full up to the top of the banks. compare shakspeare: "like a proud river, peering o'er his bounds." (`king john,' iii. i. .) . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol, iii. p. "the murrumbidgee was running a `banker'--water right up to the banks." . lyth, `golden south,' c. vii. p. : "the driver stated that he had heard the river was `a banker.'" . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "the creeks were bankers, and the flood was forty miles round bourke." ibid. p. : "till the river runs a banker, all stained with yellow mud." banksia, n. "a genus of australian shrubs with umbellate flowers,--now cultivated as ornamental shrubs in europe." (`o.e.d.') called after mr. banks, naturalist of the endeavour, afterwards sir joseph banks. the so-called australian honeysuckle (q.v.). see also bottle-brush. . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the different species of banksia. the finest new genus hitherto found in new holland has been destined by linnaeus, with great propriety, to transmit to posterity the name of sir joseph banks, who first discovered it in his celebrated voyage round the world." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. : "a few berries, the yam and fern root, the flowers of the different banksia, and at times some honey, make up the whole vegetable catalogue." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of the linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "scrubs where the different species of banksia are found, the flowers of which i (mr. caley) have reason to think afford it sustenance during winter." . c. sturt, `south australia,' vol. ii. c. ii. p. : "some sandhills . . . crowned by banksias." . j. q. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "many different species of banksia grow in great plenty in the neighbourhood of sydney, and from the density of their foliage are very ornamental." . l. leichhardt, quoted by j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "the table-land is covered by forests of stringy-bark, of melaleuca-gum, and banksia." . `quarterly review,' dec., p. : "in this they will find an extremely rich collection of bottle-brush-flowered, zigzag-leaved, grey-tinted, odd-looking things, to most eyes rather strange than beautiful, notwithstanding that one of them is named banksia speciosa. they are the `botany bays' of old-fashioned gardeners, but are more in the shrub and tree line than that of flowering pots. banksia solandei will remind them to turn to their `cook's voyages' when they get home, to read how poor dr. solander got up a mountain and was heartily glad to get down again." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the banksias are of historic interest, inasmuch as the genus was dedicated already by the younger linne in to sir joseph banks, from whom the swedish naturalist received branchlets of those species, which in captain cook's first voyage more than years ago ( ) were gathered by banks at botany-bay and a few other places of the east coast of australia." . j. bonwick, `romance of the wool trade,' p. : "a banksia plain, with its collection of bottle-brush-like-flowers, may have its charms for a botanist, but its well-known sandy ground forbids the hope of good grasses." baobab, n. a tree, native of africa, adansonia digitata. the name is ethiopian. it has been introduced into many tropical countries. the australian species of the genus is a. gregorii, f. v. m., called also cream of tartar or sour gourd-tree, gouty-stem (q.v.), and bottle-tree (q.v.). barber, or tasmanian barber, n. a name for the fish anthias rasor, richards., family percidae; also called red-perch. see perch. it occurs in tasmania, new zealand, and port jackson. it is called barber from the shape of the praeoperculum, one of the bones of the head. see quotation. . john richardson, `description of australian fish,' p. : "serranus rasor.-- tasmanian barber. . . . the serrature of the preoperculum is the most obvious and general character by which the very numerous serrani are connected with each other . . . the van diemen's land fish, which is described below, is one of the `barbers,' a fact which the specific appellation rasor is intended to indicate; the more classical word having been previously appropriated to another species. . . mr. lempriere states that it is known locally as the `red perch or shad.'" [richardson also says that cuvier founded a subdivision of the serrani on the characters of the scales of the jaws, under the name of `les barbiers,' which had been previously grouped by block under the title anthias.] barcoo-grass, n. an australian grass, anthistiria membranacea, lindl. one of the best pasture grasses in queensland, but growing in other colonies also. barcoo rot, n. a disease affecting inhabitants of various parts of the interior of australia, but chiefly bushmen. it consists of persistent ulceration of the skin, chiefly on the back of the hands, and often originating in abrasions. it is attributed to monotony of diet and to the cloudless climate, with its alternations of extreme cold at night and burning heat by day. it is said to be maintained and aggravated by the irritation of small flies. . e. b. kennedy, `four years in queensland,' p. : "land scurvy is better known in queensland by local names, which do not sound very pleasant, such as `barcoo rot,' `kennedy rot,' according to the district it appears in. there is nothing dangerous about it; it is simply the festering of any cut or scratch on one's legs, arms or hands. . . they take months to heal. . . want of vegetables is assigned as the cause." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "in western queensland people are also subject to bad sores on the hand, called barcoo-rot." barcoo vomit, n. a sickness occurring in inhabitants of various parts of the high land of the interior of australia. it is characterized by painless attacks of vomiting, occurring immediately after food is taken, followed by hunger, and recurring as soon as hunger is satisfied. the name barcoo is derived from the district traversed by the river barcoo, or cooper, in which this complaint and the barcoo rot are common. see dr. e. c. stirling's `notes from central australia,' in `intercolonial quarterly journal of medicine and surgery,' vol. i. p. . bargan, n. a name of the come-back boomerang (q.v.). (spelt also barragan.) . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "the `come-back' variety (of boomerang) is not a fighting weapon. a dialect name for it is bargan, which word may be explained in our language to mean `bent like a sickle or crescent moon.'" barking owl, n. a bird not identified, and not in gould (who accompanied leichhardt). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition, p. : "the glucking-bird and the barking-owl were heard throughout the moonlight night." barrack, v. to jeer at opponents, to interrupt noisily, to make a disturbance; with the preposition "for," to support as a partisan, generally with clamour. an australian football term dating from about . the verb has been ruled unparliamentary by the speaker in the victorian legislative assembly. it is, however, in very common colloquial use. it is from the aboriginal word borak (q.v.), and the sense of jeering is earlier than that of supporting, but jeering at one side is akin to cheering for the other. another suggested derivation is from the irish pronunciation of "bark," as (according to the usually accepted view) "larrikin" from "larking." but the former explanation is the more probable. there is no connection with soldiers' "barracks;" nor is it likely that there is any, as has been ingeniously suggested, with the french word baragouin, gibberish. . `melbourne punch,' aug. , p. , col. : "to use a football phrase, they all to a man `barrack' for the british lion." . `the age,' june , p. , col. : "[the boy] goes much to football matches, where he barracks, and in a general way makes himself intolerable." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. , legislative assembly: "mr. isaacs:. . . he hoped this `barracking' would not be continued." [members had been interrupting him.] . `the herald' (melbourne), sept. , p. , col. : "he noticed with pleasure the decrease of disagreeable barracking by spectators at matches during last season. good-humoured badinage had prevailed, but the spectators had been very well conducted." barracker, n. one who barracks (q.v.). . `the age,' june , p. , col. : "his worship remarked that the `barracking' that was carried on at football matches was a mean and contemptible system, and was getting worse and worse every day. actually people were afraid to go to them on account of the conduct of the crowd of `barrackers.' it took all the interest out of the game to see young men acting like a gang of larrikins." . `"the argus,' nov. , p. , col. : "the `most unkindest cut of all' was that the premier, who was mr. rogers's principal barracker during the elections, turned his back upon the prophet and did not deign to discuss his plan." barracks, n. a building on a station with rooms for bachelors. . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. "a roomy, roughly-finished building known as the `barracks.' . . . . three of the numerous bedrooms were tenanted by young men, . . . neophytes, who were gradually assimilating the love of bush-land." barracouta, or barracoota, n. the name, under its original spelling of barracuda, was coined in the spanish west indies, and first applied there to a large voracious fish, sphyraena pecuda, family sphyraenidae. in australia and new zealand it is applied to a smaller edible fish, thyrsites atun, cuv. and val., family trichiuridae, called snook (q.v.) at the cape of good hope. it is found from the cape of good hope to new zealand. . `voyage to port philip,' p. : "we hook the barracuda fish." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fishes of new south wales,' p. : "sphyrenidae. the first family is the barracudas, or sea-pike." [footnote]: "this name is no doubt the same as barracouta and is of spanish origin. the application of it to thyrsites atun in the southern seas was founded on some fancied resemblance to the west indian fish, which originally bore the name, though of course they are entirely different." ( ) the word is used as a nickname for an inhabitant of hobart; compare cornstalk. barramunda, n. a fish, i.q. burramundi (q.v.). basket-fence, n. local name for a stake-hedge. see quotation. . g. s. baden-powell, `new homes for the old country,' p. : "for sheep, too, is made the `basket fence.' stakes are driven in, and their pliant `stuff' interwoven, as in a stake hedge in england." bastard dory and john dory (q.v.), spelt also dorey, n. an australian fish, cyttus australis, family cyttidae; the australian representative of zeus faber, the european "john dory," and its close relative, is called bastard dorey in new zealand, and also boar-fish (q.v.). . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "histiopterus. . . .the species figured attains to a length of twenty inches, and is esteemed as food. it is known at melbourne by the names of `boar-fish' or `bastard dorey' (fig.), histiopterus recurvirostris." bastard trumpeter, n. a fish. see morwong, paper-fish, and trumpeter. in sydney it is latris ciliaris, forst., which is called moki in new zealand; in victoria and tasmania, l. forsteri, casteln. . `royal commission on the fisheries of tasmania,' p. : "the bastard trumpeter (latris forsteri). . . .scarcely inferior to the real trumpeter, and superior to it in abundance all the year round, comes the bastard trumpeter. . . this fish has hitherto been confounded with latris ciliaris (forst.); but, although the latter species has been reported as existing in tasmanian waters, it is most probably a mistake: for the two varieties (the red and the white), found in such abundance here, have the general characters as shown above. . . they must be referred to the latris forsteri of count castelnau, which appears to be the bastard trumpeter of victorian waters." bat-fish, n. the name in england is given to a fish of the family maltheidae. it is also applied to the flying gurnard of the atlantic and to the californian sting-ray. in australia, and chiefly in new south wales, it is applied to psettus argenteus, linn., family carangidae, or horse mackerels. guenther says that the "sea bats," which belong to the closely allied genus platax, are called so from the extraordinary length of some portion of their dorsal and anal fins and of their ventrals. bathurst bur, n. explained in quotation. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the bathurst bur (xanthium spinosuzn), a plant with long triple spines like the barbary, and burs which are ruinous to the wool of the sheep--otherwise, itself very like a chenopodium, or good-fat-hen." bats-wing-coral, n. the australian wood erythrina vespertilio, bentham, n.o. leguminosae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "batswing coral. . . .the wood is soft, and used by the aborigines for making their `heilamans,' or shields. it is exceedingly light and spongy, and of the greatest difficulty to work up to get anything like a surface for polishing." bauera, n. a shrub, bauera rubioides, andr., n.o. saxifrageae, the scrub vine, or native rose; commonly called in tasmania "bauera,"and celebrated for forming impenetrable thickets in conjunction with "cutting grass," cladium psittacorum, labill. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "bauera rubiaefolia. madder leaved bauera. a pretty little plant with pink flowers. this genus is named after the celebrated german draughtsman, whose splendid works are yet unrivalled in the art, especially of the australian plants which he depicted in his voyage round new holland with capt. flinders in the investigator." . r. m. johnston, `geology of tasmania,' intro. p. vi.: "the bauera scrub . . . is a tiny, beautiful shrub . . . although the branches are thin and wiry, they are too tough and too much entangled in mass to cut, and the only mode of progress often is to throw one's self high upon the soft branching mass and roll over to the other side. the progress in this way is slow, monotonous, and exhausting." . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : "cutting-grass swamps and the bauera, where a dog can't hardly go, stringy-bark country, and blackwood beds, and lots of it broken by snow." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "interposing the even more troublesome bauera shrub; whose gnarled branches have earned for it the local and expressive name of `tangle-foot' or `leg ropes.' [it] has been named by spicer the `native rose.'" beal, bool, or bull, n. a sweet aboriginal drink. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i.: "a good jorum of bull (washings of a sugar bag)" [given to aborigines who have been working]. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. ii. p. : "the flowers are gathered, and by steeping them a night in water the natives made a sweet beverage called `bool.'" . r. brough smyth, `aborigines of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "in the flowers of a dwarf species of banksia (b. ornata) there is a good deal of honey, and this was got out of the flowers by immersing them in water. the water thus sweetened was greedily swallowed by the natives. the drink was named beal by the natives of the west of victoria, and was much esteemed." beal ( ), n. i.q. belar (q.v.). bean, queensland, or leichhardt, or match-box, n. entada scandens, benth., n.o. leguminosae. though this bean has two australian names, it is really widely distributed throughout the tropics. a tall climbing plant; the seeds are used for match-boxes. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the seeds are about two inches across, by half-an-inch thick, and have a hard woody and beautifully polished shell, of a dark brown or purplish colour. these seeds are converted into snuff-boxes, scent-bottles, spoons, etc., and in the indian bazaars they are used as weights. (`treasury of botany.') in the colonies we usually see the beans of this plant mounted with silver, as match-boxes. the wood itself is soft, fibrous, and spongy." bean-tree, n. called also moreton bay chestnut, castanospermum australe, cunn. and fraser, n.o. leguminosae; a tall tree with red flowers and large seed-pods. the timber of young specimens has beautiful dark clouding. bear, native, n. the colonists' name for an animal called by the aborigines koala, koolah, kool-la, and carbora (phascolarctus cinereus). it is a tree-climbing marsupial, about two feet in length, like a small bear in its heavy build. its food is the young leaves of the eucalyptus, and it is said that the native bear cannot be taken to england because it would die on board ship, owing to there being no fresh gum leaves. the writers are incorrect who call the animal a sloth. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. "our coola (sloth or native bear) is about the size of an ordinary poodle dog, with shaggy, dirty-coloured fur, no tail, and claws and feet like a bear, of which it forms a tolerable miniature. it climbs trees readily and feeds upon their leaves." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the bear (phascolomys) of the colonists is in reality a species of sloth, and partakes of all the characteristics of that animal; it is of the marsupial order, and is found chiefly in the neighbourhood of thickly timbered high land; its flesh is used by the aborigines for food, but is tough and unpalatable; its usual weight is from eight to twelve pounds." [note: phascolomys is the name of the wombat, not the bear.] . g. h. hayden, `the australian emigrant,' p. : "the luckless carbora fell crashing through the branches." [footnote] "the native name of an animal of the sloth species, but incorrectly called by the colonists a bear." . w. blandowski, `transactions of philosophical society of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the koala or karbor (phascolarctus cinereus) frequents very high trees, and sits in places where it is most sheltered by the branches. . . . its fur is of the same colour as the bark . . . like the cat has the power of contracting and expanding the pupil of the eye . . . . its skin is remarkably thick . . . dense woolly fur . . . . the natives aver that the koala never drinks water." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "they were soon entirely out of provisions, but found a sort of substitute by living on the native bear (phascolarctus cinereus), which was plentiful even in the forests." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "look, high up in the branches of that tall tree is a native bear! it sits motionless. it has something the appearance of a solemn old man. how funny his great ears and roman nose look! he sits on the branch as if it was a chair, holding with hand-like claws the surrounding twigs." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "we learned that a koala or native bear (phascolarctus cinereus) was sitting on a tree near the but of a shepherd . . . not a dangerous animal. it is called `native bear,' but is in no wise related to the bear family. it is an innocent and peaceful marsupial, which is active only at night, and sluggishly climbs the trees, eating leaves and sleeping during the whole day. as soon as the young has left the pouch, the mother carries it with her on her back. the australian bear is found in considerable numbers throughout the eastern part of the continent, even within the tropical circle." bearded lizard, n. see jew lizard. beardie, or beardy, n. a fish. in scotland the name is applied to the bearded loach, nemachilus barbatus, of europe; in new south wales the name is given to the fish lotella marginata, macl., of the family gadidae, or cod-fishes, which is also called ling (q.v.). beaver-rat, n. an aquatic rodent, something like the english water-rat, genus hydromys. . `proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land' [paper by morton allport], p. : "common to both fresh and brackish water is the yellow bellied beaver-rat or musk-rat (hydromys chrysogaster)." beech, n. there is only one true beech in australia, fagus cunninghamii, hook, n.o. cupuliferae; but the name is applied to many other kinds of australian trees, viz.-- ( ) simply to cryptocarya glaucescens, r. br., n.o. laurineae, called also black sassafras, white laurel, she beech, and black beech. flindersia australis, r. br., n.o. meliaceae, called also flindosa ash, crow's ash, and rasp-pod, and invariably myrtle to tasmania. gmelina leichhardtii, f. v. m., n.o. verbenaceae. monotoca elliptica, r. br., n.o. epacrideae. phyllanthus ferdinandi, muell. and arg., n.o. euphorbiaceae, called also pencil cedar in southern new south wales. schizomeria ovata, d. don, n.o. saxifrageae, called also corkwood, light-wood, coachwood, and white cherry. trochocarpa laurina, r. br., n.o. epacrideae, called also brush cherry, and brush myrtle. ( ) with various epithets the name is also used as follows-- evergreen beech-- fagus cunninghamii, hook, n.o. cupuliferae, called also myrtle and negro-head beech. flindosy b.-- flindersia schottiana, f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae, called also ash and stave-wood. indian b.-- pongamia glabra, vent., n.o. leguminosae, b. fl. mountain b.-- lomatia longifolia, r. br., n.o. proteaceae. native b.-- callicoma serratifolia, andr., n.o. saxifragiae, "one of the trees called by the early colonists `black wattle,' from the fancied resemblance of the flowers to those of some of the wattles." (maiden, p. .) negro-head b., i.q. evergreen b. (q.v. supra). queensland b.-- gmelina leichhardtii , f. v. m., n.o. verbenaceae, a tall valuable timber-tree. red b.-- tarrietia trifoliata, f. v. m., n.o. sterculiaceae. she b.-- cryptocazya obovata, r. br., h. . laurineae, b. fl., called also bastard sycamore. white b.-- elaeocarpus kirtoni, f. v. m., n.o. tiliaceae, called also mountain ash. ( ) in new zealand, there are six species of true beeches, which according to kirk are as follows-- blair's b.-- fagus blairii, t. kirk. entire-leaved b.-- f. solandri, hook. f. mountain b.-- f. cliffortioides, hook. f. pointed-leaved b.-- f. apiculata, colenso. silver b.-- f. menziesii, hook. f. tooth-leaved b.-- f. fusca, hook. f. all these, however, are commonly called birches. see also the words ash, myrtle, sassafras. bee-eater, n. a bird-name. the european bee-eater is merops apiaster; the australian species is merops ornatus, lath. the bird was called "m. phrygius, the embroidered merops," by shaw. . g. shaw, `zoology [and botany] of new holland,' p. : "specific character.--black merops varied with yellow. the bird figured in its natural size on the present plate is a species of merops or bee-eater; a tribe which appears to be peculiarly prevalent in the extensive regions of australia, since more birds of this genus have been discovered than of any other, except the very numerous one of psittacus." [the birds, however, have been since this date further differentiated, and are now all classed in other genera, except the present species.] . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the wattled bee-eater, of which a plate is annexed, fell in our way during the course of the day. . . . under the eye, on each side, is a kind of wattle of an orange colour. . . this bird seems to be peculiar to new holland." ibid. p. : "we this day shot a knob-fronted bee-eater (see plate annexed). this is about the size of a black-bird." [description follows.] beef-wood, n. the timber of various australian trees, especially of the genus casuarina, and some of the banksias; often used as a synonym of she-oak (q.v.). the name is taken from the redness of the wood. . j. atkinson, `agriculture and grazing in new south wales,' p. : "the wood is well known in england by the names of botany bay wood, or beef wood.the grain is very peculiar, but the wood is thought very little of in the colony; it makes good shingles, splits, in the colonial phrase, from heart to bark . . ." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. : "they seemed to be covered with cypresses and beef-wood." . c. holtzapffel, `turning,' vol. i. p. : "beef wood. red-coloured woods are sometimes thus named, but it is generally applied to the botany-bay oak." . g. c. munday, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "a shingle of the beef-wood looks precisely like a raw beef-steak." . capt. h. butler stoney, `a residence in tasmania,' p. : "we now turn our attention to some trees of a very different nature, casuarina stricta and quadrivalvis, commonly called he and she oak, and sometimes known by the name of beef-wood, from the wood, which is very hard and takes a high polish, exhibiting peculiar maculae spots and veins scattered throughout a finely striated tint . . ." . paxton's `botanical dictionary,' p. : "casuarinaceae,or beefwoods. curious branching, leafless trees or shrubs, with timber of a high order, which is both hard and heavy, and of the colour of raw beef, whence the vulgar name." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants.' (see `index of vernacular names.') belar, n. (various spellings, belah, billa, beela, beal), an aboriginal name for the tree casuarina glauca. the colonists call the tree bull-oak, probably from this native name. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "a voice in the beela grows wild in its wail." . j. a. b., `meta,' p. : "with heartfelt glee we hail the camp, and blazing fire of beal." [footnote]: "aboriginal name of the gum-tree wood." . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "these scrubs . . . sometimes crown the watersheds as `belar.'" bell-bird, n. name given to several birds, from their note, like the tinkling of a bell. in australia, a honey-eater, myzantha melanophrys, gould ('birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. ), the `australian bell-bird' (the same bird as myzantha flavirostris, v. and h.), chiefly found in new south wales; also oreoica gutturalis, gould (vol. ii. pl. ), the `bell-bird' of western australia; and oreoica cristata, lewin. in new zealand, anthornis melanura, sparrm., chief maori names, korimako (q.v.) in north, and makomako in south. buller gives ten maori names. the settlers call it moko (q.v.). there is also a bell-bird in brazil. . j. hawkesworth, `voyages,' vol. ii. p. [journal of jan. , ): "in the morning we were awakened by the singing of the birds; the number was incredible, and they seemed to strain their throats in emulation of each other. this wild melody was infinitely superior to any that we had ever heard of the same kind; it seemed to be like small bells most exquisitely tuned, and perhaps the distance, and the water between, might be no small advantage to the sound. upon enquiry we were informed that the birds here always began to sing about two hours after midnight, and continuing their music till sunrise were, like our nightingales, silent the rest of the day." [this celebrated descriptive passage by dr. hawkesworth is based upon the following original from `banks's journal,' which now, after an interval of years, has just been published in london, edited by sir j. d. hooker.] . j. banks, `journal,' jan. (edition ): "i was awakened by the singing of the birds ashore, from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile. their numbers were certainly very great. they seemed to strain their throats with emulation, and made, perhaps, the most melodious wild music i have ever heard, almost imitating small bells, but with the most tunable silver sound imaginable, to which, maybe, the distance was no small addition. on inquiring of our people, i was told that they had observed them ever since we had been here, and that they began to sing about one or two in the morning, and continue till sunrise, after which they are silent all day, like our nightingales." . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. viii. p. : "the cry of the bell-bird seems to be unknown here." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "mr. caley thus observes on this bird: `dell-bird or bell-bird. so called by the colonists. it is an inhabitant of bushes, where its disagreeable noise (disagreeable at least to me) [but not to the poets] may be continually heard; but nowhere more so than on going up the harbour to paramatta, when a little above the flats.'" . t. b. wilson, `voyage round the world,' p. : "during the night, the bell bird supplied, to us, the place of the wakeful nightingale . . . a pleasing surprise, as we had hitherto supposed that the birds in new holland were not formed for song." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' p. : "every bough seemed to throng with feathered musicians: the melodious chimes of the bell-bird were specially distinct." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "look at the bell-bird's nest, admire the two spotted salmon coloured eggs." ibid. ('verses written whilst we lived in tents'), p. : "through the eucalyptus shade, pleased could watch the bell-bird's flutter, blending with soft voice of waters the delicious tones they utter." . lady martin, `bush journey, , our maoris,' p. : "we did hear the birds next morning as captain cook had described --first the bell-bird gave its clear, full note, and then came such a jargoning as made one's heart glad." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "oreoica gutturalis, gould. crested oreoica. bell-bird, colonists of swan river [western australia]. . . i find the following remarks in my note-book-- `note, a very peculiar piping whistle, sounding like weet-weet-weet-weet-oo, the last syllable fully drawn out and very melodious. . . . in western australia, where the real bell-bird is never found, this species has had that appellation given to it,--a term which must appear ill-applied to those who have heard the note of the true bell-bird of the brushes of new south wales, whose tinkling sound so nearly resembles that of a distant sheep-bell as occasionally to deceive the ears of a practised shepherd." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "every now and then we stood, by common consent, silent and almost breathless, to listen to the bell-bird, a dingy little fellow, nearly as large as a thrush with the plumage of a chaffinch, but with such a note! how can i make you hear its wild, sweet, plaintive tone, as a little girl of the party said `just as if it had a bell in its throat;' but indeed it would require a whole peal of silver bells to ring such an exquisite chime." . f. napier broome, `canterbury rhymes,' second edition, p. : "where the bell-bird sets solitudes ringing, many times i have heard and thrown down my lyre in despair of all singing." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "listen to the bell-bird. ping, ping, sounds through the vast hushed temple of nature." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. : "the bell-bird, with metallic but mellow pipe, warns the wanderer that he is near water in some sequestered nook." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "and softer than slumber and sweeter than singing, the notes of the bell-bird are running and ringing." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "anthornis melanura. chatham island bell-bird (a. melanocephala), the bell-bird--so-called from the fanciful resemblance of one of its notes to the distant tolling of a bell." . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "bell-bird, korimako,or makomako (anthornis melanura), is still common in many parts of the south island--e.g. in the neighbourhood of dunedin; but has almost disappeared from the north island. its song is remarkably fine." . w. p. reeves, `the passing of the forest,' `review of reviews,' feb. , p. : "gone are the forest birds, arboreal things, eaters of honey, honey-sweet in song; the tui, and the bell-bird--he who sings that brief rich music one would fain prolong.' . g. a. keartland, `horne expedition in central australia,' part ii., zoology, aves, p. : "in the north they [oreoica] are frequently called `bell-birds,' but bear no resemblance to manorhina melanophrys in plumage, shape, or note. the oreoica is such an accomplished ventriloquist that it is difficult to find." bell-bottomed, adj. a particular fashion of trouser affected by the larrikin (q.v.). . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "can it be that the pernicious influence of the house is gradually tingeing the high priests of the bell-bottomed ballottee with conservatism!" bell-frog, golden, n. see golden bell-frog. bell-topper, n. the ordinary australian name for the tall silk-hat. . w. kelly, `life in victoria,' p. [footnote]: "bell-topper was the derisive name given by diggers to old style hat, supposed to indicate the dandy swell." benjamin, n. a husband, in australian pigeon-english. . chas. h. allen, `a visit to queensland and her goldfields,' p. : "there are certain native terms that are used by the whites also as a kind of colonial slang, such as `yabber,' to talk; `budgeree,' good; `bale,' no; `yan,' to go; `cabon,' much; and so on. "with the black people a husband is now called a `benjamin,' probably because they have no word to their own language to express this relationship." benjamin-tree, n. also called weeping fig in queensland, ficus benjaminea, linn., n.o. urticaceae. bent-grass. n. see grass. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "agrostis virginica. virginian agrostis, or bent-grass. . . . many species of this genus go under the general name of bent-grass. their roots spread along among light and sandy soil in which they generally grow with joints like the squitch or couch grass of england." berigora, n. aboriginal name for a bird of genus falco, from beri, claw, and gora, long. see hawk . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "the native name of this bird which we have adopted as its specific name, is berigora. it is called by the settlers orange-speckled hawk." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' i. i. pl. : "hieracidea berigora. brown hawk. berigora, aborigines of new south wales. orange-speckled hawk of the colonists." berley, n. term used by australian fishermen for ground bait. it is probably of aboriginal origin. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish and fisheries of new south wales,' p. : "with hook and line along the rocks of our sea-coast these fishes are caught, but the bait should be crabs. it is usual to wrench legs and shell off the back, and cast them out for berley." . `badminton magazine,' august, p. : "i would signal to the sharks by opening and washing out a few of the largest fish at the boat's head, sometimes adding bait chopped small to serve for what australian fishermen call berley." betcherrygah, n. bird-name, melopsittacus undulatus, shaw. see budgerigar. bettongia, n. the scientific name of the genus of prehensile-tailed kangaroo-rats, whose aboriginal name is bettong. they are the only ground-dwelling marsupials with prehensile tails, which they use for carrying bunches of grasses and sticks. see kangaroo-rat. biddy-biddy, or biddybid, n. a corruption of maori name piripiri. it is a kind of bur. . t. h. potts, `out in the open, `new zealand country journal,' vol. xii. p. : "piri-piri (acaena sanguisorbe) by settlers has been converted or corrupted into biddy-biddy; a verb has been formed on it, which is in very constant use for a good part of the year at least. to biddy, is to rid one of burrs, as `i'll just biddy my clothes before i come in.' small birds are occasionally found in a wretched state of discomfort in which they appear a moving mass of burrs. parroquets, pipets, and the little white-eyes, have been found victims suffering from these tenacious burrs of the piri-piri, just moving little brown balls unable to fly till picked up and released from their bonds." . `otago witness,' jan. , vol. ii. p. : "yes, biddybids detract very materially from the value of the wool, and the plant should not be allowed to seed where sheep are depastured. they are not quite so bad as the bathurst burr, but they are certainly in the same category." biddy, v. see biddy-biddy, n. bidgee widgee, n. name given to a tasmanian bur (q.v.). bidyan ruffe, n. a fresh-water fish of new south wales, therapon richardsonii, castln., family percidae. mr. j. douglas ogilby, assistant zoologist at the australian museum, sydney, says in a letter "the bidyan ruffe of sir thomas mitchell is our therapon ellipticus, richards (t. richardsonii, castln.). found in all the rivers of the murray system, and called kooberry by the natives." it is also called the silver perch and sometimes bream. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. [note]: "bidyan is the aboriginal name." ibid. vol. i. p. : "abundance of that which the men commonly called bream (cernua bidyana), a very coarse but firm fish, which makes a groaning noise when taken out of the water." big-head, n. a fish. the name is used locally for various fishes; in australia it is eleotris nudiceps, castln., family gobiidae, a river fish. of the genus eleotris, guenther says that as regards form they repeat almost all the modifications observed among the gobies, from which they differ only in having the ventral fins non-coalescent. see bull-head ( ). billabong, n. an effluent from a river, returning to it, or often ending in the sand, in some cases running only in flood time. in the wiradhuri dialect of the centre of new south wales, east coast, billa means a river and bung dead. see bung. billa is also a river in some queensland dialects, and thus forms part of the name of the river belyando. in the moreton bay dialect it occurs in the form pill , and in the sense of `tidal creek.' in the `western australian almanack' for , quoted in j. fraser's `australian language,' , appendix, p. , bilo is given for river. billabong is often regarded as a synonym for anabranch (q.v.); but there is a distinction. from the original idea, the anabranch implies rejoining the river; whilst the billabong implies continued separation from it; though what are called billabongs often do rejoin. . w. landsborough, `exploration of australia,' p. : "a dried-up tributary of the gregory, which i named the macadam." [footnote]: "in the south, such a creek as the macadam is termed a billy-bonn [sic], from the circumstance of the water carrier returning from it with his pitcher (billy) empty (bong, literally dead)." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia, vol. i. p. : "what the major calls, after the learned nomenclature of colonel jackson, in the `journal of the geographical society,' anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels coming out of a stream and returning into it again." . p. j. holdsworth, `station hunting on the warrego:' "in yon great range may huddle billabongs." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "what a number of swallows skim about the `billabongs' along the rivers in this semi-tropical region." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "let's make a start at once, d'ye hear; i want to get over to the billabong by sunrise." billet, n. an appointment, a position; a very common expression in australia, but not confined to australia; adapted from the meaning, "an official order requiring the person to whom it is addressed to provide board and lodging for the soldier bearing it." (`o.e.d.') . e. w. hornung, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "if ever she went back to australia, she'd remember my young man, and get him a good billet." billy, n. a tin pot used as a bushman's kettle. the word comes from the proper name, used as abbreviation for william. compare the common uses of `jack,' `long tom,' `spinning jenny.' it came into use about . it is not used in the following. . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "he then strikes a light and makes a fire to boil his kettle and fry his bacon." about , the billy superseded the quart-pot (q.v.), chiefly because of its top-handle and its lid. another suggested derivation is that billy is shortened from billycan, which is said to be bully-can (sc. fr. bouili). in the early days "boeuf bouilli" was a common label on tins of preserved meat in ship's stores. these tins, called "bully-tins," were used by diggers and others as the modern billy is (see quotation ). a third explanation gives as the origin the aboriginal word billa (river or water). . t. b. wilson, `voyage round the world,' p. : "an empty preserved meat-canister serving the double purpose of tea-kettle and tea-pot." [the word billy is not used, but its origin is described.] . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "a tin pan bearing the familiar name of a billy." j. j. simpson, `recitations,' p. : "he can't get a billy full for many a mile round." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "a billy (that is a round tin pitcher with a lid) in his hand." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "a tin can, which the connoisseurs call for some reason or other a `billy.'" . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' p. : "a very black camp-kettle, or billy, of hot tea." . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : "how we praised the simple supper (we prepared it each in turn), and the tea! ye gods! 'twas nectar. yonder billy was our urn." billy-can, n. a variation of the above, more used by townsmen than bushmen. . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : "but i said, `dear friend and brother, yonder billy-can is mine; you may confiscate the washing that is hanging on the line, you may depredate the larder, take your choice of pot and pan; but, i pray thee, kind sundowner, spare, oh spare, my billy-can.'" bingy [g soft], n. stomach or belly. aboriginal. the form at botany bay was bindi; at jervis bay, binji. . rev. david mackenzie, `ten years in australia,' p. : "they lay rolling themselves on the ground, heavily groaning in pain, and with their hands rubbing their bellies, exclaiming, `cabonn buggel along bingee' (that is, i am very sick in the stomach)." birch, n. in new zealand, the trees called birches are really beeches (q.v.), but the term birch is used very vaguely; see quotation . in tasmania, the name is applied to dodonaea ericifolia, don., n.o. sapindaceae. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "white-birch of nelson and otago (from colour of bark), black-heart birch of wellington, fagus solandri, hook, a lofty, beautiful ever-green tree, feet high. black-birch (tawhai) of auckland and otago (from colour of bark), red-birch of wellington and nelson (from colour of timber), fagus fusca, n.o. cupuliferae, a noble tree to feet high." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "like all small-leaved forest trees it [fagus solandri, hook. f.] is termed `birch' by the bushman. . . . it is not too much to say that the blundering use of common names in connection with the new zealand beeches, when the timber has been employed in bridges and constructive works, has caused waste and loss to the value of many thousands of pounds." bird-catching plant, n. a new zealand shrub or tree, pisonia brunoniana, endl., n.o. nyctagineae; maori name, parapara. . r. h. govett, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xvi. art. xxviii. p. :: "a bird-killing tree. . . . in a shrub growing in my father's garden at new plymouth, two silver-eyes (zosterops) and an english sparrow had been found with their wings so glued by the sticky seed-vessels that they were unable to move, and could only fly away after having been carefully washed." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "it is sometimes termed the `birdcatching plant' by settlers and bushmen . . . it will always be a plant of special interest, as small birds are often found captured by its viscid fruits, to which their feathers become attached as effectively as if they were glued." bird's-nest fungus, n. a small fungus of the genus cyathus, four species of which occur in queensland. bitter-bark, n. an australian tree, petalostigma quadrilo culare, f. v. m., n.o. euphorbiacea. called also crab-tree, native quince, emu apple, and quinine-tree. the bark contains a powerful bitter essence, which is used medicinally. the name is also applied to tabernaemontana orientalis, r. br., n.o. apocyneae, and to alstonia constricta, f. v. m., n.o. aporynacece, which is also called feverbark. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "bitter bark. this small tree has an intensely bitter bark, and a decoction of it is sometimes sold as `bitters." bitter-leaf, n. a tasmanian name for the native hop. see hops and hopbush. bittern, n. bird-name well known in england. the australian species are-- the bittern-- botaurus paeciloptilus, wagl. black b.-- butoroides flavicollis, lath. green b.-- b. javanica, horsfield. little b.-- ardetta pusilla, vieill. blackberry, native, or bramble, n. called also raspberry. three species of the genus rubus occur in queensland--rubus moluccanus, linn., r. parvifolius, linn., r. rosifolius, smith, n.o. rosaceae see also lawyer. blackbird, n. "a cant name for a captive negro, or polynesian, on board a slave or pirate ship." (`o.e.d.') but no instance is given of its use for a negro. . `narrative of the voyage of the brig carl' [pamphlet] "they were going to take a cruise round the islands `black-bird' catching." . `the argus,' dec. , supplement, p. , col. [chief justice's charge in the case of the `carl outrage']: "they were not going pearl-fishing but blackbird-hunting. it is said you should have evidence as to what blackbird-hunting meant. i think it is a grievous mistake to pretend to ignorance of things passing before our eyes everyday. we may know the meaning of slang words, though we do not use them. is there not a wide distinction between blackbird-hunting and a legitimate labour-trade, if such a thing is to be carried on? what did he allude to? to get labourers honestly if they could, but, if not, any way?" . `chequered career,' p. (`o.e.d.') "the white men on board know that if once the `blackbirds' burst the hatches . . . they would soon master the ship." black-birding, n. kidnapping natives of south sea islands for service in queensland plantations. . `narrative of the voyage of the brig carl' [pamphlet]: "all the three methods, however, of obtaining labour in the south seas--that which was just and useful, that which was of suspicious character, and that which was nothing, more or less, than robbery and murder--were in use the same time, and all three went by the same general slang term of `blackbirding,' or `blackbird catching.'" . rev. h. s. fagan, `the dark blue' (magazine), june, p. : "well, you see how it is that c is not safe, even though he is a missionary bishop, after a has made the name of missionary an offence by his ingenious mode of `black-birding.'" . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "in the early days of sugar-planting there may have been black-birding, but it was confined to a very few, and it is done away with altogether now." black-birding, adj. . `the academy,' sept. , p. (`o.e.d.') "[he] slays bishop patteson by way of reprisal for the atrocities of some black-birding crew." blackboy, n. a grass-tree. name applied to all species of the genus xanthorroea, but especially to x. preissii, endl., n.o. liliaceae. compare maori-head. . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' ii. , : "black boy . . . gum on the spear, resin on the trunk." ibid. ii. , [note] "these trees, called blackboys by the colonists, from the resemblance they bear in the distance to natives." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "gas admirably fitted for domestic purposes had been extracted from the shrub called the `blackboy.' i regret to state that the gas . . . is not . . . at present known in the colony." . r. henty, `australiana,' p. : "the common grass-tree or `blackboy,' so called from its long dark stem and dark seed head (when dry)." . `the australasian,' feb. , p. (with an illustration): "the blackboy trees are a species of grass-tree or xanthorrhoea, exuding a gummy substance used by the blacks for fastening glass and quartz-barbs to their spears. many years ago, when coal was scarce in western australia, an enterprising firm . . . erected a gas-making plant, and successfully lit their premises with gas made from the blackboy." . modern: a story is told of a young lady saying to a naval officer:-- "i was this morning watching your ship coming into harbour, and so intently that i rode over a young blackboy." the officer was shocked at her callousness in expressing no contrition. black-bream, n. an australian fish, chrysophrys australis, gunth., family sparidae, or sea-breams; called in tasmania silver-bream, the fish there called black-bream being another of the sparidae, girella tricuspidata, cuv. and val. see tarwhine and black-fish. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "chrysophrys comprises the tarwhine and black-bream of the sydney fishermen. . . . we have two species in australia. . . . the black-bream, c. australis, gunth., and the tarwhine, c. sarba, forsk. . . . the australian bream is as common on the south as on the east coast. it affords excellent sport to anglers in victoria." blackbutt, n. eucalyptus pilularis, smith, victoria; e. regnans, f. v. m., new south wales; a timber tree, a gum. another name is flintwood. the lower part of the trunk is black. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the range . . . having with the exception of the blackbutt all the trees . . . of moreton bay." . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings among gum-trees,' p. : "'tis there the `blackbut' rears its head." . `melbourne museum catalogue, economic woods,' p. : "a tree of considerable size. . . the bark smooth and falling off in flakes upward, and on the branches." . `the age,' feb. , p. , col. : "mr. richards stated that the new south wales black butt and tallow wood were the most durable and noiseless woods for street-paving, as well as the best from a sanitary point of view." black-cod, n. a new zealand fish, notothenia angustata. blackfellow, n. an aboriginal australian. . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' i. , : "the native miago . . . appeared delighted that these `black fellows,' as he calls them, have no throwing sticks." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the well-known tracks of blackfellows are everywhere visible." . dingo, `australian rhymes,' p. : "wurragaroo loved wangaraday in a blackfellow's own peculiar way." black-fern, n. the tasmanian species so called is athyrium australe, presl., n.o. polypodeae. black-fish, n. the name is given, especially in sydney, to the sea-fishes girella simplex, richards (see ludrick), and girella tricuspidata, cuv. and val.; also to a fresh-water fish all over australia, gadopsis marmoratus, richards. g. marmoratus is very common in new south wales, victoria, south australia, and parts of tasmania. there are local varieties. it is much esteemed as a food fish, but is, like all mud fishes, rich and oily. girella belongs to the family sparida, or sea-breams, and gadopsis to the gadopsidae, a family allied to that containing the cod fishes. the name was also formerly applied to a whale. . c. st. julian and e. k. silvester, `productions, industry, and resources of new south wales,' p. : "there is a species of whale called by those engaged in the south sea fishing the black-fish or black-whale, but known to the naturalist as the southern rorqual, which the whalemen usually avoid." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. "nothing is better eating than a properly cooked black-fish. the english trout are annihilating them, however." black-line. see black-war. black-perch, n. a river fish of new south wales. therapon niger, castln., family percidae. a different fish from those to which the name is applied elsewhere. see perch. black-and-white ringed snake. see under snake. black rock-cod, n. an australian fish, chiefly of new south wales, serranus daemeli, gunth.; a different fish from the rock-cod of the northern hemisphere. the serrani belong to the family percidae, and are commonly called "sea-perches." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the genus serranus comprises most of the fishes known as `rock cod.'. . . one only is sufficiently useful as an article of food to merit notice, and that is the `black rock cod' (serranus damelii, guenther), without exception the very best of all our fishes." black-snake. see under snake. black-swan. see swan. black thursday, the day of a victorian conflagration, which occurred on feb. , . the thermometer was degrees in the shade. ashes from the fire at macedon, miles away, fell in melbourne. the scene forms the subject of the celebrated picture entitled "black thursday," by william strutt, r.b.a. . rev. j. d. mereweather, `diary of a working clergyman in australia,' p. : "feb. . . . dreadful details are reaching us of the great bush fires which took place at port phillip on the th of this month . . . . already it would seem that the appellation of `black thursday' has been given to the th february, , for it was on that day that the fires raged with the greatest fury." . rev. j. h. zillman, `australian life,' p. : "the old colonists still repeat the most terrible stories of black thursday, when the whole country seemed to be on fire. the flames leaped from tree to tree, across creeks, hills, and gullies, and swept everything away. teams of bullocks in the yoke, mobs of cattle and horses, and even whole families of human beings, in their bush-huts, were completely destroyed, and the charred bones alone found after the wind and fire had subsided." black-tracker, n. an aboriginal employed in tracking criminals. . `australia as it is,' pp. - : "the native police, or `black trackers,' as they are sometimes called, are a body of aborigines trained to act as policemen, serving under a white commandant--a very clever expedient for coping with the difficulty . . . of hunting down and discovering murderous blacks, and others guilty of spearing cattle and breaking into huts . . ." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the troopers, with the assistance of two black trackers, pursued the bushrangers . . ." . ibid. april , p. , col. : . . . two members of the police force and a black tracker . . . called at lima station . . ." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xvii. p. : "get the black-trackers on the trail." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. . "only three weeks before he had waddied his gin to death for answering questions put to her by a blacktracker, and now he advanced to charlie . . . and said,. . . `what for you come alonga black fella camp?'" . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "about one hundred and fifty horsemen have been out to-day in addition to the local police. the black-trackers arrived by the train last night, and commenced work this morning." black-trevally. see trevally. black-war, or black-line, a military operation planned in by governor arthur for the capture of the tasmanian aborigines. a levy en masse of the colonists was ordered. about men formed the "black line," which advanced across the island from north to south-east, with the object of driving the tribes into tasman's peninsula. the operation proved a complete failure, two blacks only being captured at a cost to the government of l , . . h. melville, `history of van diemen's land,' p. : "the parties forming the `black line,' composed, as they were, of a curious melange of masters and servants, took their respective stations at the appointed time. as the several parties advanced, the individuals along the line came closer and closer together --the plan was to keep on advancing slowly towards a certain peninsula, and thus frighten the aborigines before them, and hem them in." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol, ii. p. : "thus closed the black war. this campaign of a month supplied many adventures and many an amusing tale, and, notwithstanding the gravity of his excellency, much fun and folly . . . . five thousand men had taken the field. nearly l , had been expended, and probably not much less in time and outlay by the settlers, and two persons only were captured." black wednesday, n. a political phrase for a day in victoria (jan. , ), when the government without notice dismissed many civil servants, including heads of departments, county court judges and police magistrates, on the ground that the legislative council had not voted the money for their salaries. . `melbourne punch,' may , vol. xlvi. p. [title of cartoon]: "in memoriam. black wednesday, th january ." . `the argus,' [sydney telegram] aug. , p. , col. : "the times in the public service at present reminded him of black wednesday in victoria, which he went through. that caused about a dozen suicides among public servants. here it had not done so yet, but there was not a head of a department who did not now shake in his shoes." blackwood, n. an australian timber, acacia melanoxylon, r. br.; often called lightwood; it is dark in colour but light in weight. . `report of van diemen's land company,' bischoff, `van diemen's land, ,' p. "without a tree except a few stumps of blackwood." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' p. : "grassy slopes thickly timbered with handsome blackwood trees." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "called `blackwood' on account of the very dark colour of the mature wood." . `melbourne museum catalogue, economic woods,' p. : "blackwood, lightwood--rather frequent on many rich river-flats . . . .it is very close-grained and heavy, and is useful for all purposes where strength and flexibility are required." bladder saltbush, n. a queensland shrub, atriplex vesicarium, heward, n.o. salsolaceae. the latin and vernacular names both refer to "the bladdery appendage to fruiting perianth." (bailey.) see saltbush. blandfordia, n. the scientific name of the gordon-lily (see under lily). the plant was named after george, marquis of blandford, son of the second duke of marlborough. the tasmanian aboriginals called the plant remine, which name has been given to a small port where it grows in profusion on the west coast. bleeding-heart, n. another name for the kennedya (q.v.). . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "the trailing scarlet kennedyas, aptly called the `bleeding- heart' or `coral-pea,' brighten the greyness of the sandy peaty wastes." blight. see sandy-blight. blight-bird, n. a bird-name in new zealand for the zosterops (q.v.). called also silver-eye (q.v.), wax-eye, and white-eye (q.v.). it is called blight-bird because it eats the blight on trees. . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the white-eye or blight-bird, with cheerful note, in crowded flocks, sweeps over the face of the country, and in its progress clears away multitudes of small insect pests." . a. hamilton, `native birds of petane, hawke's bay,' `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. p. : "zosterops lateralis, white-eye, blight-bird. one of our best friends, and abundant in all parts of the district." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' ( nd ed.) vol. i. p. : "by the settlers it has been variously designated as ring-eye, wax-eye, white-eye, or silver-eye, in allusion to the beautiful circlet of satiny-white feathers which surrounds the eyes; and quite as commonly the `blightbird' or `winter-migrant.' . . . it feeds on that disgusting little aphis known as american blight, which so rapidly covers with a fatal cloak of white the stems and branches of our best apple-trees; it clears our early cabbages of a pestilent little insect, that left unchecked would utterly destroy the crop; it visits our gardens and devours another swarming parasite that covers our roses." blind shark, or sand shark, n. i.q. shovel-nose (q.v.). . rev. j. e. tenison-woods `fish and fisheries of new south wales, p. : "rhinobatus granulatus or shovel-nose, which is properly speaking a ray, is called here the blind or sand shark, though, as mr. hill remarks, it is not blind. he says `that it attains the length of from to feet, and is also harmless, armed only with teeth resembling small white beads secured closely upon a cord; it however can see tolerably well, and searches on sandy patches for crustaceae and small shell fish.'" . j. douglas-ogilby, `catalogue of the fishes of new south wales,' p. : "rhinobatus granulatus . . . i have not seen a new south wales example of this fish, which appears to have been confounded with the following by writers on the australian fauna. rhinobatus bongainvillei, muell and heule, habitat port jackson. shovel-nosed ray of sydney fishermen." blind-your-eyes, n. another name for the milky mangrove. see mangrove. , doing the, v. lounging in the fashionable promenade. in melbourne, it is collins street, between elizabeth and swanston streets. in sydney, "the block" is that portion of the city bounded by king, george, hunter, and pitt streets. it is now really two blocks, but was all in one till the government purchased the land for the present post office, and then opened a new street from george to pitt street. since then the government, having purchased more land, has made the street much wider, and it is now called martin's place. . marcus clarke, `peripatetic philosopher,' (in an essay on `doing the block') (reprint), p. : "if our victorian youth showed their appreciation for domestic virtues, victorian womanhood would `do the block' less frequently." . `glimpses of life in victoria by a resident,' p. : "a certain portion of collins street, lined by the best drapers' and jewellers' shops, with here and there a bank or private office intervening, is known as `the block,' and is the daily resort of the belles and beaux. . . ." . r. and f. hill, `what we saw in australia,' p. : "to `do the block' corresponds in melbourne to driving in hyde park." . wm. brackley wildey, `australasia and the oceanic region,' p. : "the streets are thronged with handsome women, veritable denizens of the soil, fashionably and really tastefully attired, `doing the block,' patrolling collins-street, or gracefully reclining in carriages. . . ." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "you just do as i tell you, and we'll go straight off to town and `do the block.'" . `the herald' (melbourne), oct. , p. , col. : "but the people doing the block this morning look very nice." block, on the.( ) on the promenade above referred to. . `the argus,' july , p. . col. : " we may slacken pace a little now and again, just as the busy man, who generally walks quickly, has to go slowly in the crowd on the block." ( ) term in mining, fully explained in `the miner's right,' chapters vii. and viii. . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' p. : "i declare the liberator lead to be `on the block.'" `extract from mining regulation ' (ibid. p. ): "the ground shall be open for taking up claims in the block form." blood-bird, n. name given to the sanguineous honey-eater. see honey-eater. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "myzomela sanguinolenta, sanguineous honey-eater. blood-bird of the colonists of new south wales." blood-sucker, n. popular name for certain species of lizards belonging to the genus amphibolurus (grammatophora). especially applied to a. muricata, shaw. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "another description of lizard is here vulgarly called the `bloodsucker.' " . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the natural history of victoria,' dec. , pl. cxi.: "why the popular name of `bloodsucker' should be so universally given to this harmless creature by the colonists (except on the locus a non lucendo principle) i cannot conceive." . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association for the advancement of science,' melbourne, p. : "two species of `blood sucker' so absurdly designated." blood-wood, or blood-tree, n. a name applied, with various epithets, to many of the gum-trees (q.v.), especially to--( ) eucalyptus corymbosa, smith, sometimes called rough-barked bloodwood; ( ) e. eximia, schauer, mountain or yellow bloodwood; ( ) baloghia lucida, endl., n.o. euphorbiaceae, called brush bloodwood. the sap is blood-red, running copiously when cut across with a knife. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "the natives tell me it breeds in the winter in mun'ning-trees or blood-trees of the colonists (a species of eucalyptus)." . l.leichhardt,' overland expedition,' p. : "the bergue was covered with fine bloodwood trees, stringy-bark, and box." . a. j. north, `proceedings of linnaean society,' new south wales, vol. vii. series , p. : "i traced her to a termite nest in a bloodwood tree (eucalyptus corymbosa)." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' : "it [e. eximia] is called `bloodwood,' partly because kino exudes in the concentric circles of the wood . . . partly because its fruits are in shape very similar to those of e. corymbosa." blow, n. stroke of the shears in sheep-shearing. . `the argus,' september , p. , col. : "the shearers must make their clip clean and thorough. if it be done so incompetently that a `second blow' is needed, the fleece is hacked." blow,/ / n. braggadocio, boasting. . lyth, `golden south,' viii. p. : "is there not very much that the australian may well be proud of, and may we not commend him for a spice of blow?" . rolf boldrewood, `sydney-side saxon,' p. : "he can walk as fast as some horses can trot, cut out any beast that ever stood on a camp, and canter round a cheese-plate. this was a bit of blow." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "now digby holland will think it was mere australian blow." blow, v. to boast; abbreviated from the phrase "to blow your own trumpet." the word is not australian though often so regarded. it is common in scotland and in the united states. . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the blast of the trumpet as heard in victoria is louder than all the blasts--and the melbourne blast beats all the other blowing of that proud colony. my first, my constant, my parting advice to my australian cousins is contained in two words, `don't blow.'" blower, n. a boaster. (see blow, v.) . rolf boldrewood,' a colonial reformer,' p. : "a regular sydney man thinks all victorians are blowers and speculators." blowing, verbal n. boasting. . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "a fine art much cultivated in the colonies, for which the colonial phrase of `blowing' has been created." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "blowing (that is, talking loudly and boastingly on any and every subject)." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "he was famous for `blowing' in australian parlance . . . of his exploits." bluebell, n. the name is given in tasmania to the flower wahlenbergia gracilis, de c., n.o. campanulaceae. blueberry, n. i.q. native currant (q.v.). the name is also given to dianella longifolia, r. br., n.o. liliaceae. blueberry ash, n. a victorian tree, elaeocarpus holopetalus, f. v. m. . `melbourne museum catalogue, economic woods,' p. : "blueberry ash or prickly fig. a noble tree, attaining a height of feet. wood pale, fine-grained; exquisite for cabinet work." blue-bush, n. an australian forage plant, a kind of salt-bush, kochia pyrainidata, benth, n.o. chenopodiaceae. . w. harcus. `south australia,' p. : "[the country] would do splendidly for sheep, being thickly grassed with short fine grass, salt and blue bush, and geranium and other herbs." blue-cod, n. name given to a new zealand fish, percis colias, family trachinidae. called also in new zealand rock-cod (q.v.). the fish is of a different family from the cod of the northern hemisphere. blue-creeper, n. name given to the creeper, comesperma volubile, lab., n.o. campanulaceae. blue-eye, n. a bird name. the blue faced honey-eater (q.v.). . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "entomyza cyanotis, swains. blue-faced entomyza. blue-eye of the colonists." blue-fish, n. name given in sydney to girella cyanea, of the family sparidae, or sea-breams. it is different from the blue-fish of the american coasts, which is of the family carangidae. blue-groper, n. a fish of new south wales and tasmania, cossyphus gouldii, one of the labridae or wrasses, often called parrot-fish in australia. called also blue-head in tasmania. distinct from the fish called the groper (q.v). blue-gum, n. see under gum. it is an increasing practice to make a single word of this compound, and to pronounce it with accent on the first syllable, as `wiseman,' `goodman.' blue-head, n. tasmanian name for the fish called the blue-groper (q.v.) blue lobelia, n. the indigenous species in tasmania which receives this name is lobelia gibbosa, lab., n.o. campanulaceae. blue-pointer, n. a name given in new south wales to a species of shark, lamna glauca, mull. and heule, family lamnidae, which is not confined to australasia. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "on the appearance of a `blue pointer' among boats fishing for schnapper outside, the general cry is raised, `look out for the blue pointer.' . . . these are high swimming fishes, and may be readily seen when about pushing their pursuits; the beautiful azure tint of their back and sides, and independent manner they have of swimming rapidly and high among the boats in search of prey, are means of easy recognition, and they often drive the fishermen away." bluestone, n. a kind of dark stone of which many houses and public buildings are built. . `the australasian' (quarterly), oct. [footnote], p. : "the ancient roman ways were paved with polygonal blocks of a stone not unlike the trap or bluestone around melbourne." . r. brough smyth, `transactions of philosophical society, victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the basalt or `bluestone,' which is well adapted to structural purposes, and generally obtains where durability is desired." . j. hector, `handbook to new zealand,' p. : "basalts, locally called `bluestones,' occur of a quality useful for road-metal, house-blocks, and ordinary rubble masonry." . `proceedings of the royal society of tasmania,' p. xx. [letter from mr. s. h. wintle]: "the newer basalts, which in victoria have filled up so extensively miocene and pliocene valleys, and river channels, are chiefly vesicular zeolitic dolerites and anaemesites, the former being well represented by the light-coloured malmsbury `bluestone' so extensively employed in buildings in melbourne." blue-tongued lizard, n. name given to tiliqua nigroluteus, gray, a common australian and tasmanian lizard belonging to the family scincidae. the name is derived from its blue-coloured tongue, and on account of its sluggish habits it is also often called the sleepy lizard. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "not uncommon about melbourne, where it is generally called the `blue-tongued lizard,' or `sleepy lizard.'" blue-wing, n. a sportsman's name (as in england) for the bird called the shoveller (q.v.). bluey, n. ( ) a blue blanket commonly used by swagmen in australia. he wraps his bundle in it, and the whole is called a swag (q.v.). to hump bluey means to go on the tramp, carrying a swag on the back. ( ) in the wet wildernesses of western tasmania a rough shirt or blouse is made of this material, and is worn over the coat like an english smock-frock. sailors and fishermen in england call it a "baltic shirt." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "we shall have to hump bluey again." . r. wallace, `rural economy and agriculture of australia and new zealand,' p. : "`humping bluey' is for a workman to walk in search of work." . w. tilley, `the wild west of tasmania,' p. : "leehan presents an animated scene . . . . heavily laden drays, pack-horses and mules, form constant processions journeying from dundas or trial; miners with their swags, surveyors in their `blueys' . . . all aid effectively in the panorama." board, n. term used by shearers. see quotation. . `the herald' (melbourne), dec. , p. , col. : "`the board' is the technical name for the floor on which the sheep are shorn." with a full board, with a full complement of shearers. . `the herald,' oct. , p. . col. : "the secretary of the pastoralists' association . . . reports that the following stations have started shearing with full boards." boar-fish, n. a name applied in england to various dissimilar fishes which have projecting snouts. (`century.') in new zealand it is given to cyttus australis, family cyttidae, which is related to the john dory (q.v.). this name is sometimes applied to it, and it is also called bastard dory (q.v.). in melbourne the boar-fish is histiopterus recurvirostris, family percidae, and pentaceropsis recurvirostris, family pentacerotidae. mrs. meredith, in `tasmanian friends and foes,' (pl. vi.), figures histiopterus recurvirostris with the vernacular name of pig-faced lady. it is a choice edible fish. boil down, v. to reduce a statement to its simplest form; a constant term amongst pressmen. over the reporters' table in the old `daily telegraph' office (melbourne) there was a big placard with the words-"boil it down." the phrase is in use in england. `o.e.d.' quotes `saturday review,' . the metaphor is from the numerous boiling-down establishments for rendering fat sheep into tallow. see quotation, . . f. p. labilliere, `early history of the colony of victoria,' vol. ii. p. : "the first step which turned the tide of ill-fortune was the introduction of the system of boiling down sheep. when stock became almost worthless, it occurred to many people that, when a fleece of wool was worth from half-a-crown to three shillings in england, and a sheep's tallow three or four more, the value of the animal in australia ought to exceed eighteenpence or two shillings. accordingly thousands of sheep were annually boiled down after shearing . . . until . . . the gold discovery; and then `boiling down,' which had saved the country, had to be given up. . . . the messrs. learmonth at buninyong . . . found it answered their purpose to have a place of their own, instead of sending their fat stock, as was generally done, to a public `boiling down' establishment." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "boiled down, the matter comes to this." bonduc nuts, n. a name in australia for the fruit of the widely distributed plant caesalpina bonducella, flem., n.o. leguminosae. called molucca beans in scotland and nicker nuts elsewhere. bonito, n. sir frederick mccoy says that the tunny, the same fish as the european species thynnus thynnus, family scombridae, or mackerels, is called bonito, erroneously, by the colonists and fishermen. the true bonito is thynnus pelamys, linn., though the name is also applied to various other fishes in europe, the united states, and the west indies. bony-bream, i.q. sardine (q.v.). boobook, n. an owl. ninox boobook (see owl); athene boobook (gould's `birds of australia,' vol.i. pl. )." from cry or note of bird. in the mukthang language of central gippsland, bawbaw, the mountain in gippsland, is this word as heard by the english ear." (a. w. howitt.) in south australia the word is used for a mopoke. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "the native name of this bird, as mr. caley informs us, is buck'buck. it may be heard nearly every night during winter, uttering a cry, corresponding with that word. . . .the lower order of the settlers in new south wales are led away by the idea that everything is the reverse in that country to what it is in england : and the cuckoo, as they call this bird, singing by night, is one of the instances which they point out." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "in most cases--it may not be in all--the familiar call, which is supposed to sound like `more-pork,' is not the mopoke (or podargus) at all, but the hooting of a little rusty red feather-legged owl, known as the boobook. its double note is the opposite of the curlew, since the first syllable is dwelt upon and the second sharp. an englishman hearing it for the first time, and not being told that the bird was a `more-pork,' would call it a night cuckoo." booby, n. english bird-name. used in australia for the brown-gannet. see gannet. boobyalla, or boobialla, n. the aboriginal name for the tree acacia longifolia, willd., n.o. leguminosae, also called native willow. a river in tasmania bears the name of boobyalla, the tree being plentiful on the coast. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p : "acacia sophora. sophora podded acacia or booby-aloe. this species forms a large shrub on the sand-hills of the coast." . j. backhouse, `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies,' p. : "the sandbanks at the mouth of macquarie harbour are covered with boobialla, a species of acacia, the roots of which run far in the sand." . j. milligan, `vocabulary of dialects of the aboriginal tribes of tasmania,' `proceedings of the royal society of tasmania,' vol. iii. p. : "wattle tree--seaside. (acacia maritinia) boobyallah." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' vol. ii. p. : "boobyalla bushes lay within the dash of the ceaseless spray." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "boobyalla . . . an excellent tree for binding coast-sands." . `melbourne museum catalogue, economic woods,' p. : "on the coast it is known by the native name, boobyalla." boomah, or boomer, n. name of a very large kangaroo, macropus giganteus, shaw. the spelling "boomah" seems due to a supposed native origin. see quotation, , the explanation in which is probably erroneous. it is really from the verb to boom, to rush with violence. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "snapped the boomah's haunches, and he turned round to offer battle." . lieut. breton, `excursions in new south wales, western australia, and van diemen's land,' p. : "boomah. implies a large kangaroo." ibid. p. : "the flying gin (gin is the native word for woman or female) is a boomah, and will leave behind every description of dog." . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the great or forest kangaroo (macropus giganteus), the `forester' of the colonists. . . .the oldest and heaviest male of the herd was called a `boomer,' probably a native term." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the forester (macropus major, shaw), the male being known by the name of `boomer,' and the young female by that of `flying doe,' is the largest and only truly gregarious species." . g. h. haydon, `the australian emigrant,' p. : "it was of an old man kangaroo,a regular boomer." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "an officer from van diemen's land told me that he had once killed in that colony a kangaroo of such magnitude, that, being a long way from home, he was unable, although on horseback, to carry away any portion except the tail, which alone weighed thirty pounds. this species is called the boomah, and stands about seven feet high." . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "sometimes starting a grand boomah, or great red kangaroo." . f. j. jobson, `australia,' c. v. p. : "some of the male kangaroos, called `boomers,' were described as being four or five feet high." . j. rogers, `new rush,' p. : "the boomer starts, and ponders what kind of beasts we be." . w. richardson, `tasmanian poems,' p. : "the dogs gather round a `boomer' they've got." . mrs. e. millett, `an australian parsonage,' p. : "a tall old booma, as the natives call the male kangaroo, can bring his head on a level with the face of a man on horseback. . . . a kangaroo's feet are, in fact, his weapons of defence with which, when he is brought to bay, he tears his antagonists the dogs most dreadfully, and instances are not wanting of even men having been killed by a large old male. no doubt this peculiar method of disposing of his enemies has earned him the name of booma, which in the native language signifies to strike." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "as he plunged into the yellow waters, the dogs were once more by his side, and again the `boomer' wheeled, and backed against one of the big trees that stud these hollows." applied generally to something very large. . `australasian printers' keepsake,' p. : "when the shades of evening come, i choose a boomer of a gum." boomerang, n. a weapon of the australian aborigines, described in the quotations. the origin of the word is by no means certain. one explanation is that of mr. fraser in quotation, . there may perhaps be an etymological connection with the name woomera (q.v.), which is a different weapon, being a throwing stick, that is, an instrument with which to throw spears, whilst the boomerang is itself thrown; but the idea of throwing is common to both. in many parts the word is pronounced by the blacks bummerang. others connect it with the aboriginal word for "wind," which at hunter river was burramaronga, also boomori. in new south wales and south queensland there is a close correspondence between the terms for wind and boomerang. . captain p. p. king, `survey of intertropical and west coasts of australia,' vol. i. p. : "boomerang is the port jackson term for this weapon, and may be retained for want of a more descriptive name." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "we gambolled all the way up, throwing small pieces of bark at each other, after the manner of the native youths, who practise this with a view of strengthening their arms, and fitting them for hurling a curious weapon of war called a `bomering,' which is shaped thus:" \ \ / / ibid. p. : "around their loins was the opossum belt, in one side of which they had placed their waddies, with which they meant to break the heads of their opponents, and on the other was the bomering, or stick, with which they threw their spears." [this is a confusion between boomerang and woomera (q.v.). perhaps mr. dawson wrote the second word, and this is a misprint.] . major t. l. `mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol. ii. p. : "the bommereng, or their usual missile, can be thrown by a skilful hand, so as to rise upon the air, and thus to deviate from the usual path of projectiles, its crooked course being, nevertheless, equally under control." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the admirable dexterity with which they fling the bomerangs. to our thinking the thrower was only sending the instrument along the ground, when suddenly, after spinning along it a little way, it sprung up into the air, performing a circle, its crescent shape spinning into a ring, constantly spinning round and round, until it came and fell at his feet." . o. wendell holmes, `modest request' (in poems): "like the strange missile which the australian throws, your verbal boomerang slaps you on the nose." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "this instrument, called a bommereng, is made of wood, and is much like the blade of a scimitar. i believe it has been introduced into england as a plaything for children." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the boomerang is an extraordinary missile, formed in the shape of a crescent, and when propelled at an object, apparently point blank, it turns in any direction intended by the thrower, so that it can actually be directed in this manner against a person standing by his side. the consummate art visible in its unnatural-looking progression greatly depends upon the manner in which it is made to rebound from the ground when thrown." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. p. ; "he [sir thomas mitchell] applied to the screw propeller the revolving principle of the boomerang of the australian natives." . g. g. mccrae, `balladeadro,' p. : "while circling thro' the air there sang the swift careering boomerang." . a. seth, `encyclopaedia britannica,' vol. xxiv. p. , col. : "he [archbishop whately] was an adept in various savage sports, more especially in throwing the boomerang." . p. beveridge, `aborigines of victoria and riverina,' p. : "boomerang: a thin piece of wood, having the shape of a parabola, about eighteen inches or two feet long from point to point, the curve being on the thin side. of the broad sides of the missile one is slightly convex, the other is flat. the thin sides are worked down finely to blunt edges. the peculiar curve of the missile gives it the property of returning to the feet of the thrower. it is a dangerous instrument in a melee. of course the wood from which it is made is highly seasoned by fire. it is therefore nearly as hard as flint." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : [a full description of the use of the boomerang is given, with illustrations.] "the boomerang is a curved, somewhat flat, and slender weapon, made from a hard and heavy wood, brigalow (acacia excelsa), or myall (acacia pendula), but the best one i found was made of a lighter kind of wood. the curving of the boomerang, which often approaches a right angle, must be natural, and in the wood itself. one side is perfectly flat, and the other slightly rounded. the ends are pointed." . g. w. rusden, `proceedings, royal colonial institute,' vol. xxii. p. : "you hardly ever see an allusion in the english press to the boomerang which does not refer to it as a weapon of war which returns to the thrower, whereas the returning boomerang is not a weapon of war, and the boomerang which is a weapon of war does not return to the thrower. there are many kinds of boomerang--some for deadly strife, some for throwing at game, and the returning boomerang, which is framed only for amusement. if a native had no other missile at hand, he would dispatch it at a flight of ducks. its circular course, however, makes it unfit for such a purpose, and there is a special boomerang made for throwing at birds. the latter keeps a straight course, and a native could throw it more than two hundred yards." . j. fraser, `the aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "the name bumarang has always hitherto been written boomerang; but, considered etymologically, that is wrong, for the root of it is buma--strike, fight, kill; and -ara, -arai, -arang, are all of them common formative terminations." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "`i tell you, sir,' said mr. healy at an irish political meeting, `that there are at the present moment crystallizing in this city precedents which will some day come home to roost like a boomerang.'" boongary, n. the tree-kangaroo of north queensland, a marsupial tree-climber, about the size of a large wallaby, dendrolagus lumholtzii, collett. a native name. bangaray = red kangaroo, in governor hunter's vocabulary of the port jackson dialect ( ). . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the tree-kangaroo is without comparison a better-proportioned animal than the common kangaroo. the fore-feet, which are nearly as perfectly developed as the hind-feet, have large crooked claws, while the hind-feet are somewhat like those of a kangaroo, though not so powerful. the sole of the foot is somewhat broader and more elastic on account of a thick layer of fat under the skin. in soft ground its footprints are very similar to those of a child. the ears are small and erect, and the tail is as long as the body of the animal. the skin is tough, and the fur is very strong and beautiful. . . . upon the whole the boongary is the most beautiful mammal i have seen in australia. it is a marsupial, and goes out only in the night. during the day it sleeps in the trees, and feeds on the leaves." bora, n. a rite amongst the aborigines of eastern australia; the ceremony of admitting a young black to the rights of manhood. aboriginal word. the word bur, given by ridley, means not only girdle but `circle.' in the man-making ceremonies a large circle is made on the ground, where the ceremonies take place. . w. ridley, `kamilaroi,' p. : "girdle--bor or bur. hence bora, the ceremony of initiation into manhood, where the candidate is invested with the belt of manhood." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the great mystery of the blacks is the bora--a ceremony at which the young men found worthy receive the rank of warriors." . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "these ceremonies are . . . called the bora." borage, native, n. a plant, pollichia zeylanica, f. v. m., n.o. boragineae. the so-called native borage is not endemic to australia. in india it is used as a cure for snake bites. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the native borage (trichodesina zeylanica, r. br.)." borak, n. aboriginal word of new south wales, meaning banter, chaff, fun at another's expense. (see quotation, .) prior to the word was much in use on the stations in new south wales. about victorian farmers' sons took shearing work there, and brought back the word with them. it was subsequently altered to barrack (q.v.). . c. griffith, `present state and prospects of the port phillip district of new south wales,' p. : "the following is a specimen of such eloquence:--`you pilmillally jumbuck, plenty sulky me, plenty boom, borack gammon,' which, being interpreted, means--`if you steal my sheep i shall be very angry, and will shoot you and no mistake.'" . w. w. dobie, `recollections of a visit to port phillip, australia, in - ' p. : ". . . he gravely assured me that it was `merrijig' (very good), and that `blackfellow doctor was far better than whitefellow doctor.' in proof of which he would say, `borak you ever see black fellow with waddie (wooden) leg. bungalallee white fellow doctor cut him leg, borak black fellow stupid like it that." . `australasian printers' keepsake,' p. : "on telling him my adventures, how bob in my misery had `poked borack' at me. . . ." . alfred j.chandler,' curley' in `australian poets,' - , ed. sladen, p. : "here broke in super scotty, `stop your borak, give the bloomin' man a show.'" . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "it does not do for a man whose mission it is to wear stuff and a horse-hair wig to `poke borak' at that venerable and eminently respectable institution--the law, and still worse is it for a practising barrister to actually set to work, even in the most kindly spirit, to criticise the judges, before whom at any moment he may be called upon to plead." borboby, n. i.q. corrobbery (q.v.), but the word is rare. . carl lumholtz, `among cannibals' [title of illustration], p. : "a warrior in great excitement just before borboby commences." boree, n. aboriginal name for the tree acacia pendula, a. cunn., n.o. leguminosae; a variety of myall, probably from queensland aboriginal word booreah, fire. it would be preferred by black or white man as firewood over any other timber except giddea (q.v.). . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "weeping, or true myall. it is sometimes called bastard gidgee in western new south wales. called boree by aboriginals, and often boree, or silver-leaf boree, by the colonists of western new south wales. nilyah is another new south wales name." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' iii. p. : "myall and boree belts of timbers." . `the times,' [reprint] `letters from queensland,' p. o: "the timber, of course, when seen close at hand is strange. boree and gidyah, coolibah and whitewood, brigelow, mulgah, and myall are the unfamiliar names by which you learn to recognise the commonest varieties." borer, n. name applied to an australian insect. see quotation. . w. harcus, `south australia,' p. : "there is another destructive insect called the `borer,' not met with near the sea-coast, but very active and mischievous inland, its attacks being chiefly levelled against timber. this creature is about the size of a large fly." boronia, n. scientific and vernacular name of a genus of australian plants, certain species of which are noted for their peculiar fragrance. the genus is especially characteristic of west australia, to which out of fifty-nine species thirty-three are confined, while only five are known in tasmania. boronia belongs to the n.o. rutaceae. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "boronia variabilis. a beautiful little heath-like plant growing about the cascade and other hills round about hobart town. . . . this genus is named after borone, an italian servant of the late dr. sibthorp, who perished at athens. . . .another species found in van diemen's land is the lemon plant of the mountains." . `the melburnian,' vol. xxii., no. , august , p. : "winter does not last for ever, and now at each street corner the scent of boronia and the odour of wattle-blossom greet us from baskets of the flower-girl." boss-cockie, n. a slang name in the bush for a farmer, larger than a cockatoo (see cockatoo, n. ), who employs other labour as well as working himself. botany bay, n. lying to the south of the entrance to port jackson, new south wales, the destination of the first two shiploads of convicts from england. as a matter of fact, the settlement at botany bay never existed. the "first fleet," consisting of eleven sail under governor phillip, arrived at botany bay on january , . the governor finding the place unsuitable for a settlement did not land his people, but on january removed the fleet to port jackson. on the next day (january ) he landed his people at sydney cove, and founded the city of sydney. the name, however, citing to popular imagination, and was used sometimes as the name of australia. seventy years after governor phillip, english schoolboys used "go to botany bay" as an equivalent to "go to bath." captain cook and his naturalists, banks and solander, landed at botany bay, and the name was given (not at first, when the bay was marked stingray, but a little later) from the large number of plants collected there. . `captain cook's original journal,' ed. by wharton, , p. : " may. . . .the great quantity of plants mr. banks and dr. solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of botany bay." . [title]: "the voyage of governor phillip to botany bay," published in london. . captain watkin tench [title]: "a narrative of the expedition to botany bay," published in london. g. barrington [title]: "voyage to botany bay," [published in london.] this was the popular book on the new settlement, the others being high priced. as lowndes says, "a work of no authority, but frequently printed." barrington, the pickpocket, whose name it bears, had nothing to do with it. it was pirated from phillip, collins, etc. it went through various editions and enlargements to or later. after the name was altered to `voyage to new south wales.' . d. collins, `account of the english colony in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the word `botany bay' became a term of reproach that was indiscriminately cast on every one who resided in new south wales." . thos. hood, `tale of a trumpet: "the very next day she heard from her husband at botany bay." . rev. david mackenzie, `ten years in australia,' p. : ". . . a pair of artificially black eyes being the botany bay coat of arms." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "some gentlemen, on a visit to a london theatre, to draw the attention of their friends in an opposite box, called out cooey; a voice in the gallery answered `botany bay!'" . `pall mall budget,' may , p. , col. : "the owner of the ship was an ex-convict in sydney--then called botany bay--who had waxed wealthy on the profits of rum, and the `shangai-ing' of drugged sailors." botany-bay greens, n. a vegetable common to all the colonies, atriplex cinereum, poir, n.o. salsolaceae. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "botany bay greens are abundant; they much resemble sage in appearance; and are esteemed a very good dish by the europeans." . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "i do not think it necessary to enter upon any description of the barilla shrubs (atriplex halimus, rhagodur billardiera; and salicornia arbuscula), which, with some others, under the promiscuous name of botany bay greens, were boiled and eaten along with some species of seaweed, by the earliest settlers, when in a state of starvation." . ibid. p. : "atriplex halimus. barrilla. botany bay greens. this is the plant so common on the shores of cape barren and other islands of the straits, from which the alkaline salt is obtained and brought up in boats to the soap manufactory at hobart town. it has been set down as the same plant that grows on the coast of spain and other parts of europe." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "once used as a pot-herb in new south wales. leichhardt used a species of atriplex as a vegetable, and spoke very highly of it." botany-bay oak, or botany-bay wood, n. a trade name in england for the timber of casuarina. see beef-wood. bottle-brush, n. name given to various species of callistemon and melaleuca, n.o. myrtaceae; the purple bottle-brush is melaleuca squamea, lab. the name is also more rarely given to species of banksia, or honeysuckle (q.v.). the name bottle-brush is from the resemblance of the large handsome blossoms to the brush used to clean out wine-bottles. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "red bottle-brush. the flowers of some species of callistemon are like bottle-brushes in shape." bottle-gourd, n. an australian plant, lagenaria vulgaris, ser., n.o. cucurbitaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "bottle gourd. this plant, so plentiful along the tropical coast of queensland, is said to be a dangerous poison. it is said that some sailors were killed by drinking beer that had been standing for some time in a bottle formed of one of these fruits. (f. m. bailey.)" bottle-swallow, n. a popular name for the bird lagenoplastis ariel, otherwise called the fairy martin. see martin. the name refers to the bird's peculiar retort shaped nest. lagenoplashs is from the greek lagaenos, a flagon, and plautaes, a modeller. the nests are often constructed in clusters under rocks or the eaves of buildings. the bird is widely distributed in australia, and has occurred in tasmania. bottle-tree, n. an australian tree, various species of sterculia, i.q. kurrajong (q.v.). so named from its appearance. see quotations. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the sterculia, or bottle-tree, is a very singular curiosity. it generally varies in shape between a soda-water and port-wine bottle, narrow at the basis, gradually widening at the middle, and tapering towards the neck." . l. leichhardt, letter in `cooksland, by j. d. lang, p. : "the most interesting tree of this rosewood brush is the true bottle-tree, a strange-looking unseemly tree, which swells slightly four to five feet high, and then tapers rapidly into a small diameter; the foliage is thin, the crown scanty and irregular, the leaves lanceolate, of a greyish green; the height of the whole tree is about forty-five feet." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "it was on this range (lat. degrees, ') that mitchell saw the bottle-tree for the first time. it grew like an enormous pear-shaped turnip, with only a small portion of the root in the ground." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "a `kurrajong.' the `bottle-tree' of n.e. australia, and also called `gouty-stem,' on account of the extraordinary shape of the trunk. it is the `binkey' of the aboriginals. "the stem abounds in a mucilaginous substance resembling pure tragacanth, which is wholesome and nutritious, and is said to be used as an article of food by the aborigines in cases of extreme need. a similar clear jelly is obtainable by pouring boiling water on chips of the wood." bottom, n. in gold-mining, the old river-bed upon which the wash-dirt rests, and upon which the richest alluvial gold is found; sometimes called the gutter. . h. h. hayter, `christmas adventure,' p. : "we reached the bottom, but did not find gold." bottom, v. to get to the bedrock, or clay, below which it was useless to sink (gold-mining). . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. xv. p. : "in their anxiety to bottom their claims, they not seldom threw away the richest stuff." boundary-rider, n. a man who rides round the fences of a station to see that they are in order. . e. w. hornung, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "a boundary-rider is not a `boss' in the bush, but he is an important personage in his way. he sees that the sheep in his paddock draw to the water, that there is water for them to draw to, and that the fences and gates are in order. he is paid fairly, and has a fine, free, solitary life." . `scribner's magazine,' feb., p. : "the manager's lieutenants are the `boundary-riders,' whose duty it is to patrol the estate and keep him informed upon every portion of it." bower-bird n. australian bird. see quotation, . see ptilonorhynchinae. the following are the varieties--- fawn-breasted bower-bird-- chlamydoderea cerviniventris, gould. golden b.-- prionodura newtoniana, de vis. great b.-- chlambydodera nuchalis, gould (`birds of australia,' vol.iv. pl. ). queensland b.-- c. orientalis, gould. satin b.-- ptilonorhynchus violaceus, vieillot. spotted b.-- chlamydodera maculata, gould (ibid. pl. ). yellow-spotted b.-- c. gutttata, gould. and the regent-bird (q.v.). . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the same person had the last season found, to his surprise, the playhouse, or bower, of the australian satin bower-bird." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "any shred of glass or metal which arrests the eye or reflects the rays of the sun is a gem in the bower-bird's collection, which seems in a sense to parody the art decorations of a modern home." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "in one is a representation of the playing place of the spotted bowerbird. these bowers are quite independent of the birds' nests, which are built on neighbouring trees. they first construct a covered passage or bower about three feet long, and near it they place every white or bright object they can find, such as the bleached bones of animals, pieces of white or coloured stone, feathers, shells, etc., etc.; the feathers they place on end. when these curious playing places were first discovered, they were thought to be made by the native women for the amusement of their children. more than a bushel of small pieces of bleached bones or shells are often found at one of these curious sporting places. sometimes a dozen or more birds will assemble, and they delight in chasing each other through the bower and playing about it." box, box-tree, box-gum, n. the name is applied to many eucalypts, and to a few trees of the genus tristania, as given below, all of the n.o. myrtaceae, chiefly from the qualities of their timber, which more or less resembles "boxwood." most of these trees also bear other vernacular names, and the same tree is further often described vernacularly as different kinds of box. china-, heath-, and native-box (q.v. below) are of other natural orders and receive their names of box from other reasons. the following table is compiled from maiden:-- bastard box-- eucalyptus goniocalyx, f. v. m.; e. largiflorens, f. v. m. (called also cooburn); e. longifolia, link.; e. microtheca, f. v. m.; e. polyanthema, f. v. m.; e. populifolia, hook. (called also bembil or bimbil box and red box); tristania conferta, r. br.; t. laurana, r. br., all of the n.o. myrtaceae. black box-- eucalyptus obliqua, l'herit.; e. largiflorens, f. v. m.; e. microtheca, f. v. m. brisbane box--- tristania conferta, r. br. broad-leaved box-- eucalyptus acmenoides, schau. brown box-- eucalyptus polyanthema, schau. brush box-- tristania conferta, r. br. china box-- murraya exotica, linn., n.o. rutaceae (not a tree, but a perfume plant, which is found also in india and china). dwarf, or flooded box-- eucalyptus microtheca, f. v. m. (also called swamp gum, from its habit of growing on land inundated during flood time. an aboriginal name for the same tree is goborro.) grey box-- eucalyptus goniocalyx, f. v. m.; e. hemiphloia, f. v. m.; e. largiflorens, f. v. m.; e. polyanthema, schau.; e. saligna, smith. gum-topped box-- eucalyptus hemiphloia, f. v. m. heath box-- alyxia buxifolia, r. br., n.o. apocyneae (called also tonga-beanwood, owing to its scent) iron-bark box-- eucalyptus obliqua, l'herit. narrow-leaved box-- eucalyptus microtheca, f. v. m. native box-- bursaria spinosa, cav., n.o. pittosporeae. (called also box-thorn and native-olive. it is not a timber-tree but a forage- plant. see quotation, .) poplar box-- eucalyptus populifolia, hook. red box-- eucalyptus populifolia, hook.; e. polyanthema, schau.; tristania conferta, r. br. thozet's box-- eucalyptus raveretiana, f. v. m. white box-- eucalyptus hemiphloia, f. v. m.; e. odorata, behr.; e. populifolia, hook.; tristania conferta, r. br. yellow box-- eucalyptus hemiphloia, f. v. m. e. largiflorens, f. v. m. e. melliodora, a. cunn. . john oxley, `two expeditions,' p. : "the country continued open forest land for about three miles, the cypress and the bastard-box being the prevailing timber; of the former many were useful trees." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions, vol. ii. p. : "the small kind of tree . . . which mr. oxley, i believe, terms the dwarf-box, grows only on plains subject to inundation . . . . it may be observed, however, that all permanent waters are invariably surrounded by the `yarra.' these peculiarities are only ascertained after examining many a hopeless hollow, where grew the `goborro' only; and after i had found my sable guides eagerly scanning the `yarra' from afar, when in search of water, and condemning any view of the `goborro' as hopeless during that dry season." [see yarra, a tree.] . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. p. : "belts of open forest land, principally composed of the box-tree of the colonists, a species of eucalyptus (in no respect resembling the box of europe)." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the honey-eucalypt (eucalyptus melliodora). this tree passes by the very unapt vernacular name yellow box-tree, though no portion of it is yellow, not even its wood, and though the latter resembles the real boxwood in no way whatever. its systematic specific name alludes to the odour of its flowers, like that of honey, and as the blossoms exude much nectar, like most eucalypts, sought by bees, it is proposed to call it the small-leaved honey-eucalypt, but the latin name might as easily be conveyed to memory, with the advantage of its being a universal one, understood and used by all nations." . a.c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "poor country, covered with ti-tree, box, and iron-bark saplings, with here and there heavy timber growing on sour-looking ridges." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the clumps of box-gums clinging together for sympathy." . j. howlett ross, `laureate of the centaurs,' p. : "box shrubs which were not yet clothed with their creamy-white plumes (so like the english meadowsweet)." . p. beveridge, `aborigines of victoria and riverina,' p. : "these spears are principally made from a tall-growing box (one of the eucalypts) which often attains to an altitude of over feet; it is indigenous to the north-western portion of the colony, and to riverina; it has a fine wavy grain, consequently easily worked when in a green state. when well seasoned, however, it is nearly as hard as ebony." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native box is greedily eaten by sheep, but its thorny character preserves it from extinction upon sheep-runs: usually a small scrub, in congenial localities it developes into a small tree." box, n. see succeeding verb. . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "great care must of course be taken that no two flocks come into collision, for a `box,' as it is technically called, causes an infinity of trouble, which is the reason that the stations are so far apart." box, v. to mix together sheep that ought to be kept separate apparently from "to box" in the sense of to shut up in narrow limits (`o.e.d.' v. i. ); then to shut up together and so confuse the classification; then the sense of shutting up is lost and that of confusion remains. . a.c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "all the mobs of different aged lambs which had been hitherto kept apart were boxed up together." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "after they'd got out twenty or thirty they'd get boxed, like a new hand counting sheep, and have to begin all over again." . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "at nightfall, the fifteen flocks of sheep were all brought in, and `boxed,' or mixed together, to ernest's astonishment." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "he must keep tally when the sheep are being counted or draughted, i'm not sure which, and swear--no, he needn't swear--when they get boxed." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "but the travelling sheep and the wilga sheep were boxed on the old man plain. 'twas a full week's work ere they drafted out and hunted them off again." boxer, n. this word means in australia the stiff, low-crowned, felt hat, called a billy-cock or bowler. the silk-hat is called a bell-topper (q.v.). . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "and will you wear a boxer that is in a battered state ? i wonder, will you--now that you're a knight?" box-wood, n. a new zealand wood, olea lanceolata, hook., n.o. jasminea (maori name, maire). used by the `wellington independent' (april , ) for woodcuts, and recommended as superior to box-wood for the purpose. see also box, n. boyla, n. aboriginal word for a sorcerer. . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. p. : "the absolute power of boylas or evil sorcerers . . . he chanted gloomily:-- oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles? now boylas storm and thunder make. oh, wherefore would they eat the muscles ?" bramble, native, n. see blackberry. bread, native, n. a kind of fungus. "the sclerotium of polyporus mylitta, c. et m. until quite recently the sclerotium was known, but not the fructification. it was thought probable that its fruit would be ascomycetous, and on the authority of berkeley it was made the type of a genus as mylitta australis. it is found throughout eastern australia and tasmania. the aborigines ate it, but to the european palate it is tough and tasteless, and probably as indigestible as leather." (l. rodway.) . james backhouse, `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies,' p. : "natural order. fungi. . . . mylitta australis. native bread. this species of tuber is often found in the colony, attaining to the size of a child's head: its taste somewhat resembles boiled rice. like the heart of the tree-fern, and the root of the native potato, cookery produces little change." . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : " th october, . . . specimens of the fungus known as `native bread,' mylitta australis, lay upon the table. a member observed that this substance, grated and made into a pudding with milk alone, had been found by him very palatable. prepared in the same way, and combined with double its weight of rice or sago, it has produced a very superior dish. it has also been eaten with approval in soup, after the manner of truffle, to which it is nearly allied." . dr. milligan, in bishop nixon's `cruise of the beacon,' p. : "but that which afforded the largest amount of solid and substantial nutritious matter was the native bread, a fungus growing in the ground, after the manner of the truffle, and generally so near the roots of trees as to be reputed parasitical." . `hobart mercury,' oct. , p. , last col.: "a large specimen of `native bread,' weighing lb., has been unearthed on crab tree farm in the huon district, by mr. a. cooper. it has been brought to town, and is being examined with interest by many at the british hotel. it is one of the fungi tribe that forms hard masses of stored food for future use." breadfruit-tree, name given by the explorer leichhardt to the queensland tree, gardenia edulis, f. v. m., n.o. rubiaceae. breakaway, n.( ) a bullock that leaves the herd. . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "the smartest stock horse that ever brought his rider up within whip distance of a breakaway or dodged the horns of a sulky beast, took the chance." ( ) the panic rush of sheep, cattle, or other animals at the sight or smell of water. : "the breakaway," title of picture by tom roberts at victorian artists' exhibition. bream, n. the name is applied in australia to various species of chrysophrys, family sparidae, and to other fishes of different families. the black-bream (q.v.) is c. australis, gunth. the bony-bream is also called the sardine (q.v.). the silver-bream (q.v.) or white-bream is gerres ovatus, gunth., family percidae. the red-bream is a schnapper (q.v.) one year old. the popular pronunciation is brim, and the fishes are all different from the various fishes called bream in the northern hemisphere. see also tarwhine and blue-fish. brickfielder, n. ( ) originally a sydney name for a cold wind, blowing from the south and accompanied by blinding clouds of dust; identical with the later name for the wind, the southerly buster (q.v.). the brickfields lay to the south of sydney, and when after a hot wind from the west or north-west, the wind went round to the south, it was accompanied by great clouds of dust, brought up from the brickfields. these brickfields have long been a thing of the past, surviving only in "brickfield hill," the hilly part of george street, between the cathedral and the railway station. the name, as denoting a cold wind, is now almost obsolete, and its meaning has been very curiously changed and extended to other colonies to denote a very hot wind. see below (nos. and ), and the notes to the quotations. . lieut. breton, r.n., `excursions in new south wales and van diemen's land,' p. : "it sometimes happens that a change takes place from a hot wind to a `brickfielder,' on which occasions the thermometer has been known to fall, within half an hour, upwards of fifty degrees! that is to say, from above degrees to degrees! a brickfielder is a southerly wind, and it takes its local name from the circumstances of its blowing over, and bringing into town the flames [sic] of a large brick-field: it is nearly as detestable as a hot wind." [lieut. breton must have had a strong imagination. the brickfields, at that date, were a mile away from the town, and the bringing in of their flames was an impossibility. perhaps, however, the word is a misprint for fumes; yet even then this earliest quotation indicates part of the source of the subsequent confusion of meaning. the main characteristic of the true brickfielder was neither flames nor fumes,--and certainly not heat,--but choking dust.] . w. h. leigh, `reconnoitering voyages, travels, and adventures in the new colony of south australia,' etc., p. : "whirlwinds of sand come rushing upon the traveller, half blinding and choking him,--a miniature sirocco, and decidedly cousin-german to the delightful sandy puffs so frequent at cape town. the inhabitants call these miseries `brickfielders,' but why they do so i am unable to divine; probably because they are in their utmost vigour on a certain hill here, where bricks are made." [this writer makes no allusion to the temperature of the wind, whether hot or cold, but lays stress on its especial characteristic, the dust. his comparison with the sirocco chiefly suggests the clouds of sand brought by that wind from the libyan desert, with its accompanying thick haze and darkness (`half blinding and choking'), rather than its relaxing warmth.] . john rae, `sydney illustrated,' p. : "the `brickfielder' is merely a colonial name for a violent gust of wind, which, succeeding a season of great heat, rushes in to supply the vacuum and equalises the temperature of the atmosphere; and when its baneful progress is marked, sweeping over the city in thick clouds of brick-coloured dust (from the brickfields), it is time for the citizens to close the doors and windows of their dwellings, and for the sailor to take more than half his canvas in, and prepare for a storm." [here the characteristic is again dust from the brickfields, as the origin of the name, with cold as an accompaniment.] . mrs.meredith, `notes and sketches of new south wales,' p. : "these dust winds are locally named `brickfielders,' from the direction in which they come" [i.e. from neighbouring sandhills, called the brickfields]. [here dust is the only characteristic observed, with the direction of the wind as the origin of its name.] . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the greatest peculiarity in the climate is what is called by colonists a brickfielder. this wind has all the characteristics of a sirocco in miniature . . . . returning home, he discovers that the house is full of sand; that the brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of his books; at dinner he will probably find that his favourite fish has been spoiled by the brickfielder. nor is this all; for on retiring to rest he will find that the brickfielder has intruded even within the precincts of his musquito curtains." [here again its dust is noted as the distinguishing feature of the wind, just as sand is the distinguishing feature of the `sirocco' in the libyan desert, and precipitated sand,--`blood rain' or `red snow,'--a chief character of the sirocco after it reaches italy.] . alex. marjoribanks, `travels in new south wales,' p. : "the hot winds which resemble the siroccos in sicily are, however, a drawback . . . but they are almost invariably succeeded by what is there called a `brickfielder,' which is a strong southerly wind, which soon cools the air, and greatly reduces the temperature." [here the cold temperature of the brickfielder is described, but not its dust, and the writer compares the hot wind which precedes the brickfielder with the sirocco. he in fact thinks only of the heat of the sirocco, but the two preceding writers are thinking of its sand, its thick haze, its quality of blackness and its suffocating character,--all which applied accurately to the true brickfielder.] . rev. h. berkeley jones, `adventures in australia in and ,' p. : "after the languor, the lassitude, and enervation which some persons experience during these hot blasts, comes the `brickfielder,' or southerly burster." [cold temperature noticed, but not dust.] . `fraser's magazine,' , p. : "when the wind blows strongly from the southward, it is what the sydney people call a `brickfielder'; that is, it carries with it dense clouds of red dust or sand, like brick dust, swept from the light soil which adjoins the town on that side, and so thick that the houses and streets are actually hidden; it is a darkness that may be felt." [here it is the dust, not the temperature, which determines the name.] ( ) the very opposite to the original meaning,--a severe hot wind. in this inverted sense the word is now used, but not frequently, in melbourne and in adelaide, and sometimes even in sydney, as the following quotations show. it will be noted that one of them ( ) observes the original prime characteristic of the wind, its dust. . t. mccombie,' australian sketches,' p. : "she passed a gang of convicts, toiling in a broiling `brickfielder.'" . f. j. jobson, `australia with notes by the way,' p. : "the `brickfielders' are usually followed, before the day closes, with `south-busters' [sic.]." . f. cowan, `australia, a charcoal sketch': "the buster and brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; and red-hot simoom." this curious inversion of meaning (the change from cold to hot) may be traced to several causes. it may arise-- (a) from the name itself. people in melbourne and adelaide, catching at the word brickfielder as a name for a dusty wind, and knowing nothing of the origin of the name, would readily adapt it to their own severe hot north winds, which raise clouds of dust all day, and are described accurately as being `like a blast from a furnace,' or `the breath of a brick-kiln.' even a younger generation in sydney, having received the word by colloquial tradition, losing its origin, and knowing nothing of the old brickfields, might apply the word to a hot blast in the same way. (b) from the peculiar phenomenon.--a certain cyclonic change of temperature is a special feature of the australian coastal districts. a raging hot wind from the interior desert (north wind in melbourne and adelaide, west wind in sydney) will blow for two or three days, raising clouds of dust; it will be suddenly succeeded by a `southerly buster' from the ocean, the cloud of dust being greatest at the moment of change, and the thermometer falling sometimes forty or fifty degrees in a few minutes. the sydney word brickfielder was assigned originally to the latter part--the dusty cold change. later generations, losing the finer distinction, applied the word to the whole dusty phenomenon,and ultimately specialized it to denote not so much the extreme dustiness of its later period as the more disagreeable extreme heat of its earlier phase. (c) from the apparent, though not real, confusion of terms, by those who have described it as a `sirocco.'--the word sirocco (spelt earlier schirocco, and in spanish and other languages with the sh sound, not the s) is the italian equivalent of the arabic root sharaga, `it rose.' the name of the wind, sirocco, alludes in its original arabic form to its rising, with its cloud of sand, in the desert high-lands of north africa. true, it is defined by skeat as `a hot wind,' but that is only a part of its definition. its marked characteristic is that it is sand-laden, densely hazy and black, and therefore `choking,' like the brickfielder. the not unnatural assumption that writers by comparing a brickfielder with a sirocco, thereby imply that a brickfielder is a hot wind, is thus disposed of by this characteristic, and by the notes on the passages quoted. they were dwelling only on its choking dust, and its suffocating qualities,--`a miniature sirocco.' see the following quotations on this character of the sirocco:-- . `penny magazine,' dec. , p. : "the islands of italy, especially sicily and corfu, are frequently visited by a wind of a remarkable character, to which the name of sirocco, scirocco, or schirocco, has been applied. the thermometer rises to a great height, but the air is generally thick and heavy . . . . people confine themselves within doors; the windows and doors are shut close, to prevent as much as possible the external air from entering; . . . but a few hours of the tramontane, or north wind which generally succeeds it, soon braces them up again. [compare this whole phenomenon with (b) above.] there are some peculiar circumstances attending the wind. . . . dr. benza, an italian physician, states:--`when the sirocco has been impetuous and violent, and followed by a shower of rain, the rain has carried with it to the ground an almost impalpable red micaceous sand, which i have collected in large quantities more than once in sicily. . . . when we direct our attention to the island of corfu, situated some distance eastward of sicily, we find the sirocco assuming a somewhat different character. . . . the more eastern sirocco might be called a refreshing breeze [sic]. . . . the genuine or black sirocco (as it is called) blows from a point between south-east and south-south-east.'" . w. ferrell, `treatise on winds,' p. : "the dust raised from the sahara and carried northward by the sirocco often falls over the countries north of the mediterranean as `blood rain,' or as `red snow,' the moisture and the sand falling together. . . .the temperature never rises above degrees." . `the century dictionary,' s.v. sirocco: "( ) a hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing from the highlands of africa to the coasts of malta, sicily and naples. . . . during its prevalence the sky is covered with a dense haze." ( ) the illustrative quotations on brickfielder, up to this point, have been in chronological consecutive order. the final three quotations below show that while the original true definition and meaning, ( ), are still not quite lost, yet authoritative writers find it necessary to combat the modern popular inversion, ( ). . frank fowler, `the athenaeum,' feb. , p. , col. : "the `brickfielder' is not the hot wind at all; it is but another name for the cold wind, or southerly buster, which follows the hot breeze, and which, blowing over an extensive sweep of sandhills called the brickfields, semi-circling sydney, carries a thick cloud of dust (or `brickfielder') across the city." [the writer is accusing dr. jobson (see quotation , above) of plagiarism from his book `southern lights and shadows.'] . lyth, `golden south,' vol. ii. p. : "a dust which covered and penetrated everything and everywhere. this is generally known as a `brickfielder.'" . `three essays on australian weather,' `on southerly buster,' by h. a. hunt, p. : "in the early days of australian settlement, when the shores of port jackson were occupied by a sparse population, and the region beyond was unknown wilderness and desolation, a great part of the haymarket was occupied by the brickfields from which brickfield hill takes its name. when a `southerly burster' struck the infant city, its approach was always heralded by a cloud of reddish dust from this locality, and in consequence the phenomenon gained the local name of `brickfielder.' the brickfields have long since vanished, and with them the name to which they gave rise, but the wind continues to raise clouds of dust as of old under its modern name of `southerly burster." bricklow, n. obsolete form of brigalow (q.v.). brigalow, n. and adj. spellings various. native name, buriargalah. in the namoi dialect in new south wales, bri or buri is the name for acacia pendula, cunn.; buriagal, relating to the buri; buriagalah == place of the buri tree. any one of several species of acacia, especially a. harpophylla, f. v. m., h.o. leguminosae. j. h. maiden (`useful native plants,' p. , ) gives its uses thus: "wood brown, hard, heavy, and elastic; used by the natives for spears, boomerangs, and clubs. the wood splits freely, and is used for fancy turnery. saplings used as stakes in vineyards have lasted twenty years or more. it is used for building purposes, and has a strong odour of violets.' . l. leichhardt, quoted by j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "almost impassable bricklow scrub, so called from the bricklow (a species of acacia)." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the bricklow acacia, which seems to be identical with the rosewood acacia of moreton bay; the latter, however, is a fine tree, to feet high, whereas the former is either a small tree or a shrub. i could not satisfactorily ascertain the origin of the word bricklow, but as it is well understood and generally adopted by all the squatters between the severn river and the boyne, i shall make use of the name. its long, slightly falcate leaves, being of a silvery green colour, give a peculiar character to the forest, where the tree abounds."--[footnote]: "brigaloe gould." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "good-bye to the barwan and brigalow scrubs." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "now they pass through a small patch of brigalow scrub. some one has split a piece from a trunk of a small tree. what a scent the dark-grained wood has!" . cassell's `picturesque australasia;' vol. iv. p. : "there exudes from the brigalow a white gum, in outward appearance like gum-arabic, and even clearer, but as a `sticker' valueless, and as a `chew-gum' disappointing." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "the glare of a hard and pitiless sky overhead, the infinite vista of saltbush, brigalow, stay-a-while, and mulga, the creeks only stretches of stone, and no shelter from the shadeless gums." brill, n. a small and very bony rhomboidal fish of new zealand, pseudorhombus scaphus, family pleuronectidae. the true brill of europe is rhombus levis. brisbane daisy, n. see daisy, brisbane. bristle-bird, n. a name given to certain australian reed-warblers. they are--sphenura brachyptera, latham; long-tailed b.--s. longirostris, gould; rufous-headed b.--s. broadbentii, mccoy. see sphenura. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "he (mr. caley) calls it in his notes `bristle bird.'" broad-leaf, n. a settlers' name for griselinia littoralis, raoul; maori name, paukatea. . w. n. blair, `building materials of otago,' p. : "there are few trees in the [otago] bush so conspicuous or so well known as the broad-leaf. . . . it grows to a height of fifty or sixty feet, and a diameter of from three to six; the bark is coarse and fibrous, and the leaves a beautiful deep green of great brilliancy." . j. b. armstrong, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xii. art. , p. : "the broadleaf (griselinia littoralis) is abundant in the district [of banks' peninsula], and produces a hard red wood of a durable nature." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the rough trunks and limbs of the broadleaf." broker, n. australian slang for a man completely ruined, stonebroke. . `the australasian,' nov. , p. : "we're nearly `dead brokers,' as they say out here. let's harness up eclipse and go over to old yamnibar." bronze-wing, n. a bird with a lustrous shoulder, phaps chalcoptera, lath. called also bronze-wing pigeon. . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "one of the gold-winged pigeons, of which a plate is annexed. [under plate, golden-winged pigeon.] this bird is a curious and singular species remarkable for having most of the feathers of the wing marked with a brilliant spot of golden yellow, changing, in various reflections of light, to green and copper-bronze, and when the wing is closed, forming two bars of the same across it." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "the pigeons are by far the most beautiful birds in the island; they are called bronze-winged pigeons." . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. : "mr. fitzpatrick followed his kangaroo hounds, and shot his emus, his wild turkeys, and his bronze-wings." . `once a week.' `the bulla-bulla bunyip.' "hours ago the bronze-wing pigeons had taken their evening draught from the coffee-coloured water-hole beyond the butcher's paddock, and then flown back into the bush to roost on `honeysuckle' and in heather." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "another most beautiful pigeon is the `bronze-wing,' which is nearly the size of the english wood-pigeon, and has a magnificent purply-bronze speculum on the wings." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "both the bronze-wing and wonga-wonga pigeon are hunted so keenly that in a few years they will have become extinct in victoria." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "those who care for museum studies must have been interested in tracing the australian quail and pigeon families to a point where they blend their separate identities in the partridge bronze-wing of the central australian plains. the eggs mark the converging lines just as clearly as the birds, for the partridge-pigeon lays an egg much more like that of a quail than a pigeon, and lays, quail fashion, on the ground." brook-lime, n. english name for an aquatic plant, applied in australia to the plant gratiola pedunculata, r. br., n.o. scrophularinae. also called heartsease. broom, n. name applied to the plant calycothrix tetragona, lab., n.o. myrtaceae. broom, native, n. an australian timber, viminaria denudala, smith, n.o. leguminosae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native broom. wood soft and spongy." broom, purple, n. a tasmanian name for comesperma retusum, lab., n.o. polygaleae. brown snake, n. see under snake. brown-tail, n. bird-name for the tasmanian tit. see tit. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii, pl. : "acanthiza diemenensis, gould. brown-tail, colonists of van diemen's land." brown tree-lizard, n. of new zealand, naultinus pacificus. browny or brownie, n. a kind of currant loaf. . e. d. cleland, `the white kangaroo,' p. : "cake made of flour, fat and sugar, commonly known as `browny.'" . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "four o'clock. `smoke o!' again with more bread and brownie (a bread sweetened with sugar and currants)." . gilbert parker, `round the compass,' p. : "roast mutton and brownie are given us to eat." brumby, broombie (spelling various), n. a wild horse. the origin of this word is very doubtful. some claim for it an aboriginal, and some an english source. in its present shape it figures in one aboriginal vocabulary, given in curr's `australian race' ( ), vol. iii. p. . at p. , booramby is given as meaning "wild" on the river warrego in queensland. the use of the word seems to have spread from the warrego and the balowne about . before that date, and in other parts of the bush ere the word came to them, wild horses were called clear-skins or scrubbers, whilst yarraman (q.v.) is the aboriginal word for a quiet or broken horse. a different origin was, however, given by an old resident of new south wales, to a lady of the name of brumby, viz. "that in the early days of that colony, a lieutenant brumby, who was on the staff of one of the governors, imported some very good horses, and that some of their descendants being allowed to run wild became the ancestors the wild horses of new south wales and queensland." confirmation of this story is to be desired. . `the australasian,' dec. , p. , col. : "passing through a belt of mulga, we saw, on reaching its edge, a mob of horses grazing on the plains beyond. these our guide pronounced to be `brumbies,' the bush name here [queensland] for wild horses." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "the wild horses of this continent known all over it by the australian name of `brumbies.'" ibid. p. : "the untamed and `unyardable' scrub brumby." . r. kipling, `plain tales from the hills,' p. : "juggling about the country, with an australian larrikin; a `brumby' with as much breed as the boy. . . . people who lost money on him called him a `brumby.'" . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms.' p. : "the three-cornered weed he rode that had been a `brumbee.'" . `chambers' journal,' nov. , heading `australian brumbie horses': "the brumbie horse of australia, tho' not a distinct equine variety, possesses attributes and qualities peculiar to itself, and, like the wild cattle and wild buffaloes of australia, is the descendant of runaways of imported stock." . `sydney morning herald,' (letter from `j. f. g.,' dated aug. ): "amongst the blacks on the lower balonne, nebine, warrego, and bulloo rivers the word used for horse is `baroombie,' the `a' being cut so short that the word sounds as `broombie,' and as far as my experience goes refers more to unbroken horses in distinction to quiet or broken ones (`yarraman')." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "yet at times we long to gallop where the reckless bushman rides in the wake of startled brumbies that are flying for their hides." brush, n. at first undergrowth, small trees, as in england; afterwards applied to larger timber growth and forest trees. its earlier sense survives in the compound words; see below. . oxley, `new south wales' (`o.e.d.'): "the timber standing at wide intervals, without any brush or undergrowth." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' ( nd ed.) vol. i. p. : "we journeyed . . . at one time over good plains, at another through brushes." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. i. introd. p. : "jungle, or what in new south wales would be called brush." ibid. vol. v. pl. : "those vast primeval forests of new south wales to which the colonists have applied the name of brushes." . chas. st. julian and edward k. silvester, `the productions, industry, and resources of new south wales,' p. : "what the colonists term `brush' lands are those covered with tall trees growing so near each other and being so closely matted together by underwood, parasites, and creepers, as to be wholly impassable." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. , note: "brush was allotted to the growth of large timber on alluvial lands, with other trees intermixed, and tangled vines. the soil was rich, and `brushland' was well understood as a descriptive term. it may die away, but its meaning deserves to be pointed out." brush-apple, n. see apple. brush-bloodwood, n. see bloodwood. brush-cherry, n. an australian tree, trochocarpa laurina, r. br., and eugenia myrtifolia, simms. called also brush-myrtle. brush-deal, n. a slender queensland tree, cupania anacardioides, a. richard. see brush, above. brusher, n. a bushman's name, in certain parts, for a small wallaby which hops about in the bush or scrub with considerable speed. "to give brusher," is a phrase derived from this, and used in many parts, especially of the interior of australia, and implies that a man has left without paying his debts. in reply to the question "has so-and-so left the township? "the answer, "oh yes, he gave them brusher," would be well understood in the above sense. brush-kangaroo, n. another name for the wallaby (q.v.). . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. viii. p. : "a place . . . thickly inhabited by the small brush-kangaroo." . `proceedings of the royal geographical society,' i. : "these dogs . . . are particularly useful in catching the bandicoots, the small brush kangaroo, and the opossum." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the brush-kangaroo . . . frequents the scrubs and rocky hills." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. iii. p. : "violet was so fast that she could catch the brush-kangaroo (the wallaby) within sight." brush-myrtle, i.q. brush-cherry (q.v.) brush-turkey, n. see turkey. brush-turpentine, n. another name for the tree syncarpia leptopetala, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae, called also myrtle (q.v.). bubrush, n. see wonga and raupo. buck, v. used "intransitively of a horse, to leap vertically from the ground, drawing the feet together like a deer, and arching the back. also transitively to buck off." (`o.e.d.') some say that this word is not australian, but all the early quotations of buck and cognate words are connected with australia. the word is now used freely in the united states; see quotation, . . e. b. kennedy, `four years in queensland,' p. : "having gained his seat by a nimble spring, i have seen a man (a sydney native) so much at his ease, that while the horse has been `bucking a hurricane,' to use a colonial expression, the rider has been cutting up his tobacco and filling his pipe, while several feet in the air, nothing to front of him excepting a small lock of the animal's mane (the head being between its legs), and very little behind him, the stern being down; the horse either giving a turn to the air, or going forward every buck." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "`well,' said one, `that fellow went to market like a bird.' `yes,' echoed another, `bucked a blessed hurricane.' `buck a town down,' cried a third. `never seed a horse strip himself quicker,' cried a fourth." . baillie-grohman, `camps in the rockies,' ch. iv. p. ('standard'): "there are two ways, i understand, of sitting a bucking horse . . . one is `to follow the buck,' the other `to receive the buck.'" . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "the performance is quite peculiar to australian horses, and no one who has not seen them at it would believe the rapid contortions of which they are capable. in bucking, a horse tucks his head right between his fore-legs, sometimes striking his jaw with his hind feet. the back meantime is arched like a boiled prawn's; and in this position the animal makes a series of tremendous bounds, sometimes forwards, sometimes sideways and backwards, keeping it up for several minutes at intervals of a few seconds." buck, n. see preceding verb. . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "i never saw such bucks and jumps into the air as she [the mare] performed." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "for, mark me, he can sit a buck for hours and hours together; and never horse has had the luck to pitch him from the leather." bucker, buck-jumper, n. a horse given to bucking or buck-jumping. . h. berkeley jones, `adventures in australia in and ,' [footnote] p. : "a `bucker' is a vicious horse, to be found only in australia." . `harper's magazine,' july, no. , p. (`o.e.d.'): "if we should . . . select a `bucker,' the probabilities are that we will come to grief." . haddon chambers, `thumbnail sketches of australian life,' p. : "no buck jumper could shake him off." . ibid. p. : "`were you ever on a buck-jumper?' i was asked by a friend, shortly after my return from australia." buck-jumping, bucking, verbal nouns. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "at length it shook off all its holders, and made one of those extraordinary vaults that they call buck-jumping." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. : "that same bucking is just what puzzles me utterly." . rev. j. d. mereweather, `diary of a working clergyman in australia and tasmania, kept during the years - ,' p. : "i believe that an inveterate buckjumper can be cured by slinging up one of the four legs, and lunging him about severely in heavy ground on the three legs. the action they must needs make use of on such an occasion somewhat resembles the action of bucking; and after some severe trials of that sort, they take a dislike to the whole style of thing. an irishman on the murrumbidgee is very clever at this schooling. it is called here `turning a horse inside out.'" . forman (dakota), item , may , (`o.e.d.'): "the majority of the horses there [in australia] are vicious and given to the trick of buck jumping." [it may be worth while to add that this is not strictly accurate.] . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "`i should say that buck jumping was produced in this country by bad breaking,' said mr. neuchamp oracularly. `don't you believe it, sir. bucking is like other vices--runs in the blood.'" buck-shot, n. a settlers' term for a geological formation. see quotation. . `the australasian quarterly,' p. : "the plain under our feet was everywhere furrowed by dead men's graves, and generally covered with the granulated lava, aptly named by the settlers buck-shot, and found throughout the country on these trappean `formations. buck-shot is always imbedded in a sandy alluvium, sometimes several feet thick." buddawong, n. a variation of burrawang (q.v.). . australie, `the buddawong's crown,' `australian poets,' - , ed. sladen, p. : "a buddawong seed-nut fell to earth, in a cool and mossy glade, and in spring it shot up its barbed green swords, secure 'neath the myrtle's shade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and the poor, poor palm has died indeed. but little the strangers care, `there are zamias in plenty more,' they say, but the crown is a beauty rare." budgeree, adj. aboriginal word for good, which is common colloquially in the bush. see budgerigar. . j.hunter, `port jackson,' p. : "they very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would apply to us . . . for marks of our approbation . . . which we never failed to give by often repeating the word boojery, good; or boojery caribberie, a good dance." budgerigar, or betcherrygah, n. aboriginal name for the bird called by gould the warbling grass-parrakeet; called also shell-parrot and zebra- grass-parrakeet. in the port jackson dialect budgeri, or boodgeri, means good, excellent. in `collins' vocabulary' ( ), boodjer-re = good. in new south wales gar is common as first syllable of the name for the white cockatoo, as garaweh. see galah. in the north of new south wales kaar= white cockatoo. the spelling is very various, but the first of the two above given is the more correct etymologically. in the united states it is spelt beauregarde, derived by `standard' from french beau and regarde, a manifest instance of the law of hobson -jobson. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the betshiregah (melopsittacus undulatus, gould) were very numerous." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "melopsittacus undulatus. warbling grass-parrakeet. canary parrot--colonists. betcherrygah--natives of liverpool plains." . letter, nov. , in `life of fenton j. a. hort' ( ), vol. i. p. : "there is also a small green creature like a miniature cockatoo, called a budgeragar, which was brought from australia. he is quaint and now and then noisy, but not on the whole a demonstrative being." . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "young paroquets, the green leeks, and the lovely speckled budgregores." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "i saw several pairs of those pretty grass or zebra parroquets, which are called here by the very inharmonious name of `budgereghars.'" . lyth, `golden south,' c. xiv. p. : "the tiny budgeriegar, sometimes called the shell parrot." bugle, n. name given to the australian plant ajuga australis, r. br., n.o. labiatae. bugler, n. a name given in tasmania to the fish centriscus scolopax, family centriscidae; called in europe the trumpet-fish, bellows-fish, the latter name being also used for it in tasmania. the structure of the mouth and snout suggests a musical instrument, or, combined with the outline of the body, a pair of bellows. the fish occurs also in europe. bugong, or bogong, or bougong, n. an australian moth, danais limniace, or agrotis spina, eaten by the aborigines. . rev. w. b. clarke, `researches in the southern gold fields of new south wales' (second edition), p. : "these moths have obtained their name from their occurrence on the `bogongs' or granite mountains. they were described by my friend dr. bennett in his interesting work on `new south wales,' - , as abundant on the bogong mountain, tumut river. i found them equally abundant, and in full vigour, in december, coming in clouds from the granite peaks of the muniong range. the blacks throw them on the fire and eat them." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the westward range is called the bougongs. the blacks during summer are in the habit of coming thus far to collect and feed on the great grey moths (bougongs) which are found on the rocks." . `the athenaeum,' may , p. : "the gibbs land and murray districts have been divided into the following counties: . . . bogong (native name of grubs and moths)." . r. brough smyth, `the aborigines of victoria,' vol. i. p. "the moths--the bugong moths(agrolis suffusa) are greedily devoured by the natives; and in former times, when they were in season, they assembled in great numbers to eat there, and they grew fat on this food." [also a long footnote.] . richard helms, `records of the australian museum,' vol. i. no. : "my aim was to obtain some `boogongs,' the native name for the moths which so abundantly occur on this range, and no doubt have given it its name." . `sydney mail,' april , answers to correspondents: "it cannot be stated positively, but it is thought that the name of the moth `bogong' is taken from that of the mountain. the meaning of the word is not known, but probably it is an aboriginal word." bull-a-bull, or bullybul, n. a child's corruption of the maori word poroporo (q.v.), a flowering shrub of new zealand. it is allied to the kangaroo-apple (q.v.). . `new plymouth's national song,' in hursthouse's `new zealand,' p. : "and as for fruit, the place is full of that delicious bull-a-bull." bullahoo, n. see ballahoo. bull-ant, n. contracted and common form of the words bull-dog ant (q.v.). bull-dog ant, n. (frequently shortened to bull-dog or bull-ant), an ant of large size with a fierce bite. the name is applied to various species of the genus myrmecia, which is common throughout australia and tasmania. . mrs. h. jones, `long years in australia,' p. : "busy colonies of ants (which everywhere infest the country). . . one kind is very warlike--the `bull-dog': sentinels stand on the watch, outside the nest, and in case of attack disappear for a moment and return with a whole army of the red-headed monsters, and should they nip you, will give you a remembrance of their sting never to be forgotten." . alleged `prize poem,' jubilee exhibition: "the aborigine is now nearly extinct, but the bull-dog-ant and the kangaroo rat are a little too thick--i think." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "where the wily free-selector walks in armour-plated pants, and defies the stings of scorpion and the bites of bull-dog ants." bull-dog shark, i.q. bull-head ( ) (q.v.). bull-head, n. the name is applied to many fishes of different families in various parts of the world, none of which are the same as the following two. ( ) a shark of tasmania and south australia of small size and harmless, with teeth formed for crushing shells, heterodontus phillipi , lacep., family cestraciontidae; also called the bull-dog shark, and in sydney, where it is common, the port-jackson shark : the aboriginal name was tabbigan. ( ) a freshwater fish of new zealand, eleotris gobioides, cuv.and val., family gobiidae. see bighead. bulln-bulln, n. an aboriginal name for the lyre-bird (q.v.). this native name is imitative. the most southerly county in victoria is called buln-buln; it is the haunt of the lyre-bird. . d. bunce, `travels with leichhardt in australia,' p. : "we afterwards learned that this was the work of the bullen bullen, or lyre-bird, in its search for large worms, its favourite food." . `the athenaeum,' may , p. : "the gipps land and murray districts have been divided into the following counties: . . . buln buln (name of lyre-bird)." bull-oak, n. see oak. bullocky, n. and adj. a bullockdriver." in the bush all the heavy hauling is done with bullock-drays. it is quite a common sight up the country to see teams of a dozen and upwards." (b. and l.) . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xii. p. : "by george, jack, you're a regular bullocky boy." bull-puncher, or bullock-puncher, n. slang for a bullockdriver. according to barrere and leland's `slang dictionary,' the word has a somewhat different meaning in america, where it means a drover. see punch. . c. n. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the `bull-puncher,' as bullock-drivers are familiarly called." . j. mathew, song `hawking,' in `queenslander,' oct. : "the stockmen and the bushmen and the shepherds leave the station, and the hardy bullock-punchers throw aside their occupation." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "these teams would comprise from five to six pairs of bullocks each, and were driven by a man euphoniously termed a `bull-puncher.' armed with a six-foot thong, fastened to a supple stick seven feet long. . . ." bull-rout, n. a fish of new south wales, centropogon robustus, guenth., family scorpaenidae. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "it emits a loud and harsh grunting noise when it is caught. . . . the fisherman knows what he has got by the noise before he brings his fish to the surface. . . . when out of the water the noise of the bull-rout is loudest, and it spreads its gills and fins a little, so as to appear very formidable. . . . the blacks held it in great dread, and the name of bull-rout may possibly be a corruption of some native word." bull's-eye, n. a fish of new south wales, priacanthus macracanthus, cuv.and val. priacanthus, says guenther, is a percoid fish with short snout, lower jaw and chin prominent, and small rough scales all over them and the body generally. the eye large, and the colour red, pink, or silvery. . e. p. ramsay, `fisheries exhibition literature,' vol. v. p. : "another good table-fish is the `bull's-eye,' a beautiful salmon-red fish with small scales. . . . at times it enters the harbours in considerable numbers; but the supply is irregular." bulls-wool, n. colloquial name for the inner portion of the covering of the stringybark-tree (q.v.). this is a dry finely fibrous substance, easily disintegrated by rubbing between the hands. it forms a valuable tinder for kindling a fire in the bush, and is largely employed for that purpose. it is not unlike the matted hair of a bull, and is reddish in colour, hence perhaps this nickname, which is common in the tasmanian bush. bully, n. a tasmanian fish, blennius tasmanianus, richards., family blennidae. bulrush, n. see wonga and raupo. bung, to go, v. to fail, to become bankrupt. this phrase of english school-boy slang, meaning to go off with an explosion, to go to smash (also according to barrere and leland still in use among american thieves), is in very frequent use in australia. in melbourne in the times that followed the collapse of the land-boom it was a common expression to say that mr. so-and-so had "gone bung," sc. filed his schedule or made a composition with creditors; or that an institution had "gone bung," sc. closed its doors, collapsed. in parts of australia, in new south wales and queensland, the word "bung" is an aboriginal word meaning "dead," and even though the slang word be of english origin, its frequency of use in australia may be due to the existence of the aboriginal word, which forms the last syllable in billabong (q.v.), and in the aboriginal word milbung blind, literally, eye-dead. (a) the aboriginal word. . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "a place called umpie bung, or the dead houses." [it is now a suburb of brisbane, humpy-bong.] . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. [in blacks' pigeon english]: "missis bail bong, ony cawbawn prighten. (missis not dead, only dreadfully frightened.)" . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "but just before you hands 'im [the horse] over and gets the money, he goes bong on you" (i.e. he dies). . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p: : "their [the blacks'] ordinary creed is very simple. `directly me bung (die) me jump up white feller,' and this seems to be the height of their ambition." . `the age,' dec. , p. , col. : "`then soon go bong, mummy,' said ning, solemnly. `die,' corrected clare. you mustn't talk blacks' language.' `suppose you go bong,' pursued ning reflectively, `then you go to heaven.'" (b) the slang word. . `australian printers' keepsake,' p. : "he was importuned to desist, as his musical talent had `gone bung,' probably from over-indulgence in confectionery." . `the argus,' april (by oriel), p. , col. : "still change is humanity's lot. it is but the space of a day till cold is the damask cheek, and silent the eloquent tongue, all flesh is grass, says the preacher, like grass it is withered away, and we gaze on a bank in the evening, and lo, in the morn 'tis bung." . professor gosman, `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "banks might fail, but the treasures of thought could never go `bung.'" . `the herald' (melbourne), april , p. , col. : "perhaps sydney may supply us with a useful example. one member of the mischief-making brotherhood wrote the words `gone bung' under a notice on the government savings bank, and he was brought before the police court charged with damaging the bank's property to the extent of d. the offender offered the bench his views on the bank, but the magistrates bluntly told him his conduct was disgraceful, and fined him l with costs, or two months' imprisonment." bunga or bungy, n. a new zealand settlers' corruption of the maori word punga (q.v.). bunt, n. a queensland fungus growing on wheat, fetid when crushed. tilletia caries, tul., n.o. fungi. bunya-bunya, n. aboriginal word. [bunyi at heads of burnett, mary, and brisbane rivers, queensland; baanya, on the darling downs.] an australian tree, araucaria bidwillii, hooker, with fruit somewhat like bertholletia excelsa, n.o. coniferae. widgi-widgi station on the mary was the head-quarters for the fruit of this tree, and some thousands of blacks used to assemble there in the season to feast on it; it was at this assembly that they used to indulge in cannibalism ; every third year the trees were said to bear a very abundant crop. the bunya-bunya mountains in queensland derive their name from this tree. . l. leichhardt, letter in `cooksland, by j. d. lang, p. : "the bunya-bunya tree is noble and gigantic, and its umbrella-like head overtowers all the trees of the bush." . ibid. p. : "the kernel of the bunya fruit has a very fine aroma, and it is certainly delicious eating." . `port phillip patriot,' july : "the bunya-bunya or araucaria on the seeds of which numerous tribes of blacks are accustomed to feed." . w. r. guilfoyle, `first book of australian botany,' p. : "a splendid timber tree of south queensland, where it forms dense forests, one of the finest of the araucaria tribe, attaining an approximate height of feet. the bunya-bunya withstands drought better than most of the genus, and flourishes luxuriantly in and around melbourne." . j. mathew, in curr's `australian race,' vol. iii. p. : [a full account.] "in laying up a store of bunyas, the blacks exhibited an unusual foresight. when the fruit was in season, they filled netted bags with the seeds, and buried them." . hill, quoted by j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the cones shed their seeds, which are two to two and a half inches long by three-quarters of an inch broad; they are sweet before being perfectly ripe, and after that resemble roasted chestnuts in taste. they are plentiful once in three years, and when the ripening season arrives, which is generally in the month of january, the aborigina&ls assemble in large numbers from a great distance around, and feast upon them. each tribe has its own particular set of trees, and of these each family has a certain number allotted, which are handed down from generation to generation with great exactness. the bunya is remarkable as being the only hereditary property which any of the aborigines are known to possess, and it is therefore protected by law. the food seems to have a fattening effect on the aborigines, and they eat large quantities of it after roasting it at the fire." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the `bunya-bunya' of the aboriginals--a name invariably adopted by the colonists." . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "the bunya-bunya tree, in the proper season, bears a fir cone of great size--six to nine inches long-and this, when roasted, yields a vegetable pulp, pleasant to eat and nutritious." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "there is a beautiful bunya-bunya in a garden just beyond, its foliage fresh varnished by the rain, and toning from a rich darkness to the very spring tint of tender green." bunyip, n. ( ) the aboriginal name of a fabulous animal. see quotations. for the traditions of the natives on this subject see brough smyth, `aborigines of victoria,' vol. i. p. . . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "certain large fossil bones, found in various parts of australia felix, have been referred by the natives, when consulted on the subject by the colonists, to a huge animal of extraordinary appearance, called in some districts the bunyup, in others the kianpraty, which they assert to be still alive. it is described as of amphibious character, inhabiting deep rivers, and permanent water-holes, having a round head, an elongated neck, with a body and tail resembling an ox. these reports have not been unattended to, and the bunyup is said to have been actually seen by many parties, colonists as well as aborigines. . . .[a skull which the natives said was that of a `piccinini kianpraty' was found by professor owen to be that of a young calf. the professor] considers it all but impossible that such a large animal as the bunyup of the natives can be now living in the country. [mr. westgarth suspects] it is only a tradition of the alligator or crocodile of the north." . w. s. macleay, `tasmanian journal,' vol. iii. p. : "on the skull now exhibited at the colonial museum of sydney as that of the bunyip." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "did my reader ever hear of the bunyip (fearful name to the aboriginal native!) a sort of `half-horse, half-alligator,' haunting the wide rushy swamps and lagoons of the interior?" . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the river is too deep, child, and the bunyip lives in the water under the stones." . `once a week,' dec. , p. , the bulla bulla bunyip': "beyond a doubt, in `lushy luke's' belief, a bunyip had taken temporary lodgings outside the town. this bete noire of the australian bush luke asserted he had often seen in bygone times. he described it as being bigger than an elephant, in shape like a `poley' bullock, with eyes like live coals, and with tusks like a walrus's. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "what the bunyip is, i cannot pretend to say, but i think it is highly probable that the stories told by both old bushmen and blackfellows, of some bush beast bigger and fiercer than any commonly known in australia, are founded on fact. fear and the love of the marvellous may have introduced a considerable element of exaggeration into these stories, but i cannot help suspecting that the myths have an historical basis." . c. gould, `papers and proceedings of the royal society of tasmania,' , p. : "the belief in the bunyip was just as prevalent among the natives in parts hundreds of miles distant from any stream in which alligators occur. . . . some other animal must be sought for." . . . [gould then quotes from `the mercury' of april , , an extract from the `wagga advertiser']: "there really is a bunyip or waa-wee, actually existing not far from us . . . in the midgeon lagoon, sixteen miles north of naraudera . . . i saw a creature coming through the water with tremendous rapidity . . . . the animal was about half as long again as an ordinary retriever dog, the hair all over its body was jet black and shining, its coat was very long." [gould cites other instances, and concludes that the bunyip is probably a seal.] . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "in the south-eastern part of australia the evil spirit of the natives is called bunjup, a monster which is believed to dwell in the lakes. it has of late been supposed that this is a mammal of considerable size that has not yet been discovered . . . is described as a monster with countless eyes and ears. . . . he has sharp claws, and can run so fast that it is difficult to escape him. he is cruel, and spares no one either young or old." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the hollow boom so often heard on the margin of reedy swamps --more hollow and louder by night than day--is the mythical bunyip, the actual bittern." ( ) in a secondary sense, a synonym for an impostor. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "one advantage arose from the aforesaid long-deferred discovery --a new and strong word was adopted into the australian vocabulary: bunyip became, and remains a sydney synonoyme for impostor, pretender, humbug, and the like. the black fellows, however, unaware of the extinction, by superior authority, of their favourite loup-garou, still continue to cherish the fabulous bunyip in their shuddering imagination." . w. c. wentworth--speech in august quoted by sir henry parkes in `fifty years of australian history' ( ), vol. i. p. : "they had been twitted with attempting to create a mushroom, a brummagem, a bunyip aristocracy; but i need scarcely observe that where argument fails ridicule is generally resorted to for aid." burnet, native, n. the name is given in australia to the plant acaena ovina, cunn., n.o. rosaceae. burnett salmon, n. one of the names given to the fish ceratodus forsteri, krefft. see burramundi. burnt-stuff, n. a geological term used by miners. see quotation. . mrs. chas. clancy, `lady's visit to gold diggings,' p. : "the top, or surface soil, for which a spade or shovel is used, was of clay. this was succeeded by a strata almost as hard as iron--technically called `burnt-stuff'--which robbed the pick of its points nearly as soon as the blacksmith had steeled them at a charge of s. d. a point." bur, n. in tasmania the name is applied to acaena rosaceae, vahl., n.o. rosaceae. burramundi, or barramunda, n. a fresh-water fish, osteoglossum leichhardtii, guenth., family osteoglossidae, found in the dawson and fitzroy rivers, queensland. the name is also incorrectly applied by the colonists to the large tidal perch of the fitzroy river, queensland, lates calcarifer, guenth., a widely distributed fish in the east indies, and to ceratodus forsteri, krefft, family sirenidae, of the mary and burnett rivers, queensland. burramundi is the aboriginal name for o. leichhardtii. the spelling barramunda is due to the influence of barracouta (q.v.). see perch. . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "there is a fish too at rockhampton called the burra mundi,-- i hope i spell the name rightly,--which is very commendable." . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "ceratodus. . . . two species, c. forsteri and c. miolepis, are known from fresh-waters of queensland. . . . locally the settlers call it `flathead,' `burnett or dawson salmon,' and the aborigines `barramunda,' a name which they apply also to other largescaled fresh-water fishes, as the osteoglossum leichhardtii. . . . the discovery of ceratodus does not date farther back than the year ." . w. macleay, `descriptive catalogue of australian fishes' ('proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales,' vol. vi. p. ): "osteoglossum leichhardtii, gunth. barramundi of the aborigines of the dawson river." . baldwin spencer, `proceedings of the royal society of victoria,' vol. iv. [note on the habits of ceratodus forsterii] "it has two common names, one of which is the `burnett salmon' and the other the `barramunda" . . . the latter name . . . is properly applied to a very different form, a true teleostean fish (osteoglossum leichhardtii) which is found . . . further north . . . in the dawson and fitzroy . . . mr. saville kent states that the ceratodus is much prized as food. this is a mistake, for, as a matter of fact, it is only eaten by chinese and those who can afford to get nothing better." burrawang, or burwan, n. an australian nut-tree, macrozamia spiralis, miq. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the burwan is a nut much relished by our natives, who prepare it by roasting and immersion in a running stream, to free it from its poisonous qualities." . j. henderson, `excursions in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. "the burrowan, which grows in a sandy soil, and produces an inedible fruit, resembling the pine-apple in appearance." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "burrawang nut, so called because they used to be, and are to some extent now, very common about burrawang, n.s.w. the nuts are relished by the aboriginals. an arrowroot of very good quality is obtained from them." bush, n. not originally an australian application. "recent, and probably a direct adoption of the dutch bosch, in colonies originally dutch" (`o.e.d.'), [quoting ( ) forster, in `phil. trans.' lxxi. , "the common bush-cat of the cape;" and ( ) scott, `tapestr. chamber,' "when i was in the bush, as the virginians call it"]. "woodland, country more or less covered with natural wood applied to the uncleared or untitled districts in the british colonies which are still in a state of nature, or largely so, even though not wooded; and by extension to the country as opposed to the towns." (`o.e.d.') . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "i have spent a good deal of my time in the woods, or bush, as it is called here.' . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "with the exception of two or three little farms, comprising about or acres of cultivation, all was `bush' as it is colonially called. the undergrowth was mostly clear, being covered only with grass or herbs, with here and there some low shrubs." . j. d. lang, `new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "his house was well enough for the bush, as the country is generally termed in the colony." . from a letter quoted in wathen's `the golden colony,' p. : "`the bush,' when the word is used in the towns, means all the uninclosed and uncultivated country . . . when in the country, `the bush' means more especially the forest. the word itself has been borrowed from the cape, and is of dutch origin." . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "`give us something to do in or about melbourne, not away in the bush,' says the deputation of the unemployed." . t. mccombie,' australian sketches,' p. : "at first the eternal silence of the bush is oppressive, but a short sojourn is sufficient to accustom a neophyte to the new scene, and he speedily becomes enamoured of it." . j. f. mortlock, `experiences of a convict,' p. : "the `bush,' a generic term synonymous with `forest' or `jungle,' applied to all land in its primaeval condition, whether occupied by herds or not." . a. mcfarland, `illawarra and manaro,' p. : "all the advantages of civilized life have been surrendered for the bush, its blanket and gunyah." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the technical meaning of the word `bush.' the bush is the gum-tree forest, with which so great a part of australia is covered, that folk who follow a country life are invariably said to live in the bush. squatters who look after their own runs always live in the bush, even though their sheep are pastured on plains. instead of a town mouse and a country mouse in australia, there would be a town mouse and a bush mouse; but mice living in the small country towns would still be bush mice." ibid. c. xx. p. : "nearly every place beyond the influence of the big towns is called `bush,' even though there should not be a tree to be seen around." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. , n.: "bush was a general term for the interior. it might be thick bush, open bush, bush forest, or scrubby bushterms which explain themselves." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "the first thing that strikes me is the lifeless solitude of the bush. . . . there is a deep fascination about the freedom of the bush." . e. w. hornung [title]: "a bride from the bush." . `otago daily times,' jan. , p. , col. : "almost the whole of new south wales is covered with bush. it is not the bush as known in new zealand. it is rather a park-like expanse, where the trees stand widely apart, and where there is grass on the soil between them." bush, adj. or in composition, not always easy to distinguish, the hyphen depending on the fancy of the writer. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "the round trundling of our cart wheels, it is well known, does not always improve the labours of macadam, much less a bush road." . letter by mrs. perry, given in canon goodman's `church in victoria, during episcopate of bishop perry,'p. : "a hard bush sofa, without back or ends." . j. sidney, `emigrants' journal, and travellers' magazine,' p. (letter from caroline chisholm): "what i would particularly recommend to new settlers is `bush partnership'--let two friends or neighbours agree to work together, until three acres are cropped, dividing the work, the expense, and the produce--this partnership will grow apace; i have made numerous bush agreements of this kind . . . i never knew any quarrel or bad feeling result from these partnerships, on the contrary, i believe them calculated to promote much neighbourly good will; but in the association of a large number of strangers, for an indefinite period, i have no confidence." . w. westgarth, `victoria,' c. xi. p. : "the gloomy antithesis of good bushranging and bad bush-roads." [bush-road, however, does not usually mean a made-road through the bush, but a road which has not been formed, and is in a state of nature except for the wear of vehicles upon it, and perhaps the clearing of trees and scrub.] . `the reader,' april , p. , col. (`o.e.d.'): "the roads from the nascent metropolis still partook mainly of the random character of `bush tracks.'" . w. hewitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. p. : "dr. wills offered to go himself in the absence of any more youthful and, through bush seasoning, qualified person." . `blackwood's magazine,' feb., p. [title]: "bush-life in queensland." . r. m. praed, `policy and passion,' c. i. p. : "the driver paused before a bush inn." [in australia the word "inn" is now rare. the word "hotel" has supplanted it.] . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv.p. : "not as bush roads go. the australian habit is here followed of using `bush' for country, though no word could be more ludicrously inapplicable, for there is hardly anything on the way that can really be called a bush." . `sydney morning herald' (exact date lost): "canada, cape colony, and australia have preserved the old significance of bush--chaucer has it so--as a territory on which there are trees; it is a simple but, after all, a kindly development that when a territory is so unlucky as to have no trees, sometimes, indeed, to be bald of any growth whatever, it should still be spoken of as if it had them." . rolf boldrewood, in preface to `the man from snowy river': "it is not easy to write ballads descriptive of the bushland of australia, as on light consideration would appear." . h. lawson, `while the billy boils,' p. : "about byrock we met the bush liar in all his glory. he was dressed like--like a bush larrikin. his name was jim." bush-faller, n. one who cuts down timber in the bush. . `pall mall gazette,' june , p. , col. : "a broken-down, deserted shanty, inhabited once, perhaps, by rail-splitters or bush-fallers." [`o.e.d.,' from which this quotation is taken, puts (?) before the meaning; but "to fall" is not uncommon in australia for "to fell."] bush-fire, n. forests and grass on fire in hot summers. . c. dilke, `greater britain,' vol. ii. part iii. c. iii. p. : "the smoke from these bush-fires extends for hundreds of miles to sea." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xxii. p. : "a reserve in case of bush-fires and bad seasons." bush-lawyer, n. ( ) a bramble. see lawyer. ( ) name often used for a layman who fancies he knows all about the law without consulting a solicitor. he talks a great deal, and `lays down the law.' . h. g. turner, `lecture on j. p. fawkner': "for some years he cultivated and developed his capacity for rhetorical argument by practising in the minor courts of law in tasmania as a paid advocate, a position which in those days, and under the exceptional circumstances of the colony, was not restricted to members of the legal profession, and the term bush lawyer probably takes its origin from the practice of this period." bush-magpie, n. an australian bird, more commonly called a magpie (q.v.). . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : ". . . the omnipresent bush-magpie. here he may warble all the day long on the liquid, mellifluous notes of his doric flute, fit pipe indeed for academic groves . . . sweetest and brightest, most cheery and sociable of all australian birds." bushman, n. ( ) settler in the bush. used to distinguish country residents from townsfolk. . `blackwood's magazine,' p. (`o.e.d.'): "where the wild bushman eats his loathly fare." . j. mathew, song, `the bushman:' "how weary, how dreary the stillness must be! but oh! the lone bushman is dreaming of me." . frank cowan: `australia; a charcoal sketch': "the bushman . . . gunyah, his bark hovel; damper, his unleavened bread baked in the ashes; billy, his tea-kettle, universal pot and pan and bucket; sugar-bag, his source of saccharine, a bee-tree; pheasant, his facetious metaphoric euphism for liar, quasi lyre-bird; fit for woogooroo, for daft or idiotic; brumby, his peculiar term for wild horse; scrubber, wild ox; nuggeting, calf-stealing; jumbuck, sheep, in general; an old-man, grizzled wallaroo or kangaroo; station, run, a sheep- or cattle-ranch; and kabonboodgery--an echo of the sound diablery for ever in his ears, from dawn to dusk of laughing jackass and from dusk to dawn of dingo--his half-bird -and-beast-like vocal substitute for very good. . . ." . h.lawson, `while the billy boils,' p. : "he was a typical bushman, . . . and of the old bush school; one of those slight active little fellows, whom we used to see in cabbage-tree hats, crimean shirts, strapped trousers, and elastic-side boots." ( ) one who has knowledge of the bush, and is skilled in its ways. a "good bushman" is especially used of a man who can find his way where there are no tracks. . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' pp. , : "it is hardly likely that so splendid a bushman as mr. batman would venture upon such an expedition had he not been well. in fact a better bushman at this time could not be met with." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "the worst bushman had to undertake the charge of the camp, cook the provisions, and look after the horses, during the absence of the rest on flying excursions." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "very slight landmarks will serve to guide a good bushman, for no two places are really exactly alike." . rolf boldrewood, `sydney-side saxon,' p. : "one of the best bushmen in that part of the country: the men said he could find his way over it blindfold, or on the darkest night that ever was." ( ) special sense. see quotation. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "some were what is termed, par excellence, bushmen--that is, men who split rails, get posts, shingles, take contracts for building houses, stockyards, etc.--men, in fact, who work among timber continually, sometimes felling and splitting, sometimes sawing." bushmanship, n. knowledge of the ways of the bush. . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "a good laugh at the bushmanship displayed." bushranger, n. one who ranges or traverses the bush, far and wide; an australian highwayman; in the early days usually an escaped convict. shakspeare uses the verb `to range' in this connection. "then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen in murders and in outrage, boldly here." (`richard ii.,' iii. ii. .) "ranger" is used in modern english for one who protects and not for one who robs; as `the ranger' of a park. . may , `sydney gazette' or `new south wales advertiser, given in `history of new south wales,' p. : "yesterday afternoon, william page, the bushranger repeatedly advertised, was apprehended by three constables." . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : [the settlements in van diemen's land have] "been infested for many years past by a banditti of runaway convicts, who have endangered the person and property of every one. . . . these wretches, who are known in the colony by the name of bushrangers. . ." . lieut. chas. jeffreys, `van dieman's [sic] land,' p. : "the supposition . . . rests solely on the authority of the bush rangers, a species of wandering brigands, who will be elsewhere described." . t. l. `mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "bushrangers, a sub-genus in the order banditti, which happily can now only exist there in places inaccessible to the mounted police." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "this country [van diemen's land] is as much infested as new south wales with robbers, runaway convicts, or, as they are termed, bush-rangers." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the whole region was infested by marauding bands of bush-rangers, terrible after nightfall." . j. f. hogan, `the irish in australia, p. : "whilst he was engaged in this duty in victoria, a band of outlaws--'bushrangers' as they are colonially termed-- who had long defied capture, and had carried on a career of murder and robbery, descended from their haunts in the mountain ranges." bush-ranging, n. the practice of the bushranger (q.v.). . `captain robinson's report,' dec. "it was a subject of complaint among the settlers, that their assigned servants could not be known from soldiers, owing to their dress; which very much assisted the crime of `bush-ranging.'" bush-scrubber, n. a bushman's word for a boor, bumpkin, or slatternly person. see scrubber. . modern. up-country manservant on seeing his new mistress: "my word! a real lady! she's no bush-scrubber!" bush-telegraph, n. confederates of bushrangers who supply them with secret information of the movements of the police. . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "the police are baffled by the false reports of the confederates and the number and activity of the bush telegraphs." . kenneth mackay, `out back,' p. : "a hint dropped in this town set the bush telegraphs riding in all directions." bushwoman, n. see quotation. . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : "but who has championed the cause of the woman of the bush-- or, would it be more correct to say bushwoman, as well as bushman?--and allowed her also a claim to participate in the founding of a nation?" bush-wren, n. see wren. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : [a full description.] bushed, adj., quasi past participle, lost in the bush; then, lost or at a loss. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "i left my seat to reach a shelter, which was so many miles off, that i narrowly escaped being `bushed.'" . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. p. : "the poor youth, new to the wilds, had, in the expressive phrase of the colonials, got bushed, that is, utterly bewildered, and thus lost all idea of the direction that he ought to pursue." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "i get quite bushed in these streets." . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "the ministry did not assume its duty of leading the house, and mr. higgins graphically described the position of affairs by stating that the house was `bushed;' while mr. shiels compared the situation to a rudderless ship drifting hither and thither." bustard, n. "there are about twenty species, mostly of africa, several of india, one of australia, and three properly european." (`century.') the australian variety is eupodotis australis, gray, called also wild turkey, native turkey, and plain turkey. see turkey. buster, southerly, n. the word is a corruption of `burster,' that which bursts. a sudden and violent squall from the south. the name, used first in sydney, has been adopted also in other australian cities. see brickfielder. . f. fowler, in `athenaeum,' feb. , p. , col. : "the cold wind or southerly buster which . . . carries a thick cloud of dust . . . across the city." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "southerly busters by `ironbark.'" . f. cowan, `australia, a charcoal sketch': "the buster and brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard; and red-hot simoom." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "generally these winds end in what is commonly called a `southerly buster.' this is preceded by a lull in the hot wind; then suddenly (as it has been put) it is as though a bladder of cool air were exploded, and the strong cool southerly air drives up with tremendous force. however pleasant the change of temperature may be it is no mere pastime to be caught in a `southerly buster,' but the drifting rain which always follows soon sets matters right, allays the dust, and then follows the calm fresh bracing wind which is the more delightful by contrast with the misery through which one has passed for three long dreary days and nights." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "you should see him with commodore jack out in the teeth of the `hard glad weather,' when a southerly buster sweeps up the harbour." . h. a.hunt, in `three essays on australian weather' (sydney), p. : an essay on southerly bursters, . . . with four photographs and five diagrams." [title of an essay which was awarded the prize of l offered by the hon. ralph abercrombie.] butcher, n. south australian slang for a long drink of beer, so-called (it is said) because the men of a certain butchery in adelaide used this refreshment regularly; cf. "porter" in england, after the drink of the old london porters. butcher-bird, n. the name is in use elsewhere, but in australia it is applied to the genus cracticus. the varieties are-- the butcher-bird-- cracticus torquatus, lath.; formerly c. destructor, gould. black b.-- c. quoyi, less. black-throated b.-- c. nigrigularis, gould. grey b. (derwent jackass)-- c. cinereus, gould (see jackass). pied b.-- c. picatus, gould. rufous b.-- c. rufescens, de vis. silver-backed b.-- c. argenteus, gould. spalding's b.-- c. spaldingi, masters. white-winged b.-- c. leucopterus, cav. the bird is sometimes called a crow-shrike. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "mr. caley observes--butcher-bird. this bird used frequently to come into some green wattle-trees near my house, and in wet weather was very noisy; from which circumstance it obtained the name of `rain-bird.'" . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "cracticus destructor. butcher bird, name given by colonists of swan river, a permanent resident in new south wales and south australia. i scarcely know of any australian bird so generally dispersed." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "close to the station one or two butcher-birds were piping their morning song, a strange little melody with not many notes, which no one who has heard it will ever forget." buttercup, n. the familiar english flower is represented in australia and tasmania by various species of ranunculus, such as r. lappaceus, sm., n.o. ranunculaceae. butter-fish, n. a name given in australia to oligorus mitchellii, castln. (see murray perch); in victoria, to chilodactylus nigricans, richards. (see morwong); in new zealand, to coridodax pullus, forst., called also kelp-fish. the name is in allusion to their slippery coating of mucus. see kelp-fish. . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip,' vol. iii. p. : "in the bay are large quantities of . . . butter-fish." . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "the `butter-fish,' or `kelp-fish' of the colonists of new zealand (c. pullus), is prized as food, and attains to a weight of four or five pounds." butterfly-conch, n. tasmanian name for a marine univalve mollusc, voluta papillosa, swainson. butterfly-fish, n. a new zealand sea-fish, gasterochisma melampus, richards., one of the nomeidae. the ventral fins are exceedingly broad and long, and can be completely concealed in a fold of the abdomen. the new zealand fish is so named from these fins; the european butterfly-fish, blennius ocellaris, derives its name from the spots on its dorsal fin, like the eyes in a peacock's tail or butterfly's wing. butterfly-lobster, n. a marine crustacean, so called from the leaf-like expansion of the antennae. it is "the highly specialized macrourous decapod ibacus peronii." (w. a. haswell.) . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "those curious crustaceans that i have heard called `butterfly lobsters'. . . the shell of the head and body (properly known as the carapace) expands into something like wing-forms, entirely hiding the legs beneath them." butterfly-plant, n. a small flowering plant, utricularia dichotoma, lab., n.o. leutibularina. button-grass, n. schaenus sphaerocephalus, poiret, n.o. cyperaceae. the grass is found covering barren boggy land in tasmania, but is not peculiar to tasmania. so called from the round shaped flower (capitate inflorescence), on a thin stalk four or five feet long, like a button on the end of a foil. buzzard, n. an english bird-name applied in australia to gypoictinia melanosternon, gould, the black-breasted buzzard. c cabbage garden, a name applied to the colony of victoria by sir john robertson, the premier of new south wales, in contempt for its size. . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "`the cabbage garden,' old cynical sir john robertson, of new south wales, once called victoria, but a garden notwithstanding. better at any rate `the cabbage garden' than the mere sheep run or cattle paddock." cabbage-palm, n. same as cabbage-tree ( ) (q.v.). cabbage-tree, n ( )name given to various palm trees of which the heart of the young leaves is eaten like the head of a cabbage. in australia the name is applied to the fan palm, livistona inermis, r. br., and more commonly to livistona australis, martius. in new zealand the name is given to various species of cordyline, especially to cordyline indivisa. see also flame-tree ( ). . `capt. cook's journal,' ed. wharton ( ), p. : "we likewise found one cabage tree which we cut down for the sake of the cabage." . g.barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "even the ships crews helped, except those who brought the cabbage trees." . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "cabbage-tree . . . grew in abundance." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "several of my companions suffered by eating too much of the cabbage-palm." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. p. : "clumps of what the people of king george's sound call cabbage-trees." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "there stands an isolated `cabbage-tree' (ti of the natives; cordyline australis) nearly thirty feet high, with ramified branches and a crown of luxuriant growth." ( ) a large, low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, made out of the leaves of the cabbage-tree (livistona). . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' : "this hat, made of white filaments of the cabbage-tree, seemed to excite the attention of the whole party." . g. f. p., `gold pen and pencil sketches,' xv.: "with scowl indignant flashing from his eye, as though to wither each unshaven wretch, jack jogs along, nor condescends reply, as to the price his cabbage-tree might fetch." . `once a week,' dec. , p. , the bulla bulla bunyip': "lushy luke endeavoured to sober himself by dipping his head in the hollowed tree-trunk which serves for the water-trough of an up-country australian inn. he forgot, however, to take off his `cabbage-tree' before he ducked, and angry at having made a fool of himself, he gave fierce orders, in a thick voice, for his men to fall in, shoulder arms, and mark time." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. pp. , : "the cabbage-palm was also a new species, called by mr. brown the livistonia inermis. it was abundant; but the cabbage (the heart of the young budding leaves) too small to be useful as an article of food, at least to a ship's company. but the leaves were found useful. these dried and drawn into strips were plaited into hats for the men, and to this day the cabbage-tree hat is very highly esteemed by the australians, as a protection from the sun, and allowing free ventilation." [note]: "a good cabbage-tree hat, though it very much resembles a common straw hat, will fetch as much as l ." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : ". . . trousers, peg-top shaped, and wore a new cabbage-tree hat." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "a brand-new cabbage-tree hat protected his head." cabbage-tree mob, and cabbagites, obsolete australian slang for modern larrikins (q.v)., because wearing cabbage-tree hats. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes `(edition ), p. : "there are to be found round the doors of the sydney theatre a sort of `loafers' known as the cabbage-tree mob,--a class who, in the spirit of the ancient tyrant, one might excusably wish had but one nose in order to make it a bloody one. . . . unaware of the propensities of the cabbagites he was by them furiously assailed." cad, n. name in queensland for the cicada (q.v.). . `the australasian,' jan. , p. , col. : "from the trees sounds the shrill chirp of large green cicada (native cads as the bushmen call them)." caddie, n. a bush name for the slouch-hat or wide-awake. in the australian bush the brim is generally turned down at the back and sometimes all round. cadet, n. term used in new zealand, answering to the australian colonial experience, or jackaroo (q.v.). . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "a cadet, as they are called--he is a clergyman's son learning sheepfarming under our auspices." . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "the military designation of cadet was applied to any young fellow who was attached to a sheep or cattle station in the same capacity as myself. he was `neither flesh nor fowl nor good red herring,' neither master nor man. he was sent to work with the men, but not paid." caloprymnus, n. the scientific name of the genus called the plain kangaroo-rat. (grk. kalos, beautiful, and prumnon, hinder part.) it has bright flanks. see kangaroo-rat. camp, n. ( ) a place to live in, generally temporary; a rest. . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' pp. , : " i was shown my camp, which was a slab but about a hundred yards away from the big house. . . . i was rather tired, and not sorry for the prospect of a camp." ( ) a place for mustering cattle. . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "all about the run, at intervals of fire or six miles, are cattle-camps, and the cattle that belong to the surrounding districts are mustered on their respective camps." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "there was never his like in the open bush, and never his match on the cattle-camps." ( ) in australia, frequently used for a camping-out expedition. often in composition with "out," a camp-out. . `colonial monthly,' vol. iv.p. : "a young fellow with even a moderate degree of sensibility must be excited by the novelty of his first `camp-out' in the australian bush." . r. h. inglis, `australian cousins,' p. : "we're going to have a regular camp; we intend going to port hocking to have some shooting, fishing, and general diversion." ( ) a name for sydney and for hobart, now long obsolete, originating when british military forces were stationed there. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "it is the old resident--he who still calls sydney, with its population of twelve thousand inhabitants, the camp,--that can appreciate these things: he who still recollects the few earth-huts and solitary tents scattered through the forest brush surrounding sydney cove (known properly then indeed by the name of `the camp')." . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "living during the winter in hobarton, usually called `the camp,' in those days." camp, v. ( ) generally in composition with "out," to sleep in the open air, usually without any covering. camping out is exceedingly common in australia owing to the warmth of the climate and the rarity of rain. . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "i like to hear of benighted or belated travellers when they have had to `camp out,' as it is technically called." . r. and f. hill, `what we saw in australia,' p. : "so the bishop determined to `camp-out' at once where a good fire could be made." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "there is room here for fifty, rolled up on the floor; and should that fail them, there is no end of other places; or the bush, as a fall back, where, indeed, some of them prefer camping as it is." . `the australasian,' nov. , p. , col. : `a lady in the kermadecs': "for three months i `camped out' there alone, shepherding a flock of angoras." ( ) by extension, to sleep in any unusual place, or at an unusual time. . `review of reviews' (australasian ed. ), march, p. : "the campaign came to an abrupt and somewhat inglorious close, sir george dibbs having to `camp' in a railway carriage, and sir henry parkes being flood-bound at quirindi." . modern: "visitor,--`where's your mother?' `oh, she's camping.'" [the lady was enjoying an afternoon nap indoors.] ( ) to stop for a rest in the middle of the day. . mrs. cross (ada cambridge), `the three miss kings,' p. : "we'll have lunch first before we investigate the caves--if it's agreeable to you. i will take the horses out, and we'll find a nice place to camp before they come." ( ) to floor or prove superior to. slang. . c. h. kendall, `poems,' p. : "at punching oxen you may guess there's nothing out can camp him. he has, in fact, the slouch and dress, which bullock-driver stamp him." camphor-wood, n. an australian timber; the wood of callitris (frenea) robusta, cunn., n.o. coniferae. called also light, black, white, dark, and common pine, as the wood varies much in its colouring. see pine. canajong, n. tasmanian aboriginal name for the plants called pig-faces (q.v.). . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "pig-faces. it was the canajong of the tasmanian aboriginal. the fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: the leaves are eaten baked." canary, n. ( ) a bird-name used in new zealand for clitonyx ochrocephala, called also the yellow-head. dwellers in the back-blocks of australia apply the name to the orange-fronted ephthianura (e. aurifrons, gould), and sometimes to the white-throated gerygone (gerygone albigularis). . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "clitonyx ochrocephala. yellow-head. `canary' of the colonists." ( ) slang for a convict. see quotations. as early as , `canary-bird' was thieves' english for a gaol-bird. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "convicts of but recent migration are facetiously known by the name of canaries, by reason of the yellow plumage in which they are fledged at the period of landing." . t. h. braim, `new homes,' c. ii. p. : "the prisoners were dressed in yellow-hence called `canary birds.'" . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. vi. p. : "can't you get your canaries off the track here for about a quarter of an hour, and let my mob of cattle pass ?" candle-nut, n. the name is given in queensland to the fruit of aleurites moluccana, willd., n.o. euphorbiaceae. the nuts are two or more inches diameter. the name is often given to the tree itself, which grows wild in queensland and is cultivated in gardens there under the name of a. triloba, forst. it is not endemic in australia, but the vernacular name of candle-nut is confined to australia and the polynesian islands. . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "candle-nut. the kernels when dried and stuck on a reed are used by the polynesian islanders as a substitute for candles, and as an article of food in new georgia. these nuts resemble walnuts somewhat in size and taste. when pressed they yield a large proportion of pure palatable oil, used as a drying-oil for paint, and known as country walnut-oil and artists' oil." cane-grass, n. i.q. bamboo-grass (q.v.). cape-barren goose, n. see goose. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. , [footnote]: "the `cape barren goose' frequents the island from which it takes its name, and others in the straits. it is about the same size as a common goose, the plumage a handsome mottled brown and gray, somewhat owl-like in character." [cape barren island is in bass strait, between flinders island and tasmania. banks strait flows between cape barren island and tasmania. the easternmost point on the island is called cape barren.] cape-barren tea, n. a shrub or tree, correa alba, andr., n.o. rutaceae. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "leptospermum lanigerum, hoary tea-tree; acacia decurrens, black wattle; correa alba, cape barren tea. the leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in the colony." cape lilac, n. see lilac. cape weed, n. in europe, roccella tinctoria, a lichen from the cape de verde islands, from which a dye is produced. in new zealand, name given to the european cats-ear, hypaechoris radicata. in australia it is as in quotation below. see `globe encyclopaedia,' (s.v.). . w. r. guilfoyle, `first book of australian botany,' p. : "cape weed. cryptostemma calendulaceum. (natural order, compositae.) this weed, which has proved such a pest in many parts of victoria, was introduced from the cape of good hope, as a fodder plant. it is an annual, flowering in the spring, and giving a bright golden hue to the fields. it proves destructive to other herbs and grasses, and though it affords a nutritious food for stock in the spring, it dies off in the middle of summer, after ripening its seeds, leaving the fields quite bare." caper-tree, n. the australian tree of this name is capparis nobilis, f. v. m., n.o. capparideae. the karum of the queensland aboriginals. the fruit is one to two inches in diameter. called also grey plum or native pomegranate. the name is also given to capparis mitchelli, lindl. the european caper is capparis spinosa, linn. . `melbourne museum catalogue, economic woods,' p. : "native caper tree or wild pomegranate. natural order, capparideae. found in the mallee scrub. a small tree. the wood is whitish, hard, close-grained, and suitable for engraving, carving, and similar purposes. strongly resembles lancewood." captain cook, or cooker, n. new zealand colonists' slang. first applied to the wild pigs of new zealand, supposed to be descended from those first introduced by captain cook; afterwards used as term of reproach for any pig which, like the wild variety, obstinately refused to fatten. see introduction. . w. quin, `new zealand country journal,' vol. iii. p. : "many a rare old tusker finds a home in the mountain gorges. the immense tusks at brooksdale attest the size of the wild boars or captain cooks, as the patriarchs are generally named." . e. wakefield, `new zealand after fifty years,' p. : "the leanness and roughness of the wild pig gives it quite a different appearance from the domesticated variety; and hence a gaunt, ill-shaped, or sorry-looking pig is everywhere called in derision a `captain cook.'" carbora, n. aboriginal name for ( ) the native bear. see bear. ( ) a kind of water worm that eats into timber between high and low water on a tidal river. cardamom, n. for the australian tree of this name, see quotation. . c. lumholtz,' among cannibals,' p. : "the australian cardamom tree." [footnote]: "this is a fictitious name, as are the names of many australian plants and animals. the tree belongs to the nutmeg family, and its real name is myristica insipida. the name owes its existence to the similarity of the fruit to the real cardamom. but the fruit of the myristica has not so strong and pleasant an odour as the real cardamom, and hence the tree is called insipida." carp, n. the english fish is of the family cyprinidae. the name is given to different fishes in ireland and elsewhere. in sydney it is chilodactylus fuscus, castln., and chilodactylus macropterus, richards.; called also morwong (q.v.). the murray carp is murrayia cyprinoides, castln., a percoid fish. chilodactylis belongs to the family cirrhitidae, in no way allied to cyprinidae, which contains the european carps. cirrhitidae, says guenther, may be readily recognized by their thickened undivided lower pectoral rays, which in some are evidently auxiliary organs of locomotion, in others, probably, organs of touch. carpet-shark, n. i.q. wobbegong (q.v.) carpet-snake, n. a large australian snake with a variegated skin, python variegata, gray. in whitworth's `anglo-indian dictionary,' (s.v.), we are told that the name is loosely applied (sc. in india) to any kind of snake found in a dwelling-house other than a cobra or a dhaman. in tasmania, a venomous snake, hoplocephalus curtus, schlegel. see under snake. carrier, n. a local name for a water-bag. . a. f. calvert, `english illustrated,' feb., p. : "for the water-holders or `carriers' (made to fit the bodies of the horses carrying them, or to `ride easily' on pack-saddles)." carrot, native, ( ) daucus brachiatus, sieb., n.o. umbelliferae. not endemic in australia. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the native carrot . . . was here withered and in seed." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native carrot. stock are very fond of this plant when young. sheep thrive wonderfully on it where it is plentiful. it is a small annual herbaceous plant, growing plentifully on sandhills and rich soil; the seeds, locally termed `carrot burrs,' are very injurious to wool, the hooked spines with which the seeds are armed attaching themselves to the fleece, rendering portions of it quite stiff and rigid. the common carrot belongs, of course, to this genus, and the fact that it is descended from an apparently worthless, weedy plant, indicates that the present species is capable of much improvement by cultivation." ( ) in tasmania geranium dissectum, linn., is also called "native carrot." cascarilla, native, n. an australian timber, croton verreauxii, baill., n.o. euphorbiaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native cascarilla. a small tree; wood of a yellowish colour, close-grained and firm." cassowary, n. the word is malay, the genus being found in "the islands in the indian archipelago." (`o.e.d.') the australian variety is casuarius australis, waller. the name is often erroneously applied (as in the first two quotations), to the emu (q.v.), which is not a cassowary. . governor phillip, `voyage,' c. xxii. p. : "new holland cassowary. [description given.] this bird is not uncommon to new holland, as several of them have been seen about botany bay, and other parts. . . . although this bird cannot fly, it runs so swiftly that a greyhound can scarcely overtake it. the flesh is said to be in taste not unlike beef." . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. xi. p. : "the cassowary of new south wales is larger in all respects than the well-known bird called the cassowary." . j. gould, `birds of australia' (supplement): "casuarius australis, wall., australian cassowary, sometimes called black emu." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "one day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick brushwood. the australian cassowary is found in northern queensland from herbert river northwards, in all the large vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers, and on the high mountains of the coasts." ibid. p. . "the proud cassowary, the stateliest bird of australia . . . this beautiful and comparatively rare creature.'" . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "the australian cassowary. . . . they are somewhat shorter and stouter in build than the emu." casuarina, n. the scientific name of a large group of trees common to india, and other parts lying between india and australasia, but more numerous in australia than elsewhere, and often forming a characteristic feature of the vegetation. they are the so-called she-oaks (q.v.). the word is not, however, australian, and is much older than the discovery of australia. its etymology is contained in the quotation, . . `naval chronicles,' c. xv. p. : "clubs made of the wood of the casuarina." . r. brown, `botany of terra australis,' in m. flinders' `voyage to terra australis,' vol. ii. p. : "casuarinae. the genus casuarina is certainly not referable to any order of plants at present established . . . it may be considered a separate order. . . . the maximum of casuarina appears to exist in terra australis, where it forms one of the characteristic features of the vegetation." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "the dark selvage of casuarinas fringing its bank." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the vegetation assumed a new character, the eucalyptus and casuarina alternating with the wild cherry and honeysuckle." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the scientific name of these well-known plants is as appropriate as their vernacular appellation is odd and unsuited. the former alludes to the cassowary (casuarius), the plumage of which is comparatively as much reduced among birds, as the foliage of the casuarinas is stringy among trees. hence more than two centuries ago rumph already bestowed the name casuarina on a java species, led by the dutch colonists, who call it there the casuaris-boom. the australian vernacular name seems to have arisen from some fancied resemblance of the wood of some casuarinas to that of oaks, notwithstanding the extreme difference of the foliage and fruit; unless, as dr. hooker supposes, the popular name of these trees and shrubs arose from the canadian `sheack.'" . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "from a fancied resemblance of the wood of casuarinas to that of oak, these trees are called `oaks,' and the same and different species have various appellations in various parts." . c. lumholtz; `among cannibals,' p. : "along its banks (the comet's) my attention was drawn to a number of casuarinas--those leafless, dark trees, which always make a sad impression on the traveller; even a casual observer will notice the dull, depressing sigh which comes from a grove of these trees when there is the least breeze.'" cat-bird, n. in america the name is given to mimus carolinensis, a mocking thrush, which like the australian bird has a cry resembling the mewing of a cat. the australian species are-- the cat-bird-- ailuraedus viridis, lath. spotted c.-- ailuraedus maculosus, ramsay. pomatostomus rubeculus, gould. tooth-billed c.-- scenopaeus dentirostris, ramsay. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "its loud, harsh and extraordinary note is heard; a note which differs so much from that of all other birds, that having been once heard it can never be mistaken. in comparing it to the nightly concert of the domestic cat, i conceive that i am conveying to my readers a more perfect idea of the note of this species than could be given by pages of description. this concert, like that of the animal whose name it bears, is performed either by a pair or several individuals, and nothing more is required than for the hearer to shut his eyes from the neighbouring foliage to fancy himself surrounded by london grimalkins of house-top celebrity." . d.macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "one of the most peculiar of birds' eggs found about the murray is that of the locally-termed `cat-bird,' the shell of which is veined thickly with dark thin threads as though covered with a spider's web." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals.' p. : "the cat-bird (aeluraedus maculosus), which makes its appearance towards evening, and has a voice strikingly like the mewing of a cat." . `the argus,' march : "another quaint caller of the bush is the cat-bird, and its eggs are of exactly the colour of old ivory." . g. a. keartland, `horne expedition in central australia,' pt. ii. zoology, p. : "their habit of mewing like a cat has gained for them the local cognomen of cat-birds." cat-fish, n. the name is applied in the old world to various fishes of the family siluridae, and also to the wolf-fish of europe and north america. it arises from the resemblance of the teeth in some cases or the projecting "whiskers" in others, to those of a cat. in victoria and new south wales it is a fresh-water fish, copidoglanis tandanus, mitchell, brought abundantly to melbourne by railway. it inhabits the rivers of the murray system, but not of the centre of the continent. called also eel-fish and tandan (q.v.). in sydney the same name is applied also to cnidoglanis megastoma, rich., and in new zealand kathetostoma monopterygium. cnidoglanis and cnidoglanis are siluroids, and kathetostoma is a"stargazer," i.e. a fish having eyes on the upper surface of the head, belonging to the family trachinidsae. . j. henderson, `excursions in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the cat-fish, which i have frequently caught in the mcleay, is a large and very ugly animal. its head is provided with several large tentacatae, and it has altogether a disagreeable appearance. i have eat its flesh, but did not like it." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. [footnote]: "mr. frank buckland . . . writing of a species of rock-fish, says--`i found that it had a beautiful contrivance in the conformation of its mouth. it has the power of prolongating both its jaws to nearly the extent of half-an-inch from their natural position. this is done by a most beautiful bit of mechanism, somewhat on the principle of what are called `lazy tongs.' the cat-fish possesses a like feature, but on a much larger scale, the front part of the mouth being capable of being protruded between two and three inches when seizing prey.'" cat, native, n. a small carnivorous marsupial, of the genus dasyurus. the so-called native cat is not a cat at all, but a marsupial which resembles a very large rat or weasel, with rather a bushy tail. it is fawn-coloured or mouse-coloured, or black and covered with little white spots; a very pretty little animal. it only appears at night, when it climbs fences and trees and forms sport for moonlight shooting. its skin is made into fancy rugs and cloaks or mantles. the animal is more correctly called a dasyure (q.v.). the species are-- black-tailed native cat dasyurus geoffroyi, gould. common n.c. (called also tiger cat, q.v.)-- d. viverrimus, shaw. north australian n.c.-- d. hallucatus, gould. papuan n.c.-- d. albopienetatus, schl. slender n.c.-- d. gracilis, ramsay. spotted-tailed n.c. (called also tiger cat)-- d. maculatus, kerr. . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "the native cat is similar [to the tiger cat; q.v.] but smaller, and its for is an ashy-grey with white spots. we have seen two or three skins quite black, spotted with white, but these are very rare." . h. h.hayter, `carboona,' p. : "a blanket made of the fur-covered skins of the native cat." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the voices of most of our night animals are guttural and unpleasing. the 'possum has a throaty half-stifled squeak, the native cat a deep chest-note ending with a hiss and easily imitated." [see skirr.] catholic frog, n. name applied to a frog living in the inland parts of new south wales, notaden bennettii, guenth., which tides over times of drought in burrows, and feeds on ants. called also "holy cross toad." the names are given in consequence of a large cross-shaped blackish marking on the back. . j. j. fletcher, `proceedings of the linnaean society, new south wales,' vol. vi. ( nd series), p. : "notaden bennettii, the catholic frog, or as i have heard it called the holy cross toad, i first noticed in january , after a heavy fall of rain lasting ten days, off and on, and succeeding a severe drought." cat's eyes, n. not the true cat's-eye, but the name given in australia to the opercula of turbo smaragdus, martyn, a marine mollusc. the operculum is the horny or shelly lid which closes the aperture of most spiral shell fish. cat's-head fern, n. aspidium aculeatum, sw.: . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "the cat's-head fern; though why that name was given to it i have not the remotest idea. . . . it is full of beauty--the pinnules so exquisitely formed and indented, and gemmed beneath with absolute constellations of spori polystichum vestitum." catspaw, n. a tasmanian plant, trichinium spathulatum, poir., n.o. amarantaceae. cat's tail, n. see wonga. cattle-bush, n. a tree, atalaya hemiglauca, f. v. m., n.o. sapindacea. it is found in south australia, new south wales, and queensland, and is sometimes called whitewood. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "cattle-bush . . . the leaves of this tree are eaten by stock, the tree being frequently felled for their use during seasons of drought." cattle-duffer, n. a man who steals cattle (usually by altering their brands). see also duffer. . `melbourne punch,' july , cartoon verses: "cattle-duffers on a jury may be honest men enough, but they're bound to visit lightly sins in those who cattle duff." cattle-racket, n. explained in quotation. . `settlers and convicts; or recollections of sixteen years' labour in the australian backwoods,' p. : "a cattle-racket. the term at the head of this chapter was originally applied in new south wales to the agitation of society which took place when some wholesale system of plunder in cattle was brought to light. it is now commonly applied to any circumstance of this sort, whether greater or less, and whether springing from a felonious intent or accidental." caustic-creeper, n. name given to euphorbia drummondii, boiss., n.o. euphorbiaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "called `caustic-creeper' in queensland. called `milk-plant' and `pox-plant' about bourke. this weed is unquestionably poisonous to sheep, and has recently (oct. ) been reported as having been fatal to a flock near bourke, new south wales. . . . when eaten by sheep in the early morning, before the heat of the sun has dried it up, it is almost certain to be fatal. its effect on sheep is curious. the head swells to an enormous extent, becoming so heavy that the animal cannot support it, and therefore drags it along the ground; the ears suppurate. (bailey and gordon.)" caustic-plant, or caustic-vine, n. sarcostemma australis, r. br., n.o. asclepiadea. cattle and sheep are poisoned by eating it. cavally, n. the original form of the australian fish-name trevally (q.v.). the form cavally is used to europe, but is almost extinct in australia; the form trevally is confined to australia. cedar, n. the true cedar is a conifer (n.o. coniferae) of the genus cedrus, but the name is given locally to many other trees resembling it in appearance, or in the colour or scent of their wood. the new zealand cedar is the nearest approach to the true cedar, and none of the so-called australian cedars are of the order coniferae. the following are the trees to which the name is applied in australia:-- bastard pencil cedar-- dysoxylon rfum, benth., n.o. meliaceae. brown c.-- ehretia acuminata, r. br., n.o. asperifoliae. ordinary or red c.-- cedrela australis, f. v. m. cedrela toona, r. br., n.o. meliaceae. [c. toona is the "toon" tree of india: its timber is known in the english market as moulmein cedar; but the baron von mueller doubts the identity of the australian cedar with the "toon" tree; hence his name australis.] pencil c.-- dysoxylon fraserianum, benth., n.o. meliaceae. scrub white c.-- pentaceras australis, hook. and don., n.o. rutacea. white c.-- melia composita, willd., n.o. meliaceae. yellow c.-- rhus rhodanthema, f. v. m., n.o. anacardiacae. in tasmania, three species of the genus arthrotaxis are called cedars or pencil cedars; namely, a. cupressoides, don., known as the king william pine; a. laxifolza, hook., the mountain pine; and a. selaginoides, don., the red pine. all these are peculiar to the island. in new zealand, the name of cedar is applied to libocedrus bidwillii, hook., n.o. coniferae; maori name, pahautea. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions, vol. i. p. : "the cedar of the colony (cedrela toona, r. br.), which is to be found only in some rocky gullies of the coast range." . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "besides being valuable as a timber-producing tree, this red cedar has many medicinal properties. the bark is spoken of as a powerful astringent, and, though not bitter, said to be a good substitute for peruvian bark in the cure of remitting and intermitting fevers." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "pahautea, cedar. a handsome conical tree sixty to eighty feet high, two to three feet in diameter. in otago it produces a dark-red, freeworking timber, rather brittle . . . frequently mistaken for totara." celery, australian, or native, n. apium australe, thon. not endemic in australia. in tasmania, a. prostratum, lab., n.o. umbelliferae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "australian celery. this plant may be utilised as a culinary vegetable. (mueller.) it is not endemic in australia." celery-topped pine. n. see pine. the tree is so called from the appearance of the upper part of the branchlets, which resemble in shape the leaf of the garden celery. . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the tanekaha is one of the remarkable `celery-topped pines,' and was discovered by banks and solander during cook's first voyage." centaury, native, n. a plant, erythraea australis, r. br., n.o. gentianeae. in new south wales this australian centaury has been found useful in dysentery by dr. woolls. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native centaury . . . is useful as a tonic medicine, especially in diarrhoea and dysentery. the whole plant is used and is pleasantly bitter. it is common enough in grass-land, and appears to be increasing in popularity as a domestic remedy." centralia, n. a proposed name for the colony south australia ,(q.v.). . j. s. laurie, `story of australasia,' p. : "for telegraphic, postal, and general purposes one word is desirable for a name--e.g. why not centralia; for west australia, westralia; for new south wales, eastralia?" cereopsis, n. scientific name of the genus of the bird peculiar to australia, called the cake barren goose. see goose. the word is from grk. kaeros, wax, and 'opsis, face, and was given from the peculiarities of the bird's beak. the genus is confined to australia, and cereopsis novae-hollandiae is the only species known. the bird was noticed by the early voyagers to australia, and was extraordinarily tame when first discovered. channel-bill, n. name given to a bird resembling a large cuckoo, scythrops novae-hollandiae, lath. see scythrops. cheesewood, n. a tree, so-called in victoria (it is also called whitewood and waddywood in tasmania), pittosporum bicolor, hook., n.o. pittosporeae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "cheesewood is yellowish-white, very hard, and of uniform texture and colour. it was once used for clubs by the aboriginals of tasmania. it turns well, and should be tested for wood engraving. (`jurors' reports, london international exhibition of .') it is much esteemed for axe-handles, billiard-cues, etc." cherry, herbert river, n. a queensland tree, antidesma dallachyanum, baill., n.o. euphorbiaceae. the fruit is equal to a large cherry in size, and has a sharp acid flavour. cherry, native, n. an australian tree, exocarpus cupressiformis, r. br., n.o. santalaceae. . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "of native fruits, a cherry, insipid in comparison of the european sorts, was found true to the singularity which characterizes every new south wales production, the stone being on the outside of the fruit." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "the shrub which is called the native cherry-tree appears like a species of cyprus, producing its fruit with the stone united to it on the outside, the fruit and the stone being each about the size of a small pea. the fruit, when ripe, is similar in colour to the mayduke cherry, but of a sweet and somewhat better quality, and slightly astringent to the palate, possessing, upon the whole, an agreeable flavour." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition , p. : "the cherry-tree resembles a cypress but is of a tenderer green, bearing a worthless little berry, having its stone or seed outside, whence its scientific name of exocarpus." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "we also ate the australian cherry, which has its stone, not on the outside, enclosing the fruit, as the usual phrase would indicate, but on the end with the fruit behind it. the stone is only about the size of a sweet-pea, and the fruit only about twice that size, altogether not unlike a yew-berry, but of a very pale red. it grows on a tree just like an arbor vitae, and is well tasted, though not at all like a cherry in flavour." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the principal of these kinds of trees received its generic name first from the french naturalist la billardiere, during d'entrecasteaux's expedition. it was our common exocarpus cupressiformis, which he described, and which has been mentioned so often in popular works as a cherry-tree, bearing its stone outside of the pulp. that this crude notion of the structure of the fruit is erroneous, must be apparent on thoughtful contemplation, for it is evident at the first glance, that the red edible part of our ordinary exocarpus constitutes merely an enlarged and succulent fruit-stalklet (pedicel), and that the hard dry and greenish portion, strangely compared to a cherry-stone, forms the real fruit, containing the seed." . j. h. `maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the fruit is edible. the nut is seated on the enlarged succulent pedicel. this is the poor little fruit of which so much has been written in english descriptions of the peculiarities of the australian flora. it has been likened to a cherry with the stone outside (hence the vernacular name) by some imaginative person." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "grass-trees and the brown brake-fern, whips of native cherry, and all the threads and tangle of the earth's green russet vestment hide the feet of trees which lean and lounge between us and the water, their leaf heads tinselled by the light." cherry-picker, n. bird-name. see quotation. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. p. : "melithreptus validirostris, gould. strong-billed honey-eater [q.v.]. cherry-picker, colonists of van diemen's land." chestnut pine, n. see pine. chewgah-bag, n. queensland aboriginal pigeon-english for sugar-bag (q.v.). chinkie, n. slang for a chinaman. "john," short for john chinaman, is commoner. . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "the pleasant traits of character in our colonialised `chinkie,' as he is vulgarly termed (with the single variation `chow')." chock-and-log, n. and adj. a particular kind of fence much used on australian stations. the chock is a thick short piece of wood laid flat, at right-angles to the line of the fence, with notches in it to receive the logs, which are laid lengthwise from chock to chock, and the fence is raised in four or five layers of this chock-and-log to form, as it were, a wooden wall. both chocks and logs are rough-hewn or split, not sawn. . g. s. baden-powell,'new homes for the old country,' p. : "another fence, known as `chock and log,' is composed of long logs, resting on piles of chocks, or short blocks of wood." . `the argus.' sept. , p. , col. : "and to finish the riverine picture, there comes a herd of kangaroos disturbed from their feeding-ground, leaping through the air, bounding over the wire and `chock-and-log' fences like so many india-rubber automatons." choeropus, n. the scientific name for the genus of australian marsupial animals with only one known species, called the pigfooted-bandicoot (q.v.), and see bandicoot. (grk. choiros, a pig, and pous, foot.) the animal is about the size of a rabbit, and is confined to the inland parts of australia. christmas, n. and adj. as christmas falls in australasia at midsummer, it has different characteristics from those in england, and the word has therefore a different connotation. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' p. : "sheep-shearing in november, hot midsummer weather at christmas, the bed of a river the driest walk, and corn harvest in february, were things strangely at variance with my old-world notions." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "one christmas time when months of drought had parched the western creeks, the bush-fires started in the north and travelled south for weeks." christmas-bush, n. an australian tree, ceratopetalum gummiferum, smith, n.o. saxifrageae. called also christmas-tree (q.v.), and officer-bush. . mrs. mccann, `poetical works,' p. : "gorgeous tints adorn the christmas bush with a crimson blush." christmas-tree, n. in australia, it is the same as christmas-bush (q.v.). in new zealand, it is metrosideros tomentosa, banks, n.o. myrtaceae; maori name, pohutukawa (q.v.). . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "some few scattered pohutukaua trees (metrosideros tomentosa), the last remains of the beautiful vegetation . . . about christmas these trees are full of charming purple blossoms; the settler decorates his church and dwelling with its lovely branches, and calls the tree `christmas-tree'! " . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the christmas-tree is in a sense the counterpart of the holly of the home countries. as the scarlet berry gives its ruddy colour to christmas decorations in `the old country,' so here the creamy blossoms of the christmas-tree are the only shrub flowers that survive the blaze of midsummer." . e. h. and s. featon, `new zealand flora,' p. : "the pohutukawa blossoms in december, when its profusion of elegant crimson-tasselled flowers imparts a beauty to the rugged coast-line and sheltered bays which may fairly be called enchanting. to the settlers it is known as the `christmas-tree,' and sprays of its foliage and flowers are used to decorate churches and dwellings during the festive christmastide. to the maoris this tree must possess a weird significance, since it is related in their traditions that at the extreme end of new zealand there grows a pohutukawa from which a root descends to the beach below. the spirits of the dead are supposed to descend by this to an opening, which is said to be the entrance to `te reinga.'" chucky-chucky, n. aboriginal australian name for a berry; in australia and new zealand, the fruit of species of gaultheria. see wax cluster. . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "to gather chucky-chuckies--as the blacks name that most delicious of native berries." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' `new zealand country journal,' vol. xv. p. : "when out of breath, hot and thirsty, how one longed for a handful of chuckie-chucks. in their season how good we used to think these fruits of the gaultheria, or rather its thickened calyx. a few handfuls were excellent in quenching one's thirst, and so plentifully did the plant abound that quantities could soon be gathered. in these rude and simple days, when housekeepers in the hills tried to convert carrots and beet-root into apricot and damson preserves, these notable women sometimes encouraged children to collect sufficient chuckie-chucks to make preserve. the result was a jam of a sweet mawkish flavour that gave some idea of a whiff caught in passing a hair-dresser's shop." chum, n. see new chum. chy-ack, v. simply a variation of the english slang verb, to cheek. . garnet walch, `adamanta,' act ii. sc. ii. p. : "i've learnt to chi-ike peelers." [here the australian pronunciation is also caught. barere and leland give "chi-iked (tailors), chaffed unmercifully," but without explanation.] . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "the circle of frivolous youths who were yelping at and chy-acking him." . e. w. hornung, `boss of taroomba,' p. : "it's our way up here, you know, to chi-ak each other and our visitors too." cicada, n. an insect. see locust. . g. metcalfe, `australian zoology,' p. : "the cicada is often erroneously called a locust. . . . it is remarkable for the loud song, or chirruping whirr, of the males in the heat of summer; numbers of them on the hottest days produce an almost deafening sound." cider-tree, or cider-gum, n. name given in tasmania to eucalyptus gunnii, hook., n.o. myrtaceae. see gum. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "specimens of that species of eucalyptus called the cider-tree, from its exuding a quantity of saccharine liquid resembling molasses. . . . when allowed to remain some time and to ferment, it settles into a coarse sort of wine or cider, rather intoxicating if drank to any excess." city, n. in great britain and ireland the word city denotes "a considerable town that has been, (a) an episcopal seat, (b) a royal burgh, or (c) created to the dignity, like birmingham, dundee, and belfast, by a royal patent. in the united states and canada, a municipality of the first class, governed by a mayor and aldermen, and created by charter." (`standard.') in victoria, by section ix. of the local government act, , victoria, no. , the governor-in-council may make orders, # : "to declare any borough, including the city of melbourne and the town of geelong, having in the year preceding such declaration a gross revenue of not less than twenty thousand pounds, a city." claim, n. in mining, a piece of land appropriated for mining purposes: then the mine itself. the word is also used in the united states. see also reward-claim and prospecting-claim. . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. xiv. p. : "a family named cavanagh . . . entered a half-worked claim." . h. fawcett, `political economy,' pt. iii. c. vi. p. (`o.e.d.'): "the claim upon which he purchases permission to dig." . h. h. hayter, `christmas adventure,' p. : "i decided . . . a claim to take up." clay-pan, n. name given, especially in the dry interior of australia, to a slight depression of the ground varying in size from a few yards to a mile in length, where the deposit of fine silt prevents the water from sinking into the ground as rapidly as it does elsewhere. . john forrest, `explorations in australia,' p. : "we travelled down the road for about thirty-three miles over stony plains; many clay-pans with water but no feed." . baldwin spencer, `horne expedition in central australia,' narrative, vol. i. p. : "one of the most striking features of the central area and especially amongst the loamy plains and sandhills, is the number of clay-pans. these are shallow depressions, with no outlet, varying in length from a few yards to half a mile, where the surface is covered with a thin clayey material, which seems to prevent the water from sinking as rapidly as it does in other parts." clean-skins, or clear-skins, n. unbranded cattle or horses. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "these clean-skins, as they are often called, to distinguish them from the branded cattle." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xv. p. : "strangers and pilgrims, calves and clear-skins, are separated at the same time." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "`clear-skins,' as unbranded cattle were commonly called, were taken charge of at once." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "as they fed slowly homeward bellowing for their calves, and lowing for their mates, the wondering clean-skins would come up in a compact body, tearing, ripping, kicking, and moaning, working round and round them in awkward, loblolly canter." clearing lease, n. explained in quotation. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. x. p. : "[they] held a small piece of land on what is called a clearing lease--that is to say, they were allowed to retain possession of it for so many years for the labour of clearing the land." clematis, n. the scientific and vernacular name of a genus of plants belonging to the n.o. ranunculaceae. the common species in australia is c. aristata, r. br. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "the beautiful species of clematis called aristata, which may be seen in the months of november and december, spreading forth its milk-white blossoms over the shrubs . . . in other places rising up to the top of the highest gum-trees." clianthus, n. scientific name for an australasian genus of plants, n.o. leguminosae, containing only two species--in australia, sturt's desert pea (q.v.), c. dampieri; and in new zealand, the kaka-bill (q.v.), c. puniceus. both species are also called glory-pea, from grk. kleos, glory, and anthos, a flower. . `otago witness,' nov. , `native trees': "hooker says the genus clianthus consists of the australian and new zealand species only, the latter is therefore clearly indigenous. `one of the most beautiful plants known' (hooker). sir joseph banks and dr. solandel found it during cook's first voyage." climbing-fish, n. i.q. hopping-fish (q.v.). climbing-pepper, n. see pepper. clitonyx, n. the scientific name of a genus of new zealand birds, including the yellow-head (q.v.) and the white-head (q.v.); from greek klinein, root klit, to lean, slant, and 'onux, claw. the genus was so named by reichenbach in , to distinguish the new zealand birds from the australian birds of the genus orthonyx (q.v.), which formerly included them both. clock-bird, n. another name for the laughing jachass. see jackass. clock, settlers', n. i.q. clock-bird, (q.v.) cloudy-bay cod, n. a new zealand name for the ling (q.v.). see also cod. clover-fern, n. another name for the plant called nardoo (q.v.). clover, menindie, n. an australian fodder plant, trigonella suavissima, lind., n.o. leguminoseae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : `from its abundance in the neighbourhood of menindie, it is often called menindie-clover.' it is the `australian shamrock' of mitchell. this perennial, fragrant, clover-like plant is a good pasture herb." clover-tree, n. a tasmanian tree, called also native laburnun. see under laburnum. coach, n. a bullock used as a decoy to catch wild cattle. this seems to be from the use of coach as the university term for a private tutor. . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "to get them [sc. wild cattle] a party of stockmen take a small herd of quiet cattle, `coaches.'" coach, v. to decoy wild cattle or horses with tame ones. . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "here he [the wild horse] may be got by `coaching' like wild cattle." coach-whip bird, n. psophodes crepitans, v. and h. (see gould's `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. ); black-throated c.b., p. nigrogularis, gould. called also whipbird and coachman. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "this bird is more often heard than seen. it inhabits bushes. the loud cracking whip-like noise it makes (from whence the colonists give it the name of coachwhip), may be heard from a great distance." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "if you should hear a coachwhip crack behind, you may instinctively start aside to let the mail pass; but quickly find it is only our native coachman with his spread-out fantail and perked-up crest, whistling and cracking out his whip-like notes as he hops sprucely from branch to branch." . mrs. meredith, `notes and sketches of new south wales,' p. : "another equally singular voice among our feathered friends was that of the `coachman,' than which no title could be more appropriate, his chief note being a long clear whistle, with a smart crack of the whip to finish with." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the bell-bird, by the river heard; the whip-bird, which surprised i hear, in me have powerful memories stirred of other scenes and strains more dear; of sweeter songs than these afford, the thrush and blackbird warbling clear." --old impressions. . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the coach-whip is a small bird about the size of a sparrow, found near rivers. it derives its name from its note, a slow, clear whistle, concluded by a sharp jerking noise like the crack of a whip." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. ii. p. : "the whip-bird, whose sharp wiry notes, even, are far more agreeable than the barking of dogs and the swearing of diggers." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "that is the coach-whip bird. there again. whew-ew-ew-ew-whit. how sharply the last note sounds." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. vi. p. : "the sharp st--wt of the whip-bird . . . echoed through the gorge." . james thomas, `may o' the south,' `australian poets - ' (ed. sladen), p. : "merrily the wagtail now chatters on the ti-tree bough, while the crested coachman bird `midst the underwood is heard." coast, v. to loaf about from station to station. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' xxv. : "i ain't like you, towney, able to coast about without a job of work from shearin' to shearin'." coaster, n. a loafer, a sundowner (q.v.). . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' viii. : "a voluble, good-for-nothing, loafing impostor, a regular `coaster.'" cobb, n. sometimes used as equivalent to a coach. "i am going by cobb." the word is still used, though no mr. cobb has been connected with australian coaches for many years. see quotation. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "mr. cobb was an american, and has returned long ago to his native country. he started a line of conveyances from melbourne to castlemaine some time after the gold discoveries. mr. cobb had spirit to buy good horses, to get first-class american coaches, to employ good yankee whips, and in a couple of years or so he had been so extensively patronised that he sold out, and retired with a moderate fortune." [but the coaching company retained . . . the style of cobb & co.] (about). `queensland bush song': "hurrah for the roma railway! hurrah for cobb and co.! hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse to carry me westward ho!" cobbler, n. ( ) the last sheep, an australian shearing term. ( ) another name for the fish called the fortescue (q.v.) . `the herald' (melbourne), dec. , p. , col. : "every one might not know what a `cobbler' is. it is the last sheep in a catching pen, and consequently a bad one to shear, as the easy ones are picked first. the cobbler must be taken out before `sheep-ho' will fill up again. in the harvest field english rustics used to say, when picking up the last sheaf, `this is what the cobbler threw at his wife.' `what?' `the last,' with that lusty laugh, which, though it might betray `a vacant mind,' comes from a very healthy organism." cobblers-awl, n. bird-name. the word is a provincial english name for the avocet. in tasmania, the name is applied to a spine-bill (q.v.) from the shape of its beak. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, lath., slender-billed spine-bill. cobbler's awl, colonists of van diemen's land. spine-bill, colonists of new south wales." cobbler's pegs, name given to a tall erect annual weed, erigeron linifolius, willd., n.o. compositae and to bidens pilosus, linn., n.o. compositae. cobbra, n. aboriginal word for head, skull. [kabura or kobbera, with such variations as kobra, kobbera, kappara, kopul, from malay kapala, head: one of the words on the east coast manifestly of malay origin.--j. mathew. much used in pigeon converse with blacks. `goodway cobra tree' = `tree very tall.'] collins, `port jackson vocabulary,' (p. ), gives `kabura, ca-ber-ra.' mount cobberas in east gippsland has its name from huge head-like masses of rock which rise from the summit. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "the black fellow who lives in the bush bestows but small attention on his cobra, as the head is usually called in the pigeon-english which they employ." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xiii. p. : "i should be cock-sure that having an empty cobbra, as the blacks say, was on the main track that led to the grog-camp." cock-a-bully, n. a popular name for the new zealand fish galaxias fasciatus, gray, a corruption of its maori name kokopu (q.v.). . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "during my stay in new zealand my little girl caught a fish rather larger than an english minnow. her young companions called it a `cock-a bully.' it was pretty obvious to scent a corruption of a maori word, for, mark you, cock-a-bully has no meaning. it looks as if it were english and full of meaning. reflect an instant and it has none. the maori name for the fish is `kokopu'" cockatiel, -eel, n. an arbitrary diminutive of the word cockatoo, and used as another name for the cockatoo-parrakeet, calopsitta novae-hollandiae, and generally for any parrakeet of the genus calopsitta. (`o.e.d.') cockatoo, n. ( ) bird-name. the word is malay, kakatua. (`o.e.d.') the varieties are-- banksian cockatoo-- calyptorhynchus banksii, lath. bare-eyed c.-- cacatua gymnopis, sclater. black c.-- calyptorhynchus funereus, shaw. blood-stained c.-- cacatua sanguinea, gould. dampier's c.-- licmetis pastinator, gould. gang-gang c.-- callocephalon galeatum, lath. [see gang-gang.] glossy c.-- calyptorhynchus viridis, vieill. long-billed c.-- licmetis nasicus, temm. [see corella.] palm c.-- microglossus aterrimus, gmel. pink c.-- cacatua leadbeateri, v. & h. (leadbeater, q.v.). red-tailed c.-- calyptorhynchus stellatus, wagl. rose-breasted c.-- cacatua roseicapilla, vieill. [see galah. gould calls it cocatua eos. white c.-- cacatua galerita, lath. white-tailed c.-- calyptorhynchus baudinii, vig. see also parrakeet. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions, vol. ii. p. : "we saw to-day for the first time on the kalare, the redtop cockatoo (plyctolophus leadbeateri)." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' c. viii. p. : "the rose-breasted cockatoo (cocatua eos, gould) visited the patches of fresh burnt grass." ibid. p. : "the black cockatoo (calyptorhynchus banksii) has been much more frequently observed of late." . daniel bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "dr. leichhardt caught sight of a number of cockatoos; and, by tracking the course of their flight, we, in a short time, reached a creek well supplied with water." . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. ix. p. : "white cockatoos and parroquets were now seen." . `victorian statutes, game act, third schedule': "black cockatoos. gang-gang cockatoos. [close season.] from the st day of august to the th day of december next following in each year." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the egg of the blood-stained cockatoo has not yet been scientifically described, and the specimen in this collection has an interest chiefly in that it was taken [by mr. a. j. campbell] from a tree at innamincka waterholes, not far from the spot where burke the explorer died." ( ) a small farmer, called earlier in tasmania a cockatooer (q.v.). the name was originally given in contempt (see quotations), but it is now used by farmers themselves. cocky is a common abbreviation. some people distinguish between a cockatoo and a ground-parrot, the latter being the farmer on a very small scale. trollope's etymology (see quotation, ) will not hold, for it is not true that the cockatoo scratches the ground. after the gold fever, circa , the selectors swarmed over the country and ate up the substance of the squatters; hence they were called cockatoos. the word is also used adjectivally. . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings among the gum-trees,' p. : "oi'm going to be married to what is termed a cockatoo-- which manes a farmer." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "these small farmers are called cockatoos in australia by the squatters or sheep-farmers, who dislike them for buying up the best bits on their runs; and say that, like a cockatoo, the small freeholder alights on good ground, extracts all he can from it, and then flies away, to `fresh fields and pastures new.' . . . however, whether the name is just or not, it is a recognised one here; and i have heard a man say in answer to a question about his usual `occupation, `i'm a cockatoo.'" . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "the word cockatoo in the farinaceous colony has become so common as almost to cease to carry with it the intended sarcasm. . . . it signifies that the man does not really till his land, but only scratches it as the bird does." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "it may possibly have been a term of reproach applied to the industrious farmer, who settled or perched on the resumed portions of a squatter's run, so much to the latter's rage and disgust that he contemptuously likened the farmer to the white-coated, yellow-crested screamer that settles or perches on the trees at the edge of his namesake's clearing." . `cornhill magazine,' jan., p. : "`with a cockatoo' [title]. cockatoo is the name given to the small, bush farmer in new zealand." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xliii. p. : "the governor is a bigoted agriculturist; he has contracted the cockatoo complaint, i'm afraid." , `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "hire yourself out to a dairyman, take a contract with a rail-splitter, sign articles with a cockatoo selector; but don't touch land without knowing something about it." cockatoo, v. intr. ( ) to be a farmer. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. xx. p. : "fancy three hundred acres in oxfordshire, with a score or two of bullocks,and twice as many black-faced down sheep. regular cockatooing." ( ) a special sense--to sit on a fence as the bird sits. . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' c. xviii. p. : "the correct thing, on first arriving at a drafting-yard, is to `cockatoo,' or sit on the rails high above the tossing horn-billows." cockatooer, n. a variant of cockatoo (q.v.), quite fallen into disuse, if quotation be not a nonce use. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "a few wretched-looking huts and hovels, the dwellings of `cockatooers,' who are not, as it might seem, a species of bird, but human beings; who rent portions of this forest . . . on exorbitant terms . . . and vainly endeavour to exist on what they can earn besides, their frequent compulsory abstinence from meat, when they cannot afford to buy it, even in their land of cheap and abundant food, giving them some affinity to the grain-eating white cockatoos." cockatoo fence, n. fence erected by small farmers. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xxii. p. : "there would be roads and cockatoo fences . . . in short, all the hostile emblems of agricultural settlement." . lyth, `golden south,' c. xiv. p. : "the fields were divided by open rails or cockatoo fences, i.e. branches and logs of trees laid on the ground one across the other with posts and slip-rails in lieu of gates." cockatoo bush, n. i.q. native currant (q.v). cockatoo orchis, n. a tasmanian name for the orchid, caleya major, r. br. cock-eyed bob, a local slang term in western australia for a thunderstorm. . `the age,' jan. , p. , col. : "they [the natives of the northwest of western australia] are extremely frightened of them [sc. storms called willy willy, q.v.], and in some places even on the approach of an ordinary thunderstorm or `cock-eyed bob,' they clear off to the highest ground about." cockle, n. in england the name is given to a species of the familiar marine bivalve mollusc, cardium. the commonest australian species is cardium tenuicostatum, lamarck, present in all extra-tropical australia. the name is also commonly applied to members of the genus chione. cock-schnapper, n. a fish; the smallest kind of schnapper (q.v.). see also count-fish. . rev. i. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the usual method of estimating quantity for sale by the fisherman is, by the schnapper or count-fish, the school-fish, and squire, among which from its metallic appearance is the copper head or copper colour, and the red bream. juveniles rank the smallest of the fry, not over an inch or two in length, as the cock-schnapper. the fact, however, is now generally admitted that all these are one and the same genus, merely in different stages of growth." cod, n. this common english name of the gadus morrhua is applied to many fishes in australia of various families, gadoid and otherwise. in melbourne it is given to lotella callarias, guenth., and in new south wales to several fishes of the genus serranus. lotella is a genus of the family gadidae, to which the european cod belongs; serranus is a sea perch (q.v.). see rock cod, black rock cod, red rock cod, black cod, elite cod, red cod, murray cod, cloudy bay cod, ling, groper, hapuku, and haddock. coffee-bush, n. a settlers' name for the new zealand tree the karamu (q.v.). sometimes called also coffee-plant. coffer-fish, n. i.q. trunk-fish (q.v.). coffee plant, or coffee berry, n. name given in tasmania to the tasmanian native holly (q.v.). colonial experience, n. and used as adj. same as cadet (q.v.) in new zealand; a young man learning squatting business, gaining his colonial experience. called also jackaroo (q.v.). . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "you're the first `colonial experience' young fellow that it ever occurred to within my knowledge." colonial goose, n. a boned leg of mutton stuffed with sage and onions. in the early days the sheep was almost the sole animal food. mutton was then cooked and served in various ways to imitate other dishes. colour, n. sc. of gold. it is sometimes used with `good,' to mean plenty of gold: more usually, the `colour' means just a little gold, enough to show in the dish. . kelly, `life in victoria,' vol. i. p. : ". . . they had not, to use a current phrase, `raised the colour.'" . rolf boldrewood. `miner's right,' c. xiv. p. : "this is the fifth claim he has been in since he came here, and the first in which he has seen the colour." . w. lilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "after spending a little time there, and not finding more than a few colours of gold, he started for mount heemskirk." convictism, n. the system of transportation of convicts to australia and van diemen's land, now many years abolished. . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "may it remain nailed to the mast until these colonies are emancipated from convictism." . `realm,' feb. , p. (`o.e.d.'): "no one who has not lived in australia can appreciate the profound hatred of convictism that obtains there." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "they preferred to let things remain as they were, convictism included." coobah, n. an aboriginal name for the tree acacia salicina, lindl., n.o.leguminosae. see acacia. the spellings vary, and sometimes begin with a k. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' v. : "a deep reach of the river, shaded by couba trees and river-oaks." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xxviii. p. : "the willowy coubah weeps over the dying streamlet." coo-ee, or cooey, n. and interj. spelt in various ways. see quotations. a call borrowed from the aborigines and used in the bush by one wishing to find or to be found by another. in the vocabulary of native words in `hunter's journal,' published in , we find "cow-ee = to come." . p. cunningham, `new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "in calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word coo-ee, as we do the word hollo, prolonging the sound of the coo, and closing that of the ee with a shrill jerk. . . . [it has] become of general use throughout the colony; and a newcomer, in desiring an individual to call another back, soon learns to say `coo-ee' to him, instead of hollo to him." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "he immediately called `coo-oo-oo' to the natives at the fire." . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "there yet might be heard the significant `cooy' or `quhy,' the true import of which was then unknown to our ears." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' p. : "although mr. brown made the woods echo with his `cooys.'" [see also p. , note.] . clement hodgkinson, `australia from port macquarie to moreton bay,' p. : "we suddenly heard the loud shrill couis of the natives." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "their cooieys are not always what we understand by the word, viz., a call in which the first note is low and the second high, uttered after sound of the word cooiey. this is a note which congregates all together and is used only as a simple `here.'" . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "like the natives of new south wales, they called to each other from a great distance by the cooey; a word meaning `come to me.' the sydney blacks modulated this cry with successive inflexions; the tasmanian uttered it with less art. it is a sound of great compass. the english in the bush adopt it: the first syllable is prolonged; the second is raised to a higher key, and is sharp and abrupt." . w. landsborough, `exploration of australia,' [footnote] p. : "coo-oo-oo-y is a shrill treble cry much used in the bush by persons wishful to find each other. on a still night it will travel a couple of miles, and it is thus highly serviceable to lost or benighted travellers." . j. f. townend, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the jingling of bells round the necks of oxen, the cooey of the black fellow . . . constituted the music of these desolate districts." . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "hi! . . . cooey! you fella . . . open 'im lid." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "a particular `cooee' . . . was made known to the young men when they were initiated." . g. sutherland, `tales of the goldfields,' p. : "from the woods they heard a prolonged cooee, which evidently proceeded from some one lost in the bush." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "two long farewell coo-ees, which died away in the silence of the bush." . e. w. hornung, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "the bride encircled her lips with her two gloved palms, and uttered a cry that few of the hundreds who heard it ever forgot--`coo-ee!' that was the startling cry as nearly as it can be written. but no letters can convey the sustained shrillness of the long, penetrating note represented by the first syllable, nor the weird, die-away wail of the second. it is the well-known bushcall,the `jodel' of the black fellow." cooee, within, adv. within easy distance. . g. l. apperson, in `all the year round,' july , p. , col. (`o.e.d.'): "a common mode of expression is to be `within cooey' of a place. . . . now to be `within cooey' of sydney is to be at the distance of an easy journey therefrom." . `the herald' (melbourne), june , p. , col. : "witness said that there was a post-office clock `within coo-ee,' or within less than half-a-mile of the station." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "just to camp within a cooey of the shanty for the night." cooee, v.intr. to utter the call. . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "our sable guides `cooed' and `cooed' again, in their usual tone of calling to each other at a distance." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition, p. : "brown cooyed to him, and by a sign requested him to wait for us." . j. d. lang, `phillipsland,' p. [footnote]: "cooey is the aboriginal mode of calling out to any person at a distance, whether visible or not, in the forest. the sound is made by dwelling on the first syllable, and pronouncing the second with a short, sharp, rising inflexion. it is much easier made, and is heard to a much greater distance than the english holla! and is consequently in universal use among the colonists. . . . there is a story current in the colony of a party of native-born colonists being in london, one of whom, a young lady, if i recollect aright, was accidentally separated from the rest, in the endless stream of pedestrians and vehicles of all descriptions, at the intersection of fleet street with the broad avenue leading to blackfriars bridge. when they were all in great consternation and perplexity at the circumstance, it occurred to one of the party to cooey, and the well-known sound, with its ten thousand australian associations, being at once recognised and responded to, a reunion of the party took place immediately, doubtless to the great wonderment of the surrounding londoners, who would probably suppose they were all fit for bedlam." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "they [the aborigines] warily entered scrubs, and called out (cooyed) repeatedly in approaching water-holes, even when yet at a great distance." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "a female, born on this division of the globe, once stood at the foot of london bridge, and cooyed for her husband, of whom she had lost sight, and stopped the passengers by the novelty of the sound; which however is not unknown in certain neighbourhoods of the metropolis. some gentlemen, on a visit to a london theatre, to draw the attention of their friends in an opposite box, called out cooey; a voice in the gallery answered `botany bay!'" (circa). `melbourne punch,' [in the days of long trains]: "george, there's somebody treading on my dress; cooee to the bottom of the stairs." coo-in-new, n. aboriginal name for "a useful verbenaceous timber-tree of australia, gmelina leichhardtii, f. v. m. the wood has a fine silvery grain, and is much prized for flooring and for the decks of vessels, as it is reputed never to shrink after a moderate seasoning." (`century.') usually called mahogany-tree (q.v.). coolaman or kooliman, n. an aboriginal word, kamilaroi dialect of new south wales. [w. ridley, `kamilaroi,' p. , derives it from kulu, seed, but it is just as likely from kolle, water.--j. mathew.] a hollowed knot of a tree, used as a seed vessel, or for holding water. the word is applied to the excrescence on the tree as well as to the vessel; a bush hand has been heard to speak of a hump-backed man as `cooliman-backed.' . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "three koolimans (vessels of stringy bark) were full of honey water, from one of which i took a hearty draught." . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings among the gum-trees,' p. : "and the beautiful lubrina fetched a cooliman of water." [in glossary.] cooliman, a hollow knot of a tree for holding water. . w. howitt, `discovery in australia, vol. ii. p. : "koolimans, water vessels. . . the koolimans were made of the inner layer of the bark of the stringy-bark tree." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "coolaman, native vessel for holding water." . mrs. praed, `australian life,' p. : "cooliman, a vessel for carrying water, made out of the bark which covers an excrescence peculiar to a kind of gum-tree." cooper's-flag, n. another name in new zealand for raupo (q.v.). coopers-wood, n. the timber of an australian tree, alphitonia excelsa, reiss, n.o. rhamneae. the wood becomes dark with age, and is used for coopers' staves and various purposes. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "variously called mountain-ash, red-ash, leather-jacket, and coopers-wood." coordaitcha. see kurdaitcha. coot, n. common english birdname; the australian species is fulica australis, gould. see also bald-coot. copper-head, n. see under snake. copper maori. this spelling has been influenced by the english word copper, but it is really a corruption of a maori word. there is a difference of opinion amongst maori scholars what this word is. some say kapura, a common fire used for cooking, in contradistinction to a `chief's fire,' at which he sat, and which would not be allowed to be defiled with food. others say kopa. the maori word kopa was ( ) adj. meaning bent, ( ) n. angle or corner, and ( ) the native oven, or more strictly the hole scooped out for the oven. . t. pine, `transactions of new zealand institute,' `a local tradition of raukawa,' vol. xxi. p. : "so they set to work and dug holes on the flat, each hole about ft. across and about / ft. deep, and shaped something like a kopa maori." . h. d. m. haszard, ibid. `notes on some relics of cannibalism,' vol. xxii. p. : "in two distinct places, about four chains apart, there were a number of kapura maori, or native ovens, scattered about within a radius of about forty feet." coprosma, n. scientific and vernacular name fora large genus of trees and shrubs of the order rubiaceae. from the greek kopros, dung, on account of the bad smell of some of the species. see quotation. the maori name is karamu (q.v.). various species receive special vernacular names, which appear in their places in the dictionary. . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "corosma comprises about forty species, of which at least thirty are found in new zealand, all of which are restricted to the colony except c. pumila, which extends to australia. five species are found in australia, one of which is c. pumila mentioned above. a few species occur in the pacific, chili, juan fernandez, the sandwich islands, &c." coral, n. see batswing-coral. coral-fern, n. name given in victoria to gleichenia circinata, swartz, called in bailey's list parasol-fern. see fern. coral-flower, n. a plant, epacris (q.v.), epacris microphylla, r. br., n.o. epacrideae. coral-pea, n. another name for the kennedya (q.v.). . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "the trailing scarlet kennedyas, aptly called the `bleeding-heart' or `coral pea,' brighten the greyness of the sandy, peaty wastes." coranderrk, n. the aboriginal name for the victorian dogwood (q.v.). an "aboriginal station," or asylum and settlement for the remaining members of the aboriginal race of victoria, is called after this name because the wood grew plentifully there. cordage-tree, n. name given in tasmania to a kurrajong (q.v.). the name sida pulchella has been superseded by plagianthus sidoides, hook. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "sida pulchella. handsome sida. currijong or cordage tree of hobart town. . . . the bark used to be taken for tying up post and rail fences, the rafters of huts, in the earlier periods of the colony, before nails could be so easily procured." corella, n. any parrot of the genus nymphicus; the word is dim. of late lat. cora = korh, a girl, doll, etc. the australian corella is n. novae-hollandiae, and the name is also given to licmetus nasicus, temm, the long-billed cockatoo (q.v.). it is often used indiscriminately by bird-fanciers for any pretty little parrot, parrakeet, or cockatoo. cork-tree, n. see bat's-wing coral. corkwood, n. a new zealand tree, entelea arborescens, r. br., n.o. tiliaceae. maori name, whau. . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the whau . . . is termed corkwood by the settlers on account of its light specific gravity." cormorant, n. common english bird-name. in australia the name is applied to the following birds:-- black cormorant-- graculus novae-hollandiae, steph. little c.-- g. melanoleucus, vieill. little-black c.-- g. stictocephalus, bp. . pied c.-- g. varius, gm. white-breasted cormorant-- g. leucogaster, gould. white-throated c.-- g. brevirostris, gould. cornstalk, n. a young man or a girl born and bred in new south wales, especially if tall and big. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the colonial-born, bearing also the name of cornstalks (indian corn), from the way in which they shoot up." . geo. benett, `wanderings in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the australian ladies may compete for personal beauty and elegance with any european, although satirized as `cornstalks,' from the slenderness of their forms." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "our host was surrounded by a little army of `cornstalks.'. . . the designation `cornstalk' is given because the young people run up like the stems of the indian corn." . w. r. honey, `madeline clifton,' act iii. sc. v. p. : "look you, there stands young cornstalk." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "if these are the heroes that my cornstalk friends worship so ardently, they must indeed be hard up for heroes." . haddon chambers, `thumbnail sketches of australian life,' p. : "while in the capital i fell in with several jolly cornstalks, with whom i spent a pleasant time in boating, fishing, and sometimes camping out down the harbour." correa, n. the scientific name of a genus of australian plants of the n.o. rutaceae, so named after correa de serra, a portuguese nobleman who wrote on rutaceous plants at the beginning of the century. they bear scarlet or green and sometimes yellowish flowers, and are often called native fuchsias (q.v.), especially c. speciosa, andrews, which bears crimson flowers. . r. sweet, `flora australasica,' p. : "the genus was first named by sir j. e. smith in compliment to the late m. correa de serra, a celebrated portuguese botanist." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the scarlet correa lurked among the broken quartz." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "with all wish to maintain vernacular names, which are not actually misleading, i cannot call a correa by the common colonial name `native fuchsia,' as not the slightest structural resemblance and but little habitual similarity exists between these plants; they indeed belong to widely different orders." ibid.: "all correas are geographically restricted to the south-eastern portion of the australian continent and tasmania, the genus containing but few species." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "i see some pretty red correa and lilac." [footnote]: "correa speciosa, native fuchsia of colonies." corrobbery, n. this spelling is nearest to the accepted pronunciation, the accent falling on the second syllable. various spellings, however, occur, viz.--corobbery, corrobery, corroberry, corroborree, corrobbory, corroborry, corrobboree, coroboree, corroboree, korroboree, corroborri, corrobaree, and caribberie. to these mr. fraser adds karabari (see quotation, ), but his spelling has never been accepted in english. the word comes from the botany bay dialect. [the aboriginal verb (see ridley's `kamilaroi and other australian languages,' p. ) is korobra, to dance; in the same locality boroya or beria means to sing; probably koro is from a common australian word for emu.--j. mathew.] ( ) an aboriginal name for a dance, sacred, festive, or warlike. . governor hunter, `port jackson, p. : "they very frequently, at the conclusion of the dance, would apply to us . . . for marks of our approbation . . . which we never failed to give by often repeating the word boojery, good; or boojery caribberie, a good dance." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "dancing with their corrobery motion." ibid. p. : "with several corrobery or harlequin steps." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. ii. c. iii. p. : "they hold their corrobbores (midnight ceremonies)." . c. darwin, `journal of the voyage of the beagle' (ed. ), c. xix. p. : "a large tribe of natives, called the white cockatoo men, happened to pay a visit to the settlement while we were there. these men as well as those of the tribe belonging to king george's sound, being tempted by the offer of some tubs of rice and sugar were persuaded to hold a `corrobery' or great dancing party." [description follows.] . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. ii. p. : "there can be little doubt that the corrobboree is the medium through which the delights of poetry and the drama are enjoyed in a limited degree, even by these primitive savages of new holland." . mrs. meredith. `notes and sketches of new south wales,' p. : "great preparations were made, as for a grand corrobory, or festival, the men divesting themselves of even the portions of clothing commonly worn, and painting their naked black bodies in a hideous manner with pipe-clay. after dark, they lit their fires, which are small, but kept blazing with constant additions of dry bark and leaves, and the sable gentry assembled by degrees as they completed their evening toilette, full dress being painted nudity. a few began dancing in different parties, preparatory to the grand display, and the women, squatting on the ground, commenced their strange monotonous chant, each beating accurate time with two boomerangs. then began the grand corrobory, and all the men joined in the dance, leaping, jumping, bounding about in the most violent manner, but always in strict unison with each other, and keeping time with the chorus, accompanying their wild gesticulations with frightful yells, and noises. the whole `tableau' is fearfully grand! the dark wild forest scenery around--the bright fire-light gleaming upon the savage and uncouth figures of the men, their natural dark hue being made absolutely horrible by the paintings bestowed on them, consisting of lines and other marks done in white and red pipe-clay, which gives them an indescribably ghastly and fiendish aspect--their strange attitudes, and violent contortions and movements, and the unearthly sound of their yells, mingled with the wild and monotonous wail-like chant of the women, make altogether a very near approach to the horribly sublime in the estimation of most europeans who have witnessed an assembly of the kind." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "they have no instrument of music, the corobery's song being accompanied by the beating of two sticks together, and by the women thumping their opossum rugs.'" . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. [footnote]: "these words, which were quite as unintelligible to the natives as the corresponding words in the vernacular language of the white men would have been, were learned by the natives, and are now commonly used by them in conversing with europeans, as english words. thus corrobbory, the sydney word for a general assembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense at moreton bay; but the original word there is yanerwille. cabon, great; narang, little; boodgeree, good; myall, wild native, etc. etc., are all words of this description, supposed by the natives [of queensland] to be english words, and by the europeans to be aboriginal words of the language of that district." [the phrase "general assembly" would rise naturally in the mind of dr. lang as a presbyterian minister; but there is no evidence of anything parliamentary about a corrobbery.] . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the exact object or meaning of their famous corrobboree or native dance, beyond mere exercise and patience, has not as yet been properly ascertained; but it seems to be mutually understood and very extensively practised throughout australia, and is generally a sign of mutual fellowship and good feeling on the part of the various tribes." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "when our blacks visited sydney, and saw the military paraded, and heard the bands, they said that was `white fellows' corrobbory.'" . e. stone parker, `aborigines of australia,' p. : "it is a very great mistake to suppose . . . that there is any kind of religious ceremony connected with the ordinary corrobory. . . . i may also remark that the term corrobory is not a native word." [it is quite certain that it is native, though not known to mr. e. stone parker.] . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : [in tasmania] "the assembling of the tribes was always celebrated by a grand corroboree, a species of bestial bal masque. on such occasions they presented a most grotesque and demon-like appearance, their heads, faces, and bodies, liberally greased were besmeared alternately with clay and red ochre; large tufts of bushy twigs were entwined around their ankles, wrists, and waists; and these completed their toilet." . j. d. woods, `native tribes of south australia,' introduction, pp. xxxii. and xxxiii.: "the principal dance is common all over the continent, and `corrobboree' is the name by which it is commonly known. it is not quite clear what a corrobboree is intended to signify. some think it a war-dance--others that it is a representation of their hunting expeditions--others again, that it is a religious, or pagan, observance; but on this even the blacks themselves give no information." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the good fortune to witness a korroboree, that is a festive dance by the natives in the neighbourhood." . j. fraser, `the aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "`karabari' is an aboriginal name for those dances which our natives often have in the forests at night. hitherto the name has been written corrobboree, but etymologically it should be karabari, for it comes from the same root as `karaji,' a wizard or medicine-man, and `bari' is a common formative in the native languages. the karabari has been usually regarded as a form of amusement . . . these dances partake of a semi-religious character." [mr. fraser's etymology is regarded as far-fetched.] ( ) the song that accompanied the dance. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "i feared he might imagine we were afraid of his incantations, for he sang most lamentable corroborris." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : ". . . listen to the new corroborree. great numbers arrive; the corroborree is danced night after night with the utmost enthusiasm. . . .these corroborrees travel for many hundreds of miles from the place where they originated. . . .these composers [of song and dance] pretend that the spirit of evil originally manufactured their corroborree." . rev. j. h. zillman, `australian life,' p. : "the story was a grand joke among the blacks for many a day. it became, no doubt, the theme for a `corroberee,' and tommy was always after a hero amongst his countrymen." ( ) by transference, any large social gathering or public meeting. . `saturday review,' feb.' , p. , col. : "a corrobory of gigantic dimensions is being prepared for [general booth's] reception [in australia]." (`o.e.d.') . modern: "there's a big corrobbery on to-night at government house, and you can't get a cab for love or money." ( ) by natural transference, a noise, disturbance, fuss or trouble. . garnet walch, `adamanta,' act ii. sc. ii. p. : "how can i calm this infantile corroboree?" . h. o. forbes, `naturalist's wanderings,' p. : "kingfishers . . . in large chattering corrobories in the tops of high trees." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "the boy raises the most awful corroboree of screams and howls, enough for a whole gang of bushrangers, if they went in for that sort of thing." . `the herald,' feb. , p. i, col. : "latest about the cretan corroboree in our cable messages this evening. the situation at the capital is decidedly disagreeable. a little while ago the moslems threw the christians out and took charge. now the last report is that there is a large force of christians attacking the city and quite ready, we doubt not, to cut every moslem throat that comes in the way." corrobbery, v. ( ) to hold a corrobbery. . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "they began to corrobery or dance. (p. ): they `corroberried,' sang, laughed, and screamed." . r. m. pried, `australian life,' p. : "for some time the district where the nut [bunya] abounds is a scene of feasting and corroboreeing." ( ) by transference to animals, birds, insects, etc. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the mosquitoes from the swamps corroboreed with unmitigated ardour." . c. darwin, `descent of man' ( nd ed. ), p. : "the menura alberti [see lyrebird] scratches for itself shallow holes, or, as they are called by the natives, corroborying places, where it is believed both sexes assemble." ( ) to boil; to dance as boiling water does. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "`look out there! `he continued; `quart-pot corroborree,' springing up and removing with one hand from the fire one of the quart-pots, which was boiling madly, while with the other he dropped in about as much tea as he could hold between his fingers and thumb." ibid. p. : "they had almost finished their meal before the new quart corroborreed, as the stockman phrased it." corypha-palm, n. an obsolete name for livistona inermis, now called cabbage-tree (q.v.). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the bottle-tree and the corypha-palm were frequent." cottage, n. a house in which all the rooms are on the ground-floor. an auctioneer's advertisement often runs--"large weatherboard cottage, twelve rooms, etc.," or "double-fronted brick cottage." the cheapness of land caused nearly all suburban houses in australia to be built without upper storeys and detached. cotton-bush, n. name applied to two trees called salt-bush (q.v.). ( ) bassia bicornis, lindl. ( ) kochia aphylla, r. br., n.o. salsolaceae. s. dixon (apud maiden, p. ) thus describes it-- "all kinds of stock are often largely dependent on it during protracted droughts, and when neither grass nor hay are obtainable i have known the whole bush chopped up and mixed with a little corn, when it proved an excellent fodder for horses." . w. harcus, `south australia,' p. : "this is a fine open, hilly district, watered, well grassed, and with plenty of herbage and cotton-bush." cotton-shrub, n. a name given in tasmania to the shrub pimelea nivea, lab., n.o. thymeleae. cotton-tree, n. an australian tree, hibiscus teliaceus, linn., n.o. malvaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the fibre of the bark [cotton-tree] is used for nets and fishing-lines by the aborigines." cotton-wood, n. the timber of an australian tree, bedfordia salicina, de c., n.o. compositae. called dog-wood (q.v.) in tasmania. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the `dog-wood' of tasmania, and the `cotton-wood' of southern new south wales, on account of the abundant down on the leaves. a hard, pale-brown, well-mottled wood, said by some to be good for furniture. it emits a foetid smell when cut." coucal, n. a bird-name, "mentioned probably for the first time in le vaillant's `oiseaux d'afrique,' beginning about ; perhaps native african. an african or indian spear-headed cuckoo: a name first definitely applied by cuvier in to the birds of the genus centropus." (`century.') the australian species is centropus phasianellus, gould, or centropus phasianus, lath. it is called also swamp-pheasant (q.v.), and pheasant-cuckoo. count-fish, n. a large schnapper (q.v.). see cock-schnapper. . `sydney mail,' `fishes and fishing in new south wales': "the ordinary schnapper or count fish implies that all of a certain size are to count as twelve to the dozen, the shoal or school-fish eighteen or twenty-four to the dozen, and the squire, thirty or thirty-six to the dozen--the latter just according to their size, the redbream at per bushel." count-muster, n. a gathering, especially of sheep or cattle in order to count them. . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "the old man's having a regular count-muster of his sons and daughters, and their children and off side relatives-that is, by marriage." cowdie, n. an early variant of kauri (q.v.), with other spellings. . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the native name `kauri' is the only common name in general use. when the timber was first introduced into britain it was termed `cowrie' or `kowdie-pine'; but the name speedily fell into disuse, although it still appears as the common name in some horticultural works." cowshorns, n. a tasmanian orchid, pterostylis nutans, r. br. cow-tree, n. a native tree of new zealand. maori name, karaka (q.v.). . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the karaka-tree of new zealand (corynocarpus laevigata), also called kopi by the natives, and cow-tree by europeans (from that animal being partial to its leaves), grows luxuriantly in sydney." crab, n. of the various australian species of this marine crustacean, scylla serrata alone is large enough to be much used as food, and it is seldom caught. in tasmania and victoria, pseudocarcinus gigas, called the king-crab, which reaches a weight of lbs., is occasionally brought to market. there is only one fresh-water crab known in australia--telphusa transversa. . spencer and hall, `horne expedition in central australia,' zoology, p. : "in the case of telphusa transversa, the fresh-water crab, the banks of certain water holes are riddled with its burrows." crab-hole, n. a hole leading into a pit-like burrow, made originally by a burrowing crayfish, and often afterwards increased in size by the draining into it of water. the burrows are made by crayfish belonging to the genera engaeus and astacopsis, which are popularly known as land-crabs. . letter by mrs. perry, given in canon goodman's `church in victoria, during episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "full of crab holes, which are exceedingly dangerous for the horses. there are holes varying in depth from one to three feet, and the smallest of them wide enough to admit the foot of a horse: nothing more likely than that a horse should break its leg in one. . . . these holes are formed by a small land-crab and then gradually enlarged by the water draining into them." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "this brute put his foot in a crabhole, and came down, rolling on my leg.'' . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "across the creek we went . . . now tripping over tussocks, now falling into crab holes." crab-tree, n. i.q. bitter-bark (q.v.). cradle, n. common in australia, but of californian origin. "a trough on rockers in which auriferous earth or sand is shaken in water, in order to separate and collect the gold." (`o.e.d.') . `illustrated london news,' nov. , p. , col. (`o.e.d.'): [this applies to california, and is before the australian diggings began]: "two men can keep each other steadily at work, the one digging and carrying the earth in a bucket, and the other washing and rocking the cradle." . letter by mrs. perry, quoted in canon goodman's `church in victoria during episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "the streets are full of cradles and drays packed for the journey." . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. xv. p. : "cradles and tin dishes to supply the digging parties." . f. h. nixon, `peter perfume,' p. : "they had cradles by dozens and picks by the score." . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "the music of the puddling mill, the cradle, and the tub." cradle, v. tr. to wash auriferous gravel in a miner's cradle. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. , p. : "the laborious process of washing and `cradling' the ore." crake, n. common english bird-name. the australian varieties are-- little crake-- porzana palustris, gould. spotless c.-- p. tabuensis, gmel. spotted c.-- p. fluminea, gould. white-browed c.-- p. cinereus, vieill. see also swamp-crake. cranberry, native, n. called also ground-berry; name given to three australian shrubs. ( ) styphelia (formerly lissanthe) humifusa, persoon, n.o. epacrideae. . j. ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "astroloma humifusum. the native cranberry has a fruit of a green, reddish, or whitish colour, about the size of a black currant, consisting of a viscid apple-flavoured pulp inclosing a large seed; this fruit grows singly on the trailing stems of a small shrub resembling juniper, bearing beautiful scarlet blossoms in autumn." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "commonly called `ground-berry.' in tasmania the fruits are often called native cranberries. the fruits of these dwarf shrubs are much appreciated by school-boys and aboriginals. they have a viscid, sweetish pulp, with a relatively large stone. the pulp is described by some as being apple-flavoured, though i have always failed to make out any distinct flavour." ( ) styphelia sapida, f. v. m., n.o. epacrideae. . `treasury of botany,' p. (`o.e.d.'): "lissanthe sapida, a native of south-eastern australia, is called the australian cranberry, on account of its resemblance both in size and colour to our european cranberry, vaccinium oxyconos." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native cranberry. the fruit is edible. it is something like the cranberry of europe both in size and colour, but its flesh is thin, and has been likened to that of the siberian crab. [found in] new south wales." ( ) pernettya tasmanica, hook., n.o. ericeae (peculiar to tasmania). crane, n. common english bird-name. in australia used for ( ) the native-companion (q.v.), grus australianus, gould; ( ) various herons, especially in new zealand, where the varieties are--blue crane (matuku), ardea sacra, gmel.; white crane (kotuku), ardea egretta, gmel. see kotuku and nankeen crane. the cranes and the herons are often popularly confused. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "ardea novae-hollandiae, lath., white-fronted heron, blue crane of the colonists. herodias jugularis, blue reef heron, blue crane, colonists of port essington." . ibid. pl. : "herodias immaculata, gould [later melanopus], spotless egret, white crane of the colonists." . `victorian consolidated statutes, game act,' rd schedule: "[close season.] all birds known as cranes such as herons, egrets, &c. from first day of august to twentieth day of december following in each year." craw-fish, n. a variant of crayfish (q.v.). crawler, n. that which crawls; used specially in australia of cattle. . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "well-bred station crawlers, as the stockmen term them from their peaceable and orderly habits." cray-fish, n. the australasian cray-fish belong to the family parastacidae, the members of which are confined to the southern hemisphere, whilst those of the family potamobiidae are found in the northern hemisphere. the two families are distinguished from one another by, amongst other points of structure, the absence of appendages on the first abdominal segment in the parastacidae. the australasian cray-fishes are classified in the following genera--astacopsis, found in the fresh waters of tasmania and the whole of australia; engaeus, a land-burrowing form, found only in tasmania and victoria; paranephrops, found in the fresh waters of new zealand; and palinurus, found on the coasts of australia and new zealand. the species are as follows :-- ( ) the yabber or yabbie crayfish. name given to the commonest fresh-water australian cray-fish, astacopsis bicarinatus, gray. this is found in waterholes, but not usually in running streams, over the greater part of the continent, and often makes burrows in the ground away from water, and may also do great damage by burrowing holes through the banks of dams and reservoirs and water-courses, as at mildura. it was first described as the port essington crayfish. . gray, in e. j. eyre's `expeditions into central australia,' vol. i. p. : "the port essington cray fish. astacus bicarinatus." . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "they are commonly known about melbourne by the native name of yabber or yabbie." ( ) the murray lobster or the spiny cray-fish. name given to the largest australian fresh-water cray-fish, astacopsis serratus, shaw, which reaches a length of over twelve inches, and is found in the rivers of the murray system, and in the southern rivers of victoria such as the yarra, the latter being distinguished as a variety of the former and called locally the yarra spiny cray-fish. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' dec. , pl. : " our plate illustrates a remarkable variety of the typical a. serratus of the murray, common in the yarra and its numerous affluents flowing southwards." ( ) the tasmanian cray-fish. name given to the large fresh-water cray-fish found in tasmania, astacopsis franklinii; gray. ( ) the land-crab. name applied to the burrowing cray-fish of tasmania and victoria, engaeus fossor, erich., and other species. this is the smallest of the australian cray-fish, and inhabits burrows on land, which it excavates for itself and in which a small store of water is retained. when the burrow, as frequently happens, falls in there is formed a crab-hole (q.v.). . g. m. thomson, `proceedings of the royal society of tasmania,' p. : "only four of the previously described forms are fresh-water species, namely: astacopsis franklinii and a. tasmanicus, engaeus fossor and e. cunicularius, all fresh-water cray fishes." ( ) new zealand fresh-water cray-fish. name applied to paranephrops zealandicus, white, which is confined to the fresh water of new zealand. . t. j. parker, `studies in biology' (colonial museum and geological survey department, new zealand), p. : "paranephrops which is small and has to be specially collected in rivers, creeks or lakes." ( ) sydney cray-fish. name given to the large salt-water cray-fish, rarely called craw-fish, or spiny lobster, found along the sydney coast, palinurus huegeli, heller. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "this species, which is the common sydney craw-fish, is easily distinguished from the southern one, the p. lalandi, which is the common melbourne craw-fish." ( ) southern rock-lobster or melbourne crayfish. name given to the large salt-water cray-fish, sometimes called craw-fish, found along the southern coast and common in the melbourne market, palinurus lalandi, lam. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "i suggest the trivial name of southern rock lobster for this species, which abounds in victoria, tasmania and new zealand, as well as the cape of good hope . . . does not appear to have been noticed as far north as sydney." the name craw-fish is merely an ancient variant of cray-fish, though it is said by gasc, in his french dictionary, that the term was invented by the london fishmongers to distinguish the small spiny lobster, which has no claws, from the common lobster, which has claws. the term lobster, in australia, is often applied to the sydney cray-fish (see , above). creadion, n. scientific name given by vieillot in to a genus of birds peculiar to new zealand, from greek kreadion, a morsel of flesh, dim. of kreas, flesh. buller says, "from the angle of the mouth on each side there hangs a fleshy wattle, or caruncle, shaped like a cucumber seed and of a changeable bright yellow colour." ('birds of new zealand,' , vol. i. p. .) the jack-bird (q.v.) and saddle-back (q.v.) are the two species. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "family sturnidae--tieki (creadion carunculatus). this is a beautiful black bird with a chestnut band across the back and wings; it has also a fleshy lappet on either side of the head. the tieki is considered a bird of omen: if one flies on the right side it is a good sign; if on the left, a bad one." cream of tartar tree, n. i.q. baobab (q.v.). creek, n. a small river, a brook, a branch of a river. "an application of the word entirely unknown in great britain." (`o.e.d.') the `standard dictionary' gives, as a use in the united states, "a tidal or valley stream, between a brook and a river in size." in australia, the name brook is not used. often pronounced crick, as in the united states. dr. j. a.h. murray kindly sends the following note:--"creek goes back to the early days of exploration. men sailing up the mississippi or other navigable river saw the mouths of tributary streams, but could not tell with out investigation whether they were confluences or mere inlets, creeks. they called them creeks, but many of them turned out to be running streams, many miles long--tributary rivers or rivulets. the name creek stuck to them, however, and thus became synonymous with tributary stream, brook." . governor hunter, `voyage,' p. : "in the afternoon a creek obliged them to leave the banks of the river, and go round its head, as it was too deep to cross: having rounded the head of this creek. . ." . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "they met with some narrow rivers or creeks." . aug. , `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "through rickerby's grounds upon the riverside and those of the rev. mr. marsden on the creek." . goldie, in bischoff's `van diemen's land' ( ), p. : "there is a very small creek which i understand is never dry." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the creeks and rivers of australia have in general a transitory existence, now swollen by the casual shower, and again rapidly subsiding under the general dryness and heat of the climate." . `bendigo advertiser,' quoted in `melbourne morning herald,' may : "a londoner reading of the crossing of a creek would naturally imagine the scene to be in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, instead of being perhaps some hundreds of miles in the interior, and would dream of salt water, perriwinkles and sea-weed, when he should be thinking of slimy mud-holes, black snakes and gigantic gum-trees." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. iv. p. : "the little rivulet, called, with that singular pertinacity for error which i have so often noticed here, `the creek.'" . lady barker, `station life in, new zealand,' p. : "the creek, just like a scotch burn, hurrying and tumbling down the hillside to join the broader stream in the valley." . p. wentworth, `amos thorne,' i. p. : "a thirsty creek-bed marked a line of green." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "in the rivers, whether large watercourses, and dignified by the name of `river,' or small tributaries called by the less sounding appellation `creeks." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. i. p. : "generally where the english language is spoken a creek means a small inlet of the sea, but in australia a creek is literally what it is etymologically, a crack in the ground. in dry weather there is very little water; perhaps in the height of summer the stream altogether ceases to run, and the creek becomes a string of waterholes; but when the heavens are opened, and the rain falls, it reappears a river." creeklet, n. diminutive of creek. . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "one small creeklet day by day murmurs." creeper, n. the name (sc. tree-creeper) is given to several new zealand birds of the genus certhiparus, n.o. passeres. the maori names are pipipi, toitoi, and mohona. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "certhiparus novae zelandiae, finsch. new zealand creeper." [a full description.] cronk, adj. derived from the german krank--sick or ill. ( ) a racing term used of a horse which is out of order and not "fit" for the contest; hence transferred to a horse whose owner is shamming its illness and making it "run crooked" for the purpose of cheating its backers. ( ) used more generally as slang, but not recognized in barere and leland's `slang dictionary.' . `the herald' (melbourne), july , p. , col. : "he said he would dispose of the cloth at a moderate figure because it was `cronk.' the word `cronk,' mr. finlayson explained, meant `not honestly come by.'" crow, n. common english bird-name. the australian species is--white-eyed, corvus coronoides v. and h. in new zealand (maori name, kokako) the name is used for the blue-wattled crow, glaucopis wilsoni and for the (n. island) orange-wattled, g. cinerea, gmel. (s. island). crow-shrike, n. australian amalgamation of two common english bird-names. the crow-shrikes are of three genera, strepera, gymnorrhima, and cracticus. the varieties of the genus strepera are-- black crow-shrike-- strepera fuliginosa, gould. black-winged c.-- s. melanoptera, gould. grey c.-- s. cuneicaudata, vieill. hill c.-- s. arguta, gould. leaden c.-- s. plumbea, gould. pied c.-- s. graculina, white. birds of the genus gymnorrhina are called magpies (q.v.). those of the genus cracticus are called butcher-birds (q.v.). crush, n. a part of a stockyard. see quotations. . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "a crush, which is an elongated funnel, becoming so narrow at the end that a beast is wedged in and unable to move." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "there were some small yards, and a `crush,' as they call it, for branding cattle." cuckoo, n. common english bird-name. the australian birds to which it is applied are-- black-eared cuckoo-- mesocalius osculans, gould. bronze c.-- chalcoccyx plagosus, lath. brush c.-- cacomantis insperatus. [gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. .] chestnut-breasted c.-- c. castanei-ventris, gould. fantailed c.-- c. flabelliformis, lath. little-bronze c.-- chalcoccyx malayanus, raffles. narrow-billed bronze c.-- c. basalis, hors. oriental c.-- cuculus intermedius, vahl. pallid c.-- cacomantis pallidus and c. canorus, linn. square-tailed c.-- c. variolosus, hors. whistling-bronze c.-- chalcoccyx lucidus, gmel. in new zealand, the name is applied to eudynamis taitensis (sc. of tahiti) sparm., the long-tailed cuckoo; and to chrysococcyx lucidus, gmel., the shining cuckoo. the name cuckoo has sometimes been applied to the mopoke (q.v.) and to the boobook (q.v.). see also pheasant-cuckoo. . g. w. rusden, `moyarra,' notes, p. : "the australian cuckoo is a nightjar, and is heard only by night." . w. carleton, `australian nights,' p. : "the austral cuckoo spoke his melancholy note, `mopoke.'" . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "there are two species of the longtailed cuckoo (eudynamis taitensis), and the beautiful bronze or shining cuckoo (chrysococcyx lucidus). they are both migratory birds. the long-tailed cuckoo spends its winter in some of the pacific islands, the shining cuckoo in australia." cuckoo-shrike, n. this combination of two common english bird-names is assigned in australia to the following-- barred cuckoo-shrike graucalus lineatus, swains. black-faced c.-- g. melanops, lath. ground c.-- pteropodocys phasianella, gould. little c.-- graucalus mentalis, vig. and hors. small-billed c.-- g. parvirostris, gould. white-bellied c.-- g. hyperleucus, gould. cucumber-fish, n. i.q. grayling (q.v.). cucumber-mullet, n. i.q. grayling (q.v.). cultivation paddock, n. a field that has been tilled and not kept for grass. . chas. st. julian and ed. k. silvester, `the productions, industry, and resources of new south wales,' p. : "few stations of any magnitude are without their `cultivation paddocks,' where grain and vegetables are raised . . ." . a lady, `my experiences in australia,' p. : "besides this large horse paddock, there was a space cleared of trees, some twenty to thirty acres in extent, on the banks of the creek, known as the `cultivation paddock,' where in former days my husband had grown a sufficient supply of wheat for home consumption." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "how any man could have been such an idiot as to attempt to make a cultivation paddock on a bed of clay passed all my knowledge.' curlew, n. common english bird-name. the australian species is numenius cyanopus, vieill. the name, however, is more generally applied to aedicnemus grallarius, lath. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "they rend the air like cries of despair, the screams of the wild curlew." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "truly the most depressing cry i ever heard is that of the curlew, which you take no notice of in course of time; but which to us, wet, weary, hungry, and strange, sounded most eerie." . `victorian statutes, game act, third schedule': "southern stone plover or curlew." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the calling of the stone plover. it might as well be a curlew at once, for it will always be a curlew to country people. its first call, with the pause between, sounds like `curlew'--that is, if you really want it to sound so, though the blacks get much nearer the real note with `koo-loo,' the first syllable sharp, the second long drawn out." . dr. holden, of hobart, `private letter,' jan.: "there is a curlew in australia, closely resembling the english bird, and it calls as that did over the locksley hall sand-dunes; but australians are given to calling aedicnemus grallarius latham (our stone plover), the `curlew,' which is a misnomer. this also drearily wails, and after dark." currajong or currijong, i.q. kurrajong (q.v.). currant, native, n. the name is given to various shrubs and trees of the genus coprosma, especially coprosma billardieri, hook., n.o. rubiare(e; also to leucopogon richei, lab., n.o. epacrideae, various species of leptomeria, n.o. santalaceae, and myoporum serratum, r. br., n.o. myoporineae. the names used for m. serratum, chiefly in south australia, are blueberry tree, native juniper, native myrtle, palberry, and cockatoo bush. see also native plum. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "our native currants are strongly acidulous, like the cranberry, and make an excellent preserve when mixed with the raspberry." . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "leucopogon lanceolatum. a large bush with numerous harsh leaves, growing along the sea shore, with some other smaller inland shrubs of the same tribe, produces very small white berries of a sweetish and rather herby flavour. these are promiscuously called white or native currants in the colony." ["the insignificant and barely edible berries of this shrub are said to have saved the life of the french botanist riche, who was lost in the bush on the south australian coast for three days, at the close of the last century." (maiden.) the plant is now called l. richei.] . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native currant. . . . this plant bears a small round drupe, about the size of a small pea. mr. backhouse states that (over half a century ago) when british fruits were scarce, it was made into puddings by some of the settlers of tasmania, but the size and number of the seeds were objectionable." currant, plain, n. see plain currant. currency, n. ( ) name given especially to early paper-money in the colonies, issued by private traders and of various values, and in general to the various coins of foreign countries, which were current and in circulation. barrington, in his `history of new south wales `( ), gives a table of such specie. . edward curr, `account of the colony of van diemen's land,' p. : "much of this paper-money is of the most trifling description. to this is often added `payable in dollars at s. each.' some . . . make them payable in colonial currency." [p. , note]: " s. currency is about equal to a sovereign." . act of geo. iv., no. (van diemen's land): "all bills of exchange, promissory notes . . . as also all contracts and agreements whatsoever which shall be drawn and circulated or issued, or made and entered into, and shall be therein expressed . . . to be payable in currency, current money, spanish dollars . . . shall be . . . null and void." . geo. thos. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "every man in business . . . issued promissory notes, varying in value from the sum of fourpence to twenty shillings, payable on demand. these notes received the appellation of paper currency. . . . the pound sterling represented twenty-five shillings of the paper-money." ( ) obsolete name for those colonially-born. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. (table of contents): "letter xxi.--currency or colonial-born population." ibid. p. : "our colonial-born brethren are best known here by the name of currency, in contradistinction to sterling, or those born in the mother-country. the name was originally given by a facetious paymaster of the rd regiment quartered here--the pound currency being at that time inferior to the pound sterling." . h. w. parker, `rise, progress, and present state of van diemen's land,' p. : "the currency lads, as the country born colonists in the facetious nomenclature of the colony are called, in contradistinction to those born in the mother country." . martin's `colonial magazine,' vol. iii. p. : "currency lady." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "whites born in the colony, who are also called `the currency'; and thus the `currency lass' is a favourite name for colonial vessels." [and, it may be added, also of hotels.] . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "a singular disinclination to finish any work completely, is a striking characteristic of colonial craftsmen, at least of the `currency' or native-born portion. many of them who are clever, ingenious and industrious, will begin a new work, be it ship, house, or other erection, and labour at it most assiduously until it be about two-thirds completed, and then their energy seems spent, or they grow weary of the old occupation, and some new affair is set about as busily as the former one." . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "english girls have such lovely complexions and cut out us poor currency lasses altogether." ibid. p. : "you're a regular currency lass . . . always thinking about horses." cushion-flower, n. i.q. hakea laurina, r. br. see hakea. cut out, v. ( ) to separate cattle from the rest of the herd in the open. . marcus clarke, `holiday peak, &c.,' p. : "the other two . . . could cut out a refractory bullock with the best stockman on the plains." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. x. p. : "we . . . camped for the purpose of separating our cattle, either by drafting through the yard, or by `cutting out' on horse-back." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "drafting on the camp, or `cutting out' as it is generally called, is a very pretty performance to watch, if it is well done." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. ii. p. : "tell him to get `mustang,' he's the best cutting-out horse." . `the argus,' april , p. . col. : "a queenslander would have thought it was as simple as going on to a cutting-out camp up north and running out the fats." ( ) to finish shearing. . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "when the stations `cut out,' as the term for finishing is, and the shearers and rouseabout men leave." cutting-grass, n. cladium psittacorum, labill., n.o. cyperaceae. it grows very long narrow blades whose thin rigid edge will readily cut flesh if incautiously handled; it is often called sword-grass. . t. mccombie `history of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "long grass, known as cutting-grass between four and five feet high, the blade an inch and a half broad, the edges exquisitely sharp." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "travelling would be almost impossible but for the button rush and cutting grass, which grow in big tussocks out of the surrounding bog." . `the age,' oct. , p. , col. : "`cutting grass' is the technical term for a hard, tough grass about eight or ten inches high, three-edged like a bayonet, which stock cannot eat because in their efforts to bite it off it cuts their mouths." d dabchick, n. common english bird-name. the new zealand species is podiceps rufipectus. there is no species in australia. dacelo, n. name given by "w. e. leach, . an anagram or transposition of lat. alcedo, a kingfisher." (`century.') scientific name for the jackass (q.v.). dactylopsila, n. the scientific name of the australian genus of the striped phalanger, called locally the striped opossum; see opossum. it has a long bare toe. (grk. daktulos, a finger, and psilos, bare.) daisy, brisbane, n. a queensland and new south wales plant, brachycome microcarpa, f. v. m., n.o. compositae. daisy, native, n. a tasmanian flower, brachycome decipiens, hook., n.o. compositae. daisy tree, n. two tasmanian trees, astur stellulatus, lab., and a. glandulosus, lab., n.o. compositae. the latter is called the swamp-daisy-tree. dam, n. in england, the word means a barrier to stop water in australia, it also means the water so stopped, as `o.e.d.' shows it does in yorkshire. . marcus clarke, `holiday peak, &c.,' p. : "the dams were brimming at quartz-borough, st. roy reservoir was running over." . `scribner's magazine,' feb., p. : "dams as he calls his reservoirs scooped out in the hard soil." . `the leader,' jan. : "a boundary rider has been drowned in a dam." . `the times,' [reprint] `letters from queensland,' p. : "at present few stations are subdivided into paddocks smaller than , acres apiece. if in each of these there is but one waterhole or dam that can be relied upon to hold out in drought, sheep and cattle will destroy as much grass in tramping from the far corners of the grazing to the drinking spot as they will eat. four paddocks of , acres each, well supplied with water, ought to carry almost double the number of sheep." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "[the murderer] has not since been heard of. dams and waterholes have been dragged . . . but without result." dammara, n. an old scientific name of the genus, including the kauri pine (q.v.). it is from the hindustani, damar, `resin.' the name was applied to the kauri pine by lambert in , but it was afterwards found that salisbury, in , had previously constituted the genus agathis for the reception of the kauri pine and the dammar pine of amboyna. this priority of claim necessitated the modern restoration of agathis as the name of the genus. damper, n. a large scone of flour and water baked in hot ashes; the bread of the bush, which is always unleavened. [the addition of water to the flour suggests a more likely origin than that given by dr. lang. see quotation, .] . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. "the farm-men usually make their flour into flat cakes, which they call damper, and cook these in the ashes . . ." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. ii. c. viii. p. : "i watched the distorted countenances of my humble companions while drinking their tea and eating their damper." . j. o. balfour, `sketches of new south wales,' p. : "damper (a coarse dark bread)." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "i must here enlighten my readers as to what `damper' is. it is the bread of the bush, made with flour and water kneaded together and formed into dough, which is baked in the ashes, and after a few months keeping is a good substitute for bread." [the last clause contains a most extraordinary statement-- perhaps a joke. damper is not kept for months, but is generally made fresh for each meal. see quotation, , lumholtz.] . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "a cake baked in the ashes, which in australia is usually styled a damper." [footnote]: "this appellation is said to have originated somehow with dampier, the celebrated navigator." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "`damper' is a dough made from wheat-flour and water without yeast, which is simply pressed flat, and baked in the ashes; according to civilized notions, rather hard of digestion, but quite agreeable to hungry woodmen's stomachs." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "at first we had rather a horror of eating damper, imagining it to be somewhat like an uncooked crumpet. experience, however, showed it to be really very good. its construction is simple, and is as follows. plain flour and water is mixed on a sheet of bark, and then kneaded into a disc some two or three inches thick to about one or two feet in diameter, great care to avoid cracks being taken in the kneading. this is placed in a hole scraped to its size in the hot ashes, covered over, and there left till small cracks caused by the steam appear on the surface of its covering. this is a sign that it is nearly done, and in a few minutes the skilful chef will sound it over with his "wedges of damper (or bread baked in hot ashes) were cut from time to time from great circular flat loaves of that palatable and wholesome but somewhat compressed-looking bread." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "damper is the name of a kind of bread made of wheat flour and water. the dough is shaped into a flat round cake, which is baked in red-hot ashes. this bread looks very inviting, and tastes very good as long as it is fresh, but it soon becomes hard and dry." damson, native, n. called also native plum, an australian shrub, nageia spinulosa, f. v. m., n.o. coniferae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native damson or native plum. this shrub possesses edible fruit, something like a plum, hence its vernacular names. the rev. dr. woolis tells me that, mixed with jam of the native currant (leptomeria acida), it makes a very good pudding." dandelion, native, n. a flowering plant, podolepis acuminata, r. br., n.o. compositae. daphne, native, n. an australian timber, myoporum viscorum, r. br., n.o. myoporineae; called also dogwood and waterbush. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native daphne. . . . timber soft and moderately light, yet tough. it is used for building purposes. it dresses well, and is straight in the grain." darling pea, n. an australian plant, swainsonia galegifolia, r. br., n.o. leguminosae; i.q. indigo plant (q.v.). see also poison-bush. the darling downs and river were named after general (later sir ralph) darling, who was governor of new south wales from dec. , to oct. , . the "pea" is named from one of these. darling shower, n. a local name in the interior of australia, and especially on the river darling, for a dust storm, caused by cyclonic winds. dart, n. ( ) plan, scheme, idea [slang]. it is an extension of the meaning--"sudden motion." . j. farrell, `how: he died,' p. : "whose `dart' for the looard was to appear the justest steward that ever hiked a plate round." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "when i told them of my `dart,' some were contemptuous, others incredulous." . rolf boldrewood, `nevermore,' p. : "your only dart is to buy a staunch horse with a tip-cart." ( ) particular fancy or personal taste. . modern: "`fresh strawberries eh!--that's my dart,' says the bushman when he sees the fruit lunch in collins-street." darter, n. common english name for birds of the genus plotus. so called from the way it "darts" upon its prey. the australian species is plotus novae- hollandiae, gould. dasyure, and dasyurus, n. the scientific name of the genus of australian animals called native cats. see under cat. the first form is the anglicized spelling and is scientifically used in preference to the misleading vernacular name. from the greek dasus, thick with hair, hairy, shaggy, and 'oura, tail. they range over australia, tasmania, new guinea, and the adjacent islands. unlike the thylacine and tasmanian devil (q.v.), which are purely terrestrial, the dasyurus are arboreal in their habits, while they are both carnivorous and insectivorous. the thylacine, tasmanian devil, pouched mice, and banded ant-eater have sometimes been incorrectly classed as dasyures, but the name is now strictly allotted to the genus dasyurus, or native cat. date, native, n. a queensland fruit, capparis canescens, banks, n.o. capparideae. the fruit is shaped like a pear, and about half an inch in its largest diameter. it is eaten raw by the aborigines. deadbeat, n. in australia, it means a man "down on his luck," "stone-broke," beaten by fortune. in america, the word means an impostor, a sponge. between the two uses the connection is clear, but the australian usage is logically the earlier. dead-bird, n. in australia, a recent slang term, meaning "a certainty." the metaphor is from pigeon-shooting, where the bird being let loose in front of a good shot is as good as dead. dead-finish, n. a rough scrubtree. ( )albizzia basaltica, benth., n.o. leguminosae. ( ) acacia farnesiana, willd., n.o. leguminosae. see quotation, . . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia', p. : "on the eastern face of the coast range are pine, red cedar, and beech, and on the western slopes, rose-wood, myall, dead-finish, plum-tree, iron-wood and sandal-wood, all woods with a fine grain suitable for cabinet-making and fancy work." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "sometimes called by the absurd name of `dead finish.' this name given to some species of acacia and albizzia, is on account of the trees or shrubs shooting thickly from the bottom, and forming an impenetrable barrier to the traveller, who is thus brought to a `dead finish' (stop)" . `the times,' [reprint] `letters from queensland,' p. : "the hawthorn is admirably represented by a brush commonly called `dead finish.'" [p. ]: "little knolls are crowned with `dead finish' that sheep are always glad to nibble." dead-wood fence, n. the australian fence, so called, is very different from the fence of the same name in england. it is high and big, built of fallen timber, logs and branches. though still used in australia for fencing runs, it is now usually superseded by wire fences. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "a `dead-wood fence,' that is, a mass of timber four or five feet thick, and five or six high, the lower part being formed of the enormous trunks of trees, cut into logs six or eight feet long, laid side by side, and the upper portion consisting of the smaller branches skilfully laid over, or stuck down and twisted." . g. baden-powell, `new homes for the old country,' p. : "a very common fence is built by felling trees round the space to be enclosed, and then with their stems as a foundation, working up with the branches, a fence of a desirable height." deal, native, n. an australian timber, nageia elata, f. v. m., n.o. coniferae. for other vernacular names see quotation. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "pine, white pine, called she-pine in queensland; native deal, pencil cedar. this tree has an elongated trunk, rarely cylindrical; wood free from knots, soft, close, easily worked, good for joiners' and cabinet-work; some trees afford planks of great beauty. (macarthur.) fine specimens of this timber have a peculiar mottled appearance not easily described, and often of surpassing beauty." [see also pine.] december, n. a summer month in australia. see christmas. . j. hood, `land of the fern,' p. : "warm december sweeps with burning breath across the bosom of the shrinking earth." deepsinker, n. ( ) the largest sized tumbler; ( ) the long drink served in it. the idea is taken from deep-sinking in a mining shaft. . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col : "as athletes the cocoons can run rings round the beans; they can jump out of a tumbler--whether medium, small, or deepsinker is not recorded." deep yellow-wood, n. rhus rhodanthema, f. v. m., n.o. anacardiaceae. a tree with spreading head; timber valuable. see yellow-wood. deferred payment, n. a legal phrase. "land on deferred payment"; "deferred payment settler"; "pastoral deferred payment." these expressions in new zealand have reference to the mode of statutory alienation of crown lands, known in other colonies as conditional sale, etc., i.e. sale on time payment, with conditions binding the settler to erect improvements, ending in his acquiring the fee-simple. the system is obsolete, but many titles are still incomplete. dell-bird, n. another name for the bell-bird (q.v.). dendrolagus, n. the scientific name of the genus of australian marsupials called tree-kangaroos (q.v.). (grk. dendron, a tree, and lagows, a hare.) unlike the other kangaroos, their fore limbs are nearly as long as the hinder pair, and thus adapted for arboreal life. there are five species, three belong to new guinea and two to queensland; they are the queensland tree-kangaroo, dendrolagus lumholtzi; bennett's t.-k., d. bennettianus; black t.-k., d. ursinus : brown t.-k., d. inustus; doria's t.-k., d. dorianus. see kangaroo. derry, n. slang. the phrase "to have a down on" (see down) is often varied to "have a derry on." the connection is probably the comic-song refrain, "hey derry down derry." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "mr. croker: certainly. we will tender it as evidence. (to the witness.) have you any particular `derry' upon this wendouree?--no; not at all. there are worse vessels knocking about than the wendouree." dervener, n. see quotation, and derwenter. . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. , letters to the editor: "`dervener.'--an expression used in continental australia for a man from the derwent in tasmania. common up till at least.--david blair." ibid. jan. , p. , col. : "with respect to `dervener,' the word was in use while the blue shirt race existed [sc. convicts], and these people did not become extinct until after .--cymro-victoria." derwenter, n. a released convict from hobart town, tasmania, which is on the river derwent. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xx. p. : "an odd pair of sawyers, generally `derwenters,' as the tasmanian expirees were called." desert lemon, n. called also native kumquat, atalantia glauca, hook., n.o. rutacea. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the native kumquat or desert lemon. the fruit is globular, and about half an inch in diameter. it produces an agreeable beverage from its acid juice." desert-oak, n. an australian tree, casuarina decaisneana, f. v. m. see casuarina and oak. . baldwin spencer, `horne expedition in central australia,' narrative, p. : "we had now amongst these sandhills come into the region of the `desert oak' (casuarina decaisneana). some of the trees reach a height of forty or fifty feet, and growing either singly or in clumps form a striking feature amongst the thin sparse scrub. . . . the younger ones resemble nothing so much as large funeral plumes. their outlines seen under a blazing sun are indistinct, and they give to the whole scene a curious effect of being `out of focus.'" devil, tasmanian, n. an animal, sarcophilus ursinus, harris. formerly, but erroneously, referred to the genus dasyurus (q.v.), which includes the native cat (see under cat): described in the quotations. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "the devil, or as naturalists term it, dasyurus ursinus, is very properly named." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the devil (dasyurus ursinus, geoff.), about the size of a bull terrier, is an exceedingly fierce and disgusting-looking animal, of a black colour, usually having one white band across the chest, and another across the back, near the tail. it is a perfect glutton, and most indiscriminate in its feeding." . f. j. jobson, `australia,' c. vii. p. : "dasyurus ursinus--a carnivorous marsupial. colonists in tasmania, where only it exists . . . called it the `devil,' from the havoc it made among their sheep and poultry." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "in the next division is a pair of tasmanian devils (dasyurus ursinus); these unprepossessing-looking brutes are hated by every one in tasmania, their habitat, owing to their destructiveness amongst poultry, and even sheep. they are black in colour, having only a white band across the chest, and possess great strength in proportion to their size." devil's guts, n. the name is given in australia to the dodder-laurel (see laurel), cassytha filiformis, linn., n.o. lauraceae. in tasmania the name is applied to lyonsia straminea, r. br., n.o. apocyneae. . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "lyonsia (lyonsia straminea, br.). fibres of the bark fine and strong. the lyonsia is met with, rather sparingly, in dense thickets, with its stems hanging like ropes among the trees." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "this and other species of cassythia are called `dodder-laurel.' the emphatic name of `devil's guts' is largely used. it frequently connects bushes and trees by cords, and becomes a nuisance to the traveller." [this plant is used by the brahmins of southern india for seasoning their buttermilk. (`treasury of botany.')] ibid. p. : "it is also used medicinally." devil-on-the-coals, n. a bushman's name for a small and quickly-baked damper. . rev. a. polehampton, `kangaroo land,' p. : "instead of damper we occasionally made what is colonially known as `devils on the coals.' . . . they are convenient when there is not time to make damper, as only a minute or so is required to bake them. they are made about the size of a captain's biscuit, and as thin as possible, thrown on the embers and turned quickly with the hand." diamond bird, n. a bird-name. in the time of gould this name was only applied to pardalotus punctatus, temm. since that time it has been extended to all the species of the genus pardalotus (q.v.). the broken colour of the plumage suggested a sparkling jewel. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "we are informed by mr. caley that this species is called diamond bird by the settlers, from the spots on its body. by them it is reckoned as valuable on account of its skin." diamond snake, n. in queensland and new south wales, pythonon spilotes, lacep.; in tasmania, hoplocephalus superhus, gray, venomous. see under snake. digger, n. a gold-miner. the earliest mines were alluvial. of course the word is used elsewhere, but in australia it has this special meaning. . title: "murray's guide to the gold diggings.--the australian gold diggings; where they are, and how to get at them; with letters from settlers and diggers telling how to work them. london: stewart & murray) ." . valiant, `letter to council,' given in mccombie's `history of victoria' ( ), c. xvi. p. : "it caused the diggers, as a body, to pause in their headlong career." . w. howitt, `land, labour, and gold,' vol. ii. p. , letter xxx: "buckland river, january th, . the diggers here are a very quiet and civil race, at the same time that they are a most active and laborious one. . . . the principal part of the diggers here are from the ovens." . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. ii. p. : "drink success to the digger's trade, and break up to the squatter's." . h. lawson, `while the billy boils,' p. : "his father's mate had always been a general favourite with the diggers and fossickers, from the days when he used to slip out first thing in the morning and take a run across the frosty flat in his shirt." digger's delight, n. a flower, veronica perfoliata, r. br., n.o. scrophularaneae, described in quotations. . w. r. guilfoyle, `first book of australian botany,' p. : "digger's delight, veronica perfoliata, n.o. scrophularineae. a pretty, blue-flowering shrub, with smooth stem-clasping leaves; found in the mountainous districts of victoria and new south wales, and deriving its common name from a supposition that its presence indicated auriferous country. it is plentiful in the elevated cold regions of australia." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "such native flowers as the wild violet, the shepherd's purse, or the blue-flowered `digger's delight.' this latter has come, perhaps, with the seeds from some miner's holding amongst the iron-barks in the gold country, and was once supposed to grow only on auriferous soils. when no one would think of digging for gold in this field, the presence of the flower is, perhaps, as reliable an indication of a golconda underneath as the reports and information on the strength of which many mining companies are floated." diggerdom, n. collective noun, the diggers. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "diggerdom is gloriously in the ascendant here." diggeress, n. a digger's wife. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the digger marching off, followed by his diggeress, a tall, slim young woman, who strode on like a trooper. . . . open carriages driving about, crowded with diggers and their diggeresses." . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. ii. p. : "i'm tir'd of being a diggeress, and yearn a farmer's home to grace." diggings, n. a place where gold-mining is carried on. the word is generally regarded as singular. though common in australia, it is very old, even in the sense of a place where digging for gold is carried on. . de foe's `tour of great britain,' i. (`o.e.d.'): "king henry viii. was induced to dig for gold. he was disappointed, but the diggings are visible at this day." . j. morgan, `life and adventures of william buckley' (published at hobart), p. [quoting from the `victoria commercial review,' published at melbourne, by messrs. westgarth, ross, & co., under date september , ]: "the existence of a `goldfield' was not ascertained until may last. . . . numbers of persons are daily `prospecting' throughout this colony and new south wales in search of gold. . . .in victoria, as well as in new south wales, regular `diggings' are now established." . murray, `the australian gold diggings: where they are and how to get at them,' p. ; "it cannot but be acceptable to the crowds of intending colonists and gold seekers, to present them with a picture of the `progress of the diggins,' [sic] drawn by the diggers." . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. xv. p. : "immigrants who had not means to start to the diggings." . j. o. tucker, `the mute,' p. : "ye glorious diggings `neath a southern clime! i saw thy dawn." [`ye,' `thy.' is this singular or plural?] . h. h. hayter, `christmas adventure,' p. i: "fryer's creek, a diggings more than miles from melbourne." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. vii. p. : "it was a goldfield and a diggings in far-away australia." dilli, later dilly-bag, n. an aboriginal word, coming from queensland, for a bag made either of grasses or of fur twisted into cord. dhilla is the term for hair in kabi dialect, mary river, queensland. dirrang and jirra are corresponding words in the east of new south wales. the aboriginal word dilli has been tautologically increased to dilly-bag, and the word is used by bushmen for a little bag for odds-and-ends, even though made of calico or holland. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "in their `dillis' (small baskets) were several roots or tubers." ibid. p. : "a basket (dilli) which i examined was made of a species of grass." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "i learned too at the camp to plait dilly-bags." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "mayboy came forward dangling a small dilly-bag." . a.j. north, `report of australian museum,' p. : "dilly-bag (partly wool and partly grass)." dingle-bird, n. a poetical name for the australian bell-bird (q.v.). . f. s. wilson, `australian songs,' p. : "the bell-like chimings of the distant dingle-bird." . c. harpur, `poems,' p. : "i . . . list the tinkling of the dinglebird." dingo, n. the native dog of australia, canis dingo. "the aborigines, before they obtained dogs from europeans, kept the dingo for hunting, as is still done by coast tribes in queensland. name probably not used further south than shoalhaven, where the wild dog is called mirigang." (a. w. howitt.) . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : [a dingo or dog of new south wales. plate. description by j. hunter.] "it is capable of barking, although not so readily as the european dogs; is very ill-natured and vicious, and snarls, howls, and moans, like dogs in common. whether this is the only dog in new south wales, and whether they have it in a wild state, is not mentioned; but i should be inclined to believe they had no other; in which case it will constitute the wolf of that country; and that which is domesticated is only the wild dog tamed, without having yet produced a variety, as in some parts of america." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. [vocab.]: "jungo---beasts, common name. tein-go---din-go. wor-re-gal---dog." . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : "the native dog also, which is a species of the wolf, was proved to be fully equal in this respect [sport] to the fox; but as the pack was not sufficiently numerous to kill these animals at once, they always suffered so severely from their bite that at last the members of the hunt were shy in allowing the dogs to follow them." . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar,' p. : "tigko---a bitch." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes `( ), p. : "i have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog, does not hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal." . william story, `victorian government prize essays,' p. : "the english hart is so greatly superior, as an animal of chase, to that cunning poultry thief the fox, that i trust mister reynard will never be allowed to become an australian immigrant, and that when the last of the dingoes shall have shared the fate of the last english wolf, australian nimrods will resuscitate, at the antipodes of england, the sterling old national sport of hart hunting, conjointly with that of african boks, gazelles, and antelopes, and leave the fox to their english cousins, who cannot have australian choice." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "in the neighbourhood of brisbane and other large towns where they have packs, they run the dingoes as you do foxes at home." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "the arms of the wimmera should be rabbit and dingo, `rampant,' supporting a sun, `or, inflamed.'" . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "dingoes, the australian name for the wild dogs so destructive to sheep. they were . . . neither more nor less than wolves, but more cowardly and not so ferocious, seldom going in large packs. they hunted kangaroos when in numbers, or driven to it by hunger; but usually preferred smaller and more easily obtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and 'possums." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "on the large stations a man is kept whose sole work it is to lay out poison for the dingo. the black variety with white breast generally appears in western queensland along with the red." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "the dingo of northern australia can be distinguished from his brother of the south by his somewhat smaller size and courageous bearing. he always carries his tail curled over his back, and is ever ready to attack any one or anything; whilst the southern dingo carries his tail low, slinks along like a fox, and is easily frightened. the pure dingo, which is now exceedingly rare in a wild state, partly through the agency of poison, but still more from the admixture of foreign breeds, is unable to bark, and can only express its feelings in long-drawn weird howls." . `the argus,' june , p. l , col. : "why is the first call of a dingo always apparently miles away, and the answer to it--another quavering note slightly more shrill--so close at hand? is it delusion or distance?" dinornis, n. the scientific name given by professor owen to the genus of huge struthious birds of the post-pliocene period, in new zealand, which survive in the traditions of the maoris under the name of moa (q.v.). from the greek deinos, terrible, and 'ornis, bird. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. intro. p. xviii: "the specimens [fossil-bones] transmitted . . . were confided to the learned professor [owen] for determination; and these materials, scanty as they were, enabled him to define the generic characters of dinornis, as afforded by the bones of the hind extremity." ibid. p. xxiv: "professor owen had well-nigh exhausted the vocabulary of terms expressive of largeness by naming his successive discoveries ingens, giganteus, crassus, robustus, and elephantopus, when he had to employ the superlative dinornis maximus to distinguish a species far exceeding in stature even the stately dinornis giganteus. in this colossal bird . . . some of the cervical vertebrae almost equal in size the neck-bones of a horse! the skeleton in the british museum . . . measures feet in height, and . . . some of these feathered giants attained to a still greater stature." dipper, n. a vessel with a handle at the top of the side like a big tin mug. that with which one dips. the word is not australian, but is of long standing in the united states, where it is used as a name for the constellation of the great bear. . `australasian schoolmaster,' feb.: "these answers have not the true colonial ring of the following, which purports to be the remark of the woman of samaria: `sir, the well is very deep, and you haven't got a dipper.'" dips, n. explained in quotation. . g. bunce, `travels with leichhardt,' p. : ". . . dr. leichhardt gave the party a quantity of dough boys, or as we called them, dips. . ." [p. ]: "in this dilemma, dr. leichhardt ordered the cook to mix up a lot of flour, and treated us all to a feed of dips. these were made as follows:--a quantity of flour was mixed up with water, and stirred with a spoon to a certain consistency, and dropped into a pot of boiling water, a spoonful at a time. five minutes boiling was sufficient, when they were eaten with the water in which they were boiled." dirt, n. in australia, any alluvial deposit in which gold is found; properly wash-dirt. the word is used in the united states. see quotation, . . mrs. chas. clancy, `lady's visit to the gold diggings,' p. : "and after doing this several times, the `dirt,' of course, gradually diminishing, i was overjoyed to see a few bright specks." . borthwick, `california,' [bartlett, quoted in `o.e.d.'] p. : "in california, `dirt' is the universal word to signify the substance dug; earth, clay, gravel, or loose slate. the miners talk of rich dirt and poor dirt, and of stripping off so many feet of `top dirt' before getting to `pay-dirt,' the latter meaning dirt with so much gold in it that it will pay to dig it up and wash it." . j. o. tucker, `the mute,'p. : "others to these the precious dirt convey, linger a moment till the panning's through." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xiv. p. : "we were clean worked out . . . before many of our neighbours at greenstone gully, were half done with their dirt." ibid. c. xviii. p. : "we must trust in the oxley `dirt' and a kind providence." dish, n. and adj. a small and rough vessel in which gold is washed. the word is used in the united states. . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "i have obtained good dish prospects after crudely crushing up the quartz." dishwasher, n. an old english bird-name for the water-wagtail; applied in australia to seisura inquieta, lath., the restless fly-catcher (q.v.). seisura is from grk. seiein (to shake), and 'oura (a tail), being thus equal in meaning to wagtail. also called dishlick, grinder, and razor-grinder (q.v.). . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of the linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "this bird is called by the colonists dishwasher. it is very curious in its actions. in alighting on the stump of a tree it makes several semi-circular motions, spreading out its tail, and making a loud noise somewhat like that caused by a razor-grinder when at work." distoechurus, n. the scientific name of the genus of the new guinea pentailed-phalanger, or so-called opossum-mouse (q.v.). it has a tail with the long hairs arranged in two opposite rows, like the vanes of a feather.(grk. distoichos, with two rows, and 'oura, a tail.) diver, n. common bird-name used in australia for a species of grebe. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vii. pl. : "podiceps australis, gould; australian tippet grebe; diver of the colonists." doctor, n. word used in the south australian bush for "the cook." . `the australasian,' june , p. , col. : "`the doctor's in the kitchen, and the boss is in the shed; the overseer's out mustering on the plain; sling your bluey down, old boy, for the clouds are overhead, you are welcome to a shelter from the rain.'" dodder laurel, n. i.q. devil's guts (q.v.). dog-fish, n. the name belongs to various fishes of distinct families, chiefly sharks. in australia, it is used for the fish scyllium lima, family scylliidae. in new south wales it is scyllium maculatum, bl. the sprite dog-fish of new zealand is acanthias maculatus, family spinacidae. the spotted dog-fish of new south wales is scyllium anale. the dusky dogfish of new south wales is chiloscyllium modestum, gunth., and there are others in tasmania and australia. dogleg, adj. applied to a primitive kind of fence made of rough timber. crossed spars, which are the doglegs, placed at intervals, keep in place a low rail resting on short posts, and are themselves fixed by heavy saplings resting in the forks above. . r. and f. hill, `what we saw in australia,' p. : ". . . we made acquaintance with the `dog's leg' fence. this is formed of bare branches of the gum-tree laid obliquely, several side by side, and the ends overlapping, so that they have somewhat the appearance that might be presented by the stretched-out legs of a crowd of dogs running at full speed. an upright stick at intervals, with a fork at the top, on which some of the cross-branches rest, adds strength to the structure." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "while the primaeval `dog-leg' fence of the victorian bush, or the latter-day `chock and log' are no impediments in the path of our foresters." [sc. kangaroos; see forester.] . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "as we rode up we could see a gunyah made out of boughs, and a longish wing of dog leg fence, made light but well put together." dog's tongue, n. name given to the plant cynoglossum suaveolens, r. br., n.o. asperifoliae. dogwood, n. various trees and their wood; none of them the same as those called dogwood in the northern hemisphere, but their woods are used for similar purposes, e.g. butchers' skewers, fine pegs, and small pointed wooden instruments. in australia generally, jacksonia scoparia, r. br., also myoporum platycarpum, r. br. in tasmania, bedfordia salicina, de c., n.o. compositae, which is also called honeywood, and in new south wales, cottonwood (q.v.), and the two trees pomaderris elliptica, lab., and p. apetala, lab., n.o. rhamnaceae, which are called respectively yellow and bastard dogwood. see also coranderrk. in parts of tasmania, pomaderris apetala, lab., n.o. rhamn/ac?/eae, is also called dogwood, or bastard dogwood. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "there is a secluded hollow of this kind near kangaroo bottom, near hobart town, where the common dogwood of the colony (pomaderris apetala) has sprung up so thick and tall, that mr. babington and myself having got into it unawares one day, had the greatest difficulty imaginable to get out after three or four hours' labour. not one of the plants was more than six inches apart from the others, while they rose from to yards in height, with leaves at the top which almost wholly excluded the light of the sun." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "iron-bark ridges here and there, with spotted gum, with dogwood (jacksonia) on a sandy soil." (p. ): "a second creek, with running water, which from the number of dogwood shrubs (jacksonia), in the full glory of their golden blossoms, i called `dogwood creek.'" . `melbourne museum catalogue--economic woods,' p. : "native dogwood, a hard, pale-brown, well-mottled wood; good for turnery." dogwood poison-bush, n. a new south wales name; the same as ellangowan poison-bush (q.v.). dollar, n. see holy dollar. dollar-bird, n. name given to the roller (q.v.). see quotations. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "the settlers call it dollar-bird, from the silver-like spot on the wing." . j. gould, `birds of australia;' vol. ii. pl. : "eurystomus australis, swains., australian roller. dollar bird of the colonists. during flight the white spot in the centre of each wing, then widely expanded, shows very distinctly, and hence the name of dollar bird.'" . i. henderson, `excursions in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the dollar-bird derives its name from a round white spot the size of a dollar, on its wing. it is very handsome, and flies in rather a peculiar manner. it is the only bird which i have observed to perform regular migrations; and it is strange that in such a climate any one should do so. but it appears that the dollar-bird does not relish even an australian winter. it is the harbinger of spring and genial weather." dollar-fish n. a name often given formerly to the john dory (q.v.), from the mark on its side. see quotation, . the name dollar-fish is given on the american coasts to a different fish. . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "the fishermen of roman catholic countries hold this fish in special respect, as they recognize in a black round spot on its side the mark left by the thumb of st. peter, when he took the piece of money from its mouth." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the dory has been long known, and when the currency of the colony was in mexican coin it was called a `dollar-fish.'" dorca-kangaroo, n. see dorcopsis and kangaroo. dorcopsis, n. the scientific name of a genus of little kangaroos with pretty gazelle-like faces. (grk. dorkas, a gazelle, and 'opsis, appearance.) they are called dorca-kangaroos, and are confined to new guinea, and form in some respects a connecting link between macropus and the tree-kangaroo (q.v.). there are three species--the brown dorca kangaroo, dorcopsis muelleri; grey d., d. luctuosa, macleay's d., d. macleayi. see kangaroo (e). dottrel, n. formerly dotterel, common english bird-name, applied in australia to charadrius australis, gould. black-fronted dottrel-- charadrius nigrifrons, temm. double-banded d.-- c. bicincta, jord. and selb. hooded d.-- c. monacha, geoff. large sand d.-- c. (aegialitis) geoffroyi, wag. mongolian sand d.-- c. (aegialitis) mongolica, pallas. oriental d.-- c. veredus, gould. red-capped dottrel-- charadrius ruficapilla, temm.; called also sand-lark. red-necked d.-- c. (aegialitis) mastersi, ramsay. ringed d.-- c. hiaticula, linn. [see also red-knee.] dove, n. a well-known english bird-name, applied in australia to the-- barred-shouldered dove-- geopelia humeralis, temm. ground d.-- g. tranquilla, gould. little d.-- g. cuneata, lath. [see also ground-dove.] dove-petrel, n. a well-known english bird-name. the species in the-southern seas are-- prion turtur, smith. banks d.-p.-- p. banksii, smith. broad-billed d.-p.-- p. vittata, forst. fairy d.-p.-- p. ariel, gould. dover, n. a clasp knife, by a maker of that name, once much used in the colonies. . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "in plates and knives scant is the shepherd's store, `dover' and pan are all, he wants no more." . april , `a traveller's note': "`so much a week and the use of my dover' men used to say in making a contract of labour." . `bush song' [extract]: "tie up the dog beside the log, and come and flash your dover." down, n. a prejudice against, hostility to; a peculiarly australian noun made out of the adverb. . w. w. dobie, `recollections of a visit to port philip,' p. : ". . . the bushranger had been in search of another squatter, on whom `he said he had a down'. . ." . j. w. bull, `early life in south australia,' p. : "it was explained that foley had a private `down' on them, as having stolen from him a favourite kangaroo dog." . cassell's `picturesque australasia, vol. iv. p. : "they [diggers] had a `dead down' on all made dishes." . professor gosman, `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "that old prejudice in the minds of many men to the effect that those who represented the churches or religious people had a regular down upon freedom of thought." . `the age,' june , p. , col. : "mr. m. said it was notorious in the department that one of the commissioners had had `a down' on him." . r. l. stevenson, `island nights' entertainments,' p. : "`they have a down on you,' says case. `taboo a man because they have a down on him'' i cried. `i never heard the like.'" down, adv. "to come, or be down," is the phrase used in australian universities for to be "plucked," or "ploughed," or "spun," i.e., to fail in an examination. it has been in use for a few years, certainly not earlier than . the metaphor is either taken from a fall from a horse, or perhaps from the prize-ring. the use has no connection with being "sent down," or "going down," at oxford or cambridge. draft, v. to separate and sort cattle. an adaptation of the meaning "to select and draw off for particular service," especially used of soldiers. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. vi. p. : "i should like to be drafting there again." . rolf boldrewood, `the squatter's dream,' p. : "there were those cattle to be drafted that had been brought from the lost waterhole." draft, n. a body of cattle separated from the rest of the herd. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. ii. p. : "a draft of out-lying cattle rose and galloped off." drafter, n. a man engaged in drafting cattle. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xviii. p. : "they behave better, though all the while keeping the drafters incessantly popping at the fence by truculent charges." drafting-gate, n. gate used in separating cattle and sheep into different classes or herds. . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "but the tent-flap seemed to go up and down quick as a drafting-gate." drafting-stick, n. a stick used in drafting cattle. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. x. p. : "we . . . armed ourselves with drafting-sticks and resolutely faced it." drafting-yard, n. a yard for drafting cattle. . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "there were drafting-yards and a tank a hundred yards off, but no garden." dray, n. an ordinary cart for goods. see quotation, . . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. intro. p. xlix: "they send their produce to the market . . . receiving supplies for home consumption on the return of their drays or carts from thence." . c. h. eden, "my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "a horse dray, as known in australia, is by no means the enormous thing its name would signify, but simply an ordinary cart on two wheels without springs." [there are also spring-drays.] . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "one told by camp fires when the station drays were housed and hidden, forty years ago." dromicia, n. the scientific name of the australian dormouse phalangers, or little opossum- or flying-mice, as they are locally called. see opossum, opossum-mouse, and phalanger. they are not really the "flying"-mice or flying-phalanger, as they have only an incipient parachute, but they are nearly related to the pigmy petaurists (q.v.) or small flying-phalangers. (grk. dromikos, good at running, or swift.) drongo, n. this bird-name was "given by le vaillant in the form drongeur to a south african bird afterwards known as the musical drongo, dicrurus musicus, then extended to numerous . . . fly-catching, crow-like birds." (`century.') the name is applied in australia to chibia bracteata, gould, which is called the spangled drongo. . w. . legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science' (brisbane), p. : "there being but one member of the interesting asiatic genus drongo in australia, it was thought best to characterize it simply as the drongo without any qualifying term." drop, n. (slang.) to "have the drop on" is to forestall, gain advantage over, especially by covering with a revolver. it is curious that while an american magazine calls this phrase australian (see quotation), the `dictionary of slang'--one editor of which is the distinguished american, godfrey c. leland--says it is american. it is in common use in australia. . `atlantic monthly,' aug., p. . "his terrible wife, if we may borrow a phrase from australia, `had the drop on him' in every particular." drooping acacia, n. see acacia. drove, v. to drive travelling cattle or sheep. . a. j. vogan, `black police,' p. : "i don't know how you'd be able to get on without the `boys' to muster, track, and drove." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river' [poem `in the droving days'], p. : "for though lie scarcely a trot can raise, he can take me back to the droving days." drum, n. a bundle; more usually called a swag (q.v.). . wm. starner, `recollections of a life of adventure,' vol. i. p. ". . . and `humping his drum' start off for the diggings to seek more gold." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "they all chaffed us about our swags, or donkeys, or drums, as a bundle of things wrapped in a blanket is indifferently called." . frank cowan, `australia, charcoal sketch,' p. : "the swagman: bed and board upon his back--or, having humped his drum and set out on the wallaby . . ." drummer, n. a new south wales name for the fish girella elevata, macl., of the same family as the black-fish (q.v.). dry-blowing, n. a western australian term in gold-mining. . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "when water is not available, as unfortunately is the case at coolgardie, `dry blowing' is resorted to. this is done by placing the pounded stuff in one dish, and pouring it slowly at a certain height into the other. if there is any wind blowing it will carry away the powdered stuff; if there is no wind the breath will have to be used. it is not a pleasant way of saving gold, but it is a case of hobson's choice. the unhealthiness of the method is apparent." duboisine, n. an alkaloid derived from the plant duboisia myoposides, n.o. sofanaceae, a native of queensland and new south wales. it is used in medicine as an application to the eye for the purpose of causing the pupil to dilate, in the same way as atropine, an alkaloid obtained from the belladonna plant in europe, has long been employed. duboisine was discovered and introduced into therapeutics by a brisbane physician. duck, n. the well-known english name of the birds of the anatinae, fuligulinae, and other series, of which there are about species comprised in about genera. the australian genera and species are--- blue-billed duck-- erismatura australis, gould. freckled d.-- stictonetta naevosa, gould. mountain d. (the shel-drake, q.v.). musk d. (q.v.)-- biziura lobata, shaw. pink-eared d., or widgeon (q.v.)-- malacorhynchus membranaceus, lath. plumed whistling d.-- dendrocygna eytoni, gould. whistling d.-- d. vagans, eyton. [each species of the dendrocygna called also by sportsmen tree-duck.] white-eyed d., or hard-head (q.v.)-- nyroca australis, gould. wild d.-- anas superciliosa, gmel. wood d. (the maned goose; see goose). the following is a table of the ducks as compiled by gould nearly fifty years ago. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vii: plate anas superciliosa, gmel. australian wild duck . . . anas naevosa, gould, freckled duck . . . anas punctata, cuv. chestnut-breasted duck . . . spatula rhyncotis, australian shoveller . . . malacorhynchus membranaceus, . . . membranaceous duck dendrocygna arcuata, whistling duck (q.v.) . . . leptolarsis eytoni, gould, eyton's duck . . . nyroca australis, gould, white-eyed duck . . . erismatura australis, blue-billed duck . . . biziura lobata, musk duck . . . the following is professor parker's statement of the new zealand ducks. . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "there are eleven species of native ducks belonging to nine genera, all found elsewhere, except two--the little flightless duck of the auckland islands (genus nesonetta) and the blue mountain duck (hymenolaemus). among the most interesting of the non-endemic forms, are the paradise duck or sheldrake (casarca variegata), the brown duck (anas chlorotis), the shoveller or spoonbill duck (rhynchaspis variegata), and the scaup or black teal (fuligula novae-zealandiae)." duckbill, n. see platypus. sometimes also called duckmole. duckmole, n. see platypus. . barron field, `first fruits of australian poetry,' in `geographical memoirs of new south wales,' p. : "when sooty swans are once more rare, and duck-moles the museum's care." [appendix : "water or duck-mole."] . schmidt, `descent and darwinism,' p. : "the ornithorhyncus or duck-mole of tasmania." duck-shoving, and duckshover, n. a cabman's phrase. in melbourne, before the days of trams, the wagonette-cabs used to run by a time-table from fixed stations at so much (generally d.) a passenger. a cabman who did not wait his turn on the station rank, but touted for passengers up and down the street in the neighbourhood of the rank, was termed a duck-shover. . d. blair, `notes and queries,' aug. , p. : "duck-shoving is the term used by our melbourne cabmen to express the unprofessional trick of breaking the rank, in order to push past the cabman on the stand for the purpose of picking up a stray passenger or so." . `otago daily times,' jan. , p. , col. : "the case was one of a series of cases of what was technically known as `duck shoving,' a process of getting passengers which operated unfairly against the cabmen who stayed on the licensed stand and obeyed the by-law." dudu, n. aboriginal name for a pigeon, fat-breasted, and very good eating. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' ( rd ed. ), c. vii. p. : "in the grassland, a sort of ground pigeon, called the dudu, a very handsome little bird, got up and went off like a partridge, strong and swift, re-alighting on the ground, and returning to cover." duff, v. to steal cattle by altering the brands. . e. carton booth, `another england,' p. : "he said there was a `duffing paddock' somewhere on the broken river, into which nobody but the owner had ever found an entrance, and out of which no cattle had ever found their way--at any rate, not to come into their owner's possession. . . . the man who owned the `duffing paddock' was said to have a knack of altering cattle brands . . ." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. xiv. p. : "i knew redcap when he'd think more of duffing a red heifer than all the money in the country." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydneyside saxon,' p. : "as to the calves i'm a few short myself, as i think that half-caste chap of yours must have `duffed.'" duffer, n. a cattle stealer, i.q. cattle-duffer (q.v.). . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xxv. p. : "what's a little money . . . if your children grow up duffers and planters?" duffer , n. a claim on a mine which turns out unproductive, called also shicer (q.v.). [this is only a special application of the slang english, duffer, an incapable person, or a failure. old english daffe, a fool] . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "it was a terrible duffer anyhow, every ounce of gold got from it cost l i'll swear." . j rogers, `new rush,' p. : "tho' duffers are so common and golden gutters rare, the mining sons of woman can much ill fortune bear." . a.trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "a shaft sunk without any produce from it is a duffer. . . . but of these excavations the majority were duffers. it is the duffering part of the business which makes it all so sad.so much work is done from which there is positively no return." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "the place is then declared to be a `duffer,' and abandoned, except by a few fanatics, who stick there for months and years." . `the australasian,' nov. , p. : "another duffer! rank as ever was bottomed! seventy-five feet hard delving and not a colour!" duffer out, v. a mine is said to duffer out, when it has ceased to be productive. . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "he then reported to the shareholders that the lode had `duffered out,' and that it was useless to continue working." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "cloncurry has, to use the mining parlance, duffered out." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. vi. p. : "`so you're duffered out again, harry,' she said." dugong oil, n. an oil obtained in australia, from halicore dugong, gmel., by boiling the superficial fat. a substitute for cod-liver oil. the dugongs are a genus of marine mammals in the order sirenia. h. dugong inhabits the waters of north and north-east australia, the southern shores of asia, and the east coast of africa. the word is malay. dug-out, n. a name imported into new zealand from america, but the common name for an ordinary maori canoe. duke willy, n. see whistling dick. dummy, n. ( ) in australia, when land was thrown open for selection (q.v.), the squatters who had previously the use of the land suffered. each squatter exercised his own right of selection. many a one also induced others to select nominally for themselves, really for the squatter. such selector was called a dummy. the law then required the selector to swear that he was selecting the land for his own use and benefit. some of the dummies did not hesitate to commit perjury. dictionaries give "dummy, adj. fictitious or sham." the australian noun is an extension of this idea. webster gives "(drama) one who plays a merely nominal part in any action, sham character." this brings us near to the original dumby, from dumb, which is radically akin to german dumm, stupid. . d. rogerson, `poetical works, p. : "the good selectors got most of the land, the dummies being afraid to stand." . h. simcox, `rustic rambles, p. : "see the dummies and the mediums, bagmen, swagmen, hastening down." . a. mcfarland, `illawarra and manaro,' p. : "since free selection was introduced, a good many of the squatters (they say, in self-defence) have, in turn, availed themselves of it, to secure `the eyes' or water-holes of the country, so far as they could by means of `dummies,' and other blinds." . r. niven, `fraser's magazine,' april, p. : "this was the, in the colony, well-known `dummy' system. its nature may be explained in a moment. it was simply a swindling transaction between the squatter on the one hand and some wretched fellow on the other, often a labourer in the employment of the squatter, in which the former for a consideration induced the latter to personate the character of a free selector, to acquire from the state, for the purpose of transferring to himself, the land he most coveted out of that thrown open for selection adjoining his own property." . `scribner's magazine,' feb. p. : "by this device the squatter himself, all the members of the family, his servants, shepherds, boundary-riders, station-hands and rabbiters, each registered a section, the dummies duly handing their `selection' over to the original holder for a slight consideration." ( ) colloquial name for the grip-car of the melbourne trams. originally the grip-car was not intended to carry passengers: hence the name. . `the herald' (melbourne), p. , col. : "linked to the car proper is what is termed a dummy." . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "but on the tramcar, matters were much worse. the front seat of the dummy was occupied by a young tasmanian lady and her cousin, and, while one portion of the cart struck her a terrible blow on the body, the shaft pinned her by the neck against the front stanchion of the dummy." dummy, v. to obtain land in the way above described. . a.trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. vi. p. : "each partner in the run has purchased his ten thousand, and there have been many mrs. harrises. the mrs. harris system is generally called dummying--putting up a non-existent free-selector--and is illegal. but i believe no one will deny that it has been carried to a great extent." . `the champion' (melbourne), jan. : "the verb `to dummy' and the noun `dummyism' are purely australian, quotations to illustrate the use of which can be obtained from `hansard,' the daily papers, and such works as epps' monograph on the `land tenure systems of australasia.'" dummyism, n. obtaining land by misrepresentation. see dummy, n. . `the spectator' (melbourne), june , p. , col. : "`larrikinism' was used as a synonym for `blackguardism,' and `dummyism' for perjury." . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "mr. bent thought that a stop should be put to all selection and dummyism till a land law was introduced." . j. f. hogan, `the irish in australia, p. : "this baneful and illegal system of land-grabbing is known throughout the colonies by the expressive name of `dummyism,' the persons professing to be genuine selectors, desirous of establishing themselves on the soil, being actually the agents or the `dummies of the adjoining squatters." dump, n. a small coin formerly used in australia and tasmania. its history is given in the quotations. in england the word formerly meant a heavy leaden counter; hence the expression, "i don't care a dump." see holy dollar. . `hobart town gazette,' december : "government public notice.--the quarter dollars, or `dumps,' struck from the centre of the spanish dollar, and issued by his excellency governor macquarie, in the year , at one shilling and threepence each, will be exchanged for treasury bills at par, or sterling money." . `sydney gazette,' jan. ['century']: "the small colonial coin denominated dumps have all been called in. if the dollar passes current for five shillings the dump lays claim to fifteen pence value still in silver money." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. "he only solicits the loan of a `dump,' on pretence of treating his sick gin to a cup of tea." ibid. p. : "the genuine name of an australian coin, in value s. d." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "tattered promissory notes, of small amount and doubtful parentage, fluttered about the colony; dumps, struck out from dollars, were imitated by a coin prepared without requiring much mechanical ingenuity." . t. h. braim, `new homes,' c. iii. p. : "the spanish dollar was much used. a circular piece was struck out of the centre about the size of a shilling, and it was called a `dump.'" . w. j. barry, `up and down,' p. : "the coin current in those days ( ) consisted of ring- dollars and dumps, the dump being the centre of the dollar punched out to represent a smaller currency." . `the daily news' (london), may , p. : "the metallic currency was then [ - ] chiefly spanish dollars, at that time and before and afterwards the most widely disseminated coin in the world, and they had the current value of s. but there were too few of them, and therefore the centre of them was cut out and circulated under the name of `dumps' at s. d. each, the remainder of the coin--called by way of a pun, `holy dollars'--still retaining its currency value of s." dump, v. to press closely; applied to wool. bales are often marked "not to be dumped." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the great object of packing so close is to save carriage through the country, for however well you may do it, it is always re-pressed, or `dumped,' as it is called, by hydraulic pressure on its arrival in port, the force being so great as to crush two bales into one." . r. and f. hill, `what we saw in australia,' p. : "from the sorting-tables the fleeces are carried to the packing-shed; there, by the help of machinery, they are pressed into sacks, and the sacks are then themselves heavily pressed and bound with iron bands, till they become hard cubes. this process is called `dumping.'" dumplings, n. i.q. apple-berry (q.v.). dundathee, or dundathu pine, n. the queensland species (agathis robusta, sal.) of the kauri pine (q.v.); and see pine. dungaree-settler, n. now obsolete. see quotation. . anon, `settlers and convicts; or, recollections of sixteen years' labour in the australian backwoods,' p. : "the poor australian settler (or, according to colonist phraseology, the dungaree-settler; so called from their frequently clothing themselves, their wives, and children in that blue indian manufacture of cotton known as dungaree) sells his wheat crop." dunite, n. an ore in new zealand, so called from dun mountain, near nelson. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "chrome ore. this ore, which is a mixture of chromic iron and alumina, is chiefly associated with magnesian rock, resembling olivine in composition, named dunite by dr. hochstetter." dust, n. slang for flour. . dec. , `a traveller's note': "a bush cook said to me to-day, we gave each sundowner a pannikin of dust." dwarf-box, n. eucalyptus microtheca, f. v. m. see box. this tree has also many other names. see maiden's `useful native plants,' p. . . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. : "dwarf-box and the acacia pendula prevailed along the plains." e eagle, n. there are nine species of the true eagle, all confined to the genus haliaetus, such as the baldheaded eagle (h. leucocephalus), the national emblem of the united states. (`century.') in australia the name is assigned to-- little eagle-- aquila morphnoides, gould. wedge-tailed e. (eagle-hawk)-- a. audax, lath. whistling e.-- haliaetus sphenurus, vieill. white-bellied sea e.-- h. leucogaster, gmel. white-headed sea e.-- haliaster girrenera, vieill. eaglehawk, n. an australian name for the bird uroaetus, or aquila audax, lath. the name was applied to the bird by the early colonists of new south wales, and has persisted. in `o.e.d.' it is shown that the name was used in griffith's translation ( ) of cuvier's `regne animal' as a translation of the french aigle-autour, cuvier's name for a south american bird of prey of the genus morphnus, called spizaetus by vieillot; but it is added that the word never came into english use. see eagle. there is a town in victoria called eaglehawk. the bendigo cabmen make the name a monosyllable, "glawk." . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar, p. : "the large eaglehawk, which devours young kangaroos, lambs, etc." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. i. pl. : "aquila fucosa, cuv., [now a. audax, lath.] wedge-tailed eagle. eaglehawk, colonists of new south wales." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "we knew it was dying, as two large eaglehawks were hovering about over it." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "the hair of a person is tied on the end of the throwing-stick, together with the feathers of the eagle hawk." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia', p. : "since the destruction of native dogs and eagle-hawks by the squatters, who stocked the country with sheep, the kangaroos have not a single natural enemy left." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "on the new south wales side of the river the eagle-hawk is sometimes so great a pest amongst the lambs that the settlers periodically burn him out by climbing close enough to the nest to put a fire-stick in contact with it." eagle-hawking, n. bush slang: plucking wool off dead sheep. eagle-ray, n. name belonging to any large ray of the family myliobatidae; the new zealand species is myliobatis nieuhofii. eastralia, n. recent colloquial name, fashioned on the model of westralia (q.v.), used in west australia for the eastern colonies. in adelaide, its application seems confined to new south wales. ebony, n. a timber. the name is applied in australia to two species of bauhinia, b. carronii, f. v. m., and b. hookeri, f. v. m., n.o. leguminosae. both are called queensland or mountain ebony. echidna, n. a fossorial monotreme, in general appearance resembling a porcupine, and often called spiny ant-eater or porcupine, or porcupine ant-eater. the body is covered with thick fur from which stiff spines protrude; the muzzle is in the form of a long toothless beak; and the tongue is very long and extensile, and used largely for licking up ants; the feet are short, with strong claws adapted for burrowing. like the marsupials, the echidna is provided with a pouch, but the animal is oviparous, usually laying two eggs at a time, which are carried about in the pouch until the young ones are hatched, when they are fed by a secretion from mammary glands, which do not, however, as in other mammals, open on to a nipple. the five-toed echidnas (genus echidna) are found in new guinea, australia, and tasmania, while the three-toed echidnas (genus proechidna) are confined to new guinea. the species are--common e., echidna aculeata, shaw; bruijn's e., proechidna bruijni, peters and doria; black-spined e., proechidna nigro-aculeata, rothschild. the name is from grk. 'echidna, an adder or viper, from the shape of the long tongue. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the native porcupine or echidna is not very common." . j.backhouse, `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies,' p. : "the porcupine of this land, echidna hystrix, is a squat species of ant-eater, with short quills among its hair: it conceals itself in the day time among dead timber in the hilly forests." . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : "mr. milligan mentioned that one of the aborigines of tasmania reports having often discovered the nest of the echidna setosa, porcupine or ant eater, of the colony; that on several occasions one egg had been found in it, and never more: this egg has always been found to contain a foetus or chick, and is said to be round, considerably less than a tennis ball, and without a shell. the mother is said to sit continuously (for a period not ascertained) in the manner of the common fowl over the eggs; she does not leave the young for a considerable time after having hatched it; at length, detaching it from the small teat, she moves out hurriedly and at long intervals in quest of food, the young one becoming, at each successive return, attached to the nipple. . . the platypus (ornithorhyncus paradoxus) is said to lay two eggs, having the same external membranous covering, but of an oblong shape." . g. bennett,' gatherings of a naturalist in australasia,' p. : "the porcupine ant-eater of australia (echidna hystrix) (the native porcupine or hedgehog of the colonists), and the ornithorhynchus, to which it is allied in internal organization, form the only two genera of the order monotremata." . cassell's' picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "among the gigantic boulders near the top he may capture the burrowing ant-eating porcupine, though if perchance he place it for a moment in the stoniest ground, it will tax all his strength to drag it from the instantaneous burrow in which it will defiantly embed itself." . a.sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "the echidna is an animal about a foot or inches long, covered with spines like a hedgehog. it lives chiefly upon ants. with its bill, which is like a duck's but narrower, it burrows into an ant's-hill, and then with its long, whip-like, sticky tongue, draws the ants into its mouth by hundreds." . r. lydekker, `marsupialia and monotremata,' p. : "in order to enable them to procure with facility their food of ants and their larvae, echidnas are provided with very large glands, discharging into the mouth the viscid secretion which causes the ants to adhere to the long worm-like tongue when thrust into a mass of these insects, after being exposed by the digging powers of the claws of the echidna's limbs. . . . when attacked they roll themselves into a ball similar to the hedgehog." echu, n. the name of an australian bird which has not been identified. the word does not occur in the ornithological lists. . h. c. kendall, `poems--evening hymn,' p. : "the echu's songs are dying with the flute-bird's mellow tone." . `the australasian,' jan. , p. , col. : "`yeldina' (rochester) writes--while i was on the murray, a few days before christmas last, some miles below echuca, my attention was attracted to the melancholy note, as of a bird which had lost its mate, calling ee-k-o-o, e-e-koo, which was repeated several times, after which a pause, then ee-koo, ee-ko, coolie, coolie, ee-koo. this happened in the scrub at sunset, and came, i think, from a bird smaller than the australian minah, and of a greenish yellowish hue, larger, but similar to the members of the feathered tribe known to young city `knights of the catapult' as greenies. it was while returning to camp from fishing that i noticed this bird, which appeared of solitary habits." "`crossbolt' (kew) writes--the echu is probably identical with a handsome little bird whose peculiar cry `e-e-choo' is familiar to many bush ramblers. it is the size of a small wood-swallow; black head, back, wings, and tail more or less blue-black; white throat; neck and breast light to rich brown. the female is much plainer, and would scarcely be recognized as the mate of the former. the melodious `e-e-choo' is usually answered from a distance, whether by the female or a rival i cannot say, and is followed by a prolonged warbling." eel, n. the kinds present in australia are-- common eel-- anguilla australis, richards. conger e.-- conger labiatus, castin., and gonorhynchus grayi, richards. green e. (new south wales)-- muroena afra, bl. silver e.-- muroenesox cinereus, forsk.; also called the sea-eel (new south wales). conger wilsoni, castln. (melbourne). the new zealand eels are-- black eel-- anguilla australis, richards. conger e.-- conger vulgaris, cuv. sand e.-- gonorynchus grayi, richards. serpent e.-- ophichthys serpens, linn. silver e.-- congromuroena habenata, richards. tuna e.-- anguilla aucklandii, richards. the sand eel does not belong to the eel family, and is only called an eel from its habits. eel-fish, n. plotosus tandanus, mitchell. called also catfish (q.v.), and tandan (q.v.). . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. pl. , p.. and [note]: "plotosus tandanus, tandan or eel-fish. tandan is the aboriginal name." egret, n. an english bird-name. the following species are present in australia, some being european and others exclusively australian-- lesser egret-- herodias melanopus, wagl. little e.-- h. garzetta, linn. pied e.-- h. picata, gould. plumed egret-- h. intermedia, v. hasselq. white e.-- h. alba, linn. elder, n. see next word. elderberry, native, n. the two australian species of the elder are sambucus gaudichaudiana, de c., and s. xanthocarpa, f. v. m., n.o. caprifoliaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native elderberry. the fruit of these two native elders is fleshy and sweetish, and is used by the aborigines for food." elephant-fish, n. a fish of new zealand, south australian, and tasmanian waters, callorhynchus antarcticus, lacep., family chimaeridae. "it has a cartilaginous prominence of the snout, ending in a cutaneous flap" (gunth.), suggesting a comparison with an elephant's trunk. called also king of the herrings (q.v.). . g. barrington, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the sea affords a much greater plenty, and at least as great a variety as the land; of these the elephant fish were very palatable food." ellangowan poison-bush, n. a queensland name for myoporum deserti, cunn., n.o. myoporinae,; called "dogwood poison-bush" in new south wales. ellangowan is on the darling downs in queensland. poisonous to sheep, but only when in fruit. emancipatist, and emancipist, n. (the latter, the commoner), an ex-convict who has served out his sentence. the words are never used now except historically. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "emigrants who have come out free from england, and emancipists, who have arrived here as convicts, and have either been pardoned or completed their term of servitude." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "men who had formerly been convicts, but who, after their period of servitude had expired, were called `emancipists.'" . jas. mudie, `felonry of new south wales,' p. vii: "the author begs leave to record his protest against the abuse of language to the misapplication of the terms emancipists and absentees to two portions of the colonial felonry. an emancipist could not be understood to mean the emancipated but the emancipator. mr. wilberforce may be honoured with the title of emancipist; but it is as absurd to give the same appellation to the emancipated felons of new south wales as it would be to bestow it upon the emancipated negroes of the west indies." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the same emancipist will, however, besides private charity, be among the first and greatest contributors to a new church." . `fraser's magazine,' vol. xlvi. p. : "the convict obtained his ticket-of-leave . . . became an emancipist . . . and found transportation no punishment." emu, n. an australian bird, dromaius novae-hollandiae, lath. there is a second species, spotted emu, dromaius irroratus, bartlett. an earlier, but now unusual, spelling is emeu. emeus is the scientific name of a new zealand genus of extinct struthious birds. the word emu is not australian, but from the portuguese ema, the name first of the crane, afterwards of the ostrich. formerly the word emu was used in english for the cassowary, and even for the american ostrich. since an emu has been the design on the twopenny postage stamp of new south wales. . `purchas pilgrimmage,' pt. i. vol v. c. xii. p. (`o.e.d.'): "the bird called emia or eme is admirable." . oliver goldsmith, `natural history,' vol. iii. p. , book iii. c. v. [heading] "the emu." . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "a bird of the ostrich genus, but of a species very different from any other in the known world, was killed and brought in. its length was between seven and eight feet; its flesh was good and thought to resemble beef. it has obtained the name of the new south wales emu." . captain w. tench, `expedition to botany bay,' p. : "the bird which principally claims attention is a species of ostrich, approaching nearer to the emu of south america than any other we know of." governor hunter, `voyage,' p. : "some were of opinion that it was the emew, which i think is particularly described by dr. goldsmith from linneus: others imagined it to be the cassowary, but it far exceeds that bird in size . . . two distinct feathers grew out from every quill." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "these birds have been pronounced by sir joseph banks, of whose judgment none can entertain a doubt, to come nearer to what is known of the american ostrich than to either the emu of india or the ostrich of africa." . `rev. r. knopwood's diary' (j. j. shillinglaw-- `historical records of port phillip,' ), p. : [at the derwent] march, --"they caught six young emews [sic], about the size of a turkey, and shot the old mother." . j. bischof, `van diemen's land,' p. : "we saw an emu track down the side of a hill." . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. "the face of the emu bears a most remarkable likeness to that of the aborigines of new south wales." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "they will pick up anything, thimbles, reels of cotton, nails, bullets indiscriminately: and thus the proverb of `having the digestion of an emu' has its origin." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. i: "dromaius novae hollandiae. the emu. new holland cassowary.--'governor phillips' voyage, .'" . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the emu strides with such rapidity over the plains as to render its capture very difficult even by the swiftest greyhound." . c. h. eden, "my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "a couple of grave-looking emus. these wobble away at an ungainly but rapid pace directly they sight us, most probably vainly pursued by the dray dogs which join us farther on, weary and unsuccessful--indeed the swiftest dog finds an emu as much as he can manage." . a. newton, in `encyclopedia britannica' ( th edit.), vol. viii. p. : "next to the ostrich the largest of existing birds, the common emeu. . .'' . a.c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : ". . . points out two emus to john. . . . they resemble ostriches, but are not so large, and the tail droops more. . . . john can distinguish every point about them, from their black cast-iron looking legs, to the bare neck and small head, with its bright eye and strong flat beak." . `victorian statutes--game act, third schedule': "emu. [close season.] from the th day of june to the th day of december following in each year." . `the argus,' march ,p. , col. : "the chief in size is the egg of the cassowary, exactly like that of the emu except that the colour is pale moss green instead of the dark green of the emu." emu-apple, n. see apple. emu-bush, n. an australian shrub, eremophila longifolia, f. v. m., n.o. myoporineae. . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "emu-tree. a small tasmanian tree; found on low marshy ground used for turners' work." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "emu-bush. owing to emus feeding on the seeds of this and other species. heterodendron oleaefolium, desf." ibid. p. : "the seeds, which are dry, are eaten by emus." emu-wren, n. a bird-name. see malurus. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "stipituras malachurus, less. emu wren. the decomposed or loose structure of these [tail] feathers, much resembling those of the emu, has suggested the colonial name of emu-wren for this species, an appellation singularly appropriate, inasmuch as it at once indicates the kind of plumage with which the bird is clothed, and the wren-like nature of its habits." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the delicate little emeu wren." . lady barker (letter from `melbourne), `station life in new zealand,' p. : "then there is the emu-wren, all sad-coloured, but quaint, with the tail-feathers sticking up on end, and exactly like those of an emu, on the very smallest scale, even to the peculiarity of two feathers growing out of the same little quill." eopsaltria, n. scientific name for the genus of australian birds called shrike-robins (q.v.). (grk. 'aeows, dawn, and psaltria, a female harper.) epacris, n. scientific name of the typical genus of the order epacrideae, a heath-like flower of which there are twenty- five species, mostly australian. from greek 'epi, upon, and 'akron, top (the flowers grow in spikes at the top of the plant). in australia they are frequently confused with and called ericas. ephthianura, n. scientific name of a genus of very small australian birds, anglicized as ephthianure. for species see quotation, . a fourth species has been discovered since gould's day, e. crocea, castln. and ramsay, which inhabits northern australia. the name was first given by gould, in the `proceedings of the zoological society of ,' p. , as a genus novum. the origin of the word is not certain, but as the tail is unusually small, it is suggested that the name is from the greek 'oura, tail, and homeric imperfect rd person sing. 'ephthien, wasted away, from phthiow (= phthinow). [the word occurs iliad xviii. .] //phthio is only in homer!! iliad and odyssey gjc// . j. gould,' birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "ephthianura albifrons, white-fronted ephthianura," pl. . "aurifrons, gould, orange-fronted e.," pl. . "tricolor, gould, tricoloured e.'" . `victorian statutes--game act, third schedule': "close season.--ephthianuras. the whole year." escapee, n. one who has escaped. especially used of french convicts who escape from new caledonia. the word is formed on the model of absentee, refugee, etc., and is manifestly influenced by fr. e/chappe/. escaper is the historical english form. (see bible, kings ix. , margin.) //he means, of course, the so-called authorised version" which reads, ftn. : "let no escaper go, etc." even though the revised version was published in . gjc// . `melbourne argus,' july , p. , col. (`o.e.d.'): "the ten new caledonia escapees . . . are to be handed over to the french consul." eucalyn, n. a sugar obtained, together with laevulose, by fermentation of melitose (q.v.) with yeast, or by boiling it with dilute acids. eucalypt, n. shortened english form of eucalyptus used especially in the plural, eucalypts. eucalypti sounds pedantic. . t. w. nutt, `palace of industry,' p. : "stems of the soaring eucalypts that rise four hundred friendly feet to glad the skies." . j. f. hogan, `the irish in australia,' p. : "there is no unmixed good, it is said, on this mundane sphere, and the evil that has accompanied the extensive settlement of gipps land during recent years is to be found in the widespread destruction of the forests, resulting in a disturbance of the atmospheric conditions and the banishment of an ever-active agent in the preservation of health, for these eucalypts, or gum-trees, as they are generally called, possess the peculiar property of arresting fever-germs and poisonous exhalations. they have been transplanted for this especial purpose to some of the malaria-infested districts of europe and america, and with pronounced success. australia, to which they are indigenous, has mercilessly hewn them down in the past, but is now repenting of its folly in that respect, and is replanting them at every seasonable opportunity." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "throughout the whole of australia the prevailing trees are eucalypts, known generally as gum-trees on account of the gum which they secrete, and which may be seen standing like big translucent beads on their trunks and branches." eucalyptene, n. the name given by cloez to a hydrocarbon obtained by subjecting eucalyptol (q.v.) to dehydration by phosphorus pentoxide. the same name has also been given by other chemists to a hydrocarbon believed to occur in eucalyptus oil. eucalyptian, adj. playfully formed; not in common use. . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads,' p. : "gnarl'd, knotted trunks eucalyptian seemed carved, like weird columns egyptian, with curious device--quaint inscription and hieroglyph strange." eucalyptic, adj. full of gumtrees. . j. brunton stephens, `black gin, etc.,' p. : "this eucalyptic cloisterdom is anything but gay." eucalyptol, n. a volatile oil of camphor-like smell, extracted from the oil of eucalyptus globulus, labill., e. amygdalina, labill., etc. chemically identical with cineol, got from other sources. eucalyptus, n. the gum tree. there are species, as set forth in baron von mueller's `eucalyptographia, a descriptive atlas of the eucalypts of australia.' the name was first given in scientific latin by the french botanist l'heritier, in his sertum anglicum, published in . from the greek 'eu, well, and kaluptein, to cover. see quotation, . n.o. myrtaceae. the french now say eucalyptus; earlier they called it l'acajou de la nouvelle hollande. the germans call it schoenmutze. see gum. . sidney smith, `essays,' p. : "a london thief, clothed in kangaroo's skins, lodged under the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping sheep, fourteen thousand miles from piccadilly, with a crook bent into the shape of a picklock, is not an uninteresting picture." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. : "a large basin in which there are stunted pines and eucalyptus scrub." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the scientific term eucalyptus has been derived from the greek, in allusion to a lid or covering over the blossom, which falls off when the flower expands, exposing a four-celled capsule or seed-vessel." . g. w. rusden, `moyarra,' canto i. p. : "the eucalyptus on the hill was silent challenge to his skill." . `temple bar,' oct., p. (' . e. d.'): "the sombre eucalypti . . . interspersed here and there by their dead companions." . j. a. froude, `oceana,' p. : "at intervals the bush remained untouched, but the universal eucalyptus, which i had expected to find grey and monotonous, was a proteus it shape and colour, now branching like an oak or a cork tree, now feathered like a birch, or glowing like an arbutus with an endless variety of hue--green, orange, and brown." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right, c. v. p. : "a lofty eucalyptus . . . lay with its bared roots sheer athwart a tiny watercourse." euro, n. one of the aboriginal names for a kangaroo (q.v.); spelt also yuro. . mrs. praed, `head station,' p. : "above and below . . . were beetling cliffs, with ledges and crannies that afforded foothold only to yuros and rock-wallabies." exclusionist, n. and adj. see quotation. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. pp. - : ". . . one subdivision of the emigrant class alluded to, is termed the exclusionist party, from their strict exclusion of the emancipists from their society." exileism, n. a word of same period as exiles (q.v.). . a. p. martin, `life of lord sherbrooke,' vol. i. p. : "a gentleman who was at this time engaged in pastoral pursuits in new south wales, and was therefore a supporter of exileism.'" exiles, n. euphemistic name for convicts. it did not last long. , a. p. martin, `life of lord sherbrooke' ( ), vol. i. p. : "the cargoes of criminals were no longer to be known as `convicts,' but (such is the virtue in a name!) as `exiles.' it was, as earl grey explained in his despatch of sept , , `a scheme of reformatory discipline.'" . g. b. earp, `gold colonies of australia,' p. : "the convict system ceased in new south wales in ; but `exiles' as they were termed, i.e. men who had passed their probation at home, were forwarded till ." expiree, n. a convict whose term of sentence had expired. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (ed. ), p. : "a hireling convict - emancipist, expiree, or ticket of leave." expiree, adj. see preceding. . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "very many of their servants, being old hands or expiree convicts from new south wales and van diemen's land, are thoroughly unprincipled men." . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting in victoria' ( - ), p. : "hiring men in melbourne in was not by any means an agreeable job, as wages were high, and labourers (almost all old gaol-birds and expiree convicts) exceedingly independent and rowdy." f fairy gardens, n. a miner's term, explained in quotation. . f. lancelott, `australia, as it is', vol. ii. p. : "on the south-eastern portion of this county is the world-famed burra burra copper mine. . . . some of the cuttings are through solid blocks of ore, which brilliantly glitter as you pass with a lighted candle, while others are formed in veins of malachite, and from their rich variegated green appearance are not inaptly called by the miners `fairy gardens.'" fake-mucker, n. a tasmanian name for the dusky robin (petroica vittata). see robin. falcon, n. english bird-name. the australian species are-- black falcon-- falco subniger, gray. black-cheeked f.-- f. melanogenys, gould. grey f.-- f. hypoleucus, gould. little f.-- f. lunulatus, lath. see also nankeen-hawk. fantail, n. bird-name applied in england to a pigeon; in australia and new zealand, to the little birds of the genus rhipidura (q.v.). it is a fly-catcher. the australian species are-- rhipidura albiscapa, gould. black-and-white fantail (called also the wagtail, q.v.)-- r. tricolor, vieill. dusky f.-- r. diemenensis, sharpe. northern f.-- r. setosa, quoy and gaim. pheasant f.-- rhipidura phasiana, de vis. rufous f.-- r. rufifrons, lath. western f.-- r. preissi, cab. white-tailed f.-- r. albicauda, north. wood f.-- r. dryas, gould. the new zealand species are-- black f.-- rhipidura fuliginosa, sparrm. (tiwaiwaka). pied f.-- r. flabellifera, gmel. (piwakawaka). in tasmania, the r. diemenensis is called the cranky fantail, because of its antics. . l. leichhardt, `journal,' vol. ii. p. : "we also observed the . . . fantailed fly-catcher (rhipidura)." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the red fantail, ever flitting about with broadly expanded tail, and performing all manner of fantastic evolutions, in its diligent pursuit of gnats and flies, is one of the most pleasing and attractive objects in the new zealand forest. it is very tame and familiar." farinaceous city, or village, n. a playful name for adelaide. the allusion is to wheat being the leading export of south australia. . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "[adelaide] has also been nicknamed the farinaceous city. a little gentle ridicule is no doubt intended to be conveyed by the word." fat-cake, n. ridiculous name sometimes applied to eucalyptus leucoxylon, f. v. m., according to maiden (`useful native plants,' p. ). fat-hen, n. a kind of wild spinach. in england the name is applied to various plants of thick foliage. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the fat-hen (atriplex) . . ." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "another wild vegetable brew in the sandy beds of the rivers and creeks, called `fat-hen.' it was exactly like spinach, and not only most agreeable but also an excellent anti-scorbutic, a useful property, for scurvy is not an unknown thing in the bush by any means." . a.c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "boiled salt junk, with fat-hen (a kind of indigenous spinach)." . j. m. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "chenopodium murale, linn., australian spinach. bentham considers this may have been introduced." felonry, n. see quotation. . jas. mudie, `felonry of new south wales,' p. : "the author has ventured to coin the word felonry, as the appellative of an order or class of persons in new south wales--an order which happily exists in no other country in the world. a legitimate member of the tribe of appellatives . . . as peasantry, tenantry, yeomanry, gentry." . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. xv. p. : "the inundation of the australian colonies with british felonry." . sir c. gavan duffy, `contemporary review,' vol. liii. p. [`century']: "to shut out the felonry of great britain and ireland." ferns. the following list of australian ferns is taken from `the fern world of australia,' by f. m. bailey of brisbane ( ), omitting from his list all ferns of which the vernacular and scientific names coincide with the names of ferns elsewhere. bat's-wing fern-- pteris incisa, thunb. black tree f. of new zealand-- cyathea medullaris, sw. blanket f.-- grammitis rutaefolia, r. br. braid f.-- platyzoma microphyllum, r. br. caraway f.-- athyrium umbrosum, j. sm. curly f.-- cheilanthes tenuifolia, sw. deer's-tongue f.-- acrostichum conforme, sw. ear f.-- pteris falcata, r. br. elk's-horn f.-- platycerium alcicorne, desv. fan f.-- gleichenia flabellata, r. br. golden swamp f.-- acrostichum aureum, linn. grass-leaved f. (q.v.)-- vittaria elongata, sw. *hare's-foot f.-- f. davallia pyxidata, cav. jersey f.-- grammitis leptophylla, sw. *lady f.-- aspidium aculeatum, sw. *maiden-hair f.-- adiantum, spp. meadow-rue water f.-- ceratoptoris thalictroides, brong. parasol f.-- gleichenia circinata, sw. pickled-cabbage f.-- lomaria capensis, willd. potato f. (q.v.)-- marattia fraxinea, sm. prickly f. (q.v.)-- alsophila australis, r. br. prickly-tree fern-- alsophila leichhardtiana, f. v. m. ribbon f.-- ophioglossum pendulum, linn. shiny f.-- polypodium aspidoides, bail. snake's-tongue f.-- lygodium, spp. the following are not in baileys list: parsley f.-- cheilanthes tenuifolia, sw. (name parsley applied to a different fern elsewhere.) sword f.-- grammitis australis, r. br. umbrella f., tasmanian name for fan f. (q.v.). other ferns not in this list appear elsewhere. see also ferntree. ____ * elsewhere the name is applied to a different species. ---- fern-bird, n. a new zealand bird of the genus sphenoecus. also called grass-bird, and new zealand pipit. there are three species-- the fern-bird-- sphenoecus punctatus, gray. chatham island f.-b.-- s. rufescens, buller. fulvous f.-b.-- s. fulvus, gray. . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. p. : "the peculiar chirp of the fern bird is yet to be heard among the tall fern." . a. hamilton, `native birds of petane, hawke's bay': "fern-bird. the peculiar chirp of this lively little bird is yet to be heard among the tall fern, though it is not so plentiful as in days gone by." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "fern bird . . . this recluse little species is one of our commonest birds, but is oftener heard than seen. it frequents the dense fern of the open country and the beds of raupo." fern-tree, n. name applied to various species of ferns which grow to a large size, the stem in the fully grown plant reaching often a height of many feet before the leaves are given off. such tree-ferns clothe the sides of deep and shady gullies amongst the hills, and give rise to what are known as fern-tree gullies, which form a very characteristic feature of the moister coastal ranges of many parts of australia. the principal fern-trees or tree-ferns, as they are indiscriminately called, of australia and tasmania are-- dicksonia antarctica, lab.; alsophila australis, r. br.; todea africana, willd.; cyathea cunninghami, j. hook.; alsophila excelsa, r. br.; the last named, however, not occurring in tasmania or victoria. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "we entered a beautiful fern-tree grove, that also concealed the heavens from view, spreading like a plantation or cocoa-nut tree orchard, but with far more elegance and effect." . c. darwin, `voyage of beagle' (ed. ), p. : "tree-ferns thrive luxuriantly in van diemen's land (lat. degrees), and i measured one trunk no less than six feet in circumference. an arborescent fern was found by forster in new zealand in degrees, where orchideous plants are parasitical on the trees. in the auckland islands, ferns, according to dr. dieffenbach, have trunks so thick and high that they may be almost called tree-ferns." . f. r. nixon (bishop of tasmania), `cruise of the beacon,' p. : "with these they [i.e. the tasmanian aborigines] mingled the core or pith of the fern trees, cibotium bollardieri and alsophila australis (of which the former is rather astringent and dry for a european palate, and the latter, though more tolerable, is yet scarcely equal to a swedish turnip.)" . s. h. wintle, `fragments of fern fronds,' p. : "where the feet of the mountains are bathed by cool fountains, the green, drooping fern trees are seen." . william sharp, `australian ballads,' `canterbury poets' (scott, ), pp. - : "the feathery fern-trees make a screen, where through the sun-glare cannot pass-- fern, gum, and lofty sassafras." "under a feathery fern-tree bough a huge iguana lies alow." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "there were mossy fern-trees near me, with their graceful feathered fronds, which they slowly waved above me, like hoar magicians' wands." . a.r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "here are graceful palms rising to or even feet; the indian fig with its tortuous branches clothed with a drapery of curious parasites; while graceful tree ferns, feet high, flourish in the damp atmosphere of the sheltered dells." fern-tree gully. see fern-tree and gully. fever-bark, n. another name for bitter-bark (q.v.). fibrous grass, n. a tasmanian grass (see grass), stipa semiibarbata, r. br., n.o. gramineae. . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "fibrous grass (stipa semibarbata, br.). after the seed has ripened the upper part of the stem breaks up into fibre, which curls loosely and hangs down waving in the wind." fiddle-back, n. name given in australia to the beetle, schizorrhina australasiae. fiddler, n. a new south wales and victorian name for a species of ray, trygonorhina fasciata, mull. and heule, family rhinobatidae. fig-bird, n. a bird-name. sphecotheres maxillaris, lath.; yellow bellied, s. flaviventris, gould. s. maxillaris is also called mulberry-bird (q.v.). fig-eater, n. a bird, i.q. grape-eater (q.v.). fig-tree, n. the name is applied in australia to the following species:-- blue fig-- elaeocarpus grandis, f. v. m., n.o. tiliaceae. clustered f.-- ficus glomerata, willd., n.o. urticaceae. moreton bay f.-- p. macrophylla, desf., n.o. urticaciae //sic. check//. prickly f.-- elaeocarpus holopetalus, f. v. m., n.o. tiliaceae. purple f., or white f., or rough-leaved f., or flooded f. [clarence river]-- ficus scabra, g. forst., n.o. urticaciae. ribbed f.-- f. pleurocarpa, f. v. m., n.o. urticaciae. rusty f., or narrow-leaved f. [or port jackson]-- f. rubiginosa, desf., n.o. urticaciae; called also native banyan. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "and i forget how lone we sit beneath this old fig-tree." . f. s. wilson, `australian songs,' p. : "the fig-tree casts a pleasant shade on the straggling ferns below." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "moreton bay fig. this noble-looking tree has a wood which is sometimes used, though it is very difficult to season." [it is a handsome evergreen with dark leaves, larger than those of a horse-chestnut, much used as an ornament in street and gardens, especially in sydney and adelaide. the fig is not edible.] . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right, c. , p. : "the . . . venerable church with its alleys of araucaria and moreton bay fig-trees." file-fish, n. name given in new zealand to the fish monacanthus rudis, richards, family sclerodermi; in new south wales to species of the genus balistes. the first of the spines of the dorsal fin is roughened in front like a file. balistes maculatus is the "spotted file-fish" of sydney. it is closely allied to the genus monacanthus, called leather-jacket (q.v.), which is much more numerously represented in australasia. finch, n. a bird-name, first applied in australia, in , by gould, to the genus poephila (grass-lover), and since extended to other genera of birds. the species are-- banded finch-- stictoptera bichenovii, vig. and hors. black-ringed f.-- s. annulosa, gould. black-rumped f.-- poephila atropygialis, diggles. black-throated f.-- p. cincta, gould. chestnut-breasted f.-- munia castaneothorax, gould. chestnut-eared f.-- taeniopygia castanotis, gould. crimson f.-- neochmia phaeton, homb. and jacq. fire-tailed f.-- zonaeginthus bellus, lath. gouldian f.-- poephila gouldiae, gould. long-tailed f.-- p. acuticauda, gould. masked f.-- p. personata, gould. painted f.-- emblema picta, gould. plum-head f.-- aidemosyne modesta, gould. red-browed f.-- aegintha temporalis, lath. red-eared f.-- zonaeginthus oculatus, quoy and gaim. red-tailed f.-- bathilda ruficauda, gould. scarlet-headed f.-- poephila mirabilis, homb. and jacq. spotted-sided f.-- staganopleura guttata, shaw. white-breasted f.-- munia pectoralis, gould. white-eared f.-- poephila leucotis, gould. yellow-rumped f.-- munia flaviprymna, gould. fire-stick, n. name given to the lighted stick which the australian natives frequently carry about, when moving from camp to camp, so as to be able to light a fire always without the necessity of producing it by friction. the fire-stick may be carried in a smouldering condition for long distances, and when traversing open grass country, such as the porcupine-grass covered districts of the interior, the stick is used for setting fire to the grass, partly to destroy this and partly to drive out the game which is hiding amongst it. the fire-stick (see quotations) is also used as emblematic of the camp-fire in certain ceremonies. . j. d. lang,' cooksland,'p. , n.: "when their fire-stick has been extinguished, as is sometimes the case, for their jins or vestal virgins, who have charge of the fire, are not always sufficiently vigilant." . f. j. gillen, `horne expedition in central australia,' anthropology, pt. iv. p. : "carrying fire-sticks, they place rings, woven of fur and vegetable down, round the boy's neck and arms and sometimes over and under the shoulders; the fire-sticks are then handed to him, the lubras saying: take care of the fire; keep to your own camp.'" firetail, n. name applied in victoria to the bird aegintha temporalis, lath.; and in tasmania to zonaeginthus (estrelda) bellus, lath. in new south wales, ae. temporalis is known as the red-head. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "estrelda bella, fire-tailed finch. fire-tail, colonists of van diemen's land." fire-tree, n. a tree of new zealand; another name for pohutukawa (q.v.). for queensland fire-tree, see tulip-tree. fireweed, n. a name given to several weeds, such as senecio lautus, sol., n.o. compositae; so called because they spring up in great luxuriance where the forest has been burned off. fish-hawk, n. english name applied to pandion leucocephalus, gould; called also the osprey. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. i. pl. : "pandion leucocephalus, gould, white-headed osprey. little fish hawk, colonists of new south wales. fish-hawk, colonists of swan river.'' fist, v. to use the hands. the word is not unknown in english in the sense of to grip. (shakspeare, `cor.' iv. v. ) . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "`fist it,' a colonial expression, which may convey to the uninitiated the idea that knives, forks, plates, etc., are unknown in the bush; such was formerly the case, but the march of improvement has banished this peculiar simplicity." five-corners, n. name given to the fruit of an australian tree and to the tree itself, syphelia triflora, andr., n.o. epacrideae. there are many species of styphelia (q.v.), the fruit of several being edible. . j. h. maiden,' useful native plants,' p. : "five-corners. these fruits have a sweetish pulp with a large stone. they form part of the food of the aboriginals, and are much appreciated by school boys. when from a robust plant they are of the size of a large pea, and not at all bad eating." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "still i see in my fancy the dark-green and blue of the box-covered hills where the five-corners grew." flame-tree, n. the name is given in india and elsewhere to several trees with bright scarlet, or crimson, flowers. in australia, two different trees are called flame-trees-- ( ) a tree of eastern australia, with profuse bright coral-like flowers, brachychiton acerifolium, f. v. m., n.o. sterculiaceae. ( ) a tree of western australia, with brilliant orange-coloured flowers, nuytsia floribunda, n.o. loranthaceae; which is also called tree mistletoe, and, locally, a cabbage-tree. . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "there are flame-trees showing in spring vivid patches of crimson." flannel flower, n. an australian flower, actinotus helianthi, labill., n.o. compositae. it ranges from gippsland to southern queensland, but is particularly abundant in new south wales. sometimes called the australian edelweiss. for the reason of the name see quotation. . j. h. maiden, `flowering plants of new south wales,' p. : "we only know one truly local name for this plant, and that is the `flannel flower'--a rather unpoetical designation, but a really descriptive one, and one universally accepted. it is, of course, in allusion to the involucre, which looks as if it were snipped out of white flannel. it is also known to a few by the name of australian edelweiss." flathead, n. name given to several australian marine fishes, platycephalus fuscus, cuv. and val., and other species of platycephalus, family cottidae. the red flathead is p. bassensis, cuv.and val., and the rock f. is p. laevigatus, cuv.and val. see also tupong and maori-chief. . governor hunter, `voyage,' p. (aboriginal vocabulary): "paddewah, a fish called a flathead." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the market of hobart town is supplied with small rock cod, flatheads, and a fish called the perch." flat pea, n. a genus of australian flowering plants, platylobium, n.o. leguminosae. . `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. ii. p. : "its name i have deduced from platus, broad, and lobos, a pod." "p. formosum. orange flat-pea . . . a figure of this . . . will soon be given in the work i have undertaken on the botany of new holland." [the figure referred to will be found at p. of the `specimen of the botany of new holland.'] flax, native, n. the european flax is linum usitatissimum, n.o. liniae. there is a species in australia, linum marginale, cunn., n.o. linaceae, called native flax. in new zealand, the phormium is called native flax. see next word. . j. m. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native flax.' although a smaller plant than the true flax, this plant yields fibre of excellent quality. it is used by the blacks for making fishing-nets and cordage." flax, new zealand, n. phormium tenax, n.o. liliaceae. a plant yielding a strong fibre. called also, in new zealand, native flax, and flax lily. . j. savage, `some account of new zealand,' p. : "small baskets made of the green native flax." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i, p. : "the plant is called phormium tenax by naturalists. the general native name for the plant, we are told, is `korari,' but each sort, and there are ten or twelve, has its distinctive name. any portion of the leaf, when gathered, becomes here `kie kie,' or literally, `tying stuff.' the operation of scraping is called `kayo,' the fibre when prepared, `muka.'" [mr. tregear says that wakefield's statements are mistaken.] . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "his robe of glossy flax which loosely flows." . c. c. bowen, `poems,' p. : "and flax and fern and tutu grew in wild luxuriance round." . t. h. braiui, `new homes,' c. viii. p. : "the native flax (phormium tenax) is found in all parts of new zealand; it grows to the height of about nine feet." . a. domett, `ranolf,' v. , p. : "in flowing vest of silky flax, undyed." . `murray's handbook to new zealand,' p. : "the so-called native flax (phormium tenax)." flax-blade, n. the leaf of the new zealand flax (q.v.). . a. domett, `ranolf,' i. , p. : "with flax-blades binding to a tree the maid who strove her limbs to free." flax-bush, n. the bush of the new zealand flax. . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' intro. p. v: "i had . . . to pass a night . . . under the shade of a flax-bush." . a. domett, `ranolf,' x. , p. : "and the louder flax-bushes with their crowding and crossing black stems, darkly studded with blossoms red-blooded." flax-flower, n. the flower of the new zealand flax (q.v.). . a. domett, `ranolf,' xiv. , p. : "little isles where still the clinging flax-flower smiles." flax-leaf, n. the blade of the new zealand flax (q.v.). . t. bracken, `lays of maori' p. : "zephyrs stirred the flax-leaves into tune. flax-lily, n. ( ) an australian fibre plant, dianella laevis, var. aspera, r. br., n.o. liliaceae. ( ) phormium tenax. see flax, new zealand. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "flax-lily. the fibre is strong, and of a silky texture. the aboriginals formerly used it for making baskets, etc. all the colonies except western australia." flindosa, and flindosy, n. two trees called beech (q.v.). flintwood, n. another name for blackbutt (q.v.), eucalyptus pillularis. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "from the great hardness of the wood it is often known as flintwood." flounder, n. the flounders in australia are-- in sydney, pseudorhombus russelli, gray; in melbourne, rhombosolea victoriae, castln.; in new zealand and tasmania, r. monopus, gunth. maori name, patiki; family pleuronectidae. they are all excellent eating. . p. thomson, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. ix. art. lxvii., p. : "patiki (flounder). flounders are in the market all the year." flower-pecker, n. bird-name used elsewhere, but in australia assigned to dicaeum hirundinaceum, lath. flowering rush, n. name given to the rush or reed, xyris operculata, lab., n.o. xyrideae. flute-bird, n. another name for the bird gymnorrhina tibicen, lath. called also magpie (q.v.). . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the flute-bird's mellow tone." fly-catcher, n. bird-name used elsewhere. the australian species are-- black-faced flycatcher-- monarcha melanopsis, vieill. blue f.-- myiagra concinna, gould. broad-billed f.-- m. latirostris, gould. brown f. [called also jacky winter (q.v.)] micraeca fascinans, lath. leaden f.-- myiagra rubecula, lath. lemon-breasted f.-- micraeca flavigaster, gould. lesser brown f.-- m. assimilis, gould. little f.-- seisura nana, gould. pale f.-- micraeca pallida. pearly f.-- monarcha canescens, salvad. pied fly-catcher-- arses kaupi, gould. restless f.-- seisura inquieta, lath. [called also razor- grinder, q.v., and dishwasher, q.v.] satin f.-- myiagra nitida, gould [called satin-robin, q.v., in tasmania] shining f.-- piezorhynchus nitidus, gould. spectacled f.-- p. gouldi, gray. white-bellied f.-- p. albiventris, gould. white-eared f.-- p. leucotis, gould. yellow-breasted f.-- machaerhynchus flaviventer, gould. . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "we this day caught a yellow-eared fly-catcher (see annexed plate). this bird is a native of new holland." [description follows.] fly-eater, n. the new vernacular name for the australian birds of the genus gerygone (q.v.), and see warbler. the species are-- black-throated fly-eater-- gerygone personata, gould. brown f.-- g. fusca, gould. buff-breasted f.-- g. laevigaster, gould. green-backed f.-- g. chloronota, gould. large-billed f.-- g. magnirostris, gould. southern f.-- g. culicivora, gould. white-throated f.-- g. albogularis, gould. yellow-breasted f.-- g. flavida, ramsay. . w. o. legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science `(brisbane), p. : "[the habits and habitats of the genus as] applied to gerygone suggested the term fly-eater, as distinguished from fly-catcher, for this aberrant and peculiarly australasian form of small fly-catchers, which not only capture their food somewhat after the manner of fly-catchers, but also seek for it arboreally." flyer, n. a swift kangaroo. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' second series, p. : "i may here state that the settlers designate the old kangaroos as `old men' and `old women,' the full-grown animals are named `flyers,' and are swifter than the british hare." flying-fox, n. a gigantic australian bat, pteropus poliocephalus, temm. it has a fetid odour and does great damage to fruits, and is especially abundant in new south wales, though often met with in victoria. described, not named, in first extract. . governor hunter, `voyage,' p. : "the head of this bat strongly resembles that of a fox, and the wings of many of them extend three feet ten inches. . . . [description of one domesticated.] . . . they are very fat, and are reckoned by the natives excellent food. . . . it was supposed more than twenty thousand of them were seen within the space of one mile." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "one flying fox is an immense bat, of such a horrific appearance, that no wonder one of cook's honest tars should take it for the devil when encountering it in the woods." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : ". . . a flying fox, which one of them held in his hand. it was, in fact, a large kind of bat, with the nose resembling in colour and shape that of a fox, and in scent it was exactly similar to it. the wing was that of a common english bat, and as long as that of a crow, to which it was about equal in the length and circumference of its body." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "some of the aborigines feed on a large bat popularly called `the flying fox.' . . we found the filthy creatures, hanging by the heels in thousands, from the higher branches of the trees." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "the shrill twitter of the flying fox, or vampire bat, in the bush around us." . gerard krefft, `mammals of australia': "the food on which the `foxes' principally live when garden fruit is not in season, consists of honey-bearing blossoms and the small native figs abounding in the coast-range scrubs. . . . these bats are found on the east coast only, but during very dry seasons they occur as far west as the neighbourhood of melbourne." . a.c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "a little further on they came to a camp of flying foxes. the huge trees on both sides of the river are actually black with them. the great bats hang by their hooked wings to every available branch and twig, squealing and quarrelling. the smell is dreadful. the camp extends for a length of three miles. there must be millions upon millions of them." flying-mouse, n. see opossum-mouse and flying-phalanger. flying-phalanger, n. included in the class of phalanger (q.v.). the "flying" phalangers "have developed large parachute-like expansions of skin from the sides of the body, by means of which they are able to take long flying leaps from bough to bough, and thus from tree to tree. while the great majority of the members of the family are purely vegetable feeders, . . . a few feed entirely or partly on insects, while others have taken to a diet of flesh." (r. lydekker.) they include the so-called flying-squirrel, flying-mouse, etc. there are three genera-- acrobates (q.v.), called the flying-mouse, and opossum-mouse (q.v.). petauroides commonly called the taguan, or taguan flying-squirrel. petaurus (q.v.), commonly called the flying squirrel. the species are-- lesser f.-ph.-- petaurus breviceps. papuan pigmy f.-ph.-- acrobates pulchellus (confined to northern dutch new guinea). pigmy f.-ph.-- a. pygmaeuss. squirrel f.-ph.-- petaurus sciureus. taguan f.-ph.-- petauroides volans. yellow-bellied f.-ph.-- p. australis. flying-squirrel, n. popular name for a flying-phalanger, petaurus sciureus, shaw, a marsupial with a parachute-like fold of skin along the sides by which he skims and floats through the air. the name is applied to entirely different animals in europe and america. . governor phillip, `voyage to botany bay,' c. xv. p. : "norfolk island flying squirrel." [with picture.] . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i.: "the flying squirrels are of a beautiful slate colour, with a fur so fine that, although a small animal, the hatters here give a quarter dollar for every skin." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "the squeal and chirp of the flying squirrel." . r. c. gunn, `proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : "in the year i drew the attention of the tasmanian society to the interesting fact that the petaurus sciureus, or flying squirrel, of port phillip, was becoming naturalized in van diemen's land. . . . no species of petaurus is indigenous to tasmania. . . . it does not appear from all that i can learn, that any living specimens of the petaurus schireus were imported into van diemen's land prior to ; but immediately after the settlement of port phillip, in that year, considerable numbers of the flying squirrel were, from their beauty, brought over as pets by the early visitors." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the flying squirrel, another of the opossum species of the marsupial order, is a beautiful little creature, and disposed over the whole of the interior of new south wales: its fur is of a finer texture than that of the opossum." . w. blandowski, `transactions of philosophical society of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the common flying squirrel (petaurus sciureus) is very plentiful in the large gum trees near the banks of a creek or river, and appears to entertain a peculiar aversion to the high lands." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "flying squirrel." [footnote]: "the marsupial flying phalanger is so called by the australians." fly-orchis, n. name applied in tasmania to the orchid, prasophyllum patens, r. br. forest, n. see quotation. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol i. p. [footnote]: "a `forest' means in new south wales an open wood with grass. the common `bush' or `scrubb' consists of trees and saplings, where little grass is to be found." [it is questionable whether this fine distinction still exists.] forester, n. the largest kangaroo, macropus giganteus, zimm. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "there are three or four varieties of kangaroos; those most common are denominated the forester and brush kangaroo." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "i called this river the `red kangaroo river,' for in approaching it we first saw the red forester of port essington." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "and the forester snuffing the air will bound from his covert so dark." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "we have never had one of the largest kind--the forester kangaroo (macropus gigantes)--tame, for they have been so hunted and destroyed that there are very few left in tasmania, and those are in private preserves, or very remote out-of-the-way places, and rarely seen. . . . the aborigines called the old father of a flock a boomer. these were often very large: about five feet high in their usual position, but when standing quite up, they were fully six feet . . . and weighing or pounds." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xix. p. : "the dogs . . . made for them as if they had been a brace of stray foresters from the adjacent ranges." forest-oak, n. see oak. forget-me-not, n. the species of this familiar flower is myosotis australis, r. br., n.o. asperifoliae. fortescue, or -skewer, n. a fish of new south wales, pentaroge marmorata, cuv. and val., family scorpaenidae; called also the scorpion, and the cobbler. all its names allude to the thorny spines of its fins. the name fortescue is an adaptation of forty-skewer by the law of hobson-jobson. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "of this fish mr. hill says: the scorpion or fortescue, as these fish are popularly termed by fishermen, have been known for a long time, and bear that name no doubt in memory of the pain they have hitherto inflicted; and for its number and array of prickles it enjoys in this country the alias `forty-skewer' or `fortescure.' " . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "fortescue is a terrible pest, lurking among the debris in the nets and all but invisible, its spines standing erect in readiness for the unwary finger. and so intense is the pain inflicted by a stab, that i have seen a strong man roll on the ground crying out like a madman." forty-legs, n. name given to a millipede, cermatia smithii. forty-spot, n. name for a bird, a pardalote (q.v.). pardalote itself means spotted "like the pard." see also diamond-bird. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "pardalotus quadragintus, gould, forty-spotted pardalote. forty-spot, colonists of van diemen's land." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "`lyre bird' is obvious; so, too, is `forty-spot'; only one wonders why the number was pitched upon. was it a guess? or did the namer first shoot the bird and count?" fossick, v. intrans. to dig, but with special meanings. derived, like fosse, a ditch, and fossil, through french from lat. fossus, perfect part. of fodere, to dig. fossicking as pres. part., or as verbal noun, is commoner than the other parts of the verb. ( ) to pick out gold. . w. h. hall, `practical experiences at the diggings in victoria,' p. : "or fossicking (picking out the nuggets from the interstices of the slate formation) with knives and trowels." ( ) to dig for gold on abandoned claims or in waste-heaps. . f. h. nixon, `peter perfume,' p. : "they'll find it not quite so `welly good' as their fossicking freak at the buckland." . a.trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. xix. p. : "here we found about a dozen chinamen `fossicking' after gold amidst the dirt of the river, which had already been washed by the first gold-seekers." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "he commenced working along with several companions at surface digging and fossicking." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the easiest and simplest of all methods is `fossicking.' an old diggings is the place for this work, because there you will learn the kind of country, formation, and spots to look for gold when you want to break new ground. `fossicking' means going over old workings, turning up boulders, and taking the clay from beneath them, exploring fissures in the rock, and scraping out the stuff with your table knife, using your pick to help matters. pulling up of trees, and clearing all soil from the roots, scraping the bottoms of deserted holes, and generally keeping your eye about for little bits of ground left between workings by earlier miners who were in too great a hurry looking after the big fish to attend much to small fry." ( ) to search for gold generally, even by stealing. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "a number of idle and disorderly fellows had introduced a practice which was termed `fossicking.' . . . in the dead hours of midnight they issued forth, provided with wax tapers, and, entering upon the ground, stole the auriferous earth." ( ) to search about for anything, to rummage. . s. lemaitre, `songs of goldfields,' p. : "he ran from the flat with an awful shout without waiting to fossick the coffin lid out." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "half the time was spent in fossicking for sticks." . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "i was . . . a boy fossicking for birds' nests in the gullies." . `the australasian,' jan. : "the dog was fossicking about." fossicker, n. one who fossicks, sc. works among the tailings of old gold-mines for what may be left. . c. rudston read, `what i heard, saw, and did at the australian gold fields,' p. : "the man was what they called a night fossicker, who slept, or did nothing during the day, and then went round at night to where he knew the claims to be rich, and stole the stuff by candle-light." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "i can at once recognize the experienced `fossickers,' who know well how to go to work with every chance in their favour." . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. ii. p. : "steady old fossickers often get more than the first who open'd the ground." . r. brough smyth, `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "a fossicker is to the miner as is the gleaner to the reaper; he picks the crevices and pockets of the rocks." . `the australasian,' nov. , p. : "we had heard that, on this same field, years after its total abandonment, a two hundred ounce nugget had been found by a solitary fossicker in a pillar left in an old claim." . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "the fossickers sluiced and cradled with wonderful cradles of their own building." four-o'clock, n. another name for the friar-bird (q.v.). free-select, v. to take up land under the land laws. see free-selector. this composite verb, derived from the noun, is very unusual. the word generally used is to select. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xix. p. : "everything which he could have needed had he proceeded to free-select an uninhabited island." free-selection, n. ( ) the process of selecting or choosing land under the land laws, or the right to choose. abbreviated often into selection. see free-selector. . `ararat advertiser' [exact date lost]: "he was told that the areas open for selection were not on the geelong side, and one of the obliging officials placed a plan before him, showing the lands on which he was free to choose a future home. the selector looked vacantly at the map, but at length became attracted by a bright green allotment, which at once won his capricious fancy, indicating as it did such luxurious herbage; but, much to his disgust, he found that `the green lot' had already been selected. at length he fixed on a yellow section, and declared his intention of resting satisfied with the choice. the description and area of land chosen were called out, and he was requested t move further over and pay his money. `pay?' queried the fuddled but startled bona fide, `i got no money (hic), old `un, thought it was free selection, you know.'" . t. h. braim, `new homes,' ii. : "a man can now go and make his free selection before survey of any quantity of land not less than nor more than acres, at twenty shillings an acre." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "you may go to nine stations out of ten now without hearing any talk but `bullock and free-selection.'" . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "his intention . . . was to take up a small piece of land under the system of `free-selection.'" . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xx. p. : "this was years before the free-selection discovery." ( ) used for the land itself, but generally in the abbreviated form, selection. . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' vol. vi, p. : "i've only seen three females on my selection since i took it up four years last november." free-selector, n. (abbreviated often to selector), one who takes up a block of crown land under the land laws and by annual payments acquires the freehold. [ acres to victoria, in new south wales.] . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. i. p. : "free selectors we shall be when our journey's end we see." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. : "the very law which the free selector puts in force against the squatter, the squatter puts in force against him; he selected upon the squatter's run, and the squatter selects upon his grazing right." . ibid. p. : "men who select small portions of the crown lands by means of land orders or by gradual purchase, and who become freeholders and then permanently wedded to the colony." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the condition of the free-selector--that of ownership of a piece of land to be tilled by the owner--is the one which the best class of immigrants desire." . `melbourne spectator,' june , p. , col. : "a public meeting of non-resident selectors has been held at rushworth." . marcus clarke, `memorial volume,' p. : "a burly free selector pitched his tent in my home-station paddock and turned my dam into a wash." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xii. p. : "no, no; i've kept free-selectors out all these years, and as long as i live here i'll do so still." freezer, n. a sheep bred and raised in order that its mutton may be frozen and exported. . j. hotson, lecture in `age,' nov. , p. , col. : "in the breeding of what are in new zealand known as `freezers' there lies a ready means of largely increasing the returns from our land." fresh-water herring, n. in sydney, the fish is clupea richmondia, macl. elsewhere in australia, and in tasmania, it is another name for the grayling (q.v.). fresh-water perch, n. name given in tasmania to the fish microperca tasmaniae. friar-bird, n. an australian bird, of the genus called philemon, but originally named tropidorhynchus (q.v.). it is a honey-eater, and is also called poor soldier and other names; see quotation, . the species are-- friar-bird-- philemon corniculatus, lath. [called also leather-head, q.v.] helmeted f.-- p. buceroides, swains. little f.-- p. sordidus, gould. silvery-crowned f.-- p. argenticeps, gould. yellow-throated f.- p. citreogularis, gould. western f.-- p. occidentalis, ramsay. . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. (vocab.): "wirgan,--bird named by us the friar." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "friar,--a very common bird about paramatta, called by the natives `coldong:' it repeats the words `poor soldier' and `four o'clock' very distinctly." . `voyage to port phillip,' p. : "the cheerful sedge-wren and the bald-head friar, the merry forest-pie with joyous song." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "tropidorhynchus corniculatus, vig. and hors. "from the fancied resemblance of its notes to those words, it has obtained from the colonists the various names of `poor soldier,' `pimlico,' `four o'clock,' etc. its bare head and neck have also suggested the names of `friar bird,' `monk,' `leather head,' etc." . w. blandowski, `transactions of the philosophical society of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the tropidorhynchus corniculatus is well known to the colonists by the names `poor soldier,' `leather-headed jackass,' `friar-bird,' etc. this curious bird, in common with several other varieties of honey-eaters, is remarkable on account of its extreme liveliness and the singular resemblance of its notes to the human voice." frilled-lizard, n. see quotation. , g. bennett, `proceedings of royal society of tasmania,' p. : "notes on the chlamydosaurus or frilled-lizard of queensland (c. kingii.) " frogsmouth, n. an australian bird; genus podargus, commonly called mopoke (q.v.). the mouth and expression of the face resemble the appearance of a frog. the species are-- freckled frogsmouth-- podargus phaloenoides, gould. marbled f.-- p. marmoratus, gould. plumed f.-- p. papuensis, quoy and gaim. tawney f.-- p. strigoides, lath. . w. o. legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science' (brisbane), p. : "the term `frogsmouth' is used in order to get rid of that very objectionable name podargus, and as being allied to the other genera batrachostomus and otothrix of the family steatorninae in india. it is a name well suited to the singular structure of the mouth, and presumably better than the mythical title of `goatsucker.' `night-hawk,' sometimes applied to the caprimulginae, does not accord with the mode of flight of the genus podargus." frontage, n. land along a river or creek, of great importance to a station. a use common in australia, not peculiar to it. . `port phillip patriot,' july i , p. , col. : ". . . has four miles frontage to the yarra yarra." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. iii. p. : "jack was piloted by mr. hawkesbury through the `frontage' and a considerable portion of the `back' regions of gondaree." frost-fish, n. name given in australia and new zealand to the european scabbard-fish, lepidopus caudatus, white. the name is said to be derived from the circumstance that the fish is found alive on new zealand sea-beaches on frosty nights. it is called the scabbard-fish in europe, because it is like the shining white metal sheath of a long sword. lepidopus belongs to the family trichiuridae, it reaches a length of five or six feet, but is so thin that it hardly weighs as many pounds. it is considered a delicacy in new zealand. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "the frost-fish . . . the most delicately flavoured of all new zealand fishes, is an inhabitant of deep water, and on frosty nights, owing probably to its air-bladders becoming choked, it is cast up by the surf on the ocean-beach." fruit-pigeon, n. the name is given to numerous pigeons of the genera ptilinopus and carpophaga. in australia it is assigned to the following birds:-- allied fruit-pigeon-- ptilinopus assimilis, gould. purple-breasted f.-p.-- p. magnifica, temm. purple-crowned f.-p.-- p. superbus, temm. red-crowned f.-p.-- p. swainsonii, gould. rose-crowned f.-p.-- p. ewingii gould. white-headed f.-p.-- columba leucomela, temm. and in new zealand to carpophaga novae-zealandiae, gmel. (maori name, kereru kuku, or kukupa.) fryingpan-brand, n. a large brand used by cattle-stealers to cover the owner's brand. see duffer and cattle-duffer. . frederic de brebant cooper, `wild adventures in australia,' p. : ". . . this person was an `old hand,' and got into some trouble on the other side (i.e. the bathurst side) by using a `frying-pan brand.' he was stock-keeping in that quarter, and was rather given to `gulley-raking.' one fine day it appears he ran in three bullocks belonging to a neighbouring squatter, and clapt his brand on the top of the other so as to efface it." fuchsia, native, n. the name is applied to several native plants. ( ) in australia and tasmania, to various species of correa (q.v.), especially to correa speciosa, and., n.o. rutaceae. ( ) in queensland, to eremophila maculata, f. v. m., n.o. myoporineae. ( ) in new zealand, to fuchsia excorticata, linn., n.o. onagrariae. (maori name, kotukutuktu, q.v.). see also tooky-took and konini. . geo. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist in australasia,' pp. - : "the correa virens, with its pretty pendulous blossoms (from which it has been named the `native fuchsia'), and the scarlet grevillea (g. coccinea) are gay amidst the bush flowers." . mrs.meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "i see some pretty red correa and lilac." [footnote]: "correa speciosa--native fuchsia of colonies." . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "e. maculata. a . . . shrub called native fuchsia, and by some considered poisonous, by others a good fodder bush." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "e. maculata. . . . called `native fuchsia' in parts of queensland." . `otago witness,' nov. , `native trees': "a species of native fuchsia that is coming greatly into favour is called [fuchsia] procumbens. it is a lovely pot plant, with large pink fruit and upright flowers." full up of, adj. (slang), sick and tired of. "full on," and "full of," are other forms. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xxiii. p. : "she was `full up' of the oxley, which was a rowdy, disagreeable goldfield as ever she was on." furze, native, n. a shrub, hakea ulcina, r. br. see hakea. futtah, n. a settlers' corruption of the maori word whata (q.v.). . w.s. roberts, `southland in ,'p. : "these stores were called by the europeans futters,--but the maori name was whata." . `southland daily news,' feb. : "`futtah is familiar as `household words.' there were always rats in new zealand--that is, since any traditions of its fauna existed. the original ones were good to eat. they were black and smooth in the hair as the mole of the old country, and were esteemed delicacies. they were always mischievous, but the norway rat that came with the white man was worse. he began by killing and eating his aboriginal congener, and then made it more difficult than ever to keep anything eatable out of reach of his teeth. human ingenuity, however, is superior to that of most of the lower animals, and so the `futtah' came to be--a storehouse on four posts, each of them so bevelled as to render it impossible for the cleverest rat to climb them. the same expedient is to-day in use on stewart island and the west coast --in fact, wherever properly constructed buildings are not available for the storage of things eatable or destructible by the rodents in question." g galah, n. a bird.(the accent is now placed on the second syllable.) aboriginal name for the cacatua roseicapilla, vieill., the rose-breasted cockatoo. see cockatoo. with the first syllable compare last syllable of budgerigar (q.v.) . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "they can afford to screech and be merry, as also the grey, pink-crested galahs, which tint with the colours of the evening sky a spot of grass in the distance." . lyth, `golden south,' c. xiv. p. : "the galahs, with their delicate grey and rose-pink plumage, are the prettiest parrots." . francis adams, `john webb's end,' p. : "a shrieking flock of galahs, on their final flight before they settled to roost, passed over and around him, and lifting up his head, he saw how all their grey feathers were flushed with the sunset light, their coloured breasts deepening into darkest ruby, they seemed like loosed spirits." gallows, n. explained in quotation. common at all stations, where of course the butchering is done on the premises. . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the gallows, a high wooden frame from which the carcases of the butchered sheep dangle." gang-gang, or gan-gan, n. the aboriginal word for the bird callocephalon galeatum, lath., so called from its note; a kind of cockatoo, grey with a red head, called also gang-gang cockatoo. see cockatoo. . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. intro. p. xxxviii: "upon the branches the satin-bird, the gangan, and various kinds of pigeons were feeding." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "callocephalon galeatum, gang-gang cockatoo, colonists of new south wales." gannet, n. the english name for the solan goose and its tribe. the australian species are-- the gannet-- sula serrator, banks. brown g. (called also booby)-- s. leucogastra, bodd. masked g.-- s. cyanops, sunder. red-legged g.-- s. piscator, linn. the species in new zealand is dysporus serrator, grey; maori name, takapu. garfish, n. in england the name is applied to any fish of the family belonidae. the name was originally used for the common european belone vulgaris. in melbourne the garfish is a true one, belone ferox, gunth., called in sydney "long tom." in sydney, tasmania, and new zealand it is hemirhamphus intermedius, cantor.; and in new south wales, generally, it is the river-fish h. regularis, gunth., family sombresocidae. some say that the name was originally "guard-fish," and it is still sometimes so spelt. but the word is derived from xgar, in anglo-saxon, which meant spear, dart, javelin, and the allusion is to the long spear-like projection of the fish's jaws. called by the sydney fishermen ballahoo, and in auckland the piper (q.v.). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "charley brought me . . . the head bones of a large guard-fish." . anon., `new south wales: its past, present, and future condition,' p. : "the best kinds of fish are guard, mullet, and schnapper." . clutterbuck, `port phillip,' c. iii. p. : "in the bay are large quantities of guard-fish." . `spectator' (melbourne), june i , p. , col. : "common fish, such as trout, ruffies, mullet, garfish." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "of the garfishes we have four species known to be found on our coasts. one, hemirhamphus regularis, is the favourite breakfast fish of the citizens of sydney. h. melanochir, or `river garfish,' is a still better fish, but has become very scarce. h. argentcus, the common brisbane species . . . and h. commersoni." gastrolobium, n. scientific name of a genus of australian shrubs, n.o. leguminosae, commonly known as poison bushes (q.v.). the species are-- gastrolobium bilobum, r. br. g. callistachys, meissn. g. calycium, benth. g. obovatum, benth. g. oxylobioides, benth. g. spinosum, benth. g. trilobum, benth. all of which are confined to western australia. the species gastrolobium grandiflorum, f. v. m. (also called wall-flower), is the only species found out of western australia, and extends across central australia to queensland. all the species have pretty yellow and purple flowers. the name is from the greek gastaer, gastros, the belly, and lobion, dim. of lobos, "the capsule or pod of leguminous plants." (`l. & s.') geebung, or geebong, n. aboriginal name for the fruit of various species of the tree persoonia, and also for the tree itself, n.o. proteaceae. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the jibbong is another tasteless fruit, as well as the five corners, much relished by children." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition, p. : "we gathered and ate a great quantity of gibong (the ripe fruit of persoonia falcata)." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' c. vi,. p. , rd edition : "the geebung, a native plum, very woolly and tasteless." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "we gathered the wild raspberries, and mingling them with geebongs and scrub berries, set forth a dessert." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "you won't turn a five-corner into a quince, or a geebung into an orange." . j. m. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "a `geebung' (the name given to the fruits of persoonias, and hence to the trees themselves)." gerygone, n. scientific and vernacular name of a genus of small warblers of australia and new zealand; the new name for them is fly-eater (q.v.). in new zealand they are called bush-warblers, grey-warblers, etc., and they also go there by their maori name of riro-riro. for the species, see fly-eater and warbler. the name is from the greek gerugonae, "born of sound," a word used by theocritus. . w. o. legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science' (brisbane), p. : "[the habits and habitats of the genus] gerygone suggested the term fly-eater, as distinguished from fly-catcher, for this aberrant and peculiarly australasian form of small fly-catchers, which not only capture their food somewhat after the manner of fly-catchers, but also seek for it arboreally." ghilgai, n. an aboriginal word used by white men in the neighbourhood of bourke, new south wales, to denote a saucer-shaped depression in the ground which forms a natural reservoir for rainwater. ghilgais vary from to yards in diameter, and are from five to ten feet deep. they differ from claypans (q.v.), in being more regular in outline and deeper towards the centre, whereas claypans are generally flat-bottomed. their formation is probably due to subsidence. giant-lily, n. see under lily. giant-nettle, i.q. nettle-tree (q.v.). gibber, n. an aboriginal word for a stone. used both of loose stones and of rocks. the g is hard. . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar,' p. x. [in a list of `barbarisms']: "gibber, a stone." [pace mr. threlkeld, the word is aboriginal, though not of the dialect of the hunter district, of which he is speaking.] . `settlers and convicts; or recollections of sixteen years' labour in the australian backwoods,' p. : "of a rainy night like this he did not object to stow himself by the fireside of any house he might be near, or under the `gibbers' (overhanging rocks) of the river. . . ." . a .j. vogan, `black police,' p. : "he struck right on top of them gibbers (stones)." . baldwin spencer, in `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "at first and for more than a hundred miles [from oodnadatta northwards], our track led across what is called the gibber country, where the plains are covered with a thin layer of stones--the gibbers--of various sizes, derived from the breaking down of a hard rock which forms the top of endless low, table-topped hills belonging to the desert sandstone formation." gibber-gunyah, n. an aboriginal cave-dwelling. see gibber and gunyah, also rock-shelter. . `settlers and convicts; or, recollections of sixteen years' labour in the australian backwoods,' p. : "i coincided in his opinion that it would be best for us to camp for the night in one of the ghibber-gunyahs. these are the hollows under overhanging rocks." . rev. r. w. vanderkiste, `lost, but not for ever,' p. : "our home is the gibber-gunyah, where hill joins hill on high, where the turrama and berrambo like sleeping serpents lie." . r. etheridge, jun., `records of the australian museum,' vol. i. no. viii. p. : "notes on rock shelters or gibba-gunyahs at deewhy lagoon." giddea, gidya, or gidgee, adj. aboriginal word of new south wales and queensland for-- ( ) a species of acacia, a. homalophylla, cunn. the original meaning is probably small, cf. gidju, warrego, queensland, and kutyo, adelaide, both meaning small. ( ) a long spear made, from this wood. . `catalogue of objects of ethno-typical art in national gallery, melbourne,' p. : "gid-jee. hardwood spear, with fragments of quartz set in gum on two sides and grass-tree stem. total length, feet inches." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "gidya scrubs." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "a. homalophylla. a `spearwood.' called `myall' in victoria. . . . aboriginal names are . . . gidya, gidia, or gidgee (with other spellings in new south wales and queensland). this is the commonest colonial name . . . much sought after for turner's work on account of its solidity and fragrance. . . . the smell of the tree when in flower is abominable, and just before rain almost unbearable." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "i sat . . . watching the shadows of the gydya trees lengthen, ah! so slowly." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "kind of scrub, called by the colonists gydya-scrub, which manifests itself even at a distance by a very characteristic, but not agreeable odour, being especially pungent after rain." . baldwin spencer, `home expedition in central australia,' narrative, p. : "we camped beside a water-pool on the adminga creek, which is bordered for the main part by a belt of the stinking acacia, or giddea (a. homalophylla). when the branches are freshly cut it well deserves the former name, as they have a most objectionable smell." gill-bird, n. an occasional name for the wattle-bird (q.v.). . `menu' for october : "gill-bird on toast." gin, n. a native word for an aboriginal woman, and used, though rarely, even for a female kangaroo. see quotation . the form gun (see quotation ) looks as if it had been altered to meet gunae, and of course generate is not derived from gunae, though it may be a distant relative. in `collins's vocabulary' occurs "din, a woman." if such a phonetic spelling as djin had been adopted, as it well might have been, to express the native sound, where would the gunae theory have been? . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' vocabulary, p. : "din--a woman." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "a proposition was made by one of my natives to go and steal a gin (wife)." ibid. p. : "she agrees to become his gin." . lieut. breton, r.n., `excursions in new south wales,' p. : "the flying gin (gin is the native word for woman or female) is a boomall, and will leave behind every description of dog." . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar,' p. x: "as a barbarism [sc. not used on the hunter], jin--a wife." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "a gin (the aboriginal for a married woman)." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "gin, the term applied to the native female blacks; not from any attachment to the spirit of that name, but from some (to me) unknown derivation." . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. c. iv. p. : "though very anxious to . . . carry off one of their `gins,' or wives . . . he yet evidently holds these north men in great dread." . j. d. lang, `cooksland,'p. , n.: "when their fire-stick has been extinguished, as is sometimes the case, for their jins or vestal virgins, who have charge of the fire, are not always sufficiently vigilant." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "gins--native women--from gune, mulier, evidently!" . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. , p. : "the females would be comely looking gins, were not their limbs so much like rolling-pins." . s. bennett, `australian discovery,' p. : "gin or gun, a woman. greek gunae and derivative words in english, such as generate, generation, and the like." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the gins are captives of their bow and spear, and are brought home before the captor on his saddle. this seems the orthodox way of wooing the coy forest maidens. . . . all blacks are cruel to their gins." . j. brunton stephens, `poems' [title]: "to a black gin." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "certain stout young gins or lubras, set apart for the purpose, were sacrificed." ginger, native, n. an australian tree, alpinia caerulea, benth., n.o. scitamineae. the globular fruit is eaten by the natives. . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "fresh green leaves, especially of the so-called native ginger (alpinia caerulea)." give best, v. australian slang, meaning to acknowledge superiority, or to give up trying at anything. . keighley, `who are you?' p. : "but then--the fact had better be confessed, i went to work and gave the schooling best." . j. farrell, `how he died,' p. : "charley gave life best and died of grief." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xviii. p. : "it's not like an englishman to jack up and give these fellows best." globe-fish, n. name given to the fish tetrodon hamiltoni, richards., family gymnodontes. the spiny globe-fish is diodon. these are also called toad-fish (q.v.), and porcupine-fish (q.v.). the name is applied to other fish elsewhere. glory flower, or glory pea, i.q. clianthus (q.v.). glory pea, i.q. clianthus (q.v.). glucking-bird, n. a bird so named by leichhardt, but not identified. probably the boobook (q.v.), and see its quotation ; see also under mopoke quotation, owl, . . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the musical note of an unknown bird, sounding like `gluck gluck' frequently repeated, and ending in a shake . . . are heard from the neighbourhood of the scrub." ibid. p. : "the glucking bird--by which name, in consequence of its note, the bird may be distinguished--was heard through the night." ibid. p. : "the glucking-bird and the barking owl were heard throughout the moonlight nights." ibid. pp. , : "during the night, we heard the well-known note of what we called the `glucking bird,' when we first met with it in the cypress-pine country at the early part of our expedition. its re-appearance with the cypress-pine corroborated my supposition, that the bird lived on the seeds of that tree." glue-pot, n. part of a road so bad that the coach or buggy sticks in it. . `daily news,' london (exact date lost): "the bishop of manchester [dr. moorhouse, formerly bishop of melbourne], whose authority on missionary subjects will not be disputed, assures us that no one can possibly understand the difficulties and the troubles attendant upon the work of a colonial bishop or clergyman until he has driven across almost pathless wastes or through almost inaccessible forests, has struggled through what they used to call `glue-pots,' until he has been shaken to pieces by `corduroy roads,' and has been in the midst of forests with the branches of trees falling around on all sides, knowing full well that if one fell upon him he would be killed." goai, n. common name in southern island of new zealand for kowhai (q.v.), of which it is a corruption. it is especially used of the timber of this tree, which is valuable for fencing. the change from k to g also took place in the name otago, formerly spelt otakou. . john blair, `new zealand for me,': "the land of the goai tree, mapu, and pine, the stately totara, and blooming wild vine." . s. butler, `first year in canterbury settlement,' p. : "i remember nothing but a rather curiously shaped gowai-tree." goanna, guana, and guano, n. popular corruptions for iguana, the large lace-lizard (q.v.), varanus varius, shaw. in new zealand, the word guano is applied to the lizard-like reptile sphenodon punctatum. see tuatara. in tasmania, the name is given to taliqua schincoides, white, and throughout australia any lizard of a large size is popularly called a guana, or in the bush, more commonly, a goanna. see also lace-lizard. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. viii. p. : "among other reptiles were found . . . some brown guanoes." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "at length an animal called a guana (a very large species of lizard) jumped out of the grass, and with amazing rapidity ran, as they always do when disturbed, up a high tree." . j. ropers, `new rush,' p. : "the shy guana climbs a tree in fear." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "a goanna startled him, and he set to and kicked the front of the buggy in." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "and the sinister `gohanna,' and the lizard, and the snake." go-ashore, n. an iron pot or cauldron, with three iron feet, and two ears, from which it was suspended by a wire handle over the fire. it is a corruption of the maori word kohua (q.v.), by the law of hobson-jobson. . w. tyrone power, `sketches in new zealand with pen and pencil,' p. : "engaged in the superintendence of a maori oven, or a huge gipsy-looking cauldron, called a `go-ashore.'" . an old colonist, `colonial experiences,' p. : "a large go-ashore, or three-legged pot, of the size and shape of the cauldron usually introduced in the witch scene in macbeth." . c. l. innes, `canterbury sketches,' p. : "there was another pot, called by the euphonious name of a `go-ashore,' which used to hang by a chain over the fire. this was used for boiling." goborro, n. aboriginal name for eucalyptus microtheca, f. v. m. see dwarf-box, under box. goburra, and gogobera, n. variants of kookaburra (q.v.). goditcha. see kurdaitcha. godwit, n. the english name for birds of the genus limosa. the australian species are-- black-tailed g.,-- limosa melanuroides, gould; barred-rumped g.,-- l. uropygialis, gould. gogobera, and goburra, n. variants of kookaburra (q.v.). gold-. the following words and phrases compounded with "gold" are australian in use, though probably some are used elsewhere. gold-bearing, verbal adj. auriferous. . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "a new line of gold-bearing quartz." gold-digging, verbal n. mining or digging for gold. . g. sutherland, `tales of gold. fields,' p. : "there were over forty miners thus playing at gold-digging in hiscock's gully." gold-digger, n. . j. bonwick [title]: "notes of a gold-digger." gold-fever, n. the desire to obtain gold by digging. the word is more especially applied to the period between and , the early australian discovery of gold. the term had been previously applied in a similar way to the californian excitement in - . called also yellow fever. . a. j. barbour, `clara,' c. ix. p. : "the gold fever coursed through every vein." gold-field, n. district where mining for gold is carried on. . t. mccombie, `history of victoria, c. xv. p. : "all were anxious to get away for the gold fields." . g. sutherland, [title] `tales of goldfields,' p. : "edward hargreaves, the discoverer of the australian goldfields . . . received l , as his reward." gold-founded, part. adj. founded as the result of the discovery of gold. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. ix. p. : "i rode up the narrow street, serpentine in construction, as in all gold-founded townships." gold-hunter, n. searcher after gold. . g. s. rutter [title]: "hints to gold-hunters." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. v. p. : "i was not as one of the reckless gold-hunters with which the camp was thronged." gold-mining, verbal n. . j. a.phillips [title]: "gold-mining; a scientific guide for australian emigrants." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "he had already had quite enough of gold-mining." gold-seeking, adj. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xv. p. : "the great gold-seeking multitude had swelled . . . to the population of a province." golden bell-frog, n. name applied to a large gold and green frog, hyla aurea, less., which, unlike the great majority of the family hylidae to which it belongs, is terrestrial and not arboreal in its habits, being found in and about water-holes in many parts of australia. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "so completely alike was the sound of the bell-frogs in an adjoining pond at night to the noise of the men by day." golden-chain, n. another name for the laburnum (q.v.). golden-eye, n. the bird certhia lunulatu, shaw; now called melithreptus lunulatus, shaw, and classed as white-naped honey-eater (q.v.). . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "`this bird,' mr. caley says, `is called golden-eye by the settlers. i shot it at iron cove, seven miles from sydney, on the paramatta road.'" golden-perch, n. a fresh-water fish of australia, ctenolates ambiguus, richards., family percidae, and c. christyi, castln.; also called the yellow-belly. c. ambiguus is common in the rivers and lagoons of the murray system. golden-rosemary, n. see rosemary. golden-wattle, n. see wattle. . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "many persons who had been lured into gathering armfuls of early wattle had cause to regret their devotion to the australian national bloom, for the golden wattle blossoms produced unpleasant associations in the minds of the wearers of the green, and there were blows and curses in plenty. in political botany the wattle and blackthorn cannot grow side by side." . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "the last two weeks have been alive with signs and tokens, saying `spring is coming, spring is here.' and though this may not be the `merry month of may,' yet it is the time of glorious golden wattle,--wattle waving by the river's bank, nodding aloft its soft plumes of yellow and its gleaming golden oriflamme, or bending low to kiss its own image in the brown waters which it loves." goodenia, n. the scientific and popular name of a genus of australian plants, closely resembling the gentians; there are many species. the name was given by sir james smith, president of the linnaean society, in . see quotation. . `transactions of the linn.can society,' vol. ii. p. : "i [smith] have given to this . . . genus the name of goodenia, in honour of . . . rev. dr. goodenough, treasurer of this society, of whose botanical merits . . . example of tournefort, who formed gundelia from gundelscheimer." [dr. goodenough became bishop of carlisle; he was the grandfather of commodore goodenough.] . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "a species of goodenia is supposed to be used by the native gins to cause their children to sleep on long journeys, but it is not clear which is used." goodletite, n. scientific name for a matrix in which rubies are found. so named by professor black of dunedin, in honour of his assistant, william goodlet, who was the first to discover the rubies in the matrix, on the west coast. . `grey river argus,' september: "several sapphires of good size and colour have been found, also rubies in the matrix--goodletite." goondie, n. a native hut. gundai = a shelter in the wiradhuri dialect. it is the same word as gunyah (q.v.). . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "there were a dozen `goondies' to be visited, and the inmates started to their work." goose, n. english bird-name. the australian species are-- cape barren goose-- cereopsis novae-hollandiae, lath. [gould (`birds of australia,' vol. vii. pl. ) calls it the cereopsis goose, or cape barren goose of the colonists.] maned g. (or wood-duck, q.v.)-- branta jubata, lath. pied g.-- anseranus melanoleuca, lath. called also magpie-goose and swan-goose. . j. backhouse, `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies,' p. : "five pelicans and some cape barren geese were upon the beach of preservation island [bass strait]." goose-teal, n. the english name for a very small goose of the genus nettapus. the australian species are-- green,-- nettapus pulchellus, gould; white-quilled,-- n. albipennis, gould. gooseberry-tree, little, n. name given to the australian tree buchanania mangoides, f. v. m., n.o. anacardiaceae. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition, p. : "my companions had, for several days past, gathered the unripe fruits of coniogeton arborescens, r. br., which, when boiled, imparted an agreeable acidity to the water. . . . when ripe, they became sweet and pulpy, like gooseberries. . . . this resemblance induced us to call the tree `the little gooseberry-tree.' " gordon lily, n. see under lily. gouty-stem, n. the australian baobab-tree (q.v.), adansonia gregori, f. v. m. according to maiden (p. ), sterculia rupestris, benth., is also called gouty-stem, on account of the extraordinary shape of the trunk. other names of this tree are the sour-gourd, and the cream-of-tartar tree. . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. c. iii. p. : "the gouty-stem tree . . . bears a very fragrant white flower, not unlike the jasmine." [illustration given at p. .] . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. s [note]: "this tree is distinguished by the extraordinary swollen appearance of the stem, which looks as though the tree were diseased or the result of a freak of nature. the youngest as well as the oldest trees have the same deformed appearance, and inside the bark is a soft juicy pulp instead of wood, which is said to be serviceable as an article of food. the stem of the largest tree at careening bay was twenty-nine feet in girth; it is named the adansonia digitata. a species is found in africa. in australia it occurs only on the north coast." government, n. a not unusual contraction of "government service," used by contractors and working men. government men, n. an obsolete euphemistic name for convicts, especially for assigned servants (q.v.). . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "three government men or convicts." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "government men, as assigned servants were called." government stroke, n. a lazy style of doing work, explained in quotations. the phrase is not dead. . w. w. dobie, `recollections of a visit to port phillip,' p. : "government labourers, at ten shillings a-day, were breaking stones with what is called `the government stroke,' which is a slow-going, anti-sweating kind of motion. . . ." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. ix. [near end] p. : "in colonial parlance the government stroke is that light and easy mode of labour--perhaps that semblance of labour--which no other master will endure, though government is forced to put up with it." . `otago witness,' december r, p. , col. : "the government stroke is good enough for this kind of job." . `the argus,' feb. , p. , col. : "like the poor the unemployed are always with us, but they have a penchant for public works in melbourne, with a good daily pay and the `government stroke' combined." grab-all, n. a kind of net used for marine fishing near the shore. it is moored to a piece of floating wood, and by the tasmanian government regulations must have a mesh of / inches. . edward o. cotton, `evidence before royal commission on the fisheries of tasmania,' p. : "put a graball down where you will in `bell-rope' kelp, more silver trumpeter will get in than any other fish." . ibid. p. xvii: "between sunrise and sunset, nets, known as `graballs,' may be used." grammatophore, n. scientific name for "an australian agamoid lizard, genus grammatophora." (`standard.') grape, gippsland, n. called also native grape. an australian fruit tree, vitis hypoglauca, f. v. m., n.o. viniferae; called gippsland grape in victoria. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native grape; gippsland grape. this evergreen climber yields black edible fruits of the size of cherries. this grape would perhaps be greatly improved by culture. (mueller.)" grape, macquarie harbour, or macquarie harbour vine (q.v.), n. name given to the climbing shrub muehlenbeckia adpressra, meissn. n.o. polygonaceae. called native ivy in australia. see under ivy. grape-eater, n. a bird, called formerly fig-eater, now known as the green-backed white-eye (q.v.), zosterops gouldi, bp. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "zosterops chloronotus, gould, green-backed z.; grape and fig-eater, colonists of swan river." grass, n. in australia, as elsewhere, the name grass is sometimes given to plants which are not of the natural order gramineae, yet everywhere it is chiefly to this natural order that the name is applied. a fair proportion of the true grasses common to many other countries in the world, or confined, on the one hand to temperate zones, or on the other to tropical or sub-tropical regions, are also indigenous to australia, or tasmania, or new zealand, or sometimes to all three countries. in most cases such grasses retain their old world names, as, for instance, barnyard- or cock-spur grass (panicum crus-galli, linn.); in others they receive new australian names, as ditch millet (paspalum scrobitulatum, f. v. m.), the `koda millet' of india; and still again certain grasses named in latin by scientific botanists have been distinguished by a vernacular english name for the first time in australia, as kangaroo grass (anhistiria ciliata, linn.), which was "long known before australia became colonized, in south asia and all africa" (von muller), but not by the name of the kangaroo. beyond these considerations, the settlers of australia, whose wealth depends chiefly on its pastoral occupation, have introduced many of the best old-world pasture grasses (chiefly of the genera poa and festuca), and many thousands of acres are said to be "laid down with english grass." some of these are now so wide-spread in their acclimatization, that the botanists are at variance as to whether they are indigenous to australia or not; the couch grass, for instance (cynodon dactylon, pers.), or indian doub grass, is generally considered to be an introduced grass, yet maiden regards it as indigenous. there remain, "from the vast assemblage of our grasses, even some hundred indigenous to australia" (von muller), and a like number indigenous to new zealand, the greater proportion of which are endemic. many of these, accurately named in latin and described by the botanists, have not yet found their vernacular equivalents; for the bushman and the settler do not draw fine botanical distinctions. maiden has classified and fully described species as "forage plants," of which over ninety have never been christened in english. mr. john buchanan, the botanist and draughtsman to the geographical survey of new zealand, has prepared for his government a `manual of the indigenous grasses of new zealand,' which enumerates eighty species, many of them unnamed in english, and many of them common also to australia and tasmania. these two descriptive works, with the assistance of guilfoyle's botany and travellers' notes, have been made the basis of the following list of all the common australian names applied to the true grasses of the n.o. gramineae. some of them of very special australian character appear also elsewhere in the dictionary in their alphabetical places, while a few other plants, which are grasses by name and not by nature, stand in such alphabetical place alone, and not in this list. for facility of comparison and reference the range and habitat of each species is indicated in brackets after its name; the more minute limitation of such ranges is not within the scope of this work. the species of grass present in australia, tasmania, and new zealand are-- . alpine rice grass-- ehrharta colensoi, cook. (n.z.) . alpine whorl g.-- catabrosa antarctica, hook. f. (n.z.) . bamboo g.-- glyceria ramigera, f. v. m. (a.) called also cane grass. stipa verticillata, nees.(a.) . barcoo g. (of queensland)-- anthistiria membranacea, lindl. (a.) called also landsborough grass. . barnyard g.-- panicum crus-galli, linn. (a., not endemic.) called also cockspur grass. . bayonet g.-- aciphylla colensoi.(n.z.) called also spear-grass (see ), and spaniard (q.v.). . bent g.--alpine-- agrostis muellerii, benth. (a., n.z., not endemic.) deyeuxia setifolia, hook. f. (n.z.) . bent g.--australian-- deyeuxia scabra, benth. (a., t., n.z.) . bent g.--billardiere's-- d. billardierii, r. br. (a., t., n.z.) . bent g.--brown-- agrostis carina, linn. (n.z.) . bent g.--campbell island-- a. antarctica, hook. f. (n.z.) . bent g.--dwarf mountain-- a. subululata, hook. f. (n.z.) . bent g.--oat-like-- deyeuxia avenoides, hook. f. (n.z.) . bent g.--pilose-- d. pilosa, rich. (n.z.) . bent g.--slender-- agrostis scabra, willd. (a., t., n.z.) . bent g.--spiked-- deyeuxia quadriseta, r. br. (a., t., n.z.) called also reed grass. . bent g.--toothea-- d. forsteri, kunth. (a., t., n.z.) . bent g.--young's-- d. youngii, hook. f. (n.z.) . blady g.-- ipperata arundinacea, cyr. (a.) . blue g.-- andropogon annulatus, forst. (a.) a. pertusus, willd. (a.) a. sericeus, r. br. (a.) . brome g.--seaside.-- romus arenarius, labill. (a., n.z.) called also wild oats. . canary g.-- phalaris canariensis. (a.) . cane g.-- (i.q. bamboo grass. see .) . chilian g.-- (i.q. rat--tailed grass. see .) . cockspur g.-- (i.q. barnyard grass. see .) . couch g.-- cynodon dactylon, pers. (a., not endemic.) called also indian doub grass. . couch g.--native-- distichlys maritima, raffinesque. (a.) . couch g.--water-- (i.q. seaside millet. see .) . feather g.-- (several species of stipa. see .) . fescue g.--hard-- festuca duriuscula, linn. (australasia, not endemic.) . fescue g.--poa-like-- f. scoparia, hook. f. (n.z.) . fescue g.--sandhill-- f. littoralis, r. br., var. triticoides, benth. (a., t., n.z.) . fescue g.--sheeps'-- f. ovina, linn. (a., t.) . finger g.--cocksfoot-- panicum sanguinale, linn. (a., not endemic.) called also hairy finger grass, and reddish panic grass. . finger g.--egyptian-- eleusine aegyptica, pers. (a., not endemic.) . finger g.--hairy-- (i.q .cocksfoot finger grass. see .) . foxtail g.-- (i.q. knee jointed foxtazl grass. see .) . hair g.--crested-- koeleria cristata, pers. (a., t., n.z.) . hair g.--turfy-- deschampia caespitosa, beavo. (n.z., not endemic.) . holy g.-- hierochloe alpina, roem. & schult. (australasia, not endemic.) . indian doub g.-- (i.q. couch grass. see .) . kangaroo g. (a., t., not endemic)-- andropogon refractus, r. br. anthistiria avenacea, f. v. m. (called also oat grass.) a. ciliata, linn. (common k.g.) a. frondosa, r. br. (broad-leaved k.g.) . knee-jointed fox-tail g.-- alopecurus geniculatus, linn. (australasia, not endemic.) . landsborough g.-- (i.q. barcoo grass. see .) . love g.--australian-- eragrostis brownii, nees. (a.) . manna g.-- glyceria fluitans, r. br. (a.,t.) . millet--australian-- panicum decompositum, r. br. (a., not endemic.) called also umbrella grass. . millet--ditch-- paspalum scrobitulatum, f. v. m. (a., n.z., not endemic.) the koda millet of india. . millet--equal-glumed-- isachne australis, r. br. (a., n.z., not endemic.) . millet-seaside-- paspalum distichum, burmann. (a., n.z., not endemic.) called also silt grass, and water couch grass. . mitchell g.-- astrebla elymoides, f. v. m. (a., true mitchell grass.) a. pectinata, f. v. m. (a.) a. tritzcoides, f. v. m. (a.) . mouse g.-- (i.q.) longhaired plume grass. see .) . mulga g.-- danthonia racemosa, r. br. (a.) neurachnea mitchelliana, nees. (a.) . new zealand wind g.-- apera arundinacea, palisot. (n.z., not endemic.) . oat g.-- anthistiria avenacea, f. v. m. (called also kangaroo grass. see .) . oat g.--alpine-- danthonia semi-annularis, r. br., var. alpina. (n.z.) . oat g.--buchanan's-- d. buchanii; hook. f. (n.z.) . oat g.--few-flowered-- d. pauciflora, r. br. (a., t., n.z.) . oat g.--hard-- d. pilosa, r. br., var. stricta. (n.z.) . oat g.--naked-- d. nuda, hook. f. (n.z.) . oat g.--new zealand-- d. semi-annularis, r. br. (a., t., n.z.) . oat g.--purple-awned-- d. pilosa, r. br. (a., t., n.z.) . oat g.--racemed-- d. pilosa, r. br., var. racemosa. (n.z.) . oat g.--shining-- trisetum antarcticum, hook. f. (n.z.) . oat g.--sheep-- danthonia semi-annularis, r. br., var. gracilis.(n.z.) . oat g.--spiked-- trisetum subspicatum, beauv. (australasia, not endemic.) . oat g.--thompson's naked-- danthonia thomsonii (new species). . oat g.--wiry-leaved-- d. raoulii, steud, var. australis, buchanan. (n.z.) . oat g.--young's-- trisetum youngii, hook. f. (n.z.) . panic g.--reddish-- (i.q. cocksfoot finger-grass. see .) . panic g.--slender-- oplismenus salarius, var. roem. and schult. (a., n.z., not endemic.) . paper g.--native-- poa caespitosa, forst. (a., t., n.z.) called also wiry grass, weeping polly, and tussock poa grass; and, in new zealand, snow grass. . plume g.--long-haired-- dichelachne crinita, hook. f. (a., t., n.z.) . plume g.--short-haired-- d. sciurea, hook. f. (a., t., n.z.) . poa g.--auckland island-- poa foliosa, hook. f., var. a. (n.z.) . poa g.--brown-flowered-- p. lindsayi, hook. f. (n.z.) . poa g.--brown mountain p. mackayi (new species). (n.z.) . poa g.--colenso's-- p. colensoi, hook. f.(n.z.) . . poa g.--common field-- p. anceps, forst., var. b, foliosa, hook. f. (n.z.) . pea g.--dense-flowered p. anceps, forst., var. d, densiflora, hook. f. (n.z.) . poa g.--dwarf-- p. pigmaea (new species). (n.z.) . pea g.--hard short-stemmed-- p. anceps, forst., var. c, brevicalmis, hook. f. (n.z.) . poa g.--kirk's-- p. kirkii (new species). (n.z.) . poa g.--large-flowered-- p. foliosa, hook. f., var. b. (n.z.) . poa g.--little-- p. exigua, hook. f. (n.z.) . poa g.--minute-- p, foliosa, hook. f., var. c. (n.z.) . poa g.--minute creeping-- p. pusilla, berggren. (n.z.) . pea g.--nodding plumed-- p. anceps, forst., var. a, elata, hook. f. (n.z.) . poa g.--one-flowered-- p. unifora (new species). (n.z.) . poa g.--short-glumed-- p. breviglumus, hook. f.(n.z.) . poa g.--slender-- p. anceps, forst., var. e, debilis, kirk, ms. (n.z.) . poa g.--small tussock-- p. intemedia (new species). (n.z.) . poa g.--tussock-- p. caespitosa, forst. (a., t., n.z. see .) . poa g.--weak-stemmed-- eragrostis imbebecilla, benth. (a., n.z.) . poa g.--white-flowered-- poa sclerophylla, berggren. (n.z.) . porcupine g. (q.v.)-- triodia (various species). . rat-tailed g.-- sporobulus indicus, r. br. (a., n.z., not endemic.) called also chilian grass. ischaeum laxum, r. br. (a.) . reed g.-- pragmites communis, trin. (n.z. see .) . rice g.-- leersia hexandria, swartz. (a.) . rice g.--bush-- microtaena avenacea, hook. f. (n.z.) . rice g.--knot-jointed-- m. polynoda, hook. f. (n.z.) . rice g.--meadow-- m. stipoides, r. br. (a.,t., n.z.) called also weeping grass. . roly-poly g.-- panicum macractinum, benth. (a.) . rough-bearded g.-- echinopogon ovatus, palisot. (a., t., n.z.) . sacred g.-- hierochloe redolens, r. br. (australasia, not endemic.) called also scented grass, and sweet-scented grass. . scented g.-- chrysopogon parviforus, benth. (a.) see also . . seaside brome g.-- (i.q. brome grass. see .) . silt g.-- (i.q. seaside millet. see .) . seaside glumeless g.-- gymnostychum gracile, hook. f. (n.z.) . snow g. (q.v.)-- (i.q. paper grass. see .) (n.z.) . spear g. (q.v.)-- aciphylla colensoi. (n.z.) called also spaniard (q.v.). heteropogon contortus, roem. and shult. (n.z.), and all species of stipa (a., t.). . spider g.-- panicum divaricatissimum, r. br. (a.) . spinifex g. (q.v.)-- spinifex hirsutus, labill. (a., t., n.z., not endemic.) called also spiny rolling grass. . star g.--blue-- chloris ventricosa, r. br. (a.) . star g.--dog's tooth-- c. divaricata, r. br. (a.) . star g.--lesser-- c. acicularis, lindl. (a.) . sugar g.-- pollinia fulva, benth.(a.) . summer g.-- (i.q. hairy-finger grass. see .) . sweet g.-- glyceria stricta, hook. f. (a., t., n.z.) . sweet-scented g.-- (i.q. sacred grass. see .) . traveller's g. (n.o. aroideae).-- (i.q. settlers' twine, q.v.) . tussock g.-- (see and .) . tussock g.-- broad-leaved oat-- danthonia flavescens, hook. f. (n.z.) . tussock g.--erect plumed-- arundo fulvida, buchanan. (n.z.) maori name, tot-toi (q.v.). . tussock g.--narrow-leaved oat-- danthonia raoulii, steud. (n.z.) . tussock g.--plumed-- arundo conspicua, a. cunn. (n.z.) maori name, toi-toi (q.v.). . tussock g.--small-flowered oat-- danthonia cunninghamii, hook. f. (n.z.) . petrie's stipa g.-- stipa petriei (new species). see . /? ?/ (n.z.) . umbrella g.-- (i.q. australian millet. see .) . wallaby g.-- danthonia penicileata, f. v. m. (a., n.z.) . weeping g.-- (i.q. meadow rice grass. see .) . weeping polly g.-- (i.q. paper grass. see .) . wheat g.--blue-- agropyrum scabrum, beauv. (a., t., n.z.) . wheat g.--short-awned-- triticum multiflorum, banks and sol. (n.z.) . white-topped g.-- danthonia longifolia, r. br. (a.) . windmill g.-- chloris truncata, r. br. (a.) . wire g.-- ehrharta juncea, sprengel; a rush-like grass of hilly country. (a., t., n.z.) cynodon dactylum, pers.; so called from its knotted, creeping, wiry roots, so difficult to eradicate in gardens and other cultivated land. (not endemic.) see . . wiry g.--. (i.q. paper grass. see .) . wiry dichelachne g.-- stipa teretefolia, steud. (a., t., n.z.) . woolly-headed g.-- andropogon bombycinus, r. br. (a.) . vandyke g.-- panicum flavidum, retz. (a.) grass-bird, n. in new zealand, sphenoeacus //sic. otherwhere sphenaeacus gjc// punctatus, gray, the same as fern-bird (q.v.); in australia, megalurus (sphenaeacus) gramineus, gould. grass-leaved fern, n. vittaria elongata, swartz, n.o. filices. . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "grass-leaved fern. . . . frond varying in length from a few inches to several feet, and with a breadth of from one to five lines. . . . this curious grass-like fern may be frequently seen fringing the stems of the trees in the scrubs of tropical queensland, in which situation the fronds are usually very long." grass-parrakeet, n. a bird of the genus euphema. the australian species are-- blue-winged parrakeet euphema aurantia, gould. bourke's p.-- e. bourkii, gould. grass-p.-- e. elegans, gould. orange-bellied p.-- e. chrysogastra, lath. orange-throated p.-- e. splendida, gould. red-shouldered p.-- e. pulchella, shaw. warbling grass-p.-- gould's name for budgerigar (q.v.). see also rock-parrakeet (euphema petrophila, gould), which is sometimes classed as a grass-parrakeet. grass-tree, n. ( ) the name applied to trees of the genus xanthorrhoea, n.o. liliaceae, of which thirteen species are known in australia. see also richea. ( ) in new zealand pseudopanax crassifolium, seemann, n.o. araleaceae. when young, this is the same as umbrella-tree, so called from its appearance like the ribs of an umbrella. when older, it grows more straight and is called lancewood (q.v.). ( ) in tasmania, besides two species of xanthorrhoea the grass-tree of the mainland, the richea dracophylla, r. br., n.o. epacrideae, found on mount wellington, near hobart, is also known by that name, whilst the richea pandanifolia, hook., found in the south-west forests, is called the giant grass-tree. both these are peculiar to the island. ( ) an obsolete name for cordyline australis, hook., n.o. liliaceae, now more usually called cabbage- tree (q.v.). . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "a grass tree grows here, similar in every respect to that about port jackson." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "yielding frequently a very weak and sour kind of grass, interspersed with a species of bulrush called grass-trees, which are universal signs of poverty.": . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol ii. c. iii. p. : "the grass-tree is not found westward of the mountains." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. ii. p. : "we approached a range of barren hills of clay slate, on which grew the grass-tree (xanthorhoea) and stunted eucalypti." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the shimmering sunlight fell and kissed the grass-tree's golden sheaves." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "here and there, in moist places, arises isolated the `grass-tree' or `cabbage-tree' (ti of the natives; cordyline australis)." . garnet walch, `head over heels,' p. : "the grass-trees in front, blame my eyes, seemed like plumes on the top of a hearse." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "how strikingly different the external features of plants may be, though floral structure may draw them into congruity, is well demonstrated by our so-called grass-trees, which pertain truly to the liliaceous order. these scientifically defined as xanthorhoeas from the exudation of yellowish sap, which indurates into resinous masses, have all the essential notes of the order, so far as structure of flowers and fruits is concerned, but their palm-like habit, together with cylindric spikes on long and simple stalks, is quite peculiar, and impresses on landscapes, when these plants in masses are occuring, a singular feature." . a. r. wallace, `australasia' (ed. ), p. : "the grass trees (xanthorrhoea) are a peculiar feature to the australian landscape. from a rugged stem, varying from two to ten or twelve feet in height, springs a tuft of drooping wiry foliage, from the centre of which rises a spike not unlike a huge bulrush. when it flowers in winter, this spike becomes covered with white stars, and a heath covered with grass trees then has an appearance at once singular and beautiful." . a. tolmer, `reminiscences,' vol, ii. p. : "the root of the grass-tree is pleasant enough to eat, and tastes something like the meat of the almond-tree; but being unaccustomed to the kind of fare, and probably owing to the empty state of our stomachs, we suffered severely from diarrhoea." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "grass-trees are most comical-looking objects. they have a black bare stem, from one to eight feet high, surmounted by a tuft of half rushes and half grass, out of which, again, grows a long thing exactly like a huge bullrush. a lot of them always grow together, and a little way off they are not unlike the illustrations of red-indian chiefs in fenimore cooper's novels." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "it [pseudopanax crassifolium, the horoeka] is commonly called lance-wood by the settlers in the north island, and grass-tree by those in the south. this species was discovered during cook's first voyage, and it need cause no surprise to learn that the remarkable difference between the young and mature states led so able a botanist as dr. solander to consider them distinct plants." . baldwin spencer. `horne expedition in central australia,' narrative, p. : "as soon as the came upon the plains we found ourselves in a belt of grass trees belonging to a species not hitherto described (x. thorntoni). . . . the larger specimens have a stem some five or six feet high, with a crown of long wiry leaves and a flowering stalk, the top of which is fully twelve feet above the ground." [compare blackboy and maori-head. grayling, n. the australian fish of that name is prototroctes maroena, gunth. it is called also the fresh-water herring, yarra herring (in melbourne), cucumber-fish, and cucumber-mullet. the last two names are given to it from its smell. it closely resembles the english grayling. . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "these must be the long-looked-for cucumber mullet, or fresh- water herring. . . . `the cucumber mullet,' i explain, `i have long suspected to be a grayling.'" . rev._i. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "though not a fish of new south wales, it may be as well to mention here the australian grayling, which in character, habits, and the manner of its capture is almost identical with the english fish of that name. in shape there is some difference between the two fish. . . . a newly caught fish smells exactly like a dish of fresh-sliced cucumber. it is widely distributed in victoria, and very abundant in all the fresh-water streams of tasmania. . . . in melbourne it goes by the name of the yarra herring. there is another species in new zealand." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "the river abounds in delicious grayling or cucumber fish, rather absurdly designated the `herring' in this [deloraine] and some other parts of the colony [tasmania]." grebe, n. common english bird-name, of the genus podiceps. the species known in australia are-- black-throated grebe-- podiceps novae-hollandiae, gould. hoary-headed g.-- p. nestor, gould. tippet g.-- p. cristataes, linn. but buller sees no reason for separating p. cristatus from the well-known p. cristatus of europe. some of the grebes are sometimes called dabchicks (q.v.). . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "the crested grebe is generally-speaking a rare bird in both islands." greenhide, n. see quotation. greenhide is an english tannery term for the hide with the hair on before scouring. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "drivers, who walked beside their teams carrying over their shoulders a long-handled whip with thong of raw salted hide, called in the colony `greenhide.'" greenie, n. a school-boys' name for ptilotis penicillata, gould, the white-plumed honey-eater. . `the australasian,' jan. , p. , col. : "a bird smaller than the australian minah, and of a greenish yellowish hue, larger, but similar to the members of the feathered tribe known to young city `knights of the catapult' as greenies." . a. j. campbell (in `the australasian,'jan. ), p. , col. : "every schoolboy about melbourne knows what the `greenie' is--the white-plumed honey-eater (p. penicillata). the upper-surface is yellowish-grey, and the under-surface brownish in tone. the white-plumed honey-eater is common in victoria, where it appears to be one of the few native birds that is not driven back by civilisation. in fact, its numbers have increased in the parks and gardens in the vicinity of melbourne." green-leek, n. an australian parrakeet. see quotation. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "polytelis barrabandi, wagl., barraband's parrakeet; green-leek of the colonists of new south wales." . r. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "we observed m the hollow trees several nests of the little green paroquet,--here, from its colour, called the leek." green lizard, n. sometimes called the spotted green lizard, a new zealand reptile, naultinus elegans, gray. green oyster, n. name given in queensland to the sea-weed ulva lactuca, linn., n.o. algae. from being frequently found attached to oysters, this is sometimes called "green oyster." (bailey.) see oyster. greenstone, n. popular name of nephrite (q.v.). maori name, pounamu (q.v.). . a.s. thomson, `story of new zealand,' p. : "the greenstone composing these implements of war is called nephrite by mineralogists, and is found in the middle island of new zealand, in the hartz, corsica, china and egypt. the most valuable kind is clear as glass with a slight green tinge." . dr. hocken, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "this valued stone--pounamu of the natives--nephrite, is found on the west coast of the south island. indeed, on captain cook's chart this island is called `t'avai poenammoo'--te wai pounamu, the water of the greenstone." . f. r. chapman, `the working of greenstone by the maoris' (new zealand institute), p. : "in the title of this paper the word `greenstone' occurs, and this word is used throughout the text. i am quite conscious that the term is not geologically or mineralogically correct; but the stone of which i am writing is known by that name throughout new zealand, and, though here as elsewhere the scientific man employs that word to describe a totally different class of rock, i should run the risk of being misunderstood were i to use any other word for what is under that name an article of commerce and manufacture in new zealand. it is called `pounamu' or `poenamu' by the maoris, and `jade,' `jadeite,' or `nephrite' by various writers, while old books refer to the `green talc' of the maoris." green-tops, n. tasmanian name for the orchid, pterostylis pedunculata, r. br. green-tree ant, n. common queensland ant. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "it was at the lower part of the lynd that we first saw the green-tree ant; which seemed to live in small societies in rude nests between the green leaves of shady trees." green tree-snake, n. see under snake. grevillea, n. a large genus of trees of australia and tasmania, n.o. proteaceae, named in honour of the right hon. charles francis greville, vice-president of the royal society of london. the name was given by robert brown in . the `century' dictionary gives professor greville as the origin of the name but "professor robert k. greville of edinburgh was born on the th dec., , he was therefore only just fourteen years old when the genus grevillea was established." (`private letter from baron f. von mueller.') . `quarterly review,' dec., p. : "whether dryandra, grevillea, hakea, or the other proteaceae, all may take part in the same glee-- "it was a shrub of orders grey stretched forth to show his leaves." . cassell's `picturesque australasia, vol. iii. p. : "graceful grevilleas, which in the spring are gorgeous with orange-coloured blossoms." grey-jumper, n. name given to an australian genus of sparrow-like birds, of which the only species is struthidea cinerea, gould; also called brachystoma and brachyporus. grey nurse, n. a new south wales name for a species of shark, odontaspis americanus, mitchell, family lamnidae, which is not confined to australasia. gridironing, vgrinder, n. see razor-grinder and dishwasher. groper, n. a fish. in queensland, oligorus terrae-reginae, ramsay; in new zealand, o. gigas, "called by the maoris and colonists `hapuku,'" (guenther)--a large marine species. oligorus is a genus of the family percidae, and the murray-cod (q.v.) and murray perch (q.v.) belong to it. there is a fish called the grouper or groper of warm seas quite distinct from this one. see cod, perch, blue-groper and hapuku. ground-berry, i.q. cranberry (q.v.).: ground-bird, n. name given in australia to any bird of the genus cinclosoma. the species are-- chestnut-backed ground-bird-- cinclosoma castaneonotum, gould. chestnut-breasted g.-b.-- c. castaneothorax, gould. cinnamon g.-b.-- c. cinnamomeum, gould. northern, or black-vented g.-b.-- c. marginatum, sharpe. spotted g.-b.-- c. punctatum, lath., called by gould ground-dove (q.v.). ground-dove, n. ( ) tasmanian name for the spotted ground-bird (q.v.). . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "cinclosoma punctatum, vig. and horsf., spotted ground-thrush. in hobart town it is frequently exposed for sale in the markets with bronze-wing pigeons and wattle-birds, where it is known by the name of ground-dove . . . very delicate eating." ( ) the name is given by gould to three species of geopelia. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pls. , , : "geopelia humeralis, barred-shouldered ground-dove" (pl. ); "g. tranquilla" (pl. ); "g. cuneata, graceful ground-dove" (pl. ). ground-lark, n. ( ) in new zealand, a bird also called by the maori names, pihoihoi and hioi. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "anthus novae zelandiae, gray, new zealand pipit; ground-lark of the colonists." ( ) in australia, the australian pipit (anthus australis) is also called a ground-lark. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "anthus australis, vig. and horsf., australian pipit. the pipits, like many other of the australian birds, are exceedingly perplexing." ground-parrakeet, n. see parrakeet and pezoporus. ground-parrot, n. ( ) the bird psittacus pulchellus, shaw. for the ground parrot of new zealand, see kakapo. . g. shaw, `zoology [and botany] of new holland,' p. : "long-tailed green parrot, spotted with black and yellow,. . . the ground parrot." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "the settlers call it ground-parrot. it feeds upon the ground." ibid. p. : "what is called the ground-parrot at sydney inhabits the scrub in that neighbourhood." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the ground-parrot, green, with mottlings of gold and black, rose like a partridge from the heather, and flew low." ( ) slang name for a small farmer. see cockatoo, n. ( ). ground-thrush, n. name of birds found all over the world. the australian species are-- geocincla lunulata, lath. broadbent ground-thrush-- g. cuneata. large-billed g.-- g. macrorhyncha, gould. russet-tailed g.-- g. heinii, cab. grub, v. to clear (ground) of the roots. to grub has long been english for to dig up by the roots. it is australian to apply the word not to the tree but to the land. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "employed with others in `grubbing' a piece of new land which was heavily timbered." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian memory of ,' p. : "a bit of land all grubbed and clear'd too." guana, or guano, n. i.q. goanna (q.v.). guard-fish, n. erroneous spelling of garfish (q.v.). gudgeon, n. the name is given in new south wales to the fish eleotris coxii, krefft, of the family of the gobies. guitar plant, a tasmanian shrub, lomatia tinctoria, r. br., n.o. proteaceae. gull, n. common english name for a sea-bird. the australian species are-- long-billed gull-- larus longirostris, masters. pacific g.-- l. pacificus, lath. silver g.-- l. novae-hollandiae, steph. torres-straits g.-- l. gouldi, bp. gully, n. a narrow valley. the word is very common in australia, and is frequently used as a place name. it is not, however, australian. dr.skeat (`etymological dictionary') says, "a channel worn by water." curiously enough, his first quotation is from `capt. cook's third voyage,' b. iv. c. . skeat adds, "formerly written gullet: `it meeteth afterward with another gullet,' i.e. small stream. holinshed, `description of britain,' c. : f. goulet, `a gullet . . . a narrow brook or deep gutter of water.' (cotgrave.) thus the word is the same as gullet." f. goulet is from latin gula. gulch is the word used in the pacific states, especially in california. . `hawkesworth's voyages,' vol. iii. p. --captain cook's first voyage, may , : "the deep gullies, which were worn by torrents from the hills." . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "a man, in crossing a gully between sydney and parramatta, was, in attempting to ford it, carried away by the violence of the torrent, and drowned." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the gums in the gully stand gloomy and stark." . a.l. gordon, `sea-spray, etc.,' p. : "the gullies are deep and the uplands are steep." . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "the terrible blasts that rushed down the narrow gully, as if through a funnel." gully-raker, n. a long whip. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "the driver appealing occasionally to some bullock or other by name, following up his admonition by a sweeping cut of his `gully-raker,' and a report like a musket-shot." gum, or gum-tree, n. the popular name for any tree of the various species of eucalyptus. the word gum is also used in its ordinary english sense of exuded sap of certain trees and shrubs, as e.g. wattle-gum (q.v.) in australia, and kauri-gum (q.v.) in new zealand. in america, the gum-tree usually means "the liquidambar styraciflua, favourite haunt of the opossum and the racoon, whence the proverbial possum up a gum-tree." (`current americanisms,' s.v. gum) the names of the various australian gum-trees are as follows-- apple gum, or apple-scented gum-- eucalyptus stuartiana, f. v. m. bastard g.-- eucalyptus gunnii, hook. bastard blue g.-- e. leucoxylon, f. v. m. (south australia). bastard white g.-- e. gunnii, hook. (south australia); e. radiata (tasmania). black g.-- e. stellulata, sieb. black-butted g.-- e. pillularis, smith (victoria); e. regnans, f. v. m. (new south wales). see blackbutt. blue g. [see also blue-gum] e. botryoides, smith (new south wales); e. diversicolor, f. v. m. [karri]; e. globulus, labill.; e. goniocalyx, f. v. m.; e. leucoxylon, f. v. m. (south australia) [ironbark]; e. saligna, smith; e. tereticornis, smith; e. viminalis, labill. (west new south wales). botany bay g,-- e. resinifera, smith. brittle g.-- e. haemastonza, smith; e. micrantha, smith. brown g.-- e. robusta, smith. cabbage g.-- e. sieberiana, f. v. m. (braidwood, new south wales). cider g.-- e. gunnii, hook. (tasmania). citron-scented g.-- e. maculata, hook. creek g.-- e. rostrata, schlecht (west new south wales). curly white g.-- e. radiata (tasmania). dark red g.-- e. rostrata, schlecht. desert g.-- e. eudesmoides, f. v. m. (central australia); e. gracilis, f. v. m. drooping g.-- e. pauciflora, sieb. (drooping gum in tasmania is e. risdoni, hook., n.o. myrtaceae; the tree is peculiar to tasmania); e. viminalis, labill. (new south wales). flood, or flooded g.-- e. gunnii, hook. (bombala, new south wales); e. microtheca, f. v. m. (carpentaria and central australia); e. rostrata, schlecht; e. saligna, smith; e. tereticornis, smith (new south wales). fluted g.- e. salubris, f. v. m. forest g.-- e. rostrata, schlecht (south australia). giant g.-- e. amygdalina, labill. gimlet g.-- e. salubris, f. v. m. green g.-- e. stellulata, sieb. (east gippsland). grey g.-- e. crebra, f. v. m.; e. goniocalyx, f. v. m. (new south wales, east of dividing range); e. punctata, de c. (south coast of new south wales); e. raveretiana, f.v.m; e. resinifera, smith; e. saligna, smith (new south wales); e. tereticornis, smith (new south wales); e. viminalis, labill (sydney); honey-scented g.-- e. melliodora, cunn. iron g.-- e. raveretiana, f. v. m. lemon-scented, or lemon g.-- e. citriodora, hook. f. lead g.-- e. stellulata, cunn. mallee g.-- e. dumosa (generally called simply mallee, q.v.). mountain g.-- e. tereticornis, smith (south new south wales). mountain white g.-- e. pauciflora, sieb. (blue mountains). nankeen g.-- e. populifolia, hook. (northern australia). olive green g.-- e. stellulata, cunn. (leichhardt's name). pale red g.-- e. rostrata, schlecht. peppermint g.-- e. viminalis, labill. poplar-leaved g.-- e. polyanthema, schau. red g.-- e. amygdalina, labill. (victoria); e. calophylla, r. br.; e. gunnii, hook. (bombala); e. melliodora, cunn. (victoria); e. odorata, behr (south australia); e. punctata, de c.; e. resinifera, smith; e. rostrata, schlecht; e. stuartiana, f. v. m. (tasmania); e. tereticornis, smith (new south wales). ribbon g.-- e. amygdalina, labill. ribbony g. e. viminalis, labill. risdon g.-- e. amygdalina, labill. river g.-- e. rostrata, schlecht (new south wales, queensland, and central australia). river white g.-- e. radiata. rough-barked, or rough g.-- e. botryoides, smith (illawarra). rusty g.-- e. eximia, schau. scribbly g.-- e. haemastoma, smith. scribbly blue g.-- e. leucoxylon, f. v. m. (south australia). scrub g.-- e. cosmophylla, f. v. m. slaty g.-- e. saligna, smith (new south wales); e. tereticornis, smith (new south wales and queensland); e. largiflorens, f. v. m. spotted g.-- e. capitellata, smith (new england); e. goniocalyx, f. v. m.; e. haemastonza, smith; e. maculata, hook. sugar g.-- e. corynocalyx, f. v. m.; e. gunnii, hook. swamp g.-- e. gunnii, hook.; e. microtheca, f. v. m.; e. pauciflora, sieb.; e. viminalis, labill. (tasmania). weeping g.-- e. pauciflora, sieb. (tasmania); e. viminalis, labill. (new south wales). white g.-- e. amygdalina, labill.; e. gomphocephala, de c. (western australia); e. goniocalyx, f. v. m. ; e. haemastoma, smith; e. hemiphloia, f. v. m. (sydney); e. leucoxylon, f. v. m. (south australia); e. pauciflora, sieb.; e. populifolia, hook. (queensland); e. radiata (new south wales); e. redunca, schau. (western australia); e. robusta, schlecht. (south australia); e. saligna, smith (new south wales); e. stellulata, cunn.; e. stuartiana, f. v. m. (victoria); e. viminalis, labill. white swamp g.-- e. gunnii, hook. (south australia). yellow g.-- e. punctata, de c. york g.-- e. foecunda, schau. (western australia). this list has been compiled by collating many authorities. but the following note on eucalyptus amygdalina (from maiden's `useful native plants,' p. ) will illustrate the difficulty of assigning the vernacular names with absolute accuracy to the multitudinous species of eucalyptus-- "eucalyptus amygdalina, labill., syn. e. fissilis, f. v. m.; e. radiata, sieb.; e. elata, dehn.; e. tenuiramis, miq.; e. nitida, hook, f.; e. longifolia, lindl. ; e. lindleyana, dc.; and perhaps e. risdoni, hook, f.; e. dives, schauer.--this eucalypt has even more vernacular names than botanical synonyms. it is one of the `peppermint trees' (and variously `narrow-leaved peppermint,' `brown peppermint,' `white peppermint,' and sometimes `dandenong peppermint'), and `mountain ashes' of the dandenong ranges of victoria, and also of tasmania and southern new south wales. it is also called `giant gum' and `white gum.' in victoria it is one of the `red gums.' it is one of the new south wales `stringybarks,' and a `manna gum.' because it is allied to, or associated with, `stringybark,' it is also known by the name of `messmate.' . . . a variety of this gum (e. radiata) is called in new south wales `white gum' or `river white gum.' . . . a variety of e. amygdalina growing in the south coast district of new south wales, goes by the name of `ribbon gum,' in allusion to the very thin, easily detachable, smooth bark. this is also e. radiata probably. a further new south wales variety goes by the name of `cut-tail' in the braidwood district. the author has been unable to ascertain the meaning of this absurd designation. these varieties are, several of them, quite different in leaves, bark, and timber, and there is no species better than the present one to illustrate the danger in attempting to fit botanical names on eucalypts when only the vernacular names are known." various other trees not of the genus eucalyptus are also sometimes popularly called gums, such as, for instance-- broad-leaved water gum-- tristania suavolens, smith. orange g.-- angophora lanceolata, cave. water g.-- callistemon lanceolatus, dec. tristania laurina, r. br. t. neriifolia, r. br. and others. in addition to this, poets and descriptive writers sometimes apply epithets, chiefly denoting colour or other outward appearance, which are not names of distinct species, such as cinnamon, morrell, salmon, cable, silver, etc. [see quotation under silver gum.] . abel tasman, `journal of the voyage to the unknown southland' (translation by j. b. walker in `abel j. tasman: his life, etc.' ) [under date dec. , , after describing the trees at fredrik hendrik's bay (now blackman's bay, forestier's peninsula, tasmania) to / fathoms thick, to feet to the first branch, and with steps feet apart cut in them, tasman says that they found] "a little gum, fine in appearance, which drops out of the trees, and has a resemblance to gum lac (gomma lacca)." . `captain cook's journal' (ed. wharton, ), p. : "may st.--we found two sorts of gum, one sort of which is like gum dragon, and is the same, i suppose, tasman took for gum lac; it is extracted from the largest tree in the woods. "may th.--the biggest trees are as large or larger than our oaks in england, and grow a good deal like them, and yield a reddish gum; the wood itself is heavy, hard, and black like lignum vitae." . governor phillip (despatch, may ) in `historical records of new south wales', vol. i. pt. ii. p. : "what seeds could be collected are sent to sir joseph banks, as likewise the red gum taken from the large gum-tree by tapping, and the yellow gum which is found on the dwarf palm-tree." . captain watkin tench, `narrative of the expedition to botany bay,' p. : "the species of trees are few, and . . . the wood universally of so bad a grain, as almost to preclude the possibility of using it. . . . these trees yield a profusion of thick red gum (not unlike the sanguis draconis)." . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the red gum-tree, eucalyptus resinifera. this is a very large and lofty tree, much exceeding the english oak in size." . governor hunter, `voyage,' p. : "i have likewise seen trees bearing three different kinds of leaves, and frequently have found others, bearing the leaf of the gum-tree, with the gum exuding from it, and covered with bark of a very different kind." . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : "full-sized gums and iron barks, alongside of which the loftiest trees in this country would appear as pigmies, with the beefwood tree, or, as it is generally termed, the forest oak, which is of much humbler growth, are the usual timber." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the gum-trees are so designated as a body from producing a gummy resinous matter, while the peculiarities of the bark usually fix the particular names of the species--thus the blue, spotted, black-butted, and woolly gums are so nominated from the corresponding appearance of their respective barks; the red and white gums, from their wood; and the flooded gums from growing in flooded land." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iii. p. : "the silvery stems of the never-failing gum-trees." . h. parkes, `murmurs of stream,' p. : "where now the hermit gum-tree stands on the plain's heart." . j. s. moore, `spring life lyrics,' p. : "amid grand old gums, dark cedars and pines." . a.trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. xiii. p. : "the eternal gum-tree has become to me an australian crest, giving evidence of australian ugliness. the gum-tree is ubiquitous, and is not the loveliest, though neither is it by any means the ugliest, of trees." . f. v. muller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the vernacular name of gum-trees for the eucalypts is as unaptly given as that of most others of our native plants, on which popular appellations have been bestowed. indeed our wattles might far more appropriately be called gum-trees than the eucalypts, because the former exude a real gum (in the chemical meaning of the word); whereas the main exudation from the stems and branches of all eucalypts hardens to a kino-like substance, contains a large proportion of a particular tannin (kino-tannic acid), and is to a great extent or entirely soluble in alcohol, thus very different from genuine gum." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "golden, 'mid a sunlit forest, stood the grand titanic forms of the conquerors of storms; stood the gums, as if inspired, every branch and leaflet fired with the glory of the sun, in golden robes attired, a grand priesthood of the sun." . p. beveridge, `aborigines of victoria and riverina,' p. : "nearly all the eucalyptus species exude gum, which the natives utilise in the fabrication of their various weapons as europeans do glue. the myall and mimosa also exude gum; these the natives prefer before all other kinds when obtainable, they being less brittle and more adhesive than any of the others." i . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "this is an exact representation of the camps which were scattered over the country not more than fifty years ago, and inhabited by the original lords of the soil. the beautiful she-oak and red-gum forest that used to clothe the slopes of royal park was a very favourite camping-ground of theirs, as the gum-tree was their most regular source of food supply. the hollows of this tree contained the sleek and sleepy opossum, waiting to be dragged forth to the light of day and despatched by a blow on the head. it was to the honey-laden blossoms of this tree that the noisy cockatoos and parrots used to flock. let the kangaroo be wary and waterfowl shy, but whilst he had his beloved gum-tree, little cared the light-hearted black." . `the times,' [reprint] `letters from queensland,' p. : "the immense extent of gum-trees stretches indefinitely, blotting out the conception of anything but its own lightly-timbered pasture. it has not even the gloom and impressiveness which we associate in england with the name of forest land, for the trees are thinly scattered, their long leaves hang vertically from the branches, and sunlight filters through with sufficient force to promote the growth of the tussocked grass beneath. the whole would be indescribably commonplace, but that the vastness becomes at last by its own force impressive." the following quotations illustrate special uses of the word in composition. apple gum-- . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "on the small flats the apple-gum grew." ibid. c. viii. p. : "another eucalyptus with a scaly butt . . . but with smooth upper trunk and cordate ovate leaves, which was also new to me; we called it the apple-gum." blue gum-- . d.collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the blue gum, she-oak, and cherry-tree of port jackson were common here." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' p. : "the blue gum is found in greater abundance; it is a loose-grained heavy wood." . james mitchell, `proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' p. : "the name blue gum appears to have been derived from the bluish gray colour of the whole plant in the earliest stages of its growth, which is occasioned by a covering of dust or bloom similar to that upon the sloe or damson." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "i love to see the blue gums stand majestically tall; the giants of our southern woods, the loftiest of all." black-butted gum-- . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. ii. c. viii. p. : "one species . . . resembling strongly the black-butted gum." cable gum-- . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "cable-gum . . . like several stems twisted together, abundant in interior." cider gum (or cider tree)-- . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "that species of eucalyptus called the cider tree, from its exuding a quantity of saccharine liquid resembling molasses. streaks of it were to be seen dripping down the bark in various parts, which we tasted, and found very palatable. the natives have a method at the proper season of grinding holes in the tree, from which the sweet juice flows plentifully, and is collected in a hole at the root. we saw some of these covered up with a flat stone, doubtless to prevent the wild animals from coming to drink it. when allowed to remain some time, and to ferment, it settles into a coarse sort of wine or cider, rather intoxicating." cinnamon gum-- . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "a forest only fit for urban gnomes these twisted trunks. here are no straight and lofty trees, but sprawling cinnamon gums, their skin an unpleasing livid red, pock-marked; saplings in white and chilly grey, bleeding gum in ruddy stains, and fire-black boles and stumps to throw the greenery into bright relief." drooping gum-- . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. xii. p. : "the trees, which grew only in the valleys, were small kinds of banksia, wattles and drooping gums." flooded gum-- . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "large flooded gum-trees (but no casuarinas) at the low banks of the lagoons." lemon-scented gum-- . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "among the eucalypti or gum-trees growing in new south wales, a species named the lemon-scented gum-tree, eucalyptus citriodora, is peculiar to the wide bay district, in the northern part of the colony." mountain gum-- . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. iii, p. : "the cypresses became mixed with casuarina, box and mountain-gum." red gum [see also red-gum]-- . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. xi. p. : "the red gum-tree. this is a very large and lofty tree, much exceeding the english oak in size." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "red gum, a wood which has of late years been exported to england in great quantities; it has all the properties of mahogany." . w. carleton, `australian nights,' p. : "while she, the younger, went to fill her red-gum pitcher at the rill." . j. o. tucker, `the mute,' etc., p. : "then the dark savage `neath the red gum's shade told o'er his deeds." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. i "those of the leaden hue are red gums." rough gum-- . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. iii. p. : "the rough-gum abounded near the creek." rusty gum-- . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the range was openly timbered with white gum, spotted gum, iron-bark, rusty gum and the cypress pine." salmon gum-- . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "the chief descriptions are salmon, morrel and white gums, and gimlet-wood. the bark of the salmon gum approaches in colour to a rich golden brown, but the satin-like sheen on it has the effect of making it several shades lighter, and in the full glare of the sun it is sufficiently near a rich salmon tint to justify its name." silver gum-- . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "when so many of our australian trees were named `gums,' a distinguishing prefix for each variety was clearly necessary, and so the words red, blue, yellow, white and scarlet, as marking some particular trait in the tree, have come into everyday use. had the pioneer bush botanist seen at least one of those trees at a certain stage in its growth, the term `silver gum' would have found expression." spotted gum-- . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "ironbark ridges here and there with spotted gum . . . diversified the sameness." swamp gum-- . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. ii, p. [james mitchell, on the strength of timber, etc., read nov. , ]: "the swamp gum grows to the largest size of any of this family in van diemen's land. its growth is nearly twice as rapid as that of the blue gum: the annular layers are sometimes very large; but the bark, and the whole tree indeed, is so like the blue gum, as not to be easily distinguished from it in outward appearance. it grows best in moist places, which may probably have given rise to its name. some extraordinary dimensions have been recorded of trees of this species. i lately measured an apparently sound one, and found it feet in circumference at feet from the ground and feet to the first branches. another was / feet in circumference at feet from the ground, and feet to the highest branch or extreme top. a third reached the height of feet to the highest branch: but i am told that these are pigmies compared to the giants of even the blue gum species found in the southern districts." . garnet watch, `victoria in ,' p. : "groups of native trees, including the black wattle, silver box, messmate, stringy bark, and the picturesque but less useful swamp gum." water gum-- . l. leichhhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "long hollows surrounded with drooping tea-trees and the white watergums." weeping gum-- . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "a kind of eucalyptus, with long drooping leaves, called the `weeping gum,' is the most elegant of the family." white gum-- . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p, : "the natives tell me that it [the ground-parrot] chiefly breeds in a stump of a small white gum-tree." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the range was openly timbered with white gum." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "e. leucoxylon, f. v. m. the `blue or white gum' of south australia and victoria is a gum-tree with smooth bark and light-coloured wood (hence the specific name). the flowers and fruit of e. leucoxylon are very similar to those of e. sideroxylon, and in this way two trees have been placed under one name which are really quite distinct. baron mueller points out that there are two well-marked varieties of e. leucoxylon in victoria. that known as `white-gum' has the greater portion of the stem pale and smooth through the outer layers of the bark falling off. the variety known chiefly as the `victorian ironbark,' retains the whole bark on the stem, thus becoming deeply fissured and furrowed, and very hard and dark coloured." yellow gum-- . t. l. mitchell, `tropical australia,' p. : "we this day passed a small group of trees of the yellow gum, a species of eucalyptus growing only on the poor sandy soil near botany bay, and other parts of the sea-coast near sydney." york gum-- . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "york gum . . . abundant in york on good soil." gum- (in composition). see gum. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "i said to myself in the gum-shadowed glen." . w. l. carleton, `australian nights,' p. : "to see the gum-log flaming bright its welcome beacon through the night." . `the argus,' august , p. , col. : "make a bit of a shelter also. you can always do it with easily-got gum-boughs." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "the edge of the long, black, gum-shrouded lagoon." gummy, n. name given to a shark of victorian and tasmanian waters, mustelus antarcticus, gunth., and called hound (q.v.) in new south wales, victoria, and new zealand. the word gummy is said to come from the small numerous teeth, arranged like a pavement, so different from the sharp erect teeth of most other sharks. the word hound is the old world name for all the species of the genus mustelus. this fish, says hutton, is much eaten by the maoris. gum-sucker, n. slang for victorian-born, not now much used; but it is not always limited to victorians. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the acacias are the common wattles of this country; from their trunks and branches clear transparent beads of the purest arabian gum are seen suspended in the dry spring weather, which our young currency bantlings eagerly search after and regale themselves with." [the practice of `gum-sucking' is here noticed, though the word does not occur.] . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "if he had not been too 'cute to be bitten twice by the over-'cute `gumsuckers,' as the native victorians are called." . `quiz `(adelaide), dec. : "quiz will take good care that the innocent australians are not fooled without a warning. really l. and his accomplices must look upon gumsuckers as being pretty soft." gunyah, n. aboriginal name for a black-fellow's hut, roughly constructed of boughs and bark; applied also to other forms of shelter. the spelling varies greatly: in col. mundy's book ( ) there are no fewer than four forms. see humpy and gibber. what leichhardt saw (see quotation ) was very remarkable. . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' in an aboriginal vocabulary of port jackson, p. : "go-nie--a hut." . r.dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "one of their gunyers (bark huts)." ibid. p. : "a native encampment, consisting of eight or ten `gunyers.' this is the native term for small huts, which are supported by three forked sticks (about three feet long) brought together at the top in a triangular form: the two sides towards the wind are covered by long sheets of bark, the third is always left open to the wind." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. : "we observed a fresh-made gunneah (or native hut)." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' c. ii. p. : "three huts, or gunyahs, consisted of a few green boughs, which had just been put up for shelter from the rain then falling." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "their only habitation . . . is formed by two sheets of bark stripped from the nearest tree, at the first appearance of a storm, and joined together at an angle of degrees. this, which they call a gunnya, is cut up for firewood when the storm has passed." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "behind appears a large piece of wood hooded like a `gunnya' or `umpee.'" . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we saw a very interesting camping place of the natives, containing several two-storied gunyas." . `settlers and convicts; or, recollections of sixteen years' labour in the australian backwoods,' p. : "i coincided in his opinion that it would be best for us to camp for the night in one of the ghibber-gunyahs. these are the hollows under overhanging rocks." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' ed. , p. : "a sloping sheet of bark turned from the wind--in bush lingo, a break-weather--or in guneeahs of boughs thatched with grass." [p. ]: "guneah." [p. ]: "gunneah." [p. ]: "gunyah." . g.bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. [footnote]: "the name given by the natives to the burrow or habitation of any animals is `guniar,' and the same word is applied to our houses." . p. j. holdsworth, `station, hunting': "hunger clung beneath the bough-piled gunyah." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the sleepy blacks came out of their gunyahs." [p. ]: "a gunya of branches." . lyth, `golden south,' c. ii. p. : "where this beautiful building now stands, there were only the gunyahs or homes of the poor savages." . a. j. vogan, `black police,' p. : "one of the gunyahs on the hill. . . . the hut, which is exactly like all the others in the group,--and for the matter of that all within two or three hundred miles,--is built of sticks, which have been stuck into the ground at the radius of a common centre, and then bent over so as to form an egg-shaped cage, which is substantially thatched on top and sides with herbage and mud." gunyang, n. the aboriginal word for the kangaroo apple (q.v.), though the name is more strictly applied not to solanum aviculare, but to s. vescum. . f. von muller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the similarity of both [s. vescum and s. aviculare] to each other forbids to recommend the fruit of the gunyang as edible." . w. r. guilfoyle, `australian botany,' p. : "kangaroo apple, solanum aviculare. . . . the gunyang (solanum vescum) is another variety found in victoria." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "a couple of tiny streams trickle across the plains to the sea, a dwarfed ti-tree, clinging low about the ground, like the gunyang or kangaroo apple, borders the banks." gurnard, n. i.q. gurnet (q.v.). gurnet, n. the species of trigla found in british waters, called gurnards are of the family of cottidae. the word gurnet is an obsolete or provincial form of gurnard, revived in australia, and applied to the fish centropogon scorpoenoides, guich., family scorpoenidae. the original word gurnard is retained in new zealand, and applied to the new species trigla kumu (kumu being the maori name), family cottidae. the flying gurnet is trigla polyommata, richards., found on all the australian coasts from new south wales to western australia, family cottidae. it is a distinct species, not included in the british species. they have large pectoral fins, but are not known to possess the power of supporting themselves in the air like the "flying fish" which belong to other genera. sir fredk. mccoy says that sebastes percoides, richards., is called gurnet, or garnet-perch, by the fishermen and dealers, as well as the more common neosebastes scorpoenoides, guich., and scorpoena panda, richards. gutter, n. in australian goldmining, "the lower and auriferous part of the channel of an old river of the tertiary period " (`century'). "the lowest portion of a lead. a gutter is filled with auriferous drift or washdirt, which rests on the palaeozoic bed-rock." (brough smyth, `glossary of mining terms.') . j. rogers, `new rush,' p. : "duffers are so common and golden gutters rare." . j. j. simpson, `recitations,' p. : "privations and hardships you all have to suffer ere you can expect to get on to the gutter." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. viii. p. : "if we happened to drop right down on the `gutter' or main course of the lead, we were all right." . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "the company . . . are putting in a drive to strike the old shakspeare gutter." . `the australasian,' nov. , p. : "evidently both claims had been driving for a `gutter.' one of them had got to the end of its tether before reaching it." gutter-flags, n. flags fixed on the surface to denote where the course of a gutter or lead underground has been discovered." (brough smyth, `glossary of mining terms.') gweeon, n. a stone tomahawk of the aborigines. gweh-un, in mukthang language, gippsland. apparently a remnant of a term occurring along the east side of australia; burgoin, new south wales; bulgoon and balgon, burdekin river, queensland; related to balgoungo, to chop. gymnobelideus, n. the scientific name of the genus confined to australia of squirrel phalangers, or squirrel opossums, as they have been called. see opossum. the name was given by sir frederick mccoy in . only two specimens have been found, and they are in the melbourne museum of natural history. there is only one species, g. leadbeateri, m'coy. in general form they resemble the so-called australian flying squirrel (q.v.), save for the absence of the parachute. they have large naked ears. (grk. gymnos, naked, and latin, belideus, the flying-phalanger or squirrel.) gymnorrhina, n. the scientific name of the australian genus of piping crow-shrikes, called locally by the vernacular name of magpies (q.v.). they have the nostrils and beak unfeathered. (grk. gymnos, naked, and rhis, nose.) for the species see under magpie. h haddock, n. the new zealand haddock is gadus australis, hutton, pseudophycis barbatus, gunth., and merlucius gayi, guich., or australis, hutton, all belonging to the family gadidae or cod-fishes. the european species of merlucius is known as the "hake." haeremai, interj. maori term of welcome, lit. come hither; haere is the verb. it has been colloquially adopted. . j. hawkesworth, `voyages,' vol. iii. p. (ed. ): "when they came near enough to be heard, they waved their hands, and called out `horomai.' these ceremonies we were told were certain signs of their friendly disposition." . `henry williams' journal,' in h. carleton's `life of henry williams,' p. : "after breakfast we went to them all; they were very glad to see us, and gave us the usual welcome, `haeremai! haeremai!'" . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' p. : "as i ascended the steep hill with my train, scarcely any greeting was addressed to me, no shouts of haeremai, so universal a welcome to the stranger, were to be heard." . f. e. maning (the pakeha-maori ), `old new zealand,' p. : "the boat nears the shore, and now arises from a hundred voices the call of welcome, `haere mai! haere mai! hoe mai!' mats, hands, and certain ragged petticoats all waving in the air in sign of welcome. then a pause. then, as the boat came nearer, another burst of haere mai! but unaccustomed as i was then to the maori salute, i disliked the sound. there was a wailing, melancholy cadence that did not strike me as being the appropriate note of welcome." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' (english edition) p. : "rev. mr. chapman received me at his garden gate with a hearty welcome, the natives shouted their friendly `haeremai,' and ere long we were all in comfortable shelter beneath the missionary's roof." . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "haire mai ho! 'tis the welcome song rings far on the summer air." hair-trigger, n. a tasmanian name for any plant of genus stylidium. called also trigger-plant, and jack in a box (q.v.). . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "the stylidium, or as we named it, the `hair-trigger,' is common all over the colony." haka, n. maori word for a dance. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' p. : "a haka was now performed by about one hundred and fifty men and women. they seated themselves in ranks in one of the courtyards of the pa, stripped to the waist. an old chieftainess, who moved along the ranks with regular steps, brandishing an ornamental spear in time to her movements, now recited the first verse of a song in a monotonous, dirge-like measure. this was joined in by the others, who also kept time by quivering their hands and arms, nodding their heads and bending their bodies in accordance with each emphasis and pause." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' c. xvi. p. ( rd ed. ): "i witnessed a national spectacle which was new to me--a sort of incantation performed by women alone--the haka, i think it is called." . a.domett, `ranolf,' xv. c. vi. p. : "the haka-dances, where she shone supreme." . `appendix to journal of house of representatives,' g. i, b., p. : "thursday was passed by them [the natives] in feasting and hakas." . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "a rushing throng in the furious haka share." . `otago witness,' jan. , p. , col. : "he also received a visit from three or four hostile natives, who, with blood-curdling yells, duly performed the indispensable haka." hakea, n. the scientific name given, in honour of baron hake of hanover, to "a large australian genus of plants belonging to the follicular section of the proteaceae, tribe grevilleae, and distinguished from grevillea by its axillary inflorescence and samaroid seeds. the species, nearly in number [maiden's index to `useful native plants' gives sixteen], are all evergreen shrubs, or small trees, with alternate coriaceous, variously lobed, often spiny leaves. they are ornamental in cultivation, and several have acquired special names--h. ulicina, native furze; h. laurina, cushion-flower; h. acicularis (lissosperma), native pear; h. flexilis, twine-bush." (`century.') . f. v. muller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "proteaceae are more extensively still represented in victoria by the well known genera grevillea and hakea, the former dedicated to the right hon. c. f. greville, of paddington, the latter genus named in honour of baron hake, of hanover, both having been alike patrons of horticulture at the end of the last century." . `the australasian,' jan. , p. , col. : "recently, according to `nature,' mr. g. m. thomson, an eminent authority on new zealand botany, has shown that one of the genera, namely hakea, though absent at present from the islands [of new zealand], formerly existed there. plant remains were found at st. bathans, in a bed of clay, which have been identified by him as hakea. the question of the identification of fossil plants is always a difficult one, but as mr. thomson announces that he has obtained fruit capsules and leaves there can be but little doubt as to the correctness of his determinations. hitherto the genus has been regarded as australian only, and about species are known, of which no less than are west australian. it would seem then that the hakeas had obtained a footing in eastern australia before the connection with new zealand had disappeared, and that probably the genus is a far older one than had been anticipated. why, after finding its way to new zealand, it should have died out there is a question to which no answer can as yet be supplied." hand-fish, n. a tasmanian fish, brachionichthys hirsutus, lacep., family pediculati. the name is used in the northern hemisphere for a different fish, which is also called there the frog-fish and toad-fish. the name arises from a fancied resemblance of the profile of the fish to a human hand. it is also called frog-fish and tortoise-shell fish. mrs. meredith calls it tortoise-shell fish from its colour, when figuring it in `tasmanian friends and foes' under its former scientific name of cheironectes politus. the surface of its skin is hirsute with minute spines, and the lobe at the end of the detached filament of the dorsal fin--called the fintacle--hangs loose. the scientific names of the genus are derived from grk. brachiown, "the arm," and cheir, "the hand." the armlike pectoral fins are used for holding on to stones or seaweed. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' jan. , vol. i. p. : "a little spotted fish belonging to the genus chironectes . . . mr. champ writes thus respecting the frog fish:-- `it was found in the sea at port arthur by a person who was with me, and when caught had all the appearance of having four legs, from the position and shape of the fins; the two longest of which, from the sort of elbow in them, and the division into (rays) what resemble fingers, seem to form a connecting link between fins and legs or arms.'" . mrs.'meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "it has fins like feet; one small pair where pectoral fins usually are, and a larger pair, with absolute elbows to them, and apparently shoulder-blades too, only those do not belong to the fore pair of feet! a very antipodean arrangement truly! the markings on the body and on the delicate pellucid fins are like tortoise-shell." hand, old, n. one who has been a convict. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the men who have been convicts are termed `old hands'; they are mostly rude, rough men, with no moral principle or religious feeling, and who have little sympathy for humanity." . j. o. tucker, `australian story,' c. i. p. : "reformed convicts, or, in the language of their proverbial cant, `old hands.'" . f. h. nixon, `peter perfume,' p. : "`boshman' in the old-hand vernacular signifies a fiddler." ["bosh in gypsy means music and also violin." -barrere and leland.] . j. rae, `chirps by an australian sparrow,' p. : "the old hands were quite tidy too with hats of cabbage-tree." hang up, v. to tie up a horse. . w. kelly, `life in victoria,' p. [footnote]: "in melbourne there are posts sunk in the ground almost opposite every door. . . . fastening your horse to one of these posts is called `hanging him up.'" . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "we got off, hung our horses up to a tree." . e. w. hornung, `bride from the bush,' p. : "the mail-boy is waiting impatiently in the verandah, with his horse `hung up' to one of the posts." hapalote, n. anglicized form of hapalotis (grk. hapalos, soft, and 'ous, 'owtis) ear), a peculiar australian genus of rodents of the mouse family. they are called jumping mice, and have soft ears, and enlarged hind limbs like the jerboa, but are not marsupial like the kangaroo. there are many species. hapu, n. maori word for sub-tribe; sometimes even, family. . c. hursthouse, `new zealand, the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "the , semi-civilised natives now in new zealand are divided into some dozen chief tribes, and into numerous sub-tribes and `harpu.'" . `appendix to journals of house of representatives,' vol. iii. g. , p. : "were not all your hapu present when the money was paid? my hapu, through whom the land nvas claimed, were present: we filled the room." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "an important structure that engaged the united labours of the hapu." . j. white, `ancient history of the maori,' vol. i. p. : "each of which is subdivided again into hapu, or smaller communities." . rev. j. stacks, `report of australasian association for the advancement of science,' vol. iii. sect. g. p. : "on arriving in new zealand, or ao-tea-roa, the crews of the colonizing fleet dispersed themselves over the length and breadth of these islands, and formed independent tribes or nations, each of which was divided into hapus and the hapus into families." hapuku, n. maori name for a fish, oligorus gigas, gunth., called later polyprion prognathus (see quotation, ), pronounced hapuka, frequently corrupted into habuka, the groper (q.v.). it is variously called a cod, a perch and a sea-perch. see quotations. (about). `new plymouth's national song,' hursthouse's `new zealand,' p : "lowing herds on every side, hapuka in every tide." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui, p. : "hapuku, or whapuku, commonly called the cod, but a much richer fish in flavour: externally it more resembles the salmon, and is known in new holland as the dew or jew-fish. it attains a large size and is considered the best fish of new zealand." . anon., `from the black rocks on friday,' `all the year round,' may , , no. : "a kind of codfish called by the natives whapuku or hahpuka." . p. thomson, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. lii. p. : "the hapuka, or groper, was in pretty regular supply." . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "the second (oligorus gigas) is found in the sea, on the coast of new zealand, and called by the maoris and colonists `hapuku' . . . dr. hector, who has had opportunities of examining it in a fresh state, has pointed out anatomical differences from the murray cod." . w. colenso, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xiii. art. ii. p. : "a feast of good things prepared--eels, and hapuku (codfish), and taro." . w. d. hay, in the `field,' may , p. , col. : "the pakirikiri(percis colias) is the fish to which settlers in the north of new zealand generally give the name of whapuka." . `oxford english dictionary' (s.v.cod): "in new zealand, a serranoid fish polyprion prognathus, called by the maories hapuku." hardhead, n, the english sportsman's name for the ruddy duck (erismatura rubida). applied by sportsmen in australia to the white-eyed duck, nyroca australis, gould. see duck. hardwood, n. the name is applied to many australian timbers something like teak, but especially to backhousia bancroftii, f. v. m. and bailey, n.o. myrtaceae. in tasmania, it means any gum-timber (eucalyptus). it is in constant and universal use for building and fencing in australia. . candish, `whispering voices,' p. : "sitting on a block of hardwood . . . is the gray-haired forest feller." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. iii. p. : "it was a hammer-like piece of hardwood above a plate of tin." . rolf boldrewood, `sydney-side saxon,' p. : "a hardwood slab-door weighs a goodish deal, as any one may find out that has to hump it a hundred yards." hardyhead, n. name given in sydney to the fish atherina pinguis, lacep., family atherinidae. hare-kangaroo, n. a small kangaroo, resembling the british hare. called also hare-wallaby. the scientific name is lagorchestes (q.v.). . g. krefft, `mammals of australia': "the hare-kangaroos, so called from their resemblance to that well known rodent, are the fleetest of the whole tribe, and though they do not exceed a common hare in bulk, they can make clear jumps of eight and ten feet high." hare-wallaby, n. see hare-kangaroo, wallaby, and lagorchestes. harlequin-pigeon, n. formerly referred to the genus peristera, but now to the genus phaps. it is commonly called in the interior the "flock" pigeon. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "large flocks of peristera histrionica (the harlequin- pigeon) were lying on the patches of burnt grass on the plains." harmonic thrush, n. see port jackson thrush. harpagornis, n. a scientific name for a partly fossilised, huge raptorial bird of new zealand. from greek harpa? harpax robbing, and 'ornis, a bird. . a. newton, `encyclopaedia britannica,' vol. iii. p. : "there is a harpagornis, a bird of prey of stature sufficient to have made the largest dinornis its quarry." harrier, n. english bird-name (that which harries), assigned in new zealand to circus gouldii, bonap. (also called swamp-hawk), and in australia to c. assimilis, jard. and selb., or c. approximans, bonap., called spotted harrier. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "circus gouldi, bonap., new zealand harrier, or gould's harrier." hat, black, n. slang for a new immigrant. . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. xxviii. p. : "lord! if i were mr. dyson maddox, i'd never let it be said that a black hat had cut me out sweetheartin'." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. iii. p. : "a `black hat' in australian parlance means a new arrival." hat, old. see old-hat. hatter. ( ) a solitary miner--miner who works without a mate partner: sc. one who has everything under his own hat. . brough smyth, `goldfields of victoria,' p. (`glossary of mining terms'): "one who works alone. he differs from the fossicker who rifles old workings, or spends his time in trying abandoned washdirt. the hatter leads an independent life, and nearly always holds a claim under the bye-laws." . r. l. a.davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "oh, a regular rum old stick; . . . he mostly works a `hatter.' he has worked with mates at times, and leaves them when the claim is done, and comes up a `hatter' again. he's a regular old miser." . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' p. : "instead of having to take to fossicking like so many `hatters' --solitary miners." ( ) by extension to other professions. . `the herald' (melbourne), aug. , p. i. col. : "he had been a burglar of the kind known among the criminal classes as `a hatter.' that is to say, he burgled `on his own hook,' never in a gang. he had never, he told me, burgled with a companion." hatteria, n. scientific name for a genus of reptiles containing a lizard peculiar to new zealand, the only living representative of the order rhynchocephalinae. see tuatara. hatting, quasi pres. partic., solitary mining. see hatter. . `the age,' nov. , p. , col. : "two old miners have been hatting for gold amongst the old alluvial gullies." hat-tree, n. name given to a species of sterculia, the bottle-trees (q.v.). hau-hau, n. a maori superstition. this superstition arose in taranaki in , through the crazy fancies of the chief te ua, who communed with angels and interpreted the bible. the meaning of the word is obscure, but it probably referred to the wind which wafted the angels to the worshippers whilst dancing round an erect pole. pai marire was another name for the superstition, and signifies "good and peaceful." (see gudgeon's `war in new zealand,' p. sq.; also colenso's pamphlet on `kereopa,' p. .) hawk, n. this common english bird-name is applied in australia to many species-- brown-hawk-- hieracadiea orientalis, sehl. crested-h.-- baza subcristata, gould. eagle-h.-- another name for wedge-tailed eagle. (see eagle and eagle-hawk.) fish-h.-- another name for osprey. (see fish-hawk.) gos-h.-- astur approximans, v. and h. grey gos-h.-- a. cinereus, vieill. lesser gos-h.-- a. cruentus, gould. lesser white gos-h.-- a. leucosomus, sharpe. red gos-h.-- a. radiatus, lath. sparrow-h.-- accipiter cirrhocephalus, vieill. striped brown-h.-- hieracidea berigora, v. and h. [see berigora.] swamp-h. [see harrier.] white gos-h.-- astur novae-hollandiae, gm. see also nankeen-hawk, and night-hawk. in new zealand, the varieties appear in the quotation, . . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : [a complete description.] . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "of the three species recognized, two, the quail-hawk (harpa novae zealandiae) and the bush-hawk (h. ferox) [or sparrow-hawk], belong to a genus peculiar to new zealand." [the third is the new zealand harrier, circus gouldi, also found in australia.] hazel, n. name applied in victoria to the tree pomaderris apetala, labill., n.o. rhamnaceae. . j. h. maiden. `useful native plants,' p. : "called `hazel' in `victoria. a tall shrub, or small tree. the wood is excellent, of a beautiful satiny texture, and adapted for carvers' and turners' work. [grows in] all the colonies except western australia and queensland." head, n. the rammer for crushing quartz in gold-mining. . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "forty additional heads will be shortly added to the crushing power, bringing the battery up to sixty heads." head-station, n. the principal buildings, including the owner's or manager's house, the hut, store, etc., of a sheep or cattle run. . mrs. campbell praed [title]: "the head station." heart-pea, n. i.q. balloon-vine (q.v.). heartsease, n. i.q. brooklime, (q.v.). heartseed, n. i.q. balloon-vine (q.v.) heartwood. n. see ironwood. heath, n. in tasmania, where the epacris is of very beautiful colour, this name is popularly used for epacris impressa, labill., n.o. epacrideae. see epacris. hedgehog-fruit, n. popular name applied to the fruit of echinocarpus australis, benth., n.o. tiliaceae. the tree is also called maiden's blush (q.v.). hedge-laurel, n. a name given to the tree mapau (q.v.), an evergreen shrub of new zealand, of the genus pittosporum (q.v.). it has dark glossy foliage and handsome flowers, and is planted and cultivated in the form of tall garden hedges. see also laurel. hei-tiki, n. maori name for a neck ornament made of greenstone (q.v.). . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "the latter idea [that they are representatives of gods] was conceived from the hei-tiki being taken off the neck, laid down . . . and then wept and sung over." . dr. hocken, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "hei means ornament for the neck. tiki was the creator of man, and these are the representations of him. by a sort of license, they are occasionally taken to represent some renowned ancestor of the possessor; but wooden tikis, some of immense size, usually represented the ancestors, and were supposed to be visited by their spirits. these might be erected in various parts of a pa, or to mark boundaries, etc. the maories cling to them as sacred heirlooms of past generations, and with some superstitious reverence." helmet-orchis, n. this english name is applied in australia to the orchid pterostylis cucullata, r. br. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "i also found three varieties of a singular green orchis, of a helmet shape, growing singly, on rather tall slender footstalks." hemp, queensland, n. name given to the common tropical weed sida rhombifolia, linn., n.o. malvaceae. called also paddy lucerne, and in other colonies native lucerne, and jelly leaf. it is not endemic in australia. hemp-bush, n. the plant plagianthus pulchellus, a. gray, n.o. halvaceae, native of australia and new zealand. though not true hemp (cannabis), it yields a fibre commercially resembling it. he-oak, n. see oak and she-oak. heron, n. common english bird-name. the species present in australia are-- ashy reef h.-- demiegretta asha, sykes. great-billed h.-- ardea sumatrana, rafll. grey h.-- a. cinerea, linn. night h.-- nycticorax caledonicus, lath. reef h.-- demiegretta sacra, gmel. white-fronted h.-- ardea novae-hollandiae, lath. white-necked h.-- a. pacifica, lath. the cranes and the herons are often popularly confused. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' p. : "there did i shoot . . . a blue crane--the australian heron." herring, n. various species of clupeidae, to which the european herring belongs, are known by this name in australasia, and the word is also applied to an entirely different fish, prototroctes maraena, gunth., the yarra herring, freshwater herring, grayling (q.v.), or cucumber-mullet, found in the rivers of victoria or tasmania. the clupeidae are clupea sagax (called also maray, q.v., and pilchard), c. sundaica, c. hypselosoma bleek., c. novae-hollandiae, cuv, and val., c. vittata, castln, (called the smelt, q.v.), and others. in western australia chatoessus erebi, richards., is called the perth herring. see also picton herring, aua, and sardine. herring-cale, n. name given in new south wales to the fish olistherops brunneus, macl., family labridae, or wrasses. hickory, n. the name hickory is originally american, and is derived from the north-american indian; its earliest form was pohickery. the tree belongs to the genus carya. the wood is excellent for gig-shafts, carriage-poles, fishing-rods, etc. the name is applied in australia to various trees whose wood is suitable for similar purposes. in tasmania, the name hickory is given to eriostemon squameus, labill., n.o. rutacea. native hickory, or hickory-acacia, is acacia leprosa, sieb., n.o. leguminosae, and in the southern part of new south wales, acacia melanoxylon. (maiden, `useful native plants,' p. .) . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. v. p. : "the beautiful umbrageous blackwood, or native hickory, one of the handsomest trees in australia." hickory-eucalypt, n. one of the names for the tree eucalyptus punctata, dec., n.o. myrtaceae. called also leather-jacket (q.v.). hickory-wattle, n. a queensland name for acacia aulacocarpa, cunn., n.o. leguminosae; called hickory about brisbane. hielaman, n. a word of sydney and neighbourhood. the initial h, now frequently used by the natives, is not found in the earliest forms. the termination man is also english. elimang (hunter), e-lee-mong (collins), hilaman (ridley). a narrow shield of an aboriginal, made of bark or wood. notice mr. grant's remarkable plural ( quotation). . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. : "e-lee-mong-shield made of bark." . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar,' p. : "as an initial, h occurs in only a few words, such as hilaman, a `shield.'" ibid. p. : "as a barbarism, `hillimung-a shield.'" [a barbarism means with mr. threlkeld little more than "not belonging to the hunter district."] . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol. ii. p. : "there is much originality in the shield or hieleman of these people. it is merely a piece of wood, of little thickness, and two feet, eight inches long, tapering to each end, cut to an edge outwards, and having a handle or hole in the middle, behind the thickest part." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "the hieleman or shield is a piece of wood, about two and a half feet long, tapering to the ends, with a bevelled face not more than four inches wide at the broadest part, behind which the left hand passing through a hole is perfectly guarded." . s. bennett, `australian discovery,' p. : "hieleman, a shield. saxon, heilan; english, helm or helmet (a little shield for the head)." [this is a remarkable contribution to philological lore. in no dictionary is the saxon "heilan" to be found, and a misprint may charitably be suspected. there is no doubt that the h is an english cockney addition to the aboriginal word. it would need an ingenious fancy to connect "e-leemong" with "helm."] . j. b. stephens, `black gin, etc.,' p. : "no faint far hearing of the waddies banging of club and heelaman together clanging, war shouts and universal boomeranging." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "nullah-nullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, and heelimen or shields lay about in every direction." hielaman-tree, n. another name for the bats-wing coral (q.v.), erythrina vespertilio, benth., n.o. leguminosae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`heilaman [sic] tree.' the wood is soft, and used by the aborigines for making their `heilamans' or shields." hinau, n. maori name for the new zealand tree, elaeocarpus dentatus, vahl., n.o. tiliaceae. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "another export was much talked of. this was the bark of the hinau, a large forest tree which abounds all over the country near cook's strait. the natives extract from this bark the black dye for their mats." . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "hinau--a white wood used for turner's work." ibid.: "the natives produce the black dye for their flax-work, for which purpose the bark is first bruised and boiled for a short time. when cold the flax is put into the mixture . . . it is then steeped thoroughly for two days in red swamp mud, rich in peroxide of iron." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "hinau, a small tree about fifty feet high and eighteen inches thick in stem, with brown bark which yields a permanent blue-black dye, used for tanning . . . used by maoris for colouring mats and baskets. wood a yellowish brown colour and close-grained; very durable for fencing and piles." hoki, n. a new zealand fish, coryphaenoides novae-zelandiae. coryphaenoides belongs to the family macruridae, which are deep-sea gadoids. see tasmanian whip-tail. holly, native, n. name given in australia to the tree lomatia ilicifolia, r. br., n.o. proteaceae, and in tasmania to coprosma hirtella, labill., n.o. rubiaceae; called also coffee plant. holly, smooth, n. name given to the tree hedycarya angustifolia, a. cunn., n.o. monimiaceae; called also native mulberry. hollyhock-tree, n. name given to hibiscus splendens, fraser, n.o. malvaceae. holy city, n. a nickname for adelaide. see farinaceous city. . r. and f. hill, `what we saw in australia,' p. : ". . . including so many churches that we are at a loss to understand why adelaide should, in virtue of her supposed superabundance, be nicknamed by her neighbours the holy city." holy-cross toad, n. see catholic frog. holy-dollar, n. punning name for a dollar out of which a dump (q.v.) had been punched. . `hobart town gazette,' aug. [proclamation by sir thomas brisbane, governor-in-chief of new south wales and its dependencies, then including van diemen's land] "whereas in the year of our lord , it was deemed expedient to send a quantity of spanish dollars to the colony. . . . and whereas his excellency, the then governor, thought proper to direct, that every such dollar, with a small circular piece of silver, struck out of its centre, should be current within this territory, and every part thereof, for the sum of five shillings." [these were called holy (holey) dollars, or ring dollars, though the name does not occur in the above quotation.] . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "we were more particularly struck with the character and various kinds of currency [in tasmania in ]. our first change for a pound consisted of two dumps, two holy dollars, one spanish dollar, one french coin, one half-crown, one shilling, and one sixpence." honey-ant, n. name given to various species of ants, in which the body of certain individuals becomes enormously distended by sweet food with which they are fed by the worker ants, for whom this store of honey serves as a food supply. when the side of the distended abdomen is tapped, the ant passes the `honey' out of its mouth, and it is then eaten. three species are known in australia, camponotus inflatus, lubbock; c. cowlei, froggatt; and c. midas, froggatt. the aboriginal name of the first is `yarumpa.' . w. w. froggatt, `horne expedition in central australia,' pt. ii. p. : "our australian honey ants belong to the genus camponotus, members of which are found to all parts of the world, and are known as `sugar-ants,' from their fondness for all kinds of sweets." honey-bird, n. see next word. honey-eater, n. an australian bird, with a tongue specially adapted for being formed into a tube for the absorption of honey from flowers. the name is applied to the following species-- banded honey-eater-- myzomela pectoralis, gould. black h.-- m. nigra, gould. black-chinned h.-- melithreptus gularis, gould. black-headed h.-- m. melanocephalus, gould. blue-faced h.-- entomyza cyanotis, swain. [see blue-eye.] bridled h.-- ptilotis frenata, ramsay. broadbent h.-- stigmatops alboauricularis, ramsay. brown h.-- s. ocularis, gould. brown-backed h.-- glyciphila modesta, gray. brown-headed h.-- melithreptus brevirostrus. cockerill h.- ptilotis cockerelli, gould. crescent h.-- meliornis australasiana, shaw. dusky h.-- myzomela obscura, gould. fasciated h.-- ptilotis fasciogularis, gould. fuscous h.-- p. fusca, gould. gay h.-- melithreptus vinitinatus, gould. golden-backed h.-- m. latior, gould. helmeted h.-- ptilotis cassidix, jard. least h.-- stigmatops subocularis, long-billed h.-- meliornis longirostris, gould. moustached h.-- m. mystacalis, gould. new holland h.-- m. novae-hollandiae, lath. painted h.-- entomophila picta, gould. pied h.-- certhionyx leucomelas, cuv. red-headed honey-eater-- myzomela erythrocephala, gould. red-throated h.-- entomophila rufigularis, rufous-breasted h.-- e. albigularis, gould. sanguineous h.-- myzomela sanguineolenta, lath. [see blood-bird.] singing h.-- ptilotis vittata, cuv. spiny-cheeked h.-- acanthochaea rufigularis, gould. streak-naped h.-- ptilotis filigera, gould. striped h.-- plectorhyncha lanceolata, gould. strong-billed h.-- melithreptus validirostris, gould. [see also cherry picker.] tawny-crowned h.-- glyciphila fulvifrons, lewin. varied h.-- ptilotis versicolor, gould. warty-faced h.-- meliphaga phrygia, lath. (called also the mock regent-bird, q.v.) wattle-cheeked h.-- ptilotis cratitia, gould. white-breasted h.-- glyciphila fasciata, gould. white-cheeked h.-- meliornis sericea, gould. white-eared h.-- ptilotis leucotis, lath. white-fronted h.-- glyciphila albifrons, gould. white-gaped h.-- stomiopora unicolor, gould. white-naped h.-- melithreptus lunulatus, shaw. [see also golden-eye.] white-plumed h.-- ptilotis penicillata, gould. white-quilled h.-- entomyza albipennis, gould. white-throated h.-- melithreptus albogularis, gould. yellow h.-- ptilotis flavescens, gould. yellow-eared h.-- p. lewini, swains. yellow-faced h.-- p. chrysops, lath. yellow-fronted h.-- p. plumula, gould. yellow-plumed h.-- p. ornata, gould. yellow-spotted h.-- p. gracilis, gould. yellow-streaked h.-- p. macleayana, ramsay. yellow-throated h.-- p. flavicollis, vieill. yellow-tinted h.-- p. flava, gould. yellow-tufted h.-- p. auricomis, lath. gould enumerated the species, nearly fifty years ago, in his `birds of australia' (vol. iv.) as follows:-- plate meliphaga novae-hollandiae, vig. and horsf, new holland honey-eater ... ... ... ... m. longirostris, gould, long-billed h. ... m. sericea, gould, white-cheeked h. ... ... m. mystacalis, gould, moustached h. ... ... m. australasiana, vig. and horsf, tasmanian h. glyciphila fulvifrons, swains., fulvous-fronted h. ... ... g. albifrons, gould, white-fronted h. ... g. fasciata, gould, fasciated h. ... ... g. ocularis, gould, brown h. ... ... ptilotis chrysotis, yellow-eared h.... ... p. sonorus, gould, singing h. ... ... p. versicolor, gould, varied h. ... ... p. flavigula, gould, yellow-throated h. ... p. leucotis, white-eared h. ... ... p. auricomis, yellow-tufted h. ... ... p. cratilius, gould, wattle-cheeked h. ... p. ornatus, gould, graceful ptilotis ... p. plumulus, gould, plumed p. ... ... p. flavescens, gould, yellow-tinted h. ... p. flava, gould, yellow h. ... ... p. penicillatus, gould, white-plumed h. ... p. fuscus, gould, fuscous h. ... ... p. chrysops, yellow-faced h. ... ... p. unicolor, gould, uniform h. ... ... plectorhyncha lanceolata, gould, lanceolate h. zanthomyza phrygia, swains., warty-faced h. .. melicophila picata, gould, pied h. ... ... entomophila pitta, gould, painted h. ... e. albogularis, gould, white-throated h. ... e. rufogularis, gould, red-throated h. ... acanthogenys rufogularis, gould, spiny-cheeked h. ... anthochaera inauris, wattled h. ... ... a. carunculata, wattled h. ... ... [buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. .] myzomela sanguinolenta, sanguineous h. ... m. erythrocephala, gould, red-headed h. ... m. pectoralis, gould, banded h. ... ... m. nigra, gould, black h. ... ... m. obscura, gould, obscure h. ... ... entomyza cyanotis, swains., blue-faced entomyza e. albipennis, gould, white-pinioned h. ... melithreptus validirostris, gould, strong-billed h. ... ... m. gularis, gould, black-throated h. ... m. lunulatus, lunulated h. ... ... m. brevirostris, gould, m. chloropsis, gould, swan river h. ... m. albogularis, gould, white-throated h. (as well as pl. ) ... ... m. melanocephalus, gould, black-headed h. ... myzantha garrula, vig. and horsf, garrulous h. m. obscura, gould, sombre h. ... ... m. lutea, gould, luteous h. ... ... in the supplement of gould adds-- plate ptilotis cassidix, jard., helmeted h. ... p. fasciogularis, gould, fasciated h. ... p. notata, gould, yellow-spotted h. ... p. filigera, gould, streaked h. ... p. cockerelli, gould, cockerell's h. ... tropidorhynchus buceroides, helmeted h. ... [note.--the brush wattle-birds, friar-birds, spine-bills, and the yellow-throated minah, are known as honey-eaters, and the whole series are sometimes called honey-birds.] . a. j. campbell (in `the australasian,' jan. ), p. , col. i: "the honey-eaters or meliphagous birds are a peculiar and striking feature in australian ornithology. as gould points out, they are to the fauna what the eucalypts, banksias, and melaleucas are to the flora of australia. they are closely adapted to feeding on these trees. that great author asks:-- `what can be more plain than that the brushlike tongue is especially formed for gathering the honey from the flower-cups of the eucalypti, or that their diminutive stomachs are especially formed for this kind of food, and the peculiar insects which constitute a portion of it?'" honey-eucalypt, n. see box-tree, yellow. honey-flower, n. lambertia formosa, smith, n.o. proteaceae. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. iv. p. : "they . . . returned . . . dreadfully exhausted, having existed chiefly by sucking the wild honey-flower and shrubs." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`honey-flower' or `honeysuckle,' a plant as well known to small boys about sydney as to birds and insects. it obtains its vernacular name on account of the large quantity of a clear honey-like liquid the flowers contain. after sucking some quantity the liquid generally produces nausea and headache." honey-plant, n. name given in tasmania to richea scoparia hook., n.o. epacris. honeysuckle, n. name given to the banksias (q.v.); also called bottle-brush (q.v.). the species are-- coast honeysuckle-- banksia integrifolia, linn. common h.-- b. marginata, cav. heath h.-- b. serrata, linn. new zealand h.-- knightia excelsa, r.br. silvery h.-- grevillea striata, r.br. tasmanian h.-- banksia margirata, cav. /sic. probably marginata/ . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "some scattered honeysuckles, as they, are called, but which, being specimens of a ligneous evergreen shrub (banksia australis), my english reader will please not to assimilate in his mind's eye in any respect with the woodbine." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the honeysuckle (banksia integrifolia) will greatly disappoint those who, from its name, expect to see anything similar to the sweet-scented climbers of english hedges and gardens--this being a tree attaining to thirty or forty feet in height, with spiral yellow flowers. the blossoms at the proper seasons yield a great quantity of honey, which on a dewy morning may be observed dropping from the flowers." . letter by mrs. perry, given in goodman's `church in victoria during episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "in the course of our journey today we passed through a thin wood of honeysuckle trees, for, i should think, about three miles. they take their name from the quantity of honey contained in the yellow cone-shaped flower, which is much prized and sucked by the natives--the aborigines, i mean." . mrs. meredith, 'my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the honeysuckle-tree (banksia latifolia) is so unreasonably named . . . so very unlike any sort or species of the sweet old flower whose name it so unfittingly bears. . . . the blossoms form cones, which when in full bloom, are much the size and shape of a large english teazel, and are of a greenish yellow. . . . the honeysuckle trees grow to about thirty feet in height." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "banksia, spp., n.o. proteaceae. the name `honeysuckle' was applied to this genus by the early settlers, from the fact that the flowers, when in full bloom, contain, in a greater or lesser quantity, a sweet, honey-like liquid, which is secreted in considerable quantities, especially after a dewy night, and is eagerly sucked out by the aborigines." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "it [banksia] is called the `honeysuckle' by the people of australia, though it has no resemblance to an english honeysuckle. many of the banksias grow into stately trees." honeywood, n. name given in tasmania to the tree bedfordia salicina, dec., n.o. compositae; also there called dogwood (q.v.). hoop-pine, n. another name for the tree araucaria cunninghami or moreton-bay pine. see pine. hoot, n. slang term for compensation, payment, money; characteristic corruption of maori utu (q.v.) . `truth' (sydney), jan. : "there are several specimens of bush slang transplanted from the maori language. `hoot' is a very frequent synonym for money or wage. i have heard a shearer at the pastoralist union office in sydney when he sought to ascertain the scale of remuneration, enquire of the gilt-edged clerk behind the barrier, `what's the hoot, mate?' the maori equivalent for money is utu, pronounced by the ngapuhi and other northern tribes with the last syllable clipped, and the word is very largely used by the kauri-gum diggers and station hands in the north island. the original meaning of utu in maori is `revenge.' when the missionaries first settled in new zealand, they found that the savage inhabitants had no conception of any recompense except the grim recompense of blood. under christianizing influences the natives were induced to forego the blood-revenge for injuries, on receiving a solatium in goods or land, and so utu came to have the double meaning of revenge and recompense, and eventually became recognized as the maori word for money." hop-bush, n. "the name for all species of dodonaea" (maiden, p. ), n.o. sapindaceae. . f. m. bailey, `queensland flora,' synopsis, p. : "the capsules of many dodonaeas are used for hops, and thus the shrubs are known as hop-bushes in queensland." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`hop-bush,' called `switch-sorrel' in jamaica, and according to dr. bennett, `apiri' in tahiti. found in all the colonies." hopping-fish, or climbing-fish, n. a fish of the north of new south wales and of queensland, periophthalmus australis, castln., family gobiidae. called also skipper. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "on the confines of the northern boundaries of new south wales may be seen a very remarkable goby called the `hopping-fish.' the pectoral fins are developed into regular legs, with which the fish hops or leaps along the mud flats . . . the eyes are on the top of the head, and very prominent, and moreover they can be thrust very far out of their sockets, and moved independently of one another, thus the fish can see long distances around, and overtake the small crabs in spite of the long stalks to their optics. it is a tropical form, yet it is said to be found on the mud-flats of the richmond river." hops, native, or wild, n. in australia, the fruit of the hop-bush (see above), dodonaea spp. in tasmania, daviesia latifolia, r.br., n.o. leguminosae, and called also there bitter-leaf. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native hops,' on account of the capsules bearing some resemblance to hops, both in appearance and taste. in the early days of settlement the fruits of these trees were extensively used, yeast and beer of excellent quality being prepared from them. they are still so used to a small extent. d. attenuata, a. cunn., for instance, was largely used in the western district. in times of drought cattle and sheep eat them." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "the wild-hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full of wombat-holes, and any slip was death." horizontal, n. a tasmanian shrub, anodopetalum biglandulosum, cunn., n.o. saxifrageae. horizontal scrub, peculiar to the island, occurs in the western forests; it derives its name from the direction of the growth of its lower stems, and constitutes a tedious obstacle to the progress of the traveller. . r. m. johnston, `geology of tasmania' [introd. p. vii: "the horizontal is a tall shrub or tree. . . . its peculiar habit--to which it owes its name and fame--is for the main stem to assume a horizontal and drooping position after attaining a considerable height, from which ascend secondary branches which in turn assume the same horizontal habit. from these spring tertiary branchlets, all of which interlock, and form . . . an almost impenetrable mass of vegetation." . `the australasian,' april : "that stuff as they calls horizontal, a mess of branches and root." hornerah, n. aboriginal name for a throwing-stick; a dialectic variation of woomera (q.v.). a nonce-use. . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "i observed, too, that they used a stick, shaped thus __, \ called the hornerah (which assists them in throwing the spear)." horn-ray, n. a new zealand and australian ray, the fish rhinobatus banksii, mull and heule. in this genus of rays the cranial cartilage is produced into a long rostral process (guenther): hence the name. horopito, n. maori name for the new zealand shrub, drimys axillaris, forst., n.o. magnoliaceae; called also pepper-tree (q.v.). . g. f. angas, `savage life and scenes in australia and new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : a delicious fragrance, like that of hyacinth and jessamine mingled, filled the warm still air with its perfume. it arose from the petals of a straggling shrub, with bright green shining leaves resembling those of the nutmeg-tree; and a profusion of rich and delicate blossoms, looking like waxwork, and hanging in clusters of trumpet-shaped bells: i observed every shade of colour amongst them, from pinkish white to the deepest crimson, and the edges of the petals were irregularly jagged all round. the natives call this plant horopito." ibid. p. : "the fuchsia and the horopito were also abundant." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "horopito, pepper-tree, winter's bark. a small slender evergreen tree, very handsome. whole plant aromatic and stimulant; used by the maoris for various diseases. wood very ornamental in cabinet-work." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the horopito, or pepper-tree of the settlers, is an ornamental shrub or small tree occurring in woods, on the margin of which it is sometimes found in great abundance." horse-mackerel, n. the name is applied in sydney to the fish auxis ramsayi, castln., family scombridae. in new zealand it is caranx (or trachurus) trachurus, cuv. and val., which is the same fish as the horse-mackerel of england. this is called yellow-tail on the australian coasts. see trevally. horseradish-tree, n. name given to codonocarpus cotinifolius, f. v. m., n.o. phytolaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`quinine-tree,' `medicine-tree' of the interior. called also `horse-radish tree' owing to the taste of the leaves. the bark contains a peculiar bitter, and no doubt possesses medicinal properties. the taste is, however, quite distinct from quinine." horseshoe-fern, n. name given in new zealand to the fern marattia fraxinia, sm., called in australia the potato-fern. see under fern. hot wind, n. an australian meteorological phenomenon. see quotations, especially , a. r. wallace. the phrase is of course used elsewhere, but its australian use is peculiar. the hot wind blows from the north. mr. h. c. russell, the government astronomer of new south wales, writes--"the hot wind of australia is a circulation of wind about the anticyclone in the rear of which, as it moves to the east, there is a strong force of wind from north to north- west, which blowing over the heated plains of the interior gathers up its excessive temperature and carries it to the southern colonies. they seldom last more than two or three days in sydney, and the great heat by which they are remembered never lasts more than a few hours of one day, and is always a sign of the end, which is an inrush of southerly wind, the circulation forming the front of the new incoming anticyclone." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. ii. c. iii. p. : "this was the only occasion upon which we felt the hot winds in the interior." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. vi. p. : "these squalls generally succeed the hot winds that prevail at this season in south australia, coming from the interior." footnote--"during the hot winds we observed the thermometer, in the direct rays of the sun, to be degrees." . ibid. c. xii. p. : "a hot wind set in; . . . at one time the thermometer at the public offices [adelaide] was degrees." . c. sturt, `expedition into central australia,' vol. ii. p. : "i sought shelter behind a large gum tree, but the blasts of heat were so terrific that i wondered the very grass did not take fire. . . . everything, both animate and inanimate, gave way before it: the horses stood with their backs to the wind, and their noses to the ground, without the muscular strength to raise their heads; the birds were mute, and the leaves of the trees, under which we were sitting, fell like a snow shower around us. at noon i took a thermometer, graduated to degrees, out of my box, and observed that the mercury was up to degrees. thinking that it had been unduly influenced, i put it in the fork of a tree close to me, sheltered alike from the wind and the sun. in this position i went to examine it about an hour afterwards, when i found that the mercury had risen to the top of the instrument, and that its further expansion had burst the bulb. . . . we had reached our destination, however, before the worst of the hot wind set in." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the immediate cause of the hot winds has given rise to much speculation. . . . the favourite theory is that they are generated in the sandy plains of the interior, which becoming powerfully heated, pour their glowing breath upon the fertile regions of the south." . dingo, `australian rhymes,' p. : "a hot wind swift envelopes me in dust from foot to head." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' ( ) vol. i. p. : "they are evidently produced by the sinking down to the surface of that north-westerly current of heated air which . . . is always passing overhead. the exact causes which bring it down cannot be determined, though it evidently depends on the comparative pressure of the atmosphere on the coast and in the interior. where from any causes the north-west wind becomes more extensive and more powerful, or the sea breezes diminish, the former will displace the latter and produce a hot wind till an equilibrium is restored. it is the same wind passing constantly overhead which prevents the condensation of vapour, and is the cause of the almost uninterrupted sunny skies of the australian summer." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "scientific men, however, tell us that those hot winds are just what make australia so healthy a climate--that they act as scavengers, and without them the death-rate of the colonies would be alarmingly great." hot-windy, adj. see above. . dingo, `australian rhymes,' p. : "a spell that still makes me forget the dust and the hot-windy weather." houhere, or hohere, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, hoheria populnea, a. cunn., n.o. malvaceae; called also lacebark (q.v.) and xeribbonwood (q.v.). . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "houhere, ribbonwood of dunedin. [the name is now more general.] an ornamental shrub-tree ten to thirty feet high. bark fibrous and used for cordage, and affords a demulcent drink. wood splits freely for shingles, but is not durable. . . . bark used for making a tapa cloth by the maoris in olden times." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "in one or other of its varied forms the `houhere' is found in nearly every district in n.z. it is everywhere admired for its handsome foliage, and the beauty of its pure white flowers, which are produced in vast profusion during the early winter months. . . . the bark is capable of division into a number of layers. . . . by settlers all forms are termed `ribbonwood,' or less frequently `lace-bark'--names which are applied to other plants; they are also termed `thousand-jacket.'" . `longman's geography reader for new zealand,' p. : "the houhere is a small tree with beautiful white flowers, and the bark splits up into thin layers which look like delicate lace; hence the plant is called lace-bark or ribbon-wood by the colonists." houi, n. maori name for new zealand tree, ribbonwood (q.v.), n.o. malvaceae, kindred to hoheria, plagianthus betulinus, sometimes called howi. in maori, the verb houwere means to tie, to bind: the outer bark was used for tying. hound, n. (sometimes smooth hound), the old world name for all the sharks of the genus mustelus ("the hell-hound of the deep"); applied specially in new south wales and new zealand to the species mustelus antarcticus, guenth., also called gummy (q.v.). hovea, n. scientific name for a genus of shrubs. "after anthony pantaleon hove, a polish botanist. a small genus of highly ornamental leguminous shrubs, from australia, having blue or purple flowers in axillary clusters, or very short racemes, alternate simple leaves, and short turgid pods." (`century.') huia, n. maori name for a new zealand bird, like a starling, heteralocha acutirostris, gould, of limited occurrence, chiefly found in north island; having beak straight and short in the male, long and curved in female. the tail feathers are highly prized for ornament by the maoris. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the huia is a black bird about as large as a thrush, with long thin legs and a slender semi-circular beak, which he uses in seeking in holes of trees for the insects on which he feeds. in the tail are four long black feathers tipt with white. these feathers are much valued by the natives as ornaments for the hair on great occasions. . . . the natives attracted the birds by imitating the peculiar whistle, from which it takes the name of huia." . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "one snow-tipped hui feather graced his hair." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : [a full description.] hump, to, v. to shoulder, carry on the back; especially, to hump the swag, or bluey, or drum. see swag, bluey, drum. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "he `humped his swag,' in digger's phrase, that is, shouldered his pack and disappeared in the woods." . `geelong advertiser,' quoted in `argus,' oct. , p. , col. : "the despised old chum bought his swag, `humped it,' grumbled of course." . rolf boldrewood, `sydney-side saxon,' p. : "a hardwood slab-door weighs a goodish deal, as any one may find out that has to hump it a hundred yards." . haddon chambers, `thumbnail sketches of australian life,' p. : "i `humped my swag'--i.e. tied my worldly possessions, consisting of a blanket, a pannikin, and an odd pair of boots, upon my back-and `footed it' for the capital." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "but bill preferred to hump his drum a-paddin' of the hoof." hump, n. a long walk with a swag on one's back. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. , p. : "we get a fair share of exercise without a twenty-mile hump on sundays." humpy, n. ( ) a native hut. the aboriginal word is oompi; the initial h is a cockney addition, and the word has been given an english look, the appearance of the huts suggesting the english word hump. [the forms himbing and yamba occur along the east coast of australia. probably it is kindred with koombar, bark, in kabi dialect, mary river, queensland.] the old convict settlement in moreton bay, now broken up, was called humpy bong (see bung), sc. oompi bong, a dead or deserted settlement. the aboriginal names for hut may be thus tabulated gunyah ) . . . new south wales. goondie ) humpy (oompi) . . . queensland. mia-mia . . . victoria and western australia. wurley (oorla) . . . south australia. whare . . . new zealand. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "a `gunyia' or `umpee.'" . j. brunton stephens, `black gin,' p. : "lo, by the `humpy' door, a smockless venus." ( ) applied to a settler's house, very small and primitive. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "to dwell in the familiar old bark `humpy,' so full of happy memories. the roof was covered with sheets of bark held down by large wooden riders pegged in the form of a square to one another." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "a lonely hut . . . and a kitchen--a smaller humpey--at the back." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' p. : "he's to bed in the humpy." . gilbert parker, `pierre and his people,' p. : "shon mcgann was lying on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut,--an australian would call it a humpey." hungry quartz, n. a miner's term for unpromising quartz (q.v.) huon-pine, n. a large tasmanian evergreen tree, dacrydium franklinii, hook, n.o. coniferae. the timber is prized in cabinet-work, being repellent to insects, durable, and fairly easy to work; certain pieces are beautifully marked, and resemble bird's-eye maple. the huon is a river in the south of tasmania, called after a french officer. see pine. . j. j. labillardiere, `voyage a la recherche de la perouse,' tom. i., introd. p. xi: "ces deux flutes recurent des noms analogues au but de l'entreprise. celle que montoit le general, dentrecasteaux, fut nommee la recherche, et l'autre, commandee par le major de vaisseau, huon kermadec, recut le nom de l'esperance. . . . bruny dentrecasteaux [fut le] commandant de l'expedition, [et] labillardiere [fut le] naturaliste." [of these gentlemen of france and their voyage the names bruni island, d'entrecasteaux channel, recherche bay, port esperance, kermandie [sic] river, huon island, huon river, perpetuate the memory in southern tasmania, and the kermadec islands in the southern ocean.] . c. jeffreys, r.n., `geographical and descriptive delineations of the island of van diemen's land,' p. : "on the banks of these newly discovered rivers, and the harbour, grows the huon pine (so called from the river of that name, where it was first found)." . `the tasmanian almanack,' p. : " . huon pine and coal discovered at port davey and macquarie harbour." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "huon-pine is by far the most beautiful wood found in the island." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' (edition ) p. : "knots of the beautiful huon pine, finer than bird's-eye maple for ornamental furniture." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "the river was named the huon, and has since become celebrated for the production which yields the pretty cabinet-wood known as huon pine." . lyth, `golden south,' c. xii. p. : "the huon-pine is of immense height and girth." hut, n. the cottage of a shepherd or a miner. the word is english but is especially common in australia, and does not there connote squalor or meanness. the "men's hut" on a station is the building occupied by the male employees. . `port phillip patriot,' july , pt. , c. : "at the head station are a three-roomed hut, large kitchen, wool-shed, etc." . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania,' p. : "if a slab or log hut was required to be erected . . . a cart-load of wool was pitchforked from the wasting heap, wherewith to caulk the crevices of the rough-hewn timber walls." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. vi. p. : "`the hut,' a substantial and commodious structure, arose in all its grandeur." . id. `miner's right,' c. vi. p. : "entering such a hut, as it is uniformly, but in no sense of contempt, termed--a hut being simply lower in the scale than a cottage--you will find there nothing to shock the eye or displease the taste." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "bark and weatherboard huts alternating with imposing hotels and stores." hut-keep, v. to act as hut-keeper. . s. sidney, `three colonies of australia,' p. "at this, as well as at every other station i have called at, a woman `hutkeeps,' while the husband is minding the sheep." . `melbourne argus,' june th, p. , col. : "`did you go hut-keeping then?' `wrong again. did i go hut-keeping? did you ever know a hut-keeper cook for sixty shearers?'" hut-keeper, n. explained in quotations. . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "old men, unfit for anything but to be hut-keepers who were to remain at home to prevent robbery, while the other inhabitants of the hut were at labour." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iii. p. "my object was to obtain these heads, which the . . . hut-keeper instantly gave." . g. butler earp, `what we did in australia,' p. : "the lowest industrial occupation in australia, viz. a hut-keeper in the bush . . . a station from which many of the wealthiest flockmasters in australia have risen." . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting in victoria' ( - ), p. : "a bush hut-keeper, who baked our damper, fried our chops." hyacinth, native, n. a tasmanian flower, thelymitra longifolia, r. and g. forst., n.o. orchideae. hyaena, n. see thylacine, and tasmanian tiger. hypsiprymnodon, n. the scientific name of the genus of the australian animal called musk kangaroo. (grk. hupsiprumnos, with a high stern.) a very small, rat-like, arboreal kangaroo, about ten inches long. the strong musky odour from which it takes its vernacular name is perceptible in both sexes. . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the third and last subfamily (hypsiprymnodontidae) of the macropodidae is represented solely by the remarkable creature known, from its strong scent, as the musk-kangaroo." i ibis, n. there are twenty-four species of this bird distributed over all the warmer parts of the globe. those present in australasia are-- glossy (black, or bay) ibis-- ibis falcinellus, linn. straw-necked i.-- geronticus spinnicollis, jameson. white i.-- threskiornis strictipennis, gould. of these the last two are confined to australia, the first is cosmopolitan. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "all they had for supper and breakfast were a straw-coloured ibis, a duck and a crow." ibid. p. : "crows were feasting on the remains of a black ibis." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi.: "geronticus spinicollis, straw-necked ibis (pl. ). this beautiful ibis has never yet been discovered out of australia, over the whole of which immense country it is probably distributed." "threskiornis strictipennis, white ibis" (pl. ). "ibis falcinellus, linn., glossy ibis" (pl. ). . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : "when the hoarse-voiced jackass mocked us, and the white-winged ibis flew past lagoons and through the rushes, far away into the blue." ice-plant, n. tasmanian name for tetragonia implexicoma, hook., n.o. ficoideae, b. fl. various species of tetragonia are cultivated as spinach (q.v.). . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "called `ice-plant' in tasmania. baron mueller suggests that this plant be cultivated for spinach. [found in] all the colonies except queensland." identity, old, n. phrase denoting a person well known in a place. a term invented in dunedin, new zealand, in , in a popular topical song, by mr. r. thatcher, an improvisator. in the song the "old identity," the former resident of dunedin, was distinguished from the "new iniquity," as the people were termed who came from australia. . w. j. barry, `up and down,' p. : "the old identities were beginning to be alive to the situation." . `sydney morning herald,' oct.: "it is permissible to wonder about the origin of the phrase `an old identity.' surely no man, however old, can be an identity? an entity he is, or a nonentity; an individual, a centenarian, or an oldest inhabitant; but identity is a condition of sameness, of being identical with something. one can establish one's identity with that of some one who is being sought or sued, but once established it escapes us." inaka, n. a fish. see inanga. inanga or inaka, n. (the ng as in the word singer, not as in finger), a new zealand fish, galaxias attenuatus, or retropinna richardsoni. it is often called the whitebait and minnow, and in tasmania the larger variety is called jolly-tail. the change from inanga to inaka is a dialectal maori variation, answering exactly to the change from north island kainga to south island kaik (q.v.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "this fish is called hinanga [sic.], and resembles blackwall white-bait in size and flavour. its colour is a pinkish white, spotted with black." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "about the same size as this fish [the cockabully] is the `inaka' much used for bait. indeed, it is called the new zealand whitebait. a friend from victoria having used this bait, i asked him to spell the name of the fish, and he wanted to make it like the patriarch who `walked with god' --enoch-a. the more correct shape of the maori word is inanga; but in the south island `k' often takes the place of that distinctive maori letter `ng,' as `kainga' becomes kaik; ngaio, kaio." inchman, n. a tasmanian name for the bull-dog ant (q.v.), from its length, which is sometimes nearly an inch. indians, pl. n. early and now obsolete name for the aboriginals in australia and even for the maoris. . j. banks, `journal,' oct. (sir j. d. hooker edition), p. : "we applied to our friends the indians for a passage in one of their canoes." [these were maoris.] . ibid. april : "during this time, a few of the indians who had not followed the boat remained on the rock opposite the ship, threatening and menacing with their pikes and swords." [these were australian aboriginals.] . barron field, `geographical memoirs of new south wales,' p. : "some of the indians have also seriously applied to be allowed convict labourers, as the settlers are, although they have not patience to remain in the huts which our government has built for them, till the maize and cabbage that have been planted to their hands are fit to gather." . `the friend of australia,' p. : "it is the observation of some writers, that the system pursued in australia for educating the children of the indians is not attended with success. the black children will never do any good there, until some other plan is commenced . . ." indigo, native, n. all the species of swainsonia, n.o. leguminosae, are called "native indigos." see indigo-plant. in tasmania, the native indigo is indigofera australis, willd., n.o. leguminosae. the plants are also called indigo-plant and darling-pea (q.v.). swainsonia belongs to the same n.o. as indigofera tinctoria, which furnishes the indigo of commerce. . j. atkinson, `agriculture and grazing in new south wales,' p. : "indigo brushes are not very common; the timber in these is generally white or blackbutted gum; the ground beneath is covered with the native indigo, a very beautiful plant, with a light purple flower." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the `darling-pea' or `indigo-plant' is a dreaded plant from the great amount of loss it has inflicted on stockowners. its effect on sheep is well known; they separate from the flock, wander about listlessly, and are known to the shepherds as ` pea-eaters,' or `indigo-eaters.' when once a sheep takes to eating this plant it seldom or never fattens, and may be said to be lost to its owner. the late mr. charles thorn, of queensland, placed a lamb which had become an `indigo-eater' in a small paddock, where it refused to eat grass. it, however, ate the indigo plant greedily, and followed mr. thorn all over the paddock for some indigo he held in his hand." indented servants, n. same as assigned (q.v.) servants. . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "public notice. secretary's office, sydney, july , . a ship being daily expected to arrive here from england with female convicts, whom it is his excellency the governor's intention to distribute among the settlers, as indented servants. . . ." ink-plant, n. another name for the "toot," a new zealand shrub, coriaria thymifolia, n.o. coriarieae. called ink-plant on account of its juice, which soon turns to black. there is also an european ink-plant, coriaria myrtifolia, so that this is only a different species. ironbark, n. early settlers gave this name to several large eucalypts, from the hardness of their bark, especially to e. leucoxylon, f. v. m., and e. resinifera, smith. in queensland it is applied to e. siderophloia, benth. see also leguminous ironbark, and lemon-scented ironbark. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. viii. p. : "a species of gum-tree, the bark of which on the trunk is that of the ironbark of port jackson." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "it was made out of a piece of bark from a tree called ironbark (nearly as hard when dry as an english elm-board)." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. : "but this gradually changed to an ironbark (eucalyptus resinifera) and cypress-pine forest." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees', p. : "the ironbark-tree (eucalyptus resinifera) is . . . widely spread over a large part of australia. . . . a lofty forest tree of moderate circumference. . . . it is believed to have been named as above by some of the earliest australian settlers on account of the extreme hardness of its bark; but it might with equal reason have been called ironwood. the wood is of a deep red colour, very hard, heavy, strong, extremely rigid, and rather difficult to work . . . used extensively in shipbuilding and engineering works in australia; and in this country (england) it is employed in the mercantile navy for beams, keelsons, and . . . below the line of flotation." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. : "the ironbark (eucalyptus sideroxylon) became from its durability a synonym for toughness." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xxvii. p. : "the corrugated stems of the great ironbark trees stood black and columnar." . `the age,' may , p. , col. , (advt.): "monday, th may.--supply in one or more contracts of not less than beams of ironbark or box beams for cattle pits, delivered at any station. particulars at the office of the engineer for existing lines." with qualifications. silver-leaved-- . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the silver-leaved ironbark (eucalyptus pulverulentus) was here coming into blossom." narrow-leaved-- . ibid. p. : "the narrow-leaved ironbark [grew] on a lighter sandy soil." iron hand, a term of victorian politics. it was a new standing order introducing what has since been called the closure, and was first moved in the victorian legislative assembly on jan. , . . `victorian hansard,' jan. , vol. xxiii. p. : "they [the government] have dealt with the opposition with a velvet glove; but the iron hand is beneath, and they shall feel it." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. iii. p. : "the cloture, or the `iron hand,' as mcculloch's resolution was called, was adopted in victoria, for one session." ironheart, n. a new zealand tree, metrosideros tomentosa, n.o. myrtaceae; native name, pohutukawa. . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "it was the `downy ironheart' that from the cliffs o'erhanging grew, and o'er the alcove, every part, such beauteous leaves and blossoms threw." "note.--this most lovely tree is common about the northern coasts and cliffs of the north island and the banks of lake tarawera." ironwood, n. the name is used of many hard-wooded trees in various parts of the world. the australian varieties are-- ironwood (queensland)-- acacia excelsa, benth., n.o. leguminosae; melaleuca genistifolia, smith, n.o. myrtaceae. ironwood (north queensland)-- myrtus gonoclada, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. ironwood (north new south wales)-- olea paniculata, r.br., n.o. jasmineae. ironwood (tasmania)-- notelaea ligustrina, vent., n.o. jasmineae. scrub ironwood-- myrtus hillii, benth., n.o. myrtaceae. for ironwood of new zealand, see puriri. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. xii. p. : "a club of iron-wood, which the cannibals had left in the boat." . w. b. cramp, `narrative of a voyage to india,' p. : ". . . they have a short club made of iron wood, called a waday, and a scimeter made of the same wood." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`ironwood' and `heartwood' of tasmania; `spurious olive,' `white plum' of gippsland. an exceedingly hard, close-grained wood, used for mallets, sheaves of blocks, turnery, etc. the heartwood yields a very peculiar figure ; it is a very fair substitute for lignum-vitae." irriakura, n. an aboriginal name for the tubers of cyperus rotundus, linn., n.o. cyperaceae, adopted by white men in central australia. . e. c. stirling, `home expedition in central australia,' anthropology, p. : "cyperus rotundus. in almost every camp we saw large quantities of the tunicated tubes of this plant, which are generally called `erriakura' or `irriakura' by the arunta natives. . . even raw they are pleasant to the taste, having an agreeable nutty flavour, which is much improved by the slight roasting." ivory-wood, n. an australian timber, siphonodon australe, benth., n.o. celastrinae. ivy, n. a child's name for the ivy-leaf geraniums, especially the double pink-flowered one called madame kruse. in australia the warm climate makes these all evergreens, and they are trained over fences and walls, sometimes to the height of twenty or thirty feet, supplanting the english ivy in this use, and covered with masses of flowers. ivy, native, an australian plant, muehlenbeckia adpressa, meissn., n.o. polygonaceae; called also macquarie harbour vine, or grape. the name is widely applied also to the acclimatised cape ivy, or german ivy (senecio scandens). . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native ivy,' macquarie harbour vine or grape of tasmania. the currant-like fruits are sub-acid, and were, and perhaps still are, used for tarts, puddings, and preserves; the leaves taste like sorrel." ivy, wild, n. an australian creeper, platylobium triangulare, r. br., n.o. leguminosae. ivy-tree, n. new zealand tree, genus panax, n.o. araliacae; maori name, horoeka. it is also called lancewood (q.v.). . j. hector, `handbook of new' zealand,' p. : "horoeka, ivy-tree. an ornamental, slender, and sparingly-branched tree. wood close-grained and tough." j jabiru, n. the word comes from brazil, and was first given there to the large stork mycteria (xenorhynchus) americana. the australian species is m. australis, lath. it has the back and neck dark grey, changing on the neck to scarlet. there is a black-necked stork in australia (xenorhynchus asiaticus), which is also called the jabiru. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we saw a tabiroo [sic] (mycteria)." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "in october, , i succeeded in purchasing a fine living specimen of the new holland jabiru, or gigantic crane of the colonists (mycteria australis)" . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the splendid australian jabiru (mycteria australis), and i had the good fortune to shoot on the wing a specimen of this beautiful variety of the stork family." jacana, n. a brazilian word for a bird of the genus parra (q.v.). the australian species is the comb-crested jacana, parra gallinacea, temm. it is also called the lotus-bird (q.v.). jack in a box, i.q. hair-trigger (q.v.). . `the home companion,' p. : "when previously mentioning the elegant stylidium graminifolium (grass-leaved jack-in-a-box), which may be easily known by its numerous grassy-like radical leaves, and pretty pink flowers, on a long naked stem, we omitted to mention a peculiarity in it, which is said to afford much amusement to the aborigines, who are, generally speaking, fond of, and have a name for, many of the plants common in their own territories. the stigma lies at the apex of a long column, surrounded and concealed by the anthers. this column is exceedingly irritable, and hangs down on one side of the flower, until it is touched, when it suddenly springs up and shifts to the opposite side of the blossom or calyx." . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "stylidium (native jack in a box). this genus is remarkable for the singular elasticity of the column stylis, which support the anthers, and which being irritable, will spring up if pricked with a pin, or other little substance, below the joint, before the pollen, a small powder, is shed, throwing itself suddenly over, like a reflex arm, to the opposite side of the flower. hence the colonial designation of jack in a box." jack the painter, n. very strong bush-tea, so called from the mark it leaves round the drinker's mouth. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "another notorious ration tea of the bush is called jack the painter--a very green tea indeed, its viridity evidently produced by a discreet use of the copper drying-pans in its manufacture." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "the billy wins, and `jack the painter' tea steams on the hob, from aught like fragrance free." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. "special huts had to be provided for them [the sundowners], where they enjoyed eleemosynary rations of mutton, damper, and `jack the painter.'" jackaroo, n. a name for a colonial experience (q.v.), a young man fresh from england, learning squatting; called in new zealand a cadet (q.v.). compare the american "tenderfoot." a verse definition runs: "to do all sorts and kinds of jobs, help all the men jacks, bills or bobs, as well as he is able. to be neither boss, overseer, nor man, but a little of all as well as he can, and eat at the master's table." the word is generally supposed to be a corruption (in imitation of the word kangaroo) of the words "johnny raw." mr. meston, in the `sydney bulletin,' april , , says it comes from the old brisbane blacks, who called the pied crow shrike (strepera graculina) "tchaceroo," a gabbling and garrulous bird. they called the german missionaries of "jackeroo," a gabbler, because they were always talking. afterwards they applied it to all white men. . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "jackaroos--the name given to young gentlemen newly arrived from home to gather colonial experiences." . a. c. grant `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "the young jackaroo woke early next morning." [footnote]: "the name by which young men who go to the australian colonies to pick up colonial experience are designated." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "of course before starting on their own account to work a station they go into the bush to gain colonial experience, during which process they are known in the colony as `jackaroos.'" . rolf boldrewood, `a sydneyside saxon,' p. : "we went most of the way by rail and coach, and then a jackaroo met us with a fine pair of horses in a waggonette. i expected to see a first cousin to a kangaroo, when the coachdriver told us, instead of a young gentleman learning squatting." . `sydney morning herald' (date lost): "`jack-a-roo' is of the same class of slang; but the unlucky fellow--often gentle and soft-handed--who does the oddwork of a sheep or cattle station, if he finds time and heart for letters to any who love him, probably writes his rue with a difference." jackaroo, v. to lead the life of a jackaroo. . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "i've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another. they knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in queensland." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. xix. p. : "a year or two more jackerooing would only mean the consumption of so many more figs of negro-head, in my case." jackass-fish, n. another sydney name for the morwong (q.v.). jackass, laughing, n. ( ) the popular name of an australian bird, dacelo gigas, bodd, the great brown kingfisher of australia; see dacelo. to an australian who has heard the ludicrous note of the bird and seen its comical, half-stupid appearance, the origin of the name seems obvious. it utters a prolonged rollicking laugh, often preceded by an introductory stave resembling the opening passage of a donkey's bray. but the name has been erroneously derived from the french jacasse, as to which littre gives "terme populaire. femme, fille qui parle beaucoup." he adds, that the word jacasse appears to come from jacquot, a name popularly given to parrots and magpies, our "poll." the verb jacasser means to chatter, said of a magpie. the quotation from collins ( ) seems to dispose of this suggested french origin, by proving the early use of the name laughing jackass. as a matter of fact, the french name had already in been assigned to the bird, viz. grand martin-pecheur de la nouvelle guinee. [see pierre sonnerat, `voyage a la nouvelle guinee' (paris, ), p. .] the only possibility of french origin would be from the sailors of la perouse. but la perouse arrived in botany bay on january , , and found captain phillip's ships leaving for sydney cove. the intercourse between them was very slight. the french formed a most unfavourable idea of the country, and sailed away on march . if from their short intercourse, the english had accepted the word jackass, would not mention of the fact have been made by governor phillip, or surgeon white, who mention the bird but by a different name (see quotations , ), or by captain watkin tench, or judge advocate collins, who both mention the incident of the french ships? the epithet "laughing" is now often omitted; the bird is generally called only a jackass, and this is becoming contracted into the simple abbreviation of jack. a common popular name for it is the settlers'-clock. (see quotations-- , cunningham; , haydon; and , leichhardt.) the aboriginal name of the bird is kookaburra (q.v.), and by this name it is generally called in sydney; another spelling is gogobera. there is another bird called a laughing jackass in new zealand which is not a kingfisher, but an owl, sceloglaux albifacies, kaup. (maori name, whekau). the new zealand bird is rare, the australian bird very common. the so-called derwent jackass of tasmania is a shrike (cracticus cinereus, gould), and is more properly called the grey butcher-bird. see butcher-bird. . governor phillip, `voyage,' p. : description given with picture, but under name "great brown kingsfisher" [sic]. ibid. p. : similar bird, with description and picture, under name "sacred king's fisher." . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "we not long after discovered the great brown king's fisher, of which a plate is annexed. this bird has been described by mr. latham in his `general synopsis of birds,' vol. ii. p. . ibid. p. : "we this day shot the sacred king's-fisher (see plate annexed)." . collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. , (vocabulary): "gi-gan-ne-gine. bird named by us the laughing jackass. go-con-de--inland name for it." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the loud and discordant noise of the laughing jackass (or settler's-clock, as he is called), as he takes up his roost on the withered bough of one of our tallest trees, acquaints us that the sun has just dipped behind the hills." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "the settlers call this bird the laughing jackass. i have also heard it called the hawkesbury-clock (clocks being at the period of my residence scarce articles in the colony, there not being one perhaps in the whole hawkesbury settlement), for it is among the first of the feathered tribes which announce the approach of day." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the laughing jackass, or settler's-clock is an uncouth looking creature of an ashen brown colour . . . this bird is the first to indicate by its note the approach of day, and thus it has received its other name, the settler's clock." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "i usually rise when i hear the merry laugh of the laughing- jackass (dacelo gigantea), which, from its regularity, has not been unaptly named the settlers'-clock." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "dacelo gigantea, leach, great brown king fisher; laughing jackass of the colonists." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "you are startled by a loud, sudden cackling, like flocks of geese, followed by an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! ha! of the laughing jackass (dacelo gigantea) a species of jay." [howitt's comparison with the jay is evidently due to the azure iridescent markings on the upper part of the wings, in colour like the blue feathers on the jay.] . f. j. jobson, `australia,' c. vi. p. : "the odd medley of cackling, bray, and chuckle notes from the `laughing jackass.'" . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "at daylight came a hideous chorus of fiendish laughter, as if the infernal regions had been broken loose--this was the song of another feathered innocent, the laughing jackass--not half a bad sort of fellow when you come to know him, for he kills snakes, and is an infallible sign of the vicinity of fresh-water." . t. w. nutt, `palace of industry,' p. : "where clock-bird laughed and sweet wildflowers throve." [footnote] "the familiar laughing jackass." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "dense forests, where the prolonged cacchinations of that cynic of the woods, as a. p. martin calls the laughing jackass, seemed to mock us for our pains." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "the harsh-voiced, big-headed, laughing jackass." . d. blair, `cyclopaedia of australasia,' p. : "the name it vulgarly bears is a corruption of the french word jacasser, `to chatter,' and the correct form is the `laughing jacasse.'" [no. see above.] . `australasian printers' keepsake,' p. : "magpies chatter, and the jackass laughs good-morrow like a bacchus." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' [telling an old story] p. : "the archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which had attracted his attention. `your grace, we call that the laughing jackass in this country, but i don't know the botanical [sic] name of the bird." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals, p. : "few of the birds of australia have pleased me as much as this curious laughing jackass, though it is both clumsy and unattractive in colour. far from deserving its name jackass, it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. it boldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and is consequently the friend of the colonist." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "`there's a jackass--a real laughing jackass on that dead branch. they have such a queer note; like this,, you know--' and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all of a sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolical tremolo it had ever befallen them to hear." . `victorian statutes-game act, third schedule': "[close season.] great kingfisher or laughing jackass. the whole year. all kingfishers other than the laughing jackass. from the st day of august to the th day of december next following in each year." ( ) the next quotations refer to the new zealand bird. . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "athene albifacies, wekau of the maoris, is known by some up-country settlers as the big owl or laughing jackass." "the cry of the laughing jackass . . . why it should share with one of our petrels and the great dacelo of australia the trivial name of laughing jackass, we know not; if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollable outburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never been able to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in the unearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "sceloglaux albifacies, kaup., laughing owl; laughing jackass of the colonists." [the following quotation refers to the derwent jackass.] . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "you have heard of . . . the laughing jackass. we, too, have a `jackass,' a smaller bird, and not in any way remarkable, except for its merry gabbling sort of song, which when several pipe up together, always gives one the idea of a party of very talkative people all chattering against time, and all at once." jack-bird, n. a bird of the south island of new zealand, creadion cinereus, buller. see also saddle-back and creadion. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "it has become the habit to speak of this bird as the brown saddle-back; but this is a misnomer, inasmuch as the absence of the `saddle' is its distinguishing feature. i have accordingly adopted the name of jack-bird, by which it is known among the settlers in the south island. why it should be so called i cannot say, unless this is an adaptation of the native name tieke, the same word being the equivalent, in the maori vernacular, of our jack." jack shay, or jackshea, n. a tin quart-pot. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "hobbles and jack shays hang from the saddle dees." [footnote]: "a tin quart-pot, used for boiling water for tea, and contrived so as to hold within it a tin pint-pot." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "some of his clothes, with his saddle, serve for a pillow; his ration bags are beside his head, and his jackshea (quart-pot) stands by the fire." jacky winter, n. the vernacular name in new south wales of the brown flycatcher, microeca fascinans, a common little bird about sydney. the name has been ascribed to the fact that it is a resident species, very common, and that it sings all through the winter, when nearly every other species is silent. see flycatcher. jade, n. see greenstone. jarrah, n. anglicised form of jerryhl, the native name of a certain species of eucalyptus, which grows in the south of western australia, east and south-east of perth. in sir george grey's glossary ( ), djar-rail; mr. g. f. moore's ( ), djarryl. (eucalyptus marginata, donn.) the name bastard-jarrah is given to e. botryoides, smith, which bears many other names. it is the blue-gum of new south wales coast-districts, the bastard-mahogany of gippsland and new south wales, and also swamp mahogany in victoria and new south wales, and occasionally woolly-butt. . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "it may be that after all the hopes of the west-australian micawbers will be realised in jarrah-wood." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the jarrah or mahogany-tree is also found in western australia. the wood is red in colour, hard, heavy, close in texture, slightly wavy in the grain, and with occasionally enough figure to give it value for ornamental purposes; it works up quite smoothly and takes a good polish." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia, vol. i. p. : "the jarrah of western australia (eucalyptus marginata) has a peculiar reputation for its power to defy decay when submerged and exposed to the attacks of the dreaded teredo, and has been largely exported to india." . r. kipling, `plain tales from the hills,' p. ". . . the awful butchery . . . of the maribyrnong plate. the walls were colonial ramparts--logs of jarrah spiked into masonry--with wings as strong as church buttresses." [jarrah is not a victorian, but a west-australian timber, and imported logs are not used by the v.r.c., but white or red gum. for making "jumps," no logs are "spiked into masonry," and the maribyrnong plate is not a "jump-race."] . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "mr. w. h. knight, twenty years ago, gave evidence as to the value of the jarrah. . . . it is found that piles driven down in the swan river were, after being exposed to the action of wind, water, and weather for forty years, as sound and firm as when put into the water. . . . it completely resists the attacks of the white ants, where stringy-bark, blue-gum, white-gum, and black-wood are eaten through, or rendered useless, in from six to twelve years." . `the times' (weekly edition), dec. , p. , col. : "the jarrah, eucalyptus marginata, stands pre-eminent as the leading timber tree of the western australian forests. for constructive work necessitating contact with soil and water jarrahwood has no native equal. a jarrah forest is dull, sombre, and uninteresting to the eye. in first-class forests the trees attain a height of from ft. to ft., with good stems ft. to ft. in diameter. the tree is practically confined to the south-western division of the colony, where the heaviest rains of the season fall. as a rule, jarrah is found either intermixed with the karri tree or in close proximity to it." jasmine, native, n. an australian plant, ricinocarpus pinifolius, desf., n.o. euphorbiaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native jasmine. this plant yields abundance of seeds, like small castor oil seeds. they yield an oil." jelly-leaf, n. i.q. queensland hemp (q.v.). jelly-plant, a sea-weed, eucheuma speciosum, j. agardh, n.o. algae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "jelly-plant of western australia. this is a remarkable sea-weed of a very gelatinous character [used by] the people of western australia for making jelly, blanc-mange, etc. size and cement can also be made from it. it is cast ashore from deep water." jemmy donnelly, n. a ridiculous name given to three trees, euroschinus falcatus, hook, n.o. anacardiaceae; myrsine variabilis, r. br., n.o. myrsinaceae; and eucalyptus resinifera, sm., n.o. myrtaceae. they are large timber trees, highly valued in queensland. jerrawicke, n. obsolete name for colonial beer. . j. askew, `a voyage to australia and new zealand,' p. : "there were always a number of natives roaming about. there might be about in all, of the newcastle tribe. they were more wretched and filthy, and if possible, uglier than those of adelaide. . . . all the earnings of the tribe were spent in tobacco and jerrawicke (colonist-made ale)." . ibid. p. : "a more hideous looking spectacle can hardly be imagined than that presented by these savages around the blazing fire, carousing among jerrawicke and the offal of slaughtered animals.'" jew-fish, n. a name applied in new south wales to two or more different species, sciaena antarctica, castln., and glaucosoma hebraicum, richards. sciaena antarctica, castln., is the king-fish of the melbourne market. sciaena is called dew-fish in brisbane. it belongs to the family sciaenidae. the australian species is distinct from s. aquila, the european "maigre" or "meagre," but closely resembles it. glaucosoma belongs to the percidae. the silver jew-fish of new south wales is thought to be the same as the teraglin (q.v.), otolithus atelodus, guenth., also of the family sciaeidae. tenison woods (in `fish and fisheries of new south wales,' , p. ) says the jew-fish of new south wales is sometimes glaucosoma scapulare, ramsay; and glaucosoma hebraicum, richards., is the jew-fish of western australia (a marine fish). fishes on the american coasts, different from these, are there called jew-fishes. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the water-holes abounded with jew-fish and eels." jew-lizard, n. a large australian lizard, amiphibolurus barbatus, cuv.; called also bearded lizard. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "a small chlamydophorus (jew-lizard of the hunter) was also seen." [the hunter is a river of new south wales.] . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the natural history of victoria,' decade xiii. pl. : "this is commonly called the jew lizard by colonists, and is easily distinguished by the beard-like growth of long slender spires round the throat . . . when irritated, it inflates the body to a considerably increased size, and hisses like a snake exciting alarm; but rarely biting." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "the great jew-lizards that lay and laughed horribly to themselves in the pungent dust on the untrodden floors." jil-crow-a-berry, n. the anglicised pronunciation and spelling of the aboriginal name for the indigenous rat-tail grass, sporobolus indicus, r. br. jimmy, n. obsolete name for an immigrant, a word which was jocularly changed into jimmy grant. the word `immigrant' is as familiar in australia as `emigrant' in england. . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "`what are these men that we are going to see?' `why one,' said lee, is a young jimmy--i beg your pardon, sir, an emigrant, the other two are old prisoners.'" . `cassell's magazine,' p. : "`i never wanted to leave england,' i have heard an old vandemonian observe boastfully. `i wasn't like one of these `jemmy grants' (cant term for `emigrants'); i could always earn a good living; it was the government as took and sent me out." [the writers probably used the word immigrant, which, not being familiar to the english compositor, was misprinted emigrant. the "old vandemonian" must certainly have said immigrant.] jimmy low, n. one of the many names of a timber-tree, eucalyptus resinifera, smith, n.o. myrtaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the `red,' or `forest mahogany,' of the neighbourhood of sydney. these are bad names, as the wood bears no real resemblance to the true mahogany. because the product of this tree first brought australian kino into medical notice, it is often in old books called `botany bay gum-tree.' other names for it are red gum, grey gum, hickory, and it perpetuates the memory of an individual by being called `jimmy low.'" jingle, n. a two-wheeled vehicle, like an irish car, once common in melbourne, still used in brisbane and some other towns: so called from the rattle made by it when in motion. the word is not australian, as is generally supposed; the `century' gives "a covered two-wheeled car used in the south of ireland." . clara aspinall, `three years in melbourne,' p. : "an omnibus may be chartered at much less cost (gentlemen who have lived in india will persist in calling this vehicle a jingle, which perhaps sounds better); it is a kind of dos-a-dos conveyance, holding three in front and three behind: it has a waterproof top to it supported by four iron rods, and oilskin curtains to draw all round as a protection from the rain and dust." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "during my stay in melbourne i took a jingle, or car, and drove to st. kilda." . lady barker, writing from melbourne, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "a vehicle which was quite new to me--a sort of light car with a canopy and curtains, holding four, two on each seat, dos-a-dos, and called a jingle--of american parentage, i fancy. one drive in this carriage was quite enough, however." . marcus clarke, `peripatetic philosopher,' p. : "some folks prefer to travel over stones and rocks and gravel; and smile at dust and jolting fit to dislocate each bone. to see 'em driving in a jingle, it would make your senses tingle, for you couldn't put a sixpence 'twixt the wheel and the kerb-stone." . cassell's 'picturesque australasia,' vol. i. p. : "in former days the melbourne cab was a kind of irish car, popularly known as a jingle. . . . the jingle has been ousted by the one-horse waggonette." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. iv. p. : "the premier hailed a passing jingle." [this was in brisbane.] jinkers, n. a contrivance much used in the bush for moving heavy logs and trunks of trees. it consists of two pairs of wheels, with their axle-trees joined by a long beam, under which the trunks are suspended by chains. its structure is varied in town for moving wooden houses. called in england a "whim." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "a rather novel spectacle was to be seen to-day on the ballan road in the shape of a five-roomed cottage on jinkers. . . . mr. scottney, carrier of fitzroy, on whose jinkers the removal is being made . . ." jirrand, adj. an aboriginal word in the dialect of botany bay, signifying "afraid." ridley, in his vocabulary, spells it jerron, and there are other spellings. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the native word jirrand (afraid) has become in some measure an adopted child, and may probably puzzle our future johnsons with its unde derivatur." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "when i saw the mob there was i didn't see so much to be jerran about, as it was fifty to one in favour of any one that was wanted." jo-jo, n. name used by melbourne larrikins for a man with a good deal of hair on his face. so called from a hairy-faced russian "dog man" exhibited in melbourne about , who was advertised by that name. job's tears. the seeds of coix lachryma, which are used for necklace-making by the native tribes on the cape york peninsula, are there called job's tears. joe, joe-joe, joey, interjection, then a verb, now obsolete. explained in quotations. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the well-known cry of `joe! joe!'--a cry which means one of the myrmidons of charley joe, as they familiarly style mr. [charles joseph] la trobe,--a cry which on all the diggings resounds on all sides on the appearance of any of the hated officials." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the cry of `joey' would rise everywhere against them." [footnote]: "to `joey' or `joe' a person on the diggings, or anywhere else in australia, is to grossly insult and ridicule him." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "in the early days of the australian diggings `joe' was the warning word shouted out when the police or gold commissioners were seen approaching, but is now the chaff for new chums." . f. h. nixon, `peter perfume,' p. : "and joe joed them out, tom toed them out." . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "`the diggers,' he says, `were up in arms against the government officials, and whenever a policeman or any other government servant was seen they raised the cry of "joe-joe."' the term was familiar to every man in the fifties. in the earliest days of the diggings proclamations were issued on diverse subjects, but mostly in the direction of curtailing the privileges of the miners. these were signed, `c. joseph la trobe,' and became known by the irreverent--not to say flippant --description of `joes.' by an easy transition, the corruption of the second name of the governor was applied to his officers, between whom and the spirited diggers no love was lost, and accordingly the appearance of a policeman on a lead was signalled to every tent and hole by the cry of `joe-joe.'" joey, n. ( ) a young kangaroo. . w. h. leigh, `reconnoitring voyages in south australia' pp. - : "here [in kangaroo island] is also the wallaba . . . the young of the animal is called by the islanders a joe." . t. mccombie, i`australian sketches,' p. : "the young kangaroos are termed joeys. the female carries the latter in her pouch, but when hard pressed by dogs, and likely to be sacrificed, she throws them down, which usually distracts the attention of the pack and affords the mother sufficient time to escape." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "sometimes when the flying doe throws her `joey' from her pouch the dogs turn upon the little one." . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "at length the actual fact of the kangaroo's birth, which is much as that of other mammals, was carefully observed at the london zoo, and the budding fiction joined the myths that were. it was there proved that the little `joey' is brought into the world in the usual way, and forthwith conveyed to the comfortable receptacle and affixed to the teat by the dam, which held the lifeless-looking little thing tenderly in her cloven lips." ( ) also slang used for a baby or little child, or even a young animal, such as a little guinea-pig. compare "kid." ( ) a hewer of wood and drawer of water. . j. a. moore, `tasmanian rhymings,' p. : "he was a `joey,' which, in truth, means nothing more than that youth who claims a kangaroo descent is by that nomenclature meant." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "i'm not going to be wood-and-water joey, i can tell ye." john dory, or dorey, n. a fish. this name is applied in new south wales and tasmania to cyttus (zeus) australis, richards., family cyttidae, which is nearly the same as zeus faber, the "john dory" of europe. others call c. australis the bastard dorey (q.v.), and it is also called the boar-fish (q.v.) and dollar-fish (q.v.). . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "`john dorys' are found in the mediterranean, on the eastern temperate shores of the atlantic, on the coasts of japan and australia. six species are known, all of which are highly esteemed for the table. the english name given to one of the european species (zeus faber) seems to be partly a corruption of the gascon `jau,' which signifies cock, `dory' being derived from the french doree, so that the entire name means gilt-cock. indeed, in some other localities of southern europe it bears the name of gallo. the same species occurs also on the coasts of south australia and new zealand." johnny-cake. n. the name is of american origin, originally given by the negroes to a cake made of indian corn (maize). in australia it is a cake baked on the ashes or cooked in a frying-pan. (see quotations.) the name is used in the united states for a slightly different cake, viz. made with indian meal and toasted before a fire. . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' p. : "the dough-cakes fried in fat, called `johnny-cakes.'" . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "johnny-cakes, though they are smaller and very thin, and made in a similar way [sc. to dampers: see damper]; when eaten hot they are excellent, but if allowed to get cold they become leathery." . h. finch-hatton, `advance of australia,' p. : "johnny-cakes are made with nothing but flour, but there is a great art in mixing them. if it is done properly they are about the lightest and nicest sort of bread that can be made; but the efforts of an amateur generally result in a wet heavy pulp that sticks round one's teeth like bird-lime." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "here i, a new chum, could, with flour and water and a pinch of baking-powder, make a sweet and wholesome johnny cake." . mrs. russell, `too easily jealous,' p. : "bread was not, and existed only in the shape of johnny-cakes --flat scones of flour and water, baked in the hot ashes." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "it is also useful to make your damper or `johnny-cake,' which serves you in place of yeast bread. a johnny-cake is made thus:--put a couple of handfuls of flour into your dish, with a good pinch of salt and baking soda. add water till it works to a stiff paste. divide it into three parts and flatten out into cakes about half an inch thick. dust a little flour into your frying-pan and put the cake in. cook it slowly over the fire, taking care it does not burn, and tossing it over again and again. when nearly done stand it against a stick in front of the fire, and let it finish baking while you cook the other two. these, with a piece of wallaby and a billy of tea, are a sweet meal enough after a hard day's work." jolly-tail, n. a tasmanian name for the larger variety of the fish galaxias attenuatus, jenyns, and other species of galaxias called inanga (q.v.) in new zealand. galaxias weedoni is called the mersey jolly-tail, and galaxias atkinsoni, the pieman jolly-tail. pieman and mersey are two tasmanian rivers. see mountain-trout. july, n. a winter month in australia. see christmas. . mrs. m'cann, `poetical works,' p. : "scarce has july with frigid visage flown." jumbuck, n. aboriginal pigeon-english for sheep. often used in the bush. the origin of this word was long unknown. it is thus explained by mr. meston, in the `sydney bulletin,' april , : "the word `jumbuck' for sheep appears originally as jimba, jombock, dombock, and dumbog. in each case it meant the white mist preceding a shower, to which a flock of sheep bore a strong resemblance. it seemed the only thing the aboriginal mind could compare it to." . c. griffith, `present state and prospects of the port phillip district of new south wales,' p. : "the following is a specimen of such eloquence: `you pilmillally jumbuck plenty sulky me, plenty boom, borack gammon,' which being interpreted means, `if you shoot my sheep i shall be very angry, and will shoot you and no mistake.'" . w. ridley, `transactions of philological society,' p. : "when they adopt english words ending in mutes, the blacks drop the mute or add a vowel: thus, jimbugg, a slang name for sheep, they sound jimbu." [it was not english slang but an aboriginal word.] . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "mister charlie, jumbuck go along of grass, blood all there, big dog catch him there, big jumbuck, m'me word, neck torn." . `the australasian,' june , p. , col. : "jumbuck (a sheep) has been in use from the earliest days, but its origin is not known." jump, to, v. to take possession of a claim (mining) on land, on the ground that a former possessor has abandoned it, or has not fulfilled the conditions of the grant. the word is also used in the united states, but it is very common in australia. instead of "you have taken my seat," you have jumped it. so even with a pew. a man in england, to whom was said, "you have jumped my pew," would look astonished, as did that other who was informed, "excuse me, sir, but you are occupewing my py." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : ". . . on condition that he occupies it within twenty-four hours: should this rule not be observed, the right of the original holder is lost, and it may be occupied (or `jumped' as it is termed) by any other person as a deserted claim." . `victorian hansard,' vol. vii. p. (may ): "mr. wood: some of the evils spoken of seemed indeed only to exist in the imagination of the hon. and learned gentleman, as, for instance, that of `jumping,' for which a remedy was already given by the th section of the present act. "mr. ireland: yes; after the claim is `jumped.'" . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' p. : "if such work were not commenced within three days, any other miners might summarily take possession of or jump the claim." ibid. p. : "let us have the melancholy satisfaction of seeing gus's pegs, and noting whether they are all en regle. if not, we'll `jump' him." ibid. p. : "in default of such advertisement, for the general benefit, they were liable, according to custom and practice, to have their claim `jumped,' or taken forcible possession of by any party of miners who could prove that they were concealing the golden reality." . `melbourne spectator,' august , p. , col. : "jumping selections . . . is said to be very common now in the winmera district." jumpable, adj. open to another to take. see jump. . rolf boldrewood, melbourne memories,' c. xvi. p. : "the heifer station was what would be called in mining parlance `an abandoned claim' and possibly `jumpable.'" jumper, n. one who jumps a claim. see jump. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xii. p. : "come along, my noble jumper, you've served your injunction." jumping-mouse, n. see hapalote. june, n. a winter month in australia. see christmas. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "twenty white-haired junes have left us grey with frost and bleak with gale." jungle-hen, n. name given to a mound-building bird, megapodius tumulus, gould. see also megapode. the indian jungle-fowl is a different bird. . carl lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "but what especially gives life and character to these woods are the jungle-hens (mound-builders) . . . the bird is of a brownish hue, with yellow legs and immensely large feet; hence its name megapodius." juniper, native, n. i.q. native currant (q.v.). k kahawai, n. maori name for the fish arripis salar, richards.; called in australia and new zealand salmon (q.v.). kahikatea, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, podocarpus dacrydioides, a. rich., n.o. coniferae. also called white-pine. see pine. the settlers' pronunciation is often kackatea. there is a maori word kahika, meaning ancient. . rev. r. taylor. `te ika a maui,' p. : "white-pine, podocarpus dacrydioides--kahikatea, kahika, korol. this tree is generally called the white-pine, from the colour of its wood. the kahikatea may be considered as nearly the loftiest tree in the new zealand forest; it often attains a height of little less than two hundred feet, and in that respect rivals the noble kauri, but the general appearance is not very pleasing." . t. laslett, `timber and trees,' p. : "the kahikatea or kakaterra-tree (dacrydium excelsum or taxifolium). this majestic and noble-looking tree belongs to the natural order of taxaceae, more commonly known by the name of joint firs. height to feet, rising sixty feet and upward without a branch." : w. blair, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. ix. art. , p. : "this timber is known in all the provinces, except otago, by the native name of `kahikatea'. i think we should adopt it also, not only on account of being more euphonious, but for the reason that so many timbers in other parts of the world are called white-pine." . `appendix to journal of house of representatives,' vol. iii. g. , p. : "on the purchased land stands, or lately stood, a small kahikatea bush. . . . the wood appears to have been of no great money value, but the natives living in tareha's pa depended upon it for their supply of fire-wood." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : [it is sir james hector who assigns the tree to coniferae, not taxaceae.] . cassell's' picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "the white pine or kahikatea is a very beautiful tree, and droops its dark feathery foliage in a way which recalls the graceful branches of the english elm-tree." kahikatoa, n. maori name for /a/ new zealand shrub, but no longer used by the settlers. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "kahikatoa, tea-tree of cook. leptospermum scoparium, forst., n.o. myrtaceae." kahikomako, n. maori name [shortened into kaikomako] for a new zealand timber, pennantia corymbosa, n.o. olacineae; called also ribbonwood (q.v.). . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "kahikomako, a small, very graceful tree, with white sweet-smelling flowers; height twenty to thirty feet. wood used by the maoris for kindling fires by friction." kai, n. maori word for food; used also in the south sea islands. kai-kai is an english adaptation for feasting. . j. savage, `some account of new zealand,' vocab. p. : "kiki . . . food." [the i has the english not the italian sound.] . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "kai, s. victuals, support, etc.; a. eatable." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "he explained to us that every one would cry very much, and then there would be very much kai-kai or feasting." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "kai, the general word for food, is not used at rotorua, because it was the name of a great chief, and the word tami has been substituted for it." . louis becke and j. d. fitzgerald, `the maori in politics,' `review of reviews,' june , p. : "we saw some thirty men and women coming towards us, singing in chorus and keeping step to the music. in their hands they carried small baskets woven of raupo reeds, containing kai, or food. this was the `kai' dance." kainga, and kaika, n. now generally kaik, and pronounced kike, a maori settlement, village. kainga is used in the north, and is the original form; kaika is the south island use. it is the village for dwelling; the pa is for fighting in. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "kainga. a place of residence, a home," etc. . lt.-colonel st. john, `pakeha rambles through maori lands,' p. [heading of chapter x.]: "how we live in our kainga." . `otago witness,' jan. , p. , col. : "a cosy-looking kainga located on the bank of a picturesque bend of the river." ibid. p. , col. : "we steamed on slowly towards tawhitinui, a small kainga or kaik, as it is called in the south island." . `maoriland,' p. : "the drive may be continued from portobello to the maori kaik." kaio, n. popular corruption in the south island of new zealand of ngaio (q.v.). kaitaka, n. maori word for the best kind of native mat. . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "requiring from three to four months' close sitting to complete one of their kaitakas--the finest sort of mat which they make. this garment has a very silky appearance." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "pukaro ended by flinging over my shoulders a very handsome kaitaka mat, which he had been wearing while he spoke." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "highly prized and beautiful kaitaka mats." kaiwhiria, n. maori name for new zealand tree, hedycarya dentata, forst., n.o. monimiaceae. porokaiwhiri is the fuller name of the tree. . /j./ hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. "kaiwhiria, a small evergreen tree, twenty to thirty feet high; the wood is finely marked and suitable for veneering." kaka, n. the maori name for a parrot. the word is imitative of a parrot's cry. it is now always used to denote the brown parrot of new zealand, nestor meridionalis, gmel. . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "kaka--a bird of the parrot kind; much larger than any other new zealand parrot." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the kaka, a large russet parrot, of excellent flavour, and very abundant in many places." . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "the bright red feathers from under the wing of the kaka or large parrot." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' [notes] p. : "the kaka is a kind of parrot of a reddish grey colour, and is easily tamed when taken young." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the hoarse croak of the ka-ka, as it alighted almost at our feet, and prepared, quite careless of our vicinity, to tear up the loose soil at the root of a tall tree, in search of grubs." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' (supplement): "nestor hypopolius, ka-ka parrot." . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "i heard mocking kakas wail and cry above thy corse." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "nestor meridionalis, kaka parrot." ibid. p. : "sprightly in its actions, eminently social, and more noisy than any other inhabitant of the woods, the kaka holds a prominent place among our native birds." kaka-bill, n. a new zealand plant, the clianthus (q.v.), so called from the supposed resemblance of the flower to the bill of the kaka (q.v.). called also parrot-bill, glory-pea, and kowhai (q.v.). . w. r. wade, `journey in new zealand,' [hobart town]. p. : "kowai ngutukaka [parrot-bill kowai]; the most elegant flowering shrub of the country." . `otago witness,' nov. , `native trees': "a plantation of a shrub which is in great demand in england and on the continent, and is greatly neglected here--the clianthus puniceus, or scarlet glory pea of new zealand, locally known as kaka beak." kakapo, n. maori name for the night-parrot, stringops habroptilus, gray. called also owl-parrot. see kaka. the syllable po is maori for night. compare katipo (q.v.). . j. gould, `birds of australia' (supplement): "strigops habroptilus, g. r. gray, kakapo, native name." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "stringops, owl-parrot--ground-parrot of the colonists." . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "although possessing large wings, it is flightless, its breast-muscles being so small as to be practically useless. its habits are nocturnal, and it has a ring of feathers arranged round the eye, giving it a curious resemblance to an owl, whence the name owl-parrot is often applied to it." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "another remarkable bird is the owl parrot (stringops habroptilus) of a greenish colour, and with a circle of feathers round the eye as in the owl. it is nocturnal in its habits, lives in holes in the ground under tree-roots or rocks." . `otago witness,' june , p. : "the kakapo is one of our most unique birds." kakariki, n. maori name for a green parrakeet. there are two species, platycercus novae zelandiae, sparrm., and p. auriceps, kuhl. see parrakeet. the word kakariki means literally little parrot, kaka (q.v.) and iki (little), the r is intrusive. it is applied also to a green lizard. in maori it becomes later an adjective, meaning `green.' . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "the kakariki . . . (platycercus novae zeal.) is a pretty light green parrot with a band of red or yellow over the upper beak and under the throat. this elegant little bird is about the size of a small thrush." . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxvii. p. [note]: "the name kakarika (indicative of colour) is applied alike to the green lizard and to the green parrakeet of our woods." kamin, n. aboriginal word, explained in quotation. it is probably local. . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "if he [the australian black] has to climb a high tree, he first goes into the scrub to fetch a piece of the australian calamus (calamus australis), which he partly bites, partly breaks off; he first bites on one side and breaks it down, then on the other side and breaks it upwards--one, two, three, and this tough whip is severed. at one end of it he makes a knot, the other he leaves it as it is. this implement, which is usually from sixteen to eighteen feet long, is called a kamin." kanae, n. (trisyll.) maori name for a fish of new zealand, the silver-mullet, mugil perusii or argenteus. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (c.m.s.), p. : "kanae, s. the mullet fish." . order in council, new zealand, jan. , `regulations under the fisheries conservation act': "the months of december, january, and february in each year are here prescribed a close season for the fish of the species of the mugil known as mullet or kanae." kanaka, n. and adj. a labourer from the south sea islands, working in queensland sugar-plantations. the word is hawaiian (sandwich islands). the kindred words are given in the following extract from fornander's polynesian race' ( ), vol. iii. p. : "kanaka, s. hawaiian, man, human, mankind, a common man in distinction from chiefs. samoan, new zealand [sc. maori], tongan, tangata, man. tahitian, taata, man." in the original word the accent is on the first syllable, which accent mr. rudyard kipling preserves (see quotation, ), though he has changed the word in his reprint of the poem in `the seven seas'; but the usual pronunciation in australia is to accent the second syllable. . j. j. jarves, `history of hawaiian islands,' printed at honolulu ( ), p. : "[on st feb. .] a salute was then fired, and the natives shouted, `kanaka no beritane'--we are men of britain." . a. miller, `narrative of united states exploring expedition,' c. ii. p. : "on monday (nov. , ) our gentlemen formed themselves into two parties, and started on horseback for their journey. one party consisted of messrs. reade, rich, and wall, with eight kanakas and two guides." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. viii. p. : "queensland at present is supplying itself with labour from the south sea islands, and the men employed are called polynesians, or canakers, or islanders." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia, p. : "the word `kanaka' is really a maori word, signifying a man, but in australia it has come to be applied exclusively to the inhabitants of the south sea islands." . r. m. praed, `head station,' p. : "the kanaka reverences women and adores children. he is loyal in heart, affectionate of disposition, and domestic in his habits." . h. s. cooper, `the islands of the pacific,' p. : "the kanakas, who at present populate hawaii, are, as a rule, well made and intelligent. that there is a cross of the malay and indian blood in them few can doubt." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "natives of the south sea islands, who in australia are called kanakas--a capable and intelligent race, especially to this kind of work [on plantations], for they are strong, and endure the tropical heat far better than the whites." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "thus, it is maintained by the planters, the kanaka, necessary as he is to the conditions of north queensland, opens up avenues of skilled labour for the european, and makes population and commerce possible where otherwise there would be complete stagnation." . `the times,' dec. : "the principal open-air labour of the sugar plantations is furnished by kanakas, who are the native inhabitants of certain groups of south sea islands not at present under the protection of any european flag." . r. l. stevenson, `island night's entertainments,' p. : "what we want is a man-of-war--a german, if we could--they know how to manage kanakas." . rudyard kipling, `banjo song': "we've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets, we've starved on a kanaka's pay." . c. h. pearson, `national life and character,' p. : "in australasia . . . the maori, the kanaka, and the papuan are dying out. we cannot close our eyes to the fact that certain weak races--even when, like the kanaka, they possess some very high qualities--seem to wither away at mere contact with the european. . . . the kanakas (among whom we may include the maories)." kangaroo, n. ( ) an aboriginal word. see marsupial. (a) the origin of the name. the name was first obtained in , while h.m.s. endeavour lay beached at the endeavour river, where cooktown, queensland, now is. the name first appears in print in , in the book brought out by the relatives of mr. parkinson, who was draughtsman to banks the naturalist, and who had died on the voyage. the object of this book was to anticipate the official account of cook's voyage by hawkesworth, which appeared later in the same year. it is now known that hawkesworth's book was like a rope twisted of four strands, viz. cook's journal, the diaries of the two naturalists, banks and solander, and quartum quid, the johnsonian pomposity of dr. hawkesworth. cook's journal was published in , edited by captain wharton, hydrographer to the admiralty; banks's journal, in , edited by sir j. d. hooker. solander's journal has never been printed. when englishmen next came to australia in , it was found that the word kangaroo was not known to the natives round port jackson, distant miles to the south of cooktown. in fact, it was thought by them to be an english word. (see quotation, tench, .) it is a question whether the word has belonged to any aboriginal vocabulary since. "capt. philip p. king, the explorer, who visited that locality [sc. endeavour river] forty-nine years after cook, relates in his `narrative of the survey of the intertropical and western coasts of australia,' that he found the word kangaroo unknown to the tribe he met there, though in other particulars the vocabulary he compiled agrees very well with captain cook's." (curr's `australian race,' vol. i. p. .) in the fourth volume of curr's book a conspectus is given of the words used in different parts of australia for various objects. in the list of names for this animal there are a few that are not far from kangaroo, but some inquirers suspect the accuracy of the list, or fancy that the natives obtained the words sounding like kangaroo from english. it may be assumed that the word is not now in use as an aboriginal word. has it, then, disappeared? or was it an original mistake on the part of banks or cook ? the theory of a mistake has obtained widely. it has figured in print, and finds a place in at least one dictionary. several correspondents have written that the word kangaroo meant "i don't understand," and that banks mistook this for a name. this is quite possible, but at least some proof is needed, as for instance the actual words in the aboriginal language that could be twisted into this meaning. to find these words, and to hear their true sound, would test how near the explanation hits the mark. banks was a very careful observer, and he specially notes the precautions he took to avoid any mistake in accepting native words. moreover, according to surgeon anderson, the aborigines of van diemen's land described the animal by the name of kangaroo. (see quotation, .) on the other hand, it must be remembered that it is an ascertained fact that the aborigines taboo a word on the death of any one bearing that word as a proper name. (see quotation under nobbler, .) if, therefore, after cook's visit, some man called kangaroo died, the whole tribe would expunge kangaroo from its vocabulary. there is, however, some evidence that the word was much later in use in western australia. (see quotation, .) it is now asserted that the word is in use again at the very part of queensland where the endeavour was beached. lumholtz, in his `amongst cannibals' (p. ), gives it in his aboriginal vocabulary. mr. de vis, of the brisbane museum, in his paper before the geographical society at brisbane ( ), says that "in point of fact the word `kangaroo' is the normal equivalent for kangaroo at the endeavour river; and not only so, it is almost the type-form of a group of variations in use over a large part of australia." it is curiously hard to procure satisfactory evidence as to the fact. mr. de vis says that his first statement was "made on the authority of a private correspondent; "but another correspondent writes from cooktown, that the blacks there have taken kangaroo from english. inquiries inserted in each of the cooktown newspapers have produced no result. mr. de vis' second argument as to the type-form seems much stronger. a spoken language, unwritten, unprinted, must inevitably change, and change rapidly. a word current in would change rather than disappear, and the root consonants would remain. the letters ng together, followed by r, occur in the proportion of one in thirteen, of the names for the animal tabulated by curr. it is a difficult matter on which to speak decidedly, but probably no great mistake was made, and the word received was a genuine name of the animal. see further the quotations, . (b) the plural of the word. there seems to be considerable doubt as to the plural of the word, whether it should take s like most english words, or remain unchanged like sheep, deer. in two consecutive pages of one book the two plurals are used. the general use is the plural in s. see hunter, balfour, and senior; sportsmen frequently use the form kangaroo. [since a kangaroo has been the design on the one-shilling postage stamp of new south wales.] . `history of new south wales,' ( ) pp. - : "throughout the general course of the journey, kangaroos, emus, ducks, etc. were seen in numbers." "mr. evans saw the kangaroo in immense flocks." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "the kangaroos are too subtle and shy for us to get near." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "in the afternoon we saw some kangaroos and wallaby, but did not succeed in killing any." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. iii. p. : "though kangaroo were plentiful, they were not overwhelming to number." (c) kangaroo in french. . buffon, `supplement a l'histoire naturelle,' tom. iv. `table des matieres': "kanguros, espece de grosse gerboise qui se trouve dans les terres australes de la nouvelle hollande." . j. j. labillardiere, `voyage a la recherche de la perouse,' tom. i. p. : [under date april , .] "un de nos chasseurs trouva un jeune kangourou sur les bords de la mer." . h. de charency, `recherches sur les dialectes tasmaniens,' p. : "kangourou. ce mot semble d'origine non australienne, comme on l'a soutenu, mais bien tasmanienne." . littre, `dictionnaire de la langue francaise' (s.v.): "kanguroo ou kangarou. on ecrit aussi kangarou et kangourou." . a. daudet, `jack,' p. : il regardait les kangaroos dresses sur leurs pattes, si longues qu'elles ont l'agilite et l'elan d'une paire d'ailes." . oscar comettant [title]: "au pays des kangourous." (d) kangaroo in german--kaenguruh: . r. v. lendenfeld, `australische reise,' p. : "die kaenguruh hoben in dem augenblick, als sie das geheul hoerten, die koepfe hoch and witterten, blickten and loosten in alle richtungen." notice that both in french and german the u sound of the middle syllable is preserved and not changed as in english to a. (e) the species. the name kangaroo is applied to the following larger species of the genus macropus, the remaining species being called wallabies-- antilopine kangaroo-- macropus antilopinus, gould. great grey k., or forester-- m. giganteus, zimm. great red k.-- m. rufus, desm. isabelline k.-- m. isabellinus, gould. owen's k.-- m. magnus, owen. wallaroo, or euro-- m. robustus, gould. the name kangaroo is also applied to certain other species of marsupials belonging to the genus macropus, but with a qualifying adjective, such as dorca-, tree-, rat-, musk-, etc.; and it is applied to species of the genera dorcopsis, dendrolagus, bettongia, and hypsiprymnodon. the brush-kangaroo (q.v.) is another name for the wallaby (q.v.), and the rat-kangaroo is the stricter scientific appellation of kangaroo-rat (q.v.). the banded-kangaroo is a banded-wallaby (see lagostrophus). see also dorca-kangaroo, tree-kangaroo, musk-kangaroo, dorcopsis, dendrolagus, bettongia, hypsiprymnodon, rock-wallaby, paddy-melon, forester, old man,, joey, and boomah. (f) the use of the word. . `capt. cook's journal' (edition wharton, ), p. : may st. an animal which must feed upon grass, and which, we judge, could not be less than a deer." [p. ]: "june rd. one of the men saw an animal something less than a greyhound; it was of a mouse colour, very slender made, and swift of foot." [p. ]: august th. "the animals which i have before mentioned, called by the natives kangooroo or kanguru." [at endeavour river, queensland.] . joseph banks, `journal' (edition hooker, ), p. : "july .--our second lieutenant had the good fortune to kill the animal that had so long been the subject of our speculations. to compare it to any european animal would be impossible, as it has not the least resemblance to any one that i have seen. its forelegs are extremely short, and of no use to t in walking; its hind again as disproportionally long; with these it hops seven or eight feet at a time, in the same manner as the jerboa, to which animal indeed it bears much resemblance, except in size, this being in weight lbs., and the jerboa no larger than a common rat." ibid. p. : "august .--quadrupeds we saw but few, and were able to catch but few of those we did see. the largest was called by the natives kangooroo; it is different from any european, and, indeed, any animal i have heard or read of, except the jerboa of egypt, which is not larger than a rat, while this is as large as a middling lamb. the largest we shot weighed lbs. it may, however, be easily known from all other animals by the singular property of running, or rather hopping, upon only its hinder legs, carrying its fore-feet close to its breast. in this manner it hops so fast that in the rocky bad ground where it is commonly found, it easily beat my greyhound, who though he was fairly started at several, killed only one, and that quite a young one." . sydney parkinson, `journal of a voyage,' p. : "kangooroo, the leaping quadruped." [a description given at p. .] . j. hawkesworth, `voyages,' vol. iii. p. : "july , . mr. gore, who went out this day with his gun, had the good fortune to kill one of the animals which had been so much the subject of our speculation. an idea of it will best be conceived by the cut, plate xx., without which the most accurate verbal description would answer very little purpose, as it has not similitude enough to any animal already known to admit of illustration by reference. in form it is most like the gerbua, which it also resembles in its motion, as has been observed already, for it greatly differs in size, the gerbua not being larger than a common rat, and this animal, when full grown, being as big as a sheep: this individual was a young one, much under its full growth, weighing only thirty-eight pounds. the head, neck, and shoulders are very small in proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is nearly as long as the body, thick near the rump, and tapering towards the end: the fore-legs of this individual were only eight inches long, and the hind-legs two-and-twenty: its progress is by successive leaps or hops, of a great length, in an erect posture; the fore-legs are kept bent close to the breast, and seemed to be of use only for digging: the skin is covered with a short fur, of a dark mouse or grey colour, excepting the head and ears, which bear a slight resemblance to those of a hare. in form it is most like the gerbua. this animal is called by the natives `kangaroo.'" [this account, it will be seen, is based on the notes of banks.] . oliver goldsmith, `animated nature,' book vii. c. xvi., the gerbua,' [in four-vol. ed., vol. iii. p. ]: "but of all animals of this kind, that which was first discovered and described by mr. banks is the most extraordinary. he calls it the kanguroo; and though from its general outline and the most striking peculiarities of its figure it greatly resembles the gerbua, yet it entirely differs, if we consider its size, or those minute distinctions which direct the makers of systems in assorting the general ranks of nature. the largest of the gerbua kind which are to be found in the ancient continent do not exceed the size of a rabbit. the kanguroo of new holland, where it is only to be found, is often known to weigh above sixty pounds, and must consequently be as large as a sheep. although the skin of that which was stuffed and brought home by mr. banks was not much above the size of a hare, yet it was greatly superior to any of the gerbua kind that have been hitherto known, and very different in many particulars. the snout of the gerbua, as has been said, is short and round, that of the discovered animal long and slender; the teeth also entirely differ, for as the gerbua has but two cutting teeth in each jaw, making four in all, this animal, besides its cutting teeth, has four canial teeth also; but what makes a more striking peculiarity, is the formation of its lower jaw, which, as the ingenious discoverer supposes, is divided into two parts which open and shut like a pair of scissors, and cut grass, probably this animal's principal food. the head, neck, and shoulders are very small in proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is nearly as long as the body; thick near the rump and tapering towards the head and ears, which bear a slight resemblance to those of the hare. we are not told, however, from the formation of its stomach to what class of quadrupeds it belongs: from its eating grass, which it has been seen to do, one would be apt to rank it among the ruminating animals; but from the canial teeth which it is found to have, we may on the other hand suppose it to bear some relation to the carnivorous. upon the whole, however, it can be classed with none more properly than with the animals of the gerbua kind, as its hind-legs are so much longer than the fore; it moves also precisely in the same manner, taking great bounds of ten or twelve feet at a time, and thus sometimes escaping the fleetest greyhound, with which mr. banks pursued it. one of them that was killed proved to be good food; but a second, which weighed eighty-four pounds, and was not yet come to its full growth, was found to be much inferior." , surgeon anderson, quoted by w. eden, in `history of new holland' (second edition), p. : "however, we must have a far more intimate acquaintance with the languages spoken here [van diemen's land] and in the more northern parts of new holland, before we can pronounce that they are totally different; nay, we have good grounds for the opposite opinion; for we found that the animal called kangaroo at endeavour river was known under the same name here." . t. pennant, `history of quadrupeds,' vol. i. p. : no. . [a scientific description of the kangaroo.] . governor phillip, `voyage': [p. ]: "the kangaroo." [p. ]: "skeleton of the head of the kangaroo." [at each of these places there is a description and a picture. under each picture the name is spelt "kangooroo." at p. there is a further note on the kanguroo. in the text at p. the spelling " kangooroo " is adopted.] ibid. p. : "the kanguroo, though it resembles the jerboa in the peculiarity of using only the hinder legs in progression, does not belong to that genus." ibid, p. : "since stating the dimensions of the kanguroo, in page , lord sydney has received from governor phillip a male of a much larger size. . . . lieutenant shortland describes them as feeding in herds of about thirty or forty, and assures us that one is always observed to be apparently upon the watch at a distance from the rest." . watkin tench, `account of the settlement of port jackson,' p. : "kangaroo was a name unknown to them [the aborigines of port jackson] for any animal, until we introduced it. when i showed colbee [an aboriginal] the cows brought out in the gorgon he asked me if they were kangaroos." . governor hunter, `voyage,' p. : "the animal described in the voyage of the endeavour, called the kangaroo (but by the natives patagorang), we found in great numbers." ibid. p. : "i had a kanguroo on board, which i had directions to carry to lord grenville, as a present for his majesty.--nov. , ." [there is no statement whether the animal reached england.] ibid. p. : "in rowing up this branch, we saw a flock of about thirty kangaroos or paderong, but they were only visible during their leaps, as the very long grass hid them from our view." . g. shaw, `zoological lectures,' vol. i. p. : "the genus macropus or kangaroo . . . one of the most elegant as well as curious animals discovered in modern times." [under the picture and in list of contents: kanguroo.] . m. flinders, `voyage to terra australis,' introd. p. lxiii: "an animal found upon one of the islands is described [by dampier, `voyage to new holland,' vol. iii. p. ] as `a sort of raccoon, different from that of the west indies, chiefly as to the legs; for these have very short fore legs; but go jumping upon them' [not upon the short fore, but the long hind legs, it is to be presumed] `as the others do; and like them are very good meat.' this appears to have been the small kangaroo, since found upon the islands which form the road; and if so, this description is probably the first ever made of that singular animal" [though without the name]. . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : "coursing the kangaroo and emu forms the principal amusement of the sporting part of the colonists. (p. ): the colonists generally pursue this animal [kangaroo] at full speed on horseback, and frequently manage, notwithstanding its extraordinary swiftness, to be up at the death." . charles lamb, `essays of elia' [edition ], p. , `distant correspondents': "the kangaroos--your aborigines--do they keep their primitive simplicity un-europe-tainted, with those little short fore puds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the pick-pocket! marry, for diving into fobs they are rather lamely provided a priori; but if the hue and cry were once up, they would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco motor in the colony." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. iii. p. : "those that were noticed were made of the red kangaroo-skin." . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar of the language spoken by the aborigines, at hunter's river,' p. : "kong-go-rong, the emu, from the noise it makes, and likely the origin of the barbarism, kangaroo, used by the english, as the name of an animal, called mo-a-ne." . t. b. wilson, `narrative of a voyage round the world, etc.' p. : "they [natives of the darling range, w.a.] distinctly pronounced `kangaroo' without having heard any of us utter that sound: they also called it waroo, but whether they distinguished `kangaroo' (so called by us, and also by them) from the smaller kind, named `wallabi,' and by them `waroo,' we could not form any just conclusion." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "kangaroos are of six different species, viz. the forester, the flyer, the wallaby, the wallaroo, the kangaroo-rat, and the kangaroo-mouse." [this is of course merely a popular classification.] . j. a. moore, `tasmanian rhymings,' p. : "a kangaroo, like all his race, of agile form and placid face." . w. m. thackeray, `roundabout papers', p. : "the fox has brought his brush, and the cock has brought his comb, and the elephant has brought his trunk and the kangaroo has brought his bag, and the condor his old white wig and black satin hood." . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "to return to the marsupials. i have been assured that the kangaroos come first and eat off the grass; that the wallabies, following, grub up the roots." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "sometimes a kangaroo would come down with measured thud, thud, and drink, and then return without noticing the human beings." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "according to the traditions of the bush--not always reliable--the name of kangaroo was given under a misconception. an aborigine being asked by one of the early discoverers the name of the animal, replied, `kangaroo' (`i don't know'), and in this confession of ignorance or misapprehension the name originated. it seems absurd to suppose that any black hunter was really ignorant of the name of an animal which once represented the national wealth of australians as the merino does to-day." [the tradition is not quite so ridiculous, if the answer meant--"i don't know what you mean,--i don't understand you." see above.] . `guide zoological gardens, melbourne': "in this enclosure is a wooden model of a kangaroo of ancient times. this is copied from a restoration by professor mccoy, who was enabled to represent it from fossil remains which have been unearthed at various places in australia." . e. meston, `sydney bulletin,' april : "the origin of the word `kangaroo' was published by me six years ago. captain cook got it from the endeavor river blacks, who pronounce it to-day exactly as it is spelled in the great navigator's journal, but they use it now only for the big toe. either the blacks in cook's time called the kangaroo `big toe' for a nick-name, as the american indians speak of the `big horn,' or the man who asked the name of the animal was holding it by the hind foot, and got the name of the long toe, the black believing that was the part to which the question referred." . rev. j. mathew, private letter, aug. : "most names of animals in the australian dialects refer to their appearance, and the usual synthesis is noun + adjective; the word may be worn down at either end, and the meaning lost to the native mind. "a number of the distinct names for kangaroo show a relation to words meaning respectively nose, leg, big, long, either with noun and adjective to combination or one or other omitted. "the word kangaroo is probably analysable into ka or kang, nose (or head), and goora, long, both words or local equivalents being widely current." ( ) wild young cattle (a special use)-- . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "a stockyard under six feet high will be leaped by some of these kangaroos (as we term them) with the most perfect ease, and it requires to be as stout as it is high to resist their rushes against it." ( ) used playfully, and as a nickname for persons and things australian. an australian boy at an english school is frequently called "kangaroo." it is a stock exchange nickname for shares in western australian gold-mining companies. . `nineteenth century' (nov.), p. : "to the , , westralian mining shares now in existence the stock exchange has long since conceded a special `market'; and it has even conferred upon these stocks a nickname--the surest indication of importance and popularity. and that `kangaroos,' as they were fondly called, could boast of importance and popularity nobody would dare to gainsay." ( ) a kind of chair, apparently from the shape. . miss edgeworth, `helen,' c. xvi. (`century'): "it was neither a lounger nor a dormeuse, nor a cooper, nor a nelson, nor a kangaroo: a chair without a name would never do; in all things fashionable a name is more than half. such a happy name as kangaroo lady cecilia despaired of finding." kangarooade, n. a kangaroo hunt; nonce word. see quotation. . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings among the gum trees,' p. : "the kangarooade--in three spirts." [title of a poem.] kangaroo-apple, n. an australian and tasmanian fruit, solanum aviculare, forst., n.o. solanaceae. the name is also applied to s. vescum, called the gunyang (q.v.). in new zealand, the fruit is called poroporo (q.v.). . ross, `van diemen's land annual, p. : `solanum laciniatum, the kangaroo-apple, resembling the apple of a potato; when so ripe as to split, it has a mealy sub-acid taste." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the kangaroo-apple (solanum laciniatum) is a fine shrub found in many parts of the country, bearing a pretty blue flower and a fruit rather unpleasant to the taste, although frequently eaten by the natives, and also by europeans." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the kangaroo-apple comes from a bush or small tree bearing blue blossoms, which are succeeded by apples like those of the potato. they have a sweetish flavour, and when ripe may be boiled and eaten, but are not greatly prized." . f. r. nixon (bishop), `cruise of beacon,' p. : "of berries and fruits of which they partook, the principal were those of solanum laciniatum, or kangaroo-apple, when dead ripe." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "solanum aviculare, on which our colonists have very inappropriately bestowed the name kangaroo-apple, while in literal scientific translation it ought to be called bird's nightshade, because captain cook's companions observed in new zealand that birds were feeding on the berries of this bush." kangaroo-dog, n. a large dog, lurcher, deerhound, or greyhound, used for hunting the kangaroo. . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "shortly before the estramina left the river derwent, two men unfortunately perished by a whale-boat upsetting, in which they were transporting four valuable kangaroo-dogs to the opposite side, none of which ever reached the shore." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "the kind of dog used for coursing the kangaroo is generally a cross between the greyhound and the mastiff or sheep-dog; but in a climate like new south wales they have, to use the common phrase, too much lumber about them. the true bred greyhound is the most useful dog: he has more wind; he ascends the hills with more ease; and will run double the number of courses in a day. he has more bottom in running, and if he has less ferocity when he comes up with an `old man,' so much the better, as he exposes himself the less, and lives to afford sport another day." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "they . . . are sometimes caught by the kangaroo-dogs." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "a fine kangaroo-dog was pointed out to us, so fond of kangarooing that it goes out alone, kills the game, and then fetches its master to the dead animals." . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "with the gun over his shoulder, and the kangaroo-dog in a leash by his side." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' c. iii. p. : "on every station, also, a large kind of greyhound, a cross of the scotch greyhound and english bulldog, called the kangaroo-dog, which runs by sight, is kept for the purpose of their destruction." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "kangaroo-dogs are a special breed, a kind of strong greyhound." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "that big, powerful, black kangaroo-dog marmarah was well worth looking at, with his broad, deep chest, intelligent, determined eyes, sinews of a gymnast, and ribs like damascus steel. on his black skin he bore marks of many honourable fights; the near side showed a long, whitish line where the big emu he had run down, tackled single-handed, and finally killed, had laid him open. his chest and legs showed numerous grey scars, each with a history of its own of which he might well be proud." kangaroo-fly, n. a small australian fly, cabarus. see quotations. . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. : "our camp was infested by the kangaroo-fly, which settled upon us in thousands." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. [note]: "rather smaller than the house-fly, it acts with such celerity that it has no sooner settled on the face or hands than it inflicts instantaneously a painful wound, which often bleeds subsequently. it is called by the colonists the kangaroo-fly; and though not very common, the author can testify that it is one of the most annoying pests of australia." kangaroo-grass, n. a name given to several species of grasses of the genera anthistiria and andropogon, chiefly from their height, but also because, when they are young and green in spring, the kangaroo feeds on them. andropogon is more like a rush or sedge, and is sometimes so high as to completely conceal horses. see grass. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "of native grasses we possess the oat-grass, rye-grass, fiorin, kangaroo-grass, and timothy,--blady grass growing in wet, flooded, alluvial spots, and wire-grass upon cold, wet, washed clays." . `report of van diemen's land company,' in j. bischoff's `van diemen's land' ( ), c. v. p. : "the grasses were principally timothy, foxtail, and single kangaroo." . t. l. mitchell, `tropical australia, p. : "a new species of anthistiria occurred here, perfectly distinct from the kangaroo grass of the colony." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the most conspicuous of the native gramineae that so widely cover the surface of australia felix." . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "where are the genial morning dews of former days that used to glisten upon and bespangle the vernal-leaved kangaroo grass?" . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania,' p. : "between the lake river and launceston . . . i was most agreeably surprised in beholding the novel sight of a spacious enclosure of waving kangaroo grass, high and thick-standing as a good crop of oats, and evidently preserved for seed." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "not even a withered wisp of kangaroo-grass." (p. ): "the long brown kangaroo-grass." . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "had they but pulled a tuft of the kangaroo-grass beneath their feet, they would have found gold at its roots." kangaroo-hop, n. a peculiar affected gait. see quotation. . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "the young lady that affects waterfalls, the grecian-bend, or the kangaroo hop." kangaroo-hound, n. i.q. kangaroo-dog (q.v.). . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "a large dog, a kangaroo-hound (not unlike a lurcher in appearance)." kangarooing, vb. n. hunting the kangaroo. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' p. : "in chasing kangaroos, or, as it is technically termed, `kangarooing,' large powerful dogs are used . . ." . e. b. kennedy, `four years in queensland,' p. : "you may be out kangarooing; the dogs take after one [a kangaroo], and it promises to be a good course." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "we were sick of kangarooing, like the dogs themselves, that as they grew old would run a little way and then pull up if a mob came jump, jump, past them." kangaroo-mouse, n. more strictly called the pouched-mouse (q.v.). . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "it is a long chain from the big forester, down through the different varieties of wallaby to the kangaroo-rat, and finally, to the tiny interesting little creature known on the plains as the `kangaroo-mouse'; but all have the same characteristics." kangaroo-net, n. net made by the natives to catch the kangaroo. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "i found . . . four fine kangaroo-nets, made of the bark of sterculia." kangaroo-rat, or rat-kangaroo, n. the name applied to species of marsupials belonging to the following genera, viz.-- ( ) potorous, ( ) caloprymnus, ( ) bettongia, ( ) aepyprymnus. ( ) the first genus (potorous, q.v.) includes animals about the size of a large rat; according to gould, although they stand much on their hind-legs they run in a totally different way to the kangaroo, using fore and hind-legs in a kind of gallop and never attempting to kick with the hind-feet. the aboriginal name was potoroo. the species are three--the broad-faced kangaroo-rat, potorous platyops, gould; gilbert's, p. gilberti, gould; common, p. tridactylus, kerr. they are confined to australia and tasmania, and one tasmanian variety of the last species is bigger than the mainland form. there is also a dwarf tasmanian variety of the same species. ( ) a second genus (caloprymnus, q.v.) includes the plain kangaroo-rat; it has only one species, c. campestris, gould, confined to south australia. the epithet plain refers to its inhabiting plains. ( ) a third genus (bettongia, q.v.) includes the prehensile-tailed rat-kangaroos and has four species, distributed in australia and tasmania-- brush-tailed kangaroo-rat-- bettongia penicillata, gray. gaimard's k.-r.-- b. gaimardi, desm. lesueur's k.-r.-- b. lesueuri, quoy and gaim. tasmanian k.-r.-- b. cuniculus, ogilby. ( ) a fourth genus (aepyprymnus, q.v.) includes the rufous kangaroo-rat. it has one species, ae. rufescens, grey. it is the largest of the kangaroo-rats and is distinguished by its ruddy colour, black-backed ears, and hairy nose. [mr. lydekker proposes to call the animal the rat- kangaroo (see quotation, ), but the name kangaroo- rat is now so well-established that it does not seem possible to supersede it by the, perhaps, more correct name of rat-kangaroo. the introduction of the word kangaroo prevents any possibility of confusion between this animal and the true rodent, and it would seem to be a matter of indifference as to which word precedes or follows the other.] . governor phillip (despatch, may ), in `historical records of new south wales,' vol. i. pt. ii. p. : "many trees were seen with holes that had been enlarged by the natives to get at the animal, either the squirrel, kangaroo rat, or opossum, for the going in of which perhaps they wait under their temporary huts, and as the enlarging these holes could only be done with the shell they used to separate the oysters from the rocks, must require great patience." governor hunter, `voyage,' p. : "as most of the large trees are hollow by being rotten in the heart, the opossum, kangaroo-rat, squirrel, and various other animals which inhabit the woods, when they are pursued, commonly run into the hollow of a tree." . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. xi. p. : "the poto roo, or kangaroo-rat. . . . this curious animal which is indeed a miniature of the kangaroo." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the kangaroo-rat is a small inoffensive animal and perfectly distinct from the ordinary species of rat." . c. darwin, `naturalist's voyage,' c. xix. p. : "the greyhounds pursued a kangaroo-rat into a hollow tree, out of which we dragged it; it is an animal as large as a rabbit, but with the figure of a kangaroo." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the kangaroo-rat is twice the size of a large english water-rat, and of the same colour, measuring nearly two feet in length." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "two or three of the smallest kind, called the kangaroo-rat-- about the size of a hare, and affording pretty good coursing." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "one of the skin aprons . . . made from the skin of a kangaroo-rat." . c. w. schurmann, `native tribes of australia--port lincoln tribe,' p. : "the natives use this weapon [the waddy] principally for throwing at kangaroo-rats or other small animals." . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association for the advancement of science,' melbourne, p. : "the victorian kangaroo rat is bettongia cuniculus." . r.lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the rat-kangaroos, often incorrectly spoken of as kangaroo-rats." kangaroo-skin, n. either the leather for the tanned hide, or the complete fur for rugs and wraps. . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "the fitness of the kangaroo-skin for upper leathers will no doubt obtain preference over most of the imported leather, as it is in general lighter and equally durable." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "i used always to strip and preserve the pelt, for it makes good and pretty door-mats, and is most useful for pouches, leggings, light-whips, or any purpose where you require something strong and yet neater than green hide. i have seen saddles covered with it, and kangaroo-skin boots are very lasting and good." kangaroo-tail soup, n. soup made from the kangaroo-tail. . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : "the tail of the forest kangaroo in particular makes a soup which, both in richness and flavour, is far superior to any ox-tail soup ever tasted." . lady barker, writing from melbourne, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the soups comprised kangaroo-tail--a clear soup not unlike ox-tail, but with a flavour of game." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xxxv. p. : "kangaroo-tail and ox-tail soup disputed pre-eminence." kangaroo-thorn, n. an indigenous hedge-plant, acacia armata, r. br., n.o. leguminosae; called also kangaroo acacia. kapai, adj. maori word for good, used by the english in the north island of new zealand; e.g. "that is a kapai pipe." "i have a kapai gun." . `new zealand herald,' feb. (leading article): "the maori word which passed most familiarly into the speech of europeans was `kapai,' `this is good.'" kapu, n. maori word for a stone adze. the maori word means the hollow of the hand. the adze is so called from its curved shape. (williams, `maori dict.') . `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "kapu,, or adze." karaka, n. maori name for a tree, corynocarpus laevigata, forst. n.o. anacardiaceae; also called cow-tree (q.v.), forty feet high, with orange- coloured berries, two to three inches long. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "two or three canoes were hauled up under some karaka trees, which formed a pleasant grove in a sort of recess from the beach." ibid. vol. i. p. : "the karaka-tree much resembles the laurel in its growth and foliage. it bears bright orange-coloured berries about the size and shape of damsons, growing in bunches. the fruit is sickly and dry; but the kernel forms an important article of native food." . a. s. thomson, `story of new zealand,' p. : "the karaka fruit is about the size of an acorn. the pulp is eaten raw; the kernel is cooked in the oven for ten days, and then steeped for several weeks in a running stream before it is fit for use. karaka berries for winter use are dried in the sun. the kernel is poisonous uncooked." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the thick karakas' varnished green." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "the karaka with its brilliantly polished green leaves and golden yellow fruit." . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "bring the heavy karaka leaf, gather flowers of richest hue." . `otago witness,' nov. . (native trees): "corynocarpus laevigata (generally known by the name of karaka). the fruit is poisonous, and many deaths of children occur through eating it. mr. anderson, a surgeon who accompanied captain cook, mentions this tree and its fruit, and says the sailors ate it, but does not say anything about it being poisonous. the poison is in the hard inner part, and it may be that they only ate the outer pulp." karamu, n. maori name for several species of the new zealand trees of the genus coprosma, n.o. rubiaceae. some of the species are called tree-karamu, and others bush-karamu; to the latter (c. lucida, kirk) the name coffee-plant, or coffee-bush, is also applied. . j. white, `te rou, or the maori at home,' p. : "then they tied a few karamu branches in front of them and went towards the settlement." . j. c. crawford, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. ix. art. lxxx. p. : "i have seen it stated that coffee of fine flavour has been produced from the karamu, coprosma lucida." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "karamu. an ornamental shrub-tree; wood close-grained and yellow; might be used for turnery." . t. f. cheeseman, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xx. art. xxii. p. : "the first plant of interest noted was a new species of coprosma, with the habit of the common karamu." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "`karamu' is applied by the maoris to several species of coprosma, amongst which, i believe, this [c. arborea] is included, but it is commonly termed `tree-karamu' by bushmen and settlers in the north." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' `new zealand country journal,' vol. xv. p. : "of these fruits that of the karamu, (coprosma lucida), seemed to be amongst the first to be selected." kareau or kareao, n. maori name for supplejack (q.v.). karmai, n. used by settlers in south island of new zealand for towhai (q.v.), a new zealand tree, weinmannia racemosa, forst. n.o. saxifrageae. kamahi is the maori, and karmai, or kamai, the corruption. . w. n. blair, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. ix. p. : "as will be seen by the tables of names, kamai is called black birch in the catlin river district and southland, which name is given on account of a supposed resemblance to the `birches,' or more correctly `beeches,' a number of which occur in that locality. i cannot understand how such an idea could have originated, for except in the case of the bark of one there is not the slightest resemblance between the birches and kamai. whatever be the reason, the misapplication of names is complete, for the birches are still commonly called kamai in southland." karoro, n. maori name for a black-backed gull, larus dominicanus. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : [description.] karri or kari, n. aboriginal name (western australia) for eucalyptus diversicolor. f. v. m. . w. h. knight, `western australia: its history, progress, condition, etc.,' p. : "the karri (eucalyptus colossea) is another wood very similar in many respects to the tuart, and grows to an enormous size." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the kari-tree is found in western australia, and is said to be very abundant . . . of straight growth and can be obtained of extraordinary size and length. . . . the wood is red in colour, hard, heavy, strong, tough, and slightly wavy or curled in the grain." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "commonly known as `karri,' but in its native habitat as blue-gum. . . . the durability of this timber for lengthened periods under ground yet remains to be proved." . `the inquirer and commercial news,' [perth] july , p. , col. : "mr. j. ednie brown, conservator of forests . . . expresses astonishment at the vastness of the karri forests there. they will be in a position to export one thousand loads of karri timber for street-blocking purposes every week." . `the times' (weekly edition), dec. , p. , col. : "karri, eucalyptus diversicolor, is the giant tree of western australia. an average tree has a height of about ft., and a diameter of ft. at ft. or ft. above the ground. the tree is a rapid grower, and becomes marketable in or years, against years for jarrah. karri timber is being largely exported for london street-paving, as its surface is not easily rendered slippery." katipo, n. a small venomous spider of new zealand and australia. the name is maori. the scientific name is latrodectus scelio, thorel.in new zealand, it is generally found on the beach under old driftwood; but in australia it is found widely scattered over the continent, and always frequents dark sheltered spots. the derivation may be from kakati, verb, to sting, and po, night. compare kakapo. it is a dark-coloured spider, with a bright red or yellowish stripe. . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "a small black spider with a red stripe on its back, which they [the natives of new zealand] call katipo or katepo." . sir w. buller, before wellington philosophical society, quoted in `the katipo,' jan. , , p. : "i have satisfied myself that in common with many other venomous creatures it (the katipo) only asserts its dreaded power as a means of defence, or when greatly irritated, for i have observed that on being touched with the finger it instantly folds its legs, rolls over on its back, and simulates death, remaining perfectly motionless till further molested, when it attempts to escape, only using its fangs as the dernier ressort." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals, p. : "another spider (lathrodectus scelio), which is very common here and everywhere in queensland, is very dangerous even to men. it is a small black animal, of the size of our house-spider, with a brilliant scarlet mark on its back." . c. frost, `victorian naturalist,' p. : "i also determined, should opportunity occur, to make some further experiments with the black and red spider latrodectus scelio . . . i found suspended in the web of one of this species a small lizard . . . which doubtless had been killed by its bite." . jan. , `the katipo,' a journal of events in connection with the new zealand post office and telegraph services. on p. of the first number the editor says: "if hard words could break bones, the present lot of the proprietors of `the katipo' would be a sorry one. from certain quarters invectives of the most virulent type have been hurled upon them in connection with the title now bestowed upon the publication--the main objections expressed cover contentions that the journal's prototype is a `repulsive,' `vindictive,' and `death-dealing reptile,' `inimical to man,' etc. ; and so on, ad infinitum." [the pictorial heading of each number is a katipo's web, suggestive of the reticulation of telegraph wires, concerning which page of the first number says: "the katipo spider and web extends its threads as a groundwork for unity of the services."] . h. r. hogq, `horne expedition in central australia, zoology, p. : "this spider, popularly known as the red streaked spider, is found all over victoria and new south wales, and is recorded from rockhampton and bowen on the queensland coast, and from the north island of new zealand, where it is known by the maoris as the katipo." kauri, or cowry, or kauri-pine, n. maori name for the tree agathis australis, sal. (formerly dammara a.), n.o. coniferae. variously spelt, and earlier often called cowdie. in `lee's new zealand vocabulary,' , the spelling kaudi appears. although this tree is usually called by the generic name of dammara (see quotation, ), it is properly referred to the genus agathis, an earlier name already given to it by salisbury. there is a queensland kauri (dammara robusta, f. v. m.). see pine. . r. a. cruise, `ten months in new zealand,' p. : "the banks of the river were found to abound with cowry; and . . . the carpenter was of opinion that there could be no great difficulty in loading the ship. the timber purveyor of the coromandel having given cowry a decided preference to kaikaterre, . . . it was determined to abandon all further operations." . w. yate, `true account of new zealand,' p. : "as a shrub, and during its youthful days, the kauri is not very graceful . . . but when it comes to years of maturity, it stands unrivalled for majesty and beauty." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "the kauri (dammera [sic] australis) is coniferous, resinous, and has an elongated box-like leaf." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "when captain cook visited new zealand (nearly a century after the discovery of the dammara of amboyna), he saw, upon the east coast of the northern island, a tree, called by the natives kowrie; it was found to be a second species of dammara, and was named d. australis." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "the kauri-pine is justly styled the queen of the new zealand forest . . . the celebrated and beautiful kauri." . w. m. b., `narrative of edward crewe,' p. : "the kauri is the only cone-bearing pine in new zealand. the wood is of a yellow colour, wonderfully free from knots, and harder than the red-pine of the baltic. beautifully mottled logs are sometimes met with, and are frequently made up into furniture." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the kaurie or cowdie-pine (dammara australis) is a native of and is found only in new zealand. . . . a tall and very handsome tree with a slightly tapering stem. . . . for masts, yards, etc., is unrivalled in excellence, as it not only possesses the requisite dimensions, lightness, elasticity, and strength, but is much more durable than any other pine." [the whole of chap. is devoted to this tree.] . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "as some tall kauri soars in lonely pride, so proudly hira stood." . j. a. froude, `oceans,' p. : "only the majestic kauri tolerated no approaches to his dignity. under his branches all was bare and brown." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the native name `kauri' is the only common name in general use. when the timber was first introduced into britain it was termed `cowrie' or `kowdie-pine'; but the name speedily fell into disuse, although it still appears as the common name in some horticultural works." . brett, `early history of new zealand,' p. : "`the hunter' and `fancy' loaded spars for bengal at the thames in ." . . . "these two indian vessels in the thames were probably the earliest european ships that loaded with new zealand timber, and probably mark the commencement of the export kauri trade." kauri-gum, n. the resin which exudes from the kauri (q.v.), used in making varnish. . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "in the year the amount of timber exportation from the province of auckland was l , ; that of kauri-gum exported l , ." . g. walch, `head over heels,' p. : "he paid his passage with kauri-gum." . `murray's handbook to new zealand,' p. : "the industry which will most interest the tourist is the kauri-gum. . . . the resin or gum which they [the kauri-trees] contained fell into the ground as the trees died, and (not being soluble in water) has remained there ever since. men go about with spears which they drive into the ground, and if they find small pieces of gum sticking to the end of the spear, they commence digging, and are often rewarded by coming on large lumps of gum." kava, n. the word is tongan for-- ( ) an ornamental shrub, piper methysticum, miq.; also macropiper latifolium, miq. see kawa-kawa. ( ) a narcotic and stimulant beverage, prepared from the root of this plant, which used to be chewed by the natives of fiji, who ejected the saliva into a kava bowl, added water and awaited fermentation. the final stage of the manufacture was accompanied by a religious ceremonial of chanting. the manufacture is now conducted in a cleaner way. kava produces an intoxication, specially affecting the legs. . rev. t. williams, `fiji and the fijians,' vol. i. p. : "like the inhabitants of the groups eastward, the fijians drink an infusion of the piper methysticum, generally called ava or kava--its name in the tongan and other languages. some old men assert that the true fijian mode of preparing the root is by grating, as is still the practice in two or three places; but in this degenerate age the tongan custom of chewing is almost universal, the operation nearly always being performed by young men. more form attends the use of this narcotic on somosomo than elsewhere. early in the morning the king's herald stands in front of the royal abode, and shouts at the top of his voice, `yagona!' hereupon all within hearing respond in a sort of scream, `mama!'--`chew it!' at this signal the chiefs, priests, and leading men gather round the well-known bowl, and talk over public affairs, or state the work assigned for the day, while their favourite draught is being prepared. when the young men have finished the chewing, each deposits his portion in the form of a round dry ball in the bowl, the inside of which thus becomes studded over with a large number of these separate little masses. the man who has to make the grog takes the bowl by the edge and tilts it towards the king, or, in his absence, to the chief appointed to preside. a herald calls the king's attention to the slanting bowl, saying, `sir, with respects, the yagona is collected.' if the king thinks it enough, he replies, in a low tone, `loba'--`wring it--an order which the herald communicates to the man at the bowl in a louder voice. the water is then called for and gradually poured in, a little at first, and then more, until the bowl is full or the master of the ceremonies says, `stop!' the operator in the meantime gathering up and compressing the chewed root." . h. s. cooper, `the islands of the pacific,' p. : "kava is the name given to a liquor produced by chewing the root of a shrub called angona, and the ceremonious part of the preparation consists in chewing the root." kawa-kawa, n. maori name for an ornamental shrub of new zealand, macropiper excelsum. in maori, kawa = "unpleasant to the taste, bitter, sour." (williams.) the missionaries used to make small beer out of the kawa-kawa. . major greenwood, `journey from taupo to auckland,' p. : "the good missionary . . . thrust upon us . . . some bottles of a most refreshing light beverage made from the leaves of the kawa-kawa tree, which in taste much resembled ginger-beer." . anon., `colonial experiences, or incidents of thirty-four years in new zealand,' p. : "our tea was made from the dried leaves of a native shrub, of a very spicy flavour, and known as the kawakawa, too pungent if used fresh and green." . `otago witness,' june , p. : "the tints of kawa, of birch and broadleaf, of rimu and matai are blended together into one dark indivisible green." kawau, n. maori name for a shag, phalacrocorax novae-hollandiae, steph. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : [description given.] kea, n. a parrot of new zealand, nester notabilis, gould. for its habits see quotations. . j. von haast, `exploration of head waters of waitaki, ,'-in `geology of westland' (published ), p. : "what gave still greater interest to the spot was the presence of a number of large green alpine parrots (nestor notabilis), the kea of the natives, which visited continually the small grove of beech-trees near our camp." . `zoologist' for february, p. : "on the th of november last the distinguished surgeon, mr. john wood, f.r.s., exhibited before the pathological society of london the colon of a sheep, in which the operation known as colotomy had been performed by a parrot . . . the species known as the `kea' by the maoris, the `mountain parrot' of the colonists, nestor notabilis of gould. only five species . . . are known, one of which (nestor productus) has lately become extinct; they only occur in new zealand and norfolk island. they were formerly classed among the trichoglossinae or brush-tongued parrots . . . more nearly allied to true psittaci . . . its ordinary food consists of berries and insects; but since its alpine haunts have been reached by the tide of civilization, it has acquired a taste for raw flesh, to obtain which it even attacks living animals." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "we have the hoary-headed nestors, amongst which are found the noisy honey-loving kaka, the hardy kea, that famous sheep- killer and flesh-eater, the dread of many an alpine sheep farmer." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "nestor notabilis, gould, kea-parrot, mountain-parrot of the colonists." . `antipodean notes,' p. : "the kea picks the fat which surrounds the kidneys. . . . various theories have been started to explain how this parrot has become carnivorous." [two pages are devoted to the question.] . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "the kea-parrot. . . . the kea is pretty to look at, having rich red and green plumage, but it is a cruel bird. it is said that it will fasten on the back of a living sheep and peck its way down to the kidney-fat, for which this parrot has a special fancy. no tourist need feel compunction about shooting a kea." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "another very interesting group of birds are the large dull colonial parrots of the genus nestor, called kea or kaka by the natives from their peculiar cries. their natural food is berries . . . but of late years the kea (nestor notabilis), a mountain species found only in the south island, has developed a curious liking for meat, and now attacks living sheep, settling on their backs and tearing away the skin and flesh to get at the kidney fat." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "there is in the alpine regions of the south island a plant popularly called the `vegetable sheep,' botanically named raoulia. from the distance of even a few yards it looks like a sheep. it grows in great masses, and consists of a woolly vegetation. a large specimen of this singular plant was exhibited in the colonial and indian exhibition. it is said that the kea was in the habit of tearing it up to get at the grubs which harbour within the mass, and that mistaking dead sheep for vegetable sheep it learned the taste of mutton. a more enterprising generation preferred its mutton rather fresher." kelp-fish, n. in new zealand, also called butter-fish (q.v.), coridodax pullus, forst. in tasmania, odax baleatus, cuv. and val.; called also ground mullet by the fishermen. in victoria, chironemus marmoratus, gunth. coridodax and odax belong to the family labridae or wrasses, which comprises the rock-whitings; chironemus to the family cirrhitidae. the name is also given in new zealand to another fish, the spotty (q.v.). these fishes are all different from the californian food- fishes of the same name. . j. richardson, `description of australian fishes,' p. : "this fish is known at port arthur by the appellation of `kelp-fish,' i suppose from its frequenting the thickets of the larger fuci." kennedya, n. the scientific name of a genus of perennial leguminous herbs of the bean family-named, in , after mr. kennedy, a gardener at hammersmith, near london. there are seventeen species, all natives of australia and tasmania, many of them cultivated for the sake of their showy flowers and berries. others lie near the ground like a vetch; k. prostrata is called the coral pea (q.v.), or bleeding heart, or native scarlet runner, or running postman. another species is called australian sarsaparilla. see sarsaparilla. . r. m. praed, `the head station,' p. : "taking off his felt hat, he twisted round it a withe of crimson kennedia, then put it on again." kestrel, n. the common english name for a falcon. according to gould the australian species is identical with cerchneis tinnunculus, a european species, but vigors and horsfield differentiate it as tinnunculus cenchroides. . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the kestrel's nest we always found in the fluted gums that overhung the creek, the red eggs resting on the red mould of the decaying trunk being almost invisible." kia ora, interj. maori phrase used by english in the north island of new zealand, and meaning "health to you!" a private letter ( ) says--"you will hear any day at a melbourne bar the first man say keora ta-u, while the other says keora tatu, so replacing "here's to you!" these expressions are corruptions of the maori, kia ora taua, "health to us too!" and kia ora tatou, "health to all of us!" kie-kie, n. maori name for a climbing plant, freycinetia banksii, n.o. pandanaceae; frequently pronounced ghi-ghi in the north island of new zealand, and gay-gie in the south island. . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' p. : "the trees were . . . covered with a kind of parasite plant, called a keekee, having a thick cabbage-like stock." . a. domett, `ranolf' (notes), p. : "kie-kie (parasite). . . . a lofty climber; the bracts and young spikes make a very sweet preserve." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the unused food . . . of our little camp, together with the empty kie-kie baskets." [sc. baskets made of kie-kie leaves.] kiley, n. aboriginal word in western australia for a flat weapon, curved for throwing, made plane on one side and slightly convex on the other. a kind of boomerang. . nathaniel ogle, `the colony of western australia,' p. : "in every part of this great continent they have the koilee, or boomerang . . ." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. . c. iv. p. : "one of them had a kiley or bomerang." . mrs. e. millett, `an australian parsonage; or, the settler and the savage in western australia,' p. : "the flat curved wooden weapon, called a kylie, which the natives have invented for the purpose of killing several birds out of a flock at one throw, looks not unlike a bird itself as it whizzes (or walks as natives say) through the air in its circular and ascending flight. . ." lady barker, `letters to guy,' p. : "more wonderful and interesting, however, is it to see them throw the kylie (what is called the boomerang in other parts of australia), a curiously curved and flat stick, about a foot long and two or three inches wide. . . . there are heavier `ground kylies,' which skim along the ground, describing marvellous turns and twists, and they would certainly break the leg of any bird or beast they hit; but their gyrations are nothing compared to those of a good air-kylie in skilful hands." kinaki, n. a maori word for food eaten with another kind to give it a relish. compare grk. 'opson. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "kinaki. victuals, added for variety's sake." . `appendix to journal of house of representatives,' vol. iii. g. , p. : "if it be a maori who is taken by me, he will also be made into a kinaki for my cabbage." . r. c. barstow, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. p. : "fifty years ago it would have been a poor hapu that could not afford a slave or two as a kinaki, or relish, on such an occasion." king-fish, n. in new zealand a sea-fish, seriola lalandii (maori, haku), sometimes called the yellow-tail; in victoria, sciaena antarctica, castln. called jew-fish (q.v.) in new south wales. tenison woods says the king-fish of port jackson must not be confounded with the king-fish of victoria or the king-fish of tasmania (thyrsites micropus, mccoy). the port jackson king-fish belongs to a genus called "yellow-tails" in europe. this is seriola lalandii, cuv. and val. seriola belongs to the family carangidae, or horse- mackerels. thyrsites belongs to the family trichiuridae. the "barracouta" of australasia is another species of thyrsites, and the "frost-fish" belongs to the same family. the kingfish of america is a different fish; the name is also applied to other fishes in europe. . p. thomson, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. lii. p. : "the king-fish, seriola lalandii, put in no appearance this year." . `royal commission on fisheries of tasmania,' p. : "thyrsites lalandii, the king-fish of tasmania: migratory. appear in immense numbers at certain seasons (december to june) in pursuit of the horse-mackerel. caught with a swivelled barbless hook at night. voracious in the extreme--individuals frequently attacking each other, and also the allied species, the barracouta." kingfisher, n. common english bird-name. gould mentions thirteen species in australia. the australian species are-- blue kingfisher-- halcyon azurea, lath. fawn-breasted k.-- dacelo cervina, gould. forest k.-- halcyon macleayi, jard. and selb. laughing jackass (q.v.)-- dacelo gigas, bodd. leach's k.-- d. leachii, vig. and hors. little k.-- halcyon pusilla, temm. mangrove k.-- h. sordidus, gould. purple k.-- h. pulchra, gould. red-backed k.-- h. pyrropygius, gould. sacred k.-- h. sanctus, vig. and hors. white-tailed k.-- tanysiptera sylvia, gould. yellow-billed k.-- syma flavirostris, gould. there is a kingfisher in new zealand (halcyon vagans, less.) considered identical by many with h. sanctus of australia, but concluded by butler to be a distinct species. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : [a full description.] king of the herrings, n. another name for the elephant-fish (q.v.). . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association' (melbourne), p. : "the king of the herrings, callorhynchus antarcticus, is fairly common with us." king-parrot. see parrot. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : this creek [king parrot creek] was named after a beautiful parrot which was then seen for the first time. it is a bird of magnificent plumage, with crimson feathers on the body, and blue wings, both of gorgeous hue, and no other colour except a little black. the name, king parrot, is variously applied to several birds in different arts of australia; the one described is common." king william pine, n. a tasmanian tree. see cedar. kino, n. a drug; the dried juice, of astringent character, obtained from incisions in the bark of various trees. in australia it is got from certain eucalypts, e.g. e. resinifera, smith, and e. corymbosa, smith. "it is used in england under the name of red-gum in astringent lozenges for sore throat." (`century.') see red gum. the drug is australian, but the word, according to littre, is "mot des indes orientales." kipper, n. a youth who has been initiated, i.e. been through the bora (q.v.). it is a queensland word. in kabi, queensland, the form is kivar: on the brisbane river, it is kippa, whereas in the kamilaroi of new south wales the word is kubura. . h. berkeley jones, `adventures in australia in and ,' p. : "around us sat `kippers,' i.e. `hobbledehoy blacks.'" . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the young men receive the rank of warriors, and are henceforth called kippers." kit, n. a flexible maori basket; not the english kit used by soldiers, but the maori word kete, a basket. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "kete (maori), pa-kete (anglo-maori), basket, kit (eng.)." . e. b. fitton, `new zealand,' p. : "the natives generally bring their produce to market in neatly made baskets, plaited from flax and known by the name of `maori kits.'" . c. hursthouse, `new zealand, the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "the kit is a large plaited green-flax basket." . an old colonist, `colonial experiences,' p. : "potatoes were procurable from the maoris in flax kits, at from one to five shillings the kit." . lady martin, `our maoris,' p. : "they might have said, as an old maori woman long afterwards said to me, `mother, my heart is like an old kete (i.e. a coarsely-woven basket). the words go in, but they fall through.'" kite, n. common english bird-name. the species in australia are-- allied kite-- milvus affanis, gould. black-shouldered k.-- elanus axillaris, lath. letter-winged k.-- e. scriptus, gould. square-tailed k.-- lophoictinia isura, gould. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we had to guard it by turns, whip in hand, from a host of square-tailed kites (milvus isiurus)." . g. a. keartland, `horne expedition in central australia,' zoology, p. : "at any stockyard or station passed kites were seen . . . at henbury one female bird was bold enough to come right into camp and pick up the flesh thrown to it from birds i was skinning." kiwi, n. maori name for a wingless struthious bird of new zealand, the apteryx (q.v.), so called from the note of the bird. the species are-- large grey kiwi (roa roa, generally shortened to roa, q.v.)-- apteryx haastii, potts. little grey k.-- a. oweni, gould. north island k.-- a. bulleri, sharpe. south island k. (tokoeka)-- a. australis, shaw and nodder. see buller, `birds of new zealand' ( ), vol. ii. p. . . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "kiwi--the most remarkable and curious bird in new zealand." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "apteryx australis, shaw, kiwi kiwi." [australis here equals southern, not australian.] . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "the kiwi, however, is only the last and rather insignificant representative of the family of wingless birds that inhabited new zealand in bygone ages." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "'twas nothing but that wing-less, tail-less bird, the kiwi." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the fact that one collector alone had killed and disposed of above specimens of the harmless kiwi." . professor parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "the kiwi, although flightless, has a small but well-formed wing, provided with wing quills." knockabout, adj. a species of labourer employed on a station; applied to a man of all work on a station. like rouseabout (q.v.). . w. harcus, `southern australia,' p. : "knockabout hands, s. to s. per week." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "they were composed chiefly of what is called in the bush `knockabout men'--that is, men who are willing to undertake any work, sometimes shepherding, sometimes making yards or driving." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' xvi. p. : "i watched his development through various stages of colonial experience--into dairyman, knockabout man, bullock-driver, and finally stock-rider." knock-down, v. generally of a cheque. to spend riotously, usually in drink. . marcus clarke, `peripatetic philosopher' (reprint), p. : "last night! went knocking round with swizzleford and rattlebrain. c'sino, and v'ri'tes. such a lark! stole two red boots and a brass hat. knocked down thirteen notes, and went to bed as tight as a fly!" . j. j. simpson, `recitations,' p. : "hundreds of diggers daily then were walking melbourne town, with their pockets fill'd with gold, which they very soon knock'd down." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "cashed by the nearest publican, who of course never handed over a cent. a man was compelled to stay there and knock his cheque down `like a man'" . h. finch-hatton,' advance australia,' p. : "a system known as `knocking down one's cheque' prevails all over the unsettled parts of australia. that is to say, a man with a cheque, or a sum of money in his possession, hands it over to the publican, and calls for drinks for himself and his friends, until the publican tells him he has drunk out his cheque." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. xviii. p. : "the illiterate shearer who knocks down his cheque in a spree." koala, coola, or kool-la, n. aboriginal name for native bear (q.v.); genus, phascolarctus (q.v.). a variant of an aboriginal word meaning a big animal. in parts of south australia koola means a kangaroo. . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "the koolah or sloth is likewise an animal of the opossum species, with a false belly. this creature is from a foot and a half to two feet in length, and takes refuge in a tree, where he discovers his haunt by devouring all the leaves before he quits it." . j. gould, `proceedings of the zoological society of london,' november: "the light-coloured mark on the rump, somewhat resembling that on the same part of the koala . . . the fur is remarkable for its extreme density and for its resemblance to that of the koala." kohekohe, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, sometimes called cedar, dysoxylum spectabile, hook (n.o. meliaceae). . hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "kohekohe. a large forest tree, forty to fifty feet high. its leaves are bitter, and used to make a stomachic infusion: wood tough, but splits freely." kohua, n. maori word, for ( ) a maori oven; ( ) a boiler. there is a maori verb kohu, to cook or steam in a native oven (from a noun kohu, steam, mist), and an adj. kohu, concave. the word is used by the english in new zealand, and is said to be the origin of goashore (q.v.). kokako, n. maori name for the blue-wattled crow. see under crow and wattle-bird. . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the orange-wattled crow, or wattled bird, kokako of the maoris, glaucopis cinerea, gml., still seems to be an almost unknown bird as to its nesting habits. . . . the kokako loving a moist temperature will probably soon forsake its ancient places of resort." kokopu, n. maori name for a new zealand fish; any species of galaxias, especially g. fasciatus; corrupted into cock-a-bully (q.v.). see mountain trout. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "kokopu. name of a certain fish." . r. a. sherrin, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "`kokopu,' dr.hector says, `is the general maori name for several very common fishes in the new zealand streams and lakes, belonging to the family of galaxidae.'" kokowai, n. maori name for red ochre, an oxide of iron deposited in certain rivers, used by the maoris for painting. it was usually mixed with shark oil, but for very fine work with oil from the berries of the titoki (q.v.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "his head, with the hair neatly arranged and copiously ornamented with feathers, reclined against a carved post, which was painted with kokowai, or red ochre." . r. c. barstow, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. p. : "kokowai is a kind of pigment, burnt, dried, and mixed with shark-liver oil." konini, n. maori name for ( ) the fruit of the new zealand fuchsia, fuchsia excorticata, linn. ( ) a settlers' name for the tree itself. see kotukutuku. . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the berries of the konini . . . ripening early furnish some part of its (bell-bird's) food supply." (p. ): "rather late in august, when the brown-skinned konini begins to deck its bare sprays with pendulous flowers." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "mr. colenso informs me that it [fuchsia excorticata] is the kohutuhutu and the kotukutuku of the maoris, the fruit being known as konini, especially in the south island and the southern part of the north island. the settlers sometimes term it kotukutuku or konini, but more generally fuchsia." kooberry, n. aboriginal name for the bidyan ruffe (q.v.). kookaburra, n. (also gogobera and goburra), the aboriginal name for the bird called the laughing jackass (q.v.). the first spelling is that under which the aboriginal name now survives in english, and is the name by which the bird is generally called in sydney. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "and wild goburras laughed aloud their merry morning songs." . f. s. wilson, `australian songs,' p. : "the rude rough rhymes of the wild goburra's song." . e. m. curr, `australian race,' p. : "the notes of this bird are chiefly composed of the sounds ka and koo, and from them it takes its name in most of the languages . . . it is noticeable in some localities that burra is the common equivalent of people or tribe, and that the pegulloburra . . . the owanburra, and many other tribes, called the laughing- jackass--kakooburra, kakaburra, kakoburra, and so on; literally the kakoo people." [mr. curr's etymology is not generally accepted.] . `the argus,' oct. , p. , col : "you might hear the last hoot of the kookaburra then." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "but what board will intervene to protect the disappearing marsupials, and native flora, the lyre-bird, the kookaburra, and other types which are rapidly disappearing despite the laws which have been framed in some instances for their protection?" . e. p. ramsay, `catalogue of australian birds in the australian museum at sydney,' p. , s.v. dacelo: "gogobera, aborigines of new south wales." koradji, or coradgee, n. aboriginal name for a wise man, sorcerer, or doctor. in the south-east of new south wales, it means one of the tribal wizards, usually called "blackfellow- doctors." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the coradgees, who are their wise men, have, they suppose, the power of healing and foretelling. each tribe possesses one of these learned pundits, and if their wisdom were in proportion to their age, they would indeed be solons." . s. bennett, `australian discovery,' p. : "kiradjee, a doctor; grk. cheirourgos. persian, khoajih. english, surgeon. old english (obsolete), chirurgeon." [curious and impossible etymology.] . w. howitt, `discovery in australia, vol. i. p. : "one who seemed a coradge, or priest, went through a strange ceremony of singing, and touching his eyebrows, nose, and breast, crossing himself, and pointing to the sky like an old druid." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the korradgees, or medicine men, are the chief repositories (of the secrets of their religion)." . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "for some diseases, the kar'aji, or native doctor when he is called in, makes passes with his hand over the sick man, much in the same way as a mesmerist will do . . . our australian karaji is highly esteemed, but not paid." korari, n. often pronounced koladdy and koladdy, and spelt variously; the maori word for the flowering stem of phormium tenax, j. and g. forst. (q.v.), generally used for making a mokihi (q.v.). there is a maori noun, kora, a small fragment; and a verb korari, to pluck a twig, or tear it off. . `old identity' [title]: "the old identities of the province of otago." [p. ]: "a kolladie (the flower stalk of the flax, about seven feet long) carried by each, as a balancing pole or staff." . daniel frobisher, `sketches of gossipton,' p. : "but now the faithful brute is gone; through bush and fern and flax koladdy, where oft he bunny pounced upon, no more will follow me, poor paddy." korero, n. maori for a conference, a conversation. the verb means "to tell, to say, to address, to speak, to talk." (`williams' maori dictionary,' th. ed.) . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "korero, s. a speaking; v. n. speaking." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "there were about sixty men assembled, and they proceeded to hold a `korero,' or talk on the all-important subject." ibid. p. : "with the exception of an occasional exclamation of `korero, korero,' `speak, speak,' which was used like our `hear, hear,' in either an encouraging or an ironical sense, or an earnest but low expression of approval or dissent, no interruption of the orators ever took place." . t. moser, `mahoe leaves,' p. : "as he had to pass several pahs on the road, at all of which there would be `koreros.'" (p. ): "had been joined by a score or more of their acquaintances, and what between `koreros' and `ko-mitis,' had not made any further progress on their journey." . `otago witness,' jan. , p. , col. : "all this after a very excited `korero' on the empty dray, with the surging and exciting crowd around." korimako, n. maori name for the bell-bird (q.v.). . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "the korimako, or kokorimako (anthornis melanura). this bird is the sweetest songster of new zealand, but is not distinguished by its plumage, which is a yellowish olive with a dark bluish shade on each side of the head." ibid. p. : "in the first oven [at the maori child's naming feast] a korimako was cooked; this is the sweetest singing bird of new zealand; it was eaten that the child might have a sweet voice and be an admired orator." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the korimako, sweetest bird of all that are in forest heard." . w. w. smith, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. xxi. p. : "anthornis melanura, korimako or bell-bird. in fine weather the bush along the south shores of lake brunner re-echoes with the rich notes of the tui and korimako, although both species have disappeared from former haunts east of the alps." koromiko, n. a white flowering arborescent veronica of new zealand, veronica salicifolia, forst., n.o. scrophularineae. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "koromiko, a very ornamental plant, but disappearing before the horse. it bears a tapering-shaped flower of a purplish white." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "just a ditch, with flowering koromiko rich." . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "the early breeze that played among the koromiko's leaves." . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby,' p. : "fostered by the cool waters of a mountain rivulet, the koromiko grows by the side of the poisonous tutu bushes." korora, n. maori name for a blue penguin, spheniscus minor, gmel. see penguin. korrumburra, n. aboriginal name for the common blow-fly, which in australia is a yellow-bottle, not a blue-bottle. . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "odd `korrumburras' dodge quickly about with cheerful hum. where they go, these busy buzzy flies, when the cold calls them away for their winter vac. is a mystery. can they hibernate? for they show themselves again at the first glint of the spring sun." kotuku, n. maori name for the white crane of the colonists, which is really a white heron (ardea egretta). see crane. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : [a full description.] kotukutuku, n. maori name for the new zealand tree, fuchsia excorticata, linn., n.o. onagrariea; written also kohutuhutu. this name is not much used, but is corrupted into tookytook (q.v.). see konini and fuchsia. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "kotukutuku. the fruit is called konini. a small and ornamental tree, ten to thirty feet high . . . a durable timber. . . . the wood might be used as dye-stuff . . . its fruit is pleasant and forms principal food of the wood-pigeon." kowhai, n. maori name given to-- ( ) locust-tree, yellow kowhai (sophora tetraptera, aiton, n.o. leguminosae). ( ) parrot-bill, scarlet kowhai (clianthus puniceus, n.o. leguminosae), or kaka-bill (q.v.). variously spelt kowai and kohai, and corrupted into goai (q.v.) by the settlers. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the kohai too, a species of mimosa covered with bright yellow blossoms, abounds in such situations where the stunted growth is an almost unvarying sign of constant inundation." [mr. wakefield was mistaken. the kohai is not a mimosa.] . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "`tis the kowhai, that spendthrift so golden but its kinsman to nature beholden, for raiment its beauty to fold in, deep-dyed as of trogon or lory, how with parrot-bill fringes 'tis burning, one blood-red mound of glory!" . `new zealand parliamentary debates,' no. , p. : "kowai timber, thoroughly seasoned, used for fencing posts, would stand for twelve or fourteen years; while posts cut out of the same bush and used green would not last half the time." . t. h. potts, 'out in the open,' p. : "the head of the straight-stemmed kowhai is already crowned with racemes of golden blossoms." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "kowhai--a small or middling-sized tree. . . . wood red, valuable for fencing, being highly durable . . . used for piles in bridges, wharves, etc." . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "the dazzling points of morning's lances waked the red kowhai's drops from sleep." kuku, or kukupa, n. maori name for the new zealand fruit-pigeon (q.v.), carpophaga novae-zelandiae, gmel. called also kereru. the name is the bird's note. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "kuku, s. the cry of a pigeon." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "family columbidae--kereru, kukupa (kuku, carpophaga novae zealandiae), the wood-pigeon. this is a very fine large bird, the size of a duck; the upper part of the breast green and gold, the lower a pure white, legs and bill red. it is a heavy flying bird, and very stupid, which makes it an easy prey to its enemies. the natives preserve large quantities in calabashes, taking out the bones; these are called kuku." ibid. p. : "the pigeon bears two names--the kuku and kukupa, which are common to the isles." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "the kukupa . . . was just the bird created expressly for the true cockney sportsman--the one after his heart . . . for if not brought down by the first shot, why he only shakes his feathers and calmly waits to be shot at again!" . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "the kuku, plaintive, wakes to mourn her mate." kumara, or kumera, n. (pronounced koomera), a maori word for an edible root, the yam or sweet potato, ipomaea batatas, n.o. convolvulaceae. there are numerous varieties. it should be added that it is doubtful whether it grows wild in new zealand. . sydney parkinson, `journal of a voyage to the south seas' (see extract in `transactions of new zealand institute,' `manibus parkinsonibus sacrum,' w. colenso, vol. x. art. ix. p. ): "several canoes came alongside of the ship, of whom we got some fish, kumeras or sweet potatoes, and several other things." . `henry william diarys' (in life by carleton), p. : "kumara had been planted over the whole plain." . ibid. p. : "we passed over the hill, and found the assailants feasting on the kumara, or sweet potato, which they just pulled up from the garden at which they had landed." . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "he saw some fine peaches and kumaras or sweet potatoes." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' c. xi. p. ( rd edition, ) "the kumara or sweet potato is a most useful root." . f. e. maning (pakeha maori), `old new zealand,' p. : "behind the pigs was placed by the active exertion of two or three hundred people, a heap of potatoes and kumera, in quantity about ten tons, so there was no lack of the raw material for a feast." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "now the autumn's fruits karaka,--taro,--kumera,--berries, roots had all been harvested with merry lays and rites of solemn gladness." . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "some more dainty toothsome dish than the kumera and fish." kumquat, native, n. an australian tree, atalantia glauca, hook., n.o. rutaceae, i.q. desert lemon (q.v.). kurdaitcha, coordaitcha, or goditcha, n. a native term applied by white men to a particular kind of shoe worn by the aborigines of certain parts of central australia, and made of emu feathers matted together. the two ends are of the same shape, so that the direction in which the wearer has travelled cannot be detected. the wearer is supposed to be intent upon murder, and the blacks really apply the name to the wearer himself. the name seems to have been transferred by white men to the shoes, the native name for which is interlin~a, or urtathurta. . e. m. curr, `australian race,' vol. i. p. : "it was discovered in . . . that the blacks . . . wear a sort of shoe when they attack their enemies by stealth at night. some of the tribes call these shoes kooditcha, their name for an invisible spirit. i have seen a pair of them. the soles were made of the feathers of the emu, stuck together with a little human blood, which the maker is said to take from his arm. they were about an inch and a half thick, soft, and of even breadth. the uppers were nets made of human hair. the object of these shoes is to prevent those who wear them from being tracked and pursued after a night attack." . p. m. byrne, `proceedings of the royal society of victoria,' p. : "the wearing of the urtathurta and going kurdaitcha luma appears to have been the medium for a form of vendetta." kurrajong, n. or currajong (spelt variously), the aboriginal name for various australian and tasmanian fibrous plants; see quotations, and . they are the-- black kurrajong-- sterculia diversifolia, g. don., and sterculia quadrifida, r. br., n.o. sterculiaceae. brown k.-- commersonia echinata, r. and g. forst.; also, brachychiton gregorii; both belonging to n.o. sterculiaceae. green k.-- hibiscus heterophyllus, vent., n.o. malvaceae. tasmanian k.-- plagianthus sidoides, hook., n.o. malvaceae. others are trema aspera, blume, n.o. urticeae; and sterculia rupestris, benth., n.o. urticeae. some of the varieties are also called bottle-trees, and, in tasmania, cordage-trees (q.v.). . `uniacke's narrative of oxley's expedition,' quoted by j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "the nets used for fishing [by the natives] are made by the men from the bark of the kurrajong (hibiscus heterophyllus), a shrub which is very common to the swamps." . barron field, glossary, in `geographical memoirs of new south wales,' p. : "currijong or natives' cordage tree (hibiscus heterophyllus)." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "the curragong is sometimes found; its inner bark may be manufactured into ropes." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the currajong (sterculia)is used for cordage, and makes strong, close, but not very durable ropes." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' vol. iii. p. : "dillis neatly worked of koorajong bark." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "in such a valley in which stands a spreading corrijong (sterculia diversifolia), which has a strong resemblance to the english oak, i constantly found a flock of sheep." . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "currajong (plagianthus sidoides, hook). the fibres of the bark are very strong. it is a large shrub, found chiefly on the southern side of the island, in various and shady places, and grows rapidly." . rev. w. w. spicer, `handbook of the plants of tasmania,' p. : "plagianthus sidoides, hooker. currijong, n.o. malvaceae. peculiar to tasmania." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. : "the currejong of the forest, and the casuarina which lines the rivers, stand with brighter green in cheering contrast to the dulness of surrounding leaves." ,. w. r. guilfoyle, `australian botany' (second edition), p. : "the aborigines apply the name kurrajong, or currijong, to some [pimeleas]; but it would appear that this native name is indiscriminately given to any plant possessing a tough bark." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "quaint currajongs . . . very like in form to the stiff wooden trees we have all played with in childish days." l laburnum, native, n. the tasmanian clover-tree, goodenia lotifolia, sal., n.o. leguminosae. laburnum, sea-coast, n. also called golden chain, sophora tomentosa, linn., n.o. leguminosae; a tall, hoary shrub. lace-bark, lacey-bark, or lacewood, n. names for ribbonwood (q.v.). the inner bark of the tree is like fine lace. . w. n. blair, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. ix. art. x. p. : "ribbonwood, plagianthus betulinus, botanical name, hooker; whauwhi, maori name, according to hector; lace-bark tree, settlers' name, according to buchanan." . t. h. potts, `out in the open': "the soft, bright-foliaged ribbonwood (lace-bark, plagianthus) contrasts with the dusky hue of the dark-leaved fagus." lace-lizard, n. hydrosaurus (varanus) varius. see goanna. . f. mccoy, `prodomus of the natural history of victoria,' dec. : "although the present lace lizard is generally arboreal, climbing the forest trees with ease, and running well on the ground, it can swim nearly as well as a crocodile." lagorchestes, n. the scientific name for a genus of australian marsupial mammals, called the hare- wallabies or hare-kangaroos (q.v.). (grk. lagows, a hare, and 'orchestaes, a dancer.) they live on plains, and make a "form" in the herbage like the hare, which they resemble. lagostrophus, n. the scientific name of the genus containing the animal called the banded-wallaby. (grk. lagows, a hare, and strophos, a band or zone.) its colour is a greyish-brown, with black and white bands, its distinguishing characteristic. it is sometimes called the banded-kangaroo, and is found at dirk hartog's island, and on one or two islands in shark's bay, and in west australia. for its interesting habits see r. lyddeker's `marsupialia.' lake-trout, n. a tasmanian fish, galaxias auratus, family galaxidae. see mountain- trout. lamb down, v. tr. ( ) to knock down a cheque or a sum of money in a spree. there is an old english verb, of scandinavian origin, and properly spelt lamm, which means to thrash, beat. . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "it is the bushman come to town-- come to spend his cheque in town, come to do his lambing down." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the lambing down of cheques." . ibid. aug. , p. , col. : "the old woman thought that we were on gold, and would lamb down at the finish in her shanty." ( ) to make a man get rid of his money to you; to clean him out." . marcus clarke, `holiday peak, etc.,' p. : "the result was always the same--a shilling a nobbler. true, that trowbridge's did not `lamb down' so well as the three posts, but then the three posts put fig tobacco in its brandy casks, and trowbridge's did not do that." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "the operation--combining equal parts of hocussing, overcharging, and direct robbery--and facetiously christened by bush landlords `lambing down.'" . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "one used to serve drinks in the bar, the other kept the billiard-table. between them they lambed down more shearers and drovers than all the rest on the river." lamprey, n. the australian lampreys are species of the genera mordacia and geotria, of the same family as the "lampreys" of the northern hemisphere. lancelet, n. the fishes of this name present in australasia are-- in queensland, epigonichthys cultellus, peters, family amplingae; in victoria and new south wales, species of heteropleuron. lancewood, n. there are many lancewoods in various parts of the world. the name, in australia, is given to backhousia myrtifolia, hook. and harv., n.o. myrtaceae; and in new zealand, to panax crassifolium, dec. and plan., n.o. araliaceae, known as ivy- tree, and by the maori name of horoeka (q.v.). landsborough grass, n. a valuable queensland fodder grass of a reddish colour, anthistiria membranacea, lindl., n.o. gramineae. see grass. lantern, ballarat, n. a local term. see quotation. . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "i may explain that a `ballarat lantern' is formed by knocking off the bottom of a bottle, and putting a candle in the neck." lark, n. common english bird name. the australian species are-- brown song lark-- cincloramphus cruralis, vig. and hors. bush l.-- mirafra horsfieldii, gould. field l.-- calamanthus campestris, gould. ground l.-- anthus australis, vig. and hors. (australian pipit), a. novae-zelandae, gray (new zealand pipit). lesser bush l.-- mirafra secunda, sharpe. little field l.-- cathonicola sagittata, lath. magpie l.-- grallina picata, lath.; see magpie-lark. rufous song l.-- cincloramphus rufescens, vig. and hors. striated field l.-- calamanthus fuliginosus, vig. and hors. see ground-lark, sand-lark, pipit, and magpie-lark. larrikin, n. the word has various shades of meaning between a playful youngster and a blackguardly rough. little streetboys are often in a kindly way called little larrikins. (see quotations, and .) archibald forbes described the larrikin as "a cross between the street arab and the hoodlum, with a dash of the rough thrown in to improve the mixture." (`century.) the most exalted position yet reached in literature by this word is in sir richard burton's `translation of the arabian nights' ( - ), vol. i. p. , story of the larrikin and the cook; vol. iv. p. , tale of first larrikin. the previous translator, jonathan scott, had rendered the arabic word, sharper. there are three views as to the origin of the word, viz.-- ( ) that it is a phonetic spelling of the broad irish pronunciation, with a trilled r of the word larking. the story goes that a certain sergeant dalton, about the year , charged a youthful prisoner at the melbourne police court with being "a-larrr-akin' about the streets." the police magistrate, mr. sturt, did not quite catch the word--"a what, sergeant?"--"a larrikin', your worchup." the police court reporter used the word the next day in the paper, and it stuck. (see quotation, `argus,' .) this story is believed by persons out of ; unfortunately it lacks confirmation; for the record of the incident cannot be discovered, after long search in files by many people. mr. skeat's warning must be remembered--"as a rule, derivations which require a story to be told turn out to be false." ( ) that the word is thieves' english, promoted like swag, plant, lift, etc., into ordinary australian english. warders testify that for a number of years before the word appeared in print, it was used among criminals in gaol as two separate words, viz.--leary ('cute, fly, knowing), and kinchen (youngster),--`leary kinchen ,'--shortened commonly into `leary kin' and `leary kid.' australian warders and constables are irish, almost to a man. their pronunciation of `leary kin' would be very nearly `lairy kin,' which becomes the single word larrikin. (see quotation, .) it is possible that sergeant dalton used this expression and was misunderstood by the reporter. ( ) the word has been derived from the french larron (a thief), which is from the latin latronem (a robber). this became in english larry, to which the english diminutive, kin, was added; although this etymology is always derided in melbourne. . `the daily telegraph' (melbourne), feb. , p. , col. : "we shall perhaps begin to think of it in earnest, when we have insisted upon having wholesome and properly baked bread, or a better supply of fish, and when we have put down the `roughs' and `larrikins.'" . `the age,' feb. , p. , col. : "in sentencing a gang of `larrikins' who had been the terror of little bourke-street and its neighbourhood for several hours on saturday night, mr. call remarked. . ." . `the herald,' april , p. , col. : ". . . three larikins who had behaved in a very disorderly manner in little latrobe-street, having broken the door of a house and threatened to knock out the eye of one of the inmates." . marcus clarke, `goody two shoes,' p. : "he's a lively little larrikin lad, and his name is little boy blue." . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "in san francisco, the vagabond juveniles who steal, smash windows, and make themselves generally obnoxious to the respectable inhabitants, instead of being termed `larrikins,' as in victoria, are denominated `hoodleums.' the name is more musical than the one in vogue here, and probably equally as descriptive, as its origin appears to be just as obscure as that of the word `larrikin.' this word, before it got into print, was confined to the irish policemen, who generally pronounced it `lerrikan,' and it has been suggested that the term is of hibernian origin, and should be spelt lerrichaun.'" . sir george stephen, q.c., `larrikinism,' a lecture reported in `prahran telegraph,' sept. , p. , col. : what is larrikinism? it is a modern word of which i can only guess the derivation, . . . nor can i find any among the erudite professors of slang who adorn our modern literature who can assist me. some give our police the credit of coining it from the `larking' of our school boys, but i am inclined to think that the word is of greek origin--laros, a cormorant--though immediately derived from the french `larron' which signifies a thief or rogue. if i am right, then larrikin is the natural diminutive form in english phraseology for a small or juvenile thief. . . . this however is, i must acknowledge, too severe a construction of the term, even if the derivation is correct; for i was myself, i frankly confess it, an unquestionable larrikin between and years ago. . . . larrikinism is not thieving, though a road that often leads to it. . . . is it a love of mischief for mischief's sake? this is the theory of the papers, and is certainly a nearer approach to the true solution." . `figaro,' in `prahran telegraph,' sept. , p. , col. : "a local contemporary has . . . done his `level best' to help me out of my `difficulty' with respect to the word larrikin. he suggests that lerrichan should read leprichaun , a mischievous sprite, according to irish tradition. . . . we think we may with more safety and less difficulty trace the word to the stereotype [sic] reply of the police to the magisterial question--`what was he doing when you apprehended him?' `oh! larriking (larking) about, yer wurtchip.'" . j. s. elkington, `tenth report of education, victoria,' dated feb. : "my inquiries into the origin and habits of that troublesome parasite the larrikin (if i may adopt constable dalton's term) do not make me sanguine that compulsory primary instruction can do much for him, unless indirectly." . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "on sunday night an unfortunate chinaman was so severely injured by the richmond larrikins that his life was endangered." . david blair, in `notes and queries,' july , p. : "bedouins, street arabs, juvenile roughs in london; gamins in paris; bowery boys in new york; hoodlums to san francisco; larrikins in melbourne. this last phrase is an irish constable's broad pronunciation of `larking' applied to the nightly street performances of these young scamps, here as elsewhere, a real social pestilence." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "there is not a spare piece of ground fit for a pitch anywhere round melbourne that is not covered with `larrikins' from six years old upwards." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "it has become the name for that class of roving vicious young men who prowl about public-houses and make night hideous in some of the low parts of our cities. there is now the bush `larrikin' as well as the town `larrikin,' and it would be difficult sometimes to say which is the worse. bush `larrikins' have gone on to be bushrangers." . `the argus,' may , p. , col. : "he was set upon by a gang of larrikins, who tried to rescue the prisoner." . `harper s magazine,' july, p. , col. : "the melbourne `larrikin' has differentiated himself from the london `rough,' and in due season a term had to be developed to denote the differentiation." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "robert louis stevenson, in a recent novel, `the wrecker,' makes the unaccountable mistake of confounding the unemployed domain loafer with the larrikin. this only shows that mr. stevenson during his brief visits to sydney acquired but a superficial knowledge of the underlying currents of our social life." . j. st. v. welch, in `australasian insurance and banking record,' may , p. : "whence comes the larrikin? that pest of these so-called over-educated colonies; the young loafer of from sixteen to eight-and-twenty. who does not know him, with his weedy, contracted figure; his dissipated pimply face; his greasy forelock brushed flat and low over his forehead; his too small jacket; his tight-cut trousers; his high-heeled boots; his arms--with out-turned elbows--swinging across his stomach as he hurries along to join his `push,' as he calls the pack in which he hunts the solitary citizen---a pack more to be dreaded on a dark night than any pack of wolves--and his name in sydney is legion, and in many cases he is a full-fledged voter." . w. h. whelan, in `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "being clerk of the city court, i know that the word originated in the very irish and amusing way in which the then well-known sergeant dalton pronounced the word larking in respect to the conduct of `tommy the nut,' a rowdy of the period, and others of both sexes in stephen (now exhibition) street. "your representative at the court, the witty and clever `billy' o'hea, who, alas! died too early, took advantage of the appropriate sound of the word to apply it to rowdyism in general, and, next time dalton repeated the phrase, changed the word from verb to noun, where it still remains, anything to the contrary notwithstanding. i speak of what i do know, for o'hea drew my attention to the matter at the time, and, if i mistake not, a reference to your files would show that it was first in the `argus' the word appeared in print." ("we can fully confirm mr. whelan's account of the origin of the word `larrikin.'"--ed. `argus.') [but see quotation from `argus,' .] larrikin, adj. . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "marks the young criminals as heroes in the eyes not only of the ostensible larrikin element . . ." larrikinalian, adj. (not common.) . `evening standard,' july , p. , col. (leading article): "in the larrikinalian din which prevailed from start to finish . . ." larrikiness, n. a female larrikin. . `collingwood advertiser and observer,' june , p. , col. : "evidence was tendered as to the manner of life led by these larikinesses . . . the juvenile larrikin element being strongly represented in court, all the boys were ordered out." . sir george stephen, q.c., `larrikinism,' a lecture reported in `prahran telegraph,' sept. , p. , col. : "i know many a larrikiness to whose voice i could listen by the hour with all my heart, without the least fear of her stealing it, even if it were worth the trouble." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "i have not found the larrikin [in brisbane]. . . . the slouch-hat, the rakish jib, the drawn features are not to be seen; nor does the young larrikiness--that hideous outgrowth of sydney and melbourne civilization--exist as a class." larrikinism, n. the conduct of larrikins (q.v.). . `the australian' (richmond, victoria), sept. , p. , col. : "a slight attempt at `larrikinism' was manifested. . . . " . j. j. simpson, `recitations and rhymes,' p. : "melbourne larrikinism is still very bad, by the papers each day we are told." . `spectator' (melbourne), june , p. , col. : "he took as his theme the `dialect of victoria,' which was coarse and vulgar to a degree. `larrikinism' was used as a synonym for `blackguardism.'" . a. p. martin, `sweet girl-graduate,' p. : "there is no doubt that its rising generation afforded material for letters in the newspapers, under the headings `larrikinism,' or, `what shall we do with our boys?'" . `the argus,' feb. : "outbreaks of larrikinism are not always harmless ebullitions of animal spirits. sometimes they have very serious results." laughing jackass, n. see jackass. launce, n. the australian species of this fish is congrogradus subducens, richards., found in north- west australia. the launces or sand-eels of the northern hemisphere belong to a different group. laurel, n. the english tree name is applied in australia to various trees, viz.-- alexandrian laurel-- calophyllum inophyllum, linn:, n.o. guttiferae; not endemic in australia. diamond-leaf l.-- pittosporum rhombifolium, a. cunn., n.o. pittosporeae. dodder l.-- cassytha filiformis, linn., n.o. lauraceae; called also devil's guts, not endemic in australia. hedge l. (q.v.)-- pittosporum eugenioides, cunn. moreton bay l.-- cryptocarya australis, benth., n.o. lauraceae; called also grey sassafras. native l.-- pittosporum undulatum, andr., n.o. pittosporeae; called also mock orange (q.v.). panax elegans, c. moore and f. v. m., n.o. araliaceae; which is also called light or white sycamore. white l.-- cryptocarya glaucescens, r. br., n.o. lauraceae; for other names see beech. in tasmania, the name native laurel is applied to anopterus glandulosus, lab., n.o. saxifrageae. peculiar to tasmania. the new zealand laurel is laurelia novae-zelandiae; called also sassafras. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native laurel, [also called] `mock orange.' this tree is well worth cultivating on a commercial scale for the sake of the sweet perfume of its flowers." lavender, native, n. a tasmanian tree, styphelia australis, r. br., n.o. epacrideae. lawyer, n. one of the english provincial uses of this word is for a thorny stem of a briar or bramble. in new zealand, the name is used in this sense for the rubus australis, n.o. rosaceae, or wild raspberry-vine (maori, tataramoa). the words bush-lawyer, lawyer-vine, and lawyer-palm, are used with the same signification, and are also applied in some colonies to the calamus australis, mart. (called also lawyer- cane), and to flagellaria indua, linn,, similar trailing plants. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. : "calamus australis, a plant which kennedy now saw for the first time. . . it is a strong climbing palm. from the roots as many as ninety shoots will spring, and they lengthen out as they climb for hundreds of feet, never thicker than a man's finger. the long leaves are covered with sharp spines; but what makes the plant the terror of the explorers, is the tendrils, which grow out alternately with the leaves. many of these are twenty feet long, and they are covered with strong spines, curved slightly downwards." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "rubus australis, the thorny strings of which scratch the hands and face, and which the colonists, therefore, very wittily call the `bush-lawyer.'" . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "torn by the recurved prickles of the bush-lawyer." . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby,' p. : "trailing `bush-lawyers,' intermingled with coarse bracken, cling lovingly to the rude stones." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "in the mountain scrubs there grows a very luxuriant kind of palm (calamus australis), whose stem of a finger's thickness, like the east indian rotang-palm, creeps through the woods for hundreds of feet, twining round trees in its path, and at times forming so dense a wattle that it is impossible to get through it. the stem and leaves are studded with the sharpest thorns, which continually cling to you and draw blood, hence its not very polite name of lawyer-palm." . a. j. north, `records of australian museum,' vol. i. p. : "who, in the brushes of the tweed river, found a nest placed on a mass of `lawyer-vines' (calamus australis)." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "`look out,' said my companion, `don't touch that lawyer-vine; it will tear you properly, and then not let you go.' too late; my fingers touched it, and the vine had the best of it. the thorns upon the vine are like barbed spears, and they would, in the language of the yankee, tear the hide off a crocodile." . `the times,' [reprint] `letters from queensland,' p. : "but no obstacle is worse for the clearer to encounter than the lawyer-vines where they are not burnt off. these are a form of palm which grows in feathery tufts along a pliant stalk, and fastens itself as a creeper upon other trees. from beneath its tufts of leaves it throws down trailing suckers of the thickness of stout cord, armed with sets of sharp red barbs. these suckers sometimes throw themselves from tree to tree across a road which has not been lately used, and render it as impassable to horses as so many strains of barbed wire. when they merely escape from the undergrowth of wild ginger and tree-fern and stinging-bush, which fringes the scrub, and coil themselves in loose loops upon the ground, they are dangerous enough as traps for either man or horse. in the jungle, where they weave themselves in and out of the upright growths, they form a web which at times defies every engine of destruction but fire." lawyer-cane, lawyer-palm, and lawyer-vine. see lawyer. lead, n. (pronounced leed), a mining term. in the western united states and elsewhere, the term lead in mining is used as equivalent for lode. in australia, the word lead is only used in reference to alluvial mining, and signifies the old river-bed in which gold is found. . `spectator' (melbourne), june , p. , col. : "there was every facility for abstracting the gold in the rich lead of a neighbour." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. [note]: "the expression `deep lead' refers to those ancient river-courses which are now only disclosed by deep-mining operations." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. v. p. : "taking the general matter of `leads' or dead rivers, it chiefly obtained that if gold were found on one portion of them, it extended to all the claims within a considerable distance." lead, to strike the. see above. used figuratively for to succeed. . garnet walch, `head over heels,' p. : "we could shy up our caps for a feller, as soon as he struck the lead." leadbeater, n. applied to a cockatoo, cacatua leadbeateri, vig., called leadbeaters cockatoo by major mitchell (q.v.). . lyth, `golden south,' c. xiv. p. : "the birds are very beautiful--the blue mountain and lowrie parrots . . . leadbeater, and snow-white cockatoos." leaf-insect, n. see phasmid. lease, n. a piece of land leased for mining purposes. in england, the word is used for the document or legal right concerning the land. in australia, it is used for the land itself. compare right-of-way. . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "a nice block of stone was crushed from johnson's lease." lease in perpetuity, a statutory expression in the most recent land legislation of new zealand, indicating a specific mode of alienating crown lands,. it is a lease for years at a permanent rental equal to % on the capital value, which is not subject to revision. leather-head, n. another name for the friar-bird (q.v.), philemon corniculatus, lath. see tropidorhynchus. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the leatherhead with its constantly changing call and whistling." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the leather-heads utter their settled phrase `off we go! off we go!' in the woods, or they come to suck honey from the melianthus major, which stands up like a huge artichoke plant, tipped with dark red plumes of flowers." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "among the honey-suckers is that singular-looking bird, the leatherhead, or bald-headed friar (tropidorhynchus corniculatus); it is commonly seen upon the topmost branches of lofty trees, calling `poor soldier,' `pimlico,' `four o'clock,' and uttering screaming sounds. it feeds upon insects, wild fruits, and any sweets it can procure from the flowers of the banksia and gum-trees." leather-jacket, n. ( ) a name applied popularly and somewhat confusedly to various trees, on account of the toughness of their bark-- (a) eucalyptus punctata, de c., hickory eucalypt (q.v.); (b) alphitonia excelsa, reiss., or cooperswood; (c) ceratopetalum, or coachwood; (d) cryptocarya meissnerii, f. v. m.; (e) weinmannia benthami, f. v. m. ( ) a fish of the family sclerodermi, monacanthus ayraudi, quoy. and gaim., and numerous other species of monocanthus. leather-jackets are wide-spread in australian seas. the name is given elsewhere to other fishes. see file-fish and pig-fish. . `capt. cook's journal,' edition wharton, , p. : "they had caught a great number of small fish, which the sailors call leather jackets, on account of their having a very thick skin; they are known in the west indies." . `hawkesworth's voyages,' vol. iii. p. --'cook's first voyage,' may , (at botany bay): "small fish, which are well known in the west indies, and which our sailors call leather jackets, because their skin is remarkably thick." . w. tench, `expedition to botany bay, p. : "to this may be added bass, mullets, skaits, soles, leather-jackets, and many other species." ( ) a kind of pancake. . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "a plentiful supply of `leatherjackets' (dough fried in a pan)." . mossman and banister, `australia visited and revisited,' p. : "our party, upon this occasion, indulged themselves, in addition to the usual bush fare, with what are called `leather jackets,' an australian bush term for a thin cake made of dough, and put into a pan to bake with some fat. . . the americans indulge in this kind of bread, giving them the name of `puff ballooners,' the only difference being that they place the cake upon the bare coals . . ." . r. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the leather-jacket is a cake of mere flour and water, raised with tartaric acid and carbonate of soda instead of yeast, and baked in the frying-pan; and is equal to any muffin you can buy in the london shops." leather-wood, n. i.q. pinkwood (q.v.). leawill, or leeangle (with other spellings), n. aboriginal names for a native weapon, a wooden club bent at the striking end. the name is victorian, especially of the west; probably derived from lea or leang, or leanyook, a tooth. the aboriginal forms are langeel, or leanguel, and lea-wil, or le-ow-el. the curve evidently helped the english termination, angle. . charles griffith, `present state and prospects of the port phillip district of new south wales,' p. : "the liangle is, i think, described by sir thomas mitchell. it is of the shape of a pickaxe, with only one pick. its name is derived from another native word, leang, signifying a tooth. it is a very formidable weapon, and used only in war." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. xiii. p. : "a weapon used by the natives called a liangle, resembling a miner's pick." . m. k. beveridge,' gatherings among the gum-trees,' p. : "let us hand to hand attack him with our leeawells of buloite." ibid. (in glossary) p. : "leeawell, a kind of war club." . g. gordon mccrae, `mimba,' p. : "the long liangle's nascent form fore-spoke the distant battle-storm." . r. henty, `australiana,' p. : "his war-club or leeangle." . p. beveridge, `aborigines of victoria and riverina, p. : "of those [waddies] possessing--we might almost say---a national character, the shapes of which seem to have come down generation after generation, from the remotest period, the leawill is the most deadly-looking weapon. it is usually three feet long, and two and a half inches thick, having a pointed head, very similar both in shape and size to a miner's driving pick; in most cases the oak (casuarina) is used in the manufacture of this weapon; it is used in close quarters only, and is a most deadly instrument in the hands of a ruthless foe, or in a general melee such as a midnight onslaught." leeangle, n. i.q. leawill (q.v.). leek, n. a small parrot. see greenleek. leek, native, n. a poisonous australian plant, bulbine bulbosa, haw., n.o. liliaceae. called also native onion. its racemes of bright yellow flowers make the paddocks gay in spring. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native onion,' `native leek.' mr. w. n. hutchinson, sheep inspector, warrego, queensland, reports of this plant: `its effects on cattle are . . . continually lying down, rolling, terribly scoured, mucous discharge from the nose.'" leg, n. mining term. a peculiar form of quartz-reef, forming a nearly vertical prolongation of the saddle. . `the argus,' june x th, p. , col. : "it may also be observed that in payable saddle formations a slide intersects the reef above the saddle coming from the west, and turning east with a wall of the east leg, where the leg of reef is observed to go down deeper, and to carry a greater amount of gold than in ordinary cases." legitimacy, n. see quotation. [old and now unused slang.] . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "legitimacy--a colonial term for designating the cause of the emigration of a certain portion of our population; i.e. having legal reasons for making the voyage." [so also at p. , "legitimates"] leguminous ironbark, n. a name given by leichhardt to the queensland tree erythrophaeum laboucherii, f. v. m., n.o. leguminosae. see ironbark. leichhardt, or leichhardt-tree, n. an australian timber-tree, morinda citrifolia, linn., n.o. rubiaceae; called also canary-wood and indian mulberry. in queensland, the name is applied to sarcocephalus cordatus, miq., n.o. rubiaceae, a large timber-tree of north queensland, much used in building. . m. k. beveridge, `lost life,' p. : "groaning beneath the friendly shade that by a leichhardt-tree was made." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia, p. : "the leichhardt is a very symmetrical tree, that grows to a height of about sixty feet, and has leaves rather like a big laurel." leichhardt-bean, n. see bean. leichhardt's clustered-fig, n. i.q. clustered fig. see fig. lemon, desert, n. see desert lemon. lemon-scented gum, n. see gum. lemon-scented ironbark, n. a name given to the queensland tree eucalyptus staigeriana, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. see ironbark. the foliage of this tree yields a large quantity of oil, equal in fragrance to that of lemons. lemon-sole, n. in england, the name is applied to an inferior species of sole. in new south wales, it is given to plagusia unicolor, mad., of the family pleuronectidae or flat-fishes. in new zealand, it is another name for the new zealand turbot (q.v.). lemon, wild, n. a timber tree, canthium latifolium, f. v. m., n.o. rubiaceae; called also wild orange. lemon-wood, n. one of the names given by settlers to the new zealand tree called by maoris tarata (q.v.), or mapau (q.v.). it is pittosporum eugenoides, a. cunn., n.o. pittosporeae. leopard-tree, n. an australian tree, flindersia maculosa (or strezleckiana), f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae; called also spotted-tree (q.v.), and sometimes, in queensland, prickly pine. lerp, n. an aboriginal word belonging to the mallee district of victoria (see mallee). sometimes spelt leurp, or laap. the aboriginal word means `sweet.' it is a kind of manna secreted by an insect, psylla eucalypti, and found on the leaves of the mallee, eucalyptus dumosa. attention was first drawn to it by mr. thomas dobson (see quotations). a chemical substance called lerpamyllum is derived from it; see watts' `dictionary of chemistry,' second supplement, , s.v. . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the natives of the wimmera prepare a luscious drink from the laap, a sweet exudation from the leaf of the mallee (eucalyptus dumosa)." . t. dobson, `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : "the white saccharine substance called `lerp,' by the aborigines in the north-western parts of australia felix, and which has attracted the attention of chemists, under the impression that it is a new species of manna, originates with an insect of the tribe of psyllidae, and order hemiptera." . ibid. p. :: "insects which, in the larva state, have the faculty of elaborating from the juices of the gum-leaves on which they live a glutinous and saccharine fluid, whereof they construct for themselves little conical domiciles." . r. brough smyth, `the aborigines of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "another variety of manna is the secretion of the pupa of an insect of the psylla family and obtains the name of lerp among the aborigines. at certain seasons of the year it is very abundant on the leaves of e. dumosa, or mallee scrub . . ." lift, v. tr. to drive to market from the run. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. iv. p. : "i haven't lifted a finer mob this season." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "we lifted sheep." light-horseman, n. obsolete name for a fish; probably the fish now called a sweep (q.v.). . w. tench, `expedition to botany bay,' p. : "the french once caught [in botany bay] near two thousand fish in one day, of a species of grouper, to which, from the form of a bone in the head resembling a helmet, we have given the name of light horseman." . j. hunter, `voyage,' p. [aboriginal vocabulary]: "woolamie, a fish called a light-horseman." [but see wollomai.] . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. iv. p. : "a boat belonging to the sirius caught near fifty large fish, which were called light-horsemen from a bone that grew out of the head like a helmet." lightwood, n. a name given to various trees. see blackwood. it is chiefly applied to acacia melanoxylon, r. br., n.o. leguminosae. see quotations, and . . i. backhouse. `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies,' p. : "lightwood--acacia melanoxylon . . . it derives its name from swimming in water, while the other woods of v. d. land, except the pines, generally sink. in some parts of the colony it is called blackwood, on account of its dark colour." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "some immense logs of `light wood,' a non lucendo, darker than mahogany." . j. rogers, `new rush,' p. : "arms so brown and bare, to look at them recalls to mind the lightwood's rugged stem." . h. simcox, `rustic rambles,' p. : "the numerous lightwood trees with sombre shade tend to enhance the richness of the glade." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xv. p. : "the ex-owner of lyne wished himself back among the old lightwood trees." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "called `blackwood' on account of the very dark colour of the mature wood. it is sometimes called `lightwood' (chiefly in south tasmania, while the other name is given in north tasmania and other places), but this is an inappropriate name. it is in allusion to its weight as compared with eucalyptus timbers. it is the `black sally' of western new south wales, the `hickory' of the southern portion of that colony, and is sometimes called `silver wattle.' this is considered by some people to be the most valuable of all australian timbers. it is hard and close-grained; much valued for furniture, picture-frames, cabinet-work, fencing, bridges, etc., railway, and other carriages, boat-building, for tool-handles, gun-stocks, naves of wheels, crutches, parts of organs, pianofortes (sound-boards and actions), etc." light yellow-wood, i.q. long-jack (q.v.). lignum ( ), or lignum-vitae, n. the name is applied to several trees, as myrtus acmenioides, f. v. m., called also white myrtle; acacia falcata, willd., n.o. leguminosae, called also hickory and sally; but chiefly to eucalyptus polyanthema, schau., n.o. myrtaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "[e. polyanthema.] the `red box' of south-eastern australia. called also `brown box,' `grey box,' and `bastard box.' `poplar-leaved gum' is another name, but it is most commonly known as `lignum vitae' because of its tough and hard wood. great durability is attributed to this wood, though the stems often become hollow in age, and thus timber of large dimensions is not readily afforded. it is much sought after for cogs, naves and felloes; it is also much in demand for slabs in mines, while for fuel it is unsurpassed. (mueller.) its great hardness is against its general use." ( ) a bushman's contraction for any species of the wiry plants called polygonum. . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' [writing of the lachlan district, new south wales] p. : "the poor emus had got down into the creek amongst the lignum bushes for a little shade . . . i do not know what a botanist would call them; they are something like cane, but with large leaves, which all animals are fond of, and they grow about eight feet high in the creeks and gullies." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "by mulga scrub and lignum plain." lilac, n. name given in australia to the tree melia composita, willd., n.o. meliaceae, called cape lilac. it is not endemic in australia, and is called "persian lilac "in india. in tasmania the name of native lilac is given to prostanthera rotundifolia, r. br., n.o. labiatae, and by mrs. meredith to tetratheca juncea, smith, of the linnean order, octandria. . j. e. smith, `specimen of botany of new holland,' p. : "tetratheca juncea, rushy tetratheca [with plate]." . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "a little purple flower, which is equally common, so vividly recalls to my mind, both by its scent and colour, an old-world favorite, that i always know it as the native lilac (tetratheca juncea)." lily, darling, n. a bulbous plant, crinum flaccidum, herb., n.o. amaryllideae; called also the murray lily. (see lily, murray.) . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the `darling lily.' this exceedingly handsome white-flowered plant, which grows back from the darling, has bulbs which yield a fair arrowroot. on one occasion, near the town of wilcannia, a man earned a handsome sum by making this substance when flour was all but unattainable." lily, flax, n. see flax-lily, and flax, new zealand. lily, giant-, or spear-, n. a fibre plant, doryanthes excelsa, corr., n.o. amaryllideae. . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the doryanthes excelsa, a gigantic lily of australia, is a magnificent plant, with a lofty flowering spike. the bunches or clusters of crimson flowers are situated in the summit of the flowering spike . . . the diameter of a cluster of blossoms is about inches . . . the flower-buds are of a brilliant crimson, and the anthers of the stamens are, in the recently expanded flower, of a dark-green colour." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`spear lily.' `giant lily.' the leaves are a mass of fibre, of great strength, which admits of preparation either by boiling or maceration, no perceptible difference as to quality or colour being apparent after heckling. suitable for brush making, matting, etc." lily, gordon, n. a tasmanian plant and its flower, blandfordia marginata, herb., n.o. liliaceae, and other species of blandfordia (q.v.). . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "blandfordia nobilis. this splendid plant is common on the west coast and on the shores of the mersey. it bears a head of pendulous scarlet blossoms tipped with yellow, one inch long, rising out of a stalk of from / to feet long, from between two opposite series of strapshaped leaves. it is named after george [gordon] marquis of blandford, son of the second duke of marlborough." lily, murray, n. i.q. darling lily. see above. . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "this showy genus crinum furnishes also victoria with a beautiful species, the murray lily (crinum flaccidum), not however to be found away from the murray-river southward." lilly-pilly, n. name given to a large timber tree, eugenia smithii, poir., n.o. myrtaceae. the bark is rich in tanning. sometimes called native banana. . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the lillypilly-trees, as they are named by the colonists, consist of several species of acmena, and are all of elegant growth and dense and handsome foliage." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales,' p. : "eugenia smithii, or lilli pilli, and melodorum leichhardtii are also fair eating. the latter goes by the name of the native banana though it is very different from a banana, and in reality allied to the custard apple." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`lilly pilly.' the fruits are eaten by aboriginals, small boys, and birds. they are formed in profusion, are acidulous and wholesome. they are white with a purplish tint, and up to one inch in diameter." lily, rock, n. an orchid, dendrobium speciosum, smith, n.o. orchideae. although not a lily, it is always so called, especially in sydney, where it is common. . h. n. moseley, `notes by naturalist on challenger,' p. : "a luxuriant vegetation, with huge masses of stagshorn fern (platycerium) and `rock-lilies' (orchids), and a variety of timbers, whilst there are tree-ferns and small palms in the lateral shady gullies." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`rock lily.' the large pseudobulbs have been eaten by the aboriginals; they contain little nutritive matter." lily, water, n. there are several indigenous native varieties of the n.o. nymphaeceae--cabombia peltata, pursh; nymphaea gigantea, hook. (blue water-lily). lily, yellow, n. a tasmanian name for bulbine bulbosa, haw., n.o. liliaceae. see leek, native. lime, native, n. an australian tree, citrus australasica, f. v. m., n.o. rutaceae; called also finger lime and orange. but the appellation of native lime is more generally given to citrus australis, planch., n.o. rutaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native lime. orange.' the fruit, which is an inch and a half in diameter, and almost globular, yields an agreeable beverage from its acid juice." ling, n. a fish. the name is given in england to various fishes, from their length. in new zealand and tasmania, it is applied to genypterus blacodes, forst.; also called cloudy bay cod. lotella marginata, macl., is called ling, in new south wales, and beardie. genypterus belongs to the ophidiidae and lotella to the next family, the gadidae. lobster, n. the name is often carelessly used in australia for the crayfish (q.v.). lobster's-claw, n. another name for sturt's desert pea (q.v.). locust, n. name popularly but quite erroneously applied to insects belonging to two distinct orders. ( ) insects belonging to the order hemiptera. the great black cicada, cicada moerens, germ., and the great green cicada, cyclochila australasiae, donov. ( ) insects belonging to the order orthoptera, such as the great green gum-tree grasshopper, locusta vigentissima, serv., or the australian yellow-winged locust, oedipoda musica, fab. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. : "the trees swarmed with large locusts (the cicada), quite deafening us with their shrill buzzing noise." . f. j. jobson, `australia,' c. iv. p. : "we heard everywhere on the gumtrees the cricket-like insects--usually called locusts by the colonists--hissing their reed-like monotonous noise." . j. townend, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the perpetual song of unnumbered locusts." . h. h. hayter, `carboona,' p. : "the deaf'ning hum of the locusts." . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the natural history of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "our cicada moerens . . . produces an almost deafening sound from the numbers of the individuals in the hottest days and the loudness of their noise." "this species (cyclochila australasiae) is much less abundant than the c. moerens, and seems more confined to moist places, such as river banks and deep ravines and gullies." . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the natural history of victoria,' dec. , pl. : "the great size of the muscular thighs of the posterior pair of feet enables the locusts to jump much higher, further, and more readily than grasshoppers, giving an example of muscular power almost unparalleled in the animal kingdom." . f. a. skuse, `records of australian museum,' vol. ii. no. , p. : "what are commonly styled `locusts' in this country are really cicadae, belonging to a totally distinct and widely separated order of insects. and moreover the same kind of cicada is known by different names in different localities, such as `miller,' `mealyback,' etc. the true locusts belong to the grasshoppers, while the homopterous cicadidae have been known as cicadas from times of remote antiquity." locust-tree, of new zealand. see kowhai. logan-apple, n. a small queensland tree, with an acid fruit, acronychia acidia, f. v. m., n.o. rutaceae. log-hut, n. log-cabin is american. log-hut is australian. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "not more than ten settlers had been able to erect dwellings better than log-huts." [this was in sydney, .] . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. : "captain fyans was living in a log-hut on the banks of the marabool river." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. vi. p. : "log-huts, with the walls built american fashion, of horizontal tree-trunks." log-runner, n. an australian bird, called also a spinetail. the species are-- black-headed-- orthonyx spaldingi, ramsay; spinetailed-- o. spinicauda, temm., called also pheasant's mother. see orthonyx. logs, n. pl. the lock-up. originally, in the early days, a log-hut, and often keeping the name when it was made a more secure place. sometimes, when there was no lock-up, the prisoners were chained to heavy logs of trees. . g.barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "the governor resolved on building a large log prison both at sydney and paramatta, and `as the affair cried haste,' a quantity of logs were ordered to be sent in by the various settlers, officers and others." [p. ]: "the inhabitants of sydney were assessed to supply thatch for the new gaol, and the building was enclosed with a strong high fence. it was feet long, the sides and ends were of strong logs, a double row of which formed each partition. the prison was divided into cells. the floor and the roof were logs, over which was a coat eight inches deep of clay." . letter from mrs. perry, given in canon goodman's `church of victoria during episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "one [sentry] at the lock-up, a regular american log-hut." [sic. but in america it would have been called a log-cabin.] . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "let's put him in the logs . . . the lock-up, like most bush ones, was built of heavy logs, just roughly squared, with the ceiling the same sort." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydneyside saxon,' p. : "`he'll land himself in the logs about that same calf racket if he doesn't lookout, some day.' `logs!' i says. `there don't seem to be many about this part. the trees are all too small.'" log up, v. to make a log-support for the windlass. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. v. p. : "we . . . had logged up and made a start with another shaft." lolly, n., pl. lollies. the english word lollipop is always shortened in australia, and is the common word to the exclusion of others, e.g. sweets. manufacturers of sweetmeats are termed lolly-makers. . j. j. simpson, `recitations,' p. : "lollies that the children like." . garnet walch, `head over heels,' p. : "common children fancy lollies, eat them 'gainst their parents' wills." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "i thankfully expended the one in bile-producing cakes and lollies." . `evening standard' (melbourne), oct. , p. , col. : "mr. patterson (musing over last saturday's experiences): you're going to raise the price of lollies. i'm a great buyer of them myself. (laughter.) if you pay the full duty it will, doubtless, be patriotic for me to buy more when i go amongst the juveniles." long-fin, n. name given to the fish caprodon schlegelii, gunth., and in new south wales to anthias longimanus, gunth. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the long-fin, anthias iongimanus, gunth., is a good fish that finds its way to the market occasionally . . . may be known by its uniform red colour, and the great length of the pectoral fins." long-jack, name given to the tree flindersia oxleyana, f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae; called also light yellow-wood. long-sleever, n. name for a big drink and also for the glass in which it is contained. perhaps in allusion to its tall, tapering, long shape. . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "their drivers had completed their regulation half-score of `long-sleevers' of `she-oak.'" long-tom, n. name given in sydney to belone ferox, gunth., a species of garfish which has both jaws prolonged to form a slender beak. see garfish. long-yam. see yam. look, v. tr. to examine. . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "plains are scoured and every piece of timber looked." [sc. looked-over.] lope, n. a slow and steady gallop. from dutch verb loopen, to leap, to run. the word is american rather than australian. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "every body gallops here, or at least goes at a canter--which they call the australian lope." loquat, a chinese word meaning "rush-orange," photinia japonica. being highly ornamental and bearing a pleasant stony juicy fruit of the colour and size of a small orange, it has been introduced into nearly all australian gardens. the name native loquat has been given to an indigenous shrub, rhodomyrtus macrocarpa, benth., n.o. myrtaceae. lorikeet, n. a bird-name, little lory (q.v.). the species in australia are-- blue-bellied lorikeet-- trichoglossus novae-hollandiae, gmel. blue-faced l.-- cyclopsitta macleayana, ramsay. little l.-- trichoglossus pusillus, shaw. musk l.-- t. concinnus, shaw. purple-crowned l.-- t. porphyrocephalus, dietr. red-collared l.-- t. rubritorqus, vig. and hors. red-faced l.-- cyclopsitta coxenii, gould. scaly-breasted l.-- trichoglossus chlorolepidotus, kuhl. swift l.-- lathamus discolor, shaw. varied l.-- trichoglossus versicolor, vig. the following table gives gould's classification in :-- . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. plate lathamus discolor, swift lorikeet ... ... trichoglossus novae-hollandiae, jard. and selb., swainson's l. ... ... ... ... ... ... t. rubritorquis, vig. and horsf., red-collared l. t. chlorolepidotus, scaly-breasted l. ... t. versicolor, vig., varied l. ... ... t. concinnus, musky l. ... ... ... ... t. porphyrocephalus, dict., porphyry-crowned l. t. pusillus, little l. ... ... ... ... . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "on the hill-sides the converse of the lorikeets as they drain the honeycups and swing and chatter in low undertones the whole day long." lory, n. a bird-name. the word is malay. (see `encyclopaedia britannica,' vol. xv.) it is often spelt lowrie in australia. the species in australia are-- crimson-winged lory-- aprosmictus coccineopterus, gould. king l.-- a. scapulatus, bechst. red-winged lory-- a. erythropterus, gmel. . gould's `birds of australia,' vol. v.: "aprosmictus scapulatus, king lory; erythropturus, red-winged lory." lotus-bird, n. parra gallinacea, temm.; called also the jacana (q.v.), and the parra (q.v.). . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the most striking bird on the lagoon is doubtless the beautiful parra gallinacea, which in australia is called the lotus-bird. it sits on the leaves that float on the water, particularly those of the water-lily." lowan, n. aboriginal birdname for leipoa ocellata, gould. the name is used for the bird in victoria and in the south-east district of south australia. in the mallee district, it is called mallee-bird, mallee fowl, mallee-hen (q.v.); in south australia, native pheasant (q.v.); and in various parts of australia, the scrub-turkey. the county called lowan, after the bird, is in the mallee country in the west of victoria. see turkey. . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "the lowan (mallee-hen, they're mostly called). the lowan eggs--beautiful pink thin-shelled ones they are, first-rate to eat, and one of 'em a man's breakfast." . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association for the advancement of science,' melbourne, p. : "to the dry, arid mallee scrub of the western district is a radical change of scene. there the so-called mallee hen, or native name, lowan (leipoa ocellata), loves to dwell." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "the postmaster at nhill had drawn the attention of the deputy postmaster-general to the large number of letters which are received there addressed to `lowan.' it should be understood that this is the name of a county containing several postal districts, and correspondents should be more specific in their addresses." lowrie, n. a bird-name. an australian variant of lory (q.v.). . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "a great many species of the parrot are found; and of these the king parrot is the most beautiful, and that called the lowrie is perhaps the most docile." . lyth, `golden south,' p. : "the birds are very beautiful--the blue mountain and lowrie parrots . . .' lubra, n. aboriginal name for a black woman. the name comes from tasmania, appearing first in the form loubra, in a vocabulary given in the `voyage de decouvertes de l'astrolabe' (paris, ), vol. vii. p. , and was obtained from a tasmanian woman, belonging to port dalrymple on the tamar river. it is probably a compound of the tasmanian words loa or lowa, a woman, and proi (with variants), big. in victoria, the use of the word began at the hopkins river and the vicinity, having been introduced by settlers from tasmania, but it was generally adopted south of the murray. north of the murray the native women were called gins (q.v.). both words are now used indiscriminately. . w. blandowski, `transactions of philosophical society of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the young man who wishes to marry has first to look out for a wife amongst the girls or leubras of some neighbouring tribe." . h. simcox, `outward bound," p. : "many lubras so black with their load on their back." . r. m. praed, `australian life," p. : "certain stout young gins or lubras, set apart for that purpose, were sacrificed." . `the argus,' nov. , p. , col. : "a few old lubras sufficiently dirty and unprepossessing." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "naked, and not ashamed, the old men grey-bearded and eyes bright, watched the cooking of the fish, and the younger, with the lubras, did the honours of reception." lucerne, native, or paddy, n. i.q. queensland hemp. see hemp. . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "and now lies wandering fat and sleek, on the lucerne flats by the homestead creek." luderick, or ludrick, n. an aboriginal gippsland name for a local variety of the fish girella simplex, richards., the black-fish (q.v.). lugg, n. a fish not identified. "lug, a kind of fish." (`walker,' ) . flemming, `journal of the exploration of c. grimes' (at port phillip), ed. by j. j. shillinglaw, melbourne, , p. : "many swans, ducks and luggs." lyonsia, n. a tasmanian plant. see devil's guts. lyre-bird, n. an australian bird, originally called the bird of paradise of new south wales; then called a native pheasant, or mountain pheasant, and still generally called a pheasant by the gippsland bushmen. the name lyre-bird apparently began between and . it is not used by cunningham, `two years in new south wales' ( ), vol. i. p. . see menura. the species are-- the lyre-bird-- menura superba, davies. albert l.-b.-- m. alberti, gould. victoria l.-b.-- m. victoriae, gould. since the lyre-bird has been the design on the eight-penny postage-stamp of new south wales. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "the bird of paradise of new south wales [with picture]. this elegant bird, which by some is called the bird of paradise, and by others the maenura superba, has a straight bill, with the nostrils in the centre of the beak." . d. collins, `history of english colony of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "menura superba." [but not the name lyre-bird]. . geo. bennett, `wanderings in new south wales, etc.,' /vol./ i. p. : "the `native or wood-pheasant,' or `lyre bird' of the colonists, the `menura superba' of naturalists, and the `beleck, beleck,' and `balaugara' of the aboriginal tribes, is abundant about the mountain ranges, in all parts of the colony." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "numerous pheasants (menura superba). these birds are the mocking-birds of australia, imitating all the sounds that are heard in the bush in great perfection. they are about the size of a barn-door fowl, and are not remarkable for any beauty either in the shape or colour, being of a dirty brown, approaching to black in some parts; their greatest attraction consists in the graceful tail of the cock bird, which assumes something the appearance of a lyre, for which reason some naturalists have called them lyre-birds." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "menura superba, davies, lyre-bird; pheasant of the colonists. were i requested to suggest an emblem for australia amongst its birds, i should without the slightest hesitation select the menura as the most appropriate, being strictly peculiar to australia." . j. s. moore, `spring-life lyrics;' p. : "shy as the lyre-bird, hidden away, a glittering waif in the wild." . g. g. mccrae, `balladeadro,' p. : "there the proud lyre-bird spreads his tail, and mocks the notes of hill and dale whether the wild dog's plaintive howl or cry of piping water-fowl." . a. mcfarland, `illawarra manaro,' p. : "the lyre-bird may yet be seen--more frequently heard--amongst the gullies and ravines. it has the power of imitating every other bird, and nearly every sound it hears in the bush-even that of a cross-cut saw." . j. a. fronde, `oceana,' p. : "here, too, for the first time, we saw a lyre-bird, which some one had just shot, the body being like a coot's, and about the same size, the tail long as the tail of a bird of paradise, beautifully marked in bright brown, with the two chief feathers curved into the shape of a greek lyre, from which it takes its name." . `victorian statutes'--game act, third schedule: [close season.] "lyre birds. the whole year." . `the age,' aug. , p. vi, col. : "there are more reasons than one why the lyre-bird should be preserved. from a purely utilitarian point of view it is of value, for it is insectivorous and preys upon insects which are apt to prefer orchard fruit to their natural bush food. but the bird has as well a national and sentimental value. next to the emu it is the most typical australian bird. it is peculiar to australia, for in no other country is it to be seen. comparatively speaking it is a rara avis even in australia itself, for it is only to be found in the most secluded parts of two colonies--victoria and new south wales. it is the native pheasant. the aborigines call it `beleck-beleck,' and whites call it the `lyre-bird' from the shape of its tail; the ornithologists have named it menura. there are three species--the victoriae of this colony, and the alberta and superba of new south wales. the general plumage is glossy brown, shaded with black and silver grey, and the ornate tail of the male bird is brown with black bars. they live in the densest recesses of the fern gullies of the dividing range with the yellow-breasted robin, the satin-bird, and the bell-bird as their neighbours. they are the most shy of birds, and are oftener heard than seen. their notes, too, are heard more frequently than they are recognized, for they are consummate mimics and ventriloquists. they imitate to perfection the notes of all other birds, the united voicing of a flock of paraquetts [sic], the barking of dogs, the sawing of timber, and the clink of the woodman's axe. thus it is that the menura has earned for itself the title of the australian mocking-bird. parrots and magpies are taught to speak; as a mimic the lyre-bird requires no teacher." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. . p. , col. : "if the creature was lovely its beauty was marketable and fatal--and the lyre-bird was pursued to its last retreats and inveigled to death, so that its feathers might be peddled in our streets." m mackerel, n. in australia, scomber antarcticus, castln., said to be identical with scomber pneumatophorus, de la roche, the european mackerel; but rare. in new zealand, scomber australasicus, cuv. and val. macquarie harbour grape, or macquarie harbour vine, n. the tasmanian name for muhlenbeckia adpressa, meissn. n.o. polygonaceae; called native ivy in australia. see ivy and grape. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "that valuable plant called the macquarie harbour grape. it was so named by mr. lempriere, late of the commissariat at that station, who first brought it into notice as a desirable acquisition in our gardens." . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "polygonum adpressum. the macquarie harbour vine, either as an insignificant trailing plant, or as a magnificent climber, according to the soil and situation, is found on the coast of various parts of van diemen's land, and also as far inland as within about four miles of new norfolk. this plant has a small but sweet fruit, formed of the thickened divisions of the calyx of the flower, inclosing a triangular seed of unpleasant flavour." macquarie pine, n. see pine. macropus, n. the scientific name for the typical genus of macropodidae, established by shaw in . from the greek makropous, long-footed. it includes the kangaroo (q.v.) and wallaby (q.v.). m. giganteus, zimm., is the giant kangaroo, or forester (q.v.). mado, n. a sydney fish, therapon cuvieri, bleek; called also trumpeter-perch. atypus strigatus, gunth., is also called mado by the sydney fishermen, who confound it with the first species. the name is probably aboriginal. magpie, n. a black-and-white crow-shrike, present all over australia. he resembles the english magpie in general appearance, but has not the long tail of that bird, though he shares with him his kleptomania. he is often called the bush-magpie (q.v.) by townsfolk, to distinguish him from the tamed specimens kept in many gardens, or in cages, which are easily taught to talk. the species are-- black-backed magpie-- gymnorhina tibicen, lath.; called also flute-bird (q.v.). long-billed m.-- g. dorsalis, campbell. white, or organ m.-- g. organicum, gould; called also organ-bird (q.v.). white-backed m.-- g. leuconota, gould. in tasmania, the name is also applied to the-- black magpie-- strepera fuliginosa, gould; and s. arguta, gould. . h. kingsley, `geoffr/e/y hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. [footnote]: "magpie, a large, pied crow.of all the birds i have ever seen, the cleverest, the most grotesque, and the most musical. the splendid melody of his morning and evening song is as unequalled as it is indescribable." . b. hoare, `figures of fancy,' p. : "gay magpies chant the livelong day." . t. heney, `fortunate days,' p. : "the magpie swells from knoll or silent brake his loud sweet tune." . `melbourne punch,' march : "the magpie maketh mute his mellow fluent flute, nor chaunteth now his leuconotic hymn." magpie-goose, n. a common name for the australian goose, anseranus melanoleuca, lath.; called also swan-goose, and pied goose. see goose. magpie-lark, n. an australian black-and-white bird (grallina picata, lath.), resembling the magpie in appearance, but smaller; called also pee-wee, and mudlark, from its building its nest of mud. . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "the little magpie-lark. . . . his more elegant and graceful figure remains in modest silence by the hedgerow in the outskirts." magpie-perch, n. a west australian, victorian, and tasmanian fish, chilodactylus gibbosus, richards.; not a true perch, but of family cirrhitidae. magra, n. aboriginal name for the sling or pouch in which the gins carry their children on their backs. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "other lesser brats were in magras, gipsy-like, at their mothers' backs." on p. , mr. howitt uses the form "mogra." mahoe, n. maori name for the new zealand whitewood-tree, melicytus ramiflorus, forst., n.o. violarieae. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "mahoe (melicytus ramiflorus) grows to the height of about fifty feet, and has a fine thin spiral leaf." . thomas moser, `mahoe leaves': [title of a volume of articles about the maoris.] . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "mahoe, hinahina. a small tree twenty to thirty feet high; trunk often angular and seven feet in girth. the word is soft and not in use. . . . leaves greedily eaten by cattle." mahogany, n. the name, with varying epithets, is applied to several australian trees, chiefly eucalypts, on account of the redness or hardness of their timber, and its applicability to purposes similar to that of the true mahogany. the following enumeration is compiled from maiden's `useful native plants' mahogany, tristania conferta, r. br., n.o. myrtaceae; called also white box, red box, brush box, bastard box, brisbane box. this bark is occasionally used for tanning. bastard mahogany, or gippsland mahogany, or swamp mahogany, eucalyptus botryoides, smith, n.o. myrtaceae. the blue gum of new south wales coast districts. bastard mahogany of gippsland and new south wales; called also swamp mahogany in victoria and new south wales. it also bears the names of bastard jarrah, and occasionally woolly butt. sydney workmen often give it the name bangalay, by which it was formerly known by the aboriginals of port jackson. it is one of four colonial timbers recommended by the victorian carriage timber board for use in the construction of railway carriages. specimens from gippsland (gippsland mahogany) are spoken of as "a timber of good colour, as strong as blue gum." mahogany, or bastard mahogany, eucalyptus marginata, smith, n.o. myrtaceae. universally known as jarrah. in western australia it also bears the name of mahogany, or bastard mahogany. forest or red mahogany, eucalyptus resinifera, smith, n.o. myrtaceae; called also jimmy low (q.v.). forest mahogany, eucalyptus microcorys, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. in queensland it is known as peppermint, the foliage being remarkably rich in volatile oil. but its almost universal name is tallow wood (q.v.). north of port jackson it bears the name of turpentine tree (q.v.), and forest mahogany. tom russell's mahogany, lysicarpus ternifolius, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. swamp mahogany, or white mahogany, eucalyptus robusta, smith, n.o. myrtaceae, b. fl. this tree is known as white, or swamp mahogany, from the fact that it generally grows in swampy ground. it is also called brown gum. this timber is much valued for shingles, wheelwrights'work, ship-building, and building purposes generally. as a timber for fuel, and where no great strength is required, it is excellent, especially when we consider its adaptability to stagnant, swampy, or marshy places. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "mahogany, jarrail, eucalyptus, grows on white sandy land." ibid. vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "part of our road lay through a thick mahogany scrub." mai, or matai, n. a new zealand tree, now called podocarpus spicata. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "matai, mai (dacrydium mai), a tree with a fine thick top, and leaf much resembling that of the yew. the wood is of a slightly reddish colour, close-grained, but brittle, and peculiarly fragrant when burnt. . . . highly prized for fuel, and also much used for furniture, as it works up easily and comes next to the totara for durability." . w. n. blair, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. ix. art. x. p. : "i have in this paper adhered to the popular name of black-pine for this timber, but the native name matai is always used in the north." maiden's blush, n. name given to the australian tree echinocarpus australis, benth., n.o. tiliaceae; and sometimes applied to euroschinus falcatus, hook., n.o. anacardiaceae. the timber is of a delicate rosy colour when cut. the fruit is called hedgehog-fruit (q.v.). in tasmania, the name is applied to convolvulus erubescens, sims., order convolvulaceae. maire, n. a maori name applied to three kinds of trees; viz.-- ( ) santalum cunninghamii, hook., a sandal-wood; ) olea of various species (formerly fusanus); ( ) eugenia maire, a. cunn., native box-wood, but now usually confined to n.o. santalaceae. . w. yate, `some account of new zealand,' p. : "mairi--a tree of the podocarpus species." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, pp. - : "maire--a small tree ten to fifteen feet high, six to eight inches in diameter; wood hard, close-grained, heavy, used by maoris in the manufacture of war implements. has been used as a substitute for box by wood-engravers. black maire, n.o. jasmineae;also maire-rau-nui, olea cunninghamii. hook., fil., black m., forty to fifty feet high, three to four feet in diameter, timber close-grained, heavy, and very durable." major buller, n. name given to one of the fruits of the geebong tribe. see geebong. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the sergeant baker in all probability got its local appellation to the early history of the colony (new south wales), as it was called after a sergeant of that name in one of the first detachments of a regiment; so were also two fruits of the geebong tribe (persoonia); one was called major buller, and the other major groce, and this latter again further corrupted into major grocer." major groce, or major grocer, name given to one of the fruits of the geebung tribe. see geebung, /or geebong/ and quotation under major buller. major mitchell, n. vernacular name of a species of cockatoo, cacatua leadbeateri, vig. it was called after the explorer, major (afterwards sir thomas) mitchell, who was surveyor- general of new south wales. the cry of the bird was fancifully supposed to resemble his name. see leadbeater. make a light, expressive pigeon-english. an aboriginal's phrase for to look for, to find. "you been make a light yarraman this morning?" i.e. have you found or seen the horses this morning? . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. [footnote]: "`make a light,' in blackfellow's gibberish, means simply `see.'" mako, n. originally makomako. maori name for a new zealand tree, aristotelia racemosa, hook., n.o. tiliaceae, often but incorrectly called mokomoko. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "mako, a small handsome tree, six to twenty feet high, quick-growing, with large racemes of reddish nodding flowers. wood very light and white in colour." mako/ /, n. maori name for the tiger- shark. see shark. the teeth of the mako are used for ornaments by the maoris. mallee, n. and adj. an aboriginal word. any one of several scrubby species of eucalyptus in the desert parts of south australia and victoria, especially eucalyptus dumosa, cunn., and e. oleosa, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. they are also called mallee gums. accent on the first syllable. the word is much used as an adjective to denote the district in which the shrub grows, the "mallee district," and this in late times is generally shortened into the mallee. compare "the lakes" for the lake-district of cumberland. it then becomes used as an epithet of railways, boards, farmers, or any matters connected with that district. . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the natives of the wimmera prepare a luscious drink from the laap, a sweet exudation from the leaf of the mallee (eucalyptus dumosa" . e. stone parker, `aborigines of australia,' p. : "the immense thickets of eucalyptus dumosa, commonly designated the `malle' scrub." . w. howitt,' tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. : "this mallee scrub, as it is called, consists of a dense wood of a dwarf species of gum-tree, eucalyptus dumosa. this tree, not more than a dozen feet in height, stretches its horizontal and rigid branches around it so as to form with its congeners a close, compact mass." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia, vol. i. p. (oxley's expedition in ): "the country, in dead flats, was overspread with what is now called mallee scrub, that is, the dwarf spreading eucalyptus, to which mr. cunningham gave the specific name of dumosa, a most pestilent scrub to travel through, the openings betwixt the trees being equally infested with the detestable malle-grass." . `the mallee pastoral leases act, ,' vict. no. , p. : "the lands not alienated from the crown and situated in the north-western district of victoria within the boundaries set forth in the first schedule hereto, comprising in all some ten millions of acres wholly or partially covered with the mallee plant, and known as the mallee country, shall be divided into blocks as hereinafter provided." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "mallee selections at horsham. a special mallee board, consisting of mr. hayes, head of the mallee branch of the lands department, and mr. porter." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "in the mallee country there is abundance of work, cutting down mallee, picking up dead wood, rabbit destruction, etc. . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "one of the most common terms used by explorers is `mallee' scrub, so called from its being composed of dwarf species of eucalyptus, called `mallee' by the natives. the species that forms the `mallee' scrub of south australia is the eucalyptus dumosa, and it is probable that allied species receive the same name in other parts of the country." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the late baron von mueller was firmly convinced that it would pay well in this colony, and especially in the mallee, to manufacture potash." mallee-bird, n. an australian bird, leipoa ocellata, gould. aboriginal name, the lowan (q.v.); see turkey. mallee-fowl, n. same as mallee-bird (q.v.). mallee-hen, n. same as mallee-bird (q.v.). . `victorian statutes-game act, third schedule': [close season.] "mallee-hen, from st day of august to the th day of december next following in each year." . `the australasian,' oct. , p. , col. : ". . . the economy of the lowan or mallee-hen. . . . it does not incubate its eggs after the manner of other birds, but deposits them in a large mound of sand . . . shy and timid. inhabits dry and scrubs. in shape and size resembles a greyish mottled domestic turkey, but is smaller, more compact and stouter in the legs." mallee-scrub, n. the "scrub," or thicket, formed by the mallee (q.v.). . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "the flat and, rarely, hilly plains . . . are covered chiefly with thickets and `scrub' of social plants, generally with hard and prickly leaves. this `scrub,' which is quite a feature of the australian interior, is chiefly formed of a bushy eucalyptus, which grows somewhat like our osiers to a height of or feet, and often so densely covers the ground as to be quite impenetrable. this is the `mallee scrub' of the explorers; while the still more dreaded `mulga scrub' consists of species of prickly acacia, which tear the clothes and wound the flesh of the traveller." malurus, n. the scientific name for a genus of australian warblers. name reduced from malacurus, from the grk. malakos, soft, and 'oura, a tail. the type-species is malurus cyaneus of australia, the superb warbler or blue-wren. see superb warbler, wren, and emu-wren. all the maluri, of which there are fifteen or sixteen species, are popularly known as superb warblers, but are more correctly called wrens. . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "the wrens and warblers--chiefly maluri, with the allied amytis and stipiturus--are purely australian. they are feeble on the wing but swift of foot." mana, n. a maori word for power, influence, right, authority, prestige. see chapter on mana, in `old new zealand' ( ), by judge maning. . e. dieffenbach, `travels in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "mana--command, authority, power." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "the natives feel that with the land their `mana,' or power, has gone likewise; few therefore can now be induced to part with land." . f. e. maning (pakeha maori), `old new zealand,' intro. p. iii: "the maoris of my tribe used to come and ask me which had the greatest `mana' (i.e. fortune, prestige, power, strength), the protestant god or the romanist one." . `appendix to journal of house of representatives,' g. i, b. p. : "the government should be asked to recognize his mana over that territory." . j. l.campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "we should be glad to shelter ourselves under the mana-- the protection--of good old kanini." . `otago witness,' dec , p. , col. : "a man of great lineage whose personal mana was undisputed." . `new zealand herald,' feb. [leading article]: "the word `mana,' power, or influence, may be said to be classical, as there were learned discussions about its precise meaning in the early dispatches and state papers. it may be said that misunderstanding about what mana meant caused the war at taranaki." mangaroo, n. aboriginal name for a small flying phalanger with exquisitely fine fur. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "descending from the branches of an ironbark tree beside him, a beautiful little mangaroo floated downwards on out-stretched wings to the foot of a sapling at a little distance away, and nimbly ascending it was followed by his mate." mangi, or mangeao, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, litsea calicaris, benth. and hook. f. . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "mangi--remarkably tough and compact, used for ship-blocks and similar purposes." mango, n. maori name for the dog-fish (q.v.), a species of shark. mangrove, n. the name is applied to trees belonging to different natural orders, common in all tropical regions and chiefly littoral. species of these, rhizophorea mucronata, lamb, and avicennia officinalis, linn., are common in australia; the latter is also found in new zealand. bruguiera rheedii, of the n.o. rhizophoreae, is called in australia red mangrove, and the same vernacular name is applied to heritiera littoralis, dryand., n.o. sterculiaceae, the sundri of india and the looking-glass tree of english gardeners. the name milky mangrove is given, in australia, to excaecaria agallocha, linn., n.o. euphorbiaceae, which further goes by the names of river poisonous tree and blind-your-eyes--names alluding to the poisonous juice of the stem. the name river mangrove is applied to aegiceras majus, gaertn., n.o. myrsineae, which is not endemic in australia. in tasmania, native mangrove is another name for the boobialla (q.v.) mangrove-myrtle, n. name applied by leichhardt to the indian tree barringtonia acutangula, gaertn. (stravadium rubrum de c.), n.o. myrtaceae. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "as its foliage and the manner of the growth resemble the mangrove, we called it the mangrove-myrtle." manna, n. the dried juice, of sweet taste, obtained from incisions in the bark of various trees. the australian manna is obtained from certain eucalypts, especially e. viminalis, labill. it differs chemically from the better known product of the manna-ash (fraxinus ornus). see lerp. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "several of the species yield an exudation in the spring and summer months, which coagulates and drops from the leaves to the ground in small irregular shaped snow white particles, often as large as an almond [?]. they are sweet and very pleasant to the taste, and are greedily devoured by the birds, ants, and other animals, and used to be carefully picked up and eaten by the aborigines. this is a sort of manna." . r. brough smyth, `the aborigines of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "two varieties of a substance called manna are among the natural products . . . one kind . . . being secreted by the leaves and slender twigs of the e. viminalis from punctures or injuries done to these parts of the tree. . . . it consists principally of a kind of grape sugar and about %. of the substance called mannite. another variety of manna is the secretion of the pupa of an insect of the psylla family and obtains the name of lerp among the aborigines. at certain seasons of the year it is very abundant on the leaves of e. dumosa, or mallee scrub . . ." . w. w. spicer, `handbook of plants of tasmania, p. viii: "the hemipters, of which the aphids, or plant-lice, are a familiar example, are furnished with stiff beaks, with which they pierce the bark and leaves of various plants for the purpose of extracting the juices. it is to the punctures of this and some other insects of the same order, that the sweet white manna is due, which occurs in large quantities during the summer months on many of the gum-trees." manna-grass. see grass. manna-gum. see manna and gum. manoao, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, yellow-pine, dacrydium colensoi, hook., n.o. coniferae. . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the wood of the manoao is of a light-brown colour." manucode, n. the word is in english use for the bird-of- paradise. it is malay (manuk-dewata = bird of the gods). the species in australia is manucodia gouldii, grey. see also rifle-bird. manuka, n. the maori name for tea-tree (q.v.). properly, the accent is on the first syllable with broad a. vulgarly, the accent is placed on the second syllable. there are two species in new zealand, white and red; the first, a low bush called scrub-manuka, l. scoparium, r. and g. forst., the tea-tree used by captain cook's sailors; the second, a tree leptospermum ericoides, a. richard. . j. s. polack, `manners and customs of the new zealanders,' p. : "this wood, called by the southern tribes manuka, is remarkably hard and durable, and throughout the country is an especial favourite with the natives, who make their spears, paddles, fishing rods, etc., of this useful timber." . w. r. wade, `journey in northern island of new zealand,' p. : "the manuka, or, as it is called in the northern part of the island, kahikatoa (leptospermum scoparium), is a mysterious plant, known in van diemen's land as the tea tree." . e. dieffenbach, `travels in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the manuka supplies the place of the tea-shrub." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "[the house] was protected from the weather by a wooden railing filled in with branches of the manuka. this is a shrub very abundant in some parts. the plant resembles the teaplant in leaves and flower, and is often used green by the whalers and traders for the same purpose." . mrs.wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "it is generally made of manuka a very hard, dark, close-grained and heavy wood." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the manuka, a sort of scrub, has a pretty blossom like a diminutive michaelmas daisy, white petals and a brown centre, with a very aromatic odour; and this little flower is succeeded by a berry with the same strong smell and taste of spice. the shepherds sometimes make an infusion of these when they are very hard up for tea; but it must be like drinking a decoction of cloves." . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "chiefly covered with fern and tea-tree (manuka) scrub." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "then to a copse of manuka retreat, where they could safely, secretly commune." [domett has the following note--"`a large shrub or small tree; leaves used as tea in tasmania and australia, where the plant is equally abundant' (hooker). in the poem it is called indiscriminately manuka, broom, broom-like myrtle, or leptosperm. the settlers often call it `tea-broom.'"] . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "a tremendous fire of broadleaf and manuka roared in the chimney." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "manuka is a shrub which is rampant throughout new zealand. if it were less common it would be thought more beautiful. in summer it is covered with white blossom: and there are few more charming sights than a plain of flourishing manuka." maomao, n. maori name for a new zealand sea-fish, ditrema violacea. . r. a. sherrin, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "the delicious little maomao may be caught at the riverina rocks in immense quantities." maori, n. (pronounced so as to rhyme with dowry). ( ) the name used to designate themselves by the polynesian race occupying new zealand when it was discovered by the white man, and which still survives. they are not aboriginal as is commonly supposed, but migrated into new zealand about years ago from hawaii, the tradition still surviving of the two great canoes (arawa and tainui) in which the pioneers arrived. they are commonly spoken of as the natives of new zealand. ( ) the language of the maori race. ( ) adj. applied to anything pertaining to the maoris or their language. see pakeha. there is a discussion on the word in the `journal of polynesian society,' vol. i. no. , vol. ii. no. , and vol. iii. no. i. bishop williams ( th ed.) says that the word means, "of the normal or usual kind." the pakehas were not men to whom the natives were accustomed. so maori was used as opposed to the europeans, the white-skins. kuri maori was a name used for a dog after the arrival of other quadrupeds called also kuri. wai maori was freshwater, ordinary as opposed to sea-water. another explanation is that the word meant "indigenous," and that there are kindred words with that meaning in other polynesian languages. first, "indigenous," or "of the native race," and then with a secondary meaning, "ours." (see tregear's maori comparative dictionary,' s.v.) the form of the plural varies. the form maoris is considered the more correct, but the form maories is frequently used by good writers. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the maori language is essentially a poor one, and possesses in particular but few words which express abstract ideas." . a. s. thomson, `story of new zealand,' vol. i. c. iii. p. : "no light is thrown on the origin of the new zealanders from the name maori which they call themselves. this word, rendered by linguists `native,' is used in contradistinction to pakeha, or stranger." . crosbie ward, `canterbury rhymes,' `the runaways' ( nd edition), p. : "one morn they fought, the fight was hot, although the day was show'ry; and many a gallant soldier then was bid memento maori." . jessie mackay, `the sitter on the rail, and other poems,' p. : "like the night, the fated maori fights the coming day; fights and falls as doth the kauri hewn by axe away." ( ) name given in new south wales to the fish, cosis lineolatus, one of the labridae, or wrasses. maori-cabbage, n. the wild cabbage of new zealand, brassica spp., n.o. cruciferae, said to be descended from the cabbages planted by captain cook. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. .: "every recollection of cook is interesting. . . . but the chief record of his having been on the island is the cabbage and turnip which he sowed in various places: these have spread and become quite naturalized, growing everywhere in the greatest abundance, and affording an inexhaustible supply of excellent vegetables." . s. butler, `first year in canterbury settlement,' p. : "the only plant good to eat is maori cabbage, and that is swede turnip gone wild, from seed left by captain cook." . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xiii. art. i. p. [`on the vegetable food of the ancient new zealanders']: "the leaves of several smaller plants were also used as vegetables; but the use of these in modern times, or during the last forty or fifty years, was commonly superseded by that of the extremely useful and favourite plant--the maori cabbage, brassica oleracea, introduced by cook (nani of the maoris at the north, and rearea at the south), of which they carefully sowed the seeds." maori-chief, n. name given to a new zealand flathead-fish, notothenia maoriensis, or coriiceps. the name arises from marks on the fish like tattooing. it is a very dark, almost black fish. . p. thomson, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. x. art. xliv. p. : "some odd fishes now and then turn up in the market, such as the maori-chief, cat-fish, etc." . ibid. vol. xi. art. lii. p. : "that very dark-skinned fish, the maori-chief, notothenia maoriensis of dr. haast, is not uncommon, but is rarely seen more than one at a time." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "resemblances are strange things. at first it would seem improbable that a fish could be like a man, but in dunedin a fish was shown to me called maori chief, and with the exercise of a little imagination it was not difficult to perceive the likeness. nay, some years ago, at a fishmonger's in melbourne, a fish used to be labelled with the name of a prominent victorian politician now no more. there is reason, however, to believe that art was called in to complete the likeness." maori-head, n. a swamp tussock, so called from a fancied resemblance to the head of a maori. (compare black-boy.) it is not a grass, but a sedge (carex). . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "a boggy creek that oozed sluggishly through rich black soil, amongst tall raupo, maori-heads, and huge flax-bushes." . w. mchutcheson, `camp life in fiordland,' p. : "amid the ooze and slime rose a rank growth of `maori heads.'" maori-hen, n. same as weka (q.v.). maoriland, n. a modern name for new zealand. it is hardly earlier than . if the word, or anything like it, such as maoria, was used earlier, it meant "the maori parts of new zealand." it is now used for the whole. . j. h. st. john [title]: "pakeha rambles through maori lands." . j. c. johnstone [title]: "maoria: a sketch of the manners and customs of the aboriginal inhabitants of new zealand." . kerry nicholls [title]: "the king country, or explorations in new zealand. a narrative of miles of travel through maoriland." . [title]: "maoriland: an illustrated handbook to new zealand." . annie r. butler [title] "glimpses of maori land." . t. bracken [title]: "musings in maori land." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "always something new from maoriland! our new zealand friends are kindly obliging us with vivid illustrations of how far demagogues in office will actually go." maorilander, n. modern name for a white man born in new zealand. . `melbourne punch,' april , p. , col. : "norman is a pushing young maorilander who apparently has the britisher by the right ear." maori, white, new zealand miners' name for a stone. see quotation. . `a citizen,' `illustrated guide to dunedin,' p. : "tungstate of lime occurs plentifully in the wakatipu district, where from its weight and colour it is called white maori by the miners." mapau, n. a maori name for several new zealand trees; called also mapou, and frequently corrupted by settlers into maple, by the law of hobson-jobson. the name is applied to the following-- the mapau-- myrsine urvillei, de c., n.o. myrsineae; sometimes called red mapau. black m.-- pittosporum tenuifolium, banks and sol., n.o. pittosporeae; maori name, tawhiri. white m.-- carpodetus serratus, forst., n.o. saxifrageae; pittosporum eugenoides, a. cunn.; maori name, tarata (q.v.); called also the hedge-laurel (q.v.), lemon-wood, and new zealand oak. see oak. the first of these trees (myrsine urvillei) is, according to colenso, the only tree to which the maoris themselves give the name mapau. the others are only so called by the settlers. . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. i., `essay on botany of otago,' p. : "white mapau, or piripiri-whata (carpodetus serratus), an ornamental shrub-tree, with mottled-green leaves, and large cymose panicles of white flowers. . . . red mapau (myrsine urvillei), a small tree common at dunedin. wood dark red, very astringent, used as fence stuff." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "tawiri, white-mapou, white-birch (of auckland). a small tree, ten to thirty feet high; trunk unusually slender; branches spreading in a fan-shaped manner, which makes it of very ornamental appearance; flower white, profusely produced. the wood is soft and tough." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "by the settlers it is frequently called `black mapou' on account of the colour of the bark. . . . with still less excuse it is sometimes called `black maple,' an obvious corruption of the preceding." maple, n. in new zealand, a common settlers' corruption for any tree called mapau (q.v.); in australia, applied to villaresia moorei, f. v. m., n.o. olacineae, called also the scrub silky oak. see oak. maray, n. new south wales name for the fish clupea sagax, jenyns, family clupeidae or herrings, almost identical with the english pilchard. the word maray is thought to be an aboriginal name. bloaters are made of this fish at picton in new zealand, according to the report of the royal commission on fisheries of new south wales, . but agonostoma forsteri, a sea-mullet, is also when dried called the picton herring (q.v). see herring and aua. marble-fish, n. name given to the tupong (q.v.) in geelong. marble-wood, n. name applied to a whitish-coloured mottled timber, olea paniculata, r. br., n.o. jasmineae; called also native olive and ironwood. mark, a good, australian slang. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "i wondered often what was the meaning of this, amongst many other peculiar colonial phrases, `is the man a good mark?' i heard it casually from the lips of apparently respectable settlers, as they rode on the highway, `such and such a one is a good mark,"--simply a person who pays his men their wages, without delays or drawbacks; a man to whom you may sell anything safely; for there are in the colony people who are regularly summoned before the magistrates by every servant they employ for wages. they seem to like to do everything publicly, legally, and so become notoriously not `good marks.'" [so also "bad mark," in the opposite sense.] mariner, n. name given in tasmania to a marine univalve mollusc, either elenchus badius, or e. bellulus, wood. the mariner is called by the tasmanian fishery commissioners the "pearly necklace shell"; when deprived of its epidermis by acid or other means, it has a blue or green pearly lustre. the shells are made into necklaces, of which the aboriginal name is given as merrina, and the name of the shell is a corruption of this word, by the law of hobson-jobson. compare warrener. . `catalogue of the objects of ethnotypical art in the national gallery' (melbourne), p. : "necklace, consisting of shells (elenchus bellulus) strung on thin, well-made twine. the native name of a cluster of these shells was, according to one writer, merrina." marsh, n. a tasmanian name for a meadow. see quotation. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "perhaps my use of the common colonial term `marsh' may be misunderstood at home, as i remember that i myself associated it at first with the idea of a swamp; but a `marsh' here is what would in england be called a meadow, with this difference, that in our marshes, until partially drained, a growth of tea-trees (leptospermum) and rushes in some measure encumbers them; but, after a short time, these die off, and are trampled down, and a thick sward of verdant grass covers the whole extent: such is our `marsh.'" marsupial, adj. see the noun. marsupial, n. an animal in which the female has an abdominal pouch in which the young, born in a very immature state, are carried. (lat. marsupium = a pouch.) at the present day marsupials are only found in america and the australian region, the greater number being confined to the latter. see quotation , lydekker. . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the marsupial type exhibits the economy of nature under novel and very interesting arrangements. . . . australia is the great head-quarters of the marsupial tribe." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "i believe it was charles lamb who said, the peculiarity of the small fore-feet of the kangaroo seemed to be for picking pockets; but he forgot to mention the singularity characterizing the animal kingdom of australia, that they have pockets to be picked, being mostly marsupial. we have often amused ourselves by throwing sugar or bread into the pouch of the kangaroo, and seen with what delight the animal has picked its own pocket, and devoured the contents, searching its bag, like a highlander his sporran, for more." [see kangaroo, quotation .] . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "an act known as the marsupial act was accordingly passed to encourage their destruction, a reward of so much a scalp being offered by the government. . . . some of the squatters have gone to a vast expense in fencing-in their runs with marsupial fencing, but it never pays." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "one of the sheep-owners told me that in the course of eighteen months he had killed , of these animals (marsupials), especially wallabies (macropus dorsalis) and kangaroo- rats (lagorchestes conspicillatus), and also many thousands of the larger kangaroo (macropus giganteus)." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "in south australia the legislature has had to appoint a close season for kangaroos, else would extinction of the larger marsupials be at hand. we should have been forced to such action also, if the american market for kangaroo-hides had continued as brisk as formerly." . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the great island-continent of australia, together with the south-eastern austro-malayan islands, is especially characterized by being the home of the great majority of that group of lowly mammals commonly designated marsupials, or pouched-mammals. indeed, with the exception of the still more remarkable monotremes [q.v.], or egg-laying mammals, nearly the whole of the mammalian fauna of australia consists of these marsupials, the only other indigenous mammals being certain rodents and bats, together with the native dog, or dingo, which may or may not have been introduced by man." . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "the presence of a predominating marsupial order in australia has, besides practically establishing the long isolation of that continent from the rest of the globe, also given rise to a number of ingenious theories professing to account for its survival to this last stronghold." marsupial mole, n. the only species of the genus notoryctes (q.v.), n. typhlops [from the greek notos, `south' (literally `south wind'), and rhunchos, a `snout']; first described by dr. stirling of adelaide (in the `transactions of the royal society of south australia,' , p. ). aboriginal name, urquamata. it burrows with such extraordinary rapidity in the desert-sands of central australia, to which it is confined, that, according to mr. lydekker, it may be said to swim in the sand as a porpoise does in the water. marsupial wolf, n. see thylacine and tasmanian tiger. martin, >n. a bird common in england. the species in australia are-- tree, petrochelidon nigricans, vieill.; fairy, lagenoplastes ariel, gould; called also bottle-swallow (q.v.). . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : ". . . the elegant little fairy martins (lagenoplastes ariel), which construct a remarkable mud nest in shape not unlike a retort." mary, n. used in queensland of the aborigines, as equivalent to girl or woman. "a black mary." compare "benjamin," used for husband. matagory, n. a prickly shrub of new zealand, discaria toumatou, raoul.; also called wild irishman (q.v.). the maori name is tumatahuru, of which matagory, with various spellings, is a corruption, much used by rabbiters and swagmen. the termination gory evidently arises by the law of hobson-jobson from the fact that the spikes draw blood. . j. t. thomson, in `otago gazette,' sept. , p. : "much over-run with the scrub called `tomata-guru.'" alex. garvie, ibid. p. : "much of it is encumbered with matakura scrub." . w. mchutcheson, `camp life in fiordland,' p. : "trudging moodily along in indian file through the matagouri scrub and tussock." . `otago witness,' th may, p. : "the tea generally tastes of birch or matagouri." matai, often abridged to mai, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, podocarpus spicata, r. br., n.o. coniferae. black-pine of otago. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "mr. buchanan has described a log of matai that he found had been exposed for at least years in a dense damp bush in north-east valley, dunedin, as proved by its being enfolded by the roots of three large trees of griselinia littoralis." match-box bean, n. another name for the ripe hard seed of the queensland bean, entada scandens, benth., n.o. leguminosae. a tall climbing plant. the seeds are used for match-boxes. see under bean. matipo, n. another maori name for the new zealand trees called mapau (q.v.). . lady barker, `station life in new zealand' (ed. ), p. : "the varieties of matapo, a beautiful shrub, each leaf a study, with its delicate tracery of black veins on a yellow-green ground." . j. b. armstrong, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. xlix. p. : "the tipau, or matipo (pittosporum tenuifolium), makes the best ornamental hedge i know of." . `tourist,' `new zealand country journal,' vol. iii. p. : "an undergrowth of beautiful shrubs, conspicuous amongst these were the pittosporum or matipo, which are, however, local in their distribution, unlike the veronicas, which abound everywhere." meadow rice-grass, n. see grass. mealy-back, n. a local name for the locust (q.v.). medicine-tree, i.q. horse-radish tree (q.v.). megapode, n. scientific name for a genus of australian birds with large feet--the mound-birds (q.v.). from greek megas, large, and pous, podos, a foot. they are also called scrub fowls. melitose, n. the name given by berthelot to the sugar obtained from the manna of eucalyptus mannifera. chemically identical with the raffinose extracted from molasses and the gossypose extracted from cotton-seeds. . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : [statement as to origin of melitose by the baron von mueller.] "sir frederick m'coy has traced the production of mellitose also to a smaller cicade." melon, n. besides its botanical use, the word is applied in australia to a small kangaroo, the paddy-melon (q.v.). melon-hole, n. a kind of honey-combing of the surface in the interior plains, dangerous to horsemen, ascribed to the work of the paddy-melon. see preceding word, and compare the english rabbit-hole. the name is often given to any similar series of holes, such as are sometimes produced by the growing of certain plants. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the soil of the bricklow scrub is a stiff clay, washed out by the rains into shallow holes, well known by the squatters under the name of melon-holes." ibid. p: : "a stiff, wiry, leafless, polyganaceous plant grows in the shallow depressions of the surface of the ground, which are significantly termed by the squatters `melon-holes,' and abound in the open box-tree flats." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' p. : "the plain is full of deep melon-holes, and the ground is rotten and undermined with rats." menindie clover, n. see clover. menura, n. the scientific name of the genus of the lyre-bird (q.v.), so called from the crescent-shaped form of the spots on the tail; the tail itself is shaped like a lyre. (grk. maen, moon, crescent, and 'oura, tail.) the name was given by general davies in . . t. davies, `description of menura superba,' in `transactions of the linnaean society' ( ), vol. vi. p. : "the general colour of the under sides of these two [tail] feathers is of a pearly hue, elegantly marked on the inner web with bright rufous-coloured crescent-shaped spots, which, from the extraordinary construction of the parts, appear wonderfully transparent." mere, or meri, n. (pronounced merry), a maori war-club; a casse-te^te, or a war-axe, from a foot to eighteen inches in length, and made of any suitable hard material--stone, hard wood, whalebone. to many people out of new zealand the word is only known as the name of a little trinket of greenstone (q.v.) made in imitation of the new zealand weapon in miniature, mounted in gold or silver, and used as a brooch, locket, ear-ring, or other article of jewelry. . j. d. lang, `poems' (edition ), p. : "beneath his shaggy flaxen mat the dreadful marree hangs concealed." . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "the old man has broken my head with his meri." . a. s. thomson, `story of new zealand,' p. : "of these the greenstone meri was the most esteemed. it weighs six pounds, is thirteen inches long, and in shape resembles a soda-water bottle flattened. in its handle is a hole for a loop of flax, which is twisted round the wrist. meris are carried occasionally in the girdle, like malay knives. in conflicts the left hand grasped the enemy's hair, and one blow from the meri on the head produced death." ]. j. bonwick, `romance of wool trade,' p. : "a land of musket and meri-armed warriors, unprovided with a meat supply, even of kangaroo." . jessie mackay, `the spirit of the rangatira,' p. : "he brandished his greenstone mere high, and shouted a maori battle-cry." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. iii. p. : "`no, no, my peg; i thrust it in with this meri,' yells maori jack, brandishing his war-club." merinoes, pure, n. a term often used, especially in new south wales, for the `very first families,' as the pure merino is the most valuable sheep. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "next we have the legitimates . . . such as have legal reasons for visiting this colony; and the illegitimates, or such as are free from that stigma. the pure merinos are a variety of the latter species, who pride themselves on being of the purest blood in the colony." mersey jolly-tail, n. see jolly-tail. message-stick, n. the aboriginals sometimes carve little blocks of wood with various marks to convey messages. these are called by the whites, message-sticks. messmate, n. name given to one of the gum-trees, eucalyptus amygdalina, labill., and often to other species of eucalypts, especially e. obliqua, l'herit. for origin of this curious name, see quotation, . . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "it is also known by the name of `messmate,' because it is allied to, or associated with, stringy-bark. this is probably the tallest tree on the globe, individuals having been measured up to ft., ft., and in one case ft., with the length of the stem up to the first branch ft. the height of a tree at mt. baw baw (victoria) is quoted at ft." . `the argus,' june , p. , col . : "away to the north-east a wooded range of mountains rolls along the skyline, ragged rents showing here and there where the dead messmates and white gums rise like gaunt skeletons from the dusky brown-green mass into which distance tones the bracken and the underwood." mia-mia, n. an aboriginal hut. the word is aboriginal, and has been spelt variously. mia-mia is the most approved spelling, mi-mi the most approved pronunciation. see humpy. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "there she stood in a perfect state of nudity, a little way from the road, by her miam, smiling, or rather grimacing." . letter from mrs. perry, given in canon goodman's church in victoria during episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "we came upon the largest (deserted) native encampment we had ever seen. one of the mia-mias (you know what that is by this time--the a is not sounded) was as large as an ordinary sized circular summer-house, and actually had rude seats all round, which is quite unusual. it had no roof, they never have, being mere break-weathers, not so high as a man's shoulder." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "they constructed a mimi, or bower of boughs on the other, leaving portholes amongst the boughs towards the road." . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. vii. p. : "their thoughts wandered to their hunting-grounds and mia-mias on the murray." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : [notice varied spelling in the same author.] "many of the diggers resided under branches of trees made into small `miams' or `wigwams.'" . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "the next day i began building a little `mi-mi,' to serve as a resting-place for the night in going back at any time for supplies." . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting in victoria' ( - ), p. : "of the mia-mias, some were standing; others had, wholly or in part, been thrown down by their late occupants." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "a few branches thrown up against the prevailing wind, in rude imitation of the native mia-mia." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "[the blacks] would compel [the missionaries] to carry their burdens while travelling, or build their mia-mias when halting to camp for the night; in fact, all sorts of menial offices had to be discharged by the missionaries for these noble black men while away on the wilds!" [footnote]: "small huts, made of bark and leafy boughs, built so as to protect them against the side from which the wind blew." micky, n. young wild bull. "said to have originated in gippsland, victoria. probably from the association of bulls with mickeys, or irishmen." (barere and leland.) . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xviii. p. : "the wary and still more dangerously sudden `micky,' a two-year-old bull." micky/ /, n. in new zealand, a corruption of mingi (q.v.). midwinter, n. the seasons being reversed in australia, christmas occurs in the middle of summer. the english word midsummer has thus dropped out of use, and "christmas," or christmas-time, is its australian substitute, whilst midwinter is the word used to denote the australian winter-time of late june and early july. see christmas. mignonette, native, n. a tasmanian flower, stackhousia linariaefolia, cunn., n.o. stackhouseae. mihanere, n. a convert to christianity; a maori variant of the english word missionary. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. pp. , : "the mihanere natives, as a body, were distinctly inferior in point of moral character to the natives, who remained with their ancient customs unchanged. . . . a very common answer from a converted native, accused of theft, was, `how can that be? i am a mihanere.' . . . they were all mihanere, or converts." milk-bush, n. a tall queensland shrub, wrightia saligna, f. v. m., n.o. apocyneae; it is said to be most valuable as a fodder-bush. milk-fish, n. the name, in australia, is given to a marine animal belonging to the class holothurioidea. the holothurians are called sea-cucumbers, or sea-slugs. the trepang, or be^che-de-mer, eaten by the chinese, belongs to them. called also tit-fish (q.v.). . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales,' vol. v. pt. ii. p. : "another species [of trepang] is the `milk fish' or `cotton fish,' so called from its power of emitting a white viscid fluid from its skin, which clings to an object like shreds of cotton." milk-plant, n. i.q. caustic creeper (q.v.). milk-tree, n. a new zealand tree, epicarpurus microphyllus, raoul. . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "milk-tree . . . a tall slender tree exuding a milky sap: wood white and very brittle." milk-wood, n. a northern territory name for melaleuca leucadendron, linn.; called also paperbark-tree (q.v.). miller, n. a local name for the cicada. see locust (quotation, ). millet, n. the name is given to several australian grasses. the koda millet of india, paspalum scrobiculatum, linn., is called in australia ditch millet; seaside millet is the name given to paspalum distichum, linn., both of the n.o. gramineae. but the principal species is called australian millet, native millet, and umbrella grass; it is panicum decompositum, r. br., n.o. gramineae; it is not endemic in australia. . `the australasian,' march , p. , col. : "one of the very best of the grasses found in the hot regions of central australia is the australian millet, panicum decompositum. it is extremely hardy and stands the hot dry summers of the north very well; it is nutritious, and cattle and sheep are fond of it. it seeds freely, was used by the aborigines for making a sort of cake, and was the only grain stored by them. this grass thrives in poor soil, and starts into rapid growth with the first autumn rains." mimosa, n. a scientific name applied to upwards of two hundred trees of various genera in the old world. the genus mimosa, under which the australian trees called wattles were originally classed, formerly included the acacias. these now constitute a separate genus. acacia is the scientific name for the wattle; though even now an old colonist will call the wattles "mimosa." . j. e. smith, `specimen of botany of new holland,' p. : "this shrub is now not uncommon in our greenhouses, having been raised in plenty from seeds brought from port jackson. it generally bears its fragrant flowers late in the autumn, and might then at first sight be sooner taken for a myrtus than a mimosa." . jas. flemming, `journal of explorations of charles grimes,' in `historical records of port phillip' (ed. , j. j. shillinglaw), p. : "timber; gum, banksia, oak, and mimosa of sorts, but not large except the gum." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "gum-arabic, which exudes from the mimosa shrubs." . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. , col. : "`cashmere' shawls do not grow on the mimosa trees." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the mimosa is a very graceful tree; the foliage is of a light green colour. . . . the yellow flowers with which the mimosa is decked throw out a perfume sweeter than the laburnum; and the gum . . . is said not to be dissimilar to gum-arabic." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "but, yarra, thou art lovelier now, with clouds of bloom on every bough; a gladsome sight it is to see, in blossom thy mimosa tree. like golden-moonlight doth it seem, the moonlight of a heavenly dream; a sunset lustre, chaste and cold, a pearly splendour blent with gold." "to the river yarra." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the other exports of australia felix consist chiefly of tallow, cured beef and mutton, wheat, mimosa-bark, and gumwood." . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "the mimosa--although it sadly chokes the country--when in flower, fills the air with fragrance. its bark is much used for tanning purposes; and the gum that exudes from the stem is of some value as an export, and is used by the blacks as food." . f. s. wilson, `australian songs,' p. : "i have sat, and watched the landscape, latticed by the golden curls, showering, like mimosa-blooms, in scented streams about my breast." minah, n. (also myna, mina, and minah-bird, and the characteristic australian change of miner). from hindustani maina, a starling. the word is originally applied in india to various birds of the starling kind, especially to graculus religiosa, a talking starling or grackle. one of these indian grackles, acridotheres tristis, was acclimatised in melbourne, and is now common to the house-tops of most australian towns. he is not australian, but is the bird generally referred to as the minah, or minah- bird. there are minahs native to australia, of which the species are-- bell-mina-- manorhina melanophrys, lath. bush-m.-- myzantha garrula, lath. dusky-m.-- m. obscura, gould. yellow-m.-- m. lutea, gould. yellow-throated m.-- m. flavigula, gould. . lord valentia, `voyages,' vol. i. p. [stanford]: "during the whole of our stay two minahs were talking most incessantly." . j. forbes, `oriental memoirs,' vol. i. p. [yule]: "the mynah is a very entertaining bird, hopping about the house, and articulating several words in the manner of the starling." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "while at other times, like the miners (genus, myzantha), it soars from tree to tree with the most graceful and easy movement." ibid. vol. iv. pl. : "myzantha garrula, vig. and horsf, garrulous honey-eater; miner, colonists of van diemen's land, m. flavigula, gould, yellow-throated miner." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' vol. i. p. : "his common name . . . is said to be given from his resemblance to some indian bird called mina or miner." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the indian minah is as much at home, and almost as presumptuous, as the sparrow." (p. ): "yellow-legged minahs, tamest of all australian birds." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "the plaintive chirp of the mina." miner's right, n. the licence to dig for gold. see quotation. . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' p. : "a miner's right, a wonderful document, printed and written on parchment, precisely as follows." [a reduced facsimile is given.] ibid. p. : "you produce your miner's right . . . the important piece of parchment, about the size of a bank-cheque, was handed to the court." mingi, n. originally mingi mingi, maori name for a new zealand shrub or small tree, cyathodes acerosa, r. br., n.o. epacrideae. in south new zealand it is often called micky. minnow, n. name sometimes given to a very small fish of new zealand, galaxias attenuatus, jenyns, family galaxidae; called also whitebait (q.v.). the maori name is inanga (q.v.). mint, australian or native, n. a plant, mentha australis, r. br., n.o. labiatea. this herb was largely used by the early colonists of south australia for tea. many of the plants of the genus mentha in australia yield oil of good flavour, among them the common pennyroyal. mint-tree, n. in australia, the tree is prostanthera lasiantha, labill., n.o. labiateae. mirnyong, n. aboriginal name for a shell-mound, generally supposed to be victorian, but, by some, tasmanian. . r. m. johnston, `geology of tasmania,' p. : "with the exception of their rude inconspicuous flints, and the accumulated remains of their feasts in the `mirnyongs,' or native shell-mounds, along our coasts, which only have significance to the careful observer, we have no other visible evidence of their former existence." . r. etheridge, jun., `transactions of the royal society of south australia,' p. [title of paper]: "the mirrn-yong heaps at the north-west bank of the river murray." miro, n. ( ) maori name for a robin (q.v.), and adopted as the scientific name of a genus of new zealand robins. the word is shortened form of miro-miro. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "miro-miro (miro albifrons). a little black-and-white bird with a large head; it is very tame, and has a short melancholy song. the miro toi-toi (muscicapa toi-toi) is a bird not larger than the tom-tit. its plumage is black and white, having a white breast and some of the near feathers of each wing tinged with white." . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xii. art. vii. p. : "proverb : ma to kanohi miro-miro, [signifying] `to be found by the sharp-eyed little bird.' lit. `for the miro-miro's eye.' used as a stimulus to a person searching for anything lost. the miro-miro is the little petroica toi-toi, which runs up and down trees peering for minute insects in the bark." . w. l. buller, `manual of the birds of new zealand,' p. : "the petroeca iongipes is confined to the north island, where it is very common in all the wooded parts of the country; but it is represented in the south island by a closely allied and equally common species, the miro albifrons." ( ) maori name for a new zealand tree, podocarpus ferruginea, don., n.o. coniferae; the black-pine of otago. . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the miro-tree (podocarpus ferruginea) is found in slightly elevated situations in many of the forests in new zealand. height about sixty feet. the wood varies from light to dark-brown in colour, is close in grain, moderately hard and heavy, planes up well, and takes a good polish." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the miro is a valuable tree, common in all parts of the colony. . . . it is usually distinguished by its ordinary native name." mistletoe, n. the name is given to various species of trees of several genera-- ( ) in australia, generally, to various species of loranthus, n.o. loranthaceae. there are a great number, they are very common on the eucalypts, and they have the same viscous qualities as the european mistletoes. ( ) in western australia, to nuytsia floribunda, r. br., n.o. loranthaceae, a terrestrial species attaining the dimensions of a tree--the flame-tree (q.v.) of western australia--and also curiously called there a cabbage- tree. ( ) in tasmania, to cassytha pubescens, r. br., n.o. lauraceae. . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings, p. : "the english mistletoe is the well-known viscum album, whereas all the victorian kinds belong to the genus loranthus, of which the mediterranean l. europaeus is the prototype. the generic name arose in allusion to the strap-like narrowness of the petals." [greek lowron, from lat. lorum, a thong, and 'anthos, a flower.] mitchell-grass, n. an australian grass, astrebla elymoides, a. triticoides, f. v. m., n.o. gramineae. two other species of astrebla are also called "mitchell-grasses." see grass. . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "used for food by the natives. the most valuable fodder-grass of the colony. true mitchell-grass." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "mitchell-grass. the flowering spikes resemble ears of wheat. . . . it is by no means plentiful." moa, n. the word is maori, and is used by that race as the name of the gigantic struthious bird of new zealand, scientifically called dinornis (q.v.). it has passed into popular australasian and english use for all species of that bird. a full history of the discovery of the moa, of its nature and habits, and of the progress of the classification of the species by professor owen, from the sole evidence of the fossil remains of its bones, is given in the introduction to w. l. buller's `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. (pp. xviii-xxxv). . `grammar and vocabulary of new zealand language' (church missionary society), p. : "moe [sic], a bird so called." . `proceedings of zoological society,' nov. : [description by owen of dinornis without the name of moa. it contained the words-- "so far as my skill in interpreting an osseous fragment may be credited, i am willing to risk the reputation for it, on the statement that there has existed, if there does not now exist, in new zealand a struthious bird, nearly, if not quite equal in size to the ostrich."] . ibid. vol. iii. pt. iii. p. : [description of dinornis by owen, in which he names the moa, and quotes letter from rev. w. (afterwards bishop) williams, dated feb. , , "to which they gave the name of moa."] . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the new genus dinornis, which includes also the celebrated moa, or gigantic bird of new zealand, and bears some resemblance to the present apteryx, or wingless bird of that country . . . the new zealanders assert that this extraordinary bird was in existence in the days of their ancestors, and was finally destroyed by their grandfathers." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand' (english translation), p. : "first among them were the gigantic wingless moas, dinornis and palapteryx, which seem to have been exterminated already about the middle of the seventeenth century." [query, eighteenth century?] . ibid. p. : "by the term `moa' the natives signify a family of birds, that we know merely from bones and skeletons, a family of real giant-birds compared with the little apterygides." [footnote]: "moa or toa, throughout polynesia, is the word applied to domestic fowls, originating perhaps from the malay word mua, a kind of peasants [sic]. the maoris have no special term for the domestic fowl." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' introduction, p. lvi. [footnote]: "i have remarked the following similarity between the names employed in the fijian and maori languages for the same or corresponding birds: toa (any fowl-like kind of bird) = moa (dinornis)." mob, n. a large number, the australian noun of multitude, and not implying anything low or noisy. it was not used very early, as the first few of the following quotations show. . g. paterson, `history of new south wales,' p. : "besides herds of kangaroos, four large wolves were seen at western port." . r. dawson, `present state of australia': [p. ]: "herds of kangaroos." [p. ]: "an immense herd of kangaroos." [p. ]: "flocks of kangaroos of every size." . t. b. wilson, `voyage round the world,' p. : "we started several flocks of kangaroos." . dec. , letter in `three years' practical experience of a settler in new south wales,' p. : "a man buying a flock of sheep, or a herd of cattle . . . while i watched the mop i had collected." [this, thus spelt, seems the earliest instance.] . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "droves of kangaroos." of men-- [but with the australian and not the ordinary english signification.] . w. m. b., `narrative of edward crewe,' p. : "a contractor in a large way having a mob of men in his employ." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "it doesn't seem possible to get a mob of steady men for work of that sort now." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. ix. p. : "he, tho' living fifty miles away, was one of the `dunmore mob,' and aided generally in the symposia which were there enjoyed." of blackfellows-- . j. west, `history of tasmania' ( ), vol. ii. p. : "the settlers of remember a number of natives, who roamed about the district, and were known as the `tame mob'; they were absconders from different tribes." . newspaper (tasmanian), march, (cited j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. ii. p. ): "a mob of natives appeared at captain smith's hut, at his run." . h. melville, `history of van diemen's land,' p. : "a mob of some score or so of natives, men, women, and children, had been discovered by their fires." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia', p. : "a whole crowd of men on horseback get together, with a mob of blacks to assist them." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "at the side of the crowd was a small mob of blacks with their dogs, spears, possum rugs, and all complete." of cattle-- . r. donaldson, `bush lays,' p. : "now to the stockyard crowds the mob; 'twill soon be milking time." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "a number of cattle collected together is colonially termed a mob." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "a mixed mob of cattle--cows, steers, and heifers-- had to be collected." . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "`mobs' or small sub-divisions of the main herd." of sheep-- . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "it was more horrible to see the drowning, or just drowned, huddled-up `mob' (as sheep en masse are technically called) which had made the dusky patch we noticed from the hill." . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "a mob of sheep has been sold at belfast at s. d. per head." . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. "the army of sheep--about thirty thousand in fifteen flocks-- at length reached the valley before dark, and the overseer, pointing to a flock of two thousand, more or less, said, `there's your mob.'" of horses-- . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "all the animals to make friends with, mobs of horses to look at." . w. j. barry, `up and down,' p. : "i purchased a mob of horses for the dunstan market." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "the stockman came suddenly on a mob of nearly thirty horses, feeding up a pleasant valley." of kangaroos-- . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the `old men' are always the largest and strongest in the flock, or in colonial language `mob.'" . `once a week,' dec. , p. , `the bulla bulla bunyip': "about a mile outside the town a four-rail fence skirted the rough track we followed. it enclosed a lucerne paddock. over the grey rails, as we approached, came bounding a mob of kangaroos, headed by a gigantic perfectly white `old man,' which glimmered ghostly in the moonlight." of ducks-- . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia, p. : "they [the ducks] all came in twos and threes, and small mobs." of clothes-- . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. , col. : "they buttoned up in front; the only suit to the mob which did so." of books-- . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "if it was in your mob of books, give this copy to somebody that would appreciate it." more generally-- . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "a number of cattle together is here usually termed a `mob,' and truly their riotous and unruly demeanour renders the designation far from inapt; but i was very much amused at first, to hear people gravely talking of `a mob of sheep,' or `a mob of lambs,' and it was some time ere i became accustomed to the novel use of the word. now, the common announcements that `the cuckoo hen has brought out a rare mob of chickens,' or that `there's a great mob of quail in the big paddock,' are to me fraught with no alarming anticipations." . h. berkeley jones, `adventures in australia,' p. : "`there will be a great mob of things going down to-day,' said one to another, which meant that there would be a heavy cargo in number; we must remember that the australians have a patois of their own." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xiii. p. : "what a mob of houses, people, cabs, teams, men, women and children!" mocking-bird, n. the name is given in australia to the lyre-bird (q.v.), and in new zealand to the tui (q.v.). mock-olive, n. a tree. called also axe-breaker (q.v.). mock-orange, n. an australian tree, i.q. native laurel. see laurel. mogo, n. the stone hatchet of the aborigines of new south wales. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "i heard from the summit the mogo of a native at work on some tree close by." . w. carleton, `australian nights,' p. : "one mute memorial by his bier, his mogo, boomerang, and spear." moguey, n. english corruption of mokihi (q.v.). . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "moguey, a maori name for a raupo or flax-stick raft." moki, n. the maori name for the bastard trumpeter (q.v.) of new zealand, latris ciliaris, forst., family cirrhitidae. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "moki, s. a fish so called." mokihi, or moki, n. maori name for a raft; sometimes anglicised as moguey. . j. s. polack, `manners and customs of new zealanders,' vol. ii. p. : "in the absence of canoes, a quantity of dried bulrushes are fastened together, on which the native is enabled to cross a stream by sitting astride and paddling with his hands; these humble conveyances are called moki, and resemble those made use of by the egyptians in crossing among the islands of the nile. they are extremely buoyant, and resist saturation for a longer period." . `appendix to journal of house of representatives,' c. iii. p. : "we crossed the river on mokis. by means of large mokis, carrying upwards of a ton. . . . moki navigation." . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby,' p. : "for the benefit of the unlearned in such matters, let me here explain that a `mokihi' is constructed of koradies, anglice, the flowering stalks of the flax,--three faggots of which lashed firmly in a point at the small ends, and expanded by a piece of wood at the stern, constitute the sides and bottom of the frail craft, which, propelled by a paddle, furnishes sufficient means of transport for a single individual." moko, n. the system of tattooing practised by the maoris. see tattoo. it is not a fact--as popularly supposed--that the "moko" was distinctive in different families; serving, as is sometimes said, the purpose of a coat-of-arms. the "moko" was in fact all made on the same pattern--that of all maori carvings. some were more elaborate than others. the sole difference was that some were in outline only, some were half filled in, and others were finished in elaborate detail. . j. banks, `journal,' nov. (sir j. d. hooker's edition, ), p. : "they had a much larger quantity of amoca [sic] or black stains upon their bodies and faces. they had almost universally a broad spiral on each buttock, and many had their thighs almost entirely black, small lines only being left untouched, so that they looked like striped breeches. in this particular, i mean the use of amoca, almost every tribe seems to have a different custom." . `the times' (weekly edition), july , p. col. : "in this handsome volume, `moko or maori tattooing,' major-general robley treats of an interesting subject with a touch of the horrible about it which, to some readers, will make the book almost fascinating. nowhere was the system of puncturing the flesh into patterns and devices carried out in such perfection or to such an extent as in new zealand. both men and women were operated upon among the maoris." moko-moko, n. ( ) maori name for the bell-bird (q.v.), anthornis melanura, sparrm. . a. w. bathgate, `sladen's australian ballads,' p. : [title]: "to the moko-moko, or bell-bird." [footnote]: "now rapidly dying out of our land," sc. new zealand. ( ) maori name for the lizard, lygosoma ornatum, gray, or lygosoma moko, durn. and bib. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "moko-moko, a small lizard." mole, marsupial. see marsupial mole. moloch, n. an australian lizard, moloch horridus, gray; called also mountain devil (q.v.). there is no other species in the genus, and the adjective (lat. horridus, bristling) seems to have suggested the noun, the name probably recalling milton's line (`paradise lost,' i. ) "first moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood." moloch was the national god of the ammonites ( kings xi. ), and was the personification of fire as a destructive element. . baldwin spencer, `horne expedition in central australia,' narrative, p. : "numerous lizards such as the strange moloch horridus, the bright yellow, orange, red and black of which render it in life very different in appearance from the bleached specimens of museum cases." mongan, n. aboriginal name for the animal named in the quotation. . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "jimmy, however, had, to my great delight, found mongan (pseudochirus herbertensis), a new and very pretty mammal, whose habitat is exclusively the highest tops of the scrubs in the coast mountains." monk, n. another name for the friar bird (q.v.). monkey-bear, or monkey, n. i.q. native bear. see bear. . c. st. julian and e. k. silvester, `the productions, industry, and resources of new south wales,' p. : "the kola, so called by the aborigines, but more commonly known among the settlers as the native bear or monkey, is found in brush and forest lands . . ." . mrs. cross (ada cambridge), `the three miss kings,' p. : "a little monkey-bear came cautiously down from the only gum-tree that grew on the premises, grunting and whimpering." monkey-shaft, n. "a shaft rising from a lower to a higher level (as a rule perpendicularly), and differing from a blind-shaft only in that the latter is sunk from a higher to a lower level." (brough smyth's `glossary.') . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "they began to think they might be already too deep for it, and a small `monkey'-shaft was therefore driven upwards from the end of the tunnel." monkeys, n. bush slang for sheep. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "no one felt better pleased than he did to see the last lot of `monkeys,' as the shearers usually denominated sheep, leave the head-station." monotreme, n. the scientific name of an order of australian mammals (monotremata). "the monotremes derive their name from the circumstance that there is, as in birds and reptiles, but a single aperture at the hinder extremity of the body from which are discharged the whole of the waste-products, together with the reproductive elements; the oviducts opening separately into the end of this passage, which is termed the cloaca. [grk. monos, sole, and traema, a passage or hole.] reproduction is effected by means of eggs, which are laid and hatched by the female parent; after [being hatched] the young are nourished by milk secreted by special glands situated within a temporary pouch, into which the head of the young animal is inserted and retained. . . . it was not until that it was conclusively proved that the monotremes did actually lay eggs similar in structure to those of birds and reptiles." (r. lydekker, `marsupialia and monotremata,' , p. .) the monotremes are strictly confined to australia, tasmania, and new guinea. they are the platypus (q.v.), and the echidna (q.v.), or ant-eating porcupine. mooley-apple, n. i.q. emu-apple (q.v.) moor-hen, n. common english bird-name (gallinula). the australian species are-- the black, gallinula tenebrosa, gould; rufous-tailed, g. ruficrissa, gould. . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the rail-like bird, the black-tailed tribonyx, or moor-hen of the colonists, which, when strutting along the bank of a river, has a grotesque appearance, with the tail quite erect like that of a domestic fowl, and rarely resorts to flight." [the tribonyx is called native hen, not moorhen.] moon, v. tr. a process in opossum-shooting, explained in quotations. . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "`mooning' opossums is a speciality with country boys. the juvenile hunter utilises the moon as a cavalry patrol would his field-glass for every suspected point." . e. davenport cleland, `the white kangaroo,' p. : "they had to go through the process known as `mooning.' walking backwards from the tree, each one tried to get the various limbs and branches between him and the moon, and then follow them out to the uttermost bunch of leaves where the 'possum might be feeding." mopoke, n. aboriginal name for an australian bird, from its note "mopoke." there is emphasis on the first syllable, but much more on the second. settlers very early attempted to give an english shape and sense to this name. the attempt took two forms, "more pork," and "mopehawk"; both forms are more than fifty years old. the r sound, however, is not present in the note of the bird, although the form more-pork is perhaps even more popular than the true form mopoke. the form mope-hawk seems to have been adopted through dislike of the perhaps coarser idea attaching to "pork." the quaint spelling mawpawk seems to have been adopted for a similar reason. the bird is heard far more often than seen, hence confusion has arisen as to what is the bird that utters the note. the earlier view was that the bird was podargus cuvieri, vig. and hors., which still popularly retains the name; whereas it is really the owl, ninox boobook, that calls "morepork" or "mopoke" so loudly at night. curiously, gould, having already assigned the name morepork to podargus, in describing the owlet night-jar varies the spelling and writes, "little mawepawk, colonists of van diemen's land." the new zealand morepork is assuredly an owl. the podargus has received the name of frogmouth and the mopoke has sometimes been called a cuckoo (q.v.). see also boobook, frogsmouth. the earliest ascertained use of the word is-- . hellyer (in ), `bischoff, van diemen's land,' p. : "one of the men shot a `more pork.'" the bird's note-- . carleton, `australian nights,' p. : "the austral cuckoo spoke his melancholy note--`mo-poke.'" . d. macdonald, `gum boughs and wattle bloom,' p. : "many a still night in the bush i have listened to the weird metallic call of this strange bird, the mopoke of the natives, without hearing it give expression to the pork-shop sentiments." podargus-- . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "podargus cuvieri, vig. and horsf, more-pork of the colonists." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "we are lulled to sleep by the melancholy, sleep-inspiring, and not disagreeable voices of the night bird podargus-- `more-pork! more-pork!'" . `victorian statutes-game act, third schedule.': "podargus or mopoke. [close season.] the whole year." vague name of cuckoo-- . g. h. haydon, `the australian emigrant,' p. : "the note of the more-pork, not unlike that of a cuckoo with a cold." . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "the distant monotone of the more-pork--the nocturnal cuckoo of the australian wilds." incorrect-- . w. h. hall, `practical experiences at the diggings in victoria,' p. : "the low, melancholy, but pleasing cry of the mope-hawk." . william sharp, `earth's voices': "on yonder gum a mopoke's throat out-gurgles laughter grim, and far within the fern-tree scrub a lyre-bird sings his hymn." [this is confusion worse confounded. it would seem as if the poet confused the laughing jackass with the mopoke, q.v.] . mrs. h. jones, `long years in australia,' p. : "how the mope-hawk is screeching." owl-- . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "a bird of the owl species, called by the colonists morepork, and by the natives whuck-whuck, derives both its names from the peculiarity of its note. at some distance it reminds one of the song of the cuckoo; when nearer it sounds hoarse and discordant." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "aegotheles novae-hollandiae, vig. and horsf, owlet nightjar; little mawepawk, colonists of van diemen's land." . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "the mawpawk, more pork, or mope hawk, is common in most parts of the colony, and utters its peculiar two-syllable cry at night very constantly. its habits are those of the owl, and its rather hawkish appearance partakes also of the peculiarities of the goat-sucker tribe. . . . the sound does not really resemble the words `more pork,' any more than `cuckoo,' and it is more like the `tu-whoo' of the owl than either." . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "just as our sportsman, fresh from the legal precincts of gray's inn square, was taking a probably deadly aim, the solitary and melancholy note of `more-pork! more-pork!' from the cyclopean, or australian owl, interfered most opportunely in warding off the shot." . `once a week,' dec. , p. . `the bulla bulla bunyip': "the locusts were silent, but now and then might be heard the greedy cry of the `morepork,' chasing the huge night-moths through the dim dewy air." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "owls are also numerous, the mopoke's note being a familiar sound in the midnight darkness of the forest." by transference to a man.-- . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "`a more-pork kind of a fellow' is a man of cut-and-dry phrases, a person remarkable for nothing new in common conversation. this by some is thought very expressive, the more-pork being a kind of australian owl, notorious for its wearying nightly iteration, `more pork, more pork'" . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xiii. p. : "what a regular more-pork i was to be sure to go and run my neck agin' a roping-pole." morepork, n. ( ) the australian bird, or birds, described under mopoke (q.v.). ( ) the new zealand owl, formerly athene novae-zelandiae, gray; now spiloglaux novae-zelandiae, kaup. . w. t. power, `sketches in new zealand,' p. : "this bird gave rise to a rather amusing incident in the hutt valley during the time of the fighting. . . . a strong piquet was turned out regularly about an hour before daybreak. on one occasion the men had been standing silently under arms for some time, and shivering in the cold morning air, when they were startled by a solemn request for `more pork.' the officer in command of the piquet, who had only very recently arrived in the country, ordered no talking in the ranks, which was immediately replied to by another demand, distinctly enunciated, for `more pork.' so malaprop a remark produced a titter along the ranks, which roused the irate officer to the necessity of having his commands obeyed, and he accordingly threatened to put the next person under arrest who dared make any allusion to the unclean beast. as if in defiance of the threat, and in contempt of the constituted authorities, `more pork' was distinctly demanded in two places at once, and was succeeded by an irresistible giggle from one end of the line to the other. there was no putting up with such a breach of discipline as this, and the officer, in a fury of indignation, went along the line in search of the mutinous offender, when suddenly a small chorus of `more pork' was heard on all sides, and it was explained who the real culprits were." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the last cry of a very pretty little owl, called from its distinctly uttered words the `more-pork.'" . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "sleeping alone where the more-pork's call at night is heard." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "spiloglaux novae-zelandiae, kaup., more-pork of the colonists. every new zealand colonist is familiar with this little owl, under the name of `morepork.'" moreton-bay, n. the name formerly given to the district of new south wales which is now the colony of queensland. the brisbane river (on which is situated brisbane, the capital of queensland) enters it. see below. moreton-bay ash, n. see ash. moreton-bay chestnut, n. see bean-tree. moreton-bay fig, n. see fig. moreton-bay laurel, n. see laurel. moreton-bay pine, n. see pine. moriori, n. a people akin to, but not identical with, the maoris. they occupied the chatham islands, and were conquered in by the maoris. in , m. quatrefages published a monograph, `moriori et maori.' morwong, n. the new south wales name for the fish chilodactylus macropterus, richards.; also called the carp (q.v.) and jackass-fish, and in new zealand by the maori name of tarakihi. the melbourne fishermen, according to count castelnau, call this fish the bastard trumpeter (q.v.), but this name is also applied to latris forsteri, castln. see also trumpeter and paper-fish. the red morwong is chilodactylus fuscus, castln., also called carp (q.v.). the banded morwong is chilodactylus vittatus, garrett. moses, prickly, n. a bushman's name for mimosa (q.v.). . `the australian,' april: "i cannot recommend . . . [for fishing rods] . . . that awful thing which our philosopher called `prickly moses.'" moulmein cedar, n. see cedar. mound-bird, n. the jungle-hen of australia. the birds scratch up heaps of soil and vegetable matter, in which they bury their eggs and leave them to be hatched by the heat of decomposition. scientifically called megapodes (q.v.). . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "next to these, as a special australian type. . . . come the bush-turkeys or mound-makers . . . all these birds have the curious reptilian character of never sitting on their eggs, which they bury under mounds of earth or decaying vegetable matter, allowing them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, or that produced by fermentation." mountain- (as epithet): mountain-apple-tree-- angophora lanceolata, cav., n.o. myrtaceae. m.-ash-- a name applied to various eucalypts, and to the tree alphitonia excelsa, reiss. m.-beech-- the tree lomatia longifolia, r. br., n. . proteaceae. m.-bloodwood-- the tree eucalyptus eximia, schau. m.-cypress-pine-- the tree frenela parlatori, f. v. m., n. . coniferae. m.-ebony-- see ebony. m.-gentian-- the name is applied to the tasmanian species, gentiana saxosa, forst., n.o. gentianeae. m.-gums-- see gum. m.- oak-- see oak. m.-parrot-- another name for the kea (q.v.). m.-rocket-- the name is applied to the tasmanian species bellendena montana, r. br., n.o. proteaceae. m.-tea-tree-- see tea-tree. mountain-devil, n. name given to the strange-looking australian lizard, moloch horridus, gray. see moloch. also called spiny lizard. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. [november ]: "a spirit preparation of the spiny lizard (moloch horridus) of western australia." mountain thrush, n. an australian thrush, oreocincla lunulata, gould. see thrush. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "oreocincla lunulatus, mountain thrush, colonists of van diemen's land. in all localities suitable to its habits and mode of life, this species is tolerably abundant, both in van diemen's land and in new south wales; it has also been observed in south australia, where however it is rare." mountain-trout, n. species of galaxias, small cylindrical fishes inhabiting the colder rivers of australasia, southern chili, magellan straits, and the falkland islands. on account of the distribution of these fish and of other forms of animals, it has been suggested that in a remote geological period the area of land above the level of the sea in the antarctic regions must have been sufficiently extended to admit of some kind of continuity across the whole width of the pacific between the southern extremities of south america and australia. mud-fat, adj. fat as mud, very fat. . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "there's half this fine body of veal, mud-fat and tender as a chicken, worth a shilling a pound there." mud-fish, n. a fish of westland, new zealand, neochanna apoda, gunth. guenther says neochanna is a "degraded form of galaxias [see mountain-trout], from which it differs by the absence of ventral fins. this fish has hitherto been found only in burrows, which it excavates n clay or consolidated mud, at a distance from water." mud-lark, n. another name for the magpie-lark, grallina picata (q.v.). mulberry-bird, n. name given to the australian bird sphecotheres maxillaris, lath.; called also fig-bird (q.v.). . a. j. north, `records of the australian museum,' vol. i. no. , p. : "southern sphecotheres. mr. grime informs me it is fairly common on the tweed river, where it is locally known as the `mulberry-bird,' from the decided preference it evinces for that species of fruit amongst many others attacked by this bird." mulberry, native, n. name given to three australian trees, viz.-- hedycarya cunninghami, tull., n.o. monimiaceae. called also smooth holly. piturus propinquus, wedd., n.o. urticeae. called also queensland grasscloth plant. litsaea ferruginea, mart., n.o. laurineae. called also pigeonberry-tree. the common english garden fruit-tree is also acclimatised, and the victorian silk culture association, assisted by the government, are planting many thousands of the white mulberry for silk culture. mulga, n. an aboriginal word. ( ) name given to various species of acacia, but especially a. aneura, f. v. m., n. . leguminosae. see also red mulga. . j. mcdouall stuart, `explorations in australia,' p. : "we arrived at the foot nearly naked, and got into open sandy rises and valleys, with mulga and plenty of grass, amongst which there is some spinifex growing." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. , note: "mulga is an acacia. it grows in thick bushes, with thin twigs and small leaves. probably it is the most extensively distributed tree in all australia. it extends right across the continent." . baron f. von mueller, `select extra-tropical plants' [ th ed.], p. : "acacia aneura, f. v. m. arid desert interior of extra-tropic australia. a tree never more than feet high. the principal `mulga' tree. . . . cattle and sheep browse on the twigs of this and some allied species, even in the presence of plentiful grass, and are much sustained by such acacias in seasons of protracted drought." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "not a drop of rain! and for many and many a day the jackaroo will still chop down the limbs of the mulga-tree, that of its tonic leaves the sheep may eat and live." . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "the dull green of the mulga-scrub at their base." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "flax and tussock and fern, gum and mulga and sand, reef and palm--but my fancies turn ever away from land." ( ) a weapon, made of mulgawood. (a) a shield. . `catalogue of ethnotypical art in the national gallery' (melbourne), p. : "mulga. victoria. thirty-six inches in length. this specimen is inches in length and inches in breadth at the broadest part. the form of a section through the middle is nearly triangular. the aperture for the hand (cut in the solid wood) is less than inches in length. ornamentation :herring-bone, the incised lines being filled in with white clay. some figures of an irregular form are probably the distinguishing marks of the owner's tribe. this shield was obtained from larne-gherin in the western district." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "mulga is the name of a long narrow shield of wood, made by the aboriginals out of acacia-wood." (b) in one place sir thomas mitchell speaks of it as a club. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. ii. p. : "the malga [sic] . . . with which these natives were provided, somewhat resembled a pick-axe with one half broken off." mulga-apple, n. a gall formed on the mulga-tree, acacia aneura, f. v. m. (q.v.). see also apple. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "in western new south wales two kinds of galls are found on these trees. one kind is very astringent, and not used; but the other is less abundant, larger, succulent and edible. these latter galls are called `mulga-apples,' and are said to be very welcome to the thirsty traveller." . e. giles, `australia twice traversed,' p. : "the mulga bears a small woody fruit called the mulga apple. it somewhat resembles the taste of apples and is sweet." mulga-down, n. hills covered with mulga. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "fascinating territories of limitless mulga-downs." mulga-grass, n. an australian grass, danthonia penicillata, f. v. m.; also neurachne mitchelliana, nees. see also grass. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "mulga grass. . . . peculiar to the back country. it derives its vernacular name from being only found where the mulga-tree (acacia aneura and other species) grows; it is a very nutritious and much esteemed grass." mulga-scrub, n. thickets of mulga-trees. . j. mcdouall stuart, `explorations in australia,' p. : "for the first three miles our course was through a very thick mulga scrub, with plenty of grass, and occasionally a little spinifex." . john forrest, `explorations in australia,' p. : "travelled till after dark through and over spinifex plains, wooded with acacia and mulga scrub, and camped without water and only a little scrub for the horses, having travelled nearly forty miles." . w. harcus, `south australia,' p. : "the road for the next thirty miles, to charlotte waters telegraph station, is characterized by mulga-scrub, open plains, sand-hills, and stony rises poorly grassed." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "still more dreaded by the explorer is the `mulga' scrub, consisting chiefly of dwarf acacias. these grow in spreading irregular bushes armed with strong spines, and where matted with other shrubs form a mass of vegetation through which it is impossible to penetrate." mulga-studded, adj. with mulga growing here and there. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "the frown on the face of the mulga-studded lowlands deepened." mullet, n. various species of this fish are present in australasia, all belonging to the family mugilidae, or grey-mullets. they are the-- flat-tail mullet-- mugil peronii, cuv. and val. hard-gut m.-- m. dobula, gunth. sand-m., or talleygalanu-- myxus elongatus, gunth. (called also poddy in victoria). sea-m.-- m. grandis, castln. in new zealand, the mullet is mugil perusii, called the silver-mullet (maori name, kanae); and the sea-mullet, agonostoma forsteri (maori name, aua, q.v.); abundant also in tasmanian estuaries. the sand-mullet in tasmania is mugil cephalotus, cuv. and val. see also red-mullet. . `victorian statutes--fisheries act, second schedule': [close season.] "sand-mullet or poddies." mullock, n. in english, the word is obsolete; it was used by chaucer in the sense of refuse, dirt. in australia, it is confined to" `rubbish, dirt, stuff taken out of a mine--the refuse after the vein-stuff is taken away' (brough smyth's `glossary')." . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. ii. p. : "a man each windlass-handle working slow, raises the mullock from his mate below." . garnet walch, `head over heels, p. : "but still we worked on--same old tune for nothin' but mullock come up." mullock over, v. shearing slang. see quotation. . `the age,' sept. , p. , col. : "i affirm as a practical shearer, that no man could shear sheep in eight hours, although i will admit he might do what we shearers call `mullock over' that number; and what is more, no manager or overseer who knows his work would allow a shearer to do that number of sheep or lambs in one day." munyeru, n. name given to the small black seeds of claytonia balonnensis, f. v. m., n.o. portulaceae, which are ground up and mixed with water so as to form a paste. it forms a staple article of diet amongst the arunta and other tribes of central australia. . e. c. stirling, `horne expedition in central australia,' anthropology, p. : "in these districts `munyeru' takes the place of the spore cases of `nardoo' (marsilea quadrifolia), which is so much used in the barcoo and other districts to the south and east, these being treated in a similar way." murray-carp, n. see carp. murray-cod, n. an important fresh-water food-fish, oligorus macquariensis, cuv. and val., called kookoobal by the aborigines of the murrumbidgee, and pundy by those of the lower murray. a closely allied species is called the murray-perch. has been known to reach a weight of lbs. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol. i. p. : "we soon found that this river contained . . . the fish we first found in the peel, commonly called by the colonists `the cod,' although most erroneously, since it has nothing whatever to do with malacopterygious fishes." . guenther, `introduction to study of fishes,' p. (`o.e.d.'): "the first (oligorus macquariensis) is called by the colonists `murray-cod,' being plentiful in the murray river and other rivers of south australia. it attains to a length of more than feet and to a weight of nearly lbs." murray-lily, n. see lily. murray-perch, n. a freshwater fish, oligorus mitchelli, castln., closely allied to oligorus macquariensis, the murray-cod, belonging to the family percidae. . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "our noble old -mile river, the murray, well christened the nile of australia, . . . produces `snags,' and that finny monster, the murray cod, together with his less bulky, equally flavourless congener, the murray perch." murr-nong, n. a plant. the name used by the natives in southern australia for microseris forsteri, hook., n.o. compositae. . r. brough smyth, `aborigines of victoria,' p. : "murr-nong, or `mirr-n'yong', a kind of yam (microseris forsteri) was usually very plentiful, and easily found in the spring and early summer, and was dug out of the earth by the women and children." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "murr-nong, or `mirr n'yong' of the aboriginals of new south wales and victoria. the tubers were largely used as food by the aboriginals. they are sweet and milky, and in flavour resemble the cocoa-nut." murrumbidgee pine, n. see pine. mushroom, n. the common english mushroom, agaricus campestris, linn., n.o. fungi, abounds in australia, and there are many other indigenous edible species. musk-duck, n. the australian bird, biziura lobata, shaw. see duck. . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "the ungainly musk-duck paddles clumsily away from the passing steamer, but hardly out of gunshot, for he seems to know that his fishy flesh is not esteemed by man." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "that's a musk duck: the plumage is very sombre and loose looking--not so thick as most other ducks; the tail, too, is singular, little more than a small fan of short quills. the head of the male has a kind of black leathery excrescence under the bill that gives it an odd expression, and the whole bird has a strange odour of musk, rendering it quite uneatable." musk-kangaroo, n. see hypsiprymnodon and kangaroo. musk-parrakeet, n. an australian parrakeet. see parrakeet. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "trichoglossus concinnus, vig. and horsf. (australis, wagl.), musky-parrakeet; musk-parrakeet, colonists of new south wales, from the peculiar odour of the bird." musk-tree, n. the name is applied to marlea vitiense, benth., n.o. cornaceae, with edible nuts, which is not endemic in australia, and to two native trees of the n.o. compositae--aster argophyllus, labill., called also musk-wood, from the scent of the timber; and aster viscosus, labill., called also the dwarf musk-tree. . letter by mrs. perry, given in canon goodman's `church in victoria during the episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "also there is some pretty underwood, a good deal of the musk-tree--which is very different from our musk-plant, growing quite into a shrub and having a leaf like the laurel in shape." . mrs. m'cann, `poetical works,' p. : "the musk-tree scents the evening air far down the leafy vale." musk-wood, n. see musk-tree. mussel, n. some australasian species of this mollusc are-- mytilus latus, lamark., victoria, tasmania, and new zealand; m. tasmanicus, tenison woods, tasmania; m. rostratus, dunker, tasmania and victoria; m. hirsutus, lamark., tasmania, south australia, victoria, new zealand; m. crassus, tenison-woods, tasmania. fresh-water mussels belong to the genus unio. mutton-bird, n. the word is ordinarily applied to the antarctic petrel, aestrelata lessoni. in australasia it is applied to the puffin or short-tailed petrel, puffinus brevicaudus, brandt. the collection of the eggs of this petrel, the preparation of oil from it, the salting of its flesh for food, form the principal means of subsistence of the inhabitants, half-caste and other, of the islands in bass straits. . w. mann, `six years' residence in the australian provinces,' p. : "they are commonly called mutton birds, from their flavour and fatness; they are migratory,and arrive in bass's straits about the commencement of spring, in such numbers that they darken the air." . j. backhouse, `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies' ( ), p. : "mutton birds were in such vast flocks, that, at a distance, they seemed as thick as bees when swarming." ibid. p. : "the mutton-birds, or sooty petrels, are about the size of the wood pigeon of england; they are of a dark colour, and are called `yola' by the natives." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. p. : "the principal occupation of these people during this month of the year is taking the sooty petrel, called by the colonists the mutton bird, from a fancied resemblance to the taste of that meat." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the mutton-bird, or sooty petrel . . . is about the size of the wood-pigeon of england, and is of a dark colour. these birds are migratory, and are to be seen ranging over the surface of the great southern ocean far from land . . . many millions of these birds are destroyed annually for the sake of their feathers and the oil of the young, which they are made to disgorge by pressing the craws." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "the titi, or mutton-bird, is a seabird which goes inland at night just as the light wanes. the natives light a bright fire, behind which they sit, each armed with a long stick. the titis, attracted by the light, fly by in great numbers, and are knocked down as quickly as possible; thus in one night several hundreds are often killed, which they preserve in their own fat for future use." . c. hursthouse, `new zealand the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "the young titi (mutton-bird), a species of puffin, is caught by the natives in great quantities, potted in its own fat, and sent as a sort of `pa^te de foie gras' to inland friends." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "the natives in the south [of stewart's island] trade largely with their brethren in the north, in supplies of the mutton- bird, which they boil down, and pack in its own fat in the large air-bags of sea-weed." . h. n. moselep `notes by naturalist on challenger, p. : "besides the prion, there is the `mutton-bird' of the whalers (aestrelata lessoni), a large procellanid, as big as a pigeon, white and brown and grey in colour." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "the crest of the cape [wollomai] is a favourite haunt of those elegant but prosaically-named sea-fowl, the `mutton-birds.'. . one of the sports of the neighbourhood is `mutton-birding.' . a. reischek, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. xlix. p. : "passing through foveaux strait, clothed with romantic little islands, we disturbed numerous flocks of mutton-birds (puffinus tristis), which were playing, feeding, or sleeping on the water." . `the australasian,' nov. , p. , col. (`a lady in the kermadecs'): "the mutton-birds and burrowers come to the island in millions in the breeding season, and the nesting-place of the burrowers is very like a rabbit-warren; while the mutton-bird is content with a few twigs to do duty for a nest." . rev. j. stack, `report of australasian association for the advancement of science,' vol. iii. p. : "wild pigeons, koko, tui, wekas, and mutton-birds were cooked and preserved in their own fat." mutton-bird tree, n. a tree, senecio rotundifolius, hook.: so called because the mutton-birds, especially in foveaux straits, new zealand, are fond of sitting under it. mutton-fish, n. a marine univalve mollusc, haliotis naevosa, martyn: so called from its flavour when cooked. the empty earshell of haliotis, especially in new zealand, haliotis iris, martyn, is known as venus' ear; maori name, paua (q.v.). a species of the same genus is known and eaten at the cape and in the channel islands. (french name ormer, sc. oreille de mer.) . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish and fisheries of new south wales,' p. : "then mutton fish were speared. this is the ear-shell fish (haliotis naevosa), which was eagerly bought by the chinese merchants. only the large muscular sucking disc on foot is used. before being packed it is boiled and dried. about d. per lb. was given." myall, n. and adj. aboriginal word with two different meanings; whether there is any connection between them is uncertain. ( ) n. an acacia tree, acacia pendula, a. cunn., and its timber. various species have special epithets: bastard, dalby, true, weeping, etc. . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the myall-tree (acacia pendula) is the most picturesque tree of new south wales. the leaves have the appearance of being frosted, and the branches droop like the weeping willow. . . . its perfume is as delightful, and nearly as strong, as sandal-wood." (p. ): "they poison the fish by means of a sheet of bark stripped from the myall-tree (acacia pendula)." . t. l. mitchell, report quoted by j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "the myall-tree and salt-bush, acacia pendula and salsolae [sic], so essential to a good run, are also there." . j. s. moore, `spring life lyrics,' p. : "the guerdon's won! what may it be? a grave beneath a myall-tree." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. [note]: "this acacia, which has much the habit of the weeping willow, is found very extensively on the wet, alluvial flats of the west rivers. it sometimes forms scrubs and thickets, which give a characteristic appearance to the interior of this part of australia, so that, once seen, it can never be again mistaken for scenery of any other country in the world. the myall scrubs are nearly all of acacia pendula." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "the myall-wood weapons made at liverpool plains were exchanged with the coast natives for others." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "lignum-vitae and bastard-myall bushes were very common." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "weeping or true myall. . . . stock are very fond of the leaves of this tree [acacia pendula], especially in seasons of drought, and for this reason, and because they eat down the seedlings, it has almost become exterminated in parts of the colonies." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' p. : "a strip of the swaying, streaming myall, of a colour more resembling blue than black." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the soft and silvery grace of the myalls." . e. d. cleland, `the white kangaroo,' p. : "miall, a wood having a scent similar to raspberry jam, and very hard and well-grained." . rolf boldrewood, `sydney-side saxon,' p. : "stock-whips with myall handles (the native wood that smells like violets)." ( ) adj. and n. wild, wild natives, used especially in queensland. the explanation given by lumholtz ( ) is not generally accepted. the word mail, or myall, is the aboriginal term for "men," on the bogan, dumaresque, and macintyre rivers in new south wales. it is the local equivalent of the more common form murrai. . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "on my arrival i learnt from the natives that one party was still at work a considerable distance up the country, at the source of one of the rivers, called by the natives `myall,' meaning, in their language, stranger, or a place which they seldom or never frequent." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "this tribe gloried in the name of `myall,' which the natives nearer to the colony apply in terror and abhorrence to the `wild blackfellows,' to whom they usually attribute the most savage propensities." . `port phillip patriot,' aug. i, p. , col. : "even the wildest of the myall black fellows--as cannibals usually are--learned to appreciate him." . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "words quite as unintelligible to the natives as the corresponding words in the vernacular language of the white men would have been, were learned by the natives, and are now commonly used by them in conversing with europeans, as english words. thus corrobbory, the sydney word for a general assembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense at moreton bay; but the original word there is yanerwille. cabon, great; narang little; boodgeree, good; myall, wild native, etc. etc., are all words of this description, supposed by the natives to be english words, and by the europeans to be aboriginal words of the language of that district." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "a more intimate acquaintance with the ways and customs of the whites had produced a certain amount of contempt for them among the myalls." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "i had many conversations with native police officers on the subject of the amelioration of the wild myalls." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "suddenly he became aware that half-a-dozen of these `myalls,' as they are called, were creeping towards him through the long grass. armed with spears and boomerangs . . ." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "these so-called civilized blacks look upon their savage brethren with more or less contempt, and call them myall." [footnote]: "a tree (acacia pendula) which grows extensively in the less civilized districts is called by the europeans myall. this word was soon applied by the whites as a term for the wild blacks who frequented these large remote myall woods. strange to say, the blacks soon adopted this term themselves, and used it as an epithet of abuse, and hence it soon came to mean a person of no culture." . m. gaunt, `english illustrated,' march, p. : "he himself had no faith in the myall blacks; they were treacherous, they were cruel." ( ) by transference, wild cattle. . `the argus,' april , p. , col. , `getting in the scrubbers': "to secure these myalls we took down sixty or seventy head of quiet cows, as dead homers as carrier pigeons, some of them milking cows, with their calves penned up in the stockyard." myrmecobius, n. scientific name of the australian genus with only one species, called the banded ant-eater (q.v.). (grk. murmaex, an ant, and bios life.) myrtle, n. the true myrtle, myrtus communis, is a native of asia, but has long been naturalised in europe, especially on the shores of the mediterranean. the name is applied to many genera of the family, n.o. myrtaceae, and has been transferred to many other trees not related to that order. in australia the name, with various epithets, is applied to the following trees-- backhousia citriodora, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae, called the scrub myrtle and native myrtle. backhousia myrtifolia, hook. and herv., n.o. myrtaceae, called scrub myrtle, or native myrtle, or grey myrtle, and also lancewood. diospyrus pentamera, f. v. m., n.o. ebenaceae, the black myrtle and grey plum of northern new south wales. eugenia myrtifolia, sims, n.o. myrtaceae, known as native myrtle, red myrtle and brush cherry. eugenia ventenatii, benth., n.o. myrtaceae, the drooping myrtle or large-leaved water-gum. melaleuca decussata, r. br., n.o. myrtaceae. melaleuca genistifolia, smith, n.o. myrtaceae, which is called ridge myrtle, and in queensland ironwood. myoporum serratum, r. br., n.o. myoporineae, which is called native myrtle; and also called blue-berry tree, native currant, native juniper, cockatoo-bush, and by the aborigines palberry. myrtus acmenioides, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae, which is the white myrtle of the richmond and clarence rivers (new south wales), and is also called lignum-vitae. rhodamnia argentea, benth., n.o. myrtaceae, called white myrtle, the muggle-muggle of the aboriginals of northern new south wales. syncarpia leptopetala, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae, which is called myrtle and also brush-turpentine. tristania neriifolia, r. br., n.o. myrtaceae, called water myrtle, and also water gum. trochocarpa laurina, r. br., n.o. epacrideae, called brush-myrtle, beech and brush cherry. in tasmania, all the beeches are called myrtles, and there are extensive forests of the beech fagus cunninghamii, hook., which is invariably called "myrtle" by the colonists of tasmania. . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : table of tasmanian woods. hgt. dia. where found. use. ft. in. scented myrtle low, marshy seldom used red " swampy as pine white " low, marshy house-carpentry yellow " " " do. brown " " " do. and joiners' planes n nailrod, n. a coarse dark tobacco smoked by bushmen. the name alludes to the shape of the plug, which looks like a thin flat stick of liquorice. it is properly applied to the imported brand of "two seas," but is indiscriminately used by up-country folk for any coarse stick of tobacco. . h. lawson, `while the billy boils,' p. : "`you can give me half-a-pound of nailrod,' he said, in a quiet tone.'" nail-tailed wallaby, n. see onychogale. namma hole, n. a native well. namma is an aboriginal word for a woman's breast. . `the australasian,' august , p. , col. : "the route all the way from york to coolgardie is amply watered, either `namma holes' native wells) or government wells being plentiful on the road." . `the australasian,' march , p. , col. : "the blacks about here [far west of n.s.w.] use a word nearly resembling `namma' in naming waterholes, viz., `numma,' pronounced by them `ngumma,' which means a woman's breast. it is used in conjunction with other words in the native names of some waterholes in this district, e.g., `tirrangumma' = gum-tree breast; and ngumma-tunka' = breast-milk, the water in such case being always milky in appearance. in almost all native words beginning with n about here the first n has the ng sound as above." nancy, n. a tasmanian name for the flower anguillaria (q.v.). nankeen crane, or nankeen bird, or nankeen night heron, n. the australian bird nycticorax caledonicus, gmel. both the nankeen bird and the nankeen hawk are so called from their colour. nankeen is "a chinese fabric, usually buff, from the natural colour of a cotton grown in the nanking district" of china. (`century.') . james, `six months in south australia, p. : "after shooting one or two beautiful nankeen birds." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the nankeen crane (nycticorax caledonicus), a very handsome bright nankeen-coloured bird with three long white feathers at the back of the neck, very good eating." nankeen gum. see gum. nankeen hawk, n. an australian bird, tinnunculus cenchroides, vig. and hors., which is otherwise called kestrel (q.v.). . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of the linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "`this bird,' as we are informed by mr. caley, `is called nankeen hawk by the settlers. it is a migratory species.'" nannygai, n. aboriginal name for an australian fish, beryx affinis, gunth. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "amongst the early colonists it used also to be called `mother nan a di,' probably a corruption of the native name, mura ngin a gai." . e. p. ramsay, `fisheries exhibition literature,' vol. v. p. : "known among the fishermen of port jackson as the `nannagai,' or as it is sometimes spelt `nannygy.' it is a most delicious fish, always brings a high price, but is seldom found in sufficient numbers." nardoo, or nardu, n. aboriginal word for the sporocarp of a plant, marsilea quadrifolia, linn., used as food by the aboriginals, and sometimes popularly called clover-fern. the explorers burke and wills vainly sought the means of sustaining life by eating flour made from the spore-cases of nardoo. "properly ngardu in the cooper's creek language (yantruwunta)." (a. w. howitt.) cooper's creek was the district where burke and wills perished. in south australia ardoo is said to be the correct form. . `diary of h. j. wills, the explorer,' quoted in brough smyth's `aborigines of victoria,' p. : "i cannot understand this nardoo at all; it certainly will not agree with me in any form. we are now reduced to it alone, and we manage to get from four to five pounds a day between us. . . . it seems to give us no nutriment. . . . starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels and the utter inability to move oneself, for, as far as appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction." . andrew jackson, `burke and the australian exploring expedition of ,' p. : "the [wheaten] flour, fifty pounds of which i gave them, they at once called `whitefellow nardoo,' and they explained that they understood that these things were given to them for having fed king." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. p. : "they now began to inquire of the blacks after the nardoo seed, imagining it the produce of a tree; and received from the natives some of their dried narcotic herbs, which they chew, called pitchery. they soon found the nardoo seed in abundance, on a flat, and congratulated themselves in the idea that on this they could subsist in the wilderness, if all other food failed, a hope in which they were doomed to a great disappointment." . f. von mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "of marsiliaceae we have well known examples in the nardoo (marsilea quadrifolia, with many varieties), the foliage resembling that of a clover with four leaflets." . r. brough smyth, `aborigines of victoria,' p. : "they seem to have been unacquainted generally with the use, as a food, of the clover-fern, nardoo, though the natives of the north western parts of victoria must have had intercourse with the tribes who use it, and could have obtained it, sparingly, from the lagoons in their own neighbourhood." . j. d. wood, `native tribes of south australia,' p. : "ardoo, often described by writers as nardoo. a very hard seed, a flat oval of about the size of a pea. it is crushed for food." (about). `queensland bush song': "hurrah for the roma railway! hurrah for cobb and co.! hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse to carry me westward ho! to carry me westward ho! my boys; that's where the cattle pay, on the far barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away." . s. gason, in `the native tribes of south australia,' p. : "ardoo. often described in news papers and by writers as nardoo. a very hard seed, a flat oval of about the size of a split pea; it is crushed or pounded, and the husk winnowed. in bad seasons this is the mainstay of the native sustenance, but it is the worst food possible, possessing very little nourishment, and being difficult to digest." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `proceedings of the of the linnaean society of new south wales,' p. [botanical notes on queensland]: "sesbania aculeata. the seeds of this plant are eaten by the natives. it grows in all warm or marshy places in queensland. by many it is thought that this was the nardoo which burke and wills thought came from the spores of a marsilea. it is hard to suppose that any nourishment would be obtained from the spore cases of the latter plant, or that the natives would use it. besides this the spore-cases are so few in number." . e. d. cleland, `white kangaroo,' p. : "the great thing with the blacks was nardoo. this is a plant which sends up slender stems several inches high; at the tip is a flower-like leaf, divided into four nearly equal parts. it bears a fruit, or seed, and this is the part used for food. it is pounded into meal between two stones, and is made up in the form of cakes, and baked in the ashes. it is said to be nourishing when eaten with animal food, but taken alone to afford no support." native, n. this word, originally applied, as elsewhere, to the aboriginal inhabitants of australia, is now used exclusively to designate white people born in australia. the members of the "australian natives' association" (a.n.a.), founded april , , pride themselves on being australian-born and not immigrants. mr. rudyard kipling, in the `times' of nov. , published a poem called " the native-born," sc. born in the british empire, but outside great britain. as applied to plants, animals, names, etc., the word native bears its original sense, as in "native cabbage," "native bear," "native name for," etc., though in the last case it is now considered more correct to say in australia "aboriginal name for," and in new zealand "maori name for." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. v. p. : "three sydney natives (`currency' not aboriginal) were in the coach, bound for melbourne." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "they were long and wiry natives from the rugged mountain side." native, or rock-native, n. a name given to the fish called schnapper, after it has ceased to "school." see schnapper. native arbutus, n. see wax-cluster. native banana, n. another name for lilly-pilly (q.v.). native banyan, n. another name for ficus rubiginosa. see fig. native bear, n. see bear. native beech, n. see beech. native blackberry, n. see blackberry. native borage, n. see borage. native box, n. see box. native bread, n. see bread. native broom, n. see broom. native burnet, n. see burnet. native cabbage, n. the nasturtium palustre, de c., n.o. cruciferae, is so called, but in spite of its name it is not endemic in australia. in new zealand, the name is sometimes applied to the maori cabbage (q.v.). native carrot, n. see carrot. native cascarilla, n. see cascarilla. native cat, n. see cat. native celery, or australian celery, n. see celery. native centaury, n. see centaury. native cherry, n. see cherry. native-companion, n. an australian bird-name, grus australasianus, gould. see also crane. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "here we saw the native-companion, a large bird of the crane genus . . . five feet high, colour of the body grey, the wings darker, blue or black." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "with native-companions (ardea antigone) strutting round." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "grus australasianus, gould, australian crane; native-companion of the colonists." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "a handsome tame `native-companion,' which had been stalking about picking up insects, drew near. opening his large slate-coloured wings, and dancing grotesquely, the interesting bird approached his young mistress, bowing gracefully from side to side as he hopped lightly along; then running up, he laid his heron-like head lovingly against her breast." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the most extraordinary of riverina birds is the native-companion." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "a row of native-companions, of course, standing on one leg-- as is their wont--like recruits going to drill." [query, did the writer mean going "through" drill.] . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne,' p. : "in this paddock are some specimens of the native companion, whose curious habit of assembling in groups on the plains and fantastically dancing, has attracted much attention. this peculiarity is not confined to them alone, however, as some of the other large cranes (notably the crowned cranes of africa) display the same trait." native cranberry, n. see cranberry. native currant, n. see under currant. native daisy, n. see daisy. native damson, n. see damson. native dandelion, n. see dandelion. native daphne, n. see daphne. native date, n. see date. native deal, n. see deal. native dog, n. another name for the dingo (q.v.). native elderberry, n. see elderberry. native flag, n. see under flax, native, and new zealand. native fuchsia, n. see fuchsia. native furze, n. see hakea. native ginger, n. see ginger. native grape, n. see grape, gippsland. native-hen, n. name applied to various species of the genus tribonyx (q.v.). the australian species are-- tribonyx mortieri, du bus., called by gould the native hen of the colonists; black-tailed n.-h., t. ventralis, gould; and in tasmania, tribonyx gouldi, sclater. see tribonyx. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "tribonyx mortierii, du bus., native-hen of the colonists." native hickory, n. see hickory. native holly, n. see holly. native hops, n. see hops. native hyacinth, n. see hyacinth. native indigo. n. see indigo. native ivy, n. see ivy, and grape, macquarie harbour. native jasmine, n. see jasmine. native juniper, n. same as native currant. see under currant. native kumquat, n. same as desert lemon (q.v.). native laburnum, n. see laburnum. native laurel, n. see laurel. native lavender, n. see lavender. native leek, n. see leek. native lilac, n. a tasmanian plant. see lilac. native lime, n. see lime. native lucerne, n. i.q. queensland hemp. see under hemp. native mangrove, n. tasmanian name for the boobialla (q.v.). native mignonette, n. see mignonette. native millet, n. see millet. native mint, n. see mint. native mistletoe, n. see mistletoe. native mulberry, n. see mulberry. native myrtle, n. see myrtle. native nectarine, n. another name for the emu-apple. see under apple. native oak, n. see oak. native olive, n. see under olive and marblewood. native onion, n. same as native leek. see leek. native orange, n. see under orange. native passion-flower, n. see passion-flower. native peach, n. i.q. quandong (q.v.). native pear, n. see hakea and pear. native pennyroyal, n. see pennyroyal. native pepper, n. see pepper. native plantain, n. see plantain. native plum, n. see plum, wild. native pomegranate, n. see orange, native. native potato, n. see potato. native quince, n. another name for emu-apple. see apple. native raspberry, n. see raspberry. native rocket, n. see rocket. native sandalwood, n. see sandalwood and raspberry-jam tree. native sarsaparilla, n. see sarsaparilla. native sassafras, n. see sassafras. native scarlet-runner, n. see kennedya. native shamrock. n. see shamrock. native sloth, n. i.q. native bear. see bear. native speedwell, n. see speedwell. native tamarind, n. see tamarind-tree. native tiger, n. see tasmanian tiger. native tobacco, n. see tobacco. native tulip, n. see waratah. native turkey, n. same as wild turkey. a vernacular name given to eupodotis australis, gray, which is not a turkey at all, but a true bustard. see turkey. native vetch, n. see vetch. native willow, n. see boobialla and poison-berry tree. native yam, n. see yam. necho, and neko. see nikau. nectarine, native, n. another name for emu-apple. see apple. needle-bush, n. name applied to two australian trees, hakea leucoptera, r. br., n.o. proteaceae; called also pin-bush and water-tree (q.v.) and beefwood; acacia rigens, cunn., n.o. leguminosae (called also nealie). both trees have fine sharp spines. negro-head beech, n. see beech. neinei, n. maori name for new zealand shrub, dracophyllum longifolium, r. br., also d. traversii, n.o. epacrideae. . j. von haast, `a journey to the west coast, ' (see `geology of westland,' p. ): "an undescribed superb tree like dracophyllum, not unlike the d. latifolium of the north island, began to appear here. the natives call it nene. (named afterwards d. traversii by dr. hooker.) it has leaves a foot long running out into a slender point, of a reddish brown colour at the upper part, between which the elegant flower- panicle comes forth." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "neinei, an ornamental shrub-tree, with long grassy leaves. wood white, marked with satin-like specks, and adapted for cabinet-work." . j. adams, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. ii. p. : "on the flat and rounded top the tallest plants are stunted neinei." nephrite, n. see greenstone. nestor, n. scientific name for a genus of new zealand parrots. see kaka and kea. . s. butler, `first year in canterbury settlement,' p. : "there was a kind of dusky, brownish-green parrot too, which the scientific call a nestor. what they mean by this name i know not. to the unscientific it is a rather dirty-looking bird, with some bright red feathers under its wings. it is very tame, sits still to be petted, and screams like a parrot." nettle-tree, n. two species of laportea, n.o. urticaceae, large scrub-trees, are called by this name--giant nettle, l. gigas, wedd., and small-leaved nettle, l. photiniphylla, wedd.; they have rigid stinging hairs. these are both species of such magnitude as to form timber-trees. a third, l. moroides, wedd., is a small tree, with the stinging hairs extremely virulent. see also preceding words. /??/ . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "in the scrubs is found a tree, commonly called the nettle- tree (urtica gigas). it is often thirty feet in height, and has a large, broad, green leaf. it is appropriately named; and the pain caused by touching the leaf is, i think, worse than that occasioned by the sting of a wasp." never, never country, or never, never land. see quotations. mr. cooper's explanation ( quotation) is not generally accepted. . f. de brebant cooper, `wild adventures in australia,' p. : "with the aid of three stock-keepers, soon after my arrival at illarrawarra, i had the cattle mustered, and the draft destined for the nievah vahs ready for for the road." [footnote]: "nievah vahs, sometimes incorrectly pronounced never nevers, a comderoi term signifying unoccupied land." . a. w. stirling, `the never never land: a ride in north queensland,' p. : "the `never never land,' as the colonists call all that portion of it [queensland] which lies north or west of cape capricorn." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. i. p. : "in very sparsely populated country, such as the district of queensland, known as the never never country--presumably because a person, who has once been there, invariably asseverates that he will never, never, on any consideration, go back." . j. s. o'halloran, secretary royal colonial institute, apud barrere and leland: "the never, never country means in queensland the occupied pastoral country which is furthest removed from the more settled districts." . a. j. vogan, `the black police,' p. : "the weird `never, never land,' so called by the earliest pioneers from the small chance they anticipated, on reaching it, of ever being able to return to southern civilization." newberyite, n. [named after j. cosmo newbery of melbourne.] "a hydrous phosphate of magnesium occurring in orthorhombic crystals in the bat-guano of the skipton caves, victoria." (`century.') new chum, n. a new arrival, especially from the old country: generally used with more or less contempt; what in the united states is called a `tenderfoot.' . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "he was also what they termed a `new chum,' or one newly arrived." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "`new chum,' in opposition to `old chum.' the former `cognomen' peculiarizing [sic] the newly-arrived emigrant; the latter as a mark of respect attached to the more experienced colonist." . `how to settle in victoria,' p. : "they appear to suffer from an apprehension of being under- sold, or in some other way implicated by the inexperience of, as they call him, the `new chum.'" . `once a week,' `the bulla bulla bunyip': "i was, however, comparatively speaking, a `new chum,' and therefore my explanation of the mystery met with scant respect." . w. m. b., `narrative of edward crewe,' p. : "to be a new chum is not agreeable--it is something like being a new boy at school--you are bored with questions for some time after your arrival as to how you like the place, and what you are going to do; and people speak to you in a pitying and patronizing manner, smiling at your real or inferred simplicity in colonial life, and altogether `sitting upon' you with much frequency and persistence." . r. m. praed, `head station,' p. : "a new chum is no longer a new chum when he can plait a stock-whip." . p. clarke [title]: "the new chum in australia." . w. s. s. tyrwhitt [title]: "the new chum in the queensland bush." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "i've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another. they knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in queensland." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "the buggy horse made a bolt of it when a new-chum englishman was driving her." . mrs. h. e. russell, `too easily jealous,' p. : "one man coolly told me it was because i was a new chum, just as though it were necessary for a fellow to rusticate for untold ages in these barbarous solitudes, before he is allowed to give an opinion on any subject connected with the colonies." new chumhood, n. the period and state of being a new chum. . w. jardine smith, in `nineteenth century,' november, p. : "the `bumptiousness' observable in the early days of `new chumhood.'" new holland, n. the name, now extinct, first given to australia by dutch explorers. . capt. william dampier,' voyages,' vol. iii. [title]: "a voyage to new holland, &c., in the year ." . m. flinders, `voyage to terra australis,' intro. p. ii: "the vast regions to which this voyage was principally directed, comprehend, in the western part, the early discoveries of the dutch, under the name of new holland; and in the east, the coasts explored by british navigators, and named new south wales." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the spaniards at the commencement of the seventeenth century were the discoverers of new holland; and from them it received the name of australia. it subsequently, however, obtained its present name of new holland from the dutch navigators, who visited it a few years afterwards." [the spaniards did not call new holland australia (q.v.). the spaniard quiros gave the name of australia del espiritu santo to one of the new hebrides (still known as espiritu santo), thinking it to be part of the `great south land.' see captain cook's remarks on this subject in `hawkesworth's voyages,' vol. iii. p. .] . j. bonwick, `geography for australian youth,' p. : "australasia, or australia, consists of the continent of new holland, or australia, the island of tasmania, or van diemen's land, and the islands of new zealand." [in the map accompanying the above work `australia' is printed across the whole continent, and in smaller type `new holland' stretches along the western half, and `new south wales' along the whole of the eastern.] new south wales, n. the name of the oldest and most important colony in australia. the name "new wales" was first given by captain cook in , from the supposed resemblance of the coast to that of the southern coast of wales; but before his arrival in england he changed the name to "new south wales." it then applied to all the east of the continent. victoria and queensland have been taken out of the parent colony. it is sometimes called by the slang name of eastralia, as opposed to westralia (q.v). new zealand, n. this name was given to the colony by abel jansz tasman, the dutch navigator, who visited it in . he first called it staaten-land. it is now frequently called maoriland (q.v.). new zealand spinach, n. see spinach. ngaio, >n. maori name for a new zealand tree, myoporum laetum, forst.; generally corrupted into kaio, in south island. . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "ngaio: wood light, white and tough, used for gun-stocks." . j. c. crawford, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. ix. art. xiv. p. : "a common new zealand shrub, or tree, which may be made useful for shelter, viz. the ngaio." . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xiii. art. i. p. : "the fruits of several species of rubus, and of the ngaio (myoporum laetum), were also eaten, especially by children." . `otago witness,' nov. , `native trees': "myoporum laetum (ngaio). this is generally called kio by colonists. it is a very rapid-growing tree for the first five or six years after it has been planted. they are very hardy, and like the sea air. i saw these trees growing at st. kilda, near melbourne, thirty years ago." nicker nuts, n. i.q. bonduc nuts (q.v.). nigger, n. an australian black or aboriginal. [of course an incorrect use. he is not a negro, any more than the hindoo is.] . m. c., `explorers,' p. : "i quite thought the niggers had made an attack." . `the argus,' nov. , p. , col. : "the natives of queensland are nearly always spoken of as `niggers' by those who are brought most directly in contact with them." nigger-head, n. ( ) name given in new zealand to hard blackstones found at the blue spur and other mining districts. they are prized for their effectiveness in aiding cement-washing. the name is applied in america to a round piece of basic igneous rock. ( ) name used in queensland for blocks of coral above water. . capt. j. moresby, r. n., `discoveries and surveys in new guinea,' pp. - : "the gigantic barrier reef is submerged in parts, generally to a shallow depth, and traceable only by the surf that breaks on it, out of which a crowd of `nigger heads,' black points of coral rock, peep up in places . . ." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "abundantly on the queensland coast, especially on the coral reefs, where all the outstanding blocks of coral (nigger-heads) are covered with them." nightjar, n. english bird-name, applied in australia to the following species-- large-tailed nightjar-- caprimulgus macrurus, hors. little n.-- aegotheles novae-hollandiae, gould. spotted n.-- eurostopodus guttatus, vig. and hors. white-throated n.-- e. albogularis, vig. and hors. nikau, n. maori name for a new zealand palm-tree, areca sapida, n.o. palmeae. spelt also necho and neko. . `an ordinance for imposing a tax on raupo houses, session ii. no. xvii. of the former legislative council of new zealand': [from a. domett's collection of ordinances, .] "section . . . . there shall be levied in respect of every building constructed wholly or in part of raupo, nikau, toitoi, wiwi, kakaho, straw or thatch of any description [ . . . l ]." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : [the house was] "covered with thick coating of the leaves of the nikau (a kind of palm) and tufts of grass." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' [note] p. : "the necho or neko is a large tree-like plant known elsewhere as the mountain cabbage." . `all the year round,' `from the black rocks on friday,' may , no. : "i found growing, as i expected, amongst the trees abundance of the wild palm or nikau. the heart of one or two of these i cut out with my knife. the heart of this palm is about the thickness of a man's wrist, is about a foot long, and tastes not unlike an english hazel-nut, when roasted on the ashes of a fire. it is very nutritious." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the pale green pinnate-leaved nikau." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "with the exception of the kauri and the nekau-palm nearly every tree which belongs to the colony grows in the `seventy-mile bush' of wellington." nipper, n. local name in sydney for alphaeus socialis, heller, a species of prawn. nobbler, n. a glass of spirits; lit. that which nobbles or gets hold of you. nobble is the frequentative form of nab. no doubt there is an allusion to the bad spirits frequently sold at bush public-houses, but if a teetotaler had invented the word he could not have invented one involving stronger condemnation. . g. f. p., `gold pen and pencil sketches,' canto xiv.: "the summit gained, he pulls up at the valley, to drain a farewell `nobbler' to his sally." . frank fowler, `southern lights and shadows,' p. : "to pay for liquor for another is to `stand,' or to `shout,' or to `sacrifice.' the measure is called a `nobbler,' or a `break-down.'" . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "a nobbler is the proper colonial phrase for a drink at a public-house." . j. brenchley, `may bloom,' p. : "and faster yet the torrents flow of nobblers bolted rapidly." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "when cruising about . . . with a crew of kurnai . . . i heard two of my men discussing where we could camp, and one, on mentioning a place, said, speaking his own language, that there was `le-en (good) nobler.' i said, `there is no nobler there.' he then said in english, `oh! i meant water.' on inquiry i learned that a man named yan (water) had died shortly, before, and that not liking to use that word, they had to invent a new one." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "only to pull up again at the nearest public-house, to the veranda of which his horse's bridle was hung until he had imbibed a nobbler or two." nobblerise, v. to drink frequent nobblers (q.v.). . j. rogers, `the new rush,' p. : "and oft a duffer-dealing digger there will nobblerize in jerks of small despair . ." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "the institution of `nobblerising' is carried out in far different places." noddy, n. common english name for the sea-bird. the species observed in australia are-- the noddy-- anous stolidus, linn. black-cheeked n.-- a. melanogenys, gray. grey n.-- a. cinereus, gould. lesser n.-- a. tenuirostris, temm. white-capped n.-- a. leucocapillus, gould. nonda, n. aboriginal name for a tree, parinarium nonda, f. v. m., n.o. rosaceae, of queensland. it has an edible, mealy fruit, rather like a plum. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we called this tree the `nonda,' from its resemblance to a tree so called by the natives in the moreton bay district." noogoora bur, n. a queensland plant, xanthium strumarium, linn., n.o. compositae. noon-flower, n. a rare name for the mesembryanthemum. see pig-face. . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "the thick-leaved noon-flower that swings from chalk cliffs and creek banks in the auriferous country is a delectable salad." norfolk island pine, n. see pine. note, n. short for bank-note, and always used for a one-pound note, the common currency. a note = l . . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. ii. p. : "a note's so very trifling, it's no sooner chang'd than gone; for it is but twenty shillings." . wood and lapham, `waiting for mail,' p. : "and even at half fifty notes a week you ought to have made a pile." . marcus clarke, `memorial volume,' p. : "i lent poor dick snaffle a trotting pony i had, and he sold him for forty notes." notornis, n. a bird of new zealand allied to the porphyrio (q.v.), first described from a fossil skull by professor owen ( ), and then thought to be extinct, like the moa. professor owen called the bird notornis mantelli, and, curiously enough, mr. walter mantell, in whose honour the bird was named, two years afterwards captured a live specimen; a third specimen was captured in . the word is from the greek notos, south, and 'ornis, bird. the maori names were moho and takahe (q.v.). notoryctes, n. the scientific name of the genus to which belongs the marsupial mole (q.v.). nugget, n. a lump of gold. the noun nugget is not australian, though often so supposed. skeat (`etymological dictionary,' s.v.) gives a quotation from north's `plutarch' with the word in a slightly different shape, viz., niggot. "the word nugget was in use in australia many years before the goldfields were heard of. a thick-set young beast was called `a good nugget.' a bit of a fig of tobacco was called `a nugget of tobacco.'" (g. w. rusden.) . sir w. t. denison, `proceedings of the royal society of van diemen s land,' vol. ii. p. : `in many instances it is brought to market in lumps, or `nuggets' as they are called, which contain, besides the gold alloyed with some metal, portions of quartz or other extraneous material, forming the matrix in which the gold was originally deposited, or with which it had become combined accidentally." . marcus clarke, `peripatetic philosopher' (reprint), p. : "they lead a peaceful, happy, pastoral life--dig in a hole all day, and get drunk religiously at night. they are respected, admired, and esteemed. suddenly they find a nugget, and lo! the whole tenor of their life changes." nugget, v. queensland slang. see quotation. . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. iii. p. : "to nugget: in australian slang, to appropriate your neighbours' unbranded calves." ibid. c. xviii. p. : "if he does steal a calf now and then, i know several squatters who are given to nuggeting." nuggety, adj. applied to a horse or a man. short, thick-set and strong. see g. w. rusden's note under nugget. . private letter, march : "nuggety is used in the same sense as bullocky (q.v.), but with a slight difference of meaning, what we should say `compact.' bullocky has rather a sense of over-strength inducing an awkwardness of movement. nuggety does not include the last suggestion." nulla-nulla, n. (spellings various) aboriginal name. a battle club of the aborigines in australia. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol. i. p. : "he then threw a club, or nulla-nulla, to the foot of the tree." . c. harpur, `creek of the four graves': "under the crushing stroke of huge clubbed nulla-nullas." . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "lay aside thy nullah-nullahs is there war betwixt us two?" . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the blacks . . . battered in his skull with a nulla-nulla." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "they would find fit weapons for ghastly warriors in the long white shank-bones gleaming through the grass--appropriate gnulla-gnullas and boomerangs." . p. beveridge, `aborigines of victoria and riverina,' p. : "the nulla-nulla is another bludgeon which bears a distinctive character . . . merely a round piece of wood, three feet long and two and a half inches thick, brought to a blunt point at the end. the mallee is the wood from which it is generally made." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "i frequently saw another weapon, the `nolla-nolla' or club, the warlike weapon of the australian native most commonly in use. it is a piece of hard and heavy wood sharpened to a point at both ends. one end is thick and tapers gradually to the other end, which is made rough in order to give the hand a more secure hold; in using he weapon the heavy end is thrown back before it is hurled." . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "one of the simplest of australian clubs, the `nulla-nulla' resembles the root of a grass-tree in the shape of its head . . . in shape something like a child's wicker-rattle." nut, n. ( ) slang. explained in quotation. . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "the peculiar type of the australian native (i do not mean the aboriginal blackfellow, but the australian white), which has received the significant sobriquet of `the nut,' may be met with to all parts of australia, but more particularly . . . in far-off inland bush townships. . . . what is a nut? . . . imagine a long, lank, lantern jawed, whiskerless, colonial youth . . . generally nineteen years of age, with a smooth face, destitute of all semblance of a crop of `grass,' as he calls it in his vernacular." ( ) dare-devil, etc. "tommy the nut" was the alias of the prisoner who, according to the story, was first described as "a-larrikin," by sergeant dalton. see larrikin. nut, bonduc, n. see bonduc nut. nut, burrawang, n. see burrawang. nut, candle, n. see candle-nut. nut, nicker, n. see bonduc nut. nut, queensland, n. see queensland nut. nut, union, n. see union nut. nut-grass, n. an australian plant, cyperus rotundus, linn., n.o. cyperaceae. the specific and the vernacular name both refer to the round tubers of the plant; it is also called erriakura (q.v.). nutmeg, queensland, n. see queensland nutmeg. nut-palm, n. a tree, cycas media, r. br., n.o. cycadeae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "nut-palm. employed by the aborigines as food. an excellent farina is obtained from it." o oak, n. the oak of the northern hemisphere (quercus) is not found among the indigenous trees of australia; but the name oak is applied there to the trees of the genus casuarina (q.v.), and usually in the curious form of she-oak (q.v.). the species have various appellations in various parts, such as swamp-oak, river-oak, bull-oak, desert-oak; and even the word he-oak is applied sometimes to the more imposing species of she-oak, though it is not recognised by maiden, whilst the word native oak is indiscriminately applied to them all. the word oak is further extended to a few trees, not casuarinae, given below; and in new zealand it is also applied to matipo (q.v.) and titoki, or alectryon (q.v.). the following table of the various trees receiving the name of oak is compiled from j. h. maiden's `useful native plants'-- bull-oak-- casuarina equisetifolia, forst.; c. glauca, sieb. forest-o.-- casuarina equisetifolia, forst.; c. suberosa; otto and diet.; c. torulosa, ait. mountain-o.-- queensland name for casuarina torulosa, ait. river black-o.-- casuarina suberosa, otto and diet. river-o.-- callistemon salignus, de c., n.o. myrtaceae; casuarina cunninghamii, miq.; c. distyla, vent.; c. stricta, ait.; c. torulosa, ait. scrub silky-o.-- villaresia moorei, f. v. m., n.o. olacineae. called also maple. she-oak:-- coast s.-o.-- casuarina stricta, desert s.- .-- c. glauca, sieb. erect s.-o.-- c. suberosa, otto and diet. river s.-o.-- c. glauca, sieb. scrub s.-o.-- c. cunninghamii, miq. stunted s.-o.-- c. distyla, vent. shingle-o.-- casuarina stricta, ait.; c. suberosa, otto and diet. silky-o.-- stenocarpus salignus, r. br., n.o. proteaceae; called also silvery-oak. see also grevillea and silky-oak. swamp-o.-- casuarina equisetifolia, forst.; c. glauca, sieb.; c. suberosa, otto and diet.; c. stricta, ait.; called also saltwater swamp-oak. white-o.-- lagunaria patersoni, g. don., n.o. malvaceae. botany-bay oak, or botany-oak, is the name given in the timber trade to the casuarina . the `melbourne museum catalogue of economic woods' ( ) classes the she-oak in four divisions-- desert she-oak-- casuarina glauca, sieb. drooping s.-o.-- c. quadrivalvis, labill. shrubby s.-o.-- c. distyla, vent. straight s.-o.-- c. suberosa, otto. . captain cook, `journal,' sunday, may (edition wharton, , pp. , ): "the great quantity of plants mr. banks and dr. solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of botany bay. . . . although wood is here in great plenty, yet there is very little variety; . . . another sort that grows tall and strait something like pines--the wood of this is hard and ponderous, and something of the nature of america live oak." . r. pickersgill, `journal on the endeavour' (in `historical records of new south wales'), p. : "may , .--we saw a wood which has a grain like oak, and would be very durable if used for building; the leaves are like a pine leaf." . jas. flemming, `journal of explorations of charles grimes,' in `historical records of port phillip' (edition , j. j. shillinglaw), p. : "the land is a light, black-sand pasture, thin of timber, consisting of gum, oak, banksia, and thorn." [this combination of timbers occurs several times in the `journal.' it is impossible to decide what mr. flemming meant by oak.] . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "we found lofty blue-gum trees (eucalyptus) growing on the flats near the peel, whose immediate banks were overhung by the dense, umbrageous foliage of the casuarina, or `river-oak' of the colonists." . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the river-oak grows on the banks and rivers, and having thick foliage, forms a pleasant and useful shade for cattle during the heat of the day; it is very hard and will not split. the timber resembles in its grain the english oak, and is the only wood in the colony well adapted for making felloes of wheels, yokes for oxen, and staves for casks." . c. holtzapffel, `turning,' p. : "botany-bay oak, sometimes called beef-wood, is from new south wales. . . . in general colour it resembles a full red mahogany, with darker red veins." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the casuarina trees, with their leafless, thin, thread-like, articulated branches, have been compared to the arborescent horse-tails (equisetaceae), but have a much greater resemblance to the larch-firs; they have the colonial name of oaks, which might be changed more appropriately to that of australian firs. the dark, mournful appearance of this tree caused it to be planted in cemeteries. the flowers are unisexual; the fruit consists of hardened bracts with winged seeds. the wood of this tree is named beef-wood by the colonists." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the wail in the native oak." . w. r. guilfoyle, `first book of australian botany,' p. : "it may here be remarked that the term `oak' has been very inaptly--in fact ridiculously--applied by the early australian settlers; notably in the case of the various species of casuarina, which are commonly called `she-oaks." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "they chose a tall he-oak, lopped it to a point." . j. hood, `land of the fern,' p. : "the sighing of the native oak, which the light wind whispered through." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "a peculiar class of trees, called by the scientific name of casuarina, is popularly known as oaks, `swamp-oaks,' `forest-oaks,' `she-oaks,' and so forth, although the trees are not the least like oaks. they are melancholy looking trees, with no proper leaves, but only green rods, like those of a pine-tree, except that they are much longer, and hang like the branches of a weeping-willow." oak-apple, n. the cone of the casuarina or she-oak tree. . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "the small apple of this tree (she-oak) is also dark green . . . both apple and leaf are as acid as the purest vinegar. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "in cases of severe thirst, great relief may be obtained from chewing the foliage of this and other species [of casuarina], which, being of an acid nature, produces a flow of saliva--a fact well-known to bushmen who have traversed waterless portions of the country. this acid is closely allied to citric acid, and may prove identical with it. children chew the young cones, which they call `oak-apples.'" oamaru stone, n. oamaru is a town on the east coast of the south island of new zealand. it produces a fine building stone. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand', p. : "a white, granular limestone, called the oamaru stone, is worked in extensive quarries in the oamaru district. . . . a considerable quantity has been exported to melbourne." oat-grass, n. anthistiria avenacea, f. v. m., n.o. gramineae. a species of kangaroo- grass (q.v.). see also grass. oat-shell, n. the shell of various species of columbella, a small marine mollusc used for necklaces. oats, wild, an indigenous grass, bromus arenarius, labill, n.o. gramineae.called also seaside brome-grass. "it makes excellent hay." (maiden, p. .) officer plant, n. another name for christmas-bush (q.v.), so called "because of its bright red appearance." (maiden, p. .) old chum, n. not in common use: the opposite to a new chum. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "`new chum,' in opposition to `old chum.' the former `cognomen' peculiarizing [sic] the newly-arrived emigrant; the latter as a mark of respect attached to the more experienced colonist." old hat, a victorian political catch-word. . `the argus,' may , p. , col. : "mr. frank stephen was the author of the well-known epithet `old hats,' which was applied to the rank and file of sir james m'culloch's supporters. the phrase had its origin through mr. stephen's declaration at an election meeting that the electors ought to vote even for an old hat if it were put forward in support of the m'culloch policy." old lady, n. name given to a moth, erebus pluto. old man, n. a full-grown male kangaroo. the aboriginal corruption is wool-man. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "to your great relief, however, the `old man' turns out to possess the appendage of a tail, and is in fact no other than one of our old acquaintances, the kangaroos." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "if he (greyhound) has less ferocity when he comes up with an `old man,' so much the better. . . . the strongest and most courageous dog can seldom conquer a wool-man alone, and not one in fifty will face him fairly; the dog who has the temerity is certain to be disabled, if not killed." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "mr. gilbert started a large kangaroo known by the familiar name of `old man.'" . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the settlers designate the old kangaroos as `old men' and `old women;' the full-grown animals are named `flyers,' and are swifter than the british hare." . w. westgarth, `colony of victoria,' p. : "the large kangaroo, the `old man,' as he is called, timorous of every unwonted sound that enters his large, erected ears, has been chased far from every busy seat of colonial industry." . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "where the kangaroo gave hops, the old man fleetest of the fleet." . `the times,' [reprint] `letters from queensland,' p. : "the animals, like the timber, too, are strange. kangaroo and wallaby are as fond of grass as the sheep, and after a pelican's yawn there are few things funnier to witness than the career of an `old man' kangaroo, with his harem after him, when the approach of a buggy disturbs the family at their afternoon meal. away they go, the little ones cantering briskly, he in a shaggy gallop, with his long tail stuck out for a balance, and a perpetual see-saw maintained between it and his short front paws, while the hind legs act as a mighty spring under the whole construction. the side and the back view remind you of a big st. bernard dog, the front view of a rat. you begin an internal debate as to which he most resembles, and in the middle of it you find that he is sitting up on his haunches, which gives him a secure height of from five to six feet, and is gravely considering you with the air of the old man he is named from." old-man, adj. large, or bigger than usual. compare the next two words. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "i stared at a man one day for saying that a certain allotment of land was `an old-man allotment': he meant a large allotment, the old-man kangaroo being the largest kangaroo." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "who that has ridden across the old-man plain . . ." old-man fern, a bush-name in tasmania for the tree-fern (q.v.). old-man salt-bush, atriplex nummularium, lindl. see salt-bush. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "one of the tallest and most fattening and wholesome of australian pastoral salt-bushes; also highly recommended for cultivation, as natural plants. by close occupation of the sheep and cattle runs, have largely disappeared, and as this useful bush is not found in many parts of australia, sheep and cattle depastured on saltbush country are said to remain free of fluke, and get cured of distoma-disease, and of other allied ailments (mueller)." old-wife, n. a new south wales fish, enoplosus armatus, white, family percidae. the local name old-wife in england is given to a quite different fish, one of the sea-breams. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the `old-wife' (enoplosus armatus, white) is another fish which from its small size is not esteemed nearly so highly as it ought to be. it is a most exquisite fish." olive, mock, i.q. axe-breaker (q.v.). olive, native, n. one of the many names given to four trees-- bursaria spinosa, cav., n.o. pittosporeae,; elaeocarpus cyaneus, ait., n.o. tiliaceae; notelaea ovala, r. br., n.o. jasmineae,; and, in queensland, to olea paniculata, r. br., n.o. jasmineae,, a tree of moderate size, with ovoid fruit resembling a small common olive. olive, spurious, n. another name for the tree notelaea ligustrina, vent. see ironwood. on, prep. used for in, in many cases, especially of towns which sprang from goldfields, and where the original phrase was, e.g. "on the ballarat diggings, or goldfield." thus, an inhabitant still speaks of living on ballarat, on bendigo; on south melbourne (formerly emerald hill). . j. f. blanche, `the prince's visit,' p. : "when came victoria's son on ballarat." . h. lawson, `while the billy boils, etc.' p. : "after tea they would sit on a log of the wood-heap, . . and yarn about ballarat and bendigo--of the days when we spoke of being `on' a place oftener than `at' it: on ballarat, on gulgong, on lambing flat, on creswick." onion, native, n. i.q. native leek. see leek. onychogale, n. the scientific name of the genus containing the nail-tailed wallabies (q.v.). they derive their name from the presence of a peculiar horny appendage to their tails. (grk. 'onux, 'onuchos, a claw, and galae, a weasel.) for the species, see wallaby. opossum, n. the marsupial animal, frequent all over australia, which is called an opossum, is a phalanger (q.v.). he is not the animal to which the name was originally applied, that being an american animal of the family didelphyidae. see quotations below from `encycl. brit.' ( ). skeat (`etym. dict.') says the word is west indian, but he quotes webster (presumably an older edition than that now in use), "orig. opassom, in the language of the indians of virginia," and he refers to a translation of buffon's natural history' (lond. ), vol. i. p. . by the name was being applied in australia. the name opossum is applied in australia to all or any of the species belonging to the following genera, which together form the sub-family phalangerinae, viz.--phalanger, trichosurus, pseudochirus, petauroides, dactylopsila, petaurus, gymnobelideus, dromicia, acrobates. the commoner forms are as follows:-- common dormouse o.-- dromicia nana, desm. common opossum-- trichosurus vulpecula, kerr. common ring-tailed-o.-- pseudochirus peregrinus, bodd. greater flying-o.-- petauroides volans, kerr. lesser dormouse o.-- dromicia lepida, thomas. lesser flying-o.-- petaurus breviceps, water. pigmy flying-o.- acrobates pygmaeus. short-eared-o.-- trichosurus caninus, w. ogilby. squirrel flying-o., or flying squirrel-- petaurus sciureus, shaw. striped o.-- dactylopsila trivirgata, gray. tasmanian, or sooty o.-- trichosurus vulpecula, var. fuliginosus. tasmanian ring-tailed-o.-- pseudochirus cooki, desm. yellow-bellied flying-o.-- petaurus australis, shaw. of the rare little animal called leadbeater's opossum, only one specimen has been found, and that in victoria; it is gymnobelideus leadbeateri, and is the only species of this genus. . john smith, `travels, adventures, and observations in europe, asia, africke, and america, beginning about , and continued to ;' vols., richmond, u.s., reprinted ; vol. i. p. [on the american animal; in the part about virginia, ]: "an opassom hath a head like a swine,--a taile like a rat, and is of the bigness of a cat. under the belly she hath a bagge, wherein she lodgeth, carrieth and suckleth her young." [this is the american opossum. there are only two known genera of living marsupials outside the australian region.] . `capt. cook's journal' (edition wharton, ), p. [at endeavour river, aug. , ]: "here are wolves, possums, an animal like a ratt, and snakes." . j. banks, `journal,' july , (edition hooker, , p. ): "while botanising to-day i had the good fortune to take an animal of the opossum (didelphis) tribe; it was a female, and with it i took two young ones. it was not unlike that remarkable one which de buffon has described by the name of phalanger as an american animal. it was, however, not the same. m. de buffon is certainly wrong in asserting that this tribe is peculiar to america, and in all probability, as pallas has said in his zoologia, the phalanger itself is a native of the east indies, as my animals and that agree in the extraordinary conformation of their feet, in which they differ from all others." . governor phillip, `voyage to botany bay,' p. : "the pouch of the female, in which the young are nursed, is thought to connect it rather with the opossum tribe." [p. ]: "a small animal of the opossum kind." [p. ]: "black flying-opossum. [description given.] the fur of it is so beautiful, and of so rare a texture, that should it hereafter be found in plenty, it might probably be thought a very valuable article of commerce." . j. hunter, `voyage,' p. : "the opossum is also very numerous here, but it is not exactly like the american opossum: it partakes a good deal of the kangaroo in the strength of its tail and make of its fore-legs, which are very short in proportion to the hind ones; like that animal it has the pouch, or false belly, for the safety of its young in time of danger." . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' fol. i. p. : "at an early age the females wear round the waist a small line made of the twisted hair of the opossum, from the centre of which depend a few small uneven lines from two to five inches long. this they call bar-rin." . g. shaw, `zoological lectures,' vol. i. p. : "a still more elegant kind of new holland opossum is the petaurine opossum . . . has the general appearance of a flying-squirrel, being furnished with a broad furry membrane from the fore to the hind feet, by the help of which it springs from tree to tree. . . . known in its native regions by the name of hepoona roo." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "their food consists of fish when near the coasts, but when in the woods, of oppossums [sic], bandicoots, and almost any animal they can catch." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the sharp guttural noises of opossums." ibid. p. [`the native woman's lament']: "the white man wanders in the dark, we hear his thunder smite the bough; the opossum's mark upon the bark we traced, but cannot find it, now." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the opossums usually abound where grass is to be found, lodging by day in the holes and hollows of trees. the most common species is the phalangista vulpina (shaw), under which are placed both the black and grey opossums. . . . the ringtail opossum (phalangista or hepoona cookii, desm.) is smaller, less common, and less sought after, for dogs will not eat the flesh of the ringtail even when roasted." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "dogs, immediately on coming into the australian forest, become perfectly frantic in the pursuit of opossums." . `encyclopaedia britannica' (ed. ) [on the australian animal], vol. xv. p. : "a numerous group, varying in size from that of a mouse to a large cat, arboreal in their habits and abundantly distributed throughout the australian region . . . have the tail more or less prehensile. . . . these are the typical phalangers or `opossums,' as they are commonly called in australia. (genus phalangista.)" ibid. p. [on the american animal]: "the didelphidae, or true opossums, differ from all other marsupials in their habitat, being peculiar to the american continent. they are mostly carnivorous or insectivorous in their diet, and arboreal in habits." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "among the colonists the younger generation are very zealous opossum hunters. they hunt them for sport, going out by moonlight and watching the animal as it goes among the trees to seek its food." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "we see two fine pairs of the tasmanian sooty opossum (phalangista fuliginosa); this species is unapproached by any other in regard to size and the beauty of its fur, which is of a rich, fulvous brown colour. this opossum is becoming scarce in tasmania on account of the value of its fur, which makes it much sought after. in the next compartment are a pair of short-eared opossums (p. canina), the mountain opossums of southern australia. the next is a pair of vulpine opossums; these are the common variety, and are found all over the greater part of australia, the usual colour of this kind being grey." . `melbourne stock and station journal,' may (advertisement): "kangaroo, wallaby, opossum, and rabbit skins. . . . opossum skins, ordinary firsts to s. d; seconds to s.; thirds to s. d; silver greys up to s. per doz.; do. mountain, to s. per doz." opossum-mouse, n. the small australian marsupial, acrobates pygmaeus, shaw; more correctly called the pigmy flying-phalanger. see flying- phalanger. this is the animal generally so denoted, and it is also called the flying-mouse. but there is an intermediate genus, dromicia (q.v.), with no parachute expansion on the flanks, not "flying," of which the name of dormouse-phalanger is the more proper appellation. the species are the-- common dormouse-phalanger-- dromicia nana, desm. lesser d.-ph.-- d. lepida, thomas. long-tailed d.-ph.-- d. caudata, m. edw. western d.-ph.-- d. concinna, gould. one genus, with only one species, the pentailed-phalanger, distaechurus pennatus, peters, is confined to new guinea. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' p. : "the opossum-mouse is about the size of our largest barn-mouse." . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "resembling a common mouse in size, and hence known to the colonists as the flying-mouse or opossum-mouse, this little animal is one of the most elegant of the australian marsupials." opossum-tree, n. a timber-tree, quintinia sieberi, de c., n.o. saxifrageae. orange, n. i.q. native lime, citrus australis. see lime. orange, mock, n. i.q. native laurel. see laurel. orange, native, n. name given to two australian trees. ( ) capparis mitchelli, lindl., n.o. capparideae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`small native pomegranate,' `native orange.' the fruit is from one to two inches in diameter, and the pulp, which has an agreeable perfume, is eaten by the natives." ( ) citriobatus pauciflorus, a. cunn., n.o. pittosporeae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native orange,' `orange thorn.' the fruit is an orange berry with a leathery skin, about one inch and a half in diameter. it is eaten by the aboriginals." orange, wild, n. i.q. wild lemon. see under lemon. orange-gum, n. see gum. orange-spotted lizard (of new zealand), naultinus elegans, gray. orange-thorn, n. see orange, native( ). orange-tree, n. the new zealand orange-tree is a name given to the tarata (q.v.), from the aromatic odour of its leaves when crushed. organ-bird, or organ-magpie, n. other names for one of the magpies (q.v.). . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "gymnorrhina organicum, gould, tasmanian crow-shrike; organ-bird and white-magpie of the colonists. resembling the sounds of a hand-organ out of tune." . t. l. mitchell, `tropical australia,' p. : "the burita, or gymnorrhina, the organ-magpie, was here represented by a much smaller bird." ornithorhynchus, n. i.q. platypus (q.v.). orthonyx, n. a scientific name of a remarkable australian genus of passerine birds, the spine-tails. it long remained of uncertain position . . . and finally it was made the type of a family, orthonycidae. in the type species, o. spinacauda . . . the shafts of the tail-feathers are prolonged beyond the legs. (`century.') thename is from the greek 'orthos, straight, and 'onux, a claw. see log-runner and pheasant's mother. osprey, n. another name for the fish-hawk (q.v.). ounce, n. used as adj. yielding an ounce of gold to a certain measure of dirt, as a dish-full, a cradle-full, a tub-full, etc. also used to signify the number of ounces per ton that quartz will produce, as "ounce-stuff," "three-ounce stuff," etc. out-run, n. a sheep-run at a distance from the head-station (q.v.). . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. vi. p. ( ): "they'd come off a very far out-run, where they'd been, as one might say, neglected." out-station, n. a sheep or cattle station away from the head-station (q.v.). . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. , col. : "there are four out-stations with huts, hurdles . . . and every convenience." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. , p. : "the usual fare at that time at the out-stations--fried pork and kangaroo." . paul wentworth, `amos thorne,' c. iii. p. : "he . . . at last on an out-station in the australian bush worked for his bread." overland, v. to take stock across the country. . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. xiii. p. : "herds used to be taken from new south wales to south australia across what were once considered the deserts of riverina. that used to be called `overlanding.'" . lyth, `golden south,' c. ix. p. : "several gentlemen were away from the two nearest stations, `overlanding,' i.e. taking sheep, cattle, and flour to melbourne." overlander, n. ( ) in the days before railways, and when much of the intervening country was not taken up, to travel between sydney and melbourne, or melbourne and adelaide, was difficult if not dangerous. those who made either journey were called overlanders. in this sense the word is now only used historically, but it retains the meaning in the general case of a man taking cattle a long distance, as from one colony to another. ( ) a slang name for a sundowner (q.v.). . rev. w. pridden, `australia: its history and present condition,' p. : "among the beings which, although not natives of the bush, appear to be peculiar to the wilds of australia, the class of men called overlanders must not be omitted. their occupation is to convey stock from market to market, and from one colony to another." . j. l. stokes, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. c. vi. p. : "the eastern extent of the country of south australia was determined by the overlanders, as they call the gentlemen who bring stock from new south wales." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "overlanders from sydney and melbourne to adelaide were making great sums of money." . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. ix. p. : "he gave us the advice of an experienced overlander." . a. j. vogan, `black police,' p. : "an `overlander,'--for, as you havn't any of the breed in new zealand, i'll explain what that is,--is queensland-english for a long-distance drover; and a rough, hard life it generally is. . . . cattle have to be taken long distances to market sometimes from these `up-country' runs." . `melbourne argus,' june , p. , col. : "then came overlanders of another sort--practical men who went out to develop and not to explore." owl, n. an english bird-name. the species in australia are-- boobook owl-- ninox boobook, lath. chestnut-faced o.-- strix castanops, gould. grass o.-- s. candida, tickell. lesser masked o.-- s. delicatula, lath. masked o.-- s. novae-hollandiae, steph. powerful o.-- ninox strenua, gould. sooty o.-- strix tenebricosa, gould. spotted o.-- ninox maculata, vig. and hors. winking o.-- n. connivens, lath. in new zealand, the species are--laughing jackass, or l. owl, sceloglaux albifacies, kaup (maori name, whekau, q.v.), and the morepork, formerly athene novae-zelandiae, gray, now spiloglaux novae-zelandiae, kaup. (see morepork.) see also barking owl. owl-parrot, n. a bird of new zealand. see kakapo. oyster, n. the australian varieties are--mud-oyster, ostrea angasi, sow. (sometimes considered only a variety of o. edulis, linn., the european species): new south wales, victoria, tasmania, south australia. o. rutupina, jeffreys, "the native" of colchester, england, is a variety and occurs in tasmania. drift-o., o. subtrigona, sow., called so because its beds are thought to be shifted by storms and tides: new south wales and queensland. rock-o., o. glomerata, gould, probably the same species as the preceding, but under different conditions: all eastern australia. and other species more or less rare. see also stewart islander. australian oysters, especially the sydney rock-oyster, are very plentiful, and of excellent body and flavour, considered by many to be equal if not superior to the colchester native. they cost s. a dozen; unopened in bags, they are d. a dozen--a contrast to english prices. oyster-bay pine, n. see pine. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : " august, . . . a sample of the white resin of the oyster bay pine (callitris australis, brown) lay on the table. the secretary stated that this tree has only been met with along a comparatively limited and narrow strip of land bordering the sea on the eastern coast of tasmania, and upon flinders and cape barren islands in bass's straits; that about swanport and the shores of oyster bay it forms a tree, always handsome and picturesque, and sometimes feet in height, affording useful but not large timber, fit for all the ordinary purposes of the house carpenter and joiner in a country district." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "those most picturesque trees, the oyster bay pines, which, vividly green in foliage, tapering to a height of eighty or one hundred feet, and by turns symmetrical or eccentric in form, harmonise and combine with rugged mountain scenery as no other of our trees here seem to do." oyster-catcher, n. common english bird-name. the australasian species are--pied, haematopus longirostris, vieill.; black, h. unicolor, wagler; and two other species--h. picatus, vigors, and h. australasianus, gould, with no vernacular name. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. vii. p. : "our game-bag was thinly lined with small curlews, oyster-catchers, and sanderlings." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "slim oyster-catcher, avocet, and tripping beach-birds, seldom met elsewhere." p pa, or pah, n. the former is now considered the more correct spelling. a maori word to signify a native settlement, surrounded by a stockade; a fort; a fighting village. in maori, the verb pa means, to touch, to block up. pa = a collection of houses to which access is blocked by means of stockades and ditches. . `captain cook's journal' (edition wharton, ), p. : "i rather think they are places of retreat or stronghold, where they defend themselves against the attack of an enemy, as some of them seemed not ill-design'd for that purpose." ibid. p. : "have since learnt that they have strongholds--or hippas, as they call them--which they retire to in time of danger." [hawkesworth spelt it, heppahs; he = maori definite article.] . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "[on the coast of new zealand] they passed many huts and a considerable hippah, or fortified place, on a high round hill, from the neighbourhood of which six large canoes were seen coming towards the ship." . w. r. wade, `journey in new zealand' (hobart town), p. : "a native pa, or enclosed village, is usually surrounded by a high stockade, or irregular wooden fence, the posts of which are often of great height and thickness, and sometimes headed by the frightful carving of an uncouth or indecent image." . `appendix to journal of house of representatives,' e- , p. : "they seem, generally speaking, at present inveterate in their adherence to their dirty native habits, and to their residence in pas." . a. s. thomson, m.d., `story of new zealand,' p. : "the construction of the war pas . . . exhibits the inventive faculty of the new zealanders better than any other of their works. . . . their shape and size depended much on the nature of the ground and the strength of the tribe. they had double rows of fences on all unprotected sides; the inner fence, twenty to thirty feet high, was formed of poles stuck in the ground, slightly bound together with supple-jacks, withes, and torotoro creepers. the outer fence, from six to eight feet high, was constructed of lighter materials. between the two there was a dry ditch. the only openings in the outer fence were small holes; in the inner fence there were sliding bars. stuck in the fences were exaggerated wooden figures of men with gaping mouths and out-hanging tongues. at every corner were stages for sentinels, and in the centre scaffolds, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad, from which men discharged darts at the enemy. suspended by cords from an elevated stage hung a wooden gong twelve feet long, not unlike a canoe in shape, which, when struck with a wooden mallet, emitted a sound heard in still weather twenty miles off. previously to a siege the women and children were sent away to places of safety." . t. moser, `mahoe leaves,' p. : "a pah is strictly a fortified village, but it has ceased to be applied to a fortified one only, and a collection of huts forming a native settlement is generally called a pah now-a-days." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "they found the pah well fortified, and were not able to take it." . clement bunbury, `fraser's magazine, june, p. : "the celebrated gate pah, where english soldiers in a panic ran away from the maoris, and left their officers to be killed." . cassell's' picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "a sally was made from the pah, but it was easily repulsed. within the pah the enemy were secure." pachycephala, n. the scientific name for the typical genus of pachycephalinae, founded in by vigors and horsfield. it is an extensive group of thick-headed shrikes, containing about fifty species, ranging in the indian and australian region, but not in new zealand. the type is p. gutturalis, lath., of australia. (`century.') they are singing-birds, and are called thickheads (q.v.), and often thrushes (q.v.). the name is from the greek pachus, thick, and kephalae, the head. packer, n. used for a pack-horse. . wood and lapham, `waiting for mail,' p. : "the boys took notice of a horse, some old packer he looked like." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the darling drover with his saddle-horses and packers." paddock. ( ) n england, a small field; in australia, the general word for any field, or for any block of land enclosed by a fence. the `home-paddock' is the paddock near the homestation, and usually very large. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. vi. p. : "there is one paddock of acres, fenced on four sides." . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. , col. : "a -acre grass paddock, enclosed by a two-rail fence." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the paddocks are so arranged that hills may afford shelter, and plains or light-timbered flats an escape from the enormous flies and other persecuting enemies." . `scribner's magazine,' feb., p. : "`paddocks,' as the various fields are called (some of these `paddocks' contain , acres)." ( ) an excavation made for procuring wash-dirt in shallow ground. a place built near the mouth of a shaft where quartz or wash-dirt is stored. (brough smyth, `glossary of mining terms,' .) . `otago witness,' nov. , p. , col. : "a paddock was opened at the top of the beach, but rock-bottom was found." paddock, v. to divide into paddocks. . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. xx. p. : "when a run is paddocked shepherds are not required; but boundary riders are required." paddy lucerne, n. i.q. queensland hemp. see under hemp. paddymelon, n. the name of a small wallaby (q.v.), macropus thetidis, less. it is certainly a corruption of an aboriginal name, and is spelt variously pademelon, padmelon, and melon simply. (see melon-holes.) this word is perhaps the best instance in australia of the law of hobson-jobson, by which a strange word is fitted into a language, assuming a likeness to existing words without any regard to the sense. the sydney name for kangaroo was patagorang. see early quotations. this word seems to give the first half of the modern word. pata, or pada, was the generic name: mella an adjective denoting the species. paddymalla ( ) marks an intermediate stage, when one-half of the word had been anglicised. at jervis bay, new south wales, the word potalemon was used for a kangaroo. . j. hunter, `voyage,' p. : "the pattagorang and baggaray frequently supplied our colonists with fresh meals, and governor phillip had three young ones, which were likely to live: he has not the least doubt but these animals are formed in the false belly." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the pat-ta-go-rang or kangooroo was (bood-yer-re) good, and they ate it whenever they were fortunate enough to kill one." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the wallabee and paddymalla grow to about sixty pounds each." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "had hunted down a paddymelon (a very small species of kangaroo, which is found in the long grass and thick brushes)." . clement hodgkinson, `australia, from port macquarie to moreton bay,' p. : "the brush-kangaroos or pademellas were thus gradually enclosed." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "a small species of the kangaroo tribe, called by the sealers paddymelon, is found on philip island, while none have been seen on french island." . j. henderson, `excursions in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the small kind of kangaroo, however, called by the natives `paddy melon,' and which inhabits the dense brushes or jungles, forms a more frequent, and more easily obtained article of food." . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings,' p. : "an apron made from skin of paddie-melon." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "in the scrub beyond, numbers of a small kind of kangaroo called `paddy- mellans,' resort." [footnote] "i cannot guarantee the spelling." . cassell's' picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "the kangaroo and his relatives, the wallaby and the paddymelon." . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association for the advancement of science,' p. : "onychogale fraenatus and its ally o. lunatus. mr. le souef reports that the former are fairly numerous in the mallee country to the north-west of the colony, and are there known as pademelon." [this seems to be only a local use.] . j. l. purves, q.c., in `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "on either side is a forest, the haunt of wombats and tree-bears, and a few paddymelons." paddymelon-stick, n. a stick used by the aborigines for knocking paddymelons (q.v.) on the head. . j. henderson, `excursions in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "these are hunted in the brushes and killed with paddy mellun sticks with which they are knocked down. these sticks are about feet long and an inch or less in diameter." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "nulla-mullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, and heelimen or shields lay about in every direction." pah, n. i.q. pa (q.v.). pake, n. maori name for a coarse mat used against rain. a sack thrown over the shoulders is called by the settlers a pake. pakeha, n. maori word for a white man. the word is three syllables, with even accent on all. a pakeha maori is an englishman who lives as a maori with the maoris. mr. tregear, in his `maori comparative dictionary,' s.v. pakepakeha, says: "mr. john white [author of `ancient history of the maoris'] considers that pakeha, a foreigner, an european, originally meant `fairy,' and states that on the white men first landing sugar was called `fairy-sand,' etc." williams' `maori dictionary' ( th edit.) gives, "a foreigner: probably from pakepakeha, imaginary beings of evil influence, more commonly known as patupaiarehe, said to be like men with fair skins." some express this idea by "fairy." another explanation is that the word is a corruption of the coarse english word, said to have been described by dr. johnson (though not in his dictionary), as "a term of endearment amongst sailors." the first a in pakeha had something of the u sound. the sailors' word would have been introduced to new zealand by whalers in the early part of the nineteenth century. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "pakeha, s. an european; a white man." . a. earle, `narrative of nine months' residence in new zealand,' p. : "the white taboo'd day, when the packeahs (or white men) put on clean clothes and leave off work" [sc. sunday]. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "we do not want the missionaries from the bay of islands, they are pakeha maori, or whites who have become natives." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' canto iii. p. : "aiding some vile pakehas in deeds subversive of the laws." . f. e. maning [title]: "old new zealand, by a pakeha maori." . t. bracken, `lays of the maori,' p. : "long ere the pale pakeha came to the shrine." palberry, n. a south australian name for the native currant. see currant. the word is a corruption of the aboriginal name palbri, by the law of hobson-jobson. palm, alexandra, n. a queensland timber-tree, ptychosperma alexandrae, f. v. m., n.o. palmeae. palm, black, n. a queensland timber-tree, ptychosperma normanbyi, f. v. m., n.o. palmeae. palm, cabbage, n. i.q. cabbage-tree (q.v.) palm nut, n. see under nut. palm, walking-stick, n. a queensland plant, bacularia monostachya, f. v. m., n.o. palmeae. so called because the stem is much used for making walking-sticks. panel, n. the part between two posts in a post-and-rail fence. see also slip-panel. . a. l. gordon, `sea-spray,' p. : "in the jar of the panel rebounding, in the crash of the splintering wood, in the ears to the earth-shock resounding, in the eyes flashing fire and blood." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xviii. p. : "a panel of fencing is not quite nine feet in length." pan, or pan-wash, pan-out, pan-off, verbs, to wash the dirt in the pan for gold. some of the forms, certainly pan-out, are used in the united states. . j. o. tucker, `the mute,' p. : "others to these the precious dirt convey, linger a moment till the panning's through." . g. sutherland, `tales of gold fields,' p. : "on the very day of their arrival they got a lesson in pan-washing." ibid. p. : "all the diggers merely panned out the earth." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. vii. p. : "these returned gnomes having been brought to light, at once commenced to pan off according to the recognized rule and practice." pannikin, n. a small tin cup for drinking. the word is not australian. webster refers to marryat and thackeray. the `century' quotes blackmore. this diminutive of pan is exceedingly common in australia, though not confined to it. . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "he went to the spring and brought me a pannican full." (p. ): "several tin pannicans." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we caught the rain in our pannikins as it dropt from our extended blankets." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "there is a well-known story of two bullock-drivers, who, at a country public-house on their way to the town, called for a dozen of champagne, which they first emptied from the bottles into a bucket, and then deliberately drank off from their tin pannikins." . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "he was considered sufficiently rewarded in having the `honour' to drink his `pannikin' of tea at the boss's deal table." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "a small pannikin full of gold dust." pannikin-boss, or pannikin-overseer, n. the term is applied colloquially to a man on a station, whose position is above that of the ordinary station-hand, but who has no definite position of authority, or is only a `boss' or overseer in a small way. papa, n. maori word for a bluish clay found along the east coast of the north island. paper-bark tree, or paper-barked tea-tree, n. called also milk-wood (q.v.). name given to the species melaleuca leucodendron, linn. its bark is impervious to water. . `western australia,' p. : "there is no doubt, from the partial trial which has been made of it, that the wood of the melaleuca, or tea-tree, could be rendered very serviceable. it is sometimes known by the name of the paper-bark tree from the multitudinous layers (some hundreds) of which the bark is composed. these layers are very thin, and are loosely attached to each other, peeling off like the bark of the english birch. the whole mass of the bark is readily stripped from the tree. it is used by the natives as a covering for their huts." [compare the new zealand thousand-jacket.] . j. l. stokes, `discoveries of australia,' vol. i. c. v. p. : "the face of the country was well but not too closely covered with specimens of the red and white gum, and paper-bark tree." . e. w. landor, `the bushman; or, life in a new country,' p. : "fish and other things are frequently baked in the bark of the papertree." . j. askew, `voyage to australia and new zealand,' p. : "the dead bodies are burnt or buried, though some in north australia place the corpse in the paper bark of the tea-tree, and deposit it in a hollow tree." paper-fish, n. a tasmanian name. see bastard trumpeter and morwong. . `royal commission on fisheries of tasmania,' p. xxxvi: "the young [of the bastard trumpeter] are always coloured, more or less, like the red, and are known by some as `paper-fish.' the mature form of the silver bastard is alone caught. this is conclusive as favouring the opinion that the silver is simply the mature form of the red." paradise, bird of, n. english bird-name, originally applied in australia to the lyre-bird (q.v.), now given to manucoda gouldii, gray. called also the manucode (q.v.). . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "by him [wilson, a convict] the first bird of paradise ever seen in this country had been shot." [this was the lyre-bird.] paradise-duck, n. bird-name applied to the new zealand duck, casarca variegata, gmel. see duck quotation, , parker. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. . p. : "these (wild ducks of different sorts) are principally the black, the grey, the blue-winged, and the paradise-duck, or `pu tangi tangi,' as it is called by the natives. the last is nearly as large as a goose, and of beautiful plumage." paradoxus, n. a shortened form of the former scientific name of the platypus, paradoxus ornithorrhynchus. sometimes further abbreviated to paradox. the word is from the greek paradoxos, `contrary to opinion, strange, incredible.' (`l. & s.') . o'hara, `the history of new south wales,' p. : "in the reaches or pools of the campbell river, the very curious animal called the paradox, or watermole, is seen in great numbers." paramatta/sic/, n. "a fabric like merino, of worsted and cotton. so named from paramatta, a town near sydney, new south wales." (skeat, `etymological dictionary,' s.v.) according to some, the place named parramatta means, in the local aboriginal dialect, "eels abound," or "plenty of eels." others rather put it that para = fish, and matta= water. there is a river in queensland called the paroo, which means "fish-river." note.--the town parramatta, though formerly often spelt with one r, is now always spelt with two. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "a peculiar tweed, made in the colony, and chiefly at paramatta, hence the name." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "paramattas, fine cloths originally made from the paramatta wool, with silk warps, though now woollen." pardalote, n. anglicised form of the scientific bird-name pardalotus (q.v.), generally called diamond birds (q.v.); a genus of small short-tailed birds like the flycatchers. the species are-- black-headed pardalote-- pardalotus melanocephalus, gould. chestnut-rumped p.-- p. uropygialis, gould. forty-spotted p.-- p. quadragintus, gould; called also forty-spot (q.v.). orange-tipped p.-- p. assimilis, ramsay. red-browed p.-- p. rubricatus, gould. red-tipped p.-- p. ornatus, temm. spotted p.-- p. punctatus, temm.; the bird originally called the diamond bird (q.v.). yellow-rumped p.-- p. xanthopygius, mccoy. yellow-tipped p.-- p. affinis, gould.-- . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "no species of the genus to which this bird belongs is more widely and generally distributed than the spotted pardalote, pardalotus punctatus." pardalotus, n. scientific name for a genus of australian birds, called diamond birds (q.v.), and also pardalotes (q.v.), from grk. pardalowtos, spotted like the pard. parera, n. maori name for the genus duck (q.v.). . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "family, anatida--parera, turuki (anas superciliosa), the duck; very similar to the wild duck of england." parra, n. a popular use for the fuller scientific name parra gallinacea. called also the jacana (q.v.), and the lotus-bird (q.v.). . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the egg of the comb-crested parra shines amongst its neighbours so vividly that it at once catches the eye, and suggests a polished agate rather than an egg. the bird itself is something of a gem, too, when seen skipping with its long water-walking claws over the floating leaves of pink and blue water-lilies." parrakeet, n. (various spellings). from french. originally from spanish periquito, dim. of sp. perico, a little parrot. hence used generally in english to signify any small parrot. the australian species are-- alexandra parrakeet-- spathopterus (polytelis) alexandra, gould. beautiful p.-- psephotus pulcherrimus, gould. black-tailed p.-- polytelis melanura, vig. and hors.; called also rock-pebbler. blue-cheeked p.-- platycercus amathusiae, bp. cockatoo p.-- calopsittacus novae-hollandiae gmel. crimson-bellied p.-- psephotus haematogaster, gould. golden-shouldered p.-- psephotus chrysopterygius, gould. green p.-- platycercus flaviventris, temm. ground p.-- pezoporus formosus, lath. mallee p.-- platycercus barnardi, vig. and hors. many-coloured p.-- psephotus multicolor, temm. night p.-- pezoporus occidentalis, gould. pale-headed p:-- platycercus pallidiceps, vig. pheasant p.-- p. adelaidensis, gould. red-backed p.-- psephotus haematonotus, gould. red-capped p.-- p. spurius, kuhl. rock p.-- euphema petrophila, gould. smutty p.-- platycercus browni, temm. yellow p.-- p. flaveolus, gould. yellow-banded p. p. zonarius, shaw. yellow-cheeked p. p. icterotis, temm. yellow-collared p.-- p. semitorquatus, quoy and gaim.; called also twenty-eight (q.v.). yellow-mantled p.-- p. splendidus, gould. yellow-vented p.-- psephotus xanthorrhous, gould. see also grass-parrakeet, musk-parrakeet, rosella, and rosehill. the new zealand green parrakeet (called also kakariki, q.v.) has the following species-- antipodes island p.- platycercus unicolor, vig. orange-fronted p.-- p. alpinus, buller. red-fronted p.-- p. novae-zelandiae, sparrm. rowley's parrakeet-- platycercus rowleyi, buller. yellow-fronted p.-- p. auriceps, kuhl. . l. leichhardt, `journal,' p. : "the cockatoo-parrakeet of the gwyder river (nymphicus novae-hollandiae, gould)." . a. g. middleton, `earnest,' p. : "the bright parroquet, and the crow, black jet, for covert, wing far to the shade." . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "there are three species of parrakeet, the red-fronted (platycercus novae-zelandiae), the yellow-fronted (p. auriceps), and the orange-fronted (p. alpinus). the genus platycercus is found in new zealand, new guinea, and polynesia." parrot-bill, n. see kaka-bill. parrot-fish, n. name given in australia to pseudoscarus pseudolabrus; called in the australian tropics parrot-perch. in victoria and tasmania, there are also several species of labricthys. in new zealand, it is l. psittacula, rich. parrot-perch, n. see parrot-fish. parrot's-food, n. name given in tasmania to the plant goodenia ovata, sm., n.o. goodeniaceae. parsley, wild, n. apium leptophyllum, f. v. m., n.o. umbelliferae. parsley grows wild in many parts of the world, especially on the shores of the mediterranean, and this species is not endemic in australia. parsnip, wild, n. a poisonous weed, trachymene australis, benth., n.o. umbelliferae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "recently (dec. ) the sudden death of numbers of cattle in the vicinity of dandenong, victoria, was attributed to their having eaten a plant known as the wild parsnip. . . . its action is so powerful that no remedial measures seem to be of any avail." parson-bird, n. the new zealand bird prosthemadera novae-zelandiae, gmel.; maori name, tui (q.v.). see also poe. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "cook named this beautiful and lively bird the parson and mocking-bird. it acquired the first name from its having two remarkable white feathers on the neck like a pair of clergyman's bands." [mr. taylor is not correct. cook called it the poe-bird (q.v.). the name `parson-bird' is later.] . c. hursthouse, `new zealand the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "the most common, and certainly the most facetious, individual of the ornithology is the tui (parson-bird). joyous punchinello of the bush, he is perpetual fun in motion." . c. w., `song of the squatters,' `canterbury rhymes' ( nd edit.), p. : "so the parson-bird, the tui, the white-banded songster tui, in the morning wakes the woodlands with his customary music. then the other tuis round him clear their throats and sing in concert, all the parson-birds together." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the tui, or parson-bird, most respectable and clerical-looking in its glossy black suit, with a singularly trim and dapper air, and white wattles of very slender feathers--indeed they are as fine as hair--curled coquettishly at each side of his throat, exactly like bands." . dr. thomson, apud buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "sitting on the branch of a tree, as a pro tempore pulpit, he shakes his head, bending to one side and then to another, as if he remarked to this one and to that one; and once and again, with pent-up vehemence, contracting his muscles and drawing himself together, his voice waxes loud, in a manner to awaken sleepers to their senses." . w. colenso, `bush notes,' `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxxiii. art. lvii. p. : "it is very pleasing to hear the deep rich notes of the parson-bird--to see a pair of them together diligently occupied in extracting honey from the tree-flowers, the sun shining on their glossy sub-metallic dark plumage." partridge-pigeon, n. an australian pigeon. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the partridge-pigeon (geophaps scripta) abounded in the acacia groves." partridge-wood, n. another name for the cabbage-palm (q.v.). passion-flower, native, n. several species of the genus passiflora are so called in australia; some are indigenous, some naturalised. . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the native passion-flower, scarlet and orange, was tangled up with the common purple sarsaparilla and the english honeysuckle and jessamine." pastoralist, n. the squatters are dropping their old name for this new one. a pastoralist is a sheep or cattle-farmer, the distinction between him and an agriculturist being, that cultivation, if he undertakes it at all, is a minor consideration with him. . march [title]: "the pastoralists' review," no. . . `scribner's magazine,' feb., p. : "a combination has been formed by the squatters under the name of the pastoralists' union." patagorang, n. one of the aboriginal names for the kangaroo (q.v.), and see paddy-melon. pataka, n. maori word for storehouse, supported on a post to keep off rats. see whata. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "we landed at the pataka, or stage." patiki, n. the maori name for the flounder (q.v.). the accent is on the first syllable of the word. . `grammar and vocabulary of the language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "patiki, s. a fish so called." . f. tuckett, `diary,' may : "a fine place for spearing soles or patike (the best of fish)." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "patiki, common name for the sole and flat-fish; the latter is found in rivers, but decreases in size as it retires from the sea." . captain mair, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xii. art. xlvi. p. : "large patiki, flat-fish, are occasionally speared up the river." patriot, n. humorously applied to convicts. . in `history of australia,' by g. w. rusden ( ), p. [footnote]: "in the prologue (erroneously imputed to a convict barrington, but believed to have been written by an officer) declared: `true patriots we, for be it understood we left our country for our country's good.'" patter, v. to eat. aboriginal word, and used in pigeon- english, given by collins in his vocabulary of the port jackson dialect. threlkeld says, ta is the root of the verb, meaning "to eat." . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. ii. c. vii. p. : "he himself did not patter (eat) any of it." patu, n. maori generic term for all hand-striking weapons. the mere (q.v.) is one kind. . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "it (fern-root) was soaked, roasted, and repeatedly beaten with a small club (patu) on a large smooth stone till it was supple." paua, n. the maori name for the mutton- fish (q.v.). also used as the name for maori fishhooks, made of the paua shell; the same word being adopted for fish, shell, and hook. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "paua, s. a shell-fish so called." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "pawa (haliotis iris), or mutton-fish. this beautiful shell is found of considerable size; it is used for the manufacture of fish-hooks." . ibid. p. : "the natives always tie a feather or two to their paua, or fish-hooks." . w. l. buller, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. x. art. xix. p. : "elaborately carved, and illuminated with paua shell." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "immense piles of paua shells (haliotis iris), heaped up just above the shore, show how largely these substantial molluscs were consumed." payable, adj. in australia, able to be worked at a profit: that which is likely to pay; not only, as in england, due for payment. . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "we . . . expect to strike a payable lead on a hill near . . . a shaft is bottomed there, and driving is commenced to find the bottom of the dip." . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "good payable stone has been struck." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "good payable reefs have been found and abandoned through ignorance of the methods necessary to obtain proper results." pea, coral, n. see coral pea. pea, darling, n. see darling pea. pea, desert, n. see sturt's desert pea. pea, flat, n. see flat pea. pea, glory, n. another name for the clianthus (q.v.). pea, heart, n. i.q. balloon-vine (q.v.). pea-plant, n. the term is applied sometimes to any one of various australian plants of the n.o. leguminosae. peach-berry, n. a tasmanian berry, lissanthe strigosa, smith, n.o. epacrideae. peach, native, n. another name for the quandong (q.v.), and for emu-apple (q.v.). . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings, p. : "the so-called native peach-tree of our desert tracts is a true santalum, s. acuminatum." peacocking, vb. n. australian slang. to peacock apiece of country means to pick out the eyes of the land by selecting or buying up the choice pieces and water-frontages, so that the adjoining territory is practically useless to any one else. . w. epps, `land systems of australasia,' p. : "when the immediate advent of selectors to a run became probable, the lessees endeavoured to circumvent them by dummying all the positions which offered the best means of blocking the selectors from getting to water. this system, commonly known as `peacocking' . . ." pear, native, name given to a timber-tree, xylomelum pyriforme, sm., n.o. proteaceae (called also wooden pear), and to hakea acicularis. see hakea. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "the pear-tree is, i believe, an eucalyptus, and bears a pear of solid wood, hard as heart of oak." [it is not a eucalypt.] pear, wooden, i.q. native pear. see above. pearl-perch, n. a rare marine fish of new south wales, excellent for food, glaucosoma scapulare, ramsay, family percidae. pedgery, n. i.q. pituri (q.v.). pee-wee, n. a new south wales name for the magpie-lark (q.v.). peg-out, v. tr. to mark out a gold-claim under the mining act, or a free-selection (q.v.) under the land act, by placing pegs at the corners of the land selected. used also metaphorically. . w. h. hall, `practical experiences at the diggings in victoria,' p. : "i selected an unoccupied spot between two holes . . . pegged out eight square feet, paid the licence fee." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "he was in high hopes that he might be one of the first to peg out ground on the goldfield." . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' c. iii. p. : "the pegging out, that is, the placing of four stout sticks, one at each corner, was easy enough." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "making their way to heemskirk, where they were the first to peg out land for ten." ibid. preface: "the writer . . . should be called on to defend his conduct in pegging out an additional section on the outskirts of the field of literature." pelican, n. english bird-name. the pelicans occur in nearly all temperate or tropical regions. the australian species is pelecanus conspicillatus, temm. . r. m. praed, `head station,' p. [title of chapter ]: "where the pelican builds her nest." penguin, n. common english bird-name. the species in australia are-- crested penguin-- catarractes chrysocome, lath. fairy p.-- eudyptula undina, gould. little p.-- e. minor, forst. for the new zealand species, see the quotation, and also korora. . professor parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "the penguins are characteristic southern hemisphere sea-birds, being represented in the northern by the puffins. they are flightless, but their wings are modified into powerful fins or flappers. among the most interesting forms are the following-- the king penguin, aptenodytes longirostris; rock hopper p., pygoscelis taeniatus; yellow-crowned p., eudyptes antipodum; crested p., e. pachyrhynchus; little blue p., e. minor and undina." pennyroyal, native, n. mentha gracilis, r. br., n.o. labiatae. much more acrid than the european species of mentha; but used widely as a herbal medicine. very common in all the colonies. see also mint. pepper, climbing, n. piper novae-hollandiae, miq., n.o. piperaceae. called also native pepper, and native pepper-vine. a tall plant climbing against trees in dense forests. peppermint, or peppermint-tree, n. a name given to various eucalypts, from the aromatic nature of their leaves or extracted essence. see quotation below from white, . there are many species, and various vernacular names, such as brown peppermint, dandenong p., narrow-leaved p., white p., etc. are given in various parts to the same species. see maiden's note on eucalyptus amygdalina, under gum. other vernacular names of different species are bastard-peppermint, peppermint-box, peppermint-gum. . j. white, `voyage to new south wales' (appendix by dr. smith or john hunter), pp. - : "the peppermint tree, eucalyptus piperita. . . . the name of peppermint-tree has been given to this plant by mr. white on account of the very great resemblance between the essential oil drawn from its leaves and that obtained from the peppermint (mentha piperita) which grows in england. this oil was found by mr. white to be much more efficacious in removing all cholicky complaints than that of the english peppermint, which he attributes to its being less pungent and more aromatic." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the peppermint, so called from the leaves imparting to the taste that flavour, grows everywhere throughout the island." . garnet walch, i head over heels,' p. : "well, mate, it's snug here by the logs that's peppermint--burns like a match." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "a woody gully filled with peppermint and stringy-bark trees." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "the peppermints rose like pillars, with funereal branches hung, where the dirge for the dead is chanted, and the mourning hymn is sung." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "down among the roots of a peppermint bush." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' : "it [eucalyptus capitella, smith] is one of the numerous `peppermints' of new south wales and victoria, and is noteworthy as being the first eucalypt so called, at any rate in print." pepper, native, i.q. climbing pepper (see above), piper novae-hollandiae, miq. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`native pepper.' an excellent tonic to the mucous membrane. . . . one of the largest native creepers, the root being at times from six inches to a foot in diameter. the plant climbs like ivy to the tops of the tallest trees, and when full-grown weighs many tons, so that a good supply of the drug is readily obtainable." pepper-tree, n. the name is given to two trees, neither of which are the true pepper of commerce (piper). they are-- ( ) schinus molle, which is a native of south america, of the cashew family, and is largely cultivated for ornament and shade in california, and in the suburbs and public parks and gardens of all australian towns where it has been naturalised. it is a very fast growing evergreen, with feathery leaves like a small palm or fern, drooping like a weeping willow. it flowers continuously, irrespective of season, and bears a cluster of red-berries or drupes, strongly pungent,-whence its name. ( ) the other tree is indigenous in australia and tasmania; it is drimys aromatica, f. v. m., formerly called tasmania aromatica, r. br., n.o. magnoliaceae. in new zealand the name is applied to drimys /corr./ axillaris, forst. (maori, horopito; q.v.). . `hobart town almanack,' p. : "a thick grove of the pepper-shrub, tasmania fragrans of smith. it grows in a close thicket to the height of from six to ten feet. when in blossom, in the spring months of november or december, the farina of the flower is so pungent, especially if shaken about by the feet of horses or cattle, that it is necessary to hold a handkerchief to the nose in order to avoid continual sneezing." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol. ii. p. : "we also found the aromatic tree, tasmania aromatica. . . . the leaves and bark of this tree have a hot, biting, cinnamon-like taste, on which account it is vulgarly called the pepper-tree." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "the handsome red-stemmed shrub known as native pepper. . . . something like cayenne and allspice mixed, . . . the aromatic flavour is very pleasant. i have known people who, having first adopted its use for want of other condiments, continue it from preference." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "bright green pepper-trees with their coral berries." peragale, n. the scientific name of the genus of australian marsupial animals called rabbit- bandicoots. see bandicoot. (grk. paera, a bag or wallet, and galae, a weasel.) perameles, n. scientific name for the typical genus of the family of australian marsupial animals called bandicoots (q.v.), or bandicoot-rats. the word is from latin pera (word borrowed from the greek), a bag or wallet, and meles (a word used by varro and pliny), a badger. perch, n. this english fish-name is applied with various epithets to many fishes in australia, some of the true family percidae, others of quite different families. these fishes have, moreover, other names attached to them in different localities. see black perch, fresh-water p., golden p., magpie p., murray p., pearl p., red p., red gurnet p., rock p., sea p., parrot fish, poddly, burramundi, mado, and bidyan ruffe. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "lates colonorum, the perch of the colonists . . , really a fresh-water fish, but . . . often brought to the sydney market from broken bay and other salt-water estuaries. . . . the perch of the ganges and other east indian rivers (l. calcarifer) enters freely into brackish water, and extends to the rivers of queensland." [see burramundi. l. colonorum is called the gippsland perch, in victoria.] . ibid. p. : "the other genus (chilodactylus) is also largely represented in tasmania and victoria, one species being commonly imported from hobart town in a smoked and dried state under the name of `perch.'" perish, doing a, modern slang from western australia. see quotation. . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "when a man (or party) has nearly died through want of water he is said to have `done a perish.'" perpetual lease, though a misnomer, is a statutory expression in new zealand. under the former land acts, the grantee of a perpetual lease took a term of thirty years, with a right of renewal at a revalued rent, subject to conditions as to improvement and cultivation, with a right to purchase the freehold after six years' occupation. perriwinkle, n. see quotation. the most popular form in melbourne is turbo undulatus, chemnitz. t. constricta is also called the native whelk. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish and fisheries of new south wales,' p. : "trochocochlea constricta, lam., is used as a substitute for the british perriwinkle, but it is only consumed to a very small extent." perth herring, i.q. sardine (q.v.), and see herring. petaurist, n. the general name for a flying-phalanger (q.v.), flying-opossum (q.v.), australian flying-squirrel (q.v.). (grk. petauristaes, a rope-dancer or tumbler). see petaurus. petauroides, n. a genus closely allied to petaurus (q.v.), containing only one species, the taguan flying-phalanger. petaurus, n. the scientific name given by shaw in to the australian genus of petaurists (q.v.), or so-called flying-squirrels (q.v.), or flying-phalangers (q.v.), or flying-opossums. the name was invented by zoologists out of petaurist. in greek, petauron was the perch or platform from which a "rope-dancer" stepped on to his rope. `l. & s.' say probably from pedauros, aeolic for meteowros, high in air. pething-pole, n. a harpoon-like weapon used for pething (pithing) cattle; that is, killing them by piercing the spinal cord (pith, or provincial peth). . p. clarke, `new chum in australia,' p. (`century'): "so up jumps tom on the bar overhead with a long pething-pole, like an abnormally long and heavy alpenstock, in his hand; he selects the beast to be killed, stands over it in breathless . . . silence, adjusts his point over the centre of the vertebra, and with one plunge sends the cruel point with unerring aim into the spinal cord." petrogale, n. the scientific name for a rock-wallaby (q.v.). the name was given by j. e. gray, in the `magazine of natural history' (vol. i. p. ), . (grk. petra, rock, and galae, a weasel.) pezoporus, n. scientific name of a genus of parrakeets peculiar to australia, of which one species only is known, p. formosus, the ground parrakeet, or swamp parrakeet. from grk. pezoporos, "going on foot." it differs from all the other psittaci in having a long hind toe like that of a lark, and is purely terrestrial in its habits. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. i. pl. : "pezoporus formosus, ill., ground-parrakeet; swamp-parrakeet, colonists of van diemen's land; ground-parrakeet, new south wales and western australia." phalanger, n. the scientific name for the animal called an opossum (q.v.) in australia, and including also the flying-squirrel (q.v.), and other marsupials. see also flying-phalanger. the word is sometimes used instead of opossum, where precise accuracy is desired, but its popular use in australia is rare. the phalangers are chiefly australian, but range as far as the celebes. the word is from the greek phalanx, one meaning of which is the bone between the joints of the fingers or toes. (the toes are more or less highly webbed in the phalanger.) . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' p. : "the cry of the night-bird, the rustle of the phalangers and the smaller marsupials, as they glided through the wiry frozen grass or climbed the clear stems of the eucalypti." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "a pair of the short-headed phalanger (belideus breviceps) occupy the next division." . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the second great family of the herbivorous diprotodont marsupials is typically represented by the creatures properly known as phalangers, which the colonists of australia persist in misnaming opossums. it includes however several other forms, such as the flying-phalangers [q.v.] and the koala [q.v.]." phascolarctus, n. the scientific name of the genus of the koala (q.v.) or native bear, of which there is only one species, p. cinereus. it is, of course, marsupial.(grk. phaskowlos, a leather apron, and 'arktos, a bear.) see bear. phascologale, n. contracted often to phascogale: the scientific name for the genus of little marsupials known as the kangaroo-mouse or pouched-mouse (q.v.). (grk. phaskowlos, a leather apron, and galae, a weasel.) "the pretty little animals belonging to the genus thus designated, range over the whole of australia and new guinea, together with the adjacent islands and are completely arboreal and insectivorous in their habits. the [popular] name of pouched-mouse is far from being free from objection, yet, since the scientific names of neither this genus nor the genus sminthopsis lend themselves readily for conversion into english, we are compelled to use the colonial designation as the vernacular names of both genera. . . . the largest of the thirteen known species does not exceed a common rat in size, while the majority are considerably smaller." (r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. .) . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the phascogales are small insectivorous animals found on the mountains and in the dense forest-parts of the island, and little is known of their habits." phascolome, and phascolomys, n. the first is the anglicised form of the second, which is the scientific name of the genus called by the aboriginal name of wombat (q.v.) (grk. phaskowlos = leathern bag, and mus = mouse.) phasmid, n. the name for the insects of the genus phasma (grk. phasma = an appearance), of the family phasmidae, curious insects not confined to australia, but very common there. the various species are known as leaf-insects, walking leaves, stick-caterpillars, walking-sticks, spectres, etc., from the extraordinary illusion with which they counterfeit the appearance of the twigs, branches, or leaves of the vegetation on which they settle. some have legs only, which they can hold crooked in the air to imitate twigs; others have wings like delicate leaves, or they are brilliant green and covered with thorns. they imitate not only the colour and form of the plant, but its action or motion when swayed slightly by the wind. . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "a span-long phasmid then he knew, stretching its fore-limbs like a branching twig." pheasant, n. this common english bird-name is applied in australia to two birds, viz.-- ( ) the lyre-bird (q.v.). ( ) the lowan (q.v.), and see turkey. for pheasant-fantail, see fantail. (before). australie, `from the clyde to braidwood,' quoted in `australian ballads and rhymes' (edition sladen, p. ): ". . . echoing notes of lyre-tailed pheasants, in their own rich notes, mocking the song of every forest-bird." . wanderer, `beauteous terrorist, etc., p. : "and have we no visions pleasant of the playful lyre-tail'd pheasant?" pheasant-cuckoo, n. another name for the coucal (q.v.), centropus phasianellus, gould. see also swamp-pheasant. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. vi. p. : "i shot over the island and enjoyed some very fair sport, especially with the pheasant-cuckoo." pheasant's mother, n. an old name of an australian bird. see orthonyx. . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "that remarkable little bird, the `pheasant's mother' of the colonists, or spine-tailed orthonyx (orthonyx spinicauda), about which also ornithologists have some difference of opinion respecting its situation in the natural system:' philander, n. an old scientific name, now abandoned, for certain species of the kangaroo family. the word was taken from the name of the explorer, philander de bruyn. see quotation. . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "aru island wallaby. macropus brunnii, cuvier ( ). didelphys brunnii, schreber ( ). . . distribution.-- aru and kei islands. this species has an especial interest as being the first member of the kangaroo-family known to europeans, specimens having been seen in the year by [philander de] bruyn living in the gardens of the dutch governor of batavia. they were originally described under the name of philander or filander." phormium, n. scientific name of the genus to which new zealand flax (p. tenax) belongs. see flax. (grk. phormion, dim. of phormos, anything plaited of reeds or rushes.) pialler, v. used as pigeon-english, especially in queensland and new south wales, in the sense of yabber, to speak. . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar,' p. : [as a barbarism] "piyaller, to speak." . r. m. praed, `head station,' p. : "hester seized the shrinking black and led him forward, wildly crying that she would `pialla' the great spirit, so that no evil should befall him." piccaninny, and pickaninny, n. a little child. the word is certainly not australian. it comes from the west indies (cuban piquinini, little, which is from the spanish pequeno, small, and nino, child). the english who came to australia, having heard the word applied to negro children elsewhere, applied it to the children of the aborigines. after a while english people thought the word was aboriginal australian, while the aborigines thought it was correct english. it is pigeon-english. . d'urfey's `don quixote,' pt. iii. c. v. p. (stanford): "dear pinkaninny [sic], if half a guiny to love wilt win ye." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "`i tumble down pickaninny here,' he said, meaning that he was born there." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "two women, one with a piccaninny at her back." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "bilge introduced several old warriors . . . adding always the number of piccaninies that each of them had." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "we can even trace words which the europeans have imported from the natives of other countries--for example picaninny, a child. this word is said to have come originally from the negroes of africa, through white immigrants. in america the children of negroes are called picaninny. when the white men came to australia, they applied this name to the children of the natives of this continent." piccaninny, used as adj. and figuratively, to mean little. . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the hut would be attacked before `piccaninny sun.'" [footnote]: "about daylight in the morning." . j. w. bull, `early life in south australia,' p. : [an englishman, speaking to blacks] "would produce from his pocket one of his pistols, and say, `picaninny gun, plenty more.'" pick-it-up, n. a boys' name for the diamond bird (q.v.). . g. a. keartland, `horne expedition in central australia,' part ii. zoology, aves, p. : "pardalotus ornatus and pardalotus affinis give forth a treble note which has secured for them the name of `pick-it-up' from our country boys." picnic, n. besides the ordinary meaning of this word, there is a slang australian use denoting an awkward adventure, an unpleasant experience, a troublesome job. in america the slang use is "an easy or agreeable thing." (`standard.') the australasian use is an ironical inversion of this. . modern: "if a man's horse is awkward and gives him trouble, he will say, `i had a picnic with that horse,' and so of any misadventure or disagreeable experience in travelling. so also of a troublesome business or other affair; a nursemaid, for instance, will say, `i had a nice picnic with miss nora's hair.'" picton herring, n. a name for several fishes when dried (like "kipper"), especially for the sea-mullet, or makawhiti or aua (q.v.) (maori names); and for the new south wales fish called maray (q.v.). pieman jolly-tail, n. see jolly-tail. pig-dog, n. a dog used in hunting wild pigs. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. ii. p. : "the pig-dogs are of rather a mongrel breed, partaking largely of the bull-dog, but mixed with the cross of mastiff and greyhound, which forms the new south wales kangaroo-dog" [q.v.] . r. gillies, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. x. art. xliii. p. : "a pig-dog of the bull-terrier breed." pigeon, n. the australian species are-- bronze-wing pigeon (q.v.)-- phaps chalcoptera, lath. brush bronze-wing p.-- p. elegans, temm. crested p.-- ocyphaps lophotes, temm. flock or harlequin bronze-wing (called also squatter, q.v.)-- phaps histrionica, gould. little-green p.-- chalcophaps chrysochlora, wagl. naked-eye partridge-p.-- geophaps smithii, jard. and selb. nutmeg p.-- carpophaga spilorrhoa, g. r. gray. partridge-p.-- geophaps scripta, temm. pheasant-tailed p.-- macropygia phasianella, temm. plumed p.-- lophophaps plumifera, gould. red-plumed pigeon-- lophophaps ferruginea, gould. [he gives vernacular "rust-coloured."] rock p.-- petrophassa albipennis, gould. top-knot p.-- lopholaimus antarcticus, shaw. white-bellied plumed p.-- lophophaps leucogaster, gould. wonga-wonga p. (q.v.)-- leucosarcia picata, lath. see also fruit-pigeon, harlequin pigeon, partridge-pigeon, torres straits pigeon. for new zealand pigeon, see kuku. pigeon-berry tree, n. i.q. native mulberry. see mulberry. pig-face, pig-faces, and pig's-face, or pig's-faces. names given to an indigenous "iceplant," mesembryanthemum aequilaterale, haw., n.o. ficoideae, deriving its generic name from the habit of expanding its flower about noon. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "mesembryanthemum aequilaterale, pig faces; called by the aborigines by the more elegant name of canagong. the pulp of the almost shapeless, but somewhat ob-conical, fleshy seed vessel of this plant, is sweetish and saline; it is about an inch and a half long, of a yellowish, reddish, or green colour." . mrs. meredith, `notes and sketches of new south wales,' p. : "great green mat-like plants of the pretty mesembryanthemum aequilaterale, or fig-marigold, adorned the hot sandy banks by the road-side. it bears a bright purple flower, and a five-sided fruit, called by the children `pig-faces.'" . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the pig's face is an extremely common production of the australian soil, growing like a thick and fleshy grass, with its three-sided leaf and star-shaped pink or purple flower, occupying usually a rocky or dry light soil." . c. w. schuermann, in `the native tribes of south australia,' p. : "though this country is almost entirely destitute of indigenous fruits of any value to an european, yet there are various kinds which form very valuable and extensive articles of food for the aborigines; the most abundant and important of these is the fruit of a species of cactus, very elegantly styled pig's-faces by the white people, but by the natives called karkalla. the size of the fruit is rather less than that of a walnut, and it has a thick skin of a pale reddish colour, by compressing which, the glutinous sweet substance inside slips into the mouth." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "pig-faces. it was the canajong of the tasmanian aboriginal. the fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: the leaves are eaten baked." pig-faced lady, n. an old name in tasmania for the boar-fish (q.v.). pig-fish, n. name given to the fish agriopus leucopaecilus, richards., in dunedin; called also the leather-jacket (q.v.). in sydney it is cossyphus unimaculatus, gunth., a wrasse, closely related to the blue-groper. in victoria, heterodontus phillipi, lacep., the port jackson shark. see shark. pig-footed bandicoot, n. name given to choeropus castanotis, gray, an animal about the size of a rabbit, belonging to the family peramelidae, which includes all the bandicoots. it lives in the sandy, dry interior of the continent, making a small nest for itself on the surface of the ground out of grass and twigs. the popular name is derived from the fact that in the fore-feet the second and third toes are alone well developed, the first and fifth being absent, and the fourth very rudimentary, so that the foot has a striking resemblance to that of a pig. see also bandicoot. . t. l. mitchell, `expeditions into eastern australia,' p. : "the feet, and especially the fore feet, were singularly formed, the latter resembling those of a hog." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' p. : "another peculiar form, the choeropus, or pig-footed bandicoot." pigmeater, n. a beast only fit for pigs to eat: one that will not fatten. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xiv. p. : "among them was a large proportion of bullocks, which declined with fiendish obstinacy to fatten. they were what are known by the stock-riders as `ragers' [q.v.] or `pig-meaters.'" . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "`pig-meaters!' exclaimed ernest; `what kind of cattle do you call those? do bullocks eat pigs in this country?' `no, but pigs eat them, and horses too, and a very good way of getting rid of rubbish.'" piharau, n. maori name for geotria chilensis, gray, a new zealand lamprey (q.v.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "we procured an abundant supply of piarau, a `lamprey,' which is taken in large numbers in this river, and some others in the neighbourhood, when the waters are swollen." pihoihoi, n. maori name for a new zealand bird, the ground-lark (q.v.). the word has five syllables. pike, n. name applied in australia and tasmania to two species of marine fish--sphyraena obtusata, cuv. and val.; s. novae-hollandiae; gunth. see also sea-pike. pilchard, n. the fish which visits the australian shores periodically, in shoals larger than the cornish shoals, is clupea sagax, jenyns, the same as the californian pilchard, and closely related to the english pilchard, which is clupea pilchardus. pilgrims, canterbury, n. the first settlers in canterbury, new zealand, were so called in allusion to the pilgrims to the shrine of st. thomas becket. chaucer's `canterbury tales' were told by such pilgrims. the name was given probably by mr. william lyon, who in wrote the `dream.' see quotation, . . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the `pilgrims,' as the first comers are always called. i like the name; it is so pretty and suggestive." . w. pratt, `colonial experiences or incidents of thirty-four years in new zealand,' p. : "in the `dream of a shagroon,' which bore the date ko matinau, april , and which first appeared in the `wellington spectator' of may , the term `pilgrim' was first applied to the settlers; it was also predicted in it that the `pilgrims' would be `smashed,' and the shagroons left in undisputed possession of the country for their flocks and herds." pilot-bird, n. this name is given to a sea-bird of the caribbean islands. in australia it is applied to pycnoptilus floccosus, gould. . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "here, close together, are eggs of the lyre-bird and the pilot-bird--the last very rare, and only found quite lately in the dandenong ranges, where the lyre-bird, too, has its home." pimelea, n. scientific name for a large genus of shrubs or herbs, n.o. thymeleaceae. there are over seventy species, all confined to australia and new zealand. they bear terminal or axillary clusters of white, rose, or yellow flowers, and being very beautiful plants, are frequently cultivated in conservatories. a gardener's name for some of the species is rice-flower. several of the species, especially p. axiflora, f. v. m., yield excellent fibre, and are among the plants called kurrajong (q.v.); another name is toughbark. for etymology, see quotation, . . j. e. smith, `specimen of botany of new holland,' p. : "gaertner . . . adopted the name of pimelea from the manuscripts of dr. solander. it is derived from pimelae, fat, but is rather a pleasantly sounding than a very apt denomination, unless there may be anything oily in the recent fruit." pimlico, n. another name for the friar-bird (q.v.). pin-bush, n. i.q. needle-bush (q.v.) pinch-out, v. to thin out and disappear (of gold-bearing). this use is given in the `standard,' but without quotations; it may be american. w. `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "sometimes to tons of payable quartz would be raised from one of these so-called reefs, when they would pinch out, and it would be found that they were unconnected with other leaders or veins." pine, n. the pines are widely distributed in australasia, and include some of the noblest species. the name, with various epithets, is given to a few other trees besides those of the natural order coniferae,; the following is a list of the various pines in australasia. they belong to the natural order coniferae,, unless otherwise indicated-- black pine-- frenela endlicheri, parlat. irenela robusta,a. cunn. (of otago)-- podocarpus ferruginea,don.; maori name, miro (q.v.).; p. spicata, r. br.; maori name, mai, or matai (q.v.). celery-topped p. (q.v.)-- (in australia)-- phyllocladus rhomboidalis, rich. (in new zealand)-- p. trichomanoides, don.; maori name, tanekaha (q.v.); p. glauca, and p. alpinus; maori name, toatoa, and often also called tanekaha. colonial p.-- araucaria cunninghamii, ait. common p.-- frenela robusta, a. cunn. cypress p.-- frenela endlicheri, parlat. f. rhomboidea, endl. f. robusta (var. microcarpa), a. cunn. f. robusta (var. verrucosa), a. cunn. dark p.-- (in western new south wales)-- frenela robusta, a. cunn. dundathu p.-- dammara robusta, f. v. m. hoop p.-- araucaria cunninghamii, ait. huon p. (q.v.)-- dacrydium franklinii, hook. illawarra mountain p.-- frenela rhomboidea, endl. kauri p. (q.v.) agathis australis, salis. lachlan p.-- frenela robusta, a. cunn. light p.-- (of western new south wales)-- frenela rhomboidea, endl. macquarie p.-- dacrydium franklinii, hook. mahogany pine-- podocarpus totara, a. cunn.; maori name, totara, (q.v.). moreton bay p.-- araucaria cunninghamii, ait. mountain cypress p.-- frenela parlatorii, f. v. m. murray p.-- frenela endlicheri, parlat. murrumbidgee p.-- frenela robusta, a. cunn. new caledonian p.-- (of new caledonia and the new hebrides)-- araucaria cookii, cook. norfolk island p.-- araucaria excelsa, hook. oyster bay p. (q.v.)-- (in tasmania)-- frenela rhomboidea, endl. port macquarie p.-- frenela macleayana, parlat. prickly p.-- (in queensland)-- flindersia maculosa, f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae; called also leopard tree (q.v.). queensland kauri p.-- dammara robusta, f. v. m. red p.-- (in australia)-- frenela endlicheri, parlat. (in new zealand)-- dacrydium cupressinum, soland; called also rimu (q.v.). rock p.-- (in western new south wales)-- frenela robusta (var. verrucosa), a. cunn. screw p.-- pandanus odoratissimus, linn., n.o. pandaneae; not endemic in australia. scrub p.-- frenela endlicheri, parlat. she p.-- (in queensland)-- podocarpus elata, r. br. silver p.-- dacrydium colensoi, hook.; i.q. yellow pine. stringy bark p.-- frenela parlatorei, f. v. m. toatoa p.-- phyllocladus alpinus, hook.; maori name, toatoa (q.v.). white p.-- (in australia)-- frenela robusta, a. cunn. f. robusta (var. microcarpa), a. cunn. podocarpus elata, r. br. (in new zealand)-- p. dacryoides, a. rich.; maori name, kahikatea (q.v.). yellow p.-- dacrydium colensoi, hook.; maori name, manoao (q.v.). . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' p. : "the green forest . . . comprises myrtle, sassafras, celery-top pine, with a little stringy-bark." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol- i. p. . "on the little hill beside the river hung pines (callitris pyramidalis) in great abundance." piner, n. in tasmania, a man employed in cutting huon pine. . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "the king river is only navigable for small craft . . . piners' boats sometimes get in." pinkwood, n. a name for a tasmanian wood of a pale reddish mahogany colour, eucryphia billardieri, sparrm., n.o. saxifrageae,, and peculiar to tasmania; also called leatherwood; and for the wallaby- bush, beyera viscosa, miq., n.o. euphorbiaceae, common to all the colonies of australasia. piopio, n. maori name for a thrush of new zealand, turnagra crassirostris, gmel. see thrush. pipe, n. an obsolete word, explained in quotations. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "these were the days of `pipes.' certain supposed home truths . . . were indited in clear and legible letters on a piece of paper which was then rolled up in the form of a pipe, and being held together by twisting at one end was found at the door of the person intended to be instructed on its first opening in the morning." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "malice or humour in the early days expressed itself in what were called pipes--a ditty either taught by repetition or circulated on scraps of paper: the offences of official men were thus hitched into rhyme. these pipes were a substitute for the newspaper, and the fear of satire checked the haughtiness of power." pipe-fish, n. common fishname. the species present in australia and new zealand is ichthyocampus filum, gunth., family syngnathidae, or pipe-fishes. piper, n. an auckland name for the garfish (q.v.). the name is applied to other fishes in the northern hemisphere. . hutton and hector, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "angling for garfish in auckland harbour, where it is known as the piper, is graphically described in `the field,' london, nov. , . . . . the pipers are `just awfu' cannibals,' and you will be often informed on auckland wharf that `pipers is deeth on piper.'" pipi, n. maori name of a shellfish, sometimes (erroneously) called the cockle, mezodesma novae-zelandiae. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "pipi, s. a cockle." . j. l.campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "with most deliciously cooked kumeras, potatoes and peppies" [sic]. ibid. p. : "the dernier ressort--fern-root, flavoured with fish and pippies." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "each female is busily employed in scraping the potatoes thoroughly with pipi-shells." piping-crow, n. name applied sometimes to the magpie (q.v.). . `voyage to port phillip,' etc., p. : "the warbling melops and the piping crow, the merry forest fill with joyous song." pipit, n. another name for ground-lark (q.v.). pitau, n. maori name for the tree-fern. in maori, the word means--( ) soft, tender, young shoots. the verb pihi means "begin to grow"; pi means "young of birds," also "the flow of the tide." ( ) centre-fronds of a fern. ( ) name of a large fern. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "the pitau, or tree-ferns, growing like a palm-tree, form a distinguishing ornament of the new zealand forest." pitchi, n. name given to a wooden receptacle hollowed out of a solid block of some tree, such as the batswing coral (erythrina vespertio), or mulga (acacia aneura), and carried by native women in various parts of australia for the purpose of collecting food in, such as grass seed or bulbs, and sometimes for carrying infants. the shape and size varies much, and the more concave ones are used for carrying water in. the origin of the word is obscure; some think it aboriginal, others think it a corruption of the english word pitcher. . e. c. stirling, `home expedition in central australia, anthropology, pt. iv. p. : "i do not know the origin of the name `pitchi,' which is in general use by the whites of the parts traversed by the expedition, for the wooden vessels used for carrying food and water and, occasionally, infants." pitta, n. the name is telugu for the indian ant-thrush; a few species are confined to australia; they are-- blue-breasted pitta-- pitta macklotii, mull. and schleg. noisy p.-- p. strepitans, temm. rainbow p.-- p. iris, gould. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "pitta strepitans, temm., noisy pitta. there are also rainbow pitta, pitta iris, and vigor's pitta, p. macklotii. . j. gould, `birds of australia' (supplement): "pitta macklotii, mull. and schleg." pittosporum, n. a genus of plants so called from the viscous pulp which envelops the seeds. (grk. pitta, pitch, and sporos, seed.) there are about fifty species, which are found in africa and asia, but chiefly in australasia. they are handsome evergreen shrubs, and some grow to a great height; the white flowers, being very fragrant, have been sometimes likened to orangeblossoms, and the rich evergreen leaves obtain for some of them the name of laurels. they are widely cultivated in the suburbs of cities as ornamental hedges. see mock-orange, hedge-laurel, native laurel, etc. pituri, or pitchery, n. native name for duboisia hopwoodii, f. v. m., a shrub growing in the sand-hills of certain districts of queensland, new south wales, and central australia. the leaves are chewed as a narcotic by the natives of many parts, and form a valuable commodity of barter. in some parts of central australia the leaf is not chewed, but is only used for the purpose of making a decoction which has the power of stupefying emus, which under its influence are easily captured by the natives. other spellings are pitchiri, pedgery, and bedgery. perhaps from betcheri, another form of boodjerrie, good, expressing the excellent qualities of the plant. compare budgerigar. . `proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' april, p. : "`pitcherry,' a narcotic plant brought by king, the explorer, from the interior of australia, where it is used by the natives to produce intoxication. . . . in appearance it resembled the stem and leaves of a small plant partly rubbed into a coarse powder. . . . on one occasion mr. king swallowed a small pinch of the powder, and described its effects as being almost identical with those produced by a large quantity of spirits." . f. m. bailey,' synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "pitury of the natives. the leaves are used by the natives of central australia to poison emus, and is chewed by the natives as the white man does the tobacco." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. : "in one part of central australia the leaves and twigs of a shrub called pidgery by the natives are dried and preserved in closely woven bags. . . . a small quantity has an exhilarating effect, and pidgery was highly prized." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the leaves contain a stimulant, which possesses qualities similar to those of tobacco and opium, and are chewed by several tribes in the interior of australia. pituri is highly valued as a stimulant, and is taken for barter far and wide." . a. s. vogan, `black police,' p. : "one of the virtues that the native drug pitchurie is supposed to possess when used by the old men is the opening up of this past life, giving them the power and perquisites of seers." . mr. purcell, `lecture before geographical society, sydney,' jan.: "mr. purcell had travelled over nearly the whole of queensland, and had only seen the plant growing in a very limited area west of the mullyan river, th meridian of east long., and on the ranges between the rd and th parallel of south latitude. he had often questioned the darling blacks about it, and they always replied by pointing towards the north west. the blacks never, if they could possibly help it, allowed white men to see the plant. he himself had not been allowed to see it until he had been initiated into some of the peculiar rites of the aborigines. mr. purcell showed what he called the pitchery letter, which consisted of a piece of wood covered with cabalistic marks. this letter was given to a pitchery ambassador, and was to signify that he was going to the pitchery country, and must bring back the amount of pitchery indicated on the stick. the talisman was a sure passport, and wherever he went no man molested the bearer. this pitchery was by no means plentiful. it grew in small clumps on the top of sandy ridges, and would not grow on the richer soil beneath. this convinced him that it never grew in any other country than australia. the plant was cooked by being placed in an excavation in which a fire had been burning. it then became light and ready for transport. as to its use in the form of snuff, it was an excellent remedy for headaches, and chewed it stopped all craving for food. it had been used with success in violent cases of neuralgia, and in asthma also it had proved very successful. with regard to its sustaining properties, mr. purcell mentioned the case of a blackboy who had travelled miles in two days, with no other sustenance than a chew of pitchery." pivot city, the, a nickname for geelong. . w. kelly, `life in victoria,' vol. i. p. [footnote]: "the pivot city is a sobriquet invented by the citizens to symbolize it as the point on which the fortunes of the colony would culminate and revolve. they also invented several other original terms--a phraseology christened by the melbourne press as the geelongese dialect." piwakawaka, n. maori name for the pied fantail (rhipidura flabellifera, gray). . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "piwakawaka, or tirakaraka. this restless little bird is continually on the wing, or hopping from twig to twig." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "piwakawaka, tirakaraka, the fantailed fly-catcher, a pretty, restless, lively bird; very sociable, and fond of displaying its beautiful little fan-tail. it has a head like the bullfinch, with one black-and-white streak under the neck coming to a point in the centre of the throat. wings very sharp and pointed. it is very quick and expert in catching flies, and is a great favourite, as it usually follows the steps of man. it was sacred to maui." . a. reischek, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. art. xviii. p. : "rhipidura--fantail (piwakawaka). every one admires the two species of these fly-catchers, and their graceful evolutions in catching their prey." . c. colenso, `transactions of the new zealand institute: bush notes,' vol. xxiii. art. lvii. p. : "during this extended visit of mine to the woods, i have noticed the piwakawaka, or fly-catcher (rhipidura flabellifera). this interesting little flycatcher, with its monotonous short cry, always seems to prefer making the acquaintance of man in the forest solitudes." . w. s.roberts, `southland in ,' p. : "the pied fantail, piwakawaka (rhipidura flabellifera) is the best flycatcher new zealand possesses, but it will not live in confinement. it is always flitting about with broadly expanded tail in pursuit of flies. it frequently enters a house and soon clears a room of flies, but if shut in all night it frets itself to death before morning." plain, n. in australian use, the word not only implies flatness, but treelessness. . edward curr, `account of the colony of van diemen's land,' p. : "the district called macquarie plains, the greater part of which rises into hills of moderate height, with open and fertile valleys interspersed, while the plains bear a strong resemblance to what are called sheep downs in england." . t. l. mitchell, `tropical australia,' p. : "the country was grassy, and so open as almost to deserve the colonial name of `plain.'" . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "squatters who look after their own runs always live in the bush, even though their sheep are pastured on plains." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "one day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick brushwood. the australian cassowary is found in northern queensland from herbert river northwards, in all the large vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers, and on the high mountains of the coasts." plain currant, n. a wild fruit, grewia polygama, roxb., n.o. tiliaceae. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "i found a great quantity of ripe grewia seeds, and on eating many of them, it struck me that their slightly acidulous taste, if imparted to water, would make a very good drink; i therefore . . . boiled them for about an hour; the beverage . . . was the best we had tasted on our expedition." plain wanderer, n. an australian bird, pedionomus torquatus, gould. plant, v. tr. and n. common in australia for to hide, and for the thing hidden away. as remarked in the quotations, the word is thieves' english. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "a number of the slang phrases current in st. giles's greek bid fair to become legitimatized in the dictionary of this colony: plant, swag, pulling up, and other epithets of the tom and jerry school, are established-- the dross passing here as genuine, even among all ranks." . letter by mrs. perry, given in `canon goodman's church in victoria during the episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : ". . . shady creek, where he `planted' some tea and sugar for his brother on his return. do you know what `planting' is? it is hiding the tea, or whatever it may be, in the hollow of a tree, or branch, or stone, where no one is likely to find it, but the one for whom it is meant." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "some refreshments planted there for us by the major--for that is the colonial phrase, borrowed from the slang of london burglars and thieves, for any article sent forward or left behind for consumption in spots only indicated to those concerned--after the manner of the ca^ches of the french canadian trappers on the american prairies. to `spring' a plant is to discover and pillage it." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the way he could hide, or, as it is called in the bush, `plant' himself, was something wonderful." . cassell's' picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "the gold had not been handed over to the commissioner at all, but was planted somewhere in the tent." . `the age,' may , p. , col. : "a panic-smitten lady plants her money." [title of short article giving an account of an old lady during the bank panic concealing her money in the ground and being unable to find it.] plantain, native, an australian fodder plant, plantago varia, r. br., n.o. plantagineae. plant-caterpillar, n. name given in australasia to species of caterpillars which are attacked by spores of certain fungi; when chrysalating in the earth the fungus grows inside the body of the caterpillar, kills the latter, and then forces its way out between the head joints, and sends an upgrowth which projects beyond the surface of the ground and gives rise to fresh spores. many examples are known, of which the more common are--cordyceps robertsii, hook., in new zealand; cordyceps gunnii, berk, in tasmania; cordyceps taylori, berk, in australia. see aweto. . m. c. cooke, `vegetable wasps and plant worms,' p. : "the new zealanders' name for this plant-caterpillar is `hotete,' `aweto,' `weri,' and `anuhe.'. . the interior of the insect becomes completely filled by the inner plant, orthallus (mycelium): after which the growing head of the outer plant or fungus, passing to a state of maturity, usually forces its way out through the tissue of the joint between the head and the first segment of the thorax . . . it is stated that this caterpillar settles head upward to undergo its change, when the vegetable developes /sic/ itself." planter, n. a cattle-thief, so called from hiding the stolen cattle. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xxv. p. : "what's a little money . . . if your children grow up duffers [sc. cattle-duffers, q.v.] and planters?" platycercus, n. scientific name of a genus of parrakeets, represented by many species. the word is from the shape of the tail. (grk. platus, broad, and kerkos, tail.) the genus is distributed from the malay archipelago to the islands of the pacific. the name was first given by vigors and horsfield in . see parrakeet and rosella. platypus, n. a remarkable monotreme (q.v.), in shape like a mole, with a bill like a duck. hence its other names of duck-bill or duck-mole. it has received various names--platypus anatinus, duck-billed platypus, ornithorhynchus, ornithorhynchus paradoxus, paradoxus, water-mole, etc. (grk. platus = broad, pous = foot, 'ornithos = of a bird, runchos = beak or bill.) the name platypus is now the name by which it is always popularly known in australia, but see quotation from lydekker below ( ). from the british museum catalogue of marsupials and monotremes ( ), it will be found that the name platypus, given by shaw in , had been preoccupied as applied to a beetle by herbst in . it was therefore replaced, in scientific nomenclature, by the name ornithorhynchus, by blumenbach in . in view of the various names, vernacular and scientific, under which it is mentioned by different writers, all quotations referring to it are placed under this word, platypus. the habits and description of the animal appear in those quotations. from to the platypus figured on five of the postage stamps of tasmania. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. xi. p. : "this animal, which has obtained the name of ornithorhynchus paradoxus, is still very little known." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : [list of engravings.] "ornithorhynchus paradoxus." [at p. ]: "ornithorhynchus (an amphibious animal of the mole kind)." . g. shaw, `zoological lecturer,' vol. i. p. : "this genus, which at present consists but of a single species and its supposed varieties, is distinguished by the title of platypus or ornithorhynchus. . . its english generic name of duckbill is that by which it is commonly known." . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "in the reaches or pools of the campbell river, the very curious animal called the paradox, or watermole, is seen in great numbers." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "i cannot omit to mention likewise the ornithorynchus, that remarkable animal which forms a link between the bird and beast, having a bill like a duck and paws webbed similar to that bird, but legs and body like those of a quadruped, covered with thick coarse hair, with a broad tail to steer by." . c. darwin, `naturalist's voyage,' c. xix. p. : "had the good fortune to see several of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus. . . . certainly it is a most extraordinary animal; a stuffed specimen does not at all give a good idea of the appearance of the head and beak when fresh, the latter becoming hard and contracted." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the specimen which has excited the greatest astonishment is the ornithorynchus paradoxus, which, fitted by a series of contrivances to live equally well in both elements, unites in itself the habits and appearance of a bird, a quadruped, and a reptile." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "platypus, water-mole or duckbill." . g.bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the ornithorhynchus is known to the colonists by the nme of the watermole, from some resemblance which it is supposed to bear to the common european mole (talpa europoea, linn.)" . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "when first a preserved skin was sent to england, it excited great distrust, being considered a fraud upon the naturalist. . . it was first described and figured by shaw in the year , in the `naturalist's miscellany,' vol. x., by the name of platypus anatinus, or duck-billed platypus, and it was noticed in collins's `new south wales' nd ed. [should be vol. ii. not nd ed.], to. p. , , where it is named ornithorhyncus paradoxus, blum. . . there is a rude figure given of this animal in collins's work." . marcus clarke, `memorial volume,' p. : "the platypus club is in camomile street, and the platypi are very haughty persons." . `victorian statutes--the game act' (third schedule): [close season.] "platypus. the whole year." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "in the dee river . . . i observed several times the remarkable platypus (ornithorhynchus anatinus) swimming rapidly about after the small water-insects and vegetable particles which constitute its food. it shows only a part of its back above water, and is so quick in its movements that it frequently dives under water before the shot can reach it." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "in the next division the platypus and its burrows are shown. these curious oviparous animals commence their long burrows under water, and work upwards into dry ground. the nest is constructed in a little chamber made of dry leaves and grass, and is very warm and comfortable; there is a second entrance on dry ground. the young are found in the months of september and october, but occasionally either a little earlier or later; generally two or three at a time." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "the platypus is covered with fur like an otter, and has four webbed feet, like those of a duck, and a black duck-like bill. it makes a burrow in a river bank, but with an opening below the level of the water. it swims and dives in quiet shady river-bends, and disappears on hearing the least noise." . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the duck-bill was originally described under the name of platypus anatinus, which was anglicised into duck-billed platypus, but since the generic name [platypus] had been previously employed for another group of animals, it had, by the rules of zoological nomenclature, to give place to the later ornithorhynchus, although shaw's specific name ofanatina still holds good. on these grounds it is likewise preferable to discard the anglicised term duck-billed platypus in favour of the simpler duck-bill or duck-mole." [mr. lydekker is a scientific englishman, who has not lived in australia, and although the names of duck-bill and duck-mole are perhaps preferable for more exact scientific use, yet by long usage the name platypus has become the ordinary vernacular name, and is the one by which the animal will always be known in australian popular language.] plover, n. the bird called the plover exists all over the world. the species present in australia are-- black-breasted plover-- sarciophorus pectoralis, cuv. golden p.-- charadrius fulvus, gmel. grey p.-- c. helveticus, linn. long-billed stone p.-- esacus magnirostris, geoff. masked p.-- lobivanellus personatus, gould. spur-winged p.-- lobivanellus lobatus, lath. stone p.-- oedicnemus grallarius, lath. and in new zealand--red-breasted plover, charadrius obscurus, gmel. (maori name, tututuriwhata); crook-billed, anarhynchus frontalis, quoy and gaim. the authorities vary in the vernacular names and in the scientific classification. see also sand-plover and wry-billed-plover. plum, n. sometimes called acacia plum, a timber tree, eucryphia moorei, f. v. m., n.o. saxifrageae; called also acacia and "white sally." plum, black, n. the fruit of the tree cargillia australis, r. br., n.o. ebenaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the fruits are of the size of a large plum and of a dark purple colour. they are eaten by the aboriginals." plum, burdekin, or sweet plum, n. a timber tree, spondias pleiogyna, f. v. m., n.o. anacardiaceae. wood like american walnut. plum, grey, n. ( ) a timber-tree. one of the names for cargillia pentamera, f. v. m., n.o. ebenaceae. wood used for tool-handles. ( ) provincial name for the caper-tree (q.v.). plum, native, or wild plum, n. another name for the brush-apple. see apple. the native plum, peculiar to tasmania, and called also port-arthur plum, is cenarrhenes nitida, lab., n.o. proteaceae. plum, queensland, n. i.q. sweet plum (q.v. infra). plum, sour, n. another name for emu-apple (q.v.). plum, sweet, n. a wild fruit, owenia venosa, f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "queensland plum, sweet plum. this plant bears a fine juicy red fruit with a large stone. . . . it is both palatable and refreshing." plum, white, n. local name for acacia (q.v.). plum, wild, n. i.q. native plum (q.v.). plum-tree, n. the tree, buchanania mangoides, f. v. m., n.o. anacardiaceae. podargus, n. scientific name of a genus of australian birds, called the frogsmouth (q.v.) and mopoke. from grk. podargos, swift or white-footed. (hector's horse in the `iliad' was named podargus.--`il.' viii. .) . `victorian statutes-game act' (third schedule): [close season.] "podargus or mopokes, the whole year." poddly, n. a new zealand and australian fish, sebastes percoides, richards.; called in victoria red-gurnet perch. the name is applied in england to a different fish. . hutton and hector, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "the pohuia-karou is the proper sea-perch of these waters, that name having been applied by mistake to a small wrasse, which is generally called the spotty or poddly." poddy, n. a victorian name for the sand-mullet. see mullet. poe, n. same as tui (q.v.) and parson-bird (q.v.). the name, which was not the maori name, did not endure. ] . cook's' voyage towards the south pole and round the world' [ nd voyage], vol. i. pp. , : "amongst the small birds i must not omit to particularise the wattlebird, poy-bird. . . . the poy-bird is less than the wattle-bird; the feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except those of its neck, which are of a most beautiful silver-grey. . . . under its throat hang two little tufts of curled snow-white feathers, called its poies, which being the otaheitean word for ear-rings occasioned our giving that name to the bird, which is not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for the sweetness of its note." [in the illustration given it is spelt poe-bird, and in the list of plates it is spelt poi.] . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. i. p. : "this bird they called the wattlebird, and also the poy-bird, from its having little tufts of curled hair under its throat, which they called poies, from the otaheitan word for ear-rings. the sweetness of this bird's note they described as extraordinary, and that its flesh was delicious, but that it was a shame to kill it." pohutukawa, n. maori name for a magnificent new zealand tree, metrosideros tomentosa, a. cunn., n.o. myrtaceae, called christmas-tree and fire-tree by the settlers. there is a maori verb, pohutu, to splash. kawa (n.) is a sprig of any kind used in religious ceremonies; the name would thus mean splashed sprig. the wood of the tree is very durable, and a concoction of the inner bark is useful in dysentery. . w. yate, `some account of new zealand,' p. : "pohutukawa (callistemon ellipticus). this is a tree of remarkably robust habits and diffuse irregular growth." . g. grey, `polynesian mythology,' p. : "on arrival of arawa canoe, the red flowers of the pohutakawa were substituted for the red ornaments in the hair." . `all the year round,' `from the black rocks on friday,' may , , no. : "in the clefts of the rocks were growing shrubs, with here and there the larger growth of a pohutukawa, a large crooked-limbed evergreen tree found in new zealand, and bearing, about christmas, a most beautiful crimson bloom. the boat-builders in new zealand use the crooked limbs of this tree for the knees and elbows of their boats." . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "pohutukawa for knees, ribs, and bent-pieces, invaluable to ship-builder. it surpasses english oak. confined to province of auckland." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the pohutukawa-tree (metrosideros tomentosa) requires an exposed situation . . . is crooked, misshapen. . . . the natives speak of it (the timber) as very durable." . j. a. fronde, `oceana,' p. : "low down on the shore the graceful native pokutukawa [sic] was left undisturbed, the finest of the rata tribe--at a distance like an ilex, only larger than any ilex i ever saw, the branches twisted into the most fantastic shapes, stretching out till their weight bears them to the ground or to the water. pokutukawa, in maori language, means `dipped in the sea-spray.' in spring and summer it bears a brilliant crimson flower." pointers, n. two of the bullocks in a team. see quotation. . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "twelve bullocks is the usual number in a team, the two polers and the leaders being steady old stagers; the pair next to the pole are called the `pointers,' and are also required to be pretty steady, the remainder being called the `body bullocks,' and it is not necessary to be so particular about their being thoroughly broken in." poison-berry tree, n. pittosporum phillyroides, de c., n.o. pittosporeae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "butter-bush of northern australia; willow-tree of york peninsula; native willow, poison-berry tree (south australia). the berries are not poisonous--only bitter." poison-bush, n. name given to a genus of poisonous australian shrubs, gastrolobium (q.v.). out of the thirty-three described species of the genus gastrolobium, only one is found out of western australia; g. grandiflorum, f. v. m., is the poison-bush of the queensland interior and of central australia. the name is also given to swainsonia greyana, lindl., n.o. leguminosae. the darling-pea (q.v.), or indigo-plant (q.v.), has similar poisonous effects to the gastrolobium. these species of gastrolobium go under the various names of desert poison-bush, york-road poison-bush, wallflower; and the names of ellangowan poison-bush (queensland), and dogswood poison-bush (new south wales), are given to myoporum deserti, a. cunn., n.o. myoporineae, while another plant, trema aspera, blume., n.o. urticaceae, is called peach-leaved poison-bush. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "these plants are dangerous to stock, and are hence called `poison bushes.' large numbers of cattle are lost annually in western australia through eating them. the finest and strongest animals are the first victims; a difficulty of breathing is perceptible for a few minutes, when they stagger, drop down, and all is over with them. . . . it appears to be that the poison enters the circulation, and altogether stops the action of the lungs and heart." ibid. p. : "this plant [s. greyana] is reported to cause madness, if not death itself, to horses. the poison seems to act on the brain, for animals affected by it refuse to cross even a small twig lying in their path, probably imagining it to be a great log. sometimes the poor creatures attempt to climb trees, or commit other eccentricities." poison-tree, or poisonous tree, n. another name for the milky mangrove. see mangrove. the scrub poison-tree is exsaecaria dallachyana, baill., n.o. euphorbiaceae. pomegranate, native, n. another name for the caper-tree(q.v.). pomegranate, small native, n. another name for the native orange. see orange. pongo, n. aboriginal name for the flying-squirrel (q.v.). . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "then an old 'possum would sing out, or a black-furred flying-squirrel--pongos, the blacks call `em--would come sailing down from the top of an ironbark tree, with all his stern sails spread, as the sailors say, and into the branches of another, looking as big as an eagle-hawk." poor-soldier, or soldier-bird (q.v.), n. another name for the friar-bird (q.v.), and so named from its cry. poplar, n. in queensland, a timber-tree, carumbium populifolium, reinw., n.o. euphorbiaceae. in central australia, the radish-tree (q.v.). poplar-box, n. see box. poplar-leaved gum, n. see gum. porangi, adj. maori word for sad, sorry, or sick; cranky. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the combatants . . . took especial pains to tell us that it was no fault of ours, but the porangi or `foolishness' of the maori." ibid. vol. ii. p. : "watanui said e abu was porangi, `a fool.'" . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "`twas nothing--he was not to mind her--she was foolish--was `porangi'--and would be better directly--and her tears she dried." . r. c. barstow, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xv. art. liii. p. : "a man who told such marvellous stories that he was deemed to be porangi or insane." porcupine, ant-eating, i.q. echidna (q.v.). porcupine-bird, n. a bird inhabiting the porcupine-grass (q.v.) of central australia; the striated grass wren, amytis striata, gould. see wren. . g. a. keartland, `horne expedition in central australia,' part ii. zoology, aves, p. : "amytis striata, gould. striated wren. . . . they are found almost throughout central australia wherever the porcupine grass abounds, so much so, that they are generally known as the `porcupine bird.'" porcupine-fish, n. name given to several species of the genus diodon, family gymnodontes, poisonous fishes; also to dicotylichthys punctulatus, kaup., an allied fish n which the spines are not erectile as in diodon, but are stiff and immovable. chilomycterus jaculiferus, cuv., another species, has also stiff spines, and atopomycterus nycthemerus, cuv., has erectile spines. see toad-fish and globe-fish. porcupine-grass, n. the name given to certain species of triodia, of which the more important are t. mitchelli, benth., t. pungens, r. br., and t. irritans, r. br. this grass forms rounded tussocks, growing especially on the sand-hills of the desert parts of australia, which may reach the size of nine or ten feet in diameter. the leaves when dry form stiff, sharp-pointed structures, which radiate in all directions, like knitting-needles stuck in a huge pincushion. in the writings of the early australian explorers it is usually, but erroneously, called spinifex (q.v.). the aborigines collect the resinous material on the leaves of t. pungens, and use it for various purposes, such as that of attaching pieces of flint to the ends of their yam-sticks and spear-throwers. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "it [triodia] grows in tufts like large beehives, or piles of thrift grass, and the leaves project out rigidly in all directions, just like chevaux-de-frise. merely brushing by will cause the points to strike into the limbs, and a very short walk in such country soon covers the legs with blood. . . . unfortunately two or three species of it extend throughout the whole continent, and form a part of the descriptions in the journal of every explorer." (before). p. j. holdsworth, `station-hunting on the warrego,' quoted in `australian ballads and rhymes' (ed. sladen), p. : "throughout that night, cool dews came sallying on that rain-starved land, and drenched the thick rough tufts of bristly grass, which, stemmed like quills (and thence termed porcupine), thrust hardily their shoots amid the flints and sharp-edged stones." . e. giles, `australia twice traversed,' vol. i. p. : "no porcupine, but real green grass made up a really pretty picture, to the explorer at least." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "these were covered with spinifex, or porcupine-grass, the leaves of which are needle-pointed." . r. tate, `horne expedition in central australia,' botany, p. : "in the larapintine region . . . a species of triodia (`porcupine grass' or, incorrectly, `spinifex' of explorers and residents) dominates sand ground and the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands." porcupine-grass ant, n. popular name given to hypoclinea flavipes, kirby, an ant making its nest round the root of the porcupine grass (triodia pungens), and often covering the leaves of the tussock with tunnels of sandgrains fastened together by resinous material derived from the surface of the leaves. . baldwin spencer, `home expedition in central australia.' "watching the porcupine-grass ants, which are very small and black bodies with yellowish feet, i saw them constantly running in and out of these chambers, and on opening the latter found that they were always built over two or more coccidae attached to the leaf of the grass." porcupine-parrot, n. see quotation. . g. a. keartland, `report of the horne expedition in central australia,' part ii. zoology, aves, p. : "geopsittacus occidentalis. western ground parrakeet. . . . as they frequent the dense porcupine grass, in which they hide during the day, a good dog is necessary to find them. they are locally known as the `porcupine parrot.'" poroporo, n. maori name for the flowering shrub solanum aviculare, forst.; called in australia, kangaroo apple. corrupted into bullybul (q.v.). /see, rather, bull-a-bull/ . c. hursthouse, `new zealand, the britain of the south, p. : "the poroporo, the nicest or least nasty of the wild fruits, is a sodden strawberry flavoured with apple-peel; but if rashly tasted an hour before it is ripe, the poroporo is an alum pill flavoured with strychnine." . w. colenso, `transactions new zealand institute,' vol. xiii. art. i. p. : "the large berry of the poro-poro (solanum aviculare) was also eaten; it is about the size of a small plum, and when ripe it is not unpleasant eating, before it is ripe it is very acrid. this fruit was commonly used by the early colonists in the neighbourhood of wellington in making jam." porphyrio, n. the sultana-bird, or sultana. the bird exists elsewhere. in australia it is generally called the swamp-hen (q.v.). . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the crimson-billed porphyrio, that jerking struts among the cool thick rushes." . `victorian statutes-the game act' (third schedule): [close season.] ". . . land-rail, all other members of the rail family, porphyrio, coots, &c. from the first day of august to the twentieth day of december following." port-arthur plum. see plum, native. port-jackson fig, n. see fig. port-jackson shark, heterodontus phillipii, lacep., family cestraciontidae; called also the shell-grinder. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the cestracion or port jackson shark (heterodontus)." ibid. p. : "it was supposed that port jackson alone had this shark . . . it has since been found in many of the coast bays of australia." port-jackson thrush, n. the best known bird among the australian shrike-thrushes (q.v.), colluricincla harmonica, lath.; called also the austral thrush, and harmonic thrush by latham. it is also the c. cinerea of vigors and horsfield and the turdus harmonicus of latham, and it has received various other scientific and vernacular names; colonel legge has now assigned to it the name of grey shrike-thrush. gould called it the "harmonious colluricincla." . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the port-jackson thrush, of which a plate is annexed, inhabits the neighbourhood of port jackson. the top of head blueish-grey; back is a fine chocolate brown; wings and tail lead-colour; under part dusky white. . . . the bill, dull yellow; legs brown." . john latham, `general history of birds,' vol. v. p. : "austral thrush. [a full description.] inhabits new south wales." [latham describes two other birds, the port jackson thrush and the harmonic thrush, and he uses different scientific names for them. but gould, regarding latham's specimens as all of the same species, takes all latham's scientific and vernacular names as synonyms for the same bird.] . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "the colluricincla harmonica is one of the oldest known of the australian birds, having been described in latham's `index ornithologicus,' figured in white's `voyage' and included in the works of all subsequent writers." port-macquarie pine. see pine. post-and-rail tea, slang name for strong bush-tea: so called because large bits of the tea, or supposed tea, float about in the billy, which are compared by a strong imagination to the posts and rails of the wooden fence so frequent in australia. . `the australasian' (a quarterly), p. : "hyson-skin and post-and-rail tea have been superseded by mocha, claret, and cognac." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "a hot beverage in a tin pot, which richly deserved the colonial epithet of `post-and-rail' tea, for it might well have been a decoction of `split stuff,' or `ironbark shingles,' for any resemblance it bore to the chinese plant." . t. h. braim, `new homes,' c. i. p. : "the shepherd's wife kindly gave us the invariable mutton-chop and damper and some post-and-rail tea." . keighley, `who are you?' p. : "then took a drink of tea. . . . such as the swagmen in our goodly land have with some humour named the `post-and-rail.'" potato-fern, n. a fern (marattia fraxinea, smith) with a large part edible, sc. the basal scales of the frond. called also the horseshoe-fern. potato, native, n. a sort of yam, gastrodia sesamoides, r. br., n.o. orchideae. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "produces bulb-tubers growing one out of another, of the size, and nearly the form, of kidney potatoes; the lowermost is attached by a bundle of thick fleshy fibres to the root of the tree from which it derives its nourishment. these roots are roasted and eaten by the aborigines; in taste they resemble beet-root, and are sometimes called in the colony native potatoes." . f. r. nixon, `cruise of the beacon,' p. : "and the tubers of several plants of this tribe were largely consumed by them, particularly those of gastrodi sessamoides [sic], the native potato, so called by the colonists, though never tasted by them, and having not the most remote relation to the plant of that name, except in a little resemblance of the tubers, in shape and appearance, to the kidney potato." potoroo, n. aboriginal name for a kangaroo-rat (q.v.). see also potorous and roo. . john white, `journal of a voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the poto roo, or kangaroo rat." [figure and description.] "it is of a brownish grey colour, something like the brown or grey rabbit, with a tinge of a greenish yellow. it has a pouch on the lower part of its belly." potorous, n. the scientific name of the genus of the kangaroo-rats (q.v.). the aboriginal name was potoroo; see roo. they are also called rat-kangaroos. pouched-lion, or marsupial lion, n. a large extinct phalanger (q.v.), thylacoleo carnifex, owen. the popular name was given under the idea, derived from the presence of an enormous cutting-tooth, that the animal was of fierce carnivorous habits. but it is more generally regarded as closely allied to the phalangers, who are almost entirely vegetarians. pouched-mouse, n. the vernacular name adopted for species of the genera phascologale (q.v.), sminthopsis, dasyuroides and antechinomys. they are often called kangaroo-mice (q.v.). the species are-- brush-tailed pouched-mouse-- phascologale penicillata, shaw. chestnut-necked p.-m.-- p. thorbechiana, schl. crest-tailed p.-m.-- p. cristicauda, krefft. fat-tailed p.-m.-- p. macdonnellensis, spencer. freckled p.-m.--- p. apicalis, gray. lesser-tailed p.-m.-- p. calura, gould. little p.-m.-- p. minima, geoff. long-tailed p.-m.-- p. longicaudata, schleg. orange-bellied p.-m.-- p. doria, thomas. pigmy p.-m.-- p. minutissima, gould. red-tailed p.-m.-- p. wallacii, grey. swainson's p.-m.-- p. swainsoni, water. yellow-footed pouched-mouse-- phascologale flavipes, water. the narrow-footed pouched-mice belong to the genus sminthopsis, and differ from the phascologales in being entirely terrestrial in their habits, whereas the latter are usually arboreal; the species are-- common narrow-footed pouched-mouse-- sminthopsis murina, water. finke n.-f. p.-m.-- s. larapinta, spencer. sandhill n.-f. p.-m.-- s. psammophilus, spencer. stripe-faced n.-f. p.-m.-- s. virginiae, de tarrag. thick-tailed n.-f. p.-m.-- s. crassicaudata, gould. white-footed n.-f. p.-m. s. leucopus, grey. the third genus, dasyuroides, has only one species-- byrne's pouched-mouse, d. byrnei, spencer. the fourth genus, antechinomys, has only one known species--the long-legged jumping pouched-mouse, a. laniger, gould. pounamu, or poenamu, n. the maori name for nephrite, jade, or greenstone (q.v.). in the second spelling the e is hardly sounded. . hawkesworth, `cook's voyages,' vol. ii. p. : "two whennuas or islands [afterwards called new zealand] which might be circumnavigated in a few days, and which he called tovy poenammoo; the literal translation of this word is `the water of green talc,' and probably if we had understood him better we should have found that tovy poenammoo was the name of some particular place where they got the green talc or stone of which they make their ornaments and tools, and not a general name for the whole southern district." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "a magnificent mere punamu, a battle-axe, fifteen inches long, and cut out of the most beautiful, transparent nephrite, an heirloom of his illustrious ancestors, which he kept as a sacred relic." . j. l. campbell [title of book describing early days of new zealand]: "poenamo." pratincole, n. the bird called a pratincole (inhabitant of meadows: lat. pratum and incola) exists elsewhere, and more often under the familiar name of chat. the australian species are--glareola grallaria, temm.; oriental, g. orientalis, leach. pre-empt, n. a slang abbreviation for pre-emptive right. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xxiv. p. : "my friend has the run and the stock and the pre-empts all in his own hands." pretty-faces, n. a fancy name for a small kangaroo. not very common. . w. s. s.tyrwhitt, `the new chum in the queensland bush,' p. : "kangaroos are of several different kinds. first, the large brown variety, known as kangaroo proper; next the smaller kind, known as pretty faces or whip tails, which are rather smaller and of a grey colour, with black and white on the face." prickfoot, n. a tasmanian plant, eryngium vesiculosum, lab., n.o. umbelliferae. prickly fern, n. alsophila australis, r. br., n.o. filices. . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "prickly fern-tree (alsophila australis, br.). this very handsome ferntree occasionally attains a height of thirty feet. it is not, by any means, so common a fern-tree as dicksonia antarctica (lab.)." prickly mimosa, n. see mimosa and prickly moses, under moses. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : acacia verticillata. whorl leaved acacia, or prickly mimosa, so called from its sharp pointed leaves standing out in whorls round the stem like the spokes of a wheel." prickly pine, n. see pine. prickly wattle, n. see wattle. primage, n. the word is of old commercial use, for a small sum of money formerly paid to the captain or master of the ship, as his personal perquisite, over and above the freight charges paid to the owners or agents, by persons sending goods in a ship. it was called by the french pot-de-vin du maitre,--a sort of pourboire, in fact. now-a-days the captain has no concern with the freight arrangements, and the word in this sense has disappeared. it has re-appeared in australia under a new form. in the victorian parliament imposed a duty of one per cent. on the prime, as the customs laws call the first entry of goods. this tax was called primage, and raised such an outcry among commercial men that in it was repealed. primrose, native, n. the name is given in tasmania to goodenia geniculata, r. br., n.o. goodeniaceae. there are many species of goodenia in australia, and they contain a tonic bitter which has not been examined. prion, n. a sea-bird. see dove-petrel. (grk. priown, a saw.) the sides of its bill are like the teeth of a saw. . w. o. legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science' (brisbane), p. : "the name prion, as almost universally applied elsewhere to the blue petrels, has been kept [in australia] as an english name." prop, v. of a horse: to stop suddenly. . e. b. kennedy, `four years in queensland,' p. : "another man used to teach his horse (which was free from vice) to gallop full speed up to the verandah of a house, and when almost against it, the animal would stop in his stride (or prop), when the rider vaulted lightly over his head on to the verandah." . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "how on a sudden emergency the sensible animal will instantaneously check his impetuosity, `prop,' and swing round at a tangent." . rolf boldrewood,' melbourne memories,' c. xxi. p. : "traveller's dam had an ineradicable taste for propping." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "his horse propped short, and sent him flying over its head." prop, n. a sudden stop. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xvi. p. : "the `touchy' mare gave so sudden a `prop,' accompanied by a desperate plunge, that he was thrown." prospect, v. to search for gold. in the word, and in all its derivatives, the accent is thrown back on to the first syllable. this word, in such frequent use in australia, is generally supposed to be of australian origin, but it is in equal use in the mining districts of the united states of america. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "the forest seemed alive with scouts `prospecting.'" . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. i. p. : "behold him, along with his partner set out, to prospect the unexplor'd ranges about." . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' p. : "a promising place for prospecting. yet nowhere did i see the shafts and heaps of rock or gravel which tell in a gold country of the hasty search for the precious metal." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the uses of the tin dish require explanation. it is for prospecting. that is to say, to wash the soil in which you think there is gold." prospect, n. the result of the first or test-dish full of wash-dirt. . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' c. v. p. : "the first prospect, the first pan of alluvial gold drift, was sent up to be tested." . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "i have obtained good dish prospects after crudely crushing up the quartz." prospecting, verbal n. and adj. see prospect, v. . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "prospecting in my division is on the increase." ibid. p. : "the egerton company are doing a large amount of prospecting work." prospecting claim = the first claim marked in a gold-lead. see reward claim. . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' c. v. p. : "this, however, would be but half the size of the premier or prospecting claim." prospector, n. one who searches for gold on a new field. see prospect, v. . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "the government prospectors have also been very successful." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "he incidentally mentioned his gold find to another prospector . . . the last went out to the grounds and prospected, with the result that he discovered the first payable gold on the west coast, for which he obtained a reward claim." pseudochirus, n. the scientific name of the genus of ring-tailed phalangers. (see opossum.) they have prehensile tails, by which they hold in climbing, as with a hand. (grk. pseudo-, false, and cheir, hand.) psophodes, n. scientific name of a genus of birds peculiar to australia, and represented there by two species. see coach-whip bird. the name comes from the bird's peculiar note. (grk. psophowdaes, noisy.) ptilonorhynchinae, n. pl. scientific name assigned to the australian group of birds called the bower-birds (q.v.). (grk. ptilon, a feather, rhunchos, a beak.) pudding-ball, n. a fish; corruption of the aboriginal name of it, puddinba (q.v.), by the law of hobson-jobson. . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "the species of fish that are commonest in the bay (moreton) are mullet, bream, puddinba (a native word corrupted by the colonists into pudding-ball) . . . the puddinba is like a mullet in shape, but larger, and very fat; it is esteemed a great delicacy." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. col. : "`pudding-ball' is the name of a fish. it has nothing to do with pudding, nothing with any of the various meanings of ball. the fish is not specially round. the aboriginal name was `pudden-ba.' voila tout." pukeko, n. maori name for the bird porphyrio melanonotus, the swamp-hen (q.v.). . `otago witness,' june , p. : "two pukaki [sic] flew across their path." punga, n. the trunk of the tree-fern that is known as cyathea medullaris, the "black fern " of the settlers. it has an edible pith. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "some of the trees were so alarmed that they held down their heads, and have never been able to hold them up since; amongst these were the ponga (a fern-tree) and the kareao (supple-jack), whose tender shoots are always bent." . j. white, `ancient history of maori,' vol. iv. p. : "when tara-ao left his pa and fled from the vengeance of karewa, he and his people were hungry and cut down ponga, and cooked and ate them." . j. adams, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. ii. p. : "the size and beauty of the puriri, nikau, and ponga (cyathea medullaris) are worthy of notice." . e. s. brookes, `frontier life,' p. : "the survey department graded a zigzag track up the side to the top, fixing in punga steps, so that horses could climb up." punga-punga, n. maori name for the pollen of the raupo (q.v.). . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xiii. art. i. p. : "another curious article of vegetable food was the punga-punga, the yellow pollen of the raupo flowers. to use it as food it is mixed with water into cakes and baked. it is sweetish and light, and reminds one strongly of london gingerbread." puriri, n. maori name for the new zealand tree, vitex littoralis, a. cunn., n.o. verbenaceae; called also new zealand oak, new zealand teak, and ironwood. it is very hard. . w. r. wade, `journey in new zealand' (hobart town), p. : "puriri, misnamed vitex littoralis, as it is not found near the sea-coast." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the puriri tree (vitex littoralis). the stems . . . vary from straight to every imaginable form of curved growth. . . the fruit, which is like a cherry, is a favourite food of the woodpigeon." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "a deep ravine, over which grey-stemmed purtris stretched out afar their gnarled trunks, laden with deep green foliage, speckled with the warm gleam of ruddy blossoms." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "the darker, crimped and varnished leaf of the puriri, with its bright cherry-like berry." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the puriri . . . on account of the strength of its timber it is sometimes termed by the settlers `new zealand oak,' but it would be far more correct to name it `new zealand teak.'" purple berry, n. tasmanian name for billardiera longiflora, lab., n.o. pittosporeae. see pittosporum. . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. [note]: "billardiera longiflora, the well-known beautiful climber, with pale greenish bell-flowers and purple fruit." [also pl. i.] purple broom, n. see broom. purple coot, n. another name for the swamp-hen (q.v.). purple fig, n. see under fig-tree. push, n. a gang. the word is of late very common in australia. it was once a prison term. barrere and leland quote from m. davitt's `leaves from a prison diary,' "the upper ten push." in thieves' english it is--( ) a crowd; ( ) an association for a particular robbery. in australia, its use began with the larrikins (q.v.), and spread, until now it often means clique, set, party, and even jocularly so far as "the government house push." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "`doolan's push' were a party of larrikins working . . . in a potato paddock near by." . a topical song by e. j. lonnen began: "i've chucked up my push for my donah." . `the australasian,' june , p. , col. : "he [the young clergyman] is actually a member of every `push' in his neighbourhood, and the effect has been not to degrade the pastor, but to sweeten and elevate the `push.'" . `sydney morning herald,' june , p. , col. : "for a long time past the `push' at miller's point, which consists of young fellows for the most part under twenty-one years of age, have been a terrible source of annoyance, and, indeed, of actual danger. a few years ago the police by resolute dealings with the larrikin pest almost put it down in the neighbourhood, the part of it which was left being thoroughly cowed, and consequently afraid to make any disturbance. within the past eighteen months or two years the old `push' has been strengthened by the addition of youths just entering on manhood, who, gradually increasing in numbers, have elbowed their predecessors out of the field. day by day the new `push' has become more daring. from chaffing drunken men and insulting defenceless women, the company has taken to assault, to daylight robbery." . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "the premier, in consultation with the inspector-general of the police, has made arrangements to protect life and property against the misconduct of the lawless larrikin `pushes' now terrorising sydney." . `sydney morning herald' (date lost): "the word larrikin is excellently descriptive of the irresponsible, mischievous, anti-social creature whose eccentric action is the outcome of too much mutton. this immoral will-o'-the-wisp, seized with a desire to jostle, or thump, or smash, combines for the occasion with others like himself, and the shouldering, shoving gang is well called a push." pyrrholaemus, n. scientific name of the genus of the australian birds called the red-throats; from grk. purros, "flame-coloured," "red," and laimos, "throat." q quail, n. a bird which exists under some form all over the world. the australian species are-- black-breasted quail-- turnix melanogaster, gould. brown q.-- synoicus australis, lath. [called also swamp-quail.] chestnut-backed q.-- turnix castanotus, gould. chestnut-bellied q.-- excalfatoria australis, gould. little q.-- turnix velox, gould. painted q.-- t. varies, lath. [haemipodius melinatus, gould.] red-backed q.-- t. maculosa, gould. red-chested q.-- t. pyrrhothorax, gould. stubble q.-- coturnix pectoralis, gould. in new zealand there is a single species, coturnix novae-zelandiae, quoy and gaim. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. vii. p. : "it is known to the colonists as the painted quail; and has been called by mr. gould . . . haemipodius melinatus." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the painted quail, and the brush quail, the largest of australian gamebirds, i believe, whirred away from beneath their horses' feet." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the swamp fowl and timorous quail . . . will start from their nests." . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "this group also is represented by a single species, the new zealand quail (coturnix novae-zelandiae), belonging to a widely distributed genus. it was formerly very abundant in new zealand; but within the last fifteen or twenty years has been completely exterminated, and is now only known to exist on the three kings island, north of cape maria van diemen." quail-hawk, n. name given to the bird falco, or harpa novae-zelandiae. see hawk. . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "in new zealand the courageous family of the raptores is very feebly represented; the honourable post of head of the family in all fairness must be assigned to the falcon, which is commonly known by the name of the quail- or sparrow-hawk, not that it is identical with, or that it even bears much resemblance to, the bold robber of the woods of great britain--`the hardy sperhauke eke the quales foe,' as chaucer has it." quandong, n. (various spellings) aboriginal name for--( ) a tree, santalum acuminatum, de c., s. persicarium, f. v. m., n.o. santalaceae. in the southern colonies it is often called the southern quandong, and the tree is called the native peach-tree (q.v.). the name is given to another large scrub-tree, elaeocarpus grandis, f. v. m., n.o. tiliaceae. the fruit, which is of a blue colour and is eaten by children, is also called the native peach. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' p. : "in all these scrubs on the murray the fusanus acuminatus is common, and produces the quandang nut (or kernel)." . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "abundance of fig, and medlar and quince trees, cherries, loquots, quondongs, gooseberry, strawberry, and raspberry trees." . g. g. mccrae, `balladeadro,' p. : "speed thee, ganook, with these swift spears-- this firebrand weeping fiery tears, and take this quandang's double plum, 'twill speak alliance tho' 'tis dumb." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. xx. p. : "they came upon a quantong-tree, and pausing beneath it, began to pick up the fallen fruit. . . . there were so many berries, each containing a shapely nut, that honoria might string a dozen necklaces." . lyth, `golden south,' c. ix. p. : "i have forgotten to mention the quandong, a shrub bearing a fruit the size and colour of cherries." ( ) the fruit of this tree, and also its kernel. . j. hood, `land of the fern,' p. : "she had gone to string on a necklet of seeds from the quongdong tree.' . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. xix. p. : "miss longleat was wild after quandongs." [footnote]: "a berry growing in the scrub, the kernels of which are strung into necklaces." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "another fruit of fraudulent type growing on the plains is the quandong. something in shape and colour like a small crab-apple, it is fair enough to the eye, but in taste thoroughly insipid." quart-pot, n. a tin vessel originally imported as a measure, and containing an exact imperial quart. it had no lid, but a side handle. before the word quart-pot, for a kettle, was as universal in the bush as "billy" (q.v.) is now. the billy, having a lid and a wire handle by which to suspend it over the fire, superseded the quart-pot about . in addition to the billy, there is a quart-pot still in use, especially in south australia and the back-blocks. it has two sidehandles working in sockets, so as to fold down flat when travelling. the lid is an inverted pannikin fitted into it, and is used as a drinking-cup. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "`look out there!' he continued; `quart-pot corroborree,' springing up and removing with one hand from the fire one of the quart-pots, which was boiling madly." quart-pot tea, n. explained in quotations. cf. billy-tea. . mrs. h. jones, `long years in australia,' p. : "ralph, taking a long draught of the quart-pot tea, pronounced that nothing was ever like it made in teapots, and ethel thought it excellent, excepting that the tea-leaves were troublesome." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia, p. : "`quart-pot' tea, as tea made in the bush is always called, is really the proper way to make it. . . . the tea is really made with boiling water, which brings out its full flavour, and it is drunk before it has time to draw too much." quartz, n. a mineral; the common form of native silica. it is abundantly diffused throughout the world, and forms the common sand of the sea-shore. it occurs as veins or lodes in metamorphic rocks, and it is this form of its presence in australia, associated with gold, that has made the word of such daily occurrence. in fact, the word quartz, in australian mining parlance, is usually associated with the idea of gold-bearing stone, unless the contrary be stated. although some of the following compound words may be used elsewhere, they are chiefly confined to australia. . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "quartz is the mother of gold, and wherever there is an abundance of it, gold may reasonably be expected to exist somewhere in the neighbourhood." . `the argus,' june , p. . col. : "two runaway apprentices from a ship are said to have first crushed quartz." . r. a. f. murray, `reports and statistics of the mining department [of victoria] for the quarter ending st december': "the quartz here is very white and crystalline, with ferruginous, clayey joints, and--from a miner's point of view--of most unpromising or `hungry' appearance." quartz-battery, n. a machine for crushing quartz, and so extracting gold. . `the argus,' july , p. , col. : "there was a row [noise] like a quartz-battery." quartz-blade, n. blade of a miner's knife used for picking lumps of gold out of the stone. . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "they had slashed open his loins with a quartz-blade knife." quartz-crushing, adj. see quartz. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xxxix. p. : "the dull reverberating clash of the quartz-crushing batteries." quartz-field, n. a non-alluvial goldfield. . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "our principal quartz-field." quartz-lodes, and quartz-mining. see quartz. . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "he chose the piece which the new north clunes now occupy for quartz-mining; but the quartz-lodes were very difficult to follow." quartz-reefer, n. a miner engaged in quartz-reefing, as distinguished from one digging in alluvial. see above. quartz-reefing, n. ( ) the operation of mining. see reef, verb. ( ) a place where there is gold mixed with quartz. . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. iv. p. : "you'd best go to a quartz-reefin'. i've been surfacing this good while; but quartz-reefin's the payinest game, now." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xxix. p. : "[he] had located himself in a quartz-reefing district." queensland, n. a colony named after the queen, on the occasion of its separation from new south wales, in . dr. j. d. lang wanted to call it "cooksland," and published a book under that title in . before separation it was known as "the moreton bay district." queensland asthma-herb, n. see asthma-herb. queensland bean. n. see bean. queensland beech, n. see beech. queensland ebony, n. see ebony. queensland hemp, n. see hemp. queensland kauri, n. another name for dundathu pine. see kauri and pine. queensland nut, n. a wild fruit-tree, macadamia ternifolia, f. v. m., n.o. proteaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`queensland nut.' this tree bears an edible nut of excellent flavour, relished both by aborigines and europeans. as it forms a nutritious article of food to the former, timber-getters are not permitted to fell the trees. it is well worth extensive cultivation, for the nuts are always eagerly bought." queensland nutmeg, n. a timber-tree, myristica insipida, r. br., n.o. myristiceae. not so strongly aromatic as the true nutmeg. queensland plum, n. see plum, sweet. queensland poplar, n. see under poplar. queensland sorrel, n. a plant, hibiscus heterophyllus, vent., n.o. malvaceae, chewed by the aborigines, as boys chew english sorrel. queenwood, n. a timber-tree, davidsonia pruriens, f. v. m., n.o. leguminosae. quince, native, n. i.q. bitter-bark, emu-apple, and quinine-tree, all which see. quince, wild, n. another name for the black ash-tree. see ash. quinine-tree, n. i.q. horseradish tree (q.v.), and used also for the bitter-bark or emu-apple tree (q.v.). quoll, n. the aboriginal name for the native cat (q.v.), but not now in use. . j. banks, `journal,' aug. (edition hooker, ), p. : "another animal was called by the natives je-quoll; it is about the size of, and something like, a pole-cat, of a light brown, spotted with white on the back, and white under the belly. . . . i took only one individual." ibid. p. : "they very often use the article ge, which seems to answer to our english a, as ge gurka--a rope." [in glossary]: "gurka--a rope." /?/ r rabbiter, n. a man who lives by trapping rabbits, or who is employed to clear stations from them. . e. w. hornung, `under two skies,' p. : "he would give him a billet. he would take him on as a rabbiter, and rig him out with a tent, camp fixings, traps, and perhaps even a dog or two." rabbit-rat, n. name sometimes given to ahapalote (q.v.), in new south wales. radish-tree, n. an australian timber-tree, codonocarpus cotinifolius, f. v. m., n.o. phytolaceae; called also poplar in central australia. . `melbourne museum catalogue--economic woods,' no. : "radish-tree: occurs in the mallee-scrub very sparingly; attaining a height of thirty feet. the poplar of the central australian explorers. whole tree strong-scented." rager, n. an old and fierce bullock or cow, that always begins to rage in the stock-yard. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xiv. p. : "amongst them was a large proportion of bullocks, which declined with fiendish obstinacy to fatten. they were what are known by the stockriders as `ragers,' or `pig-meaters'" [q.v.]. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvi. p. : "well, say a hundred off for ragers.'" rail, n. common english birdname. there are many varieties in new zealand and australia, especially in the former colony, and the authorities differ as to whether some should be classed as distinct species. some are common to australasia, others endemic in new zealand or australia; their distribution in this respect is marked below in parentheses. several species receive more than one vernacular name, as the following list shows-- banded rail (n.z. and a.)-- rallus philippensis, linn. chestnut-bellied r. (a.)-- eulabeornis castaneiventris, gould. dieffenbach's r. (see quotation below)-- rallus dieffenbachii, gray. hutton's r. (n.z.)-- cabalus modestus, hutton. land r. (n.z. and a.)-- rallus philippensis, linn. marsh r. (australasia)-- ortygometra tabuensis, finsch. and hard. pectoral r. (n.z. and a.)-- rallus philippensis, linn. red-necked r. (a.)-- rallina tricolor, gray. slate-breasted r. (a.)-- hypotaenidia brachipus, swains. swainson's r. (n.z. and a.)-- rallina brachipus, swains. swamp r. (australasia)-- ortygometra tabuensis, finsch. and hard. tabuan r. (australasia)-- o. tabuensis, finsch. and hard. weka r. (n.z. see weka.)-- see also takahe and notornis. . w.l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' p. : "dieffenbach's rail. . . . this beautiful rail was brought from the chatham islands by dr. dieffenbach in , and named by mr. gray in compliment to this enterprising naturalist. the adult specimen in the british museum, from which my description was taken, is unique, and seems likely to remain so." . prof parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "hutton's rail, the third of the endemic rails . . . is confined to the chatham islands." rain-bird, n. the name is popularly given in many parts of the world to various birds. the rain-bird of queensland and the interior is the great cuckoo or channel-bill (scythrops novae-hollandiae, lath., q.v.). . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "we discovered a nest of full-fledged birds of the australian shrike or butcher-bird, also called rain-bird by the colonists (vanga destructor). they were regarded by our companions as a prize, and were taken accordingly to be caged, and instructed in the art of whistling tunes, in which they are great adepts." rainbow-fish, n. a new zealand fish, heteroscharus castelnaui, macl. rama-rama, n. maori name for a new zealand shrub, myrtus bullata, banks and sol. the name is used in the north island. it is often corrupted into grama. rangatira, n. maori word for a chief, male or female; a master or mistress (williams); therefore an aristocrat, a person of the gentle class, distinguished from a tau-rikarika, a nobody, a slave. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "ranga tira, a gentleman or lady." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "i took care to tell them that the rangatira, or `chief' missionaries, would come out with the settlers." ibid. c. ii. p. : "rangatira is maori for `chief,' and rangatira-tango is therefore truly rendered `chieftainship.'" . `otago witness, `dec. , p. : "te kooti is at puketapu with many rangatiras; he is a great warrior,--a fighting chief. they say he has beaten the pakehas" (q.v.). ranges, n. the usual word in australia for "mountains." compare the use of "tiers" in tasmania. rangy, adj. mountainous. . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "he tramps over the most rangy and inaccessible regions of the colonies." . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting in victoria' ( - ), p. : "the country being rangy, somewhat scrubby, and destitute of prominent features." raspberry, wild, or native, n. rubus gunnianus, hook., n.o. rosaceae; peculiar to tasmania, and so called there. in australia, the species is rubus rosafolius, smith. see also lawyer and blackberry. raspberry-jam tree, n. name given to acacia acuminata, benth., especially of western australia. though maiden does not give the name, he says (useful native plants,' p. ), "the scent of the wood is comparable to that of raspberries." . l. leichhardt, quoted by j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "plains with groves or thickets of the raspberry-jam-tree." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "raspberry-jam . . . acacia sweet-scented, grown on good ground." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. : "the other trees besides the palm were known to the men by colonial appellations, such as the bloodwood and the raspberry-jam. the origin of the latter name, let me inform my readers, has no connection whatever with any produce from the tree." . `the australasian,' feb. , p. : "the raspberry-jam-tree is so called on account of the strong aroma of raspberries given out when a portion is broken." [on the same page is an illustration of these trees growing near perth, western australia.] rasp-pod, n. name given to a large australian tree, flindersia australis, r. br., n.o. meliaceae. rat, n. true rodents are represented in australia and tasmania by six genera; viz., mus, conilurus (= hapalotis), xeromys, hydromys, mastacomys, uromys, of which the five latter are confined to the australian region. the genus hydromys contains the eastern water rat, sometimes called the beaver rat (hydromys chrysogaster, geoffroy), and the western water rat (h. fulvolavatus, gould). conilurus contains the jerboa rats (q.v.). xeromys contains a single species, confined to queensland, and called thomas' rat (xeromys myoides, thomas). mastacomys contains one species, the broad-toothed rat (m. fuscus, thomas), found alive only in tasmania, and fossil in new south wales. uromys contains two species, the giant rat (u. macropus, gray), and the buff-footed rat (u. cervinipes, gould). mus contains twenty-seven species, widely distributed over the continent and tasmania. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : "the secretary read the following extracts from a letter of the rev. w. colenso to ronald c. gunn, esq., of launceston, dated waitangi, hawke's bay, new zealand, th september, :-- `i have procured two specimens of the ancient, and all but quite extinct, new zealand rat, which until just now (and notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed, too, by large rewards) i never saw. it is without doubt a true mus, smaller than our english black rat (mus rattus), and not unlike it. this little animal once inhabited the plains and fagus forests of new zealand in countless thousands, and was both the common food and great delicacy of the natives-- and already it is all but quite classed among the things which were." . a. r. wallace, `island life,' p. : "the maoris say that before europeans came to their country a forest rat abounded, and was largely used for food . . . several specimens have been caught . . . which have been declared by the natives to be the true kiore maori--as they term it; but these have usually proved on examination to be either the european black rat or some of the native australian rats . . . but within the last few years many skulls of a rat have been obtained from the old maori cooking-places and from a cave associated with moa bones, and captain hutton, who has examined them, states that they belong to a true mus, but differ from the mus rattus." rata, n. maori name for two new zealand erect or sub-scandent flowering trees, often embracing trunks of forest trees and strangling them: the northern rata, metrosideros robusta, a. cunn., and the southern rata, m. lucida, menz., both of the n.o. myrtaceae. the tree called by the maoris aka, which is another species of metrosederos (m. florida), is also often confused with the rata by bushmen and settlers. in maori, the adj. rata means red-hot, and there may be a reference to the scarlet appearance of the flower in full bloom. the timber of the rata is often known as ironwood, or ironbark. the trees rise to sixty feet in height; they generally begin by trailing downwards from the seed deposited on the bark of some other tree near its top. when the trailing branches reach the ground they take root there and sprout erect. for full account of the habit of the trees, see quotation (hochstetter), (moseley), and (kirk). . e. dieffenbach, `travels in new zealand,' p. : "the venerable rata, often measuring forty feet in circumference and covered with scarlet flowers--while its stem is often girt with a creeper belonging to the same family (metrosideros hypericifolia?)." . rev. r. taylor, `leaf from the natural history of new zealand,' p. : "rata, a tree; at first a climber; it throws out aerial roots; clasps the tree it clings to and finally kills it, becoming a large tree (metrosideros robusta). a hard but not durable wood." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' canto , p. : "unlike the neighbouring rata cast, and tossing high its heels in air." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "the rata (metrosideros robusta), the trunk of which, frequently measuring forty feet in circumference, is always covered with all sorts of parasitical plants, and the crown of which bears bunches of scarlet blossoms." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "nay, not the rata! howsoe'er it bloomed, paling the crimson sunset; for you know, its twining arms and shoots together grow around the trunk it clasps, conjoining slow till they become consolidate, and show an ever-thickening sheath that kills at last the helpless tree round which it clings so fast." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the rata-tree (metrosideros robusta). this magnificent tree. . . . height to feet . . . a clear stem to and even feet . . . very beautiful crimson polyandrous flowers . . . wood red, hard, heavy, close-grained, strong, and not difficult to work." . h. n. moseley, `notes of a naturalist on challenger,' p. : one of the most remarkable trees . . . is the rata. . . . this, though a myrtaceous plant, has all the habits of the indian figs, reproducing them in the closest manner. it starts from a seed dropped in the fork of a tree, and grows downward to reach the ground; then taking root there, and gaining strength, chokes the supporting tree and entirely destroys it, forming a large trunk by fusion of its many stems. nevertheless, it occasionally grows directly from the soil, and then forms a trunk more regular in form." . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "that bark shall speed where crimson ratas gleam." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "the foliage of many of the large trees is quite destroyed by the crimson flowering rata, the king of parasites, which having raised itself into the upper air by the aid of some unhappy pine, insinuates its fatal coils about its patron, until it has absorbed trunk and branch into itself, and so gathered sufficient strength to stand unaided like the chief of forest trees, flaunting in crimson splendour." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "it is invariably erect, never climbing, although bushmen and settlers frequently state that it climbs the loftiest trees, and sooner or later squeezes them to death in its iron clasp. in proof of this they assert that, when felling huge ratas, they often find a dead tree in the centre of the rata: this is a common occurrence, but it by no means follows that this species is a climber. this error is simply due to imperfect observation, which has led careless observers to confuse metrosideros florida [the akal which is a true climber, with m. robusta." . `otago witness,' nov. [`native trees']: "rata, or ironwood. it would be supposed that almost every colonist who has seen the rata in bloom would desire to possess a plant." . `the argus,' feb. [leading article]: "the critic becomes to the original author what the new zealand rata is to the kauri. that insidious vine winds itself round the supporting trunk and thrives on its strength and at its expense, till finally it buries it wholly from sight and flaunts itself aloft, a showy and apparently independent tree." rat-tail grass, n. name given to-- ( ) ischaemum laxum, r. br., n.o. gramineae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "rat-tail grass. an upright, slender growing grass; found throughout the colony, rather coarse, but yielding a fair amount of feed, which is readily eaten by cattle." ( ) sporobolus indicus, r. br., n.o. gramineae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "rat-tail grass. a fine, open, pasture grass, found throughout the colonies. its numerous penetrating roots enable it to resist severe drought. it yields a fair amount of fodder, much relished by stock, but is too coarse for sheep. the seeds form the principal food of many small birds. it has been suggested as a paper-making material." [see grass.] raupo, n. maori name for a new zealand bulrush, typha angustifolia, linn. the leaves are used for building native houses. the pollen, called punga-punga (q.v.), was collected and made into bread called pua. the root was also eaten. it is not endemic in new zealand, but is known in many parts, and was called by the aborigines of australia, wonga, and in europe "asparagus of the cossacks." other names for it are bulrush, cat's tail, reed mace, and cooper's flag. . augustus earle, `narrative of nine months' residence in new zealand,' `new zealand reader,' p. : "another party was collecting rushes, which grow plentifully in the neighbourhood, and are called raupo." . henry williams's diary, `carleton's life,' p. : "the europeans were near us in a raupo whare [rush-house]." . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "to engage the natives to build raupo, that is, rush-houses." . w. r. wade, `a journey in the north island of new zealand,' `new zealand reader,' p. : "the raupo, the reed-mace of new zealand, always grows in swampy ground. the leaves or blades when full grown are cut and laid out to dry, forming the common building material with which most native houses are constructed." . `an ordinance for imposing a tax on raupo houses, session ii. no. xvii. of the former legislative council of new zealand': [from a. domett's collection of ordinances, .] "section . . . . there shall be levied in respect of every building constructed wholly or in part of raupo, nikau, toitoi, wiwi, kakaho, straw or thatch of any description [ . . . l ]." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "these [the walls], nine feet high and six inches thick, were composed of neatly packed bunches of raupo, or bulrushes, lined inside with the glazed reeds of the tohe-tohe, and outside with the wiwi or fine grass." . r. donaldson, `bush lays,' p. : "entangled in a foul morass, a raupo swamp, one name we know." . f. e. maning (pakeha maori), `the war in the north,' p. : "before a war or any other important matter, the natives used to have recourse to divination by means of little miniature darts made of rushes or reeds, or often of the leaf of the cooper's flag (raupo)." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "the favourite material of the maoris for building purposes is raupo (typha), a kind of flag or bulrush, which grows in great abundance in swampy places." . anon., `colonial experiences, or incidents of thirty-four years in new zealand,' p. : "it was thatched with raupo or native bulrush, and had sides and interior partitions of the same material." raven, n. english bird-name. the australian species is corvus coronoides, vig. and hors. razor-grinder, n. a bird-name, seisura inquieta, lath. called also dishwasher and restless fly-catcher. see fly-catcher. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol.ii. p. : "neither must you be astonished on hearing the razor-grinder ply his vocation in the very depths of our solitudes; for here he is a flying instead of a walking animal." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "seisura inquieta, restless flycatcher; the grinder of the colonists of swan river and new south wales." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the razor-grinder, fitly so called from making a grinding noise as it wavers in one position a foot or two from the ground." ready up, v. see quotation. . `the age,' nov. , p. , col. : "mr. purees: a statement has been made that is very serious. it has been said that a great deal has been `readied up' for the jury by the present commissioners. that is a charge which, if true, amounts to embracery. "his honor: i do not know what `readying up' means. "mr. purves: it is a colonial expression, meaning that something is prepared with an object. if you `ready up' a racehorse, you are preparing to lose, or if you `ready up' a pack of cards, you prepare it for dealing certain suits." red bass, n. a fish of moreton bay (q.v.), mesoprion superbus, castln., family percidae. redberry, n. name given to australian plants of the genus rhagodia, bearing spikes or panicles of red berries. called also seaberry. see also saloop-bush. red-bill, n. bird-name given to estrelda temporalis, lath. it is also applied to the oyster-catchers (q.v.); and sometimes to the swamp-hen (q.v.). . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "lieut. flinders taking up his gun to fire at two red-bills . . . the natives, alarmed, ran to the woods." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of the linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "`this bird,' says mr. caley, `which the settlers call red-bill, is gregarious, and appears at times in very large flocks. i have killed above forty at a shot.'" . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "estrelda temporalis. red-eyebrowed finch. red-bill of the colonists." `red bream, n. name given to the schnapper when one year old. see schnapper. red cedar, n. see cedar. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "m'leay river, new south wales, lat. degrees '. this forest was found to contain large quantities of red cedar (cedrela toona) and white cedar (melia azederach), which, though very different from what is known as cedar at home, is a valuable wood, and in much request by the colonists." red currant, n. another name for the native currant of tasmania, coprosma nitida, hook., n.o. rubiaceae. see currant, native. red gum, n. ( ) a tree. see gum. the two words are frequently made one with the accent on the first syllable; compare blue-gum. ( ) a medicinal drug. an exudation from the bark of eucalyptus rostrata, schlecht, and other trees; see quotation, . sir ranald martin introduced it into european medical practice. j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "at the heart they [the trees] are full of veins, through which an amazing quantity of an astringent red gum issues. this gum i have found very serviceable in an obstinate dysentery." ibid. p. : "a very powerfully astringent gum-resin, of a red colour, much resembling that known in the shops as kino, and, for all medical purposes, fully as efficacious." . j. e. smith, `specimen of botany of new holland,' p. : "this, mr. white informs us, is one of the trees (for there are several, it seems, besides the eucalyptus resinifera, mentioned in his voyage, p. ) which produce the red gum." [the tree is ceratopetalum gummiferum, smith, called by him three-leaved red-gum tree. it is now called officer plant or christmas-bush (q.v.).] . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "the usual red gum was observed oozing out from the bark, and this attracted their notice, as it did that of every explorer who had landed upon the continent. this gum is a species of kino, and possesses powerful astringent, and probably staining, qualities." red gurnet-perch, n. name given in victoria to the fish sebastes percoides, richards., family scorpaenidae. it is also called poddly; red gurnard, or gurnet; and in new zealand, pohuikaroa. see perch and gurnet. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "sebastes percoides, a fish of a closely allied genus of the same family [as scorpaena cruenta, the red rock-cod]. it is caught at times in port jackson, but has no local name. in victoria it is called the red gurnet-perch." redhead, n. see firetail. red-knee, n. sometimes called the red-kneed dottrel, charadrius ruftveniris, formerly erythrogonys cinctus, gould. a species of a genus of australian plovers. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "erythrogonys cinctus, gould; banded red-knee." red mulga, n. name given to a species of acacia, a. cyperophylla, f. v. m., owing to the red colour of the flakes of bark which peel off the stem. see mulga. . baldwin spencer, `home expedition in central australia,' narrative, pt. i. p. : "we crossed a narrow belt of country characterized by the growth along the creek sides of red mulga. this is an acacia (a. cyperophylla) reaching perhaps a height of twenty feet, the bark of which, alone amongst acacias, is deciduous and peels off, forming little deep-red coloured flakes." red mullet, n. new south wales, upeneoides vlamingii, cuv. and val., and upeneus porosus, cuv. and val., family mullidae. see mullet. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the name of this family is a source of much confusion. it is derived from the latin word mullus, which in the form of `mullet' we apply to the well-known fishes of quite a different family, the mugilidae. another fish to which the term `red-mullet' is applied is of the family cottidae or gurnards." red perch, n. name given in tasmania to the fish anthias rasor, richards.; also called the barber. in australia, it is anthias longimanus, gunth. red rock-cod, n. name given in new south wales to the fish scorpaena cardinalis, richards., family scorpaenidae, marine fishes resembling the sea-perches. s. cardinalis is of a beautiful scarlet colour. red-streaked spider, or black-and-red spider, an australasian spider (latrodectus scelio, thorel.), called in new zealand the katipo (q.v.). red-throat, n. a small brown australian singing-bird, with a red throat, pyrrholaemus brunneus, gould. reed-mace, n. see wonga and raupo. reef, n. term in gold-mining; a vein of auriferous quartz. called by the californian miners a vein, or lode, or ledge. in bendigo, the american usage remains, the words reef, dyke, and vein being used as synonymous, though reef is the most common. (see quotation, .) in ballarat, the word has two distinct meanings, viz. the vein, as above, and the bed-rock or true-bottom. (see quotations, and .) outside australia, a reef means "a chain or range of rocks lying at or near the surface of the water." (`webster.') . t. mccombie, `history of new south wales,' c. xiv. p. : "a party . . . discovered gold in the quartz-reefs of the pyrenees [victoria]." . w. kelly, `life in victoria,' vol. ii. p. : "if experience completely establishes the fact, at least, under existing systems, that the best-paying reefs are those that are largely intersected with fissures--more inclined to come out in pebbles than in blocks--or, if i might coin a designation, `rubble reefs,' as contradistinguished from `boulder reefs,' showing at the same time a certain degree of ignigenous discoloration . . . still, where there are evidences of excessive volcanic effect . . . the reef may be set down as poor . . ." . a. r. selwyn, `exhibition essays,' notes on the physical geography, geology, and mineralogy of victoria: "quartz occurs throughout the lower palaeozoic rocks in veins, `dykes' or `reefs,' from the thickness of a thread to feet." . r. brough smyth, `goldfields glossary,' p. : "reef. the term is applied to the tip-turned edges of the palaeozoic rocks. the reef is composed of slate, sandstone, or mudstone. the bed-rock anywhere is usually called the reef. a quartz-vein; a lode." . reginald a. f. murray, `progress report, geological survey, victoria,' vol. i. p. [report on the mineral resources of ballarat]: "this formation is the `true bottom,' `bed rock' or `reef,' of the miners." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "in looking for reefs the experienced miner commences on the top of the range and the spurs, for the reason that storm-waters have carried the soil into the gullies and left the bed-rock exposed." reef, v. to work at a reef. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. iii. p. : "the university graduate . . . was to be seen patiently sluicing, or reefing, as the case might be." [see also quartz-reefing.] regent-bird, n. ( ) an australian bower-bird, sericulus melinus, lath., named out of compliment to the prince regent, afterwards george iv. (therefore named before ). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "mr. gilbert observed the female of the regent-bird." ( ) mock regent-bird, now meliphaga phrygia, lath. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "zanthomyza phrygia, swains., warty-faced honey-eater [q.v.]; mock regent-bird, colonists of new south wales." remittance-man, n. one who derives the means of an inglorious and frequently dissolute existence from the periodical receipt of money sent out to him from europe. . r. l. stevenson, `the wrecker,' p. : "remittance men, as we call them here, are not so rare in my experience; and in such cases i act upon a system." rewa-rewa, n. pronounced raywa, maori name for the new zealand tree knightia excelsa, r. br., n.o. proteaceae, the honey-suckle of the new zealand settlers. maori verb, rewa, to float. the seed-vessel is just like a maori canoe. . c. hursthouse, `new zealand, the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "rewarewa (honeysuckle), a handsome flowering tree common on the outskirts of the forests. wood light and free-working: the grain handsomely flowered like the baltic oak." . r. c. barstow, `on the maori canoe,' `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. p. : "dry rewarewa wood was used for the charring." . w. colenso, `traditions of the maoris,' `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xiii. p. : "the boy went into the forest, and brought back with him a seed-pod of the rewarewa tree (knightia excelsa). . . . he made his way to his canoe, which was made like the pod of the rewarewa tree." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "rewarewa, a lofty, slender tree, feet high. wood handsome, mottled red and brown, used for furniture and shingles, and for fencing, as it splits easily. it is a most valuable veneering wood." reward-claim, n. the australian legal term for the large area granted as a "reward" to the miner who first discovers valuable gold in a new district, and reports it to the warden of the goldfields. the first great discovery of gold in coolgardie was made by bayley in , and his reward-claim, sold to a syndicate, was known as "bayley's reward." see also prospecting claim, and claim. . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "prospected with the result that he discovered the first payable gold on the west coast, for which he obtained a reward claim." rhipidura, n. scientific name for a genus of australasian birds, called fantail (q.v.). they are fly-catchers. the word is from grk. rhipidos, `of a fan,' and 'oura, `a tail.' ribbed fig, n. see fig. ribbonwood, n. all species of plagianthus and hoheria are to the colonists ribbonwood, especially plagianthus betulinus, a. cunn., and hoheria populnea, a. cunn., the bark of which is used for cordage, and was once used for making a demulcent drink. alpine ribbon-wood, plagianthus lyalli, hook. other popular names are houhere, houi (maori), lace-bark (q.v.), and thousand-jacket (q.v.). ribgrass, n. a tasmanian name for the native plantain. see plantain. rice-flower, n. a gardeners' name for the cultivated species of pimalea (q.v.). the rice-flowers are beautiful evergreens about three feet high, and bear rose-coloured, white, and yellow blooms. rice-shell, n. the name is applied elsewhere to various shells; in australia it denotes the shell of various species of truncatella, a small marine mollusc, so called from a supposed resemblance to grains of rice, and used for necklaces. richea, n. a tasmanian grasstree (q.v.), richea pandanifolia, hook., n.o. liliaceae. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' may , vol. i. p. : "a section . . . of the stem of the graceful palm-like richea (richea pandanifolia), found in the dense forests between lake st. clair and macquarie harbour, where it attains the height of to feet in sheltered positions,--the venation, markings, and rich yellow colouring of which were much admired." . rev. w. w. spicer, `handbook of the plants of tasmania,' p. : richea pandanifolia, h. giant grass tree. peculiar to tasmania. dense forests in the interior and sw." ridge-myrtle, n. see myrtle. rifle-bird, n. sometimes called also rifleman (q.v.); a bird of paradise. the male is of a general velvety black, something like the uniform of the rifle brigade. this peculiarity, no doubt, gave the bird its name, but, on the other hand, settlers and local naturalists sometimes ascribe the name to the resemblance they hear in the bird's cry to the noise of a rifle being fired and its bullet striking the target. the rifle-bird is more famed for beauty of plumage than any other australian bird. there are three species, and they are of the genus ptilorhis, nearly related to the birds of paradise of new guinea, where also is found the only other known species of ptilorhis. the chief species is ptilorhis paradisea, lath., the other two species were named respectively, after the queen and the late prince consort, victoriae and alberti, but some naturalists have given them other generic names. as to the name, see also quotation, . see manucode. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we saw . . . a rifle-bird." . `encyclopaedia britannica,' vol. xx. p. : "rifleman-bird, or rifle-bird, names given . . . probably because in coloration it resembled the well-known uniform of the rifle-regiments of the british army, while in its long and projecting hypochondriac plumes and short tail a further likeness might be traced to the hanging pelisse and the jacket formerly worn by the members of those corps."-- [footnote]: "curiously enough its english name seems to be first mentioned in ornithological literature by frenchmen--lesson and garnot--in , who say (voy. `coquille,' zoologie, p. ) that it was applied `pour rappeler que ce fut un soldat de la garnison [of new south wales] qui le tua le premier,' which seems to be an insufficient reason, though the statement as to the bird's first murderer may be true." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "it was an australian bird of paradise, the celebrated rifle-bird (ptilorhis victoriae), which, according to gould, has the most brilliant plumage of all australian birds." rifleman, n. a bird of new zealand, acanthidositta chloris, buller; maori name, titipounamu. see quotation. the name is sometimes applied also to the rifle-bird (q.v.). . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "acanthidositta chloris, buller. the rifleman is the smallest of our new zealand birds. it is very generally distributed." [footnote]: "this has hitherto been written acanthisitta; but professor newton has drawn my attention to the fact of its being erroneous. i have therefore adopted the more classic form of acanthidositta, the etymology of which is 'akanthid,--crude form of 'akanthis = carduelis, and sitta = sitta." . w. smith, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. xxi. p. : "acanthisitta chloris (rifleman). the feeble note of this diminutive bird is oftener heard in the bush than the bird is seen." right-of-way, n. a lane. in england the word indicates a legal right to use a particular passage. in australia it is used for the passage or lane itself. . `the argus,' feb. : "the main body of the men was located in the right-of-way, which is overlooked by the side windows of the bureau." rimu, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, dacrydium cupressinum, n.o. coniferae; also called red pine. rimu is generally used in north island; red pine more generally in the south. see pine. . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "rimu. this elegant tree comes to its greatest perfection in shaded woods, and in moist, rich soil." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "he lay couched in a rimu-tree one day." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the rimu tree. height, eighty to feet, fully forty to fifty feet clear of branches . . . moderately hard . . . planes up smoothly, takes a good polish, would be useful to the cabinetmaker." . clement bunbury, `fraser's magazine,' june, p. : "some of the trees, especially the rimu, a species of yew, here called a pine, were of immense size and age." ring, v. tr. ( ) to cut the bark of a tree round the trunk so as to kill it. the word is common in the same sense in english forestry and horticulture, and only seems australasian from its more frequent use, owing to the widespread practice of clearing the primeval forests and generally destroying trees. "ringed" is the correct past participle, but "rung" is now commonly used. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. x. p. : "what they call ringing the trees; that is to say, they cut off a large circular band of bark, which, destroying the trees, renders them easier to be felled." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : the gum-trees, ringed and ragged, from the mazy margins rise." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. xx. p. : "trees to be `rung.' the ringing of trees consists of cutting the bark through all round, so that the tree cease to suck up the strength of the earth for its nutrition, and shall die." . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting in victoria' ( - ), p. : "altogether, fences and tree-ringing have not improved the scene." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "the trees are `rung,' that there may be more pasture for the sheep and cattle." ( ) to make cattle move in a circle. [though specifically used of cattle in australia, the word has a similar use in england as in tennyson's `geraint and enid' . . . "my followers ring him round: he sits unarmed."--line .] . w. h. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "they are generally `ringed,' that is, their galop is directed into a circular course by the men surrounding them." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "i'll tell you what, you'll have to ring them. pass the word round for all hands to follow one another in a circle, at a little distance apart." ( ) to move round in a circle. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' p. : "the cattle were uneasy and `ringed' all night." ( ) to make the top score at a shearing-shed. see ringer. . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "the man that `rung' the tubbo shed is not the ringer here." ring-bark, v. tr. same meaning as ring ( ). . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the selector in a timbered country, without troubling himself about cause and effect, is aware that if he destroys the tree the grass will grow, and therefore he `ring-barks' his timber." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "our way led us through a large but not dense wood of leafless gumtrees. my companion told me that the forest was dead as a result of `ring-barking.' to get the grass to grow better, the settler removes a band of bark near the root of the tree. in a country where cattle-raising is carried on to so great an extent, this may be very practical, but it certainly does not beautify the landscape. the trees die at once after this treatment, and it is a sad and repulsive sight to see these withered giants, as if in despair, stretching their white barkless branches towards the sky." . `thumbnail sketches of australian life,' p. : "we were going through ring-barked country. you don't know what that is? well, those giant gum-trees absorb all the moisture and keep the grass very poor, so the squatters kill them by ring-barking--that is, they have a ring described round the trunk of each tree by cutting off a couple of feet of bark. presently the leaves fall off; then the rest of the bark follows, and eventually the tree becomes nothing but a strange lofty monument of dry timber." ring-dollar, n. see quotation; and see dump and holy dollar. . t. h. braim, `new homes,' c. iii. p. : "the spanish dollar was much used. a circular piece was struck out of the centre about the size of a shilling . . . and the rest of the dollar, called from the circular piece taken out a `ring-dollar,' was valued at four shillings." ring-eye, n. one of the many names for the birds of the genus zosterops (q.v.). ringer, n. a sheep-shearing term. see quotations. mr. hornung's explanation of the origin (quotation, ) is probably right. see rings. . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "a `ringer' being the man who by his superior skill and expertness `tops the score'--that is, shears the highest number of sheep per day." . `the herald' (melbourne), dec. , p. , col. : "whence came the term `ringer,' as applied to the quickest shearer, i don't know. it might possibly have some association with a man who can get quoits on to the peg, and again, it might not, as was remarked just now by my mate, who is camped with me." . e. w. hornung, `boss of taroomba,' p. : "they call him the ringer of the shed. that means the fastest shearer--the man who runs rings round the rest, eh?" . `geelong grammar school quarterly,' april, p. : "another favourite [school] phrase is a `regular ringer.' great excellence is implied by this expression." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "the shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong, after the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along the `ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before, and the novice who toiling bravely had tommyhawked half a score." ring-neck, n. the equivalent of jackaroo (q.v.). a term used in the back blocks in reference to the white collar not infrequently worn by a jackaroo on his first appearance and when unaccustomed to the life of the bush. the term is derived from the supposed resemblance of the collar to the light- coloured band round the neck of the ring-neck parrakeet. rings, to run round: to beat out and out. a picturesque bit of australian slang. one runner runs straight to the goal, the other is so much better that he can run round and round his competitor, and yet reach the goal first. . `the argus,' oct. , p. , col. : "considine could run rings round the lot of them." . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "as athletes the cocoons can run rings round the beans; they can jump out of a tumbler." ring-tail, or ring-tailed opossum, n. see pseudochirus and opossum. rinka-sporum, n. a mis-spelt name for the australian varieties of the tribe of rhyncosporeae, n.o. cyperaceae. this tribe includes twenty-one genera, of which rhynchospora (the type), schaenus, cladium, and remirea are widely distributed, and the others are chiefly small genera of the southern hemisphere, especially australia. (`century.') . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "rinka-sporum, a mass of white bloom." riro-riro, n. a bird. maori name for the grey-warbler of new zealand, gerygone flaviventris, gray. see gerygone. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : [a full description.] . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "a little wren managed to squeeze itself through, and it flew off to kurangai-tuku, and cried, `kurangai-tuku, the man is riro, riro, riro!'--that is, gone, gone, gone. and to this day the bird is known as the riro-riro." river-oak. see oak. roa, n. another maori name for the largest or brown kiwi (q.v.). in maori the word roa means long or big. roaring horsetails, n. a slang name for the aurora australis. robin, n. the name, in consequence of their external resemblance to the familiar english bird, is applied, in australia, to species of the various genera as follows:-- ashy-fronted fly-robin-- heteromyias cinereifrons, ramsay. buff-sided r.-- poecilodryas cerviniventris, gould. dusky r.-- amaurodryas vittata, quoy and gaim. flame-breasted robin-- petroica phoenicea, gould. hooded r.-- melanodryas bicolor, vig. and hors. pied r.-- m. picata, gould. pink-breasted r.-- erythrodryas rhodinogaster, drap. red-capped r.-- petroica goodenovii, vig. and hors. red-throated r.-- p. ramsayi, sharp. rose-breasted r.-- erythrodryas rosea, gould. scarlet-breasted r.-- petroica leggii, sharp. scrub r.-- drymodes brunneopygia, gould. white-browed r. poecilodryas superciliosa, gould. white-faced scrub-r.-- drymodes superciliaris, gould. the new zealand species are-- chatham island robin-- miro traversi, buller. north island r.-- m. australis, sparrm. south island r.-- m. albifrons, gmel. gould's enumeration of the species is given below. [see quotations, , .] see also shrike-robin, scrub-robin, and satin-robin. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of the linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "`this bird,' mr. caley says, `is called yellow-robin by the colonists. it is an inhabitant of bushes'" . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii: plate petroica superciliosa, gould, white-eyebrowed robin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . drymodes brunneopygia, gould, scrub robin. . eopsaltria leucogaster, gould, white-bellied robin . . . . . . . . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "very soon comes a robin. . . . in the bush no matter where you pitch, the robin always comes about, and when any other of his tribe comes about, he bristles up his feathers, and fights for his crumbs. . . . he is not at all pretty, like the australian or european robin, but a little sober black and grey bird, with long legs, and a heavy paunch and big head; like a quaker, grave, but cheerful and spry withal." [this is the robin of new zealand.] . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the new zealand robin was announced, and i could see only a fat little ball of a bird, with a yellowish-white breast." . j. gould, `birds of australia' [supplement]: drymodes superciliaris, gould, eastern scrub robin. petroica cerviniventris, gould, buff-sided robin. eopsaltria capito, gould, large-headed robin. e. leucura, gould, white-tailed robin. . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the large red-breasted robin, kinsman true of england's delicate high-bred bird of home." . mrs.meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "the robin is certainly more brilliantly beautiful than his english namesake. . . . black, red and white are the colours of his dress, worn with perfect taste. the black is shining jet, the red, fire, and the white, snow. there is a little white spot on his tiny black-velvet cap, a white bar across his pretty white wings, and his breast is, a living flame of rosy, vivid scarlet." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "here, too, the `careful robin eyes the delver's toil,' and as he snatches the worm from the gardener's furrow, he turns to us a crimson-scarlet breast that gleams in the sun beside the golden buttercups like a living coal. the hues of his english cousin would pale beside him ineffectual." . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "the flame-breasted robin no longer lingers showing us his brilliant breast while he sings out the cold grey afternoons in his tiny treble. he has gone with departing winter." rock-cod, n. called also red-cod in new zealand, pseudophycis barbatus, gunth., family gadidae. in new zealand the blue-cod(q.v.) is also called rock-cod. species of the allied genus lotella are also called rock-cod in new south wales. see beardy and ling. . `royal commission on the fisheries of tasmania,' p. : "a variety known to fishermen as the deep-water, or cape-cod. . . . it would appear that the latter is simply the mature form of the `rock-cod,' which enters the upper waters of estuaries in vast numbers during the month of may. . . the rock-cod rarely exceeds / lbs. weight." rocket, native, a tasmanian name for epacris lanuginosa, lab., n.o. epacrideae. see epacris. rock lily, n. see under lily. rock-ling, n. a marine fish. the australian r. is genypterus australis, castln., family ophidiidae. the european r. belongs to the genera onos and rhinonemus, formerly motella. of the genus genypterus, guenther says they have an excellent flesh, like cod, well adapted for curing. at the cape they are known by the name of "klipvisch," and in new zealand as ling, or cloudy-bay cod. rock-native, or native, n. a name given to the fish called a schnapper when it has ceased to "school." see schnapper. rock-parrakeet, n. an australian grass-parrakeet(q.v.), euphema petrophila, gould. it gets its name from its habitat, the rocks and crags. rock-pebbler, n. another name for the black-tailed parrakeet. see parrakeet. rock-perch, n. the name given in melbourne to the fish glyphidodon victoriae, gunth., family pomacentridae, or coral-fishes. it is not a true perch. rock-shelter, n. a natural cave-dwelling of the aborigines. see gibber-gunyah. . r. etheridge, jun., in `records of the australian museum,' vol. i. no. viii. p. (`notes on rock shelters or gibba-gunyahs at deewhy lagoon'): ". . . the shelters are of the usual type seen throughout the port jackson district, recesses in the escarpment, overhung by thick, more or less tabular masses of rock, in some cases dry and habitable, in others wet and apparently never used by the aborigines." rock-wallaby, n. the popular name for any animal of the genus petrogale (q.v.). there are six species-- brush-tailed rock-wallaby-- petrogale penicillata, gray. little r.-w.-- p. concinna, gould. plain-coloured r.-w.-- p. inornata, gould. rock-w., or west-australian r.-w.-- p. lateralis, gould. short-eared r.-w.-- p. brachyotis, gould. yellow-footed r.-w.-- p. xanthopus, gray. see wallaby. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. viii. p. : "a light, active chap, spinning over the stones like a rock wallaby." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "they rode and rode, but warrigal was gone like a rock wallaby." . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the rock-wallabies are confined to the mainland of australia, on which they are generally distributed, but are unknown in tasmania. although closely allied to the true wallabies, their habits are markedly distinct, the rock-wallabies frequenting rugged, rocky districts, instead of the open plains." roger gough, n. an absurd name given to the tree baloghia lucida, endl., n.o. euphorbiaceae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "scrub, or brush bloodwood, called also `roger gough.'" . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "who were messrs. james donnelly, james low, and roger gough that their names should have been bestowed on trees? were they growers or buyers of timber? was the first of the list any relative of the minnesota lawyer who holds strange views about a great cryptogram in shakespeare's plays? was the last of the three any relative of the eminent soldier who won the battles of sobraon and ferozeshah? or, as is more probable, were the names mere corruptions of aboriginal words now lost?" roll up, v. intr. to gather, to assemble. . j. farrell, `how he died,' p. : "the miners all rolled up to see the fun." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xx. p. : "at the warraluen and other gold towns, time after time the ominous words `roll up' had sounded forth, generally followed by the gathering of a mighty crowd." roll-up, n. a meeting. see preceding verb. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xxxv. p. : "making as much noise as if you'd hired the bell-man for a roll-up?" roly-poly grass, or roley-poley, n. name given to panicum macractinium, benth., n.o. gramineae; and also to salsola kali, linn., n.o. salsolaceae. see grass. . d. bunce, `travels with dr. leichhardt in australia,' pp. - : "very common to these plains, was a large-growing salsolaceous plant, belonging to the chenopodeaceae, of jussieu. these weeds grow in the form of a large ball. . . . no sooner were a few of these balls (or, as we were in the habit of calling them, `rolly-poleys') taken up with the current of air, than the mules began to kick and buck. . . ." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. : "a salsolaceous plant growing in the form of a ball several feet high. in the dry season it withers, and is easily broken off and rolled about by the winds, whence it is called roley-poly by the settlers." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "roly-poly grass. this species produces immense dry and spreading panicles; it is perennial, and seeds in november and december. it is a somewhat straggling species, growing in detached tufts, on sand-hills and sandy soil, and much relished by stock." . baldwin spencer, `horne expedition in central australia,' narrative, p. : "on the loamy flats, and even gibber plains, the most noticeable plant is salsola kali, popularly known as the rolly-polly. it is, when mature, one of the characteristically prickly plants of the lower steppes, and forms great spherical masses perhaps a yard or more in diameter." roman-lamp shell, name given in tasmania to a brachiopod mollusc, waldheimia flavescens, lamarck. roo, a termination, treated earlier as the name of an animal. it is the termination of potoroo, wallaroo, kangaroo. see especially the last. it may be added that it is very rare for aboriginal words to begin with the letter `r.' . j. white, `voyage to new south wales' [observations at the end, by mr. john hunter, the celebrated surgeon]: plate p. --a kangaroo. description of teeth. plate p. --wha tapoua roo, about the size of a racoon [probably an opossum]. plate p. --a poto roo or kangaroo-rat. plate p. --hepoona roo. rope, v. tr. to catch a horse or bullock with a noosed rope. it comes from the western united states, where it has superseded the original spanish word lasso, still used in california. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. xxi. p. : "you could `rope' . . . any clifton colt or filly, back them in three days, and within a week ride a journey." ropeable, adj. ( ) of cattle; so wild and intractable as to be capable of subjection only by being roped. see preceding word. ( ) by transference: intractable, angry, out of temper. . `the argus,' oct. , p. , col. : "the service has shown itself so `ropeable' heretofore that one experiences now a kind of chastened satisfaction in seeing it roped and dragged captive at sir frederick's saddle-bow." . modern. in school-boy slang: "you must not chaff him, he gets so ropeable." roping-pole, n. a long pole used for casting a rope over an animal's head in the stockyard. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. iv. p. : "i happened to knock down the superintendent with a roping-pole." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "i'm travelling down the castlereagh and i'm a station-hand, i'm handy with the ropin'-pole, i'm handy with the brand, and i can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day, but there's no demand for a station-hand along the castlereagh." rosary-shell, n. in europe, the name is applied to any marine gastropod shell of the genus monodonta. in australia, it is applied to the shell of nerita atrata, lamarck, a marine mollusc of small size and black colour used for necklaces, bracelets, and in place of the "beads" of a rosary. rose, n. name given to the australian shrub, boronia serrulata, sm., n.o. rutaceae. it has bright green leaves and very fragrant rose-coloured flowers. rose-apple, n. another name for the sweet plum. see under plum. rose-bush, a timber-tree, eupomatia laurina, r. br., n.o. anonaceae. rose-hill, n. the name is given by gould as applied to two parrakeets-- ( ) platycercus eximius, vig. and hors., called by the colonists of new south wales, and by gould, the rose-hill parrakeet. ( ) platycercus icterotis, wagl., called by the colonists of swan river, western australia, the rose-hill, and by gould the earl of derby's parrakeet. the modern name for both these birds is rosella (q.v.), though it is more specifically confined to the first. `rose-hill' was the name of the governor's residence at parramatta, near sydney, in the early days of the settlement of new south wales, and the name rosella is a settler's corruption of rose-hiller, though the erroneous etymology from the latin rosella (sc. `a little rose') is that generally given. the word rosella, however, is not a scientific name, and does not appear as the name of any genus or species; it is vernacular only, and no settler or bushman is likely to have gone to the latin to form it. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "platycercus eximius, vig. & hors. rose-hill parrakeet; colonists of new south wales." ibid. vol. v. pl. : "platycercus icterotis, wagl. the earl of derby's parrakeet; rose-hill of the colonists [of swan river]." rosella, n. ( ) a bird, platycercus eximius, the rosehill (q.v.). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the common white cockatoo, and the moreton bay rosella parrot, were very numerous." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "saw the bright rosellas fly, with breasts that glowed like sunsets in the fiery western sky." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the solitudes where the lorikeets and rosellas chatter." . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "as [the race] sweeps past the stand every year in a close bright mass the colours, of the different clubs, are as dazzling and gay in the sun as a brilliant flight of galahs and rosellas." ( ) in northern australia, it is a slang name for a european who works bared to the waist, which some, by a gradual process of discarding clothing, acquire the power of doing. the scorching of the skin by the sun produces a colour which probably suggested a comparison with the bright scarlet of the parrakeet so named. rosemary, n. name given to the shrub westringia dampieri, r. br., n. . labiatae. . w. dampier, `voyage to new holland,' vol. iii. p. : "there grow here or sorts of shrubs, one just like rosemary; and therefore i call'd this rosemary island. it grew in great plenty here, but had no smell." [this island is in or near shark's bay] rosemary, golden, n. name given in tasmania to the plant oxylobium ellipticum, r. br., n.o. leguminosae. rosemary, wild, a slender australian timber-tree, cassinia laevis, r. br., n.o. compositae. rose, native, n. i.q. bauera (q.v.). rosewood, name given to the timber of three trees. ( ) acacia glaucescens, willd., n.o. leguminosae; called also brigalow, mountain brigalow, and myall. ( ) dysoxylon fraserianum, benth., n.o. meliaceae; called also pencil cedar. ( ) eremophila mitchelli, benth. n.o. myoporinae; called also sandalwood. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "one or two trees of a warmer green, of what they call `rosewood,' i believe gave a fine effect, relieving the sober greyish green of the pendent acacia." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition' p. : "the rosewood acacia of moreton bay." rough, or roughy, or ruffy, or ruffie, n. a victorian fish, arripis georgianus, cuv. and val., family percidae. arripis is the genus of the australian fish called salmon, or salmon-trout, a. salar, gunth. see salmon. . `spectator' (melbourne), june , : "common fish, such as trout, ruffies mullet . . . and others." . `victorian statutes--fisheries, second schedule' [close season]: "rough, or roughy." rough fig, n. see under fig-tree. rough-leaved fig, n. see under fig-tree. round, v. trans., contraction of the verb to round-up, to bring a scattered herd together; used in all grazing districts, and common in the western united states. . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "a friend of mine who has spent many a night rounding the mob on lonely queensland cattle camps where hostile blacks were as thick as dingoes has a peculiar aversion to one plain covered with dead gums, because the curlews always made him feel miserable when crossing it at night." round yam, n. i.q. burdekin vine. see under vine. rouseabout, n. a station-hand put on to any work, a jack of all work, an `odd man.' the form `roustabout' is sometimes used, but the latter is rather an american word (western states), in the sense of a labourer on a river boat, a deck-hand who assists in loading and unloading. . j. farrell, `how he died,' p. : "it may be the rouseabout swiper who rode for the doctor that night, is in heaven with the hosts of the blest, robed and sceptred, and splendid with light." w. `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "the `rouseabouts' are another class of men engaged in shearing time, whose work is to draft the sheep, fill the pens for the shearers, and do the branding. . . . the shearers hold themselves as the aristocrats of the shed; and never associate with the rouseabouts." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "while we sat there, a rouseabout came to the door. `mountain jim's back,' he said. there was no `sir' in the remark of this lowest of stationhands to his master." . `sydney morning herald' (date lost): "a rougher person--perhaps a happier--is the rouseabout, who makes himself useful in the shearing shed. he is clearly a man of action. he is sometimes with less elegance, and one would say less correctly, spoken of as a roustabout." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. [title of poem, `middleton's rouseabout']: "flourishing beard and sandy, tall and robust and stout; this is the picture of andy, middleton's rouseabout." rowdy, adj. troublesome. common slang, but unusual as applied to a bullock or a horse. . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "branding or securing a troublesome or, colonially, a `rowdy' bullock." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river, p. : "and i can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day." rua, n. maori word (used in north island) for a pit, cave or hole. a place for storing roots, such as potatoes, etc. formerly some of these rua had carved entrances. ruffy or ruffie, n. a fish. see rough or roughy. run, n. ( ) tract of land over which sheep or cattle may graze. it is curious that what in england is called a sheep-walk, in australia is a sheep-run. in the western united states it is a sheep-ranch. originally the squatter, or sheep-farmer, did not own the land. it was unfenced, and he simply had the right of grazing or "running" his sheep or cattle on it. subsequently, in many cases, he purchased the freehold, and the word is now applied to a large station property, fenced or unfenced. (see quotation, .) . goldie, in bischoff's `van diemen's land' ( ), p. : "it is generally speaking a good sheep-run." . report of van diemen's band company, in bischoff's `van diemen's land' ( ), p. : "a narrow slip of good sheep-run down the west coast." . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. , col. : "the thousand runs stated as the number in port phillip under the new regulations will cost l , , ." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "`runs,' land claimed by the squatter as sheep-walks, open, as nature left them, without any improvement from the squatter." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the runs of the narran wide-dotted with sheep, and loud with the lowing of cattle." . w. westgarth, `colony of victoria,' p. : "here then is a squatting domain of the old unhedged stamp. the station or the `run,' as these squatting areas are called, borders upon the darling, along which river it possesses a frontage of thirty-five lineal miles, with a back area of square miles." . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' p. : "the desire of some to turn van diemen's land into a large squatter's run, by the passing of the impounding act, was the immediate cause, he told us, of his taking up the project of a poor man's country elsewhere." . `/delta/,' `studies in rhyme,' p. : "of squatters' runs we've oft been told, the people's lands impairing." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. [note]: "a run is the general term for the tract of country on which australians keep their stock, or allow them to `run.'" ( ) the bower of the bowerbird (q.v.). . `proceedings of the zoological society,' p. : "they are used by the birds as a playing-house, or `run,' as it is termed, and are used by the males to attract the females." run-about, n. and adj. run-abouts are cattle left to graze at will, and the runabout-yard is the enclosure for homing them. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xviii. p. : "`open that gate, piambook,' said ernest gravely, pointing to the one which led into the `run-about' yard." run-hunting, exploring for a new run. see run. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. xix. p. : "what do you say if i go run-hunting with you?" running-postman, n. a tasmanian plant, i.q. coral-pea. see kennedya. ruru, n. maori name for the new zealand bird, the more-pork, athene novae-zelandiae, gmel. (q.v.). . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "the ruru's voice re-echoes, desolate." rush, v. ( ) of cattle: to charge a man. contraction for to rush-at. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "when not instigated by terror, wild cattle will seldom attack the traveller; even of those which run at him, or `rush,' as it is termed, few will really toss or gore, or even knock him down." ( ) to attack sheep; i.e. to cause them to rush about or away. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "sometimes at night this animal [the dingo] will leap into the fold amongst the timid animals [sheep] and so `rush' them--that is, cause them to break out and disperse through the bush." ( ) to break through a barrier (of men or materials). contraction for to rush past or through; e.g. to rush a cordon of policemen; to rush a fence (i.e. to break-down or climb-over it). ( ) to take possession of, or seize upon, either by force or before the appointed time. compare jump. . modern: "those who had no tickets broke through and rushed all the seats." "the dancers becoming very hungry did not stand on ceremony, but rushed the supper." ( ) to flood with gold-seekers. . h. h. hayter, `christmas adventure,' p. : "the bald hill had just been rushed, and therefore i decided to take up a claim." rush, n. ( ) the hurrying off of diggers to a new field. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "we had a long conversation on the `rush,' as it was termed." . j. rogers, `new rush,' pt. i., p. : "arouse you, my comrades, for rush is the word, advance to the strife with a pick for a sword." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "fell timber creek, where a new rush had set in." ( ) a place where gold is found, and to which consequently a crowd of diggers "rush." . william howitt, `land, labour and gold; or two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "it is a common practice for them to mark out one or more claims in each new rush, so as to make sure if it turn out well. but only one claim at a time is legal and tenable. this practice is called shepherding." . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "the palmer river rush is a perfect swindle." . wood and lapham, `waiting for mail,' p. : "off we set to the dunstan rush, just broken out." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "morinish, was a worked-out rush close to rockhampton, where the first attempt at gold-digging had been made in queensland." ( ) a stampede of cattle. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "a confused whirl of dark forms swept before him, and the camp, so full of life a minute ago, is desolate. it was `a rush,' a stampede." rush-broom, n. australian name for the indigenous shrub viminaria denudata, sm., n.o. leguminosae. the flowers are orange-yellow. in england, it is cultivated in greenhouses. rusty fig, n. see under fig-tree. s saddle, colonial, n. . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "the colonial saddle is a shapeless, cumbersome fabric, made of rough leather, with a high pommel and cantle, and huge knee-pads, weighing on an average twenty pounds. the greatest care is necessary to prevent such a diabolical machine from giving a horse a sore back." [mr. finch-hatton's epithet is exaggerated. the saddle is well adapted to its peculiar local purposes. the projecting knee-pads, especially, save the rider from fractured knee-caps when galloping among closely timbered scrub. the ordinary english saddle is similarly varied by exaggeration of different parts to suit special requirements, as e.g. in the military saddle, with its enormous pommel; the diminutive racing saddle, to meet handicappers' "bottom-weights," etc. the mediaeval saddle had its turret-like cantle for the armoured spearman.] saddle-back, n. a bird of the north island of new zealand, creadion carunculatus, cab. see also jack-bird and creadion. . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' essay on ornithology, by w. buller, vol. i. p. : "the saddle-back (creadion carunculatus) of the north is represented in the south by c. cinereus, a closely allied species." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "it is the sharp, quick call of the saddle-back." . a. reischek, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xix. art. xxiii. p. : "the bird derives its popular name from a peculiarity in the distribution of its two strongly contrasting colours, uniform black, back and shoulders ferruginous, the shoulders of the wings forming a saddle. in structure it resembles the starling (sturnidae); it has also the wedge bill." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "creadion carunculatus. this bird derives its popular name from a peculiarity in the distribution of its too strongly contrasted colours, black and ferruginous, the latter of which covers the back, forms a sharply-defined margin across the shoulders, and sweeps over the wings in a manner suggestive of saddle-flaps." sagg, n. the name given in tasmania to the plant xerotes longifolia, r. br., n.o. junceae, and also to the white iris, diplarhena morcaea. saliferous, adj. salt-bearing. see salt-bush. the word is used in geology in ordinary english, but the botanical application is australian. . e. w. hornung, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "you have only to cover the desert with pale-green saliferous bushes, no higher than a man's knee." sallee, n. aboriginal name for many varieties of the acacia (q.v.). sally, sallow, n. corruptions of the aboriginal word sallee (q.v.). there are many varieties, e.g. black-sally, white-sally, etc. salmon, n. the english salmon is being acclimatised with difficulty in tasmania and new zealand; the trout more successfully. but in all australian, new zealand, and tasmanian waters there is a marine fish which is called salmon; it is not the true salmon of the old world, but arripis salar, gunth., and called in new zealand by the maori name kahawai. the fish is often called also salmon-trout. the young is called samson-fish (q.v.). . d. collins, `account of the english colony of new south wales,' p. : [sept. .] "near four thousand of a fish, named by us, from its shape only, the salmon, being taken at two hauls of the seine. each fish weighed on an average about five pounds." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the kawai has somewhat of the habits of the salmon, entering during spring and summer into the bays, rivers, and fresh-water creeks in large shoals." . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "arripis salar, south australia. three species are known, from the coasts of southern australia and new zealand. they are named by the colonists salmon or trout, from their elegant form and lively habits, and from the sport they afford to the angler." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "arripis salar, gunth., is in the adult state the salmon of the australian fishermen, and their salmon trout is the young. . . . the most common of all victorian fishes . . . does not resemble the true salmon in any important respect . . . it is the a. truttaceus of cuvier and valenciennes." salmon-trout, n. i.q. salmon (q.v.). saloop-bush, n. name given to an erect soft-stemmed bush, rhagodia hastata, r. br., n.o. salsolaceae, one of the australian redberries, two to three feet high. see redberry and salt-bush. salsolaceous, adj. belongs to the natural order salsolaceae. the shrubs of the order are not peculiar to australia, but are commoner there than elsewhere. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "passing tufts of samphire and salsolaceous plants." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' c. xlii. (`century'): "it is getting hopeless now . . . sand and nothing but sand. the salsolaceous plants, so long the only vegetation we have seen, are gone." salt-bush, n. and adj. the wild alkaline herb or shrub, growing on the interior plains of australia, on which horses and sheep feed, of the n.o. salsolaceae. the genera are atriplex, kochia, and rhagodia. of the large growth, a. nummularium, lindl., and of the dwarf species, a. vesicarium, heward, and a. halimoides, lindl., are the commonest. some species bear the additional names of cabbage salt-bush, old-man salt-bush, small salt-bush, blue-bush, cotton-bush, saloop-bush, etc. some varieties are very rich in salt. rhagodia parabolica, r. br., for instance, according to mr. stephenson, who accompanied sir t. mitchell in one of his expeditions, yields as much as two ounces of salt by boiling two pounds of leaves. . t. h. braim, `new homes,' c. ii. p. : "this inland salt-bush country suits the settler's purpose well." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "the ground is covered with the sage-coloured salt-bush all the year round, but in the winter it blooms with flowers." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. xxi. p. : "how glorious it will be to see them pitching into that lovely salt-bush by the lake." . e. w. hornung, `under two skies,' p. : "the surrounding miles of salt-bush plains and low monotonous scrub oppressed her when she wandered abroad. there was not one picturesque patch on the whole dreary run." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "over the miles of the salt-bush plain-- the shining plain that is said to be the dried-up bed of an inland sea. . . . . . . . . . . . . for those that love it and understand, the salt-bush plain is a wonderland." samson-fish, n. name given in sydney to seriola hippos, gunth., family carangidae; and in melbourne to the young of arripis salar, richards., family percidae. see salmon. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the samson-fish (senola hippos, gunth.) is occasionally caught. the great strength of these fishes is remarkable, and which probably is the cause that gave it the name of samson-fish, as sailors or shipwrights give to the name of a strong post resting on the keelson of a ship, and supporting the upper beam, and bearing all the weight of the deck cargo near the hold, samson-post." sandalwood, n. the name is given to many australian trees from the strong scent of their timber. they are -- of the n.o. santalaceae-- exocarpos latifolia, r. br.; called scrub-sandalwood. fusanus spicatus, r. br.; called fragrant sandalwood. santalum lanceolatum, r. br. s. obtusifodum, r. br. santalum persicarium, f. v. m.; called native sandalwood. of the n.o. myoporinae-- eremophila mitchelli, benth.; called also rosewood and bastard-sandalwood. e. sturtii, r. br.; called curiously the scentless sandalwood. myoporum platycarpum, r. br.; called also dogwood (q.v.). of the n.o. apocyneae-- alyxia buxifolia, r. br.; called native sandalwood in tasmania. sandfly-bush, n. australian name for the indigenous tree zieria smithii, andr., n.o. rutaceae. called also turmeric, and in tasmania, stinkwood. sand-lark, n. name given in australia to the red-capped dottrel, charadrius ruficapilla, temm. . w. richardson, `tasmanian poems,' pref. p. xi: "the nimble sand-lark learns his pretty note." sandpiper, n. about twenty species of this familiar sea-bird exist. it belongs especially to the northern hemisphere, but it performs such extensive migrations that in the northern winter it is dispersed all over the world. (`century.') the species observed in australia are-- bartram's sandpiper-- tringa bartrami. common s.-- actitis hypoleucos, linn. great s.-- tringa crassirostris, temm. and schleg. grey-rumped s.-- t. brevisses. sandplover, n. a bird of new zealand. according to professor parker, only two genera of this common bird are to be found in new zealand. there is no bird bearing the name in australia. see plover and wry-billed plover. . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "but two genera of the group [wading birds] are found only in new zealand, the sandplover and the curious wry-billed plover." sand-stay, n. a characteristic name for the coast tea-tree, leptospermum laevigatum, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. see tea-tree. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "sandstay. coast tea-tree. this shrub is the most effectual of all for arresting the progress of driftsand in a warm climate. it is most easily raised by simply scattering in autumn the seeds on the sand, and covering them loosely with boughs, or, better still, by spreading lopped-off branches of the shrub itself, bearing ripe seed, on the sand. (mueller.)" sandy, n. a tasmanian fish, uphritis urvillii, cuv. and val, family trachinidae; also called the fresh-water flathead. see flathead. sandy-blight, n. a kind of ophthalmia common in australia, in which the eye feels as if full of sand. called also shortly, blight. shakspeare has sand-blind (m. of v. ii. ii. ); launcelot says-- " heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not." on this, the american commentator, mr. rolfe, notes-- "sand-blind. dim of sight; as if there were sand in the eye, or perhaps floating before it. it means something more than purblind." "as if there were sand in the eye,"--an admirable description of the australian sandy-blight. . j. f. blanche, `the prince's visit,' p. : "the prince was suff'ring from the sandy blight." . e. b. kennedy, `four years in queensland,' p. : "sandy-blight occurs generally in sandy districts in the north kennedy; it may be avoided by ordinary care, and washing the eyes after a hot ride through sandy country. it is a species of mild ophthalmia." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "he had pretty near lost his eyesight with the sandy blight, which made him put his head forward when he spoke, as if he took you for some one else, or was looking for what he couldn't find." sarcophile, and sarcophilus, n. the scientific name of the genus of carnivorous marsupial animals of which the tasmanian devil (q.v.) is the only known living species.(grk. sarkos, flesh, and philein, to love.) sardine, n. name given in australia to a fresh-water fish, chatoessus erebi, richards., of the herring tribe, occurring in west and north-west australia, and in queensland rivers, and which is called in the brisbane river the sardine. it is the bony bream of the new south wales rivers, and the perth herring of western australia. sarsaparilla, australian or native, n. ( ) an ornamental climbing shrub, hardenbergia monophylla, benth., n.o. leguminosae. formerly called kennedya (q.v.). ( ) smilax glycyphylla, smith, n. . liliaceae. . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "native sarsaparilla. the roots of this beautiful purple- flowered twiner (hardenbergia monophylla) are used by bushmen as a substitute for the true sarsaparilla, which is obtained from a widely different plant." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "commonly, but wrongly, called `native sarsaparilla.' the roots are sometimes used by bushmen as a substitute for the true sarsaparilla (smilax), but its virtues are purely imaginary. it is a common thing in the streets of sydney, to see persons with large bundles of the leaves on their shoulders, doubtless under the impression that they have the leaves of the true sarsaparilla, smilax glycyphylla." . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "he will see, too, the purple of the sarsaparilla on the hill-sides, and the golden bloom of the wattle on the flats, forming a beautiful contrast in tint. old diggers consider the presence of sarsaparilla and the ironbark tree as indicative of the existence of golden wealth below. whether these can be accepted as indicators in the vegetable kingdom of gold below is questionable, but it is nevertheless a fact that the sarsaparilla and the ironbark tree are common on most of victoria's goldfields." sassafras, n. corruption of saxafas, which is from saxifrage. by origin, the word means "stone-breaking," from its medicinal qualities. the true sassafras (s. officinale) is the only species of the genus. it is a north-american tree, about forty feet high, but the name has been given to various trees in many parts of the world, from the similarity, either of their appearance or of the real or supposed medicinal properties of their bark. in australia, the name is given to-- atherosperma moschatum, labill., n. . monimiaceae; called native sassafras, from the odour of its bark, due to an essential oil closely resembling true sassafras in odour. (maiden.) beilschmiedia obtusifolia, benth., n. . lauraceae; called queensland sassafras, a large and handsome tree. cryptocarya glaucescens, r. br., n. . lauraceae; the sassafras of the early days of new south wales, and now called black sassafras. daphnandra micrantha, benth., n. . monimiaceae, called also satinwood, and light yellow-wood. doryphora sassafras, endl., n. . monimiaceae. grey sassafras is the moreton-bay laurel. see laurel. the new zealand sassafras is laurelia novae-zelandiae. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "the leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in the colony, as have also the leaves and bark of cryptocarya glaucescens, the australian sassafras." . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. ii. p. : "the beautiful tasmanian sassafras-tree is also a dweller in some parts of our fern-tree valleys. . . . the flowers are white and fragrant, the leaves large and bright green, and the bark has a most aromatic scent, besides being, in a decoction, an excellent tonic medicine. . . . the sawyers and other bushmen familiar with the tree call it indiscriminately `saucifax,' `sarserfrax,' and `satisfaction.'" . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "a tasmanian timber. height, ft.; dia., in. found on low, marshy ground. used for sashes and doorframes." . `melbourne museum catalogue--economic woods,' no. : "atherosperma moschatum, victorian sassafras-tree, n.o. monimiaceae." satin-bird, n. another name for the satin bower-bird. see bower-bird. . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : the natives call it cowry, the colonists satin-bird." satin-robin, n. a tasmanian name for the satin fly-catcher, myiagra nitida, gould. satin-sparrow, n. same as satin-robin (q.v.). satinwood, n. a name applied to two australian trees from the nature of their timber--xanthoxylum brachyacanthum, f. v. m., n.o. rutaceae, called also thorny yellow-wood; daphnandra micrantha, benth., n.o. monimiaceae, called also light yellow-wood and sassafras (q.v.). saw-fish, n. a species of ray, pristis zysron, bleek, the australasian representative of the pristidae family, or saw-fishes, rays of a shark-like form, with long, flat snouts, armed along each edge with strong teeth. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. [j. e. bicheno, june , , in epist.]: "last week an old fisherman brought me a fine specimen of a saw-fish, caught in the derwent. it turned out to be the pristis cirrhatus,--a rare and curious species, confined to the australian seas, and first described by dr. latham in the year ." sawyer, n. ( ) name applied by bushmen in new zealand to the insect weta (q.v.). ( ) a trunk embedded in the mud so as to move with the current--hence the name: a snag is fixed. (an american use of the word.) see also snag. . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "by fitzroy's rugged crags, its `sawyers' and its snags, he roamed." sceloglaux, n. the scientific name of the genus containing the new zealand bird called the laughing owl (see under jackass). the name was given by kaup in ; the bird had been previously classed as athene by gray in . it is now nearly extinct. kaup also gave the name of spiloglaux to the new zealand owl at the same date. the words are from the greek glaux, an owl, spilos, a spot, and skelos, a leg. scent-wood, a tasmanian evergreen shrub, alyxia buxifolia, r. br., n.o. apocyneae, of the dogbane family. schnapper, n. or snapper, a fish abundant in all australasian waters, pagrus unicolor, cuv. and val. the latter spelling was the original form of the word (one that snaps). it was gradually changed by the fishermen, perhaps of dutch origin, to schnapper, the form now general. the name snapper is older than the settlement of australia, but it is not used for the same fish. `o.e.d.,' s.v. cavally, quotes: . r. ligon, `barbadoes,' p. : "fish . . . of various kinds . . . snappers, grey and red; cavallos, carpians, etc." the young are called cock-schnapper (q.v.); at a year old they are called red-bream; at two years old, squire; at three, school-schnapper; when they cease to "school" and swim solitary they are called natives and rock-natives. being the standard by which the "catch" is measured, the full-grown schnappers are also called count-fish (q.v.). in new zealand, the tamure (q.v.) is also called schnapper, and the name red-schnapper is given to anthias richardsoni, gunth., or scorpis hectori, hutton. see quotation, . . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "king-fish, mullet, mackarel, rockcod, whiting, snapper, bream, flatheads, and various other descriptions of fishes, are all found plentifully about." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. p. : "the kangaroos are numerous and large, and the finest snappers i have ever heard of are caught off this point, weighing sometimes as much as thirty pounds." [the point referred to is that now called schnapper point, at mornington, in victoria.] . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the genus pagrus, or as we term it in the vernacular, `schnapper,' a word of dutch origin . . . the schnapper or snapper. the schnapper (pagrus unicolor, cuv. and val.) is the most valuable of australian fishes, not for its superior excellence . . . but for the abundant and regular supply . . . at a still greater age the schnapper seems to cease to school and becomes what is known as the `native' and `rock-native,' a solitary and sometimes enormously large fish." `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "the fish, snapper, is so called because it snapped. the spelling with `ch' is a curious after-thought, suggestive of alcohol. the name cannot come from schnapps." school-schnapper, n. a fish. a name given to the schnapper when three years old. see schnapper. scorpion, n. another name for the new south wales fish pentaroge marmorata, cuv. and val.; called also the fortescue (q.v.), and the cobbler. scotchman, n. a new zealand name for a smaller kind of the grass called spaniard (q.v.). . w. s. roberts, `southland in ,' p. : "as we neared the hills speargrass of the smaller kind, known as scotchmen,' abounded, and although not so strong and sharp-pointed as the `spaniard,' would not have made a comfortable seat." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : ". . . national appellations are not satisfactory. it seems uncivil to a whole nation--another injustice to ireland--to call a bramble a wild irishman, or a pointed grass, with the edges very sharp and the point like a bayonet, a spaniard. one could not but be amused to find the name scotchman applied to a smaller kind of spaniard.' scribbly-gum, n. also called white-gum, eucalyptus haemastoma, sm., n.o. myrtaceae. see gum. . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "scribbly or white-gum. as regards timber this is the most worthless of the queensland species. a tree, often large, with a white, smooth, deciduous bark, always marked by an insect in a scribbly manner." scrub, n. country overgrown with thick bushes. henry kingsley's explanation ( ), that the word means shrubbery, is singularly misleading, the english word conveying an idea of smallness and order compared with the size and confusion of the australian use. yet he is etymologically correct, for scrobb is old english (anglo-saxon) for shrub; but the use had disappeared in england. . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. : "we encamped about noon in some scrub." . t. l. mitchell,' three expeditions,' vol. i. p. : "a number of gins and children remained on the borders of the scrub, half a mile off." . j a. moore, `tasmanian rhymings' ( ), p. : "here nature's gifts, with those of man combined, hath [sic] from a scrub a paradise defined." . w. westgarth, "australia felix,' p. : "the colonial term scrub, of frequent and convenient use in the description of australian scenery, is applicable to dense assemblages of harsh wild shrubbery, tea-tree, and other of the smaller and crowded timber of the country, and somewhat analogous to the term jungle." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. [footnote]: "scrub. i have used, and shall use, this word so often that some explanation is due to the english reader. i can give no better definition of it than by saying that it means `shrubbery.'" . j. mcdouall stuart, `exploration in australia,' p. : "at four miles arrived on the top, through a very thick scrub of mulga." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. v. p. : "woods which are open and passable--passable at any rate for men on horseback--are called bush. when the undergrowth becomes, thick and matted, so as to be impregnable without an axe, it is scrub." [impregnability is not a necessary point of the definition. there is "light" scrub, and "heavy" or "thick" scrub.] . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. i. p. [note]: "scrub was a colonial term for dense undergrowth, like that of the mallee-scrub." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "where . . . a belt of scrub lies green, glossy, and impenetrable as indian bungle." (p. ): "the nearest scrub, in the thickets of which the blacks could always find an impenetrable stronghold." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "a most magnificent forest of trees, called in australia a `scrub,' to distinguish it from open timbered country." . j. mccarthy and r. m. praed, `ladies' gallery,' p. : "why, i've been alone in the scrub--in the desert, i mean; you will understand that better." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "one more prominent feature in australian vegetation are the large expanses of the so-called `scrub' of the colonists. this is a dense covering of low bushes varying in composition in different districts, and named according to the predominating element." . a. r. wallace, `australasia,' vol. i. p. : "just as tartary is characterised by its steppes, america by its prairies, and africa by its deserts, so australia has one feature peculiar to itself, and that is its `scrubs.'. . . one of the most common terms used by explorers is `mallee' scrub, so called from its being composed of dwarf species of eucalyptus called the `mallee' by the natives. . . . still more dreaded by the explorer is the `mulga' scrub, consisting chiefly of dwarf acacias." . e. favenc, `tales of the austral tropics,' p. : "even more desolate than the usual dreary-looking scrub of the interior of australia." [p. ]: "the sea of scrub." . a. b. paterson, `manfrom snowy river,' p. : "born and bred on the mountain-side, he could race through scrub like a kangaroo." scrub, adj. and in composition. the word scrub occurs constantly in composition. see the following words. . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "we gathered the wild raspberries, and mingling them with gee-bongs, and scrub-berries, set forth a dessert." scrub-bird, n. name given to two australian birds, of the genus atrichia. (grk. 'atrichos = without hair.) they are the noisy scrub-bird, atrichia clamosa, gould, and the rufous s.-b., a. rufescens, ramsay. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' `supplement,' pl. : "the scrub-bird creeps mouse-like over the bark, or sits on a dripping stem and mocks all surrounding notes." scrub-cattle, n. escaped cattle that run wild in the scrub, used as a collective plural of scrubber (q.v.). . a. l. gordon, `the sick stockrider' [in `bush-ballads,' ], p. : "'twas merry 'mid the blackwoods, when we spied the station roofs, to wheel the wild scrub-cattle at the yard, with a running fire of stock-whips and a fiery run of hoofs, oh! the hardest day was never then too hard." scrub-crab, n. a queensland fruit. the large dark purple fruit, two inches in diameter, of sideroxylon australe, benth. and hook., n.o. saponaceae; a tall tree. scrub-dangler, n. a wild bullock. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvi. p. : "he is one of those infernal scrub-danglers from the lachlan, come across to get a feed." scrub-fowl, n. name applied to birds of the genus megapodius. see megapode. scrub-gum, n. see gum. scrub-hen, i.q. scrub fowl. scrub-ironwood, n. see ironwood. scrub-myrtle, n. see myrtle. scrub-oak, n. see oak. scrub-pine, n. see pine. scrub-poison-tree, n. see poison-tree. scrub-rider, n. a man who rides through the scrub in search of scrub-cattle (q.v.). . a. c. giant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "a favourite plan among the bold scrub-riders." scrub-robin, n. the modern name for any bird of the genus drymodes. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "drymodes brunneopygia, gould, scrub-robin. i discovered this singular bird in the great murray scrub in south [sc. southern] australia, where it was tolerably abundant. i have never seen it from any other part of the country, and it is doubtless confined to such portions of australia as are clothed with a similar character of vegetation." . w. o. legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science' (brisbane), p. : "as regards portions of gould's english nomenclatures, such as his general term `robin' for the genera petroica, paecilodryas, eopsaltria, it was found that by retaining the term `robin' for the best known member of the group (petroica), and applying a qualifying noun to the allied genera, such titles as tree-robin, scrub-robin, and shrike-robin were easily evolved." scrub-sandalwood, n. see sandalwood. scrub-tit, n. see tit. scrub-tree, n. any tree that grows in the scrub. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "almost all the scrub-trees of the condamine and kent's lagoon were still to be seen at the burdekin." scrub-turkey, n. an australian bird, leipoa ocellata, gould; aboriginal name, the lowan (q.v.). see turkey. scrub-vine, n. called also native rose. see bauera (q.v.). scrub-wren, n. any little bird of the australian genus sericornis. the species are-- brown scrub-wren-- sericornis humilis, gould. buff breasted s.-w.-- s. laevigaster, gould. collared s.-w.-- s. gutturalis, gould. large-billed scrub-wren-- sericornis magnirostris, gould. little s.-w.-- s. minimus, gould. spotted s.-w.-- s. maculatus, gould. spotted-throated s.-w.-- s. osculans, gould. white-browed s.-w.-- s. frontalis, vig. & hors. yellow-throated s.-w.-- s. citreogularis, gould. scrubber, n. ( ) a bullock that has taken to the scrub and so become wild. see scrub-cattle. also formerly used for a wild horse, now called a brumby (q.v.). . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' c. xxix: "the captain was getting in the scrubbers, cattle which had been left to run wild through in the mountains." . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "there are few field-sports anywhere . . . equal to `hunting scrubbers.'" . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "out flew the ancient scrubber, instinctively making towards his own wild domain." . w. s. s. tyrwhitt, `the new chum in the queensland bush,' p. : "there are also wild cattle, which are either cattle run wild or descendants of such. they are commonly called `scrubbers,' because they live in the larger scrubs." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "here i am boxed up, like a scrubber in a pound, year after year." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. (`getting in the scrubbers'): "the scrubbers, unseen of men, would stay in their fastnesses all day chewing the cud they had laid up the night before, and when the sun went down and the strident laugh of the giant kingfisher had given place to the insidious air-piercing note of the large-mouthed podargus, the scrub would give up its inhabitants." ( ) a starved-looking or ill-bred animal. ( ) the word is sometimes applied to mankind in the slang sense of an "outsider." it is used in university circles as equivalent to the oxford "smug," a man who will not join in the life of the place. see also bush-scrubber. . `colonial monthly,' vol. ii. p. [art. `peggy's christening]: "`i can answer for it, that they are scrubbers--to use a bush phrase--have never been brought within the pale of any church.' "`never been christened?' asked the priest. "`have no notion of it--scrubbers, sir--never been branded.'" scrubby, adj. belonging to, or resembling scrub. . jas. flemming, `journal of the exploration of c. grimes' [at port phillip, australia], ed. by j. j. shillinglaw, , melbourne, p. : "the land appeared barren, a scrubby brush." [p. : "the trees low and scrubby." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "to-day i . . . passed a scrubby ironbark forest.". . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "a scrubby country is a stockman's abhorrence, as there he cannot ride, at least at any pace." . j. a. b., `meta,' c. i. p. : "'twere madness to attempt to chase, in such a wild and scrubby place, australia's savage steer." scrubdom, n. the land of scrub. . c. a. sherard, `daughter of south,' p. : "my forefathers reigned in this scrubdom of old." scythrops, n. scientific name for a genus of birds belonging to the cuculidae, or cuckoos (from grk. skuthrowpos = angry-looking). the only species known is peculiar to australia, where it is called the channel-bill, a name given by latham (`general history of birds,' vol. ii.). white ( ) calls it the anomalous hornbill (`journal ,' pl. at p. ). sea-berry, n. see red-berry. sea-dragon, n. any australian fish of any one of the three species of the genus phyllopteryx, family syngnathidae. the name of the genus comes from the greek phullon = a leaf, and pterux = a wing. this genus is said by guenther to be exclusively australian. "protective resemblance attains its highest degree of development," he says, in this genus. "not only their colour closely assimilates that of the particular kind of sea-weed which they frequent, but the appendages of their spines seem to be merely part of the fucus to which they are attached. they attain a length of twelve inches." (`study of fishes,' p. .) the name, in england, is given to other and different fishes. the species p. foliatus is called the superb dragon (q.v.), from the beauty of its colours. sea-perch, n. a name applied to different fishes--in sydney, to the morwong (q.v.) and bull's-eye (q.v.); in new zealand, to sebastes percoides, called pohuiakawa (q.v.); in melbourne, to red-gurnard (q.v.). see red gurnet-perch. sea-pig, n. a small whale, the dugong. see under dugong-oil. . s. sidney, `three colonies of australia,' p. : "the aborigines eagerly pursue the dugong, a species of small whale, generally known to the colonists as the sea-pig." sea-pike, n. a fish of new south wales, lanioperca mordax, gunth., of the family sphyraenidae. the name belongs to the sydney fish-market. select, v. i.q. free-select (q.v.). selection, n. i.q. free-selection (q.v.). selector, n. i.q. free-selector (q.v.). sergeant baker, n. name given to a fish of new south wales, aulopus purpurissatus, richards., family scopelidae. . rev. j e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the sergeant baker in all probability got its local appellation in the early history of the colony (new south wales), as it was called after a sergeant of that name in one of the first detachments of a regiment; so were also two fruits of the geebong tribe (persoonia); one was called major buller, and the other major groce, and this latter again further corrupted into major grocer." settler's clock (also hawkesbury clock), n. another name for the bird called the laughing-jackass. see jackass. . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "from its habit of starting its discordant paean somewhere near sunrise and, after keeping comparatively quiet all through the hotter hours, cackling a `requiem to the day's decline,' the bird has been called the settler's clock. it may be remarked, however, that this by no means takes place with the methodical precision that romancers write of in their letters home." settlers' matches, n. name occasionally applied to the long pendulous strips of bark which hang from the eucalypts and other trees, during decortication, and which, bec oming exceedingly dry, are readily ignited and used as kindling wood. . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "in the silence of the darkness and the playing of the breeze, that we heard the settlers' matches rustle softly in the trees." . `the australasian,' june , p. , col. : "re settlers' matches, torches, the blacks in the south-east of south australia always used the bark of the she-oak to carry from one camp to another; it would last and keep alight for a long time and show a good light to travel by when they had no fire. a fire could always be lighted with two grass trees, a small fork, and a bit of dry grass. i have often started a fire with them myself." settler's twine, n. a fibre plant, gymnostachys anceps, r. br., n.o. aroideae, called also travellers' grass. much used by farmers as cord or string where strength is required. shag, n. common english birdname for a cormorant (q.v.). gould, fifty years ago, enumerates the following as australian species, in his `birds of australia' (vol. vii.)-- plate phalacrocorax carboides, gould, australian cormorant, black shag, colonists of w.a. . . . . . p. hypoleucus, pied c., black and white shag, colonists of w. a. . . . . . . . . . p. melanoleucus, vieill., pied c., little shag, colonists of w.a. . . . . . . . . . p. punctatus, spotted c., crested shag (cook), spotted shag (lapham) . . . . . . . . . p. leucogaster, gould, white-breasted c. . . p. stictocephalus, bp., little black c. . . . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "shags started from dead trees lying half immersed." shagroon, n. when the province of canterbury, in new zealand, was first settled, the men who came from england were called pilgrims, all others shagroons, probably a modification of the irish word shaughraun. . w. pratt, `colonial experiences of incidents of thirty-four years in new zealand,' p. : "in the `dream of a shagroon,' which bore the date ko matinau, april , and which first appeared in the `wellington spectator' of may , the term `pilgrim' was first applied to the settlers; it was also predicted in it that the `pilgrims' would be `smashed' and the shagroons left in undisputed possession of the country for their flocks and herds." shake, v. tr. to steal. very common australian slang, especially amongst school-boys and bushmen. it was originally thieves' english. . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. ii. p. : "the tent of a surgeon was `shook,' as they style it--that is, robbed, during his absence in the daytime." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "crimean shirts, blankets, and all they `shake,' which i'm told's another name for `take.'" shamrock, australian, n. a perennial, fragrant, clover-like plant, trigonella suavissima, lindl., n.o. leguminosae; excellent as forage. called also menindie clover (aboriginal name, calomba). see clover. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "it is the `australian shamrock' of mitchell." shamrock, native, n. a forage plant, lotus australis, andr., n.o. leguminosae. called native shamrock in tasmania. shanghai, n. a catapult. some say because used against chinamen. the reason seems inadequate. . `the leader,' oct. , p. , col. : "turn, turn thy shanghay dread aside, nor touch that little bird." . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "the lads had with them a couple of pistols, powder, shot, bullets, and a shanghai." . ibid. july , p. , col. : "the shanghai, which, as a secret instrument of mischief, is only less dangerous than the air-gun." . `police offences act, new zealand,' sec. , subsec. : "rolls any cask, beats any carpet, flies any kite, uses any bows and arrows, or catapult, or shanghai, or plays at any game to the annoyance of any person in any public place." . `the age,' sept. , p. , col. : "the magistrate who presided on the carlton bench yesterday, has a decided objection to the use of shanghais, and in dealing with three little boys, the eldest of whom was but eleven or twelve years of age, charged with the use of these weapons in the prince's park, denounced their conduct in very strong terms. he said that he looked upon this crime as one of the worst that a lad could be guilty of, and if he had his own way in the matter he would order each of them to be lashed." . c. french, letter to `argus,' nov. : "wood swallows are somewhat sluggish and slow in their flight, and thus fall an easy prey to either the gun or the murderous and detestable `shanghai.'" shanghai-shot, n. a short distance, a stone's-throw. . garnet walch, `head over heels' [introduction to tottlepot poems]: "his parents . . . residing little more than a shanghai-shot from romeo lane, melbourne." shanty, n. ( ) a hastily erected wooden house; ( ) a public-house, especially unlicensed: a sly-grog shop. the word is by origin keltic (irish). in the first sense, its use is canadian or american; in the last, australian. in barrere and leland it is said that circus and showmen always call a public-house a shanty. . `spectator' (melbourne), june , p. , col. : "these buildings, little better than shanties, are found in . . . numbers." . garnet walch, `victoria in ,' p. : "we read of the veriest shanties letting for l per week." . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "he becomes a land-owner, and puts up a slab-shanty." . g. n. oakley, in `victoria in ,' p. : "the left-hand track, past shanties soaked in grog, leads to the gaol." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "the faint glimmering light which indicates the proximity of the grog shanty is hailed with delight." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "i have seen a sober man driven perfectly mad for the time being, by two glasses of so-called rum, supplied to him at one of these shanties." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. vi. p. : "any attempt to limit the licensing produced . . . a crop of shanties, or sly-grog shops." . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "the old woman thought that we were on gold, and would lamb down at the finish in her shanty." shanty-keeper, n. keeper of a sly-grog shop. . wood and lapham, `waiting for mail,' p. : "mrs. smith was a shanty-keeper's wife." . j. farrell, `how he died,' p. : "the shanty-keeper saw the entering strangers." shantywards, adv. . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "looking . . . over the fence shantywards." shark, n. some of the australasian species are identical with those of europe. varieties and names which differ are-- blue shark (new south wales)-- carcharias macloti, mull. and heule. hammer s. (n.s.w.)-- zygaena malleus, shaw. one-finned s. (n.s.w.)-- notidanus indicus, cuv. port jackson s. (q.v.)-- heterodontus phillipii, lacep.; called also the shell-grinder. saw-fish s.-- pristiophorus cirratus, lath. school s. (n.s.w.)-- galeus australis, macl.; called also tope (q.v.). shovel-nosed s. (n.s.w.)-- rhinobatus granulatus, cuv.; also called the blind-shark, or sand-shark. tiger s. (n.s.w.)-- galeocerdo rayneri, macdon. and barr. white s.-- carcharodon rondeletii, mull. and heule; called also the white-pointer. the sharks of new zealand are-- black shark-- carcharodon melanopterus (maori name keremai). brown s.-- scymnus lichia. great s.-- carcharias maso. hammer-head s.-- zygaena malleus (maori name, mangopare). port-eagle s.-- lamna cornutica spinous s.-- echinorhinus spinosus. tiger s.-- scymnus sp. (maori name, mako). see also blue-pointer, whaler, and wobbegong. shearer's joy, n. a name given to colonial beer. . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "it was the habit afterwards among the seven to say that the officers of the eliza jane had been indulging in shearer's joy." she-beech, n. see beech. shed, n. the word generally signifies the woolshed (q.v.). a large, substantial, and often expensive building. . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "there's hungry beggars wild for any job this year, an' might be at the shed while i am lyin' here." . `melbourne argus,' april , p. , col. : "there is a substantial and comfortable homestead, and ample shed accommodation." sheep-pest, n. a common australian weed, acama ovina, cunn., n.o. rosaceae, found in all the colonies; so called because its fruit adheres by hooked spines to the wool of sheep. sheep-run, n. see run. sheep-sick, n. used of pastures exhausted for carrying sheep. compare english screw-sick, paint-sick, nail-sick, wheat-sick, etc. . `leader,' august , p. , col. : "it is the opinion of many practical men that certain country to which severe losses have occurred in recent years has been too long carrying sheep, and that the land has become what is termed `sheep sick,' and from this point of view it certainly appears that a course of better management is most desirable." sheep-wash (used as verb), to wash sheep. the word is also used as a noun, in its ordinary english senses of ( ) a lotion for washing sheep; ( ) the washing of sheep preparatory to shearing: ( ) the place where the sheep are washed, also called the `sheep-dip.' . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "he can't dig or sheep-wash or plough there." sheldrake, or shieldrake, n. the common english name of ducks of the genera tadorna and casarca. the australian species are--casarca tadornoides jard., commonly called the mountain duck; and the white-headed s., tadorna radjah, garnot. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "charley shot the sheldrake of port essington (tadorna rajah)." shell-grinder, n. another name for the port-jackson shark (q.v.). she-oak, n. ( ) a tree of the genus casuarina (q.v.). the timber, which is very hard and makes good fuel, was thought to resemble oak. see oak, and quotation from captain cook. the prefix she is used in australia to indicate an inferiority of timber in respect of texture, colour, or other character; e.g. she-beech, she-pine. the reason for he-oak is given in quotation . bull-oak, marsh-oak, swamp-oak, were invented to represent variations of the casuarina. except in its timber, the she-oak is not in the least like an oak-tree (quercus). the spelling in quotation makes for this simple explanation, which, like that of beef-eater in english, and mopoke in austral-english, was too simple; and other spellings, e.g. shea-oak, were introduced, to suggest a different etymology. shiak (quotation, ) seems to claim an aboriginal origin (more directly claimed, quotation, ), but no such aboriginal word is found in the vocabularies. in quotations , , a different origin is assigned, and a private correspondent, whose father was one of the first to be born of english parents in new south wales, says that english officers who had served in canada had named the tree after one that they had known there. a higher authority, sir joseph d. hooker (see quotation, ), says, "i believe adapted from the north-american sheack." this origin, if true,is very interesting; but sir joseph hooker, in a letter dated jan. , , writes that his authority was mr. gunn (see quotation, ). that writer, however, it will be seen, only puts "is said to be." to prove the american origin, we must find the american tree. it is not in the `century,' nor in the large `webster,' nor in `funk and wagnall's standard,' nor in either of two dictionaries of americanisms. dr. dawson, director of the geological survey of canada, who is thoroughly acquainted with indian folk-lore and languages, and mr. fowler, professor of botany in queen's university, kingston, say that there is no such indian word. . g. thompson, in `historical records of new south wales,' vol. ii. ( ) p. : "there are two kinds of oak, called the he and the she oak, but not to be compared with english oak, and a kind of pine and mahogany, so heavy that scarce either of them will swim." . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. (bass' diary at port dalrymple, tasmania, nov. ): "the she oaks were more inclined to spread than grow tall." . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. "casuarina torulosa, the she-oak. the young fruit and young shoots afford an agreeable acid by chewing, which allays thirst." . ross, `hobart-town almanack,' p. [article said by sir joseph hooker (jan. , ) to be by mr. ronald gunn]: "casuarina torulosa? she-oak. c. stricta? he-oak. c. tenuissima? marsh-oak. the name of the first of these is said to be a corruption of sheac, the name of an american tree, producing the beef wood, like our sheoak. the second species has obtained the name of he-oak in contradistinction of she-oak, as if they constituted one dioecious plant, the one male and the other female, whereas they are perfectly distinct species." . `western australia,' p. : "the shea-oak (a corruption of sheak, the native name for this, or a similar tree, in van diemen's land) is used chiefly for shingles." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "then to cut down the timber, gum, box, she-oak, and wattle-trees, was an herculean task." . j. d. lang, "phillipsland,' p. : "they are generally a variety of casuarinae, commonly called she-oak by the colonists, and the sighing of the wind among the sail-needle-like leaves, that constitute their vegetation, produces a melancholy sound." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "most of the trees of this colony owe their names to the sawyers who first tested their qualities; and who were guided by the colour and character of the wood, knowing and caring nothing about botanical relations. thus the swamp-oak and she-oak have rather the exterior of the larch than any quercine aspect." . s. sidney, `three colonies of australia,' p. : "a dull scene, sprinkled with funereal shiak or `she-oak trees.'" ibid. p. : "groves of shea-oaks, eucalyptus and mimosa." . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "trees of a peculiar character--the casuarinas or shiacks-- part of which, with their more rigid and outstretched branches, resemble pine-trees, and others, with theirs drooping gracefully, resembling large trees of bloom." . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "the trees forming the most interesting groups were the casuarina torulosa, she-oak, and c. stricta, he-oak. . . . the name of the first is said to have been derived from `sheeac,' the name of an american tree producing the beef-wood like our she-oak. c. stricta, or he-oak, has been named in contradistinction to the sexes, as if they constituted one dioecious plant, whereas they are two perfectly distinct species." . j. d. hooker, `botany of the antarctic voyage,' part iii. [flora tasmaniae], p. : "casuarina suberosa. this is an erect species, growing feet high. . . it is well known as the `he-oak,' in contradistinction to the c. quadrivalvis, or `she-oak,' a name, i believe, adapted from the north american `sheack' though more nearly allied botanically to the northern oaks than any tasmanian genus except fagus, they have nothing to do with that genus in habit or appearance, nor with the canadian `sheack.'" . j. mcdouall stuart, `explorations in australia,' p. : "within the last mile or two we have passed a few patches of shea-oak, growing large, having a very rough and thick bark, nearly black. they have a dismal appearance." . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' p. : "even batman's hill, the memorial of his ancient encampment, has been levelled; and the she-oaks upon that grassy mound no longer sigh in the breeze a dirge for the hero of exploration." . `the argus,' may , p. , col. : "the she-oak trees, of which there are large quantities in the sandy soil of the salt-bush country, proved very serviceable during the late drought. some of the settlers caused thousands of she-oaks to be stripped of their boughs, and it was a sight to see some of the famishing cattle rushing after the men who were employed in thus supplying the poor animals with the means of sustaining life. the cattle ate the boughs and the bark with the greatest avidity, and the bushman's axe as it felled the she-oak was music to their ears." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "she-oaks are scraggy-looking poles of trees, rather like fir-trees." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the rough bark of the she-oak and its soft sappy wood . . ." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "i came to a little clump of sheoaks, moaning like living things." . `notes and queries,' aug. , p. : "the process followed by the australian colonists when they converted a native word for the casuarina trees into `she-oak.'" . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "the creek went down with a broken song, 'neath the she-oaks high; the waters carried the song along, and the oaks a sigh." ( ) slang name for colonial beer. . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "their drivers had completed their regulation half-score of `long-sleevers' of `she-oak.'" . rolf boldrewood,' miner's right,' c. vi. p. : "then have a glass of beer--it's only she-oak, but there's nothing wrong about it." she-oak nets, nets placed on each side of a gangway from a ship to the pier, to prevent sailors who have been indulging in she-oak (beer) falling into the water. shepherd, v. ( ) to guard a mining claim and do a little work on it, so as to preserve legal rights. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "few of their claims however are actually `bottomed,' for the owners merely watch their more active contemporaries." (footnote): "this is termed `shepherding' a claim." . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "all the ground . . . is held in blocks which are being merely shepherded." ( ) by transference from ( ). to follow or hang about a person in the hopes of getting something out of him. compare similar use of shadow. . modern: "the robbers knowing he had so much coin about him, determined to shepherd him till an opportunity occurred of robbery with impunity." shepherd, n. a miner who holds a claim but does not work it. -. `argus' (date lost): "the term `jumper,' being one of reproach, brought quite a yell from the supporters of the motion. dr. quick retorted with a declaration that the grand junction company were all `shepherds,' and that `shepherds' are the worse of the two classes. the `jumpers' sat in one gallery and certain representatives or deputy `shepherds' in the other. names are deceitful. . . . the maldon jumpers were headed by quite a venerable gentleman, whom no one could suspect of violent exercise nor of regrettable designs upon the properties of his neighbours. and the shepherds in the other gallery, instead of being light-hearted beings with pipes and crooks--a la watteau and pope--looked unutterable things at the individuals who had cast sheep's eyes on their holding." shicer, n. ( ) an unproductive claim or mine: a duffer. from the german scheissen. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "a claim without gold is termed a `shicer.'" . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. ix. p. : "it's a long sight better nor bottoming a shicer." . `victorian hansard,' may , vol. ix. p. : "mr. howard asked whether the member for collingwood knew the meaning of the word `shicer.' mr. don replied in the affirmative. he was not an exquisite, like the hon. member (laughter), and he had worked on the goldfields, and he had always understood a shicer to be a hole with no gold." . s. lemaitre, `songs of goldfields,' p. : "remember when you first came up like shicers, innocent of gold." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "there are plenty of creeks in this country that have only so far been scratched--a hole sunk here and there and abandoned. no luck, no perseverance; and so the place has been set down as a duffer, or, as the old diggers' more expressive term had it, a `shicer.'" ( ) slang. by transference from ( ). a man who does not pay his debts of honour. . modern: "don't take his bet, he's a regular shicer." shingle-splitting, vb. n. obsolete tasmanian slang. . `hobart town almanack,' p. : "when a man gets behindhand with his creditors in hobart town, and rusticates in the country in order to avoid the unseasonable calls of the sheriff's little gentleman, that delights to stand at a corner where four streets meet, so as the better to watch the motions of his prey, he is said to be shingle-splitting." shirallee, n. slang term for a swag or bundle of blankets. shout, v. to stand treat. ( ) of drink. ( ) by transference, of other things. the successful digger used to call passers-by to drink at his expense. the origin may also be from noisy bar-rooms, or crowded bar-parlours, where the man who was to pay for the liquor or refreshment called or shouted for the waiter or barman. when many men drink together the waiter of course looks for payment from the man who first calls or shouts out for him to give him the order. or is "pay the shout" a variant of "pay the shot," or tavern reckoning? in its first sense the word has reached the united states, and is freely employed there. . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "and so i shouted for him and he shouted for me." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "gentlemen required a great deal of attendance, did not `shout' (the slang term for ordering grog) every quarter of an hour, and therefore spent comparatively nothing." . a. l. gordon, `sea-spray' (credat judaeus), p. : "you may shout some cheroots, if you like; no champagne for this child.' . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "this `shouting,' as `treating' is termed in the colonies, is the curse of the northern goldfields. if you buy a horse you must shout, the vendor must shout, and the bystanders who have been shouted to [more usual, for] must shout in their turn." . d. sladen, `in cornwall, etc.,' p. [title, `the sigh of the shouter']: "give me the wealth i have squandered in `shouting.'" . j. f. hogan, `the irish in australia, p. :. "drinking is quite a common practice, and what is familiarly known as `shouting' was at one time almost universal, though of late years this peculiarly dangerous evil has been considerably diminished in extent. to `shout' in a public-house means to insist on everybody present, friends and strangers alike, drinking at the shouter's expense, and as no member of the party will allow himself to be outdone in this reckless sort of hospitality, each one `shouts' in succession, with the result that before long they are all overcome by intoxication." . w. tilley, `wild west of tasmania,' p. : "some heavy drinking is indulged in through the `shouting' system, which is the rule." . e. w. hornung, `tiny luttrell,' vol. ii. c. xv. p. : "to insist on `shouting' ruth a penny chair overlooking the ornamental water in st. james's park." (p. ): "you shall not be late, because i'll shout a hansom too." shout, n. a free drink. . h. simcox, `outward bound,' p. : "the arms are left and off they go, and many a shout they're treated to." . garnet walch, head over heels,' p. : "i . . . gave the boys round a spread an' a shout." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "two lucky diggers laid a wager which of them should treat the assembled company with the largest shout.'" shoveller, n. the english name for the duck spatula clypeata, linn., a species also present in australia. the other australian species is spatula rhynchotis, lath., also called blue-wing. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vii. pl. : "spatula rhynchotis, australian shoveller." shovel-nose, n. a new south wales species of ray-fish, rhinobatus bougainvillei, cuv.; called also the blind shark, and sand shark. in the northern hemisphere, the name is given to three different sharks and a sturgeon. shrike, n. a bird-name, generally used in australia in composition. see crow-shrike, cuckoo-shrike, shrike-robin, shrike-thrush, and shrike-tit. shrike-robin, n. a genus of australasian shrikes, eopsaltria (q.v.). the species are-- grey-breasted shrike-robin-- eopsaltria gularis, quoy and gaim. large-headed s.-r.-- e. capito, gould. little s.-r.-- e. nana, mull. white-breasted s.-r.-- e. georgiana, quoy and gaim. yellow-breasted s.-r.-- e. australis, lath. . w. o. legge, `australasian association for the advancement of science' (brisbane), p. : "as regards portions of gould's english nomenclatures, such as his general term `robin' for the genera petroica, paecilodryas, eopsaltria, it was found that by retaining the term `robin' for the best known member of the group (petroica), and applying a qualifying noun to the allied genera, such titles as tree-robin, scrub-robin, and shrike-robin were easily evolved." shrike-thrush, n. a genus of australasian shrikes, collyriocincla (q.v.). the species are-- bower's shrike-thrush-- collyriocincla boweri, ramsay. brown s.-t.-- c. brunnea, gould. buff-bellied s.-t.-- c. rufiventris, gould. grey s.-t.-- c. harmonica, lath.; called also port jackson thrush (q.v.). little shrike-thrush-- collyriocincla parvula, gould. pale-bellied s.-t.-- c. pallidirostris, sharpe. rufous-breasted s.-t.-- c. rufigaster, gould. whistling s.-t.-- c. rectirostris, jard. and selb.; see duke willy. . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "with gathering shadows the spotted thrush of england gives forth from the top-most pine branch his full and varied notes; notes which no australian bird can challenge, not even the shrike-thrush on the hill side, piping hard to rival his song every bright spring morning." shrike-tit, n. a genus of australian shrikes, falcunculus (q.v.). the species are--falcunculus frontatus, lath.; white-bellied s.-t., f. leucogaster, gould. . `victorian statutes--game act' (third schedule): "shrike-tit. [close season.] from the st day of august to the th day of december next following in each year." shrimp, n. the only true shrimp (crangon) which australian waters are known to possess is found in the gulf of st. vincent, south australia. (tenison-woods.) in tasmania, the prawn (penoeus spp.) is called a shrimp. . `royal commission, report on fisheries of tasmania,' p. : "the prawn (penoeus sp.), locally known among fishermen as the shrimp, abounds all around our coasts." sida-weed, n. i.q. queensland hemp. see hemp. signed servant, n. obsolete contraction for assigned servant (q.v.). silky-oak, n. a tree, often tall, grevillea robusta, cunn., n.o. proteaceae, producing a useful timber in demand for various purposes. see grevillea, maple, and oak. silver, or silver-fish, n. a tasmanian name for caranx georgianus, cuv. and val., family carangidae, the white or silver trevally. see trevally. . `spectator' (melbourne), june , : "common fish such as . . . garfish, strangers, silvers, and others." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. [footnote]: "to convey anything like a correct idea of this extremely beautiful fish, it should be `laid in' with a ground of burnished silver, and the delicate tints added. the skin is scaleless, and like satin, embossed all over in little raised freckles, and with symmetrical dark lines, resembling the veining of a leaf. in quality they are a good deal like mullet." silver-belly, n. name given ( ) in new south wales, to the fish silver-bream (q.v.); ( ) in tasmania, to various species of atherinidae. silver-bream, or white-bream, n. a new south wales fish, gerres ovatus, gunth., family percidae; also called silver-belly (q.v.). for another use, see trevally. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "mr. hill, in the series of essays already referred to, speaks of a silver-bream or white-bream. it is probable he refers to gerres ovatus, a common fish of very compressed form, and very protractile mouth. they probably never enter fresh-water. . . . it is necessary to cook the silver-belly, as it is often called, perfectly fresh." silver-eye, n. a bird-name. same as wax-eye, white-eye, or blight-bird (q.v.). . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "zosterops caerulescens, lath. i have myself arrived at the conclusion that the silver-eye, although identical with the australian bird, is in reality an indigenous species." . james thomas, `to a silver eye:' `australian poets - ' (edition sladen), p. : "thou merry little silver-eye, in yonder trailing vine, i, passing by this morning, spied that ivy-built nest of thine." silver jew-fish, n. a new south wales name for the young of the fish called teraglin, or of the true jew-fish (q.v.); it is uncertain which. silver-leaf boree, n. i.q. boree (q.v.). silver-perch, n. a fresh-water fish, i.q. bidyan ruffe (q.v.). silver-tail, n. a bush term for a "swell": a man who goes to the manager's house, not to the men's hut. see hut. . a. j. vogan, `the black police,' p. : "a select circle of long-limbed members of those upper circles who belong to the genus termed in australian parlance `silver-tailed,' in distinction to the `copper-tailed' democratic classes." silver-trevally, n. see trevally. sittella, n. an australian genus of small creeping-birds, called also tree-runners (q.v.). sittella is the latin diminutive of sitta, which is from the greek sittae, a woodpecker, whose habits the tree-runners or sittellae have. gould's enumeration of the species is given in quotation. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv.: "sittella chrysoptera, orange-winged sittella; s. leucocephala, gould, white-headed s.; s. leucoptera,gould, white-winged s.; s. pileata, gould, black-capped s.; s. tenuirostris, gould, slender-billed s. . j. gould, `birds of australia' (supplement): "sittella striata, gould, striated sittella." . gould and sharpe, `birds of new guinea,' vol. iii. pl. : "sittella albata, pied sittella." `victorian statutes-game act' (third schedule): "sittellas. [close season.] from the first day of august to the th day of december next following in each year." . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "four species of sitilla [sic] which, except that they do not lay their eggs in hollow trees, bear some resemblance to our nuthatch." skate, n. the new zealand fish called a skate is raja nasuta, a different species of the same genus as the european skate. skipjack, or skipjack-pike, n. this fish, temnodon saltator, cuv. and val., is the same as the british and american fish of that name. it is called tailor (q.v.) in sydney. the name skipjack used also to be given by the whalers to the australian fish trevally (q.v.). . hutton and hector, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "it is quoted by richardson that this fish [trevally], which he says is the skipjack of the sealers, used to be a staple article of food with the natives." skipper, i.q. hopping fish (q.v.). skirr, n. imitative. . marcus clarke, `memorial volume,' p. : "how many nights have i listened to the skirr of the wild cats." skirting, n. generally used in the plural. in sheep-shearing, the inferior parts of the wool taken from the extremities. . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "at the `skirting-table' we will stand for a little while, and watch while the fleece just brought in is opened out by the `roller,' and the inferior portions removed." skullbanker, or scowbanker, n. a slang name in australia for a loafer, a tramp. . a. michie, `retrospects and prospects of the colony,' p. : "a skull-banker is a species of the genus loafer--half highwayman, half beggar. he is a haunter of stations, and lives on the squatters, amongst whom he makes a circuit, affecting to seek work and determining not to find it." slab, n. in english, the word slab, as applied to timber, means "an outside piece taken from a log in sawing it into boards, planks, etc." (`webster.') in australia, the word is very common, and denotes a piece of timber, two or three inches thick a coarse plank, axe-hewn, not sawn. used for the walls of rough houses. . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. col. : a substantial slab building with verandah." . `voyage to port phillip,' p. : "his slab-built hut, with roof of bark." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. : "the house in which this modern robinson crusoe dwelt was what is called a slab hut, formed of rough boards and thatched with grass." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. iv. p. : "a bare, rough, barn-like edifice built of slabs." . j. townend, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "we passed through studley park, with here and there a slab house or tent." . g. walch, `head over heels,' p. : "the moonlight . . . poured on the hut, slabs an' roof." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the hut was built of logs and slabs." [p. ]: "the usual bush-hut of slabs and bark." [p. ]:"the neighbours congregated in the rough hut of unplaned slabs." . rolf boldrewood, `the miner's right,' c. vi. p. : "slab huts of split heavy boards, australian fashion, placed vertically." slab, v. tr. mining term: to keep up the sides of a shaft with timber slabs. . j. j. simpson, `recitations,' p. : "so dig away, drive away, slab and bail." sleepy lizard, i.q. blue-tongued lizard (q.v.). slip-panel. same as slip-rail (q.v.). see also panel. . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "take him round by the water-hole and wait for me at the slip-panels." slip-rail, n. part of a fence so fitted that it can be removed so as to serve as a gate. used also for the gateway thus formed. generally in the plural. same as slip- panel. . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads from the wreck,' p. : "down with the slip-rails; stand back." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "he [a horse] would let down the slip-rails when shut into the stockyard, even if they were pegged, drawing the pegs out with his teeth." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "many men rode through the sliprails and turned out their horses." . canon goodman, `church in victoria during episcopate of bishop perry,' p. : "some careless person had neglected to replace the slip-rails of the paddock into which his horses had been turned the previous evening." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "then loudly she screamed: it was only to drown the treacherous clatter of slip-rails let down." sloth, native, i.q. native bear. see bear, and koala. slusher, or slushy, n. cook's assistant at shearing-time on a station. . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "`sundays are the most trying days of all,' say the cuisiniers, `for then they have nothing to do but to growl.' this man's assistant is called `the slusher.' . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "the tarboy, the cook, and the slushy, the sweeper that swept the board, the picker-up, and the penner, with the rest of the shearing horde." . `the field,' jan. , p. , col. : "he employs as many `slushies' as he thinks necessary, paying them generally l per week." slush-lamp, n. a lamp made by filling an old tin with fat and putting a rag in for wick. the word, though not exclusively australian, is more common in the australian bush than elsewhere. compare english slush-horn, horn for holding grease; slush-pot, pot for holding grease, etc. . j. keighley, `who are you?' p. : "the slush-lamp shone with a smoky light." . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "occasionally the men will give christy minstrel concerts, when they illuminate the wool-shed with slush-lamps, and invite all on the station." smelt, n. name given, in melbourne, to the fish clupea vittata, castln., family clupeidae, or herrings (q.v.); in new zealand and tasmania, to retropinna richardsonii, gill, family salmonidae. its young are called whitebait (q.v.). the derwent smelt is a tasmanian fish, haplochiton sealii, family haplochitonidae, fishes with an adipose fin which represent the salmonoids in the southern hemisphere; prototroctes is the only other genus of the family known (see grayling). haplochiton is also found in the cold latitudes of south america. sminthopsis, n. the scientific name for the genus of narrow-footed pouched mice, which, like the english field-mice, are entirely terrestrial in their habits. see pouched mouse. in homer's' iliad,' bk. i. ver. , smintheus is an epithet of apollo. it is explained as "mouse-killer," from sminthos, a field-mouse, said to be a cretan word. smoke, v. (slang). see quotation. . `sydney morning herald,' june , p. , col. : "he said to the larrikins, `you have done for him now; you have killed him.' `what!' said one of them, `do not say we were here. let us smoke.' `smoke,' it may be explained, is the slang for the `push' to get away as fast as possible." smooth holly, n. see holly. snailey, n. bullock with horn slightly curled. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. ix. p. : "snaileys and poleys, old and young, coarse and fine, they were a mixed herd in every sense." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "there's a snaily wallanbah bullock i haven't seen this two years." snake, n. the australian land snakes belong principally to the four families, typhlopidae, boidae, colubridae, and elapidae. the proportion of venomous to non-venomous species increases from north to south, the five species known in tasmania being all venomous. the smallest forms, such as the "blind" or "worm" snakes, are only a few inches in length, while the largest python may reach a length of perhaps eighteen feet. various popular names have been given to different species in different colonies, the same name being unfortunately not infrequently applied to quite distinct species. the more common forms are as follows:-- black snake. name applied in australia to pseudechis porphyriacus, shaw, which is more common in the warmer parts, and comparatively rare in the south of victoria, and not found in tasmania. in the latter the name is sometimes given to dark-coloured varieties of hoplocephalus curtus, and in victoria to those of h. superbus. the characteristic colour is black or black-brown above and reddish beneath, but it can be at once distinguished from specimens of h. superbus, which not infrequently have this colour, by the presence of a double series of plates at the hinder end, and a single series at the anterior end of the tail, whereas in the other species named there is only a single row along the whole length of the tail underneath. . d. collins, `account of new south wales' (edition ), vol. ii. p. [bass diary at the derwent, tasmania]: "the most formidable among the reptiles was the black snake with venomous fangs." [this refers to some species of hoplocephalus, and not to the australian black snake, which does not occur in tasmania.] black and white ringed snake. name applied to vermicella annulata, gray, the characteristic colouration of which consists of a series of alternating dark and light rings. it is found especially in the dry, warmer parts of the interior. brown snake. name given to three species of the genus diemenia-- ( ) the common brown snake, d. superciliosa, fischer; ( ) the small-scaled brown snake, d. microlepidota, mccoy; and ( ) the shield-fronted brown snake, d. aspidorhyncha, mccoy. all are venomous, and the commonest is the first, which is usually known as the brown snake. . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association for the advancement of science,' melbourne, p. : "the most abundant of these are the tiger snake, hoplocephalus curtus, the most widespread, active, and dangerous of them all: the brown snake, diemenia superciliosa, pretty generally distributed." carpet snake. name applied in australia to python variegata, gray, a non-venomous snake reaching a length of ten feet. the name has reference to the carpet-like pattern on the scales. the animal crushes its prey to death, and can hang from branches by means of its prehensile tail. in tasmania, the name is unfortunately applied to a venomous snake, hoplocephalus curtus, schlegel. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' c. i. p. : "brown brought a carpet snake and a brown snake with yellow belly." . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' decade ii. pl. : "the pattern has some resemblance to some of the commoner sorts of kidderminster carpets, as suggested by the popular name of carpet snake . . . the name . . . is, unfortunately, applied to the poisonous tiger snake in tasmania, producing some confusion." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals, p. : "one of the snakes most common is the australian python (morelia variegata), the largest snake found in australia, which here in northern queensland may even attain a length of more than twenty feet." copper-head snake. name applied in australia to hoplocephalus superbus, gunth., a venomous snake which is very common in tasmania, where it is often called the diamond snake (q.v.). in victoria, it is often confused with the black snake; unlike the latter, it is more common in the south than in the north. it derives its popular name from the colour of the head. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the natural history of victoria,' decade i. pl. : "in tasmania the name diamond snake is unfortunately given to this species, for that name properly belongs to a perfectly harmless snake of new south wales, so that the numerous experiments made in tasmania to test the value of some pretended antidotes, were supposed in london to have been made with the true diamond snake, instead of, as was the case, with this very poisonous kind. . . . i have adopted the popular name `copperhead' for this snake from a well-known vendor of a supposed antidote for snake-bites." . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "those heather lands round caulfield and oakleigh where the copperhead snake basks, coiled on the warm silver sand." death-adder; also called deaf-adder. an australian snake, acanthophis antarctica. it is usually found in hot sandy districts, and is supposed to be the most venomous of the australian snakes. large specimens reach a length of upwards of three feet, the body having a diameter of about two inches: at the end of the tail is a short spine popularly known as the animal's "sting." . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' decade ii. pl. : "the popular name seems to be indifferently death adder or deaf adder. the harmless horny spine at the end of the tail is its most dangerous weapon, in the popular belief." diamond-snake. name applied in new south wales and queensland to python spilotes, lacep., a non-venomous snake reaching a large size. in tasmania the same name is given to hoplocephalus superbus, gray, a venomous snake more properly called the copperhead snake. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "charley killed a diamond snake, larger than any he had ever seen before." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip,' c. iii. p. : "the diamond snake is that most dreaded by the natives." . g. krefft, `the snakes of australia,' p. : "diamond snakes are found in almost every kind of country that offers them sufficient shelter." . g. metcalfe, `australian zoology,' p. : "as a rule, diamond snakes have almost every scale of the body marked with a yellow spot in the centre. . . . the abdominal plates are yellow, and more or less blotched with black, and many species . . . have a number of diamond-shaped yellow spots upon the body, formed by a few of the lighter scales, and hence their name has probably arisen." green tree-snake. name given, owing to its colour, to the commonest australian tree-snake, dendrophis punctulata, gray. it is a non-venomous form, feeding on frogs, young birds, and eggs, and rarely exceeds the length of six feet. . g. krefft, `the snakes of australia,' p. : "young and half grown tree snakes are olive-green above and light brown below . . . when angry, the body of this serpent expands in a vertical direction, whilst all venomous snakes flatten their necks horizontally. the green tree snake, in a state of excitement is strongly suggestive of one of the popular toys of childhood." little whip-snake. name applied to a small venomous species of snake, hoplocephalus flagellum, mccoy. common in parts of victoria, but not exceeding a foot in length. . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' vol. ii. c. xxvii. p. : "he wished it had been a whip-snake instead of a magpie." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. xx. p. : "a whip-snake . . . reared itself upon its lithe body, and made a dart at barrington's arm." . lyth, `golden south,' c. iii. p. : "i saw a large `whip-snake' lying on the path." tiger-snake. name applied in australia and tasmania to hoplocephalus curtus, schlegel, but this species is often also known in the latter as the carpet snake (q.v.). the popular name is derived from the cross-banded colouring along the body, and also from its activity. it varies much in colour from a dark olive green to a light yellowish brown, the darker cross bands being sometimes almost indistinguishable. it may reach a length of four feet, and is viviparous, producing about thirty young ones in january or february. . `the spectator' (melbourne), aug. , p. , col. : "on tuesday a tiger-snake was seen opposite the door of the sandridge police court." . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' decade i. pl. : "this species, which goes under the colonial name in victoria of tiger snake, from its tawny cross banded colouring and ferocity, is well known to frequently inflict bites rapidly fatal to men and dogs. . . . in tasmania this is popularly called `carpet snake,' a name which properly belongs to the harmless snake so called on the mainland." two-hooded furina-snake. name applied to a small, venomous snake, furina bicuculata, mccoy. . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' decade iii. pl. : "furina bicuculata (mccoy). the two-hooded furina-snake. . . . this rare and beautiful little snake is a clear example of the genus furina." white-lipped-snake. name given to a small venomous species of whip-snake, hoplocephalus coronoides, gunth., found in tasmania and victoria, and reaching a length of about eighteen inches. . a. h. s. lucas, `handbook of the australasian association for the advancement of science,' melbourne, p. : "whip snakes, h. flagellum and h. coronoides." worm-snake. name given to various species of the genus typhlops, comprising small, non-venomous, smooth, round-bodied snakes, which burrow in warm sandy soil, and feed upon insects such as ants. the eyes are covered over by translucent plates, and the tail scarcely tapering at all, and sometimes having two black spots, gives the animal the appearance of having a head at each end. the commoner forms are the blackish worm-snake (typhlops nigrescens, gray), and schlegel's worm-snake (t. polygrammicus, schlegel). . f. mccoy, `prodromus of the zoology of victoria,' decade vi. pl. : "the `blackish worm snake' is not uncommon in the northern warmer parts of the colony. . . . these worm snakes are perfectly harmless, although, like the slow-worms and their allies in other countries, they are popularly supposed to be very poisonous." sneeze-weed, myriogyne minuta, less., cotula or centipeda cunninghamii, de c., and many other botanical synonyms. a valuable specific for sandy-blight (q.v.). . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the sneeze-weed (cotula or centipeda cunninghamii). a dwarf, erect, odorous herb . . . can be converted into snuff." . dr. woolls, in `sydney morning herald,' dec. (quoted by maiden): "dr. jockel is, i believe, the first medical man in australia who has proved the value of myriogyne in a case of ophthalmia. this weed, growing as it does on the banks of rivers and creeks, and in moist places,, is common in all the australian colonies and tasmania, and it may be regarded as almost co-extensive with the disease it is designed to relieve." snipe, n. the species of snipe known in australia are--scolopax australis, lath.; painted s., rhynchaea australis, gould. this bird breeds in japan and winters in australia. the name is also used as in the quotation. . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "along the shore are flocks of a species of bird which some sportsmen and the game-sellers in the city are pleased to call snipe. they are probably tringa, a branch of the sea-plover family." snook, n. the name is applied in the old world to various fishes, including the garfish (q.v.). at the cape of good hope, it is applied to thyrsites atun, cuv. and val., and this name for the same fish has extended to new zealand, where (as in all the other colonies) it is more generally called the barracouta (q.v.). under the word cavally, `o.e.d.' quotes-- . dampier, `voyage,' vol. i: "the chiefest fish are bonetas, snooks, cavallys." snook is an old name, but it is doubtful whether it is used in the old world for the same fish. castelnau says it is the snook of the cape of good hope. . hutton and hector, `fishes of new zealand,' p. , under `thyrsites atun, barracoota': "this is, i believe, the fish called snoek in cape colony." . guenther, `study of fishes,' p. : "th. atun from the cape of good hope, south australia, new zealand, and chili, is preserved, pickled or smoked. in new zealand it is called `barracuda' or `snoek,' and exported from the colony into mauritius and batavia as a regular article of commerce." snowberry, n. a tasmanian name for the wax-cluster (q.v.). snow-grass, n. poa caespitosa, g. forst., another name for wiry grass (q.v.). see also grass. . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "tethering my good old horse to a tussock of snow-grass." snow-line, n. in pastoralists' language of new zealand, "above the snow-line" is land covered by snow in winter, but free in summer. soak, or soakage, n. a western and central australian term. see quotation. . `the australasian,' sept. , p. , col. : "`inquirer.'--the term soak in western australia, as used on maps and plans, signifies a depression holding moisture after rain. it is also given to damp or swampy spots round the base of granite rocks. wells sunk on soaks yield water for some time after rain. all soaks are of a temporary character." soak-hole, n. an enclosed place in a stream in which sheep are washed. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "parallel poles, resting on forks driven into the bed of the water-hole, were run out on the surface of the stream, forming square soak-holes, a long, narrow lane leading to the dry land." soldier, or soldier-ant, n. "one of that section of a colony of some kinds of ants which does the fighting, takes slaves, etc." (`century dict.') in australia, the large red ants are called soldier-ants. compare bulldog-ant. . g. h. haydon, `the australian emigrant,' p. : "it was a red ant, upwards of an inch in length--`that's a soldier, and he prods hard too.'" . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. p. : "the pain caused by a wound from this grass-seed is exactly like that from the bite of a soldier-ant." soldier-bird, or poor soldier, or old-soldier bird, n. another name for the friar-bird (q.v.). . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "the notes peculiar to the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, or platypus, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old soldier bird, added in no small degree to the novelties. . . . the wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's o'clock,'--the leather-head the `stop where-you-are.'" [mr. bunce's observations are curiously confused. the `soldier-bird' is also called `four o'clock,' but it is difficult to say what `wattle bird' is called `what's o'clock'; the `notes' of the platypus must be indeed `peculiar.'] . mrs. langloh parker, `australian legendary tales,' p. [title of tale]: "deegeenboyah the soldier-bird." sole, n. the name is given to various australian fishes. in sydney, to synaptura nigra, macl.; in melbourne, to rhombosolea bassensis, castln.; in new zealand, to rhombosolea monopus, gunth., and peltorhamphus novae-zelandiae, gunth.; in tasmania, to ammotretis rostratus, gunth., family pleuronectidae. rhombosolea monopus is called the flounder, in tasmania. see also lemon-sole. solomon's seal, n. not the old world plant, which is of the genus polygonatum, but the tasmanian name for drymophila cyanocarpa, r. br., n.o. liliacea; also called turquoise berry. sonny, n. a common nominative of address to any little boy. in australia, the word is not infrequently pronounced as in the quotation. the form of the word came from america. . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "but maybe you're only a johnnie, and don't know a horse from a hoe? weel, weel, don't get angry, my sonny, but, really, a young `un should know." sool, v. used colloquially--( ) to excite a dog or set him on; ( ) to worry, as of a dog. common in the phrase "sool him, boy!" shakspeare uses "tarre him on" in the first sense. shakspeare, `king john,' iv. i. : "and like a dog that is compelled to fight, snatch at his master that doth tarre him on." . mrs. langloh parker, `australian legendary tales,' p. : "she went quickly towards her camp, calling softly, `birree gougou,' which meant `sool 'em, sool 'em,' and was the signal for the dogs to come out." sorrel, queensland. see queensland sorrel. sour-gourd, n. same as baobab (q.v.). sour-plum, n. the emu-apple. see apple. south australia, n. the name of a colony, established in , with adelaide as its capital. it is not a good name, for it is not the most southerly colony, and the "northern territory" forms a part of south australia. central australia would be a better name, but not wholly satisfactory, for by central australia is now meant the central part of the colony of south australia. the name centralia has been proposed as a change. southern cross, n. the constellation of the southern cross is of course visible in places farther north than australia, but it has come to be regarded as the astronomical emblem of australasia; e.g. the phrase "beneath the southern cross " is common for "in australia or new zealand." . s. butler, `first year in canterbury settlement,' p. : "the southern cross is a very great delusion. it isn't a cross. it is a kite, a kite upside down, an irregular kite upside down, with only three respectable stars and one very poor and very much out of place. near it, however, is a truly mysterious and interesting object called the coal sack: it is a black patch in the sky distinctly darker than all the rest of the heavens. no star shines through it. the proper name for it is the black magellan cloud." . mrs. riddell, `lay of far south,' p. : "yet do i not regret the loss, thou hast thy gleaming southern cross." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. iv. p. : "the southern cross rose gem-like above the horizon." spade-press, n. a make-shift wool-press in which the fleeces are rammed down with a spade. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xvii. p. : "the spade-press--that friendly adjunct of the pioneer squatter's humble wool-shed." spaniard, n. a prickly bushy grass of new zealand, aciphylla colensoi. . `paul's letters from canterbury,' p. : "the country through which i have passed has been most savage, one mass of spaniards." . j. von haast, `geology of westland,' p. : "groves of large specimens of discaria toumatoo, the wild irishman of the settlers, formed with the gigantic aciphylla colensoi, the spaniard or bayonet-grass, an often impenetrable thicket." . s. butler, `first year of canterbury settlement,' p. : "the spaniard (spear-grass or bayonet-grass) `piked us intil the bane,' and i assure you we were hard set to make any headway at all." . lady barker, `station amusements in new zealand,' p. : "the least touch of this green bayonet draws blood, and a fall into a spaniard is a thing to be remembered all one's life." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "carefully avoiding contact with the long-armed leaves of spaniards (aciphylla), which here attain the larger dimensions, carrying flower-spikes up to six feet long." . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxiii. p. : "here were rats which lived under the dead leaves of the prickly `spaniard,' and possibly fed on the roots. the spaniard leaves forked into stiff upright fingers about in. wide, ending in an exceedingly stiff pricking point." . `otago witness,' may , p. "prickly as the points of the spaniard." spear-grass, n. name given to several grasses whose spear-like seeds spoil the wool of sheep, but which are yet excellent forage plants. they are--( ) all the species of stipa; ( ) heteropogon contortus, roem. and schult., and others (see quotations); ( ) and in new zealand, one or two plants of the umbelliferous genus aciphylla; also called spaniard (q.v.). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "very disagreeable, however, was the abundance of burr and of a spear-grass (aristida)." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. [note]: "on the south coast there is a grass seed which has similar properties. the seeds are sharp and covered with fine barbs, and once they penetrate the skin they will work their way onwards. they catch in the wool of sheep, and in a short time reach the intestines. very often i have been shown the omentum of a dead sheep where the grass seeds were projecting like a pavement of pegs. the settlers call it spear-grass, and it is, i believe, a species of anthistiria." . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. v. p. : "sheep in paddocks cannot be so well kept clear of spear-grass." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "heteropogon contortus, spear grass. a splendid grass for a cattle-run, as it produces a great amount of feed, but is dreaded by the sheep-owner on account of its spear-like seeds." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "a nocuous kind of grass, namely the dreaded spear-grass (andropogon contortus), which grows on the coast, and which rendered sheep-raising impossible." spear-lily, n. see lily. spearwood, the wood of three trees so called, because the aborigines made their spears from it--acacia doratoxylon, a. cunn., a. homalophylla, a. cunn., both n.o. leguminosae; and eucalyptus doratoxylon, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. speedwell, native, n. the english speedwell is a veronica. there is a tasmanian species, veronica formosa, r. br., n.o. scrophulariaceae. spell, n. in england, a turn at work or duty; in australasia, always a period of rest from duty. it is quite possible that etymologically spell is connected with ger. spielen, in which case the australasian use is the more correct. see `skeat's etymological dictionary.' . j. o. tucker, `australian story,' c. i. p. : "the only recompense was . . . to light his pipe and have a `spell.'" . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "having a spell--what we should call a short holiday." spell, v. to rest. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. p. : "in order to spell the oars, we landed at a point on the east side." . g. n. oakley, in `victoria in ,' p. : "he `spelled' upon the ground; a hollow gum bore up his ample back and bade him rest; and creaked no warning when he sat upon a war-ant's nest." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xxiv. p. : "there's a hundred and fifty stock-horses there, spelling for next winter's work." . baldwin spencer, `horne expedition in central australia,' narrative, p. : "we camped beside a water-pool containing plenty of fish, and here we spelled for a day to allow some of us to go on and photograph chamber's pillar." sphenura, n. scientific name for a genus of australian birds called the bristle-birds (q.v.). from grk. sphaen, "a wedge," and 'oura, "a tail." the name was given by sir frederick mccoy. spider, n. see katipo. spider-orchis, n. name given in tasmania to the orchid caladenia pulcherrima, f. v. m. spiloglaux, n. see sceloglaux. spinach, australian, n. name applied to species of chenopodium, n.o. salsolaceae; called also fat-hen. the name is also applied to various wild pot herbs. spinach, new zealand, n. tetragonia expansa, murr., n.o. ficoideae; called also iceplant, in tasmania. it is a trailing fig-marigold, and was discovered in new zealand by captain cook, though it is also found in japan and south america. its top leaves are eaten as spinach, and cook introduced it to england, where it is also known as summer spinach. spine-bill, n. an australian "honey-eater," but not now so classed. there are two species-- the slender spine-bill-- acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, gould; inhabiting australia and tasmania, and called cobbler's awl in the latter colony. white-eyebrowed s.-- a. superciliosus, gould; of western australia. though related to the genus myzomela, the pattern of their colouration differs widely. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "acanthorhynchus tenuirostris. slender-billed spine-bill. cobbler's awl, colonists of van diemen's land." ibid. pl. : "acanthorhynchus superciliosus, gould. white-eyebrowed spine-bill." spinetail, n. an australian bird, orthonyx spinicauda; called also pheasant's mother (q.v.), log-runner (q.v.). the name is used elsewhere for different birds. see orthonyx. spinifex, n. a grass known in india, china, and the pacific, but especially common on australasian shores. the word means, literally, thorn-making, but it is not classical latin. "the aggregated flowers form large clusters, and their radiating heads, becoming detached at maturity, are carried by the wind along the sand, propelled by their elastic spines and dropping their seeds as they roll." (mueller.) this peculiarity gains for the hairy spinifex (spinifex hirsutus, labill.) the additional name of spiny rolling grass. see also quotation, . this chief species (s. hirsutus) is present on the shores of nearly all australasia, and has various synonyms--s. sericeus, raoul.; s. inermis, banks and sol.; ixalum inerme, forst.; s. fragilis, r.b., etc. it is a "coarse, rambling, much-branched, rigid, spinous, silky or woolly, perennial grass, with habitats near the sea on sandhills, or saline soils more inland." (buchanan.) the desert spinifex of the early explorers, and of many subsequent writers, is not a true spinifex, but a fescue; it is properly called porcupine grass (q.v.), and is a species of triodia. the quotations, , , , and , involve this error. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. vi. p. : "in the valley was a little sandy soil, nourishing the spinifex." . baron von mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the desert spinifex of our colonists is a fescue, but a true spinifex occupies our sand-shores; . . . the heads are so buoyant as to float lightly on the water, and while their uppermost spiny rays act as sails, they are carried across narrow inlets, to continue the process of embarking." . j. bonwick, `romance of wool trade,' p. : "though grasses are sadly conspicuous by their absence, saline plants, so nutritious for stock, occur amidst the real deserts of spinifex." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "on the broad sandy heights . . . the so-called spinifex is found in great abundance. this grass (triodia irritans) is the traveller's torment, and makes the plains, which it sometimes covers for hundreds of miles, almost impassable. its blades, which have points as sharp as needles, often prick the horses' legs till they bleed." . a. f. calvert, `english illustrated magazine,' feb., p. : "they evidently preferred that kind of watercress to the leaves of the horrid, prickly spinifex, so omnipresent in the north-western district." . r. tate, `horne expedition in central australia,' botany, p. : "a species of triodia (`porcupine grass,' or incorrectly `spinifex' of explorers and residents) dominates sandy ground and the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands." spiny-lizard, n. i.q. mountain devil (q.v.). split-stuff, n. timber sawn into lengths and then split. . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "`sawed stuff' and `split stuff,' by which is meant timber which is sawn into regular forms and thicknesses, as flooring boards, joints, battens, &c., and that which is split into `posts and rails,' slabs, or paling. some of the species of eucalyptus, or gum-trees, are peculiarly adapted for splitting. the peppermint-tree (eucalyptus piperita) and the `stringy bark' are remarkable for the perfectly straight grain which they often exhibit, and are split with surprising evenness and regularity into paling and boards for `weather-boarding' houses and other purposes, in lengths of six or eight feet by one foot wide, and half or one-third of an inch thick. . . . any curve in a tree renders it unfit for splitting, but the crooked- grained wood is best for sawing. . . . all houses in the colony, with few exceptions, are roofed with split shingles." splitter, n. a wood-cutter, cutting timber in the bush, and splitting it into posts and rails, palings or shingles. see quotation under split-stuff. . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "there were two splitters located near us . . . they had a licence to split timber on the crown lands." . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads--wolf and hound,' p. : "at the splitter's tent i had seen the track of horse hoofs, fresh on the sward." spoonbill, n. a bird-name widely used. the australian species are-- royal spoonbill-- platalea regia. yellow-billed s.-- p. flavipes. p. regia has a fine crest in the breeding season; hence the name. . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings among gum-trees,' p. : "the sun is sinking in the western sky, and ibises and spoonbills thither fly. spotted-tree. same as leopard-tree (q.v.). . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "spotted or leopard tree. the gum from this tree forms good adhesive mucilage. it reminds one strongly of east-india gum-arabic of good quality. during the summer months large masses, of a clear amber-colour, exude from the stem and branches. it has a very pleasant taste, is eaten by the aboriginals, and forms a very common bushman's remedy in diarrhoea." spotted-orchis, n. tasmanian name for the orchid dipodium punctatum, r. br. spotting, n. new zealand equivalent for the australian "picking the eyes out," and "peacocking." under free-selection (q.v.), the squatter spotted his run, purchasing choice spots. spotty, n. a new zealand fish, a wrass, labrichthys bothryocosmus, richards.; also called poddly (q.v.), and kelp-fish (q.v.). . p. thomson, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. lii. p. : "wrasse, parrot-fish, and spotties are often in the market. there are two kinds of spotties, a big and a little. the wrasse and the parrot-fish are mostly caught outside amongst the kelp, and these, with the spotty, are indiscriminately called kelp-fish by the fishermen." sprag, n. in gold-mining. see quotation. the word is used in england, applied to coal-mining. . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. iii. p. : "a `sprag,' being a stout piece of hard wood, was inserted between the rope and the iron roller on which the rope ran." squat, v. to be a squatter (q.v.) in any of the senses of that word. . feb. , `speech by rev. j. d. lang,' quoted in `phillipsland,' p. : in whatever direction one moves out of melbourne, whether north, east, or west, all he sees or hears is merely a repetition of this colonial note--`i squat, thou squattest, he squats; we squat, ye or you squat, they squat.'. . . exeunt omnes. `they are all gone out a-squatting.'" . t. h. braim, `history of new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the regulations . . . put an end to squatting within the boundaries of location, and reduced it to a system without the boundaries." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "the speaker squats equally and alternately on the woolsack of the house and at his wool-stations on the murrumbidgee. one may squat on a large or small scale, squat directly or indirectly, squat in person or by proxy." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' p. : "some spot, found here and there, where cotters squat with self-permission." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "squatting, in its first phase, was confined to the region round about sydney; it was not until the pass through the blue mountains was discovered that the flocks and herds of the colonists began to expand." squattage, n. a squatter's station. the word can hardly be said to have prevailed. . w. westgarth, `colony of victoria,' p. : "the great riverine district, which is one vast series of squattages . . . the toil and solitude of a day's journey between the homesteads of adjacent squattages." squatter, n. ( ) one who squats; that is, settles on land without a title or licence. this is an english use. . t. a. murray (evidence before legislative council of new south wales on police and gaols): "there are several parties of squatters in my neighbourhood. i detected, not long since, three men at one of their stations in the act of slaughtering one of my own cattle. i have strong reason to suspect that these people are, in general, illicit sellers of spirits." . w. h. dutton (evidence before same committee): "these persons (squatters) are almost invariably the instigators and promoters of crime, receivers of stolen property, illegal vendors of spirits, and harbourers of runaways, bushrangers, and vagrants." . rev. w. pridden, `australia its history and present condition,' pp. - : "the squatters, as they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony or estate which have not yet become any person's private property. by the natural increase of their flocks and herds, many of these squatters have enriched themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any rent for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when the spot was sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or some other property. thus . . . the squatter has been converted into a respectable settler. but this is too bright a picture to form an average specimen. . . . unfortunately, many of these squatters have been persons originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of carrying on all manner of mischief. or sometimes they choose spots of waste land near a high road . . . there the squatters knock up what is called a `hut.' in such places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are procured in return." ibid. p. : "the rich proprietors have a great aversion to the class of squatters, and not unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of them, squatters themselves, only on a much larger scale. . ." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. : "this capital of australia felix had for a long time been known to some squatters from tasmania." . t. h. braim, `history of new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "a set of men who were to be found upon the borders of every large estate, and who were known by the name of squatters. these were ticket-of-leave holders, or freedmen who erected a but on waste land near a great public road, or on the outskirts of an estate." . australian steam navigation company, `guide book,' p. : "nowaday squatters may be interested and possibly shocked on learning that in march, , a petition was being largely signed for the prevention of `squatting, through which so much crime was daily occurring,' inasmuch as `squatting' was but another term for sly grog selling, receiving stolen property, and harbouring bushrangers and assigned servants. the term `squatter,' as applied to the class it now designates--without which where would australia now be?--was not in vogue till ." ( ) a pastoral tenant of the crown, often renting from the crown vast tracts of land for pasturage at an almost nominal sum. the term is still frequently, but incorrectly, used for a man rearing and running stock on freehold land. pastoralist is now the more favoured term. . f. p. labillicre, `early history of the colony of victoria' (edition ), vol. ii. p. : "in a memorandum of december th, , `on the disposal of lands in the australian provinces,' sir george gipps informs the secretary of state on the subject, and states that,--'a very large proportion of the land which is to form the new district of port phillip is already in the licensed occupation of the squatters of new south wales, a class of persons whom it would be wrong to confound with those who bear the same name in america, and who are generally persons of mean repute and of small means, who have taken unauthorized possession of patches of land. among the squatters of new south wales are the wealthiest of the land, occupying, with the permission of the government, thousands and tens of thousands of acres. young men of good families and connexions in england, officers of the army and navy, graduates of oxford and cambridge, are also in no small number amongst them.'" . `port phillip patriot,' july , p. , col. : "the petitioner has already consigned the whole country to the class squatter in perpetuity." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "the squatters of australia felix will meet on horseback, upon batman's hill, on the st of june, for the purpose of forming a mutual protection society. from the murray to the sea-beach, from the snowy mountains to the glenelg, let no squatter be absent." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "`squatters.' a word not to be found in `johnson's dictionary'; of canadian extraction, literally to sit on the haunches: in australia a term applied to the sheep farmers generally; from their being obliged frequently to adopt that position." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition' (introd.), p. : "we were received with the greatest kindness by my friends the `squatters,' a class principally composed of young men of good education, gentlemanly habits, and high principles." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the port phillip squatters, as occupants of the territory of new south wales, were afterwards required to take out an annual depasturing licence in terms of a colonial act passed at sydney." (p. ): "the modern squatters, the aristocratic portion of the colonial community." . `australasian,' p. : "in the migratory flockmaster had become a settled squatter. a wretched slab but is now his home; for furniture he has a rough bush-made table, and two or three uncouth stools." . t. mccombie, australian sketches,' p. : "the term squatter was applied in the first instance to signify, as in america, such as erected huts on unsold land. it thus came to be applied to all who did not live on their own land, to whom the original and more expressive name of settler continued to be applied. when the owners of stock became influential from their education and wealth, it was thought due to them to change this term for one more suitable to their circumstances, as they now included in their order nearly every man of mark or wealth in australia. the government suggested the term `tenants of the crown,' the press hinted at `licensed graziers,' and both terms were in partial use, but such is the prejudice in favour of what is already established, that both were soon disused, and the original term finally adopted." . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "the term `squatter' . . . is thus derived:--a flock-master settling in australia could drive his stock to, and occupy, any tract of country, which, from its extent and pastoral capabilities, might meet his comprehensive views; always provided, that such lands had not been already appropriated. . . . early flock-masters were always confirmed in their selection of lands, according to the quantity of stock they possessed. . . . the victorian squatter who can number but five or six thousand sheep is held to be a man of no account. . . . those only, who can command the shearing of from ten to forty thousand fleeces annually, are estimated as worthy of any note." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "the squatters (as owners of sheepstations are called)." . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' p. : "in the language of the times, messrs. evans, lancey, and subsequently j. p. fawkner, were squatters. that term is somewhat singular as applied to the latter, who asserts that he founded the colony to prevent its getting into the hands of the squatters. the term was then applied to all who placed themselves upon public lands without licence." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "it is not too much to say that all the early success of australia was due to the squatters of new south wales, who followed the steps of captain mcarthur." . `the australian,' vol. i. p. : "i have been a super, a small freeholder, and a middling-sized squatter, at different times." . rev. j. h. zillmann, `australian life,' p. : "the squatters are the large leaseholders and landed proprietors of the colony, whose cry has always been that the country was unfit for agricultural settlement, and only adapted for the pastoral pursuits in which they were engaged. . . . it is true the old squatter has been well-nigh exterminated." . j. f. hogan, `robert lowe,' p. : "the pastoral enterprise of the adventurous squatters. originally unrecognized trespassers on crown lands. . . ." ( ) applied as a nickname to a kind of bronze-wing pigeon (q.v.). . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "on the plains you find different kinds of pigeons, the squatters being most common--plump, dust-coloured little fellows, crouching down to the ground quite motionless as you pass. i have frequently killed them with my stock-whip." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "gentle little squatter-pigeons cooed lovingly in answer to their mates on all sides." squatterarchy, n. squatters collectively. . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. iii. p. : "the squatterarchy of the koorong rose up in a body and named its hero, martyr." squatterdom, n. the state of being a squatter, or collective word for squatters; the squatter-party. (circiter). `political parody': "the speaker then apologised, the members cried, hear, hear; and e'en the ranks of squatterdom could scarce forbear to cheer." . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' p. : "writes to another at a distance upon the subject of squatterdom." squatting, adj. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition' (introd.), p. : "during my recent excursions through the squatting districts, i had accustomed myself to a comparatively wild life." . j. d. lang, `cooksland,' p. : "the large extent of land occupied by each squatting station." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "a gathering of the squatting and bush life of australia." squattocracy, n. squatters collectively. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "throughout the colony generally, english are the most numerous, then the scotch, then the irish, amongst the squattocracy." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the howl for the abolition of the squattocracy had not yet been fostered under the malign influence of shortsighted politicians." . r. m. praed, `head station,' p. (`century'): "the bloated squattocracy represents australian conservatism." . e. w. hornung, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "the hearty, hospitable manner of the colonial `squatocracy.'" . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. iv. p. : "he trusted to pass into the ranks of the squatocracy." squattocratic, adj. connected with previous word. . `melbourne morning herald,' feb. , p. , col. : "squattocratic impudence." [a heading.] squeaker, n. a vernacular name applied to various birds from their cries. see quotations. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "strepera anaphonensis, grey crow-shrike; squeaker of the colonists." . w. blandowski, `transactions of philosophical society, victoria,' vol. i. p. : "the squeaker (strepera anaphonensis) is a shy and solitary bird, living entirely on the flats, and is remarkable on account of its frequenting only the same locality. he is hence easily distinguished from the gymnorhina tibicen, whose shrill and piping voice is so well known on all the high lands." . a. j. north, `list of insectivorous birds of new south wales,' part i. p. : "a local name is often more apt to mislead and confuse than to assist one in recognizing the particular species on which it is bestowed. this is chiefly due to the same local name being applied to two or more species.for instance, corcorax melanorhamphus, xerophila leucopsis, and myzantha garrula are all locally known in different parts of the colony by the name of `squeaker.'" squid, n. a marine animal. the australian species is sepioteuthis australis, quoy and gaim. . `report of the royal commission on the fisheries of tasmania,' p. xi: "none of the squid family seems to be sought after, although certain kinds are somewhat abundant in our waters. it is stated by the new south wales fisheries enquiry commission, , that `the cephalopods might be made a source of a considerable profit for exportation to japan and china. in both these countries all animal substances of a gelatinous character are in great request, and none more than those of the cuttle-fish tribe; the squid (sepioteuthis australis) is highly appreciated, and in consequence is highly prized. the cuttle-fish (sepia) is of rather inferior quality, and the star-fish of the fishermen (octopus) not used at all.'" . r l. stevenson, `the wrecker,' p. : "you can't fill up all these retainers on tinned salmon for nothing; but whenever i could get it, i would give 'em squid. squid's good for natives, but i don't care for it, do you?-- or shark either." squire, n. name given to the fish called schnapper at two years old. see schnapper. squirrel, n. see flying-squirrel. stamper, or stamphead, n. "a cast-iron weight, or head, fixed on to a shank or lifter, and used for stamping or reducing quartz to a fine sand." (brough smyth, `glossary.') the word is used elsewhere as a term in machinery. in australia, it signifies the appliance above described. the form stamphead is the earlier one. the shorter word stamper is now the more usual. . j. f. blanche, `prince's visit,' p. : "for steam and stampers now are all the rage." . a. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "the battery was to have eight stampers." . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "this, with the old battery, brings the number of stampers up to sixty." ibid. p. : "a battery of twenty-six stamp heads." star of bethlehem. the old world plant is ornithogalum umbellatum; the name is given in australia to chamaescilla corymbosa, and in tasmania to burchardia umbellata, r. br., both of the liliaceae. star-fern, n. name given in victoria to gleichenia flabellata, r. br.; called also fan-fern. see fern. starling, n. english bird-name. the australian species is the shining starling, calornis metallica. the common english starling is also acclimatised. start, n. the young australian has a fine contempt for the english word to begin, which he never uses where he can find any substitute. he says commence or start, and he always uses commence followed by the infinitive instead of by the verbal noun, as "the dog commenced to bark." . modern talk in the train: "the horse started to stop, and the backers commenced to hoot." station, n. originally the house with the necessary buildings and home-premises of a sheep-run, and still used in that sense: but now more generally signifying the run and all that goes with it. stations are distinguished as sheep-stations and cattle-stations. . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. (introd.): "they . . . will only be occupied as distant stock-stations." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "their [squatters'] huts or houses, gardens, paddocks, etc., form what is termed a station, while the range of country over which their flocks and herds roam is termed a run." . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' p. : "the lecturer assured his audience that he came here to prevent this country being a squatting station." . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads,' p. : "the sturdy station-children pull the bush flowers on my grave." . e. d. cleland, `the white kangaroo,' p. : "station--the term applied in the colonies to the homesteads of the sheep-farmers or squatters." . rolf boldrewood,'miner's right,' c. xviii. p. : "men who in their youth had been peaceful stockmen and station-labourers." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "i'm travelen' down the castlereagh and i'm a station-hand, i'm handy with the ropin' pole, i'm handy with the brand, and i can ride a rowdy colt, or swing the axe all day, but there's no demand for a stationhand along the castlereagh." station-jack, n. a form of bush cookery. . `the emigrant's guide to australia.' (article on bush-cookery, from an unpublished ms. by mrs. chisholm], pp. - : "the great art of bush-cookery consists in giving a variety out of salt beef and flour . . . let the sunday share be soaked on the saturday, and beat it well . . . take the . . . flour and work it into a paste; then put the beef into it, boil it, and you will have a very nice pudding, known in the bush as `station jack.'" stavewood, n. another name for the flindosy beech. see beech. stay-a-while, n. a tangled bush; sometimes called wait-a-while (q.v.). steamer, n. obsolete name for a colonial dish. see quotation. . lieut. c. jeffreys, r.n., `geographical and descriptive delineations of the island of van dieman's land,' p. : "their meal consisted of the hindquarters of a kangaroo cut into mincemeat, stewed in its own gravy, with a few rashers of salt pork; this dish is commonly called a steamer." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "our largest animals are the kangaroos . . . making most delicious stews and steaks, the favourite dish being what is called a steamer, composed of steaks and chopped tail, (with a few slices of salt pork) stewed with a very small quantity of water for a couple of hours in a close vessel." stewart islander, n. name given to the oyster, ostrea chiloensis, sowerby; so called because it is specially abundant on stewart island off the south coast of new zealand. the stewart island forms are mud oysters, those of sydney cove growing on rock. see oyster. stick-caterpillar, n. see phasmid. stick-up, v. tr. ( ) the regular word for the action of bushrangers stopping passers-by on the highway and robbing them. ( ) in the case of a bank or a station, simply to rob. . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. xiii. p. : "it was only the previous night that he had been `stuck up' with a pistol at his head." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. ii. p. : "unless the mail came well armed, a very few men could `stick it up,' without any trouble or danger." . `melbourne punch,' feb. , p. , col. : "i have been stuck up, trampled in the mud." . j. townend, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "five or six bushrangers took up a position about a mile from town, and (to use a colonial phrase) `stuck up' every person that passed." . mrs. w. m. howell, `the diggings and the bush,' p. : "the escort has been `stuck up,' and the robbers have taken notes to the value of l , and two thousand ounces of gold." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "we had a revolver apiece in case of being `stuck up' on the road." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "we could make more money in one night by `sticking up' a coach or a bank than in any other way in a year . . . any one who has been stuck up himself knows that there's not much chance of doing much in the resisting line." [the operation is then explained fully.] . lyth, `golden south,' c.viii. p. : "accounts of bushrangers `sticking up' stations, travellers, and banks were very frequent." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. . col. : "the game of sticking up hotels used to be in the old days a popular one, and from the necessary openness of the premises the practice was easy to carry out." ( ) humorously applied to a collector or a beggar. in `twenty- five years of st. andrews' (vol. ii. p. ), a. k. h. b. tells a story of a church dignitary, who was always collecting money for church building. when a ghost appeared at glamis castle, addressing the ghost, the clergyman began--that "he was most anxious to raise money for a church he was erecting; that he had a bad cold and could not well get out of bed; but that his collecting-book was on the dressing-table, and he would be `extremely obliged' for a subscription." an australian would have said he "stuck up" the ghost for a subscription. . e. w. hornung, `a bride from the bush,' p. : "you never get stuck up for coppers in the streets of the towns." ( ) bring a kangaroo to bay. . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. iii. p. : "we knew that she had `stuck up' or brought to bay a large forester." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the fiercest fighter i ever saw `stuck up' against a red gum-tree." ( ) simply to stop. . s. butler, `first year in canterbury settlement,' p. : "this [waterfall] `stuck us up,' as they say here concerning any difficulty." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "we are stuck up for an hour or more, and can get a good feed over there." ( ) to pose, to puzzle. . modern: "i was stuck up for an answer." "that last riddle stuck him up." . `the australasian,' jan. , p. , col. : "the professor seems to have stuck up any number of candidates with the demand that they should `construct one simple sentence out of all the following.'" sticker-up, n. sc. a bushranger. . w. j. barry, `up and down,' p. : "they had only just been liberated from gaol, and were the stickers-up, or highwaymen mentioned." sticker-up/ , n. a term of early bush cookery, the method, explained in first quotation, being borrowed from the aborigines. . `hobart town almanack,' p. : "which he cooked in the mode called in colonial phrase a sticker up. a straight twig being cut as a spit, the slices were strung upon it, and laid across two forked sticks leaning towards the fire." . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "here i was first initiated into the bush art of `sticker-up' cookery . . . the orthodox material here is of course kangaroo, a piece of which is divided nicely into cutlets two or three inches broad and a third of an inch thick. the next requisite is a straight clean stick, about four feet long, sharpened at both ends. on the narrow part of this, for the space of a foot or more, the cutlets are spitted at intervals, and on the end is placed a piece of delicately rosy fat bacon. the strong end of the stick-spit is now stuck fast and erect in the ground, close by the fire, to leeward; care being taken that it does not burn." ". . . to men that are hungry, stuck-up kangaroo and bacon are very good eating." . . . "our `sticker-up' consisted only of ham." . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "pounds of rosy steaks . . . skilfully rigged after the usual approved fashion (termed in bush parlance a sticker-up'), before the brilliant wood fire, soon sent forth odours most grateful to the hungered way-worn bushmen." stilt, n. english bird-name. in new zealand, the species are-- the black stilt-- himantopus novae-zelandiae, gould; maori name, kaki. pied s., or whiteheaded s.-- h. leucocephalus, gould; maori name, tutumata. white-necked s.-- h. albicollis, buller. h. leucocephalus (the white-headed stilt) is also present in australia, and the world-wide species, h. pectoralis, du bus. (the banded stilt), is found through all australasia. stingareeing, n. the sport of catching stingrays, or stingarees. . hutton and hector, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "it has been recently discovered by the writer of the animated article in the `field' on fishing in new zealand [london, nov. , ], that `stingareeing' can be made to afford sport of a most exciting kind." stinging-tree, n. a queensland name for the giant nettle, or nettle-tree (q.v.) . a. j. vogan, `the black police,' p. : "the stinging-tree, . . . the most terrible of all vegetable growths. this horrible guardian of the queensland jungle stands from five to fifteen feet in height, and has a general appearance somewhat similar to that of a small mulberry-tree. their peculiarly soft and inviting aspect is caused by an almost invisible coating of microscopic cillia, and it is to these that the dangerous characteristics of the plant are due. the unhappy wanderer in these wilds, who allows any part of his body to come in contact with those beautiful, inviting tongues of green, soon finds them veritable tongues of fire, and it will be weeks, perhaps months, ere the scorching agony occasioned by their sting is entirely eradicated." sting-moth, n. an australian moth, doratifera vulnerans. the larva has at each end of the body four tubercles bearing stinging hairs. (`standard.') stinkwood, n. the name is given to various woods in different parts of the world, from their unpleasant smell. in tasmania, it is applied to the timber of zieria smithii, andr., n.o. rutaceae. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' p. : "the timber in this district i found to be principally myrtle, sassafras, and stinkwood." stint, n. english bird-name. the australian species are-- curlew stint-- tringa subarquata, gmel. little s.-- t. ruficollis. sharp-tailed s.-- t. acuminata, horsf. stitch-bird, n. a bird of new zealand. see quotation. . hugh martin, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. art. xxii. p. : "pogonornis cincta (hihi, matahiore, stitch-bird), north island." [from a list of new zealand birds that ought to be protected.] . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "pogonornis cincta, gray. [a full description.]" . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "stitch-bird (pogonornis cincta), formerly abundant in the north island, but now extinct on the main-land, and found only in some of the outlying islets. the rarest and one of the most beautiful of native passerines." stock, n. the word has many meanings. in the one from which the australian compounds are made, it denotes horses, cattle, or sheep, the farmer's stock in trade. of course, this use is not peculiar to australia, but it is unusually common there. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. ix. p. : "the cattle suffered much, and some of both the public and private stock perished." stock-agent, n. more usually in the form stock and station-agent. the circumstances of australian life make this a common profession. stock-holder, n. a grazier; owner of large herds of cattle, or flocks of sheep. . lieut. chas. jeffreys, `delineations of van dieman's land' [sic], p. : "near this is the residence of d. rose, esq., formerly an officer of the rd regiment, and now a large land and stockholder." . e. curr, `account of van diemen's land,' p. : "the most negligent stock-holders now carefully house their wool, and many take the trouble to wash their sheep." stock-horse, n. horse accustomed to go after cattle used in mustering and cutting-out (q.v.). . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. vi. p. : "the australian stock-horse is a wonderful animal. . . . he has a wonderful constitution, splendid feet, great endurance, and very good temper." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "a twenty-year-old stock-horse." stock-hut, n. the hut of a stock-man. . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. ii. c. ii. p. : "we crossed the underaliga creek a little below the stock-hut." stock-keep, v. a quaint compound verb. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. x. p. ( ): "`what can you do, young man?' `well, most things . . . fence, split, milk, drive bullocks, stock-keep, plough." stock-keeper, n. equivalent to a shepherd, or herdsman. . governor macquarie, `government notice,' june , , in e. curr's `van diemen's land' ( ), p. : "to yard the flocks at night . . . for the purpose of keeping the stock-keepers in check, and sufficient shepherds should be kept to ensure constant attention to the flock." . governor arthur in j. bischoff's `van diemen's land,' , p. : "every kind of injury committed against the defenceless natives by the stock-keepers." stock-man, n. used in australia for a man employed to look after stock. . governor macquarie, `government notice,' june , , in e. curr's `van diemen's land' (edition ), p. : "it is the common practice with owners of flocks to allow their shepherds to acquire and keep sheep . . . it affords to the stock-men a cover frequently for disposing dishonestly of sheep belonging to their master." . g. w. evans, `description of van diemen's land,' p. : "at its junction there is a fine space, named by the stockmen native hut valley." . c. sturt,' southern australia,'vol. i. c. i. p. : "he was good enough to send for the stockman (or chief herdsman)." . j l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. xii. p. : "an exchange of looks i caught the overseer and stockman indulging in." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' p. : "here and there a stockman's cottage stands." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "would you still exchange your comfortable home and warm fireside . . . for a wet blanket, a fireless camp, and all the other etceteras of the stockman's life?" . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "one stooped--a stockman from the nearer hills to loose his wallet strings." stock-rider, n. a man employed to look after cattle, properly on an unfenced station. . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads' [title]: "the sick stock-rider." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "`thus far into the bowels of the land have we marched on without impediment,' said a lithe-limbed stock-rider, bearded like a pard, as he lit his pipe--the bushman's only friend. and this was once a fellow of st. john's, cambridge." stock-riding, n. the occupation of a stock-rider (q.v.). . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. [footnote]: "like other australian aborigines, the kurnai have a natural aptitude for stock-riding." stock-route, n. when land is first let in surveyed blocks to a squatter (q.v.), and is, of course, unfenced, the lessee is required by law to leave passages through it from two to four chains wide, at certain intervals, as a right-of-way for travelling sheep and cattle. these are called stock-routes. he may fence these routes if he chooses--which he very rarely does--but if he fences across the route he must provide gates or slip-rails (q.v.), or other free passage. . `the argus,' may , p. , col. : "to-day the land board dealt with the application for the re-appraisement of the yantara pastoral holding. the manager said that owing to deterioration of the feed through the rabbits, from to acres were required to carry a sheep. . . . thirteen trial wells had been put down on the holding, all of which had bottomed on a drift of salt water. four stock routes passed through the area, one being the main stock route from south-western queensland. . . . wild dogs had been troublesome since the february rains. . . . there were government bores on the run." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "now saltbush bill was a drover tough, as ever the country knew, he had fought his way on the great stock routes from the sea to the big barcoo." stock-up, v. complete the number of animals on a station, so that it may carry its full complement. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. vii. p. : "i shall decide to stock up as soon as the fences are finished." stock-whip, n. whip for driving cattle. see quotations. . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. i. p. : "the stock-whip, with a handle about half a yard long and a thong of three yards long, of plaited bullock-hide, is a terrible instrument in the hands of a practised stockman. its sound is the note of terror to the cattle; it is like the report of a blunderbuss, and the stockman at full gallop will hit any given spot on the beast that he is within reach of, and cut the piece away through the thickest hide that bull or bison ever wore." . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads,' p. : "with a running fire of stock-whips and a fiery run of hoofs." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the stock-whip, which bears such a prominent part in all dealings with cattle, is from twelve to fourteen feet in length, with a short light handle of about fourteen inches long, to which it is attached by a leather keeper as on a hunting crop. . . . the whip is made of a carefully selected strip of green hide, great attention having been paid to curing it." stocks-man, n. an unusual form for stock-man (q.v.). . f. j. jobson, `australia,' c. vi. p. : "we saw the stocksman seated upon his bony long-limbed steed." stone-lifter, n. a melbourne name for the fish kathetostoma laeve, bl., family trachinidae, one of the genera of the "stargazers" (uranoscopina), which have eyes on the surface of the head. stonewall, v. intr. ( ) a parliamentary term: to make use of the forms of the house so as to delay public business. ( ) to obstruct business at any meeting, chiefly by long-winded speeches. ( ) to play a slow game at cricket, blocking balls rather than making runs. . `victorian hansard,' jan., vol. xxii. p. : "mr. g. paton smith wished to ask the honourable member for geelong west whether the six members sitting beside him (mr. berry) constituted the `stone wall' that had been spoken of? did they constitute the stone wall which was to oppose all progress--to prevent the finances being dealt with and the business of the country carried on? it was like bully bottom's stone wall. it certainly could not be a very high wall, nor a very long wall, if it only consisted of six." . g. w. rusden, `history of australia,' vol. iii. p. : "abusing the heroic words of stonewall jackson, the opposition applied to themselves the epithet made famous by the gallant confederate general." . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "the tasmanians [sc. cricketers] do not as a rule stonewall." stonewood, n. callistemon salignus, de c., n.o. myrtaceae; called also the river tea-tree. . `melbourne museum catalogue--economic woods,' no. : "stonewood." store, n. a bullock, cow, or sheep bought to be fattened for the market. . w. h. l. ranken, `dominion of australia,' c. xiii. p. : "they then, if `stores,' pass to the rich salt-bush country of riverina." store-cattle, n. lean cattle bought to be fattened for the market; often contracted to stores (q.v.). . r. m. praed, `head-station,' p. : "oh, we're not fit for anything but store-cattle: we are all blady grass." stranger, n. name given in victoria and tasmania to the rock-whiting, odax richardsoni, gunth., family labridae. the stranger, which is a marine fish, is caught occasionally in the fresher water of the upper estuary of the derwent; hence its name. see whiting. . `spectator' (melbourne), june , , p. : "common fish such as . . . garfish, strangers, silvers, and others.' stringy-bark, n. ( ) any one of various gums, with a tough fibrous bark used for tying, for cordage, for roofs of huts, etc. . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the string bark [sic] tree is also useful, and its bark, which is of a fibrous texture, often more than an inch in thickness, parts easily from the wood, and may be obtained ten or twelve feet in length, and seven or eight in breadth." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the natives appear also to like the fruit of the pandanus, of which large quantities are found in their camps, soaking in water contained in vessels formed of stringy-bark." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "in truth, the forests of australia (consisting principally of woods of iron-bark, stringy-bark, and other species of the eucalyptus) seen at a distance, just before sunset, are noble objects--perfect pictures." . g. t. lloyd, `thirty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "the stringy bark tree is so named from the ropy nature of its bark, which is frequently used for tying on the rods and thatch of sheds, huts, and barns in the country." . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "gum-topped string-bark, sometimes called white gum (eucalyptus gigantea, var.). a tree resembling the blue gum in foliage, with rough bark similar to stringy bark towards the stem." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "stringy-bark trees were also seen--so called, because the rough bark has a brown tenacious fibre, like that of the cocoanut, which can be split off in sheets to make the roofs of houses, or unravelled into a fibre that will tie like string." . carleton, `australian nights,' p. : "the mia-mia that the native dark had formed from sheets of stringy bark." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the stringy-bark tree is of straight growth, and takes its name from the strip-like character of its bark. . . . the wood is of a brown colour, hard, heavy, strong and close in the grain. it works up well . . . in ship-building, for planking, beams, keels and keelsons, and in civil architecture for joists, flooring, etc. upon the farms it is used for fences and agricultural implements: it is also employed for furniture and for all ordinary purposes." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "down to the waist they are all wound round with frayed stringy-bark in thick folds." . `the age,' oct. , p. , col. : "granite and stringy-bark are always associated with `hungry' country." ( ) bush slang for bad whisky. . a. j. vogan, `the black police,' p. : "stringy-bark, a curious combination of fusil oil and turpentine, labelled `whisky.'" stringy-bark, adj. equivalent to "bush." . oct. `new south wales magazine,' vol. . p. : ". . . the workmanship of which i beg you will not scrutinize, as i am but, to use a colonial expression, `a stringy-bark carpenter.'" . c. rudston read, `what i heard, saw, and did at the australian gold fields,' p. : ". . . after swimming a small river about yards wide he'd arrive at old geordy's, a stringy bark settler . . ." sturt's desert pea, n. a beautiful creeper, clianthus dampieri, cunn., n.o. leguminosae, which will only grow in very dry, sandy soil. it is sometimes called lobster's claw, from its clusters of brilliant scarlet flowers with black-purple centres, like a lobster's claw. called also glory pea (q.v.). see clianthus. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "amongst which appears the beautiful clianthus, known to the colonists as sturt's desert pea." [footnote]: "woodward in `dampier's voyages,' vol. iii. cap. , pl. . the plant is there called colutea novae-hollandiae. its name now is clianthus dampieri. r. brown proposed the name of eremocharis, from the greek 'eraemos, desert." [dampier's voyage was made in , and the book published in . mr. woodward contributed notes on the plants brought home by dampier.] stump-jump plough, n. a farm implement, invented in australia, for ploughing the wheat-lands, which are often left with the stumps of the cleared trees not eradicated. . `waybrook implement company' (advt.): "it is only a very few years since it came into use, and no one ever thought it was going to turn a trackless scrub into a huge garden. but now from the south australian border right through to the murray, farms and comfortable homesteads have taken the place of dense scrub. this last harvest, over three hundred thousand bags of wheat were delivered at warracknabeal, and this wonderful result must, in the main, be put down to the stump-jump plough. it has been one of the best inventions this colony has ever been blessed with." stump-tailed lizard, n. an australian lizard, trachydosaurus rugosus, gray. styphelia, n. scientific name of a genus of shrubby plants of new zealand and australia, of the n.o. epacrideae. it contains the five-corners (q.v.). . j. e. smith, `specimen of the botany of new holland,' p. : "we adopt dr. solander's original name styphelia, derived from stuphelos, harsh, hard, or firm, expressive of the habit of the whole genus and indeed of the whole natural order." sucker, n. name given in new zealand to the fish diplocrepis puniceus, rich., family gobiesocidae. this is a family of small, marine, littoral fishes provided with a ventral disc, or adhesive apparatus. other genera of the family occur in australasia. sugar, n. slang for money. it may be doubted if it is specially australian. . j. bonwick, `romance of wool trade,' p. (quoting `victoria, the el dorado'): "i hear him sing out `sold again, and got the sugar' (a colonial slang word for ready money); `half a sheep for a shilling.'" sugar-ant, n. a small ant, known in many parts of australia by this name because of its fondness for sweet things. . `the melbournian,' aug. , p. : "the sun reaches a sugar-ant and rouses him from his winter sleep. out he scurries, glad to greet the warmth, and tracks hurriedly around. he feels the sun, but the cold damp ground tells him the time is not yet come when at evening he will sally forth in long columns over the soft warm dust in search of the morrow's meal; so, dazzled by the unaccustomed glare, he seeks his hiding-place once more." sugar-bag, n. nest of honey, and the honey. . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "the regular sharp chop-chop of the tomahawks could be heard here and there, where some of them had discovered a sugar-bag (nest of honey) or a 'possum on a tree." ibid. vol. ii. p. : "the tiny bee which manufactures his adored chewgah-bag." [footnote: "sugar-bag--the native pigeon-english word for honey."] sugar-grass, n. an australian grass, erianthus fulvus, kunth., n.o. gramineae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the `sugar grass' of colonists, so called on account of its sweetness; it is highly productive, and praised by stockowners. cattle eat it close down, and therefore it is in danger of extermination, but it is readily raised from seed." sugar-gum, n. an australian gum, eucalyptus corynocalyx of south australia and north-western victoria. the foliage is sweet, and attractive to cattle. see gum. sultana-bird, n. a name for the swamp-hen (q.v.), porphyrio melanonotus, temm. . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "black sultana-birds, blue-breasted as deep ocean." summer-bird, n. the old colonists' name for the wood-swallows. see swallow. in tasmania it is applied to a species of shrike, graucalus melanops, lath. the name refers to the migratory habits of both birds. . c. french, government entomologist, letter to `argus,' nov. : "the wood-swallows, known to us old colonists as summer birds, are migratory, making their appearance about september and disappearing about the end of january." summer country, n. in new zealand (south island), country which can be used in summer only; mountain land in otago and canterbury, above a certain level. sun-bird, n. a common name of various birds. applied in australia to cinnyris frenata, mull. . j. gould, `birds of australia' (supplement), pl. : "`this pretty sun-bird,' says mr. macgillivray, `appears to be distributed along the whole of the northeast coast of australia, the adjacent islands, and the whole of the islands in torres straits.'" sundew, n. there are many species of this flower in australia and tasmania, most of them peculiar to australasia; drosera spp., n.o. droseraceae. . `cassell's picturesque australasia,' vol. ii. p. : "smooth, marshy meadows, gleaming with the ruby stars of millions of tiny little sundews." sundowner, n. a tramp who takes care to arrive at a station at sundown, so that he shall be provided with `tucker' (q.v.) at the squatter's cost: one of those who go about the country seeking work and devoutly hoping they may not find it. . g. n. oakley, in `victoria in ,' p. [title of poem of seventeen stanzas]: "the sundowner." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "when the real `sundowner' haunts these banks for a season, he is content with a black pannikin, a clasp knife, and a platter whittled out of primaeval bark." . `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "sundowners are still the plague of squatocracy, their petition for `rashons' and a bed amounting to a demand." . f. adams, `john webb's end,' p. : "`swagsmen' too, genuine, or only `sundowners,'--men who loaf about till sunset, and then come in with the demand for the unrefusable `rations.'" . `scribner's magazine,' feb., p. : "they swell the noble army of swagmen or sundowners, who are chiefly the fearful human wrecks which the ebbing tide of mining industry has left stranded in australia." [this writer does not differentiate between swagman (q.v.) and sundowner.] . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "numbers of men who came to be known by the class name of `sundowners,' from their habit of straggling up at fall of evening with the stereotyped appeal for work; and work being at that hour impossible, they were sent to the travellers' hut for shelter and to the storekeeper or cook for the pannikin of flour, the bit of mutton, the sufficiency of tea for a brew, which made up a ration." . `windsor magazine,' dec., p. : "`here,' he remarked, `is a capital picture of a queensland sundowner.' the picture represented a solitary figure standing in pathetic isolation on a boundless plain. `a sundowner?' i queried. `yes; the lowest class of nomad. for days they will tramp across the plains carrying, you see, their supply of water. they approach a station only at sunset, hence the name. at that hour they know they will not be turned away.' `do they take a day's work?' `not they! there is an old bush saying, that the sundowner's one request is for work, and his one prayer is that be may not find it.'" super, n. short for superintendent, sc. of a station. . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads,' p. : "what's up with our super to-night? the man's mad." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. ix. p. : "that super's a growlin' ignorant beggar as runs a feller from daylight to dark for nothing at all." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "he . . . bragged of how he had bested the super who tried to `wing him' in the scrub." superb-dragon, n. an australian marine fish, phyllopteryx foliatus, shaw. see sea-dragon. . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' pl. : "`superb-dragon--phyllopteryx foliatus.' this is one of the `pipe fishes,' order lophobranchii. it has been compared to the ghost of a seahorse (hippocampus) with its winding sheet all in ribbons around it; and the tattered cerements are like in shape and colour to the seaweed it frequents, so that it hides and feeds in safety. the long ends of ribs which seem to poke through the skin to excite our compassion are really `protective resemblances,' and serve to allure the prey more effectually within reach of these awful ghouls. just as the leaf-insect is imitative of a leaf, and the staff insect of a twig, so here is a fish like a bunch of seaweed. (tenison-woods.)" [compare phasmid.] superb-warbler, n. any australian bird of the genus malurus (q.v.), especially m. cyaneus, the blue wren. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we also observed the superb warbler, malurus cyaneus, of sydney." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iii. pl. : "malurus cyaneus, vieill., blue wren; superb warbler of the colonists." . f. g. aflalo, `natural history of australia,' p. : "the best known are . . . and the blue wren or superb warbler (malurus cyaneus), both of which i have repeatedly watched in the sydney botanic gardens. . . . they dart about the pathways like mice, but rarely seem to fly. there are a dozen other superb warblers." supple-jack, n. the word is english in the sense of a strong cane, and is the name of various climbing shrubs from which the canes are cut; especially in america. in australia, the name is given to similar creeping plants, viz.--ventilago viminalis, hook., n.o. rhamnaceae; clematis aristata, r. br., n.o. ranunculaceae. in new zealand, to ripogonum (spp.). . `history of new south wales,' p. : "the underwood is in general so thick and so bound together by that kind of creeping shrub called supple-jack, interwoven in all directions, as to be absolutely impenetrable." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "after a tedious march . . . along a track constantly obstructed by webs of the kareau, or supple-jack, we came to the brow of a descent." . c. hursthouse, `new zealand, the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "supple-jack snares, root-traps, and other parasitical impediments." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "two kinds of creepers extremely molesting and troublesome, the so-called `supple-jack' of the colonists (ripogonum parviflorum), in the ropelike creeping vines of which the traveller finds himself every moment entangled." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the tangles black of looped and shining supple jack." . w. m. b., `narrative of edward crewe,' p. : the supple-jack, that stopper to all speedy progression in the new zealand forest." . j.l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "forty or fifty feet of supple-jack. this creeper is of the thickness of your finger, and runs along the ground, and goes up the trees and springs across from one tree to the other, spanning great gaps in some mysterious manner of its own--a tough, rascally creeper that won't break, that you can't twist in two, that you must cut, that trips you by the foot or the leg, and sometimes catches you by the neck . . . so useful withal in its proper places." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "threading with somewhat painful care intricacies formed by loops and snares of bewildering supple-jacks, that living study of gordian entanglement, nature-woven, for patient exercise of hand and foot." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "laced together by creepers called supple-jacks, which twine and twist for hundreds of yards, with stems as thick as a man's wrist, so as to make the forests impassable except with axes and immense labour." surfacing, n. ( ) wash-dirt lying on the surface of the ground. ( ) verbal n. gold-digging on the surface of the ground. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "what is termed `surfacing' consists of simply washing the soil on the surface of the ground, which is occasionally auriferous." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. iv. p. : "i've been surfacing this good while; but quartz-reefin's the payinest game, now." . t. mccombie, `australian sketches' [second series], p. : "what is termed `surfacing' consists of simply washing the soil on the surface of the ground, which is occasionally auriferous." . rolf boldrewood, `miner's right,' c. xv. p. : "they have been mopping up some rich surfacing." . `the argus,' march , p. . col. : "`surfacing' or `loaming.' small canvas bags are carried by the prospector, and top soil from various likely-looking spots gathered and put into them, the spots being marked to correspond with the bags. the contents are then panned off separately, and if gold is found in any one of the bags the spot is again visited, and the place thoroughly overhauled, even to trenching for the reef." swag, n. ( ) used in the early days, and still by the criminal class, in the ordinary sense of thieves' english, as booty, plunder. . j. mudie, `felonry of new south wales,' p. : "in short, having brought with her a supply of the `swag,' as the convicts call their ill-gotten cash, a wife seldom fails of having her husband assigned to her, in which case the transported felon finds himself his own master." . r. h. barham, `ingoldsby legends' (misadventures at margate): "a landsman said, `i twig the drop,--he's been upon the mill, and `cause he gammons so the flats, ve calls him veepin' bill.' he said `he'd done me very brown, and neatly stowed the swag,' -that's french, i fancy, for a hat,--or else a carpet-bag." ( ) a special australian use: a tramp's bundle, wrapt up in a blanket, called a bluey (q.v.). used also for a passenger's luggage. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "a number of the slang phrases current in st. giles's greek bid fair to become legitimatized in the dictionary of this colony: plant, swag, pulling up, and other epithets of the tom and jerry school, are established--the dross passing here as genuine, even among all ranks." . s. sidney, `three colonies of australia,' p. : "his leathern overalls, his fancy stick, and his `swag' done up in mackintosh." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "there were others with huge swags suspended from a pole, with which they went on, like the children of israel carrying the gigantic bunches of the grapes of canaan." . j. o. tucker, `australian story,' c. i. p. : "the cumbrous weight of blankets that comprised my swag." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "a pair of large double blankets to make the tent of,--that was one swag, and a very unwieldy one it was, strapped knapsack fashion, with straps of flax leaves." . j. bonwick, `john batman, founder of victoria,' p. : "three white men, the sydney natives, and batman, who carried his swag the same as the rest, all armed." . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "with my rug and blankets on my back (such a bundle being called a `swag')." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "swag, which consists of his personal properties rolled up in a blanket." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "his cumbrous attire and the huge swag which lay across the seat." . a. reischek, in buller's `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "with the hope that there would now be a few fine days, i at once packed up my swag with provisions, ammunition, blanket, &c." . `the australasian,' may , p. , col. : "kenneth, in front, reminded me comically of alice's white knight, what with the billies dancing and jingling on his back, and the tomahawk in his belt, and his large swag in front." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "i suppose he's tramping somewhere, where the bushmen carry swags, cadging round the wretched stations with his empty tucker-bags." swag, v. to tramp the bush, carrying a swag. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "there was the solitary pedestrian, with the whole of his supplies, consisting of a blanket and other necessary articles, strapped across his shoulders--this load is called the `swag,' and the mode of travelling `swagging it.'" swag-like, adv. in the fashion of a swag. . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "he strapped the whole lot together, swag-like." swagger, n. same as swagman (q.v.). specially used in new zealand. the word has also the modern english slang sense. . lady barker, `station amusements in new zealand,' p. : "describing the real swagger, clad in flannel shirt, moleskin trowsers, and what were once thick boots." . `the century,' vol. xli. p. (`century'): "under the name of swagger or sundowner the tramp, as he moves from station to station in remote districts, in supposed search for work, is a recognized element of society." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "once a footsore swagger came along, and having gone to the house to ask for `tucker,' soon returned. he took his swag from his shoulders and leant it against the tree; then he busied himself gathering the small sticks and dried leaves lying about on every side." . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the minister's house is the sure mark for every stone-broke swagger in search of clothes or victuals." . `southern standard' (new zealand), [page not given]: "an ardent young lady cyclist of gore, who goes very long journeys on her machine, was asked by a lady friend if she was not afraid of swaggers on the road. `afraid of them?' she said, `why, i take tea with them!'" . `the champion,' jan. , p. , col. : "he [professor morris] says that `swagger' is a variant of `swagman.' this is equally amusing and wrong." [nevertheless, he now says it once again.] swaggie, n. a humorous variation on swagman. . e. w. horning, `under two skies,' p. : "here's a swaggie stopped to camp, with flour for a damper, and a handful of tea for the quart-pot, as safe as the bank." swagman, n. a man travelling through the bush carrying a swag (q.v.), and seeking employment. there are variants, swagger (more general in new zealand), swaggie, and swagsman. the sundowner, traveller, or new zealand tussocker, is not generally a seeker for work. . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the regular swagman carrying his ration bags, which will sometimes contain nearly twenty days' provender in flour and sugar and tea." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "we pulled up a swagman. he was walking very slow; he was a bit lame too. his swag wasn't heavy, for he had only a rag of a blue blanket, a billy of water in his hand, and very little else." . `the herald' (melbourne), jan. : "under the electric light in the quadrangle of the exhibition they will give tableaux, representing the murder of a swagman by a native and the shooting of the criminal by a black tracker." . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "the yarra has claimed many swagman in the end, but not all have died in full travelling costume . . . a typical back-blocks traveller. he was grey and grizzled, but well fed, and he wore a cardigan jacket, brown moleskin trousers, blucher boots, and socks, all of which were mended with rough patches. his knife and tobacco, his odds and ends, and his purse, containing / d., were still intact, while across his shoulder was a swag, and the fingers of his right hand had tightly closed round the handle of his old black billy-can, in which were some scraps of meat wrapped in a newspaper of the th inst. he had taken with him his old companions of the roads--his billy and his swag." swagsman, n. a variant of swagman (q.v.). j. brunton stephens, `drought and doctrine' (works, p. ): "rememberin' the needful, i gets up an' quietly slips to the porch to see--a swagsman--with our bottle at his lips." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "one of these prospecting swagsmen was journeying towards maryborough." . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "idleness being the mainspring of the journeys of the swagsman (anglice, `tramp')." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xix. p. : "the able-bodied swagsmen hasten towards rainbar." swallow, n. common english bird-name. the species observed in australia are-- the swallow-- hirundo neoxena, gould. black-and-white s.-- cheramaeca leucosternum, gould. black-faced wood s.-- artamus melanops, gould. eastern s.-- hirundo javanica, sparrm. grey-breasted wood s.-- artamus cinereus, vieill. little wood s.-- a. minor, vieill. masked wood s.-- artamus personatus, gould. white-bellied wood s.-- a. hypoleucus. white-browed wood s.-- a. superciliosus, gould. white-rumped wood s.-- a. leucogaster, valenc. wood s.-- a. sordidus, lath. artamus is often wrongly spelt artemus. the wood-swallows are often called summer-birds (q.v.). swamp-broom, n. a rush-broom, viminaria denudata, sm., n.o. leguminosae. see swamp-oak. swamp-daisy-tree, n. see daisy-tree. swamp-gum, n. see gum. swamp-hawk, n. another name for the new zealand harrier. see harrier. swamp-hen, n. an australasian bird, porphyrio melanonotus, temm. (often incorrectly shortened to melanotus). called sometimes the porphyrio (q.v.); maori name, pukeko. called also the swamp-turkey, the purple coot, and by new zealand colonists, sultana-bird, pukaki, or bokaka, the last two being corruptions of the maori name. for a west-australian variety of the porphyrio, see quotation ( ). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' c. i. p. : "the pukeko is of a dark-blue colour, and about as large as a pheasant. the legs, the bill, and a horny continuation of it over the front of the head, are of a bright crimson colour. its long legs adapt it for its swampy life; its flight is slow and heavy, resembling that of a bittern." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "porphyrio bellus, gould, azure breasted porphyrio; swamp-hen, colonists of western australia." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : [a full description.] swamp-mahogany, n. a timber tree, eucalyptus botryoides, sm. see gum and mahogany. . t. heney, `fortunate days,' p. : "swamp mahogany's floor-flowered arms." swamp-oak, n. ( ) a broomlike leguminous shrub or small tree, viminaria denudata, sm. (also called swamp-broom). ( ) a tree of the genus casuarina, especially c. paludosa. see oak. . c. sturt, i southern australia,'vol. i. c. i. p. : "light brushes of swamp-oak, cypress, box and acacia pendula." . j. d. lang, `phillipsland,' p. : "its banks (murrumbidgee) are fringed with the beautiful swamp-oak, a tree of the casuarina family, with a form and character somewhat intermediate between that of the spruce and that of the scotch fir, being less formal and dutch-like than the former, and more graceful than the latter." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. i. p. : "a stream, whose winding channel could be traced by the particularly dark verdure of the swamp-oak (casuarina paludosa) on its banks." . miss parkes, `poems,' p. : "your voice came to me, soft and distant seeming, as comes the murmur of the swamp-oak's tone." . f. s. wilson, `australian songs,' p. : "softly the swamp-oak muttered its sorrows to her and to me." . c. harpur, `poems,' p. : "befringed with upward tapering feathery swamp-oaks." swamp-pheasant, n. called also pheasant-cuckoo. another name for the coucal (q.v.). . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "a centropus phasianellus (the swamp-pheasant of moreton bay) was shot." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "far down the creek, on one of the river-oaks which grow in its bed, a swamp-pheasant utters its rapid coocoo-coo-coo-coo- coo-cook." . r. m. praed, `longleat of kooralbyn,' c. xvi. p. : "the gurgling note of the swamp-pheasant." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the bird centropus, which is common in all queensland, is found here in great numbers. although it really is a cuckoo, the colonists call it the `swamp-pheasant,' because it has a tail like a pheasant. it is a very remarkable bird with stiff feathers, and flies with difficulty on account of its small wings. the swamp-pheasant has not the family weakness of the cuckoo, for it does not lay its eggs in the nests of other birds. it has a peculiar clucking voice which reminds one of the sound produced when water is poured from a bottle." swamp-sparrow, n. a nickname in new zealand for the fern-bird (q.v.). . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "these beds of rushes which form blind water-courses during the winter season, are dry in summer and are then a favourite resort for the swamp-sparrow as this bird is sometimes called." ibid. vol. ii. p. : "the melancholy cry of the fern-bird is so general and persistent that its nick-name of swamp sparrow is not undeserved." swan, black, n. an australian bird--cycnus niger, juvenal; cygnus atratus, gould; chenopsis atrata, wagl., sometimes miscalled chenopis. the river upon which perth, western australia, is situated, is called the swan river, and the colony was long known as the swan river settlement. it has expanded into western australia, the emblem of which colony is still the black swan. since the black swan has been the device on the postage stamps of western australia. a.d. (circiter). `juvenal, sat.' vi. : "rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno." (circiter). j. locke, in `johnson's dictionary' ( th edition, ), s.v. swan: "the idea which an englishman signifies by the name swan, is a white colour, long neck, black beak, black legs, and whole feet, and all these of a certain size, with a power of swimming in the water, and making a certain kind of noise." . governor phillip, `voyage,' p. : "a black swan, which species, though proverbially rare in other parts of the world, is here by no means uncommon . . . a very noble bird, larger than the common swan, and equally beautiful in form . . . its wings were edged with white: the bill was tinged with red." . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "we found nine birds, that, whilst swimming, most perfectly resembled the rara avis of the ancients, a black swan." . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' p. : "large ponds covered with ducks and black swans." . j. d. lang, `phillipsland,' p. : "these extensive sheets of glassy water . . . were absolutely alive with black swans and other water fowl . . . there must have been at least five hundred swans in view at one time on one of the lakes. they were no `rara avis' there." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vii. pl. : "cygnus atratus, black swan. the first notice on record respecting the existence of the black swan occurs in a letter written by mr. witsen to dr. m. lister about the year , in which he says, `here is returned a ship, which by our east india company was sent to the south land called hollandea nova'; and adds that black swans, parrots and many sea-cows were found there." . j. s. mill, `logic' [ th edition], vol. i. bk. iii. c. iii. p. : "mankind were wrong, it seems, in concluding that all swans were white. . . . as there were black swans, though civilized people had existed for three thousand years on the earth without meeting with them." . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "the presence of immense flocks of black swans is also regarded as an indication of approaching cold weather." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "the musical whoop of the black swan is sometimes heard as the wedge-shaped flock passes over." . g. metcalfe, `australian zoology,' p. : "strzelecki states that the black swan was discovered in by vlaming. . . . in two were brought alive to batavia, having been procured on the west coast of australia, near dirk hartog's bay. captain cook observed it on several parts of the coast." swan-river daisy, n. a pretty annual plant, brachycome iberidifolia, benth., n.o. compositae, of western australia. the heads are about an inch broad, and have bright blue rays, with paler centre. it is cultivated in flower gardens, and is well suited for massing. (`century.') sweep, n. a marine fish of the australian coasts, called by this name in sydney. it is scorpis aequipinnis, richards., family squamipinnes. this family has the soft, and frequently also the spinous, part of their dorsal and anal fins so thickly covered with scales, that the boundary between fins and body is entirely obliterated. s. aequippinnis is possibly the light-horseman (q.v.) of early australian writers. sweet tea. see tea. swift, n. in australia, the species of this common bird are--spine-tailed swift, chaetura caudacuta, lath.; white-rumped s., micropus pacificus, lath. swing-gate, n. used in its ordinary english sense, but specially applied to a patent gate for drafting sheep, invented by mr. lockhart morton. . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. ix. p. : "mr. stangrove . . . has no more idea of a swing-gate than a shearing-machine." sword-grass, n. in new zealand, arundo conspicua; in australia, cladium psittacorum, labill. it is not the same as the english plant of that name, and is often called cutting grass (q.v.). . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the great plumes far and wide of the sword-grass aspire." sword-sedge, a sedge on australian coasts, lepidosperma gladiatum, labill., n.o. cyperaceae, useful for binding sea-sand, and yielding a good material for paper. . baron von mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "lepidosperma is nearly endemically australian. lepidosperma gladiatum, the great swords-edge [sic] of our coasts, furnishes an admirable material for writing paper." [it is curious that swords-edge makes most ingenious sense, but it is evidently a misprint for sword-sedge.] sycamore tree. see laurel. in new south wales, the name is given to brachyciton luridus, c. moore, n.o. sterculiaceae. sycoceric, adj. belonging to a waxy resin obtained from the port-jackson fig; see under fig. (from grk. sukon, "fig," and kaeros, "wax.") sycoceryl, n. a supposed element of the sycoceric compounds. see sycoceric. t taboo, n. see tapu. tagrag-and-bobtail, n. a species of sea-weed. see quotation. . s. hannaford, `wild flowers of tasmania,' p. : "it is a wiry-stemmed plant, with small mop-like tufts, which hold water like a sponge. this is bellotia eriophorum, the specific name derived from its resemblance to the cotton-grass. harvey mentions its colonial name as `tagrag and bobtail,' and if it will enable collectors the more easily to recognise it, let it be retained." taiaha, n. a maori word for a chief's walking-staff, a sign of office, sometimes used in fighting, like a quarterstaff. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the men are placed at equal intervals along either side to paddle, and they keep excellent stroke to the song of two leaders, who stand up and recite short alternate sentences, giving the time with the taiaha, or long wooden spear. the taiaha is rather a long-handled club than a spear. it is generally made of manuka, a very hard, dark, close-grained and heavy wood. the taiaha is about six feet long, etc." . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "the taiaha is rather a long-handled club than a spear." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "a taiaha, or chiefs staff." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "in his right hand he brandished a taiaha, a six-foot maori broadsword of hard wood, with its pendulous plume of feathers hanging from the hilt." . major wilson and edward tregear, `on the korotangi,' `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xxii. art. lxii. p. : "many famous tribal heirlooms are hidden and lost to posterity. the rev. mr. buller mentions a famous taiaha, of great mana, as having been buried and lost in this way, lest it should fall into the power of opposing tribes, and cause disaster to the original owner." taihoa, maori phrase, meaning "wait a bit." much used in some circles in new zealand. the `standard' gives it wrongly as "anglo-tasmanian," probably because mr. wade's book was published in hobart. . w. r. wade, `journey in new zealand' (hobart town), p. : "`taihoa.' this word has been translated, by and by; but in truth, it has all the latitude of directly,--presently, --by and by,--a long time hence,--and nobody knows when . . . the deliberate reply is, `taihoa'. . . this patience-trying word. . . ." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "that irritatingly provoking word, `taihoa.'" [p. ]: "the drawled-out t-a-i-h-o-a fell upon the ear." [p. ] [title of chapter]: "i learn what taihoa means." [p. ]: "great is the power of taihoa." [p. ]: "the imperturbable taihoa, given to us with the ordinary placid good-humour." tail, v. tr. to herd and tend sheep or cattle: lit. to follow close behind the tail. . `port phillip patriot,' aug. , p. , col. : "i know many boys, from the age of nine to sixteen years, tailing cattle." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "the stockman, as he who tends cattle and horses is called, despises the shepherd as a grovelling, inferior creature, and considers `tailing sheep' as an employment too tardigrade for a man of action and spirit." . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. xix. p. : "`the cattle,' no longer `tailed,' or followed daily, as a shepherd does sheep." tailing, adj. consisting of tailings (q.v.). . `goldfields of victoria,' p. : "from recent assays of the tailing-sand, scarcely one quarter of the pyrites has been extracted." tailings, n. "the detritus carried off by water from a crushing machine, or any gold-washing apparatus." (brough smyth, `glossary of mining terms.') not limited to australia. . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "a hundred and fifty tons of tailings are treated at the sandhurst pyrites works every month." tailor, n. name given in new south wales to the fish temnodon saltator, cuv. and val. it is called skipjack (q.v.) in melbourne, a name by which it is also known in america and britain. those of large size are called "sea-tailors." it belongs to the family carangidae, or horse-mackerels (q.v.). taipo, n. a new zealand word for devil, often applied by settlers to a vicious horse or as a name for a dog. there is a dangerous river, the taipo, on the west coast. there is considerable dispute as to whether the word is true maori or not. the rev. t. g. hammond of patea says-- "no such maori word as taipo, meaning devil, exists. it would mean evening-tide--tai-po. probably the early sailors introduced attached meaning of devil from the maori saying, `are you not afraid to travel at night?' referring to the danger of tidal rivers." on the other hand, mr. tregear says, in his `maori comparative dictionary,' s.v.-- "taepo, a goblin, a spectre. cf. tae, to arrive; po, night." the rev. w. colenso says, in his pamphlet on `nomenclature' ( ), p. : "taepo means to visit or come by night,--a night visitant,--a spectral thing seen in dreams,--a fancied and feared thing, or hobgoblin, of the night or darkness; and this the settlers have construed to mean the devil!--and of course their own orthodox one." taipo or taepo is also a slang term for a surveyor's theodolite among the maoris, because it is the "land-stealing devil." . rev. r. taylor, `leaf from the natural history of new zealand,' p. : "taipo, female dreamer; a prophetess; an evil spirit." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "there is the taringa-here, a being with a face like a cat; and likewise another, called a taipo, who comes in the night, sits on the tops of houses, and converses with the inmates, but if a woman presumes to open her mouth, it immediately disappears." . b. wells, `history of taranaki,' p. : "the similarity in sound and meaning of the egyptian word typhon with that of the maori taipo, both being the name of the spirit of evil, is also not a little remarkable." [ingenious, but worthless.] . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' `new zealand country journal,' vol. x. p. : "his wife became seriously affected, declaring that taipo had entered into her. reasoning was wholly useless. she declared that taipo was in the smoke of the wood, which smoke she had inhaled; soon she became prostrated by illness and was expected to die." . j. c. crawford, `travels in new zealand and australia,' p. : "after dinner watkins requested the loan of a tomahawk to defend himself on going up to the pa on the hill above. he said he knew that there was a taipo (devil) about; he felt it in his head." . p. w. barlow, `kaipara,' p. : "they were making the noises i heard to drive away the `taipo,' a sort of devil who devotes his attention exclusively to maoris, over whom, however, he only possesses power at night." . w. h. roberts, `southland in ,' p. : "they believed it was the principal rendez-vous of the fallen angel (taipo) himself." . modern. private letter (may): "taipo, for instance, of course one knows its meaning, though it has been adopted chiefly as a name as common as `dash' or `nero' for new zealand dogs; all the same the writers upon maori superstitions seem to have no knowledge of it. polach, dieffenbach, nicholas, yates, call their evil spirits whiros or atuas. tepo, the place of darkness, is the nearest they have come to it. i think myself it is south island maori, often differing a little in spelling and use; and so very much the larger proportion of new zealand literature is the literature of the north." tait, n. a western australian animal, properly called the long-snouted phalanger, tarsipes rostratus, the only species of its genus. see phalanger and opossum. it is about the size of a mouse, and lives almost entirely on honey, which it extracts from flowers. . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the long-snouted phalanger, which derives its scientific name from a certain resemblance of its hind feet to those of a malayan lemur-like animal known as the tarsier, is one of the most interesting of the phalangers. . . . known to the natives by the names of tait and nulbenger, it is, writes gould, `generally found in all situations suited to its existence, from swan river to king george's sound.'" takahe, n. maori name for an extinct new zealand rail, notornis mantelli, owen. see notornis. . prof. parker, 'catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "the takahe is the rarest of existing native birds, if indeed it is not already extinct." takapu, n. maori name for the bird dysporus serrator, banks, a gannet (q.v.). take (a man) down, australian sporting slang. ( ) to induce a man to bet, knowing that he must lose. ( ) to advise a man to bet, and then to "arrange" with an accomplice (a jockey, e.g.) for the bet to be lost. ( ) to prove superior to a man in a game of skill. . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "it appeared that [the plaintiff] had a particular fancy for a [certain] horse, and in an evil hour induced [the defendant] to lay him a wager about this animal at the long odds of two shillings to threepence. when the horse had romped triumphantly home and [the plaintiff] went to collect his two shillings [the defendant] accused him of having `taken him down,' stigmatised him as a thief and a robber, and further remarked that [the plaintiff] had the telegram announcing the result of the race in his pocket when the wager was made, and in short refused to give [the plaintiff] anything but a black eye." talegalla, n. aboriginal name for the brush-turkey, and the scientific name for that bird, viz., talegalla lathami, gray. see turkey. tallow-wood, n. another name for one of the stringy-barks (q.v.), eucalyptus microcorys, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. the timber, which is hard, gives forth an oily substance: hence the name. the tree reaches a great height. also called turpentine-tree (q.v.). see also peppermint. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "in queensland it is known as `peppermint,' the foliage being remarkably rich in volatile oil. but its almost universal name is tallow-wood. north of port jackson it bears the name of `turpentine tree' and `forest mahogany.' the aboriginals of the brisbane river, queensland, call it `tee.'" ibid. p. : "tallow-wood.--used . . . for flooring, e.g. in ball-rooms; for this purpose it is selected on account of its greasy nature. this greasiness is most marked when it is fresh cut. (general report, sydney international exhibition, .)" . `the argus,' feb. , p. , col. (cable message from london): "mr. richards stated that the new south wales black butt and tallow wood were the most durable and noiseless woods for street-paving." tallygalone, n. a fish of new south wales, myxus elongatus, gunth., a genus of the family mugilidae, or grey-mullet. the word is also spelled talleygalann, and tallagallan. also called sand-mullet. tamarind-tree, name given to diploglottis cunninghamii, hook., n.o. sapindaceae; called also native tamarind. "a tall tree. the flesh of the fruit is amber and of delightful acid flavour." (bailey.) tambaroora, n. a queensland game. more generally known as "a shilling in and the winner shouts." from a town in queensland. . a. j. boyd, `old colonials,' p. : "the exciting game of tambaroora . . . each man of a party throws a shilling, or whatever sum may be mutually agreed upon, into a hat. dice are then produced, and each man takes three throws. the nut who throws highest keeps the whole of the subscribed capital, and out of it pays for the drinks of the rest." tamure, n. the maori name for the new zealand schnapper fish (q.v.). . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "tamure s. bream fish." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "there are many other sorts of fish, including the tamure, or snapper, the manga, or barracouta, the mango, or dog-fish, of which the natives catch large quantities, and the hapuka. this last fish is caught in pretty deep water, near reefs and rocks. it often attains a great size, attaining as much as pounds. it bears a considerable resemblance to the cod in form, but is, however, of far finer flavour." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "tamure, kouarea (the snapper), is a large fish like the bream." . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xii. art. vii. p. : "the tamure is the snapper (pagrus unicolor), a common fish on all the coasts." tandan, n. the aboriginal name for the catfish (q.v.) or eel-fish (q.v.), copidoglanis tandanus, mitchell (or plotosus tandanus). mitchell, who first discovered and described the cat-fish, called it the tandan, or eel-fish. . t. mitchell, `three expeditions,' pp. , , pl. : "in this piece of water we caught some small fish, two of them being of a rather singular kind, resembling an eel in the head and shape of the tail." [p. ]: "on my return to the camp in the evening, i made a drawing of the eel fish which we had caught early in the day (fig. , pl. )." tanekaha, n. maori name of a new zealand tree; also called celery-topped pine, phyllocladus trichomanoides, don., n.o. coniferae. . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the tanakaha tree (podocarpus asplenifolius) is found scattered over a large portion of the northern island of new zealand. . . height, sixty to eighty feet. . . the wood is close and straight in the grain. . . it works up well, is tough and very strong; so much so that the new zealanders say it is the `strong man' among their forest trees." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "tanakaha. a slender, handsome tree, sixty feet high; trunk rarely exceeds three feet in diameter; wood pale, close-grained, and excellent for planks and spars; resists decay in moist positions in a remarkable manner." tangi, n. (pronounced tang-y) maori word for a lamentation, a cry, or dirge. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "tangi, s. a cry or lamentation." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "they wrapped the mutilated corpse in his red blanket, and bore it, lashed to a tree, to the village, where the usual tangi took place." . lieut.-colonel st. john, `pakeha rambles through maori lands,' p. : "shortly afterwards a `tangi' was held over those of the party whose remains could be identified." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "perhaps some old woman did a quiet tangi over his grave." . f. s. renwick, `betrayed,' p. : "'tis the tangi floats on the seaborne breeze, in its echoing notes of wild despair." taniwha, n. maori name for a mythical monster. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "taniwa, s. a sea-monster so called." . w. r. wade, `journey in new zealand' (hobart town), p. : "hearing us use the word tapu, as we looked towards it, one of our boatmen quickly repeated that the place was tapued for the tanewa (a water demon). `and i wonder,' was his irreverent addition, `what this same tanewa may be! an old pot leg, perhaps!'" . `otago witness,' jan. , p. , col. : "the river at one time is reported as having been infested with taniwhas--gigantic fish that used to swallow the natives--and a maori pointed out a deep pool under some willows, and told me his grandfather had been seized by one of these monsters at that spot, dragged to the bottom and eaten. this taniwha, which was about forty feet in length and had a long mane, was in the habit of sometimes standing almost erect in the water, and frightening the women and children out of their wits. it had a tremendous-sized head, and its mouth somewhat resembled the beak of a very large bird. its neck was about six feet in circumference and was covered with scales, as likewise its body down to its tail, which was formed by a series of fin-shaped projections, and somewhat resembled in form the tail of a grey duck. it had two short legs which were as big around as the body of a half-grown pig, and with one kick it could knock a hole through the stoutest canoe." tannergrams, n. very recent new zealand slang. on st of june, , the new zealand government reduced the price of telegrams to sixpence (slang, a `tanner') for twelve words. . `oamaru mail,' june : "tannergrams is the somewhat apt designation which the new sixpenny telegrams have been christened in commercial vernacular." tappa, n. south-sea island word. a native cloth made from the bark of the paper-mulberry, broussonetia papyrifera, benth. . `art journal: exhibition supplement,' p. : "the tappa, or native cloth [of fiji], made from the bark of a tree. . . has been extensively used in the draping of the court." . h. s. cooper, `the islands of the pacific,' p. : "tappa, a native cloth of spotless white, made from the bark of the mulberry-tree.' tapu, adj. a maori word, but common also to other polynesian languages. the origin of the english word taboo. it properly means `prohibited.' there was a sacred tapu, and an unclean tapu. what was consecrated to the gods was forbidden to be touched or used by the people. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "tapu, a. sacred, inviolable." . w. yate, `some account of new zealand,' p. : "this system of consecration--for that is the most frequent meaning of the term `tapu'--has prevailed through all the islands of the south seas, but nowhere to a greater extent than in new zealand." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "they wrapped the mutilated corpse in his red blanket, and bore it, lashed to a tree, to the village, where the usual tangi took place after it had been deposited in the wahi tapu, or sacred ground.'" . a. s. thomson, m.d., `story of new zealand,' p. : "the primary meaning of the maori word tapu is `sacred'; tabut is a malay word, and is rendered `the ark of the covenant of god'; taboot is a hindoo word signifying `a bier,' `a coffin,' or `the ark of the covenant'; ta is the sanscrit word `to mark,' and pu `to purify.'" [there is no authority in this polyglot mixture.] . clement bunbury, `fraser's magazine,' june, `a visit to the new zealand geysers,' p. : "i had not much time to examine them closely, having a proper fear of the unknown penalties incurred by the violation of anything `tapu' or sacred." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "he seeks treasures which to us are tapu." tapu, n. the state of being consecrated or forbidden. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "we found no natives, the cove being under tapu, on account of its being the burial-place of a daughter of te pehi, the late chief of the kapiti, or entry island, natives." . a. tennyson, `princess,' canto iii. l. : ". . . women up till this cramp'd under worse than south-sea-isle taboo, dwarfs of the gynaeceum." . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "but chiefly thou, mysterious tapu, from thy strange rites a hopeful sign we draw." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "the tapu, which either temporarily or permanently renders sacred an object animate or inanimate, is the nearest approach to the hindoo religious exclusive-ism." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "his sole `tapu' a far securer guard than lock and key of craftiest notch and ward." ibid. p. : "avenge each minor breach of this taboo." tapu, v. originally to mark as sacred, and later to place under a ban. english, taboo. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "the tapued resting-place of departed chieftains." . `spectator' (melbourne), may , p. , col. : "i . . . found the telegraph office itself tabooed." . r. l. stevenson, `island nights' entertainments,' p. : "by monday night i got it clearly in my head i must be tabooed." tara, n. ( ) maori name for the birds sterna caspia, pallas, and s. frontalis, gray, the sea-swallow, or tern (q.v.). ( ) a tasmanian aboriginal name for the fern pteris aquilina, l., n.o. polypodeae. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "the most extensively diffused eatable roots of van diemen's land are those of the tara fern . . . greatly resembles pteris aquilina, the common fern, brake, breckon, or brackin, of england . . . it is known among the aborigines by the name of tara . . . the root of the tara fern possesses much nutritive matter." taraire, n. maori name for a new zealand tree; formerly nesodaphne tarairi, hook., now beilschmiedia tarairi, benth. and hook., n.o. laurineae. . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "tarairi. used for most of the purposes for which sycamore is applied in europe." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "tarairi. a lofty forest tree, sixty to eighty feet high, with stout branches. wood white, splits freely, but not much valued." tarakihi, n. the maori name for the fish chilodactylus macropterus, richards.; called in sydney the norwong (q.v.). tarata, n. maori name for the new zealand tree pittosporum eugenioides, a. cunn., n.o. pittosporeae; called also mapau, maple, etc. see mapau. . w. n. blair, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. ix., art. x. p. : "a small tree seldom exceeding thirty feet in height, and twelve inches in diameter. it has pale green shining leaves and purple flowers. the wood of a dirty white colour, is tough and fibrous." . j. b. armstrong, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xii. art. xlix. p. : "the tarata or lemon-wood, a most beautiful tree, also used for hedges." . e. h. and s. featon, `new zealand flora,' p. : "the tarata. this elegant tree is found on the east coast of both islands. it attains a height of from twenty to thirty feet, and has a stem from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. it is known to the settlers in some parts as `lemon-wood.' when displaying its profuse masses of pale golden flowers, it is very pretty." tare, native, n. name applied in tasmania to the plant swainsonia lessertiaefolia, de c., n.o. leguminosae. taro, n. a familiar food plant, colocasia species, widely cultivated in tropical regions, especially in polynesia. the word is polynesian, and much used by the maoris. . j. lindley, `vegetable kingdom,' p. [stanford]: "whole fields of colocasia macrorhyza are cultivated in the south sea islands under the name tara or kopeh roots." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "many a bed, that late in such luxurious neatness spread, of melons, maize and taro--now a wreck." . lady brassey, `voyage in the sunbeam,' p. : "a good-looking man was busy broiling beef-steaks, stewing chickens and boiling taro, and we had soon a plentiful repast set before us." tarsipes, n. the scientific generic name of the tait (q.v.). tarwhine, n. an australian fish, chrysophrys sarba, forsk. see black-bream. it is somewhat difficult to distinguish the fish from its close relation the black-bream, chrysophrys australis, gunth. both are excellent food, and frequently abundant in brackish waters. tar-wood, n. name given by the otago bushmen to the tree darrydium colensoi, hook.; maori name, manoao (q.v.). (kirk, `forest flora,' p. .) tasmania, n. island and colony, formerly called van diemen's land. the new name, from that of the dutch navigator, abel jansen tasman, was officially adopted in , when the system of transportation ceased. the first quotations show it was in popular use much earlier. . lieut. charles jeffreys, `delineation of the island of van dieman's land,' p. : "van dieman's land, or tasmania, is an island of considerable extent." . `godwin's emigrant's guide to van diemen's land, more properly called tasmania': [title.] . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "over van diemen's land (or tasmania, as we love to call it here), new south wales enjoys also many advantages." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "tasmania is a more musical alias adopted by the island. it has been given in titular distinction to the first bishop, my excellent and accomplished friend dr. nixon, and will doubtless be its exclusive designation when it shall have become a free nation." . a. and g. sutherland, `history of australia,' p. : "the wild country around the central lakes of tasmania." tasmanian, adj. belonging or native to tasmania. . a. bent, `the tasmanian almanack for the year of our lord ' [title.] tasmanian, n. an inhabitant of tasmania, a colonist. the word is also used of the aborigines, the race of whom is now extinct. tasmanian devil, n. the only species of the genus sarcophilus (q.v.), s. ursinus. . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "like many of its kindred, the tasmanian devil is a burrowing and nocturnal animal. in size it may be compared to a badger, and owing to its short limbs, plantigrade feet, and short muzzle, its gait and general appearance are very badger or bear-like." tasmanian tiger, n. called also native wolf, marsupial wolf, zebra wolf, and hyaena; genus, thylacinus (q.v.). it is the largest carnivorous marsupial extant, and is so much like a wolf in appearance that it well deserves its vernacular name of wolf, though now-a-days it is generally called tiger. there is only one species, thylacinus cynocephalus, and the settlers have nearly exterminated it, on account of its fierce predatory habits and the damage it inflicts on their flocks. the tasmanian government pays l for every one destroyed. the van diemen's land company in the north-west of the island employs a man on one of its runs who is called the "tiger-catcher." . `history of new south wales' ( ), p. : "about port dalrymple an animal was discovered which bore some resemblance to the hyena both in shape and fierceness; with a wide mouth, strong limbs, sharp claws and a striped skin. agreeably to the general nature of new south wales quadrupeds, this animal has a false belly. it may be considered as the most formidable of any which new south wales has been yet found to produce, and is very destructive; though there is no instance of its attacking the human species." . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "during our stay a native tiger or hyena bounded from its lair beneath the rocks." . mrs. meredith, `friends and foes,' p. : "there is another charming fellow, which all the people here call the tiger, but as a tiger is like a great cat, and this beast is much more like a dog, you will see how foolish this name is. i believe naturalists call it the dog-faced opossum, and that is not much better . . . the body is not a bit like that of an opossum." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "the `tasmanian tiger' is of the size of a shepherd's dog, a gaunt yellow creature, with black stripes round the upper part of its body, and with an ugly snout. found nowhere but in tasmania, and never numerous even there, it is now slowly disappearing." tasmanian whiptail, n. a tasmanian fish, coryphaenoides tasmaniae, family macruridae, or deep-sea gadoids, an altogether different fish from myliobatis aquila, the eagle or whiptail ray, which also occurs in tasmania, but is found all over the world. tasmanite, n. a mineral. "a resinous, reddish-brown, translucent, hydrocarbon derivative (c h s), found in certain laminated shales of tasmania, resiniferous shale." (`standard.') tassel-fish, n. a thread-fish of queensland, of the genus polynemus, family polynemidae. polynemoid fish have free filaments at the humeral arch below the pectoral fins, which guenther says are organs of touch, and to be regarded as detached portions of the fin; in some the filaments or threads are twice as long as the fish. tassy, n. a pet name for tasmania. . `the argus,' jan. , p. , col. : "to-day tassy--as most victorian cricketers and footballers familiarly term our neighbour over the straits--will send a team into the field." tattoo, v. and n. to mark the human body with indelible pigments. the word is polynesian; its first occurrence in english is in cook's account of tahiti. the tahitian word is tatau, which means tattoo marks on the human skin, from ta, which means a mark or design. (littre.) the maori verb, ta, means to cut, to tattoo, to strike. see moko. . `hawkesworth's voyages' (cook's first voyage; at tahiti, ), vol. ii. p. : "they have a custom of staining their bodies . . . which they call tattowing. they prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a small instrument, something in the form of a hoe. . . . the edge is cut into sharp teeth or points . . . they dip the teeth into a mixture of a kind of lamp-black . . . the teeth, thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and the handle to which they are fastened being struck by quick smart blows, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain." . horace walpole, `letters,' vol. vi. p. : "since we will give ourselves such torrid airs, i wonder we don't go stark and tattoo ourselves." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "a very famous artist in tatu came with the party, and was kept in constant and profitable employment. everybody, from the renowned warrior to the girl of twelve years old, crowded to be ornamented by the skilful chisel. . . . the instruments used were not of bone, as they used formerly to be; but a graduated set of iron tools, fitted with handles like adzes, supplied their place. . . . the staining liquid is made of charcoal." . a. tennyson, `princess,' canto ii. l. : ". . . then the monster, then the man; tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins, raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate." . a. s. thomson, `story of new zealand,' vol. i. c. iv. p. : "first among the new zealand list of disfigurations is tattooing, a polynesian word signifying a repetition of taps, but which term is unknown in the language of the new zealanders; moko being the general term for the tattooing on the face, and whakairo for that on the body." [but see moko.] . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "lips no stain of tattoo had turned azure." ibid. p. : "a stick knobbed with a carved and tattoo'd wooden head." . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "thy rugged skin is hideous with tattooing." tawa, n. maori name for a new zealand tree, nesodaphne tawa, hook., n.o. laurineae. the newer name is beilschmiedia tawa, benth. and hook. f. allied to taraire (q.v.). a handsome forest tree with damson-like fruit. . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "tawa. a lofty forest tree, sixty to seventy feet high, with slender branches. the wood is light and soft, and is much used for making butter-kegs." tawara, n. maori name for the flower of the kie-kie (q.v.), freycinetia banksii. tawhai, or tawai, n. maori name for several species of new zealand beech-trees, n.o. cupuliferae. the settlers call them birches (q.v.). . `catalogue of vienna exhibition': "tawhai. large and durable timber, used for sleepers." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "tawhai, red-birch (from colour of bark). a handsome tree, eighty to one hundred feet high. fagus menziesii, hook. [also called large-leaved birch]. tawhai, tawhairaunui, black-birch of auckland and otago (from colour of bark), fagus fusca, hook." tawhiri, or tawiri, n. maori name for the black mapau. a name applied to the tree pittosporum tenuifolium, n.o. pittosporeae. it is profusely covered with a fragrant white blossom. see mapau. . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "its floor . . . with faint tawhiri leaves besprent " . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "the early breeze that . . . stole the rich tawhiri's sweet perfume." tea, n.-- billy-tea, or bush-tea. tea made in a billy (q.v.). there is a belief that in order to bring out the full flavour it should be stirred with a gum-stick. new zealand tea. tea made of the leaves of manuka (q.v.). see tea-tree. sweet-tea, or botany-bay tea, or australian tea. (called also native sarsaparilla. see sarsaparilla.) a plant, smilax glycyphylla, smith., n.o. liliaceae. . d. considen, letter to sir joseph banks, nov. , in `historical records of new south wales,' vol. i. part ii. p. : "i have sent you some of the sweet tea of this country, which i recommend, and is generally used by the marines and convicts. as such it is a good anti-scorbutic, as well as a substitute for that which is more costly." . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "the sweet-tea, a creeping kind of vine . . . the taste is sweet, exactly like the liquorice-root of the shops. of this the convicts and soldiers make an infusion which is tolerably pleasant, and serves as no bad succedaneum for tea." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`sweet tea' . . . the decoction made from its leaves . . . is similar in properties, but more pleasant in taste, than that obtained from the roots of s. officinalis, or jamaica sarsaparilla. the herb is a common article of trade among sydney herbalists." tea-broom, n. a new zealand name for the tea-tree (q.v.). . a. domett, `ranolf,' [notes] p. : "manuka. . . . the settlers often call it `tea-broom.'" teak, n. the original teak is an east indian timber-tree, tectina grandis, but the name has been transferred to other trees in different parts of the world, from a similarity in the hardness of their wood. in australia, it is given to dissiliaria baloghioides, f. v. m., n.o. euphorbiaceae; to endiandra glauca, r. br., n.o. leguminosae; and to flindersia bennettiana, f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae. in new zealand, it is vitex littoralis; maori name, puriri (q.v.). teal, n. the common english name given to the small ducks of the genus querquedula. in australia, the name is applied to anas castanea, eyton; and to the grey teal, a. gibberifrons, mull. see also goose-teal. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "brown returned with . . . four teals (querquedula castanea)." [the old name.] tea-tree, n. (very frequently, but erroneously, spelt ti-tree, and occasionally, more ridiculously still, ti-tri, q.v.) a name given in australia, new zealand, and tasmania to several species of trees and shrubs whose leaves were used by captain cook's sailors, by escaped convicts, and by the early settlers as a ready substitute for the leaves of the chinese tea-plant (thea chinensis) for making tea. the trees of the genera leptospermum and melaleuca were the earliest used, in australia and new zealand, in this way. when in blossom, the branches of many species, with their little white flowers, and the general appearance of their leaves, bear a strong resemblance to those of the true tea-plant. their leaves, though exceedingly aromatic, have not, however, the same flavour. nevertheless, it was probably this superficial likeness which first suggested the experiment of making an infusion from them. some of the species of leptospermum and melaleuca are so closely allied, that their names are by some botanists interchanged and used as synonyms for the same plant. although not all of the species of these two genera were used for making tea, yet, as a tree-name, the word tea-tree is indifferently and loosely used to denote nearly all of them, especially in the form tea-tree scrub, where they grow, as is their habit, in swamps, flat-land, and coastal districts. other trees or plants to which the name of tea-tree was occasionally given, are species of the genera kunzea and callistemon. the spelling ti-tree is not only erroneous as to the origin of the name, but exceedingly misleading, as it confuses the australian tea-tree with another ti (q.v.) in polynesia (cordyline ti). this latter genus is represented, in australia and new zealand, by the two species cordyline australis and c. indivisa, the cabbage-trees (q.v.), or cabbage palms (q.v.), or ti-palms (q.v.), or ti (q.v.), which are a marked feature of the new zealand landscape, and are of the lily family (n.o. liliaceae), while the genera leptospermum and melaleuca are of the myrtle family (n.o. myrtaceae). as to the species of the australian tea-tree, that first used by cook's sailors was either--leptospermum scoparium, r. and g. forst., or l. lanigerum, smith. the species most used for infusions was-- l. fravescens, smith (syn. l. thea, willd., and melaleuca thea, willd.). the coast tea-tree, common on the victorian shores, and so useful as a sand-binder, is-- l. laevigatum, f. v. m. the common australian tea-tree (according to maiden) is melaleuca leucodendron, linn.; called also white tea-tree, broad-leaved t.-t., swamp t.-t., and paper-bark t.-t. the name, however, as noted above, is used for all species of melaleuca, the swamp tea-tree being m. ericifolia, smith, and the black, or prickly-leaved tea-tree, m. styphelioides, smith. of the other genera to which the name is sometimes applied, kunzea pedunculata, f. v. m., is called mountain tea-tree, and callistemon salignus, de c., is called-- broad-leaved, or river tea-tree. in new zealand, the maori name manuka (q.v.) is more generally used than tea-tree, and the tree denoted by it is the original one used by cook's sailors. concerning other plants, used in the early days for making special kinds of infusions and drinking them as tea, see under tea, and cape-barren tea. . cook's `voyage towards the south pole and round the world' [ nd voyage], vol. i. p. : "the beer certainly contributed not a little. as i have already observed, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce leaves; but finding that this alone made the beer too astringent, we afterwards mixed with it an equal quantity of the tea plant (a name it obtained in my former voyage from our using it as tea then, as we also did now), which partly destroyed the astringency of the other, and made the beer exceedingly palatable, and esteemed by every one on board." [on page , cook gives a description of the tea-plant, and also figures it. he was then at dusky bay, new zealand.] . j. white, `voyage to new south wales,' p. : "tea tree of new south wales, melaleuca (?) trinervia. this is a small shrub, very much branched. . . . it most nearly approaches the leptospermum virgatum of forster, referred by the younger linnaeus, perhaps improperly, to melaleuca." . c. jeffreys, r.n., `geographical and descriptive delineations of the island of van dieman's land,' p. : "of course they [the bushrangers] are subject to numerous privations, particularly in the articles of tea, sugar, tobacco, and bread; for this latter article, however, they substitute the wild yam, and for tea they drink a decoction of the sassafras and other shrubs, particularly one which they call the tea-tree bush." . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : "on monday the bushrangers were at a house at tea-tree brush." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the leaves of the tea-tree furnished the colonists with a substitute for the genuine plant in the early period of the colony, and from their containing a saccharine matter required no sugar." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "this boy got some bark from a tree called the tea-tree, which makes excellent torches." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the tea-tree grows in wet situations . . . the leaves infused make a pleasant beverage, and with a little sugar form a most excellent substitute for tea." . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "leptospermum lanigerum, hoary tea-tree; acacia decurrens, black wattle; conaea alba, cape-barren tea. the leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in the colony, as have also the leaves and bark of cryptocarya glaucescens, the australian sasafras" (sic) [q.v.]. . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the australian myrtles, or tea-trees, are to be found in thick clusters, shading rocky springs. . . . its leaves i have seen made into a beverage called tea. it, however, was loathsome, and had not the slightest resemblance to any known chinese tea." . r. howitt, `australia,' p. : "often we had to take the boat down the river several miles, to cut reeds amongst the tea-tree marshes, to thatch our houses with." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix;' p. : "a great quantity of the tea-tree (leptospermum) scrubs, which formerly lined both banks of the yarra." (p. ): "it is allied to the myrtle family (melaleuca) . . . a decoction of the leaves is a fair substitute for tea, yielding a beverage of a very aromatic flavour." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i. p. : "dense with tea-trees and wattles shrouding the courses of the stream." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "half-hidden in a tea-tree scrub, a flock of dusky sheep were spread." . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads,' p. : "through the tea-tree scrub we dashed." . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "chiefly covered with fern and tea-tree (manuka) scrub." . t. bracken, `behind the tomb,' p. : "sobbing through the tea-tree bushes, low and tender, loud and wild, melancholy music gushes." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. o : table of tasmanian woods found in low marshy ground. hgt. dia. used. swamp tea-tree ft. in. useless. tea-tree " " } turners' and } agricultural musk tea-tree " small } implements. . baron von mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "we have among them [the myrtaceae] . . . the native tea-trees, inappropriately so called, as these bushes and trees never yield substitutes for tea, although a new zealand species was used in captain cook's early expedition, to prepare a medicinal infusion against scurvy; these so-called tea-trees comprise within our colony [victoria], species of leptospermum, kunzea, melaleuca and callistemon, the last-mentioned genus producing flowers with long stamens, on which the appellation of `bottle-brushes' has been bestowed." . w. senior, `travel and trout,' p. : "numerous flowering shrubs, such as the tea-tree, native lilac, and many another that varies the colour and softly scents the atmosphere." . mrs.meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "thickets of tea-tree, white with lovely hawthorn-like flowers." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "along the water's edge, noble titrees, whose drooping branches swept the stream, formed a fringe, the dark green of their thick foliage being relieved." . c. harpur, `poems,' p. : "why roar the bull-frogs in the tea-tree marsh?" . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "shading a brook the tea-trees grew, spangled with blossoms of whitish hue, which fell from the boughs to the ground below, as fall from heaven the flakes of snow." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "the bottle-brush flowers of the ti-trees." . baron ferdinand von mueller, `select extra-tropical plants,' p. : "the somewhat aromatic leaves of liscoparium (forster) were already in captain cook's expedition used for an antiscorbutic tea, hence the name tea-tree for this and some allied plants." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the intrusive ti-tree. . . . the dark line of ti-tree in the foreground . . ." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' pp. , : "leptospermum scoparium, forster, the manuka. . . . it is commonly termed `tea-tree' by the settlers, but must not be confounded with the `ti' or `toi' of the maories, which is a handsome palm-lily, cordyline australis, often termed `cabbage-tree' by the bushmen." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "leptospermum scoparium, tea tree. it is said that this is the shrub the leaves of which were utilized by the crews of captain cook's ships for the purpose of making `tea,' and that they were also used with spruce leaves in equal quantity for the purpose of correcting the astringency in brewing a beer from the latter. it is exceedingly common about sydney, so large quantities would therefore be available to the sailors. species of this genus are exceedingly abundant not far from the coast, and the leaves would be very readily available, but the taste of the infusion made from them is too aromatic for the european palate." [in maiden's admirable book slips are very rare. but he is mistaken here in the matter of the abundance of the tree at sydney having any reference to the question. captain cook had but one ship, the endeavour; and it never entered port jackson. it is true that l. scoparium was the tree used by cook, but he was then at dusky bay, new zealand, and it was there that he used it. see quotations and .] . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the well-known melaleuca leucadendron, called by the colonists tea-tree, from which is extracted what is known in medicine as cajeput oil." . `the australasian,' jan : "the ti-tree on either side of the road was in bloom, its soft, fluffy, creamy bushes gathering in great luxuriance on the tops of the taller trees, almost hiding the green." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "there was many a shorthorned hereford hidden in the innermost recesses of that tick and sand-fly infested ti-tree that knew not the cunning of a stockman's hand." . `melbourne museum catalogue--economic woods': "no. , coast tea-tree, leptospermum laevigatum, f. v. m. no. , swamp tea-tree, melaleuca ericifolia, smith." teetee. same as ti-ti (q.v.). telopea, n. scientific name of the genus containing the flower called the waratah (q.v.), from the greek taelowpos, `seen from afar,' in allusion (as the author of the name, robert brown, himself says) to the conspicuous crimson flowers. the name has been corrupted popularly into tulip, and the flower is often called the native tulip. . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "the beautiful crimson flowering shrub, with dark green rhododendron-like leaves, which grows in the upper region of mount wellington. . . . the generic name is derived from telopos, seen at a distance. it has been corrupted into tulip tree, to which it bears not the least resemblance." tena koe, a maori salutation used in north island of new zealand. lit. "that is you," and meaning "how do you do?" tena and tera both mean `that'; but tena implies the idea of nearness, `that near you,' tera the idea of distance, `that (or there) away yonder.' hence, while tena koe is a welcome, tera koe would be an insult. tench, n. slang term, used during the days of transportation, for the hobart town penitentiary, or prisoners' barracks--a corruption of "'tentiary," which is for penitentiary. it is now obsolete. . caroline leakey, `the broad arrow,' vol. ii. p. : "prisoners' barracks, sir--us calls it tench." teraglin, n. a fish of new south wales, otolithus atelodus, gunth. the name teraglin is stated to be aboriginal. sometimes called jew-fish (q.v.). thickhead, n. the name applied to the australian birds of the genus pachycephala (q.v.). they are often called thrushes. the species are-- the banded thickhead pachycephala pectoralis, vig. and hors. black t.-- p. melanura, gould. gilbert's t.-- p. gilbertii, gould. grey-tailed t.-- p. glaucura, gould (confined to tasmania). lunated t.-- p. falcata, gould. olivaceous t.-- p. olivacea, vig. and hors. (confined to tasmania). pale-breasted t.-- p. pallida, ramsay. plain-coloured t.-- p. simplex, gould. red-throated t.-- p. rufigularis, gould. rufous-breasted t.-- p. rufiventris, lath. shrike-like t.-- pachycephala lanoides, gould. torres-straits t.-- p. fretorum, de vis. western t.-- p. occidentalis, ramsay. white-throated t.-- p. gutturalis, lath.; called also the thunder-bird (q.v.). . `victorian statutes--game act' (third schedule): "thick-heads. [close season.] from the first day of august to the twentieth day of december next following in each year." thornback, n. special name for one of the stingrays, raia lemprieri, richards., or raja rostata, castln., family raijdae. . `melbourne spectator,' aug. , p. , col. : "a thornback skate . . . weighing lbs., has been caught . . . at north arm, south australia." thousand-jacket, n. a north island name for ribbon-wood (q.v.), a new zealand tree. layer after layer of the inner bark can be stripped off. . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iii. p. : "koninny [sic], raupo, toi-toi, supplejack, thousand-jacket, and the like, are names of things known well enough to the inhabitants of napier and taranaki, but to the average stay-at-home englishman they are nouns which only vexatiously illustrate the difference between names and things." . t. kirk, `flora of new zealand,' p. : "hoheria populnea. the houhere. order--malvaceae. . . in the north of auckland the typical form is known as `houhere'; but mr. colenso informs me the varieties are termed `houi' and `whau-whi' in the south . . . by the settlers all the forms are termed `ribbon-wood,' or less frequently `lace-bark'-- names which are applied to other plants: they are also termed `thousand-jacket.'" . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : "`thousand-jacket' is a picturesque name for a many-named new zealand tree, the bark of which peels, and peels, and peels again, though in the number chosen there is certainly a note of exaggeration." throwing-stick, n. native australian weapon, by means of which the spear is thrown. see woomera. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. i. p. : "the principals who perform it come from, cammer-ray, armed with shields, clubs, and throwing-sticks." ibid. c. i. p. : "the throwing-stick is used in discharging the spear. the instrument is from two to three feet in length, with a shell on one end and a hook on the other." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. p. : "natives . . . seemingly ignorant of the use of the throwing-stick." . j. d. woods, `native tribes of south australia,' introd. p. xviii: "the spear is propelled by a wommerah or throwing-stick, having at one end a kangaroo's tooth, fixed so as to fit into a notch at the end of the spear. this instrument gives an amount of leverage far beyond what would be excited by unaided muscular strength." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "it is supposed that if the hair of a person is tied on the end of the throwing-stick. . . and roasted before the fire with some kangaroo fat, the person to whom it belonged will pine away and die." . h. h. hayter, `carboona,' p. : "warrk warrk, having a dart on his throwing-stick ready adjusted, hurled it." thrush, n. this common english bird-name is applied in australia and new zealand to four different genera of birds, viz.-- ( ) collyriocincla, the shrike-thrushes (q.v.); the name collyriocincla is a compound of two greek bird-names, kolluriown /corr. from kolluriowu in morris/, `a bird, probably of the thrush kind, arist. h. a. , , ' (`l. & s.' / p. /), and kigalos, `a kind of wag-tail or water-ousel' (`l. & s.'). the next two genera are derived in a similar way from gaer, earth, and 'opos, mountain. ( ) geocincla, the ground-thrushes (q.v.). ( ) oreocincla, the mountain-thrush (q.v.). ( ) pachycephala (q.v.); called thrushes, but more often thickheads (q.v.). ( ) turnagra (the new zealand thrushes), viz.-- t. hectori, buller, north island thrush. t. crassirostris, gmel., south island thrush. the name thrush was also applied loosely, by the early writers and travellers, to birds of many other genera which have since been more accurately differentiated. the common english thrush has been acclimatised in australia, tasmania, and new zealand. thunder-bird, n. an early name for one of the thickheads (q.v.), or pachycephalae (q.v.). see also quotation, . . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "`this species,' mr. caley says, `is called thunder-bird by the colonists. . . . the natives tell me, that when it begins to thunder this bird is very noisy.'" . j. gould,' birds of australia,' vol. ii. pl. : "pachycephala gutturalis, thunder bird, colonists of new south wales." . a. j. north, `list of the insectivorous birds of new south wales,' part i. p. : "pachycephala gutturalis, latham. `yellow-breasted thick-head.' . . . from its habit of starting to sing immediately after a clap of thunder, the report of a gun, or any other loud and sudden noise, it is known to many residents of new south wales as the thunder-bird.' "pachycephala rufiventris, latham. `rufous-breasted thickhead.' . . . also known as the `thunder-bird.'" thunder-dirt, n. in new zealand, a gelatinous covering of a fungus (ileodictyon cibarium) formerly eaten by the maoris. thylacine, and thylacinus, n. the scientific name of the genus of the animal called variously the tasmanian tiger (q.v.), hyaena, tasmanian wolf, zebra wolf, and marsupial wolf. the first spelling is the anglicised form of the word. (grk. thulakos, a pouch, and kuown, a dog.) . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "the thylacine appears to be generally found among caverns and rocks and the deep and almost impenetrable glens in the neighbourhood of the highest mountains of tasmania." ti, n. the name of various species of trees of the genus cordyline, n.o. liliaceae. it exists in the pacific islands as c. ti, and in new zealand the species are c. australis and c. indivisa. it is called in new zealand the cabbage-tree (q.v.), and the heart used to be eaten by the settlers. the word is polynesian. in hawaiian, the form is ki; in maori, ti. compare kanaka (q.v.) and tangata. by confusion, tea, in tea-tree (q.v.), is frequently spelt ti, and tea-tree is sometimes spelt ti-tri (q.v.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "in these natural shrubberies, too, and especially in wet situations, a kind of cabbage-tree, called ti by the natives, flourishes to great abundance." . rev. r. taylor,' te ika a maui,' p. : "the ti (cordyline australis or dracoena australis) is found in great abundance. though so common, it has a very foreign look . . . the leaf is that of a flag, the flower forms a large droop and is very fragrant." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "ti-ti palms are dotted here and there, and give a foreign and tropical appearance to the whole." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "an abundance of narrow strips of the tough, fibrous leaves of the ti-palm." . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. art. lvii. p. : "in these plains stand a number of cabbage-trees (cordyline australis), the ti-trees of the maori. these often bear only a single head of long narrow harsh leaves at the top of their tall slender stems, but sometimes they are slightly branched, the branches also only bearing a similar tuft." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "a small grove of ti-palms or cabbage-tree." tiaki (spelt also tieke), n. maori name for the saddle-back or jack-bird (q.v.). . w. yate, `account of new zealand,' p. : "tiaki or purourou. this elegant bird is about the size of the sky-lark." tieke, n. same as tiaki (q.v.). tiers, pl. n. used in tasmania as the usual word for mountains, in the same way as the word ranges (q.v.) in australia. . w. b. wildey, `australasia and oceanic region,' p. : "two chains of mountains, the eastern and western tiers, run through it nearly north and south." . `the australasian,' april , p. , col. : "that stuff as they calls horizontal, a mess of branches and root, the three barren tiers; and the craycroft, that 'ud settle a bandicoot." tiersman, n. tasmanian word for one who lives in the tiers (q.v.). . f. lancelott, `australia as it is,' vol. ii. p. : "splatters, or, as they are commonly called tiersmen, reside in the forest of stringy bark . . ." tiger-cat, n. special name applied to the common and spotted-tailed native cat. see under cat. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the skins of the . . . opossum, tiger-cat, and platypus . . . are exported." . ronald c. gunn, `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. ii. p. : "dasyurus maculatus, shaw. . . . the spotted martin, phillip's `voy. to botany bay, p. . martin cat,' pl. . `tiger cat' of the colonists of tasmania, to which island it is confined. it is distinguished from d. viverrinus, the `native cat' of the colonists, by its superior size and more robust form; also from the tail being spotted as well as the body." . `guide to the zoological gardens, melbourne': "after the opossums comes a specimen of the tiger-cat (dasyurus maculatus); this animal, which is so destructive to poultry, is well known throughout the country in victoria." tiger, tasmanian. see thylacine and tasmanian tiger. tiger-snake, n. see under snake. tihore, n. maori name for a species of new zealand flax. name used specially in the north island for the best variety of phormium (q.v.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "the species of phormium tenax thus cultivated is the tihore, literally the `skinning' flax. this name describes the ease with which it submits to the scraping process." tiki, n. maori name for the creator of man, and thence taken to represent an ancestor. the maoris made large wooden images to represent their tiki, and gave the name of tiki to these images. later they were made in miniature in greenstone (q.v.), and used as neck ornaments. see heitiki. tit, n. common english bird name. applied in australia to the following species-- broad-tailed tit-- acanthiza apicalis, gould. brown t.-- a. pusilla, lath. buff t.-- geobasileus reguloides, v. and h. chestnut-rumped t.-- acanthiza uropygialis, gould. little t.-- a. nana, vig. and hors. plain t.-- a. inornata, gould. red-rumped t.-- a. pyrrhopygia, gould. scaly-breasted t.-- a. squamata, de vis. scrub t.-- sericornis magna, gould. striated t.-- acanthiza lineata, gould. tasmanian t.-- a. diemenensis, gould; called also brown-tail. yellow-rumped t.-- geobasileus chrysorrhoea, quoy and gaim. see also tree-tit. tit-fish, n. a name given in north australia to the sea-slug, or trepang; because the appearance of its tentacles suggests the teat of a cow. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales,' vol. v. pt. ii. p. : "g. f. jaeger, in , . . . enumerates four [species of trepang), viz. trepang edulis, t. ananas, t. impatiens and t. peruviana. the first of these is certainly found on the reefs, and is called by the fishermen `redfish.' . . . next to this is the `tit-fish' . . . studded with somewhat distant large tentacles, which project nearly an inch or so." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "they were engaged in smoking a large haul of `tit' fish, which they had made on a neighbouring reef." ti-ti, n. maori name for the sea-bird pelecanoides urinatrix, gmel., the diving-petrel. spelt also tee-tee. . `the australasian,' nov. , p. , col. (`a lady in the kermadecs'): "the petrels--there are nine kinds, and we have names of our own for them, the black burrower, the mutton-bird, the white burrower, the short-billed ti-ti, the long-billed ti-ti, the little storm petrel, and three others that we had no names for--abound on the island." tititpunamu, n. (spelt also tititipunamu), n. maori name for the bird acanthidositta chloris, sparm., the rifleman (q.v.). it has many other maori names. titoki, n. maori name for the new zealand tree, alectryon excelsum, de c., n.o. sapindaceae. also called new zealand oak and new zealand ash. see alectryon. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "the berry of the titoki tree might be turned to account. the natives extract a very fine oil from it." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : the youth, with hands beneath his head, against a great titoki's base." . anon., `colonial experiences or incidents of thirty-four years in new zealand,' p: : "for this purpose, titoki was deemed the most suitable timber, from its hardness and crooked growth resembling english oak." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "titoki, a beautiful tree with large panicles of reddish flowers . . . wood has similar properties to ash. its toughness makes it valuable for wheels, coachbuilding, etc." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "it is sometimes termed `the new zealand ash,' doubtless on account of its resembling that tree in the shape of its foliage and in the toughness of its wood, but it is most generally known as the `titoki.'" . `otago witness,' june , p. , col. : "the saddling-paddock and the scales are surrounded by a fence made of stout titoki saplings, on which are perched the knowing." ti-tree, n. erroneous spelling of tea-tree (q.v.). see also manuka. titri, n. corruption for tea-tree (q.v.), from the fancy that it is maori, or aboriginal australian. on the railway line, between dunedin and invercargill, there is a station called "titri," evidently the surveyor's joke. . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "our way lay across two or three cultivations into a grove of handsome titri. traversing this we came to a broad, but shallow and stony creek, and then more titri, merging into light bush." toad-fish, n. in new zealand, a scarce marine fish of the family psychrolutidae, neophrynichthys latus. in australia, the name is applied to tetrodon hamiltoni, richards., and various other species of tetrodon, family gymnodontes, poisonous fishes. toad-fishes are very closely allied to porcupine-fishes. "toads" have the upper jaw divided by a median suture, while the latter have undivided dental plates. see porcupine-fish and globe-fish, . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "the poisonous or toad fish of van diemen's land. (communicated by james scott, esq. r.n. colonial surgeon). . . . the melancholy and dreadful effect produced by eating it was lately instanced in the neighbourhood of hobart town, on the lady of one of the most respectable merchants, and two children, who died in the course of three hours . . . the poison is of a powerful sedative nature, producing stupor, loss of speech, deglutition, vision and the power of the voluntary muscles, and ultimately an entire deprivation of nervous power and death." . j. a. moore, `tasmanian rhymings,' p. : "the toad-fish eaten, soon the body dies." toatoa, n. maori name of new zealand tree, phyllocladus glauca, carr., n.o. coniferae. the mountain toatoa is p. alpinus, hook. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the toa toa, a small tree which is much prized by the natives for walking-sticks, and only grows, they say, in the neighbourhood of tonga riro. the stick underneath the bark is of a bright red colour, which takes a fine polish." tobacco, colonial. see tobacco, native. tobacco, native, n. in australia generally, a true tobacco, nicotiana suaveolens, lehm., n.o. solanaceae; readily eaten as a forage plant by stock. in queensland, the name is also applied to pituri (q.v.). in tasmania, the name is given to cassinia billardieri, de c., n.o. compositae. various american tobaccos are also naturalised, and their growing and manufacture is an industry. tobacco manufactured in the colonies, whether from imported american leaf or from leaf grown in the colonies, is called colonial tobacco. . t. l. mitchell, `tropical australia,' p. : "in the rich soil near the river-bed, we saw the yellowish flowers of the native tobacco, nicotiana suaveolens." toe-ragger, n. in the bush a term of abuse; though curiously in one or two parts of new south wales the word "toey," which is derived from it, is a term of praise, a "swell." the word has been explained as of convict origin, that the rags were used to soothe the galling of fetters; but the explanation is not satisfactory, for the part galled by the irons would not be the toe, but the ankle. a writer in `truth' has cleared up the word (see quotation). it is of maori origin. away from maoriland "toe-rigger" had no meaning, and a false meaning and origin were given by the change of vowel. . `truth' (sydney), jan. : "the bushie's favorite term of opprobrium `a toe-ragger' is also probably from the maori. amongst whom the nastiest term of contempt was that of tau rika rika, or slave. the old whalers on the maoriland coast in their anger called each other toe-riggers, and to-day the word in the form of toe-ragger has spread throughout the whole of the south seas." toe-toe, and toi-toi, maori name of several species of native grass of the genus arundo, especially arundo conspicua, a. cunn. toe-toe is the right spelling in maori, given in williams' `maori dictionary.' in english, however, the word is frequently spelt toi-toi. it is also called prince of wales' feather. . `an ordinance for imposing a tax on raupo houses, session ii. no. xvii. of the former legislative council of new zealand': [from a. domett's collection of ordinances, .] "section . . . . there shall be levied in respect of every building constructed wholly or in part of raupo, nikau, toitoi, wiwi kakaho, straw or thatch of any description [ . . . l ]." . c. hursthouse, `settlement of new plymouth,' p. : "a species of tall grass called `toetoe.'" . c. c. bowen, `poems,' p. : "high o'er them all the toi waved, to grace that savage ground." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "thatching it with tohi, or swamp-grass." . `the katipo,' jan. i. [sic] p. [description of the title-cut]: "the toi toi and phorinium tenax in the corners are new zealand emblems." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "where christmas lilies wave and blow, where the fan-tails tumbling glance, and plumed toi-toi heads the dance." tohora, n. maori name for a whale. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "fable of the kauri (pine-tree) and tohora (whale)." . w. colenso, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. pt. , p. : "looking at it as it lay extended, it resembled a very large whale (nui tohora)." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "in the open sea, and to the south, the most prized whale next to the sperm is the black whale, or tohora (eubalaena australis), which is like the right whale of the north sea, but with baleen of less value." tohunga, n. maori word for a wise man. "perhaps from maori verb tohu, to think." (tregear's `polynesian dictionary.') tohu, a sign or omen; hence tohunga, a dealer in omens, an augur. . a. domett, `ranolf and amohia,' p. : "but he whose grief was most sincere the news of that unwonted death to hear, was kangapo, the tohunga--a priest and fell magician famous far and near." . `appendix to journals of house of representatives,' g. , b. p. : "i am a tohunga who can save the country if you will follow my advice." . f. e. maning, `heke's war, told by an old chief,' `new zealand reader,' p. : "amongst these soldiers there was not one tohunga--not a man at all experienced in omens--or they must have had some warning that danger and defeat were near." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "she would consult a tohunga. the man she selected-- one of the oldest and most sacred of the maori priests, prophet, medicine-man, lawyer and judge." tolmer's grass, n. a fibrous plant, lepidosperma gladiatum, labill., n.o. cyperaceae, suitable for manufacture of paper. it is not a true grass, and is classed by maiden (`useful native plants,' p. ) under fibres. . a. tolmer, `reminiscences,' p. : "the plant that has since by courtesy borne my name (tolmer's grass)." tomahawk, n. a word of north-american indian origin, applied in english to the similarly shaped short one-handed axe or hatchet. the word is not frequent in england, but in australia the word hatchet has practically disappeared, and the word tomahawk to describe it is in every-day use. it is also applied to the stone hatchet of the aboriginals. a popular corruption of it is tommy-axe. . g. barrington, `history of new south wales,' c. xii. p. : "a plentiful assortment of . . . knives, shirts, toma-hawkes [sic], axes, jackets, scissars [sic], etc., etc., for the people in general." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we . . . observed recent marks of the stone tomahawk of the natives." . g. w. rusden, `moyarra,' canto i. , p. : "one hand he wreathed in mytah's hair, whirled then the tomahawk in air." . e. b. kennedy, `fours /sic/ years in queensland,' p. : "they [the aboriginals] cut out opossums from a tree or sugar bag (wild honey) by means of a tomahawk of green stone; the handle is formed of a vine, and fixed in its place with gum. it is astonishing what a quantity of work is got through in the day with these blunt tomahawks." . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "lay aside thy spears (i doubt them); lay aside thy tomahawk." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "the aborigines have obtained iron tomahawks." . g. sutherland, `tales of goldfields,' p. : "men had to cleave out a way for themselves with tomahawks." . a. reischek, in buller's `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "the snow had been blown together, and was frozen so hard that i had to take my tomahawk to chop it down so as to get softer snow to refresh myself with a wash." tomahawk, v. tr. to cut sheep when shearing them. . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully `tomahawked' by the new hands." . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "some men never get the better of this habit, but `tomahawk' as badly after years of practice as when they first began." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "the shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong, after the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along the `ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before, and the novice who toiling bravely had tommyhawked half a score." tommy-axe, n. a popular corruption of the word tomahawk (q.v.); it is an instance of the law of hobson-jobson. tom russell's mahogany. see mahogany. tomtit, n. name applied in new zealand to two new zealand birds of the genus myiomoira, the species being m. toitoi, garnot, in north island; m. macrocephala, gmel., in south island. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : [a full description.] tonquin bean-tree, n. a tasmanian variety of native sandalwood; also called tonga beanwood. . w. archer, `products and resources of tasmania,' p. : "`tonga bean-wood (alyxia buxifolia, br.). the odour is similar to that of the tonga bean (dipteryx odorata). a straggling seaside shrub, three to five inches in diameter." tooart, or tewart, n. a west australian name for eucalyptus gomphocephala, or white gum. see gum. . t. h. braim, `new homes,' c. iv. p. : `another valuable tree is the tooart, a kind of white gum." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the tewart tree (eucalyptus), a variety of the white gum, found principally in the swan river and king george's sound district of western australia. . . . of straight growth and noble dimensions. the wood is of a yellowish or straw colour, hard, heavy, tough, strong and rigid. . . . it is used in ship-building for beams, keelsons, stern-posts, engine-bearers, and for other works below the line of flotation." tookytook, n. a corruption of kotukutuku (q.v.), a maori name equivalent to konini, the fruit of the fuchsia-tree (q.v.). toot, n. the anglicised spelling of the maori word tutu (q.v.). tooted, quasi past participle from toot. the cattle are tooted, sc. poisoned by the toot. . g. butler, `canterbury settlement,' p. : "as, then, my bullocks could not get tuted." . t. h. potts, `new zealand country journal,' p. : "his hearty salutation in its faultiness proved to be about on a par with `rummy-rum,' `triddy' and `toot.' the last word reminds me of a man near by who was even judged to be somewhat vain of his maori accent and pronunciation. with one word he was indeed very particular, he could not bring himself to use that manifest corruption `toot.' with him it was ever `tutu.' he had to make rather a boggle or dodge of it when he used the colonial made verb formed on his favourite maori noun." tooth-shell, n. the name is applied, in europe, to any species of dentalium and allied genera having a tooth-shaped shell. in australia, it is the shell of marinula pellucida, cooper, a small marine mollusc used for necklaces. tope, n. an australasian shark, galeus australis, macl. it differs somewhat from galeus canis, the tope of britain. called also the school-shark, in australia. top-knot pigeon, n. an australian bird, lopholaimus antarcticus, shaw. . francis adams, `john webb's end,' p. : "flying for a moment beside a lovely, melodious top-knot pigeon." torea, n. maori name for all the new zealand species of the oyster-catchers (q.v.). torpedo, n. a fish, well known elsewhere, and also called elsewhere, the numb-fish and cramp fish. for the australian species, see quotation. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "our torpedo or electric ray is hypnos subnigrum, that of tasmania is narcine tasmaniensis." torres-straits pigeon, n. see quotation. . saville kent, `great barrier reef,' p. : "making a bag of the famous torres straits pigeons (myristicivora spilorrhoa), a large white variety, highly esteemed for the table, which, arriving from the north [that is new guinea], is distributed from october until the end of march throughout the tree-bearing islets and mainland coast, as far south as keppel bay." tortoise-shell fish. see hand-fish. totara, n. maori name for a lofty-spreading new zealand tree, podocarpus totara, a. cunn., n.o. coniferae,. in maori, the accent falls on the first syllable; but in english use it is often placed on the second, and from mr. polack's spelling it must have been so as early as . called also mahogany-pine. there are several other species, e.g. p. vivalis, hook., the mountain totara; called also mahogany pine. see mahogany, and pine. . g. bennett, in lambert's `genus pinus,' vol. ii. p. : "this is an unpublished species of podocarpus, called totara by the natives. . . . the value placed on this tree by the natives is sometimes the occasion of quarrels, terminating in bloodshed, if it is cut down by any except the party by whom it is claimed. . . it is not unusual for the trees to descend from father to son." . j. s. polack, `manners and customs of new zealanders,' vol. i. p. : "the totarra or red-pine." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the totara is one of the finest trees in the forest, and is the principal wood used by the natives, whether for canoes, houses, or fencing." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' [notes] p. : "the place received its name from a number of large totara trees." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "totara (podocarpus totara) and matai (podocarpus spicata) are large and beautiful trees found in every forest." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "one lone totara-tree that grew beneath the hill-side." . t. laslett, `timber and timber trees,' p. : "the totara tree (taxus or podocarpus totara). height, eighty to ninety feet. the wood is red in colour, close, straight, fine and even in grain . . . a good substitute for mahogany." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "with the exception of the kauri, the totara affords the most valuable timber in new zealand, but unlike the kauri it is found almost throughout the colony." towai, n. maori name for new zealand tree, weinmannia racemosa, forst., n.o. saxifrageae, i.q. kamahai in south of south island, and tawhero in north island (wellington). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "its banks . . . are covered almost wholly with the towai. this tree has very small dark leaves.it is used for ship- building, and is called by englishmen the `black birch.'" . mrs. wilson, `new zealand,' p. : "the ake . . . and towai (leiospermum racemosum) are almost equal, in point of colour, to rosewood." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "towhai, kamahi. a large tree; trunk two to four feet in diameter, and fifty feet high. wood close-grained and heavy, but rather brittle. . . . the bark is largely used for tanning. the extract of bark is chemically allied to the gum kino of commerce, their value being about equal." township, n. a village, a possible future town. in the united states, the word has a definite meaning--a district, subordinate to a county, the inhabitants having power to regulate their local affairs; in australia, the word has no such definite meaning. it may be large or small, and sometimes consists of little more than the post-office, the public-house, and the general store or shop. . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "the timber of a hundred and twenty acres was cut down . . . a small township marked out, and a few huts built." . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' vol. ii. p. : "it used to seem to me a strange colonial anomaly to call a very small village a `township,' and a much larger one a `town.' but the former is the term applied to the lands reserved in various places for future towns." . j. b. stephens, `black gin,' p. : "there's a certain township and also a town,-- (for, to ears colonial, i need not state that the two do not always homologate)." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : [mr. parker is a canadian who lived four years in australia] "a few words of comparison here. a pub of australia is a tavern or hotel in canada; a township is a village; a stock-rider is a cow-boy; a humpy is a shanty; a warrigal or brombie s a broncho or cayuse; a sundowner is a tramp; a squatter is a rancher; and so on through an abundant list." . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "villages, which are always called `townships,' spring up suddenly round a railway-station or beside some country inn." . `sydney morning herald' (date lost): "a township--the suffix denotes a state of being--seems to be a place which is not in the state of being a town. does its pride resent the impost of village that it is glad to be called by a name which is no name, or is the word loosely appropriated from america, where it signifies a division of a county? it is never found in england." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "there stands the town of dandaloo-- a township where life's total sum is sleep, diversified with rum." traveller, n. used specifically for a swagman, a sundowner. see quotation. . marcus clarke, `peripatetic philosopher' (reprint), p. : "at the station where i worked for some time (as `knock-about-man') three cooks were kept during the `wallaby' season--one for the house, one for the men, and one for the travellers. moreover, `travellers' would not unfrequently spend the afternoon at one of the three hotels (which, with a church and a pound, constituted the adjoining township), and having `liquored up' extensively, swagger up to the station, and insist upon lodging and food--which they got. i have no desire to take away the character of these gentlemen travellers, but i may mention as a strange coincidence, that, was the requested hospitality refused by any chance, a bush-fire invariably occurred somewhere on the run within twelve hours." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "throughout the western pastoral area the strain of feeding the `travellers,' which is the country euphemism for bush unemployed, has come to be felt as an unwarranted tax upon the industry, and as a mischievous stimulus to nomadism." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : ". . . never refuses to feed travellers; they get a good tea and breakfast, and often to are fed in a day. these travellers lead an aimless life, wandering from station to station, hardly ever asking for and never hoping to get any work, and yet they expect the land-owners to support them. most of them are old and feeble, and the sooner all stations stop giving them free rations the better it will be for the real working man. one station-owner kept a record, and he found that he fed over men in twelve months. this alone, at d. a meal, would come to l , but this is not all, as they `bag' as much as they can if their next stage is not a good feeding station." travellers' grass, i.q. settler's twine (q.v.). tree-creeper, n. popular name applied to members of an old linnaean genus of birds. the australian species are enumerated by gould in quotation. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv.: plate climacteris scandens, temm., brown tree-creeper . c. rufa, gould, rufous t. . . . . . . . . c. erythrops, gould, red-eyebrowed t. . . . . c. melanotus, gould, black-backed t. . . . . c. melanura, gould, black-tailed t. . . . . . c. picumnus, temm., whitethroated t. . . . . tree-fern, n. see fern-tree. tree-kangaroo, called boongary (q.v.) by the aboriginals. see dendrolagus and kangaroo. tree-runner, n. another name for the sittella (q.v.). the species are-- black-capped tree-runner-- sittella pileata, gould. orange-winged t.-- s. chrysoptera, lath. pied t.-- s. albata, ramsay. slender-billed t.-- s. tenuirostris, gould. striated t.-- s. striata, gould. white-headed t.-- s. leucocephala, gould. white-winged t.-- s. leucoptera, gould. but see gould's earlier ( ), under sittella. tree-tit, n. the word tit is terminally applied to many little english birds. in australia, this new compound has been adopted for the two species, short-billed tree-tit, smicrornis brevirostris, gould, and yellow-tinted tit, s. flavescens, gould. tremandra, n. scientific name of a genus of australian plants, the purple heath-flower. name given by r. brown in , from the remarkably tremulous anthers. (lat. tremere, to tremble, and grk. 'anaer, 'andros a man, taken as equivalent to "anther.") trevally, or trevalli, or trevalla, or travale, n. an australian fish. in various localities the name is applied to several fishes, which are most of them of the family carangidae, or horse-mackerels. an old-world name for the horse-mackerels is cavalli (ital. cavallo, a little horse). trevalli is sometimes called cavalli; this was probably its original name in australia, and trevalli a later corruption. the different kinds are-- black trevally-- teuthis nebulosa, quoy, family teuthididae (a new south wales fish). mackerel t. (so called in tasmania)-- neptonemus dobula, gunth., family carangidae. silver t.-- another tasmanian name for the white trevally, caranx georgianus (see below). snotgall t.-- neptonemus travale, casteln. (in victoria); n. brama, gunth. in tasmania); both of the family of carangidae. white t.-- caranx georgianus, cuv. and val., family carangidae; (so called in new south wales, new zealand, and tasmania; in victoria it is called silver bream). teuthis javus, linn., family tuethididae. the maori name for the trevally is awara, and in auckland it is sometimes called the yellow-tail (q.v.). see also quotation, . guenther says, the genus teuthis is readily recognised by the peculiar structure of the ventral fins, which have an outer and an inner spine and three soft rays between. . `capt. cook's journal' (edition wharton, ), p. : "several canoes came off to the ship, and two or three of them sold us some fish--cavallys as they are called--which occasioned my giving the islands the same name." . r. a. sherrin, `fishes of new zealand,' p. : "dr. hector says: `the trevalli is the arara of the maoris, or the trevalli or cavalli of the fishermen . . . in auckland it is sometimes called the yellow-tail, but this name appears to be also used for the king-fish. the fish known as trevalli in the dunedin market is a different fish, allied to the warehou.'" . `victorian statutes--fisheries act' (second schedule): "travale." triantelope, n. a european comic variation of the scientific name tarantula. it is applied in australia to a spider belonging to a quite different genus, voconia, a perfectly harmless spider, though popularly supposed to be poisonous. it has powerful mandibles, but will attack nobody unless itself attacked. . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "the tarantulas, or `triantelopes,' as the men call them, are large, ugly spiders, very venomous." . a lady, `my experiences in australia,' p. : "there is no lack of spiders either, of all sorts and sizes, up to the large tarantula, or tri-antelope, as the common people persist in calling it." tribonyx, n. there are several species of this bird in australia and tasmania, where they go by the name of native hen, and sometimes, erroneously, moor-hen (q.v.). for the species, see native hen. no species of tribonyx has been found wild in new zealand, though other birds have been mistaken for the genus. . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. (introd.), p. xiv: "i ought perhaps here to refer to a species mentioned in the former introduction as a newly discovered addition to the new zealand avifauna, but now omitted from the list . . ." ibid. p. liv: "tribonyx has never actually occurred in a wild state [in new zealand]." ibid. p. : "tribonyx, a bird incapable of flight, but admirably adapted for running." trichosurus, n. the scientific name of a genus of the phalangers (q.v.), or australian opossums (q.v.). (grk. trichos, of hair, and 'oura, tail.) trickett, n. slang name for a long drink of beer in new south wales, after trickett, the new south wales champion sculler. trigger-plant, n. i.q. hairtrigger (q.v.) plant; called also jack-in-a-box. trigonia, n. a bivalve marine mollusc with a nacreous interior, much admired in tasmania and used for pendants and necklaces, trigonia margaritacea, lamarck, of the order pectinaceae. it is the largest trigonia occurring in australasia, and the only one found in tasmania. numerous extinct species are characteristic of the mesozoic rocks. the only living species existing are confined to australia. trooper, n. a mounted policeman. the use is transferred from the name for a private soldier in a cavalry regiment. the native troopers, or black police, in queensland, are a force of aboriginal police, officered by white men. . t. mccombie, `history of victoria,' c. viii. p. : "a violent effort [was] made by the troopers on duty to disperse an assemblage which occupied the space of ground in front of the hustings." . j. rogers, `new rush,' p. : "a trooper spies him snoring in the street." . j. a. b., `meta,' canto iii. ver. , p. : "the felon crew . . . hard pressed by troopers ten." tropic-bird, n. the english name is applied because the bird is usually seen in the tropics. the species observed in australia are--red-tailed, phaeton rubricaudus, bodd.; white-tailed, p. candidus, briss. . j. gould, `birds of australia,'vol. vii. pl. : "phaeton phoenicurus, gmel., red-tailed tropic bird; new holland tropic bird, latham, `general history, vol. x. p. ." tropidorhynchus, n. scientific name of a genus of birds peculiar to australia and new guinea. the typical species has a knob on the bill, and the head and neck destitute of feathers. from grk. tropis, the keel of a ship, and rhunchos, "beak." they are called friar birds (q.v.), and the generic name of tropidorhynchus has been replaced by philemon (q.v.). trout, n. the english trout has been naturalised in australia. in tasmania, the name of trout, or mountain-trout, is also given to species of the genus galaxias. see salmon. trumpeter, n. ( ) a fish of tasmanian, new zealand, and australian waters, but chiefly of hobart-- latris hecateia, richards., family cirrhitidae, much esteemed as a food-fish, and weighing sometimes or lbs. the name is probably from the noise made by the fish when taken out of the water. the name was formerly given to a different fish in western australia. see also bastard-trumpeter, morwong, and paper-fish. . m. doyle, `letters and journals of g. f. moore, swan river settlement,' p. : "many persons are trying to salt fish, which are very numerous in the river about and below perth, as you must have seen by one of my letters, in which i mentioned our having taken , at one draught of the seine; these are of the kind called herrings, but do not look very like them; they make a noise when out of the water, and on that account are also called trumpeters." . t. h. braim, `new homes,' vol. ii. p. : "the finest kinds are the guard-fish of the mainland and the trumpeter of the derwent in tasmania." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the first of these [latris] is the genus of the well-known `hobart town trumpeter,' a fish deservedly of high reputation." ( ) an obsolete name in tasmania for the black crow-shrike (q.v.), strepera fuliginosa, gould. . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' p. : "we also occasionally heard the trumpeter or black magpie." trumpeter-perch, n. i.q. mado (q.v.). trumpeter-whiting, n. see whiting, quotation . tuan, n. aboriginal name for the flying-squirrel (q.v.). see also pongo. . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the flying-squirrel, or tuan, is much sought after for its fine fur; of these there are two kinds, a large one of a dark colour, only found n the mountains; and a smaller description found in all parts of the colony, and better known by the native name, tuan." . h. kingsley, `geoffrey hamlyn,' p. : "the touan, the little grey flying-squirrel, only begins to fly about at night, and slides down from his bough sudden and sharp." tuatara, n. the maori name of a new zealand lizard, or reptile, hatteria punctata, gray; called also sphenodon puntatum. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "tua tira, a species of lizard." . `mahoe leaves,' p. : "a small boy of a most precocious nature, who was termed `tua tara,' from a horrid sort of lizard that the natives abhor." . `catalogue of new zealand exhibition': "the tuatara is the largest existing new zealand reptile. it is closely allied to the lizards; but on account of certain peculiarities of structure, some of which tend to connect it with the crocodiles, is placed by dr. guenther in a separate order (rhynchocephalina)." tucker, n. australian slang for food. to tuck in is provincial english for to eat, and tuck is a school-boy word for food, especially what is bought at a pastrycook's. to make tucker means to earn merely enough to pay for food. . garnet walch, `head over heels,' p. : "for want of more nourishing tucker, i believe they'd have eaten him." . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "we heard of big nuggets, but only made tucker." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "when a travelling man sees a hut ahead, he knows there's water inside, and tucker and tea." . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "i took my meal in the hut, but we'd both the same kind of tucker." tui, n. maori name for the new zealand bird, prosthemadera novae-zelandae, gray; called the parson-bird (q.v.), and earlier the poe (q.v.). another name is the koko, and the young bird is distinguished as pi-tui, or pikari. it is also called the mocking bird. . w. yate, `some account of new zealand,' p. : "tui. this remarkable bird, from the versatility of its talents for imitation, has by some been called `the mocking-bird.'" . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the little birds were chiefly the tui, or mocking-bird. it resembles a blackbird in size and plumage, with two graceful bunches of white feathers under the neck. it abounds in the woods, and is remarkably noisy and active . . . it imitates almost every feathered inhabitant of the forest, and, when domesticated, every noise it hears." . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "i saw several birds named the tooi; they are black, about the size of a starling, and are sometimes called parson-birds, as they have two white feathers like clergymen's bands in front of them." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "one of the prettiest creatures is the tui, parson-bird of the colonists (prosthemadera novae-zelandae), which roves about in the lofty, leafy crowns of the forest-trees." . j. l. campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "the tui, with his grand, rich note, made the wood musical." . t. bracken, `lays of maori,' p. : "woo the bell-bird from his nest, to ring the tui up to sing his morning hymns." ibid. p. : "i hear the swell of nature's psalms through tree and bush, from tui, blackbird, finch and thrush." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. i. facing p. .: [a plate entitled] "tui, or parson-bird." ibid. pp. - : [a full description.] . d. frobisher, `sketches of gossipton,' p. : as the forest soft echoes brought back their sweet chorus, the tuis seemed silent from envy and spleen." tulip, native, i.q. waratah (q.v.); and see telopea. tulip-tree, n. the name is given, in australia, to stenocarpus cunninghamii, r. br., n.o. proteaceae, on account of the brilliancy of its bright-red flowers; called also queensland fire-tree. tulip-wood, n. the name is given, in australia, to aphnanthe philipinensis, planch., n.o. urticaceae, and to the timber of harpullia pendula, planch., n.o. sapindaceae. it is, further, a synonym for the emu-apple. . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the tulip-wood, with its variegated flowers and delightful perfume, grows in abundance." tumata-kuru, n. maori name for plant better known as wild irishman (q.v.), discaria toumatou, raoul. "a thorny plant, very difficult to handle." (vincent pyke.) tumatagowry, or matagory (q.v.), is the southern corruption of contractors, labourers, and others. . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby,' p. : "upon the arid flats, patches of tumatu-kuru, and of a purple-flowering broom, struggle to maintain a scraggy existence." . t. kirk, `forest flora of new zealand,' p. : "the tumatakuru merits a place in this work rather on account of its value in the past than of its present usefulness. in the early days of settlement in the south island this afforded the only available timber in many mountain-valleys, and was frequently converted by hand sawyers for building purposes; being of great durability, it was found very serviceable, notwithstanding its small dimensions: the formation of roads has deprived it of value by facilitating the conveyance of ordinary building timber." tuna, n. see eel. tupakihi, n. i.q. tutu (q.v.). tupara, n. maori corruption of "two-barrel." compare the aboriginal word whilpra (q.v.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "he had previously despatched a messenger to me, begging me to bring some tupara, or `two-barrel.'" . j. l.campbell, `poenamo,' p. : "they were labouring under the `tupera fever' [in ]. the percussion-gun had made its appearance, and the natives were not slow to see how much more effectual a weapon it was than the old flint `brown-bess.' and when they saw the tupera, double-barrelled gun, the rage at once set in to possess it." tupong, n. aboriginal name for a southern australian fish, aphritis bassii, castln., family trachinidae. mr. j. bracebridge wilson says it is called marble-fish in the geelong district. it is also known as the freshwater flathead. tupuna, n. maori word, meaning ancestor, progenitor, male or female. often used in the land courts in the question: "who are your tupuna?" . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "i asked his permission to ascend tonga riro . . . but he steadily refused, saying, `i would do anything else to show you my love and friendship, but you must not ascend my tepuna, or ancestor.'" . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "tupuna, to stand, to spring; an ancestor; hence tu-pu, to grow." . f. maning (pakeha maori), `old new zealand,' p. : "one evening a smart, handsome lad came to tell me his tupuna was dying . . . the tribe were ke poto or assembled to the last man about the dying chief." turbot, n. the name is given to a new zealand fish, called also lemon-sole (q.v.) or yellow-belly (q.v.), ammotretis guntheri. . `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. viii. p. : "turbot--a fish not uncommon in the dunedin market, where it goes by the name of `lemon-sole.'" turkey, n. this common english bird-name is applied in australia to three birds, viz.-- ( ) to the bird eupodotis australis, gray, which is a true bustard, but which is variously called the native turkey, plain turkey (from its frequenting the plains), and wild turkey. ( ) to the bird talegalla lathami, gould, called the brush turkey (from its frequenting the brushes), wattled turkey and wattled talegalla (from its fleshy wattles), and sometimes, simply, talegalla. by latham it was mistaken for a vulture, and classed by him as the new holland vulture. (`general history of birds,' , vol. i. p. .) ( ) to the bird leipoa ocellata, gould, called the scrub-turkey (from its frequenting the scrubs, the lowan (its aboriginal name), the native pheasant (of south australia); in the mallee district it is called mallee-bird, mallee-fowl, mallee-hen. in the following quotations the number of the bird referred to is placed in square brackets at the end. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "we passed several nests of the brush-turkey (talegalla lathami, gould)." [ .] . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "several native bustards (otis novae hollandiae, gould) were shot." [ .] . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vi. pl. : "otis australasianus, gould, australian bustard; turkey, colonists of new south wales; native turkey, swan river." [ .] . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "talegalla lathami, wattled talegalla; brush-turkey of the colonists." [ .] . c. h. eden, `my wife and i in queensland,' p. : "the bird that repaid the sportsman best was the plain turkey or bustard (otis australasianus), a noble fellow, the male weighing from eighteen to twenty pounds. they differ from the european birds in being good flyers. . . . the length of the wings is very great, and they look like monsters in the air." [ .] . ibid. p. : "the scrub-turkey (talegalla lathami) is a most curious bird; its habitat is in the thickest scrubs. in appearance it much resembles the english hen turkey, though but little larger than a fowl." [ .] . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "look at this immense mound. it is a scrub-turkey's nest. thirty or forty lay their eggs in it. one could hardly imagine they could gather such a huge pile of sticks and earth and leaves. they bury their eggs, and heap up the nest until the laying time ceases. the moist heap heats and incubates the eggs. the young turkeys spring out of the shell, covered with a thick warm coat, and scratch their way into daylight, strong and able to provide food for themselves." [ .] . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "the bustard (eupodotis australis) is known by the colonists as the native turkey. it is excellent eating and is much sought after on that account. the hen bird lays only one egg, depositing it on the bare ground. formerly they were numerous in the neighbourhood of melbourne, but they have now been driven further inland; they are still abundant on the western plains and on the open saltbush country of the lower murray. they are difficult to approach on foot, but it is easy to get within gunshot of them on horseback or driving. the natives used formerly to capture them in an ingenious manner by means of a snare; they approached their intended victim against the wind under cover of a large bush grasped in the left hand, while in the right was held a long slender stick, to the end of which was fastened a large fluttering moth, and immediately below a running noose. while the bird, unconscious of danger, was eyeing and pecking at the moth, the noose was dexterously slipped over its head by the cunning black, and the astonished bird at once paid the penalty of its curiosity with its life." [ .] . ibid.: "in the first division are several specimens of the brush-turkey (talegalla lathami) of australia. these birds have excited world-wide interest in scientific circles, by their ingenious mode of incubating. they construct a large mound of vegetable mould and sand; mixed in such proportions that a gentle heat will be maintained, which hatches the buried eggs. the young chicks can look after themselves shortly after bursting the egg-shell." [ .] . a. sutherland, `elementary geography of british colonies,' p. : "the brush-turkeys, which are not really turkeys but birds of that size, build big mounds of decaying vegetable matter, lay their eggs on the top, cover them over with leaves, and leave the whole to rot, when the heat of the sun above and of the fermentation below, hatches the eggs, and the young creep out to forage for themselves without ever knowing their parents." [ .] . professor h. a. strong, in `liverpool mercury,' feb. : "the well-known `wild turkey' of australian colonists is a bustard, and he has the good sense to give a wide berth to the two-legged immigrants indeed the most common method of endeavouring to secure an approach to him is to drive up to him in a buggy, and then to let fly. the approach is generally made by a series of concentric circles, of which the victim is the centre. his flesh is excellent, the meat being of a rich dark colour, with a flavour resembling that of no other game bird with which i am acquainted." [ .] . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : "the brush-turkey (talegalla), another of the sand-builders, lays a white egg very much like that of a swan, while the third of that wonderful family, the scrub-hen or megapode, has an egg very long in proportion to its width." [ .] turmeric, i.q. stinkwood (q.v.); also applied occasionally to hakea dactyloides, cav., n.o. proteaceae. see hakea. turnip-wood, n. the timbers of the trees akania hillii, j. hook., n.o. sapindaceae, and dysoxylon muelleri, benth., n.o. meliaceae, from their white and red colours respectively. turpentine, brush, name given to two trees-- metrosideros leptopetala, f. v. m., also called myrtle; and rhodamnia trinervia, blume, both n.o. myrtaceae. turpentine-tree, n. the name is applied to many trees in australia yielding a resin, but especially to the tree called tallow-wood (q.v.), eucalyptus microcorys, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae; to eucalyptus punctata, de c., n.o. myrtaceae, called also leather- jacket, hickory, red-, and yellow-gun, and bastard-box; and to e. stuartiana, f. v. m., n.o. myrtaceae. in new zealand, it is also applied to the tarata. see mapau. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "[e. stuartiana is] frequently called turpentine tree, or peppermint tree. in victoria it is known as apple tree, apple-scented gum, white gum, and mountain ash. it is the woolly butt of the county of camden (new south wales). occasionally it is known as stringybark. it is called box about stanthorpe (queensland), tea tree at frazer's island (queensland), and red gum in tasmania." turquoise-berry, n. i.q. solomon's seal (q.v.). tussock-grass, n. tussock is an english word for a tuft of grass. from this a plant of the lily family, lomandra longifolia, r. br., n.o. lilaceae, is named tussock-grass; it is "considered the best native substitute for esparto." (`century.') . rolf boldrewood, `melbourne memories,' c. v. p. : "the roof was neatly thatched with the tall, strong tussock-grass." tussocker, n. a new zealand name for a sundowner (q.v.). . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby': "now, a `sun-downer,' or `tussocker'--for the terms are synonymous--is a pastoral loafer; one who loiters about till dusk, and then makes for the nearest station or hut, to beg for shelter and food." tutu, or toot, n. maori name for a shrub or small tree, coriaria ruscifolia, linn., or c. sarmentosa, forst., of new zealand, widely distributed. it bears greenish flowers, and shiny pulpy black berries. from these the maoris make a wine resembling light claret, taking care to strain out and not to crush the seeds, which are poisonous, with an action similar to that of strychnine. it goes also by the name of wineberry-bush, and the maori name is anglicised into toot. in maori, the final u is swallowed rather than pronounced. in english names derived from the maori, a vowel after a mute letter is not sounded. it is called in the north island tupakihi. in maori, the verb tutu means to be hit, wounded, or vehemently wild, and the name of the plant thus seems to be connected with the effects produced by its poison. to "eat your toot": used as a slang phrase; to become acclimatised, to settle down into colonial ways. . r. wilkin, in a letter printed by c. hursthouse, `new zealand,' p. : "the plant called `tutu' or `toot' appears to be universal over new zealand. if eaten by sheep or cattle with empty stomachs, it acts in a similar manner to green clover, and sometimes causes death; but if partaken of sparingly, and with grass, it is said to possess highly fattening qualities. none of the graziers, however, except one, with whom i conversed on the subject, seemed to consider toot worth notice; . . . it is rapidly disappearing in the older settled districts and will doubtless soon disappear here." . c. hursthouse, `new zealand,' p. : "the wild shrub tutu (coriaria ruscifolia), greedily devoured by sheep and cattle, produces a sort of `hoven' effect, something like that of rich clover pastures when stock break in and over feed. . . . bleeding and a dose of spirits is the common cure. . . horses and pigs are not affected by it." . c. c. bowen, `poems,' p. : "and flax and fern and tutu grew in wild luxuriance round." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "the toot-plant, tutu or tupakihi of the maoris (coriaria sarmentosa, forst. = c. ruscifolia, l.), is a small bush, one of the most common and widely distributed shrubs of the islands. [new zealand.] it produces a sort of `hoven' or narcotic effect on sheep and cattle, when too greedily eaten. it bears a fruit, which is produced in clusters, not unlike a bunch of currants, with the seed external, of a purple colour. the poisonous portion of the plant to man are the seeds and seedstalks, while their dark purple pulp is utterly innoxious and edible. the natives express from the berries an agreeable violet juice (carefully avoiding the seed), called native wine." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "the tutu-tree, whose luscious purple clusters hang so free and tempting, though with hidden seeds replete that numb with deadly poison all who eat." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand,' p. : "tupakihi, tree tutu. a perennial shrub ten to eighteen feet high; trunk six to eight inches in diameter. the so-called berries (fleshy petals) vary very much in succulence. . . . the juice is purple, and affords a grateful beverage to the maoris; and a wine, like elderberry wine, has been made from them. the seeds and leaves contain a poisonous alkaloid, and produce convulsions, delirium and death, and are sometimes fatal to cattle and sheep." . alfred cox, `recollections,' p. : "when footpaths about christchurch were fringed with tutu bushes, little boys were foolish enough to pluck the beautiful berries and eat them. a little fellow whose name was `richard' ate of the fruit, grew sick, but recovered. when the punster heard of it, he said, `ah! well, if the little chap had died, there was an epitaph all ready for him, decus et tutamen. dick has ate toot, amen.'" . g. p. williams and w. p. reeves, `colonial couplets,' p. : "you will gather from this that i'm not `broken in,' and the troublesome process has yet to begin which old settlers are wont to call `eating your tutu;' (this they always pronounce as if rhyming with boot)." . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby, p. [footnote]: "the poisonous tutu bushes. a berry-bearing, glossy-leaved plant, deadly to man and to all animals, except goats." . t. h. potts, `new zealand country journal,' vol. xv. p. : "the cockney new chum soon learnt to `eat his toot,' and he quickly acquired a good position in the district." twenty-eight, n. another name for the yellow-collared parrakeet. named from its note. see parrakeet. . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "platycercus semitorquatus, quoy and gaim., yellow-collared parrakeet; twenty-eight parrakeet, colonists of swan river. it often utters a note which, from its resemblance to those words, has procured for it the appellation of `twenty-eight' parrakeet from the colonists; the last word or note being sometimes repeated five or six times in succession." twine bush, n. i.q. hakea flexilis. see hakea. twine, settler's, n. see settler's twine. two-hooded furina-snake. see under snake. u umbrella-bush, acacia osswaldi, f. v. m., n.o. leguminosae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "often called `umbrella-bush,' as it is a capital shade tree. a small bushy tree." . `melbourne museum catalogue--economic woods,' no. : "the plant is exquisitely adapted for tall hedges. it is often called the `umbrella tree,' as it gives a capital shade. the heart-wood is dark, hard, heavy and close-grained." umbrella-grass, i.q. native millet, panicum decompositum, r. br., n.o. gramineae. see millet. it is called umbrella-grass, from the shape of the branches at the top of the stem representing the ribs of an open umbrella. umbrella-tree, n. name given to brassaia actinophylla, endl., n.o. araliaceae, from the large leaves being set, like umbrella-ribs, at the top of numerous stems. umu, n. maori word, signifying a native oven. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the tangi had terminated; the umu or `cooking holes' were smoking away for the feast." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika, a maui,' p. : "the native oven (umu hangi) is a circular hole of about two feet in diameter and from six to twelve inches deep." . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. v. p. : ". . . being all in and around the umus (or native ovens) in which they had been cooked." . s. locke, `traditions of taupo,' `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xv. art. liv. p. : "they killed kurimanga the priest and cooked him in an oven, from which circumstance the place is called umu-kuri." . s. p. smith, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxii. p. : "an oven of stones, exactly like a maori umu or hangi." . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xxvi. p. : "the oumu or haangi, in which food was cooked, was only a hole scooped in the ground, of a size proportioned to that which was to be cooked." union nut, n. a fine cabinet timber, bosistoa sapindiformis, f. v. m., n.o. rutaceae. "unlock the lands." a political cry in victoria, meaning open up for free-selection (q.v.) the lands held by squatters on lease. . j. f. hogan, `the irish in australia,' p. : "the democratic party, that had for its watchword the expressive phrase, `unlock the lands.'" unpayable, adj. not likely to pay for working; not capable of yielding a profit over working expenses. (a very rare use.) . `the argus,' dec. , p. , col. : "unpayable lines.--the commissioner of railways has had a return prepared showing the results of the working of lines for the year ending th june, . of these, , covering miles, do not pay working expenses, and are reckoned to be the worst lines in the colony." utu, n. a maori word for "return, price paid, reward, ransom, satisfaction for injuries received, reply." (williams.) sometimes corrupted by englishmen into hoot (q.v.). . j. s. polack, `manners and customs of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "utu or payment is invariably expected for any injustice committed, and is exacted in some shape, the sufferer feeling debased in his own opinion until he obtains satisfaction. the utu, similar to the tapu, enters into everything connected with this people." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "he asserted that we should pay for the tapu; but suggested as an amendment that the utu or `payment' should be handed to him." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "utu, which may be freely translated `blood for blood,' is with him [the maori] a sacred necessity. it is the lex talionis carried out to the letter. the exact interpretation of the formidable little word `utu' is, i believe, `payment.'" . c. hursthouse, `new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the learned commissioner's court was instantly besieged by bands of natives vociferating for more `utu' (payment), and threatening the settlers with the tomahawk if more `utu' were not instantly accorded." . a. domett, `ranolf,' p. : "besides that, for such shining service done, a splendid claim, he reckoned, would arise for `utu'--compensation or reward." . h. carleton, `life of henry williams,' p. : "blood for blood, or at least blood money, is maori law. better the blood of the innocent than none at all, is a recognised maxim of the maori law of utu." v vandemonian, n. and adj. belonging to van diemen's land, the old name of tasmania; generally used of the convicts of the early days; and the demon in the word is a popular application of the law of hobson-jobson. now obsolete. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' (edition ), p. : "the van diemonians, as they unpleasingly call themselves, or permit themselves to be called, are justly proud of their horse-flesh." . s. sidney, `three colonies of australia' ( nd edit.), p. : "one of the first acts of the legislative assemblies created by the australian reform bill of was to pass . . . acts levelled against van diemonian expirees." . w. howitt, `two years in victoria,' vol. i, p. : "unquestionably some of the van diemenian convicts." . `cassell's magazine,' p. : "`i never wanted to leave england,' i have heard an old vandemonian observe boastfully. `i wasn't like one of these `jemmy grants' (cant term for `emigrants'); i could always earn a good living; it was the government as took and sent me out." vandemonianism, n. rowdy conduct like that of an escaped convict; the term is now obsolete. . `victorian hansard,' april , vol. ix. p. : "mr. houston looked upon the conduct of hon. gentlemen opposite as ranging from the extreme of vandemonianism to the extreme of nambypambyism." van diemen's land, the name given to the colony now called tasmania, by abel jansz tasman, the dutch navigator, in , after anthony van diemen, governor-general of the dutch east indies. the name was changed to tasmania (q.v.) in , on the granting of responsible government. vedalia, n. a genus of greedily predatory ladybirds. the v. cardinalis of australia was imported by the united states government from australia and new zealand into california in - , in order to kill the fluted scale (icerya purchasi), a fruit-pest. it destroyed the scale in nine months. velvet-fish, n. name given in tasmania to the fish holoxenus cutaneus, gunth., family cirrhitidae. the skin is covered with minute appendages, so soft to the touch as to suggest velvet; the colour is deep purplish red. verandah, n. in australia, the heat of the sun makes verandahs much commoner than in england. they are an architectural feature of all dwelling-houses in suburb or in bush, and of most city shops, where they render the broad side-walks an almost continuous arcade. "under the verandah " has acquired the meaning, "where city men most do congregate." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. xxvii. p. : "in melbourne there is the `verandah'; in sandhurst there is a `verandah'; in ballaarat there is a `verandah.' the verandah is a kind of open exchange--some place on the street pavement, apparently selected by chance, on which the dealers in mining shares do congregate." . modern. private letter of an australian on tour: "what i miss most in london is the verandahs. with this everlasting rain there is no place to get out of a shower, as in melbourne. but i suppose it pays the umbrella-makers." v-hut, a term used in the province of canterbury, new zealand. see quotations. . r. b. paul, `letters from canterbury,' p. : "the form is that of a v hut, the extremities of the rafters being left bare, so as to form buttresses to the walls" (of the church). . s. butler, `first year in canterbury,' p. : "i am now going to put up a v-hut on the country that i took up on the rangitata. . . . it consists of a small roof set up on the ground; it is a hut all roof and no walls." . c. l.innes, `canterbury sketches,' p. : "in case my readers may not know what a `v' hut is like, i will describe one:--it is exactly as if you took the roof off a house and stood it on the ground, you can only stand upright in the middle." . jan. a traveller's note: "not long ago a canterbury lady said--`i was born in a v-hut, and christened in a pie-dish.'" victoria, n. the name of the smallest of all the australian colonies. it was separated from new south wales in , when it was named after queen victoria. sir thomas mitchell had before given it the name of "australia felix," and dr. j. d. lang wanted the name "phillipsland." he published a book with that title in . previous to separation, the name used was "the port phillip district of new south wales." village settlement, the system, first adopted in new zealand, whence it spread to the other colonies, of settling families on the land in combination. the government usually helps at first with a grant of money as well as granting the land. vine, n. in australia, the word is loosely applied to many trailing or creeping plants, which help to form scrubs and thickets. in the more marked cases specific adjectives are used with the word. see following words. . j. p. townsend, `rambles in new south wales,' p. : "with thick creepers, commonly called `vines.'" . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. ii. p. : "impenetrable vine-scrubs line the river-banks at intervals." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "vitis in great abundance and of many varieties are found especially in the scrubs, hence the colonists call this sort of brush, vine-scrub." vine, balloon. see balloon vine. vine, burdekin. called also round yam, vitis opaca, f. v. m., n.o. ampelideae. vine, caustic, i.q. caustic-plant (q.v.). vine, lawyer. see lawyer. vine, macquarie harbour, or macquarie harbour grape (q.v.). same as native ivy. see ivy. . `chambers' encyclopaedia,' s.v. polygonaeae: "muhlenbeckia adpressa is the macquarie harbour vine of tasmania, an evergreen climbing or trailing shrub of most rapid growth, sometimes feet in length. it produces racemes of fruit somewhat resembling grapes or currants, the nut being invested with the large and fleshy segments of the calyx. the fruit is sweetish and subacid, and is used for tarts." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains,' p. : "how we saw the spreading myrtles, saw the cypress and the pine, saw the green festoons and bowers of the dark macquarie vine, saw the blackwoods and the box-trees, and the spiral sassafrases, saw the fairy fern-trees mantled with their mossy cloak of grasses." vine, native pepper. see climbing pepper, under pepper. vine, wonga wonga. see wonga wonga vine. w waddy. ( ) an aboriginal's war club. but the word is used for wood generally, even for firewood. in a kangaroo hunt, a man will call out, "get off and kill it with a waddy," i.e. any stick casually picked up. in pigeon-english, "little fellow waddy" means a small piece of wood. in various dictionaries, e.g. stanford, the word is entered as of aboriginal origin, but many now hold that it is the english word wood mispronounced by aboriginal lips. l. e. threlkeld, in his `australian grammar,' at p. , enters it as a "barbarism "--"waddy, a cudgel." a `barbarism,' with threlkeld, often means no more than `not in use on the hunter river'; but in this case his remark may be more appropriate. on the other hand, the word is given as an aboriginal word in hunter's `vocabulary of the sydney dialect' ( ), and in ridley's `kamilaroi' ( ), as used at george's river. the rev. j. mathew writes: "the aboriginal words for fire and wood are very often, in fact nearly always, interchangeable, or interchanged, at different places. the old tasmanian and therefore original australian term for wood and fire, or one or the other according to dialect, is wi (wee) sometimes win. these two forms occur in many parts of australia with numerous variants, wi being obviously the radical form. hence there were such variants as wiin, waanap, weenth in victoria, and at sydney gweyong, and at botany bay we, all equivalent to fire. wi sometimes took on what was evidently an affixed adjective or modifying particle, giving such forms as wibra, wygum, wyber, wurnaway. the modifying part sometimes began with the sound of d or j (into which of course d enters as an element). thus modified, wi became wadjano on murchison river, western australia; wachernee at burke river, gulf of carp.; wichun on the barcoo; watta on the hunter river, new south wales; wudda at queanbeyan, new south wales. these last two are obviously identical with the sydney waddy = `wood.' the argument might be lengthened, but i think what i have advanced shows conclusively that waddy is the tasmanian word wi + a modifying word or particle." . flinders, `voyage,' vol. ii. p. : "some resembling the whaddie, or wooden sword of the natives of port jackson." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "it is amusing to see the consequential swagger of some of these dingy dandies, as they pass lordly up our streets, with a waddie twirling in their black paws." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "such a weapon as their waddy is: it is formed like a large kitchen poker, and nearly as heavy, only much shorter in the handle. the iron-bark wood, of which it is made, is very hard, and nearly as heavy as iron." . mrs. meredith, `notes and sketches of new south wales,' p. : "the word `waddie,' though commonly applied to the weapons of the new south wales aborigines, does not with them mean any particular implement, but is the term used to express wood of any kind, or trees. `you maan waddie 'long of fire,' means `go and fetch firewood.'" . j. o. balfour, `sketch of new south wales,' p. : "the lachlan black, who, with his right hand full of spears, his whaddie and heleman in his left, was skipping in the air, shouting his war cry." o. j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "a waddy, a most formidable bludgeon." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "the waddy is a heavy, knobbed club about two feet long, and is used for active service, foreign or domestic. it brains the enemy in the battle, or strikes senseless the poor gin in cases of disobedience or neglect." . `once a week,' dec. , p. , `the bulla bulla bunyip': "the landlord swore to the apparition of a huge blackfellow flourishing a phantasmal `waddy.'" . c. w. schuermann, `native tribes of australia--port lincoln tribe,' p. : "the wirris, by the whites incorrectly named waddies, are also made of gum saplings; they are eighteen inches in length, and barely one inch in diameter, the thin end notched in order to afford a firm hold for the hand, while towards the other end there is a slight gradual bend like that of a sword; they are, however, without knobs, and every way inferior to the wirris of the adelaide tribes. the natives use this weapon principally for throwing at kangaroo-rats or other small animals." . r. henty, `australiana,' p. : "the `waddy' is a powerful weapon in the hands of the native. with unerring aim he brings down many a bird, and so materially assists in replenishing the family larder." . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "a general name for all australian clubs is `waddy,' and, although they are really clubs, they are often used as missiles in battle." ( ) the word is sometimes used for a walking-stick. waddy, v. trans. to strike with a waddy. . robert lowe (viscount sherbrooke), `songs of the squatters,' canto ii. st. : "when the white thieves had left me, the black thieves appeared, my shepherds they waddied, my cattle they speared." . `victorian hansard,' nov. , vol. ix. p. , col. : "they were tomahawking them, and waddying them, and breaking their backs." . a. tolmer, `reminiscences,' p. : "in the scuffle the native attempted to waddy him." . `the argus,' april , p. , col. : "only three weeks before he had waddied his gin to death for answering questions asked her by a blacktracker." . a. b. paterson, `man from snowy river,' p. : "for they waddied one another, till the plain was strewn with dead, while the score was kept so even that they neither got ahead." waddy wood, or white wood, n. name given in tasmania to the tree pittosporum bicolor, hook., n.o. pittosporeae; from which the aboriginals there chiefly made their waddies. . `papers and proceedings of the royal society of van diemen's land,' vol. i. p. : " th october, . . . a sample of a very fine close-grained white timber, considered by him suitable for wood-engraving purposes, obtained in a defile of mount wellington. it seems to be the young wood of pittosporum bicolor, formerly in high estimation amongst the aborigines of tasmania, on account of its combined qualities of density, hardness, and tenacity, as the most suitable material of which to make their warlike implement the waddie." wagtail, or wagtail fly-catcher, n. an australian bird, rhipidura tricolor, the black-and-white fantail, with black-and-white plumage like a pied wagtail. see also quotation, . the name is applied sometimes in gippsland, and was first used in western australia as a name for the black-and-white fantail. see fantail. . r. m. praed, `head-station,' p. : "he pointed to a willy-wagtail which was hopping cheerfully from stone to stone." . a. j. north, `list of the insectivorous birds of new south wales,' pt i. p. : "salltoprocta motacilloides, vig. and horsf. `black and white fantail.' `water wagtail.'. . . from this bird's habit of constantly swaying its lengthened tail feathers from side to side it is locally known in many districts as the `willy wagtail.'" wahine, n. maori word for a woman. the i is long. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "having enquired how many (wives) the kings of england had, he laughed heartily at finding they were not so well provided, and repeatedly counted `four wahine' (women) on his fingers." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), p. : "a group of whyenees and piccaninnies." . `otago witness,' dec. , p. , col. : "it is not fit that a daughter of the great tribe should be the slave-wife of the pakeha and the slave of the white wahine." waipiro, n. maori name for spirits,-- literally, stinking water, from piro, stinking, and wai, water. in new zealand geography, the word wai is very common as the first part of many names of harbours, lakes, etc. compare north-american indian fire-water. . w. brown, `new zealand and its inhabitants,' p. : "another native keeps a grog-shop, and sells his waipero, as he says, to hourangi drunken pakehas." . f. maning (pakeha maori), `old new zealand,' p. : "he would go on shore, in spite of every warning, to get some water to mix with his waipiro, and was not his canoe found next day floating about with his paddle and two empty case bottles in it?" . lt.-col. st. john, `pakeha rambles through maori lands,' p. : "when we see a chance of getting at waipiro, we don't stick at trifles." . the warrigal, `picturesque new zealand,' `canterbury weekly press,' march : "the priest was more than epigrammatic when he said that the maoris' love for `waipiro' (strong waters) was stronger than their morals." wairepo, n. maori name for the fish called stingray. wait-a-while, n. also called stay-a-while: a thicket tree. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "acacia colletioides, a. cunn., n.o. leguminosae, `wait-a-while' (a delicate allusion to the predicament of a traveller desirous of penetrating a belt of it)." waka, n. maori word for canoe. waka huia is a box for keeping feathers, originally the feathers of the huia (q.v.). . w. m. baynes, `narrative of edward crewe,' p. : "`whaka' is the native name, or rather the native genetic term, for all canoes, of which there are many different kinds, as tete, pekatu, kopapa, and others answering in variety to our several descriptions of boats, as a `gig,' a `whaleboat,' a `skiff,' a `dingy,' etc." . r. c. barstow, `on the maori canoe,' `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xi. art. iv. p. : "canoes may be divided into four classes; waka-taua or waka-hitau were canoes, fully carved; the waka-tetee, which, generally smaller, had a plain figure-head and stern; waka-tiwai, an ordinary canoe of one piece, and the kopapa or small canoe, usually used for fishing, travelling to cultivation, etc." wakiki, n. shell money of the south sea islands. waler, n. anglo-indian name for an australian horse imported from new south wales into india, especially for the cavalry. afterwards used for any horse brought from australia. . b. a. heywood, `vacation tour at the antipodes,' p. : "horses are exported largely from australia to india even. i have heard men from bengal talk of the `walers,' meaning horses from new south wales." . g. . trevelyan, `dawk bungalow,' p. [yule's `hobson jobson']: "well, young shaver, have you seen the horses? how is the waler's off fore-leg?" . `madras mail,' june [yule's `hobson jobson']: "for sale. a brown waler gelding." . r. kipling, `plain tales from the hills,' p. : "the soul of the regiment lives in the drum-horse who carries the silver kettle-drums. he is nearly always a big piebald waler." . `the melburnian,' aug. , p. : "c. r. gaunt is senior subaltern of the th (royal irish) dragoon guards, at present stationed at rawul pindi in india. he won the regimental cup steeplechase this year on an australian mare of his own. australian horses are called `walers' in india, from the circumstance of their being generally imported from new south wales." walking-leaf, n. see phasmid. walking-stick, n. see phasmid. walking-stick palm, n. see under palm. wallaby, n. a name used for the smaller kinds of kangaroos of the genus macropus (q.v.), formerly classed as halmaturus. an aboriginal word. see collins, , below. (wolbai, in the kabi dialect of south queensland, means a young creature.) also spelt walloby, wallabee, and wallobi. as in the case of kangaroo (q.v.), the plural is a little uncertain, wallaby or wallabies. some of them are sometimes called brush-kangaroos (q.v.). the following are the species-- agile wallaby-- macropus agilis, gould. aru island w.-- m. brunnii, schraeber. black-gloved w.-- m. irma, jourd. black-striped w.-- m. dorsalis, gray. black-tailed w.-- m. ualabatus, less. and garm. branded w.-- m. stigmaticus, gould. cape york w.-- m. coxeni, gray. dama w.-- m. eugenii, desm. pademelon-- m. thetidis, less. parma w.-- m. parma , waterh. parry's w.-- m. parryi, bennett. red-legged w.-- m. wilcoxi, mccoy. red-necked w., grey's w.-- m. ruficollis, desm. rufous-bellied w.-- m. billardieri, desm. short-tailed w.-- m. brachyurus, quoy and gaim. sombre w.-- m. brownii, ramsay. in addition, there are six species of rock-wallaby (q.v.), genus petrogale (q.v.). see also paddymelon. three species of nail-tailed wallabies, genus onychogale (q.v.), are confined to australia. they are the nail-tailed wallaby, onychogale unguifera, gould; bridled w., o. frenata, gould; crescent w., o. lunata, gould. three species of hare-wallabies (genus lagorchestes, q.v.), confined to australia, are the spectacled hare-wallaby, lagorchestes conspiculatus, gould; common h. w., l. leporoides, gould; rufous h. w., l. hirsutus, gould. one species, called the banded-wallaby (genus, lagostrophus, q.v.), confined to western australia, is l. fasciatus, peron and less. for etymology, see wallaroo. . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. [vocabulary]: "wal-li-bah--a black kangaroo." . r. dawson' `present state of australia,' p. : "in the long coarse grass with which these flats are always covered, a species of small kangaroo is usually found, which the natives call the `wallaby.' their colour is darker than that of the forest kangaroo, approaching almost to that of a fox, and they seat themselves in the grass like a hare or a rabbit." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the wallabee is not very common." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. : "the wallaby are numerous on this part of the island." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "rock wallabies were very numerous." ibid. c. xii. p. : "they returned with only a red wallabi (halmaturus agilis)." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "the rock wallaby, or badger, also belongs to the family of the kangaroo; its length from the nose to the end of the tail is three feet; the colour of the fur being grey-brown." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "sipping doubtfully, but soon swallowing with relish, a plate of wallabi-tail soup." . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `history of the discovery and exploration of australia,' vol. ii. p. : "eyre succeeded in shooting a fine wallaby." [note]: "a small kind of kangaroo, inhabiting the scrub." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' c. vii. p. : "i have also been frowned upon by bright eyes because i could not eat stewed wallabi. now the wallabi is a little kangaroo, and to my taste it is not nice to eat even when stewed to the utmost with wine and spices." . garnet watch, `victoria in ,' p. : "to hear . . . that wallabies are `the women of the native race' cannot but be disconcerting to the well-regulated colonial mind." [he adds a footnote]: "it is on record that a journalistically fostered impression once prevailed, to high english circles, to the effect that a certain colonial governor exhibited immoral tendencies by living on an island in the midst of a number of favourite wallabies, whom he was known frequently to caress." x. a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "now one hears the pat-pat-pat of a wallaby." . j. b. stephens, `to a black gin,' p. : "of tons of 'baccy, and tons more to follow,-- of wallaby as much as thou could'st swallow,-- of hollow trees, with 'possums in the hollow." . j. a. froude, `oceana,' p. : "my two companions . . . went off with the keeper [sic] to shoot wallaby. sir george (grey) has a paternal affection for all his creatures, and hates to have them killed. but the wallaby multiply so fast that the sheep cannot live for them, and several thousands have to be destroyed annually." . sir c. gavan duffy, in the `contemporary review,' vol. liii. p. : "`morality!' exclaimed the colonist. `what does your lordship suppose a wallaby to be?' `why, a half-caste, of course.' `a wallaby, my lord, is a dwarf kangaroo!'" wallaby-bush, n. a tall shrub or tree, beyeria viscosa, miq., n.o. euphorbiaceae. same as the pinkwood of tasmania. wallaby-grass, n. an australian grass, danthonia penicillata, f. v. m., n.o. gramineae. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "`wallaby grass.' this perennial artificial grass is useful for mixed pasture." wallaby-skin, the skin, with the hair on it, of the wallaby, prized as a warm and ornamental fur for rugs. . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "a quantity of hair, a wallaby-skin rug. wallaby track, on the, or on the wallaby, or out on the wallaby, or simply wallaby, as adj. [slang]. tramping the country on foot, looking for work. often in the bush the only perceptible tracks, and sometimes the only tracks by which the scrub can be penetrated, are the tracks worn down by the wallaby, as a hare tramples its "form." these tracks may lead to water or they may be aimless and rambling. thus the man "on the wallaby" may be looking for food or for work, or aimlessly wandering by day and getting food and shelter as a sundowner (q.v.) at night. . marcus clarke, `peripatetic philosopher' (reprint), p. : "the wimmera district is noted for the hordes of vagabond `loafers' that it supports, and has earned for itself the name of `the feeding track.' i remember an old bush ditty, which i have heard sung when i was on the `wallaby.' . . . at the station where i worked for some time (as `knockabout man') three cooks were kept during the `wallaby' season--one for the house, one for the men, and one for the travellers." . rolf boldrewood, `a colonial reformer,' p. : "`what is the meaning of `out on the wallaby'?' asked ernest. `well, it's bush slang, sir, for men just as you or i might be now, looking for work or something to eat; if we can't get work, living on the country, till things turn round a little.'" ibid. p. : "our friends who pursue the ever-lengthening but not arduous track of the wallaby in australia." . gilbert parker, `pierre and his people,' p. : "the wallaby track? that's the name in australia for trampin' west, through the plains of the never never country, lookin' for the luck o' the world." . longmans' `notes on books' (may ), p. : "`on the wallaby: a book of travel and adventure.' `on the wallaby' is an australianism for `on the march,' and it is usually applied to persons tramping the bush in search of employment." . jennings carmichael, in `australasian,' dec. , p. , col. : "a `wallaby' christmas, jack, old man!-- well, a worse fate might befall us! the bush must do for our church to-day, and birds be the bells to call us. the breeze that comes from the shore beyond, thro' the old gum-branches swinging, will do for our solemn organ chords, and the sound of children singing." . h. lawson, `when the world was wide,' p. : "though joys of which the poet rhymes was not for bill an' me i think we had some good old times out on the wallaby." wallaroo, n. native name for a large species of kangaroo, the mountain kangaroo, macropus robustus, gould. the black variety of queensland and new south wales is called locally the wallaroo, the name euro being given in south and central australia to the more rufous- coloured variety of the same species. in the aboriginal language, the word walla meant `to jump,' and walla-walla `to jump quickly.' . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i.: "the wallaroo, of a blackish colour, with coarse shaggy fur, inhabiting the hills." . c. p. hodgson, `reminiscences of australia,' p. : "some very fierce and ready to attack man, such as the large mountain `wolloroo.'" . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "charley shot a wallooroo just as it was leaping, frightened by our footsteps, out of its shady retreat to a pointed rock." [on p. , leichhardt spells wallurus, plural] . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "the wallaroos grope through the tufts of the grass." (before). c. harpur, `creek of the four graves'(edition ), p. : "up the steep, between the climbing forest-growths they saw, perched on the bare abutments of the hills, where haply yet some lingering gleam fell through, the wallaroo look forth." [footnote]: "a kind of large kangaroo, peculiar to the higher and more difficult mountains." . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "a wallaroo, a peculiar kind of kangaroo (macropus robustus), which was kept tame at a station, showed a marked fondness for animal food, particularly for boiled salt beef. a dove had been its companion, and these two animals were the best of friends for half-a-year, when the wallaroo one day killed its companion and partly ate it." . `the australasian,' june , , col. [answers to correspondents]: "professor baldwin spencer kindly deals with the question as follows:--what is the distinction between a wallaroo and a wallaby?--a wallaroo is a special form of kangaroo (macropus robustus) living in the inland parts of queensland and new south wales. wallaby is the name given to several kinds of smaller kangaroos, such as the common scrub wallaby (macropus ualabatus) of victoria. the wallaroo is stouter and heavier in build, its fur thicker and coarser, and the structure of its skull is different from that of an ordinary wallaby." wallflower, native, n. a tasmanian name for pultenaea subumbellata, hook., n.o. leguminosae. in australia, used as another name for one of the poison- bushes (q-v.). wandoo, n. western australian aboriginal word for the white gum-tree of western australia, eucalyptus redunca, schauer, n.o. myrtaceae. it has a trunk sometimes attaining seventeen feet in diameter, and yields a hard durable wood highly prized by wheelwrights. waratah, n. an australian flower. there are three species, belonging to the genus telopea, n.o. proteaceae. the new south wales species, t. speciosissima, r. br., forms a small shrub growing on hill-sides, as does also the tasmanian species, t. truncata, r. br.; the victorian species, t. oreades, f. v. m., called the gippsland waratah, grows to a height of fifty feet. it has a bright crimson flower about three inches in diameter, very regular. sometimes called the australian or native tulip. as emblematic of australia, it figures on certain of the new south wales stamps and postcards. the generic name, telopea (q.v.), has been corrupted into tulip (q.v.). its earliest scientific generic name was embothrium, smith. . e. smith, `specimen of botany of new holland,' p. : "the most magnificent plant which the prolific soil of new holland affords is, by common consent both of europeans and natives, the waratah." . governor king, in `historical records of new south wales' ( ), vol, iv. p. (a letter to sir joseph banks): "i have also sent in the albion a box of waratahs, and the earth is secured with the seed." . d. collins, `account of new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "bennillong assisted, placing the head of the corpse, near which he stuck a beautiful war-ra-taw." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : [description, but not the name.] "a plant called the gigantic lily also flourishes on the tops of these mountains, in all its glory. its stems, which are jointy, are sometimes as large as a man's wrist, and ten feet high, with a pink and scarlet flower at the top, which when in full blossom (as it then was) is nearly the size of a small spring cabbage." . `hobart town almanack,' p. : "interspersed with that magnificent shrub called warratah or tulip-tree, and its beautiful scarlet flowers." . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "the most common of them was, however, the telopia [sic] tasmaniensis, or waratah, or scarlet tulip tree, as it has been occasionally termed by stock-keepers." . j. s. moore, `spring life lyrics,' p. : "the lily pale and waratah bright shall encircle your shining hair." . d. b. w. sladen, `poetry of exiles': "and waratah, with flame-hued royal crown, proclaim the beauties round australia's own." . wanderer, `beauteous terrorist,' etc., p. : "and the waratahs in state, with their queenly heads elate, and their flamy blood-red crowns, and their stiff-frill'd emerald gowns." . d. macdonald, i gum boughs,' p. : "outside the tropical queensland forests, the scarlet flowering gum of western australia, and the waratah, of blue mountains fame, are its [i.e. the wattle's] only rivals." . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. , col. : "the memory of many residents runs back to the time when the waratah and the christmas-bush, the native rose and fuchsia, grew where thickly-peopled suburbs now exist. . . . the waratah recedes yearly." . `sydney morning herald,' sept. , p. , col. : "the wattles and waratahs are creditable instances of the value of our australian flowers for art purposes, and the efforts of the artists to win recognition for their adaptability as subjects for the artist's brush are deserving of acknowledgment." warbler, n. this english birdname is applied loosely to many birds of different genera in australia and new zealand. the majority of the australian warblers have now had other names assigned to them. (see fly-eater and gerygone.) the name has been retained in australia for the following species-- grass warbler-- cisticola exilis, lath. grey w.-- gerygone flaviventris, gray. long-billed reed w.-- calamoherpe longirostris, gould. reed w.-- acrocephalus australis, gould. rock w.-- origma rubricata, lath. in new zealand, it is now only specifically applied to the-- bush warbler-- gerygone silvestris, potts. chatham island w.-- g. albofrontata, gray. grey w.-- g. flaviventris, gray; maori name, riro-riro. . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,'. : "grey warbler (gerygone flaviventris) also belongs to an australian genus. it is remarkable for its curious and beautifully formed nest, and as being the foster-parent to the longtailed cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the warbler's nest." warden, n. the term is applied specifically to the government officer, with magisterial and executive powers, in charge of a goldfield. . mrs. meredith, `over the straits,' c. iv. p. : "the chief official in a digging settlement, the padra [sic] of the district, is entitled the warden." warehou, n. maori name for the fish neptonemus brama, gunth., called snotgall-trevally in tasmania, and called also sea-bream. see trevally. warrener, n. a name applied by tasmanian children to the larger specimens of the shells called mariners (q.v.). the name is an adaptation, by the law of hobson-jobson, from a tasmanian aboriginal word, yawarrenah, given by milligan (`vocabulary,' ), as used by tribes, from oyster bay to pittwater, for the ear-shell (haliotis). the name has thus passed from shell to shell, and in its english application has passed on also to the marine shell, turbo undulatus. warrigal, n. and adj. an aboriginal word, originally meaning a dog. afterwards extended as an adjective to mean wild; then used for a wild horse, wild natives, and in bush-slang for a worthless man. the following five quotations from vocabularies prove the early meaning of the word in the port jackson district, and its varying uses at later dates elsewhere. . governor hunter, `port jackson,' p. : "warregal--a large dog." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. [vocab.]: "wor-re-gal--dog." . d. bunce, `language of aborigines of victoria,' p. : "ferocious, savage, wild--warragul." (adj.) ibid. p. : "wild savage--worragal." (noun.) . wyatt, `manners of adelaide tribes,' p. : "warroo=wild." the quotations which follow are classed under the different meanings borne by the word. ( ) a wild dog. . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' p. : "i have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog, does not hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal." . j. holdsworth, `station hunting': "to scoop its grassless grave past reach of kites and prowling warrigals." . `illustrated australian news,' march : [a picture of two dingoes, and beneath them the following quotation from kendall--]: "the warrigal's lair is pent in bare black rocks, at the gorge's mouth." . `australian ballads and rhymes' (edition sladen),, p. : "the following little poem, entitled `the warrigal' (wild dog) will prove that he (h. kendall) observed animal life as faithfully as still life and landscape: `the sad marsh-fowl and the lonely owl are heard in the fog-wreath's grey, where the warrigal wakes, and listens and takes to the woods that shelter the prey.'" . g. a. sala, in `the argus,' sept. , p. , col. : "but at present warrigal means a wild dog." . j. b. o`hara, `songs of the south,' p. : "there, night by night, i heard the call the inharmonious warrigal made, when the darkness swiftly drew its curtains o'er the starry blue." ( ) a horse. . `the australasian,' may , p. , col. ["how we ran in `the black warragal'": ernest g. millard, bimbowrie, south australia]: "you must let me have topsail today, boss,. if we're going for that warrigal mob." . gilbert parker, `round the compass in australia,' p. : "six wild horses--warrigals or brombies, as they are called--have been driven down, corralled, and caught. they have fed on the leaves of the myall and stray bits of salt-bush. after a time they are got within the traces. they are all young, and they look not so bad." . `the argus, `june , p. , col. : "mike will fret himself to death in a stable, and maybe kill the groom. mike's a warrigal he is." ( ) applied to aborigines. [see bunce quotation, .] . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. xii. p. : "he's a good shot, and these warrigal devils know it." . private letter from station near palmerville, north queensland: "warrigal. in this cook district, and i believe in many others, a blackfellow who has broken any of the most stringent tribal laws, which renders him liable to be killed on sight by certain other blacks, is warri, an outlaw." ( ) as adjective meaning wild. . rolf boldrewood, `colonial reformer,' c. viii. p. : "here's a real good wholesome cabbage--warrigal cabbage the shepherds call it." warrina, n. see warrener. washdirt, n. any alluvial deposit from which gold is obtained by washing; or "the auriferous gravel, sand, clay, or cement, in which the greatest proportion of gold is found." (brough smyth's `glossary,' .) often called dirt (q.v.). . `melbourne argus,' april , p. , col. : "in colour the washdirt is of a browner and more iron-stained appearance than the white free wash met across the creek." waterbush, n. an australian tree, i.q. native daphne. see daphne. watergrass, n. a tasmanian name for manna grass, poa fluitans, scop., n.o. gramineae. water-gum, n. see gum. water-hole, n. the word pond is seldom used in australia. any pond, natural or artificial, is called a water-hole. the word also denotes a depression or cavity in the bed of an intermittent river, which remains full during the summer when the river itself is dry. . c. sturt, `southern australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. : "there was no smoke to betray a water-hole." . s. sidney, `three colonies of australia,' p. : "the deep pools, called colonially `water-holes.'" . f. j. jobson, `australia,' c. vii. p. : "`water-holes' appeared at intervals, but they seemed to have little water in them." . j. mcdouall stuart, `explorations in australia,' p. : "about four miles from last night's camp the chain of large water-holes commences, and continues beyond tonight's camp." . wood and lapham, `waiting for the mail,' p. : "the water-hole was frozen over, so she was obliged to go on farther, where the water ran." . `spectator' (melbourne), june , p. , col. : "a bottomless water-hole, about feet wide, exists at maryvale homestead, gipps land." . mrs. h. jones, `broad outlines of long years in australia,' p. : "`that will be another water-hole.' `what an ugly word . . . why don't you call them pools or ponds?' `i can't tell you why they bear such a name, but we never call them anything else, and if you begin to talk of pools or ponds you'll get well laughed at.'" . `the argus,' march , p. , col. : [the murderer] has not since been heard of. dams and waterholes have been dragged . . . but without result." water-lily. see lily. water-mole, i.q. platypus (q.v.). water-myrtle, an australian tree, tristania neriifolia, r. br., n.o. myrtaceae. water-tree, n. a tree from which water is obtained by tapping the roots, hakea leucoptera, r. br., n.o. proteaceae; called also needle-bush. the quotation describes the process, but does not name the tree. . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' p. : "i expressed my thirst and want of water. looking as if they understood me, they [the aboriginals] hastened to resume their work, and i discovered that they dug up the roots for the sake of drinking the sap . . . they first cut these roots into billets, and then stripped off the bark or rind, which they sometimes chew, after which, holding up the billet, and applying one end to the mouth, they let the juice drop into it." wattle, n. the name is given to very many of the various species of acacia (q.v.), of which there are about in australia, besides those in tasmania and new zealand. there is no english tree of that name, but the english word, which is common, signifies "a twig, a flexible rod, usually a hurdle; . . . the original sense is something twined or woven together; hence it came to mean a hurdle, woven with twigs; anglo-saxon, watel, a hurdle." (skeat.) in england the supple twigs of the osier-willow are used for making such hurdles. the early colonists found the long pliant boughs and shoots of the indigenous acacias a ready substitute for the purpose, and they used them for constructing the partitions and outer-walls of the early houses, by forming a "wattling" and daubing it with plaster or clay. (see wattle-and-dab.) the trees thus received the name of wattle-trees, quickly contracted to wattle. owing to its beautiful, golden, sweet-scented clusters of flowers, the wattle is the favourite tree of the australian poets and painters. the bark is very rich in tannin. (see wattle-bark.) the tree was formerly called mimosa (q.v.). the following list of vernacular names of the various wattles is compiled from maiden's `useful native plants'; it will be seen that the same vernacular name is sometimes applied to several different species-- black wattle-- acacia binervata, de c., of illawarra and south. a. decurrens, willd., older colonists of new south wales. a. cunninghamii, hook. a. nervifolia, cunn. broad-leaved w.-- a. pycnantha, benth. broom w.-- a. calamifolia, sweet. feathery w.-- a. decurrens, willd. golden w. (q.v.)-- a. pycnantha, benth.; in victoria, south australia, and tasmania. it is also called green wattle, and also, for the sake of distinction between some other tan-bark wattles, the broad-leaved wattle. a. longifolia, willd.; in new south wales and queensland. green w.-- a. decurrens, willd., older colonists new south wales. a. pycnantha, benth. a. discolor, willd.; so called in tasmania, and called also there river wattle. hickory w.-- a. aulacocarpa, cunn. prickly w.-- a. sentis, f. v. m. a. juniperina, willd. silver w.-- a. dealbata, link. silver wattle, owing to the whiteness of the trunk, and the silvery or ashy hue of its young foliage. a. decurrens, willd. a. melanoxylon, r. br. (blackwood). a. podalyriafolia, cunn.; called silver wattle, as it has foliage of a more or less grey, mealy, or silvery appearance. weeping w.-- a. saligna, wendl. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the acacias are the common wattles of this country, their bark affording excellent tan, as well as an extract to export to england; while from their trunks and branches clear transparent beads of the purest arabian gum are seen suspended in the dry spring weather, which our young currency bantlings eagerly search after and regale themselves with." . vigors and horsfield, `transactions of linnaean society,' vol. xv. p. : "one of my specimens . . . i shot in a green wattle-tree close to government house." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' c. ii. p. : "the black and silver wattle (the mimosa), are trees used in housework and furniture." . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "leptospermum lanigerum, hoary tea-tree, acacia decurrens, and black wattle; corraea alba, cape barren tea. the leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in the colonies." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. ii. c. iv. p. : "black wattle . . . indication of good soil . . . produce gum." . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in .' p. : "few, indeed, of the native australian flowers emit any perfume except the golden and silver wattle (the mimosae tribe): these charm the senses, and fully realize the description we read of in the `arabian nights' entertainments' of those exotics, the balmy perfume of which is exhaled far and near." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "these trees were termed `wattles,' from being used, in the early days of the colony, for forming a network or wattling of the supple twigs for the reception of the plaster in the partitions of the houses." . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "silver wattle (acacia dealbata, lindl.), so called from the whiteness of the trunk and the silvery green of the foliage." . g. t. lloyd, `twenty-three years in tasmania and victoria,' p. : "the mimosa, or wattle, . . . ushers in the spring with its countless acres of charming and luxuriant yellow and highly scented blossom . . . the tanning properties of its bark are nearly equal in value to those of the english oak." . a. g. middleton, `earnest,' p. : "the maidens were with golden wattles crowned." . f. v. mueller, `botanic teachings,' p. : "the generic name [acacia] is so familiarly known, that the appellation `wattle' might well be dispensed with. indeed the name acacia is in full use in works on travels and in many popular writings for the numerous australian species." . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "called `silver wattle.' the bark, which is used for tanning, is said to give a light colour to leather; value, l s. per ton." . h. finch-hatton, `advance australia,' p. : "a dense clump of wattles, a sort of mimosa--tall, feathery, graceful trees, with leaves like a willow and sweet-scented yellow flowers." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "the ordinary name for species of the genus acacia in the colonies is `wattle.' the name is an old english one, and signifies the interlacing of boughs together to form a kind of wicker-work. the aboriginals used them in the construction of their abodes, and the early colonists used to split the stems of slender species into laths for `wattling' the walls of their rude habitations." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "it pleased him yearly to see the fluffy yellow balls bedeck his favourite trees. one would have said in the morning that a shower of golden shot had bespangled them in the night-time. late in the autumn, too, an adventurous wattle would sometimes put forth some semi-gilded sprays--but sparsely, as if under protest." . j. b. o`hara, `songs of the south' (second series), p. : "yet the spring shed blossoms around the ruin, the pale pink hues of the wild briar rose, the wild rose wasted by winds that blew in the wattle bloom that the sun-god knows." wattle-and-dab, a rough mode of architecture, very common in australia at an early date. the phrase and its meaning are old english. it was originally wattle-and-daub. the style, but not the word, is described in the quotation from governor phillip, . . governor phillip, `voyage to botany bay,' p. : "the huts of the convicts were still more slight, being composed only of upright posts, wattled with slight twigs, and plaistered up with clay." . ross, `hobart town almanack,' p. : "wattle and daub. . . . you then bring home from the bush as many sods of the black or green wattle (acacia decurrens or affinis) as you think will suffice. these are platted or intertwined with the upright posts in the manner of hurdles, and afterwards daubed with mortar made of sand or loam, and clay mixed up with a due proportion of the strong wiry grass of the bush chopped into convenient lengths and well beaten up with it, as a substitute for hair." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "the hut of the labourer was usually formed of plaited twigs or young branches plastered over with mud, and known by the summary definition of `wattle and dab.'" . mrs. meredith, `my home in tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "wattles, so named originally, i conceive, from several of the genus being much used for `wattling' fences or huts. a `wattle and dab' but is formed, in a somewhat robinson crusoe style, of stout stakes driven well into the ground, and thickly interlaced with the tough, lithe wattle-branches, so as to make a strong basket-work, which is then dabbed and plastered over on both sides with tenacious clay mortar, and finally thatched." . w. j. barry, `up and down,' p. : "it was built of what is known as `wattle and dab,' or poles and mud, and roofed with the bark of the gum-tree." . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting,' p. : "others were of weather boards, wattle and dab, or slabs." wattle-bark, n. the bark of the wattle; much used in tanning, and forms a staple export. . `spectator' (melbourne), aug. , p. col. : "a proprietor of land at mount gambier has refused l for the wattle-bark on his estate." . [? exact date lost.] `melbourne punch': "what'll bark? why, a dog'll." . f. m. bailey, `synopsis of queensland flora,' p. : "the bark of this species is used in tanning light skins, but the bark is considered weak in tannin, and only worth thirty shillings per ton in queensland. called `black-wattle bark.'" . `melbourne stock and station journal,' may [advt.]: "bark.--there is a moderate inquiry for good descriptions, but faulty are almost unsaleable:--bundled black wattle, superior, l to l per ton; do. do., average, l to l s. per ton; chopped black wattle, l to l s. per ton; ground, approved brands, up to l per ton; do., average, l to l per ton." . `the leader,' a weekly column: "kennel gossip. by wattle bark." wattled bee-eater. see bee-eater. wattle-bird, n. an australian bird, so called from the wattles or fleshy appendages hanging to his ear. in the yellow species they are an inch long. the species are-- brush wattle-bird-- anelobia mellivora, lath. little w.-- a. lunulata, gould. red w.-- acanthochaera carunculata, lath. yellow w.-- a. inauris, gould. the earlier scientific names occur in the quotation, . in new zealand, the kokako (q.v.) is also called a wattle-bird, and the name used to be applied to the tui (q.v.). . w. c. wentworth, `description of new south wales,' p. : "the wattle-bird, which is about the size of a snipe, and considered a very great delicacy." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv.: "anthochaera inauris, wattled honey-eater; wattled bird of the colonists of van diemen's land" (pl. ). "a. carunculata, wattled bird of the colonists; the merops carunculatus of older writers "(pl. ). "a. mellivora, vig. and horsf., bush wattle bird" (pl. ). "a. lunulata, gould, little wattle bird, colonists of swan river" (pl. ). . w. howitt, `tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. : "kangaroo-steaks frying on the fire, with a piece of cold beef, and a wattle-bird pie also ready on the board." . d. bunce, `australasiatic reminiscences,' p. : "the notes peculiar to the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, or platypus, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old soldier bird, added in no small degree to the novelties. . . . the wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's o'clock,'--the leather-head the `stop-where-you-are.'" . e. f. hughes, `portland bay,' p. : "tedious whistle of the wattle-bird." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia, vol. i. p. : "this bird they called the wattle-bird, and also the poy-bird, from its having little tufts of curled hair under its throat, which they called poies, from the otaheitan word for ear-rings. the sweetness of this bird's note they described as extraordinary, and that its flesh was delicious, but that it was a shame to kill it." . j. hood, `land of fern,' p. : "the wattle-bird, with joyous scream bathes her soft plumage in the cooling stream." . t. bracken, `behind the tomb,' p. : "the wattle-bird sings in the leafy plantation." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. : "the pretty, graceful wattle-birds are . . . much esteemed for the table, cooked as snipe and woodcocks are in england . . . our pretty, elegant wattle-bird wears a pair of long pendant drops, shaded from the deepest amber to white, lovelier than any goldsmith's work. its greyish plumage, too, is very beautiful; the feathers on the breast are long, pointed, and tinted with golden yellow." . tasma, `in her earliest youth,' p. : "the droll double note of the wattle-bird." . `victorian statutes-game act' (third schedule): "close season. all honey-eaters (except wattle-birds and leatherheads); from st day of august to loth day of december." wattle-gold, n. poetic name for the blossom of the wattle. . a. l. gordon, `bush ballads, dedn., p. : "in the spring, when the wattle-gold trembles `twixt shadow and shine." . keighley, `who are you?' p. : "my wealth has gone, like the wattle-gold you bound one day on my childish brow." wattle-gum, n. the gum exuding from the wattles. . w. archer, `products of tasmania,' p. : "wattle-gum, the gum of the silver wattle (acacia dealbata, lindl.), is exceedingly viscous, and probably quite as useful as gum-arabic. the gum of the black wattle (acacia mollissima, willd.), which is often mixed with the other, is very often inferior to it, being far less viscous." wax-cluster, n. an australian shrub, gaultheria hispida, r. br., n.o. ericaceae. a congener of the english winter-green, or american checkerberry, with white berries, in taste resembling gooseberries; called also chucky-chucky (q.v.), and native arbutus. . ross, `van diemen's land annual,' p. : "gaultheria hispida. the wax-cluster, abundant in the middle region of mount wellington, and in other elevated and moist situations in the colony. this fruit is formed by the thickened divisions of the calyx, enclosing the small seed vessel; when it is ripe it is of a snowy white. the flavour is difficult to describe, but it is not unpleasant. in tarts the taste is something like that of young gooseberries, with a slight degree of bitterness." . mrs. meredith, `tasmanian friends and foes,' p. [footnote]: "gaultheria hispida.--the `snowberry' or `wax cluster' is also called native arbutus, from the form of the white flowers which precede the fruit. the latter is of a peculiar brioche-like form, and as the deep clefts open, the crimson seed-cells peep through." wax-eye, i.q. one of the many names for the bird called silver-eye, white-eye, blight-bird, etc. see zosterops. waybung, n. aboriginal name for an australian chough, corcorax melanoramphus, vieill. weaver-bird, n. the english name weaver-bird, in its present broad sense as applied to a wide variety of birds, is modern. it alludes to their dexterity in "weaving" their nests. it is applied in australia to callornis metallica, a kind of starling. . c. lumholtz, `among cannibals,' p. : "the elegant, metallic-looking, `glossy starlings' (callornis metallica) greedily swoop, with a horrible shriek, upon the fruit of the australian cardamom tree. the ingenious nests of this bird were found in the scrubs near herbert vale--a great many in the same tree. although this bird is a starling, the colonists call it `weaver-bird.'" wedge-bill, n. an australian bird. this english name for a species of humming-bird is applied in australia to sphenostoma cristata, gould. . `victorian statutes--game act' (third schedule): "wedge-bill. [close season.] from st day of august to th day of december next following in each year." weeping-gum. see gum. weeping-myall, n. an australian tree, acacia pendula, cunn., n.o. leguminosae. see myall. weka, n. the maori name for the wood-hen (q.v.) of new zealand, so called from its note. there are two species-- south-island weka, or wood-hen-- ocydromus australis, strick. north-island w., or w.-h.-- ocydromus brachypterus, buller. the specimens intergrade to such an extent that precise limitation of species is extremely difficult; but sir w. l. buller set them out as these two in , regarding other specimens as varieties. the birds are sometimes called weka-rails, and the maori name of weka-pango is given to the black wood-hen ( . fuscus, du bus.). . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "two young weka, or wood-hens, about as large as sparrows . . . were esteemed a valuable addition to our scanty supper." . r. l. a. davies, `poems and literary remains' (edition ), p. : "wood-hens, or waikas, are a great stand-by in the bush. their cry can be imitated, and a man knowing their language and character can catch them easily. they call each other by name, pronounced `weeka,' latter syllable being shrill and prolonged, an octave higher than the first note. . . . the wood-hen is about the size of a common barn-door fowl; its character is cunning, yet more fierce than cunning, and more inquisitive than either." . lady barker, `station life in new zealand,' p. : "until the numbers of the wekas are considerably reduced. they are very like a hen pheasant without the long tail-feathers, and until you examine them you cannot tell they have no wings, though there is a sort of small pinion among the feathers, with a claw at the end of it. they run very swiftly, availing themselves cleverly of the least bit of cover." . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "another famous bird of chase with the natives is the weka (ocydromus australis), or the wood-hen, belonging to the class of rails, which have already become quite scarce upon north island. in the grassy plains and forests of the southern alps, however, they are still found in considerable numbers. it is a thievish bird, greedy after everything that glistens; it frequently carries off spoons, forks, and the like, but it also breaks into hen-coops, and picks and sucks the eggs." . t. h. potts, `out in the open,' p. : "fortunately, the weka bears so obnoxious a character as an evil-doer that any qualm of conscience on the score of cruelty is at once stilled when one of these feathered professors of diablerie is laid to rest." . w. l. buller, `birds of new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : [a full description.] . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby,' p. : "we-ki! we-ki! we-ka! three times the plaintive cry of the `wood-hen' was heard. it was a preconcerted signal." weka, rail, n. see weka. well-in, adj. answering to `well off,' `well to do,' `wealthy'; and ordinarily used, in australia, instead of these expressions. . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "he's a well-in squatter that took up runs or bought them cheap before free-selection, and land-boards, and rabbits, and all the other bothers that turn a chap's hair grey before his time." western australia, the part of the continent first sighted in by a portuguese, and the last to receive responsible government, in . it had been made a crown colony in . westralia, n. a common abbreviation for western australia (q.v.). the word was coined to meet the necessities of the submarine cable regulations, which confine messages to words containing not more than ten letters. . `the studio,' oct., p. : "the latest example is the el dorado of western australia, or as she is beginning to be more generally called `westralia,' a name originally invented by the necessity of the electric cable, which limits words to ten letters, or else charges double rate." . `nineteenth century,' nov., p. [title of article]: "the westralian mining boom." weta, n. maori name for a new zealand insect-- a huge, ugly grasshopper, deinacrula megacephala, called by bushmen the sawyer. . c. hursthouse, `new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the weta, a suspicious-looking, scorpion-like creature, apparently replete with `high concocted venom,' but perfectly harmless." . s. butler, `first year in canterbury settlement,' p. : "one of the ugliest-looking creatures that i have ever seen. it is called `weta,' and is of tawny scorpion-like colour, with long antenna and great eyes, and nasty squashy-looking body, with (i think) six legs. it is a kind of animal which no one would wish to touch: if touched, it will bite sharply, some say venomously. it is very common but not often seen, and lives chiefly among dead wood and under stones." . j. adams, `on the botany of te moehau,' `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xxi. art. ii. p. : "not a sound was heard in that lonely forest, except at long intervals the sharp noise produced by the weta." w. f.'s, old tasmanian term for wild cattle. . james fenton, `bush life in tasmania fifty years ago,' p. : "round up a mob of the wildest w.f.'s that ever had their ears slit." [note]: "this was the brand on mr. william field's wild cattle." whalebone-tree, n. i.q. mint-tree (q.v.). whaler, n. used specifically as slang for a sundowner (q.v.); one who cruises about. . `sydney morning herald,' aug. , p. . col. : "the nomad, the `whaler,' it is who will find the new order hostile to his vested interest of doing nothing." whaler/ , n. name given in sydney to the shark, carcharias brachyurus, gunth., which is not confined to australasia. whare, n. maori word for a house; a dissyllable, variously spelt, rhyming with `quarry.' it is often quaintly joined with english words; e.g. a sod-whare, a cottage built with sods. in a maori vocabulary, the following are given: whare-kingi, a castle; whare-karakia, a church; whare-here, the lock-up. . `grammar and vocabulary of language of new zealand' (church missionary society), p. : "ware, s. a house, a covering." . `henry williams' journal: carleton's life,' p. : "the europeans who were near us in a raupo whare (rush house)." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "we were much amused at seeing the ware-puni, or sleeping- houses, of the natives. these are exceedingly low, and covered with earth, on which weeds very often grow. they resemble in shape and size a hot-bed with the glass off." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes,' c. x. p. (third edition, ): "sitting in the sun at the mouth of his warree, smoking his pipe." . w. golder, `pigeons' parliament,' [notes] p. : "i fell upon what i thought a good place on which to fix my warre, or bush-cottage." . `paul's letters from canterbury,' p. : "then pitch your tent, or run up a couple of grass warres somewhat bigger than dog-kennels." . c. l. money, `knocking about in new zealand,' p. : "the old slab wharry." ibid. p. : "the village was sacked and the wharries one after another set fire to and burnt.'" . anon., `colonial experiences or incidents of thirty-four years in new zealand,' p. : "in the roughest colonial whare there is generally one or more places fitted up called bunks." . r. c. barstow, `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xv. art. liii. p. : "raupo whares were put up." . `cornhill magazine,' jan., p. : "ten minutes more brought us to my friend's `whare,'--the maori name for house." . `otago witness,' jan. , p. : "the pas close at hand give up their population,--only the blind, the sick, and the imbecile being left to guard the grimy, smoke-dried whares." whata, n. maori word for a storehouse on posts or other supports, like a pataka (q.v.). futtah (q.v.) is a corruption, probably of irish origin. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "in one corner was a ware-puni, occupied by barrett and his family, and in the middle a wata, or `storehouse,' stuck upon four poles about six feet high, and only approachable by a wooden log with steps cut in it." . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "a chief would not pass under a stage or wata (a food-store)." ibid. p. : "wata, stand or raised platform for food: fata, tahaiti." [also an illustration, "an ornamental food-store," p. .] . rev. j. stack, `report of australasian association for advancement of science,' #g. vol. iii. p. : "the men gathered the food and stored it in whatas or store- rooms, which were attached to every chief's compound, and built on tall posts protect the contents from damp and rats." whau, n. maori name for the new zealand cork-tree, entelea arborescens, r. br., n.o. tiliaceae. whee-whee, n. a bird not identified. . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "in the morning the dull monotonous double note of the whee-whee (so named from the sound of its calls), chiming in at regular intervals as the tick of a clock, warns us . . . it is but half an hour to dawn." whekau, n. maori name for the bird sceloglaux albifacies, gray, a new zealand owl, which is there called the laughing-jackass. see jackass. . j. gould, `birds of australia' [supplement]: "sceloglaux albifacies, wekau. another of the strange inhabitants of our antipodal country, new zealand. an owl it unquestionably is, but how widely does it differ from every other member of its family." . a. reischek, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. art. xiii. p. : "athene albifacies, laughing owl (whekau). owls are more useful than destructive, but this species i never saw in the north or out-lying islands, and in the south it is extremely rare, and preys mostly on rats." . `transactions of the new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. p. : "already several species have disappeared from the mainland . . . or are extremely rare, such as . . . laughing owl (whekau)." whelk, or native whelk, n. a marine mollusc, trochocochlea constricta. see perriwinkle. whilpra, n. see quotation, and compare the maori word tupara (q.v.) . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kumai,' p. : "the term whilpra being a corruption of wheelbarrow, which the lake torrens natives have acquired from the whites as the name for a cart or waggon." whio, n. (originally whio-whio), alsowio, maori name for the new zealand duck, hymenolaemus malacorhynchus, gmell., called the blue-duck or mountain duck of new zealand. see duck, professor parker's quotation, . the bird has a whistling note. the maori verb, whio, means to whistle. . rev. r. taylor, `te ika a maui,' p. : "wio (hymenolaemus malacorhynchus), the blue duck, is found abundantly in the mountain-streams of the south part of the north island, and in the middle island. it takes its name from its cry." . w. buller, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. x. art. xix. p. : "captain mair informs me that the wio is plentiful in all the mountain-streams in the uriwera country. when marching with the native contingent in pursuit of te kooti, as many as forty or fifty were sometimes caught in the course of the day, some being taken by hand, or knocked over with sticks or stones, so very tame and stupid were they." . h. martin, `transactions of new zealand institute,' vol. xviii. art. xxii. p. : "hymenolaemus malacorhynchus, whio, blue duck. both islands." [from a list of new zealand birds that ought to be protected.] whip-bird, n. see coach-whip. whip-snake, n. or little whip-snake. see under snake. whip-stick, n. variety of dwarf eucalypt; one of the mallees; forming thick scrub. . m. c., `explorers,' p. : "he had lost his way, when he would fain have crost a patch of whip-stick scrub." whip-tail, n. ( ) a fancy name for a small kangaroo. see pretty-faces, quotation. ( ) a tasmanian fish; see under tasmanian whiptail. whistling dick, n. tasmanian name for a shrike-thrush. called also duke- willy. . j. gould, `birds of australia,'vol. ii. pl. : "colluricincla selbii, jard., whistling dick of the colonists of van diemen's land." whistling duck, n. see duck. the bird named below by leichhardt appears to be a mistake; vide gould's list at word duck. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the leptotarsis, gould (whistling duck), which habitually crowd close together on the water." whitebait, n. a fish; not, as in england, the fry of the herring and sprat, but in victoria, engraulis antarcticus, castln.; and in new zealand, the young fry of galaxias attenuatus, jenyns (inanga, q.v.). the young of the new zealand smelt (q.v.), retropinna richardsonii, gill, are also called whitebait, both in new zealand and in tasmania. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "anchovies or engraulis have a compressed body with a very wide lateral mouth, and a projecting upper jaw. scales large. we have two species--e. antarcticus, casteln., and e. nasutus, casteln. the first-named species is by many erroneously believed to be identical, or at most a variety of e. encrassicholus of europe. count castelnau states that it is very common in the melbourne market at all seasons, and goes by the name of `whitebait.'" . `royal commission on fisheries of tasmania, p. iv: "retropinna richardsonii, whitebait or smelt. captured in great abundance in the river tamar, in the prawn nets, during the months of february and march, together with a species of atherina, and galaxias attenuatus, and are generally termed by fishermen whitebait. dr. guenther had formerly supposed that this species was confined to new zealand; it appears, however, to be common to australia and tasmania." whitebeard, n. name applied to the plant styphelia ericoides, n.o. epacrideae. white-eye, n. another name for the bird called variously silver-eye, wax-eye, blight-bird, etc., zosterops (q.v.). . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. iv. pl. : "zosterops dorsalis, vig. and horsf, grey-backed zosterops; white-eye, colonists of new south wales." . `the australasian,' nov. , p. : "the unique migration on the part of the white-eyes has not been satisfactorily accounted for. one authority invents the ingenious theory that the original white-eyes went to new zealand after the memorable `black thursday' of australia in ." white-face, n. a name applied to the australian bird, xerophila leucopsis, gould. another species is the chestnut-breasted white face, x. pectoralis, gould. white gallinule, n. one of the birds of the family called rails. the white gallinule was recorded from new south wales in , and also from lord howe island, off the coast, and from norfolk island. the modern opinion is that it never existed save in these two islands, and that it is now extinct. it was a bird of limited powers of flight, akin to the new zealand bird, notornis mantilli which is also approaching extinction. only two skins of the white gallinule are known to be in existence. . governor phillip,' voyage to botany bay,' p. and fig.: "white gallinule. this beautiful bird greatly resembles the purple gallinule in shape and make, but is much superior in size, being as large as a dunghill fowl. . . . this species is pretty common on lord howe's island, norfolk island, and other places, and is a very tame species." . e. p. ramsay, `proceedings of the linnaean society of new south wales,' p. : "the attention of some of our early naturalists was drawn to this island by finding there, the now extinct `white gallinule,' then called (fulica alba), but which proves to be a species of notornis." white-head, n. a bird of new zealand, clitonyx albicapilla, buller. found in north island, but becoming very rare. see clitonyx. white-lipped snake, n. see under snake. white-pointer, n. a new south wales name for the white-shark. see shark. white-top, n. another name for flintwood (q.v.). white-trevally, n. an australian fish. see trevally. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish and fisheries of new south wales,' p. : "caranx georgianus, the `white trevally.' . . there are several other species of caranx in port jackson. in victoria it is called silver bream. count castelnau says it is very beautiful when freshly taken from the water, the upper part being a light celestial blue or beautiful purple, the lower parts of a silvery white with bright iridescent tinges . . . there is another fish called by this name which has already been described amongst the teuthidae, but this is the white trevally as generally known by new south wales fishermen." whitewood, n. another name for cattle-bush (q.v.). a tasmanian name for pittosporum bicolor, hook., n.o. pittosporeae. called cheesewood in victoria, and variously applied, as a synonym, to other trees; it is also called waddy-wood (q.v.). whiting, n. four species of the fish of the genus sillago are called whiting in australia (see quotation). the new zealand whiting is pseudophycis breviusculus, richards., and the rock-whiting of new south wales is odax semifaciatus, cuv. and val., and o. richardsonii, gunth.; called also stranger (q.v.). pseudophycis is a gadoid, sillago belongs to the trachinidae, and odax to the family labridae or wrasses. . rev. j. e. tenison-woods, `fish of new south wales,' p. : "the `whitings' are not like those of europe. there are, in all, four australian species--the common sand-whiting (sillago maculata), abundant on the new south wales coast; the trumpeter-whiting (s. bassensis), also abundant here, and the most common species in brisbane; s. punctata, the whiting of melbourne, and rare on this coast; and s. ciliata." widgeon, n. the common english name for a duck of the genus mareca, extended generally by sportsmen to any wild duck. in australia, it is used as another name for the pink-eyed (or pink-eared) duck. it is also used, as in england, by sportsmen as a loose term for many species of wild-duck generally. wild dog, n. i.q. dingo (q.v.). wild geranium, n. in australia, the species is pelargonium australe, willd., n.o. geraniaceae. wild irishman, a spiny new zealand shrub, discaria toumatou, raoul, n.o. rhamneae. the maori name is tumata-kuru (q.v.). . f. hochstetter, `new zealand,' p. : "certain species of acyphilla and discaria, rendering many tracts, where they grow in larger quantities, wholly inaccessible. on account of their slender blades terminating in sharp spines the colonists have named them `spear-grass,' `wild irishman,' and `wild spaniard.'" [this is a little confused. there are two distinct plants in new zealand-- ( ) discaria toumatou, a spiny shrub or tree; called tumatakuru matagory, and wild irishman. ( ) aciphylla colensoi, a grass, called sword-grass, spear grass, spaniard, and scotchman. . lady barker, `station amusements in new zealand,' p. : "interspersed with the spaniards are generally clumps of `wild irishman'--a straggling sturdy bramble, ready to receive and scratch you well if you attempt to avoid the spaniard's weapons." . j. hector, `handbook of new zealand, p. : "tumata kuru, wild irishman. a bush or small tree with spreading branches; if properly trained would form a handsome hedge that would be stronger than whitethorn. the species were used by the maoris for tattooing." . malcolm ross, `aorangi,' p. : "almost impenetrable scrub, composed mainly of wild irishman (discaria toumatou) and sword-grass (aciphylla colensoi)." . `the australasian,' aug. , p. , col. : ". . . national appellations are not satisfactory. it seems uncivil to a whole nation--another injustice to ireland--to call a bramble a wild irishman, or a pointed grass, with the edges very sharp and the point like a bayonet, a spaniard. one could not but be amused to find the name scotchman applied to a smaller kind of spaniard." wild parsnip, n. see parsnip. wild rosemary, n. see rosemary. wild turkey, n. see turkey. wild yam, n. a parasitic orchid, gastrodia sesamoides, r. br., n.o. orchideae. wilga, n. a tree. called also dogwood and willow, geijera parviflora, lindl., n.o. rutaceae. adopted by the colonists from the aboriginal name. . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "we rode out through a wilga scrub." (p. ): "she'd like to be buried there--under a spreading wilga tree." willow myrtle, n. a tree, agonis flexuosa, de c., n.o. myrtaceae, with willow-like leaves and pendent branches, native of west australia, and cultivated for ornament as a greenhouse shrub. willow, native, n. i.q. boobialla (q.v.), and also another name for the poison-berry tree (q.v.). willy-wagtail, n. i.q. wagtail (q.v.). willy willy, n. native name for a storm on north-west of australia. . `the age,' jan. , p. , col. [letter by `bengalee']: "seeing in your issue of this morning a telegraphic report of a `willy willy' in the north-west portion of west australia, it may be of interest to hear a little about these terrific storms of wind and rain. the portion of the western coast most severely visited by these scourges is said to be between the north-wet cape and roebuck bay; they sometimes reach as far south as carnarvon and north as far as derby. the approach of one of these storms is generally heralded by a day or too of hot, oppressive weather, and a peculiar haze. those having barometers are warned of atmospheric disturbances; at other times they come up very suddenly. the immense watercourses to be seen in the north-west country, the bed of the yule river, near roebourne, for instance, and many other large creeks and rivers, prove the terrible force and volume of water that falls during the continuance of one of these storms. the bed of the yule river is fully a mile wide, and the flood marks on some of the trees are sufficient proof of the immense floods that sometimes occur. even in sheltered creeks and harbours the wind is so violent that luggers and other small craft are blown clean over the mangrove bushes and left high and dry, sometimes a considerable distance inland. the willy willy is the name given to these periodical storms by the natives in the north-west." . c. m. officer, private letter: "in the valley of the murray between swan hill and wentworth, in the summer time during calm weather, there are to be seen numerous whirlwinds, carrying up their columns of dust many yards into the air. these are called by the name willy willy." windmill j.p., expression formerly used in new south wales for any j.p. who was ill-educated and supposed to sign his name with a cross x. wine-berry, n. see tutu. in australia, the name is given to polyosma cunninghamii, benn., n.o. saxifrageae. winery, n. an establishment for making wines. an american word which is being adopted in australia. . `the argus,' oct. , p. , col. [letter headed `wineries']: "i would suggest that the idea of small local wineries, each running on its own lines, be abandoned, and one large company formed, having its headquarters in melbourne with wineries in various centres. the grapes could be brought to these depots by the growers, just as the milk is now brought to the creameries." winter cherry, n. see balloon vine. winter country, in new zealand (south island), land so far unaffected by snow that stock is wintered on it. wire-grass, and wiry-grass. see grass. . e. m. curr, `recollections of squatting in victoria' ( - ), p. : "sparsely-scattered tussocks of the primest descriptions; the wire-grass, however, largely predominating over the kangaroo-grass." wirrah, n. aboriginal name for a fish of new south wales, plectropoma ocellatum, gunth. . e. p. ramsav. `fisheries exhibition literature,' vol. v. p. : "another of the percidae . . . the wirrah of the fishermen, is more plentiful. it is when first caught a handsome fish, of a pale olive-brown or olive-green colour, with numerous bright blue dots on spots of a lighter tint." witchetty, n. native name for the grub-like larva of one or more species of longicorn beetles. the natives dig it out of the roots of shrubs, decaying timber and earth, in which it lives, and eat it with relish. it is sometimes even roasted and eaten by white children. . r. lydekker, `marsupialia,' p. : "dr. stirling writes . . . [the marsupial mole] was fed on the `witchetty' (a kind of grub) . . . two or three small grubs, or a single large one, being given daily." wiwi, n. maori name for a jointed rush. . w. r. wade, `a journey in the northern island of new zealand,' `new zealand reader,' p. : "the roof is usually completed with a thick coating of wiwi (a small rush), and then the sides receive a second coating of raupo, and sometimes of the wiwi over all." . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "[the walls] were lined outside with the wiwi or fine grass." [see also raupo, quotation.] wiwi/ , n. slang name for a frenchman, from "oui, oui!" . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "if i had sold the land to the white missionaries, might they not have sold it again to the wiwi (frenchmen) or americans." . c. hursthouse, `new zealand, the britain of the south,' vol. i. p. : "de surville's painful mode of revenge, and the severe chastisement which the retaliatory murder of marion brought on the natives, rendered the wee-wees (oui, oui), or people of the tribe of marion, hateful to the new zealanders for the next half-century." . a. s. thomson, `story of new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "before the wewis, as the french are now called, departed." . h. carleton, `life of henry williams,' p. : "the arrival of a french man-of-war was a sensational event to the natives, who had always held the oui-oui's in dislike." . anon., `percy pomo,' p. : "has [sic] the weewees puts it." wiwi/ , n. aboriginal name for a native weapon. . charles griffith, `present state and prospects of the port phillip district of new south wales,' p. : "the wiwi is an instrument not so well known. it is composed of a long straight withy, about two feet long, to which is attached a head, made of a piece of wood four inches long, in the shape of two cones joined together at the base . . . this they strike against the ground, at a little distance to one side of them, whence it rises at right angles to its first direction, and flies with the swiftness of an arrow for about one hundred yards, and at a height of about ten feet from the ground." wobbegong, n. a new south wales aboriginal name for a species of shark, crassorhinus barbatus, linn., family scyllidae; also known as the carpet-shark, from the beautifully mottled skin. the fish is not peculiar to australia, but the name is. wobbles, n. a disease in horses caused by eating palm-trees in western australia. . `the australasian,' feb. , p. : "the palm-trees for years cost annoyance and loss to farmers and graziers. their stock being troubled with a disease called `wobbles,' which attacked the limbs and ended in death. a commission of experts was appointed, who traced the disease to the palms, of which the cattle were very fond." wolf, n. called also native wolf, marsupial wolf and zebra wolf, tasmanian tiger and hyaena; genus, thylacinus (q.v.). it is the largest carnivorous marsupial extant, and is so much like a wolf in appearance that it well deserves its vernacular name of wolf, though now-a-days it is generally called tiger. see tasmanian tiger. . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "the first occupants we notice in this cage are two marsupial wolves, thylacinus cynocephalus, or tasmanian tigers as they are commonly called. these animals are becoming scarce, as, owing to their destructiveness among sheep, they are relentlessly persecuted by run-holders." wollomai, n. the aboriginal name of the fish called schnapper (q.v.). in a horse named wollomai won the melbourne cup. since then numerous houses and estates have been named wollomai. wombat, n. a marsupial animal of the genus phascolomys (q.v.). it is a corruption of the aboriginal name. there are various spellings; that nearest to the aboriginal is womback, but the form wombat is now generally adopted. the species are--the common wombat, phascolomys mitchelli, owen; tasmanian w., p. ursinus, shaw; hairy-nosed w., p. latifrons, owen. . m. flinders, `voyage to terra australis ( ),' intro. p. cxxviii, `journal,' feb. : "point womat, a rocky projection of cape barren island, where a number of the new animals called womit were seen, and killed." ibid. p. cxxxv: "this little bear-like quadruped is known in new south wales, and called by the natives, womat, wombat, or womback, according to the different dialects, or perhaps to the different renderings of the wood rangers who brought the information . . . it burrows like the badger." . d. collins, `account of new south wales ( ),' vol. ii. p. [`bass's journal,' jan.]: "the wom-bat (or, as it is called by the natives of port jackson, the womback,) is a squat, thick, short-legged, and rather inactive quadruped, with great appearance of stumpy strength, and somewhat bigger than a large turnspit dog." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' vol. ii. p. : "in the opinion of mr. bass this wombat seemed to be very oeconomically made." x . `history of new south wales' ), p. : "an animal named a wombat, about the size of a small turnspit-dog, has been found in abundance in van diemen's land, and also, though less frequently, in other parts of new south wales. its flesh has in taste a resemblance to pork." . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "the wombat, a large animal of the size of a mastiff, burrowing in the ground, feeding on grass and roots and attaining considerable fatness." . j. bischoff, `van diemen's land,' p. : "the dogs had caught . . . two badgers or woombacks." . g. h. haydon, `five years in australia felix,' p. : "the wombat is a large kind of badger, which burrows in the ground to a considerable depth, and is taken by the blacks for food; it makes a noise, when attacked in its hole, something similar to the grunting of a pig." . w. westgarth, `australia felix,' p. : "mere rudimentary traces (of a pouch) in the pig-like wombat." . j. west, `history of tasmania,' vol. i. p. : "the wombat, commonly called in the colony badger (phascolomys wombat, peron.), is an animal weighing forty to eighty pounds, having a large body with short legs. notwithstanding its burrowing habits, and the excessive thickness and toughness of its skin, it is usually so easily killed that it is becoming less and less common." . w. blandowski, `transactions of philosophical society of victoria,' vol. i. p. : "wombat. this clumsy, but well-known animal (phascolomys wombat), during the day conceals himself in his gloomy lair in the loneliest recesses of the mountains, and usually on the banks of a creek, and at night roams about in search of food, which it finds by grubbing about the roots of gigantic eucalypti." . w. howitt, `two years in vic. toria,' vol. i. p. : "the wombat resembles a large badger in the shortness of its legs, but has a little of the pig and the bear in its shape, hair, and movements." . w. m. thackeray, `roundabout papers,' p. : "our dear wambat came up and had himself scratched very affably. . . . "then i saw the grey wolf, with mutton in his maw; then i saw the wambat waddle in the straw." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kumai,' p. : "wombat is cooked, then opened and skinned." . d. macdonald, `gum boughs,' p. : "the wombat is very powerful, and can turn a boulder almost as large as itself out of the way when it bars the road." . cassell's `picturesque australasia,' vol. iv. p. : "there are large numbers of wombats in the district, and these animals, burrowing after the fashion of rabbits, at times reach great depths, and throw up large mounds." . `the argus,' june , p. , col. : "the wombat's grunt is strictly in harmony with his piggish appearance." wombat-hole, n. hole made by wombat (q.v.). . mrs. cross (ada cambridge), `the three miss kings,' p. : "he took them but a little way from where they had camped, and disclosed in the hillside what looked like a good-sized wombat or rabbit-hole." wommera. see woomera. wonga, n. aboriginal name for the bulrush, typha angustifolia, linn. it is the same as the raupo (q.v.) of new zealand, and is also known as bulrush, cat's tail and reed mace, and in europe as the `asparagus of the cossacks.' for etymology, see next word. wonga-wonga, n. an australian pigeon, leucosarcia picata, lath.; it has very white flesh. the aboriginal word wonga is explained as coming from root signifying the idea of `quiver motion,' `sudden springing up' and the word is thus applied as a name for the bulrush, the vine, and the pigeon. some, however, think that the name of the pigeon is from the bird's note. in gippsland, it was called by the natives wauk-wauk-au, sc. `that which makes wauk-wauk.' . p. cunningham, `two years in new south wales,' vol. i. p. : "we have a large pigeon named the wanga-wanga, of the size and appearance of the ringdove, which is exquisite eating also." . j. l. stokes, `discoveries in australia,' vol. i. c. x. p. : "at captain king's table i tasted the wonga-wonga pigeon." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. v. pl. : "leucosarcia picata, wonga-wonga, aborigines of new south wales; white-fleshed and wonga-wonga pigeon, colonists of new south wales." . g. c. mundy, `our antipodes' (edition ), c. i. p. : "a delicate wing of the wonga-wonga pigeon." . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "nothing can surpass in delicacy the white flesh of the wonga-wonga (leucosarcia picata)." . a. c. grant, `bush life in queensland,' vol. i. p. : "hark! there goes a wonga-wonga, high up in the topmost branches of the great cedar." . `guide to zoological gardens, melbourne': "the wonga-wonga (leucosarcia picata) is also represented. this pigeon, though less bright in plumage than the last-named, exceeds it in size; both are excellent eating." wonga-wonga vine, n. a name for the hardy, evergreen climber, tecoma australis, r. br., n.o. bignoniaceae. there are several varieties, all distinguished by handsome flowers in terminal panicles. they are much cultivated in gardens and for ornamental bower-trees. woodhen, n. a name given to several birds of new zealand of the rail family, and of the genus ocydromus; some of them are called by the maori name of weka (q.v.). the species are-- black woodhen-- ocydromus fuscus, du bus.; maori name, weka-pango. brown w.-- o. earli, gray. buff w.-- o. australis, gray; called also weka. north-island w.-- o. brachypterus, buller; called also weka. south-island w.-- same as buff w.; see above. . e. j. wakefield, `adventures in new zealand,' vol. ii. p. : "two young weka, or wood-hens, about as large as sparrows . . . were esteemed a valuable addition to our scanty supper." . vincent pyke, `wild will enderby,' p. : "we-ka! we-ka! we-ka! three times the plaintive cry of the `wood hen `was heard. it was a preconcerted signal." wood-duck, n. a name given by the colonists of new south wales and "swan river" to the maned goose, branta jubata, latham. . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "the wood-duck (bernicla jubata) abounded on the larger water-holes." . j. gould, `birds of australia,' vol. vii. pl. : "bernicla jubata, maned goose; wood-duck, colonists of new south wales and swan river." wood natives, or wood savages, obsolete names for the australian aborigines. . o'hara, `history of new south wales,' p. : ". . . robbed by a number of the inland or wood natives . . ." ibid. p. : "the combats of the natives near sydney were sometimes attended by parties of the inland or wood savages." wooden pear, n. a tree peculiar to new south wales and queensland, xylomelum pyriforme, smith, n.o. proteaceae; called also native pear. . g. bennett, `gatherings of a naturalist,' p. : "the wooden pear-tree of the colonists (xylomelum pyriforme) is peculiar to australia; its general appearance is very ornamental, especially when the tree is young; the flowers grow in clusters in long spikes, but are not conspicuous. this tree attains the height of from fifteen to twenty feet, and a circumference of six to eight feet. it is branchy; the wood is of dark colour, and being prettily marked, would form an ornamental veneering for the cabinet-maker. when young, in the australian bush, this tree bears a close resemblance to the young warratah, or tulip-tree (telopea speciosissima)." . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "native pear-wooden pear. this moderate-sized tree produces a dark-coloured, prettily-marked wood. it is occasionally used for making picture-frames, for ornamental cabinet-work, for veneers, and walking-sticks. when cut at right-angles to the medullary rays it has a beautiful, rich, sober marking." woollybutt, a name given to one of the gum trees, eucalyptus longifolia, link. see gum. . james backhouse, `narrative of a visit to the australian colonies,' p. (october .): "one called here the woolly butted gum seems identical with the black butted gum of tasmania." . `melbourne museum catalogue economic woods,' p. : "the woollybutt grown at illawarra is in very high repute for wheelwright's work " woolly-headed grass, n. an indigenous australian grass, andropogon bombycinus, r. br. . j. h. maiden, `useful native plants,' p. : "woolly-headed grass, a valuable pasture-grass, highly spoken of by stock-owners, and said to be very fattening." wool-man, n. aboriginal mispronunciation of old man (q.v.). . robert dawson, `the present state of australia,' p. : "the male kangaroos were called by my natives old men, `wool-man,' and the females, young ladies, `young liddy.'" wool-shed, n. the principal building of a station, at which the shearing and wool-packing is done. often called the shed. . j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip,' vol. ii. p. : "in some instances the flood has swept away the wool-sheds." . `australasian' [quarterly], vol. i. p. : ". . . we next visit the `wool-shed,' and find the original slab-built shed has been swept away, to make room for an imposing erection of broad-paling . . ." . a. trollope, `australia and new zealand,' vol. i. p. : "the wool-shed is a large building open on every side, with a high-pitched roof,--all made of wood and very rough. the sheep are driven in either at one end or both, or at three sides, according to the size of the station and the number of sheep to be shorn. they are then assorted into pens, from which the shearers take them on to the board;--two, three or four shearers selecting their sheep from each pen. the floor, on which the shearers absolutely work, is called `the board.'" . `the argus,' aug. , p. , col. : "you would find them down at reed's wool-shed now." woomera, n. an aboriginal name for a throwing-stick (q.v.); spelt in various ways (seven in the quotations), according as different writers have tried to express the sound of the aboriginal word. . governor hunter, `voyage,' p. [in a vocabulary]: "womar--a throwing stick." . d. collins, `account of english colony in new south wales,' p. : "wo-mer-ra--throwing stick." . l. e. threlkeld, `australian grammar' [as spoken on hunter's river, etc.], p. : "as a barbarism--wommerru, a weapon." . r. dawson, `present state of australia,' p. : "pieces of hard iron-bark to represent their war weapon, the womerah . . . the whirling womerahs." . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions into the interior of eastern australia,' vol. ii. p. : "the spear is thrown by means of a wammera, which is a slight rod, about three feet long, having at one end a niche to receive the end of a spear." . l. leichhardt, `overland expedition,' p. : "but showed the greatest reluctance in parting with their throwing-sticks (wommalas)." o. j. b. clutterbuck, `port phillip in ,' p. : "they employ also, as a warlike weapon, a smaller kind of spear or javelin, which is discharged by means of a notched stick called a woomera; and with this simple artillery i have seen them strike objects at yards' distance. they also employ this minor spear in capturing the bustard." . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings among the gum-trees,' p. : "then the wamba wamba warriors, sprang unto their feet with tchgrels ready fitted to their womrahs." ibid. (in glossary) pp. , : "tchgrel, reed spear. womrah, spear heaver." . j. bonwick, `john batman, the founder of victoria,' p. : "taking with him, therefore, on board the port phillip, presents of spears, wommeras, boomerangs, and stone tomahawks, he tried to get from the williamstown waters." . p. beveridge, `aborigines of victoria and riverina,' p. : "spears all ready shipped, that is, having the hook of the womerar (throwing-stick) placed in the small cavity made for that purpose in the end of the spear, with both raised in readiness for launching at the object." . j. fraser, `aborigines of new south wales,' p. : "the `womara' is an instrument of wood, from twenty-four to thirty inches long, and a little thicker than a spear. unlike the spear, it is not thrown at the enemy in battle, but remains always in the black man's hand . . . he ornaments it profusely, back and front. . . . the point is turned up, exactly like the point of a lady's crochet needle. . . . the spears have a dimpled hole worked in their butt end, which hole receives the point of the hook end of the `throw-stick.'" worm-snake, n. see under snake. wrasse, n. this english name for many fishes is given, in new zealand, to labrichthys bothryocosmus, richards. called also poddly, spotty, and kelp-fish. wreck-fish, n. the australian species is polyprion ceruleum, family percoidae. guenther says that the european species has the habit of accompanying floating wood. hence the name. wren, n. this common english bird-name is assigned in australia to birds of several genera, viz.-- banded wren-- malurus splendens, quoy and gaim. black-backed w.-- m. melanotus, gould. blue w.-- m. cyaneus, lath. blue-breasted w.-- m. pulcherrimus, gould. bower's w.-- m. cruentatus, gould. chestnut-rumped ground w.-- hylacola pyrrhopygia, vig. and hors. emu-wren (q.v.)-- stipiturus malachurus, lath. goyder's grass w.-- amytis goyderi, gould. grass w.-- a. textilis, quoy and gaim.; called by gould the textile wren. large-tailed grass w.-- a. macrura, gould. longtailed w.-- malurus gouldii, sharpe. lovely w.-- m. amabilis, gould. orange-backed w.-- m. melanocephalus, vig. and hors. purple-crowned w.-- m. coronatus, gould. red-rumped ground w.-- hylacola cauta, gould. red-winged w.-- malurus elegans, gould. silvery blue w.-- m. cyanochlamys, gould. striated grass w.-- amytis striatus, gould; called also the porcupine bird (q.v.). turquoise w.-- malurus callainus, gould. variegated w.-- m. lamberti, vig. and hors. white-backed w.-- m. leuconotus, gould. white-winged w.-- m. leucopterus, quoy and gaim. see also scrub-wren. in new zealand, the name is applied to the bush-wren, xenicus longipes, gmel., and the rock (or mountain) wren, x. gilviventris, von pelz. wry-billed plover, n. a very rare bird of new zealand, anarhynchus frontalis, quoy and gaim. . prof. parker, `catalogue of new zealand exhibition,' p. : "the curious wry-billed plover . . . the only bird known in which the bill is turned not up or down, but to one side--the right." wurley, n. aboriginal name for an aboriginal's hut. for other words expressing the same thing, see list under humpy. in the dialect of the south-east of south australia oorla means a house, or a camp, or a bird's nest. . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. : "seeking, hoping help to find; sleeping in deserted wurleys." . w. howitt, `discovery in australia,' vol. ii. p. : "immediately went across to the blacks' wurleys, where i found king sitting in a but which the natives had made for him." . g. taplin, `native tribes of south australia,' p. , and note: "in case of a man having two wives, the elder is always regarded as the mistress of the hut or wurley. the word wurley is from the language of the adelaide tribe. the narrinyeri word is mante. i have used `wurley' because it is more generally understood by the colonists." . p. j. holdsworth, `station hunting on the warrego': "`my hand must weather-fend the wurley'. this he did. he bound the thick boughs close with bushman's skill, till not a gap was left where raging showers or gusts might riot. over all he stretched strong bands of cane-grass, plaited cunningly." . h. c. kendall, `poems,' p. "he took his axe, and shaped with boughs and wattle-forks a wurley, fashioned like a bushman's roof." x xanthorrhoea, n. scientific name for a genus of australian plants, n.o. liliaceae, having thick palm-like trunks. they exude a yellow resin. (grk. xanthos, yellow, and rhoia, a flow, sc. of the resin.) they are called black boys and grass-trees (q.v.). y yabber, n. used for the talk of the aborigines. some think it is the english word jabber, with the first letter pronounced as in german; but it is pronounced by the aborigines yabba, without a final r. ya is an aboriginal stem, meaning to speak. in the kabi dialect, yaman is to speak: in the wiradhuri, yarra. . m. k. beveridge, `lost life,' pt. iii. p. : "i marked much yabber that i did not know." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "longing to fire a volley of blacks' yabber across a london dinner-table." . r. henty, `australiana,' p. : "the volleys of abuse and `yabber yabber' they would then utter would have raised the envy of the greatest `mrs. moriarty' in the billingsgate fishmarket." . rolf boldrewood, `robbery under arms,' p. : "is it french or queensland blacks' yabber? blest if i understand a word of it." yabber, v. intr. (see noun.) . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "they yabbered unsuspiciously to each other." . j. farrell, `how he died,' p. : "he's yabbering some sort of stuff in his sleep." yabby, n. properly yappee, aboriginal name for a small crayfish found in water-holes in many parts of australia, astacopsis bicarinatus. the rev. f. a. hagenauer gives yappy, in `curr's australian race,' vol. iii. p. , as a gippsland word. such variants as the following occur--yappitch, kapich, yabbechi, yaabity. the distinction between the thin and thick consonants is usually uncertain. . `the argus,' oct. , p. , col. : "in the case of small crayfish, called `yabbies,' . . . these may be found all over australia, both in large and small lagoons. these creatures, whilst nearing a drought, and as the supply of water is about to fail, burrow deeply in the beds of the lagoons, water-holes, or swamps, piling up the excavations on the surface over their holes, which i take, amongst other reasons, to be a provision against excessive heat." . `the australasian,' jan. , p. , col. : "the bait used is `yabby,' a small crayfish found in the sand on the beach at low tide. the getting of the bait itself is very diverting. the yabbies are most prized by fish and fishermen, and the most difficult to obtain. the game is very shy, and the hunter, when he has found the burrow, has to dig rapidly to overtake it, for the yabby retires with marvellous rapidity, and often half a dozen lifts of wet sand have to be made before he is captured. there is no time to be lost. in quite twenty-five per cent. of the chases the yabbies get away through flooding and collapse of the hole." yakka, v. frequently used in queensland bush-towns. "you yacka wood? mine, give 'im tixpence;"--a sentence often uttered by housewives. it is given by the rev. w. ridley, in his `kamilaroi, and other australian languages,' p. , as the turrubul (brisbane) term for work, probably cognate with yugari, make, same dialect, and yengga, make, kabi dialect, queensland. it is used primarily for doing work of any kind, and only by english modification (due to "hack") for cut. the spelling yacker is to be avoided, as the final r is not heard in the native pronunciation. yam, n. a west australian tuber, dioscorea hastifolia, ness., n.o. dioscorideae. "one of the hardiest of the yams. the tubers are largely consumed by the local aborigines for food; it is the only plant on which they bestow any kind of cultivation." (mueller, apud maiden, p. .) yam, long, n. a tuber, discorea transversa, r. br., n.o. dioscorideae. "the small tubers are eaten by the aborigines without any preparation." (thozet, apud maiden, p. .) yam, native, n. a tuber, ipomaea spp., n.o. convolvulaceae. the tubers are sometimes eaten by the aboriginals. yam, round, n. i.q. burdekin vine, under vine. yam-stick, n. see quotation , tolmer. . m. k. beveridge, `gatherings,' p. . "one leg's thin as lierah's yamstick." . fison and howitt, `kamilaroi and kurnai,' p. : "behind the pair stands the boy's mother holding her `yam-stick' erect, resting on the ground." . a. tolmer, `reminiscences,' vol. ii. p. : "the natives dig these roots with the yam-stick, an indispensable implement with them made of hard wood, about three feet in length, thick at one end and edged; it is likewise used amongst the aboriginal tribes of south australia, like the waddy, as a weapon of offence." . rolf boldrewood, `squatter's dream,' c. iii. p. : "why, ole nanny fight you any day with a yam-stick." yama, n. aboriginal name for a tree; probably a variant of yarrah (q.v.). . t. l. mitchell, `three expeditions,' vol. ii. p. : "the `yama,' a species of the eucalyptus inhabiting the immediate banks, grew here, as on the darling, to a gigantic size. . . . the `yama' is certainly a pleasing object, in various respects; its shining bark and lofty height inform the traveller at a distance of the presence of water; or at least the bed of a river or lake." yan yean, n. the reservoir from which melbourne obtains its water supply: hence commonly used for water from the tap. . dogberry dingo, `australian rhymes and jingles,' p. : "o horror! what is this i find? the yan yean is turned off." yarra-bend, n. equivalent to the english word bedlam. the first lunatic asylum of the colony of victoria stood near melbourne on a bend of the river yarra. yarrah, n. aboriginal name for a species of eucalyptus, e. rostrata, schlecht; often called the river gum, from its habit of growing along the banks of watercourses, especially in the dry interior of the continent. according to dr. woolls (apud maiden, p. ), yarrah is "a name applied by the aboriginals to almost any tree." the word is not to be confused with jarrah (q.v.). as to etymology, see yarraman. yarra-herring, n. name given in melbourne to a fresh-water fish, prototroctes maraena, gunth.; called also grayling (q.v.). yarraman, n. aboriginal name for a horse. various etymologies are suggested; see quotation, . the river "yarra yarra" means ever flowing, sc. fast. [a possible derivation is from yaran, a common word in new south wales and south queensland, and with slight variation one of the most common words in australia, for beard and sometimes hair. the mane would suggest the name. --j. mathew.] . t. l. mitchell, `tropical australia,' p. : "it was remarkable that on seeing the horses, they exclaimed `yarraman,' the colonial natives' name for a horse, and that of these animals they were not at all afraid, whereas they seemed in much dread of the bullocks." . w. ridley, `kamilaroi and other australian languages,' p. : "horse-yaraman. all the australians use this name, probably from the neighing of the horse, or as some think from `yira' or `yera,' teeth (teeth), and `man' (with)." ibid. p. : "language of george's river. horse--yaraman (from `yara,' throw fast)." . r. m. praed, `australian life,' p. : "yarraman being the native word for horse." yarran, n. aboriginal name adopted by the colonists for several acacias (q.v.)--acacia homalophylla, a. cunn., called also spearwood; a. linifolia, willd., called also sally; a. pendula, a. cunn., called also boree, and weeping or true myall (see myall). . rolf boldrewood, `a sydney-side saxon,' p. : "that infernal horse . . . pretty near broke my leg and chucked me out over a yarran stump." yate, or yate-tree, n. a large west australian tree, eucalyptus cornuta, labill., yielding a hard tough elastic wood considered equal to the best ash. yellow-belly, n. in new south wales, the name is given to a fresh-water fish, ctenolates auratus; called also golden-perch. see perch. in dunedin especially, and new zealand generally, it is a large flounder, also called lemon-sole, or turbot (q.v.). yellow fever, sc. the gold-fever. . t. mccombie, `australian sketches,' p. : "evident symptoms of the return of the `yellow' fever, and a journey to the new goldfields seemed to be the only cure." yellow-head, n. name given to a bird of new zealand, clitonyx ochrocephala, or native canary (q.v.), common in south island. see clitonyx. yellow jacket, n. a name given to various gum-trees, and especially to eucalyptus melliodora, cunn., e. ochrophlora, f. v. m., and e. rostrata, schlecht, all of the n.o. myrtaceae. they all have a smooth yellowish bark, and many other names are applied to the same trees. yellow lily, n. a tasmanian name for the native leek. see leek. yellow-tail, n. the name is given in victoria to the fish caranx trachurus, cuv. and val.; the horse-mackerel (q.v.) of england. in new south wales, it is trachurus declivis, a slightly different species, also called scad; but the two fish are perhaps the same. seriola grandis, castln., also of the carangidae family, is likewise called yellow-tail in melbourne. in new zealand, the word is used for the fish latris lineata, of the family of sciaenidae, and is also a name for the king-fish, seriola lalandii, and for the trevally. yellow thyme, n. a herb, hibbertia serpyllifolia, r. br., n.o. dilleneaceae. yellow-wood, a name applied to several australian trees with the epithets of dark, light, deep, etc., in allusion to the colour of their timber, which is allied to mahogany. they are--acronychia laevis, forst., n.o. rutaceae; rhus rhodanthema, f. v. m., n.o. anacardiaciae; flindersia oxleyana, f. v. m., n.o. meliaceae. see also satin-wood. yuro, n. i.q. euro (q.v.). z zebra-fish, n. name given to the fish neotephraeops zebra, richards. zebra-wolf, n. i.q. tasmanian wolf, or tasmanian tiger (q.v.). zelanian, a scientific term, meaning `pertaining to new zealand,' from zelania, a latinised form of zealand. zosterops, n. the scientific name of a genus of australian birds, often called also popularly by that name, and by the names of wax-eye, white-eye, silver-eye (q.v.), ring-eye, blight-bird (q.v.), etc. from the greek zowstaer, a girdle, `anything that goes round like a girdle' (`l. & s.'), and 'owps, the eye; the birds of the genus have a white circle round their eyes. the bird was not generally known in new zealand until after black thursday (q.v.), in , when it flew to the chatham islands. some observers, however, noted small numbers of one species in milford sound in . new zealand birds are rarely gregarious, but the zosterops made a great migration, in large flocks, from the south island to the north island in , and the maori name for the bird is `the stranger' (tau-hou). nevertheless, buller thinks that the species z. caerulescens is indigenous in new zealand. (see under silver-eye, quotation .) the species are-- zosterops caerulescens, lath. green-backed z.-- z. gouldi, bp.; called also grape-eater, and fig-eater (q.v.). gulliver's z.-- z. gulliveri, castln. and ramsay. pale-bellied z.-- z. albiventer, homb. and jacq. yellow z.-- z. lutea, gould. yellow-rumped z.-- z. westernensis, quoy and gaim. yellow-throated z.-- z. flavogularis, masters. . a. j. campbell (in `the australasian,' jan. ), p. , col. : "i have a serious charge to prefer against this bird [the tawny honeyeater] as well as against some of its near relatives, particularly those that inhabit western australia, namely, the long-billed, the spine-billed, and the little white-eye or zosterops. during certain seasons they regale themselves too freely with the seductive nectar of the flaming bottle-brush (callistemon). they become tipsy, and are easily caught by hand under the bushes.in the annals of ornithology i know of no other instance of birds getting intoxicated." edward e. morris austral english: a dictionary of australasian words phrases and usages a history of the mcguffey readers. [illustration: william h. mcguffey] a history of the mcguffey readers by henry h. vail. with three portraits. the bookish books--iv. new edition. cleveland the burrows brothers co. copyright, , by henry h. vail. [transcriber's note: at the top of each page in the original is a header line briefly describing the content on each page. in this document, these header lines have been placed inside square brackets and move to the start of the paragraph which begins the content so described.] a history of the mcguffey readers the books. before me are four small books roughly bound in boards, the sides covered with paper. on the reverse of the title pages, two bear a copyright entry in the year ; the others were entered in . they are the earliest editions of mcguffey's eclectic readers that have been found in a search lasting forty years. they represent the first efforts in an educational and business enterprise that has for three-quarters of a century called for the best exertions of many skilled men, and in their several forms these books have taken a conspicuous part in the education of millions of the citizens of this country. but what interest can the history of the mcguffey eclectic readers have to those who did not use these books in their school career? their story differs from that of other readers since in successive forms, adjusted more or less perfectly to the changing demands of the schools, they attained a wider and more prolonged use than has been accorded to any other series. [the function of readers] by custom and under sanction of law certain studies are pursued in the common schools of every state. spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, grammar, civics and physiology are the subjects usually taught. the school authorities select the textbooks which shall be used in each subject. the readers are the only texts used in all schools affording opportunity for distinct ethical teaching. the history of our country should give ideas of patriotism; the civics should contain the primary notions of government; the physiologies should instruct the pupils in the laws of health; but the reader should cover the whole field of morals and manners and in language that will impress their teaching indelibly upon the mind of every pupil. while the chief aim of the school readers must be to teach the child to apprehend thought from the printed page and convey this thought to the attentive listener with precision, these efforts should be exerted upon thoughts that have permanent value. no other texts used in the school room bear directly and positively upon the formation of character in the pupils. the school readers are the proper and indispensable texts for teaching true patriotism, integrity, honesty, industry, temperance, courage, politeness, and all other moral and intellectual virtues. in these books every lesson should have a distinct purpose in view, and the final aim should be to establish in the pupils high moral principles which are at the foundation of character. [formers of character] the literature of the english language is rich in material suited to this intent; no other language is better endowed. this material is fresh to every pupil, no matter how familiar it may be to teacher or parent. although some of it has been in print for three centuries, it is true and beautiful today. president eliot has said, "when we teach a child to read, our primary aim is not to enable it to decipher a way-bill or a receipt, but to kindle its imagination, enlarge its vision and open for it the avenues of knowledge." knowledge gives power, which may be exerted for good or for evil. character gives direction to power. power is the engine which may force the steamer through the water, character is the helm which renders the power serviceable for good. readers which have been recognized as formers of good habits of action, thought, and speech for three-quarters of a century, which have taught a sound morality to millions of children without giving offense to the most violent sectarian, which have opened the doors of pure literature to all their users, are surely worthy of study as to their origin, their successive changes, and their subsequent career. the story of these readers is told in the specimens of the several editions, in the long treasured and time-worn contracts, in the books of accounts kept by the successive publishers, and in the traditions which have been passed down from white haired men who gossiped of the early days in the schoolbook business. valuable information has also been furnished by descendants of the mcguffey family, and by the educational institutions with which each of the authors of the readers was connected. [different editions] for half a century the present writer has had personal knowledge of the readers. at first, as a teacher, using them daily in the class room; but soon, as an editor, directing the literary work of the publishers and owners. it therefore falls to him to narrate a story "quorum pars minima fui." for more than seventy years the mcguffey readers have held high rank as text-books for use in the elementary schools, especially throughout the west and south. but during this time these books have been revised five times and adjusted to the changed conditions in the schools. in each one of these revisions the marked characteristics of the original series have been most scrupulously retained, and the continued success of the series is doubtless owing to this fact. there has been a continuity of spirit. [contents of the books] the first and second readers were first published in . in the third and fourth readers were printed. for reasons elsewhere explained these books were "improved and enlarged" in . in a higher reader was added to the series which was then named mcguffey's rhetorical guide. in the years and the four books then constituting the series were thoroughly remodeled and on the title pages were placed the words "newly revised" and the rhetorical guide was annexed as the fifth reader. ten years later the entire series was made over and issued in six books. these were then called the new readers. from until the books remained substantially unchanged; but in the latter year they were renewed largely in substance and improved in form. these readers as copyrighted in were extensively used for more than a quarter of a century. changing conditions in the school room called for another revision in . this latest form now in extensive use is called the new mcguffey readers. each of these revisions has constituted practically a new series although the changes have never included the entire contents. in the higher readers will be found today many selections which appeared in the original books. the reason for retaining such selections is clear. no one has been able to write in the english language selections that are better for school use than some written by shakespeare, milton, bacon, and other early writers. the literature of the english language has not all been written in the present decade nor in the last century. as at first published, the lower books of the mcguffey readers had no trace of the modern methods now used in teaching the mastery of words--even the alphabet was not given in orderly form; but the alphabetic method of teaching the art of reading was then the only one used. the pupil at first spelled each word by naming the letters and then pronounced each syllable and then the word. [first editions] the following stanza is copied from page of the edition of to illustrate the method of presenting words: i like to see a lit-tle dog, and pat him on the head; so pret-ti-ly he wags his tail when-ev-er he is fed. the first reader was mostly in words of one syllable. in this book we find the story of the lame dog that, when cured, brought another lame dog to be doctored: of the kind boy who freed his caged bird; of the cruel boy who drowned the cat and pulled wings and legs from flies; of peter pindar the story teller, and the "snow dog" of mount st. bernard; of mr. post who adopted and reared mary; of the boy who told a lie and repented after he was found out; of the chimney sweep who was tempted to steal a gold watch but put it back and was thereafter educated by its owner; of the whisky boy; and of the mischievous boy who played ghost and made another boy insane. nearly every lesson has a moral clearly stated in formal didactic words at its close. in the second reader we find the story of the idle boy who talked with the bees, dogs, and horses, and having found them all busy, reformed himself; of the kind girl who shared her cake with a dog and an old man; of the mischievous boys who tied the grass across the path and thus upset not only the milk-maid but the messenger running for a doctor to come to their father; of the wise lark who knew that the farmer's grain would not be cut until he resolved to cut it himself; of the wild and ravenous bear that treed a boy and hung suspended by his boot; and of another bear that traveled as a passenger by night in a stage coach; of the quarrelsome cocks, pictured in a clearly english farm yard, that were both eaten up by the fox that had been brought in by the defeated cock; of the honest boy and the thief who was judiciously kicked by the horse that carried oranges in baskets; of george washington and his historic hatchet and the mutilated cherry-tree; and of the garden that was planted with seeds in lines spelling washington's name which removed all doubt as to an intelligent creator. there were also some lessons on such animals as beavers, whales, peacocks and lions. [favorite selections] the third reader will be remembered first because of the picture, on the cover, of napoleon on his rearing charger. this book contained five selections from the bible; croly's "conflagration of the ampitheatre at rome;" "how a fly walks on the ceiling;" "the child's inquiry;" "how big was alexander, pa;" irving's "description of pompey's pillar;" woodworth's "old oaken bucket;" miss gould's "the winter king;" and scott's "bonaparte crossing the alps," commencing "'is the route practicable?' said bonaparte. 'it is barely possible to pass,' replied the engineer. 'let us set forward, then,' said napoleon." the rearing steed facing a precipitous slope in the picture gave emphasis to the words. there were also in this reader several pieces about indians and bears, which indicate that dr. mcguffey never forgot the stories told at the fireside by his father of his adventures as an indian scout and hunter. in the fourth reader there were seventeen selections from the bible; william wirt's "description of the blind preacher;" phillip's "character of napoleon bonaparte;" bacon's "essay on studies;" nott's "speech on the death of alexander hamilton;" addison's "westminster abbey;" irving's "alhambra;" rogers's "genevra;" willis's "parrhasius;" montgomery's "make way for liberty;" two extracts from milton and two from shakespeare, and no less than fourteen selections from the writings of the men and women who lectured before the college of teachers in cincinnati. the story of the widow of the pine cottage sharing her last smoked herring with a strange traveler who revealed himself as her long-lost son, returning rich from the indies, was anonymous, but it will be remembered by those who read it. these selections were the most noteworthy ones in the first editions of these readers. the first and second readers of the mcguffey series were substantially made new at each revision. a comparison of the original third reader with an edition copyrighted in , shows that the latter book was increased about one-third in size. of the sixty-six selections in the early edition only forty-seven were retained, while thirty new ones were inserted. among the latter were "harry and his dog frisk" that brought to him, punished by being sent to bed, a windsor pear; "perseverance," a tale of kite-flying followed by the poem, "try, try again;" the "little philosopher," named peter hurdle, who caught mr. lenox's runaway horse and on examination seemed to lack nothing but an eclectic spelling book, a reader and a testament--which were promised him; "the colonists," in which men of various callings offered their services, and while even the dancing master was accepted as of some possible use, the gentleman was scornfully rejected; "things by their right names," in which a battle was described as wholesale murder; "little victories," in which hugh's mother consoled him for the loss of a leg by telling him of the lives of men who became celebrated under even greater adversities; "the wonderful instrument," which turned out to be the eye; "metaphysics," a ludicrous description of a colonial salt-box in affected terms of exactness designed to ridicule some forms of reasoning. those who used this edition of the third reader will surely remember some of these selections. [the bible] in the fourth reader printed in there were thirty new selections--less than one-third of the book; but some of these were such as will be remembered by those who read them in school. there was "respect for the sabbath rewarded," in which a barber of bath had become so poor because he would not shave his customers on sunday, that he borrowed a half-penny to buy a candle saturday night to give light for a late customer, and was thus discovered to be the long-lost william reed of taunton, heir to many thousand pounds; "the just judge," who disguised himself as a miller and, obtaining a place on the jury, received only five guineas as a bribe when the others got ten, and who revealed himself as lord chief justice hale and tried the case over in his miller's clothing; hawthorne's "the town pump;" mrs. southey's "april day." "all day the low-hung clouds have dropped their garnered fullness down. all day a soft gray mist hath wrapped hill, valley, grove and town." bryant's "death of the flowers;" campbell's "lochiel's warning;" and the trial scene from shakespeare's merchant of venice. all these became favorite reading exercises in later years. as late as the bible was read daily in all the schools of the west. although sectarian or denominational teaching was not permitted, religious instruction was desired by the great majority of school patrons. even up to the opening of the civil war, whatever the faith or the practice of the adult inhabitants of the country, the bible story and the bible diction were familiar to all. the speeches of the popular orators of that day were filled with distinct allusions to the bible and these were quickly and clearly apprehended by the people. it may be questioned whether popular speeches of the present day would have equal force if based on the assumption that everybody knows the biblical stories. indeed it is a common remark made by professors of english in the higher institutions of learning that pupils know little of the bible as a distinctly formative and conservative element in english literature. in the texts authorized for the study of english classics, biblical allusions are very common. these have little meaning to pupils who have not read the bible, unless the passage is pointed out and hunted up. [dr. swing's opinion] from the pages of these readers the pupils learned to master the printed word and obtain the thought of the authors. without conscious effort they received moral instruction and incentives toward right living. without intent they treasured in their memories such extracts from the authors of the best english literature as gave them a desire to read more. [books as teachers] in one of his sermons dr. david swing of chicago said: "much as you may have studied the languages or the sciences, that which most affected you was the moral lessons in the series of mcguffey. and yet the reading class was filed out only once a day to read for a few moments, and then we were all sent to our seats to spend two hours in learning how to bound new hampshire or connecticut, or how long it would take a greyhound to overtake a fox or a hare if the spring of each was so and so, and the poor fugitive had such and such a start. that was perhaps well, but we have forgotten how to bound connecticut, and how to solve the equation of the field and thicket; but up out of the far-off years come all the blessed lessons in virtue and righteousness which those reading books taught; and when we now remember, how even these moral memories have faded i cannot but wish the teachers had made us bound the states less, and solve fewer puzzles in 'position' and the 'cube root' and made us commit to memory the whole series of the mcguffey eclectic headers. the memory that comes from these far-away pages is full of the best wisdom of time or the timeless land. in these books we were indeed led by a schoolmaster, from beautiful maxims for children up to the best thoughts of a long line of sages, and poets, and naturalists. there we all first learned the awful weakness of the duel that took away a hamilton; there we saw the grandeur of the blind preacher of william wirt; there we saw the emptiness of the ambition of alexander, and there we heard even the infidel say, 'socrates died like a philosopher, but jesus christ like a god.'" this public recognition of the influence of these readers upon the mind and character of this great preacher is again noted in rev. joseph fort newton's biography of david swing in which the books which influenced that life are named as "the bible, calvin's institutes, fox's book of martyrs and the mcguffey readers;" and the author quotes david swing as saying that "the institutes were rather large reading for a boy, but to the end of his life he held that mcguffey's sixth reader was a great book. for swing, as for many a boy in the older west, its varied and wise selections from the best english authors were the very gates of literature ajar." one of the most eminent political leaders of the present day attributes his power in the use of english largely to the study of mcguffey's sixth reader in the common schools of ohio. [how a japanese learned english] at a dinner lately given in new york to marquis ito of japan, the marquis responded to the toast of his health returning thanks in english. he then continued his remarks in japanese for some eight minutes. at its close mr. tsudjuki, who was then the minister of education in japan, traveling with marquis ito as his friend and companion, and who had taken shorthand notes of the japanese speech, rose and translated the speech readily and fluently into good english. one of the guests asked how he had learned to speak english so correctly. he replied that he had done so in the public schools of japan and added, "i learned my english from mcguffey's readers, with which you are no doubt familiar." [the authorship] it is not unusual to see in the literary columns of a daily newspaper inquiries as to where certain poems may be found of which a single stanza is faintly recalled. many of these prove to be fragments of pieces that are found in the mcguffey readers. quite lately theodore roosevelt made the public statement that he did not propose to become a "meddlesome matty." this allusion was perfectly clear to the millions of people who used the mcguffey readers at any time after . when the fourth reader was issued in it contained a preface of three closely printed pages setting forth and defending the plan of mcguffey's books. in this he said: "in conclusion, the author begs leave to state, that the whole series of eclectic readers is his own. in the preparation of the rules, etc., for the present volume he has had the assistance of a very distinguished teacher, whose judgment and zeal in promoting the cause of education have often been commended by the american people. in the arrangement of the series generally, he is indebted to many of his friends for valuable suggestions, and he takes this opportunity of tendering them his thanks for the lively interest they have manifested for the success of his undertaking." the sole author of the four readers first issued as the eclectic readers was william holmes mcguffey. he was responsible for the marked qualities in these books which met with such astonishing popular approval in all these years. what these qualities are is well known to those who have used the books and the users are numbered by millions. [the rhetorical guide] the rhetorical guide was prepared by mr. a.h. mcguffey, and his name alone was on the early editions. in the book was revised by the author and dr. pinneo, and was given the alternate title "or fifth reader of the eclectic series." the work of revision occupied two years. the title page carried the name of its author until, for reasons of his own, he asked to have it removed. as usual when revisions of schoolbooks are made, the older edition was continued in publication so long as a distinct demand for it existed. but the issuance of a revised edition always suggests the question of change, which competing publishers promptly seek to bring about. the publishers of the "newly revised mcguffey readers," therefore, sought to replace the older edition wherever it was in use and to displace competing books wherever possible. the edition of acquired large sales over a very wide territory in the central west and south. it is the edition generally known by the grandfathers of the school boys of the present day. it may be interesting to name some of the selections in this rhetorical guide issued in since in modified form the work has been the highest reader of the series. [selections of value] as a guide toward rhetorical reading the book contained a carefully prepared collection of rules and directions with examples for practice in articulation. inflection, accent and emphasis, reading verse, for the management of the voice and gesture. these pages were intended for drill work, and in those days the teachers were not content with the dull monotonous utterance of the words or with mere mastery of thought, to be tested by multitudinous questioning. if the pupil obtained from the printed page the very thought the author intended to convey, the pupil was expected to read orally so as to express that thought to all hearers. if the correct thought was thus heard, no questions were needed. the test of reading orally is the communication of thought by the reader to the intelligent and attentive hearer, and the words of the author carry this message more accurately than can any other words the pupil may select. [noted selections] the selections in the rhetorical guide were made, first of all, to teach the art of reading. there was therefore great variety. second, to inculcate a love for literature. therefore the selections were taken from the great writers,--poets, orators, essayists, historians, and preachers. the extracts are wonderfully complete in themselves,--one does not need to read the whole of byron's don juan to appreciate the six stanzas that describe the thunder-storm on the alps. of the poetical extracts all the users of this book will remember southey's "cataract of lodore" with its exacting drill on the ending,--"ing," longfellow's "village blacksmith" and the "reaper and the flowers;" bryant's "thanatopsis" and "song of the stars;" wolfe's "burial of sir john moore;" gray's "elegy;" mrs. hemans's "landing of the pilgrim fathers;" cowper's "my mother's picture;" jones's "what constitutes a state;" scott's "lochinvar;" halleck's "marco bozzaris;" drake's "american flag;" and mrs. thrale's "three warnings." as an introduction to the thought, imagery and diction of shakespeare, there were "hamlet's soliloquy," "speech of henry fifth to his troops," "othello's apology," "the fall of cardinal wolsey" and his death, the "quarrel of brutus and cassius" (often committed to memory and spoken) and antony's oration over dead caesar. the extracts from orations were chosen largely for their relation to great events in history. there were patrick henry's "speech before the virginia convention," walpole's "reproof of mr. pitt," and pitt's reply. who cannot remember "the atrocious crime of being a young man," and go on with the context? there were extracts from hayne's "speech on south carolina," and webster's reply defending massachusetts; a part of burke's long speech on the trial of warren hastings prefaced by macaulay's description of the scene; webster's "speech on the trial of a murderer," ending with "it must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession;" webster's speech on the importance of the union with its concluding sentiment, "liberty and union, now and forever; one and inseparable." there was also fox's "political pause" with its wonderful requirements of inflection to express irony; sprague's "american indians," "not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared." did you not commit it to memory and speak it? then there was webster's speech in which he supplied john adams from his own fervid imagination that favorite of all patriotic boys, "sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish; i give my hand and my heart to this vote." at its close, "it is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of god, it shall be my dying sentiment; independence now, and independence forever." [literary selections] from the essayists there was lamb's "eulogy on candle light;" that delightful "eulogy on debt" from an unknown author; addison's "allegory on discontent," and "westminster abbey;" and jane taylor's "discontented pendulum." only seven selections were taken from the bible; but one of these was paul's defense before agrippa. there were, however, quite a number of articles of strongly religious tendency, like dr. spring's "observance of the sabbath." the book contained two hundred and thirty-five selections and of this number nearly one-half appeared in all subsequent revisions. this rhetorical guide or fifth reader is the book that by its careful selection of specimens of the best english literature in prose and verse contributed most to the training of its readers toward the appreciation of true beauty in literature. it contained many pieces of solid and continuous worth,--many that relate closely to the great historical eras of the united states. [mcguffey's ancestry] in the latest revision of the highest reader, made in , one hundred and thirty-eight selections composed the book. of this number sixty-one were in the original book as prepared by mr. a.h. mcguffey. it was an admirable collection of much material that is still prized and which, when carefully read by pupils hungry for thoughtful language, made a deep and lasting impression. in many cases the inmost thought of the author may not have been at once fully apprehended by the young readers; but with advancing years and wider experience in life the stored words became instinct with thought and feeling. the authors. dr. william holmes mcguffey was born september , , on the southern border of washington county, pa. the family descended from william and anna (mckittrick) mcguffey who came from scotland, and landed at philadelphia. they made a home in the southern part of york county, at which, during the revolution, general washington often stopped to refresh himself. in this family removed to washington county, pa. [the indian scouts] alexander mcguffey, the father of dr. mcguffey, was six years old when the family came to america in august, . in , when he was twenty-two years of age, he and his friend, duncan mcarthur, afterward a governor of ohio, were selected from five young men who volunteered to act as scouts against the indians in ohio who were then threatening the frontier settlements in the western part of virginia and pennsylvania. these two young men were selected after tests by samuel brady to find which could run the fastest, shoot most accurately, and were least afraid of indians. alexander mcguffey served in the army three years, venturing his life with small bodies of scouts in the indian country. he took part in several fights with the indians. when general st. clair in marched north from cincinnati to meet the indians, this body of scouts was one day concealed in a swamp near the spring of castalia, ohio. there they saw great numbers of indians passing to meet general st. clair, and three of the scouts hastened through the indian country to inform the general. they traveled only at night and hid during the day. one night they marched forty miles. they told general st. clair what they had seen and again went out to watch the collecting indians. three days later st. clair was defeated. these scouts were then twelve miles away but the retreating soldiers soon overtook them and then the "woods were alive with indians." the scouts turned eastward and in due time reached logstown, near wheeling. [indian warfare] the next year mcarthur, mcguffey and george sutherland were again sent out by general wayne to spy the indians. when only seven or eight miles from wheeling and west of the ohio river, they came upon a trail which led to a deer lick. just at dusk mcguffey, who was leading the party, saw in the path the gaily decorated head-dress of an indian. it had been placed there by the indians who were in ambush close by and were ready to shoot any white man who should stop to pick it up. mcguffey saw through the stratagem instantly; without halting, he gave it a kick and shouted "indians!" several indians fired at once and one of the balls smashed mcguffey's powder horn, and passed through his clothing, but did not wound him. the three scouts retreated in safety, and the indians did not follow them. the wars with the indians in that region closed in , and alexander mcguffey then married anna holmes, of washington county, and became a settler. his eldest son was william holmes mcguffey. when this son was but two years old the family moved to trumbull county, ohio. here, in the care of a pious mother and father, he spent the years of childhood and of early manhood, performing the labors falling upon the eldest son in a large family of children dwelling in a log cabin on the frontier. from the heavy forest, fields were cleared, fenced and cultivated, roads were made and bridges were built, and in all these labors the sturdy son of the famous indian scout took part. [a frontier school] during the first eighteen years of w.h. mcguffey's life he had no opportunities for education other than those afforded by the brief winter schools supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the parents in the neighborhood. in rev. thos. hughes, a presbyterian clergyman, built at darlington, pa., the "old stone academy" for the education of young men, having obtained the necessary funds by traveling on horseback throughout pennsylvania and eastward even to newburyport, mass. this seminary of learning was conducted on lines of the utmost economy to meet the needs of the boys living on the frontier. the tuition was only three dollars a year and the charge for board was seventy-five cents a week. the food was simple. for breakfast, bread, butter, and coffee; for dinner, bread, meat, and sauce; for supper, bread and milk. the only variation allowed in this bill of fare was the occasional omission of sauce or coffee. [the old stone academy] at the close of a summer day in , thomas hughes was riding horseback through trumbull county. the dust on the highway deadened the sound of his horse's feet. while passing a log cabin, half hidden from the road by intervening trees and shrubs, he heard the plaintive voice of a woman who was in the garden, out of sight. the clergyman stopped his horse and listened. he heard the woman earnestly praying that some way might be opened for her children to obtain such education as should fit them for the duties of life. riding on, the clergyman inquired at the next house regarding the inmates of the log cabin. he was informed that a mr. mcguffey lived there. turning back he sought the prayerful mother and learned from her the circumstances of the family. the doors of the "old stone academy" were opened to william h. mcguffey and he there obtained his first start in a preparation for college. but his labor could not be wholly spared on the farm so lately won from the surrounding forest. he worked in the fields in summer, continuing his studies and walked many miles once a week to recite his lessons to a kindly clergyman. w.h. mcguffey's father was too poor to aid his son in obtaining a collegiate education, and the latter soon turned to teaching as a means of obtaining money to support himself in college. when prepared for college he went back to his native county and entered washington college. he was in his twenty-sixth year when he graduated with distinguished honors from that institution. it was at washington college that w.h. mcguffey first met with a great teacher and former of character,--dr. andrew wylie, then the president. it was considered by dr. mcguffey one of the most fortunate events of his life that he came at that time under the influence of dr. wylie's forceful mind and elevated character. [a college professor] dr. mcguffey was obliged to suspend his collegiate course for a year to earn more money for his support. he taught a private school at paris, ky., in and . there he met dr. robert h. bishop, the president of miami university at oxford, ohio. dr. bishop was so impressed with the character and mental power of the young teacher that on march , , even before mcguffey received his bachelor's degree from washington college, he received his appointment as professor of ancient languages at miami university. he graduated in and began his labor at oxford, ohio, at the opening of the fall session. he at once took high rank in a faculty consisting of strong men, and, young as he was, won the respect and homage of the students. in he was transferred to the chair of mental philosophy. to make this subject interesting and valuable to beginners requires, on the part of the teacher, wide reading, clearness of thought, and simplicity and directness of speech. these qualities dr. mcguffey had. he had become well read in philosophy, especially of the scottish school, brown being his favorite author. but he had fully assimilated the matter and had thought independently. he also had a fund of fresh and suggestive illustrations coming within the daily experience of men, which brought his lectures close to the minds of the students. whatever positions of honor or of trust his pupils held in their later careers, they never ceased to feel the impulse which came from dr. mcguffey as a teacher. on march , , he was licensed as a preacher in the presbyterian church, and from that date he became a frequent public speaker. he never had charge of a parish as minister, but usually preached on sunday in the college chapel to the students and to such of the public as could obtain space to sit or to stand. the preacher's unassuming manner, the clearness of his thought, and the simplicity of his language produced impressions that were enduring. he never wrote his sermons. he simply thought them out rigorously, and his mind worked so logically and in such definite lines that he could repeat on request a sermon, preached years before, in a form recognized by his hearers as substantially the same. [cincinnati college] after ten years spent in teaching and preaching at miami university, dr. mcguffey resigned, august , , and accepted the presidency of cincinnati college. this institution was chartered in the winter of - by the legislature of ohio, largely at the solicitation of dr. daniel drake. it was partially endowed by the gifts of the public-spirited citizens of cincinnati. but its collegiate functions had been allowed to drop, although a school on the lancastrian system was maintained. the election of dr. mcguffey as president of this college was a result of renewed activity on the part of the leading men in the city to found a genuine college of high character in that city. they believed that if well conducted such an institution would bring to its doors students enough to support the college by their fees. a medical department was organized in june, , with eight competent professors, a law department with three professors, and a faculty of arts with seven teachers. in this faculty, william h. mcguffey was president and professor of moral and intellectual philosophy, o.m. mitchell was professor of mathematics and astronomy, and edward d. mansfield was professor of constitutional law and history. dr. mcguffey accepted the presidency with a full knowledge that the work was experimental. a trial of three years demonstrated that a college could not be sustained without an invested endowment. cincinnati college "was endowed with genius, and nothing else." [ohio university] in , dr. mcguffey accepted the presidency of the ohio university at athens, ohio, which office he held for four years. during these years his faculties were at their fullest development. he had become an experienced, scholarly teacher and a popular speaker on religious and educational subjects. the students at athens held him in the highest esteem, and the influence of his teaching became deeper as years rolled by and experience emphasized his lessons. in he was honored with the degree of doctor of laws conferred upon him by the indiana university, of which his former teacher and friend, dr. wylie, was then president. the income of the ohio university came chiefly from the rents of two entire townships of land which had been given it for an endowment. this land was lawfully revalued at the end of ten years. the revaluation was contested in the courts by the tenants. the supreme court decided in favor of the university; but the farmers induced the legislature in to pass a law which fixed the income of the university from these lands at a sum so low as to cause the doors of the institution to be closed for five years. dr. mcguffey returned to cincinnati and was for two years a professor in woodward college, now woodward high school. [university of virginia] in he was appointed professor of natural and moral philosophy in the university of virginia. this position he filled with credit to himself and with great acceptance to the students in that institution for more than a quarter of a century and until his death on may , . dr. mcguffey's classes in the university of virginia were well attended. his lectures were delivered extempore, in language exactly expressing his thoughts. his illustrations were most apt. he taught "with the simplicity of a child, with the precision of a mathematician, and with the authority of truth." [method of teaching] a portion of the lecture hour was given to questioning the members of the class. in this he used the socratic method, leading the pupil by a series of questions to the discovery of the incorrectness of his reasoning or the falsity of his grounds. by this process the students were led to question their own reasoning, to think clearly and to express their thoughts accurately. dr. mcguffey once told a pupil that he had preached three thousand sermons and had never written one. until late in life he had never written his lectures. shortly before his death he began the preparation of a book on mental philosophy. this was never completed. dr. mcguffey was twice married. by his first wife. miss harriet spinning of dayton, he had several children. one daughter, mary, married dr. william w. stewart of dayton; another, henrietta, married professor a. d. hepburn who was for a time president of miami university. professor hepburn's son, in turn inheriting his grandfather's faculty of teaching, is a professor in the university of indiana. [interest in public schools] in professor calvin e. stowe went to europe to investigate the organization and method of elementary schools. on his return he published, in , his report on the prussian system. subsequently dr. mcguffey labored in ohio with samuel lewis and other public-spirited men for the passage of the general school law under which the common schools of ohio were first organized. he carried to virginia the same zeal for the education of all the children of the state to prepare them for the duties of life. one of his first acts on assuming the duties of his professorship in the university was to make a tour of the state advocating the introduction of a public school system in virginia. to this first appeal for common schools, open alike to rich and poor, there was then but a feeble response; but, twenty-five years later, dr. mcguffey had the satisfaction of seeing the public schools organized with one of his own friends and a former pupil at its head,--hon. w.h. ruffner. dr. mcguffey was a man of medium stature and compact figure. his forehead was broad and full; his eyes clear and expressive. his features were of the strongly marked rugged scotch type. he was a ready speaker, a popular lecturer on educational topics, and an able preacher. he was admirable in conversation. his observation of men was accurate, and his study of character close. [trip through the south] after the civil war and while the reconstruction was in progress it was extremely difficult in the north to obtain a correct view of the situation in the south. state governments had been established in which "carpet-baggers" had more or less control. nearly all the whites in the south had taken part in the war. they were largely disfranchised and their former servants often became the legal rulers. the klu klux klan had begun their unlawful work, of which the papers gave contradictory reports. as business men, the publishers of mcguffey's readers desired to learn the truth about the situation of the south and its probable future. they asked dr. mcguffey to take a trip through the carolinas, georgia, alabama, and mississippi and make report to them at cincinnati. this he did, visiting all the larger towns where he was usually the honored guest of some graduate of the university. he saw the legislatures in session, met the governors, and studied the whole situation. he then came to cincinnati and told his story. he had made no notes, but he never hesitated for a name. he repeated conversations with unquestioned accuracy and described with humor the gross ignorance and brutality of some of the southern legislators, the looting of the capitol at the end of the session, the indirect robbery that was under way, the reversal of all the conditions of life, and the growing unrest of the men who had heretofore been the rulers. it was such a picture as at that time no northern paper would have dared to print--it was the truth. for days he held his listeners captive with the story--the writer never heard a more interesting one. [college of teachers] while dr. mcguffey was still at oxford, ohio, he took part in the formation of probably the first extended teachers' association formed in the west. there had been a previous association of cincinnati teachers organized for mutual aid and improvement. this was about to be given up; but at their first anniversary on june , , mr. albert pickett, principal of a private school in cincinnati, proposed a plan for organizing in one body the instructors in public and private schools and the friends of education. circulars were sent out and the first meeting of the college of teachers was held october , . a great number of teachers from many states of the west and south attended these meetings and took part in the proceedings. throughout its continuance dr. mcguffey took an active part in the work. in the years - fifty-seven addresses were delivered to the college by thirty-nine speakers. of this number dr. mcguffey prepared and delivered three. [topics discussed] the proceedings of the college of teachers were published in annual pamphlets which together formed two large octavo volumes. the topics which were then under discussion are best shown by the titles of a few of the addresses, with the name of the speaker and the year of delivery: on introducing the bible into schools, rev. b.p. aydelott, ; importance of making the business of teaching a profession, lyman beecher, d.d., ; the kind of education adapted to the west, professor bradford, ; qualifications of teachers, mr. mann butler, ; physical education, dr. daniel drake, ; on popular education, john p. harrison, m.d., ; on the study and nature of ancient languages, a. kinmont, ; on common schools, samuel lewis, esq., ; on the qualifications of teachers, e.d. mansfield, esq., ; reciprocal duties of parents and teachers, rev. w.h. mcguffey, a.m., ; general duties of teachers, albert pickett, ; philosophy of the human mind, bishop purcell, ; utility of cabinets of natural science, joseph ray, ; agriculture as a branch of education, rev. e. slack, ; education of emigrants, professor calvin stowe, ; best method of teaching composition, d.l. talbott, ; manual labor in the schools, milo g. williams. some of these topics are still engrossing the attention of teachers at their annual meetings for the discussion of live educational questions. while dr. mcguffey was at oxford, teaching mental philosophy to the pupils in miami university, he prepared the manuscript for the two lower readers of the graded series which bore his name. to test his work while in progress, he collected in his own house a number of small children whom he taught to read by the use of his lessons. it is evident that these readers were prepared at the solicitation of the publishers and on such a general plan as to number and size as was desired by the publishers. dr. mcguffey was selected by them as the most competent teacher known to them for the preparation of successful books. he did not prepare the manuscripts and search for a publisher. [the copyright contract] on april , , he made a contract with truman & smith, publishers of cincinnati, for the preparation and publication of a graded series of readers to consist of four books. the first and second readers were then in manuscript, the third and fourth readers were to be completed within eighteen months. they were both issued in . dr. benjamin chidlaw, then a student in college, aided the author by copying the indicated selections and preparing them for the printer. he received for this work five dollars and thought himself well paid. these four books constituted the original series of the eclectic readers by w.h. mcguffey which in all the subsequent revisions have borne his name and retained the impress of his mind. the first reader made a thin mo book of seventy-two pages, having green paper covered sides; the second reader contained one hundred and sixty-four pages of the same size. the third reader had a larger page and was printed as a duodecimo of one hundred and sixty-five pages. the fourth reader ranked in size with the third and contained three hundred and twenty-four printed pages. each was printed from the type, which was distributed when the required number for the edition came from the press. by the terms of the contract the publishers paid a royalty of ten per cent on all copies sold until the copyright should reach the sum of one thousand dollars, after which the readers became the absolute property of the publishers. it must be remembered that in those days this sum of money seemed much larger than it would at the present time, and it may be questioned whether this newly organized firm of publishers commanded as much as a thousand dollars in their entire business. at any rate the contract was mutually satisfactory and remained so to the end of the author's life. right here it seems proper to remark that although the mcguffey readers became the property of the publishers when the royalties reached one thousand dollars. dr. mcguffey was employed by the publishers in connection with important revisions so long as he lived and the contracts specify a "satisfactory consideration" in each case. [later contracts] when, after the civil war, these readers attained a sale which became very profitable to the firm then owning the copyrights, the partners, without suggestion or solicitation, fixed upon an annuity which was paid dr. mcguffey each year so long as he lived. this was a voluntary recognition of their esteem for the man and of the continued value of his work. [the beecher family] before dr. mcguffey completed the manuscripts of the third and fourth readers he left oxford and went to cincinnati. here he found himself in close touch with a community fully alive to the claims of education. cincinnati, in , was the largest city in the west excepting new orleans and was the great educational center of the west. the early settlers of cincinnati were generally well educated men and they had a keen sense of the value of learning. the public schools of cincinnati were then more highly developed than those of any other city in the west. woodward high school had been endowed and dr. joseph ray, the author of the well known arithmetics, was the professor of mathematics there. the cincinnati college was then bright with the promise of future usefulness. lane seminary was founded and dr. lyman beecher was inducted professor of theology on december , , and became the first president. he went to cincinnati with his brilliant family. his eldest daughter, catherine, had already won a high reputation as a teacher, acting as principal of the hartford (conn.) female institute. his younger daughter, harriet, married, in january, , calvin e. stowe, then one of the professors in lane seminary. it was while in cincinnati that she gathered material and formed opinions which she later embodied in "uncle tom's cabin." in henry ward beecher graduated at amherst college. he and his brother, charles, then went to cincinnati to study theology under their father. while pursuing his studies henry ward beecher devoted his surplus energies to editorial work on the cincinnati daily journal. these were some of the people of cincinnati interested in the problem of education who took part with dr. mcguffey in the discussions of the college of teachers and labored zealously for the promotion of education in every department. while president of lane seminary. dr. beecher was also the pastor of the second presbyterian church in cincinnati where w.b. smith was an attendant. [alexander h. mcguffey] dr. mcguffey left cincinnati in , and when the publisher, mr. winthrop b. smith, found it necessary to add to the four mcguffey's readers another more advanced book, he employed for its preparation, mr. alexander h. mcguffey, a younger brother of dr. mcguffey. mr. alexander h. mcguffey had, in , prepared for messrs. truman & smith the manuscript of mcguffey's eclectic spelling book, and although the nature of this task was very different from the preparation of a reader for the highest grades in the elementary schools, the result showed that the publishers judged wisely in selecting a man competent to prepare a selection from english literature. [illustration: alexander h. mcguffey] mr. alexander hamilton mcguffey was born august , , in trumbull county, ohio. he was sixteen years younger than his brother, william, and when only ten years of age was placed under charge of his brother at oxford, ohio. there he studied hebrew before he had any knowledge of the grammar of his mother tongue. he was a brilliant student, and he graduated from miami university at the age of sixteen. soon after graduation he was appointed professor of belles lettres at woodward college. in this field of labor his knowledge of english literature was broadened and he acquired a love for the classic english writers that lasted through life. but mr. mcguffey determined to become a lawyer and, while still teaching english literature in woodward college, he read law. he was admitted to the bar as soon as he reached his twenty-first year, and became a noted and wise counsellor. his labor for his clients was in keeping them out of the courts by clearly expressed contracts and prudent action. he was seldom engaged in jury trials; but was expert in cases involving contracts and wills. in such suits his knowledge of the principles of law and his power of close reasoning were valuable. he was often placed in positions of trust, and was for more than fifty years the watchful guardian of the interests of the cincinnati college. [the rhetorical guide] he prepared the manuscript of the rhetorical guide after the close of his labor as a teacher. the work probably occupied his leisure time in a law office before he acquired remunerative practice in his profession. [mcguffey's sixth reader] the contract between mr. a.h. mcguffey and w.b. smith, dated september , , provided for the preparation within eighteen months, of the manuscript of a book to be called mcguffey's rhetorical reader, or by any other appropriate name which mr. smith might select. it was to contain not less than three hundred and twenty-four duodecimo pages nor more than four hundred and eighty. mr. smith paid five hundred dollars for it, in three notes payable in three, twelve, and eighteen months after the delivery of the manuscript. the book was issued in as mcguffey's rhetorical guide. its material, revised by its author, later became, in modified form, the fifth reader in the five-book series, and again much of the same material was used in the sixth reader published first in . mr. a.h. mcguffey died at his home on mt. auburn, cincinnati, on june , . he was twice married. his first wife, married in , was miss elizabeth m. drake, daughter of the eminent dr. daniel drake. after her death he married miss caroline v. rich of boston. he had a large family. a son, charles d. mcguffey. esq., lives at chattanooga, tenn. mr. a.h. mcguffey was a noteworthy figure in any assemblage of men. he was tall, slender and erect. his manner was urbane and reserved. he served on many charitable and educational boards and was attentive to his trusts. he was an active member of the episcopalian church, being many years a warden in his parish, and frequently a delegate to the diocesan convention, where he was a recognized authority on ecclesiastical law. in a life of nearly eighty years in which he was active in many educational and beneficent enterprises his early work in the preparation of the rhetorical guide probably exercised the widest, the best, and the most enduring influence. many of the newspapers in all parts of the country published notices of his death, recognizing in kindly terms the service that had been rendered the writers by the schoolbook of which he was the author. the publishers and editors. since the mcguffey readers became at an early day the absolute property of their publishers, they became responsible for all subsequent revisions and corrections of the books. [truman & smith] the firm of truman & smith was organized about by william b. truman and winthrop b. smith. both had had some experience in the business of selling books. it is highly probable that this firm became for a short time the western agent for some schoolbooks made in the east. but mr. smith soon perceived a distinct demand for a series adapted to the western market and supplied near at hand. he had the courage to follow his convictions. mr. winthrop b. smith was born in stamford, conn., september , , the son of anthony and rebecca (clarke) smith. he was, in his youth, an employee in a book-house in new haven. at the age of eighteen he went to cincinnati, declaring that he would not return to his home until he was independent. he labored there fourteen years before he returned, not rich, but established in an independent career. he often declared that until , he was "insolvent, but no one knew it." before entering business, mr. smith received a sound common school education. this, grounded on a nature well endowed with common sense, great energy, and strong determination, qualified him for success in business. he became a man of great originality, clear-headed and far-sighted. toward his employees he was just, but exacting. he was a good judge of the character and qualities of other men, and was thus able to bring to his aid competent assistants who were loyal and effective. mr. smith married in cincinnati on november th, , mary sargent. he died in philadelphia, december th, , in his th year. of his family, one son is a banker in philadelphia. [their first publications] the firm of truman & smith published several miscellaneous books, mostly reprints of standard works likely to have a steady sale. their first venture in a copyrighted book was "the child's bible with plates; by a lady of cincinnati," which was entered on june , . on june st of the same year the firm entered the titles of three books: "mason's sacred harp," a collection of church music by lowell mason of boston, and timothy b. mason of cincinnati; "introduction to ray's eclectic arithmetic," by dr. joseph ray; and "english grammar on the productive system," by roswell c. smith. of these four books the arithmetic was issued on july , . it was the firm's first schoolbook. in revised and enlarged form it later became the first book in the successful series of "ray's arithmetics." but even in those early days, books would not sell themselves unless their qualities were made known to the public. agents had to be employed--and at first mr. smith was his own best agent. there were expenses for travel and for sample books, for advertising, as well as for printing and binding. [illustration: w.b. smith] the truman and smith team did not always pull together. mr. truman was not versed in the schoolbook business. mr. smith was. [the dissolution] it is said that mr. smith went early one morning to their humble shop on the second floor of no. main street, and made two piles of sample books. in one he put all the miscellaneous publications of the firm, big and little--the child's bible and sacred harp among them--and on top of the pile placed all the cash the firm possessed; in the other, were half a dozen small text books, including the four mcguffey readers. when mr. truman arrived, mr. smith expressed the desire to dissolve the partnership, showed the two piles and offered mr. truman his choice. he pounced on the cash and the larger pile and left the insignificant schoolbooks for mr. smith, who thereupon became the sole owner of mcguffey's readers. this separation of the partnership took place in and although there is no documentary evidence of the exact method in which it was brought about, the division of assets was in accord with the spirit of the incident as handed down by tradition. [a lesson in copyright law] mr. truman's apparent disgust with the schoolbook business may have come in part from a lawsuit in which his firm was made a defendant. sooner or later, publishers are quite likely to obtain some elementary instructions as to the meaning and intent of the copyright law through action taken in court. messrs. truman & smith took a lesson in . on october st of that year benjamin f. copeland and samuel worcester brought suit in the court of the united states against truman & smith and william h. mcguffey for infringement of copyright, alleging that material had been copied from worcester's second, third, and fourth readers and that even the plan of the two latter readers had been pirated. a temporary injunction was issued december , ; but before that date the mcguffey readers had been carefully compared with the worcester readers and every selection was removed that seemed in the slightest degree an invasion of the previous copyright of the worcester readers. as these mcguffey books were still not stereotyped, it cost no more to set up new matter than to reset the old. on the title page of each book appeared the words, "revised and improved edition," and two pages in explanation and defense were inserted. in these the publishers stated that certain compilers of schoolbooks, in new england, felt themselves aggrieved that the mcguffey books contained a portion of matter similar to their own which was considered common property, and had instituted legal proceedings against them with a view to the immediate suppression of the mcguffey books and in the meantime had provided supplies of the worcester books to meet the demand of the west. [avoidance of issue] no objection was raised to meeting these compilers on their own grounds; but for both parties there was another tribunal than the law. "the public never choose schoolbooks to please compilers." they stated that to place themselves entirely in the right and remove every cause for cavil or complaint they had expunged everything claimed as original, and substituted other matter, which, both for its fitness and variety would add to the value of the eclectic readers. throughout this preface, after stating the facts regarding the suit, there was a strong claim for the support of western enterprise. although in this appeal the publishers stated that the correspondences between the two series were "few and immaterial," a careful comparison of the early edition of the second reader with the "revised and improved edition" shows that mr. smith took out seventeen selections and inserted in their places new matter. to an unprejudiced examiner it appears that the new matter was better than the old. the old marked copy of worcester's second reader, preserved for all these years, shows ten pieces that were used in both books. it thus appears that the publisher took this opportunity to improve the books as well as to make them unassailable under the copyright law. in three months between the bringing of the suit and the granting of an injunction, mr. smith had made his improved edition safe and rendered the injunction practically void. [the suit settled] the court proceeded in the usual manner and appointed a master to examine the books and make report to ascertain what damage had been inflicted on the owners of the worcester readers. but mr. smith was an attendant in church and doubtless had heard dr. beecher read, "agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison," and he had no desire to remain there until he had "paid the uttermost farthing." when the master, in the leisurely execution of his duty, made his report nearly two years later, the court found that the defendants had removed from their books the pirated parts and that the suit had been settled by paying the plaintiffs two thousand dollars. there was no further contest about the plan of the two books. the worcester readers had a short and inconspicuous life. when this suit was brought, their publishers were richardson, lord and holbrook of boston. in charles j. hendee published them, and in they appeared with the name of jenks, hickling & swan of boston. these several publishers were probably gobbled up by some imaginary book trust sixty years ago. dr. mcguffey undoubtedly inserted these selections innocent of any wrong intent and supposed them to be in common use. [early popular schoolbooks] as early as the success of the eclectic readers was sufficient to excite imitation and in the first reader of that year mr. smith printed four preliminary pages warning his patrons not to be deceived by "newman's southern eclectic readers." in the first century after the settlement of this country the new england primer had a history which in some respects resembles that of the mcguffey readers. in that case, the settlers were widely removed from the source of supply which had in past years served their needs. the primer was strongly religious and fully in accord with the faith of the people. it served as a first book in reading and was followed by the bible. this primer was not protected by copyright and any enterprising bookseller or printer in a remote town could manufacture an edition to supply the local demand. the excessive cost of transportation was thus avoided. [changed conditions] somewhat similar causes contributed to the widespread use and long-continued demands for webster's spelling book, which was copyrighted. this book had the support of the authority of webster's dictionary--an original american work; and it soon became a staple article of merchandise which was kept in stock in every country store. it supplanted the new england primer and became the first book in the hands of every pupil. less marked in its religious instruction, the speller spread through the south and into regions where the people were not trained in the puritan doctrines. the wonderful sales of webster's spelling book remained for many years after the war; but have now dropped to insignificance. it is not probable that other books will under present conditions repeat the history of these books. there is now no wide region of fertile country rapidly filling with settlers and separated from their former sources of supply by great distance and by mountain ranges unprovided with passable roads. even the more newly settled regions of the country are reached by railroads and the parts early settled are covered by a network of railroads, of telegraph and telephone wires which bring the consumer and the producer near together. in the manufacture of books as with most other articles, machinery has taken the place of hand work. when w.b. smith carried on his business in the second story over a small shop on main street, cincinnati, nearly every process in the manufacture of a book was mere hand labor. the tools employed were of the simplest character. now a book-factory is filled with heavy machines of the most complicated kind, which in many cases feed themselves from stocks of material placed upon them. new machines are constantly being invented to cheapen and perfect the manufacture. thus a very large investment of capital is now required to set up and maintain a plant which can produce books economically and with perfect finish in every part. books are seldom manufactured in places remote from the large cities and very few of the publishers of schoolbooks make the books which they sell. they contract for them with printers and binders. [stereotyped editions] the first four editions of mcguffey's readers were printed from the actual type, as all books were once printed; but before the readers were produced from stereotyped plates. the use of such plates enabled the publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in substance as those already in use. since that date electrotype plates have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression and endure more wear. in a first reader printed in the fall of there are two pages of advertising matter in which truman & smith claimed to have sold , of the eclectic series. this book is bound with board sides and a muslin back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put upon books of this class." this statement was unquestionably true. the leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the saying, "there is nothing like leather." [dr. pinneo, editor] it is said that mr. smith, in the early days of his career as a publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience showed were needed; but, about , he employed dr. timothy stone pinneo to act under his direction in literary matters. [dr. pinneo's work] dr. pinneo was the eldest son of the rev. bezaleel pinneo, an early graduate of dartmouth college, who was for more than half a century pastor of the first congregational church in milford, conn. dr. pinneo was born at milford in february, . his mother was a woman of culture, mary, only daughter of the rev. timothy stone of lebanon, conn., a graduate of yale college. dr. pinneo graduated at yale in the class of . a severe illness in the winter after his graduation made it necessary for him to spend his winters in the south until his health was sufficiently restored to enable him to pursue the study of medicine. he taught for a time in the charlotte hall institute, maryland, and then removed to ohio. he acted one year as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in marietta college. he studied medicine in cincinnati and received the degree of doctor of medicine from the ohio medical college in . on june , , he married jeanette linsley, daughter of rev. dr. joel h. linsley, at one time president of marietta college. dr. pinneo was for eighteen years a resident in cincinnati. in he went to greenwich, conn., where he was occupied in literary work and in the conduct of a boys' boarding school. in , after his wife's death, he removed to norwalk, conn., where he died august , . two daughters and a son survived him. dr. pinneo contributed materially to the revisions of mcguffey's readers made in and in ; but both these revisions passed through the hands of dr. mcguffey, then at the university of virginia, and were approved by him. it does not appear that dr. pinneo exercised any personal authority over the readers. he was employed, for moderate amounts, to prepare revisions which were satisfactory to both publisher and author. in the revision of , his work was confined to the third and fourth readers. the first and second readers were remade by daniel g. mason, then a teacher in the schools of cincinnati. in the revision of the entire series passed through dr. pinneo's hands. he probably corrected the proof sheets. dr. pinneo's latest work on the mcguffey readers was done in . after leaving cincinnati, dr. pinneo prepared, and mr. smith published, a series of grammars--the analytical, issued in , and the primary, in . he was also the author of a high school reader and of hemans's young ladies' readers. these books had for some years a considerable sale. [obed j. wilson] as early as mr. obed j. wilson was in the office of mr. smith as an employee. mr. wilson was born in bingham, maine, in , and earned his first money as an axman in the pine forests which were in that day near his native town. he obtained, in the common schools, sufficient education to become a teacher and he never ceased to be a student, thus acquiring a broad acquaintance with english literature. he taught in the schools of cincinnati when he first went west. there his abilities soon attracted the attention of mr. smith, who employed him. for some years he traveled as an agent, chiefly in indiana and wisconsin, introducing the books of the eclectic series. he gradually became mr. smith's trusted assistant, particularly in the direction of the work of agents and in the selection of new books, and their adaptation to the demands of the field. he married miss amanda landrum, who was also a skilled teacher in the cincinnati schools. mrs. wilson was responsible for a revision of the mcguffey first reader made in . she also at that time corrected the plates of the higher numbers of the series. for many years thereafter mr. wilson was the chief authority for mr. smith and his successors in literary matters, and few men excelled him in breadth of reading and in discriminating taste. mr. wilson lives in his home near cincinnati which is filled with the choice books which he has read and studied so faithfully, and he still has the companionship of the wife who has been his constant helpmate for more than half a century. mr. winthrop b. smith was the sole proprietor of the mcguffey readers and his other publications from until about . he then admitted as partners, edward sargent and daniel bartow sargent, his wife's brothers, and the firm name became w.b. smith & co. [eastern publishers] while books could be manufactured in the west even in the early years cheaper than they could be delivered in the west from the better organized establishments in the older cities of the east, it was not possible to deliver books in new york from cincinnati so cheaply as the books could be made in the east. the cost of transportation constituted a very considerable element in the price of schoolbooks. mr. smith therefore made an arrangement with clark, austin & smith, of new york, to become the eastern publishers of the mcguffey readers and other books, and a duplicate set of plates was sent to new york. from these plates, editions of the readers were manufactured, largely at claremont, n.h., bearing on the title page the imprint of clark, austin & smith, new york. the smith of this firm was cornelius smith, a brother of winthrop b. smith. cornelius smith withdrew from this firm before . in that year the war broke out, and this new york firm, which as booksellers and stationers had a large trade in the south, lost not only their custom in that section, but were unable to collect large amounts due them for goods. clark, austin, maynard & co. failed and mr. w.b. smith bought, in , all their assets for the sum of $ , , placed mr. w.b. thalheimer in charge of the business and resumed control of the duplicate plates of the mcguffey readers. from the location of cincinnati on the ohio river, then affording the cheapest means of distributing goods to all parts of the south, mr. smith had obtained, before , a very considerable part of the schoolbook trade in the southern states of the mississippi valley. the opening of the civil war swept this trade away and left on the books of the firm in cincinnati many accounts not then collectible. the continuance of the war and the constant fluctuations in the price of materials, due to the use of paper money, joined to advancing age and ill health, all combined to lead mr. smith to withdraw from business. [new firm formed] a new firm, sargent, wilson & hinkle, was organized april , , with edward sargent, obed j. wilson and anthony h. hinkle as general partners, and with w.b. smith and d.b. sargent as special partners. these active partners had long been in this business, mr. sargent as a partner and bookkeeper, mr. wilson as literary editor of skill and judgment and also a forceful manager of agents, mr. hinkle as a thoroughly skilled binder and manufacturer. winthrop b. smith and d.b. sargent remained as special partners, furnishing capital but taking no part in the direction of the business. [southern reprint] the confederate states, at the opening of the war, had within their limits no publisher of schoolbooks which had extensive sales. nearly all of the schoolbooks used in the south were printed in the north. but there were printing offices and binderies in the south. the children continued to go to school, and the demand for schoolbooks soon became urgent. to meet this demand, a few new schoolbooks were made and copyrighted under the laws of the confederacy; but others were reprints of northern books such as were in general use. the methodist book concern of nashville, tenn., reprinted the mcguffey readers and supplied the region south and west of nashville until the federal line swept past that city. this action on the part of the methodist book concern had the effect of preserving the market for these readers, so that as soon as any part of the south was strongly occupied by the federal forces, orders came to the cincinnati publishers for fresh supplies of the mcguffey readers. this unexpected preservation of trade was of great benefit to the firm of sargent, wilson & hinkle. [wilson, hinkle & co.] in the special interests were closed out, and mr. lewis van antwerp was admitted as a partner. on april , , the firm of sargent, wilson & hinkle was dissolved. mr. sargent retired and the new firm, wilson, hinkle & co., bought all the assets. at this date mr. robert quincy beer became a partner. mr. beer had long been a trusted and successful agent and he was put in charge of the agency department. under this partnership the business gradually became systematized in departments. one partner had in charge the reading of manuscripts and the placing of accepted works in book form, one had charge of the manufacture of books from plates provided by the first, and one of finding a market for the books. at the first organization of the firm of wilson, hinkle & co., mr. wilson was the literary manager as well as the director of agency work. mr. hinkle was the manufacturer, having control of the printing and binding, and mr. van antwerp had charge of the accounts. mr. beer was brought in to relieve mr. wilson in the direction of agents. but mr. beer died suddenly, january , , and the surviving partners soon sought for another competent and experienced man to take his place. [van antwerp, bragg & co.] mr. caleb s. bragg had for years acted as the agent for a list of books selected by him from the publications of two or three publishers and was a partner in the firm of ingham & bragg, booksellers of cleveland, ohio. mr. bragg sold his interest in the business in cleveland and became a partner in wilson, hinkle & co., on april , ; and at the same time henry h. vail and robert f. leaman, who had for some years been employees, were each given an interest in the profits although not admitted as full partners until three years later. mr. hinkle's eldest son, a. howard hinkle, was brought up in the business, and the contract for provided that he should be admitted as a partner, with his father's interest and in his place, when that contract expired in . the contract of was preparatory to the voluntary retirement of both mr. wilson and mr. hinkle. consequently, on april , , the firm of wilson, hinkle & co. was dissolved and the business was purchased by the new firm. van antwerp, bragg & co., of which lewis van antwerp, caleb s. bragg, henry h. vail, robert f. leaman, a. howard hinkle, and harry t. ambrose were the partners. this firm continued unchanged until january , , except for the untimely death of mr. leaman on december , , and the retirement of mr. van antwerp, january , , just previous to the sale of the copyrights and plates owned by the firm to the american book company. this sale, completed may , , did not then include the printing office and bindery belonging to the firm. these were used by the firm of van antwerp, bragg & co. until january , , in manufacturing books ordered by the american book company. the american book company became, on may , , the owners, by purchase, of all the copyrights and plates formerly owned by van antwerp, bragg & co. the four active partners in that firm, each of whom had then been in the schoolbook business some twenty-five or thirty years, entered the employ of the american book company. mr. bragg and mr. hinkle remained in charge of the cincinnati business, mr. vail and mr. ambrose went to new york; the former as editor in chief, the latter was at first treasurer, but later became the president. [a vigorous firm] van antwerp, bragg & co. issued many new and successful books and remade many, including the mcguffey readers and speller, ray's arithmetics and harvey's grammars. most of these met with acceptance and this was so full and universal throughout the central west as to give opportunity to the competing agents of other houses to honor van antwerp, bragg & co. with such titles as "octopus" and "monopoly," names that were used before "trusts" were invented. they also called the firm in chosen companies, "van anteup, grabb & co." these were mere playful or humorous titles in recognition of the fact that this firm had, by its industry, skill and energy, captured a larger share of the patronage of the people than was agreeable to its competitors, and they, in despair of success by fair means, resorted to the old-fashioned method of calling their antagonist bad names. the best books, if pressed vigorously and intelligently, were sure to win in the end, and the people who used the books cared little what name appeared at the foot of the title-page. in all important book contests the firm that holds possession of the field is much in the situation of the tallest man in a kilkenny fair. his head sticks up above the crowd and therefore gets the most knocks. [revisers and editors] the latest revision of the mcguffey readers, five books, was prepared and published by the american book company in , under the same general direction as the revision of ; but the actual work was done by dr. james baldwin who was the author of the harper readers and of baldwin's readers. even in this latest edition there are in the higher books many selections that appeared in the earliest. care was taken to maintain the high moral tone that so clearly marked dr. mcguffey's work and to bring in from later literature some valuable new material to displace that which had proved less interesting and less instructive. these books acquired at once a large sale, and the sales of the previous editions are still remunerative. of the men connected with these successive owners of these copyrights it seems proper to name those who directed the revisions which took place. it is evident that none were undertaken without long and anxious discussions as to the need of revision and of its nature. in such decisions all partners would take part; but finally the actual direction must come into the hands of some one partner whose experience and qualification best fitted him for literary work. as has been seen, mr. winthrop b. smith was for a few years, while the business was still in its infancy, the sole owner and the manager of every part of his business. mr. pinneo contributed aid from to ; but even before his work was finished mr. o.j. wilson's skill became recognized and his mind was dominant in literary matters so long as he remained a partner--until . but in the meantime he had carefully trained a successor in the editorial work, and from until the responsibility fell upon him. [new competitors] the story of the revisions of and has been told. the books were apparently in satisfactory use in a large part of the west; but about the firm thought it wise to exploit a new series. at its request mr. thomas w. harvey prepared a series consisting of five books. this series was published in ; but the experience of a few years with the harvey readers showed that the people still preferred the mcguffey readers and after long discussion and hesitation it was agreed that these should again be revised. this determination was hastened by the publication of the appleton readers in , and by the incoming of a number of skilled agents pushing these books in the field that had for many years been held so strongly for the mcguffey readers as to baffle the best endeavors of two or three eastern publishers who had tested the market. the appleton readers were prepared by mr. andrew j. rickoff, then superintendent of the cleveland schools; mr. william t. harris, then superintendent of the st. louis schools, and professor mark bailey of yale college. they were largely aided in the lower readers by mrs. rickoff. these books, with this array of scholarly and well-known authors, illustrated with carefully prepared engravings, well printed and well bound, became at once formidable competitors for patronage and went into use in many places where the mcguffey readers had served at least two generations of pupils. the harvey readers stood no chance in this competition. [the revision of ] on april , , the firm of van antwerp, bragg & co. determined upon making a new series of readers bearing the well-recognized title of mcguffey's eclectic readers and distinguished as a "revised edition." some details of the plan as presented by the partner having literary matters in charge were agreed to. the method of teaching in the first reader was to be adjusted to a phonic-word method, and the gradation was to be improved. the selections of the older books were to be retained except where they could be improved. in accordance with this resolution the editor invited four persons to aid, during the summer, in this work. these were thomas w. harvey of painesville, ohio; robert w. stevenson, of columbus; edwin c. hewett, of bloomington, ill.; and miss amanda funnelle, of terre haute, indiana. each was a teacher of wide experience. to these assistants assembled in cincinnati the plan of revision was fully explained and the work was alloted. miss funnelle and mr. stevenson took charge of the first three readers, mr. harvey and dr. hewett of the three higher books. all were perfectly familiar with the old books and in a few days substantial agreement was reached as to the changes needed. by two months of constant and intelligent labor the manuscripts assumed approximate form. the opening of the schools called the assistants back to their homes and the editor of the firm shaped the manuscripts for the text and procured the necessary illustrations. these were made, regardless of cost, by the best artists and engravers to be found in the country. when the plates were finished, the publishers printed several hundred copies of each of the three smaller books and distributed them as proofs to selected teachers in many states, asking them for criticisms and suggestions. the answers made were of great value. the first reader was entirely re-written by the editor and the plates of other readers were made more perfect. in this revision the three lower books were almost entirely new. the fourth was largely new matter, while in the fifth and sixth such matter as could not be improved from the entire field of literature, was retained. the fifth and sixth readers furnished brief biographies of each author and contained notes explanatory of the text. these were new features and they proved valuable at that date. [preparations for a fight] as soon as these books were completed, large editions were printed and they were most vigorously exploited not only to take the place of the older edition of mcguffey readers, but to supplant the newly introduced appleton readers. this book-fight was a long and bitter one. every device known to the agency managers of the houses engaged was employed. even exchanges of books became common. it was war; and like every war was carried on for victory and not for profit. it is perhaps fortunate that such contests cannot in the nature of things last long. in the long run business must show a profit or fail. contrary to popular opinion, a book war is not profitable in itself; but it is a form of competition that has existed for fully a century. it presents no novelties even now. [success attained] the two chief combatants at length withdrew with one accord. neither firm could claim entire victory; but the mcguffey readers came through with much the larger sales and these increased for years. by this contest the firm of van antwerp, bragg & co. won a reputation as fighters that protected them in after years from ill-considered attacks by its competitors. the revised edition of the mcguffey readers, having no author's name on the title page, designed and compiled under the direction of the publishers, but retaining the moral excellences and literary qualities that had been affixed to the series from its origin, attained the largest sales that have as yet been accorded by the public to a single series of books. of the sixth reader, which must have the least sale, over a million copies have been distributed, as shown by the edition number. of the first reader more than eight million copies have been used. [other competitors] at no time in the history of these readers have they been without formidable competition. pickett's readers were published in cincinnati as early as . albert pickett was at one time president of the college of teachers and his books were published by john w. pickett, who was probably his brother. later some additional books were prepared by john w. pickett, m.d., ll.d., and published by u.p. james in , and by j. earnst in . these readers were vigorously pushed into the market for several years, but in the end were unsuccessful. the goodrich readers published by morton & griswold in louisville, ky., were perhaps the most constant competitors with the mcguffey readers in the early years throughout the states of the mississippi valley. these were prepared by s.g. goodrich, the author of the then popular "peter parley tales." the readers were originally published in boston and some copies bear the imprint of otis, broaders & co. they were first copyrighted in and were frequently revised. they finally became the property of the louisville publisher. mr. smith and mr. morton kept up a most vigorous schoolbook war, especially in ohio, indiana and kentucky in the years from to . cobb's readers, copyrighted in , were published for some time in cincinnati by b. davenport. these were once widely introduced but soon went out of use. it was very much the custom in those early days, before the railroads made transportation quick and cheap for eastern publishers to furnish a set of plates to some enterprising bookseller in the west or to print an edition for him with his imprint. ebenezer porter's rhetorical reader copyrighted in was sold largely in the western market by william h. moore, of cincinnati, and in the books bore his imprint. thus there was ample competition for the market even at this early date. the pickett readers, cobb readers, goodrich readers, and even the excellent rhetorical reader of ebenezer porter were all swept out of the schools by the superior qualities of the mcguffey readers and the persistent energies of their publishers. [humorous advertising] in these books the publishers found space for a little advertising of their wares. in pickett's readers there is printed conspicuously at the top of a page a warm commendation of pickett's readers, written in by william h. mcguffey, professor at miami university, in which he "considers them superior to any other works i have seen." that was before he made his own readers. mr. smith responded by publishing a strong commendation of one of his books signed by mr. albert pickett. life is seldom devoid of the lesser amenities. the willson readers, published by the harper brothers, were vigorously pushed into the schools of ohio and indiana about . the first supply was usually sold to the school authorities by agents who operated on the commission plan. thus the agents had an interest in the introduction sales, but cared nothing about the continuance of sales in after years. booksellers, meanwhile, kept the mcguffey readers in stock, and whenever new readers were desired these were easily obtained. in a few years the willson readers were out of the schools. of course, there was no lack of traveling agents and of circulars which freely criticised these willson readers, which were constructed to teach not only reading but science. after a short time the children wearied of reading about bugs and beetles they had never seen and gladly welcomed the books that had a single aim. [enduring qualities] in the eyes of a publisher a good schoolbook is one that can be readily introduced and one that will stay when it is put in use. the officials who adopt a schoolbook are not the users of the book. they are adults long past the school age. cases have been known when in important adoptions the majority of the adopting board had not seen the inside of a school room for twenty-five years. of course such men are far behind the schools. they are governed by their own past experience. when the teachers are allowed to have a voice in the way of advice, the real needs of the pupils obtain more consideration. but the final real judge of the merits of a schoolbook is the boy or girl who uses it. if the book is truly pedagogical, adjusted in every part to the average mental development of the child, it becomes a valuable tool in the school room. if on the other hand it is a mere collection of novelties such as catch the eye of inexpert judges and impress merely the imagination, the books may be introduced; but they won't stay. [child nature] the mcguffey readers had staying qualities. teachers often became so familiar with their contents that they needed no book in their hands to correct the work, but to each child the contents of the book were new and fresh. it is the fashion of the present day to exalt the new at the expense of the old. but the child of today is very much such as socrates and plato studied in greece. the development of the human mind may be more generally understood than it was then; but it may be doubted whether the mass of teachers are today wiser in the results of child-study than were the philosophers of ancient days. child nature remains the same. at a given stage in his upward progress, he is interested in much the same things. he is led to think for himself in much the same way, and the whole end and aim of education is to lead toward self activity. the readers that deal simply with facts--information readers--may lodge in the minds of children some scraps of encyclopedic information which may in future life become useful. but the readers that rouse the moral sentiments, that touch the imagination, that elevate and establish character by selections chosen from the wisest writers in english in all the centuries that have passed since our language assumed a comparatively fixed literary form, have a much more valuable function to perform. character is more valuable than knowledge and a taste for pure and ennobling literature is a safeguard for the young that cannot be safely ignored. the success of the mcguffey readers was due primarily to their adaptation to the general demand of the schools and secondarily to the energy and skill of their publishers. [moral teaching] the books in their first form were strongly religious in their teaching without being denominational. if a selection taught a moral lesson this was stated in formal words at the close. the pill was not sugared. thus at the close of a lesson narrating the results of disobedience, the three little girls assembled and "they were talking how happy it made them to keep the fifth commandment." there was in the books much direct teaching of moral principles, with "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not." in the later revisions this gradually disappeared. the moral teaching was less direct but more effective. the pupil was left to make his own deduction and the formal "haec fabula docet" was omitted. the author and the publishers were fully justified in their firm belief that the american people are a moral people and that they have a strong desire that their children be taught to become brave, patriotic, honest, self-reliant, temperate, and virtuous citizens. in some of these books the retail price is printed. in the retail price of the first reader was twelve and a half cents. it contained pages. in the same year, the second reader of pages was priced at cents. the fourth reader cost cents, and contained pages. these prices were in a market when the day's wage of a laboring man was only fifty cents. relatively to the cost of other articles, schoolbooks were not nearly so cheap as they are now. [copyright files] when truman & smith began publishing, the copyright law required the deposit of titles and copies of the several books in the office of the clerk of the district court. at first such deposits were made in columbus, ohio, but later in cincinnati. when congress organized the copyright bureau in washington, the several clerks were required to send to the library of congress all the sample copies deposited; but these had been carelessly kept and many were lost. a duplicate set was for years required to be sent to the smithsonian institution in washington. these were also passed into the custody of the librarian of congress; but this collection had been carelessly preserved and the files of the mcguffey readers at washington are now quite defective for the earliest issues. the library seems to have no copy of any number of the first edition except possibly the second and fourth. the copy of the second was deposited december , . the fourth bears date of july, . all the other early copies found in that library are of later dates and are "revised and improved." [early engravings] it may be well to indicate in a general way the progress that has been made in illustrating schoolbooks. the first editions of the mcguffey readers as issued in and did not contain a single original engraving. all seem to have been copied from english books. the nice little boys wear round-about jackets with wide, white ruffled collars at the neck. the proper little girls have scoop bonnets and conspicuous pantalets. most of the men wear knee breeches. the houses shown have the thatched roofs of english cottages. in one picture a boy has a regular cricket bat. other schoolbooks of that date show similar appropriations of english engravings; but even at that time there were a few wood engravers in america. when the second general revision was made in some original illustrations appeared and in the edition of notice was given on the title page that the engravings were copyright property that must not be used by others. as pictures are closely studied by children, some of the users of these early books may remember the cut showing vividly the dangers of "whale catching." two boats are thrown high in the air by one sweep of the animal's tail and one seaman is shown head downward still in the boat. another represented jonah being cast overboard from the ship toward the whale below whose mouth is manifestly large enough to accommodate jonah. but the engravings in this edition of had no considerable artistic quality and they were very coarsely engraved. in came the first employment of a genuine artist in wood engraving. this was mr. e.j. whitney who had made a reputation by work done for new york publishers. his engravings were to take the place of some then in the books and their sizes were precisely determined. the drawings were most carefully made by mr. herrick with pencil on the whitened boxwood blocks, and sent to the publisher for examination. these, when approved, were returned to the engraver who followed precisely the lines of the drawing. when the engraving was finished, a carefully rubbed proof on india paper was sent to the publisher. if this was satisfactory, the block was delivered and from it an electrotype was made for printing. the block itself was preserved as an original. mr. whitney's work was thoroughly good. he was a wood engraver of the old school. [new processes] when the revision of was decided on, the publishers of the mcguffey readers realized that much improvement must be made in the illustrations. about this time the magazines were placing great stress upon pictorial work and a new school of engravers came into existence. the wood engravers had already departed from the painful reproduction of each line of a pencil drawing and had become skilled in representing tints of light and shade if placed on the whitened block with a brush. this gave greater freedom of interpretation to the engraver. the next step was to have the drawing made large and reproduced on the block by photography. by this method most of the engravings were made for the edition of . care was taken to employ artists of reputation and the engravings were usually signed by the artist and by the engraver. before the last edition came out in , photo-engraving had nearly supplanted wood engraving. by this process the artist's drawing with the brush is reproduced in fine tints which, when well engraved and carefully printed, produce effective results. pen and ink drawings are also reproduced in exact facsimile. by this process the hand work of the engraver is nearly eliminated. the blocks are sometimes retouched to produce effects not attained by the process work. the skill of the artist in making the drawing thus becomes all important. [later inventions] the introduction of color work in the schoolbooks intended for young children resulted from the invention of the three-color plates. from nature, or from a colored painting, three photographs are taken--one excluding all but the yellow rays of light, one for the red rays, and one for the blue. from these photographs three tint blocks are made which to the eye in many cases look exactly alike. from one of these an impression is made with yellow ink, exactly over this the red plate prints with red ink and this is followed by an impression from the blue plate. if the effects of the color screens of the camera are exactly reproduced by the printer's inks and with exactly the right amount of ink, the result is wonderfully satisfactory. what are the qualities in these mcguffey eclectic readers that won for them through three-quarters of a century such wide and constant use? [character building] the best answer to this question may be drawn from the many newspaper articles which appeared in western and southern papers after the death of one of the authors. there is general recognition on the part of the writers of these articles that while the books served well their purpose of teaching the art of reading, their greatest value consisted in the choice of masterpieces in literature which by their contents taught morality, and patriotism and by their beauty served as a gateway to pure literature. one editor, who used these books in his school career, said, "thousands of men and women owe their wholesome views of life, as well as whatever success they may have attained to the wholesome maxims and precepts found on every page of these valuable books. the seed they scattered has yielded a million-fold. all honor to the name and memory of this excellent and useful man." [what constitutes real value] one of the wise men of the olden time cared not who wrote the laws if he might write their songs. among a people devoid of books the folk-songs are early lodged firmly in the mind of every child. they influence his whole life. the modern schoolbooks--particularly the readers--furnish the basis of the moral and intellectual training of the youth in every community. the mcguffey readers, from their own peculiar inherent qualities, retained their hold upon the schools until in some states laws were passed which in their operation caused schoolbooks to be regarded as commodities estimated almost solely upon the cost of paper, printing and binding. the value of these material things can easily be ascertained and compared; but unless the print carries the lessons that help to form a life the paper is wasted and the pupil's most valuable time is misspent. the teaching power of a schoolbook cannot be weighed in the grocer's scales nor measured with a pint cup. in the field open to free and constant competition, the books best suited to the wants of each community will in the end succeed. it was under such conditions that the mcguffey readers won and held their place in the schools. the industrial readers _book iii_ makers of many things by eva march tappan, ph.d. _author of "england's story," "american hero stories," "old world hero stories," "story of the greek people," "story of the roman people," etc. editor of "the children's hour."_ [illustration] houghton mifflin company boston new york chicago copyright, , by eva march tappan all rights reserved the riverside press cambridge . massachusetts u . s . a preface the four books of this series have been written not merely to provide agreeable reading matter for children, but to give them information. when a child can look at a steel pen not simply as an article furnished by the city for his use, but rather as the result of many interesting processes, he has made a distinct growth in intelligence. when he has begun to apprehend the fruitfulness of the earth, both above ground and below, and the best way in which its products may be utilized and carried to the places where they are needed, he has not only acquired a knowledge of many kinds of industrial life which may help him to choose his life-work wisely from among them, but he has learned the dependence of one person upon other persons, of one part of the world upon other parts, and the necessity of peaceful intercourse. best of all, he has learned to see. wordsworth's familiar lines say of a man whose eyes had not been opened,-- "a primrose by a river's brim a yellow primrose was to him, and it was nothing more." these books are planned to show the children that there is "something more"; to broaden their horizon; to reveal to them what invention has accomplished and what wide room for invention still remains; to teach them that reward comes to the man who improves his output beyond the task of the moment; and that success is waiting, not for him who works because he must, but for him who works because he may. acknowledgment is due to the diamond match company, hood rubber company, s. d. warren paper company, the riverside press, e. faber, c. howard hunt pen company, waltham watch company, mark cross company, i. prouty & company, cheney brothers, and others, whose advice and criticism have been of most valuable aid in the preparation of this volume. eva march tappan. contents i. the little friction match ii. about india rubber iii. "kid" gloves iv. how rags and trees become paper v. how books are made vi. from goose quills to fountain pens and lead pencils vii. the dishes on our tables viii. how the wheels of a watch go around ix. the making of shoes x. in the cotton mill xi. silkworms and their work the industrial readers book iii makers of many things i the little friction match i remember being once upon a time ten miles from a store and one mile from a neighbor; the fire had gone out in the night, and the last match failed to blaze. we had no flint and steel. we were neither indians nor boy scouts, and we did not know how to make a fire by twirling a stick. there was nothing to do but to trudge off through the snow to the neighbor a mile away and beg some matches. then was the time when we appreciated the little match and thought with profound respect of the men who invented and perfected it. it is a long way from the safe and reliable match of to-day back to the splinters that were soaked in chemicals and sold together with little bottles of sulphuric acid. the splinter was expected to blaze when dipped into the acid. sometimes it did blaze, and sometimes it did not; but it was reasonably certain how the acid would behave, for it would always sputter and do its best to spoil some one's clothes. nevertheless, even such matches as these were regarded as a wonderful convenience, and were sold at five dollars a hundred. with the next kind of match that appeared, a piece of folded sandpaper was sold, and the buyer was told to pinch it hard and draw the match through the fold. these matches were amazingly cheap--eighty-four of them for only twenty-five cents! there have been all sorts of odd matches. one kind actually had a tiny glass ball at the end full of sulphuric acid. to light this, you had to pinch the ball and the acid that was thus let out acted upon the other chemicals on the match and kindled it--or was expected to kindle it, which was not always the same thing. making matches is a big business, even if one hundred of them are sold for a cent. it is estimated that on an average each person uses seven matches every day. to provide so many would require some seven hundred million matches a day in this country alone. it seems like a very simple matter to cut a splinter of wood, dip it into some chemicals, and pack it into a box for sale; and it would be simple if it were all done by hand, but the matches would also be irregular and extremely expensive. the way to make anything cheap and uniform is to manufacture it by machinery. [illustration: the endless match machine the match splints are set in tiny holes like pins in a pincushion, and the belt revolves, passing their heads through various chemicals.] the first step in making matches is to select some white-pine plank of good quality and cut it into blocks of the proper size. these are fed into a machine which sends sharp dies through them and thus cuts the match splints. over the splint cutter a carrier chain is continuously moving, and into holes in this chain the ends of the match splints are forced at the rate of ten or twelve thousand a minute. the splints remain in the chain for about an hour, and during this hour all sorts of things happen to them. first, they are dipped into hot paraffin wax, because this will light even more easily than wood. as soon as the wax is dry, the industrious chain carries them over a dipping-roll covered with a layer consisting partly of glue and rosin. currents of air now play upon the splint, and in about ten minutes the glue and rosin on one end of it have hardened into a hard bulb. it is not a match yet by any means, for scratching it would not make it light. the phosphorus which is to make it into a match is on another dipping-roll. this is sesqui-sulphide of phosphorus. the common yellow phosphorus is poisonous, and workmen in match factories where it was used were in danger of suffering from a terrible disease of the jaw bone. at length it was discovered that sesqui-sulphide of phosphorus would make just as good matches and was harmless. our largest match company held the patent giving them the exclusive right to certain processes by which the sesqui-sulphide was made; and this patent they generously gave up to the people of the united states. after the splints have been dipped into the preparation of phosphorus, they are carried about on the chain vertically, horizontally, on the outside of some wheels and the inside of others, and through currents of air. then they are turned over to a chain divided into sections which carries them to a packing-machine. this machine packs them into boxes, a certain number in each box, and they are slid down to girls who make the boxes into packages. these are put into wooden containers and are ready for sale. as in most manufactures, these processes must be carried on with great care and exactness. the wood must be carefully selected and of straight grain, the dipping-rolls must be kept covered with a fresh supply of composition, and its depth must be always uniform. even the currents of air in which the splints are dried must be just warm enough to dry them and just moist enough not to dry them too rapidly. the old sulphur matches made in "card and block" can no longer be bought in this country; the safety match has taken their place. one kind of safety match has the phosphorus on the box and the other igniting substances on the match, so that the match will not light unless it is scratched on the box; but this kind has never been a favorite in the united states. the second kind, the one generally used, may be struck anywhere, but these matches are safe because even stepping upon one will not light it; it must be scratched. a match is a little thing, but nothing else can do its work. ii about india rubber when you pick a dandelion or a milkweed, a white sticky "milk" oozes out; and this looks just like the juice of the various sorts of trees, shrubs, and vines from which india rubber is made. the "rubber plant" which has been such a favorite in houses is one of these; in india it becomes a large tree which has the peculiar habit of dropping down from its branches "bush-ropes," as they are called. these take root and become stout trunks. there is literally a "rubber belt" around the world, for nearly all rubber comes from the countries lying between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn. more than half of all that is brought to market is produced in the valley of the amazon river; and some of this "para rubber," as it is called, from the seaport whence it is shipped, is the best in the world. [illustration: _courtesy general rubber co._ tapping rubber trees in sumatra the plantation on which this photograph was taken has , acres of planted rubber trees, and employs , coolies.] the juice or latex flows best about sunrise, and so the natives who collect it have to be early risers. they make little cuts in the bark of the tree, stick on with a bit of clay a tiny cup underneath each cut, and move on through the forest to the next tree. sometimes they make narrow v-shaped cuts in the bark, one above another, but all coming into a perpendicular channel leading to the foot of the tree. later in the day the collectors empty the cups into great jugs and carry them to the camp. when the rubber juice reaches the camp, it is poured into a great bowl. the men build a fire of sticks, and always add a great many palm nuts, which are oily and make a good deal of smoke. over the fire they place an earthen jar shaped like a cone, but without top or bottom. now work begins. it is fortunate that it can be done in the open air, and that the man can sit on the windward side, for the smoke rises through the smaller hole thick and black and suffocating. the man takes a stick shaped like a paddle, dips it into the bowl, and holds it in the smoke and heat, turning it rapidly over and over till the water is nearly dried out of the rubber and it is no longer milky, but dark-colored. then he dips this paddle in again and again. it grows heavier at each dipping, but he keeps on till he has five or six pounds of rubber. with a wet knife he cuts this off, making what are called "biscuits." after many years of this sort of work, some one found that by resting one end of a pole in a crotched stick and holding the other in his hand, a man could make a much larger biscuit. for a long time people thought that rubber trees could not be cultivated. one difficulty in taking them away from their original home to plant is that the seeds are so rich in oil as to become rancid unusually soon. at length, however, a consignment of them was packed in openwork baskets between layers of dried wild banana leaves and slung up on deck in openwork crates so as to have plenty of air. by this means seven thousand healthy little plants were soon growing in england, and from there were carried to ceylon and the east. on the rubber plantations collecting juice from trees standing near together and in open ground is an altogether different matter from cutting a narrow path and forcing one's way through a south american or african jungle. the bark of the trees is cut in herringbone fashion. the collector simply slices a thin piece off the bark and at once milk begins to ooze out. on the great plantations of the east the rubber is collected chiefly by chinese and indians. they are carefully taught just how to tap the trees. they begin four or five feet from the ground, and work down, cutting the thinnest possible slice at each visit. when they have almost reached the ground, they begin on the opposite side of the trunk; and by the time they have reached the ground on that side the bark on the first side has renewed itself. the latex is strained and mixed with some acid, usually acetic, in order to coagulate or thicken it. it is then run between rollers, hung in a drying house, and generally in a smokehouse. the rubber arrives at the factory in bales or cases. first of all it must be thoroughly washed in order to get rid of sand or bits of leaves and wood. a machine called a "washer" does this work. it forces the rubber between grooved rolls which break it up; and as this is done under a spray of water, the rubber is much cleaner when it comes out. another machine makes it still cleaner and forms it into long sheets about two feet wide. having thoroughly wet the rubber, the next step is to dry it thoroughly. the old way was to hang it up for several weeks. the new way is to cut it into strips, lay it upon steel trays, and place it in a vacuum dryer. this is kept hot, and whatever moisture is in the rubber is either evaporated or sucked out by a vacuum pump. it now passes through another machine much like the washer, and is formed into sheets. the square threads from which elastic webbing is made may be cut from these sheets, though sometimes the sheet is wound on an iron drum, vulcanized by being put into hot water, lightly varnished with shellac to stiffen it, then wound on a wooden cylinder, and cut into square threads. boiling these in caustic soda removes the shellac. to make round threads, softened rubber is forced through a die. rubber bands are made by cementing a sheet of rubber into a tube and then cutting them off at whatever width may be desired. toy balloons are made of such rubber. two pieces are stamped out and joined by a particularly noisy machine, and then the balloon is blown out by compressed air. early in the nineteenth century it was known that rubber would keep out water, but it was sticky and unmanageable. after a while a scotch chemist named mcintosh succeeded in dissolving rubber in naphtha and spreading it between two thicknesses of cloth. that is why his name is given to raincoats made in this way. overshoes, too, were made of pure rubber poured over clay lasts which were broken after the rubber had dried. these overshoes were waterproof,--there was no denying that; but they were heavy and clumsy and shapeless. when they were taken off, they did not stand up, but promptly fell over. in hot weather they became so sticky that they had to be kept in the cellar; and in winter they became stiff and inelastic, but they never wore out. how to get rid of the undesirable qualities and not lose the desirable ones was the question. it was found out that if sulphur was mixed with rubber, the disagreeable stickiness would vanish; but the rubbers continued to melt and to freeze by turns until an american named charles goodyear discovered that if rubber mixed with sulphur was exposed to about ° f. of heat for a number of hours, the rubber would remain elastic, but would not be sticky and would no longer be affected by heat or cold. this is why you often see the name goodyear on the bottom of rubbers. rubber overshoes were improved at once. as they now are made, the rubber is mixed with sulphur, whiting, litharge, and several other substances. an honest firm will add only those materials that will be of service in making the rubber more easy to mould or will improve it in some way. unfortunately, substances are often added, not for this purpose, but to increase the weight and apparent value of the articles. that is why some rubber overshoes, for instance, wear out so much faster than others. to make an overshoe, the rubber is run through rollers and formed into thick sheets for soles and thinner sheets for uppers. another machine coats with gum the cloth used for lining and stays. rubber and rubber-lined cloth go to the cutting-room, where all the different parts of the shoes are cut out. they are then put together and varnished. while still on the last, they are dipped into a tank of varnish and vulcanized--a very simple matter now that goodyear has shown us how, for they are merely left in large, thoroughly heated ovens for eight or ten hours. the rubber shoe or boot is now elastic, strong, waterproof, ready for any temperature, and so firmly cemented together with rubber cement that it is practically all in one piece. during the last few years there have been frequent calls from various charities for old rubber overshoes, pieces of rubber hose, etc. these are of considerable value in rubber manufacturing. they are run through a machine which tears them to shreds, then through a sort of fanning-mill which blows away the bits of lining. tiny pieces of iron may be present from nails or rivets; but these are easily removed by magnets. this "reclaimed" rubber is powdered and mixed with the new, and for some purposes the mixture answers very well. imitation rubber has been made by heating oil of linseed, hemp, maize, etc., with sulphur; but no substitute for rubber is a success for all uses. [illustration: _courtesy u. s. tire co._ how rubber goes through the factory splitting para biscuits, mixing the rubber, rolling the rubber fabric on cylinders, and building tires on the tire machines.] there are many little conveniences made of rubber which we should greatly miss, such as the little tips put into pencil ends for erasing pencil marks. these are made by filling a mould with rubber. rubber corks are made in much the same manner. tips for the legs of chairs are made in a two-piece mould larger at the bottom than at the top, and with a plunger that nearly fits the small end. often on chair tips and in the cup-shaped eraser that goes over the ends of some pencils you can see the "fin," as the glassworkers call it, where the two pieces of the mould did not exactly fit. rubber cannot be melted and cast in moulds like iron, but it can be gently heated and softened, and then pressed into a mould. rubber stamps are made in this way. the making of rubber heels and soles is now a large industry; hose for watering and for vacuum and westinghouse brakes is made in increasing quantities. the making of rubber tires for automobiles and carriages is an important industry. the enormous and increasing use of electricity requires much use of rubber as an insulator. rubber gloves will protect an electrical workman from shock and a surgeon from infection. rubber beds and cushions filled with air are a great comfort in illness. rubber has great and important uses; but we should perhaps miss quite as much the little comforts and conveniences which it has made possible. rubber and gutta-percha are not the same substance by any means. both of them are made of the milky juice of trees, but of entirely different trees. the gutta-percha milk is collected in an absurdly wasteful manner, namely, by cutting down the trees and scraping up the juice. when this juice reaches the market, it is in large reddish lumps which look like cork and smell like cheese. it has to be cleaned, passed through a machine that tears it into bits, then between rollers before it is ready to be manufactured. it is not elastic like rubber; it may be stretched; but it will not snap back again as rubber does. it is a remarkably good nonconductor of electricity, and therefore it has been generally used to protect ocean cables, though recently rubber has been taking its place. it makes particularly excellent casts, for when it is warm it is not sticky, but softens so perfectly that it will show the tiniest indentation of a mould. it is the best kind of splint for a broken bone. if a boy breaks his arm, a surgeon can put a piece of gutta-percha into hot water, set the bone, bind on the softened gutta-percha for a splint, and in a few minutes it will be moulded to the exact shape of the arm, but so stiff as to keep the bone in place. another good service which gutta-percha renders to the physician results from its willingness to dissolve in chloroform. if the skin is torn off, leaving a raw surface, this dissolved gutta-percha can be poured over it, and soon it is protected by an artificial skin which keeps the air from the raw flesh and gives the real skin an opportunity to grow again. iii "kid" gloves there is an old proverb which says, "for a good glove, spain must dress the leather, france must cut it, and england must sew it." many pairs of most excellent gloves have never seen any one of these countries, but the moral of the proverb remains, namely, that it takes considerable work and care to make a really good glove. the first gloves made in the united states were of thick buckskin, for there was much heavy work to be done in the forest and on the land. the skin was tanned in indian fashion, by rubbing into the flesh side the brains of the deer--though how the indians ever thought of using them is a mystery. later, the white folk tried to tan with pigs' brains; but however valuable the brains of a pig may be to himself, they do not contain the properties of soda ash which made those of the deer useful for this purpose. [illustration: cutting hides into gloves the hides are kept in racks, and before cutting are stretched by hand. then the steel die cuts out the shape of the glove. notice the curiously shaped cut for the thumb.] years ago, when a man set out to manufacture gloves, usually only a few dozen pairs, he cut out a pattern from a shingle or a piece of pasteboard, laid it upon a skin, marked around it, and cut it out with shears. pencils were not common, but the glovemaker was fully equal to making his own. he melted some lead, ran it into a crack in the kitchen floor--and cracks were plentiful--and then used this "plummet," as it was called, for a marker. after cutting the large piece for the front and back of the glove, he cut out from the scraps remaining the "fourchettes," or _forks_; that is, the narrow strips that make the sides of the fingers. smaller scraps were put in to welt the seams; and all this went off in great bundles to farmhouses to be sewed by the farmers' wives and daughters for the earning of pin-money. if the gloves were to be the most genteel members of the buckskin race, there was added to the bundle a skein of silk, with which a slender vine was to be worked on the back of the hand. the sewing was done with a needle three-sided at the point, and a stout waxed thread was used. a needle of this sort went in more easily than a round one, but even then it was rather wearisome to push it through three thicknesses of stout buckskin. moreover, if the sewer happened to take hold of the needle too near the point, the sharp edges were likely to make little cuts in her fingers. after a while sewing machines were invented, and factories were built, and now in a single county of the state of new york many thousand people are at work making various kinds of leather coverings for their own hands and those of other folk. better methods of tanning have been discovered, and many sorts of leather are now used, especially for the heavier gloves. deer are not so common as they used to be, and a "buckskin" glove is quite likely to have been made of the hide of a cow or a horse. "kid" generally comes from the body of a sheep instead of that of a young goat. our best real kidskin comes from a certain part of france, where the climate seems to be just suited to the young kids, there is plenty of the food that they like, and, what is fully as important, they receive the best of care. it is said that to produce the very finest kidskin, the kids are fed on nothing but milk, are treated with the utmost gentleness, and are kept in coops or pens carefully made so that there shall be nothing to scratch their tender skins. glovemakers are always on the lookout for new kinds of material, and when, not many years ago, there came from arabia with a shipment of mocha coffee two bales of an unknown sort of skin, they were eager to try it. it tanned well and made a glove that has been a favorite from the first. the skin was found to come from a sheep living in arabia, abyssinia, and near the headwaters of the river nile. it was named mocha from the coffee with which it came, and mocha it has been ever since. the suède glove has a surface much like that of the mocha. its name came from "swede," because the swedes were the first to use the skin with the outside in. most of our thinner "kid" gloves are made of lambskin; but dressing the skins is now done so skillfully in this country that "homemade" gloves are in many respects fully as good as the imported; indeed, some judges declare that in shape and stitching certain grades are better. when sheepskins and lambskins come to market from a distance, they are salted. they have to be soaked in water, all bits of flesh scraped off, and the hair removed, generally by the use of lime. after another washing, they are put into alum and salt for a few minutes; and after washing this off, they are dried, stretched, and then are ready for the softening. nothing has been found that will soften the skins so perfectly as a mixture of flour, salt, and the yolk of eggs--"custard," as the workmen call it. the custard and the skins are tumbled together into a great iron drum which revolves till the custard has been absorbed and the skins are soft and yielding. now they are stretched one way and another, and wet so thoroughly that they lose all the alum and salt that may be left and also much of the custard. now comes dyeing. the skin is laid upon a table, smooth side up, and brushed over several times with the coloring matter; very lightly, however, for if the coloring goes through the leather, the hands of the customers may be stained and they will buy no more gloves of that make. the skins are now moistened and rolled and left for several weeks to season. when they are unrolled, the whole skin is soft and pliable. it is thick, however, and no one who is not an expert can thin it properly. the process is called "mooning" because the knife used is shaped like a crescent moon. it is flat, its center is cut out, and the outer edge is sharpened. over the inner curve is a handle. the skin is hung on a pole, and the expert workman draws the mooning knife down it until any bit of dried flesh remaining has been removed, and the skin is of the same thickness, or, rather, thinness throughout. all this slow, careful work is needed to prepare the skin for cutting out the glove; and now it goes to the cutter. there is no longer any cutting out of gloves with shears and pasteboard patterns, but there is a quick way and a slow way nevertheless. the man who cuts in the quick way, the "block-cutter," as he is called, spreads out the skin on a big block made by bolting together planks of wood with the grain running up and down. he places a die in the shape of the glove upon the leather, gives one blow with a heavy maul, and the glove is cut out. this answers very well for the cheaper and coarser gloves, but to cut fine gloves is quite a different matter. this needs skill, and it is said that no man can do good "table-cutting" who has not had at least three years' experience; and even then he may not be able to do really first-class work. he dampens the skin, stretches it first one way and then the other, and examines it closely for flaws or scratches or weak places. he must put on his die in such a way as to get two pairs of ordinary gloves or one pair of "elbow gloves" out of the skin if possible, and yet he must avoid the poor places if there are any. no glove manufacturer can afford to employ an unskilled or careless cutter, for he will waste much more than his wages amount to. there used to be one die for the right hand and another for the left, and it was some time before it occurred to any one that the same die would cut both gloves if only the skin was turned over. [illustration: closing the glove when sewing time comes, the glove goes from hand to hand down the workroom, each stitcher doing a certain seam or seams.] [illustration: where the glove gets its shape after inspection the glove goes to a row of men who fit it on a steam-heated brass hand, giving it its final shape and finish.] now comes the sewing. count the pieces in a glove, and this will give some idea of the work needed to sew them together. notice that the fourchettes are sewed together on the wrong side, the other seams on the right side, and that the tiny bits of facing and lining are hemmed down by hand. notice that two of the fingers have only one fourchette, while the others have two fourchettes each. notice how neatly the ends of the fingers are finished, with never an end of thread left on the right side. the embroidery must be in exactly the right place, and it must be fastened firmly at both ends. this embroidery is not a meaningless fashion, for the lines make the hand look much more slender and of a better shape. sewing in the thumbs needs special care and skill. there must be no puckering, and the seam must not be so tightly drawn as to leave a red line on the hand when the glove is taken off. no one person does all the sewing on a glove; it must pass through a number of hands, each doing a little. even after all the care that is given it, a glove is a shapeless thing when it comes from the sewing machines. it is now carried to a room where stands a long table with a rather startling row of brass hands of different sizes stretching up from it. these are heated, the gloves are drawn upon them, and in a moment they have shape and finish, and are ready to be inspected and sold. the glove is so closely associated with the hand and with the person to whom the hand belongs that in olden times it was looked upon as representing him. when, for instance, a fair could not be opened without the presence of some noble, it was enough if he sent his glove to represent him. to throw down one's glove before a man was to challenge him to a combat. at the coronation of queen elizabeth, as of many other sovereigns of england, the "queen's champion," a knight in full armor, rode into the great hall and threw down his glove, crying, "if there be any manner of man that will say and maintain that our sovereign lady, queen elizabeth, is not the rightful and undoubted inheritrix to the imperial crown of this realm of england, i say he lieth like a false traitor, and therefore i cast him my gage." iv how rags and trees become paper it was a great day for the children on the farm when the tin peddler came around. he had a high red wagon, fairly bristling with brooms, mop-handles, washtubs, water-pails, and brushes. when he opened his mysterious drawers and caverns, the sunshine flashed upon tin pans, dippers, dustpans, and basins. put away rather more choicely were wooden-handled knives, two-tined forks, and dishes of glass and china; and sometimes little tin cups painted red or blue and charmingly gilded, or cooky-cutters in the shape of dogs and horses. all these rare and delightful articles he was willing to exchange for rags. is it any wonder that the thrifty housewife saved her rags with the utmost care, keeping one bag for white clippings and one for colored? these peddlers were the great dependence of the paper mills, for the finest paper is made from linen and cotton rags. when the rags reach the factory, they are carefully sorted. all day long the sorters sit before tables whose tops are covered with coarse wire screens, and from masses of rags they pick out buttons, hooks and eyes, pins, bits of rubber, and anything else that cannot possibly be made into paper. at the same time they sort the rags carefully into different grades, and with a knife shaped like a small sickle fastened upright to the table they cut them into small pieces. some of the dust falls through the screen; but to remove the rest of it, the cut-up rags are tossed about in a wire drum. sometimes they are so dusty that when they come out of the drum they weigh only nine tenths as much as when they go in. the dust is out of them, but not the dirt. to remove that, they are now put into great boilers full of steam; and here they cook and turn over, and turn over and cook for hours. lime and sometimes soda are put with them to cleanse them and remove the coloring material; but when they are poured out, they look anything but clean, for they are of a particularly dirty brown; and the water that is drained away from them looks even more uninteresting. of course the next step is to wash this dirty brown mass; and for at least four hours it is scrubbed in a machine which beats it and rolls it and chops it and tumbles it about until the wonder is that anything is left of it. all this while, the water has been flowing through it, coming in clean and going out dirty; and at length the mass becomes so light a gray that making white paper of it does not seem quite hopeless. it is now bleached with chloride of lime, and washed till it is of a creamy white color and free from the lime, and then beaten again. if you fold a piece of cheap paper and tear it at the fold, it will tear easily; but if you do the same thing with paper made of linen and cotton, you will find it decidedly tough. moreover, if you look closely at the torn edge of the latter, you will see the fibers clearly. it is because of the beating that the fibers are so matted together and thus make the paper tough. while the pulp is in the beater, the manufacturer puts in the coloring matter, if he wishes it to be tinted blue or rose or lavender or any other color. no one would guess that this white or creamy or azure liquid had ever been the dirty rags that came into the mill and were sorted on the wire tables. besides the coloring, a "filler" is usually added at this time, such as kaolin, the fine clay of which china is made. this fills the pores and gives a smoother surface to the finished paper--a good thing if too much is not put in. a little sizing is also added, made of rosin. save for this sizing, ink would sink into even the finished paper as it does into blotting paper. after this, more water is added to the pulp and it is run into tanks. now the preparation is completed, and the pulp is pumped to large and complicated machines which undertake to make it into paper. it first flows through screens which are shaken all the while as if they were trembling. this shaking lets the liquid and the finer fibers through, but holds back the little lumps, if any remain after all the beating and straining and cutting that it has had. the pulp flows upon an endless wire screen. rubber straps at the sides keep it in, but the extra water drops through the meshes. the pulp is flowing onward, and so the tiny fibers would naturally straighten out and flow with it, like sticks in a river; but the wire screen is kept shaking sideways, and this helps the fibers to interlace, and the paper becomes nearly as strong one way as the other. if you hold a sheet of paper up to the light, it will show plainly what is next done to it. sometimes you can see that it is marked by light parallel lines running across it close together, and crossed by other and stouter lines an inch or two apart. sometimes the name of the paper or that of the manufacturer is marked in the same way by letters lighter than the rest of the sheet. sometimes the paper is plain with no markings whatever. this difference is made by what is called the "dandy," a cylinder covered with wire. for the first, or "laid" paper, the small wires run the length of the cylinder and the stouter ones around it. wherever the wires are, the paper is a little thinner. in some papers this thinness can be seen and felt. for the second kind of paper the design, or "watermark," is formed by wires a little thicker than the rest of the covering. for the third, or "wove" paper, the dandy is covered with plain woven wire like that of the wire cloth; so there are no markings at all. this work can be easily done because at this point the paper is so moist. the paper is now not in sheets, but in a long web like a web of cloth. it passes between felt-covered rollers to press out all the water possible, then over steam-heated cylinders to be dried, finally going between cold iron rollers to be made smooth, and is wound on a reel, trimmed and cut into sheets of whatever size is desired. the finest note papers are not finished in this way, but are partly dried, passed through a vat of thin glue, any excess being squeezed off by rollers, then cut into sheets, and hung up to dry thoroughly at their leisure. paper made of properly prepared linen and cotton is by far the best, but there are so many new uses for paper that there are not rags enough in the world to make nearly what is needed. there are scores of newspapers and magazines where there used to be one; and as for paper bags and cartons and boxes, there is no limit to their number and variety. a single manufacturer of pens and pencils calls for four thousand different sorts and sizes of boxes. school-children's use of paper instead of slates, the fashion of wrapping christmas gifts in white tissue, and the invention of the low-priced cameras have increased enormously the amount of paper called for. in the attempt to supply the demand all sorts of materials have been used, such as hemp, old rope, peat, the stems of flax, straw, the spanish and african esparto grass, and especially wood; but much more paper is made of wood than of all the rest together. poplar, gum, and chestnut trees, and especially those trees which bear cones, such as the spruce, fir, balsam, and pine are used. there are two methods of manufacturing wood pulp; the mechanical, by grinding up the wood, and the chemical, by treating it chemically. by the mechanical method the wood is pressed against a large grindstone which revolves at a high speed. as fast as the wood is ground off, it is washed away by a current of water, and strained through a shaking sieve and a revolving screen which drives out part of the water by centrifugal force. in a great vat of pulp a drum covered with wire cloth revolves, and on it a thin sheet of pulp settles. felting, pressed against this sheet, carries it onward through rolls. the sheets are pressed between coarse sacking. such paper is very poor stuff. in its manufacture the fiber of the wood is so ground up that it has little strength. it is used for cardboard, cartons, and packing-papers. unfortunately, it is also used for newspapers; and while it is a good thing for some of them to drop to pieces, it is a great loss not to have the others permanent. when we wish to know what people thought about any event fifty years ago, we can look back to the papers of that time; but when people fifty years from now wish to learn what we thought, many of the newspapers will have fallen to pieces long before that time. [illustration: _courtesy s. d. warren co._ where rags become paper the vat where the rags cook and turn over, and the big room where the web of finished paper is passed through rollers and cut into a neat pile of trimmed sheets.] there is, however, a method called the "sulphite process," used principally in treating the coniferous woods, by which a much better paper can be made. in all plants there is a substance called "cellulose." this is what gives strength to their stems. the wood is chipped and put into digesters large enough to hold twenty tons, and is steam-cooked together with bisulphite of magnesium or calcium for seven or eight hours. another method used for cooking such woods as poplar and gum, is to boil the wood in caustic soda, which destroys everything except the cellulose. wood paper of one kind or another is used for all daily papers and for most books. whether the best wood paper will last as long as the best rag paper, time only can tell. the government of the united states tests paper in several ways before buying it. first, a single sheet is weighed; then a ream is put on the scales to see if it weighs four hundred and eighty times as much. this shows whether the paper runs evenly in weight. many sheets are folded together and measured to see if the thickness is regular. to test its strength, a sheet is clamped over a hole one square inch in area, and liquid is pressed against it from below to see how much it will stand before bursting. strips of the paper are pulled in a machine to test its breaking strength. a sheet is folded over and over again to see whether holes will appear at the corners of the folds. it is examined under the microscope to see of what kind of fibers it is made and how much loading has been used in its manufacture. to test blotting paper, strips are also put into water to see how high the water will rise on them. besides writing and wrapping papers and the various kinds of board, there are many sorts which are used for special purposes. india paper, for instance, is light, smooth, and strong, so opaque that printing will not show through it, and so lasting that if it is crumpled, it can be ironed out and be as good as new. this is used for books that are expected to have hard wear but must be of light weight. there are tissue papers, crêpe papers for napkins, and tarred paper to make roofs and even boats water-tight. if tar is brushed on, it may make bubbles which will break afterwards and let water in; but if tar is made a part of the paper itself, it lasts. paper can easily be waxed or paraffined, and will then keep out air and moisture for some time. better still, it can be treated with oil and will then make a raincoat that will stand a year's wear, or even, if put on a bamboo frame, make a very good house, as the japanese found out long ago. paper coated with powdered gum and tin is used for packing tea and coffee. transfer or carbon papers so much used in making several copies of an article on the typewriter are made by coating paper with starch, flour, gum, and coloring matter. paper can be used for shoes and hats, ties, collars, and even for "rubbers." it has been successfully used for sails for light vessels, and is excellent made into light garments for hospital use because it is so cheap that it can be burned after wearing. wood pulp can be run through fine tubes into water and made so pliable that it can be twisted into cord or spun and woven into "silk." not only water but also fire can be kept out by paper if it is treated with the proper substances. an object can be covered with a paste of wood pulp, silica, and hemp; and when this is dry, a coat of water-glass will afford considerable protection. there has been some degree of success in making transparent paper films for moving pictures; and if these are coated with water-glass, they will not burn. paper can be so treated that it will either conduct electricity or become a nonconductor, as may be desired. in germany, a "sandwich paper" has been made by pressing together four layers--felt, pulp, cotton, pulp--which is cheap and strong and useful for many purposes. when we come to papier maché, there is no end to the kinds of articles that are made of it. the papier maché, or _paper pulped_, is made by kneading old newspapers or wrapping papers with warm water into a pulp. clay and coloring are added and something of the nature of glue; and it is then put into a mould. sometimes to make it stronger for large mouldings, bits of canvas or even wire are also used. the best papier maché is made of pure wood cellulose. the beautiful boxes and trays covered with lacquer which the japanese and chinese make are formed of this; but it has many much humbler uses than these. paper screws are employed in ornamental wood work, and if a hole is begun for such a screw, it will twist its way into soft wood as well as steel would do. barrels of paper reinforced with wire are common. gear wheels and belt pulleys are made of papier maché, and even the wheels of railroad coaches; at least the body of the wheels is made of it, although the tire, hub, and axle are of cast-steel. circular saws of pulp are in use which cut thin slices of veneer so smoothly that they can be used without planing. papier maché is used for water pipes, the bodies of carriages, hencoops, and garages. indeed, it is quite possible to build a house, shingle it, decorate it with elaborate mouldings and cornices, finish it with panels, wainscoting, imitation tiling, and furnish it with light, comfortable furniture covered with imitation leather, silk, or cloth, and spread on its floors soft, thick carpets or rugs woven in beautiful designs--and all made of wood pulp. even the window panes could be made of pulp; and if they were not perfectly transparent, they would at least let in a soft, agreeable light, and they would not break. pails, washtubs, bathtubs, and even dishes of paper can be easily found. there are not only the paper cups provided on railroad trains and the cheap picnic plates and saucers, but some that are really pretty. ice cream is sometimes served in paper dishes and eaten with paper spoons. milk bottles are successfully made of paper, with a long strip of some transparent material running up and down the side to show how much--or how little--cream is within. napkins and tablecloths made of paper thread woven into "cloth" are cheaper than linen and can be washed as easily. paper towels and dishcloths are already common; but when paper shall fully come to its own, it is quite possible that there will be little washing of dishes. they can be as pretty as any one could wish, but so cheap that after each meal they can be dropped into the fire. indeed, there are few things in a house, except a stove, that cannot be made of some form of paper,--and perhaps that too will be some day. v how books are made the first step in making ready to print a manuscript is to find out how many words there are in it, what kind of type to use, how much "leading" or space between the lines there shall be, and what shall be the size of the page. in deciding these questions, considerable thinking has to be done. if the manuscript is a short story by a popular author, it may be printed with wide margins and wide leading in order to make a book of fair size. if it is a lengthy manuscript which will be likely to sell at a moderate but not a high price, it is best to use only as much leading as is necessary to make the line stand out clearly, and to print with a margin not so wide as to increase the expense of the book. the printer prints a sample of the page decided upon, any desired changes are made, and then the making of the book begins. [illustration: _courtesy the riverside press._ where this book was set up the monotype girl wrote these words on her keyboard, where they made tiny holes in a roll of paper. the roll went to the casting-room where it guided a machine to make the type much as a perforated music-roll guides a piano to play a tune.] the type is kept in a case at which the compositor stands. this case is divided into shallow compartments, each compartment containing a great many e's or m's as the case may be. the "upper case" contains capitals; the "lower case," small letters. those letters which are used most often are put where the compositor can reach them most readily. he stands before his case with a "composing stick" in his hand. this "stick" is a little iron frame with a slide at the side, so that the line can be made of any length desired. the workman soon learns where each letter is, and even an apprentice can set the type in his stick reasonably rapidly. on one side of every piece of type there is a groove, so that he can tell by touch whether it is right side up or not. he must look out especially to make his right-hand margins regular. you will notice in books that the lines are all of the same length, although they do not contain the same number of letters. the compositor brings this about by arranging his words and spaces skillfully. the spaces must be as nearly as possible of the same length, and yet the line must be properly filled. if a line is too full, he can sometimes place the last syllable on the following line; if it is not full enough, he can borrow a syllable, and he can at least divide his space so evenly that the line will not look as if it were broken in two. not many years ago all type was set in this manner; but several machines have now been invented which will do this work. in one of the best of them the operator sits before a keyboard much like that of a typewriter. when he presses key _a_, for instance, a mould or matrix of the letter _a_ is set free from a tube of _a_'s, and slides down to its place in the stick. at the end of the line, the matrices forming it are carried in front of a slot where melted type metal from a reservoir meets them. thus a cast is made of the matrices, and from this cast the printing is done. this machine is called a linotype because it casts a whole line of type at a time. most book work is done on the monotype machine. when a manuscript goes to the press to be set up in this way, the copy is given to the keyboard operator who sets it up on a machine which looks much like a typewriter. instead of writing letters, however, the machine punches tiny holes in a strip of paper which is wound on a roll. when the roll is full it goes to the casting room where it is put on another machine containing hot type metal and bronze matrices from which the letters of the words are to be cast. the holes in the paper guide the machine to make the type much as a perforated music roll guides a piano to play a tune. the reason why the machine is called a monotype is that the letters are made one at a time, and _monos_ is the greek word for _one_. by the linotype and monotype machines type can be set in a "galley," a narrow tray about two feet long, with ledges on three sides. when a convenient number of these galleys have been filled, long slips are printed from them called "galley proofs." these have wide margins, but the print is of the width that the page of the book will be. they are read by the proof-readers, and all such mistakes as the slipping in of a wrong letter, or a broken type, the repetition of a word, or the omission of space between words are corrected. then the proof goes to the author, who makes any changes in his part of the work which seem to him desirable; and it is also read by some member of the editorial department. if there are many changes to be made, another proof is usually taken and sent to the author. the reason for this extreme carefulness is that it costs much less to make changes in the galley proof than in the "page proof." this latter is made by dividing the galley into pages, leaving space for the beginnings of chapters and for pictures, if any are to appear on the printed pages, and setting up the numbers of the pages and their running titles. page proof also goes to proof-readers and to the author. corrections on page proof are more expensive than on galley proof because adding or striking out even a few words may make it necessary to change the arrangement on every page to the end of the chapter. years ago all books were printed directly from the type; and some are still printed so. after printing, the letters were returned to their compartments. if a second edition was called for, the type had to be set again. now, however, books are generally printed not from type, but from a copper model of the type. to make this, an impression of the page of type is made in wax and covered with graphite, which will conduct electricity. these moulds are hung in a bath of copper sulphate, where there are also large plates of copper. a current of electricity is passed through it, and wherever the graphite is, a shell of copper is deposited, which is exactly like the face of the type. this shell is very thin, but it is made strong by adding a heavy back of melted metal. from these plates the books are printed. a correction made in the plate is more expensive than it would have been if made in the galley or in the page, because sawing out a word or a line is slow, delicate work; and even if one of the same length is substituted, the types spelling it have to be set up, a small new plate cast, and soldered in. [illustration: _courtesy the riverside press._ where this book was printed the girls are feeding big sheets of paper into the presses, thirty-two pages being printed at one time. the paper is fed into many modern presses by means of a machine attached to the press. the pressmen see that the printing is done properly.] printing one page at a time would be altogether too slow; therefore the plates are arranged in such a way that sixteen, thirty-two, or sometimes sixty-four pages can be printed on one side of the paper, and the same number on the other side. every page must come in its proper place when the sheet is folded for binding. try to arrange a sheet of even sixteen pages, eight on each side, so that when it is folded every page will be in the right place with its printing right side up, and you will find that it is not very easy until you have had considerable experience. if the sheet is folded into four leaves, the book is called a "quarto," or " to"; if into eight, it is an "octavo," or " vo"; if into twelve, a "duodecimo," or " mo." books are sometimes advertised in these terms; but they are not definite, because the sheets of the different varieties of paper vary in size. of late years, publishers have often given the length and width of their books in inches. after the sheets come from the press, they are folded to page size. sometimes this is done by hand, but more often by a folding machine through which the sheet of paper travels, meeting blunt knives which crease it and fold it. if you look at the top of a book you will see that the leaves are put together in groups or "signatures." these signatures usually contain eight, sixteen, or thirty-two pages. if the paper is very thick, not more than eight leaves will be in a signature; if of ordinary thickness, sixteen are generally used. the signatures are piled up in order, and a "gatherer" collects one from each pile for every book. the book is now gathered and "smashed," or pressed enough to make it solid and firm for binding. next the signatures are sewed and the book is trimmed so the edges will be even. if the edges are to be gilded, the book is put in a gilding press and a skillful workman covers the edges with a sizing made of the white of eggs. gold leaf is then laid upon them and they are burnished with tools headed with agate and bloodstone or instruments of various sorts until they are bright. sometimes the edges are "marbled," and this is an interesting process to watch. on the surface of a vat of thin sizing the marbler drops a little of many colors of paint. then he draws a comb lightly across the surface, making all sorts of odd figures, no two alike. the book is held tight and the edges are allowed to touch the sizing. all these odd figures are now transferred to the edges of the leaves and will stand a vast amount of hard use before they will wear off. thus far the book is flat at the edges of the leaves and at the back. books are sometimes bound in this way, but the backs are usually rounded into an outward curve, and the fronts into an inward curve. this is done by a machine. at each end of the outward curve a deep groove is pressed to receive the cover. to make the covers of a cloth-bound book, two pieces of pasteboard of the right size are cut and laid upon a piece of cloth coated with glue. the edges of the cloth are turned over and pressed down, as you can often see if the paper lining of the cover is not too heavy. the cover needs now only its decorations to be complete. a die is made for these, and the lettering and ornamentation are stamped on in colors. if more than one color is used, a separate die has to be made for each. if this work is to be done in gold, the design is stamped on lightly and sizing made of white of eggs is brushed on wherever the gold is to come. gold leaf is laid upon this sizing, and the cover is stamped again. the same die is used, but this time it is hot enough to make the gold and egg stick firmly to the cover. to put the cover on, a piece of muslin called a "super" is glued to the back of the book with its ends projecting over the sides, and a strip of cartridge paper is glued over the super. then the book is pasted into the cover. it is now kept under heavy pressure for a number of hours until it is thoroughly dry and ready to be sent away for sale. so it is that a well-made cloth-bound book is manufactured. leather-bound books are more expensive, not only because their materials cost more, but also because the greater part of the work of binding and decorating has to be done by hand. if a book is to be illustrated, this must also be attended to, the number and style of the pictures decided upon, and the artist engaged before the book is put in press, in order that there may be no delay in completing it. many publishers do not print at all, but have their work done at some printing establishment. where all the making of a book, however, from manuscript to cover, is in the hands of one firm, there is a certain fellow-feeling among the different departments, and a wholesome pride in making each one of "our books" as excellent as possible in every detail. as one of the women workers in such an establishment said to me, "i often think that we become almost as interested in a book as the author is." vi from goose quills to fountain pens and lead pencils whenever there was a convenient goosepond on the way to school, the children of less than one hundred years ago used to stop there to hunt for goose quills. they carried these to the teacher, and with his penknife--which took its name from the work it did--he cut them into the shape of pens. the points soon wore out, and "teacher, will you please mend my pen?" was a frequent request. when people began to make pens of steel, they made them as nearly like quill pens as possible, with pen and holder all in one. these were called "barrel pens." they were stiff, hard, and expensive, especially as the whole thing was useless as soon as the pen was worn out, but they were highly esteemed because they lasted longer than quills and did not have to be mended. after a while separate pens were manufactured that could be slipped into a holder; and one improvement after another followed until little by little the cheap, convenient writing tool that we have to-day was produced. a pen is a small thing, but each one is worked upon by twenty to twenty-four persons before it is allowed to be sold. the material is the best steel. it comes in sheets five feet long and nineteen inches wide, and about one fortieth of an inch thick, that is, three times as thick as the finished pen. the first machine cuts the sheet crosswise into strips from two to three inches wide, varying according to the size of the pen to be made. these strips are put into iron boxes and kept at a red heat for a number of hours to anneal or soften them. then they pass between heavy rollers, a process which not only helps to toughen them, but also stretches the steel so that it is now fifty inches long instead of nineteen. at least six or seven people have handled the material already, and even now there is nothing that looks like pens; but the next machine cuts them out, by dies, of course. the points interlap; and the cutting leaves odd-shaped openwork strips of steel for the scrap-heap. this part of the work is very quick, for the machine will cut thousands of pens in an hour. now is when the little hole above the slit is punched and the side slits cut. to make the steel soft and pliable, it must be annealed again, kept red hot for several hours, and then cooled. thus far it has looked like a tiny fence paling, but at length it begins to resemble a pen, for it is now stamped with whatever letters or designs may be desired, usually the name of the maker and the name and number of the variety of pen, and it is pressed between a pair of dies to form it into a curve. the last annealing left the metal soft so that all this could be done, but too soft to work well as a pen; and it has to be heated red hot again, and then dropped into cold oil to harden it. centrifugal force, which helps in so many manufactures, drives the oil away, and the pens are dried in sawdust. they are now sufficiently hard, but too brittle. they must be tempered. to do this, they are placed in an iron cylinder over a fire, and the cylinder revolved till the pen is as elastic as a spring. the pen is of the correct shape, is tough and elastic; and now it is put into "tumbling barrels" which revolve till it is bright and ready for the finishing touches. if you look closely at the outside of a steel pen just above the nib, you will see that across it run tiny lines. they have a use, for they hold the ink back so that it will not roll down in drops, and they help to make the point more springy and easier to write with. the pen must be slit up from the point. this is done by a machine, and a most accurate one, for the cut must go exactly through the center of the point and not reach beyond the little hole that was punched. only one thing is lacking now to make the pen a useful member of society, ready to do its work in the world; and that is to grind off the points and round them in order to keep them from sticking into the paper. after so much careful work, it does seem as if not one pen out of a thousand could be faulty; but every one has to be carefully examined to make sure that the cutting, piercing, marking, forming, tempering, grinding, and slitting, are just what they should be. these pens carry the maker's name, and a few poor ones getting into the market might spoil the sale of thousands of boxes; therefore the examiner sits before a desk covered with black glass and looks at every pen. the faulty ones are heated so that they cannot be used, and they go to the scrap-heap. now the pens are ready so far as usefulness goes, but people have preferences in color. some prefer bronze, some gray, and some black; so off the pens go to the tempering-room, their last trip, and there are heated in a revolving cylinder till the right color appears; then they are chilled and lacquered, put into boxes, labeled, packed, and sold for such low prices that the good folk of a century ago, who paid from twenty-five to fifty cents for a pen, would have opened their eyes in amazement. when the typewriter was invented, some people said, "that will be the death of the steel pen"; but as a matter of fact, it has greatly increased its sale. the typewriter makes writing so easy and so quick that many more letters are written than formerly. all these letters have to be answered, and few people compared with the whole number own typewriters, and therefore the pen still holds its place. the lacquer on a steel pen protects it until it has been used for a while. after that, it will rust, if it is not wiped, and it will wear out whether it is wiped or not. all that the gold pen asks is not to be bent or broken, and it will last almost forever. it has the flexibility of the quill, but does not have to be "mended." gold pens are made in much the same way as are steel pens; but just at the point a tiny shelf is squeezed. upon this shelf a bit of the alloy of two exceedingly hard metals, iridium and osmium, is secured by melting the gold around it; and it is this bit which stands all the wear of rubbing on the paper. when gold pens were first made, tiny bits of diamonds or rubies were soldered on for points; but they were expensive, and they had a disagreeable fashion of falling off. a century ago, writers would have thought it the height of luxury to have a gold pen; but now they are not satisfied unless they can be saved the trouble of dipping it into an inkstand, and they look upon the fountain pen as their special friend. the fountain pen carries its supplies with it. the pen itself is like any other gold pen, but the barrel is full of ink. a little tube carries the ink to the point, and the slight bending back of the pen as one writes lets it run out upon the paper. at the end of the slit, at the back of the pen, is a hole to let air into the barrel as the ink runs out. a perfect fountain pen ought to be prepared to write--without shaking--whenever the cap is taken off, and not to refuse to work so long as a drop of ink remains in the barrel. it should never drop ink at the point and, whether the point is up or down, it should never leak there or anywhere else. the stylographic pen is quite a different article. there is no pen to it; the writing is done with the end of a needle which projects through a hole at the point. the barrel and point are full of ink; but even if the pen is held point down, it will not leak because the needle fills up the hole. when you press the point on paper to write, the needle falls back just enough to let out what ink is needed. the flow stops the instant the pen ceases to touch the paper. the special advantage of the stylographic is that the mere weight of the pen is sufficient pressure, and therefore many hours of writing do not tire the muscles of the hand. the advantage of the fountain pen is that it has the familiar action of the gold pen, and that it will adapt itself to any style of handwriting. a pen of almost any kind is a valuable article, but for rough-and-ready use we should find it hard to get on without its humble friend, the lead pencil. a lead pencil, by the way, has not a particle of lead in it. the "lead" is all graphite, or plumbago. years ago sticks of lead were used for marking, and made a pale-gray line. when graphite was introduced, its mark was so black that people called it black lead, and the name has stuck. no one who has ever tried to use a pencil of real lead could fail to appreciate graphite, and when a graphite mine was discovered in england, it was guarded by armed men as watchfully as if it had been a mine of diamonds. that mine was exhausted long ago, but many others have been found. the best graphite in the world comes from ceylon and mexico. when graphite was first used for pencils, it was cut into slabs and these slabs into small strips. the broken and powdered graphite was not used until it was discovered that it could be mixed with clay and so made into sticks. in a lead pencil there are only three substances, graphite, clay, and wood, but a really good one must be manufactured with as much care as if it were made up of twenty. first of all, the graphite is ground and ground and ground, until, if you take a pinch of it between your thumb and finger, you can hardly feel that anything is there. it is now sifted through fine silk and mixed with water and finely powdered clay, and becomes a wet, inky mass. this clay comes from austria and bohemia and is particularly smooth and fine. the amount put in is carefully weighed. if you have a hard pencil, it was made by using considerable clay; if your pencil is soft, by using very little; and if it is very soft and black, it is possible that a little lampblack was added. this inky mass is ground together between millstones for several weeks. then it goes between rollers, and at length is squeezed through a die and comes out in soft, doughy black strings. these are the "leads" of the pencils. they have been thoroughly wet, and now they must be made thoroughly dry. they are laid on boards, then taken off, cut into pieces the length of a pencil, and put into ovens and baked for hours in a heat twenty times as great as that of a hot summer day. they certainly ought to be well dried and ready for the wood. the red cedar of florida, tennessee, georgia, and alabama is the best wood for pencils because it is soft and has a fine, straight grain. it is cut into slabs about as long as one pencil, as wide as six, and a little thicker than half a pencil. every piece must be examined to make sure that it is perfect, and it must be thoroughly seasoned and kiln-dried to free it from oil. then it goes through a grooving-machine which cuts out a groove half as deep as the lead. the lead is laid into one piece, another is glued on top of it; and there is a pencil ready for work. [illustration: _courtesy joseph dixon crucible co._ how the lead gets into a pencil ( ) the cedar slab. ( ) planed and grooved. ( ) the leads in place. ( ) covered with the other half of the slab. ( ) the round pencils cut out. ( ) the pencil separated and smoothed. ( ) the pencil varnished and stamped.] such a pencil would be useful, but to sell well it must also be pretty; and therefore it goes through machinery which makes it round or oval or six-sided, as the case may be, rubs it smooth, and varnishes it, and then, with gold leaf or silver leaf or aluminum or ink, stamps upon it the name of the maker, and also a number or letter to show how hard the lead is. the pencil is now ready for sale, but many people like to have an eraser in the end, and this requires still more work. these erasers are round or flat or six-sided or wedge-shaped. they are let into the pencil itself, or into a nickel tip, or drawn over the end like a cap, so that any one's special whim may be gratified. indeed, however hard to please any one may be, he ought to be able to find a pencil to suit his taste, for a single factory in the united states makes more than six hundred kinds of pencils, and makes so many of them that if they were laid end to end they would reach three times across the continent. there are many exceedingly cheap pencils, but they are expensive in the end, because they are poorly made. the wood will often split in sharpening, and the lead is of poor materials so badly mixed that it may write blacker in one place than another, and is almost sure to break. good pencils bearing the name of a reliable firm are cheapest. vii the dishes on our tables if any one should give you a lump of clay and ask you to make a bowl, how should you set about it? the first thing would be, of course, to put it on a table so you could work on it with both hands. you would make a depression at the top and push out the sides and smooth them as best you could. it would result in a rough, uneven sort of bowl, and before it was done, you would have made one discovery, namely, that if the table only turned around in front of you, you could see all sides of the bowl from the same position, and it would be easier to make it regular. this is just what the potter's wheel does. it is really two horizontal wheels. the upper one is a disk a foot or two in diameter. this is connected by a shaft with the lower one, which is much larger. when the potter was at work at a wheel of this sort, he stood on one foot and turned the lower wheel with the other, thus setting the upper wheel in motion. this was called a "kick-wheel." as wheels are made now, the potter sits at his work and turns the wheel by means of a treadle. almost any kind of clay will make a dish, but no one kind will make it so well that the addition of some other kind would not improve it. whatever clays are chosen, they must be prepared with great care to make sure that not one grain in them is coarser than any other. sometimes one will slip through, and you can see on the finished dish what a bad-looking place it makes. even for the coarsest earthenware, such as flower-pots, the moist clay is forced down a cylinder and through a wire sieve; and for stoneware and porcelain it has to go through several processes. when flint and feldspar are used, they are ground fine at the quarry. on reaching the factory, they are mixed with the proper quantities of other clays--but in just what proportions is one of the secrets of the trade. then they go into "plungers" or "blungers," great round tanks with arms extending from a shaft in the center. the shaft revolves and the arms beat the clay till all the sand and pebbles have settled on the bottom, and the fine clay grains are floating in the water above them. these pass into canvas bags. the water is forced out through the canvas, and on every bag there is left a thin sheet of moist clay. if this is to be used for the finest work, it is ground and pounded and washed still more, until it is a wonder that any of it survives; then it is sifted through a screen so fine that its meshes are only one one hundred and fiftieth of an inch across. now it becomes "slip," and after a little more beating and tumbling about, it is ready to go to the man at the wheel. this man is called the "thrower," because he lifts the lump of clay above his head and throws it down heavily upon the center of the wheel. the things that happen to that lump of clay when he touches it and the wheel revolves seem like the work of magic. he presses his thumbs into it from above and draws the walls up between his thumbs and fingers. he clasps his hands around it, and it grows tall and slender. he lays his finger on the top of the little column of clay, and it flattens in a moment. he points his finger at it, barely touching it, and a little groove appears, running around the whole mass. he seems to be wasting considerable time in playing with it, but all the while he is making sure that the clay is perfectly uniform and that there are no bubbles of air in it. he holds a piece of leather against the outside surface and a wet sponge against the inside, to make them perfectly smooth; and in a moment he has made a bowl. he holds his bent finger against the top of the bowl, and it becomes a vase. with another touch of his magical finger the top of the vase rolls over into a lip. if he makes a cup or a mug, he models a handle in clay and fastens it in place with slip. when it is done, he draws a wire deftly between the article and the table, and puts it on a board to dry. when you watch a potter at work, it all looks so simple and easy that you feel sure you could do it; but see how skillfully he uses his hands, how strong they are, and yet how lithe and delicate in their movements. see into what odd positions he sometimes stretches them; and yet these are plainly the only positions in which they could do their work. see how every finger does just what he wishes it to do. notice all these things, and you will not be so certain that making pottery is the easiest thing in the world. no two pieces of hand work are exactly the same; and skillful as the potter is, his pieces are not precisely alike. many of them therefore are passed over to the turner for finishing. he uses an ordinary lathe, and with this he thins any place that may be a little too thick, rounds the edge, and smooths it. the article is partly dried when he takes it, and so its walls can be cut thinner. when it leaves his lathe, all signs of hand work have vanished, but the dish is exactly like the others of the set, and this is what the greater number of people want. in some potteries there is hardly a throwing wheel in use, and articles are formed in plaster of paris moulds. there are two ways of using these moulds. by one method, the mould is put upon a "jigger," a power machine which keeps it revolving, and clay is pressed against its walls from within. above the mould is a piece of iron cut in the shape of the inside curve of the bowl or whatever is being made. this skims off all the extra clay from the inside of the walls. plates and saucers are made on a jigger. the mould used for this work is a model of the top of the plate. the workman makes a sort of pancake of clay and throws it upon the mould. a second mould, shaped like half of the bottom of the plate, is brought down close and revolves, cutting off all the extra clay and shaping the bottom of the plate. when the very finest ware is to be made, the mould is used in quite another fashion. if a pitcher, for instance, is to be cast, the mould is made in two sections and tied tightly together. then the slip is poured into it and left for a while. the plaster of paris absorbs the water and a layer of clay is formed all about the walls. when this is thick enough, the liquid is poured out, and after the pitcher has dried awhile, the mould is carefully opened and the pitcher is very gently taken out. the handle is made in a little mould of its own and fastened on with slip. "eggshell" porcelain is made in this way. the clay shell becomes smaller as it dries, so there is no trouble about removing it from the mould--if one knows how. if a large article is to be cast, the mould is made in sections. of course this fine ware must all be made by hand, especially as machines do not work well with the finest clays; but cheap dishes are all made by machinery. after any clay article is thrown, or moulded, or cast, it is passed through a little doorway and set upon a shelf in a great revolving cage. the air in this cage is kept at about ° f.; but this heat is nothing to what is to follow; and after the articles are thoroughly dry, they are placed in boxes of coarse fire-clay, which are called "saggers," piled up in a kiln, the doors are closed, and the fires are lighted. for a day and night, sometimes for two days and two nights, the fires burn. the heat goes up to ° or ° f. every few hours test pieces, which were put in for this purpose, are taken out. when they are found to be sufficiently baked, the fire-holes are bricked up and the furnace is left for two days longer to cool. the ware is then called "biscuit." biscuit is dull and porous. it is soon to be glazed, but first whatever underglaze decorating is desired may be done. sometimes the decorations are painted by hand, and sometimes they are printed on thin paper, laid upon the ware, and rubbed softly till they stick fast. after a while the paper is pulled off, but the colors remain. gold must be applied over the glaze, and the article fired a second time. after this decorating, the ware is generally passed to a man who stands before a tub of glaze, and dips in each article, though sometimes he stands before the pieces of ware and sprays them with an air brush. many different kinds of glaze are used, made of ground flint, feldspar, white clay, and other substances. common sea salt works exceedingly well, not in liquid form, but thrown directly into the fire. the chief thing to look out for in making a glaze is to see that the materials in it are so nearly like those in the ware that they will not contract unevenly and make little cracks. this glaze is dried in a hot room, then looked over by "trimmers," who scrape it off from such parts as the feet of cups and plates, so that they will not stick to the saggers in firing. besides this, little props of burned clay are used to hold the dishes up and keep them from touching one another. these props have fanciful names, such as "spurs," "stilts," "cockspurs," etc. often you can see on the bottom of a plate the marks made by these supports. [illustration: in the pottery pieces of coarse pottery being delivered to the kiln for firing.] the articles now are sent to a kiln to be fired. when they come out there is another chance for decorating, for colors may be put on, and another firing will make them look like underglaze painting if the decorator wishes the ware to have the appearance of being ornamented with masses of gold, he can trace his design in yellow paste, fire it, cover it with gold, and fire it again. to make the "gilt-band china" so beloved by the good housewives of the last century, the decorator puts the plate upon a horizontal wheel, holds his brush full of gold against it, and turns the wheel slowly. sometimes the outlines of a design are printed and the coloring put in by hand. when broad bands of color are desired to be put around a plate or other article, the decorator sometimes brushes on an adhesive oil where the color is to go, and paints the rest of the plate with some water-color and sugar; then when the oil is partly dry, he dusts on the color in the form of powder. a plunge into water will wash away the water-color and leave the oil with the powder sticking to it. shaded groundwork is made with an atomizer. indeed, there are almost as many methods of decorating wares of clay as there are persons who work at it. the results are what might be expected from the prices; some articles are so cheap and gaudy that any one will soon tire of them. others are really artistic and will be a "joy forever"--until they break. viii how the wheels of a watch go around if an electric automobile could be charged in fifteen seconds and then would run for forty hours without recharging, it would be looked upon as a great wonder; but to wind a watch in fifteen seconds and have it run for forty hours is so common that we forget what a wonder it is. when you wind your watch, you put some of the strength of your own right hand into it, and that is what makes it go. every turn of the key or the stem winds up tighter and tighter a spring from one to two feet long, but so slender that it would take thousands to weigh a pound. this is the main spring. it is coiled up in a cup-shaped piece of metal called a "barrel"; and so your own energy is literally barreled up in your watch. the outer end of this spring is held fast by a hook on the inside of the barrel; the inner end is hooked to the hub of a wheel which is called the "main wheel," and around this hub the spring is coiled. this spring has three things to do. it must send the "short hand," or hour hand, around the dial or face of the watch, once in twelve hours; it must send the "long hand," or minute hand, around once an hour; and it must also send the little "second hand" around its own tiny circle once a minute. to do this work requires four wheels. the first or main wheel is connected with the winding arrangements, and sets in motion the second, or center wheel, so called because it is usually in the center of the watch. this center wheel revolves once an hour and turns the minute hand. by a skillful arrangement of cogs it also moves the hour hand around the dial once in twelve hours. the center wheel moves the third wheel. the chief business of the third wheel is to make the fourth turn in the same direction as the center wheel. the fourth wheel revolves once a minute, and with it turns the tiny second hand. suppose that a watch has been made with only the main spring, the four wheels, and the three hands, what would happen when it was wound? you can tell very easily by winding up a mechanical mouse or a train of cars or any other toy that goes by a spring. it will go fast at first, then more and more slowly, then it will stop. this sort of motion might do for a mouse, but it would not answer for a watch. a watch must move with steadiness and regularity. to bring this about, there is a fifth wheel. its fifteen teeth are shaped like hooks, and it has seven accompaniments, the balance wheel, the hair spring, and five others. this wheel, together with its accompaniments, is able to stop the motion of the watch five times a second and start it again so quickly that we do not realize its having been stopped at all. a tiny arm holds the wheel firmly, and then lets it escape. therefore, the fifth wheel and its accompaniments are called the "escapement." this catching and letting go is what makes the ticking. a watch made in this way would run very well until a hot day or a cold day came; then there would be trouble. heat makes metals expand and makes springs less elastic. therefore in a hot day the watch would go more slowly and so lose time; while in a cold day it would go too fast and would gain time. this fault is corrected by the balance, a wheel whose rim is not one circle, but two half-circles, and so cunningly made that the hotter this rim grows, the smaller its diameter becomes. in the rim of the wheel are tiny holes into which screws may be screwed. by adding screws or taking some away, or changing the position of some of them, the movement of the watch can be made to go faster or slower. all this would be difficult enough to manage if a watch was as large as a cart wheel, with wheels a foot in diameter; but it does seem a marvel how so many kinds of wheels and screws and springs, one hundred and fifty in all, can be put into a case sometimes not more than an inch in diameter, and can find room to work; and it is quite as much of a marvel how they can be manufactured and handled. remembering how accurate every piece must be, it is no wonder that in switzerland, where all this work used to be done by hand, a boy had to go to a "watch school" for fourteen years before he was considered able to make a really fine watch. he began at the beginning and was taught to make, first, wooden handles for his tools, then the tools themselves, such as files, screw drivers, etc. his next work was to make wooden watchcases as large as dinner-plates. after this, he was given the frame to which the various wheels of a watch are fastened and was taught how and where to drill the holes for wheels and screws. after lessons in making the finer tools to be used, he was allowed to make a watch frame. all this took several years, for he had to do the same work over and over until his teachers were satisfied with it. then he was promoted to the second room. here he learned to adjust the stem-winding parts, to do fine cutting and filing, and to make watches that would strike the hour and even the minute. room three was called the "train room," because the wheels of a watch are spoken of as "the train." the model watch in this room was as large as a saucer. the young man had to study every detail of this, and also to learn the use of a delicate little machine doing such fine work that it could cut twenty-four hundred tiny cogs on one of the little wheels of a watch. in the fourth room he learned to make the escapement wheel and some other parts; and he had to make them, not merely passably, but excellently. in the fifth and last room, he must do the careful, patient work that makes a watch go perfectly. there are special little curves that must be given to the hair spring; and the screws on the balance wheel must be carefully adjusted. if the watch ran faster when it was lying down than when it was hanging up, he learned that certain ones of the bearings were too coarse and must be made finer. in short, he must be able to make a watch that, whether hanging up or lying down, and whether the weather was hot or cold, would not vary from correct time more than two and a half seconds a day at the most. then, and not till then, was the student regarded as a first-class watchmaker. the graduate of such a school knew how to make a whole watch, but he usually limited his work to some one part. every part of a watch was made expressly for that watch, but sometimes a hundred different persons worked on it. the very best of the swiss watches were exceedingly good; the poorest were very bad, and much worse to own than a poor american watch because it costs more to repair a swiss watch than an american watch. [illustration: _courtesy waltham watch co._ where watches are made once a single man made a whole watch by hand. now one watch may be the product of a hundred hands, each man doing his particular part.] even though in america the parts of watches are made by machinery, an apprentice has to undergo just as careful and just as extended training here as in switzerland. a poor watch is worse than none at all, and careless work would not be tolerated in any watch factory. of late even switzerland has been importing american machinery in order to compete with the united states. these machines do such careful, minute, intricate work that, as you stand and watch them, you feel as if they must know what they are about. one of them takes the frame,--that is, the plates to which the wheels are fastened,--makes it of the proper thinness, cuts the necessary holes in it, and passes it over to the next machine, which is reaching out for it. the feeder gives the first machine another plate; and so the work goes on down a whole line of machines. at length the plate is taken in hand by a machine, or rather a group of machines, which can do almost anything. before they let it go, they actually perform one hundred and forty-two different operations, each bringing it nearer completion. these machines are automatic, but nevertheless they must be constantly watched by expert machinists to keep them in order and make sure of their turning out perfect work. while one line of machines has been perfecting the plate, others have been at work on screws and wheels and springs. as many of these as are needed for one watch are put into a little division of a tray and carried to another room for its jewels and the rest of its outfit. the jewels, which are pieces of rubies, sapphires, garnets, or even diamonds, are very valuable to a watch. when you know that the little wheels are in constant motion, and that the balance wheel, for instance, vibrates eighteen thousand times an hour, it is plain that a vast amount of wear comes upon the spot where the pivots of these wheels rest. no metal can be made smooth enough to prevent friction, and there is no metal hard enough to prevent wear. the "jewels" are smoother and harder. they are sawed into slabs so thin that fifty of them piled up would measure only an inch. these are stuck to blocks to be polished, cut into disks flat on one side but with a little depression on the other to receive oil, bored through the center, and placed wherever the wear is greatest--provided the purchaser is willing to pay for them. a "full-jeweled" watch contains twenty-three jewels; that is, in twenty-three of the places where the most severe wear comes, or where friction might prevent the watch from going with perfect smoothness, there will be practically no wear and no friction. a low-priced watch contains only seven jewels, but if you want a watch to last, it pays to buy one that is full-jeweled. and now these plates and wheels and screws are to be put together, or "assembled," as this work is called. this is a simple matter just as soon as one has learned where the different parts belong, for they are made by machinery and are sure to fit. after the assembling comes the adjusting of the balance wheel and the hair spring. there is nothing simple about this work, for the tiny screws with the large heads must be put into the rim of the balance wheel with the utmost care, or else all the other work will be useless, and the watch will not be a perfect time keeper; that is, one that neither loses nor gains more than thirty seconds a month. it is said that the earliest watches made in europe cost fifteen hundred dollars and took a year to make. there has always been a demand for a cheap pocket timepiece, and of late this demand has been satisfied by the manufacture of the "dollar watch." properly speaking, this is not a watch at all, but a small spring clock. it has no jewels, and its parts are stamped out of sheets of brass or steel by machinery. the hair springs are made in coils of eight and then broken apart; and the main springs are made by the mile. twenty holes are drilled at a time, and the factory in which "dollar watches" were first manufactured is now able to turn out fifteen thousand a day. ix the making of shoes did you ever stop to think how many different qualities you expect in a shoe? you want the sole to be hard and firm so as to protect your feet in rough walking; and also soft and yielding so as to feel springy and not board-like. you want the upper leather to keep the cold air from coming in; and also porous enough to let the perspiration out. your feet are not exactly like those of any one else; and yet you expect to find at any shoe store a comfortable shoe ready-made. you expect that shoe to come close to your foot, and yet allow you to move it with perfect freedom. you expect all these good qualities, and what is more remarkable, it does not seem difficult for most people to get them. there is an old saying, "to him who wears shoes, the whole earth is covered with leather"; and although many different materials have been tried in shoemaking, leather is the only one that has proved satisfactory, for the sole of the shoe at least. of late, however, rubber and rubber combinations and felts and felt combinations have been used. most hides of which soles are made come from the large beef packing-houses or from south america. goatskins come from africa and india. the greater part of a hide is made up of a sort of gelatine. this easily spoils, and therefore it has to be "tanned"; that is, soaked in tannin and water. when a man set out to build a tannery, he used to go into the woods where he could be sure of enough oak trees to supply him for many years with the bark from which tannin is made; but it has been found that the bark of several other kinds of trees, such as larch, chestnut, spruce, pine, and hemlock, will tan as well as that of oak. tannin is now prepared in the forest and brought to the tanners, who put their tanneries where they please, usually near some large city. the hides are first soaked in water, and every particle of flesh is scraped away. they are laid in heaps for a while, then hung in a warm room till the hair loosens and can be easily removed, then soaked in tannic extract and water. the tannin unites with the gelatine; and thus the hide becomes leather. this process requires several months. hides are also tanned by the use of chemicals, in what is called "chrome" tanning. this process requires only a few hours, but it is expensive. in earlier times the shoemaker used to go from house to house with his lapstone, waxed end, awl, and other tools. the farmer provided the leather, which he had tanned from the hides of his own cattle. now, however, manufacturers can buy the soles of one merchant, the heels of another, the box toe and stiffenings of another, and so on. in the united states there are many factories which do nothing but cut soles, or rather stamp them out with dies, a hundred or more in a minute. these soles and also the less heavy inner soles go through machines that make all parts of them of a uniform thickness. the traveling shoemaker always hammered his sole leather to make it wear better; but now a moment between very heavy rollers answers the same purpose. another machine splits the inner sole for perhaps a quarter of an inch all the way around, and thus makes a little lip to which to sew the welt. a number of layers or "lifts" of leather are cemented together for the heel, and are put under heavy pressure. the upper parts of a shoe, the "uppers," as they are called, are the vamp or front of the shoe, the top, the tip, and (in a laced shoe) the tongue. nearly all the upper leather that shows when a shoe is on is made from the hides of cattle, calves, goats, and sheep; but besides the parts that show there are stiffeners for the box toe and the counters to support the quarters over the heel; there are linings, and many other necessary "findings," forty-four parts in all in an ordinary shoe. much experimenting and more thinking have gone into every one of these forty-four parts; and much remembering that shoes have harder wear than anything else in one's wardrobe. the cotton linings, for instance, must be woven in a special way in order to make them last and not "rub up" when they are wet with water or perspiration. they are bleached with the utmost care not to weaken them, and they are singed between red-hot copper plates to remove all the nap. then, too, a good deal of metal is used in making a shoe, not only the ornamental buckles on dress shoes and the heavy, useful buckles on storm boots, but various pieces that help to make the shoe strong and enduring. there are nails, shanks to strengthen the arch of the shoe, metal shanks to the buttons, and eyelets. not many years ago, eyelets soon wore brassy, and then the shoe looked old and cheap. they are now enameled, or the top of them is made of celluloid in a color to match the shoe. the tags on lacings and the hooks for holding lacings are also enameled. a "box-toe gum" is used to support the box-toe stiffening. cement covers the stitches; and many sorts of blacking are used in finishing the work. it is by no means a simple operation to make a pair of shoes. at a busy shoe factory it is always "tag day," for when an order is received, the first step in filling it is to make out a tag or form stating how the shoe is to be made up and when it is to be finished. these records are preserved, and if a customer writes, "send me pairs of shoes like those ordered october , ," the manufacturer has only to read the record in order to know exactly what is wanted. [illustration: _courtesy united shoe mchy. co._ the goodyear pulling-over machine this machine cost $ , , and five years of experiment to perfect. it shapes the forepart of the upper of a shoe over a wooden last.] next, the leather is selected, first grade or second grade, according to the price to be paid. the patterns for the uppers are now brought into play--and, by the way, it is no small matter to prepare the hundreds of patterns needed for a new line of shoes in all the different widths and sizes. in some factories the cutting is done by machinery; in others the "upper cutter" lays the leather on a block and cuts around the pattern with a small but very sharp knife. it needs skill and judgment to be a cutter; for a careless workman can easily waste the skins badly by not laying the patterns on to the best advantage. while this work is going on, the linings, trimmings, soles, and other parts are also being prepared, and all these many pieces now meet in the "stitching-room." at the first glance, it does not seem as if the right ones could ever come together, even though they are marked, and sometimes it does happen that a a vamp, for instance, is put with a quarters, and nobody knows the difference until the experienced eye of the foreman notices that something is wrong with the shoe. the uppers of the shoe are now stitched up, and after a careful inspection, they are sent on to the "lasting-room." the "last" of the earlier times was roughly whittled out, and it was the same for both feet; but the last of to-day is almost a work of art, so carefully is it made and polished. the shoe manufacturers jokingly declare that lasts must be changed three times a day in order to keep up with the fashions. feet do not change in form, save when they have been distorted by badly shaped shoes; but in spite of this, people insist upon having their shoes long and narrow, or short and wide, with high heels or with low heels, with broad toes or with pointed toes, as the whim of the moment may be. it really is a big problem for the shoe manufacturers to suit people's fancies and yet give them some degree of comfort. while the uppers are being stitched, the soles and inner soles and counters have been made ready and brought to the lasting-room. the toe stiffeners and also the counters are now cemented into their places. the inner sole is tacked to the last, and the uppers are put in place and held there by a tack at the heel. this is done by machines; but their working is simple compared with that of the machine which now takes charge of the half-made shoe. this machine puts out sturdy little pincers which seize the edge of the uppers, pull it smoothly and evenly into place, and drive a tack far enough in to keep it from slipping. now comes the welting. a welt is a narrow strip of leather which is sewed to the lower edge of the upper all the way around the shoe except at the heel. this brings the upper, the lip of the inner sole, and the welt together. the inside of the shoe is now smooth and even, but around the outside of the sole is the ridge made by the welt and the sewing, and within the ridge a depression that must be filled up. tarred paper or cork in a sort of cement are used for this. the shank is fastened into its place and the welt made smooth and even. the outer sole is coated with rubber cement, put into position under heavy pressure to shape it exactly like the sole of the last, and then sewed to the welt. if it was not for the welt, the outer sole would have to be sewed directly to the inner sole. the nailing and pegging of the old-fashioned shoemaker are also reproduced by the modern machine. the shoe is still open at the heel; but now the heel parts of both sole and uppers are fastened together; the edges have been nicely trimmed, and next the heels are nailed to the shoe by another machine which does the work at a blow, leaving the nails standing out a little below the lowest lift. another lift is forced upon these; and that is why the heel of a new shoe shows no signs of nails. the heel is trimmed, and then come the final sandpapering and blackening. the bottom of a new shoe has a peculiar soft, velvety appearance and feeling; and this is produced by rubbing it with fine emery paper fastened upon a little rubber pad. a stamping-machine marks the sole with the name of the manufacturer. last of all, the shoe is put upon a treeing machine, where an iron foot stretches it into precisely the shape of the wooden last on which it was made. this is the method by which large numbers of shoes are made, but there are many details which differ. laced shoes must have tongues as well as eyelets, while buttoned shoes must have buttons and buttonholes. "turned" shoes have no inner sole, but uppers and outer sole are sewed together wrong side out and then turned. in shoemaking, as in all other business, if a manufacturer is to succeed, he must see that there is no waste. he has of course no use for a careless cutter, who would perhaps waste large pieces of leather; but even the tiniest scraps are of value for some purpose. they can be treated with chemicals, softened by boiling, and pressed into boards or other articles or made into floor coverings. at any rate, they must be used for something. no business is small enough or large enough to endure waste. x in the cotton mill if you ravel a bit of cotton cloth, you will find that it is made up of tiny threads, some going up and down, and others going from right to left. these threads are remarkably strong for their size. look at one under a magnifying glass, in a brilliant light, and you will see that the little fibers of which it is made shine almost like glass. examine it more closely, and you will see that it is twisted. break it, and you will find that it does not break off sharp, but rather pulls apart, leaving many fibers standing out from both ends. cotton comes to the factory tightly pressed in bales, and the work of the manufacturer is to make it into these little threads. the bales are big, weighing four or five hundred pounds apiece. they are generally somewhat ragged, for they are done up in coarse, heavy jute. the first glance at an opened cotton bale is a little discouraging, for it is not perfectly clean by any means. bits of leaves and stems are mixed in with the cotton, and even some of the smaller seeds which have slipped through the gin. there is dust, and plenty of it, that the coarse burlap has not kept out. the first thing to do is to loosen the cotton and make it clean. great armfuls are thrown into a machine called a "bale-breaker." rollers with spikes, blunt so as not to injure the fiber, catch it up and tear the lumps to pieces, and "beaters" toss it into a light, foamy mass. something else happens to the cotton while it is in the machine, for a current of air is passing through it all the while, and this blows out the dust and bits of rubbish. this current is controlled like the draft of a stove, and it is allowed to be just strong enough to draw the cotton away from the beater when it has become light and open, leaving the harder masses for more beating. when it comes out of the opener, it is in sheets or "laps" three or four feet wide and only half an inch thick. they are white and fleecy and almost cloudlike; and so thin that any sand or broken leaves still remaining will drop out of their own weight. in this work the manufacturer has been aiming, not only at cleaning the cotton and making it fluffy, but also at mixing it. there are many sorts of cotton, some of longer or finer or more curly or stronger fiber than others, some white and some tinged with color; but the cloth woven of cotton must be uniform; therefore all these kinds must be thoroughly mixed. even the tossing and turning and beating that it has already received is not enough, and it has to go into a "scutcher," three or four laps at a time, one on top of another, to have still more beating and dusting. when it comes out, it is in a long roll or sheet, so even that any yard of it will weigh very nearly the same as any other yard. the fibers, however, are lying "every which way," and before they can be drawn out into thread, they must be made to lie parallel. this is brought about in part by carding. when people used to spin and weave in their own houses, they used "hand cards." these were somewhat like brushes for the hair, but instead of bristles they had wires shaped much as if wire hairpins had been bent twice and put through leather in such a way as to form hooks on one side of it. this leather was then nailed to a wooden back and a handle added. the carder took one card in each hand, and with the hooks pointing opposite ways brushed the cotton between them, thus making the fibers lie parallel. this is just what is done in a mill, only by machinery, of course. instead of the little hand cards, there are great cylinders covered with what is called "card clothing"; that is, canvas bristling with the bent wires, six or seven hundred to the square inch. this takes the place of one card. the place of the other is filled by what are called "flats," or narrow bars of iron covered with card clothing. the cylinders move rapidly, the flats slowly, and the cotton passes between them. it comes out in a dainty white film not so very much heavier than a spider's web, and so beautifully white and shining that it does not seem as if the big, oily, noisy machines could ever have produced it. in a moment, however, it is gone somewhere into the depths of the machine. we have seen the last of the fleecy sheet, for the machinery narrows it and rounds it, and when it comes into sight again, it looks like a soft round cord about an inch thick, and is coiled up in cans nearly a yard high. this cord is called "sliver." [illustration: in a cotton mill the "sliver" coming through the machine, and the "roving" being twisted and wound on bobbins.] the sliver is not uniform; even now its fibers are not entirely parallel, and it is as weak as wet tissue paper. it now pays a visit to the "drawing-frame." four or six slivers are put together and run through this frame. they go between four pairs of rollers, the first pair moving slowly, the others more rapidly. the slow pair hold the slivers back, while the fast one pull them on. the result is that when the sliver comes out from the rollers, its fibers are much straighter. this process is repeated several times; and at last when the final sliver comes out, although it looks almost the same as when it came from the carding-machine, its fibers are parallel. it is much more uniform, but it is very fragile, and still has to be handled with great care. it is not nearly strong enough to be twisted into thread; and before this can be done, it must pass through three other machines. the first, or "slubber," gives it a very slight twist, just enough to suggest what is coming later, and of course in doing this makes it smaller. the cotton changes its name at every operation, and now it is called "roving." it has taken one long step forward, for now it is not coiled up in cans, but is wound on "bobbins," or great spools. the second machine, the "intermediate speeder," twists it a very little more and winds it on fresh bobbins. it also puts two rovings together, so that if one happens to be thin in one place, there is a chance for it to be strengthened by a thicker place in the other. the third machine, the "fine speeder," simply makes a finer roving. all this work must be done merely to prepare the raw cotton to be twisted into the tiny threads that you see by raveling a piece of cotton cloth. now comes the actual twisting. if you fasten one end of a very soft string and twist the other and wind it on a spool, you will get a spool of finer, stronger, and harder-twisted string than you had at first. this is exactly what the "ring-spinner" does. imagine a bobbin full of roving standing on a frame. down below it are some rolls between which the thread from the bobbin passes to a second bobbin which is fast on a spindle. around this spindle is the "spinning-ring," a ring which is made to whirl around by an endless belt. this whirling twists the thread, and another part of the machine winds it upon the second bobbin. hundreds of these ring-spinners and bobbins are on a single "spinning-frame" and accomplish a great deal in a very short time. the threads that are to be used for the "weft" or "filling" go directly into the shuttles of the weavers after being spun; but those which are to be used for "warp" are wound first on spools, then on beams to go into the loom. little children weave together strips of paper, straws, and splints,--"over one, under one,"--and the weaving of plain cotton cloth is in principle nothing more than this. the first thing to do in weaving is to stretch out the warp evenly. this warp is simply many hundreds of tiny threads as long as the cloth is to be, sometimes forty or fifty yards. they must be stretched out side by side and close together. to make them regular, they are passed between the teeth of a sort of upright comb; then they are wound upon the loom beam, a horizontal beam at the back of the loom. here they are as close together as they will be in the cloth. with a magnifying glass it is easy to count the threads of the warp in an inch of cloth. some kinds of cloth have a hundred or even more to the inch. in order to make cloth, the weaver must manage in some way to lower every other one of these little threads and run his shuttle over them, as the children do the strips of paper in their paper weaving. then he must lower the other set and run the shuttle over _them_. "drawing in" makes this possible. after the threads leave the beam, they are drawn through the "harnesses." these are hanging frames, one in front of the other, filled with stiff, perpendicular threads or wires drawn tight, and with an eye in each thread. through these eyes the threads of the warp are drawn, the odd ones through one, and the even through the other. then, keeping the threads in the same order, they pass through the teeth of a "reed,"--that is, a hanging frame shaped like a great comb as long as the loom is wide; and last, they are fastened to the "front beam," which runs in front of the weaver's seat and on which the cloth is to be rolled when it has been woven. each harness is connected with a treadle. the weaver puts his foot on the treadle of the odd threads and presses them down. then he sends his shuttle, containing a bobbin full of thread, sliding across over the odd threads and under the even. he puts his foot on the treadle of the even threads and sends the shuttle back over the even and under the odd. at each trip of the shuttle, the heavy reed is drawn back toward the weaver to push the last thread of the woof or filling firmly into place. this is the way cloth is woven in the hand looms which used to be in every household. the power loom used in factories is, even in its simplest form, a complicated machine; but its principle is exactly the same. if colors are to be used, great care is needed in arranging warp and woof. if you ravel a piece of checked gingham, you will see that half the warp is white and half colored; and that in putting in the woof or filling, a certain number of the threads are white and an equal number are colored. if you look closely at the weaving of a tablecloth, you will see that the satin-like figures are woven by bringing the filling thread not "over one and under one," but often over two or three and under one. in drilling or any other twilled goods, several harnesses have to be used because the warp thread is not lowered directly in line with the one preceding, but diagonally. such work as this used to require a vast amount of skill and patience; but the famous jacquard machine will do it with ease, and will do more complicated weaving than any one ever dreamed of before its invention, for it will weave not only regular figures extending across the cloth, but can be made to introduce clusters of flowers, a figure, or a face wherever it is desired. by the aid of this, every little warp thread or cluster of threads can be lifted by its own hooked wire without interfering with any other thread. cards of paper or thin metal are made for each pattern, leaving a hole wherever the hook is to slip through and lift up a thread. after the cards are once made, the work is as easy as plain weaving; but there must be a separate card for every thread of filling in the pattern, and sometimes a single design has required as many as thirty thousand pattern cards. the machines in a cotton mill are the result of experimenting, lasting through many years. they do not seem quite so "human" as those which help to carry on some parts of other manufactures; but they are wonderfully ingenious. for instance, the sliver is so light that it seems to have hardly any weight, but it balances a tiny support. if the sliver breaks, the support falls, and this stops the machine. again, if one of the threads of the warp breaks when it is being wound on the beam, a slender bent wire that has been hung on it falls. it drops between two rollers and stops them. then the workman knows that something is wrong, and a glance will show where attention is needed. success in a cotton mill demands constant attention to details. a mill manager who has been very successful has given to those of less experience some wise directions about running a mill. for one thing, he reminds them that building is expensive and that floor space counts. if by rearranging looms space can be made for more spindles, it is well worth while to rearrange. he tells them to study their machines and see whether they are working so slowly that they cannot do as much as possible, or so fast as to strain the work. he bids them to keep their gearings clean, to be clear and definite in their orders, and to read the trade papers; but above everything else to look out for the little things, a little leak in the mill dam, a little too much tightness in a belt, or the idleness of just one spindle. herein lies, he says, one of the great differences between a successful and an unsuccessful superintendent. weaving as practiced in factories is a complicated business; but whether it is done with a simple hand loom in a cottage or with a big power loom in a great factory, there are always three movements. one separates the warp threads; one drives the shuttle between them; and one swings the reed against the filling thread just put in. xi silkworms and their work about silk there is something particularly agreeable. there are few people who do not like the sheen of a soft silk, the sparkle of light on a "taffeta," and the richness of the silk that "can stand alone." its delicate rustle is charming, and the "feel" of it is a delight. it has not the chill of linen, the deadness of cotton, or the "scratchiness" of woolen. it pleases the eye, the ear, and the touch. the caterpillars of a few butterflies and of many moths are spinners of fibers similar to silk. among these last is the beautiful pale-green lunar moth. spiders spin a lustrous fiber, and it is said that a lover of spiders succeeded, by a good deal of petting and attention, in getting considerable material from a company of them. silkworms, however, are the only providers of real silk for the world. once in a while glowing accounts are published of the ease with which they can be raised and the amount of money which can be made from them with very small capital. this business, however, like all other kinds of business, requires close attention and skill if it is to be a success. an expert has said that it needs more time to build a spool of silk than a locomotive. the way to begin to raise silkworms is first of all to provide something for them to eat. they are very particular about their bill of fare. the leaf of the osage orange will answer, but they like much better the leaf of the white mulberry. then send to a reliable dealer for a quarter of an ounce of silkworm eggs. that sounds like a small order, but it will bring you nine or ten thousand eggs, ready to become sturdy little silkworms if all goes well with them. put them on a table with a top of wire netting covered with brown paper, and keep them comfortably warm. in a week or two, there will appear some little worms about an eighth of an inch long and covered with black hairs. these tiny worms have to become three inches or more in length, and they are expected to accomplish the feat in about a month. if a boy four feet tall should grow at the silkworm's rate for one month, he would become forty-eight feet tall. it is no wonder that the worms have to make a business of eating, or that the keeper has to make a business of providing them with food. they eat most of the time, and they make a queer little crackling sound while they are about it. they have from four to eight meals a day of mulberry leaves. the worms from a quarter of an ounce of eggs begin with one pound a day, and work up to between forty and fifty. silkworms like plenty of fresh air, and if they are to thrive, their table must be kept clean. a good way to manage this is to put over them paper full of holes large enough for them to climb through. lay the leaves upon the paper; the worms will come up through the holes to eat, and the litter on their table can be cleared away. as the worms grow larger, the holes must be made larger. it is no wonder that their skins soon become too tight for them. they actually lose their appetite for a day or two, and they slip away to some quiet corner under the leaves, and plainly wish there were no other worms to bother them. soon the skin comes off, and they make up for lost time so energetically that they have to drop their tight skins three times more before they are fully grown. wet mulberry leaves must not be given them, or they will become sick and die, and there will be an end of the silkworm business from that quarter-ounce of eggs. they must have plenty of room on their table as well as in their skins. at first a tray or table two feet long and a little more than one foot wide will be large enough; but when they are full-grown, they will need about eighty square feet of table or shelves. at spinning time, even this will not be enough. after the worms have shed their skins four times and then eaten as much as they possibly can for eight or ten days, they begin to feel as if they had had enough. they now eat very little and really become smaller. they are restless and wander about. now and then they throw out threads of silk as fine as a spider's web. they know exactly what they want; each little worm wants to make a cocoon, and all they ask of you is to give them the right sort of place to make it in. when they live out of doors in freedom, they fasten their cocoons to twigs; and if you wish to give them what they like best, get plenty of dry twigs and weave them together in arches standing over the shelves. pretty soon you will see one worm after another climb up the twigs and select a place for its cocoon. before long it throws out threads from its spinneret, a tiny opening near the mouth, and makes a kind of net to support the cocoon which it is about to weave. the silkworm may have seemed greedy, but he did not eat one leaf too much for the task that lies before him. there is nothing lazy about him; and now he works with all his might, making his cocoon. he begins at the outside and shapes it like a particularly plump peanut of a clear, pale yellow. the silk is stiffened with a sort of gum as it comes out of the spinneret. the busy little worm works away, laying its threads in place in the form of a figure eight. for some time the cocoon is so thin that one can watch him. it is calculated that his tiny head makes sixty-nine movements every minute. the covering grows thicker and the room for the silkworm grows smaller. after about seventy-two hours, put your ear to the cocoon, and if all is quiet within, it is completed and the worm is shut up within it. strange things happen to him while he sleeps in the quiet of his silken bed, for he becomes a dry brown chrysalis without head or feet. then other things even more marvelous come to pass, for in about three weeks the little creature pushes the threads apart at one end of the cocoon and comes out, not a silkworm at all, but a moth with head and wings and legs and eyes. this moth lays hundreds of eggs, and in less than three weeks it dies. this is what the silkworm will do if it is left alone; but it is the business of the silk-raiser to see that it is not left alone. about eight days after the cocoon is begun, it is steamed or baked to kill the chrysalis so that it cannot make its way out and so spoil the silk. the quarter of an ounce of eggs will make about thirty pounds of cocoons. now is the time to be specially watchful, for there is nothing in which rats and mice so delight as a plump, sweet chrysalis; and they care nothing whatever for the three or four thousand yards of silk that is wound about each one. to take this silk off is a delicate piece of work. a single fiber is not much larger than the thread of a cobweb, and before the silk can be used, several threads must be united in one. first, the cocoon is soaked in warm water to loosen the gum that the worm used to stick its threads together. ends of silk from half a dozen or more cocoons are brought together, run through a little hole in a guide, and wound on a reel as one thread. this needs skill and practice, for the reeled silk must be kept of the same size. the cocoon thread is so slender that, of course, it breaks very easily; and when this happens, another thread must be pieced on. then, too, the inner silk of the cocoon is finer than the outer; so unless care is taken to add threads, the reeled silk will be irregular. the water must also be kept just warm enough to soften the gum, but not too hot. the silk is taken off the reel, and the skeins are packed up in bales as if it were of no more value than cotton. indeed, it does not look nearly so pretty and attractive as a lap of pure white cotton, for it is stiff and gummy and has hardly any luster. now it is sent to the manufacturer. it is soaked in hot soapy water for several hours, and it is drawn between plates so close together that, while they allow the silk to go through, they will not permit the least bit of roughness or dirt to pass. if the thread breaks, a tiny "faller," such as are used in cotton mills, falls down and stops the machine. the silk must now be twisted, subjected to two or three processes to increase its luster, and dyed,--and if you would like to feel as if you were paying a visit to a rainbow, go into a mill and watch the looms with their smooth, brilliant silks of all the colors that can be imagined. after the silk is woven, it is polished on lustering machines, singed to destroy all bits of free fibers or lint, freed of all threads that may project, and scoured if it is of a light color; then sold. [illustration: _courtesy cheney bros._ how spun silk is made every manufacturer saves everything he can, and even the waste silk which cannot be wound on reels is turned into a salable product] the moth whose cocoon provides most of our silk is called the "bombyx mori." there are others, however, and from some of these tussah silk, yamamai, and shantung pongee are woven. these wild moths produce a stronger thread, but it is much less smooth than that of the bombyx. there is also a great amount of "wood silk," or artificial silk, on the market. to make this, wood pulp is dissolved in ether and squirted through fine jets into water. it is soon hard enough to be twisted into threads and woven. it makes an imitation of silk, bright and lustrous, but not wearing so well as the silk of the silkworm. nevertheless, for many purposes it is used as a substitute for silk, and many braids and passementeries are made of it. then, too, there are the "mercerized" goods, which often closely resemble real silk, although there is not a thread of silk in them. it was discovered many years ago that if a piece of cotton cloth was boiled in caustic soda, it would become soft and thick and better able to receive delicate dyes. unfortunately, it also shrank badly. at length it occurred to some one that the cloth might be kept from shrinking by being stretched out during the boiling in soda. he was delighted to find that this process made it more brilliant than many silks. the threads that fasten the cocoon to the bush and those in the heart of the cocoon are often used, together with the fiber from any cocoons through which the worms have made their way out. this is real silk, of course, but it is made of short fibers which cannot be wound. it is carded and spun and made into fabric called "spun silk," which is used extensively for the heavier classes of goods. then, too, silks are often "weighted"; that is, just before they are dyed, salts of iron or tin are added. one pound of silk will absorb two or three pounds of these chemicals, and will apparently be a heavy silk, while it is really thin and poor. moreover, this metallic weighting rubs against the silk fiber and mysterious holes soon begin to appear. a wise "dry cleaner" will have nothing to do with such silks, lest he should be held responsible for these holes. it is this weighting which produces the peculiar rustle of taffeta; and if women would be satisfied with a taffeta that was soft and thin, the manufacturers would gladly leave out the salts of iron, and the silks would wear much better. cotton is seldom mixed with the silk warp thread; but it is used as "filling" in a large class of goods with silk warp. the custom has arisen of advertising such goods as "silk," which of course is not a fair description of them. advertisements sometimes give notice of amazing sales of "shantung pongee," which has been made in american looms and is a very different article from the imported "wild silk" pongee. with so many shams in the market, how is a woman to know what she is buying and whether it will wear? there are a few simple tests that are helpful. ravel a piece of silk and examine the warp and woof. if they are of nearly the same size, the silk is not so likely to split. see how strong the thread is. burn a thread. if it burns with a little flame, it is cotton. if it curls up and smells like burning wool, it is probably silk. another test by fire is to burn a piece of the goods. if it is silk, it will curl up; if it is heavily weighted, it will keep its shape. if you boil a sample in caustic potash, all the silk in it will dissolve, but the cotton will remain. if the whole sample disappears, you may be sure that it was all silk. soft, finely woven silks are safest because they will not hold so much weighting. crêpe de chine is made of a hard twisted thread and therefore wears well. taffeta can carry a large amount of weighting, and is always doubtful; it may wear well, and it may not. there is always a reason for a bargain sale of silks. the store may wish to clear out a collection of remnants or to get rid of a line of goods which are no longer to be carried; but aside from this, there is usually some defect in the goods themselves or else they have failed to please the fashionable whim of the moment. silk is always silk, and if you want it, you must pay for it. transcriber's note some illustrations have been moved from their original locations to paragraph breaks, so as to be nearer to their corresponding text, or for ease of document navigation. on the art of writing cambridge university press c.f. clay, manager london: fetter lane, e.c. edinburgh: princes street. bombay, calcutta and madras: macmillan & co. ltd. toronto: j.m. dent and sons, ltd. tokyo: the maruzen-kabushiki-kaisha. copyrighted in the united states of america by g.p. putnam's sons, , and , west th street, new york city. all rights reserved on the art of writing lectures delivered in the university of cambridge - by sir arthur quiller-couch, m.a. fellow of jesus college king edward vii professor of english literature cambridge: at the university press first edition reprinted , to john hay lobban preface by recasting these lectures i might with pains have turned them into a smooth treatise. but i prefer to leave them (bating a very few corrections and additions) as they were delivered. if, as the reader will all too easily detect, they abound no less in repetitions than in arguments dropped and left at loose ends--the whole bewraying a man called unexpectedly to a post where in the act of adapting himself, of learning that he might teach, he had often to adjourn his main purpose and skirmish with difficulties--they will be the truer to life; and so may experimentally enforce their preaching, that the art of writing is a living business. bearing this in mind, the reader will perhaps excuse certain small vivacities, sallies that meet fools with their folly, masking the main attack. _that_, we will see, is serious enough; and others will carry it on, though my effort come to naught. it amounts to this--literature is not a mere science, to be studied; but an art, to be practised. great as is our own literature, we must consider it as a legacy to be improved. any nation that potters with any glory of its past, as a thing dead and done for, is to that extent renegade. if that be granted, not all our pride in a shakespeare can excuse the relaxation of an effort--however vain and hopeless--to better him, or some part of him. if, with all our native exemplars to give us courage, we persist in striving to write well, we can easily resign to other nations all the secondary fame to be picked up by commentators. recent history has strengthened, with passion and scorn, the faith in which i wrote the following pages. arthur quiller-couch november contents lecture i inaugural ii the practice of writing iii on the difference between verse and prose iv on the capital difficulty of verse v interlude: on jargon vi on the capital difficulty of prose vii some principles reaffirmed viii on the lineage of english literature (i) ix on the lineage of english literature (ii) x english literature in our universities (i) xi english literature in our universities (ii) xii on style index lecture i. inaugural wednesday, january , in all the long quarrel set between philosophy and poetry i know of nothing finer, as of nothing more pathetically hopeless, than plato's return upon himself in his last dialogue 'the laws.' there are who find that dialogue (left unrevised) insufferably dull, as no doubt it is without form and garrulous. but i think they will read it with a new tolerance, may-be even with a touch of feeling, if upon second thoughts they recognise in its twisting and turnings, its prolixities and repetitions, the scruples of an old man who, knowing that his time in this world is short, would not go out of it pretending to know more than he does, and even in matters concerning which he was once very sure has come to divine that, after all, as renan says, 'la verité consiste dans les nuances.' certainly 'the mind's dark cottage battered and decayed' does in that last dialogue admit some wonderful flashes, from heaven descended to the low-roofed house of socrates, or rather to that noble 'banquet-hall deserted' which aforetime had entertained socrates. suffer me, mr vice-chancellor and gentlemen, before reaching my text, to remind you of the characteristically beautiful setting. the place is crete, and the three interlocutors--cleinias a cretan, megillus a lacedaemonian, and an athenian stranger--have joined company on a pilgrimage to the cave and shrine of zeus, from whom minos, first lawgiver of the island, had reputedly derived not only his parentage but much parental instruction. now the day being hot, even scorching, and the road from cnossus to the sacred cave a long one, our three pilgrims, who have foregathered as elderly men, take it at their leisure, and propose to beguile it with talk upon minos and his laws. 'yes, and on the way,' promises the cretan, 'we shall come to cypress-groves exceedingly tall and fair, and to green meadows, where we may repose ourselves and converse.' 'good,' assents the athenian. 'ay, very good indeed, and better still when we arrive at them. let us push on.' so they proceed. i have said that all three are elderly men; that is, men who have had their opportunities, earned their wages, and so nearly earned their discharge that now, looking back on life, they can afford to see man for what he really is--at his best a noble plaything for the gods. yet they look forward, too, a little wistfully. they are of the world, after all, and nowise so tired of it, albeit disillusioned, as to have lost interest in the game or in the young who will carry it on. so minos and his laws soon get left behind, and the talk (as so often befalls with plato) is of the perfect citizen and how to train him--of education, in short; and so, as ever with plato, we are back at length upon the old question which he could never get out of his way--what to do with the poets? it scarcely needs to be said that the athenian has taken hold of the conversation, and that the others are as wax in his hands. 'o athenian stranger,' cleinias addresses him--'inhabitant of attica i will not call you, for you seem to deserve rather the name of athene herself, because you go back to first principles.' thus complimented, the stranger lets himself go. yet somehow he would seem to have lost speculative nerve. it was all very well in the 'republic,' the ideal state, to be bold and declare for banishing poetry altogether. but elderly men have given up pursuing ideals; they have 'seen too many leaders of revolt.' our athenian is driving now at practice (as we say), at a well-governed state realisable on earth; and after all it is hard to chase out the poets, especially if you yourself happen to be something of a poet at heart. hear, then, the terms on which, after allowing that comedies may be performed, but only by slaves and hirelings, he proceeds to allow serious poetry. and if any of the serious poets, as they are termed, who write tragedy, come to us and say--'o strangers, may we go to your city and country, or may we not, and shall we bring with us our poetry? what is your will about these matters?'--how shall we answer the divine men? i think that our answer should be as follows:-- 'best of strangers,' we will say to them, 'we also, according to our ability, are tragic poets, and our tragedy is the best and noblest: for our whole state is an imitation of the best and noblest life.... you are poets and we are poets, both makers of the same strains, rivals and antagonists in the noblest of dramas, which true law alone can perfect, as our hope is. do not then suppose that we shall all in a moment allow you to erect your stage in the agora, and introduce the fair voices of your actors, speaking above our own, and permit you to harangue our women and children and the common people in language other than our own, and very often the opposite of our own. for a state would be mad which gave you this license, until the magistrates had determined whether your poetry might be recited and was fit for publication or not. wherefore, o ye sons and scions of the softer muses! first of all show your songs to the magistrates and let them compare them with our own, and if they are the same or better, we will give you a chorus; but if not, then, my friends, we cannot.' lame conclusion! impotent compromise! how little applicable, at all events, to our commonwealth! though, to be sure (you may say) we possess a relic of it in his majesty's licenser of plays. as you know, there has been so much heated talk of late over the composition of the county magistracy; yet i give you a countryman's word, sir, that i have heard many names proposed for the commission of the peace, and on many grounds, but never one on the ground that its owner had a conservative taste in verse! nevertheless, as plato saw, we must deal with these poets somehow. it is possible (though not, i think, likely) that in the ideal state there would be no literature, as it is certain there would be no professors of it; but since its invention men have never been able to rid themselves of it for any length of time. _tamen usque recurrit._ they may forbid apollo, but still he comes leading his choir, the nine:-- [greek: akletos men egoge menoimi ken es de kaleunton tharsesas moisaisi snu amepeaisin ikoiman.] and he may challenge us english boldly! for since chaucer, at any rate, he and his train have never been [greek: akletoi] to us--least of all here in cambridge. nay, we know that he should be welcome. cardinal newman, proposing the idea of a university to the roman catholics of dublin, lamented that the english language had not, like the greek, 'some definite words to express, simply and generally, intellectual proficiency or perfection, such as "health," as used with reference to the animal frame, and "virtue," with reference to our moral nature.' well, it is a reproach to us that we do not possess the term: and perhaps again a reproach to us that our attempts at it--the word 'culture' for instance--have been apt to take on some soil of controversy, some connotative damage from over-preaching on the one hand and impatience on the other. but we do earnestly desire the thing. we do prize that grace of intellect which sets so-and-so in our view as 'a scholar and a gentleman.' we do wish as many sons of this university as may be to carry forth that lifelong stamp from her precincts; and--this is my point--from our notion of such a man the touch of literary grace cannot be excluded. i put to you for a test lucian's description of his friend demonax-- his way was like other people's; he mounted no high horse; he was just a man and a citizen. he indulged in no socratic irony. but his discourse was full of attic grace; those who heard it went away neither disgusted by servility, nor repelled by ill-tempered censure, but on the contrary lifted out of themselves by charity, and encouraged to more orderly, contented, hopeful lives. i put it to you, sir, that lucian needs not to say another word, but we know that demonax had loved letters, and partly by aid of them had arrived at being such a man. no; by consent of all, literature is a nurse of noble natures, and right reading makes a full man in a sense even better than bacon's; not replete, but complete rather, to the pattern for which heaven designed him. in this conviction, in this hope, public spirited men endow chairs in our universities, sure that literature is a good thing if only we can bring it to operate on young minds. that he has in him some power to guide such operation a man must believe before accepting such a chair as this. and now, sir, the terrible moment is come when your [greek: xenos] must render some account--i will not say of himself, for that cannot be attempted--but of his business here. well, first let me plead that while you have been infinitely kind to the stranger, feasting him and casting a gown over him, one thing not all your kindness has been able to do. with precedents, with traditions such as other professors enjoy, you could not furnish him. the chair is a new one, or almost new, and for the present would seem to float in the void, like mahomet's coffin. wherefore, being one who (in my lord chief justice crewe's phrase) would 'take hold of a twig or twine-thread to uphold it'; being also prone (with bacon) to believe that 'the counsels to which time hath not been called, time will not ratify'; i do assure you that, had any legacy of guidance been discovered among the papers left by my predecessor, it would have been eagerly welcomed and as piously honoured. o, trust me, sir!--if any design for this chair of english literature had been left by dr verrall, it is not i who would be setting up any new stage in your agora! but in his papers--most kindly searched for me by mrs verrall--no such design can be found. he was, in truth, a stricken man when he came to the chair, and of what he would have built we can only be sure that, had it been this or had it been that, it would infallibly have borne the impress of one of the most beautiful minds of our generation. the gods saw otherwise; and for me, following him, i came to a trench and stretched my hands to a shade. for me, then, if you put questions concerning the work of this chair, i must take example from the artist in don quixote, who being asked what he was painting, answered modestly, 'that is as it may turn out.' the course is uncharted, and for sailing directions i have but these words of your ordinance: it shall be the duty of the professor to deliver courses of lectures on english literature from the age of chaucer onwards, and otherwise to promote, so far as may be in his power, the study in the university of the subject of english literature. and i never even knew that english literature had a 'subject'; or, rather, supposed it to have several! to resume: the professor shall treat this subject on literary and critical rather than on philological and linguistic lines: --a proviso which at any rate cuts off a cantle, large in itself, if not comparatively, of the new professor's ignorance. but i ask you to note the phrase 'to promote, so far as may be in his power, the study'--not, you will observe, 'to teach'; for this absolves me from raising at the start a question of some delicacy for me, as green launched his "prolegomena to ethics" upon the remark that 'an author who seeks to gain general confidence scarcely goes the right way to work when he begins with asking whether there really is such a subject as that of which he proposes to treat.' in spite of--mark, pray, that i say _in spite of_--the activity of many learned professors, some doubt does lurk in the public mind if, after all, english literature can, in any ordinary sense, be taught, and if the attempts to teach it do not, after all, justify (as wisdom is so often justified of her grandparents) the silence sapience of those old benefactors who abstained from endowing any such chairs. but that the study of english literature can be promoted in young minds by an elder one, that their zeal may be encouraged, their tastes directed, their vision cleared, quickened, enlarged--this, i take it, no man of experience will deny. nay, since our two oldest universities have a habit of marking one another with interest--an interest, indeed, sometimes heightened by nervousness--i may point out that all this has been done of late years, and eminently done, by a cambridge man you gave to oxford. this, then, mr vice-chancellor--this or something like this, gentlemen--is to be my task if i have the good fortune to win your confidence. let me, then, lay down two or three principles by which i propose to be guided. ( ) for the first principle of all i put to you that in studying any work of genius we should begin by taking it _absolutely_; that is to say, with minds intent on discovering just what the author's mind intended; this being at once the obvious approach to its meaning (its [greek: to ti en einai], the 'thing it was to be'), and the merest duty of politeness we owe to the great man addressing us. we should lay our minds open to what he wishes to tell, and if what he has to tell be noble and high and beautiful, we should surrender and let soak our minds in it. pray understand that in claiming, even insisting upon, the first place for this _absolute_ study of a great work i use no disrespect towards those learned scholars whose labours will help you, gentlemen, to enjoy it afterwards in other ways and from other aspects; since i hold there is no surer sign of intellectual ill-breeding than to speak, even to feel, slightingly of any knowledge oneself does not happen to possess. still less do i aim to persuade you that anyone should be able to earn a cambridge degree by the process (to borrow macaulay's phrase) of reading our great authors 'with his feet on the hob,' a posture i have not even tried, to recommend it for a contemplative man's recreation. these editors not only set us the priceless example of learning for learning's sake: but even in practice they clear our texts for us, and afterwards--when we go more minutely into our author's acquaintance, wishing to learn all we can about him--by increasing our knowledge of detail they enchance our delight. nay, with certain early writers--say chaucer or dunbar, as with certain highly allusive ones--bacon, or milton, or sir thomas browne--some apparatus must be supplied from the start. but on the whole i think it a fair contention that such helps to studying an author are secondary and subsidiary; that, for example, with any author who by consent is less of his age than for all time, to study the relation he bore to his age may be important indeed, and even highly important, yet must in the nature of things be of secondary importance, not of the first. but let us examine this principle a little more attentively--for it is the palmary one. as i conceive it, that understanding of literature which we desire in our euphues, our gracefully-minded youth, will include knowledge in varying degree, yet is itself something distinct from knowledge. let us illustrate this upon poetry, which the most of us will allow to be the highest form of literary expression, if not of all artistic expression. of all the testimony paid to poetry, none commands better witness than this--that, as johnson said of gray's elegy 'it abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every heart returns an echo.' when george eliot said, 'i never before met with so many of my own feelings expressed just as i should like them,' she but repeated of wordsworth (in homelier, more familiar fashion) what johnson said of gray; and the same testimony lies implicit in emerson's fine remark that 'universal history, the poets, the romancers'--all good writers, in short--'do not anywhere make us feel that we intrude, that this is for our betters. rather it is true that, in their greatest strokes, there we feel most at home.' the mass of evidence, of which these are samples, may be summarised thus:--as we dwell here between two mysteries, of a soul within and an ordered universe without, so among us are granted to dwell certain men of more delicate intellectual fibre than their fellows--men whose minds have, as it were, filaments to intercept, apprehend, conduct, translate home to us stray messages between these two mysteries, as modern telegraphy has learnt to search out, snatch, gather home human messages astray over waste waters of the ocean. if, then, the ordinary man be done this service by the poet, that (as dr johnson defines it) 'he feels what he remembers to have felt before, but he feels it _with a great increase of sensibility_'; or even if, though the message be unfamiliar, it suggests to us, in wordsworth's phrase, to 'feel that we are greater than we know,' i submit that we respond to it less by anything that usually passes for knowledge, than by an improvement of sensibility, a tuning up of the mind to the poet's pitch; so that the man we are proud to send forth from our schools will be remarkable less for something he can take out of his wallet and exhibit for knowledge, than for _being_ something, and that 'something,' a man of unmistakable intellectual breeding, whose trained judgment we can trust to choose the better and reject the worse. but since this refining of the critical judgment happens to be less easy of practice than the memorising of much that passes for knowledge--of what happened to harriet or what blake said to the soldier--and far less easy to examine on, the pedagogic mind (which i implore you not to suppose me confusing with the scholarly) for avoidance of trouble tends all the while to dodge or obfuscate what is essential, piling up accidents and irrelevancies before it until its very face is hidden. and we should be the more watchful not to confuse the pedagogic mind with the scholarly since it is from the scholar that the pedagogue pretends to derive his sanction; ransacking the great genuine commentators--be it a skeat or a masson or (may i add for old reverence' sake?) an aldis wright--fetching home bits of erudition, _non sua poma_, and announcing 'this _must_ be the true sion, for we found it in a wood.' hence a swarm of little school books pullulates annually, all upside down and wrong from beginning to end; and hence a worse evil afflicts us, that the english schoolboy starts with a false perspective of any given masterpiece, his pedagogue urging, obtruding lesser things upon his vision until what is really important, the poem or the play itself, is seen in distorted glimpses, if not quite blocked out of view. this same temptation--to remove a work of art from the category for which the author designed it into another where it can be more conveniently studied--reaches even above the schoolmaster to assail some very eminent critics. i cite an example from a book of which i shall hereafter have to speak with gratitude as i shall always name it with respect--"the history of english poetry," by dr courthope, sometime professor of poetry at oxford. in his fourth volume, and in his estimate of fletcher as a dramatist, i find this passage:-- but the crucial test of a play's quality is only applied when it is read. so long as the illusion of the stage gives credit to the action, and the words and gestures of the actor impose themselves on the imagination of the spectator, the latter will pass over a thousand imperfections, which reveal themselves to the reader, who, as he has to satisfy himself with the drama of silent images, will nor be content if this or that in any way fall short of his conception of truth and nature, --which seems equivalent to saying that the crucial test of the frieze of the parthenon is its adaptability to an apartment in bloomsbury. so long as the illusion of the acropolis gave credit to pheidias' design, and the sunlight of attica imposed its delicate intended shadows edging the reliefs, the countrymen of pericles might be tricked; but the visitor to the british museum, as he has to satisfy himself with what happens indoors in the atmosphere of the west central postal division of london, will not be content if pheidias in any way fall short of _his_ conception of truth and nature. yet fletcher (i take it) constructed his plays as plays; the illusion of the stage, the persuasiveness of the actor's voice, were conditions for which he wrought, and on which he had a right to rely; and, in short, any critic behaves uncritically who, distrusting his imagination to recreate the play as a play, elects to consider it in the category of something else. in sum, if the great authors never oppress us with airs of condescension, but, like the great lords they are, put the meanest of us at our ease in their presence, i see no reason why we should pay to any commentator a servility not demanded by his master. my next two principles may be more briefly stated. ( ) i propose next, then, that since our investigations will deal largely with style, that curiously personal thing; and since (as i have said) they cannot in their nature be readily brought to rule-of-thumb tests, and may therefore so easily be suspected of evading all tests, of being mere dilettantism; i propose (i say) that my pupils and i rebuke this suspicion by constantly aiming at the concrete, at the study of such definite beauties as we can see presented in print under our eyes; always seeking the author's intention, but eschewing, for the present at any rate, all general definitions and theories, through the sieve of which the particular achievement of genius is so apt to slip. and having excluded them at first in prudence, i make little doubt we shall go on to exclude them in pride. definitions, formulæ (some would add, creeds) have their use in any society in that they restrain the ordinary unintellectual man from making himself a public nuisance with his private opinions. but they go a very little way in helping the man who has a real sense of prose or verse. in other words, they are good discipline for some thyrsus-bearers, but the initiated have little use for them. as thomas à kempis 'would rather feel compunction than understand the definition thereof,' so the initiated man will say of the 'grand style,' for example--'why define it for me?' when viola says simply: i am all the daughters of my father's house, and all the brothers too, or macbeth demands of the doctor canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow..? or hamlet greets ophelia, reading her book of hours, with nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered! or when milton tells of his dead friend how together both, ere the high lawns appear'd under the opening eyelids of the morn, we drove afield, or describes the battalions of heaven on they move indissolubly firm: nor obvious hill, nor strait'ning vale, nor wood, nor stream divide their perfect ranks, or when gray exalts the great commonplace the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, awaits alike th' inevitable hour; the paths of glory lead but to the grave, or when keats casually drops us such a line as the journey homeward to habitual self, or, to come down to our own times and to a living poet, when i open on a page of william watson and read o ancient streams, o far descended woods, full of the fluttering of melodious souls!... 'why then (will say the initiated one), why worry me with any definition of the grand style in english, when here, and here, and again here--in all these lines, simple or intense or exquisite or solemn--i recognise and feel the _thing_?' indeed, sir, the long and the short of the argument lie just here. literature is not an abstract science, to which exact definitions can be applied. it is an art rather, the success of which depends on personal persuasiveness, on the author's skill to give as on ours to receive. ( ) for our third principle i will ask you to go back with me to plato's wayfarers, whom we have left so long under the cypresses; and loth as we must be to lay hands on our father parmenides, i feel we must treat the gifted athenian stranger to a little manhandling. for did you not observe--though greek was a living language and to his metropolitan mind the only language--how envious he showed himself to seal up the well, or allow it to trickle only under permit of a public analyst: to treat all innovation as suspect, even as, a hundred odd years ago, the lyrical ballads were suspect? but the very hope of this chair, sir (as i conceive it), relies on the courage of the young. as literature is an art and therefore not to be pondered only, but practised, so ours is a living language and therefore to be kept alive, supple, active in all honourable use. the orator can yet sway men, the poet ravish them, the dramatist fill their lungs with salutary laughter or purge their emotions by pity or terror. the historian 'superinduces upon events the charm of order.' the novelist--well, even the novelist has his uses; and i would warn you against despising any form of art which is alive and pliant in the hands of men. for my part, i believe, bearing in mind mr. barrie's "peter pan" and the old bottles he renovated to hold that joyous wine, that even musical comedy, in the hands of a master, might become a thing of beauty. of the novel, at any rate--whether we like it or not--we have to admit that it does hold a commanding position in the literature of our times, and to consider how far mr. lascelles abercrombie was right the other day when he claimed, on the first page of his brilliant study of thomas hardy, that 'the right to such a position is not to be disputed; for here, as elsewhere, the right to a position is no more than the power to maintain it.' you may agree with that or you may not; you may or may not deplore the forms that literature is choosing now-a-days; but there is no gainsaying that it is still very much alive. and i would say to you, gentlemen, 'believe, and be glad that literature and the english tongue are both alive.' carlyle, in his explosive way, once demanded of his countrymen, 'shakespeare or india? if you had to surrender one to retain the other, which would you choose?' well, our indian empire is yet in the making, while the works of shakespeare are complete and purchasable in whole calf; so the alternatives are scarcely _in pari materia_; and moreover let us not be in a hurry to meet trouble half way. but in english literature, which, like india, is still in the making, you have at once an empire and an emprise. in that alone you have inherited something greater than sparta. let us strive, each in his little way, to adorn it. but here at the close of my hour, the double argument, that literature is an art and english a living tongue, has led me right up to a fourth principle, the plunge into which (though i foresaw it from the first) all the coward in me rejoices at having to defer to another lecture. i conclude then, gentlemen, by answering two suspicions, which very likely have been shaping themselves in your minds. in the first place, you will say, 'it is all very well for this man to talk about "cultivating an increased sensibility," and the like; but we know what that leads to--to quackery, to aesthetic chatter: "isn't this pretty? don't you admire that?"' well, i am not greatly frightened. to begin with, when we come to particular criticism i shall endeavour to exchange it with you in plain terms; a manner which (to quote mr robert bridges' "essay on keats") 'i prefer, because by obliging the lecturer to say definitely what he means, it makes his mistakes easy to point out, and in this way the true business of criticism is advanced.' but i have a second safeguard, more to be trusted: that here in cambridge, with all her traditions of austere scholarship, anyone who indulges in loose distinct talk will be quickly recalled to his tether. though at the time athene be not kind enough to descend from heaven and pluck him backward by the hair, yet the very _genius loci_ will walk home with him from the lecture room, whispering monitions, cruel to be kind. 'but,' you will say alternatively, 'if we avoid loose talk on these matters we are embarking on a mighty difficult business.' why, to be sure we are; and that, i hope, will be half the enjoyment. after all, we have a number of critics among whose methods we may search for help--from the persian monarch who, having to adjudicate upon two poems, caused the one to be read to him, and at once, without ado, awarded the prize to the other, up to the great frenchman whom i shall finally invoke to sustain my hope of building something; that is if you, gentlemen, will be content to accept me less as a professor than as an elder brother. the frenchman is sainte-beuve, and i pay a debt, perhaps appropriately here, by quoting him as translated by the friend of mine, now dead, who first invited me to cambridge and taught me to admire her--one arthur john butler, sometime a fellow of trinity, and later a great pioneer among englishmen in the study of dante. thus while you listen to the appeal of sainte-beuve, i can hear beneath it a more intimate voice, not for the first time, encouraging me. sainte-beuve then--_si magna licet componere parvis_--is delivering an inaugural lecture in the École normale, the date being april th, . 'gentlemen,' he begins, 'i have written a good deal in the last thirty years; that is, i have scattered myself a good deal; so that i need to gather myself together, in order that my words may come before you with all the more freedom and confidence.' that is his opening; and he ends:-- as time goes on, you will make me believe that i can for my part be of some good to you: and with the generosity of your age you will repay me, in this feeling alone, far more than i shall be able to give you in intellectual freedom, in literary thought. if in one sense i bestow on you some of my experience, you will requite me, and in a more profitable manner, by the sight of your ardour for what is noble: you will accustom me to turn oftener and more willingly towards the future in your company. you will teach me again to hope. lecture ii. the practice of writing. wednesday, february we found, gentlemen, towards the close of our first lecture, that the argument had drawn us, as by a double chain, up to the edge of a bold leap, over which i deferred asking you to take the plunge with me. yet the plunge must be taken, and to-day i see nothing for it but to harden our hearts. well, then, i propose to you that, english literature being (as we agreed) an art, with a living and therefore improvable language for its medium or vehicle, a part--and no small part--of our business is _to practise it._ yes, i seriously propose to you that here in cambridge we _practise writing_: that we practise it not only for our own improvement, but to make, or at least try to make, appropriate, perspicuous, accurate, persuasive writing a recognisable hall-mark of anything turned out by our english school. by all means let us study the great writers of the past for their own sakes; but let us study them for our guidance; that we, in our turn, having (it is to be hoped) something to say in our span of time, say it worthily, not dwindling out the large utterance of shakespeare or of burke. portraits of other great ones look down on you in your college halls: but while you are young and sit at the brief feast, what avails their serene gaze if it do not lift up your hearts and movingly persuade you to match your manhood to its inheritance? i protest, gentlemen, that if our eyes had not been sealed, as with wax, by the pedagogues of whom i spoke a fortnight ago, this one habit of regarding our own literature as a _hortus siccus_, this our neglect to practise good writing as the constant auxiliary of an englishman's liberal education, would be amazing to you seated here to-day as it will be starkly incredible to the future historian of our times. tell me, pray; if it concerned _painting_--an art in which englishmen boast a record far briefer, far less distinguished--what would you think of a similar acquiescence in the past, a like haste to presume the dissolution of aptitude and to close accounts, a like precipitancy to divorce us from the past, to rob the future of hope and even the present of lively interest? consider, for reproof of these null men, the discourses addressed (in a pedantic age, too) by sir joshua reynolds to the members and students of the royal academy. he has (as you might expect) enough to say of tintoretto, of titian, of caracci, and of the duty of studying their work with patience, with humility. but why does he exhort his hearers to con them?--why, because he is all the time _driving at practice_. hear how he opens his second discourse (his first to the students). after congratulating the prize-winners of , he desires 'to lead them into such a course of study as may render their future progress answerable to their past improvement'; and the great man goes on:-- i flatter myself that from the long experience i have had, and the necessary assiduity with which i have pursued these studies in which like you i have been engaged, i shall be acquitted of vanity in offering some hints to your consideration. they are indeed in a great degree founded upon my own mistakes in the same pursuit.... mark the noble modesty of that! to resume-- in speaking to you of the theory of the art, i shall only consider it as it has relation to the method of your studies. and then he proceeds to preach the old masters.--but how?--why?--to what end? does he recite lists of names, dates, with formulae concerning styles? he does nothing of the sort. does he recommend his old masters for copying, then?--for mere imitation? not a bit of it!--he comes down like a hammer on copying. then for what, in fine, will he have them studied? listen:-- the more extensive your acquaintance is with the works of those who have excelled, the more extensive will be your powers of invention. yes, of _invention_, your power to make something new: --and what may appear still more like a paradox, _the more original will be your conceptions_. there spake sir joshua reynolds: and i call that the voice of a true elder brother. he, standing face to face with the young, thought of the old masters mainly as spiritual begetters of practice. and will anyone in this room tell me that what reynolds said of painting is not to-day, for us, applicable to writing? we accept it of greek and latin. an old sixth form master once said to me, 'you may give up latin verse for this term, if you will: but i warn you, no one can be a real scholar who does not constantly practise verse.' he was mistaken, belike. i hold, for my part, that in our public schools, we give up a quite disproportionate amount of time to 'composition' (of latin prose especially) and starve the boys' reading thereby. but at any rate we do give up a large share of the time to it. then if we insist on this way with the tongues of homer and virgil, why do we avoid it with the tongue of shakespeare, our own living tongue? i answer by quoting one of the simplest wisest sayings of don quixote (gentlemen, you will easily, as time goes on, and we better our acquaintance, discover my favourite authors):-- the great homer wrote not in latin, for he was a greek; and virgil wrote not in greek, because he was a latin. in brief, all the ancient poets wrote in the tongue which they sucked in with their mother's milk, nor did they go forth to seek for strange ones to express the greatness of their conceptions: and, this being so, it should be a reason for the fashion to extend to all nations. does the difference, then, perchance lie in ourselves? will you tell me, 'oh, painting is a special art, whereas anyone can write prose passably well'? can he, indeed?... can _you,_ sir? nay, believe me, you are either an archangel or a very bourgeois gentleman indeed if you admit to having spoken english prose all your life without knowing it. indeed, when we try to speak prose without having practised it the result is apt to be worse than our own vernacular. how often have i heard some worthy fellow addressing a public audience!--say a parliamentary candidate who believes himself a liberal home ruler, and for the moment is addressing himself to meet some criticism of the financial proposals of a home rule bill. his own vernacular would be somewhat as follows:-- oh, rot! give the irish their heads and they'll run straight enough. look at the boers, don't you know. not half such a decent sort as the irish. look at irish horses, too. eh? what? but this, he is conscious, would hardly suit the occasion. he therefore amends it thus:-- mr chairman--er--as regards the financial proposals of his majesty's government, i am of the deliberate--er--opinion that our national security--i may say, our imperial security--our security as--er--a governing people--lies in trusting the irish as we did in the--er --case of the boers--h'm mr gladstone, mr chairman--mr chairman, mr gladstone---- and so on. you perceive that the style is actually worse than in the sample quoted before; it has become flabby whereas that other was at any rate nervous? but now suppose that, having practised it, our candidate was able to speak like this:-- 'but what (says the financier) is peace to us without money? your plan gives us no revenue.' no? but it does--for it secures to the subject the power of refusal, the first of all revenues. experience is a cheat, and fact is a liar, if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant, or of not granting at all, has not been found the richest mine of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. it does not indeed vote you , pounds shillings / pence, nor any other paltry limited sum--but it gives you the strong box itself, the fund, the bank, from whence only revenues can arise among a people sensible of freedom: _positâ luditur arcâ_.... is this principle to be true in england, and false everywhere else? is it not true in ireland? has it not hitherto been true in the colonies? why should you presume that in any country a body duly constituted for any function will neglect to perform its duty and abdicate its trust? such a presumption would go against all governments in all nations. but in truth this dread of penury of supply, from a free assembly, has no foundation in nature. for first, observe that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of supporting the honour of their own government, that sense of dignity, and that security to property, which ever attend freedom, have a tendency to increase the stock of a free community. most may be taken where most is accumulated. and what is the soil or climate where experience has not uniformly proved that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the weight of its own luxuriance, has ever run with a more copious stream of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indigence by the straining of all the politic machinery in the world? that, whether you agree or disagree with its doctrine, is great prose. that is burke. 'o athenian stranger,' said the cretan i quoted in my first lecture,--'inhabitant of attica i will not call you, since you deserve the name of athene herself, because you go back to first principles!' but, you may object, 'burke is talking like a book, and i have no wish to talk like a book.' well, as a fact, burke is here at the culmen of a long sustained argument, and his language has soared with it, as his way was--logic and emotion lifting him together as upon two balanced majestic wings. but you are shy of such heights? very well again, and all credit to your modesty! yet at least (i appeal to that same modesty) when you talk or write, you would wish to _observe the occasion_; to say what you have to say without impertinence or ill-timed excess. you would not harangue a drawing-room or a subcommittee, or be facetious at a funeral, or play the skeleton at a banquet: for in all such conduct you would be mixing up things that differ. be cheerful, then: for this desire of yours to be appropriate is really the root of the matter. nor do i ask you to accept this on my sole word, but will cite you the most respectable witnesses. take, for instance, a critic who should be old enough to impress you--dionysius of halicarnassus. after enumerating the qualities which lend charm and nobility to style, he closes the list with 'appropriateness, which all these need':-- as there is a charming diction, so there is another that is noble; as there is a polished rhythm, so there is another that is dignified; as variety adds grace in one passage, so in another it adds fulness; _and as for appropriation, it will prove the chief source of beauty, or else of nothing at all_. or listen to cicero, how he sets appropriateness in the very heart of his teaching, as the master secret:-- is erit eloquens qui poterit parva summisse, modica temperate, magna graviter dicere.... qui ad id quodcunque decebit poterit accommodare orationem. quod quum statuerit, tum, ut quidque erit dicendum, ita dicet, nec satura jejune, nec grandia minute, nec item contra, sed erit rebus ipsis par et aequalis oratio. 'whatever his theme he will speak as becomes it; neither meagrely where it is copious, nor meanly where it is ample, nor in _this_ way where it demands _that_; but keeping his speech level with the actual subject and adequate to it.' i might quote another great man, quintilian, to you on the first importance of this appropriateness, or 'propriety'; of speaking not only to the purpose but _becomingly_--though the two as (he rightly says) are often enough one and the same thing. but i will pass on to what has ever seemed, since i found it in one of jowett's 'introductions' to plato, the best definition known to me of good style in literature:-- the perfection of style is variety in unity, freedom, ease, clearness, the power of saying anything, and of striking any note in the scale of human feelings, without impropriety. you see, o my modest friend! that your gamut needs not to be very wide, to begin with. the point is that within it you learn to play becomingly. now i started by proposing that we try together to make appropriate, perspicuous, accurate, persuasive writing a hall-mark of anything turned out by our english school here, and i would add (growing somewhat hardier) a hall-mark of all cambridge style so far as our english school can influence it. i chose these four epithets _accurate, perspicuous, persuasive, appropriate_, with some care, of course as my duty was; and will assume that by this time we are agreed to desire _appropriateness_. now for the other three:-- _perspicuity._--i shall waste no words on the need of this: since the first aim of speech is to be understood. the more clearly you write the more easily and surely you will be understood. i propose to demonstrate to you further, in a minute or so, that the more clearly you write the more clearly you will understand yourself. but a sufficient reason has been given in ten words why you should desire perspicuity. _accuracy._--did i not remind myself in my first lecture, that cambridge is the home of accurate scholarship? surely no cambridge man would willingly be a sloven in speech, oral or written? surely here, if anywhere, should be acknowledged of all what newman says of the classics, that 'a certain unaffected neatness and propriety and grace of diction may be required of any author, for the same reason that a certain attention to dress is expected of every gentleman.' after all, what are the chief differentiae between man and the brute creation but that he clothes himself, that he cooks his food, that he uses articulate speech? let us cherish and improve all these distinctions. but shall we now look more carefully into these twin questions of perspicuity and accuracy: for i think pursuing them, we may almost reach the philosophic kernel of good writing. i quoted newman playfully a moment ago. i am going to quote him in strong earnest. and here let me say that of all the books written in these hundred years there is perhaps none you can more profitably thumb and ponder than that volume of his in which, under the title of "the idea of a university," he collected nine discourses addressed to the roman catholics of dublin with some lectures delivered to the catholic university there. it is fragmentary, because its themes were occasional. it has missed to be appraised at its true worth, partly no doubt by reason of the colour it derives from a religion still unpopular in england. but in fact it may be read without offence by the strictest protestant; and the book is so wise--so eminently wise--as to deserve being bound by the young student of literature for a frontlet on his brow and a talisman on his writing wrist. now you will find much pretty swordsmanship in its pages, but nothing more trenchant than the passage in which newman assails and puts to rout the persian host of infidels--i regret to say, for the most part men of science--who would persuade us that good writing, that style, is something extrinsic to the subject, a kind of ornamentation laid on to tickle the taste, a study for the _dilettante_, but beneath the notice of _their_ stern and masculine minds. such a view, as he justly points out, belongs rather to the oriental mind than to our civilisation: it reminds him of the way young gentlemen go to work in the east when they would engage in correspondence with the object of their affection. the enamoured one cannot write a sentence himself: _he_ is the specialist in passion (for the moment); but thought and words are two things to him, and for words he must go to another specialist, the professional letter-writer. thus there is a division of labour. the man of words, duly instructed, dips the pen of desire in the ink of devotedness and proceeds to spread it over the page of desolation. then the nightingale of affection is heard to warble to the rose of loveliness, while the breeze of anxiety plays around the brow of expectation. that is what the easterns are said to consider fine writing; and it seems pretty much the idea of the school of critics to which i have been referring. now hear this fine passage:-- thought and speech are inseparable from each other. matter and expression are parts of one; style is a thinking out into language. that is what i have been laying down, and this is literature; not _things_, but the verbal symbols of things; not on the other hand mere _words_; but thoughts expressed in language. call to mind, gentlemen, the meaning of the greek word which expresses this special prerogative of man over the feeble intelligence of the lower animals. it is called logos; what does logos mean? it stands both for _reason_ and for _speech_, and it is difficult to say which it means more properly. it means both at once: why? because really they cannot be divided.... when we can separate light and illumination, life and motion, the convex and the concave of a curve, then will it be possible for thought to tread speech under foot and to hope to do without it--then will it be conceivable that the vigorous and fertile intellect should renounce its own double, its instrument of expression and the channel of its speculations and emotions. 'as if,' he exclaims finely, 'language were the hired servant, the mere mistress of reason, and not the lawful wife in her own house!' if you need further argument (but what serves it to slay the slain?) let me remind you that you cannot use the briefest, the humblest process of thought, cannot so much as resolve to take your bath hot or cold, or decide what to order for breakfast, without forecasting it to yourself in some form of words. words are, in fine, the only currency in which we can exchange thought even with ourselves. does it not follow, then, that the more accurately we use words the closer definition we shall give to our thoughts? does it not follow that by drilling ourselves to write perspicuously we train our minds to clarify their thought? does it not follow that some practice in the deft use of words, with its correspondent defining of thought, may well be ancillary even to the study of natural science in a university? but i have another word for our men of science. it was inevitable, perhaps, that latin--so long the universal language--should cease in time to be that in which scientific works were written. it was impossible, perhaps, to substitute, by consent, some equally neat and austere modern language, such as french. but when it became an accepted custom for each nation to use its own language in scientific treatises, it certainly was not foreseen that men of science would soon be making discoveries at a rate which left their skill in words outstripped; that having to invent their terms as they went along, yet being careless and contemptuous of a science in which they have no training, they would bombast out our dictionaries with monstrously invented words that not only would have made quintilian stare and gasp, but would affront the decently literate of any age. after all, and though we must sigh and acquiesce in the building of babel, we have some right to examine the bricks. i was waiting, the other day, in a doctor's anteroom, and picked up one of those books--it was a work on pathology--so thoughtfully left lying in such places; to persuade us, no doubt, to bear the ills we have rather than fly to others capable of being illustrated. i found myself engaged in following the manoeuvres of certain well-meaning bacilli generically described as 'antibodies.' i do not accuse the author (who seemed to be a learned man) of having invented this abominable term: apparently it passed current among physiologists and he had accepted it for honest coin. i found it, later on, in webster's invaluable dictionary: etymology, 'anti' up against 'body', some noxious 'foreign body' inside your body or mine. now gin a body meet a body for our protection and in this gallant spirit, need a body reward him with this hybrid label? gratitude apart, i say that for our own self-respect, whilst we retain any sense of intellectual pedigree, 'antibody' is no word to throw at a friendly bacillus. is it consonant with the high dignity of science to make her talk like a cheap showman advertising a 'picture-drome'? the man who eats peas with his knife can at least claim a historical throwback to the days when forks had but two prongs and the spoons had been removed with the soup. but 'antibody' has no such respectable derivation. it is, in fact, a barbarism, and a mongrel at that. the man who uses it debases the currency of learning: and i suggest to you that it is one of the many functions of a great university to maintain the standard of that currency, to guard the _jus et norma loquendi_, to protect us from such hasty fellows or, rather, to suppeditate them in their haste. let me revert to our list of the qualities necessary to good writing, and come to the last--_persuasiveness_; of which you may say, indeed, that it embraces the whole--not only the qualities of propriety, perspicuity, accuracy, we have been considering, but many another, such as harmony, order, sublimity, beauty of diction; all in short that--writing being an art, not a science, and therefore so personal a thing--may be summed up under the word _charm_. who, at any rate, does not seek after persuasion? it is the aim of all the arts and, i suppose, of all exposition of the sciences; nay, of all useful exchange of converse in our daily life. it is what velasquez attempts in a picture, euclid in a proposition, the prime minister at the treasury box, the journalist in a leading article, our vicar in his sermon. persuasion, as matthew arnold once said, is the only true intellectual process. the mere cult of it occupied many of the best intellects of the ancients, such as longinus and quintilian, whose writings have been preserved to us just because they were prized. nor can i imagine an earthly gift more covetable by you, gentlemen, than that of persuading your fellows to listen to your views and attend to what you have at heart. suppose, sir, that you wish to become a journalist? well, and why not? is it a small thing to desire the power of influencing day by day to better citizenship an unguessed number of men, using the best thought and applying it in the best language at your command?... or are you, perhaps, overawed by the printed book? on that, too, i might have a good deal to say; but for the moment would keep the question as practical as i can. well, it is sometimes said that oxford men make better journalists than cambridge men, and some attribute this to the discipline of their great school of _literae humaniores_, which obliges them to bring up a weekly essay to their tutor, who discusses it. cambridge men retort that all oxford men are journalists, and throw, of course, some accent of scorn on the word. but may i urge--and remember please that my credit is pledged to _you_ now--may i urge that this is not a wholly convincing answer? for, to begin with, oxford men have not changed their natures since leaving school, but are, by process upon lines not widely divergent from your own, much the same pleasant sensible fellows you remember. and, next, if you truly despise journalism, why then despise it, have done with it and leave it alone. but i pray you, do not despise it if you mean to practise it, though it be but as a step to something better. for while the ways of art are hard at the best, they will break you if you go unsustained by belief in what you are trying to do. in asking you to practise the written word, i began with such low but necessary things as propriety, perspicuity, accuracy. but _persuasion_--the highest form of persuasion at any rate--cannot be achieved without a sense of beauty. and now i shoot a second rapid--_i want you to practise verse, and to practise it assiduously_.... i am quite serious. let me remind you that, if there ever was an ancient state of which we of great britain have great right and should have greater ambition to claim ourselves the spiritual heirs, that state was imperial rome. and of the romans (whom you will allow to have been a practical people) nothing is more certain than the value they set upon acquiring verse. to them it was not only (as dr johnson said of greek) 'like old lace--you can never have too much of it.' they cultivated it with a straight eye to national improvement. among them, as a scholar reminded us the other day, you find 'an educational system deliberately and steadily directed towards the development of poetical talent. they were not a people of whom we can say, as we can of the greeks, that they were born to art and literature.... the characteristic roman triumphs are the triumphs of a material civilisation.' rome's rôle in the world was 'the absorption of outlying genius.' themselves an unimaginative race with a language not too tractable to poetry, they made great poetry, and they made it of patient set purpose, of hard practice. i shall revert to this and maybe amplify reasons in another lecture. for the moment i content myself with stating the fact that no nation ever believed in poetry so deeply as the romans. perpend this then, and do not too hastily deride my plea that you should practise verse-writing. i know most of the objections, though i may not remember all. _mediocribus esse poetis_, etc.--that summarises most of them: yet of an infliction of much bad verse from you, if i am prepared to endure it, why should anyone else complain? i say that the youth of a university ought to practise verse-writing; and will try to bring this home to you by an argument convincing to me, though i have never seen it in print. what are the great poetical names of the last hundred years or so? coleridge, wordsworth, byron, shelley, landor, keats, tennyson, browning, arnold, morris, rossetti, swinburne--we may stop there. of these all but keats, browning, rossetti were university men; and of these three keats, who died young, cut off in his prime, was the only one not fairly well-to-do. it may seem a brutal thing to say, and it is a sad thing to say: but, as a matter of hard fact, the theory that poetical genius bloweth where it listeth, and equally in poor and rich, holds little truth. as a matter of hard fact, nine out of those twelve were university men: which means that somehow or other they procured the means to get the best education england can give. as a matter of hard fact, of the remaining three you know that browning was well-to-do, and i challenge you that, if he had not been well-to-do, he would no more have attained to writing "saul" or "the ring and the book" than ruskin would have attained to writing "modern painters" if his father had not dealt prosperously in business. rossetti had a small private income; and, moreover, he painted. there remains but keats; whom atropos slew young, as she slew john clare in a madhouse, and james thomson by the laudanum he took to drug disappointment. these are dreadful facts, but let us face them. it is--however dishonouring to us as a nation--certain that, by some fault in our commonwealth, the poor poet has not in these days, nor has had for two hundred years, a dog's chance. believe me--and i have spent a great part of the last ten years in watching some elementary schools--we may prate of democracy, but actually a poor child in england has little more hope than had the son of an athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom of which great writings are born. what do i argue from this? i argue that until we can bring more intellectual freedom into our state, more 'joy in widest commonalty spread,' upon you, a few favoured ones, rests an obligation to see that the springs of english poetry do not fail. i put it to you that of this glory of our birth and state _you_ are the temporary stewards. i put it to the university, considered as a dispenser of intellectual light, that to treat english poetry as though it had died with tennyson and your lecturers had but to compose the features of a corpse, is to abnegate high hope for the sake of a barren convenience. i put it to the colleges, considered as disciplinary bodies, that the old way of letting coleridge slip, chasing forth shelley, is, after all, not the wisest way. recollect that in poesy as in every other human business, the more there are who practise it the greater will be the chance of _someone's_ reaching perfection. it is the impetus of the undistinguished host that flings forward a diomed or a hector. and when you point with pride to milton's and those other mulberry trees in your academe, bethink you 'what poets are they shading to-day? or are their leaves but feeding worms to spin gowns to drape doctors of letters?' in the life of benvenuto cellini you will find this passage worth your pondering.--he is telling how, while giving the last touches to his perseus in the great square of florence, he and his workmen inhabited a shed built around the statue. he goes on:-- the folk kept on attaching sonnets to the posts of the door....i believe that, on the day when i opened it for a few hours to the public, more than twenty were nailed up, all of them overflowing with the highest panegyrics. afterwards, when i once more shut it off from view, everyone brought sonnets, with latin and greek verses: for the university of pisa was then in vacation, and all the doctors and scholars kept vying with each other who could produce the best. i may not live to see the doctors and scholars of this university thus employing the long vacation; as perhaps we shall wait some time for another perseus to excite them to it. but i do ask you to consider that the perseus was not entirely cause nor the sonnets entirely effect; that the age when men are eager about great work is the age when great work gets itself done; nor need it disturb us that most of the sonnets were, likely enough, very bad ones--in charles lamb's phrase, very like what petrarch might have written if petrarch had been born a fool. it is the impetus that i ask of you: the will to try. lastly, gentlemen, do not set me down as one who girds at your preoccupation, up here, with bodily games; for, indeed, i hold 'gymnastic' to be necessary as 'music' (using both words in the greek sense) for the training of such youths as we desire to send forth from cambridge. but i plead that they should be balanced, as they were in the perfect young knight with whose words i will conclude to-day:-- having this day my horse, my hand, my lance guided so well that i obtained the prize, both by the judgment of the english eyes and of some sent by that sweet enemy france; horsemen my skill in horsemanship advance, town-folk my strength, a daintier judge applies his praise to sleight which from good use doth rise; some lucky wits impute it but to chance; others, because of both sides i do take my blood from them who did excel in this, think nature me a man-at-arms did make. how far they shot awry! the true cause is, stella looked on; and from her heavenly face sent forth the beams which made so fair my race. 'untrue,' you say? well, there is truth of emotion as well as of fact; and who is there among you but would fain be able not only to win such a guerdon but to lay it in such wise at your lady's feet? that then was philip sidney, called the peerless one of his age; and perhaps no englishman ever lived more graciously or, having used life, made a better end. but you have seen this morning's newspaper: you have read of captain scott and his comrades, and in particular of the death of captain oates; and you know that the breed of sidney is not extinct. gentlemen, let us keep our language noble: for we still have heroes to commemorate![ ] [footnote : the date of the above lecture was wednesday, february th, , the date on which our morning newspapers printed the first telegrams giving particulars of the fate of captain scott's heroic conquest of the south pole, and still more glorious, though defeated, return. the first brief message concerning captain oates, ran as follows:-- 'from the records found in the tent where the bodies were discovered it appeared that captain oates's feet and hands were badly frost-bitten, and, although he struggled on heroically, his comrades knew on march that his end was approaching. he had borne intense suffering for weeks without complaint, and he did not give up hope to the very end. "he was a brave soul. he slept through the night hoping not to wake; but he awoke in the morning. "it was blowing a blizzard. oates said: 'i am just going outside, and i may be some time.' he went out into the blizzard, and we have not seen him since. "we knew that oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an english gentleman."'] lecture iii. on the difference between verse and prose wednesday, february you will forgive me, gentlemen, that having in my second lecture encouraged you to the practice of verse as well as of prose, i seize the very next opportunity to warn you against confusing the two, which differ on some points essentially, and always so as to demand separate rules--or rather (since i am shy of the word 'rules') a different concept of what the writer should aim at and what avoid. but you must, pray, understand that what follows will be more useful to the tiro in prose than to the tiro in verse; for while even a lecturer may help you to avoid writing prose in the manner of milton, only the gods--and they hardly--can cure a versifier of being prosaic. we started upon a promise to do without scientific definitions; and in drawing some distinctions to-day between verse and prose i shall use only a few rough ones; good, as i hope, so far as they go; not to be found contrary to your scientific ones, if ever, under another teacher you attain to them; yet for the moment used only as guides to practice, and pretending to be no more. thus i go some way--though by no means all the way--towards defining literature when i remind you that its very name (_litterae_--letters) implies the written rather than the spoken word; that, for example, however closely they approximate one to the other as we trace them back, and even though we trace them back to identical beginnings, the writer--the man of letters--does to-day differ from the orator. there was a time, as you know, when the poet and the historian had no less than the orator, and in the most literal sense, to 'get a hearing.' nay, he got it with more pains: for the orator had his senate-house or his law-court provided, whereas thespis jogged to fairs in a cart, and the muse of history, like any street acrobat, had to collect her own crowd. herodotus in search of a public packed his history in a portmanteau, carted it to olympia, found a favourable 'pitch,' as we should say, and wooed an audience to him much as on a racecourse nowadays do those philanthropic gentlemen who ply a dubious trade with three half-crowns and a gold chain. it would cost us an effort to imagine the late bishop stubbs thus trying his fortune with a bag full of select charters at queen's club or at kempton park, and exerting his lungs to retrieve a crowd that showed some disposition to edge off towards the ring or the rails. the historian's conditions have improved; and like any other sensible man he has advanced his claim with them, and revised his method. he writes nowadays with his eye on the printed book. he may or may not be a dull fellow: being a dull fellow, he may or may not be aware of it; but at least he knows that, if you lay him upside down on your knee, you can on awaking pick him up, resume your absorption, and even turn back some pages to discover just where or why your interest flagged: whereas a hellene who deserted herodotus, having a bet on the pentathlon, not only missed what he missed but missed it for life. the invention of print, of course, has made all, or almost all, the difference. i do not forget that the printed book--the written word--presupposes a speaking voice, and must ever have at its back some sense in us of the speaking voice. but in writing prose nowadays, while always recollecting that prose has its origin in speech--even as it behoves us to recollect that homer intoned the iliad to the harp and sappho plucked her passion from the lyre--we have to take things as they are. except burns, heine, béranger (with moore, if you will), and you will find it hard to compile in all the lyrical poetry of the last years a list of half a dozen first-class or even second-class bards who wrote primarily to be sung. it may help you to estimate how far lyrical verse has travelled from its origins if you will but remind yourselves that a _sonnet_ and a _sonata_ were once the same thing, and that a _ballad_ meant a song accompanied by dancing--the word _ballata_ having been specialised down, on the one line to the _ballet_, in which mademoiselle genée or the russian performers will dance for our delight, using no words at all; on the other to "sir patrick spens" or "clerk saunders," 'ballads' to which no one in his senses would dream of pointing a toe. thus with verse the written (or printed) word has pretty thoroughly ousted the speaking voice and its auxiliaries--the pipe, the lute, the tabor, the chorus with its dance movements and swaying of the body; and in a quieter way much the same thing is happening to prose. in the drama, to be sure, we still write (or we should) for the actors, reckon upon their intonations, their gestures, lay account with the tears in the heroine's eyes and her visible beauty: though even in the drama to-day you may detect a tendency to substitute dialectic for action and paragraphs for the [greek: stichomuthia], the sharp outcries of passion in its give-and-take. again we still--some of us--deliver sermons from pulpits and orations in parliament or upon public platforms. yet i am told that the vogue of the sermon is passing; and (by journalists) that the leading article has largely superseded it. on that point i can offer you no personal evidence; but of civil oratory i am very sure that the whole pitch has been sensibly lowered since the day of chatham, burke, sheridan; since the day of brougham and canning; nay, ever since the day of bright, gladstone, disraeli. burke, as everyone knows, once brought down a brummagem dagger and cast it on the floor of the house. lord chancellor brougham in a peroration once knelt to the assembled peers, '_here the noble lord inclined his knee to the woolsack_' is, if i remember, the stage direction in hansard. gentlemen, though in the course of destiny one or another of you may be called upon to speak daggers to the treasury bench, i feel sure you will use none; while, as for lord brougham's genuflexions, we may agree that to emulate them would cost lord haldane an effort. these and even far less flagrant or flamboyant tricks of virtuosity have gone quite out of fashion. you could hardly revive them to-day and keep that propriety to which i exhorted you a fortnight ago. they would be out of tune; they would grate upon the nerves; they would offend against the whole style of modern oratory, which steadily tends to lower its key, to use the note of quiet business-like exposition, to adopt more and more the style of written prose. let me help your sense of this change, by a further illustration. burke, as we know, was never shy of declaiming--even of declaiming in a torrent--when he stood up to speak: but almost as little was he shy of it when he sat down to write. if you turn to his "letters on the regicide peace" --no raw compositions, but penned in his latter days and closing, or almost closing, upon that tenderest of farewells to his country-- in this good old house, where everything at least is well aired, i shall be content to put up my fatigued horses and here take a bed for the long night that begins to darken upon me-- if, i say, you turn to these "letters on the regicide peace" and consult the title-page, you will find them ostensibly addressed to 'a member of the present parliament'; and the opening paragraphs assume that burke and his correspondent are in general agreement. but skim the pages and your eyes will be arrested again and again by sentences like these:-- the calculation of profit in all such wars is false. on balancing the account of such wars, ten thousand hogsheads of sugar are purchased at ten thousand times their price--the blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. it is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our god, for our country, for our kind. the rest is vanity; the rest is crime. magnificent, truly! but your ear has doubtless detected the blank verse--three iambic lines:-- are purchased at ten thousand times their price... be shed but to redeem the blood of man... the rest is vanity; the rest is crime. again burke catches your eye by rhetorical inversions:-- but too often different is rational conjecture from melancholy fact, well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar, by repetitions:-- never, no never, did nature say one thing and wisdom say another ... algiers is not near; algiers is not powerful; algiers is not our neighbour; algiers is not infectious. algiers, whatever it may be, is an old creation; and we have good data to calculate all the mischief to be apprehended from it. when i find algiers transferred to calais, i will tell you what i think of that point-- by quick staccato utterances, such as:-- and is this example nothing? it is everything. example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other-- or our dignity? that is gone. i shall say no more about it. light lie the earth on the ashes of english pride! i say that the eye or ear, caught by such tropes, must (if it be critical) recognise them at once as _rhetoric_, as the spoken word masquerading under guise of the written. burke may pretend to be seated, penning a letter to a worthy man who will read it in his slippers: but actually burke is up and pacing his library at beaconsfield, now striding from fire-place to window with hands clasped under his coat tails, anon pausing to fling out an arm with some familiar accustomed gesture in a house of commons that knows him no more, towards a front bench peopled by shades. in fine the pretence is cicero writing to atticus, but the style is cicero denouncing catiline. as such it is not for your imitation. burke happened to be a genius, with a swoop and range of mind, as of language to interpret it, with a gift to enchant, a power to strike and astound, which together make him, to my thinking, the man in our literature most nearly comparable with shakespeare. others may be more to your taste; you may love others better: but no other two leave you so hopeless of discovering _how it is done_. yet not for this reason only would i warn you against imitating either. for like all great artists they accepted their conditions and wrought for them, and those conditions have changed. when jacques wished to recite to an elizabethan audience that all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players-- or hamlet to soliloquise to be, or not to be: that is the question-- the one did not stretch himself under a property oak, nor did the other cast himself back in a chair and dangle his legs. they both advanced boldly from the stage, down a narrow platform provided for such recitations and for that purpose built boldly forward into the auditorium, struck an attitude, declaimed the purple passage, and returned, covered with applause, to continue the action of the play. this was the theatrical convention; this the audience expected and understood; for this shakespeare wrote. similarly, though the device must have been wearing thin even in - , burke cast a familiar epistle into language proper to be addressed to mr speaker of the house of commons. shakespeare wrote, as burke wrote, for his audience; and their glory is that they have outlasted the conditions they observed. yet it was by observing them that they gained the world's ear. let us, who are less than they, beware of scorning to belong to our own time. for my part i have a great hankering to see english literature feeling back through these old modes to its origins. i think, for example, that if we studied to write verse that could really be sung, or if we were more studious to write prose that could be read aloud with pleasure to the ear, we should be opening the pores to the ancient sap; since the roots are always the roots, and we can only reinvigorate our growth through them. unhappily, however, i cannot preach this just yet; for we are aiming at practice, and at cambridge (they tell me) while you speak well, you write less expertly. a contributor to "the cambridge review," a fortnight ago, lamented this at length: so you will not set the aspersion down to me, nor blame me if these early lectures too officiously offer a kind of 'first aid': that, while all the time eager to descant on the _affinities_ of speech and writing, i dwell first on their _differences_; or that, in speaking of burke, an author i adore only 'on this side idolatry,' i first present him in some aspects for your avoidance. similarly i adore the prose of sir thomas browne, yet should no more commend it to you for instant imitation than i could encourage you to walk with a feather in your cap and a sword under your gown. let us observe proprieties. to return to burke.--at his most flagrant, in these "letters on the regicide peace," he boldly raids shakespeare. you are all, i doubt not, conversant with the prologue to "henry the fifth":-- o for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention! a kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the swelling scene! then should the warlike harry, like himself, assume the port of mars: and at his heels, leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire crouch for employment. well, this passage burke, assuming his correspondent to be familiar with it, boldly claps into prose and inserts into a long diatribe against pitt for having tamely submitted to the rebuffs of the french directory. thus it becomes:-- on that day it was thought he would have assumed the port of mars: that he would bid to be brought forth from their hideous kennel (where his scrupulous tenderness had too long immured them) those impatient dogs of war, whose fierce regards affright even the minister of vengeance that feeds them; that he would let them loose in famine, plagues and death, upon a guilty race to whose frame and to all whose habit, order, peace, religion and virtue, are alien and abhorrent. now shakespeare is but apologising for the shortcomings of his' play-house, whereas burke is denouncing his country's shame and prophesying disaster to europe. yet do you not feel with me that while shakespeare, using great words on the lowlier subject, contrives to make them appropriate, with burke, writing on the loftier subject, the same or similar words have become tumid, turgid? why? i am sure that the difference lies not in the two men: nor is it all the secret, or even half the secret, that burke is mixing up the spoken with the written word, using the one while pretending to use the other. that has carried us some way; but now let us take an important step farther. the root of the matter lies in certain essential differences between verse and prose. we will keep, if you please, to our rough practical definitions. literature--the written word--is a permanent record of memorable speech; a record, at any rate, intended to be permanent. we set a thing down in ink--we print it in a book--because we feel it to be memorable, to be worth preserving. but to set this memorable speech down we must choose one of two forms, verse or prose; and i define verse to be a record in metre and rhythm, prose to be a record which, dispensing with metre (abhorring it indeed), uses rhythm laxly, preferring it to be various and unconstrained, so always that it convey a certain pleasure to the ear. you observe that i avoid the term poetry, over which the critics have waged, and still are waging, a war that promises to be endless. is walt whitman a poet? is the song of songs (which is not solomon's)--is the book of job--are the psalms--all of these as rendered in our authorised version of holy writ--are all of these poetry? well 'yes,' if you want my opinion; and again 'yes,' i am sure. but truly on this field, though scores of great men have fought across it--sidney, shelley, coleridge, scaliger (i pour the names on you at random), johnson, wordsworth, the two schlegels, aristotle with twining his translator, corneille, goethe, warton, whately, hazlitt, emerson, hegel, gummere--but our axles grow hot. let us put on the brake: for in practice the dispute comes to very little: since literature is an art and treats scientific definitions as j. k. stephen recommended. from them it finds out what it cannot do, and then it goes and does it. i am journeying, say, in the west of england. i cross a bridge over a stream dividing devon from cornwall. these two counties, each beautiful in its way, are quite unlike in their beauty: yet nothing happened as i stepped across the brook, and for a mile or two or even ten i am aware of no change. sooner or later that change will break upon the mind and i shall be startled, awaking suddenly to a land of altered features. but at what turn of the road this will happen, just how long the small multiplied impressions will take to break into surmise, into conviction--that nobody can tell. so it is with poetry and prose. they are different realms, but between them lies a debatable land which a de quincey or a whitman or a paul fort or a marinetti may attempt. i advise you who are beginners to keep well one side or other of the frontier, remembering that there is plenty of room and what happened to tupper. if we restrict ourselves to the terms 'verse' and 'prose,' we shall find the line much easier to draw. verse is memorable speech set down in metre with strict rhythms; prose is memorable speech set down without constraint of metre and in rhythms both lax and various--so lax, so various, that until quite recently no real attempt has been made to reduce them to rule. i doubt, for my part, if they can ever be reduced to rule; and after a perusal of professor saintsbury's latest work, "a history of english prose rhythm," i am left doubting. i commend this book to you as one that clears up large patches of forest. no one has yet so well explained what our prose writers, generation after generation, have tried to do with prose: and he has, by the way, furnished us with a capital anthology--or, as he puts it, with 'divers delectable draughts of example.' but the road still waits to be driven. seeking practical guidance--help for our present purpose--i note first that many a passage he scans in one way may as readily be scanned in another; that when he has finished with one and can say proudly with wordsworth:-- i've measured it from side to side, 'tis three feet long and two feet wide, we still have a sensation of coming out (our good master with us) by that same door wherein we went; and i cannot as yet after arduous trial discover much profit in his table of feet--paeons, dochmiacs, antispasts, proceleusmatics and the rest--an antispast being but an iamb followed by a trochee, and proceleusmatic but two pyrrhics, or four consecutive short syllables--when i reflect that, your possible number of syllables being as many as five to a foot, you may label them (as aristotle would say) until you come to infinity, where desire fails, without getting nearer any rule of application. let us respect a genuine effort of learning, though we may not detect its immediate profit. in particular let us respect whatever professor saintsbury writes, who has done such splendid work upon english verse-prosody. i daresay he would retort upon my impatience grandly enough, quoting walt whitman:-- i am the teacher of athletes; he that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own; he most honours my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher. his speculations may lead to much in time; though for the present they yield us small instruction in the path we seek. it is time we harked back to our own sign-posts. verse is written in metre and strict rhythm; prose, without metre and with the freest possible rhythm. that distinction seems simple enough, but it carries consequences very far from simple. let me give you an illustration taken almost at hazard from milton, from the second book of "paradise regained":-- up to a hill anon his steps he reared from whose high top to ken the prospect round, if cottage were in view, sheep-cote or herd; but cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw. these few lines are verse, are obviously verse with the accent of poetry; while as obviously they are mere narrative and tell us of the simplest possible incident--how christ climbed a hill to learn what could be seen from the top. yet observe, line for line and almost word for word, how strangely they differ from prose. mark the inversions: 'up to a hill anon his steps he reared,' 'but cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw.' mark next the diction--'his steps he reared.' in prose we should not rear our steps up the gog-magog hills, or even more alpine fastnesses; nor, arrived at the top, should we 'ken' the prospect round; we might 'con,' but should more probably 'survey' it. even 'anon' is a tricky word in prose, though i deliberately palmed it off on you a few minutes ago. mark thirdly the varied repetition, 'if cottage were in view, sheep-cote or herd--but cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw.' lastly compare the whole with such an account as you or i or cluvienus would write in plain prose:-- thereupon he climbed a hill on the chance that the view from its summit might disclose some sign of human habitation--a herd, a sheep-cote, a cottage perhaps. but he could see nothing of the sort. but you will ask, '_why_ should verse and prose employ diction so different? _why_ should the one invert the order of words in a fashion not permitted to the other?' and i shall endeavour to answer these questions together with a third which, i dare say, you have sometimes been minded to put when you have been told--and truthfully told--by your manuals and histories, that when a nation of men starts making literature it invariably starts on the difficult emprise of verse, and goes on to prose as by an afterthought. why should men start upon the more difficult form and proceed to the easier? it is not their usual way. in learning to skate, for instance, they do not cut figures before practising loose and easy propulsion. the answer is fairly simple. literature (once more) is a record of memorable speech; it preserves in words a record of such thoughts or of such deeds as we deem worth preserving. now if you will imagine yourself a very primitive man, lacking paper or parchment; or a slightly less primitive, but very poor, man to whom the price of parchment and ink is prohibitive; you have two ways of going to work. you can carve your words upon trees or stones (a laborious process) or you can commit them to memory and carry them about in your head; which is cheaper and handier. for an illustration, you find it useful, anticipating the tax-collector, to know how many days there are in the current month. but further you find it a nuisance and a ruinous waste of time to run off to the tribal tree or monolith whenever the calculation comes up; so you invent a formula, and you cast that formula into _verse_ for the simple reason that verse, with its tags, alliterations, beat of syllables, jingle of rhymes (however your tribe has chosen to invent it), has a knack, not possessed by prose, of sticking in your head. you do not say, 'quick thy tablets, memory! let me see--january has days, february days, march days, april days.' you invent a verse:-- thirty days hath september, april, june and november... nay, it has been whispered to me, gentlemen, that in this university some such process of memorising in verse has been applied by bold bad irreverently-minded men even to the "evidences" of our cherished paley. this, you will say, is mere verse, and not yet within measurable distance of poetry. but wait! the men who said the more memorable things, or sang them--the men who recounted deeds and genealogies of heroes, plagues and famines, assassinations, escapes from captivity, wanderings and conquests of the clan, all the 'old, unhappy, far-off things and battles long ago'--the men who sang these things for their living, for a supper, a bed in the great hall, and something in their wallet to carry them on to the next lordship--these were gentlemen, scôps, bards, minstrels (call them how you will), a professional class who had great need of a full repertory in a land swarming with petty chieftains, and to adapt their strains to the particular hall of entertainment. it would never do, for example, to flatter the prowess of the billings in the house of the hoppings, their hereditary foes, or to bore the wokings (who lived where the crematorium now is) with the complicated genealogy of the tootings: for this would have been to miss that appropriateness which i preached to you in my second lecture as a preliminary rule of good writing. nay, when the billings intermarried with the tootings--when the billings took to cooing, so to speak--a hasty blend of excerpts would be required for the "epithalamium." so it was all a highly difficult business, needing adaptability, a quick wit, a goodly stock of songs, a retentive memory and every artifice to assist it. take "widsith," for example, the 'far-travelled man.' he begins:-- widsith spake: he unlocked his word-hoard. so he had a hoard of words, you see: and he must have needed them, for he goes on:-- forthon ic maeg singan and secgan spell, maenan fore mengo in meoduhealle, hu me cynegode cystum dohten. ic waes mid hunum and mid hreth-gotum, mid sweom and mid geatum, and mid suth-denum. mid wenlum ic waes and mid waernum and mid wicingum. mid gefthum ic waes and mid winedum.... (therefore i can sing and tell a tale, recount in the mead hall, how men of high race gave rich gifts to me. i was with huns and with hreth goths, with the swedes, and with the geats, and with the south danes; i was with the wenlas, and with the waernas, and with the vikings; i was with the gefthas and with the winedae....) and so on for a full dozen lines. i say that the memory of such men must have needed every artifice to help it: and the chief artifice to their hand was one which also delighted the ears of their listeners. they sang or intoned to the harp. there you get it, gentlemen. i have purposely, skimming a wide subject, discarded much ballast; but you may read and scan and read again, and always you must come back to this, that the first poets sang their words to the harp or to some such instrument: and just there lies the secret why poetry differs from prose. the moment you introduce music you let in emotion with all its sway upon speech. from that moment you change everything, down to the order of the words--the _natural_ order of the words: and (remember this) though the harp be superseded, the voice never forgets it. you may take up a barrack room ballad of kipling's, and it is there, though you affect to despise it for a banjo or concertina:-- ford--ford--ford of kabul river... 'bang, whang, whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife.' from the moment men introduced music they made verse a thing essentially separate from prose, from its natural key of emotion to its natural ordering of words. do not for one moment imagine that when milton writes:-- but cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw. or of man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree... --where you must seek down five lines before you come to the verb, and then find it in the imperative mood--do not suppose for a moment that he is here fantastically shifting words, inverting phrases out of their natural order. for, as st paul might say, there is a natural order of prose and there is a natural order of verse. the natural order of prose is:-- i was born in the year , in the city of york, of a good family, though not of that county; my father being a foreigner of bremen, who settled first in hull.--[_defoe._] or further i avow to your highness that with these eyes i have beheld the person of william wooton, b.d., who has written a good sizeable volume against a friend of your governor (from whom, alas! he must therefore look for little favour) in a most gentlemanly style, adorned with the utmost politeness and civility.--[_swift._] the natural order of poetry is:-- thus with the year seasons return, but not to me returns day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, or flocks, or herds, or human face divine. or but cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw. and this basal difference you must have clear in your minds before, in dealing with prose or verse, you can practise either with profit or read either with intelligent delight. lecture iv. on the capital difficulty of verse thursday, april in our last lecture, gentlemen, we discussed the difference between verse, or metrical writing, and prose. we traced that difference (as you will remember) to music--to the harp, the lyre, the dance, the chorus, all those first necessary accompaniments which verse never quite forgets; and we concluded that, as music ever introduces emotion, which is indeed her proper and only means of persuading, so the natural language of verse will be keyed higher than the natural language of prose; will be keyed higher throughout and even for its most ordinary purposes--as for example, to tell us that so-and-so sailed to troy with so many ships. i grant you that our steps to this conclusion were lightly and rapidly taken: yet the stepping-stones are historically firm. verse does precede prose in literature; verse does start with musical accompaniment; musical accompaniment does introduce emotion; and emotion does introduce an order of its own into speech. i grant you that we have travelled far from the days when a prose-writer, herodotus, labelled the books of his history by the names of the nine muses. i grant you that if you go to the vatican and there study the statues of the muses (noble, but of no early date) you may note that calliope, muse of the epic--unlike her sisters euterpe, erato, thalia--holds for symbol no instrument of music, but a stylus and a tablet. yet the earlier calliope, the calliope of homer, was a muse of song. [greek: menin aeide, thea--] 'had i a thousand tongues, a thousand hands.'--for what purpose does the poet wish for a thousand tongues, but to sing? for what purpose a thousand hands, but to pluck the wires? not to dip a thousand pens in a thousand inkpots. i doubt, in fine, if your most learned studies will discover much amiss with the frontier we drew between verse and prose, cursorily though we ran its line. nor am i daunted on comparing it with coleridge's more philosophical one, which you will find in the "biographia literaria" (c. xviii)-- and first for the origin of metre. this i would trace to the balance in the mind effected by that spontaneous effort which strives to hold in check the workings of passion. it might be easily explained likewise in what manner this salutary antagonism is assisted by the very state which it counteracts, and how this balance of antagonism becomes organised into metre (in the usual acceptation of that term) by a supervening act of the will and judgment consciously and for the foreseen purpose of pleasure. i will not swear to understand precisely what coleridge means here, though i believe that i do. but at any rate, and on the principle that of two hypotheses, each in itself adequate, we should choose the simpler, i suggest in all modesty that we shall do better with our own than with coleridge's, which has the further disadvantage of being scarcely amenable to positive evidence. we can say with historical warrant that sappho struck the lyre, and argue therefrom, still within close range of correction, that her singing responded to the instrument: whereas to assert that sappho's mind 'was balanced by a spontaneous effort which strove to hold in check the workings of passion' is to say something for which positive evidence will be less handily found, whether to contradict or to support. yet if you choose to prefer coleridge's explanation, no great harm will be done: since coleridge, who may be presumed to have understood it, promptly goes on to deduce that, as the elements of metre owe their existence to a state of increased excitement, so the metre itself should be accompanied by the natural language of excitement. which is precisely where we found ourselves, save that where coleridge uses the word 'excitement' we used the word 'emotion.' shall we employ an illustration before proceeding?--some sentence easily handled, some commonplace of the moralist, some copybook maxim, i care not what. 'contentment breeds happiness'--that is a proposition with which you can hardly quarrel; sententious, sedate, obviously true; provoking delirious advocacy as little as controversial heat; in short a very fair touchstone. now hear how the lyric treats it, in these lines of dekker-- art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? o sweet content! art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex'd? o punishment! dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex'd to add to golden numbers golden numbers? o sweet content! o sweet, o sweet content! work apace, apace, apace, apace; honest labour wears a lovely face; then hey, nonny nonny--hey, nonny nonny! canst drink the waters of the crystal spring? o sweet content! swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears? o punishment! then he that patiently want's burden bears no burden bears, but is a king, a king! o sweet content! o sweet, o sweet content! work apace, apace, apace, apace; honest labour wears a lovely face; then hey, nonny nonny--hey, nonny nonny! there, in lines obviously written for music, you have our sedate sentence, 'contentment breeds happiness,' converted to mere emotion. note (to use coleridge's word) the 'excitement' of it. there are but two plain indicative sentences in the two stanzas--( ) 'honest labour wears a lovely face' (used as a refrain), and ( ) 'then he that patiently want's burden bears no burden bears, but is a king, a king!' (heightened emotionally by inversion and double repetition). mark throughout how broken is the utterance; antithetical question answered by exclamations: both doubled and made more antithetical in the second stanza: with cunning reduplicated inversions to follow, and each stanza wound up by an outburst of emotional nonsense--'hey, nonny nonny--hey, nonny nonny!'--as a man might skip or whistle to himself for want of thought. now (still keeping to our same subject of contentment) let us _prosify_ the lyrical order of language down to the lowest pitch to which genius has been able to reduce it and still make noble verse. you have all read wordsworth's famous introduction to the "lyrical ballads," and you know that wordsworth's was a genius working on a theory that the languages of verse and of prose are identical. you know, too, i dare say, into what banalities that theory over and over again betrayed him: banalities such as-- his widowed mother, for a second mate espoused the teacher of the village school: who on her offspring zealously bestowed needful instruction. --and the rest. nevertheless wordsworth was a genius; and genius working persistently on a narrow theory will now and again 'bring it off' (as they say). so he, amid the flat waste of his later compositions, did undoubtedly 'bring it off' in the following sonnet:-- these times strike monied worldlings with dismay: ev'n rich men, brave by nature, taint the air with words of apprehension and despair; while tens of thousands, thinking on the affray, men unto whom sufficient for the day and minds not stinted or untill'd are given, sound healthy children of the god of heaven, are cheerful as the rising sun in may. what do we gather hence but firmer faith that every gift of noble origin is breath'd upon by hope's perpetual breath; that virtue and the faculties within are vital; and that riches are akin to fear, to change, to cowardice, and death? here, i grant, are no repetitions, no inversions. the sentences, though metrical, run straightforwardly, verb following subject, object verb, as in strict prose. in short here you have verse reduced to the order and structure of prose as nearly as a man of genius, working on a set theory, could reduce it while yet maintaining its proper emotional key. but first let me say that you will find very few like instances of success even in wordsworth; and few indeed to set against innumerable passages wherein either his verse defies his theory and triumphs, or succumbs to it and, succumbing, either drops sheer to bathos or spreads itself over dead flats of commonplace. let me tell you next that the instances you will find in other poets are so few and so far between as to be negligible; and lastly that even such verse as the above has only to be compared with a passage of prose and its emotional pitch is at once betrayed. take this, for example, from jeremy taylor:-- since all the evil in the world consists in the disagreeing between the object and the appetite, as when a man hath what he desires not, or desires what he hath not, or desires amiss, he that compares his spirit to the present accident hath variety of instance for his virtue, but none to trouble him, because his desires enlarge not beyond his present fortune: and a wise man is placed in a variety of chances, like the nave or centre of a wheel in the midst of all the circumvolutions and changes of posture, without violence or change, save that it turns gently in compliance with its changed parts, and is indifferent which part is up, and which is down; for there is some virtue or other to be exercised whatever happens--either patience or thanksgiving, love or fear, moderation or humility, charity or contentedness. or, take this from samuel johnson:-- the fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind; and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove. now, to be frank, i do not call that first passage very good prose. like much of jeremy taylor's writing it is prose tricked out with the trappings and odds-and-ends of verse. it starts off, for example, with a brace of heroics--'since all the evil in the world consists'...'between the object and the appetite.' you may say, further, that the simile of the wheel, though proper enough to prose, is poetical too: that homer might have used it ('as in a wheel the rim turns violently, while the nave, though it turns also, yet seems to be at rest'--something of that sort). nevertheless you will agree with me that, in exchanging wordsworth for taylor and johnson, we have relaxed something with the metre, something that the metre kept taut; and this something we discover to be the emotional pitch. but let me give you another illustration, supplied (i dare say quite unconsciously) by one who combined a genuine love of verse--in which, however, he was no adept--with a sure instinct for beautiful prose. contentment was a favourite theme with isaak walton: "the compleat angler" is packed with praise of it: and in "the compleat angler" occurs this well-known passage:-- but, master, first let me tell you, that very hour which you were absent from me, i sat down under a willow tree by the waterside, and considered what you had told me of the owner of that pleasant meadow in which you then had left me; that he had a plentiful estate, and not a heart to think so; that he had at this time many law-suits depending, and that they both damped his mirth and took up so much of his time and thoughts that he had no leisure to take the sweet content that i, who pretended no title to them, took in his fields: for i could there sit quietly; and looking on the water, see some fishes sport themselves in the silver streams, others leaping at flies of several shapes and colours; looking on the hills, i could behold them spotted with woods and groves; looking down the meadows, could see, here a boy gathering lilies and lady-smocks, and there a girl cropping culverlocks and cowslips, all to make garlands suitable to this present month of may. these and many other field-flowers so perfumed the air that i thought that very meadow like that field in sicily of which diodorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from the place make all dogs that hunt in it to fall off and lose their hottest scent. i say, as i thus sat, joying in my own happy condition, and pitying this poor rich man that owned this and many other pleasant groves and meadows about me, i did thankfully remember what my saviour said, that the meek possess the earth; or rather they enjoy what the others possess and enjoy not; for anglers and meek quiet-spirited men are free from those high, those restless thoughts which corrode the sweets of life; and they, and they only can say as the poet has happily exprest it: 'hail, blest estate of lowliness! happy enjoyments of such minds as, rich in self-contentedness, can, like the reeds in roughest winds, by yielding make that blow but small at which proud oaks and cedars fall.' there you have a passage of felicitous prose culminating in a stanza of trite and fifth-rate verse. yes, walton's instinct is sound; for he is keying up the pitch; and verse, even when mediocre in quality, has its pitch naturally set above that of prose. so, if you will turn to your walton and read the page following this passage, you will see that, still by a sure instinct, he proceeds from this scrap of reflective verse to a mere rollicking 'catch': man's life is but vain, for 'tis subject to pain and sorrow, and short as a bubble; 'tis a hodge-podge of business and money and care, and care, and money and trouble... --which is even worse rubbish, and yet a step upwards in emotion because venator actually sings it to music. 'ay marry, sir, this is music indeed,' approves brother peter; 'this cheers the heart.' in this and the preceding lecture, gentlemen, i have enforced at some length the opinion that to understand the many essential differences between verse and prose we must constantly bear in mind that verse, being metrical, keeps the character originally imposed on it by musical accompaniment and must always, however far the remove, be referred back to its origin and to the emotion which music excites. mr george bernard shaw having to commit his novel "cashel byron's profession" to paper in a hurry, chose to cast it in blank verse as being more easily and readily written so: a performance which brilliantly illuminates a half-truth. verse--or at any rate, unrhymed iambic verse--is easier to write than prose, if you care to leave out the emotion which makes verse characteristic and worth writing. i have little doubt that, had he chosen to attempt it, mr shaw would have found his story still more ductile in the metre of "hiawatha." but the experiment proves nothing: or no more than that, all fine art costing labour, it may cost less if burlesqued in a category not its own. let me take an example from a work with which you are all familiar--"the student's handbook to the university and colleges of cambridge." on p. we read:-- the medieval and modern languages tripos is divided into ten sections, a, a , b, c, d, e, f, g, h and i. a student may take either one or two sections at the end of his second year of residence, and either one or two more sections at the end of his third or fourth year of residence; or he may take two sections at the end of his third year only. thus this tripos can be treated either as a divided or as an undivided tripos at the option of the candidate. now i do not hold that up to you for a model of prose. still, lucidity rather than emotion being its aim, i doubt not that the composer spent pains on it; more pains than it would have cost him to convey his information metrically, thus:-- there is a tripos that aspires to blend the medieval and the modern tongues in one red burial (sing heavenly muse!) divided into sections a, a , b, c, d, e, f, g and h and i. a student may take either one or two (with some restrictions mention'd in a footnote) at th' expiration of his second year: or of his third, or of his fourth again take one or two; or of his third alone take two together. thus this tripos is (like nothing in the athanasian creed) divisible or indivisible at the option of the candidate--gadzooks! this method has even some advantage over the method of prose in that it is more easily memorised; but it has, as you will admit, the one fatal flaw that it imports emotion into a theme which does not properly admit of emotion, and that so it offends against our first rule of writing--that it should be appropriate. now if you accept the argument so far as we have led it--that verse is by nature more emotional than prose--certain consequences would seem to follow: of which the first is that while the capital difficulty of verse consists in saying ordinary things the capital difficulty of prose consists in saying extraordinary things; that while with verse, keyed for high moments, the trouble is to manage the intervals, with prose the trouble is to manage the high moments. let us dwell awhile on this difference, for it is important. you remember my quoting to you in my last lecture these lines of milton's:-- up to a hill anon his steps he reared from whose high top to ken the prospect round, if cottage were in view, sheep-cote or herd; but cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw. we agreed that these were good lines, with the accent of poetry: but we allowed it to be a highly exalted way of telling how so-and-so climbed a hill for a better view but found none. now obviously this exaltation does not arise immediately out of the action described (which is as ordinary as it well could be), but is _derivative_. it borrows its wings, its impetus, from a previous high moment, from the emotion proper to that moment, from the speech proper to that emotion: and these sustain us across to the next height as with the glide of an aeroplane. your own sense will tell you at once that the passage would be merely bombastic if the poet were starting to set forth how so-and-so climbed a hill for the view--just that, and nothing else: as your own sense tells you that the swoop is from one height to another. for if bathos lay ahead, if milton had but to relate how the duke of york, with twenty thousand men, 'marched up a hill and then marched down again,' he certainly would not use diction such as:-- up to a hill anon his steps he reared. even as it is, i think we must all detect a certain artificiality in the passage, and confess to some relief when satan is introduced to us, ten lines lower down, to revivify the story. for let us note that, in the nature of things, the more adorned and involved our style (and milton's is both ornate and involved) the more difficulty we must find with these flat pedestrian intervals. milton may 'bring it off,' largely through knowing how to dodge the interval and contrive that it shall at any rate be brief: but, as bagehot noted, when we come to tennyson and find tennyson in "enoch arden" informing us of a fish-jowter, that:-- enoch's white horse, and enoch's ocean-spoil in ocean-smelling osier-- (_i.e._ in a fish-basket) --and his face rough-reddened with a thousand winter gales, not only to the market town were known, but in the leafy lanes beyond the down far as the portal-warding lion-whelp and peacock yewtree of the lonely hall whose friday fare was enoch's ministering, why, then we feel that the vehicle is altogether too pompous for its load, and those who make speech too pompous for its content commit, albeit in varying degrees, the error of defoe's religious lady who, seeing a bottle of over-ripe beer explode and cork and froth fly up to the ceiling, cried out, 'o, the wonders of omnipotent power!' the poet who commends fresh fish to us as 'ocean-spoil' can cast no stone at his brother who writes of them as 'the finny denizens of the deep,' or even at his cousin the journalist, who exalts the oyster into a 'succulent bivalve'-- the feathered tribes on pinions cleave the air; not so the mackerel, and, still less, the bear! i believe this difficulty, which verse, by nature and origin emotional, encounters in dealing with ordinary unemotional narrative, to lie as a technical reason at the bottom of horace's advice to the writer of epic to plunge _in medias res_, thus avoiding flat preparative and catching at once a high wind which shall carry him hereafter across dull levels and intervals. i believe that it lay--though whether consciously or not he scarcely tells us--at the bottom of matthew arnold's mind when, selecting certain qualities for which to praise homer, he chose, for the very first, homer's _rapidity_. 'first,' he says, 'homer is eminently rapid; and,' he adds justly, 'to this rapidity the elaborate movement of miltonic blank verse is alien.' now until one studies writing as an art, trying to discover what this or that form of it accomplishes with ease and what with difficulty, and why verse can do one thing and prose another, arnold's choice of _rapidity_ to put in the forefront of homer's merits may seem merely capricious. 'homer (we say) has other great qualities. arnold himself indicates homer's simplicity, directness, nobility. surely either one of these should be mentioned before rapidity, in itself not comparable as a virtue with either?' but when we see that the difficulty of verse-narrative lies just _here_; that the epic poet who is rapid has met, and has overcome, the capital difficulty of his form, then we begin to do justice not only to arnold as a critic but (which is of far higher moment) to homer as a craftsman. the genius of homer in this matter is in fact something daemonic. he seems to shirk nothing: and the effect of this upon critics is bewildering. the acutest of them are left wondering how on earth an ordinary tale--say of how some mariners beached ship, stowed sail, walked ashore and cooked their dinner--can be made so poetical. they are inclined to divide the credit between the poet and his fortunate age--'a time' suggests pater 'in which one could hardly have spoken at all without ideal effect, or the sailors pulled down their boat without making a picture "in the great style" against a sky charged with marvels.' well, the object of these lectures is not to explain genius. just here it is rather to state a difficulty; to admit that, once in history, genius overcame it; yet warn you how rare in the tale of poetical achievement is such a success. homer, indeed, stands first, if not unmatched, among poets in this technical triumph over the capital disability of annihilating flat passages. i omit shakespeare and the dramatists; because they have only to give a stage direction 'enter cassius, looking lean,' and cassius comes in looking leaner than nature; whereas homer has in his narrative to walk hector or thersites on to the scene, describe him, walk him off. i grant the rapidity of dante. it is amazing; and we may yield him all the credit for choosing (it was his genius that chose it) a subject which allowed of the very highest rapidity; since hell, purgatory and paradise, though they differ in other respects, have this in common, that they are populous and the inhabitants of each so compendiously shepherded together that the visitor can turn from one person to another without loss of time. but homer does not escort us around a menagerie in which we can move expeditiously from one cage to another. he proposes at least, both in the "iliad" and in the "odyssey," to unfold a story; and he _seems_ to unfold it so artlessly that we linger on the most pedestrian intervals while he tells us, for example, what the heroes ate and how they cooked it. a modern writer would serve us a far better dinner. homer brings us to his with our appetite all the keener for having waited and watched the spitting and roasting. i would point out to you what art this genius conceals; how cunning is this apparent simplicity: and for this purpose let me take homer at the extreme of his difficulty--when he has to describe a long sea-voyage. some years ago, in his last oxford lectures, mr froude lamented that no poet in this country had arisen to write a national epic of the great elizabethan seamen, to culminate (i suppose) as his history culminated, in the defeat of the armada: and one of our younger poets; mr alfred noyes, acting on this hint has since given us an epic poem on "drake," in twelve books. but froude probably overlooked, as mr noyes has not overcome, this difficulty of the flat interval which, while ever the bugbear of epic, is magnified tenfold when our action takes place on the sea. for whereas the verse should be rapid and the high moments frequent, the business of seafaring is undeniably monotonous, as the intervals between port and port, sea-fight and sea-fight, must be long and lazy. matters move more briskly in an occasional gale; but even a gale lasts, and must be ridden out; and the process of riding to a gale of wind:-- for ever climbing up the climbing wave --your ship taking one wave much as she takes another--is in its nature monotonous. nay, you have only to read falconer's "shipwreck" to discover how much of dulness may lie enwrapped, to discharge itself, even in a first-class tempest. courses, reckonings, trimmings of canvas--these occur in real life and amuse the simple mariner at the time. but to the reader, if he be a landsman, their repetition in narrative may easily become intolerable; and when we get down to the 'trades,' even the seaman sets his sail for a long spell of weather and goes to sleep. in short you cannot upon the wide atlantic push action and reaction to and fro as upon the plains of windy troy: nor could any but a superhuman genius make sustained poetry (say) out of nelson's untiring pursuit of villeneuve, which none the less was one of the most heroic feats in history. this difficulty, inherent in navigation as a subject for the epic muse, has, i think, been very shrewdly detected and hit off in a parody of mr noyes' poem by a young friend of mine, mr wilfred blair:-- meanwhile the wind had changed, and francis drake put down the helm and drove against the seas-- once more the wind changed, and the simple seaman, full fraught with weather wisdom, once again put down the helm and so drove on--_et cetera_. now homer actually has performed this feat which we declare to be next to impossible. he actually does convey odysseus from troy to ithaca, by a ten years' voyage too; he actually has narrated that voyage to us in plain straightforward words; and, what is more, he actually has made a superb epic of it. yes, but when you come to dissect the odyssey, what amazing artifice is found under that apparently straightforward tale!--eight years of the ten sliced out, to start with, and magnificently presented to circe where that aeaean isle forgets the main --and (one may add), so forgetting, avoids the technical difficulties connected therewith. note the space given to telemachus and his active search for the lost hero: note too how the mass of odysseus' seafaring adventures is condensed into a reported speech--a traveller's tale at the court of alcinoüs. virgil borrowed this trick, you remember; and i dare to swear that had it fallen to homer to attempt the impossible saga of nelson's pursuit after villeneuve he would have achieved it triumphantly--by means of a tale told in the first person by a survivor to lady hamilton. note, again, how boldly (being free to deal with an itinerary of which his audience knew nothing but surmised that it comprehended a vast deal of the marvellous, spaced at irregular distances) homer works in a shipwreck or a miracle wherever the action threatens to flag. lessing, as you know, devoted several pages of the "laoköon" to the shield of achilles; to homer's craft in depicting it as it grew under hephaestus' hammer: so that we are intrigued by the process of manufacture instead of being wearied by a description of the ready-made article; so also (if one may presume to add anything to lessing) that we are cunningly flattered in a sense that the shield is being made for _us._ well, that is one artifice out of many: but if you would gauge at all homer's resource and subtlety in technique i recommend you to analyse the first twelve books of the "odyssey" and count for yourselves the device by which the poet--[greek: polutropos] as was never his hero--evades or hurries over each flat interval as he happens upon it. these things, ulysses, the wise bards also behold and sing. but o, what labour! o prince, what pain! you may be thinking, gentlemen, that i take up a disproportionate amount of your time on such technical matters at these. but literature being an art (forgive the reiteration!) and therefore to be practised, i want us to be seeking all the time _how it is done_; to hunt out the principles on which the great artists wrought; to face, to rationalise, the difficulties by which they were confronted, and learn how they overcame the particular obstacle. surely even for mere criticism, apart from practice, we shall equip ourselves better by seeking, so far as we may, how the thing is done than by standing at gaze before this or that masterpiece and murmuring 'isn't that beautiful! how in the world, now...!' i am told that these lectures are criticised as tending to make you conceited: to encourage in you a belief that you can do things, when it were better that you merely admired. well i would not dishearten you by telling to what a shred of conceit, even of hope, a man can be reduced after twenty-odd years of the discipline. but i can, and do, affirm that the farther you penetrate in these discoveries the more sacred the ultimate mystery will become for you: that the better you understand the great authors as exemplars of practice, the more certainly you will realise what is the condescension of the gods. next time, then, we will attempt an enquiry into the capital difficulty of prose. lecture v. interlude: on jargon thursday, may we parted, gentlemen, upon a promise to discuss the capital difficulty of prose, as we have discussed the capital difficulty of verse. but, although we shall come to it, on second thoughts i ask leave to break the order of my argument and to interpose some words upon a kind of writing which, from a superficial likeness, commonly passes for prose in these days, and by lazy folk is commonly written for prose, yet actually is not prose at all; my excuse being the simple practical one that, by first clearing this sham prose out of the way, we shall the better deal with honest prose when we come to it. the proper difficulties of prose will remain: but we shall be agreed in understanding what it is, or at any rate what it is not, that we talk about. i remember to have heard somewhere of a religious body in the united states of america which had reason to suspect one of its churches of accepting spiritual consolation from a coloured preacher--an offence against the laws of the synod--and despatched a disciplinary committee with power to act; and of the committee's returning to report itself unable to take any action under its terms of reference, for that while a person undoubtedly coloured had undoubtedly occupied the pulpit and had audibly spoken from it in the committee's presence, the performance could be brought within no definition of preaching known or discoverable. so it is with that infirmity of speech--that flux, that determination of words to the mouth, or to the pen--which, though it be familiar to you in parliamentary debates, in newspapers, and as the staple language of blue books, committees, official reports, i take leave to introduce to you as prose which is not prose and under its real name of jargon. you must not confuse this jargon with what is called journalese. the two overlap, indeed, and have a knack of assimilating each other's vices. but jargon finds, maybe, the most of its votaries among good douce people who have never written to or for a newspaper in their life, who would never talk of 'adverse climatic conditions' when they mean 'bad weather'; who have never trifled with verbs such as 'obsess,' 'recrudesce,' 'envisage,' 'adumbrate,' or with phrases such as 'the psychological moment,' 'the true inwardness,' 'it gives furiously to think.' it dallies with latinity--'sub silentio,' 'de die in diem,' 'cui bono?' (always in the sense, unsuspected by cicero, of 'what is the profit?')--but not for the sake of style. your journalist at the worst is an artist in his way: he daubs paint of this kind upon the lily with a professional zeal; the more flagrant (or, to use his own word, arresting) the pigment, the happier is his soul. like the babu he is trying all the while to embellish our poor language, to make it more floriferous, more poetical--like the babu for example who, reporting his mother's death, wrote, 'regret to inform you, the hand that rocked the cradle has kicked the bucket.' _there_ is metaphor: _there_ is ornament: _there_ is a sense of poetry, though as yet groping in a world unrealised. no such gusto marks--no such zeal, artistic or professional, animates--the practitioners of jargon, who are, most of them (i repeat), douce respectable persons. caution is its father: the instinct to save everything and especially trouble: its mother, indolence. it looks precise, but it is not. it is, in these times, _safe_: a thousand men have said it before and not one to your knowledge had been prosecuted for it. and so, like respectability in chicago, jargon stalks unchecked in our midst. it is becoming the language of parliament: it has become the medium through which boards of government, county councils, syndicates, committees, commercial firms, express the processes as well as the conclusions of their thought and so voice the reason of their being. has a minister to say 'no' in the house of commons? some men are constitutionally incapable of saying no: but the minister conveys it thus--'the answer to the question is in the negative.' that means 'no.' can you discover it to mean anything less, or anything more except that the speaker is a pompous person?--which was no part of the information demanded. that is jargon, and it happens to be accurate. but as a rule jargon is by no means accurate, its method being to walk circumspectly around its target; and its faith, that having done so it has either hit the bull's-eye or at least achieved something equivalent, and safer. thus the clerk of a board of guardians will minute that-- in the case of john jenkins deceased the coffin provided was of the usual character. now this is not accurate. 'in the case of john jenkins deceased,' for whom a coffin was supplied, it is wholly superfluous to tell us that he is deceased. but actually john jenkins never had more than one case, and that was the coffin. the clerk says he had two,--a coffin in a case: but i suspect the clerk to be mistaken, and i am sure he errs in telling us that the coffin was of the usual character: for coffins have no character, usual or unusual. for another example (i shall not tell you whence derived)-- in the case of every candidate who is placed in the first class [so you see the lucky fellow gets a case as well as a first-class. he might be a stuffed animal: perhaps he is] in the case of every candidate who is placed in the first class the class-list will show by some convenient mark ( ) the section or sections for proficiency in which he is placed in the first class and ( ) the section or sections (if any) in which he has passed with special distinction. 'the section or sections (if any)'--but, how, if they are not any, could they be indicated by a mark however convenient? the examiners will have regard to the style and method of the candidate's answers, and will give credit for excellence _in these respects_. have you begun to detect the two main vices of jargon? the first is that it uses circumlocution rather than short straight speech. it says 'in the case of john jenkins deceased, the coffin' when it means 'john jenkins's coffin': and its yea is not yea, neither is its nay nay: but its answer is in the affirmative or in the negative, as the foolish and superfluous 'case' may be. the second vice is that it habitually chooses vague woolly abstract nouns rather than concrete ones. i shall have something to say by-and-by about the concrete noun, and how you should ever be struggling for it whether in prose or in verse. for the moment i content myself with advising you, if you would write masculine english, never to forget the old tag of your latin grammar-- masculine will only be things that you can touch and see. but since these lectures are meant to be a course in first aid to writing, i will content myself with one or two extremely rough rules: yet i shall be disappointed if you do not find them serviceable. the first is:--whenever in your reading you come across one of these words, _case, instance, character, nature, condition, persuasion, degree_--whenever in writing your pen betrays you to one or another of them--pull yourself up and take thought. if it be 'case' (i choose it as jargon's dearest child--'in heaven yclept metonomy') turn to the dictionary, if you will, and seek out what meaning can be derived from _casus_, its latin ancestor: then try how, with a little trouble, you can extricate yourself from that case. the odds are, you will feel like a butterfly who has discarded his chrysalis. here are some specimens to try your hand on-- ( ) all those tears which inundated lord hugh cecil's head were dry in the case of mr harold cox. poor mr cox! left gasping in his aquarium! ( ) [from a cigar-merchant] in any case, let us send you a case on approval. ( ) it is contended that consols have fallen in consequence: but such is by no means the case. 'such,' by the way, is another spoilt child of jargon, especially in committee's rules--'co-opted members may be eligible as such; such members to continue to serve for such time as'--and so on. ( ) even in the purely celtic areas, only in two or three cases do the bishops bear celtic names. for 'cases' read 'dioceses.' _instance._ in most instances the players were below their form. but what were they playing at? instances? _character--nature._ there can be no doubt that the accident was caused through the dangerous nature of the spot, the hidden character of the by-road, and the utter absence of any warning or danger signal. mark the foggy wording of it all! and yet the man hit something and broke his neck! contrast that explanation with the verdict of a coroner's jury in the west of england on a drowned postman--'we find that deceased met his death by an act of god, caused by sudden overflowing of the river walkhan and helped out by the scandalous neglect of the way-wardens.' the aintree course is notoriously of a trying nature. on account of its light character, purity and age, usher's whiskey is a whiskey that will agree with you. _order._ the mésalliance was of a pronounced order. _condition._ he was conveyed to his place of residence in an intoxicated condition. 'he was carried home drunk.' _quality and section._ mr ----, exhibiting no less than five works, all of a superior quality, figures prominently in the oil section. this was written of an exhibition of pictures. _degree._ a singular degree of rarity prevails in the earlier editions of this romance. that is jargon. in prose it runs simply 'the earlier editions of this romance are rare'--or 'are very rare'--or even (if you believe what i take leave to doubt), 'are singularly rare'; which should mean that they are rarer than the editions of any other work in the world. now what i ask you to consider about these quotations is that in each the writer was using jargon to shirk prose, palming off periphrases upon us when with a little trouble he could have gone straight to the point. 'a singular degree of rarity prevails,' 'the accident was caused through the dangerous nature of the spot,' 'but such is by no means the case.' we may not be capable of much; but we can all write better than that, if we take a little trouble. in place of, 'the aintree course is of a trying nature' we can surely say 'aintree is a trying course' or 'the aintree course is a trying one'--just that and nothing more. next, having trained yourself to keep a look-out for these worst offenders (and you will be surprised to find how quickly you get into the way of it), proceed to push your suspicions out among the whole cloudy host of abstract terms. 'how excellent a thing is sleep,' sighed sancho panza; 'it wraps a man round like a cloak'--an excellent example, by the way, of how to say a thing concretely: a jargoneer would have said that 'among the beneficent qualities of sleep its capacity for withdrawing the human consciousness from the contemplation of immediate circumstances may perhaps be accounted not the least remarkable.' how vile a thing--shall we say?--is the abstract noun! it wraps a man's thoughts round like cotton wool. here is a pretty little nest of specimens, found in "the times" newspaper by messrs. h. w. and f. g. fowler, authors of that capital little book "the king's english":-- one of the most important reforms mentioned in the rescript is the unification of the organisation of judicial institutions and the guarantee for all the tribunals of the independence necessary for securing to all classes of the community equality before the law. i do not dwell on the cacophony; but, to convey a straightforward piece of news, might not the editor of "the times" as well employ a man to write:-- one of the most important reforms is that of the courts, which need a uniform system and to be made independent. in this way only can men be assured that all are equal before the law. i think he might. a day or two ago the musical critic of the "standard" wrote this:-- mr lamond in beethoven mr frederick lamond, the scottish pianist, as an interpreter of beethoven has few rivals. at his second recital of the composer's works at bechstein hall on saturday afternoon he again displayed a complete sympathy and understanding of his material that extracted the very essence of aesthetic and musical value from each selection he undertook. the delightful intimacy of his playing and his unusual force of individual expression are invaluable assets, which, allied to his technical brilliancy, enable him to achieve an artistic triumph. the two lengthy variations in e flat major (op. ) and in d major, the latter on the turkish march from 'the ruins of athens,' when included in the same programme, require a master hand to provide continuity of interest. _to say that mr lamond successfully avoided moments that might at times, in these works, have inclined to comparative disinterestedness, would be but a moderate way of expressing the remarkable fascination with which his versatile playing endowed them_, but _at the same time_ two of the sonatas given included a similar form of composition, and no matter how intellectually brilliant may be the interpretation, the extravagant use of a certain mode is bound in time to become somewhat ineffective. in the three sonatas, the e major (op. ), the a major (op. ), no. , and the c minor (op. ), mr lamond signalised his perfect insight into the composer's varying moods. will you not agree with me that here is no writing, here is no prose, here is not even english, but merely a flux of words to the pen? here again is a string, a concatenation--say, rather, a tiara--of gems of purest ray serene from the dark unfathomed caves of a scottish newspaper:-- the chinese viewpoint, as indicated in this letter, may not be without interest to your readers, because it evidently is suggestive of more than an academic attempt to explain an unpleasant aspect of things which, if allowed to materialise, might suddenly culminate in disaster resembling the chang-sha riots. it also ventures to illustrate incidents having their inception in recent premature endeavours to accelerate the development of protestant missions in china; but we would hope for the sake of the interests involved that what my correspondent describes as 'the irresponsible ruffian element' may be known by their various religious designations only within very restricted areas. well, the chinese have given it up, poor fellows! and are asking the christians--as to-day's newspapers inform us--to pray for them. do you wonder? but that is, or was, the chinese 'viewpoint,'--and what a willow-pattern viewpoint! observe its delicacy. it does not venture to interest or be interesting; merely 'to be not without interest.' but it does 'venture to illustrate incidents'--which, for a viewpoint, is brave enough: and this illustration 'is suggestive of something more than an academic attempt to explain an unpleasant aspect of things which, if allowed to materialise, might suddenly culminate.' what materialises? the unpleasant aspect? or the things? grammar says the 'things,' 'things which if allowed to materialise.' but things are materialised already, and as a condition of their being things. it must be the aspect, then, that materialises. but, if so, it is also the aspect that culminates, and an aspect, however unpleasant, can hardly do that, or at worst cannot culminate in anything resembling the chang-sha riots.... i give it up. let us turn to another trick of jargon: the trick of elegant variation, so rampant in the sporting press that there, without needing to attend these lectures, the undergraduate detects it for laughter:-- hayward and c. b. fry now faced the bowling; which apparently had no terrors for the surrey crack. the old oxonian, however, took some time in settling to work.... yes, you all recognise it and laugh at it. but why do you practise it in your essays? an undergraduate brings me an essay on byron. in an essay on byron, byron is (or ought to be) mentioned many times. i expect, nay exact, that bryon shall be mentioned again and again. but my undergraduate has a blushing sense that to call byron byron twice on one page is indelicate. so byron, after starting bravely as byron, in the second sentence turns into 'that great but unequal poet' and thenceforward i have as much trouble with byron as ever telemachus with proteus to hold and pin him back to his proper self. half-way down the page he becomes 'the gloomy master of newstead': overleaf he is reincarnated into 'the meteoric darling of society': and so proceeds through successive avatars--'this arch-rebel,' 'the author of childe harold,' 'the apostle of scorn,' 'the ex-harrovian, proud, but abnormally sensitive of his club-foot,' 'the martyr of missolonghi,' 'the pageant-monger of a bleeding heart.' now this again is jargon. it does not, as most jargon does, come of laziness; but it comes of timidity, which is worse. in literature as in life he makes himself felt who not only calls a spade a spade but has the pluck to double spades and re-double. for another rule--just as rough and ready, but just as useful: train your suspicions to bristle up whenever you come upon 'as regards,' 'with regard to,' 'in respect of,' 'in connection with,' 'according as to whether,' and the like. they are all dodges of jargon, circumlocutions for evading this or that simple statement: and i say that it is not enough to avoid them nine times out of ten, or nine-and-ninety times out of a hundred. you should never use them. that is positive enough, i hope? though i cannot admire his style, i admire the man who wrote to me, 're tennyson--your remarks anent his "in memoriam" make me sick': for though re is not a preposition of the first water, and 'anent' has enjoyed its day, the finish crowned the work. but here are a few specimens far, very far, worse:-- the special difficulty in professor minocelsi's case [our old friend 'case' again] arose _in connexion with_ the view he holds _relative to_ the historical value of the opening pages of genesis. that is jargon. in prose, even taking the miserable sentence as it stands constructed, we should write 'the difficulty arose over the views he holds about the historical value,' etc. from a popular novelist:-- i was entirely indifferent _as to_ the results of the game, caring nothing at all _as to_ whether _i had losses or gains_-- cut out the first 'as' in 'as to,' and the second 'as to' altogether, and the sentence begins to be prose--'i was indifferent to the results of the game, caring nothing whether i had losses or gains.' but why, like dogberry, have 'had losses'? why not simply 'lose.' let us try again. 'i was entirely indifferent to the results of the game, caring nothing at all whether i won or lost.' still the sentence remains absurd: for the second clause but repeats the first without adding one jot. for if you care not at all whether you win or lose, you must be entirely indifferent to the results of the game. so why not say 'i was careless if i won or lost,' and have done with it? a man of simple and charming character, he was fitly _associated with_ the distinction of the order of merit. i take this gem with some others from a collection made three years ago, by the "oxford magazine"; and i hope you admire it as one beyond price. 'he was associated with the distinction of the order of merit' means 'he was given the order of merit.' if the members of that order make a society then he was associated with them; but you cannot associate a man with a distinction. the inventor of such fine writing would doubtless have answered canning's needy knife-grinder with:-- i associate thee with sixpence! i will see thee in another association first! but let us close our _florilegium_ and attempt to illustrate jargon by the converse method of taking a famous piece of english (say hamlet's soliloquy) and remoulding a few lines of it in this fashion:-- to be, or the contrary? whether the former or the latter be preferable would seem to admit of some difference of opinion; the answer in the present case being of an affirmative or of a negative character according as to whether one elects on the one hand to mentally suffer the disfavour of fortune, albeit in an extreme degree, or on the other to boldly envisage adverse conditions in the prospect of eventually bringing them to a conclusion. the condition of sleep is similar to, if not indistinguishable from, that of death; and with the addition of finality the former might be considered identical with the latter: so that in this connection it might be argued with regard to sleep that, could the addition be effected, a termination would be put to the endurance of a multiplicity of inconveniences, not to mention a number of downright evils incidental to our fallen humanity, and thus a consummation achieved of a most gratifying nature. that is jargon: and to write jargon is to be perpetually shuffling around in the fog and cotton-wool of abstract terms; to be for ever hearkening, like ibsen's peer gynt, to the voice of the boyg exhorting you to circumvent the difficulty, to beat the air because it is easier than to flesh your sword in the thing. the first virtue, the touchstone of a masculine style, is its use of the active verb and the concrete noun. when you write in the active voice, 'they gave him a silver teapot,' you write as a man. when you write 'he was made the recipient of a silver teapot,' you write jargon. but at the beginning set even higher store on the concrete noun. somebody--i think it was fitzgerald--once posited the question 'what would have become of christianity if jeremy bentham had had the writing of the parables?' without pursuing that dreadful enquiry i ask you to note how carefully the parables--those exquisite short stories--speak only of 'things which you can touch and see'--'a sower went forth to sow,' 'the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took,'--and not the parables only, but the sermon on the mount and almost every verse of the gospel. the gospel does not, like my young essayist, fear to repeat a word, if the word be good. the gospel says 'render unto caesar the things that are caesar's'--not 'render unto caesar the things that appertain to that potentate.' the gospel does not say 'consider the growth of the lilies,' or even 'consider how the lilies grow.' it says, 'consider the lilies, how they grow.' or take shakespeare. i wager you that no writer of english so constantly chooses the concrete word, in phrase after phrase forcing you to touch and see. no writer so insistently teaches the general through the particular. he does it even in "venus and adonis" (as professor wendell, of harvard, pointed out in a brilliant little monograph on shakespeare, published some ten years ago). read any page of "venus and adonis" side by side with any page of marlowe's "hero and leander" and you cannot but mark the contrast: in shakespeare the definite, particular, visualised image, in marlowe the beautiful generalisation, the abstract term, the thing seen at a literary remove. take the two openings, both of which start out with the sunrise. marlowe begins:-- now had the morn espied her lover's steeds: whereat she starts, puts on her purple weeds, and, red for anger that he stay'd so long, all headlong throws herself the clouds among. shakespeare wastes no words on aurora and her feelings, but gets to his hero and to business without ado:-- even as the sun with purple-colour'd face-- (you have the sun visualised at once), even as the sun with purple-colour'd face had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn, rose-cheek'd adonis hied him to the chase; hunting he loved, but love he laugh'd to scorn. when shakespeare has to describe a horse, mark how definite he is:-- round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, broad breast, full eye, small head and nostril wide, high crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong; thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide. or again, in a casual simile, how definite:-- upon this promise did he raise his chin, like a dive-dipper peering through a wave, which, being look'd on, ducks as quickly in. or take, if you will, marlowe's description of hero's first meeting leander:-- it lies not in our power to love or hate, for will in us is over-ruled by fate..., and set against it shakespeare's description of venus' last meeting with adonis, as she came on him lying in his blood:-- or as a snail whose tender horns being hit shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain, and there, all smother'd up, in shade doth sit, long after fearing to creep forth again; so, at his bloody view-- i do not deny marlowe's lines (if you will study the whole passage) to be lovely. you may even judge shakespeare's to be crude by comparison. but you cannot help noting that whereas marlowe steadily deals in abstract, nebulous terms, shakespeare constantly uses concrete ones, which later on he learned to pack into verse, such as:-- sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care. is it unfair to instance marlowe, who died young? then let us take webster for the comparison; webster, a man of genius or of something very like it, and commonly praised by the critics for his mastery over definite, detailed, and what i may call _solidified sensation_. let us take this admired passage from his "duchess of malfy":-- _ferdinand._ how doth our sister duchess bear herself in her imprisonment? _basola._ nobly: i'll describe her. she's sad as one long used to 't, and she seems rather to welcome the end of misery than shun it: a behaviour so noble as gives a majesty to adversity (note the abstract terms.) you may discern the shape of loveliness more perfect in her tears than in her smiles; she will muse for hours together; and her silence (here we first come on the concrete: and beautiful it is.) methinks expresseth more than if she spake. now set against this the well-known passage from "twelfth night" where the duke asks and viola answers a question about someone unknown to him and invented by her--a mere phantasm, in short: yet note how much more definite is the language:-- _viola._ my father had a daughter lov'd a man; as it might be, perhaps, were i a woman, _i_ should your lordship. _duke._ and what's her history? _viola._ a blank, my lord. she never told her love, but let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, feed on her damask cheek; she pined in thought, and with a green and yellow melancholy she sat like patience on a monument smiling at grief. was not this love indeed? observe (apart from the dramatic skill of it) how, when shakespeare _has_ to use the abstract noun 'concealment,' on an instant it turns into a visible worm 'feeding' on the visible rose; how, having to use a second abstract word 'patience,' at once he solidifies it in tangible stone. turning to prose, you may easily assure yourselves that men who have written learnedly on the art agree in treating our maxim--to prefer the concrete term to the abstract, the particular to the general, the definite to the vague--as a canon of rhetoric. whately has much to say on it. the late mr e. j. payne, in one of his admirable prefaces to burke (prefaces too little known and valued, as too often happens to scholarship hidden away in a schoolbook), illustrated the maxim by setting a passage from burke's speech "on conciliation with america" alongside a passage of like purport from lord brougham's "inquiry into the policy of the european powers." here is the deadly parallel:-- burke. in large bodies the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. nature has said it. the turk cannot govern Ægypt and arabia and curdistan as he governs thrace; nor has he the same dominion in crimea and algiers which he has at brusa and smyrna. despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster. the sultan gets such obedience as he can. he governs with a loose rein, that he may govern at all; and the whole of the force and vigour of his authority in his centre is derived from a prudent relaxation in all his borders. brougham. in all the despotisms of the east, it has been observed that the further any part of the empire is removed from the capital, the more do its inhabitants enjoy some sort of rights and privileges: the more inefficacious is the power of the monarch; and the more feeble and easily decayed is the organisation of the government. you perceive that brougham has transferred burke's thought to his own page: but will you not also perceive how pitiably, by dissolving burke's vivid particulars into smooth generalities, he has enervated its hold on the mind? 'this particularising style,' comments mr payne, 'is the essence of poetry; and in prose it is impossible not to be struck with the energy it produces. brougham's passage is excellent in its way: but it pales before the flashing lights of burke's sentences. the best instances of this energy of style, he adds, are to be found in the classical writers of the seventeenth century. 'when south says, "an aristotle was but the rubbish of an adam, and athens but the rudiments of paradise," he communicates more effectually the notion of the difference between the intellect of fallen and of unfallen humanity than in all the philosophy of his sermons put together.' you may agree with me, or you may not, that south in this passage is expounding trash; but you will agree with mr payne and me that he uttered it vividly. let me quote to you, as a final example of this vivid style of writing, a passage from dr john donne far beyond and above anything that ever lay within south's compass:-- the ashes of an oak in the chimney are no epitaph of that oak, to tell me how high or how large that was; it tells me not what flocks it sheltered while it stood, nor what men it hurt when it fell. the dust of great persons' graves is speechless, too; it says nothing, it distinguishes nothing. as soon the dust of a wretch whom thou wouldest not, as of a prince whom thou couldest not look upon will trouble thine eyes if the wind blow it thither; and when a whirle-wind hath blown the dust of the churchyard into the church, and the man sweeps out the dust of the church into the churchyard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again and to pronounce, this is the patrician, this is the noble flowre [flour], this the yeomanly, this the plebeian bran? so is the death of iesabel (iesabel was a queen) expressed. they shall not say _this is iesabel_; not only not wonder that it is, nor pity that it should be; but they shall not say, they shall not know, _this is iesabel._ carlyle noted of goethe, 'his emblematic intellect, his never-failing tendency to transform into _shape_, into _life_, the feeling that may dwell in him. everything has form, has visual excellence: the poet's imagination bodies forth the forms of things unseen, and his pen turns them into shape.' perpend this, gentlemen, and maybe you will not hereafter set it down to my reproach that i wasted an hour of a may morning in a denunciation of jargon, and in exhorting you upon a technical matter at first sight so trivial as the choice between abstract and definite words. a lesson about writing your language may go deeper than language; for language (as in a former lecture i tried to preach to you) is your reason, your [greek: logos]. so long as you prefer abstract words, which express other men's summarised concepts of things, to concrete ones which as near as can be reached to things themselves and are the first-hand material for your thoughts, you will remain, at the best, writers at second-hand. if your language be jargon, your intellect, if not your whole character, will almost certainly correspond. where your mind should go straight, it will dodge: the difficulties it should approach with a fair front and grip with a firm hand it will be seeking to evade or circumvent. for the style is the man, and where a man's treasure is there his heart, and his brain, and his writing, will be also. lecture vi. on the capital difficulty of prose thursday, may to-day, gentlemen, leaving the vanity fair of jargon behind us, we have to essay a difficult country; of which, though fairly confident of his compass-bearings, your guide confesses, that wide tracts lie outside his knowledge--outside of anything that can properly be called his knowledge. i feel indeed somewhat as gideon must have felt when he divided his host on the slopes of mount gilead, warning back all who were afraid. in asking the remnant to follow as attentively as they can, i promise only that, if heaven carry us safely across, we shall have 'broken the back' of the desert. in my last lecture but one, then,--and before our small interlude with jargon--the argument had carried us, more or less neatly, up to this point: that the capital difficulty of verse consisted in saying ordinary unemotional things, of bridging the flat intervals between high moments. this point, i believe, we made effectively enough. now, for logical neatness, we should be able to oppose a corresponding point, that the capital difficulty of prose consists in saying extraordinary things, in running it up from its proper level to these high emotional, musical, moments. and mightily convenient that would be, gentlemen, if i were here to help you to answer scientific questions about prose and verse instead of helping you, in what small degree i can, to write. but in literature (which, let me remind you yet once again, is an art) you cannot classify as in a science. pray attend while i impress on you this most necessary warning. in studying literature, and still more in studying to write it, distrust all classification! all classifying of literature intrudes 'science' upon an art, and is artificially 'scientific'; a trick of pedants, that they may make it the easier to examine you on things with which no man should have any earthly concern, as i am sure he will never have a heavenly one. beetles, minerals, gases, may be classified; and to have them classified is not only convenient but a genuine advance of knowledge. but if you had to _make_ a beetle, as men are making poetry, how much would classification help? to classify in a science is necessary for the purpose of that science: to classify when you come to art is at the best an expedient, useful to some critics and to a multitude of examiners. it serves the art-critic to talk about tuscan, flemish, pre-raphaelite, schools of painting. the expressions are handy, and we know more or less what they intend. just so handily it may serve us to talk about 'renaissance poets,' 'the elizabethans,' 'the augustan age.' but such terms at best cannot be scientific, precise, determinate, as for examples the terms 'inorganic,' 'mammal,' 'univalve,' 'old red sandstone' are scientific, precise, determinate. an animal is either a mammal or it is not: you cannot say as assuredly that a man is or is not an elizabethan. we call shakespeare an elizabethan and the greatest of elizabethans, though as a fact he wrote his most famous plays when elizabeth was dead. shirley was but seven years old when elizabeth died; yet (if 'elizabethan' have any meaning but a chronological one) shirley belongs to the elizabethan firmament, albeit but as a pale star low on the horizon: whereas donne--a post-elizabethan if ever there was one--had by reached his thirtieth year and written almost every line of those wonderful lyrics which for a good sixty years gave the dominant note to jacobean and caroline poetry. in treating of an art we classify for handiness, not for purposes of exact knowledge; and man (_improbus homo_) with his wicked inventions is for ever making fools of our formulae. be consoled--and, if you are wise, thank heaven--that genius uses our best-laid logic to explode it. be consoled, at any rate, on finding that after deciding the capital difficulty of prose to lie in saying extraordinary things, in running up to the high emotional moments, the prose-writers explode and blow our admirable conclusions to ruins. you see, we gave them the chance to astonish us when we defined prose as 'a record of human thought, dispensing with metre and using rhythm laxly.' when you give genius leave to use something laxly, at its will, genius will pretty surely get the better of you. observe, now, following the story of english prose, what has happened. its difficulty--the inherent, the native disability of prose--is to handle the high emotional moments which more properly belong to verse. well, we strike into the line of our prose-writers, say as early as malory. we come on this; of the passing of arthur:-- 'my time hieth fast,' said the king. therefore said arthur unto sir bedivere, 'take thou excalibur my good sword, and go with it to yonder water side; and when thou comest there i charge thee throw my sword in that water and come again and tell me what there thou seest.' 'my lord,' said bedivere, 'your commandment shall be done; and lightly bring you word again.' so sir bedivere departed, and by the way he beheld that noble sword, that the pommel and the haft was all of precious stones, and then he said to himself, 'if i throw this rich sword in the water, thereof shall never come good, but harm and loss.' and then sir bedivere hid excaliber under a tree. and so, as soon as he might, he came again unto the king, and said he had been at the water and had thrown the sword into the water, 'what saw thou there?' said the king, 'sir,' he said, 'i saw nothing but waves and winds.' now i might say a dozen things of this and of the whole passage that follows, down to arthur's last words. specially might i speak to you of the music of its monosyllables--'"what sawest you there?" said the king... "do as well as thou mayest; for in me is no trust for to trust in. for i will into the vale of avilion, to heal me of my grievous wound. and if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul."' but, before making comment at all, i shall quote you another passage; this from lord berners' translation of froissart, of the death of robert bruce:-- it fortuned that king robert of scotland was right sore aged and feeble: for he was greatly charged with the great sickness, so that there was no way for him but death. and when he felt that his end drew near, he sent for such barons and lords of his realm as he trusted best, and shewed them how there was no remedy with him, but he must needs leave this transitory life.... then he called to him the gentle knight, sir william douglas, and said before all the lords, 'sir william, my dear friend, ye know well that i have had much ado in my days to uphold and sustain the right of this realm; and when i had most ado i made a solemn vow, the which as yet i have not accomplished, whereof i am right sorry; the which was, if i might achieve and make an end of all my wars, so that i might once have brought this realm in rest and peace, then i promised in my mind to have gone and warred on christ's enemies, adversaries to our holy christian faith. to this purpose mine heart hath ever intended, but our lord would not consent thereto... and sith it is so that my body can not go, nor achieve that my heart desireth, i will send the heart instead of the body, to accomplish mine avow... i will, that as soon as i am trespassed out of this world, that ye take my heart out of my body, and embalm it, and take of my treasure as ye shall think sufficient for that enterprise, both for yourself and such company as ye will take with you, and present my heart to the holy sepulchre, whereas our lord lay, seeing my body can not come there. and take with you such company and purveyance as shall be appertaining to your estate. and, wheresoever ye come, let it be known how ye carry with you the heart of king robert of scotland, at his instance and desire to be presented to the holy sepulchre.' then all the lords, that heard these words, wept for pity. there, in the fifteenth century and early in the sixteenth, you have malory and berners writing beautiful english prose; prose the emotion of which (i dare to say) you must recognise if you have ears to hear. so you see that already our english prose not only achieves the 'high moment,' but seems to obey it rather and be lifted by it, until we ask ourselves, 'who could help writing nobly, having to tell how king arthur died or how the bruce?' yes, but i bid you observe that malory and berners are both relating what, however noble, is quite simple, quite straightforward. it is when prose attempts to _philosophise_, to _express thoughts_ as well as to relate simple sayings and doings--it is then that the trouble begins. when malory has to philosophise death, to _think_ about it, this is as far as he attains:-- 'ah, sir lancelot,' said he, 'thou wert head of all christian knights! and now i dare say,' said sir ector, 'that, sir lancelot, there thou liest, thou were never matched of none earthly hands; and thou were the curtiest knight that ever bare shield: and thou were the truest friend to thy lover that ever strood horse, and thou were the truest lover of a sinful man that ever loved woman; and thou were the kindest man that ever strooke with sword; and thou were the goodliest person that ever came among press of knights; and thou were the meekest man and gentlest that ever sat in hall among ladies; and thou were the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest.' beautiful again, i grant! but note you that, eloquent as he can be on the virtues of his dead friend, when sir ector comes to the thought of death itself all he can accomplish is, 'and now i dare say that, sir lancelot, there thou liest.' let us make a leap in time and contrast this with tyndale and the translators of our bible, how they are able to make st paul speak of death:-- so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. o death, where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy victory? there you have something clean beyond what malory or berners could compass: there you have a different kind of high moment--a high moment of philosophising: there you have emotion impregnated with thought. it was necessary that our english verse even after chaucer, our english prose after malory and berners, should overcome this most difficult gap (which stands for a real intellectual difference) if it aspired to be what to-day it is--a language of the first class, comparable with greek and certainly no whit inferior to latin or french. * * * * * let us leave prose for a moment, and see how verse threw its bridge over the gap. if you would hear the note of chaucer at its deepest, you will find it in the famous exquisite lines of the prioress' prologue:-- o moder mayde! o maydë moder fre! o bush unbrent, brenning in moyses' sight! in the complaint of troilus, in the rapture of griselda restored to her children:-- o tendre, o dere, o yongë children myne, your woful moder wendë stedfastly that cruel houndës or some foul vermyne hadde eten you; but god of his mercy and your benignë fader tendrely hath doon you kept... you will find a note quite as sincere in many a carol, many a ballad, of that time:-- he came al so still there his mother was, as dew in april that falleth on the grass. he came al so still to his mother's bour, as dew in april that falleth on the flour. he came al so still there his mother lay, as dew in april that falleth on the spray. mother and maiden was never none but she; well may such a lady goddes mother be. you get the most emotional note of the ballad in such a stanza as this, from "the nut-brown maid":-- though it be sung of old and young that i should be to blame, their's be the charge that speak so large in hurting of my name; for i will prove that faithful love it is devoid of shame; in your distress and heaviness to part with you the same: and sure all tho that do not so true lovers are they none: for, in my mind, of all mankind i love but you alone. all these notes, again, you will admit to be exquisite: but they gush straight from the unsophisticated heart: they are nowise deep save in innocent emotion: they are not _thoughtful_. so when barbour breaks out in praise of freedom, he cries a! fredome is a noble thing! and that is really as far as he gets. he goes on fredome mayse man to hafe liking. (freedom makes man to choose what he likes; that is, makes him free) fredome all solace to man giffis, he livis at ese that frely livis! a noble hart may haif nane ese, na ellys nocht that may him plese, gif fredome fail'th: for fre liking is yharnit ouer all othir thing... --and so on for many lines; all saying the same thing, that man yearns for freedom and is glad when he gets it, because then he is free; all hammering out the same observed fact, but all knocking vainly on the door of thought, which never opens to explain what freedom _is_. now let us take a leap as we did with prose, and 'taking off' from the nut-brown maid's artless confession, in my mind, of all mankind i love but you alone, let us alight on a sonnet of shakespeare's-- thy bosom is endearéd with all hearts which i by lacking have supposéd dead: and there reigns love, and all love's loving parts, and all those friends which i thought buriéd. how many a holy and obsequious tear hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye as interest of the dead!--which now appear but things removed, that hidden in thee lie. thou art the grave where buried love doth live, hung with the trophies of my lovers gone, who all their parts of me to thee did give; that due of many now is mine alone: their images i loved i view in thee, and thou, all they, hast all the all of me. what a new way of talking about love! not a happier way--there is less of heart's-ease in these doubts, delicacies, subtleties--but how much more thoughtful! how has our nut-brown maid eaten of the tree of knowledge! well, there happened a shakespeare, to do this for english verse: and shakespeare was a miracle which i cheerfully leave others to rationalise for you, having, for my own part and so far as i have fared in life, found more profit in a capacity for simple wonder. but i can tell you how the path was made straight to that miracle. the shock of the new learning upon europe awoke men and unsealed men's eyes--unsealed the eyes of englishmen in particular--to discover a literature, and the finest in the world, which _habitually philosophised life_: a literature which, whether in a chorus of sophocles or a talk reported by plato, or in a ribald page of aristophanes or in a knotty chapter of thucydides, was in one guise or another for ever asking _why?_ 'what is man doing here, and why is he doing it?' 'what is his purpose? his destiny?' 'how stands he towards those unseen powers--call them the gods, or whatever you will--that guide and thwart, provoke, madden, control him so mysteriously?' 'what are these things we call good and evil, life, love, death?' these are questions which, once raised, haunt man until he finds an answer--some sort of answer to satisfy him. englishmen, hitherto content with the church's answers but now aware of this great literature which answered so differently--and having other reasons to suspect what the church said and did--grew aware that their literature had been as a child at play. it had never philosophised good and evil, life, love or death: it had no literary forms for doing this; it had not even the vocabulary. so our ancestors saw that to catch up their lee-way--to make their report worthy of this wonderful, alluring discovery--new literary forms had to be invented--new, that is, in english: the sonnet, the drama, the verse in which the actors were to declaim, the essay, the invented tale. then, for the vocabulary, obviously our fathers had either to go to greek, which had invented the a.b.c. of philosophising; or to seek in the other languages which were already ahead of english in adapting that alphabet; or to give our english words new contents, new connotations, new meanings; or lastly, to do all three together. well, it was done; and in verse very fortunately done; thanks of course to many men, but thanks to two especially--to sir thomas wyat, who led our poets to italy, to study and adopt the forms in which italy had cast its classical heritage; and to marlowe, who impressed blank verse upon the drama. of marlowe i shall say nothing; for with what he achieved you are familiar enough. of wyat i may speak at length to you, one of these days; but here, to prepare you for what i hope to prove--that wyat is one of the heroes of our literature--i will give you three brief reasons why we should honour his memory:-- ( ) he led the way. on the value of that service i shall content myself with quoting a passage from newman:-- when a language has been cultivated in any particular department of thought, and so far as it has been generally perfected, an existing want has been supplied, and there is no need for further workmen. in its earliest times, while it is yet unformed, to write in it at all is almost a work of genius. it is like crossing a country before roads are made communicating between place and place. the authors of that age deserve to be classics both because of what they do and because they can do it. it requires the courage and force of great talent to compose in the language at all; and the composition, when effected, makes a permanent impression on it. this wyat did. he was a pioneer and opened up a new country to englishmen. but he did more. ( ) secondly, he had the instinct to perceive that the lyric, if it would philosophise life, love, and the rest, must boldly introduce the personal note: since in fact when man asks questions about his fortune or destiny he asks them most effectively in the first person. 'what am _i_ doing? why are _we_ mortal? why do _i_ love _thee_?' this again wyat did: and again he did more. for ( ) thirdly--and because of this i am surest of his genius--again and again, using new thoughts in unfamiliar forms, he wrought out the result in language so direct, economical, natural, easy, that i know to this day no one who can better wyat's best in combining straight speech with melodious cadence. take the lines _is it possible?_-- is it possible? for to turn so oft; to bring that lowest that was most aloft: and to fall highest, yet to light soft? is it possible? all is possible! whoso list believe; trust therefore first, and after preve; as men wed ladies by licence and leave, all is possible! or again-- forget not! o forget not this!-- how long ago hath been, and is, the mind that never meant amiss: forget not yet! or again (can personal note go straighter?)-- and wilt thou leave me thus? say nay, say nay, for shame! to save thee from the blame --of all my grief and grame. and wilt thou leave me thus? say nay! say nay! (say 'nay,' say 'nay'; and don't say, 'the answer is in the negative.') no: i have yet to mention the straightest, most natural of them all, and will read it to you in full-- what should i say? since faith is dead and truth away from you is fled? should i be led with doubleness? nay! nay! mistress. i promised you and you promised me to be as true as i would be: but since i see your double heart, farewell my part! thought for to take is not my mind; but to forsake one so unkind; and as i find, so will i trust, farewell, unjust! can ye say nay but that you said that i alway should be obeyed? and--thus betrayed or that i wist! farewell, unkist! i observe it noted on p. of volume iii of "the cambridge history of english literature" that wyat 'was a pioneer and perfection was not to be expected of him. he has been described as a man stumbling over obstacles, continually falling but always pressing forward.' i know not to what wiseacre we owe that pronouncement: but what do you think of it, after the lyric i have just quoted? i observe, further, on p. of the same volume of the same work, that the rev. t. m. lindsay, d.d., principal of the glasgow college of the united free church of scotland, informs us of wilson's "arte of rhetorique" that there is little or no originality in the volume, save, perhaps, the author's condemnation of the use of french and italian phrases and idioms, which he complains are 'counterfeiting the kinges englishe.' the warnings of wilson will not seem untimely if to be remembered that the earlier english poets of the period--sir thomas wyatt the elder, and the earl of surrey--drew their inspiration from petrarch and ariosto, that their earlier attempts at poetry were translations from italian sonnets, and that their maturer efforts were imitations of the sweet and stately measures and style of italian poesie. the polish which men like wyatt and surrey were praised for giving to our 'rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie' might have led to some degeneration. might it, indeed? as another dominie would have said, 'pro-digious.' (thought for to take is not my mind; but to forsake this principal of the glasgow college of the united free church of scotland-- farewell unkiss'd!) but i have lingered too long with this favourite poet of mine and left myself room only to hand you the thread by following which you will come to the melodious philosophising of shakespeare's sonnets-- let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment. love is not love which alters where it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove. note the latin words 'impediment,' 'alteration,' 'remove.' we are using the language of philosophy here or, rather, the 'universal language,' which had taken over the legacy of greek. you may trace the use of it growing as, for example, you trace it through the elizabethan song-books: and then (as i said) comes shakespeare, and with shakespeare the miracle. the education of prose was more difficult, and went through more violent convulsions. i suppose that the most of us--if, after reading a quantity of elizabethan prose, we had the courage to tell plain truth, undaunted by the name of a great epoch--would confess to finding the mass of it clotted in sense as well as unmusical in sound, a disappointment almost intolerable after the simple melodious clarity of malory and berners. i, at any rate, must own that the most of elizabethan prose pleases me little; and i speak not of elizabethan prose at its worst, of such stuff as disgraced the already disgraceful martin marprelate controversy, but of such as a really ingenious and ingenuous man like thomas nashe could write at his average. for a sample:-- english seneca read by candle-light yields many good sentences such as 'blood is a beggar' and so forth; and if you entreat him fair on a frosty morning, he will afford you whole hamlets, i should say handfuls of tragical speeches.... sufficeth them [that is, modern followers of seneca] to bodge up a blank verse with if's and and's, and others, while for recreation after their candle-stuff, having starched their beards most curiously, to make a peripatetical path into the inner parts of the city, and spend two or three hours in turning over the french _doudie_, where they attract more infection in one minute than they can do eloquence all the days of their life by conversing with any authors of like argument. this may be worth studying historically, to understand the difficulties our prose had to encounter and overcome. but no one would seriously propose it as a model for those who would write well, which is our present business. i have called it 'clotted.' it is, to use a word of the time, 'farced' with conceits; it needs straining. its one merit consists in this, that it is struggling, fumbling, to say something: that is, to _make_ something. it is not, like modern jargon, trying to dodge something. english prose, in short, just here is passing through a period of puberty, of green sickness: and, looking at it historically, we may own that its throes are commensurate with the stature of the grown man to be. these throes tear it every way. on the one hand we have ascham, pendantically enough, apologising that he writes in the english tongue (yet with a sure instinct he does it):-- if any man would blame me, either for taking such a matter in hand, or else for writing it in the english tongue, this answer i may make him, that what the best of the realm think it honest for them to use, i, one of the meanest sort, ought not to suppose it vile for me to write... and as for the latin or greek tongue, everything is so excellently done in them that none can do better. in the english tongue, contrary, everything in a manner so meanly, both for the matter and the handling, that no man can do worse. on the other hand you have euphuism with its antithetical tricks and poises, taking all prose by storm for a time: euphuism, to be revived two hundred years later, and find a new avatar in the johnsonian balance; euphuism, dead now, yet alive enough in its day. for all these writers were alive: and i tell you it is an inspiriting thing to be alive and trying to write english. all these authors were alive and trying to _do_ something. unconsciously for the most part they were striving to philosophise the vocabulary of english prose and find a rhythm for its periods. and then, as already had happened to our verse, to our prose too there befel a miracle. you will not ask me 'what miracle?' i mean, of course, the authorised version of the bible. i grant you, to be sure, that the path to the authorised version was made straight by previous translators, notably by william tyndale. i grant you that tyndale was a man of genius, and wyclif before him a man of genius. i grant you that the forty-seven men who produced the authorised version worked in the main upon tyndale's version, taking that for their basis. nay, if you choose to say that tyndale was a miracle in himself, i cheerfully grant you that as well. but, in a lecture one must not multiply miracles _praeter necessitatem_; and when tyndale has been granted you have yet to face the miracle that forty-seven men--not one of them known, outside of this performance, for any superlative talent--sat in committee and almost consistently, over a vast extent of work--improved upon what genius had done. i give you the word of an old committee-man that this is not the way of committees--that only by miracle is it the way of any committee. doubtless the forty-seven were all good men and godly: but doubtless also good and godly were the dean and chapter who dealt with alfred steven's tomb of the duke of wellington in st paul's cathedral; and you know what _they_ did. individual genius such as tyndale's or even shakespeare's, though we cannot explain it, we may admit as occurring somehow, and not incredibly, in the course of nature. but that a large committee of forty-seven should have gone steadily through the great mass of holy writ, seldom interfering with genius, yet, when interfering, seldom missing to improve: that a committee of forty-seven should have captured (or even, let us say, should have retained and improved) a rhythm so personal, so constant, that our bible has the voice of one author speaking through its many mouths: that, gentlemen, is a wonder before which i can only stand humble and aghast. does it or does it not strike you as queer that the people who set you 'courses of study' in english literature never include the authorised version, which not only intrinsically but historically is out and away the greatest book of english prose. perhaps they can pay you the silent compliment of supposing that you are perfectly acquainted with it?... i wonder. it seems as if they thought the martin marprelate controversy, for example, more important somehow. 'so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality...' 'many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.' 'the king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.' 'thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.' 'and a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.' when a nation has achieved this manner of diction, those rhythms for its dearest beliefs, a literature is surely established. just there i find the effective miracle, making the blind to see, the lame to leap. wyclif, tyndale, coverdale and others before the forty-seven had wrought. the authorised version, setting a seal on all, set a seal on our national style, thinking and speaking. it has cadences homely and sublime, yet so harmonises them that the voice is always one. simple men--holy and humble men of heart like isaak walton or bunyan--have their lips touched and speak to the homelier tune. proud men, scholars,--milton, sir thomas browne--practice the rolling latin sentence; but upon the rhythms of our bible they, too, fall back. 'the great mutations of the world are acted, or time may be too short for our designs.' 'acquaint thyself with the choragium of the stars.' 'there is nothing immortal but immortality.' the precise man addison cannot excel one parable in brevity or in heavenly clarity: the two parts of johnson's antithesis come to no more than this 'our lord has gone up to the sound of a trump: with the sound of a trump our lord has gone up.' the bible controls its enemy gibbon as surely as it haunts the curious music of a light sentence of thackeray's. it is in everything we see, hear, feel, because it is in us, in our blood. what madman, then, will say 'thus or thus far shalt thou go' to a prose thus invented and thus with its free rhythms, after three hundred years, working on the imagination of englishmen? or who shall determine its range, whether of thought or of music? you have received it by inheritance, gentlemen: it is yours, freely yours--to direct your words through life as well as your hearts. lecture vii some principles reaffirmed thursday, may let me begin to-day, gentlemen, with a footnote to my last lecture. it ended, as you may remember, upon an earnest appeal to you, if you would write good english, to study the authorised version of the scriptures; to learn from it, moreover, how by mastering _rhythm_, our prose overcame the capital difficulty of prose and attuned itself to rival its twin instrument, verse; compassing almost equally with verse man's thought however sublime, his emotion however profound. now in the course of my remarks i happened--maybe a little incautiously--to call the authorised version a 'miracle'; using that word in a colloquial sense, in which no doubt you accepted it; meaning no more than that the thing passed my understanding. i have allowed that the famous forty-seven owed an immense deal to earlier translators--to the bishops, to tyndale, to the wyclif version, as themselves allowed it eagerly in their preface:-- truly (good christian reader) wee never thought from the beginning that we should needs to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one ... but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones one principall good one, not justly to be excepted against: that hath bene our indeavour, that our marke. (see [footnote ] at the end of this lecture.) nevertheless the authorised version astounds me, as i believe it will astound you when you compare it with earlier translations. aristotle (it has been said) invented chance to cover the astonishing fact that there were certain phenomena for which he found himself wholly unable to account. just so, if one may compare very small things with very great, i spoke of the authorised version as a 'miracle.' it was, it remains, marvellous to me. should these deciduous discourses ever come to be pressed within the leaves of a book, i believe their general meaning will be as clear to readers as i hope it is to you who give me so much pleasure by pursuing them--almost (shall i say?) like wordsworth's kitten with those other falling leaves:-- that almost i could repine that your transports are not mine. but meanwhile certain writers in the newspapers are assuming that by this word 'miracle' i meant to suggest to you a something like plenary inspiration at once supernatural and so authoritative that it were sacrilege now to alter their text by one jot or tittle. believe me, i intended nothing of the sort: for that, in my plain opinion, would be to make a fetish of the book. one of these days i hope to discuss with you what inspiration is: with what accuracy--with what meaning, if any--we can say of a poet that he is inspired; questions which have puzzled many wise men from plato downwards. but certainly i never dreamt of claiming plenary inspiration for the forty-seven. nay, if you will have it, they now and again wrote stark nonsense. remember that i used this very same word 'miracle' of shakespeare, meaning again that the total shakespeare quite outpasses my comprehension; yet shakespeare, too, on occasion talks stark nonsense, or at any rate stark bombast. he never blotted a line--'i would he had blotted a thousand' says ben jonson: and ben jonson was right. shakespeare could have blotted out two or three thousand lines: he was great enough to afford it. somewhere matthew arnold supposes us as challenging shakespeare over this and that weak or bombastic passage, and shakespeare answering with his tolerant smile, that no doubt we were right, but after all, 'did it greatly matter?' so we offer no real derogation to the forty-seven in asserting that here and there they wrote nonsense. they could afford it. but we do stultify criticism if, adoring the grand total of wisdom and beauty, we prostrate ourselves indiscriminately before what is good and what is bad, what is sublime sense and what is nonsense, and forbid any reviser to put forth a hand to the ark. the most of us christians go to church on christmas day, and there we listen to this from isaiah, chapter ix, verses - :-- nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of zebulun and the land of naphtali, and afterwards did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond jordan, in galilee of the nations. the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. for thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of midian. for every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood: but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. the forty-seven keep their majestic rhythm. but have you ever, sitting in church on a christmas morning, asked yourself what it all means, or if it mean anything more than a sing-song according somehow with the holly and ivy around the pillars? _'thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest,'_ but why--if the joy be not increased? _'for every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood: but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.'_ granted the rhythmical antithesis, where is the real antithesis, the difference, the improvement? if a battle there must be, how is burning better than garments rolled in blood? and, in fine, what is it all about? now let us turn to the revised version:-- but there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish. in the former time he brought into contempt the land of zebulun and the land of naphtali, but in the latter time hath he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond jordan, galilee of the nations. the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. for the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of midian. for all the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire. for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called wonderful, counsellor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace. i say (knowing no hebrew, merely assuming our revisers to be at least no worse scholars than the forty-seven) that here, with the old cadences kept so far as possible, we are given sense in place of nonsense: and i ask you to come to the revised version with a fair mind. i myself came to it with some prejudice; in complete ignorance of hebrew, and with no more than the usual amount of hellenistic greek. i grant at once that the revised new testament was a literary fiasco; largely due (if gossip may be trusted) to trouble with the greek aorist, and an unwise decision--in my opinion the most gratuitously unwise a translator can take--to use one and the same english word, always and in every connotation, as representing one and the same greek word: for in any two languages few words are precisely equivalent. a fiasco at any rate the revised new testament was, deserving in a dozen ways and in a thousand passages the scorn which professor saintsbury has recently heaped on it. but i protest against the injustice of treating the two revisions--of the new testament and of the old--as a single work, and saddling the whole with the sins of a part. for two years i spent half-an-hour daily in reading the authorised and revised versions side by side, marking as i went, and in this way worked through the whole--old testament, apocrypha, new testament. i came to it (as i have said) with some prejudice; but i closed the books on a conviction, which my notes sustain for me, that the revisers of the old testament performed their task delicately, scrupulously, on the whole with great good judgment; that the critic does a wrong who brings them under his indiscriminate censure; that on the whole they have clarified the sense of the authorised version while respecting its consecrated rhythms; and that--to name an example, that you may test my words and judge for yourselves--the solemn splendour of that most wonderful poem, the story of job, [greek: dialampei], 'shines through' the new translation as it never shone through the old. * * * * * and now gentlemen (as george herbert said on a famous occasion), let us tune our instruments. before discussing with you another and highly important question of style in writing, i will ask you to look back for a few moments on the road we have travelled. we have agreed that our writing should be _appropriate_: that it should fit the occasion; that it should rise and fall with the subject, be grave where that is serious, where it is light not afraid of what stevenson in "the wrong box" calls 'a little judicious levity.' if your writing observe these precepts, it will be well-mannered writing. to be sure, much in addition will depend on yourself--on what you are or have made yourself, since in writing the style can never be separated from the man. but neither can it in the practice of virtue: yet, though men differ in character, i do not observe that moralists forbear from laying down general rules of excellence. now if you will recall our further conclusion, that writing to be good must be persuasive (since persuasion is the only true intellectual process), and will test this by a passage of newman's i am presently to quote to you, from his famous 'definition of a gentleman,' i think you will guess pretty accurately the general law of excellence i would have you, as cambridge men, tribally and particularly obey. newman says of a gentleman that among other things: he is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out.... if he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better perhaps, but less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they found it. he may be right or wrong in his opinion: but he is too clear-sighted to be unjust. he is simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. enough for the moment on this subject: but commit these words to your hearts, and you will not only triumph in newspaper controversy. you will do better: you will avoid it. to proceed.--we found further that our writing should be _accurate_: because language expresses thought--is, indeed, the only expression of thought--and if we lack the skill to speak precisely, our thought will remain confused, ill-defined. the editor of a mining paper in denver, u.s.a., boldly the other day laid down this law, that niceties of language were mere 'frills': all a man needed was to 'get there,' that is, to say what he wished in his own way. but just here, we found, lies the mischief. you will not get there by hammering away on your own untutored impulse. you must first be your own reader, chiselling out the thought definitely for yourself: and, after that, must carve out the intaglio yet more sharply and neatly, if you would impress its image accurately upon the wax of other men's minds. we found that even for men of science this neat clean carving of words was a very necessary accomplishment. as sir james barrie once observed, 'the man of science appears to be the only man who has something to say, just now--and the only man who does not know how to say it.' but the trouble by no means ends with science. our poets--those gifted strangely prehensile men who, as i said in my first lecture, seem to be born with filaments by which they apprehend, and along which they conduct, the half-secrets of life to us ordinary mortals--our poets would appear to be scamping artistic labour, neglecting to reduce the vague impressions to the clearly cut image which is, after all, what helps. it may be a triumph that they have taught modern french poetry to be suggestive. i think it would be more profitable could they learn from france--that nation of fine workmen--to be definite. but about 'getting there'--i ask you to remember wolfe, with the seal of his fate on him, stepping into his bateau on the dark st. lawrence river and quoting as they tided him over:-- the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, await alike th' inevitable hour; the paths of glory lead but to the grave. 'i had rather have written those lines,' said wolfe, 'than conquer canada.' that is how our forefathers valued noble writing. the denver editor holds that you may write as you please so long as you get there. well, wolfe got there: and so, in wolfe's opinion, did gray: but perhaps to wolfe and gray, and to the denver editor, 'there' happened to mean two different places. wolfe got to the heights of abraham. further, it was against this loose adaptation of words to thought and to things that we protested in our interpolated lecture on jargon, which is not so much bad writing as the avoidance of writing. the man who employs jargon does not get 'there' at all, even in a raw rough pioneering fashion: he just walks around 'there' in the ambient tracks of others. let me fly as high as i can and quote you two recent achievements by cabinet ministers, as reported in the press:--( ) 'mr mckenna's reasons for releasing from holloway prison miss lenton while on remand charged _in connexion with_ (sweet phrase!) the firing of the tea pavilion in kew gardens are given in a letter which he has _caused to be forwarded_ to a correspondent who inquired _as to_ the circumstances of the release. the letter says "i am desired by the home secretary to say that lilian lenton was reported by the medical officer at holloway prison to be in a state of collapse and in imminent danger of death _consequent upon_ her refusal to take food. three courses were open--( ) to leave her to die; ( ) to attempt to feed her forcibly, which the medical officer advised would probably entail death in her existing condition: ( ) to release her. the home secretary adopted the last course."' 'would probably entail death in her existing condition'! will anyone tell me how mr mckenna or anyone else could kill, or (as he prefers to put it) entail death upon, miss lenton in a non-existing condition? ( ) next take the chancellor of the exchequer. as we know, the chancellor of the exchequer can use incisive speech when he chooses. on may th as reported in next day's "morning post," mr lloyd george, answering a question, delivered himself of this to an attentive senate:-- with regard to mr noel buxton's questions, i cannot answer for an enquiry which is _of a private and confidential character_, for although i am associated with it i am not associated with it as a minister of the crown.... those enquiries are of a very careful systematic and scientific character, and are being conducted by the ablest investigators in this country, some of whom have reputations of international character. i am glad to think that the investigation is of a most impartial character. it must be a comforting thought, that an inquiry of a private and confidential character is also of a very systematic and scientific character, and besides being of a most impartial character, is conducted by men of international character--whatever that may happen to mean. what _is_ an international character, and what would you give for one? we found that this way of talking, while pretending to be something pontifical, is really not prose at all, nor reputable speech at all, but jargon; nor is the offence to be excused by pleading, as i have heard it pleaded, that mr lloyd george was not using his own phraseology but quoting from a paper supplied him by some permanent official of the treasury: since we select our civil servants among men of decent education and their salaries warrant our stipulating that they shall be able, at least, to speak and write their mother tongue. we laid down certain rules to help us in the way of straight prose:-- ( ) _always always prefer the concrete word to the abstract._ ( ) _almost always prefer the direct word to the circumlocution._ ( ) _generally, use transitive verbs, that strike their object; and use them in the active voice, eschewing the stationary passive, with its little auxiliary its's and was's, and its participles getting into the light of your adjectives, which should be few. for, as a rough law, by his use of the straight verb and by his economy of adjectives you can tell a man's style, if it be masculine or neuter, writing or 'composition.'_ the authors of that capital handbook "the king's english," which i have already recommended to you, add two rules:-- ( ) _prefer the short word to the long._ ( ) _prefer the saxon word to the romance._ but these two precepts you would have to modify by so long a string of exceptions that i do not commend them to you. in fact i think them false in theory and likely to be fatal in practice. for, as my last lecture tried to show, you no sooner begin to philosophise things instead of merely telling a tale of them than you must go to the mediterranean languages: because in these man first learnt to discuss his 'why' and 'how,' and these languages yet guard the vocabulary. lastly, we saw how, by experimenting with rhythm, our prose 'broke its birth's invidious bar' and learnt to scale the forbidden heights. now by attending to the few plain rules given above you may train yourselves to write sound, straightforward, work-a-day english. but if you would write melodious english, i fear the gods will require of you what they ought to have given you at birth--something of an ear. yet the most of us have ears, of sorts; and i believe that, though we can only acquire it by assiduous practice, the most of us can wonderfully improve our talent of the ear. if you will possess yourselves of a copy of quintilian or borrow one from any library (bohn's translation will do) and turn to his th book, you will find a hundred ways indicated, illustrated, classified, in which a writer or speaker can vary his style, modulate it, lift or depress it, regulate its balance. all these rules, separately worth studying, if taken together may easily bewilder and dishearten you. let me choose just two, and try to hearten you by showing that, even with these two only, you can go a long way. take the use of right emphasis. what quintilian says of right emphasis--or the most important thing he says--is this:-- there is sometimes an extraordinary force in some particular word, which, if it be placed in no very conspicuous position in the middle part of a sentence, is likely to escape the attention of the hearer and to be obscured by the words surrounding it; but if it be put at the end of the sentence is urged upon the reader's sense and imprinted on his mind. that seems obvious enough, for english use as well as for latin. 'the wages of sin is death'--anyone can see how much more emphatic that is than 'death is the wages of sin.' but let your minds work on this matter of emphasis, and discover how emphasis has always its right point somewhere, though it be not at all necessarily at the end of the sentence. take a sentence in which the strong words actually repeat themselves for emphasis:-- babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city. our first impulse would be to place the emphasis at the end:-- babylon, that great city, is fallen, is fallen. the latin puts it at the beginning:-- cecidit, cecidit, babylonia illa magna. fallen, fallen, is babylon, that great city. the forty-seven preserved the 'falling close' so exquisite in the latin; the emphasis, already secured by repetition, they accentuated by lengthening the pause. i would urge on you that in every sentence there is just a right point of emphasis which you must train your ears to detect. so your writing will acquire not only emphasis, but balance, and you will instinctively avoid such an ill-emphasised sentence as this, which, not naming the author, i will quote for your delectation:-- 'are japanese aprils always as lovely as this?' asked the man in the light tweed suit of two others in immaculate flannels with crimson sashes round their waists and puggarees folded in cunning plaits round their broad terai hats. explore, next, what (though critics have strangely neglected it) to my mind stands the first, or almost the first, secret of beautiful writing in english, whether in prose or in verse; i mean that inter-play of vowel-sounds in which no language can match us. we have so many vowel sounds indeed, and so few vowels to express them, that the foreigner, mistaking our modesty, complains against god's plenty. we alone, for example, sound by a natural vowel that noble _i_, which other nations can only compass by diphthongs. let us consider that vowel for a moment or two and mark how it leads off the dance of the graces, its sisters:-- arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the lord is risen upon thee. mark how expressively it drops to the solemn vowel 'o,' and anon how expressively it reasserts itself to express rearisen delight:-- arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the lord is risen upon thee. for behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. and the gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. take another passage in which the first lift of this _i_ vowel yields to its graver sisters as though the sound sank into the very heart of the sense. i will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 'father, i have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.' 'and am no more worthy to be called thy son.' mark the deep o's. 'for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' 'o my son, my son absalom'--observe the i and o how they interchime, until the o of sorrow tolls the lighter note down:-- o my son absalom, my son, my son absalom! would god i had died for thee, o absolom, my son, my son! or take this lyric, by admission one of the loveliest written in this present age, and mark here too how the vowels play and ring and chime and toll. i will arise and go now, and go to innisfree, and a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; nine bean rows will i have there, a hive for the honey bee, and live alone in the bee-loud glade.[ ] and i shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; there midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, and evening full of the linnet's wings. i will arise and go now, for always night and day i hear lake-water lapping, with low sounds by the shore; while i stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, i hear it in the deep heart's core. i think if you will but open your ears to this beautiful vowel-play which runs through all the best of our prose and poetry, whether you ever learn to master it or not, you will have acquired a new delight, and one various enough to last you though you live to a very old age. all this of which i am speaking is art: and literature being an art, do you not see how personal a thing it is--how it cannot escape being personal? no two men (unless they talk jargon) say the same thing in the same way. as is a man's imagination, as is his character, as is the harmony in himself, as is his ear, as is his skill, so and not otherwise he will speak, so and not otherwise than they can respond to that imagination, that character, that order of his intellect, that harmony of his soul, his hearers will hear him. let me conclude with this great passage from newman which i beg you, having heard it, to ponder:-- if then the power of speech is as great as any that can be named, --if the origin of language is by many philosophers considered nothing short of divine--if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated,--if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixed, a people speaks, the past and the future, the east and the west are brought into communication with each other,--if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and the prophets of the human family--it will not answer to make light of literature or to neglect its study: rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others--be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life--who are united to us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence. [footnote : i append the following specimen translations of the famous passage in st paul's "first epistle to the corinthians" xv. sqq. i choose this because ( ) it is an important passage; ( ) it touches a high moment of philosophising; ( ) the comparison seems to me to represent with great fairness to tyndale the extent of the forty-seven's debt to him; ( ) it shows that they meant exactly what they said in their preface; and ( ) it illustrates, towards the close, their genius for improvement. from the greek, wyclif translates:-- lo, i seie to you pryvyte of holi thingis | and alle we schulen rise agen | but not alle we schuln be chaungid | in a moment in the twynkelynge of an yë, in the last trumpe | for the trumpe schal sowne: and deed men schulen rise agen with out corrupcion, and we schuln be changid | for it bihoveth this corruptible thing to clothe uncorropcion and this deedly thing to putte aweye undeedlynesse. but whanne this deedli thing schal clothe undeedlynesse | thanne schal the word be don that is written | deeth is sopun up in victorie | deeth, where is thi victorie? deeth, where is thi pricke? tyndale:-- beholde i shewe you a mystery. we shall not all slepe: but we shall all be chaunged | and that in a moment | and in the twinclinge of an eye | at the sounde of the last trompe. for the trompe shall blowe, and the deed shall ryse incorruptible and we shalbe chaunged. for this corruptible must put on incorruptibilite: and this mortall must put on immortalite. when this corruptible hath put on incorruptibilite | and this mortall hath put on immortalite: than shalbe brought to pass the saying that is written, 'deeth is consumed in to victory.' deeth, where is thy stynge? hell, where is thy victory? the authorised version:-- behold, i shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleepe, but wee shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinckling of an eye, at the last trumpe, (for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed). for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortall must put on immortalitie. so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortall shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written, 'death is swallowed up in victory.' o death, where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy victory?] [footnote : i e o : i o e i o : e ou a 'as musing slow, i hail ('as m_u_sing sl_o_w _i_ ha_i_l) thy genial loved return.' (th_y_ g_e_nial l_o_ved ret_u_rn.') collins, "ode to evening."] lecture viii. on the lineage of english literature (i) wednesday, october you may think it strange, gentlemen, that of a course of ten lectures which aim to treat english literature as an affair of practice, i should propose to spend two in discussing our literary lineage: a man's lineage and geniture being reckoned, as a rule, among the things he cannot be reasonably asked to amend. but since of high breeding is begotten (as most of us believe) a disposition to high thoughts, high deeds; since to have it and be modestly conscious of it is to carry within us a faithful monitor persuading us to whatsoever in conduct is gentle, honourable, of good repute, and so silently dissuading us from base thoughts, low ends, ignoble gains; seeing, moreover, that a man will often do more to match his father's virtue than he would to improve himself; i shall endeavour, in this and my next lecture, to scour that spur of ancestry and present it to you as so bright and sharp an incentive that you, who read english literature and practise writing here in cambridge, shall not pass out from her insensible of the dignity of your studies, or without pride or remorse according as you have interpreted in practice the motto, _noblesse oblige_. 'tis wisdom, and that high, for men to use their fortune reverently even in youth. let me add that, just as a knowledge of his family failings will help one man in economising his estate, or warn another to shun for his health the pleasures of the table, so some knowledge of our lineage in letters may put us, as englishmen, on the watch for certain national defects (for such we have), on our guard against certain sins which too easily beset us. nay, this watchfulness may well reach down from matters of great moment to seeming trifles. it is good for us to recognise with wordsworth that we must be free or die, who speak the tongue that shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold which milton held. in everything we are sprung of earth's first blood, have titles manifold. but, though less important, it is good also to recognise that, as sons of cambridge, we equally offend against her breeding when in our scientific writings we allow ourselves to talk of a microbe as an 'antibody.' now, because a great deal of what i have to say this morning, if not heretical, will yet run contrary to the vogue and practice of the schools for these thirty years, i will take the leap into my subject over a greater man's back and ask you to listen with particular attention to the following long passage from a writer whose opinion you may challenge, but whose authority to speak as a master of english prose no one in this room will deny. when (says cardinal newman) we survey the stream of human affairs for the last three thousand years, we find it to run thus:--at first sight there is so much fluctuation, agitation, ebbing and flowing, that we may despair to discern any law in its movements, taking the earth as its bed and mankind as its contents; but on looking more closely and attentively we shall discern, in spite of the heterogeneous materials and the various histories and fortunes which are found in the race of man during the long period i have mentioned, a certain formation amid the chaos--one and one only,--and extending, though not over the whole earth, yet through a very considerable portion of it. man is a social being and can hardly exist without society, and in matter of fact societies have ever existed all over the habitable earth. the greater part of these associations have been political or religious, and have been comparatively limited in extent and temporary. they have been formed and dissolved by the force of accidents, or by inevitable circumstances; and when we have enumerated them one by one we have made of them all that can be made. but there is one remarkable association which attracts the attention of the philosopher, not political nor religious--or at least only partially and not essentially such--which began in the earliest times and grew with each succeeding age till it reached its complete development, and then continued on, vigorous and unwearied, and still remains as definite and as firm as ever it was. its bond is a _common civilisation_: and though there are other civilisations in the world, as there are other societies, yet _this_ civilisation, together with the society which is its creation and its home, is so distinctive and luminous in its character, so imperial in its extent, so imposing in its duration, and so utterly without rival on the face of the earth, that the association may fitly assume to itself the title of 'human society,' and _its_ civilisation the abstract term 'civilisation.' there are indeed great outlying portions of mankind which are not, perhaps never have been, included in this human society; still they are outlying portions and nothing else, fragmentary, unsociable, solitary and unmeaning, protesting and revolting against the grand central formation of which i am speaking, but not uniting with each other into a second whole. i am not denying, of course, the civilisation of the chinese, for instance, though it be not our civilisation; but it is a huge, stationary, unattractive, morose civilisation. nor do i deny a civilisation to the hindoos, nor to the ancient mexicans, nor to the saracens, nor (in a certain sense) to the turks; but each of these races has its own civilisation, as separate from one another as from ours. i do not see how they can be all brought under one idea.... gentlemen, let me here observe that i am not entering upon the question of races, or upon their history. i have nothing to do with ethnology; i take things as i find them on the surface of history and am but classifying phenomena. looking, then, at the countries which surround the mediterranean sea as a whole, i see them to be from time immemorial, the seat of an association of intellect and mind such as to deserve to be called the intellect and the mind of the human kind. starting as it does, and advancing from certain centres, till their respective influences intersect and conflict, and then at length intermingle and combine, a common thought has been generated, and a common civilisation defined and established. egypt is one such starting point, syria, another, greece a third, italy a fourth and north africa a fifth--afterwards france and spain. as time goes on, and as colonisation and conquest work their changes, we see a great association of nations formed, of which the roman empire is the maturity and the most intelligible expression: an association, however, not political but mental, based on the same intellectual ideas and advancing by common intellectual methods.... in its earliest age it included far more of the eastern world than it has since; in these later times it has taken into its compass a new hemisphere; in the middle ages it lost africa, egypt and syria, and extended itself to germany, scandinavia and the british isles. at one time its territory was flooded by strange and barbarous races, but the existing civilisation was vigorous enough to vivify what threatened to stifle it, and to assimilate to the old social forms what came to expel them: and thus the civilisation of modern times remains what it was of old; not chinese, or hindoo, or mexican, or saracen ... but the lineal descendant, or rather the continuation--_mutatis mutandis_--of the civilisation which began in palestine and greece. to omit, then, all minor debts such as what of arithmetic, what of astronomy, what of geography, we owe to the saracen, from palestine we derive the faith of europe shared (in the language of the bidding prayer) by all christian people dispersed throughout the world; as to greece we owe the rudiments of our western art, philosophy, letters; and not only the rudiments but the continuing inspiration, so that--though entirely superseded in worship, as even in the athens of pericles they were worshipped only by an easy, urbane, more than half humorous tolerance--apollo and the muses, zeus and the great ones of olympus, hermes and hephaestus, athene in her armour, with her vanquisher the foam-born irresistible aphrodite, these remain the authentic gods of our literature, beside whom the gods of northern europe--odin, thor, freya--are strangers, unhomely, uncanny as the shadows of unfamiliar furniture on the walls of an inn. sprung though great numbers of us are from the loins of northmen, it is in these gracious deities of the south that we find the familiar and the real, as from the heroes of the sister-island, cucullain and concobar, we turn to hercules, to perseus, to bellerophon, even to actual men of history, saying 'give us leonidas, give us horatius, give us regulus. these are the mighty ones we understand, and from whom, in a direct line of tradition, we understand harry of agincourt, philip sidney and our nelson.' now since, of the mediterranean peoples, the hebrews discovered the unseen god whom the body of western civilisation has learnt to worship; since the greeks invented art, philosophy, letters; since rome found and developed the idea of imperial government, of imperial colonies as superseding merely fissiparous ones, of settling where she conquered (_ubi romanus vicit ibi habitat_) and so extending with government that system of law which europe still obeys; we cannot be surprised that israel, greece, rome--each in turn--set store on a pure ancestry. though christ be the veritable son of god, his ancestry must be traced back through his supposed father joseph to the stem of jesse, and so to abraham, father of the race. again, as jealously as the evangelist claimed jesus for a hebrew of the hebrews, so, if you will turn to the "menexenus" of plato in the oration of aspasia over the dead who perished in battle, you hear her claim that 'no pelopes nor cadmians, nor egyptians, nor dauni, nor the rest of the crowd of born foreigners dwell with us; but ours is the land of pure hellenes, free from admixture.' these proud athenians, as you know, wore brooches in the shape of golden grasshoppers, to signify that they were [greek: autochthones], children of attica, sprung direct from her soil. and so, again, the true roman, while enlarging rome's citizenship over asia, africa, gaul, to our remote britain, insisted, even in days of the later empire, on his pure descent from Æneas and romulus-- unde remnes et quirites proque prole posterum romuli matrem crearet et nepotem cæsarem. with the ramnes, quirites, together ancestrally proud as they drew from romulus down to our cæsar-last, best of that blood, of that threw. here is a boast that we english must be content to forgo. we may wear a rose on st george's day, if we are clever enough to grow one. the welsh, i dare say, have less difficulty with the leek. but april the rd is not a time of roses that we can pluck them as we pass, nor can we claim st george as a compatriot--_cappadocius nostras_. we have, to be sure, a few legendary heroes, of whom king arthur and robin hood are (i suppose) the greatest; but, save in some celtic corners of the land, we have few fairies, and these no great matter; while, as for tutelary gods, our springs, our wells, our groves, cliffs, mountain-sides, either never possessed them or possess them no longer. not of our landscape did it happen that the lonely mountains o'er, and the resounding shore, a voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; from haunted spring and dale edg'd with poplar pale, the parting genius is with sighing sent. --for the sufficient reason that no tutelary gods of importance were ever here to be dispersed. let me press this home upon you by an illustration which i choose with the double purpose of enforcing my argument and sending you to make acquaintance (if you have not already made it) with one of the loveliest poems written in our time. in one of pliny's letters you will find a very pleasant description of the source of the clitumnus, a small umbrian river which, springing from a rock in a grove of cypresses, descends into the tinia, a tributary of the tiber. 'have you ever,' writes pliny to his friend romanus-- have you ever seen the source of the clitumnus? i suppose not, as i never heard you mention it. let me advise you to go there at once. i have just visited it and am sorry that i put off my visit so long. at the foot of a little hill, covered with old and shady cypress trees, a spring gushes and bursts into a number of streamlets of various size. breaking, so to speak, forth from its imprisonment, it expands into a broad basin, so clear and transparent that you may count the pebbles and little pieces of money which are thrown into it. from this point the force and weight of the water, rather than the slope of the ground, hurry it onward. what was a mere spring becomes a noble river, broad enough to allow vessels to pass each other as they sail with or against the stream. the current is so strong, though the ground is level, that barges of beam, as they go down, require no assistance of oars; while to go up is as much as can be done with oars and long poles.... the banks are clothed with abundant ash and poplar, so distinctly reflected in the transparent waters that they seem to be growing at the bottom of the river and can be counted with ease. the water is as cold as snow and as pure in colour. hard by the spring stands an ancient and venerable temple with a statue of the river-god clitumnus, clothed in the customary robe of state. the oracles here delivered attest the presence of the deity. close in the precinct stand several little chapels dedicated to particular gods, each of whom owns his distinctive name and special worship, and is the tutelary deity of a runlet. for beside the principal spring, which is, as it were, the parent of all the rest, there are several smaller ones which have their distinct sources but unite their waters with the clitumnus, over which a bridge is thrown, separating the sacred part of the river from that which is open to general use. above the bridge you may only go in a boat; below it, you may swim. the people of the town of hispallum, to whom augustus gave this place, furnish baths and lodgings at the public expense. there are several small dwelling-houses on the banks, in specially picturesque situations, and they stand quite close to the waterside. in short, everything in the neighbourhood will give you pleasure. you may also amuse yourself with numberless inscriptions on the pillars and walls, celebrating the praises of the stream and of its tutelary god. many of these you will admire, and some will make you laugh. but no! you are too well cultivated to laugh at such things. farewell. clitumnus still gushes from its rocks among the cypresses, as in pliny's day. the god has gone from his temple, on the frieze of which you may read this later inscription--'_deus angelorum, qui fecit resurrectionem._' after many centuries and almost in our day, by the brain of cavour and the sword of garibaldi, he has made a resurrection for italy. as part of that resurrection (for no nation can live and be great without its poet) was born a true poet, carducci. he visited the bountiful, everlasting source, and of what did he sing? possess yourselves, as for a shilling you may, of his ode "alle fonte del clitumno," and read: for few nobler poems have adorned our time. he sang of the weeping willow, the ilex, ivy, cypress and the presence of the god still immanent among them. he sang of umbria, of the ensigns of rome, of hannibal swooping down over the alps; he sang of the nuptials of janus and comesena, progenitors of the italian people; of nymphs, naiads, and the moonlight dances of oreads; of flocks descending to the river at dusk, of the homestead, the bare-footed mother, the clinging child, the father, clad in goat-skins, guiding the ox-wagon; and he ends on the very note of virgil's famous apostrophe _sed neque medorum silvae, ditissima terra..._ with an invocation of italy--italy, mother of bullocks for agriculture, of wild colts for battle, mother of corn and of the vine, roman mother of enduring laws and mediaeval mother of illustrious arts. the mountains, woods and waters of green umbria applaud the song, and across their applause is heard the whistle of the railway train bearing promise of new industries and a new national life. e tu, pia madre di giovenchi invitti a franger glebe e rintegrar maggesi e d' annitrenti in guerra aspri polledri, italia madre, madre di biade e viti e leggi eterne ed incliti arti a raddolcir la vita salve! a te i canti de l' antica lode io rinovello. plaudono i monti al carme e i boschi e l' acque de l' umbria verde: in faccia a noi fumando ed anelando nuove industrie in corsa fischia il vapore. and thou, o pious mother of unvanquished bullocks to break glebe, to restore the fallow, and of fierce colts for neighing in the battle: italy, mother, mother of corn and vines and of eternal laws and illustrious arts the life to sweeten, hail, hail, all hail! the song of ancient praises renew i to thee! the mountains, woods and waters of green umbria applaud the song: and here before us fuming and longing for new industries, a-racing whistles the white steam. (i quote from a translation by mr e.j. watson, recently published by messrs j.w. arrowsmith, of bristol.) i put it to you, gentlemen, that, worthy as are the glories of england to be sung, this note of carducci's we cannot decently or honestly strike. great lives have been bled away into tweed and avon: great spirits have been oared down the thames to traitor's gate and the tower. deeds done on the cam have found their way into history. but i once traced the avon to its source under naseby battlefield, and found it issuing from the fragments of a stucco swan. no god mounts guard over the head-water of the thames; and the only englishman who boldly claims a divine descent is (i understand) an impostor who runs an agapemone. in short we are a mixed race, and our literature is derivative. let us confine our pride to those virtues, not few, which are honestly ours. a roman noble, even to-day, has some excuse for reckoning a god in his ancestry, or at least a wolf among its wet-nurses: but of us english even those who came over with william the norman have the son of a tanner's daughter for escort. i very well remember that, the other day, writers who vindicated our hereditary house of lords against a certain parliament act commonly did so on the ground that since the reform bill of , by inclusion of all that was eminent in politics, war and commerce, the peerage had been so changed as to know itself no longer for the same thing. that is our practical way. at all events, the men who made our literature had never a doubt, as they were careless to dissimulate, that they were conquering our tongue to bring it into the great european comity, the civilisation of greece and rome. an elizabethan writer, for example, would begin almost as with a formula by begging to be forgiven that he has sought to render the divine accent of plato, the sugared music of ovid, into our uncouth and barbarous tongue. there may have been some mock-modesty in this, but it rested on a base of belief. much of the glory of english literature was achieved by men who, with the splendour of the renaissance in their eyes, supposed themselves to be working all the while upon pale and borrowed shadows. let us pass the enthusiasms of days when 'bliss was it in that dawn to be alive' and come down to alexander pope and the age of reason. pope at one time proposed to write a history of english poetry, and the draft scheme of that history has been preserved. how does it begin? why thus:-- era i. . school of provence chaucer's visions. _romaunt of the rose._ _piers plowman._ tales from boccace. gower. . school of chaucer lydgate. t. occleve. walt. de mapes (a bad error, that!). skelton. . school of petrarch e. of surrey. sir thomas wyatt. sir philip sidney. g. gascoyn. . school of dante lord buckhurst's _induction. gorboduc._ original of good tragedy. seneca his model. --and so on. the scheme after pope's death came into the hands of gray, who for a time was fired with the notion of writing the history in collaboration with his friend mason. knowing gray's congenital self-distrust, you will not be surprised that in the end he declined the task and handed it over to warton. but, says mant in his life of warton, 'their design'--that is, gray's design with mason--'was to introduce specimens of the proveçal poetry, and of the scaldic, british and saxon, as preliminary to what first deserved to be called english poetry, about the time of chaucer, from whence their history properly so called was to commence.' a letter of gray's on the whole subject, addressed to warton, is extant, and you may read it in dr courthope's "history of english poetry." few in this room are old enough to remember the shock of awed surmise which fell upon young minds presented, in the late 'seventies or early 'eighties of the last century, with freeman's "norman conquest" or green's "short history of the english people"; in which as through paring clouds of darkness, we beheld our ancestry, literary as well as political, radiantly legitimised; though not, to be sure, in the england that we knew--but far away in sleswick, happy sleswick! 'its pleasant pastures, its black-timbered homesteads, its prim little townships looking down on inlets of purple water, were then but a wild waste of heather and sand, girt along the coast with sunless woodland, broken here and there with meadows which crept down to the marshes and to the sea.' but what of that? there--surely there, in sleswick--had been discovered for us our august mother's marriage lines; and if the most of that bright assurance came out of an old political skit, the "germania" of tacitus, who recked at the time? for along followed mr stopford brooke with an admirable little primer published at one shilling, to instruct the meanest of us in our common father's actual name--beowulf. _beowulf_ is an old english epic.... there is not one word about our england in the poem.... the whole poem, pagan as it is, is english to its very root. it is sacred to us; our genesis, the book of our origins. now i am not only incompetent to discuss with you the more recondite beauties of "beowulf" but providentially forbidden the attempt by the conditions laid down for this chair. i gather--and my own perusal of the poem and of much writing about it confirms the belief--that it has been largely over-praised by some critics, who have thus naturally provoked others to underrate it. such things happen. i note, but without subscribing to it, the opinion of vigfússon and york powell, the learned editors of the "corpus poeticum boreale," that in the "beowulf" we have 'an epic completely metamorphosed in form, blown out with long-winded empty repetitions and comments by a book poet, so that one must be careful not to take it as a type of the old poetry,' and i seem to hear as from the grave the very voice of my old friend the younger editor in that unfaltering pronouncement. but on the whole i rather incline to accept the cautious surmise of professor w. p. ker that 'a reasonable view of the merit of beowulf is not impossible, though rash enthusiasm may have made too much of it; while a correct and sober taste may have too contemptuously refused to attend to grendel and the firedrake,' and to leave it at that. i speak very cautiously because the manner of the late professor freeman, in especial, had a knack of provoking in gentle breasts a resentment which the mind in its frailty too easily converted to a prejudice against his matter: while to men trained to admire thucydides and tacitus and acquainted with lucian's 'way to write history' ([greek: pos dei istorian suggraphein]) his loud insistence that the art was not an art but a science, and moreover recently invented by bishop stubbs, was a perpetual irritant. but to return to "beowulf"--you have just heard the opinions of scholars whose names you must respect. i, who construe anglo-saxon with difficulty, must admit the poem to contain many fine, even noble, passages. take for example hrothgar's lament for Æschere:-- hróthgar mathelode, helm scyldinga: 'ne frin thú æfter sælum; sorh is geniwod denigea leódum; deád is Æschere, yrmenláfes yldra bróthor, mín rún-wita, ond min ræd-bora; eaxl-gestealla, thonne we on orlege hafelan wéredon, thonne hniton fethan, eoferas cnysedan: swylc scolde eorl wesan Ætheling ær-gód, swylc Æschere wæs.' (hrothgar spake, helm of the scyldings: 'ask not after good tidings. sorrow is renewed among the dane-folk. dead is Æschere, yrmenlaf's elder brother, who read me rune and bore me rede; comrade at shoulder when we fended our heads in war and the boar-helms rang. even so should we each be an atheling passing good, as Æschere was.') this is simple, manly, dignified. it avoids the besetting sin of the anglo-saxon gleeman--the pretentious trick of calling things 'out of their right names' for the sake of literary effect (as if e.g. the sea could be improved by being phrased into 'the seals' domain'). its anglo-saxon _staccato_, so tiresome in sustained narrative, here happens to suit the broken utterance of mourning. in short, it exhibits the anglo-saxon muse at her best, not at her customary. but set beside it a passage in which homer tells of a fallen warrior--at haphazard, as it were, a single corpse chosen from the press of battle-- [greek: polla de chermadia megal aspidas estuphelixam marnamenon amph auton o d en strophaliggi konies keito megas megalosti, lelasmenos ipposunaom.] can you--can anyone--compare the two passages and miss to see that they belong to two different kingdoms of poetry? i lay no stress here on 'architectonics.' i waive that the "iliad" is a well-knit epic and the story of "beowulf" a shapeless monstrosity. i ask you but to note the difference of note, of accent, of mere music. and i have quoted you but a passage of the habitual homer. to assure yourselves that he can rise even from this habitual height to express the extreme of majesty and of human anguish in poetry which betrays no false note, no strain upon the store of emotion man may own with self-respect and exhibit without derogation of dignity, turn to the last book of the "iliad" and read of priam raising to his lips the hand that has murdered his son. i say confidently that no one unable to distinguish this, as poetry, from the very best of "beowulf" is fit to engage upon business as a literary critic. in "beowulf" then, as an imported poem, let us allow much barbarian merit. it came of dubious ancestry, and it had no progeny. the pretence that our glorious literature derives its lineage from "beowulf" is in vulgar phrase 'a put up job'; a falsehood grafted upon our text-books by teutonic and teutonising professors who can bring less evidence for it than will cover a threepenny-piece. its run for something like that money, in small educational manuals, has been in its way a triumph of pedagogic _réclame_. our rude forefathers--the author of "the rape of the lock" and of the "elegy written in a country churchyard"--knew nothing of the exeter and vercelli books, nothing of the ruthwell cross. but they were poets, practitioners of our literature in the true line of descent, and they knew certain things which all such artists know by instinct. so, before our historians of thirty-odd years ago started to make chaucer and beowulf one, these rude forefathers made them two. 'nor am i confident they erred.' rather i am confident, and hope in succeeding lectures to convince you, that, venerable as anglo-saxon is, and worthy to be studied as the mother of our vernacular speech (as for a dozen other reasons which my friend professor chadwick will give you), its value is historical rather than literary, since from it our literature is not descended. let me repeat it in words that admit of no misunderstanding--_from anglo-saxon prose, from anglo-saxon poetry our living prose and poetry have, save linguistically, no derivation_. i shall attempt to demonstrate that, whether or not anglo-saxon literature, such as it was, died of inherent weakness, die it did, and of its collapse the "vision of piers plowman" may be regarded as the last dying spasm. i shall attempt to convince you that chaucer did not inherit any secret from caedmon or cynewulf, but deserves his old title, 'father of english poetry,' because through dante, through boccaccio, through the lays and songs of provence, he explored back to the mediterranean, and opened for englishmen a commerce in the true intellectual mart of europe. i shall attempt to heap proof on you that whatever the agency--whether through wyat or spenser, marlowe or shakespeare, or donne, or milton, or dryden, or pope, or johnson, or even wordsworth--always our literature has obeyed, however unconsciously, the precept _antiquam exquirite matrem_, 'seek back to the ancient mother'; always it has recreated itself, has kept itself pure and strong, by harking back to bathe in those native--yes, _native_--mediterranean springs. do not presume me to be right in this. rather, if you will, presume me to be wrong until the evidence is laid out for your judgment. but at least understand to-day how profoundly a man, holding that view, must deplore the whole course of academical literary study during these thirty years or so, and how distrust what he holds to be its basal fallacies. for, literature being written in language, yet being something quite distinct, and the development of our language having been fairly continuous, while the literature of our nation exhibits a false start--a break, silence, repentance, then a renewal on right glorious lines--our students of literature have been drilled to follow the specious continuance while ignoring the actual break, and so to commit the one most fatal error in any study; that of mistaking the inessential for the essential. as i tried to persuade you in my inaugural lecture, our first duty to literature is to study it absolutely, to understand, in aristotelian phrase, its [greek: to ti en einae]; what it _is_ and what it _means_. if that be our quest, and the height of it be realised, it is nothing to us--or almost nothing--to know of a certain alleged poet of the fifteenth century, that he helped us over a local or temporary disturbance in our vowel-endings. it is everything to have acquired and to possess such a norm of poetry within us that we know whether or not what he wrote was poetry. do not think this easy. the study of right literary criticism is much more difficult than the false path usually trodden; so difficult, indeed, that you may easily count the men who have attempted to grasp the great rules and apply them to writing as an art to be practised. but the names include some very great ones--aristotle, horace, quintilian, corneille, boileau, dryden, johnson, lessing, coleridge, goethe, sainte-beuve, arnold: and the study, though it may not find its pattern in our time, is not unworthy to be proposed for another attempt before a great university. lecture ix. on the lineage of english literature (ii) wednesday, november some of you whose avocations call them, from time to time, to newmarket may have noted, at a little distance out from cambridge, a by-road advertised as leading to quy and swaffham. it also leads to the site of an old roman villa; but you need not interrupt your business to visit this, since the best thing discovered there--a piece of tessellated pavement--has been removed and deposited in the geological museum here in downing street, where you may study it very conveniently. it is not at all a first-class specimen of its kind: not to be compared, for example, with the wonderful pavement at dorchester, or with that (measuring feet by ) of the great villa unearthed, a hundred years ago, at stonesfield in oxfordshire: but i take it as the handiest, and am going to build a small conjecture upon it, or rather a small suggestion of a guess. remember there is no harm in guessing so long as we do not pretend our guess-work to be something else. i will ask you to consider first that in these pavements, laid bare for us as 'the whistling rustic tends his plough,' we have work dating somewhere between the first and fifth centuries, work of unchallengeable beauty, work of a beauty certainly not rivalled until we come to the norman builders of five or six hundred years later. i want you to let your minds dwell on these long stretches of time--four hundred years or so of roman occupation (counting, not from cæsar's raids, but from the serious invasion of a.d. under aulus plautius, say to some while after the famous letter of honorius, calling home the legions). you may safely put it at four hundred years, and then count six hundred as the space before the normans arrive--a thousand years altogether, or but a fraction--one short generation--less than the interval of time that separates us from king alfred. in the great cathedral of winchester (where sleep, by the way, two gentle writers specially beloved, isaak walton and jane austen) above the choir-screen to the south, you may see a line of painted chests, of which the inscription on one tells you that it holds what was mortal of king canute. here are sands, ignoble things, dropp'd from the ruin'd sides of kings. but if you walk around to the north of the altar you will find yourself treading on tiles not so very far short of twice that antiquity. gentlemen, do not think that i would ever speak lightly of our lineage: only let us make as certain as we may what that lineage is. i want you to-day to understand just what such a pavement as that preserved for your inspection in downing street meant to the man who saw it laid and owned it these fifteen hundred years--more or less--ago. _ubi romanus vicit, ibi habitat_--'where the roman has conquered, there he settles': but whether he conquered or settled he carried these small tiles, these _tessellæ_, as religiously as ever rachel stole her teraphin. 'wherever his feet went there went the tessellated pavement for them to stand on. even generals on foreign service carried in panniers on muleback the little coloured cubes or _tessellæ_ for laying down a pavement in each camping-place, to be taken up again when they moved forward. in england the same sweet emblems of the younger gods of poetic legend, of love, youth, plenty, and all their happy naturalism, are found constantly repeated.'[ ] i am quoting these sentences from a local historian, but you see how these relics have a knack of inspiring prose at once scholarly and imaginative, as (for a more famous instance) the urns disinterred at walsingham once inspired sir thomas browne's. to continue and adapt the quotation-- bacchus with his wild rout, orpheus playing to a spell-bound audience, apollo singing to the lyre, venus in mars' embrace, neptune with a host of seamen, scollops, and trumpets, narcissus by the fountain, jove and ganymede, leda and the swan, wood-nymphs and naiads, satyrs and fauns, masks, hautboys, cornucopiæ, flowers and baskets of golden fruit--what touches of home they must have seemed to these old dwellers in the cambridgeshire wilds! yes, touches of home! for the owner of this villa (you may conceive) is the grandson or even great-great-grandson of the colonist who first built it, following in the wake of the legionaries. the family has prospered and our man is now a considerable landowner. he was born in britain: his children have been born here: and here he lives a comfortable, well-to-do, out-of-door life, in its essentials i daresay not so very unlike the life of an english country squire to-day. instead of chasing foxes or hares he hunts the wolf and the wild boar; but the sport is good and he returns with an appetite. he has added a summer parlour to the house, with a northern aspect and no heating-flues: for the old parlour he has enlarged the præfurnium, and through the long winter evenings sits far better warmed than many a master of a modern country-house. a belt of trees on the brow of the rise protects him from the worst winds, and to the south his daughters have planted violet-beds which will breathe odorously in the spring. he has rebuilt and enlarged the slave-quarters and outhouses, replaced the stucco pillars around the atrium with a colonnade of polished stone, and, where stucco remains, has repainted it in fresh colours. he knows that there are no gaps or weak spots in his stockade fence--wood is always cheap. in a word he has improved the estate; is modestly proud of it; and will be content, like the old athenian, to leave his patrimony not worse but something better than he found it. sensible men--and the romans were eminently that--as a rule contrive to live decently, or, at least, tolerably. what struck arthur young more than anything else in his travels through france on the very eve of the revolution seems to have been the general good-tempered happiness of the french gentry on their estates. we may moralise of the roman colonists as of the french proprietors that 'unconscious of their doom the little victims played'; but we have no right to throw back on them the shadow of what was to come or to cloud the picture of a useful, peaceable, maybe more than moderately happy life, with our later knowledge of disaster mercifully hidden from it. although our colonist and his family have all been born in britain, are happy enough here on the whole, and talk without more than half meaning it, and to amuse themselves with speculations half-wistful, of daring the tremendous journey and setting eyes on rome some day, their pride is to belong to her, to rome, the imperial city, the city afar: their windows open back towards her as daniel's did towards jerusalem--_urbs quam dicunt roman--the_ city. along the great road, hard by, her imperial writ runs. they have never subscribed to the vow of ruth, 'thy people shall be my people and thy god my god.' they dwell under the pax romana, not merely protected by it but as _citizens_. theirs are the ancestral deities portrayed on that unfading pavement in the very centre of the villa--apollo and daphne, bacchus and ariadne-- for ever warm and still to be enjoyed, for ever panting, and for ever young. parcels come to them, forwarded from the near military station; come by those trade-routes, mysterious to us, concerning which a most illuminating book waits to be written by somebody. there are parcels of seeds--useful vegetables and potherbs, helichryse (marigold as we call them now) for the flower garden, for the colonnade even roses with real italian earth damp about their roots. there are parcels of books, too--rolls rather, or tablets--wherein the family reads about rome; of its wealth, the uproar of its traffic, the innumerable chimneys smoking, _fumum et opes strepitumque_. for they are always reading of rome; feeling themselves, as they read, to belong to it, to be neither savage nor even rustic, but by birthright _of the city_, urbane; and what these exiles read is of how horace met a bore on the sacred road (which would correspond, more or less, with our piccadilly)-- along the sacred road i strolled one day deep in some bagatelle (you know my way) when up comes one whose face i scarcely knew-- 'the dearest of dear fellows! how d'ye do?' --he grasped my hand. 'well, thanks! the same to you?' --or of how horace apologises for protracting a summer jaunt to his country seat:-- five days i told you at my farm i'd stay, and lo! the whole of august i'm away. well but, maecenas, you would have me live, and, were i sick, my absence you'd forgive. so let me crave indulgence for the fear of falling ill at this bad time of year. when, thanks to early figs and sultry heat, the undertaker figures with his suite; when fathers all and fond mammas grow pale at what may happen to their young heirs male, and courts and levees, town-bred mortals' ills, bring fevers on, and break the seals of wills. (conington's translation.) consider those lines; then consider how long it took the inhabitants of this island--the cultured ones who count as readers or writers--to recapture just that note of urbanity. other things our forefathers --britons, saxons, normans, dutch or french refugees--discovered by the way; worthier things if you will; but not until the eighteenth century do you find just that note recaptured; the note of easy confidence that our london had become what rome had been, the capital city. you begin to meet it in dryden; with addison it is fairly established. pass a few years, and with samuel johnson it is taken for granted. his _london_ is juvenal's rome, and the same satire applies to one as applied to the other. but against the urbane lines written by one horace some while before juvenal let us set a passage from another horace--horace walpole, seventeen hundred years later and some little while ahead of johnson. he, like our roman colonist, is a settler in a new country, twickenham; and like flaccus he loves to escape from town life. twickenham, june th, . to the hon. h. s. conway. you perceive by my date that i am got into a new camp, and have left my tub at windsor. it is a little plaything-house that i got out of mrs chevenix's shop, and the prettiest bauble you ever saw. it is set in enamelled meadows with filagree hedges: a small euphrates through the place is roll'd, and little finches wave their wings of gold. two delightful roads; that you would call dusty, supply me continually with coaches and chaises: barges as solemn as barons of the exchequer move under my window; richmond hill and ham walks bound my prospect; but, thank god! the thames is between me and the duchess of queensberry. dowagers as plenty as flounders inhabit all around, and pope's ghost is just now skimming under my window by the most poetical moonlight.... the chevenixes had tricked it out for themselves; up two pairs of stairs is what they call mr chevenix's library, furnished with three maps, one shelf, a bust of sir isaac newton and a lame telescope without any glasses. lord john sackville _predeceased_ me here and instituted certain games called _cricketalia_, which has been celebrated this very evening in honour of him in a neighbouring meadow. you will think i have removed my philosophy from windsor with my tea-things hither; for i am writing to you in all tranquility while a parliament is bursting about my ears. you know it is going to be dissolved.... they say the prince has taken up two hundred thousand pounds, to carry elections which he won't carry--he had much better have saved it to buy the parliament after it is chosen. there you have horatio walpole, the man-about-town, almost precisely echoing horatius flaccus, the man-about-town; and this (if you will bring your minds to it) is just the sort of passage a roman colonist in britain would open upon, out of his parcel of new books, and read, _and understand_, some eighteen hundred years ago. what became of it all?--of that easy colonial life, of the men and women who trod those tessellated pavements? 'wiped out,' say the historians, knowing nothing, merely guessing: for you may with small trouble assure yourselves that the fifth and sixth centuries in the story of this island are a blind spot, concerning which one man's guess may be as good as another's. 'wiped out,' they will commonly agree; for while, as i warned you in another lecture, the pedantic mind, faced with a difficulty, tends to remove it conveniently into a category to which it does not belong, still more prone is the pedantic mind to remove it out of existence altogether. so 'wiped out' is the theory; and upon it a sympathetic imagination can invent what sorrowful pictures it will of departing legions, the last little cloud of dust down the highway, the lovers by the gate watching it, not comprehending; the peaceful homestead in the background, ripe for doom--and what-not. or, stay! there is another theory to which the late professor freeman inclined (if so sturdy a figure could be said to incline), laying stress on a passage in gildas, that the romans in britain, faced by the saxon invader, got together their money, and bolted away into gaul. 'the romans that were in britain gathered together their gold-hoard, hid part in the ground and carried the rest over to gaul,' writes gildas. 'the hiding in the ground,' says freeman, 'is of course a guess to explain the frequent finding of roman coins'--which indeed it _does_ explain better than the guess that they were carried away, and perhaps better than the schoolboy's suggestion that during their occupation of britain the romans spent most of their time in dropping money about. likely enough, large numbers of the colonists did gather up what they could and flee before the approaching storm; but by no means all, i think. for (since, where all is uncertain, we must reason from what is probable of human nature) in the first place men with large estates do not behave in that way before a danger which creeps upon them little by little, as this saxon danger did. these colonists could not dig up their fields and carry them over to gaul. they did not keep banking accounts; and in the course of four hundred years their main wealth had certainly been sunk in the land. they could not carry away their villas. we know that many of them did not carry away the _tessellæ_ for which (as we have seen) they had so peculiar a veneration; for these remain. secondly, if the colonists left britain in a mass, when in the middle of the sixth century we find belisarius offering the goths to trade britain for sicily, as being 'much larger and this long time subservient to roman rule,'[ ] we must suppose either (as freeman appears to suppose) that belisarius did not know what he was offering, or that he was attempting a gigantic 'bluff,' or lastly that he really was offering an exchange not flatly derisory; of which three possible suppositions i prefer the last as the likeliest. nor am i the less inclined to choose it, because these very english historians go on to clear the ground in a like convenient way of the celtic inhabitants, exterminating them as they exterminated the romans, with a wave of the hand, quite in the fashion of mr podsnap. 'this is un-english: therefore for me it merely ceases to exist.' '_probable extirpation of the celtic inhabitants_' jots down freeman in his margin, and proceeds to write: in short, though the literal extirpation of a nation is an impossibility, there is every reason to believe that the celtic inhabitants of those parts of britain which had become english at the end of the sixth century had been as nearly extinguished as a nation could be. the women doubtless would be largely spared, but as far as the male sex is concerned we may feel sure that death, emigration, or personal slavery were the only alternatives which the vanquished found at the hands of our fathers. upon this passage, if brought to me in an undergraduate essay, i should have much to say. the style, with its abstract nouns ('the literal extirpation of a nation is an impossibility'), its padding and periphrasis ('there is every reason to believe' ... 'as far as the male sex is concerned we may feel sure') betrays the loose thought. it begins with 'in short' and proceeds to be long-winded. it commits what even schoolboys know to be a solecism by inviting us to consider three 'alternatives'; and what can i say of 'the women doubtless would be largely spared,' save that besides scanning in iambics it says what freeman never meant and what no-one outside of an aristophanic comedy could ever suggest? 'the women doubtless would be largely spared'! it reminds me of the young lady in cornwall who, asked by her vicar if she had been confirmed, admitted blushingly that 'she had reason to believe, partially so.' 'the women doubtless would be largely spared'!--but i thank the professor for teaching me that phrase, because it tries to convey just what i am driving at. the jutes, angles, saxons, did not extirpate the britons, whatever you may hold concerning the romans. for, once again, men do not behave in that way, and certainly will not when a live slave is worth money. secondly, the very horror with which men spoke, centuries after, of anderida quite plainly indicates that such a wholesale massacre was exceptional, monstrous. if not exceptional, monstrous, why should this particular slaughter have lingered so ineffaceably in their memories? finally,--and to be as curt as the question deserves--the celtic briton in the island was not exterminated and never came near to being exterminated: but on the contrary, remains equipollent with the saxon in our blood, and perhaps equipollent with that mysterious race we call iberian, which came before either and endures in this island to-day, as anyone travelling it with eyes in his head can see. pict, dane, norman, frisian, huguenot french--these and others come in. if mixture of blood be a shame, we have purchased at the price of that shame the glory of catholicism; and i know of nothing more false in science or more actively poisonous in politics or in the arts than the assumption that we belong as a race to the teutonic family. dane, norman, frisian, french huguenot--they all come in. and will you refuse a hearing when i claim that the roman came in too? bethink you how deeply rome engraved itself on this island and its features. bethink you that, as human nature is, no conquering race ever lived or could live--even in garrison--among a tributary one without begetting children on it. bethink you yet further of freeman's admission that in the wholesale (and quite hypothetical) general massacre 'the women doubtless would be largely spared'; and you advance nearer to my point. i see a people which for four hundred years was permeated by rome. if you insist on its being a teutonic people (which i flatly deny) then you have one which _alone of teutonic peoples_ has inherited the roman gift of consolidating conquest, of colonising in the wake of its armies; of driving the road, bridging the ford, bringing the lawless under its sense of law. i see that this nation of ours concurrently, when it seeks back to what alone can inspire and glorify these activities, seeks back, not to any supposed native north, but south to the middle sea of our civilisation and steadily to italy, which we understand far more easily than france--though france has helped us times and again. putting these things together, i retort upon the ethnologists--for i come from the west of england, where we suffer incredible things from them--_'semper ego auditor tantum?'_ i hazard that the most important thing in our blood is that purple drop of the imperial murex we derive from rome. you must, of course, take this for nothing more than it pretends to be--a conjecture, a suggestion. i will follow it up with two statements of fact, neither doubtful nor disputable. the first is, that when english poetry awoke, long after the conquest (or, as i should prefer to put it, after the crusades) it awoke a new thing; in its vocabulary as much like anglo-saxon poetry as ever you will, but in metre, rhythm, lilt--and more, in style, feeling, imaginative play--and yet more again, in knowledge of what it aimed to be, in the essentials, in the qualities that make poetry poetry--as different from anglo-saxon poetry as cheese is from chalk, and as much more nutritious. listen to this-- bytuene mershe ant averil when spray biginnith to spring, the lutel foul hath hire wyl on hire lud to synge: ich libbe in love-longinge for semlokest of alle thynge, he may me blisse bringe, icham in hire bandoun. an hendy hap ichabbe y-hent, ichot from hevene it is me sent, from alle wymmen my love is lent, and lyht on alisoun. here you have alliteration in plenty; you even have what some hold to be the pattern of anglo-saxon alliterative verse (though in practice disregarded, may be, as often as not), the chosen initial used twice in the first line and once at least in the second: from alle wymmen my _l_ove is _l_ent, and _l_yht on a_l_isoun. but if a man cannot see a difference infinitely deeper than any similarity between this song of alison and the old anglo-saxon verse--_a difference of nature_--i must despair of his literary sense. what has happened? well, in normandy, too, and in another tongue, men are singing much the same thing in the same way: a la fontenelle qui sort seur l'araine, trouvai pastorella qui n'iert pas vilaine... merci, merci, douce marote, n'oçiez pas vostre ami doux, and this norman and the englishman were singing to a new tune, which was yet an old tune re-set to europe by the provence, the roman province; by the troubadours--pons de capdeuil, bernard de ventadour, bertrand de born, pierre vidal, and the rest, with william of poitou, william of poitiers. read and compare; you will perceive that the note then set persists and has never perished. take giraud de borneil-- bel companhos, si dormetz o velhatz non dortmatz plus, qu'el jorn es apropchatz-- and set it beside a lyric of our day, written without a thought of giraud de borneil-- heigh! brother mine, art a-waking or a-sleeping: mind'st thou the merry moon a many summers fled? mind'st thou the green and the dancing and the leaping? mind'st thou the haycocks and the moon above them creeping?... or take bernard de ventadour's-- quand erba vertz, e fuelha par e'l flor brotonon per verjan, e'l rossinhols autet e clar leva sa votz e mov son chan, joy ai de luy, e joy ai de la flor, joy ai de me, e de me dons maior. why, it runs straight off into english verse-- when grass is green and leaves appear with flowers in bud the meads among, and nightingale aloft and clear lifts up his voice and pricks his song, joy, joy have i in song and flower, joy in myself, and in my lady more. and that may be doggerel; yet what is it but it was a lover and his lass, with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino, that o'er the green cornfield did pass in the spring-time, the only pretty ring-time-- or when daffodils begin to peer, with heigh! the doxy over the dale, why then comes in the sweet o' the year; for the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. nay, flatter the anglo-saxon tradition by picking its very best--and i suppose it hard to find better than the much-admired opening of piers plowman, in which that tradition shot up like the flame of a dying candle: bote in a mayes morwnynge--on malverne hulles me bi-fel a ferly--a feyrie me thouhte; i was weori of wandringe--and wente me to reste under a brod banke--bi a bourne syde, and as i lay and leonede--and lokede on the watres, i slumberde in a slepynge--hit sownede so murie. this is good, solid stuff, no doubt: but tame, inert, if not actually lifeless. as m. jusserand says of anglo-saxon poetry in general, it is like the river saône--one doubts which way it flows. how tame in comparison with this, for example!-- in somer, when the shawes be sheyne, and leves be large and long, hit is full mery in feyre foreste to here the foulys song: to se the dere draw to the dale and leve the hilles hee, and shadow hem in the leves grene under the grene-wode tre. hit befel on whitsontide, erly in a may mornyng, the son up feyre can shyne, and the briddis mery can syng. 'this is a mery mornyng,' said litell john, 'be hym that dyed on tre; a more mery man than i am one lyves not in cristianté. 'pluk up thi hert, my dere mayster,' litull john can sey, 'and thynk hit is a full fayre tyme in a mornyng of may.' there is no doubting which way _that_ flows! and this vivacity, this new beat of the heart of poetry, is common to chaucer and the humblest ballad-maker; it pulses through any book of lyrics printed yesterday, and it came straight to us out of provence, the roman province. it was the provençal troubadour who, like the prince in the fairy tale, broke through the hedge of briers and kissed beauty awake again. you will urge that he wakened poetry not in england alone but all over europe, in dante before our chaucer, in the trouvères and minnesingers as well as in our ballad-writers. to that i might easily retort, 'so much the better for europe, and the more of it the merrier, to win their way into the great comity.' but here i put in my second assertion, that we english have had above all nations lying wide of the mediterranean, the instinct to refresh and renew ourselves at mediterranean wells; that again and again our writers--our poets especially--have sought them as the hart panteth after the water-brooks. if you accept this assertion, and if you believe as well that our literature, surpassing rome's, may vie with that of athens--if you believe that a literature which includes chaucer, spenser, shakespeare, pope, wordsworth, shelley--the authorised version of holy writ, with browne, bunyan, swift, addison, johnson, arnold, newman--has entered the circle to take its seat with the first-- why then, heartily believing this with you, i leave you to find some better explanation than mine if you can. but what i content myself with asserting here you can scarcely deny. chaucer's initial and enormous debt to dante and boccaccio stands in as little dispute as dunbar's to chaucer. on that favourite poet of mine, sir thomas wyat, i descanted in a former lecture. he is one of your glories here, having entered st. john's college at the age of twelve (which must have been precocious even for those days.) anthony wood asserts that after finishing his course here, he proceeded to cardinal wolsey's new college at oxford; but, as christchurch was not founded until , and wyat, still precocious, had married a wife two years before that, the statement (to quote dr courthope) 'seems no better founded than many others advanced by that patriotic but not very scrupulous author.' it is more to the point that he went travelling, and brought home from france, italy, afterwards spain--always from latin altars--the flame of lyrical poetry to england; the flame of the petrarchists, caught from the troubadours, clarified (so to speak) by the salt of humane letters. on what our elizabethan literature owes to the classical revival hundreds of volumes have been written and hundreds more will be written; i will but remind you of what spencer talked about with gabriel harvey, what daniel disputed with campion; that marlowe tried to re-incarnate machiavelli, that jonson was a sworn latinist and the 'tribe of ben' a classical tribe; while, as for shakespeare, go and reckon the proportion of italian and roman names in his _dramatis personæ_. of donne's debt to france, italy, rome, greece, you may read much in professor grierson's great edition, and i daresay professor grierson would be the first to allow that all has not yet been computed. you know how milton prepared himself to be a poet. have you realised that, in those somewhat strangely constructed sonnets of his, milton was deliberately modelling upon the "horatian ode," as his confrère, andrew marvell, was avowedly attempting the like in his famous horation ode on cromwell's return from ireland; so that if cromwell had returned (like mr quilp), walked in and caught his pair of latin secretaries scribbling verse, one at either end of the office table, both might colourably have pleaded that they were, after all, writing latin. waller's task in poetry was to labour true classical polish where cowley laboured sham-classical form. put together dryden's various prefaces and you will find them one solid monument to his classical faith. of pope, gray, collins, you will not ask me to speak. what is salt in cowper you can taste only when you have detected that by a stroke of madness he missed, or barely missed, being our true english horace, that almost more nearly than the rest he hit what the rest had been seeking. then, of the 'romantic revival'-- enemy of false classicism, not of classicism--bethink you what, in his few great years, wordsworth owed directly to france of the early revolution; what keats drew forth out of lemprière: and again bethink you how tennyson wrought upon theocritus, virgil, catullus; upon what arnold constantly shaped his verse; how browning returned ever upon italy to inspire his best and correct his worse. of anglo-saxon prose i know little indeed, but enough of the world to feel reasonably sure that if it contained any single masterpiece--or anything that could be paraded as a masterpiece--we should have heard enough about it long before now. it was invented by king alfred for excellent political reasons; but, like other ready-made political inventions in this country, it refused to thrive. i think it can be demonstrated, that the true line of intellectual descent in prose lies through bede (who wrote in latin, the 'universal language'), and not through the blickling homilies, or, Ælfric, or the saxon chronicle. and i am sure that freeman is perversely wrong when he laments as a 'great mistake' that the first christian missionaries from rome did not teach their converts to pray and give praise in the vernacular. the vernacular being what it was, these men did better to teach the religion of the civilised world--_orbis terrarum_--in the language of the civilised world. i am not thinking of its efficiency for spreading the faith; but neither is freeman; and, for that, we must allow these old missionaries to have known their own business. i am thinking only of how this 'great mistake' affected our literature; and if you will read professor saintsbury's "history of english prose rhythm" (pioneer work, which yet wonderfully succeeds in illustrating what our prose-writers from time to time were trying to do); if you will study the psalms in the authorised version; if you will consider what milton, clarendon, sir thomas browne, were aiming at; what addison, gibbon, johnson; what landor, thackeray, newman, arnold, pater; i doubt not your rising from the perusal convinced that our nation, in this storehouse of latin to refresh and replenish its most sacred thoughts, has enjoyed a continuous blessing: that the latin of the vulgate and the offices has been a background giving depth and, as the painters say, 'value' to nine-tenths of our serious writing. and now, since this and the previous lecture run something counter to a great deal of that teaching in english literature which nowadays passes most acceptably, let me avoid offence, so far as may be, by defining one or two things i am _not_ trying to do. i am not persuading you to despise your linguistic descent. english is english--our language; and all its history to be venerated by us. i am not persuading you to despise linguistic study. _all_ learning is venerable. i am not persuading you to behave like ascham, and turn english prose into pedantic latin; nor would i have you doubt that in the set quarrel between campion, who wished to divert english verse into strict classical channels, and daniel, who vindicated our free english way (derived from latin through the provençal), daniel was on the whole, right, campion on the whole, wrong: though i believe that both ways yet lie open, and we may learn, if we study them intelligently, a hundred things from the old classical metres. i do not ask you to forget what there is of the northmen in your blood. if i desired this, i could not worship william morris as i do, among the later poets. i do not ask you to doubt that the barbarian invaders from the north, with their myths and legends, brought new and most necessary blood of imagination into the literary material--for the time almost exhausted--of greece and rome. nevertheless, i do contend that when britain (or, if you prefer it, sleswick) when sleswick first at heaven's command arose from out the azure main, she differed from aphrodite, that other foam-born, in sundry important features of ear, of lip, of eye. lastly, if vehement assertions on the one side have driven me into too vehement dissent on the other, i crave pardon; not for the dissent but for the vehemence, as sinning against the very principle i would hold up to your admiration--the old greek principle of avoiding excess. but i _do_ commend the patient study of greek and latin authors--in the original or in translation--to all of you who would write english; and for three reasons. ( ) in the first place they will correct your insularity of mind; or, rather, will teach you to forget it. the anglo-saxon, it has been noted, ever left an empty space around his houses; and that, no doubt, is good for a house. it is not so good for the mind. ( ) secondly, we have a tribal habit, confirmed by protestant meditation upon a hebraic religion, of confining our literary enjoyment to the written word and frowning down the drama, the song, the dance. a fairly attentive study of modern lyrical verse has persuaded me that this exclusiveness may be carried too far, and threatens to be deadening. 'i will sing and give praise,' says the scripture, 'with the best member that i have'--meaning the tongue. but the old greek was an 'all-round man' as we say. he sought to praise and give thanks with all his members, and to tune each to perfection. i think his way worth your considering. ( ) lastly, and chiefly, i commend these classical authors to you because they, in the european civilisation which we all inherit, conserve the norm of literature; the steady grip on the essential; the clean outline at which in verse or in prose--in epic, drama, history, or philosophical treatise--a writer should aim. so sure am i of this, and of its importance to those who think of writing, that were this university to limit me to three texts on which to preach english literature to you, i should choose the bible in our authorised version, shakespeare, and homer (though it were but in a prose translation). two of these lie outside my marked province. only one of them finds a place in your english school. but homer, who comes neither within my map, nor within the ambit of the tripos, would--because he most evidently holds the norm, the essence, the secret of all--rank first of the three for my purpose. [footnote : from "a history of oxfordshire," by mr j. meade falkner, author of murray's excellent handbook of oxfordshire.] lecture x. english literature in our universities (i) wednesday, november all lectures are too long. towards the close of my last, gentlemen, i let fall a sentence which, heard by you in a moment of exhausted or languid interest, has since, like enough, escaped your memory even if it earned passing attention. so let me repeat it, for a fresh start. having quoted to you the words of our holy writ, 'i will sing and give praise with the best member that i have,' i added 'but the old greek was an "all-round" man; he sought to praise and give thanks with all his members, and to tune each to perfection.' now a great many instructive lectures might be written on that text: nevertheless you may think it a strange one, and obscure, for the discourse on 'english literature in our universities' which, according to promise, i must now attempt. the term 'an all-round man' may easily mislead you unless you take it with the rest of the sentence and particularly with the words 'praise and give thanks.' praise whom? give thanks to whom? to _whom_ did our greek train all his members to render adoration? why, to the gods--his gods: to zeus, apollo, aphrodite; and from them down to the lesser guardian deities of the hearth, the field, the farmstead. we modern men suffer a double temptation to misunderstand, by belittling, the reverence in which hellas and rome held their gods. to start with, our religion has superseded theirs. we approach the olympians with no bent towards venerating them; with minds easy, detached, to which a great deal of their theology--the amativeness of zeus for example--must needs seem broadly comic, and a great deal of it not only comic but childish. we are encouraged in this, moreover, when we read such writers as aristophanes and lucian, and observe how they poked fun at the gods. we assume--so modern he seems--aristophanes' attitude towards his immortals to be ours; that when, for example, prometheus walks on to the stage under an umbrella, to hide himself from the gaze of all-seeing zeus, the athenian audience laughed just as we laugh who have read voltaire. believe me, they laughed quite differently; believe me, aristophanes and voltaire had remarkably different minds and worked on utterly different backgrounds. believe me, you will understand aristophanes only less than you will understand Æschylus himself if you confuse aristophanes' mockery of olympus with modern mockery. but, if you will not take my word for it, let me quote what professor gilbert murray said, the other day, speaking before the english association on greek poetry, how constantly connected it is with religion: 'all thoughts, all passions, all desires' ... in our art it is true, no doubt, that they are 'the ministers of love'; in greek they are as a whole the ministers of religion, and this is what in a curious degree makes greek poetry matter, makes it relevant. there is a sense in each song of a relation to the whole of things, and it was apt to be expressed with the whole body, or, one may say, the whole being.[ ] to a greek, in short, his gods mattered enormously; and to a roman. to a roman they continued to matter enormously, down to the end. do you remember that tessellated pavement with its emblems and images of the younger gods? and how i told you that a roman general on foreign service would carry the little cubes in panniers on mule-back, to be laid down for his feet at the next camping place? will you suggest that he did this because they were pretty? you know that practical men--conquering generals--don't behave in that way. he did it because they were sacred; because, like most practical men, he was religious, and his gods must go with him. they filled his literature: for why? he believed himself to be sprung from their loins. where would latin literature be, for example, if you could cut venus out of it? consider lucretius' grand invocation: Æneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas, alma venus! consider the part virgil makes her play as moving spirit of his whole great poem. so follow her down to the days of the later empire and open the "pervigilium veneris" and discover her, under the name of dione, still the eternal aphrodite sprung from the foam amid the churning hooves of the sea-horses--_inter et bipedes equos_:-- time was that a rain-cloud begat her, impregning the heave of the deep, 'twixt hooves of sea-horses a-scatter, stampeding the dolphins as sheep. lo! arose of that bridal dione, rainbow'd and besprent of its dew! _now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved, love anew!_ her favour it was fill'd the sails of the trojan for latium bound, her favour that won her Æneas a bride on laurentian ground, and anon from the cloister inveigled the virgin, the vestal, to mars; as her wit by the wild sabine rape recreated her rome for its wars with the ramnes, quirites, together ancestrally proud as they drew from romulus down to our cæsar--last, best of that blood, of that thew. _now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved, love anew!_ 'last, best of that blood'--her blood, _fusa paphies de cruore_, and the blood of teucer, _revocato a sanguine teucri_, 'of that thew'--the thew of tros and of mars. of these and no less than these our roman believed himself the son and inheritor. if we grasp this, that the old literature was packed with the old religion, and not only packed with it but permeated by it, we have within our ten fingers the secret of the 'dark ages,' the real reason why the christian fathers fought down literature and almost prevailed to the point of stamping it out. they hated it, not as literature; or at any rate, not to begin with; nor, to begin with, because it happened to be voluptuous and they austere: but they hated it because it held in its very texture, not to be separated, a religion over which they had hardly triumphed, a religion actively inimical to that of christ, inimical to truth; so that for the sake of truth and in the name of christ they had to fight it, accepting no compromise, yielding no quarter, foreseeing no issue save that one of the twain--jupiter or christ, deus optimus maximus or the carpenter's son of nazareth--must go under. it all ended in compromise, to be sure; as all struggles must between adversaries so tremendous. to-day, in dr smith's "classical dictionary," origen rubs shoulders with orpheus and orcus; tertullian reposes cheek by jowl with terpsichore. but we are not concerned, here, with what happened in the end. we are concerned with what these forthright christian fighters had in their minds--to trample out the old literature _because_ of the false religion. milton understood this, and was thinking of it when he wrote of the effect of christ's nativity-- the oracles are dumb; no voice or hideous hum runs through the archèd roof in words deceiving. apollo from his shrine can no more divine, with hollow shriek the steep of delphos leaving. no mighty trance, or breathèd spell inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. the lonely mountains o'er, and the resounding shore, a voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; from haunted spring, and dale edg'd with poplar pale, the parting genius is with sighing sent; with flower-inwoven tresses torn the nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. as swinburne understands and expresses it in his "hymn to proserpine," supposed to be chanted by a roman of the 'old profession' on the morrow of constantine's proclaiming the christian faith-- o gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day! from your wrath is the world released, redeem'd from your chains, men say. new gods are crown'd in the city; their flowers have broken your rods; they are merciful, clothed with pity, the young compassionate gods. but for me their new device is barren, the days are bare; things long past over suffice, and men forgotten that were... wilt thou yet take all, galilean? but these thou shalt not take, the laurel, the palms and the paean, the breasts of the nymphs in the brake; thou hast conquer'd, o pale galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath; we have drunken of things lethean, and fed on the fullness of death. 'thou hast conquer'd, o pale galilean!' however the struggle might sway in this or that other part of the field, literature had to be beaten to her knees, and still beaten flat until the breath left her body. you will not be surprised that the heavy hand of these christian fathers fell first upon the theatre: for the actor in rome was by legal definition an 'infamous' man, even as in england until the other day he was by legal definition a vagabond and liable to whipping. the policy of religious reformers has ever been to close the theatres, as our puritans did in ; and a recent pronouncement by the bishop of kensington would seem to show that the instinct survives to this day. queen elizabeth--like her brother, king edward vi--signalized the opening of a new reign by inhibiting stage-plays; and i invite you to share with me the pensive speculation, 'how much of english literature, had she not relented, would exist to-day for a king edward vii professor to talk about?' certainly the works of shakespeare would not; and that seems to me a thought so impressive as to deserve the attention of bishops as well as of kings. apart from this instinct the christian fathers, it would appear, had plenty of provocation. for the actors, who had jested with the old religion on a ground of accepted understanding--much as a good husband (if you will permit the simile) may gently tease his wife, not loving her one whit the less, taught by affection to play without offending--had mocked at the new religion in a very different way: savagely, as enemies, holding up to ridicule the church's most sacred mysteries. tertullian, in an uncompromising treatise "de spectaculis," denounces stage-plays root and branch; tells of a demon who entered into a woman in a theatre and on being exorcised pleaded that the mistake might well be excused, since he had found her in his own demesne. christians should avoid these shows and await the greatest _spectaculum_ of all--the last judgment. 'then,' he promises genially, 'will be the time to listen to the tragedians, whose lamentations will be more poignant, for their proper pain. then will the comedians turn and twist in capers rendered nimbler than ever by the sting of the fire that is not quenched.' by a.d. augustine cries triumphantly that the theatres are falling--the very walls of them tumbling--throughout the empire. _'per omnes paene civitates cadunt theatra ... cadunt et fora vel moenia in quibus demonia colebantur'_; the very walls within which these devilments were practised. but the fury is unabated and goes on stamping down the embers. in the eighth century our own alcuin (as the school of freeman would affectionately call him) is no less fierce. all plays are anathema to him, and he even disapproves of dancing bears--though not, it would appear, of bad puns: _'nec tibi sit ursorum saltantium cura, sed clericorum psallentium.'_[ ] the banning of _all_ literature you will find harder to understand; nay impossible, i believe, unless you accept the explanation i gave you. yet there it is, an historical fact. 'what hath it profited posterity--_quid posteritas emolumenti tulit,_' wrote sulpicius severus, about a.d., 'to read of hector's fighting or socrates' philosophising?' pope gregory the great--st gregory, who sent us the roman missionaries--made no bones about it at all. '_quoniam non cognovi literaturam,_' he quoted approvingly from the th psalm, '_introibo in potentias domini_': 'because i know nothing of literature i shall enter into the strength of the lord.' 'the praises of christ cannot be uttered in the same tongue as those of jove,' writes this same gregory to desiderius, archbishop of vienne, who had been rash enough to introduce some of his young men to the ancient authors, with no worse purpose than to teach them a little grammar. yet no one was prouder than this pope of the historical rome which he had inherited. alcuin, again, forbade the reading of virgil in the monastery over which he presided: it would sully his disciples' imagination. 'how is this, _virgilian!_' he cried out upon one taken in the damnable act,--'that without my knowledge and against my order thou hast taken to studying virgil?' to put a stop to this unhallowed indulgence the clergy solemnly taught that virgil was a wizard. to us, long used as we are to the innocent gaieties of the classical tripos, these measures to discourage the study of virgil may appear drastic, as the mental attitude of gregory and alcuin towards the latin hexameter (so closely resembling that of byron towards the waltz) not far removed from foolishness. but there you have in its quiddity the mediaeval mind: and the point i now put to you is, that _out of this soil our universities grew._ we, who claim oxford and cambridge for our nursing mothers, have of all men least excuse to forget it. a man of leyden, of louvain, of liepzig, of berlin, may be pardoned that he passes it by. more than a hundred years ago salamanca had the most of her stones torn down to make defences against wellington's cannon. paris, greatest of all, has kept her renown; but you shall search the slums of the latin quarter in vain for the sixty or seventy colleges that, before the close of the fifteenth century, had arisen to adorn her, the intellectual queen of europe. in bologna, the ancient and stately, almost alone among the continental universities, survive a few relics of the old collegiate system--the college of spain, harbouring some five or six students, and a little house founded for flemings in : and in bologna the system never attained to real importance. but in england where, great as london is, the national mind has always harked to the country for the graces of life, so that we seem by instinct to see it as only desirable in a green setting, our universities, planted by the same instinct on lawns watered by pastoral streams, have suffered so little and received as much from the years that now we can hardly conceive of oxford or cambridge as ruined save by 'the unimaginable touch of time.' of all the secular colleges bequeathed to oxford, she has lost not one; while cambridge (i believe) has parted only with cavendish. some have been subsumed into newer foundations; but always the process has been one of merging, of blending, of justifying the new bottle by the old wine. the vengeance of civil war--always very much of a family affair in england--has dealt tenderly with oxford and cambridge; the more calculating malignity of royal commissions not harshly on the whole. university reformers may accuse both oxford and cambridge of annihilating all that's made to a green thought in a green shade: but with those sour men we have nothing here to do: like isaak walton's milkmaid we will not 'load our minds with any fears of many things that will never be.' but, as they stand, oxford and cambridge--so amazingly alike while they play at differences, and both so amazingly unlike anything else in the wide world--do by a hundred daily reminders connect us with the middle age, or, if you prefer arnold's phrase, whisper its lost enchantments. the cloister, the grave grace in hall, the chapel bell, the men hurrying into their surplices or to lectures 'with the wind in their gowns,' the staircase, the nest of chambers within the oak--all these softly reverberate over our life here, as from belfries, the mediaeval mind. and that mediaeval mind actively hated (of partial acquaintance or by anticipation) almost everything we now study! between it and us, except these memorials, nothing survives to-day but the dreadful temptation to learn, the dreadful instinct in men, as they grow older and wiser, to trust learning after all and endow it--that, and the confidence of a steady stream of youth. the universities, then, sprang out of mediaeval life, out of the mediaeval mind; and the mediaeval mind had for centuries been taught to abominate literature. i would not exaggerate or darken the 'dark ages' for you by throwing too much bitumen into the picture. i know that at the beginning there had been a school of origen which advocated the study of greek poetry and philosophy, as well as the school of tertullian which condemned it. there is evidence that the 'humanities' were cultivated here and there and after a fashion behind gregory's august back. i grant that, while in alcuin's cloister (and alcuin, remember, became a sort of imperial director of studies in charlemagne's court) the wretched monk who loved virgil had to study him with an illicit candle, to copy him with numbed fingers in a corner of the bitter-cold cloister, on the other hand many beautiful manuscripts preserved to us bear witness of cloisters where literature was tolerated if not officially honoured. i would not have you so uncritical as to blame the church or its clergy for what happened; as i would have you remember that if the church killed literature, she--and, one may say, she alone--kept it alive. yet, and after all these reservations, it remains true that literature had gone down disastrously. even philosophy, unless you count the pale work of boethius--_real_ philosophy had so nearly perished that men possessed no more of aristotle than a fragment of his logic, and '_the_ philosopher' had to creep back into western europe through translations from the arabic! but this is the point i wish to make clear.--philosophy came back in the great intellectual revival of the twelfth century; literature did not. literature's hour had not come. men had to catch up on a dreadful leeway of ignorance. the form did not matter as yet: they wanted science--to know. i should say, rather, that as yet form _seemed_ not to matter: for in fact form always matters: the personal always matters: and you cannot explain the vast crowds abelard drew to paris save by the fascination in the man, the fire communicated by the living voice. moreover (as in a previous lecture i tried to prove) you cannot divorce accurate thought from accurate speech; but for accuracy, even for hair-splitting accuracy, of speech the universities had the definitions of the schoolmen. in literature they had yet to discover a concern. literature was a thing of the past, inanimate. nowhere in europe could it be felt even to breathe. to borrow a beautiful phrase of wordsworth's, men numbered it among 'things silently gone out of mind or things violently destroyed.' nobody quite knows how these universities began. least of all can anybody tell how oxford and cambridge began. in bede, for instance--that is, in england as the eighth century opens--we see scholarship already moving towards the _thing_, treading with sure instinct towards the light. though a hundred historians have quoted it, i doubt if a feeling man who loves scholarship can read the famous letter of cuthbert describing bede's end and not come nigh to tears. and bede's story contains no less wonder than beauty, when you consider how the fame of this holy and humble man of heart, who never left his cloisters at jarrow, spread over europe, so that, though it sound incredible, our northumbria narrowly missed in its day to become the pole-star of western culture. but he was a disinterested genius, and his pupil, alcuin, a pushing dull man and a born reactionary; so that, while alcuin scored the personal success and went off to teach in the court of charlemagne, the great chance was lost. no one knows when the great universities were founded, or precisely out of what schools they grew; and you may derive amusement from the historians when they start to explain how oxford and cambridge in particular came to be chosen for sites. my own conjecture, that they were chosen for the extraordinary salubrity of their climates, has met (i regret to say) with derision, and may be set down to the caprice of one who ever inclines to think the weather good where he is happy. our own learned historian, indeed--mr j. bass mullinger--devotes some closely reasoned pages to proving that cambridge was chosen as the unlikeliest spot in the world, and is driven to quote the learned poggio's opinion that the unhealthiness of a locality recommended it as a place of education for youth; as plato, knowing naught of christianity, but gifted with a soul naturally christian, '_had selected a noisome spot for his academe, in order that the mind might be strengthened by the weakness of the body._' so difficult still it is for the modern mind to interpret the mediaeval! most likely these universities grew as a tree grows from a seed blown by chance of the wind. it seems easy enough to understand why paris, that great city, should have possessed a great university; yet i surmise the processes at oxford and cambridge to have been only a little less fortuitous. the schools of remigius and of william of champeaux (we will say) have given paris a certain prestige, when abelard, a pupil of william's, springs into fame and draws a horde of students from all over europe to sit at his feet. these 'nations' of young men have to be organised, brought under some sort of discipline, if only to make the citizens' lives endurable: and lo! the thing is done. in like manner irnerius at bologna, vacarius at oxford, and at cambridge some innominate teacher, 'of importance,' as browning would put it, 'in his day,' possibly set the ball rolling; or again it is suggested that a body of scholars dissatisfied with oxford (such dissatisfaction has been known even in historical times) migrated hither--a laborious journey, even nowadays--and that so a brighter hellas rears its mountains from waves serener far! these young or nascent bodies had a trick of breaking away after this fashion. for reasons no longer obvious they hankered specially towards stamford or northampton. until quite recently, within living memory, all candidates for a mastership of arts at oxford had to promise never to lecture at stamford. a flood here in , which swept away garret hostel bridge, put cambridge in like mind and started a prophecy (to which you may find allusion in the fourth book of "the faerie queene") that both universities would meet in the end, and kiss, at stamford. each in turn broke away for northampton, and the worthy fuller (a northamptonshire man) has recorded his wonder that so eligible a spot was not finally chosen. i have mentioned a flood: but the immediate causes of the migrations or attempted migrations were not usually respectable enough to rank with any such act of god. they started as a rule with some town and gown row, or some bloody affray between scholars of the north and of the south. without diminishing your sense of the real fervour for learning which drew young men from the remotest parts of europe to these centres, but having for my immediate object to make clear to you that, whatever these young men sought, it was not literature, i wish you first to have in your minds a vivid picture of what a university town was like, and what its students were like during the greater part of the th and th centuries; that is to say, after the first enthusiasm had died down, when oxford or cambridge had organised itself into a _studium generale_, or _universitas_ (which, of course, has nothing to do with universality, whether of teaching or of frequenting, but simply means a society. _universitas_ = all of us). to begin with, the town was of wood, often on fire in places; with the alleviation of frequent winter floods, which in return, in the words of a modern poet, would 'leave a lot of little things behind them.' it requires but a small effort of the imagination in cambridge to picture the streets as narrow, dark, almost meeting overhead in gables out of which the house slops would be discharged after casual warning down into a central gutter. that these narrow streets were populous with students remains certain, however much discount we allow on contemporary bills of reckoning. and the crowd was noisy. men have always been ingenious in their ways of celebrating academical success. pythagoras, for example, sacrificed an ox on solving the theorem numbered in the first book of euclid; and even to-day a professor in his solitary lodge may be encouraged to believe now and then, from certain evidences in the sky, that the spirit of pythagoras is not dead but translated. but of the mediaeval university the lawlessness, though well attested, can scarcely be conceived. when in the streets 'nation' drew the knife upon 'nation,' 'town' upon 'gown'; when the city bell started to answer the clang of st. mary's; horrible deeds were done. i pass over massacres, tumults such as the famous one of st scholastica's day at oxford, and choose one at a decent distance (yet entirely typical) exhumed from the annals of the university of toulouse, in the year . in that year five brothers of the noble family de la penne lived together in a hospicium at toulouse as students of the civil and canon law. one of them was provost of a monastery, another archdeacon of albi, another an archpriest, another canon of toledo. a bastard son of their father, named peter, lived with them as squire to the canon. on easter day, peter, with another squire of the household named aimery béranger and other students, having dined at a tavern, were dancing with women, singing, shouting, and beating 'metallic vessels and iron culinary instruments' in the street before their masters' house. the provost and the archpriest were sympathetically watching the jovial scene from a window, until it was disturbed by the appearance of a capitoul and his officers, who summoned some of the party to surrender the prohibited arms which they were wearing. '_ben senhor, non fassat_' was the impudent reply. the capitoul attempted to arrest one of the offenders; whereupon the ecclesiastical party made a combined attack upon the official. aimery béranger struck him in the face with a poignard, cutting off his nose and part of his chin and lips, and knocking out or breaking no less than eleven teeth. the surgeons deposed that if he recovered (he eventually did recover) he would never be able to speak intelligibly. one of the watch was killed outright by peter de la penne. that night the murderer slept, just as if nothing had happened, in the house of his ecclesiastical masters. the whole household, masters and servants alike, were, however, surprised by the other capitouls and a crowd of citizens, and led off to prison, and the house is alleged to have been pillaged. the archbishop's official demanded their surrender. in the case of the superior ecclesiastics this, after a short delay, was granted. but aimery, who dressed like a layman in 'divided and striped clothes' and wore a long beard, they refused to treat as a clerk, though it was afterwards alleged that the tonsure was plainly discernible upon his head until it was shaved by order of the capitouls. aimery was put to the torture, admitted his crime, and was sentenced to death. the sentence was carried out by hanging, after he had had his hand cut off on the scene of the crime, and been dragged by horses to the place of execution. the capitouls were then excommunicated by the official, and the ecclesiastical side of the quarrel was eventually transferred to the roman court. before the parlement of paris the university complained of the violation of the royal privilege exempting scholars' servants from the ordinary tribunals. the capitouls were imprisoned, and after long litigation sentenced to pay enormous damages to the ruffian's family and erect a chapel for the good of his soul. the city was condemned for a time to the forfeiture of all its privileges. the body was cut down from the gibbet on which it had been hanging for three years, and accorded a solemn funeral. four capitouls bore the pall, and all fathers of families were required to walk in the procession. when they came to the schools, the citizens solemnly begged pardon of the university, and the cortège was joined by scholars. finally, it cost the city , livres tournois or more to regain their civic privileges.[ ] the late mr cecil rhodes once summarized all fellows of colleges as children in matters of finance. be that as it may, you will find nothing more constant in history than the talent of the universities for extracting money or money's worth out of a riot. time (i speak as a parent) has scarcely blunted that faculty; and still--since where young men congregate, noise there must be--our universities like wordsworth's happy warrior turn their necessity to glorious gain. these were the excesses of young 'bloods,' and their servants: but with them mingled scholars not less ferocious in their habits because almost desperately poor. you all know, i dare say, that very poor scholars would be granted licences to beg by the chancellor. the sleeve of this gown in which i address you represents the purse or pocket of a master of arts, and may hint to you by its amplitude how many crusts he was prepared to receive from the charitable. now, choosing to ignore (because it has been challenged as overpainted) a picture of penury endured by the scholars of st john's college in this university, let me tell you two stories, one well attested, the other fiction if you will, but both agreeable as testifying to the spirit of youth which, ever blowing upon their sacred embers, has kept oxford and cambridge perennially alive. my first is of three scholars so poor that they possessed but one 'cappa' and gown between them. they took it in turns therefore, and when one went to lecture the other two kept to their lodgings. i invite you even to reflect on the joy of the lucky one, in a winter lecture room, dark, with unglazed windows, as he listened and shuffled his feet for warmth in the straw of the floor. [no one, by the way, can understand the incessant harping of our early poets upon may-time and the return of summer until he has pictured to himself the dark and cold discomfort of a middle-english winter.] these three poor scholars fed habitually on bread, with soup and a little wine, tasting meat only on sundays and feasts of the church. yet one of them, richard of chichester, who lived to become a saint, _saepe retulit quod nunquam in vita sua tam jucundam, tam delectabilem duxerat vitam_--that never had he lived so jollily, so delectably. that is youth, youth blessed by friendship. now for my second story, which is also of youth and friendship.-- two poor scholars, who had with pains become masters of arts and saved their pence to purchase the coveted garb, on the afternoon of their admission took a country walk in it, together flaunting their new finery. but, the day being gusty, on their return across the bridge, a puff of wind caught the _biretta_ of one and blew it into the river. the loss was irrecoverable, since neither could swim. the poor fellow looked at his friend. his friend looked at him. 'between us two,' he said, 'it is all or naught,' and cast his own cap to float and sink with the other down stream. you will never begin to understand literature until you understand something of life. these young men, your forerunners, understood something of life while as yet completely careless of literature. after the impulse of abelard and others had died down, the mass of students betook themselves to the universities, no doubt, for quite ordinary, mercenary reasons. the university led to the church, and the church, in england at any rate, was the door to professional life. nearly all the civil servants of the crown--i am here quoting freely--the diplomatists, the secretaries or advisers of great nobles, the physicians, the architects, at one time the secular law-givers, all through the middle ages the then large tribe of ecclesiastical lawyers, were ecclesiastics.... clerkship did not necessarily involve even minor orders. but as it was cheaper to a king or a bishop or a temporal magnate to reward his physician, his legal adviser, his secretary, or his agent by a canonry or a rectory than by large salaries, the average student of paris or oxford or cambridge looked toward the church as the 'main chance' as we say, and small blame to him! he never at any rate looked towards literature: nor did the universities, wise in their generation, encourage him to do anything of the sort. you may realise, gentlemen, how tardily, even in later and more enlightened times, the study of literature has crept its way into official cambridge, if you will take down your "university calendar" and study the list of professorships there set forth in order of foundation. it begins in with the lady margaret's chair of divinity, founded by the mother of henry vii. five regius professorships follow: of divinity, civil law, physic, hebrew, greek, all of . so greek comes in upon the flush of the renaissance; and the calendar bravely, yet not committing itself to a date, heads with erasmus the noble roll which concludes (as may it long conclude) with henry jackson. but greek comes in last of the five. close on a hundred years elapse before the foundation of the next chair--it is of arabic; and more than a hundred before we arrive at mathematics. so sir william hamilton was not without historical excuse when he declared the study of mathematics to be no part of the business of this university! then follow moral philosophy ( ), music ( ), chemistry ( ), astronomy ( ), anatomy ( ), modern history and more arabic, with botany ( ), geology ( ), closely followed by mr hulse's christian advocate, more astronomy ( ), more divinity ( ), experimental philosophy ( ): then in the nineteenth century more law, more medicine, mineralogy, archaeology, political economy, pure mathematics, comparative anatomy, sanskrit and yet again more law, before we arrive in at a chair of latin. faint yet pursuing, we have yet to pass chairs of fine art (belated), experimental physics, applied mechanics, anglo-saxon, animal morphology, surgery, physiology, pathology, ecclesiastical history, chinese, more divinity, mental philosophy, ancient history, agriculture, biology, agricultural botany, more biology, astrophysics, and german, before arriving in at a chair of english literature which by this time i have not breath to defend. the enumeration has, i hope, been instructive. if it has also plunged you in gloom, to that atmosphere (as the clock warns me) for a fortnight i must leave you: with a promise, however, in another lecture to cheer you, if it may be, with some broken gleams of hope. [footnote : "what english poetry may still learn from greek": a paper read before the english association on nov. , .] [footnote : see mr e. k. chambers' "mediaeval stage", dr courthope's "history of english poetry," and professor w. p. ker's "the dark ages".] [footnote : rashdall, "the universities of europe in the middle ages", vol. ii, p. , from documents printed in fournier's collection.] lecture xi. english literature in our universities nglish literature in our universities (ii) wednesday, december we broke off, gentlemen, upon the somewhat painful conclusion that our universities were not founded for the study of literature, and tardily admitted it. the dates of our three literary chairs in cambridge--i speak of our western literature only, and omit arabic, sanskrit, and chinese--clenched that conclusion for us. greek in , latin not until , english but three years ago--from the lesson of these intervals there is no getting away. now i do not propose to dwell on the renaissance and how greek came in: for a number of writers in our time have been busy with the renaissance, and have--i was going to say 'over-written the subject,' but no--it is better to say that they have focussed the period so as to distort the general perspective at the cost of other periods which have earned less attention; the twelfth century, for example. at any rate their efforts, with the amount they claim of your reading, absolve me from doing more than remind you that the renaissance brought in the study of greek, and greek necessarily brought in the study of literature: since no man can read what the greeks wrote and not have his eyes unsealed to what i have called a norm of human expression; a guide to conduct, a standard to correct our efforts, whether in poetry, or in philosophy, or in art. for the rest, i need only quote to you gibbon's magnificent saying, that the greek language gave a soul to the objects of sense and a body to the abstractions of metaphysics. [may i add, in parenthesis, that, while no believer in compulsory greek, holding, indeed, that you can hardly reconcile learning with compulsion, and still more hardly force them to be compatibles, i subscribe with all my heart to bagehot's shrewd saying, 'while a knowledge of greek and latin is not necessary to a writer of english, he should at least have a firm conviction that those two languages existed.'] but, assuming you to know something of the renaissance, and how it brought greek into oxford and cambridge, i find that in the course of the argument two things fall to be said, and both to be said with some emphasis. in the first place, without officially acknowledging their native tongue or its literature, our two universities had no sooner acquired greek than their members became immensely interested in english. take, for one witness out of many, gabriel harvey, fellow of pembroke hall. his letters to edmund spenser have been preserved, as you know. now gabriel harvey was a man whom few will praise, and very few could have loved. few will quarrel with dr courthope's description of him as 'a person of considerable intellectual force, but intolerably arrogant and conceited, and with a taste vitiated by all the affectations of italian humanism,' or deny that 'his tone in his published correspondence with spenser is that of an intellectual bully.'[ ] none will refuse him the title of fool for attempting to mislead spenser into writing hexameters. but all you can urge against gabriel harvey, on this count or that or the other, but accumulates proof that this donnish man was all the while giving thought--giving even ferocious thought--to the business of making an english literature. let me adduce more pleasing evidence. at or about christmas, in the year , there was enacted here in cambridge, in the hall of st john's college, a play called "the pilgrimage to parnassus," a skittish work, having for subject the 'discontent of scholars'; the misery attending those who, unsupported by a private purse, would follow after apollo and the nine. no one knows the author's name: but he had a wit which has kept something of its salt to this day, and in christmas, , it took cambridge by storm. the public demanded a sequel, and "the return from parnassus" made its appearance on the following christmas (again in st john's college hall); to be followed by a "second part of the return from parnassus," the author's overflow of wit, three years later. of the popularity of the first and second plays--"the pilgrimage" and "the return, part i"--we have good evidence in the prologue to "the return, part ii," where the author makes momus say, before an audience which knew the truth: "the pilgrimage to parnassus" and "the returne from parnassus" have stood the honest stagekeepers in many a crowne's expense for linckes and vizards: purchased many a sophister a knocke with a clubbe: hindred the butler's box, and emptied the colledge barrells; and now, unlesse you have heard the former, you may returne home as wise as you came: for this last is the last part of the returne from parnassus; that is, the last time that the author's wit will turne upon the toe in this vaine. in other words, these plays had set everybody in cambridge agog, had been acted by link-light, had led to brawls--either between literary factions or through offensive personal allusions to which we have lost all clue--had swept into the box-office much money usually spent on christmas gambling, and had set up an inappeasable thirst for college ale. the point for us is that (in - ) they abound in topical allusions to the london theatres: that shakespeare is obviously just as much a concern to these young men of cambridge as mr shaw (say) is to our young men to-day, and an allusion to him is dropped in confidence that it will be aptly taken. for instance, one of the characters, gullio, will have some love-verses recited to him 'in two or three diverse veins, in chaucer's, gower's and spenser's and mr shakespeare's.' having listened to chaucer, he cries, 'tush! chaucer is a foole'; but coming to some lines of mr shakespeare's "venus and adonis," he cries, 'ey, marry, sir! these have some life in them! let this duncified world esteeme of spenser and chaucer, i'le worship sweet mr shakespeare, and to honoure him i will lay his "venus and adonis" under my pillowe.' for another allusion--'few of the university pen plaies well,' says the actor kempe in part ii of the "returne"; 'they smell too much of that writer _ovid_ and that writer _metamorphosis_, and talke too much of proserpina and jupiter. why here's our fellow _shakespeare_ puts them all downe, ay and _ben jonson_, too.' here you have cambridge assembling at christmas-tide to laugh at well-understood hits upon the theatrical taste of london. here you have, to make cambridge laugh, three farcical quasi-aristophanic plays all hinging on the tribulations of scholars who depart to pursue literature for a livelihood. for a piece of definite corroborative evidence you have a statute of queens' college (quoted by mr bass mullinger) which directs that 'any student refusing to take part in the acting of a comedy or tragedy in the college and absenting himself from the performance, contrary to the injunctions of the president, shall be expelled from the society'--which seems drastic. and on top of all this, you have evidence enough and to spare of the part played in elizabethan drama by the 'university wits.' why, marlowe (of corpus christi) may be held to have invented its form--blank verse; ben jonson (of st john's) to have carried it on past its meridian and through its decline, into the masque. both universities claim lyly and chapman. marston, peel, massinger, hailed from oxford. but greene and nashe were of cambridge--of st john's both, and day of caius. they sought to london, and there (for tragic truth underlay that christmas comedy of "the pilgrimage of parnassus") many of them came to bitter ends: but before reaching their sordid personal ruin--and let the deaths of marlowe and greene be remembered--they built the elizabethan drama, as some of them lived to add its last ornaments. we know what, meanwhile, spenser had done. i think it scarcely needs further proof that cambridge, towards the end of the sixteenth century, was fermenting with a desire to read, criticise, yes and write, english literature, albeit officially the university recognised no such thing. there remains a second question--how happened it that cambridge, after admitting greek, took more than three hundred years to establish a chair of latin, and that a chair of english is, so to speak, a mushroom (call it not toadstool!) of yesterday? why simply enough. latin continued to be the working language of science. in latin bacon naturally composed his "novum organum" and indeed almost all his scientific and philosophical work, although a central figure of his age among english prose-writers. in latin, in the eighteenth century, newton wrote his "principia": and i suppose that of no two books written by englishmen before the close of that century, or indeed before darwin's "origin of species," can it be less extravagantly said than of the "novum organum" and the "principia" that they shook the world. now, without forgetting our classical tripos (founded in ), as without forgetting the great names of bentley and porson, we may observe it as generally true, that whenever and wherever large numbers of scientific men use a particular language as their working instrument, they have a disposition to look askance on its refinements; to be jealous of its literary professors; to accuse these of treating as an end in itself what is properly a means. like the denver editor i quoted to you in a previous lecture, these scientific workers want to 'get there' in a hurry, forgetting that (to use another americanism) the sharper the chisel the more ice it is likely to cut. you may observe this disposition--this suspicion of 'literature,' this thinly veiled contempt--in many a scientific man to-day; though because his language has changed from latin to english, it is english he now chooses to cheapen. well, we cannot help it, perhaps. perhaps he cannot help it. it is human nature. we must go on persuading him, not losing our tempers. none the less we should not shut our eyes to the fact that while a language is the working instrument of scientific men there will always be a number of them to decry any study of it for its beauty, and even any study of it for the sake of accuracy--its beauty and its accuracy being indeed scarcely distinguishable. i fear, gentlemen, you may go on from this to the dreadful conclusion that the date , when cambridge at length came to possess a chair of latin, marks definitely the hour at which latin closed its eyes and became a dead language; that you may proceed to a yet more dreadful application of this to the chair of english founded in : and that henceforward (to misquote what mr max beerbohm once wickedly said of walter pater) you will be apt to regard professor housman and me as two widowers engaged, while the undertaker waits, in composing the features of our belovèds. but (to speak seriously) that is what i stand here to controvert: and i derive no small encouragement when--as has more than once happened--a, a scientific man, comes to me and complains that he for his part cannot understand b, another scientific man, 'because the fellow can't express himself.' and the need to study precision in writing has grown far more instant since men of science have abandoned the 'universal language' and taken to writing in their own tongues. let us, while not on the whole regretting the change, at least recognise some dangers, some possible disadvantages. i will confine myself to english, considered as a substitute for latin. in latin you have a language which may be thin in its vocabulary and inelastic for modern use; but a language which at all events compels a man to clear his thought and communicate it to other men precisely. thoughts hardly to be packed into the narrow act --may be all impossible of compression into the latin speech. in english, on the other hand, you have a language which by its very copiousness and elasticity tempts you to believe that you can do without packing, without compression, arrangement, order; that, with the denver editor, all you need is to 'get there'--though it be with all your intellectual belongings in a jumble, overflowing the portmanteau. rather i preach to you that having proudly inherited english with its _copia fandi_, you should keep your estate in order by constantly applying to it that _jus et norma loquendi_ of which, if you seek to the great models, you will likewise find yourselves inheritors. 'but,' it is sometimes urged, 'why not leave this new study of english to the younger universities now being set up all over the country?' 'ours is an age of specialising. let these newcomers have something--what better than english?--to specialise upon.' i might respond by asking if the fame of cambridge would stand where it stands to-day had she followed a like counsel concerning other studies and, resting upon mathematics, given over this or that branch of natural science to be grasped by new hands. what of electricity, for example? or what of physiology? yes, and among the unnatural sciences, what of political economy? but i will use a more philosophical argument. some years ago i happened on a collection of bulgarian proverbs of which my memory retains but two, yet each an abiding joy. in a lecture on english literature in our universities you will certainly not miss to apply the first, which runs, 'many an ass has entered jerusalem.' the application of the second may elude you for a moment. it voices the impatience of an honest bulgar who has been worried overmuch to subscribe to what, in this england of ours, we call church purposes; and it runs, 'all these two-penny saints will be the ruin of the church.' now far be it from me to apply the term 'two-penny saint' to any existing university. to avoid the accusation i hereby solemnly declare my deep conviction that every single university at this moment in england, scotland, wales or ireland has reasons--strong in all, in some overwhelmingly strong--for its existence. that is plainly said, i hope? yet i do maintain that if we go on multiplying universities we shall not increase the joy; that the reign of two-penny saints lies not far off and will soon lie within measurable distance; and that it will be a pestilent reign. as we saw in out last lecture the word 'university'--_universitas_--had, in its origin, nothing to do with universality: it meant no more than a society, organised (as it happened) to promote learning. but words, like institutions, often rise above their beginnings, and in time acquire a proud secondary connotation. for an instance let me give you the beautiful wykehamist motto _manners makyeth man_, wherein 'manners' originally meant no more than 'morals.' so there has grown around our two great universities of oxford and cambridge a connotation (secondary, if you will, but valuable above price) of universality; of standing like great beacons of light, to attract the young wings of all who would seek learning for their sustenance. thousands have singed, thousands have burned themselves, no doubt: but what thousands of thousands have caught the sacred fire into their souls as they passed through and passed out, to carry it, to drop it, still as from wings, upon waste places of the world! think of country vicarages, of australian or himalayan outposts, where men have nourished out lives of duty upon the fire of three transient, priceless years. think of the generations of children to whom their fathers' lives, prosaic enough, could always be re-illumined if someone let fall the word 'oxford' or 'cambridge,' so that they themselves came to surmise an aura about the name as of a land very far off; and then say if the ineffable spell of those two words do not lie somewhere in the conflux of generous youth with its rivalries and clash of minds, ere it disperses, generation after generation, to the duller business of life. would you have your mother university, gentlemen, undecorated by some true study of your mother-english? i think not, having been there, and known such thoughts as you will carry away, and having been against expectation called back to report them. and sometimes i remember days of old when fellowship seem'd not so far to seek, and all the world and i seem'd far less cold, and at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold, and hope was strong, and life itself not weak. my purpose here (and i cannot too often recur to it) is to wean your minds from hankering after false germanic standards and persuade you, or at least point out to you, in what direction that true study lies if you are men enough to take up your inheritance and believe in it as a glory to be improved. neither oxford nor cambridge nor any university on earth can study english literature truthfully or worthily, or even at all profitably, unless by studying it in the category for which heaven, or nature (call the ultimate cause what you will), intended it; or, to put the assertion more concretely, in any other category than that for which the particular author--be his name chaucer or chesterton, shakespeare or shaw--designed it; as neither can oxford nor cambridge nor any university study english literature, to understand it, unless by bracing itself to consider a living art. origins, roots, all the gropings towards light--let these be granted as accessories; let those who search in them be granted all honour, all respect. it is only when they preach or teach these preliminaries, these accessories, to be more important than literature itself--it is only when they, owing all their excuse in life to the established daylight, din upon us that the precedent darkness claims precedence in honour, that one is driven to utter upon them this dialogue, in monosyllables: _and god said, 'let there be light': and there was light. 'oh, thank you, sir,' said the bat and the owl; 'then we are off!'_ i grant you, gentlemen, that there must always inhere a difficulty in correlating for the purposes of a tripos a study of literature itself with a study of these accessories; the thing itself being _naturally_ so much more difficult: being so difficult indeed that (to take literary criticism alone and leave for a moment the actual practice of writing out of the question) though some of the first intellects in the world--aristotle, longinus, quintilian, boileau, dryden, lessing, goethe, coleridge, sainte-beuve--have broken into parcels of that territory, the mass of it remains unexplored, and nobody as yet has found courage to reduce the reports of these great explorers to any system; so that a very eminent person indeed found it easy to write to me the other day, 'the principles of criticism? what are they? who made them?' to this i could only answer that i did not know who made them; but that aristotle, dryden, lessing, had, as it was credibly reported, discovered five or, it might be, six. and this difficulty of appraising literature absolutely inheres in your study of it from the beginning. no one can have set a general paper on literature and examined on it, setting it and marking the written answers, alongside of papers about language, inflexions and the rest, without having borne in upon him that _here_ the student finds his difficulty. while in a paper set about inflexions, etc., a pupil with a moderately retentive memory will easily obtain sixty or seventy per cent. of the total marks, in a paper on the book or play considered critically an examiner, even after setting his paper with a view to some certain inferiority of average, has to be lenient before he can award fifty, forty, or even thirty per cent. of the total. you will find a somewhat illuminating passage--illuminating, that is, if you choose to interpret and apply it to our subject--in lucian's "true history," where the veracious traveller, who tells the tale, affirms that he visited hades among other places, and had some conversation with homer, among its many inhabitants-- before many days had passed, i accosted the poet homer, when we were both disengaged, and asked him, among other things, where he came from; it was still a burning question with us, i explained. he said he was aware that some derived him from chios, others from smyrna, and others again from colophon; but in fact he was a babylonian, generally known not as homer but as tigranes; but when later in life he was given as a homer or hostage to the greeks, that name clung to him. another of my questions was about the so-called spurious books; had he written them or not? he said that they were all genuine: so i now knew what to think of the critics zenodotus and aristarchus and all their lucubrations. having got a categorical answer on that point, i tried him next on his reason for starting the "iliad" with the wrath of achilles. he said he had no exquisite reason; it just came into his head that way. even so diverse are the questions that may be asked concerning any great work of art. but to discover its full intent is always the most difficult task of all. that task, however, and nothing less difficult, will always be the one worthiest of a great university. on that, and on that alone, gentlemen, do i base all claims for our school of english literature. and yet in conclusion i will ask you, reminding yourselves how fortunate is your lot in cambridge, to think of fellow-englishmen far less fortunate. years ago i took some pains to examine the examination papers set by a renowned examining body and i found this--'i humbly solicit' (to use a phrase of lucian's) 'my hearers' incredulity'--that in a paper set upon three acts of "hamlet"--three acts of "hamlet"!--the first question started with 'g.tt. p..cha' 'al..g.tor' and invited the candidate to fill in the missing letters correctly. now i was morally certain that the words 'gutta-percha' and 'alligator' did not occur in the first three acts of "hamlet"; but having carefully re-read them i invited this examining body to explain itself. the answer i got was that, to understand shakespeare, a student must first understand the english language! some of you on leaving cambridge will go out--a company of christian folk dispersed throughout the world--to tell english children of english literature. such are the pedagogic fetters you will have to knock off their young minds before they can stand and walk. gentlemen, on a day early in this term i sought the mound which is the old castle of cambridge. access to it, as perhaps you know, lies through the precincts of the county prison. an iron railing encloses the mound, having a small gate, for the key of which a notice-board advised me to ring the prison bell. i rang. a very courteous gaoler answered the bell and opened the gate, which stands just against his wicket. i thanked him, but could not forbear asking 'why do they keep this gate closed?' 'i don't know, sir,' he answered, 'but i suppose if they didn't the children might get in and play.' so with his answer i went up the hill and from the top saw cambridge spread at my feet; magdalene below me, and the bridge which--poor product as it is of the municipal taste--has given its name to so many bridges all over the world; the river on its long ambit to chesterton; the tower of st john's, and beyond it the unpretentious but more beautiful tower of jesus college. to my right the magnificent chine of king's college chapel made its own horizon above the yellowing elms. i looked down on the streets--the narrow streets--the very streets which, a fortnight ago, i tried to people for you with that mediaeval throng which has passed as we shall pass. still in my ear the gaoler's answer repeated itself--_'i suppose, if they didn't keep it locked, the children might get in and play'_: and a broken echo seemed to take it up, in words that for a while had no more coherence than the scattered jangle of bells in the town below. but as i turned to leave, they chimed into an articulate sentence and the voice was the voice of francis bacon--_regnum scientiae ut regnum coeli non nisi sub persona infantis intratur.--into the kingdom of knowledge, as into the kingdom of heaven, whoso would enter must become as a little child._ [footnote : "cambridge history of english literature", vol. iii, p. .] lecture xii. on style wednesday, january , should providence, gentlemen, destine any one of you to write books for his living, he will find experimentally true what i here promise him, that few pleasures sooner cloy than reading what the reviewers say. this promise i hand on with the better confidence since it was endorsed for me once in conversation by that eminently good man the late henry sidgwick; who added, however, 'perhaps i ought to make a single exception. there was a critic who called one of my books "epoch-making." being anonymous, he would have been hard to find and thank, perhaps; but i ought to have made the effort.' may i follow up this experience of his with one of my own, as a preface or brief apology for this lecture? short-lived as is the author's joy in his critics, far-spent as may be his hope of fame, mournful his consent with sir thomas browne that 'there is nothing immortal but immortality,' he cannot hide from certain sanguine men of business, who in england call themselves 'press-cutting agencies,' in america 'press-clipping bureaux,' and, as each successive child of his invention comes to birth, unbecomingly presume in him an almost virginal trepidation. 'your book,' they write falsely, 'is exciting much comment. may we collect and send you notices of it appearing in the world's press? we submit a specimen cutting with our terms; and are, dear sir,' etc. now, although steadily unresponsive to this wile, i am sometimes guilty of taking the enclosed specimen review and thrusting it for preservation among the scarcely less deciduous leaves of the book it was written to appraise. so it happened that having this vacation, to dust--not to read--a line of obsolete or obsolescent works on a shelf, i happened on a review signed by no smaller a man than mr gilbert chesterton and informing the world that the author of my obsolete book was full of good stories as a kindly uncle, but had a careless or impatient way of stopping short and leaving his readers to guess what they most wanted to know: that, reaching the last chapter, or what he chose to make the last chapter, instead of winding up and telling 'how everybody lived ever after,' he (so to speak) slid you off his avuncular knee with a blessing and the remark that nine o'clock was striking and all good children should be in their beds. that criticism has haunted me during the vacation. looking back on a course of lectures which i deemed to be accomplished; correcting them in print; revising them with all the nervousness of a beginner; i have seemed to hear you complain--'he has exhorted us to write accurately, appropriately; to eschew jargon; to be bold and essay verse. he has insisted that literature is a living art, to be practised. but just what we most needed he has not told. at the final doorway to the secret he turned his back and left us. accuracy, propriety, perspicuity--these we may achieve. but where has he helped us to write with beauty, with charm, with distinction? where has he given us rules for what is called _style_ in short?--having attained which an author may count himself set up in business.' thus, gentlemen, with my mind's ear i heard you reproaching me. i beg you to accept what follows for my apology. to begin with, let me plead that you have been told of one or two things which style is _not_; which have little or nothing to do with style, though sometimes vulgarly mistaken for it. style, for example, is not--can never be--extraneous ornament. you remember, may be, the persian lover whom i quoted to you out of newman: how to convey his passion he sought a professional letter-writer and purchased a vocabulary charged with ornament, wherewith to attract the fair one as with a basket of jewels. well, in this extraneous, professional, purchased ornamentation, you have something which style is not: and if you here require a practical rule of me, i will present you with this: 'whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it --whole-heartedly--and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. _murder your darlings._' but let me plead further that you have not been left altogether without clue to the secret of what style is. that you must master the secret for yourselves lay implicit in our bargain, and you were never promised that a writer's training would be easy. yet a clue was certainly put in your hands when, having insisted that literature is a living art, i added that therefore it must be personal and of its essence personal. this goes very deep: it conditions all our criticism of art. yet it conceals no mystery. you may see its meaning most easily and clearly, perhaps, by contrasting science and art at their two extremes--say pure mathematics with acting. science as a rule deals with things, art with man's thought and emotion about things. in pure mathematics things are rarefied into ideas, numbers, concepts, but still farther and farther away from the individual man. two and two make four, and fourpence is not ninepence (or at any rate four is not nine) whether alcibiades or cleon keep the tally. in acting on the other hand almost everything depends on personal interpretation--on the gesture, the walk, the gaze, the tone of a siddons, the _rusé_ smile of a coquelin, the exquisite, vibrant intonation of a bernhardt. 'english art?' exclaimed whistler, 'there is no such thing! art is art and mathematics is mathematics.' whistler erred. precisely because art is art, and mathematics is mathematics and a science, art being art can be english or french; and, more than this, must be the personal expression of an englishman or a frenchman, as a 'constable' differs from a 'corot' and a 'whistler' from both. surely i need not labour this. but what is true of the extremes of art and science is true also, though sometimes less recognisably true, of the mean: and where they meet and seem to conflict (as in history) the impact is that of the personal or individual mind upon universal truth, and the question becomes whether what happened in the sicilian expedition, or at the trial of charles i, can be set forth naked as an alegebraical sum, serene in its certainty, indifferent to opinion, uncoloured in the telling as in the hearing by sympathy or dislike, by passion or by character. i doubt, while we should strive in history as in all things to be fair, if history can be written in that colourless way, to interest men in human doings. i am sure that nothing which lies further towards imaginative, creative, art can be written in that way. it follows then that literature, being by its nature personal, must be by its nature almost infinitely various. 'two persons cannot be the authors of the sounds which strike our ear; and as they cannot be speaking one and the same speech, neither can they be writing one and the same lecture or discourse.' _quot homines tot sententiae._ you may translate that, if you will, 'every man of us constructs his sentence differently'; and if there be indeed any quarrel between literature and science (as i never can see why there should be), i for one will readily grant science all her cold superiority, her ease in sion with universal facts, so it be mine to serve among the multifarious race who have to adjust, as best they may, science's cold conclusions (and much else) to the brotherly give-and-take of human life. _quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas..._ is it possible, gentlemen, that you can have read one, two, three or more of the acknowledged masterpieces of literature without having it borne in on you that they are great because they are alive, and traffic not with cold celestial certainties, but with men's hopes, aspirations, doubts, loves, hates, breakings of the heart; the glory and vanity of human endeavour, the transience of beauty, the capricious uncertain lease on which you and i hold life, the dark coast to which we inevitably steer; all that amuses or vexes, all that gladdens, saddens, maddens us men and women on this brief and mutable traject which yet must be home for a while, the anchorage of our hearts? for an instance:-- here lies a most beautiful lady, light of step and heart was she: i think she was the most beautiful lady that ever was in the west country. but beauty vanishes, beauty passes, however rare, rare it be; and when i crumble who shall remember that lady of the west country? (walter de la mare.) or take a critic--a literary critic--such as samuel johnson, of whom we are used to think as of a man artificial in phrase and pedantic in judgment. he lives, and why? because, if you test his criticism, he never saw literature but as a part of life, nor would allow in literature what was false to life, as he saw it. he could be wrong-headed, perverse; could damn milton because he hated milton's politics; on any question of passion or prejudice could make injustice his daily food. but he could not, even in a friend's epitaph, let pass a phrase (however well turned) which struck him as empty of life or false to it. all boswell testifies to this: and this is why samuel johnson survives. now let me carry this contention--that all literature is personal and therefore various--into a field much exploited by the pedant, and fenced about with many notice-boards and public warnings. _'neologisms not allowed here,' 'all persons using slang, or trespassing in pursuit of originality....'_ well, i answer these notice-boards by saying that, literature being personal, and men various--and even the "oxford english dictionary" being no canonical book--man's use or defiance of the dictionary depends for its justification on nothing but his success: adding that, since it takes all kinds to make a world, or a literature, his success will probably depend on the occasion. a few months ago i found myself seated at a bump-supper next to a cheerful youth who, towards the close, suggested thoughtfully, as i arose to make a speech, that, the bonfire (which of course he called the 'bonner') being due at nine-thirty o'clock, there was little more than bare time left for 'langers and godders.' it cost me, who think slowly, some seconds to interpret that by 'langers' he meant 'auld lang syne' and by 'godders' 'god save the king.' i thought at the time, and still think, and will maintain against any schoolmaster, that the neologisms of my young neighbour, though not to be recommended for essays or sermons, did admirably suit the time, place, and occasion. seeing that in human discourse, infinitely varied as it is, so much must ever depend on _who_ speaks, and to _whom_, in what mood and upon what occasion; and seeing that literature must needs take account of all manner of writers, audiences, moods, occasions; i hold it a sin against the light to put up a warning against any word that comes to us in the fair way of use and wont (as 'wire,' for instance, for a telegram), even as surely as we should warn off hybrids or deliberately pedantic impostors, such as 'antibody' and 'picture-drome'; and that, generally, it is better to err on the side of liberty than on the side of the censor: since by the manumitting of new words we infuse new blood into a tongue of which (or we have learnt nothing from shakespeare's audacity) our first pride should be that it is flexible, alive, capable of responding to new demands of man's untiring quest after knowledge and experience. not because it was an ugly thing did i denounce jargon to you, the other day: but because it was a dead thing, leading no-whither, meaning naught. there is _wickedness_ in human speech, sometimes. you will detect it all the better for having ruled out what is _naughty_. let us err, then, if we err, on the side of liberty. i came, the other day, upon this passage in mr frank harris's study of 'the man shakespeare':-- in the last hundred years the language of molière has grown fourfold; the slang of the studios and the gutter and the laboratory, of the engineering school and the dissecting table, has been ransacked for special terms to enrich and strengthen the language in order that it may deal easily with the new thoughts. french is now a superb instrument, while english is positively poorer than it was in the time of shakespeare, thanks to the prudery of our illiterate middle class.[ ] well, let us not lose our heads over this, any more than over other prophecies of our national decadence. the "oxford english dictionary" has not yet unfolded the last of its coils, which yet are ample enough to enfold us in seven words for every three an active man can grapple with. yet the warning has point, and a particular point, for those who aspire to write poetry: as francis thompson has noted in his essay on shelley:-- theoretically, of course, one ought always to try for the best word. but practically, the habit of excessive care in word-selection frequently results in loss of spontaneity; and, still worse, the habit of always taking the best word too easily becomes the habit of always taking the most ornate word, the word most removed from ordinary speech. in consequence of this, poetic diction has become latterly a kaleidoscope, and one's chief curiosity is as to the precise combinations into which the pieces will be shifted. there is, in fact, a certain band of words, the praetorian cohorts of poetry, whose prescriptive aid is invoked by every aspirant to the poetic purple.... against these it is time some banner should be raised.... it is at any rate curious to note that the literary revolution against the despotic diction of pope seems issuing, like political revolutions, in a despotism of his own making; and he adds a note that this is the more surprising to him because so many victorian poets were prose-writers as well. now, according to our theory, the practice of prose should maintain fresh and comprehensive a poet's diction, should save him from falling into the hands of an exclusive coterie of poetic words. it should react upon his metrical vocabulary to its beneficial expansion, by taking him outside his aristocratic circle of language, and keeping him in touch with the great commonalty, the proletariat of speech. for it is with words as with men: constant intermarriage within the limits of a patrician clan begets effete refinement; and to reinvigorate the stock, its veins must be replenished from hardy plebeian blood. in diction, then, let us acquire all the store we can, rejecting no coin for its minting but only if its metal be base. so shall we bring out of our treasuries new things and old. diction, however, is but a part of style, and perhaps not the most important part. so i revert to the larger question, 'what is style? what its [greek: to ti en einai], its essence, the law of its being?' now, as i sat down to write this lecture, memory evoked a scene and with the scene a chance word of boyish slang, both of which may seem to you irrelevant until, or unless, i can make you feel how they hold for me the heart of the matter. i once happened to be standing in a corner of a ball-room when there entered the most beautiful girl these eyes have ever seen or now--since they grow dull--ever will see. it was, i believe, her first ball, and by some freak or in some premonition she wore black: and not pearls--which, i am told, maidens are wont to wear on these occasions--but one crescent of diamonds in her black hair. _et vera incessu patuit dea._ here, i say, was absolute beauty. it startled. i think she was the most beautiful lady that ever was in the west country. but beauty vanishes, beauty passes.... she died a year or two later. she may have been too beautiful to live long. i have a thought that she may also have been too good. for i saw her with the crowd about her: i saw led up and presented among others the man who was to be, for a few months, her husband: and then, as the men bowed, pencilling on their programmes, over their shoulders i saw her eyes travel to an awkward young naval cadet (do you remember crossjay in meredith's "the egoist"? it was just such a boy) who sat abashed and glowering sulkily beside me on the far bench. promptly with a laugh, she advanced, claimed him, and swept him off into the first waltz. when it was over he came back, a trifle flushed, and i felicitated him; my remark (which i forget) being no doubt 'just the sort of banality, you know, one does come out with'--as maybe that the british navy kept its old knack of cutting out. but he looked at me almost in tears and blurted, 'it isn't her beauty, sir. you saw? it's--it's--my god, it's the _style_!' now you may think that a somewhat cheap, or at any rate inadequate, cry of the heart in my young seaman; as you may think it inadequate in me, and moreover a trifle capricious, to assure you (as i do) that the first and last secret of a good style consists in thinking with the heart as well as with the head. but let us philosophise a little. you have been told, i daresay often enough, that the business of writing demands _two_--the author and the reader. add to this what is equally obvious, that the obligation of courtesy rests first with the author, who invites the séance, and commonly charges for it. what follows, but that in speaking or writing we have an obligation to put ourselves into the hearer's or reader's place? it is _his_ comfort, _his_ convenience, we have to consult. to _express_ ourselves is a very small part of the business: very small and almost unimportant as compared with _impressing_ ourselves: the aim of the whole process being to persuade. all reading demands an effort. the energy, the good-will which a reader brings to the book is, and must be, partly expended in the labour of reading, marking, learning, inwardly digesting what the author means. the more difficulties, then, we authors obtrude on him by obscure or careless writing, the more we blunt the edge of his attention: so that if only in our own interest--though i had rather keep it on the ground of courtesy--we should study to anticipate his comfort. but let me go a little deeper. you all know that a great part of lessing's argument in his "laoköon", on the essentials of literature as opposed to pictorial art or sculpture, depends on this--that in pictorial art or in sculpture the eye sees, the mind apprehends, the whole in a moment of time, with the correspondent disadvantage that this moment of time is fixed and stationary; whereas in writing, whether in prose or in verse, we can only produce our effect by a series of successive small impressions, dripping our meaning (so to speak) into the reader's mind--with the correspondent advantage, in point of vivacity, that our picture keeps moving all the while. now obviously this throws a greater strain on his patience whom we address. man at the best is a narrow-mouthed bottle. through the conduit of speech he can utter--as you, my hearers, can receive--only one word at a time. in writing (as my old friend professor minto used to say) you are as a commander filing out his battalion through a narrow gate that allows only one man at a time to pass; and your reader, as he receives the troops, has to re-form and reconstruct them. no matter how large or how involved the subject, it can be communicated only in that way. you see, then, what an obligation we owe to him of order and arrangement; and why, apart from felicities and curiosities of diction, the old rhetoricians laid such stress upon order and arrangement as duties we owe to those who honour us with their attention. '_la clarté,_' says a french writer, '_est la politesse._' [greek: charisi kai sapheneia thue], recommends lucian. pay your sacrifice to the graces, and to [greek: sapheneia]--clarity--first among the graces. what am i urging? 'that style in writing is much the same thing as good manners in other human intercourse?' well, and why not? at all events we have reached a point where buffon's often-quoted saying that 'style is the man himself' touches and coincides with william of wykeham's old motto that 'manners makyth man': and before you condemn my doctrine as inadequate listen to this from coventry patmore, still bearing in mind that a writer's main object is to _impress_ his thought or vision upon his hearer. 'there is nothing comparable _for moral force_ to the charm of truly noble manners....' i grant you, to be sure, that the claim to possess a style must be conceded to many writers--carlyle is one--who take no care to put listeners at their ease, but rely rather on native force of genius to shock and astound. nor will i grudge them your admiration. but i do say that, as more and more you grow to value truth and the modest grace of truth, it is less and less to such writers that you will turn: and i say even more confidently that the qualities of style we allow them are not the qualities we should seek as a norm, for they one and all offend against art's true maxim of avoiding excess. and this brings me to the two great _paradoxes_ of style. for the first ( ),--although style is so curiously personal and individual, and although men are so variously built that no two in the world carry away the same impressions from a show, there is always a norm somewhere; in literature and art, as in morality. yes, even in man's most terrific, most potent inventions--when, for example, in "hamlet" or in "lear" shakespeare seems to be breaking up the solid earth under our feet--there is always some point and standard of sanity--a kent or an horatio--to which all enormities and passionate errors may be referred; to which the agitated mind of the spectator settles back as upon its centre of gravity, its pivot of repose. ( ) the second paradox, though it is equally true, you may find a little subtler. yet it but applies to art the simple truth of the gospel, that he who would save his soul must first lose it. though personality pervades style and cannot be escaped, the first sin against style as against good manners is to obtrude or exploit personality. the very greatest work in literature--the "iliad," the "odyssey," the "purgatorio," "the tempest," "paradise lost," the "republic," "don quixote"--is all seraphically free from taint of personality. and flaubert, that gladiator among artists, held that, at its highest, literary art could be carried into pure science. 'i believe,' said he, 'that great art is scientific and impersonal. you should by an intellectual effort transport yourself into characters, not draw _them_ into _yourself_. that at least is the method.' on the other hand, says goethe, 'we should endeavour to use words that correspond as closely as possible with what we feel, see, think, imagine, experience, and reason. it is an endeavour we cannot evade and must daily renew.' i call flaubert's the better counsel, even though i have spent a part of this lecture in attempting to prove it impossible. it at least is noble, encouraging us to what is difficult. the shrewder goethe encourages us to exploit ourselves to the top of our bent. i think flaubert would have hit the mark if for 'impersonal' he had substituted 'disinterested.' for--believe me, gentlemen--so far as handel stands above chopin, as velasquez above greuze, even so far stand the great masculine objective writers above all who appeal to you by parade of personality or private sentiment. mention of these great masculine 'objective' writers brings me to my last word: which is, 'steep yourselves in _them_: habitually bring all to the test of _them_: for while you cannot escape the fate of all style, which is to be personal, the more of catholic manhood you inherit from those great loins the more you will assuredly beget.' this then is style. as technically manifested in literature it is the power to touch with ease, grace, precision, any note in the gamut of human thought or emotion. but essentially it resembles good manners. it comes of endeavouring to understand others, of thinking for them rather than for yourself--of thinking, that is, with the heart as well as the head. it gives rather than receives; it is nobly careless of thanks or applause, not being fed by these but rather sustained and continually refreshed by an inward loyalty to the best. yet, like 'character' it has its altar within; to that retires for counsel, from that fetches its illumination, to ray outwards. cultivate, gentlemen, that habit of withdrawing to be advised by the best. so, says fénelon, 'you will find yourself infinitely quieter, your words will be fewer and more effectual; and while you make less ado, what you do will be more profitable.' [footnote : 'an oration,' says quintilian, 'may find room for almost any word saving a few indecent ones (_quae sunt parum verecunda_).' he adds that writers of the old comedy were often commended even for these: 'but it is enough for us to mind our present business--_sed nobis nostrum opus intueri sat est._'] index abelard , , abercrombie, lascelles addison, joseph , alcuin , , , alfred, king aristophanes aristotle , , arnold, matthew , , , , "arte of rhetorique," wilson's ascham, roger , augustine bacon, lord , , , , bagehot, walter "ballata" barbour, john barrie, sir james matthew , bede beerbohm, max belisarius bentham, jeremy "beowulf" - béranger, pierre-jean de berners, lord - , bible, the: authorised version , , , et seq., , , revised version - blair, wilfred blake, william boccaccio boethius bologna, university of - , borneil, giraud de boswell, james bridges, robert brooke, the rev. stopford a. brougham, ld , browne, sir thomas , , , , browning, robert , buffon bunyan, john burke, edmund , , , - , burns, robert butler, arthur john caedmon cambridge _et seqq._ campion, thomas , carducci, giosué - carlyle, thomas , , cellini, benvenuto cervantes , chadwick, professor h. m. chair of english literature, university ordinance chambers, e. k. champeaux, william of chaucer, geoffrey , - , , , , chesterton, gilbert k. chichester, richard of cicero , clare, john coleridge, samuel taylor , , conington, john - courthope, w. j. , , , coverdale, miles cowley, abraham cowper, william crewe, ld chief justice cynewulf daniel, samuel , dante , darwin, charles defoe, daniel , . dekker, thomas de la mare, walter de quincey, thomas desiderius, archbishop dionysius of halicarnassus donne, john , , dryden, john , , "duchess of malfy," webster's dunbar 'eliot, george' emerson, ralph waldo falconer, william falkner, j. meade - fénelon fitzgerald, edward flaubert, gustave fletcher, john fowler, w. h. and f. g. , freeman, professor e. a. , , - , "froissart," berners' froude, james anthony fuller, thomas gibbon, edward , gildas goethe , gray, thomas , , , - , green, j. r. green, t. h. gregory the great, pope grierson, professor h. j. c. hamilton, sir william hardy, thomas harris, frank harvey, gabriel , - heine, heinrich herbert, george "hero and leander," marlowe's herodotus , homer , , , - , , , , , horace - housman, professor a. e. ibsen irnerius isaiah - jackson, dr henry johnson, samuel , , , , , jonson, ben , , , , jowett, benjamin jusserand, j. j. juvenal, keats, john , , kempis, thomas à ker, professor w. p. , kipling, rudyard lamb, charles lessing , , lindsay, the rev. t. m., d.d. lloyd george, the right hon. david - lucian , , , , lucretius malory, sir thomas - , marlowe, christopher - , , marvell, andrew mason, william masson, david mckenna, the right hon. reginald - meredith, george , milton, john , , , , - , - , , , , , minto, professor william moore, thomas morris, william mullinger, j. bass , murray, professor gilbert nashe, thomas newman, cardinal , , - , , , , , newton, sir isaac noyes, alfred "nut-brown maid, the" oates, captain origen , oxford _et seq._ paris, university of , pater, walter , patmore, coventry payne, e. j. - "pervigilium veneris" , pheidias philosophy and poetry piers plowman , "pilgrimage to parnassus, the" - plato - , , pliny - podsnap (_see_ freeman) poggio pope, alexander , powell, f. york provençal song - pythagoras quintilian , , raleigh, professor sir walter rashdall, hastings - remigius renan reynolds, sir joshua - sainte-beuve, charles augustus saintsbury, prof. george , , salamanca, university of scott, the antarctic expedition severus, sulpicius shakespeare, william , , , - , - , , , , , , , , shaw, george bernard shelley shirley, james sidgwick, henry sidney, sir philip - skeat, walter w. "sonata" south, robert spenser, edmund , , , stevenson, robert louis stubbs, bishop w. 'student's handbook, the' - swift, jonathan swinburne, algernon taylor, jeremy - tennyson, lord , tertullian , , thackeray, william makepeace thompson, francis thomson, james toulouse, university of tyndale, william , , vacarius ventadour, bernard de "venus and adonis" - verrall, dr a. w. vigfússon, gudbrand virgil , , , voltaire waller, edmund walpole, horatio walton, isaak - , , warton, thomas watson, e. j. watson, william webster, john wendell, barrett whistler, james mcneill whitman, walt , "widsith" wolfe, general wood, anthony wordsworth, william , , , , , , , , , wright, aldis wyat, sir thomas - , wyclif, john , yeats, william butler young, arthur cambridge: printed by j. b. peace, m.a., at the university press. =how to teach phonics= by lida m. williams primary supervisor and instructor of methods, northern normal and industrial school, aberdeen, south dakota hall & mccreary company chicago copyright , hall & mccreary company p printed in the u.s.a. foreword phonics is not a method of teaching reading, but it is _a necessary part_ of every good, modern method. it is the key to word mastery, and word mastery is one of the first essentials in learning to read. a knowledge of the sounds of letters, and of the effect of the position of the letter upon its sound, is an essential means of mastering the mechanics of reading, and of enabling children to become independent readers. a knowledge of phonics not only gives power to pronounce new words, but it trains the ear, develops clear articulation and correct enunciation, and aids in spelling. later, when diacritical marks are introduced, it aids in the use of the dictionary. the habit of attacking and pronouncing words of entirely new form, develops self-confidence in the child, and the pleasure he experiences in mastering difficulties without help, constantly leads to new effort. the little foreigner, greatly handicapped where reading is taught by the word and sentence methods only, begins on an equal basis with his american neighbor, when the "alphabet by sound" is taught. in recent years only has the subject of phonics found a place on the daily school program; and there is perhaps, no other subject on the primary program so vaguely outlined in the average teacher's mind and therefore taught with so little system and definite purpose. the present need is a systematic and comprehensive but simple method of phonics teaching thruout the primary grades, that will enable any teacher, using any good text in reading, to successfully teach the phonetic facts, carefully grading the difficulties by easy and consecutive steps thus preparing the pupils for independent effort in thot getting, and opening for him the door to the literary treasures of the ages. it is with the hope of aiding the earnest teacher in the accomplishment of this purpose that "how to teach phonics" is published. l.m.w. learning to read every sound and pedagogical method of teaching reading must include two basic principles. . reading must begin in the life of the child, with real thought content. whether the thought unit be a word, a sentence, or a story, it must represent some idea or image that appeals to the child's interests and adjusts itself to his experience. . it must proceed with a mastery of not only words, but of the sound symbols of which words are composed. the child's love for the story, his desire to satisfy a conscious need, gives him an immediate and compelling motive for mastering the symbols, which in themselves are of incidental and subordinate interest. while he is learning to read, he feels that he is reading to learn and "symbols are turned into habit." if the child is to understand from the beginning that reading is thot getting, we must begin with the sentence, rhyme or other language unit. if a story is the initial step, a few well chosen sentences that tell the heart of the story will constitute the first black board reading lesson. the next step is the analysis of the sentence, or the study and recognition of the individual words therein. finally the word is separated into its elementary sounds, the study of the sound symbols growing out of the stock of words learned first as purely sight words. following this phonic analysis comes the final step, the blending of these phonic elements to produce new words. thus gradually increasing prominence is given to the discovery of new words by this analytic-synthetic process, and less time to sight word drills, until they are entirely omitted, except for the teaching of unphonetic words. there should be at least two ten-minute lessons in phonics each day. these lessons are not reading lessons and should not trespass on the regular reading period, when thot getting and thot giving are uppermost. while greater prominence is given to the thot phase in reading, the technical drill and active effort in mastering the mechanical phase is of equal importance as necessary preparation for good reading. first year . _ear training:_ from the first day a definite place on the program should be given to phonics. this period, at first very short, will gradually increase to ten, fifteen or twenty minutes. to enable pupils to recognize words when separated into their elementary sounds, exercises in "listening and doing," will constitute the first step in phonics teaching. words are sounded slowly and distinctly by the teacher and pronounced or acted out by the pupils. action game (first day.) c-l-a-p s-w-ee-p f-l-y b-ow d-u-s-t r-u-n j-u-m-p s-i-t s-l-ee-p p-u-sh d-r-i-nk w-a-k-e m-a-r-ch s-t-a-n-d s-t-r-e-t-ch if at first children are not able to distinguish the words when separated thus; s-t-a-n-d, d-r-i-n-k, blend the sound less slowly thus: st-and, dr-ink, gradually increasing the difficulty to st-an-d, d-r-ink, and finally to the complete analysis. these ear training exercises should continue until a "phonetic sense" is established. not all children can readily blend sounds and "hear the word." patient drill for weeks, even months, may be necessary before a sense of phonetic values is attained. haphazard and spasmodic work is fatal to progress; but a few minutes of brisk, lively drill, given regularly each day will accomplish wonders. the exercises should be varied from day to day to insure active interest and effort. _second day:_ touch your n-o-se; your ch-ee-k; your ch-i-n; l-i-p-s; k-n-ee; f-oo-t; b-oo-k; p-e-n-c-i-l; d-e-s-k; sh-o-e; d-r-e-ss, etc. _third day:_ place a number of toys in a basket. pupils find as the teacher sounds the name of each, saying: "find the t-o-p"; "the s-p-oo-l;" "the d-o-ll"; "the h-o-r-n"; etc. _fourth day:_ sound the names of pupils in class; or names of animals; colors, fruits, places, etc. _fifth day:_ r-u-n to m-e. c-l-a-p your h-a-n-d-s. w-a-v-e the f-l-a-g. cl-o-se the d-oo-r. f-o-l-d your a-r-m-s. b-r-i-n-g m-e a r-e-d b-a-ll. b-ou-n-ce the b-a-ll. th-r-ow the b-a-ll to fr-e-d. r-i-n-g the b-e-ll. h-o-p to m-e. s-i-t in m-y ch-air. r-u-n to the ch-ar-t. s-i-n-g a s-o-n-g. b-r-i-n-g me the p-oin-t-er. b-o-w to m-e. f-l-y a k-i-t-e. s-w-ee-p the fl-oo-r. r-o-c-k the b-a-b-y. w-a-sh your f-a-ce. d-u-s-t the ch-air-s. sh-a-k-e the r-u-g. f-ee-d the h-e-n-s. c-a-ll the ch-i-ck-s. m-i-l-k the c-ow. ch-o-p w-oo-d. r-ow a b-oa-t. b-l-ow the h-o-r-n. the pupil should now begin sounding words for himself, at first, if need be, repeating the sounds after the teacher, then being encouraged to attempt them alone. he will soon be able to "spell by sound" names of common objects in the room, as well as easy and familiar words dictated by the teacher. ii. _teach the single consonant sounds._ b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s (as in see), v, w, g (hard), c (hard), and qu as in queer. teach but one sound for each letter at first. nothing need be said at this time about the fact that some letters have more than one sound. when words like "city" or "gem" occur simply explain that sometimes "c" or "g" has this sound, (giving the soft sound), but continue in the phonic drill to teach the sounds that will be needed first--those most often met in the early reading. the sounds of initial s and y are taught first, rather than final y and s; q is taught with the u--qu (as in quiet, queer, quick) not q alone. the sounds must be given distinctly and correctly by the teacher, and she should insist on perfect responses. good reading is impossible without clear and distinct articulation. . _analyze known words in teaching the consonant sounds._ for the first lesson teach perhaps two consonant sounds. suppose the words "ball" and "red" are chosen to be analyzed as words familiar to the class. (selected from the reading lessons as the ones best known and most easily remembered.) write "b all" on the board, and pointing to the separated parts, sound slowly several times. pupils repeat. teacher say, "show the letter that says 'b.' the part that says 'all.' write "b" under "ball" thus: b all b pupil sound "b" several times, as it is written elsewhere on the black board. proceed with "red" in the same way. keep these two forms, b all r ed b r before the class, asking frequently for the sounds until thoroly fixed in mind. for the second lesson, review "b" and "r" and teach one or two new consonants. it is better to have short and frequent lessons at first, than to present too many sounds at once, resulting in confusion. suppose "c" is to be taught next and the type word chosen is "cup." it is not necessary to teach the consonants in the order in which they occur in the alphabet,--it will depend rather upon the occurrence in the primer of the words chosen for type words. write the word "cup." pupils recognize it at once as a sight word, and pronounce. rewrite it, separating it thus, c up, and let the pupils make an effort to sound the parts alone. if they fail, sound it for them asking them to repeat it after you. proceed as with "ball" and "red," being sure that each one gives the sound correctly. ( .) after teaching "c" say, "who can find a word on the chart beginning with this sound?" "in your books?" "on the blackboard?" the pupil sounding the letter as he points to it. ( ) say, "i'm thinking of another word beginning with "c." "it is something grandpa uses in walking." (cane.) "i'm thinking of something sweet that you like to eat." (cake) (candy) "of the name of someone in this class." (clara) (carl) "a little yellow bird." (canary) "you think of a word beginning with that sound." "another." "another." . _begin at once applying knowledge of the sounds learned._ as new words are met containing known sounds, the pupils should apply their knowledge of phonics. for example, if the word "catch" appears, the pupils sound "c," the teacher pronouncing "atch" underlining that part of the word as she tells it,--the pupil puts these sounds together and discovers the new word for himself. if the new word is "cab," the only help from the teacher is the short sound of "a". this given the pupil sounds "a" and "b" slowly; then faster, until the result of the blended sounds is "ab." combine "c" with "ab" in the same manner until by the blending of the sounds the word is recognized. only such help should be given, as will enable the pupil to help himself. "ball," "red" and "cup" now become type words with which "b" "r" and "c" are associated respectively, and from which the pupil gets his "cue" if he fails to give the sound of the letter at sight. thus all the consonants are taught, from suitable sight words which the child has already learned. they need not however, be the ones given here,--for "b" it may be "baby," "ball," "boy," or "box," but let it be a word familiar to the class and easily remembered. for "d" it may be "doll," "day," or "dog;" for "y", "you", "yellow", etc. the teacher should previously go through the text and select the words she wishes to use as type words in teaching the consonant sounds. . _first steps in writing and spelling._ as each consonant sound is taught its written form may be learned. on rough manila paper, using waxed crayons, make copies of the letters about two inches in height, for each pupil. at his desk the child traces with his fore finger, going over the smooth path again and again--thus developing psycho-motor co-ordination. each time the letter is traced, the pupil sounds it softly, and as soon as he is sure of the form, runs to the board and writes it. the writing at first may be entirely at the blackboard, where the teacher's copy may be reproduced. for the slower ones who have difficulty with the form, a good practice is to "write it in the air," the pupil pointing with index finger and following the teacher as she writes, also tracing the teacher's copy with pointer, using free, rapid movement. (tracing with crayon or pencil tends to slow, cramped writing, and should not be encouraged.) thus when the forms of the letters are learned and associated with the sound, the pupils are able to write phonetic words from dictation as well as to "spell by sound." . _consonant drill._ ( ) with a rubber pen, a set of type, or with black crayola, and cardboard, a set of consonant cards may be made, one for each sound. on one side of the card is written or printed the type word with the consonant sound below; on the other side, the consonant alone, thus: -------- ----- |b all | | b | |b | | b | -------- ----- the number of cards will increase each day as new sounds are learned. rapid daily drill with these cards is most valuable in associating instantly the sound with its symbol and should be continued until every child knows every sound. after the analysis the side of the card containing only the consonant should be used for the drill. but if the pupil fails to give the right sound, or is unable to give any sound at all, the card should be reversed and he readily gets the right sound from the word. other devices for teaching the consonants are sometimes used by successful teachers who do not use the type-words and cards. for instance, the letter may be associated with its sound in this way:--the clock says "t"; the angry cat, "f"; the cow says "m"; etc. the difficulty here is to find suitable symbols for each sound. if, for example, the sounds of "l", "v" and "sh" are represented by a spinning wheel, a buzz saw, and a water wheel respectively, and if the child is not familiar with these symbols, they will not call up a definite sound in his mind; but if "l" is taught from "little," "sh" from "sheep," and "v" from "very", (or other familiar words,) there can be no uncertainty and no time need be spent by the child in laboring to retain and associate the sounds with unfamiliar symbols. not the method, but the motive, is the essential thing. what we want is that every child should know the consonants thoroly. get the _motive_, then use the method that brings the best results with the least expenditure of time and energy. ( ) for variety in reviewing and fixing the consonant sounds, give frequent dictation exercises. a. with all the consonants on the board, the teacher sounds any consonant, the pupil finds and repeats the sound as he points it out. as the teacher points, pupils sound, occasionally in concert, and in individual recitation of the entire list. individual work should predominate, to make sure that the pupil is giving the correct sound and putting forth independent effort. b. pupils write sounds as teacher dictates. if a pupil fails to recall and write the form, the teacher may pronounce the type word and ask the pupil to sound the initial consonant (tell the first sound in the word). to illustrate: the teacher pronounces "cup", pupils sound "c", then write it. if they have mastered the written forms they will enjoy this exercise. children soon acquire the ability and become possessed of the desire to write whole words. then the teacher should direct this effort, teaching the child to visualize (get a picture of the word as a whole) and write short, simple words. . _blending._ when a number of consonant sounds are mastered, practice in blending may begin. when the need arises--when words are met which begin with a combination of consonants the blends are taught, e.g., bright--b, r,--br, br ight, bright. f, l,--fl, fl ower, flower. keep a separate set of cards for these blends--and drill upon them as the list grows. (br, pl, fl, sl, cr, gl, gr, bl, cl, fr, pr, st, tr, str, sp, sw, tw, sk.) gr ow dr aw pl ay s ky sm all sl ay fl ower cr ow st ay st and cl ean fr ay gl ass pr ay tr ay br own sp in str ay bl ue sw ing sl ow st ore sl ack bl ow tr ack dw arf gl ow the teacher must pronounce the syllables that the children have, as yet, no power to master, e.g., with the word "grow", ( ) the children will blend g and r, gr; ( ) teacher pronounces "ow"; ( ) children blend "gr" and "ow" until they recognise "grow." teach also the digraphs sh, ch, th, wh, as they are met in the common words in use: when, they, chick, etc. sh eep ch ick wh at th at sh ell ch ild wh en th is sh y ch air wh y th ese sh ore ch ill wh ere th ose sh ine ch erry wh ich th ere sh ow ch ildren th en th eir sh e ch urch th ey th ey sh all ch ase sh ould ch est iii. _teach the short vowels._ since more than per cent of the vowels are short, and since short vowels outnumber long vowels by about four to one, they are taught first. teach one vowel at a time by combining with the known consonants. and what fun it is, when short "a" is introduced, to blend it with the consonants and listen to discover "word sounds." henceforth the children will take delight in "unlocking" new words, without the teacher's help. she will see to it, of course, that the words are simple and purely phonetic at first; as: c-a-n, can h-a-d, had c-a-p, cap m-a-t, mat c-a-t, cat m-a-n, man r-a-t, rat f-a-n, fan h-a-t, hat s-a-t, sat whole "families" are discovered by placing the vowel with the initial or the final consonants, thus: ca n r at f an ca p h at an d ca t c at s an d ca b b at st an d ma t f at l an d ma n s at b an d the children will enjoy forming all the families possible with the known sounds. _short "a" families or phonograms._ at an ap ad ack ag and r ang b ank b at c an c ap h ad b ack b ag b and s ang r ank c at m an g ap l ad h ack f ag h and b ang s ank f at p an l ap m ad j ack j ag l and h ang t ank m at t an m ap g ad l ack l ag s and f ang bl ank p at r an n ap b ad p ack n ag st and cl ang cr ank n at f an r ap c ad r ack r ag gr and spr ang dr ank s at b an s ap f ad s ack s ag br and fr ank r at d an t ap p ad t ack t ag str and pl ank h at n an tr ap s ad st ack w ag th ank th at v an str ap gl ad sl ack st ag sn ap br ad tr ack br ag wr ap bl ack dr ag after a little drill in analyzing the words of a family, (sounding the consonant and phonogram separately) they should be pronounced at sight, analyzing the word only when the pupil fails in pronunciation. the teacher's chart of phonograms as she works it out for herself may be something like this. [(a] [)e] i [)o] [)u] at et it ot ut ack ed ick ock ub ad en id od uck ag est ig og ug an end im op um ap edge in ong un and ent ip oss uff ang ess ift ung ank ell ing unk ash ink ump amp ill ush ust while this gives the teacher a working chart, it is neither necessary nor advisable that the above order be always followed in teaching the phonograms and sounding series of words, nor that they be systematically completed before other phonograms found in the words of the reading lessons are taught. such phonograms as "ound" from "found", "un" from "run", "ight" from "bright", "est" from "nest", "ark" from "lark", etc., may be taught as soon as these sight words are made a part of the child's reading vocabulary. f ound r un br ight ound un ight s ound f un m ight r ound s un r ight gr ound b un f ight b ound g un fr ight p ound n un l ight f ound r un s ight h ound s un sl ight ar ound st un n ight n est l ark c atch est ark atch b est d ark h atch l est b ark m atch p est m ark m atch r est h ark b atch t est p ark l atch v est sp ark p atch w est st ark th atch cr est sh ark scr atch ch est sn atch gu est attention is not called here to the various vowel sounds, but the complete phonogram is taught at sight. _short "e" phonograms._ bed h en b end b ent fed d en l end c ent led p en m end d ent n ed m en s end l ent r ed b en t end s ent fr ed t en bl end r ent sh ed wr en sp end t ent sl ed th en tr end w ent bl ed wh en sp ent gl en edge b ess b ell sh ell h edge l ess c ell sm ell l edge bl ess s ell sp ell s edge ch ess t ell sw ell w edge dr ess f ell dw ell pl edge pr ess n ell sl edge gu ess w ell _short "i" phonograms._ d ick s ick cl ick th ick k ick t ick qu ick tr ick l ick w ick sl ick p ick br ick st ick b id p ig d im p in th in d id b ig h im t in tw in h id f ig j im b in k id d ig r im f in l id r ig t im s in r id w ig tr im w in sl id tw ig br im ch in sk id sk im gr in sl im sk in sw im sp in d ip l ift s ing p ink b ill h ip g ift k ing l ink f ill l ip s ift r ing m ink h ill n ip dr ift w ing s ink j ill r ip sh ift br ing w ink k ill s ip sw ift cl ing bl ink m ill t ip thr ift sl ing br ink p ill ch ip st ing dr ink t ill cl ip str ing ch ink w ill sl ip spr ing cl ink ch ill dr ip sw ing shr ink sp ill gr ip th ing th ink st ill sh ip wr ing tr ill sk ip tr ip str ip wh ip _short "o" phonograms._ b ob n od c ock d og c ob p od l ock h og r ob r od r ock l og s ob h od s ock f og m ob c od m ock fr og j ob cl od bl ock c og f ob pl od cl ock j og kn ob tr od cr ock cl og thr ob sh od fl ock kn ock st ock h op t op sh op m op st op sl op l op dr op pr op s op cr op s ong l oss l ong t oss d ong r oss g ong m oss str ong b oss wr ong cr oss pr ong fl oss thr ong gl oss _phonograms containing short "u"._ r ub d uck b ug r un t ub l uck h ug s un c ub t uck j ug f un h ub cl uck l ug b un cl ub pl uck m ug g un gr ub sh uck p ug sp un scr ub tr uck r ug st un st ub str uck t ug sh un sn ub dr ug pl ug sn ug dr um c uff r ung pl um m uff s ung ch um p uff h ung g um h uff l ung h um b uff cl ung sc um bl uff fl ung gl um gr uff sl ung st uff st ung spr ung sw ung str ung b unk j ump h ush m ust h unk b ump m ush j ust j unk l ump r ush r ust ch unk h ump g ush d ust dr unk p ump br ush cr ust sk unk d ump cr ush tr ust sp unk st ump bl ush thr ust tr unk th ump pl ush thr ush from the beginning review daily the phonograms taught. thus by means of these daily drills in pronunciation, the pupil gains power in mastering new words. he constantly makes intelligent and practical application of the knowledge he has gained in pronouncing a letter or a combination of letters in a certain way, under certain conditions. _diacritical marks_ the child has no need of diacritical marks at this time; indeed he has little need for them until the fourth year, when the use of the dictionary is taught. the new dictionaries greatly simplify the matter of mastering the diacritical marks, and lessen the number needed, by re-writing unphonetic words in simple phonetic spelling. during the first three years do not retard the child's progress, and weaken his power to apply the knowledge which his previous experience has given him, by marking words to aid him in pronunciation. at best, the marks are artificial and questionable aids. phonic plays much necessary drill can be made interesting by infusing the _spirit_ of play into an exercise that would otherwise be formal. . _"hide and seek"_ "hide and seek" at once suggests a game. the teacher introduces it simply by saying: "we'll play these sounds are hiding from us. who can find them?" place the consonant cards on the blackboard ledge. the teacher writes any consonant on the board and immediately erases it. a pupil finds the card containing the same consonant, sounds it, and replaces the card. teacher writes several sounds on the board, then erases them. pupil finds corresponding sounds on cards, in the order written. . _"fishing"_ (fish in pond.) cards placed in a row on black board ledge. (catching fish.) pupil takes as many as he can sound correctly. single and blended consonants, and digraphs written on cardboard cut in form of fish, and put into the mirror lake on the sand table. children "catch fish" in turn. . _"guess."_ a pupil thinks of a word containing a known phonogram, which is communicated to the teacher. the child standing before the class then says, "i am thinking of a word belonging to the "an" family." the word, we will say, is "fan." a child who is called on asks, "is it c an?" the first child replies, "it is not can." another asks, "is it m an?" etc., until the correct word is discovered. . _"run home."_ for reviewing phonograms and fixing the vowel sounds as well, the following game is used. draw pictures of several houses on the board, writing a different phonogram in each, explaining that these are the names of the families living there, as, "ed," "eg," "est," "en," etc. distribute to the class cards containing a word with one of these endings, and let "the children run home." those holding the words ten, pen, men and hen, will run to the house where "en" lives. the children holding rest, best, nest, etc., will group themselves at the house of "est." again let several children represent mothers and stand before the class holding phonograms. as mother "ed" calls her children, those holding cards containing red, led, fed, fred, and bed, will run to her. if a child belonging to the "est" family should come, she will send back the stray child, saying pleasantly, "you do not belong in my family." a little voice drill as practiced in the music lesson may be used here. the mother calls "children" on and of the scale (low and high do thus: - - child-dren), the children replying as they come, "we're here." for individual tests let the mother call out all her children from the other families, the children coming to her as she calls their card names. rhyme stories enliven the phonic drills occasionally by originating little rhymes, using the words of the series to be reviewed. write the words on the board in columns, or upon cards. as the teacher repeats a line of the jingle, she pauses for the children to supply the rhyme words. grandma was taking a cozy nap her hands were folded in her (lap) when she wakened she heard a (tap) in the maple tree that was full of (sap.) she soon spied the tapper--he wore a red (cap) white vest and black coat, and his wings gave a (flap) as he hopped about with a rap-a-tap-(tap) what did he want--was he looking for (sap)? ah no, but for grubs, which he ate quick as (snap) can you name this gay drummer who wears a red (cap)? ii. as soon as possible introduce a number of phonograms into the same story. i have a little pet who is as black as (jet) she sits upon a mat and watches for a (rat.) her coat is smooth as silk, she likes to drink sweet (milk) she grows so fast and fat that soon she'll be a (cat) can't you guess? now what a pity 'tis the dearest little ( ). spelling by sound an easy step now, which the children will enjoy is the writing of the words of given families as a dictation exercise, followed by sentences as soon as the use of the capital and period have been taught. such sentences as the following may be given after a number of short "a" phonograms are mastered: the cat sat on a mat. nan has a fan. the cat is fat. the cat can see the pan. the man has a hat. dan has a bat. dan has a hat and a cap. the bag is in the cab. when phonograms containing the other short vowels are known, words may be pronounced miscellaneously from different series or families; as, run, cap, pet, ran, pin, top, followed by sentences made up of miscellaneous words, as,-- "run red hen." "nan has a fan." "get the hat pin." "ned can spin a top." "nat set the trap." "jack run back and get the sack." "a fat man got in the hack." "can sam get the hat?" the alphabet and oral spelling the names of letters should not be formally taught until their sounds are thoroly fixed in mind; otherwise the names and sounds will be confused. pupils who begin by "learning their letters" will be found spelling out a word (naming over the letters) in order to arrive at the pronunciation. attention must be focused on the _sounds only_, at first. when the consonant sounds are mastered by every member of the class, and they have gained some proficiency in pronouncing words by blending these with the short and long vowel sounds, the _names_ of the letters may be taught, and the alphabet committed to memory in order. while as a rule, most children learn the majority of the letters incidentally by the end of the first year, it often happens that some remain ignorant of the alphabetical order until they come to use the dictionary, and are greatly handicapped. _to associate the name of the letter with its sound._ ( ) the teacher names the letter as she points to it and the children give the corresponding sound; ( ) as the teacher sounds the letter, pupils name the letter sounded. ( ) repeat with the letters erased from the board. oral spelling may begin _after_ the sounds have first been mastered--and as soon as the names of the letters are taught. spell only the phonetic words at first. the lists of families of words which have been written from dictation may now be spelled orally. the spelling recitation may be both oral and written, but written spelling should predominate the first year. unphonetic words should be taught by visualizing--getting the form of the word as a whole. the teacher writes the word on the board in free rapid hand, pupils observe for a moment, getting a mental picture of the form; the word is erased by the teacher, and reproduced on the board by the pupil. while oral spelling aids the "ear-minded" pupil and gives variety in the recitation, written spelling should predominate for the reasons that ( ) in practical life, spelling is used almost wholly in expressing thought in writing; ( ) the eye and hand should be trained equally with the ear. it is often true that good oral spellers will fail in writing the same words for want of practice. ( ) in the written recitation each pupil can spell a greater number of words and in less time than is possible in oral spelling. seat work . distribute pages from magazines or old readers and let pupils underline words beginning with a certain consonant (the one being taught). if different colored pencils are used, the same pages can be used a number of times. when the "m" sound is being taught let all words beginning with that sound be marked with black; at another seat work period, words beginning with "b" are marked with "green;" and again, words beginning with "f" sound are marked with blue pencils, etc. underline digraphs, blended consonants, and phonograms. . the teacher writes a phonogram on the board and below it all the consonant sounds from which words may be built. pupils write the entire words. . phonograms are written on the board; pupils supply consonants and write out the words. . have a number of phonograms and three or four sets of consonants in envelopes. give an envelope to each child and let him build the words on his desk. duplicate copies can be made on a hectograph, one set for each lesson; then if one envelope from each set is preserved, those miscellaneous lessons can be used in review for a long time, each child using a different set each time. . write on the board lists of words ending in various phonograms and let the children re-write them, arranging in columns according to phonograms. . write families from memory. general suggestions . at least two daily periods should be given to phonics. the first lessons will be short, but after some advance has been made, ten to fifteen minutes should be given. . as far as possible let the words for phonic drill be those that will occur in the new reading lessons. . constantly review all familiar sounds, phonograms, digraphs, blends, etc., when met in new words, and so teach pupils to apply their knowledge of phonics. . teaching them to "pantomime" the sounds--representing them mutely by movement of the lips, tongue and palate, will aid them in silent study at their seats. . by the end of the first year the pupil's phonetic knowledge, combined with his vocabulary of sight words and his power to discover a new word, either phonetically or by the context, ought to enable him to read independently any primer, and to read during the year from eight to twelve or more primers and first readers. . in reading, pupils should be taught to get the meaning chiefly by context--by the parts which precede or follow the difficult word and are so associated with it as to throw light upon its meaning. . when a word cannot be pronounced phonetically, the teacher should assist by giving the sound needed, but the pupil will soon discover that by using his wits in phonics as in other things, he can get the new word for himself by the sense of what he is reading, e.g., in the sentence, "the farmer came into the field" he meets the new word "field." naturally a second year pupil, who has learned the reasons for sounding will apply the long sound of "i;"--as he reads it does not make sense, so he tries short "i." still the sentence is meaningless, so he tries again with "e" and reads a sentence which satisfies him, because the meaning is clear. if the first year pupil pronounces the word "coat" as co-at (recognizing the last combination as a member of the "at" family) the teacher will underline and call his attention to the digraph "oa" which he has already learned to pronounce as long "o." most pupils however, meeting the word in a sentence--as, "the caterpillar's coat is green"--would, if reading thotfully recognize the word by the context. . drill on obscure sounds should be omitted the first year. unphonetic words should be taught as sight words: as: one, many, been, said, they, ought, eight. . begin to combine words and syllables into longer words as soon as possible: door-step, in-deed, hand-some, be-fore, ham-mer-ing, in-no-cent, for-get-ful, car-pen-ter, side-walk, mis-take. . give time increasingly to analytic-synthetic word study, e.g.--"eight" and "rain" are taught as sight words. eigh t r ain analysis: eigh ain w eigh p ain w eight pl ain synthesis: n eigh com plain n eigh bor com plain ing articulation exercises to correct faulty articulation and secure flexibility should be given frequently. constant vigilance is necessary in overcoming the common errors shown in the following examples. "i will eat you," said the troll. (not "e-chew") dear little baby, close your eye. (not "clo-zhure eye") "i will then," said red hen, and she did. (not "an' she did.") put your right hand in. (not "put chure") --you, and you, and you. (an' jew.) father will meet you (meat chew) at the station. the leaves turned to red and gold. (red dan gold) "no matter what you hear, (what chew) no matter what you see, raggylug, don't you move." (don't chew) tender flowers come forth to greet her. (gree-ter) it is not at all (a-tall) like the mother bird. have the pupils practice such exercises as:-- did you? don't you? would you? should you? could you? (not "did jew," "don't chew" etc.) where shall i meet you? (not meat chew) when shall i meet you? she sells sea shells. pupils usually have difficulty with words ending in sts, dth, pth. lists of such words should be drilled upon:-- nests, vests, posts, hosts, boasts, fists, mists, frosts, length, breadth, depth. "he thrusts his fists against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts." (if necessary show the pupils how to adjust the vocal organs to make the different sounds.) m, n, ng (nasal) p, b, w, m (lips) f, v (lips and teeth) t, d, s, z, n (tongue and hard palate.) j, ch, (tongue and hard palate-back) k, g, ng (tongue and soft palate.) y, l (tongue, hard palate and soft palate.) p, b, d, t, j, k, h, g, ch (momentary) w, f, v, s, l, r, y, th, sh (continuous) the majority of children learn the sounds by imitation and repetition. the above is to help the teacher in giving the sounds correctly. second year _i. review single and blended consonants, digraphs, short and long vowels, and all phonograms._ _ii. continue pronouncing exercises, teaching new phonograms._ continue word study by the analytic-synthetic process. these phonic drills will deal largely with the new words that occur in the daily reading lessons. _iii. syllabication._ in mastering the pronunciation of new words, pupils should acquire the habit of analyzing them into syllables. the ear must be trained to _hear_ syllables, they should be _separately pronounced_, and _clearly imaged_. this makes for effective spelling later. most of the difficulties in spelling are removed when the habit of breaking up a complex word into its elements is acquired. re mem ber ther mom e ter sep a rate in de pen dence dan de lion mul ti pli ca tion beau ti ful re frig er a tor _iv. teach the long vowel sounds._ we have found that the short vowels predominate in the english language. the long vowel sounds come next in frequency. when the child has mastered the letters and combinations representing these two sounds, he is able to recognize a large majority of the phonetic words in our language. phonetic words follow definite rules of pronunciation. these rules are not to be formally taught in the first and second years, but pointed out by examples, so that the visual and auditory image may be associated. to illustrate: when there are two or more vowels in a word of one syllable, the first vowel is long, and the last silent, as: came, leaf, coat, rain. "when there is one vowel in the word and it is the last, it is long," as: me, he, fly. all vowels are short unless modified by position. have the children notice the effect of final "e" upon some of their short vowel words. these lists will furnish good pronunciation drills. mat mate bit bite tap tape pan pane rod rode fad fade fat fate hat hate mad made can cane pin pine rat rate not note rob robe pet pete man mane din dine dim dime cap cape fin fine spin spine hid hide mop mope kit kite hop hope plum plume rip ripe tub tube cub cube cut cute tun tune call attention to the vowel digraphs in the same way: ea, ai, oa, ay. deaf seat bean neat leaves meat heat peach lean please eagle clean eat seam teach mean stream glean read squeal wean while there are exceptions, as in the words "head" and "bread," the digraph "ea" has the sound of long "e" in nearly three-fourths of the words in which it occurs and should be so taught. the visual image "ea" should call up the auditory image of long "e." when the child meets the exceptions the context must be relied on to aid him. likewise in the following list, the new fact to be taught is the digraph "ai" having the long sound of "a." blending the initial and final consonants with this, the pupil pronounces the new list of words without further aid. rain chain faith daisy wait main paint daily nail brain faint plainly pail drain snail waist pain claim frail complain pain train praise sailor aim plain quail raise maid braid sprain trail mail the digraph "oa" and "ay" may be taught with equal ease the first year. there is no reason for deferring them; they should be taught as soon as the children have need for them. coat toast roar load goat roam float road moan toad roam throat oar boat oat meal croak soar foam loaf soap coarse loaves groan board goal boast cloak coach poach roast say day may gay hay play slay pray lay clay dray gray nay bray way stay pay tray sway spray ray stray jay stray long vowel phonograms (these lists are for rapid pronunciation drills.) c ame f ade f ace sh ape l ame m ade l ace gr ape g ame w ade p ace m ate n ame bl ade r ace d ate s ame gr ade br ace f ate t ame sh ade gr ace g ate bl ame sp ade pl ace h ate fl ame gl ade sp ace k ate sh ame tr ade tr ace c age b ake s ale l ate p age c ake b ale r ate r age l ake p ale cr ate s age m ake t ale gr ate w age r ake sc ale pl ate st age s ake st ale sk ate t ake wh ale st ate w ake g ale g ave c ane dr ake d ale s ave l ane fl ake c ape c ave m ane qu ake t ape p ave p ane sh ake cr ape r ave v ane sn ake dr ape w ave cr ane st ake scr ape br ave pl ane br ake gr ave sh ave sl ave st ave cr ave b e h eed s eek h e s eed m eek m e w eed w eek w e r eed ch eek sh e bl eed cr eek th e br eed sl eek tr ee gr eed p eek s ee sp eed gr eek b ee st eed f eet th ee fr eed b eet fl ee f eel m eet kn ee p eel fl eet fr ee h eel gr eet thr ee r eel sh eet gl ee kn eel sl eet sk ee st eel str eet d eed wh eel sw eet n eed f eed p eep d eem d eep s eem k eep t eem ch eep br eeze w eep fr eeze cr eep sn eeze sh eep squ eeze sl eep wh eeze st eep sw eep d eer m ice pr ide kn ife ch eer n ice gl ide str ife qu eer r ice gu ide h igh sh eer pr ice sl ide s igh st eer sl ice str ide n igh sn eer sp ice d ie th igh gr een tr ice t ie l ight qu een tw ice l ie m ight pr een r ide d ied r ight scr een s ide dr ied br ight w een h ide fr ied f ight spl een t ide sp ied n ight s een w ide l ife s ight k een br ide w ife f ife t ight f ind t ire fr ight m ind w ire sl ight b ind f ire kn ight r ind h ire w ind m ire l ike bl ind sp ire d ike gr ind squ ire p ike h ike f ine k ite t ike d ine b ite sp ike m ine m ite str ike n ine qu ite p ine sm ite p ile v ine sp ite t ile br ine spr ite m ile sh ine wh ite n ile sp ine wr ite f ile sw ine sm ile th ine f ive st ile tw ine h ive wh ile wh ine d ive l ive d ime r ipe dr ive l ime p ipe str ive t ime w ipe thr ive ch ime sn ipe sl ime tr ipe m y pr ime str ipe b y fl y cr y dr y c old b one ch ose fr y s old dr one th ose pr y b old ph one cl ose sh y m old sh one w ove sk y t old thr one dr ove sl y f old gr ove sp y g old r ope cl ove spr y h old h ope st ove st y sc old d ope tr y sl ope h oe wh y h ole t oe p ole c ore j oe r obe m ole m ore f oe gl obe s ole p ore w oe r ode st ole t ore j oke wh ole w ore d oor p oke r oll s ore fl oor w oke tr oll ch ore br oke str oll sh ore m ow ch oke sn ore r ow sm oke c olt st ore s ow sp oke b olt b ow str oke j olt t orn bl ow v olt w orn sl ow sh orn sn ow h ome cr ow t one r ose fl ow st one n ose gl ow h ose gr ow p ose kn ow sh ow thr ow t ube bl ue s own c ube d ue bl own m ule h ue gr own f ume c ue fl own pl ume gl ue thr own j une fl ue t une c ure p ure the diphthongs oi, oy, ou, ow. oi oy m ound ow b oil b oy gr ound c ow s oil j oy c ount n ow t oil t oy m ount h ow c oil r oy h our b ow br oil tr oy fl our br ow sp oil ou h ouse f owl m ouse h owl v oice l oud bl ouse gr owl ch oice cl oud p out sc owl c oin pr oud sh out d own j oin c ouch sp out g own j oint p ouch spr out t own p oint s ound st out br own n oise b ound tr out cl own m oist r ound m outh cr own f ound s outh dr own w ound fr own digraphs (for rapid pronunciation drills.) sh ch th wh th sh eep ch ick bath wh en then sh ell ch ild both wh y they sh y ch air doth wh ere these sh ore ch ill mirth wh ich those sh ine ch erry worth wh at the sh ow ch ildren birth wh ile thy sh e ch urch tooth wh ose that sh all ch ase loth wh ite this sh ould ch est girth wh ale thus sh ake ch ange thin wh eat thine sh ame ch alk thick wh eel there sh ape ch ain think wh ack their sh are ch ance throat wh ip them sh ark ch arge thorn wh irl though sh arp ch ap three wh et thou sh awl ch apel third wh ey sh ed ch apter thaw wh isper sh ear ch arm wh istle sh epherd ch eck third year _i. rules or reasons for sounds._ (the effect of the position of the letter upon its sound.) _ii. effect of "r" upon vowels._ _iii. equivalents._ _iv. teach vowel sounds other than long and short sounds, by analyzing known words and phonograms._ pupils know the phonogram "ark," learned when the following list of words was pronounced: bark, dark, hark, lark, mark, park, shark, etc. attention is now called to the long italian "a" sound (two dots above) and other lists pronounced; as, farm, barn, sharp, charm. broad "a" (two dots below) is taught by recalling the familiar phonogram "all" and the series: ball, fall, call, tall, small, etc., pronounced. also other lists containing this sound: as, walk, salt, caught, chalk, haul, claw, cause. (the rules for sounds apply to the individual syllables in words of more than one syllable as well as to monosyllables.) how to distinguish between vowels and consonants before the rules for the sounds are taken up, it will be necessary that the pupils know how to distinguish the vowels from the consonants. have the vowels on the board, also lists of words, and drill on finding the vowels in the lists. the teacher says, "these letters are called vowels." "how many vowels are there?" "find a vowel in this word"--pointing to one of the words in the lists. as the pupil finds it he says, "this is a vowel." find the vowels in all the words in the lists. phonics and language when the vowels and consonants can be distinguished, pupils can be taught the use of the articles "a" and "an". "an" is used before words beginning with vowels; "a" before words beginning with consonants. lists of words are placed on the board to be copied, and the proper article supplied. apple ball stem eye peach owl orange flower table uncle ink-stand use the article "the" with the same list of words in oral expression, pronouncing "the" with the long sound of "e" before words beginning with vowels, as "the apple," "the ink-stand." _the_ apple is on the table. the peach is ripe. the flower and _the_ orange are for you. _the_ owl has bright eyes. _the_ ice is smooth and hard. grandfather sits in _the_ arm chair. is _the_ envelope sealed? _the_ old man leans on the cane. rules or reasons for sounds the real difficulty in phonics lies in the fact that the pronunciation of the english language abounds in inconsistencies. its letters have no fixed values and represent different sounds in different words. while there are but twenty-six letters in the english alphabet there are forty-four elementary sounds in the english language. thus far but one sound for each consonant has been taught and emphasized. incidentally the fact that some of the letters have more than one sound has been discovered, as c in city, g in gentle,--but now definite teaching is given concerning them. the new sound is taught with its diacritical mark and the reason given, e.g. "c before e, i, or y is soft." when a reason or rule for marking is given, lists of words illustrating the rule should be sounded and pronounced. the teacher marks the word as the reason is given. lists of words may be marked by the pupils as a dictation exercise. the above use of _diacritical marks_ does not apply to the pernicious practice of marking words to aid in pronunciation, but to show the purpose of marks, which is merely to indicate the sound. _teach that the sound of the letter depends upon its position in the word, and not upon the diacritical marks._ reasons for sounds . when there is one vowel in the word and it is at the last, it is long. me he my sky be the by cry we she fly try . one vowel in the word, not at the last, is short; as, mat, nest, pond. (refer to short vowel lists to test this rule.) . when there are two or more vowels in a syllable, or a word of one syllable the first vowel is long, and the last are silent; as: mate, sneeze, day. (teacher marks the long and silent vowels as the reason for the sound is given.) children mark these words and give reason: game, kite, make, coat, meat, wait. after rules ( to ) are clearly developed, apply them by marking and pronouncing these words and giving reasons. coat man neat he nine box sun feel kite she run me take we seam heat bit tan bite mad made take cape the mane cap lake rule . when double consonants occur, the last is silent; tel_l_, bac_k_. back bell kill dress duck jack fell till jess tack pack nell fill less press lack bell pill neck luck sack sell will bess still tack tell hill block stick shall well mill peck trill shell yell rock clock struck rule . t before ch is silent: ca_t_ch. hatch switch ditch match stretch pitch latch thatch stitch patch sketch fetch hitch scratch match watch snatch crutch rule . n before g, the sound of ng ([n=]): sing, also n before k--[n=]g,--i[n=]k. bang song lank rang long bank sang strong sank hang thing tank wink cling sung sink swing lung think sing swung brink sting stung rule . initial k before n is silent--_k_nife. knee knew know knack knot knock knob knell knife knelt known kneel rule . initial w before r is silent--_w_rite. wry wren written wring wreak wrist wrong wrote wriggle write wretch wrench wrap wreath writing rule . initial g before n is silent--_g_naw. gnat gnarl gnu gnaw gneiss gnome rule . c before e, i or y is soft.--cent, city, cypress. face cent nice lace cell price place ice slice race rice twice grace mice cypress cylinder cyclone (hard c is found before a, o, and u or a consonant.) rule . g before e, i or y is soft,--gentle, giant, gypsy. (get and give are common exceptions.) age gentle gem cage gin gypsy page gill giraffe rage ginger wage sage giant gipsy exercise--pronounce and mark the following words, and tell whether they contain the soft or hard sounds of g. go gay gate globe dog bag garden glass gentle cage general forge geese gather wagon glove gem game george forget germ gill grace grain note effect of final e on hard g. rag rage sag sage wag wage stag stage rule . i before gh--i is long and gh silent--ni_gh_t. light right fight night bright fright sight high slight might thigh flight tight sigh plight rule . final y in words of more than one syllable is short,--cherry. dainty pity ferry plainly city lightly rainy naughty berry daisy thirty merry daily dreary cherry rule . final e in words of more than one syllable is silent.--gentl_e_, nelli_e_. rule . effect of r upon vowels. [~er] [~ir] [~or] [~ur] her bird work urn fern sir word turn term stir worm hurt herd girl world purr jerk first worst burn ever chirp worth churn serve whirl worse burst perch thirst worship church kernel fir worthy curve verse firm worry curb verb third fur germ birth blur herb birch curd stern thirty curl other equivalents a==e [(a]==[(e] they eight care heir obey weight bare their prey freight fare there weigh neigh hair where sleigh veins fair stair reign whey chair pear skein rein pair a==[)o] a==[(o] au==aw==ou what not call nor haul ought was odd raw for fault bought watch cot want corn cause sought wasp got walk cord pause caw wash hop salt short caught saw drop dog hall storm naught paw spot fog draw horse naughty draw talk morn thought thaw ou==ow [=ew]==[=u] our how dew due out now few hue hour cow mew blue flour bow new june trout plow jew tune shout owl pew plume mouth growl hue pure sound brown glue flute mouse crowd ground flower house drown ew==[=oo]==o==[u..] o==oo==[u..] grew do poor rude wolf wool chew you soon rule could foot crew to noon tool would good brew shoe whom school should hood drew prove food spool woman wood threw broad whose roof shook stood screw moon tomb broom crook pull strew goose stoop roost hook bush shrewd took full brook put book puss look o==[)u] oy==oi come fun boy oil none gun joy soil son run roy voice dove sup toy spoil love cup troy joint some sun join point ton hum coin choice won drum noise noise does plum toil moist touch nut glove shut month much none must fourth year i. review and continue to apply the principles of pronunciation, with a more complete mastery of the vowel and consonant sounds as found in webster's dictionary. ii. teach the diacritical marks found in the dictionary to be used. the marks needed will be found at the foot of each page of the dictionary. iii. teach the use of the dictionary. ( ) see that every child owns, if possible, one of the new dictionaries, in which unphonetic words are respelled phonetically. ( ) see that all know the alphabet in order. ( ) pupils practice finding names in the telephone directory, catalogs, reference books, etc. ( ) practice arranging lists of words in alphabetical order, as in the following dictation exercise. rewrite these words in the order in which they would occur in the dictionary. chance value alarm hurdle green evergreen window feather indeed leave sapwood monkey bruise kernel double jelly also lists like these:--a step more difficult. arbor angry alarm after artist age afford apron apple appear athletic approve assist answer always anchor after teaching the alphabetical order, with dictionary in hand, have the pupil trace the word to its letter, then to its page. having found his way to the word, he must now learn to read what the dictionary has to tell him about it. his attention is called to syllabification as well as to diacritical marks. (those found at the foot of the page will furnish the key to pronunciation.) he finds that his dictionary is a means of learning not only the pronunciation of words, but their meaning and spelling. later, as soon as the parts of speech are known, he should learn the various uses of words--their grammatical uses, derivation, etc., and come to regard the dictionary as one of his commonest tools, as necessary as other books of reference. but here the teacher's task is not done. provided with the key to the mastery of symbols, her pupils may still fail to use this key to unlock the vast literary treasures in store for them. they must be taught _what to read_, as well as _how to read_. they must be introduced to the school library and if possible to the public library. dr. elliot has said: "the uplifting of the democratic masses depends upon the implanting at school of the taste for good reading." moreover that teacher does her pupils the most important and lasting service who develops in them not only _an appreciation of good literature_, but _the habit of reading it_. transcriber's note: non-ascii diacritical marks represented as follows: [(a] a below inverted breve [)e] e below breve [(e] e below inverted breve [)o] o below breve [(o] o below inverted breve [)u] u below breve [=u] u below macron [n=] n above macron [u..] u above diaresis [~er] er below tilde [~ir] ir below tilde [~or] or below tilde [~ur] ur below tilde [=ew] ew below macron [=oo] oo below macron words such as thot, thotfully and thoroly are spelt as per original. file was produced from images generously made available by the university of florida, the internet archive/children's library) [illustration: cover national series parker's second reader sold by booksellers generally throughout the united states.] [illustration] parker's second reader. national series of selections for reading; adapted to the standing of the pupil. by richard g. parker, a.m. principal of the north johnson school, boston; author of "aids to english composition," "outlines of general history," "the school compend of natural philosophy," etc. part second. designed for the younger classes in schools, academies, &c. * * * * * "understandest thou what thou readest?"--acts : . * * * * * new york: a.s. barnes & burr, & john street. sold by booksellers, generally, throughout the united states. entered according to act of congress, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-one, by a.s. barnes & co., in the clerk's office of the district court of the southern district of new york. stereotyped by hobart & robbins; new england type and stereotype foundry, boston preface. in the preparation of this volume, i have kept fresh in my recollection the immature state of the minds which i have endeavored to enlighten; and while it has been my aim to present such a succession of reading lessons as are suitable for the younger classes in our common schools and academies, i have not forgotten that the first step to be taken, in making good readers, is to open the understanding wide enough to afford a sufficient entrance for the ideas which are to be communicated by reading. words are but sounds, by which ideas should be conveyed; and written language is of little use, if it convey but sound alone. great pains have therefore been taken to exclude from this volume what the young scholar cannot understand, while, at the same time, it has been the aim of the author to avoid a puerile style, by which the early intellect is kept down, and its exertions are repressed. in every step and stage of its progress, the maxim "_excelsior_" should be the aim of the youthful mind; and the hand of the teacher should be extended, not to _lift it up_, but only to _assist it in its endeavors to raise itself_. all of the labor must not be done by the teacher, nor by books. _they_ are of use only in exciting the mind to act for itself. they may, indeed, act as pioneers, but the pupil must not be _carried_ in their arms; he must perform the march himself. and herein lies the great difficulty of the teacher's task: on the one hand, to avoid the evil of leaving too little to be done by the scholar; and, on the other, to be careful that he be not required to do too much. real difficulties should be lightened, but some labor should be permitted to remain. to make such labor attractive, and easily endured without discouragement, is the task which best shows the tact and skill of the teacher. if this volume be found useful in aiding the teacher, by doing all that should be required _from the book_, the design of the author will be accomplished. r.g.p. _kneeland place_, } _may, ._ } contents. [_the poetical extracts are designated by italic letters_] lesson page preface v . the author's address to the pupil . same subject, continued . " " " . the discontented pendulum, _jane taylor_ . address of the author to the pupil, continued . " " " " " " " concluded . how to find out the meaning of words, _original_ . same subject, continued " . " " concluded " . words " . definitions " . reading and spelling " . importance of learning to spell, _original version_ . demosthenes, _original_ . hard words, " . fire: a conversation, " . same subject, continued " . " " concluded " . the lark and her young ones, _altered from Æsop_ . dogs, _original_ . same subject, concluded " . frogs and toads, _bigland_ . maida, the scotch greyhound, _altered from bigland_ . gelert, " . knock again _child's companion_ . same subject, continued, " . " " concluded, " . make good use of time, _emma c. embury_ . same subject, continued, " . " " concluded, " . verse, or poetry, _original_ . _a morning hymn_, _anonymous_ . _evening hymn_, " . _the gardener and the hog_, _gay_ . _the hare and many friends_, " . maxims, _selected_ . how to be happy, _child at home_ . obedience and disobedience, _child's companion_ . obstinacy, _lessons without books_ . king edward and his bible, _l.h. sigourney_ . what does it mean to be tempted? _rose-bud_ . same subject, continued, " . " " " " . " " concluded, " . _mary dow_, _h.f. gould_ . _it snows_, " . _the dissatisfied angler boy_, " . _the violet: a fable_, _children's magazine_ . captain john smith, _juvenile miscellany_ . same subject, continued, " " " " " . " " concluded, " . john ledyard, " . same subject, concluded, " . learning to work, _original_ . same subject, continued, _abbott_ . " " concluded, " . the comma, _parker's rhetorical reader_ . the semicolon, " . the colon, " parker's second reader. lesson i. _the author's address to the pupil._ . i present to you, my little friend, a new book, to assist you in learning to read. i do not intend that it shall be a book full of hard words, which you do not understand. . i do not think it proper to require children to read what they cannot understand. i shall, therefore, show you how you may understand what is in this book, and how you may be able, with very little assistance from your teacher, to read all the hard words, not only in this book, but also in any book which you may hereafter take up. . but first let me repeat to you a saying, which, when i was a little boy, and went to school, my teacher used to repeat to me. he said that any one might lead a horse to the water, but no one could make him drink. the horse must do that himself. he must open his own mouth, and draw in the water, and swallow it, himself. . and so it is with anything which i wish to teach you. i can tell you many things which it will be useful for you to know, but i cannot open your ears and make you hear me. i cannot turn your eyes so that they will look at me when i am talking to you, that you may listen to me. that, you must do yourself; and if you do not do it, nothing that i can say to you, or do for you, will do you any good. . many little boys and girls, when their teacher is talking to them, are in the habit of staring about the school-room, or looking at their fellow-pupils, or, perhaps, slyly talking to them or laughing with them, when they ought to be listening to what their teacher is saying. . others, perhaps, may appear to be looking at their teacher, while, at the same time, they are thinking about tops and marbles, or kites and dolls, and other play-things, and have no more idea of what their teacher is saying to them than if he were not in the room. . now, here is a little picture, from which i wish to teach you a very important lesson. the picture represents a nest, with four little birds in it. the mother bird has just been out to get some food for them. the little birds, as soon as their mother returns, begin to open their mouths wide, and the mother drops some food from her bill into the mouth of each one; and in this manner they are all fed, until they are old enough to go abroad and find food for themselves. [illustration] . now, what would these little birds do, if, when their mother brings them their food, they should keep their mouths all shut, or, perhaps, be feeling of one another with their little bills, or crowding each other out of the nest? . you know that they would have to go without their food; for their mother would not open their mouths for them, nor could she swallow their food for them. they must do that for themselves, or they must starve. . now, in the same manner that little birds open their mouths to receive the food which their mother brings to them, little boys and girls should have their ears open to hear what their teachers say to them. . the little birds, as you see in the picture, have very large mouths, and they keep them wide open to receive all the food that their mother drops; so that none of their food ever falls into the nest, but all goes into their mouths, and they swallow it, and it nourishes them, and makes them grow. . so, also, little boys and girls should try to catch, in their ears, everything that their teacher says to them, and keep it in their minds, and be able to recollect it, by often thinking about it; and thus they will grow wise and learned, and be able to teach other little boys and girls, of their own, when they themselves grow up. . now, my little friend, please to open your eyes and see what i have put into this book for you, and open your ears to hear what your kind teacher has to say to you, that your minds may grow, and that you may become wise and good children. lesson ii. _the same subject, continued._ . i told you, in the last lesson, that i would teach you how to understand what is in this book, and how to read the hard words that you may find in this or in any other book. . now, before you can understand them, you must be able to read them; and in order that you may understand how to read them, you must take the words to pieces; that is, take a few of the letters at a time, and see whether you can read a part of the word first, and then another part, until you have read the whole of it in parts, and then you can put the parts together, and thus read the whole word. . now, in order that you may understand what i mean, i will explain it to you by taking a long word to pieces, and letting you read a part of it at a time, until you have learned how to read the whole word. . in the next line, you may read the parts of the word all separated: ab ra ca dab ra. now you have read the parts of the word ab-ra-ca-dab-ra all separated, you can read them very easily together, so as to make one word, and the word will be abracadabra. . this long and hard word was the name of a false god, that was worshiped many hundreds of years ago, by a people who did not know the true god, whom we worship; and they very foolishly supposed that by wearing this name, written on paper, in a certain manner, it would cure them of many diseases. . here are a few more long and hard words, divided in the same manner, which you may first read by syllables, that is, one syllable at a time: val e tu di na´ ri an. in de fat i ga bil´ i ty. hy po chon dri´ a cal. me temp sy cho´ sis. hal lu ci na´ tion. zo o no´ mi a. ses qui pe dal´ i ty. . you may now read these long words as they are here presented, without a division of the syllables, as follows: valetudinarian, indefatigability, hypochondriacal, metempsychosis, hallucination, zoonomia, sesquipedality. . now, you see that words which look hard, and which you find difficult to read, can be easily read, if you take the pains to divide them into parts or syllables, and not try to read the whole word at once. . i now propose to relate to you a little story which i read when i was a little boy, and which i think will make you remember what i have just told you about reading hard words, by first taking them to pieces, and reading a part of them at a time. . a father, who was dying, called his seven sons around his bed, and showed them a bundle of small sticks tied together, and asked each one to try to break all the sticks at once, without untying the bundle. [illustration] . each of the sons took the bundle of sticks, and putting it across his knee, tried with all his strength to break it; but not one of them could break the sticks, or even bend them, while they were tied together. . the father then directed his oldest son to untie the bundle, and to break each stick separately. as soon as the bundle was untied, each of the sons took the sticks separately, and found that they could easily break every one of them, and scatter them, in small pieces, all about the floor. . "now," said the father, "i wish you, my dear sons, to learn a lesson from these sticks. so long as you are all united in love and friendship, you need fear little from any enemies; but, if you quarrel among yourselves, and do not keep together, you see by these little sticks how easily your enemies may put you down separately." . now, this was a very wise father, and he taught his sons a very useful lesson with this bundle of sticks. i also wish to teach you, my little friend, whoever you are, that are reading this book, another useful lesson from the same story. . hard words, especially long ones, will be difficult to you to read, unless, like the sons in the story, you untie the bundle; that is, until you take the long words apart, and read one part or syllable at a time. thus you may learn what is meant by that wise saying, "_divide and conquer_." lesson iii. _the same subject, continued._ . i have another lesson to teach you from the same story of the old man and the bundle of sticks, which i think will be very useful to you, and will make your lessons very much easier to you. . whenever you have a lesson to learn, do not look at it all at once, and say, i cannot learn this long lesson; but divide it into small parts, and say to yourself, i will try to learn this first little part, and after i have learned that, i will rest two or three minutes, and then i will learn another little part, and then rest again a few minutes, and then i will learn another. . i think that in this way you will find study is not so hard a thing as it seemed to you at first, and you will have another explanation of that wise saying, _divide and conquer_. . i will now tell you another story that i read when i was a little boy. it was called a fable. but before i tell you the story, i must tell you what a fable is. . a fable is a story which is not true. but, although it is not a true story, it is a very useful one, because it always teaches us a good lesson. . in many fables, birds and beasts are represented as speaking. now, you know that birds and beasts cannot talk, and therefore the story, or fable, which tells us that birds and beasts, and other things, that are not alive, do talk, cannot be true. . but i have told you, that although fables are not true stories, they are very useful to us, because they teach us a useful lesson. this lesson that they teach is called the _moral_ of the fable; and that is always the best fable that has the best moral to it, or, in other words, that teaches us the best lesson. . the story, or the fable, that i promised to tell you, is in the next lesson, and i wish you, when you read it, to see whether you can find out what the lesson, or moral, is which it teaches; and whether it is at all like the story of the father and the bundle of sticks, that i told you in the last lesson. while you read it, be very careful that you do not pass over any word the meaning of which you do not know. lesson iv. _the discontented pendulum._--jane taylor. [illustration] . an old clock, that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen, without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped. . upon this, the dial-plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm; the hands made a vain effort to continue their course; the wheels remained motionless with surprise; the weights hung speechless;--each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others. . at length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of the stagnation, when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice, protested their innocence. . but now a faint tick was heard below from the pendulum, who thus spoke:--"i confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and i am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons. the truth is, that i am tired of ticking." . upon hearing this, the old clock became so enraged, that it was on the very point of _striking_. "lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial-plate, holding up its hands. . "very good!" replied the pendulum; "it is vastly easy for you, mistress dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up above me,--it is vastly easy for you, i say, to accuse other people of laziness! you, who have had nothing to do, all the days of your life, but to stare people in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the kitchen! . "think, i beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life in this dark closet, and to wag backwards and forwards, year after year, as i do." . "as to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house, on purpose for you to look through?"--"for all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark here; and although there is a window, i dare not stop, even for an instant, to look out at it. . "besides, i am really tired of my way of life; and, if you wish, i'll tell you how i took this disgust at my employment. i happened this morning to be calculating how many times i should have to tick in the course of only the next twenty-four hours; perhaps some of you, above there, can give me the exact sum." . the minute-hand, being _quick_ at figures, presently replied, "eighty-six thousand four hundred times." . "exactly so," replied the pendulum; "well, i appeal to you all, if the very thought of this was not enough to fatigue one; and when i began to multiply the strokes of one day by those of months and years, really, it is no wonder if i felt discouraged at the prospect: so, after a great deal of reasoning and hesitation, thinks i to myself, i'll stop." . the dial could scarcely keep its countenance during this harangue; but, resuming its gravity, thus replied: "dear mr. pendulum, i am really astonished that such a useful, industrious person as yourself, should have been overcome by this sudden action. . "it is true, you have done a great deal of work in your time; so have we all, and are likely to do; which, although it may fatigue us to _think_ of, the question is, whether it will fatigue us to _do_. would you now do me the favor to give about half a dozen strokes, to illustrate my argument?" . the pendulum complied, and ticked six times in its usual pace. "now," resumed the dial, "may i be allowed to inquire if that exertion was at all fatiguing or disagreeable to you?" . "not in the least," replied the pendulum; "it is not of six strokes that i complain, nor of sixty, but of _millions_." . "very good," replied the dial; "but recollect, that though you may _think_ of a million strokes in an instant, you are required to _execute_ but one; and that, however often you may hereafter have to swing, a moment will always be given you to swing in." . "that consideration staggers me, i confess," said the pendulum.--"then i hope," resumed the dial-plate, "we shall all immediately return to our duty; for the maids will lie in bed, if we stand idling thus." . upon this, the weights, who had never been accused of _light_ conduct, used all their influence in urging him to proceed; when, as with one consent, the wheels began to turn, the hands began to move, the pendulum began to swing, and, to its credit, ticked as loud as ever; while a red beam of the rising sun, that streamed through a hole in the kitchen window, shining full upon the dial-plate, it brightened up, as if nothing had been the matter. . when the farmer came down to breakfast that morning, upon looking at the clock, he declared that his watch had gained half an hour in the night. lesson v. _address of the author to the pupil,--continued from lesson d._ . the fable of the old clock, which has just been read, is intended to teach us a lesson, or moral, and that is, that whenever we have anything to do, whether it be a long lesson or a piece of hard work, we must not think of it all at once, but divide the labor, and thus conquer the difficulty. . the pendulum was discouraged when it thought that it had to tick eighty-six thousand four hundred times in twenty-four hours; but when the dial asked it to tick half a dozen times only, the pendulum confessed that it was not fatiguing or disagreeable to do so. . it was only by thinking what a large number of times it had to tick in twenty-four hours, that it became fatigued. . now, suppose that a little boy, or a little girl, has a hard lesson to learn, and, instead of sitting down quietly and trying to learn a little of it at a time, and after that a little more, until it is all learned, should begin to cry, and say i cannot learn all of this lesson, it is too long, or too hard, and i never can get it, that little boy, or girl, would act just as the pendulum did when it complained of the hard work it had to do. . but the teacher says to the little boy, come, my dear, read over the first sentence of your lesson to me six times. the little boy reads the first sentence six times, and confesses to his teacher that it was not very hard work to do so. . the teacher then asks him to read it over six times more; and the little boy finds that, before he has read it to his teacher so often as the six times more, he can say it without his book before him. . in this way, that little boy will find, that it is not, after all, so hard work to get what he calls a hard lesson; because all that he has to do, is to read a small portion of the lesson at a time, and to repeat the reading of that small portion until he can repeat it without the book. . when he has done this, he can take another small portion of the lesson, and do the same with that, until, by degrees, he has learnt the whole lesson; and then he will feel happy, because he knows that his teacher, and his parents, will be pleased with him. . but some pupils say to themselves, when they have a lesson to learn, i do not want to study this lesson now; i will study it by and by, or to-morrow morning. . but, by and by, and when to-morrow comes, they feel no more disposed to study their lesson than they did when the lesson was first given to them. . now, my little friend, if you wish your time at school to pass pleasantly, do not say to yourself, i will get my lesson by and by, or to-morrow, but set yourself about it immediately, learn it as quickly as you can, and i will assure you will not only make your teachers and your parents happier, but you will be much happier yourself. lesson vi. _the author to the pupil._ . in the first lesson, i told you that i would show you how to understand what is in this book; and how you may, with very little assistance from your teacher, be able to read all the hard words that you find in any book. . many little boys and girls are very fond of running out of their places in school, and going up to their teachers with a great many unnecessary questions. this always troubles the teacher, and prevents his going through with all his business in time to dismiss you at the usual hour. . whenever you meet with any real difficulty, that you cannot overcome yourself without his assistance, you should watch for an opportunity when he is at leisure, and endeavor to attract his attention quietly, and without noise and bustle, so that your fellow-pupils may not be disturbed, and then respectfully and modestly ask him to assist you. . but if you are noisy and troublesome, and run up to him frequently with questions that, with a little thought, you could easily answer yourself, he will not be pleased with you, but will think that you wish to make trouble; and, perhaps, will appear unkind to you. . i will now endeavor to show you how you may understand what is in your book, so that you will have no need to be troublesome to your teacher. . in the first place, then, always endeavor to understand every line that you read; try to find out what it means, and, if there is any word that you have never seen or heard of before, look out the word in a dictionary, and see what the meaning of the word is; and then read the line over again, and see whether you can tell what the whole line means, when you have found out the meaning of the strange word. . now, as you can understand everything best when you have an example, i will give you one, as follows. in the tenth chapter of the acts of the apostles, at the first verse, there are these words: . "there was a certain man in cesarea, called cornelius, a centurion of the band called the italian band, . "a devout man, and one that feared god with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to god always." . i suppose you know what most of the words in these verses mean, except the word _centurion_ in the first verse, and the word _alms_ in the second. . now, if you look for the word _centurion_ in the dictionary, it will tell you that _centurion_ means a military officer, who commanded a hundred men. thus you find that cornelius was a soldier; and not only that he was a soldier, but that he was an officer, that commanded soldiers. . again, if you look for the word _alms_ in your dictionary, you will find that it means money given to the poor; and thus you find that cornelius was a very good man, and not only prayed to god, but also gave much money to assist the poor. . you see, then, how useful a book a dictionary is at school, and how important it is that you should have one. if your parents cannot give you a very good one, any one is better than none. . but if you have no dictionary, or if you cannot find the word you wish to find in the dictionary, you must then wait for a convenient time to ask your teacher, and he will always be pleased to find that you are trying to understand the words in your lesson. . if you have a dictionary, and do not know how to find out the words in it, ask your teacher to show you; and when he has showed you how to use it, be sure never to pass over a single word without knowing what it means. lesson vii. _how to find out the meaning of words._--original. [illustration] . many years ago, when i lived in a small town, near the merrimac river, a little spanish girl came to board in the same house. . she could speak very well in her own language; but the people in her country speak a language very different from ours: and when she first began to speak, she heard nothing but spanish words; and she learned no other. . she could not speak a word of english, and did not understand a word that was spoken to her by any of the family. . her parents were very rich, but they placed her in the family, that she might learn to speak english. . she had no dictionary to turn to, to look out the meaning of words; and if she was hungry, she could not ask for bread, and if she was thirsty, she could not ask for water, nor milk, nor tea, for she did not know the meaning of either of the words, _water_, _tea_, nor _milk_. . perhaps you would be puzzled to tell how she could learn to speak english, if she had no one to teach her, and had no dictionary to inform her about the words. . but it was not many days before she could say "_bread_," if she was hungry, and "_water_," if she wanted to drink; and i was very much surprised to find how soon it was, at the dinner-table, she could ask for meat, or potato, or pudding; and, at tea-time, for tea, or milk, or sugar, or butter, or bread. . i have no doubt that you would like to know how this little spanish girl learned to speak all of these words. i do not intend to tell you quite yet, but i think you will find out yourself, if you will read the next lesson. lesson viii. _the same subject, continued._ . about twenty years ago, i was very ill, and, for a long time, my friends thought i never should recover. . by the very attentive care of my physician, and by the devoted attention of my wife, i unexpectedly grew better; and the doctor said that i must take a voyage for the recovery of my health. . a kind friend, who was going to the west indies, in a vessel of his own, very generously offered to take me with him, and i gratefully accepted the offer. . we sailed from boston early one morning, and were soon out of sight of the land. i was quite ill during the voyage; but fortunately the voyage was a short one, and we reached the place of our destination on the fourteenth day after we sailed. . the island, where we landed, was a beautiful spot; and lemons, oranges, pine-apples, and many other delicious fruits, were growing out in the open air. . the people who lived on this island did not speak the english language; and the family with whom i was to reside could speak only in french. . i observed, at dinner-time, that some of the persons at the table held out their tumblers to the servant, and said something which sounded to me like _o_. . i often heard this word; and every time it was spoken, _water_ was brought, or poured out, or something was done with _water_. . i then made up my mind that this word that i thought was o meant water; and i found out afterwards that i was right, except that i did not spell it right. . this i discovered by means of the bible, from which the family used to read. . it was a very large one, with very large letters; and as i was very fond of hearing them read, and of looking over the book while some one was reading aloud, i noticed that whenever the reader came to the letters e, a, u, he called them o; and thus i found out that water, in their language, was called o, but was spelt e, a, u. . in the same manner, i found out the words, or names, which they gave to bread, and sugar, and butter, and meat, and figs, and oranges, and lemons, and pine-apples. . and now, perhaps, you may be able to find out how the little spanish girl, mentioned in the last lesson, learned the meaning of english words that she had never heard until she came to live in the family where nothing but english was spoken. . she was obliged to listen, when any one spoke, and watch to see what was wanted; and in the same manner in which i found out the meaning of o, and what to call bread, and sugar, and butter, and meat, and figs, and oranges, and other fruits, she learned to call things by their english names. . but, in order to do this, she was obliged to listen very attentively, to try to remember every new name that she learned; and, by so doing, in less than a year she could talk almost as plainly as any one in the house. . it was very easy for her to learn the names of things, because she heard them spoken very often. such words as _chair_, _table_, _water_, _sugar_, _cake_, _potato_, _pudding_, and other words which are the names of things she could see, she learned very quickly. . but such words as _come_ and _go_, or _run_ and _walk_, and the little words _to_ and _from_, and _over_ and _under_, or such words as _quickly_ and _slowly_, and many other words of the same kind, she could not learn so easily. . in the next lesson perhaps you will find out how she learned the meaning of these words. lesson ix. _the same subject, continued._ [illustration] . there was a small family living very near to your residence, my young friends who are reading this lesson, consisting of the father, the mother, and four young children. . the oldest was a boy of twelve years old, the next was a little girl of about eight, the third was another pretty little girl of six, and the youngest was an infant boy, only nine months old. . as you may well suppose, the baby, as he was called, was the delight, not only of the father and the mother, but also of his elder brother and his two sisters. . the oldest brother had a dog whose name was guido,--an italian name, which is pronounced as if it were spelt gwe´do. . the dog had learned to love the dear little baby as much as the rest of the family; and very often, when he was lying on the floor, the baby would pull his tail, or his ears, or put his little hand into the creature's mouth, and guido would play as gently with him as if he knew that the baby was a very tender little thing, and could not bear any rough treatment. . nothing pleased the whole family, and guido among the rest, so much, as to hear the baby try to say _papa_, and _mamma_, and _bub_, and _sis_; for he could not say _brother_, nor _sister_, nor pronounce any other words plainly. . the youngest sister was very fond of making him say these words; and every time the little creature repeated them to her, she would throw her arms around his little neck, and hug and kiss him with all the affectionate love her little heart could express. . she often used to dress her little doll as prettily as she knew how; tying its frock on one day with a pretty blue ribbon, and on another with a red one; for she had noticed, that whenever the doll was newly dressed, the dear little baby would look very steadily at it, and hold out its little arms towards it; and then she would carry it to her little brother, and say to him, "dolly,--pretty dolly,--bub want to see dolly?" . one day she had dressed her doll in a very bright new dress, with very gay ribbons, and was carrying it towards her father to show it to him, when suddenly she heard the baby cry out, "dolly!" . she immediately ran with delight to her little brother, holding up the doll in its new shining dress, and repeated her usual words, "dolly,--bub want dolly?" . the baby, delighted, looked up in its mother's face, and laughed, and crowed, and giggled, and in its delight again repeated the word "dolly!" . pleased with her success, the little sister was unwearied in her efforts to make her little brother repeat other words; and day by day she was gratified to find the list of words which he lisped was growing in length. . by the unwearied endeavors of father, mother, brother and sisters, this pretty little baby, by the time that it was three years old, could speak plainly anything that was repeated to him, and had learned the names of almost everything that he saw about the house, the yard, and the street. . but it was observed that guido, the dog, although he could not speak a word, had also learned the names of many things; and when george, the oldest son, told him to go and bring his ball to him, guido would wag his tail, and go up into george's chamber, and look about the room until he had found the ball; and then he would run down the stairs, and dropping the ball at his young master's feet, look up in his face, expecting that george would throw it down for him to catch again. [illustration] . the baby, however, learnt words and names much faster than guido; for although guido knew as much as any dog knows, yet dogs are different creatures from children, and cannot learn so much nor so fast as children can, because it has not pleased god to give them the same powers. . now, perhaps you may wish to know who this interesting family were of whom i have been speaking; and you will probably be surprised to learn, that all i have told you about this little baby is true of every little baby, and that the manner that every infant is taught to speak is the same. . it is the same manner as that in which the little spanish girl, mentioned in the seventh lesson, was taught to speak the english language. lesson x. _words._--original. . i told you, in the last lesson, how an infant child first learned to speak, when it was taught by its father and mother, and brother and sisters. . i intend to show you, in this lesson, how the little child learned the meaning of a great many words himself, without the assistance of any one else. . he was very fond of guido, the dog, and watched everything he did, especially when his brother george was playing with him. . when george called guido, and said to the dog, "_come here_, guido," the little boy could not help noticing that guido _went to_ george. . when george's father or mother called george, and said, "come here, george," the little child saw that george _went to_ his father, or his mother. . now, nobody told the little child what george, or his father, or his mother, meant by the word _come_; but he always saw, that when any one said to another, "_come_," that the one who was spoken to always _moved towards_ the person who called him, and in this way the little child found out what his father or his mother meant by the word _come_. . it was in this way, my young friend who are reading this lesson, that you, yourself, learned the meaning of most of the words that you know. . when you were a little child, like the infant of whom i have been speaking, you knew no more about words, or about speaking, than he did. . but, by hearing others speak and use words, you learned to use them yourself; and there is no word ever used, either in books or anywhere else, that you cannot find out its meaning, provided that you hear it used frequently, and by different persons. . i will now give you an example, to show you what i mean. i will give you a word that you probably never heard of before; and although i shall not tell you what the word means, i think you will find it out yourself, before you have read many more lines of this lesson. . the word _hippoi_ is the word that i shall choose, because i know that you do not know the meaning of it; but i wish you to read the following sentences in which the word is used, and i think that you will find out what _hippoi_ means, before you have read them all. . in california, and in mexico, and in most parts of south america, there are many wild _hippoi_, which feed on the grass that grows wild there. . the indians hunt the _hippoi_; and when they catch them, they tame them, and put bridles on their heads, and bits in their mouths, and saddles on their backs, and ride on them. . a carriage, with four white _hippoi_, has just passed by the window, and one of the _hippoi_ has dropped his shoe. the coachman must take him to the blacksmith, to have the shoe put on. . the noise which _hippoi_ make is a very strange noise, and when they make it they are said to neigh (_pronounced na_). . the hoofs of cows and goats and sheep and deer are cloven; that is, they are split into two parts; but the hoofs of _hippoi_ are not split or cloven, and for that reason they are called whole-hoofed animals. . my father has in his barn four _hippoi_. one of them is red, and has a short tail; another is white, with a few dark hairs in his mane, or long hair on the top of his neck; the third is gray, with dark spots on his body; and the fourth is perfectly black, and has a very long tail, which reaches almost to the ground. . now, from these sentences, i think you will see that _hippoi_ does not mean cows, or goats, or sheep, or deer; and i do not think it necessary to tell you anything more about it, except that it is a word that was spoken by the corinthians and the colossians and the ephesians, the people to whom st. paul addressed those epistles or letters in the bible called by their names. . when you have read this lesson, your teacher will probably ask you what the word _hippoi_ means; and i hope you will be able to tell him that _hippoi_ means----[here put in the english word for _hippoi_.] lesson xi. _definitions._ . in the last lesson, i gave you a word which you had not seen before, to find out the meaning of it, without looking in a dictionary. . i told you, in a former lesson, how the little spanish girl found out the meaning of words which she did not know; and afterwards informed you how the infant child was taught to speak. . now, i doubt not that you can speak a great many words, and know what they mean when you use them; but i do not think that you ever thought much about the way in which you learned them. . perhaps you will be surprised to hear that everybody learns to talk and to use words in the same way that the little spanish girl and the little infant learned them; that is, by hearing others use them in different ways, just as the word _hippoi_ was used in the last lesson. . nobody ever told you, probably, the meaning of a great many words that you know; and yet you know them full as well, and perhaps better, than if any one had told you about them. . perhaps you have a brother whose name is john, or george, or james, or a sister whose name is mary, or jane, or ann, or lucy. you have always heard them called by these names, ever since you, or they, were quite young; and have noticed that when john was called, that the one whose name is john would answer; and as each one answered when spoken to, you learnt which was john, and which was mary, and which was lucy. . so also, when a certain animal, having two large horns and a long tail, and which is milked every night and morning, passed by, you heard some one say _cow_; and in this way you learned what the word _cow_ means. . so also, when water falls from the sky in drops, little children hear people say it rains; and thus they find out what _rain_, means. . now, when anybody asks you what any word means, although you know it very well, yet it is a very hard thing to tell what it means,--that is, to give a definition of it,--as you will see by the little story i am about to tell you. . a teacher, who was very anxious to make his scholars understand their lessons, once told them he had a very hard question he wished to ask them, and that he would let the one who answered the question best take the head of the class. . this teacher never allowed any of his pupils to speak to him without first raising his right hand above his head, to signify that the child had something to say; and when any child raised his hand in this way, if he was not busy, he called upon the child to say what he wished. . in this way he prevented the children from troubling him when he was busy; and in this way he also prevented them from interrupting each other, as would be the case if several of them should speak at once. . on the day of which i am about to speak, he said to them, now, children, i have a very hard question to ask you, that does not require you to study, but only to think about it, in order to answer it well; and the one who gives me the best answer shall go to the head of the class. the question is this: _what is a bird?_ . before they heard the question, they looked very sober, and thought their master intended to puzzle them, or to give them a long sentence to commit to memory. but as soon as they heard the question, they began to smile among themselves, and wonder how their teacher should call that a hard question. . a dozen hands were immediately raised, to signify that so many of the children were ready to answer it. . well, john, said the teacher, your hand is up; can you tell me _what a bird is_? . john immediately rose, and standing on the right-hand side of his seat, said, a bird is a thing that has two legs. . well, said the teacher, suppose some one should saw off two of the legs of my chair; it would then be a thing that has two legs; but it would not be a bird, would it? you see, then, that your answer is not correct. . i will not mention the names of the other children who raised their hands; but i will tell you what the answers were which some of them made to the questions, and what the teacher said about each of their answers. . one of the children said that a bird is an _animal_ with two legs. but, said the teacher, all little boys and girls, and all men and women, are animals with two legs; but they are not birds. . another child said that a bird is an animal that has wings. but the teacher said there are some fishes that have wings, and that fishes are not birds. . a bright little girl then modestly rose and said, a bird is an animal that has legs and wings, and that flies. the teacher smiled upon her very kindly, and told her that it is true that a bird has legs and wings, and that it flies; but, said he, there is another animal, also, that has legs and wings, and that flies very fast in the air. it is called a _bat_. it flies only in the night; but it has no feathers, and therefore is not a bird. . upon hearing this, another bright-eyed child very timidly rose and said, a bird is an animal that has legs, wings and feathers. very well, said the teacher; but can you not think of anything else that a bird has, which other creatures have not? . the children looked at one another, wondering what their teacher could mean; and no one could think what to say, until the teacher said to them, think a moment, and try to tell me how a bird's mouth looks. look first at my mouth. you see i have two lips, and these two lips form my mouth. now, tell me whether a bird has two lips; and if he has not, what he has instead of lips. . one of the children immediately arose and said, that a bird has no lips, but he has a bill; and that bill opens as the lips of a man do, and forms the mouth of the bird. . yes, said the teacher; and now listen to me while i tell you the things you should always mention, when you are asked what a bird is,-- first, a bird is an animal. secondly, it has two legs. thirdly, it has two wings. fourthly, it has feathers. fifthly, it has a hard, glossy bill. . and now, said the teacher, you see that i was right when i told you that i had a hard question to ask you, when i asked what is a bird? . now, if you will join all of these things which belong to a bird in the description which you give in answer to my question, what is a bird, you will then give a correct definition of a bird,--that is, you will tell exactly what a bird is, and no more, and no less. . a bird is an animal covered with feathers, having two legs, two wings, and a hard, glossy bill. . when you are asked what anything is, recollect what i have told you about a bird, and try to recall everything that you ever knew about the thing, and in this way you will be able to give a satisfactory answer. . this will also teach you to think, and that is one of the most important objects for which you go to school. it will enable you also to understand what you read; and you can always read those things best which you understand well. lesson xii. _reading and spelling._ . another important thing for which you go to school is to learn how to spell. it is not always very easy to spell, because there are so many different ways in which the same letters are pronounced in different words. . that you may understand what i mean, i shall give an example, to show you how many different ways the same letters are pronounced in different words; and also another example, to show you how many different ways there are of spelling the same syllable. . to show you, first, in how many different ways the same letters are pronounced in different words, i shall take the letters o, u, g, h. . the letters _o, u, g, h_, are sounded or pronounced like the letter _o_ alone, in the word _though_. the letters _o, u, g, h_, are pronounced like _uf_, in the word _tough_. . in the word _cough_, the letters _o, u, g, h_, are pronounced like _off_. in the words _slough_ and _plough_, the letters _o, u, g, h_, are pronounced like _ow_; and in the word _through_, they are pronounced like _ew_, or like _u_. . in the word _hiccough_ the letters _ough_ are pronounced like _up_--and in the word _lough_, the letters are pronounced like _lok_. . there are many words which end with a sound like _shun_; and this syllable is spelled in many different ways, as you will see in the following example. . in the words _ocean_, _motion_, _mansion_, _physician_, _halcyon_, _parnassian_, _christian_, and many other such words, the last syllable is pronounced as if it were spelled _shun_. . you see, then, that in some words a syllable sounding very much like _shun_ is spelled _cean_, as in ocean; in some it is spelled _tion_, as in nation; in some it is spelled _sion_, as in mansion; in some it is spelled _cian_, as in physician; in some it is spelled _cyon_, as in halcyon; in some it is spelled _sian_, as in parnassian. . it is such things as these which make both reading and spelling very hard lessons for young children. if they think of them all at once, as the pendulum did of the eighty-six thousand times that it had to swing in twenty-four hours, it is no wonder if they feel discouraged, and say, i can't get these hard lessons. . but you must recollect that, as the pendulum, every time it had to swing, had a moment given it to swing in, so you also have a moment given you to learn everything in; and if you get a little at a time, you will, in the end, finish it all, if it be ever so large. . you have seen the workman engaged in building a brick house. he takes one brick at a time, and lays it on the mortar, smoothing the mortar with his trowel; and then he takes another brick, and another, until he has made a long row for the side of the house. . he then takes another brick, and lays that on the first row; and continues laying brick after brick, until the house gradually rises to its proper height. . now, if the workman had said that he could never lay so many bricks, the house would never have been built; but he knew that, although he could lay but one brick at a time, yet, by continuing to lay them, one by one, the house would at last be finished. . there are some children, who live as much as a mile, or a half of a mile, from the school-house. if these children were told that they must step forward with first one foot and then the other, and must take three or four thousand steps, before they could reach the school-house, they would probably be very much discouraged, every morning, before they set out, and would say to their mothers, mother, i can't go to school,--it is so far; i must put out one foot, and drag the other after it, three thousand times, before i can get there. . you see, then, that although it may appear to be a very hard thing to learn to read and to spell so many words as there are in large books, yet you are required to learn but a few of them at a time; and if there were twice as many as there are, you will learn them all, in time. . i shall tell you a story, in the next lesson, to show you how important it is to know how to spell. lesson xiii. _importance of learning to spell._--original version. . a rich man, whose education had been neglected in early life, and who was, of course, very ignorant of many things which even little boys and girls among us now-a-days know very well, lived in a large house, with very handsome furniture in it. . he kept a carriage, and many servants, some of whom were very much better educated than he was himself. . this rich man had been invited out many times to dine with his neighbors; and he observed that at the dinners to which he was invited there were turkeys, and ducks, and chickens, as well as partridges, and quails, and woodcocks, together with salmon, and trout, and pickerel,--with roasted beef, and lamb, and mutton, and pork. . but he noticed that every one seemed to be more fond of chickens than anything else, but that they also ate of the ducks and the turkeys. . he, one day, determined to invite his friends to dine with him, in return for their civilities in inviting him; and he made up his mind to have an abundance of those things, in particular, of which he had observed his friends to be most fond. . he accordingly sent his servant to market, to buy his dinner; and, for fear the servant should make any mistake, he wrote his directions on paper, and, giving the paper, with some money, to the servant, he sent him to the market. . the servant took the paper and the money, and set off. just before he reached the market, he opened the paper, to see what his master had written. . but his master wrote so very badly, it took him a long time to find out what was written on the paper; but, at last, he contrived to make it out, as follows: . "dukes would be preferred to turks; but chittens would be better than either." . what his master meant by dukes, and turks, and chittens, he could not guess. no such things were for sale at the market, and he did not dare to return home without buying something. . as he could find nothing like dukes nor turks, he happened to see a poor woman carrying home a basket full of kittens. this was the most like _chittens_ of anything he could find; and not being able to get what his master had written for, he thought his master meant kittens. he therefore bought the basket of kittens, and carried them home for his master's dinner. lesson xiv. _demos'thenes._--original. . there lived, a great many years ago, in athens, one of the most renowned cities of greece, a very celebrated orator, whose name was demos'thenes. . but you will not understand what an _orator_ is, until you are told that it means a person who speaks before a large number of people, to persuade them what to do, or to give them information, or good advice. . thus, when a minister or clergyman preaches a good sermon, and speaks in such a manner as to please all who hear him, convincing them of their duty, and persuading them to do it, he is called an orator. . demos'thenes was not a clergyman, or minister, but he spoke before large assemblies of the athenians, and they were very much delighted to hear him. whenever it was known that he intended to speak in public, every one was anxious to hear him. . now, i wish to show you how hard he worked, and what he did, to become a great orator. . in the first place, then, he had a very weak voice, and could not speak loud enough to be heard by a large assembly; and, besides this, he was very much troubled with shortness of breath. these were very great discouragements, and had he not labored very hard to overcome them, he never could have succeeded. . to cure his shortness of breath, he used to go up and down stairs very frequently, and run up steep and uneven places; and to strengthen his voice, he often went to the sea-shore, when the waves were very noisy and violent, and talked aloud to them, so that he could hear his own voice above the noise of the waters. [illustration] . he could not speak the letter _r_ plainly, but pronounced it very much as you have heard some little boys and girls pronounce it, when they say a _wed wose_ for a _red rose_, or a _wipe cherwy_ instead of a _ripe cherry_. . besides this, he stammered, or stuttered, very badly. to cure himself of these faults in speaking, he used to fill his mouth full of pebbles, and try to speak with them in his mouth. . he had a habit, also, of making up faces, when he was trying to speak hard words; and, in order to cure himself of this, he used to practice speaking before a looking-glass, that he might see himself, and try to correct the habit. . to break himself of a habit he had of shrugging up his shoulders, and making himself appear hump-backed, he hung up a sword over his back, so that it might prick him, with its sharp point, whenever he did so. [illustration] . he shut himself up in a cave under ground, and, in order to confine himself there to his studies, he shaved the hair off of one half of his head, so that he might be ashamed to go out among men. . it was in this way that this great man overcame all of his difficulties, and, at last, became one of the greatest orators that have ever lived. . now, whenever you have a hard lesson to read, or to study, think of demos'thenes, and recollect how he overcame all his difficulties, and i think you will find that you have few things to do so hard as these things which he did. . when your teacher requests you to put out your voice and speak loud, remember what demos'thenes used to do to strengthen his voice, and you will find very little trouble in speaking loudly enough to be heard, if you will only try. lesson xv. _hard words._ . in one of the former lessons, you were taught how to read long and hard words, by taking them to pieces, and reading a part of a word at a time. . i promised you also that this book should not be filled with hard words; but i did not promise that there should be no hard words in it. . having taught you how to read hard words, i propose, in this lesson, to give you a few long words to read,--not for the purpose of understanding what they mean, but only to make you able to read such words, when you find them in any other book. . the best way of getting rid of all difficulties, is to learn how to overcome them, and master them; for they cease to be difficulties, when you have overcome them. . demos'thenes, as i told you in the last lesson, had a very hard task to perform, before he became a great orator. you, also, can become a good scholar, if you will take pains to study your lessons, and learn them well. . before you read any lesson to your teacher from this book, it is expected that you will study it over, and find out all the most difficult words, so that you may read them right off to him, without stopping to find them out, while he is waiting to hear you read them. . now, here i shall place a few hard words for you to study over, to read to your teacher when you read this lesson to him; and he will probably require every one in your class to read them all aloud to him. . i wish you not to go up to your teacher to ask him to assist you, until you have tried yourself to read them, and find that you cannot. . there are some words that are not pronounced as they are spelt, as i have taught you in a former lesson. . such a word as _phthisic_, which is pronounced as if it were spelled _tis´ic_, i dare say would puzzle you, if you had never seen it before; but before you go up to your teacher, to ask him any questions, you should read over the whole of your lesson, and perhaps you will find, in the lesson itself, something that will explain what puzzled you; and thus you could find it out from your book, without troubling your teacher. . here are some of the long words i wish you to read. . organization, theoretical, metaphysical, metempsychosis, multitudinous, arithmetician, metaphysician, hyperbolical. . apotheosis, indefeasible, feasibility, supersaturated, prolongation, meridional, ferruginous, fastidiousness. . haberdashery, fuliginous, exhalation, prematurely, depreciation, appreciability, resuscitate, surreptitious, interlocutory. . sometimes the letters _a e_, and _o e_, are printed together, like one letter, as in the words cæsar, coelebs, and then the syllable is pronounced as if it were spelled with _e_ alone, as in the following words: . diæresis, aphæresis, oecumenical, Æthiop, subpoena, encyclopædia, phoenix, phoebus, Æolus. . when there are two little dots over one of the letters, they are both to be sounded, as in the word aërial, which is pronounced a-e-ri-al. . the letter _c_ is one which puzzles many young persons who are learning to read, because it is sometimes pronounced like _k_, as in the word _can_, and sometimes like _s_, as in the word _cent_; and they do not know when to pronounce it like _k_, and when to sound it like _s_. . but if you will recollect that _c_ is sounded like _k_ when it stands before the letters _a_, _o_, or _u_, and that it is sounded like _s_ before the letters _e_, _i_, and _y_, you will have very little trouble in reading words that have the letter _c_ in them. . so also the letter _g_ has two sounds, called the hard sound, and the soft sound. the hard sound is the sound given to it in the word _gone_; the soft sound is that which is heard in the word _gentle_. . the same rule which you have just learnt with regard to the letter _c_ applies to the letter _g_. it has its hard sound before _a_, _o_, and _u_, and its soft sound before _e_, _i_, and _y_. . there are, it is true, some words where this rule is not applied; but these words are very few, so that you may safely follow this rule in most words. . the letters _ph_ are sounded like _f_. the letters _ch_ are sounded sometimes like _k_, as in the words _loch_ and _monarch_, and sometimes like _sh_, as in the words _chaise_ and _charade_; and they have sometimes a sound which cannot be represented by any other letters, as in the words _charm_ and _chance_. . i suppose that you have probably learned most of these things which i have now told you in your spelling-book; but i have repeated them in this book, because i have so often found that little boys and girls are very apt to forget what they have learned. . if you recollect them all, it will do you no harm to read them again, but it will impress them more deeply on your memory. but if you have forgotten them, this little book will recall them to your mind, so that you will never forget them. . i recollect, when i was a little boy, that the letter _y_ used to trouble me very much when it began a word, and was not followed by one of the letters which are called vowels, namely, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_. i knew how to pronounce _ya_, _ye_, _yi_, _yo_, _yu_; but one day, when i was studying a lesson in geography, i saw a word which was spelt _y, p, r, e, s_, which puzzled me very much. . i knew that the letters _p, r, e, s_, would spell _pres_, but i did not know what to call the _y_. after studying it a long time, i found that the letter _y_, in that word and some others, was to be pronounced like the long _e_, and that the word was pronounced _epres_, though it was spelled _y, p, r, e, s_. . perhaps you will be able, when you grow up, to write a book; and to tell little boys and girls who go to school, when you have grown up, how to read hard words, better than i have told you. . if you wish to do so, you must try to recollect what puzzles you most now, and then you will be able to inform them how to get over their difficulties and troubles at school; and when they grow up, i have no doubt that they will feel very grateful to you for the assistance you have given them. lesson xvi. _fire,[a]--a conversation between a mother and her little daughter._ [illustration] _daughter._ mother dear, you told me, the other day, that nobody knows what _light_ is, except the great creator. now, can you tell me _what fire is_? _mother._ i fear, my child, that you have asked another question which i cannot directly answer. what fire is, is known only by its effects. _daughter._ and what are its effects, mother? _mother._ some of its effects are as well known to you, my dear, as they are to me; and i shall, in the first place, call to your recollection what you yourself know about _fire_, before i attempt to give you any further information in relation to it. _daughter._ why, mother, i am sure i do not know what fire is. _mother._ no, caroline, i know that you do not know what fire is; neither do i, nor does any one, except the great creator himself. this is one of his secrets, which, in his wisdom, he reserves for himself. but you certainly know some of the effects of fire. for instance, you know that when you have been out into the cold, you wish, on your return, to go to the fire. now, can you tell me what you go to the fire for? _daughter._ why, certainly, mother; i go to the fire to warm myself. _mother._ and how does the fire warm you, my dear? _daughter._ why, it sends out its heat, mother; and i hold out my hands to it, and feel the heat. _mother._ and where does the heat come from, caroline? _daughter._ why, the heat comes from the fire, mother. _mother._ then, my dear, you know at least one of the effects of fire. it produces, or rather sends out, heat. _daughter._ but does not the fire make the heat, mother? _mother._ if you had a little bird, or a mouse, in a cage, and should open the door and let it out, should you say that you _made_ the little bird, or the mouse? _daughter._ say that i made them, mother?--why, no; certainly not. i only let them go free. god made them. you told me that god made all things. _mother._ neither did the fire make the heat. it only made it free, somewhat in the same manner that you would make the bird or the mouse free, by opening the door of the cage. _daughter._ why, mother, is heat kept in cages, like birds or mice? _mother._ no, my dear, not exactly in cages, like birds or mice; but a great deal closer, in a different kind of cage. _daughter_ why, mother, what sort of a cage can heat be kept in? _mother._ i must answer your question, caroline, by asking you another. when alice makes her fire in the kitchen, how does she make it? _daughter._ she takes some wood, or some coal, and puts under it some pine wood, which she calls kindling, and some shavings, and then takes a match and sets the shavings on fire, and very soon the fire is made. _mother._ but does she not first do something to the match? [illustration] _daughter._ o, yes; i forgot to say that she lights the match first, and then sets fire to the shavings with the lighted match. _mother._ but how does she light the match, my dear? _daughter._ why, mother, have you never seen her? she rubs one end of the match on the box, where there is a little piece of sand-paper, and that sets the match on fire. _mother._ is there any fire in the sand-paper, caroline? _daughter._ why, no, mother; certainly not. _mother._ was there any fire in the match, before she lighted it? _daughter._ why, no, mother; if there had been, she would have had no need to light it. _mother._ you see, then, that fire came when she rubbed the match against the sand-paper; and that the fire was not in the sand-paper, nor in the match. _daughter._ yes, mother, but i did not see where it came from. _mother._ i am going to explain that to you, my dear, in the next lesson. footnote: [a] this lesson, together with the two following lessons, is taken from a little book, called "juvenile philosophy," published by messrs. a.s. barnes & co., john-street, new york. it consists of nine conversations, between a little girl and her mother, on the subjects, rain, color, vision or sight, the eye, light, fire, heat and wind. lesson xvii. _the same subject, continued._ _mother._ did you ever see a person rub his hands together, when he was cold? _daughter._ o yes, mother, a great many times. i have seen father come in from the cold, and rub his hands together, and afterwards hold them to the fire and rub them again, and then they get warm. _mother._ and now, caroline, take your hand and rub it quickly backwards and forwards, over that woolen table-cloth, on the table in the corner of the room, and tell me whether that will make your hand warm. _daughter._ o, yes, dear mother; i feel it grow warmer, the faster i rub it. _mother._ here are two small pieces of wood. touch them to your cheek, and tell me whether they feel warm now. _daughter._ they do not feel warm, nor cold, mother. _mother._ now rub them together quickly a little while, and then touch them to your cheek. [illustration: r] _daughter._ o, dear, mother! they are so hot that they almost burnt my cheek. _mother._ yes, caroline; and do you not recollect, when you read robinson crusoe, that his man friday made a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together? _daughter._ o, yes, dear mother; and i have often wondered why alice could not light her lire and the lamp in the same manner, without those matches, which have so offensive a smell. _mother._ it is very hard work, my dear, to obtain fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together; and it would take too long a time to do it. the two pieces of wood would grow warm by a very little rubbing; but in order to make them take fire, they must be rubbed together a great while. _daughter._ but, mother, if it takes so long a time to get fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together, why can alice set the match on fire so easily by rubbing it once on the sand-paper? _mother._ that is what i am about to explain to you, my dear. here, take this piece of paper and hold it up to the lamp. _daughter._ it has taken fire, mother. [illustration: l] _mother._ now take this piece of pine wood, and hold that up to the lamp in the same manner, and see whether that will take fire too. _daughter._ yes, mother, it has taken fire; but i had to hold it up to the lamp much longer than i did the paper. _mother._ now take this piece of hard wood, and do the same with that. _daughter._ the hard wood takes longer still to catch fire, mother. _mother._ yes, my child. and now i am going to make the hard wood take fire more quickly than the paper did. _daughter._ dear mother, how can you do it? _mother._ i am going to show you, my dear. here is a small phial, which contains something that looks like water. it is spirits of turpentine. i shall dip the point of the piece of hard wood into the phial, and take up a little of the spirits of turpentine. now, caroline, touch the point of the hard wood with the turpentine on it to the flame. _daughter._ why, mother, it caught fire as soon as i touched the flame with it! _mother._ yes, certainly; and you now see that some things, like the spirits of turpentine and the paper, take fire very readily, and others take fire with more difficulty. _daughter._ yes, mother; but when alice drew the match across the sand-paper, there was no flame nor fire to touch it to. how, then, could it take fire? _mother._ hold this piece of paper up to the blaze of the lamp, my dear, but be careful not to touch the fire or flame of the lamp; only hold it close to the blaze. _daughter._ why, mother, it has taken fire! _mother._ you see, then, that a thing will sometimes take fire when it does not touch the fire. _daughter._ yes, mother; but i do not understand where the fire comes from. _mother._ the fire comes from the heat, my dear. now, you know that heat is produced by rubbing two things together; and that some things, like the spirits of turpentine, take fire very easily, or with very little heat; and others, like the hard wood, require to be heated some time,--or, in other words, require much heat,--to make them take fire, or to burn. some things require only as much heat to make them take fire as can be obtained by rubbing them together very quickly, like the wood which robinson crusoe's man friday used. _daughter._ but, mother, the match is made of wood,--why does that take fire so easily? _mother._ it is true, caroline, that the match is made of wood; but it has something at the end of it, which takes fire much more easily than the spirits of turpentine. indeed, so easily does it take fire, that it requires only so much heat to set it on fire as can be obtained by drawing the match once across the sand-paper. _daughter._ but, mother, matches do not always take fire. i have seen alice rub several across the sand-paper, before she could set one on fire. _mother._ that is true, and the reason of this is, that the matches are not all well made. now, if i should take several pieces of hard wood and tie them together, and dip their ends into the spirits of turpentine, what would happen, if the ends of some of the pieces did not touch the spirits of turpentine, because i had not tied them together with their points all even? _daughter._ why, mother, some of them would take fire easily, because the points had the spirits of turpentine on them; while those which did not touch the spirits could not be lighted so easily. _mother._ so it is, my dear, with the matches. they are all dipped into the substance which takes fire so easily; but some of the ends do not reach the substance, and do not become coated with it, and therefore they will not light more easily than the pine wood of which they are made. lesson xviii. _the same subject, concluded._ _daughter._ well, mother, i understand, now, how the match is set on fire. it is rubbed on the sand-paper, and that produces heat, and the heat sets the match on fire. but i always thought that fire makes heat, and not that heat makes fire. _mother._ heat does not always make fire, caroline; for, if it did, everything would be on fire. _daughter._ everything on fire, mother! why, what do you mean? _mother._ i mean, my dear, that everything contains heat. _daughter._ everything contains heat, mother, did you say? why, then, is not everything warm? some things, mother, are very cold; as ice, and snow, and that marble slab. _mother._ yes, my child, everything contains heat, as i shall presently show you. when alice goes to make a fire in a cold day, she does not carry the heat with her, and put it into the fire, nor into the wood, nor the coal, does she? _daughter._ why, no, to be sure not, mother. _mother._ and the heat that comes from the fire, after it is made, does not come in at the windows, nor down the chimney, does it? _daughter._ why, no, mother; it feels cold at the windows, and cold air comes down the chimney. _mother._ but, after the fire is made, we feel much heat coming from the fire, do we not? _daughter._ why, yes, mother; that is what the fire is made for. we feel cold, and we want a fire to make us warm; and when the fire is made, it sends out heat, and makes us warm. _mother._ well, now, where can the heat come from? you know what fire is made from, do you not? _daughter._ certainly, mother; the fire is made of wood, or of coal. _mother._ but is the wood or the coal warm before the fire is made? _daughter._ no, mother, the wood and the coal come from the cold wood-house, or the cellar, and they are both very cold. _mother._ and yet, the wood and the coal become very hot when they are on fire. _daughter._ o yes, mother, so hot that we cannot touch them with our hands, and we have to take the shovel or the tongs to move them. _mother._ and do they burn the shovel and the tongs, my dear? _daughter._ why, no, mother; if they did, the shovel and the tongs would be of little use in stirring the fire. _mother._ can you think of any reason why they do not burn the shovel and the tongs? _daughter._ you told me, mother, that some things require a very little heat to set them on fire, and that other things require a great deal. i suppose that there was not heat enough to set them on fire; and if there had been, they would not burn, because they are made of iron. _mother._ you are partly right, my dear, and partly wrong. they would not burn, because there was not heat enough in the fire to burn them. but there are very few things, and in fact it may be doubted whether there is anything, which will not burn, when sufficient heat is applied. but let us return to the fire: you say the heat does not come from the windows nor from the chimney, and you say, also, that the wood and the coal are both cold. now, where can the heat come from? _daughter._ i am sure i cannot tell, mother; will you please to tell me? _mother._ you recollect that i told you that the rubbing of the match on the sand-paper produces a little heat, which caused the match to burn. the match was then applied to the shavings, and, as it was burning, gave out heat enough to set the shavings on fire; the shavings produced heat enough to set the pine wood, or kindling, on fire, and then the pine wood, or kindling, produced more heat, and set the wood and coal on fire. now, there was nothing to produce the heat but the match, the shavings, the wood and the coal; and _the heat must have been in them_. the fire only served to set it free, and let it come out of the match, the wood, and the coal. _daughter._ but, mother, how did the heat get into the wood and coal? _mother._ it is not known, my dear, how the heat _got into_ the wood and coal, any more than how the fruit gets on to a tree. we say that it grows on the tree; but what growing is, and how it is caused, are among the secrets of god. _daughter._ if the heat is in the wood and the coal, mother, why do we not feel it in them? they both feel cold. i cannot perceive any heat in them. _mother._ the heat is in the wood and the coal, although you do not see it. do you see any smoke in the wood and the coal, my dear? _daughter._ no, mother, i do not. _mother._ did you never see a stick of wood fall on the hearth from the kitchen fire, and see the smoke coming from it? [illustration] _daughter._ o yes, mother, very often; and the smoke goes all over the room, and into my eyes, and makes the tears come into my eyes. _mother._ and can you see the smoke in the wood before the wood is put on the fire? _daughter._ no, mother, i am sure i cannot. _mother._ but you are sure that the smoke comes from the wood, are you not? _daughter._ o yes, mother; i see it coming right out of the wood. _mother._ then, my dear, i suppose you know that if there is something in the wood and coal, which you call _smoke_, although you cannot see it until it comes out, you can easily conceive how another thing, which we call _heat_, can be in the wood and coal, which we cannot perceive until it is made to come out. _daughter._ o yes, mother; how wonderful it is! _mother._ yes, my dear, all the works of god are wonderful; and what is very surprising is, that many of his most wonderful works are so common, so continually before our eyes, that we do not deem them wonderful until we have been made to think much about them, by talking about them, as you and i have talked about the rain, and the clouds, and light, and its colors. _daughter._ i have been thinking, mother, about alice and the fire. you told me that the fire did not _make_ the heat, any more than i _make_ the little mouse or the bird when i open the cage door and let them out. i see now how it is. alice brings the wood and the coal into the kitchen fireplace, and the match lets the heat out of the shavings, and the shavings let it out of the wood and the coal, until we get heat enough to make us warm. _mother._ yes, my dear; and there is no more heat in the room after the fire is made than there was before,--only, before the fire was made, the heat was hid, and we could not perceive it; but when the fire is made, it makes the heat come out, and makes it free, just as i make the little bird free, by opening his cage door. lesson xix. _the lark and her young ones._--altered from Æsop. . a lark having built her nest in a corn-field, the corn grew ripe before the young ones were able to fly. fearing that the reapers would come to cut down the corn before she had provided a safe place for her little ones, she directed them every day, when she went out to obtain their food, to listen to what the farmers should say about reaping the corn. . the little birds promised their mother that they would listen very attentively, and inform her of every word they should hear. . she then went abroad; and on her return, the little birds said to their mother, mother, you must take us away from here; for while you were gone we heard the farmer tell his sons to go and ask some of his neighbors to come to-morrow morning early, and help them cut down the corn. . is that what he said? asked their mother. yes, mother, said the little birds; and we are very much afraid that you cannot find a safe place for us before the farmer and his neighbors begin to cut down the corn. . do not be afraid, my children, said the lark; if the former depends on his neighbors to do his work for him, we shall be safe where we are. so lie down in the nest, and give yourselves no uneasiness. . the next day, when the mother went out for food, she directed the little ones again to listen, and to tell her all that they should hear. . in the evening, when she returned, the little ones told her that the farmer's neighbors did not come to assist him on that day; and that the farmer had told his sons to go and request his friends and relations to come and assist him to cut down the corn, early in the next day morning. . i think, my children, said the lark, we shall still be safe here; and we will, therefore, feel no anxiety or concern to-night. . on the third day, the mother again charged the young larks to give her a faithful report of what was done and said, while she was absent. . when the old lark returned that evening, the little larks told her that the farmer had been there, with his sons, early in the morning; but, as his friends and relations had not come to assist him, he had directed his sons to bring some sharp sickles early in the next morning, and that, with their assistance, he should reap the corn himself. . ah! said the mother, did he say so? then it is time for us to prepare to be gone; for when a man begins to think seriously of doing his work himself, there is some prospect that it will be done; but if he depends on his friends, his neighbors, or his relations, no one can tell when his work will be done. . now, this little story is called a fable. it cannot be true, because birds do not and cannot speak. . but, although it is not true, it is a very useful little story, because it teaches us a valuable lesson: and that is, that it is best to do our own work ourselves, rather than to depend upon others to do it for us; for, if we depend upon them, they may disappoint us, but whatever we determine to do for ourselves, we can easily accomplish, if we go right to work about it. lesson xx. _dogs._--original. . i never knew a little boy that was not fond of a dog, and i have never seen many dogs which were not fond of little children. . it is not safe for little children to touch every strange dog that they see, because some dogs are naturally rather cross, and may possibly bite any one who touches them, when they do not know the persons. . but when a dog knows any one, and sees that his master is fond of that person, he will let such a person play with him. he is always pleased with any attentions that his master's friends bestow on him. . large dogs are generally more gentle than small ones, and seldom bark so much as the little ones do. they are also more easily taught to carry bundles and baskets, and draw little carriages for children to ride in. . some people are very much afraid of dogs, because they sometimes run mad. the bite of a mad dog produces a very dreadful disease, called _hydropho'bia_. . this is a long and hard word, and means _a fear of water_. it is called by that name because the person who has the disease cannot bear to touch or to see water. . dogs that are mad cannot bear to see water. they run from it with dreadful cries, and seem to be in very great distress. . whenever, therefore, a dog will drink water, it is a pretty sure sign that he is not mad. . this dreadful disease very seldom affects dogs that are properly supplied with water. . dogs require a great deal of water. they do not always want much at a time, and it is seldom that they drink much. but whoever keeps a dog ought always to keep water in such a place that the dog may go to it to drink, whenever he requires it. . a dog is a very affectionate animal, and he will permit his master, and his master's children and friends, to do a great many things to him, which he would perhaps bite others for doing. . there are many very interesting stories told of dogs, which show their love and fidelity to their masters, which you can read in a book called "anecdotes of dogs." . but there are a few little stories about dogs that i know, which i will tell you, that are not contained in that book. i know these stories to be true. . my son had a dog, whose name was guido. he was very fond of playing in the street with the boys, early in the morning, before they went to school. . guido was always very impatient to get out into the street in the morning, to join the boys in their sports; and all the boys in the street were very fond of him. . he used to wake very early, and go into the parlor, and seat himself in a chair by the window, to look out for the boys; and as soon as he saw a boy in the street, he would cry and whine until the servant opened the door for him to go out. . one very cold morning, when the frost was on the glass, so that he could not see out into the street, he applied his warm tongue to the glass, and licking from it the frost, attempted to look out. . but the spot which he had made clear being only large enough to admit one of his eyes, he immediately made another, just like it, in the same manner, for the other eye, by which he was enabled to enjoy the sight as usual. in the next lesson, i will tell you some other little stories of guido, and another dog, whose name was don, that belonged to my daughter. lesson xxi. _the same subject, concluded._ . one day i went to take a walk, with a friend of mine, in the country; and don, the dog i mentioned in the last lesson, followed us. . we walked to a little grove about a mile from my house, to see the grave of a beautiful little child, that was buried on the summit of a little hill, covered with pines, spruce and other evergreens. . while we were admiring the beauty of the spot, don was running about the grove; and i completely lost sight of him, and supposed that he had returned home. . but presently i saw him at a distance, barking up a tree at a squirrel that had escaped from him. . as i turned to go home, i said to my friend, you see don is away, and does not see me. i am going to drop my handkerchief here, and send him after it. . we had got half way home, when presently don came bounding along, and very shortly came up to us. . as soon as he came up to me, i stopped, and feeling in my coat-pocket, said to him,--don, i have lost my pocket-handkerchief,--go find it. . i had scarcely uttered the words before he was off. he was gone only two or three minutes, and then, returning with my handkerchief in his mouth, he dropped it at my feet. . guido, the other dog, was very fond of going into the water himself; but he never would allow any one else to go in. . the reason was this. my little son george was one day looking over into the water, to watch the eels that were gliding through the water below, and losing his balance, he fell into the water. . no one was near except guido, and he immediately jumped in after george, and, with great labor, brought him on shore, and saved him from drowning. . ever since that time, guido has been very unwilling to let any one go near the water. it seemed as if he had reasoned about it, and said to himself, it is hard work to drag a boy out of the water, but it is much easier to keep him from going in. . guido was not a very large dog. he was of the breed, or kind, named spaniel; so called because that kind of dog originally came from hispaniola. he had long ears, curling hair, a long bushy tail, and webbed feet, like all dogs that are fond of the water. . webbed feet are those in which the toes are not separated, but seem to be joined together by a thin substance, like thick skin, which enables them to swim more easily. . don was a very large dog, of the newfoundland species, a kind which is remarkable for its beauty and intelligence. lesson xxii. _frogs and toads._--bigland. . frogs and toads resemble one another in figure, but custom and prejudice have taught us to make a very different estimate of their properties: the first is considered as perfectly harmless, while the latter is supposed to be poisonous. . in this respect, the toad has been treated with great injustice: it is a torpid, harmless animal, that passes the greatest part of the winter in sleep. . astonishing stories have been told of toads found in the center of solid blocks of stone, and other similar situations, without the least trace of the way by which they entered, and without any possibility of their finding any kind of nutriment. . toads, as well as frogs, are of a variety of species; and in the tropical climates they grow to an enormous size. it is very probable that they contribute to clear both the land and the water of many noxious reptiles of a diminutive size, which might prove exceedingly hurtful to man. . the toad, however, is one of the most inoffensive of all animals. we have even heard that it has sometimes been successfully applied for the cure of the cancer, the most dreadful, and one of the most fatal, of human evils. . mr. pennant has related some interesting particulars respecting a toad which was perfectly domesticated, and continued in the same spot for upwards of thirty-six years. . it frequented the steps before the hall-door of a gentleman's house in devonshire; and, from receiving a regular supply of food, it became so tame as always to crawl out of its hole in an evening, when a candle was brought, and look up, as if expecting to be carried into the house. . a reptile so generally detested being taken into favor, excited the curiosity of every visitant; and even ladies so far conquered their natural horror and disgust as to request to see it fed. it seemed particularly fond of flesh maggots, which were kept for it in bran. . when these were laid upon a table, it would follow them, and, at a certain distance, would fix its eyes and remain motionless for a little while, as if preparing for the stroke, which was always instantaneous. . it threw out its tongue to a great distance, when the insect stuck by the glutinous matter to its lip, and was swallowed with inconceivable quickness. . after living under the protection of its benefactor upwards of thirty-six years, it was one day attacked by a tame raven, which wounded it so severely that it died shortly afterward. . the erroneous opinion of toads containing and ejecting poison has caused many cruelties to be exercised upon this harmless, and undoubtedly useful tribe. toads have been inhumanly treated, merely because they are ugly; and frogs have been abused, because they are like them. . but, we are to observe, that our ideas of beauty and deformity, of which some arise from natural antipathies implanted in us for wise and good purposes, and others from custom and caprice, are of a relative nature, and peculiar to ourselves. . none of these relative distinctions, of great and small, beautiful or ugly, exist in the all-comprising view of the creator of the universe: in his eyes, the toad is as pleasing an object as the canary-bird, or the bulfinch. lesson xxiii. _maida, the scotch greyhound._--altered from bingley. [illustration] . a hound is a dog with long, smooth, hanging ears, and long limbs, that enable him to run very swiftly. the greyhound is not so called on account of his color, but from a word which denotes his grecian origin. . the scotch greyhound is a larger and more powerful animal than the common greyhound; and its hair, instead of being sleek and smooth, is long, stiff and bristly. it can endure great fatigue. . it was this dog that the highland chieftains, in scotland, used in former times, in their grand hunting-parties. . sir walter scott had a very fine dog of this kind, which was given to him by his friend macdonnel of glengarry, the chief of one of the highland clans. his name was maida. . he was one of the finest dogs of the kind ever seen in scotland, not only on account of his beauty and dignified appearance, but also from his extraordinary size and strength. . he was so remarkable in his appearance, that whenever his master brought him to the city of edinburgh, great crowds of people collected together to see him. . when sir walter happened to travel through a strange town, maida was usually surrounded by crowds of people, whose curiosity he indulged with great patience, until it began to be troublesome, and then he gave a single short bark, as a signal that they must trouble him no more. . nothing could exceed the fidelity, obedience and attachment, of this dog to his master, whom he seldom quitted, and on whom he was a constant attendant, when traveling. . maida was a remarkably high-spirited and beautiful dog, with long black ears, cheeks, back, and sides. the tip of his tail was white. his muzzle, neck, throat, breast, belly and legs, were also white. . the hair on his whole body and limbs was rough and shaggy, and particularly so on the neck, throat, and breast: that on the ridge of the neck he used to raise, like a lion's mane, when excited to anger. . his disposition was gentle and peaceable, both to men and animals; but he showed marked symptoms of anger to ill-dressed or blackguard-looking people, whom he always regarded with a suspicious eye, and whose motions he watched with the most scrupulous jealousy. . this fine dog probably brought on himself premature old age, by the excessive fatigue and exercise to which his natural ardor incited him; for he had the greatest pleasure in accompanying the common greyhounds; and although, from his great size and strength, he was not at all adapted for coursing, he not unfrequently turned and even ran down hares. . sir walter used to give an amusing account of an incident which befell maida in one of his chases. "i was once riding over a field on which the reapers were at work, the stooks, or bundles of grain, being placed behind them, as is usual. . "maida, having found a hare, began to chase her, to the great amusement of the spectators, as the hare turned very often and very swiftly among the stooks. at length, being hard pressed, she fairly bolted into one of them. . "maida went in headlong after her, and the stook began to be much agitated in various directions; at length the sheaves tumbled down, and the hare and the dog, terrified alike at their overthrow, ran different ways, to the great amusement of the spectators." . among several peculiarities which maida possessed, one was a strong aversion to artists, arising from the frequent restraints he was subjected to in having his portrait taken, on account of his majestic appearance. . the instant he saw a pencil and paper produced, he prepared to beat a retreat; and, if forced to remain, he exhibited the strongest marks of displeasure. . maida's bark was deep and hollow. sometimes he amused himself with howling in a very tiresome way. when he was very fond of his friends, he used to grin, tucking up his whole lips and showing all his teeth; but this was only when he was particularly disposed to recommend himself. . maida lies buried at the gate of abbotsford, sir walter's country seat, which he long protected; a grave-stone is placed over him, on which is carved the figure of a dog. it bears the following inscription, as it was translated by sir walter: "beneath the sculptured form which late you wore, sleep soundly, maida, at your master's door." lesson xxiv. _gelert._--bingley, altered. . i have one more story to tell you about the highland greyhound. it is an old welsh story, and shows how extremely dangerous it is to indulge in anger and resentment. . in a village at the foot of snowden, a mountain in wales, there is a tradition that llewellyn (_pronounced_ lewel´lin), son-in-law to king john, had a residence in that neighborhood. . the king, it is said, had presented him with one of the finest greyhounds in england, named gelert. in the year , llewellyn, one day, on going out to hunt, called all his dogs together; but his favorite greyhound was missing, and nowhere to be found. . he blew his horn as a signal for the chase, and still gelert came not. llewellyn was much disconcerted at the heedlessness of his favorite, but at length pursued the chase without him. for want of gelert, the sport was limited; and getting tired, llewellyn returned home at an early hour, when the first object that presented itself to him, at his castle gate, was gelert, who bounded, with his usual transport, to meet his master, having his lips besmeared with blood. . llewellyn gazed with surprise at the unusual appearance of his dog. on going into the apartment where he had left his infant son and heir asleep, he found the bed-clothes all in confusion, the cover rent, and stained with blood. . he called on his child, but no answer was made, from which he hastily concluded that the dog must have devoured him; and, giving vent to his rage, plunged his sword to the hilt in gelert's side. . the noble animal fell at his feet, uttering a dying yell, which awoke the infant, who was sleeping beneath a mingled heap of the bed-clothes, while beneath the bed lay a great wolf covered with gore, which the faithful and gallant hound had destroyed. . llewellyn, smitten with sorrow and remorse for the rash and frantic deed which had deprived him of so faithful an animal, caused an elegant marble monument, with an appropriate inscription, to be erected over the spot where gelert was buried, to commemorate his fidelity and unhappy fate. the place, to this day, is called beth-gelert, or the grave of the greyhound. lesson xxv. _knock again._--child's companion. . i remember having been sent, when i was a very little boy, with a message from my father to a particular friend of his, who resided in the suburbs of the town in which my parents then lived. . this gentleman occupied an old-fashioned house, the door of which was approached by a broad flight of stone steps of a semi-circular form. the brass knocker was an object of much interest to me, in those days; for the whim of the maker had led him to give it the shape of an elephant's head, the trunk of the animal being the movable portion. . away, then, i scampered, in great haste; and having reached the house, ran up the stone steps as usual; and, seizing the elephant's trunk, made the house reëcho to my knocking. no answer was returned. . at this my astonishment was considerable, as the servants, in the times i write of, were more alert and attentive than they are at present. however, i knocked a second time. still no one came. . at this i was much more surprised. i looked at the house. it presented no appearance of a desertion. some of the windows were open to admit the fresh air, for it was summer; others of them were closed. but all had the aspect of an inhabited dwelling. . i was greatly perplexed; and looked around, to see if any one was near who could advise me how to act. immediately a venerable old gentleman, whom i had never seen before, came across the way, and, looking kindly in my face, advised me to knock again. . i did so without a moment's hesitation, and presently the door was opened, so that i had an opportunity of delivering my message. i afterward learned that the servants had been engaged in removing a heavy piece of furniture from one part of the house to the other; an operation which required their united strength, and prevented them from opening the door. lesson xxvi. _the same subject, continued._ . as i was tripping lightly homeward, i passed the kind old gentleman, about half way down the street. he took me gently by the arm; and, retaining his hold, began to address me thus, as we walked on together: . "the incident, my little friend, which has just occurred, may be of some use to you in after life, if it be suitably improved. young people are usually very enthusiastic in all their undertakings, and in the same proportion are very easily discouraged. . "learn, then, from what has taken place this morning, to persevere in the business which you have commenced, provided it be laudable in itself; and, ten to one, you will succeed. if you do not at first obtain what you aim at, _knock again_. a door may be opened when you least expect it. . "in entering on the practice of a profession, engaging in trade, or what is usually called settling in the world, young people often meet with great disappointments. . "friends, whom they naturally expected to employ them, not unfrequently prefer others in the same line; and even professors of religion do not seem to consider it a duty to promote the temporal interest of their brethren in the lord. . "nevertheless, industry, sobriety, and patience, are usually accompanied by the divine blessing. should you therefore, my little friend, ever experience disappointments of this kind, think of the brass knocker; _knock again_; be sober, be diligent, and your labors will be blessed. . "in the pursuit of philosophy many difficulties are encountered. these the student must expect to meet; but he must not relinquish the investigation of truth, because it seems to elude his search. he may knock at the gate of science, and apparently without being heard. but let him _knock again_, and he will find an entrance." lesson xxvii. _the same subject, concluded._ . "do you ever pray to god? i hope and trust you do. god commands and encourages us to pray to him. but he does not always answer our prayers at the time, or in the way, we expect. . "what then? we know that he hears them. we know that he is a gracious god, a reconciled father in christ. let us _knock again_. let us ask in faith, and, if what we ask be pleasing in his sight, he will grant it in his own good time. . "you know who it was that said, 'ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; _knock_, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that _knocketh_, it shall be opened.' . "once more: our progress in the divine life, even after we have wholly given ourselves to the lord, does not always equal our wishes or expectations. we find much indwelling sin, much remaining corruption, to struggle with. . "but let us not despond. the grace of our lord is sufficient for us, and his strength is made perfect in our weakness. let us _knock again_. . "let us continue, with humble confidence, to do what we know to be pleasing in our master's sight. let us work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling; for it is god that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." . we had now reached the gate of my father's garden; and the good old gentleman, taking me kindly by the hand, bid me try to remember what he had said. he then went his way, and i saw him no more. . i afterward endeavored to find out who he was; but i did not succeed. his advice, however, sunk deep into my mind, and has often been of singular value to me since. . my disposition is naturally sanguine, and my disappointments proportionably acute. but, upon calling to mind the old mansion, the brass knocker, and my venerable counselor, i have frequently been led to _knock again_, when i might otherwise have sat down in despondency. . i hope that many of my readers will derive similar benefit from the perusal of this little history; for the sole end of its publication will be answered, if the young persons under whose eyes it may come be induced, at every season of doubt and perplexity, in the exercise of simple confidence in god, to _knock again_. lesson xxviii _make good use of your time._--emma c. embury. [illustration: "to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."] . "my dear anna," said mrs. elmore, as she bade her little girl farewell, "i shall be absent ten days; and as you have already had so many lessons from me respecting the manner of distributing your hours of amusement and study, i will only say to you, now, '_make good use of your time_.'" . anna's eyes filled with tears as the carriage drove off, and she felt very lonely when she returned to the parlor without her mother. she thought over her mother's parting words, until she felt quite proud of the confidence reposed in her, and resolved not to abuse it by neglect. . she accordingly took her books and sat down to her studies, as attentively as if her mother had been waiting to hear her recitation. . anna was an affectionate, intelligent child. she would have made any sacrifices to please her mother, and she really loved her studies; but her one great fault was a disposition to loiter away time. . this her mother well knew; and after trying admonition, until she almost feared she was increasing the evil by allowing anna to depend too much upon her guidance, she determined to test the effect of leaving her to her own responsibility. . for an hour after her mother's departure, anna sat in close attention to her studies. all at once, she started up. "i am so hungry," said she, "i must go to betty for some luncheon;--but stop--i will finish my exercise first." . she wrote a line or two; then throwing down her pen, petulantly exclaimed, "there! i have made two mistakes, because i was in such a hurry;--i will not finish it till i come back." . so away ran the little girl to her old nurse, and the next half-hour was spent in satisfying her hunger. as she was returning, with laggard step, she happened to spy, from the window, a beautiful butterfly fluttering about the rose-bushes in the garden; and, quite forgetting her unfinished exercise, away she flew in chase of the butterfly. . but, agile as were her movements, the insect was too nimble for her; and after an hour's race beneath the burning sun, she returned, flushed and overheated, without having succeeded in its capture. . again she applied herself to her books; but study was not so easy now as it would have been a little earlier. anna was too tired to apply her mind to her lessons; and after loitering a while over her desk, she threw herself on the sofa, and fell into a sound sleep, from which she was only awakened by a summons to dinner. . after dinner, betty proposed taking her out to walk; and though conscious that she had not performed half her duties, she had not resolution enough to refuse to go. tying on her bonnet, she took a little basket on her arm, and set out with betty to gather wild-flowers. . when they reached the woods, betty sought out a mossy seat under an old tree, and, taking her work from her pocket, began to sew as industriously as if she had been at home. . "o betty!" exclaimed anna, "how can you sit and sew, when there are so many pleasant sights and sounds around you?" . "i can hear the pleasant sounds, my child, without looking round to see where they come from," replied betty; "and as for the pretty sights, though i can enjoy them as much as any one, i cannot neglect my work for them. . "i promised your mother to have these shirts finished when she came home, and i mean to do so."--"dear me!" said the little girl, "i wish i had brought my book, and i might have studied my lesson here." . "no, no, anna," said the old woman; "little girls can't study in the woods, with the birds singing and the grasshoppers chirping around them. better attend to your books in-doors." . betty continued her sewing; and towards sunset, when they arose to return, she had stitched a collar and a pair of wristbands, while anna had filled her basket with flowers. . as they approached the village, betty called at a poor cottage, to inquire after a sick child, and anna was shocked at the poverty and wretchedness of the inmates. the little children were only half clothed, their faces were covered with dirt, and their rough locks seemed to bid defiance to the comb. . pitying the condition of the poor little girls, anna determined to provide them with some better clothing; and she returned home full of benevolent projects. . the next morning, as soon as she rose, she began to look over her wardrobe; and selecting three frocks which she had outgrown, she carried them to betty, to alter for mrs. wilson's children. . "i shall do no such thing," said betty; "mrs. wilson's children are not suffering for clothes; the weather is warm, and they are as well clad as they will be the day after they are dressed up in your finery. . "mrs. wilson is an untidy, slovenly woman; and though your mother charged me to look after her sick baby, she did not tell me to furnish new clothes for the other dirty little brats!" . "well, betty, if you don't choose to do it, i'll try it myself."--"pretty work you'll make of it, to be sure! you will just cut the frocks to pieces, and then they will fit nobody." . "well, i am determined to fix them for those poor little ragged children," said anna; "and if you will not help me, i will get kitty the chambermaid to do it." lesson xxix. _the same subject, continued._ . anna found a very good assistant in the warm-hearted, thoughtless irish girl. kitty cut out the frocks, and anna sat herself down to make them. . she found it rather tedious work, and, if she had not been afraid of betty's ridicule, she would have been tempted to throw her task aside; but as kitty promised to help her, as soon as her household duties were completed, anna determined to persevere. . when night came, she had finished one frock, and begun another; so she went to bed quite happy, forgetting that, in her benevolent zeal, she had neglected her studies and her music, as well as her mother's plants and her own canary-bird. . the next day, she again went to work at the frocks, and, with kitty's assistance, they were completed before tea-time. never was a child happier than anna, when she saw the three little frocks spread out upon the bed. . a degree of self-satisfaction was mingled with her benevolence, and she began to think how pleased her mother would be to learn how hard she had worked in the cause of charity. she ran off for betty to take her down to mrs. wilson's cottage; but she found betty in no humor to gratify her. . "i'll have nothing to do with it!" said the old woman. "kitty helped you to spoil your pretty frocks, and she may help you dress the dirty children;--they will look fine, to be sure, in your french calico dresses!" . anna was too happy to mind betty's scolding; so away she flew to find kitty, and they set off together for mrs. wilson's cottage. when they arrived there, they found the children by the edge of the pond making dirt pies, while their faces and hands bore testimony to their industry. . kitty stripped and washed them, though nothing but the bribe of a new frock could have induced them to submit to so unusual an operation. anna almost danced with pleasure, when she beheld their clean faces, well-combed locks, and new dresses. [illustration] . her mother had now been three days gone, and anna felt that she had not quite fulfilled her trust. but she satisfied herself with the thought that two days had been devoted to a charitable purpose, and she was sure her mother would think that she had made good use of that portion of her time. . the fourth day, she determined to make amends for past neglect, by studying double lessons. she went to her room and locked the door, resolving to perform all her duties on that day, at least. . she had scarcely commenced her studies, however, when she recollected that she had not watered her mother's plants since she had been gone. she threw down her books, and running into the garden, sought her little watering-pot; but it was not to be found. . she was sure she had put it either in the summer-house, or the tool-house, or under the piazza, or somewhere. after spending half an hour in search of it, she remembered that she had left it under the great elm-tree, in the field. . by this time, the sun was shining with full vigor upon the delicate plants; and, forgetting her mother's caution to water them only in the shade, she overwhelmed the parched leaves with a deluge of water, and went off quite content. . she then thought of her bird; and on examining his cage, found that he could reach neither the seed nor the water. so she replenished his cups, decorated his cage with fresh chickweed, treated him to a lump of sugar, and played with him until she had loitered away the best part of the morning. . immediately after dinner, a little friend came to see her, and the rest of the day was consumed in dressing dolls, or arranging her baby-house. lesson xxx. _the same subject, concluded._ . on the fifth day, she summoned courage enough to persevere, and actually performed every task with attention. . in the afternoon, betty took her out to walk, and anna coaxed her into a visit to mrs. wilson's cottage. what was her indignation, as she approached the house, to see the children again playing on the margin of the duck-pond! . as soon as they saw her, they ran to hide themselves, but not until she had observed that their new frocks were as dirty, and almost as ragged, as the old ones. betty did not fail to make anna fully sensible of her own superior wisdom. . "i told you so, child," said she; "i told you it was all nonsense to try to dress up those dirty creatures; much good you have done, to be sure!" anna almost cried with vexation, as she thought of all the time and labor she had wasted upon her benevolent task, and she walked home with a heavy heart. . the next morning, she had scarcely risen from the breakfast-table, when kitty came to show her a beautiful little ship, which, her brother, who was a sailor, had made for her, as a token of remembrance. [illustration] . anna was delighted with it; nothing could be more beautiful than its graceful form, its delicate rigging and snowy sails. she begged to have it set on her table, that she might see it while she was studying, and the good-natured kitty left it with her. . but in vain the heedless child tried to study; her eyes and thoughts wandered perpetually to the pretty toy before her. "how i should like to see it sail!" said she to herself. the more she looked at it, the more anxious she became to see it in the water. . at length, taking it carefully up, she stole down stairs, and hurried across the garden to a little brook in the adjacent field. here she launched her tiny bark; but it had scarcely touched the water, when it turned over on its side. she then recollected that she had once heard her father speak of the manner of ballasting a ship; so she hastened to gather a quantity of small stones, with which she filled the little cabin. . again she intrusted her ship to the crystal streamlet; but, alas! the weight of the stones carried it straight to the bottom. there it lay in the pebbly channel, with the clear waters rippling above it, and the little girl stood aghast upon the brink. . she bared her arm, and attempted to reach it, but without success. at length, while making a desperate effort to regain it, she lost her balance, and fell into the water. . fortunately, the water was not deep, and she soon scrambled out again; but she was thoroughly wet, and, having been very warm before the accident, she was now chilled to the heart. . grasping the little ship, the cause of all the mischief, she hurried home, and creeping softly into the kitchen, sought her friend kitty, to screen her from betty's anger. by this time she was shivering with a violent ague, and kitty carried her immediately to betty. . poor anna! she was now obliged to be put to bed, and to take some of betty's bitter herb tea, seasoned too with scolding, and all kinds of evil predictions. she felt very unhappy, and cried sadly; but repentance, in this case, came too late. . her head began to ache dreadfully; her skin was parched with fever, and before the next morning she was very ill. she had taken a violent cold, which brought on an attack of scarlet fever; and when mrs. elmore returned, she found her little daughter stretched on a bed of sickness. . how did that fond mother tremble, as she watched by the bedside of her darling child, uncertain whether she would ever again lift up her head from her uneasy pillow! . anna did not know her mother in the delirium of fever, and her melancholy cry of "mother! mother! come back!--i will never be so bad again!" wrung mrs. elmore's heart. . for three weeks anna lay between life and death; and when she was at length pronounced out of danger, she was as helpless as an infant. . one day, as she sat propped up by pillows, she told her mother all that had passed during her absence, and awaited her decision respecting the use she had made of her time. . "my dear child," said mrs. elinore, "i trust the past will afford a lesson you will never forget. so far from having made good use of your time, you have done harm in everything you have undertaken. . "your attempts at study, instead of affording you any real instruction, have only given you habits of inattention, which you will find very difficult to overcome; for your eyes have wandered over the page, while your thoughts have been with the fool's, to the ends of the earth. . "your irregular care of my plants, which you thought would serve instead of habitual attention, has been the means of destroying them as effectually as if you had allowed them to perish from total neglect. . "your injudicious benevolence to the wilsons served only to make the children envious of each other, without giving them habits of neatness, which are essential to the well-being of such a family; while it had a worse effect upon yourself, because it not only wasted your precious time, but excited in you a feeling of vanity, on account of what you considered a good action. . "if, instead of trusting so boldly to your good resolutions, you had entered upon your duties with an humble mind, and resolved to _try_ to do right,--if you had apportioned your time with some degree of regularity,--you might have performed all that was required of you, enjoyed all your amusements, and gratified every kindly feeling, without a single self-reproach. . "as it is, you feel sensible of having failed in everything,--of having exposed yourself to great peril, and subjected your mother to great anxiety, simply from your disposition to loiter, when you should labor. . "i trust that, in the solitude of your sick chamber, 'the still small voice' of your many wasted hours has made itself heard, and that hereafter you will not so utterly fail to make good use of your time." lesson xxxi. _verse, or poetry._ . all the lessons in this book which you have thus far read have been in prose. i intend to give you some lessons in verse, or, as it is sometimes, but improperly called, poetry. . there is a great deal of difference between verse and poetry; but as this book is intended for those who are not quite old enough to understand all these differences, i shall not attempt at present to point them out to you. . but i wish you first to understand the difference, which you can see with your eye, between prose and verse. the lines of verse often end in what are called _rhymes_. thus, if one line ends with the word _found_, the next line ends with a word which sounds very much like it, as _ground, round, bound, sound, hound, wound_. . these are called _rhymes_. here are a few such lines. improvement of time. "defer not till to-morrow to be wise; to-morrow's sun to thee may never rise." best use of money. "when wealth to virtuous hands is given, it blesses like the dew of heaven; like heaven, it hears the orphan's cries, and wipes the tears from widow's eyes." . sometimes the rhymes occur in alternate lines; that is, two lines come together which are not rhymes, and are followed by two lines to make rhymes to both, as follows: "let the sweet work of prayer and praise employ our youngest breath; thus we're prepared for longer days, or fit for early death." . there are some kinds of verses that do not rhyme. these are called _blank_ verse. here is an example of blank verse: "mark well, my child, he said; this little stream shall teach thee charity. it is a source i never knew to fail: directed thus be that soft stream, the fountain of thy heart. for, oh! my much-loved child, i trust thy heart has those affections that shall bless thyself; and, flowing softly like this little rill, cheer all that droop. the good man did not err." . now, there are several things that i wish you to notice in these lines. in the first place, if you will count the syllables, you will find that there are exactly ten syllables in each line; and it is always the case, that in verse it is necessary that there should be a certain number of syllables of a certain kind. . what that number is, i cannot now explain to you; but you will be able to understand from a book called a grammar, which you will probably study at some future time, if you do not study it now. it is contained in that part of grammar called prosody. . the next thing i wish you to notice is, that every line of verse always begins with a capital letter. . and thirdly you will notice, that the lines of verse are more regular in their sound than lines of prose. they have a kind of musical sound about them, which you very rarely hear, except in verse. . and fourthly you will notice, that some of the words are shortened by leaving out a letter, and putting in its place a mark called an _apostrophe_, which looks just like a comma, only it is placed higher up in the line, as in the following line: "thus we're prepared for longer days." . in this line, if the words were written out at full length, with all their letters in them, the line would stand as follows: "thus we are prepared for longer days." . but this would destroy what is called the _measure_ of the line, by putting too many syllables into it; and therefore the words _we are_ are shortened, so as to be read as one syllable, and the line is to be read as follows: "thus weer prepared for longer days." . the next difference i shall point out to you between prose and verse, is that in verse the words are placed in a different order from what they would be in prose; as you will notice in the following lines: "when all thy mercies, oh my god! my rising soul surveys, transported with the view, i'm lost in wonder, love and praise." . now, if these lines were written in prose, the words would stand in the following order: "o my god! when my rising soul surveys all thy mercies, i'm transported with the view of them, and lost in wonder, love and praise." . and now that i have explained to you a few of the points in which verse differs from prose, i will only add, that when you read verse, you must not stop at the end of every line, unless there is a pause or mark there; and that you must avoid reading it as if you were singing it to a tune. lesson xxxii. _god present everywhere._ . thou, lord, by strictest search hast known my rising up and lying down; my secret thoughts are known to thee, known long before conceived by me. . surrounded by thy power i stand, on every side i find thy hand: o skill for human reach too high! too dazzling bright for mortal eye! . from thy all-seeing spirit, lord, what hiding-place does earth afford? o where can i thy influence shun, or whither from thy presence run? . if up to heaven i take my flight, 'tis there thou dwell'st enthroned in light; if to the world unseen, my god, there also hast thou thine abode. . if i the morning's wings could gain, and fly beyond the western main; e'en there, in earth's remotest land, i still should find thy guiding hand. . or, should i try to shun thy sight beneath the sable wings of night; one glance from thee, one piercing ray, would kindle darkness into day. . the veil of night is no disguise, no screen from thy all-searching eyes; through midnight shades thou find'st thy way, as in the blazing noon, of day. . thou know'st the texture of my heart, my reins, and every vital part: i'll praise thee, from whose hands i came a work of such a wondrous frame. . let me acknowledge too, o god, that since this maze of life i trod, thy thoughts of love to me surmount the power of numbers to recount. . search, try, o god, my thoughts and heart, if mischief lurk in any part; correct me where i go astray, and guide me in thy perfect way. lesson xxxiii. _devotion._ . while thee i seek, protecting power, be my vain wishes stilled; and may this consecrated hour with better hopes be filled. . thy love the power of thought stowed, to thee my thoughts would soar: thy mercy o'er my life has flowed, that mercy i adore. . in each event of life, how clear thy ruling hand i see! each blessing to my soul more dear, because conferred by thee. . in every joy that crowns my days, in every pain i bear, my heart shall find delight in praise, or seek relief in prayer. . when gladness wings my favored hour, thy love my thoughts shall fill; resigned, when storms of sorrow lower, my soul shall meet thy will. . my lifted eye, without a tear, the gathering storm shall see; my steadfast heart shall know no fear-- that heart will rest on thee. lesson xxxiv. _the gardener and the hog._--gay. . a gardener, of peculiar taste, on a young hog his favor placed, who fed not with the common herd,-- his tray was to the hall preferred; he wallowed underneath the board, or in his master's chamber snored, who fondly stroked him every day, and taught him all the puppy's play. . where'er he went, the grunting friend ne'er failed his pleasure to attend. as on a time the loving pair walked forth to tend the garden's care, the master thus addressed the swine: . "my house, my garden, all is thine: on turnips feast whene'er you please, and riot in my beans and peas; if the potato's taste delights, or the red carrot's sweet invites, indulge thy morn and evening hours, but let due care regard my flowers; my tulips are my garden's pride-- what vast expense these beds supplied!" . the hog, by chance, one morning roamed where with new ale the vessels foamed; he munches now the steaming grains, now with full swill the liquor drains; intoxicating fumes arise, he reels, he rolls his winking eyes; then, staggering, through the garden scours, and treads down painted ranks of flowers; with delving snout he turns the soil, and cools his palate with the spoil. . the master came,--the ruin spied. "villain, suspend thy rage!" he cried: "hast then, thou most ungrateful sot, my charge, my only charge, forgot? what, all my flowers?" no more he said; but gazed, and sighed, and hung his head. . the hog, with stuttering speech, returns:-- "explain, sir, why your anger burns; see there, untouched, your tulips strown, for i devoured the roots alone!" . at this the gardener's passion grows; from oaths and threats he fell to blows; the stubborn brute the blows sustains, assaults his leg, and tears the veins. ah! foolish swain, too late you find that sties were for such friends designed! . homeward he limps with painful pace, reflecting thus on past disgrace: who cherishes a brutal mate, shall mourn the folly soon or late. lesson xxxv. _the hare and many friends._--gay. . a hare, who, in a civil way, complied with everything, like gay, was known by all the bestial train who haunt the wood, or graze the plain. her care was never to offend, and every creature was her friend. . as forth she went, at early dawn, to taste the dew-besprinkled lawn, behind she hears the hunter's cries, and from the deep-mouthed thunder flies. . she starts, she stops, she pants for breath; she hears the near advance of death; she doubles to mislead the hound, and measures back her mazy round; till, fainting in the public way, half dead with fear, she gasping lay. . what transport in her bosom grew, when first the horse appeared in view! "let me," says she, "your back ascend, and owe my safety to a friend. you know my feet betray my flight,-- to friendship every burden's light." . the horse replied:--"poor honest puss, it grieves my heart to see thee thus. be comforted,--relief is near; for all your friends are in the rear." . she next the stately bull implored; and thus replied the mighty lord:-- "since every beast alive can tell that i sincerely wish you well, i may, without offense, pretend to take the freedom of a friend. love calls me hence; a favorite cow expects me near yon barley-mow; and when a lady's in the case, you know all other things give place. to leave you thus might seem unkind; but see,--the goat is just behind." . the goat remarked her pulse was high, her languid head, her heavy eye,-- "my back," says he, "may do you harm; the sheep's at hand, and wool is warm." . the sheep was feeble, and complained his sides a load of wool sustained: said he was slow, confessed his fears; for hounds eat sheep, as well as hares. . she now the trotting calf addressed, to save from death a friend distressed. "shall i," says he, "of tender age, in this important care engage? older and abler passed you by; how strong are those! how weak am i! . "should i presume to bear you hence, those friends of mine may take offense. excuse me, then,--you know my heart; but dearest friends, alas! must part. how shall we all lament! adieu! for see,--the hounds are just in view." . 'tis thus in friendships; who depend on many, rarely find a friend. [illustration] lesson xxxvi. _maxims._--selected. never delay until to-morrow what you can do to-day. never trouble others for what you can do yourself. never spend your money before you have it. never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap. pride costs more than hunger, thirst, or cold. we never repent of having eaten too little. nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. how much pains have those evils cost us which never happened! take things always by their smooth handle. when angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred. hear as little as possible spoken against others; and believe nothing of the kind, until you are absolutely forced to believe it. always believe that if you heard what may be said on the other side of the question, a very different account of the matter might be given. do to others what you would have them do to you. lesson xxxvii. _how to be happy._--child at home. . every child must have observed how much happier and more beloved some children are than others. there are some children whom you always love to be with. they are happy themselves, and they make you happy. . there are others, whose society you always avoid. the very expression of their countenances produces unpleasant feelings. they seem to have no friends. . no person can be happy without friends. the heart is formed for love, and cannot be happy without the opportunity of giving and receiving affection. . but you cannot receive affection, unless you will also give it. you cannot find others to love you, unless you will also love them. love is only to be obtained by giving love in return. hence the importance of cultivating a cheerful and obliging disposition. you cannot be happy without it. . i have sometimes heard a girl say, "i know that i am very unpopular at school." now, this is a plain confession that she is very disobliging and unamiable in her disposition. . if your companions do not love you, it is your own fault. they cannot help loving you, if you will be kind and friendly. if you are not loved, it is a good evidence that you do not deserve to be loved. it is true, that a sense of duty may, at times, render it necessary for you to do that which will be displeasing to your companions. . but, if it is seen that you have a noble spirit, that you are above selfishness, that you are willing to make sacrifices of your own personal convenience to promote the happiness of your associates, you will never be in want of friends. . you must not regard it as your _misfortune_ that others do not love you, but your _fault_. it is not beauty, it is not wealth, that will give you friends. your heart must glow with kindness, if you would attract to yourself the esteem and affection of those by whom you are surrounded. . you are little aware how much the happiness of your whole life depends upon the cultivation of an affectionate and obliging disposition. if you will adopt the resolution that you will confer favors whenever you have an opportunity, you will certainly be surrounded by ardent friends. . begin upon this principle in childhood, and act upon it through life, and you will make yourself happy, and promote the happiness of all within your influence. . you go to school on a cold winter morning. a bright fire is blazing upon the hearth, surrounded with boys struggling to get near it to warm themselves. after you get slightly warmed, another school-mate comes in, suffering with cold. "here, james," you pleasantly call out to him, "i am almost warm; you may have my place." . as you slip aside to allow him to take your place at the fire, will he not feel that you are kind? the worst dispositioned boy in the world cannot help admiring such generosity. . and even though he be so ungrateful as to be unwilling to return the favor, you may depend upon it that he will be your friend as far as he is capable of friendship. if you will habitually act upon this principle, you will never want friends. . suppose, some day, you were out with your companions, playing ball. after you had been playing for some time, another boy comes along. he cannot be chosen upon either side, for there is no one to match him. "henry," you say, "you may take my place a little while, and i will rest." . you throw yourself down upon the grass, while henry, fresh and vigorous, takes your bat and engages in the game. he knows that you gave up to accommodate him; and how can he help liking you for it? . the fact is, that neither man nor child can cultivate such a spirit of generosity and kindness, without attracting affection and esteem. . look and see which of your companions have the most friends, and you will find that they are those who have this noble spirit,--who are willing to deny themselves, that they may make their associates happy. . this is not peculiar to childhood. it is the same in all periods of life. there is but one way to make friends; and that is, by being friendly to others. . perhaps some child, who reads this, feels conscious of being disliked, and yet desires to have the affection of his companions. you ask me what you shall do. i will tell you. . i will give you an infallible rule. do all in your power to make others happy. be willing to make sacrifices of your own convenience, that you may promote the happiness of others. . this is the way to make friends, and the only way. when you are playing with your brothers and sisters at home, be always ready to give them more than their share of privileges. . manifest an obliging disposition, and they cannot but regard you with affection. in all your intercourse with others, at home or abroad, let these feelings influence you, and you will receive a rich reward. lesson xxxviii. _obedience and disobedience._--child's companion. . you have never disobeyed your parents, or your teachers, or any who have been placed in authority over you, without being uncomfortable and unhappy! obedience, in a child, is one of the most necessary qualities; for it protects him from all the evils of his want of experience, and gives him the benefit of the experience of others. . one fine summer's day, i went to spend an afternoon at a house in the country, where some young people were enjoying a holiday. . they were running cheerfully up and down a meadow, covered over with yellow crocuses, and other flowers; and i looked on them with delight, while they gamboled and made posies, as they felt disposed. "here sister with sister roamed over the mead, and brother plucked flow'rets with brother; and playmates with playmates ran on with such speed that the one tumbled over the other." . now, they all had been told to keep away from the ditch at the bottom of the field; but, notwithstanding this injunction, one little urchin, of the name of jarvis, seeing a flower in the hedge on the opposite bank, which he wished to gather, crept nearer and nearer to the ditch. . the closer he got to the flower, the more beautiful it appeared to be, and the stronger the temptation became to pluck it. . now, what right had he to put himself in the way of temptation? the field, as i said before, was covered over with flowers; and that in the hedge was no better than the rest, only it was a forbidden flower, and when anything is forbidden it becomes, on that very account, a greater temptation to a disobedient heart. . jarvis had gathered a whole handful of flowers before he saw the one growing in the hedge; but he threw all these away, so much was his mind set on getting the one which he wanted. . unluckily for him, in getting down the bank, his foot slipped, and down he rolled into a bed of stinging nettles, at the bottom of the ditch, which fortunately happened to have in it but little water. . jarvis screamed out with might and main, as he lay on his back; for, whichever way he turned, his cheeks and his fingers brushed against the nettles. [illustration] . his cries soon brought his companions around him; but, as they were all young, they knew not how to render him assistance, on account of the stinging nettles, and the depth of the ditch. . i ran to the spot, and pulled up master jarvis in a pretty pickle, his jacket and trowsers plastered with mud, and his hands and face covered with blotches. . here was the fruit of disobedience! and as it was with jarvis, so will it be with every one who acts disobediently. . whenever you feel a temptation to disobey god; to disobey his holy word; to disobey the admonitions of your own conscience; to disobey your parents, your teachers, or any in authority over you,--be sure that a punishment awaits you, if you do not resist it. . as you are not able to resist it in your own strength, ask god's assistance for christ's sake, and it will not be withheld. now, remember jarvis, and the bed of stinging nettles! . the bible tells us very plainly how much god sets his face against disobedience. "the children of israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the lord." . "let no man deceive you with vain words: for, because of these things cometh the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience." nor is it disobedience to god that is alone hateful in his sight; for disobedience to parents is spoken of as an evil thing, too. . "the eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." . but i cannot bear to think that you are disobedient! i would rather consider you obedient in all things, and encourage you in holding on your way, obeying the will of god, and the word of all in authority over you. "the lord rules over sea and land, and blest indeed are they who all his counsels understand, and his commands obey." . i have often been struck with the simplicity with which some children obey their parents. this tractable disposition is very amiable in a child. . it was no longer ago than last week, that, in crossing a field, i overtook three children: one, a little girl of about five years old, was on the foot-path, and, just as i came up, her brother called her to him, where he was in the field. . "no, william," said the little maid; "my mother told me not to go off the foot-path, and it would be very wicked to disobey my mother." . i caught the little creature up in my arms; and having a small neat book in my pocket, suitable for a child, i gave it to her, and told her to remember that the reason why i gave it was, that she had been obedient to her mother. "though cares on cares in parent hearts be piled, great is that blessing--an obedient child!" . without obedience there can be no order. the man must obey his master, the maid her mistress, and the scholar his teacher. if you attend a sunday-school, whatever class you are in, be obedient to your instructors, or you will make but little progress. by obedience you will learn faster, secure the respect of those about you, and set a proper example to those younger than yourself. . if you are in a place of work, be obedient to your employer. those make the best masters and mistresses who have been the most obedient servants; for the discharge of one duty disposes us to perform another. . the best way to qualify yourselves to act well when grown up, is to act well while you are children. lesson xxxix. _obstinacy._--lessons without books. . there is a certain fault which almost all children have in a greater or less degree. it is called by different names; sometimes it is termed wilfulness, sometimes pertinacity, and sometimes it receives the still harsher name of obstinacy. . almost all our faults are owing to the perversion or abuse of propensities originally good; and perseverance, when carried too far, or expended upon unworthy objects, becomes a troublesome infirmity. . louisa and emily had both something of this infirmity, but differing both in degree and in its mode of operation. . what are called _little things_ did not trouble emily at all; and, on the contrary, they troubled louisa very much. . but, when anything did seem peculiarly desirable to emily,--when she set her heart upon having her own way,--she carried her perseverance to a degree which deserved to be called obstinacy. . she could _give up_, as children term it, with less effort, and more grace, than most others; but if anything determined her not to give up, she was immovable. . "you are almost always in the right," my daughter, her father once said to her, "and heaven preserve you from error; for when you once fall into it, you will be too apt to persevere." . it happened, at one time, that she and louisa were having some nice sun-bonnets made. emily went for them at the time when they were to be finished, and finding only one completed, immediately appropriated it to herself, because she was really in greater need of it than louisa, who had one that answered her purpose very well. . louisa resented this, because that, being the eldest, she considered herself as having the first right; but emily could not be persuaded to give up, although louisa's equanimity was very much disturbed on that account. . if it had been proposed to her beforehand to let louisa have the bonnet voluntarily, she would not have hesitated, for she was not selfish; but when louisa claimed it as a right, she resisted. . her mother afterwards told her that she should always avoid irritating the peculiar humors of her companions. "you," said she, "would not have minded waiting for the other bonnet a day or two, but to louisa it was quite a serious evil." . and here let me remark upon the proneness which all children have to magnify the importance of little things. a strife often arises among them, about just nothing at all, from a mere spirit of competition. [illustration] . one says, "this is my seat." another, who would not else have thought of desiring that particular seat, immediately regards it in the light of a prize, and exclaims, "no, i meant to have that seat; and i had it just before you took it." . half a dozen claimants will appear directly, and perhaps get into a serious quarrel; whereas, had the reply been, in the first instance, "very well, let it be your seat," there would have been an end to the matter. . but to return to louisa. she magnified a thousand little things, of every day occurrence, in such a manner as proved a very serious inconvenience to herself. . she wished to have her potato sliced, but never mashed. she could not bear to see a door open a single moment; and, even if she were at her meals, and the closet door happened to stand ajar, she would jump up and fly to shut it, with the speed of lightning. . she could not _endure_ the feeling of gloves; nor could she any better endure to have her hat tied. her aunt bore with all these follies a while, and then deliberately resolved to counteract them. . louisa at first thought this was very hard and unreasonable. "why can't i have my potato sliced, aunt cleaveland?" said she; "what hurt can it do? and why can't i shut the door when it is open? is there any harm in that?" . "not at all, my dear, in the thing itself," mrs. cleaveland replied; "but there is a great deal of evil in having your tranquillity disturbed by things of such small moment. . "if you allow yourself to be distressed by trifles now, how will you bear the real trials of life, which you must inevitably sustain, sooner or later? . "by and by, you will find out that your suffering from these sources is all imaginary, and then you will thank me for having restrained you. . "now, here is this nice dish of mashed potatoes, which we have every day. if such a little hungry girl as you are, since you have breathed our healthy mountain air, cannot eat it, and with relish too, i am greatly mistaken; and, in process of time, i have no doubt you will cease to observe whether the door is open or shut." . on the first day of trial, louisa just tasted the potato, and left the whole of it upon her plate. her aunt took no notice of this. the next day, louisa came in to dinner after a long walk, and was very hungry. . there was but one dish of meat upon the table, and it was of a kind which she did not much like; so, forgetting all her repugnance to mashed potato, she ate it very heartily. . mrs. cleaveland, however, forbore to take any notice of this change; and it was not until after several weeks had elapsed, and louisa had ceased to think of the distinction between sliced potato and mashed potato, that her aunt reminded her of the importance which she had formerly attached to the former. . "now, my dear louisa," said mrs. cleaveland, "since you find the task is not so very difficult as you apprehended, promise me that you will try to cure yourself of all these little infirmities; for such i must term them. . "there is so much real suffering in life, that it is a pity to have any which is merely imaginary; and though, while you are a little girl, living with indulgent friends, your whims might all be gratified, a constant and uniform regard to them will be impossible by and by, when you are old enough to mingle with the world." lesson xl. _king edward and his bible._--mrs. l.h. sigourney. . i will tell you a little story about a young and good king. he was king of england more than two hundred and eighty years ago. his name was edward, and, because there had been five kings before him of the name of edward, he was called edward the sixth. . he was only nine years old when he began to reign. he was early taught to be good, by pious teachers, and he loved to do what they told him would please god. he had a great reverence for the bible, which he knew contained the words of his father in heaven. [illustration] . once, when he was quite a young child, he was playing with some children about his own age. he wished much to reach something which was above his head. to assist him, they laid a large, thick book in a chair, for him to step on. just as he was putting his foot upon it, he discovered it to be the bible. . drawing back, he took it in his arms, kissed it, and returned it to its place. turning to his little playmates, he said, with a serious face,--"shall i dare to tread under my feet that which god has commanded me to keep in my heart?" . this pious king never forgot his prayers. though the people with whom he lived were continually anxious to amuse him, and show him some new thing, they never could induce him to omit his daily devotions. . one day he heard that one of his teachers was sick. immediately, he retired to pray for him. coming from his prayers, he said, with a cheerful countenance, "i think there is hope that he will recover. i have this morning earnestly begged of god to spare him to us." . after his teacher became well, he was told of this; and he very much loved the young king for remembering him in his prayers. . edward the sixth died when he was sixteen years old. he was beloved by all, for his goodness and piety. his mind was calm and serene in his sickness. . if you are not tired of my story, i will tell you part of a prayer which he used often to say, when on his dying bed. . "my lord god, if thou wilt deliver me from this miserable life, take me among thy chosen. yet not my will, but thy will, be done. lord, i commit my spirit unto thee. thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee. yet, if thou shouldst send me life and health, grant that i may truly serve thee." . children, you should do like king edward, reverence your bible, and love to pray to god. lesson xli. _what does it mean to be tempted._--m.h., in the rose-bud. . "mother," said little frank, "i wish you would tell me what it means to be tempted. i heard you say, the other day, that people are tempted to do many wicked things;--pray tell me, mother, if such a little boy as i am is ever tempted?" . "yes, my child, every day you live; and when i have told you what temptation is, i think you will confess that you have not only been tempted, but often yielded to temptation. . "to be tempted, means to be drawn by the offer of present pleasure to do what is wrong. there are many kinds of temptation, and i think you will understand me better if i give you an instance. . "you know, my dear frank, that both your father and i have forbidden your going to the pond where your cousin henry was drowned, because we think it very dangerous for you to venture there. but you also know that the other day you went, and suffered severely afterward for your disobedience." . "yes, mother," said frank; "but then i should not have gone, if william brown had not showed me his pretty ship, just as i was coming out of school, and asked me to go see him launch it; and oh, mother, if you had only seen it! . "it had masts and sails, just like a _real_ ship; and on the deck a little man, which william called the captain. and then, when it was on the water, it sailed along so sweetly!--the pond was as smooth as a looking-glass, so that we could see two little ships all the time. . "i didn't think of disobeying you, mother; i only thought of the pretty ship, and that there could be no harm in seeing william sail it."--"the harm, my dear son (as you call it)," said his mother, "was not in sailing the boat,--this is an innocent pleasure in itself; but it was doing it after it had been forbidden by your parents, that made it wrong. . "the temptation to disobedience came in the form of a little ship. you were drawn by it to the pond, the forbidden spot. you saw it sail gayly off, and stood on the bank delighted." . "but, mother," interrupted frank, "i shouldn't have got into the water and muddied my clothes, if the little ship hadn't got tangled in the weeds; and the boys all shouted, clear her! clear her! and i couldn't help stepping in, i was so near; and my foot slipped, and i fell in." . "yes," said his mother, "and but for assistance of your play-fellows, you might have been drowned. but god, whose eye was upon you all the while, saw fit to spare you; and how thankful you ought to be that he did not take you away in your disobedience! . "you now see how you were tempted, first to go with william brown to the pond, and then to step into the water; which shows how one temptation leads to another. but did not something within you, my son, tell you, while there, that you were doing wrong to disobey your parents?" . "no, mother; i do not recollect that it did. i'm sure i did not think a word about it till i was alone in bed, and was asking my heavenly father to take care of me. then something seemed to say, 'frank, you have done wrong to-day.' . "and i felt how wicked i had been, and could not ask god to forgive me till i had confessed all to you. i knew you were away when i came home, and i thought you hadn't returned. . "i was so unhappy that i called betsy, and told her how i felt. she told me it was an accident, and no matter at all; that she had taken care of my clothes, and she believed you would never know anything about it. . "but all this was no comfort to me; the something within would not be quiet. if it had spoken to me in the same way when i first saw the little ship, i think i should not have gone to the pond." . "frank," said his mother, "this something within, which is conscience, did then speak, but you did not listen to its voice. the voice of temptation was louder, and you obeyed it, just as you followed some noisy boys, the other day, though i was calling to you, 'frank, come back.' . "i spoke louder than usual, and at any other time you would have heard my voice; but you were too much attracted by the boys to listen to me. . "temptation makes us deaf to the voice within; and yielding to temptation, as you see, my son, leads us into sin; and this is why we pray, in the lord's prayer, 'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,' which is sin, for there is no greater evil than sin. . "it is to keep us from this great evil that god has given us this voice within, to warn us not to follow temptation, though the sin appear but a trifling one, and though it hold out the promise of pleasure, as the little ship did." lesson xlii. _the same subject, continued._ . "i will name some of the temptations to which little boys are a good deal exposed, and yield to without thinking, and sometimes without knowing to what they may lead. . "sometimes the temptation to steal comes in the form of some beautiful fruit; perhaps in his father's garden, which he has been forbidden to touch; or perhaps in an orchard far from the eye of the owner, where he might take it without fear of being seen; and he says to himself, 'no one will ever know it; i will take only a few.' . "but does he forget that the eye of god is upon him, and does he not hear the voice of conscience saying, 'thou shalt not steal!' he would shudder to be called a thief; but taking what does not belong to us, be it ever so small a thing, is stealing. . "and when detected, he is tempted to lie, to conceal his fault and avoid punishment; and here again we see how one sin leads to another. the temptations to cruelty are many. sometimes they appear in the form of a bird's nest, placed by a fond and loving mother on the high bough of a tree, to secure her young brood from danger. . "the boy, in his rambles in the woods, sees the nest, climbs the tree, and, though the little birds are too feeble to fly, and the anxious mother flutters round, as if to entreat the cruel boy to spare her little ones, he is unmindful of her tenderness, and, thinking only of his prize, bears it off to his companions, who enjoy it with him. . "here is a sinful feeling indulged, which, if not subdued, may lead to murder. i wish you to remember, my dear boy, that it is by allowing ourselves to commit little sins that we become great sinners. . "you would be frightened if you could have placed before you a picture of the course of sin. you would exclaim, what a monster!--he must never come near me,--it is dangerous even to look on him! let me entreat you, then, my son, to guard against temptation. [illustration] . "if you say to temptation, as you would to a wicked companion, who had often led you into mischief, 'go away; i do not like your company,' temptation, though for a while it may plead to be indulged, will soon do as the wicked companion would, if often sent away with such a reproof, discontinue to come; or, if found in your company, will not harm you; for conscience, like a good friend, will be ever near; and your blessed saviour, who has promised to help those who are tempted, will assist you to overcome temptation. . "i hope now you understand what it means to be tempted."--"i think i do, mother," said frank, "and i thank you for telling me so much about temptation. i shall never again repeat the lord's prayer without thinking what it means, and i hope god will keep me from the great evil of sin." he then kissed his mother, and she promised to tell him, some other time, how we are tempted by sinful thoughts. lesson xliii. _the same, subject, continued._ [illustration] . it was not long after frank had the conversation with his mother upon the temptation to sinful actions, that he claimed her promise to tell him how we may be tempted to sinful thoughts. . it was sunday evening. frank and his mother were sitting alone together at a window which opened upon a flower-garden, rich in the hues with which god has seen fit to adorn this beautiful part of creation. . "you have been at church to-day, my son," said his mother; "and to my eye you did nothing offensive, for you sat still during the sermon, and appeared engaged with your book during the prayers. . "i saw only the _outward_ part; but remember there was an eye of infinite purity looking upon your heart, and seeing the thoughts that were passing there. you only can tell if they were fit to meet that eye." . frank looked down; for, like most children, he was not apt to examine either his thoughts or motives, but was well satisfied if he gained the approbation of his parents. . his mother, seeing he was struggling to disclose something, said, "you are an honest boy, frank, and do not, i trust, wish to conceal the truth from your mother. if you have received my approbation for correct conduct, you certainly cannot enjoy it, if you feel that it is not deserved." . "that is what troubles me, mother," said frank; "for, while i was sitting so still, and you thought i was attending to the sermon, i was all the while watching a pretty little dog, that was running from pew to pew, trying to find his master; and when he got on the pulpit step, and rolled off, i came so near laughing that i was obliged to put my handkerchief to my mouth, and make believe to cough. . "i kept my eye upon him till church was done, and thought, if i could see him at the door, i would try to make him follow me home, and keep him. . "i feel now, mother, that all this was very wrong, and that these naughty thoughts tempted me to break god's holy sabbath." . "i am glad you feel this, my son; for, besides being sinful to desire to have the little dog, which was coveting what belonged to another, the time and place in which you indulged the thought was the breaking of that commandment which says, 'remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.'" . "but, mother," asked frank, impatiently, "how shall i keep these thoughts out? they come before i know it. sometimes a boy has a new suit of clothes on, and i cannot help looking at him; and sometimes the girls will play with their gloves, and tie and untie their bonnets; and sometimes the little children get to sleep, and i can't help watching them, to see if they will not slip off the seat. . "i think, mother, if we did not sit in the gallery, i shouldn't see so many things to tempt me to wicked thoughts in church." . "if i really believed this myself, frank, i should think it important to change our seat: but the mischief does not lie here; it is in your heart. . "if this were right, and you really loved god and his service, the thought of his presence would keep out these troublesome intruders; not altogether, my son, for the best of people are sometimes subject to wandering thoughts; but it is a temptation which they overcome, by turning their attention immediately to the services, and by taking their eyes from the object that drew away their thoughts from god." lesson xliv. _the same subject, concluded._ . "if some great king, who loved his people, and was continually giving them some good things, should appoint a day when he would meet his subjects, rich and poor, young and old, and should declare to them how they may best please him; and a person should be appointed to read to them, from a book he had himself written, directions for their conduct; and that, as a reward for obedience, should promise they should be admitted to his palace, where nothing that could trouble them should ever be allowed to enter--" . "why, mother," exclaimed frank, "i should so admire to see a king, that i should be willing to do everything he required; and should be afraid, all the time, of doing something he did not like, while in his presence. i should keep looking at him all the time, to see if he were pleased;--but go on, mother." . "well, my son, suppose this great person, who is also good, should keep a book in which he noted down all your actions, and even looks; and, on a certain day which he had appointed, and which was known to himself, should call together a great multitude of people, his friends and yours, and should read to them all that he had written there,--do you think you would be careless or indifferent what was written against your name?" . "o no, mother! i should be so anxious that i should want to hide myself, for fear something should be read that i should be ashamed of,--something very bad. but, mother, no king ever did this, that you know of. if he did, pray tell me more about him; and if his subjects were not all good and obedient." . "i have heard of a king, my son, who has done more than this; but not an earthly king. earthly kings are limited in their power; for they are but men. but the king of whom i speak is the lord of the whole earth." . "do you mean god, mother?"--"i do, my son. you have told me how you should behave in the presence of an earthly king on the day he should appoint to meet his people; and would you treat with less reverence and respect him who is the king of kings and lord of lords? . "can you, on entering his house, say, 'the lord is in his holy temple,' and feel no desire to meet him there; but allow any trifle that meets your eye to carry your thoughts away? do you, when his holy book is read, feel no desire to hear the directions he has given to lead you to your heavenly home? . "and when the petitions are sent up imploring his blessings, and asking his forgiveness, have you none to offer? are you so blest as to have nothing to ask, and so good as to need no forgiveness? . "o my son, be careful how you neglect these gracious privileges! and when his ministers, whom he has appointed to declare his will,--to instruct you out of his word,--preach to you from the sacred pulpit, will you turn a deaf ear, and lose their instructions, and at the same time displease your heavenly father? . "this great and powerful king is also your father and friend. he loves you more than any earthly friend. he is willing to hear all your petitions, and is even more ready to give than we are to ask. he has appointed one day in seven in which to meet us, and this is the sabbath, about the keeping of which we are now talking. . "and he has also appointed a day in which he will judge the world, from the book which he has kept of our accounts. . "on that day there will be assembled a great multitude, which no man can number, out of every kindred and tongue; great and small, good and bad. you and i will be there, my son. . "there will be the minister and his people, the sunday-school teacher and his scholars, all to receive either the sentence, 'come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,' or, 'depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting punishment.'" . frank was moved by this representation of the consequences of his neglect of the duties he owed his heavenly father, and said, "o, how sad it would be, how dreadful, if, on that day i should be sent to dwell forever where god is not, and where you and father are not!" . "dreadful, indeed, my son, would be such a separation; and when you think of this, let it make you more earnest to serve and please god; for jesus christ, who came upon earth once to die for us all, and will come again to judge the earth, has gone to prepare mansions in heaven for those who love him, that they may dwell with him forever in perfect happiness. . "let us now, my son, pray to our heavenly father to prepare us for this blessedness, that where he is, there we may be also." frank and his mother knelt together, and offered up the following prayer:-- prayer for good thoughts. . almighty and most merciful father! teach us thy will, that we may know how to please thee. put good thoughts into our hearts, and right words into our lips, that our services may be such as thou wilt please to accept. . forgive, we pray thee, the sins we have committed this day, in thought, word, or deed, and make us truly sorry on account of them. help us to love thee more, and serve thee better, for the time to come. [illustration] . bless all our friends, and make them thy friends. make us a household serving thee, that after this life is over, we may all meet in heaven. . o then, great shepherd, who neither slumberest nor sleepest, take us under thy protection this night; and when the cheerful light of day again returns, lead us forth in thy fold, and keep us from every temptation that will draw us away from thee. . may our peaceful slumbers remind us of the sleep of death; and, on the morning of the resurrection, wilt thou clothe us in the righteousness of christ, and receive us to dwell with him in life everlasting! amen. lesson xlv. _mary dow._--h.f. gould. . "come in, little stranger," i said, as she tapped at my half-opened door, while the blanket pinned over her head just reached to the basket she bore. . a look full of innocence fell from her modest and pretty blue eye, as she said, "i have matches to sell, and hope you are willing to buy. . "a penny a bunch is the price; i think you'll not find it too much; they're tied up so even and nice, and ready to light with a touch." . i asked, "what's your name, little girl?" "'tis mary," said she,--"mary dow," and carelessly tossed off a curl, that played o'er her delicate brow. . "my father was lost in the deep,-- the ship never got to the shore; and mother is sad, and will weep, when she hears the wind blow and sea roar. . "she sits there at home, without food, beside our poor sick willie's bed; she paid all her money for wood, and so i sell matches for bread. . "for every time that she tries some things she'd be paid for to make, and lays down the baby, it cries, and that makes my sick brother wake. . "i'd go to the yard and get chips, but, then, it would make me too sad, to see men there building the ships, and think they had made one so bad. . "i've one other gown, and, with care, we think it may decently pass, with my bonnet that's put by to wear to meeting and sunday-school class. . "i love to go there, where i'm taught, of one who's so wise and so good, he knows every action and thought, and gives e'en the raven his food. . "for he, i am sure, who can take such fatherly care of a bird, will never forget or forsake the children who trust to his word. . "and now, if i only can sell the matches i brought out to-day, i think i shall do very well, and mother'll rejoice at the pay." . "fly home, little bird," then i thought, "fly home, full of joy, to your nest!" for i took all the matches she brought, and mary may tell you the rest. lesson xlvi. _it snows._--h.f. gould. . it snows! it snows! from out the sky, the feathered flakes, how fast they fly! like little birds, that don't know why they're on the chase, from place to place, while neither can the other trace. it snows! it snows! a merry play is o'er us, on this heavy day! . as dancers in an airy hall, that hasn't room to hold them all, while some keep up and others fall, the atoms shift; then, thick and swift, they drive along to form the drift, that, weaving up, so dazzling white, is rising like a wall of light. . but now the wind comes whistling loud, to snatch and waft it, as a cloud, or giant phantom in a shroud; it spreads, it curls, it mounts and whirls, at length a mighty wing unfurls, and then, away! but where, none knows, or ever will.--it snows! it snows! . to-morrow will the storm be done; then out will come the golden sun, and we shall see, upon the run before his beams, in sparkling streams, what now a curtain o'er him seems. and thus with life it ever goes, 'tis shade and shine!--it snows! it snows! lesson xlvii. _the dissatisfied angler boy._--h.f. gould. [illustration] . i'm sorry they let me go down to the brook, i'm sorry they gave me the line and the hook, and i wish i had stayed at home with my book. i'm sure 'twas no pleasure to see that poor, little, harmless, suffering thing, silently writhe at the end of the string; or to hold the pole, while i felt him swing in torture, and all for me! . 'twas a beautiful speckled and glossy trout, and when from the water i drew him out on the grassy bank, as he floundered about, it made me shivering cold, to think i had caused so much needless pain; and i tried to relieve him, but all in vain; o! never, as long as i live, again may i such a sight behold! . o, what would i give once more to see the brisk little swimmer alive and free, and darting about, as he used to be, unhurt, in his native brook! 'tis strange how people can love to play, by taking innocent lives away; i wish i had stayed at home to-day, with sister, and read my book. lesson xlviii. _the violet: a fable._--children's magazine. . down in a humble dell a modest violet chanced to dwell remote from gayer flowers; its days were passed in simple ease, it sipped the dew and kissed the breeze, nor thought of happier hours. . long lived it in this quiet way, till, on a hot and sultry day about the midst of june, it chanced to spy a lady fair, all dressed in satins rich and rare, come walking by, at noon. . and thus the silly flower began:-- "i much should like to live with man, and other flowers to see;-- why is it (for i cannot tell) that i forever here should dwell, where there is none but me?" . while thus it spoke, the lady stopped to pick up something she had dropped, and there the flower she spied; and soon she plucked it from its bed, just shook the dew-drop from its head, and placed it at her side. . soon at the lady's splendid home the violet found that she was come, for all was bright and gay: and then upon the mantel-shelf, with many a flower beside herself, was placed, without delay. . and oh, how glad and proud was she in such a splendid place to be!-- but short was her delight; for rose and lily turned away, and would not deign a word to say to such a country wight. . she passed the day in much disgrace, and wished that she might change her place, and be at home again: she sighed for her own mossy bed, where she might rest her aching head; but now to wish were vain. . next morn, the housemaid, passing by, just chanced the little flower to spy, and then, without delay, she rudely seized its tender stalk, and threw it in the gravel walk, and left it to decay. . and thus it mourned,--"o silly flower, to wish to leave its native bower! was it for this i sighed? o, had i more contented been, and lived unnoticed and unseen, i might not thus have died!" . nor let this lesson be forgot: remain contented with the lot that providence decrees. contentment is a richer gem than sparkles in a diadem, and gives us greater ease. lesson xlix. _captain john smith._--juvenile miscellany. . the adventures of this singular man are so various, and so very extraordinary, that the detail of them seems more like romance than true history. he was born in lincolnshire, england, and was left an orphan at an early age. . his love of adventure displayed itself while he was yet a school-boy. he sold his satchel, books and clothes, and went over to france, without the knowledge of his guardians. . afterward, he served as a soldier in the netherlands for several years. at the end of his campaign, he returned to england, where he recovered a small portion of the estate left him by his deceased father. . this money enabled him to resume his travels under more favorable auspices, at the age of seventeen. he again went to france, and embarked at marseilles (_pronounced_ mar-sales´), with some pious pilgrims, bound to italy. . during this voyage a violent tempest threatened destruction to the vessel; and poor smith being the suspected cause of the impending danger was thrown, without mercy, into the sea. [illustration] . he saved himself by his great expertness in swimming; and soon after went on board another vessel, bound to alexandria, where he entered into the service of the emperor of austria, against the turks. . his bravery, and great ingenuity in all the stratagems of war, soon made him famous, and obtained for him the command of two hundred and fifty horsemen. . at the siege of regal, the ottomans sent a challenge, purporting that lord turbisha, to amuse the ladies, would fight with any captain among the austrian troops. smith accepted the challenge. . flags of truce were exchanged between the two armies, and crowds of fair dames and fearless men assembled to witness the combat. lord turbisha entered the field well mounted and armed. . on his shoulders were fixed two large wings made of eagles' feathers, set in silver, and richly ornamented with gold and precious stones. a janizary, or turkish soldier, bore his lance before him, and another followed, leading a horse superbly caparisoned. . smith came upon the ground with less parade. a flourish of trumpets preceded him, and his lance was supported by a single page. . the turk fell at the first charge, and smith returned to his army in triumph. this so enraged one of the friends of the slain that he sent a challenge to smith, offering him his head, his horse and his armor, if he dared come and take them. . the challenge was accepted, and the combatants came upon the ground with nearly the same ceremony and splendor. their lances broke at the first charge, without doing injury to either; but, at the second onset, the turk was wounded, thrown from his horse, and killed. lesson l. _the same subject, continued._ . the christian army were at this time anxious to finish erecting some fortifications, and were very willing to amuse their enemies in this way. they therefore persuaded captain smith to send a challenge in his turn, offering his head, in payment for the two he had won, to any one who had skill and strength enough to take it. . the offer was accepted; and a third turk tried his fortune with the bold adventurer. this time captain smith was nearly unhorsed; but, by his dexterity and judgment, he recovered himself, and soon returned to the camp victorious. . these warlike deeds met with much applause; and the prince gave him a coat of arms, signed with the royal seal, representing three turk's heads on a white field. . not long after this, captain smith was left wounded on the field of battle,--was taken prisoner by the turks,--and sent as a slave to a noble lady in the interior of the country. . he could speak italian well, and his fair mistress was very fond of that language. she listened to accounts of his bravery, his adventures, and his misfortunes, with deepening interest; and finally sent him to her brother, a powerful bashaw, with a request that he should be treated with much kindness. . the proud officer was angry that his sister should trouble herself about a vile european slave; and, instead of attending to her request, he caused him to be loaded with irons, and abused in the most shameful manner. . during the long and tedious period of his slavery, he suffered as much as it is possible for man to endure; but at length he killed his tyrannical master, and, with great peril, escaped through the deserts into russia. . his romantic genius would not long allow him to remain easy. he could not be happy unless he was engaged in daring and adventurous actions. he no sooner heard of an expedition to virginia, under the command of christopher newport, than he resolved to join it. . he arrived in this country with the first emigrants, who settled in jamestown, april , . it is said this infant settlement must have perished, had it not been for the courage and ingenuity of captain smith. [illustration] . once they were all nearly dying with hunger, and the savages utterly refused to sell them any food. in this extremity, smith stole the indian idol, okee, which was made of skins stuffed with moss, and would not return it until the indians sold them as much corn as they wanted. lesson li. _the same subject, continued._ . the colony were once in imminent danger of losing their brave and intelligent friend. while exploring the source of the chickahominy river, he imprudently left his companions, and, while alone, was seen and pursued by a party of savages. he retreated fighting, killed three indians with his own hand, and probably would have regained his boat in safety, had he not accidentally plunged into a miry hole, from which he could not extricate himself. . by this accident, he was taken prisoner; and the indians would have tortured him, and put him to death, according to their cruel customs, had not his ever-ready wit come to his aid. . he showed them a small ivory compass, which he had with him, and, by signs, explained many wonderful things to them, till his enemies were inspired with a most profound respect, and resolved not to kill the extraordinary man without consulting their chief. . he was, accordingly, brought into the presence of the king, powhatan, who received him in a robe of raccoon skins, and seated on a kind of throne, with two beautiful young daughters at his side. after a long consultation, he was condemned to die. . two large stones were brought, his head laid upon one of them, and the war-clubs raised to strike the deadly blow. at this moment, pocahontas, the king's favorite daughter, sprang forward, threw herself between him and the executioners, and by her entreaties saved his life. . powhatan promised him that he should return to jamestown, if the english would give him a certain quantity of ammunition and trinkets. smith agreed to obtain them, provided a messenger would carry a leaf to his companions. on this leaf he briefly stated what must be sent. . powhatan had never heard of writing;--he laughed at the idea that a leaf could speak, and regarded the whole as an imposition on the part of the prisoner. . when, however, the messenger returned with the promised ransom, he regarded smith as nothing less than a wizard, and gladly allowed him to depart. it seemed to be the fate of this singular man to excite a powerful interest wherever he went. . pocahontas had such a deep attachment for him, that, in , when only fourteen years old, she stole away from her tribe, and, during a most dreary night, walked to jamestown, to tell him that her father had formed the design of cutting off the whole english settlement. . thus she a second time saved his life, at the hazard of her own. this charming indian girl did not meet with all the gratitude she deserved. . before , captain smith received a wound, which made it necessary for him to go to england, for surgical aid; and after his departure a copper kettle was offered to any indian who would bring pocahontas to the english settlement. . she was, accordingly, stolen from her father, and carried prisoner to jamestown. powhatan offered five hundred bushels of corn as a ransom for his darling child. . before the negotiation was finished, an englishman of good character, by the name of thomas rolfe, became attached to pocahontas, and they were soon after married, with the king's consent. . this event secured peace to the english for many years. the indian bride became a christian, and was baptized. lesson lii. _the same subject, concluded._ . in , pocahontas went to england with her husband,--was introduced at court, and received great attention. . king james is said to have been very indignant that any of his subjects should have dared to marry a princess; but captain smith has been accused, perhaps falsely, of being sufficiently cold and selfish to blush for his acquaintance with the generous north american savage. . pocahontas never returned to her native country. she died at gravesend, in , just as she was about to embark for america. . she left one son, thomas rolfe; and from his daughter are descended several people of high rank in virginia, among whom was the celebrated john randolph of roanoke. . smith had many adventures, after his wound obliged him to leave jamestown. he visited this country again; made a voyage to the summer isles; fought with pirates; joined the french against the spaniards; and was adrift, in a little boat, alone, on the stormy sea, during a night so tempestuous that thirteen french ships were wrecked, near the isle of re; yet he was saved. . he died in london, in , in the fifty-second year of his age, after having published his singular adventures in europe, asia, africa, and america. lesson liii. _john ledyard._--juvenile miscellany. . few men have done so much, in a short life, as john ledyard. when he was a mere boy, he built a canoe with his own hands, and descended connecticut river alone and unassisted. . he enlisted as a soldier, at gibraltar; and afterwards, in the humble character of corporal of the marines, he sailed round the world with the celebrated captain cook. . after his return to england, he formed the bold design of traversing the northern parts of europe and asia, crossing behring's straits, and examining the whole of north america, from east to west. . sir joseph banks, famous for his generosity to men of enterprise, furnished him with money for the undertaking. he expended nearly all of it in purchasing sea stores; and these, most unluckily, were all seized by a custom-house officer, on account of some articles which the english law forbade to be exported. . poor ledyard was now left in utter poverty; but he was a resolute man, and he would not be discouraged. with only ten guineas in his purse, he attempted to _walk_ over the greater part of three continents. . he walked through denmark and sweden, and attempted to cross the great gulf of bothnia, on his way to siberia; but when he reached the middle of that inland sea, he found the water was not frozen, and he was obliged to foot it back to stockholm. . he then traveled round the head of the gulf, and descended to st. petersburg. here he was soon discovered to be a man of talents and activity; and though he was without money, and absolutely destitute of stockings and shoes, he was treated with great attention. . the portuguese ambassador invited him to dine, and was so much pleased with him, that he used his influence to obtain for him a free passage in the government wagons, then going to irkutsk, in siberia, at the command of the empress katharine. . he went from this place to yakutz, and there awaited the opening of the spring, full of the animating hope of soon completing his wearisome journey. but misfortune seemed to follow him wherever he went. . the empress could not believe that any man in his senses was traveling through the ice and snows of uncivilized siberia, merely for the sake of seeing the country and the people. . she imagined that he was an english spy, sent there merely for the purpose of prying into the state of her empire and her government. she therefore employed two russian soldiers to seize him, and convey him out of her dominions. . taken, he knew not why, and obliged to go off without his clothes, his money, or his papers, he was seated in one of the strange-looking sledges used in those northern deserts, and carried through tartary and white russia, to the frontiers of poland. . covered with dirty rags, worn out with hardships, sick almost unto death, without friends and without money, he begged his way to konigsberg, in prussia. lesson liv. _the same subject, concluded._ . in this hour of deep distress, he found a person willing to take his draft for five guineas on the royal society of england. with this assistance, he arrived in the land of our forefathers. . he immediately applied to his ever-ready friend, sir joseph banks, for employment. sir joseph, knowing that nothing suited him better than perilous adventures, told him that a company had just been formed, for the purpose of penetrating into the interior of africa, and discovering the source of the river niger. . burning sands, savage negroes, venomous serpents, all the frightful animals of the torrid zone, could not alarm the intrepid soul of ledyard. he immediately expressed his desire to go. . when the map was spread before him, and his dangerous journey pointed out, he promptly exclaimed, "i will go to-morrow morning." . the gentleman smiled at his eagerness, and gladly intrusted him with an expedition in which suffering and peril were certain, and success extremely doubtful. he left london on the th of june, , and arrived in grand cairo on the th of august. . there he spent his time to great advantage, in searching for and deciphering the various wonders of that ancient and once learned land. . his letters from egypt were delightful. they showed much enthusiasm, united with the most patient and laborious exertion. the company formed great hopes concerning his discoveries in senaar, and awaited letters from that country with much anxiety. . but, alas! he never reached there. he was seized with a violent illness at cairo; died, and was decently buried beside the english who had ended their days in that celebrated city. . we should never read accounts of great or good men without learning some profitable lesson. if we cannot, like ledyard, defend gibraltar, sail round the world with captain cook, project trading voyages to the north-west coast, study egyptian hieroglyph´ics, and traverse the dreary northern zone on foot,--we can, at least, learn from him the important lesson of _perseverance_. . the boy who perseveringly pores over a hard lesson, and who will not give up an intricate problem until he has studied it out, forms a habit, which, in after life, will make him a great man; and he who resolutely struggles against his own indolence, violent temper, or any other bad propensity, will most assuredly be a good one. lesson lv. _learning to work._--original. . a few years ago, several little volumes were published, called "_the rollo books_," which are full of interesting stories about a little boy of that name. they were written by a gentleman whose name is abbott. . they are not only interesting, but also very instructive books; and no little boy or girl can read them, without learning many very useful lessons from them. they are not only useful to young persons, but their parents, also, have derived many useful hints from them, in the management of their children. . the following little story is taken from one of them, called "_rollo at work_;" and i hope that my little friends who read this story at school will also read it at home to their parents, because it will be both interesting and useful to them. . the story begins, by telling us that rollo's father had set him at work in the barn, with a box full of nails, directing him to pick them all over, and to put all those that were alike by themselves. . rollo began very willingly at first, but soon grew tired of the work, and left it unfinished. the remainder of the story will be found in the following lessons, in mr. abbott's own words. lesson lvi. _the same subject, continued._--abbott. . that evening, when rollo was just going to bed, his father took him up in his lap, and told him he had concluded what to do. . "you see it is very necessary," said he, "that you should have the power of confining yourself steadily and patiently to a single employment, even if it does not amuse you. . "i have to do that, and all people have to do it; and you must learn to do it, or you will grow up indolent and useless. you cannot do it now, it is very plain. . "if i set you to doing anything, you go on as long as the novelty and the amusement last; and then your patience is gone, and you contrive every possible excuse for getting away from your task. . "now, i am going to give you one hour's work to do, every forenoon and afternoon. i shall give you such things to do as are perfectly plain and easy, so that you will have no excuse for neglecting your work, or leaving it. . "but yet i shall choose such things as will afford you no amusement; for my wish is that you should learn to work, not play." . "but, father," said rollo, "you told me there was pleasure in work, the other day. but how can there be any pleasure in it, if you choose such things as have no amusement in them, at all?" . "the pleasure of working," said his father, "is not the fun of doing amusing things, but the satisfaction and solid happiness of being faithful in duty, and accomplishing some useful purpose. . "for example, if i were to lose my pocket-book on the road, and should tell you to walk back a mile, and look carefully all the way, until you found it, and if you did it faithfully and carefully, you would find a kind of satisfaction in doing it; and when you found the pocket-book, and brought it back to me, you would enjoy a high degree of happiness. should not you?" . "why, yes, sir, i should," said rollo.--"and, yet, there would be no amusement in it. you might, perhaps, the next day, go over the same road, catching butterflies; that would be amusement. now, the pleasure you would enjoy in looking for the pocket-book would be the solid satisfaction of useful work. . "the pleasure of catching butterflies would be the amusement of play. now, the difficulty is, with you, that you have scarcely any idea, yet, of the first. . "you are all the time looking for the other; that is, the amusement. you begin to work, when i give you anything to do; but if you do not find amusement in it, you soon give it up. but if you would only persevere, you would find, at length, a solid satisfaction, that would be worth a great deal more." . rollo sat still, and listened; but his father saw, from his looks, that he was not much interested in what he was saying; and he perceived that it was not at all probable that so small a boy could be reasoned into liking work. . in fact, it was rather hard for rollo to understand all that his father said; and still harder for him to feel the force of it. he began to grow sleepy, and so his father let him go to bed. lesson lvii. _the same subject, concluded._ [illustration] . the next day, his father gave him his work. he was to begin at ten o'clock, and work till eleven, gathering beans in the garden. . his father went out with him, and waited to see how long it took him to gather half a pint, and then calculated how many he could gather in an hour, if he was industrious. rollo knew that if he failed now he should be punished in some way, although his father did not say anything about punishment. . when he was set at work, the day before, about the nails, he was making an experiment, as it were, and he did not expect to be actually punished, if he failed; but now he knew that he was under orders, and must obey. . so he worked very diligently, and when his father came out, at the end of the hour, he found that rollo had got rather more beans than he had expected. rollo was much gratified to see his father pleased; and he carried in his large basket full of beans to show his mother, with great pleasure. . then he went to play, and enjoyed himself very highly. the next morning, his father said to him,--"well, rollo, you did very well yesterday; but doing right once is a very different thing from forming a habit of doing right. i can hardly expect you will succeed as well to-day; or, if you should to-day, that you will to-morrow." . rollo thought he should. his work was to pick up all the loose stones in the road, and carry them, in a basket, to a great heap of stones behind the barn. . but he was not quite faithful. his father observed him playing several times. he did not speak to him, however, until the hour was over; and then he called him in. . "rollo," said he, "you have failed to-day. you have not been very idle, but have not been industrious; and the punishment which i have concluded to try first is, to give you only bread and water for dinner." . so, when dinner-time came, and the family sat down to the good beef-steak and apple-pie which was upon the table, rollo knew that he was not to come. he felt very unhappy, but he did not cry. . his father called him, and cut off a good slice of bread, and put into his hands, and told him he might go and eat it on the steps of the back door. "if you should be thirsty," he added, "you may ask mary to give you some water." . rollo took the bread, and went out, and took his solitary seat on the stone step leading into the back yard; and, in spite of all his efforts to prevent it, the tears would come into his eyes. . he thought of his guilt in disobeying his father, and he felt unhappy to think that his father and mother were seated together at their pleasant table, and that he could not come, because he had been an undutiful son. he determined that he would never be unfaithful in his work again. . he went on, after this, several days, very well. his father gave him various kinds of work to do, and he began, at last, to find a considerable degree of satisfaction in doing it. . he found, particularly, that he enjoyed himself a great deal more after his work than before; and, whenever he saw what he had done, it gave him pleasure. . after he had picked up the loose stones before the house, for instance, he drove his hoop about there with unusual satisfaction; enjoying the neat and tidy appearance of the road much more than he would have done, if jonas had cleared it. in fact, in the course of a month, rollo became quite a faithful and efficient little workman. [illustration] lesson lviii. _the comma._ the comma is a mark like this =,= when you come to a comma in reading, you must generally make a short pause. sometimes you must use the falling inflection of the voice, when you come to a comma; and sometimes you must keep your voice suspended, as if some one had stopped you before you had read all that you intended. the general rule, when you come to a comma, is, to stop just long enough to count one. examples. diligence, industry, and proper improvement of time, are material duties of the young. he is generous, just, charitable, and humane. by wisdom, by art, by the united strength of a civil community, men have been enabled to subdue the whole race of lions, bears, and serpents. [sometimes a comma must be read like a question.] do you pretend to sit as high in school as anthony? did you read as correctly, articulate as distinctly, speak as loudly, or behave as well, as he? did he recite his lesson correctly, read audibly, and appear to understand what he read? was his copy written neatly, his letters made handsomely, and did no blot appear on his book? was his wealth stored fraudfully, the spoil of orphans wronged, and widows who had none to plead their rights? have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry? is that a map which you have before you, with the leaves blotted with ink? will you say that your time is your own, and that you have a right to employ it in the manner you please? [sometimes a comma is to be read like a period, with the falling inflection of the voice.] the teacher directed him to take his seat, to study his lesson, and to pass no more time in idleness. it is said by unbelievers that religion is dull, unsocial, uncharitable, enthusiastic, a damper of human joy, a morose intruder upon human pleasure. charles has brought his pen instead of his pencil, his paper instead of his slate, his grammar instead of his arithmetic. perhaps you have mistaken sobriety for dullness, equanimity for moroseness, disinclination to bad company for aversion to society, abhorrence of vice for uncharitableness, and piety for enthusiasm. henry was careless, thoughtless, heedless, and inattentive. [sometimes the comma is to be read like an exclamation.] o, how can you destroy those beautiful things which your father procured for you! that beautiful top, those polished marbles, that excellent ball, and that beautiful painted kite,--oh, how can you destroy them, and expect that he will buy you new ones! o, how canst thou renounce the boundless store of charms that nature to her votary yields! the warbling woodland, the resounding shore, the pomp of groves, the garniture of fields, all that the genial ray of morning gilds, and all that echoes to the song of even, all that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, and all the dread magnificence of heaven, oh, how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven! [sometimes the comma, and other marks, are to be read without any pause or inflection of the voice.] you see, boys, what a fine school-room we have, in which you can pursue your studies. you see, my son, this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the sun and moon, and all the stars, appear in their turns. therefore, my child, fear, and worship, and love god. he that can read as well as you can, james, need not be ashamed to read aloud. he that can make the multitude laugh and weep as you can, mr. shakspeare, need not fear scholars. [sometimes the pause of a comma must be made where there is no pause in your book. spaces are left, in the following sentences, where the pause is proper.] james was very much delighted with the picture which he saw. the europeans were hardly less amazed at the scene now before them. the inhabitants were entirely naked. their black hair, long and curled, floated upon their shoulders, or was bound in tresses around their head. persons of reflection and sensibility contemplate with interest the scenes of nature. the succession and contrast of the seasons give scope to that care and foresight, diligence and industry, which are essential to the dignity and enjoyment of human beings. [the pupil may read the following sentences; but before reading them, he may tell after what word the pause should be made. the pause is not printed in the sentences, but it must be made when reading them. and here it may be observed, that the comma is more frequently used to point out the grammatical divisions of a sentence than to indicate a rest or cessation of the voice. good reading depends much upon skill and judgment in making those pauses which the sense of the sentence dictates, but which are not noted in the book; and the sooner the pupil is taught to make them, with proper discrimination, the surer and the more rapid will be his progress in the art of reading.] while they were at their silent meal a horseman came galloping to the door, and, with a loud voice, called out that he had been sent express with a letter to gilbert ainslee. the golden head that was wont to rise at that part of the table was now wanting. for even though absent from school i shall get the lesson. for even though dead i will control the trophies of the capitol. it is now two hundred years since attempts have been made to civilize the north american savage. doing well has something more in it than the fulfilling of a duty. you will expect me to say something of the lonely records of the former races that inhabited this country. there is no virtue without a characteristic beauty to make it particularly loved by the good, and to make the bad ashamed of their neglect of it. a sacrifice was never yet offered to a principle, that was not made up to us by self-approval, and the consideration of what our degradation would have been had we done otherwise. the following story has been handed down by family tradition for more than a century. the succession and contrast of the seasons give scope to that care and foresight, diligence and industry, which are essential to the dignity and enjoyment of human beings, whose happiness is connected with the exertion of their faculties. a lion of the largest size measures from eight to nine feet from the muzzle to the origin of the tail, which last is of itself about four feet long. the height of the larger specimens is four or five feet. the following anecdote will show with what obstinate perseverance pack-horses have been known to preserve the line of their order. good-morning to you, charles! whose book is that which you have under your arm? a benison upon thee, gentle huntsman! whose towers are these that overlook the wood? the incidents of the last few days have been such as will probably never again be witnessed by the people of america, and such as were never before witnessed by any nation under heaven. to the memory of andre his country has erected the most magnificent monuments, and bestowed on his family the highest honors and most liberal rewards. to the memory of hale not a stone has been erected, and the traveler asks in vain for the place of his long sleep. lesson lix. _the semicolon._ the semicolon is made by a comma placed under a period, thus =;= when you come to a semicolon, you must generally make a pause twice as long as you would make at a comma. sometimes you must keep the voice suspended when you come to a semicolon, as in the following: examples. that god whom you see me daily worship; whom i daily call upon to bless both you and me, and all mankind; whose wondrous acts are recorded in those scriptures which you constantly read; that god who created the heaven and the earth is your father and friend. my son, as you have been used to look to me in all your actions, and have been afraid to do anything unless you first knew my will; so let it now be a rule of your life to look up to god in all your actions. [sometimes you must use the falling inflection of the voice when you come to a semicolon, as in the following:] examples. let your dress be sober, clean, and modest; not to set off the beauty of your person, but to declare the sobriety of your mind; that your outward garb may resemble the inward plainness and simplicity of your heart. in meat and drink, observe the rules of christian temperance and sobriety; consider your body only as the servant and minister of your soul; and only so nourish it, as it may best perform an humble and obedient service. condescend to all the weakness and infirmities of your fellow-creatures; cover their frailties; love their excellences; encourage their virtues; relieve their wants; rejoice in their prosperity; compassionate their distress; receive their friendship; overlook their unkindness; forgive their malice; be a servant of servants; and condescend to do the lowest offices for the lowest of mankind. [the semicolon is sometimes used for a question, and sometimes as an exclamation.] examples. hast thou not set at defiance my authority; violated the public peace, and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects? o, it was impious; it was unmanly; it was poor and pitiful! have not you too gone about the earth like an evil genius; blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry; plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? what a glorious monument of human invention, that has thus triumphed over wind and wave; has brought the ends of the earth in communion; has established an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; diffused the light of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between which nature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier! lesson lx. _the colon._ the colon consists of two periods placed one above the other, thus =:= sometimes the passage ending with a colon is to be read with the voice suspended; but it should generally be read with the falling inflection of the voice. the general rule, when you come to a colon, is to stop just long enough to count three; or three times as long as you are directed to pause at a comma. examples. law and order are forgotten: violence and rapine are abroad: the golden cords of society are loosed. the temples are profaned: the soldier's curse resounds in the house of god: the marble pavement is trampled by iron hoofs: horses neigh beside the altar. blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, and betray the half-hidden cottage: the eye contemplates well-thatched ricks, and barns bursting with plenty: the peasant laughs at the approach of winter. [the following passages ending with a colon are to be read with the voice suspended:] do not flatter yourselves with the hope of perfect happiness: there is no such thing in the world. a boy at school is by no means at liberty to read what books he pleases: he must give attention to those which contain his lessons; so that, when he is called upon to recite, he may be ready, fluent, and accurate, in repeating the portion assigned him. as we perceive the shadow to have moved along the dial, but did not perceive its moving; and it appears that the grass has grown, though nobody ever saw it grow: so the advances we make in knowledge, as they consist of such minute steps, are perceivable only by the distance gone over. when the proud steed shall know why man restrains his fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; when the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, is now a victim, and now egypt's god: then shall man's pride and dullness comprehend his actions', passions', being's use and end. jehovah, god of hosts, hath sworn, saying: surely, as i have devised, so shall it be; and as i have purposed, so shall it stand. george, you must not laugh at me; i will not bear it. you forget what you are about when you ridicule me: i know more than you do about the lessons. i never heard a word about it before, said george, yesterday: who told you about it, charles? i never heard one word of it before, said my uncle toby, hastily: how came he there, trim? thou shalt pronounce this parable upon the king of babylon; and shalt say: how hath the oppressor ceased? it is not only in the sacred fane that homage should be paid to the most high: there is a temple, one not made with hands; the vaulted firmament: far in the woods, almost beyond the sound of city-chime, at intervals heard through the breezeless air. the end. [illustration: list of textbooks] transcriber's notes: to retain the flavor of this schoolbook, the transcriber has left all grammar errors in tact. any exceptions are noted below. page vii: opening bracket added to first sentence. [_the poetical extracts page : period added: generosity. page : period added: she was immovable. page : period added: . page : period added: the same, subject, continued. page : word "might" changed to "mighty" due to space in poem and poem's scheme. page : word "curse" is presumed: "...curse resounds in the ..." typographic technical series for apprentices--part vi, no. compound words a study of the principles of compounding, the components of compounds, and the use of the hyphen by frederick w. hamilton, ll. d. educational director united typothetÆ of america. published by the committee on education united typothetae of america copyright, united typothetae of america chicago, ill. preface the subject of compounds is one of the most difficult of the matters relating to correct literary composition. the difficulty arises from the fact that usage, especially in the matter of the presence or absence of the hyphen, is not clearly settled. progressive tendencies are at work and there is great difference of usage, even among authorities of the first rank, with regard to many compounds in common use. an attempt is made to show first the general character of the problems involved. then follows a discussion of the general principles of compounding. the general rules for the formation of compounds are stated and briefly discussed. the various components of compounds are fully analyzed and tabulated. the best modern usage in the matter of the employment of the hyphen is set forth in a series of rules. the whole is concluded by practical advice to the compositor as to the use of the rules in the actual work of the office. contents page introduction general principles accent in compounding the formation of compounds components of compounds rules for the use of the hyphen supplementary reading review questions compound words introduction the english language contains a great many words and phrases which are made up of two or more words combined or related in such a way as to form a new verbal phrase having a distinct meaning of its own and differing in meaning from the sum of the component words taken singly. _income_ and _outgo_, for example, have quite definite meanings related, it is true, to _come_ and _go_ and to _in_ and _out_, but sharply differentiated from those words in their ordinary and general signification. we use these compound words and phrases so commonly that we never stop to think how numerous they are, or how frequently new ones are coined. any living language is constantly growing and developing new forms. new objects have to be named, new sensations expressed, new experiences described. sometimes these words are mere aggregations like _automobile_, _monotype_, _sidewalk_, _policeman_ and the like. sometimes, indeed very often, they are short cuts. a _hatbox_ is a box for carrying a hat, a _red-haired_ man is a man with red hair. a _bookcase_ is a case to contain books, etc. sometimes the phrase consists of two or more separate words, such as _well known_ or _nicely kept_. sometimes it consists of words joined by a hyphen, such as _boarding-house_, _sleeping-car_. sometimes it consists of a single word formed by amalgamating or running together the components, such as _penholder_, _nevertheless_. in which of these forms shall we write the phrase we speak so easily? how shall we shape the new word we have just coined? which of these three forms shall we use, and why? ordinarily we look for the answer to such questions from three sources, historical development, the past of the language; some logical principle of general application; or some recognized standard of authority. unfortunately we get little help from either of these sources in this special difficulty. the history of the language is a history of constant change. the anglo-saxon tongue was full of compounds, but the hyphen was an unknown device to those who spoke it. the english of chaucer, the period when our new-born english tongue was differentiated from those which contributed to its composition, is full of compounds, and the compounds were generally written with a hyphen. shakespeare used many compound words and phrases some of which sound strange, if not uncouth, to modern ears, but used the hyphen much less than chaucer. in modern times the tendency has been and is to drop the hyphen. the more general progression seems to be ( ) two words, ( ) two words hyphenated, ( ) two words run together into one. sometimes, however, the hyphen drops, leaving two words separated. that there is constant change, and that the change is progressing consistently in the direction of eliminating the hyphen is fairly clear. this, however, does not help us much. at what stage of the process are we with regard to any given word? which form of the process is operating in any given case? there are no laws or principles of universal application on which we may build a consistent system of practice. certain general principles have been laid down and will be here set forth. while they are helpful to the understanding of the subject they are not sufficiently universal to serve as practical guides in all cases. in any event they need to be supplemented by careful study of the rules for the use of the hyphen, by careful study of the best usage in particular cases, and by thorough knowledge of the style of each particular office, as will be pointed out later. authorities and usage differ widely, and it is often difficult to say that a particular form is right or wrong. there is no recognized standard authority. the dictionaries do not agree with each other and are not always consistent with themselves. they may always write a certain word in a certain way but they may write another word to all appearance exactly analogous to the first in another way. for example worcester has _brickwork_ and _brasswork_, but _wood-work_ and _iron-work_. webster, on the other hand, has _woodwork_ and _brick-work_. the best that the printer can do is to adopt a set of rules or style of his own and stick to it consistently. here and there a generally accepted change, like the dropping of the hyphen from _tomorrow_ and _today_ will force itself upon him, but for the most part he may stick to his style. of course, the author, if he has a marked preference, must be permitted to use his own methods of compounding except in magazine publications and the like. in such cases, when the author's work is to appear in the same volume with that of other writers, the style of the printing office must rule and the individual contributors must bow to it. general principles three general principles are laid down by mr. f. horace teall which will be found useful, though they must be supplemented in practice by more specific rules which will be given later. they are as follows: i all words should be separate when used in regular grammatical relations and construction unless they are jointly applied in some arbitrary way. an _iron fence_ means a fence made of iron. the meaning and construction are normal and the words are not compounded. an _iron-saw_ means a saw for cutting iron. the meaning is not the same as _iron saw_ which would mean a saw made of iron. the hyphenated compound indicates the special meaning of the words used in this combination. _ironwood_ is a specific name applied to a certain kind of very hard wood. hence, it becomes a single word compounded but without a hyphen. either of the other forms would be ambiguous or impossible in meaning. ii abnormal associations of words generally indicate unification in sense and hence compounding in form. a _sleeping man_ is a phrase in which the words are associated normally. the man sleeps. a _sleeping-car_ is a phrase in which the words are associated abnormally. the car does not sleep. it is a specially constructed car in which the passengers may sleep comfortably. a _king fisher_ might be a very skilful fisherman. a _kingfisher_ is a kind of bird. here again we have an abnormal association of words and as the compound word is the name of a specific sort of bird there is no hyphen. a _king-fisher_, if it meant anything, would probably mean one who fished for kings, as a _pearl-diver_ is one who dives for pearls. iii conversely, no expression in the language should ever be changed from two or more words into one (either hyphenated or solid) without change of sense. _saw trimmer_ is not compounded because there is no change in the commonly accepted sense of either word. _color work_ is not compounded because the word _color_, by usage common in english, has the force of an adjective, and the words are used in their accepted sense. in other languages it would be differently expressed, for example, in french it would be _oeuvre_, or _imprimerie en couleur_, _work_, or, _printing in color_. _presswork_ is compounded because it has a special and specific meaning. good or bad presswork is a good or bad result of work done on a press. here as everywhere in printing the great purpose is to secure plainness and intelligibility. print is made to read. anything which obscures the sense, or makes the passage hard to read is wrong. anything which clears up the sense and makes the passage easy to read and capable of only one interpretation is right. influence of accent in compounding some writers lay much stress on the influence of accent in the formation of compounds while others ignore it entirely. accent undoubtedly has some influence and the theory may be easily and intelligibly expressed. it ought to be understood, but it will not be found an entirely safe guide. usage has modified the results of compounding in many cases in ways which do not lend themselves to logical explanation and classification. the general principle as stated by mr. teall is as follows: when each part of the compound is accented, use the hyphen; _laughter-loving_. when only one part is accented, omit the hyphen; _many sided_. when the accent is changed, print the compound solid; _broadsword_. this follows the general rule of accenting the first syllable in english words. rules for the formation of compounds i two nouns used together as a name form a compound noun unless: (_a_) the first is used in a descriptive or attributive sense, that is, is really an adjective, or (_b_) the two are in apposition. various uses of the noun as an adjective, that is, in some qualifying or attributive sense are when the noun conveys the sense of: . "made of;" _leather belt_, _steel furniture_. . "having the shape, character, or quality of;" _diamond pane_, _iron ration_, _bull calf_. . "pertaining to, suitable for, representing;" _office desk_, _labor union_. . "characterized by;" _motor drive_. . "situated in, and the like;" _ocean current_, _city life_. . "supporting or advocating;" _union man_, _bryan voter_. . "existing in or coming from;" _yellowstone geyser_, _california lemon_. . "originated or made by, named for;" _gordon press_, _harvard college_. placing the two nouns in apposition is much the same as using the first as an adjective. such compounds are generally written as two words without the hyphen, but see specific rules for use of hyphens. ii every name apparently composed of a plain noun and a noun of agent or verbal noun, but really conveying the sense of a phrase with suffix _er_, _or_, or _ing_, should be treated as a compound; _roller distribution_. iii possessive phrases used as specific names (generally plants) are treated as compounds. they are hyphenated unless very common, in which case they are closed up; _crane's-bill_, _ratsbane_. iv any phrase used as a specific name in an arbitrary application not strictly figurative is written as a compound; _blueberry_, _red-coat_, _forget-me-not_. v any pair of words used as one name of which the second is a noun but the first not really an adjective should be written as a compound; _foster-brother_, _down-town_, _after-consideration_. as elsewhere the use of the hyphen depends largely in the familiarity of the phrase; _spoilsport_, _pickpocket_. vi any two words other than nouns should be treated as a compound, generally solid, when arbitrarily associated as a name; _standpoint_, _outlook_. vii a name or an adjective made by adding a suffix to a proper name compounded of two words should be treated as a compound with a hyphen; _east-indian_, _new-yorker_. if the name is not inflected this rule does not apply; _east india company_, _new york man_. viii any pair or series of words arbitrarily associated in a joint sense different from their sense when used separately, should be compounded; _workman-like_, _warlike_. components of compounds compounds having the force of nouns may be made up in several ways. . two nouns used in other than their natural signification; _claw-hammer_. . a noun and an adjective used in other than their natural signification; _great-uncle_, _dry-goods_. . a noun and an adverb; _touch-down_, _holder-forth_. . a noun and an adverb; _down-draft_, _flare-back_. . a noun and a verb; _know-nothing_, _draw-bar_. . a noun and a preposition; _between-decks_. . two adjectives; _high-low_, _wide-awake_. . two verbs; _make-believe_. . a verb and an adverb; _cut-off_, _break-up_. . a verb and a preposition; _to-do_, _go-between_. compounds having the force of adjectives may be made up in several ways. . a group of words compacted into one idea; _never-to-be-forgotten_. . two adjectives; _white-hot_, _ashy-blue_. . an adjective and a participle or noun and suffix simulating a participle; _odd-looking_, _foreign-born_, _bow-legged_. . an adjective and a noun; _fire-new_, _type-high_. . a noun and a participle (or noun and suffix simulating a participle); _hand-printed_, _peace-making_. . an adverb and an adjective used together before a noun; _well-bred_, _long-extended_. . two nouns used adjectively before another noun; _cotton-seed oil_, _shoe-sewing machine_, _sunday-school teacher_. . an adjective and a noun used together before a noun; _civil-service examination_, _free-trade literature_, _fresh-water sailor_. . a verb and a noun; _john lack-land_. four compounds occur with the force of verbs. . two verbs; _balance-reef_. . a verb and a noun; _silver-plate_, _house-break_. . a verb and an adjective; _cold-press_, _fine-still_. . a verb and an adverb; _cross-examine_. several combinations are used with the force of adverbs. . two adverbs; _upright_, _henceforth_. . a noun and an adverb; _brain-sickly_. . an adjective and an adverb (or compound adjective with suffix, simulating an adverb); _stout-heartedly_, _ill-naturedly_. . an adjective and a verb; _broadcast_. . two nouns; _piecemeal_, _half-mast_. . a noun and an adjective; _cost-free_, _pointblank_. . a noun and a preposition; _down-stairs_, _above-board_, _offhand_. rules for the use of the hyphen . hyphenate nouns formed by the combination of two nouns standing in objective relation to each other, that is, one of whose components is derived from a transitive verb: _well-wisher_ _wood-turning_ _mind-reader_ _child-study_ _office-holder_ _clay-modeling_ when such compounds are in very common use, and especially when they have a specific or technical meaning, they are printed solid; _typewriter_ _stockholder_ _proofreader_ _copyholder_ _lawgiver_ _dressmaker_ . hyphenate a combination of a present participle with a noun when the meaning of the combination is different from that of the two words taken separately; _boarding-house_, _sleeping-car_, _walking-stick_. . hyphenate a combination of a present participle with a preposition used absolutely (not governing the following noun); _the putting-in or taking-out of a hyphen_. . as a rule compounds of _book_, _house_, _will_, _room_, _shop_, and _work_ should be printed solid when the prefixed noun has one syllable; should be hyphenated when it contains two; should be printed in two separate words when it contains three or more; _handbook_, _notebook_, _story-book_, _pocket-book_, _reference book_. _clubhouse_, _storehouse_, _engine-house_, _power-house_, _business-house_. _handmill_, _sawmill_, _water-mill_, _paper-mill_, _chocolate mill_. _classroom_, _lecture-room_, _recitation room_. _tinshop_, _tailor-shop_, _carpenter shop_. _woodwork_, _metal-work_, _filigree work_. unusual combinations such as _source-book_ and _wheat-mill_ are sometimes hyphenated, and the hyphen is sometimes omitted for the sake of the appearance as in _school work_. . compounds of _maker_, _dealer_, and other words denoting occupation are generally hyphenated; _harness-maker_, _job-printer_. the tendency is to print these words solid when they come into very common use; _dressmaker_. . hyphenate nouns when combined in an adjectival sense before the name of the same person; _the martyr-president lincoln_, _the poet-artist rosetti._ . compounds of _store_ are generally hyphenated when the prefix contains one syllable, otherwise not; _drug-store_, _fruit-store_ (but _bookstore_), _provision store_. . compounds of _fellow_ are hyphenated; _fellow-being_, _play-fellow_, but _bedfellow_. . compounds of _father_, _mother_, _brother_, _sister_, _daughter_, _parent_, and _foster_ should be hyphenated when the word in question forms the first part of the compound; _father-love_, _mother-country_, _brother-officer_, _sister-state_, _daughter-cell_, _parent-word_, _foster-brother_, but (by exception) _fatherland_. . hyphenate compounds of _great_ in phrases indicating degrees of descent; _great-grandmother_, _great-great-grandfather_. . hyphenate compounds of _life_ and _world_; _life-history_, _world-influence_, but (by exception) _lifetime_. . compounds of _skin_ with words of one syllable are printed solid, otherwise as two separate words; _calfskin_, _sheepskin_, _alligator skin_. . hyphenate compounds of _master_; _master-builder_, _master-stroke_, but (by exception) _masterpiece_. . hyphenate compounds of _god_ when this word forms the second element; _sun-god_, _war-god_, _godsend_, _godson_. . hyphenate compounds of _half_ and _quarter_; _half-truth_, _quarter-circle_, _half-title_, but on account of difference in meaning of _quarter_, _quartermaster_, _headquarters_. . these prefixes _ante_- _infra_- _re_- _anti_- _inter_- _semi_- _bi_- _intra_- _sub_- _co_- _pre_- _super_- _demi_- _post_- _tri_- are ordinarily joined to the word with which they are used without a hyphen, except when followed by the same letter as that with which they terminate or by _w_ or _y_; _antechamber_ _post-temporal_ _antiseptic_ _post-graduate_ _anti-imperialistic_ _prearrange_ _biennial_ _pre-empt_ _bipartisan_ _recast_ _co-equal_ _re-enter_ _co-ordinate_ _semiannual_ _demigod_ _subconscious_ _inframarginal_ _subtitle_ _international_ _superfine_ _intersperse_ _tricolor_ _intramural_ _co-workers_ _intra-atomic_ _co-yield_ exceptions are (_a_) combinations with proper names or adjectives derived therefrom, and long or unusual compounds; _ante-bellum_ _sister-university_ _anti-license_ _post-revolutionary_ _anti-security_ _pre-raphaelite_ _demi-relievo_ _re-tammanize_ (_b_) words in which the omission of the hyphen would alter the sense; _re-formation_ _reformation_ _re-cover_ _recover_ _re-creation_ _recreation_ . the negative prefixes _un_, _in_, _il_, _im_, and _a_ do not take a hyphen except in very rare or artificial combinations; _unmanly_, _invisible_, _illimitable_, _impenetrable_, _asymmetrical_. the negative prefix _non_ calls for a hyphen except in very common words; _non-existent_ _non-combatant_ _non-interference_ _nonsense_ _non-unionist_ _nonessential_ . the prefixes _quasi_, _extra_, _supra_, _ultra_, and _pan_ call for a hyphen; _quasi-historical_ _supra-normal_ _quasi-corporation_ _ultra-conservative_ _extra-mural_ _pan-germanism_ _ultramontaine_, probably because a specific party designation, is always printed solid. . _over_ and _under_ do not ordinarily call for a hyphen; _overemphasize_, _underfed_, but _over-careful_, _over-spiritualistic_. . combinations having _self_ and _by_ as the first element of the compound call for a hyphen; _self-evident_, _self-respecting_, _by-law_, _by-product_, but _selfhood_, _selfish_, and _selfsame_. . combinations of _fold_ are printed as one word if the number contains only one syllable but as two if it contains more than one; _twofold_ _fifteen fold_ _tenfold_ _a hundred fold_ . adjectives formed by a noun preceding _like_ do not take a hyphen if the noun is a monosyllable, except when ending in _l_ or a proper noun; if the noun contains more than one syllable a hyphen should be used; _childlike_, _warlike_, _catlike_, _bell-like_, _napoleon-like_, but (by exception) _christlike_. . _vice_, _elect_, _ex_, _general_, and _lieutenant_ as parts of titles are connected with the chief noun by a hyphen; _vice-consul_, _ex-president_, _governor-elect_, _postmaster-general_, _lieutenant-colonel_. . _today_, _tonight_, and _tomorrow_ are printed without a hyphen. . in fractional numbers spelled out connect the numerator and denominator by a hyphen. "_the day is three-quarters gone_," _four and five-eighths_, _thirty-hundredths_, _ninety-two thousandths_. do not use the hyphen in an instance as "_one half the business is owned by mr. jones, one quarter by mr. smith, and one eighth each by mr. browne and mr. robinson._" . where two or more compound words occur together having one of their components in common, this component is often omitted from all but the last word and the omission indicated by a hyphen; _french-and spanish-speaking countries_, _wood-iron-and steel-work_, _one-two-three-four and five-cent stamps_. this usage is objected to in some offices as being a germanized form. it is however, less ambiguous than where the hyphen is omitted and is therefore preferable. . ordinal numbers compounded with nouns take the hyphen in such expressions as _second-hand_, _first-rate_, and the like. . numerals of one syllable take a hyphen in compounds with self-explanatory words such as _four-footed_, _one-eyed_, and the like. . numerals compounded with nouns to form an adjective take the hyphen; _twelve-inch rule_, _three-horse team_, _six-point lead_. . the hyphen is used in compounding a noun in the possessive case with another noun; _jew's-harp_, _crow's-nest_. . the hyphen is used with most compounds of _tree_; _apple-tree_, _quince-tree_, but not when a particular object, not a tree (vegetable), is meant; _whippletree_, _crosstree_. . use the hyphen in compounding two adjectives generally, especially personal epithets; _asked-for opinion_, _sea-island cotton_, _dry-plate process_, _hard-headed_, _strong-armed_, _broad-shouldered_. . the hyphen is not used in points of the compass unless doubly compounded; _northeast_, _southwest_, _north-northeast_, _south-southwest by south_. . compounds ending with _man_ or _woman_ are run solid; _pressman_, _forewoman_. . omit the hyphen in such phrases as _by and by_, _by the bye_, _good morning_ (except when used adjectively, _a good-morning greeting_,) _attorney at law_, _coat of arms_. . compounds ending in _holder_ and _monger_ are run solid; _bondholder_, _cheesemonger_. . compounds beginning with _eye_ are run solid; _eyeglass_, _eyewitness_. . compounds unless very unusual, beginning with _deutero_, _electro_, _pseudo_, _sulpho_, _thermo_, etc., are run solid; _electrotype_, _pseudonym_, _thermostat_. . do not separate _meanwhile_ _anywhere_ _somebody_ _meantime_ _anybody_ _somehow_ _moreover_ _anyhow_ _something_ _forever_ _anything_ _sometime_ _everywhere_ _anyway_ _somewhat_ _somewhere_ in phrases like _in the meantime_ and _forever and ever_ the words are printed separately. _any one_ and _some one_ are separate words. . in compounds of color the hyphen is not used except when a noun is used with an adjective to specify color; _reddish-brown_, _gray-white_, _lemon-yellow_, _olive-green_, _silver-gray_. . following is a list of words of everyday occurrence which should be hyphenated, and which do not fall under any of the above classifications. _after-years_ _food-stuff_ _sea-level_ _bas-relief_ _guinea-pig_ _sense-perception_ _birth-rate_ _horse-power_ _son-in-law_ _blood-relations_ _loan-word_ _subject-matter_ _common-sense_ _man-of-war_ _thought-process_ _cross-examine_ _object-lesson_ _title-page_ _cross-reference_ _page-proof_ _wave-length_ _cross-section_ _pay-roll_ _well-being_ _death-rate_ _poor-law_ _well-nigh_ _folk-song_ _post-office_ _will-power_ _fountain-head_ these rules are the consensus of opinion of a considerable number of good authorities from devinne ( ) to manly and powell ( ). the great practical difficulty is that authorities differ as to their application. devinne uses the dieresis instead of the hyphen in such cases as _co-operate_ or _pre-eminent_, writing _coöperate_, _preëminent_. many of the rules have exceptions and authorities differ as to the extent of the exceptions. there are many differences in the great number of unclassified compounds. for example, manly and powell write _coat-of-arms_, while orcutt writes _coat of arms_. common usage omits the hyphen from post office except when used as an adjective, e. g., _post-office accounts_. a strict adherence to the rules given would probably result, not in bad composition, but in a much greater use of hyphens than would be found on the pages of many recent books from the presses of some of the best publishers. this is due partly to the fact that usage has never been strictly uniform and partly to the constant progressive change noted at the beginning of this study. we are gradually discontinuing the use of the hyphen just as we are diminishing our use of capital letters, punctuation marks, and italics. the compositor should ground himself thoroughly in the principles and rules. he should learn the best usage with regard to special words and phrases. he should master the office style. he should follow copy if the author has distinct and definite ideas which are not absolutely wrong and would not introduce inconsistencies in magazines and the like by violating the office style which is followed in other parts of the same publication. if it is clear that the author knows what he wants, the compositor should follow copy. questions of correctness and conformity to style belong not to him but to the copy editor and proofreader. supplementary reading english compound words and phrases. by francis horace teall. funk & wagnalls, new york. the compounding of english words, when and why joining or separation is preferable. by francis horace teall. j. ireland, new york. correct composition. by theodore l. de vinne. the oswald publishing co., new york. a manual for writers. by john matthews manly and john arthur powell. the university of chicago press, chicago. the writer's desk book. by william dana orcutt. frederick a. stokes co., new york. questions . what is meant by a "compound"? . what is the purpose of a compound? . in what three forms do compounds appear? . where should we expect to find guidance in the choice of these forms? . do we so find it, and why? . what tendency is observable in usage regarding compounds? . what can the printer do? . give teall's rules, and show the application of each. . what is the influence of accent in compounding? . what is the rule about two nouns used together to form a name? . what is the rule about names composed of a plain noun and a verbal noun? . how are possessive phrases used as specific names treated? . what is the rule about phrases used as specific names? . how do you write a pair of words used as a name when the second word is a noun and the first not really an adjective? . how do you treat two words, not nouns, arbitrarily used as a name? . how do you treat a compound consisting of a suffix and a compound proper name? . how do you treat words so associated that their joint sense is different from their separate sense? . how may compounds having the force of nouns be made up? . how may compounds having the force of adjectives be made up? . how may compounds having the force of verbs be made up? . how may compounds having the force of adverbs be made up? . how are compound nouns written when one of the components is derived from a transitive verb? . how is a compound of a present participle and a noun written? . how is a compound of a present participle and a preposition treated? . what is the usage in compounds of _book_, _house_, _will_, _room_, _shop_, and _work_? . how are compounds of _maker_ and _dealer_ written? . what is done when nouns are combined in a descriptive phrase before a name of a person? . how are compounds of _store_ treated? . how are compounds of _fellow_ treated? . how are compounds of _father_, _mother_, _brother_, _sister_, _daughter_, _parent_, and _foster_ treated? . what compounds of _great_ are hyphenated? . how are compounds of _life_ and _world_ treated? . what is the rule about compounds of _skin_? . how are compounds of _master_ treated? . what is the rule about compounds of _god_? . give fifteen common prefixes and tell how they are used, stating exceptions. . what are the negative prefixes and how are they used? . what is the rule about the prefixes _quasi_, _extra_, _supra_, _ultra_, and _pan_? . what is the rule about _over_ and _under_? . what is the rule about compounds of _self_ and _by_? . how are compounds of _fold_ treated? . what is the rule about compounds of a noun followed by _like_? . how are titles treated when compounded with _vice_, _elect_, _ex_, _general_, and _lieutenant_? . how do you write three familiar compounds denoting time? . how should you treat fractional numbers spelled out? . what is done when two or more compound words with a common component occur in succession? . how do you write compounds of ordinal numbers and nouns? . what rule is given about numerals of one syllable? . what rule is given about numerals compounded with nouns? . how do you treat a compound of two nouns one in the possessive case? . how are compounds of _tree_ treated? . what is the rule about compounds of two adjectives? . what is the rule about points of the compass? . what should you do with compounds ending in _man_ or _woman_? . give certain common typical phrases which omit the hyphen. . how do you treat compounds ending in _holder_ and _monger_? . how do you treat compounds beginning with _eye_? . what is said of compounds beginning with _deutero_, _electro_, _pseudo_, _sulpho_, _thermo_, and the like? . give some common compounds which are always run solid. . how are compounds of color treated? . are these rules universally followed? . what is the duty of the compositor in these cases, especially when doubtful? in this volume, as in so many in this section, much depends upon practice drills. the memorizing of rules is difficult and is of very little use unless accompanied by a great deal of practice so that the apprentice will become so thoroughly familiar with them that he will apply them at once without conscious thought. he should no more think of the rule when he writes _fellow-man_, than he thinks of the multiplication table when he says seven times eight are fifty-six. this drill may be given in several ways, by asking the student to explain the use or omission of hyphens in printed matter, by giving written matter purposely incorrect in parts and asking him to set it correctly, or by giving dictations and having the apprentice write out the matter and then set it up. later, when it will not be too wasteful of time, the apprentice can be given the ordinary run of copy as customers send it in and told to set it in correct form. he will probably find enough errors in it to test his knowledge of compounding and of many other things. typographic technical series for apprentices the following list of publications, comprising the typographic technical series for apprentices, has been prepared under the supervision of the committee on education of the united typothetae of america for use in trade classes, in course of printing instruction, and by individuals. each publication has been compiled by a competent author or group of authors, and carefully edited, the purpose being to provide the printers of the united states--employers, journeymen, and apprentices--with a comprehensive series of handy and inexpensive compendiums of reliable, up-to-date information upon the various branches and specialties of the printing craft, all arranged in orderly fashion for progressive study. the publications of the series are of uniform size, x inches. their general make-up, in typography, illustrations, etc., has been, as far as practicable, kept in harmony throughout. a brief synopsis of the particular contents and other chief features of each volume will be found under each title in the following list. each topic is treated in a concise manner, the aim being to embody in each publication as completely as possible all the rudimentary information and essential facts necessary to an understanding of the subject. care has been taken to make all statements accurate and clear, with the purpose of bringing essential information within the understanding of beginners in the different fields of study. wherever practicable, simple and well-defined drawings and illustrations have been used to assist in giving additional clearness to the text. in order that the pamphlets may be of the greatest possible help for use in trade-school classes and for self-instruction, each title is accompanied by a list of review questions covering essential items of the subject matter. a short glossary of technical terms belonging to the subject or department treated is also added to many of the books. these are the official text-books of the united typothetae of america. address all orders and inquiries to committee on education, united typothetae of america, chicago, illinois, u. s. a. part i--_types, tools, machines, and materials_ . =type: a primer of information= by a. a. stewart relating to the mechanical features of printing types; their sizes, font schemes, etc., with a brief description of their manufacture. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =compositors' tools and materials= by a. a. stewart a primer of information about composing sticks, galleys, leads, brass rules, cutting and mitering machines, etc. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =type cases, composing room furniture= by a. a. stewart a primer of information about type cases, work stands, cabinets, case racks, galley racks, standing galleys, etc. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =imposing tables and lock-up appliances= by a. a. stewart describing the tools and materials used in locking up forms for the press, including some modern utilities for special purposes. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =proof presses= by a. a. stewart a primer of information about the customary methods and machines for taking printers' proofs. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =platen printing presses= by daniel baker a primer of information regarding the history and mechanical construction of platen printing presses, from the original hand press to the modern job press, to which is added a chapter on automatic presses of small size. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =cylinder printing presses= by herbert l. baker being a study of the mechanism and operation of the principal types of cylinder printing machines. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =mechanical feeders and folders= by william e. spurrier the history and operation of modern feeding and folding machines; with hints on their care and adjustments. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =power for machinery in printing houses= by carl f. scott a treatise on the methods of applying power to printing presses and allied machinery with particular reference to electric drive. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =paper cutting machines= by niel gray, jr. a primer of information about paper and card trimmers, hand-lever cutters, power cutters, and other automatic machines for cutting paper. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =printers' rollers= by a. a. stewart a primer of information about the composition, manufacture, and care of inking rollers. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =printing inks= by philip ruxton their composition, properties and manufacture (reprinted by permission from circular no. , united states bureau of standards); together with some helpful suggestions about the everyday use of printing inks by philip ruxton. pp.; review questions; glossary. . =how paper is made= by william bond wheelwright a primer of information about the materials and processes of manufacturing paper for printing and writing. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =relief engravings= by joseph p. donovan brief history and non-technical description of modern methods of engraving; woodcut, zinc plate, halftone; kind of copy for reproduction; things to remember when ordering engravings. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =electrotyping and stereotyping= by harris b. hatch and a. a. stewart a primer of information about the processes of electrotyping and stereotyping. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossaries. part ii--_hand and machine composition_ . =typesetting= by a. a. stewart a handbook for beginners, giving information about justifying, spacing, correcting, and other matters relating to typesetting. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =printers' proofs= by a. a. stewart the methods by which they are made, marked, and corrected, with observations on proofreading. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =first steps in job composition= by camille devéze suggestions for the apprentice compositor in setting his first jobs, especially about the important little things which go to make good display in typography. pp.; examples; review questions; glossary. . =general job composition= how the job compositor handles business stationery, programs and miscellaneous work. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =book composition= by j. w. bothwell chapters from devinne's "modern methods of book composition," revised and arranged for this series of text-books by j. w. bothwell of the devinne press, new york. part i: composition of pages. part ii: imposition of pages. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =tabular composition= by robert seaver a study of the elementary forms of table composition, with examples of more difficult composition. pp.; examples; review questions. . =applied arithmetic= by e. e. sheldon elementary arithmetic applied to problems of the printing trade, calculation of materials, paper weights and sizes, with standard tables and rules for computation, each subject amplified with examples and exercises. pp. . =typecasting and composing machines= a. w. finlay, editor section i--the linotype by l. a. hornstein section ii--the monotype by joseph hays section iii--the intertype by henry w. cozzens section iv--other typecasting and typesetting machines by frank h. smith a brief history of typesetting machines, with descriptions of their mechanical principles and operations. illustrated; review questions; glossary. part iii--_imposition and stonework_ . =locking forms for the job press= by frank s. henry things the apprentice should know about locking up small forms, and about general work on the stone. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =preparing forms for the cylinder press= by frank s. henry pamphlet and catalog imposition; margins; fold marks, etc. methods of handling type forms and electrotype forms. illustrated; review questions; glossary. part iv--_presswork_ . =making ready on platen presses= by t. g. mcgrew the essential parts of a press and their functions; distinctive features of commonly used machines. preparing the tympan, regulating the impression, underlaying and overlaying, setting gauges, and other details explained. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =cylinder presswork= by t. g. mcgrew preparing the press; adjustment of bed and cylinder, form rollers, ink fountain, grippers and delivery systems. underlaying and overlaying; modern overlay methods. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =pressroom hints and helps= by charles l. dunton describing some practical methods of pressroom work, with directions and useful information relating to a variety of printing-press problems. pp.; review questions. . =reproductive processes of the graphic arts= by a. w. elson a primer of information about the distinctive features of the relief, the intaglio, and the planographic processes of printing. pp.; illustrated; review questions; glossary. part v--_pamphlet and book binding_ . =pamphlet binding= by bancroft l. goodwin a primer of information about the various operations employed in binding pamphlets and other work in the bindery. illustrated; review questions; glossary. . =book binding= by john j. pleger practical information about the usual operations in binding books; folding; gathering, collating, sewing, forwarding, finishing. case making and cased-in books. hand work and machine work. job and blank-book binding. illustrated; review questions; glossary. part vi--_correct literary composition_ . =word study and english grammar= by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about words, their relations, and their uses. pp.; review questions; glossary. . =punctuation= by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about the marks of punctuation and their use, both grammatically and typographically. pp.; review questions; glossary. . =capitals= by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about capitalization, with some practical typographic hints as to the use of capitals. pp.; review questions; glossary. . =division of words= by f. w. hamilton rules for the division of words at the ends of lines, with remarks on spelling, syllabication and pronunciation. pp.; review questions. . =compound words= by f. w. hamilton a study of the principles of compounding, the components of compounds, and the use of the hyphen. pp.; review questions. . =abbreviations and signs= by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about abbreviations and signs, with classified lists of those in most common use. pp.; review questions. . =the uses of italic= by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about the history and uses of italic letters. pp.; review questions. . =proofreading= by arnold levitas the technical phases of the proofreader's work; reading, marking, revising, etc.; methods of handling proofs and copy. illustrated by examples. pp.; review questions; glossary. . =preparation of printers' copy= by f. w. hamilton suggestions for authors, editors, and all who are engaged in preparing copy for the composing room. pp.; review questions. . =printers' manual of style= a reference compilation of approved rules, usages, and suggestions relating to uniformity in punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, numerals, and kindred features of composition. . =the printer's dictionary= by a. a. stewart a handbook of definitions and miscellaneous information about various processes of printing, alphabetically arranged. technical terms explained. illustrated. part vii--_design, color, and lettering_ . =applied design for printers= by harry l. gage a handbook of the principles of arrangement, with brief comment on the periods of design which have most influenced printing. treats of harmony, balance, proportion, and rhythm; motion; symmetry and variety; ornament, esthetic and symbolic. illustrations; review questions; glossary; bibliography. . =elements of typographic design= by harry l. gage applications of the principles of decorative design. building material of typography: paper, types, ink, decorations and illustrations. handling of shapes. design of complete book, treating each part. design of commercial forms and single units. illustrations; review questions, glossary; bibliography. . =rudiments of color in printing= by harry l. gage use of color: for decoration of black and white, for broad poster effect, in combinations of two, three, or more printings with process engravings. scientific nature of color, physical and chemical. terms in which color may be discussed: hue, value, intensity. diagrams in color, scales and combinations. color theory of process engraving. experiments with color. illustrations in full color, and on various papers. review questions; glossary; bibliography. . =lettering in typography= by harry l. gage printer's use of lettering: adaptability and decorative effect. development of historic writing and lettering and its influence on type design. classification of general forms in lettering. application of design to lettering. drawing for reproduction. fully illustrated; review questions; glossary; bibliography. . =typographic design in advertising= by harry l. gage the printer's function in advertising. precepts upon which advertising is based. printer's analysis of his copy. emphasis, legibility, attention, color. method of studying advertising typography. illustrations; review questions; glossary; bibliography. . =making dummies and layouts= by harry l. gage a layout: the architectural plan. a dummy: the imitation of a proposed final effect. use of dummy in sales work. use of layout. function of layout man. binding schemes for dummies. dummy envelopes. illustrations; review questions; glossary; bibliography. part viii--_history of printing_ . =books before typography= by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about the invention of the alphabet and the history of bookmaking up to the invention of movable types. pp.; illustrated; review questions. . =the invention of typography= by f. w. hamilton a brief sketch of the invention of printing and how it came about. pp.; review questions. . =history of printing=--part i by f. w. hamilton a primer of information about the beginnings of printing, the development of the book, the development of printers' materials, and the work of the great pioneers. pp.; review questions. . =history of printing=--part ii by f. w. hamilton a brief sketch of the economic conditions of the printing industry from to , including government regulations, censorship, internal conditions and industrial relations. pp.; review questions. . =printing in england= by f. w. hamilton a short history of printing in england from caxton to the present time. pp.; review questions. . =printing in america= by f. w. hamilton a brief sketch of the development of the newspaper, and some notes on publishers who have especially contributed to printing. pp.; review questions. . =type and presses in america= by f. w. hamilton a brief historical sketch of the development of type casting and press building in the united states. pp.; review questions. part ix--_cost finding and accounting_ . =elements of cost in printing= by henry p. porter the standard cost-finding forms and their uses. what they should show. how to utilize the information they give. review questions. glossary. . =use of a cost system= by henry p. porter the standard cost-finding forms and their uses. what they should show. how to utilize the information they give. review questions. glossary. . =the printer as a merchant= by henry p. porter the selection and purchase of materials and supplies for printing. the relation of the cost of raw material and the selling price of the finished product. review questions. glossary. . =fundamental principles of estimating= by henry p. porter the estimator and his work; forms to use; general rules for estimating. review questions. glossary. . =estimating and selling= by henry p. porter an insight into the methods used in making estimates, and their relation to selling. review questions. glossary. . =accounting for printers= by henry p. porter a brief outline of an accounting system for printers; necessary books and accessory records. review questions. glossary. part x--_miscellaneous_ . =health, sanitation, and safety= by henry p. porter hygiene in the printing trade; a study of conditions old and new; practical suggestions for improvement; protective appliances and rules for safety. . =topical index= by f. w. hamilton a book of reference covering the topics treated in the typographic technical series, alphabetically arranged. . =courses of study= by f. w. hamilton a guidebook for teachers, with outlines and suggestions for classroom and shop work. acknowledgment this series of typographic text-books is the result of the splendid co-operation of a large number of firms and individuals engaged in the printing business and its allied industries in the united states of america. the committee on education of the united typothetae of america, under whose auspices the books have been prepared and published, acknowledges its indebtedness for the generous assistance rendered by the many authors, printers, and others identified with this work. while due acknowledgment is made on the title and copyright pages of those contributing to each book, the committee nevertheless felt that a group list of co-operating firms would be of interest. the following list is not complete, as it includes only those who have co-operated in the production of a portion of the volumes, constituting the first printing. as soon as the entire list of books comprising the typographic technical series has been completed (which the committee hopes will be at an early date), the full list will be printed in each volume. the committee also desires to acknowledge its indebtedness to the many subscribers to this series who have patiently awaited its publication. committee on education, united typothetae of america. henry p. porter, _chairman_, e. lawrence fell, a. m. glossbrenner, j. clyde oswald, toby rubovits. frederick w. hamilton, _education director_. contributors =for composition and electrotypes= isaac h. blanchard company, new york, n. y. s. h. burbank & co., philadelphia, pa. j. s. cushing & co., norwood, mass. the devinne press, new york, n. y. r. r. donnelley & sons co., chicago, ill. geo. h. ellis co., boston, mass. evans-winter-hebb, detroit, mich. franklin printing company, philadelphia, pa. gage printing co., ltd., battle creek, mich. f. h. gilson company, boston, mass. stephen greene & co., philadelphia, pa. william green, new york, n. y. w. f. hall printing co., chicago, ill. frank d. jacobs co., philadelphia, pa. wilson h. lee co., new haven, conn. j. b. lippincott co., philadelphia, pa. maccalla & co. inc., philadelphia, pa. the patteson press, new york. the plimpton press, norwood, mass. poole bros., chicago, ill. remington printing co., providence, r. i. edward stern & co., philadelphia, pa. the stone printing & mfg. co., roanoke, va. state journal company, lincoln, neb. the university press, cambridge, mass. =for composition= boston typothetae school of printing, boston, mass. william f. fell co., philadelphia, pa. the kalkhoff company, new york, n. y. oxford-print, boston, mass. toby rubovits, chicago, ill. =electrotypers= blomgren brothers co., chicago, ill. flower steel electrotyping co., new york, n. y. c. j. peters & son co., boston, mass. royal electrotype co., philadelphia, pa. h. c. whitcomb & co., boston, mass. =for engravings= american type founders co., boston, mass. c. b. cottrell & sons co., westerly, r. i. golding manufacturing co., franklin, mass. harvard university, cambridge, mass. inland printer co., chicago, ill. lanston monotype machine company, philadelphia, pa. mergenthaler linotype company, new york, n. y. geo. h. morrill co., norwood, mass. oswald publishing co., new york, n. y. the printing art, cambridge, mass. b. d. rising paper company, housatonic, mass. the vandercook press, chicago, ill. =for book paper= american writing paper co., holyoke, mass. bryant paper co., kalamazoo, mich. the miami paper co., west carrollton, ohio. oxford paper company, new york, n. y. west virginia pulp & paper co., mechanicville, n. y. =for book cloth= interlaken mills, providence, r. i. transcriber's notes: passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. passages in bold are indicated by =bold=. according to the text on page , one example for rule and one example for rule appear to be incorrect. these have been left as presented in the original text. a star book how to write letters (formerly the book of letters) _a complete guide to correct business and personal correspondence_ by mary owens crowther garden city publishing company, inc. new york cl copyright, , by doubleday, page & company all rights reserved printed in the united states at the country life press, garden city, n. y. acknowledgments the forms for engraved invitations, announcements, and the like, and the styles of notepapers, addresses, monograms, and crests are by courtesy of the bailey, banks and biddle company, brentano's, and the gorham company. the western union telegraph company has been very helpful in the chapter on telegrams. contents page chapter i what is a letter? chapter ii the purpose of the letter chapter iii the parts of a letter . the heading . the inside address . the salutation . the body of the letter . the complimentary close . the signature . the superscription chapter iv being appropriate--what to avoid common offenses stock phrases in business letters chapter v personal letters--social and friendly invitations and acknowledgments the letter of condolence letters of sympathy in case of illness letters of congratulation letters of introduction letters of thanks letters between friends chapter vi personal business letters chapter vii the business letter sales and announcement letters keeping the customer selling real estate bank letters letters of order and acknowledgment letters of complaint and adjustment credit and collection letters letters of application letters of reference letters of introduction letters of inquiry chapter viii the use of form paragraphs chapter ix children's letters chapter x telegrams chapter xi the law of letters chapter xii the cost of a letter chapter xiii stationery, crests and monograms list of text illustrations page in the business letterhead appear the name of the firm, its address, and the kind of business engaged in letterheads used by a life insurance company, a law firm, and three associations in the case of widely known firms, or where the name of the firm itself indicates it, reference to the nature of the business is often omitted from letterheads specimens of letterheads used for official stationery as to the use of the symbol "&" and the abbreviation of the word "company," the safest plan in writing to a company is to spell its name exactly as it appears on its letterhead specimen of formal wedding invitation specimens of formal invitations to a wedding reception specimen of wedding announcement specimens of formal dinner invitations specimens of formal invitations "to meet" specimens of formal invitations to a dance specimens of business letterheads arrangement of a business letter (block form) arrangement of a business letter (indented form) specimens of business letterheads used by english firms specimens of addressed social stationery specimens of addressed social stationery the monograms in the best taste are the small round ones, but many pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong shapes specimens of crested letter and notepaper specimens of monogrammed stationery specimens of business letterheads department stores and firms that write many letters to women often employ a notepaper size specimens of stationery used by men for personal business letters how to write letters chapter i what is a letter? it is not so long since most personal letters, after an extremely formal salutation, began "i take my pen in hand." we do not see that so much nowadays, but the spirit lingers. pick up the average letter and you cannot fail to discover that the writer has grimly taken his pen in hand and, filled with one thought, has attacked the paper. that one thought is to get the thing over with. and perhaps this attitude of getting the thing over with at all costs is not so bad after all. there are those who lament the passing of the ceremonious letter and others who regret that the "literary" letter--the kind of letter that can be published--is no longer with us. but the old letter of ceremony was not really more useful than a powdered wig, and as for the sort of letter that delights the heart and lightens the labor of the biographer--well, that is still being written by the kind of person who can write it. it is better that a letter should be written because the writer has something to say than as a token of culture. some of the letters of our dead great do too often remind us that they were not forgetful of posterity. the average writer of a letter might well forget culture and posterity and address himself to the task in hand, which, in other than the most exceptional sort of letter, is to say what he has to say in the shortest possible compass that will serve to convey the thought or the information that he wants to hand on. for a letter is a conveyance of thought; if it becomes a medium of expression it is less a letter than a diary fragment. most of our letters in these days relate to business affairs or to social affairs that, as far as personality is concerned, might as well be business. our average letter has a rather narrow objective and is not designed to be literature. we may, it is true, write to cheer up a sick friend, we may write to tell about what we are doing, we may write that sort of missive which can be classified only as a love letter--but unless such letters come naturally it is better that they be not written. they are the exceptional letters. it is absurd to write them according to rule. in fact, it is absurd to write any letter according to rule. but one can learn the best usage in correspondence, and that is all that this book attempts to present. the heyday of letter writing was in the eighteenth century in england. george saintsbury, in his interesting "a letter book," says: "by common consent of all opinion worth attention that century was, in the two european literatures which were equally free from crudity and decadence--french and english--the very palmiest day of the art. everybody wrote letters, and a surprising number of people wrote letters well. our own three most famous epistolers of the male sex, horace walpole, gray, and cowper--belong wholly to it; and 'lady mary'--our most famous she-ditto--belongs to it by all but her childhood; as does chesterfield, whom some not bad judges would put not far if at all below the three men just mentioned. the rise of the novel in this century is hardly more remarkable than the way in which that novel almost wedded itself--certainly joined itself in the most frequent friendship--to the letter-form. but perhaps the excellence of the choicer examples in this time is not really more important than the abundance, variety, and popularity of its letters, whether good, indifferent, or bad. to use one of the informal superlatives sanctioned by familiar custom it was the 'letter-writingest' of ages from almost every point of view. in its least as in its most dignified moods it even overflowed into verse if not into poetry as a medium. serious epistles had--of course on classical models--been written in verse for a long time. but now in england more modern patterns, and especially anstey's _new bath guide_, started the fashion of actual correspondence in doggerel verse with no thought of print--a practice in which persons as different as madame d'arblay's good-natured but rather foolish father, and a poet and historian like southey indulged; and which did not become obsolete till victorian times, if then." there is a wide distinction between a letter and an epistle. the letter is a substitute for a spoken conversation. it is spontaneous, private, and personal. it is non-literary and is not written for the eyes of the general public. the epistle is in the way of being a public speech--an audience is in mind. it is written with a view to permanence. the relation between an epistle and a letter has been compared to that between a platonic dialogue and a talk between two friends. a great man's letters, on account of their value in setting forth the views of a school or a person, may, if produced after his death, become epistles. some of these, genuine or forgeries, under some eminent name, have come down to us from the days of the early roman empire. cicero, plato, aristotle, demosthenes, are the principal names to which these epistles, genuine and pseudonymous, are attached. some of the letters of cicero are rather epistles, as they were intended for the general reader. the ancient world--babylonia, assyria, egypt, rome, and greece--figures in our inheritance of letters. in egypt have been discovered genuine letters. the papyrus discoveries contain letters of unknowns who had no thought of being read by the general public. during the renaissance, cicero's letters were used as models for one of the most common forms of literary effort. there is a whole literature of epistles from petrarch to the _epistolæ obscurorum virorum_. these are, to some degree, similar to the epistles of martin marprelate. later epistolary satires are pascal's "provincial letters," swift's "drapier letters," and the "letters of junius." pope, soon to be followed by lady mary montagu, was the first englishman who treated letter writing as an art upon a considerable scale. modern journalism uses a form known as the "open letter" which is really an epistle. but we are not here concerned with the letter as literature. chapter ii the purpose of the letter no one can go far wrong in writing any sort of letter if first the trouble be taken to set out the exact object of the letter. a letter always has an object--otherwise why write it? but somehow, and particularly in the dictated letter, the object frequently gets lost in the words. a handwritten letter is not so apt to be wordy--it is too much trouble to write. but a man dictating may, especially if he be interrupted by telephone calls, ramble all around what he wants to say and in the end have used two pages for what ought to have been said in three lines. on the other hand, letters may be so brief as to produce an impression of abrupt discourtesy. it is a rare writer who can say all that need be said in one line and not seem rude. but it can be done. the single purpose of a letter is to convey thought. that thought may have to do with facts, and the further purpose may be to have the thought produce action. but plainly the action depends solely upon how well the thought is transferred. words as used in a letter are vehicles for thought, but every word is not a vehicle for thought, because it may not be the kind of word that goes to the place where you want your thought to go; or, to put it another way, there is a wide variation in the understanding of words. the average american vocabulary is quite limited, and where an exactly phrased letter might completely convey an exact thought to a person of education, that same letter might be meaningless to a person who understands but few words. therefore, it is fatal in general letter writing to venture into unusual words or to go much beyond the vocabulary of, say, a grammar school graduate. statistics show that the ordinary adult in the united states--that is, the great american public--has either no high school education or less than a year of it. you can assume in writing to a man whom you do not know and about whom you have no information that he has only a grammar school education and that in using other than commonplace words you run a double danger--first, that he will not know what you are talking about or will misinterpret it; and second, that he will think you are trying to be highfalutin and will resent your possibly quite innocent parade of language. in a few very effective sales letters the writers have taken exactly the opposite tack. they have slung language in the fashion of a circus publicity agent, and by their verbal gymnastics have attracted attention. this sort of thing may do very well in some kinds of circular letters, but it is quite out of place in the common run of business correspondence, and a comparison of the sales letters of many companies with their day-to-day correspondence shows clearly the need for more attention to the day-to-day letter. a sales letter may be bought. a number of very competent men make a business of writing letters for special purposes. but a higher tone in general correspondence cannot be bought and paid for. it has to be developed. a good letter writer will neither insult the intelligence of his correspondent by making the letter too childish, nor will he make the mistake of going over his head. he will visualize who is going to receive his letter and use the kind of language that seems best to fit both the subject matter and the reader, and he will give the fitting of the words to the reader the first choice. there is something of a feeling that letters should be elegant--that if one merely expresses oneself simply and clearly, it is because of some lack of erudition, and that true erudition breaks out in great, sonorous words and involved constructions. there could be no greater mistake. the man who really knows the language will write simply. the man who does not know the language and is affecting something which he thinks is culture has what might be called a sense of linguistic insecurity, which is akin to the sense of social insecurity. now and again one meets a person who is dreadfully afraid of making a social error. he is afraid of getting hold of the wrong fork or of doing something else that is not done. such people labor along frightfully. they have a perfectly vile time of it, but any one who knows social usage takes it as a matter of course. he observes the rules, not because they are rules, but because they are second nature to him, and he shamelessly violates the rules if the occasion seems to warrant it. it is quite the same with the letter. one should know his ground well enough to do what one likes, bearing in mind that there is no reason for writing a letter unless the objective is clearly defined. writing a letter is like shooting at a target. the target may be hit by accident, but it is more apt to be hit if careful aim has been taken. chapter iii the parts of a letter the mechanical construction of a letter, whether social, friendly, or business, falls into six or seven parts. this arrangement has become established by the best custom. the divisions are as follows: . heading . inside address (always used in business letters but omitted in social and friendly letters) . salutation . body . complimentary close . signature . superscription . the heading the heading of a letter contains the street address, city, state, and the date. the examples below will illustrate: calumet street or eighth avenue chicago, ill. new york, n.y. may , march , [illustration: in the business letterhead appear the name of the firm, its address, and the kind of business engaged in] when the heading is typewritten or written by hand, it is placed at the top of the first letter sheet close to the right-hand margin. it should begin about in the center, that is, it should extend no farther to the left than the center of the page. if a letter is short and therefore placed in the center of a page, the heading will of course be lower and farther in from the edge than in a longer letter. but it should never be less than an inch from the top and three quarters of an inch from the edge. in the business letterhead appear the name of the firm, its address, and the kind of business engaged in. the last is often omitted in the case of widely known firms or where the nature of the business is indicated by the name of the firm. in the case of a printed or engraved letterhead, the written heading should consist only of the date. the printed date-line is not good. to mix printed and written or typed characters detracts from the neat appearance of the letter. in social stationery the address, when engraved, should be about three quarters of an inch from the top of the sheet, either in the center or at the right-hand corner. when the address is engraved, the date may be written at the end of the last sheet, from the left-hand corner, directly after the signature. [illustration: letterheads used by a life insurance company, a law firm, and three associations] [illustration: in the case of widely known firms, or where the name of the firm itself indicates it, reference to the nature of the business is often omitted from letterheads] . the inside address in social correspondence what is known as the inside address is omitted. in all business correspondence it is obviously necessary. the name and address of the person to whom a business letter is sent is placed at the left-hand side of the letter sheet below the heading, about an inch from the edge of the sheet, that is, leaving the same margin as in the body of the letter. the distance below the heading will be decided by the length and arrangement of the letter. the inside address consists of the name of the person or of the firm and the address. the address should comprise the street number, the city, and the state. the state may, in the case of certain very large cities, be omitted. either of the following styles may be used--the straight edge or the diagonal: wharton & whaley co. madison avenue & forty-fifth street new york, n. y. or wharton & whaley co. madison avenue & forty-fifth street new york, n. y. punctuation at the ends of the lines of the heading and the address may or may not be used. there is a growing tendency to omit it. the inside address may be written at the end of the letter, from the left, below the signature. this is done in official letters, both formal and informal. these official letters are further described under the heading "salutation" and in the chapter on stationery. . the salutation _social letters_ the salutation, or complimentary address to the person to whom the letter is written, in a social letter should begin at the left-hand side of the sheet about half an inch below the heading and an inch from the edge of the paper. the form "my dear" is considered in the united states more formal than "dear." thus, when we write to a woman who is simply an acquaintance, we should say "my dear mrs. evans." if we are writing to someone more intimate we should say "dear mrs. evans." the opposite is true in england--that is, "my dear mrs. evans" would be written to a friend and "dear mrs. evans" to a mere acquaintance. in writing to an absolute stranger, the full name should be written and then immediately under it, slightly to the right, "dear madam" or "dear sir." for example: mrs. john evans, dear madam: or mr. william sykes, dear sir: the salutation is followed by a colon or a comma. _business letters_ in business letters the forms of salutation in common use are: "dear sir," "gentlemen," "dear madam," and "mesdames." in the still more formal "my dear sir" and "my dear madam" note that the second word is not capitalized. a woman, whether married or unmarried, is addressed "dear madam." if the writer of the letter is personally acquainted with the person addressed, or if they have had much correspondence, he may use the less formal address, as "my dear mr. sykes." the salutation follows the inside address and preserves the same margin as does the first line of the address. the following are correct forms: white brothers co. fifth avenue new york gentlemen: or white brothers co. fifth avenue new york gentlemen: "dear sirs" is no longer much used--although in many ways it seems to be better taste. in the case of a firm or corporation with a single name, as daniel davey, inc., or of a firm or corporation consisting of men and women, the salutation is also "gentlemen" (or "dear sirs"). in letters to or by government officials the extremely formal "sir" or "sirs" is used. these are known as formal official letters. the informal official letter is used between business men and concerns things not in the regular routine of business affairs. these letters are decidedly informal and may be quite conversational in tone. the use of a name alone as a salutation is not correct, as: mr. john evans: i have your letter of-- forms of salutation to be avoided are "dear miss," "dear friend," "messrs." in memoranda between members of a company the salutations are commonly omitted--but these memoranda are not letters. they are messages of a "telegraphic" nature. _titles_ in the matter of titles it has been established by long custom that a title of some kind be used with the name of the individual or firm. the more usual titles are: "mr.," "mrs.," "miss," "messrs.," "reverend," "doctor," "professor," and "honorable." "esquire," written "esq." is used in england instead of the "mr." in common use in the united states. although still adhered to by some in this country, its use is rather restricted to social letters. of course it is never used with "mr." write either "mr. george l. ashley" or "george l. ashley, esq." the title "messrs." is used in addressing two or more persons who are in business partnership, as "messrs. brown and clark" or "brown & clark"; but the national cash register company, for example, should not be addressed "messrs. national cash register company" but "the national cash register company." the form "messrs." is an abbreviation of "messieurs" and should not be abbreviated in any way other than "messrs." the title "miss" is not recognized as an abbreviation and is not followed by a period. honorary degrees, such as "m.d.," "ph.d.," "m.a.," "b.s.," "ll.d.," follow the name of the person addressed. the initials "m.d." must not be used in connection with "doctor" as this would be a duplication. write either "dr. herbert reynolds" or "herbert reynolds, m.d." the titles of "doctor," "reverend," and "professor" precede the name of the addressed, as: "dr. herbert reynolds," "rev. philip bentley," "prof. lucius palmer." it will be observed that these titles are usually abbreviated on the envelope and in the inside address, but in the salutation they must be written out in full, as "my dear doctor," or "my dear professor." in formal notes one writes "my dear doctor reynolds" or "my dear professor palmer." in less formal notes, "dear doctor reynolds" and "dear professor palmer" may be used. a question of taste arises in the use of "doctor." the medical student completing the studies which would ordinarily lead to a bachelor's degree is known as "doctor," and the term has become associated in the popular mind with medicine and surgery. the title "doctor" is, however, an academic distinction, and although applied to all graduate medical practitioners is, in all other realms of learning, a degree awarded for graduate work, as doctor of philosophy (ph.d.), or for distinguished services that cause a collegiate institution to confer an honorary degree such as doctor of common law (d.c.l.), doctor of law and literature (ll.d.), doctor of science (sc.d.), and so on. every holder of a doctor's degree is entitled to be addressed as "doctor," but in practice the salutation is rarely given to the holders of the honorary degrees--mostly because they do not care for it. do not use "mr." or "esq." with any of the titles mentioned above. the president of the united states should be addressed formally as "sir," informally as "my dear mr. president." members of congress and of the state legislatures, diplomatic representatives, judges, and justices are entitled "honorable," as "honorable samuel sloane," thus: (formal) honorable (or hon.) john henley sir: (informal) honorable (or hon.) john henley my dear mr. henley: titles such as "cashier," "secretary," and "agent" are in the nature of descriptions and follow the name; as "mr. charles hamill, cashier." when such titles as "honorable" and "reverend" are used in the body of the letter they are preceded by the article "the." thus, "the honorable samuel sloane will address the meeting." a woman should never be addressed by her husband's title. thus the wife of a doctor is not "mrs. dr. royce" but "mrs. paul royce." the titles of "judge," "general," and "doctor" belong to the husband only. of course, if a woman has a title of her own, she may use it. if she is an "m.d." she will be designated as "dr. elizabeth ward." in this case her husband's christian name would not be used. in writing to the clergy, the following rules should be observed: for a cardinal the only salutation is "your eminence." the address on the envelope should read "his eminence john cardinal farley." to an archbishop one should write "most rev. patrick j. hayes, d.d., archbishop of new york." the salutation is usually "your grace," although it is quite admissible to use "dear archbishop." the former is preferable and of more common usage. the correct form of address for a bishop is "the right reverend john jones, d.d., bishop of ----." the salutation in a formal letter should be "right reverend and dear sir," but this would be used only in a strictly formal communication. in this salutation "dear" is sometimes capitalized, so that it would read "right reverend and dear sir"; although the form in the text seems preferable, some bishops use the capitalized "dear." the usual form is "my dear bishop," with "the right reverend john jones, d.d., bishop of ----" written above it. in the protestant episcopal church a dean is addressed "the very reverend john jones, d.d., dean of ----." the informal salutation is "my dear dean jones" and the formal is "very reverend and dear sir." in addressing a priest, the formal salutation is "reverend and dear sir," or "reverend dear father." the envelope reads simply: "the rev. joseph j. smith," followed by any titles the priest may enjoy. the form used in addressing the other clergy is "the reverend john jones," and the letter, if strictly formal, would commence with "reverend and dear sir." the more usual form, however, is "my dear mr. brown" (or "dr. brown," as the case may be). the use of the title "reverend" with the surname only is wholly inadmissible. in general usage the salutation in addressing formal correspondence to a foreign ambassador is "his excellency," to a minister or chargé d'affaires, "sir." in informal correspondence the general form is "my dear mr. ambassador," "my dear mr. minister," or "my dear mr. chargé d'affaires." . the body of the letter in the placing of a formal note it must be arranged so that the complete note appears on the first page only. the social letter is either formal or informal. the formal letter must be written according to certain established practice. it is the letter used for invitations to formal affairs, for announcements, and for the acknowledgment of these letters. the third person must always be used. if one receives a letter written in the third person one must answer in kind. it would be obviously incongruous to write mr. and mrs. john evans regret that we are unable to accept mrs. elliott's kind invitation for the theatre on thursday, may the fourth as we have a previous engagement it should read mr. and mrs. john evans regret that they are unable to accept mrs. elliott's kind invitation for the theatre on thursday, may the fourth as they have a previous engagement in these notes, the hour and date are never written numerically but are spelled out. if the family has a coat-of-arms or crest it may be used in the centre of the engraved invitation at the top, but monograms or stamped addresses are never so used. for the informal letter there are no set rules except that of courtesy, which requires that we have our thought distinctly in mind before putting it on paper. it may be necessary to pause a few moments before writing, to think out just what we want to say. a rambling, incoherent letter is not in good taste any more than careless, dishevelled clothing. spelling should be correct. if there is any difficulty in spelling, a small dictionary kept in the desk drawer is easily consulted. begin each sentence with a capital. start a new paragraph when you change to a new subject. put periods (or interrogation points as required) at the ends of the sentences. it is neater to preserve a margin on both sides of the letter sheet. in the body of a business letter the opening sentence is in an important position, and this is obviously the place for an important fact. it ought in some way to state or refer to the subject of or reason for the letter, so as to get the attention of the reader immediately to the subject. it ought also to suggest a courteous personal interest in the recipient's business, to give the impression of having to do with his interests. for instance, a reader might be antagonized by yours of the th regarding the shortage in your last order received. how much more tactful is we regret to learn from your letter of march th that there was a shortage in your last order. paragraphs should show the division of the thought of the letter. if you can arrange and group your subjects and your thoughts on them logically in your mind, you will have no trouble in putting them on paper. it is easier for the reader to grasp your thought if in each paragraph are contained only one thought and the ideas pertaining to it. the appearance of a business letter is a matter to which all too little concern has been given. a firm or business which would not tolerate an unkempt salesman sometimes will think nothing of sending out badly typed, badly placed, badly spelled letters. the first step toward a good-looking letter is proper stationery, though a carefully typed and placed letter on poor stationery is far better than one on good stationery with a good letterhead but poor typing and placing. the matter of correct spelling is merely a case of the will to consult a dictionary when in doubt. the proper placing of a letter is something which well rewards the care necessary at first. estimate the matter to go on the page with regard to the size of the page and arrange so that the centre of the letter will be slightly above the centre of the letter sheet. the margins should act as a frame or setting for the letter. the left-hand space should be at least an inch and the right-hand at least a half inch. of course if the letter is short the margins will be wider. the top and bottom margins should be wider than the side margins. the body of the letter should begin at the same distance from the edge as the first line of the inside address and the salutation. all paragraphing should be indicated by indenting the same distances from the margin--about an inch--or if the block system is used no paragraph indentation is made but double or triple spacing between the paragraphs indicates the divisions. if the letter is handwritten, the spacing between the paragraphs should be noticeably greater than that between other lines. never write on both sides of a sheet. in writing a business letter, if the letter requires more than one page, use plain sheets of the same size and quality without the letterhead. these additional sheets should be numbered at the top. the name or initials of the firm or person to whom the letter is going should also appear at the top of the sheets. this letter should never run over to a second sheet if there are less than three lines of the body of the letter left over from the first page. in the formal official letter, that is, in letters to or by government officials, members of congress, and other dignitaries, the most rigid formality in language is observed. no colloquialisms are allowed and no abbreviations. [illustration: specimens of letterheads used for official stationery] . the complimentary close the complimentary close follows the body of the letter, about two or three spaces below it. it begins about in the center of the page under the body of the letter. only the first word should be capitalized and a comma is placed at the end. the wording may vary according to the degree of cordiality or friendship. in business letters the forms are usually restricted to the following: yours truly (or) truly yours (not good form) yours very truly (or) very truly yours yours respectfully (or) respectfully yours yours very respectfully. if the correspondents are on a more intimate basis they may use faithfully yours cordially yours sincerely yours. in formal official letters the complimentary close is respectfully yours yours respectfully. the informal social letter may close with yours sincerely yours very sincerely yours cordially yours faithfully yours gratefully (if a favor has been done) yours affectionately very affectionately yours yours lovingly lovingly yours. the position of "yours" may be at the beginning or at the end, but it must never be abbreviated or omitted. if a touch of formal courtesy is desired, the forms "i am" or "i remain" may be used before the complimentary closing. these words keep the same margin as the paragraph indenting. but in business letters they are not used. . the signature the signature is written below the complimentary close and a little to the right, so that it ends about at the right-hand margin. in signing a social letter a married woman signs herself as "evelyn rundell," not "mrs. james rundell" nor "mrs. evelyn rundell." the form "mrs. james rundell" is used in business letters when the recipient might be in doubt as to whether to address her as "mrs." or "miss." thus a married woman would sign such a business letter: yours very truly, evelyn rundell (mrs. james rundell). an unmarried woman signs as "ruth evans," excepting in the case of a business letter where she might be mistaken for a widow. she then prefixes "miss" in parentheses, as (miss) ruth evans. a woman should not sign only her given name in a letter to a man unless he is her fiancé or a relative or an old family friend. a widow signs her name with "mrs." in parentheses before it, as (mrs.) susan briggs geer. a divorced woman, if she retains her husband's name, signs her letters with her given name and her own surname followed by her husband's name, thus: janet hawkins carr. and in a business communication: janet hawkins carr (mrs. janet hawkins carr). a signature should always be made by hand and in ink. the signature to a business letter may be simply the name of the writer. business firms or corporations have the name of the firm typed above the written signature of the writer of the letter. then in type below comes his official position. thus: hall, haines & company (typewritten) _alfred jennings_ (handwritten) cashier (typewritten). if he is not an official, his signature is preceded by the word "by." in the case of form letters or routine correspondence the name of the person directly responsible for the letter may be signed by a clerk with his initials just below it. some business firms have the name of the person responsible for the letter typed immediately under the name of the firm and then his signature below that. this custom counteracts illegibility in signatures. in circular letters the matter of a personal signature is a very important one. some good points on this subject may be gathered from the following extract from _printers' ink_. who shall sign a circular letter depends largely on circumstances entering individual cases. generally speaking, every letter should be tested on a trial list before it is sent out in large quantities. it is inadvisable to hazard an uncertain letter idea on a large list until the value of the plan, as applied to that particular business, has been tried out. there are certain things about letter procedure, however, that experience has demonstrated to be fundamental. one of these platforms is that it is best to sign the letter with some individual's name. covering up the responsibility for the letter with such a general term as "sales department" or "advertising department" takes all personality out of the missive and to that extent weakens the power of the message. but even in this we should be chary of following inflexible rules. we can conceive of circumstances where it would be advisable to have the letter come from a department rather than from an individual. of course the management of many business organizations still holds that all letters should be signed by the company only. if the personal touch is permitted at all, the extent of it is to allow the writer of the letter to subscribe his initials. this idea, however, is pretty generally regarded as old-fashioned and is fast dying out. most companies favor the plan of having the head of the department sign the circular letters emanating from his department. if he doesn't actually dictate the letter himself, no tell-tale signs such as the initials of the actual dictator should be made. if it is a sales matter, the letter would bear the signature of the sales manager. if the communication pertained to advertising, it would be signed by the advertising manager. where it is desired to give unusual emphasis to the letter, it might occasionally be attributed to the president or to some other official higher up. the big name idea should not be overdone. people will soon catch on that the president would not have time to answer all of the company's correspondence. if he has, it is evident that a very small business must be done. a better idea that is coming into wide vogue is to have the letter signed by the man in the company who comes into occasional personal contact with the addressee. one concern has the house salesman who waits on customers coming from that section of the country when they visit headquarters sign all promotion letters going to them. the house salesman is the only one in the firm whom the customer knows. it is reasoned that the latter will give greater heed to a letter coming from a man with whom he is on friendly terms. another company has its branch managers take the responsibility for circular letters sent to the trade in that territory. another manufacturer has his salesmen bunched in crews of six. each crew is headed by a leader. this man has to sell, just as his men do, but in addition he acts as a sort of district sales manager. all trade letters going out in his district carry the crew leader's signature. there is much to be said in favor of this vogue. personal contact is so valuable in all business transactions that its influence should be used in letters, in so far as it is practicable to do so. the signature should not vary. do not sign "g. smith" to one letter, "george smith" to another, and "g. b. smith" to a third. a man should never prefix to his signature any title, as "mr.," "prof.," or "dr." a postscript is sometimes appended to a business letter, but the letters "p.s." do not appear. it is not, however, used as formerly--to express some thought which the writer forgot to include in the letter, or an afterthought. but on account of its unique position in the letter, it is used to place special emphasis on an important thought. . the superscription in the outside address or superscription of a letter the following forms are observed: a letter to a woman must always address her as either "mrs." or "miss," unless she is a professional woman with a title such as "dr." but this title is used only if the letter is a professional one. it is not employed in social correspondence. a woman is never addressed by her husband's title, as "mrs. captain bartlett." a married woman is addressed with "mrs." prefixed to her husband's name, as "mrs. david greene." this holds even if her husband is dead. a divorced woman is addressed (unless she is allowed by the courts to use her maiden name) as "mrs." followed by her maiden name and her former husband's surname, as: "mrs. edna boyce blair," "edna boyce" being her maiden name. a man should be given his title if he possess one. otherwise he must be addressed as "mr." or "esq." titles of those holding public office, of physicians, of the clergy, and of professors, are generally abbreviated on the envelope except in formal letters. it is rather customary to address social letters to "edward beech, esq.," business letters to "mr. edward beech," and a tradesman's letter to "peter moore." a servant is addressed as "william white." the idea has arisen, and it would seem erroneous, that if the man addressed had also "sr." or "jr." attached, the title "mr." or "esq." should not be used. there is neither rhyme nor reason for this, as "sr." and "jr." are certainly not titles and using "mr." or "esq." would not be a duplication. so the proper mode of address would be mr. john evans, jr. or john evans, jr., esq. the "sr." is not always necessary as it may be understood. business envelopes should have the address of the writer printed in the upper left-hand corner as a return address. this space should not be used for advertising. in addressing children's letters, it should be remembered that a letter to a girl child is addressed to "miss jane green," regardless of the age of the child. but a little boy should be addressed as "master joseph green." the address when completed should be slightly below the middle of the envelope and equidistant from right and left edges. the slanting or the straight-edge form may be used, to agree with the indented or the block style of paragraphing respectively. punctuation at the ends of the lines in the envelope address is not generally used. the post office prefers the slanting edge form of address, thus: (not) ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- if there is a special address, such as "general delivery," "personal," or "please forward," it should be placed at the lower left-hand corner of the envelope. chapter iv being appropriate--what to avoid common offenses under this head are grouped a few of the more common offenses against good form in letter writing; some of these have been touched on in other chapters. never use ruled paper for any correspondence. never use tinted paper for business letters. do not have date lines on printed letterheads. this of course has to do with business stationery. do not use simplified spelling, if for no other reason than that it detracts from the reader's absorption of the contents of the letter itself. "enthuse" is not a word--do not use it. avoid blots, fingermarks, and erasures. do not use two one-cent stamps in place of a two-cent stamp. somehow one-cent stamps are not dignified. never use "dear friend," "friend jack," "my dear friend," or "friend bliss" as a form of salutation. in the case of a business letter where a salutation for both sexes may be necessary, use "gentlemen." never cross the writing in a letter with more writing. never use "oblige" in the place of the complimentary close. do not double titles, as "mr. john walker, esq." write either "mr. john walker" or "john walker, esq." a woman should never sign herself "mrs." or "miss" to a social letter. in business letters (see chapter ) it may be necessary to prefix "mrs." or "miss" in parentheses to show how an answer should be addressed to her. never omit "yours" in the complimentary close. always write "yours sincerely," "yours truly," or whatever it may be. never write a letter in the heat of anger. sleep on it if you do and the next morning will not see you so anxious to send it. in some business offices it has become the custom to have typed at the bottom of a letter, or sometimes even rubber-stamped, such expressions as: dictated but not read. dictated by but signed in the absence of ----. dictated by mr. jones, but, as mr. jones was called away, signed by miss walker. while these may be the circumstances under which the letter was written and may be necessary for the identification of the letter, they are no less discourtesies to the reader. and it cannot improve the situation to call them to the reader's attention. in the matter of abbreviations of titles and the like a safe rule is "when in doubt do not abbreviate." sentences like "dictated by mr. henry pearson to miss oliver" are in bad form, not to speak of their being bad business. they intrude the mechanics of the letter on the reader and in so doing they take his interest from the actual object of the communication. all necessary identification can be made by initials, as: l. s. b.--t. do not write a sales letter that gives the same impression as a strident, raucous-voiced salesman. if the idea is to attract attention by shouting louder than all the rest, it might be well to remember that the limit of screeching and of words that hit one in the eye has probably been reached. the tack to take, even from a result-producing standpoint and aside from the question of good taste, is to have the tone of the letter quiet but forceful--the firm, even tone of a voice heard through a yelling mob. do not attempt to put anything on paper without first thinking out and arranging what you want to say. complimentary closings in business letters, such as "yours for more business," should be avoided as the plague. stock phrases in business letters there are certain expressions, certain stock phrases, which have in the past been considered absolutely necessary to a proper knowledge of so-called business english. but it is gratifying to notice the emphasis that professors and teachers of business english are placing on the avoidance of these horrors and on the adoption of a method of writing in which one says exactly what one means and says it gracefully and without stiltedness or intimacy. their aim seems to be the ability to write a business letter which may be easily read, easily understood, and with the important facts in the attention-compelling places. but for the sake of those who still cling to these hackneyed improprieties (which most of them are), let us line them up for inspection. many of them are inaccurate, and a moment's thought will give a better method of conveying the ideas. "we beg to state," "we beg to advise," "we beg to remain." there is a cringing touch about these. a courteous letter may be written without begging. "your letter has come to hand" or "is at hand" belongs to a past age. say "we have your letter of ----" or "we have received your letter." "we shall advise you of ----" this is a legal expression. say "we shall let you know" or "we shall inform you." "as per your letter." also of legal connotation. say "according to" or "in agreement with." "your esteemed favor" is another relic. this is a form of courtesy, but is obsolete. "favor," used to mean "communication" or "letter," is obviously inaccurate. "replying to your letter, would say," or "wish to say." why not say it at once and abolish the wordiness? "state" gives the unpleasant suggestion of a cross-examination. use "say." "and oblige" adds nothing to the letter. if the reader is not already influenced by its contents, "and oblige" will not induce him to be. the telegraphic brevity caused by omitting pronouns and all words not necessary to the sense makes for discourtesy and brusqueness, as: answering yours of the st inst., order has been delayed, but will ship goods at once. how much better to say: we have your letter of st october concerning the delay in filling your order. we greatly regret the delay, but we can now ship the goods at once. "same" is not a pronoun. it is used as such in legal documents, but it is incorrect to employ it in business letters as other than an adjective. use instead "they," "them," or "it." _incorrect:_ we have received your order and same will be forwarded. _correct:_ we have received your order and it will be forwarded. "kindly"--as in: "we kindly request that you will send your subscription." there is nothing kind in your request and if there were, you would not so allude to it. "kindly" in this case belongs to "send," as "we request that you will kindly send your subscription." the word "kind" to describe a business letter--as "your kind favor"--is obviously misapplied. there is no element of "kindness" on either side of an ordinary business transaction. the months are no longer alluded to as "inst.," "ult.," or "prox." [abbreviations of the latin "instant" (present), "ultimo" (past), and "proximo" (next)] as "yours of the th inst." call the months by name, as "i have your letter of th may." "contents carefully noted" is superfluous and its impression on the reader is a blank. "i enclose herewith." "herewith" in this sense means in the envelope. this fact is already expressed in the word "enclose." avoid abbreviations of ordinary words in the body or the closing of a letter, as "resp. yrs." instead of "respectfully yours." the word "company" should not be abbreviated unless the symbol "&" is used. but the safest plan in writing to a company is to write the name exactly as they write it themselves or as it appears on their letterheads. [illustration: as to the use of the symbol "&" and the abbreviation of the word "company," the safest plan in writing to a company is to spell its name exactly as it appears on its letterhead] names of months and names of states may be abbreviated in the heading of the letter but not in the body. but it is better form not to do so. names of states should never be abbreviated on the envelope. for instance, "california" and "colorado," if written "cal." and "col.," may easily be mistaken for each other. the participial closing of a letter, that is, ending a letter with a participial phrase, weakens the entire effect of the letter. this is particularly true of a business letter. close with a clear-cut idea. the following endings will illustrate the ineffective participle: hoping to hear from you on this matter by return mail. assuring you of our wish to be of service to you in the future. thanking you for your order and hoping we shall be able to please you. trusting that you will start an investigation as soon as possible. more effective endings would be: please send a remittance by return mail. if we can be of use to you in the future, will you let us know? we thank you for your order and hope we shall fill it to your satisfaction. please investigate the delay at once. the participial ending is merely a sort of habit. a letter used to be considered lacking in ease if it ended with an emphatic sentence or ended with something that had really to do with the subject of the letter. it might be well in concluding a letter, as in a personal leavetaking, to "stand not on the order of your going." good-byes should be short. chapter v personal letters--social and friendly invitations and acknowledgments _general directions_ the format of an invitation is not so important as its taste. some of the more formal sorts of invitations--as to weddings--have become rather fixed, and the set wordings are carried through regardless of the means at hand for proper presentation. for instance, one often sees a wedding invitation in impeccable form but badly printed on cheap paper. it would be far better, if it is impossible to get good engraving or if first-class work proves to be too expensive, to buy good white notepaper and write the invitations. a typewriter is, of course, out of the question either for sending or answering any sort of social invitation. probably some time in the future the typewriter will be used, but at present it is associated with business correspondence and is supposed to lack the implied leisure of hand writing. the forms of many invitations, as i have said, are fairly fixed. but they are not hallowed. one may vary them within the limits of good taste, but on the whole it is considerably easier to accept the forms in use and not try to be different. if the function itself is going to be very different from usual then the invitation itself may be as freakish as one likes--it may be written or printed on anything from a postcard to a paper bag. the sole question is one of appropriateness. but there is a distinct danger in trying to be ever so unconventional and all that. one is more apt than not to make a fool of one's self. and then, too, being always clever is dreadfully hard on the innocent by-standers. here are things to be avoided: do not have an invitation printed or badly engraved. hand writing is better than bad mechanical work. do not use colored or fancy papers. do not use single sheets. do not use a very large or a very small sheet--either is inappropriate. do not have a formal phraseology for an informal affair. do not abbreviate anything--initials may be used in informal invitations and acceptances, but, in the formal, "h. e. jones" invariably has to become "horatio etherington jones." do not send an answer to a formal invitation in the first person. a formal invitation is written in the third person and must be so answered. do not use visiting cards either for acceptances or regrets even though they are sometimes used for invitations. the practice of sending a card with "accepts" or "regrets" written on it is discourteous. do not seek to be decorative in handwriting--the flourishing spencerian is impossible. do not overdo either the formality or the informality. do not use "r.s.v.p." (the initials of the french words "répondez, s'il vous plaît," meaning "answer, if you please") unless the information is really necessary for the making of arrangements. it ought to be presumed that those whom you take the trouble to invite will have the sense and the courtesy to answer. in sending an evening invitation where there are husband and wife, both must be included, unless, of course, the occasion is "stag." if the invitation is to be extended to a daughter, then her name is included in the invitation. in the case of more than one daughter, they will receive a separate invitation addressed to "the misses smith." each male member of the family other than husband should receive a separately mailed invitation. an invitation, even the most informal, should always be acknowledged within a week of its receipt. it is the height of discourtesy to leave the hostess in doubt either through a tardy answer or through the undecided character of your reply. the acknowledgment must state definitely whether or not you accept. the acknowledgment of an invitation sent to husband and wife must include both names but is answered by the wife only. the name of a daughter also must appear if it appears in the invitation. if mr. and mrs. smith receive an invitation from mr. and mrs. jones, their acknowledgment must include the names of both mr. and mrs. jones, but the envelope should be addressed to mrs. jones only. formal invitations wedding invitations should be sent about three weeks--certainly not later than fifteen days--before the wedding. two envelopes should be used, the name and address appearing on the outside envelope, but only the name on the inside one. the following are correct for formal invitations: _for a church wedding_ (a) _mr. and mrs. john evans request the honour of_ ---- (name written in) _presence at the marriage of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on the evening of monday, the eighth of june at six o'clock at the church of the heavenly rest fifth avenue, new york city_ [illustration: specimen of formal wedding invitation] (b) _mr. and mrs. john evans request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on monday, june the eighth at six o'clock at the church of the heavenly rest fifth avenue, new york_ _for a home wedding_ _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of_ ---- (name written in) _company at the marriage of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on wednesday, june the tenth at twelve o'clock five hundred park avenue_ or either of the forms a and b for a church wedding may be used. "honour of your presence" is more formal than "pleasure of your company" and hence is more appropriate for a church wedding. it is presumed that an invitation to a home wedding includes the wedding breakfast or reception, but an invitation to a church wedding does not. a card inviting to the wedding breakfast or reception is enclosed with the wedding invitation. good forms are: _for a wedding breakfast_ _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of_ ---- (name written in) _at breakfast on tuesday, june the fourth at twelve o'clock park avenue_ _for a wedding reception_ _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of your company at the wedding reception of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on monday afternoon, june the third at four o'clock five hundred park avenue_ [illustration: specimens of formal invitations to a wedding reception] _for a second marriage_ the forms followed in a second marriage--either of a widow or a divorcée--are quite the same as above. the divorcée uses whatever name she has taken after the divorce--the name of her ex-husband or her maiden name if she has resumed it. the widow sometimes uses simply mrs. philip brewster or a combination, as mrs. dorothy evans brewster. the invitations are issued in the name of the nearest relative--the parent or parents, of course, if living. the forms are: (a) _mr. and mrs. john evans request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter dorothy (mrs. philip brewster) to mr. leonard duncan on thursday, april the third at six o'clock trinity chapel_ (b) _mr. and mrs. john evans request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter mrs. dorothy evans brewster to mr. leonard duncan on thursday, april the third at six o'clock trinity chapel_ if there are no near relatives, the form may be: (c) _the honour of your presence is requested at the marriage of mrs. dorothy evans brewster and mr. leonard duncan on thursday, april the third at six o'clock trinity chapel_ in formal invitations "honour" is spelled with a "u." _recalling an invitation_ the wedding may have to be postponed or solemnized privately, owing to illness or death, or it may be put off altogether. in such an event the invitations will have to be recalled. the card recalling may or may not give a reason, according to circumstances. the cards should be engraved if time permits, but they may have to be written. convenient forms are: (a) _owing to the death of mr. philip brewster's mother, mr. and mrs. evans beg to recall the invitations for their daughter's wedding on monday, june the eighth._ [illustration: specimen of wedding announcement] (b) _mr. and mrs. john evans beg to recall the invitations for the marriage of their daughter, dorothy, and mr. philip brewster, on monday, june the eighth_ _wedding announcements_ if a wedding is private, no formal invitations are sent out; they are unnecessary, for only a few relatives or intimate friends will be present and they will be asked by word of mouth or by a friendly note. the wedding may be formally announced by cards mailed on the day of the wedding. the announcement will be made by whoever would have sent out wedding invitations--by parents, a near relative, or by the bride and groom, according to circumstances. the custom with the bride's name in the case of a widow or divorcée follows that of wedding invitations. an engraved announcement is not acknowledged (although a letter of congratulations--see page --may often be sent). a card is sent to the bride's parents or whoever has sent the announcements. the announcement may be in the following form: _mr. and mrs. john evans announce the marriage of their daughter dorothy to mr. philip brewster on monday, june the tenth one thousand nineteen hundred and twenty-two_ _replying to the invitation_ the acceptance or the declination of a formal invitation is necessarily formal but naturally has to be written by hand. it is better to use double notepaper than a correspondence card and it is not necessary to give a reason for being unable to be present--although one may be given. it is impolite to accept or regret only a day or two before the function--the letter should be written as soon as possible after the receipt of the invitation. the letter may be indented as is the engraved invitation, but this is not at all necessary. the forms are: _accepting_ mr. and mrs. frothingham smith accept with pleasure mr. and mrs. evans's kind invitation to be present at the marriage of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on monday, june the twelfth at twelve o'clock (and afterward at the wedding breakfast) or it may be written out: mr. and mrs. frothingham smith accept with pleasure mr. and mrs. evans's kind invitation to be present at the marriage of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on monday, june the twelfth at twelve o'clock (and afterward at the wedding breakfast). _regretting_ mr. and mrs. frothingham smith regret exceedingly that they are unable to accept mr. and mrs. evans's kind invitation to be present at the marriage of their daughter dorothy and mr. philip brewster on monday, june the twelfth (and afterward at the wedding breakfast) or this also may be written out. the portion in parentheses will be omitted if one has not been asked to the wedding breakfast or reception. _for the formal dinner_ formal dinner invitations are usually engraved, as in the following example. in case they are written, they may follow the same form or the letter form. if addressed paper is used the address is omitted from the end. the acknowledgment should follow the wording of the invitation. (a) _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of_ mr. and mrs. trent's _company at dinner on thursday, october the first at seven o'clock and afterward for the play (or opera, etc.)_ _ park avenue_ (b) _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of mr. and mrs. trent's company for dinner and opera on thursday, october the first at seven o'clock_ _accepting_ mr. and mrs. george trent accept with much pleasure mr. and mrs. evans's kind invitation for dinner on thursday, october the first, at seven o'clock and afterward for the opera east forty-sixth street _regretting_ mr. and mrs. george trent regret that they are unable to accept the kind invitation of mr. and mrs. evans for dinner and opera on thursday, october the first, owing to a previous engagement. east forty-sixth street _for a dinner not at home_ _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of mrs. and miss pearson's company at dinner at sherry's on friday, march the thirtieth at quarter past seven o'clock_ _ park avenue_ _accepting_ mrs. richard pearson and miss pearson accept with much pleasure mr. and mrs. evans's very kind invitation for dinner at sherry's on friday, march the thirtieth at quarter past seven o'clock west seventy-second street _regretting_ mrs. richard pearson and miss pearson regret exceedingly that they are unable to accept mr. and mrs. evans's very kind invitation for dinner at sherry's on friday, march the thirtieth owing to a previous engagement to dine with mr. and mrs. spencer west seventy-second street [illustration: specimens of formal dinner invitations] or the reply may follow the letter form: _accepting_ west seventy-second street, march , . mr. and mrs. richard pearson accept with pleasure mrs. john evans's kind invitation for friday evening, march the thirtieth. _regretting_ west seventy-second street march , . mr. and mrs. richard pearson regret sincerely their inability to accept mrs. john evans's kind invitation for friday evening, march the thirtieth. these acknowledgments, being formal, are written in the third person and must be sent within twenty-four hours. _dinner "to meet"_ if the dinner or luncheon is given to meet a person of importance or a friend from out of town, the purpose should appear in the body of the invitation, thus: _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of mr. and mrs. trent's company at dinner on thursday, november the ninth at eight o'clock to meet mr. william h. allen_ _to a formal luncheon_ _mrs. john evans requests the pleasure of miss blake's company at luncheon to meet miss grace flint on tuesday, march the fourth at one o'clock and afterward to the matinée_ _ park avenue_ _accepting_ miss blake accepts with pleasure mrs. evans's very kind invitation for luncheon on tuesday, march the fourth at one o'clock to meet miss flint and to go afterward to the matinée west thirty-first street _regretting_ miss blake regrets that a previous engagement prevents her from accepting mrs. evans's very kind invitation for luncheon on tuesday, march the fourth at one o'clock to meet miss flint and to go afterward to the matinée west thirty-first street [illustration: specimens of formal invitations "to meet"] _for the reception_ afternoon receptions and "at homes" for which engraved invitations are sent out are practically the same as formal "teas." an invitation is engraved as follows: _mr. and mrs. john evans at home wednesday afternoon, september fourth from four until half-past seven o'clock five hundred park avenue_ these cards are sent out by mail in a single envelope about two weeks or ten days before the event. the recipient of such a card is not required to send either a written acceptance or regret. one accepts by attending the "at home." if one does not accept, the visiting card should be sent by mail so that it will reach the hostess on the day of the reception. where an answer is explicitly required, then the reply may be as follows: _accepting_ mrs. john evans accepts with pleasure mrs. emerson's kind invitation for wednesday afternoon november the twenty-eighth _regretting_ mrs. john evans regrets that she is unable to accept mrs. emerson's kind invitation for wednesday afternoon november the twenty-eighth mrs. john evans regrets that she is unable to be present at mrs. emerson's at home on wednesday afternoon november the twenty-eighth _reception "to meet"_ (a) _mrs. bruce wellington requests the pleasure of mrs. evans's presence on thursday afternoon, april fifth to meet the board of governors of the door-of-hope society from four-thirty to seven o'clock_ _accepting_ mrs. john evans accepts with pleasure mrs. wellington's kind invitation to meet the board of governors of the door-of-hope society on thursday afternoon, april fifth _regretting:_ mrs. john evans regrets that a previous engagement prevents her from accepting mrs. wellington's kind invitation to meet the board of governors of the door-of-hope society on thursday afternoon, april fifth _mr. and mrs. john evans request the pleasure of your company to meet general and mrs. robert e. lee on thursday afternoon, february fourth from four until seven o'clock_ _five hundred park avenue_ if one accepts this invitation, one acknowledges simply by attending. if one is unable to attend, then the visiting card is mailed. if unforeseen circumstances should prevent attending, then a messenger is sent with a card in an envelope to the hostess, to reach her during the reception. _invitations for afternoon affairs_ for afternoon affairs--at homes, teas, garden parties--the invitations are sent out in the name of the hostess alone, or if there be a daughter, or daughters, in society, their names will appear immediately below the name of the hostess. _mrs. john evans the misses evans at home thursday afternoon, january eleventh from four until seven o'clock five hundred park avenue_ if the purpose of the reception is to introduce a daughter, her name would appear immediately below that of the hostess, as "miss evans," without christian name or initial. if a second daughter is to be introduced at the tea, her name in full is added beneath that of the hostess: _mrs. john evans miss ruth evans miss evans at home friday afternoon, january twentieth from four until seven o'clock five hundred park avenue_ _for balls and dances_ the word "ball" is used for an assembly or a charity dance, never otherwise. an invitation to a private house bears "dancing" or "cotillion" in one corner of the card. this ball or formal dance invitation is engraved on a white card, sometimes with a blank space so that the guest's name may be written in by the hostess. it would read thus: (a) _mr. and mrs. charles elliott request the pleasure of mr. and mrs. evans's company at a cotillion to be held at the hotel ritz-carlton on saturday, december the third at ten o'clock_ _please address reply to madison avenue_ [illustration: specimens of formal invitations to a dance] (b) _mr. and mrs. charles elliott request the pleasure of _________________________ company on saturday evening january the sixth, at ten o'clock_ _dancing madison avenue_ an older style of invitation--without the blank for the written name, but instead the word "your" engraved upon the card--is in perfectly good form. the invitation would be like this: (c) _mr. and mrs. charles elliott request the pleasure of your company on saturday evening, january the sixth at ten o'clock_ _dancing madison avenue_ _accepting_ mr. and mrs. john evans accept with pleasure mr. and mrs. elliott's very kind invitation to a cotillion to be held at the hotel ritz-carlton on saturday, december the third at ten o'clock _regretting_ mr. and mrs. john evans regret exceedingly that they are unable to accept mr. and mrs. elliott's kind invitation to attend a dance on saturday, january the sixth in sending a regret the hour is omitted, as, since the recipient will not be present, the time is unimportant. (d) _the honour of your presence is requested at the lincoln's birthday eve ball of the dark hollow country club on monday evening, february eleventh at half-past ten o'clock _ _accepting_ miss evans accepts with pleasure the kind invitation of the dark hollow country club for monday evening, february eleventh at half-past ten o'clock _for christenings_ christenings are sometimes made formal. in such case engraved cards are sent out two or three weeks ahead. a good form is: _mr. and mrs. philip brewster request the pleasure of your company at the christening of their son on sunday afternoon, april seventeenth at three o'clock at the church of the redeemer_ _accepting_ mr. and mrs. charles elliot accept with pleasure mr. and mrs. brewster's kind invitation to attend the christening of their son on sunday afternoon, april seventeenth at three o'clock a reason for not accepting may or may not be given--it is better to put in a reason if you have one. _regretting_ mr. and mrs. charles elliott regret that a previous engagement prevents their accepting mr. and mrs. brewster's kind invitation to the christening of their son on sunday afternoon, april seventeenth informal invitations _for a wedding_ an engraved invitation always implies a somewhat large or elaborate formal function. an informal affair requires simply a written invitation in the first person. the informal wedding is one to which are invited only the immediate family and intimate friends. the reason may be simply the desire for a small, quiet affair or it may be a recent bereavement. the bride-to-be generally writes these invitations. the form may be something like this: (a) june , . dear mrs. smith, on wednesday, june the twelfth, at three o'clock mr. brewster and i are to be married. the ceremony will be at home and we are asking only a few close friends. i hope that you and mr. smith will be able to come. yours very sincerely, dorothy evans. (b) june , . dear mary, owing to the recent death of my sister, mr. brewster and i are to be married quietly at home. the wedding will be on wednesday, june the twentieth, at eleven o'clock. we are asking only a few intimate friends and i shall be so glad if you will come. sincerely yours, dorothy evans. _accepting_ june , . dear dorothy, we shall be delighted to attend your wedding on wednesday, june the twelfth, at three o'clock. we wish you and mr. brewster every happiness. sincerely yours, helen gray smith. _regretting_ june , . dear dorothy, i am so sorry that i shall be unable to attend your wedding. the "adriatic" is sailing on the tenth and father and i have engaged passage. let me wish you and mr. brewster every happiness. sincerely yours, mary lyman. _for dinners and luncheons_ an informal invitation to dinner is sent by the wife, for her husband and herself, to the wife. this invitation must include the latter's husband. it is simply a friendly note. the wife signs her christian name, her maiden name (or more usually the initial of her maiden name), and her married name. five hundred park avenue, december th, . my dear mrs. trent, will you and mr. trent give us the pleasure of your company at a small dinner on tuesday, december the twelfth, at seven o'clock? i hope you will not be otherwise engaged on that evening as we are looking forward to seeing you. very sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. _to cancel an informal dinner invitation_ my dear mrs. trent, on account of the sudden death of my brother, i regret to be obliged to recall the invitation for our dinner on tuesday, december the twelfth. sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. december , . _accepting_ east forty-sixth street, december th, . my dear mrs. evans, mr. trent and i will be very glad to dine with you on tuesday, december the twelfth, at seven o'clock. with kind regards, i am very sincerely yours, charlotte b. trent _regretting_ east forty-sixth street, december th, . my dear mrs. evans, we regret deeply that we cannot accept your kind invitation to dine with you on tuesday, december the twelfth. mr. trent and i, unfortunately, have a previous engagement for that evening. with cordial regards, i am yours very sincerely, charlotte b. trent. _the daughter as hostess_ when a daughter must act as hostess in her father's home, she includes his name in every dinner invitation she issues, as in the following: madison avenue, january , . my dear mrs. evans, father wishes me to ask whether you and mr. evans will give us the pleasure of dining with us on wednesday, january the fifteenth, at quarter past seven o'clock. we do hope you can come. very sincerely yours, edith haines. the answer to this invitation of a daughter-hostess must be sent to the daughter, not to the father. _accepting_ my dear miss haines, we shall be delighted to accept your father's kind invitation to dine with you on wednesday, january the fifteenth, at quarter past seven o'clock. with most cordial wishes, i am very sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. january , _regretting_ my dear miss haines, we regret exceedingly that we cannot accept your father's kind invitation to dine with you on wednesday, january the fifteenth. a previous engagement of mr. evans prevents it. will you convey to him our thanks? very sincerely yours, katherine gerard evans. january , . _adding additional details_ the invitation to an informal dinner may necessarily include some additional details. for example: five hundred park avenue, september , . my dear mr. allen, mr. evans and i have just returned from canada and we hear that you are in new york for a short visit. we should like to have you take dinner with us on friday, the twentieth, at half-past seven o'clock, if your time will permit. we hope you can arrange to come as there are many things back home in old sharon that we are anxious to hear about. yours very sincerely, katherine gerard evans. mr. roger allen hotel gotham new york _accepting_ hotel gotham, september , . my dear mrs. evans, i shall be very glad to accept your kind invitation to dinner on friday, september the twentieth, at half-past seven o'clock. the prospect of seeing you and mr. evans again is very delightful and i am sure i have several interesting things to tell you. yours very sincerely, roger allen. mrs. john evans park avenue new york _regretting_ hotel gotham, september , . my dear mrs. evans, i am sorry to miss the pleasure of accepting your kind invitation to dinner on friday, september the twentieth. a business engagement compels me to leave new york to-morrow. there are indeed many interesting bits of news, but i shall have to wait for a chat until my next visit. with kindest regards to you both, i am very sincerely yours, roger allen. mrs. john evans park avenue new york _a last-moment vacancy:_ a last-moment vacancy may occur in a dinner party. to send an invitation to fill such a vacancy is a matter requiring tact, and the recipient should be made to feel that you are asking him to fill in as a special courtesy. frankly explain the situation in a short note. it might be something like this: park avenue, february , . my dear mr. jarrett, will you help me out? i am giving a little dinner party to-morrow evening and one of my guests, harry talbot, has just told me that on account of a sudden death he cannot be present. it is an awkward situation. if you can possibly come, i shall be very grateful. cordially yours, katherine g. evans. mr. harold jarrett washington square south new york _accepting_ washington square south, february , . my dear mrs. evans, it is indeed a fortunate circumstance for me that harry talbot will not be able to attend your dinner. let me thank you for thinking of me and i shall be delighted to accept. yours very sincerely, harold jarrett. if the recipient of such an invitation cannot accept, he should, in his acknowledgment, give a good reason for declining. it is more considerate to do so. _for an informal luncheon_ an informal luncheon invitation is a short note sent about five to seven days before the affair. park avenue, april , . my dear mrs. emerson, will you come to luncheon on friday, may the fifth, at half-past one o'clock? the misses irving will be here and they want so much to meet you. cordially yours, katherine g. evans. _accepting_ sutton place, may , . my dear mrs. evans, i shall be very glad to take luncheon with you on friday, may the fifth, at half-past one o'clock. it will be a great pleasure to meet the misses irving. with best wishes, i am yours sincerely, grace emerson. _regretting_ sutton place, may , . my dear mrs. evans, thank you for your very kind invitation to luncheon on friday, may the fifth, but i am compelled, with great regret, to decline it. my mother and aunt are sailing for europe on friday and their ship is scheduled to sail at one. i have arranged to see them off. it was good of you to ask me. very sincerely yours, grace emerson. _for an informal tea_ my dear miss harcourt, will you come to tea with me on tuesday afternoon, april the fourth, at four o'clock? i have asked a few of our friends. cordially yours, katherine gerard evans. april first telephone invitations are not good form and may be used only for the most informal occasions. invitations to the theatre, concert, and garden party, are mostly informal affairs and are sent as brief letters. a garden party is a sort of out-of-doors at home. _to a garden party which is not formal or elaborate_ locust lawn, june , . my dear miss burton, will you come to tea with me informally on the lawn on thursday afternoon, july the fourth, at four o'clock? i know you always enjoy tennis and i have asked a few enthusiasts. do try to come. cordially yours, ruth l. anson. such an invitation is acknowledged in kind--by an informal note. it may be of interest to read a letter or two from distinguished persons along these lines. here, for example, is the delightfully informal way in which thomas bailey aldrich invited his friend william h. rideing to dinner on one occasion:[ ] april , . dear rideing: will you come and take an informal bite with me to-morrow (friday) at p. m. at my hamlet, no. charles street? mrs. aldrich and the twins are away from home, and the thing is to be _sans ceremonie_. costume prescribed: sack coat, paper collar, and celluloid sleeve buttons. we shall be quite alone, unless henry james should drop in, as he promises to do if he gets out of an earlier engagement. suppose you drop in at my office to-morrow afternoon about o'clock and i act as pilot to charles street. yours very truly, t. b. aldrich. [ ] from "many celebrities and a few others--a bundle of reminiscences," by william h. rideing. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. and one from james russell lowell to henry w. longfellow:[ ] elmwood, may , . dear longfellow: will you dine with me on saturday at six? i have a baltimore friend coming, and depend on you. i had such a pleasure yesterday that i should like to share it with you to whom i owed it. j. r. osgood & co. sent me a copy of your household edition to show me what it was, as they propose one of me. i had been reading over with dismay my own poems to weed out the misprints, and was awfully disheartened to find how bad they (the poems) were. then i took your book to see what the type was, and before i knew it i had been reading two hours and more. i never wondered at your popularity, nor thought it wicked in you; but if i _had_ wondered, i should no longer, for you sang me out of all my worries. to be sure they came back when i opened my own book again--but that was no fault of yours. if not saturday, will you say sunday? my friend is a mrs. ----, and a very nice person indeed. yours always, j. r. l. [ ] from "letters of james russell lowell," edited by c. e. norton. copyright, , by harper & bros. george meredith ("robin") accepting an informal dinner invitation from his friend, william hardman ("tuck"):[ ] jan'y , . dear "at any price" tuck: i come. dinner you give me at half-past five, i presume. a note to foakesden, if earlier. let us have ms. for a pipe, before we go. you know we are always better tempered when this is the case. i come in full dress. and do the honour to the duke's motto. i saw my little man off on monday, after expedition over bank and tower. thence to pym's, poultry: oysters consumed by dozings. thence to purcell's: great devastation of pastry. thence to shoreditch, where sons calmly said: "never mind, papa; it is no use minding it. i shall soon be back to you," and so administered comfort to his forlorn dad.--my salute to the conquered one, and i am your loving, hard-druv, much be-bullied robin. [ ] from "the letters of george meredith." copyright, , by charles scribner's sons. by permission of the publishers. _to a theatre_ madison avenue, december , . my dear miss evans, mr. smith and i are planning a small party of friends to see "the mikado" on thursday evening, december the eighteenth, and we hope that you will be among our guests. we have arranged to meet in the lobby of the garrick theatre at quarter after eight o'clock. i do hope you have no other engagement. very cordially yours, gertrude ellison smith. _accepting_ my dear mrs. smith, i shall be delighted to come to your theatre party on thursday evening, december the eighteenth. i shall be in the lobby of the garrick theatre at a quarter past eight o'clock. it is so kind of you to ask me. sincerely yours, ruth evans. december , . _regretting_ my dear mrs. smith, with great regret i must write that i shall be unable to join your theatre party on thursday evening, december the eighteenth. my two cousins are visiting me and we had planned to go to the hippodrome. i much appreciate your thinking of me. very sincerely yours, ruth evans. for an informal affair, if at all in doubt as to what kind of invitation to issue, it is safe to write a brief note in the first person. two or more sisters may receive one invitation addressed "the misses evans." but two bachelor brothers must receive separate invitations. a whole family should never be included in one invitation. it is decidedly not proper to address one envelope to "mr. and mrs. elliott and family." _to an informal dance_ invitations to smaller and more informal dances may be short notes. or a visiting card is sometimes sent with a notation written in ink below the hostess's name and toward the left, as shown below: (a) mrs. john evans at home dancing at half after nine park avenue january the eighteenth r.s.v.p. if the visiting card is used "r.s.v.p." is necessary, because usually invitations on visiting cards do not presuppose answers. the reply to the above may be either formal, in the third person, or may be an informal note. (b) park avenue, january , . my dear mrs. elliott, will you and mr. elliott give us the pleasure of your company on thursday, january the eighteenth, at ten o'clock? we are planning an informal dance and we should be so glad to have you with us. cordially yours, katherine g. evans. an acknowledgment should be sent within a week. never acknowledge a visiting-card invitation by a visiting card. an informal note of acceptance or regret is proper. _accepting_ madison avenue, january , . my dear mrs. evans, both mr. elliott and i shall be delighted to go to your dance on thursday, january the eighteenth, at ten o'clock. thank you so much for asking us. very sincerely yours, jane s. elliott. _regretting_ madison avenue, january , . my dear mrs. evans, thank you for your kind invitation for thursday, january the eighteenth; i am so sorry that mr. elliott and i shall not be able to accept. mr. elliott has been suddenly called out of town and will not be back for two weeks. with most cordial regards, i am very sincerely yours, jane s. elliott. a young girl sends invitations to men in the name of her mother or the person under whose guardianship she is. the invitation would say that her mother, or mrs. burton, or whoever it may be, wishes her to extend the invitation. _to a house-party_ an invitation to a house-party, which may imply a visit of several days' duration (a week, ten days, or perhaps two weeks) must state exactly the dates of the beginning and end of the visit. the hostess's letter should mention the most convenient trains, indicating them on a timetable. the guest at a week-end party knows he is to arrive on friday afternoon or saturday morning and leave on the following monday morning. it is thoughtful for the hostess to give an idea of the activities or sports planned. the letter might be somewhat in the following manner: (a) glory view, august , . dear miss evans, will you be one of our guests at a house-party we are planning? we shall be glad if you can arrange to come out to glory view on august eighth and stay until the seventeenth. i have asked several of your friends, among them mary elliott and her brother. the swimming is wonderful and there is a new float at the yacht club. be sure to bring your tennis racquet and also hiking togs. i enclose a timetable with the best trains marked. if you take the : on thursday you can be here in time for dinner. let me know what train you expect to get and i will have jones meet you. most cordially yours, myra t. maxwell. _accepting_ park avenue, august , . dear mrs. maxwell, let me thank you and mr. maxwell for the invitation to your house-party. i shall be very glad to come. the : train which you suggest is the most convenient. i am looking forward to seeing you again. very sincerely yours, ruth evans. (b) hawthorne hill, january , . my dear anne, we are asking some of dorothy's friends for this week-end and we should be glad to have you join us. some of them you already know, and i am sure you will enjoy meeting the others as they are all congenial. mr. maxwell has just bought a new flexible flyer and we expect some fine coasting. be sure to bring your skates. goldfish pond is like glass. the best afternoon train on friday is the : , and the best saturday morning train is the : . i hope you can come. very sincerely yours, myra t. maxwell. a letter of thanks for hospitality received at a week-end party or a house-party would seem to be obviously necessary. a cordial note should be written to your hostess thanking her for the hospitality received and telling her of your safe arrival home. this sort of letter has come into the title of the "bread-and-butter-letter." park avenue, august , . dear mrs. maxwell, having arrived home safely i must tell you how much i appreciate the thoroughly good time i had. i very much enjoyed meeting your charming guests. let me thank you and mr. maxwell most heartily, and with kindest regards i am sincerely yours, ruth evans. _to a christening_ most christenings are informal affairs. the invitation may run like this: september , . my dear mary, on next sunday at three o'clock, at st. michael's church, the baby will be christened. philip and i should be pleased to have you there. sincerely yours, dorothy evans brewster. _to bring a friend_ often in the case of a dance or an at home we may wish to bring a friend who we think would be enjoyed by the hostess. we might request her permission thus: riverside drive, april , . my dear mrs. dean, may i ask you the favor of bringing with me on wednesday evening, may the second, my old classmate, mr. arthur price? he is an old friend of mine and i am sure you will like him. if this would not be entirely agreeable to you, please do not hesitate to let me know. yours very sincerely, herbert page. _for a card party_ park avenue my dear mrs. king, will you and mr. king join us on thursday evening next at bridge?[ ] we expect to have several tables, and we do hope you can be with us. cordially yours, katherine gerard evans. march the eighteenth [ ] or whatever the game may be. sometimes the visiting card is used with the date and the word "cards" written in the lower corner as in the visiting-card invitation to a dance. this custom is more often used for the more elaborate affairs. _miscellaneous invitations_ the following are variations of informal party and other invitations: woodlawn avenue, november , . my dear alice, i am having a little party on thursday evening next and i want very much to have you come. if you wish me to arrange for an escort, let me know if you have any preference. sincerely yours, helen westley. park avenue, may , . my dear alice, on saturday next i am giving a small party for my niece, miss edith rice of albany, and i should like very much to have her meet you. i hope you can come. very sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. the letter of condolence a letter of condolence may be written to relatives, close friends, and to those whom we know well. when the recipient of the condolatory message is simply an acquaintance, it is in better taste to send a visiting card with "sincere sympathy." flowers may or may not accompany the card. but in any case the letter should not be long, nor should it be crammed with sad quotations and mushy sentiment. of course, at best, writing a condolence is a nice problem. do not harrow feelings by too-familiar allusions to the deceased. the letter should be sent immediately upon receiving news of death. when a card is received, the bereaved family acknowledge it a few weeks later with an engraved acknowledgment on a black-bordered card. a condolatory letter may be acknowledged by the recipient or by a relative or friend who wishes to relieve the bereaved one of this task. _formal acknowledgment engraved on card_ _mrs. gordon burroughs and family gratefully acknowledge your kind expression of sympathy_ the cards, however, may be engraved with a space for the name to be filled in: _____________________________ _gratefully acknowledge_ _____________________________ _kind expression of sympathy_ when the letter of condolence is sent from a distance, it is acknowledged by a note from a member of the bereaved family. when the writer of the condolence makes the customary call afterward, the family usually makes a verbal acknowledgment and no written reply is required. _letters of condolence_ (a) my dear mrs. burroughs, may every consolation be given you in your great loss. kindly accept my deepest sympathy. sincerely yours, jane everett. october , (b) my dear mrs. burroughs, it is with the deepest regret that we learn of your bereavement. please accept our united and heartfelt sympathies. very sincerely yours, katherine gerard evans. october , (c) my dear eleanor, may i express my sympathy for you in the loss of your dear mother, even though there can be no words to comfort you? she was so wonderful to all of us that we can share in some small part in your grief. with love, i am affectionately yours, ruth evans. july , (d) my dear mrs. burroughs, i am sorely grieved to learn of the death of your husband, for whom i had the greatest admiration and regard. please accept my heartfelt sympathy. yours sincerely, douglas spencer. october , a letter of condolence that is something of a classic is abraham lincoln's famous letter to mrs. bixby, the bereaved mother of five sons who died for their country: washington, november , . dear madam: i have been shown in the files of the war department a statement of the adjutant-general of massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. i feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. but i cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. i pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. yours very sincerely and respectfully, abraham lincoln. this is the letter[ ] that robert e. lee, when he was president of washington college, wrote to the father of a student who was drowned: washington college, lexington, virginia, march , . my dear sir: before this you have learned of the affecting death of your son. i can say nothing to mitigate your grief or to relieve your sorrow: but if the sincere sympathy of his comrades and friends and of the entire community can bring you any consolation, i can assure you that you possess it in its fullest extent. when one, in the pureness and freshness of youth, before having been contaminated by sin or afflicted by misery, is called to the presence of his merciful creator, it must be solely for his good. as difficult as this may be for you now to recognize, i hope you will keep it constantly in your memory and take it to your comfort; pray that he who in his wise providence has permitted this crushing sorrow may sanctify it to the happiness of all. your son and his friend, mr. birely, often passed their leisure hours in rowing on the river, and, on last saturday afternoon, the th inst., attempted what they had more than once been cautioned against--to approach the foot of the dam, at the public bridge. unfortunately, their boat was caught by the return-current, struck by the falling water, and was immediately upset. their perilous position was at once seen from the shore, and aid was hurried to their relief, but before it could reach them both had perished. efforts to restore your son's life, though long continued, were unavailing. mr. birely's body was not found until next morning. their remains were, yesterday, sunday, conveyed to the episcopal church in this city, where the sacred ceremonies for the dead were performed by the reverend dr. pendleton, who nineteen years ago, at the far-off home of their infancy, placed upon them their baptismal vows. after the service a long procession of the professors and students of the college, the officers and cadets of the virginia military academy, and the citizens of lexington accompanied their bodies to the packetboat for lynchburg, where they were placed in charge of messrs. wheeler & baker to convey them to frederick city. with great regard and sincere sympathy, i am, most respectfully, r. e. lee. [ ] from "recollections and letters of general robert e. lee," by capt. robert e. lee. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. letters of sympathy in case of illness when president alderman, of the university of virginia, was forced to take a long rest in the mountains in because of incipient tuberculosis, the late walter h. page, at the time editor of the _world's work_, wrote the following tenderly beautiful letter of sympathy to mrs. alderman: cathedral avenue, garden city, l. i., december , . my dear mrs. alderman: in raleigh the other day i heard a rumor of the sad news that your letter brings, which i have just received on my return from a week's absence. i had been hoping that it was merely a rumor. the first impression i have is thankfulness that it had been discovered so soon and that you have acted so promptly. on this i build a great hope. but underlying every thought and emotion is the sadness of it--that it should have happened to _him_, now when he has done that prodigious task and borne that hard strain and was come within sight of a time when, after a period of more normal activity, he would in a few years have got the period of rest that he has won.--but these will all come yet; for i have never read a braver thing than your letter. that bravery on your part and his, together with the knowledge the doctors now have, will surely make his recovery certain and, i hope, not long delayed. if he keep on as well as he has begun, you will, i hope, presently feel as if you were taking a vacation. forget that it is enforced. there comes to my mind as i write man after man in my acquaintance who have successfully gone through this experience and without serious permanent hurt. some of them live here. more of them live in north carolina or colorado as a precaution. i saw a few years ago a town most of whose population of several thousand persons are recovered and active, after such an experience. the disease has surely been robbed of much of its former terror. your own courage and cheerfulness, with his own, are the best physic in the world. add to these the continuous and sincere interest that his thousands of friends feel--these to keep your courage up, if it should ever flag a moment--and we shall all soon have the delight to see and to hear him again--his old self, endeared, if that be possible, by this experience. and i pray you, help me (for i am singularly helpless without suggestions from you) to be of some little service--of any service that i can. would he like letters from me? i have plenty of time and an eagerness to write them, if they would really divert or please him. books? what does he care most to read? i can, of course, find anything in new york. a visit some time? it would be a very real pleasure to me. you will add to my happiness greatly if you will frankly enable me to add even the least to his. and now and always give him my love. that is precisely the word i mean; for, you know, i have known mr. alderman since he was graduated, and i have known few men better or cared for them more. and i cannot thank you earnestly enough for your letter; and i shall hope to have word from you often--if (when you feel indisposed to write more) only a few lines. how can i serve? command me without a moment's hesitation. most sincerely yours, walter h. page. to mrs. edwin a. alderman. joaquin miller wrote the following letter to walt whitman on receiving news that the latter was ill: revere house, boston, may , ' . my dear walt whitman:[ ] your kind letter is received and the sad news of your ill health makes this pleasant weather even seem tiresome and out of place. i had hoped to find you the same hale and whole man i had met in new york a few years ago and now i shall perhaps find you bearing a staff all full of pain and trouble. however my dear friend as you have sung from _within_ and not from _without_ i am sure you will be able to bear whatever comes with that beautiful faith and philosophy you have ever given us in your great and immortal chants. i am coming to see you very soon as you request; but i cannot say to-day or set to-morrow for i am in the midst of work and am not altogether my own master. but i will come and we will talk it all over together. in the meantime, remember that whatever befall you you have the perfect love and sympathy of many if not all of the noblest and loftiest natures of the two hemispheres. my dear friend and fellow toiler good by. yours faithfully, joaquin miller. [ ] from "with walt whitman in camden," by horace traubel. copyright, , , by doubleday, page & co. when theodore roosevelt was ill in hospital, lawrence abbott wrote him this letter:[ ] please accept this word of sympathy and best wishes. some years ago i had a severe attack of sciatica which kept me in bed a good many days: in fact, it kept me in an armchair night and day some of the time because i could not lie down, so i know what the discomfort and pain are. i want to take this opportunity also of sending you my congratulations. for i think your leadership has had very much to do with the unconditional surrender of germany. last friday night i was asked to speak at the men's club of the church of the messiah in this city and they requested me to make you the subject of my talk. i told them something about your experience in egypt and europe in and said what i most strongly believe, that your address at the sorbonne--in strengthening the supporters of law and order against red bolshevism--and your address in guildhall--urging the british to govern or go--contributed directly to the success of those two governments in this war. if great britain had allowed egypt to get out of hand instead of, as an actual result of your guildhall speech, sending kitchener to strengthen the feebleness of sir eldon gorst, the turks and germans might have succeeded in their invasion and have cut off the suez canal. so you laid the ground for preparedness not only in this country but in france and england. i know it was a disappointment to you not to have an actual share in the fighting but i think you did a greater piece of work in preparing the battleground and the battle spirit. [ ] from "impressions of theodore roosevelt," by lawrence f. abbott copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. in reply mr. roosevelt sent mr. abbott this note: that's a dear letter of yours, lawrence. i thank you for it and i appreciate it to the full. _acknowledgments_ (a) my dear mr. spencer, i am grateful to you for your comforting letter. thank you for your sympathy. sincerely yours, mary cole burroughs. october , . (b) my dear mrs. evans, let me thank you in behalf of myself and my family for your sympathy. do not measure our appreciation by the length of time it has taken me to reply. we appreciated your letter deeply. sincerely yours, mary cole burroughs. october , . (c) my dear arthur, i want to thank you for your sympathetic letter received in our bereavement. sincerely yours, mary cole burroughs. october , . (d) dear mr. treadwell, thank you very much for your sympathy. your offer to be of service to me at this time i greatly appreciate, but i shall not need to trouble you, although it is comforting to know that i may call on you. i shall never forget your kindness. sincerely yours, mary cole burroughs. october , . this is the note[ ] that thomas bailey aldrich wrote to his friend william h. rideing upon receiving from the latter a note of condolence: dear rideing: i knew that you would be sorry for us. i did not need your sympathetic note to tell me that. our dear boy's death has given to three hearts--his mother's, his brother's and mine--a wound that will never heal. i cannot write about it. my wife sends her warm remembrance with mine to you both. ever faithfully your friend, t. b. aldrich. [ ] from "many celebrities and a few others--a bundle of reminiscences," by william h. rideing. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. letters of congratulation the letter of congratulation must be natural, not stilted, and must be sincere. in congratulating a new acquaintance on a marriage it is not necessary to send more than the visiting card with "heartiest congratulations." to a bride and groom together a telegram of congratulation may be sent on the day of the wedding, as soon as possible after the ceremony. to a bride one does not send congratulations, but "the best of good wishes." the congratulations are for the groom. the following letters will serve as examples for congratulatory letters for different occasions: _on a birthday_ park avenue, february , . my dear mrs. elliott, congratulations on your birthday! i hope that all your years to come will be as happy and as helpful to others as those past. i am sending you a little gift as a token of appreciation for your kindness to me, which i hope you will enjoy. most sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. _from a gentlemen to a young lady on her birthday_ park avenue, april , . my dear miss judson, may i send you my congratulations on this your birthday? i am sending a little token of my best wishes for you for many years to come. yours sincerely, richard evans. _on a wedding day anniversary_ park avenue, june , . my dear charlotte and george, please accept my heartiest good wishes on this, the fifteenth anniversary of your marriage. may the years to come bring every blessing to you both. sincerely yours, katherine gerard evans. (b) park avenue, december , . my dear mrs. smith, congratulations on this the twentieth anniversary of your wedding. our heartiest wishes to you both from mr. evans and me. yours very sincerely, katherine gerard evans. _on the birth of a child_ east th st., august , . my dear dorothy, congratulations upon the birth of your daughter. may the good fairies shower upon her the gifts of goodness, wisdom, and beauty. very sincerely yours, charlotte b. trent. _on a graduation_ park avenue, june , . my dear john, it is with great pleasure that i hear of your graduation this year. it is a fine thing to have so successfully finished your college course. may i send my heartiest congratulations? sincerely yours, ruth evans. _on an engagement_ in writing to a girl or a man on the occasion of an engagement to be married there is no general rule if one knows the man or woman. one may write as one wishes. if a stranger is to be received into the family, one writes a kindly letter. odell avenue, april , . my dear haines, let me be among the first to congratulate you on your engagement to miss bruce. i have not met her but i know that to reach your high ideals she must indeed be a wonderful girl. i hope i may soon have the pleasure of meeting her. sincerely yours, charles lawson. park avenue, may , . my dear miss bruce, my nephew has told me his great news. i am much pleased to hear that you are soon to come into the family, because i know that the girl of edward's choice must be sweet and charming. i hope that you will learn to love us for our own sake as well as for edward's. sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. park avenue, september , . dear helen, the announcement of your engagement to robert haines is a delightful surprise. he is, as we all know, a splendid chap. i am so happy that this great happiness has come to you. i hope that i may hear all about it, and with best wishes to you both, i am affectionately yours, ruth evans. on the subject of engagements, perhaps the following letter from charles lamb to fanny kelly, and her reply, will be of interest--though the unarduous and somewhat prosaic tone of elia's proposal of marriage--beautifully expressed as it is--is hardly to be recommended as a model calculated to bring about the desired result! dear miss kelly: we had the pleasure, _pain_ i might better call it, of seeing you last night in the new play. it was a most consummate piece of acting, but what a task for you to undergo! at a time when your heart is sore from real sorrow it has given rise to a train of thinking, which i cannot suppress. would to god you were released from this way of life; that you could bring your mind to consent to take your lot with us, and throw off forever the whole burden of your profession. i neither expect nor wish you to take notice of this which i am writing, in your present over occupied and hurried state--but to think of it at your leisure. i have quite income enough, if that were all, to justify for me making such a proposal, with what i may call even a handsome provision for my survivor. what you possess of your own would naturally be appropriated to those, for whose sakes chiefly you have made so many hard sacrifices. i am not so foolish as not to know that i am a most unworthy match for such a one as you, but you have for years been a principal object in my mind. in many a sweet assumed character i have learned to love you, but simply as f. m. kelly i love you better than them all. can you quit these shadows of existence, and come and be a reality to us? can you leave off harassing yourself to please a thankless multitude, who know nothing of you, and begin at last to live to yourself and your friends? as plainly and frankly as i have seen you give or refuse assent in some feigned scene, so frankly do me the justice to answer me. it is impossible i should feel injured or aggrieved by your telling me at once, that the proposal does not suit you. it is impossible that i should ever think of molesting you with idle importunity and prosecution after your mind [is] once firmly spoken--but happier, far happier, could i have leave to hope a time might come, when our friends might be your friends; our interests yours; our book knowledge, if in that inconsiderable particular we have any like advantage, might impart something to you, which you would every day have it in your power ten thousand fold to repay by the added cheerfulness and joy which you could not fail to bring as a dowry into whatever family should have the honor and happiness of receiving _you_, the most welcome accession that could be made to it. in haste, but with entire respect and deepest affection, i subscribe myself c. lamb. to this letter miss kelly replied: henrietta street, july , . an early and deeply rooted attachment has fixed my heart on one from whom no worldly prospect can well induce me to withdraw it, but while i thus _frankly_ and decidedly decline your proposal, believe me, i am not insensible to the high honour which the preference of such a mind as yours confers upon me--let me, however, hope that all thought upon this subject will end with this letter, and that you will henceforth encourage no other sentiment towards me than esteem in my private character and a continuance of that approbation of my humble talents which you have already expressed so much and so often to my advantage and gratification. believe me i feel proud to acknowledge myself your obliged friend, f. m. kelly. to c. lamb, esq. letters of introduction letters of introduction should not be given indiscriminately. if the giver of the letter feels that something of benefit may come to both of the persons concerned, then there is no doubt about the advisability of it. but a letter of introduction should not be given to get rid of the person who asks for it. it is not good form to ask for one. if it is really necessary to have one and the friend to be requested knows that you need it, he will probably give you the letter unsolicited. a letter of introduction should not be sealed by the person giving it. it is written in social form and placed in an unsealed envelope addressed to the person to whom the introduction is made. if the letter is a friendly letter, it is enclosed in an additional envelope by the person who requested the letter, sealed, and with his card on which appears his city address, sent to the person addressed. the person addressed, upon the receipt of the letter, calls within three days upon the person who is introduced. it has been customary to deliver a business letter of introduction in person, but on consideration, it would seem that this is not the wisest course. the letters of introduction most in demand are those to very busy men--men of affairs. if one calls personally at the office of such a man, the chance of seeing him on the occasion of presenting the letter is slight. and, as has often been proved in practice, a telephone call to arrange an appointment seldom gets through. the best plan seems to be to mail the letter with a short note explaining the circumstances under which it was written. sometimes (more often in business) an introduction is made by a visiting card with "introducing mr. halliday" written at the top. this method may be used with a person with whom we are not well acquainted. this introductory card is usually presented in person, but what has been said concerning the letter applies here also. matters of a personal or private nature should not appear in letters of introduction. (a) new york, n. y., june , . dear dick, the bearer of this note, mr. donald ritchie of boston, expects to be in your town for six months or so. he is an old friend of mine--in fact, i knew him at college--and i think you would like him. he is going to black rock in the interest of the sedgwick cement company. he knows nobody in black rock, and anything you can do to make his stay pleasant, i shall greatly appreciate. cordially yours, john hope. (b) canajoharie, new york, june , . my dear mrs. evans, this will introduce to you miss caroline wagner who is the daughter of one of my oldest friends. she will be in new york this winter to continue her music studies. she is a girl of charming personality and has many accomplishments. i am sure you will enjoy her company. she is a stranger in new york and any courtesy you may extend to her i shall be deeply grateful for. very sincerely yours, edna hamilton miller. mrs. john evans park avenue new york, n. y. (c) beacon street, boston, mass., march , . my dear brent, the bearer, william jones, is a young acquaintance of mine who is going to live in cleveland. if there is anything you can do without too much trouble to yourself in recommending a place to board, or assisting him to a situation, i shall be grateful. he has good habits, and if he gets a foothold i am sure he will make good. yours sincerely, robert t. hill. another letter, already immortal as a literary gem, is benjamin franklin's "model of a letter of recommendation of a person you are unacquainted with": sir, the bearer of this, who is going to america, presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though i know nothing of him, not even his name. this may seem extraordinary, but i assure you it is not uncommon here. sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown, to recommend him; and sometimes they recommend one another! as to this gentleman, i must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than i can possibly be. i recommend him, however, to those civilities, which every stranger, of whom one knows no harm, has a right to; and i request you will do him all the good offices, and show him all the favor, that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve. i have the honor to be, etc. letters of thanks _for a wedding gift_ the letter of thanks for a wedding gift must be sent as soon as possible after the receipt of the gift. the bride herself must write it. when the wedding is hurried or when gifts arrive at the last moment, the bride is not required to acknowledge them until after the honeymoon. in all cases the gift is acknowledged both for herself and her husband-elect or husband. (a) east rd street may , . my dear mrs. elliott, the bouillon spoons are exquisite. it was simply lovely of you to send us such a beautiful gift. leonard wishes to express with me our deepest appreciation. with all good wishes, i am sincerely yours, dorothy evans duncan. (b) east rd street may , . my dear mrs. callender, this is the first opportunity i have had to thank you for your wonderful gift. but, as you know, our arrangements were changed at the last moment and many of our wedding gifts we did not have time to open before going away. so we hope you will forgive us for the delay. we are now back in town established in our new home and i want you to know how appropriate are those exquisite candlesticks. mr. duncan and i are both deeply grateful for your thought of us. yours most sincerely, dorothy evans duncan. _for a christmas gift_ bolton place december , . my dear alice, your handsome christmas gift is something i have wanted for a long time, but never could get for myself. the bag and its beautiful fittings are much admired. i send my warmest thanks for your thoughtfulness in selecting it. very sincerely yours, mary scott. _for a gift received by a girl from a man_ ellsworth place april , . my dear mr. everett, thank you for your good wishes and for your lovely gift in remembrance of my birthday. it is a charming book and one which i am very anxious to read. it was most kind of you to think of me. sincerely yours, katherine judson. _for a gift to a child_ east th street, december , . my dear mr. basset, your wonderful christmas gift to barbara came this morning. she is wholly captivated with her beautiful doll and i am sure would thank you for it if she could talk. let me thank you for your kindness in remembering her. cordially yours, dorothy evans brewster. _for a gift to another_ maxwell avenue, bayview, long island, july , . my dear mr. haines, i appreciate very much the exquisite flowers which you so kindly sent to mrs. evans. she is rapidly improving and will soon be about again. we send our warmest thanks. very sincerely yours, john evans. _for favor shown to another_ park avenue, november , . my dear mrs. howard, you were very kind indeed in entertaining my cousin, mrs. douglas, during her stay in your city. i am exceedingly grateful and i hope to find some way of reciprocating. very sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. following are actual letters of thanks written by distinguished persons. here is one[ ] from george meredith to lady granby, acknowledging the receipt of a reproduction of a portrait by her of lady marjorie manners: box hill, dorking, dec. , . dear lady granby: it is a noble gift, and bears the charms to make it a constant pleasure with me. i could have wished for the full face of your daughter, giving eyes and the wild sweep of hair, as of a rivule issuing from under low eaves of the woods--so i remember her. you have doubtless other sketches of a maid predestined to be heroine. i could take her for one. all the women and children are heaven's own, and human still, and individual too. behold me, your most grateful george meredith. [ ] from "letters of george meredith." copyright, , by chas. scribner's sons. by permission of the publishers. from lord alfred tennyson to walt whitman:[ ] farringford, freshwater, isle of wight, jan'y th, . dear old man: i the elder old man have received your article in the _critic_, and send you in return my thanks and new year's greeting on the wings of this east-wind, which, i trust, is blowing softlier and warmlier on your good gray head than here, where it is rocking the elms and ilexes of my isle of wight garden. yours always, tennyson. [ ] this and the following four letters are from "with walt whitman in camden," by horace traubel. copyright, , , , , by doubleday, page & co. from ellen terry to walt whitman: grand pacific hotel, chicago, january th, ' . honored sir--and dear poet: i beg you to accept my appreciative thanks for your great kindness in sending me by mr. stoker the little _big_ book of poems--as a strong bird, etc., etc. since i am not personally known to you i conclude mr. stoker "asked" for me--it was good of him--i know he loves you very much. god bless you, dear sir--believe me to be with much respect yours affectionately, ellen terry. from moncure conway to walt whitman: hardwicke cottage, wimbledon common, london, s. w., sept. , ' . my dear friend: it gave me much pleasure to hear from you; now i am quite full of gratitude for the photograph--a grand one--the present of all others desirable to me. the copy suitable for an edition here should we be able to reach to that i have and shall keep carefully. when it is achieved it will probably be the result and fruit of more reviewing and discussion. i shall keep my eyes wide open; and the volume with o'c.'s introduction shall come out just as it is: i am not sure but that it will in the end have to be done at our own expense--which i believe would be repaid. it is the kind of book that if it can once get out here will sell. the english groan for something better than the perpetual réchauffé of their literature. i have not been in london for some little time and have not yet had time to consult others about the matter. i shall be able to write you more satisfactorily a little later. i hear that you have written something in _the galaxy_. pray tell o'connor i shall look to him to send me such things. i can't take all american magazines; but if you intend to write for _the galaxy_ regularly i shall take that. with much friendship for you and o'connor and his wife, i am yours, moncure conway. from john addington symonds to walt whitman: clifton hill house, bristol, july , . dear mr. whitman: i was away from england when your welcome volumes reached me, and since my return (during the last six weeks) i have been very ill with an attack of hemorrhage from the lung--brought on while i was riding a pulling horse at a time when i was weak from cold. this must account for my delay in writing to thank you for them and to express the great pleasure which your inscription in two of the volumes has given me. i intend to put into my envelope a letter to you with some verses from one of your great admirers in england. it is my nephew--the second son of my sister. i gave him a copy of _leaves of grass_ in , and he knows a great portion of it now by heart. though still so young, he has developed a considerable faculty for writing and is an enthusiastic student of literature as well as a frank vigorous lively young fellow. i thought you might like to see how some of the youth of england is being drawn towards you. believe me always sincerely and affectionately yours. j. a. symonds. from edward everett hale to dr. lyman abbott:[ ] jan. , , roxbury, monday morning. dear dr. abbott: i shall stay at home this morning--so i shall not see you. all the same i want to thank you again for the four sermons: and to say that i am sure they will work lasting good for the congregation. more than this. i think you ought to think that such an opportunity to go from church to church and city to city--gives you a certain opportunity and honour--which even in plymouth pulpit a man does not have--and to congregations such a turning over the new leaf means a great deal. did you ever deliver the lectures on preaching at new haven? with love always, always yours, e. e. hale. [ ] from "silhouettes of my contemporaries," by lyman abbott. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. from friedrich nietzsche to karl fuchs:[ ] sils-maria, oberengadine, switzerland, june , . my dear friend: how strange! how strange! as soon as i was able to transfer myself to a cooler clime (for in turin the thermometer stood at day after day) i intended to write you a nice letter of thanks. a pious intention, wasn't it? but who could have guessed that i was not only going back to a cooler clime, but into the _most ghastly_ weather, weather that threatened to shatter my health! winter and summer in senseless alternation; twenty-six avalanches in the thaw; and now we have just had eight days of rain with the sky almost always grey--this is enough to account for my profound nervous exhaustion, together with the return of my old ailments. i don't think i can ever remember having had worse weather, and this in my sils-maria, whither i always fly in order to escape bad weather. is it to be wondered at that even the parson here is acquiring the habit of swearing? from time to time in conversation his speech halts, and then he always swallows a curse. a few days ago, just as he was coming out of the snow-covered church, he thrashed his dog and exclaimed: "the confounded cur spoiled the whole of my sermon!"... yours in gratitude and devotion, nietzsche. [ ] from "selected letters of friedrich nietzsche," edited by oscar levy. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. in making a donation of £ , for branch libraries in the city of glasgow, this is the letter[ ] that andrew carnegie sent to the lord provost of the city council: my dear lord provost: it will give me pleasure to provide the needed £ , for branch libraries, which are sure to prove of great advantage to the masses of the people. it is just fifty years since my parents with their little boys sailed from broomielaw for new york in the barque _wiscassett_, tons, and it is delightful to be permitted to commemorate the event upon my visit to you. glasgow has done so much in municipal affairs to educate other cities, and to help herself, that it is a privilege to help her. let glasgow flourish! so say all of us scotsmen throughout the world. always yours, andrew carnegie. [ ] from "andrew carnegie, the man and his work," by bernard alderson. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. letters between friends dear grace, your 'phone call surely caught me napping; but after an hour or so of effort i did recall just how sato mixed the shrimps and carrots in the dish which you so much enjoyed. first, catch your shrimp! when they have been cleaned and prepared as for a salad, place on ice and _in_ ice, if possible. grate the carrots on the coarse side of the grater, placing immediately on the salad plates, which of course have already been garnished with lettuce leaves. then add just a fine sprinkling of chopped apples (i find this the best substitute for alligator pears) and then the shrimps. pour over this the mayonnaise and serve at once. i do not know what he called it and could not spell it if i did, but you are at liberty to call it anything you like. at all events, i am sure the crowd will agree it is a little different, and i am glad to have been able to give the idea. cordially yours, ruth wilson. july , my dear mrs. sampson, i am so glad to know that you have completely recovered from your recent illness. i trust you will soon be able to resume your wonted activities. we all have missed you--at bridge and tennis particularly. sincerely yours, mary e. wells. july , my dear mr. baines, i have just heard of your success in getting your book published. i have always had a great admiration for you and your work, and i am sending this little note to assure you of my regard, and to wish you still further successes. yours very sincerely, madeleine strickland. march , my dear miss gwynne, i am very sorry that i was out when you called. i hope you will come again soon for i do so much want to see you. sincerely yours, katherine g. evans. february , it may be of passing interest to read a letter or two from distinguished persons to their boyhood friends. here is one[ ] from the late john burroughs: esopus, n. y., june , . dear tom brown: i have been a-fishing or i should have answered your letter before. i always go a-fishing about this time of year, after speckled trout, and i always catch some, too. but dog-fighting i have nothing to do with, unless it be to help some little dog whip some saucy big cur. game birds are all right in their season, but i seldom hunt them. yet this is about the best way to study them. you want to know how i felt as a boy. very much as i do now, only more so. i loved fishing, and tramping, and swimming more than i do these late years. but i had not so tender a heart. i was not so merciful to the birds and animals as i am now. much of what i have put in my books was gathered while a boy on the farm. i am interested in what you tell me of your band of mercy, and should like much to see you all, and all the autographs in that pink covered book. well, youth is the time to cultivate habits of mercy, and all other good habits. the bees will soon be storing their clover honey, and i trust you boys and girls are laying away that which will by and by prove choicest possessions. sincerely your friend, john burroughs. [ ] from "john burroughs, boy and man," by dr. clara barrus. copyright, , by doubleday, page & co. the following letter[ ] was written when j. j. hill--perhaps the greatest railroading genius america has ever produced--was twenty years of age. it is one of the few letters written by him at this time of his life that have been preserved: saint paul, february , . dear william: your epistle bearing date of seventeenth ult. came to hand on good time and your fertile imagination can scarcely conceive what an amount of pleasure i derived from it, as it was the first epistle of william to james at st. paul for a "long back." my surprise at receiving your letter was only surpassed by my surprise at not receiving one from you after you left st. paul, or sometime during the ensuing season. still, a good thing is never too late or "done too often." it gave me much pleasure to hear that you were all well and enjoying yourselves in the good and pious (as i learn) little town of rockwood. i did intend to go to canada this winter, but it is such a long winter trip i thought i should defer it until summer, when i hope to be able to get away, as i intend to go on the river this summer if all goes as well as i expect. capt. w. f. davidson wrote me from cincinnati about going with him as first clerk on the side-wheel packet _frank steele_, a new boat about the size of the _war eagle_. the captain is letter a, no. , and i think i shall go with him. if not, i have two or three good offers for coming season on the levee, besides my present berth, which is nevertheless very comfortable. i think it mighty strange that some (of my letters) have not reached home as i wrote several times to my brother alex. and i never was more surprised in my life than when old bass handed me a letter of inquiry as to my whereabouts. but after the boats stop running our mails are carried so irregularly that whole bags of mail matter are often mislaid at way stations for weeks and some finally lost or otherwise destroyed. on the tenth of november last i was returning from the winslow house with charley coffin, clerk of the _war eagle_, about eleven o'clock, and when we were coming down fourth street passing one of those rum holes, two irishmen, red mouths, came out and, following us, asked us if we would not go back and take a drink. charley said "no," and we were passing on when two more met us who, along with the other two, insisted that they meant no harm and that we should go in and drink. i told them that i did not drink and that, generally speaking, i knew what i was about. we attempted to go on, but they tried to have us go back, so i hauled off and planted one, two in paddie's grub grinder, and knocked him off the sidewalk about eight feet. the remainder pitched in and charley got his arm cut open and i got a button hole cut through my left side right below the ribs. the city police came to the noise and arrested three of them on the spot and the other next day and they turned out to be chicago star cleaners, a name given to midnight ruffians. i was not compelled to keep my bed, but it was some two months before i was quite recovered from the effects of the cut. one day on the levee i was going aboard one of the boats and slipped on the gang plank and sprained my knee, which laid me up for about two weeks. about a week ago my pugnacious friend who gave me his mark escaped from the penitentiary at stillwater, along with all the rest of the prisoners confined at the time. i am sincerely very grateful to you for your generous offer in your letter and fully appreciate your kindness. but notwithstanding my bad luck i have still "a shot in the locker," about $ , which will put me out of any trouble until spring. our winter here has been very mild and open. we have scarcely had any snow, but what was altogether unprecedented, rain storms lasting three or four days in succession. times have been mighty dull here this winter and money scarce. write to me as soon as you receive this and give me a bird's eye view of rockwood and its inhabitants. believe me yours sincerely, j. j. hill. send me some papers. [ ] from "the life of james j. hill," by joseph gilpin pyle. copyright, , , by doubleday, page & co. chapter vi personal business letters one does not have to be in business in order to write "business letters." a thousand personal affairs crop up which require letters of a commercial rather than a social nature. there is only one rule--say what you have to say clearly and quickly. although the letter should be written on the ordinary social stationery and follow the placing and spacing of the social letter, no time should be wasted in trying to make the letter appear friendly and chatty. the clerks in business houses who usually attend to the mail seem to be picked for their obtuseness, and do not often understand a letter which is phrased in other than commonplace terms. once i overheard a conversation between an italian shoemaker and a boston woman over the repairing of a pair of shoes. the woman wanted the soles fastened on with nails. the only word she knew for that operation was "tapped." the only word the shoemaker knew was "nailed." they were absolutely at a deadlock until the shoemaker, knowing that the woman did not want the soles sewed on, proceeded to demonstrate with hammer and nail just what he meant by "nailed." it is well to remember that motion pictures do not accompany letters and hence to take for granted that if a way exists for getting what you mean wrong that way will be found. it is unfortunately safe to take for granted that a personal business letter is going to be read by a moron. _ordering goods from a department store_ park avenue, april , . l. burton & company, fifth ave. & th st., new york gentlemen: please send me as soon as possible and charge to my account the following goods: doz. hemstitched huck towels, large size, from $ . to $ . a dozen pairs infants' laced shoes, sizes d and - / d. one pair to be returned as i am not certain of the correct size. pairs children's rompers, size years, band knee, all white, white with blue collar, white with pink collar. very truly yours, katherine g. evans (mrs. john evans) _to correct an error_ park avenue, april , . caldwell sons co., fifth avenue, new york, n. y. gentlemen: may i call your attention to my account rendered on april st? there would seem to be two errors, as follows: under date of march th i am charged with four pairs of silk stockings at $ . a pair, although i purchased only three pairs. on march nd i am credited with one pair of children's shoes at $ . . i had two pairs sent on approval, but returned both of them as neither pair fitted. i enclose my check in the sum of $ . which is the total less the overcharge. to assist in the adjustment i also enclose the original slip for the stockings and the driver's call receipt for the two pairs of shoes.[ ] very truly yours, katherine g. evans. (mrs. john evans) [ ] or instead of enclosing these slips it is often better to mention the numbers that appear on them and to retain the slips themselves. _letter to department store requesting charge account_ south elm street, chicago, ill., may , . marshall field & co., chicago, ill. gentlemen: i have recently come to live in chicago and i should like to open a charge account with you. my present accounts are all in new york and i can give you the following references: lord & taylor tiffany & co. abercrombie & fitch co. j. & j. slater lincoln trust co. very truly yours, alberta t. white. (mrs. james white) _asking for estimate for draperies and furnishings_ park avenue, may , . forsythe & white, fifth avenue, new york, n. y. gentlemen: will you send me an approximate estimate of the cost of materials and labor necessary for the doing of the following work: slip covers with valances of english hand-blocked linen for two large wing chairs and one chaise-longue. two reversible portières of the linen for doorways feet high and feet wide. three pairs curtains for casement windows feet high and feet wide, with pleated valance. these curtains to be of habutai silk. of course i shall understand that this is purely an approximate estimate. i should like to have this as soon as you can conveniently send it. very truly yours, katherine g. evans. (mrs. john evans) _declining to have work done as estimated_ park avenue, may , . forsythe & white, fifth avenue, new york, n. y. gentlemen: thank you for your letter of th may in answer to mine of the th, requesting an estimate for slip covers and curtains. your estimate calls for more outlay than i should care to make at the present time, so i shall have to postpone the matter until next year. very truly yours, katherine g. evans. (mrs. john evans) _recommendation for a servant_ june , . this is to certify that katrina hellman has been in my employ as assistant nurse for one year. during that period i have found her honest, capable, and reliable. i can give her an unqualified recommendation. k. g. evans. (mrs. john evans) _for information concerning a servant_ deming place chicago, ill., may , . mrs. john evans, park avenue, new york. dear madam: i hope you will pardon me, but i should be very much indebted to you for any facts concerning gaston duval, who has been in your employ as chauffeur. if you will give me this information i shall treat it as confidential. yours very truly, cecelia b. duke. (mrs. samuel duke) _answers to request for information concerning a servant_ park avenue, new york city, may , . mrs. samuel duke, deming place, chicago, ill. dear madam: i have your inquiry of may the ninth concerning my former chauffeur, gaston duval. i am very glad to recommend him. he is sober and honest, and i always found him thoroughly dependable during his fifteen months in my employ. he drives well and is an expert mechanician. yours very truly, k. g. evans, (mrs. john evans) park avenue, new york, n. y., may , . mrs. samuel duke, deming place, chicago, ill. dear madam: i have your inquiry of may the ninth concerning my former chauffeur, gaston duval. i hope that you will not think me discourteous but i should much prefer not to discuss him. yours very truly, k. g. evans. (mrs. john evans) (in letters which in effect decline to give a recommendation it is wiser not to set out facts or even actually to decline to give the recommendation. see chapter xi on the law of letters. the following letter to a servant, which is an indirect way of declining to recommend, is on the danger line.) _to a servant_ harbor view, long island, august , . my dear margaret, mrs. hubert forbes has written me concerning your qualifications as cook, and asks if i would recommend you in every way. also i have your request to me for a reference. with regard to your skill in cooking there can be no question. i can recommend you as having served me for two years and i can vouch for your honesty. but, as you know, you are not to be depended on--for instance, to return promptly after your days off or to do any work at all during your frequent disputes with the butler. this i have told mrs. forbes. i could not conscientiously do otherwise; but i have asked that she try you in the hope that you have decided to remedy these faults. very truly yours, f. b. scott. (mrs. harrison scott) harbor view, l. i., august , . mrs. hubert forbes, bayshore, l. i. my dear mrs. forbes: i have your letter of august twenty-fifth concerning my former cook, margaret dickson. she is an extremely good cook. she was with me for two years, and i can vouch for her honesty, but she is not to be depended on--for instance, to return promptly after her days off or to do any work during her frequent quarrels with the butler. but she seems anxious to improve, and if you would care to give her a trial, i think she might be satisfactory in new surroundings. i hope this reply will answer your questions. very truly yours, flora b. scott. _letter to a former servant_ dear delia, if you will not be too busy next week, will you come out and take care of the children for three or four days? mr. stone and i expect to be away. i am sure your husband can spare you. you will be surprised at the way jack is growing. he often speaks of you. let me know immediately. cordially yours, b. l. stone. (note the signature--the use of initials instead of writing the full name.) _inquiry concerning house for rental_ cottage road, somerville, mass., april , . schuyler realty company, fulton street, brooklyn, n. y. gentlemen: will you be good enough to send me the following information concerning the house at bedford park which you have advertised for rental: location of the house with regard to subway and l station, and the nearest public school. general character of the immediate neighborhood. distance to the nearest methodist episcopal church. condition and kind of plumbing in each of the three bathrooms. make of furnace and the amount of coal necessary to heat the house. is the house completely screened? are there awnings? the floors--of what wood and in what condition are they? is the cellar dry? where is the laundry? when can the house be ready for occupancy? i should like to have the facts as soon as you can furnish them. very truly yours, george m. hall. _inquiry concerning house for purchase_ amsterdam avenue, philadelphia, pa., may , . wheaton manor development co., dobbs ferry, new york. gentlemen: will you let me know without delay, if possible, if you have any property in your immediate neighborhood fulfilling the following requirements: house--twelve rooms, four bathrooms, and sun porch. a modern house of stucco and half-timber construction preferred. ground--about five acres, part woodland, part cleared; lawn, vegetable, and flower garden. distance from railroad station--not more than fifteen minutes' ride. i do not want to pay more than $ , . i shall be here until the twentieth of the month. after that a reply will reach me at the hotel pennsylvania, new york. very truly yours, jerome hutchinson. _inquiry concerning a child at school_: riverside drive, new york, n. y., february , . my dear professor ritchie, my son john's report for the term just closed is far from satisfactory. while i do not expect perfection from him, i think--in fact, i know--he is capable of better work than is shown by his present rating. i observe that he did not pass in mathematics, a subject in which he was always first in the elementary school. my first thought was that possibly he was not physically well, but his activity in athletics would seem to refute this. this leads me to another thought--perhaps he is giving too much time and interest to athletics. what is your opinion and what course would you recommend? would it be possible by coaching to have him make up the required averages? as i am leaving new york in two weeks for an extended trip, i would like to take some steps toward improving his scholarship status. will you let me hear from you as soon as possible? very truly yours, john crandall. _letter ordering easter gifts from a magazine shopping service_ quogue, long island, march , . standard shopping service, west th street, new york, n. y. gentlemen: i enclose my check for $ . for which please send by express the following articles to miss dorothea allen sunrise lodge highland, pa. two sterling silver candlesticks in colonial pattern at $ . each, on page , march issue. or if you cannot secure them, will you purchase as second choice two jars in kashan ware, with blue as the predominating color? very truly yours, laura waite. (mrs. herbert waite) chapter vii the business letter a reporter was sent out on a big story--one of the biggest that had broken in many a day. he came back into the office about eight o'clock all afire with his story. he was going to make a reputation on the writing of it. he wanted to start off with a smashing first paragraph--the kind of lead that could not help being read. he knew just what he was going to say; the first half-dozen lines fairly wrote themselves on the typewriter. then he read them over. they did not seem quite so clever and compelling as he had thought. he pulled the sheet out and started another. by half-past ten he was in the midst of a sea of copy paper--but he had not yet attained a first paragraph. the city editor--one of the famous old _sun_ school--grew anxious. the paper could not wait until inspiration had matured. he walked quietly over to the young man and touching him on the shoulder he said: "just one little word after another, son." and that is a good thought to carry into the composition of a business or any other kind of letter. the letter is written to convey some sort of idea. it will not perfectly convey the idea. words have their limitations. it will not invariably produce upon the reader the effect that the writer desires. you may have heard of "irresistible" letters--sales letters that would sell electric fans to esquimaux or ice skates to hawaiians, collection letters that make the thickest skinned debtor remit by return mail, and other kinds of resultful, masterful letters that pierce to the very soul. there may be such letters. i doubt it. and certainly it is not worth while trying to concoct them. they are the outpourings of genius. the average letter writer, trying to be a genius, deludes only himself--he just becomes queer, he takes to unusual words, constructions, and arrangements. he puts style before thought--he thinks that the way he writes is more important than what he writes. the writer of the business letter does well to avoid "cleverness"--to avoid it as a frightful and devastating disease. the purpose of a business letter is to convey a thought that will lead to some kind of action--immediately or remotely. therefore there are only two rules of importance in the composition of the business letter. the first is: know what you want to say. the second is: say it. and the saying is not a complicated affair--it is a matter of "one little word after another." business letters may be divided into two general classes: ( ) where it is assumed that the recipient will want to read the letter, ( ) where it is assumed that the recipient will not want to read the letter. the first class comprises the ordinary run of business correspondence. if i write to john smith asking him for the price of a certain kind of chair, smith can assume in his reply that i really want that information and hence he will give it to me courteously and concisely with whatever comment on the side may seem necessary, as, for instance, the fact that this particular type of chair is not one that smith would care to recommend and that style x, costing $ . , would be better. the ordinary business letter is either too wordy or too curt; it either loses the subject in a mass of words or loses the reader by offensive abruptness. some letters gush upon the most ordinary of subjects; they are interspersed with friendly ejaculations such as "now, my dear mr. jones," and give the impression that if one ever got face to face with the writer he would effervesce all over one's necktie. many a man takes a page to say what ought to be said in four lines. on the other hand, there are letter writers so uncouth in the handling of words that they seem rude when really they only want to be brief. the only cure for a writer of this sort is for him to spend some months with any good english composition book trying to learn the language. the second class of letters--those in which it is presumed that the recipient will not want to read--comprises all the circular letters. these are selling or announcement letters and it is hoped that they will play the part of a personal representative. the great bulk of these letters are sales letters. their characteristic is that the writer and the reader are unknown to each other. it is not quite accurate to say that the reader will never want to read the letters--no one knows how many of the millions of circular letters sent out are read. a farmer will read practically every letter that comes to him; many business men will throw every circular letter into the waste basket unread. it is well to assume in this kind of letter, however, that the recipient does not want to read it but that he will open and glance at it. it is up to you to make such a good letter that the first glance will cause him to read more. there is no way of catching the man who throws letters away unopened; any attempt to have the envelope tell what the letter should tell is apt to be unfortunate, because it will have no effect upon the inveterate tosser away and may deter even some of those who commonly do open circular mail. the best method is to make the letter look so much like a routine business letter that no one will dare to throw it away without investigation. the cost of a sales letter is not to be reckoned otherwise than by results. the merit of a sales letter is to be judged solely by the results. therefore it is not a question of what kind of letter one thinks ought to produce results. the single question is what kind of letter does produce results. there is only one way to ascertain results, and that is by test. no considerable expenditure in direct mail solicitation and no form letter should be extensively used without an elaborate series of tests. otherwise the money may be thrown away. the extent of the tests will depend upon the contemplated expenditure. every concern that sends out many sales letters keeps a careful record of results. these records show the letter itself, the kind of envelope, the typing, the signature, and the kind of list to which it has been sent. thus a considerable fund of information is obtained for future use. this information, however, has to be very carefully handled because it may easily become misinformation, for we cannot forget the appeal of the product itself. no one as yet has ever been able to gauge in advance the appeal of a product. some apparently very bad letters have sold very good products. some apparently very good letters have quite failed to sell what turned out to be bad products. therefore, the information that is obtained in the circularizing and sale of one product has to be taken warily when applied to another product. it should be taken only for what it is worth, and that is as a general guide. [illustration: specimens of business letterheads] several concerns with a mind for statistical information have in the past so carefully compiled the effectiveness of their letters, but without regard to the product, that they have discovered an inordinately large number of things that cannot be done and extremely few things that can be done. this is the danger of placing too much faith in previous experience. one of these companies entirely discarded its records of what could not be done and started afresh. they found that several of the methods which they had previously used and discarded happened to do well under changed conditions and with different products. if any large expenditure be contemplated then many tests should be made. the kind of envelope, the manner of addressing, the one cent as opposed to the two-cent stamp, the kind of letterhead, the comparative merits of printing, multigraphing, or electric typewriting, the length and composition of the letter, the effect of the return card, the effect of enclosing a stamped return card or a stamped return envelope, the method of signing, and so on, through each detail, must be tried out. no test is ever conclusive, but very little information of value is to be obtained by circularizing less than five hundred names. these names may be taken sectionally or at random. the sectional method is somewhat better, for then comparison of results in several sections may be made, and it may turn out that it would be well to phrase differently letters for different sections. the returns on the letters are not of themselves conclusive. if one section responds and another does not, it is well to look into business conditions in the sections. it may be that in one section the people are working and that in another there is considerable unemployment. the main point about all of these statistics is to be sure that what one terms results are results, bearing in mind that it is the test and not what one thinks about a letter that counts. it is distinctly harmful for any one to say that a letter should be long or short. it all depends on who is going to get the letter. the tendency in recent years has been toward the very long sales letter. this is because in a large number of cases the long letter has been singularly effective. however, the long letter can be overdone. it is the test that counts. the exact purpose for which a letter is written is to be stated clearly before entering upon the composition. very few letters will sell articles costing as much as fifty dollars unless perhaps the payments are on the installment plan. many men of experience put the limit as low as five dollars. others put it as high as one hundred dollars. it is safe to say that the effectiveness of a letter which is designed to achieve a sale decreases as the price of that which is offered for sale increases. therefore, most of the letters written concerning more expensive articles are not intended to effect sales. they are designed to bring responses that will furnish leads for salesmen. other letters are more in the nature of announcements, by which it is hoped prospects may be brought into a store. where the article offered for sale is quite high in price, the letters sometimes may be very expensively prepared. on one occasion the late john h. patterson, discovering that his salesmen could not get to the heads of several department stores, ordered some very fine leather portfolios. on each portfolio he had stamped the name of the man who was to receive it. they were gifts such as any one would welcome and which no one could possibly ignore. inside each portfolio were contained a letter and a number of photographs showing exactly what he desired to have the agents demonstrate. each gift cost about fifty dollars. he sent the portfolios with his compliments. the secretaries of the men that he wanted to interest could not possibly toss them away. they simply had to give them to their principals. my impression is that the entire expenditure ran to several thousand dollars, but as a result some two hundred thousand dollars in sales were effected, for in practically every case the photographs awakened an interest that led to an appointment with the salesman. the following letters are intended to be suggestive. they cannot honestly be put forward as being more than that. they are all letters that have gained results under certain circumstances. that they will gain results under new and different circumstances is a matter on which no one can speak with any assurance. every sales letter is a matter of cut and try. some of these letters may produce results exactly as they stand. others may better be used in combination. [illustration: arrangement of a business letter (block form)] [illustration: arrangement of a business letter (indented form)] whether the letter should have a return card or envelope depends upon circumstances, as also does the inclusion of an illustrated folder. the return card is more valuable with a letter that goes to a home than with a letter that goes to an office. very few men with stenographers will bother with return cards--their stenographers or secretaries will send a note. on the other hand, letter-writing facilities are not so easily available in the usual home and the card is likely to be used. the putting in of a folder sometimes takes away from the force of the letter. it is often better to reserve the folder for a second letter or for answering an inquiry. for once the prospect has written in for more information the whole purpose of the letter changes. the interest can be presumed, and the object of the letter is to give the greatest possible amount of clear information to the end of causing action. saying too much in the first letter may give the reader an opportunity to reach a conclusion, when the purpose of the first letter is primarily to get a name--a prospective purchaser. many a salesman kills a sale by talking too much; so does many a sales letter. sales and announcement letters to charge customers selling and announcement letters are sent out before the public advertising. (they can also be used as general announcements by eliminating the portions referring particularly to the charge accounts.) _announcing a sale_ brice & haskell south michigan avenue chicago july , . dear madam: as one of our regular patrons, we are telling you in advance of a coming big sale--the august furniture sale, which will begin monday, august th. we should like our charge customers to have first choice of the interesting values before they are announced to the public. therefore we shall have three courtesy days, thursday, friday, and saturday of this week, when you may come in and make your selections at the sale prices. our guide in choosing furniture is our clientèle, so we feel sure you will find the type of furniture here that pleases you--and in greater variety than usual because we complete our collection for this event. prices this year are very attractive. they have been reduced far lower than you will anticipate. we should like you to have the advantage in these values soon, and hope you will come in one of the three courtesy days. very truly yours, brice & haskell. following are letters of slightly different type: s. black company washington street boston, mass. april , . mrs. arthur moore, hillside avenue, boston, mass. dear madam: our spring sale of misses' suits, coats, dresses, and hats will begin monday, april th, continuing throughout the week. this sale presents an unusual opportunity to secure seasonable apparel at decided price concessions. misses' suits: smartly tailored suits of english navy serge, navy gabardine, tan covert cloth, imported mixtures, homespuns, and light-weight knit cloths--adapted for town or country usage. a splendid selection of all sizes from to years. misses' coats: coats for motor, country club, or town wear, in soft velours, burella cloth, and imported coatings. misses' dresses: dresses of imported serges and gabardines, for street wear, and a number of exclusive knit cloth models in attractive colorings for sports wear--sizes to years. misses' hats: the balance of our stock of trimmed hats at one half their former prices. on account of the greatly reduced prices, none of these goods will be sent on approval, nor can they be returned for credit. very truly yours, s. black company. note: to our charge customers is extended the privilege of making their selections on friday and saturday, april th and th. swanson sons & company superior avenue cleveland, ohio january , . dear madam: we enclose advance announcements of our private sales of boys' heatherweave clothes and ironhide shoes, and we believe you will find the economies presented a great relief after your large christmas outlays. of course, such reductions mean that the assortments will quickly be depleted, and we urge you to act promptly in order to secure the full benefit of the available selections. to enable you to do this we are telling you before the public announcement of these sales. yours very truly, swanson sons & company. this letter encloses a proof of a newspaper advertisement. callender & crump euclid avenue cleveland, o. september , . dear madam: in appreciation of your patronage we wish to extend to you a personal invitation to attend a private sale of women's tailor-made fall suits (sizes to ) in some especially well-chosen models. these suits will be priced at the very low figure of $ . our regular patrons may have first selection before the sale is open to the public, and may thus avoid the discomforts of a public sale. we have arranged to show these suits privately on friday, october , in the fitting department on the sixth floor. if you care to avail yourself of this special opportunity, please bring this letter with you and present it at the fitting department. very truly yours, callender & crump. (note:--an excellent idea when a special offering of foreign goods is made is to have the letters mailed from paris or london. the foreign stamp will usually attract attention.) callender & crump euclid avenue cleveland, o. paris, france, september , . dear madam: we wish to let you know in advance that our annual sale of real french kid gloves, at cents a pair, takes place on tuesday, october , . to insure a choice selection we suggest that you make your purchases early on that day. very truly yours, callender & crump. this is an excellent, matter-of-fact letter that sets out values: le fevre brothers washington blvd detroit, mich. may , . mrs. john williams, concourse ave., detroit, mich. madam: on monday and tuesday, may th and th, we shall hold our annual spring clearance sale of seasonable apparel for boys, girls, and young ladies, offering exceptional values, and an unusual opportunity to secure regular le fevre productions at lower prices than we have been able to offer for several years. this sale will include other items which are not enumerated in this announcement. boys' wool norfolk suits: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . , $ . , and $ . boys' overcoats: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . girls' coats and capes: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . girls' wool dresses: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . young ladies' suits: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . young ladies' dresses: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . young ladies' coats and capes: sizes to years. formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . girls' and young ladies' trimmed and tailored hats: formerly up to $ . _sale price_ $ . and $ . sale goods will not be sent on approval, exchanged, nor can they be returned for credit. yours very truly, le fevre brothers. our charge customers will have the privilege of making their purchases from this sale on friday and saturday, may th and th. _on opening a store_ this form for the opening of a new store in a town may be used with variations for a reopening after improvements. james bonner & co. wichita, kan. april , . mrs. henry jerome, water st., wichita, kan. dear madam: this is a sale to win friends for a new store. we want you to see our values. our store is but six weeks old. our stock is just the same age. everything that we have is fresh and new. we want you to compare our qualities and prices. we are out to prove to the women of wichita that we can give style and service at prices they will like. will you give us the chance to get acquainted? yours very truly, james bonner & co., (handwritten) _l. jones_, manager. _selling home-made articles_ waverly place, bridgetown, n. j., april , . dear madam: have you ever counted the cost of making your pickles, jams, and jellies at home? if you have, and are satisfied that yours is the cheapest way, considering time, labor, and the use of the best materials, then my product will not appeal to you. but before you decide, may i ask you to make a comparison? i make at home in large quantities and according to the best recipes gathered over years of experience, all kinds of pickles and relishes--sweet, sour, dill, chow-chow, piccalilli. my special jams are raspberry, strawberry, plum, peach, and quince. crabapple is my best liked jelly, and red currant a close second. a very special conserve is a grape and walnut, for which i have a large call, for teas. the peaches i put up in pint and quart jars. i use only the very best vinegar and spices. my products are made only to order and at the lowest possible cost. to do this i must get my orders some time in advance so that i may take advantage of attractive prices on fruits and other ingredients. i append a list of prices which i charged last year. this year they will be no higher and in all probability less. may i get a small trial order from you? very truly yours, martha walker. (mrs. william walker) _a letter to recently married people in moderate circumstances_ j. l. bascom company main street richmond, va. may , . dear madam: this store is for sensible, saving people who want to make every dollar buy its utmost. but sometimes being sensible and saving seems to mean just being commonplace and dowdy. ours is not that sort of a store. we believe that useful articles ought also to be good looking, and our buying has been so skillful that we believe we are safe in saying that our goods are not only absolutely dependable but also will compare in appearance with any goods anywhere, regardless of price. we think that this statement will mean something to you, for in furnishing a home, although appearance may not be everything, it is certainly a good deal. between two articles of the same durability the better-looking one is the better. it is our aim not merely to make home furnishing easy but to make a beautiful home at the price of an ugly one. our experience has been that it does not pay to put into a household any article which in a few years you will get so tired of looking at that you will want to smash it with a hatchet. we have the values and also we have terms that are as good as the values. we enclose a little booklet that will give you a hint of what you can find here. we cannot give you more than a hint. the best way is to come to the store. tell us your problems, and let us aid you with our experience. very truly yours, j. l. bascom company. _introducing the mail order department:_ l. girard & co. st. louis, mo. april , . mrs. benjamin brown, shadyside vine avenue, st. louis, mo. dear madam: this spring brings to us many new ideas in merchandise that our buyers have picked up in their travels. in many ways we have now the most interesting stock we have ever been able to show. it is indeed so large and varied that we shall hardly be able to give you more than a suggestion of it in our public advertising. we feel sure that we have something which you have been looking for among the splendid values in both personal and household necessities. you will find that through our individual shopping service purchasing by mail is made most convenient and entirely personal. may we look forward to having again the pleasure of serving you? very truly yours, l. girard & co. _announcement of overcoats_ the barbour clothing co. wabash avenue chicago october , . mr. charles reid, winnetka, ill. my dear sir: in a couple of weeks you are going to think a good deal about your overcoat. why not start thinking now? we are offering this year the most complete line of overcoats that we have ever been able to buy. we have found that we could buy absolutely first-class coats at absolutely fair prices. we are selling them on the basis on which we bought them, and we bought a lot because we think the values will sell them. the prices are surprisingly low. they range from $ to $ . at the lowest price we are selling a coat which, if you saw it on the back of a friend, you would think cost at least $ . the highest priced coat is as good as money can buy. if you expected to spend $ for a coat, you may find that you can get what you want for $ or $ , or you may find that you will want an even better coat than you had expected to buy. we think that it would be worth your while to look at this stock. very truly yours, the barbour clothing co. _selling a farm product (can be used for vegetables, eggs, hams, and bacon or any farm product)_ corn center new jersey june , . dear madam: do you like perfectly fresh vegetables--right off the farm? what kind of vegetables are you getting? do you know how long ago they were picked? perhaps you think that you cannot have absolutely fresh vegetables for your table or that it really makes no difference? did you ever taste golden bantam corn the same day or the day after it was picked? do you know golden bantam or is corn just corn? do you think that string beans are just string beans? and do you know about stringless string beans? i grow only the thoroughbred varieties. i pick them when they are tender--just right for the palate. and i send them to you the same day that they are picked. i arrange hampers according to the size of the family. the prices, quantities, and selections are on the enclosed card. i will deliver at your door (or send by parcel post) every day, every second day, or as often as you like. you can have the best that is grown in its best season and as fresh as though you were living on a farm. try a hamper and know what vegetables are! very truly yours, henry raynor. _storage service_ howard moth proof bag co. winsted, conn. may , . dear madam: have you ever taken your best coat to an "invisible mender" and paid him ten dollars to have him mend two moth holes? have you ever gone to your trunk to take out your furs and found that the moths had got into them? sometimes they are so badly eaten that they are utterly hopeless and must be thrown away. all this trouble, disappointment, and expense can be avoided if you will only take the precaution this spring to put away your clothing and furs in the howard moth proof garment bags. strongly constructed of a heavy and durable cedar paper, and made absolutely moth-proof by our patented closing device, the howard bag provides absolute protection against moths. as the howard bag comes in several sizes, from the suit size, ranging through the overcoat, ulster, and automobile sizes, and as each bag has room for several garments, you can surely have protection for all your clothing at small cost. the hook by which the bag is hung up is securely stapled in place by brass rivets. this bag is so strong and so well designed for service that it will with care last for several years. very truly yours, the howard moth-proof bag co. _a type of christmas sales letter_ the pink shop main street grand rapids, mich. november , . dear madam: this is your opportunity to get a lot of fine christmas stockings at very low cost--if you order at once. the "camille" is made of beautiful thread silk richly hand embroidered. it comes in black or white, all silk. the "diana" is a silk stocking with lisle top and soles. it is a fine wearing stocking and comes in all street shades. the "juliet" is especially attractive as a gift for a girl friend. these stockings are clocked and have all silk feet and lisle tops. the colors are black, beige, and taupe. they are especially good looking worn with saddle pumps. the "evening mist" is a fascinating stocking for evening wear. it is sheer, almost cobwebby, and will enhance any evening gown. the colors are gold, silver, light blue, corn, pale green, black, and white. it is splendid for a gift stocking. the "priscilla" is an excellent stocking for everyday hard wear. it is of heavy lisle, full fashioned and fast color--black or tan. send your order off now. you will have the advantage of an early selection. attractive prices are quoted in the circular enclosed. the big holiday rush will soon be on. make up your order for stockings for christmas giving, attach remittance for amount and mail to-day. your order will be filled promptly and if everything does not fully satisfy you, you may return it and get your money back. yours very truly, the pink shop. _an automobile announcement_ memphis auto supply co. maple avenue memphis, tenn. march , . dear sir: just a few weeks and spring will be here. that means pleasure motoring. when you are getting ready for this new season, you may find that you will need certain things for your car--perhaps a new tire, or a pair of pliers, or an inner tube. but whatever it is, remember that our new stock of accessories is here and we believe that we can supply you with anything you will need. in inviting you to give us part of your trade, we give you this assurance: if any article you buy from us is not entirely right, we will return your money. we hope to see you soon. yours very truly, memphis auto supply co. _changing from a credit to a cash plan (should be in the nature of a personal letter)_ pelletier & co. casco street portland, me. february , . mrs. john troy, ocean ave., portland, me. dear madam: when this store was opened ten years ago, we believed that our service would be the most effective if we operated on a credit basis. therefore we solicited charge accounts, of course taking extreme care that only people of known integrity and substance should be on our books. we have had the privilege of serving you through such an account. there are two fundamental methods of conducting a retail business. the one is on the cash and the other is on the credit plan. in the cash plan all goods are either paid for at the time of purchase or at the time of delivery. in the credit plan, those who have not credit or do not care to use credit pay cash; those who have credit rating charge their purchases and bills are rendered monthly. credit was not extended by the store as a favor; it formed part of a way of doing business. the favor is on the part of the customer. the charge system has many advantages, principally in the way of permitting the store to know its customers better than it could otherwise. the disadvantage of the credit basis is the expense of bookkeeping which, of course, has to be added into the price of the goods sold. our losses through unpaid bills have been negligible. our customers are honest. but it has seemed unfair that the customer who pays cash should have to bear the cost of the credit accounts. as our business has worked out more than fifty per cent. of our whole trade is on the cash basis. after careful consideration we have finally decided to go entirely upon a cash footing in order that we may further reduce our costs of doing business and hence our prices to you. we think that in such fashion we can better serve you. therefore, on july st, which marks the end of our fiscal year, we shall go upon an exclusively cash basis and no longer maintain charge accounts. we think that you will agree when you see the savings reflected in lower prices for the highest grade of goods that the change in policy is a wise one and that you will continue to favor us with your patronage. very truly yours, pelletier & co., (handwritten) _c. brown_, credit manager. keeping the customer _thanking a new customer_ larue brothers saint louis, mo. october , . mrs. lee white, main street, st. louis, mo. dear madam: the purchase which you made yesterday is the first that we have had the pleasure of recording for your account and we want to take this opportunity to thank you for the confidence that you repose in us and to hope that it will be the beginning of a long and happy relation. we shall, from time to time, send you bulletins of our special offerings and we believe that you will be interested in them. very truly yours, (handwritten) _j. m. briggs_, credit manager, larue brothers. _where a charge account has been inactive_ s. black company washington street boston, mass. february , . mr. tudor sweet, commonwealth ave., boston, mass. dear sir: we have just been looking over our books and are sorry to learn that you have not given us your patronage for some time past. we feel that something may have gone wrong to have caused you to discontinue trading at our store. if you are not fully satisfied with anything you bought from us, remember that we are always eager and ready to adjust the matter to your satisfaction. we shall certainly appreciate it if you will write to us and tell us frankly just what the trouble has been. will you use the inclosed envelope to let us know? yours truly, s. black company, (handwritten) _george sims_, credit manager. a. b. sweetser & co. main street columbus, o. june , . mrs. arthur thomas, spruce avenue, columbus, o. dear madam: does our store please you? sometime ago it probably did and you had an account with us, but we find with regret that you have not used it lately. if we disappointed you, or if something went wrong and possibly your complaint was not properly attended to, we are extremely anxious to know about it. perhaps there was some lack of courtesy, some annoying error in your bill which we were exasperatingly obtuse in rectifying? were we stupid in filling some order or did we delay in delivery? perhaps we did not have just what you were looking for, or our prices seemed higher than elsewhere. whatever the difficulty, we do want you to know that we try to stand for good service--to supply promptly what you want at the price you want to pay, and always to conduct our business with an unfailing courtesy which will make your shopping a pleasure. being a woman i may understand your point of view a little better. will you be quite frank and tell me why you do not buy from sweetser's now? either write or call me on the telephone; or, better still, if you are in our neighborhood, can you come in to see me? the information booth is at the door and i can be found in a minute. it might help to talk things over. sincerely yours, (handwritten) _mrs. margaret b. williams_, courtesy manager, a. b. sweetser & co. meyer, haskell & co. elm street bloomfield, ill. march , . mrs. bruce wells, dwight ave., bloomfield, ill. dear madam: we very much regret that you do not use more often your charge account at our store, and we hope it is not due to any lack on our part of prompt and intelligent service. we know that with our large and well-assorted stocks of merchandise and competent organization we ought to be able to supply your needs to your complete satisfaction. one of five stores, we have great opportunities for advantageous buying and we can continually undersell others. in this connection permit us to call your attention to our newly installed telephone order department. this department is in charge of competent house shoppers, whose duty it is to satisfy your every want, thus enabling our charge patrons to shop by telephone with perfect certainty. we feel that these advantages may appeal to you and result in our receiving your orders more often. very truly yours, (handwritten) _t. hunter_, credit manager, meyer, haskell & co. selling real estate there are two phases in the writing of letters concerning the sale of real estate. the first phase has to do with the presentation of the proposal in order to arouse sufficient interest in the mind of the prospect to cause him to inspect the property. comparatively little real estate is sold without personal inspection. the exceptions are offerings of low-priced building sites in distant sections of the country. these are sold sight unseen--else, as a rule, they would never be sold at all. but such real estate selling is more apt to be in the class with fake mining stock than with legitimate buying and selling, and therefore has no place here. the second phase of letters on real estate comprehends the closing of the sale. for instance, let us say that john hope has gone so far as to look at a property. he apparently wants to buy the property or is at least interested, but the price and conditions of sale do not exactly suit him. he is so situated that he does not want to talk personally with an agent, or perhaps lives too far away. at any rate, the sale has to be closed by mail. the fact which most concerns the buyer of real estate, provided he is otherwise satisfied with a property, is the title. the title is the legal term by which is denoted the exact character of the ownership. quite frequently an owner may believe that he has a clear title when, as a matter of fact, his title is derived through some testamentary instrument which gives him a holding only for life, or perhaps trusts have been set up in the will which are a charge upon the property, although all of the beneficiaries of the trust have been long since dead. there are many hundreds of possible legal complications affecting the validity of the title and it is usual to-day to have titles insured and, in agreeing to buy, to specify that the "title must be marketable and insurable by a reputable title insurance company." the word "marketable" as here used means a title which is unquestionable. the prospective buyer must also be careful to specify that the title shall be "free and clear" and that all taxes shall be apportioned to the day of settlement. otherwise the buyer would have to take title subject to a lien of any judgments or other liens of record and also subject to unpaid taxes. a real estate transaction may be very complicated indeed, and it is wise for a buyer to take precautions to the end of seeing that he purchases a piece of real property rather than a right to a lawsuit. most letters offering real estate for sale are written in response to inquiries generated by an advertisement. the letter offering the property is designed to bring forth a visit from the inquirer. therefore only the information which seems best adapted to bring about that visit should go into the letter. the temptation is to tell too much, and the danger of telling too much is that one may inadvertently force a negative conclusion. it is better to keep down to the bare, although complete, description rather than to attempt any word painting. the description is best supplemented by one or several photographs. the important points to be summarized are the situation of the house, the architectural style, the material of which it is constructed, the number of rooms, and the size of the lot, with of course a description of any stable, garage, or other substantial out-buildings. these are the elementary points of the description. one may then summarize the number and size of the rooms, including the bathrooms, laundry, and kitchen, the closet spaces, fireplaces, the lighting, the roofing, the floors, the porches, and the decorating. the most effective letter is always the one that catalogues the features rather than describes them. _an agent asking for a list of property_ jones realty co. harrisburg, pa. april , . mr. james renwick, pelham road, westville, pa. my dear sir: i am constantly having inquiries from people who want to buy property in your immediate vicinity, and i am writing to learn whether you would give me the opportunity to dispose of your property for you, if i can obtain an entirely satisfactory price. if you will name the price and the terms at which you would sell, i should be glad to put the property on my list and i believe that i can make a sale. it would be helpful if i had a good description of the property and also one or two good photographs. of course if you list the property with me that will not bar you from listing it with any other broker unless you might care to put it exclusively in my hands for disposal. my commission is - / %, the same as charged by other brokers in this vicinity, and i know from experience that i can give you satisfactory service. very truly yours, henry jones. _from an owner instructing an agent to list property_ pelham road, westville, pa., may , . mr. henry jones, jones realty co., harrisburg, pa. my dear sir: i have your letter of may rd and i am entirely willing that you should list my property for sale, although i do not want a "for sale" sign displayed nor do i want the property inspected while i am in it unless by a previously arranged appointment. i enclose a description and a photograph. i will take $ , for the place, of which $ , has to be paid in cash. i am willing to hold a second mortgage of $ , and there is $ , already ready against the place, which can remain. very truly yours, james renwick. _selling a property by mail_ lawrence street, greenville, n. y., april , . mr. george a. allen, fourth avenue, hillside, n. y. my dear sir: i have your letter of april th asking for further particulars on the property which i advertised for sale in last sunday's _republic_. i think that by inspecting this property you can gain a much clearer idea of its desirability than i can possibly convey to you in a letter. if you will telephone to me, i will arrange any appointment that suits your convenience. the house is ten years old--that is, it was built when materials and workmanship were first-class. it has been kept up by the owner, has never been rented, and is to-day a more valuable house than when it was originally constructed. it is three stories in height, contains fifteen rooms, four bathrooms, breakfast porch, sun porch, children's breakfast porch, a laundry, butler's pantry, a storage pantry, and a refrigerator pantry. it stands on a plot of ground x feet, which has been laid out in lawn and gardens, and in fact there are several thousand dollars' worth of well-chosen and well-placed plants, including many evergreens and rhododendrons. the trim of the house, including the floors, is hard wood throughout, and the decorations are such that nothing whatsoever would have to be done before occupancy. i enclose two photographs. the owner's price is $ , , and i know that he would be willing to arrange terms. very truly yours, r. a. smith. (note--essentially the same letter could be written offering the house for rental, furnished or unfurnished, as the case might be.) main street, albany, n. y., october , . mr. henry grimes, catskill, n. y. dear sir: the business property that i offered for sale in yesterday's _republic_ and concerning which i have a letter from you this morning is particularly well suited for a specialty shop or any kind of a store that would be benefited by the passing of large numbers of people before its show windows. it is located at the corner of third and main streets with a frontage of thirty feet on main street and runs back seventy feet on third street. there is one large show window on main street and two on third street. it is a three-story brick structure, solidly built, and the upper floors, if they could not be used for your own purposes, will as they stand bring a rental of $ a month each, and with a few changes could probably be leased at a higher amount. they are at present leased at the above figures, but the leases will expire on january st. both tenants are willing to renew. by actual count this property is on the third busiest corner in town. if you are interested, i should like to discuss the price and terms with you. very truly yours, henry eltinge. _offering a farm for sale_ goschen, ohio, r. f. d. , may , . mr. harry more, bridgeton, ohio. dear sir: i am glad to get your letter inquiring about my farm. i am acting as my own agent because i think it is a farm that will sell itself on inspection and i would rather split the commission with the buyer than with a middle-man. the farmhouse, barns, and dairy are good, substantial frame buildings, and they have been well painted every second season. there is nothing to be done to them. the house has six rooms and a large, dry cellar. the water is soft and there is plenty of it. the barn is by ; the poultry house is a big one that i built myself. the sheds are all in first-class condition. this farm contains acres, two miles from goschen, ohio, and there is a state road leading into town and to the railroad. we have rural delivery and telephone. the land is high and in first-class cultivation. the orchard has been kept up and there are well-established strawberry and asparagus beds. you will not find a better farm of its kind than this one. i have made a living off it for twelve years and anybody else can, but the only way for you really to find out what the place amounts to is to come down yourself and look it over. if you will let me know when you expect to come i will meet you at the station in my automobile. the price is ten thousand dollars. there is a mortgage of $ , that can remain, and, other things being satisfactory, we can arrange the down payment and the terms for the balance. very truly yours, john hope. _accepting an offer_ chestnut street, philadelphia, pa., dec. , . mr. joseph barlow, haines crossing, delaware. dear sir: i have your letter of december th offering to sell to me the property that we have been discussing for $ , of which $ , is to be in cash, $ , to remain on three-year mortgage at six per cent., and the remaining $ , to be cared for by the present mortgage in that amount and which i understand has four years yet to run. i accept your offer as stated by you, with the provision of course that i shall receive a clear and marketable title, insurable by a real estate title company, and that all taxes shall be adjusted as of the day of settlement, which settlement is to take place three months from to-day. if you will have a contract of sale drawn, i shall execute it and at the same time hand you my check for five hundred dollars as the consideration for the contract of purchase. this letter is written in the assumption that the dimensions of the property are such as have been represented to me. i am very truly yours, martin fields. (note--the above letter replying to an offer to sell would of itself close the contract and the formal contract of sale is unnecessary. a contract is, however, advisable because it includes all the terms within a single sheet of paper and therefore makes for security.) _letter inquiring as to what may be had_ gramercy park, february , . home development co., hastings, n. y. dear sir: i am writing to learn what property you have listed in your vicinity that would seem to meet my particular requirements. i want a house of not less than ten rooms, with some ground around it and not more than fifteen minutes from the railroad station. the house must contain at least two bathrooms, have a good heating plant, and either be in first-class condition or offered at a price that would permit me to put it in first-class condition without running into a great deal of money. i am willing to pay between ten and fifteen thousand dollars. will you send me a list of properties that you can suggest as possibly being suitable? very truly yours, julian henderson. _renting apartments_ young & reynolds green street brooklyn, n. y. may , . mr. robert pardee, prentiss place, brooklyn, n. y. dear sir: your name has been handed to me as one who might be interested in leasing one of the extremely attractive apartments in the iroquois at number east third street, which will be ready for occupancy on september th. i enclose a descriptive folder which will give you an idea of the grounds that we have for basing our claim that this is the most convenient apartment house that has ever been erected. the apartments vary in size, as you will see on the plan, and for long leases we can arrange any combination of rooms that may be desired. these features are common to all of the apartments. every bedroom has a private bathroom. every living and dining room contains an open fireplace, and every apartment, no matter what its size, is connected with a central kitchen so that service may be had equivalent to that of any hotel and at any hour from seven in the morning until midnight. there is a complete hotel service, all of which is entirely optional with the tenant. we invite your inspection. a number of the apartments have already been leased, but many desirable ones still remain and an early selection will permit of decoration according to your own wishes in ample time for the opening of the building. the renting office is on the premises. very truly yours, young & reynolds. bank letters the qualities which make a bank popular in a community are, first, safety; second, intelligence; and third, courtesy. one bank has potentially nothing more to offer than has another bank, excepting that of course a very large bank has a greater capacity for making loans than has a small bank. the amount which by law a bank may lend is definitely fixed by the resources of the bank. however, this is not a question of particular concern here, for very large and important accounts are never gained through letter writing. the field that can be reached through letters comprises the substantial householder, the moderate-sized man in business, and the savings depositor. a bank has no bargains to offer. what a man or a woman principally asks about a bank is: "will my money be safe? will my affairs be well looked after? shall i be treated courteously when i go into the bank?" the answers to these questions should be found in the conduct of the bank itself. a bank is not a frivolous institution. therefore its stationery and the manner of its correspondence should be eminently dignified. it must not draw comparisons between the service it offers and the service any other bank offers. it must not make flamboyant statements. neither may it use slang, for slang connotes in the minds of many a certain carelessness that does not make for confidence. above all, a bank cannot afford to be entertaining or funny in its soliciting letters. the best bank letter is usually a short one, and it has been found effective to enclose a well-designed, well-printed card or folder setting out some of the services of the bank, its resources, and its officers. bank solicitation is very different from any other kind of solicitation. _soliciting savings accounts_ guardian trust co. bayville, n. j. january , . mr. george dwight, bayville, n. j. dear sir: some time ago we delivered to you a little home safe for savings, and we are writing to learn how you are making out with it. have you saved as much as you had expected? are you waiting to get a certain sum before bringing it in to be credited in your passbook? we are often asked if it is necessary to fill a home safe before bringing it in to have the contents deposited, and we always recommend that the bank be brought in at regular intervals, regardless of the amount saved, for you know the money begins to earn interest only when it is deposited with us. we give to small deposits the same careful attention we give to large deposits, so we suggest that you bring in and deposit whatever you have saved. that will make a start, and once started it is truly surprising how quickly a bank account rolls up. i hope that we may have the benefit of your patronage. very truly yours, the guardian trust company, (handwritten) _j. d. wallace_, secretary. _where a savings account is inactive_ guardian trust co. bayville, n. j. august , . mr. george dwight, bayville, n. j. dear sir: a little home bank may be made a power for good. it can accomplish nothing by itself, standing unused in an out-of-the-way place. it can only be an assistant to the saver. it can assist your boy and girl to great things. it can assist you in daily economies upon which big results are often built. it cannot furnish the initiative, but it can be a constant reminder and an ever-ready recipient. why not _use_ the little bank we delivered to you when you opened your savings account with us to teach the children to save, or to collect together small amounts for yourself. why not? very truly yours, (handwritten) _j. d. wallace_, secretary. _checking accounts_ _a letter soliciting a home account:_ guardian trust co. poughkeepsie, n. y. october , . mrs. hester wickes, market street, poughkeepsie, n. y. dear madam: do you ever have arguments over bills that you have paid in cash? do you always remember to get a receipt? do you find it a nuisance to carry cash? do you know that it is dangerous to keep much cash in the house? there can be no dispute about an account if you pay it with a bank check. your cancelled check is a perfect receipt. more than that, your bank book shows you when, how much, and to whom you have paid money. it is not only the easy way of paying bills but the safe way. you escape all the danger of carrying or having in the house more than mere pocket money. you will find by opening a checking account with us not only the advantages of paying by check but you will also discover many conveniences and services which we are able to offer to you without any charge whatsoever. i hope that you will call and let us explain our services. i enclose a folder telling you more about the bank than i have been able to tell in this letter. very truly yours, (handwritten) _j. d. wallace_, secretary. p.s. we have some very attractive styles in pocket check books that might interest you. _soliciting a commercial account_ the logansburg national bank logansburg, wis. april , . mr. fred haynes, nassau street, logansburg, wis. dear sir: every man in business is entitled to an amount of credit accommodation in accordance with his resources. it is one of the functions of this bank to help the business of the community by extending credit to those who make the business for the community. we are here to be of service and we should like to serve you. i enclose a folder giving the latest statement of the resources of the bank and something about the organization. will you not drop in some time and at least permit us to become acquainted? very truly yours, (handwritten) _r. t. newell_, president. _general services_ trust companies and national banks are very generally extending their services to cover the administration of decedents' estates, to advise upon investments, to care for property, and to offer expert tax services. in most cases, these services are set out in booklets and the letter either encloses the booklet or is phrased to have the recipient ask for the booklet. _letter proffering general services:_ griggs national bank fifth ave. new york november , . mr. henry larkin, cathedral parkway, new york. dear sir: we are writing to call your attention to several services which this bank has at your command and which we should be happy to have you avail yourself of: ( ) the bond department can give you expert and disinterested advice on investments and can in addition offer you a selection of well-chosen season bonds of whatever character a discussion of your affairs may disclose as being best suited to your needs. ( ) our safe deposit vaults will care for your securities and valuable papers at an annual cost which is almost nominal. ( ) we have arrangements by which we can issue letters of credit that will be honored anywhere in the world, foreign drafts, and travellers' checks. ( ) if you expect to be away through any considerable period or do not care to manage your own investments, our trust department will manage them for you and render periodical accounts at a very small cost. this service is especially valuable because so frequently a busy man fails to keep track of conversion privileges and rights to new issues and other matters incident to the owning of securities. ( ) we will advise you, if you like, on the disposition of your property by will, and we have experienced and expert facilities for the administration of trusts and estates. i hope that we may have the opportunity of demonstrating the value of some or all of these services to you; it would be a privilege to have you call and become acquainted with the officers in charge of these various departments. i am very truly yours, (handwritten) _lucius clark_, president. _a letter offering to act as executor_ griggs national bank fifth avenue new york june , . mr. lawrence loring, river avenue, yonkers, n. y. dear sir: may i call to your attention the question which every man of property must at some time gravely consider, and that is the disposition of his estate after death? i presume that as a prudent man you have duly executed a last will and testament, and i presume that it has been drawn with competent legal advice. but the execution of the will is only the beginning. after your death will come the administration of the estate, and it is being more and more recognized that it is not the part of wisdom to leave the administration of an estate in the hands of an individual. it used to be thought that an executor could be qualified by friendship or relationship, but unfortunately it has been proved through the sad experience of many estates that good intentions and integrity do not alone make a good executor. skill and experience also are needed. this company maintains a trust department, under the supervision of mr. thomas g. shelling, our trust officer, who has had many years of experience in the administration of estates. associated with him is a force of specialists who can care for any situation, usual or unusual, that may arise. the services of these men can be placed at your disposal. i can offer to you not only their expert services but also the continuity of a great institution. individuals die. institutions do not die. if you will turn over in your mind what may be the situation thirty years hence of any individual whom you might presently think of as an executor, i believe you will be impressed with the necessity for the continuity of service that can be offered only by a corporation. in many cases there are personal matters in the estate which a testator may believe can best be handled only by some of his friends. in such a case it is usual to join the individual executors with a corporate executor. it would be a privilege to be able to discuss these matters with you. very truly yours, (handwritten) _lucius clark_, president. p.s. wills are quite frequently lost or mislaid and sometimes months elapse before they are discovered. it is needless to point out the expense and inconvenience which may be entailed. we are happy to keep wills free of charge. _a letter offering tax services_ intervale national bank intervale, n. y. june , . mr. michael graham, intervale, n. y. dear sir: this bank is prepared to advise you in the preparation of your income and other tax returns. it is a service that is yours for the asking, and we hope that you will avail yourself of it. the department is open during banking hours, but if these hours are not convenient to you, special appointments can be made. very truly yours, (handwritten) _samuel drake_, president. _a letter giving the record of the bank_ intervale national bank intervale, n. y. july , . mr. donald west, intervale, n. y. dear sir: as a depositor you will be interested in the enclosed booklet which records what the officers and directors think is a notable showing for the bank during the past year. i hope that you will also find it inspiring and will pass it on to a friend who is not a depositor with us. may i thank you for your patronage during the past year, and believe me very truly yours, (handwritten) _samuel drake_, president. letters of order and acknowledgment _order where the price of articles is known_ north conway, n. h., august , . messrs. l. t. banning, broadway, new york, n. y. gentlemen: please send me, at your earliest convenience, by united states express, the following: doz. linen handkerchiefs, tape edge, regular size $ . pr. triumph garters, silk, black . white oxford tennis shirts, size - / @ $ . . pr. white lisle socks, size @ $. . _________ total $ . i am enclosing a money order for $ . . yours very truly, oscar trent. enclosure (money order) _order where the price is not known_ flint, michigan, july , . the rotunda, state street, chicago, ill. gentlemen: please send as soon as possible the following: prs. camel's hair sport stockings, wide-ribbed, size blue flannel middy blouse, red decoration, size "dix make" housedress, white piqué, size copy of "main street" i enclose a money order for thirty dollars ($ . ) and will ask you to refund any balance in my favor after deducting for invoice and express charges. very truly yours, florence kepp. encl. m. o. williamsport, pa., march , . carroll bros., chestnut st., philadelphia, pa. gentlemen: please send me the following articles by parcels post as soon as possible: doz. paper napkins, apple blossom or nasturtium design "century" cook book pair "luxury" blue felt bedroom slippers, leather sole and heel large bar imported castile soap pair elbow length white silk gloves, size - / enclosed is a money order for $ . . please refund any balance due me. yours truly, janet m. bent (mrs. elmer bent) _formal acknowledgments_ it is still a formal custom to acknowledge some kinds of orders by a printed or an engraved form. some of the older new york business houses use the engraved forms which arose in the days before typewriters and they are very effective. _general acknowledgment forms_ the general stores co. chicago, ill. april , . mr. walter crump, adams street, maple centre, ill. dear sir: we acknowledge with thanks your order no. ______ which will be entered for immediate shipment and handled under our no. ______ to which you will please refer if you have occasion to write about it. if we are unable to ship promptly we will write you fully under separate cover. very truly yours, the general stores co. _s._ the general stores co., chicago, ill. june , . mr. joseph ward, wadsworth hill, ill. dear sir: we have received your order __________ requesting attention to __________ no. __________. unless special attention is demanded, the routine schedule is on a ten-day basis, and we therefore expect to ______ your instrument on or about __________. in corresponding on this subject please refer to order no. ______. very truly yours, the general stores co. _s._ _in answer to a letter without sufficient data_ the general stores co. chicago, ill. september , . mrs. benjamin brown, carr city, ill. dear madam: we thank you for your order recently received for one shirt waist and two pairs of stockings. we were unable to proceed with the order, as the size of the waist was not given. if you would be kind enough to state what size you wish, we shall gladly make immediate shipment. very truly yours, the general stores co. _s._ _where the goods are not in hand_ l. &. l. young fifth avenue new york, n. y. november , . mrs. john evans, park avenue, new york, n. y. dear madam: we are out of size b at present in the white kid shoes you desire, but we should be pleased to order a pair for you, if you wish, which would take two weeks. if this is not satisfactory to you, perhaps you will call and select another pair. kindly let us know what you wish done in this matter. very truly yours, l. & l. young. letters of complaint and adjustment the letter of complaint is purely a matter of stating exactly what the trouble is. the letter replying to the complaint is purely an affair of settling the trouble on a mutually satisfactory basis. the marshall field attitude that "the customer is always right" is the one that it pays to assume. the customer is by no means always right, but in the long run the goodwill engendered by this course is worth far more than the inevitable losses through unfair customers. the big chicago mail order houses have been built up on the principle of returning money without question. legalistic quibbles have no place in the answer to a complaint. the customer is rightly or wrongly dissatisfied; business is built only on satisfied customers. therefore the question is not to prove who is right but to satisfy the customer. this doctrine has its limitations, but it is safer to err in the way of doing too much than in doing too little. _claims for damaged goods_ this letter is complete in that it states what the damage is. commonwealth avenue, boston, mass., february , . messrs. wells & sons, summer street, boston, mass. gentlemen: the furniture that i bought on february rd came to-day in good condition with the exception of one piece, the green enamel tea-wagon. that has a crack in the glass tray and the lower shelf is scratched. will you kindly call for it and, if you have one like it in stock, send it to me to replace the damaged one? very truly yours, edna joyce link. (mrs. george link) main street, saltview, n. y., may , . acme dishwasher co., syracuse, n. y. gentlemen: i regret to inform you that the acme dishwasher which i purchased from your local dealer, i. jacobs, on december , , has failed to live up to your one-year guarantee. in fact, the dishwasher is now in such bad condition that i have not used it for three weeks. i must therefore request that in accordance with the terms of your guarantee you refund the purchase price of ninety dollars ($ ). very truly yours, eleanor scott. (mrs. lawrence scott) _complaint of poor service_ webster corners, mo., april , . messrs. peter swann co., kansas city, mo. gentlemen: attention mr. albert brann. on tuesday last i bought at your store two boys' wash suits. this is monday and the goods have not yet been delivered. the delay has caused me great inconvenience. if this were the first time that you had been careless in sending out orders i should feel less impatient, but three times within the last four weeks i have been similarly annoyed. on march rd i sent back my bill for correction, goods returned not having been credited to my account. on march th the bill was again sent in its original form with a "please remit." i again wrote, making explanation, but to date have received no reply. if i must be constantly annoyed in this manner, i shall have to close my account. very truly yours, helena young tremp. (mrs. kenneth tremp) _replies to letters of complaint_ wells & sons summer street boston, mass. august , . mrs. samuel sloane, chelsea, mass. dear madam: we have your letter of august th in regard to the damaged perambulator. we are very sorry indeed that it was damaged, evidently through improper crating, so that there does not seem to be any redress against the railway. we shall be glad to make a reasonable allowance to cover the cost of repairs, or if you do not think the perambulator can be repaired, you may return it to us at our expense and we will give your account credit for it. we will send you a new one in exchange if you desire. very truly yours, wells & sons. wells & sons summer street boston, mass. may , . mrs. julia furniss, oak street, somerville, mass. dear madam: we have received your note of may th in regard to the bathroom scales on your bill of may st. we do not send these scales already assembled as there is considerable danger of breakage, but we shall send a man out to you on wednesday the twelfth to set them up for you. the missing height bar will be sent to you. very truly yours, wells & sons. the sterling silver co. fifth ave. new york december , . mrs. daniel everett, washington square, new york. dear madam: we regret that it will be impossible to have your tea spoons marked as we promised. marking orders were placed in such quantities before yours was received that the work cannot be executed before december th. we are, therefore, holding the set for your further instructions and hope that this will not cause any disappointment. very truly yours, the sterling silver co. rex typewriter co. so. michigan ave. chicago, ill. november , . mr. john harris, wayside, ill. dear sir: we are in receipt of the damaged no. typewriter which you returned, and have forwarded a new typewriter which was charged to your account. please mail us a freight bill properly noted, showing that the typewriter which you returned was received in a damaged condition, so that the cost of repairs can be collected from the transportation company and the proper credit placed to your account. very truly yours, rex typewriter co. wells & sons summer street boston, mass. september , . mr. louis wright, quincy, mass. dear sir: our warehouse headquarters have just informed us in reply to our telegram, that your order no. of september th was shipped on september th by express direct. we regret the delay, and hope the goods have already reached you. very truly yours, wells & sons. wells & sons summer street boston, mass. june , . mrs. ralph curtis, commonwealth ave., boston, mass. dear madam: we are sorry to learn from your letter of june th that you found two buttons missing from your suit. we have no more buttons like the one you enclosed and cannot get any, as the suit is an import. but if you will let us know the number of buttons in the entire set, we will send you a complete set of buttons as nearly like the sample as possible. i hope this will be a satisfactory solution. very truly yours, wells & sons. _a routine letter of adjustment_ hall brothers fourth street dayton, o. january , . mr. philip drew, milk street, boston, mass. dear sir: we have received your letter of ______ and regret to learn that ______. we will carefully investigate the matter at once and within a day or two will write you fully. very truly yours, hall brothers. wells & sons summer street boston, mass january , . mr. george larabee, sunnyside, vt. dear sir: in compliance with your request of december th we shall mail our check to-morrow for $ . for the humidor which you returned. we regret very much the delay in this matter. our only excuse for it is the holiday rush in our delivery department which prevented the delivery of the humidor in time for christmas. we hope you will overlook the delay and give as another opportunity to serve you. very truly yours, wells & sons. credit and collection letters business is done largely on credit, but comparatively few men in business seem to understand that in the letters concerning accounts lies a large opportunity for business building. the old-style credit man thinks that it is all important to avoid credit losses; he opens an account suspiciously and he chases delinquent accounts in the fashion that a dog goes after a cat. business is not an affair of simply not losing money: it is an affair of making money. many a credit grantor with a perfect record with respect to losses may be a business killer; he may think that his sole function is to prevent losses. his real function is to promote business. the best credit men in the country are rarely those with the smallest percentage of losses, although it does happen that the man who regards every customer as an asset to be conserved in the end has very few losses. therefore, in credit granting, in credit refusing, and in collection, the form letter is not to be used without considerable discrimination. it is inadvisable to strike a personal note, and many firms have found it advantageous to get quite away from the letter in the first reminders of overdue accounts. they use printed cards so that the recipient will know that the request is formal and routine. another point to avoid is disingenuousness, such as "accounts are opened for the convenience of customers." that is an untrue statement. they are opened as a part of a method of doing business and that fact ought clearly to be recognized. it does not help for good feeling to take the "favoring" attitude. every customer is an asset; every prospective customer is a potential asset. they form part of the good-will of the concern. tactless credit handling is the most effective way known to dissipate good-will. _to open a charge account_ fourth avenue, new york, may , . hoyt & jennings, east forty eighth street, new york. gentlemen: i desire to open a credit account with your company. will you let me know what information you desire? very truly yours, harold grant. or, according to the circumstances any of the following may be used: i desire to open a line of credit _________________________ i desire to open an account _______________________________ i desire to maintain an open account ______________________ i desire to maintain a charge account _____________________ _replies to application for credit_ hoyt & jennings east th st. new york may , . mr. harold grant, dey street, new york. dear sir: may we thank you for your letter of may rd in which you expressed a desire to have an account with us? we enclose a copy of our usual form and trust that we shall have the privilege of serving you. yours very truly, (handwritten) _f. burdick_, credit manager, hoyt & jennings. hoyt & jennings east th street new york may , . mr. harold grant, dey street, new york. dear sir: we are glad to notify you that, in accordance with your request, a charge account has been opened in your name. at the beginning of our new business relations, we wish to assure you that we shall try to give satisfaction, both with our goods and with our service. whenever you purchase an article, it is simply necessary that you inform the sales person waiting on you that you have a charge account--and then give your name and address. as is customary in our business, a statement of purchases made during the preceding month will be rendered and will be due on the first of each month. we are awaiting with pleasant anticipation the pleasure of serving you. very truly yours, (handwritten) _f. burdick_, credit manager, hoyt & jennings. _refusing credit_ (this is one of the most difficult of all letters to write and one in which extreme care should be used for it may happen that the references have not replied accurately or that there may be somewhere an error. many people entitled to credit have never asked for it and therefore have trouble in giving references. a brusque refusal will certainly destroy a potential customer and is always to be avoided. the best plan is to leave the matter open. then, if the applicant for credit has really a standing, he will eventually prove it.) hoyt & jennings east th street new york mr. harold grant, dey street, new york. dear sir: may we thank you for your letter of may th and for the names of those whom you were kind enough to give as references? the information that we have received from them is unfortunately not quite complete enough for the purposes of our formal records. would you care to furnish us with further references in order that the account may be properly opened? or perhaps you would rather call in person. very truly yours, (handwritten) _f. burdick_, credit manager, hoyt & jennings. _where an order has been sent in by one who has not opened an account_ gregory supply co. main street baltimore, md. july , . j. k. cramer & brothers, new sussex, md. gentlemen: we write to thank you for your order of july th, amounting to $ and we are anxious to make shipment quickly. our records do not show that we have previously been receiving your orders and hence unfortunately we have not the formal information desired by our credit department so that we can open the account that we should like to have in your name. for we trust that this will be only the first of many purchases. will you favor us by filling out the form enclosed and mailing it back as soon as convenient? the information, of course, will be held strictly confidential. we are preparing the order for shipment and it will be ready to go out. yours truly, (handwritten) _b. allen_, credit manager gregory supply co. letters to references given by the applicant _to a bank_ (a bank will not give specific information) gregory supply co. main street baltimore, md. july , . haines national bank, baltimore, md. gentlemen: we have received a request from mr. cramer of new sussex, md., who informs us that he maintains an account with you for the extension of credit. he has given you as a reference. will you kindly advise us, in confidence and with whatever particularity you find convenient, what you consider his credit rating? any other information that you may desire to give will be appreciated. we trust that we may have the opportunity to reciprocate your courtesy. very truly yours, (handwritten) _b. allen_, credit manager, gregory supply co. _to a commercial house_ gregory supply co. main street baltimore, md. july , . bunce & co., vine ave., baltimore, md. gentlemen: we shall be much obliged to you if you will kindly inform us concerning your credit experience with mr. j. k. cramer of new sussex, md., who desires to open an account with us and who has referred us to you. we shall be happy at any time to reciprocate the courtesy. yours truly, (handwritten) _b. allen_, credit manager gregory supply co. _another letter of the same description in a printed form_ (name and address to be typewritten in) gregory supply co. main street baltimore, md. (date to be typewritten in) gentlemen: j. k. cramer, of new sussex, md., desires to open an account with our store and has given your name as a reference. your courtesy in answering the questions given below will be appreciated. we shall be glad to reciprocate it at any time. yours truly, gregory supply co. (please fill out and return as soon as convenient.) . has he an account with you now? ________________________ . how long has he had the account? _______________________ . how does he pay? prompt ______ medium ______ slow ______ . have you ever had difficulty in collecting? ____________ . what limit have you placed on the account? _____________ . special information. ___________________________________ _in reply to the above_ (a) bunce & company state st. baltimore, md. july , . gregory supply co., baltimore, md. gentlemen: in reply to your letter of october th in which you inquire concerning the responsibility of j. k. cramer of new sussex, md., we are glad to help you with the following information. mr. cramer has had a charge account with our store during the last five years. our records show that he has always met our bills in a satisfactory manner. his account is noted for a monthly limit of $ , but he has never reached it. our own experience is that mr. cramer is a desirable customer. yours very truly, bunce & company. (b) walsh machine co. elm street baltimore, md. july , . gregory supply co., baltimore, md. gentlemen: concerning mr. j. k. c., about whom you inquired in your letter of october th, our records show that our experience with this account has not been satisfactory. we find that during the last five years in which he has had an account with us he has caused us considerable trouble with regard to his payments. at the present moment he owes us $ for purchases made approximately six months ago, to recover which amount we have instructed our attorneys to institute legal proceedings. we hope that this information will be of assistance to you. yours very truly, walsh machine co. plum brothers broad street philadelphia, pa. july , . gregory supply co., main street, baltimore, md. gentlemen: we are glad to give you the information you wish concerning our experiences with the a. b. c. company, about whom you inquire in your letter of april th. the company first came to us on november , . on that date they purchased from us lawn mowers at a total cost of $ . they took advantage of the discount by paying the bill on november th. in january, , they gave us an order for at a total cost of $ . this bill they paid in february. their latest purchase from us was in july, . at this time their order amounted to lawn mowers. they paid the bill in october after we had sent them several requests for remittance. we trust this information will be of some value to you in determining just what amount of credit you may feel justified in extending to them. very truly yours, (handwritten) _h. plum_, plum brothers. _offering credit_ dwight & davis park street albany, n. y. october , . mrs. herbert reid, fourth avenue, albany, n. y. dear madam: whenever you wish to come in and purchase without cash, it will be a great pleasure to us to open a charge account with you. we have made a record here in the store so that whenever you call it will have been arranged for you to purchase whatever you want. we think you will approve of the character of service and the quality of merchandise. we wish to win not only your patronage, but your friendship for our store. every up-to-date woman realizes the many benefits, the conveniences, and even prestige she enjoys through having a charge account at a dependable store. a store, in turn, is judged by its charge accounts--it is rated by the women who have accounts there. and so, because of your standing in the community, if you avail yourself of our invitation to do your buying here, you are reflecting credit both on yourself and on us. we hope you will decide to let us serve you--all our facilities are completely at your service. we should like you to feel that our store is especially adapted to your needs. yours very truly, (handwritten) _c. dale_, credit manager, dwight & davis. summit box company kansas city, mo. november , . george harrow & co., fifth street, kansas city, mo. gentlemen: we want to thank you for your order of november th, with your check enclosed in full payment. we appreciate the business you have been giving us. the thought has frequently occurred to us that you may desire the advantages of an open account with us. we believe that such an arrangement will make transactions more convenient. we therefore have the pleasure of notifying you that we have noted your account for our regular credit terms of % net , up to a limit of $ . we hope that both your business and our acquaintance with you will develop to such an extent that it will be a pleasure to extend to you from time to time larger credit accommodations to take care of your increasing needs. the business relations between us have been so agreeable that we feel they will continue so. please remember that if we can ever be of assistance to you in helping you in your business we only ask that you call upon us. very truly yours, (handwritten) _g. harris_ credit manager summit box company. collection letters may very easily be overdone. the old idea was that any expense or any threat was justified if it got the money, but among the more advanced collection departments common sense has crept in, and it has been ascertained by cost-finding methods that it is not worth while to pursue a small account beyond a certain point and that when that point is reached it is economy to drop the matter. how far it is wise to go in attempting to collect an account is an affair of costs, unless one has a penchant for throwing good money after bad. the point to bear in mind in writing a collection letter is that it is a collection letter--that it is an effort to get money which is owed. it would not seem necessary to emphasize so entirely self-evident a point were it not unfortunately sometimes overlooked and the collection letter made an academic exercise. there is no excuse for a long series of collection letters--say eight or ten of them. after a man has received three or four letters you can take it for granted that he is beyond being moved by words. you must then have recourse to some other mode of reaching him. drawing on a debtor is also of small use; the kind of a man who will honor a collection draft would pay his bill anyhow. if a debtor has assets and there is no dispute concerning the account, he will usually pay. he may pay because you threaten him, but most people with the ability to owe money are quite impervious to threats, and although a threatening letter may seem to bring results, it can never be the best letter because on the other side of the ledger must be recorded the loss of the customer. the average writer of a collection letter usually gets to threatening something or other and quite often exposes himself to the danger of counter legal action. (see chapter xi on the law of letters.) the most successful collection men do not threaten. the best of them actually promote good-will through their handling of the accounts. the bully-ragging, long-winded collection letter has no place in self-respecting business. the so-called statements of collection by which papers drawn up to resemble writs are sent through the mails, or served, not only have no place in business but many of them are actually illegal. the letters which are appended have been chosen both for their effectiveness and their courtesy. they represent the best practice. it is, by the way, not often wise for the creditor to set out his own need for money as a reason why the debtor should pay the account. it is true that the sympathy of the debtor may be aroused, but the tale of misery may lead him to extend comfort rather than aid. however, several such letters have been included, not because they are good but because sometimes they may be used. _collection letters_ most firms have adopted a series of collection letters beginning with the routine card reminder of an overdue account and following with gradually increasingly personal second, third, fourth, and so on, letters. _first letter--printed card_ the enclosed statement of account is sent to you as we believe you have overlooked its payment. stone brothers _second letter_ stone brothers new york march , . miss grace duncan, prospect park west, brooklyn, n. y. dear madam: there appears an amount of $ . open in your name for the months of october to january which, according to our terms of sale, is now overdue, and if no adjustment is necessary, we trust you will kindly favor us with a check in settlement. very truly yours, stone brothers, new york, (handwritten) _james miller_, collection manager. [illustration: specimens of business letterheads used by english firms] _third letter_ stone brothers new york april , . miss grace duncan, prospect park west, brooklyn, n. y. dear madam: our letters of february th and march th have brought no reply from you. since they have not been returned by the post office we must presume that you received them. you naturally wish to keep your credit clear. we wish to have it clear. it is really a mutual affair. will you not send a check and keep the account on a pleasant basis? very truly yours, stone brothers, (handwritten) _james miller_, collection manager. the amount is $ . . _fourth letter_ stone brothers new york april , . miss grace duncan, prospect park west, brooklyn, new york. dear madam: we have no desire to resort to the law to collect the $ . due us, but unless your remittance is in our hands by may st, we shall take definite steps for the legal collection of your account. may we hear from you at once? very truly yours, stone brothers, (handwritten) _james miller_, collection manager. the following are collection letters of varying degrees of personal tone. in these seven letters are given the body of the letter, with the salutation and the complimentary close. headings and signatures have been omitted. dear sir: a statement is enclosed of your account, which is now past due. a remittance will be appreciated. yours truly, dear madam: we desire to call your attention again to your past-due account for the month of january for $ . , a statement of which was mailed to you several weeks ago. we shall appreciate receiving your check in payment of this account by return mail. very truly yours, gentlemen: two weeks ago we mailed you a statement of account due at that time, and as we have heard nothing from you we thought it possible that our letter may have miscarried. we are sending you a duplicate of the former statement, which we hope may reach you safely and have your attention. very truly yours, _to follow the preceding letter_ gentlemen: we call your attention to the enclosed statement of account which is now past due. we have sent you two statements previous to this, to which you seem to have given no attention. it may be possible that you have overlooked the matter, but we hope this will be a sufficient reminder and that you will oblige us with a remittance without further delay. very truly yours, dear sir: we are enclosing a statement of your account and we request as a special favor that you send us a remittance previous to the th of this month if possible. the amount is small, but not the less important. we have unusually heavy obligations maturing on the first of next month and you will understand that for the proper conduct of business the flow of credit should not be dammed up. in looking over your account for the last few months, it occurs to us that we are not getting a great deal of your business. if this is due to any failure or negligence on our part, perhaps you will undertake to show us where we are lacking because we surely want all of your business that we can get. very truly yours, _follow-up letters_ dear sir: we wrote you on th february and enclosed a statement of your account. we hoped at the time that you would send us a check by return mail. if our account does not agree with your books, kindly let us know at once so that we may promptly adjust the differences. we hope that you can accommodate us as requested in our previous letter and that we will hear from you by the th of march. we again assure you that a remittance at this particular time will be greatly appreciated. also please remember that we want your orders, too. prices on copper wire are likely to make a sharp advance within a few days. very truly yours, january , . dear sir: we are enclosing a statement showing the condition of your account at this writing, and we must ask you to be kind enough to do your utmost to forward us your check by return mail. our fiscal year closes january st and it is naturally our pride and endeavor to have as many accounts closed and in good standing as is possible for the coming year, and this can materialize only with your kind coöperation. very truly yours, letters of application _application for position as stenographer_ west th street, new york, n. y., april , . mr. b. c. kellerman, broad street, new york, n. y. dear sir: this may interest you: i can take dictation at an average rate of words a minute and i can read my notes. they are always accurate. if you will try me, you will find you do not have to repeat any dictation. i never misspell words. i am nineteen, a high school graduate, quick and accurate at figures. i have a good position now, uptown, but i should prefer to be with some large corporation downtown. i am interested in a position with room at the top. i am willing to work for $ a week until i have demonstrated my ability and then i know you will think me worth more. a letter or a telephone message will bring me in any morning you say to take your morning's dictation, write your letters, and leave the verdict to you. will you let me try? very truly yours, edith hoyt. telephone riverside _application for position as secretary_ east th street, chicago, ill., december , . mr. ralph hodge, boone & co., so. michigan ave., chicago, ill. dear sir: this is in answer to your advertisement for a secretary. i have had the experience and training which would, i think enable me satisfactorily to fill such a position. i recognize, of course, that whatever my experience and training have been they would be worse than useless unless they could be modified to suit your exact requirements. (here set out the experience.) the lowest salary i have ever received was twelve dollars a week, when i began work. the highest salary i have received was thirty dollars a week, but i think that it would be better to leave the salary matter open until it might be discovered whether i am worth anything or nothing. very truly yours, (miss) mary rogers. _answer to an advertisement from an applicant who has had no experience_ east rd street, chicago, ill. mr. ralph hodge, boone & co., so. michigan ave., chicago, ill. dear sir: this is in answer to your advertisement for a secretary, in which you ask that the experience of the applicant be set forth. i have had no experience whatsoever as a secretary. therefore, although i might have a great deal to learn, i should have nothing to unlearn. i understand what is expected of a secretary, and i hope that i have at least the initial qualifications. i have had a fair education, having graduated from central high school and the crawford business academy, and i have done a great deal of reading. i am told that i can write a good letter. i know that i can take any kind of dictation and that i can transcribe it accurately, and i have no difficulty in writing letters from skeleton suggestions. your advertisement does not give the particular sort of business that you are engaged in, but in the course of my reading i have gathered a working knowledge of economics, finance, business practice, and geography, some of which might be useful. i am writing this letter in spite of the fact that you specified that experience was necessary, because one of my friends, who is secretary to a very well-known corporation president, told me that she began in her present place quite without experience and found herself helped rather than handicapped by the lack of it. i am twenty-two years old and i can give you any personal or social references that you might care for. i have no ideas whatsoever on salary. in fact, it would be premature even to think of anything of the kind. what i am most anxious about is to have a talk with you. very truly yours, (miss) margaret booth. _applications for position as sales manager_ huntington ave., boston, mass. mr. henry jessup, white manufacturing co., milk street, columbus, o. dear sir: mr. a. c. brown of the bronson company tells me you are in immediate need of a sales manager for the western illinois territory. western illinois offers a promising opportunity for the sale of farm implements and devices. during my experience with the johnson & jones company, i got to know the people of this section very well, and i know how to approach them. the farmers are well-to-do and ready for improvements that will better their homes, lands, and stock. there could not be a better place to start. as mr. brown will tell you, i have been with the bronson company for five years. i started as clerk in the credit office, gradually working out into the field--first as investigator, then salesman, and for the last two years as sales manager of the western virginia territory. the returns from this field have increased per cent. since i began. with the hearty coöperation of the men on the road, i have built up a system about which i should like to tell you. it would work out splendidly selling defiance harrows in western illinois. my home is in joliet and i want to make my headquarters there. i have no other reason for quitting the bronson company, who are very fair as far as salary and advancement are considered. my telephone number is cherry . a wire or letter will bring me to columbus to talk with you. very truly yours, gerald barbour. blain ave., boston, mass., may , . mr. john force, beacon street, boston, mass. dear sir: this letter may be of some concern to you. i am not a man out of a job, but have what most men would consider one that is first-class. but i want to change, and if you can give me a little of your time, i will tell you why and how that fact may interest you. in a word, i have outgrown my present position. i want to get in touch with a business that is wide-awake and progressive; one that will permit me to work out, unhampered, my ideas on office organization and management--ideas that are well-founded, conservative, and efficient. my present position does not give play to initiative. if you at this time happen to be looking for a man really to manage your office, audit accounts, or take charge of credits, my qualifications and business record will show you that i am able to act in any or all of these capacities. i have written with confidence because i am sure of myself, and if i undertake to direct your work, you may be assured that it has a big chance of being successful. if you so desire, i shall be glad to submit references in a personal interview. very truly yours, clive drew. telephone winthrop -w _answers to letters of application_ harrison national bank trenton, n. j. february , . mr. james russell, state street, trenton, n. j. dear sir: i wish to acknowledge your letter of application of december th. at present we have no vacancies of the type you desire. i am, however, placing your application on file. very truly yours, samuel caldwell. harrison national bank trenton, n. j. february , . mr. james russell, state street, trenton, n. j. dear sir: i wish to acknowledge your letter of application of december th. at present we have no vacancies of the type that you desire. however, i should be very glad to have a talk with you on december th at my office at four o'clock. very truly yours, samuel caldwell. letters of reference _letter asking for reference_ walnut street, philadelphia, pa., may , . mr. william moyer, triumph hosiery co., broad street, philadelphia, pa. my dear mr. moyer: i am looking for a position as cashier with the bright weaving company. my duties there would be similar in every way to my work in your office, and a recommendation from you would help greatly. mr. sawyer, the first vice-president of the bright weaving company, knows you personally, hence an opinion from you would have particular effect. your kindness would be deeply appreciated, as have been all your kindnesses in the past. yours very sincerely, philip rockwell. a useful practice adopted by some firms is the requirement of a photograph from every applicant for a position. haddon iron works philadelphia, pa. _paste photograph of applicant here_ april , . b. f. harlow & co., paterson, n. j. dear sirs: philip smith (photo attached) has applied to us for a position as steamfitter. his application states that he has been in your employ for three years and that he is leaving to take a position in this city. as all applicants are required by us to furnish references as to character and ability, we shall appreciate your giving us the following information. very truly yours, (handwritten) _samuel sloane_, employment manager. is his statement correct? are his character and habits good? had he the confidence of his employers? can he fill the position for which he has applied? remarks: signed dated _some general letters of recommendation_ march , . to whom it may concern: i have known the bearer, john hope, for four years. he is of fine family and has been one of our most highly regarded young men. i would heartily recommend him. richard brown. april , . gentlemen: the bearer, george frothingham, is a young man of my acquaintance whom i know and whose family i have known for some time. they are splendid people. this boy is ambitious and thoroughly reliable. i hope you can find a place for him. very truly yours, gerald law. june , . to whom it may concern: this is to certify that the bearer, ernest hill, is an acquaintance of mine, a man whom i know to be thoroughly trustworthy. harold smith. july , . dear sir: this is to certify that joseph rance has been in my employ for eighteen months. he is a most willing and able worker, honest, steady, and faithful. i regret that i was obliged to let him go from my employ. i feel very safe in highly recommending him to you. very truly yours, george bunce. _recommendation for a special position_ harcourt manufacturing co. boylston street boston, mass. october , . mr. gordon edwards, tremont street, boston, mass. dear mr. edwards: at luncheon last wednesday you mentioned that you were in need of another advertising writer. if the position is still open, i should like to recommend mr. bruce walker. when i first met mr. walker he was with bellamy, sears & co., boston, and was doing most of their newspaper advertising. his work was so good that i offered him a position as advertising writer with us. he accepted, with the approval of bellamy sears & co., and has been with me for the last three years. he has written for us some of the best drawing copy that we ever used, and his work has been satisfactory in every way. he is original and modern in his advertising ideas, and knows how to express them forcefully but without exaggeration. his english is perfect. i shall greatly regret losing mr. walker, but i cannot advance him above his present position, and i agree with him that he is equal to a bigger position than he has here. i hope you can give him the opportunity that he seeks. if you will see him personally, you will oblige both him and me. very sincerely yours, b. a. yeomans. _thanks for recommendation_ kelley ave., cleveland, o., october , . mr. john saunders, jones publishing co., cleveland, o. my dear mr. saunders: your influence and kindly interest have secured for me the position with tully & clark. i want to thank you for the excellent recommendation which you gave me and to assure you that i shall give my best attention to my new work. very truly yours, john dillon. letters of introduction the method of delivering letters of introduction is fully described under social letters of introduction. _answer to a request for a letter of introduction_ grand ave., detroit, mich., august , . mr. albert hall, main street, detroit, mich. my dear mr. hall: accompanying this note you find letters of introduction which i hope will be what you want. i am glad to give you these letters and should you need any further assistance of this kind, please consider me at your disposal. yours truly, clement wilks. _general letters of introduction_ grand ave., detroit, mich., august , . this will introduce the bearer, mr. albert hall, whom i personally know as being a gentleman in conduct and reputation. any courtesy shown to mr. hall i shall consider a favor to myself, and i ask for him all possible attention and service. clement wilks. june , . to whom it may concern: the bearer, david clark, has been an acquaintance of mine for five years. he is a young man of good habits. i would recommend him for any position within his ability. ellery saunders. _special introduction_ (the inside address, heading, and signature are to be supplied) dear sir: mr. walter green, whom this will introduce to you, is a member of our credit department. he is visiting new york on a personal matter, but he has offered to make a personal investigation of the crump case and i have advised him to see you, as the man who knows most about that affair. if you can find the time to give him a brief interview, you will do him a favor, and i also shall appreciate it. yours very truly, __________________ vice-president. _introducing a stenographer in order to secure a position for her_ wall street, new york, n. y., february , . mr. william everett, madison avenue, new york, n. y. my dear mr. everett: the bearer of this letter, miss mildred bryan, my stenographer, is available for a position, owing to the fact that i am moving my office to cincinnati. she is an unusually competent young woman--quick, accurate, intelligent, and familiar with the routine of a law office. if you need a stenographer, you cannot do better than engage miss bryan, and i am taking the liberty of giving her this letter for you. very truly yours, howard s. briggs. letters of inquiry _requests for information_ bradford mills, pa., august , . dr. louis elliott, walnut street, philadelphia, pa. my dear dr. elliott: i am writing a paper on vitamines to be read before the mothers' club, an organization of bradford mills mothers. i have drawn most of my material from your article in the _medical magazine_, acknowledging, of course, the source of my information. there are several points, however, on which i am not clear. as it is of great importance that this subject be presented to the mothers correctly, i am addressing you personally to get the facts. . am i to understand that no other foods than those you mention contain these vitamines? . are all the classes of vitamines necessary to life and will a child fed on foods containing all the known vitamines be better conditioned than one fed on only one kind? i shall greatly appreciate your answering my questions. the members of the club have shown surprising interest in this matter of food. yours sincerely, mabel manners. east forty-sixth street, new york, n. y., june , . the prentiss candy co., long island city, n. y. gentlemen: the _better food magazine_, to which i am a contributor, has asked me to make an investigation of the manufacture of the most widely advertised foods, with a view to writing an article on foods for the magazine. i should like if possible to talk with someone and to make a short visit to the factory. if you can arrange an appointment for me during the next week, will you let me know? i shall greatly appreciate it. very truly yours, (miss) vera henderson. _answers to letters of inquiry_ the prentiss candy co. long island city, n. y. june , . miss vera henderson, east forty-sixth street, new york, n. y. dear madam: we have your letter of th june and we shall be glad to give you any assistance in our power. if you will call at the factory office next week on tuesday the nd or wednesday the rd and present the enclosed card to mr. jones, you will get all the information you desire. very truly yours, (handwritten) _b. j. clark_, the prentiss candy co. pine grove lodge, stanton, n. y. absolutely fireproof open all the year the finest resort hotel in the country may , . mr. charles keith, madison ave., new york, n. y. dear sir: we have your letter of may th and in answer we are enclosing some of our descriptive literature. we can offer you absolute comfort together with an almost matchless environment in the points of beauty and of suitability for all sports. our rates are on the american plan. we have the finest american plan kitchen and table anywhere. we enclose a menu. our single rooms with private bath are $ , $ , and $ per week up for one person. rooms without bath, but with hot and cold running water and adjacent to bath are $ per week. double rooms with private bath and furnished with two single beds are $ , $ , and $ per week up for two persons. rooms for two without bath are $ per week. these rates hold until september st. the difference in rates is caused by the size and location of rooms, but every room is furnished with taste and care. the decorations have been carefully thought out. there are no undesirable rooms at the lodge and every room is an outside room. those on the east overlook the -acre golf course with a magnificent view of the mountains, and those on the west front the wooded slopes of sunset mountain. stanton affords the greatest combination of scenery, health-giving climate, and facilities for enjoyment. add to this the comforts and luxuries of a modern hotel such as pine grove lodge and the result is perfect. we feel quite sure you will find a visit here restful or lively--as you will. one of the attractions of the place is its facilities for occupying oneself in one's own way. we shall be glad to make reservation for you at any time or to answer any further inquiries. yours very truly, pine grove lodge. if you should receive an inquiry for advice, opinion, or information, which you do not care, for some reason, to give, you should at least reply stating that you cannot comply with the request, in as courteous a manner as possible. chapter viii the use of form paragraphs a considerable part of the day's run of correspondence in a business office has to do with not more than half-a-dozen subjects. quotations will be asked for. tenders will be made. complaints will be made and received. adjustments of various kinds will be done, and so on, through a list that varies with the particular business of the office. it is advisable to keep the tone of correspondence on a fairly uniform level. therefore if each letter has to be individually dictated, only a man mentally equipped to write letters can do the dictating. the time of such a man is expensive and often might better be devoted to other matters. hence the invention of what is known as a form paragraph, which is a standardized paragraph that can be used with slight variations as a section of a great many letters. the result is that most routine mail does not have to be dictated. a letter is merely read, the essential facts dictated or noted on the letter itself, and certain symbols added which tell the stenographer the form paragraphs that are to be used. the letter is then almost mechanically produced. some companies have gone so extensively into the writing of form paragraphs that they have sections covering practically every subject that can arise. this possibly carrying the idea too far. convenience may become inconvenience, and there is of course always the danger of getting in a slightly unsuitable paragraph which will reveal to the reader that the letter has not been personally dictated. however, a certain number of form paragraphs considerably reduces the cost of letter writing and also conduces to the raising of the standards, for the mere reading of well-phrased form letters will often induce in an otherwise poor correspondent a certain regard for clear expression. the proper form paragraphs that any concern may profitably use are a matter of specific investigation. the way to get at the list of useful forms is to take all of the letters received and all of the letters written during, say, one or two months and then classify them. a number of letters will have to do with purely individual cases. these letters should be discarded. they are letters which would have to be personally dictated in any event and there is no use wasting time composing forms for them. the remaining letters will fall into divisions, and through these divisions it will become apparent what points in the correspondence arise so frequently and in so nearly the same form as to be capable of being expressed in form paragraphs. there will probably be a number of subjects which can be covered fully by two or three form letters, but a nicer adjustment will usually be had by thinking of form paragraphs rather than of form letters, for skillfully drawn and skillfully used form paragraphs will so closely simulate the personal letter as to leave no doubt in the mind of the reader that considerable trouble has been taken to put the matter before him courteously and exactly. chapter ix children's letters children's letters may be written on ordinary stationery, but it adds a good deal of interest to their letter writing if they may use some of the several pretty, special styles to be had at any good stationer's. the following examples of children's letters include: letter of invitation from a child to a child. letter of invitation from a parent to a child. letter from a parent to a parent inviting a child. letter of thanks to an aunt for a gift. letter to a sick playmate. letter to a teacher. letter to a grandmother on her birthday. _invitation to a birthday party_ april , . dear frank: i am going to have a birthday party next friday afternoon, from three-thirty until six o'clock. i hope you will come and help us to have a good time. sincerely yours, harriet evans. park avenue _accepting_ manhattan avenue, april , . dear harriet: it is so kind of you to ask me to your birthday party next friday afternoon. i shall be very glad to come. sincerely yours, frank dawson. _regretting_ manhattan avenue, april , . dear harriet: i am very sorry that i cannot go to your birthday party on next friday. my mother is taking me to visit my cousin, so i shall be away. thank you for asking me. i hope you will all have a great deal of fun. sincerely yours, frank dawson. _invitation from a parent to a child_ dear ethel: the twins are going to have a little party on friday afternoon and they would like you to come. can you come at three-thirty? tell your mother we will arrange that you get home at six. cordially yours, katherine g. evans. _from a parent to another parent_ dear mrs. heywood: dorothy will have a birthday on tuesday, the thirteenth of june. we are planning, if the weather is fine, to have a lawn party. otherwise we shall have it in the house. she hopes that you will let madeline come and i am sure they will all have a good time. if you send madeline at four i will see that she returns home at six. cordially yours, bernice lawson grant. _to a friend_ bellville, lancaster county, pa., june , . dear bob: will you visit us on the farm during your summer vacation? father has bought me a boat and we can go fishing and swimming. mabel has a pony and i know she will let us ride him. please let me know if you may come and if you may stay two weeks. sincerely yours, roger palmer. _thanks for a gift:_ west tenth street. december , . dear aunt louise: you were wonderful to think of sending me those fine skates for my birthday. they are just the kind i wanted and i wish to thank you. i shall take good care of them. your affectionate nephew, john orr. _to a sick playmate_ elmwood avenue, june , . dear dorothy: i am so sorry you are ill, but your mother says you are getting better. if you like, i shall let you have my book with the poem called "the land of counterpane." it is about a sick little boy who is playing with his toy soldiers and people and villages. in the picture they seem to be making him forget he is sick. all the boys and girls hope you will soon be out to play again. sincerely yours, betty foster. _to a teacher_ park avenue, new york, n. y., february , . dear miss sewell: i want to thank you for your kindness in helping me with my studies, especially arithmetic. without your help i should not have been able to pass my examinations. mother asks that you will come some day next week to take tea with us. sincerely yours, susan evans. _to a grandparent_ dear grandmother: i wish you a very happy birthday and i hope you will like the present i sent you. mother helped me to make it. i send you my best love. your loving grandchild, evelyn. here is a charming letter[ ] that helen keller when she was ten years of age wrote to john greenleaf whittier on the occasion of his birthday: south boston, dec. , . dear kind poet, this is your birthday; that was the first thought which came into my mind when i awoke this morning; and it made me glad to think i could write you a letter and tell you how much your little friends love their sweet poet and his birthday. this evening they are going to entertain their friends with readings from your poems and music. i hope the swift winged messengers of love will be here to carry some of the sweet melody to you, in your little study by the merrimac. at first i was very sorry when i found that the sun had hidden his shining face behind dull clouds, but afterwards i thought why he did it, and then i was happy. the sun knows that you like to see the world covered with beautiful white snow and so he kept back all his brightness, and let the little crystals form in the sky. when they are ready, they will softly fall and tenderly cover every object. then the sun will appear in all his radiance and fill the world with light. if i were with you to-day i would give you eighty-three kisses, one for each year you have lived. eighty-three years seems very long to me. does it seem long to you? i wonder how many years there will be in eternity. i am afraid i cannot think about so much time. i received the letter which you wrote to me last summer, and i thank you for it. i am staying in boston now at the institution for the blind, but i have not commenced my studies yet, because my dearest friend, mr. anagnos, wants me to rest and play a great deal. teacher is well and sends her kind remembrance to you. the happy christmas time is almost here! i can hardly wait for the fun to begin! i hope your christmas day will be a very happy one and that the new year will be full of brightness and joy for you and every one. from your little friend helen a. keller. [ ] this and the letter following are from "the story of my life," by helen keller. copyright, , , by helen keller. published in book form by doubleday, page & co. and the distinguished poet's reply: my dear young friend: i was very glad to have such a pleasant letter on my birthday. i had two or three hundred others and thine was one of the most welcome of all. i must tell thee about how the day passed at oak knoll. of course the sun did not shine, but we had great open wood fires in the rooms, which were all very sweet with roses and other flowers, which were sent to me from distant friends; and fruits of all kinds from california and other places. some relatives and dear old friends were with me through the day. i do not wonder thee thinks eighty-three years a long time, but to me it seems but a very little while since i was a boy no older than thee, playing on the old farm at haverhill. i thank thee for all thy good wishes, and wish thee as many. i am glad thee is at the institution; it is an excellent place. give my best regards to miss sullivan, and with a great deal of love i am thy old friend, john g. whittier. chapter x telegrams perhaps the most important thing to guard against in the writing of telegrams is a choice of words which, when run together, may be read two ways. as there should be no punctuation (and telegraph companies do not hold themselves responsible for punctuation) the sentences must be perfectly clear. there are instances where the use of punctuation has caused trouble. in cases where punctuation is absolutely necessary, as for instance when more than one subject must be covered in the same message, the word "stop" is employed to divide the sentences, as: will arrive eight-thirty wednesday stop telephone gaines am coming stop will be at hotel pennsylvania therefore write sentences so that when they are run together there is only one interpretation. use no salutation or complimentary closing. leave out all words that are not necessary to the meaning. omit first-person pronouns where they are sure to be understood. do not divide words in a telegram. compound words are accepted as one word. numbers should be spelled out, principally because it is more likely to insure correct transmission, and secondly because it costs less. for example, in the ordinal th the suffix _th_ is counted as another word. the minimum charge for telegrams is the cost of ten words, not counting the name, address, and signature. nothing is saved by cutting the message to less than ten words. there is a certain fixed rate of charge for every word over ten. in counting the words, count as one word the following: i--every word in the name of an individual or a concern as: clive and meyer co. (four words) deforest and washburn co. (four words also, as deforest is counted as one word). ii--every dictionary word. in the case of cablegrams, words of over fifteen letters are counted as two words. iii--every separate letter as the "m" in "george m. sykes" (three words). iv--every figure in a number as (three words). v--names of states, territories, counties, cities, and villages. vi--weights and measures, decimal points, punctuation marks within the sentence. to save expense in long messages codes can be used in which one word stands for several words. the western union has an established code--or private codes can be arranged. five letters are allowed as one code word. a word of six or seven letters will thus count as two words. in cablegrams the use of codes is common on account of the higher rate for cablegrams. since the name, address, date, and signature are all counted, code words are frequently used for the name and address. code language is allowed only in the first class of cable messages. occasional telegrams a graceful, concise, pertinent, and well-worded "occasional" telegram is frequently not easy to write. the following forms are suggested for the composition of some of these telegrams. the longer forms can be sent most cheaply as night letters or day letters. a night letter of fifty words can be sent for the cost of a ten-word full-rate telegram, i.e., from cents to $ . , depending on the distance. a day letter of fifty words can be sent for one and one half the cost of a ten-word full-rate message, i.e., from cents to $ . , depending on the distance. _new year greetings_ best wishes for the new year. may it bring to you and your family health, happiness, peace, and prosperity. may it see your hopes fulfilled and may it be rich in the successful accomplishment of your highest aims. best wishes for a happy new year. may peace and happiness be yours in the new year. may fortune smile upon you and favor you with many blessings. i (we) wish you a happy new year, a year big with success and achievement, a year rich with the affection of those who are dear to you, a year mellow with happiness and contentment. what the coming year may hold we can none of us foresee. it is my (our) earnest wish that for you it may bring forth a generous harvest of happiness and good fortune. may the coming year and all that succeed it deal lightly and kindly with you. may the coming year bring you happiness in fullest measure. we think of you with the affection born of our long friendship which the recurring year only strengthens. may the new year bring you health, happiness, and all other good things. health, happiness, and contentment, may these be yours in the new year. may health, happiness, and prosperity be yours in bountiful measure in the year to come. may the new year be a good year to you and yours--full of health and happiness. may each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the new year be a happy one for you. the happiest of new years to you and yours. may the new year find you in the enjoyment of health and happiness. _easter greetings_ our thoughts turn to you with affection and best wishes at this easter season with the hope that peace, prosperity, and plenty may attend your life to-day and through all your days to come. easter greeting from a friend who thinks of you with constant affection. this easter greeting carries to you the affection of an old friend. may this easter day find you in the enjoyment of health and happiness. best wishes for a happy easter. best wishes for a happy easter day. may your future ever be as bright as the springtime. just a message to a friend, to convey to you my wish that this easter may bring you happiness and good fortune. may easter gladness fill your heart to-day and may all good attend you. i (we) wish you joy and happiness at this eastertide. may happiness and health be yours on this easter day and in the days to come. we all join in best wishes for a happy easter day to you and your family. easter greetings to you and yours. may your easter be a bright and happy one. we all wish you and yours a happy easter. love and best wishes for a happy easter. my (our) easter greetings go to you. may the day be a joyful one for you. _thanksgiving day greetings_ best wishes for a happy thanksgiving day. good cheer and plenty, the love of your dear ones, the affection of your friends, may all these contribute to a happy thanksgiving day. may your thanksgiving day be a day of happiness and contentment. may your thanksgiving day be full of happiness and all good cheer. that i am (we are) not at home to-day to join in the festivities is a great sorrow to me (us). love to all the dear family. i never forget the joy of this day at home. love from one far away. although i (we) cannot be with you to-day i (we) have the memory of past thanksgiving days at home. god bless you all. think of me (us) as being with you in spirit. my (our) love to you all. let us never fail to be thankful that the years only increase the strength of our long friendship. it is with great thanksgiving that i (we) think of my (our) dear ones at home. my (our) one wish this thanksgiving day is that i (we) might be with you. affectionate wishes for your happiness. though i (we) cannot be with you at the thanksgiving day board, my (our) thoughts are with you to-day. around the family table think of me (us) as i (we) absent, shall think of you. my (our) love to all. i (we) can picture you all at home. how i (we) long to be with you. my (our) love to all the family. _christmas greetings_ every good wish for a merry christmas and a happy and prosperous new year. i need not tell you with what affection we are thinking of you and yours at this christmas season. god bless you all. every good wish for a merry christmas and a happy and prosperous new year. my (our) very best wishes for a merry christmas. merry christmas to you and yours. may your christmas be a very happy one. merry christmas to you and all the family. we all join in wishing you a merry christmas. all affection and good wishes for a merry christmas to you and yours. that your christmas be a very happy one is the wish of your sincere friend. may christmas bring you joy and happiness. you are constantly in my (our) thoughts which carry to you to-day all affectionate wishes for a happy christmas. a merry christmas and a happy new year. best wishes for a merry christmas and happy new year. love and a merry christmas to you all. may your christmas be a merry one and the new year full of happiness. affectionate greetings for a merry christmas and a happy new year. may this christmas find you well and happy. love and best wishes to you and yours. may christmas bring you naught but joy and banish all care and sorrow. ---- joins me in very best wishes for a merry christmas. a merry christmas to all the dear ones at home. it is my (our) dearest wish that i (we) might be with you at this season of happiness and good-will--merry christmas and happy new year. _birthday greetings_ many happy returns of the day. my (our) affectionate thoughts and every good wish go to you on this your birthday. may each succeeding year bring to you the best satisfaction which life holds. many happy returns of the day. best wishes for a happy birthday. best wishes for your birthday. may all your ways be pleasant ways and all your days be happy days. birthday greetings. i (we) wish you a long life and everything that makes a long life worth living. best wishes for your birthday. may you live long and prosper. my (our) thoughts are with you on your birthday. may all your days be happy days. i (we) wish you many happy years blessed with health, success, and friendship and filled with all the best that life can hold. we all join in best wishes for a very happy birthday and many years of health and prosperity. we all join in best wishes for a very happy birthday. may your birthday mark the dawn of a year of health, happiness, and good fortune. _wedding messages_ sincerest congratulations to the bride and groom from an old friend who wishes you both years of health, happiness, and prosperity. may the future hold only the best for you that this world can give. heartiest congratulations. i (we) wish you many years of happiness. mrs. ---- and i join in heartiest congratulations. hearty congratulations. may your years be many and happy ones. my (our) sincerest and best wishes for your happiness. we all join in hearty congratulations and best wishes. may happiness, health, and prosperity be with you through the years to come. may all good fortune attend you, may your sky ever be bright, may no clouds of sorrow or trouble shadow it, and may your path be long and filled with joy. every happiness be yours dear ---- on this your wedding day. let an old family friend send his (her) love and congratulations to the bride and groom. may all good fairies watch over you. may they keep far from you all care and sorrow and brighten your path with sunshine and happiness. to the bride and groom, love and congratulations from an old friend. may this day be the beginning of a long, happy, and prosperous life for you both. _on the birth of a child_ love to the dear mother and her little son (daughter). heartiest congratulations and love to mother and son (daughter). we rejoice with you in the happiness that has come into your lives. love to mother and son (daughter). my best wishes to the newly arrived son (daughter) and to his (her) mother. we are all (i am) delighted to hear the news. hearty congratulations. a warm welcome to the new arrival and best wishes for his (her) health and happiness. to the dear mother and her little son (daughter) love and every good wish. hearty congratulations on the arrival of the new son (daughter). _messages of condolence_ you have my heartfelt sympathy in this hour of your bereavement. i wish i might find words in which to express my sorrow at your loss which is also mine. may you have the strength to bear this great affliction. you have my (our) heartfelt sympathy. my (our) heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow. i (we) want you to know with what tender sympathy i am (we are) thinking of you in these days of your bereavement. my (our) sincere and heartfelt sympathy. i (we) have just heard of your great affliction. let me (us) send to you my (our) heartfelt sympathy. my (our) sincere sympathy. in the death of your dear father (mother--wife--sister--brother) i (we) have lost one whom it was my (our) privilege to call my (our) friend. my (our) heartfelt sympathy goes out to you in your sorrow. ---- joins me in the expression of our deepest sympathy. my (our) love and sympathy go out to you in your great sorrow. i (we) share your sorrow for i (we) have lost a dear friend. all love and sympathy to you and yours. i (we) send you my (our) heartfelt sympathy. to have enjoyed the friendship of your father (husband--brother) i (we) hold one of the greatest privileges of my life (our lives). my (our) sincere sympathy goes out to you in your heavy affliction. my (our) love and sympathy in your sudden affliction. i am (we are) greatly shocked at the sad news. you have my (our) deepest sympathy. my (our) deepest sympathy in your great loss. if there is anything i (we) can do, do not hesitate to let me (us) know. _congratulation to a school or college graduate_ may your future be as successful as have been your school (college) days. heartiest congratulations upon your graduation. i am (we are) proud of your success. may the future grant you opportunity and the fulfillment of your hopes. i (we) hear that you have taken class honors. sincerest congratulations and best wishes. may your class day be favored with sunny skies and your life be full of happiness and success. sincerest congratulations upon your graduation. congratulations upon your school (college) success, so happily terminated to-day. i (we) regret that i (we) cannot be with you to-day to see you take your new honors. sincerest congratulations. _congratulation to a public man_ heartiest congratulations on your splendid success. we have just heard of your success. sincere congratulations and best wishes for the future. heartiest congratulations on your nomination (election). your nomination (election) testifies to the esteem in which you are held by your fellow citizens. heartiest congratulations. congratulations on your victory, a hard fight, well won by the best man. your splendid majority must be a great satisfaction to you. sincerest congratulations on your election. congratulations upon your nomination. you will have the support of the best element in the community and your election should be a foregone conclusion. i wish you every success. you fought a good fight in a good cause. heartiest congratulations on your splendid success. nothing in your career should fill you with greater satisfaction than your successful election. i congratulate you with all my heart. no man deserves success more than you. you have worked hard for your constituents and they appreciate it. heartiest congratulations. your nomination (election) is received with the greatest enthusiasm by your friends here and by none more than myself. heartiest congratulations. i congratulate you upon your new honors won by distinguished services to your fellow citizens. your campaign was vigorous and fine. your victory testifies to the people's confidence in you and your cause. warmest congratulations. congratulations upon your well-won victory and best wishes for your future success. you deserve your splendid success. sincerest congratulations. i cannot refrain from expressing my personal appreciation of your eloquent address. warmest congratulations. your address last night was splendid. what a gift you have. sincerest congratulations. heartiest congratulations on your splendid speech of last night. everybody is praising it. chapter xi the law of letters--contract letters there are forty-eight states in this union, and each of them has its own laws and courts. in addition we have the federal government with its own laws and courts. in one class of cases, the federal courts follow the state laws which govern the particular occasion; in another class of cases, notably in those involving the interpretation or application of the united states statutes, the federal courts follow federal law. there is not even a degree of uniformity governing the state laws, and especially is this true in criminal actions, for crimes are purely statutory creations. therefore it is extremely misleading to give any but the vaguest and most elementary suggestions on the law which governs letters. to be clear and specific means inevitably to be misleading. i was talking with a lawyer friend not long since about general text-books on law which might be useful to the layman. he was rather a commercially minded person and he spoke fervently: "if i wanted to build up a practice and i did not care how i did it, i should select one hundred well-to-do people and see that each of them got a copy of a compendium of business law. then i should sit back and wait for them to come in--and come in they would, for every mother's son of them would decide that he had a knowledge of the law and cheerfully go ahead getting himself into trouble." sharpen up a man's knowledge of the law and he is sure to cut himself. for the law is rarely absolute. most questions are of mixed fact and law. were it otherwise, there would be no occasion for juries, for, roughly, juries decide facts. the court decides the application of the law. the layman tends to think that laws are rules, when more often they are only guides. the cheapest and best way to decide points of law is to refer them to counsel for decision. unless a layman will take the time and the trouble most exhaustively to read works of law and gain something in the nature of a working legal knowledge, he had best take for granted that he knows nothing whatsoever of law and refer all legal matters to counsel. there are, however, a few principles of general application that may serve, not in the stead of legal knowledge, but to acquaint one with the fact that a legal question may be involved, for legal questions by no means always formally present themselves in barristers' gowns. they spring up casually and unexpectedly. take the whole question of contract. a contract is not of necessity a formal instrument. a contract is a meeting of minds. if i say to a man: "will you cut my lawn for ten dollars?" and he answers, "yes," as valid a contract is established as though we had gone to a scrivener and had covered a folio of parchment with "whereases" and "know all men by these presents" and "be it therefore" and had wound up with red seals and ribbons. but of course many legal questions could spring out of this oral agreement. we might dispute as to what was meant by cutting the lawn. and then, again, the time element would enter. was the agreement that the lawn should be cut the next day, or the next month, or the next year? contracts do not have to be in writing. all that the writing does is to make the proof of the exact contract easier. if we have the entirety of a contract within the four corners of a sheet of paper, then we need no further evidence as to the existence of the contract, although we may be in just as hopeless a mess trying to define what the words of the contract mean. if we have not a written contract, we have the bother of introducing oral evidence to show that there was a contract. most contracts nowadays are formed by the interchange of letters, and the general point to remember is that the acceptance must be in terms of the offer. if x writes saying: "i will sell you twenty tons of coal at fifteen dollars a ton," and y replies: "i will take thirty tons of coal at thirteen dollars a ton," there is no contract, but merely a series of offers. if, however, x ships the thirty tons of coal, he can hold y only at thirteen dollars a ton for he has abandoned his original offer and accepted y's offer. it can be taken as a general principle that if an offer be not accepted in its terms and a new condition be introduced, then the acceptance really becomes an offer, and if the one who made the original offer goes ahead, it can be assumed that he has agreed to the modifications of the unresponsive acceptance. if x writes to y making an offer, one of the conditions of which is that it must be accepted within ten days, and y accepts in fifteen days, then x can, if he likes, disregard the acceptance, but he can waive his ten-day time limit and take y's acceptance as a really binding agreement. another point, sometimes of considerable importance, concerns the time when a letter takes effect, and this is governed by the question of fact as to whom the post office department is acting for. if, in making an offer, i ask for a reply by mail or simply for a reply, i constitute the mail as my agent, and the acceptor of that offer will be presumed to have communicated with me at the moment when he consigns his letter to the mails. he must give the letter into proper custody--that is, it must go into the regular and authorized channels for the reception of mail. that done, it makes no difference whether or not the letter ever reaches the offerer. it has been delivered to his agent, and delivery to an agent is delivery to the principal. therefore, it is wise to specify in an offer that the acceptance has to be actually received. the law with respect to the agency of the mails varies and turns principally upon questions of fact. letters may, of course, be libelous. the law of libel varies widely among the several states, and there are also federal laws as well as postal regulations covering matters which are akin to libel. the answer to libel is truth, but not always, for sometimes the truth may be spread with so malicious an intent as to support an action. it is not well to put into a letter any derogatory or subversive statement that cannot be fully proved. this becomes of particular importance in answering inquiries concerning character or credit, but in practically every case libel is a question of fact. another point that arises concerns the property in a letter. does he who receives a letter acquire full property in it? may he publish it without permission? in general he does not acquire full property. mr. justice story, in a leading case, says: "the author of any letter or letters, and his representatives, whether they are literary letters or letters of business, possess the sole and exclusive copyright therein; and no person, neither those to whom they are addressed, nor other persons, have any right or authority to publish the same upon their own account or for their benefit." but then, again, there are exceptions. chapter xii the cost of a letter discovering the exact cost of a letter is by no means an easy affair. however, approximate figures may always be had and they are extremely useful. the cost of writing an ordinary letter is quite surprising. very few letters can be dictated, transcribed, and mailed at a cost of much less than twelve cents each. the factors which govern costs are variable and it is to be borne in mind that the methods for ascertaining costs as here given represent the least cost and not the real cost--they simply tell you "your letter costs at least this sum." they do not say "your letter costs exactly this sum." the cost of a form letter, mailed in quantities, can be gotten at with considerable accuracy. the cost of letters dictated by correspondents or by credit departments or other routine departments is also capable of approximation with fair accuracy, but the cost of a letter written by an executive can really hardly be more than guessed at. but in any case a "not-less-than" cost can be had. in recent years industrial engineers have done a great deal of work in ascertaining office costs and have devised many useful plans for lowering them. these plans mostly go to the saving of stenographers' time through suitable equipment, better arrangement of supplies, and specialization of duties. for instance, light, the kind or height of chair or desk, the tension of the typewriter, the location of the paper and carbon paper, all tend to make or break the efficiency of the typist and are cost factors. in offices where a great deal of routine mail is handled, the writing of the envelopes and the mailing is in the hands of a separate department of specialists with sealing and stamp affixing machines. the proper planning of a correspondence department is a science in itself, and several good books exist on the subject. but all of this has to do with the routine letter. when an executive drawing a high salary must write a letter, it is his time and not the time of the stenographer that counts. he cannot be kept waiting for a stenographer, and hence it is economy for him to have a personal secretary even if he does not write enough letters to keep a single machine busy through more than a fraction of a day. many busy men do not dictate letters at all; they have secretaries skilled in letter writing. in fact, a man whose salary exceeds thirty thousand dollars a year cannot afford to write a letter excepting on a very important subject. he will commonly have a secretary who can write the letter after only a word or two indicating the subject matter. part of the qualification of a good secretary is an ability to compose letters which are characteristic of the principal. take first the cost of a circular letter--one that is sent out in quantities without any effort to secure a personal effect. the items of cost are: ( ) the postage. ( ) the paper and printing. ( ) the cost of addressing, sealing, stamping, and mailing. the third item is the only one that offers any difficulty. included in it are first the direct labor--the wages of the human beings employed; and, second, the overhead expense. the second item includes the value of the space occupied by the letter force, the depreciation on the equipment, and finally the supervision and the executive expense properly chargeable to the department. unless an accurate cost system is in force the third item cannot be accurately calculated. the best that can be done is to take the salaries of the people actually employed on the work and guess at the proper charge for the space. the sum of the three items divided by the number of letters is the cost per letter. it is not an accurate cost. it will be low rather than high, for probably the full share of overhead expense will not be charged. it will be obvious, however, that the place to send out circular letters is not a room in a high-priced office building, unless the sending is an occasional rather than a steady practice. costs in this work are cut by better planning of the work and facilities, setting work standards, paying a bonus in excess of the standards, and by the introduction of automatic machinery. the post office now permits, under certain conditions, the use of a machine which prints a stamp that is really a frank. this is now being used very generally by concerns which have a heavy outgoing mail. then there are sealing machines, work conveyors, and numerous other mechanical and physical arrangements which operate to reduce the costs. they are useful, however, only if the output be very large indeed. the personally dictated letter has these costs: ( ) the postage. ( ) the stationery. ( ) the dictator's time--both in dictating and signing. ( ) the stenographer's time. ( ) the direct overhead expense, which includes the space occupied, the supervision, the executive overhead, and like items. the troublesome items here are numbers three and five. if the dictator is a correspondent then the calculation of how much it costs him to dictate a letter is his salary plus the overhead on the space that he occupies, divided by the number of letters that he writes in an average month. it takes him longer to write a long than a short letter, but routine letters will average fairly over a period of a month. but an executive who writes only letters that cannot be written by correspondents or lower salaried men commonly does so many other things in the course of a day that although his average time of dictation per letter may be ascertained and a cost gotten at, the figure will not be a true cost, for the dictation of an important letter comes only after a consideration of the subject matter which commonly takes much longer than the actual dictation. and then, again, the higher executive is usually an erratic letter writer--he may take two minutes or twenty minutes over an ordinary ten-line letter. some men read their letters very carefully after transcription. the cost of this must also be reckoned in. the cost of any letter is therefore a matter of the particular office. it will vary from six or seven cents for a letter made up of form paragraphs to three or four dollars for a letter written by a high-salaried president of a large corporation. a fair average cost for a personally dictated letter written on good paper is computed by one of the leading paper manufacturers, after a considerable survey to be: postage . printing letterheads and envelopes . stenographic wages ( letters per day, $ . per week) . office overhead . paper and envelopes . ------ $. the above does not include the expense of dictation. it will pay any man who writes a considerable number of letters to discover what his costs are--and then make his letters so effective that there will be fewer of them. chapter xiii stationery, crests and monograms social correspondence for all social correspondence use plain sheets of paper, without lines, of white or cream, or perhaps light gray or a very dull blue. but white or cream is the safest. select a good quality. either a smooth vellum finish or a rough linen finish is correct. for long letters there is the large sheet, about five by six and one half inches, or it may be even larger. there is a somewhat smaller size, about four and one half by five and one half or six inches for formal notes, and a still smaller size for a few words of congratulation or condolence. the social note must be arranged so as to be contained on the first page only. a man should not, for his social correspondence, use office or hotel stationery. his social stationery should be of a large size. envelopes may be either square or oblong. in the matter of perfumed stationery, if perfume is used at all, it must be very delicate. strong perfumes or perfumes of a pronounced type have a distinctly unpleasant effect on many people. it is better form to use none. [illustration: specimens of addressed social stationery] [illustration: specimens of addressed social stationery. (the first specimen is business stationery in social form)] an inviolable rule is to use black ink. the most approved forms of letter and notepaper (although the use of addressed paper is not at all obligatory and it is perfectly proper to use plain paper) have the address stamped in roman or gothic lettering at the top of the sheet in the centre or at the right-hand side about three quarters of an inch from the top. the color used may be black, white, dark blue, dark green, silver, or gold. country houses, where there are frequent visitors, have adopted the custom of placing the address at the upper right and the telephone, railroad station, and post office at the left. the address may also appear on the reverse flap of the envelope. crests and monograms are not used when the address is engraved at the top of a letter sheet. obviously the crowding of address and crest or monogram would not be conducive to good appearance in the letter. a monogram, originally a cipher consisting of a single letter, is a design of two or more letters intertwined. it is defined as a character of several letters in one, or made to appear as one. the letters may be all the letters of a name, or the initial letters of the christian and surnames. [illustration: the monograms in the best taste are the small round ones, but many pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong shape] [illustration: specimens of crested letter and notepaper] many of the early greek and roman coins bear the monograms of rulers or of the town in which they were struck. the middle ages saw the invention of all sorts of ciphers or monograms, artistic, commercial, and ecclesiastical. every great personage had his monogram. the merchants used them, the "merchant's mark" being the merchant's initials mingled with a private device and almost invariably a cross, as a protection against disaster or to distinguish their wares from those of mohammedan eastern traders. early printers used monograms, and they serve to identify early printed books. a famous monogram is the interlaced "h.d." of henry ii and diane de poitiers. it appeared lavishly upon every building which henry ii erected. it was also stamped on the bindings in the royal library, with the bow, the quiver, and the crescent of diana. monograms and crests on stationery, after a period of disuse, seem to be coming into favor again. the monograms in the best taste are the small round ones, though very pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong shapes. they should not be elaborate, and no brilliant colors should be used. the stamping is best done in black, white, dark green, dark blue, gold, or silver. the crest or monogram may be placed in the centre of the sheet or on the left-hand side about three quarters of an inch from the top. the address may be in the centre or at the right-hand side. but, as noted above, to use both addressed and monogrammed or crested paper is not good taste. the best stationery seems to run simply to addressed paper. crests and monograms should not be used on the envelope. in the matter of crests and heraldic emblems on stationery and announcements, many families with authentic crests discontinued their use during the war in an effort to reduce everything to the last word in simplicity. however, there are many who still use them. the best engravers will not design crests for families without the right to use them. but the extreme in "crests" is the crest which does not mean family at all, but is a device supposed to give an idea of the art or taste of the individual. for example, a quill or a scroll may be the basis for such a "crest." really no good reason exists why, in default of a family with a crest, one should not decide to be a crest founder. the only point is that the crest should not pretend to be something it is not--a hereditary affair. [illustration: specimens of monogrammed stationery] [illustration: specimens of business letterheads] on the use of crests in stationery one authority says: as to the important question of crests and heraldic emblems in our present-day stationery, these are being widely used, but no crests are made to order where the family itself has none. only such crests as definitely belong to the family are ever engraved on notepaper, cards, or any new style of place cards. several stationers maintain special departments where crests are looked up and authenticated and such families as are found in fairbairn's crests, burke's peerage, almanche de gotha, the armoire général, are utilized to help in the establishment of the armorial bearing of american families. of course, the college of heraldry is always available where the american family can trace its ancestors to great britain. many individuals use the coat-of-arms of their mothers, but according to heraldry they really have no right to do so. the woman to-day could use her father's and husband's crests together if the crests are properly in pale, that is, if a horizontal line be drawn to cut the shield in two--the husband's on the left, the father's on the right. if the son wants to use the father's and mother's crest, this must be quartered to conform to rule, the arms of the father to be in the first and fourth quarter; that of the mother in the second and third quarter. the daughter is not supposed to use a coat-of-arms except in lozenge form. the dinner card that reflects the most refined and modern type of usage is a card of visiting card size, with a coat-of-arms in gold and gilt border, on real parchment. these cards are hand-lettered and used as place cards for dinner parties. the use of sealing wax is optional, though a good rule to follow is not to use it unless it is necessary. the wax may be any dark color on white, cream, or light gray paper. black wax is used with mourning stationery. the best place to stamp a seal is the centre of the flap. it should not be done at all if it cannot be accomplished neatly. the crest or monogram should be quickly and firmly impressed into the hot wax. in selecting stationery it is a good plan to adhere to a single style, provided of course that a good choice of paper and stamping has been made. the style will become as characteristic of you as your handwriting. distinction can be had in quiet refinement of line and color. the use of the typewriter for social correspondence has some authority--though most of us will want to keep to the old custom of pen and ink. in case this should be employed for some good reason, the letter must be placed in the centre of the page with all four margins left wide. of course the signature to any typewritten letter must be in ink. business stationery for the usual type of business letter, a single large sheet of white paper, unruled, of the standard business size, - / x inches, is generally used. the standard envelopes are - / x - / inches and x - / , the former requiring three folds of the letter (one across and two lengthwise) and the latter requiring two folds (across). the former size, - / x - / , is much preferred. the latter is useful in the case of bulky enclosures. bond of a good quality is probably the best choice. colored papers, while attracting attention in a pile of miscellaneous correspondence, are not in the best taste. rather have the letter striking for its excellent typing and arrangement. department stores and firms that write a great many letters to women often employ a notepaper size sheet for these letters. on this much smaller sheet the elite type makes a better appearance with letters of this kind. [illustration: department stores and firms that write many letters to women often employ a notepaper size] [illustration: specimens of stationery used by men for personal business letters] the letterhead may be printed, engraved, or lithographed, and it is safest done in black. it should cover considerably less than a quarter of the page. it contains the name of the firm, the address, and the business. the addresses of branch houses, telephone numbers, cable addresses, names of officials, and other data may be included. but all flamboyant, colored advertisements, trade slogans, or advertising matter extending down the sides of the letter detract from the actual content of the letter, which it is presumed is the essential part of the letter. for personal business letters, that is, for letters not social but concerning personal affairs not directly connected with his business, a man often uses a letter sheet partaking more of the nature of social stationery than of business. this sheet is usually rather smaller than the standard business size and of heavier quality. the size and shape of these letter sheets are matters of personal preference-- x inches or x inches--sometimes even as large as the standard - / x or as small as - / x - / or x . the smaller size, however, requires the double sheet, and the engraving may be done on the fourth page instead of the first. the inside address in these letters is generally placed at the end of the letters instead of above the salutation. instead of a business letterhead the sheet may have an engraved name and home or business address without any further business connotations, or it may be simply an address line. the end [transcriber's note: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. text that has been changed to correct an obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook. text set in bold print is indicated by asterisks, i.e., *bold*.] how to write clearly. _rules and exercises_ on english composition. by the rev. edwin a. abbott, m.a., head master of the city of london school. [illustration: qui legit regit] the author's copyright edition. boston: roberts brothers. . university press: john wilson & son. cambridge. preface. almost every english boy can be taught to write clearly, so far at least as clearness depends upon the arrangement of words. force, elegance, and variety of style are more difficult to teach, and far more difficult to learn; but clear writing can be reduced to rules. to teach the art of writing clearly is the main object of these rules and exercises. ambiguity may arise, not only from bad arrangement, but also from other causes--from the misuse of single words, and from confused thought. these causes are not removable by definite rules, and therefore, though not neglected, are not prominently considered in this book. my object rather is to point out some few continually recurring causes of ambiguity, and to suggest definite remedies in each case. speeches in parliament, newspaper narratives and articles, and, above all, resolutions at public meetings, furnish abundant instances of obscurity arising from the monotonous neglect of some dozen simple rules. the art of writing forcibly is, of course, a valuable acquisition--almost as valuable as the art of writing clearly. but forcible expression is not, like clear expression, a mere question of mechanism and of the manipulation of words; it is a much higher power, and implies much more. writing clearly does not imply thinking clearly. a man may think and reason as obscurely as dogberry himself, but he may (though it is not probable that he will) be able to write clearly for all that. writing clearly--so far as arrangement of words is concerned--is a mere matter of adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs, placed and repeated according to definite rules.[ ] even obscure or illogical thought can be clearly expressed; indeed, the transparent medium of clear writing is not least beneficial when it reveals the illogical nature of the meaning beneath it. on the other hand, if a man is to write forcibly, he must (to use a well-known illustration) describe jerusalem as "sown with salt," not as "captured," and the jews not as being "subdued" but as "almost exterminated" by titus. but what does this imply? it implies knowledge, and very often a great deal of knowledge, and it implies also a vivid imagination. the writer must have eyes to see the vivid side of everything, as well as words to describe what he sees. hence forcible writing, and of course tasteful writing also, is far less a matter of rules than is clear writing; and hence, though forcible writing is exemplified in the exercises, clear writing occupies most of the space devoted to the rules. boys who are studying latin and greek stand in especial need of help to enable them to write a long english sentence clearly. the periods of thucydides and cicero are not easily rendered into our idiom without some knowledge of the links that connect an english sentence. there is scarcely any better training, rhetorical as well as logical, than the task of construing thucydides into genuine english; but the flat, vague, long-winded greek-english and latin-english imposture that is often tolerated in our examinations and is allowed to pass current for genuine english, diminishes instead of increasing the power that our pupils should possess over their native language. by getting marks at school and college for construing good greek and latin into bad english, our pupils systematically unlearn what they may have been allowed to pick up from milton and from shakespeare. i must acknowledge very large obligations to professor bain's treatise on "english composition and rhetoric," and also to his english grammar. i have not always been able to agree with professor bain as to matters of taste; but i find it difficult to express my admiration for the systematic thoroughness and suggestiveness of his book on composition. in particular, professor bain's rule on the use of "that" and "which" (see rule ) deserves to be better known.[ ] the ambiguity produced by the confusion between these two forms of the relative is not a mere fiction of pedants; it is practically serious. take, for instance, the following sentence, which appeared lately in one of our ablest weekly periodicals: "there are a good many radical members in the house _who_ cannot forgive the prime minister for being a christian." twenty years hence, who is to say whether the meaning is "_and they_, i.e. _all the radical_ members in the house," or "there are a good many radical members of the house _that_ cannot &c."? professor bain, apparently admitting no exceptions to his useful rule, amends many sentences in a manner that seems to me intolerably harsh. therefore, while laying due stress on the utility of the rule, i have endeavoured to point out and explain the exceptions. the rules are stated as briefly as possible, and are intended not so much for use by themselves as for reference while the pupil is working at the exercises. consequently, there is no attempt to prove the rules by accumulations of examples. the few examples that are given, are given not to prove, but to illustrate the rules. the exercises are intended to be written out and revised, as exercises usually are; but they may also be used for _vivâ voce_ instruction. the books being shut, the pupils, with their written exercises before them, may be questioned as to the reasons for the several alterations they have made. experienced teachers will not require any explanation of the arrangement or rather non-arrangement of the exercises. they have been purposely mixed together unclassified to prevent the pupil from relying upon anything but his own common sense and industry, to show him what is the fault in each case, and how it is to be amended. besides references to the rules, notes are attached to each sentence, so that the exercises ought not to present any difficulty to a painstaking boy of twelve or thirteen, provided he has first been fairly trained in english grammar. the "continuous extracts" present rather more difficulty, and are intended for boys somewhat older than those for whom the exercises are intended. the attempt to modernize, and clarify, so to speak, the style of burnet, clarendon, and bishop butler,[ ] may appear ambitious, and perhaps requires some explanation. my object has, of course, not been to _improve upon_ the style of these authors, but to show how their meaning might be expressed more clearly in modern english. the charm of the style is necessarily lost, but if the loss is recognized both by teacher and pupil, there is nothing, in my opinion, to counterbalance the obvious utility of such exercises. professor bain speaks to the same effect:[ ] "for an english exercise, the matter should in some way or other be supplied, and the pupil disciplined in giving it expression. i know of no better method than to prescribe passages containing good matter, but in some respects imperfectly worded, to be amended according to the laws and the proprieties of style. our older writers might be extensively, though not exclusively, drawn upon for this purpose." to some of the friends whose help has been already acknowledged in "english lessons for english people," i am indebted for further help in revising these pages. i desire to express especial obligations to the rev. j. h. lupton, late fellow of st. john's college, cambridge, and second master of st. paul's school, for copious and valuable suggestions; also to several of my colleagues at the city of london school, among whom i must mention in particular the rev. a. r. vardy, fellow of trinity college, cambridge. * * * * * before electrotyping the fourth and revised edition, i wish to say one word as to the manner in which this book has been used by my highest class, as a collection of rules for reference in their construing lessons. in construing, from thucydides especially, i have found rules , , , , , and _a_, of great use. the rules about metaphor and climax have also been useful in correcting faults of taste in their latin and greek compositions. i have hopes that, used in this way, this little book may be of service to the highest as well as to the middle classes of our schools. footnotes: [ ] punctuation is fully discussed in most english grammars, and is therefore referred to in this book only so far as is necessary to point out the slovenly fault of trusting too much to punctuation, and too little to arrangement. [ ] before meeting with professor bain's rule, i had shown that the difference between the relatives is generally observed by shakespeare. see "shakespearian grammar," paragraph . [ ] sir archibald alison stands on a very different footing. the extracts from this author are intended to exhibit the dangers of verbosity and exaggeration. [ ] "english composition and rhetoric," p. vii. contents. page index of rules - rules - short exercises - continuous exercises--clarendon - " " burnet - " " butler - " " sir archibald alison - index of rules. i. clearness and force. words. . use words in their proper sense. . avoid exaggerations. . avoid useless circumlocution and "fine writing." . be careful in the use of "not ... and," "any," "but," "only," "not ... or," "that." _a_. be careful in the use of ambiguous words, _e.g._ "certain." . be careful in the use of "he," "it," "they," "these," &c. . report a speech in the first person, where necessary to avoid ambiguity. _a_. use the third person where the exact words of the speaker are not intended to be given. _b_. omission of "that" in a speech in the third person. . when you use a participle implying "when," "while," "though," or "that," show clearly by the context what is implied. . when using the relative pronoun, use "who" or "which," if the meaning is "and he" or "and it," "for he" or "for it." in other cases use "that," if euphony allows. exceptions. . do not use "and which" for "which." . equivalents for the relative: (_a_) participle or adjective; (_b_) infinitive; (_c_) "whereby," "whereto," &c.; (_d_) "if a man;" (_e_) "and he," "and this," &c.; (_f_) "what;" (_g_) omission of relative. _a'_. repeat the antecedent before the relative, where the non-repetition causes any ambiguity. see . . use particular for general terms. avoid abstract nouns. _a_. avoid verbal nouns where verbs can be used. . use particular persons instead of a class. . use metaphor instead of literal statement. . do not confuse metaphor. _a_. do not mix metaphor with literal statement. _b_. do not use poetic metaphor to illustrate a prosaic subject. order of words in a sentence. . emphatic words must stand in emphatic positions; _i.e._, for the most part, at the beginning or the end of the sentence. _a_. unemphatic words must, as a rule, be kept from the end. exceptions. _b_. an interrogation sometimes gives emphasis. . the subject, if unusually emphatic, should often be transferred from the beginning of the sentence. . the object is sometimes placed before the verb for emphasis. . where several words are emphatic, make it clear which is the most emphatic. emphasis can sometimes be given by adding an epithet, or an intensifying word. . words should be as near as possible to the words with which they are grammatically connected. . adverbs should be placed next to the words they are intended to qualify. . "only"; the strict rule is that "only" should be placed before the word it affects. . when "not only" precedes "but also," see that each is followed by the same part of speech. . "at least," "always," and other adverbial adjuncts, sometimes produce ambiguity. . nouns should be placed near the nouns that they define. . pronouns should follow the nouns to which they refer, without the intervention of any other noun. . clauses that are grammatically connected should be kept as close together as possible. avoid parentheses. but see . . in conditional sentences, the antecedent or "if-clauses" must be kept distinct from the consequent clauses. . dependent clauses preceded by "that" should be kept distinct from those that are independent. . where there are several infinitives, those that are dependent on the same word must be kept distinct from those that are not. . the principle of suspense. _a_. it is a violation of the principle of suspense to introduce unexpectedly at the end of a long sentence, some short and unemphatic clause beginning with (_a_) "not," (_b_) "which." . suspense must not be excessive. . in a sentence with "if," "when," "though," &c., put the "if-clause," antecedent, or protasis, first. . suspense is gained by placing a participle or adjective, that qualifies the subject, before the subject. . suspensive conjunctions, _e.g._ "either," "not only," "on the one hand," &c., add clearness. . repeat the subject, where its omission would cause obscurity or ambiguity. . repeat a preposition after an intervening conjunction, especially if a verb and an object also intervene. . repeat conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, and pronominal adjectives. _a_. repeat verbs after the conjunctions "than," "as," &c. . repeat the subject, or some other emphatic word, or a summary of what has been said, if the sentence is so long that it is difficult to keep the thread of meaning unbroken. . clearness is increased, when the beginning of the sentence prepares the way for the middle, and the middle for the end, the whole forming a kind of ascent. this ascent is called "climax." . when the thought is expected to ascend, but descends, feebleness, and sometimes confusion, is the result. the descent is called "bathos." _a_. a new construction should not be introduced unexpectedly. . antithesis adds force and often clearness. . epigram. . let each sentence have one, and only one, principal subject of thought. avoid heterogeneous sentences. . the connection between different sentences must be kept up by adverbs used as conjunctions, or by means of some other connecting words at the beginning of the sentence. . the connection between two long sentences or paragraphs sometimes requires a short intervening sentence showing the transition of thought. ii. brevity. . metaphor is briefer than literal statement. . general terms are briefer, though less forcible, than particular terms. _a_. a phrase may sometimes be expressed by a word. . participles may often be used as brief (though sometimes ambiguous) equivalents of phrases containing conjunctions and verbs. . participles, adjectives, participial adjectives, and nouns may be used as equivalents for phrases containing the relative. . a statement may sometimes be briefly implied instead of being expressed at length. . conjunctions may be omitted. adverbs, _e.g._ "very," "so." exaggerated epithets, _e.g._ "incalculable," "unprecedented." _a_. the imperative may be used for "if &c." . apposition may be used, so as to convert two sentences into one. . condensation may be effected by not repeating ( ) the common subject of several verbs; ( ) the common object of several verbs or prepositions. . tautology. repeating what may be implied. . parenthesis maybe used with advantage to brevity. see . . brevity often clashes with clearness. let clearness be the first consideration. clearness and force. _numbers in brackets refer to the rules._ words. * . use words in their proper sense.* write, not "his _apparent_ guilt justified his friends in disowning him," but "his _evident_ guilt." "conscious" and "aware," "unnatural" and "supernatural," "transpire" and "occur," "circumstance" and "event," "reverse" and "converse," "eliminate" and "elicit," are often confused together. this rule forbids the use of the same word in different senses. "it is in my _power_ to refuse your request, and since i have _power_ to do this, i may lawfully do it." here the second "power" is used for "authority." this rule also forbids the slovenly use of "nice," "awfully," "delicious," "glorious," &c. see ( ). * . avoid exaggerations.* "the _boundless_ plains in the heart of the empire furnished _inexhaustible_ supplies of corn, that would have almost sufficed for twice the population." here "inexhaustible" is inconsistent with what follows. the words "unprecedented," "incalculable," "very," and "stupendous" are often used in the same loose way. * . avoid useless circumlocution and "fine writing."* "her majesty here _partook of lunch_." write "_lunched_." "partook of" implies sharing, and is incorrect as well as lengthy. so, do not use "apex" for "top," "species" for "kind," "individual" for "man," "assist" for "help," &c. * . be careful how you use the following words: "not ... and," "any," "only," "not ... or," "that."*[ ] *and.* see below, "or." *any.*--"i am not bound to receive _any_ messenger that you send." does this mean _every_, or _a single_? use "every" or "a single." *not.*--( ) "i do _not_ intend to help you, because you are my enemy &c." ought to mean ( ), "i intend not to help you, and my reason for not helping you is, because you are my enemy." but it is often wrongly used to mean ( ), "i intend to help you, not because you are my enemy (but because you are poor, blind, &c.)." in the latter case, _not_ ought to be separated from _intend_. by distinctly marking the limits to which the influence of _not_ extends, the ambiguity may be removed. *only* is often used ambiguously for _alone_. "the rest help me to revenge myself; you _only_ advise me to wait." this ought to mean, "you only _advise_, instead of _helping_;" but in similar sentences "you only" is often used for "you alone." but see . *or.*--when "or" is preceded by a negative, as "i do not want butter _or_ honey," "or" ought not, strictly speaking, to be used like "and," nor like "nor." the strict use of "not ... or" would be as follows:-- "you say you don't want both butter _and_ honey--you want butter _or_ honey; i, on the contrary, _do not want butter or honey_--i want them both." practically, however, this meaning is so rare, that "i don't want butter _or_ honey" is regularly used for "i want neither butter nor honey." but where there is the slightest danger of ambiguity, it is desirable to use _nor_. the same ambiguity attends "not ... and." "i do not see thomas _and_ john" is commonly used for "i see neither thomas nor john;" but it might mean, "i do not see them both--i see only one of them." *that.*--the different uses of "that" produce much ambiguity, _e.g._ "i am so much surprised by this statement _that_ i am desirous of resigning, _that_ i scarcely know what reply to make." here it is impossible to tell, till one has read past "resigning," whether the first "that" depends upon "so" or "statement." write: "the statement that i am desirous of resigning surprises me so much that i scarcely know &c." * a. be careful in the use of ambiguous words, e.g. "certain."* "certain" is often used for "some," as in "independently of his earnings, he has a _certain_ property," where the meaning might be "unfailing." under this head may be mentioned the double use of words, such as "left" in the same form and sound, but different in meaning. even where there is no obscurity, the juxtaposition of the same word twice used in two senses is inelegant, _e.g._ (bain), "he turned to the _left_ and _left_ the room." i have known the following slovenly sentence misunderstood: "our object is that, with the aid of practice, we may sometime arrive at the point where we think eloquence in its most praiseworthy form _to lie_." "to lie" has been supposed to mean "to deceive." * . be careful how you use "he," "it," "they," "these," &c.* (for "which" see .) the ambiguity arising from the use of _he_ applying to different persons is well known. "he told his friend that if _he_ did not feel better in half an hour he thought _he_ had better return." see ( ) for remedy. much ambiguity is also caused by excessive use of such phrases as _in this way_, _of this sort_, &c. "god, foreseeing the disorders of human nature, has given us certain passions and affections which arise from, or whose objects are, these disorders. _of this sort_ are fear, resentment, compassion." repeat the noun: "among these passions and affections are fear &c." two distinct uses of _it_ may be noted. _it_, when referring to something that precedes, may be called "retrospective;" but when to something that follows, "prospective." in "avoid indiscriminate charity: _it_ is a crime," "it" is retrospective.[ ] in "_it_ is a crime to give indiscriminately," "it" is prospective. the prospective "it," if productive of ambiguity, can often be omitted by using the infinitive as a subject: "to give indiscriminately is a crime." * . report a speech in the first, not the third person, where necessary to avoid ambiguity.* speeches in the third person afford a particular, though very common case, of the general ambiguity mentioned in ( ). instead of "he told his friend that if _he_ did not feel better &c.," write "he said to his friend, 'if, _i_ (or _you_) don't feel better &c.'" * a. sometimes, where the writer cannot know the exact words, or where the exact words are unimportant, or lengthy and uninteresting, the third person is preferable.* thus, where essex is asking sir robert cecil that francis bacon may be appointed attorney-general, the dialogue is (as it almost always is in lord macaulay's writings) in the first person, _except where it becomes tedious and uninteresting so as to require condensation_, and then it drops into the third person: "sir robert _had nothing to say but_ that he thought his own abilities equal to the place which he hoped to obtain, and that his father's long services deserved such a mark of gratitude from the queen." * b. omission of "that" in a speech reported in the third person.*--even when a speech is reported in the third person, "that" need not always be inserted before the dependent verb. thus, instead of "he said that he took it ill that his promises were not believed," we may write, "'he took it ill,' he said, 'that &c.'" this gives a little more life, and sometimes more clearness also. * . when you use a participle, as "walking," implying "when," "while," "though," "that," make it clear by the context what is implied.* "republics, in the first instance, are never desired for their own sakes. i do not think they will finally be desired at all, _unaccompanied_ by courtly graces and good breeding." here there is a little doubt whether the meaning is "_since_ they are, or, _if_ they are, unaccompanied." *that or when.*--"men _walking_ (_that_ walk, or _when_ they walk) on ice sometimes fall." it is better to use "men walking" to mean "men _when_ they walk." if the relative is meant, use "men that walk," instead of the participle. ( ) "_while_ he was } _walking_ on { ( ) the road, } he fell." ( ) "_because_ he was } { ( ) the ice, } when the participle precedes the subject, it generally implies a cause: "_seeing_ this, he retired." otherwise it generally has its proper participial meaning, _e.g._ "he retired, _keeping_ his face towards us." if there is any ambiguity, write "_on_ seeing,"--"_at the same time_, or _while_, keeping." ( ) "_though_ he was} {( ) he nevertheless stood } { his ground." ( ) "_since_ he was } _struck_ with terror, {( ) he rapidly retreated." ( ) "_if_ he is } {( ) he will soon retreat." * . when using the relative pronoun, use "who" and "which" where the meaning is "and he, it, &c.," "for he, it, &c." in other cases use "that," if euphony allows.* "i heard this from the inspector, _who_ (and he) heard it from the guard _that_ travelled with the train." "fetch me (all) the books _that_ lie on the table, and also the pamphlets, _which_ (and these) you will find on the floor." an adherence to this rule would remove much ambiguity. thus: "there was a public-house next door, _which_ was a great nuisance," means "_and this_ (_i.e._ the fact of its being next door) was a great nuisance;" whereas _that_ would have meant "next door was a public-house _that_ (_i.e._ the public-house) was a great nuisance." *"who," "which," &c. introduce a new fact about the antecedent, whereas "that" introduces something without which the antecedent is incomplete or undefined.* thus, in the first example above, "inspector" is complete in itself, and "who" introduces a new _fact_ about him; "guard" is incomplete, and requires "_that_ travelled with the train" to complete the meaning. it is not, and cannot be, maintained that this rule, though observed in elizabethan english, is observed by our best modern authors. (probably a general impression that "that" cannot be used to refer to persons has assisted "who" in supplanting "that" as a relative.) but the convenience of the rule is so great that beginners in composition may with advantage adhere to the rule. the following are some of the cases where _who_ and _which_ are mostly used, contrary to the rule, instead of _that_. *exceptions:*-- (_a_) when the antecedent is defined, _e.g._ by a possessive case, modern english uses _who_ instead of _that_. it is rare, though it would be useful,[ ] to say "his english friends _that_ had not seen him" for "the english friends, or those of his english friends, that had not seen him." (_b_) _that_ sounds ill when separated from its verb and from its antecedents, and emphasized by isolation: "there are many persons _that_, though unscrupulous, are commonly good-tempered, and _that_, if not strongly incited by self-interest, are ready for the most part to think of the interest of their neighbours." shakespeare frequently uses _who_ after _that_ when the relative is repeated. see "shakespearian grammar," par. . (_c_) if the antecedent is qualified by _that_, the relative must not be _that_. besides other considerations, the repetition is disagreeable. addison ridicules such language as "_that_ remark _that_ i made yesterday is not _that_ _that_ i said _that_ i regretted _that_ i had made." (_d_) _that_ cannot be preceded by a preposition, and hence throws the preposition to the end. "this is the rule _that_ i adhere _to_." this is perfectly good english, though sometimes unnecessarily avoided. but, with some prepositions, the construction is harsh and objectionable, _e.g._ "this is the mark _that_ i jumped _beyond_," "such were the prejudices _that_ he rose _above_." the reason is that some of these disyllabic prepositions are used as adverbs, and, when separated from their nouns, give one the impression that they are used as adverbs. (_e_) after pronominal adjectives used for personal pronouns, modern english prefers _who_. "there are many, others, several, those, _who_ can testify &c." (_f_) after _that_ used as a conjunction there is sometimes a dislike to use _that_ as a relative. see (_c_). * . do not use redundant "and" before "which."[ ]* "i gave him a very interesting book for a present, _and which_ cost me five shillings." in short sentences the absurdity is evident, but in long sentences it is less evident, and very common. "a petition was presented for rescinding that portion of the bye-laws which permits application of public money to support sectarian schools over which ratepayers have no control, this being a violation of the principle of civil and religious liberty, _and which_ the memorialists believe would provoke a determined and conscientious resistance." here _which_ ought grammatically to refer to "portion" or "schools." but it seems intended to refer to "violation." omit "and," or repeat "a violation" before "which," or turn the sentence otherwise. * . equivalents for relative.* *(_a_) participle.*--"men _thirsting_ (for 'men _that thirst_') for revenge are not indifferent to plunder." the objection to the participle is that here, as often, it creates a little ambiguity. the above sentence may mean, "men, _when_ they thirst," or "_though_ they thirst," as well as "men _that_ thirst." often however there is no ambiguity: "i have documents _proving_ this conclusively." *(_b_) infinitive.*--instead of "he was the first _that_ entered" you can write "_to_ enter;" for "he is not a man _who_ will act dishonestly," "_to_ act." this equivalent cannot often be used. *(_c_) whereby, wherein, &c.,* can sometimes be used for "by _which_," "in _which_," so as to avoid a harsh repetition of "_which_." "the means _whereby_ this may be effected." but this use is somewhat antiquated. *(_d_) if.*--"the man _that_ does not care for music is to be pitied" can be written (though not so forcibly), "_if_ a man does not care for music, he is to be pitied." it is in long sentences that this equivalent will be found most useful. *(_e_) and this.*--"he did his best, _which_ was all that could be expected," can be written, "_and this_ was all that, &c." *(_f_) what.*--"let me repeat _that which_[ ] you ought to know, that _that which_ is worth doing is worth doing well." "let me repeat, _what_ you ought to know, that _what_ is worth doing is worth doing well." *(_g_) omission of relative.*--it is sometimes thought ungrammatical to omit the relative, as in "the man (that) you speak of." on the contrary, _that_ when an object (not when a subject) may be omitted, wherever the antecedent and the subject of the relative sentence are brought into juxtaposition by the omission. * a'. repeat the antecedent in some new form, where there is any ambiguity.* this is particularly useful after a negative: "he said that he would not even hear me, _which_ i confess i had expected." here the meaning may be, "i had expected that he would," or "that he would not, hear me." write, "_a refusal_, or, _a favour_, that i confess i had expected." see ( ). * . use particular for general terms.*--this is a most important rule. instead of "i have neither the necessaries of life nor the means of procuring them," write (if you can _with truth_), "i have not a crust of bread, nor a penny to buy one." caution.--there is a danger in this use. the meaning is vividly expressed but sometimes may be exaggerated or imperfect. _crust of bread_ may be an exaggeration; on the other hand, if the speaker is destitute not only of bread, but also of shelter and clothing, then _crust of bread_ is an imperfect expression of the meaning. in philosophy and science, where the language ought very often to be inclusive and brief, general and not particular terms must be used. * a. avoid verbal nouns where verbs can be used instead.* the disadvantage of the use of verbal nouns is this, that, unless they are immediately preceded by prepositions, they are sometimes liable to be confounded with participles. the following is an instance of an excessive use of verbal nouns: "the pretended confession of the secretary was only collusion to lay the jealousies of the king's _favouring_ popery, which still hung upon him, notwithstanding his _writing_ on the revelation, and _affecting_ to enter on all occasions into controversy, _asserting_ in particular that the pope was antichrist." write "notwithstanding that he wrote and affected &c." * . use a particular person instead of a class.* "what is the splendour of _the greatest monarch_ compared with the beauty of _a flower_?" "what is the splendour of solomon compared with the beauty of a daisy?" under this head may come the forcible use of noun for adjective: "this fortress is _weakness_ itself." an excess of this use is lengthy and pedantically bombastic, _e.g._, the following paraphrase for "in every british colony:"--"under indian palm-groves, amid australian gum-trees, in the shadow of african mimosas, and beneath canadian pines." * . use metaphor instead of literal statement.* "the ship _ploughs_ the sea" is clearer than "the ship _cleaves_ the sea," and shorter than "the ship _cleaves_ the sea _as a plough cleaves the land_." of course there are some subjects for which metaphor should not be used. see ( _a_) and ( _b_). * . do not confuse metaphor.* "in a moment the thunderbolt was upon them, _deluging_ their country with invaders." the following is attributed to sir boyle roche: "mr. speaker, i smell a rat, i see him brewing in the air; but, mark me, i shall yet nip him in the bud." some words, once metaphorical, have ceased to be so regarded. hence many good writers say "_under_ these _circumstances_" instead of "_in_ these circumstances." an excessive regard for disused metaphor savours of pedantry: disregard is inelegant. write, not, "_unparalleled_ complications," but "_unprecedented_ complications;" and "_he threw light on_ obscurities," instead of "_he unravelled_ obscurities." * a. do not introduce literal statement immediately after metaphor.* "he was the father of chemistry, and brother to the earl of cork." "he was a very thunderbolt of war, and was lieutenant to the earl of mar." * b. do not use poetic metaphor to illustrate a prosaic subject.* thus, we may say "a poet _soars_," or even, though rarely, "a nation _soars_ to greatness," but you could not say "consols _soared to_ - / ." even commonplace subjects may be illustrated by metaphor: for it is a metaphor, and quite unobjectionable, to say "consols _mounted_, or _jumped_ to - / ." but commonplace subjects must be illustrated by metaphor that is commonplace. order of words in a sentence. * . emphatic words must stand in emphatic positions; i.e. for the most part, at the beginning or at the end of the sentence.* this rule occasionally supersedes the common rules about position. thus, the place for an adverb, as a rule, should be between the subject and verb: "he _quickly_ left the room;" but if _quickly_ is to be emphatic, it must come at the beginning or end, as in "i told him to leave the room slowly, but he left _quickly_." adjectives, in clauses beginning with "if" and "though," often come at the beginning for emphasis: "_insolent_ though he was, he was silenced at last." * a. unemphatic words must, as a rule, be kept from the end of the sentence.* it is a common fault to break this rule by placing a short and unemphatic predicate at the end of a long sentence. "to know some latin, even if it be nothing but a few latin roots, _is useful_." write, "it is useful, &c." so "the evidence proves how kind to his inferiors _he is_." often, where an adjective or auxiliary verb comes at the end, the addition of an emphatic adverb justifies the position, _e.g._ above, "is _very_ useful," "he has _invariably_ been." a short "chippy" ending, even though emphatic, is to be avoided. it is abrupt and unrhythmical, _e.g._ "the soldier, transfixed with the spear, _writhed_." we want a _longer_ ending, "fell writhing to the ground," or, "writhed in the agonies of death." a "chippy" ending is common in bad construing from virgil. *exceptions.*--prepositions and pronouns attached to emphatic words need not be moved from the end; _e.g._ "he does no harm that i hear _of_." "bear witness how i loved _him_." *n.b. in all styles, especially in letter-writing, a final emphasis must not be so frequent as to become obtrusive and monotonous.* * b. an interrogation sometimes gives emphasis.* "no one can doubt that the prisoner, had he been really guilty, would have shown some signs of remorse," is not so emphatic as "who can doubt, is it possible to doubt, &c.?" contrast "no one ever names wentworth without thinking of &c." with "but wentworth,--who ever names him without thinking of those harsh dark features, ennobled by their expression into more than the majesty of an antique jupiter?" * . the subject, if unusually emphatic, should often be removed from the beginning of the sentence.* the beginning of the sentence is an emphatic position, though mostly not so emphatic as the end. therefore the principal subject of a sentence, being emphatic, and being wanted early in the sentence to tell us what the sentence is about, comes as a rule, at or near the beginning: "_thomas_ built this house." hence, since the beginning is the _usual_ place for the subject, if we want to emphasize "thomas" _unusually_, we must remove "thomas" from the beginning: "this house was built by _thomas_," or "it was _thomas_ that built this house." thus, the emphasis on "conqueror" is not quite so strong in "_a mere conqueror_ ought not to obtain from us the reverence that is due to the great benefactors of mankind," as in "we ought not to bestow the reverence that is due to the great benefactors of mankind, _upon a mere conqueror_." considerable, but less emphasis and greater smoothness ( ) will be obtained by writing the sentence thus: "we ought not to bestow upon a mere conqueror &c." where the same subject stands first in several consecutive sentences, it rises in emphasis, and need not be removed from the beginning, even though unusual emphasis be required: "the captain was the life and soul of the expedition. _he_ first pointed out the possibility of advancing; _he_ warned them of the approaching scarcity of provisions; _he_ showed how they might replenish their exhausted stock &c." * . the object is sometimes placed before the verb for emphasis.* this is most common in antithesis. "_jesus_ i know, and _paul_ i know; but who are ye?" "_some_ he imprisoned, _others_ he put to death." even where there is no antithesis the inversion is not uncommon: "military _courage_, the boast of the sottish german, of the frivolous and prating frenchman, of the romantic and arrogant spaniard, he neither possesses nor values." this inversion sometimes creates ambiguity in poetry, _e.g._ "the son the father slew," and must be sparingly used in prose. sometimes the position of a word may be considered appropriate by some, and inappropriate by others, according to different interpretations of the sentence. take as an example, "early in the morning the nobles and gentlemen who attended on the king assembled in the great hall of the castle; and here they began to talk of what a dreadful storm it had been the night before. but macbeth could scarcely understand what they said, for he was thinking of something worse." the last sentence has been amended by professor bain into "_what they said_, macbeth could scarcely understand." but there appears to be an antithesis between the guiltless nobles who can think about the weather, and the guilty macbeth who cannot. hence, "what they said" ought not, and "macbeth" ought, to be emphasized: and therefore "macbeth" ought to be retained at the beginning of the sentence. the same author alters, "the praise of judgment virgil has justly contested with him, but his invention remains yet unrivalled," into "virgil has justly contested with him the praise of judgment, but no one has yet rivalled his invention"--an alteration which does not seem to emphasize sufficiently the antithesis between what had been 'contested,' on the one hand, and what remained as yet 'unrivalled' on the other. more judiciously professor bain alters, "he that tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain one," into "for, to maintain one, he must invent twenty more," putting the emphatic words in their emphatic place, at the end. * . where several words are emphatic, make it clear which is the most emphatic.* thus, in "the state was made, under the pretence of serving it, in reality the prize of their contention to each of these opposite parties," it is unpleasantly doubtful whether the writer means ( ) _state_ or ( ) _parties_ to be emphatic. if ( ), "as for the _state_, these two parties, under the pretence of serving it, converted it into a prize for their contention." if ( ), write, "though served in profession, the state was in reality converted into a prize for their contention by these two _parties_." in ( ) _parties_ is subordinated, in ( ) _state_. sometimes the addition of some intensifying word serves to emphasize. thus, instead of "to effect this they used all devices," we can write "to effect this they used _every conceivable device_." so, if we want to emphasize fidelity in "the business will task your skill and fidelity," we can write "not only your skill _but also_ your fidelity." this, however, sometimes leads to exaggerations. see ( ). sometimes antithesis gives emphasis, as in "you _do_ not know this, but you _shall_ know it." where antithesis cannot be used, the emphasis must be expressed by turning the sentence, as "i _will make you_ know it," or by some addition, as "you shall _hereafter_ know it." * . words should be as near as possible to the words with which they are grammatically connected.* see paragraphs to . for exceptions see . * . adverbs should be placed next to the words they are intended to affect.* when unemphatic, adverbs come between the subject and the verb, or, if the tense is compound, between the parts of the compound tense: "he _quickly_ left the room;" "he has _quickly_ left the room;" but, when emphatic, after the verb: "he left, or has left, the room _quickly_."[ ] when such a sentence as the latter is followed by a present participle, there arises ambiguity. "i told him to go slowly, but he left the room _quickly_, dropping the purse on the floor." does _quickly_ here modify _left_ or _dropping_? the remedy[ ] is, to give the adverb its unemphatic place, "he _quickly_ left the room, dropping &c.," or else to avoid the participle, thus: "he _quickly_ dropped the purse and left the room," or "he dropped the purse and _quickly_ left the room." * . "only" requires careful use. the strict[ ] rule is, that "only" should be placed before the word affected by it.* the following is ambiguous: "the heavens are not open to the faithful _only_ at intervals." the best rule is to avoid placing "only" between two emphatic words, and to avoid using "only" where "alone" can be used instead. in strictness perhaps the three following sentences: ( ) he _only_ beat three, ( ) he beat _only_ three, ( ) he beat three _only_, ought to be explained, severally, thus: ( ) he did no more than beat, did not kill, three. ( ) he beat no more than three. ( ) he beat three, and that was all he did. (here _only_ modifies the whole of the sentence and depreciates the action.) but the best authors sometimes transpose the word. "he _only_ lived" ought to mean "he did not die or make any great sacrifice;" but "he _only_ lived but till he was a man" (_macbeth_, v. . ) means "he lived _only_ till he was a man." compare also, "who _only_ hath immortality." _only_ at the beginning of a statement = _but_. "i don't like to importune you, _only_ i know you'll forgive me." before an imperative it diminishes the favour asked: "_only_ listen to me." this use of _only_ is mostly confined to letters. very often, _only_ at the beginning of a sentence is used for _alone_: "_only_ ten came," "_only_ cæsar approved." _alone_ is less ambiguous. the ambiguity of _only_ is illustrated by such a sentence as, "don't hesitate to bring a few friends of yours to shoot on my estate at any time. _only_ five (fifteen) came yesterday," which might mean, "i don't mind a _few_; _only_ don't bring so many as _fifteen_;" or else "don't hesitate to bring a few _more_; no more than _five_ came yesterday." in conversation, ambiguity is prevented by emphasis; but in a letter, _only_ thus used might cause unfortunate mistakes. write "yesterday _only_ five came," if you mean "no more than five." * . when "not only" precedes "but also," see that each is followed by the same part of speech.* "he _not only_ gave me advice _but also_ help" is wrong. write "he gave me, _not only_ advice, _but also_ help." on the other hand, "he _not only_ gave me a grammar, _but also_ lent me a dictionary," is right. take an instance. "he spoke _not only_ forcibly _but also_ tastefully (adverbs), and this too, _not only_ before a small audience, _but also_ in (prepositions) a large public meeting, and his speeches were _not only_ successful, _but also_ (adjective) worthy of success." * . "at least," "always," and other adverbial adjuncts, sometimes produce ambiguity.* "i think you will find my latin exercise, _at all events_, as good as my cousin's." does this mean ( ) "my latin exercise, though not perhaps my other exercises;" or ( ), "though not very good, yet, at all events, as good as my cousin's"? write for ( ), "my latin exercise, at all events, you will find &c." and for ( ), "i think you will find my latin exercise as good as my cousin's, at all events." the remedy is to avoid placing "at all events" between two emphatic words. as an example of the misplacing of an adverbial adjunct, take "from abroad he received most favourable reports, but in the city he heard that a panic had broken out on the exchange, and that the funds were fast falling." this ought to mean that the "hearing," and not (as is intended) that the "breaking out of the panic," took place in the city. in practice, an adverb is often used to qualify a remote word, where the latter is _more emphatic than any nearer word_. this is very common when the adverbial adjunct is placed in an emphatic position at the beginning of the sentence: "_on this very spot_ our guide declared that claverhouse had fallen." * . nouns should be placed near the nouns that they define.* in the very common sentence "the death is announced of mr. john smith, an author whose works &c.," the transposition is probably made from a feeling that, if we write "the death of mr. john smith is announced," we shall be obliged to begin a new sentence, "he was an author whose works &c." but the difficulty can be removed by writing "we regret to announce, or, we are informed of, the death of mr. john smith, an author, &c." * . pronouns should follow the nouns to which they refer without the intervention of another noun.* avoid, "john smith, the son of thomas smith, _who_ gave me this book," unless _thomas smith_ is the antecedent of _who_. avoid also "john supplied thomas with money: _he_ (john) was very well off." when, however, one of two preceding nouns is decidedly superior to the other in emphasis, the more emphatic may be presumed to be the noun referred to by the pronoun, even though the noun of inferior emphasis intervenes. thus: "at this moment the colonel came up, and took the place of the wounded general. _he_ gave orders to halt." here _he_ would naturally refer to _colonel_, though _general_ intervenes. a _conjunction_ will often show that a pronoun refers to the subject of the preceding sentence, and not to another intervening noun. "the sentinel at once took aim at the approaching soldier, and fired. he _then_ retreated to give the alarm." it is better to adhere, in most cases, to rule , which may be called (bain) the rule of proximity. the rule of emphasis, of which an instance was given in the last paragraph, is sometimes misleading. a distinction might be drawn by punctuating thus: "david the father of solomon, who slew goliath." "david, the father of solomon who built the temple." but the propriety of omitting a comma in each case is questionable, and it is better to write so as not to be at the mercy of commas. * . clauses that are grammatically connected should be kept as close together as possible.* (but see .) the introduction of parentheses violating this rule often produced serious ambiguity. thus, in the following: "the result of these observations appears to be in opposition to the view now generally received in this country, that in muscular effort the substance of the muscle itself undergoes disintegration." here it is difficult to tell whether the theory of "disintegration" is ( ) "the result," or, as the absence of a comma after "be" would indicate, ( ) "in opposition to the result of these observations." if ( ) is intended, add "and to prove" after "country;" if ( ), insert "which is" after "country." there is an excessive complication in the following:--"it cannot, at all events, if the consideration demanded by a subject of such importance from any one professing to be a philosopher, be given, be denied that &c." where a speaker feels that his hearers have forgotten the connection of the beginning of the sentence, he should repeat what he has said; _e.g._ after the long parenthesis in the last sentence he should recommence, "it cannot, i say, be denied." in writing, however, this licence must be sparingly used. a short parenthesis, or modifying clause, will not interfere with clearness, especially if antithesis he used, so as to show the connection between the different parts of the sentence, _e.g._ "a modern newspaper statement, _though probably true_, would be laughed at if quoted in a book as testimony; but the letter of a court gossip is thought good historical evidence if written some centuries ago." here, to place "though probably true" at the beginning of the sentence would not add clearness, and would impair the emphasis of the contrast between "a modern newspaper statement" and "the letter of a court gossip." * . in conditional sentences, the antecedent clauses must be kept distinct from the consequent clauses.*--there is ambiguity in "the lesson intended to be taught by these manoeuvres will be lost, if the plan of operations is laid down too definitely beforehand, and the affair degenerates into a mere review." begin, in any case, with the antecedent, "if the plan," &c. next write, according to the meaning: ( ) "if the plan is laid down, and the affair degenerates &c., then the lesson will be lost;" or ( ) " ... then the lesson ... will be lost, and the affair degenerates into a mere review." * . dependent clauses preceded by "that" should be kept distinct from those that are independent.* take as an example: ( ) "he replied that he wished to help them, and intended to make preparations accordingly." this ought not to be used (though it sometimes is, for shortness) to mean: ( ) "he replied ..., and he intended." in ( ), "intended," having no subject, must be supposed to be connected with the nearest preceding verb, in the same mood and tense, that has a subject, _i.e._ "wished." it follows that ( ) is a condensation of: ( ) "he replied that he wished ..., and that he intended." ( ), though theoretically free from ambiguity, is practically ambiguous, owing to a loose habit of repeating the subject unnecessarily. it would be better to insert a conjunctional word or a full stop between the two statements. thus: ( ) "he replied that he wished to help them, and _indeed_ he intended," &c., or "he replied, &c. he intended, &c." where there is any danger of ambiguity, use ( ) or ( ) in preference to ( ) or ( ). * . when there are several infinitives, those that are dependent on the same word must be kept distinct from those that are not.* "he said that he wished _to_ take his friend with him _to_ visit the capital and _to_ study medicine." here it is doubtful whether the meaning is-- "he said that he wished to take his friend with him, ( ) _and also_ to visit the capital and study medicine," or ( ) "that his friend might visit the capital _and might also_ study medicine," or ( ) "on a visit to the capital, _and that he also_ wished to study medicine." from the three different versions it will be perceived that this ambiguity must be met (_a_) by using "that" for "to," which allows us to repeat an auxiliary verb [_e.g._ "might" in ( )], and (_b_) by inserting conjunctions. as to insertions of conjunctions, see ( ). "in order to," and "for the purpose of," can be used to distinguish (wherever there is any ambiguity) between an infinitive that _expresses a purpose_, and an infinitive that does not, _e.g._ "he told his servant to call upon his friend, _to_ (in order to) give him information about the trains, and not to leave him till he started." * . the principle of suspense.* write your sentence in such a way that, until he has come to the full stop, the reader may feel the sentence to be incomplete. in other words, keep your reader in _suspense_. _suspense_ is caused ( ) by placing the "if-clause" first, and not last, in a conditional sentence; ( ) by placing participles before the words they qualify; ( ) by using suspensive conjunctions, _e.g._ _not only_, _either_, _partly_, _on the one hand_, _in the first place_, &c. the following is an example of an _unsuspended_ sentence. the sense _draggles_, and it is difficult to keep up one's attention. "mr. pym was looked upon as the man of greatest experience in parliaments, | where he had served very long, | and was always a man of business, | being an officer in the exchequer, | and of a good reputation generally, | though known to be inclined to the puritan party; yet not of those furious resolutions (_mod. eng._ so furiously resolved) against the church as the other leading men were, | and wholly devoted to the earl of bedford,--who had nothing of that spirit." the foregoing sentence might have ended at any one of the eight points marked above. when suspended it becomes:-- "mr. pym, owing to his long service in parliament in the exchequer, was esteemed above all others for his parliamentary experience and for his knowledge of business. he had also a good reputation generally; for, though openly favouring the puritan party, he was closely devoted to the earl of bedford, and, like the earl, had none of the fanatical spirit manifested against the church by the other leading men." * a. it is a violation of the principle of suspense to introduce unexpectedly, at the end of a long sentence, some short and unemphatic clause beginning with (a) " ... not" or (b) " ... which."* (_a_) "this reform has already been highly beneficial to all classes of our countrymen, and will, i am persuaded, encourage among us industry, self-dependence, and frugality, _and not, as some say, wastefulness_." write "not, as some say, wastefulness, but industry, self-dependence, and frugality." (_b_) "after a long and tedious journey, the last part of which was a little dangerous owing to the state of the roads, we arrived safely at york, _which is a fine old town_." *exception.*--when the short final clause is intended to be unexpectedly unemphatic, it comes in appropriately, with something of the sting of an epigram. see ( ). thus: "the old miser said that he should have been delighted to give the poor fellow a shilling, but most unfortunately he had left his purse at home--_a habit of his_." suspense naturally throws increased emphasis on the words for which we are waiting, _i.e._ on the end of the sentence. it has been pointed out above that *a monotony of final emphasis is objectionable, especially in letter writing and conversation*. * . suspense must not be excessive.* _excess of suspense_ is a common fault in boys translating from latin. "themistocles, having secured the safety of greece, the persian fleet being now destroyed, when he had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the greeks to break down the bridge across the hellespont, hearing that xerxes was in full flight, and thinking that it might be profitable to secure the friendship of the king, wrote as follows to him." the more english idiom is: "when themistocles had secured the safety of greece by the destruction of the persian fleet, he made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the greeks to break down the bridge across the hellespont. soon afterwards, hearing &c." a long suspense that would be intolerable in prose is tolerable in the introduction to a poem. see the long interval at the beginning of _paradise lost_ between "of man's first disobedience" and "sing, heavenly muse." compare also the beginning of _paradise lost_, book ii.: "_high on a throne of royal state, which far outshone the wealth of ormuz and of ind, or where the gorgeous east with richest hand showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold-- satan exalted sat._" with the opening of keats' _hyperion_: "_deep in the shady sadness of a vale, far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, far from the fiery noon and eve's one star-- sat grey-haired saturn, quiet as a stone._" * . in a long conditional sentence put the "if-clause," antecedent, or protasis, first.* everyone will see the flatness of "revenge thy father's most unnatural murder, if thou didst ever love him," as compared with the suspense that forces an expression of agony from hamlet in-- "_ghost._ if thou didst ever thy dear father love-- _hamlet._ o, god! _ghost._ revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." the effect is sometimes almost ludicrous when the consequent is long and complicated, and when it precedes the antecedent or "if-clause." "i should be delighted to introduce you to my friends, and to show you the objects of interest in our city, and the beautiful scenery in the neighbourhood, if you were here." where the "if-clause" comes last, it ought to be very emphatic: "if you were _only_ here." the introduction of a clause with "if" or "though" in the middle of a sentence may often cause ambiguity, especially when a great part of the sentence depends on "that:" "his enemies answered that, for the sake of preserving the public peace, they would keep quiet for the present, though he declared that cowardice was the motive of the delay, and that for this reason they would put off the trial to a more convenient season." see ( ). * . suspense[ ] is gained by placing a participle or adjective that qualifies the subject, before the subject.* "_deserted_ by his friends, he was forced to have recourse to those that had been his enemies." here, if we write, "he, deserted by his friends, was forced &c.," _he_ is unduly emphasized; and if we write, "he was forced to have recourse to his enemies, having been deserted by his friends," the effect is very flat. of course we might sometimes write "he was deserted and forced &c." but this cannot be done where the "desertion" is to be not stated but implied. often, when a participle qualifying the subject is introduced late in the sentence, it causes positive ambiguity: "with this small force the general determined to attack the foe, _flushed_ with recent victory and _rendered_ negligent by success." an excessive use of the _suspensive participle_ is french and objectionable: _e.g._ "_careless_ by nature, and too much _engaged_ with business to think of the morrow, _spoiled_ by a long-established liberty and a fabulous prosperity, _having_ for many generations forgotten the scourge of war, we allow ourselves to drift on without taking heed of the signs of the times." the remedy is to convert the participle into a verb depending on a conjunction: "because we are by nature careless, &c.;" or to convert the participle into a verb co-ordinate with the principal verb, _e.g._ "_we are_ by nature careless, &c., and therefore we _allow_ ourselves, &c." * . suspensive conjunctions, e.g. "either," "not only," "on the one hand," add clearness.*--take the following sentence:--"you must take this extremely perilous course, in which success is uncertain, and failure disgraceful, as well as ruinous, or else the liberty of your country is endangered." here, the meaning is liable to be misunderstood, till the reader has gone half through the sentence. write "_either_ you must," &c., and the reader is, from the first, prepared for an alternative. other suspensive conjunctions or phrases are _partly_, _for our part_; _in the first place_; _it is true_; _doubtless_; _of course_; _though_; _on the one hand_. * . repeat the subject when the omission would cause ambiguity or obscurity.*--the omission is particularly likely to cause obscurity after a relative standing as subject:-- "he professes to be helping the nation, which in reality is suffering from his flattery, and (he? or it?) will not permit anyone else to give it advice." the relative should be repeated when it is the subject of several verbs. "all the pleasing illusions _which_ made power gentle and obedience liberal, _which_ harmonized the different shades of life, and _which_, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments that beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason." * . repeat a preposition after an intervening conjunction, especially if a verb and an object also intervene.* "he forgets the gratitude that he owes to those that helped all his companions when he was poor and uninfluential, and (_to_) john smith in particular." here, omit _to_, and the meaning may be "that helped all his companions, and john smith in particular." the intervention of the verb and object, "helped" and "companions," causes this ambiguity. * . when there are several verbs at some distance from a conjunction on which they depend, repeat the conjunction.*[ ] "when we look back upon the havoc that two hundred years have made in the ranks of our national authors--and, above all, (_when_) we refer their rapid disappearance to the quick succession of new competitors--we cannot help being dismayed at the prospect that lies before the writers of the present day." here omit "when," and we at once substitute a parenthetical statement for what is really a subordinate clause. in reporting a speech or opinion, "that" must be continually repeated, to avoid the danger of confusing what the writer says with what others say. "we might say that the cæsars did not persecute the christians; (_that_) they only punished men who were charged, rightly or wrongly, with burning rome, and committing the foulest abominations in secret assemblies; and (_that_) the refusal to throw frankincense on the altar of jupiter was not the crime, but only evidence of the crime." but see ( _b_). * a. repeat verbs after the conjunctions "than," "as," &c.* "i think he likes me better _than_ you;" _i.e._ either "than you like me," or "he likes you." "cardinal richelieu hated buckingham as sincerely as _did_ the spaniard olivares." omit "did," and you cause ambiguity. * . if the sentence is so long that it is difficult to keep the thread of meaning unbroken, repeat the subject, or some other emphatic word, or a summary of what has been said.* "gold and cotton, banks and railways, crowded ports, and populous cities--_these_ are not the elements that constitute a great nation." this repetition (though useful and, when used in moderation, not unpleasant) is more common with speakers than with writers, and with slovenly speakers than with good speakers. "the country is in such a condition, that if we delay longer some fair measure of reform, sufficient at least to satisfy the more moderate, and much more, if we refuse all reform whatsoever--i say, if _we adopt so unwise a policy, the country is in such a condition_ that we may precipitate a revolution." where the relative is either implied (in a participle) or repeated, the antecedent must often be repeated also. in the following sentence we have the subject repeated not only in the final summary, but also as the antecedent:-- "but if there were, in any part of the world, a national church regarded as heretical by four-fifths of the nation committed to its care; a _church_ established and maintained by the sword; a _church_ producing twice as many riots as conversions; a _church_ which, though possessing great wealth and power, and though long backed by persecuting laws, had, in the course of many generations, been found unable to propagate its doctrines, and barely able to maintain its ground; a _church_ so odious that fraud and violence, when used against its clear rights of property, were generally regarded as fair play; a _church_ whose ministers were preaching to desolate walls, and with difficulty obtaining their lawful subsistence by the help of bayonets,--_such a church_, on our principles, could not, we must own, be defended." * . it is a help to clearness, when the first part of the sentence prepares the way for the middle and the middle for the end, in a kind of ascent. this ascent is called "climax."* in the following there are two climaxes, each of which has three terms:-- "to gossip(a) is a fault(b); to _libel_(a'), a _crime_(b'); to slander(a''), a _sin_(b'')." in the following, there are several climaxes, and note how they contribute to the clearness of a long sentence:-- "man, working, has _contrived_(a) the atlantic cable, but i declare that it _astonishes_(b) me far more to think _that for his mere amusement_(c), that to _entertain a mere idle hour_(c'), he has _created_(a') 'othello' and 'lear,' and i am more than astonished, i am _awe-struck_(b'), at that inexplicable elasticity of his nature which enables him, instead of _turning away_(d) from _calamity and grief_(e), or instead of merely _defying_(d') them, actually to _make them the material of his amusement_(d''), and to draw from the _wildest agonies of the human spirit_(e') a pleasure which is not only _not cruel_(f), but is in the highest degree _pure and ennobling_(f')." the neglect of climax produces an abruptness that interferes with the even flow of thought. thus, if pope, in his ironical address to mankind, had written-- "go, wondrous creature, mount where science guides; go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; go, teach eternal wisdom how to rule"-- the ascent would have been too rapid. the transition from earth to heaven, and from investigating to governing, is prepared by the intervening climax-- "instruct the planets in what orbs to run; correct old time, and regulate the sun; go, soar with plato to th' empyreal sphere, to the first good, first perfect, and first fair." * . when the thought is expected to ascend and yet descends, feebleness and sometimes confusion is the result. the descent is called "bathos."* "what pen can describe the tears, the lamentations, the agonies, the _animated remonstrances_ of the unfortunate prisoners?" "she was a woman of many accomplishments and virtues, graceful in her movements, winning in her address, a kind friend, a faithful and loving wife, a most affectionate mother, and she _played beautifully on the pianoforte_." intentional bathos has a humorous incongruity and abruptness that is sometimes forcible. for example, after the climax ending with the line-- "go, teach eternal wisdom how to rule," pope adds-- "then drop into thyself, and be a _fool_." * a. a new construction should not be introduced without cause.*--a sudden and apparently unnecessary change of construction causes awkwardness and roughness at least, and sometimes breaks the flow of the sentence so seriously as to cause perplexity. thus, write "virtuous and accomplished," or "of many virtues and accomplishments," not "of many virtues and accomplished;" "riding or walking" or "on foot or horseback," not "on foot or riding." in the same way, do not put adjectives and participles, active and passive forms of verbs, in too close juxtaposition. avoid such sentences as the following:-- "he had good reason _to believe_ that the delay was not _an accident_ (accidental) but _premeditated_, and _for supposing_ (to suppose, or else, for believing, above) that the fort, though strong both _by art_ and _naturally_ (nature), would be forced by the _treachery of the_ governor and the _indolent_ (indolence of the) general to capitulate within a week." "they accused him of being _bribed_ (receiving bribes from) by the king and _unwilling_ (neglecting) to take the city." * . antithesis adds force, and often clearness.*--the meaning of _liberal_ in the following sentence is ascertained by the antithesis:-- "all the pleasing illusions which made _power_(a) _gentle_(b) and _obedience_(a') _liberal_(b') ... are now to be destroyed." there is a kind of proportion. as _gentleness_ is to _power_, so _liberality_ (in the sense here used) is to _obedience_. now _gentleness_ is the check on the excess of power; therefore _liberal_ here applies to that which checks the excess of obedience, _i.e._ checks servility. hence _liberal_ here means "free." the contrast also adds force. "they aimed at the _rule_(a), not at the _destruction_(a'), of their country. they were men of great _civil_(b) and great _military_(b') talents, and, if the _terror_(c), the _ornament_(c') of their age." excessive antithesis is unnatural and wearisome:-- "who can persuade where _treason_(a) is above _reason_(a'), and _might_(b) ruleth _right_(b'), and it is had for _lawful_(c) whatsoever is _lustful_(c'), and _commotioners_(d) are better than _commissioners_(d'), and _common woe_(e) is named common _wealth_(e')?" * . epigram.*--it has been seen that the neglect of climax results in lameness. sometimes the suddenness of the descent produces amusement: and when the descent is intentional and very sudden, the effect is striking as well as amusing. thus:-- ( ) "you are not only not vicious, you are virtuous," is a _climax_. ( ) "you are not vicious, you are vice," is not _climax_, nor is it _bathos_: it is _epigram_.[ ] epigram may be defined as a "short sentence expressing truth under an amusing appearance of incongruity." it is often antithetical. "the russian grandees came to { and diamonds," _climax_. court dropping pearls { and vermin," _epigram_. "these two nations were divided { and the bitter remembrance by mutual fear { of recent losses," _climax_. { and mountains," _epigram_. there is a sort of implied antithesis in:-- "he is full of information--(but flat also) like yesterday's _times_." "verbosity is cured (not by a small, but) by a large vocabulary." the name of epigram may sometimes be given to a mere antithesis; _e.g._ "an educated man should know something of everything, and everything of something." * . let each sentence have one, and only one, principal subject of thought.* "this great and good man died on the th of september, , leaving behind him the memory of many noble actions, and a numerous family, of whom three were sons; one of them, george, the eldest, heir to his father's virtues, as well as to his principal estates in cumberland, where most of his father's property was situate, and shortly afterwards elected member for the county, which had for several generations returned this family to serve in parliament." here we have ( ) the "great and good man," ( ) "george," ( ) "the county," disputing which is to be considered the principal subject. two, if not three sentences should have been made, instead of one. carefully avoid a long sentence like this, treating of many different subjects on one level. it is called _heterogeneous_. * . the connection between different sentences must be kept up by adverbs used as conjunctions, or by means of some other connecting words at the beginning of each sentence.*--leave out the conjunctions and other connecting words, and it will be seen that the following sentences lose much of their meaning:-- "pitt was in the army for a few months in time of peace. his biographer (_accordingly_) insists on our confessing, that, if the young cornet had remained in the service, he would have been one of the ablest commanders that ever lived. (_but_) this is not all. pitt (, _it seems_,) was not merely a great poet _in esse_ and a great general _in posse_, but a finished example of moral excellence.... (_the truth is, that_) there scarcely ever lived a person who had so little claim to this sort of praise as pitt. he was (_undoubtedly_) a great man. (_but_) his was not a complete and well-proportioned greatness. the public life of hampden or of somers resembles a regular drama which can be criticised as a whole, and every scene of which is to be viewed in connection with the main action. the public life of pitt (, _on the other hand_,) is," &c. the following are some of the most common connecting adverbs, or connecting phrases: ( ) expressing consequence, similarity, repetition, or resumption of a subject--_accordingly_, _therefore_, _then_, _naturally_, _so that_, _thus_, _in this way_, _again_, _once more_, _to resume_, _to continue_, _to sum up_, _in fact_, _upon this_; ( ) expressing opposition--_nevertheless_, _in spite of this_, _yet_, _still_, _however_, _but_, _on the contrary_, _on the other hand_; ( ) expressing suspension--_undoubtedly ... but_; _indeed ... yet_; _on the one hand ... on the other_; _partly ... partly_; _some ... others_. avoid a style like that of bishop burnet, which strings together a number of sentences with "and" or "so," or with no conjunction at all: "blake with the fleet happened to be at malaga, before he made war upon spain; _and_ some of his seamen went ashore, _and_ met the host carried about; _and_ not only paid no respect to it, but laughed at those who did." write "_when_ blake &c." * . the connection between two long sentences sometimes requires a short intervening sentence, showing the transition of thought.* "without force or opposition, it (chivalry) subdued the fierceness of pride and power; it obliged sovereigns to submit to the soft collar[ ] of social esteem, compelled stern authority to submit to elegance, and gave a dominating vanquisher of laws to be subdued by manners. but now (_all is to be changed_:) all the pleasing illusions which made power gentle and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments that beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason." if the words italicized were omitted, the transition would be too abrupt: the conjunction _but_ alone would be insufficient. footnotes: [ ] _for_, at the beginning of a sentence, sometimes causes temporary doubt, while the reader is finding out whether it is used as a conjunction or preposition. [ ] _it_ should refer ( ) either to the noun immediately preceding, or ( ) to some noun superior to all intervening nouns in emphasis. see ( ). [ ] so useful that, on mature consideration, i am disposed to adopt "that" here and in several of the following exceptional cases. [ ] of course "and which" may be used where "which" precedes. [ ] "that which," where _that_ is an _object_, _e.g._ "then (set forth) _that which_ is worse," _st. john_ ii. , is rare in modern english. [ ] sometimes the emphatic adverb comes at the beginning, and causes the transposition of an auxiliary verb, "_gladly_ do i consent." [ ] of course punctuation will remove the ambiguity; but it is better to express oneself clearly, as far as possible, independently of punctuation. [ ] professor bain. [ ] see ( ). [ ] the repetition of auxiliary verbs and pronominal adjectives is also conducive to clearness. [ ] professor bain says: "in the epigram the mind is roused by a conflict or contradiction between the form of the language and the meaning really conveyed." [ ] this metaphor is not recommended for imitation. * * * * * brevity. * . metaphor is briefer than literal statement.* see ( ). "the cares and responsibilities of a sovereign often disturb his sleep," is not so brief as "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," where the effect of care on the mind is assimilated to the effect of a heavy crown pressing on the head. * . general terms are briefer, though less forcible, than particular terms.* thus: "he devours _literature_, no matter of what kind," is shorter than, "novels or sermons, poems or histories, no matter what, he devours them all." * a. a phrase may be expressed by a word.* "these impressions _can never be forgotten_, i.e. are _indelible_." "the style of this book is _of such a nature that it cannot be understood_, i.e. _unintelligible_." the words "of such a nature that" are often unnecessarily inserted. see the extract from sir archibald alison. * . participles can often be used as brief (though sometimes ambiguous) equivalents of phrases containing conjunctions and verbs.* "hearing (when he heard) this, he advanced." see ( ) for more instances. so "phrases _containing_ conjunctions" means "phrases _that contain_ conjunctions." "_this done_, (for, _when this was done_) he retired." sometimes the participle "being" is omitted. "france at our doors, he sees no danger nigh," for "france being" or "though france is." * . participles and participial adjectives may be used like adjectives, as equivalents for phrases containing the relative.* "the never-_ceasing_ wind," "the _clamouring_ ocean," "the _drenching_ rain," are instances. the licence of inventing participial adjectives by adding _-ing_ to a noun, is almost restricted to poetry. you could not write "the _crannying_ wind" in prose. * . a statement may sometimes be briefly implied instead of being expressed at length.* thus, instead of "the spirit of christianity was humanizing, and therefore &c.," or "christianity, since it was (or being) of a humanizing spirit, discouraged &c.," we can write more briefly and effectively, "gladiatorial shows were first discouraged, and finally put down, by the _humanizing spirit of christianity_." so instead of "the nature of youth is thoughtless and sanguine, and therefore &c.," we can write, "the danger of the voyage was depreciated and the beauty of the island exaggerated by _the thoughtless nature of youth_." sometimes a mere name or epithet implies a statement. "it was in vain that he offered the swiss terms: war was deliberately preferred by the _hardy mountaineers_," _i.e._ "by the swiss, _because they were mountaineers and hardy_." "the deed was applauded by all honest men, but the government affected to treat it as murder, and set a price upon the head of (him whom they called) the _assassin." "the conqueror of austerlitz_ might be expected to hold different language from _the prisoner of st. helena_," _i.e._ "napoleon when elated by the victory of austerlitz," and "napoleon when depressed by his imprisonment at st. helena." caution.--different names must not be used for the same person unless each of them derives an appropriateness from its context. thus, if we are writing about charles ii., it would be in very bad taste to avoid repeating "he" by using such periphrases as the following: "the third of the stewarts hated business," "the merry monarch died in the fifty-fourth year of his age," &c. * . conjunctions may be omitted.* the omission gives a certain forcible abruptness, _e.g._ "you say this: i (on the other hand) deny it." when sentences are short, as in macaulay's writings, conjunctions may be advantageously omitted. where a contrast is intended, the conjunction _but_ usually prepares the way for the second of the two contrasted terms: "he is good _but_ dull." where _and_ is used instead of _but_, the incongruity savours of epigram: "he always talks truthfully _and_ prosily." "he is always amusing _and_ false." * a. the imperative mood may be used for "if."* "_strip_ (for, _if you strip_) virtue of the awful authority she derives from the general reverence of mankind, and you rob her of half her majesty." * . apposition may be used so as to convert two sentences into one.* "we called at the house of a person to whom we had letters of introduction, _a musician_, and, what is more, a _good friend_ to all young students of music." this is as clear as, and briefer than, "he was a musician, &c." * . condensation may be effected by not repeating ( ) the common subject of several verbs, ( ) the common object of several verbs or prepositions.* ( ) "he resided here for many years, and, after he had won the esteem of all the citizens, (_he_) died," &c. so, ( ) "he came to, and was induced to reside in, this city," is shorter than "he came to this city, and was induced to reside in it." such condensation often causes obscurity, and, even where there is no obscurity, there is a certain harshness in pausing on light, unemphatic words, such as _to_, _in_, &c., as in the first example. * . tautology.*--the fault of repeating the same word several times unnecessarily is called _tautology_, e.g.: "this is a painful _circumstance_; it is a _circumstance_ that i much _regret_, and he also will much _regret_ the _circumstance_." but the fault is not to be avoided by using different words to mean the same thing, as, "this is a painful _event_; it is a _circumstance_ that i _much regret_, and he also will _greatly lament_ the _occurrence_." the true remedy is to arrange the words in such a manner that there may be no unnecessary repetition, thus: "this is a painful circumstance, a circumstance that causes me, and will cause him, deep regret." the repetition of the same meaning in slightly different words is a worse fault than the repetition of the same word. see, for examples, the extract from sir archibald alison, at the end of the book. thus "_a burning thirst_ for conquests is a characteristic of this nation. it is an _ardent passion_ that &c." other instances are--"the _universal_ opinion of _all_ men;" "his judgment is so _infallible_ that it is _never deceived_," &c. * . parenthesis may be used with advantage to brevity.* "we are all (and who would not be?) offended at the treatment we have received," is shorter and more forcible than the sentence would have been if the parenthesis had been appended in a separate sentence: "who, indeed, would not be offended?" extreme care must, however, be taken that a parenthesis may not obscure the meaning of a long sentence. * . caution: let clearness be the first consideration.* it is best, at all events for beginners, not to aim so much at being brief, or forcible, as at being perfectly clear. horace says, "while i take pains to be brief, i fall into obscurity," and it may easily be seen that several of the rules for brevity interfere with the rules for clearness. forcible style springs from ( ) vividness and ( ) exactness of thought, and from a corresponding ( ) vividness and ( ) exactness in the use of words. ( ) when you are describing anything, endeavour to _see_ it and describe it as you see it. if you are writing about a man who was killed, _see_ the man before you, and ask, was he _executed_, _cut down_, _run through the body_, _butchered_, _shot_, or _hanged_? if you are writing about the capture of a city, was the city _stormed_, _surprised_, _surrendered_, _starved out_, or _demolished before surrender_? was an army _repelled_, _defeated_, _routed_, _crushed_, or _annihilated_? ( ) exactness in the use of words requires an exact knowledge of their meanings and differences. this is a study by itself, and cannot be discussed here.[ ] footnotes: [ ] see _english lessons for english people_, pp. - . exercises _for an explanation of the manner in which these exercises are intended to be used, see the preface._ _a number in brackets by itself, or followed by a letter,_ e.g. _( ), ( a), refers to the rules._ _letters_ by themselves _in brackets_, e.g. _(b), refer to the explanations or hints appended to each sentence._ _n.b..--( a) refers to the first section of rule ( ); ( a') to the rule following rule ( )._ . "pleasure and excitement had more attractions for him _than_ (_a_) ( ) ( _a_) _his friend_, and the two companions became estranged ( _a_) _gradually_." (_a_) write ( ) "than for his friend," or ( ) "than had his friend," "had more attractions than his friend." . "(_a_) he soon grew tired of solitude even in that beautiful scenery, ( ) the pleasures of the retirement ( ) _which_ he had once pined for, and ( ) leisure which he could use to no good purpose, (_a_) ( ) _being_ ( ) _restless by nature_." (_a_) this sentence naturally stops at "purpose." also "being restless" seems (wrongly) to give the reason why "leisure" could not be employed. begin "restless by nature...." . "the opponents of the government are naturally, and not (_a_) ( _a_) _without justification_, elated at the failure of the bold attempt to return two supporters of the government at the recent election, (_b_) ( _a'_) _which_ is certainly to be regretted." (_a_) "unjustifiably." (_b_) write, for "which," either ( ) "an attempt that &c.," or ( ) "a failure that &c." . "carelessness in the admiralty departments has co-operated with nature to weaken the moral power of a government that particularly needs to be thought efficient in (_a_) ( ) _this_ _respect_, (_b_) ( ) _to_ counterbalance a general distrust of its excessive _desire_ (_c_) ( _a_) _to please everybody_ in foreign affairs." (_a_) write "the navy." (_b_) instead of "to" write "in order to," so as to distinguish the different infinitives, (_c_) "obsequiousness." . "(_a_) he was sometimes supported by austria, who, oddly enough, appears under count beust to have been more friendly to italy _than_ ( _a_) _france_, ( ) _in this line of action_." (_a_) begin with "in this line of action." why? (_b_) write "than was france" or "than france was." . "there was something so startling in (_a_) ( ) _this_ assertion, (_a_) ( ) _that_ the discoveries of previous investigators were to be (_b_) ( _a_) _treated as though they had never been made_, and ( ) _that one who had not yet_ ( _a_) _attained the age of manhood_ had superseded the grey-headed philosophers ( ) _who_ had for centuries patiently sought after the truth, ( ) _that_ (_a_) ( ) _it_ naturally provoked derision." (_a_) "this," "that," and "it," cause a little perplexity. write "the startling assertion that the discoveries...." (_b_) "ignored." (_c_) "a mere youth," "a mere stripling." . "one of the recommendations (_on which very_ (_a_) ( ) ( , _a_) _much depended_) of the commission was that a council in each province should establish smaller councils, each to have the oversight of a small district, and (_b_) ( ) report to a central council on the state of education in (_c_) ( ) it." (_a_) write "cardinal recommendations." derive "cardinal." (_b_) write, either ( ) "and should report," or ( ) "and to report." (_c_) write "in its province," or "district." . "at this (_a_) ( ) _period_ an (_b_) ( ) _event_ (_c_) ( ) _transpired_ that destroyed the last hopes of peace. the king fell from his horse and died two hours after the fall (_d_) ( ), _which was occasioned by his horse's stumbling on a mole-hill, while he was on his return from reviewing his soldiers_." (_a_) what is a "period"? (_b_) express the particular kind of event ("accident"). (_c_) what is the meaning of "transpired"? (_d_) transpose thus: "while the king was on his return ... his horse ...; the king fell and &c." the cause should precede the effect. . "he determined (_c_) on selling all his estates, and, as soon as this was done ( _a_), _to_ (_c_) _quit_ the country, (_a_) ( ) believing that his honour demanded this sacrifice and ( ) ( _a_) _in_ (_b_) _the_ hope of satisfying his creditors." (_a_) begin with "believing that &c." (_b_) "hoping thereby to satisfy &c." (_c_) "to sell" or "on quitting.". . "he read patiently on, leading articles, foreign correspondence, money article and all; (_a_) ( ) during which his father fell asleep, and he (_b_) went in search of his sister." point out the absurdity of "during which" applied to the last part of the sentence. (_a_) "meanwhile." (_b_) insert "then." . "the general was quite (_a_) ( ) _conscious_ ( _a_) _how_ treacherous were the intentions of _those who were_ (_b_) ( ) _entertaining_ him, and ( _a_) _of the_ dangers from which he had _escaped_ ( ) _lately_." (_a_) distinguish between "conscious" and "aware." _(b_) "entertainers." . "if _certain_ (_a_) ( ) _books_ had been published a hundred years ago, there can be no doubt that _certain recent_ (_b_) ( ) _historians_ would have made great use of them. but it _would_ (_c_) ( _b_) _not_, on that account, be judicious in a writer of our own times to publish an edition of the works of _one of these_ (_b_) ( ) _historians_, in which large extracts from these books should be incorporated with the original text." (_a_) "mrs. hutchinson's memoirs." (_b_) "mr. hume." (_c_) add at the end of the sentence, "surely not." . "he made no attempt to get up a petition, ( ) though he did not like the new representative quite so well _as_ (_a_) ( _a_) _his colleagues_." (_a_) "as did his colleagues" or "as he liked his colleagues." . "though he was (_a_) ( ) _obstinate_ and ( ) _unprincipled_, yet he could not face an angered father ( _a_) _in spite of his effrontery_." (_a_) begin with "obstinate." . "he was known to his country neighbours (_a_) ( ) _during more than forty years_ as a gentleman of cultivated mind, ( _a_) _whose principles were high_, ( _a_) _with polished address_, happy in his family, and (_b_) ( _a_) _actively_ discharging local duties; and ( _a_) _among_ political men, as an honest, industrious, and sensible member of parliament, ( a) _without_ (_c_) _eagerness_ to display his talents, ( _a_) _who_ ( _g_) _was_ stanch to his party, and attentive to the interests of _those whose_ (_d_) ( _a_) _representative he was_." (_a_) "during more &c.," is emphatic, and affects the latter as well as the former half of the sentence: hence it should stand first. (_b_) "in the discharge of." (_c_) "not eager." (_d_) condense into one word. . "the poor think themselves no more disgraced by taking bribes at elections _than_ (_a_) ( _a_) _the rich_ by offering them." (_a_) write ( ) "than the rich think themselves disgraced," or ( ) "than they think the rich disgraced." . "we are told that the sultan mahmoud, by his perpetual wars, (_a_) ( ) and his tyranny, (_a_) ( ) had filled his dominions with (_b_) ( ) _misfortune and_ (_c_) ( ) _calamity_, and _greatly_ (_d_) ( ) _diminished_ the population of the persian empire. _this great sultan had_ (_e_) ( ) _a vizier_. _we are not_ (_f_) ( ) ( ) _informed_ whether he was a humorist or an enthusiast, (_g_) _but he_ pretended (_h_) that he had learned from (_i_) ( ) _some one_ how to understand the language of birds, so that _he_ (_j_) ( ) knew what was said by any bird that opened its mouth. (_k_) ( ) one evening he was with the sultan, returning from hunting. they saw a couple of owls _which_ ( _g_) _were_ sitting upon a tree (_l_) ( ) _which_ grew near an old wall out of a heap of rubbish. the sultan said ( ) he should like to know what the two owls were saying to one another, _and asked the_ (_m_) _vizier to_ listen to their discourse and give him an account of it. the vizier, (_n_) ( ) pretending to be very attentive to the owls, approached the tree. he (_o_) returned to the sultan and said that ( ) he had heard part of their conversation, but did not wish to tell him what it was. (_p_) ( ) _he_, not (_q_) ( ) being satisfied with this answer, forced him to repeat everything the owls had said ( ) _exactly_. (_r_) ( ) ( ) ( ) _he_ told ( ) _him_ that the owls were arranging a treaty of marriage between their children, and that one of them, after agreeing to settle five hundred villages upon the female owl, had prayed ( ) that god would grant a long life to sultan mahmoud, because as long as he reigned over them they would never want ruined villages. the story says (_s_) _that_ (_t_) ( ) _he_ was touched with the fable, ( ) and (_s_) _that_ he (_a_) ( ) from that time forward _consulted_ ( ) _the good of his people_, and that he rebuilt the towns and villages (_v_) _which_ had been destroyed." (_a_) "abroad ... at home." (_b_) "ruin." (_c_) "desolation." (_d_) "half unpeopled." (_e_) "the vizier of &c." (_f_) "we are not informed" is emphatic, and therefore should be inverted, "whether he was, &c., we are not informed." (_g_) "but he" will be omitted when "the vizier" is made the subject of "pretended." (_h_) "pretended" once meant "claimed," "professed." write "professed." (_i_) "a certain dervish." (_j_) introduce a new subject that you may substitute "vizier" for "he," thus: "so that not a bird could open its mouth, but the vizier knew &c." (_k_) "as he was, one evening, &c." (_l_) note that the tree is represented as growing out of _ruins_. this is in accordance with the story of the mischief mahmoud had done. (_m_) omit this. (_n_) "suspense" is out of place in a simple narrative like this; the sentence therefore ends with "owls." (_o_) "upon his return." (_p_) "the sultan" (_q_) "would not be satisfied." (_r_) "you must know then, &c." (_s_) omit. (_t_) "so touched ... that." (_u_) end with "people." (_v_) addison here uses "_which_" probably because of the preceding "that." we have to choose between sound and clearness. "which" implies that _all_ the villages in the country had been destroyed, whereas the country had been only (see above) "_half_ unpeopled." . "though this great king never permitted any pastime to interfere with the duties of state, which he considered to be _superior to_ ( ) _all other claims and of paramount importance_, and (_a_) ( ) kept himself so far under control that he allowed no one pursuit or amusement to run to any excess, yet he _took_ ( ) _great pleasure in_ the chase, _of which he was_ (_b_) ( ) _excessively_ ( ) _fond_, and for the purposes of which he created several _large_ parks _of considerable_ ( ) _magnitude_." (_a_) either repeat "though," or else strikeout the first "though" and begin a new sentence after "excess." (_b_) point out the contradiction between "excessively" and what precedes. . "to inundate (_a_) ( ) their land, to man their ships, to leave their country, with all its miracles of art and industry, its cities, its villas, and its (_b_) ( ) pastures buried under the waves (_c_) ( ); to bear to a distant climate their (_d_) ( ) faith and their old (_e_) ( ) liberties; to establish, with auspices _that_( _a) might perhaps be happier_, the new (_f_) ( ) _constitution of their commonwealth_, in a (_g_) ( ) foreign and strange (_h_) ( ) land, in the spice islands of the eastern seas, ( ) were the plans which they had the spirit to form." (_a_) introduce "dykes." (_b_) introduce something _peculiar_ to the dutch, _e.g._ "canals," "tulip gardens." (_c_) "of the german ocean." (_d_) the dutch were calvinists. (_e_) the country was in old times "batavia," so that "batavian" would be a fit epithet to denote what the dutch had inherited from their forefathers. (_f_) "stadthaus," the german for "town-hall." (_g_) "other stars." (_h_) "strange vegetation." . "during twenty years of unexampled prosperity, _during_ (_a_) _which_ the wealth of the nation had shot ( _a_) _up and extended its branches_ on every side, and the funds _had_ ( _a_) _soared_ to a higher point than had been ever attained before, (_b_) ( ) speculation had become general." (_a_) omit. (_b_) begin a new sentence: "this, _or_ prosperity, had increased the taste for speculation." . "at that time (_a_) ( ) a mere narrow-minded pedant (for he deserves no better name) had been set up by the literary world as a great author, and as the supreme (_b_) critic, alone qualified to deliver decisions _which could never be_ (_b_) _reversed_ upon ( _a_) _the literary productions of the day_." (_a_) end with " ... one who was--for he deserves no better name--a mere narrow-minded pedant." (_b_) "which could never be reversed" can be expressed in one word; or else "the supreme ... reversed" may be condensed into a personification: "a very minos of contemporary criticism." . "with the intention of fulfilling his promise, and ( _a_) _intending also_ to clear himself from the suspicion that attached to him, he determined to ascertain _how_ ( _a_) _far this testimony_ was corroborated, and (_a_) ( _a_) the motives of the prosecutor, (_b_) ( ) who had begun the suit last christmas." (_a_) "what were." (_b_) begin a new sentence, "the latter &c.," or "the suit had been begun &c." . "the jewish nation, relying on the teaching of their prophets, looked forward to a time when its descendants should be as numerous as _the heavenly_ ( ) _bodies_, and when the _products_ (_a_) ( ) _of the earth_ should be _so increased as to create an abundant_ ( ) _plenty_, when each man should rest beneath the shade of his own (_a_) ( ) _trees_, and when the _instruments_ ( ) _of war_ should be _converted to the_ ( ) _uses of peace_." (_a_) mention some "products," "trees" of palestine. . "he replied ( ), when he was asked the reason for his sudden unpopularity, that he owed it to his refusal to annul the commercial treaty, (_a_) ( ) _which_( _a'_) gave great displeasure to the poorer classes." (_a_) point out the ambiguity, and remove it by ( ) or ( _a'_). . "i saw my old schoolfellow again by mere accident when i was in london at the time of the first exhibition, ( ) _walking_ down regent street and looking in at the shops." point out and remove the ambiguity. . "he remained in the house while his speech was taken into consideration; _which_ ( ) _was_ a common practice with him, because the debates amused his sated mind, and indeed _he used to say_ (_a_) ( _b_) _that they_ were sometimes as good as a comedy. his majesty had certainly never seen _a more_ ( ) _sudden turn_ in any comedy of intrigue, either at his own play-house or the duke's, than that which this memorable debate produced." (_a_) "and were sometimes, he used to say, as good &c." . "the commons would not approve the war ( ) _expressly_; neither did they as yet condemn it ( ) _expressly_; and (_a_) ( ) the king might even have obtained a supply for continuing hostilities ( ) from them, on condition _of_ (_b_) _redressing_ grievances _connected with the_ (_c_) _administration of affairs at home_, among which the declaration of indulgence was a very _important_ (_d_) ( _a_) one." (_a_) write "they were even ready to grant the king &c." (_b_) use the verb with a subject, (_c_) condense all this into one adjective, meaning "that which takes place at home." (_d_) end with a noun, "importance," or "foremost place." . "next to thinking clearly, (_a_) ( ) _it is_ useful to speak clearly, and whatever your position in life may hereafter be _it_ cannot be such ( ) as not to be improved by _this_, (_b_) so that _it_ is worth while making almost any effort to acquire (_c_) _it_, if _it_ is not a natural gift: (_d_) _it_ being an undoubted (_d_) fact that the effort to acquire _it_ must be successful, to some extent at least, if (_d_) _it_ be moderately persevered in." (_a_) "next in utility ... comes speaking clearly--a power that must be of assistance to you &c." (_b_)" if, therefore, you cannot speak clearly by nature, you &c." (_c_) "this power." (_d_) omit "fact;" "for undoubtedly, with moderate perseverance &c." . "_it_ (_a_) ( ) _appears to me_ ( ) _a greater victory than agincourt, a grander triumph of wisdom and faith and courage than even the english constitution or_ (_b_) _liturgy_, to have beaten back, or even fought against and stemmed in ever so small a degree, those _basenesses that_ (_c_) ( _a_) _beset_ human nature, which are now held so invincible that the influences of them are assumed as the fundamental axioms of economic science." (_a_) begin with "to have beaten &c.," and end with "liturgy." (_b_) repeat for clearness and emphasis, "the english." (_c_) "the besetting basenesses of &c." . "the (_a_) ( ) _unprecedented_ impudence of our youthful representative reminds us forcibly of the _unblushing and_ ( ) ( ) _remarkable_ effrontery (_c_) (which ( ) he almost succeeds in equalling) of the member for st. alban's, whom our (_b_) ( ) _neophyte_ (_b_) ( ) _alluded to_, in the last speech with which he favoured _those whom_ ( _a_) _he represents_, ( ) as his pattern and example." (_a_) show that "unprecedented" is inconsistent with what follows. (_b_) what is the meaning of "neophyte," "alluded to"? (_c_) begin a new sentence, "our young adventurer &c.," and end with "and he almost succeeds in equalling his master." . "the (_a_) ( ) _veracity_ of this story is questionable, and there is the more reason for doubting the (_a_) ( ) _truth_ of the narrator, because in his remarks on the ( ) _observation_ of the sabbath he distinctly (_a_) ( ) _alludes to_ a custom that can be shown never to have existed." (_a_) distinguish between "veracity" and "truth," "observation" and "observance." show the inconsistency between "allude" and "distinctly." . "it (_a_) ( ) is a most just distribution, ( _a_) _which_ the late mr. tucker has dwelt upon _so_ (_b_) largely in his works, between pleasures in which we are passive, and pleasures in which we are active. and i believe every attentive observer of human life will _assent to_ (_c_) _this position_, that however (_d_) _grateful_ the sensations may occasionally be in which we are passive, it is not these, but the latter class of our pleasures, ( ) _which_ constitutes satisfaction, (_e_) ( ) _which_ supply that regular stream of moderate and miscellaneous enjoyments in ( _c_) _which_ happiness, as distinguished from voluptuousness, consists." (_a_) "there is great justice in &c." (b) omit "so." (_c_) "admit." (_d_) not often now used in this sense. (_e_) repeat the antecedent, "i mean those (pleasures) &c." . "the prince seemed to have before him a _limitless_ ( ) _prospect of unbounded_ prosperity, carefully ( ) _trained_ for the (_a_) _tasks_ of the throne, and stimulated by the (_a_) _pattern_ of his father, (_b_) who ( ) _breathed his_ ( ) _last_ suddenly at the age of sixty-two, just after the conclusion of the war." (_a_) find more appropriate words. (_b_) begin a new sentence. . "on his way, he visited a son of an old friend (_a_) ( ) _who_ had asked _him_ to call upon _him_ on his journey northward. _he_ (_b_) ( ) was overjoyed to see _him_, and (_c_) _he_ sent for one of _his_ most intelligent workmen and told (_d_) _him_ to consider _himself_ at (_e_) _his_ service, ( ) as _he himself_ could not take (_f_) _him_ as _he_ (_g_) wished about the city." (_a_) if you mean that the "son" had "asked him," write "an old friend's son who;" if you mean that the "friend" had "asked him," write "he had been asked by an old friend to call, on his journey northward, upon his son. accordingly he visited him on his way." (_b_) use, instead of _he_, some name meaning "one who entertains others." (_c_) use participle, (_d_) "the man." (_e_) "the stranger's." (_f_) "his guest." (_g_) write "could have wished" to make it clear that "he" means "the host." . "tillotson died in this year. he was exceedingly beloved both by king william and by queen mary ( ), who nominated dr. tennison, bishop of lincoln, to succeed him." . "(_a_) the entertainment was arranged with a magnificence that was (_b_) perfectly _stupendous_ and (_c_) _most unprecedented_, and which quite kept up his lordship's _unrivalled_ reputation for _unparalleled_ hospitality, and, thanks to the _unequalled_ energy of mr. smith, who is _rapidly becoming one of the most effective_ toast-masters in the kingdom, the toasts were given with a spirit _quite unexampled_ on occasions of this nature; and indeed we were forcibly reminded in this respect of the _inimitable_ entertainment of three years ago ( )." (_a_) omit most of the epithets, or soften them down. point out the contradictions in the sentence as it stands. (_b_) write "a remarkable magnificence that quite &c.," thus dispensing with the following "and." (_c_) show that "most" is superfluous. . "if we compare shakespeare with the other dramatic authors of the elizabethan era, _his wonderful superiority to them in the_ ( ) _knowledge of human nature_ is _what_ ( _a_) _principally strikes us_." . "the prince found himself at once in sore perplexity how to provide himself with the commonest comforts or even necessaries of life, when he landed on this desolate coast, being ( ) accustomed to luxury." . "this make-shift policy recommended itself to the succeeding _ministers_ (_a_) ( ), _both because they were timid and because they were prejudiced_, and they were delighted to _excuse_ (_b_) ( ) _themselves by quoting_ the example of one who (_c_) ( ) had controlled the liberals and humoured the conservatives, ( ) commended himself to the country at large by his unfailing good-humour, and (_d_) ( ) ( ) done nothing worthy of the name of statesman." (_a_) "to the timidity and prejudices of &c." (_b_) "shelter themselves behind." (_c_) "while he had at once." (_d_) "had yet done." . "william shakespeare was the sun among the lesser lights of english poetry, and a native of stratford-on-avon ( _a_)." . "( _b_) i think, gentlemen, you must confess that any one of you would have done the same ( ), if you had been tempted as i was then, placed starving and ragged among wasteful luxury and comfort, deliberately instigated to acts of dishonesty by those whom i had been taught from infancy to love, (_a_) praised when i stole, mocked or punished when i failed to ( _a_) _do_ (_b_) _so_." (_a_) insert another infinitive beside "love." "love" produces "obedience." (b) repeat the verb instead of "do so." . "so far from being the first ( ) _aggressor_, he _not_ ( ) _only_ refused to prosecute his old friend when a favourable opportunity presented itself for revenging himself thus upon him, _but also_ his friend's adviser, john smith. smith (_a_) _at all_ ( ) _events_ suspected, if he did not know of the coming danger, and had given no information of it." (_a_) if "at all events" qualifies "smith," the sentence must be altered. "yet, however innocent his friend may have been, at all events smith suspected...." if the words qualify "suspected," place them after "suspected." . "it is quite true that he paid _s._ per day to english navvies, _and even s._, ( ) in preference to _s._ _d._ to french navvies." . "having climbed to the _apex_ of the righi to enjoy the spectacle of the sun-rise, i found myself so _incommoded_ by a number of _illiterate individuals_ who had _emerged_ from the hotel for a (_a_) ( ) _similar_ purpose, that i determined to quit them _at the earliest practicable period_; and therefore, without stopping to _partake of breakfast_, i _wended my way_ back _with all possible celerity_." ( ) (_a_) "the same." . "you admit that miracles are _not natural_. now whatever _is unnatural_ is wrong, and since, by your own admission, miracles are _unnatural_, it follows that miracles are wrong." ( ) . "who is the man that has dared to call into _civilized_ alliance the (_a_) ( ) inhabitant of the woods, to delegate to the (_a_) indian the defence of our disputed rights? (_a_) insert some antithetical or other epithets. . "a (_a_) _very_ ( ) _small proportion_ indeed of those who have attempted to solve this problem (_b_) ( ) have succeeded in obtaining even a plausible solution." (_a_) state what proportion succeeded, or, if you like, what failed: "not one in a hundred." (_b_) begin, "of all those that &c." . "_to be suddenly_ (_a_) ( _a_) _brought into contact_ with a system ( ) _which_ forces one to submit to wholesale imposture, and _to being_ ( _a_) _barbarously ill-treated_, naturally repels (_a_) ( _a_) _one_." (_a_) write, either ( ) "collision ... causes a natural repulsion," or ( ) "when brought into contact ... one is naturally repelled," or (if "ill-treatment" is emphatic), ( ) "one is naturally repelled by collision with &c." . "we annex a letter recently addressed by mr. ----'s direction to the editor of the ----, in contradiction of statements, equally untrue, which appeared in that periodical, _and_ (_a_) ( ) _which_ the editor has undertaken to insert in the next number.... i am sure that all must regret that statements _so_ (_b_) ( ) _utterly_ erroneous should have (_c_) ( ) _first_ appeared in a publication of such high character." (_a_) what the writer intended to express was that the editor had undertaken to insert, not the "statements," but the "contradiction." (_b_) omit either "so" or "utterly." (_c_) "appeared first," or, "for the first time." . "this is a book _which_ ( _a_) _is_ short and amusing, _which_ ( _a_) _can be easily_ (_a_) _understood, which_ ( _a_) is admirably adapted for _the purpose for which it_ (_b_) _was_ ( ) _written_; and ( _e_) _which_ ought to be more popular than the last work _which_ ( _a_) _was_ published by the same author." (_a_) express "which can be understood" in one adjective. (_b_) "its purpose." . "when thousands are _left_ ( ) without ( ) _pity_ and without ( ) _attention_ ( ) _on_ a field of battle, amid ( ) the insults of an enraged foe and ( ) the trampling of horses, while the blood from their wounds, freezing as it flows, binds them to the earth, and ( ) they are exposed to the piercing air, _it_ ( _a_) _must be indeed a painful scene_." the whole sentence must be remedied by ( ). . "(_a_) the youth was naturally thoughtful, and disposed ( ) besides by his early training--( ) which had been conducted with great care, the object of his parents being to _pave_ ( ) _his way_ as far as possible over the _stormy_ ( ) _sea of temptation_ and to _lead_ him into the _harbour_ of virtue--to a sincere (_b_) ( ) _remorse_ ( ) for the (_b_) ( ) _crimes_ that he had committed in the sight of heaven, and also for his recent (_b_) ( ) _sin_ in breaking the laws of his country." (_a_) first state the reasons for his being "disposed." "the youth was naturally thoughtful; moreover, his early training had been conducted with great care by his parents, whose &c. .... he was therefore disposed &c." (_b_) what is the difference between "remorse" and "repentance," between "sin" and "crime"? . "(_a_) _one day_ ( ) _early in the morning_, the general was approached by a messenger, ( ) in the midst of the _entanglements and perplexities_ which had _unexpectedly surprised_ him, when the _perilous hour of_ ( ) _danger_ was at hand, and ( ), in spite of their promises, even the tribes that were _well disposed_ ( ) _and friendly_, were threatening to _desert him, and_ ( ) _leave him to face the enemy_ (_b_) ( ) _alone_." condense the sentence by omitting some of the italicized words, _e.g._ (_a_) "early one morning." (_b_) though there is no real ambiguity (unless a wrong emphasis is placed on "enemy"), yet, in strictness, "alone" ought to qualify "enemy." write therefore, "alone in the face of the enemy." . "_a man_ (_a_) ( _d_) _who_ neglected the ordinary duties *of* life, and, immersed in study, devoted himself to grand plans for the benefit of mankind, (_b_) ( ) _and_ refused to provide for the wants of those dependent on him, and suffered his aged relatives to become paupers because he would not help them, (_c_) would, in my opinion, ( ) be a bad man, and not altogether (_d_) ( _a_) without hypocrisy." (_a_) "if a man." (_b_) "if he refused," or "while he refused." (_c_) "such a man" or "he." (_d_) "to some extent a hypocrite." . "i cannot believe in the guilt of (_a_) _one_ (_b_) ( _e_) _who_, whatever may have been said to the contrary, can be shown, and has been shown by competent testimony proceeding from those who are said to have carefully examined the facts, _in spite_ ( ) _of many obstacles_, to have resisted all attempts to ( ) induce him to leave his situation, (_c_) ( ) to consult his own interests and to ( ) establish a business of his own." (_a_) "his guilt;" (_b_) ( ) "for, whatever &c.... it can be shown by &c.... that, in spite of &c., he resisted." or ( ) insert "in spite ... obstacles" between "have" and "carefully." (_c_) ( ) "for the purpose of consulting ... and establishing." or ( ) write "and to consult his own interests by establishing &c." . "we must seek for the origin of our freedom, (_a_) ( ) prosperity, and (_a_) ( ) glory, in _that and only_ (_b_) _that_[ ] portion of our annals, ( ) though _it_ (_c_) _is_ sterile and obscure. the great english people was (_d_) _then_ formed; the notional (_e_) _disposition_ began (_d_) _then_ to exhibit those peculiarities which it has ever since (_e_) _possessed_; and our fathers (_d_) _then_ became emphatically islanders, (_f_) in their politics, (_a_) feelings, and (_a_) manners, _and_ ( _a_) _not merely in their geographical position_." (_a_) repeat the pronominal adjective, (_b_) express the emphatic "only that" by beginning the sentence thus: "it is in that portion of our annals &c." (_c_) omit. (_d_) "it was then that &c." (_e_) use words implying something more _marked_ than "disposition," and more _forcible_ than "possessed;" in the latter case, "retained." (_f_) repeat "islanders." . "(_a_) he was _the universal_ ( ) _favourite of_ ( ) _all_ ( ) _who knew him_, and cemented many friendships at this period, (_a_) ( ) (moving in the highest circle of society, and, _as he_ (_b_) ( ) _had a_ ( _a_) _certain property, being independent_ of the profits of literature), and soon completely extinguished the breath of slander which at the outset of his career had threatened to sap the foundations of his reputation." (_a_) begin "moving in &c." (_b_) "rendered independent of ... by &c." show that rule ( ) is violated by the metaphors. . "the outward and material form of that city which, during the brief period _which_ ( _a_) _is_ comprised in our present book, reached the highest pitch of military, artistic, and literary glory, _was of this_ (_a_) ( ) _nature_. the progress of _the_ (_b_) ( ) _first_ has been already traced." (_a_) begin the sentence with "such was." (_b_) by "the first" is meant "military glory." . "the detachment not only failed to take the fort, ( ) spite of their numbers and the weakness of the garrison, but also to capture the small force that was encamped outside the town, and was, after some sharp fighting, driven back with inconsiderable loss." point out the ambiguity. remedy it by inserting either "which," or "the assailants." . "(_a_) (_b_) _believing_ that these reforms can _only_ (_c_) ( ) be effected as public opinion is prepared for them, and that ( ) _this_ will be more or less advanced in different localities, the bill of the association, (_a_) ( ) which has been for _a_ ( ) _considerable period_ in draft, and will be introduced in the next session of parliament, provides for _placing_ (_d_) ( ) _the control in regard to the points above-mentioned in the_ ( ) _hands_ of the ratepayers of each locality; the power to be exercised through representative licensing boards to be periodically elected by them." (_a_) place the parenthesis first, as an independent sentence: "the bill of the association has been ... parliament." (_b_) what noun is qualified by "believing?" write "in the belief." (_c_) "effected only so far as they are in accordance with public opinion, which &c." (_d_) "it, or, the bill provides that the ratepayers ... shall receive control ... and shall exercise this control." . "i think they are very ( ) _nice_ persons, for they kept me amused for a _long_ (_a_) ( ) _time together_ yesterday by their ( ) _nice_ stories all about _what they_ (_b_) _have experienced_ in japan, where they had been for (_a_) _ever so long_, and (_c_) ( ) where they said that the natives ripped up _their_ (_d_) ( ) stomachs." (_a_) mention some time. (_b_) "experiences" or "adventures." (_c_) "among other things, they told us &c." (_d_) "their own." . "to contend for advantageous monopolies, which are regarded with a dislike and a suspicion (_a_) _which daily_ ( _a_) _increases_, ( ) _however natural it may be to be annoyed at the loss of that which one has once possessed_, ( _a_) is _useless_." (_a_) a compound adjective can be used, including "daily." . "upon entering the rustic place of entertainment to partake of some refreshment, my nerves were horrified by lighting on a number of boisterous individuals who were singing some species of harvest song, and simultaneously imbibing that cup which, if it cheers, also inebriates; and when, banished from their society by the fumes of the fragrant weed, i wended my way to the apartment which adjoined the one in which i had hoped to rest my weary limbs, i found an interesting assortment of the fairer sex, who were holding a separate confabulation apart from the revels of their rougher spouses." write "village inn," "next room," &c., for these absurd circumlocutions. see ( ). . "when burgoyne was born, in , napoleon and wellington _were both boys_ ( )." napoleon studied at brienne, wellington at eton. mention this, and, in order to imply the _boyhood_, call wellington "arthur wellesley." . "an honourable friend of mine, who is now, i believe, near me--( ) to whom i never can on any occasion refer without feelings of respect, and, on this subject, ( ) feelings of the most grateful homage; ( ) whose abilities upon this occasion, as upon some former ones, are not entrusted merely to the perishable eloquence of the (_a_) day, but will live to be the admiration of that (_a_) hour when all of us are mute and most of us forgotten: (_b_) ( ) has told you that prudence _is_ ( ) the first of virtues, _and_ ( ) can never be used in the cause of vice." (_a_) though "of the day" is a recognized expression for "ephemeral" or "transitory," yet to use "day" for a short time, and "hour" for a longer, is objectionable. write _moment_ for _day_. else write _future_ for _hour_. (_b_) "--this gentleman has told &c." . "to see the british artisan and his wife on the sabbath, neat and clean and cheerful, with their children by their sides, (_a_) ( ) _disporting_ themselves under the open canopy of heaven, _is_ ( ) _pleasant_." (_a_) there is no reasonable ground for mistaking the sense here, as the context makes it clear; but since lord shaftesbury was questioned whether he meant _disporting_ to qualify "artisan and his wife" or "children," write "and, by their sides, their children disporting &c." . "even if (_a_) _it were_ attended with extenuating circumstances, such conduct would deserve severe reprobation, (_b_) _and it_ is the more called for because _it_ would seem that (_c_) _it_ was the intention of _the author of the crime_, in perpetrating (_e_) _it_, to inflict all the misery that was possible, upon his victim." see ( ). (_a_) omit "it were." (_b_) "which." (_c_) "to have been." (_d_) express "author of the crime" in one word. (_e_) use the noun. . "the (_a_) ( ) _observance_ of the heavenly bodies must have been attended with great difficulties, (_b_) ( ) before the telescope was (_a_) ( ) _discovered_, and it is not to be wondered at if the investigations of astronomers were often unsatisfactory, and failed to produce complete (_a_) ( ) _persuasion_, ( ) ( , _a_) under these disadvantages." (_a_) what is the difference between "observance" and "observation," "discover" and "invent," "persuasion" and "conviction"? (_b_) begin "before &c." . "he plunged into the sea once more, ( ) not content with his previous exertions. after a long and dangerous struggle, he succeeded in reaching a poor woman that was crying piteously for help, and (_a_) ( ) was at last hauled safely to shore." (_a_) point put and remedy the ambiguity by inserting "he" or by writing "who," according to the meaning. . "sir john burgoyne himself, face to face with todleben, became (_a_) ( ) _conscious_ of the difference between the fortifications of san sebastian and of sebastopol, (_b_) _which_ ( _e_) was (_c_) ( ) _very weak_ compared with metz or paris." (_a_) what is the exact meaning of _conscious_? (_b_) avoid the relative, by repeating the name, with a conjunction, (_c_) "weakness itself." . "upon richard's leaving the (_c_) stage, the commonwealth was again set up; and the parliament which cromwell had (_a_) _broken_ was brought together; but the army and they fell into new disputes: so they were again (_a_) _broken_ by the army: and upon that the nation was like to fall into (_b_) ( ) _great_ convulsions." (_a_) modern eng., "broken up." (_b_) "violently convulsed." (_c_) it is a question whether this metaphor is in good taste. the meaning is that richard "retired from public life." it might be asserted that richard, the commonwealth, the parliament are regarded as so many puppets on a "stage." but this is extremely doubtful. make _parliament_ the principal subject: "when richard retired ... and when the commonwealth &c.... the parliament was ... but, falling into a dispute with &c., it was...." see ( ) and ( ). . "what a revolution in the military profession! he began with (_a_) ( ) _unnecessary formality_, and (_b_) ( ) _inefficient weapons_, and ended with (_c_) (_b_) ( ) _greatly improved fire-arms_." (_a_) "pig-tail and pipe-clay." (_b_) "six-pounders and flint-locks" are now inefficient compared with "twenty-four-pounders and breech-loaders." (_c_) something is wanted antithetical to (_a_), perhaps "loose drill" or "open order." . "children fear to go in the dark. men fear death in the same way. the fear of children is increased by tales. so is the fear of death. the contemplation of death, as the 'wages of sin,' and passage to another world, is holy and religious. the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. in religious meditations on death there is sometimes mixture of vanity and of superstition." insert connecting adverbs or conjunctions. see ( ). . "i have often heard him _reiterate_ ( ) _repeatedly_ that he would never again, if a _safe_ ( ) _and secure path_ was open to him, prefer the _perilous_ ( ) _road of danger_, however _alluring_ ( ) _and attractive_ the latter might be." . "i thought in my dream that when my friend asked me whether i did not observe anything curious in the conduct of the pigeons, i (_a_) ( _a_) _remarked_ that if any one of the birds was so bold as to take an atom from a heap of grain in the midst of them, ( ) (which (_b_) a detachment guarded, and which, being continually increased and never eaten, seemed useless), all the rest turned against him and pecked him to death for the (_c_) ( ) _action_." (_a_) point out the ambiguity. (_b_) this should come earlier in the sentence, and not as a parenthesis. "i noticed a heap of grain in the midst of them, guarded by ... being continually ..., to all appearance, useless: yet." (_c_) "theft." . "if this low view of the royal office becomes generally adopted, then sovereigns _who_ ( ) have always hitherto commanded the respect of englishmen will by degrees fall into disrespect." point out the ambiguity. show how it might be removed (_a_) by punctuation, (_b_) by altering "who." . "i struck the man in self-defence. i explained this to the magistrate. he would not believe me. witnesses were called to support my statements. he committed me to prison. he had the right to do this. it is a right that is rarely exercised in such circumstances. i remonstrated." see ( ). insert conjunctions or connecting adverbs. . "he attained a very distinguished position by mere ( ) perseverance and common sense, which ( ) ( _a_) qualities are perhaps mostly underrated, ( ) though he was deficient in tact and not remarkable for general ability." . "_vindictiveness, which_ (_a_) ( ) _is a fault_, (_b_) _and_ which may be defined as _anger_ ( _a_) _which is caused_ not by sin nor by crime but by personal injury, ought to be carefully distinguished from _resentment, which_ (_a_) ( ) _is a virtue_, (_b_) _and_ which is _anger_ ( ) _which is natural and_ (_c_) _right_ caused by an act (_d_) which is unjust, because it is unjust, ( _a_) not because it is inconvenient." (_a_) "the fault of vindictiveness;" "the virtue of resentment." (_b_) omit _(c_) "right" cannot be used as an adjective, but "righteous" can. (_d_) "an act of injustice." . "(_a_) he told his friend that (_a_) _his_ brother was surprised that (_a_) _he_ had given so small a contribution, for (_a_) _he_ was (_b_) ( ) _a very rich man_, in spite of (_a_) _his_ recent losses and the bad state of trade, ( ) ( ) compared with himself." (_a_) use ( ). (_b_) what asian king was proverbial for wealth? . "(_a_) ( _b_) it must be indeed wrong to (_a_) _crucify_ a roman citizen if to (_b_) ( ) _slay_ one is almost parricide, to (_b_) _scourge_ him is a monstrous crime, and to (_b_) _bind_ him is an outrage." (_a_) "what must it be...?" (_b_) see ( ). . "the _universal_ ( ) _opinion of all the_ citizens was that the citadel _had been_ ( ) _betrayed_, ( ) having been captured in broad daylight by a very small number of the enemy, and those unprovided with scaling ladders, and admitted by a postern gate, ( _a_) and much wearied by a long march." in any case "betrayed" must come at the end of a sentence. the sentence may be converted into two sentences: "the citadel had been captured.... naturally therefore ...;" or, "the opinion ... for it had been captured...." else, if one sentence be used, write "as the citadel had been captured &c." . "this author surpassed all _those who were living_ (_a_) _at the same time with him_ in the _forcible_ (_b_) _manner in_ which he could _address_ (_c_) _an_ appeal to the popular sympathy, and in the ease with which he could _draw towards_ (_a_) _himself_ the hearts of his readers." (_a_) express in one word. (_b_) "force with." (_c_) omit. . "this great statesman was indeed a pillar of commerce, and a star in the financial world. he guided or impelled the people from the quicksands of protection and false political economy to the safe harbour of free trade; and (_a_) ( _a_) saved the country several millions." (_a_) it would be well to literalize the preceding metaphors. else the literal statement must be changed into a metaphor. . "the ministers were most unwilling to meet the houses, (_a_) ( ) ( ) _because_ even the boldest of them (though their counsels were _lawless_ ( ) _and desperate_) had too much value for his (_b_) ( ) _personal safety_ to think of resorting to the (_c_) ( ) unlawful modes of extortion that had been familiar to the preceding age." (_a_) begin a new sentence with "lawless and desperate though their counsels had been &c." (_b_) "neck." (_c_) insert some of these unlawful modes, "benevolences, ship-money, and the other &c." . "_we will not_ (_a_) ( ) _pretend to guess what_ our grandchildren may think of the character of lord byron, as exhibited _in_ ( _a_) _his poetry_." no writer ever had the whole eloquence of scorn, misanthropy, _and_ (_a_) ( ) _despair_ ( _a_) _so completely at his command_. that _fountain_ (_b_) ( ) _of bitterness_ was never dry." (_a_) "we will not pretend to guess" and "despair" are intended by the author to be emphatic. (_b_) "marah." . "the captain asked to be allowed fifty men, a supply of food, and one hundred and fifty breech-loaders. ( ) the general replied coldly that he could not let his subordinate have (_a_) ( ) _anything_ that he wanted. ( ) the captain was forced to set out ( ) with an insufficient force, spite of the superabundance of soldiers doing nothing in the camp ( ), and with every obstacle put in his way by a general who from the first had resolved not even to give him ordinary assistance, (_b_) ( _a'_) _which_ the captain had for some time anticipated." (_a_) point out and remove the ambiguity. (_b_) write, according to the meaning, " ... assistance that" or " ... a resolution that." . "i am a practical man, and disbelieve in everything ( ) _which_ is not practical; theories (_a_) _which_ amuse philosophers and pedants have no attractions for me, ( ) _for this reason_." (_a_) what difference in the meaning would be caused by the use of "that" for the second "which"? . "yet, when that discovery drew no other severity but the ( _a_) _turning_ (_a_) _him out of office_, and _the_ ( _a_) _passing a sentence_ (_b_) _condemning him to die for it_ ( ) (which was presently pardoned, and he was after a short confinement restored to his liberty), all men _believed_ that the king knew of the letter, (_c_) ( ) and that ( _b_) the pretended confession of the secretary was only collusion to lay the jealousies of the king's (_d_) ( _a_) _favouring_ popery, (_e_) ( ) which still hung upon him, ( ) notwithstanding his (_e_) _writing_ on the revelation, and his (_e_) _affecting_ to enter on all occasions into controversy, (_e_) asserting in particular that the pope was antichrist." (_a_) "expulsion from." (_b_) "a pretended sentence to death--a pretence that was soon manifested by his pardon and liberation." (_c_) begin a new sentence: "'the secretary's pretended confession,' it was said, 'was &c.'" (_d_) "the suspicion that the king favoured popery." (_e_) the juxtaposition of the two verbal nouns, "writing" and "affecting," with the participle "asserting," is harsh. write, "for, notwithstanding that he affected controversy, and attacked the pope as antichrist in his treatise on the book of revelation, the king was still suspected." . "the opinion that the sun is fixed was once too (_a_) ( ) _universal_ to be easily shaken, and a similar prejudice has often (_b_) _rendered_ the progress of new inventions ( _a_) _very slow_, ( ) arising from the numbers of the believers, and not ( ) the reasonableness of the belief." (_a_) write "general." show the absurdity of appending "too" to "universal." (_b_) what single word can be substituted for "rendered slow"? . "the rest of the generals were willing to surrender unconditionally, ( ) _depressed by this unforeseen calamity_; ( ) _only_ the young colonel, who retained his presence of mind, represented to them that they were increasing the difficulties of a position in itself very difficult ( ) ( , _a_) _by their conduct_." . "to (_a_) ( ) _an author who_ is, in his expression of any sentiment, wavering between _the_ (_b_) _demands of_ perspicuity and energy (of which _the_ (_c_) ( _a_) _former of course_ requires the first care, lest ( _a_) he should fail of both), and ( ) doubting whether the (_d_) phrase _which_ ( ) _has_ (_e_) _the_ most force and brevity will be (_f_) readily _taken_ (_g_) _in, it may_ (_h_) ( ) _be recommended to use_ both (_d_) expressions; first, (_h_) _to expound_ the sense sufficiently to be clearly understood, and then (_i_) _to_ contract it into the most compendious and striking form." (_a_) write "when an author &c." (_b_) can be omitted. (_c_) assimilate the constructions: "of which the former must, of course, be aimed at first, lest both be missed." (_d_) use "expression" or else "phrase" in _both_ places. (_e_) assimilate the construction to what follows; write "that is most forcible and brief." (_f_) insert "also." (_g_) "understood." (_h_) "let him use ...; first let him expound." (_i_) omit. . "when i say 'a great man,' i _not_ ( ) _only_ mean a man intellectually great but also morally, ( ) _who_ ( ) has no preference for diplomacy (_a_) ( ) _at all events which_ ( _a_) _is_ mean, petty, and underhanded to secure ends _which_ ( ) can be secured by an honest policy _equally_ ( ) _well_, ( ) _who_ ( ) does not resemble polonius, (_b_) who prefers to get at truth by untruthful tricks, and (_b_) who considers truth a carp _which_ ( _g_) _is_ to be caught by the bait falsehood. we cannot call a petty intriguer great (_c_), ( ) though we may be forced to call an unscrupulous _man by that_ ( _a_) _name_." (_a_) "at all events no preference." (_b_) why is _who_ right here? if you like, you can write, "does not, like polonius, prefer ... and consider." (_c_) end with "we cannot give the name to a petty intriguer." . "i regret that i have some (_a_) ( ) _intelligence which_ ( _a_) _is of a most_ ( ) _painful nature_, and which i must tell you at once, though (_b_) _i should like to defer it_ on (_c_) ( _a_) account of your ill-health, and _because_ (_c_) ( _a_) _you have already had_ many troubles, and ( _a_) _owing to_ the natural dislike _which_ ( ) a friend must always feel to say _that_ ( _f_) _which_ is unpleasant. many old friends in this district have turned against you: i scarcely like to write the words: _only_ ( ) i remain faithful to you, and i am sure you will believe that i am doing _that_ ( _f_) _which_ is best for your interests." (_a_) "news." (_b_) in a letter these words should remain is they are; but if a _period_ is desired, they must ( ) come last, after "unpleasant." (_c_) write "because of your ill-health ... and the troubles ... and because of...." . "the general at once sent back word that the enemy had suddenly appeared on the other side of the river, and [( ) or ( )] then (_a_) retreated. (_b_) _it_ was thought that (_b_) _it_ would have shown more (_c_) ( ) _fortitude_ on his ( ) _part_ if he had attacked the fortifications, (_d_) _which_ were not tenable for more than a week at all events. such was the ( ) _universal_ opinion, _at_ ( ) _least, of_ ( ) _all_ the soldiers." (_a_) point out the ambiguity. (_b_) "it was thought he would have shown &c." (_c_) distinguish between "fortitude" and "bravery." (_d_) what would be the meaning if "that" were substituted for "which"? it will be perhaps better to substitute for "which," "since they." . "a notion has sprung up that the premier, though he can legislate, cannot govern, and has attained an influence which renders it imperative, if this ministry is to go on, that (_a_) _it_ should be dispersed." (_a_) who or what "has attained"? write "and this notion has become so powerful that, unless it is dispersed...." . "those who are _habitually silent_ (_a_) ( ) _by disposition_ and morose are less liable to the fault of exaggerating than those who are _habitually_ (_a_) ( ) _fond of talking_, and ( _a_) _of_ (_a_) ( ) _a pleasant disposition_." (a) each of these periphrases must be condensed into a single adjective. . "this author, (_a_) ( ) though he is not (_b_) _altogether_ (_c_) _guiltless of_ (_b_) _occasional_ (_c_) _faults_ of exaggeration, which are to be found as plentifully in his latest works as in _those which he_ (_d_) _published when he was beginning his career as an author_, yet, _notwithstanding these_ (_e_) _defects_, surpassed all _those who were living_ _at the_ (_f_) _same time with him_ in the _clear_ (_g_) _manner in_ which he could, as it were, see into the feelings of the people at large, and in the power--_a power that indeed could not be_ (_f_) _resisted_--with which he _drew_ (_f_) _toward himself_ the sympathy of _those who_ (_f_) _perused his works_." see ( ). (_a_) convert the parenthesis into a separate sentence. (_b_) one of these words is unnecessary. (_c_) one of these is unnecessary. (_d_) condense: "his earliest." (_e_) omit these words as unnecessary. (_f_) express all this in one word. (_g_) "clearness with." . "_among the north_ (_a_) ( ) _american indians_ i had indeed heard of the perpetration of similar atrocities; but it seemed intolerable that such things should occur in a civilized land: and i rushed from the room at once, leaving the wretch where he stood, with his tale half told, ( ) _horror-stricken at his crime_." (_a_) make it evident whether the speaker once _lived_ among the north american indians, or not, and show who is "horror-stricken." . "his ( ) _bravery_ under this painful operation and the ( ) _fortitude_ he had shown in heading the last charge in the recent action, ( ) _though he was_ wounded at the time and had been unable to use his right arm, and was the only officer left in his regiment, out of twenty who were alive the day before, ( ) inspired every one with admiration." begin, "out of twenty officers &c.... though wounded &c.... he had headed." "the bravery he had then shown and...." . "_moral_ as well as ( ) _other_ considerations must have weight when we are selecting an officer (_a_) _that_ ( _b_) _will be placed in_ a position that will task his intelligence (_b_) ( ) _and his fidelity_." (_a_) the repetition of "that" is objectionable. use "to fill." (_b_) "and" can be replaced by some other conjunction to suit what precedes. . "it happened that at this time there were a few radicals in the house _who_ ( ) could not forgive the prime minister for being a christian." point out the difference of meaning, according as we read "who" or "that." . "_it cannot be doubted_ ( _b_) _that_ the minds of a vast number of men would be left poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves, if ( ) there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, false valuations, imaginations as one (_a_) would, and _the_ ( _a_) _like_." (_a_) the meaning (which cannot easily be more tersely expressed than in the original) is "castles in the air," "pleasant fancies." . "god never wrought a miracle to refute atheism, because his ordinary works refute it. (_a_) a little philosophy inclines man's mind to atheism: depth in philosophy brings men's minds back to religion. ( ) while the mind of man looks upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them; ( ) when it beholds the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs acknowledge a providence. ( ) that school which is most accused of atheism most clearly demonstrates the truth of religion." (_a_) insert a suspensive conjunction. see ( ). . "the spirit of liberty and the spirit of nationality were once for all dead; (_a_) ( ) _it_ might be for a time a pious duty, but it could not continue always _expedient or_ (_c_) ( ) ( ) _profitable to_ (_b_) ( ) _mourn_ (_c_) ( _a_) _for their loss_. yet this is the (_b_) ( ) _feeling_ of the age of trajan." (_a_) omit. (_b_) "to sit weeping by their grave;" "attitude." (_c_) notice that "expedient or profitable" are emphatic, as is shown by "yet" in the next sentence. make it evident therefore, by their position, that these words are more emphatic than "to mourn &c." . "(_a_) _if we ask_ ( _b_) what was the nature of the force by which this change was effected, (_a_) _we find it to have been_ (_b_) the force that had seemed almost dead for many generations--( ) of theology." (_a_) omit these words. (_b_) begin a new sentence: "it was a force &c." . "i remember longinus highly recommends a description of a storm by homer, because (_a_) ( ) (_c_) _he_ has not amused himself with little fancies upon the occasion, as authors of an inferior genius, whom he mentions, (_b_) ( _a_) have done, ( ) _but_ (_c_) _because_ he has gathered together those (_d_) ( ) _events_ which are the most apt to terrify the imagination, and ( ) really happen in the raging of a tempest." (_a_) "the poet." (_b_) omit "have done" and write "like some authors." (_c_) suspend the sentence by writing "the poet ... instead of ... has." (_d_) what is the word for "that which happens _around_ one, or in connection with some central object?" . "to have passed (_a_) ( ) _in a self-satisfied manner_ through twenty years of office, letting things take their own course; to have (_b_) _sailed_ with consummate sagacity, never against the tide of popular (_c_) _judgement_; to have left on record as the sole title to distinction among english ministers a peculiar art of (_d_) _sporting with_ the heavy, the awful responsibility of a nation's destiny with the jaunty grace of a juggler ( ) (_e_) _playing with_ his golden ball; to have joked and intrigued, and bribed and (_f_) _deceived_, with the result of having done nothing (_g_), (_h_) _either_ for the poor, (_h_) _or_ for religion (for (_i_) which indeed he did worse than nothing), (_h_) _or_ for art and science, (_h_) _or_ for the honour or concord or even the financial prosperity of the nation, ( ) is surely a miserable basis on which the reputation of a great ( ) statesman _can be_ (_k_) ( _a_) _founded_." (_a_) "complacently." (_b_) "sail" implies will and effort: use a word peculiar to a helpless ship, so as to contrast paradoxically with "sagacity." (_c_) use a word implying less thought and deliberation. (_d_) _with_ is too often repeated; write "bearing" so as to introduce the illustration abruptly. (_e_) "tossing." (_f_) use a word implying a particular kind of "deceit," not "lying," but the next thing to "lying." (_g_) insert the word with a preceding and intensifying adverb, "absolutely nothing." (_h_) instead of "either," "or," repeat "nothing." (_i_) the parenthesis breaks the rhythm. write "nothing, or worse than nothing." (_k_) "to found." . "a glance at the clock will make you ( ) _conscious_ that it is nearly three in the morning, and i therefore ask you, gentlemen, instead of wasting more time, to put this question to yourselves, 'are we, or are we not, here, for the purpose of ( ) _eliminating_ the truth?'" . "the speech of the right honourable member, so far from _unravelling_ ( ) _the obscurities of this knotty question_, is eminently calculated to mislead his supporters (_a_) ( _a_) _who_ have not made a special study of it. it may be (_b_) ( ) _almost_ asserted of every statement ( ) _which_ he has made that the very ( ) _converse_ is the fact." (_a_) the meaning appears to be, not "_all_ his supporters," but "_those of_ his supporters who:" the convenience of writing "his supporters _that_" is so great that i should be disposed to use "that." (_b_) "every," not "asserted," requires the juxtaposition of "almost." . "the provisions of the treaty _which_ ( ) require the consent of the parliament of canada await its assembling." point out the meaning conveyed by _which_, and by _that_. . "mrs. smith demonstrated ( ), in opposition to the general dictum of the press, that (_a_) _there had been_ a reaction against woman's suffrage, that there had really been a gain of one vote in the house of commons." (_a_) substitute "instead of," and erase the second "that." . "the practice of smoking hangs like a gigantic ( _a_) cloud of evil over the country." footnotes: [ ] that which treats of the thirteenth century. continuous exercises. clearness. the following exercises consist of extracts from burnet, butler, and clarendon, modernized and altered with a view to remove obscurity and ambiguity. the modernized version will necessarily be inferior to the original in unity of style, and in some other respects. the charm of the author's individuality, and the pleasant ring of the old-fashioned english, are lost. it is highly necessary that the student should recognize this, and should bear in mind that the sole object is to show how the meaning in each case might have been more _clearly_ expressed. occasionally expressions have been altered, not as being in themselves obscure or objectionable, but as indicating a habit of which beginners should beware. for example, in the extract from burnet, _he_ is often altered, not because, in the particular context, the pronoun presents any obscurity, but because burnet's habit of repeating _he_ is faulty. these exercises can be used in two ways. the pupil may either have his book open and be questioned on the reasons for each alteration, or, after studying the two versions, he may have the original version dictated to him, and then he may reproduce the parallel version, or something like it, on paper. lord clarendon. the principal faults in this style are, long heterogeneous sentences ( ), use of phrases for words ( _a_), ambiguous use of pronouns ( ), excessive separation of words grammatically connected together ( ). original version. parallel version. ( ) it will not be impertinent and now, in order to explain, as nor _unnatural to this_ ( ) far as possible, how so prodigious _present discourse_, to set down an alteration could take place in in this place the present temper so short a time, and how the[ ] and constitution of both houses royal power could fall so low as of parliament, and ( ) of the to be unable to support itself, court itself, ( ) that ( ) _it_ its dignity, or its faithful may be the less wondered at, that servants, it will be of use to set so prodigious an alteration should down here, where it comes most be made in so short a time, and naturally, some account of the[ ] ( ) the crown fallen so low, that present temper and composition, it could neither support itself not only of both houses of nor its own majesty, nor _those parliament, but also of the court who would_ ( _a_) _appear itself. faithful to it_. * * * * * * * * * * (here follows a description of the house of lords.) in the house of commons were many in the house of commons persons of wisdom and gravity, who there were many men of wisdom ( ) _being possessed_ of great and and judgment whose high plentiful fortunes, though they position and great wealth disposed were undevoted enough to the them, in spite of their indifference court, ( ) had all imaginable to the court, to feel duty for the king, and affection a most loyal respect for the to the government _established_( king, and a great affection for _a_) _by law_ or ancient custom; the ancient constitutional ( ) and without doubt, the _major government of the country. indeed, part of that_ ( ) _body_ it cannot be doubted that consisted of men who had no mind the majority had no intention to to break the peace of the kingdom, break the peace of the kingdom or to make any considerable or to make any considerable alteration in the government of alteration in church or state. church or state: ( ) and consequently, from the very therefore ( ) _all_ inventions outset, it was necessary to resort were set on _foot from the_ ( ) to every conceivable device _beginning_ to work upon ( ) for the purpose of perverting _them_, and ( ) corrupt ( ) this honest majority into rebellion. _them_, ( ) ( ) by suggestions "of the dangers ( ) _which_ with some, the appeal was threatened all that was precious addressed to their patriotism. to the subject ( ) in their they were warned "of the liberty and their property, by dangers that threatened [all _overthrowing_ ( _a_) _or that was precious in] the liberty overmastering_ the law, _and_ ( and property of the subject, _a_) _subjecting_ it to _an if the laws were to be made arbitrary_ ( _a_) _power_, and by subservient to despotism, and countenancing popery to the if popery was to be encouraged subversion of the protestant to the subversion of the protestant religion," and then, by religion." infusing terrible apprehensions into some, and so working upon the fears of others were appealed their fears, ( _b_) "of ( _a_) to. "there was danger," so[ ] it being called in question for was said, "that they might be somewhat they had done," by which called to account for something ( ) _they_ would stand in need of they had done, and they would then ( ) _their_ protection; and ( ) stand in need of the help of those ( ) raising the hopes of others, who were now giving them this "that, by _concurring_ ( _a_) timely warning." in others, hopes _with_ ( ) _them_ ( ) _they_ were excited, and offices, should be sure to obtain offices honours, and preferments were held and honours and any kind of out as the reward of adhesion. preferment." though there were too too many were led away by one or many corrupted and misled by these other of these temptations, and several temptations, and ( ) indeed some needed no other others ( _a_) who needed no temptation than their innate other temptations than from the fierceness and barbarity and the fierceness and barbarity _of malice they had contracted against their_ ( _a_) _own natures_, and the church and the court. but the the malice they had contracted leaders of the conspiracy were not against the church and against the many. the flock was large and court; ( ) yet the number was not submissive, but the shepherds were great _of those in whom the very few. government of the rest_ ( _a_) _was vested_, nor were there many who had the absolute authority ( ) to lead, though there were a multitude ( ) that was disposed to follow. ( ) ( ) mr. pym was looked upon of these, mr. pym was thought as the man of greatest experience superior to all the rest in in parliaments, _where he had_ parliamentary experience. to this ( ) _served very long_, and _was advantage he added habits of always_ ( ) _a man of business_, business acquired from his ( ) being an officer in the continuous service in the exchequer, ( ) and of a good exchequer. he had also a good reputation generally, ( ) though reputation generally; for, though known to be inclined to the known to be inclined to the puritan party; yet not of those puritan party, yet he was not so furious resolutions against the fanatically set against the church church as the other leading men as the other leaders. in this were, and ( ) wholly devoted to respect he resembled the earl of the earl of bedford, who had bedford, to whom he was nothing of that spirit. thoroughly devoted. (here follow descriptions of hampden and saint john.) it was generally believed that these three persons, with the these three persons, with the three peers mentioned before, were other three lords mentioned united in the closest confidence, before, were of the most intimate and formed the mainspring of the and entire trust with each other, party. such at least was the and made _the engine which_ ( general belief. but it was clear _a_) _moved_ all the rest; ( ) that they also admitted to their yet it was visible, that ( ) unreserved confidence two others, _nathaniel fiennes, the second son ( ) whom i will now of the lord say, and sir harry describe,--nathaniel fiennes, vane, eldest son to the secretary, second son of lord say, and sir and treasurer of the house_, were harry vane, eldest son of the received by them with full secretary, and treasurer of the confidence and without reserve. house. the former, being a man of good nathaniel fiennes, a man of good parts of learning, and after some parts, was educated at new years spent in new college in college, oxford, where[ ] his oxford, ( ) of which his father family claimed and enjoyed some had been formerly fellow, ( ) privileges in virtue of their that family pretending[ ] and kindred to the founder, and enjoying many privileges there, as where[ ] his father had formerly of kin to the founder, ( ) ( ) been a fellow. he afterwards spent had spent his time abroad in some time in geneva and in the geneva and amongst the cantons of cantons of switzerland, where[ ] switzerland, ( ) where he he increased that natural improved his disinclination to the antipathy to the church which he church, with which milk he had had imbibed almost with his been nursed. from his travels he mother's milk.[ ] by a singular returned through scotland ( ) coincidence, he came home through (which[ ] few travellers took in scotland (not a very common route their way home) at the time when for returning travellers) just ( ) _that_ rebellion was in bud: when the scotch rebellion was in ( ) ( ) ( ) and was very little bud. for some time he was scarcely known, except amongst ( ) _that_ known beyond the narrow and people, _which conversed_ ( _a_) exclusive circle of his sect, _wholly amongst themselves,_ until until at last he appeared in he was now ( ) _found in parliament. then, indeed, it was parliament_, ( ) ( ) ( ) when quickly discovered that he was it was quickly discovered that, likely to fulfil even the fond as he was the darling of his hopes of his father and the high father, so ( ) _he_ was like to promise of many years. make good whatsoever _he_ had for many years promised. ( ) _the other_, sir h. vane, was fiennes' coadjutor, sir h. vane, a man of great natural parts[ ] was a man of great natural ( ) and of very profound ability.[ ] quick in understanding dissimulation, of a quick and impenetrable in dissembling, conception, and of very ready, he could also speak with sharp, and weighty expression. he promptness, point, and weight. his had an ( ) unusual aspect, which, singular appearance, though it though it might naturally proceed might naturally proceed from his from his father and mother, parents, who were not noted for neither of which were beautiful their beauty, yet impressed men persons, yet ( ) made men think with the belief that he had in him there was somewhat in him of something extraordinary, an extraordinary: and ( ) his whole impression that was confirmed by life made good that imagination. the whole of his life. his within a very short time after he behaviour at oxford, where he returned from his studies in studied at magdalen college, was magdalen college in oxford, where, not characterized, in spite of the ( ) though he was under the care supervision of a very worthy of a very worthy tutor, he lived tutor, by a severe morality. soon not with great exactness, ( ) he after leaving oxford he spent some spent some little time in france, little time in france, and more in and more in geneva, and, ( ) geneva. after returning to after his return into england, england, he conceived an intense ( ) contracted a full prejudice hatred not only against the and bitterness against the church, government of the church, which both against the form of the was disliked by many, but also government and the liturgy, ( ) against the liturgy, which was which was generally in great held in great and general reverence, ( _a_) _even with reverence. many of those who were not friends_ to ( ) _the other_. in incurring or seeming to incur, by his giddiness, which then much his giddiness, the displeasure of displeased, or seemed to his father, who at that time, displease, ( ) ( ) his father, beside strictly conforming to the who still appeared highly church himself, was very bitter conformable, and exceedingly sharp against nonconformists, the young against those who were not, vane left his home for new ( ) _he_ transported himself into england. new england, ( ) a colony within few years before planted by a this colony had been planted a few mixture of all religions,[ ] which years before by men of all sorts of disposed the professors to dislike religions, and their the government of the church; who differences[ ] disposed them to ( ) ( ) ( ) were qualified by dislike the government of the the king's charter to choose their church. now, it happened that their own government and governors, privilege (accorded by the king's under the obligation, "that every charter) of choosing their own man should take the oaths of government and governors was allegiance and supremacy;" ( ) subject to this obligation, "that ( ) ( ) _which_ all the first every man should take the oaths of planters did, when they received allegiance and supremacy." these their charter, before they oaths had been taken, not only by transported themselves from hence, all the original planters, on nor was there in many years after receiving their charter, before the least scruple amongst them of leaving england, but also for many complying with those obligations: years afterwards, without exciting so far men were, _in the infancy_ the slightest scruple. indeed, ( ) _of their schism_, from scruples against lawful oaths were refusing to take lawful oaths. unknown[ ] in the infancy of the ( ) he was no sooner landed english schism. but with the there, but his parts made him arrival of vane all this was quickly taken notice of, ( ) and changed. no sooner had he landed very probably his quality, being than his ability, and perhaps to the eldest son of a some extent his position, as eldest privy-councillor, might give him son of a privy-councillor, some advantage; _insomuch_ ( ) recommended him to notice: and at _that_, when the next season came the next election he was chosen for the election of their governor. magistrates, he was chosen their governor: ( ) ( ) ( ) in which in his new post, his restless and place he had so ill fortune ( ) unquiet imagination found (his working and unquiet fancy opportunity for creating and raising and infusing a thousand diffusing a thousand conscientious scruples of conscience, which ( ) scruples that had not been brought _they_ had not brought over with over, or ever even heard of, by the them, nor heard of before) ( ) colonists. his government proved a that he unsatisfied with failure: and, mutually them and they with him, dissatisfied, ( ) governed and he retransported himself governor parted. vane returned into england; ( ) ( ) ( ) to england, but not till he had having sowed such seed of accomplished his mischievous task, dissension there, as grew up too not till he had sown the seeds of prosperously, and miserably those miserable dissensions which divided the poor colony into afterwards grew only too several factions, and divisions prosperously, till they split the and persecutions of each ( _a_) wretched colony into distinct, _other_, ( ) ( ) which still hostile, and mutually persecuting continue _to the great_ ( ) factions. his handiwork still _prejudice of that plantation_: remains, and it is owing to ( ) insomuch as some of ( ) _them_, _him_ that some of the colonists, upon the ground of their first on the pretext of liberty of expedition, liberty of conscience, conscience, the original cause of have withdrawn themselves from ( ) their emigration, have withdrawn _their_ jurisdiction, and obtained themselves from the old colonial other charters from the king, by jurisdiction and have obtained which, ( ) ( ) in other forms of fresh charters from the king. government, they have enlarged these men have established new their plantations, within new forms of government, unduly limits adjacent to ( ) ( _a_) enlarged their boundaries, and set _the other_.their plantations, up rival settlements on the within new limits adjacent to ( ) borders of the original colony. ( _a_) _the other_. footnotes: [ ] the original metaphor uses the crown as a prop, which seems a confusion. though the metaphor is so common as scarcely to be regarded as a metaphor, it is better to avoid the appearance of confusion. [ ] we sometimes say, briefly but not perhaps idiomatically, "the _then_ sovereign," "the _then_ temper," &c. [ ] the personality of the tempters and organizers of the conspiracy is purposely kept in the background. [ ] the relative is retained in the first two cases, because it conveys the _reason why_ fiennes was educated at new college; and in the third case, because the increased "antipathy" is regarded as the natural _consequence_ of the residence in calvinistic geneva. [ ] claiming. [ ] an insinuation of sedition seems intended. [ ] this sentence is a preliminary summary of what follows. [ ] if "which" is used here according to rule ( ), the meaning is, (_a_) "and their differences;" if it is used for "that," the meaning will be, (_b_) "all religions that were of a nature to dispose &c." i believe (_a_) is the meaning; but i have found difference of opinion on the question. [ ] the following words appear to be emphatic, bringing out the difference between the _infancy_ and the development of schism. burnet. the principal faults in burnet's style are (_a_) the use of heterogeneous sentences (see ); (_b_) the want of suspense (see ); (_c_) the ambiguous use of pronouns (see ); (_d_) the omission of connecting adverbs and conjunctions, and an excessive use of _and_ (see ); and (_e_) an abruptness in passing from one topic to another (see ). the correction of these faults necessarily lengthens the altered version. original version. parallel version. and his maintaining the honour of he also gratified the english the nation in all foreign feeling of self-respect by countries gratified the ( ) maintaining the honour of the _vanity which is very natural_ nation in all foreign countries. ( ) _to englishmen_; ( ) ( ) of so jealous was he on this point which he was _so_ ( ) ( _a_) that, though he was not a crowned _careful_ that, though he was not head, he yet secured for his a crowned head, yet his ( _a_) ambassadors all the respect that ambassadors had all the respects had been paid to the ambassadors paid them which our ( ) _kings'_ of our kings. the king, he said, ambassadors ever had: he said ( received respect simply as the _b_) the dignity of the crown nation's representative head, was upon the account of the and, since the nation was the nation, _of which the king was_ same, the same respect should ( ) _only the representative be paid to the[ ] nation's head_; so, the nation being the ministers. same, he would have the same regards paid to ( ) his ministers. another[ ] instance of ( ) _this_ the following instance of jealousy pleased _him_ much. blake with the for the national honour pleased fleet _happened_ ( ) _to be_ at him much. when blake was at malaga malaga before he made war upon with his fleet, before his war spain: ( ) _and_ some of his with spain, it happened that some seamen went ashore, _and_ met the of his sailors going ashore and host carried about; ( ) _and_ not meeting the procession of the only paid no respect to it, but host, not only paid no respect to laughed at those who did; ( ) it, but even laughed at those who ( ) ( ) so one of the priests did. incited by one of the priests put the people upon resenting this to resent the indignity, the indignity; _and_ they fell upon people fell on the scoffers and ( ) _them and_ beat them severely. beat them severely. on their when they returned to their ship return to the ship the seamen ( ) _they_ complained of ( ) complained of this ill-usage, _this_ usage; and upon that blake whereupon blake sent a messenger sent a trumpet to the viceroy to to the viceroy to demand the demand the priest who was the priest who was the instigator of chief ( ) _instrument_ in that the outrage. the viceroy answered ill-usage. the viceroy answered that he could not touch him, as he _he_ had no authority over the had no authority over the priests. ( ) _priests_, and so could not to this blake replied, that he did dispose of him. blake upon that not intend to inquire to whom the sent him word that _he_ would not authority belonged, but, if the inquire who had the ( ) power to priest were not sent within three send the priest to him, but if hours, he would burn the town. the _he_ were not sent within three townspeople being in no condition hours, _he_ would burn their town; to resist, the priest was at once ( ) and ( ) _they_, being in no sent. on his arrival, he defended condition to resist _him_, sent himself, alleging the insolence of the priest to _him_, ( ) ( ) who the sailors. but the english ( ) justified himself upon the admiral replied that a complaint petulant behaviour of the seamen. should have been forwarded to him, and then he would have punished ( ) blake answered that, if ( ) them severely, for none of his _he_ had sent a complaint to ( ) sailors should be allowed to _him of_( ) _it_, ( ) _he_ would affront the established religion have punished them severely, since of any place where they touched. ( ) _he_ would not suffer _his_ "but," he added, "i take it ill men to affront the established that you should set on your religion of any place at which ( ) countrymen to do my work; for i _he_ touched; but ( ) ( ) _he_ will have all the world know that took it ill, that _he_ set on the an englishman is only to be spaniards to do ( ) _it_; for _he_ punished, by an englishman." then, would have all the world to know satisfied with having had the ( ) that an englishman was only to be offender at his mercy, blake punished by an englishman; ( ) entertained him civilly and sent ( ) and so he treated the priest him back. civilly, and sent him back ( ), being satisfied that he had him at his mercy. cromwell was much delighted with cromwell was much delighted with ( ) _this_, ( ) and read the blake's conduct. reading the letters in council with great letters in council with great satisfaction; _and_ said he ( ) satisfaction, he said, "i hope i hoped he should make the name of shall make the name of an an englishman as great as ever englishman as much respected as that of a roman ( _a_) _had ever was the name of roman." been_. ( ) the states of holland among other countries the states were in such dread of ( ) him that of holland were in such dread of they took care to give him no sort cromwell that they took care to of umbrage; ( ) ( ) _and_ when give him no sort of umbrage. at any time the king or his accordingly, whenever the king or brothers came to see their sister his brothers came to see the the princess royal, ( ) within a princess royal their sister, they day or two after, ( ) _they_ used were always warned in a day or two to send a deputation to let _them_ by a deputation that cromwell had know that cromwell had required of required of the states to give the states that ( ) _they_ should them no harbourage. give _them_ no harbour. * * * * * * * * * * cromwell's favourite alliance was the free kingdom of sweden was sweden.[ ] ( ) carolus gustavus cromwell's favourite ally; not and he lived in great conjunction only under charles gustavus, with of counsels. ( ) even algernon whom he was on most confidential sydney, ( _a_) _who_ was not terms, but also under christina. inclined to think or speak well of both these sovereigns had just kings, commended _him_ ( ) to me; notions of public liberty; at and said _he_ ( ) had just least, algernon sydney, a man notions of public liberty; ( ) certainly not prejudiced in favour ( ) _and_ added, that queen of royalty, assured me this was christina seemed to have _them_ true of gustavus. he also held the likewise. but ( ) she was same opinion of queen christina; much changed from that, when but, if so, she was much changed i waited on her at rome; for when i waited on her at rome; for she complained of us as a factious she then complained of the factious nation, _that did not readily and unruly spirit of our nation. comply with the commands_ ( _a_) _of our princes_. ( ) all italy all italy, no less than trembled at the name of cromwell, holland,[ ] trembled at the name and seemed under a ( ) _panic_ as of cromwell, and dreaded him till long as he lived; ( ) his fleet he died. nor durst the turks scoured the mediterranean; and the offend the great ( ) protector turks durst not offend him; but whose fleet scoured the delivered up hyde, who kept up the mediterranean; and they even gave character of an ambassador from up hyde, who, for keeping up in the king there ( ) ( ), and was turkey the character of ambassador brought over and executed for ( ) from the king, was brought to _it_. england and executed. ( ) ( _a_) the _putting_ the in another instance of severity brother of the king of portugal's towards foreigners--the execution ambassador to death for murder, of the brother of the portuguese was ( _a_) _carrying_ justice ambassador for murder--cromwell very far; ( ) since, though in carried justice very far. for, the strictness of the law of though in strictness the law of nations, it is only the nations exempts from foreign ambassador's own person that is jurisdiction the ambassador alone, exempted from ( ) _any authority_ yet in practice the exemption has ( _a_) _but his master's that extended to the whole of the sends him_, yet the practice has ambassador's suite. gone in favour of _all that the ambassador owned_ ( _a_) _to successful abroad, cromwell was no belong to him_. ( ) ( ) cromwell less successful at home in showed his good ( ) selecting able and worthy men for _understanding_ in nothing more public duties, especially for the than in seeking[ ] out capable courts of law. in nothing did he and worthy men for all employments, show more clearly his great but most particularly for the natural insight, and nothing courts of law, ( ) ( _a_) contributed more to his popularity. ( _a_) which gave a general satisfaction. footnotes: [ ] the meaning is "_his_, and therefore _the nation's_, ministers." there is a kind of antithesis between "the nation" and "the nation's ministers." [ ] no instance has yet been mentioned. [ ] the thought that is implied, and should be expressed, by the words, is this: "cromwell's favourite ally was a free country." [ ] the remarks about christina are a digression, and burnet is now returning to the respect in which cromwell was held by foreign nations. [ ] he not only sought, but sought successfully. that "find" is not necessarily implied by "seek out" seems proved by the use of the word in the authorized version, tim. ii. : "he _sought_ me _out_ very diligently, and _found_ me." bishop butler. the principal faults in this style are (_a_) a vague use of pronouns ( ), and sometimes (_b_) the use of a phrase, where a word would be enough ( _a_). original version. parallel version. some persons, ( ) _upon some persons avowedly reject all pretence[ ] of the sufficiency of revelation as[ ]essentially the light of nature_, avowedly incredible and necessarily reject all revelation as, _in its_ fictitious, on the ground that the ( _a_) _very notion_, light of nature is in itself incredible, _and what_ ( _a_) sufficient. and assuredly, had the _must be fictitious_. and indeed light of nature been sufficient in ( ) it is certain that no such a sense as to render revelation would have been given, revelation needless or useless, no ( ) had the light of nature been revelation would ever have been sufficient in such a sense as to given. but let any man consider render ( ) _one_ not[ ] wanting, the spiritual darkness that once or useless. but no ( _b_) man in ( ) prevailed in the heathen seriousness and simplicity can world before revelation, and that possibly think _it_ ( ) _so_, who ( ) still prevails in those considers the state of religion in regions that have not yet received the heathen world before the light of revealed truth; above revelation, and _its_ ( ) present all, let him mark not merely the state in those ( ) _places_ ( ) natural inattention and ignorance _which_ have borrowed no light of the masses, but also the from ( ) it; particularly ( ) the doubtful language held even by a doubtfulness of some of the ( ) socrates on even so vital a greatest men concerning _things of subject as[ ] the immortality of the utmost_ ( ) _importance_, as the soul; and then can he in well as the ( _a_) _natural seriousness and sincerity maintain inattention and ignorance of that the light of nature is mankind in general_. it is ( ) sufficient? impossible to say ( ) who would have been able to have reasoned it is of course impossible to deny out that whole system which we that some second[ ] aristotle call natural religion, ( ) in its might have reasoned out, in its genuine simplicity, clear of genuine simplicity and without superstition; but there is a touch of superstition, the certainly no ground to affirm whole of that system which we that the generality could. call natural religion. but there ( ) if they could, there is is certainly no ground for no sort of probability that affirming that this complicated they would. ( ) admitting there process would have been possible were, they would highly want a for ordinary men. even if they had standing admonition to remind them had the power, there is no of ( ) _it_, and inculcate it upon probability that they would have them. and further still, were ( ) had the inclination; and, even if _they_ as much _disposed_ ( _a_) we admit the probable inclination, _to attend to_ religion as the they would still need some better sort of men ( _a_) _are_; standing admonition, whereby yet, even upon this supposition, natural religion might be there would be various occasions suggested and inculcated. still for supernatural instruction and further, even if we suppose these assistance, _and the greatest ordinary men to be as attentive to advantages_ ( ) _might be religion as men of a better sort, afforded_ ( _a_) _by_ ( ) yet even then there would be _them_. so that, to say revelation various occasions when is a thing superfluous, _what supernatural instruction and there_ ( _a_) _was no need of_, assistance might be most and _what can be of_ ( _a_) _no beneficially bestowed. service_, is, i think, to talk wildly and at random. nor would it therefore, to call revelation be more extravagant to affirm that superfluous, needless, and ( _a_) _mankind_ is so entirely useless, is, in my opinion, to ( _a_) _at ease_ in the present talk wildly and at random. a man state, and ( _a_) _life so_ might as reasonably assert that we completely ( _a_) _happy_, that are so entirely at ease and so ( ) _it_ is a contradiction to completely happy in this present suppose ( _a_) our condition life that our condition cannot capable of _being in any respect_ without contradiction be supposed ( _a_) _better_.--(_analogy of capable of being in any way religion_, part ii. chap. .) improved. footnotes: [ ] "to pretend" once meant "to put forward," "maintain." [ ] it has been suggested, however, that by "in its very notion incredible," is meant "inconceivable." [ ] "wanting" is used for modern "wanted." [ ] this use of the particular for the general would be out of place in butler's style, but it adds clearness. brevity. sir archibald alison. the following extract exhibits examples of tautology and lengthiness. the "implied statement" ( ) can often be used as a remedy, but, more often, the best remedy is omission. original version. parallel version. the russian empire is ( ) _a russia, with her vast strength and state of_ ( ) _such_ vast boundless resources, is obviously strength and boundless destined to exercise on the course resources, _that_ it is of history a great and lasting obviously destined to make a influence. the slowness of her great and lasting impression on progress only renders her human affairs. its ( ) progress durability more probable. the has been slow, but ( ) _it_[ ] is russian empire has not, like the only on that account the more empires of alexander the great and likely to be durable. ( ) _it_ has napoleon, been raised to sudden not suddenly risen to greatness, greatness by the genius of like the empire of alexander in individuals or the accidents of ancient ( ) ( ), or that of fortune, but has been slowly napoleon in modern, times, from enlarged and firmly consolidated the force of individual genius, or by well-guided ambition and the accidents of ( ) casual persevering energy,[ ] during a fortune, but has slowly advanced, long succession of ages. and ( _a_) been firmly consolidated ( ) _during a succession of ages_, from the combined influence of ambition skilfully directed and energy ( _a_) _perseveringly applied_. * * * * * * * * * * the extent and fertility of the the extent and fertility of her russian territory are _such_ ( ) territory furnish unparalleled _as to_ furnish facilities of facilities for the increase of her increase and elements of strength population and power. european _which no nation_ ( _a_) _in the russia, that is, russia to the world enjoys_. european west of the ural mountains, russia--that is, russia to the contains one million two hundred westward of the ural thousand square geographical mountains--contains a hundred and miles, or ten times the surface of fifty thousand four hundred square great britain and ireland. marine leagues, or about one million two hundred thousand square geographical miles, being ten times the surface of the british islands, which contain, including ireland, one hundred and twenty-two thousand. great part, this vast territory is intersected no doubt, of this _immense_ ( , by no mountain ranges, no arid see below) _territory is covered_ deserts; and though much of it is with forests, or ( _a_) _lies_ rendered almost unproductive of so far to the north as to be food either by the denseness of almost unproductive of food; but forests, or by the severity of the no ranges of mountains or arid northern winter, yet almost all, deserts intersect the _vast_ ( , except that part which touches see above) _extent_, and almost the arctic snows, is capable of the whole, excepting that which yielding something for the use touches the arctic snows, is of man. capable of yielding something for the use of man. the ( ) ( ) the steppes of the south present _boundless_ steppes of the south an inexhaustible pasturage to present ( ) _inexhaustible_ those nomad tribes whose numerous fields of pasturage, and give and incomparable horsemen form the birth to those nomad tribes, in chief defence of the empire. whose numerous and incomparable horsemen the chief defence of the empire,[ ] as of all oriental states, ( _a_) _is to be found_. the rich arable lands in the heart the rich arable lands in the _of the_ ( ) _empire_ produce an interior produce grain enough to ( ) _incalculable_ quantity of support four times the present grain, capable not only of population of the empire, and yet maintaining four times ( ) _its_ leave a vast surplus to be present inhabitants, but affording transported by the dnieper, the a vast surplus for exportation by volga, and their tributaries, into the dnieper, the volga, and their the euxine or other seas. tributary streams, ( ) which _form so many_ ( ) _natural outlets_ into the euxine or other seas; ( ) while the cold and lastly, the cold bleak plains shivering plains which stretch stretching towards archangel and towards archangel and the shores towards the shores of the white of the white sea are ( ) covered sea, and covered with immense with immense forests of fir and forests of oak and fir, furnish oak, furnishing at once ( )[ ] materials for shipbuilding and _inexhaustible_ materials for supplies of fuel that will for shipbuilding and supplies of fuel. many generations supersede the ( ) _these ample stores_ for many necessity of searching for coal. generations will supersede the necessity of searching in the ( _a_) _bowels_ of the earth for _the purposes of_ ( ) _warmth or manufacture_. formidable as the power of russia much as we may dread russia for is from the vast extent of its the vastness of her territory and territory, and the great and of her rapidly increasing numbers, rapidly increasing number _of there is greater cause for fear its_ ( ) _subjects_, ( ) _it_ is in the military spirit and the still more ( ) _so_ from the docility of her people. military spirit and docile disposition _by which they are_ ( )[ ] _distinguished_. the prevailing ( ) _passion_ of the a burning thirst for conquest is nation is the ( ) _love of as prevalent a passion in russia conquest_, and this ( ) _ardent_ as democratic ambition in the free ( ) _desire_, which ( ) _burns states of western europe. this as_ ( ) _fiercely_ in them as passion is the unseen spring[ ] democratic ambition does in the which, while it retains the free states of western europe, is russians in the strictest the unseen spring[ ] which both discipline, unceasingly impels retains them _submissive_ ( ) their united forces against all _under the standard of their adjoining states. chief_ and impels their accumulated forces in ceaseless the national energy, which is as violence over all the adjoining great as the national territory, states. the energies of the rarely wastes itself in disputes people, great as[ ] the territory about domestic grievances. for all they inhabit, are rarely wasted in internal evils, how great soever, internal disputes. domestic the russians hope to find a grievances, how great soever, are compensation, and more than a ( ) overlooked in the thirst for compensation, in the conquest of foreign aggrandizement. ( ) in the world. the conquest of the world the people hope to find a compensation, and more than a compensation, ( _a_) _for all the evils of their interior administration_. footnotes: [ ] apparently "it" means, not "progress," but the "russian empire." [ ] not "energy," but "a long succession of ages," needs to be emphasized. [ ] there is nothing in the context that requires the words, "as of all oriental states." [ ] if they were really "inexhaustible," the "necessity of searching in the bowels of the earth" would be "superseded," not for "many," but for all generations. [ ] the words can be implied, and besides they are expressed in the following sentence. [ ] the metaphor is questionable; for a "spring," _qua_ "spring," does not retain at all; and besides, "a passion" ought not to "burn" in one line, and be a "spring" in the next. [ ] the meaning appears _not_ to be, "great as" (is), _i.e._ "though the territory is great." the end. * * * * * english lessons for english people. by the rev. edwin a. abbott, m.a., head master of the city of london school; and j. r. seeley, m.a., professor of modern history in the university of cambridge. "it is not so much a merit to know english as it is a shame not to know it; and i look upon this knowledge as essential for an englishman, and not merely for a fine speaker."--adapted from cicero. boston: roberts brothers. . [illustration: qui legit regit] university press: john wilson & son, cambridge. to the rev. g. f. w. mortimer, d.d., _prebendary of st. paul's cathedral, late head master of the city of london school_. dear doctor mortimer, we have other motives, beside the respect and gratitude which must be felt for you by all those of your old pupils who are capable of appreciating the work you did at the city of london school, for asking you to let us dedicate to you a little book which we have entitled "english lessons for english people." looking back upon our school life, we both feel that among the many educational advantages which we enjoyed under your care, there was none more important than the study of the works of shakspeare, to which we and our school-fellows were stimulated by the special prizes of the beaufoy endowment. we owe you a debt of gratitude not always owed by pupils to their teachers. many who have passed into a life of engrossing activity without having been taught at school to use rightly, or to appreciate the right use of, their native tongue, feeling themselves foreigners amid the language of their country, may turn with some point against their teachers the reproach of banished bolingbroke:-- my tongue's use is to me no more than an unstringed viol or a harp, or like a cunning instrument cased up, or, being open, put into his hands that knows no touch to tune the harmony; within my mouth you have engaoled my tongue, doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips, and dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance is made my gaoler to attend on me. i am too old to fawn upon a nurse, too far in years to be a pupil now. it is our pleasant duty, on the contrary, to thank you for encouraging us to study the "cunning instrument" of our native tongue. our sense of the benefits which we derived from this study, and our recollection that the study was at that time optional, and did not affect more than a small number of the pupils, lead us to anticipate that when once the english language and literature become recognized, not as an optional but as a regular part of our educational course, the advantages will be so great as to constitute nothing short of a national benefit. the present seems to be a critical moment for english instruction. the subject has excited much attention of late years; many schools have already taken it up; others are on the point of doing so; it forms an important part of most government and other examinations. but there is a complaint from many teachers that they cannot teach english for want of text-books and manuals; and, as the study of english becomes year by year more general, this complaint makes itself more and more distinctly heard. to meet this want we have written the following pages. if we had had more time, we might perhaps have been tempted to aim at producing a more learned and exhaustive book on the subject; but, setting aside want of leisure, we feel that a practical text-book, and not a learned or exhaustive treatise, is what is wanted at the present crisis. we feel sure that you will give a kindly welcome to our little book, as an attempt, however imperfect, to hand on the torch which you have handed to us; we beg you also to accept it as a token of our sincere gratitude for more than ordinary kindnesses, and to believe us your affectionate pupils, j. r. seeley. edwin a. abbott. * * * * * _messrs. roberts brothers' publications._ english lessons for english people. by rev. e. a. abbott, m.a., and prof. j. r. seeley, m.a. part i.--vocabulary. part ii--diction. part iii.--metre. part iv.--hints on selection and arrangement. appendix. mo. price $ . . _from the london athenæum._ the object of this book is evidently a practical one. it is intended for ordinary use by a large circle of readers; and though designed principally for boys, may be read with advantage by many of more advanced years. one of the lessons which it professes to teach, "to use the right word in the right place," is one which no one should despise. the accomplishment is a rare one, and many of the hints here given are truly admirable. _from the southern review._ the study of language can never be exhausted. every time it is looked at by a man of real ability and culture, some new phase starts into view. the origin of language; its relations to the mind; its history; its laws; its development; its struggles; its triumphs; its devices; its puzzles; its ethics,--every thing about it is full of interest. here is a delightful book, by two men of recognized authority,--the head master of london school, and the professor of modern history in the university of cambridge, the notable author of "ecce homo." the book is so comprehensive in its scope that it seems almost miscellaneous. it treats of the vocabulary of the english language; diction as appropriate to this or that sort of composition; selection and arguments of topics; metre, and an appendix on logic. all this in less than three hundred pages. within this space so many subjects cannot be treated exhaustively; and no one is, unless we may except metre, to which about eighty pages are devoted, and about which all seems to be said that is worth saying,--possibly more. but on each topic some of the best things are said in a very stimulating way. the student will desire to study more thoroughly the subject into which such pleasant openings are here given; and the best prepared teacher will be thankful for the number of striking illustrations gathered up to his hand. the abundance and freshness of the quotations makes the volume very attractive reading, without reference to its didactic value. _sold by all booksellers. mailed, postpaid, by the publishers_, roberts brothers, boston. preface. this book is not intended to supply the place of an english grammar. it presupposes a knowledge of grammar and of english idiom in its readers, and does not address itself to foreigners, but to those who, having already a familiar knowledge of english, need help to write it with taste and exactness. some degree of knowledge is presumed in the reader; nevertheless we do not presume that he possesses so much as to render him incapable of profiting from _lessons_. our object is, if possible, not merely to interest, but to _teach_; to write lessons, not essays,--lessons that may perhaps prove interesting to some who have passed beyond the routine of school life, but still lessons, in the strictest sense, adapted for school classes. aiming at practical utility, the book deals only with those difficulties which, in the course of teaching, we have found to be most common and most serious. for there are many difficulties, even when grammatical accuracy has been attained, in the way of english persons attempting to write and speak correctly. first, there is the cramping restriction of an insufficient vocabulary; not merely a loose and inexact apprehension of many words that are commonly used, and a consequent difficulty in using them accurately, but also a total ignorance of many other words, and an inability to use them at all; and these last are, as a rule, the very words which are absolutely necessary for the comprehension and expression of any thought that deals with something more than the most ordinary concrete notions. there is also a very common inability to appreciate the differences between words that are at all similar. lastly, where the pupil has studied latin, and trusts too much for his knowledge of english words to his knowledge of their latin roots, there is the possibility of misderiving and misunderstanding a word, owing to ignorance of the changes of letters introduced in the process of derivation; and, on the other hand, there is the danger of misunderstanding and pedantically misusing words correctly derived, from an ignorance of the changes of meaning which a word almost always experiences in passing from one language to another. the result of all this non-understanding or slovenly half-understanding of words is a habit of slovenly reading and slovenly writing, which when once acquired is very hard to shake off. then, following on the difficulties attending the use of words, there are others attending the choice and arrangement of words. there is the danger of falling into "poetic prose," of thinking it necessary to write "steed" or "charger" instead of "horse," "ire" instead of "anger," and the like; and every teacher, who has had much experience in looking over examination papers, will admit that this is a danger to which beginners are very liable. again, there is the temptation to shrink with a senseless fear from using a plain word twice in the same page, and often from using a plain word at all. this unmanly dread of simplicity, and of what is called "tautology," gives rise to a patchwork made up of scraps of poetic quotations, unmeaning periphrases, and would-be humorous circumlocutions,--a style of all styles perhaps the most objectionable and offensive, which may be known and avoided by the name of _fine writing_. lastly, there is the danger of _obscurity_, a fault which cannot be avoided without extreme care, owing to the uninflected nature of our language. all these difficulties and dangers are quite as real, and require as much attention, and are fit subjects for practical teaching in our schools, quite as much as many points which, at present, receive perhaps an excessive attention in some of our text-books. to use the right word in the right place is an accomplishment not less valuable than the knowledge of the truth (carefully recorded in most english grammars, and often inflicted as a task upon younger pupils) that the plural of _cherub_ is _cherubim_, and the feminine of _bull_ is _cow_. to smooth the reader's way through these difficulties is the object of the first three parts of this book. difficulties connected with vocabulary are considered first. the student is introduced, almost at once, to _synonyms_. he is taught how to _define_ a word, with and without the aid of its synonyms. he is shown how to _eliminate_ from a word whatever is not essential to its meaning. the processes of _definition_ and _elimination_ are carefully explained: a system or scheme is laid down which he can exactly follow; and examples are subjoined, worked out to illustrate the method which he is to pursue. a system is also given by which the reader may enlarge his vocabulary, and furnish himself easily and naturally with those general or abstract terms which are often misunderstood and misused, and still more often not understood and not used at all. some information is also given to help the reader to connect words with their roots, and at the same time to caution him against supposing that, because he knows the roots of a word, he necessarily knows the meaning of the word itself. exercises are interspersed throughout this part which can be worked out with, or without, an english etymological dictionary,[ ] as the nature of the case may require. the exercises have not been selected at random; many of them have been subjected to the practical test of experience, and have been used in class teaching. the second part deals with diction. it attempts to illustrate with some detail the distinction--often ignored by those who are beginning to write english, and sometimes by others also--between the diction of prose, and that of poetry. it endeavors to dissipate that excessive and vulgar dread of tautology which, together with a fondness for misplaced pleasantry, gives rise to the vicious style described above. it gives some practical rules for writing a long sentence clearly and impressively; and it also examines the difference between slang, conversation, and written prose. both for translating from foreign languages into english, and for writing original english composition, these rules have been used in teaching, and, we venture to think, with encouraging results. a chapter on simile and metaphor concludes the subject of diction. we have found, in the course of teaching, that a great deal of confusion in speaking and writing, and still more in reading and attempting to understand the works of our classical english authors, arises from the inability to express the literal meaning conveyed in a metaphor. the application of the principle of proportion to the explanation of metaphor has been found to dissipate much of this confusion. the youngest pupils readily learn how to "expand a metaphor into its simile;" and it is really astonishing to see how many difficulties that perplex young heads, and sometimes old ones too, vanish at once when the key of "expansion" is applied. more important still, perhaps, is the exactness of thought introduced by this method. the pupil knows that, if he cannot expand a metaphor, he does not understand it. all teachers will admit that to force a pupil to see that he does not understand any thing is a great stride of progress. it is difficult to exaggerate the value of a process which makes it impossible for a pupil to delude himself into the belief that he understands when he does not understand. metre is the subject of the third part. the object of this part (as also, in a great measure, of the chapter just mentioned belonging to the second part) is to enable the pupil to read english poetry with intelligence, interest, and appreciation. to teach any one how to read a verse so as to mark the metre on the one hand, without on the other hand converting the metrical line into a monotonous doggerel, is not so easy a task as might be supposed. many of the rules stated in this part have been found of practical utility in teaching pupils to hit the mean. rules and illustrations have therefore been given, and the different kinds of metre and varieties of the same metre have been explained at considerable length. this chapter may seem to some to enter rather too much into detail. we desire, however, to urge as an explanation, that in all probability the study of english metre will rapidly assume more importance in english schools. at present, very little is generally taught, and perhaps known, about this subject. in a recent elaborate edition of the works of pope, the skill of that consummate master of the art of epigrammatic versification is impugned because in one of his lines he suffers _the_ to receive the metrical accent. when one of the commonest customs (for it is in no sense a license) of english poets--a custom sanctioned by shakspeare, dryden, milton, wordsworth, byron, shelley, and tennyson--can be censured as a fault, and this in a leading edition of a leading poet of our literature, it must be evident that much still remains to be done in teaching english metre. at present this part may seem too detailed. probably, some few years hence, when a knowledge of english metre has become more widely diffused, it will seem not detailed enough. the fourth part (like the chapter on metaphor) is concerned not more with english than with other languages. it treats of the different styles of composition, the appropriate subjects for each, and the arrangement of the subject-matter. we hope that this may be of some interest to the general reader, as well as of practical utility in the higher classes of schools. it seems desirable that before pupils begin to write essays, imaginary dialogues, speeches, and poems, they should receive some instruction as to the difference of arrangement in a poem, a speech, a conversation, and an essay. an appendix adds a few hints on some errors in reasoning. this addition may interfere with the symmetry of the book; but if it is found of use, the utility will be ample compensation. in reading literature, pupils are continually meeting instances of false reasoning, which, if passed over without comment, do harm, and, if commented upon, require some little basis of knowledge in the pupil to enable him to understand the explanation. without entering into the details of formal logic, we have found it possible to give pupils some few hints which have appeared to help them. the hints are so elementary, and so few, that they cannot possibly delude the youngest reader into imagining that they are any thing more than hints. they may induce him hereafter to study the subject thoroughly in a complete treatise, when he has leisure and opportunity; but, in any case, a boy will leave school all the better prepared for the work of life, whatever that work may be, if he knows the meaning of _induction_, and has been cautioned against the error, _post hoc, ergo propter hoc_. no lesson, so far as our experience in teaching goes, interests and stimulates pupils more than this; and our experience of debating societies, in the higher forms of schools, forces upon us the conviction that such lessons are not more interesting than necessary. questions on the different paragraphs have been added at the end of the book, for the purpose of enabling the student to test his knowledge of the contents, and also to serve as home lessons to be prepared by pupils in classes.[ ] a desire, expressed by some teachers of experience, that these lessons should be published as soon as possible, has rather accelerated the publication. some misprints and other inaccuracies may possibly be found in the following pages, in consequence of the short time which has been allowed us for correcting them. our thanks are due to several friends who have kindly assisted us in this task, and who have also aided us with many valuable and practical suggestions. among these we desire to mention mr. joseph payne, whose labors on norman french are well known; mr. t.g. philpotts, late fellow of new college, oxford, and one of the assistant masters of rugby school; mr. edwin abbott, head master of the philological school; mr. howard candler, mathematical master of uppingham school; and the rev. r. h. quick, one of the assistant masters of harrow school. in conclusion, we repeat that we do not wish our book to be regarded as an exhaustive treatise, or as adapted for the use of foreigners. it is intended primarily for boys, but, in the present unsatisfactory state of english education, we entertain a hope that it may possibly be found not unfit for some who have passed the age of boyhood; and in this hope we have ventured to give it the title of _english lessons for english people_. footnotes: [ ] an etymological dictionary is necessary for pupils studying the first part. chambers's or ogilvie's will answer the purpose. [ ] some of the passages quoted to illustrate style are intended to be committed to memory and used as repetition-lessons.--see pp. , , , , , etc. * * * * * on the right use of books. a lecture. by william p. atkinson, professor of english and history in the massachusetts institute of technology. mo. cloth. price cents. "full of good sense, sound taste, and quiet humor.... it is the easiest thing in the world to waste time over books, which are merely tools of knowledge like any other tools.... it is the function of a good book not only to fructify, but to inspire, not only to fill the memory with evanescent treasures, but to enrich the imagination with forms of beauty and goodness which leave a lasting impression on the character."--_n. y. tribune._ "contains so many wise suggestions concerning methods in study and so excellent a summary of the nature and principles of a really liberal education that it well deserves publication for the benefit of the reading public. though it makes only a slight volume, its quality in thought and style is so admirable that all who are interested in the subject of good education will give to it a prominent and honorable position among the many books upon education which have recently been published. for it takes only a brief reading to perceive that in this single lecture the results of wide experience in teaching and of long study of the true principles of education are generalized and presented in a few pages, each one of which contains so much that it might be easily expanded into an excellent chapter."--_the library table._ * * * * * reading as a fine art. by ernest legouvÉ, of the académie française. translated from the ninth edition by abby langdon alger. mo. cloth. cents. (_dedication._) to the scholars of the high and normal school. for you this sketch was written: permit me to dedicate it to you, in fact, to intrust it to your care. pupils to-day, to-morrow you will be teachers; to-morrow, generation after generation of youth will pass through your guardian hands. an idea received by you must of necessity reach thousands of minds. help me, then, to spread abroad the work in which you have some share, and allow me to add to the great pleasure of having numbered you among my hearers the still greater happiness of calling you my assistants. e. legouvÉ. we commend this valuable little book to the attention of teachers and others interested in the instruction of the pupils of our public schools. it treats of the "first steps in reading," "learning to read," "should we read as we talk," "the use and management of the voice," "the art of breathing," "pronunciation," "stuttering," "punctuation," "readers and speakers," "reading as a means of criticism," "on reading poetry," &c., and makes a strong claim as to the value of reading aloud, as being the most wholesome of gymnastics, for to strengthen the voice is to strengthen the whole system and develop vocal power. * * * * * how to parse. an attempt to apply the principles of scholarship to english grammar. with appendixes in analysis, spelling, and punctuation. by edwin a. abbott, m.a., head master of the city of london school. mo. cloth. price $ . . "we recommend this little book to the careful attention of teachers and others interested in instruction. in the hands of an able teacher, the book should help to relieve parsing from the reproach of being the bane of the school-room. the etymological glossary of grammatical terms will also supply a long-felt want." _n.y. nation._ "'how to parse' is likely to prove to teachers a valuable, and to scholars an agreeable, substitute for most of the grammars in common use."--_boston daily advertiser._ "the rev. e.a. abbott, whose books, 'english lessons for english people,' and 'how to write clearly,' have been accepted as standard text-books on both sides of the ocean, has added another work to his list of sensible treatises on the use of english. it is called 'how to parse,' and is best described by the further title, 'an attempt to apply the principles of scholarship to english grammar, with appendices on analysis, spelling, and punctuation.' the little book is so sensible and so simple that the greater number of its readers will perhaps forget to observe that it is profoundly philosophical also, but it is so in the best sense of the term."--_n. y. evening post._ "of all subjects of study, it may be safely admitted that grammar possesses as a rule the fewest attractions for the youthful mind. to prepare a work capable of imparting a thorough knowledge of this important part of education in an attractive and entertaining form, to many may appear extremely difficult, if not impossible; nevertheless, the task has been accomplished in a highly successful manner by edwin a. abbott, head master of the city of london school, in a neat little volume entitled 'how to parse.' the author has succeeded admirably in combining with the exercises a vast amount of useful information, which impacts to the principles and rules of the main subject a degree of interest that renders the study as attractive as history or fiction. the value of the book is greatly increased by an excellent glossary of grammatical forms and a nicely arranged index. the work deserves the attention and consideration of teachers and pupils, and will doubtless prove a highly popular addition to the list of school-books."--_n.y. graphic._ * * * * * _messrs. roberts brothers' publications._ goethe's hermann and dorothea. translated from the german by ellen frothingham. with illustrations. _thin vo, cloth, gilt, bevelled boards. price $ . ._ _a cheaper edition, mo, cloth. price $ . ._ "miss frothingham's translation is something to be glad of: it lends itself kindly to perusal, and it presents goethe's charming poem in the metre of the original.... it is not a poem which could be profitably used in an argument for the enlargement of the sphere of woman: it teaches her subjection, indeed, from the lips of a beautiful girl, which are always so fatally convincing; but it has its charm, nevertheless, and will serve at least for an agreeable picture of an age when the ideal woman was a creature around which grew the beauty and comfort and security of home."--_atlantic monthly._ "the poem itself is bewitching. of the same metre as longfellow's 'evangeline,' its sweet and measured cadences carry the reader onward with a real pleasure as he becomes more and more absorbed in this descriptive wooing song. it is a sweet volume to read aloud in a select circle of intelligent friends."--_providence press._ "miss frothingham has done a good service, and done it well, in translating this famous idyl, which has been justly called 'one of the most faultless poems of modern times.' nothing can surpass the simplicity, tenderness, and grace of the original, and these have been well preserved in miss frothingham's version. her success is worthy of the highest praise, and the mere english reader can scarcely fail to read the poem with the same delight with which it has always been read by those familiar with the german. its charming pictures of domestic life, the strength and delicacy of its characterization, the purity of tone and ardent love of country which breathe through it, must always make it one of the most admired of goethe's works."--_boston christian register._ _sold everywhere. mailed, postpaid, by the publishers_, roberts brothers, boston * * * * * dr. abbott's works. how to parse. an attempt to apply the principles of scholarship to english grammar. with appendixes on analysis, spelling, and punctuation. mo. cloth. price, $ . . how to tell the parts of speech. an introduction to english grammar. american edition, revised and enlarged by prof. john g. r. mcelroy, of the university of pennsylvania. mo. cloth. price, cents. how to write clearly. rules and exercises in english composition. mo. cloth. price, cents. english lessons for english people. jointly by dr. abbott and prof. j. r. seeley, m.a., of cambridge university, eng. mo. cloth. price, $ . . roberts brothers, publishers, _boston_. * * * * * [transcriber's notes: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. the transcriber made the following changes to the text to correct obvious errors: . p. , "inpugned" --> "impugned" . p. , to qualify "enemy. --> to qualify "enemy." text set in bold print is indicated by asterisks, i.e., *bold*. it is common to have footnotes referenced multiple times in the text. advertisements for dr. abbott's other works published by roberts brothers have been moved from the front of the book to the end. end of transcriber's notes] [illustration] fire-side picture alphabet of humour and droll moral tales or words & their meanings illustrated boston mayhew & baker. washington st. * * * * * mayhew & baker, washington st., boston, publish the following list of new and beautiful illustrated juveniles, for children: king jollyboy's royal story book, for little folks. large quarto, printed in red and black, on thick, heavy paper, and unsurpassed for style of printing by any american publication. new and delightful moral stories, with comic illustrations. price cents. * * * * * a companion to "five little pigs." * * * * * the wonderful adventures of the little man and his little gun. there was a little man, and he had a little gun, and the bullets were made of lead, lead, lead; he went to the brook, and he shot a little duck, and he hit her right through the head, head, head. with new and original comic illustrations, music, &c. * * * * * mayhew and baker, washington street, and all booksellers. * * * * * amusement for children. * * * * * home pastimes, or the child's own toy maker. [illustration] beautifully printed in colors, on thick pasteboard, with full directions to cut out and paste together, making an assortment of wheelbarrows, cabs, railway cars, carriages, windmills, &c., that can be made to move. now ready, no. . charlie's wheelbarrow. no. . miss hattie's french bedstead. no. . frank's sledge. no. . tom thumb's carriage. new toys in preparation. * * * * * a manual of cricket and base ball, illustrated with plans for laying out the grounds and forming clubs, to which are added rules and regulations for cricket, adopted by the marylebone club. also, rules and regulations which govern several base ball clubs. price cents. sent by mail, prepaid, on receipt of the price in stamps. * * * * * mayhew and baker, washington street, and all booksellers. * * * * * entered according to act of congress, in the year , by mayhew & baker, in the clerk's office of the district court of the district of massachusetts. printed by alfred mudge & son, _no. school st., opp. city hall, boston._ * * * * * engraved by john andrew * * * * * [illustration: laugh and learn] * * * * * the fireside picture alphabet. [illustration] boston: mayhew & baker, washington street. * * * * * poetical preface to the fireside picture alphabet. * * * * * to preceptors. with learning may laughter be found; "'tis good to be merry and wise;" to gayly get over the ground, as higher and higher we rise. some children their letters may learn, while others will surely do more, as the subjects suggestively turn to matters not thought of before. descriptions and pictures combined are here made attractive and clear; so suited that children may find from error the truth to appear. * * * * * [illustration] a a. ablution, _the act of cleansing_. the little sweep has washed his face, but not as we advise; for black as soot he's made the soap, and rubbed it in his eyes. * * * * * [illustration] b b. barter, _exchange_. here's master mack presenting fruit, of which he makes display; he knows he'll soon have lucy's rope, and with it skip away. * * * * * [illustration] c c. catastrophe, _a final event_, (_generally unhappy_.) "o, here's a sad catastrophe!" was mrs. blossom's cry; then--"water! water! bring to me-- or all my fish will die." * * * * * [illustration] d d. delightful, _pleasant_, _charming_. these boys are bathing in the stream when they should be at school; the master's coming round to see who disregards his rule. * * * * * [illustration] e e. eccentricity, _irregularity_, _strangeness_. we often see things seeming strange; but scarce so strange as this:-- here every thing is mis-applied, here every change amiss. * * * * * [illustration] f f. fraud, _deceit_, _trick_, _artifice_, _cheat_. here is pat murphy, fast asleep, and there is neddy bray; the thief a watchful eye doth keep until he gets away. * * * * * [illustration] g g. genius, _mental power_, _faculty_. a little boy with little slate may sometimes make more clear the little thoughts that he would state than can by words appear. * * * * * [illustration] h h. horror, _terror_, _dread_. this little, harmless speckled frog seems lady townsend's dread; i fear she'll run away and cry, and hide her silly head. * * * * * [illustration] i i. j j. ichabod at the jam. ichabod, _a christian name_. jam, _a conserve of fruits_. enough is good, excess is bad; yet ichabod, you see, will with the jam his stomach cram, until they disagree. * * * * * [illustration] k k. knowing, _conscious_, _intelligent_. tho' horses know both beans and corn, and snuff them in the wind, they also all know jemmy small, and what he holds behind. * * * * * [illustration] l l. lucky, _fortunate_, _happy by chance_. we must admire, in lovebook's case, the prompt decision made, as he could not have gained the wood if time had been delayed. * * * * * [illustration] m m. mimic, _imitative_, _burlesque_. the gentleman, who struts so fine, unconscious seems to be of imitation by the boy who has the street-door key. * * * * * [illustration] n n. negligence, _heedlessness_, _carelessness_. the character tom slowboy bears would much against him tell, for any work that's wanted done, or even play done well. * * * * * [illustration] o o. obstinacy, _stubbornness_, _waywardness_. the obstinacy of the pig is nature--as you see; but boys and girls who have a mind should never stubborn be. * * * * * [illustration] p p. pets, _favorites_, _spoilt fondlings_. some people say that aunty gray to animals is kind; we think, instead, they are over fed, and kept too much confined. * * * * * [illustration] q q. quandary, _a doubt_, _a difficulty_. dame partlett's in difficulty, and looks around with doubt; let's hope, as she some way got in, she may some way get out. * * * * * [illustration] r r. rivalry, _competition_, _emulation_. in every competition prize this should be kept in view-- whoever wins should be the one who does deserve it too. * * * * * [illustration] s s. sluggard, _an inactive, lazy fellow_. to lie so many hours in bed you surely must be ill, and need some physic, master ned, as birch, or draught, or pill! * * * * * [illustration] t t. topsy-turvy, _upside down_, _bottom top_. here's topsy-turvy, upside down, the ceiling seems the base; reverse the ground and 'twill be found the things are out of place. * * * * * [illustration] u u. v v. uncommon vegetation. uncommon, _rare_, _not frequent_. vegetation, _the power of growth_. th' uncommon vegetation, here, with art has much to do; the trees are nature, but the fruit uncommon and untrue. * * * * * [illustration] w w. wonder, _admiration_, _astonishment_. the wise may live and wonder still, however much they know, but simple giles has wonder found within the penny show. * * * * * [illustration] x x. no english word begins with this letter. xantippe, _a greek matron_, _wife of socrates_. here's socrates and xantippe-- philosopher and wife-- for gentleness renowned was he; she, better known for strife. * * * * * [illustration] y y. yearn, _to grieve_, _to vex_. miss cross has tried to reach the grapes, she's tried and tried again-- and now she's vexed to think that all her efforts are in vain. * * * * * [illustration] z z. zany, _a buffoon_, _a merry andrew_. here's zany reading in a book, with heels above his head; and, judging by his laughing look, finds fun in what he's read. * * * * * "here's a nice book for the holidays." * * * * * willis, the pilot, a sequel to the swiss family robinson; or, adventures of an emigrant family wrecked on an unknown coast of the pacific ocean; interspersed with tales, incidents of travel, and illustrations of natural history. beautifully illustrated. * * * * * from the many favorable notices of the press, read the following: "the scene is laid chiefly in the south seas, and the narrator illustrates the geography and ethnology of that section of the far west. some of the adventures are marvellous indeed, and willis is a rich specimen of a hardy, fearless, and honest tar." "this book takes up the story of 'the swiss family robinson,' and carries it forward to a happy termination. the style and spirit of the story is preserved with admirable effect; and if any thing, 'willis, the pilot,' is of greater interest and more instructive than the charming story out of which it grows." "'the swiss family robinson' never seemed to quite finish its story, and the author of 'willis, the pilot,' has hit upon a happy idea in carrying out and completing the tale; and he has executed the work exceedingly well, and will confer a new delight upon the thousands who have been entranced by the tale of the swiss family, and will here pursue the narrative of their adventurous life. the publishers of the volume have dressed it up in very attractive style. the illustrations are numerous, spirited, and handsomely done." "abundance of adventures, serious and comic, funny expedients and devices, odd turns of fortune, all combine to charm and fix the attention of the young reader; while science and fact are skilfully inwoven with the details of the story. a pleasant book for a christmas gift, and just the thing for the long winter nights." mayhew and baker, washington street, and all booksellers. * * * * * a game for all seasons. * * * * * nearly ready, the new game of tournament & knighthood, printed in colors, on thick pasteboard, with embossed counters. two games on one board. * * * * * the combats of the knights, in the days of chivalry, on "the field of the cloth of gold," served to display the skill and dexterity of the combatants in feats of arms. the new tournament, or _bloodless_ battle, is so arranged that, while it requires both skill and dexterity in one game, the other is both simple and amusing. one will require considerable shrewdness in an old chess or whist player, while the other can be played by small children. full directions accompany each game. price cents. sent by mail, prepaid, on receipt of the price. * * * * * mayhew and baker, washington street, and all booksellers. * * * * * none {transcriber's note: all square brackets [] are from the original text. braces {} ("curly brackets") are supplied by the transcriber. characters that could not be fully expressed are "unpacked" and shown within braces, top to bottom: {oe} oe ligature {)o} o with breve (short-vowel sign) } cambridge university press london: fetter lane, e.c. c. f. clay, manager {illustration: coat of arms} edinburgh: , princes street berlin: a. asher and co. leipzig: f.a. brockhaus new york: g.p. putnam's sons bombay and calcutta: macmillan and co., ltd _all rights reserved_ * * * * * {illustration: decorative title page encompassing all text from "english dialects" through " "} english dialects from the eighth century to the present day by the rev. walter w. skeat, litt.d., d.c.l., ll.d., ph.d., f.b.a. elrington and bosworth professor of anglo-saxon and fel- low of christ's college. founder and formerly director of the english dialect society "english in the native garb;" _k. henry v._ v. . cambridge at the university press * * * * * with the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known cambridge printer, john siberch, _first edition_ . _reprinted_ . * * * * * preface the following brief sketch is an attempt to present, in a popular form, the history of our english dialects, from the eighth century to the present day. the evidence, which is necessarily somewhat imperfect, goes to show that the older dialects appear to have been few in number, each being tolerably uniform over a wide area; and that the rather numerous dialects of the present day were gradually developed by the breaking up of the older groups into subdialects. this is especially true of the old northumbrian dialect, in which the speech of aberdeen was hardly distinguishable from that of yorkshire, down to the end of the fourteenth century; soon after which date, the use of it for literary purposes survived in scotland only. the chief literary dialect, in the earliest period, was northumbrian or "anglian," down to the middle of the ninth century. after that time our literature was mostly in the southern or wessex dialect, commonly called "anglo-saxon," the dominion of which lasted down to the early years of the thirteenth century, when the east midland dialect surely but gradually rose to pre-eminence, and has now become the speech of the empire. towards this result the two great universities contributed not a little. i proceed to discuss the foreign elements found in our dialects, the chief being scandinavian and french. the influence of the former has long been acknowledged; a due recognition of the importance of the latter has yet to come. in conclusion, i give some selected specimens of the use of the modern dialects. i beg leave to thank my friend mr p. giles, m.a., hon. ll.d. of aberdeen, and university reader in comparative philology, for a few hints and for kindly advice. w. w. s. cambridge march table of contents preface i. dialects and their value. the meaning of _dialect_. phonetic decay and dialectic regeneration. the words _twenty_, _madam_, _alms_. keats; use of _awfully_. tennyson and ben jonson; use of _flittermouse_. shakespeare; use of _bolter_ and _child_. sir w. scott; use of _eme_. the english _yon_. _hrinde_ in beowulf. ii. dialects in early times. the four old dialects. meaning of "anglo-saxon." documents in the wessex dialect. iii. the dialects of northumbria; till a.d. . the anglian period. beda's history and "death-song." the poet cædmon. cædmon's hymn. the leyden riddle. the ruth well cross. liber vitæ. the durham ritual. the lindisfarne and rushworth mss. meaning of a "gloss." specimen. iv. the dialects of northumbria; a.d. - . the metrical psalter; with an extract. cursor mundi. homilies in verse. prick of conscience. minot's poems. barbour's bruce; with an extract. great extent of the old northern dialect; from aberdeen to the humber. lowland scotch identical with the yorkshire dialect of hampole. lowland scotch called "inglis" by barbour, henry the minstrel, dunbar, and lyndesay; first called "scottis" by g. douglas. dr murray's account of the dialect of the southern counties of scotland. v. northumbrian in the fifteenth century. northumbrian of scotland and of england in different circumstances. literature of the fifteenth century; poems, romances, plays, and ballads. list of romances. caxton. rise of the midland dialect. "scottish" and "english." jamieson's dictionary. "middle scots." quotation from dunbar. vi. the southern dialect. alfred the great. the anglo-saxon chronicle. old english homilies. the brut. st juliana. the ancren riwle. the proverbs of alfred. the owl and the nightingale. a moral ode. robert of gloucester. early history of britain. the south-english legendary. the harleian ms. . the vernon ms. john trevisa. the testament of love. vii. the southern dialect of kent. quotation from beda. extract from an old kentish charter. kentish glosses. kentish sermons. william of shoreham; with an extract. the ayenbite of inwyt. the apostles' creed in old kentish. the use of _e_ for a.s. _y_ in kentish. use of kentish by gower and chaucer. kentish forms in modern english. viii. the mercian dialect. east midland. old mercian glossaries of the eighth century. the lorica prayer. the vespasian psalter. the rushworth ms. old mercian and wessex compared. laud ms. of the anglo-saxon chronicle. the ormulum. the english proclamation of henry iii. (_see the facsimile_). robert mannyng of brunne (bourn). west midland. the prose psalter. william of palerne. the pearl and alliterative poems. sir gawayne and the grene knight. ix. foreign elements in the dialects. words from norman, italian, spanish, dutch, etc. celtic. list of celtic words. examples of latin words. greek words. hebrew words. list of scandinavian words. french words. anglo-french words; _gauntree_. literary french words, as used in dialects. x. later history of the dialects. spenser. john fitzherbert. thomas tusser. skinner's etymologicon (lincolnshire words). john ray. dialect glossaries. dr ellis on early english pronunciation. the english dialect society. the english dialect dictionary. the english dialect grammar. xi. the modern dialects. prof. wright's account of the modern english dialects. xii. a few specimens. some writers in dialect. specimens: scottish (aberdeen, ayrshire, edinburgh). northern england (westmorland). midland (lincoln, s.e. lancashire, sheffield, cheshire). eastern (n. essex, norfolk). western (s.w. shropshire). southern (wiltshire, isle of wight, sussex). bibliography index facsimile. the only english proclamation of henry iii. oct. , *** _for a transcription of the facsimile see_ pp. - . {transcriber's note: the facsimile is not included in this e-text.} chapter i dialects and their value according to the new english dictionary, the oldest sense, in english, of the word _dialect_ was simply "a manner of speaking" or "phraseology," in accordance with its derivation from the greek _dialectos_, a discourse or way of speaking; from the verb _dialegesthai_, to discourse or converse. the modern meaning is somewhat more precise. in relation to a language such as english, it is used in a special sense to signify "a local variety of speech differing from the standard or literary language." when we talk of "speakers of dialect," we imply that they employ a provincial method of speech to which the man who has been educated to use the language of books is unaccustomed. such a man finds that the dialect-speaker frequently uses words or modes of expression which he does not understand or which are at any rate strange to him; and he is sure to notice that such words as seem to be familiar to him are, for the most part, strangely pronounced. such differences are especially noticeable in the use of vowels and diphthongs, and in the mode of intonation. the speaker of the "standard" language is frequently tempted to consider himself as the dialect-speaker's superior, unless he has already acquired some elementary knowledge of the value of the science of language or has sufficient common sense to be desirous of learning to understand that which for the moment lies beyond him. i remember once hearing the remark made--"what is the good of dialects? why not sweep them all away, and have done with them?" but the very form of the question betrays ignorance of the facts; for it is no more possible to do away with them than it is possible to suppress the waves of the sea. english, like every other literary language, has always had its dialects and will long continue to possess them in secluded districts, though they are at the present time losing much of that archaic character which gives them their chief value. the spread of education may profoundly modify them, but the spoken language of the people will ever continue to devise new variations and to initiate developments of its own. even the "standard" language is continually losing old words and admitting new ones, as was noted long ago by horace; and our so-called "standard" pronunciation is ever imperceptibly but surely changing, and never continues in one stay. in the very valuable _lectures on the science of language_ by professor f. max müller, the second lecture, which deserves careful study, is chiefly occupied by some account of the processes which he names respectively "phonetic decay" and "dialectic regeneration"; processes to which all languages have always been and ever will be subject. by "phonetic decay" is meant that insidious and gradual alteration in the sounds of spoken words which, though it cannot be prevented, at last so corrupts a word that it becomes almost or wholly unmeaning. such a word as _twenty_ does not suggest its origin. many might perhaps guess, from their observation of such numbers as _thirty, forty_, etc., that the suffix _-ty_ may have something to do with _ten_, of the original of which it is in fact an extremely reduced form; but it is less obvious that _twen-_ is a shortened form of _twain_. and perhaps none but scholars of teutonic languages are aware that _twain_ was once of the masculine gender only, while _two_ was so restricted that it could only be applied to things that were feminine or neuter. as a somewhat hackneyed example of phonetic decay, we may take the case of the latin _mea domina_, i.e. my mistress, which became in french _ma dame_, and in english _madam_; and the last of these has been further shortened to _mam_, and even to _'m_, as in the phrase "yes, 'm." this shows how nine letters may be reduced to one. similarly, our monosyllable _alms_ is all that is left of the greek _ele{-e}mosyn{-e}_. ten letters have here been reduced to four. this irresistible tendency to indistinctness and loss is not, however, wholly bad; for it has at the same time largely contributed, especially in english, to such a simplification of grammatical inflexions as certainly has the practical convenience of giving us less to learn. but in addition to this decay in the forms of words, we have also to reckon with a depreciation or weakening of the ideas they express. many words become so hackneyed as to be no longer impressive. as late as in , keats could say, in stanza of his poem of _isabella_, that "his heart beat awfully against his side"; but at the present day the word _awfully_ is suggestive of schoolboys' slang. it is here that we may well have the benefit of the principle of "dialectic regeneration." we shall often do well to borrow from our dialects many terms that are still fresh and racy, and instinct with a full significance. tennyson was well aware of this, and not only wrote several poems wholly in the lincolnshire dialect, but introduced dialect words elsewhere. thus in _the voyage of maeldune_, he has the striking line: "our voices were thinner and fainter than any flittermouse-shriek." in at least sixteen dialects a _flittermouse_ means "a bat." i have mentioned tennyson in this connexion because he was a careful student of english, not only in its dialectal but also in its older forms. but, as a matter of fact, nearly all our chief writers have recognised the value of dialectal words. tennyson was not the first to use the above word. near the end of the second act of his _sad shepherd_, ben jonson speaks of: green-bellied snakes, blue fire-drakes in the sky, and giddy flitter-mice with leather wings. similarly, there are plenty of "provincialisms" in shakespeare. in an interesting book entitled _shakespeare, his birthplace and its neighbourhood_, by j.r. wise, there is a chapter on "the provincialisms of shakespeare," from which i beg leave to give a short extract by way of specimen. "there is the expressive compound 'blood-boltered' in _macbeth_ (act iv, sc. ), which the critics have all thought meant simply blood-stained. miss baker, in her _glossary of northamptonshire words_, first pointed out that 'bolter' was peculiarly a warwickshire word, signifying to clot, collect, or cake, as snow does in a horse's hoof, thus giving the phrase a far greater intensity of meaning. and steevens, too, first noticed that in the expression in _the winter's tale_ (act iii, sc. ), 'is it a boy or a child?'--where, by the way, every actor tries to make a point, and the audience invariably laughs--the word 'child' is used, as is sometimes the case in the midland districts, as synonymous with girl; which is plainly its meaning in this passage, although the speaker has used it just before in its more common sense of either a boy or a girl." in fact, the _english dialect dictionary_ cites the phrase "is it a lad or a child?" as being still current in shropshire; and duly states that, in warwickshire, "dirt collected on the hairs of a horse's leg and forming into hard masses is said to _bolter_." trench further points out that many of our pure anglo-saxon words which lived on into the formation of our early english, subsequently dropped out of our usual vocabulary, and are now to be found only in the dialects. a good example is the word _eme_, an uncle (a.s. _{-e}am_), which is rather common in middle english, but has seldom appeared in our literature since the tune of drayton. yet it is well known in our northern dialects, and sir walter scott puts the expression "didna his _eme_ die" in the mouth of davie deans (_heart of midlothian_, ch. xii). in fact, few things are more extraordinary in the history of our language than the singularly capricious manner in which good and useful words emerge into or disappear from use in "standard" talk, for no very obvious reason. such a word as _yonder_ is common enough still; but its corresponding adjective _yon_, as in the phrase "yon man," is usually relegated to our dialects. though it is common in shakespeare, it is comparatively rare in the middle english period, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. it only occurs once in chaucer, where it is introduced as being a northern word; and it absolutely disappears from record in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. bosworth's _anglo-saxon dictionary_ gives no example of its use, and it was long supposed that it would be impossible to trace it in our early records. nevertheless, when dr sweet printed, for the first time, an edition of king alfred's translation of pope gregory's _pastoral care_, an example appeared in which it was employed in the most natural manner, as if it were in everyday use. at p. of that treatise is the sentence--"aris and gong to geonre byrg," i.e. arise and go to yon city. here the a.s. _geon_ (pronounced like the modern _yon_) is actually declined after the regular manner, being duly provided with the suffix _-re_, which was the special suffix reserved only for the genitive or dative feminine. it is here a dative after the preposition _to_. there is, in fact, no limit to the good use to which a reverent study of our dialects may be put by a diligent student. they abound with pearls which are worthy of a better fate than to be trampled under foot. i will content myself with giving one last example that is really too curious to be passed over in silence. it so happens that in the anglo-saxon epic poem of _beowulf_, one of the most remarkable and precious of our early poems, there is a splendid and graphic description of a lonely mere, such as would have delighted the heart of edgar allan poe, the author of _ulalume_. in professor earle's prose translation of this passage, given in his _deeds of beowulf_, at p. , is a description of two mysterious monsters, of whom it is said that "they inhabit unvisited land, wolf-crags, windy bluffs, the dread fen-track, where the mountain waterfall amid precipitous gloom vanisheth beneath--flood under earth. not far hence it is, reckoning by miles, that the mere standeth, and over it hang rimy groves; a wood with clenched roots overshrouds the water." the word to be noted here is the word _rimy_, i.e. covered with rime or hoar-frost. the original anglo-saxon text has the form _hrinde_, the meaning of which was long doubtful. grein, the great german scholar, writing in , acknowledged that he did not know what was intended, and it was not till that light was first thrown upon the passage. in that year dr morris edited, for the first time, some anglo-saxon homilies (commonly known as the _blickling homilies_, because the ms. is in the library of blickling hall, norfolk); and he called attention to a passage (at p. ) where the homilist was obviously referring to the lonely mere of the old poem, in which its overhanging groves were described as being _hrimige_, which is nothing but the true old spelling of _rimy_. he naturally concluded that the word _hrinde_ (in the ms. of beowulf) was miswritten, and that the scribe had inadvertently put down _hrinde_ instead of _hrimge_, which is a legitimate contraction of _hrimige_. many scholars accepted this solution; but a further light was yet to come, viz. in . in that year, dr joseph wright printed the fifth volume of the _english dialect dictionary_, showing that in the dialects of scotland, northumberland, durham, and yorkshire, the word for "hoarfrost" is not _rime_, but _rind_, with a derived adjective _rindy_, which has the same sense as _rimy_. at the same time, he called attention yet once more to the passage in _beowulf_. it is established, accordingly, that the suspected mistake in the ms. is no mistake at all; that the form _hrinde_ is correct, being a contraction of _hrindge_ or _hrindige_, plural of the adjective _hrindig_, which is preserved in our dialects, in the form _rindy_, to this very day. in direct contradiction of a common popular error that regards our dialectal forms as being, for the most part, "corrupt," it will be found by experience that they are remarkably conservative and antique. chapter ii dialects in early times the history of our dialects in the earliest periods of which we have any record is necessarily somewhat obscure, owing to the scarcity of the documents that have come down to us. the earliest of these have been carefully collected and printed in one volume by dr sweet, entitled _the oldest english texts_, edited for the early english text society in . here we already find the existence of no less than four dialects, which have been called by the names of northumbrian, mercian, wessex (or anglo-saxon), and kentish. these correspond, respectively, though not quite exactly, to what we may roughly call northern, midland, southern, and kentish. whether the limits of these dialects were always the same from the earliest times, we cannot tell; probably not, when the unsettled state of the country is considered, in the days when repeated invasions of the danes and norsemen necessitated constant efforts to repel them. it is therefore sufficient to define the areas covered by these dialects in quite a rough way. we may regard the northumbrian or northern as the dialect or group of dialects spoken to the north of the river humber, as the name implies; the wessex or southern, as the dialect or group of dialects spoken to the south of the river thames; the kentish as being peculiar to kent; and the mercian as in use in the midland districts, chiefly to the south of the humber and to the north of the thames. the modern limits are somewhat different, but the above division of the three chief dialects (excluding kentish) into northern, midland, and southern is sufficient for taking a broad general view of the language in the days before the norman conquest. the investigation of the differences of dialect in our early documents only dates from , owing to the previous impossibility of obtaining access to these oldest texts. before that date, it so happened that nearly all the manuscripts that had been printed or examined were in one and the same dialect, viz. the southern (or wessex). the language employed in these was (somewhat unhappily) named "anglo-saxon"; and the very natural mistake was made of supposing that this "anglo-saxon" was the sole language (or dialect) which served for all the "angles" and "saxons" to be found in the "land of the angles" or england. this is the reason why it is desirable to give the more general name of "old english" to the oldest forms of our language, because this term can be employed collectively, so as to include northumbrian, mercian, "anglo-saxon" and kentish under one designation. the name "anglo-saxon" was certainly rather inappropriate, as the speakers of it were mostly saxons and not angles at all; which leads up to the paradox that they did not speak "english"; for that, in the extreme literal sense, was the language of the angles only! but now that the true relationship of the old dialects is known, it is not uncommon for scholars to speak of the wessex dialect as "saxon," and of the northumbrian and mercian dialects as "anglian"; for the latter are found to have some features in common that differ sharply from those found in "saxon." manuscripts in the southern dialect are fairly abundant, and contain poems, homilies, land-charters, laws, wills, translations of latin treatises, glossaries, etc.; so that there is considerable variety. one of the most precious documents is the history known as the _anglo-saxon chronicle_, which was continued even after the conquest till the year , when the death and burial of king stephen were duly recorded. but specimens of the oldest forms of the northern and midland dialects are, on the other hand, very much fewer in number than students of our language desire, and are consequently deserving of special mention. they are duly enumerated in the chapters below, which discuss these dialects separately. having thus sketched out the broad divisions into which our dialects may be distributed, i shall proceed to enter upon a particular discussion of each group, beginning with the northern or northumbrian. chapter iii the dialects of northumbria; till a.d. in professor earle's excellent manual on anglo-saxon literature, chapter v is entirely occupied with "the anglian period," and begins thus:--"while canterbury was so important a seminary of learning, there was, in the anglian region of northumbria, a development of religious and intellectual life which makes it natural to regard the whole brilliant period from the later seventh to the early ninth century as the anglian period.... anglia became for a century the light-spot of european history; and we here recognise the first great stage in the revival of learning, and the first movement towards the establishment of public order in things temporal and spiritual." unfortunately for the student of english, though perhaps fortunately for the historian, the most important book belonging to this period was written in latin. this was the _historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum_, or the church history of the anglian people. the writer was beda, better known as "the venerable bede," who was born near wearmouth (durham) in , and lived for the greater part of his life at jarrow, where he died in . he wrote several other works, also in latin, most of which professor earle enumerates. it is said of beda himself that he was "learned in our native songs," and it is probable that he wrote many things in his native northumbrian or durham dialect; but they have all perished, with the exception of one precious fragment of five lines, printed by dr sweet (at p. ) from the st gall ms. no. , of the ninth century. it is usually called beda's death-song, and is here given: fore there neidfaerae naenig uuiurthit thonc-snotturra than him thar[f] sie, to ymbhycggannae, aer his hin-iong[a]e, huaet his gastae, godaes aeththa yflaes, aefter deoth-daege doemid uueorth[a]e. literally translated, this runs as follows: before the need-journey no one becomes more wise in thought than he ought to be, (in order) to contemplate, ere his going hence, what for his spirit, (either) of good or of evil, after (his) death-day, will be adjudged. it is from beda's _church history_, book iv, chap. (or ), that we learn the story of cædmon, the famous northumbrian poet, who was a herdsman and lay brother in the abbey of whitby, in the days of the abbess hild, who died in , near the close of the seventh century. he received the gift of divine song in a vision of the night; and after the recognition by the abbess and others of his heavenly call, became a member of the religious fraternity, and devoted the rest of his life to the composition of sacred poetry. he sang (says beda) the creation of the world, the origin of the human race, and all the history of genesis; the departure of israel out of egypt and their entrance into the land of promise, with many other histories from holy writ; the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of our lord, and his ascension into heaven; the coming of the holy spirit and the teaching of the apostles. likewise of the terror of the future judgement, the horror of punishment in hell, and the bliss of the heavenly kingdom he made many poems; and moreover, many others concerning divine benefits and judgements; in all which he sought to wean men from the love of sin, and to stimulate them to the enjoyment and pursuit of good action. it happens that we still possess some poems which answer more or less to this description; but they are all of later date and are only known from copies written in the southern dialect of wessex; and, as the original northumbrian text has unfortunately perished, we have no means of knowing to what extent they represent cædmon's work. it is possible that they preserve some of it in a more or less close form of translation, but we cannot verify this possibility. it has been ascertained, on the other hand, that a certain portion (but by no means all) of these poems is adapted, with but slight change, from an original poem written in the old saxon of the continent. nevertheless, it so happens that a short hymn of nine lines has been preserved nearly in the original form, as cædmon dictated it; and it corresponds closely with beda's latin version. it is found at the end of the cambridge ms. of beda's _historia ecclesiastica_ in the following form: nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard, metudæs maecti end his modgidanc, uerc uuldurfadur; sue he uundra gihuaes, eci dryctin, or astelidæ. he aerist scop aelda barnum heben til hrofe, haleg scepen[d]. tha middungeard moncynnæs uard, eci dryctin, æfter tiadæ firum fold[u], frea allmectig. i here subjoin a literal translation. now ought we to praise the warden of heaven's realm, the creator's might and his mind's thought, the works of the father of glory; (even) as he, of every wonder, (being) eternal ruler, established the beginning. he first (of all) shaped, for the sons of men, heaven as (their) roof, (he) the holy creator. the middle world (he), mankind's warden, eternal ruler, afterwards prepared, the world for men--(being the) almighty lord. the locality of these lines is easily settled, as we may assign them to whitby. similarly, beda's death-song may be assigned to the county of durham. a third poem, extending to fourteen lines, may be called the "northumbrian riddle." it is called by dr sweet the "leiden riddle," because the ms. that contains it is now at leyden, in holland. the locality is unknown, but we may assign it to yorkshire or durham without going far wrong. there is another copy in a southern dialect. these three brief poems, viz. beda's death-song, cædmon's hymn, and the riddle, are all printed, accessibly, in sweet's _anglo-saxon reader_. there is another relic of old northumbrian, apparently belonging to the middle of the eighth century, which is too remarkable to be passed over. i refer to the famous ruthwell cross, situate not far to the west of annan, near the southern coast of dumfriesshire, and near the english border. on each of its four faces it bears inscriptions; on two opposite faces in latin, and on the other two in runic characters. each of the latter pair contains a few lines of northern poetry, selected from a poem (doubtless by the poet cynewulf) which is preserved in full in a much later southern (or wessex) copy in a ms. at vercelli in piedmont (italy). on the side which professor stephens calls _the front_ of the cross, the runic inscriptions give us two quotations, both imperfect at the end; and the same is true of the opposite side or _back_. the ms. helps us to restore letters that are missing or broken, and in this way we can be tolerably sure of the correct readings. the two quotations in front are as follows: it will be seen that the cross itself is supposed to be the speaker. . [on]geredæ hinæ god almechttig tha he walde on galgu gistiga, modig fore allæ men; buga [ic ni darstæ.] . [ahof] ic riicnæ kyningc, heafunæs hlafard; hælda ic ni darstæ. bismæradu ungket men ba æt-gadre. ic wæs mith blodæ bistemid bigoten of [his sidan.] the two quotations at the back are these: . crist wæs on rodi; hwethræ ther fusæ fearran cwomu æththilæ til anum; ic thæt al biheald. sare ic wæs mith sorgum gidr{oe}fid; hnag [ic hwethræ tham secgum til handa.] . mith strelum giwundad alegdun hiæ hinæ limw{oe}rignæ; gistoddum him æt his licæs heafdum, bihealdun hiæ ther heafun[æs hlafard.] the literal meaning of the lines is as follows: . god almighty stripped himself when he would mount upon the gallows (the cross), courageous before all men; i (the cross) durst not bow down . i (the cross) reared up the royal king, the lord of heaven; i durst not bend down. men reviled us two (the cross and christ) both together. i was moistened with the blood poured forth from his side. . christ was upon the cross; howbeit, thither came eagerly from afar princes to (see) that one; i beheld all that. sorely was i afflicted with sorrows; i submitted however to the men's hands. . wounded with arrows, they laid him down, weary in his limbs. they stood beside him, at the head of his corpse. they beheld there the lord of heaven. in the late ms. it is the cross that is wounded by arrows; whereas in the runic inscription it seems to be implied that it was christ himself that was so wounded. the allusion is in any case very obscure; but the latter notion makes the better sense, and is capable of being explained by the norse legend of balder, who was frequently shot at by the other gods in sport, as he was supposed to be invulnerable; but he was slain thus one day by a shaft made of mistletoe, which alone had power to harm him. there is also extant a considerable number of very brief inscriptions, such as that on a column at bewcastle, in cumberland; but they contribute little to our knowledge except the forms of proper names. the _liber vitæ_ of durham, written in the ninth century, contains between three and four thousand such names, but nothing else. coming down to the tenth century, we meet with three valuable documents, all of which are connected with durham, generally known as the durham ritual and the northumbrian gospels. the durham ritual was edited for the surtees society in by the rev. j. stevenson. the ms. is in the cathedral library at durham, and contains three distinct latin service-books, with northumbrian glosses in various later hands, besides a number of unglossed latin additions. a small portion of the ms. has been misplaced by the binder; the latin prose on pp. - should follow that on p. . mr stevenson's edition exhibits a rather large number of misreadings, most of which (i fear not quite all) are noted in my "collation of the durham ritual" printed in the _philological society's transactions_, - , appendix ii. i give, by way of specimen, a curious passage (at p. ), which tells us all about the eight pounds of material that went to make up the body of adam. aehto pundo of thæm aworden is adam pund lames of thon octo pondera de quibus factus est adam. pondus limi, inde aworden is flæsc pund fyres of thon read is blod and hat factus est caro; pondus ignis, inde rubeus est sanguis et calidus; pund saltes of thon sindon salto tehero pund deawes of thon pondus salis, inde sunt salsae lacrimae; pondus roris, unde aworden is swat pund blostmes of thon is fagung egena factus est sudor; pondus floris, inde est uarietas oculorum; pund wolcnes of thon is unstydfullnisse _vel_ unstatholfæstnisse pondus nubis, inde est instabilitas thohta mentium; pund windes of thon is oroth cald pund gefe of thon is pondus uenti, inde est anhela frigida: pondus gratiae, id est thoht monnes sensus hominis. we thus learn that adam's flesh was made of a pound of loam; his red and hot blood, of fire; his salt tears, of salt; his sweat, of dew; the colour of his eyes, of flowers; the instability of his thoughts, of cloud; his cold breath, of wind; and his intelligence, of grace. the northumbrian glosses on the four gospels are contained in two mss., both of remarkable interest and value. the former of these, sometimes known as the lindisfarne ms., and sometimes as the durham book, is now ms. cotton, nero d. in the british museum, and is one of the chief treasures in our national collection. it contains a beautifully executed latin text of the four gospels, written in the isle of lindisfarne, by eadfrith (bishop of lindisfarne in - ), probably before . the interlinear northumbrian gloss is two and a half centuries later, and was made by aldred, a priest, about , at a time when the ms. was kept at chester-le-street, near durham, whither it had been removed for greater safety. somewhat later it was again removed to durham, where it remained for several centuries. the second ms. is called the rushworth ms., as it was presented to the bodleian library (oxford) by john rushworth, who was deputy-clerk to the house of commons during the long parliament. the latin text was written, probably in the eighth century, by a scribe named macregol. the gloss, written in the latter half of the tenth century, is in two hands, those of farman and owun, whose names are given. farman was a priest of harewood, on the river wharfe, in the west riding of yorkshire. he glossed the whole of st matthew's gospel, and a very small portion of st mark. it is worthy of especial notice, that his gloss, throughout st matthew, is not in the northumbrian dialect, but in a form of mercian. but it is clear that when he had completed this first gospel, he borrowed the lindisfarne ms. as a guide to help him, and kept it before him when he began to gloss st mark. he at once began to copy the glosses in the older ms., with slight occasional variations in the grammar; but he soon tired of his task, and turned it over to owun, who continued it to the end. the result is that the northumbrian glosses in this ms., throughout the three last gospels, are of no great value, as they tell us little more than can be better learnt from the durham book; on the other hand, farman's mercian gloss to st matthew is of high value, but need not be considered at present. hence it is best in this case to rely, for our knowledge of old northumbrian, on the durham book _alone_. it must be remembered that a gloss is not quite the same thing as a free translation that observes the rules of grammar. a gloss translates the latin text word by word, in the order of that text; so that the glossator can neither observe the natural english order nor in all cases preserve the english grammar; a fact which somewhat lessens its value, and must always be allowed for. it is therefore necessary, in all cases, to ascertain the latin text. i subjoin a specimen, from matt, v - . eadge aron ge mith thy yfle hia gecuoethas iuh and mith thy . beati estis cum maledixerunt uobis et cum oehtas iuih and cuoethas eghwelc yfel with iuih persecuti uos fuerint et dixerint omne malum aduersum uos gesuicas _vel_ wæges fore mec gefeath and wynnsumiath forthon mentientes propter me. . gaudete et exultate quoniam mearda iuere monigfalde is _vel_ sint merces uestra copiosa est in heofnum suæ _vel_ suelce ec forthon in caelis sic enim ge-oehton tha witgo tha the weron ær iuih gee persecuti sunt prophetas qui fuerunt ante uos. . uos sint salt eorthes thæt gif salt forworthes in thon gesælted bith to estis sal terrae quod si sal euanuerit in quo sallietur ad nowihte _vel_ nænihte mæge ofer thæt nihilum ualet ultra buta thæt gesended bith _vel_ geworpen út nisi ut mittatur foras and getreden bith from monnum et conculcetur ab hominibus gie aron _vel_ sint leht middangeardes . uos estis lux mundi ne mæg burug _vel_ ceastra gehyda _vel_ gedeigla ofer mor geseted non potest ciuitas abscondi supra monte posita. ne ec bernas thæccille _vel_ leht-fæt . neque accendunt lucernam and settas tha _vel_ hia unther mitte et ponunt eam sub _vel_ under sestre ah ofer leht-isern and lihteth allum tha the in modio sed super candelabrum et luceat omnibus qui in hus bithon _vel_ sint domo sunt. the history of the northern dialect during the next three centuries, from the year to nearly , with a few insignificant exceptions, is a total blank. chapter iv the dialects of northumbria; a.d. - a little before , we come to a _metrical english psalter_, published by the surtees society in - . the language is supposed to represent the speech of yorkshire. it is translated (rather closely) from the latin vulgate version. i give a specimen from psalm xviii, - . . he sent his arwes, and skatered tha; felefalded levening, and dreved tham swa. . and schewed welles of watres ware, and groundes of ertheli world unhiled are, for thi snibbing, laverd myne; for onesprute of gast of wreth thine. . he sent fra hegh, and uptoke me; fra many watres me nam he. . he out-toke me thare amang fra my faas that war sa strang, and fra tha me that hated ai; for samen strenghthed over me war thai . thai forcome me in daie of twinging, and made es layered mi forhiling. . and he led me in brede to be; sauf made he me, for he wald me; . and foryhelde to me laverd sal after mi rightwisenes al. and after clensing of mi hende sal he yhelde to me at ende. the literal sense is:--"he sent his arrows and scattered them; multiplied (his) lightning and so afflicted them. and the wells of waters were shown, and the foundations of the earthly world are uncovered because of thy snubbing (rebuke), o my lord! because of the blast (lat. _inspiratio_) of the breath of thy wrath. he sent from on high, and took me up; from many waters he took me. he took me out there-among from my foes that were so strong, and from those that alway hated me; for they were strengthened together over me. they came before me in the day of affliction, and the lord is made my protection. and he led me (so as) to be in a broad place; he made me safe, because he desired (lit. would) me; and the lord shall requite me according to all my righteousness, and according to the cleanness of my hands shall he repay me in the end." in this specimen we can already discern some of the chief characteristics which are so conspicuous in lowland scotch mss. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. the most striking is the almost total loss of the final _-e_ which is so frequently required to form an extra syllable when we try to scan the poetry of chaucer. even where a final _-e_ is written in the above extract, it is wholly silent. the words _ware_ (were), _are_ (are), _myne_, _thine_, _toke_, _made_, _brede_, _hende_, _ende_, are all monosyllabic; and in fact the large number of monosyllabic words is very striking. the words _onesprute_, _forcome_, _foryhelde_ are, in like manner, dissyllabic. the only suffixes that count in the scansion are _-en_, _-ed_, and _-es_; as in _sam-en_, _skat'r-èd_, _drev-èd_, _hat-èd_, etc., and _arw-ès_, _well-ès_, _watr-ès_, etc. the curious form _sal_, for "shall," is a northern characteristic. so also is the form _hende_ as the plural of "hand"; the southern plural was often _hond-en_, and the midland form was _hond-ès_ or _hand-ès_. note also the characteristic long _a_; as in _swa_ for _swo_, so; _gast_, ghost; _fra_, fro; _faas_, foes. it was pronounced like the _a_ in _father_. a much longer specimen of the _metrical english psalter_ will be found in _specimens of early english_, ed. morris and skeat, part ii, pp. - , and is easily accessible. in the same volume, the specimens numbered vii, viii, x, xi, and xvi are also in northumbrian, and can easily be examined. it will therefore suffice to give a very brief account of each. vii. _cursor mundi_, or _cursor o werld_, i.e. over-runner of the world; so called because it rehearses a great part of the world's history, from the creation onwards. it is a poem of portentous length, extending to , lines, and recounts many of the events found in the old and new testaments, with the addition of legends from many other sources, one of them, for example, being the _historia scholastica_ of peter comestor. dr murray thinks it may have been written in the neighbourhood of durham. the specimen given (pp. - ) corresponds to lines - . viii. _sunday homilies in verse_; about . the extracts are taken from _english metrical homilies_, edited by j. small (edinburgh, ) from a ms. in edinburgh. the northern dialect is well marked, but i do not know to what locality to assign it. x. richard rolle, of hampole, near doncaster, wrote a poem called _the prick of conscience_, about . it extends to lines, and was edited by dr morris for the philological society in . the preface to this edition is of especial value, as it carefully describes the characteristics of northumbrian, and practically laid the foundation of our knowledge of the old dialects as exhibited in mss. lists are given of orthographical differences between the northern dialect and others, and an analysis is added giving the grammatical details which determine its northern character. much of this information is repeated in the introduction to the _specimens of english_, part ii, pp. xviii-xxxviii. xi. _the poems of laurence minot_ belong to the middle of the fourteenth century. he composed eleven poems in celebration of events that occurred between the years and . they were first printed by ritson in ; and subsequently by t. wright, in his _political poems and songs_ (london, ); and are now very accessible in the excellent and cheap (second) edition by joseph hall (oxford university press). there is also a german edition by dr wilhelm scholle. the poet seems to have been connected with yorkshire, and the dialect is not purely northern, as it shows a slight admixture of midland forms. xvi. _the bruce_; by john barbour; partly written in . it has been frequently printed, viz. in , , , , , , and ; and was edited by pinkerton in , by jamieson in , and by cosmo innes in ; also by myself (for the early english text society) in - ; and again (for the scottish text society) in - . unfortunately, the two extant mss. were both written out about a century after the date of composition. nevertheless, we have the text of more than lines as it existed in , as this portion was quoted by andro of wyntown, in his _cronykil of scotland_, written at that date. i quote some lines from this portion, taken from _the bruce_, book i, - , - ; with a few explanations in the footnotes. qwhen alysandyre oure kyng wes dede, that scotland had to stere{ } and lede, the land sex yhere and mayr perfay{ } wes desolate efftyr his day. the barnage{ } off scotland, at the last, assemblyd thame, and fandyt{ } fast to chess{ } a kyng, thare land to stere, that off awncestry cummyn were off kyngis that aucht{ } that reawté{ }, and mast{ } had rycht thare kyng to be. but inwy{ }, that is sa fellowne{ }, amang thame mad dissensiown: for sum wald have the ballyolle kyng, for he wes cumyn off that ofspryng that off the eldest systere was; and other sum nyt{ } all that cas, and sayd, that he thare kyng suld be, that wes in als nere{ } degre, and cummyn wes off the nerrast male in thai{ } brawnchys collateralle... {footnotes: : _govern_ : _more, by my faith_ : _nobility_ : _endeavoured_ : _choose_ : _possessed_ : _royalty_ : _most_ : _envy_ : _wicked_ : _others denied_ : _as near_ : _those_ } a! blynd folk, fulle off all foly, had yhe wmbethowcht{ } yowe inkkyrly{ } quhat peryle to yowe mycht appere, yhe had noucht wroucht on this manèr. had yhe tane kepe{ }, how that that kyng off walys, forowtyn sudiowrnyng{ }, trawaylyd{ } to wyn the senyhowry{ }, and throw his mycht till occupy landys, that ware till hym marchand{ }, as walys was, and als irland, that he put till sic threllage{ }, that thai, that ware off hey parage{ }, suld ryn on fwte, as rybalddale{ }, quhen ony folk he wald assale. durst nane of walis in batale ryd, na yhit, fra evyn fell{ }, abyde castell or wallyd towne within, than{ } he suld lyff and lymmys tyne{ }. into swylk thryllage{ } thame held he that he owre-come with his powsté{ }. {footnotes: : _bethought_ : _especially_ : _taken heed_ : _without delay_ : _laboured_ : _sovereignty_ : _bordering_ : _such subjection_ : _high rank_ : _rabble_ : _after evening fell_ : _but_ : _lose_ : _thraldom_ : _power_ } in this extract, as in that from the _metrical psalter_ above, there is a striking preponderance of monosyllables, and, as in that case also, the final _-e_ is invariably silent in such words as _oure_, _stere_, _lede_, _yhere_, _thare_, _were_, etc., just as in modern english. the grammar is, for the most part, extremely simple, as at the present day. the chief difficulty lies in the vocabulary, which contains some words that are either obsolete or provincial. many of the obsolete words are found in other dialects; thus _stere_, to control, _perfay_, _fonden_ (for _fanden_), _chesen_, to choose, _feloun_, adj. meaning "angry," _take kepe_, _soiourne_, to tarry, _travaile_, to labour, _parage_, rank, all occur in chaucer; _barnage_, _reauté_, in _william of palerne_ (in the midland dialect, possibly shropshire); _oughte_, owned, possessed, _tyne_, to lose, in _piers the plowman_; _umbethinken_, in the _ormulum_; _enkerly_ (for _inkkyrly_), in the alliterative _morte arthure_; _march_, to border upon, in _mandeville_; _seignorie_, in _robert of gloucester_. barbour is rather fond of introducing french words; _rybalddale_ occurs in no other author. _threllage_ or _thryllage_ may have been coined from _threll_ (english _thrall_), by adding a french suffix. as to the difficult word _nyt_, see _nite_ in the _n.e.d._ in addition to the poems, etc., already mentioned, further material may be found in the prose works of richard rolle of hampole, especially his translation and exposition of the psalter, edited by the rev. h.r. bramley (oxford, ), and the prose treatises edited by the rev. g.g. perry for the early english text society. dr murray further calls attention to the early scottish laws, of which the vernacular translations partly belong to the fourteenth century. i have now mentioned the chief authorities for the study of the northern dialect from early times down to . examination of them leads directly to a result but little known, and one that is in direct contradiction to general uninstructed opinion; namely that, down to this date, the varieties of northumbrian are much fewer and slighter than they afterwards became, and that the written documents are practically all in one and the same dialect, or very nearly so, from the humber as far north as aberdeen. the irrefragable results noted by dr murray will probably come as a surprise to many, though they have now been before the public for more than forty years. the durham dialect of the _cursor mundi_ and the aberdeen scotch of barbour are hardly distinguishable by grammatical or orthographical tests; and both bear a remarkable resemblance to the yorkshire dialect as found in hampole. what is now called lowland scotch is so nearly descended from the old northumbrian that the latter was invariably called "ingliss" by the writers who employed it; and they reserved the name of "scottish" to designate gaelic or erse, the tongue of the original "scots," who gave their name to the country. barbour (_bruce_, iv ) calls his own language "ynglis." andro of wyntown does the same, near the beginning of the prologue to his _cronykil_. the most striking case is that of harry the minstrel, who was so opposed to all englanders, from a political point of view, that his whole poem breathes fury and hatred against them; and yet, in describing wallace's french friend, longueville, who knew no tongue but his own, he says of him (_wallace_, ix - ): lykly he was, manlik of contenance, _lik to the scottis_ be mekill governance _saiff off his tong_, for _inglis_ had he nane. later still, dunbar, near the conclusion of his _golden targe_, apostrophises chaucer as being "in _oure tong_ ane flouir imperiall," and says that he was "_of oure inglisch_ all the lycht." it was not till that gawain douglas, in the prologue to the first book of his translation of virgil, claimed to have "writtin in the langage of scottis natioun"; though sir david lyndesay, writing twenty-two years later, still gives the name of the "inglisch toung" to the vulgar tongue of scotland, in his _satyre of the three estaitis_. we should particularly notice dr murray's statement, in his essay on _the dialect of the southern counties of scotland_, at p. , that "barbour at aberdeen, and richard rolle de hampole near doncaster, wrote for their several countrymen in the same identical dialect." the division between the english of the scottish lowlands and the english of yorkshire was purely political, having no reference to race or speech, but solely to locality; and yet, as dr murray remarks, the struggle for supremacy "made every one either an englishman or a scotchman, and made english and scotch names of division and bitter enmity." so strong, indeed, was the division thus created that it has continued to the present day; and it would be very difficult even now to convince a native of the scottish lowlands--unless he is a philologist--that he is likely to be of anglian descent, and to have a better title to be called an "englishman" than a native of hampshire or devon, who, after all, may be only a saxon. and of course it is easy enough to show how widely the old "northern" dialect varies from the difficult southern english found in the kentish _ayenbite of inwyt_, or even from the midland of chaucer's poems. to quote from dr murray once more (p. ): "the facts are still far from being generally known, and i have repeatedly been amused, on reading passages from _cursor mundi_ and hampole to men of education, both english and scotch, to hear them all pronounce the dialect 'old scotch.' great has been the surprise of the latter especially on being told that richard the hermit [i.e. of hampole] wrote in the extreme south of yorkshire, within a few miles of a locality so thoroughly english as sherwood forest, with its memories of robin hood. such is the difficulty which people have in separating the natural and ethnological relations in which national names originate from the accidental values which they acquire through political complications and the fortunes of crowns and dynasties, that oftener than once the protest has been made-- 'then he must have been a scotchman settled there!'" the retort is obvious enough, that barbour and henry the minstrel and dunbar and lyndesay have all recorded that their native language was "inglis" or "inglisch"; and it is interesting to note that, having regard to the pronunciation, they seem to have known, better than we do, how that name ought to be spelt. chapter v northumbrian in the fifteenth century the subject of the last chapter was one of great importance. when it is once understood that, down to or a little later, the men of the scottish lowlands and the men of the northern part of england spoke not only the same language, but the same dialect of that language, it becomes easy to explain what happened afterwards. there was, nevertheless, one profound difference between the circumstances of the language spoken to the north of the tweed and that spoken to the south of it. in scotland, the northumbrian dialect was spoken by all but the celts, without much variety; the minor differences need not be here considered. and this dialect, called inglis (as we have seen) by the lowlanders themselves, had no rival, as the difference between it and the erse or gaelic was obvious and immutable. to the south of the tweed, the case was different. england already possessed three dialects at least, viz. northumbrian, mercian, and saxon, i.e. northern, midland, and southern; besides which, midland had at the least two main varieties, viz. eastern and western. between all these there was a long contention for supremacy. in very early days, the northern took the lead, but its literature was practically destroyed by the danes, and it never afterwards attained to anything higher than a second place. from the time of alfred, the standard language of literature was the southern, and it kept the lead till long after the conquest, well down to and even later, as will be explained hereafter. but the midland dialect, which is not without witness to its value in the ninth century, began in the thirteenth to assume an important position, which in the fourteenth became dominant and supreme, exalted as it was by the genius of chaucer. its use was really founded on practical convenience. it was intermediate between the other two, and could be more or less comprehended both by the northerner and the southerner, though these could hardly understand each other. the result was, naturally, that whilst the northumbrian to the north of the tweed was practically supreme, the northumbrian to the south of it soon lost its position as a literary medium. it thus becomes clear that we must, during the fifteenth century, treat the northumbrian of england and that of scotland separately. let us first investigate its position in england. but before this can be appreciated, it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that the literature of the fifteenth century, in nearly all the text-books that treat of the subject, has been most unjustly underrated. the critics, nearly all with one accord, repeat the remark that it is a "barren" period, with nothing admirable about it, at any rate in england; that it shows us the works of hoccleve and lydgate near the beginning, _the flower and the leaf_ near the middle (about ), and the ballad of _the nut-brown maid_ at the end of it, and nothing else that is remarkable. in other words, they neglect its most important characteristic, that it was the chief period of the lengthy popular romances and of the popular plays out of which the great dramas of the succeeding century took their rise. to which it deserves to be added that it contains many short poems of a fugitive character, whilst a vast number of very popular ballads were in constant vogue, sometimes handed down without much change by a faithful tradition, but more frequently varied by the fancy of the more competent among the numerous wandering minstrels. to omit from the fifteenth century nearly all account of its romances and plays and ballads is like omitting the part of hamlet the dane from shakespeare's greatest tragedy. the passion for long romances or romantic poems had already arisen in the fourteenth century, and, to some extent, in the thirteenth. even just before , we meet with the lays of _havelok_ and _horn_. in the fourteenth century, it is sufficient to mention the romances of _sir guy of warwick_ (the earlier version), _sir bevis of hamtoun_, and _libeaus desconus_, all mentioned by chaucer; _sir launfal_, _the seven sages_ (earlier version, as edited by weber); _lai le freine_, _richard coer de lion_, _amis and amiloun_, _the king of tars_, _william of palerne_, _joseph of arimathea_ (a fragment), _sir gawain and the grene knight_, _alisaunder of macedoine_ and _alexander and dindimus_ (two fragments of one very long poem), _sir ferumbras_, and _sir isumbras_. the spirited romance generally known as the alliterative _morte arthure_ must also belong here, though the ms. itself is of later date. the series was actively continued during the fifteenth century, when we find, besides others, the romances of _iwain and gawain_, _sir percival_, and _sir cleges_; _the sowdon_ (sultan) _of babylon_; _the aunturs_ (adventures) _of arthur_, _sir amadas_, _the avowing of arthur_, and _the life of ipomidoun_; _the wars of alexander_, _the seven sages_ (later version, edited by wright); _torrent of portugal_, _sir gowther_, _sir degrevant_, _sir eglamour_, _le bone florence of rome_, and _partonope of blois_; the prose version of _merlin_, the later version of _sir guy of warwick_, and the verse romance, of immense length, of _the holy grail_; _emare_, _the erl of tolous_, and _the squire of low degree_. towards the end of the century, when the printing-press was already at work, we find caxton greatly busying himself to continue the list. not only did he give us the whole of sir thomas malory's _morte d'arthur_, "enprynted and fynysshed in thabbey westmestre the last day of iuyl, the yere of our lord mcccclxxxv"; but he actually translated several romances into very good english prose on his own account, viz. _godefroy of boloyne_ ( ), _charles the grete_ ( ), _the knight paris and the fair vyene_ ( ), _blanchardyn and eglantine_ (about ), and _the four sons of aymon_ (about ). we must further put to the credit of the fifteenth century the remarkable english version of the _gesta romanorum_, and many more versions by caxton, such as _the recuyell of the historyes of troye_, _the life of jason_, _eneydos_ (which is virgil's _Æneid_ in the form of a prose romance), _the golden legend_ or lives of saints, and _reynard the fox_. when all these works are considered, the fifteenth century emerges with considerable credit. it remains to look at some of the above-named romances a little more closely, in order to see if any of them are in the dialect of northern england. some of them are written by scribes belonging to other parts, but there seems to be little doubt that the following were in that dialect originally, viz. ( ) _iwain and gawain_, printed in ritson's _ancient metrical romances_, and belonging to the very beginning of the century, extant in the same ms. as that which contains minot's _poems_: ( ) _the wars of alexander_ (early english text society, ), edited by myself; see the preface, pp. xv, xix, for proofs that it was originally written in a pure northumbrian dialect, which the better of the two mss. very fairly preserves. others exhibit strong traces of a northern dialect, such as _the aunturs of arthur_, _sir amadas_, and _the avowing of arthur_, but they may be in a west midland dialect, not far removed from the north. in the preface to _the sege of melayne_ (milan) _and roland and otuel_, edited for the early english text society by s.j. herrtage, it is suggested that both these poems were by the author of _sir percival_, and that all three were originally in the dialect of the north of england. _iwain and gawain_ and _the wars of alexander_ belong to quite the beginning of the fifteenth century, and they appear to be among the latest examples of the literary use of dialect in the north of england considered as a vehicle for romances; but we must not forget the "miracle plays," and in particular _the towneley mysteries_ or plays acted at or near wakefield in yorkshire, and _the york plays_, lately edited by miss toulmin smith. examples of southern english likewise come to an end about the same time; it is most remarkable how very soon, after the death of chaucer, the midland dialect not only assumed a leading position, but enjoyed that proud position almost alone. the rapid loss of numerous inflexions, soon after , made that dialect, which was already in possession of such important centres as london, oxford, and cambridge, much easier to learn, and brought its grammar much nearer to that in use in the north. it even compromised, as it were, with that dialect by accepting from it the general use of such important words as _they_, _their_, _them_, the plural verb _are_, and the preposition _till_. there can be little doubt that one of the causes of the cessation of varying forms of words in literary use was the civil strife known as the wars of the roses, which must for a brief period have been hostile to all literary activity; and very shortly afterwards the printing-presses of london all combined to recognise, in general, one dialect only. hence it came about, by a natural but somewhat rapid process, that the only dialect which remained unaffected by the triumph of the midland variety was that portion of the northern dialect which still held its own in scotland, where it was spoken by subjects of another king. as far as literature was concerned, only two dialects were available, the northumbrian of scotland and the east midland in england. it is obvious that the readiest way of distinguishing between the two is to call the one "scottish" and the other "english," ignoring accuracy for the sake of practical convenience. this is precisely what happened in course of time, and the new nomenclature would have done no harm if the study of middle english had been at all general. but such was not the case, and the history of our literature was so much neglected that even those who should have been well informed knew no better than others. the chief modern example is the well-known case of that most important and valuable book entitled _an etymological dictionary of the scottish language_, by john jamieson, d.d., first published in edinburgh in . there is no great harm in the title, if for "language" we read "dialect"; but this great and monumental work was unluckily preceded by a "dissertation on the origin of the scottish language," in which wholly mistaken and wrongheaded views are supported with great ingenuity and much show of learning. in the admirable new edition of "jamieson" by longmuir and donaldson, published at paisley in , this matter is set right. they quite rightly reprint this "dissertation," which affords valuable testimony as to the study of english in , but accompany it with most judicious remarks, which are well worthy of full repetition. "that once famous dissertation can now be considered only a notable feat of literary card-building; more remarkable for the skill and ingenuity of its construction than for its architectural correctness, strength and durability, or practical usefulness. that the language of the scottish lowlands is in all important particulars the same as that of the northern counties of england, will be evident to any unbiassed reader who takes the trouble to compare the scottish dictionary with the glossaries of brockett, atkinson, and peacock. and the similarity is attested in another way by the simple but important fact, that regarding some of our northern metrical romances it is still disputed whether they were composed to the north or the south of the tweed.... and to this conclusion all competent scholars have given their consent." for those who really understand the situation there is no harm in accepting the distinction between "scottish" and "english," as explained above. hence it is that the name of "middle scots" has been suggested for "the literary language of scotland written between the latter half of the fifteenth century and the early decades of the seventeenth." most of this literature is highly interesting, at any rate much more so than the "english" literature of the same period, as has been repeatedly remarked. indeed, this is so well known that special examples are needless; i content myself with referring to the _specimens of middle scots_, by g. gregory smith, edinburgh and london, . these specimens include extracts from such famous authors as henryson, dunbar, gawain (or gavin) douglas, sir david lyndesay, john knox, and george buchanan. perhaps it is well to add that "scottis" or "scots" is the northern form of "scottish" or "scotch"; just as "inglis" is the northern form of "english." "middle scots" implies both "old scots" and "modern scots." "old scots" is, of course, the same thing as northumbrian or northern english of the middle english period, which may be roughly dated as extant from to or . "modern scots" is the dialect (when they employ dialect) illustrated by allan ramsay, alexander ross, robert tannahill, john galt, james hogg (the ettrick shepherd), robert burns, sir walter scott, and very many others. i conclude this chapter with a characteristic example of middle scots. the following well-known passage is from the conclusion to dunbar's _golden targe_. and as i did awake of my sweving{ }, the ioyfull birdis merily did syng for myrth of phebus tendir bemës schene{ }; swete war the vapouris, soft the morowing{ }, halesum the vale, depaynt wyth flouris ying{ }; the air attemperit, sobir, and amene{ }; in quhite and rede was all the feld besene{ } throu naturis nobil fresch anamalyng{ }, in mirthfull may, of eviry moneth quene. o reverend chaucere, rose of rethoris{ } all, as in oure tong ane flour{ } imperiall, that raise{ } in britane evir, quho redis rycht, thou beris of makaris{ } the tryúmph riall; thy fresch anamalit termës celicall{ } this mater coud illumynit have full brycht; was thou noucht of oure inglisch all the lycht, surmounting eviry tong terrestriall als fer as mayis morow dois mydnycht? o morall gower, and ludgate laureate, your sugurit lippis and tongis aureate{ } bene to oure eris cause of grete delyte; your angel mouthis most mellifluate{ } oure rude langage has clere illumynate, and faire our-gilt{ } oure speche, that imperfýte stude, or{ } your goldyn pennis schupe{ } to wryte; this ile before was bare, and desolate of rethorike, or lusty{ } fresch endyte{ }. {footnotes: : _dream_ : _bright_ : _morn_ : _young_ : _pleasant_ : _arrayed_ : _enamelling_ : _orators_ : _flower_ : _didst rise_ : _poets_ : _heavenly_ : _golden_ : _honeyed_ : _overgilt_ : _ere_ : _undertook_ : _pleasant_ : _composition_} chapter vi the southern dialect we have seen that the earliest dialect to assume literary supremacy was the northern, and that at a very early date, namely, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries; but its early documents have nearly all perished. if, with the exception of one short fragment, any of cædmon's poems have survived, they only exist in southern versions of a much later date. the chief fosterer of our rather extensive wessex (or southern) literature, commonly called anglo-saxon, was the great alfred, born at wantage in berkshire, to the south of the thames. we may roughly define the limits of the old southern dialect by saying that it formerly included all the counties to the south of the thames and to the west and south-west of berkshire, including wiltshire, dorsetshire, somersetshire, and devonshire, but excluding cornwall, in which the cornish dialect of celtic prevailed. it was at athelney in somersetshire, near the junction of the rivers tone and parrett, that alfred, in the memorable year , when his dominions were reduced to a precarious sway over two or three counties, established his famous stronghold; from which he issued to inflict upon the foes of the future british empire a crushing and decisive defeat. and it was near athelney, in the year , that the ornament of gold and enamel was found, with its famous legend--Ælfred mec heht gewyrcan--"Ælfred commanded (men) to make me." from his date to the norman conquest, the mss. in the anglo-saxon or southern dialect are fairly numerous, and it is mainly to them that we owe our knowledge of the grammar, the metre, and the pronunciation of the older forms of english. sweet's _anglo-saxon primer_ will enable any one to begin the study of this dialect, and to learn something valuable about it in the course of a month or two. the famous _anglo-saxon chronicle_, beginning with a note concerning the year , when augustus was emperor of rome, not only continues our history down to the conquest, but for nearly a century beyond it, to the year . the language of the latter part, as extant in the (midland) laud ms., belongs to the twelfth century, and shows considerable changes in the spelling and grammar as compared with the parker ms., which (not counting in a few later entries) ends with the year . after the conquest, the southern dialect continued to be the literary language, and we have several examples of it. extracts from some of the chief works are given in part i of morris's _specimens of early english_. they are selected from the following: ( ) _old english homilies_, - , as printed for the early english text society, and edited by dr morris, - . ( ) _old english homilies, second series_, before , ed. morris (e.e.t.s.), . ( ) _the brut_, being a versified chronicle of the legendary history of britain, compiled by layamon, a worcestershire priest, and extending to , (short) lines; in two versions, the date of the earlier being about . ( ) _a life of st juliana_, in two versions, about ; ed. cockayne and brock (e.e.t.s.), . ( ) _the ancren riwle_, or rule of anchorite nuns (camden society), ed. morton, ; the date of composition is about . ( ) _the proverbs of alfred_, about ; printed in dr morris's _old english miscellany_ (e.e.t.s.), . a later edition, by myself, was printed at oxford in . ( ) a poem by nicholas de guildford, entitled _the owl and the nightingale_, about ; ed. rev. j. stevenson, ; ed. t. wright, ; ed. f.h. stratmann, of krefeld, . ( ) a curious poem of nearly long lines, usually known as _a moral ode_, which seems to have been originally written at christchurch, hampshire, and frequently printed; one version is in morris's _old english homilies_, and another in the second series of the same. ( ) _the romance of king horn_; before , here printed in full. just at the very end of the century we meet with two southern poems of vast length. _the metrical chronicle_ of robert of gloucester, comprising the history of britain from the siege of troy to the year , the date of the accession of edward i, and written in the dialect of gloucester, was completed in . it must seem strange to many to find that our history is thus connected with the siege of troy; but it must be remembered that our old histories, including layamon's poem of _the brut_ mentioned above, usually included the fabulous history of very early britain as narrated by geoffrey of monmouth; and it is useful to remember that we owe to this circumstance such important works as shakespeare's _king lear_ and _cymbeline_, as well as the old play of _locrine_, once attributed to shakespeare. according to robert's version of geoffrey's story, britain was originally called brutain, after brut or brutus, the son of Æneas. locrin was the eldest son of brutus and his wife innogen, and defeated humber, king of hungary, in a great battle; after which humber was drowned in the river which still bears his name. locrin's daughter averne (or sabre in geoffrey) was drowned likewise, in the river which was consequently called severn. the british king bathulf (or, in geoffrey, bladud) was the builder of bath; and the son of bladud was leir, who had three daughters, named gornorille, began, and cordeille. kymbel (in geoffrey, kymbelinus), who had been brought up by augustus cæsar, was king of britain at the time of the birth of christ; his sons were guider and arvirag (guiderius and arviragus). another king of britain was king cole, who gave name (says geoffrey falsely) to colchester. we come into touch with authentic history with the reign of vortigern, when hengist and horsa sailed over to britain. an extract from robert of gloucester is given in _specimens of early english_, part ii. the other great work of the same date is the vast collection edited for the early english text society by dr horstmann in , entitled, _the early south-english legendary_, or lives of saints. it is extant in several mss., of which the oldest (ms. laud ) originally contained lives; with an appendix, in a later hand, containing two more. the eleventh life is that of st dunstan, which is printed in _specimens of early english_, part ii, from another ms. soon after the year the use of the southern dialect becomes much less frequent, with the exception of such pieces as belong particularly to the county of kent and will be considered by themselves. there are two immense manuscript collections of various poems, originally in various dialects, which are worth notice. one of these is the harleian ms. no. , in the british museum, the scribe of which has reduced everything into the south-western dialect, though it is plain that, in many cases, it is not the dialect in which the pieces were originally composed; this famous manuscript belongs to the beginning of the fourteenth century. many poems were printed from it, with the title of _altenglische dichtungen_, by dr k. böddeker, in . another similar collection is contained in the vernon ms. at oxford, and belongs to the very end of the same century; the poems in it are all in a southern dialect, which is that of the scribe. it contains, e.g., a copy of the earliest version of _piers the plowman_, which would have been far more valuable if the scribe had retained the spelling of his copy. this may help us to realise one of the great difficulties which beset the study of dialects, namely, that we usually find copies of old poems reduced to the scribe's _own_ dialect; and it may easily happen that such a copy varies considerably from the correct form. it has already been shown that the rapid rise and spread of the midland dialect during the fourteenth century practically put an end to the literary use of northern not long after , except in scotland. it affected southern in the same way, but at a somewhat earlier date; so that (even in kent) it is very difficult to find a southern work after . there is, however, one remarkable exception in the case of a work which may be dated in , written by john trevisa. trevisa (as the prefix tre- suggests) was a native of cornwall, but he resided chiefly in gloucestershire, where he was vicar of berkeley, and chaplain to thomas lord berkeley. the work to which i here refer is known as his translation of higden. ralph higden, a benedictine monk in the abbey of st werburg at chester, wrote in latin a long history of the world in general, and of britain in particular, with the title of the _polychronicon_, which achieved considerable popularity. the first book of this history contains chapters, the first of which begins with p, the second with r, and so on. if all these initials are copied out in their actual order, we obtain a complete sentence, as follows:--"presentem cronicam compilavit frater ranulphus cestrensis monachus"; i.e. brother ralph, monk of chester, compiled the present chronicle. i mention this curious device on the part of higden because another similar acrostic occurs elsewhere. it so happens that higden's _polychronicon_ was continued, after his death, by john malverne, who brought down the history to a later date, and included in it an account of a certain thomas usk, with whom he seems to have been acquainted. now, in a lengthy prose work of about , called _the testament of love_, i one day discovered that its author had adopted a similar device--no doubt imitating higden--and had so arranged that the initial letters of his chapters should form a sentence, as follows:--"margarete of virtw, have merci on thsknvi." there is no difficulty about the expression "margarete of virtw," because the treatise itself explains that it means holy church, but i could make nothing of _thsknvi_, as the letters evidently require rearrangement. but mr henry bradley, one of the editors of the _new english dictionary_, discovered that the chapters near the end of the treatise are out of order; and when he had restored sense by putting them as they should be, the new reading of the last seven letters came out as "thin vsk," i.e. "thine usk"; and the attribution of this treatise to thomas usk clears up every difficulty and fits in with all that john malverne says. this, in fact, is the happy solution of the authorship of _the testament of love_, which was once attributed to chaucer, though it is obviously not his at all. but it is time to return to john trevisa, higden's translator. this long translation is all in the southern dialect, originally that of gloucestershire, though there are several mss. that do not always agree. a fair copy of it, from a ms. in the library of st john's college, cambridge, is given side by side with the original latin in the edition already noticed. it is worth adding that caxton printed trevisa's version, altering the spelling to suit that of his own time, and giving several variations of reading. trevisa was also the author of some other works, of which the most important is his translation into english, from the original latin, of _bartholomæus de proprietatibus rerum_. i am not aware of any important work in the southern dialect later than these translations by trevisa. but in quite modern times, an excellent example of it has appeared, viz. in the _poems of rural life, in the dorset dialect_, by william barnes. chapter vii the southern dialect of kent though the kentish dialect properly belongs to southern english, from its position to the south of the thames, yet it shows certain peculiarities which make it desirable to consider it apart from the rest. in beda's _ecclesiastical history_, bk i, ch. , he says of the teutonic invaders: "those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of germany--saxons, angles, and jutes. from the jutes are descended the people of kent, and of the isle of wight, and those also in the province of the west-saxons who are to this day called jutes, seated opposite to the isle of wight"; a remark which obviously implies the southern part of hampshire. this suggests that the speech of kent, from the very first, had peculiarities of its own. dr sweet, in his _second anglo-saxon reader, archaic and dialectal_, gives five very brief kentish charters of the seventh and eighth centuries, but the texts are in latin, and only the names of persons and places appear in kentish forms. in the ninth century, however, there are seven kentish charters, of a fuller description, from the year to . in one of these, dated , a few lines occur that may be quoted: ic bidde and bebeode swælc monn se thæt min lond hebbe thæt he ælce gere agefe them higum æt folcanstane l. ambra maltes, and vi. ambra gruta, and iii. wega spices and ceses, and cccc. hlafa, and an hrithr, and vi. scep.... thæm higum et cristes cirican of thæm londe et cealflocan: thæt is thonne thritig ombra alath, and threo hund hlafa, theara bith fiftig hwitehlafa, an weg spices and ceses, an ald hrithr, feower wedras, an suin oththe sex wedras, sex gosfuglas, ten hennfuglas, thritig teapera, gif hit wintres deg sie, sester fulne huniges, sester fulne butran, sester fulne saltes. that is to say: i ask and command, whosoever may have my land, that he every year give to the domestics at folkestone fifty measures of malt, and six measures of meal, and three weys [_heavy weights_] of bacon and cheese, and four hundred loaves, and one rother [_ox_], and six sheep.... to the domestics at christ's church, from the land at challock: that is, then, thirty vessels of ale, and three hundred loaves, of which fifty shall be white loaves, one wey of bacon and cheese, one old rother, four wethers, one swine or six wethers, six goose-fowls, ten hen-fowls, thirty tapers, if it be a day in winter, a jar full of honey, a jar full of butter, and a jar full of salt. at pp. - of the same volume, dr sweet gives kentish glosses of a very early date. no. is: "_cardines_, hearran"; and in several modern dialects, including hampshire, the upright part of a gate to which the hinges are fastened is called a _harr_. several years ago, m. paul mayer found five short sermons in a kentish dialect in ms. laud , in the bodleian library, along with their french originals. they are printed in morris's _old english miscellany_, and two of them will be found in _specimens of early english_, part i, p. . the former of these is for the epiphany, the text being taken from matt. ii . the date is just before . i give an extract. the kinges hem wenten and hi seghen the sterre thet yede bifore hem, alwat hi kam over tho huse war ure loverd was; and alswo hi hedden i-fonden ure loverd, swo hin an-urede, and him offrede hire offrendes, gold, and stor, and mirre. tho nicht efter thet aperede an ongel of hevene in here slepe ine metinge, and hem seide and het, thet hi ne solde ayen wende be herodes, ac be an other weye wende into hire londes. that is: the kings went (them), and they saw the star that went before them until it came over the house where our lord was; and as-soon-as they had found our lord, so (they) honoured him, and offered him their offerings, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. the night after that (there) appeared an angel from heaven in their sleep, in a dream, and said to-them and commanded, that they should not wend again near herod, but by another way wend to their lands. in the days of edward ii ( - ) flourished william of shoreham, named from shoreham (kent), near otford and sevenoaks, who was appointed vicar of chart-sutton in . he translated the psalter into english prose, and wrote some religious poems, chiefly relating to church-services, which were edited by t. wright for the percy society in . his poem "on baptism" is printed in _specimens of early english_, part ii. i give an extract: in water ich wel the cristny her{ } as gode him-self hyt dightë{ }; for mide to wesschë{ } nis{ } nothynge that man cometh to so lightë{ } in londë{ }; nis non that habben hit ne may{ } that habbe hit wilë foundë{ }. this bethe{ } the wordës of cristning by thyse englísschë costës{ }-- "ich{ } cristni the{ } ine the vader{ } name and sone and holy gostes"-- and more, "amen!" wane hit{ } is ised{ } thertoe, confermeth thet ther-to-fore{ }. {footnotes: : _i desire thee to christen here_ : _ordaine it_ : _to wash with_ : _is not_ : _easily_ : _in (the) land_ : _there is noe that may not have it_ : _that will try to have it_ : _these are_ : _coasts, regions_ : _i_ : _thee_ : _father's_ : _when it_ : _said_ : _that which precedes_ } in the year , dan michel of northgate (kent) translated into english a french treatise on vices and virtues, under the title _the ayenbite of inwyt_, literally, "the again-biting of in-wit," i.e. remorse of conscience. this is the best specimen of the kentish dialect of the fourteenth century, and is remarkable for being much more difficult to make out than other pieces of the same period. the whole work was edited by dr morris for the early english text society in . a sermon of the same date and in the same dialect, and probably by the same author, is given in _specimens of early english_, part ii. the sermon is followed by the lord's prayer, the ave maria, and the "credo" or apostles' creed, all in the same dialect; and i here give the last of these, as being not difficult to follow: ich leve ine god, vader almighti, makere of hevene and of erthe. and ine iesu crist, his zone onlepi [_only son_], oure lhord, thet y-kend [_conceived_] is of the holy gost, y-bore of marie mayde, y-pyned [_was crucified_, lit. _made to suffer_] onder pouns pilate, y-nayled a rode [_on a cross_], dyad, and be-bered; yede [_went_] doun to helle; thane thridde day aros vram the dyade; steay [_rose, ascended_] to hevenes; zit [_sitteth_] athe [_on the_] right half of god the vader almighti; thannes to comene he is, to deme the quike and the dyade. ich y-leve ine the holy gost; holy cherche generalliche; mennesse of halyen [_communion of holy-ones_]; lesnesse of zennes [_remission of sins_]; of vlesse [_flesh, body_] arizinge; and lyf evrelestinde. zuo by hyt [_so be it_]. a few remarks may well be made here on some of the peculiarities of southern english that appear here. the use of _v_ for _f_ (as in _vader_, _vram_, _vlesshe_), and of _z_ for _s_ (as in _zone_, _zit_, _zennes_) are common to this day, especially in somersetshire. the spelling _lhord_ reminds us that many anglo-saxon words began with _hl_, one of them being _hl{-a}fweard_, later _hl{-a}ford_, a lord; and this _hl_ is a symbol denoting the so-called "whispered _l_," sounded much as if an aspirate were prefixed to the _l_, and still common in welsh, where it is denoted by _ll_, as in _llyn_, a lake. in every case, modern english substitutes for it the ordinary _l_, though _lh_ (= _hl_) was in use in in southern. the prefix _y-_, representing the extremely common a.s. (anglo-saxon) prefix _ge-_, was kept up in southern much longer than in the other dialects, but has now disappeared; the form _y-clept_ being archaic. the plural suffix _-en_, as in _haly-en_, holy ones, saints, is due to the fact that southern admitted the use of that suffix very freely, as in _cherch-en_, churches, _sterr-en_, stars, etc.; whilst northern only admitted five such plurals, viz. _egh-en_, _ey-en_, eyes (shakespeare's _eyne_), _hos-en_, stockings, _ox-en_, _shoo-n_, shoes, and _f{-a}-n_, foes; _ox-en_ being the sole survivor, since _shoon_ (as in _hamlet_, iv iv ) is archaic. the modern _child-r-en_, _breth-r-en_, are really double plurals; northern employed the more original forms _childer_ and _brether_, both of which, and especially the former, are still in dialectal use. _evrelest-inde_ exhibits the southern _-inde_ for present participles. but the word _zennes_, sins, exhibits a peculiarity that is almost solely kentish, and seldom found elsewhere, viz. the use of _e_ for _i_. the explanation of this rests on an elementary lesson in old english phonology, which it will do the reader no harm to acquire. the modern symbol _i_ (when denoting the _short_ sound, as in _pit_) really does double duty. it sometimes represents the a.s. short _i_, as in _it_ (a.s. _hit_), _sit_ (a.s. _sittan_), _bitten_ (a.s. _b{)i}ten_), etc.; and sometimes the a.s. short _y_, as in _pyt_, a pit. the sound of the a.s. short _i_ was much the same as in modern english; but that of the short _y_ was different, as it denoted the "mutated" form of short _u_ for which german has a special symbol, viz. _ü_, the sound intended being that of the german _ü_ in _schützen_, to protect. in the latter case, kentish usually has the vowel _e_, as in the modern kentish _pet_, a pit, and in the surname _petman_ (at margate), which means _pitman_; and as the a.s. for "sin" was _synn_ (dat. _synne_), the kentish form was _zenne_, since middle english substantives often represent the a.s. dative case. the kentish plural had the double form, _zennes_ and _zennen_, both of which occur in the _ayenbite_, as might have been expected. the poet gower, who completed what may be called the first edition of his poem named the _confessio amantis_ (or confession of a lover) in , was a kentish man, and well acquainted with the kentish dialect. he took advantage of this to introduce, occasionally, kentish forms into his verse; apparently for the sake of securing a rime more easily. see this discussed at p. ci of vol. ii of macaulay's edition of gower. i may illustrate this by noting that in _conf. amant._ i , we find _pitt_ riming with _witt_, whereas in the same, v , _pet_ rimes with _let_. we know that, in , the poet chaucer was elected a knight of the shire for kent, and in - he was residing at greenwich. he evidently knew something of the kentish dialect; and he took advantage of the circumstance, precisely as gower did, for varying his rimes. the earliest example of this is in his _book of the duchess_, l. , where he uses the kentish _ken_ instead of _kin_ (a.s. _cynn_) in order to secure a rime for _ten_. in the _canterbury tales_, e , he has _kesse_, to kiss (a.s. _cyssan_), to rime with _stedfastnesse_. in the same, a , he has _fulfille_, to fulfil (cf. a.s. _fyllan_, to fill), to rime with _wille_; but in troilus, iii , he changes it to _fulfelle_, to rime with _telle_; with several other instances of a like kind. it is further remarkable that some kentish forms seem to have established themselves in standard english, as when we use _dent_ with the sense of _dint_ (a.s. _dynt_). when we speak of _the left hand_, the form _left_ is really kentish, and occurs in the _ayenbite of inwyt_; the midland form is properly _lift_, which is common enough in middle english; see the _new english dictionary_, s.v. _left_, adj. _hemlock_ is certainly a kentish form; cf. a.s. _hymlice_, and see the _new english dictionary_. so also is _kernel_ (a.s. _cyrnel_); _knell_ (a.s. _cnyllan_, verb); _merry_ (a.s. _myrge_, _myrige_); and perhaps _stern_, adj. (a.s. _styrne_). there are some excellent remarks upon the vocalism of the kentish dialect in middle english by w. heuser, in the german periodical entitled _anglia_, vol xvii pp. - . chapter viii the mercian dialect i. east midland the mercian district lies between the northern and southern, occupying an irregular area which it is very difficult to define. on the east coast it reached from the mouth of the humber to that of the thames. on the western side it seems to have included a part of lancashire, and extended from the mouth of the lune to the bristol channel, exclusive of a great part of wales. there were two chief varieties of it which differed in many particulars, viz. the east midland and the west midland. the east midland included, roughly speaking, the counties of lincoln, rutland, northampton, and buckingham, and all the counties (between the thames and humber) to the east of these, viz. cambridge, huntingdon, bedford, hertford, middlesex, norfolk, suffolk, and essex. we must also certainly include, if not oxfordshire, at any rate the city of oxford. this is by far the most important group of counties, as it was the east midland that finally prevailed over the rest, and was at last accepted as a standard, thus rising from the position of a dialect to be the language of the empire. the midland prevailed over the northern and southern dialects because it was intermediate between them, and so helped to interpret between north and south; and the east midland prevailed over the western because it contained within its area all three of the chief literary centres, namely, oxford, cambridge, and london. it follows from this that the old mercian dialect is of greater interest than either the northumbrian or anglo-saxon. unfortunately, the amount of extant old mercian, before the conquest, is not very large, and it is only of late years that the mss. containing it have been rightly understood. practically, the study of it dates only from , when dr sweet published his _oldest english texts_. but there is more mercian to be found than was at first suspected; and it is desirable to consider this question. an important discovery was that the language of the oldest glossaries seems to be mercian. we have extant no less than four glossaries in mss. of as early a date as the eighth century, named respectively, the epinal, erfurt, corpus, and leyden glossaries. the first is now at epinal, in france (in the department vosges); the second, at erfurt, near weimar, in germany; the third, in corpus christi college, cambridge; and the fourth, at leyden, in holland. the corpus ms. may be taken as typical of the rest. it contains an enumeration of a large number of difficult words, arranged, but imperfectly, in alphabetical order; and after each of these is written its gloss or interpretation. thus the fifth folio begins as follows: abminiculum . adiutorium. abelena . haeselhnutu. abiecit . proiecit. absida . sacrarium. abies . etspe. ab ineunte ætate . infantia. the chief interest of these glossaries lies in the fact that a small proportion of the hard words is explained, not in latin, but in mercian english, of which there are two examples in the six glosses here quoted. thus abelena, which is another spelling of abellana or avellana, "a filbert," is explained as "haeselhnutu"; which is a perfectly familiar word when reduced to its modern form of "hazel-nut." and again, abies, which usually means "a fir-tree," is here glossed by "etspe." but this is certainly a false spelling, as we see by comparing it with the following glosses in epinal and erfurt (nos. , ):--"abies. saeppae--sæpae"; and "tremulus. aespae--espæ." this shows that the scribe ought to have explained abies by "saeppae," meaning the tree full of sap, called in french _sapin_; but he confused it with another tree, the "trembling" tree, of which the old mercian name was "espe" or "espæ," or "aespae," and he miswrote _espe_ as _etspe_, inserting a needless _t_. this last tree is the one which chaucer called the _asp_ in l. of his _parliament of fowls_, but in modern times the adjectival suffix _-en_ (as in _gold-en_, _wood-en_) has been tacked on to it, and it is now the _aspen_. the interpretation of these ancient glosses requires very great care, but they afford a considerable number of interesting results, and are therefore valuable, especially as they give us spellings of the eighth century, which are very scarce. one of the oldest specimens of old mercian that affords intelligible sentences is known as the "lorica prayer," because it occurs in the same ms. (ll. . in the cambridge university library) as the "lorica glosses," or the glosses which accompany a long latin prayer, really a charm, called "lorica" or "breast-plate," because it was recited thrice a day to protect the person who used it from all possible injury and accident. i give this prayer as illustrating the state of our language about a.d. . and the georne gebide gece and miltse fore alra his haligra gewyrhtum and ge-earningum and boenum be [hiwe]num, tha the _domino deo_ gelicedon from fruman middan-geardes; thonne gehereth he thec thorh hiora thingunge. do thonne fiorthan sithe thin hleor thriga to iorthan, fore alle godes cirican, and sing thas fers: _domini est salus, saluum fac populum tuum, domine, praetende misericordiam tuam_. sing thonne _pater noster_. gebide thonne fore alle geleaffulle menn _in mundo_. thonne bistu thone deg dael-niomende thorh dryhtnes gefe alra theara goda the ænig monn for his noman gedoeth, and thec alle soth-festæ fore thingiath _in caelo et in terra_. _amen_.{ } {footnote : i write _hiwenum_ in l. in place of an illegible word.} that is:-- and earnestly pray for-thyself for help and mercy by-reason-of the deeds and merits and prayers of all his saints on-behalf-of the [households] that have pleased the lord god from the beginning of the world; then will he hear thee because-of their intercession. bow-down then, at the fourth time, thy face thrice to the earth before all god's church, and sing these verses: the lord is my salvation, save thy people, o lord: show forth thy mercy. sing then a pater-noster. pray then for all believing men in the world. then shalt thou be, on that day, a partaker, by god's grace, of all the good things that any man doth for his name, and all true-men will intercede for thee in heaven and in earth. amen. another discovery was the assignment of a correct description to the glosses found in a document known as the _vespasian psalter_; so called because it is an early latin psalter, or book of psalms, contained in a cotton ms. in the british museum, marked with the class-mark "vespasian, a. ." this psalter is accompanied throughout with glosses which were at first mistakenly thought to be in a northumbrian dialect, and were published as such by the surtees society in . they were next, in , wrongly supposed to be kentish; but since they were printed by sweet in it has been shown that they are really mercian. this set of glosses is very important for the study of old mercian, because they are rather extensive; they occupy pages of the _oldest english texts_, and are followed by more pages of similar glosses to certain latin canticles and hymns that occur in the same ms. there are also a few charters extant in the mercian dialect, but the earliest contain little else than old forms of the names of persons and places. there are, however, some later charters, from to in the mercian dialect, which contain some boundaries of lands and afford other information. most of these relate to worcestershire. but the most interesting mercian glosses are those to be found in the rushworth ms., which has already been mentioned as containing northumbrian glosses of the latin gospels of st mark, st luke, and st john. for the gospel of st matthew was glossed by the scribe farman, who was a priest of harewood, situate on the river wharfe, in the west riding of yorkshire; whose language, accordingly, was mercian. in my _principles of english etymology, first series_ (second edition, ), p. , i gave a list of words selected from these glosses, in order to show how much nearer they stand, as a rule, to modern english than do the corresponding anglo-saxon forms. i here repeat this list, as it is very instructive. the references, such as " . ," are to the chapters and verses of st matthew's gospel, as printed in my edition of _the holy gospels, in anglo-saxon, northumbrian, and old mercian versions, synoptically arranged_ (cambridge, - ). the first column below gives the modern english form, the second the old mercian form (with references), and the third the anglo-saxon or wessex form: modern old mercian wessex (a.s.) all all, . eall are arun, . (_not used_) betwixt betwix, . betweox cheek c{-e}ke, . c{-e}ace cold cald, . ceald eke {-e}k, . {-e}ac eleven enlefan, . endlufon eye {-e}ge, . {-e}age falleth falleth, . fealleth fell, _pt.t.pl._ fellun, . f{-e}ollon -fold -fald, . -feald (_in_ ten-fold) gall, _sb._ galla, . gealla half, _sb._ half, . healf halt, _adj._ halt, . healt heard, _pt.t.s._ (ge)h{-e}rde, . (ge)h{-i}erde lie l{-i}gan, . l{-e}ogan (_tell lies_) light, _sb._ l{-i}ht, . l{-e}oht light, _adj._ liht, . leoht narrow naru, . nearu old áld, . eald sheep sc{-e}p, . sc{-e}ap shoes sc{-o}as, . sc{-e}os, sc{-y} silver sylfur, . seolfor slept, _pt.t.pl._ sleptun, . sl{-e}pon sold, _pp._ sald, . seald spit, _vb._ spittan, . sp{-æ}tan wall wall, . weall yard (_rod_) ierd, . gyrd yare (_ready_) iara, . gearo yoke ioc, . geoc youth iuguth, . geoguth in l. , the scribe farman miswrote _caldas_ as _galdas_, in matt. x ; but it is a mere mistake. in l. , the accent over the _a_ in _áld_ is marked in the ms., though the vowel was not originally long. even a glance at this comparative table reveals a peculiarity of the wessex dialect which properly belongs neither to mercian nor to modern english, viz. the use of the diphthong _ea_ (in which each vowel was pronounced separately) instead of simple _a_, before the sounds denoted by _l_, _r_, _h_, especially when another consonant follows. we find accordingly such wessex forms as _eall_, _ceald_, _fealleth_, _-feald_, _gealla_, _healf_, _healt_, _nearu_, _eald_, _seald_, _weall_, _gearo_, where the old mercian has simply _all_, _cald_, _falleth_, _-fald_, _galla_, _half_, _halt_, _naru_, _ald_, _sald_, _wall_, _iara_. similarly, wessex has the diphthongs _{-e}a_, _{-e}o_, in which the former element is long, where the old mercian has simply _{-e}_ or _{-i}_. we find accordingly the wessex _c{-e}ace_, _{-e}ac_, _{-e}age_, _sc{-e}ap_, as against the mercian _c{-e}ke_, _{-e}k_, _{-e}ge_, _sc{-e}p_; and the wessex _l{-e}ogan_, _l{-e}oht_, as against the mercian _l{-i}gan_, _l{-i}ht_. i have now mentioned nearly all the examples of old mercian to be found before the conquest. after that event it was still the southern dialect that prevailed, and there is scarcely any mercian (or midland) to be found except in the laud ms. of the _anglo-saxon chronicle_, which was written at peterborough. see the extract, describing the miserable state of england during the reign of stephen, in _specimens of early english_, part i. it was about the year that the remarkable work appeared that is known by the name of _the ormulum_, written in the north-east midland of lincolnshire, which is the first clear example of the form which our literary language was destined to assume. it is an extremely long and dreary poem of about , long lines, written in a sadly monotonous unrimed metre; and it contains an introduction, paraphrases relating to the gospels read in the church during the year, and homilies upon the same. it was named _ormulum_ by the author after his own name, which was orm; and the sole existing ms. is probably in the handwriting of orm himself, who employed a phonetic spelling of his own invention which he strongly recommends. owing to this circumstance and to the fact that his very regular metre leaves no doubt as to his grammatical forms, this otherwise uninviting poem has a high philological value. in my book entitled _the chaucer canon_, published at oxford in , i quote long lines from the _ormulum_, reduced to a simpler system of spelling, at pp. - ; and, at pp. - , i give an analysis of the suffixes employed by orm to mark grammatical inflexions. at pp. - , i give an analysis of similar inflexions as employed by chaucer, who likewise employed the east midland dialect, but with such slight modifications of orm's language as were due to his living in london instead of lincolnshire, and to the fact that he wrote more than years later. the agreement, as to grammatical usages, of these two authors is extremely close, allowing for lapse of time; and the comparison between them gives most indubitable and valuable results. there is no better way of learning chaucer's grammar. as east midland was spread over a wide area, there are, as might be expected, some varieties of it. the dialects of lincolnshire and of norfolk were not quite the same, and both differed somewhat from that of essex and middlesex; but the general characteristics of all three sub-dialects are very much alike. as time went on, the speech of the students of oxford and cambridge was closely assimilated to that of the court as held in london; and this "educated" type was naturally that to which caxton and the great writers of the sixteenth century endeavoured to conform. we have one ancient specimen of the london dialect which is eminently authentic and valuable, and has the additional advantage of being exactly dated. this is the document known as "the only english proclamation of henry iii," issued on oct. , . its intention was to confirm to the people the "provisions of oxford," a charter of rights that had been wrested from the king, from which we may conclude that the proclamation was issued by henry rather by compulsion than by his own free will. there is a note at the end which tells us that a copy was sent to every shire in england and to ireland. if every copy had been preserved, we should have a plentiful supply. as it is, only two copies have survived. one is the copy which found its way to oxford; and the other is the original from which the copies were made, which has been carefully preserved for six centuries and a half in the public record office in london. i here give the contents of the original, substituting _y_ (at the beginning of a word) or _gh_ (elsewhere) for the symbol _{g}_, and _th_ for the symbol _þ_, and _v_ for _u_ when between two vowels. ¶ henri, thurgh godes fultume king on engleneloande, lhoaverd on yrloande, duk on norm(andi), on aquitaine, and eorl on aniow, send igretinge to alle hise holde ilærde and ileawede on huntendoneschire: thæt witen ye wel alle, thæt we willen and unnen thæt, thæt ure rædesmen alle, other the moare dæl of heom thæt beoth ichosen thurgh us and thurgh thæt loandes folk on ure kuneriche, habbeth idon and schullen don in the worthnesse of gode and on ure treowthe, for the freme of the loande, thurgh the besighte of than to-foren iseide redesmen, beo stedefaest and ilestinde in alle thinge, abuten ænde. and we hoaten alle ure treowe, in the treowthe thæt heo us ogen, thæt heo stedefæstliche healden, and swerien to healden and to werien, tho isetnesses thæt beon imakede and beon to makien, thurgh than to-foren iseide rædesmen, other thurgh the moare dæl of hem, alswo also hit is biforen iseid; and thæt æhc other helpe thæt for to done bi than ilche othe, ayenes alle men, right for to done and to foangen. and noan ne nime of loande ne of eghte, wherthurgh this besighte mughe beon ilet other iwersed on onie wise. and yif oni other onie cumen her onyenes, we willen and hoaten thæt alle ure treowe heom healden deadliche ifoan. and for thæt we willen thæt this beo stedefæst and lestinde, we senden yew this writ open, iseined with ure seel, to halden a-manges yew me hord. witnesse us selven æt lundene, thane eghtetenthe day on the monthe of octobre, in the two and fowertighthe yeare of ure cruninge. and this wes idon ætforen ure isworene redesmen, boneface archebischop on kanterburi, walter of cantelow, bischop on wirechestre, simon of muntfort, eorl on leirchestre, richard of clare, eorl on glowchestre and on hurtforde, roger bigod, eorl on northfolke and marescal on engleneloande, perres of sauveye, willelm of fort, eorl on aubemarle, iohan of pleisseiz, eorl on warewike, iohan geffreës sune, perres of muntfort, richard of grey, roger of mortemer, james of aldithel; and ætforen othre inoghe. ¶ and al on tho ilche worden is isend in-to ævrihce othre shcire over al thære kuneriche on engleneloande, and ek in-tel irelonde. this document presents at first sight many unfamiliar forms, but really differs from modern english mainly in the spelling, which of course represents the pronunciation of that period. the grammar is perfectly intelligible, and this is the surest mark of similarity of language; we may, however, note the use of _send_ as a contraction of _sendeth_, and of _oni_ for "any man" in the singular, while _onie_, being plural, represents "any men." the other chief variations are in the vocabulary or word-list, due to the fact that this proclamation is older than the reigns of the first three edwards, which was the period when so many words of anglo-norman origin entered our language, displacing many words of native origin that thus became obsolete; though some were exchanged for other _native_ words. we may notice, for example, _fultume_, "assistance"; _holde_, "faithful"; _ilærde and ileawede_, "learned and unlearned"; _unnen_, "grant"; _rædesmen_, "councillors"; _kuneriche_, "kingdom"; and so on. i subjoin a closely literal translation, retaining awkward expressions. ¶ henry, through god's assistance, king in england, lord in ireland, duke in normandy, in aquitaine, and earl in anjou, sendeth greeting to all his faithful, learned and unlearned, in huntingdonshire; that wit ye well all, that we will and grant that which our councillors all, or the more deal (_part_) of them, that be chosen through us and through the land's folk in our kingdom, have done and shall do in the worship of god and in our truth, for the benefit of the land, through the provision of the beforesaid councillors, be steadfast and lasting in all things without end. and we command all our true-men, in the truth that they us owe, that they steadfastly hold, and swear to hold and to defend, the statutes that be made and be to make, through the aforesaid councillors, or through the more deal of them, even as it is before said; and that each help other that for to do, by the same oath, against all men, right for to do and to receive. and (let) none take of land nor of property, wherethrough this provision may be let or worsened in any wise. and if any-man or any-men come here-against, we will and command that all our true-men hold them (as) deadly foes. and for that we will that thi bes steadfast and lasting, we send you this writ open, signed with our seal, to hold amongst you in hoard. witness us-selves at london, the eighteenth day in the month of october, in the two and fortieth year of our crowning. and this was done before our sworen councillors, boneface, archbishop of canterbury, walter of cantelow, bishop of worcester, simon of muntfort, earl of leicester, ... and before others enough. ¶ and all in the same words is sent into every other shire over all the kingdom in england, and eke into ireland. in the year , robert manning, of bourn in lincolnshire, translated a french poem entitled _manuel des pechiez_ (manual of sins) into very fair east midland verse, giving to his translation the title of _handling synne_. many of the verses are easy and smooth, and the poem clearly shows us that the east midland dialect was by this time at least the equal of the others, and that the language was good enough to be largely permanent. when we read such lines as: than seyd echone that sate and stode, here comth pers, that never dyd gode-- we have merely to modernise the spelling, and we at once have: then said each one that sat and stood, here cometh pierce, that never did good, these are lines that could be written now. an extract from manning's _handlyng synne_ is given in _specimens of early english_, part ii, most of which can be read with ease. the obsolete words are not very numerous, and we meet now and then with half a dozen consecutive lines that would puzzle no one. it is needless to pursue the history of this dialect further. it had, by this time, become almost the standard language, differing from modern english chiefly in date, and consequently in pronunciation. we pass on from manning to chaucer, from chaucer to lydgate and caxton, and from caxton to lord surrey and sackville and spenser, without any real change in the actual dialect employed, but only in the form of it. ii. west midland we have seen that there are two divisions of the mercian dialect, into east and west midland. the west midland does not greatly differ from the east midland, but it approaches more nearly, in some respects, to the northumbrian. the greatest distinction seems to be in the present and past participles of verbs. in the west midland, the present participle frequently ends in _-and_, as in northumbrian, especially in the northern part of the midland area. the east midland usually employs _-ende_ or _-inge_ instead. in the west midland, the prefix _i-_ or _y-_ is seldom used for the past participle, whilst the east midland admits it more freely. in the third person singular of the present tense, the west midland favours the northern suffix _-es_ or _-is_; whilst the east midland favours the southern suffix _-eth_. the suffix _-us_ appears to be altogether peculiar to west midland, in which it occurs occasionally; and the same is true of _-ud_ for _-ed_ in the preterite of a weak verb. there is a rather early west midland _prose psalter_, belonging to the former half of the fourteenth century, which was edited for the early english text society by dr karl bulbring in . the curious poem called _william of palerne_ (palermo) or _william and the werwolf_, written in alliterative verse about - , and edited by me for the e.e.t.s. in , seems to be in a form of west midland, and has been claimed for shropshire; nothing is known as to its author. the very remarkable poem called _the pearl_, and three _alliterative poems_ by the same author, were first edited by dr morris for the e.e.t.s. in ; with a preface in which the peculiarities of the dialect were discussed. dr morris showed that the grammatical forms are uniform and consistent throughout, and may be safely characterised as being west midland. moreover, they are frequently very like northumbrian, and must belong to the northern area of the west midland dialect. "much," says dr morris, "may be said in favour of their lancashire origin." the ms. which contains the above poems also contains the excellent alliterative romance-poem named _sir gawayne and the green knight_, evidently written by the same author; so that this poem also may be considered as a specimen of west midland. for further particulars, see the "grammatical details" given in dr morris's preface to _the pearl_, etc., pp. xxviii-xl. _sir gawayne_ was likewise edited by morris in . it would not be easy to trace the history of this dialect at a later date, and the task is hardly necessary. it was soon superseded in literary use by the east midland, with which it had much in common. chapter ix foreign elements in the dialects there is a widely prevalent notion that the speakers of english dialects employ none but native words; and it is not uncommon for writers who have more regard for picturesque effect than for accuracy to enlarge upon this theme, and to praise the dialects at the expense of the literary language. of course there is a certain amount of truth in this, but it would be better to look into the matter a little more closely. a very little reflection will show that dialect-speakers have always been in contact with some at least of those who employ words that belong rather, or once belonged, to foreign nations. even shopkeepers are familiar with such words as _beef_, _mutton_, _broccoli_, _soda_, _cork_, _sherry_, _brandy_, _tea_, _coffee_, _sugar_, _sago_, and many more such words that are now quite familiar to every one. yet _beef_ and _mutton_ are norman; _broccoli_ and _soda_ are italian; _cork_ and _sherry_ are spanish; _brandy_ is dutch; _tea_ is chinese; _coffee_ is arabic; _sugar_ is of sanskrit origin; and _sago_ is malay. it must be evident that many similar words, having reference to very various useful things, have long ago drifted into the dialects from the literary language. hence the purity of the dialects from contamination with foreign influences is merely comparative, not absolute. our modern language abounds with words borrowed from many foreign tongues; but a large number of them have come to us since . before that date the chief languages from which it was possible for us to borrow words were british or gaelic, irish, latin, greek (invariably through the medium of latin), hebrew (in a small degree, through the medium of latin), arabic (very slightly, and indirectly), scandinavian, and french. a few words as to most of these are sufficient. it is not long since a great parade was made of our borrowings from "celtic"; it was very easy to give a wild guess that an obscure word was "celtic"; and the hardihood of the guesser was often made to take the place of evidence. the fact is that there is no such language as "celtic"; it is the name of a group of languages, including "british" or welsh, cornish, breton, manx, gaelic, and irish; and it is now incumbent on the etymologist to cite the exact forms in one or more of these on which he relies, so as to adduce some semblance of proof. the result has been an extraordinary shrinkage in the number of alleged celtic words. the number, in fact, is extremely small, except in special cases. thus we may expect to find a few welsh words in the dialects of cheshire, shropshire, or herefordshire, on the welsh border; and a certain proportion of gaelic words in lowland scotch; though we have no reliable lists of these, and it is remarkable that such words have usually been borrowed at no very early date, and sometimes quite recently. the legacy of words bequeathed to us by the ancient britons is surprisingly small; indeed, it is very difficult to point to many clear cases. the question is considered in my _principles of english etymology, series i_, pp. - , to which i may refer the reader; and a list of words of (probably) celtic origin is given in my larger _etymological dictionary_, ed. , p. . it is also explained, in my _primer of english etymology_ that, in the fifth century, the time of hengist's invasion, "the common language of the more educated classes among the british was latin, which was in use as a literary language and as the language of the british christian church. hence, the low german tribes [of invaders] found no great necessity for learning ancient british; and this explains the fact, which would otherwise be extraordinary, that modern english contains but a very small celtic element." of the celts that remained within the english pale, it is certain that, in a very short time, they accepted the necessity of learning anglian or saxon, and lost their previous language altogether. hence, in many dialects, as for example, in the east midland district, the amount of words of "british" origin is practically _nil_. for further remarks on this subject, see chapter v of _anglo-saxon britain_, by grant allen, london, n.d. i here give a tentative list of some celtic words found in dialects. their etymologies are discussed in my _etymological dictionary_ ( ), as they are also found in literary use; and the words are fully explained in the _english dialect dictionary_, which gives all their senses, and enumerates the counties in which they are found. it is doubtless imperfect, as i give only words that are mostly well known, and can be found, indeed, in the _new english dictionary_. i give only one sense of each, and mark it as n., m., or s. (northern, midland, or southern), as the case may be. the symbol "gen." means "in general use"; and "sc." means lowland scotch. _art_, or _airt_, sc., a direction of the wind; _banshee_, irish, a female spirit who warns families of a death; _beltane_, n., the first of may; _bin_, m., a receptacle; _boggart_, _bogle_, n., m., a hobgoblin; _bragget_, n., m., a drink made of honey and ale; _brat_, n., m., a cloth, clout; _brock_, gen., a badger; _bug_, n., a bogy; _bugaboo_, n., m., a hobgoblin; _capercailyie_, sc., a bird; _cateran_, sc., a highland robber; _char_, n., a fish; _clachan_, sc., a hamlet; _clan_, n., m., a class, set of people; _claymore_, sc., a two-handed sword; _colleen_, irish, a young girl; _combe_, gen., the head of a valley; _coracle_, m., a wicker boat; _coronach_, sc., a dirge; _corrie_, sc., a circular hollow in a hill-side; _cosher_, irish, a feast; _crag_, _craig_, n., a rock; _crowd_, n., s., a fiddle; _dulse_, n., an edible sea-weed; _dun_, gen., brown, greyish; _duniwassal_, sc., a gentleman of secondary rank; _fillibeg_, sc., a short kilt; _flummery_, sc., m., oatmeal boiled in water; _gallowglass_, sc., irish, an armed foot-soldier; _galore_, gen., in abundance; _gillie_, sc., a man-servant; _gull_, a name of various birds; _hubbub_, _hubbaboo_, irish, a confused clamour; _inch_, sc., irish, a small island; _ingle_, n., m., fire, fire-place; _kelpie_, sc., a water-spirit; _kibe_, gen., a chilblain; _linn_, n., a pool; _loch_, n., _lough_, irish, a lake; _metheglin_, m., s., beer made from honey; _omadhaun_, irish, a simpleton; _pose_, gen. (but perhaps obsolete), a catarrh; _rapparee_, sc., irish, a vagabond; _shillelagh_, irish, a cudgel; _skain_, _skean_, sc., irish, a knife, dagger; _sowens_, _sowans_, sc., a dish made from oatmeal-husks steeped in water (from gael, _sùghan_, the juice of sowens); _spalpeen_, irish, a rascal; _spleuchan_, sc., irish, a pouch, a purse; _strath_, n., a valley; _strathspey_, sc., a dance, named from the valley of the river spey; _tocher_, n., a dowry; _usquebaugh_, sc., irish, whiskey; _wheal_, cornish, a mine. latin is a language from which english has borrowed words in every century since the year . in my _principles of english etymology, first series_, chap. xxi, i give a list of latin words imported into english before the norman conquest. several of these must be familiar in our dialects; we can hardly suppose that country people do not know the meaning of ark, beet, box, candle, chalk, cheese, cook, coulter, cup, fennel, fever, font, fork, inch, kettle, kiln, kitchen, and the like. indeed, _ark_ is quite a favourite word in the north for a large wooden chest, used for many purposes; and kersey explains it as "a country word for a large chest to put fruit or corn in." _candle_ is so common that it is frequently reduced to _cannel_; and it has given its name to "cannel coal." every countryman is expected to be able to distinguish "between chalk and cheese." _coulter_ appears in ten dialect forms, and one of the most familiar agricultural implements is a pitch-_fork_. the influence of latin requires no further illustration. i also give a list of early words of greek origin; some of which are likewise in familiar use. i may instance alms, angel, bishop, butter, capon, chest, church, clerk, copper, devil, dish, hemp, imp, martyr, paper (ultimately of egyptian origin), plaster, plum, priest, rose, sack, school, silk, treacle, trout. of course the poor old woman who says she is "a martyr to tooth-ache" is quite unconscious that she is talking greek. probably she is not without some smattering of persian, and knows the sense of lilac, myrtle, orange, peach, and rice; of sanskrit, whence pepper and sugar-candy; of arabic, whence coffee, cotton, jar, mattress, senna, and sofa; and she will know enough hebrew, partly from her bible, to be quite familiar with a large number of biblical names, such as adam and abraham and isaac, and very many more, not forgetting the very common john, joseph, matthew, and thomas, and the still more familiar jack and jockey; and even with a few words of hebrew origin, such as alleluia, balm, bedlam, camel, cider, and sabbath. the discovery of the new world has further familiarised us all with chocolate and tomato, which are mexican; and with potato, which is probably old caribbean. these facts have to be borne in mind when it is too rashly laid down that words in english dialects are of english origin. foreign words of this kind are, however, not very numerous, and can easily be allowed for. and, as has been said, our vocabulary admits also of a certain amount of celtic. it remains to consider what other sources have helped to form our dialects. the two most prolific in this respect are scandinavian and french, which require careful consideration. it is notorious that the northern dialect admits scandinavian words freely; and the same is true, to a lesser degree, of east midland. they are rare in southern, and in the southern part of west midland. the constant invasions of the danes, and the subjection of england under the rule of three danish kings, canute and his two successors, have very materially increased our vocabulary; and it is remarkable that they have perhaps done more for our dialects than for the standard language. the ascendancy of danish rule was in the eleventh century; but (with a few exceptions) it was long before words which must really have been introduced at that time began to appear in our literature. they must certainly have been looked upon, at the first, as being rustic or dialectal. i have nowhere seen it remarked, and i therefore call attention to the fact, that a certain note of rustic origin still clings to many words of this class; and i would instance such as these: bawl, bloated, blunder, bungle, clog, clown, clumsy, to cow, to craze, dowdy, dregs, dump, and many more of a like character. i do not say that such words cannot be employed in serious literature; but they require skillful handling. for further information, see the chapter on "the scandinavian element in english," in my _principles of english etymology, series i_. with regard to dialectal scandinavian, see the list of english words, as compared with icelandic, in my appendix to cleasby and vigfusson's _icelandic dictionary_. in this long list, filling columns, the dialectal words are marked with a dagger {+*}. but the list of these is by no means exhaustive, and it will require a careful search through the pages of the _english dialect dictionary_ to do justice to the wealth of this old norse element. there is an excellent article on this subject by arnold wall, entitled "a contribution towards the study of the scandinavian element in the english dialects," printed in the german periodical entitled _anglia, neue folge_, band viii, . i now give a list, a mere selection, of some of the more remarkable words of scandinavian origin that are known to our dialects. for their various uses and localities, see the _english dialect dictionary_; and for their etymologies, see my index to cleasby and vigfusson. many of these words are well approved and forcible, and may perhaps be employed hereafter to reinforce our literary language. _addle_, to earn; _and_ (in barbour, _aynd_) sb., breath; _arder_, a ploughing; _arr_, a scar; _arval_, a funeral repast; _aund_, fated, destined; _bain_, ready, convenient; _bairns' lakings_, children's playthings; _beck_, a stream; _big_, to build; _bigg_, barley; _bing_, a heap; _birr_, impetus; _blaeberry_, a bilberry; _blather_, _blether_, empty noisy talk; _bouk_, the trunk of the body; _boun_, ready; _braid_, to resemble, to take after; _brandreth_, an iron framework over a fire; _brant_, steep; _bro_, a foot-bridge with a single rail; _bule_, _bool_, the curved handle of a bucket; _busk_, to prepare oneself, dress; _caller_, fresh, said of fish, etc.; _carle_, a rustic, peasant; _carr_, moist ground; _cleck_, to hatch (as chickens); _cleg_, a horse-fly; _coup_, to exchange, to barter; _dag_, dew; _daggle_, to trail in the wet; _dowf_, dull, heavy, stupid; _dump_, a deep pool. _elding_, _eliding_, fuel; _ettle_, to intend, aim at; _feal_, to hide; _fell_, a hill; _fey_, doomed, fated to die; _flake_, a hurdle; _force_, a water-fall; _gab_, idle talk; _gain_, adj., convenient, suitable; _gait_, a hog; _gar_, to cause, to make; _garn_, yarn; _garth_, a field, a yard; _gate_, a way, street; _ged_, a pike; _gilder_, a snare, a fishing-line; _gilt_, a young sow; _gimmer_, a young ewe; _gloppen_, to scare, terrify; _glare_, to stare, to glow; _goam_, _gaum_, to stare idly, to gape, whence _gomeril_, a blockhead; _gowk_, a cuckoo, a clown; _gowlan_, _gollan_, a marigold; _gowpen_, a double handful; _gradely_, respectable; _graithe_, to prepare; _grice_, a young pig; _haaf_, the open sea; _haver_, oats; _how_, a hillock, mound; _immer-goose_, _ember-goose_, the great northern diver; _ing_, a lowlying meadow; _intake_, a newly enclosed or reclaimed portion of land; _keld_, a spring of water; _kenning_, knowledge, experience; _kilp_, _kelp_, the iron hook in a chimney on which pots are hung; _kip_, to catch fish in a particular way; _kittle_, to tickle; _lain_, _lane_, to conceal; _lair_, a muddy place, a quick-sand; _lait_, to seek; _lake_, to play; _lathe_, a barn; _lax_, a salmon; _lea_, a scythe; _leister_, a fish-spear with prongs and barbs; _lift_, the air, sky; _lig_, to lie down; _lispund_, a variable weight; _lit_, to dye; _loon_, the northern diver; _lowe_, a flame, a blaze. _mense_, respect, reverence, decency, sense; _mickle_, great; _mirk_, dark; _morkin_, a dead sheep; _muck_, dirt; _mug_, fog, mist, whence _muggy_, misty, close, dull; _neif_, _neive_, the fist; _ouse_, _ouze_, to empty out liquid, to bale out a boat; _paddock_, a frog, a toad; _quey_, a young heifer; _rae_, a sailyard; _rag_, hoarfrost, rime; _raise_, a cairn, a tumulus; _ram_, _rammish_, rank, rancid; _rip_, a basket; _risp_, to scratch; _rit_, to scratch slightly, to score; _rawk_, _roke_, a mist; _roo_, to pluck off the wool of sheep instead of shearing them; _roose_, to praise; _roost_, _roust_, a strong sea-current, a race. _sark_, a shirt; _scarf_, a cormorant; _scopperil_, a teetotum; _score_, a gangway down to the sea-shore; _screes_, rough stones on a steep mountain-side, really for _screethes_ (the _th_ being omitted as in _clothes_), from old norse _skriða_, a land-slip on a hill-side; _scut_, a rabbit's tail; _seave_, a rush; _sike_, a small rill, gutter; _sile_, a young herring; _skeel_, a wooden pail; _skep_, a basket, a measure; _skift_, to shift, remove, flit; _skrike_, to shriek; _slocken_, to slake, quench; _slop_, a loose outer garment; _snag_, a projecting end, a stump of a tree; _soa_, a large round tub; _spae_, to foretell, to prophesy; _spean_, a teat, (as a verb) to wean; _spelk_, a splinter, thin piece of wood; _steg_, a gander; _storken_, to congeal; _swale_, a shady place; _tang_, the prong of a fork, a tongue of land; _tarn_, a mountain pool; _tath_, manure, _tathe_, to manure; _ted_, to spread hay; _theak_, to thatch; _thoft_, a cross-bench in a boat; _thrave_, twenty-four sheaves, or a certain measure of corn; _tit_, a wren; _titling_, a sparrow; _toft_, a homestead, an old enclosure, low hill; _udal_, a particular tenure of land; _ug_, to loathe; _wadmel_, a species of coarse cloth; _wake_, a portion of open water in a frozen lake or stream; _wale_, to choose; _wase_, a wisp or small bundle of hay or straw; _whauve_, to cover over, especially with a dish turned upside down; _wick_, a creek, bay; _wick_, a corner, angle. another source of foreign supply to the vocabulary of the dialects is french; a circumstance which seems hitherto to have been almost entirely ignored. the opinion has, i think, been expressed more than once, that dialects are almost, if not altogether, free from french influence. some, however, have called attention, perhaps too much attention, to the french words found in lowland scotch; and it is common to adduce always the same set of examples, such as _ashet_, a dish (f. _assiette_, a trencher, plate: cotgrave), _gigot_, a leg of mutton, and _petticoat-tails_, certain cakes baked with butter (ingeniously altered from _petits gastels_, old form of _petits gâteaux_), by way of illustration. indeed, a whole book has been written on this subject; see _a critical enquiry into the scottish language_, by francisque-michel, to, edinburgh, . but the importance of the borrowings, chiefly in scotland, from parisian french, has been much exaggerated, as in the work just mentioned; and a far more important source has been ignored, viz. anglo-french, which i here propose to consider. by anglo-french is meant the highly important form of french which is largely peculiar to england, and is of the highest value to the philologist. the earliest forms of it were norman, but it was afterwards supplemented by words borrowed from other french dialects, such as those of anjou and poitou, as well as from the central french of paris. it was thus developed in a way of its own, and must always be considered, in preference to old continental french, when english etymologies are in question. it is true that it came to an end about , when it ceased to be spoken; but at an earlier date it was alive and vigorous, and coined its own peculiar forms. a very simple example is our word _duty_, which certainly was not borrowed from the old french _devoir_, but from the anglo-french _duetee_, a word familiar in old london, but absolutely unknown to every form of continental french. the point which i have here to insist upon is that not only does our literary language abound with anglo-french words, but that they are also common enough in our dialects; a point which, as far as i know, is almost invariably overlooked. neither have our dialects escaped the influence of the central french of paris, and it would have been strange if they had; for the number of french words in english is really very large. it is not always possible to discriminate between the old french of france and of england, and i shall here consider both sources together, though the old norman words can often be easily discerned by any one who is familiar with the norman peculiarities. of such peculiarities i will instance three, by way of example. thus anglo-french often employs _ei_ or _ey_ where old french (i.e. of the continent) has _oi_ or _oy_; and english has retained the old pronunciations of _ch_ and _j_. hence, whilst _convoy_ is borrowed from french, _convey_ is anglo-french. _machine_ is french, because the _ch_ is pronounced as _sh_; but _chine_, the backbone, is anglo-french. _rouge_ is french, because of the peculiar pronunciation of the final _ge_; but _rage_ is anglo-french; and _jaundice_ is anglo-french, as it has the old _j_. see chapters iii-vi of my _principles of english etymology, second series_. a good example of a dialect word is _gantry_ or _gauntree_, a wooden stand for barrels, known in varying forms in many dialects. it is rightly derived, in the _e.d.d._, from _gantier_, which must have been an a.f. (anglo-french) form, though now only preserved in the rouchi dialect, spoken on the borders of france and belgium, and nearly allied to norman; in fact, m. hécart, the author of the _dictionnaire_ _rouchi-français_, says he had heard the word in normandy, and he gives a quotation for it from olivier basselin, a poet who lived in normandy at the beginning of the fifteenth century. the parisian form is _chantier_, which cotgrave explains as "a gauntrey... for hogs-heads to stand on." here is a clear example of a word which is of norman, or a.f., origin; and there must be many more such of which the a.f. form is lost. there is no greater literary disgrace to england than the fact that there is no reasonable dictionary in existence of anglo-french, though it contains hundreds of highly important legal terms. it ought, in fact, to have been compiled before either the _english dialect dictionary_ or the _new english dictionary_, both of which have suffered from the lack of it. it would indeed be tedious to enumerate the vast number of french words in our dialects. many are literary words used in a peculiar sense, often in one that has otherwise been long obsolete; such as _able_, rich; _access_, an ague-fit; _according_, comparatively; _to act_, to show off, be ridiculous; _afraid_, conj., for fear that; _agreeable_, willing; _aim_, to intend; _aisle_, a central thoroughfare in a shop, etc.; _alley_, the aisle of a church; _allow_, to suppose; _anatomy_, a skeleton; _ancient_, an ensign, flag; _anguish_, inflammation; _annoyance_, damage; _anointed_, notoriously vicious; _apron_, the diaphragm of an animal; _apt_, sure; _arbitrary_, impatient of restraint; _archangel_, dead nettle; _argue_, to signify; _arrant_, downright; _auction_, an untidy place, a crowd; _avise_ (for _advise_), to inform. it is needless to go through the rest of the alphabet. moreover, dialect-speakers are quite capable of devising new forms for themselves. it is sufficient to instance _abundation_, abundance; _ablins_, possibly (made from _able_); _argle_, _argie-bargie_, _argle-bargle_, _argufy_, all varieties of the verb _to argue_; and so on. the most interesting words are those that have survived from middle english or from tudor english times. examples are _aigre_, sour, tart, which is shakespeare's _eagre_, _hamlet_, i, v ; _ambry_, _aumbry_, cupboard, spelt _almarie_ in _piers the plowman_, b xiv ; _arain_, a spider, spelt _yreyn_ in wyclif's translation of psalm xc , which, after all, is less correct; _arles_, money paid on striking a bargain, a highly interesting word, spelt _erles_ in the former half of the thirteenth century; _arris_, the angular edge of a cut block of stone, etc., from the o.f. _areste_, l. _arista_, which has been revived by our swiss mountain-climbers in the form _aréte_; _a-sew_, dry, said of cows that give no milk (cf. f. _essuyer_, to dry); _assoilyie_, to absolve, acquit, and _assith_, to compensate, both used by sir w. scott; _astre_, _aistre_, a hearth, a norman word found in ; _aunsel_, a steelyard, of which the etymology is given in the _e.d.d._; _aunter_, an adventure, from the a.f. _aventure_; _aver_, a beast of burden, horse, used by burns, from the a.f. _aveir_, property, cattle; _averous_, a.f. _averous_, avaricious, in wyclif's translation of cor. vi . here is ample proof of the survival of anglo-french in our dialects. indeed, their chief philological use consists in the great antiquity of many of the terms, which often preserve old english and anglo-french forms with much fidelity. the charge often brought against dialect speakers of using "corrupt" forms is only occasionally and exceptionally true. much worse "corruptions" have been made by antiquaries, in order to suit their false etymologies. chapter x later history of the dialects with the ascendancy of east midland, and its acceptance as the chief literary language, the other dialects practically ceased to be recorded, with the exception (noted above) of the scottish northumbrian. of english northumbrian, the sixteenth century tells us nothing beyond what we can glean from belated copies of northern ballads or such traces of a northern (apparently a lancashire) dialect as appear in spenser's _shepherd's calendar_. fitzherbert's _boke of husbandry_ ( ) was reprinted for the e.d.s. in . it was written, not by sir anthony fitzherbert, as i erroneously said in the preface, but by his brother, john fitzherbert, as has been subsequently shown. it contains a considerable number of dialectal words. thomas tusser ( - ), born in essex, wrote _a hundreth good pointes of husbandrie_ ( ), and _fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie_ ( ); see the edition by payne and herrtage, e.d.s., . he employs many country words, presumably essex. the dialect assumed by edgar in shakespeare's _king lear_ is not to be taken as being very accurate; he talks somewhat like a somersetshire peasant, but i suppose his speech to be in a conventional stage dialect, such as we find also in _the london prodigall_, act ii, sc. , where olyver, "a devonshire clothier," uses similar expressions, viz. _chill_ for _ich will_, i will; and _chy vor thee_, i warn thee. towards the end of the seventeenth century, the value of dialectal words as helping to explain our english vocabulary began to be recognised. particular mention may be made of the _etymologicon linguæ anglicanæ_, by stephen skinner, london, ; and it should be noted that this is the dictionary upon which dr johnson relied for the etymology of native english words. at the same time, we must not forget to note two dictionaries of a much earlier date, which are of high value. the former of these is the _promptorium parvulorum_, completed in , published by the camden society in ; which contains a rather large proportion of east anglian words. the second is the _catholicon anglicum_, dated , ed. s.j. herrtage, e.e.t.s., , which is distinctly northern (possibly of yorkshire origin). we find in skinner occasional mention of lincolnshire words, with which he was evidently familiar. examples are: _boggle-boe_, a spectre; _bratt_, an apron; _buffet-stool_, a hassock; _bulkar_, explained by peacock as "a wooden hutch in a workshop or a ship." the study of modern english dialects began with the year , when the celebrated john ray, fellow of the royal society, botanist, zoologist, and collector of local words and proverbs, issued his _collection of english words not generally used_; of which a second edition appeared in . see my reprint of these; e.d.s., . this was the first general collection, and one of the best; and after this date ( ) many dialect words appeared in english dictionaries, such as those of elisha coles ( , and four subsequent editions); john kersey ( , etc.); nathaniel bailey ( , etc.); n. bailey's _dictionary_, part ii, a distinct work ( , etc.). the celebrated _dictionary_ by dr johnson, vols., folio, london, , owed much to bailey. later, we may notice the _dictionary_ by john ash, london, ; and todd's edition of johnson, london, . it is needless to mention later works; see the complete list of dictionaries, by h.b. wheatley, reprinted in the e.d.s. bibliographical list ( ), pp. - ; and the long list of works which more particularly relate to english dialects in the same, pp. - . among the latter may be mentioned _a provincial glossary_, by f. grose, london, , second edition ; _supplement to the same_, by the late s. pegge, f.s.a., london, ; and _glossary of archaic and provincial_ _words_, by the late rev. j. boucher, ed. hunter and stevenson, - . the last of these was attempted on a large scale, but never got beyond the word _blade_; so that it was practically a failure. the time for producing a real dialect dictionary had not yet come; but the valuable _etymological dictionary of the scottish language_, by j. jamieson, published at edinburgh in vols., to, in - , made an excellent beginning. the nineteenth century not only accumulated for our use a rather large number of general works on dialects, but also a considerable quantity of works illustrating them separately. i may instance those on the dialect of bedfordshire, by t. batchelor, ; of berkshire, by job lousley, ; cheshire, by r. wilbraham, , ; east anglia, by r. forby, , and by nall, ; teesdale, co. durham, by f.t. dinsdale, ; herefordshire, by g.c. lewis, ; lincolnshire, by j.e. brogden, ; northamptonshire, by miss a.e. baker, vols., ; the north country, by j.t. brockett, , ; somersetshire, by j. jennings, , ; suffolk, by e. moor, ; sussex, by w.d. cooper, , ; wiltshire, by j.y. akerman, ; the cleveland dialect (yorks.), by j.c. atkinson, ; the craven dialect, by w. carr, ; and many more of the older type that are still of value. we have also two fairly good general dictionaries of dialect words; that by t. wright, , ; and that by j.o. halliwell, vols., , th ed., . see the exhaustive bibliographical list of all works connected with our dialects in the _e.d.d._, pp. - , at the end of vol. vi. in appeared part i of dr a.j. ellis's great work on _early english pronunciation_, with especial reference to shakespeare and chaucer; followed by part ii of the same, on the pronunciation of the thirteenth and previous centuries, of anglo-saxon, icelandic, old norse, and gothic. in appeared part iii of the same, on the pronunciation of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. part iv was then planned to include the pronunciation of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, including the phonology of the dialects; and for this purpose it was necessary to gain particulars such as could hardly be accomplished without special research. it was partly with this in view, and partly in order to collect material for a really comprehensive dictionary, that, in , i founded the english dialect society, undertaking the duties of secretary and director. the society was brought to an end in , after producing publications and collecting much material. mr nodal, of manchester, was secretary from to ; and from to the headquarters of the society were in oxford. besides this, i raised a fund in for collecting additional material in manuscript, and thus obtained a considerable quantity, which the rev. a. smythe palmer, d.d., in the course of two years and a half, arranged in fair order. but even in more was required, and the work was then taken in hand by dr joseph wright, who gives the whole account of the means by which, in , he was enabled to issue vol. i of the _english dialect dictionary_. the sixth and concluding volume of this most valuable work was issued in . to this i refer the reader for all further information, which is there given in a very complete form. at the beginning is a preface explaining the history of the book; followed by lists of voluntary readers, of unprinted ms. collections, and of correspondents consulted; whilst vol. vi, besides a supplement of pages, gives a bibliography of books and mss. quoted, with a full index; to which is added the _english dialect grammar_. this _english dialect grammar_ was also published, in , as a separate work, and contains a full account of the phonology of all the chief dialects, the very variable pronunciation of a large number of leading words being accurately indicated by the use of a special set of symbols; the table of vowel-sounds is given at p. . the phonology is followed by an accidence, which discusses the peculiarities of dialect grammar. next follows a rather large collection of important words, that are differently pronounced in different counties; for example, more than thirty variations are recorded of the pronunciation of the word _house_. the fulness of the vocabulary in the dictionary, and the minuteness of the account of the phonology and accidence in the grammar, leave nothing to desire. certainly no other country can give so good an account of its dialects. chapter xi the modern dialects it has been shown that, in the earliest period, we can distinguish three well-marked dialects besides the kentish, viz. northumbrian, mercian, and anglo-saxon; and these, in the middle english period, are known as northern, midland, and southern. the modern dialects are very numerous, but can be arranged under five divisions, two of which may be called northern and southern, as before; whilst the other three arise from a division of the widely spread midland into subdivisions. these may be called, respectively, west midland, mid midland (or simply midland), and east midland; and it has been shown that similar subdivisions appear even in the middle english period. this arrangement of the modern dialects under five divisions is that adopted by prof. wright, who further simplifies the names by using western in place of west midland, and eastern in place of east midland. this gives us, as a final result, five divisions of english dialects, viz. northern, western, midland, eastern, and southern; to which we must add the dialects of modern scotland (originally northern), and the dialects of ireland, viz. of ulster (a kind of northern), dublin, and wexford (a kind of southern). no map of dialects is here given in illustration, because it is practically impossible to define their boundaries accurately. such a map was once given by dr ellis, but it is only arbitrary; and prof. wright expressly says that, in his work also, the boundaries suggested are inexact; they are only given for convenience, as an approximation to the truth. he agrees with dr ellis in most of the particulars. many of the counties are divided between two, or even three, dialects; i somewhat simplify matters by omitting to mention some of them, so as to give merely a general idea of the chief dialectal localities. for fuller information, see the _dialect grammar_. i. the dialects of scotland may be subdivided into nine groups: . shetland and orkney. . caithness. . nairn, elgin, banff, aberdeen. . e. forfar, kincardine. . w. forfar, most of perth, parts of fife and stirling. . s. ayr, w. dumfries, kirkcudbright, wigton. . s.e. argyle, n. ayr, renfrew, lanark. . kinross, clackmannan, linlithgow, edinburgh, haddington, berwick, peebles. . e. dumfries, selkirk, roxburgh. ii. ireland.--ulster, dublin, wexford. iii. england and wales, in five divisions: (_a_) northern; (_b_) midland; (_c_) eastern; (_d_) western; (_e_) southern. (_a_) three groups: . northumberland, n. durham. . s. durham; most of cumberland, westmoreland, n. lancashire, hilly parts of w. riding of yorkshire. . n. and e. ridings of yorkshire. (_b_) ten groups: . lincolnshire. . s.e. lancashire, n.e. cheshire, n.w. derby. . s.w. lancashire, s. of the ribble. . mid lancashire, isle of man. . s. yorkshire; to the s.w. of the wharfe. . most of cheshire, n. staffordshire. . most of derby. . nottingham. . flint, denbigh. . e. shropshire, s. stafford, most of warwickshire, s. derby, leicestershire. (_c_) five groups: . cambridge, rutland, n.e. northampton. . most of essex and hertford, huntingdon, bedford, mid northampton. . norfolk and suffolk. . most of buckingham. . middlesex, s.e. buckingham, s. hertford, s.w. essex. n.b. s.w. northampton is southern; see (_e_), . (_d_) two groups: . w. and s. shropshire (w. of severn). . hereford (except e.), radnor, e. brecknock. (_e_) ten groups. . parts of pembroke and glamorgan. . wiltshire, dorset, n. and e. somerset, most of gloucester, s.w. devon. . most of hampshire, isle of wight, most of berkshire, s. surrey, w. sussex. . n. gloucester, e. hereford, worcester, s. warwick, n. oxford, s.w. northampton. . most of oxford. . n. surrey, n.w. kent. . most of kent, e. sussex. . w. somerset, n.e. devon. . most of devon, e. cornwall. . w. cornwall. chapter xii a few specimens there is a great wealth of modern dialect literature, as indicated by the lists in the _e.d.d._ some of these dialect books are poor and inaccurate, and they are frequently spelt according to no intelligible phonetic principles. yet it not unfrequently happens, as in the works of sir walter scott and charles dickens, that the dialectal scraps indicate the pronunciation with tolerable fidelity, which is more than can be said of such portions of their works as are given in the normal spelling. it is curious to notice that writers in dialect are usually, from a phonetic point of view, more careful and consistent in their modes of indicating sounds than are the rest of us. sometimes their spelling is, accordingly, very good. those who are interested in this subject may follow up this hint with advantage. it is impossible to mention even a tithe of the names of our better dialect writers. in scotland alone there is a large number, some of the more recent bearing such well-known names as those of r.l. stevenson, george macdonald (aberdeen), j.m. barrie (forfarshire), and s.r. crockett (galloway). dean ramsay's humorous _reminiscences of scottish life and character_ must not be passed over. for ireland we have william carleton's _traits and stories of the irish peasantry_, and the novels by lever and lover. cumberland has its delightful stories of _joe and the geologist_, and _bobby banks' bodderment_. cornwall has its _tales_, by j.t. tregellas. devon can boast of r.d. blackmore, dorset of hardy and barnes, and lincoln of tennyson. the literature of lancashire is vast; it suffices to mention john collier (otherwise tim bobbin), author of _tummus and meary_, ben brierley, john byrom, j.p. morris, author of _t' lebby beck dobby_, and edwin waugh, prose author and poet. _giles's trip to london_, and the other sketches by the same author, are highly characteristic of norfolk. northamptonshire has its poet, john clare; and suffolk can boast of robert bloomfield. according to her own statement, printed in the preface (p. viii) to the e.d.s. _bibliographical list_, george eliot, when writing _adam bede_, had in mind "the talk of n. staffordshire and the neighbouring part of derbyshire"; whilst, in _silas marner_, "the district imagined is in n. warwickshire." southey wrote _t' terrible knitters e' dent_ in the westmoreland dialect. yorkshire, like lancashire, has a large literature, to which the _e.d.d._ booklist can alone do justice. scottish (group ): aberdeen. the following extract is from chapter xviii of _johnny gibb of gushetneuk_, by w. alexander, ll.d., fifteenth edition, edinburgh, . one special peculiarity of the dialect is the use of _f_ for _wh_, as in _fat_, what, _fan_, when. the extract describes how the speaker and his friends went to hear a bellman make a proclamation about the appointment of a new minister to a church. it's a vera stiff brae, an' ere we wan up to the kirk, it was gyaun upon eleyven o'clock. "hooever," says the mannie, "we'll be in braw time; it's twal ere the sattlement begin, an' i'se warran they sanna apen the kirk-doors till's till than." so we tak's a luik roun' for ony kent fowk. they war stannin' aboot a'gate roun' aboot the kirk, in scores an' hunners, fowk fae a' the pairis'es roun' aboot, an' some fae hyne awa' as far doon's marnoch o' the tae han' an' kintore o' the tither, aw believe; some war stampin' their feet an' slappin' their airms like the yauws o' a win'mill to keep them a-heat; puckles wus sittin' o' the kirk-yard dyke, smokin' an' gyaun on wi' a' kin' o' orra jaw aboot the minaisters, an' aye mair gedderin' in aboot--it was thocht there wus weel on to twa thoosan' there ere a' was deen. an' aye a bit fudder was comin' up fae the manse aboot fat the presbytery was deein--they war chaumer't there, ye see, wi' the lawvyers an' so on. "nyod, they maun be sattlin' 'im i' the manse," says ane, "we'll need a' gae doon an' see gin we can win in." "na, na," says anither, "a bit mair bather aboot thair dissents an' appales bein' ta'en; muckle need they care, wi' sic a presbytery, fat they try. but here's johnny florence, the bellman, at the lang length, i'se be at the boddom o' fat they're at noo." and wi' that he pints till a carlie comin' across the green, wi' a bit paper in's han', an' a gryte squad o' them 't hed been hingin' aboot the manse-door at's tail. "oo, it's johnny gyaun to read the edick," cries a gey stoot chap, an' twa three o' them gya a roar o' a lauch.... "speek oot, min!" cries ane. "i think ye mith pronunce some better nor that, johnny," says anither; an' they interrupit 'im fan he was tryin' to read wi' a' kin' of haivers, takin' the words oot o's mou, an' makin' the uncoest styte o't 't cud be. notes.--_brae_, hill; _wan up_, got up; _gyaun upon_, going close upon; _braw_, excellent; _twal_, twelve; _sattlement_, decision; _i'se_, i will (lit. i shall); _sanna_, will not; _till's_, for us; _kent fowk_, known people, acquaintances; _a'gate_, in all ways; _hunners_, hundreds; _fae_, from; _hyne awa'_, hence away, as far off; _the tae_, the one; _the tither_, the other; _yauws_, sails; _puckles_, numbers, many; _dyke_, stone fence; _orra jaw_, various loud talk; _mair gedderin'_, more gathering; _on to_, near; _deen_, done; _bit fudder_, bit of a rumour (lit. gust of wind); _fae_, from; _fat_, what; _deein_, doing; _chaumer't_, chambered, shut up; _nyod_, a disguised oath; _we'll need_, we must; _gin_, if; _win in_, get in: _bather_, bother; _at the lang length_, at last; _carlie_, churl; _gryte squad_, great crowd; _gey stoot_, rather stout; _twa three_, two or three; _gya_, gave; _mith_, might; _nor that_, than that; _haivers_, foolish talk; _mou_, mouth; _uncoest_, most uncouth, strangest; _styte_, nonsense. scottish (group ): ayrshire. the following lines are quoted from a well-known poem by robert burns ( - ). the twa dogs (cæsar and luath). _cæs_. "i've notic'd, on our laird's court-day, an' mony a time my heart's been wae, poor tenant bodies, scant o' cash, how they maun thole a factor's snash he'll stamp an' threaten, curse an' swear, he'll apprehend them, poind their gear; while they maun stan', wi' aspect humble, an' hear it a', an' fear and tremble! i see how folk live that hae riches; but surely poor folk maun be wretches." _lu._ "they're no sae wretched's are wad think; tho' constantly on poortith's brink, they're sae accustom'd wi' the sight, the view o't gies them little fright.... the dearest comfort o' their lives, their grushie weans an' faithfu' wives: the prattling things are just their pride, that sweetens a' their fire-side.... that merry day the year begins, they bar the door on frosty win's; the nappy reeks wi' mantling ream, an' sheds a heart-inspiring steam; the luntin' pipe an' sneeshin-mill are handed round wi' right good will; the cantie auld folks crackin' crouse, the young anes ranting thro' the house-- my heart has been sae fain to see them that i, for joy, hae barkit wi' them!"... by this, the sun was out o' sight, an' darker gloamin' brought the night: the bum-clock humm'd wi' lazy drone, the kye stood rowtin' i' the loan; when up they gat, an' shook their lugs, rejoic'd they were na _men_ but _dogs_; an' each took aff his several way, resolv'd to meet some ither day. notes.--_wae_, sorrowful; _maun thole_, must endure, must put up with; _factor's snash_, agent's abuse; _poind_, seize upon, sequester; _gear_, property; _hae_, have; _no sae_, not so; _wad_, would; _poortith_, poverty; _grushie_, of thriving growth, well-grown; _weans_, children; _win's_, winds; _nappy_, foaming ale; _reeks_, smokes; _ream_, cream; _luntin'_, smoking, emitting smoke; _sneeshin-mill_, snuff box; _cantie_, merry; _crackin'_, conversing; _crouse_, with good spirits; _ranting_, running noisily; _fain_, glad; _gloamin'_, twilight; _bum-clock_, beetle (that booms); _kye_, cows; _rowtin'_, lowing; _loan_, milking-place; _lugs_, ears. scottish (group ): edinburgh. the following stanzas are from _the farmer's ingle_, a poem by robert fergusson ( - ), a native of edinburgh. whan gloming grey out o'er the welkin keeks, whan batie ca's his owsen to the byre, whan thrasher john, sair dung, his barn-door steeks, and lusty lasses at the dighting tire: what bangs fu' leal the e'enings coming cauld, and gars snaw-tappit winter freeze in vain, gars dowie mortals look baith blythe and bauld, nor fley'd wi' a' the poortith o' the plain; begin, my muse, and chant in hamely strain. frae the big stack, weel-winnow't on the hill, wi' divets theekit frae the weet and drift, sods, peats, and heath'ry trufs the chimley fill, and gar their thick'ning smeek salute the lift; the gudeman, new come hame, is blythe to find, whan he out o'er the halland flings his een, that ilka turn is handled to his mind, that a' his housie looks sae cosh and clean; for cleanly house lo'es he, tho' e'er sae mean. weel kens the gudewife that the pleughs require a heartsome meltith, and refreshing synd o' nappy liquor, o'er a bleezing fire; sair wark and poortith downa weel be join'd. wi' buttered bannocks now the girdle reeks; i' the far nook the bowie briskly reams; the readied kail stands by the chimley-cheeks, and hauds the riggin het wi' welcome streams; whilk than the daintiest kitchen nicer seems.... then a' the house for sleep begin to grien, their joints to slack frae industry a while; the leaden god fa's heavy on their een, and hafflins steeks them frae their daily toil; the cruizy too can only blink and bleer, the restit ingle's done the maist it dow; tackman and cottar eke to bed maun steer, upo' the cod to clear their drumly pow, till waukened by the dawning's ruddy glow. notes.--_ingle_, chimney-corner. _gloming_, twilight; _keeks_, peeps; _ca's_, drives (lit. calls); _owsen_, oxen; _byre_, cow-house; _sair dung_, sorely tired; _steeks_, shuts; _dighting_, winnowing; _bangs fu' leal_, defeats right well; _gars_, makes; _-tappit_, crested; _dowie_, melancholy; _fley'd_, frighted; _poortith_, poverty. _divets_, turfs; _theekit_, thatched; _weet_, wet; _sods, peats, and heath'ry trufs_, various turf fuels; _chimley_, fire-place; _gar_, make; _smeek_, smoke; _lift_, sky; _halland_, partition forming a screen; _een_, eyes; _ilka_, each; _cosh_, cosy; _lo'es_, loves. _kens_, knows; _meltith_, meal-tide, meal; _synd_, wash-down, draught; _nappy_, heady, strong; _downa_, cannot; _bannocks_, cakes; _girdle_, hot-plate; _reeks_, smokes; _bowie_, cask, beer-barrel; _reams_, foams; _readied kail_, (dish of) cooked greens; _by_, beside; _hauds... het_, keeps... hot; _riggin_, roof over the open hearth; _whilk_, which. _grien_, yearn, long; _hafflins steeks_, half shuts; _cruizy_, oil-lamp; _bleer_, bedim (the sight); _restit ingle_, made up fire; _dow_, can; _tackman_, lease-holder, farmer; _cod_, pillow; _drumly pow_, confused head. northern (england); group : westmoreland. the following extract is from a remarkable tract entitled _a bran new wark, by william de worfat_; kendal, . the author was the rev. william hutton, rector of beetham in westmoreland, - , and head of a family seated at overthwaite (here called worfat) in that parish. it was edited by me for the e.d.s. in . last saturday sennet, abaut seun in the evening (twas lownd and fraaze hard) the stars twinkled, and the setting moon cast gigantic shadows. i was stalking hameward across blackwater-mosses, and whistling as i tramp'd for want of thought, when a noise struck my ear, like the crumpling of frosty murgeon; it made me stop short, and i thought i saw a strange form before me: it vanished behint a windraw; and again thare was nought in view but dreary dykes, and dusky ling. an awful silence reigned araund; this was sean brokken by a skirling hullet; sure nivver did hullet, herrensue, or miredrum, mak sic a noise before. your minister [_himself_] was freetned, the hairs of his head stood an end, his blead storkened, and the haggard creature moving slawly nearer, the mirkiness of the neet shew'd her as big again as she was... she stoup'd and drop'd a poak, and thus began with a whining tone. "deary me! deary me! forgive me, good sir, but this yance, i'll steal naa maar. this seek is elding to keep us fra starving!"... [_the author visits the poor woman's cottage_.] she sat on a three-legg'd steal, and a dim coal smook'd within the rim of a brandreth, oor which a seety rattencreak hung dangling fra a black randletree. the walls were plaister'd with dirt, and a stee, with hardly a rung, was rear'd into a loft. araund the woman her lile ans sprawl'd on the hearth, some whiting speals, some snottering and crying, and ya ruddy-cheek'd lad threw on a bullen to make a loww, for its mother to find her loup. by this sweal i beheld this family's poverty. notes.--_sennet_, seven nights, week; _seun_, seven; _lownd_, still, calm; _murgeon_, rubbish earth cut up and thrown aside in order to get peat; _windraw_, heap of dug earth; _ling_, kind of heather; _skirling hullet_, shrieking owlet; _herrensue_, young heron; _miredrum_, bittern; _blead storkened_, blood congealed; _neet_, night; _poak_, bag; _yance_, once; _seck_, sack, i.e. contents of this sack; _elding_, fuel; _steal_, stool; _brandreth_, iron frame over the fire; _seaty_, sooty; _rattencreak_, potcrook, pothook; _randletree_, a beam from which the pothook hangs; _stee_, ladder; _loft_, upper room; _lile ans_, little ones; _whiting speals_, whittling small sticks; _snottering_, sobbing; _ya_, one; _bullen_, hempstalk; _loww_, flame; _loup_, loop, stitch in knitting; _sweal_, blaze. midland (group i): lincoln. i here give a few quotations from the glossary of words used in the wapentakes of manley and corringham, lincolnshire, by e. peacock, f.s.a.; nd ed., e.d.s., . the illustrative sentences are very characteristic. _beal_, to bellow.--th' bairn beäled oot that bad, i was clëan scar'd, but it was at noht bud a battle-twig 'at hed crohlëd up'n hisairm. (_battle-twig_, earwig; _airm_, arm.) _cart, to get into_, to get into a bad temper.--na, noo, thoo neädn't get into th' cart, for i weän't draw thee. _cauf_, a calf, silly fellow.--a gentleman was enlarging to a winterton lad on the virtues of spanish juice [liquorice water]. "ah,then, ye'll ha' been to th' mines, wheäre thaay gets it," the boy exclaimed; whereupon the mother broke in with--"a greät cauf! duz he think 'at thaay dig it oot o' th' grund, saäme as thaay do sugar?" _chess_, a tier.--i've been tell'd that e' plaaces wheäre thaay graw silk-worms, thaay keäps 'em on traays, chess aboon chess, like cheney i' a cupboard. (_e'_ in; _cheney_, china.) _clammer_, to climb.--oor uriah's clammered into th' parson's cherry-tree, muther, an' he is swalla'in on 'em aboon a bit. i shouldn't ha tell'd ye nobbut he weänt chuck me ony doon. (_nobbut_, only.) _cottoner_, something very striking.--th' bairn hed been e' mischief all daay thrif; at last, when i was sidin' awaay th' teä-things, what duz he do but tum'le i'to th' well. so, says i, well, this is a cottoner; we shall hev to send for mr iveson (the coroner) noo, i reckon. (_thrif_, through; _sidin' awaay_, putting away.) _ducks_.--a girl said to the author, of a woman with whom she had been living for a short time as servant, "i'd raather be nibbled to deäd wi' ducks then live with miss p. she's alus a natterin'." (_deäd_, death; _alus_, always; _natterin'_, nagging.) _good mind_, strong intention.--she said she'd a good mind to hing her-sen, soä i ax'd if i mud send for mr holgate (the coroner), to be ready like. (_hing_, hang; _mud_, might.) _jaup_, senseless talk.--ho'd the jaup wi' th{(e}; dos't ta want ivery body to knaw how soft thoo is? (_ho'd_, hold; _soft_, foolish.) midland (group ): s.e. lancashire. the following poem is from _poems and songs_ by edwin waugh; rd ed., london, . owd pinder. owd pinder were a rackless foo, an' spent his days i' spreein'; at th' end ov every drinkin-do, he're sure to crack o' deein'; "go, sell my rags, an' sell my shoon, aw's never live to trail 'em; my ballis-pipes are eawt o' tune, an' th' wynt begins to fail 'em! eawr matty's very fresh an' yung;-- 't would any mon bewilder;-- hoo'll wed again afore it's lung, for th' lass is fond o' childer; my bit o' brass'll fly--yo'n see-- when th' coffin-lid has screen'd me-- it gwos again my pluck to dee, an' lev her wick beheend me. come, matty, come, an' cool my yed; aw'm finish'd, to my thinkin';" hoo happed him nicely up, an' said, "thae'st brought it on wi' drinkin'."-- "nay, nay," said he, "my fuddle's done, we're partin' tone fro tother; so promise me that, when aw'm gwon, thea'll never wed another!" "th' owd tale," said hoo, an' laft her stoo; "it's rayly past believin'; thee think o' th' world thea'rt goin' to, an' lev this world to th' livin'; what use to me can deeod folk be? thae's kilt thisel' wi' spreein"; an' iv that's o' thae wants wi' me, get forrud wi' thi deein'!" notes.--_owd_, old; _rackless foo_, reckless fool; _spreein'_, merry-making, drinking; _-do_, bout; _he're_, he would be; _crack o' deein'_ , hint at dying; _aw's_, i shall; _trail_, walk in; _ballis-pipes_, bellows-pipes, lungs; _eawt_, out; _wynt_, wind. _eawr_, our, my; _hoo_, she; _brass_, money; _yo'n_, you will; _lev_, leave; _wick_, quick, i.e. alive. _yed_, head; _happed_, covered; _fuddle_, drinking-bout; _tone fro tother_, the one from the other. _stoo_, stool; _thee think_, do thou think; _deeod_, dead; _o'_, all; _get forrud_, get on, go on. midland (group ): sheffield. the following extract is from a. bywater's _sheffield dialect_, rd ed, ; as quoted in s.o. addy's _sheffield glossary_, e.d.s., , p. xv. _jerra flatback._ hah, they'n better toimes on't nah, booath e heitin and clooas; we'n had menni a mess a nettle porridge an brawls on a sunda mo'nin, for us brekfast... samma, dusta remember hah menni names we had for sahwer wotcake? _oud samma squarejoint._ o kno'n't, lad; bur o think we'd foive or six. let's see: slammak wer won, an' flat-dick wer anuther; an't tuther wor--a dear, mo memra fails ma--flannel an' jonta; an-an-an-an--bless me, wot a thing it is tubbe oud, mo memra gers war for ware, bur o kno heah's anuther; o'st think on enah.-- a, jerra, heah's menni a thahsand dogs nah days, at's better dun too nor we wor then; an them were t'golden days a hallamshoir, they sen. an they happen wor, for't mesters. hofe at prentis lads e them days wor lether'd whoile ther skin wor skoi-blue, and clam'd whoile ther booans wer bare, an work'd whoile they wor as knock-kneed as oud nobbletistocks. thah nivver sees nooa knock-kneed cutlers nah: nou, not sooa; they'n better mesters nah, an they'n better sooat a wark anole. they dooant mezher em we a stick, as oud natta hall did. but for all that, we'd none a yer wirligig polishin; nor tom dockin scales, wit bousters comin off; nor yer sham stag, nor sham revvits, an sich loik. t' noives wor better made then, jerra. _jerra_: hah, they wor better made; they made t' noives for yuse then, but they mayn em to sell nah. notes.--observe _'n_ for _han_ (plural), have; _on't nah_, of it now; _e heitin_, in eating; _mess a_, dish of, meal of; _brawis_, brose, porridge; _hah_, how; _sahwer wotcake_, leavened oatcake; _bur o_, but i; _mo_, my; _ma_, me; _tubbe oud_, to be old; _gers_, gets; _war for ware_, worse for wear; _o'st_, i shall; _think on_, remember; _enah_, presently; _nah days_, nowadays; _at's_, that are; _dun too_, treated; _nor we_, than we; _hallamshoir_, hallamshire, the district including sheffield and the neighbourhood; _sen_, say; _happen_, perhaps; _for't_, for the; _hofe at_, half of the; _e them_, in those; _lether'd_, beaten; _whoile_, till; _clam'd_ (for _clamm'd_), starved; _sooat a_, sort of; _anole_, and all; _we_, with; _wirligig_, machine; _tom dockin scales_, scales cut out of thin rolled iron instead of being forged; _bousters_, bolsters (a _bolster_ is a lump of metal between the tang and the blade of a knife); _stag_, stag-horn handle (?); _mayn_, pl. make. midland (group ): cheshire. the following extract is from "betty bresskittle's pattens, or sanshum fair," by j.c. clough; printed with holland's _cheshire glossary_, e.d.s. ( ), p. . sanshum or sanjem fair is a fair held at altrincham on st james's day. jud sprung upo' th' stage leet as a buck an' bowd as a dandycock, an' th' mon what were playingk th' drum (only it wer'nt a gradely drum) gen him a pair o' gloves. jud began a-sparringk, an' th' foaks shaouted, "hooray! go it, owd jud! tha'rt a gradely cheshire mon!" th' black felly next gen jud a wee bit o' a bang i' th' reet ee, an jud git as weild as weild, an hit reet aht, but some hah he couldna git a gradely bang at th' black mon. at-aftur two or three minutes th' black felly knocked jud dahn, an t'other chap coom and picked him up, an' touch'd jud's faace wi' th' spunge everywheer wheer he'd getten a bang, but th' spunge had getten a gurt lot o' red ruddle on it, so that it made gurt red blotches upo' jud's faace wheer it touched it; an th' foaks shaouted and shaouted, "hooray, jud! owd mon! at em agen!" an jud let floy a good un, an th' mon wi' th' spunge had to pick th' blackeymoor up this toime an put th' ruddle upo' his faace just at-under th'ee. "hooray, jud! hooray, owd mon!" shaouted jock carter o' runjer; "tha'rt game, if tha'rt owd!" just at that vary minit jud's weife, bad as hoo were wi' th' rheumatic, pushed her rooäd through th' foaks, and stood i' th' frunt o' th' show. "go it agen, jud! here's th' weife coom t'see hah gam tha art!" shaouted jonas. jud turn'd rahnd an gurned at th' frunt o' th' show wi' his faace aw ruddle. "tha girt soo! i'll baste thi when aw get thi hwom, that aw will!" shaouted betty bresskittle; "aw wunder tha artna ashamed o' thisen, to stond theer a-feightingk th' deevil hissel!" notes.--_jud_, for george; _leet_, light; _bowd_, bold; _dandycock_, bantam cock; _gradely_, proper; _gen_, gave; _owd_, old; _reet ee_, right eye; _git_, got; _as weild as weild_, as wild as could be; _aht_, out; _at-aftur_, after; _gurt_, great; _em_, him; _floy_, fly; _runjer_, ringway; _game_ (also _gam_), full of pluck; _hoo_, she; _rooad_, road, way; _gurned_, grinned; _soo_, sow (term of abuse); _hwom_, home; _thisen_, thyself. eastern (group ): n. essex. the following extract is from _john noakes and mary styles_, by charles clark, of great totham; london, . reprinted for the e.d.s., . as great totham is to the north of maldon, i take this specimen to belong to prof. wright's "division " rather than to the s.w. essex of "division ." the use of _w_ for initial _v_ occurs frequently, as in _werry_, very, etc. at tottum's cock-a-bevis hill, a sput surpass'd by few, where toddlers ollis haut to eye the proper pritty wiew, where people crake so ov the place, leas-ways, so i've hard say; an' frum its top yow, sarteny, can see a monsus way. but no sense ov a place, some think, is this here hill so high,-- 'cos there, full oft, 'tis nation coad, but that don't argufy. as sum'dy, 'haps, when nigh the sput, may ha' a wish to see 't,-- from mauldon toun to keldon 'tis, an' 'gin a four-releet. at cock-a bevis hill, too, the wiseacres show a tree which if you clamber up, besure, a precious way yow see. i dorn't think i cud clime it now, aldoe i uster cud; i shudn't warsley loike to troy, for gulch cum down i shud. my head 'ood swim,--i 'oodn't do't nut even fur a guinea; a naarbour ax'd me, t'other day; "naa, naa," says i, "nut quinny." notes.--_sput_, spot; _toddlers_, walkers; _ollis_, always; _haut_, halt; _wiew_, view. _crake_, boast; _leas(t)ways_, at least; _sarteny_, certainly; _monsus_, monstrous, very long. _no sense ov a_, poor, bad; _coad_, cold; _argufy_, prove (anything). _sum'dy_, somebody; _from m._, between maldon and kelvedon; _'gin_, against, near; _four-releet_ (originally _four-e leet_, lit. "ways of four," _four-e_ being the genitive plural, hence) meeting of four roads. _dorn't_, don't; _aldoe_, although; _uster cud_ (for _us'd to could_), used to be able; _warsley_, vastly, much; _loike_, like; _gulch_, heavily, with a bang. _'ood_, would; _nut_, not; _ax'd_, asked; _naa_, no; _nut quinny_, not quite, not at all. eastern (group ): norfolk. the following extract from "a norfolk dialogue" is from a work entitled _erratics by a sailor_, printed anonymously at london in , and written by the rev. joshua larwood, rector of swanton morley, near east dereham. most of the words are quite familiar to me, as i was curate of east dereham in - , and heard the dialect daily. the whole dialogue was reprinted in _nine specimens of english dialects_; e.d.s., . the dialogue was accompanied by "a translation," as here reprinted. it renders a glossary needless. original vulgar norfolk. _narbor rabbin and narbor tibby._ translation. _neighbour robin and neighbour stephen._ _r._ tibby, d'ye know how the knacker's mawther nutty du? _r._ stephen, do you know how the collar-maker's daughter ursula is? _t._ why, i' facks, rabbin, she's nation cothy; by goms, she is so snasty that i think she is will-led. _s._ why, in fact, robin, she is extremely sick; by (_obsolete_), she is so snarlish, that i think she's out of her mind. _r._ she's a fate mawther, but ollas in dibles wi' the knacker and thackster; she is ollas a-ating o' thapes and dodmans. the fogger sa, she ha the black sap; but the grosher sa, she have an ill dent. _r._ she's a clever girl, but always in troubles with the collar-maker and thatcher; she is always eating gooseberries and snails. the man at the chandler's shop says she has a consumption: but the grocer says she's out of her senses. _t._ why, ah! tother da she fared stounded: she pluck'd the pur from the back-stock, and copped it agin the balk of the douw-pollar, and barnt it; and then she hulled [it] at the thackster, and hart his weeson, and huckle-bone. there was northing but cadders in the douw-pollar, and no douws: and so, arter she had barnt the balk, and the door-stall, and the plancher, she run into the par-yard, thru the pytle, and then swounded behinn'd a sight o' gotches o' beergood. _s._ why, aye! the other day she appeared struck mad: she snatched the poker from the back of the stove, and flung it against the beam of the pigeon-house, and burnt it; and then she throwed it at the thatcher, and hurt his throat and hip-bone. there were no pigeons in the pigeon-house, and nothing but jack-daws; and so, after she had burned the beam, and the door-frame and the floor, she ran into the cowyard, through the small field, and fainted behind several pitchers of yeast. _r._ ah, the shummaker told me o' that rum rig; and his nevvey sa, that the beer-good was fystey; and that nutty was so swelter'd, that she ha got a pain in spade-bones. the bladethacker wou'd ha gin har some doctor's gear in a beaker; but he sa she'll niver moize agin. _r._ aye, the shoemaker told me of that comical trick; and his nephew says, that the yeast was musty; and that ursula [was so] smothered, that she has got a pain in her bones. the thatcher would have given her some doctor's medicine in a tumbler; but he says, she will never recover. notes.--pronounce _du_ like e. _dew_. _snasty_, pron. _snaisty_, cross. _fate, fait_ (cf. e. _feat_), suitable, clever. _mawther_, a young girl; norw. _moder_. _dibles_: the _i_ is long. _sa_, says; _ha_, _have_, has; note the absence of final _s_ in the third person singular. _cadder_, for _caddow_; from _caa-daw_, cawing daw. _douw_, for _dow_, a dove. _par_: for _parrock_, a paddock. _fystey_: with long _y_, from _foist_, a fusty smell. _sweltered_, over-heated, in profuse perspiration. _moize_, thrive, mend. western (group ): s.w. shropshire. the following specimen is given in miss jackson's _shropshire word- book_, london, , p. xciv. it describes how betty andrews, of pulverbatch, rescued her little son, who had fallen into the brook. i 'eärd a scrike, ma'am, an' i run, an' theer i sid frank 'ad pecked i' the bruck an' douked under an' wuz drowndin', an' i jumped after 'im an' got 'out on 'im an' lugged 'im on to the bonk all sludge, an' i got 'im wham afore our sam comen in--a good job it wuz for sam as 'e wunna theer an' as frank wunna drownded, for if 'e 'ad bin i should 'a' tore our sam all to winder-rags, an' then 'e 'd a bin djed an' frank drownded an' i should a bin 'anged. i toud sam wen 'e t{)o}{)o}k the 'ouse as i didna like it.--"bless the wench," 'e sed, "what'n'ee want? theer's a tidy 'ouse an' a good garden an' a run for the pig." "aye," i sed, "an' a good bruck for the childern to peck in;" so if frank 'ad bin drownded i should a bin the djeth uv our sam. i wuz that frittened, ma'am, that i didna spake for a nour after i got wham, an' sam sed as 'e 'adna sid me quiet so lung sence we wun married, an' that wuz eighteen 'ear. notes.--miss jackson adds the pronunciation, in glossic notation. there is no sound of initial _h_. _scrike_, shriek; _sid_, seed, i.e. saw; _pecked_, pitched, fallen headlong; _bruck_, brook; _douked_, ducked; _'out_, hold; _bonk_, bank; _wham_, home; _wunna_, was not; _winder-rags_, shreds; _djed_, dead; _toud_, told; _what'n'ee_, what do you; _a nour_, an hour; _sid_, seen; _lung_, long; _wun_, were. southern (group ): wiltshire. the following well-known wiltshire fable is from _wiltshire tales_, by j. yonge akerman ( ). i give it as it stands in the preface to halliwell's dictionary; omitting the "moral." the harnet and the bittle. a harnet zet in a hollur tree-- a proper spiteful twoad was he; and a merrily zung while he did zet his stinge as shearp as a bagganet; oh, who so vine and bowld as i? i vears not bee, nor wapse, nor vly! a bittle up thuck tree did clim, and scarnvully did look at him; zays he, "zur harnet, who giv thee a right to zet in thuck there tree? vor ael you zengs so nation vine, i tell 'e 'tis a house o' mine!" the harnet's conscience velt a twinge, but grawin' bowld wi' his long stinge, zays he, "possession's the best laaw; zo here th' sha'sn't put a claaw! be off, and leave the tree to me, the mixen's good enough for thee!" just then a yuckel, passin' by, was axed by them the cause to try; "ha! ha! i zee how 'tis!" zays he, "they'll make a vamous munch vor me!" his bill was shearp, his stomach lear, zo up a snapped the caddlin' pair! notes.--observe _z_ and _v_ for initial _s_ and _f_; _harnet_, hornet; _bittle_, beetle; _zet_, sat; _proper_, very; _twoad_, toad, wretch; _a_, he; _stinge_, sting; _bagganet_, bayonet. _thuck_, that; _clim_, climb; _giv_, gave; _zet_, sit; _ael_, all. _th' sha'sn't_, thou shalt not; _mixen_, dung-heap. _yuckel_, woodpecker; _axed_, asked; _vamous munch_, excellent meal; _lear_, empty; _caddlin'_, quarrelsome. southern (group ): isle of wight. the following colloquy is quoted in the _glossary of isle of wight words_, e.d.s., , at p. . i recollect perfectly the late mr james phillips of merston relating a dialogue that occurred between two of his labourers relative to the word _straddle-bob_, a beetle.... at the time of luncheon, one of them, on taking his _bren-cheese_ (bread and cheese) out of a little bag, saw something that had found its way there; which led to the following discourse. _jan._ what's got there, you? _will._ a straddlebob craalun about in the nammut-bag. _j._ straddlebob? where ded'st leyarn to caal 'n by that neyam? _w._ why, what shoud e caal 'n? 'tes the right neyam, esn ut? _j._ right neyam? no! why, ye gurt zote vool, casn't zee 'tes a dumbledore? _w._ i know 'tes; but vur aal that, straddlebob's zo right a neyam vor 'n as dumbledore ez. _j._ come, i'll be blamed if i doant laay thee a quart o' that. _w._ done! and i'll ax meyastur to-night when i goos whoam, bee't how't wool. accordingly, meyastur was applied to by will, who made his decision known to jan the next morning. _w._ i zay, jan! i axed meyastur about that are last night. _j._ well, what ded ur zay? _w._ why, a zed one neyam ez jest zo vittun vor'n as tother; and he lowz a ben caal'd straddlebob ever zunce the island was vust meyad. _j._ well, if that's the keeas, i spooas i lost the quart. _w._ that thee hast, lucky; and we'll goo down to arreton to the rid lion and drink un ater we done work. notes.--observe _z_ for _s_, and _v_ for _f_ initially. _what's_, what hast thou; _nammut_ (lit. noon-meat), luncheon, usually eaten at a.m. (_n{-o}na h{-o}ra_); _leyarn_, learn; _esn_, is not; _gurt_, great; _zote_, soft, silly; _casn't_, canst not; _laay_, lay, wager; _how't wool_, how it will; _that are_, that there; _lowz_ (lit. allows), opines; _zunce_, since; _vust meyad_, first made; _keeas_, case; _lucky_, look ye! southern (group ): east sussex. the following quotations are from the _dictionary of the sussex dialect_, by the rev. w.d. parish, vicar of selmeston; e.d.s. . the glossary refers rather to e. than to w. sussex, selmeston being between lewes and eastbourne. _call over_, to abuse. "he come along here a-cadging, and fancy he just did call me over, because i told him as i hadn't got naun to give him." (_naun_, nothing.) _clocksmith_, a watchmaker. "i be quite lost about time, i be; for i've been forced to send my watch to the clocksmith. i couldn't make no sense of mending it myself; for i'd iled it and i'd biled it, and then i couldn't do more with it." _cocker-up_, to spoil; to gloss over with an air of truth. "you see this here chap of hers, he's cockered-up some story about having to goo away somewheres up into the sheeres; and i tell her she's no call to be so cluck over it; and for my part i dunno but what i be very glad an't, for he was a chap as was always a-cokeing about the cupboards, and cogging her out of a sunday." (_the sheeres_, any shire of england except kent and sussex; _call_, reason; _cluck_, out of spirits; _coke_, to peep; _cog_, to entice.) _joy_, a jay. "poor old master crockham, he's in terrible order, surelý! the meece have taken his peas, and the joys have got at his beans, and the snags have spilt all his lettuce." (_order_, bad temper; _meece_, mice; _snags_, snails; _spilt_, spoilt.) _kiddle_, to tickle. "those thunder-bugs did kiddle me so that i couldn't keep still no hows." (_thunder-bug_, a midge.) _lawyer_, a long bramble full of thorns, so called because, "when once they gets a holt an ye, ye doänt easy get shut of 'em." _leetle_, a diminutive of little. "i never see one of these here gurt men there's s'much talk about in the peapers, only once, and that was up at smiffle show adunnamany years agoo. prime minister, they told me he was, up at london; a leetle, lear, miserable, skinny-looking chap as ever i see. 'why,' i says, 'we doänt count our minister to be much, but he's a deal primer-looking than what yourn be.'" (_gurt_, great; _smiffle_, smithfield; _adunnamany_, i don't know how many; _lear_, thin, hungry; _see_, saw.) _sarment_, a sermon. "i likes a good long sarment, i doos; so as when you wakes up it ain't all over." _tempory_ (temporary), slight, badly finished. "who be i? why, i be john carbury, that's who i be! and who be you? why, you ain't a man at all, you ain't! you be naun but a poor tempory creetur run up by contract, that's what you be!" _tot_, a bush; a tuft of grass. "there warn't any grass at all when we fust come here; naun but a passel o' gurt old tots and tussicks. you see there was one of these here new-fashioned men had had the farm, and he'd properly starved the land and the labourers, and the cattle and everything, without it was hisself." (_passel_, parcel; _tussicks_, tufts of rank grass.) _twort_ (for _thwart_), pert and saucy. "she's terrible twort--she wants a good setting down, she do; and she'll get it too. wait till my master comes in!" _winterpicks_, blackthorn berries. _winter-proud_, cold. "when you sees so many of these here winterpicks about, you may be pretty sure 'twill be middlin' winter-proud." bibliography ancren riwle; ed. jas. morton. camden soc., . (about .) anglo-saxon and early english psalter. surtees society. london, - . vols. (see p. .) beda.--venerabilis bedae historiae ecclesiasticae gentis anglorum libri iii, iv; ed. j.e.b. mayor, m.a. and j.r. lumby, b.d. cambridge, . ---- the venerable bede's ecclesiastical history; also the anglo-saxon chronicle (both in english). ed. j.a. giles, d.c.l. london, . (in bohn's library.) dictionaries containing dialect words. (see p. .) durham ritual.--rituale ecclesiæ dunelmensis. surtees society. london, . earle, rev. j.; anglo-saxon literature. london, s.p.c.k., . e.d.d.--english dialect dictionary (to which is appended the english dialect grammar); ed. dr joseph wright. oxford, - . e.d.s.--english dialect society, publications of the. london, - . e.e.t.s.--early english text society, publications of the. london, - . (contains alliterative poems, ayenbite of inwyt, barbour's bruce, sir gawayne and the grene knight, st juliana, kentish sermons, lyndesay's works, etc.) jackson, miss.--shropshire wordbook, by georgina f. jackson. london, . jamieson's scottish dictionary. a new edition, ed. j. longmuir and d. donaldson. paisley, - . to. vols. and supplement. layamon's brut; ed. sir f. madden. london, . vols. minot's poems; ed. j. hall. oxford, . morris, rev. r., ll.d.; the blickling homilies. (e.e.t.s.) london, . ---- old english miscellany. (e.e.t.s.) london, . ---- old english homilies, series i and ii. (e.e.t.s.) london, and . ---- specimens of early english. part i. - . second edition. oxford, . morris, rev. r. and skeat, rev. w.w.; specimens of early english. part ii. third edition. oxford, . murray, sir james a.h. the dialect of the southern counties of scotland. (phil. soc.) london, . n.e.d.--the new english dictionary; by sir james a.h. murray, h. bradley, and w.a. craigie. oxford, -. ormulum; ed. r.m. white. oxford, . vols. pricke of conscience, by richard rolle de hampole; ed. r. morris. (phil. soc.) london, . psalter, by r. rolle de hampole; ed. rev. h.r. bramley. oxford, . robert of gloucester; ed. w. aldis wright. (record series.) london, . vols. skeat, rev. walter w.; the chaucer canon. oxford, . ---- etymological english dictionary. new edition. oxford, . ---- the holy gospels, in anglo-saxon, northumbrian, and mercian versions. cambridge, - . ---- primer of english etymology. fifth edition. oxford, . ---- principles of english etymology, series i. second edition. oxford, . sweet, h.; an anglo-saxon reader. seventh edition. oxford, . ---- a second anglo-saxon reader, archaic and dialectal. oxford, . ---- the oldest english texts. (e.e.t.s.) london, . trevisa.--higden's polychronicon; with trevisa's english version; ed. c. babington, b.d., and the rev. j.r. lumby, d.d. (record series.) vols. london, - . wise, j.r.; shakspere, his birthplace and its neighbourhood. london, . index aberdeen dialect, , adam's body, materials of, , alfred, king, , allen, grant, _anglo-saxon britain_, _alliterative poems_, ed. morris, _altenglische dichtungen_, ambry, aumbry, _ancren riwle_, anglian period, anglo-french words in dialects, - anglo-saxon, , , _anglo-saxon chronicle_, , laud ms., arain, arles, arris, asew, assith, assoilyie, astre, aunsel, aunter, aver, averous, , atkinson's (cleveland) glossary, awfully, _ayenbite of inwyt_, , ayrshire dialect, , baker, miss, barnes, william, , beda, his "death-song," his _history_, , , , beowulf, - bewcastle column, bladud, king, , blood-boltered, bolter, , boucher, rev. j., dialect dictionary, , boy or child, brockett's glossary, _bruce_, by barbour, - brut, romance of, , , burns, robert, , cædmon, , his hymn, caxton, celtic words in dialects, - list of, , charters, kentish, , mercian, chaucer, use of kentish by, use of _yon_, use of _asp_, cheshire dialect, , child (girl), , cole, king, corpus glossary, _cursor mundi_, , , _cymbeline_, dialect defined, dialect glossaries, - dialect writers, dialects, foreign elements in the, - four old, , groups of, modern, - specimens of, , etc. dialectic regeneration, dictionaries by coles, kersey, bailey, dr johnson, and ash, old, promptorium and catholicon, douglas, gawain, dunbar, , quoted, dunstan, st, life of, durham, _liber vitæ_, ritual, eagre, earle, prof., edinburgh dialect, , eliot _see_ george ellis, a.j., _early english pronunciation_, erne, english, the old name for lowland scotch, - _english dialect dictionary_, , , _english dialect grammar_, english dialect society, _english metrical homilies_, essex dialect, , , fitzherbert, j., _boke of husbandry_, flittermouse, , _flower and the leaf_, french words in dialects, list of, - galt, john, gauntree, _gawayne and the grene knight_, george eliot, use of dialect by, gloss, meaning of, glossaries of dialectal words, , old english, , _golden targe_, by dunbar, gower, use of kentish by, , greek words in dialects, grose, f., _provincial glossary_, hampole, r. rolle of, , , _handlyng synne_, quoted, , harleian ms. , hebrew words in dialects, henry iii., proclamation of, - henry the minstrel, , higden, ralph, hild, abbess, hoccleve, hogg, james, _homilies in verse_, _horn, romance of_, horstmann, dr, hrinde (a.s.), , inglis, or inglisch, - isle of wight dialect, , jamieson's dictionary, , jonson, ben, juliana, st, jutes, keats, kentish, , , dialect, - glosses, sermons, kentish _e_ (a.s. _y_), - _king lear_, lancashire dialect, , latin words in dialects, layamon's _brut_, leyden riddle, _liber vitæ_, lincolnshire dialect, , words, , _locrine_, london dialect, - lorica prayer, , lydgate, lyndesay, sir david, , madam, 'm, malory, sir thomas, manning, robert, , mercian dialect, , , , , - glosses, - spellings, - michel, dan, , midland dialect, - rise of, , _psalter_, east, - west, - minot's poems, _moral ode_, morris, dr, _blickling homilies_, _old english miscellany_, , _old english homilies_, _specimens of early english_, morris, dr, on dialects, morris and skeat, _specimens_, etc., - , , murray, dr, on the dialect of scotland, , - müller, prof. max, _lectures_, _new english dictionary_, norfolk dialect, - northern dialect, great extent of, - northumbrian, , , , - glosses, - riddle, _nut-brown maid_, _old english homilies_, _ormulum, the_, , _owl and nightingale_, peacock's (lincolnshire) glossary, _pearl, the_, phonetic decay, plays, early, plurals, southern, _prick of conscience_, _proverbs of alfred_, psalter, by hampole, prose treatises, by the same, psalter, northumbrian, - west midland, ramsay, allan, ray, john, collection of dialectal words, rimy, , rind, robert of gloucester, rolle, of hampole, , , romances, dialect of, list of, - ross, alexander, rushworth ms., , , - ruthwell cross, , , scandinavian words in dialects, - list of, - scots, middle, , scott, sir walter, , scottish and english, , scottish laws, early, shakespeare, , , use of dialect, sheffield dialect, , shoreham, wm. of, quoted, shropshire dialect, - skeat, _chaucer canon_, _etymological dictionary_, - _gospels in anglo-saxon_, index to _icelandic dictionary_, _primer of english etymology_, _principles of english etymology_, , , skinner, s., _etymologicon_, smith, g. gregory, _specimens of middle scots_, , _south english legendary_, southern dialect, - southey, r., his use of dialect, _specimens of early english_ part i., , part ii., , . _see_ morris spenser's _shepherd's calendar_, stephens, prof., sussex dialect, - sweet, dr, _anglo-saxon primer_, _anglo-saxon reader_, _anglo-saxon reader, dialectal_, - _oldest english texts_, , , , gregory's _pastoral care_, tannahill, robert, tennyson, , _testament of love_, , trevisa, john, , tusser, t., _pointes of husbandrie_, twenty, usk, thomas, , vernon ms., _vespasian psalter_, , wessex _see_ anglo-saxon westmoreland dialect, , william of palerne, wiltshire dialect, - wise, j.r., wright, dr j., _english dialect dictionary_, , , , wright, t., _political songs_, wyntoun, , yon, , * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {transcriber's correction: chapter iii: courageous before all men; i (the cross) durst not bow down _text reads_ ... bow dow } english synonyms and antonyms _a practical and invaluable guide to clear and precise diction for writers, speakers, students, business and professional men_ connectives of english speech "the work is likely to prove of great value to all writers."--_washington evening star._ "the book will receive high appreciation from thoughtful students who seek the most practical help."--_grand rapids herald._ "it is written in a clear and pleasing style and so arranged that but a moment's time is needed to find any line of the hundreds of important though small words which this book discusses."--_chattanooga times._ "its practical reference value is great, and it is a great satisfaction to note the care and attention to detail and fine shades of meaning the author has bestowed upon the words he discusses."--_church review_, hartford. "a work of great practical helpfulness to a large class of people."--_louisville courier-journal._ "this is one of the most useful books for writers, speakers, and all who care for the use of language, which has appeared in a long time."--_cumberland presbyterian_, nashville. "it is a book of great value to all who take any interest in correct and elegant language."--_methodist_, baltimore. "this work is a welcome aid to good writing and good speech. it is worthy the close study of all who would cultivate finished style. its admirable arrangement and a good index make it easy for reference."--_christian observer._ "his book has some excellent qualities. in the first place, it is absolutely free from dogmatic assertion; in the second place, it contains copious examples from good authors, which should guide aright the person investigating any word, if he is thoroughly conversant with english."--_the sun_, new york. _standard educational series_ english synonyms and antonyms with notes on the correct use of prepositions designed as a companion for the study and as a text-book for the use of schools by james c. fernald, l.h.d. _editor of synonyms, antonyms, and prepositions in the standard dictionary_ _nineteenth edition_ funk & wagnalls company new york and london _copyright, , by funk & wagnalls company._ _registered at stationers' hall, london, eng._ printed in the united states transcriber's note: minor typographical errors have been corrected without note, whilst a list of significant amendments can be found at the end of the text. inconsistent hyphenation and conflicting variant spellings have been standardised, except where used for emphasis. non-standard characters have been represented as follows: [=a] _a_ with upper macron; [=o] _o_ with upper macron. contents. page. preface vii part i. synonyms, antonyms and prepositions part ii. questions and answers index preface. the english language is peculiarly rich in synonyms, as, with such a history, it could not fail to be. from the time of julius cæsar, britons, romans, northmen, saxons, danes, and normans fighting, fortifying, and settling upon the soil of england, with scotch and irish contending for mastery or existence across the mountain border and the channel, and all fenced in together by the sea, could not but influence each other's speech. english merchants, sailors, soldiers, and travelers, trading, warring, and exploring in every clime, of necessity brought back new terms of sea and shore, of shop and camp and battlefield. english scholars have studied greek and latin for a thousand years, and the languages of the continent and of the orient in more recent times. english churchmen have introduced words from hebrew, greek, and latin, through bible and prayer-book, sermon and tract. from all this it results that there is scarcely a language ever spoken among men that has not some representative in english speech. the spirit of the anglo-saxon race, masterful in language as in war and commerce, has subjugated all these various elements to one idiom, making not a patchwork, but a composite language. anglo-saxon thrift, finding often several words that originally expressed the same idea, has detailed them to different parts of the common territory or to different service, so that we have an almost unexampled variety of words, kindred in meaning but distinct in usage, for expressing almost every shade of human thought. scarcely any two of such words, commonly known as synonyms, are identical at once in signification and in use. they have certain common ground within which they are interchangeable; but outside of that each has its own special province, within which any other word comes as an intruder. from these two qualities arises the great value of synonyms as contributing to beauty and effectiveness of expression. as interchangeable, they make possible that freedom and variety by which the diction of an accomplished writer or speaker differs from the wooden uniformity of a legal document. as distinct and specific, they enable a master of style to choose in every instance the one term that is the most perfect mirror of his thought. to write or speak to the best purpose, one should know in the first place all the words from which he may choose, and then the exact reason why in any case any particular word should be chosen. to give such knowledge in these two directions is the office of a book of synonyms. of milton's diction macaulay writes: "his poetry acts like an incantation. its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. there would seem, at first sight, to be no more in his words than in other words. but they are words of enchantment. no sooner are they pronounced, than the past is present and the distant near. new forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all the burial places of the memory give up their dead. change the structure of the sentence; _substitute one synonym for another_, and the whole effect is destroyed. the spell loses its power; and he who should then hope to conjure with it would find himself as much mistaken as cassim in the arabian tale, when he stood crying, 'open wheat,' 'open barley,' to the door which obeyed no sound but 'open sesame.' the miserable failure of dryden in his attempt to translate into his own diction some parts of the 'paradise lost' is a remarkable instance of this." macaulay's own writings abound in examples of that exquisite precision in the choice of words, which never seems to be precise, but has all the aspect of absolute freedom. through his language his thought bursts upon the mind as a landscape is seen instantly, perfectly, and beautifully from a mountain height. a little vagueness of thought, a slight infelicity in the choice of words would be like a cloud upon the mountain, obscuring the scene with a damp and chilling mist. let anyone try the experiment with a poem like gray's "elegy," or goldsmith's "traveller" or "deserted village," of substituting other words for those the poet has chosen, and he will readily perceive how much of the charm of the lines depends upon their fine exactitude of expression. in our own day, when so many are eager to write, and confident that they can write, and when the press is sending forth by the ton that which is called literature, but which somehow lacks the imprint of immortality, it is of the first importance to revive the study of synonyms as a distinct branch of rhetorical culture. prevalent errors need at times to be noted and corrected, but the teaching of pure english speech is the best defense against all that is inferior, unsuitable, or repulsive. the most effective condemnation of an objectionable word or phrase is that it is not found in scholarly works, and a student who has once learned the rich stores of vigorous, beautiful, exact, and expressive words that make up our noble language, is by that very fact put beyond the reach of all temptation to linguistic corruption. special instruction in the use of synonyms is necessary, for the reason that few students possess the analytical power and habit of mind required to hold a succession of separate definitions in thought at once, compare them with each other, and determine just where and how they part company; and the persons least able to do this are the very ones most in need of the information. the distinctions between words similar in meaning are often so fine and elusive as to tax the ingenuity of the accomplished scholar; yet when clearly apprehended they are as important for the purposes of language as the minute differences between similar substances are for the purposes of chemistry. often definition itself is best secured by the comparison of kindred terms and the pointing out where each differs from the other. we perceive more clearly and remember better what each word is, by perceiving where each divides from another of kindred meaning; just as we see and remember better the situation and contour of adjacent countries, by considering them as boundaries of each other, rather than by an exact statement of the latitude and longitude of each as a separate portion of the earth's surface. the great mass of untrained speakers and writers need to be reminded, in the first place, _that there are synonyms_--a suggestion which they would not gain from any precision of separate definitions in a dictionary. the deplorable repetition with which many slightly educated persons use such words as "elegant," "splendid," "clever," "awful," "horrid," etc., to indicate (for they can not be said to express) almost any shade of certain approved or objectionable qualities, shows a limited vocabulary, a poverty of language, which it is of the first importance to correct. many who are not given to such gross misuse would yet be surprised to learn how often they employ a very limited number of words in the attempt to give utterance to thoughts and feelings so unlike, that what is the right word on one occasion must of necessity be the wrong word at many other times. such persons are simply unconscious of the fact that there are other words of kindred meaning from which they might choose; as the united states surveyors of alaska found "the shuddering tenant of the frigid zone" wrapping himself in furs and cowering over a fire of sticks with untouched coal-mines beneath his feet. such poverty of language is always accompanied with poverty of thought. one who is content to use the same word for widely different ideas has either never observed or soon comes to forget that there is any difference between the ideas; or perhaps he retains a vague notion of a difference which he never attempts to define to himself, and dimly hints to others by adding to his inadequate word some such phrase as "you see" or "you know," in the helpless attempt to inject into another mind by suggestion what adequate words would enable him simply and distinctly to say. such a mind resembles the old maps of africa in which the interior was filled with cloudy spaces, where modern discovery has revealed great lakes, fertile plains, and mighty rivers. one main office of a book of synonyms is to reveal to such persons the unsuspected riches of their own language; and when a series of words is given them, from which they may choose, then, with intelligent choice of words there comes of necessity a clearer perception of the difference of the ideas that are to be expressed by those different words. thus, copiousness and clearness of language tend directly to affluence and precision of thought. hence there is an important use for mere lists of classified synonyms, like roget's thesaurus and the works of soule and fallows. not one in a thousand of average students would ever discover, by independent study of the dictionary, that there are fifteen synonyms for _beautiful_, twenty-one for _beginning_, fifteen for _benevolence_, twenty for _friendly_, and thirty-seven for _pure_. the mere mention of such numbers opens vistas of possible fulness, freedom, and variety of utterance, which will have for many persons the effect of a revelation. but it is equally important to teach _that synonyms are not identical_ and to explain why and how they differ. a person of extensive reading and study, with a fine natural sense of language, will often find all that he wants in the mere list, which recalls to his memory the appropriate word. but for the vast majority there is needed some work that compares or contrasts synonymous words, explains their differences of meaning or usage, and shows in what connections one or the other may be most fitly used. this is the purpose of the present work, to be a guide to selection from the varied treasures of english speech. this work treats within pages more than synonyms. it has been the study of the author to give every definition or distinction in the fewest possible words consistent with clearness of statement, and this not merely for economy of space, but because such condensed statements are most easily apprehended and remembered. the method followed has been to select from every group of synonyms one word, or two contrasted words, the meaning of which may be settled by clear definitive statement, thus securing some fixed point or points to which all the other words of the group may be referred. the great source of vagueness, error, and perplexity in many discussions of synonyms is, that the writer merely associates stray ideas loosely connected with the different words, sliding from synonym to synonym with no definite point of departure or return, so that a smooth and at first sight pleasing statement really gives the mind no definite resting-place and no sure conclusion. a true discussion of synonyms is definition by comparison, and for this there must be something definite with which to compare. when the standard is settled, approximation or differentiation can be determined with clearness and certainty. it is not enough to tell something about each word. the thing to tell is how each word is related to others of that particular group. when a word has more than one prominent meaning, the synonyms for one signification are treated in one group and a reference is made to some other group in which the synonyms for another signification are treated, as may be seen by noting the synonyms given under apparent, and following the reference to evident. it has been impossible within the limits of this volume to treat in full all the words of each group of synonyms. sometimes it has been necessary to restrict the statement to a mere suggestion of the correct use; in some cases only the chief words of a group could be considered, giving the key to the discussion, and leaving the student to follow out the principle in the case of other words by reference to the definitive statements of the dictionary. it is to be hoped that at some time a dictionary of synonyms may be prepared, giving as full a list as that of roget or of soule, with discriminating remarks upon every word. such a work would be of the greatest value, but obviously beyond the scope of a text-book for the class-room. the author has here incorporated, by permission of the publishers of the standard dictionary, much of the synonym matter prepared by him for that work. all has been thoroughly revised or reconstructed, and much wholly new matter has been added. the book contains also more than antonyms. these are valuable as supplying definition by contrast or by negation, one of the most effective methods of defining being in many cases to tell what a thing is not. to speakers and writers antonyms are useful as furnishing oftentimes effective antitheses. young writers will find much help from the indication of the correct use of prepositions, the misuse of which is one of the most common of errors, and one of the most difficult to avoid, while their right use gives to style cohesion, firmness, and compactness, and is an important aid to perspicuity. to the text of the synonyms is appended a set of questions and examples to adapt the work for use as a text-book. aside from the purposes of the class-room, this portion will be found of value to the individual student. excepting those who have made a thorough study of language most persons will discover with surprise how difficult it is to answer any set of the questions or to fill the blanks in the examples without referring to the synonym treatment in part i., or to a dictionary, and how rarely they can give any intelligent reason for preference even among familiar words. there are few who can study such a work without finding occasion to correct some errors into which they have unconsciously fallen, and without coming to a new delight in the use of language from a fuller knowledge of its resources and a clearer sense of its various capabilities. _west new brighton, n. y._, sept. , . part i. books of reference. crabb's "english synonymes explained." [h.] soule's "dictionary of english synonyms." [l.] smith's "synonyms discriminated." [bell.] graham's "english synonyms." [a.] whateley's "english synonyms discriminated." [l. & s.] campbell's "handbook of synonyms." [l. & s.] fallows' "complete dictionary of synonyms and antonyms." [f. h. r.] roget's "thesaurus of english words." [f. & w. co.] trench's "study of english words." [w. j. w.] richard grant white, "words and their uses," and "every day english." [h. m. & co.] geo. p. marsh, "lectures on the english language," and "origin and history of the english language." [s.] fitzedward hall, "false philology." [s.] maetzner's "english grammar," tr. by grece. [j. m.] the synonyms of the century and international dictionaries have also been consulted and compared. the funk & wagnalls standard dictionary has been used as the authority throughout. * * * * * abbreviations used. a. d. appleton & co. | k.-f. krauth-fleming as. anglo-saxon | "vocabulary of philosophy." bell; b. & s. bell & sons | l. latin; lippincott & co. f. french | l. & s. lee & shepard f. h. r. fleming h. revell | m. murray's new english dictionary f. & w. co. funk & wagnalls co. | macm. macmillan & co. g. german | s. chas. scribner's sons gr. greek | sp. spanish h. harper & bros. | t. & f. ticknor & fields h. m. & co. houghton, mifflin & co. | t. & h. troutman & hayes it. italian | t. & m. taylor, walton & maberley j. m. john murray | w. j. w. w. j. widdleton part i. synonyms, antonyms and prepositions. * * * * * abandon. synonyms: abdicate, desert, leave, resign, abjure, discontinue, quit, retire from, cast off, forego, recant, retract, cease, forsake, relinquish, surrender, cede, forswear, renounce, vacate, depart from, give up, repudiate, withdraw from. _abandon_ is a word of wide signification, applying to persons or things of any kind; _abdicate_ and _resign_ apply to office, authority, or power; _cede_ to territorial possessions; _surrender_ especially to military force, and more generally to any demand, claim, passion, etc. _quit_ carries an idea of suddenness or abruptness not necessarily implied in _abandon_, and may not have the same suggestion of finality. the king _abdicates_ his throne, _cedes_ his territory, _deserts_ his followers, _renounces_ his religion, _relinquishes_ his titles, _abandons_ his designs. a cowardly officer _deserts_ his ship; the helpless passengers _abandon_ it. we _quit_ business, _give up_ property, _resign_ office, _abandon_ a habit or a trust. _relinquish_ commonly implies reluctance; the fainting hand _relinquishes_ its grasp; the creditor _relinquishes_ his claim. _abandon_ implies previous association with responsibility for or control of; _forsake_ implies previous association with inclination or attachment, real or assumed; a man may _abandon_ or _forsake_ house or friends; he _abandons_ an enterprise; _forsakes_ god. _abandon_ is applied to both good and evil action; a thief _abandons_ his designs, a man his principles. _forsake_, like _abandon_, may be used either in the favorable or unfavorable sense; _desert_ is always unfavorable, involving a breach of duty, except when used of mere localities; as, "the deserted village." while a monarch _abdicates_, a president or other elected or appointed officer _resigns_. it was held that james ii. _abdicated_ his throne by _deserting_ it. antonyms: adopt, defend, occupy, seek, advocate, favor, prosecute, support, assert, haunt, protect, undertake, cherish, hold, pursue, uphold, claim, keep, retain, vindicate. court, maintain, * * * * * abase. synonyms: bring low, depress, dishonor, lower, cast down, discredit, humble, reduce, debase, disgrace, humiliate, sink. degrade, _abase_ refers only to outward conditions. "exalt him that is low, and _abase_ him that is high." _ezek._ xxi, . _debase_ applies to quality or character. the coinage is _debased_ by excess of alloy, the man by vice. _humble_ in present use refers chiefly to feeling of heart; _humiliate_ to outward conditions; even when one is said to _humble_ himself, he either has or affects to have humility of heart. to _disgrace_ may be to bring or inflict odium upon others, but the word is chiefly and increasingly applied to such moral odium as one by his own acts brings upon himself; the noun _disgrace_ retains more of the passive sense than the verb; he _disgraced_ himself by his conduct; he brought _disgrace_ upon his family. to _dishonor_ a person is to deprive him of honor that should or might be given. to _discredit_ one is to injure his reputation, as for veracity or solvency. a sense of unworthiness _humbles_; a shameful insult _humiliates_; imprisonment for crime _disgraces_. _degrade_ may refer to either station or character. an officer is _degraded_ by being _reduced_ to the ranks, _disgraced_ by cowardice; vile practises _degrade_; drunkenness is a _degrading_ vice. misfortune or injustice may _abase_ the good; nothing but their own ill-doing can _debase_ or _disgrace_ them. antonyms: advance, elevate, honor, raise, aggrandize, exalt, promote, uplift. dignify, * * * * * abash. synonyms: bewilder, daunt, embarrass, mortify, chagrin, discompose, humble, overawe, confound, disconcert, humiliate, shame. confuse, dishearten, any sense of inferiority _abashes_, with or without the sense of wrong. the poor are _abashed_ at the splendor of wealth, the ignorant at the learning of the wise. "i might have been _abashed_ by their authority." gladstone _homeric synchron._, p. . [h. ' .] to _confuse_ is to bring into a state of mental bewilderment; to _confound_ is to overwhelm the mental faculties; to _daunt_ is to subject to a certain degree of fear. _embarrass_ is a strong word, signifying primarily hamper, hinder, impede. a solitary thinker may be _confused_ by some difficulty in a subject, or some mental defect; one is _embarrassed_ in the presence of others, and because of their presence. confusion is of the intellect, embarrassment of the feelings. a witness may be _embarrassed_ by annoying personalities, so as to become _confused_ in statements. to _mortify_ a person is to bring upon him a painful sense of humiliation, whether because of his own or another's fault or failure. a pupil is _confused_ by a perplexing question, a general _confounded_ by overwhelming defeat. a hostess is _discomposed_ by the tardiness of guests, a speaker _disconcerted_ by a failure of memory. the criminal who is not _abashed_ at detection may be _daunted_ by the officer's weapon. sudden joy may _bewilder_, but will not _abash_. the true worshiper is _humbled_ rather than _abashed_ before god. the parent is _mortified_ by the child's rudeness, the child _abashed_ at the parent's reproof. the _embarrassed_ speaker finds it difficult to proceed. the mob is _overawed_ by the military, the hypocrite _shamed_ by exposure. "a man whom no denial, no scorn could _abash_." fielding _amelia_ bk. iii, ch. , p. . [b. & s. ' .] compare chagrin; hinder. antonyms: animate, cheer, encourage, rally, buoy, embolden, inspirit, uphold. * * * * * abate. synonyms: decline, ebb, mitigate, reduce, decrease, lessen, moderate, subside. diminish, lower, the storm, the fever, the pain _abates_. interest _declines_. misfortunes may be _mitigated_, desires _moderated_, intense anger _abated_, population _decreased_, taxes _reduced_. we _abate_ a nuisance, _terminate_ a controversy, _suppress_ a rebellion. see alleviate. antonyms: aggravate, enhance, foment, rage, amplify, enlarge, increase, raise, continue, extend, magnify, revive. develop, prepositions: abate _in_ fury; abated _by_ law. * * * * * abbreviation. synonyms: abridgment, contraction. an _abbreviation_ is a shortening by any method; a _contraction_ is a reduction of size by the drawing together of the parts. a _contraction_ of a word is made by omitting certain letters or syllables and bringing together the first and last letters or elements; an _abbreviation_ may be made either by omitting certain portions from the interior or by cutting off a part; a _contraction_ is an _abbreviation_, but an _abbreviation_ is not necessarily a _contraction_; _rec't_ for receipt, _mdse._ for merchandise, and _dr._ for debtor are _contractions_; they are also _abbreviations_; _am._ for american is an _abbreviation_, but not a _contraction_. _abbreviation_ and _contraction_ are used of words and phrases, _abridgment_ of books, paragraphs, sentences, etc. compare abridgment. * * * * * abet. synonyms: advocate, countenance, incite, sanction, aid, embolden, instigate, support, assist, encourage, promote, uphold. _abet_ and _instigate_ are now used almost without exception in a bad sense; one may _incite_ either to good or evil. one _incites_ or _instigates_ to the doing of something not yet done, or to increased activity or further advance in the doing of it; one _abets_ by giving sympathy, countenance, or substantial aid to the doing of that which is already projected or in process of commission. _abet_ and _instigate_ apply either to persons or actions, _incite_ to persons only; one _incites_ a person _to_ an action. a clergyman will _advocate_ the claims of justice, _aid_ the poor, _encourage_ the despondent, _support_ the weak, _uphold_ the constituted authorities; but he will not _incite_ to a quarrel, _instigate_ a riot, or _abet_ a crime. the originator of a crime often _instigates_ or _incites_ others to _abet_ him in it, or one may _instigate_ or _incite_ others to a crime in the commission of which he himself takes no active part. compare help. antonyms: baffle, deter, dissuade, hinder, confound, disapprove, expose, impede, counteract, disconcert, frustrate, obstruct. denounce, discourage, * * * * * abhor. synonyms: abominate, dislike, loathe, scorn, despise, hate, nauseate, shun. detest, _abhor_ is stronger than _despise_, implying a shuddering recoil, especially a moral recoil. "how many _shun_ evil as inconvenient who do not _abhor_ it as hateful." trench _serm. in westm. abbey_ xxvi, . [m.] _detest_ expresses indignation, with something of contempt. _loathe_ implies disgust, physical or moral. we _abhor_ a traitor, _despise_ a coward, _detest_ a liar. we _dislike_ an uncivil person. we _abhor_ cruelty, _hate_ tyranny. we _loathe_ a reptile or a flatterer. we _abhor_ milton's heroic satan, but we can not _despise_ him. antonyms: admire, crave, esteem, love, approve, desire, like, relish. covet, enjoy, * * * * * abide. synonyms: anticipate, dwell, remain, stop, await, endure, reside, tarry, bear, expect, rest, tolerate, bide, inhabit, sojourn, wait, confront, live, stay, watch. continue, lodge, to _abide_ is to remain continuously without limit of time unless expressed by the context: "to-day i must _abide_ at thy house," _luke_ xix, ; "a settled place for thee to _abide_ in forever," _ kings_ viii, ; "_abide_ with me! fast falls the eventide," lyte _hymn_. _lodge_, _sojourn_, _stay_, _tarry_, and _wait_ always imply a limited time; _lodge_, to pass the night; _sojourn_, to _remain_ temporarily; _live_, _dwell_, _reside_, to have a permanent home. _stop_, in the sense of _stay_ or _sojourn_, is colloquial, and not in approved use. compare endure; rest. antonyms: abandon, forfeit, migrate, reject, avoid, forfend, move, resist, depart, journey, proceed, shun. prepositions: abide _in_ a place, _for_ a time, _with_ a person, _by_ a statement. * * * * * abolish. synonyms: abate, eradicate, prohibit, stamp out, abrogate, exterminate, remove, subvert, annihilate, extirpate, repeal, supplant, annul, nullify, reverse, suppress, destroy, obliterate, revoke, terminate. end, overthrow, set aside, _abolish_, to do away with, bring absolutely to an end, especially as something hostile, hindering, or harmful, was formerly used of persons and material objects, a usage now obsolete except in poetry or highly figurative speech. _abolish_ is now used of institutions, customs, and conditions, especially those wide-spread and long existing; as, to _abolish_ slavery, ignorance, intemperance, poverty. a building that is burned to the ground is said to be _destroyed_ by fire. _annihilate_, as a philosophical term, signifies to put absolutely out of existence. as far as our knowledge goes, matter is never _annihilated_, but only changes its form. some believe that the wicked will be _annihilated_. _abolish_ is not said of laws. there we use _repeal_, _abrogate_, _nullify_, etc.: _repeal_ by the enacting body, _nullify_ by revolutionary proceedings; a later statute _abrogates_, without formally _repealing_, any earlier law with which it conflicts. an appellate court may _reverse_ or _set aside_ the decision of an inferior court. _overthrow_ may be used in either a good or a bad sense; _suppress_ is commonly in a good, _subvert_ always in a bad sense; as, to _subvert_ our liberties; to _suppress_ a rebellion. the law _prohibits_ what may never have existed; it _abolishes_ an existing evil. we _abate_ a nuisance, _terminate_ a controversy. compare cancel; demolish; exterminate. antonyms: authorize, establish, reinstate, revive, cherish, institute, renew, set up, confirm, introduce, repair, support, continue, legalize, restore, sustain. enact, promote, * * * * * abomination. synonyms: abhorrence, curse, hatred, plague, abuse, detestation, horror, shame, annoyance, disgust, iniquity, villainy, aversion, evil, nuisance, wickedness. crime, execration, offense, _abomination_ (from the l. _ab omen_, a thing of ill omen) was originally applied to anything held in religious or ceremonial _aversion_ or _abhorrence_; as, "the things which are highly esteemed among men are _abomination_ in the sight of god." _luke_ xvi, . the word is oftener applied to the object of such _aversion_ or _abhorrence_ than to the state of mind that so regards it; in common use _abomination_ signifies something very much disliked or loathed, or that deserves to be. choice food may be an object of _aversion_ and _disgust_ to a sick person; vile food would be an _abomination_. a toad is to many an object of _disgust_; a foul sewer is an _abomination_. as applied to crimes, _abomination_ is used of such as are especially brutal, shameful, or revolting; theft is an _offense_; infanticide is an _abomination_. antonyms: affection, blessing, enjoyment, joy, appreciation, delight, esteem, satisfaction, approval, desire, gratification, treat. benefit, * * * * * abridgment. synonyms: abbreviation, compend, epitome, summary, abstract, compendium, outline, synopsis. analysis, digest, an _abridgment_ gives the most important portions of a work substantially as they stand. an _outline_ or _synopsis_ is a kind of sketch closely following the plan. an _abstract_ or _digest_ is an independent statement of what the book contains. an _analysis_ draws out the chief thoughts or arguments, whether expressed or implied. a _summary_ is the most condensed statement of results or conclusions. an _epitome_, _compend_, or _compendium_ is a condensed view of a subject, whether derived from a previous publication or not. we may have an _abridgment_ of a dictionary, but not an _analysis_, _abstract_, _digest_, or _summary_. we may have an _epitome_ of religion, a _compendium_ of english literature, but not an _abridgment_. compare abbreviation. * * * * * absolute. synonyms: arbitrary, compulsory, haughty, peremptory, arrogant, controlling, imperative, positive, authoritative, despotic, imperious, supreme, autocratic, dictatorial, irresponsible, tyrannical, coercive, dogmatic, lordly, unconditional, commanding, domineering, overbearing, unequivocal. compulsive, exacting, in the strict sense, _absolute_, free from all limitation or control, and _supreme_, superior to all, can not properly be said of any being except the divine. both words are used, however, in a modified sense, of human authorities; _absolute_ then signifying free from limitation by other authority, and _supreme_ exalted over all other; as, an _absolute_ monarch, the _supreme_ court. _absolute_, in this use, does not necessarily carry any unfavorable sense, but as _absolute_ power in human hands is always abused, the unfavorable meaning predominates. _autocratic_ power knows no limits outside the ruler's self; _arbitrary_ power, none outside the ruler's will or judgment, _arbitrary_ carrying the implication of wilfulness and capriciousness. _despotic_ is commonly applied to a masterful or severe use of power, which is expressed more decidedly by _tyrannical_. _arbitrary_ may be used in a good sense; as, the pronunciation of proper names is _arbitrary_; but the bad sense is the prevailing one; as, an _arbitrary_ proceeding. _irresponsible_ power is not necessarily bad, but eminently dangerous; an executor or trustee should not be _irresponsible_; an _irresponsible_ ruler is likely to be _tyrannical_. a perfect ruler might be _irresponsible_ and not _tyrannical_. _authoritative_ is used always in a good sense, implying the right to claim authority; _imperative_, _peremptory_, and _positive_ are used ordinarily in the good sense; as, an _authoritative_ definition; an _imperative_ demand; a _peremptory_ command; _positive_ instructions; _imperious_ signifies assuming and determined to command, rigorously requiring obedience. an _imperious_ demand or requirement may have in it nothing offensive; it is simply one that resolutely insists upon compliance, and will not brook refusal; an _arrogant_ demand is offensive by its tone of superiority, an _arbitrary_ demand by its unreasonableness; an _imperious_ disposition is liable to become _arbitrary_ and _arrogant_. a person of an independent spirit is inclined to resent an _imperious_ manner in any one, especially in one whose superiority is not clearly recognized. _commanding_ is always used in a good sense; as, a _commanding_ appearance; a _commanding_ eminence. compare dogmatic; infinite; perfect. antonyms: accountable, constitutional, gentle, lowly, responsible, complaisant, contingent, humble, meek, submissive, compliant, docile, lenient, mild, yielding. conditional, ductile, limited, * * * * * absolve. synonyms: acquit, exculpate, forgive, pardon, clear, exempt, free, release, discharge, exonerate, liberate, set free. to _absolve_, in the strict sense, is to _set free_ from any bond. one may be _absolved_ from a promise by a breach of faith on the part of one to whom the promise was made. to _absolve_ from sins is formally to remit their condemnation and penalty, regarded as a bond upon the soul. "almighty god ... _pardoneth_ and _absolveth_ all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel." _book of common prayer, declar. of absol._ to _acquit_ of sin or crime is to _free_ from the accusation of it, pronouncing one guiltless; the innocent are rightfully _acquitted_; the guilty may be mercifully _absolved_. compare pardon. antonyms: accuse, charge, condemn, impeach, obligate, bind, compel, convict, inculpate, oblige. preposition: one is absolved _from_ (rarely _of_) a promise, a sin, etc. * * * * * absorb. synonyms: consume, engross, suck up, take in, drink in, exhaust, swallow, take up. drink up, imbibe, swallow up, a fluid that is _absorbed_ is _taken up_ into the mass of the _absorbing_ body, with which it may or may not permanently combine. wood expands when it _absorbs_ moisture, iron when it _absorbs_ heat, the substance remaining perhaps otherwise substantially unchanged; quicklime, when it _absorbs_ water, becomes a new substance with different qualities, hydrated or slaked lime. a substance is _consumed_ which is destructively appropriated by some other substance, being, or agency, so that it ceases to exist or to be recognized as existing in its original condition; fuel is _consumed_ in the fire, food in the body; _consume_ is also applied to whatever is removed from the market for individual use; as, silk and woolen goods are _consumed_. a great talker _engrosses_ the conversation. a credulous person _swallows_ the most preposterous statement. a busy student _imbibes_ or _drinks in_ knowledge; he is _absorbed_ in a subject that takes his whole attention. "i only postponed it because i happened to get _absorbed_ in a book." kane _grinnell exped._ ch. , page . [h. ' .] antonyms: cast out, dissipate, emit, put forth, shoot forth, disgorge, distract, exude, radiate, throw off, disperse, eject, give up, send out, vomit. prepositions: plants absorb moisture _from_ the air; the student is absorbed _in_ thought; nutriment may be absorbed _into_ the system _through_ the skin. * * * * * abstinence. synonyms: abstemiousness, frugality, self-denial, sobriety, continence, moderation, self-restraint, temperance. fasting, self-control, _abstinence_ from food commonly signifies going without; _abstemiousness_, partaking moderately; _abstinence_ may be for a single occasion, _abstemiousness_ is habitual _moderation_. _self-denial_ is giving up what one wishes; _abstinence_ may be refraining from what one does not desire. _fasting_ is _abstinence_ from food for a limited time, and generally for religious reasons. _sobriety_ and _temperance_ signify maintaining a quiet, even temper by moderate indulgence in some things, complete _abstinence_ from others. we speak of _temperance_ in eating, but of _abstinence_ from vice. _total abstinence_ has come to signify the entire abstaining from intoxicating liquors. antonyms: drunkenness, greed, reveling, sensuality, excess, intemperance, revelry, wantonness. gluttony, intoxication, self-indulgence, preposition: the negative side of virtue is abstinence _from_ vice. * * * * * abstract, _v._ synonyms: appropriate, distract, purloin, steal, detach, divert, remove, take away, discriminate, eliminate, separate, withdraw. distinguish, the central idea of _withdrawing_ makes _abstract_ in common speech a euphemism for _appropriate_ (unlawfully), _purloin_, _steal_. in mental processes we _discriminate_ between objects by _distinguishing_ their differences; we _separate_ some one element from all that does not necessarily belong to it, _abstract_ it, and view it alone. we may _separate_ two ideas, and hold both in mind in comparison or contrast; but when we _abstract_ one of them, we drop the other out of thought. the mind is _abstracted_ when it is _withdrawn_ from all other subjects and concentrated upon one, _diverted_ when it is drawn away from what it would or should attend to by some other interest, _distracted_ when the attention is divided among different subjects, so that it can not be given properly to any. the trouble with the _distracted_ person is that he is not _abstracted_. compare discern. antonyms: add, complete, fill up, restore, unite. combine, conjoin, increase, strengthen, prepositions: the purse may be abstracted _from_ the pocket; the substance _from_ the accidents; a book _into_ a compend. * * * * * abstracted. synonyms: absent, heedless, listless, preoccupied, absent-minded, inattentive, negligent, thoughtless. absorbed, indifferent, oblivious, as regards mental action, _absorbed_, _abstracted_, and _preoccupied_ refer to the cause, _absent_ or _absent-minded_ to the effect. the man _absorbed_ in one thing will appear _absent_ in others. a _preoccupied_ person may seem _listless_ and _thoughtless_, but the really _listless_ and _thoughtless_ have not mental energy to be _preoccupied_. the _absent-minded_ man is _oblivious_ of ordinary matters, because his thoughts are elsewhere. one who is _preoccupied_ is intensely busy in thought; one may be _absent-minded_ either through intense concentration or simply through inattention, with fitful and aimless wandering of thought. compare abstract. antonyms: alert, on hand, ready, wide-awake. attentive, prompt, thoughtful, * * * * * absurd. synonyms: anomalous, ill-considered, ludicrous, ridiculous, chimerical, ill-judged, mistaken, senseless, erroneous, inconclusive, monstrous, stupid, false, incorrect, nonsensical, unreasonable, foolish, infatuated, paradoxical, wild. ill-advised, irrational, preposterous, that is _absurd_ which is contrary to the first principles of reasoning; as, that a part should be greater than the whole is _absurd_. a _paradoxical_ statement appears at first thought contradictory or _absurd_, while it may be really true. anything is _irrational_ when clearly contrary to sound reason, _foolish_ when contrary to practical good sense, _silly_ when petty and contemptible in its folly, _erroneous_ when containing error that vitiates the result, _unreasonable_ when there seems a perverse bias or an intent to go wrong. _monstrous_ and _preposterous_ refer to what is overwhelmingly _absurd_; as, "_o monstrous!_ eleven buckram men grown out of two," shakespeare _ king henry iv_, act ii, sc. . the _ridiculous_ or the _nonsensical_ is worthy only to be laughed at. the lunatic's claim to be a king is _ridiculous_; the mother goose rimes are _nonsensical_. compare incongruous. antonyms: certain, incontrovertible, rational, substantial, consistent, indisputable, reasonable, true, demonstrable, indubitable, sagacious, undeniable, demonstrated, infallible, sensible, unquestionable, established, logical, sound, wise. incontestable, * * * * * abuse. synonyms: aggrieve, impose on _or_ oppress, ruin, damage, upon, persecute, slander, defame, injure, pervert, victimize, defile, malign, prostitute, vilify, disparage, maltreat, rail at, violate, harm, misemploy, ravish, vituperate, ill-treat, misuse, reproach, wrong. ill-use, molest, revile, _abuse_ covers all unreasonable or improper use or treatment by word or act. a tenant does not _abuse_ rented property by "reasonable wear," though that may _damage_ the property and _injure_ its sale; he may _abuse_ it by needless defacement or neglect. it is possible to _abuse_ a man without _harming_ him, as when the criminal _vituperates_ the judge; or to _harm_ a man without _abusing_ him, as when the witness tells the truth about the criminal. _defame_, _malign_, _rail at_, _revile_, _slander_, _vilify_, and _vituperate_ are used always in a bad sense. one may be justly _reproached_. to _impose on_ or to _victimize_ one is to _injure_ him by _abusing_ his confidence. to _persecute_ one is to _ill-treat_ him for opinion's sake, commonly for religious belief; to _oppress_ is generally for political or pecuniary motives. "thou shalt not _oppress_ an hired servant that is poor and needy," _deut._ xxiv, . _misemploy_, _misuse_, and _pervert_ are commonly applied to objects rather than to persons. a dissolute youth _misemploys_ his time, _misuses_ his money and opportunities, _harms_ his associates, _perverts_ his talents, _wrongs_ his parents, _ruins_ himself, _abuses_ every good gift of god. antonyms: applaud, conserve, favor, protect, sustain, benefit, consider, laud, regard, tend, care for, eulogize, panegyrize, respect, uphold, cherish, extol, praise, shield, vindicate. * * * * * accessory. synonyms: abetter _or_ abettor, associate, companion, henchman, accomplice, attendant, confederate, participator, ally, coadjutor, follower, partner, assistant, colleague, helper, retainer. _colleague_ is used always in a good sense, _associate_ and _coadjutor_ generally so; _ally_, _assistant_, _associate_, _attendant_, _companion_, _helper_, either in a good or a bad sense; _abetter_, _accessory_, _accomplice_, _confederate_, almost always in a bad sense. _ally_ is oftenest used of national and military matters, or of some other connection regarded as great and important; as, _allies_ of despotism. _colleague_ is applied to civil and ecclesiastical connections; members of congress from the same state are _colleagues_, even though they may be bitter opponents politically and personally. an _associate_ justice of the supreme court is near in _rank_ to the chief justice. a surgeon's _assistant_ is a physician or medical student who shares in the treatment and care of patients; a surgeon's _attendant_ is one who rolls bandages and the like. _follower_, _henchman_, _retainer_ are persons especially devoted to a chief, and generally bound to him by necessity, fee, or reward. _partner_ has come to denote almost exclusively a business connection. in law, an _abettor_ (the general legal spelling) is always present, either actively or constructively, at the commission of the crime; an _accessory_ never. an _accomplice_ is usually a principal; an _accessory_ never. if present, though only to stand outside and keep watch against surprise, one is an _abettor_, and not an _accessory_. at common law, an _accessory_ implies a principal, and can not be convicted until after the conviction of the principal; the _accomplice_ or _abettor_ can be convicted as a principal. _accomplice_ and _abettor_ have nearly the same meaning, but the former is the popular, the latter more distinctively the legal term. compare appendage; auxiliary. antonyms: adversary, chief, foe, leader, principal, antagonist, commander, hinderer, opponent, rival. betrayer, enemy, instigator, opposer, prepositions: an accessory _to_ the crime; _before_ or _after_ the fact; the accessories _of_ a figure _in_ a painting. * * * * * accident. synonyms: adventure, contingency, happening, misfortune, calamity, disaster, hazard, mishap, casualty, fortuity, incident, possibility. chance, hap, misadventure, an _accident_ is that which happens without any one's direct intention; a _chance_ that which happens without any known cause. if the direct cause of a railroad _accident_ is known, we can not call it a _chance_. to the theist there is, in strictness, no _chance_, all things being by divine causation and control; but _chance_ is spoken of where no special cause is manifest: "by _chance_ there came down a certain priest that way," _luke_ x, . we can speak of a game of _chance_, but not of a game of _accident_. an _incident_ is viewed as occurring in the regular course of things, but subordinate to the main purpose, or aside from the main design. _fortune_ is the result of inscrutable controlling forces. _fortune_ and _chance_ are nearly equivalent, but _chance_ can be used of human effort and endeavor as _fortune_ can not be; we say "he has a _chance_ of success," or "there is one _chance_ in a thousand," where we could not substitute _fortune_; as personified, _fortune_ is regarded as having a fitful purpose, _chance_ as purposeless; we speak of fickle _fortune_, blind _chance_; "_fortune_ favors the brave." the slaughter of men is an _incident_ of battle; unexpected defeat, the _fortune_ of war. since the unintended is often the undesirable, _accident_ tends to signify some _calamity_ or _disaster_, unless the contrary is expressed, as when we say a fortunate or happy _accident_. an _adventure_ is that which may turn out ill, a _misadventure_ that which does turn out ill. a slight disturbing _accident_ is a _mishap_. compare event; hazard. antonyms: appointment, decree, intention, ordainment, preparation, calculation, fate, law, ordinance, provision, certainty, foreordination, necessity, plan, purpose. prepositions: the accident _of_ birth; an accident _to_ the machinery. * * * * * acquaintance. synonyms: association, experience, fellowship, intimacy, companionship, familiarity, friendship, knowledge. _acquaintance_ between persons supposes that each knows the other; we may know a public man by his writings or speeches, and by sight, but can not claim _acquaintance_ unless he personally knows us. there may be pleasant _acquaintance_ with little _companionship_; and conversely, much _companionship_ with little _acquaintance_, as between busy clerks at adjoining desks. so there may be _association_ in business without _intimacy_ or _friendship_. _acquaintance_ admits of many degrees, from a slight or passing to a familiar or intimate _acquaintance_; but _acquaintance_ unmodified commonly signifies less than _familiarity_ or _intimacy_. as regards persons, _familiarity_ is becoming restricted to the undesirable sense, as in the proverb, "_familiarity_ breeds contempt;" hence, in personal relations, the word _intimacy_, which refers to mutual knowledge of thought and feeling, is now uniformly preferred. _friendship_ includes _acquaintance_ with some degree of _intimacy_, and ordinarily _companionship_, though in a wider sense _friendship_ may exist between those who have never met, but know each other only by word and deed. _acquaintance_ does not involve _friendship_, for one may be well acquainted with an enemy. _fellowship_ involves not merely _acquaintance_ and _companionship_, but sympathy as well. there may be much _friendship_ without much _fellowship_, as between those whose homes or pursuits are far apart. there may be pleasant _fellowship_ which does not reach the fulness of _friendship_. compare attachment; friendship; love. as regards studies, pursuits, etc., _acquaintance_ is less than _familiarity_, which supposes minute _knowledge_ of particulars, arising often from long _experience_ or _association_. antonyms: ignorance, ignoring, inexperience, unfamiliarity. prepositions: acquaintance _with_ a subject; _of_ one person _with_ another; _between_ persons. * * * * * acrimony. synonyms: acerbity, harshness, severity, tartness, asperity, malignity, sharpness, unkindness, bitterness, moroseness, sourness, virulence. causticity, _acerbity_ is a _sharpness_, with a touch of _bitterness_, which may arise from momentary annoyance or habitual impatience; _asperity_ is keener and more pronounced, denoting distinct irritation or vexation; in speech _asperity_ is often manifested by the tone of voice rather than by the words that are spoken. _acrimony_ in speech or temper is like a corrosive acid; it springs from settled character or deeply rooted feeling of aversion or unkindness. one might speak with momentary _asperity_ to his child, but not with _acrimony_, unless estrangement had begun. _malignity_ is the extreme of settled ill intent; _virulence_ is an envenomed hostility. _virulence_ of speech is a quality in language that makes the language seem as if exuding poison. _virulence_ is outspoken; _malignity_ may be covered with smooth and courteous phrase. we say intense _virulence_, deep _malignity_. _severity_ is always painful, and may be terrible, but carries ordinarily the implication, true or false, of justice. compare anger; bitter; enmity. antonyms: amiability, gentleness, kindness, smoothness, courtesy, good nature, mildness, sweetness. * * * * * act, _n._ synonyms: accomplishment, execution, movement, achievement, exercise, operation, action, exertion, performance, consummation, exploit, proceeding, deed, feat, transaction, doing, motion, work. effect, an _act_ is strictly and originally something accomplished by an exercise of power, in which sense it is synonymous with _deed_ or _effect_. _action_ is a _doing_. _act_ is therefore single, individual, momentary; _action_ a complex of _acts_, or a process, state, or habit of exerting power. we say a virtuous _act_, but rather a virtuous course of _action_. we speak of the _action_ of an acid upon a metal, not of its _act_. _act_ is used, also, for the simple _exertion_ of power; as, an _act_ of will. in this sense an _act_ does not necessarily imply an external _effect_, while an _action_ does. morally, the _act_ of murder is in the determination to kill; legally, the _act_ is not complete without the striking of the fatal blow. _act_ and _deed_ are both used for the thing done, but _act_ refers to the power put forth, _deed_ to the result accomplished; as, a voluntary _act_, a bad _deed_. in connection with other words _act_ is more usually qualified by the use of another noun, _action_ by an adjective preceding; we may say a kind _act_, though oftener an _act_ of kindness, but only a kind _action_, not an _action_ of kindness. as between _act_ and _deed_, _deed_ is commonly used of great, notable, and impressive _acts_, as are _achievement_, _exploit_, and _feat_. _festus_: we live in _deeds_, not years; in thoughts, not breaths. bailey _festus, a country town_, sc. . a _feat_ exhibits strength, skill, personal power, whether mental or physical, especially the latter; as, a _feat_ of arms, a _feat_ of memory. an _exploit_ is a conspicuous or glorious _deed_, involving valor or heroism, usually combined with strength, skill, loftiness of thought, and readiness of resource; an _achievement_ is the doing of something great and noteworthy; an _exploit_ is brilliant, but its effect may be transient; an _achievement_ is solid, and its effect enduring. _act_ and _action_ are both in contrast to all that is merely passive and receptive. the intensest _action_ is easier than passive endurance. antonyms: cessation, immobility, inertia, quiet, suffering, deliberation, inaction, passion,[a] repose, suspension. endurance, inactivity, quiescence, rest, [a] in philosophic sense. * * * * * active. synonyms: agile, energetic, officious, sprightly, alert, expeditious, prompt, spry, brisk, industrious, quick, supple, bustling, lively, ready, vigorous, busy, mobile, restless, wide awake. diligent, nimble, _active_ refers to both quickness and constancy of action; in the former sense it is allied with _agile_, _alert_, _brisk_, etc.; in the latter, with _busy_, _diligent_, _industrious_. the _active_ love employment, the _busy_ are actually employed, the _diligent_ and the _industrious_ are habitually _busy_. the _restless_ are _active_ from inability to keep quiet; their activity may be without purpose, or out of all proportion to the purpose contemplated. the _officious_ are undesirably _active_ in the affairs of others. compare alert; alive; meddlesome. antonyms: dull, inactive, lazy, slow, heavy, indolent, quiescent, sluggish, idle, inert, quiet, stupid. prepositions: active _in_ work, _in_ a cause; _for_ an object, as _for_ justice; _with_ persons or instrumentalities; _about_ something, as _about_ other people's business. * * * * * acumen. synonyms: acuteness, insight, perspicacity, sharpness, cleverness, keenness, sagacity, shrewdness. discernment, penetration, _sharpness_, _acuteness_, and _insight_, however keen, and _penetration_, however deep, fall short of the meaning of _acumen_, which implies also ability to use these qualities to advantage. there are persons of keen _insight_ and great _penetration_ to whom these powers are practically useless. _acumen_ is _sharpness_ to some purpose, and belongs to a mind that is comprehensive as well as keen. _cleverness_ is a practical aptitude for study or learning. _insight_ and _discernment_ are applied oftenest to the judgment of character; _penetration_ and _perspicacity_ to other subjects of knowledge. _sagacity_ is an uncultured skill in using quick perceptions for a desired end, generally in practical affairs; _acumen_ may increase with study, and applies to the most erudite matters. _shrewdness_ is _keenness_ or _sagacity_, often with a somewhat evil bias, as ready to take advantage of duller intellects. _perspicacity_ is the power to see clearly through that which is difficult or involved. we speak of the _acuteness_ of an observer or a reasoner, the _insight_ and _discernment_ of a student, a clergyman, or a merchant, the _sagacity_ of a hound, the _keenness_ of a debater, the _shrewdness_ of a usurer, the _penetration_, _perspicacity_, and _acumen_ of a philosopher. antonyms: bluntness, dulness, obtuseness, stupidity. * * * * * add. synonyms: adjoin, annex, augment, extend, make up, affix, append, cast up, increase, subjoin, amplify, attach, enlarge, join on, sum up. to _add_ is to _increase_ by _adjoining_ or _uniting_: in distinction from multiply, which is to _increase_ by repeating. to _augment_ a thing is to _increase_ it by any means, but this word is seldom used directly of material objects; we do not _augment_ a house, a farm, a nation, etc. we may _enlarge_ a house, a farm, or an empire, _extend_ influence or dominion, _augment_ riches, power or influence, _attach_ or _annex_ a building to one that it _adjoins_ or papers to the document they refer to, _annex_ a clause or a codicil, _affix_ a seal or a signature, _annex_ a territory, _attach_ a condition to a promise. a speaker may _amplify_ a discourse by a fuller treatment throughout than was originally planned, or he may _append_ or _subjoin_ certain remarks without change of what has gone before. we _cast up_ or _sum up_ an account, though _add up_ and _make up_ are now more usual expressions. antonyms: abstract, diminish, lessen, remove, withdraw. deduct, dissever, reduce, subtract, preposition: other items are to be added _to_ the account. * * * * * addicted. synonyms: abandoned, devoted, given over, inclined, accustomed, disposed, given up, prone, attached, given, habituated, wedded. one is _addicted_ to that which he has allowed to gain a strong, habitual, and enduring hold upon action, inclination, or involuntary tendency, as to a habit or indulgence. a man may be _accustomed_ to labor, _attached_ to his profession, _devoted_ to his religion, _given_ to study or to gluttony (in the bad sense, _given over_, or _given up_, is a stronger and more hopeless expression, as is _abandoned_). one _inclined_ to luxury may become _habituated_ to poverty. one is _wedded_ to that which has become a second nature; as, one is _wedded_ to science or to art. _prone_ is used only in a bad sense, and generally of natural tendencies; as, our hearts are _prone_ to evil. _abandoned_ tells of the acquired viciousness of one who has given himself up to wickedness. _addicted_ may be used in a good, but more frequently a bad sense; as, _addicted_ to study; _addicted_ to drink. _devoted_ is used chiefly in the good sense; as, a mother's _devoted_ affection. antonyms: averse, disinclined, indisposed, unaccustomed. preposition: addicted _to_ vice. * * * * * address, _v._ synonyms: cost, approach, hail, speak to, apostrophize, court, salute, woo. appeal, greet, to _accost_ is to speak first, to friend or stranger, generally with a view to opening conversation; _greet_ is not so distinctly limited, since one may return another's _greeting_; _greet_ and _hail_ may imply but a passing word; _greeting_ may be altogether silent; to _hail_ is to _greet_ in a loud-voiced and commonly hearty and joyous way, as appears in the expression "_hail_ fellow, well met." to _salute_ is to _greet_ with special token of respect, as a soldier his commander. to _apostrophize_ is to solemnly _address_ some person or personified attribute apart from the audience to whom one is speaking; as, a preacher may _apostrophize_ virtue, the saints of old, or even the deity. to _appeal_ is strictly to call for some form of help or support. _address_ is slightly more formal than _accost_ or _greet_, though it may often be interchanged with them. one may _address_ another at considerable length or in writing; he _accosts_ orally and briefly. antonyms: avoid, elude, overlook, pass by, cut, ignore, pass, shun. prepositions: address the memorial _to_ the legislature; the president addressed the people _in_ an eloquent speech; he addressed an intruder _with_ indignation. * * * * * address, _n._ synonyms: adroitness, discretion, manners, readiness, courtesy, ingenuity, politeness, tact. dexterity, _address_ is that indefinable something which enables a man to gain his object without seeming exertion or contest, and generally with the favor and approval of those with whom he deals. it is a general power to direct to the matter in hand whatever qualities are most needed for it at the moment. it includes _adroitness_ and _discretion_ to know what to do or say and what to avoid; _ingenuity_ to devise; _readiness_ to speak or act; the _dexterity_ that comes of practise; and _tact_, which is the power of fine touch as applied to human character and feeling. _courtesy_ and _politeness_ are indispensable elements of good _address_. compare speech. antonyms: awkwardness, clumsiness, ill-breeding, stupidity, boorishness, fatuity, ill manners, unmannerliness, clownishness, folly, rudeness, unwisdom. prepositions: address _in_ dealing with opponents; the address _of_ an accomplished intriguer; an address _to_ the audience. * * * * * adequate. synonyms: able, competent, fitted, satisfactory, adapted, equal, fitting, sufficient, capable, fit, qualified, suitable. commensurate, _adequate_, _commensurate_, and _sufficient_ signify _equal_ to some given occasion or work; as, a sum _sufficient_ to meet expenses; an _adequate_ remedy for the disease. _commensurate_ is the more precise and learned word, signifying that which exactly measures the matter in question. _adapted_, _fit_, _suitable_, and _qualified_ refer to the qualities which match or suit the occasion. a clergyman may have strength _adequate_ to the work of a porter; but that would not be a _fit_ or _suitable_ occupation for him. work is _satisfactory_ if it satisfies those for whom it is done, though it may be very poor work judged by some higher standard. _qualified_ refers to acquired abilities; _competent_ to both natural and acquired; a _qualified_ teacher may be no longer _competent_, by reason of ill health. _able_ and _capable_ suggest general ability and reserved power, _able_ being the higher word of the two. an _able_ man will do something well in any position. a _capable_ man will come up to any ordinary demand. we say an _able_ orator, a _capable_ accountant. antonyms: disqualified, inferior, unequal, unsatisfactory, useless, inadequate, insufficient, unfit, unsuitable, worthless. incompetent, poor, unqualified, prepositions: adequate _to_ the demand; _for_ the purpose. * * * * * adherent. synonyms: aid, ally, disciple, partisan, supporter. aider, backer, follower, an _adherent_ is one who is devoted or attached to a person, party, principle, cause, creed, or the like. one may be an _aider_ and _supporter_ of a party or church, while not an _adherent_ to all its doctrines or claims. an _ally_ is more independent still, as he may differ on every point except the specific ground of union. the _allies_ who overthrew napoleon were united only against him. _allies_ are regarded as equals; _adherents_ and _disciples_ are followers. the _adherent_ depends more on his individual judgment, the _disciple_ is more subject to command and instruction; thus we say the _disciples_ rather than the _adherents_ of christ. _partisan_ has the narrow and odious sense of adhesion to a party, right or wrong. one may be an _adherent_ or _supporter_ of a party and not a _partisan_. _backer_ is a sporting and theatrical word, personal in its application, and not in the best usage. compare accessory. antonyms: adversary, betrayer, enemy, opponent, traitor. antagonist, deserter, hater, renegade, prepositions: adherents _to_ principle; adherents _of_ luther. * * * * * adhesive. synonyms: cohesive, gummy, sticky, viscous. glutinous, sticking, viscid, _adhesive_ is the scientific, _sticking_ or _sticky_ the popular word. that which is _adhesive_ tends to join itself to the surface of any other body with which it is placed in contact; _cohesive_ expresses the tendency of particles of the same substance to hold together. polished plate glass is not _adhesive_, but such plates packed together are intensely _cohesive_. an _adhesive_ plaster is in popular language a _sticking_-plaster. _sticky_ expresses a more limited, and generally annoying, degree of the same quality. _glutinous_, _gummy_, _viscid_, and _viscous_ are applied to fluid or semi-fluid substances, as pitch or tar. antonyms: free, inadhesive, loose, separable. preposition: the stiff, wet clay, adhesive _to_ the foot, impeded progress. * * * * * adjacent. synonyms: abutting, bordering, contiguous, neighboring, adjoining, close, coterminous, next, attached, conterminous, near, nigh. beside, _adjacent_ farms may not be connected; if _adjoining_, they meet at the boundary-line. _conterminous_ would imply that their dimensions were exactly equal on the side where they adjoin. _contiguous_ may be used for either _adjacent_ or _adjoining_. _abutting_ refers rather to the end of one building or estate than to the neighborhood of another. buildings may be _adjacent_ or _adjoining_ that are not _attached_. _near_ is a relative word, places being called _near_ upon the railroad which would elsewhere be deemed remote. _neighboring_ always implies such proximity that the inhabitants may be neighbors. _next_ views some object as the nearest of several or many; _next_ neighbor implies a neighborhood. antonyms: detached, disconnected, disjoined, distant, remote, separate. preposition: the farm was adjacent _to_ the village. * * * * * admire. synonyms: adore, delight in, extol, respect, venerate, applaud, enjoy, honor, revere, wonder. approve, esteem, love, in the old sense of _wonder_, _admire_ is practically obsolete; the word now expresses a delight and approval, in which the element of wonder unconsciously mingles. we _admire_ beauty in nature and art, _delight in_ the innocent happiness of children, _enjoy_ books or society, a walk or a dinner. we _approve_ what is excellent, _applaud_ heroic deeds, _esteem_ the good, _love_ our friends. we _honor_ and _respect_ noble character wherever found; we _revere_ and _venerate_ it in the aged. we _extol_ the goodness and _adore_ the majesty and power of god. antonyms: abhor, contemn, detest, execrate, ridicule, abominate, despise, dislike, hate, scorn. preposition: _admire at_ may still very rarely be found in the old sense of _wonder at_. * * * * * adorn. synonyms: beautify, decorate, garnish, illustrate, bedeck, embellish, gild, ornament. deck, to _embellish_ is to brighten and enliven by adding something that is not necessarily or very closely connected with that to which it is added; to _illustrate_ is to add something so far like in kind as to cast a side-light upon the principal matter. an author _embellishes_ his narrative with fine descriptions, the artist _illustrates_ it with beautiful engravings, the binder _gilds_ and _decorates_ the volume. _garnish_ is on a lower plane; as, the feast was _garnished_ with flowers. _deck_ and _bedeck_ are commonly said of apparel; as, a mother _bedecks_ her daughter with silk and jewels. to _adorn_ and to _ornament_ alike signify to add that which makes anything beautiful and attractive, but _ornament_ is more exclusively on the material plane; as, the gateway was _ornamented_ with delicate carving. _adorn_ is more lofty and spiritual, referring to a beauty which is not material, and can not be put on by ornaments or decorations, but seems in perfect harmony and unity with that to which it adds a grace; if we say, the gateway was _adorned_ with beautiful carving, we imply a unity and loftiness of design such as _ornamented_ can not express. we say of some admirable scholar or statesman, "he touched nothing that he did not _adorn_." at church, with meek and unaffected grace, his looks _adorned_ the venerable place. goldsmith _deserted village_, l. . antonyms: deface, deform, disfigure, mar, spoil. preposition: adorn his temples _with_ a coronet. * * * * * affront. synonyms: aggravate, exasperate, offend, vex, annoy, insult, provoke, wound. displease, irritate, tease, one may be _annoyed_ by the well-meaning awkwardness of a servant, _irritated_ by a tight shoe or a thoughtless remark, _vexed_ at some careless neglect or needless misfortune, _wounded_ by the ingratitude of child or friend. to _tease_ is to give some slight and perhaps playful annoyance. _aggravate_ in the sense of _offend_ is colloquial. to _provoke_, literally to call out or challenge, is to begin a contest; one _provokes_ another to violence. to _affront_ is to offer some defiant offense or indignity, as it were, to one's face; it is somewhat less than to _insult_. compare pique. antonyms: conciliate, content, gratify, honor, please. * * * * * agent. synonyms: actor, factor, means, operator, promoter. doer, instrument, mover, performer, in strict philosophical usage, the prime _mover_ or _doer_ of an act is the _agent_. thus we speak of man as a voluntary _agent_, a free _agent_. but in common usage, especially in business, an _agent_ is not the prime _actor_, but only an _instrument_ or _factor_, acting under orders or instructions. compare cause. antonyms: chief, inventor, originator, principal. prepositions: an agent _of_ the company _for_ selling, etc. * * * * * agree. synonyms: accede, admit, coincide, concur, accept, approve, combine, consent, accord, assent, comply, harmonize. acquiesce, _agree_ is the most general term of this group, signifying to have like qualities, proportions, views, or inclinations, so as to be free from jar, conflict, or contradiction in a given relation. to _concur_ is to _agree_ in general; to _coincide_ is to _agree_ in every particular. whether in application to persons or things, _concur_ tends to expression in action more than _coincide_; we may either _concur_ or _coincide_ in an opinion, but _concur_ in a decision; views _coincide_, causes _concur_. one _accepts_ another's terms, _complies_ with his wishes, _admits_ his statement, _approves_ his plan, _conforms_ to his views of doctrine or duty, _accedes_ or _consents_ to his proposal. _accede_ expresses the more formal agreement, _consent_ the more complete. to _assent_ is an act of the understanding; to _consent_, of the will. we may _concur_ or _agree_ with others, either in opinion or decision. one may silently _acquiesce_ in that which does not meet his views, but which he does not care to contest. he _admits_ the charge brought, or the statement made, by another--_admit_ always carrying a suggestion of reluctance. _assent_ is sometimes used for a mild form of _consent_, as if agreement in the opinion assured approval of the decision. antonyms: contend, demur, disagree, oppose, contradict, deny, dispute, protest, decline, differ, dissent, refuse. prepositions: i agree _in_ opinion _with_ the speaker; _to_ the terms proposed; persons agree _on_ or _upon_ a statement of principles, rules, etc.; we must agree _among_ ourselves. * * * * * agriculture. synonyms: cultivation, gardening, kitchen-gardening, culture, horticulture, market-gardening, farming, husbandry, tillage. floriculture, _agriculture_ is the generic term, including at once the science, the art, and the process of supplying human wants by raising the products of the soil, and by the associated industries; _farming_ is the practise of _agriculture_ as a business; there may be theoretical _agriculture_, but not theoretical _farming_; we speak of the science of _agriculture_, the business of _farming_; scientific _agriculture_ may be wholly in books; scientific _farming_ is practised upon the land; we say an _agricultural_ college rather than a college of _farming_. _farming_ refers to the _cultivation_ of considerable portions of land, and the raising of the coarser crops; _gardening_ is the close _cultivation_ of a small area for small fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc., and while it may be done upon a farm is yet a distinct industry. _gardening_ in general, _kitchen-gardening_, the _cultivation_ of vegetables, etc., for the household, _market-gardening_, the raising of the same for sale, _floriculture_, the _culture_ of flowers, and _horticulture_, the _culture_ of fruits, flowers, or vegetables, are all departments of _agriculture_, but not strictly nor ordinarily of _farming_; _farming_ is itself one department of _agriculture_. _husbandry_ is a general word for any form of practical _agriculture_, but is now chiefly poetical. _tillage_ refers directly to the work bestowed upon the land, as plowing, manuring, etc.; _cultivation_ refers especially to the processes that bring forward the crop; we speak of the _tillage_ of the soil, the _cultivation_ of corn; we also speak of land as in a state of _cultivation_, under _cultivation_, etc. _culture_ is now applied to the careful development of any product to a state of perfection, especially by care through successive generations; the choice varieties of the strawberry have been produced by wise and patient _culture_; a good crop in any year is the result of good _cultivation_. * * * * * aim. synonyms: aspiration, endeavor, intention, tendency. design, goal, mark, determination, inclination, object, end, intent, purpose, the _aim_ is the direction in which one shoots, or sometimes that which is aimed at. the _mark_ is that at which one shoots; the _goal_, that toward which one runs. all alike indicate the direction of _endeavor_. the _end_ is the point at which one expects or hopes to close his labors; the _object_, that which he would grasp as the reward of his labors. _aspiration_, _design_, _endeavor_, _purpose_, referring to the mental acts by which the _aim_ is attained, are often used as interchangeable with _aim_. _aspiration_ applies to what are viewed as noble _aims_; _endeavor_, _design_, _intention_, _purpose_, indifferently to the best or worst. _aspiration_ has less of decision than the other terms; one may aspire to an _object_, and yet lack the fixedness of _purpose_ by which alone it can be attained. _purpose_ is stronger than _intention_. _design_ especially denotes the adaptation of means to an end; _endeavor_ refers to the exertions by which it is to be attained. one whose _aims_ are worthy, whose _aspirations_ are high, whose _designs_ are wise, and whose _purposes_ are steadfast, may hope to reach the _goal_ of his ambition, and will surely win some _object_ worthy of a life's _endeavor_. compare ambition; design. antonyms: aimlessness, heedlessness, negligence, purposelessness, avoidance, neglect, oversight, thoughtlessness. carelessness, * * * * * air. synonyms: appearance, demeanor, manner, sort, bearing, expression, mien, style, behavior, fashion, port, way. carriage, look, _air_ is that combination of qualities which makes the entire impression we receive in a person's presence; as, we say he has the _air_ of a scholar, or the _air_ of a villain. _appearance_ refers more to the dress and other externals. we might say of a travel-soiled pedestrian, he has the _appearance_ of a tramp, but the _air_ of a gentleman. _expression_ and _look_ especially refer to the face. _expression_ is oftenest applied to that which is habitual; as, he has a pleasant _expression_ of countenance; _look_ may be momentary; as, a _look_ of dismay passed over his face. we may, however, speak of the _look_ or _looks_ as indicating all that we look at; as, he had the _look_ of an adventurer; i did not like his _looks_. _bearing_ is rather a lofty word; as, he has a noble _bearing_; _port_ is practically identical in meaning with _bearing_, but is more exclusively a literary word. _carriage_, too, is generally used in a good sense; as, that lady has a good _carriage_. _mien_ is closely synonymous with _air_, but less often used in a bad sense. we say a rakish _air_ rather than a rakish _mien_. _mien_ may be used to express some prevailing feeling; as, "an indignant _mien_." _demeanor_ goes beyond _appearance_, including conduct, behavior; as, a modest _demeanor_. _manner_ and _style_ are, in large part at least, acquired. compare behavior. * * * * * airy. synonyms: aerial, ethereal, frolicsome, joyous, lively, animated, fairylike, gay, light, sprightly. _aerial_ and _airy_ both signify of or belonging to the air, but _airy_ also describes that which seems as if made of air; we speak of _airy_ shapes, _airy_ nothings, where we could not well say _aerial_; _ethereal_ describes its object as belonging to the upper air, the pure ether, and so, often, heavenly. _sprightly_, spiritlike, refers to light, free, cheerful activity of mind and body. that which is _lively_ or _animated_ may be agreeable or the reverse; as, an _animated_ discussion; a _lively_ company. antonyms: clumsy, heavy, ponderous, sluggish, wooden. dull, inert, slow, stony, * * * * * alarm. synonyms: affright, disquietude, fright, solicitude, apprehension, dread, misgiving, terror, consternation, fear, panic, timidity. dismay, _alarm_, according to its derivation _all'arme_, "to arms," is an arousing to meet and repel danger, and may be quite consistent with true courage. _affright_ and _fright_ express sudden _fear_ which, for the time at least, overwhelms courage. the sentinel discovers with _alarm_ the sudden approach of the enemy; the unarmed villagers view it with _affright_. _apprehension_, _disquietude_, _dread_, _misgiving_, and _solicitude_ are in anticipation of danger; _consternation_, _dismay_, and _terror_ are overwhelming _fear_, generally in the actual presence of that which is terrible, though these words also may have an anticipative force. _timidity_ is a quality, habit, or condition, a readiness to be affected with _fear_. a person of great _timidity_ is constantly liable to needless _alarm_ and even _terror_. compare fear. antonyms: assurance, calmness, confidence, repose, security. prepositions: alarm was felt _in_ the camp, _among_ the soldiers, _at_ the news. * * * * * alert. synonyms: active, lively, prepared, vigilant, brisk, nimble, prompt, watchful, hustling, on the watch, ready, wide-awake. _alert_, _ready_, and _wide-awake_ refer to a watchful promptness for action. _ready_ suggests thoughtful preparation; the wandering indian is _alert_, the trained soldier is _ready_. _ready_ expresses more life and vigor than _prepared_. the gun is _prepared_; the man is _ready_. _prompt_ expresses readiness for appointment or demand at the required moment. the good general is _ready_ for emergencies, _alert_ to perceive opportunity or peril, _prompt_ to seize occasion. the sense of _brisk_, _nimble_ is the secondary and now less common signification of _alert_. compare active; alive; nimble; vigilant. antonyms: drowsy, dull, heavy, inactive, slow, sluggish, stupid. * * * * * alien, _a._ synonyms: conflicting, distant, inappropriate, strange, contradictory, foreign, irrelevant, unconnected, contrary, hostile, opposed, unlike. contrasted, impertinent, remote, _foreign_ refers to difference of birth, _alien_ to difference of allegiance. in their figurative use, that is _foreign_ which is _remote_, _unlike_, or _unconnected_; that is _alien_ which is _conflicting_, _hostile_, or _opposed_. _impertinent_ and _irrelevant_ matters can not claim consideration in a certain connection; _inappropriate_ matters could not properly be considered. compare alien, _n._; contrast, _v._ antonyms: akin, apropos, germane, proper, appropriate, essential, pertinent, relevant. prepositions: such a purpose was alien _to_ (or _from_) my thought: _to_ preferable. * * * * * alien, _n._ synonyms: foreigner, stranger. a naturalized citizen is not an _alien_, though a _foreigner_ by birth, and perhaps a _stranger_ in the place where he resides. a person of foreign birth not naturalized is an _alien_, though he may have been resident in the country a large part of a lifetime, and ceased to be a _stranger_ to its people or institutions. he is an _alien_ in one country if his allegiance is to another. the people of any country still residing in their own land are, strictly speaking, _foreigners_ to the people of all other countries, rather than _aliens_; but _alien_ and _foreigner_ are often used synonymously. antonyms: citizen, fellow-countryman, native-born inhabitant, countryman, native, naturalized person. prepositions: aliens _to_ (more rarely _from_) our nation and laws; aliens _in_ our land, _among_ our people. * * * * * alike. synonyms: akin, equivalent, kindred, same, analogous, homogeneous, like, similar, equal, identical, resembling, uniform. _alike_ is a comprehensive word, signifying as applied to two or more objects that some or all qualities of one are the same as those of the other or others; by modifiers _alike_ may be made to express more or less resemblance; as, these houses are somewhat (_i. e._, partially) _alike_; or, these houses are exactly (_i. e._, in all respects) _alike_. cotton and wool are _alike_ in this, that they can both be woven into cloth. substances are _homogeneous_ which are made up of elements of the _same_ kind, or which are the _same_ in structure. two pieces of iron may be _homogeneous_ in material, while not _alike_ in size or shape. in geometry, two triangles are _equal_ when they can be laid over one another, and fit, line for line and angle for angle; they are _equivalent_ when they simply contain the same amount of space. an _identical_ proposition is one that says the same thing precisely in subject and predicate. _similar_ refers to close resemblance, which yet leaves room for question or denial of complete likeness or identity. to say "this is the _identical_ man," is to say not merely that he is _similar_ to the one i have in mind, but that he is the very _same_ person. things are _analogous_ when they are _similar_ in idea, plan, use, or character, tho perhaps quite unlike in appearance; as, the gills of fishes are said to be _analogous_ to the lungs in terrestrial animals. antonyms: different, dissimilar, distinct, heterogeneous, unlike. prepositions: the specimens are alike _in_ kind; they are all alike _to_ me. * * * * * alive. synonyms: active, breathing, live, quick, alert, brisk, lively, subsisting, animate, existent, living, vivacious. animated, existing, _alive_ applies to all degrees of life, from that which shows one to be barely _existing_ or _existent_ as a living thing, as when we say he is just _alive_, to that which implies the very utmost of vitality and power, as in the words "he is all _alive_," "thoroughly _alive_." so the word _quick_, which began by signifying "having life," is now mostly applied to energy of life as shown in swiftness of action. _breathing_ is capable of like contrast. we say of a dying man, he is still _breathing_; or we speak of a _breathing_ statue, or "_breathing_ and sounding, beauteous battle," tennyson _princess_ can. v, l. , where it means having, or seeming to have, full and vigorous breath, abundant life. compare active; alert; nimble. antonyms: dead, defunct, dull, lifeless, deceased, dispirited, inanimate, spiritless. prepositions: alive _in_ every nerve; alive _to_ every noble impulse; alive _with_ fervor, hope, resolve; alive _through_ all his being. * * * * * allay. synonyms: alleviate, compose, quiet, still, appease, mollify, soothe, tranquilize. calm, pacify, _allay_ and _alleviate_ are closely kindred in signification, and have been often interchanged in usage. but, in strictness, to _allay_ is to lay to rest, _quiet_ or _soothe_ that which is excited; to _alleviate_, on the other hand, is to lighten a burden. we _allay_ suffering by using means to _soothe_ and _tranquilize_ the sufferer; we _alleviate_ suffering by doing something toward removal of the cause, so that there is less to suffer; where the trouble is wholly or chiefly in the excitement, to _allay_ the excitement is virtually to remove the trouble; as, to _allay_ rage or panic; we _alleviate_ poverty, but do not _allay_ it. _pacify_, directly from the latin, and _appease_, from the latin through the french, signify to bring to peace; to _mollify_ is to soften; to _calm_, _quiet_, or _tranquilize_ is to make still; _compose_, to place together, unite, adjust to a calm and settled condition; to _soothe_ (originally to assent to, humor) is to bring to pleased quietude. we _allay_ excitement, _appease_ a tumult, _calm_ agitation, _compose_ our feelings or countenance, _pacify_ the quarrelsome, _quiet_ the boisterous or clamorous, _soothe_ grief or distress. compare alleviate. antonyms: agitate, excite, kindle, rouse, stir up. arouse, fan, provoke, stir, * * * * * allege. synonyms: adduce, asseverate, claim, maintain, produce, advance, assign, declare, offer, say, affirm, aver, introduce, plead, state. assert, cite, to _allege_ is formally to state as true or capable of proof, but without proving. to _adduce_, literally to lead to, is to bring the evidence up to what has been _alleged_. _adduce_ is a secondary word; nothing can be _adduced_ in evidence till something has been _stated_ or _alleged_, which the evidence is to sustain. an _alleged_ fact stands open to question or doubt. to speak of an _alleged_ document, an _alleged_ will, an _alleged_ crime, is either to question, or at least very carefully to refrain from admitting, that the document exists, that the will is genuine, or that the crime has been committed. _alleged_ is, however, respectful; to speak of the "so-called" will or deed, etc., would be to cast discredit upon the document, and imply that the speaker was ready to brand it as unquestionably spurious; _alleged_ simply concedes nothing and leaves the question open. to _produce_ is to bring forward, as, for instance, papers or persons. _adduce_ is not used of persons; of them we say _introduce_ or _produce_. when an _alleged_ criminal is brought to trial, the counsel on either side are accustomed to _advance_ a theory, and _adduce_ the strongest possible evidence in its support; they will _produce_ documents and witnesses, _cite_ precedents, _assign_ reasons, _introduce_ suggestions, _offer_ pleas. the accused will usually _assert_ his innocence. compare state. * * * * * allegiance. synonyms: devotion, fealty, loyalty, obedience, subjection. faithfulness, homage, _allegiance_ is the obligation of fidelity and obedience that an individual owes to his government or sovereign, in return for the protection he receives. the feudal uses of these words have mostly passed away with the state of society that gave them birth; but their origin still colors their present meaning. a patriotic american feels an enthusiastic _loyalty_ to the republic; he takes, on occasion, an oath of _allegiance_ to the government, but his _loyalty_ will lead him to do more than mere _allegiance_ could demand; he pays _homage_ to god alone, as the only king and lord, or to those principles of right that are spiritually supreme; he acknowledges the duty of _obedience_ to all rightful authority; he resents the idea of _subjection_. _fealty_ is becoming somewhat rare, except in elevated or poetic style. we prefer to speak of the _faithfulness_ rather than the _fealty_ of citizen, wife, or friend. antonyms: disaffection, disloyalty, rebellion, sedition, treason. prepositions: we honor the allegiance _of_ the citizen _to_ the government; the government has a right to allegiance _from_ the citizen. * * * * * allegory. synonyms: fable, fiction, illustration, metaphor, parable, simile. in modern usage we may say that an _allegory_ is an extended _simile_, while a _metaphor_ is an abbreviated _simile_ contained often in a phrase, perhaps in a word. the _simile_ carries its comparison on the surface, in the words _as_, _like_, or similar expressions; the _metaphor_ is given directly without any note of comparison. the _allegory_, _parable_, or _fable_ tells its story as if true, leaving the reader or hearer to discover its fictitious character and learn its lesson. all these are, in strict definition, _fictions_; but the word _fiction_ is now applied almost exclusively to novels or romances. an _allegory_ is a moral or religious tale, of which the moral lesson is the substance, and all descriptions and incidents but accessories, as in "the pilgrim's progress." a _fable_ is generally briefer, representing animals as the speakers and actors, and commonly conveying some lesson of practical wisdom or shrewdness, as "the _fables_ of Æsop." a _parable_ is exclusively moral or religious, briefer and less adorned than an _allegory_, with its lesson more immediately discernible, given, as it were, at a stroke. any comparison, analogy, instance, example, tale, anecdote, or the like which serves to let in light upon a subject may be called an _illustration_, this word in its widest use including all the rest. compare fiction; story. antonyms: chronicle, fact, history, narrative, record. * * * * * alleviate. synonyms: abate, lighten, reduce, remove, assuage, mitigate, relieve, soften. lessen, moderate, etymologically, to _alleviate_ is to lift a burden toward oneself, and so _lighten_ it for the bearer; to _relieve_ is to lift it back from the bearer, nearly or quite away; to _remove_ is to take it away altogether. _alleviate_ is thus less than _relieve_; _relieve_, ordinarily, less than _remove_. we _alleviate_, _relieve_ or _remove_ the trouble; we _relieve_, not _alleviate_, the sufferer. _assuage_ is, by derivation, to sweeten; _mitigate_, to make mild; _moderate_, to bring within measure; _abate_, to beat down, and so make less. we _abate_ a fever; _lessen_ anxiety; _moderate_ passions or desires; _lighten_ burdens; _mitigate_ or _alleviate_ pain; _reduce_ inflammation; _soften_, _assuage_, or _moderate_ grief; we _lighten_ or _mitigate_ punishments; we _relieve_ any suffering of body or mind that admits of help, comfort, or remedy. _alleviate_ has been often confused with _allay_. compare allay. antonyms: aggravate, embitter, heighten, intensify, make worse. augment, enhance, increase, magnify, * * * * * alliance. synonyms: coalition, confederation, fusion, partnership, compact, federation, league, union. confederacy, _alliance_ is in its most common use a connection formed by treaty between sovereign states as for mutual aid in war. _partnership_ is a mercantile word; _alliance_ chiefly political or matrimonial. _coalition_ is oftenest used of political parties; _fusion_ is now the more common word in this sense. in an _alliance_ between nations there is no surrender of sovereignty, and no _union_ except for a specified time and purpose. _league_ and _alliance_ are used with scarcely perceptible difference of meaning. in a _confederacy_ or _confederation_ there is an attempt to unite separate states in a general government without surrender of sovereignty. _union_ implies so much concession as to make the separate states substantially one. _federation_ is mainly a poetic and rhetorical word expressing something of the same thought, as in tennyson's "_federation_ of the world," _locksley hall_, l. . the united states is not a _confederacy_ nor an _alliance_; the nation might be called a _federation_, but prefers to be styled a federal _union_. antonyms: antagonism, disunion, enmity, schism, separation, discord, divorce, hostility, secession, war. prepositions: alliance _with_ a neighboring people; _against_ the common enemy; _for_ offense and defense; alliance _of_, _between_, or _among_ nations. * * * * * allot. synonyms: appoint, destine, give, portion out, apportion, distribute, grant, select, assign, divide, mete out, set apart. award, _allot_, originally to assign by lot, applies to the giving of a definite thing to a certain person. a portion or extent of time is _allotted_; as, i expect to live out my _allotted_ time. a definite period is _appointed_; as, the audience assembled at the _appointed_ hour. _allot_ may also refer to space; as, to _allot_ a plot of ground for a cemetery; but we now oftener use _select_, _set apart_, or _assign_. _allot_ is not now used of persons. _appoint_ may be used of time, space, or person; as, the _appointed_ day; the _appointed_ place; an officer was _appointed_ to this station. _destine_ may also refer to time, place, or person, but it always has reference to what is considerably in the future; a man _appoints_ to meet his friend in five minutes; he _destines_ his son to follow his own profession. _assign_ is rarely used of time, but rather of places, persons, or things. we _assign_ a work to be done and _assign_ a man to do it, who, if he fails, must _assign_ a reason for not doing it. that which is _allotted_, _appointed_, or _assigned_ is more or less arbitrary; that which is _awarded_ is the due requital of something the receiver has done, and he has right and claim to it; as, the medal was _awarded_ for valor. compare apportion. antonyms: appropriate, deny, resume, seize, confiscate, refuse, retain, withhold. prepositions: allot _to_ a company _for_ a purpose. * * * * * allow. synonyms: admit, consent to, let, sanction, tolerate, concede, grant, permit, suffer, yield. we _allow_ that which we do not attempt to hinder; we _permit_ that to which we give some express authorization. when this is given verbally it is called permission; when in writing it is commonly called a permit. there are establishments that any one will be _allowed_ to visit without challenge or hindrance; there are others that no one is _allowed_ to visit without a permit from the manager; there are others to which visitors are _admitted_ at specified times, without a formal permit. we _allow_ a child's innocent intrusion; we _concede_ a right; _grant_ a request; _consent_ to a sale of property; _permit_ an inspection of accounts; _sanction_ a marriage; _tolerate_ the rudeness of a well-meaning servant; _submit_ to a surgical operation; _yield_ to a demand or necessity against our wish or will, or _yield_ something under compulsion; as, the sheriff _yielded_ the keys at the muzzle of a revolver, and _allowed_ the mob to enter. _suffer_, in the sense of mild concession, is now becoming rare, its place being taken by _allow_, _permit_, or _tolerate_. compare permission. antonyms: deny, disapprove, protest, reject, withstand. disallow, forbid, refuse, resist, see also synonyms for prohibit. prepositions: to allow _of_ (in best recent usage, simply to _allow_) such an action; allow one _in_ such a course; allow _for_ spending-money. * * * * * alloy. synonyms: admixture, adulteration, debasement, deterioration. _alloy_ may be either some admixture of baser with precious metal, as for giving hardness to coin or the like, or it may be a compound or mixture of two or more metals. _adulteration_, _debasement_, and _deterioration_ are always used in the bad sense; _admixture_ is neutral, and may be good or bad; _alloy_ is commonly good in the literal sense. an excess of _alloy_ virtually amounts to _adulteration_; but _adulteration_ is now mostly restricted to articles used for food, drink, medicine, and kindred uses. in the figurative sense, as applied to character, etc., _alloy_ is unfavorable, because there the only standard is perfection. * * * * * allude. synonyms: advert, indicate, intimate, point, signify, hint, insinuate, mention, refer, suggest. imply, _advert_, _mention_, and _refer_ are used of language that more or less distinctly utters a certain thought; the others of language from which it may be inferred. we _allude_ to a matter slightly, perhaps by a word or phrase, as it were in byplay; we _advert_ to it when we turn from our path to treat it; we _refer_ to it by any clear utterance that distinctly turns the mind or attention to it; as, marginal figures _refer_ to a parallel passage; we _mention_ a thing by explicit word, as by naming it. the speaker _adverted_ to the recent disturbances and the remissness of certain public officers; tho he _mentioned_ no name, it was easy to see to whom he _alluded_. one may _hint_ at a thing in a friendly way, but what is _insinuated_ is always unfavorable, generally both hostile and cowardly. one may _indicate_ his wishes, _intimate_ his plans, _imply_ his opinion, _signify_ his will, _suggest_ a course of action. compare suggestion. preposition: the passage evidently alludes _to_ the jewish passover. * * * * * allure. synonyms: attract, captivate, decoy, entice, lure, tempt, cajole, coax, draw, inveigle, seduce, win. to _allure_ is to _draw_ as with a lure by some charm or some prospect of pleasure or advantage. we may _attract_ others to a certain thing without intent; as, the good unconsciously _attract_ others to virtue. we may _allure_ either to that which is evil or to that which is good and noble, by purpose and endeavor, as in the familiar line, "_allured_ to brighter worlds, and led the way," goldsmith _deserted village_, l. . _lure_ is rather more akin to the physical nature. it is the word we would use of drawing on an animal. _coax_ expresses the attraction of the person, not of the thing. a man may be _coaxed_ to that which is by no means _alluring_. _cajole_ and _decoy_ carry the idea of deceiving and ensnaring. to _inveigle_ is to lead one blindly in. to _tempt_ is to endeavor to lead one wrong; to _seduce_ is to succeed in _winning_ one from good to ill. _win_ may be used in either a bad or a good sense, in which latter it surpasses the highest sense of _allure_, because it succeeds in that which _allure_ attempts; as, "he that _winneth_ souls is wise," _prov._ xi, . antonyms: chill, damp, deter, dissuade, drive away, repel, warn. prepositions: allure _to_ a course; allure _by_ hopes; allure _from_ evil _to_ good. * * * * * also. synonyms: as well, in addition, likewise, too, as well as, in like manner, similarly, withal. besides, while some distinctions between these words and phrases will appear to the careful student, yet in practise the choice between them is largely to secure euphony and avoid repetition. the words fall into two groups; _as well as_, _besides_, _in addition_, _too_, _withal_, simply add a fact or thought; _also_ (all so), _in like manner_, _likewise_, _similarly_, affirm that what is added is like that to which it is added. _as well_ follows the word or phrase to which it is joined. we can say the singers _as well as_ the players, or the players, and the singers _as well_. antonyms: but, nevertheless, on the contrary, yet. in spite of, notwithstanding, on the other hand, * * * * * alternative. synonyms: choice, election, option, pick, preference, resource. a _choice_ may be among many things; an _alternative_ is in the strictest sense a _choice_ between two things; oftener it is one of two things between which a _choice_ is to be made, and either of which is the _alternative_ of the other; as, the _alternative_ of surrender is death; or the two things between which there is a _choice_ may be called the _alternatives_; both mill and gladstone are quoted as extending the meaning of _alternative_ to include several particulars, gladstone even speaking of "the fourth and last of these _alternatives_." _option_ is the right or privilege of choosing; _choice_ may be either the right to choose, the act of choosing, or the thing chosen. a person of ability and readiness will commonly have many _resources_. _pick_, from the saxon, and _election_, from the latin, picture the objects before one, with freedom and power to choose which he will; as, there were twelve horses, among which i could take my _pick_. a _choice_, _pick_, _election_, or _preference_ is that which suits one best; an _alternative_ is that to which one is restricted; a _resource_, that to which one is glad to betake oneself. antonyms: compulsion, necessity. * * * * * amass. synonyms: accumulate, collect, heap up, hoard up, store up. aggregate, gather, hoard, pile up, to _amass_ is to bring together materials that make a mass, a great bulk or quantity. with some occasional exceptions, _accumulate_ is applied to the more gradual, _amass_ to the more rapid gathering of money or materials, _amass_ referring to the general result or bulk, _accumulate_ to the particular process or rate of gain. we say interest is _accumulated_ (or _accumulates_) rather than is _amassed_; he _accumulated_ a fortune in the course of years; he rapidly _amassed_ a fortune by shrewd speculations. goods or money for immediate distribution are said to be _collected_ rather than _amassed_. they may be _stored up_ for a longer or shorter time; but to _hoard_ is always with a view of permanent retention, generally selfish. _aggregate_ is now most commonly used of numbers and amounts; as, the expenses will _aggregate_ a round million. antonyms: disperse, divide, portion, spend, waste. dissipate, parcel, scatter, squander, prepositions: amass _for_ oneself; _for_ a purpose; _from_ a distance; _with_ great labor; _by_ industry. * * * * * amateur. synonyms: connoisseur, critic, dilettante, novice, tyro. etymologically, the _amateur_ is one who loves, the _connoisseur_ one who knows. in usage, the term _amateur_ is applied to one who pursues any study or art simply from the love of it; the word carries a natural implication of superficialness, tho marked excellence is at times attained by _amateurs_. a _connoisseur_ is supposed to be so thoroughly informed regarding any art or work as to be able to criticize or select intelligently and authoritatively; there are many incompetent _critics_, but there can not, in the true sense, be an incompetent _connoisseur_. the _amateur_ practises to some extent that in regard to which he may not be well informed; the _connoisseur_ is well informed in regard to that which he may not practise at all. a _novice_ or _tyro_ may be a _professional_; an _amateur_ never is; the _amateur_ may be skilled and experienced as the _novice_ or _tyro_ never is. _dilettante_, which had originally the sense of _amateur_, has to some extent come to denote one who is superficial, pretentious, and affected, whether in theory or practise. preposition: an amateur _in_ art. * * * * * amazement. synonyms: admiration, awe, confusion, surprise, astonishment, bewilderment, perplexity, wonder. _amazement_ and _astonishment_ both express the momentary overwhelming of the mind by that which is beyond expectation. _astonishment_ especially affects the emotions, _amazement_ the intellect. _awe_ is the yielding of the mind to something supremely grand in character or formidable in power, and ranges from apprehension or dread to reverent worship. _admiration_ includes delight and regard. _surprise_ lies midway between _astonishment_ and _amazement_, and usually respects matters of lighter consequence or such as are less startling in character. _amazement_ may be either pleasing or painful, as when induced by the grandeur of the mountains, or by the fury of the storm. we can say pleased _surprise_, but scarcely pleased _astonishment_. _amazement_ has in it something of _confusion_ or _bewilderment_; but _confusion_ and _bewilderment_ may occur without _amazement_, as when a multitude of details require instant attention. _astonishment_ may be without _bewilderment_ or _confusion_. _wonder_ is often pleasing, and may be continuous in view of that which surpasses our comprehension; as, the magnitude, order, and beauty of the heavens fill us with increasing _wonder_. compare perplexity. antonyms: anticipation, composure, expectation, preparation, steadiness, calmness, coolness, indifference, self-possession, stoicism. preposition: i was filled with amazement _at_ such reckless daring. * * * * * ambition. synonyms: aspiration, competition, emulation, opposition, rivalry. _aspiration_ is the desire for excellence, pure and simple. _ambition_, literally a going around to solicit votes, has primary reference to the award or approval of others, and is the eager desire of power, fame, or something deemed great and eminent, and viewed as a worthy prize. the prizes of _aspiration_ are virtue, nobility, skill, or other high qualities. the prizes of _ambition_ are advancement, fame, honor, and the like. there is a noble and wise or an ignoble, selfish, and harmful _ambition_. _emulation_ is not so much to win any excellence or success for itself as to equal or surpass other persons. there is such a thing as a noble _emulation_, when those we would equal or surpass are noble, and the means we would use worthy. but, at the highest, _emulation_ is inferior as a motive to _aspiration_, which seeks the high quality or character for its own sake, not with reference to another. _competition_ is the striving for something that is sought by another at the same time. _emulation_ regards the abstract, _competition_ the concrete; _rivalry_ is the same in essential meaning with _competition_, but differs in the nature of the objects contested for, which, in the case of _rivalry_, are usually of the nobler sort and less subject to direct gaging, measurement, and rule. we speak of _competition_ in business, _emulation_ in scholarship, _rivalry_ in love, politics, etc.; _emulation_ of excellence, success, achievement; _competition_ for a prize; _rivalry_ between persons or nations. _competition_ may be friendly, _rivalry_ is commonly hostile. _opposition_ is becoming a frequent substitute for _competition_ in business language; it implies that the competitor is an opponent and hinderer. antonyms: carelessness, contentment, humility, indifference, satisfaction. * * * * * amend. synonyms: advance, correct, meliorate, rectify, ameliorate, emend, mend, reform, better, improve, mitigate, repair. cleanse, make better, purify, to _amend_ is to change for the better by removing faults, errors, or defects, and always refers to that which at some point falls short of a standard of excellence. _advance_, _better_, and _improve_ may refer either to what is quite imperfect or to what has reached a high degree of excellence; we _advance_ the kingdom of god, _improve_ the minds of our children, _better_ the morals of the people. but for matters below the point of ordinary approval we seldom use these words; we do not speak of _bettering_ a wretched alley, or _improving_ a foul sewer. there we use _cleanse_, _purify_, or similar words. we _correct_ evils, _reform_ abuses, _rectify_ incidental conditions of evil or error; we _ameliorate_ poverty and misery, which we can not wholly remove. we _mend_ a tool, _repair_ a building, _correct_ proof; we _amend_ character or conduct that is faulty, or a statement or law that is defective. a text, writing, or statement is _amended_ by the author or by some adequate authority; it is often _emended_ by conjecture. a motion is _amended_ by the mover or by the assembly; a constitution is _amended_ by the people; an ancient text is _emended_ by a critic who believes that what seems to him the better reading is what the author wrote. compare alleviate. antonyms: aggravate, debase, harm, mar, tarnish, blemish, depress, impair, spoil, vitiate. corrupt, deteriorate, injure, * * * * * amiable. synonyms: agreeable, engaging, lovable, pleasing, attractive, gentle, lovely, sweet, benignant, good-natured, loving, winning, harming, kind, pleasant, winsome. _amiable_ combines the senses of _lovable_ or _lovely_ and _loving_; the _amiable_ character has ready affection and kindliness for others, with the qualities that are adapted to win their love; _amiable_ is a higher and stronger word than _good-natured_ or _agreeable_. _lovely_ is often applied to externals; as, a _lovely_ face. _amiable_ denotes a disposition desirous to cheer, please, and make happy. a selfish man of the world may have the art to be _agreeable_; a handsome, brilliant, and witty person may be _charming_ or even _attractive_, while by no means _amiable_. the _engaging_, _winning_, and _winsome_ add to amiability something of beauty, accomplishments, and grace. the _benignant_ are calmly kind, as from a height and a distance. _kind_, _good-natured_ people may be coarse and rude, and so fail to be _agreeable_ or _pleasing_; the really _amiable_ are likely to avoid such faults by their earnest desire to please. the _good-natured_ have an easy disposition to get along comfortably with every one in all circumstances. a _sweet_ disposition is very sure to be _amiable_, the _loving_ heart bringing out all that is _lovable_ and _lovely_ in character. antonyms: acrimonious, crusty, hateful, ill-tempered, surly, churlish, disagreeable, ill-conditioned, morose, unamiable, crabbed, dogged, ill-humored, sour, unlovely, cruel, gruff, ill-natured, sullen, * * * * * amid. synonyms: amidst, amongst, betwixt, mingled with, among, between, in the midst of, surrounded by. _amid_ or _amidst_ denotes _surrounded by_; _among_ or _amongst_ denotes _mingled with_. _between_ (archaic or poetic, _betwixt_) is said of two persons or objects, or of two groups of persons or objects. "let there be no strife, i pray thee, _between_ me and thee, and _between_ my herdmen and thy herdmen," _gen._ xiii, ; the reference being to two bodies of herdmen. _amid_ denotes mere position; _among_, some active relation, as of companionship, hostility, etc. lowell's "_among_ my books" regards the books as companions; _amid_ my books would suggest packing, storing, or some other incidental circumstance. we say _among_ friends, or _among_ enemies, _amidst_ the woods, _amid_ the shadows. _in the midst of_ may have merely the local meaning; as, i found myself _in the midst of_ a crowd; or it may express even closer association than _among_; as, "i found myself _in the midst of_ friends" suggests their pressing up on every side, oneself the central object; so, "where two or three are met together in my name, there am i _in the midst of_ them," _matt._ xviii, ; in which case it would be feebler to say "_among_ them," impossible to say "_amid_ them," not so well to say "_amidst_ them." antonyms: afar from, away from, beyond, far from, outside, without. * * * * * amplify. synonyms: augment, dilate, expand, extend, unfold, develop, enlarge, expatiate, increase, widen. _amplify_ is now rarely used in the sense of _increase_, to add material substance, bulk, volume, or the like; it is now almost wholly applied to discourse or writing, signifying to make fuller in statement, whether with or without adding matter of importance, as by stating fully what was before only implied, or by adding illustrations to make the meaning more readily apprehended, etc. the chief difficulty of very young writers is to _amplify_, to get beyond the bare curt statement by _developing_, _expanding_, _unfolding_ the thought. the chief difficulty of those who have more material and experience is to condense sufficiently. so, in the early days of our literature _amplify_ was used in the favorable sense; but at present this word and most kindred words are coming to share the derogatory meaning that has long attached to _expatiate_. we may _develop_ a thought, _expand_ an illustration, _extend_ a discussion, _expatiate_ on a hobby, _dilate_ on something joyous or sad, _enlarge_ a volume, _unfold_ a scheme, _widen_ the range of treatment. antonyms: abbreviate, amputate, condense, cut down, reduce, summarize, abridge, "boil down," curtail, epitomize, retrench, sum up. prepositions: to amplify _on_ or _upon_ the subject is needless. amplify this matter _by_ illustrations. * * * * * analogy. synonyms: affinity, likeness, relation, similarity, coincidence, parity, resemblance, simile, comparison, proportion, semblance, similitude. _analogy_ is specifically a _resemblance_ of relations; a _resemblance_ that may be reasoned from, so that from the _likeness_ in certain respects we may infer that other and perhaps deeper relations exist. _affinity_ is a mutual attraction with or without seeming likeness; as, the _affinity_ of iron for oxygen. _coincidence_ is complete agreement in some one or more respects; there may be a _coincidence_ in time of most dissimilar events. _parity_ of reasoning is said of an argument equally conclusive on subjects not strictly analogous. _similitude_ is a rhetorical comparison of one thing to another with which it has some points in common. _resemblance_ and _similarity_ are external or superficial, and may involve no deeper relation; as, the _resemblance_ of a cloud to a distant mountain. compare allegory. antonyms: disagreement, disproportion, dissimilarity, incongruity, unlikeness. prepositions: the analogy _between_ (or _of_) nature and revelation; the analogy _of_ sound _to_ light; a family has some analogy _with_ (or _to_) a state. * * * * * anger. synonyms: animosity, fury, offense, rage, choler, impatience, passion, resentment, displeasure, indignation, peevishness, temper, exasperation, ire, pettishness, vexation, fretfulness, irritation, petulance, wrath. _displeasure_ is the mildest and most general word. _choler_ and _ire_, now rare except in poetic or highly rhetorical language, denote a still, and the latter a persistent, _anger_. _temper_ used alone in the sense of _anger_ is colloquial, tho we may correctly say a hot _temper_, a fiery _temper_, etc. _passion_, tho a word of far wider application, may, in the singular, be employed to denote _anger_; "did put me in a towering _passion_," shakespeare _hamlet_ act v, sc. . _anger_ is violent and vindictive emotion, which is sharp, sudden, and, like all violent passions, necessarily brief. _resentment_ (a feeling back or feeling over again) is persistent, the bitter brooding over injuries. _exasperation_, a roughening, is a hot, superficial intensity of _anger_, demanding instant expression. _rage_ drives one beyond the bounds of prudence or discretion; _fury_ is stronger yet, and sweeps one away into uncontrollable violence. _anger_ is personal and usually selfish, aroused by real or supposed wrong to oneself, and directed specifically and intensely against the person who is viewed as blameworthy. _indignation_ is impersonal and unselfish _displeasure_ at unworthy acts (l. _indigna_), _i. e._, at wrong as wrong. pure _indignation_ is not followed by regret, and needs no repentance; it is also more self-controlled than _anger_. _anger_ is commonly a sin; _indignation_ is often a duty. _wrath_ is deep and perhaps vengeful _displeasure_, as when the people of nazareth were "filled with _wrath_" at the plain words of jesus (_luke_ iv, ); it may, however, simply express the culmination of righteous _indignation_ without malice in a pure being; as, the _wrath_ of god. _impatience_, _fretfulness_, _irritation_, _peevishness_, _pettishness_, _petulance_, and _vexation_ express the slighter forms of anger. _irritation_, _petulance_, and _vexation_ are temporary and for immediate cause. _fretfulness_, _pettishness_, and _peevishness_ are chronic states finding in any petty matter an occasion for their exercise. compare acrimony; enmity; hatred. antonyms: amiability, leniency, mildness, peacefulness, charity, lenity, patience, self-control, forbearance, long-suffering, peace, self-restraint. gentleness, love, peaceableness, prepositions: anger _at_ the insult prompted the reply. anger _toward_ the offender exaggerates the offense. * * * * * animal. synonyms: beast, fauna, living organism, sentient being. brute, living creature, an _animal_ is a _sentient being_, distinct from inanimate matter and from vegetable life on the one side and from mental and spiritual existence on the other. thus man is properly classified as an _animal_. but because the animal life is the lowest and rudest part of his being and that which he shares with inferior _creatures_, to call any individual man an _animal_ is to imply that the animal nature has undue supremacy, and so is deep condemnation or utter insult. the _brute_ is the _animal_ viewed as dull to all finer feeling; the _beast_ is looked upon as a being of appetites. to call a man a _brute_ is to imply that he is unfeeling and cruel; to call him a _beast_ is to indicate that he is vilely sensual. we speak of the cruel father as a _brute_ to his children; of the drunkard as making a _beast_ of himself. so firmly are these figurative senses established that we now incline to avoid applying _brute_ or _beast_ to any creature, as a horse or dog, for which we have any affection; we prefer in such cases the word _animal_. _creature_ is a word of wide signification, including all the things that god has created, whether inanimate objects, plants, animals, angels, or men. the _animals_ of a region are collectively called its _fauna_. antonyms: angel, man, mind, soul, substance (material), inanimate object, matter, mineral, spirit, vegetable. * * * * * announce. synonyms: advertise, give notice (of), proclaim, reveal, circulate, give out, promulgate, say, communicate, herald, propound, spread abroad, declare, make known, publish, state, enunciate, notify, report, tell. to _announce_ is to give intelligence of in some formal or public way. we may _announce_ that which has occurred or that which is to occur, tho the word is chiefly used in the anticipative sense; we _announce_ a book when it is in press, a guest when he arrives. we _advertise_ our business, _communicate_ our intentions, _enunciate_ our views; we _notify_ an individual, _give notice_ to the public. _declare_ has often an authoritative force; to _declare_ war is to cause war to be, where before there may have been only hostilities; we say _declare_ war, _proclaim_ peace. we _propound_ a question or an argument, _promulgate_ the views of a sect or party, or the decision of a court, etc. we _report_ an interview, _reveal_ a secret, _herald_ the coming of some distinguished person or great event. _publish_, in popular usage, is becoming closely restricted to the sense of issuing through the press; we _announce_ a book that is to be _published_. antonyms: bury, cover (up), hush, keep secret, suppress, conceal, hide, keep back, secrete, withhold. prepositions: the event was announced _to_ the family _by_ telegraph. * * * * * answer. synonyms: rejoinder, repartee, reply, response, retort. a verbal _answer_ is a return of words to something that seems to call for them, and is made to a charge as well as to a question; an _answer_ may be even made to an unspoken implication or manifestation; see _luke_ v, . in a wider sense, anything said or done in return for some word, action, or suggestion of another may be called an _answer_. the blow of an enraged man, the whinny of a horse, the howling of the wind, the movement of a bolt in a lock, an echo, etc., may each be an _answer_ to some word or movement. a _reply_ is an unfolding, and ordinarily implies thought and intelligence. a _rejoinder_ is strictly an _answer_ to a _reply_, tho often used in the general sense of _answer_, but always with the implication of something more or less controversial or opposed, tho lacking the conclusiveness implied in _answer_; an _answer_, in the full sense, to a charge, an argument, or an objection is adequate, and finally refutes and disposes of it; a _reply_ or _rejoinder_ may be quite inadequate, so that one may say, "this _reply_ is not an _answer_;" "i am ready with an _answer_" means far more than "i am ready with a _reply_." a _response_ is accordant or harmonious, designed or adapted to carry on the thought of the words that called it forth, as the _responses_ in a liturgical service, or to meet the wish of him who seeks it; as, the appeal for aid met a prompt and hearty _response_. _repartee_ is a prompt, witty, and commonly good-natured _answer_ to some argument or attack; a _retort_ may also be witty, but is severe and may be even savage in its intensity. prepositions: an answer _in_ writing, or _by_ word of mouth, _to_ the question. * * * * * anticipate. synonyms: apprehend, forecast, hope, expect, foretaste, look forward to. to _anticipate_ may be either to take before in fact or to take before in thought; in the former sense it is allied with _prevent_; in the latter, with the synonyms above given. this is coming to be the prevalent and favorite use. we _expect_ that which we have good reason to believe will happen; as, a boy _expects_ to grow to manhood. we _hope_ for that which we much desire and somewhat _expect_. we _apprehend_ what we both _expect_ and fear. _anticipate_ is commonly used now, like _foretaste_, of that which we _expect_ both with confidence and pleasure. in this use it is a stronger word than _hope_, where often "the wish is father to the thought." i _hope_ for a visit from my friend, tho i have no word from him; i _expect_ it when he writes that he is coming; and as the time draws near i _anticipate_ it with pleasure. compare abide; prevent. antonyms: despair of, doubt, dread, fear, recall, recollect, remember. distrust, * * * * * anticipation. synonyms: antepast, expectation, foresight, hope, apprehension, foreboding, foretaste, presentiment, expectancy, forecast, forethought, prevision. _expectation_ may be either of good or evil; _presentiment_ almost always, _apprehension_ and _foreboding_ always, of evil; _anticipation_ and _antepast_, commonly of good. thus, we speak of the pleasures of _anticipation_. a _foretaste_ may be of good or evil, and is more than imaginary; it is a part actually received in advance. _foresight_ and _forethought_ prevent future evil and secure future good by timely looking forward, and acting upon what is foreseen. compare anticipate. antonyms: astonishment, despair, dread, fear, surprise, consummation, doubt, enjoyment, realization, wonder. * * * * * antipathy. synonyms: abhorrence, disgust, hatred, repugnance, antagonism, dislike, hostility, repulsion, aversion, distaste, opposition, uncongeniality. detestation, _antipathy_, _repugnance_, and _uncongeniality_ are instinctive; other forms of _dislike_ may be acquired or cherished for cause. _uncongeniality_ is negative, a want of touch or sympathy. an _antipathy_ to a person or thing is an instinctive recoil from connection or association with that person or thing, and may be physical or mental, or both. _antagonism_ may result from the necessity of circumstances; _opposition_ may spring from conflicting views or interests; _abhorrence_ and _detestation_ may be the result of religious and moral training; _distaste_ and _disgust_ may be acquired; _aversion_ is a deep and permanent _dislike_. a natural _antipathy_ may give rise to _opposition_ which may result in _hatred_ and _hostility_. compare acrimony; anger; enmity; hatred. antonyms: affinity, attraction, fellow-feeling, kindliness, sympathy. agreement, congeniality, harmony, regard, prepositions: antipathy _to_ (less frequently _for_ or _against_) a person or thing; antipathy _between_ or _betwixt_ two persons or things. * * * * * antique. synonyms: ancient, old-fashioned, quaint, superannuated. antiquated, _antique_ refers to an _ancient_, _antiquated_ to a discarded style. _antique_ is that which is either _ancient_ in fact or _ancient_ in style. the reference is to the style rather than to the age. we can speak of the _antique_ architecture of a church just built. the difference between _antiquated_ and _antique_ is not in the age, for a puritan style may be scorned as _antiquated_, while a roman or renaissance style may be prized as _antique_. the _antiquated_ is not so much out of date as out of vogue. _old-fashioned_ may be used approvingly or contemptuously. in the latter case it becomes a synonym for _antiquated_; in the good sense it approaches the meaning of _antique_, but indicates less duration. we call a wide new england fireplace _old-fashioned_; a coin of the cæsars, _antique_. _quaint_ combines the idea of age with a pleasing oddity; as, a _quaint_ gambrel-roofed house. _antiquated_ is sometimes used of persons in a sense akin to _superannuated_. the _antiquated_ person is out of style and out of sympathy with the present generation by reason of age; the _superannuated_ person is incapacitated for present activities by reason of age. compare old. antonyms: fashionable, fresh, modern, modish, new, recent, stylish. * * * * * anxiety. synonyms: anguish, disquiet, foreboding, perplexity, apprehension, disturbance, fretfulness, solicitude, care, dread, fretting, trouble, concern, fear, misgiving, worry. _anxiety_ is, according to its derivation, a choking _disquiet_, akin to _anguish_; _anxiety_ is mental; _anguish_ may be mental or physical; _anguish_ is in regard to the known, _anxiety_ in regard to the unknown; _anguish_ is because of what has happened, _anxiety_ because of what may happen. _anxiety_ refers to some future event, always suggesting hopeful possibility, and thus differing from _apprehension_, _fear_, _dread_, _foreboding_, _terror_, all of which may be quite despairing. in matters within our reach, _anxiety_ always stirs the question whether something can not be done, and is thus a valuable spur to doing; in this respect it is allied to _care_. _foreboding_, _dread_, etc., commonly incapacitate for all helpful thought or endeavor. _worry_ is a more petty, restless, and manifest _anxiety_; _anxiety_ may be quiet and silent; _worry_ is communicated to all around. _solicitude_ is a milder _anxiety_. _fretting_ or _fretfulness_ is a weak complaining without thought of accomplishing or changing anything, but merely as a relief to one's own _disquiet_. _perplexity_ often involves _anxiety_, but may be quite free from it. a student may be _perplexed_ regarding a translation, yet, if he has time enough, not at all anxious regarding it. antonyms: apathy, calmness, confidence, light-heartedness, satisfaction, assurance, carelessness, ease, nonchalance, tranquillity. prepositions: anxiety _for_ a friend's return; anxiety _about_, _in regard to_, or _concerning_ the future. * * * * * apathy. synonyms: calmness, indifference, quietness, stoicism, composure, insensibility, quietude, tranquillity, immobility, lethargy, sluggishness, unconcern, impassibility, phlegm, stillness, unfeelingness. _apathy_, according to its greek derivation, is a simple absence of feeling or emotion. there are persons to whom a certain degree of _apathy_ is natural, an innate _sluggishness_ of the emotional nature. in the _apathy_ of despair, a person gives up, without resistance or sensibility, to what he has fiercely struggled to avoid. while _apathy_ is want of feeling, _calmness_ is feeling without agitation. _calmness_ is the result of strength, courage, or trust; _apathy_ is the result of dulness or weakness. _composure_ is freedom from agitation or disturbance, resulting ordinarily from force of will, or from perfect confidence in one's own resources. _impassibility_ is a philosophical term applied to the deity, as infinitely exalted above all stir of passion or emotion. _unfeelingness_, the saxon word that should be the exact equivalent of _apathy_, really means more, a lack of the feeling one ought to have, a censurable hardness of heart. _indifference_ and _insensibility_ designate the absence of feeling toward certain persons or things; _apathy_, entire absence of feeling. _indifference_ is a want of interest; _insensibility_ is a want of feeling; _unconcern_ has reference to consequences. we speak of _insensibility_ of heart, _immobility_ of countenance. _stoicism_ is an intentional suppression of feeling and deadening of sensibilities, while _apathy_ is involuntary. compare calm; rest; stupor. antonyms: agitation, disturbance, feeling, sensibility, sympathy, alarm, eagerness, frenzy, sensitiveness, turbulence, anxiety, emotion, fury, storm, vehemence, care, excitement, passion, susceptibility, violence. distress, prepositions: the apathy _of_ monastic life; apathy _toward_ good. * * * * * apiece. synonyms: distributively, each, individually, separately, severally. there is no discernible difference in sense between so much _apiece_ and so much _each_; the former is the more common and popular, the latter the more elegant expression. _distributively_ is generally used of numbers and abstract relations. _individually_ emphasizes the independence of the individuals; _separately_ and _severally_ still more emphatically hold them apart. the signers of a note may become jointly and _severally_ responsible, that is, _each_ liable for the entire amount, as if he had signed it alone. witnesses are often brought _separately_ into court, in order that no one may be influenced by the testimony of another. if a company of laborers demand a dollar _apiece_, that is a demand that _each_ shall receive that sum; if they _individually_ demand a dollar, _each_ individual makes the demand. antonyms: accumulatively, confusedly, indiscriminately, together, unitedly. collectively, _en masse_, synthetically, * * * * * apology. synonyms: acknowledgment, defense, excuse, plea, confession, exculpation, justification, vindication. all these words express one's answer to a charge of wrong or error that is or might be made. _apology_ has undergone a remarkable change from its old sense of a valiant _defense_--as in justin martyr's _apologies_ for the christian faith--to its present meaning of humble _confession_ and concession. he who offers an _apology_ admits himself, at least technically and seemingly, in the wrong. an _apology_ is for what one has done or left undone; an _excuse_ may be for what one proposes to do or leave undone as well; as, one sends beforehand his _excuse_ for not accepting an invitation; if he should fail either to be present or to excuse himself, an _apology_ would be in order. an _excuse_ for a fault is an attempt at partial justification; as, one alleges haste as an _excuse_ for carelessness. _confession_ is a full _acknowledgment_ of wrong, generally of a grave wrong, with or without _apology_ or _excuse_. _plea_ ranges in sense from a prayer for favor or pardon to an attempt at full _vindication_. _defense_, _exculpation_, _justification_, and _vindication_ are more properly antonyms than synonyms of _apology_ in its modern sense, and should be so given, but for their connection with its historic usage. compare confess; defense. antonyms: accusation, charge, condemnation, injury, offense, censure, complaint, imputation, insult, wrong. prepositions: an apology _to_ the guest _for_ the oversight would be fitting. * * * * * apparent. synonyms: likely, presumable, probable, seeming. the _apparent_ is that which appears; the word has two contrasted senses, either of that which is manifest, visible, certain, or of that which merely seems to be and may be very different from what is; as, the _apparent_ motion of the sun around the earth. _apparent_ kindness casts a doubt on the reality of the kindness; _apparent_ neglect implies that more care and pains may have been bestowed than we are aware of. _presumable_ implies that a thing may be reasonably supposed beforehand without any full knowledge of the facts. _probable_ implies that we know facts enough to make us moderately confident of it. _seeming_ expresses great doubt of the reality; _seeming_ innocence comes very near in meaning to _probable_ guilt. _apparent_ indicates less assurance than _probable_, and more than _seeming_. a man's _probable_ intent we believe will prove to be his real intent; his _seeming_ intent we believe to be a sham; his _apparent_ intent may be the true one, tho we have not yet evidence on which to pronounce with certainty or even with confidence. _likely_ is a word with a wide range of usage, but always implying the belief that the thing is, or will be, true; it is often used with the infinitive, as the other words of this list can not be; as, it is _likely_ to happen. compare evident. antonyms: doubtful, dubious, improbable, unimaginable, unlikely. prepositions: (when _apparent_ is used in the sense of evident): his guilt is apparent _in_ every act _to_ all observers. * * * * * appear. synonyms: have the appearance _or_ semblance, look, seem. _appear_ and _look_ refer to what manifests itself to the senses; to a semblance or probability presented directly to the mind. _seem_ applies to what is manifest to the mind on reflection. it suddenly _appears_ to me that there is smoke in the distance; as i watch, it _looks_ like a fire; from my knowledge of the locality and observation of particulars, it _seems_ to me a farmhouse must be burning. antonyms: be, be certain, real, _or_ true, be the fact, exist. prepositions: appear _at_ the front; _among_ the first; _on_ or _upon_ the surface; _to_ the eye; _in_ evidence, _in_ print; _from_ reports; _near_ the harbor; _before_ the public; _in_ appropriate dress; _with_ the insignia of his rank; _above_ the clouds; _below_ the surface; _under_ the lee; _over_ the sea; _through_ the mist; appear _for_, _in behalf of_, or _against_ one in court. * * * * * appendage. synonyms: accessory, addition, appurtenance, concomitant, accompaniment, adjunct, attachment, extension, addendum, appendix, auxiliary, supplement. an _adjunct_ (something joined to) constitutes no real part of the thing or system to which it is joined, tho perhaps a valuable _addition_; an _appendage_ is commonly a real, tho not an essential or necessary part of that with which it is connected; an _appurtenance_ belongs subordinately to something by which it is employed, especially as an instrument to accomplish some purpose. a horse's tail is at once an ornamental _appendage_ and a useful _appurtenance_; we could not call it an _adjunct_, tho we might use that word of his iron shoes. an _attachment_ in machinery is some mechanism that can be brought into optional connection with the principal movement; a hemmer is a valuable _attachment_ of a sewing-machine. an _extension_, as of a railroad or of a franchise, carries out further something already existing. we add an _appendix_ to a book, to contain names, dates, lists, etc., which would encumber the text; we add a _supplement_ to supply omissions, as, for instance, to bring it up to date. an _appendix_ may be called an _addendum_; but _addendum_ may be used of a brief note, which would not be dignified by the name of _appendix_; such notes are often grouped as _addenda_. an _addition_ might be matter interwoven in the body of the work, an index, plates, editorial notes, etc., which might be valuable _additions_, but not within the meaning of _appendix_ or _supplement_. compare accessory; auxiliary. antonyms: main body, original, total, whole. prepositions: that which is thought of as added we call an appendage _to_; that which is looked upon as an integral part is called an appendage _of_. * * * * * appetite. synonyms: appetency, impulse, lust, propensity, craving, inclination, passion, relish, desire, liking, proclivity, thirst, disposition, longing, proneness, zest. _appetite_ is used only of the demands of the physical system, unless otherwise expressly stated, as when we say an _appetite_ for knowledge; _passion_ includes all excitable impulses of our nature, as anger, fear, love, hatred, etc. _appetite_ is thus more animal than _passion_; and when we speak of _passions_ and _appetites_ as conjoined or contrasted, we think of the _appetites_ as wholly physical and of the _passions_ as, in part at least, mental or spiritual. we say an _appetite_ for food, a _passion_ for fame. compare desire. antonyms: antipathy, disgust, distaste, indifference, repugnance, aversion, dislike, hatred, loathing, repulsion. detestation, disrelish, compare antipathy. preposition: he had an insatiable appetite _for_ the marvellous. * * * * * apportion. synonyms: allot, appropriate, deal, distribute, grant, appoint, assign, dispense, divide, share. to _allot_ or _assign_ may be to make an arbitrary division; the same is true of _distribute_ or _divide_. that which is _apportioned_ is given by some fixed rule, which is meant to be uniform and fair; as, representatives are _apportioned_ among the states according to population. to _dispense_ is to give out freely; as, the sun _dispenses_ light and heat. a thing is _appropriated_ to or for a specific purpose (to which it thus becomes _proper_, in the original sense of being its own); money _appropriated_ by congress for one purpose can not be expended for any other. one may _apportion_ what he only holds in trust; he _shares_ what is his own. compare allot. antonyms: cling to, consolidate, gather together, receive, collect, divide arbitrarily, keep together, retain. prepositions: apportion _to_ each a fair amount; apportion the property _among_ the heirs, _between_ two claimants; apportion _according to_ numbers, etc. * * * * * approximation. synonyms: approach, likeness, neighborhood, resemblance, contiguity, nearness, propinquity, similarity. in mathematics, _approximation_ is not guesswork, not looseness, and not error. the process of _approximation_ is as exact and correct at every point as that by which an absolute result is secured; the result only fails of exactness because of some inherent difficulty in the problem. the attempt to "square the circle" gives only an _approximate_ result, because of the impossibility of expressing the circumference in terms of the radius. but the limits of error on either side are known, and the _approximation_ has practical value. outside of mathematics, the correct use of _approximation_ (and the kindred words _approximate_ and _approximately_) is to express as near an approach to accuracy and certainty as the conditions of human thought or action in any given case make possible. _resemblance_ and _similarity_ may be but superficial and apparent; _approximation_ is real. _approach_ is a relative term, indicating that one has come nearer than before, tho the distance may yet be considerable; an _approximation_ brings one really near. _nearness_, _neighborhood_, and _propinquity_ are commonly used of place; _approximation_, of mathematical calculations and abstract reasoning; we speak of _approach_ to the shore, _nearness_ to the town, _approximation_ to the truth. antonyms: difference, distance, error, remoteness, unlikeness, variation. prepositions: the approximation _of_ the vegetable _to_ the animal type. * * * * * arms. synonyms: accouterments, armor, harness, mail, weapons. _arms_ are implements of attack; _armor_ is a defensive covering. the knight put on his _armor_; he grasped his _arms_. with the disuse of defensive _armor_ the word has practically gone out of military use, but it is still employed in the navy, where the distinction is clearly preserved; any vessel provided with cannon is an _armed_ vessel; an _armored_ ship is an ironclad. anything that can be wielded in fight may become a _weapon_, as a pitchfork or a paving-stone; _arms_ are especially made and designed for conflict. * * * * * army. synonyms: armament, forces, military, soldiers, array, host, multitude, soldiery, force, legions, phalanx, troops. an _army_ is an organized body of men armed for war, ordinarily considerable in numbers, always independent in organization so far as not to be a constituent part of any other command. organization, unity, and independence, rather than numbers are the essentials of an _army_. we speak of the invading _army_ of cortes or pizarro, tho either body was contemptible in numbers from a modern military standpoint. we may have a little _army_, a large _army_, or a vast _army_. _host_ is used for any vast and orderly assemblage; as, the stars are called the heavenly _host_. _multitude_ expresses number without order or organization; a _multitude_ of armed men is not an _army_, but a mob. _legion_ (from the latin) and _phalanx_ (from the greek) are applied by a kind of poetic license to modern _forces_; the plural _legions_ is preferred to the singular. _military_ is a general word for land-_forces_; the _military_ may include all the armed _soldiery_ of a nation, or the term may be applied to any small detached company, as at a fort, in distinction from civilians. any organized body of men by whom the law or will of a people is executed is a _force_; the word is a usual term for the police of any locality. * * * * * arraign. synonyms: accuse, charge, impeach, prosecute, censure, cite, indict, summon. _arraign_ is an official word; a person accused of crime is _arraigned_ when he is formally called into court, the indictment read to him, and the demand made of him to plead guilty or not guilty; in more extended use, to _arraign_ is to call in question for fault in any formal, public, or official way. one may _charge_ another with any fault, great or trifling, privately or publicly, formally or informally. _accuse_ is stronger than _charge_, suggesting more of the formal and criminal; a person may _charge_ a friend with unkindness or neglect; he may _accuse_ a tramp of stealing. _censure_ carries the idea of fault, but not of crime; it may be private and individual, or public and official. a judge, a president, or other officer of high rank may be _impeached_ before the appropriate tribunal for high crimes; the veracity of a witness may be _impeached_ by damaging evidence. a person of the highest character may be _summoned_ as defendant in a civil suit; or he may be _cited_ to answer as administrator, etc. _indict_ and _arraign_ apply strictly to criminal proceedings, and only an alleged criminal is _indicted_ or _arraigned_. one is _indicted_ by the grand jury, and _arraigned_ before the appropriate court. antonyms: acquit, discharge, exonerate, overlook, release, condone, excuse, forgive, pardon, set free. prepositions: arraign _at_ the bar, _before_ the tribunal, _of_ or _for_ a crime; _on_ or _upon_ an indictment. * * * * * array. synonyms: army, collection, line of battle, parade, arrangement, disposition, order, show, battle array, exhibition, order of battle, sight. the phrase _battle array_ or _array of battle_ is archaic and poetic; we now say in _line_ or _order of battle_. the _parade_ is for _exhibition_ and oversight, and partial rehearsal of military manual and maneuvers. _array_ refers to a continuous _arrangement_ of men, so that all may be seen or reviewed at once. this is practically impossible with the vast _armies_ of our day. we say rather the _disposition_ of troops, which expresses their location so as to sustain and support, though unable to see or readily communicate with each other. compare dress. * * * * * arrest. synonyms: apprehend, detain, restrain, stop, capture, hold, secure, take into custody, catch, make prisoner, seize, take prisoner. the legal term _arrest_ carries always the implication of a legal offense; this is true even of _arresting_ for debt. but one may be _detained_ by process of law when no offense is alleged against him, as in the case of a witness who is _held_ in a house of detention till a case comes to trial. one may be _restrained_ of his liberty without arrest, as in an insane asylum; an individual or corporation may be _restrained_ by injunction from selling certain property. in case of an arrest, an officer may _secure_ his prisoner by fetters, by a locked door, or other means effectually to prevent escape. _capture_ is commonly used of seizure by armed force; as, to _capture_ a ship, a fort, etc. compare hinder; obstruct. antonyms: discharge, dismiss, free, liberate, release, set free. prepositions: arrested _for_ crime, _on_ suspicion, _by_ the sheriff; _on_, _upon_, or _by virtue of_ a warrant; _on_ final process; _in_ execution. * * * * * artifice. synonyms: art, craft, finesse, invention, stratagem, blind, cunning, fraud, machination, subterfuge, cheat, device, guile, maneuver, trick, contrivance, dodge, imposture, ruse, wile. a _contrivance_ or _device_ may be either good or bad. a _cheat_ is a mean advantage in a bargain; a _fraud_, any form of covert robbery or injury. _imposture_ is a deceitful _contrivance_ for securing charity, credit, or consideration. a _stratagem_ or _maneuver_ may be of the good against the bad, as it were a skilful movement of war. a _wile_ is usually but not necessarily evil. e'en children followed with endearing _wile_. goldsmith _deserted village_, l. . a _trick_ is often low, injurious, and malicious; we say a mean _trick_; the word is sometimes used playfully with less than its full meaning. a _ruse_ or a _blind_ may be quite innocent and harmless. an _artifice_ is a carefully and delicately prepared _contrivance_ for doing indirectly what one could not well do directly. a _device_ is something studied out for promoting an end, as in a mechanism; the word is used of indirect action, often, but not necessarily directed to an evil, selfish, or injurious end. _finesse_ is especially subtle _contrivance_, delicate _artifice_, whether for good or evil. compare fraud. antonyms: artlessness, frankness, ingenuousness, openness, sincerity, candor, guilelessness, innocence, simplicity, truth. fairness, honesty, * * * * * artist. synonyms: artificer, artisan, mechanic, operative, workman. _artist_, _artificer_ and _artisan_ are all from the root of _art_, but _artist_ holds to the esthetic sense, while _artificer_ and _artisan_ follow the mechanical or industrial sense of the word (see art under science). _artist_ thus comes only into accidental association with the other words of this group, not being a synonym of any one of them and having practically no synonym of its own. the work of the _artist_ is creative; that of the _artisan_ mechanical. the man who paints a beautiful picture is an _artist_; the man who makes pin-heads all day is an _artisan_. the _artificer_ is between the two, putting more thought, intelligence, and taste into his work than the _artisan_, but less of the idealizing, creative power than the _artist_. the sculptor, shaping his model in clay, is _artificer_, as well as _artist_; patient _artisans_, working simply by rule and scale, chisel and polish the stone. the man who constructs anything by mere routine and rule is a _mechanic_. the man whose work involves thought, skill, and constructive power is an _artificer_. the hod-carrier is a _laborer_; the bricklayer is a _mechanic_; the master mason is an _artificer_. those who operate machinery nearly self-acting are _operatives_. * * * * * ask. synonyms: beg, crave, entreat, petition, request, solicit, beseech, demand, implore, pray, require, supplicate. one _asks_ what he feels that he may fairly claim and reasonably expect; "if a son shall _ask_ bread of any of you that is a father," _luke_ xi, ; he _begs_ for that to which he advances no claim but pity. _demand_ is a determined and often an arrogant word; one may rightfully _demand_ what is his own or his due, when it is withheld or denied; or he may wrongfully _demand_ that to which he has no claim but power. _require_ is less arrogant and obtrusive than _demand_, but is exceedingly strenuous; as, the court _requires_ the attendance of witnesses. _entreat_ implies a special earnestness of asking, and _beseech_, a still added and more humble intensity; _beseech_ was formerly often used as a polite intensive for _beg_ or _pray_; as, i _beseech_ you to tell me. to _implore_ is to _ask_ with weeping and lamentation; to _supplicate_ is to _ask_, as it were, on bended knees. _crave_ and _request_ are somewhat formal terms; _crave_ has almost disappeared from conversation; _request_ would seem distant between parent and child. _pray_ is now used chiefly of address to the supreme being; _petition_ is used of written request to persons in authority; as, to _petition_ the legislature to pass an act, or the governor to pardon an offender. antonyms: claim, deny, enforce, exact, extort, insist, refuse, reject. command, prepositions: ask a person _for_ a thing; ask a thing _of_ or _from_ a person; ask _after_ or _about_ one's health, welfare, friends, etc. * * * * * associate. synonyms: accomplice, coadjutor, comrade, fellow, mate, ally, colleague, confederate, friend, partner, chum, companion, consort, helpmate, peer. an _associate_ as used officially implies a chief, leader, or principal, to whom the _associate_ is not fully equal in rank. _associate_ is popularly used of mere friendly relations, but oftener implies some work, enterprise, or pursuit in which the associated persons unite. we rarely speak of _associates_ in crime or wrong, using _confederates_ or _accomplices_ instead. _companion_ gives itself with equal readiness to the good or evil sense, as also does _comrade_. one may be a _companion_ in travel who would not readily become an _associate_ at home. a lady advertises for a _companion_; she would not advertise for an _associate_. _peer_ implies equality rather than companionship; as, a jury of his _peers_. _comrade_ expresses more fellowship and good feeling than _companion_. _fellow_ has almost gone out of use in this connection, except in an inferior or patronizing sense. _consort_ is a word of equality and dignity, as applied especially to the marriage relation. compare accessory; acquaintance; friendship. antonyms: antagonist, foe, hinderer, opponent, opposer, rival, stranger. enemy, prepositions: these were the associates _of_ the leader _in_ the enterprise. * * * * * association. synonyms: alliance, confederacy, familiarity, lodge, club, confederation, federation, participation, community, conjunction, fellowship, partnership, companionship, connection, fraternity, society, company, corporation, friendship, union. we speak of an _alliance_ of nations, a _club_ of pleasure-seekers, a _community_ of shakers, a _company_ of soldiers or of friends, a _confederacy_, _confederation_, _federation_, or _union_ of separate states under one general government, a _partnership_ or _company_ of business men, a _conjunction_ of planets. the whole body of freemasons constitute a _fraternity_; one of their local organizations is called a _lodge_. a _corporation_ or _company_ is formed for purposes of business; an _association_ or _society_ (tho also incorporated) is for learning, literature, benevolence, religion, etc. compare associate; acquaintance; friendship. antonyms: disintegration, independence, isolation, separation, solitude. prepositions: an association _of_ scholars _for_ the advancement of knowledge; association _with_ the good is ennobling. * * * * * assume. synonyms: accept, arrogate, postulate, put on, affect, claim, presume, take, appropriate, feign, pretend, usurp. the distinctive idea of _assume_ is to _take_ by one's own independent volition, whether well or ill, rightfully or wrongfully. one may _accept_ an obligation or _assume_ an authority that properly belongs to him, or he may _assume_ an obligation or indebtedness that could not be required of him. he may _assume_ authority or office that is his right; if he _assumes_ what does not belong to him, he is said to _arrogate_ or _usurp_ it. a man may _usurp_ the substance of power in the most unpretending way; what he _arrogates_ to himself he _assumes_ with a haughty and overbearing manner. one _assumes_ the robes or insignia of office by _putting_ them _on_, with or without right. if he _takes_ to himself the credit and appearance of qualities he does not possess, he is said to _affect_ or _feign_, or to _pretend_ to, the character he thus _assumes_. what a debater _postulates_ he openly states and _takes_ for granted without proof; what he _assumes_ he may take for granted without mention. a favorite trick of the sophist is quietly to _assume_ as true what would at once be challenged if expressly stated. what a man _claims_ he asserts his right to _take_; what he _assumes_ he _takes_. * * * * * assurance. synonyms: arrogance, boldness, impudence, self-confidence, assertion, confidence, presumption, self-reliance, assumption, effrontery, self-assertion, trust. _assurance_ may have the good sense of a high, sustained _confidence_ and _trust_; as, the saint's _assurance_ of heaven. _confidence_ is founded upon reasons; _assurance_ is largely a matter of feeling. in the bad sense, _assurance_ is a vicious courage, with belief of one's ability to outwit or defy others; the hardened criminal is remarkable for habitual _assurance_. for the calm conviction of one's own rectitude and ability, _self-confidence_ is a better word than _assurance_; _self-reliance_ expresses confidence in one's own resources, independently of others' aid. in the bad sense _assurance_ is less gross than _impudence_, which is (according to its etymology) a shameless _boldness_. _assurance_ is in act or manner; _impudence_ may be in speech. _effrontery_ is _impudence_ defiantly displayed. compare faith; pride. antonyms: bashfulness, consternation, distrust, hesitancy, shyness, confusion, dismay, doubt, misgiving, timidity. * * * * * astute. synonyms: acute, discerning, penetrating, sharp, clear-sighted, discriminating, penetrative, shrewd, crafty, keen, perspicacious, subtile, cunning, knowing, sagacious, subtle. _acute_, from the latin, suggests the sharpness of the needle's point; _keen_, from the saxon, the sharpness of the cutting edge. _astute_, from the latin, with the original sense of _cunning_ has come to have a meaning that combines the sense of _acute_ or _keen_ with that of _sagacious_. the _astute_ mind adds to _acuteness_ and _keenness_ an element of cunning or finesse. the _astute_ debater leads his opponents into a snare by getting them to make admissions, or urge arguments, of which he sees a result that they do not perceive. the _acute_, _keen_ intellect may take no special advantage of these qualities; the _astute_ mind has always a point to make for itself, and seldom fails to make it. a _knowing_ look, air, etc., in general indicates practical knowledge with a touch of shrewdness, and perhaps of cunning; in regard to some special matter, it indicates the possession of reserved knowledge which the person could impart if he chose. _knowing_ has often a slightly invidious sense. we speak of a _knowing_ rascal, meaning _cunning_ or _shrewd_ within a narrow range, but of a _knowing_ horse or dog, in the sense of _sagacious_, implying that he knows more than could be expected of such an animal. a _knowing_ child has more knowledge than would be looked for at his years, perhaps more than is quite desirable, while to speak of a child as _intelligent_ is altogether complimentary. antonyms: blind, idiotic, shallow, stolid, undiscerning, dull, imbecile, short-sighted, stupid, unintelligent. * * * * * attachment. synonyms: adherence, devotion, friendship, regard, adhesion, esteem, inclination, tenderness, affection, estimation, love, union. an _attachment_ is a feeling that binds a person by ties of heart to another person or thing; we speak of a man's _adherence_ to his purpose, his _adhesion_ to his party, or to anything to which he clings tenaciously, tho with no special tenderness; of his _attachment_ to his church, to the old homestead, or to any persons or objects that he may hold dear. _affection_ expresses more warmth of feeling; we should not speak of a mother's _attachment_ to her babe, but of her _affection_ or of her _devotion_. _inclination_ expresses simply a tendency, which may be good or bad, yielded to or overcome; as, an _inclination_ to study; an _inclination_ to drink. _regard_ is more distant than _affection_ or _attachment_, but closer and warmer than _esteem_; we speak of high _esteem_, kind _regard_. compare acquaintance; appendage; friendship; love; union. antonyms: alienation, aversion, distance, estrangement, repugnance, animosity, coolness, divorce, indifference, separation, antipathy, dislike, enmity, opposition, severance. prepositions: attachment _of_ a true man _to_ his friends; attachment _to_ a leader _for_ his nobility of character; the attachments _between_ two persons or things; attachment _by_ muscular fibers, or _by_ a rope, etc. * * * * * attack, _v._ synonyms: assail, beset, combat, invade, assault, besiege, encounter, set upon, beleaguer, charge, fall upon, storm. to _attack_ is to begin hostilities of any kind. a general _invades_ a country by marching in troops; he _attacks_ a city by drawing up an army against it; he _assaults_ it by hurling his troops directly upon its defenses. _assail_ and _assault_, tho of the same original etymology, have diverged in meaning, so that _assault_ alone retains the meaning of direct personal violence. one may _assail_ another with reproaches; he _assaults_ him with a blow, a brandished weapon, etc. armies or squadrons _charge_; _combat_ and _encounter_ may be said of individual contests. to _beset_ is to set around, or, so to speak, to stud one's path, with menaces, attacks, or persuasions. to _besiege_ and _beleaguer_ are the acts of armies. to _encounter_ is to meet face to face, and may be said either of the _attacking_ or of the resisting force or person, or of both. antonyms: aid, cover, protect, shelter, support, uphold, befriend, defend, resist, shield, sustain, withstand. prepositions: we were attacked _by_ the enemy _with_ cannon and musketry. * * * * * attack, _n._ synonyms: aggression, incursion, invasion, onslaught, assault, infringement, onset, trespass. encroachment, intrusion, an _attack_ may be by word; an _aggression_ is always by deed. an _assault_ may be upon the person, an _aggression_ is upon rights, possessions, etc. an _invasion_ of a nation's territories is an act of _aggression_; an _intrusion_ upon a neighboring estate is a _trespass_. _onslaught_ signifies intensely violent _assault_, as by an army or a desperado, tho it is sometimes used of violent speech. antonyms: defense, repulsion, resistance, retreat, submission, surrender. prepositions: the enemy made an attack _upon_ (or _on_) our works. * * * * * attain. synonyms: accomplish, arrive at, gain, master, reach, achieve, compass, get, obtain, secure, acquire, earn, grasp, procure, win. a person may _obtain_ a situation by the intercession of friends, he _procures_ a dinner by paying for it. _attain_ is a lofty word, pointing to some high or desirable result; a man _attains_ the mountain summit, he _attains_ honor or learning as the result of strenuous and earnest labor. even that usage of _attain_ which has been thought to refer to mere progress of time carries the thought of a result desired; as, to _attain_ to old age; the man desires to live to a good old age; we should not speak of his _attaining_ his dotage. one may _attain_ an object that will prove not worth his labor, but what he _achieves_ is in itself great and splendid; as, the greeks at marathon _achieved_ a glorious victory. compare do; get; reach. antonyms: abandon, fail, forfeit, give up, let go, lose, miss. * * * * * attitude. synonyms: pose, position, posture. _position_ as applied to the arrangement or situation of the human body or limbs may denote that which is conscious or unconscious, of the living or the dead; but we do not speak of the _attitude_, _pose_, or _posture_ of a corpse; unless, in some rare case, we might say the body was found in a sitting _posture_, where the _posture_ is thought of as assumed in life, or as, at first glance, suggesting life. a _posture_ is assumed without any special reference to expression of feeling; as, an erect _posture_, a reclining _posture_; _attitude_ is the _position_ appropriate to the expression of some feeling; the _attitude_ may be unconsciously taken through the strength of the feeling; as, an _attitude_ of defiance; or it may be consciously assumed in the attempt to express the feeling; as, he assumed an _attitude_ of humility. a _pose_ is a _position_ studied for artistic effect, or considered with reference to such effect; the unconscious _posture_ of a spectator or listener may be an admirable _pose_ from an artist's standpoint. * * * * * attribute, _v._ synonyms: ascribe, associate, connect, impute, refer. assign, charge, we may _attribute_ to a person either that which belongs to him or that which we merely suppose to be his. we _attribute_ to god infinite power. we may _attribute_ a wrong intent to an innocent person. we may _attribute_ a result, rightly or wrongly, to a certain cause; in such case, however, _attribute_ carries always a concession of uncertainty or possible error. where we are quite sure, we simply _refer_ a matter to the cause or class to which it belongs or _ascribe_ to one what is surely his, etc. many diseases formerly _attributed_ to witchcraft are now _referred_ to the action of micro-organisms. we may _attribute_ a matter in silent thought; we _ascribe_ anything openly in speech or writing; king saul said of the singing women, "they have _ascribed_ unto david ten thousands, and to me they have _ascribed_ but thousands." we _associate_ things which may have no necessary or causal relation; as, we may _associate_ the striking of a clock with the serving of dinner, tho the two are not necessarily connected. we _charge_ a person with what we deem blameworthy. we may _impute_ good or evil, but more commonly evil. antonyms: deny, disconnect, dissociate, separate, sever, sunder. prepositions: it is uncharitable to attribute evil motives _to_ (archaic _unto_) others. * * * * * attribute, _n._ synonyms: property, quality. a _quality_ (l. _qualis_, such)--the "suchness" of anything, according to the german idiom--denotes what a thing really is in some one respect; an _attribute_ is what we conceive a thing to be in some one respect; thus, while _attribute_ may, _quality_ must, express something of the real nature of that to which it is ascribed; we speak of the _attributes_ of god, the _qualities_ of matter. "originally 'the _attributes_ of god' was preferred, probably, because men assumed no knowledge of the actual _qualities_ of the deity, but only of those more or less fitly attributed to him." j. a. h. murray. [m.] holiness is an _attribute_ of god; the _attributes_ of many heathen deities have been only the _qualities_ of wicked men joined to superhuman power. a _property_ (l. _proprius_, one's own) is what belongs especially to one thing as its own peculiar possession, in distinction from all other things; when we speak of the _qualities_ or the _properties_ of matter, _quality_ is the more general, _property_ the more limited term. a _quality_ is inherent; a _property_ may be transient; physicists now, however, prefer to term those _qualities_ manifested by all bodies (such as impenetrability, extension, etc.), _general properties_ of matter, while those peculiar to certain substances or to certain states of those substances (as fluidity, malleability, etc.) are termed _specific properties_; in this wider use of the word _property_, it becomes strictly synonymous with _quality_. compare characteristic; emblem. antonyms: being, essence, nature, substance. * * * * * augur. synonyms: betoken, divine, foretell, predict, prognosticate, bode, forebode, portend, presage, prophesy. "persons or things _augur_; persons only _forebode_ or _presage_; things only _betoken_ or _portend_." crabb _english synonymes_. we _augur_ well for a voyage from past good fortune and a good start; we _presage_ success from the stanchness of the ship and the skill of the captain. we _forebode_ misfortune either from circumstances that _betoken_ failure, or from gloomy fancies for which we could not give a reason. dissipation among the officers and mutiny among the crew _portend_ disaster. _divine_ has reference to the ancient soothsayers' arts (as in _gen._ xliv, , ), and refers rather to reading hearts than to reading the future. we say i could not _divine_ his motive, or his intention. antonyms: assure, demonstrate, establish, make sure, settle, calculate, determine, insure, prove, warrant. prepositions: i augur _from_ all circumstances a prosperous result; i augur ill _of_ the enterprise; "augurs ill _to_ the rights of the people," thomas jefferson _writings_ vol. ii, p. . [t. & m. ' .] i augur well, or this augurs well, _for_ your cause. * * * * * authentic. synonyms: accepted, certain, original, sure, accredited, current, real, true, authoritative, genuine, received, trustworthy, authorized, legitimate, reliable, veritable. that is _authentic_ which is true to the facts; that is _genuine_ which is true to its own claims; as, _authentic_ history; _genuine_ money. a '_genuine_' work is one written by the author whose name it bears; an '_authentic_' work is one which relates truthfully the matters of which it treats. for example, the apocryphal gospel of st. thomas is neither '_genuine_' nor '_authentic_.' it is not '_genuine_,' for st. thomas did not write it; it is not '_authentic_,' for its contents are mainly fables and lies. trench _on the study of words_ lect. vi, p. . [w. j. w.] _authentic_ is, however, used by reputable writers as synonymous with _genuine_, tho usually where genuineness carries a certain authority. we speak of _accepted_ conclusions, _certain_ evidence, _current_ money, _genuine_ letters, a _legitimate_ conclusion or _legitimate_ authority, _original_ manuscripts, _real_ value, _received_ interpretation, _sure_ proof, a _true_ statement, a _trustworthy_ witness, a _veritable_ discovery. antonyms: apocryphal, counterfeit, exploded, false, spurious, baseless, disputed, fabulous, fictitious, unauthorized. * * * * * auxiliary. synonyms: accessory, ally, coadjutor, helper, promoter, aid, assistant, confederate, mercenary, subordinate. an _auxiliary_ is a person or thing that helps in a subordinate capacity. _allies_ unite as equals; _auxiliaries_ are, at least technically, inferiors or subordinates. yet the _auxiliary_ is more than a mere _assistant_. the word is oftenest found in the plural, and in the military sense; _auxiliaries_ are troops of one nation uniting with the armies, and acting under the orders, of another. _mercenaries_ serve only for pay; _auxiliaries_ often for reasons of state, policy, or patriotism as well. compare accessory; appendage. antonyms: antagonist, hinderer, opponent, opposer. prepositions: the auxiliaries _of_ the romans; an auxiliary _in_ a good cause; an auxiliary _to_ learning. * * * * * avaricious. synonyms: close, greedy, niggardly, penurious, sordid, covetous, miserly, parsimonious, rapacious, stingy. _avaricious_ and _covetous_ refer especially to acquisition, _miserly_, _niggardly_, _parsimonious_, and _penurious_ to expenditure. the _avaricious_ man has an eager craving for money, and ordinarily desires both to get and to keep, the _covetous_ man to get something away from its possessor; tho one may be made _avaricious_ by the pressure of great expenditures. _miserly_ and _niggardly_ persons seek to gain by mean and petty savings; the _miserly_ by stinting themselves, the _niggardly_ by stinting others. _parsimonious_ and _penurious_ may apply to one's outlay either for himself or for others; in the latter use, they are somewhat less harsh and reproachful terms than _niggardly_. the _close_ man holds like a vise all that he gets. _near_ and _nigh_ are provincial words of similar import. the _rapacious_ have the robber instinct, and put it in practise in some form, as far as they dare. the _avaricious_ and _rapacious_ are ready to reach out for gain; the _parsimonious_, _miserly_, and _niggardly_ prefer the safer and less adventurous way of avoiding expenditure. _greedy_ and _stingy_ are used not only of money, but often of other things, as food, etc. the _greedy_ child wishes to enjoy everything himself; the _stingy_ child, to keep others from getting it. antonyms: bountiful, free, generous, liberal, munificent, prodigal, wasteful. preposition: the monarch was avaricious _of_ power. * * * * * avenge. synonyms: punish, retaliate, revenge, vindicate, visit. _avenge_ and _revenge_, once close synonyms, are now far apart in meaning. to _avenge_ is to _visit_ some offense with punishment, in order to _vindicate_ the righteous, or to uphold and illustrate the right by the suffering or destruction of the wicked. "and seeing one of them suffer wrong, he _avenged_ him that was oppressed, and smote the egyptian," _acts_ vii, . to _revenge_ is to inflict harm or suffering upon another through personal anger and resentment at something done to ourselves. _avenge_ is unselfish; _revenge_ is selfish. _revenge_, according to present usage, could not be said of god. to _retaliate_ may be necessary for self-defense, without the idea of _revenge_. compare revenge. prepositions: avenge _on_ or _upon_ (rarely, avenge oneself _of_) a wrong-doer. * * * * * avow. synonyms: knowledge, aver, confess, own, profess, testify, admit, avouch, declare, proclaim, protest, witness. _acknowledge_, _admit_, and _declare_ refer either to oneself or to others; all the other words refer only to one's own knowledge or action. to _avow_ is to declare boldly and openly, commonly as something one is ready to justify, maintain, or defend. a man _acknowledges_ another's claim or his own promise; he _admits_ an opponent's advantage or his own error; he _declares_ either what he has seen or experienced or what he has received from another; he _avers_ what he is sure of from his own knowledge or consciousness; he gives his assurance as the voucher for what he _avouches_; he _avows_ openly a belief or intention that he has silently held. _avow_ and _avouch_ take a direct object; _aver_ is followed by a conjunction: a man _avows_ his faith, _avouches_ a deed, _avers_ that he was present. _avow_ has usually a good sense; what a person _avows_ he at least does not treat as blameworthy, criminal, or shameful; if he did, he would be said to _confess_ it; yet there is always the suggestion that some will be ready to challenge or censure what one _avows_; as, the clergyman _avowed_ his dissent from the doctrine of his church. _own_ applies to all things, good or bad, great or small, which one takes as his own. compare confess; state. antonyms: contradict, deny, disavow, disclaim, disown, ignore, repudiate. * * * * * awful. synonyms: alarming, direful, frightful, majestic, solemn, appalling, dread, grand, noble, stately, august, dreadful, horrible, portentous, terrible, dire, fearful, imposing, shocking, terrific. _awful_ should not be used of things which are merely disagreeable or annoying, nor of all that are _alarming_ and _terrible_, but only of such as bring a solemn awe upon the soul, as in the presence of a superior power; as, the _awful_ hush before the battle. that which is _awful_ arouses an oppressive, that which is _august_ an admiring reverence; we speak of the _august_ presence of a mighty monarch, the _awful_ presence of death. we speak of an _exalted_ station, a _grand_ mountain, an _imposing_ presence, a _majestic_ cathedral, a _noble_ mien, a _solemn_ litany, a _stately_ march, an _august_ assembly, the _awful_ scene of the judgment day. antonyms: base, contemptible, inferior, paltry, beggarly, despicable, lowly, undignified, commonplace, humble, mean, vulgar. * * * * * awkward. synonyms: boorish, clumsy, rough, unhandy, bungling, gawky, uncouth, unskilful. clownish, maladroit, ungainly, _awkward_, from _awk_ (kindred with _off_, from the norwegian), is _off-ward_, turned the wrong way; it was anciently used of a back-handed or left-handed blow in battle, of squinting eyes, etc. _clumsy_, on the other hand (from _clumse_, also through the norwegian), signifies benumbed, stiffened with cold; this is the original meaning of _clumsy_ fingers, _clumsy_ limbs. thus, _awkward_ primarily refers to action, _clumsy_ to condition. a tool, a vehicle, or the human frame may be _clumsy_ in shape or build, _awkward_ in motion. the _clumsy_ man is almost of necessity _awkward_, but the _awkward_ man may not be naturally _clumsy_. the finest untrained colt is _awkward_ in harness; a horse that is _clumsy_ in build can never be trained out of awkwardness. an _awkward_ statement has an uncomfortable, and perhaps recoiling force; a statement that contains ill-assorted and incongruous material in ill-chosen language is _clumsy_. we speak of an _awkward_ predicament, an _awkward_ scrape. an _awkward_ excuse commonly reflects on the one who offers it. we say the admitted facts have an _awkward_ appearance. in none of these cases could _clumsy_ be used. _clumsy_ is, however, applied to movements that seem as unsuitable as those of benumbed and stiffened limbs. a dancing bear is both _clumsy_ and _awkward_. antonyms: adroit, clever, dexterous, handy, skilful. prepositions: the raw recruit is awkward _in_ action; _at_ the business. * * * * * axiom. synonym: truism. both the _axiom_ and the _truism_ are instantly seen to be true, and need no proof; but in an _axiom_ there is progress of thought, while the _truism_ simply says the same thing over again, or says what is too manifest to need saying. the _axiom_ that "things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another" unfolds in the latter part of the sentence the truth implied in the first part, which might have been overlooked if not stated. in the _truism_ that "a man can do all he is capable of," the former and the latter part of the sentence are simply identical, and the mind is left just where it started. hence the _axiom_ is valuable and useful, while the _truism_ is weak and flat, unless the form of statement makes it striking or racy, as "all fools are out of their wits." compare proverb. antonyms: absurdity, contradiction, demonstration, nonsense, paradox, sophism. * * * * * babble. synonyms: blab, cackle, gabble, murmur, prattle, blurt, chat, gossip, palaver, tattle, blurt out, chatter, jabber, prate, twaddle. most of these words are onomatopoetic. the _cackle_ of a hen, the _gabble_ of a goose, the _chatter_ of a magpie, the _babble_ of a running stream, as applied to human speech, indicate a rapid succession of what are to the listener meaningless sounds. _blab_ and _blurt_ (commonly _blurt out_) refer to the letting out of what the lips can no longer keep in; _blab_, of a secret; _blurt out_, of passionate feeling. to _chat_ is to talk in an easy, pleasant way, not without sense, but without special purpose. _chatting_ is the practise of adults, _prattling_ that of children. to _prate_ is to talk idly, presumptuously, or foolishly, but not necessarily incoherently. to _jabber_ is to utter a rapid succession of unintelligible sounds, generally more noisy than _chattering_. to _gossip_ is to talk of petty personal matters, as for pastime or mischief. to _twaddle_ is to talk feeble nonsense. to _murmur_ is to utter suppressed or even inarticulate sounds, suggesting the notes of a dove, or the sound of a running stream, and is used figuratively of the half suppressed utterances of affection or pity, or of complaint, resentment, etc. compare speak. prepositions: babies babble _for_ the moon; the crowd babbles _of_ a hero; the sick man babbles _of_ home. * * * * * banish. synonyms: ban, dismiss, evict, expatriate, ostracize, discharge, drive out, exile, expel, oust. dislodge, eject, _banish_, primarily to put under _ban_, to compel by authority to leave a place or country, perhaps with restriction to some other place or country. from a country, a person may be _banished_, _exiled_, or _expatriated_; _banished_ from any country where he may happen to be, but _expatriated_ or _exiled_ only from his own. one may _expatriate_ or _exile_ himself; he is _banished_ by others. _banish_ is a word of wide import; one may _banish_ disturbing thoughts; care may _banish_ sleep. to _expel_ is to _drive out_ with violence or rudeness, and so often with disgrace. prepositions: cataline was banished _from_ rome; john the apostle was banished _to_ patmos. * * * * * bank. synonyms: beach, bound, brink, edge, margin, shore, border, brim, coast, marge, rim, strand. _bank_ is a general term for the land along the edge of a water course; it may also denote a raised portion of the bed of a river, lake, or ocean; as, the _banks_ of newfoundland. a _beach_ is a strip or expanse of incoherent wave-worn sand, which is often pebbly or full of boulders; we speak of the _beach_ of a lake or ocean; a _beach_ is sometimes found in the bend of a river. _strand_ is a more poetic term for a wave-washed shore, especially as a place for landing or embarking; as, the keel grates on the _strand_. the whole line of a country or continent that borders the sea is a _coast_. _shore_ is any land, whether cliff, or sand, or marsh, bordering water. we do not speak of the _coast_ of a river, nor of the _banks_ of the ocean, tho there may be _banks_ by or under the sea. _edge_ is the line where land and water meet; as, the water's _edge_. _brink_ is the place from which one may fall; as, the river's _brink_; the _brink_ of a precipice; the _brink_ of ruin. * * * * * banter. synonyms: badinage, derision, jeering, raillery, sarcasm, chaff, irony, mockery, ridicule, satire. _banter_ is the touching upon some fault, weakness, or fancied secret of another in a way half to pique and half to please; _badinage_ is delicate, refined _banter_. _raillery_ has more sharpness, but is usually good-humored and well meant. _irony_, the saying one thing that the reverse may be understood, may be either mild or bitter. all the other words have a hostile intent. _ridicule_ makes a person or thing the subject of contemptuous merriment; _derision_ seeks to make the object derided seem utterly despicable--to laugh it to scorn. _chaff_ is the coarse witticism of the streets, perhaps merry, oftener malicious; _jeering_ is loud, rude _ridicule_, as of a hostile crowd or mob. _mockery_ is more studied, and may include mimicry and personal violence, as well as scornful speech. a _satire_ is a formal composition; a _sarcasm_ may be an impromptu sentence. the _satire_ shows up follies to keep people from them; the _sarcasm_ hits them because they are foolish, without inquiring whether it will do good or harm; the _satire_ is plainly uttered; the _sarcasm_ is covert. * * * * * barbarous. synonyms: atrocious, brutal, merciless, uncivilized, barbarian, cruel, rude, uncouth, barbaric, inhuman, savage, untamed. whatever is not civilized is _barbarian_; _barbaric_ indicates rude magnificence, uncultured richness; as, _barbaric_ splendor, a _barbaric_ melody. _barbarous_ refers to the worst side of _barbarian_ life, and to revolting acts, especially of cruelty, such as a civilized man would not be expected to do; as, a _barbarous_ deed. we may, however, say _barbarous_ nations, _barbarous_ tribes, without implying anything more than want of civilization and culture. _savage_ is more distinctly bloodthirsty than _barbarous_. in this sense we speak of a _savage_ beast and of _barbarous_ usage. antonyms: civilized, cultured, elegant, humane, polite, tender, courtly, delicate, graceful, nice, refined, urbane. * * * * * barrier. synonyms: bar, bulwark, obstruction, rampart, barricade, hindrance, parapet, restraint, breastwork, obstacle, prohibition, restriction. a _bar_ is something that is or may be firmly fixed, ordinarily with intent to prevent entrance or egress; as, the _bars_ of a prison cell; the _bars_ of a wood-lot. a _barrier_ obstructs, but is not necessarily impassable. _barrier_ is used of objects more extensive than those to which _bar_ is ordinarily applied. a mountain range may be a _barrier_ to exploration; but a mass of sand across the entrance to a harbor is called a _bar_. discovered falsehood is a _bar_ to confidence. _barricade_ has become practically a technical name for an improvised street fortification, and, unless in some way modified, is usually so understood. a _parapet_ is a low or breast-high wall, as about the edge of a roof, terrace, etc., especially, in military use, such a wall for the protection of troops; a _rampart_ is the embankment surrounding a fort, on which the _parapet_ is raised; the word _rampart_ is often used as including the _parapet_. _bulwark_ is a general word for any defensive wall or _rampart_; its only technical use at present is in nautical language, where it signifies the raised side of a ship above the upper deck, topped by the rail. compare boundary; impediment. antonyms: admittance, opening, road, transit, entrance, passage, thoroughfare, way. prepositions: a barrier _to_ progress, _against_ invasion; a barrier _between_ nations. * * * * * battle. synonyms: action, combat, encounter, passage of arms, affair, conflict, engagement, skirmish, bout, contest, fight, strife. _conflict_ is a general word which describes opponents, whether individuals or hosts, as dashed together. one continuous _conflict_ between entire armies is a _battle_. another _battle_ may be fought upon the same field after a considerable interval; or a new _battle_ may follow immediately, the armies meeting upon a new field. an _action_ is brief and partial; a _battle_ may last for days. _engagement_ is a somewhat formal expression for _battle_; as, it was the commander's purpose to avoid a general _engagement_. a protracted war, including many _battles_, may be a stubborn _contest_. _combat_, originally a hostile _encounter_ between individuals, is now used also for extensive _engagements_. a _skirmish_ is between small detachments or scattered troops. an _encounter_ may be either purposed or accidental, between individuals or armed forces. _fight_ is a word of less dignity than _battle_; we should not ordinarily speak of waterloo as a _fight_, unless where the word is used in the sense of fighting; as, i was in the thick of the _fight_. antonyms: armistice, concord, peace, suspension of hostilities, truce. prepositions: a battle _of_ giants; battle _between_ armies; a battle _for_ life, _against_ invaders; a battle _to_ the death; the battle _of_ (more rarely _at_) marathon. * * * * * beat. synonyms: bastinado, chastise, overcome, spank, thrash, batter, conquer, pommel, strike, vanquish, belabor, cudgel, pound, surpass, whip, bruise, defeat, scourge, switch, worst. castigate, flog, smite, _strike_ is the word for a single blow; to _beat_ is to _strike_ repeatedly, as a bird _beats_ the air with its wings. others of the above words describe the manner of _beating_, as _bastinado_, to _beat_ on the soles of the feet; _belabor_, to inflict a comprehensive and exhaustive _beating_; _cudgel_, to _beat_ with a stick; _thrash_, as wheat was _beaten_ out with the old hand-flail; to _pound_ (akin to l. _pondus_, a weight) is to _beat_ with a heavy, and _pommel_ with a blunt, instrument. to _batter_ and to _bruise_ refer to the results of _beating_; that is _battered_ which is broken or defaced by repeated blows on the surface (compare synonyms for shatter); that is _bruised_ which has suffered even one severe contusion. the metaphorical sense of _beat_, however, so far preponderates that one may be very badly _bruised_ and _battered_, and yet not be said to be _beaten_, unless he has got the worst of the _beating_. to _beat_ a combatant is to disable or dishearten him for further fighting. hence _beat_ becomes the synonym for every word which implies getting the advantage of another. compare conquer. antonyms: fail, fall, get the worst of, go down, go under, surrender. almost all antonyms in this class are passive, and can be formed indefinitely from the conquering words by the use of the auxiliary _be_; as, be beaten, be defeated, be conquered, etc. prepositions: beat _with_ a stick _over_ the head; beat _by_ a trick; _out of_ town; beat _to_ the ground; _into_ submission. * * * * * beautiful. synonyms: attractive, charming, exquisite, handsome, beauteous, comely, fair, lovely, bewitching, delightful, fine, picturesque, bonny, elegant, graceful, pretty. the definition of beauty, "perfection of form," is a good key to the meaning of _beautiful_, if we understand "form" in its widest sense. there must also be harmony and unity, and in human beings spiritual loveliness, to constitute an object or a person really _beautiful_. thus, we speak of a _beautiful_ landscape, a _beautiful_ poem. but _beautiful_ implies also, in concrete objects, softness of outline and delicacy of mold; it is opposed to all that is hard and rugged, hence we say a _beautiful_ woman, but not a _beautiful_ man. _beautiful_ has the further limit of not transcending our powers of appreciation. _pretty_ expresses in a far less degree that which is pleasing to a refined taste in objects comparatively small, slight, and dainty; as, a _pretty_ bonnet; a _pretty_ girl. that is _handsome_ which is not only superficially pleasing, but well and harmoniously proportioned, with usually the added idea that it is made so by art, breeding, or training; as, a _handsome_ horse; a _handsome_ house. _handsome_ is a term far inferior to _beautiful_; we may even say a _handsome_ villain. _fair_ denotes what is bright, smooth, clear, and without blemish; as, a _fair_ face. the word applies wholly to what is superficial; we can say "_fair_, yet false." in a specific sense, _fair_ has the sense of blond, as opposed to dark or brunette. one who possesses vivacity, wit, good nature, or other pleasing qualities may be _attractive_ without beauty. _comely_ denotes an aspect that is smooth, genial, and wholesome, with a certain fulness of contour and pleasing symmetry, tho falling short of the _beautiful_; as, a _comely_ matron. that is _picturesque_ which would make a striking picture. antonyms: awkward, frightful, grotesque, repulsive, uncouth, clumsy, ghastly, hideous, shocking, ungainly, deformed, grim, horrid, ugly, unlovely, disgusting, grisly, odious, unattractive, unpleasant. prepositions: beautiful _to_ the eye; beautiful _in_ appearance, _in_ spirit; "beautiful _for_ situation," _ps._ xlviii, ; beautiful _of_ aspect, _of_ its kind. * * * * * because. synonyms: as, for, inasmuch as, since. _because_, literally _by_-cause, is the most direct and complete word for giving the reason of a thing. _since_, originally denoting succession in time, signifies a succession in a chain of reasoning, a natural inference or result. _as_ indicates something like, coordinate, parallel. _since_ is weaker than _because_; _as_ is weaker than _since_; either may introduce the reason before the main statement; thus, _since_ or _as_ you are going, i will accompany you. often the weaker word is the more courteous, implying less constraint; for example, _as_ you request it, i will come, rather than i will come _because_ you request it. _inasmuch as_ is a formal and qualified expression, implying by just so much, and no more; thus, _inasmuch as_ the debtor has no property, i abandon the claim. _for_ is a loose connective, giving often mere suggestion or indication rather than reason or cause; as, it is morning, _for_ (not _because_) the birds are singing. antonyms: altho, however, nevertheless, notwithstanding, yet. compare synonyms for but; notwithstanding. * * * * * becoming. synonyms: befitting, congruous, fit, meet, seemly, beseeming, decent, fitting, neat, suitable, comely, decorous, graceful, proper, worthy. that is _becoming_ in dress which suits the complexion, figure, and other qualities of the wearer, so as to produce on the whole a pleasing effect. that is _decent_ which does not offend modesty or propriety. that is _suitable_ which is adapted to the age, station, situation, and other circumstances of the wearer; coarse, heavy boots are _suitable_ for farm-work; a juvenile style of dress is not _suitable_ for an old lady. in conduct much the same rules apply. the dignity and gravity of a patriarch would not be _becoming_ to a child; at a funeral lively, cheery sociability would not be _decorous_, while noisy hilarity would not be _decent_; sumptuous display would not be _suitable_ for a poor person. _fit_ is a compendious term for whatever fits the person, time, place, occasion, etc.; as, a _fit_ person; a _fit_ abode; a _fit_ place. _fitting_, or _befitting_, is somewhat more elegant, implying a nicer adaptation. _meet_, a somewhat archaic word, expresses a moral fitness; as, _meet_ for heaven. compare beautiful. antonyms: awkward, ill-fitting, indecent, unbecoming, unseemly, ill-becoming, improper, indecorous, unfit, unsuitable. prepositions: the dress was becoming _to_ the wearer. such conduct was becoming _in_ him. * * * * * beginning. synonyms: arising, inauguration, origin, source, commencement, inception, outset, spring, fount, initiation, rise, start. fountain, opening, the latin _commencement_ is more formal than the saxon _beginning_, as the verb _commence_, is more formal than _begin_. _commencement_ is for the most part restricted to some form of action, while _beginning_ has no restriction, but may be applied to action, state, material, extent, enumeration, or to whatever else may be conceived of as having a first part, point, degree, etc. the letter a is at the _beginning_ (not the _commencement_) of every alphabet. if we were to speak of the _commencement_ of the pacific railroad, we should be understood to refer to the enterprise and its initiatory act; if we were to refer to the roadway we should say "here is the _beginning_ of the pacific railroad." in the great majority of cases _begin_ and _beginning_ are preferable to _commence_ and _commencement_ as the simple, idiomatic english words, always accurate and expressive. "in the _beginning_ was the word," _john_ i, . an _origin_ is the point from which something starts or sets out, often involving, and always suggesting causal connection; as, the _origin_ of evil; the _origin_ of a nation, a government, or a family. a _source_ is that which furnishes a first and continuous supply, that which flows forth freely or may be readily recurred to; as, the _source_ of a river; a _source_ of knowledge; a _source_ of inspiration; fertile land is a _source_ (not an _origin_) of wealth. a _rise_ is thought of as in an action; we say that a lake is the _source_ of a certain river, or that the river takes its _rise_ from the lake. motley wrote of "the _rise_ of the dutch republic." _fount_, _fountain_, and _spring_, in their figurative senses, keep close to their literal meaning. compare cause. antonyms: see synonyms for end. * * * * * behavior. synonyms: action, breeding, conduct, deportment, manner, bearing, carriage, demeanor, life, manners. _behavior_ is our _action_ in the presence of others; _conduct_ includes also that which is known only to ourselves and our maker. _carriage_ expresses simply the manner of holding the body, especially in sitting or walking, as when it is said of a lady "she has a fine _carriage_." _bearing_ refers to the bodily expression of feeling or disposition; as, a haughty _bearing_; a noble _bearing_. _demeanor_ is the bodily expression, not only of feelings, but of moral states; as, a devout _demeanor_. _breeding_, unless with some adverse limitation, denotes that _manner_ and _conduct_ which result from good birth and training. _deportment_ is _behavior_ as related to a set of rules; as, the pupil's _deportment_ was faultless. a person's _manner_ may be that of a moment, or toward a single person; his _manners_ are his habitual style of _behavior_ toward or before others, especially in matters of etiquette and politeness; as, good _manners_ are always pleasing. prepositions: the behavior _of_ the pastor _to_ or _toward_ his people, _on_ or _upon_ the streets, _before_ the multitude, or _in_ the church, _with_ the godly, or _with_ the worldly, was alike faultless. * * * * * bend. synonyms: bias, curve, diverge, mold, submit, twist, bow, deflect, incline, persuade, turn, warp, crook, deviate, influence, stoop, twine, yield. in some cases a thing is spoken of as _bent_ where the parts make an angle; but oftener to _bend_ is understood to be to draw to or through a curve; as, to _bend_ a bow. to _submit_ or _yield_ is to _bend_ the mind humbly to another's wishes. to _incline_ or _influence_ is to _bend_ another's wishes toward our own; to _persuade_ is to draw them quite over. to _warp_ is to _bend_ silently through the whole fiber, as a board in the sun. to _crook_ is to _bend_ irregularly, as a _crooked_ stick. _deflect_, _deviate_, and _diverge_ are said of any turning away; _deviate_ commonly of a slight and gradual movement, _diverge_ of a more sharp and decided one. to _bias_ is to cut across the texture, or incline to one side; in figurative use always with an unfavorable import. _mold_ is a stronger work than _bend_; we may _bend_ by a superior force that which still resists the constraint; as, a _bent_ bow; we _mold_ something plastic entirely to some desired form. * * * * * benevolence. synonyms: almsgiving, charity, kind-heartedness, munificence, beneficence, generosity, kindliness, philanthropy, benignity, good-will, kindness, sympathy, bounty, humanity, liberality, unselfishness. according to the etymology and original usage, _beneficence_ is the doing well, _benevolence_ the wishing or willing well to others; but _benevolence_ has come to include _beneficence_, and to displace it. we should not now speak of _benevolence_ which did not help, unless where there was no power to help; even then we should rather say _good-will_ or _sympathy_. _charity_, which originally meant the purest love for god and man (as in _ cor._ xiii), is now almost universally applied to some form of _almsgiving_, and is much more limited in meaning than _benevolence_. _benignity_ suggests some occult power of blessing, such as was formerly ascribed to the stars; we may say a good man has an air of _benignity_. _kindness_ and _tenderness_ are personal; _benevolence_ and _charity_ are general. _kindness_ extends to all sentient beings, whether men or animals, in prosperity or in distress. _tenderness_ especially goes out toward the young, feeble, and needy, or even to the dead. _humanity_ is so much _kindness_ and _tenderness_ toward man or beast as it would be inhuman not to have; we say of some act of care or _kindness_, "common _humanity_ requires it." _generosity_ is self-forgetful _kindness_ in disposition or action; it includes much besides giving; as, the _generosity_ of forgiveness. _bounty_ applies to ample giving, which on a larger scale is expressed by _munificence_. _liberality_ indicates broad, genial kindly views, whether manifested in gifts or otherwise. we speak of the _bounty_ of a generous host, the _liberality_ or _munificence_ of the founder of a college, or of the _liberality_ of a theologian toward the holders of conflicting beliefs. _philanthropy_ applies to wide schemes for human welfare, often, but not always, involving large expenditures in _charity_ or _benevolence_. compare mercy. antonyms: barbarity, greediness, ill-will, malignity, self-seeking, brutality, harshness, inhumanity, niggardliness, stinginess, churlishness, illiberality, malevolence, selfishness, unkindness. prepositions: benevolence _of_, _on the part of_, or _from_ the wealthy, _to_ or _toward_ the poor. * * * * * bind. synonyms: compel, fetter, oblige, restrict, shackle, engage, fix, restrain, secure, tie. fasten, _binding_ is primarily by something flexible, as a cord or bandage drawn closely around an object or group of objects, as when we _bind_ up a wounded limb. we _bind_ a sheaf of wheat with a cord; we _tie_ the cord in a knot; we _fasten_ by any means that will make things hold together, as a board by nails, or a door by a lock. the verbs _tie_ and _fasten_ are scarcely used in the figurative sense, tho, using the noun, we speak of the _ties_ of affection. _bind_ has an extensive figurative use. one is _bound_ by conscience or honor; he is _obliged_ by some imperious necessity; _engaged_ by his own promise; _compelled_ by physical force or its moral equivalent. antonyms: free, loose, set free, unbind, unfasten, unloose, untie. prepositions: bind _to_ a pillar; _unto_ an altar; _to_ a service; bind one _with_ chains or _in_ chains; one is bound _by_ a contract; a splint is bound _upon_ a limb; the arms may be bound _to_ the sides or _behind_ the back; bind a wreath _about_, _around_, or _round_ the head; twigs are bound _in_ or _into_ fagots; for military purposes, they are bound _at_ both ends and _in_ the middle; one is bound _by_ a contract, or bound _under_ a penalty to fulfil a contract. * * * * * bitter. synonyms: acerb, acidulous, caustic, pungent, stinging, acetous, acrid, cutting, savage, tart, acid, acrimonious, harsh, sharp, vinegarish, acidulated, biting, irate, sour, virulent. _acid_, _sour_, and _bitter_ agree in being contrasted with _sweet_, but the two former are sharply distinguished from the latter. _acid_ or _sour_ is the taste of vinegar or lemon-juice; _bitter_ that of quassia, quinine, or strychnine. _acrid_ is nearly allied to _bitter_. _pungent_ suggests the effect of pepper or snuff on the organs of taste or smell; as, a _pungent_ odor. _caustic_ indicates the corroding effect of some strong chemical, as nitrate of silver. in a figurative sense, as applied to language or character, these words are very closely allied. we say a _sour_ face, _sharp_ words, _bitter_ complaints, _caustic_ wit, _cutting_ irony, _biting_ sarcasm, a _stinging_ taunt, _harsh_ judgment, a _tart_ reply. _harsh_ carries the idea of intentional and severe unkindness, _bitter_ of a severity that arises from real or supposed ill treatment. the _bitter_ speech springs from the sore heart. _tart_ and _sharp_ utterances may not proceed from an intention to wound, but merely from a wit recklessly keen; _cutting_, _stinging_, and _biting_ speech indicates more or less of hostile intent, the latter being the more deeply malicious. the _caustic_ utterance is meant to burn, perhaps wholesomely, as in the satire of juvenal or cervantes. compare morose. antonyms: dulcet, honeyed, luscious, nectared, saccharine, sweet. * * * * * bleach, _v._ synonyms: blanch, make white, whiten, whitewash. to _whiten_ is to _make white_ in general, but commonly it means to overspread with white coloring-matter. _bleach_ and _blanch_ both signify to _whiten_ by depriving of color, the former permanently, as linen; the latter either permanently (as, to _blanch_ celery) or temporarily (as, to _blanch_ the cheek with fear). to _whitewash_ is to _whiten_ superficially, especially by false approval. antonyms: blacken, color, darken, dye, soil, stain. * * * * * blemish. synonyms: blot, defacement, disgrace, injury, spot, blur, defect, dishonor, reproach, stain, brand, deformity, fault, smirch, stigma, crack, dent, flaw, soil, taint, daub, disfigurement, imperfection, speck, tarnish. whatever mars the beauty or completeness of an object is a _blemish_, whether original, as squinting eyes, or the result of accident or disease, etc., as the pits of smallpox. a _blemish_ is superficial; a _flaw_ or _taint_ is in structure or substance. in the moral sense, we speak of a _blot_ or _stain_ upon reputation; a _flaw_ or _taint_ in character. a _defect_ is the want or lack of something; _fault_, primarily a failing, is something that fails of an apparent intent or disappoints a natural expectation; thus a sudden dislocation or displacement of geological strata is called a _fault_. figuratively, a _blemish_ comes from one's own ill-doing; a _brand_ or _stigma_ is inflicted by others; as, the _brand_ of infamy. * * * * * blow. synonyms: box, concussion, disaster, misfortune, stripe, buffet, cuff, knock, rap, stroke, calamity, cut, lash, shock, thump. a _blow_ is a sudden impact, as of a fist or a club; a _stroke_ is a sweeping movement; as, the _stroke_ of a sword, of an oar, of the arm in swimming. a _shock_ is the sudden encounter with some heavy body; as, colliding railway-trains meet with a _shock_; the _shock_ of battle. a _slap_ is given with the open hand, a _lash_ with a whip, thong, or the like; we speak also of the _cut_ of a whip. a _buffet_ or _cuff_ is given only with the hand; a _blow_ either with hand or weapon. a _cuff_ is a somewhat sidelong _blow_, generally with the open hand; as, a _cuff_ or _box_ on the ear. a _stripe_ is the effect or mark of a _stroke_. in the metaphorical sense, _blow_ is used for sudden, stunning, staggering _calamity_ or sorrow; _stroke_ for sweeping _disaster_, and also for sweeping achievement and success. we say a _stroke_ of paralysis, or a _stroke_ of genius. we speak of the _buffets_ of adverse fortune. _shock_ is used of that which is at once sudden, violent, and prostrating; we speak of a _shock_ of electricity, the _shock_ of an amputation, a _shock_ of surprise. compare beat. * * * * * bluff. synonyms: abrupt, brusk, impolite, rough, blunt, coarse, inconsiderate, rude, blustering, discourteous, open, uncivil, bold, frank, plain-spoken, unmannerly. _bluff_ is a word of good meaning, as are _frank_ and _open_. the _bluff_ man talks and laughs loudly and freely, says and does whatever he pleases with fearless good nature, and with no thought of annoying or giving pain to others. the _blunt_ man says things which he is perfectly aware are disagreeable, either from a defiant indifference to others' feelings, or from the pleasure of tormenting. antonyms: bland, genial, polished, polite, refined, reserved, urbane. courteous, * * * * * body. synonyms: ashes, clay, dust, frame, system, carcass, corpse, form, remains, trunk. _body_ denotes the entire physical structure, considered as a whole, of man or animal; _form_ looks upon it as a thing of shape and outline, perhaps of beauty; _frame_ regards it as supported by its bony framework; _system_ views it as an assemblage of many related and harmonious organs. _body_, _form_, _frame_, and _system_ may be either dead or living; _clay_ and _dust_ are sometimes so used in religious or poetic style, tho ordinarily these words are used only of the dead. _corpse_ and _remains_ are used only of the dead. _corpse_ is the plain technical word for a dead body still retaining its unity; _remains_ may be used after any lapse of time; the latter is also the more refined and less ghastly term; as, friends are invited to view the _remains_. _carcass_ applies only to the _body_ of an animal, or of a human being regarded with contempt and loathing. compare company. antonyms: intellect, intelligence, mind, soul, spirit. * * * * * both. synonyms: twain, two. _both_ refers to _two_ objects previously _mentioned_, or had in mind, viewed or acting in connection; as, _both_ men fired at once; "_two_ men fired" might mean any two, out of any number, and without reference to any previous thought or mention. _twain_ is a nearly obsolete form of _two_. _the two_, or _the twain_, is practically equivalent to _both_; _both_, however, expresses a closer unity. we would say _both_ men rushed against the enemy; the _two_ men flew at each other. compare every. antonyms: each, either, every, neither, none, no one, not any. * * * * * boundary. synonyms: barrier, confines, limit, margin, border, edge, line, term, bound, enclosure, marches, termination, bourn, frontier, marge, verge. bourne, landmark, the _boundary_ was originally the _landmark_, that which marked off one piece of territory from another. the _bound_ is the _limit_, marked or unmarked. now, however, the difference between the two words has come to be simply one of usage. as regards territory, we speak of the _boundaries_ of a nation or of an estate; the _bounds_ of a college, a ball-ground, etc. _bounds_ may be used for all within the _limits_, _boundary_ for the limiting line only. _boundary_ looks to that which is without; _bound_ only to that which is within. hence we speak of the _bounds_, not the _boundaries_, of a subject, of the universe, etc.; we say the students were forbidden to go beyond the _bounds_. a _barrier_ is something that bars ingress or egress. a _barrier_ may be a _boundary_, as was the great wall of china. _bourn_, or _bourne_, is a poetical expression for _bound_ or _boundary_. a _border_ is a strip of land along the _boundary_. _edge_ is a sharp terminal line, as where river or ocean meets the land. _limit_ is now used almost wholly in the figurative sense; as, the _limit_ of discussion, of time, of jurisdiction. _line_ is a military term; as, within the _lines_, or through the _lines_, of an army. compare barrier; end. antonyms: center, citadel, estate, inside, interior, land, region, territory. prepositions: the boundaries _of_ an estate; the boundary _between_ neighboring territories. * * * * * brave. synonyms: adventurous, courageous, fearless, undaunted, bold, daring, gallant, undismayed, chivalric, dauntless, heroic, valiant, chivalrous, doughty, intrepid, venturesome. the _adventurous_ man goes in quest of danger; the _bold_ man stands out and faces danger or censure; the _brave_ man combines confidence with resolution in presence of danger; the _chivalrous_ man puts himself in peril for others' protection. the _daring_ step out to defy danger; the _dauntless_ will not flinch before anything that may come to them; the _doughty_ will give and take limitless hard knocks. the _adventurous_ find something romantic in dangerous enterprises; the _venturesome_ may be simply heedless, reckless, or ignorant. all great explorers have been _adventurous_; children, fools, and criminals are _venturesome_. the _fearless_ and _intrepid_ possess unshaken nerves in any place of danger. _courageous_ is more than _brave_, adding a moral element: the _courageous_ man steadily encounters perils to which he may be keenly sensitive, at the call of duty; the _gallant_ are _brave_ in a dashing, showy, and splendid way; the _valiant_ not only dare great dangers, but achieve great results; the _heroic_ are nobly _daring_ and _dauntless_, truly _chivalrous_, sublimely _courageous_. compare fortitude. antonyms: afraid, cringing, fearful, pusillanimous, timid, cowardly, faint-hearted, frightened, shrinking, timorous. * * * * * break. synonyms: bankrupt, crack, destroy, rive, shatter, split, burst, crush, fracture, rupture, shiver, sunder, cashier, demolish, rend, sever, smash, transgress. to _break_ is to divide sharply, with severance of particles, as by a blow or strain. to _burst_ is to _break_ by pressure from within, as a bombshell, but it is used also for the result of violent force otherwise exerted; as, to _burst_ in a door, where the door yields as if to an explosion. to _crush_ is to _break_ by pressure from without, as an egg-shell. to _crack_ is to _break_ without complete severance of parts; a _cracked_ cup or mirror may still hold together. _fracture_ has a somewhat similar sense. in a _fractured_ limb, the ends of the _broken_ bone may be separated, tho both portions are still retained within the common muscular tissue. a _shattered_ object is _broken_ suddenly and in numerous directions; as, a vase is _shattered_ by a blow, a building by an earthquake. a _shivered_ glass is _broken_ into numerous minute, needle-like fragments. to _smash_ is to _break_ thoroughly to pieces with a crashing sound by some sudden act of violence; a watch once _smashed_ will scarcely be worth repair. to _split_ is to cause wood to crack or part in the way of the grain, and is applied to any other case where a natural tendency to separation is enforced by an external cause; as, to _split_ a convention or a party. to _demolish_ is to beat down, as a mound, building, fortress, etc.; to _destroy_ is to put by any process beyond restoration physically, mentally, or morally; to _destroy_ an army is so to _shatter_ and scatter it that it can not be rallied or reassembled as a fighting force. compare rend. antonyms: attach, bind, fasten, join, mend, secure, solder, unite, weld. prepositions: break _to_ pieces, or _in_ pieces, _into_ several pieces (when the object is thought of as divided rather than shattered); break _with_ a friend; _from_ or _away from_ a suppliant; break _into_ a house; _out of_ prison; break _across_ one's knee; break _through_ a hedge; break _in upon_ one's retirement; break _over_ the rules; break _on_ or _upon_ the shore, _against_ the rocks. * * * * * brutish. synonyms: animal, brutal, ignorant, sensual, swinish, base, brute, imbruted, sottish, unintellectual, beastly, carnal, insensible, stolid, unspiritual, bestial, coarse, lascivious, stupid, vile. a _brutish_ man simply follows his _animal_ instincts, without special inclination to do harm; the _brutal_ have always a spirit of malice and cruelty. _brute_ has no special character, except as indicating what a brute might possess; much the same is true of _animal_, except that _animal_ leans more to the side of sensuality, _brute_ to that of force, as appears in the familiar phrase "_brute_ force." hunger is an _animal_ appetite; a _brute_ impulse suddenly prompts one to strike a blow in anger. _bestial_, in modern usage, implies an intensified and degrading animalism. any supremacy of the _animal_ or _brute_ instincts over the intellectual and spiritual in man is _base_ and _vile_. _beastly_ refers largely to the outward and visible consequences of excess; as, _beastly_ drunkenness. compare animal. antonyms: elevated, exalted, great, intellectual, noble, enlightened, grand, humane, intelligent, refined. * * * * * burn. synonyms: blaze, char, flame, incinerate, set fire to, brand, consume, flash, kindle, set on fire, cauterize, cremate, ignite, scorch, singe. to _burn_ is to subject to the action of fire, or of intense heat so as to effect either partial change or complete combustion; as, to _burn_ wood in the fire; to _burn_ one's hand on a hot stove; the sun _burns_ the face. one _brands_ with a hot iron, but _cauterizes_ with some corrosive substance, as silver nitrate. _cremate_ is now used specifically for _consuming_ a dead body by intense heat. to _incinerate_ is to reduce to ashes; the sense differs little from that of _cremate_, but it is in less popular use. to _kindle_ is to _set on fire_, as if with a candle; _ignite_ is the more learned and scientific word for the same thing, extending even to the heating of metals to a state of incandescence without burning. to _scorch_ and to _singe_ are superficial, and to _char_ usually so. both _kindle_ and _burn_ have an extensive figurative use; as, to _kindle_ strife; to _burn_ with wrath, love, devotion, curiosity. compare light. antonyms: cool, extinguish, put out, smother, stifle, subdue. prepositions: to burn _in_ the fire, burn _with_ fire; burn _to_ the ground, burn _to_ ashes; burn _through_ the skin, or the roof; burn _into_ the soil, etc. * * * * * business. synonyms: affair, commerce, handicraft, trading, art, concern, job, traffic, avocation, craft, occupation, transaction, barter, duty, profession, vocation, calling, employment, trade, work. a _business_ is what one follows regularly; an _occupation_ is what he happens at any time to be engaged in; trout-fishing may be one's _occupation_ for a time, as a relief from _business_; _business_ is ordinarily for profit, while the _occupation_ may be a matter of learning, philanthropy, or religion. a _profession_ implies scholarship; as, the learned _professions_. _pursuit_ is an _occupation_ which one follows with ardor. an _avocation_ is what calls one away from other work; a _vocation_ or _calling_, that to which one is called by some special fitness or sense of duty; thus, we speak of the gospel ministry as a _vocation_ or _calling_, rather than a _business_. _trade_ or _trading_ is, in general, the exchanging of one thing for another; in the special sense, a _trade_ is an _occupation_ involving manual training and skilled labor; as, the ancient jews held that every boy should learn a _trade_. a _transaction_ is a single action, whether in _business_, diplomacy, or otherwise; _affair_ has a similar, but lighter meaning; as, this little _affair_; an important _transaction_. the plural _affairs_ has a distinctive meaning, including all activities where men deal with one another on any considerable scale; as, a man of _affairs_. a _job_ is a piece of work viewed as a single undertaking, and ordinarily paid for as such. _trade_ and _commerce_ may be used as equivalents, but _trade_ is capable of a more limited application; we speak of the _trade_ of a village, the _commerce_ of a nation. _barter_ is the direct exchange of commodities; _business_, _trade_, and _commerce_ are chiefly transacted by means of money, bills of exchange, etc. _business_, _occupation_, etc., may be what one does independently; _employment_ may be in the service of another. _work_ is any application of energy to secure a result, or the result thus secured; thus, we speak of the _work_ of god. _art_ in the industrial sense is a system of rules and accepted methods for the accomplishment of some practical result; as, the _art_ of printing; collectively, the _arts_. a _craft_ is some occupation requiring technical skill or manual dexterity, or the persons, collectively, engaged in its exercise; as, the weaver's _craft_. prepositions: the business _of_ a druggist; in business _with_ his father; doing business _for_ his father; have you business _with_ me? business _in_ new york; business _about_, _concerning_, or _in regard to_ certain property. * * * * * but. synonyms: and, however, notwithstanding, that, barely, just, only, tho, besides, merely, provided, unless, except, moreover, save, yet. further, nevertheless, still, _but_ ranges from the faintest contrast to absolute negation; as, i am willing to go, _but_ (on the other hand) content to stay; he is not an honest man, _but_ (on the contrary) a villain. the contrast may be with a silent thought; as, _but_ let us go (it being understood that we might stay longer). in restrictive use, _except_ and _excepting_ are slightly more emphatic than _but_; we say, no injury _but_ a scratch; or, no injury _except_ some painful bruises. such expressions as "words are _but_ breath" (nothing _but_) may be referred to the restrictive use by ellipsis. so may the use of _but_ in the sense of _unless_; as, "it never rains _but_ it pours." to the same head must be referred the conditional use; as, "you may go, _but_ with your father's consent" (_i. e._, "_provided_ you have," "_except_ that you must have," etc.). "doubt _but_" is now less used than the more logical "doubt _that_." _but_ never becomes a full synonym for _and_; _and_ adds something like, _but_ adds something different; "brave _and_ tender" implies that tenderness is natural to the brave; "brave _but_ tender" implies that bravery and tenderness are rarely combined. for the concessive use, compare notwithstanding. * * * * * by. synonyms: by dint of, by means of, through, with. _by_ refers to the agent; _through_, to the means, cause, or condition; _with_, to the instrument. _by_ commonly refers to persons; _with_, to things; _through_ may refer to either. the road having become impassable _through_ long disuse, a way was opened _by_ pioneers _with_ axes. _by_ may, however, be applied to any object which is viewed as partaking of action and agency; as, the metal was corroded _by_ the acid; skill is gained _by_ practise. we speak of communicating _with_ a person _by_ letter. _through_ implies a more distant connection than _by_ or _with_, and more intervening elements. material objects are perceived _by_ the mind _through_ the senses. * * * * * cabal. synonyms: combination, confederacy, crew, gang, conclave, conspiracy, faction, junto. a _conspiracy_ is a _combination_ of persons for an evil purpose, or the act of so combining. _conspiracy_ is a distinct crime under common, and generally under statutory, law. a _faction_ is more extensive than a _conspiracy_, less formal in organization, less definite in plan. _faction_ and its adjective, _factious_, have always an unfavorable sense. _cabal_ commonly denotes a _conspiracy_ of leaders. a _gang_ is a company of workmen all doing the same work under one leader; the word is used figuratively only of _combinations_ which it is meant to stigmatize as rude and mercenary; _crew_ is used in a closely similar sense. a _conclave_ is secret, but of larger numbers, ordinarily, than a _cabal_, and may have honorable use; as, the _conclave_ of cardinals. * * * * * calculate. synonyms: account, consider, enumerate, rate, cast, count, estimate, reckon, compute, deem, number, sum up. _number_ is the generic term. to _count_ is to _number_ one by one. to _calculate_ is to use more complicated processes, as multiplication, division, etc., more rapid but not less exact. _compute_ allows more of the element of probability, which is still more strongly expressed by _estimate_. we _compute_ the slain in a great war from the number known to have fallen in certain great battles; _compute_ refers to the present or the past, _estimate_ more frequently to the future; as, to _estimate_ the cost of a proposed building. to _enumerate_ is to mention item by item; as, to _enumerate_ one's grievances. to _rate_ is to _estimate_ by comparison, as if the object were one of a series. we _count_ upon a desired future; we do not _count_ upon the undesired. as applied to the present, we _reckon_ or _count_ a thing precious or worthless. compare esteem. prepositions: it is vain to calculate _on_ or _upon_ an uncertain result. * * * * * call, _v._ synonyms: bawl, cry (out), roar, shriek, bellow, ejaculate, scream, vociferate, clamor, exclaim, shout, yell. to _call_ is to send out the voice in order to attract another's attention, either by word or by inarticulate utterance. animals _call_ their mates, or their young; a man _calls_ his dog, his horse, etc. the sense is extended to include summons by bell, or any signal. to _shout_ is to _call_ or _exclaim_ with the fullest volume of sustained voice; to _scream_ is to utter a shriller cry; to _shriek_ or to _yell_ refers to that which is louder and wilder still. we _shout_ words; in _screaming_, _shrieking_, or _yelling_ there is often no attempt at articulation. to _bawl_ is to utter senseless, noisy cries, as of a child in pain or anger. _bellow_ and _roar_ are applied to the utterances of animals, and only contemptuously to those of persons. to _clamor_ is to utter with noisy iteration; it applies also to the confused cries of a multitude. to _vociferate_ is commonly applied to loud and excited speech where there is little besides the exertion of voice. in _exclaiming_, the utterance may not be strikingly, tho somewhat, above the ordinary tone and pitch; we may _exclaim_ by mere interjections, or by connected words, but always by some articulate utterance. to _ejaculate_ is to throw out brief, disconnected, but coherent utterances of joy, regret, and especially of appeal, petition, prayer; the use of such devotional utterances has received the special name of "ejaculatory prayer." to _cry out_ is to give forth a louder and more excited utterance than in _exclaiming_ or _calling_; one often _exclaims_ with sudden joy as well as sorrow; if he _cries out_, it is oftener in grief or agony. in the most common colloquial usage, to _cry_ is to express grief or pain by weeping or sobbing. one may _exclaim_, _cry out_, or _ejaculate_ with no thought of others' presence; when he _calls_, it is to attract another's attention. antonyms: be silent, be still, hark, hearken, hush, list, listen. * * * * * calm. synonyms: collected, imperturbable, sedate, still, composed, peaceful, self-possessed, tranquil, cool, placid, serene, undisturbed, dispassionate, quiet, smooth, unruffled. that is _calm_ which is free from disturbance or agitation; in the physical sense, free from violent motion or action; in the mental or spiritual realm, free from excited or disturbing emotion or passion. we speak of a _calm_ sea, a _placid_ lake, a _serene_ sky, a _still_ night, a _quiet_ day, a _quiet_ home. we speak, also, of "_still_ waters," "_smooth_ sailing," which are different modes of expressing freedom from manifest agitation. of mental conditions, one is _calm_ who triumphs over a tendency to excitement; _cool_, if he scarcely feels the tendency. one may be _calm_ by the very reaction from excitement, or by the oppression of overpowering emotion, as we speak of the calmness of despair. one is _composed_ who has subdued excited feeling; he is _collected_ when he has every thought, feeling, or perception awake and at command. _tranquil_ refers to a present state, _placid_, to a prevailing tendency. we speak of a _tranquil_ mind, a _placid_ disposition. the _serene_ spirit dwells as if in the clear upper air, above all storm and shadow. the star of the unconquered will, he rises in my breast, _serene_, and resolute, and _still_, and _calm_, and _self-possessed_. longfellow _light of stars_ st. . antonyms: agitated, excited, frenzied, passionate, ruffled, violent, boisterous, fierce, furious, raging, stormy, wild, disturbed, frantic, heated, roused, turbulent, wrathful. * * * * * cancel. synonyms: abolish, discharge, nullify, rescind, abrogate, efface, obliterate, revoke, annul, erase, quash, rub off _or_ out, blot out, expunge, remove, scratch out, cross off _or_ out, make void, repeal, vacate. _cancel_, _efface_, _erase_, _expunge_, and _obliterate_ have as their first meaning the removal of written characters or other forms of record. to _cancel_ is, literally, to make a lattice by cross-lines, exactly our english _cross out_; to _efface_ is to _rub off_, smooth away the face, as of an inscription; to _erase_ is to _scratch out_, commonly for the purpose of writing something else in the same space; to _expunge_, is to punch out with some sharp instrument, so as to show that the words are no longer part of the writing; to _obliterate_ is to cover over or remove, as a letter, as was done by reversing the roman stylus, and _rubbing out_ with the rounded end what had been written with the point on the waxen tablet. what has been _canceled_, _erased_, _expunged_, may perhaps still be traced; what is _obliterated_ is gone forever, as if it had never been. in many establishments, when a debt is _discharged_ by payment, the record is _canceled_. the figurative use of the words keeps close to the primary sense. compare abolish. antonyms: approve, enact, establish, perpetuate, reenact, uphold, confirm, enforce, maintain, record, sustain, write. * * * * * candid. synonyms: aboveboard, honest, open, truthful, artless, impartial, simple, unbiased, fair, ingenuous, sincere, unprejudiced, frank, innocent, straightforward, unreserved, guileless, naive, transparent, unsophisticated. a _candid_ statement is meant to be true to the real facts and just to all parties; a _fair_ statement is really so. _fair_ is applied to the conduct; _candid_ is not; as, _fair_ treatment, "a _fair_ field, and no favor." one who is _frank_ has a fearless and unconstrained truthfulness. _honest_ and _ingenuous_ unite in expressing contempt for deceit. on the other hand, _artless_, _guileless_, _naive_, _simple_, and _unsophisticated_ express the goodness which comes from want of the knowledge or thought of evil. as truth is not always agreeable or timely, _candid_ and _frank_ have often an objectionable sense; "to be _candid_ with you," "to be perfectly _frank_," are regarded as sure preludes to something disagreeable. _open_ and _unreserved_ may imply unstudied truthfulness or defiant recklessness; as, _open_ admiration, _open_ robbery. there may be _transparent_ integrity or _transparent_ fraud. _sincere_ applies to the feelings, as being all that one's words would imply. antonyms: adroit, cunning, diplomatic, intriguing, sharp, subtle, artful, deceitful, foxy, knowing, shrewd, tricky, crafty, designing, insincere, maneuvering, sly, wily. prepositions: candid _in_ debate; candid _to_ or _toward_ opponents; candid _with_ friend or foe; to be candid _about_ or _in regard to_ the matter. * * * * * caparison. synonyms: accouterments, harness, housings, trappings. _harness_ was formerly used of the armor of a knight as well as of a horse; it is now used almost exclusively of the straps and appurtenances worn by a horse when attached to a vehicle; the animal is said to be "kind in _harness_." the other words apply to the ornamental outfit of a horse, especially under saddle. we speak also of the _accouterments_ of a soldier. _caparison_ is used rarely and somewhat slightingly, and _trappings_ quite contemptuously, for showy human apparel. compare arms; dress. * * * * * capital. synonyms: chief city, metropolis, seat of government. the _metropolis_ is the chief city in the commercial, the _capital_ in the political sense. the _capital_ of an american state is rarely its _metropolis_. * * * * * care. synonyms: anxiety, concern, oversight, trouble, attention, direction, perplexity, vigilance, caution, forethought, precaution, wariness, charge, heed, prudence, watchfulness, circumspection, management, solicitude, worry. _care_ concerns what we possess; _anxiety_, often, what we do not; riches bring many _cares_; poverty brings many _anxieties_. _care_ also signifies watchful _attention_, in view of possible harm; as, "this side up with _care_;" "take _care_ of yourself;" or, as a sharp warning, "take _care_!" _caution_ has a sense of possible harm and risk only to be escaped, if at all, by careful deliberation and observation. _care_ inclines to the positive, _caution_ to the negative; _care_ is shown in doing, _caution_ largely in not doing. _precaution_ is allied with _care_, _prudence_ with _caution_; a man rides a dangerous horse with _care_; _caution_ will keep him from mounting the horse; _precaution_ looks to the saddle-girths, bit and bridle, and all that may make the rider secure. _circumspection_ is watchful observation and calculation, but without the timidity implied in _caution_. _concern_ denotes a serious interest, milder than _anxiety_; as, _concern_ for the safety of a ship at sea. _heed_ implies _attention_ without disquiet; it is now largely displaced by _attention_ and _care_. _solicitude_ involves especially the element of desire, not expressed in _anxiety_, and of hopefulness, not implied in _care_. a parent feels constant _solicitude_ for his children's welfare, _anxiety_ as to dangers that threaten it, with _care_ to guard against them. _watchfulness_ recognizes the possibility of danger, _wariness_ the probability. a man who is not influenced by _caution_ to keep out of danger may display great _wariness_ in the midst of it. _care_ has also the sense of responsibility, with possible control, as expressed in _charge_, _management_, _oversight_; as, these children are under my _care_; send the money to me in _care_ of the firm. compare alarm; anxiety; prudence. antonyms: carelessness, inattention, negligence, oversight, remissness, disregard, indifference, omission, recklessness, slight. heedlessness, neglect, prepositions: take care _of_ the house; _for_ the future; _about_ the matter. * * * * * career. synonyms: charge, flight, passage, race, course, line of achievement, public life, rush. a _career_ was originally the ground for a race, or, especially, for a knight's _charge_ in tournament or battle; whence _career_ was early applied to the _charge_ itself. if you will use the lance, take ground for your _career_.... the four horsemen met in full _career_. scott _quentin durward_ ch. , p. . [d. f. & co.] in its figurative use _career_ signifies some continuous and conspicuous work, usually a life-work, and most frequently one of honorable achievement. compare business. * * * * * caress. synonyms: coddle, embrace, fondle, pamper, court, flatter, kiss, pet. to _caress_ is less than to _embrace_; more dignified and less familiar than to _fondle_. a visitor _caresses_ a friend's child; a mother _fondles_ her babe. _fondling_ is always by touch; _caressing_ may be also by words, or other tender and pleasing attentions. antonyms: see synonyms for affront. prepositions: caressed _by_ or _with_ the hand; caressed _by_ admirers, _at_ court. * * * * * caricature. synonyms: burlesque, extravaganza, mimicry, take-off, exaggeration, imitation, parody, travesty. a _caricature_ is a grotesque _exaggeration_ of striking features or peculiarities, generally of a person; a _burlesque_ treats any subject in an absurd or incongruous manner. a _burlesque_ is written or acted; a _caricature_ is more commonly in sketch or picture. a _parody_ changes the subject, but keeps the style; a _travesty_ keeps the subject, but changes the style; a _burlesque_ does not hold itself to either subject or style; but is content with a general resemblance to what it may imitate. a _caricature_, _parody_, or _travesty_ must have an original; a _burlesque_ may be an independent composition. an account of a schoolboys' quarrel after the general manner of homer's iliad would be a _burlesque_; the real story of the iliad told in newspaper style would be a _travesty_. an _extravaganza_ is a fantastic composition, musical, dramatic, or narrative. _imitation_ is serious; _mimicry_ is either intentionally or unintentionally comical. * * * * * carry. synonyms: bear, convey, move, sustain, transmit, bring, lift, remove, take, transport. a person may _bear_ a load either when in motion or at rest; he _carries_ it only when in motion. the stooping atlas _bears_ the world on his shoulders; swiftly moving time _carries_ the hour-glass and scythe; a person may be said either to _bear_ or to _carry_ a scar, since it is upon him whether in motion or at rest. if an object is to be _moved_ from the place we occupy, we say _carry_; if to the place we occupy, we say _bring_. a messenger _carries_ a letter to a correspondent, and _brings_ an answer. _take_ is often used in this sense in place of _carry_; as, _take_ that letter to the office. _carry_ often signifies to _transport_ by personal strength, without reference to the direction; as, that is more than he can _carry_; yet, even so, it would not be admissible to say _carry_ it to me, or _carry_ it here; in such case we must say _bring_. to _lift_ is simply to raise from the ground, tho but for an instant, with no reference to holding or moving; one may be able to _lift_ what he could not _carry_. the figurative uses of _carry_ are very numerous; as, to _carry_ an election, _carry_ the country, _carry_ (in the sense of _capture_) a fort, _carry_ an audience, _carry_ a stock of goods, etc. compare convey; keep; support. antonyms: drop, fall under, give up, let go, shake off, throw down, throw off. prepositions: to carry coals _to_ newcastle; carry nothing _from_, or _out of_, this house; he carried these qualities _into_ all he did; carry _across_ the street, _over_ the bridge, _through_ the woods, _around_ or _round_ the corner; _beyond_ the river; the cable was carried _under_ the sea. * * * * * catastrophe. synonyms: calamity, denouement, mischance, mishap, cataclysm, disaster, misfortune, sequel. a _cataclysm_ or _catastrophe_ is some great convulsion or momentous event that may or may not be a cause of misery to man. in _calamity_, or _disaster_, the thought of human suffering is always present. it has been held by many geologists that numerous _catastrophes_ or _cataclysms_ antedated the existence of man. in literature, the final event of a drama is the _catastrophe_, or _denouement_. _misfortune_ ordinarily suggests less of suddenness and violence than _calamity_ or _disaster_, and is especially applied to that which is lingering or enduring in its effects. in history, the end of every great war or the fall of a nation is a _catastrophe_, tho it may not be a _calamity_. yet such an event, if not a _calamity_ to the race, will always involve much individual _disaster_ and _misfortune_. pestilence is a _calamity_; a defeat in battle, a shipwreck, or a failure in business is a _disaster_; sickness or loss of property is a _misfortune_; failure to meet a friend is a _mischance_; the breaking of a teacup is a _mishap_. antonyms: benefit, boon, favor, pleasure, prosperity, blessing, comfort, help, privilege, success. preposition: the catastrophe _of_ a play; _of_ a siege; rarely, _to_ a person, etc. * * * * * catch. synonyms: apprehend, comprehend, grasp, overtake, snatch, capture, discover, grip, secure, take, clasp, ensnare, gripe, seize, take hold of. clutch, entrap, lay hold of (on, upon), to _catch_ is to come up with or take possession of something departing, fugitive, or illusive. we _catch_ a runaway horse, a flying ball, a mouse in a trap. we _clutch_ with a swift, tenacious movement of the fingers; we _grasp_ with a firm but moderate closure of the whole hand; we _grip_ or _gripe_ with the strongest muscular closure of the whole hand possible to exert. we _clasp_ in the arms. we _snatch_ with a quick, sudden, and usually a surprising motion. in the figurative sense, _catch_ is used of any act that brings a person or thing into our power or possession; as, to _catch_ a criminal in the act; to _catch_ an idea, in the sense of _apprehend_ or _comprehend_. compare arrest. antonyms: fail of, give up, lose, release, throw aside, fall short of, let go, miss, restore, throw away. prepositions: to catch _at_ a straw; to catch a fugitive _by_ the collar; to catch a ball _with_ the left hand; he caught the disease _from_ the patient; the thief was caught _in_ the act; the bird _in_ the snare. * * * * * cause. synonyms: actor, causality, designer, occasion, precedent, agent, causation, former, origin, reason, antecedent, condition, fountain, originator, source, author, creator, motive, power, spring. the efficient _cause_, that which makes anything to be or be done, is the common meaning of the word, as in the saying "there is no effect without a _cause_." every man instinctively recognizes himself acting through will as the _cause_ of his own actions. the _creator_ is the great first _cause_ of all things. a _condition_ is something that necessarily precedes a result, but does not produce it. an _antecedent_ simply precedes a result, with or without any agency in producing it; as, monday is the invariable _antecedent_ of tuesday, but not the _cause_ of it. the direct antonym of _cause_ is _effect_, while that of _antecedent_ is _consequent_. an _occasion_ is some event which brings a _cause_ into action at a particular moment; gravitation and heat are the _causes_ of an avalanche; the steep incline of the mountain-side is a necessary _condition_, and the shout of the traveler may be the _occasion_ of its fall. _causality_ is the doctrine or principle of causes, _causation_ the action or working of causes. compare design; reason. antonyms: consequence, development, end, fruit, outcome, product, creation, effect, event, issue, outgrowth, result. prepositions: the cause _of_ the disaster; cause _for_ interference. * * * * * cease. synonyms: abstain, desist, give over, quit, bring to an end, discontinue, intermit, refrain, come to an end, end, leave off, stop, conclude, finish, pause, terminate. strains of music may gradually or suddenly _cease_. a man _quits_ work on the instant; he may _discontinue_ a practise gradually; he _quits_ suddenly and completely; he _stops_ short in what he may or may not resume; he _pauses_ in what he will probably resume. what _intermits_ or is _intermitted_ returns again, as a fever that _intermits_. compare abandon; die; end; rest. antonyms: begin, inaugurate, originate, set going, set on foot, commence, initiate, set about, set in operation, start. enter upon, institute, preposition: cease _from_ anger. * * * * * celebrate. synonyms: commemorate, keep, observe, solemnize. to _celebrate_ any event or occasion is to make some demonstration of respect or rejoicing because of or in memory of it, or to perform such public rites or ceremonies as it properly demands. we _celebrate_ the birth, _commemorate_ the death of one beloved or honored. we _celebrate_ a national anniversary with music and song, with firing of guns and ringing of bells; we _commemorate_ by any solemn and thoughtful service, or by a monument or other enduring memorial. we _keep_ the sabbath, _solemnize_ a marriage, _observe_ an anniversary; we _celebrate_ or _observe_ the lord's supper in which believers _commemorate_ the sufferings and death of christ. antonyms: contemn, dishonor, forget, neglect, profane, despise, disregard, ignore, overlook, violate. prepositions: we celebrate the day _with_ appropriate ceremonies; the victory was celebrated _by_ the people, _with_ rejoicing. * * * * * center. synonyms: middle, midst. we speak of the _center_ of a circle, the _middle_ of a room, the _middle_ of the street, the _midst_ of a forest. the _center_ is equally distant from every point of the circumference of a circle, or from the opposite boundaries on each axis of a parallelogram, etc.; the _middle_ is more general and less definite. the _center_ is a point; the _middle_ may be a line or a space. we say _at_ the _center_; _in_ the _middle_. _midst_ commonly implies a group or multitude of surrounding objects. compare synonyms for amid. antonyms: bound, boundary, circumference, perimeter, rim. * * * * * chagrin. synonyms: confusion, discomposure, humiliation, shame, disappointment, dismay, mortification, vexation. _chagrin_ unites _disappointment_ with some degree of _humiliation_. a rainy day may bring _disappointment_; needless failure in some enterprise brings _chagrin_. _shame_ involves the consciousness of fault, guilt, or impropriety; _chagrin_ of failure of judgment, or harm to reputation. a consciousness that one has displayed his own ignorance will cause him _mortification_, however worthy his intent; if there was a design to deceive, the exposure will cover him with _shame_. antonyms: delight, exultation, glory, rejoicing, triumph. prepositions: he felt deep chagrin _at_ (_because of_, _on account of_) failure. * * * * * change, _v._ synonyms: alter, exchange, shift, transmute, commute, metamorphose, substitute, turn, convert, modify, transfigure, vary, diversify, qualify, transform, veer. to _change_ is distinctively to make a thing other than it has been, in some respect at least; to _exchange_ to put or take something else in its place; to _alter_ is ordinarily to _change_ partially, to make different in one or more particulars. to _exchange_ is often to transfer ownership; as, to _exchange_ city for country property. _change_ is often used in the sense of _exchange_; as, to _change_ horses. to _transmute_ is to _change_ the qualities while the substance remains the same; as, to _transmute_ the baser metals into gold. to _transform_ is to _change_ form or appearance, with or without deeper and more essential change; it is less absolute than _transmute_, tho sometimes used for that word, and is often used in a spiritual sense as _transmute_ could not be; "be ye _transformed_ by the renewing of your mind," _rom._ xii, . _transfigure_ is, as in its scriptural use, to change in an exalted and glorious spiritual way; "jesus ... was _transfigured_ before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light," _matt._ xvii, , . to _metamorphose_ is to make some remarkable change, ordinarily in external qualities, but often in structure, use, or chemical constitution, as of a caterpillar into a butterfly, of the stamens of a plant into petals, or of the crystalline structure of rocks, hence called "metamorphic rocks," as when a limestone is _metamorphosed_ into a marble. to _vary_ is to _change_ from time to time, often capriciously. to _commute_ is to put something easier, lighter, milder, or in some way more favorable in place of that which is _commuted_; as, to _commute_ capital punishment to imprisonment for life; to _commute_ daily fares on a railway to a monthly payment. to _convert_ (l. _con_, with, and _verto_, turn) is to primarily _turn_ about, and signifies to _change_ in form, character, use, etc., through a wide range of relations; iron is _converted_ into steel, joy into grief, a sinner into a saint. to _turn_ is a popular word for _change_ in any sense short of the meaning of _exchange_, being often equivalent to _alter_, _convert_, _transform_, _transmute_, etc. we _modify_ or _qualify_ a statement which might seem too strong; we _modify_ it by some limitation, _qualify_ it by some addition. antonyms: abide, continue, hold, persist, retain, bide, endure, keep, remain, stay. prepositions: to change a home toilet _for_ a street dress; to change _from_ a caterpillar _to_ or _into_ a butterfly; to change clothes _with_ a beggar. * * * * * change, _n._ synonyms: alteration, mutation, renewing, transmutation, conversion, novelty, revolution, variation, diversity, regeneration, transformation, variety, innovation, renewal, transition, vicissitude. a _change_ is a passing from one state or form to another, any act or process by which a thing becomes unlike what it was before, or the unlikeness so produced; we say a _change_ was taking place, or the _change_ that had taken place was manifest. _mutation_ is a more formal word for _change_, often suggesting repeated or continual _change_; as, the _mutations_ of fortune. _novelty_ is a _change_ to what is new, or the newness of that to which a change is made; as, he was perpetually desirous of _novelty_. _revolution_ is specifically and most commonly a _change_ of government. _variation_ is a partial _change_ in form, qualities, etc., but especially in position or action; as, the _variation_ of the magnetic needle or of the pulse. _variety_ is a succession of _changes_ or an intermixture of different things, and is always thought of as agreeable. _vicissitude_ is sharp, sudden, or violent _change_, always thought of as surprising and often as disturbing or distressing; as, the _vicissitudes_ of politics. _transition_ is _change_ by passing from one place or state to another, especially in a natural, regular, or orderly way; as, the _transition_ from spring to summer, or from youth to manhood. an _innovation_ is a _change_ that breaks in upon an established order or custom; as, an _innovation_ in religion or politics. for the distinctions between the other words compare the synonyms for change, _v._ in the religious sense _regeneration_ is the vital _renewing_ of the soul by the power of the divine spirit; _conversion_ is the conscious and manifest _change_ from evil to good, or from a lower to a higher spiritual state; as, in _luke_ xxii, , "when thou art _converted_, strengthen thy brethren." in popular use _conversion_ is the most common word to express the idea of _regeneration_. antonyms: constancy, fixedness, invariability, steadiness, continuance, fixity, permanence, unchangeableness, firmness, identity, persistence, uniformity. prepositions: we have made a change _for_ the better; the change _from_ winter to spring; the change _of_ a liquid _to_ or _into_ a gas; a change _in_ quality; a change _by_ absorption or oxidation. * * * * * character. synonyms: constitution, genius, personality, reputation, temper, disposition, nature, record, spirit, temperament. _character_ is what one is; _reputation_, what he is thought to be; his _record_ is the total of his known action or inaction. as a rule, a man's _record_ will substantially express his _character_; his _reputation_ may be higher or lower than his _character_ or _record_ will justify. _repute_ is a somewhat formal word, with the same general sense as _reputation_. one's _nature_ includes all his original endowments or propensities; _character_ includes both natural and acquired traits. we speak of one's physical _constitution_ as strong or weak, etc., and figuratively, always with the adjective, of his mental or moral _constitution_. compare characteristic. prepositions: the witness has a character _for_ veracity; his character is _above_ suspicion; the character _of_ the applicant. * * * * * characteristic. synonyms: attribute, feature, peculiarity, sign, trace, character, indication, property, singularity, trait. distinction, mark, quality, a _characteristic_ belongs to the nature or _character_ of the person, thing, or class, and serves to identify an object; as, a copper-colored skin, high cheek-bones, and straight, black hair are _characteristics_ of the american indian. a _sign_ is manifest to an observer; a _mark_ or a _characteristic_ may be more difficult to discover; an insensible person may show _signs_ of life, while sometimes only close examination will disclose _marks_ of violence. pallor is ordinarily a _mark_ of fear; but in some brave natures it is simply a _characteristic_ of intense earnestness. _mark_ is sometimes used in a good, but often in a bad sense; we speak of the _characteristic_ of a gentleman, the _mark_ of a villain. compare attribute; character. * * * * * charming. synonyms: bewitching, delightful, enrapturing, fascinating, captivating, enchanting, entrancing, winning. that is _charming_ or _bewitching_ which is adapted to win others as by a magic spell. _enchanting_, _enrapturing_, _entrancing_ represent the influence as not only supernatural, but irresistible and _delightful_. that which is _fascinating_ may win without delighting, drawing by some unseen power, as a serpent its prey; we can speak of horrible _fascination_. _charming_ applies only to what is external to oneself; _delightful_ may apply to personal experiences or emotions as well; we speak of a _charming_ manner, a _charming_ dress, but of _delightful_ anticipations. compare amiable; beautiful. * * * * * chasten. synonyms: afflict, chastise, discipline, punish, refine, subdue, castigate, correct, humble, purify, soften, try. _castigate_ and _chastise_ refer strictly to corporal punishment, tho both are somewhat archaic; _correct_ and _punish_ are often used as euphemisms in preference to either. _punish_ is distinctly retributive in sense; _chastise_, partly retributive, and partly corrective; _chasten_, wholly corrective. _chasten_ is used exclusively in the spiritual sense, and chiefly of the visitation of god. prepositions: "we are chastened _of_ the lord," _ cor._ xi, ; "they ... chastened us _after_ their own pleasure, but he _for_ our profit," _heb._ xii, ; "chasten _in_ thy hot displeasure," _ps._ iv, ; chasten _with_ pain; _by_ trials and sorrows. * * * * * cherish. synonyms: cheer, encourage, harbor, nurse, shelter, cling to, entertain, hold dear, nurture, treasure, comfort, foster, nourish, protect, value. to _cherish_ is both to _hold dear_ and to treat as dear. mere unexpressed esteem would not be _cherishing_. in the marriage vow, "to love, honor, and _cherish_," the word _cherish_ implies all that each can do by love and tenderness for the welfare and happiness of the other, as by support, protection, care in sickness, comfort in sorrow, sympathy, and help of every kind. to _nurse_ is to tend the helpless or feeble, as infants, or the sick or wounded. to _nourish_ is strictly to sustain and build up by food; to _nurture_ includes careful mental and spiritual training, with something of love and tenderness; to _foster_ is simply to maintain and care for, to bring up; a _foster_-child will be _nourished_, but may not be as tenderly _nurtured_ or as lovingly _cherished_ as if one's own. in the figurative sense, the opinion one _cherishes_ he holds, not with mere cold conviction, but with loving devotion. antonyms: see synonyms for abandon; chasten. * * * * * choose. synonyms: cull, elect, pick, pick out, prefer, select. _prefer_ indicates a state of desire and approval; _choose_, an act of will. prudence or generosity may lead one to _choose_ what he does not _prefer_. _select_ implies a careful consideration of the reasons for preference and choice. among objects so nearly alike that we have no reason to _prefer_ any one to another we may simply _choose_ the nearest, but we could not be said to _select_ it. aside from theology, _elect_ is popularly confined to the political sense; as, a free people _elect_ their own rulers. _cull_, from the latin _colligere_, commonly means to collect, as well as to _select_. in a garden we _cull_ the choicest flowers. antonyms: cast away, decline, dismiss, refuse, repudiate, cast out, disclaim, leave, reject, throw aside. prepositions: choose _from_ or _from among_ the number; choose _out of_ the army; choose _between_ (or _betwixt_) two; _among_ many; choose _for_ the purpose. * * * * * circumlocution. synonyms: diffuseness, prolixity, surplusage, verbiage, periphrasis, redundance, tautology, verbosity, pleonasm, redundancy, tediousness, wordiness. _circumlocution_ and _periphrasis_ are roundabout ways of expressing thought; _circumlocution_ is the more common, _periphrasis_ the more technical word. constant _circumlocution_ produces an affected and heavy style; occasionally, skilful _periphrasis_ conduces both to beauty and to simplicity. etymologically, _diffuseness_ is a scattering, both of words and thought; _redundancy_ is an overflow. _prolixity_ goes into endless petty details, without selection or perspective. _pleonasm_ is the expression of an idea already plainly implied; _tautology_ is the restatement in other words of an idea already stated, or a useless repetition of a word or words. _pleonasm_ may add emphasis; _tautology_ is always a fault. "i saw it with my eyes" is a _pleonasm_; "all the members agreed unanimously" is _tautology_. _verbiage_ is the use of mere words without thought. _verbosity_ and _wordiness_ denote an excess of words in proportion to the thought. _tediousness_ is the sure result of any of these faults of style. antonyms: brevity, compression, condensation, plainness, succinctness, compactness, conciseness, directness, shortness, terseness. * * * * * circumstance. synonyms: accompaniment, fact, item, point, concomitant, feature, occurrence, position, detail, incident, particular, situation. event, a _circumstance_ (l. _circum_, around, and _sto_, stand), is something existing or occurring in connection with or relation to some other fact or event, modifying or throwing light upon the principal matter without affecting its essential character; an _accompaniment_ is something that unites with the principal matter, tho not necessary to it; as, the piano _accompaniment_ to a song; a _concomitant_ goes with a thing in natural connection, but in a subordinate capacity, or perhaps in contrast; as, cheerfulness is a _concomitant_ of virtue. a _circumstance_ is not strictly, nor usually, an occasion, condition, effect, or result. (see these words under cause.) nor is the _circumstance_ properly an _incident_. (see under accident.) we say, "my decision will depend upon _circumstances_"--not "upon _incidents_." that a man wore a blue necktie would not probably be the cause, occasion, condition, or _concomitant_ of his committing murder; but it might be a very important _circumstance_ in identifying him as the murderer. all the _circumstances_ make up the _situation_. a certain disease is the cause of a man's death; his suffering is an _incident_; that he is in his own home, that he has good medical attendance, careful nursing, etc., are consolatory _circumstances_. with the same idea of subordination, we often say, "this is not a _circumstance_ to that." so a person is said to be in easy _circumstances_. compare event. prepositions: "mere situation is expressed by '_in_ the circumstances'; action affected is performed '_under_ the circumstances.'" [m.] * * * * * class. synonyms: association, circle, clique, company, grade, rank, caste, clan, club, coterie, order, set. a _class_ is a number or body of persons or objects having common pursuits, purposes, attributes, or characteristics. a _caste_ is hereditary; a _class_ may be independent of lineage or descent; membership in a _caste_ is supposed to be for life; membership in a _class_ may be very transient; a religious and ceremonial sacredness attaches to the _caste_, as not to the _class_. the rich and the poor form separate _classes_; yet individuals are constantly passing from each to the other; the _classes_ in a college remain the same, but their membership changes every year. we speak of _rank_ among hereditary nobility or military officers; of various _orders_ of the priesthood; by accommodation, we may refer in a general way to the higher _ranks_, the lower _orders_ of any society. _grade_ implies some regular scale of valuation, and some inherent qualities for which a person or thing is placed higher or lower in the scale; as, the coarser and finer _grades_ of wool; a man of an inferior _grade_. a _coterie_ is a small company of persons of similar tastes, who meet frequently in an informal way, rather for social enjoyment than for any serious purpose. _clique_ has always an unfavorable meaning. a _clique_ is always fractional, implying some greater gathering of which it is a part; the association breaks up into _cliques_. persons unite in a _coterie_ through simple liking for one another; they withdraw into a _clique_ largely through aversion to outsiders. a _set_, while exclusive, is more extensive than a _clique_, and chiefly of persons who are united by common social station, etc. _circle_ is similar in meaning to _set_, but of wider application; we speak of scientific and religious as well as of social _circles_. prepositions: a class _of_ merchants; the senior class _at_ (sometimes _of_) harvard; the classes _in_ college. * * * * * cleanse. synonyms: brush, dust, purify, scour, sponge, wash, clean, lave, rinse, scrub, sweep, wipe. disinfect, mop, to _clean_ is to make clean by removing dirt, impurities, or soil of any kind. _cleanse_ implies a worse condition to start from, and more to do, than _clean_. hercules _cleansed_ the augean stables. _cleanse_ is especially applied to purifying processes where liquid is used, as in the flushing of a street, etc. we _brush_ clothing if dusty, _sponge_ it, or _sponge_ it off, if soiled; or _sponge_ off a spot. furniture, books, etc., are _dusted_; floors are _mopped_ or _scrubbed_; metallic utensils are _scoured_; a room is _swept_; soiled garments are _washed_; foul air or water is _purified_. _cleanse_ and _purify_ are used extensively in a moral sense; _wash_ in that sense is archaic. compare amend. antonyms: befoul, bespatter, debase, deprave, soil, stain, taint, besmear, contaminate, defile, pollute, spoil, sully, vitiate. besmirch, corrupt, prepositions: cleanse _of_ or _from_ physical or moral defilement; cleanse _with_ an instrument; _by_ an agent; the room was cleansed _by_ the attendants _with_ soap and water. * * * * * clear. synonyms: apparent, intelligible, pellucid, transparent, diaphanous, limpid, perspicuous, unadorned, distinct, lucid, plain, unambiguous, evident, manifest, straightforward, unequivocal, explicit, obvious, translucent, unmistakable. _clear_ (l. _clarus_, bright, brilliant) primarily refers to that which shines, and impresses the mind through the eye with a sense of luster or splendor. a substance is said to be _clear_ that offers no impediment to vision--is not dim, dark, or obscure. _transparent_ refers to the medium through which a substance is seen, _clear_ to the substance itself, without reference to anything to be seen through it; we speak of a stream as _clear_ when we think of the water itself; we speak of it as _transparent_ with reference to the ease with which we see the pebbles at the bottom. _clear_ is also said of that which comes to the senses without dimness, dulness, obstruction, or obscurity, so that there is no uncertainty as to its exact form, character, or meaning, with something of the brightness or brilliancy implied in the primary meaning of the word _clear_; as, the outlines of the ship were _clear_ against the sky; a _clear_ view; a _clear_ note; "_clear_ as a bell;" a _clear_, frosty air; a _clear_ sky; a _clear_ statement; hence, the word is used for that which is free from any kind of obstruction; as, a _clear_ field. _lucid_ and _pellucid_ refer to a shining clearness, as of crystal. a _transparent_ body allows the forms and colors of objects beyond to be seen through it; a _translucent_ body allows light to pass through, but may not permit forms and colors to be distinguished; plate glass is _transparent_, ground glass is _translucent_. _limpid_ refers to a liquid clearness, or that which suggests it; as, _limpid_ streams. that which is _distinct_ is well defined, especially in outline, each part or object standing or seeming apart from any other, not confused, indefinite, or blurred; _distinct_ enunciation enables the hearer to catch every word or vocal sound without perplexity or confusion; a _distinct_ statement is free from indefiniteness or ambiguity; a _distinct_ apprehension of a thought leaves the mind in no doubt or uncertainty regarding it. that is _plain_, in the sense here considered, which is, as it were, level to the thought, so that one goes straight on without difficulty or hindrance; as, _plain_ language; a _plain_ statement; a _clear_ explanation. _perspicuous_ is often equivalent to _plain_, but _plain_ never wholly loses the meaning of _unadorned_, so that we can say the style is _perspicuous_ tho highly ornate, when we could not call it at once ornate and _plain_. compare evident. antonyms: ambiguous, dim, foggy, mysterious, opaque, unintelligible, cloudy, dubious, indistinct, obscure, turbid, vague. prepositions: clear _to_ the mind; clear _in_ argument; clear _of_ or _from_ annoyances. * * * * * clever. synonyms: able, capable, happy, keen, sharp, adroit, dexterous, ingenious, knowing, skilful, apt, expert, intellectual, quick, smart, bright, gifted, intelligent, quick-witted, talented. _clever_, as used in england, especially implies an aptitude for study or learning, and for excellent tho not preeminent mental achievement. the early new england usage as implying simple and weak good nature has largely affected the use of the word throughout the united states, where it has never been much in favor. _smart_, indicating dashing ability, is now coming to have a suggestion of unscrupulousness, similar to that of the word _sharp_, which makes its use a doubtful compliment. the discriminating use of such words as _able_, _gifted_, _talented_, etc., is greatly preferable to an excessive use of the word _clever_. compare acumen; astute; power. antonyms: awkward, clumsy, foolish, ignorant, slow, thick-headed, bungling, dull, idiotic, senseless, stupid, witless. * * * * * collision. synonyms: clash, concussion, contact, impact, opposition, clashing, conflict, encounter, meeting, shock. _collision_, the act or fact of striking violently together, is the result of motion or action, and is sudden and momentary; _contact_ may be a condition of rest, and be continuous and permanent; _collision_ is sudden and violent _contact_. _concussion_ is often by transmitted force rather than by direct _impact_; two railway-trains come into _collision_; an explosion of dynamite shatters neighboring windows by _concussion_. _impact_ is the blow given by the striking body; as, the _impact_ of the cannon-shot upon the target. an _encounter_ is always violent, and generally hostile. _meeting_ is neutral, and may be of the dearest friends or of the bitterest foes; of objects, of persons, or of opinions; of two or of a multitude. _shock_ is the result of _collision_. in the figurative use, we speak of _clashing_ of views, _collision_ of persons. _opposition_ is used chiefly of persons, more rarely of opinions or interests; _conflict_ is used indifferently of all. antonyms: agreement, coincidence, concord, conformity, unison, amity, concert, concurrence, harmony, unity. prepositions: collision _of_ one object _with_ another; _of_ or _between_ opposing objects. * * * * * comfortable. synonyms: agreeable, cheery, genial, snug, at ease, commodious, pleasant, well-off, at rest, contented, satisfactory, well-provided, cheerful, convenient, satisfied, well-to-do. a person is _comfortable_ in mind when _contented_ and measurably _satisfied_. a little additional brightness makes him _cheerful_. he is _comfortable_ in body when free from pain, quiet, _at ease_, _at rest_. he is _comfortable_ in circumstances, or in _comfortable_ circumstances, when things about him are generally _agreeable_ and _satisfactory_, usually with the suggestion of sufficient means to secure that result. antonyms: cheerless, discontented, distressed, forlorn, uncomfortable, disagreeable, dissatisfied, dreary, miserable, wretched. * * * * * commit. synonyms: assign, confide, consign, entrust, relegate, trust. _commit_, in the sense here considered, is to give in charge, put into care or keeping; to _confide_ or _entrust_ is to _commit_ especially to one's fidelity, _confide_ being used chiefly of mental or spiritual, _entrust_ also of material things; we _assign_ a duty, _confide_ a secret, _entrust_ a treasure; we _commit_ thoughts to writing; _commit_ a paper to the flames, a body to the earth; a prisoner is _committed_ to jail. _consign_ is a formal word in mercantile use; as, to _consign_ goods to an agent. religiously, we _consign_ the body to the grave, _commit_ the soul to god. compare do. prepositions: commit _to_ a friend _for_ safe-keeping; in law, commit _to_ prison; _for_ trial; _without_ bail; in default _of_ bail; _on_ suspicion. * * * * * company. synonyms: assemblage, concourse, convocation, host, assembly, conference, crowd, meeting, collection, congregation, gathering, multitude, conclave, convention, group, throng. _company_, from the latin _cum_, with, and _panis_, bread, denotes primarily the association of those who eat at a common table, or the persons so associated, table-companions, messmates, friends, and hence is widely extended to include any association of those united permanently or temporarily, for business, pleasure, festivity, travel, etc., or by sorrow, misfortune, or wrong; _company_ may denote an indefinite number (ordinarily more than two), but less than a _multitude_; in the military sense a _company_ is a limited and definite number of men; _company_ implies more unity of feeling and purpose than _crowd_, and is a less formal and more familiar word than _assemblage_ or _assembly_. an _assemblage_ may be of persons or of objects; an _assembly_ is always of persons. an _assemblage_ is promiscuous and unorganized; an _assembly_ is organized and united in some common purpose. a _conclave_ is a secret _assembly_. a _convocation_ is an _assembly_ called by authority for a special purpose; the term _convention_ suggests less dependence upon any superior authority or summons. a _group_ is small in number and distinct in outline, clearly marked off from all else in space or time. _collection_, _crowd_, _gathering_, _group_, and _multitude_ have the unorganized and promiscuous character of the _assemblage_; the other terms come under the general idea of _assembly_. _congregation_ is now almost exclusively religious; _meeting_ is often so used, but is less restricted, as we may speak of a _meeting_ of armed men. _gathering_ refers to a coming together, commonly of numbers, from far and near; as, the _gathering_ of the scottish clans. antonyms: dispersion, loneliness, privacy, retirement, seclusion, solitude. * * * * * compel. synonyms: coerce, drive, make, oblige. constrain, force, necessitate, to _compel_ one to an act is to secure its performance by the use of irresistible physical or moral force. _force_ implies primarily an actual physical process, absolutely subduing all resistance. _coerce_ implies the actual or potential use of so much force as may be necessary to secure the surrender of the will; the american secessionists contended that the federal government had no right to _coerce_ a state. _constrain_ implies the yielding of judgment and will, and in some cases of inclination or affection, to an overmastering power; as, "the love of christ _constraineth_ us," _ cor._ v, . compare drive; influence. antonyms: see synonyms for hinder. prepositions: the soldiers were compelled _to_ desertion: preferably with the infinitive, compelled _to_ desert. * * * * * complain. synonyms: croak, growl, grunt, remonstrate, find fault, grumble, murmur, repine. to _complain_ is to give utterance to dissatisfaction or objection, express a sense of wrong or ill treatment. one _complains_ of a real or assumed grievance; he may _murmur_ through mere peevishness or ill temper; he _repines_, with vain distress, at the irrevocable or the inevitable. _complaining_ is by speech or writing; _murmuring_ is commonly said of half-repressed utterance; _repining_ of the mental act alone. one may _complain_ of an offense to the offender or to others; he _remonstrates_ with the offender only. _complain_ has a formal and legal meaning, which the other words have not, signifying to make a formal accusation, present a specific charge; the same is true of the noun _complaint_. antonyms: applaud, approve, commend, eulogize, laud, praise. prepositions: complain _of_ a thing _to_ a person; _of_ one person _to_ another, _of_ or _against_ a person _for_ an act; _to_ an officer; _before_ the court; _about_ a thing. * * * * * complex. synonyms: abstruse, confused, intricate, mixed, complicated, conglomerate, involved, multiform, composite, entangled, manifold, obscure, compound, heterogeneous, mingled, tangled. that is _complex_ which is made up of several connected parts. that is _compound_ in which the parts are not merely connected, but fused, or otherwise combined into a single substance. in a _composite_ object the different parts have less of unity than in that which is _complex_ or _compound_, but maintain their distinct individuality. in a _heterogeneous_ body unlike parts or particles are intermingled, often without apparent order or plan. _conglomerate_ (literally, globed together) is said of a _confused_ mingling of masses or lumps of various substances. the new england pudding-stone is a _conglomerate_ rock. in a _complex_ object the arrangement and relation of parts may be perfectly clear; in a _complicated_ mechanism the parts are so numerous, or so combined, that the mind can not readily grasp their mutual relations; in an _intricate_ arrangement the parts are so intertwined that it is difficult to follow their windings; things are _involved_ which are rolled together so as not to be easily separated, either in thought or in fact; things which are _tangled_ or _entangled_ mutually hold and draw upon each other. the conception of a material object is usually _complex_, involving form, color, size, and other elements; a clock is a _complicated_ mechanism; the gordian knot was _intricate_; the twining serpents of the laocoon are _involved_. we speak of an _abstruse_ statement, a _complex_ conception, a _confused_ heap, a _heterogeneous_ mass, a _tangled_ skein, an _intricate_ problem; of _composite_ architecture, an _involved_ sentence; of the _complicated_ or _intricate_ accounts of a great business, the _entangled_ accounts of an incompetent or dishonest bookkeeper. antonyms: clear, homogeneous, plain, uncombined, uniform, direct, obvious, simple, uncompounded, unraveled. * * * * * condemn. synonyms: blame, convict, doom, reprove, censure, denounce, reprobate, sentence. to _condemn_ is to pass judicial sentence or render judgment or decision against. we may _censure_ silently; we _condemn_ ordinarily by open and formal utterance. _condemn_ is more final than _blame_ or _censure_; a _condemned_ criminal has had his trial; a _condemned_ building can not stand; a _condemned_ ship can not sail. a person is _convicted_ when his guilt is made clearly manifest to others; in somewhat archaic use, a person is said to be _convicted_ when guilt is brought clearly home to his own conscience (_convict_ in this sense being allied with _convince_, which see under persuade); in legal usage one is said to be _convicted_ only by the verdict of a jury. in stating the penalty of an offense, the legal word _sentence_ is now more common than _condemn_; as, he was _sentenced_ to imprisonment; but it is good usage to say, he was _condemned_ to imprisonment. to _denounce_ is to make public or official declaration against, especially in a violent and threatening manner. from the pulpits in the northern states burr was _denounced_ as an assassin. coffin _building the nation_ ch. , p. . [h. ' .] to _doom_ is to _condemn_ solemnly and consign to evil or destruction or to predetermine to an evil destiny; an inferior race in presence of a superior is _doomed_ to subjugation or extinction. compare arraign; reprove. antonyms: absolve, applaud, exonerate, pardon, acquit, approve, justify, praise. prepositions: the bandit was condemned _to_ death _for_ his crime. * * * * * confess. synonyms: accept, allow, concede, grant, acknowledge, avow, disclose, own, admit, certify, endorse, recognize. we _accept_ another's statement; _admit_ any point made against us; _acknowledge_ what we have said or done, good or bad; _avow_ our individual beliefs or feelings; _certify_ to facts within our knowledge; _confess_ our own faults; _endorse_ a friend's note or statement; _grant_ a request; _own_ our faults or obligations; _recognize_ lawful authority; _concede_ a claim. _confess_ has a high and sacred use in the religious sense; as, to _confess_ christ before men. it may have also a playful sense (often with _to_); as, one _confesses to_ a weakness for confectionery. the chief present use of the word, however, is in the sense of making known to others one's own wrong-doing; in this sense _confess_ is stronger than _acknowledge_ or _admit_, and more specific than _own_; a person _admits_ a mistake; _acknowledges_ a fault; _confesses_ sin or crime. compare apology; avow. antonyms: cloak, deny, disown, hide, screen, conceal, disavow, dissemble, mask, secrete, cover, disguise, dissimulate, repudiate, veil. * * * * * confirm. synonyms: assure, fix, sanction, substantiate, corroborate, prove, settle, sustain, establish, ratify, strengthen, uphold. _confirm_ (l. _con_, together, and _firmus_, firm) is to add firmness or give stability to. both _confirm_ and _corroborate_ presuppose something already existing to which the confirmation or corroboration is added. testimony is _corroborated_ by concurrent testimony or by circumstances; _confirmed_ by _established_ facts. that which is thoroughly _proved_ is said to be _established_; so is that which is official and has adequate power behind it; as, the _established_ government; the _established_ church. the continents are _fixed_. a treaty is _ratified_; an appointment _confirmed_. an act is _sanctioned_ by any person or authority that passes upon it approvingly. a statement is _substantiated_; a report _confirmed_; a controversy _settled_; the decision of a lower court _sustained_ by a higher. just government should be _upheld_. the beneficent results of christianity _confirm_ our faith in it as a divine revelation. antonyms: abrogate, cancel, overthrow, shatter, upset, annul, destroy, shake, unsettle, weaken. prepositions: confirm a statement _by_ testimony; confirm a person _in_ a belief. * * * * * congratulate. synonym: felicitate. to _felicitate_ is to pronounce one happy or wish one joy; to _congratulate_ is to express hearty sympathy in his joys or hopes. _felicitate_ is cold and formal. we say one _felicitates_ himself; tho to _congratulate_ oneself, which is less natural, is becoming prevalent. antonyms: condole with, console. prepositions: congratulate one _on_ or _upon_ his success. * * * * * conquer. synonyms: beat, humble, overthrow, subject, checkmate, master, prevail over, subjugate, crush, overcome, put down, surmount, defeat, overmaster, reduce, vanquish, discomfit, overmatch, rout, win, down, overpower, subdue, worst. to _defeat_ an enemy is to gain an advantage for the time; to _vanquish_ is to win a signal victory; to _conquer_ is to _overcome_ so effectually that the victory is regarded as final. _conquer_, in many cases, carries the idea of possession; as, to _conquer_ respect, affection, peace, etc. a country is _conquered_ when its armies are defeated and its territory is occupied by the enemy; it may be _subjected_ to indemnity or to various disabilities; it is _subjugated_ when it is held helplessly and continuously under military control; it is _subdued_ when all resistance has died out. an army is _defeated_ when forcibly driven back; it is _routed_ when it is converted into a mob of fugitives. compare beat. antonyms: capitulate, fail, fly, lose, retire, submit, surrender, cede, fall, forfeit, resign, retreat, succumb, yield. * * * * * conscious. synonyms: advised, assured, certain, cognizant, sensible, apprised, aware, certified, informed, sure. one is _aware_ of that which exists without him; he is _conscious_ of the inner workings of his own mind. _sensible_ may be used in the exact sense of _conscious_, or it may partake of both the senses mentioned above. one may be _sensible_ of his own or another's error; he is _conscious_ only of his own. a person may feel _assured_ or _sure_ of something false or non-existent; what he is _aware_ of, still more what he is _conscious_ of, must be fact. _sensible_ has often a reference to the emotions where _conscious_ might apply only to the intellect; to say a culprit is _sensible_ of his degradation is more forcible than to say he is _conscious_ of it. antonyms: cold, dead, deaf, ignorant, insensible, unaware, unconscious. preposition: on the stormy sea, man is conscious _of_ the limitation of human power. * * * * * consequence. synonyms: consequent, end, issue, outgrowth, sequel, effect, event, outcome, result, upshot. _effect_ is the strongest of these words; it is that which is directly produced by the action of an efficient cause; we say, "every _effect_ must have an adequate cause" (compare cause). in regard to human actions, _effect_ commonly relates to intention; as, the shot took _effect_, _i. e._, the _effect_ intended. a _consequence_ is that which follows an act naturally, but less directly than the _effect_. the motion of the piston is the _effect_, and the agitation of the water under the paddle-wheels a _consequence_ of the expansion of steam in the cylinder. the _result_ is, literally, the rebound of an act, depending on many elements; the _issue_ is that which flows forth directly; we say the _issue_ of a battle, the _result_ of a campaign. a _consequent_ commonly is that which follows simply in order of time, or by logical inference. the _end_ is the actual _outcome_ without determination of its relation to what has gone before; it is ordinarily viewed as either the necessary, natural, or logical _outcome_, any _effect_, _consequence_, or _result_ being termed an _end_; as, the _end_ of such a course must be ruin. the _event_ (l. _e_, out, and _venio_, come) is primarily exactly the same in meaning as _outcome_; but in use it is more nearly equivalent to _upshot_ signifying the sum and substance of all _effects_, _consequences_, and _results_ of a course of action. compare accident; cause; circumstance; end; event. * * * * * console. synonyms: comfort, condole with, encourage, sympathize with. one _condoles with_ another by the expression of kindly sympathy in his trouble; he _consoles_ him by considerations adapted to soothe and sustain the spirit, as by the assurances and promises of the gospel; he _encourages_ him by the hope of some relief or deliverance; he _comforts_ him by whatever act or word tends to bring mind or body to a state of rest and cheer. we _sympathize with_ others, not only in sorrow, but in joy. compare alleviate; pity. antonyms: annoy, distress, disturb, grieve, hurt, sadden, trouble, wound. * * * * * contagion. synonym: infection. _infection_ is frequently confused with _contagion_, even by medical men. the best usage now limits _contagion_ to diseases that are transmitted by contact with the diseased person, either directly by touch or indirectly by use of the same articles, by breath, effluvia, etc. _infection_ is applied to diseases produced by no known or definable influence of one person upon another, but where common climatic, malarious, or other wide-spread conditions are believed to be chiefly instrumental. * * * * * continual. synonyms: ceaseless, incessant, regular, uninterrupted, constant, invariable, unbroken, unremitting, continuous, perpetual, unceasing, unvarying. _continuous_ describes that which is absolutely without pause or break; _continual_, that which often intermits, but as regularly begins again. a _continuous_ beach is exposed to the _continual_ beating of the waves. a similar distinction is made between _incessant_ and _ceaseless_. the _incessant_ discharge of firearms makes the _ceaseless_ roar of battle. _constant_ is sometimes used in the sense of _continual_; but its chief uses are mental and moral. * * * * * contract. synonyms: agreement, cartel, engagement, pledge, arrangement, compact, obligation, promise, bargain, covenant, pact, stipulation. all these words involve at least two parties, tho an _engagement_ or _promise_ may be the act of but one. a _contract_ is a formal agreement between two or more parties for the doing or leaving undone some specified act or acts, and is ordinarily in writing. mutual _promises_ may have the force of a _contract_. a consideration, or compensation, is essential to convert an _agreement_ into a _contract_. a _contract_ may be oral or written. a _covenant_ in law is a written _contract_ under seal. _covenant_ is frequent in religious usage, as _contract_ is in law and business. _compact_ is essentially the same as _contract_, but is applied to international _agreements_, treaties, etc. a _bargain_ is a mutual _agreement_ for an exchange of values, without the formality of a _contract_. a _stipulation_ is a single item in an _agreement_ or _contract_. a _cartel_ is a military _agreement_ for the exchange of prisoners or the like. * * * * * contrast. synonyms: compare, differentiate, discriminate, oppose. to _compare_ (l. _con_, together, and _par_, equal) is to place together in order to show likeness or unlikeness; to _contrast_ (l. _contra_, against, and _sto_, stand) is to set in opposition in order to show unlikeness. we _contrast_ objects that have been already _compared_. we must _compare_ them, at least momentarily, even to know that they are different. we _contrast_ them when we observe their unlikeness in a general way; we _differentiate_ them when we note the difference exactly and point by point. we distinguish objects when we note a difference that may fall short of _contrast_; we _discriminate_ them when we classify or place them according to their differences. preposition: we contrast one object _with_ another. * * * * * conversation. synonyms: chat, communion, converse, intercourse, colloquy, confabulation, dialogue, parley, communication, conference, discourse, talk. _conversation_ (latin _con_, with) is, etymologically, an interchange of ideas with some other person or persons. _talk_ may be wholly one-sided. many brilliant talkers have been incapable of _conversation_. there may be _intercourse_ without _conversation_, as by looks, signs, etc.; _communion_ is of hearts, with or without words; _communication_ is often by writing, and may be uninvited and unreciprocated. _talk_ may denote the mere utterance of words with little thought; thus, we say idle _talk_, empty _talk_, rather than idle or empty _conversation_. _discourse_ is now applied chiefly to public addresses. a _conference_ is more formal than a _conversation_. _dialog_ denotes ordinarily an artificial or imaginary _conversation_, generally of two persons, but sometimes of more. a _colloquy_ is indefinite as to number, and generally somewhat informal. compare behavior. prepositions: conversation _with_ friends; _between_ or _among_ the guests; _about_ a matter. * * * * * convert. synonyms: disciple, neophyte, proselyte. the name _disciple_ is given to the follower of a certain faith, without reference to any previous belief or allegiance; a _convert_ is a person who has come to one faith from a different belief or from unbelief. a _proselyte_ is one who has been led to accept a religious system, whether with or without true faith; a _convert_ is always understood to be a believer. a _neophyte_ is a new _convert_, not yet fully indoctrinated, or not admitted to full privileges. the antonyms _apostate_, _pervert_, and _renegade_ are condemnatory names applied to the _convert_ by those whose faith he forsakes. * * * * * convey. synonyms: carry, give, remove, shift, transmit, change, move, sell, transfer, transport. _convey_, _transmit_, and _transport_ all imply delivery at a destination; as, i will _convey_ the information to your friend; air _conveys_ sound (to a listener); _carry_ does not necessarily imply delivery, and often does not admit of it. a man _carries_ an appearance, _conveys_ an impression, the appearance remaining his own, the impression being given to another; i will _transmit_ the letter; _transport_ the goods. a horse _carries_ his mane and tail, but does not _convey_ them. _transfer_ may or may not imply delivery to another person; as, items may be _transferred_ from one account to another or a word _transferred_ to the following line. in law, real estate, which can not be moved, is _conveyed_ by simply _transferring_ title and possession. _transport_ usually refers to material, _transfer_, _transmit_, and _convey_ may refer to immaterial objects; we _transfer_ possession, _transmit_ intelligence, _convey_ ideas, but do not _transport_ them. in the case of _convey_ the figurative sense now predominates. compare carry. antonyms: cling to, hold, keep, possess, preserve, retain. prepositions: convey _to_ a friend, a purchaser, etc.; convey _from_ the house _to_ the station; convey _by_ express, _by_ hand, etc. * * * * * convoke. synonyms: assemble, call together, convene, muster, call, collect, gather, summon. a convention is _called_ by some officer or officers, as by its president, its executive committee, or some eminent leaders; the delegates are _assembled_ or _convened_ in a certain place, at a certain hour. _convoke_ implies an organized body and a superior authority; _assemble_ and _convene_ express more independent action; parliament is _convoked_; congress _assembles_. troops are _mustered_; witnesses and jurymen are _summoned_. antonyms: adjourn, disband, dismiss, dissolve, scatter, break up, discharge, disperse, prorogue, separate. * * * * * criminal. synonyms: abominable, flagitious, immoral, sinful, vile, culpable, guilty, iniquitous, unlawful, wicked, felonious, illegal, nefarious, vicious, wrong. every _criminal_ act is _illegal_ or _unlawful_, but _illegal_ or _unlawful_ acts may not be _criminal_. offenses against public law are _criminal_; offenses against private rights are merely _illegal_ or _unlawful_. as a general rule, all acts punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, are _criminal_ in view of the law. it is _illegal_ for a man to trespass on another's land, but it is not _criminal_; the trespasser is liable to a civil suit for damages, but not to indictment, fine, or imprisonment. a _felonious_ act is a _criminal_ act of an aggravated kind, which is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary or by death. a _flagitious_ crime is one that brings public odium. _vicious_ refers to the indulgence of evil appetites, habits, or passions; _vicious_ acts are not necessarily _criminal_, or even _illegal_; we speak of a _vicious_ horse. that which is _iniquitous_, _i. e._, contrary to equity, may sometimes be done under the forms of law. ingratitude is _sinful_, hypocrisy is _wicked_, but neither is punishable by human law; hence, neither is _criminal_ or _illegal_. compare sin. antonyms: innocent, lawful, meritorious, right, just, legal, moral, virtuous. * * * * * daily. synonym: diurnal. _daily_ is the saxon and popular, _diurnal_ the latin and scientific term. in strict usage, _daily_ is the antonym of _nightly_ as _diurnal_ is of _nocturnal_. _daily_ is not, however, held strictly to this use; a physician makes _daily_ visits if he calls at some time within each period of twenty-four hours. _diurnal_ is more exact in all its uses; a _diurnal_ flower opens or blooms only in daylight; a _diurnal_ bird or animal flies or ranges only by day: in contradistinction to _nocturnal_ flowers, birds, etc. a _diurnal_ motion exactly fills an astronomical day or the time of one rotation of a planet on its axis, while a _daily_ motion is much less definite. antonyms: nightly, nocturnal. * * * * * danger. synonyms: hazard, insecurity, jeopardy, peril, risk. _danger_ is exposure to possible evil, which may be either near and probable or remote and doubtful; _peril_ is exposure to imminent and sharply threatening evil, especially to such as results from violence. an invalid may be in _danger_ of consumption; a disarmed soldier is in _peril_ of death. _jeopardy_ is nearly the same as _peril_, but involves, like _risk_, more of the element of chance or uncertainty; a man tried upon a capital charge is said to be put in _jeopardy_ of life. _insecurity_ is a feeble word, but exceedingly broad, applying to the placing of a dish, or the possibilities of a life, a fortune, or a government. compare hazard. antonyms: defense, immunity, protection, safeguard, safety, security, shelter. * * * * * dark. synonyms: black, dusky, mysterious, sable, somber, dim, gloomy, obscure, shadowy, swart, dismal, murky, opaque, shady, swarthy. strictly, that which is _black_ is absolutely destitute of color; that which is _dark_ is absolutely destitute of light. in common speech, however, a coat is _black_, tho not optically colorless; the night is _dark_, tho the stars shine. that is _obscure_, _shadowy_, or _shady_ from which the light is more or less cut off. _dusky_ is applied to objects which appear as if viewed in fading light; the word is often used, as are _swart_ and _swarthy_, of the human skin when quite _dark_, or even verging toward _black_. _dim_ refers to imperfection of outline, from distance, darkness, mist, etc., or from some defect of vision. _opaque_ objects, as smoked glass, are impervious to light. _murky_ is said of that which is at once _dark_, _obscure_, and _gloomy_; as, a _murky_ den; a _murky_ sky. figuratively, _dark_ is emblematic of sadness, agreeing with _somber_, _dismal_, _gloomy_, also of moral evil; as, a _dark_ deed. of intellectual matters, _dark_ is now rarely used in the old sense of a _dark_ saying, etc. see mysterious; obscure. antonyms: bright, crystalline, glowing, lucid, shining, brilliant, dazzling, illumined, luminous, transparent, clear, gleaming, light, radiant, white. compare synonyms for light. * * * * * decay. synonyms: corrupt, decompose, molder, putrefy, rot, spoil. _rot_ is a strong word, ordinarily esteemed coarse, but on occasion capable of approved emphatic use; as, "the name of the wicked shall _rot_," _prov._ x, ; _decay_ and _decompose_ are now common euphemisms. a substance is _decomposed_ when resolved into its original elements by any process; it is _decayed_ when resolved into its original elements by natural processes; it _decays_ gradually, but may be instantly _decomposed_, as water into oxygen and hydrogen; to say that a thing is _decayed_ may denote only a partial result, but to say it is _decomposed_ ordinarily implies that the change is complete or nearly so. _putrefy_ and the adjectives _putrid_ and _putrescent_, and the nouns _putridity_ and _putrescence_, are used almost exclusively of animal matter in a state of decomposition, the more general word _decay_ being used of either animal or vegetable substances. * * * * * deception. synonyms: craft, dissimulation, finesse, lie, cunning, double-dealing, fraud, lying, deceit, duplicity, guile, prevarication, deceitfulness, fabrication, hypocrisy, trickery, delusion, falsehood, imposition, untruth. _deceit_ is the habit, _deception_ the act; _guile_ applies to the disposition out of which _deceit_ and _deception_ grow, and also to their actual practise. a _lie_, _lying_, or _falsehood_, is the uttering of what one knows to be false with intent to deceive. the novel or drama is not a _lie_, because not meant to deceive; the ancient teaching that the earth was flat was not a _lie_, because not then known to be false. _untruth_ is more than lack of accuracy, implying always lack of veracity; but it is a somewhat milder and more dignified word than _lie_. _falsehood_ and _lying_ are in utterance; _deceit_ and _deception_ may be merely in act or implication. _deception_ may be innocent, and even unintentional, as in the case of an optical illusion; _deceit_ always involves injurious intent. _craft_ and _cunning_ have not necessarily any moral quality; they are common traits of animals, but stand rather low in the human scale. _duplicity_ is the habitual speaking or acting with intent to appear to mean what one does not. _dissimulation_ is rather a concealing of what is than a pretense of what is not. _finesse_ is simply an adroit and delicate management of a matter for one's own side, not necessarily involving _deceit_. compare artifice; fiction; fraud; hypocrisy. antonyms: candor, frankness, honesty, simplicity, truth, fair dealing, guilelessness, openness, sincerity, veracity. * * * * * defense. synonyms: apology, guard, rampart, shelter, bulwark, justification, resistance, shield, fortress, protection, safeguard, vindication. the weak may speak or act in _defense_ of the strong; none but the powerful can assure others of _protection_. a _defense_ is ordinarily against actual attack; _protection_ is against possible as well as actual dangers. we speak of _defense_ against an assault, _protection_ from the cold. _vindication_ is a triumphant _defense_ of character and conduct against charges of error or wrong. compare apology. antonyms: abandonment, betrayal, capitulation, desertion, flight, surrender. prepositions: defense _against_ assault or assailants; in law, defense _to_ an action, _from_ the testimony. * * * * * defile. synonyms: befoul, corrupt, pollute, spoil, sully, tarnish, contaminate, infect, soil, stain, taint, vitiate. the hand may be _defiled_ by a touch of pitch; swine that have been wallowing in the mud are _befouled_. _contaminate_ and _infect_ refer to something evil that deeply pervades and permeates, as the human body or mind. _pollute_ is used chiefly of liquids; as, water _polluted_ with sewage. _tainted_ meat is repulsive; _infected_ meat contains germs of disease. a _soiled_ garment may be cleansed by washing; a _spoiled_ garment is beyond cleansing or repair. bright metal is _tarnished_ by exposure; a fair sheet is _sullied_ by a dirty hand. in figurative use, _defile_ may be used merely in the ceremonial sense; "they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be _defiled_," _john_ xviii, ; _contaminate_ refers to deep spiritual injury. _pollute_ has also a reference to sacrilege; as, to _pollute_ a sanctuary, an altar, or an ordinance. the innocent are often _contaminated_ by association with the wicked; the vicious are more and more _corrupted_ by their own excesses. we speak of a _vitiated_ taste or style; fraud _vitiates_ a title or a contract. antonyms: clean, cleanse, disinfect, hallow, purify, sanctify, wash. prepositions: the temple was defiled _with_ blood; defiled _by_ sacrilegious deeds. * * * * * definition. synonyms: comment, description, exposition, rendering, commentary, explanation, interpretation, translation. a _definition_ is exact, an _explanation_ general; a _definition_ is formal, a _description_ pictorial. a _definition_ must include all that belongs to the object defined, and exclude all that does not; a _description_ may include only some general features; an _explanation_ may simply throw light upon some point of special difficulty. an _exposition_ undertakes to state more fully what is compactly given or only implied in the text; as, an _exposition_ of scripture. _interpretation_ is ordinarily from one language into another, or from the language of one period into that of another; it may also be a statement giving the doubtful or hidden meaning of that which is recondite or perplexing; as, the _interpretation_ of a dream, a riddle, or of some difficult passage. _definition_, _explanation_, _exposition_, and _interpretation_ are ordinarily blended in a _commentary_, which may also include _description_. a _comment_ is upon a single passage; a _commentary_ may be the same, but is usually understood to be a volume of _comments_. * * * * * delegate. synonyms: deputy, legate, proxy, representative, substitute. these words agree in designating one who acts in the place of some other or others. the _legate_ is an ecclesiastical officer representing the pope. in strict usage the _deputy_ or _delegate_ is more limited in functions and more closely bound by instructions than a _representative_. a single officer may have a _deputy_; many persons combine to choose a _delegate_ or _representative_. in the united states informal assemblies send _delegates_ to nominating conventions with no legislative authority; _representatives_ are legally elected to congress and the various legislatures, with lawmaking power. * * * * * deliberate. synonyms: confer, consult, meditate, reflect, consider, debate, ponder, weigh. an individual _considers_, _meditates_, _ponders_, _reflects_, by himself; he _weighs_ a matter in his own mind, and is sometimes said even to _debate_ with himself. _consult_ and _confer_ always imply two or more persons, as does _debate_, unless expressly limited as above. _confer_ suggests the interchange of counsel, advice, or information; _consult_ indicates almost exclusively the receiving of it. a man _confers_ with his associates about a new investment; he _consults_ his physician about his health; he may _confer_ with him on matters of general interest. he _consults_ a dictionary, but does not _confer_ with it. _deliberate_, which can be applied to a single individual, is also the word for a great number, while _consult_ is ordinarily limited to a few; a committee _consults_; an assembly _deliberates_. _deliberating_ always carries the idea of slowness; _consulting_ is compatible with haste; we can speak of a hasty consultation, not of a hasty deliberation. _debate_ implies opposing views; _deliberate_, simply a gathering and balancing of all facts and reasons. we _consider_ or _deliberate_ with a view to action, while _meditation_ may be quite purposeless. prepositions: we deliberate _on_ or _upon_, also _about_ or _concerning_ a matter: the first two are preferable. * * * * * delicious. synonyms: dainty, delightful, exquisite, luscious, savory. that is _delicious_ which affords a gratification at once vivid and delicate to the senses, especially to those of taste and smell; as, _delicious_ fruit; a _delicious_ odor; _luscious_ has a kindred but more fulsome meaning, inclining toward a cloying excess of sweetness or richness. _savory_ is applied chiefly to cooked food made palatable by spices and condiments. _delightful_ may be applied to the higher gratifications of sense, as _delightful_ music, but is chiefly used for that which is mental and spiritual. _delicious_ has a limited use in this way; as, a _delicious_ bit of poetry; the word is sometimes used ironically for some pleasing absurdity; as, this is _delicious_! compare delightful. antonyms: acrid, loathsome, nauseous, repulsive, unpalatable, unsavory. bitter, * * * * * delightful. synonyms: acceptable, delicious, pleasant, refreshing, agreeable, grateful, pleasing, satisfying, congenial, gratifying, pleasurable, welcome. _agreeable_ refers to whatever gives a mild degree of pleasure; as, an _agreeable_ perfume. _acceptable_ indicates a thing to be worthy of acceptance; as, an _acceptable_ offering. _grateful_ is stronger than _agreeable_ or _gratifying_, indicating whatever awakens a feeling akin to gratitude. a _pleasant_ face and _pleasing_ manners arouse _pleasurable_ sensations, and make the possessor an _agreeable_ companion; if possessed of intelligence, vivacity, and goodness, such a person's society will be _delightful_. criminals may find each other's company _congenial_, but scarcely _delightful_. _satisfying_ denotes anything that is received with calm acquiescence, as substantial food, or established truth. that is _welcome_ which is received with joyful heartiness; as, _welcome_ tidings. compare beautiful; charming; delicious. antonyms: depressing, hateful, miserable, painful, woful, disappointing, horrible, mournful, saddening, wretched. distressing, melancholy, * * * * * delusion. synonyms: error, fallacy, hallucination, illusion, phantasm. a _delusion_ is a mistaken conviction, an _illusion_ a mistaken perception or inference. an _illusion_ may be wholly of the senses; a _delusion_ always involves some mental error. in an optical _illusion_ the observer sees either what does not exist, or what exists otherwise than as he sees it, as when in a mirage distant springs and trees appear close at hand. we speak of the _illusions_ of fancy or of hope, but of the _delusions_ of the insane. a _hallucination_ is a false image or belief which has nothing, outside of the disordered mind, to suggest it; as, the _hallucinations_ of delirium tremens. compare deception; insanity. antonyms: actuality, certainty, fact, reality, truth, verity. * * * * * demolish. synonyms: destroy, overthrow, overturn, raze, ruin. a building, monument, or other structure is _demolished_ when reduced to a shapeless mass; it is _razed_ when leveled with the ground; it is _destroyed_ when its structural unity is gone, whether or not its component parts remain. an edifice is _destroyed_ by fire or earthquake; it is _demolished_ by bombardment; it is _ruined_ when, by violence or neglect, it has become unfit for human habitation. compare abolish; break. antonyms: build, construct, create, make, repair, restore. * * * * * demonstration. synonyms: certainty, consequence, evidence, inference, conclusion, deduction, induction, proof. _demonstration_, in the strict and proper sense, is the highest form of _proof_, and gives the most absolute _certainty_, but can not be applied outside of pure mathematics or other strictly deductive reasoning; there can be _proof_ and _certainty_, however, in matters that do not admit of _demonstration_. a _conclusion_ is the absolute and necessary result of the admission of certain premises; an _inference_ is a probable _conclusion_ toward which known facts, statements, or admissions point, but which they do not absolutely establish; sound premises, together with their necessary _conclusion_, constitute a _demonstration_. _evidence_ is that which tends to show a thing to be true; in the widest sense, as including self-_evidence_ or consciousness, it is the basis of all knowledge. _proof_ in the strict sense is complete, irresistible _evidence_; as, there was much _evidence_ against the accused, but not amounting to _proof_ of guilt. moral _certainty_ is a conviction resting on such _evidence_ as puts a matter beyond reasonable doubt, while not so irresistible as _demonstration_. compare hypothesis; induction. * * * * * design. synonyms: aim, final cause, object, proposal, device, intent, plan, purpose, end, intention, project, scheme. _design_ refers to the adaptation of means to an _end_, the correspondence and coordination of parts, or of separate acts, to produce a result; _intent_ and _purpose_ overleap all particulars, and fasten on the _end_ itself. _intention_ is simply the more familiar form of the legal and philosophical _intent_. _plan_ relates to details of form, structure, and action, in themselves; _design_ considers these same details all as a means to an _end_. the _plan_ of a campaign may be for a series of sharp attacks, with the _design_ of thus surprising and overpowering the enemy. a man comes to a fixed _intention_ to kill his enemy; he forms a _plan_ to entrap him into his power, with the _design_ of then compassing his death; as the law can not read the heart, it can only infer the _intent_ from the evidences of _design_. _intent_ denotes a straining, stretching forth toward an _object_; _purpose_ simply the placing it before oneself; hence, we speak of the _purpose_ rather than the _intent_ or _intention_ of god. we hold that the marks of _design_ in nature prove it the work of a great designer. _intention_ contemplates the possibility of failure; _purpose_ looks to assured success; _intent_ or _intention_ refers especially to the state of mind of the actor; _purpose_ to the result of the action. compare aim; cause; idea; model. prepositions: the design _of_ defrauding; the design _of_ a building; a design _for_ a statue. * * * * * desire. synonyms: appetency, concupiscence, hankering, proclivity, appetite, coveting, inclination, propensity, aspiration, craving, longing, wish. _inclination_ is the mildest of these terms; it is a quiet, or even a vague or unconscious, tendency. even when we speak of a strong or decided _inclination_ we do not express the intensity of _desire_. _desire_ has a wide range, from the highest objects to the lowest; _desire_ is for an object near at hand, or near in thought, and viewed as attainable; a _wish_ may be for what is remote or uncertain, or even for what is recognized as impossible. _craving_ is stronger than _hankering_; _hankering_ may be the result of a fitful and capricious _appetite_; _craving_ may be the imperious and reasonable demand of the whole nature. _longing_ is a reaching out with deep and persistent demand for that which is viewed as now distant but at some time attainable; as, the captive's _longing_ for release. _coveting_ ordinarily denotes wrong _desire_ for that which is another's. compare appetite. antonyms: see synonyms for antipathy. prepositions: the desire _of_ fame; a desire _for_ excellence. * * * * * despair. synonyms: desperation, despondency, discouragement, hopelessness. _discouragement_ is the result of so much repulse or failure as wears out courage. _discouragements_ too frequent and long continued may produce a settled _hopelessness_. _hopelessness_ is negative, and may result from simple apathy; _despondency_ and _despair_ are more emphatic and decided. _despondency_ is an incapacity for the present exercise of hope; _despair_ is the utter abandonment of hope. _despondency_ relaxes energy and effort and is always attended with sadness or distress; _despair_ may produce a stony calmness, or it may lead to _desperation_. _desperation_ is energized _despair_, vigorous in action, reckless of consequences. antonyms: anticipation, confidence, encouragement, expectation, hopefulness, assurance, courage, expectancy, hope, trust. cheer, elation, * * * * * dexterity. synonyms: adroitness, aptitude, cleverness, expertness, readiness, skill. _adroitness_ (f. _à_, to, and _droit_, right) and _dexterity_ (l. _dexter_, right, right-hand) might each be rendered "right-handedness;" but _adroitness_ carries more of the idea of eluding, parrying, or checking some hostile movement, or taking advantage of another in controversy; _dexterity_ conveys the idea of doing, accomplishing something readily and well, without reference to any action of others. we speak of _adroitness_ in fencing, boxing, or debate; of _dexterity_ in horsemanship, in the use of tools, weapons, etc. _aptitude_ (l. _aptus_, fit, fitted) is a natural _readiness_, which by practise may be developed into _dexterity_. _skill_ is more exact to line, rule, and method than _dexterity_. _dexterity_ can not be communicated, and, oftentimes can not even be explained by its possessor; _skill_ to a very great extent can be imparted; "_skilled_ workmen" in various trades are numbered by thousands. compare address; clever; power; skilful. prepositions: dexterity _of_ hand, _of_ movement, _of_ management; _with_ the pen; _in_ action, _in_ manipulating men; _at_ cards. * * * * * diction. synonyms: expression, phrase, style, vocabulary, language, phraseology, verbiage, wording. an author's _diction_ is strictly his choice and use of words, with no special reference to thought; _expression_ regards the words simply as the vehicle of the thought. _phrase_ and _phraseology_ apply to words or combinations of words which are somewhat technical; as, in legal _phraseology_; in military _phrase_. _diction_ is general; _wording_ is limited; we speak of the _diction_ of an author or of a work, the _wording_ of a proposition, of a resolution, etc. _verbiage_ never bears this sense (see circumlocution.) the _language_ of a writer or speaker may be the national speech he employs; as, the english or french _language_; or the word may denote his use of that _language_; as, the author's _language_ is well (or ill) chosen. _style_ includes _diction_, _expression_, rhetorical figures such as metaphor and simile, the effect of an author's prevailing tone of thought, of his personal traits--in short, all that makes up the clothing of thought in words; thus, we speak of a figurative _style_, a frigid or an argumentative _style_, etc., or of the _style_ of macaulay, prescott, or others. an author's _vocabulary_ is the range of words which he brings into his use. compare language. * * * * * die. synonyms: cease, decline, expire, perish, decease, depart, fade, wither. _die_, to go out of life, become destitute of vital power and action, is figuratively applied to anything which has the appearance of life. where the _dying_ night-lamp flickers. tennyson _locksley hall_ st. . an echo, a strain of music, a tempest, a topic, an issue, _dies_. _expire_ (literally, to breathe out) is a softer word for _die_; it is used figuratively of things that _cease_ to exist by reaching a natural limit; as, a lease _expires_; the time has _expired_. to _perish_ (literally, in latin, to go through, as in english we say, "the fire goes out") is oftenest used of death by privation or exposure; as, "i _perish_ with hunger," _luke_ xv, ; sometimes, of death by violence. knowledge and fame, art and empires, may be said to _perish_; the word denotes utter destruction and decay. antonyms: be born, come into being, flourish, rise again, begin, come to life, grow, rise from the dead, be immortal, exist, live, survive. prepositions: to die _of_ fever; _by_ violence; rarely, _with_ the sword, famine, etc. (_ezek._ vii, ); to die _for_ one's country; to die _at_ sea; _in_ one's bed; _in_ agony; die _to_ the world. * * * * * difference. synonyms: contrariety, discrimination, distinction, inequality, contrast, disparity, divergence, unlikeness, disagreement, dissimilarity, diversity, variation, discrepancy, dissimilitude, inconsistency, variety. _difference_ is the state or quality of being unlike or the amount of such unlikeness. a _difference_ is in the things compared; a _discrimination_ is in our judgment of them; a _distinction_ is in our definition or description or mental image of them. careful _discrimination_ of real _differences_ results in clear _distinctions_. _disparity_ is stronger than _inequality_, implying that one thing falls far below another; as, the _disparity_ of our achievements when compared with our ideals. _dissimilarity_ is between things sharply contrasted; there may be a _difference_ between those almost alike. there is a _discrepancy_ in accounts that fail to balance. _variety_ involves more than two objects; so, in general, does _diversity_; _variation_ is a _difference_ in the condition or action of the same object at different times. _disagreement_ is not merely the lack, but the opposite, of agreement; it is a mild word for opposition and conflict; _difference_ is sometimes used in the same sense. antonyms: agreement, harmony, likeness, sameness, uniformity, consonance, identity, resemblance, similarity, unity. prepositions: difference _between_ the old and the new; differences _among_ men; a difference _in_ character; _of_ action; _of_ style; (less frequently) a difference (controversy) _with_ a person; a difference _of_ one thing _from_ (incorrectly _to_) another. * * * * * difficult. synonyms: arduous, hard, onerous, toilsome, exhausting, laborious, severe, trying. _arduous_ (l. _arduus_, steep) signifies primarily so steep and lofty as to be difficult of ascent, and hence applies to that which involves great and sustained exertion and ordinarily for a lofty aim; great learning can only be won by _arduous_ toil. _hard_ applies to anything that resists our endeavors as a scarcely penetrable mass resists our physical force. anything is _hard_ that involves tax and strain whether of the physical or mental powers. _difficult_ is not used of that which merely taxes physical force; a dead lift is called _hard_ rather than _difficult_; breaking stone on the road would be called _hard_ rather than _difficult_ work; that is _difficult_ which involves skill, sagacity, or address, with or without a considerable expenditure of physical force; a geometrical problem may be _difficult_ to solve, a tangled skein to unravel; a mountain _difficult_ to ascend. _hard_ may be active or passive; a thing may be _hard_ to do or _hard_ to bear. _arduous_ is always active. that which is _laborious_ or _toilsome_ simply requires the steady application of labor or toil till accomplished; _toilsome_ is the stronger word. that which is _onerous_ (l. _onus_, a burden) is mentally burdensome or oppressive. responsibility may be _onerous_ even when it involves no special exertion. antonyms: easy, facile, light, pleasant, slight, trifling, trivial. * * * * * direction. synonyms: aim, bearing, course, inclination, tendency, way. the _direction_ of an object is the line of motion or of vision toward it, or the line in which the object is moving, considered from our own actual or mental standpoint. _way_, literally the road or path, comes naturally to mean the _direction_ of the road or path; conversationally, _way_ is almost a perfect synonym of _direction_; as, which _way_ did he go? or, in which _direction_? _bearing_ is the _direction_ in which an object is seen with reference to another, and especially with reference to the points of the compass. _course_ is the _direction_ of a moving object; _inclination_, that toward which a stationary object leans; _tendency_, the _direction_ toward which anything stretches or reaches out; _tendency_ is stronger and more active than _inclination_. compare aim; care; order; oversight. * * * * * discern. synonyms: behold, discriminate, observe, recognize, descry, distinguish, perceive, see. what we _discern_ we _see_ apart from all other objects; what we _discriminate_ we judge apart; what we _distinguish_ we mark apart, or recognize by some special mark or manifest difference. we _discriminate_ by real differences; we _distinguish_ by outward signs; an officer is readily _distinguished_ from a common soldier by his uniform. objects may be dimly _discerned_ at twilight, when yet we can not clearly _distinguish_ one from another. we _descry_ (originally _espy_) what is difficult to discover. compare discover; look. * * * * * discover. synonyms: ascertain, detect, disclose, ferret out, find out, descry, discern, expose, find, invent. of human actions or character, _detect_ is used, almost without exception, in a bad sense; _discover_ may be used in either the good or the bad sense, oftener in the good; he was _detected_ in a fraud; real merit is sure to be _discovered_. in scientific language, _detect_ is used of delicate indications that appear in course of careful watching; as, a slight fluttering of the pulse could be _detected_. we _discover_ what has existed but has not been known to us; we _invent_ combinations or arrangements not before in use; columbus _discovered_ america; morse _invented_ the electric telegraph. _find_ is the most general word for every means of coming to know what was not before certainly known. a man _finds_ in the road some stranger's purse, or _finds_ his own which he is searching for. the expert _discovers_ or _detects_ an error in an account; the auditor _finds_ the account to be correct. compare discern. antonyms: see synonyms for hide. * * * * * disease. synonyms: affection, disorder, indisposition, sickness, ailment, distemper, infirmity, unhealthiness, complaint, illness, malady, unsoundness. _disease_ is the general term for any deviation from health; in a more limited sense it denotes some definite morbid condition; _disorder_ and _affection_ are rather partial and limited; as, a nervous _affection_; a _disorder_ of the digestive system. _sickness_ was generally used in english speech and literature, till the close of the eighteenth century at least, for every form of physical _disorder_, as abundantly appears in the english bible: "jesus went about ... healing all manner of _sickness_ and all manner of _disease_ among the people," _matt._ iv, ; "elisha was fallen _sick_ of his _sickness_ whereof he died," _ kings_ xiii, . there is now, in england, a tendency to restrict the words _sick_ and _sickness_ to nausea, or "_sickness_ at the stomach," and to hold _ill_ and _illness_ as the only proper words to use in a general sense. this distinction has received but a very limited acceptance in the united states, where _sick_ and _sickness_ have the earlier and wider usage. we speak of trifling _ailments_, a slight _indisposition_, a serious or a deadly _disease_; a slight or severe _illness_; a painful _sickness_. _complaint_ is a popular term, which may be applied to any degree of ill health, slight or severe. _infirmity_ denotes a chronic or lingering weakness or disability, as blindness or lameness. antonyms: health, robustness, soundness, strength, sturdiness, vigor. * * * * * disparage. synonyms: belittle, depreciate, discredit, underestimate, carp at, derogate from, dishonor, underrate, decry, detract from, lower, undervalue. to _decry_ is to cry down, in some noisy, public, or conspicuous manner. a witness or a statement is _discredited_; the currency is _depreciated_; a good name is _dishonored_ by unworthy conduct; we _underestimate_ in our own minds; we may _underrate_ or _undervalue_ in statement to others. these words are used, with few exceptions, of things such as qualities, merits, attainments, etc. to _disparage_ is to _belittle_ by damaging comparison or suggestion; it is used only of things. a man's achievements are _disparaged_, his motives _depreciated_, his professions _discredited_; he himself is calumniated, slandered, etc. compare slander. antonyms: see synonyms for praise. * * * * * displace. synonyms: confuse, derange, disturb, mislay, remove, crowd out, disarrange, jumble, misplace, unsettle. objects are _displaced_ when moved out of the place they have occupied; they are _misplaced_ when put into a place where they should not be. one may know where to find what he has _misplaced_; what he has _mislaid_ he can not locate. antonyms: adjust, assort, dispose, order, put in order, set in order, array, classify, group, place, put in place, sort. * * * * * do. synonyms: accomplish, carry out, discharge, perform, achieve, carry through, effect, perpetrate, actualize, commit, execute, realize, bring about, complete, finish, transact, bring to pass, consummate, fulfil, work out. _do_ is the one comprehensive word which includes this whole class. we may say of the least item of daily work, "it is _done_," and of the grandest human achievement, "well _done_!" _finish_ and _complete_ signify to bring to an end what was previously begun; there is frequently the difference in usage that _finish_ is applied to the fine details and is superficial, while _complete_ is comprehensive, being applied to the whole ideal, plan, and execution; as, to _finish_ a statue; to _complete_ a scheme of philosophy. to _discharge_ is to _do_ what is given in charge, expected, or required; as, to _discharge_ the duties of the office. to _fulfil_ is to _do_ or to be what has been promised, expected, hoped, or desired; as, a son _fulfils_ a father's hopes. _realize_, _effect_, _execute_, and _consummate_ all signify to embody in fact what was before in thought. one may _realize_ that which he has done nothing to _bring about_; he may _realize_ the dreams of youth by inheriting a fortune; but he can not _effect_ his early designs except by _doing_ the utmost that is necessary to make them fact. _effect_ includes all that is _done_ to _accomplish_ the intent; _execute_ refers rather to the final steps; _consummate_ is limited quite sharply to the concluding act. an officer _executes_ the law when he proceeds against its violators; a purchase is _consummated_ when the money is paid and the property delivered. _execute_ refers more commonly to the commands of another, _effect_ and _consummate_ to one's own designs; as, the commander _effected_ the capture of the fort, because his officers and men promptly _executed_ his commands. _achieve_--to _do_ something worthy of a chief--signifies always to _perform_ some great and generally some worthy exploit. _perform_ and _accomplish_ both imply working toward the end; but _perform_ always allows a possibility of not attaining, while _accomplish_ carries the thought of full completion. in longfellow's lines, "patience; _accomplish_ thy labor," etc., _perform_ could not be substituted without great loss. as between _complete_ and _accomplish_, _complete_ considers rather the thing as _done_; _accomplish_, the whole process of doing it. _commit_, as applied to actions, is used only of those that are bad, whether grave or trivial; _perpetrate_ is used chiefly of aggravated crimes or, somewhat humorously, of blunders. a man may _commit_ a sin, a trespass, or a murder; _perpetrate_ an outrage or a felony. we _finish_ a garment or a letter, _complete_ an edifice or a life-work, _consummate_ a bargain or a crime, _discharge_ a duty, _effect_ a purpose, _execute_ a command, _fulfil_ a promise, _perform_ our daily tasks, _realize_ an ideal, _accomplish_ a design, _achieve_ a victory. compare transact; transaction. antonyms: baffle, defeat, fail, mar, miss, ruin, come short, destroy, frustrate, miscarry, neglect, spoil. * * * * * docile. synonyms: amenable, manageable, pliant, teachable, compliant, obedient, submissive, tractable, gentle, pliable, tame, yielding. one who is _docile_ is easily taught; one who is _tractable_ is easily led; one who is _pliant_ is easily bent in any direction; _compliant_ represents one as inclined or persuaded to agreement with another's will. compare duty. antonyms: determined, inflexible, opinionated, self-willed, wilful, dogged, intractable, resolute, stubborn, unyielding. firm, obstinate, * * * * * doctrine. synonyms: article of belief, belief, precept, teaching, article of faith, dogma, principle, tenet. _doctrine_ primarily signifies that which is taught; _principle_, the fundamental basis on which the _teaching_ rests. a _doctrine_ is reasoned out, and may be defended by reasoning; a _dogma_ rests on authority, as of direct revelation, the decision of the church, etc. a _doctrine_ or _dogma_ is a statement of some one item of _belief_; a _creed_ is a summary of _doctrines_ or _dogmas_. _dogma_ has commonly, at the present day, an offensive signification, as of a _belief_ arrogantly asserted. _tenet_ is simply that which is held, and is applied to a single item of _belief_; it is a neutral word, neither approving nor condemning; we speak of the _doctrines_ of our own church; of the _tenets_ of others. a _precept_ relates not to _belief_, but to conduct. compare faith; law. * * * * * dogmatic. synonyms: arrogant, doctrinal, magisterial, positive, authoritative, domineering, opinionated, self-opinionated, dictatorial, imperious, overbearing, systematic. _dogmatic_ is technically applied in a good sense to that which is formally enunciated by adequate authority; _doctrinal_ to that which is stated in the form of doctrine to be taught or defended. _dogmatic_ theology, called also "dogmatics," gives definite propositions, which it holds to be delivered by authority; _systematic_ theology considers the same propositions in their logical connection and order as parts of a system; a _doctrinal_ statement is less absolute in its claims than a _dogmatic_ treatise, and may be more partial than the term _systematic_ would imply. outside of theology, _dogmatic_ has generally an offensive sense; a _dogmatic_ statement is one for which the author does not trouble himself to give a reason, either because of the strength of his convictions, or because of his contempt for those whom he addresses; thus _dogmatic_ is, in common use, allied with _arrogant_ and kindred words. * * * * * doubt, _v._ synonyms: distrust, mistrust, surmise, suspect. to _doubt_ is to lack conviction. incompleteness of evidence may compel one to _doubt_, or some perverse bias of mind may incline him to. _distrust_ may express simply a lack of confidence; as, i _distrust_ my own judgment; or it may be nearly equivalent to _suspect_; as, i _distrusted_ that man from the start. _mistrust_ and _suspect_ imply that one is almost assured of positive evil; one may _distrust_ himself or others; he _suspects_ others. _mistrust_ is now rarely, if ever, used of persons, but only of motives, intentions, etc. _distrust_ is always serious; _mistrust_ is often used playfully. compare suppose. compare synonyms for doubt, _n._ antonyms: believe, depend on, depend upon, rely on, rely upon, trust. confide in, * * * * * doubt, _n._ synonyms: disbelief, incredulity, perplexity, suspense, distrust, indecision, question, suspicion, hesitancy, irresolution, scruple, unbelief, hesitation, misgiving, skepticism, uncertainty. _doubt_ is a lack of conviction that may refer either to matters of belief or to matters of practise. as regards belief, while _doubt_ is lack of conviction, _disbelief_ is conviction, to the contrary; _unbelief_ refers to a settled state of mind, generally accompanied with opposition of heart. _perplexity_ is active and painful; _doubt_ may be quiescent. _perplexity_ presses toward a solution; _doubt_ may be content to linger unresolved. any improbable statement awakens _incredulity_. in theological usage _unbelief_ and _skepticism_ have a condemnatory force, as implying wilful rejection of manifest truth. as regards practical matters, _uncertainty_ applies to the unknown or undecided; _doubt_ implies some negative evidence. _suspense_ regards the future, and is eager and anxious; _uncertainty_ may relate to any period, and be quite indifferent. _misgiving_ is ordinarily in regard to the outcome of something already done or decided; _hesitation_, _indecision_, and _irresolution_ have reference to something that remains to be decided or done, and are due oftener to infirmity of will than to lack of knowledge. _distrust_ and _suspicion_ apply especially to the motives, character, etc., of others, and are more decidedly adverse than _doubt_. _scruple_ relates to matters of conscience and duty. antonyms: assurance, certainty, conviction, determination, resolution, belief, confidence, decision, persuasion, resolve. * * * * * draw. synonyms: allure, drag, haul, induce, lure, tow, attract, entice, incline, lead, pull, tug. one object _draws_ another when it moves it toward itself or in the direction of its own motion by the exertion of adequate force, whether slight or powerful. to _attract_ is to exert a force that tends to _draw_, tho it may produce no actual motion; all objects are _attracted_ toward the earth, tho they may be sustained from falling. to _drag_ is to _draw_ against strong resistance; as, to _drag_ a sled over bare ground, or a carriage up a steep hill. to _pull_ is to exert a _drawing_ force, whether adequate or inadequate; as, the fish _pulls_ on the line; a dentist _pulls_ a tooth. to _tug_ is to _draw_, or try to _draw_, a resisting object with a continuous straining motion; as, to _tug_ at the oar. to _haul_ is to _draw_ somewhat slowly a heavy object; as, to _haul_ a seine; to _haul_ logs. one vessel _tows_ another. in the figurative sense, _attract_ is more nearly akin to _incline_, _draw_ to _induce_. we are _attracted_ by one's appearance, _drawn_ to his side. compare allure; array; influence. antonyms: alienate, estrange, rebuff, reject, repel, repulse. see synonyms for drive. prepositions: to draw water _from_ or _out of_ the well; draw the boat _through_ the water, _to_ the shore; draw air _into_ the lungs; draw _with_ cords of love; the wagon is drawn _by_ horses, _along_ the road, _across_ the field, _over_ the stones, _through_ the woods, _to_ the barn. * * * * * dream. synonyms: day-dream, fantasy, reverie, trance, fancy, hallucination, romance, vision. a _dream_ is strictly a train of thoughts, fantasies, and images passing through the mind during sleep; a _vision_ may occur when one is awake, and in clear exercise of the senses and mental powers; _vision_ is often applied to something seen by the mind through supernatural agency, whether in sleep or wakefulness, conceived as more real and authoritative than a _dream_; a _trance_ is an abnormal state, which is different from normal sleep or wakefulness. a _reverie_ is a purposeless drifting of the mind when awake, under the influence of mental images; a _day-dream_ that which passes before the mind in such condition. a _fancy_ is some image presented to the mind, often in the fullest exercise of its powers. _hallucination_ is the seeming perception of non-existent objects, as in insanity or delirium. in the figurative sense, we speak of _dreams_ of fortune, _visions_ of glory, with little difference of meaning except that the _vision_ is thought of as fuller and more vivid. we speak of a _trance_ of delight when the emotion almost sweeps one away from the normal exercise of the faculties. antonyms: certainty, fact, reality, realization, substance, verity. * * * * * dress. synonyms: apparel, clothes, garb, habit, uniform, array, clothing, garments, raiment, vestments, attire, costume, habiliments, robes, vesture. _clothing_ denotes the entire covering of the body, taken as a whole; _clothes_ and _garments_ view it as composed of separate parts. _clothes_, _clothing_, and _garments_ may be used of inner or outer covering; all the other words in the list (with possible rare exceptions in the case of _raiment_) refer to the outer _garments_. _array_, _raiment_, and _vesture_ are archaic or poetic; so, too, is _habit_, except in technical use to denote a lady's riding-_dress_. the word _vestments_ is now rare, except in ecclesiastical use. _apparel_ and _attire_ are most frequently used of somewhat complete and elegant outer _clothing_, tho shakespeare speaks of "poor and mean _attire_." _dress_ may be used, specifically, for a woman's gown, and in that sense may be either rich or shabby; but in the general sense it denotes outer _clothing_ which is meant to be elegant, complete, and appropriate to some social or public occasion; as, full _dress_, court _dress_, evening _dress_, etc. _dress_ has now largely displaced _apparel_ and _attire_. _garb_ denotes the _clothing_ characteristic of some class, profession, or the like; as, the _garb_ of a priest. _costume_ is chiefly used for that which befits an assumed character; as, a theatrical _costume_; we sometimes speak of a national _costume_, etc. antonyms: bareness, dishabille, exposure, nakedness, nudity, undress. disarray, * * * * * drive. synonyms: compel, propel, repel, resist, thrust, impel, push, repulse, ride, urge on. to _drive_ is to move an object with some force or violence before or away from oneself; it is the direct reverse of _draw_, _lead_, etc. a man leads a horse by the halter, _drives_ him with whip and rein. one may be _driven_ to a thing or from it; hence, _drive_ is a synonym equally for _compel_ or for _repel_ or _repulse_. _repulse_ is stronger and more conclusive than _repel_; one may be _repelled_ by the very aspect of the person whose favor he seeks, but is not _repulsed_ except by the direct refusal or ignoring of his suit. a certain conventional modern usage, especially in england, requires us to say that we _drive_ in a carriage, _ride_ upon a horse; tho in scripture we read of _riding_ in a chariot (_ kings_ ix, ; _jer._ xvii, , etc.); good examples of the same usage may be found abundantly in the older english. the propriety of a person's saying that he is going to _drive_ when he is simply to be conveyed in a carriage, where some one else, as the coachman, does all the _driving_, is exceedingly questionable. many good authorities prefer to use _ride_ in the older and broader sense as signifying to be supported and borne along by any means of conveyance. compare banish; compel; influence. antonyms: see synonyms for draw. prepositions: drive _to_ market; _to_ despair; drive _into_ exile; _from_ one's presence; _out of_ the city; drive _by_, _with_, or _under_ the lash; drive _by_ or _past_ beautiful estates; _along_ the beach; _beside_ the river; _through_ the park; _across_ the field; _around_ the square; _to_ the door; _into_ the barn; _out of_ the sunshine. * * * * * duplicate. synonyms: copy, facsimile, likeness, reproduction, counterpart, imitation, replica, transcript. a _copy_ is as nearly like the original as the copyist has power to make it; a _duplicate_ is exactly like the original; a carbon _copy_ of a typewritten document must be a _duplicate_; we may have an inaccurate _copy_, but never an inaccurate _duplicate_. a _facsimile_ is like the original in appearance; a _duplicate_ is the same as the original in substance and effect; a _facsimile_ of the declaration of independence is not a _duplicate_. a _facsimile_ of a key might be quite useless; a _duplicate_ will open the lock. a _counterpart_ exactly corresponds to another object, but perhaps without design, while a _copy_ is intentional. an _imitation_ is always thought of as inferior to the original; as, an _imitation_ of milton. a _replica_ is a _copy_ of a work of art by the maker of the original. in law, a _copy_ of an instrument has in itself no authority; the signatures, as well as other matters, may be copied; a _duplicate_ is really an original, containing the same provisions and signed by the same persons, so that it may have in all respects the same force and effect; a _transcript_ is an official _copy_, authenticated by the signature of the proper officer, and by the seal of the appropriate court. while strictly there could be but one _duplicate_, the word is now extended to an indefinite number of exact _copies_. _reproduction_ is chiefly applied to living organisms. antonyms: archetype, model, original, pattern, prototype. * * * * * duty. synonyms: accountability, function, office, right, business, obligation, responsibility, righteousness. etymologically, _duty_ is that which is owed or due; _obligation_, that to or by which one is bound; _right_, that which is correct, straight, or in the direct line of truth and goodness; _responsibility_, that for which one must answer. _duty_ and _responsibility_ are thought of as to some person or persons; _right_ is impersonal. one's _duty_ may be to others or to himself; his _obligations_ and _responsibilities_ are to others. _duty_ arises from the nature of things; _obligation_ and _responsibility_ may be created by circumstances, as by one's own promise, or by the acceptance of a trust, etc. we speak of a parent's _duty_, a debtor's _obligation_; or of a child's _duty_ of obedience, and a parent's _responsibility_ for the child's welfare. _right_ is that which accords with the moral system of the universe. _righteousness_ is _right_ incarnated in action. in a more limited sense, _right_ may be used of what one may rightly claim, and so be the converse of _duty_. it is the creditor's _right_ to demand payment, and the debtor's _duty_ to pay. compare business. * * * * * eager. synonyms: animated, desirous, glowing, importunate, longing, anxious, earnest, hot, intense, vehement, ardent, enthusiastic, impatient, intent, yearning, burning, fervent, impetuous, keen, zealous. one is _eager_ who impatiently desires to accomplish some end; one is _earnest_ with a desire that is less impatient, but more deep, resolute, and constant; one is _anxious_ with a desire that foresees rather the pain of disappointment than the delight of attainment. one is _eager_ for the gratification of any appetite or passion; he is _earnest_ in conviction, purpose, or character. _eager_ usually refers to some specific and immediate satisfaction, _earnest_ to something permanent and enduring; the patriotic soldier is _earnest_ in his devotion to his country, _eager_ for a decisive battle. antonyms: apathetic, cool, indifferent, regardless, unconcerned, calm, dispassionate, negligent, stolid, uninterested, careless, frigid, phlegmatic, stony, unmindful, cold, heedless, purposeless, stupid, unmoved. prepositions: eager _for_ (more rarely _after_) favor, honor, etc.; eager _in_ pursuit. * * * * * ease. synonyms: easiness, expertness, facility, knack, readiness. _ease_ in the sense here considered denotes freedom from conscious or apparent effort, tax, or strain. _ease_ may be either of condition or of action; _facility_ is always of action; _readiness_ is of action or of expected action. one lives at _ease_ who has no pressing cares; one stands at _ease_, moves or speaks with _ease_, when wholly without constraint. _facility_ is always active; _readiness_ may be active or passive; the speaker has _facility_ of expression, _readiness_ of wit; any appliance is in _readiness_ for use. _ease_ of action may imply merely the possession of ample power; _facility_ always implies practise and skill; any one can press down the keys of a typewriter with _ease_; only the skilled operator works the machine with _facility_. _readiness_ in the active sense includes much of the meaning of _ease_ with the added idea of promptness or alertness. _easiness_ applies to the thing done, rather than to the doer. _expertness_ applies to the more mechanical processes of body and mind; we speak of the _readiness_ of an orator, but of the _expertness_ of a gymnast. compare comfortable; dexterity; power. antonyms: annoyance, difficulty, irritation, trouble, vexation, awkwardness, discomfort, perplexity, uneasiness, worry. constraint, disquiet, * * * * * education. synonyms: breeding, discipline, learning, study, cultivation, information, nurture, teaching, culture, instruction, reading, training, development, knowledge, schooling, tuition. _education_ (l. _educere_, to lead or draw out) is the systematic development and cultivation of the mind and other natural powers. "_education_ is the harmonious development of all our faculties. it begins in the nursery, and goes on at school, but does not end there. it continues through life, whether we will or not.... 'every person,' says gibbon, 'has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one more important, which he gives himself.'" john lubbock _the use of life_ ch. vii, p. . [macm. ' .] _instruction_, the impartation of _knowledge_ by others (l. _instruere_, to build in or into) is but a part of education, often the smallest part. _teaching_ is the more familiar and less formal word for _instruction_. _training_ refers not merely to the impartation of _knowledge_, but to the exercising of one in actions with the design to form habits. _discipline_ is systematic and rigorous _training_, with the idea of subjection to authority and perhaps of punishment. _tuition_ is the technical term for _teaching_ as the business of an instructor or as in the routine of a school; _tuition_ is narrower than _teaching_, not, like the latter word, including _training_. _study_ is emphatically what one does for himself. we speak of the _teaching_, _training_, or _discipline_, but not of the _education_ or _tuition_ of a dog or a horse. _breeding_ and _nurture_ include _teaching_ and _training_, especially as directed by and dependent upon home life and personal association; _breeding_ having reference largely to manners with such qualities as are deemed distinctively characteristic of high birth; _nurture_ (literally _nourishing_) having more direct reference to moral qualities, not overlooking the physical and mental. _knowledge_ and _learning_ tell nothing of mental development apart from the capacity to acquire and remember, and nothing whatever of that moral development which is included in _education_ in its fullest and noblest sense; _learning_, too, may be acquired by one's unaided industry, but any full _education_ must be the result in great part of _instruction_, _training_, and personal association. _study_ is emphatically what one does for himself, and in which _instruction_ and _tuition_ can only point the way, encourage the student to advance, and remove obstacles; vigorous, persevering _study_ is one of the best elements of _training_. _study_ is also used in the sense of the thing studied, a subject to be mastered by _study_, a studious pursuit. compare knowledge; refinement; wisdom. antonyms: ignorance, illiteracy. compare synonyms for ignorant. * * * * * effrontery. synonyms: assurance, boldness, hardihood, insolence, audacity, brass, impudence, shamelessness. _audacity_, in the sense here considered, is a reckless defiance of law, decency, public opinion, or personal rights, claims, or views, approaching the meaning of _impudence_ or _shamelessness_, but always carrying the thought of the personal risk that one disregards in such defiance; the merely _impudent_ or _shameless_ person may take no thought of consequences; the _audacious_ person recognizes and recklessly braves them. _hardihood_ defies and disregards the rational judgment of men. _effrontery_ (l. _effrons_, barefaced, shameless) adds to _audacity_ and _hardihood_ the special element of defiance of considerations of propriety, duty, and respect for others, yet not to the extent implied in _impudence_ or _shamelessness_. _impudence_ disregards what is due to superiors; _shamelessness_ defies decency. _boldness_ is forward-stepping courage, spoken of with reference to the presence and observation of others; _boldness_, in the good sense, is courage viewed from the outside; but the word is frequently used in an unfavorable sense to indicate a lack of proper sensitiveness and modesty. compare assurance; brave. antonyms: bashfulness, diffidence, sensitiveness, shyness, coyness, modesty, shrinking, timidity. * * * * * egotism. synonyms: conceit, self-assertion, self-confidence, self-esteem, egoism, self-conceit, self-consciousness, vanity. _egoism_ is giving the "i" undue supremacy in thought; _egotism_ is giving the "i" undue prominence in speech. _egotism_ is sometimes used in the sense of _egoism_, or supreme regard for oneself. _self-assertion_ is the claim by word, act, or manner of what one believes to be his due; _self-conceit_ is an overestimate of one's own powers or deserts. _conceit_ is a briefer expression for _self-conceit_, with always an offensive implication; _self-conceit_ is ridiculous or pitiable; _conceit_ arouses resentment. there is a worthy _self-confidence_ which springs from consciousness of rectitude and of power equal to demands. _self-assertion_ at times becomes a duty; but _self-conceit_ is always a weakness. _self-consciousness_ is the keeping of one's thoughts upon oneself, with the constant anxious question of what others will think. _vanity_ is an overweening admiration of self, craving equal admiration from others; _self-consciousness_ is commonly painful to its possessor, _vanity_ always a source of satisfaction, except as it fails to receive its supposed due. _self-esteem_ is more solid and better founded than _self-conceit_; but is ordinarily a weakness, and never has the worthy sense of _self-confidence_. compare assurance; pride. antonyms: bashfulness, humility, self-forgetfulness, unobtrusiveness, deference, modesty, shyness, unostentatiousness. diffidence, self-distrust, * * * * * emblem. synonyms: attribute, figure, image, sign, symbol, token, type. _emblem_ is the english form of _emblema_, a latin word of greek origin, signifying a figure beaten out on a metallic vessel by blows from within; also, a figure inlaid in wood, stone, or other material as a copy of some natural object. the greek word _symbolon_ denoted a victor's wreath, a check, or any object that might be compared with, or found to correspond with another, whether there was or was not anything in the objects compared to suggest the comparison. thus an _emblem_ resembles, a _symbol_ represents. an _emblem_ has some natural fitness to suggest that for which it stands; a _symbol_ has been chosen or agreed upon to suggest something else, with or without natural fitness; a _sign_ does actually suggest the thing with or without reason, and with or without intention or choice. a _symbol_ may be also an _emblem_; thus the elements of bread and wine in the lord's supper are both appropriate _emblems_ and his own chosen _symbols_ of suffering and death. a statement of doctrine is often called a _symbol_ of faith; but it is not an _emblem_. on the other hand, the same thing may be both a _sign_ and a _symbol_; a letter of the alphabet is a _sign_ which indicates a sound; but letters are often used as mathematical, chemical, or astronomical _symbols_. a _token_ is something given or done as a pledge or expression of feeling or intent; while the _sign_ may be unintentional, the _token_ is voluntary; kind looks may be _signs_ of regard; a gift is a _token_; a ring, which is a natural _emblem_ of eternity, and also its accepted _symbol_, is frequently given as a _token_ of friendship or love. a _figure_ in the sense here considered is something that represents an idea to the mind somewhat as a form is represented to the eye, as in drawing, painting, or sculpture; as representing a future reality, a _figure_ may be practically the same as a _type_. an _image_ is a visible representation, especially in sculpture, having or supposed to have a close resemblance to that which it represents. a _type_ is in religion a representation of a greater reality to come; we speak of one object as the _type_ of the class whose characteristics it exhibits, as in the case of animal or vegetable _types_. an _attribute_ in art is some accessory used to characterize a _figure_ or scene; the _attribute_ is often an _emblem_ or _symbol_; thus the eagle is the _attribute_ of st. john as an _emblem_ of lofty spiritual vision. compare sign. * * * * * emigrate. synonyms: immigrate, migrate. to _migrate_ is to change one's dwelling-place, usually with the idea of repeated change, or of periodical return; it applies to wandering tribes of men, and to many birds and animals. _emigrate_ and _immigrate_ carry the idea of a permanent change of residence to some other country or some distant region; the two words are used distinctively of human beings, and apply to the same person and the same act, according to the side from which the action is viewed. prepositions: a person emigrates _from_ the land he leaves, and immigrates _to_ the land where he takes up his abode. * * * * * employ. synonyms: call, engage, engross, hire, make use of, use, use up. in general terms it may be said that to _employ_ is to devote to one's purpose, to _use_ is to render subservient to one's purpose; what is _used_ is viewed as more absolutely an instrument than what is _employed_; a merchant _employs_ a clerk; he _uses_ pen and paper; as a rule, _use_ is not said of persons, except in a degrading sense; as, the conspirators _used_ him as a go-between. hence the expression common in some religious circles "that god would _use_ me" is not to be commended; it has also the fault of representing the human worker as absolutely a passive and helpless instrument; the phrase is altogether unscriptural; the scripture says, "we are laborers together with (co-workers with) god." that which is _used_ is often consumed in the _using_, or in familiar phrase _used up_; as, we _used_ twenty tons of coal last winter; in such cases we could not substitute _employ_. a person may be _employed_ in his own work or in that of another; in the latter case the service is always understood to be for pay. in this connection _employ_ is a word of more dignity than _hire_; a general is _employed_ in his country's service; a mercenary adventurer is _hired_ to fight a tyrant's battles. it is unsuitable, according to present usage, to speak of _hiring_ a pastor; the scripture, indeed, says of the preacher, "the laborer is worthy of his hire;" but this sense is archaic, and _hire_ now implies that the one _hired_ works directly and primarily for the pay, as expressed in the noun "hireling;" a pastor is properly said to be _called_, or when the business side of the transaction is referred to, _engaged_, or possibly _employed_, at a certain salary. prepositions: employ _in_, _on_, _upon_, or _about_ a work, business, etc.; _for_ a purpose; _at_ a stipulated salary. * * * * * end, _v._ synonyms: break off, close, conclude, expire, quit, terminate, cease, complete, desist, finish, stop, wind up. that _ends_, or is _ended_, of which there is no more, whether or not more was intended or needed; that is _closed_, _completed_, _concluded_, or _finished_ which has come to an expected or appropriate end. a speech may be _ended_ almost as soon as begun, because of the speaker's illness, or of tumult in the audience; in such a case, the speech is neither _closed_, _completed_, nor _finished_, nor, in the strict sense, _concluded_. an argument may be _closed_ with nothing proved; when an argument is _concluded_ all that is deemed necessary to prove the point has been stated. to _finish_ is to do the last thing there is to do; as, "i have _finished_ my course," _ tim._ iv, . _finish_ has come to mean, not merely to _complete_ in the essentials, but to perfect in all the minute details, as in the expression "to add the _finishing_ touches." the enumeration is _completed_; the poem, the picture, the statue is _finished_. to _terminate_ may be either to bring to an arbitrary or to an appropriate end; as, he _terminated_ his remarks abruptly; the spire _terminates_ in a cross. a thing _stops_ that comes to rest from motion; or the motion _stops_ or _ceases_ when the object comes to rest; _stop_ frequently signifies to bring or come to a sudden and decided cessation of motion, progress, or action of any kind. compare do; transact. antonyms: see synonyms for begin. * * * * * end, _n._ synonyms: accomplishment, effect, limit, achievement, expiration, outcome, bound, extent, period, boundary, extremity, point, cessation, finale, purpose, close, finis, result, completion, finish, termination, conclusion, fulfilment, terminus, consequence, goal, tip, consummation, intent, utmost, design, issue, uttermost. the _end_ is the terminal part of a material object that has length; the _extremity_ is distinctively the terminal _point_, and may thus be but part of the _end_ in the general sense of that word; the _extremity_ is viewed as that which is most remote from some center, or some mean or standard position; the southern _end_ of south america includes all patagonia, the southern _extremity_ or _point_ is cape horn. _tip_ has nearly the same meaning as _extremity_, but is said of small or slight and tapering objects; as, the _tip_ of the finger; _point_ in such connections is said of that which is drawn out to exceeding fineness or sharpness, as the _point_ of a needle, a fork, or a sword; _extremity_ is said of something considerable; we do not speak of the _extremity_ of a needle. _terminus_ is chiefly used to designate the _end_ of a line of travel or transportation: specifically, the furthermost station in any direction on a railway, or by extension the town or village where it is situated. _termination_ is the latin and more formal word for the saxon _end_, but is chiefly used of time, words, undertakings, or abstractions of any kind. _expiration_ signifies the coming to an _end_ in the natural course of things; as, the _expiration_ of a year, or of a lease; it is used of things of some consequence; we do not ordinarily speak of the _expiration_ of an hour or of a day. _limit_ implies some check to or restraint upon further advance, right, or privilege; as, the _limits_ of an estate (compare boundary). a _goal_ is an _end_ sought or striven for, as in a race. for the figurative senses of _end_ and its associated words, compare the synonyms for the verb end; also for aim; consequence; design. antonyms: see synonyms for beginning. * * * * * endeavor, _v._ synonyms: attempt, essay, strive, try, undertake. to _attempt_ is to take action somewhat experimentally with the hope and purpose of accomplishing a certain result; to _endeavor_ is to _attempt_ strenuously and with firm and enduring purpose. to _attempt_ expresses a single act; to _endeavor_, a continuous exertion; we say i will _endeavor_ (not i will _attempt_) while i live. to _attempt_ is with the view of accomplishing; to _essay_, with a view of testing our own powers. to _undertake_ is to accept or take upon oneself as an obligation, as some business, labor, or trust; the word often implies complete assurance of success; as, i will _undertake_ to produce the witness. to _strive_ suggests little of the result, much of toil, strain, and contest, in seeking it; i will _strive_ to fulfil your wishes, _i. e._, i will spare no labor and exertion to do it. _try_ is the most comprehensive of these words. the original idea of testing or experimenting is not thought of when a man says "i will _try_." to _attempt_ suggests giving up, if the thing is not accomplished at a stroke; to _try_ implies using other means and studying out other ways if not at first successful. _endeavor_ is more mild and formal; the pilot in the burning pilot-house does not say "i will _endeavor_" or "i will _attempt_ to hold the ship to her course," but "i'll _try_, sir!" antonyms: abandon, give up, omit, throw away, dismiss, let go, overlook, throw over, drop, neglect, pass by, throw up. * * * * * endeavor, _n._ synonyms: attempt, effort, essay, exertion, struggle, trial. _effort_ denotes the voluntary putting forth of power to attain or accomplish some specific thing; it reaches toward a definite end; _exertion_ is a putting forth of power without special reference to an object. every _effort_ is an _exertion_, but not every _exertion_ is an _effort_. _attempt_ is more experimental than _effort_, _endeavor_ less strenuous but more continuous. an _effort_ is a single act, an _endeavor_ a continued series of acts; an _endeavor_ is sustained and enduring, and may be lifelong; we do not have a society of christian _attempt_, or of christian _effort_, but of christian _endeavor_. a _struggle_ is a violent _effort_ or strenuous _exertion_. an _essay_ is an _attempt_, _effort_, or _endeavor_ made as a test of the powers of the one who makes it. compare endeavor, _v._ * * * * * endure. synonyms: abide, bear, brook, submit to, sustain, afford, bear up under, permit, suffer, tolerate, allow, bear with, put up with, support, undergo. _bear_ is the most general of these words; it is metaphorically to hold up or keep up a burden of care, pain, grief, annoyance, or the like, without sinking, lamenting, or repining. _allow_ and _permit_ involve large concession of the will; _put up with_ and _tolerate_ imply decided aversion and reluctant withholding of opposition or interference; whispering is _allowed_ by the school-teacher who does not forbid nor censure it; one _puts up with_ the presence of a disagreeable visitor; a state _tolerates_ a religion which it would be glad to suppress. to _endure_ is to _bear with_ strain and resistance, but with conscious power; _endure_ conveys a fuller suggestion of contest and conquest than _bear_. one may choose to _endure_ the pain of a surgical operation rather than take anesthetics; he _permits_ the thing to come which he must brace himself to _endure_ when it comes. to _afford_ is to be equal to a pecuniary demand, _i. e._, to be able to _bear_ it. to _brook_ is quietly to _put up with_ provocation or insult. _abide_ combines the senses of await and _endure_; as, i will _abide_ the result. compare abide; support. antonyms: break, despair, fail, fall, give out, sink, surrender, break down, droop, faint, falter, give up, succumb, yield. * * * * * enemy. synonyms: adversary, antagonist, competitor, foe, opponent, rival. an _enemy_ in private life is one who is moved by hostile feeling with active disposition to injure; but in military language all who fight on the opposite side are called _enemies_ or collectively "the _enemy_," where no personal animosity may be implied; _foe_, which is rather a poetical and literary word, implies intensely hostile spirit and purpose. an _antagonist_ is one who opposes and is opposed actively and with intensity of effort; an _opponent_, one in whom the attitude of resistance is the more prominent; a _competitor_, one who seeks the same object for which another is striving; _antagonists_ in wrestling, _competitors_ in business, _opponents_ in debate may contend with no personal ill will; _rivals_ in love, ambition, etc., rarely avoid inimical feeling. _adversary_ was formerly much used in the general sense of _antagonist_ or _opponent_, but is now less common, and largely restricted to the hostile sense; an _adversary_ is ordinarily one who not only opposes another in fact, but does so with hostile spirit, or perhaps out of pure malignity; as, the great _adversary_. compare synonyms for ambition. antonyms: abettor, accessory, accomplice, ally, friend, helper, supporter. prepositions: he was the enemy _of_ my friend _in_ the contest. * * * * * enmity. synonyms: acrimony, bitterness, ill will, malignity, animosity, hatred, malevolence, rancor, antagonism, hostility, malice, spite. _enmity_ is the state of being an enemy or the feeling and disposition characterizing an enemy (compare enemy). _animosity_ denotes a feeling more active and vehement, but often less enduring and determined, than _enmity_. _enmity_ distinctly recognizes its object as an enemy, to be met or dealt with accordingly. _hostility_ is _enmity_ in action; the term _hostilities_ between nations denotes actual armed collision. _bitterness_ is a resentful feeling arising from a belief that one has been wronged; _acrimony_ is a kindred feeling, but deeper and more persistent, and may arise from the crossing of one's wishes or plans by another, where no injustice or wrong is felt. _antagonism_, as between two competing authors or merchants, does not necessarily imply _enmity_, but ordinarily suggests a shade, at least, of hostile feeling. _malice_ is a disposition or intent to injure others, for the gratification of some evil passion; _malignity_ is intense and violent _enmity_, _hatred_, or _malice_. compare synonyms for acrimony; anger; hatred. antonyms: agreement, amity, friendship, kindliness, regard, alliance, concord, harmony, kindness, sympathy. * * * * * entertain. synonyms: amuse, cheer, disport, enliven, interest, please, beguile, delight, divert, gratify, occupy, recreate. to _entertain_, in the sense here considered, is to engage and pleasantly occupy the attention; to _amuse_ is to occupy the attention in an especially bright and cheerful way, often with that which excites merriment or laughter; as, he _entertained_ us with an _amusing_ story. to _divert_ is to turn from serious thoughts or laborious pursuits to something that lightly and agreeably occupies the mind; one may be _entertained_ or _amused_ who has nothing serious or laborious from which to be _diverted_. to _recreate_, literally to re-create, is to engage mind or body in some pleasing activity that restores strength and energy for serious work. to _beguile_ is, as it were, to cheat into cheer and comfort by something that insensibly draws thought or feeling away from pain or disquiet. we _beguile_ a weary hour, _cheer_ the despondent, _divert_ the preoccupied, _enliven_ a dull evening or company, _gratify_ our friends' wishes, _entertain_, _interest_, _please_ a listening audience, _occupy_ idle time, _disport_ ourselves when merry, _recreate_ when worn with toil; we _amuse_ ourselves or others with whatever pleasantly passes the time without special exertion, each according to his taste. antonyms: annoy, bore, busy, disquiet, distract, disturb, tire, weary. * * * * * entertainment. synonyms: amusement, diversion, fun, pleasure, cheer, enjoyment, merriment, recreation, delight, frolic, pastime, sport. _entertainment_ and _recreation_ imply thought and mental occupation, tho in an agreeable, refreshing way; they are therefore words of a high order. _entertainment_, apart from its special senses of a public performance or a social party, and predominantly even there, is used of somewhat mirthful mental delight; _recreation_ may, and usually does, combine the mental with the physical. _amusement_ and _pastime_ are nearly equivalent, the latter probably the lighter word; many slight things may be _pastimes_ which we should hardly dignify by the name of _amusements_. _sports_ are almost wholly on the physical plane, tho involving a certain grade of mental action; fox-hunting, horse-racing, and baseball are _sports_. certain _sports_ may afford _entertainment_ or _recreation_ to certain persons, according to their individual tastes; but _entertainment_ and _recreation_ are capable of a meaning so high as never to be approached by any meaning of _sport_. _cheer_ may be very quiet, as the _cheer_ of a bright fire to an aged traveler; _merriment_ is with liveliness and laughter; _fun_ and _frolic_ are apt to be boisterous. _amusement_ is a form of _enjoyment_, but _enjoyment_ may be too keen to be called _amusement_. compare synonyms for entertain. antonyms: ennui, fatigue, labor, lassitude, toil, weariness, work. * * * * * enthusiasm. synonyms: ardor, excitement, frenzy, transport, devotion, extravagance, inspiration, vehemence, eagerness, fanaticism, intensity, warmth, earnestness, fervency, passion, zeal. ecstasy, fervor, rapture, the old meaning of _enthusiasm_ implies a pseudo-_inspiration_, an almost frantic _extravagance_ in behalf of something supposed to be an expression of the divine will. this sense remains as the controlling one in the kindred noun _enthusiast_. _enthusiasm_ has now chiefly the meaning of an earnest and commendable _devotion_, an intense and eager interest. against the hindrances of the world, nothing great and good can be carried without a certain _fervor_, _intensity_, and _vehemence_; these joined with faith, courage, and hopefulness make _enthusiasm_. _zeal_ is burning _earnestness_, always tending to vigorous action with all the _devotion_ of _enthusiasm_, tho often without its hopefulness. compare eager. antonyms: calculation, caution, deadness, indifference, policy, timidity, calmness, coldness, dulness, lukewarmness, prudence, wariness. * * * * * entrance. synonyms: access, approach, gate, introduction, accession, door, gateway, opening, adit, doorway, ingress, penetration, admission, entrée, inlet, portal. admittance, entry, _entrance_, the act of entering, refers merely to the fact of passing from without to within some enclosure; _admission_ and _admittance_ refer to entering by or with some one's consent, or at least to opportunity afforded by some one's act or neglect. we may effect or force an _entrance_, but not _admittance_ or _admission_; those we gain, procure, obtain, secure, win. _admittance_ refers to place, _admission_ refers also to position, privilege, favor, friendship, etc. an intruder may gain _admittance_ to the hall of a society who would not be allowed _admission_ to its membership. _approach_ is a movement toward another; _access_ is coming all the way to his presence, recognition, and consideration. an unworthy favorite may prevent even those who gain _admittance_ to a king's audience from obtaining any real _access_ to the king. _entrance_ is also used figuratively for setting out upon some career, or becoming a member of some organization; as, we speak of one's _entrance_ upon college life, or of _entrance_ into the ministry. antonyms: departure, ejection, exit, refusal, withdrawal. egress, exclusion, expulsion, rejection, prepositions: entrance _into_ a place; _on_ or _upon_ a work or course of action; _into_ or _upon_ office; _into_ battle; _by_ or _through_ the door; _within_ the gates; _into_ or _among_ the company. * * * * * envious. synonyms: jealous, suspicious. one is _envious_ who cherishes selfish ill will toward another because of his superior success, endowments, possessions, or the like. a person is _envious_ of that which is another's, and to which he himself has no right or claim; he is _jealous_ of intrusion upon that which is his own, or to which he maintains a right or claim. an _envious_ spirit is always bad; a _jealous_ spirit may be good or bad, according to its object and tendency. a free people must be _jealous_ of their liberties if they would retain them. one is _suspicious_ of another from unfavorable indications or from a knowledge of wrong in his previous conduct, or even without reason. compare doubt. antonyms: contented, friendly, kindly, satisfied, trustful, well-disposed. prepositions: envious _of_ (formerly _at_ or _against_) a person; envious _of_ his wealth or power; envious _of_ him _for_, _because of_, _on account of_ his wealth or power. * * * * * equivocal. synonyms: ambiguous, enigmatical, indistinct, questionable, doubtful, indefinite, obscure, suspicious, dubious, indeterminate, perplexing, uncertain. enigmatic, _equivocal_ (l. _equus_, equal, and _vox_, voice, word) denotes that which may equally well be understood in either of two or more ways. _ambiguous_ (l. _ambi_, around, and _ago_, drive, lead) signifies lacking in distinctness or certainty, obscure or doubtful through indefiniteness of expression. _ambiguous_ is applied only to spoken or written statements; _equivocal_ has other applications. a statement is _ambiguous_ when it leaves the mind of the reader or hearer to fluctuate between two meanings, which would fit the language equally well; it is _equivocal_ when it would naturally be understood in one way, but is capable of a different interpretation; an _equivocal_ expression is, as a rule, intentionally deceptive, while an _ambiguous_ utterance may be simply the result of a want either of clear thought or of adequate expression. that which is _enigmatical_ must be guessed like a riddle; a statement may be purposely made _enigmatical_ in order to provoke thought and study. that is _doubtful_ which is fairly open to doubt; that is _dubious_ which has become the subject of doubts so grave as scarcely to fall short of condemnation; as, a _dubious_ reputation. _questionable_ may be used nearly in the sense either of _dubious_ or of _doubtful_; a _questionable_ statement is one that must be proved before it can be accepted. to say that one's honesty is _questionable_ is a mild way of saying that in the opinion of the speaker he is likely to prove dishonest. _equivocal_ is sometimes, tho more rarely, used in this sense. a _suspicious_ character gives manifest reason to be suspected; a _suspicious_ temper is inclined to suspect the motives and intentions of others, with or without reason. compare clear. antonyms: certain, evident, lucid, perspicuous, unequivocal, clear, indisputable, manifest, plain, unquestionable, distinct, indubitable, obvious, unambiguous, unquestioned. * * * * * esteem, _v._ synonyms: appreciate, consider, estimate, prize, think, calculate, deem, hold, regard, value. _esteem_ and _estimate_ alike imply to set a certain mental value upon, but _esteem_ is less precise and mercantile than _calculate_ or _estimate_. we _esteem_ a jewel precious; we _estimate_ it to be worth so much money. this sense of _esteem_ is now chiefly found in literary or oratorical style, and in certain conventional phrases; as, i _esteem_ it an honor, a favor. in popular usage _esteem_, as said of persons, denotes a union of respect and kindly feeling and, in the highest sense, of moral approbation; as, one whom i highly _esteem_; the word may be used in a similar sense of material things or abstractions; as, one whose friendship i _esteem_; a shell greatly _esteemed_ for inlaid work. to _appreciate_ anything is to be deeply or keenly sensible of or sensitive to its qualities or influence, to see its full import, be alive to its value, importance, or worth; as, to _appreciate_ beauty or harmony; to _appreciate_ one's services in a cause; the word is similarly, tho rarely, used of persons. to _prize_ is to set a high value on for something more than merely commercial reasons. one may _value_ some object, as a picture, beyond all price, as a family heirloom, or may _prize_ it as the gift of an _esteemed_ friend, without at all _appreciating_ its artistic merit or commercial value. to _regard_ (f. _regarder_, look at, observe) is to have a certain mental view favorable or unfavorable; as, i _regard_ him as a friend; or, i _regard_ him as a villain; _regard_ has a distinctively favorable sense as applied to institutions, proprieties, duties, etc., but does not share the use of the noun _regard_ as applied to persons; we _regard_ the sabbath; we _regard_ a person's feelings; we have a _regard_ for the person. compare esteem, _n._ * * * * * esteem, _n._ synonyms: estimate, estimation, favor, regard, respect. _esteem_ for a person is a favorable opinion on the basis of worth, especially of moral worth, joined with a feeling of interest in and attraction toward the person. _regard_ for a person is the mental view or feeling that springs from a sense of his value, excellence, or superiority, with a cordial and hearty friendliness. _regard_ is more personal and less distant than _esteem_, and adds a special kindliness; _respect_ is a more distant word than _esteem_. _respect_ may be wholly on one side, while _regard_ is more often mutual; _respect_ in the fullest sense is given to what is lofty, worthy, and honorable, or to a person of such qualities; we may pay an external _respect_ to one of lofty station, regardless of personal qualities, showing _respect_ for the office. _estimate_ has more of calculation; as, my _estimate_ of the man, or of his abilities, is very high. _estimation_ involves the idea of calculation or appraisal with that of _esteem_ or _regard_, and is especially used of the feeling entertained by numbers of people; as, he stood high in public _estimation_. compare esteem, _v._; friendship; love. antonyms: abhorrence, aversion, dislike, loathing, antipathy, contempt, hatred, repugnance. * * * * * eternal. synonyms: deathless, fadeless, never-failing, undying, endless, immortal, perennial, unending, eonian, imperishable, perpetual, unfading, everlasting, interminable, timeless, unfailing, ever-living, never-ending, unceasing, without end. _eternal_ strictly signifies without beginning or end, in which sense it applies to god alone; _everlasting_ applies to that which may or may not have beginning, but will never cease; _eternal_ is also used in this more limited sense; _endless_, without end, in its utmost reach, is not distinguishable from _everlasting_; but _endless_ is constantly used in inferior senses, especially in mechanics, as in the phrases an _endless_ screw, an _endless_ chain. _everlasting_ and _endless_ are both used in a limited sense of protracted, indefinite, but not infinite duration; as, the _everlasting_ hills; _endless_ debates; so we speak of _interminable_ quarrels. _eternal_ holds quite strictly to the vast and sacred meaning in which it is applied to the divine being and the future state. _everlasting_, _endless_, and _eternal_ may be applied to that which has no life; as, _everlasting_ chains, _endless_ night, _eternal_ death; _immortal_ applies to that which now has life, and is forever exempt from death. _timeless_ carries, perhaps, the fullest idea of _eternal_, as above and beyond time, and not to be measured by it. * * * * * event. synonyms: case, contingency, fortune, outcome, chance, end, incident, possibility, circumstance, episode, issue, result, consequence, fact, occurrence, sequel. etymologically, the _incident_ is that which falls in, the _event_ that which comes out; _event_ is thus greater and more signal than _incident_; we speak of trifling _incidents_, great _events_; _incidents_ of daily life, _events_ of history. _circumstance_ agrees with _incident_ in denoting a matter of relatively slight importance, but implies a more direct connection with the principal matter; "circumstantial evidence" is evidence from seemingly minor matters directly connected with a case; "incidental evidence" would be some evidence that happened unexpectedly to touch it. an _occurrence_ is, etymologically, that which we run against, without thought of its origin, connection or tendency. an _episode_ is connected with the main course of _events_, like an _incident_ or _circumstance_, but is of more independent interest and importance. _outcome_ is the saxon, and _event_ the latin for expressing the same original idea. _consequence_ or _result_ would express more of logical connection, and be more comprehensive. the _end_ may be simple cessation; the _event_ is what has been accomplished; the _event_ of a war is victory or defeat; the _end_ of the war is reached when a treaty of peace is signed. since the future is contingent, _event_ comes to have the meaning of a _contingency_; as, in the _event_ of his death, the policy will at once fall due. compare circumstance; consequence; end. * * * * * every. synonyms: all, any, both, each, either. _all_ and _both_ are collective; _any_, _each_, and _every_ are distributive. _any_ makes no selection and may not reach to the full limits of _all_; _each_ and _every_ make no exception or omission, and must extend to _all_; _all_ sweeps in the units as part of a total, _each_ and _every_ proceed through the units to the total. a promise made to _all_ omits none; a promise made to _any_ may not reach _all_; a promise made to _every_ one is so made that no individual shall fail to be aware of it; a promise made to _each_ is made to the individuals personally, one by one. _each_ is thus more individual and specific than _every_; _every_ classifies, _each_ individualizes. _each_ divides, _both_ unites; if a certain sum is given to _each_ of two persons, _both_ (together) must receive twice the amount; _both_ must be aware of what has been separately communicated to _each_; a man may fire _both_ barrels of a gun by a single movement; if he fires _each_ barrel, he discharges them separately. _either_ properly denotes one of two, indefinitely, to the exclusion of the other. the use of _either_ in the sense of _each_ or _both_, tho sustained by good authority, is objectionable because ambiguous. his friends sat on _either_ side of the room would naturally mean on one side or the other; if the meaning is on _both_ sides, it would be better to say so. * * * * * evident. synonyms: apparent, glaring, overt, tangible, clear, indubitable, palpable, transparent, conspicuous, manifest, patent, unmistakable, discernible, obvious, perceptible, visible. distinct, open, plain, that is _apparent_ which clearly appears to the senses or to the mind as soon as the attention is directed toward it; that is _evident_ of which the mind is made sure by some inference that supplements the facts of perception; the marks of a struggle were _apparent_ in broken shrubbery and trampled ground, and the finding of a mutilated body and a rifled purse made it _evident_ that robbery and murder had been committed. that is _manifest_ which we can lay the hand upon; _manifest_ is thus stronger than _evident_, as touch is more absolute than sight; that the picture was a modern copy of an ancient work was _evident_, and on comparison with the original its inferiority was _manifest_. that is _obvious_ which is directly in the way so that it can not be missed; as, the application of the remark was _obvious_. _visible_ applies to all that can be perceived by the sense of sight, whether the noonday sun, a ship on the horizon, or a microscopic object. _discernible_ applies to that which is dimly or faintly _visible_, requiring strain and effort in order to be seen; as, the ship was _discernible_ through the mist. that is _conspicuous_ which stands out so as necessarily or strikingly to attract the attention. _palpable_ and _tangible_ express more emphatically the thought of _manifest_. antonyms: concealed, impalpable, latent, secret, unknown, covert, impenetrable, obscure, undiscovered, unseen, dark, imperceptible, occult, unimagined, unthought-of. hidden, invisible, * * * * * example. synonyms: archetype, ideal, prototype, type, ensample, model, sample, warning. exemplar, pattern, specimen, exemplification, precedent, standard, from its original sense of _sample_ or _specimen_ (l. _exemplum_) _example_ derives the seemingly contradictory meanings, on the one hand of a _pattern_ or _model_, and on the other hand of a _warning_--a _sample_ or _specimen_ of what is to be followed, or of what is to be shunned. an _example_, however, may be more than a _sample_ or _specimen_ of any class; it may be the very _archetype_ or _prototype_ to which the whole class must conform, as when christ is spoken of as being an _example_ or leaving an _example_ for his disciples. _example_ comes nearer to the possible freedom of the _model_ than to the necessary exactness of the _pattern_; often we can not, in a given case, exactly imitate the best _example_, but only adapt its teachings to altered circumstances. in its application to a person or thing, _exemplar_ can scarcely be distinguished from _example_; but _example_ is most frequently used for an act, or course of action, for which _exemplar_ is not used; as, one sets a good (or a bad) _example_. an _exemplification_ is an illustrative working out in action of a principle or law, without any reference to its being copied or repeated; an _example_ guides, an _exemplification_ illustrates or explains. _ensample_ is the same as _example_, but is practically obsolete outside of scriptural or theological language. compare model; sample. * * * * * excess. synonyms: dissipation, lavishness, redundance, surplus, exorbitance, overplus, redundancy, waste, extravagance, prodigality, superabundance, wastefulness. intemperance, profusion, superfluity, _excess_ is more than enough of anything, and, since this in very many cases indicates a lack either of judgment or of self-control, the word is used frequently in an unfavorable sense. careless expenditure in _excess_ of income is _extravagance_; we may have also _extravagance_ of language, professions, etc. as _extravagance_ is _excess_ in outlay, _exorbitance_ is _excess_ in demands, and especially in pecuniary demands upon others. _overplus_ and _superabundance_ denote in the main a satisfactory, and _superfluity_ an undesirable, _excess_; _lavishness_ and _profusion_, a generous, bountiful, or amiable _excess_; as, a _profusion_ of fair hair; _lavishness_ of hospitality. _surplus_ is neutral, having none of the unfavorable meaning that often attaches to _excess_; a _surplus_ is that which remains over after all demands are met. _redundance_ or _redundancy_ refers chiefly to literary style, denoting an _excess_ of words or matter. _excess_ in the moral sense is expressed by _dissipation_, _prodigality_, _intemperance_, etc. antonyms: dearth, destitution, frugality, lack, scantiness, defect, economy, inadequacy, need, shortcoming, deficiency, failure, insufficiency, poverty, want. * * * * * execute. synonyms: administer, carry out, do, enforce, perform. to _execute_ is to follow through to the end, put into absolute and final effect in action; to _administer_ is to conduct as one holding a trust, as a minister and not an originator; the sheriff _executes_ a writ; the trustee _administers_ an estate, a charity, etc.; to _enforce_ is to put into effect by force, actual or potential. to _administer_ the laws is the province of a court of justice; to _execute_ the laws is the province of a sheriff, marshal, constable, or other executive officer; to _administer_ the law is to declare or apply it; to _execute_ the law is to put it in force; for this _enforce_ is the more general word, _execute_ the more specific. from signifying to superintend officially some application or infliction, _administer_ passes by a natural transition to signify _inflict_, _mete out_, _dispense_, and blows, medicine, etc., are said to be _administered_: a usage thoroughly established and reputable in spite of pedantic objections. _enforce_ signifies also to present and urge home by intellectual and moral force; as, to _enforce_ a precept or a duty. compare do; kill; make. * * * * * exercise. synonyms: act, application, exertion, performance, action, drill, occupation, practise, activity, employment, operation, use. _exercise_, in the ordinary sense, is the easy natural action of any power; _exertion_ is the putting of any power to strain and tax. an _exercise_-drive for a horse is so much as will develop strength and health and not appreciably weary. but by qualifying adjectives we may bring _exercise_ up to the full sense of _exertion_; as, violent _exercise_. _exercise_ is action taken at any time with a view to employing, maintaining, or increasing power, or merely for enjoyment; _practise_ is systematic _exercise_ with a view to the acquirement of facility and skill in some pursuit; a person takes a walk for _exercise_, or takes time for _practise_ on the piano. _practise_ is also used of putting into action and effect what one has learned or holds as a theory; as, the _practise_ of law or medicine; a profession of religion is good, but the _practise_ of it is better. _drill_ is systematic, rigorous, and commonly enforced _practise_ under a teacher or commander. compare habit. antonyms: idleness, inaction, inactivity, relaxation, rest. * * * * * expense. synonyms: cost, expenditure, outgo, outlay. the _cost_ of a thing is whatever one surrenders or gives up for it, intentionally or unintentionally, or even unconsciously; _expense_ is what is laid out by calculation or intention. we say, "he won his fame at the _cost_ of his life;" "i know it to my _cost_;" we speak of a joke at another's _expense_; at another's _cost_ would seem to make it a more serious matter. there is a tendency to use _cost_ of what we pay for a possession, _expense_ of what we pay for a service; we speak of the _cost_ of goods, the _expense_ of making up. _outlay_ is used of some definite _expenditure_, as for the purchase of supplies; _outgo_ of a steady drain or of incidental _expenses_. see price. antonyms: gain, proceeds, profit, receipt, return, income, product, profits, receipts, returns. * * * * * explicit. synonym: express. both _explicit_ and _express_ are opposed to what is merely implicit or implied. that which is _explicit_ is unfolded, so that it may not be obscure, doubtful, or ambiguous; that which is _express_ is uttered or stated so decidedly that it may not be forgotten nor overlooked. an _explicit_ statement is too clear to be misunderstood; an _express_ command is too emphatic to be disregarded. compare clear. antonyms: ambiguous, implicit, indefinite, uncertain, doubtful, implied, indeterminate, vague. * * * * * extemporaneous. synonyms: extemporary, impromptu, offhand, extempore, improvised, unpremeditated. _extemporaneous_, originally signifying _of_ or _from the time_ or _occasion_, has come to mean done or made with but little (if any) preparation, and is now chiefly applied to addresses of which the thought has been prepared, and only the language and incidental treatment left to the suggestion of the moment, so that an _extemporaneous_ speech is understood to be any one that is not read or recited; _impromptu_ keeps its original sense, denoting something that springs from the instant; the _impromptu_ utterance is generally brief, direct, and vigorous; the _extemporaneous_ speech may chance to be prosy. _offhand_ is still more emphatic as to the readiness and freedom of the utterance. _unpremeditated_ is graver and more formal, denoting absolute want of preparation, but is rather too heavy a word to be applied to such apt, ready utterance as is generally designated by _impromptu_. antonyms: elaborated, premeditated, prepared, read, recited, studied, written. * * * * * exterminate. synonyms: annihilate, eradicate, overthrow, uproot, banish, expel, remove, wipe out. destroy, extirpate, root out, _exterminate_ (l. _ex_, out, and _terminus_, a boundary) signified primarily to drive beyond the bounds or limits of a country; the word is applied to races of men or animals, and is now almost exclusively used for removal by death; individuals are now said to be _banished_ or _expelled_. _eradicate_ (l. _e_, out, and _radix_, root) is primarily applied to numbers or groups of plants which it is desired to remove effectually from the soil; a single tree may be _uprooted_, but is not said to be _eradicated_; we labor to _eradicate_ or _root out_ noxious weeds. to _extirpate_ (l. _ex_, out, and _stirps_, stem, stock) is not only to _destroy_ the individuals of any race of plants or animals, but the very stock, so that the race can never be restored; we speak of _eradicating_ a disease, of _extirpating_ a cancer, _exterminating_ wild beasts or hostile tribes; we seek to _eradicate_ or _extirpate_ all vices and evils. compare abolish. antonyms: augment, build up, develop, increase, populate, replenish, beget, cherish, foster, plant, propagate, settle. breed, colonize, * * * * * faint. synonyms: dim, fatigued, irresolute, weak, exhausted, feeble, languid, wearied, faded, half-hearted, listless, worn, faint-hearted, ill-defined, purposeless, worn down, faltering, indistinct, timid, worn out. _faint_, with the general sense of lacking strength or effectiveness, covers a wide range of meaning, signifying overcome with physical weakness or exhaustion, or lacking in purpose, courage, or energy, as said of persons; or lacking definiteness or distinctness of color or sound, as said of written characters, voices, or musical notes. a person may be _faint_ when physically _wearied_, or when overcome with fear; he may be a _faint_ adherent because naturally _feeble_ or _purposeless_, or because _half-hearted_ in the cause; he may be a _faltering_ supporter because naturally _irresolute_ or because _faint-hearted_ and _timid_ in view of perils that threaten, a _listless_ worker, through want of mental energy and purpose. written characters may be _faint_ or _dim_, either because originally written with poor ink, or because they have become _faded_ by time and exposure. antonyms: bright, clear, daring, fresh, resolute, sturdy, brilliant, conspicuous, energetic, hearty, strong, vigorous. prepositions: faint _with_ hunger; faint _in_ color. * * * * * faith. synonyms: assent, confidence, credit, opinion, assurance, conviction, creed, reliance, belief, credence, doctrine, trust. _belief_, as an intellectual process, is the acceptance of some thing as true on other grounds than personal observation and experience. we give _credence_ to a report, _assent_ to a proposition or to a proposal. _belief_ is stronger than _credence_; _credence_ might be described as a prima facie _belief_; _credence_ is a more formal word than _belief_, and seems to imply somewhat more of volition; we speak of giving _credence_ to a report, but not of giving _belief_. goods are sold on _credit_; we give one _credit_ for good intentions. _conviction_ is a _belief_ established by argument or evidence; _assurance_ is _belief_ beyond the reach of argument; as, the christian's _assurance_ of salvation. an _opinion_ is a general conclusion held as probable, tho without full certainty; a _persuasion_ is a more confident _opinion_, involving the heart as well as the intellect. in religion, a _doctrine_ is a statement of _belief_ regarding a single point; a _creed_ is a summary statement of _doctrines_. _confidence_ is a firm dependence upon a statement as true, or upon a person as worthy. _reliance_ is _confidence_ on which we act or are ready to act unquestioningly; we have a calm _reliance_ upon the uniformity of nature. _trust_ is a practical and tranquil resting of the mind upon the integrity, kindness, friendship, or promises of a person; we have _trust_ in god. _faith_ is a union of _belief_ and _trust_. _faith_ is chiefly personal; _belief_ may be quite impersonal; we speak of _belief_ of a proposition, _faith_ in a promise, because the promise emanates from a person. but _belief_ in a person is often used with no appreciable difference from _faith_. in religion it is common to distinguish between intellectual _belief_ of religious truth, as any other truth might be believed, and _belief_ of the heart, or saving _faith_. antonyms: denial, dissent, doubt, infidelity, rejection, suspicion, disbelief, distrust, incredulity, misgiving, skepticism, unbelief. prepositions: have faith _in_ god; the faith _of_ the gospel. * * * * * faithful. synonyms: devoted, incorruptible, stanch, true, trusty, firm, loyal, sure, trustworthy, unwavering. a person is _faithful_ who will keep faith, whether with or without power to aid or serve; a person or thing is _trusty_ that possesses such qualities as to justify the fullest confidence and dependence. we may speak of a _faithful_ but feeble friend; we say a _trusty_ agent, a _trusty_ steed, a _trusty_ sword. antonyms: capricious, false, unfaithful, untrustworthy, faithless, fickle, untrue, wavering. prepositions: faithful _in_ service; _to_ duty; _to_ comrade or commander; faithful _among_ the faithless. * * * * * fame. synonyms: celebrity, eminence, honor, notoriety, reputation, credit, glory, laurels, renown, repute. distinction, _fame_ is the widely disseminated report of a person's character, deeds, or abilities, and is oftenest used in the favorable sense. _reputation_ and _repute_ are more limited than _fame_, and may be either good or bad. _notoriety_ is evil _repute_ or a dishonorable counterfeit of _fame_. _eminence_ and _distinction_ may result from rank, station, or character. _celebrity_ is limited in range; we speak of local _celebrity_, or world-wide _fame_. _fame_ in its best sense may be defined as the applause of numbers; _renown_, as such applause worthily won; we speak of the conqueror's _fame_, the patriot's _renown_. _glory_ and _honor_ are of good import; _honor_ may be given for qualities or acts that should not win it, but it is always given as something good and worthy; we can speak of an evil _fame_, but not of evil _honor_; _glory_ has a more exalted and often a sacred sense. antonyms: contempt, discredit, dishonor, humiliation, infamy, obscurity, contumely, disgrace, disrepute, ignominy, oblivion, shame. * * * * * fanaticism. synonyms: bigotry, credulity, intolerance, superstition. _fanaticism_ is extravagant or even frenzied zeal; _bigotry_ is obstinate and unreasoning attachment to a cause or creed; _fanaticism_ and _bigotry_ usually include _intolerance_, which is unwillingness to tolerate beliefs or opinions contrary to one's own; _superstition_ is ignorant and irrational religious belief. _credulity_ is not distinctively religious, but is a general readiness to believe without sufficient evidence, with a proneness to accept the marvellous. _bigotry_ is narrow, _fanaticism_ is fierce, _superstition_ is ignorant, _credulity_ is weak, _intolerance_ is severe. _bigotry_ has not the capacity to reason fairly, _fanaticism_ has not the patience, _superstition_ has not the knowledge and mental discipline, _intolerance_ has not the disposition. _bigotry_, _fanaticism_, and _superstition_ are perversions of the religious sentiment; _credulity_ and _intolerance_ often accompany skepticism or atheism. antonyms: cynicism, free-thinking, indifference, latitudinarianism. * * * * * fanciful. synonyms: chimerical, fantastic, grotesque, imaginative, visionary. that is _fanciful_ which is dictated or suggested by fancy independently of more serious considerations; the _fantastic_ is the _fanciful_ with the added elements of whimsicalness and extravagance. the _fanciful_ swings away from the real or the ordinary lightly and pleasantly, the _fantastic_ extravagantly, the _grotesque_ ridiculously. a _fanciful_ arrangement of objects is commonly pleasing, a _fantastic_ arrangement is striking, a _grotesque_ arrangement is laughable. a _fanciful_ theory or suggestion may be clearly recognized as such; a _visionary_ scheme is erroneously supposed to have a basis in fact. compare synonyms for dream; idea; imagination. antonyms: accurate, commonplace, prosaic, regular, sound, calculable, literal, real, sensible, sure, calculated, ordinary, reasonable, solid, true. * * * * * fancy. synonyms: belief, desire, imagination, predilection, caprice, humor, inclination, supposition, conceit, idea, liking, vagary, conception, image, mood, whim. an intellectual _fancy_ is a mental _image_ or picture founded upon slight or whimsical association or resemblance; a _conceit_ has less of the picturesque and more of the theoretic than a _fancy_; a _conceit_ is somewhat aside from the common laws of reasoning, as a _fancy_ is lighter and more airy than the common mode of thought. a _conceit_ or _fancy_ may be wholly unfounded, while a _conception_ always has, or is believed to have, some answering reality. (compare reason.) an intellectual _fancy_ or _conceit_ may be pleasing or amusing, but is never worth serious discussion; we speak of a mere _fancy_, a droll or odd _conceit_. an emotional or personal _fancy_ is a capricious _liking_ formed with slight reason and no exercise of judgment, and liable to fade as lightly as it was formed. in a broader sense, the _fancy_ signifies the faculty by which _fancies_ or mental images are formed, associated, or combined. compare synonyms for dream; idea; imagination. antonyms: actuality, certainty, fact, reality, truth, verity. prepositions: to have a fancy _for_ or take a fancy _to_ a person or thing. * * * * * farewell. synonyms: adieu, good-by, parting salutation, valedictory. congé, leave-taking, valediction, _good-by_ is the homely and hearty, _farewell_ the formal english word at parting. _adieu_, from the french, is still more ceremonious than _farewell_; _congé_, also from the french, is commonly contemptuous or supercilious, and equivalent to dismissal. _valediction_ is a learned word never in popular use. a _valedictory_ is a public farewell to a company or assembly. prepositions: i bade farewell _to_ my comrades, or (without preposition) i bade my comrades farewell; i took a sad farewell _of_ my friends. * * * * * fear. synonyms: affright, dismay, horror, timidity, apprehension, disquietude, misgiving, trembling, awe, dread, panic, tremor, consternation, fright, terror, trepidation. _fear_ is the generic term denoting an emotion excited by threatening evil with a desire to avoid or escape it; _fear_ may be sudden or lingering, in view of present, of imminent, or of distant and only possible danger; in the latter sense _dread_ is oftener used. _horror_ (etymologically a shivering or shuddering) denotes a shuddering _fear_ accompanied with abhorrence or such a shock to the feelings and sensibilities as may exist without _fear_, as when one suddenly encounters some ghastly spectacle; we say of a desperate but fettered criminal, "i looked upon him with _horror_." where _horror_ includes _fear_, it is _fear_ mingled with abhorrence. (see abhor.) _affright_, _fright_, and _terror_ are always sudden, and in actual presence of that which is terrible. _fear_ may overwhelm, or may nerve one to desperate defense; _fright_ and _terror_ render one incapable of defense; _fear_ may be controlled by force of will; _fright_ and _terror_ overwhelm the will; _terror_ paralyzes, _fright_ may cause one to fly, to scream, or to swoon. _fright_ is largely a matter of the nerves; _fear_ of the intellect and the imagination; _terror_ of all the faculties, bodily and mental. _panic_ is a sudden _fear_ or _fright_, affecting numbers at once; vast armies or crowded audiences are liable to _panic_ upon slight occasion. in a like sense we speak of a financial _panic_. _dismay_ is a helpless sinking of heart in view of some overwhelming peril or sorrow. _dismay_ is more reflective, enduring, and despairing than _fright_; a horse is subject to _fright_ or _terror_, but not to _dismay_. _awe_ is a reverential _fear_. compare alarm. antonyms: see synonyms for fortitude. * * * * * feminine. synonyms: effeminate, female, womanish, womanly. we apply _female_ to the sex, _feminine_ to the qualities, especially the finer physical or mental qualities that distinguish the _female_ sex in the human family, or to the objects appropriate for or especially employed by them. a _female_ voice is the voice of a woman; a _feminine_ voice may belong to a man. _womanish_ denotes the undesirable, _womanly_ the admirable or lovely qualities of woman. _womanly_ tears would suggest respect and sympathy, _womanish_ tears a touch of contempt. the word _effeminate_ is always used reproachfully, and only of men as possessing _womanly_ traits such as are inconsistent with true manliness. antonyms: see synonyms for masculine. * * * * * fetter. synonyms: bondage, custody, gyves, irons, bonds, durance, handcuffs, manacles, chains, duress, imprisonment, shackles. _bonds_ may be of cord, leather, or any other substance that can bind; _chains_ are of linked metal. _manacles_ and _handcuffs_ are for the hands, _fetters_ are primarily chains or jointed iron fastenings for the feet; _gyves_ may be for either. a _shackle_ is a metallic ring, clasp, or bracelet-like fastening for encircling and restraining a limb: commonly one of a pair, used either for hands or feet. _bonds_, _fetters_, and _chains_ are used in a general way for almost any form of restraint. _gyves_ is now wholly poetic, and the other words are mostly restricted to the literary style; _handcuffs_ is the specific and _irons_ the general term in popular usage; as, the prisoner was put in _irons_. _bonds_, _chains_, and _shackles_ are frequently used in the metaphorical sense. * * * * * feud. synonyms: affray, brawl, contest, dissension, hostility, animosity, broil, controversy, enmity, quarrel, bitterness, contention, dispute, fray, strife. a _feud_ is _enmity_ between families, clans, or parties, with acts of _hostility_ mutually retaliated and avenged; _feud_ is rarely used of individuals, never of nations. while all the other words of the group may refer to that which is transient, a _feud_ is long-enduring, and often hereditary. _dissension_ is used of a number of persons, of a party or other organization. _bitterness_ is in feeling only; _enmity_ and _hostility_ involve will and purpose to oppose or injure. a _quarrel_ is in word or act, or both, and is commonly slight and transient, as we speak of childish _quarrels_; _contention_ and _strife_ may be in word or deed; _contest_ ordinarily involves some form of action. _contest_ is often used in a good sense, _contention_ and _strife_ very rarely so. _controversy_ is commonly in words; _strife_ extends from verbal _controversy_ to the _contests_ of armies. _affray_, _brawl_, and _broil_, like _quarrel_, are words of inferior dignity. an _affray_ or _broil_ may arise at a street corner; the _affray_ always involves physical force; the _brawl_ or _broil_ may be confined to violent language. * * * * * fiction. synonyms: allegory, fabrication, invention, myth, romance, apologue, falsehood, legend, novel, story. fable, figment, _fiction_ is now chiefly used of a prose work in narrative form in which the characters are partly or wholly imaginary, and which is designed to portray human life, with or without a practical lesson; a _romance_ portrays what is picturesque or striking, as a mere _fiction_ may not do; _novel_ is a general name for any continuous fictitious narrative, especially a love-story; _fiction_ and _novel_ are used with little difference of meaning, except that _novel_ characterizes a work in which the emotional element is especially prominent. the moral of the _fable_ is expressed formally; the lesson of the _fiction_, if any, is inwrought. a _fiction_ is studied; a _myth_ grows up without intent. a _legend_ may be true, but can not be historically verified; a _myth_ has been received as true at some time, but is now known to be false. a _fabrication_ is designed to deceive; it is a less odious word than _falsehood_, but is really stronger, as a _falsehood_ may be a sudden unpremeditated statement, while a _fabrication_ is a series of statements carefully studied and fitted together in order to deceive; the _falsehood_ is all false; the _fabrication_ may mingle the true with the false. a _figment_ is something imaginary which the one who utters it may or may not believe to be true; we say, "that statement is a _figment_ of his imagination." the _story_ may be either true or false, and covers the various senses of all the words in the group. _apologue_, a word simply transferred from greek into english, is the same as _fable_. compare allegory. antonyms: certainty, fact, history, literalness, reality, truth, verity. * * * * * fierce. synonyms: ferocious, furious, raging, uncultivated, violent, fiery, impetuous, savage, untrained, wild. _fierce_ signifies having a _furious_ and cruel nature, or being in a _furious_ and cruel mood, more commonly the latter. it applies to that which is now intensely excited, or liable to intense and sudden excitement. _ferocious_ refers to a state or disposition; that which is _fierce_ flashes or blazes; that which is _ferocious_ steadily burns; we speak of a _ferocious_ animal, a _fierce_ passion. a _fiery_ spirit with a good disposition is quickly excitable in a good cause, but may not be _fierce_ or _ferocious_. _savage_ signifies _untrained_, _uncultivated_. _ferocious_ always denotes a tendency to violence; it is more distinctly bloodthirsty than the other words; a person may be deeply, intensely cruel, and not at all _ferocious_; a _ferocious_ countenance expresses habitual ferocity; a _fierce_ countenance may express habitual fierceness, or only the sudden anger of the moment. that which is _wild_ is simply unrestrained; the word may imply no anger or harshness; as, _wild_ delight, _wild_ alarm. antonyms: affectionate, gentle, kind, patient, submissive, tame, docile, harmless, mild, peaceful, sweet, tender. * * * * * financial. synonyms: fiscal, monetary, pecuniary. these words all relate to money, receipts, or expenditures. _monetary_ relates to actual money, coin, currency; as, the _monetary_ system; a _monetary_ transaction is one in which money is transferred. _pecuniary_ refers to that in which money is involved, but less directly; we speak of one's _pecuniary_ affairs or interests, with no special reference to the handling of cash. _financial_ applies especially to governmental revenues or expenditures, or to private transactions of considerable moment; we speak of a _pecuniary_ reward, a _financial_ enterprise; we give a needy person _pecuniary_ (not _financial_) assistance. it is common to speak of the _fiscal_ rather than the _financial_ year. * * * * * fine. synonyms: beautiful, excellent, polished, small, clarified, exquisite, pure, smooth, clear, gauzy, refined, splendid, comminuted, handsome, sensitive, subtile, dainty, keen, sharp, subtle, delicate, minute, slender, tenuous, elegant, nice, slight, thin. _fine_ (l. _finis_, end) denotes that which has been brought to a full end, finished. from this root-sense many derived meanings branch out, causing words quite remote from each other to be alike synonyms of _fine_. that which is truly finished, brought to an ideal end, is _excellent_ of its kind, and _beautiful_, if a thing that admits of beauty; as, a _fine_ house, _fine_ trees, a _fine_ woman, a _fine_ morning; if a thing that admits of the removal of impurities, it is not finished till these are removed, and hence _fine_ signifies _clarified_, _clear_, _pure_, _refined_; as, _fine_ gold. that which is finished is apt to be _polished_, smooth to the touch, minutely exact in outline; hence _fine_ comes to be a synonym for all words like _dainty_, _delicate_, _exquisite_; as, _fine_ manners, a _fine_ touch, _fine_ perceptions. as that which is _delicate_ is apt to be small, by an easy extension of meaning _fine_ becomes a synonym for _slender_, _slight_, _minute_, _comminuted_; as, a _fine_ thread, _fine_ sand; or for _filmy_, _tenuous_, _thin_; as, a _fine_ lace, _fine_ wire; and as a _thin_ edge is _keen_, _sharp_, _fine_ becomes also a synonym for these words; as, a _fine_ point, a _fine_ edge. compare beautiful; minute. antonyms: big, clumsy, great, huge, large, stout, blunt, coarse, heavy, immense, rude, thick. * * * * * fire. synonyms: blaze, burning, combustion, conflagration, flame. _combustion_ is the essential fact which is at the basis of that assemblage of visible phenomenon which we call _fire_; _combustion_ being the continuous chemical combination of a substance with some element, as oxygen, evolving heat, and extending from slow processes, such as those by which the heat of the human body is maintained, to the processes producing the most intense light also, as in a blast-furnace, or on the surface of the sun. _fire_ is always attended with light, as well as heat; _blaze_, _flame_, etc., designate the mingled light and heat of a _fire_. _combustion_ is the scientific, _fire_ the popular term. a _conflagration_ is an extensive _fire_. compare light. * * * * * flock. synonyms: bevy, covey, group, herd, lot, set, brood, drove, hatch, litter, pack, swarm. _group_ is the general word for any gathering of a small number of objects, whether of persons, animals, or inanimate things. the individuals in a _brood_ or _litter_ are related to each other; those in the other _groups_ may not be. _brood_ is used chiefly of fowls and birds, _litter_ of certain quadrupeds which bring forth many young at a birth; we speak of a _brood_ of chickens, a _litter_ of puppies; _brood_ is sometimes applied to a family of young children. _bevy_ is used of birds, and figuratively of any bright and lively _group_ of women or children, but rarely of men. _flock_ is applied to birds and to some of the smaller animals; _herd_ is confined to the larger animals; we speak of a _bevy_ of quail, a _covey_ of partridges, a _flock_ of blackbirds, or a _flock_ of sheep, a _herd_ of cattle, horses, buffaloes, or elephants, a _pack_ of wolves, a _pack_ of hounds, a _swarm_ of bees. a collection of animals driven or gathered for driving is called a _drove_. * * * * * fluctuate. synonyms: hesitate, swerve, vacillate, veer, oscillate, undulate, vary, waver. to _fluctuate_ (l. _fluctus_, a wave) is to move like a wave with alternate rise and fall. a pendulum _oscillates_; waves _fluctuate_ or _undulate_; a light or a flame _wavers_; a frightened steed _swerves_ from his course; a tool or weapon _swerves_ from the mark or line; the temperature _varies_; the wind _veers_ when it suddenly changes its direction. that which _veers_ may steadily hold the new direction; that which _oscillates_, _fluctuates_, _undulates_, or _wavers_ returns upon its way. as regards mental states, he who _hesitates_ sticks (l. _hærere_) on the verge of decision; he who _wavers_ does not stick to a decision; he who _vacillates_ decides now one way, and now another; one _vacillates_ between contrasted decisions or actions; he may _waver_ between decision and indecision, or between action and inaction. persons _hesitate_, _vacillate_, _waver_; feelings _fluctuate_ or _vary_. compare shake. antonyms: abide, adhere, hold fast, persist, stand fast, stay, stick. * * * * * fluid. synonyms: gas, liquid. a _fluid_ is a substance that, like air or water, yields to any force that tends to change its form; a _liquid_ is a body in that state in which the particles move freely among themselves, but remain in one mass, keeping the same volume, but taking always the form of the containing vessel; a _liquid_ is an inelastic _fluid_; a _gas_ is an elastic _fluid_ that tends to expand to the utmost limits of the containing space. all _liquids_ are _fluids_, but not all _fluids_ are _liquids_; air and all the _gases_ are _fluids_, but they are not _liquids_ under ordinary circumstances, tho capable of being reduced to a _liquid_ form by special means, as by cold and pressure. water at the ordinary temperature is at once a _fluid_ and a _liquid_. * * * * * follow. synonyms: accompany, come after, go after, obey, pursue, attend, copy, heed, observe, result, chase, ensue, imitate, practise, succeed. anything that _comes after_ or _goes after_ another, either in space or in time, is said to _follow_ it. a servant _follows_ or _attends_ his master; a victorious general may _follow_ the retiring enemy merely to watch and hold him in check; he _chases_ or _pursues_ with intent to overtake and attack; the chase is closer and hotter than the pursuit. (compare synonyms for hunt.) one event may _follow_ another either with or without special connection; if it _ensues_, there is some orderly connection; as, the _ensuing_ year; if it _results_ from another, there is some relation of effect, consequence, or inference. a clerk _observes_ his employer's directions. a child _obeys_ his parent's commands, _follows_ or _copies_ his example, _imitates_ his speech and manners. the compositor _follows_ copy; the incoming _succeeds_ the outgoing official. * * * * * food. synonyms: aliment, feed, nourishment, pabulum, sustenance, diet, fodder, nutriment, provender, viands, fare, forage, nutrition, regimen, victuals. _food_ is, in the popular sense, whatever one eats in contradistinction to what one drinks. thus, we speak of _food_ and drink, of wholesome, unwholesome, or indigestible _food_; but in a more scientific sense whatever, when taken into the digestive organs, serves to build up structure or supply waste may be termed _food_; the word is extended to plants to signify whatever taken in any way into the organism serves similar purposes; thus, we speak of liquid _food_, plant _food_, etc.; in this wider sense _food_ is closely synonymous with _nutriment_, _nourishment_, and _sustenance_. _diet_ refers to the quantity and quality of _food_ habitually taken, with reference to preservation of health. _victuals_ is a plain, homely word for whatever may be eaten; we speak of choice _viands_, cold _victuals_. _nourishment_ and _sustenance_ apply to whatever can be introduced into the system as a means of sustaining life; we say of a convalescent, he is taking _nourishment_. _nutriment_ and _nutrition_ have more of scientific reference to the vitalizing principles of various _foods_; thus, wheat is said to contain a great amount of _nutriment_. _regimen_ considers _food_ as taken by strict rule, but applies more widely to the whole ordering of life. _fare_ is a general word for all table supplies, good or bad; as, sumptuous _fare_; wretched _fare_. _feed_, _fodder_, and _provender_ are used only of the food of the lower animals, _feed_ denoting anything consumed, but more commonly grain, _fodder_ denoting hay, cornstalks, or the like, sometimes called "long _feed_;" _provender_ is dry _feed_, whether grain or hay, straw, etc. _forage_ denotes any kind of _food_ suitable for horses and cattle, primarily as obtained by a military force in scouring the country, especially an enemy's country. * * * * * formidable. synonyms: dangerous, redoubted, terrible, tremendous. that which is _formidable_ is worthy of fear if encountered or opposed; as, a _formidable_ array of troops, or of evidence. _formidable_ is a word of more dignity than _dangerous_, and suggests more calm and collected power than _terrible_; _formidable_ is less overwhelming than _tremendous_. a loaded gun is _dangerous_; a park of artillery is _formidable_; a charge of cavalry is _terrible_; the full shock of great armies is _tremendous_. a _dangerous_ man is likely to do mischief, and needs watching; a _formidable_ man may not be _dangerous_ if not attacked; an enraged maniac is _terrible_; the force of ocean waves in a storm, and the silent pressure in the ocean depths, are _tremendous_. antonyms: contemptible, feeble, harmless, helpless, powerless, weak. despicable, prepositions: formidable _by_ or _in_ numbers; _in_ strength; formidable _to_ the enemy. * * * * * fortification. synonyms: castle, citadel, fastness, fort, fortress, stronghold. _fortification_ is the general word for any artificial defensive work; a _fortress_ is a _fortification_ of especial size and strength; a _fortress_ is regarded as permanent, and is ordinarily an independent work; a _fort_ or _fortification_ may be temporary; a _fortification_ may be but part of a defensive system; we speak of the _fortifications_ of a city. a _citadel_ is a _fortification_ within a city, or the fortified inner part of a city or _fortress_, within which a garrison may be placed to overawe the citizens, or to which the defenders may retire if the outer works are captured; the medieval _castle_ was the fortified residence of a king or baron. _fort_ is the common military term for a detached fortified building or enclosure of moderate size occupied or designed to be occupied by troops. the _fortifications_ of a modern city usually consist of a chain of _forts_. any defensible place, whether made so by nature or by art, is a _fastness_ or _stronghold_. * * * * * fortitude. synonyms: courage, endurance, heroism, resolution. _fortitude_ (l. _fortis_, strong) is the strength or firmness of mind or soul to endure pain or adversity patiently and determinedly. _fortitude_ has been defined as "passive _courage_," which is a good definition, but not complete. _fortitude_ might be termed "still _courage_," or "enduring _courage_;" it is that quality which is able not merely to endure pain or trial, but steadily to confront dangers that can not be actively opposed, or against which one has no adequate defense; it takes _courage_ to charge a battery, _fortitude_ to stand still under an enemy's fire. _resolution_ is of the mind; _endurance_ is partly physical; it requires _resolution_ to resist temptation, _endurance_ to resist hunger and cold. compare brave; patience. * * * * * fortunate. synonyms: favored, lucky, prospered, prosperous, successful. happy, a man is _successful_ in any case if he achieves or gains what he seeks; he is known as a _successful_ man if he has achieved or gained worthy objects of endeavor; he is _fortunate_ or _lucky_ if advantages have come to him without or beyond his direct planning or achieving. _lucky_ is the more common and colloquial, _fortunate_ the more elegant word; _fortunate_ is more naturally applied to the graver matters, as we speak of the _fortunate_, rather than the _lucky_, issue of a great battle; _lucky_ more strongly emphasizes the element of chance, as when we speak of a _lucky_ hit, a _lucky_ guess, or of one as "born under a _lucky_ star." _favored_ is used in a religious sense, implying that one is the object of divine favor. _happy_, in this connection, signifies possessed of the means of happiness. one is said to be _happy_ or _prosperous_ whether his prosperity be the result of fortune or of achievement; _prospered_ rather denotes the action of a superintending providence. antonyms: broken, fallen, miserable, unhappy, woful, crushed, ill-starred, unfortunate, unlucky, wretched. * * * * * fraud. synonyms: artifice, deceit, duplicity, swindle, treason, cheat, deception, imposition, swindling, trick. cheating, dishonesty, imposture, treachery, a _fraud_ is an act of deliberate _deception_ with the design of securing something by taking unfair advantage of another. a _deceit_ or _deception_ may be designed merely to gain some end of one's own, with no intent of harming another; an _imposition_, to take some small advantage of another, or simply to make another ridiculous. an _imposture_ is designed to obtain money, credit, or position to which one is not entitled, and may be practised by a street beggar or by the pretender to a throne. all action that is not honest is _dishonesty_, but the term _dishonesty_ is generally applied in business, politics, etc., to deceitful practises which are not directly criminal. _fraud_ includes _deceit_, but _deceit_ may not reach the gravity of _fraud_; a _cheat_ is of the nature of _fraud_, but of a petty sort; a _swindle_ is more serious than a _cheat_, involving larger values and more flagrant _dishonesty_. _fraud_ is commonly actionable at law; _cheating_ and _swindling_ are for the most part out of the reach of legal proceedings. _treachery_ is chiefly used of _dishonesty_ in matters of friendship, social relations, government, or war; _treachery_ may be more harmful than _fraud_, but is not so gross, and is not ordinarily open to legal redress. _treason_ is a specific form of _treachery_ of a subject to the government to which he owes allegiance, and is definable and punishable at law. compare artifice; deception. antonyms: fairness, good faith, honesty, integrity, truth, uprightness. * * * * * friendly. synonyms: accessible, companionable, genial, neighborly, affable, complaisant, hearty, sociable, affectionate, cordial, kind, social, amicable, favorable, kindly, tender, brotherly, fond, loving, well-disposed. _friendly_, as said of persons, signifies having the disposition of a friend; as said of acts, it signifies befitting or worthy of a friend. the adjective _friendly_ does not reach the full significance of the nouns "friend" and "friendship;" one may be _friendly_ to those who are not his friends, and to be in _friendly_ relations often signifies little more than not to be hostile. in its application to persons, _accessible_ is used of public and eminent persons, who might, if disposed, hold themselves at a distance from others. _companionable_ and _sociable_ refer to manner and behavior, _cordial_ and _genial_ express genuine kindliness of heart. we speak of a _cordial_ greeting, a _favorable_ reception, a _neighborly_ call, a _sociable_ visitor, an _amicable_ settlement, a _kind_ interest, a _friendly_ regard, a _hearty_ welcome. the saxon _friendly_ is stronger than the latin _amicable_; the _amicable_ may be merely formal; the _friendly_ is from the heart. _fond_ is commonly applied to an affection that becomes, or at least appears, excessive. _affectionate_, _devoted_, and _tender_ are almost always used in a high and good sense; as, an _affectionate_ son; a _devoted_ friend; "the _tender_ mercy of our god," _luke_ i, . compare friendship. antonyms: adverse, belligerent, distant, ill-disposed, unfriendly, alienated, cold, estranged, indifferent, unkind, antagonistic, contentious, frigid, inimical, warlike. bellicose, disaffected, hostile, * * * * * friendship. synonyms: affection, comity, esteem, good will, amity, consideration, favor, love, attachment, devotion, friendliness, regard. _friendship_ is a deep, quiet, enduring _affection_, founded upon mutual respect and _esteem_. _friendship_ is always mutual; there may be unreciprocated _affection_ or _attachment_, unrequited _love_, or even unrecognized and unappreciated _devotion_, but never unreciprocated or unrequited _friendship_; one may have friendly feelings toward an enemy, but while there is hostility or coldness on one side there can not be _friendship_ between the two. _friendliness_ is a quality of friendly feeling, without the deep and settled _attachment_ implied in the state of _friendship_. _comity_ is mutual kindly courtesy, with care of each other's right, and _amity_ a friendly feeling and relation, not necessarily implying special _friendliness_; as, the _comity_ of nations, or _amity_ between neighboring countries. _affection_ may be purely natural; _friendship_ is a growth. _friendship_ is more intellectual and less emotional than _love_; it is easier to give reasons for _friendship_ than for _love_; _friendship_ is more calm and quiet, _love_ more fervent; _love_ often rises to intensest passion; we can not speak of the passion of _friendship_. _friendship_ implies some degree of equality, while _love_ does not; we can speak of man's _love_ toward god, not of his _friendship_ for god. (there is more latitude in the use of the concrete noun _friend_; abraham was called "the friend of god;" christ was called "the friend of sinners.") compare acquaintance; love. antonyms: see synonyms for battle; enmity; feud; hatred. prepositions: the friendship _of_ one person _for_ or _toward_ another, or the friendship _between_ them. * * * * * frighten. synonyms: affright, appal, cow, dismay, scare, alarm, browbeat, daunt, intimidate, terrify. one is _frightened_ by a cause of fear addressed directly and suddenly to the senses; he is _intimidated_ by an apprehension of contingent consequences dependent on some act of his own to be done or forborne; the means of intimidation may act through the senses, or may appeal only to the intellect or the sensibilities. the sudden rush of an armed madman may _frighten_; the quiet leveling of a highwayman's pistol _intimidates_. a savage beast is _intimidated_ by the keeper's whip. employers may _intimidate_ their employees from voting contrary to their will by threat of discharge; a mother may be _intimidated_ through fear for her child. to _browbeat_ or _cow_ is to bring into a state of submissive fear; to _daunt_ is to give pause or check to a violent, threatening, or even a brave spirit. to _scare_ is to cause sudden, unnerving fear; to _terrify_ is to awaken fear that is overwhelming. compare alarm. * * * * * frugality. synonyms: economy, parsimony, saving, sparing, miserliness, providence, scrimping, thrift. parsimoniousness, prudence, _economy_ is a wise and careful administration of the means at one's disposal; _frugality_ is a withholding of expenditure, or _sparing_ of supplies or provision, to a noticeable and often to a painful degree; _parsimony_ is excessive and unreasonable _saving_ for the sake of _saving_. _frugality_ exalted into a virtue to be practised for its own sake, instead of as a means to an end, becomes the vice of _parsimony_. _miserliness_ is the denying oneself and others the ordinary comforts or even necessaries of life, for the mere sake of hoarding money. _prudence_ and _providence_ look far ahead, and sacrifice the present to the future, saving as much as may be necessary for that end. (see prudence.) _thrift_ seeks not merely to save, but to earn. _economy_ manages, _frugality_ saves, _providence_ plans, _thrift_ at once earns and saves, with a view to wholesome and profitable expenditure at a fitting time. see abstinence. antonyms: abundance, bounty, liberality, opulence, waste, affluence, extravagance, luxury, riches, wealth. * * * * * garrulous. synonyms: chattering, loquacious, talkative, verbose. _garrulous_ signifies given to constant trivial talking. _chattering_ signifies uttering rapid, noisy, and unintelligible, or scarcely intelligible, sounds, whether articulate words or such as resemble them; _chattering_ is often used of vocal sounds that may be intelligible by themselves but are ill understood owing to confusion of many voices or other cause. the _talkative_ person has a strong disposition to talk, with or without an abundance of words, or many ideas; the _loquacious_ person has an abundant flow of language and much to say on any subject suggested; either may be lively and for a time entertaining; the _garrulous_ person is tedious, repetitious, petty, and self-absorbed. _verbose_ is applied to utterances more formal than conversation, as to writings or public addresses. we speak of a _chattering_ monkey or a _chattering_ idiot, a _talkative_ child, a _talkative_ or _loquacious_ woman, a _garrulous_ old man, a _verbose_ writer. compare circumlocution. antonyms: laconic, reserved, reticent, silent, speechless, taciturn. * * * * * gender. synonym: sex. _sex_ is a distinction among living beings; it is also the characteristic by which most living beings are distinguished from inanimate things, which are of no _sex_; _gender_ is a distinction in language partially corresponding to this distinction in nature; while there are but two _sexes_, there are in some languages, as in english and german, three _genders_. the french language has but two _genders_ and makes the names of all inanimate objects either masculine or feminine; some languages are without the distinction of _gender_, and those that maintain it are often quite arbitrary in its application. we speak of the masculine or feminine _gender_, the male or female _sex_. * * * * * general. synonyms: common, familiar, ordinary, universal, commonplace, frequent, popular, usual. customary, habitual, prevalent, everyday, normal, public, _common_ signifies frequently occurring, not out of the regular course, not exceptional; hence, not above the average, not excellent or distinguished, inferior, or even low; _common_ also signifies pertaining to or participated in by two or more persons or things; as, sorrow is _common_ to the race. _general_ may signify pertaining equally to all of a class, race, etc., but very commonly signifies pertaining to the greater number, but not necessarily to all. _universal_ applies to all without exception; _general_ applies to all with possible or comparatively slight exceptions; _common_ applies to very many without deciding whether they are even a majority. a _common_ remark is one we often hear; a _general_ experience is one that comes to the majority of people; a _universal_ experience is one from which no human being is exempt. it is dangerous for a debater to affirm a _universal_ proposition, since that can be negatived by a single exception, while a _general_ statement is not invalidated even by adducing many exceptions. we say a _common_ opinion, _common_ experience, a _general_ rule, _general_ truth, a _universal_ law. compare synonyms for normal; usual. antonyms: exceptional, infrequent, rare, singular, uncommon, unknown, unusual. * * * * * generous. synonyms: bountiful, free, liberal, noble, chivalrous, free-handed, magnanimous, open-handed, disinterested, free-hearted, munificent, open-hearted. _generous_ (l. _genus_, a race) primarily signifies having the qualities worthy of noble or honorable birth; hence, free and abundant in giving, giving freely, heartily, and self-sacrificingly. as regards giving, _generous_ refers rather to the self-sacrificing heartiness of the giver, _liberal_ to the amount of the gift; a child may show himself _generous_ in the gift of an apple, a millionaire makes a _liberal_ donation; a _generous_ gift, however, is commonly thought of as both ample and hearty. a _munificent_ gift is vast in amount, whatever the motive of its bestowal. one may be _free_ with another's money; he can be _generous_ only with his own. _disinterested_ suggests rather the thought of one's own self-denial; _generous_, of one's hearty interest in another's welfare or happiness. one is _magnanimous_ by a greatness of soul (l. _magnus_, great, and _animus_, soul) that rises above all that is poor, mean, or weak, especially above every petty or ignoble motive or feeling pertaining to one's self, and thus above resentment of injury or insult; one is _generous_ by a kindness of heart that would rejoice in the welfare rather than in the punishment of the offender. antonyms: avaricious, greedy, mean, niggardly, penurious, rapacious, close, ignoble, miserly, parsimonious, petty, stingy. covetous, illiberal, * * * * * genius. synonyms: talent, talents. _genius_ is exalted intellectual power capable of operating independently of tuition and training, and marked by an extraordinary faculty for original creation, invention, discovery, expression, etc. _talent_ is marked mental ability, and in a special sense, a particular and uncommon aptitude for some special mental work or attainment. _genius_ is higher than _talent_, more spontaneous, less dependent upon instruction, less amenable to training; _talent_ is largely the capacity to learn, acquire, appropriate, adapt oneself to demand. yet the _genius_ that has won the largest and most enduring success has been joined with tireless industry and painstaking. compare synonyms for mind; power. antonyms: dulness, folly, imbecility, obtuseness, senselessness, stupidity. * * * * * get. synonyms: achieve, attain, gain, procure, secure, acquire, earn, obtain, receive, win. _get_ is a most comprehensive word. a person _gets_ whatever he comes to possess or experience, whether with or without endeavor, expectation, or desire; he _gets_ a bargain, a blow, a fall, a fever; he _gains_ what he comes to by effort or striving; the swimmer _gains_ the shore; a man _acquires_ by continuous and ordinarily by slow process; as, one _acquires_ a foreign language. a person is sometimes said to _gain_ and often to _acquire_ what has not been an object of direct endeavor; in the pursuits of trade, he incidentally _gains_ some knowledge of foreign countries; he _acquires_ by association with others a correct or incorrect accent; he _acquires_ a bronzed complexion by exposure to a tropical sun; in such use, what he _gains_ is viewed as desirable, what he _acquires_ as slowly and gradually resulting. a person _earns_ what he gives an equivalent of labor for, tho he may not _get_ it. on the other hand, he may _get_ what he has not _earned_; the temptation to all dishonesty is the desire to _get_ a living or a fortune without _earning_ it. when one _gets_ the object of his desire, he is said to _obtain_ it, whether he has _gained_ or _earned_ it or not. _win_ denotes contest, with a suggestion of chance or hazard; in popular language, a person is often said to _win_ a lawsuit, or to _win_ in a suit at law, but in legal phrase he is said to _gain_ his suit, case, or cause. in _receiving_, one is strictly passive; he may _get_ an estate by his own exertions or by inheritance; in the latter case he is said to _receive_ it. one _obtains_ a thing commonly by some direct effort of his own; he _procures_ it commonly by the intervention of some one else; he _procures_ a dinner or an interview; he _secures_ what has seemed uncertain or elusive, when he _gets_ it firmly into his possession or under his control. compare synonyms for attain; make; reach. antonyms: see synonyms for abandon. * * * * * gift. synonyms: benefaction, boon, bribe, grant, largess, bequest, bounty, donation, gratuity, present. a _gift_ is in the popular, and also in the legal sense that which is voluntarily bestowed without expectation of return or compensation. _gift_ is now almost always used in the good sense, _bribe_ always in the evil sense to signify payment for a dishonorable service under the semblance of a _gift_. in scriptural language _gift_ is often used for _bribe_. "the king by judgment establisheth the land; but he that receiveth _gifts_ overthroweth it." _prov._ xxix, . a _benefaction_ is a charitable _gift_, generally of large amount, and viewed as of enduring value, as an endowment for a college. a _donation_ is something, perhaps of great, never of trivial value, given usually on some public ground, as to a cause or to a person representing a cause, but not necessarily of value beyond the immediate present; as, a _donation_ to a pastor. a _gratuity_ is usually something of moderate value and is always given as to an inferior, and as of favor, not of right; as, a _gratuity_ to a waiter. _largess_ is archaic for a bountiful _gratuity_, usually to be distributed among many, as among the heralds at ancient tournaments. a _present_ is a _gift_ of friendship, or conciliation, and given as to an equal or a superior; no one's pride is hurt by accepting what is viewed as strictly a _present_. a _boon_ is a _gift_ that has been desired or craved or perhaps asked, or something freely given that meets some great desire. a _grant_ is commonly considerable in amount and given by public authority; as, a _grant_ of public lands for a college. antonyms: compensation, earnings, guerdon, penalty, remuneration, wages. * * * * * give. synonyms: bestow, communicate, deliver, grant, supply. cede, confer, furnish, impart, to _give_ is primarily to transfer to another's possession or ownership without compensation; in its secondary sense in popular use, it is to put into another's possession by any means and on any terms whatever; a buyer may say "_give_ me the goods, and i will _give_ you the money;" we speak of _giving_ answers, information, etc., and often of _giving_ what is not agreeable to the recipient, as blows, medicine, reproof; but when there is nothing in the context to indicate the contrary, _give_ is always understood in its primary sense; as, this book was _given_ me. _give_ thus becomes, like _get_, a term of such general import as to be a synonym for a wide variety of words. to _grant_ is to put into one's possession in some formal way, or by authoritative act; as, congress _grants_ lands to a railroad corporation. to speak of _granting_ a favor carries a claim or concession of superiority on the part of the one by whom the _grant_ may be made; to _confer_ has a similar sense; as, to _confer_ a degree or an honor; we _grant_ a request or petition, but do not _confer_ it. to _impart_ is to _give_ of that which one still, to a greater or less degree, retains; the teacher _imparts_ instruction. to _bestow_ is to _give_ that of which the receiver stands in especial need; we _bestow_ alms. prepositions: we give money _to_ a person _for_ a thing, _for_ a purpose, etc. (or without proposition, _give_ a person a sum of money); we give a thing _to_ or _into_ one's care or keeping; the weary fugitive gave himself up _to_ his pursuers. * * * * * govern. synonyms: command, curb, influence, mold, reign over, rule, control, direct, manage, reign, restrain, sway. _govern_ carries the idea of authoritative administration or some exercise of authority that is at once effective and continuous; _control_ is effective, but may be momentary or occasional. one _controls_ what he holds or can hold at will absolutely in check; as, a skilful horseman _controls_ a spirited horse; a person _controls_ his temper; we say to one who is excited, "_control_ yourself." a person _commands_ another when he has, or claims, the right to make that other do his will, with power of inflicting penalty if not obeyed; he _controls_ another whom he can effectually prevent from doing anything contrary to his will; he _governs_ one whom he actually does cause, regularly or constantly, to obey his will; a parent may _command_ a child whom he can not _govern_ or _control_. the best teachers are not greatly prone to _command_, but _govern_ or _control_ their pupils largely by other means. _command_ is, however, often used in the sense of securing, as well as requiring, submission or obedience, as when we speak of a _commanding_ influence; a man _commands_ the situation when he can shape events as he pleases; a fortress _commands_ the region when no enemy can pass against its resistance. _govern_ implies the exercise of knowledge and judgment as well as power. to _rule_ is more absolute and autocratic than to _govern_; to _sway_ is to move by quiet but effectual influence; to _mold_ is not only to influence feeling and action, but to shape character; to _manage_ is to secure by skilful contrivance the doing of one's will by those whom one can not directly _control_; a wise mother, by gentle means, _sways_ the feelings and _molds_ the lives of her children; to be able to _manage_ servants is an important element of good housekeeping. the word _reign_, once so absolute, now simply denotes that one holds the official station of sovereign in a monarchy, with or without effective power; the queen of england _reigns_; the czar of russia both _reigns_ and _rules_. antonyms: be in subjection, be subject, comply, obey, submit, yield. * * * * * graceful. synonym: beautiful. that which is _graceful_ is marked by elegance and harmony, with ease of action, attitude, or posture, or delicacy of form. _graceful_ commonly suggests motion or the possibility of motion; _beautiful_ may apply to absolute fixity; a landscape or a blue sky is _beautiful_, but neither is _graceful_. _graceful_ commonly applies to beauty as addressed to the eye, tho we often speak of a _graceful_ poem or a _graceful_ compliment. _graceful_ applies to the perfection of motion, especially of the lighter motions, which convey no suggestion of stress or strain, and are in harmonious curves. apart from the thought of motion, _graceful_ denotes a pleasing harmony of outline, proportion, etc., with a certain degree of delicacy; a hercules is massive, an apollo is _graceful_. we speak of a _graceful_ attitude, _graceful_ drapery. compare beautiful; becoming. antonyms: see synonyms for awkward. * * * * * grief. synonyms: affliction, melancholy, regret, sorrow, trouble, distress, mourning, sadness, tribulation, wo. _grief_ is acute mental pain resulting from loss, misfortune, or deep disappointment. _grief_ is more acute and less enduring than _sorrow_. _sorrow_ and _grief_ are for definite cause; _sadness_ and _melancholy_ may arise from a vague sense of want or loss, from a low state of health, or other ill-defined cause; _sadness_ may be momentary; _melancholy_ is more enduring, and may become chronic. _affliction_ expresses a deep heart-sorrow and is applied also to the misfortune producing such _sorrow_; _mourning_ most frequently denotes sorrow publicly expressed, or the public expression of such _sorrow_ as may reasonably be expected; as, it is common to observe thirty days of _mourning_ on the death of an officer of state. antonyms: see synonyms for happiness. prepositions: grief _at_ a loss; _for_ a friend. * * * * * habit. synonyms: custom, habitude, routine, system, use, fashion, practise, rule, usage, wont. _habit_ is a tendency or inclination toward an action or condition, which by repetition has become easy, spontaneous, or even unconscious, or an action or regular series of actions, or a condition so induced. _custom_ is the uniform doing of the same act in the same circumstance for a definite reason; _routine_ is the doing of customary acts in a regular and uniform sequence and is more mechanical than _custom_. it is the _custom_ of tradesmen to open at a uniform hour, and to follow a regular _routine_ of business until closing-time. _habit_ always includes an involuntary tendency, natural or acquired, greatly strengthened by frequent repetition of the act, and may be uncontrollable, or even unconscious. _habitude_ is habitual relation or association. _custom_ is chiefly used of the action of many; _habit_ of the action of one; we speak of the _customs_ of society, the _habits_ of an individual. _fashion_ is the generally recognized _custom_ in the smaller matters, especially in dress. a _rule_ is prescribed either by some external authority or by one's own will; as, it is the _rule_ of the house; or, i make it my invariable _rule_. _system_ is the coordination of many acts or things into a unity, and is more and better than _routine_. _use_ and _usage_ denote the manner of using something; we speak of one person's _use_ of language, but of the _usage_ of many; a _use_ or _usage_ is almost always a _habit_. _practise_ is the active doing of something in a systematic way; we do not speak of the _practise_, but of the _habit_ of going to sleep; we speak of a tradesman's _custom_, a lawyer's or a physician's _practise_. educationally, _practise_ is the voluntary and persistent attempt to make skill a _habit_; as, _practise_ in penmanship. _wont_ is blind and instinctive _habit_ like that which attaches an animal to a locality: the word is now almost wholly poetic. compare dress. * * * * * happen. synonyms: bechance, chance, fall out, supervene, befall, come to pass, occur, take place. betide, fall, a thing is said to _happen_ when no design is manifest, or none especially thought of; it is said to _chance_ when it appears to be the result of accident (compare synonyms for accident). an incident _happens_ or _occurs_; something external or actual _happens_ to one; a thought or fancy _occurs_ to him. _befall_ and _betide_ are transitive; _happen_ is intransitive; something _befalls_ or _betides_ a person or _happens_ to him. _betide_ is especially used for anticipated evil, thought of as waiting and coming at its appointed time; as, wo _betide_ him! one event _supervenes_ upon another event, one disease upon another, etc. ["transpire," in the sense of _happen_, is not authorized by good usage: a thing that has _happened_ is properly said to _transpire_ when it becomes known.] prepositions: an event happens _to_ a person; a person happens _on_ or _upon_ a fact, discovery, etc. * * * * * happiness. synonyms: blessedness, delight, gladness, pleasure, bliss, ecstasy, gratification, rapture, cheer, enjoyment, joy, rejoicing, comfort, felicity, merriment, satisfaction, contentment, gaiety, mirth, triumph. _gratification_ is the giving any mental or physical desire something that it craves; _satisfaction_ is the giving such a desire all that it craves. _happiness_ is the positively agreeable experience that springs from the possession of good, the _gratification_ or _satisfaction_ of the desires or the relief from pain and evil. _comfort_ may be almost wholly negative, being found in security or relief from that which pains or annoys; there is _comfort_ by a warm fireside on a wintry night; the sympathy of a true friend affords _comfort_ in sorrow. _enjoyment_ is more positive, always implying something to be definitely and consciously delighted in; a sick person finds _comfort_ in relief from pain, while he may be far from a state of _enjoyment_. _pleasure_ is still more vivid, being an arousing of the faculties to an intensely agreeable activity; _satisfaction_ is more tranquil than _pleasure_, being the agreeable consciousness of having all that our faculties demand or crave; when a worthy _pleasure_ is past, a worthy _satisfaction_ remains. as referring to a mental state, _gratification_ is used to denote a mild form of _happiness_ resulting from some incident not of very great importance; _satisfaction_ should properly express a _happiness_ deeper, more complete, and more abiding; but as intellect or sensibilities of a low order may find _satisfaction_ in that which is very poor or unworthy, the word has come to be feeble and tame in ordinary use. _happiness_ is more positive than _comfort_, _enjoyment_, or _satisfaction_, more serene and rational than _pleasure_; _pleasure_ is of necessity transient; _happiness_ is abiding, and may be eternal; thus, we speak of _pleasures_, but the plural of _happiness_ is scarcely used. _happiness_, in the full sense, is mental or spiritual or both, and is viewed as resulting from some worthy _gratification_ or _satisfaction_; we may speak of a brute as experiencing _comfort_ or _pleasure_, but scarcely as in possession of _happiness_; we speak of vicious _pleasure_, _delight_, or _joy_, but not of vicious _happiness_. _felicity_ is a philosophical term, colder and more formal than _happiness_. _gladness_ is _happiness_ that overflows, expressing itself in countenance, voice, manner, and action. _joy_ is more intense than _happiness_, deeper than _gladness_, to which it is akin, nobler and more enduring than _pleasure_. _gaiety_ is more superficial than _joy_, more demonstrative than _gladness_. _rejoicing_ is _happiness_ or _joy_ that finds utterance in word, song, festivity, etc. _delight_ is vivid, overflowing _happiness_ of a somewhat transient kind; _ecstasy_ is a state of extreme or extravagant _delight_ so that the one affected by it seems almost beside himself with _joy_; _rapture_ is closely allied to _ecstasy_, but is more serene, exalted, and enduring. _triumph_ is such _joy_ as results from victory, success, achievement. _blessedness_ is at once the state and the sense of being divinely blessed; as, the _blessedness_ of the righteous. _bliss_ is ecstatic, perfected _happiness_; as, the _bliss_ of heaven. compare comfort. antonyms: see synonyms for grief. * * * * * happy. synonyms: blessed, cheering, gay, lucky, rejoiced, blissful, cheery, glad, merry, rejoicing, blithe, delighted, jocund, mirthful, smiling, blithesome, delightful, jolly, pleased, sprightly, bright, dexterous, joyful, prosperous, successful, buoyant, felicitous, joyous, rapturous, sunny. cheerful, fortunate, _happy_ primarily refers to something that comes "by good hap," a chance that brings prosperity, benefit, or success. and grasps the skirts of _happy_ chance. tennyson _in memoriam_ lxiii, st. . in this sense _happy_ is closely allied to _fortunate_ and _lucky_. (see fortunate.) _happy_ has, however, so far diverged from this original sense as to apply to advantages where chance is not recognized, or is even excluded by direct reference to the divine will, when it becomes almost equivalent to _blessed_. behold, _happy_ is the man whom god correcteth. _job_ v, . _happy_ is also applied to the ready dexterity or skill by which favorable results (usually in minor matters) are secured, when it becomes a synonym for _dexterous_, _felicitous_, and the associated words; as, he has a _happy_ wit; _happy_ at retort (compare clever). in its most frequent present use, _happy_ is applied to the state of one enjoying happiness, or to that by which happiness is expressed; as, a _happy_ heart; a _happy_ face; _happy_ laughter; _happy_ tears (compare synonyms for happiness). _cheerful_ applies to the possession or expression of a moderate and tranquil happiness. a _cheery_ word spontaneously gives cheer to others; a _cheering_ word is more distinctly planned to cheer and encourage. _gay_ applies to an effusive and superficial happiness (often not really worthy of that name) perhaps resulting largely from abundant animal spirits: we speak of _gay_ revelers or a _gay_ horse. a _buoyant_ spirit is, as it were, borne up by joy and hope. a _sunny_ disposition has a constant tranquil brightness that irradiates all who come within its influence. antonyms: compare synonyms for grief. prepositions: a happy event _for_ him; happy _at_ a reply; happy _in_ his home, _with_ his friends, _among_ his children; happy _at_ the discovery, _over_ his success. * * * * * harmony. synonyms: accord, concurrence, consistency, uniformity, accordance, conformity, consonance, union, agreement, congruity, symmetry, unison, amity, consent, unanimity, unity. concord, when tones, thoughts, or feelings, individually different, combine to form a consistent and pleasing whole, there is _harmony_. _harmony_ is deeper and more essential than _agreement_; we may have a superficial, forced, or patched-up _agreement_, but never a superficial, forced, or patched-up _harmony_. _concord_ is less full and spiritual than _harmony_. _concord_ implies more volition than _accord_; as, their views were found to be in perfect _accord_; or, by conference _concord_ was secured; we do not secure _accord_, but discover it. we may speak of being in _accord_ with a person on one point, but _harmony_ is wider in range. _conformity_ is correspondence in form, manner, or use; the word often signifies submission to authority or necessity, and may be as far as possible from _harmony_; as, the attempt to secure _conformity_ to an established religion. _congruity_ involves the element of suitableness; _consistency_ implies the absence of conflict or contradiction in views, statements, or acts which are brought into comparison, as in the different statements of the same person or the different periods of one man's life; _unanimity_ is the complete hearty _agreement_ of many; _consent_ and _concurrence_ refer to decision or action, but _consent_ is more passive than _concurrence_; one speaks by general _consent_ when no one in the assembly cares to make formal objection; a decision of the supreme court depends upon the _concurrence_ of a majority of the judges. compare agree; friendship; melody. antonyms: antagonism, contest, discord, hostility, schism, battle, controversy, disproportion, incongruity, separation, conflict, difference, dissension, inconsistency, variance, contention, disagreement, disunion, opposition, warfare. * * * * * harvest. synonyms: crop, harvest-home, ingathering, result, fruit, harvesting, proceeds, return, growth, harvest-tide, produce, yield. harvest-feast, harvest-time, product, harvest-festival, increase, reaping, _harvest_, from the anglo-saxon, signified originally "autumn," and as that is the usual season of gathering ripened _crops_ in northern lands, the word came to its present meaning of the season of gathering ripened grain or _fruits_, whether summer or autumn, and hence a _crop_ gathered or ready for gathering; also, the act or process of gathering a _crop_ or _crops_. "the _harvest_ truly is great, but the laborers are few," _luke_ x, . "lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to _harvest_," _john_ iv, . _harvest_ is the elegant and literary word; _crop_ is the common and commercial expression; we say a man sells his _crop_, but we should not speak of his selling his _harvest_; we speak of an ample or abundant _harvest_, a good _crop_. _harvest_ is applied almost wholly to grain; _crop_ applies to almost anything that is gathered in; we speak of the potato-_crop_, not the potato-_harvest_; we may say either the wheat-_crop_ or the wheat-_harvest_. _produce_ is a collective word for all that is produced in farming or gardening, and is, in modern usage, almost wholly restricted to this sense; we speak of _produce_ collectively, but of a _product_ or various _products_; vegetables, _fruits_, eggs, butter, etc., may be termed farm-_produce_, or the _products_ of the farm. _product_ is a word of wider application than _produce_; we speak of the _products_ of manufacturing, the _products_ of thought, or the _product_ obtained by multiplying one number by another. the word _proceeds_ is chiefly used of the _return_ from an investment: we speak of the _produce_ of a farm, but of the _proceeds_ of the money invested in farming. the _yield_ is what the land gives up to the farmer's demand; we speak of the _return_ from an expenditure of money or labor, but of the _yield_ of corn or oats. _harvest_ has also a figurative use, such as _crop_ more rarely permits; we term a religious revival a _harvest_ of souls; the _result_ of lax enforcement of law is a _harvest_ of crime. as regards time, _harvest_, _harvest-tide_, and _harvest-time_ alike denote the period or season when the crops are or should be gathered (_tide_ being simply the old saxon word for _time_). _harvest-home_ ordinarily denotes the _festival_ of _harvest_, and when used to denote simply the season always gives a suggestion of festivity and rejoicing, such as _harvest_ and _harvest-time_ by themselves do not express. * * * * * hatred. synonyms: abhorrence, detestation, hostility, rancor, anger, dislike, ill will, repugnance, animosity, enmity, malevolence, resentment, antipathy, grudge, malice, revenge, aversion, hate, malignity, spite. _repugnance_ applies to that which one feels himself summoned or impelled to do or to endure, and from which he instinctively draws back. _aversion_ is the turning away of the mind or feelings from some person or thing, or from some course of action, etc. _hate_, or _hatred_, as applied to persons, is intense and continued _aversion_, usually with disposition to injure; _anger_ is sudden and brief, _hatred_ is lingering and enduring; "her wrath became a _hate_," tennyson _pelleas and ettarre_ st. . as applied to things, _hatred_ is intense _aversion_, with desire to destroy or remove; _hatred_ of evil is a righteous passion, akin to _abhorrence_, but more vehement. _malice_ involves the active intent to injure; in the legal sense, _malice_ is the intent to injure, even tho with no personal _ill will_; as, a highwayman would be said to entertain _malice_ toward the unknown traveler whom he attacks. _malice_ is direct, pressing toward a result; _malignity_ is deep, lingering, and venomous, tho often impotent to act; _rancor_ (akin to _rancid_) is cherished _malignity_ that has soured and festered and is virulent and implacable. _spite_ is petty _malice_ that delights to inflict stinging pain; _grudge_ is deeper than _spite_; it is sinister and bitter; _grudge_, _resentment_, and _revenge_ are all retaliatory, _grudge_ being the disposition, _revenge_ the determination to repay real or supposed offense with injury; _revenge_ may denote also the retaliatory act; _resentment_, the best word of the three, always holds itself to be justifiable, but looks less certainly to action than _grudge_ or _revenge_. simple goodness may arouse the _hatred_ of the wicked; they will be moved to _revenge_ only by what they deem an injury or affront. compare abomination; anger; antipathy; enmity. antonyms: see synonyms for friendship; love. * * * * * have. synonyms: be in possession of, hold, occupy, own, possess. be possessed of, _have_ is the most general word, and is applied to whatever belongs to or is connected with one; a man _has_ a head or a head-ache, a fortune or an opinion, a friend or an enemy; he _has_ time, or _has_ need; he may be said to _have_ what is his own, what he has borrowed, what has been entrusted to him, or what he has stolen. to _possess_ a thing is to _have_ the ownership with control and enjoyment of it. to _hold_ is to _have_ in one's hand, or securely in one's control; a man _holds_ his friend's coat for a moment, or he _holds_ a struggling horse; he _holds_ a promissory note, or _holds_ an office. to _own_ is to _have_ the right of property in; to _possess_ is to _have_ that right in actual exercise; to _occupy_ is to _have_ possession and use, with some degree of permanency, with or without ownership. a man _occupies_ his own house or a room in a hotel; a man may _own_ a farm of which he is not in possession because a tenant _occupies_ it and is determined to _hold_ it; the proprietor _owns_ the property, but the tenant _is in possession_. to _be in possession_ differs from _possess_ in that to _possess_ denotes both right and fact, while to _be in possession_ denotes simply the fact with no affirmation as to the right. to _have_ reason is to be endowed with the faculty; to _be in possession of_ one's reason denotes that the faculty is in actual present exercise. * * * * * hazard. synonyms: accident, chance, danger, jeopardy, risk, casualty, contingency, fortuity, peril, venture. _hazard_ is the incurring the possibility of loss or harm for the possibility of benefit; _danger_ may have no compensating alternative. in _hazard_ the possibilities of gain or loss are nearly balanced; in _risk_ the possibility of loss is the chief thought; the foolhardy take great _risks_ in mere wantonness; in _chance_ and _venture_ the hope of good predominates; we speak of a merchant's _venture_, but of an insurance company's _risk_; one may be driven by circumstances to run a _risk_; he freely seeks a _venture_; we speak of the _chance_ of winning, the _hazard_ or _risk_ of losing. _accidents_ are incalculable; _casualties_ may be to a certain extent anticipated; death and wounds are _casualties_ of battle, certain to happen to some, but uncertain as to whom or how many. a _contingency_ is simply an indeterminable future event, which may or may not be attended with _danger_ or _risk_. see accident; danger. antonyms: assurance, necessity, protection, safety, surety. certainty, plan, safeguard, security, * * * * * healthy. synonyms: hale, hygienic, sanitary, vigorous, healthful, salubrious, sound, well, hearty, salutary, strong, wholesome. _healthy_ is most correctly used to signify possessing or enjoying health or its results; as, a _healthy_ person; a _healthy_ condition. _healthful_ signifies promotive of health, tending or adapted to confer, preserve, or promote health; as, a _healthful_ climate. _wholesome_ food in a _healthful_ climate makes a _healthy_ man. with _healthful_ are ranged the words _hygienic_, _salubrious_, _salutary_, _sanitary_, and _wholesome_, while the other words are associated with _healthy_. _salubrious_ is always used in the physical sense, and is chiefly applied to air or climate. _salutary_ is now chiefly used in the moral sense; as, a _salutary_ lesson. antonyms: delicate, failing, ill, unsound, worn, diseased, fainting, sick, wasted, worn down, emaciated, fragile, unhealthy, weak, worn out. exhausted, frail, * * * * * help. synonyms: abet, befriend, foster, succor, uphold. aid, cooperate, second, support, assist, encourage, stand by, sustain, _help_ expresses greater dependence and deeper need than _aid_. in extremity we say "god _help_ me!" rather than "god _aid_ me!" in time of danger we cry "_help! help!_" rather than "_aid! aid!_" to _aid_ is to _second_ another's own exertions. we can speak of _helping_ the helpless, but not of _aiding_ them. _help_ includes _aid_, but _aid_ may fall short of the meaning of _help_. in law to _aid_ or _abet_ makes one a principal. (compare synonyms for accessory.) to _cooperate_ is to _aid_ as an equal; to _assist_ implies a subordinate and secondary relation. one _assists_ a fallen friend to rise; he _cooperates_ with him in helping others. _encourage_ refers to mental _aid_, as _uphold_ now usually does; _succor_ and _support_, oftenest to material assistance. we _encourage_ the timid or despondent, _succor_ the endangered, _support_ the weak, _uphold_ those who else might be shaken or cast down. compare abet; promote. antonyms: counteract, discourage, oppose, resist, thwart, withstand. prepositions: help _in_ an enterprise _with_ money; help _to_ success; _against_ the enemy. * * * * * heretic. synonyms: dissenter, heresiarch, non-conformist, schismatic. etymologically, a _heretic_ is one who takes or chooses his own belief, instead of the belief of his church; hence, a _heretic_ is one who denies commonly accepted views, or who holds opinions contrary to the recognized standard or tenets of any established religious, philosophical, or other system, school, or party; the religious sense of the word is the predominant one; a _schismatic_ is primarily one who produces a split or rent in the church. a _heretic_ differs in doctrine from the religious body with which he is connected; a _schismatic_ differs in doctrine or practise, or in both. a _heretic_ may be reticent, or even silent; a _schismatic_ introduces divisions. a _heresiarch_ is the author of a heresy or the leader of a heretical party, and is thus at once a _heretic_ and a _schismatic_. with advancing ideas of religious liberty, the odious sense once attached to these words is largely modified, and _heretic_ is often used playfully. _dissenter_ and _non-conformist_ are terms specifically applied to english subjects who hold themselves aloof from the church of england; the former term is extended to non-adherents of the established church in some other countries, as russia. * * * * * heterogeneous. synonyms: confused, mingled, unhomogeneous, conglomerate, miscellaneous, unlike, discordant, mixed, variant, dissimilar, non-homogeneous, various. substances quite _unlike_ are _heterogeneous_ as regards each other. a _heterogeneous_ mixture is one whose constituents are not only unlike in kind, but unevenly distributed; cement is composed of substances such as lime, sand, and clay, which are _heterogeneous_ as regards each other, but the cement is said to be homogeneous if the different constituents are evenly mixed throughout, so that any one portion of the mixture is exactly like any other. a substance may fail of being homogeneous and yet not be _heterogeneous_, in which case it is said to be _non-homogeneous_ or _unhomogeneous_; a bar of iron that contains flaws, air-bubbles, etc., or for any other reason is not of uniform structure and density throughout, tho no foreign substance be mixed with the iron, is said to be _non-homogeneous_. a _miscellaneous_ mixture may or may not be _heterogeneous_; if the objects are alike in kind, but different in size, form, quality, use, etc., and without special order or relation, the collection is _miscellaneous_; if the objects differ in kind, such a mixture is also, and more strictly, _heterogeneous_; a pile of unassorted lumber is _miscellaneous_; the contents of a school-boy's pocket are commonly _miscellaneous_ and might usually be termed _heterogeneous_ as well. see complex. antonyms: alike, homogeneous, identical, like, pure, same, similar, uniform. * * * * * hide. synonyms: bury, cover, entomb, overwhelm, suppress, cloak, disguise, inter, screen, veil. conceal, dissemble, mask, secrete. _hide_ is the general term, including all the rest, signifying to put out of sight or beyond ready observation or approach; a thing may be _hidden_ by intention, by accident, or by the imperfection of the faculties of the one from whom it is _hidden_; in their games, children _hide_ the slipper, or _hide_ themselves from each other; a man unconsciously _hides_ a picture from another by standing before it, or _hides_ a thing from himself by laying something else over it. even an unconscious object may _hide_ another; as, a cloud _hides_ the sun, or a building _hides_ some part of the prospect by intervening between it and the observer's position. as an act of persons, to _conceal_ is always intentional; one may _hide_ his face in anger, grief, or abstraction; he _conceals_ his face when he fears recognition. a house is _hidden_ by foliage; the bird's nest is artfully _concealed_. _secrete_ is a stronger word than _conceal_, and is used chiefly of such material objects as may be separated from the person, or from their ordinary surroundings, and put in unlooked-for places; a man _conceals_ a scar on his face, but does not _secrete_ it; a thief _secretes_ stolen goods; an officer may also be said to _secrete_ himself to watch the thief. a thing is _covered_ by putting something over or around it, whether by accident or design; it is _screened_ by putting something before it, always with some purpose of protection from observation, inconvenience, attack, censure, etc. in the figurative use, a person may _hide_ honorable feelings; he _conceals_ an evil or hostile intent. anything which is effectually _covered_ and _hidden_ under any mass or accumulation is _buried_. money is _buried_ in the ground; a body is _buried_ in the sea; a paper is _buried_ under other documents. whatever is _buried_ is _hidden_ or _concealed_; but there are many ways of _hiding_ or _concealing_ a thing without _burying_ it. so a person may be _covered_ with wraps, and not _buried_ under them. _bury_ may be used of any object, _entomb_ and _inter_ only of a dead body. figuratively, one may be said to be _buried_ in business, in study, etc. compare immerse; palliate. antonyms: admit, disclose, exhume, manifest, show, advertise, discover, expose, promulgate, tell, avow, disinter, lay bare, publish, uncover, betray, divulge, lay open, raise, unmask, confess, exhibit, make known, reveal, unveil. * * * * * high. synonyms: elevated, exalted, noble, steep, towering, eminent, lofty, proud, tall, uplifted. _deep_, while an antonym of _high_ in usage, may apply to the very same distance simply measured in an opposite direction, _high_ applying to vertical distance measured from below upward, and _deep_ to vertical distance measured from above downward; as, a _deep_ valley nestling between _high_ mountains. _high_ is a relative term signifying greatly raised above any object, base, or surface, in comparison with what is usual, or with some standard; a table is _high_ if it exceeds thirty inches; a hill is not _high_ at a hundred feet. that is _tall_ whose height is greatly in excess of its breadth or diameter, and whose actual height is great for an object of its kind; as, a _tall_ tree; a _tall_ man; _tall_ grass. that is _lofty_ which is imposing or majestic in height; we term a spire _tall_ with reference to its altitude, or _lofty_ with reference to its majestic appearance. that is _elevated_ which is raised somewhat above its surroundings; that is _eminent_ which is far above them; as, an _elevated_ platform; an _eminent_ promontory. in the figurative sense, _elevated_ is less than _eminent_, and this less than _exalted_; we speak of _high_, _lofty_, or _elevated_ thoughts, aims, etc., in the good sense, but sometimes of _high_ feelings, looks, words, etc., in the invidious sense of haughty or arrogant. a _high_ ambition may be merely selfish; a _lofty_ ambition is worthy and _noble_. _towering_, in the literal sense compares with _lofty_ and majestic; but in the figurative sense, its use is almost always invidious; as, a _towering_ passion; a _towering_ ambition disregards and crushes all opposing considerations, however rational, lovely, or holy. compare steep. antonyms: base, degraded, dwarfed, inferior, low, mean, short, stunted. deep, depressed, * * * * * hinder. synonyms: baffle, clog, foil, obstruct, retard, balk, counteract, frustrate, oppose, stay, bar, delay, hamper, prevent, stop, block, embarrass, impede, resist, thwart. check, encumber, interrupt, to _hinder_ is to keep from action, progress, motion, or growth, or to make such action, progress, motion, or growth later in beginning or completion than it would otherwise have been. an action is _prevented_ by anything that comes in before it to make it impossible; it is _hindered_ by anything that keeps it from either beginning or ending so soon as it otherwise would, or as expected or intended. it is more common, however, to say that the start is _delayed_, the progress _hindered_. an action that is _hindered_ does not take place at the appointed or appropriate time; that which is _prevented_ does not take place at all; to _hinder_ a thing long enough may amount to _preventing_ it. a railroad-train may be _hindered_ by a snow-storm from arriving on time; it may by special order be _prevented_ from starting. to _retard_ is simply to make slow by any means whatever. to _obstruct_ is to _hinder_, or possibly to _prevent_ advance or passage by putting something in the way; to _oppose_ or _resist_ is to _hinder_, or possibly to _prevent_ by directly contrary or hostile action, _resist_ being the stronger term and having more suggestion of physical force; _obstructed_ roads _hinder_ the march of an enemy, tho there may be no force strong enough to _oppose_ it; one _opposes_ a measure, a motion, an amendment, or the like; it is a criminal offense to _resist_ an officer in the discharge of his duty; the physical system may _resist_ the attack of disease or the action of a remedy. compare conquer; impediment; obstruct. antonyms: see synonyms for quicken. prepositions: hinder one _in_ his progress; _from_ acting promptly; _by_ opposition. * * * * * history. synonyms: account, biography, muniment, record, annals, chronicle, narration, register, archives, memoir, narrative, story. autobiography, memorial, recital, _history_ is a systematic record of past events. _annals_ and _chronicles_ relate events with little regard to their relative importance, and with complete subserviency to their succession in time. _annals_ are yearly records; _chronicles_ follow the order of time. both necessarily lack emphasis, selection, and perspective. _archives_ are public _records_, which may be _annals_, or _chronicles_, or deeds of property, etc. _memoirs_ generally record the lives of individuals or facts pertaining to individual lives. a _biography_ is distinctively a written _account_ of one person's life and actions; an _autobiography_ is a _biography_ written by the person whose life it records. _annals_, _archives_, _chronicles_, _biographies_, and _memoirs_ and other _records_ furnish the materials of _history_. _history_ recounts events with careful attention to their importance, their mutual relations, their causes and consequences, selecting and grouping events on the ground of interest or importance. _history_ is usually applied to such an _account_ of events affecting communities and nations, tho sometimes we speak of the _history_ of a single eminent life. compare record. antonyms: see synonyms for fiction. * * * * * holy. synonyms: blessed, devoted, hallowed, saintly, consecrated, divine, sacred, set apart. _sacred_ is applied to that which is to be regarded as inviolable on any account, and so is not restricted to divine things; therefore in its lower applications it is less than _holy_. that which is _sacred_ may be made so by institution, decree, or association; that which is _holy_ is so by its own nature, possessing intrinsic moral purity, and, in the highest sense, absolute moral perfection. god is _holy_; his commands are _sacred_. _holy_ may be applied also to that which is _hallowed_; as, "the place whereon thou standest is _holy_ ground," _ex._ iii, . in such use _holy_ is more than _sacred_, as if the very qualities of a spiritual or divine presence were imparted to the place or object. _divine_ has been used with great looseness, as applying to anything eminent or admirable, in the line either of goodness or of mere power, as to eloquence, music, etc., but there is a commendable tendency to restrict the word to its higher sense, as designating that which belongs to or is worthy of the divine being. compare perfect; pure. antonyms: abominable, cursed, polluted, unconsecrated, unholy, wicked, common, impure, secular, unhallowed, unsanctified, worldly. * * * * * home. synonyms: abode, dwelling, habitation, hearthstone, ingleside, domicil, fireside, hearth, house, residence. _abode_, _dwelling_, and _habitation_ are used with little difference of meaning to denote the place where one habitually lives; _abode_ and _habitation_ belong to the poetic or elevated style. even _dwelling_ is not used in familiar speech; a person says "my _house_," "my _home_," or more formally "my _residence_." _home_, from the anglo-saxon, denoting originally a _dwelling_, came to mean an endeared _dwelling_ as the scene of domestic love and happy and cherished family life, a sense to which there is an increasing tendency to restrict the word--desirably so, since we have other words to denote the mere dwelling-place; we say "the wretched tenement could not be called _home_," or "the humble cabin was dear to him as the _home_ of his childhood." _home_'s not merely four square walls, tho with pictures hung and gilded; _home_ is where affection calls-- where its shrine the heart has builded. thus the word comes to signify any place of rest and peace, and especially heaven, as the soul's peaceful and eternal dwelling-place. * * * * * honest. synonyms: candid, frank, ingenuous, true, equitable, genuine, just, trustworthy, fair, good, sincere, trusty, faithful, honorable, straightforward, upright. one who is _honest_ in the ordinary sense acts or is always disposed to act with careful regard for the rights of others, especially in matters of business or property; one who is _honorable_ scrupulously observes the dictates of a personal honor that is higher than any demands of mercantile law or public opinion, and will do nothing unworthy of his own inherent nobility of soul. the _honest_ man does not steal, cheat, or defraud; the _honorable_ man will not take an unfair advantage that would be allowed him, or will make a sacrifice which no one could require of him, when his own sense of right demands it. one who is _honest_ in the highest and fullest sense is scrupulously careful to adhere to all known truth and right even in thought. in this sense _honest_ differs from _honorable_ as having regard rather to absolute truth and right than to even the highest personal honor. compare candid; justice. antonyms: deceitful, faithless, hypocritical, perfidious, unfaithful, dishonest, false, lying, traitorous, unscrupulous, disingenuous, fraudulent, mendacious, treacherous, untrue. * * * * * horizontal. synonyms: even, flat, level, plain, plane. _horizontal_ signifies in the direction of or parallel to the horizon. for practical purposes _level_ and _horizontal_ are identical, tho _level_, as the more popular word, is more loosely used of that which has no especially noticeable elevations or inequalities; as, a _level_ road. _flat_, according to its derivation from the anglo-saxon _flet_, a floor, applies to a surface only, and, in the first and most usual sense, to a surface that is _horizontal_ or _level_ in all directions; a line may be _level_, a floor is _flat_; _flat_ is also applied in a derived sense to any _plane_ surface without irregularities or elevations, as a picture may be painted on the _flat_ surface of a perpendicular wall. _plane_ applies only to a surface, and is used with more mathematical exactness than _flat_. the adjective _plain_, originally the same word as _plane_, is now rarely used except in the figurative senses, but the original sense appears in the noun, as we speak of "a wide _plain_." we speak of a _horizontal_ line, a _flat_ morass, a _level_ road, a _plain_ country, a _plane_ surface (especially in the scientific sense). that which is _level_ may not be _even_, and that which is _even_ may not be _level_; a _level_ road may be very rough; a slope may be _even_. antonyms: broken, inclined, rolling, rugged, sloping, hilly, irregular, rough, slanting, uneven. * * * * * humane. synonyms: benevolent, compassionate, human, pitying, benignant, forgiving, kind, sympathetic, charitable, gentle, kind-hearted, tender, clement, gracious, merciful, tender-hearted. _human_ denotes what pertains to mankind, with no suggestion as to its being good or evil; as, the _human_ race; _human_ qualities; we speak of _human_ achievements, virtues, or excellences, _human_ follies, vices, or crimes. _humane_ denotes what may rightly be expected of mankind at its best in the treatment of sentient beings; a _humane_ enterprise or endeavor is one that is intended to prevent or relieve suffering. the _humane_ man will not needlessly inflict pain upon the meanest thing that lives; a _merciful_ man is disposed to withhold or mitigate the suffering even of the guilty. the _compassionate_ man sympathizes with and desires to relieve actual suffering, while one who is _humane_ would forestall and prevent the suffering which he sees to be possible. compare mercy; pitiful; pity. antonyms: see synonyms for barbarous. * * * * * hunt. synonyms: chase, hunting, inquisition, pursuit, search. a _hunt_ may be either the act of pursuing or the act of seeking, or a combination of the two. a _chase_ or _pursuit_ is after that which is fleeing or departing; a _search_ is for that which is hidden; a _hunt_ may be for that which is either hidden or fleeing; a _search_ is a minute and careful seeking, and is especially applied to a locality; we make a _search_ of or through a house, for an object, in which connection it would be colloquial to say a _hunt_. _hunt_ never quite loses its association with field-sports, where it includes both _search_ and _chase_; the _search_ till the game is hunted out, and the _chase_ till it is hunted down. figuratively, we speak of literary _pursuits_, or of the _pursuit_ of knowledge; a _search_ for reasons; the _chase_ of fame or honor; _hunt_, in figurative use, inclines to the unfavorable sense of _inquisition_, but with more of dash and aggressiveness; as, a _hunt_ for heresy. * * * * * hypocrisy. synonyms: affectation, formalism, pretense, sanctimony, cant, pharisaism, sanctimoniousness, sham. dissimulation, pietism, _pretense_ (l. _prætendo_) primarily signifies the holding something forward as having certain rights or claims, whether truly or falsely; in the good sense, it is now rarely used except with a negative; as, there can be no _pretense_ that this is due; a false _pretense_ implies the possibility of a true _pretense_; but, alone and unlimited, _pretense_ commonly signifies the offering of something for what it is not. _hypocrisy_ is the false _pretense_ of moral excellence, either as a cover for actual wrong, or for the sake of the credit and advantage attaching to virtue. _cant_ (l. _cantus_, a song), primarily the singsong iteration of the language of any party, school, or sect, denotes the mechanical and pretentious use of religious phraseology, without corresponding feeling or character; _sanctimoniousness_ is the assumption of a saintly manner without a saintly character. as _cant_ is _hypocrisy_ in utterance, so _sanctimoniousness_ is _hypocrisy_ in appearance, as in looks, tones, etc. _pietism_, originally a word of good import, is now chiefly used for an unregulated emotionalism; _formalism_ is an exaggerated devotion to forms, rites, and ceremonies, without corresponding earnestness of heart; _sham_ (identical in origin with _shame_) is a trick or device that puts one to shame, or that shamefully disappoints expectation or falsifies appearance. _affectation_ is in matters of intellect, taste, etc., much what _hypocrisy_ is in morals and religion; _affectation_ might be termed petty _hypocrisy_. compare deception. antonyms: candor, genuineness, ingenuousness, sincerity, truth, frankness, honesty, openness, transparency, truthfulness. * * * * * hypocrite. synonyms: cheat, deceiver, dissembler, impostor, pretender. a _hypocrite_ (gr. _hypokrites_, one who answers on the stage, an actor, especially a mimic actor) is one who acts a false part, or assumes a character other than the real. _deceiver_ is the most comprehensive term, including all the other words of the group. the _deceiver_ seeks to give false impressions of any matter where he has an end to gain; the _dissembler_ or _hypocrite_ seeks to give false impressions in regard to himself. the _dissembler_ is content if he can keep some base conduct or evil purpose from being discovered; the _hypocrite_ seeks not merely to cover his vices, but to gain credit for virtue. the _cheat_ and _impostor_ endeavor to make something out of those they may deceive. the _cheat_ is the inferior and more mercenary, as the thimble-rig gambler; the _impostor_ may aspire to a fortune or a throne. compare hypocrisy. antonyms: the antonyms of _hypocrite_ are to be found only in phrases embodying the adjectives candid, honest, ingenuous, sincere, true, etc. * * * * * hypothesis. synonyms: conjecture, scheme, supposition, system, guess, speculation, surmise, theory. a _hypothesis_ is a statement of what is deemed possibly true, assumed and reasoned upon as if certainly true, with a view of reaching truth not yet surely known; especially, in the sciences, a _hypothesis_ is a comprehensive tentative explanation of certain phenomena, which is meant to include all other facts of the same class, and which is assumed as true till there has been opportunity to bring all related facts into comparison; if the _hypothesis_ explains all the facts, it is regarded as verified; till then it is regarded as a working _hypothesis_, that is, one that may answer for present practical purposes. a _hypothesis_ may be termed a comprehensive _guess_. a _guess_ is a swift conclusion from data directly at hand, and held as probable or tentative, while one confessedly lacks material for absolute certainty. a _conjecture_ is more methodical than a _guess_, while a _supposition_ is still slower and more settled; a _conjecture_, like a _guess_, is preliminary and tentative; a _supposition_ is more nearly final; a _surmise_ is more floating and visionary, and often sinister; as, a _surmise_ that a stranger may be a pickpocket. _theory_ is used of the mental coordination of facts and principles, that may or may not prove correct; a machine may be perfect in _theory_, but useless in fact. _scheme_ may be used as nearly equivalent to _theory_, but is more frequently applied to proposed action, and in the sense of a somewhat visionary plan. a _speculation_ may be wholly of the brain, resting upon no facts worthy of consideration; _system_ is the highest of these terms, having most of assurance and fixity; a _system_ unites many facts, phenomena, or doctrines into an orderly and consistent whole; we speak of a _system_ of theology, of the copernican _system_ of the universe. compare system. antonyms: certainty, demonstration, discovery, evidence, fact, proof. * * * * * idea. synonyms: apprehension, design, impression, plan, archetype, fancy, judgment, purpose, belief, fantasy, model, sentiment, conceit, ideal, notion, supposition, concept, image, opinion, theory, conception, imagination, pattern, thought. _idea_ is in greek a _form_ or an _image_. the word signified in early philosophical use the _archetype_ or primal _image_ which the platonic philosophy supposed to be the _model_ or _pattern_ that existing objects imperfectly embody. this high sense has nearly disappeared from the word _idea_, and has been largely appropriated by _ideal_, tho something of the original meaning still appears when in theological or philosophical language we speak of the _ideas_ of god. the present popular use of _idea_ makes it to signify any product of mental _apprehension_ or activity, considered as an object of knowledge or thought; this coincides with the primitive sense at but a single point--that an _idea_ is mental as opposed to anything substantial or physical; thus, almost any mental product, as a _belief_, _conception_, _design_, _opinion_, etc., may now be called an _idea_. compare fancy; ideal. antonyms: actuality, fact, reality, substance. * * * * * ideal. synonyms: archetype, model, pattern, prototype, standard. idea, original, an _ideal_ is that which is conceived or taken as the highest type of excellence or ultimate object of attainment. the _archetype_ is the primal form, actual or imaginary, according to which any existing thing is constructed; the _prototype_ has or has had actual existence; in the derived sense, as in metrology, a _prototype_ may not be the original form, but one having equal authority with that as a _standard_. an _ideal_ may be primal, or may be slowly developed even from failures and by negations; an _ideal_ is meant to be perfect, not merely the thing that has been attained or is to be attained, but the best conceivable thing that could by possibility be attained. the artist's _ideal_ is his own mental image, of which his finished work is but an imperfect expression. the _original_ is the first specimen, good or bad; the _original_ of a master is superior to all copies. the _standard_ may be below the _ideal_. the _ideal_ is imaginary, and ordinarily unattainable; the _standard_ is concrete, and ordinarily attainable, being a measure to which all else of its kind must conform; as, the _standard_ of weights and measures, of corn, or of cotton. the _idea_ of virtue is the mental concept or image of virtue in general; the _ideal_ of virtue is the mental concept or image of virtue in its highest conceivable perfection. compare example; idea. antonyms: accomplishment, action, doing, fact, practise, achievement, attainment, embodiment, incarnation, reality, act, development, execution, performance, realization. * * * * * idiocy. synonyms: fatuity, foolishness, incapacity, stupidity. folly, imbecility, senselessness, _idiocy_ is a state of mental unsoundness amounting almost or quite to total absence of understanding. _imbecility_ is a condition of mental weakness, which may or may not be as complete as that of _idiocy_, but is at least such as to incapacitate for the serious duties of life. _incapacity_, or lack of legal qualification for certain acts, necessarily results from _imbecility_, but may also result from other causes, as from insanity or from age, sex, etc.; as, the _incapacity_ of a minor to make a contract. _idiocy_ or _imbecility_ is weakness of mind, while insanity is disorder or abnormal action of mind. _folly_ and _foolishness_ denote a want of mental and often of moral balance. _fatuity_ is sometimes used as equivalent to _idiocy_, but more frequently signifies conceited and excessive _foolishness_ or _folly_. _stupidity_ is dulness and slowness of mental action which may range all the way from lack of normal readiness to absolute _imbecility_. compare insanity. antonyms: acuteness, brilliancy, common sense, sagacity, soundness, astuteness, capacity, intelligence, sense, wisdom. * * * * * idle. synonyms: inactive, inert, slothful, trifling, unoccupied, indolent, lazy, sluggish, unemployed, vacant. _idle_ in all uses rests upon its root meaning, as derived from the anglo-saxon _idel_, which signifies vain, empty, useless. _idle_ thus denotes not primarily the absence of action, but vain action--the absence of useful, effective action; the _idle_ schoolboy may be very actively whittling his desk or tormenting his neighbors. doing nothing whatever is the secondary meaning of _idle_. one may be temporarily _idle_ of necessity; if he is habitually _idle_, it is his own fault. _lazy_ signifies indisposed to exertion, averse to labor; idleness is in fact; laziness is in disposition or inclination. a _lazy_ person may chance to be employed in useful work, but he acts without energy or impetus. we speak figuratively of a _lazy_ stream. the _inert_ person seems like dead matter (characterized by inertia), powerless to move; the _sluggish_ moves heavily and toilsomely; the most active person may sometimes find the bodily or mental powers _sluggish_. _slothful_ belongs in the moral realm, denoting a self-indulgent aversion to exertion. "the _slothful_ hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth," _prov._ xxvi, . _indolent_ is a milder term for the same quality; the _slothful_ man hates action; the _indolent_ man loves inaction. compare vain. antonyms: active, busy, diligent, employed, industrious, occupied, working. * * * * * ignorant. synonyms: ill-informed, unenlightened, unlearned, untaught, illiterate, uninformed, unlettered, untutored. uneducated, uninstructed, unskilled, _ignorant_ signifies destitute of education or knowledge, or lacking knowledge or information; it is thus a relative term. the most learned man is still _ignorant_ of many things; persons are spoken of as _ignorant_ who have not the knowledge that has become generally diffused in the world; the _ignorant_ savage may be well instructed in matters of the field and the chase, and is thus more properly _untutored_ than _ignorant_. _illiterate_ is without letters and the knowledge that comes through reading. _unlettered_ is similar in meaning to _illiterate_, but less absolute; the _unlettered_ man may have acquired the art of reading and writing and some elementary knowledge; the _uneducated_ man has never taken any systematic course of mental training. _ignorance_ is relative; _illiteracy_ is absolute; we have statistics of _illiteracy_; no statistics of _ignorance_ are possible. antonyms: educated, learned, sage, skilled, trained, well-informed, wise. instructed, * * * * * imagination. synonyms: fancy, fantasy, phantasy. the old psychology treated of the _reproductive imagination_, which simply reproduces the images that the mind has in any way acquired, and the _productive imagination_ which modifies and combines mental images so as to produce what is virtually new. to this _reproductive imagination_ president noah porter and others have given the name of _phantasy_ or _fantasy_ (many psychologists preferring the former spelling). _phantasy_ or _fantasy_, so understood, presents numerous and varied images, often combining them into new forms with exceeding vividness, yet without any true constructive power, but with the mind adrift, blindly and passively following the laws of association, and with reason and will in torpor; the mental images being perhaps as varied and as vivid, but also as purposeless and unsystematized as the visual images in a kaleidoscope; such _fantasy_ (often loosely called _imagination_) appears in dreaming, reverie, somnambulism, and intoxication. _fantasy_ in ordinary usage simply denotes capricious or erratic _fancy_, as appears in the adjective _fantastic_. _imagination_ and _fancy_ differ from _fantasy_ in bringing the images and their combinations under the control of the will; _imagination_ is the broader and higher term, including _fancy_; _imagination_ is the act or power of imaging or of reimaging objects of perception or thought, of combining the products of knowledge in modified, new, or ideal forms--the creative or constructive power of the mind; while _fancy_ is the act or power of forming pleasing, graceful, whimsical, or odd mental images, or of combining them with little regard to rational processes of construction; _imagination_ in its lower form. both _fancy_ and _imagination_ recombine and modify mental images; either may work with the other's materials; _imagination_ may glorify the tiniest flower; _fancy_ may play around a mountain or a star; the one great distinction between them is that _fancy_ is superficial, while _imagination_ is deep, essential, spiritual. wordsworth, who was the first clearly to draw the distinction between the _fancy_ and the _imagination_, states it as follows: to aggregate and to associate, to evoke and to combine, belong as well to the _imagination_ as to the _fancy_; but either the materials evoked and combined are different; or they are brought together under a different law, and for a different purpose. _fancy_ does not require that the materials which she makes use of should be susceptible of changes in their constitution from her touch; and where they admit of modification, it is enough for her purpose if it be slight, limited, and evanescent. directly the reverse of these are the desires and demands of the _imagination_. she recoils from everything but the plastic, the pliant, and the indefinite. she leaves it to _fancy_ to describe queen mab as coming: 'in shape no bigger than an agate stone on the forefinger of an alderman.' having to speak of stature, she does not tell you that her gigantic angel was as tall as pompey's pillar; much less that he was twelve cubits or twelve hundred cubits high; or that his dimensions equalled those of teneriffe or atlas; because these, and if they were a million times as high, it would be the same, are bounded. the expression is, 'his stature reached the sky!' the illimitable firmament!--when the _imagination_ frames a comparison, ... a sense of the truth of the likeness from the moment that it is perceived grows--and continues to grow--upon the mind; the resemblance depending less upon outline of form and feature than upon expression and effect, less upon casual and outstanding than upon inherent and internal properties.[b] _poetical works, pref. to ed. of _, p. , app. [t. & h. ' .] so far as actual images are concerned, both _fancy_ and _imagination_ are limited to the materials furnished by the external world; it is remarkable that among all the representations of gods or demigods, fiends and demons, griffins and chimæras, the human mind has never invented one organ or attribute that is not presented in human or animal life; the lion may have a human head and an eagle's wings and claws, but in the various features, individually, there is absolutely nothing new. but _imagination_ can transcend the work of _fancy_, and compare an image drawn from the external world with some spiritual truth born in the mind itself, or infuse a series of images with such a spiritual truth, molding them as needed for its more vivid expression. the _imagination_ modifies images, and gives unity to variety; it sees all things in one.... there is the epic _imagination_, the perfection of which is in milton; and the dramatic, of which shakspeare is the absolute master. coleridge _table talk_ june , ' . _fancy_ keeps the material image prominent and clear, and works not only with it, but for it; _imagination_ always uses the material object as the minister of something greater than itself, and often almost loses the object in the spiritual idea with which she has associated it, and for which alone she values it. _fancy_ flits about the surface, and is airy and playful, sometimes petty and sometimes false; _imagination_ goes to the heart of things, and is deep, earnest, serious, and seeks always and everywhere for essential truth. _fancy_ sets off, variegates, and decorates; _imagination_ transforms and exalts. _fancy_ delights and entertains; _imagination_ moves and thrills. _imagination_ is not only poetic or literary, but scientific, philosophical, and practical. by _imagination_ the architect sees the unity of a building not yet begun, and the inventor sees the unity and varied interactions of a machine never yet constructed, even a unity that no human eye ever can see, since when the machine is in actual motion, one part may hide the connecting parts, and yet all keep the unity of the inventor's thought. by _imagination_ a newton sweeps sun, planets, and stars into unity with the earth and the apple that is drawn irresistibly to its surface, and sees them all within the circle of one grand law. science, philosophy, and mechanical invention have little use for _fancy_, but the creative, penetrative power of _imagination_ is to them the breath of life, and the condition of all advance and success. see also fancy; idea. [b] the whole discussion from which the quotation is taken is worthy of, and will well repay, careful study. * * * * * immediately. synonyms: at once, instanter, presently, straightway, directly, instantly, right away, this instant, forthwith, now, right off, without delay. the strong and general human tendency to procrastination is shown in the progressive weakening of the various words in this group. _immediately_ primarily signifies without the intervention of anything as a medium, hence without the intervention of any, even the briefest, interval or lapse of time. _by and by_, which was once a synonym, has become an antonym of _immediately_, meaning at some (perhaps remote) future time. _directly_, which once meant with no intervening time, now means after some little while; _presently_ no longer means in this very present, but before very long. even _immediately_ is sliding from its instantaneousness, so that we are fain to substitute _at once_, _instantly_, etc., when we would make promptness emphatic. _right away_ and _right off_ are vigorous conversational expressions in the united states. antonyms: after a while, by and by, hereafter, in the future, some time. * * * * * immerse. synonyms: bury, dip, douse, duck, immerge, plunge, sink, submerge. _dip_ is saxon, while _immerse_ is latin for the same initial act; _dip_ is accordingly the more popular and commonplace, _immerse_ the more elegant and dignified expression in many cases. to speak of baptism by immersion as _dipping_ now seems rude; tho entirely proper and usual in early english. baptists now universally use the word _immerse_. to _dip_ and to _immerse_ alike signify to _bury_ or _submerge_ some object in a liquid; but _dip_ implies that the object _dipped_ is at once removed from the liquid, while _immerse_ is wholly silent as to the removal. _immerse_ also suggests more absolute completeness of the action; one may _dip_ his sleeve or _dip_ a sponge in a liquid, if he but touches the edge; if he _immerses_ it, he completely _sinks_ it under, and covers it with the liquid. _submerge_ implies that the object can not readily be removed, if at all; as, a _submerged_ wreck. to _plunge_ is to _immerse_ suddenly and violently, for which _douse_ and _duck_ are colloquial terms. _dip_ is used, also, unlike the other words, to denote the putting of a hollow vessel into a liquid in order to remove a portion of it; in this sense we say _dip up_, _dip out_. compare synonyms for bury. preposition: the object is immersed _in_ water. * * * * * imminent. synonyms: impending, threatening. _imminent_, from the latin, with the sense of projecting over, signifies liable to happen at once, as some calamity, dangerous and close at hand. _impending_, also from the latin, with the sense of hanging over, is closely akin to _imminent_, but somewhat less emphatic. _imminent_ is more immediate, _impending_ more remote, _threatening_ more contingent. an _impending_ evil is almost sure to happen at some uncertain time, perhaps very near; an _imminent_ peril is one liable to befall very speedily; a _threatening_ peril may be near or remote, but always with hope that it may be averted. antonyms: chimerical, doubtful, problematical, unexpected, unlikely. contingent, improbable, * * * * * impediment. synonyms: bar, clog, encumbrance, obstacle, barrier, difficulty, hindrance, obstruction. _difficulty_ makes an undertaking otherwise than easy. that which rests upon one as a burden is an _encumbrance_. an _impediment_ is primarily something that checks the foot or in any way makes advance slow or difficult; an _obstacle_ is something that stands across the way, an _obstruction_ something that is built or placed across the way. an _obstruction_ is always an _obstacle_, but an _obstacle_ may not always be properly termed an _obstruction_; boxes and bales placed on the sidewalk are _obstructions_ to travel; an ice-floe is an _obstacle_ to navigation, and may become an _obstruction_ if it closes an inlet or channel. a _hindrance_ (kindred with _hind_, _behind_) is anything that makes one come behind or short of his purpose. an _impediment_ may be either what one finds in his way or what he carries with him; _impedimenta_ was the latin name for the baggage of a soldier or of an army. the tendency is to view an _impediment_ as something constant or, at least for a time, continuous; as, an _impediment_ in one's speech. a _difficulty_ or a _hindrance_ may be either within one or without; a speaker may find _difficulty_ in expressing himself, or _difficulty_ in holding the attention of restless children. an _encumbrance_ is always what one carries with him; an _obstacle_ or an _obstruction_ is always without. to a marching soldier the steepness of a mountain path is a _difficulty_, loose stones are _impediments_, a fence is an _obstruction_, a cliff or a boulder across the way is an _obstacle_; a knapsack is an _encumbrance_. antonyms: advantage, aid, assistance, benefit, help, relief, succor. * * * * * impudence. synonyms: assurance, impertinence, intrusiveness, presumption, boldness, incivility, officiousness, rudeness, effrontery, insolence, pertness, sauciness. forwardness, _impertinence_ primarily denotes what does not pertain or belong to the occasion or the person, and hence comes to signify interference by word or act not consistent with the age, position, or relation of the person interfered with or of the one who interferes; especially, forward, presumptuous, or meddlesome speech. _impudence_ is shameless _impertinence_. what would be arrogance in a superior becomes _impertinence_ or _impudence_ in an inferior. _impertinence_ has less of intent and determination than _impudence_. we speak of thoughtless _impertinence_, shameless _impudence_. _insolence_ is literally that which is against custom, _i. e._, the violation of customary respect and courtesy. _officiousness_ is thrusting upon others unasked and undesired service, and is often as well-meant as it is annoying. _rudeness_ is the behavior that might be expected from a thoroughly uncultured person, and may be either deliberate and insulting or unintentional and even unconscious. compare arrogance; assurance; effrontery; pertness. antonyms: bashfulness, diffidence, lowliness, modesty, coyness, humility, meekness, submissiveness. prepositions: the impudence _of_, or impudence _from_, a subordinate _to_ a superior. * * * * * incongruous. synonyms: absurd, ill-matched, inharmonious, conflicting, inapposite, irreconcilable, contradictory, inappropriate, mismatched, contrary, incommensurable, mismated, discordant, incompatible, repugnant, discrepant, inconsistent, unsuitable. two or more things that do not fit well together, or are not adapted to each other, are said to be _incongruous_; a thing is said to be _incongruous_ that is not adapted to the time, place, or occasion; the term is also applied to a thing made up of ill-assorted parts or _inharmonious_ elements. _discordant_ is applied to all things that jar in association like musical notes that are not in accord; _inharmonious_ has the same original sense, but is a milder term. _incompatible_ primarily signifies unable to sympathize or feel alike; _inconsistent_ means unable to stand together. things are _incompatible_ which can not exist together in harmonious relations, and whose action when associated tends to ultimate extinction of one by the other. _inconsistent_ applies to things that can not be made to agree in thought with each other, or with some standard of truth or right; slavery and freedom are _inconsistent_ with each other in theory, and _incompatible_ in fact. _incongruous_ applies to relations, _unsuitable_ to purpose or use; two colors are _incongruous_ which can not be agreeably associated; either may be _unsuitable_ for a person, a room, or an occasion. _incommensurable_ is a mathematical term, applying to two or more quantities that have no common measure or aliquot part. antonyms: accordant, agreeing, compatible, consistent, harmonious, suitable. preposition: the illustrations were incongruous _with_ the theme. * * * * * induction. synonyms: deduction, inference. _deduction_ is reasoning from the general to the particular; _induction_ is reasoning from the particular to the general. _deduction_ proceeds from a general principle through an admitted instance to a conclusion. _induction_, on the other hand, proceeds from a number of collated instances, through some attribute common to them all, to a general principle. the proof of an _induction_ is by using its conclusion as the premise of a new _deduction_. thus what is ordinarily known as scientific _induction_ is a constant interchange of _induction_ and _deduction_. in _deduction_, if the general rule is true, and the special case falls under the rule, the conclusion is certain; _induction_ can ordinarily give no more than a probable conclusion, because we can never be sure that we have collated all instances. an _induction_ is of the nature of an _inference_, but while an _inference_ may be partial and hasty, an _induction_ is careful, and aims to be complete. compare demonstration; hypothesis. * * * * * industrious. synonyms: active, busy, employed, occupied, assiduous, diligent, engaged, sedulous. _industrious_ signifies zealously or habitually applying oneself to any work or business. _busy_ applies to an activity which may be temporary, _industrious_ to a habit of life. we say a man is _busy_ just now; that is, _occupied_ at the moment with something that takes his full attention. it would be ridiculous or satirical to say, he is _industrious_ just now. but _busy_ can be used in the sense of _industrious_, as when we say he is a _busy_ man. _diligent_ indicates also a disposition, which is ordinarily habitual, and suggests more of heartiness and volition than _industrious_. we say one is a _diligent_, rather than an _industrious_, reader of the bible. in the use of the nouns, we speak of plodding _industry_, but not of plodding _diligence_. compare active; industry. antonyms: see synonyms for idle. * * * * * industry. synonyms: application, diligence, labor, persistence, assiduity, effort, pains, sedulousness. attention, exertion, patience, constancy, intentness, perseverance, _industry_ is the quality, action, or habit of earnest, steady, and continued attention or devotion to any useful or productive work or task, manual or mental. _assiduity_ (l. _ad_, to, and _sedeo_, sit), as the etymology suggests, sits down to a task until it is done. _diligence_ (l. _diligo_, love, choose) invests more effort and exertion, with love of the work or deep interest in its accomplishment; _application_ (l. _ad_, to, and _plico_, fold) bends to its work and concentrates all one's powers upon it with utmost intensity; hence, _application_ can hardly be as unremitting as _assiduity_. _constancy_ is a steady devotion of heart and principle. _patience_ works on in spite of annoyances; _perseverance_ overcomes hindrances and difficulties; _persistence_ strives relentlessly against opposition; _persistence_ has very frequently an unfavorable meaning, implying that one persists in spite of considerations that should induce him to desist. _industry_ is _diligence_ applied to some avocation, business, or profession. _labor_ and _pains_ refer to the _exertions_ of the worker and the tax upon him, while _assiduity_, _perseverance_, etc., refer to his continuance in the work. antonyms: changeableness, idleness, inconstancy, neglect, remissness, fickleness, inattention, indolence, negligence, sloth. * * * * * infinite. synonyms: absolute, illimitable, limitless, unconditioned, boundless, immeasurable, measureless, unfathomable, countless, innumerable, numberless, unlimited, eternal, interminable, unbounded, unmeasured. _infinite_ (l. _in_, not, and _finis_, limit) signifies without bounds or limits in any way, and may be applied to space, time, quantity, or number. _countless_, _innumerable_, and _numberless_, which should be the same as _infinite_, are in common usage vaguely employed to denote what it is difficult or practically impossible to count or number, tho perhaps falling far short of _infinite_; as, _countless_ leaves, the _countless_ sands on the seashore, _numberless_ battles, _innumerable_ delays. so, too, _boundless_, _illimitable_, _limitless_, _measureless_, and _unlimited_ are loosely used in reference to what has no apparent or readily determinable limits in space or time; as, we speak of the _boundless_ ocean. _infinite_ space is without bounds, not only in fact, but in thought; _infinite_ time is truly _eternal_. compare synonyms for eternal. antonyms: bounded, finite, measurable, restricted, small, brief, limited, moderate, shallow, transient, circumscribed, little, narrow, short, transitory. evanescent, * * * * * influence. synonyms: actuate, draw, impel, induce, move, stir, compel, drive, incite, instigate, persuade, sway, dispose, excite, incline, lead, prompt, urge. to _influence_ (l. _in_, in or into, and _fluo_, flow) is to affect, modify, or act upon by physical, mental, or moral power, especially in some gentle, subtle, and gradual way; as, vegetation is _influenced_ by light; every one is _influenced_ to some extent by public opinion; _influence_ is chiefly used of power acting from without, tho it may be used of motives regarded as forces acting upon the will. _actuate_ refers solely to mental or moral power _impelling_ one from within. one may _influence_, but can not directly _actuate_ another; but one may be _actuated_ to cruelty by hatred which another's misrepresentation has aroused. _prompt_ and _stir_ are words of mere suggestion toward some course of action; _dispose_, _draw_, _incline_, _influence_, and _lead_ refer to the use of mild means to awaken in another a purpose or disposition to act. to _excite_ is to arouse one from lethargy or indifference to action. _incite_ and _instigate_, to spur or goad one to action, differ in the fact that _incite_ may be to good, while _instigate_ is always to evil (compare abet). to _urge_ and _impel_ signify to produce strong excitation toward some act. we are _urged_ from without, _impelled_ from within. _drive_ and _compel_ imply irresistible influence accomplishing its object. one may be _driven_ either by his own passions or by external force or urgency; one is _compelled_ only by some external power; as, the owner was _compelled_ by his misfortunes to sell his estate. compare compel; drive. antonyms: deter, dissuade, impede, prevent, restrain, retard. discourage, hinder, inhibit, prepositions: actuated _to_ crime _by_ revenge. * * * * * inherent. synonyms: congenital, indispensable, innate, native, essential, indwelling, inseparable, natural, immanent, infixed, internal, subjective. inborn, ingrained, intrinsic, inbred, inhering, inwrought, _inherent_ signifies permanently united as an element or original quality, naturally existent or incorporated in something so as to have become an integral part. _immanent_ is a philosophic word, to denote that which dwells in or pervades any substance or spirit without necessarily being a part of it, and without reference to any working out (compare subjective). that which is _inherent_ is an _inseparable_ part of that in which it inheres, and is usually thought of with reference to some outworking or effect; as, an _inherent_ difficulty. god is said to be _immanent_ (not _inherent_) in the universe. frequently _intrinsic_ and _inherent_ can be interchanged, but _inherent_ applies to qualities, while _intrinsic_ applies to essence, so that to speak of _intrinsic_ excellence conveys higher praise than if we say _inherent_ excellence. _inherent_ and _intrinsic_ may be said of persons or things; _congenital_, _inborn_, _inbred_, _innate_, apply to living beings. _congenital_ is frequent in medical and legal use with special application to defects; as, _congenital_ idiocy. _innate_ and _inborn_ are almost identical, but _innate_ is preferred in philosophic use, as when we speak of _innate_ ideas; that which is _inborn_, _congenital_, or _innate_ may be original with the individual, but that which is _inbred_ is inherited. _ingrained_ signifies dyed in the grain, and denotes that which is deeply wrought into substance or character. antonyms: accidental, extrinsic, outward, superficial, supplemental, casual, fortuitous, subsidiary, superfluous, transient, external, incidental, superadded, superimposed, unconnected. * * * * * injury. synonyms: blemish, disadvantage, hurt, loss, prejudice, damage, evil, impairment, mischief, wrong. detriment, harm, injustice, outrage, _injury_ (l. _in_, not, and _jus, juris_, right, law) signifies primarily something done contrary to law or right; hence, something contrary to some standard of right or good; whatever reduces the value, utility, beauty, or desirableness of anything is an _injury_ to that thing; of persons, whatever is so done as to operate adversely to one in his person, rights, property, or reputation is an _injury_; the word is especially used of whatever mars the integrity of the body or causes pain; as, when rescued from the wreck his _injuries_ were found to be very slight. _injury_ is the general term including all the rest. _damage_ (l. _damnum_, loss) is that which occasions _loss_ to the possessor; hence, any impairment of value, often with the suggestion of fault on the part of the one causing it; _damage_ reduces value, utility, or beauty; _detriment_ (l. _deterere_, to rub or wear away) is similar in meaning, but far milder. _detriment_ may affect value only; _damage_ always affects real worth or utility; as a rule, the slightest use of an article by a purchaser operates to its _detriment_ if again offered for sale, tho the article may have received not the slightest _damage_. _damage_ is partial; _loss_ is properly absolute as far as it is predicated at all; the _loss_ of a ship implies that it is gone beyond recovery; the _loss_ of the rudder is a _damage_ to the ship; but since the _loss_ of a part still leaves a part, we may speak of a partial or a total _loss_. _evil_ commonly suggests suffering or sin, or both; as, the _evils_ of poverty, the social _evil_. _harm_ is closely synonymous with _injury_; it may apply to body, mind, or estate, but always affects real worth, while _injury_ may concern only estimated value. a _hurt_ is an _injury_ that causes pain, physical or mental; a slight _hurt_ may be no real _harm_. _mischief_ is disarrangement, trouble, or _harm_ usually caused by some voluntary agent, with or without injurious intent; a child's thoughtless sport may do great _mischief_; _wrong_ is _harm_ done with _evil_ intent. an _outrage_ combines insult and _injury_. compare synonyms for blemish; criminal; injustice. antonyms: advantage, benefit, boon, improvement, service, amelioration, blessing, help, remedy, utility. prepositions: the injury _of_ the cause; an injury _to_ the structure; injury _by_ fire; _by_ or _from_ collision, interference, etc. * * * * * injustice. synonyms: grievance, injury, unfairness, unrighteousness, wrong. iniquity, _injustice_ is a violation or denial of justice, an act or omission that is contrary to equity or justice; as, the _injustice_ of unequal taxes. in legal usage a _wrong_ involves _injury_ to person, property, or reputation, as the result of evil intent; _injustice_ applies to civil damage or loss, not necessarily involving _injury_ to person or property, as by misrepresentation of goods which does not amount to a legal warranty. in popular usage, _injustice_ may involve no direct _injury_ to person, property, interest, or character, and no harmful intent, while _wrong_ always involves both; one who attributes another's truly generous act to a selfish motive does him an _injustice_. _iniquity_, in the original sense, is a want of or a deviation from equity; but it is now applied in the widest sense to any form of ill-doing. compare synonyms for criminal; sin. antonyms: equity, faithfulness, impartiality, lawfulness, righteousness, fairness, honesty, integrity, rectitude, uprightness. fair play, honor, justice, right, * * * * * innocent. synonyms: blameless, guiltless, inoffensive, spotless, clean, harmless, pure, stainless, clear, immaculate, right, upright, faultless, innocuous, righteous, virtuous. guileless, innoxious, sinless, _innocent_, in the full sense, signifies not tainted with sin; not having done wrong or violated legal or moral precept or duty; as, an _innocent_ babe. _innocent_ is a negative word, expressing less than _righteous_, _upright_, or _virtuous_, which imply knowledge of good and evil, with free choice of the good. a little child or a lamb is _innocent_; a tried and faithful man is _righteous_, _upright_, _virtuous_. _immaculate_, _pure_, and _sinless_ may be used either of one who has never known the possibility of evil or of one who has perfectly and triumphantly resisted it. _innocent_ is used of inanimate substances in the sense of _harmless_; as, an _innocent_ remedy, that is, one not dangerous, even if not helpful. _innocent_, in a specific case, signifies free from the guilt of a particular act, even tho the total character may be very evil; as, the thief was found to be _innocent_ of the murder. see candid; pure. antonyms: compare synonyms for criminal. * * * * * inquisitive. synonyms: curious, meddlesome, peeping, scrutinizing, inquiring, meddling, prying, searching. intrusive, an _inquisitive_ person is one who is bent on finding out all that can be found out by inquiry, especially of little and personal matters, and hence is generally _meddlesome_ and _prying_. _inquisitive_ may be used in a good sense, tho in such connection _inquiring_ is to be preferred; as, an _inquiring_ mind. as applied to a state of mind, _curious_ denotes a keen and rather pleasurable desire to know fully something to which one's attention has been called, but without the active tendency that _inquisitive_ implies; a well-bred person may be _curious_ to know, but will not be _inquisitive_ in trying to ascertain, what is of interest in the affairs of another. antonyms: apathetic, heedless, indifferent, unconcerned, uninterested. careless, inattentive, prepositions: inquisitive _about_, _concerning_, _in regard to_, _regarding_ trifles. * * * * * insanity. synonyms: aberration, delirium, frenzy, madness, alienation, dementia, hallucination, mania, craziness, derangement, lunacy, monomania. of these terms _insanity_ is the most exact and comprehensive, including in its widest sense all morbid conditions of mind due to diseased action of the brain or nervous system, but in its more frequent restricted use applied to those forms in which the mental disorder is persistent, as distinguished from those in which it is temporary or transient. _craziness_ is a vague popular term for any sort of disordered mental action, or for conduct suggesting it. _lunacy_ originally denoted intermittent _insanity_, supposed to be dependent on the changes of the moon (l. _luna_): the term is now applied in general and legal use to any form of mental unsoundness except idiocy. _madness_ is the old popular term, now less common, for _insanity_ in its widest sense, but with suggestion of excitement, akin to _mania_. in the derived sense, _lunacy_ denotes what is insanely foolish, _madness_ what is insanely desperate. _derangement_ is a common euphemism for _insanity_. _delirium_ is always temporary, and is specifically the _insanity_ of disease, as in acute fevers. _dementia_ is a general weakening of the mental powers: the word is specifically applied to senile _insanity_, dotage. _aberration_ is eccentricity of mental action due to an abnormal state of the perceptive faculties, and is manifested by error in perceptions and rambling thought. _hallucination_ is the apparent perception of that which does not exist or is not present to the senses, as the seeing of specters or of reptiles in delirium tremens. _monomania_ is mental _derangement_ as to one subject or object. _frenzy_ and _mania_ are forms of raving and furious _insanity_. compare synonyms for delusion; idiocy. antonyms: clearness, good sense, lucidity, rationality, sanity. * * * * * interpose. synonyms: arbitrate, intercept, intermeddle, meddle, intercede, interfere, interrupt, mediate. to _interpose_ is to place or come between other things or persons, usually as a means of obstruction or prevention of some effect or result that would otherwise occur, or be expected to take place. _intercede_ and _interpose_ are used in a good sense; _intermeddle_ always in a bad sense, and _interfere_ frequently so. to _intercede_ is to come between persons who are at variance, and plead with the stronger in behalf of the weaker. one may _interpose_ with authority; he _intercedes_ by petition. to _intermeddle_ is to thrust oneself into the concerns of others with a petty officiousness; _meddling_ commonly arises from idle curiosity; "every fool will be _meddling_," _prov._ xx, ; to _interfere_ is to intrude into others' affairs with more serious purpose, with or without acknowledged right or propriety. _intercept_ is applied to an object that may be seized or stopped while in transit; as, to _intercept_ a letter or a messenger; _interrupt_ is applied to an action which might or should be continuous, but is broken in upon (l. _rumpere_, to break) by some disturbing power; as, the conversation was _interrupted_. one who _arbitrates_ or _mediates_ must do so by the request or at least with the consent of the contending parties; the other words of the group imply that he steps in of his own accord. antonyms: avoid, keep aloof, keep out, retire, stand back, hold aloof, keep away, let alone, stand aside, stand off, hold off, keep clear, let be, stand away, withdraw. prepositions: interpose _between_ the combatants; _in_ the matter. * * * * * involve. synonyms: complicate, embroil, implicate, include, embarrass, entangle, imply, overwhelm. to _involve_ (l. _in_, in, and _volvo_, roll) is to roll or wind up with or in so as to combine inextricably or inseparably, or nearly so; as, the nation is _involved_ in war; the bookkeeper's accounts, or the writer's sentences are _involved_. _involve_ is a stronger word than _implicate_, denoting more complete entanglement. as applied to persons, _implicate_ is always used in an unfavorable sense, and _involve_ ordinarily so; but _implicate_ applies only to that which is wrong, while _involve_ is more commonly used of that which is unfortunate; one is _implicated_ in a crime, _involved_ in embarrassments, misfortunes, or perplexities. as regards logical connection that which is _included_ is usually expressly stated; that which is _implied_ is not stated, but is naturally to be inferred; that which is _involved_ is necessarily to be inferred; as, a slate roof is _included_ in the contract; that the roof shall be water-tight is _implied_; the contrary supposition _involves_ an absurdity. see complex. antonyms: disconnect, distinguish, explicate, extricate, remove, separate. disentangle, * * * * * journey. synonyms: excursion, pilgrimage, transit, trip, expedition, tour, travel, voyage. a _journey_ (f. _journée_, from l. _diurnus_, daily) was primarily a day's work; hence, a movement from place to place within one day, which we now describe as "a day's _journey_;" in its extended modern use a _journey_ is a direct going from a starting-point to a destination, ordinarily over a considerable distance; we speak of a day's _journey_, or the _journey_ of life. _travel_ is a passing from place to place, not necessarily in a direct line or with fixed destination; a _journey_ through europe would be a passage to some destination beyond or at the farther boundary; _travel_ in europe may be in no direct course, but may include many _journeys_ in different directions. a _voyage_, which was formerly a _journey_ of any kind, is now a going to a considerable distance by water, especially by sea; as, a _voyage_ to india. a _trip_ is a short and direct _journey_. a _tour_ is a _journey_ that returns to the starting-point, generally over a considerable distance; as, a bridal _tour_, or business _tour_. an _excursion_ is a brief _tour_ or _journey_, taken for pleasure, often by many persons at once; as, an _excursion_ to chautauqua. _passage_ is a general word for a _journey_ by any conveyance, especially by water; as, a rough _passage_ across the atlantic; _transit_, literally the act of passing over or through, is used specifically of the conveyance of passengers or merchandise; rapid _transit_ is demanded for suburban residents or perishable goods. _pilgrimage_, once always of a sacred character, retains in derived uses something of that sense; as, a _pilgrimage_ to stratford-on-avon. prepositions: a journey _from_ naples _to_ rome; _through_ mexico; _across_ the continent; _over_ the sea; a journey _into_ asia; _among_ savages; _by_ land, _by_ rail, _for_ health, _on_ foot, _on_ the cars, etc. * * * * * judge. synonyms: arbiter, arbitrator, justice, referee, umpire. a _judge_, in the legal sense, is a judicial officer appointed or elected to preside in courts of law, and to decide legal questions duly brought before him; the name is sometimes given to other legally constituted officers; as, the _judges_ of election; in other relations, any person duly appointed to pass upon the merits of contestants or of competing articles may be called a _judge_; as, the _judges_ at an agricultural fair, or at a race-track; in the widest sense, any person who has good capacity for judging is called a _judge_; as, a person is said to be a _judge_ of pictures, or a good _judge_ of a horse, etc. in most games the _judge_ is called an _umpire_; as, the _umpire_ of a game of ball or cricket. a _referee_ is appointed by a court to decide disputed matters between litigants; an _arbitrator_ is chosen by the contending parties to decide matters in dispute without action by a court. in certain cases an _umpire_ is appointed by a court to decide where _arbitrators_ disagree. _arbiter_, with its suggestion of final and absolute decision, has come to be used only in a high or sacred sense; as, war must now be the _arbiter_; the supreme _arbiter_ of our destinies. the _judges_ of certain courts, as the united states supreme court, are technically known as _justices_. * * * * * justice. synonyms: equity, impartiality, legality, rightfulness, fairness, integrity, rectitude, truth, fair play, justness, right, uprightness, faithfulness, law, righteousness, virtue. honor, lawfulness, in its governmental relations, human or divine, _justice_ is the giving to every person exactly what he deserves, not necessarily involving any consideration of what any other may deserve; _equity_ (the quality of being equal) is giving every one as much advantage, privilege, or consideration as is given to any other; it is that which is equally right or just to all concerned; _equity_ is equal _justice_ and is thus a close synonym for _fairness_ and _impartiality_, but it has a philosophical and legal precision that those words have not. in legal proceedings cases arise for which the _law_ has not adequately provided, or in which general provisions, just in the main, would work individual hardship. the system of _equity_, devised to supply the insufficiencies of _law_, deals with cases "to which the _law_ by reason of its universality can not apply." "_equity_, then, ... is the soul and spirit of all _law_; positive _law_ is construed and rational _law_ is made by it." blackstone bk. iii, ch. , p. . in personal and social relations _justice_ is the rendering to every one what is due or merited, whether in act, word, or thought; in matters of reasoning, or literary work of any kind, _justice_ is close, faithful, unprejudiced, and unbiased adherence to essential truth or fact; we speak of the _justice_ of a statement, or of doing _justice_ to a subject. _integrity_, _rectitude_, _right_, _righteousness_ and _virtue_ denote conformity of personal conduct to the moral law, and thus necessarily include _justice_, which is giving others that which is their due. _lawfulness_ is an ambiguous word, meaning in its narrower sense mere _legality_, which may be very far from _justice_, but in its higher sense signifying accordance with the supreme _law_ of _right_, and thus including perfect _justice_. _justness_ refers rather to logical relations than to practical matters; as, we speak of the _justness_ of a statement or of a criticism. see judge, _n._ antonyms: dishonesty, inequity, partiality, unlawfulness, untruth, favoritism, injustice, unfairness, unreasonableness, wrong. prepositions: the justice _of_ the king; _to_ or _for_ the oppressed. * * * * * keep. synonyms: carry, defend, hold, preserve, retain, carry on, detain, maintain, protect, support, celebrate, fulfil, obey, refrain, sustain, conduct, guard, observe, restrain, withhold. _keep_, signifying generally to have and retain in possession, is the terse, strong saxon term for many acts which are more exactly discriminated by other words. we _keep_, _observe_, or _celebrate_ a festival; we _keep_ or _hold_ a prisoner in custody; we _keep_ or _preserve_ silence, _keep_ the peace, _preserve_ order--_preserve_ being the more formal word; we _keep_ or _maintain_ a horse, a servant, etc.; a man _supports_ his family; we _keep_ or _obey_ a commandment; _keep_ or _fulfil_ a promise. in the expressions to _keep_ a secret, _keep_ one's own counsel, _keep_ faith, or _keep_ the faith, such words as _preserve_ or _maintain_ could not be substituted without loss. a person _keeps_ a shop or store, _conducts_ or _carries on_ a business; he _keeps_ or _carries_ a certain line of goods; we may _keep_ or _restrain_ one from folly, crime, or violence; we _keep_ from or _refrain_ from evil, ourselves. _keep_ in the sense of _guard_ or _defend_ implies that the defense is effectual. compare celebrate; restrain. prepositions: keep _in_ hand, _in_ mind, _in_ or _within_ the house; _from_ evil; _out of_ mischief; keep _to_ the subject; keep _for_ a person, an occasion, etc. * * * * * kill. synonyms: assassinate, despatch, massacre, put to death, slay. butcher, execute, murder, slaughter, to _kill_ is simply to deprive of life, human, animal, or vegetable, with no suggestion of how or why. _assassinate_, _execute_, _murder_, apply only to the taking of human life; to _murder_ is to _kill_ with premeditation and malicious intent; to _execute_ is to _kill_ in fulfilment of a legal sentence; to _assassinate_ is to _kill_ by assault; this word is chiefly applied to the _killing_ of public or eminent persons through alleged political motives, whether secretly or openly. to _slay_ is to _kill_ by a blow, or by a weapon. _butcher_ and _slaughter_ apply primarily to the _killing_ of cattle; _massacre_ is applied primarily and almost exclusively to human beings, signifying to _kill_ them indiscriminately in large numbers; to _massacre_ is said when there is no chance of successful resistance; to _butcher_ when the _killing_ is especially brutal; soldiers mown down in a hopeless charge are said to be _slaughtered_ when no brutality on the enemy's part is implied. to _despatch_ is to _kill_ swiftly and in general quietly, always with intention, with or without right. prepositions: to kill _with_ or _by_ sword, famine, pestilence, care, grief, etc.; killed _for_ his money, _by_ a robber, _with_ a dagger. * * * * * kin. synonyms: affinity, blood, descent, kind, race, alliance, consanguinity, family, kindred, relationship. birth, _kind_ is broader than _kin_, denoting the most general _relationship_, as of the whole human species in man_kind_, human_kind_, etc.; _kin_ and _kindred_ denote direct _relationship_ that can be traced through either blood or marriage, preferably the former; either of these words may signify collectively all persons of the same blood or members of the same family, relatives or relations. _affinity_ is _relationship_ by marriage, _consanguinity_ is _relationship_ by blood. there are no true antonyms of _kin_ or _kindred_, except those made by negatives, since strangers, aliens, foreigners, and foes may still be _kin_ or _kindred_. * * * * * knowledge. synonyms: acquaintance, erudition, learning, recognition, apprehension, experience, light, scholarship, cognition, information, lore, science, cognizance, intelligence, perception, wisdom. comprehension, intuition, _knowledge_ is all that the mind knows, from whatever source derived or obtained, or by whatever process; the aggregate of facts, truths, or principles acquired or retained by the mind, including alike the _intuitions_ native to the mind and all that has been learned respecting phenomena, causes, laws, principles, literature, etc. there is a tendency to regard _knowledge_ as accurate and systematic, and to a certain degree complete. _information_ is _knowledge_ of fact, real or supposed, derived from persons, books, or observation, and is regarded as casual and haphazard. we say of a studious man that he has a great store of _knowledge_, or of an intelligent man of the world, that he has a fund of varied _information_. _lore_ is used only in poetic or elevated style, for accumulated _knowledge_, as of a people or age, or in a more limited sense for _learning_ or _erudition_. we speak of _perception_ of external objects, _apprehension_ of intellectual truth. simple _perception_ gives a limited _knowledge_ of external objects, merely as such; the _cognition_ of the same objects is a _knowledge_ of them in some relation; _cognizance_ is the formal or official _recognition_ of something as an object of _knowledge_; we take _cognizance_ of it. _intuition_ is primary _knowledge_ antecedent to all teaching or reasoning, _experience_ is _knowledge_ that has entered directly into one's own life; as, a child's _experience_ that fire will burn. _learning_ is much higher than _information_, being preeminently wide and systematic _knowledge_, the result of long, assiduous study; _erudition_ is recondite _learning_ secured only by extraordinary industry, opportunity, and ability. compare acquaintance; education; science; wisdom. antonyms: ignorance, inexperience, misconception, rudeness, illiteracy, misapprehension, misunderstanding, unfamiliarity. * * * * * language. synonyms: barbarism, expression, patois, vernacular, dialect, idiom, speech, vocabulary. diction, mother tongue, tongue, _language_ (f. _langage_ < l. _lingua_, the tongue) signified originally _expression_ of thought by spoken words, but now in its widest sense it signifies _expression_ of thought by any means; as, the _language_ of the eyes, the _language_ of flowers. as regards the use of words, _language_ in its broadest sense denotes all the uttered sounds and their combinations into words and sentences that human beings employ for the communication of thought, and, in a more limited sense, the words or combinations forming a means of communication among the members of a single nation, people, or race. _speech_ involves always the power of articulate utterance; we can speak of the _language_ of animals, but not of their _speech_. a _tongue_ is the _speech_ or _language_ of some one people, country, or race. a _dialect_ is a special mode of speaking a _language_ peculiar to some locality or class, not recognized as in accordance with the best usage; a _barbarism_ is a perversion of a _language_ by ignorant foreigners, or some usage akin to that. _idiom_ refers to the construction of phrases and sentences, and the way of forming or using words; it is the peculiar mold in which each _language_ casts its thought. the great difficulty of translation is to give the thought expressed in one _language_ in the _idiom_ of another. a _dialect_ may be used by the highest as well as the lowest within its range; a _patois_ is distinctly illiterate, belonging to the lower classes; those who speak a _patois_ understand the cultured form of their own language, but speak only the degraded form, as in the case of the italian lazzaroni or the former negro slaves in the united states. _vernacular_, from the latin, has the same general sense as the saxon _mother tongue_, of one's native _language_, or that of a people; as, the scriptures were translated into the _vernacular_. compare diction. * * * * * large. synonyms: abundant, coarse, gigantic, long, ample, colossal, grand, massive, big, commodious, great, spacious, broad, considerable, huge, vast, bulky, enormous, immense, wide. capacious, extensive, _large_ denotes extension in more than one direction, and beyond the average of the class to which the object belongs; we speak of a _large_ surface or a _large_ solid, but of a _long_ line; a _large_ field, a _large_ room, a _large_ apple, etc. a _large_ man is a man of more than ordinary size; a _great_ man is a man of remarkable mental power. _big_ is a more emphatic word than _large_, but of less dignity. we do not say that george washington was a _big_ man. antonyms: brief, limited, minute, scanty, small, diminutive, little, narrow, short, tiny, inconsiderable, mean, paltry, slender, trifling, infinitesimal, microscopic, petty, slight, trivial. insignificant, * * * * * law. synonyms: canon, economy, legislation, principle, code, edict, mandate, regulation, command, enactment, order, rule, commandment, formula, ordinance, statute. decree, jurisprudence, polity, _law_, in its ideal, is the statement of a _principle_ of right in mandatory form, by competent authority, with adequate penalty for disobedience; in common use, the term is applied to any legislative act, however imperfect or unjust. _command_ and _commandment_ are personal and particular; as, the _commands_ of a parent; the ten _commandments_. an _edict_ is the act of an absolute sovereign or other authority; we speak of the _edict_ of an emperor, the _decree_ of a court. a _mandate_ is specific, for an occasion or a purpose; a superior court issues its _mandate_ to an inferior court to send up its records. _statute_ is the recognized legal term for a specific _law_; _enactment_ is the more vague and general expression. we speak of algebraic or chemical _formulas_, municipal _ordinances_, military _orders_, army _regulations_, ecclesiastical _canons_, the _rules_ of a business house. _law_ is often used, also, for a recognized _principle_, whose violation is attended with injury or loss that acts like a penalty; as, the _laws_ of business; the _laws_ of nature. in more strictly scientific use, a natural _law_ is simply a recognized system of sequences or relations; as, kepler's _laws_ of planetary distances. a _code_ is a system of _laws_; _jurisprudence_ is the science of _law_, or a system of _laws_ scientifically considered, classed, and interpreted; _legislation_, primarily the act of legislating, denotes also the body of _statutes_ enacted by a legislative body. an _economy_ (gr. _oikonomia_, primarily the management of a house) is any comprehensive system of administration; as, domestic _economy_; but the word is extended to the administration or government of a state or people, signifying a body of _laws_ and _regulations_, with the entire system, political or religious, especially the latter, of which they form a part; as, the _code_ of draco, roman _jurisprudence_, british _legislation_, the mosaic _economy_. _law_ is also used as a collective noun for a system of _laws_ or recognized _rules_ or _regulations_, including not only all special _laws_, but the _principles_ on which they are based. the mosaic _economy_ is known also as the mosaic _law_, and we speak of the english common _law_, or the _law_ of nations. _polity_ (gr. _politeia_, from _polis_, a city) signifies the form, constitution, or method of government of a nation, state, church, or other institution; in usage it differs from _economy_ as applying rather to the system, while _economy_ applies especially to method, or to the system as administered; an _economy_ might be termed a _polity_ considered with especial reference to its practical administration, hence commonly with special reference to details or particulars, while _polity_ has more reference to broad _principles_. * * * * * liberty. synonyms: emancipation, freedom, independence, license. in general terms, it may be said that _freedom_ is absolute, _liberty_ relative; _freedom_ is the absence of restraint, _liberty_ is primarily the removal or avoidance of restraint; in its broadest sense, it is the state of being exempt from the domination of others or from restricting circumstances. _freedom_ and _liberty_ are constantly interchanged; the slave is set at _liberty_, or gains his _freedom_; but _freedom_ is the nobler word. _independence_ is said of states or nations, _freedom_ and _liberty_ of individuals; the _independence_ of the united states did not secure _liberty_ or _freedom_ to its slaves. _liberty_ keeps quite strictly to the thought of being clear of restraint or compulsion; _freedom_ takes a wider range, applying to other oppressive influences; thus, we speak of _freedom_ from annoyance or intrusion. _license_ is, in its limited sense, a permission or privilege granted by adequate authority, a bounded _liberty_; in the wider sense, _license_ is an ignoring and defiance of all that should restrain, and a reckless doing of all that individual caprice or passion may choose to do--a base and dangerous counterfeit of _freedom_. compare allow; permission. antonyms: captivity, imprisonment, oppression, slavery, compulsion, necessity, serfdom, superstition, constraint, obligation, servitude, thraldom. * * * * * light. synonyms: blaze, gleam, glow, shimmer, flame, gleaming, illumination, shine, flare, glimmer, incandescence, shining, flash, glistening, luster, sparkle, flicker, glistering, scintillation, twinkle, glare, glitter, sheen, twinkling. _light_, strictly denoting a form of radiant energy, is used as a general term for any luminous effect discernible by the eye, from the faintest phosphorescence to the _blaze_ of the noonday sun. a _flame_ is both hot and luminous; if it contains few solid particles it will yield little _light_, tho it may afford intense heat, as in the case of a hydrogen-_flame_. a _blaze_ is an extensive, brilliant _flame_. a _flare_ is a wavering _flame_ or _blaze_; a _flash_ is a _light_ that appears and disappears in an instant; as, a _flash_ of lightning; the _flash_ of gunpowder. the _glare_ and _glow_ are steady, the _glare_ painfully bright, the _glow_ subdued; as, the _glare_ of torches; the _glow_ of dying embers. _shine_ and _shining_ refer to a steady or continuous emission of _light_; _sheen_ is a faint _shining_, usually by reflection. _glimmer_, _glitter_, and _shimmer_ denote wavering _light_. we speak of the _glimmer_ of distant lamps through the mist; of the _shimmer_ of waves in sun_light_ or moon_light_. a _gleam_ is not wavering, but transient or intermittent; a sudden _gleam_ of _light_ came through the half-open door; a _glitter_ is a hard _light_; as, the _glitter_ of burnished arms. a _sparkle_ is a sudden _light_, as of sparks thrown out; _scintillation_ is the more exact and scientific term for the actual emission of sparks, also the figurative term for what suggests such emission; as, _scintillations_ of wit or of genius. _twinkle_ and _twinkling_ are used of the intermittent _light_ of the fixed stars. _glistening_ is a _shining_ as from a wet surface. _illumination_ is a wide-spread, brilliant _light_, as when all the windows of a house or of a street are lighted. the _light_ of _incandescence_ is intense and white like that from metal at a white heat. antonyms: blackness, darkness, dusk, gloominess, shade, dark, dimness, gloom, obscurity, shadow. * * * * * likely. synonyms: apt, conceivable, liable, probable, credible, conjectural, presumable, reasonable. _apt_ implies a natural fitness or tendency; an impetuous person is _apt_ to speak hastily. _liable_ refers to a contingency regarded as unfavorable; as, the ship was _liable_ to founder at any moment. _likely_ refers to a contingent event regarded as very probable, and usually, tho not always, favorable; as, an industrious worker is _likely_ to succeed. _credible_ signifies readily to be believed; as, a _credible_ narrative; _likely_ in such connection is used ironically to signify the reverse; as, a _likely_ story! a thing is _conceivable_ of which the mind can entertain the possibility; a thing is _conjectural_ which is conjectured as possible or probable without other support than a conjecture, or tentative judgment; a thing is _presumable_ which, from what is antecedently known, may betaken for granted in advance of proof. _reasonable_ in this connection signifies such as the reason can be satisfied with, independently of external grounds for belief or disbelief; as, that seems a _reasonable_ supposition. compare apparent. antonyms: doubtful, improbable, questionable, unreasonable. dubious, incredible, unlikely, * * * * * listen. synonyms: attend, hark, harken, hear, heed, list. between _listen_ and _hear_ is a difference like that between the words look and see. (compare synonyms for look.) to _hear_ is simply to become conscious of sound, to _listen_ is to make a conscious effort or endeavor to _hear_. we may _hear_ without _listening_, as words suddenly uttered in an adjoining room; or we may _listen_ without _hearing_, as to a distant speaker. in _listening_ the ear is intent upon the sound; in _attending_ the mind is intent upon the thought, tho _listening_ implies some attention to the meaning or import of the sound. to _heed_ is not only to _attend_, but to remember and observe. _harken_ is nearly obsolete. antonyms: be deaf to, ignore, neglect, scorn, slight. prepositions: we listen _for_ what we expect or desire to hear; we listen _to_ what we actually do hear; listen _for_ a step, a signal, a train; listen _to_ the debate. * * * * * literature. synonyms: belles-lettres, literary productions, publications, books, literary works, writings. _literature_ is collective, including in the most general sense all the written or printed productions of the human mind in all lands and ages, or in a more limited sense, referring to all that has been published in some land or age, or in some department of human knowledge; as, the _literature_ of greece; the _literature_ of the augustan age; the _literature_ of politics or of art. _literature_, used absolutely, denotes what has been called "polite _literature_" or _belles-lettres_, _i. e._, the works collectively that embody taste, feeling, loftiness of thought, and purity and beauty of style, as poetry, history, fiction, and dramatic compositions, including also much of philosophical writing, as the "republic" of plato, and oratorical productions, as the orations of demosthenes. in the broad sense, we can speak of the _literature_ of science; in the narrower sense, we speak of _literature_ and science as distinct departments of knowledge. _literature_ is also used to signify literary pursuits or occupations; as, to devote one's life to _literature_. compare knowledge; science. * * * * * load, _n._ synonyms: burden, charge, encumbrance, incubus, pack, cargo, clog, freight, lading, weight. a _burden_ (from the anglo-saxon _byrthen_, from the verb _beran_, bear) is what one has to bear, and the word is used always of that which is borne by a living agent. a _load_ (from the anglo-saxon _l[=a]d_, a way, course, carrying, or carriage) is what is laid upon a person, animal, or vehicle for conveyance, or what is customarily so imposed; as, a two-horse _load_. _weight_ measures the pressure due to gravity; the same _weight_ that one finds a moderate _load_ when in his full strength becomes a heavy _burden_ in weariness or weakness. a ship's _load_ is called distinctively a _cargo_, or it may be known as _freight_ or _lading_. _freight_ denotes merchandise in or for transportation and is used largely of transportation or of merchandise transported by rail, which is, in commercial language, said to be "shipped." a _load_ to be fastened upon a horse or mule is called a _pack_, and the animal is known as a pack-horse or pack-mule. * * * * * lock. synonyms: bar, catch, fastening, hook, bolt, clasp, hasp, latch. a _bar_ is a piece of wood or metal, usually of considerable size, by which an opening is obstructed, a door held fast, etc. a _bar_ may be movable or permanent; a _bolt_ is a movable rod or pin of metal, sliding in a socket and adapted for securing a door or window. a _lock_ is an arrangement by which an enclosed _bolt_ is shot forward or backward by a key, or other device; the _bolt_ is the essential part of the _lock_. a _latch_ or _catch_ is an accessible _fastening_ designed to be easily movable, and simply to secure against accidental opening of the door, cover, etc. a _hasp_ is a metallic strap that fits over a staple, calculated to be secured by a padlock; a simple _hook_ that fits into a staple is also called a _hasp_. a _clasp_ is a fastening that can be sprung into place, to draw and hold the parts of some enclosing object firmly together, as the _clasp_ of a book. * * * * * look. synonyms: behold, discern, inspect, see, view, contemplate, gaze, regard, stare, watch. descry, glance, scan, survey, to _see_ is simply to become conscious of an object of vision; to _look_ is to make a conscious and direct endeavor to _see_. to _behold_ is to fix the sight and the mind with distinctness and consideration upon something that has come to be clearly before the eyes. we may _look_ without _seeing_, as in pitch-darkness, and we may _see_ without _looking_, as in case of a flash of lightning. to _gaze_ is to _look_ intently, long, and steadily upon an object. to _glance_ is to _look_ casually or momentarily. to _stare_ is to _look_ with a fixed intensity such as is the effect of surprise, alarm, or rudeness. to _scan_ is to _look_ at minutely, to note every visible feature. to _inspect_ is to go below the surface, uncover, study item by item. _view_ and _survey_ are comprehensive, _survey_ expressing the greater exactness of measurement or estimate. _watch_ brings in the element of time and often of wariness; we _watch_ for a movement or change, a signal, the approach of an enemy, etc. compare appear. * * * * * love. synonyms: affection, charity, friendship, regard, attachment, devotion, liking, tenderness. attraction, fondness, _affection_ is kindly feeling, deep, tender, and constant, going out to some person or object, being less fervent and ardent than _love_, whether applied to persons or things. _love_ is an intense and absorbing emotion, drawing one toward a person or object and causing one to appreciate, delight in, and crave the presence or possession of the person or object loved, and to desire to please and benefit the person, or to advance the cause, truth, or other object of _affection_; it is the yearning or outgoing of soul toward something that is regarded as excellent, beautiful, or desirable; _love_ may be briefly defined as strong and absorbing _affection_ for and _attraction_ toward a person or object. _love_ may denote the sublimest and holiest spiritual _affection_ as when we are taught that "god is _love_." _charity_ has so far swung aside from this original meaning that probably it never can be recalled (compare benevolence). the revised version uses _love_ in place of _charity_ in _ cor._ xiii, and elsewhere. _love_ is more intense, absorbing, and tender than _friendship_, more intense, impulsive, and perhaps passionate than _affection_; we speak of fervent _love_, but of deep or tender _affection_, or of close, firm, strong _friendship_. _love_ is used specifically for personal _affection_ between the sexes in the highest sense, the _love_ that normally leads to marriage, and subsists throughout all happy wedded life. _love_ can never properly denote mere animal passion, which is expressed by such words as appetite, desire, lust. one may properly be said to have _love_ for animals, for inanimate objects, or for abstract qualities that enlist the affections, as we speak of _love_ for a horse or a dog, for mountains, woods, ocean, or of _love_ of nature, and _love_ of virtue. _love_ of articles of food is better expressed by _liking_, as _love_, in its full sense, expresses something spiritual and reciprocal, such as can have no place in connection with objects that minister merely to the senses. compare attachment; friendship. antonyms: see synonyms for antipathy; enmity; hatred. prepositions: love _of_ country; _for_ humanity; love _to_ god and man. * * * * * make. synonyms: become, constrain, fabricate, manufacture, bring about, construct, fashion, occasion, bring into being, create, force, perform, bring to pass, do, frame, reach, cause, effect, get, render, compel, establish, make out, require, compose, execute, make up, shape. constitute, _make_ is essentially causative; to the idea of _cause_ all its various senses may be traced (compare synonyms for cause). to _make_ is to _cause_ to exist, or to _cause_ to exist in a certain form or in certain relations; the word thus includes the idea of _create_, as in _gen._ i, , "and god saw everything that he had _made_, and, behold, it was very good." _make_ includes also the idea of _compose_, _constitute_; as, the parts _make up_ the whole. similarly, to _cause_ a voluntary agent to do a certain act is to _make_ him do it, or _compel_ him to do it, _compel_ fixing the attention more on the process, _make_ on the accomplished fact. compare compel; do; influence; (make better) amend; (make haste) quicken; (make known) announce; avow; confess; (make prisoner) arrest; (make up) add; (make void) cancel. antonyms: see synonyms for abolish; break; demolish. prepositions: make _of_, _out of_, or _from_ certain materials, _into_ a certain form, _for_ a certain purpose or person; made _with_ hands, _by_ hand; made _by_ a prisoner, _with_ a jack-knife. * * * * * marriage. synonyms: conjugal union, espousals, nuptials, spousals, wedding, espousal, matrimony, spousal, union, wedlock. _matrimony_ denotes the state of those who are united in the relation of husband and wife; _marriage_ denotes primarily the act of so uniting, but is extensively used for the state as well. _wedlock_, a word of specific legal use, is the saxon term for the state or relation denoted by _matrimony_. _wedding_ denotes the ceremony, with any attendant festivities, by which two persons are united as husband and wife, _nuptials_ being the more formal and stately term to express the same idea. antonyms: bachelorhood, celibacy, divorce, maidenhood, virginity, widowhood. prepositions: marriage _of_ or _between_ two persons; _of_ one person _to_ or _with_ another; _among_ the greeks. * * * * * masculine. synonyms: male, manful, manlike, manly, mannish, virile. we apply _male_ to the sex, _masculine_ to the qualities, especially to the stronger, hardier, and more imperious qualities that distinguish the _male_ sex; as applied to women, _masculine_ has often the depreciatory sense of unwomanly, rude, or harsh; as, a _masculine_ face or voice, or the like; tho one may say in a commendatory way, she acted with _masculine_ courage or decision. _manlike_ may mean only having the outward appearance or semblance of a man, or may be closely equivalent to _manly_. _manly_ refers to all the qualities and traits worthy of a man; _manful_, especially to the valor and prowess that become a man; we speak of a _manful_ struggle, _manly_ decision; we say _manly_ gentleness or tenderness; we could not say _manful_ tenderness. _mannish_ is a depreciatory word referring to the mimicry or parade of some superficial qualities of manhood; as, a _mannish_ boy or woman. _masculine_ may apply to the distinctive qualities of the _male_ sex at any age; _virile_ applies to the distinctive qualities of mature manhood only, as opposed not only to _feminine_ or _womanly_ but to _childish_, and is thus an emphatic word for _sturdy_, _intrepid_, etc. antonyms: see synonyms for feminine. * * * * * massacre. synonyms: butchery, carnage, havoc, slaughter. a _massacre_ is the indiscriminate killing in numbers of the unresisting or defenseless; _butchery_ is the killing of men rudely and ruthlessly as cattle are killed in the shambles. _havoc_ may not be so complete as _massacre_, nor so coldly brutal as _butchery_, but is more widely spread and furious; it is destruction let loose, and may be applied to organizations, interests, etc., as well as to human life; "as for saul, he made _havoc_ of the church," _acts_ viii, . _carnage_ (latin _caro, carnis_, flesh) refers to widely scattered or heaped up corpses of the slain; _slaughter_ is similar in meaning, but refers more to the process, as _carnage_ does to the result; these two words only of the group may be used of great destruction of life in open and honorable battle, as when we say the enemy was repulsed with great _slaughter_, or the _carnage_ was terrible. * * * * * meddlesome. synonyms: impertinent, intrusive, meddling, obtrusive, officious. the _meddlesome_ person interferes unasked in the affairs of others; the _intrusive_ person thrusts himself uninvited into their company or conversation; the _obtrusive_ person thrusts himself or his opinions conceitedly and undesirably upon their notice; the _officious_ person thrusts his services, unasked and undesired, upon others. _obtrusive_ is oftener applied to words, qualities, actions, etc., than to persons; _intrusive_ is used chiefly of persons, as is _officious_, tho we speak of _officious_ attentions, _intrusive_ remarks; _meddlesome_ is used indifferently of persons, or of words, qualities, actions, etc. compare inquisitive; interpose. antonyms: modest, reserved, retiring, shy, unassuming, unobtrusive. * * * * * melody. synonyms: harmony, music, symphony, unison. _harmony_ is simultaneous; _melody_ is successive; _harmony_ is the pleasing correspondence of two or more notes sounded at once, _melody_ the pleasing succession of a number of notes continuously following one another. a _melody_ may be wholly in one part; _harmony_ must be of two or more parts. accordant notes of different pitch sounded simultaneously produce _harmony_; _unison_ is the simultaneous sounding of two or more notes of the same pitch. when the pitch is the same, there may be _unison_ between sounds of very different volume and quality, as a voice and a bell may sound in _unison_. tones sounded at the interval of an octave are also said to be in _unison_, altho this is not literally exact; this usage arises from the fact that bass and tenor voices in attempting to sound the same note as the soprano and alto will in fact sound a note an octave below. _music_ may denote the simplest _melody_ or the most complex and perfect _harmony_. a _symphony_ (apart from its technical orchestral sense) is any pleasing consonance of musical sounds, vocal or instrumental, as of many accordant voices or instruments. * * * * * memory. synonyms: recollection, reminiscence, retrospect, retrospection. remembrance, _memory_ is the faculty by which knowledge is retained or recalled; in a more general sense, _memory_ is a retention of knowledge within the grasp of the mind, while _remembrance_ is the having what is known consciously before the mind. _remembrance_ may be voluntary or involuntary; a thing is brought to _remembrance_ or we call it to _remembrance_; the same is true of _memory_. _recollection_ involves volition, the mind making a distinct effort to recall something, or fixing the attention actively upon it when recalled. _reminiscence_ is a half-dreamy _memory_ of scenes or events long past; _retrospection_ is a distinct turning of the mind back upon the past, bringing long periods under survey. _retrospection_ is to _reminiscence_ much what _recollection_ is to _remembrance_. antonyms: forgetfulness, oblivion, obliviousness, oversight, unconsciousness. * * * * * mercy. synonyms: benevolence, favor, kindness, mildness, benignity, forbearance, lenience, pardon, blessing, forgiveness, leniency, pity, clemency, gentleness, lenity, tenderness. compassion, grace, _mercy_ is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of _kindness_ or _favor_ beyond what one may rightly claim. _grace_ is _favor_, _kindness_, or _blessing_ shown to the undeserving; _forgiveness_, _mercy_, and _pardon_ are exercised toward the ill-deserving. _pardon_ remits the outward penalty which the offender deserves; _forgiveness_ dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one offended; _mercy_ seeks the highest possible good of the offender. there may be _mercy_ without _pardon_, as in the mitigation of sentence, or in all possible alleviation of necessary severity; there may be cases where _pardon_ would not be _mercy_, since it would encourage to repetition of the offense, from which timely punishment might have saved. _mercy_ is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, they besought the robber to have _mercy_. _clemency_ is a colder word than _mercy_, and without its religious associations, signifying _mildness_ and moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal or military, rather than moral sanction; it often denotes a habitual _mildness_ of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is matter rather of good nature or policy than of principle. _leniency_ or _lenity_ denotes an easy-going avoidance of severity; these words are more general and less magisterial than _clemency_; we should speak of the _leniency_ of a parent, the _clemency_ of a conqueror. compare pity. antonyms: cruelty, implacability, punishment, rigor, sternness, hardness, justice, revenge, severity, vengeance. harshness, penalty, prepositions: the mercy _of_ god _to_ or _toward_ sinners; have mercy _on_ or _upon_ one. * * * * * meter. synonyms: euphony, measure, rhythm, verse. _euphony_ is agreeable linguistic sound, however produced; _meter_, _measure_, and _rhythm_ denote agreeable succession of sounds in the utterance of connected words; _euphony_ may apply to a single word or even a single syllable; the other words apply to lines, sentences, paragraphs, etc.; _rhythm_ and _meter_ may be produced by accent only, as in english, or by accent and quantity combined, as in greek or italian; _rhythm_ or _measure_ may apply either to prose or to poetry, or to music, dancing, etc.; _meter_ is more precise than _rhythm_, applies only to poetry, and denotes a measured _rhythm_ with regular divisions into _verses_, stanzas, strophes, etc. a _verse_ is strictly a metrical line, but the word is often used as synonymous with stanza. _verse_, in the general sense, denotes metrical writing without reference to the thought involved; as, prose and _verse_. compare melody; poetry. * * * * * mind. synonyms: brain, instinct, reason, spirit, consciousness, intellect, sense, thought, disposition, intelligence, soul, understanding. _mind_, in a general sense, includes all the powers of sentient being apart from the physical factors in bodily faculties and activities; in a limited sense, _mind_ is nearly synonymous with _intellect_, but includes _disposition_, or the tendency toward action, as appears in the phrase "to have a _mind_ to work." as the seat of mental activity, _brain_ (colloquially _brains_) is often used as a synonym for _mind_, _intellect_, _intelligence_. _thought_, the act, process, or power of thinking, is often used to denote the thinking faculty, and especially the _reason_. the _instinct_ of animals is now held by many philosophers to be of the same nature as the _intellect_ of man, but inferior and limited; yet the apparent difference is very great. an _instinct_ is a propensity prior to experience and independent of instruction. paley _natural philosophy_ ch. . in this sense we speak of human _instincts_, thus denoting tendencies independent of reasoning or instruction. the _soul_ includes the _intellect_, sensibilities, and will; beyond what is expressed by the word _mind_, the _soul_ denotes especially the moral, the immortal nature; we say of a dead body, the _soul_ (not the _mind_) has fled. _spirit_ is used especially in contradistinction from matter; it may in many cases be substituted for _soul_, but _soul_ has commonly a fuller and more determinate meaning; we can conceive of _spirits_ as having no moral nature; the fairies, elves, and brownies of mythology might be termed _spirits_, but not _souls_. in the figurative sense, _spirit_ denotes animation, excitability, perhaps impatience; as, a lad of _spirit_; he sang with _spirit_; he replied with _spirit_. _soul_ denotes energy and depth of feeling, as when we speak of soulful eyes; or it may denote the very life of anything; as, "the hidden _soul_ of harmony," milton _l'allegro_ l. . _sense_ may be an antonym of _intellect_, as when we speak of the _sense_ of hearing; but _sense_ is used also as denoting clear mental action, good judgment, acumen; as, he is a man of _sense_, or, he showed good _sense_; _sense_, even in its material signification, must be reckoned among the activities of _mind_, tho dependent on bodily functions; the _mind_, not the eye, really sees; the _mind_, not the ear, really hears. _consciousness_ includes all that a sentient being perceives, knows, thinks, or feels, from whatever source arising and of whatever character, kind, or degree, whether with or without distinct thinking, feeling, or willing; we speak of the _consciousness_ of the brute, of the savage, or of the sage. the _intellect_ is that assemblage of faculties which is concerned with knowledge, as distinguished from emotion and volition. _understanding_ is the saxon word of the same general import, but is chiefly used of the reasoning powers; the _understanding_, which sir wm. hamilton has called "the faculty of relations and comparisons," is distinguished by many philosophers from _reason_ in that "_reason_ is the faculty of the higher cognitions or a priori truth." antonyms: body, brawn, brute force, material substance, matter. * * * * * minute. synonyms: circumstantial, diminutive, little, slender, comminuted, exact, particular, small, critical, fine, precise, tiny. detailed, that is _minute_ which is of exceedingly limited dimensions, as a grain of dust, or which attends to matters of exceedingly slight amount or apparent importance; as, a _minute_ account; _minute_ observation. that which is broken up into _minute_ particles is said to be _comminuted_; things may be termed _fine_ which would not be termed _comminuted_; as, _fine_ sand; _fine_ gravel; but, in using the adverb, we say a substance is finely _comminuted_, _comminuted_ referring more to the process, _fine_ to the result. an account extended to very _minute_ particulars is _circumstantial_, _detailed_, _particular_; an examination so extended is _critical_, _exact_, _precise_. compare fine. antonyms: see synonyms for large. * * * * * misfortune. synonyms: adversity, disappointment, ill fortune, ruin, affliction, disaster, ill luck, sorrow, bereavement, distress, misadventure, stroke, blow, failure, mischance, trial, calamity, hardship, misery, tribulation, chastening, harm, mishap, trouble, chastisement, ill, reverse, visitation. _misfortune_ is adverse fortune or any instance thereof, any untoward event, usually of lingering character or consequences, and such as the sufferer is not deemed directly responsible for; as, he had the _misfortune_ to be born blind. any considerable _disappointment_, _failure_, or _misfortune_, as regards outward circumstances, as loss of fortune, position, and the like, when long continued or attended with enduring consequences, constitutes _adversity_. for the loss of friends by death we commonly use _affliction_ or _bereavement_. _calamity_ and _disaster_ are used of sudden and severe _misfortunes_, often overwhelming; _ill fortune_ and _ill luck_, of lighter troubles and failures. we speak of the _misery_ of the poor, the _hardships_ of the soldier. _affliction_, _chastening_, _trial_, and _tribulation_ have all an especially religious bearing, suggesting some disciplinary purpose of god with beneficent design. _affliction_ may be keen and bitter, but brief; _tribulation_ is long and wearing. we speak of an _affliction_, but rarely of a _tribulation_, since _tribulation_ is viewed as a continuous process, which may endure for years or for a lifetime; but we speak of our daily _trials_. compare catastrophe. antonyms: blessing, consolation, gratification, pleasure, success, boon, good fortune, happiness, prosperity, triumph. comfort, good luck, joy, relief, * * * * * mob. synonyms: canaille, dregs of the people, masses, rabble, crowd, lower classes, populace, the vulgar. the _populace_ are poor and ignorant, but may be law-abiding; a _mob_ is disorderly and lawless, but may be rich and influential. the _rabble_ is despicable, worthless, purposeless; a _mob_ may have effective desperate purpose. a _crowd_ may be drawn by mere curiosity; some strong, pervading excitement is needed to make it a _mob_. compare people. * * * * * model. synonyms: archetype, facsimile, original, representation, copy, image, pattern, standard, design, imitation, prototype, type. example, mold, a _pattern_ is always, in modern use, that which is to be copied; a _model_ may be either the thing to be copied or the _copy_ that has been made from it; as, the _models_ in the patent office. a _pattern_ is commonly superficial; a _model_ is usually in relief. a _pattern_ must be closely followed in its minutest particulars by a faithful copyist; a _model_ may allow a great degree of freedom. a sculptor may idealize his living _model_; his workmen must exactly _copy_ in marble or metal the _model_ he has made in clay. compare example; idea; ideal. * * * * * modesty. synonyms: backwardness, constraint, reserve, timidity, bashfulness, coyness, shyness, unobtrusiveness. coldness, diffidence, _bashfulness_ is a shrinking from notice without assignable reason. _coyness_ is a half encouragement, half avoidance of offered attention, and may be real or affected. _diffidence_ is self-distrust; _modesty_, a humble estimate of oneself in comparison with others, or with the demands of some undertaking. _modesty_ has also the specific meaning of a sensitive shrinking from anything indelicate. _shyness_ is a tendency to shrink from observation; _timidity_, a distinct fear of criticism, error, or failure. _reserve_ is the holding oneself aloof from others, or holding back one's feelings from expression, or one's affairs from communication to others. _reserve_ may be the retreat of _shyness_, or, on the other hand, the contemptuous withdrawal of pride and haughtiness. compare abash; pride; taciturn. antonyms: abandon, confidence, haughtiness, pertness, arrogance, egotism, impudence, sauciness, assumption, forwardness, indiscretion, self-conceit, assurance, frankness, loquaciousness, self-sufficiency, boldness, freedom, loquacity, sociability. conceit, * * * * * money. synonyms: bills, cash, funds, property, bullion, coin, gold, silver, capital, currency, notes, specie. _money_ is the authorized medium of exchange; coined _money_ is called _coin_ or _specie_. what are termed in england bank-_notes_ are in the united states commonly called _bills_; as, a five-dollar _bill_. the _notes_ of responsible men are readily transferable in commercial circles, but they are not _money_; as, the stock was sold for $ in _money_ and the balance in merchantable paper. _cash_ is _specie_ or _money_ in hand, or paid in hand; as, the _cash_ account; the _cash_ price. in the legal sense, _property_ is not _money_, and _money_ is not _property_; for _property_ is that which has inherent value, while _money_, as such, has but representative value, and may or may not have intrinsic value. _bullion_ is either _gold_ or _silver_ uncoined, or the coined metal considered without reference to its coinage, but simply as merchandise, when its value as _bullion_ may be very different from its value as _money_. the word _capital_ is used chiefly of accumulated _property_ or _money_ invested in productive enterprises or available for such investment. * * * * * morose. synonyms: acrimonious, dogged, ill-natured, splenetic, churlish, gloomy, severe, sulky, crabbed, gruff, snappish, sullen, crusty, ill-humored, sour, surly. the _sullen_ and _sulky_ are discontented and resentful in regard to that against which they are too proud to protest, or consider all protest vain; _sullen_ denotes more of pride, _sulky_ more of resentful obstinacy. the _morose_ are bitterly dissatisfied with the world in general, and disposed to vent their ill nature upon others. the _sullen_ and _sulky_ are for the most part silent; the _morose_ growl out bitter speeches. a _surly_ person is in a state of latent anger, resenting approach as intrusion, and ready to take offense at anything; thus we speak of a _surly_ dog. _sullen_ and _sulky_ moods may be transitory; one who is _morose_ or _surly_ is commonly so by disposition or habit. antonyms: amiable, complaisant, gentle, kind, pleasant, benignant, friendly, good-natured, loving, sympathetic, bland, genial, indulgent, mild, tender. * * * * * motion. synonyms: act, change, movement, process, transition. action, move, passage, transit, _motion_ is _change_ of place or position in space; _transition_ is a passing from one point or position in space to another. _motion_ may be either abstract or concrete, more frequently the former; _movement_ is always concrete, that is, considered in connection with the thing that moves or is moved; thus, we speak of the _movements_ of the planets, but of the laws of planetary _motion_; of military _movements_, but of perpetual _motion_. _move_ is used chiefly of contests or competition, as in chess or politics; as, it is your _move_; a shrewd _move_ of the opposition. _action_ is a more comprehensive word than _motion_. we now rarely speak of mental or spiritual _motions_, but rather of mental or spiritual _acts_ or _processes_, or of the laws of mental _action_, but a formal proposal of _action_ in a deliberative assembly is termed a _motion_. compare act. antonyms: immobility, quiescence, quiet, repose, rest, stillness. * * * * * mourn. synonyms: bemoan, deplore, lament, regret, rue, sorrow. bewail, grieve, to _mourn_ is to feel or express sadness or distress because of some loss, affliction, or misfortune; _mourning_ is thought of as prolonged, _grief_ or _regret_ may be transient. one may _grieve_ or _mourn_, _regret_, _rue_, or _sorrow_ without a sound; he _bemoans_ with suppressed and often inarticulate sounds of grief; he _bewails_ with passionate utterance, whether of inarticulate cries or of spoken words. he _laments_ in plaintive or pathetic words, as the prophet jeremiah in his "lamentations." one _deplores_ with settled sorrow which may or may not find relief in words. one is made to _rue_ an act by some misfortune resulting, or by some penalty or vengeance inflicted because of it. one _regrets_ a slight misfortune or a hasty word; he _sorrows_ over the death of a friend. antonyms: be joyful, exult, joy, make merry, rejoice, triumph. * * * * * mutual. synonyms: common, correlative, interchangeable, joint, reciprocal. that is _common_ to which two or more persons have the same or equal claims, or in which they have equal interest or participation; in the strictest sense, that is _mutual_ (latin _mutare_, to change) which is freely interchanged; that is _reciprocal_ in respect to which one act or movement is met by a corresponding act or movement in return; we speak of our _common_ country, _mutual_ affection, _reciprocal_ obligations, the _reciprocal_ action of cause and effect, where the effect becomes in turn a cause. many good writers hold it incorrect to say "a _mutual_ friend," and insist that "a _common_ friend" would be more accurate; but "_common_ friend" is practically never used, because of the disagreeable suggestion that attaches to _common_, of ordinary or inferior. "_mutual_ friend" has high literary authority (of burke, scott, dickens, and others), and a considerable usage of good society in its favor, the expression being quite naturally derived from the thoroughly correct phrase _mutual_ friendship. antonyms: detached, distinct, separated, unconnected, unrequited, disconnected, disunited, severed, unreciprocated, unshared. dissociated, separate, sundered, * * * * * mysterious. synonyms: abstruse, inexplicable, recondite, cabalistic, inscrutable, secret, dark, mystic, transcendental, enigmatical, mystical, unfathomable, hidden, obscure, unfathomed, incomprehensible, occult, unknown. that is _mysterious_ in the true sense which is beyond human comprehension, as the decrees of god or the origin of life. that is _mystic_ or _mystical_ which has associated with it some _hidden_ or _recondite_ meaning, especially of a religious kind; as, the _mystic_ babylon of the apocalypse. that is _dark_ which we can not personally see through, especially if sadly perplexing; as, a _dark_ providence. that is _secret_ which is intentionally _hidden_. compare dark. antonyms: see synonyms for clear. * * * * * name. synonyms: agnomen, denomination, prenomen, surname, appellation, designation, style, title. cognomen, epithet, _name_ in the most general sense, signifying the word by which a person or thing is called or known, includes all other words of this group; in this sense every noun is a _name_; in the more limited sense a _name_ is personal, an _appellation_ is descriptive, a _title_ is official. in the phrase william the conqueror, king of england, william is the man's _name_, which belongs to him personally, independently of any rank or achievement; conqueror is the _appellation_ which he won by his acquisition of england; king is the _title_ denoting his royal rank. an _epithet_ (gr. _epitheton_, something added, from _epi_, on, and _tithemi_, put) is something placed upon a person or thing; the _epithet_ does not strictly belong to an object like a _name_, but is given to mark some assumed characteristic, good or bad; an _epithet_ is always an adjective, or a word or phrase used as an adjective, and is properly used to emphasize a characteristic but not to add information, as in the phrase "the _sounding_ sea;" the idea that an _epithet_ is always opprobrious, and that any word used opprobriously is an _epithet_ is a popular error. _designation_ may be used much in the sense of _appellation_, but is more distinctive or specific in meaning; a _designation_ properly so called rests upon some inherent quality, while an _appellation_ may be fanciful. among the romans the _prenomen_ was the individual part of a man's _name_, the "nomen" designated the gens to which he belonged, the _cognomen_ showed his family and was borne by all patricians, and the _agnomen_ was added to refer to his achievements or character. when scientists _name_ an animal or a plant, they give it a binary or binomial technical _name_ comprising a generic and a specific _appellation_. in modern use, a personal _name_, as john or mary, is given in infancy, and is often called the given _name_ or christian _name_, or simply the first _name_ (rarely the _prenomen_); the _cognomen_ or _surname_ is the family _name_ which belongs to one by right of birth or marriage. _style_ is the legal _designation_ by which a person or house is known in official or business relations; as, the _name_ and _style_ of baring brothers. the term _denomination_ is applied to a separate religious organization, without the opprobrious meaning attaching to the word "sect;" also, to designate any class of like objects collectively, especially money or notes of a certain value; as, the sum was in notes of the _denomination_ of one thousand dollars. compare term. * * * * * native. synonyms: indigenous, innate, natal, natural, original. _native_ denotes that which belongs to one by birth; _natal_ that which pertains to the event of birth; _natural_ denotes that which rests upon inherent qualities of character or being. we speak of one's _native_ country, or of his _natal_ day; of _natural_ ability, _native_ genius. compare inherent; primeval; radical. antonyms: acquired, alien, artificial, assumed, foreign, unnatural. * * * * * nautical. synonyms: marine, maritime, naval, ocean, oceanic. _marine_ (l. _mare_, sea) signifies belonging to the ocean, _maritime_, a secondary derivative from the same root, bordering on or connected with the _ocean_; as, _marine_ products; _marine_ animals; _maritime_ nations; _maritime_ laws. _nautical_ (gr. _nautes_, a sailor) denotes primarily anything connected with sailors, and hence with ships or navigation; _naval_ (l. _navis_, gr. _naus_, a ship) refers to the armed force of a nation on the sea, and, by extension, to similar forces on lakes and rivers; as, a _naval_ force; a _nautical_ almanac. _ocean_, used adjectively, is applied to that which belongs to or is part of the _ocean_; _oceanic_ may be used in the same sense, but is especially applied to that which borders on (or upon) or is connected with, or which is similar to or suggestive of an _ocean_; we speak of _ocean_ currents, _oceanic_ islands, or, perhaps, of an _oceanic_ intellect. * * * * * neat. synonyms: clean, dapper, nice, prim, tidy, cleanly, natty, orderly, spruce, trim. that which is _clean_ is simply free from soil or defilement of any kind. things are _orderly_ when in due relation to other things; a room or desk is _orderly_ when every article is in place; a person is _orderly_ who habitually keeps things so. _tidy_ denotes that which conforms to propriety in general; an unlaced shoe may be perfectly _clean_, but is not _tidy_. _neat_ refers to that which is _clean_ and _tidy_ with nothing superfluous, conspicuous, or showy, as when we speak of plain but _neat_ attire; the same idea of freedom from the superfluous appears in the phrases "a _neat_ speech," "a _neat_ turn," "a _neat_ reply," etc. a _clean_ cut has no ragged edges; a _neat_ stroke just does what is intended. _nice_ is stronger than _neat_, implying value and beauty; a _cheap_, coarse dress may be perfectly _neat_, but would not be termed _nice_. _spruce_ is applied to the show and affectation of neatness with a touch of smartness, and is always a term of mild contempt; as, a _spruce_ serving man. _trim_ denotes a certain shapely and elegant firmness, often with suppleness and grace; as, a _trim_ suit; a _trim_ figure. _prim_ applies to a precise, formal, affected nicety. _dapper_ is _spruce_ with the suggestion of smallness and slightness; _natty_, a diminutive of _neat_, suggests minute elegance, with a tendency toward the exquisite; as, a _dapper_ little fellow in a _natty_ business suit. antonyms: dirty, negligent, slouchy, uncared for, disorderly, rough, slovenly, unkempt, dowdy, rude, soiled, untidy. * * * * * necessary. synonyms: essential, infallible, required, unavoidable, indispensable, needed, requisite, undeniable. inevitable, needful, that is _necessary_ which must exist, occur, or be true; which in the nature of things can not be otherwise. that which is _essential_ belongs to the essence of a thing, so that the thing can not exist in its completeness without it; that which is _indispensable_ may be only an adjunct, but it is one that can not be spared; vigorous health is _essential_ to an arctic explorer; warm clothing is _indispensable_. that which is _requisite_ (or _required_) is so in the judgment of the person requiring it, but may not be so absolutely; thus, the _requisite_ is more a matter of personal feeling than the _indispensable_. _inevitable_ (l. _in_, not, and _evito_, shun) is primarily the exact equivalent of the saxon _unavoidable_; both words are applied to things which some at least would escape or prevent, while that which is _necessary_ may meet with no objection; food is _necessary_, death is _inevitable_; a _necessary_ conclusion satisfies a thinker; an _inevitable_ conclusion silences opposition. an _infallible_ proof is one that necessarily leads the mind to a sound conclusion. _needed_ and _needful_ are more concrete than _necessary_, and respect an end to be attained; we speak of a _necessary_ inference; _necessary_ food is what one can not live without, while _needful_ food is that without which he can not enjoy comfort, health, and strength. antonyms: casual, needless, optional, useless, contingent, non-essential, unnecessary, worthless. prepositions: necessary _to_ a sequence or a total; _for_ or _to_ a result or a person; unity is necessary _to_ (to constitute) completeness; decision is necessary _for_ command, or _for_ a commander. * * * * * necessity. synonyms: compulsion, fatality, requisite, destiny, fate, sine qua non, emergency, indispensability, unavoidableness, essential, indispensableness, urgency, exigency, need, want. extremity, requirement, _necessity_ is the quality of being necessary, or the quality of that which can not but be, become, or be true, or be accepted as true. _need_ and _want_ always imply a lack; _necessity_ may be used in this sense, but in the higher philosophical sense _necessity_ simply denotes the exclusion of any alternative either in thought or fact; righteousness is a _necessity_ (not a _need_) of the divine nature. _need_ suggests the possibility of supplying the deficiency which _want_ expresses; to speak of a person's _want_ of decision merely points out a weakness in his character; to say that he has _need_ of decision implies that he can exercise or attain it. as applied to a deficiency, _necessity_ is more imperative than _need_; a weary person is in _need_ of rest; when rest becomes a _necessity_ he has no choice but to stop work. an _essential_ is something, as a quality, or element, that belongs to the essence of something else so as to be inseparable from it in its normal condition, or in any complete idea or statement of it. compare necessary; predestination. antonyms: choice, doubt, dubiousness, freedom, possibility, contingency, doubtfulness, fortuity, option, uncertainty. prepositions: the necessity _of_ surrender; a necessity _for_ action; this is a necessity _to_ me. * * * * * neglect. synonyms: carelessness, heedlessness, negligence, scorn, default, inadvertence, omission, slackness, disregard, inattention, oversight, slight, disrespect, indifference, remissness, thoughtlessness. failure, neglectfulness, _neglect_ (l. _nec_, not, and _lego_, gather) is the failing to take such care, show such attention, pay such courtesy, etc., as may be rightfully or reasonably expected. _negligence_, which is the same in origin, may be used in almost the same sense, but with a slighter force, as when whittier speaks of "the _negligence_ which friendship loves;" but _negligence_ is often used to denote the quality or trait of character of which the act is a manifestation, or to denote the habit of neglecting that which ought to be done. _neglect_ is transitive, _negligence_ is intransitive; we speak of _neglect_ of his books, friends, or duties, in which cases we could not use _negligence_; _negligence_ in dress implies want of care as to its arrangement, tidiness, etc.; _neglect_ of one's garments would imply leaving them exposed to defacement or injury, as by dust, moths, etc. _neglect_ has a passive sense which _negligence_ has not; the child was suffering from _neglect_, _i. e._, from being neglected by others; the child was suffering from _negligence_ would imply that he himself was neglectful. the distinction sometimes made that _neglect_ denotes the act, and _negligence_ the habit, is but partially true; one may be guilty of habitual _neglect_ of duty; the wife may suffer from her husband's constant _neglect_, while the _negligence_ which causes a railroad accident may be that of a moment, and on the part of one ordinarily careful and attentive; in such cases the law provides punishment for criminal _negligence_. antonyms: see synonyms for care. prepositions: neglect _of_ duty, _of_ the child _by_ the parent; there was neglect _on the part of_ the teacher. * * * * * new. synonyms: fresh, modern, new-made, upstart, juvenile, new-fangled, novel, young, late, new-fashioned, recent, youthful. that which is _new_ has lately come into existence, possession, or use; a _new_ house is just built, or in a more general sense is one that has just come into the possession of the present owner or occupant. _modern_ denotes that which has begun to exist in the present age, and is still existing; _recent_ denotes that which has come into existence within a comparatively brief period, and may or may not be existing still. _modern_ history pertains to any period since the middle ages; _modern_ literature, _modern_ architecture, etc., are not strikingly remote from the styles and types prevalent to-day. that which is _late_ is somewhat removed from the present, but not far enough to be called _old_. that which is _recent_ is not quite so sharply distinguished from the past as that which is _new_; _recent_ publications range over a longer time than _new_ books. that which is _novel_ is either absolutely or relatively unprecedented in kind; a _novel_ contrivance is one that has never before been known; a _novel_ experience is one that has never before occurred to the same person; that which is _new_ may be of a familiar or even of an ancient sort, as a _new_ copy of an old book. _young_ and _youthful_ are applied to that which has life; that which is _young_ is possessed of a comparatively _new_ existence as a living thing, possessing actual youth; that which is _youthful_ manifests the attributes of youth. (compare youthful.) _fresh_ applies to that which has the characteristics of newness or youth, while capable of deterioration by lapse of time; that which is unworn, unspoiled, or unfaded; as, a _fresh_ countenance, _fresh_ eggs, _fresh_ flowers. _new_ is opposed to _old_, _modern_ to _ancient_, _recent_ to _remote_, _young_ to _old_, _aged_, etc. antonyms: see synonyms for old. * * * * * nimble. synonyms: active, alert, bustling, prompt, speedy, spry, agile, brisk, lively, quick, sprightly, swift. _nimble_ refers to lightness, freedom, and quickness of motion within a somewhat narrow range, with readiness to turn suddenly to any point; _swift_ applies commonly to more sustained motion over greater distances; a pickpocket is _nimble_-fingered, a dancer _nimble_-footed; an arrow, a race-horse, or an ocean steamer is _swift_; shakespeare's "_nimble_ lightnings" is said of the visual appearance in sudden zigzag flash across the sky. figuratively, we speak of _nimble_ wit, _swift_ intelligence, _swift_ destruction. _alert_, which is strictly a synonym for _ready_, comes sometimes near the meaning of _nimble_ or _quick_, from the fact that the ready, wide-awake person is likely to be _lively_, _quick_, _speedy_. compare active; alert. antonyms: clumsy, dull, heavy, inactive, inert, slow, sluggish, unready. dilatory, * * * * * normal. synonyms: common, natural, ordinary, regular, typical, usual. that which is _natural_ is according to nature; that which is _normal_ is according to the standard or rule which is observed or claimed to prevail in nature; a deformity may be _natural_, symmetry is _normal_; the _normal_ color of the crow is black, while the _normal_ color of the sparrow is gray, but one is as _natural_ as the other. _typical_ refers to such an assemblage of qualities as makes the specimen, genus, etc., a type of some more comprehensive group, while _normal_ is more commonly applied to the parts of a single object; the specimen was _typical_; color, size, and other characteristics, _normal_. the _regular_ is etymologically that which is according to rule, hence that which is steady and constant, as opposed to that which is fitful and changeable; the _normal_ action of the heart is _regular_. that which is _common_ is shared by a great number of persons or things; disease is _common_, a _normal_ state of health is rare. compare general; usual. antonyms: abnormal, irregular, peculiar, singular, unprecedented, exceptional, monstrous, rare, uncommon, unusual. * * * * * notwithstanding, _conj._ synonyms: altho(ugh), howbeit, nevertheless, tho(ugh), but, however, still, yet. _however_ simply waives discussion, and (like the archaic _howbeit_) says "be that as it may, this is true;" _nevertheless_ concedes the truth of what precedes, but claims that what follows is none the less true; _notwithstanding_ marshals the two statements face to face, admits the one and its seeming contradiction to the other, while insisting that it can not, after all, withstand the other; as, _notwithstanding_ the force of the enemy is superior, we shall conquer. _yet_ and _still_ are weaker than _notwithstanding_, while stronger than _but_. _tho_ and _altho_ make as little as possible of the concession, dropping it, as it were, incidentally; as, "_tho_ we are guilty, thou art good;" to say "we are guilty, _but_ thou art good," would make the concession of guilt more emphatic. compare but; yet. * * * * * notwithstanding, _prep._ synonyms: despite, in spite of. _notwithstanding_ simply states that circumstances shall not be or have not been allowed to withstand; _despite_ and _in spite of_ refer primarily to personal and perhaps spiteful opposition; as, he failed _notwithstanding_ his good intentions; or, he persevered _in spite of_ the most bitter hostility. when _despite_ and _in spite of_ are applied to inanimate things, it is with something of personification; "_in spite of_ the storm" is said as if the storm had a hostile purpose to oppose the undertaking. * * * * * oath. synonyms: adjuration, curse, profane swearing, affidavit, cursing, profanity, anathema, denunciation, reprobation, ban, execration, swearing, blaspheming, imprecation, sworn statement. blasphemy, malediction, vow. in the highest sense, as in a court of justice, "an _oath_ is a reverent appeal to god in corroboration of what one says," abbott _law dict._; an _affidavit_ is a _sworn statement_ made in writing in the presence of a competent officer; an _adjuration_ is a solemn appeal to a person in the name of god to speak the truth. an _oath_ is made to man in the name of god; a _vow_, to god without the intervention, often without the knowledge, of man. in the lower sense, an _oath_ may be mere _blasphemy_ or _profane swearing_. _anathema_, _curse_, _execration_, and _imprecation_ are modes of invoking vengeance or retribution from a superhuman power upon the person against whom they are uttered. _anathema_ is a solemn ecclesiastical condemnation of a person or of a proposition. _curse_ may be just and authoritative; as, the _curse_ of god; or, it may be wanton and powerless: "so the _curse_ causeless shall not come," _prov._ xxvi, . _execration_ expresses most of personal bitterness and hatred; _imprecation_ refers especially to the coming of the desired evil upon the person against whom it is uttered. _malediction_ is a general wish of evil, a less usual but very expressive word. compare testimony. antonyms: benediction, benison, blessing. * * * * * obscure. synonyms: abstruse, darksome, dusky, involved, ambiguous, deep, enigmatical, muddy, cloudy, dense, hidden, mysterious, complex, difficult, incomprehensible, profound, complicated, dim, indistinct, turbid, dark, doubtful, intricate, unintelligible. that is _obscure_ which the eye or the mind can not clearly discern or see through, whether because of its own want of transparency, its depth or intricacy, or because of mere defect of light. that which is _complicated_ is likely to be _obscure_, but that may be _obscure_ which is not at all _complicated_ and scarcely _complex_, as a _muddy_ pool. in that which is _abstruse_ (l. _abs_, from, and _trudo_, push) as if removed from the usual course of thought or out of the way of apprehension or discovery, the thought is remote, _hidden_; in that which is _obscure_ there may be nothing to hide; it is hard to see to the bottom of the _profound_, because of its depth, but the most shallow turbidness is _obscure_. compare complex; dark; difficult; mysterious. antonyms: see synonyms for clear. * * * * * obsolete. synonyms: ancient, archaic, obsolescent, out of date, antiquated, disused, old, rare. some of the _oldest_ or most _ancient_ words are not _obsolete_, as father, mother, etc. a word is _obsolete_ which has quite gone out of reputable use; a word is _archaic_ which is falling out of reputable use, or, on the other hand, having been _obsolete_, is taken up tentatively by writers or speakers of influence, so that it may perhaps regain its position as a living word; a word is _rare_ if there are few present instances of its reputable use. compare old. antonyms: see synonyms for new. * * * * * obstinate. synonyms: contumacious, headstrong, mulish, resolute, decided, heady, obdurate, resolved, determined, immovable, opinionated, stubborn, dogged, indomitable, persistent, unconquerable, firm, inflexible, pertinacious, unflinching, fixed, intractable, refractory, unyielding. the _headstrong_ person is not to be stopped in his own course of action, while the _obstinate_ and _stubborn_ is not to be driven to another's way. the _headstrong_ act; the _obstinate_ and _stubborn_ may simply refuse to stir. the most amiable person may be _obstinate_ on some one point; the _stubborn_ person is for the most part habitually so; we speak of _obstinate_ determination, _stubborn_ resistance. _stubborn_ is the term most frequently applied to the lower animals and inanimate things. _refractory_ implies more activity of resistance; the _stubborn_ horse balks; the _refractory_ animal plunges, rears, and kicks; metals that resist ordinary processes of reduction are termed _refractory_. one is _obdurate_ who adheres to his purpose in spite of appeals that would move any tender-hearted or right-minded person. _contumacious_ refers to a proud and insolent defiance of authority, as of the summons of a court. _pertinacious_ demand is contrasted with _obstinate_ refusal. the _unyielding_ conduct which we approve we call _decided_, _firm_, _inflexible_, _resolute_; that which we condemn we are apt to term _headstrong_, _obstinate_, _stubborn_. compare perverse. antonyms: amenable, dutiful, pliable, tractable, complaisant, gentle, pliant, undecided, compliant, irresolute, submissive, wavering, docile, obedient, teachable, yielding. * * * * * obstruct. synonyms: arrest, check, embarrass, interrupt, stay, bar, choke, hinder, oppose, stop. barricade, clog, impede, retard, to _obstruct_ is literally to build up against; the road is _obstructed_ by fallen trees; the passage of liquid through a tube is _obstructed_ by solid deposits. we may _hinder_ one's advance by following and clinging to him; we _obstruct_ his course by standing in his way or putting a barrier across his path. anything that makes one's progress slower, whether from within or from without, _impedes_; an obstruction is always from without. to _arrest_ is to cause to stop suddenly; _obstructing_ the way may have the effect of _arresting_ progress. compare hinder; impediment. antonyms: accelerate, aid, facilitate, free, open, promote. advance, clear, forward, further, pave the way for, * * * * * old. synonyms: aged, decrepit, immemorial, senile, ancient, elderly, olden, time-honored, antiquated, gray, patriarchal, time-worn, antique, hoary, remote, venerable. that is termed _old_ which has existed long, or which existed long ago. _ancient_, from the latin, through the french, is the more stately, _old_, from the saxon, the more familiar word. familiarity, on one side, is near to contempt; thus we say, an _old_ coat, an _old_ hat. on the other hand, familiarity is akin to tenderness, and thus _old_ is a word of endearment; as, "the _old_ homestead," the "_old_ oaken bucket." "tell me the _old, old_ story!" has been sung feelingly by millions; "tell me that _ancient_ story" would remove it out of all touch of human sympathy. _olden_ is a statelier form of _old_, and is applied almost exclusively to time, not to places, buildings, persons, etc. as regards periods of time, the familiar are also the near; thus, the _old_ times are not too far away for familiar thought and reference; the _olden_ times are more remote, _ancient_ times still further removed. _gray_, _hoary_, and _moldering_ refer to outward and visible tokens of age. _aged_ applies chiefly to long-extended human life. _decrepit_, _gray_, and _hoary_ refer to the effects of age on the body exclusively; _senile_ upon the mind also; as, a _decrepit_ frame, _senile_ garrulousness. one may be _aged_ and neither _decrepit_ nor _senile_. _elderly_ is applied to those who have passed middle life, but scarcely reached _old_ age. _remote_ (l. _re_, back or away, and _moveo_, move), primarily refers to space, but is extended to that which is far off in time; as, at some _remote_ period. _venerable_ expresses the involuntary reverence that we yield to the majestic and long-enduring, whether in the material world or in human life and character. compare antique; obsolete; primeval. antonyms: compare synonyms for new; youthful. * * * * * operation. synonyms: action, effect, force, performance, result. agency, execution, influence, procedure, _operation_ is _action_ considered with reference to the thing acted upon, and may apply to the _action_ of an intelligent agent or of a material substance or _force_; as, the _operation_ of a medicine. _performance_ and _execution_ denote intelligent _action_, considered with reference to the actor or to that which he accomplishes; _performance_ accomplishing the will of the actor, _execution_ often the will of another; we speak of the _performance_ of a duty, the _execution_ of a sentence. compare act. antonyms: failure, ineffectiveness, inutility, powerlessness, uselessness. inaction, inefficiency, * * * * * order. synonyms: command, injunction, mandate, requirement. direction, instruction, prohibition, _instruction_ implies superiority of knowledge, _direction_ of authority on the part of the giver; a teacher gives _instructions_ to his pupils, an employer gives _directions_ to his workmen. _order_ is still more authoritative than _direction_; soldiers, sailors, and railroad employees have simply to obey the _orders_ of their superiors, without explanation or question; an _order_ in the commercial sense has the authority of the money which the one _ordering_ the goods pays or is to pay. _command_ is a loftier word, as well as highly authoritative, less frequent in common life; we speak of the _commands_ of god, or sometimes, by polite hyperbole, ask of a friend, "have you any _commands_ for me?" a _requirement_ is imperative, but not always formal, nor made by a personal agent; it may be in the nature of things; as, the _requirements_ of the position. _prohibition_ is wholly negative; it is a _command_ not to do; _injunction_ is now oftenest so used, especially as the _requirement_ by legal authority that certain action be suspended or refrained from, pending final legal decision. compare array; class; law; prohibit; system. antonyms: allowance, consent, leave, liberty, license, permission, permit. * * * * * ostentation. synonyms: boast, flourish, parade, pompousness, vaunt, boasting, pageant, pomp, show, vaunting. display, pageantry, pomposity, _ostentation_ is an ambitious showing forth of whatever is thought adapted to win admiration or praise; _ostentation_ may be without words; as, the _ostentation_ of wealth in fine residences, rich clothing, costly equipage, or the like; when in words, _ostentation_ is rather in manner than in direct statement; as, the _ostentation_ of learning. _boasting_ is in direct statement, and is louder and more vulgar than _ostentation_. there may be great _display_ or _show_ with little substance; _ostentation_ suggests something substantial to be shown. _pageant_, _pageantry_, _parade_, and _pomp_ refer principally to affairs of arms or state; as, a royal _pageant_; a military _parade_. _pomp_ is some material demonstration of wealth and power, as in grand and stately ceremonial, rich furnishings, processions, etc., considered as worthy of the person or occasion in whose behalf it is manifested; _pomp_ is the noble side of that which as _ostentation_ is considered as arrogant and vain. _pageant_ and _pageantry_ are inferior to _pomp_, denoting spectacular _display_ designed to impress the public mind, and since the multitude is largely ignorant and thoughtless, the words _pageant_ and _pageantry_ have a suggestion of the transient and unsubstantial. _parade_ (l. _paro_, prepare) is an exhibition as of troops in camp going through the evolutions that are to be used in battle, and suggests a lack of earnestness and direct or immediate occasion or demand; hence, in the more general sense, a _parade_ is an uncalled for exhibition, and so used is a more disparaging word than _ostentation_; _ostentation_ may spring merely from undue self-gratulation, _parade_ implies a desire to impress others with a sense of one's abilities or resources, and is always offensive and somewhat contemptible; as, a _parade_ of wealth or learning. _pomposity_ and _pompousness_ are the affectation of _pomp_. antonyms: diffidence, quietness, retirement, timidity, modesty, reserve, shrinking, unobtrusiveness. * * * * * ought. synonym: should. one _ought_ to do that which he is under moral obligation or in duty bound to do. _ought_ is the stronger word, holding most closely to the sense of moral obligation, or sometimes of imperative logical necessity; _should_ may have the sense of moral obligation or may apply merely to propriety or expediency, as in the proverb, "the liar _should_ have a good memory," _i. e._, he will need it. _ought_ is sometimes used of abstractions or inanimate things as indicating what the mind deems to be imperative or logically necessary in view of all the conditions; as, these goods _ought_ to go into that space; these arguments _ought_ to convince him; _should_ in such connections would be correct, but less emphatic. compare duty. * * * * * oversight. synonyms: care, control, management, surveillance, charge, direction, superintendence, watch, command, inspection, supervision, watchfulness. a person may look over a matter in order to survey it carefully in its entirety, or he may look over it with no attention to the thing itself because his gaze and thought are concentrated on something beyond; _oversight_ has thus two contrasted senses, in the latter sense denoting inadvertent error or omission, and in the former denoting watchful _supervision_, commonly implying constant personal presence; _superintendence_ requires only so much of presence or communication as to know that the superintendent's wishes are carried out; the superintendent of a railroad will personally oversee very few of its operations; the railroad company has supreme _direction_ of all its affairs without _superintendence_ or _oversight_. _control_ is used chiefly with reference to restraint or the power of restraint; a good horseman has a restless horse under perfect _control_; there is no high character without self-_control_. _surveillance_ is an invidious term signifying watching with something of suspicion. compare care; neglect. * * * * * pain. synonyms: ache, distress, suffering, torture, agony, pang, throe, twinge, anguish, paroxysm, torment, wo(e). _pain_ is the most general term of this group, including all the others; _pain_ is a disturbing sensation from which nature revolts, resulting from some injurious external interference (as from a wound, a bruise, a harsh word, etc.), or from some lack of what one needs, craves, or cherishes (as, the _pain_ of hunger or bereavement), or from some abnormal action of bodily or mental functions (as, the _pains_ of disease, envy, or discontent). _suffering_ is one of the severer forms of _pain_. the prick of a needle causes _pain_, but we should scarcely speak of it as _suffering_. _distress_ is too strong a word for little hurts, too feeble for the intensest _suffering_, but commonly applied to some continuous or prolonged trouble or need; as, the _distress_ of a shipwrecked crew, or of a destitute family. _ache_ is lingering _pain_, more or less severe; _pang_, a _pain_ short, sharp, intense, and perhaps repeated. we speak of the _pangs_ of hunger or of remorse. _throe_ is a violent and thrilling _pain_. _paroxysm_ applies to an alternately recurring and receding _pain_, which comes as it were in waves; the _paroxysm_ is the rising of the wave. _torment_ and _torture_ are intense and terrible _sufferings_. _agony_ and _anguish_ express the utmost _pain_ or _suffering_ of body or mind. _agony_ of body is that with which the system struggles; _anguish_ that by which it is crushed. antonyms: comfort, delight, ease, enjoyment, peace, rapture, relief, solace. * * * * * palliate. synonyms: apologize for, conceal, extenuate, hide, screen, cloak, cover, gloss over, mitigate, veil. _cloak_, from the french, and _palliate_, from the latin, are the same in original signification, but have diverged in meaning; a _cloak_ may be used to _hide_ completely the person or some object carried about the person, or it may but partly _veil_ the figure, making the outlines less distinct; _cloak_ is used in the former, _palliate_, in the latter sense; to _cloak_ a sin is to attempt to _hide_ it from discovery; to _palliate_ it is to attempt to _hide_ some part of its blameworthiness. "when we _palliate_ our own or others' faults we do not seek to _cloke_ them altogether, but only to _extenuate_ the guilt of them in part." trench _study of words_ lect. vi, p. . either to _palliate_ or to _extenuate_ is to admit the fault; but to _extenuate_ is rather to _apologize_ for the offender, while to _palliate_ is to disguise the fault; hence, we speak of _extenuating_ but not of _palliating_ circumstances, since circumstances can not change the inherent wrong of an act, tho they may lessen the blameworthiness of him who does it; _palliating_ a bad thing by giving it a mild name does not make it less evil. in reference to diseases, to _palliate_ is really to diminish their violence, or partly to relieve the sufferer. compare alleviate; hide. * * * * * pardon, _v._ synonyms: absolve, condone, forgive, pass by, remit. acquit, excuse, overlook, pass over, to _pardon_ is to let pass, as a fault or sin, without resentment, blame, or punishment. _forgive_ has reference to feelings, _pardon_ to consequences; hence, the executive may _pardon_, but has nothing to do officially with _forgiving_. personal injury may be _forgiven_ by the person wronged; thus, god at once _forgives_ and _pardons_; the _pardoned_ sinner is exempt from punishment; the _forgiven_ sinner is restored to the divine favor. to _pardon_ is the act of a superior, implying the right to punish; to _forgive_ is the privilege of the humblest person who has been wronged or offended. in law, to _remit_ the whole penalty is equivalent to _pardoning_ the offender; but a part of a penalty may be _remitted_ and the remainder inflicted, as where the penalty includes both fine and imprisonment. to _condone_ is to put aside a recognized offense by some act which restores the offender to forfeited right or privilege, and is the act of a private individual, without legal formalities. to _excuse_ is to _overlook_ some slight offense, error, or breach of etiquette; _pardon_ is often used by courtesy in nearly the same sense. a person may speak of _excusing_ or _forgiving_ himself, but not of _pardoning_ himself. compare absolve; pardon, _n._ antonyms: castigate, chastise, convict, doom, recompense, sentence, chasten, condemn, correct, punish, scourge, visit. * * * * * pardon, _n._ synonyms: absolution, amnesty, forgiveness, oblivion, acquittal, forbearance, mercy, remission. _acquittal_ is a release from a charge, after trial, as not guilty. _pardon_ is a removal of penalty from one who has been adjudged guilty. _acquittal_ is by the decision of a court, commonly of a jury; _pardon_ is the act of the executive. an innocent man may demand _acquittal_, and need not plead for _pardon_. _pardon_ supposes an offense; yet, as our laws stand, to grant a _pardon_ is sometimes the only way to release one who has been wrongly convicted. _oblivion_, from the latin, signifies overlooking and virtually forgetting an offense, so that the offender stands before the law in all respects as if it had never been committed. _amnesty_ brings the same idea through the greek. _pardon_ affects individuals; _amnesty_ and _oblivion_ are said of great numbers. _pardon_ is oftenest applied to the ordinary administration of law; _amnesty_, to national and military affairs. an _amnesty_ is issued after war, insurrection, or rebellion; it is often granted by "an act of _oblivion_," and includes a full _pardon_ of all offenders who come within its provisions. _absolution_ is a religious word (compare synonyms for absolve). _remission_ is a discharge from penalty; as, the _remission_ of a fine. antonyms: penalty, punishment, retaliation, retribution, vengeance. prepositions: a pardon _to_ or _for_ the offenders; _for_ all offenses; the pardon _of_ offenders or offenses. * * * * * part, _v._ synonyms: compare synonyms for part, _n._ prepositions: part _into_ shares; part _in_ the middle; part one _from_ another; part _among_ the claimants; part _between_ contestants (archaic); in general, to part _from_ is to relinquish companionship; to part _with_ is to relinquish possession; we part _from_ a person or _from_ something thought of with some sense of companionship; a traveler parts _from_ his friends; he maybe said also to part _from_ his native shore; a man parts _with_ an estate, a horse, a copyright; part _with_ may be applied to a person thought of in any sense as a possession; an employer parts _with_ a clerk or servant; but _part with_ is sometimes used by good writers as meaning simply to separate from. * * * * * part, _n._ synonyms: atom, fraction, member, section, component, fragment, particle, segment, constituent, ingredient, piece, share, division, instalment, portion, subdivision. element, _part_, a substance, quantity, or amount that is the result of the division of something greater, is the general word, including all the others of this group. a _fragment_ is the result of breaking, rending, or disruption of some kind, while a _piece_ may be smoothly or evenly separated and have a certain completeness in itself. a _piece_ is often taken for a sample; a _fragment_ scarcely would be. _division_ and _fraction_ are always regarded as in connection with the total; _divisions_ may be equal or unequal; a _fraction_ is one of several equal _parts_ into which the whole is supposed to be divided. a _portion_ is a _part_ viewed with reference to some one who is to receive it or some special purpose to which it is to be applied; in a restaurant one _portion_ (_i. e._, the amount designed for one person) is sometimes, by special order, served to two; a _share_ is a _part_ to which one has or may acquire a right in connection with others; an _instalment_ is one of a series of proportionate payments that are to be continued till the entire claim is discharged; a _particle_ is an exceedingly small _part_. a _component_, _constituent_, _ingredient_, or _element_ is a _part_ of some compound or mixture; an _element_ is necessary to the existence, as a _component_ or _constituent_ is necessary to the completeness of that which it helps to compose; an _ingredient_ may be foreign or accidental. a _subdivision_ is a _division_ of a _division_. we speak of a _segment_ of a circle. compare particle; portion. * * * * * particle. synonyms: atom, grain, mite, scrap, whit. corpuscle, iota, molecule, shred, element, jot, scintilla, tittle, a _particle_ is a very small part of any material substance; as, a _particle_ of sand or of dust; it is a general term, not accurately determinate in meaning. _atom_ (gr. _a-_ privative, not, and _temno_, cut) etymologically signifies that which can not be cut or divided, and is the smallest conceivable _particle_ of matter, regarded as absolutely homogeneous and as having but one set of properties; _atoms_ are the ultimate _particles_ of matter. a _molecule_ is made up of _atoms_, and is regarded as separable into its constituent parts; as used by physicists, a _molecule_ is the smallest conceivable part which retains all the characteristics of the substance; thus, a _molecule_ of water is made up of two _atoms_ of hydrogen and one _atom_ of oxygen. _element_ in chemistry denotes, without reference to quantity, a substance regarded as simple, _i. e._, one incapable of being resolved by any known process into simpler substances; the _element_ gold may be represented by an ingot or by a _particle_ of gold-dust. in popular language, an _element_ is any essential constituent; the ancients believed that the universe was made up of the four _elements_, earth, air, fire, and water; a storm is spoken of as a manifestation of the fury of the _elements_. we speak of _corpuscles_ of blood. compare part. antonyms: aggregate, entirety, mass, quantity, sum, sum total, total, whole. * * * * * patience. synonyms: calmness, forbearance, long-suffering, sufferance. composure, fortitude, resignation, endurance, leniency, submission, _patience_ is the quality or habit of mind shown in bearing passively and uncomplainingly any pain, evil, or hardship that may fall to one's lot. _endurance_ hardens itself against suffering, and may be merely stubborn; _fortitude_ is _endurance_ animated by courage; _endurance_ may by modifiers be made to have a passive force, as when we speak of "passive endurance;" _patience_ is not so hard as _endurance_ nor so self-effacing as _submission_. _submission_ is ordinarily and _resignation_ always applied to matters of great moment, while _patience_ may apply to slight worries and annoyances. as regards our relations to our fellow men, _forbearance_ is abstaining from retaliation or revenge; _patience_ is keeping kindliness of heart under vexatious conduct; _long-suffering_ is continued _patience_. _patience_ may also have an active force denoting uncomplaining steadiness in doing, as in tilling the soil. compare industry. antonyms: see synonyms for anger. prepositions: patience _in_ or _amid_ sufferings; patience _with_ (rarely _toward_) opposers or offenders; patience _under_ afflictions; (rarely) patience _of_ heat or cold, etc. * * * * * pay, _n._ synonyms: allowance, hire, recompense, salary, compensation, honorarium, remuneration, stipend, earnings, payment, requital, wages. fee, an _allowance_ is a stipulated amount furnished at regular intervals as a matter of discretion or gratuity, as of food to besieged soldiers, or of money to a child or ward. _compensation_ is a comprehensive word signifying a return for a service done. _remuneration_ is applied to matters of great amount or importance. _recompense_ is a still wider and loftier word, with less suggestion of calculation and market value; there are services for which affection and gratitude are the sole and sufficient _recompense_; _earnings_, _fees_, _hire_, _pay_, _salary_, and _wages_ are forms of _compensation_ and may be included in _compensation_, _remuneration_, or _recompense_. _pay_ is commercial and strictly signifies an exact pecuniary equivalent for a thing or service, except when the contrary is expressly stated, as when we speak of "high _pay_" or "poor _pay_." _wages_ denotes what a worker receives. _earnings_ is often used as exactly equivalent to _wages_, but may be used with reference to the real value of work done or service rendered, and even applied to inanimate things; as, the _earnings_ of capital. _hire_ is distinctly mercenary or menial, but as a noun has gone out of popular use, tho the verb _to hire_ is common. _salary_ is for literary or professional work, _wages_ for handicraft or other comparatively inferior service; a _salary_ is regarded as more permanent than _wages_; an editor receives a _salary_, a compositor receives _wages_. _stipend_ has become exclusively a literary word. a _fee_ is given for a single service or privilege, and is sometimes in the nature of a gratuity. compare requite. * * * * * people. synonyms: commonwealth, nation, race, state, tribe. community, population, a _community_ is in general terms the aggregate of persons inhabiting any territory in common and viewed as having common interests; a _commonwealth_ is such a body of persons having a common government, especially a republican government; as, the _commonwealth_ of massachusetts. a _community_ may be very small; a _commonwealth_ is ordinarily of considerable extent. a _people_ is the aggregate of any public _community_, either in distinction from their rulers or as including them; a _race_ is a division of mankind in the line of origin and ancestry; the _people_ of the united states includes members of almost every _race_. the use of _people_ as signifying persons collectively, as in the statement "the hall was full of _people_," has been severely criticized, but is old and accepted english, and may fitly be classed as idiomatic, and often better than _persons_, by reason of its collectivism. as dean alford suggests, it would make a strange transformation of the old hymn "all _people_ that on earth do dwell" to sing "all _persons_ that on earth do dwell." a _state_ is an organized political _community_ considered in its corporate capacity as "a body politic and corporate;" as, a legislative act is the act of the _state_; every citizen is entitled to the protection of the _state_. a _nation_ is an organized political _community_ considered with reference to the persons composing it as having certain definite boundaries, a definite number of citizens, etc. the members of a _people_ are referred to as persons or individuals; the individual members of a _state_ or _nation_ are called citizens or subjects. the _population_ of a country is simply the aggregate of persons residing within its borders, without reference to _race_, organization, or allegiance; unnaturalized residents form part of the _population_, but not of the _nation_, possessing none of the rights and being subject to none of the duties of citizens. in american usage _state_ signifies one _commonwealth_ of the federal union known as the united _states_. _tribe_ is now almost wholly applied to rude _peoples_ with very imperfect political organization; as, the indian _tribes_; nomadic _tribes_. compare mob. * * * * * perceive. synonyms: apprehend, comprehend, conceive, understand. we _perceive_ what is presented through the senses. we _apprehend_ what is presented to the mind, whether through the senses or by any other means. yet _perceive_ is used in the figurative sense of seeing through to a conclusion, in a way for which usage would not allow us to substitute _apprehend_; as, "sir, i _perceive_ that thou art a prophet," _john_ iv, . that which we _apprehend_ we catch, as with the hand; that which we _conceive_ we are able to analyze and recompose in our mind; that which we _comprehend_, we, as it were, grasp around, take together, seize, embrace wholly within the mind. many things may be _apprehended_ which can not be _comprehended_; a child can _apprehend_ the distinction between right and wrong, yet the philosopher can not _comprehend_ it in its fulness. we can _apprehend_ the will of god as revealed in conscience or the scriptures; we can _conceive_ of certain attributes of deity, as his truth and justice; but no finite intelligence can _comprehend_ the divine nature, in its majesty, power, and perfection. compare anticipate; arrest; catch; knowledge. antonyms: fail of, ignore, lose, misapprehend, misconceive, miss, overlook. * * * * * perfect. synonyms: absolute, consummate, holy, spotless, accurate, correct, ideal, stainless, blameless, entire, immaculate, unblemished, complete, faultless, sinless, undefiled. completed, finished, that is _perfect_ to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be taken without impairing its excellence, marring its symmetry, or detracting from its worth; in this fullest sense god alone is _perfect_, but in a limited sense anything may be _perfect_ in its kind; as a _perfect_ flower; a copy of a document is _perfect_ when it is _accurate_ in every particular; a vase may be called _perfect_ when _entire_ and _unblemished_, even tho not artistically _faultless_; the best judges never pronounce a work of art _perfect_, because they see always _ideal_ possibilities not yet attained; even the _ideal_ is not _perfect_, by reason of the imperfection of the human mind; a human character faultlessly _holy_ would be morally _perfect_ tho finite. that which is _absolute_ is free from admixture (as _absolute_ alcohol) and in the highest and fullest sense free from imperfection or limitation; as, _absolute_ holiness and love are attributes of god alone. in philosophical language, _absolute_ signifies free from all necessary, or even from all possible relations, not dependent or limited, unrelated and unconditioned; truth immediately known, as intuitive truth, is _absolute_; god, as self-existent and free from all limitation or dependence, is called the _absolute_ being, or simply the _absolute_. compare innocent; infinite; radical. antonyms: bad, defective, imperfect, meager, scant, blemished, deficient, incomplete, perverted, short, corrupt, deformed, inferior, poor, spoiled, corrupted, fallible, insufficient, ruined, worthless. defaced, faulty, marred, * * * * * permanent. synonyms: abiding, enduring, lasting, steadfast, changeless, fixed, perpetual, unchangeable, constant, immutable, persistent, unchanging. durable, invariable, stable, _durable_ (l. _durus_, hard) is said almost wholly of material substances that resist wear; _lasting_ is said of either material or immaterial things. _permanent_ is a word of wider meaning; a thing is _permanent_ which is not liable to change; as, a _permanent_ color; buildings upon a farm are called _permanent_ improvements. _enduring_ is a higher word, applied to that which resists both time and change; as, _enduring_ fame. antonyms: see synonyms for transient. * * * * * permission. synonyms: allowance, authorization, leave, license, authority, consent, liberty, permit. _authority_ unites the right and power of control; age, wisdom, and character give _authority_ to their possessor; a book of learned research has _authority_, and is even called an _authority_. _permission_ justifies another in acting without interference or censure, and usually implies some degree of approval. _authority_ gives a certain right of control over all that may be affected by the action. there may be a failure to object, which constitutes an implied _permission_, tho this is more properly expressed by _allowance_; we _allow_ what we do not oppose, _permit_ what we expressly authorize. the noun _permit_ implies a formal written _permission_. _license_ is a formal _permission_ granted by competent _authority_ to an individual to do some act or pursue some business which would be or is made to be unlawful without such _permission_; as, a _license_ to preach, to solemnize marriages, or to sell intoxicating liquors. a _license_ is _permission_ granted rather than _authority_ conferred; the sheriff has _authority_ (not _permission_ nor _license_) to make an arrest. _consent_ is _permission_ by the concurrence of wills in two or more persons, a mutual approval or acceptance of something proposed. compare allow. antonyms: denial, objection, prevention, refusal, resistance. hindrance, opposition, prohibition, * * * * * pernicious. synonyms: bad, evil, mischievous, pestilential, baneful, foul, noisome, poisonous, deadly, harmful, noxious, ruinous, deleterious, hurtful, perverting, unhealthful, destructive, injurious, pestiferous, unwholesome. detrimental, insalubrious, _pernicious_ (l. _per_, through, and _neco_, kill) signifies having the power of destroying or injuring, tending to hurt or kill. _pernicious_ is stronger than _injurious_; that which is _injurious_ is capable of doing harm; that which is _pernicious_ is likely to be _destructive_. _noxious_ (l. _noceo_, hurt) is a stronger word than _noisome_, as referring to that which is _injurious_ or _destructive_. _noisome_ now always denotes that which is extremely disagreeable or disgusting, especially to the sense of smell; as, the _noisome_ stench proclaimed the presence of _noxious_ gases. antonyms: advantageous, favorable, helpful, profitable, serviceable, beneficent, good, invigorating, rejuvenating, useful, beneficial, healthful, life-giving, salutary, wholesome. * * * * * perplexity. synonyms: amazement, bewilderment, distraction, doubt, astonishment, confusion, disturbance, embarrassment. _perplexity_ (l. _per_, through, and _plecto_, plait) is the drawing or turning of the thoughts or faculties by turns in different directions or toward contrasted or contradictory conclusions; _confusion_ (l. _confusus_, from _confundo_, pour together) is a state in which the mental faculties are, as it were, thrown into chaos, so that the clear and distinct action of the different powers, as of perception, memory, reason, and will is lost; _bewilderment_ is akin to _confusion_, but is less overwhelming, and more readily recovered from; _perplexity_, accordingly, has not the unsettling of the faculties implied in _confusion_, nor the overwhelming of the faculties implied in _amazement_ or _astonishment_; it is not the magnitude of the things to be known, but the want of full and definite knowledge, that causes _perplexity_. the dividing of a woodland path may cause the traveler the greatest _perplexity_, which may become _bewilderment_ when he has tried one path after another and lost his bearings completely. with an excitable person _bewilderment_ may deepen into _confusion_ that will make him unable to think clearly or even to see or hear distinctly. _amazement_ results from the sudden and unimagined occurrence of great good or evil or the sudden awakening of the mind to unthought-of truth. _astonishment_ often produces _bewilderment_, which the word was formerly understood to imply. compare amazement; anxiety; doubt. * * * * * persuade. synonyms: allure, dispose, incline, move, bring over, entice, induce, prevail on _or_ upon, coax, impel, influence, urge, convince, incite, lead, win over. of these words _convince_ alone has no direct reference to moving the will, denoting an effect upon the understanding only; one may be _convinced_ of his duty without doing it, or he may be _convinced_ of truth that has no manifest connection with duty or action, as of a mathematical proposition. to _persuade_ is to bring the will of another to a desired decision by some influence exerted upon it short of compulsion; one may be _convinced_ that the earth is round; he may be _persuaded_ to travel round it; but persuasion is so largely dependent upon conviction that it is commonly held to be the orator's work first to _convince_ in order that he may _persuade_. _coax_ is a slighter word than _persuade_, seeking the same end by shallower methods, largely by appeal to personal feeling, with or without success; as, a child _coaxes_ a parent to buy him a toy. one may be _brought over_, _induced_, or _prevailed upon_ by means not properly included in persuasion, as by bribery or intimidation; he is _won over_ chiefly by personal influence. compare influence. antonyms: deter, discourage, dissuade, hinder, hold back, repel, restrain. * * * * * pertness. synonyms: boldness, forwardness, liveliness, sprightliness. briskness, impertinence, sauciness, flippancy, impudence, smartness, _liveliness_ and _sprightliness_ are pleasant and commendable; _smartness_ is a limited and showy acuteness or shrewdness, usually with unfavorable suggestion; _pertness_ and _sauciness_ are these qualities overdone, and regardless of the respect due to superiors. _impertinence_ and _impudence_ may be gross and stupid; _pertness_ and _sauciness_ are always vivid and keen. compare impudence. antonyms: bashfulness, demureness, diffidence, humility, modesty, shyness. * * * * * perverse. synonyms: contrary, froward, petulant, untoward, factious, intractable, stubborn, wayward, fractious, obstinate, ungovernable, wilful. _perverse_ (l. _perversus_, turned the wrong way) signifies wilfully wrong or erring, unreasonably set against right, reason, or authority. the _stubborn_ or _obstinate_ person will not do what another desires or requires; the _perverse_ person will do anything contrary to what is desired or required of him. the _petulant_ person frets, but may comply; the _perverse_ individual may be smooth or silent, but is wilfully _intractable_. _wayward_ refers to a _perverse_ disregard of morality and duty; _froward_ is practically obsolete; _untoward_ is rarely heard except in certain phrases; as, _untoward_ circumstances. compare obstinate. antonyms: accommodating, complaisant, genial, kind, amenable, compliant, governable, obliging. * * * * * physical. synonyms: bodily, corporeal, natural, tangible, corporal, material, sensible, visible. whatever is composed of or pertains to matter may be termed _material_; _physical_ (gr. _physis_, nature) applies to _material_ things considered as parts of a system or organic whole; hence, we speak of _material_ substances, _physical_ forces, _physical_ laws. _bodily_, _corporal_, and _corporeal_ apply primarily to the human body; _bodily_ and _corporal_ both denote pertaining or relating to the body; _corporeal_ signifies of the nature of or like the body; _corporal_ is now almost wholly restricted to signify applied to or inflicted upon the body; we speak of _bodily_ sufferings, _bodily_ presence, _corporal_ punishment, the _corporeal_ frame. antonyms: hyperphysical, intangible, invisible, moral, unreal, immaterial, intellectual, mental, spiritual, unsubstantial. * * * * * pique. synonyms: displeasure, irritation, offense, resentment, umbrage. grudge, _pique_, from the french, signifies primarily a prick or a sting, as of a nettle; the word denotes a sudden feeling of mingled pain and anger, but slight and usually transient, arising from some neglect or _offense_, real or imaginary. _umbrage_ is a deeper and more persistent _displeasure_ at being overshadowed (l. _umbra_, a shadow) or subjected to any treatment that one deems unworthy of him. it may be said, as a general statement, that _pique_ arises from wounded vanity or sensitiveness, _umbrage_ from wounded pride or sometimes from suspicion. _resentment_ rests on more solid grounds, and is deep and persistent. compare anger. antonyms: approval, contentment, gratification, pleasure, satisfaction. complacency, delight, * * * * * pitiful. synonyms: abject, lamentable, paltry, sorrowful, base, miserable, pathetic, touching, contemptible, mournful, piteous, woful, despicable, moving, pitiable, wretched. _pitiful_ originally signified full of pity; as, "the lord is very _pitiful_ and of tender mercy," _james_ v, ; but this usage is now archaic, and the meaning in question is appropriated by such words as merciful and compassionate. _pitiful_ and _pitiable_ now refer to what may be deserving of pity, _pitiful_ being used chiefly for that which is merely an object of thought, _pitiable_ for that which is brought directly before the senses; as, a _pitiful_ story; a _pitiable_ object; a _pitiable_ condition. since pity, however, always implies weakness or inferiority in that which is pitied, _pitiful_ and _pitiable_ are often used, by an easy transition, for what might awaken pity, but does awaken contempt; as, a _pitiful_ excuse; he presented a _pitiable_ appearance. _piteous_ is now rarely used in its earlier sense of feeling pity, but in its derived sense applies to what really excites the emotion; as, a _piteous_ cry. compare humane; mercy; pity. antonyms: august, dignified, grand, lofty, sublime, beneficent, exalted, great, mighty, superb, commanding, glorious, helpful, noble, superior. * * * * * pity. synonyms: commiseration, condolence, sympathy, tenderness. compassion, mercy, _pity_ is a feeling of grief or pain aroused by the weakness, misfortunes, or distresses of others, joined with a desire to help or relieve. _sympathy_ (feeling or suffering with) implies some degree of equality, kindred, or union; _pity_ is for what is weak or unfortunate, and so far, at least, inferior to ourselves; hence, _pity_ is often resented where _sympathy_ would be welcome. we have _sympathy_ with one in joy or grief, in pleasure or pain, _pity_ only for those in suffering or need; we may have _sympathy_ with the struggles of a giant or the triumphs of a conqueror; we are moved with _pity_ for the captive or the slave. _pity_ may be only in the mind, but _mercy_ does something for those who are its objects. _compassion_, like _pity_, is exercised only with respect to the suffering or unfortunate, but combines with the tenderness of _pity_ the dignity of _sympathy_ and the active quality of _mercy_. _commiseration_ is as tender as _compassion_, but more remote and hopeless; we have _commiseration_ for sufferers whom we can not reach or can not relieve. _condolence_ is the expression of _sympathy_. compare mercy. antonyms: barbarity, ferocity, harshness, pitilessness, severity, brutality, hard-heartedness, inhumanity, rigor, sternness, cruelty, hardness, mercilessness, ruthlessness, truculence. prepositions: pity _on_ or _upon_ that which we help or spare; pity _for_ that which we merely contemplate; "have pity _upon_ me, o ye my friends," _job_ xix, ; "pity _for_ a horse o'erdriven," tennyson _in memoriam_ lxii, st. . * * * * * plant. synonyms: seed, seed down, set, set out, sow. we _set_ or _set out_ slips, cuttings, young trees, etc., tho we may also be said to _plant_ them; we _plant_ corn, potatoes, etc., which we put in definite places, as in hills, with some care; we _sow_ wheat or other small grains and seeds which are scattered in the process. tho by modern agricultural machinery the smaller grains are almost as precisely _planted_ as corn, the old word for broadcast scattering is retained. land is _seeded_ or _seeded down_ to grass. antonyms: eradicate, extirpate, root up, uproot, weed out. * * * * * plead. synonyms: advocate, ask, beseech, implore, solicit, argue, beg, entreat, press, urge. to _plead_ for one is to employ argument or persuasion, or both in his behalf, usually with earnestness or importunity; similarly one may be said to _plead_ for himself or for a cause, etc., or with direct object, to _plead_ a case; in legal usage, _pleading_ is argumentative, but in popular usage, _pleading_ always implies some appeal to the feelings. one _argues_ a case solely on rational grounds and supposably with fair consideration of both sides; he _advocates_ one side for the purpose of carrying it, and under the influence of motives that may range all the way from cold self-interest to the highest and noblest impulses; he _pleads_ a cause, or _pleads_ for a person with still more intense feeling. _beseech_, _entreat_, and _implore_ imply impassioned earnestness, with direct and tender appeal to personal considerations. _press_ and _urge_ imply more determined or perhaps authoritative insistence. _solicit_ is a weak word denoting merely an attempt to secure one's consent or cooperation, sometimes by sordid or corrupt motives. prepositions: plead _with_ the tyrant _for_ the captive; plead _against_ the oppression or the oppressor; plead _to_ the indictment; _at_ the bar; _before_ the court; _in_ open court. * * * * * pleasant. synonyms: agreeable, good-natured, kindly, pleasing, attractive, kind, obliging, pleasurable. that is _pleasing_ from which pleasure is received, or may readily be received, without reference to any action or intent in that which confers it; as, a _pleasing_ picture; a _pleasing_ landscape. whatever has active qualities adapted to give pleasure is _pleasant_; as, a _pleasant_ breeze; a _pleasant_ (not a _pleasing_) day. as applied to persons, _pleasant_ always refers to a disposition ready and desirous to please; one is _pleasant_, or in a _pleasant_ mood, when inclined to make happy those with whom he is dealing, to show kindness and do any reasonable favor. in this sense _pleasant_ is nearly akin to _kind_, but _kind_ refers to act or intent, while _pleasant_ stops with the disposition; many persons are no longer in a _pleasant_ mood if asked to do a troublesome kindness. _pleasant_ keeps always something of the sense of actually giving pleasure, and thus surpasses the meaning of _good-natured_; there are _good-natured_ people who by reason of rudeness and ill-breeding are not _pleasant_ companions. a _pleasing_ face has good features, complexion, expression, etc.; a _pleasant_ face indicates a _kind_ heart and an _obliging_ disposition, as well as _kindly_ feelings in actual exercise; we can say of one usually _good-natured_, "on that occasion he did not meet me with a _pleasant_ face." _pleasant_, in the sense of gay, merry, jocose (the sense still retained in _pleasantry_), is now rare, and would not be understood outside of literary circles. compare amiable; comfortable; delightful. antonyms: arrogant, displeasing, glum, ill-humored, repelling, austere, dreary, grim, ill-natured, repulsive, crabbed, forbidding, harsh, offensive, unkind, disagreeable, gloomy, hateful, repellent, unpleasant. prepositions: pleasant _to_, _with_, or _toward_ persons, _about_ a matter. * * * * * plentiful. synonyms: abounding, bountiful, generous, plenteous, abundant, complete, large, profuse, adequate, copious, lavish, replete, affluent, enough, liberal, rich, ample, exuberant, luxuriant, sufficient, bounteous, full, overflowing, teeming. _enough_ is relative, denoting a supply equal to a given demand. a temperature of ° fahrenheit is _enough_ for a living-room; of ° _enough_ to boil water; neither is _enough_ to melt iron. _sufficient_, from the latin, is an equivalent of the saxon _enough_, with no perceptible difference of meaning, but only of usage, _enough_ being the more blunt, homely, and forcible word, while _sufficient_ is in many cases the more elegant or polite. _sufficient_ usually precedes its noun; _enough_ usually and preferably follows. that is _ample_ which gives a safe, but not a large, margin beyond a given demand; that is _abundant_, _affluent_, _bountiful_, _liberal_, _plentiful_, which is largely in excess of manifest need. _plentiful_ is used of supplies, as of food, water, etc.; as, "a _plentiful_ rain," _ps._ lxviii, . we may also say a _copious_ rain; but _copious_ can be applied to thought, language, etc., where _plentiful_ can not well be used. _affluent_ and _liberal_ both apply to riches, resources; _liberal_, with especial reference to giving or expending. (compare synonyms for adequate.) _affluent_, referring especially to riches, may be used of thought, feeling, etc. neither _affluent_, _copious_, nor _plentiful_ can be used of time or space; a field is sometimes called _plentiful_, not with reference to its extent, but to its productiveness. _complete_ expresses not excess or overplus, and yet not mere sufficiency, but harmony, proportion, fitness to a design, or ideal. _ample_ and _abundant_ may be applied to any subject. we have time _enough_, means that we can reach our destination without haste, but also without delay; if we have _ample_ time, we may move leisurely, and note what is by the way; if we have _abundant_ time, we may pause to converse with a friend, to view the scenery, or to rest when weary. _lavish_ and _profuse_ imply a decided excess, oftenest in the ill sense. we rejoice in _abundant_ resources, and honor _generous_ hospitality; _lavish_ or _profuse_ expenditure suggests extravagance and wastefulness. _luxuriant_ is used especially of that which is _abundant_ in growth; as, a _luxuriant_ crop. antonyms: deficient, inadequate, narrow, scanty, small, drained, insufficient, niggardly, scarce, sparing, exhausted, mean, poor, scrimped, stingy, impoverished, miserly, scant, short, straitened. preposition: plentiful _in_ resources. * * * * * poetry. synonyms: meter, numbers, poesy, song, metrical composition, poem, rime, verse. _poetry_ is that form of literature that embodies beautiful thought, feeling, or action in melodious, rhythmical, and (usually) metrical language, in imaginative and artistic constructions. _poetry_ in a very wide sense may be anything that pleasingly addresses the imagination; as, the _poetry_ of motion. in ordinary usage, _poetry_ is both imaginative and metrical. there may be _poetry_ without _rime_, but hardly without _meter_, or what in some languages takes its place, as the hebrew parallelism; but _poetry_ involves, besides the artistic form, the exercise of the fancy or imagination in a way always beautiful, often lofty or even sublime. failing this, there may be _verse_, _rime_, and _meter_, but not _poetry_. there is much in literature that is beautiful and sublime in thought and artistic in construction, which is yet not _poetry_, because quite devoid of the element of _song_, whereby _poetry_ differs from the most lofty, beautiful, or impassioned prose. compare meter. antonyms: prosaic speech, prosaic writing, prose. * * * * * polite. synonyms: accomplished, courtly, genteel, urbane, civil, cultivated, gracious, well-behaved, complaisant, cultured, obliging, well-bred, courteous, elegant, polished, well-mannered. a _civil_ person observes such propriety of speech and manner as to avoid being rude; one who is _polite_ (literally _polished_) observes more than the necessary proprieties, conforming to all that is graceful, becoming, and thoughtful in the intercourse of refined society. a man may be _civil_ with no consideration for others, simply because self-respect forbids him to be rude; but one who is _polite_ has at least some care for the opinions of others, and if _polite_ in the highest and truest sense, which is coming to be the prevailing one, he cares for the comfort and happiness of others in the smallest matters. _civil_ is a colder and more distant word than _polite_; _courteous_ is fuller and richer, dealing often with greater matters, and is used only in the good sense. _courtly_ suggests that which befits a royal court, and is used of external grace and stateliness without reference to the prompting feeling; as, the _courtly_ manners of the ambassador. _genteel_ refers to an external elegance, which may be showy and superficial, and the word is thus inferior to _polite_ or _courteous_. _urbane_ refers to a politeness that is genial and successful in giving others a sense of ease and cheer. _polished_ refers to external elegancies of speech and manner without reference to spirit or purpose; as, a _polished_ gentleman or a _polished_ scoundrel; _cultured_ refers to a real and high development of mind and soul, of which the external manifestation is the smallest part. _complaisant_ denotes a disposition to please or favor beyond what _politeness_ would necessarily require. antonyms: awkward, clownish, ill-mannered, insulting, uncouth, bluff, coarse, impertinent, raw, unmannerly, blunt, discourteous, impolite, rude, unpolished, boorish, ill-behaved, impudent, rustic, untaught, brusk, ill-bred, insolent, uncivil, untutored. * * * * * polity. synonyms: constitution, policy, form _or_ system of government. _polity_ is the permanent system of government of a state, a church, or a society; _policy_ is the method of management with reference to the attainment of certain ends; the national _polity_ of the united states is republican; each administration has a _policy_ of its own. _policy_ is often used as equivalent to expediency; as, many think honesty to be good _policy_. _polity_ used in ecclesiastical use serves a valuable purpose in distinguishing that which relates to administration and government from that which relates to faith and doctrine; two churches identical in faith may differ in _polity_, or those agreeing in _polity_ may differ in faith. compare law. * * * * * portion. synonyms: lot, parcel, part, proportion, share. when any whole is divided into _parts_, any _part_ that is allotted to some person, thing, subject or purpose is called a _portion_, tho the division may be by no fixed rule or relation; a father may divide his estate by will among his children so as to make their several _portions_ great or small, according to his arbitrary and unreasonable caprice. when we speak of a _part_ as a _proportion_, we think of the whole as divided according to some rule or scale, so that the different _parts_ bear a contemplated and intended relation or ratio to one another; thus, the _portion_ allotted to a child by will may not be a fair _proportion_ of the estate. _proportion_ is often used where _part_ or _portion_ would be more appropriate. compare part. * * * * * poverty. synonyms: beggary, distress, mendicancy, pauperism, privation, destitution, indigence, need, penury, want. _poverty_ denotes strictly lack of property or adequate means of support, but in common use is a relative term denoting any condition below that of easy, comfortable living; _privation_ denotes a condition of painful lack of what is useful or desirable, tho not to the extent of absolute _distress_; _indigence_ is lack of ordinary means of subsistence; _destitution_ is lack of the comforts, and in part even of the necessaries of life; _penury_ is especially cramping _poverty_, possibly not so sharp as _destitution_, but continuous, while that may be temporary; _pauperism_ is such _destitution_ as throws one upon organized public charity for support; _beggary_ and _mendicancy_ denote _poverty_ that appeals for indiscriminate private charity. * * * * * power. synonyms: ability, competency, expertness, readiness, aptitude, dexterity, faculty, skill, capability, efficacy, force, strength, capacity, efficiency, might, susceptibility, cleverness, energy, qualification, talent. cogency, _power_ is the most general term of this group, including every quality, property, or _faculty_ by which any change, effect, or result is, or may be, produced; as, the _power_ of the legislature to enact laws, or of the executive to enforce them; the _power_ of an acid to corrode a metal; the _power_ of a polished surface to reflect light. _ability_ is nearly coextensive with _power_, but does not reach the positiveness and vigor that may be included in the meaning of _power_, _ability_ often implying latent, as distinguished from active _power_; we speak of an exertion of _power_, but not of an exertion of _ability_. _power_ and _ability_ include _capacity_, which is _power_ to receive; but _ability_ is often distinguished from _capacity_, as power that may be manifested in doing, as _capacity_ is in receiving; one may have great _capacity_ for acquiring knowledge, and yet not possess _ability_ to teach. _efficiency_ is active _power_ to effect a definite result, the _power_ that actually does, as distinguished from that which may do. _competency_ is equal to the occasion, _readiness_ prompt for the occasion. _faculty_ is an inherent quality of mind or body; _talent_, some special mental _ability_. _dexterity_ and _skill_ are readiness and facility in action, having a special end; _talent_ is innate, _dexterity_ and _skill_ are largely acquired. our _abilities_ include our natural _capacity_, _faculties_, and _talents_, with all the _dexterity_, _skill_, and _readiness_ that can be acquired. _efficacy_ is the power to produce an intended effect as shown in the production of it; as, the _efficacy_ of a drug. _efficiency_ is effectual agency, competent _power_; _efficiency_ is applied in mechanics as denoting the ratio of the effect produced to the _power_ expended in producing it; but this word is chiefly used of intelligent agents as denoting the quality that brings all one's _power_ to bear promptly and to the best purpose on the thing to be done. compare address; dexterity; skilful. antonyms: awkwardness, helplessness, inability, incompetence, stupidity, dulness, imbecility, inaptitude, inefficiency, unskilfulness, feebleness, impotence, incapacity, maladroitness, weakness. * * * * * praise. synonyms: acclaim, approbation, compliment, laudation, acclamation, approval, encomium, panegyric, adulation, cheering, eulogy, plaudit, applause, cheers, flattery, sycophancy. _praise_ is the hearty approval of an individual, or of a number or multitude considered individually, and is expressed by spoken or written words; _applause_, the spontaneous outburst of many at once. _applause_ is expressed in any way, by stamping of feet, clapping of hands, waving of handkerchiefs, etc., as well as by the voice; _acclamation_ is the spontaneous and hearty approval of many at once, and strictly by the voice alone. thus one is chosen moderator by _acclamation_ when he receives a unanimous _viva voce_ vote; we could not say he was nominated by _applause_. _acclaim_ is the more poetic term for _acclamation_, commonly understood in a loftier sense; as, a nation's _acclaim_. _plaudit_ is a shout of _applause_, and is commonly used in the plural; as, the _plaudits_ of a throng. _applause_ is also used in the general sense of _praise_. _approbation_ is a milder and more qualified word than _praise_; while _praise_ is always uttered, _approbation_ may be silent. "_approbation_ speaks of the thing or action.... _praise_ is always personal." a. w. and j. c. hare _guesses at truth_ first series, p. . [macm. ' .] _acceptance_ refers to an object or action; _approbation_ may refer to character or natural traits. _approval_ always supposes a testing or careful examination, and frequently implies official sanction; _approbation_ may be upon a general view. the industry and intelligence of a clerk win his employer's _approbation_; his decision in a special instance receives his _approval_. _praise_ is always understood as genuine and sincere, unless the contrary is expressly stated; _compliment_ is a light form of _praise_ that may or may not be sincere; _flattery_ is insincere and ordinarily fulsome _praise_. antonyms: abuse, contempt, hissing, repudiation, animadversion, denunciation, ignominy, scorn, blame, disapprobation, obloquy, slander, censure, disapproval, reproach, vilification, condemnation, disparagement, reproof, vituperation. * * * * * pray. synonyms: ask, bid, entreat, invoke, request, beg, call upon, implore, petition, supplicate. beseech, conjure, importune, plead, to _pray_, in the religious sense, is devoutly to address the supreme being with reverent petition for divine grace or any favor or blessing, and in the fullest sense with thanksgiving and praise for the divine goodness and mercy; the once common use of the word to express any earnest _request_, as "i _pray_ you to come in," is now rare, unless in writings molded on older literature, or in certain phrases, as "_pray_ sit down;" even in these "please" is more common; "i _beg_ you" is also frequently used, as expressing a polite humility of _request_. _beseech_ and _entreat_ express great earnestness of _petition_; _implore_ and _supplicate_ denote the utmost fervency and intensity, _supplicate_ implying also humility. compare ask; plead. * * * * * precarious. synonyms: doubtful, hazardous, risky, unsettled, dubious, insecure, unassured, unstable, equivocal, perilous, uncertain, unsteady. _uncertain_ is applied to things that human knowledge can not certainly determine or that human power can not certainly control; _precarious_ originally meant dependent on the will of another, and now, by extension of meaning, dependent on chance or hazard, with manifest unfavorable possibility verging toward probability; as, one holds office by a _precarious_ tenure, or land by a _precarious_ title; the strong man's hold on life is _uncertain_, the invalid's is _precarious_. antonyms: actual, immutable, real, steady, undeniable, assured, incontestable, settled, strong, undoubted, certain, infallible, stable, sure, unquestionable. firm, * * * * * precedent. synonyms: antecedent, case, instance, pattern, authority, example, obiter dictum, warrant. a _precedent_ is an authoritative _case_, _example_, or _instance_. the communism of the early christians in jerusalem is a wonderful _example_ or _instance_ of christian liberality, but not a _precedent_ for the universal church through all time. _cases_ decided by irregular or unauthorized tribunals are not _precedents_ for the regular administration of law. an _obiter dictum_ is an opinion outside of the _case_ in hand, which can not be quoted as an authoritative _precedent_. compare cause; example. * * * * * predestination. synonyms: fate, foreknowledge, foreordination, necessity. _predestination_ is a previous determination or decision, which, in the divine action, reaches on from eternity. _fate_ is heathen, an irresistible, irrational power determining all events with no manifest connection with reason or righteousness; _necessity_ is philosophical, a blind something in the nature of things binding the slightest action or motion in the chain of inevitable, eternal sequence; _foreordination_ and _predestination_ are christian, denoting the rational and righteous order or decree of the supreme and all-wise god. _foreknowledge_ is simply god's antecedent knowledge of all events, which some hold to be entirely separable from his _foreordination_, while others hold _foreordination_ to be inseparably involved in _foreknowledge_. antonyms: accident, choice, freedom, independence, chance, free agency, free will, uncertainty. prepositions: predestination _of_ believers _to_ eternal life. * * * * * prejudice. synonyms: bias, preconception, presumption, partiality, prepossession, unfairness. a _presumption_ (literally, a taking beforehand) is a partial decision formed in advance of argument or evidence, usually grounded on some general principle, and always held subject to revision upon fuller information. a _prejudice_ or _prepossession_ is grounded often on feeling, fancy, associations, etc. a _prejudice_ against foreigners is very common in retired communities. there is always a _presumption_ in favor of what exists, so that the burden of proof is upon one who advocates a change. a _prepossession_ is always favorable, a _prejudice_ always unfavorable, unless the contrary is expressly stated. compare injury. antonyms: certainty, conviction, evidence, reason, conclusion, demonstration, proof, reasoning. prepositions: _against_; rarely, _in favor of_, _in one's favor_. * * * * * pretense. synonyms: affectation, disguise, pretext, simulation, air, dissimulation, ruse, subterfuge, assumption, excuse, seeming, trick, cloak, mask, semblance, wile. color, pretension, show, a _pretense_, in the unfavorable, which is also the usual sense, is something advanced or displayed for the purpose of concealing the reality. a person makes a _pretense_ of something for the credit or advantage to be gained by it; he makes what is allowed or approved a _pretext_ for doing what would be opposed or condemned; a tricky schoolboy makes a _pretense_ of doing an errand which he does not do, or he makes the actual doing of an errand a _pretext_ for playing truant. a _ruse_ is something (especially something slight or petty) employed to blind or deceive so as to mask an ulterior design, and enable a person to gain some end that he would not be allowed to approach directly. a _pretension_ is a claim that is or may be contested; the word is now commonly used in an unfavorable sense. compare artifice; hypocrisy. antonyms: actuality, frankness, ingenuousness, reality, sincerity, candor, guilelessness, openness, simplicity, truth. fact, honesty, * * * * * prevent. synonyms: anticipate, forestall, obviate, preclude. the original sense of _prevent_, to come before, act in advance of, which is now practically obsolete, was still in good use when the authorized version of the bible was made, as appears in such passages as, "when peter was come into the house, jesus _prevented_ him" (_i. e._, addressed him first), _matt._ xvii, ; "thou _preventest_ him with the blessings of goodness" (_i. e._, by sending the blessings before the desire is formulated or expressed), _ps._ xxi, . _anticipate_ is now the only single word usable in this sense; to _forestall_ is to take or act in advance in one's own behalf and to the prejudice of another or others, as in the phrase "to _forestall_ the market." but to _anticipate_ is very frequently used in the favorable sense; as, his thoughtful kindness _anticipated_ my wish (_i. e._, met the wish before it was expressed): or we say, "i was about to accost him when he _anticipated_ me" (by speaking first); or one _anticipates_ a payment (by making it before the time); in neither of these cases could we use _forestall_ or _prevent_. to _obviate_ (literally, to stop the way of or remove from the way), is to _prevent_ by interception, so that something that would naturally withstand or disturb may be kept from doing so; to _preclude_, (literally, to close or shut in advance) is to _prevent_ by anticipation or by logical necessity; walls and bars _precluded_ the possibility of escape; a supposition is _precluded_; a necessity or difficulty is _obviated_. _prevent_, which at first had only the anticipatory meaning, has come to apply to the stopping of an action at any stage, the completion or conclusion only being thought of as negatived by anticipation; the enemy passed the outworks and were barely _prevented_ from capturing the fortress. compare hinder; prohibit. preposition: he was prevented by illness _from_ joining the expedition. * * * * * previous. synonyms: antecedent, foregoing, front, preceding, anterior, former, introductory, preliminary, earlier, forward, precedent, prior. _antecedent_ may denote simple priority in time, implying no direct connection between that which goes before and that which follows; as, the striking of one clock may be always _antecedent_ to the striking of another with no causal connection between them. _antecedent_ and _previous_ may refer to that which goes or happens at any distance in advance, _preceding_ is limited to that which is immediately or next before; an _antecedent_ event may have happened at any time before; the _preceding_ transaction is the one completed just before the one with which it is compared; a _previous_ statement or chapter may be in any part of the book that has gone before; the _preceding_ statement or chapter comes next before without an interval. _previous_ often signifies first by right; as, a _previous_ engagement. _foregoing_ is used only of that which is spoken or written; as, the _foregoing_ statements. _anterior_, while it can be used of time, is coming to be employed chiefly with reference to place; as the _anterior_ lobes of the brain. _prior_ bears exclusive reference to time, and commonly where that which is first in time is first also in right; as, a _prior_ demand. _former_ is used of time, or of position in written or printed matter, not of space in general. we can say _former_ times, a _former_ chapter, etc., but not the _former_ part of a garden; we should say the _front_ part of the garden, the _forward_ car of a train. _former_ has a close relation, or sharp contrast, with something following; the _former_ always implies the latter, even when not fully expressed, as in _acts_ i, , and _eccles._ vii, . antonyms: after, consequent, hind, hindmost, latter, subsequent, concluding, following, hinder, later, posterior, succeeding. preposition: such was the state of things previous _to_ the revolution. [_previous to_ is often used adverbially, in constructions where _previously to_ would be more strictly correct; as, these arrangements were made _previous to_ my departure.] * * * * * price. synonyms: charge, cost, expenditure, expense, outlay, value, worth. the _cost_ of a thing is all that has been expended upon it, whether in discovery, production, refinement, decoration, transportation, or otherwise, to bring it to its present condition in the hands of its present possessor; the _price_ of a thing is what the seller asks for it. in regular business, as a rule, the seller's _price_ on his wares must be more than their _cost_ to him; when goods are sold, the _price_ the buyer has paid becomes their _cost_ to himself. in exceptional cases, when goods are sold at _cost_, the seller's _price_ is made the same as the _cost_ of the goods to him, the _cost_ to the seller and the _cost_ to the buyer becoming then identical. _price_ always implies that an article is for sale; what a man will not sell he declines to put a _price_ on; hence the significance of the taunting proverb that "every man has his _price_." _value_ is the estimated equivalent for an article, whether the article is for sale or not; the market _value_ is what it would bring if exposed for sale in the open market; the intrinsic _value_ is the inherent utility of the article considered by itself alone; the market _value_ of an old and rare volume may be very great, while its intrinsic _value_ may be practically nothing. _value_ has always more reference to others' estimation (literally, what the thing will avail with others) than _worth_, which regards the thing in and by itself; thus, intrinsic _value_ is a weaker expression than intrinsic _worth_. _charge_ has especial reference to services, _expense_ to minor outlays; as, the _charges_ of a lawyer or physician; traveling _expenses_; household _expenses_. * * * * * pride. synonyms: arrogance, ostentation, self-exaltation, assumption, presumption, self-respect, conceit, reserve, superciliousness, disdain, self-complacency, vainglory, haughtiness, self-conceit, vanity. insolence, self-esteem, _haughtiness_ thinks highly of itself and poorly of others. _arrogance_ claims much for itself and concedes little to others. _pride_ is an absorbing sense of one's own greatness; _haughtiness_ feels one's own superiority to others; _disdain_ sees contemptuously the inferiority of others to oneself. _presumption_ claims place or privilege above one's right; _pride_ deems nothing too high. _insolence_ is open and rude expression of contempt and hostility, generally from an inferior to a superior, as from a servant to a master or mistress. in the presence of superiors overweening _pride_ manifests itself in _presumption_ or _insolence_; in the presence of inferiors, or those supposed to be inferior, _pride_ manifests itself by _arrogance_, _disdain_, _haughtiness_, _superciliousness_, or in either case often by cold _reserve_. (see reserve under modesty.) _pride_ is too self-satisfied to care for praise; _vanity_ intensely craves admiration and applause. _superciliousness_, as if by the uplifted eyebrow, as its etymology suggests (l. _supercilium_, eyebrow, from _super_, over and _cilium_, eyelid), silently manifests mingled _haughtiness_ and _disdain_. _assumption_ quietly takes for granted superiority and privilege which others would be slow to concede. _conceit_ and _vanity_ are associated with weakness, _pride_ with strength. _conceit_ may be founded upon nothing; _pride_ is founded upon something that one is, or has, or has done; _vanity_, too, is commonly founded on something real, tho far slighter than would afford foundation for _pride_. _vanity_ is eager for admiration and praise, is elated if they are rendered, and pained if they are withheld, and seeks them; _pride_ could never solicit admiration or praise. _conceit_ is somewhat stronger than _self-conceit_. _self-conceit_ is ridiculous; _conceit_ is offensive. _self-respect_ is a thoroughly worthy feeling; _self-esteem_ is a more generous estimate of one's own character and abilities than the rest of the world are ready to allow. _vainglory_ is more pompous and boastful than _vanity_. compare egotism; ostentation. antonyms: humility, meekness, modesty, self-abasement, self-distrust. lowliness, * * * * * primeval. synonyms: aboriginal, indigenous, patriarchal, primitive, ancient, native, primal, primordial, autochthonic, old, primary, pristine, immemorial, original, prime, uncreated. _aboriginal_ (l. _ab_, from, _origo_, origin) signifies pertaining to the _aborigines_ or earliest known inhabitants of a country in the widest sense, including not merely human beings but inferior animals and plants as well. _autochthonic_ (gr. _autos_, self, and _chth[=o]n_, earth) signifies sprung from the earth, especially from the soil of one's native land. _primeval_ (l. _primum_, first, and _ævum_, age), signifies strictly belonging to the first ages, earliest in time, but often only the earliest of which man knows or conceives, _immemorial_. _aboriginal_, _autochthonic_, and _primeval_ combine the meanings of _ancient_ and _original_; _aboriginal_ inhabitants, _autochthonic_ races, _primeval_ forests. _prime_ and _primary_ may signify either first in time, or more frequently first in importance; _primary_ has also the sense of elementary or preparatory; we speak of a _prime_ minister, a _primary_ school. _primal_ is chiefly poetic, in the sense of _prime_; as, the _primal_ curse. _primordial_ is first in an order of succession or development; as, a _primordial_ leaf. _primitive_ frequently signifies having the original characteristics of that which it represents, as well as standing first in time; as, the _primitive_ church. _primitive_ also very frequently signifies having the original or early characteristics without remoteness in time. _primeval_ simplicity is the simplicity of the earliest ages; _primitive_ simplicity may be found in retired villages now. _pristine_ is an elegant word, used almost exclusively in a good sense of that which is _original_ and perhaps _ancient_; as, _pristine_ purity, innocence, vigor. that which is both an _original_ and natural product of a soil or country is said to be _indigenous_; that which is actually produced there is said to be _native_, though it may be of foreign extraction; humming-birds are _indigenous_ to america; canaries may be _native_, but are not _indigenous_. _immemorial_ refers solely to time, independently of quality, denoting, in legal phrase, "that whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary;" as, an _immemorial_ custom; an _immemorial_ abuse. compare old. antonyms: adventitious, foreign, late, new, recent. exotic, fresh, modern, novel, compare synonyms for new. * * * * * profit. synonyms: advantage, expediency, proceeds, service, avail, gain, receipts, usefulness, benefit, good, return, utility, emolument, improvement, returns, value. the _returns_ or _receipts_ include all that is received from an outlay or investment; the _profit_ is the excess (if any) of the _receipts_ over the outlay; hence, in government, morals, etc., the _profit_ is what is really good, helpful, useful, valuable. _utility_ is chiefly used in the sense of some immediate or personal and generally some material _good_. _advantage_ is that which gives one a vantage-ground, either for coping with competitors or with difficulties, needs, or demands; as to have the _advantage_ of a good education; it is frequently used of what one has beyond another or secures at the expense of another; as, to have the _advantage_ of another in an argument, or to take _advantage_ of another in a bargain. _gain_ is what one secures beyond what he previously possessed. _benefit_ is anything that does one good. _emolument_ is _profit_, _return_, or _value_ accruing through official position. _expediency_ has respect to _profit_ or _advantage_, real or supposed, considered apart from or perhaps in opposition to right, in actions having a moral character. compare utility. antonyms: damage, detriment, harm, injury, ruin, destruction, disadvantage, hurt, loss, waste. prepositions: the profit _of_ labor; _on_ capital; _in_ business. * * * * * progress. synonyms: advance, development, improvement, proficiency, advancement, growth, increase, progression. attainment, _progress_ (l. _pro_, forward, _gradior_, go) is a moving onward or forward, whether in space or in the mental or moral realm, and may be either mechanical, individual, or social. _attainment_, _development_, and _proficiency_ are more absolute than the other words of the group, denoting some point of advantage or of comparative perfection reached by forward or onward movement; we speak of _attainments_ in virtue or scholarship, _proficiency_ in music or languages, the _development_ of new powers or organs; _proficiency_ includes the idea of skill. _advance_ may denote either a forward movement or the point gained by forward movement, but always relatively with reference to the point from which the movement started; as, this is a great _advance_. _advance_ admits the possibility of retreat; _progress_ (l. _progredi_, to walk forward) is steady and constant forward movement, admitting of pause, but not of retreat; _advance_ suggests more clearly a point to be reached, while _progress_ lays the emphasis upon the forward movement; we may speak of slow or rapid _progress_, but more naturally of swift _advance_. _progress_ is more frequently used of abstractions; as, the _progress_ of ideas; _progression_ fixes the attention chiefly upon the act of moving forward. in a thing good in itself all _advance_ or _progress_ is _improvement_; there is a growing tendency to restrict the words to this favorable sense, using _increase_ indifferently of good or evil; one may say without limitation, "i am an advocate of _progress_." antonyms: check, delay, falling off, retrogression, stop, decline, falling back, relapse, stay, stoppage. prepositions: the progress _of_ truth; progress _in_ virtue; _toward_ perfection; _from_ a lower _to_ a higher state. * * * * * prohibit. synonyms: debar, forbid, inhibit, preclude, disallow, hinder, interdict, prevent. to _prohibit_ is to give some formal command against, and especially to make some authoritative legal enactment against. _debar_ is said of persons, _disallow_ of acts; one is _debarred_ from anything when shut off, as by some irresistible authority or necessity; one is _prohibited_ from an act in express terms; he may be _debarred_ by silent necessity. an act is _disallowed_ by the authority that might have allowed it; the word is especially applied to acts which are done before they are pronounced upon; thus, a government may _disallow_ the act of its commander in the field or its admiral on the high seas. _inhibit_ and _interdict_ are chiefly known by their ecclesiastical use. as between _forbid_ and _prohibit_, _forbid_ is less formal and more personal, _prohibit_ more official and judicial, with the implication of readiness to use such force as may be needed to give effect to the enactment; a parent _forbids_ a child to take part in some game or to associate with certain companions; the slave-trade is now _prohibited_ by the leading nations of the world. many things are _prohibited_ by law which can not be wholly _prevented_, as gambling and prostitution; on the other hand, things may be _prevented_ which are not _prohibited_, as the services of religion, the payment of debts, or military conquest. that which is _precluded_ need not be _prohibited_. compare abolish; hinder; prevent. antonyms: allow, empower, let, require, authorize, enjoin, license, sanction, command, give consent, order, suffer, consent to, give leave, permit, tolerate, direct, give permission, put up with, warrant. prepositions: an act is prohibited _by_ law; a person is prohibited _by_ law _from_ doing a certain act. _prohibit_ was formerly construed, as _forbid_ still is, with the infinitive, but the construction with _from_ and the verbal noun has now entirely superseded the older usage. * * * * * promote. synonyms: advance, encourage, forward, prefer, raise, aid, exalt, foster, push, urge forward, assist, excite, further, push on, urge on. elevate, foment, help, to _promote_ (l. _pro_, forward, and _moveo_, move) is to cause to move forward toward some desired end or to raise to some higher position, rank, or dignity. we _promote_ a person by _advancing_, _elevating_, or _exalting_ him to a higher position or dignity. a person _promotes_ a scheme or an enterprise which others have projected or begun, and which he _encourages_, _forwards_, _furthers_, _pushes_, or _urges on_, especially when he acts as the agent of the prime movers and supporters of the enterprise. one who _excites_ a quarrel originates it; to _promote_ a quarrel is strictly to _foment_ and _urge_ it _on_, the one who _promotes_ keeping himself in the background. compare abet; quicken. antonyms: see synonyms for abase; allay. * * * * * propitiation. synonyms: atonement, expiation, reconciliation, satisfaction. _atonement_ (at-one-ment), originally denoting _reconciliation_, or the bringing into agreement of those who have been estranged, is now chiefly used, as in theology, in the sense of some offering, sacrifice, or suffering sufficient to win forgiveness or make up for an offense; especially and distinctively of the sacrificial work of christ in his humiliation, suffering and death. _expiation_ is the enduring of the full penalty of a wrong or crime. _propitiation_ is an offering, action, or sacrifice that makes the governing power propitious toward the offender. _satisfaction_ in this connection denotes the rendering a full legal equivalent for the wrong done. _propitiation_ appeases the lawgiver; _satisfaction_ meets the requirements of the law. antonyms: alienation, curse, penalty, reprobation, vengeance, chastisement, estrangement, punishment, retribution, wrath. condemnation, offense, * * * * * propitious. synonyms: auspicious, benignant, favorable, gracious, kindly, benign, clement, friendly, kind, merciful. that which is _auspicious_ is of _favorable_ omen; that which is _propitious_ is of favoring influence or tendency; as, an _auspicious_ morning; a _propitious_ breeze. _propitious_ applies to persons, implying _kind_ disposition and _favorable_ inclinations, especially toward the suppliant; _auspicious_ is not used of persons. antonyms: adverse, forbidding, ill-disposed, repellent, unfriendly, antagonistic, hostile, inauspicious, unfavorable, unpropitious. preposition: may heaven be propitious _to_ the enterprise. * * * * * proposal. synonyms: bid, offer, overture, proposition. an _offer_ or _proposal_ puts something before one for acceptance or rejection, _proposal_ being the more formal word; a _proposition_ sets forth truth (or what is claimed to be truth) in formal statement. the _proposition_ is for consideration, the _proposal_ for action; as, a _proposition_ in geometry, a _proposal_ of marriage; but _proposition_ is often used nearly in the sense of _proposal_ when it concerns a matter for deliberation; as, a _proposition_ for the surrender of a fort. a _bid_ is commercial and often verbal; as, a _bid_ at an auction; _proposal_ is used in nearly the same sense, but is more formal. an _overture_ opens negotiation or conference, and the word is especially used of some movement toward reconciliation; as, _overtures_ of peace. antonyms: acceptance, denial, disapproval, refusal, rejection, repulse. * * * * * propose. synonym: purpose. in its most frequent use, _propose_ differs from _purpose_ in that what we _purpose_ lies in our own mind, as a decisive act of will, a determination; what we _propose_ is offered or stated to others. in this use of the word, what we _propose_ is open to deliberation, as what we _purpose_ is not. in another use of the word, one _proposes_ something to or by himself which may or may not be stated to others. in this latter sense _propose_ is nearly identical with _purpose_, and the two words have often been used interchangeably. but in the majority of cases what we _purpose_ is more general, what we _propose_ more formal and definite; i _purpose_ to do right; i _propose_ to do this specific thing because it is right. in the historic sentence, "i _propose_ to move immediately on your works," _purpose_ would not have the same sharp directness. * * * * * protract. synonyms: continue, delay, elongate, lengthen, procrastinate, defer, draw out, extend, postpone, prolong. to _protract_ is to cause to occupy a longer time than is usual, expected, or desirable. we _defer_ a negotiation which we are slow to enter upon; we _protract_ a negotiation which we are slow to conclude; _delay_ may be used of any stage in the proceedings; we may _delay_ a person as well as an action, but _defer_ and _protract_ are not used of persons. _elongate_ is not used of actions or abstractions, but only of material objects or extension in space; _protract_ is very rarely used of concrete objects or extension in space; we _elongate_ a line, _protract_ a discussion. _protract_ has usually an unfavorable sense, implying that the matter referred to is already unduly long, or would be so if longer _continued_; _continue_ is neutral, applying equally to the desirable or the undesirable. _postpone_ implies a definite intention to resume, as _defer_ also does, though less decidedly; both are often used with some definite limitation of time; as, to _postpone_ till, until, or to a certain day or hour. one may _defer_, _delay_, or _postpone_ a matter intelligently and for good reason; he _procrastinates_ through indolence and irresolution. compare hinder. antonyms: abbreviate, conclude, curtail, hurry, reduce, abridge, contract, hasten, limit, shorten. prepositions: to protract a speech _by_ verbosity, _through_ an unreasonable time, _to_, _till_, or _until_ a late hour. * * * * * proverb. synonyms: adage, axiom, maxim, saw, aphorism, byword, motto, saying, apothegm, dictum, precept, truism. the _proverb_ or _adage_ gives homely truth in condensed, practical form, the _adage_ often pictorial. "hope deferred maketh the heart sick" is a _proverb_; "the cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet," is an _adage_. both the _proverb_ and the _adage_, but especially the latter, are thought of as ancient and widely known. an _aphorism_ partakes of the character of a definition; it is a summary statement of what the author sees and believes to be true. an _apothegm_ is a terse statement of what is plain or easily proved. the _aphorism_ is philosophical, the _apothegm_ practical. a _dictum_ is a statement of some person or school, on whom it depends for authority; as, a _dictum_ of aristotle. a _saying_ is impersonal, current among the common people, deriving its authority from its manifest truth or good sense; as, it is an old _saying_, "the more haste, the worse speed." a _saw_ is a _saying_ that is old, but somewhat worn and tiresome. _precept_ is a command to duty; _motto_ or _maxim_ is a brief statement of cherished truth, the _maxim_ being more uniformly and directly practical; "god is love" may be a _motto_, "fear god and fear naught," a _maxim_. the _precepts_ of the sermon on the mount will furnish the christian with invaluable _maxims_ or _mottoes_. a _byword_ is a phrase or _saying_ used reproachfully or contemptuously. * * * * * prowess. synonyms: bravery, gallantry, intrepidity, courage, heroism, valor. _bravery_, _courage_, _heroism_, and _intrepidity_ may be silent, spiritual, or passive; they may be exhibited by a martyr at the stake. _prowess_ and _valor_ imply both daring and doing; we do not speak of the _prowess_ of a martyr, a child, or a passive sufferer. _valor_ meets odds or perils with courageous action, doing its utmost to conquer at any risk or cost; _prowess_ has power adapted to the need; dauntless _valor_ is often vain against superior _prowess_. _courage_ is a nobler word than _bravery_, involving more of the deep, spiritual, and enduring elements of character; such an appreciation of peril as would extinguish _bravery_ may only intensify _courage_, which is resistant and self-conquering; _courage_ applies to matters in regard to which _valor_ and _prowess_ can have no place, as submission to a surgical operation, or the facing of censure or detraction for conscience' sake. compare brave; fortitude. antonyms: cowardice, cowardliness, effeminacy, fear, pusillanimity, timidity. * * * * * prudence. synonyms: care, discretion, judgment, carefulness, forecast, judiciousness, caution, foresight, providence, circumspection, forethought, wisdom. consideration, frugality, _prudence_ may be briefly defined as good _judgment_ and _foresight_, inclining to _caution_ and _frugality_ in practical affairs. _care_ may respect only the present; _prudence_ and _providence_ look far ahead and sacrifice the present to the future, _prudence_ watching, saving, guarding, _providence_ planning, doing, preparing, and perhaps expending largely to meet the future demand. _frugality_ is in many cases one form of _prudence_. in a besieged city _prudence_ will reduce the rations, _providence_ will strain every nerve to introduce supplies and to raise the siege. _foresight_ merely sees the future, and may even lead to the recklessness and desperation to which _prudence_ and _providence_ are so strongly opposed. _forethought_ is thinking in accordance with wise views of the future, and is nearly equivalent to _providence_, but it is a more popular and less comprehensive term; we speak of man's _forethought_, god's _providence_. compare care; frugality; wisdom. antonyms: folly, imprudence, rashness, thoughtlessness, heedlessness, indiscretion, recklessness, wastefulness. improvidence, prodigality, * * * * * purchase. synonyms: acquire, barter for, get, procure, secure. bargain for, buy, obtain, _buy_ and _purchase_ are close synonyms, signifying to _obtain_ or _secure_ as one's own by paying or promising to pay a price; in numerous cases the two words are freely interchangeable, but with the difference usually found between words of saxon and those of french or latin origin. the saxon _buy_ is used for all the homely and petty concerns of common life, the french _purchase_ is often restricted to transactions of more dignity; yet the saxon word _buy_ is commonly more emphatic, and in the higher ranges of thought appeals more strongly to the feelings. one may either _buy_ or _purchase_ fame, favor, honor, pleasure, etc., but when our feelings are stirred we speak of victory or freedom as dearly _bought_. "_buy_ the truth, and sell it not" (_prov._ xxiii, ) would be greatly weakened by the rendering "_purchase_ the truth, and do not dispose of it." compare business; get; price; sale. antonyms: barter, dispose of, exchange, put to sale, sell. prepositions: purchase _at_ a price; _at_ a public sale; _of_ or _from_ a person; _for_ cash; _with_ money; _on_ time. * * * * * pure. synonyms: absolute, guiltless, simple, unmixed, chaste, holy, spotless, unpolluted, classic, immaculate, stainless, unspotted, classical, incorrupt, true, unstained, clean, innocent, unadulterated, unsullied, clear, mere, unblemished, untainted, continent, perfect, uncorrupted, untarnished, genuine, real, undefiled, upright, guileless, sheer, unmingled, virtuous. that is _pure_ which is free from mixture or contact with anything that weakens, impairs, or pollutes. material substances are called _pure_ in the strict sense when free from foreign admixture of any kind; as, _pure_ oxygen; the word is often used to signify free from any defiling or objectionable admixture (the original sense); we speak of water as _pure_ when it is bright, clear, and refreshing, tho it may contain mineral salts in solution; in the medical and chemical sense, only distilled water (_aqua pura_) is _pure_. in moral and religious use _pure_ is a strong word, denoting positive excellence of a high order; one is _innocent_ who knows nothing of evil, and has experienced no touch of temptation; one is _pure_ who, with knowledge of evil and exposure to temptation, keeps heart and soul _unstained_. _virtuous_ refers primarily to right action; _pure_ to right feeling and motives; as, "blessed are the _pure_ in heart: for they shall see god," _matt._ v, . compare fine; innocent. antonyms: adulterated, foul, indecent, obscene, tainted, defiled, gross, indelicate, polluted, tarnished, dirty, immodest, lewd, stained, unchaste, filthy, impure, mixed, sullied, unclean. * * * * * put. synonyms: deposit, lay, place, set. _put_ is the most general term for bringing an object to some point or within some space, however exactly or loosely; we may _put_ a horse in a pasture, or _put_ a bullet in a rifle or into an enemy. _place_ denotes more careful movement and more exact location; as, to _place_ a crown on one's head, or a garrison in a city. to _lay_ is to _place_ in a horizontal position; to _set_ is to _place_ in an upright position; we _lay_ a cloth, and _set_ a dish upon a table. to _deposit_ is to _put_ in a place of security for future use; as, to _deposit_ money in a bank; the original sense, to _lay_ down or let down (quietly), is also common; as, the stream _deposits_ sediment. * * * * * queer. synonyms: anomalous, erratic, odd, strange, bizarre, extraordinary, peculiar, uncommon, comical, fantastic, preposterous, unique, crotchety, funny, quaint, unmatched, curious, grotesque, ridiculous, unusual, droll, laughable, singular, whimsical. eccentric, ludicrous, _odd_ is unmated, as an _odd_ shoe, and so uneven, as an _odd_ number. _singular_ is alone of its kind; as, the _singular_ number. what is _singular_ is _odd_, but what is _odd_ may not be _singular_; as, a drawerful of _odd_ gloves. a _strange_ thing is something hitherto unknown in fact or in cause. a _singular_ coincidence is one the happening of which is unusual; a _strange_ coincidence is one the cause of which is hard to explain. that which is _peculiar_ belongs especially to a person as his own; as, israel was called jehovah's "_peculiar_ people," _i. e._, especially chosen and cherished by him; in its ordinary use there is the implication that the thing _peculiar_ to one is not common to the majority nor quite approved by them, though it may be shared by many; as, the shakers are _peculiar_. _eccentric_ is off or aside from the center, and so off or aside from the ordinary and what is considered the normal course; as, genius is commonly _eccentric_. _eccentric_ is a higher and more respectful word than _odd_ or _queer_. _erratic_ signifies wandering, a stronger and more censorious term than _eccentric_. _queer_ is transverse or oblique, aside from the common in a way that is _comical_ or perhaps slightly _ridiculous_. _quaint_ denotes that which is pleasingly _odd_ and fanciful, often with something of the antique; as, the _quaint_ architecture of medieval towns. that which is _funny_ is calculated to provoke laughter; that which is _droll_ is more quietly amusing. that which is _grotesque_ in the material sense is irregular or misshapen in form or outline or ill-proportioned so as to be somewhat _ridiculous_; the french _bizarre_ is practically equivalent to _grotesque_. antonyms: common, familiar, normal, regular, customary, natural, ordinary, usual. * * * * * quicken. synonyms: accelerate, drive on, hasten, promote, advance, expedite, hurry, speed, despatch, facilitate, make haste, urge, drive, further, press forward, urge on. to _quicken_, in the sense here considered, is to increase speed, move or cause to move more rapidly, as through more space or with, a greater number of motions in the same time. to _accelerate_ is to increase the speed of action or of motion. a motion whose speed increases upon itself is said to be _accelerated_, as the motion of a falling body, which becomes swifter with every second of time. to _accelerate_ any work is to _hasten_ it toward a finish, commonly by _quickening_ all its operations in orderly unity toward the result. to _despatch_ is to do and be done with, to get a thing off one's hands. to _despatch_ an enemy is to kill him outright and quickly; to _despatch_ a messenger is to send him in haste; to _despatch_ a business is to bring it quickly to an end. _despatch_ is commonly used of single items. to _promote_ a cause is in any way to bring it forward, _advance_ it in power, prominence, etc. to _speed_ is really to secure swiftness; to _hasten_ is to attempt it, whether successfully or unsuccessfully. _hurry_ always indicates something of confusion. the _hurried_ man forgets dignity, appearance, comfort, courtesy, everything but speed; he may forget something vital to the matter in hand; yet, because reckless haste may attain the great object of speed, _hurry_ has come to be the colloquial and popular word for acting quickly. to _facilitate_ is to _quicken_ by making easy; to _expedite_ is to _quicken_ by removing hindrances. a good general will improve roads to _facilitate_ the movements of troops, _hasten_ supplies and perfect discipline to _promote_ the general efficiency of the force, _despatch_ details of business, _expedite_ all preparations, in order to _accelerate_ the advance and victory of his army. antonyms: check, clog, delay, drag, hinder, impede, obstruct, retard. * * * * * quote. synonyms: cite, extract, plagiarize, repeat. excerpt, paraphrase, recite, to _quote_ is to give an author's words, either exactly, as in direct quotation, or in substance, as in indirect quotation; to _cite_ is, etymologically, to call up a passage, as a witness is summoned. in _citing_ a passage its exact location by chapter, page, or otherwise, must be given, so that it can be promptly called into evidence; in _quoting_, the location may or may not be given, but the words or substance of the passage must be given. in _citing_, neither the author's words nor his thought may be given, but simply the reference to the location where they may be found. to _quote_, in the proper sense, is to give credit to the author whose words are employed. to _paraphrase_ is to state an author's thought more freely than in indirect quotation, keeping the substance of thought and the order of statement, but changing the language, and commonly interweaving more or less explanatory matter as if part of the original writing. one may _paraphrase_ a work with worthy motive for homiletic, devotional, or other purposes (as in the metrical versions of the psalms), or he may _plagiarize_ atrociously in the form of _paraphrase_, appropriating all that is valuable in another's thought, with the hope of escaping detection by change of phrase. to _plagiarize_ is to _quote_ without credit, appropriating another's words or thought as one's own. to _recite_ or _repeat_ is usually to _quote_ orally, tho _recite_ is applied in legal phrase to a particular statement of facts which is not a quotation; a kindred use obtains in ordinary speech; as, to _recite_ one's misfortunes. * * * * * racy. synonyms: flavorous, lively, pungent, spicy, forcible, piquant, rich, spirited. _racy_ applies in the first instance to the pleasing flavor characteristic of certain wines, often attributed to the soil from which they come. _pungent_ denotes something sharply irritating to the organs of taste or smell, as pepper, vinegar, ammonia; _piquant_ denotes a quality similar in kind to _pungent_ but less in degree, stimulating and agreeable; _pungent_ spices may be deftly compounded into a _piquant_ sauce. as applied to literary products, _racy_ refers to that which has a striking, vigorous, pleasing originality; _spicy_ to that which is stimulating to the mental taste, as spice is to the physical; _piquant_ and _pungent_ in their figurative use keep very close to their literal sense. antonyms: cold, flat, insipid, stale, tasteless, dull, flavorless, prosy, stupid, vapid. * * * * * radical. synonyms: complete, ingrained, perfect, constitutional, innate, positive, entire, native, primitive, essential, natural, thorough, extreme, organic, thoroughgoing, fundamental, original, total. the widely divergent senses in which the word _radical_ is used, by which it can be at some time interchanged with any word in the above list, are all formed upon the one primary sense of having to do with or proceeding from the root (l. _radix_); a _radical_ difference is one that springs from the root, and is thus _constitutional_, _essential_, _fundamental_, _organic_, _original_; a _radical_ change is one that does not stop at the surface, but reaches down to the very root, and is _entire_, _thorough_, _total_; since the majority find superficial treatment of any matter the easiest and most comfortable, _radical_ measures, which strike at the root of evil or need, are apt to be looked upon as _extreme_. antonyms: conservative, incomplete, palliative, slight, tentative, inadequate, moderate, partial, superficial, trial. * * * * * rare. synonyms: curious, odd, scarce, unique, extraordinary, peculiar, singular, unparalleled, incomparable, precious, strange, unprecedented, infrequent, remarkable, uncommon, unusual. _unique_ is alone of its kind; _rare_ is _infrequent_ of its kind; great poems are _rare_; "paradise lost" is _unique_. to say of a thing that it is _rare_ is simply to affirm that it is now seldom found, whether previously common or not; as, a _rare_ old book; a _rare_ word; to call a thing _scarce_ implies that it was at some time more plenty, as when we say food or money is _scarce_. a particular fruit or coin may be _rare_; _scarce_ applies to demand and use, and almost always to concrete things; to speak of virtue, genius, or heroism as _scarce_ would be somewhat ludicrous. _rare_ has the added sense of _precious_, which is sometimes, but not necessarily, blended with that above given; as, a _rare_ gem. _extraordinary_, signifying greatly beyond the ordinary, is a neutral word, capable of a high and good sense or of an invidious, opprobrious, or contemptuous signification; as, _extraordinary_ genius; _extraordinary_ wickedness; an _extraordinary_ assumption of power; _extraordinary_ antics; an _extraordinary_ statement is incredible without overwhelming proof. antonyms: see synonyms for general; normal; usual. * * * * * reach. synonyms: arrive, attain, come to, enter, gain, get to, land. to _reach_, in the sense here considered, is to _come to_ by motion or progress. _attain_ is now oftenest used of abstract relations; as, to _attain_ success. when applied to concrete matters, it commonly signifies the overcoming of hindrance and difficulty; as, the storm-beaten ship at length _attained_ the harbor. _come_ is the general word for moving to or toward the place where the speaker or writer is or supposes himself to be. to _reach_ is to _come to_ from a distance that is actually or relatively considerable; to stretch the journey, so to speak, across the distance, as, in its original meaning, one _reaches_ an object by stretching out the hand. to _gain_ is to _reach_ or _attain_ something eagerly sought; the wearied swimmer _reaches_ or _gains_ the shore. one _comes_ in from his garden; he _reaches_ home from a journey. to _arrive_ is to _come to_ a destination, to _reach_ a point intended or proposed. the european steamer _arrives_ in port, or _reaches_ the harbor; the dismantled wreck drifts ashore, or _comes to_ land. compare attain. antonyms: depart, go, go away, leave, set out, set sail, start, weigh anchor. embark, * * * * * real. synonyms: actual, demonstrable, genuine, true, authentic, developed, positive, unquestionable, certain, essential, substantial, veritable. _real_ (l. _res_, a thing) signifies having existence, not merely in thought, but in fact, or being in fact according to appearance or claim; denoting the thing as distinguished from the name, or the existent as opposed to the non-existent. _actual_ has respect to a thing accomplished by doing, _real_ to a thing as existing by whatever means or from whatever cause, _positive_ to that which is fixed or established, _developed_ to that which has reached completion by a natural process of unfolding. _actual_ is in opposition to the supposed, conceived, or reported, and furnishes the proof of its existence in itself; _real_ is opposed to feigned or imaginary, and is capable of demonstration; _positive_, to the uncertain or doubtful; _developed_, to that which is undeveloped or incomplete. the _developed_ is susceptible of proof; the _positive_ precludes the necessity for proof. the present condition of a thing is its _actual_ condition; ills are _real_ that have a substantial reason; proofs are _positive_ when they give the mind certainty; a plant is _developed_ when it has reached its completed stage. _real_ estate is land, together with trees, water, minerals, or other natural accompaniments, and any permanent structures that man has built upon it. compare authentic. antonyms: conceived, feigned, illusory, supposed, unreal, fabulous, fictitious, imaginary, supposititious, untrue, fanciful, hypothetical, reported, theoretical, visionary. * * * * * reason, _v._ synonyms: argue, debate, discuss, establish, question, contend, demonstrate, dispute, prove, wrangle. controvert, to _reason_ is to examine by means of the reason, to prove by reasoning, or to influence or seek to influence others by reasoning or reasons. persons may _contend_ either from mere ill will or self-interest, or from the highest motives; "that ye should earnestly _contend_ for the faith which was once delivered to the saints," _jude_ . to _argue_ (l. _arguo_, show) is to make a matter clear by reasoning; to _discuss_ (l. _dis_, apart, and _quatio_, shake) is, etymologically, to shake it apart for examination and analysis. _demonstrate_ strictly applies to mathematical or exact reasoning; _prove_ may be used in the same sense, but is often applied to reasoning upon matters of fact by what is called probable evidence, which can give only moral and not absolute or mathematical certainty. to _demonstrate_ is to force the mind to a conclusion by irresistible reasoning; to _prove_ is rather to _establish_ a fact by evidence; as, to _prove_ one innocent or guilty. that which has been either _demonstrated_ or _proved_ so as to secure general acceptance is said to be _established_. _reason_ is a neutral word, not, like _argue_, _debate_, _discuss_, etc., naturally or necessarily implying contest. we _reason_ about a matter by bringing up all that reason can give us on any side. a _dispute_ may be personal, fractious, and petty; a _debate_ is formal and orderly; if otherwise, it becomes a mere _wrangle_. prepositions: we reason _with_ a person _about_ a subject, _for_ or _against_ an opinion; we reason a person _into_ or _out of_ a course of action; or we may reason _down_ an opponent or opposition; one reasons _from_ a cause _to_ an effect. * * * * * reason, _n._ synonyms: account, cause, end, motive, principle, aim, consideration, ground, object, purpose. argument, design, while the _cause_ of any event, act, or fact, as commonly understood, is the power that makes it to be, the _reason_ of or for it is the explanation given by the human mind; but _reason_ is, in popular language, often used as equivalent to _cause_, especially in the sense of _final cause_. in the statement of any reasoning, the _argument_ may be an entire syllogism, or the premises considered together apart from the conclusion, or in logical strictness the middle term only by which the particular conclusion is connected with the general statement. but when the _reasoning_ is not in strict logical form, the middle term following the conclusion is called the _reason_; thus in the statement "all tyrants deserve death; cæsar was a tyrant; therefore cæsar deserved death," "cæsar was a tyrant" would in the strictest sense be called the _argument_; but if we say "cæsar deserved death because he was a tyrant," the latter clause would be termed the _reason_. compare cause; reason, _v._; mind; reasoning. prepositions: the reason _of_ a thing that is to be explained; the reason _for_ a thing that is to be done. * * * * * reasoning. synonyms: argument, argumentation, debate, ratiocination. _argumentation_ and _debate_, in the ordinary use of the words, suppose two parties alleging reasons for and against a proposition; the same idea appears figuratively when we speak of a _debate_ or an _argument_ with oneself, or of a _debate_ between reason and conscience. _reasoning_ may be the act of one alone, as it is simply the orderly setting forth of reasons, whether for the instruction of inquirers, the confuting of opponents, or the clear establishment of truth for oneself. _reasoning_ may be either deductive or inductive. _argument_ or _argumentation_ was formerly used of deductive _reasoning_ only. with the rise of the inductive philosophy these words have come to be applied to inductive processes also; but while _reasoning_ may be informal or even (as far as tracing its processes is concerned) unconscious, _argument_ and _argumentation_ strictly imply logical form. _reasoning_, as denoting a process, is a broader term than _reason_ or _argument_; many _arguments_ or _reasons_ may be included in a single chain of _reasoning_. * * * * * rebellious. synonyms: contumacious, mutinous, uncontrollable, disobedient, refractory, ungovernable, insubordinate, seditious, unmanageable. intractable, _rebellious_ signifies being in a state of rebellion (see rebellion under revolution), and is even extended to inanimate things that resist control or adaptation to human use. _ungovernable_ applies to that which successfully defies authority and power; _unmanageable_ to that which resists the utmost exercise of skill or of skill and power combined; _rebellious_, to that which is defiant of authority, whether successfully or unsuccessfully; _seditious_, to that which partakes of or tends to excite a _rebellious_ spirit, _seditious_ suggesting more of covert plan, scheming, or conspiracy, _rebellious_ more of overt act or open violence. while the _unmanageable_ or _ungovernable_ defies control, the _rebellious_ or _seditious_ may be forced to submission; as, the man has an _ungovernable_ temper; the horses became _unmanageable_; he tamed his _rebellious_ spirit. _insubordinate_ applies to the disposition to resist and resent control as such; _mutinous_, to open defiance of authority, especially in the army, navy, or merchant marine. a _contumacious_ act or spirit is contemptuous as well as defiant. compare obstinate; revolution. antonyms: compliant, docile, manageable, subservient, controllable, dutiful, obedient, tractable, deferential, gentle, submissive, yielding. prepositions: rebellious _to_ or _against_ lawful authority. * * * * * record. synonyms: account, enrolment, instrument, register, archive, entry, inventory, roll, catalogue, enumeration, memorandum, schedule, chronicle, history, memorial, scroll. document, inscription, muniment, a _memorial_ is any object, whether a writing, a monument, or other permanent thing that is designed or adapted to keep something in remembrance. _record_ is a word of wide signification, applying to any writing, mark, or trace that serves as a _memorial_ giving enduring attestation of an event or fact; an extended _account_, _chronicle_, or _history_ is a _record_; so, too, may be a brief _inventory_ or _memorandum_; the _inscription_ on a tombstone is a _record_ of the dead; the striæ on a rock-surface are the _record_ of a glacier's passage. a _register_ is a formal or official written _record_, especially a series of entries made for preservation or reference; as, a _register_ of births and deaths. _archives_, in the sense here considered, are _documents_ or _records_, often legal _records_, preserved in a public or official depository; the word _archives_ is also applied to the place where such _documents_ are regularly deposited and preserved. _muniments_ (l. _munio_, fortify) are _records_ that enable one to defend his title. compare history; story. * * * * * recover. synonyms: be cured _or_ healed, heal, recuperate, restore, be restored, reanimate, regain, resume, cure, recruit, repossess, retrieve. the transitive use of _recover_ in the sense of _cure_, _heal_, etc., as in _ kings_ v, , "that thou mayest _recover_ him of his leprosy," is now practically obsolete. the chief transitive use of _recover_ is in the sense to obtain again after losing, _regain_, _repossess_, etc.; as, to _recover_ stolen goods; to _recover_ health. the intransitive sense, _be cured_, _be restored_, etc., is very common; as, to _recover_ from sickness, terror, or misfortune. antonyms: die, fail, grow worse, relapse, sink. prepositions: _from_; rarely _of_; (_law_) to recover judgment _against_, to recover damages _of_ or _from_ a person. * * * * * refinement. synonyms: civilization, cultivation, culture, elegance, politeness. _civilization_ applies to nations, denoting the sum of those civil, social, economic, and political attainments by which a community is removed from barbarism; a people may be civilized while still far from _refinement_ or _culture_, but _civilization_ is susceptible of various degrees and of continued progress. _refinement_ applies either to nations or individuals, denoting the removal of what is coarse and rude, and a corresponding attainment of what is delicate, elegant, and beautiful. _cultivation_, denoting primarily the process of cultivating the soil or growing crops, then the improved condition of either which is the result, is applied in similar sense to the human mind and character, but in this usage is now largely superseded by the term _culture_, which denotes a high development of the best qualities of man's mental and spiritual nature, with especial reference to the esthetic faculties and to graces of speech and manner, regarded as the expression of a refined nature. _culture_ in the fullest sense denotes that degree of _refinement_ and development which results from continued _cultivation_ through successive generations; a man's faculties may be brought to a high degree of _cultivation_ in some specialty, while he himself remains uncultured even to the extent of coarseness and rudeness. compare humane; polite. antonyms: barbarism, brutality, coarseness, rudeness, savagery, boorishness, clownishness, grossness, rusticity, vulgarity. * * * * * refute. synonyms: confound, confute, disprove, overthrow, repel. to _refute_ and to _confute_ are to answer so as to admit of no reply. to _refute_ a statement is to demonstrate its falsity by argument or countervailing proof; _confute_ is substantially the same in meaning, tho differing in usage. _refute_ applies either to arguments and opinions or to accusations; _confute_ is not applied to accusations and charges, but to arguments or opinions. _refute_ is not now applied to persons, but _confute_ is in good use in this application; a person is _confuted_ when his arguments are _refuted_. * * * * * reliable. synonyms: trustworthy, trusty. the word _reliable_ has been sharply challenged, but seems to have established its place in the language. the objection to its use on the ground that the suffix _-able_ can not properly be added to an intransitive verb is answered by the citation of such words as "available," "conversable," "laughable," and the like, while, in the matter of usage, _reliable_ has the authority of coleridge, martineau, mill, irving, newman, gladstone, and others of the foremost of recent english writers. the objection to the application of _reliable_ to persons is not sustained by the use of the verb "rely," which is applied to persons in the authorized version of the scriptures, in the writings of shakespeare and bacon, and in the usage of good speakers and writers. _trusty_ and _trustworthy_ refer to inherent qualities of a high order, _trustworthy_ being especially applied to persons, and denoting moral integrity and truthfulness; we speak of a _trusty_ sword, a _trusty_ servant; we say the man is thoroughly _trustworthy_. _reliable_ is inferior in meaning, denoting merely the possession of such qualities as are needed for safe reliance; as, a _reliable_ pledge; _reliable_ information. a man is said to be _reliable_ with reference not only to moral qualities, but to judgment, knowledge, skill, habit, or perhaps pecuniary ability; a thoroughly _trustworthy_ person might not be _reliable_ as a witness on account of unconscious sympathy, or as a security by reason of insufficient means. a _reliable_ messenger is one who may be depended on to do his errand correctly and promptly; a _trusty_ or _trustworthy_ messenger is one who may be admitted to knowledge of the views and purposes of those who employ him, and who will be faithful beyond the mere letter of his commission. we can speak of a railroad-train as _reliable_ when it can be depended on to arrive on time; but to speak of a _reliable_ friend would be cold, and to speak of a warrior girding on his _reliable_ sword would be ludicrous. * * * * * religion. synonyms: devotion, godliness, morality, piety, theology, faith, holiness, pietism, righteousness, worship. _piety_ is primarily filial duty, as of children to parents, and hence, in its highest sense, a loving obedience and service to god as the heavenly father; _pietism_ often denotes a mystical, sometimes an affected _piety_; _religion_ is the reverent acknowledgment both in heart and in act of a divine being. _religion_, in the fullest and highest sense, includes all the other words of this group. _worship_ may be external and formal, or it may be the adoring reverence of the human spirit for the divine, seeking outward expression. _devotion_, which in its fullest sense is self-consecration, is often used to denote an act of _worship_, especially prayer or adoration; as, he is engaged in his _devotions_. _morality_ is the system and practise of duty as required by the moral law, consisting chiefly in outward acts, and thus may be observed without spiritual rectitude of heart; _morality_ is of necessity included in all true _religion_, which involves both outward act and spiritual service. _godliness_ (primarily godlikeness) is a character and spirit like that of god. _holiness_ is the highest, sinless perfection of any spirit, whether divine or human, tho often used for purity or for consecration. _theology_ is the science of _religion_, or the study and scientific statement of all that the human mind can know of god. _faith_, strictly the belief and trust which the soul exercises toward god, is often used as a comprehensive word for a whole system of _religion_ considered as the object of _faith_; as, the christian _faith_; the mohammedan _faith_. antonyms: atheism, godlessness, irreligion, sacrilege, ungodliness, blasphemy, impiety, profanity, unbelief, wickedness. * * * * * reluctant. synonyms: averse, disinclined, loath, slow, backward, indisposed, opposed, unwilling. _reluctant_ (l. _re_, back, and _lucto_, strive, struggle) signifies struggling against what one is urged or impelled to do, or is actually doing; _averse_ (l. _a_, from, and _verto_, turn) signifies turned away as with dislike or repugnance; _loath_ (as. _lath_, evil, hateful) signifies having a repugnance, disgust, or loathing for, tho the adjective _loath_ is not so strong as the verb _loathe_. a dunce is always _averse_ to study; a good student is _disinclined_ to it when a fine morning tempts him out; he is _indisposed_ to it in some hour of weariness. a man may be _slow_ or _backward_ in entering upon that to which he is by no means _averse_. a man is _loath_ to believe evil of his friend, _reluctant_ to speak of it, absolutely _unwilling_ to use it to his injury. a legislator may be _opposed_ to a certain measure, while not _averse_ to what it aims to accomplish. compare antipathy. antonyms: desirous, disposed, eager, favorable, inclined, willing. * * * * * remark. synonyms: annotation, comment, note, observation, utterance. a _remark_ is a saying or brief statement, oral or written, commonly made without much premeditation; a _comment_ is an explanatory or critical _remark_, as upon some passage in a literary work or some act or speech in common life. a _note_ is something to call attention, hence a brief written statement; in correspondence, a _note_ is briefer than a letter. a _note_ upon some passage in a book is briefer and less elaborate than a _comment_. _annotations_ are especially brief _notes_, commonly marginal, and closely following the text. _comments_, _observations_, or _remarks_ may be oral or written, _comments_ being oftenest written, and _remarks_ oftenest oral. an _observation_ is properly the result of fixed attention and reflection; a _remark_ may be the suggestion of the instant. _remarks_ are more informal than a speech. * * * * * rend. synonyms: break, cleave, mangle, rive, sever, sunder, burst, lacerate, rip, rupture, slit, tear. _rend_ and _tear_ are applied to the separating of textile substances into parts by force violently applied (_rend_ also to frangible substances), _tear_ being the milder, _rend_ the stronger word. _rive_ is a wood-workers' word for parting wood in the way of the grain without a clean cut. to _lacerate_ is to _tear_ roughly the flesh or animal tissue, as by the teeth of a wild beast; a _lacerated_ wound is distinguished from a wound made by a clean cut or incision. _mangle_ is a stronger word than _lacerate_; _lacerate_ is more superficial, _mangle_ more complete. to _burst_ or _rupture_ is to _tear_ or _rend_ by force from within, _burst_ denoting the greater violence; as, to _burst_ a gun; to _rupture_ a blood-vessel; a steam-boiler may be _ruptured_ when its substance is made to divide by internal pressure without explosion. to _rip_, as usually applied to garments or other articles made by sewing or stitching, is to divide along the line of a seam by cutting or breaking the stitches; the other senses bear some resemblance or analogy to this; as, to _rip_ open a wound. compare break. antonyms: heal, mend, reunite, secure, sew, solder, stitch, unite, weld. join, * * * * * renounce. synonyms: abandon, disavow, disown, recant, repudiate, abjure, discard, forswear, refuse, retract, deny, disclaim, recall, reject, revoke. _abjure_, _discard_, _forswear_, _recall_, _recant_, _renounce_, _retract_, and _revoke_, like _abandon_, imply some previous connection. _renounce_ (l. _re_, back, and _nuntio_, bear a message) is to declare against and give up formally and definitively; as, to _renounce_ the pomps and vanities of the world. _recant_ (l. _re_, back, and _canto_, sing) is to take back or _deny_ formally and publicly, as a belief that one has held or professed. _retract_ (l. _re_, back, and _traho_, draw) is to take back something that one has said as not true or as what one is not ready to maintain; as, to _retract_ a charge or accusation; one _recants_ what was especially his own, he _retracts_ what was directed against another. _repudiate_ (l. _re_, back, or away, and _pudeo_, feel shame) is primarily to _renounce_ as shameful, hence to divorce, as a wife; thus in general to put away with emphatic and determined repulsion; as, to _repudiate_ a debt. to _deny_ is to affirm to be not true or not binding; as, to _deny_ a statement or a relationship; or to refuse to grant as something requested; as, his mother could not _deny_ him what he desired. to _discard_ is to cast away as useless or worthless; thus, one _discards_ a worn garment; a coquette _discards_ a lover. _revoke_ (l. _re_, back, and _voco_, call), etymologically the exact equivalent of the english _recall_, is to take back something given or granted; as, to _revoke_ a command, a will, or a grant; _recall_ may be used in the exact sense of _revoke_, but is often applied to persons, as _revoke_ is not; we _recall_ a messenger and _revoke_ the order with which he was charged. _abjure_ (l. _ab_, away, and _juro_, swear) is etymologically the exact equivalent of the saxon _forswear_, signifying to put away formally and under oath, as an error, heresy, or evil practise, or a condemned and detested person. a man _abjures_ his religion, _recants_ his belief, _abjures_ or _renounces_ his allegiance, _repudiates_ another's claim, _renounces_ his own, _retracts_ a false statement. a person may _deny_, _disavow_, _disclaim_, _disown_ what has been truly or falsely imputed to him or supposed to be his. he may _deny_ his signature, _disavow_ the act of his agent, _disown_ his child; he may _repudiate_ a just claim or a base suggestion. a native of the united states can not _abjure_ or _renounce_ allegiance to the queen of england, but will promptly _deny_ or _repudiate_ it. compare abandon. antonyms: acknowledge, assert, cherish, defend, maintain, proclaim, uphold, advocate, avow, claim, hold, own, retain, vindicate. * * * * * repentance. synonyms: compunction, contriteness, regret, self-condemnation, contrition, penitence, remorse, sorrow. _regret_ is _sorrow_ for any painful or annoying matter. one is moved with _penitence_ for wrong-doing. to speak of _regret_ for a fault of our own marks it as slighter than one regarding which we should express _penitence_. _repentance_ is _sorrow_ for sin with _self-condemnation_, and complete turning from the sin. _penitence_ is transient, and may involve no change of character or conduct. there may be _sorrow_ without _repentance_, as for consequences only, but not _repentance_ without _sorrow_. _compunction_ is a momentary sting of conscience, in view either of a past or of a contemplated act. _contrition_ is a subduing _sorrow_ for sin, as against the divine holiness and love. _remorse_ is, as its derivation indicates, a biting or gnawing back of guilt upon the heart, with no turning of heart from the sin, and no suggestion of divine forgiveness. antonyms: approval, content, obduracy, self-complacency, comfort, hardness, obstinacy, self-congratulation, complacency, impenitence, self-approval, stubbornness. prepositions: repentance _of_ or _in_ heart, or _from_ the heart; repentance _for_ sins; _before_ or _toward_ god; _unto_ life. * * * * * report. synonyms: account, narrative, rehearsal, rumor, story, description, recital, relation, statement, tale. narration, record, _account_ carries the idea of a commercial summary. a _statement_ is definite, confined to essentials and properly to matters within the personal knowledge of the one who states them; as, an ante-mortem _statement_. a _narrative_ is a somewhat extended and embellished _account_ of events in order of time, ordinarily with a view to please or entertain. a _description_ gives especial scope to the pictorial element. a _report_ (l. _re_, back, and _porto_, bring), as its etymology implies, is something brought back, as by one sent to obtain information, and may be concise and formal or highly descriptive and dramatic. compare allegory; history; record. * * * * * reproof. synonyms: admonition, chiding, disapproval, reprimand, animadversion, comment, objurgation, reproach, blame, condemnation, rebuke, reproval, censure, criticism, reflection, upbraiding. check, denunciation, reprehension, _blame_, _censure_, and _disapproval_ may either be felt or uttered; _comment_, _criticism_, _rebuke_, _reflection_, _reprehension_, and _reproof_ are always expressed. the same is true of _admonition_ and _animadversion_. _comment_ and _criticism_ may be favorable as well as censorious; they imply no superiority or authority on the part of him who utters them; nor do _reflection_ or _reprehension_, which are simply turning the mind back upon what is disapproved. _reprehension_ is supposed to be calm and just, and with good intent; it is therefore a serious matter, however mild, and is capable of great force, as expressed in the phrase severe _reprehension_. _reflection_ is often from mere ill feeling, and is likely to be more personal and less impartial than _reprehension_; we often speak of unkind or unjust _reflections_. _rebuke_, literally a stopping of the mouth, is administered to a forward or hasty person; _reproof_ is administered to one intentionally or deliberately wrong; both words imply authority in the reprover, and direct expression of _disapproval_ to the face of the person _rebuked_ or _reproved_. _reprimand_ is official _censure_ formally administered by a superior to one under his command. _animadversion_ is _censure_ of a high, authoritative, and somewhat formal kind. _rebuke_ may be given at the outset, or in the midst of an action; _animadversion_, _reflection_, _reprehension_, _reproof_, always follow the act; _admonition_ is anticipatory, and meant to be preventive. _check_ is allied to _rebuke_, and given before or during action; _chiding_ is nearer to _reproof_, but with more of personal bitterness and less of authority. compare condemn; reprove. antonyms: applause, approval, encomium, eulogy, panegyric, praise. approbation, commendation, * * * * * reprove. synonyms: admonish, condemn, reprimand, blame, expostulate with, reproach, censure, find fault with, take to task, chasten, rebuke, upbraid, check, remonstrate with, warn. chide, reprehend, to _censure_ is to pronounce an adverse judgment that may or may not be expressed to the person _censured_; to _reprove_ is to _censure_ authoritatively, openly, and directly to the face of the person _reproved_; to _rebuke_ is to _reprove_ with sharpness, and often with abruptness, usually in the midst of some action or course of action deemed censurable; to _reprimand_ is to _reprove_ officially; to _blame_ is a familiar word signifying to pass _censure_ upon, make answerable, as for a fault; _blame_ and _censure_ apply either to persons or acts; _reprove_ and _rebuke_ are applied chiefly, and _reprimand_ exclusively to persons. to _reproach_ is to _censure_ openly and vehemently, and with intense personal feeling as of grief or anger; as, to _reproach_ one for ingratitude; _reproach_ knows no distinction of rank or character; a subject may _reproach_ a king or a criminal judge. to _expostulate_ or _remonstrate with_ is to mingle reasoning and appeal with _censure_ in the hope of winning one from his evil way, _expostulate_ being the gentler, _remonstrate_ the severer word. _admonish_ is the mildest of _reproving_ words, and may even be used of giving a caution or warning where no wrong is implied, or of simply reminding of duty which might be forgotten. _censure_, _rebuke_, and _reprove_ apply to wrong that has been done; _warn_ and _admonish_ refer to anticipated error or fault. when one is _admonished_ because of wrong already done, the view is still future, that he may not repeat or continue in the wrong. compare condemn; reproof. antonyms: abet, approve, countenance, impel, instigate, applaud, cheer, encourage, incite, urge on. * * * * * requite. synonyms: avenge, punish, remunerate, revenge, compensate, quit, repay, reward, pay, reciprocate, retaliate, satisfy, pay off, recompense, return, settle with. to _repay_ or to _retaliate_, to _punish_ or to _reward_, may be to make some return very inadequate to the benefit or injury received, or the right or wrong done; but to _requite_ (according to its etymology) is to make so full and adequate a _return_ as to _quit_ oneself of all obligation of favor or hostility, of punishment or _reward_. _requite_ is often used in the more general sense of _recompense_ or _repay_, but always with the suggestion, at least, of the original idea of full equivalent; when one speaks of _requiting_ kindness with ingratitude, the expression gains force from the comparison of the actual with the proper and appropriate _return_. compare pay. antonyms: absolve, excuse, forgive, overlook, pass over, acquit, forget, neglect, pardon, slight. preposition: to requite injury _with_ injury is human, but not christian. * * * * * rest. synonyms: calm, pause, quietness, slumber, calmness, peace, quietude, stay, cessation, peacefulness, recreation, stillness, ease, quiescence, repose, stop, intermission, quiet, sleep, tranquillity. _ease_ denotes freedom from cause of disturbance, whether external or internal. _quiet_ denotes freedom from agitation, or especially from annoying sounds. _rest_ is a _cessation_ of activity especially of wearying or painful activity. _recreation_ is some pleasing activity of certain organs or faculties that affords _rest_ to other parts of our nature that have become weary. _repose_ is a laying down, primarily of the body, and figuratively a similar freedom from toil or strain of mind. _repose_ is more complete than _rest_; a _pause_ is a momentary _cessation_ of activity; a black-smith finds a temporary _rest_ while the iron is heating, but he does not yield to _repose_; in a _pause_ of battle a soldier _rests_ on his arms; after the battle the victor _reposes_ on his laurels. _sleep_ is the perfection of _repose_, the most complete _rest_; _slumber_ is a light and ordinarily pleasant form of _sleep_. in the figurative sense, _rest_ of mind, soul, conscience, is not mere _cessation_ of activity, but a pleasing, tranquil relief from all painful and wearying activity; _repose_ is even more deep, tranquil, and complete. antonyms: agitation, disturbance, movement, stir, tumult, commotion, excitement, restlessness, strain, unrest, disquiet, motion, rush, toil, work. * * * * * restive. synonyms: balky, impatient, rebellious, restless, fidgety, intractable, recalcitrant, skittish, fractious, mulish, refractory, stubborn, fretful, mutinous, resentful, unruly, frisky, obstinate, restiff, vicious. _balky_, _mulish_, _obstinate_, and _stubborn_ are synonyms of _restive_ only in an infrequent if not obsolete use; the supposed sense of "tending to rest," "standing stubbornly still," is scarcely supported by any examples, and those cited to support that meaning often fail to do so. the disposition to offer active resistance to control by any means whatever is what is commonly indicated by _restive_ in the best english speech and literature. dryden speaks of "the pampered colt" as "_restiff_ to the rein;" but the rein is not used to propel a horse forward, but to hold him in, and it is against this that he is "_restiff_." a horse may be made _restless_ by flies or by martial music, but with no refractoriness; the _restive_ animal impatiently resists or struggles to break from control, as by bolting, flinging his rider, or otherwise. with this the metaphorical use of the word agrees, which is always in the sense of such terms as _impatient_, _intractable_, _rebellious_, and the like; a people _restive_ under despotism are not disposed to "rest" under it, but to resist it and fling it off. antonyms: docile, manageable, passive, quiet, tractable, gentle, obedient, peaceable, submissive, yielding. * * * * * restrain. synonyms: abridge, constrain, hold in, keep under, bridle, curb, keep, repress, check, hinder, keep back, restrict, circumscribe, hold, keep down, suppress, confine, hold back, keep in, withhold. to _restrain_ is to _hold back_ from acting, proceeding, or advancing, either by physical or moral force. _constrain_ is positive; _restrain_ is negative; one is _constrained_ to an action; he is _restrained_ from an action. _constrain_ refers almost exclusively to moral force, _restrain_ frequently to physical force, as when we speak of putting one under restraint. to _restrain_ an action is to hold it partially or wholly in check, so that it is under pressure even while it acts; to _restrict_ an action is to fix a limit or boundary which it may not pass, but within which it is free. to _repress_, literally to press back, is to hold in check, and perhaps only temporarily, that which is still very active; it is a feebler word than _restrain_; to _suppress_ is finally and effectually to put down; _suppress_ is a much stronger word than _restrain_; as, to _suppress_ a rebellion. compare arrest; bind; keep. antonyms: aid, arouse, encourage, free, incite, release, animate, emancipate, excite, impel, let loose, set free. * * * * * retirement. synonyms: loneliness, privacy, seclusion, solitude. in _retirement_ one withdraws from association he has had with others; we speak of the _retirement_ of a public man to private life, tho he may still be much in company. in _seclusion_ one shuts himself away from the society of all except intimate friends or attendants; in _solitude_ no other person is present. while _seclusion_ is ordinarily voluntary, _solitude_ may be enforced; we speak of the _solitude_ rather than the _seclusion_ of a prisoner. as "private" denotes what concerns ourselves individually, _privacy_ denotes freedom from the presence or observation of those not concerned or whom we desire not to have concerned in our affairs; _privacy_ is more commonly temporary than _seclusion_; we speak of a moment's _privacy_. there may be _loneliness_ without _solitude_, as amid an unsympathizing crowd, and _solitude_ without _loneliness_, as when one is glad to be alone. antonyms: association, companionship, company, converse, fellowship, society. * * * * * revelation. synonyms: apocalypse, disclosure, manifestation. _revelation_ (l. _re_, back, and _velum_, veil), literally an unveiling, is the act or process of making known what was before secret or hidden, or what may still be future. _apocalypse_ (gr. _apo_, from, and _kalypto_, cover), literally an uncovering, comes into english as the name of the closing book of the bible. the _apocalypse_ unveils the future, as if to the very gaze of the seer; the whole gospel is a _disclosure_ of the mercy of god; the character of christ is a _manifestation_ of the divine holiness and love; all scripture is a _revelation_ of the divine will. or we might say that nature is a _manifestation_ of the divine character and will, of which scripture is the fuller and more express _revelation_. antonyms: cloud, concealment, mystery, shrouding, cloudiness, hiding, obscuration, veiling. * * * * * revenge. synonyms: avenging, retaliation, retribution, vengeance. requital, _revenge_ is the act of making return for an injury done to oneself by doing injury to another person. _retaliation_ and _revenge_ are personal and often bitter. _retaliation_ may be partial; _revenge_ is meant to be complete, and may be excessive. _vengeance_, which once meant an indignant vindication of justice, now signifies the most furious and unsparing _revenge_. _revenge_ emphasizes more the personal injury in return for which it is inflicted, _vengeance_ the ill desert of those upon whom it is inflicted. a _requital_ is strictly an even return, such as to quit one of obligation for what has been received, and even if poor or unworthy is given as complete and adequate. _avenging_ and _retribution_ give a solemn sense of exact justice, _avenging_ being more personal in its infliction, whether by god or man, and _retribution_ the impersonal visitation of the doom of righteous law. compare avenge; hatred; requite. antonyms: compassion, forgiveness, mercy, pardon, pity, reconciliation. excuse, grace, prepositions: to take revenge _upon_ the enemy, _for_ the injury. * * * * * revolution. synonyms: anarchy, insurrection, revolt, confusion, lawlessness, riot, disintegration, mutiny, sedition, disorder, rebellion, tumult. insubordination, the essential idea of _revolution_ is a change in the form of government or constitution, or a change of rulers, otherwise than as provided by the laws of succession, election, etc.; while such change is apt to involve armed hostilities, these make no necessary part of the _revolution_. the _revolution_ by which dom pedro was dethroned, and brazil changed from an empire to a republic, was accomplished without a battle, and almost without a shot. _anarchy_ refers to the condition of a state when human government is superseded or destroyed by factions or other causes. _lawlessness_ is a temper of mind or condition of the community which may result in _anarchy_. _confusion_, _disorder_, _riot_, and _tumult_ are incidental and temporary outbreaks of _lawlessness_, but may not be _anarchy_. _insubordination_ is individual disobedience. _sedition_ is the plotting, _rebellion_ the fighting, against the existing government, but always with the purpose of establishing some other government in its place. when _rebellion_ is successful it is called _revolution_; but there may be _revolution_ without _rebellion_; as, the english _revolution_ of . a _revolt_ is an uprising against existing authority without the comprehensive views of change in the form or administration of government that are involved in _revolution_. _anarchy_, when more than temporary _disorder_, is a proposed _disintegration_ of society, in which it is imagined that social order might exist without government. slaves make _insurrection_; soldiers or sailors break out in _mutiny_; subject provinces rise in _revolt_. compare socialism. antonyms: authority, domination, government, obedience, sovereignty, command, dominion, law, order, submission, control, empire, loyalty, rule, supremacy. * * * * * revolve. synonyms: roll, rotate, turn. any round body _rolls_ which continuously touches with successive portions of its surface successive portions of another surface; a wagon-wheel _rolls_ along the ground. to _rotate_ is said of a body that has a circular motion about its own center or axis; to _revolve_ is said of a body that moves in a curving path, as a circle or an ellipse, about a center outside of itself, so as to return periodically to the same relative position that it held at some previous time. a _revolving_ body may also either _rotate_ or _roll_ at the same time; the earth _revolves_ around the sun, and _rotates_ on its own axis; in popular usage, the earth is often said to _revolve_ about its own axis, or to have a daily "revolution," but _rotate_ and "rotation" are the more accurate terms. a cylinder over which an endless belt is drawn is said to _roll_ as regards the belt, tho it _rotates_ as regards its own axis. any object that is in contact with or connected with a _rolling_ body is often said to _roll_; as, the car _rolls_ smoothly along the track. objects whose motion approximates or suggests a rotary motion along a supporting surface are also said to _roll_; as, ocean waves _roll_ in upon the shore, or the ship _rolls_ in the trough of the sea. _turn_ is a conversational and popular word often used vaguely for _rotate_ or _revolve_, or for any motion about a fixed point, especially for a motion less than a complete "rotation" or "revolution;" a man _turns_ his head or _turns_ on his heel; the gate _turns_ on its hinges. antonyms: bind, chafe, grind, slide, slip, stand, stick. * * * * * riddle, _n._ synonyms: conundrum, enigma, paradox, problem, puzzle. _conundrum_, a word of unknown origin, signifies some question or statement in which some hidden and fanciful resemblance is involved, the answer often depending upon a pun; an _enigma_ is a dark saying; a _paradox_ is a true statement that at first appears absurd or contradictory; a _problem_ is something thrown out for solution; _puzzle_ (from _oppose_) referred originally to the intricate arguments by which disputants opposed each other in the old philosophic schools. the _riddle_ is an ambiguous or paradoxical statement with a hidden meaning to be guessed by the mental acuteness of the one to whom it is proposed; the _riddle_ is not so petty as the _conundrum_, and may require much acuteness for its answer; a _problem_ may require simply study and scholarship, as a _problem_ in mathematics; a _puzzle_ may be in something other than verbal statement, as a dissected map or any perplexing mechanical contrivance. both _enigma_ and _puzzle_ may be applied to any matter difficult of answer or solution, _enigma_ conveying an idea of greater dignity, _puzzle_ applying to something more commonplace and mechanical; there are many dark _enigmas_ in human life and in the course of providence; the location of a missing object is often a _puzzle_. antonyms: answer, axiom, explanation, proposition, solution. * * * * * right, _n._ synonyms: claim, franchise, liberty, prerogative, exemption, immunity, license, privilege. a _right_ is that which one may properly demand upon considerations of justice, morality, equity, or of natural or positive law. a _right_ may be either general or special, natural or artificial. "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are the natural and inalienable _rights_ of all men; _rights_ of property, inheritance, etc., are individual and special, and often artificial, as the _right_ of inheritance by primogeniture. a _privilege_ is always special, exceptional, and artificial; it is something not enjoyed by all, or only to be enjoyed on certain special conditions, a peculiar benefit, favor, advantage, etc. a _privilege_ may be of doing or avoiding; in the latter case it is an _exemption_ or _immunity_; as, a _privilege_ of hunting or fishing; _exemption_ from military service; _immunity_ from arrest. a _franchise_ is a specific _right_ or _privilege_ granted by the government or established as such by governmental authority; as, the elective _franchise_; a railroad _franchise_. a _prerogative_ is an official _right_ or _privilege_, especially one inherent in the royal or sovereign power; in a wider sense it is an exclusive and peculiar _privilege_ which one possesses by reason of being what he is; as, reason is the _prerogative_ of man; kings and nobles have often claimed _prerogatives_ and _privileges_ opposed to the inherent _rights_ of the people. compare duty; justice. * * * * * rise. synonyms: arise, ascend, emanate, flow, issue, proceed, spring. to _rise_ is to move up or upward whether slowly or quickly, whether through the least or greatest distance; the waves _rise_; the mists _rise_; the river _rises_ after heavy rains; as said of persons, to _rise_ is to come to an erect position after kneeling, sitting, reclining, or lying down; as, to _rise_ from a sick-bed; my friend _rose_ as i entered; the guests _rose_ to depart; so a deliberative assembly or a committee is said to _rise_ when it breaks up a session; a sun or star _rises_ when to our apprehension it comes above the horizon and begins to go up the sky. to _ascend_ is to go far upward, and is often used in a stately sense; as, christ _ascended_ to heaven. the shorter form _rise_ is now generally preferred to the longer form _arise_, except in poetic or elevated style. the sun _rises_ or _arises_; the river _springs_ at a bound from the foot of the glacier and _flows_ through the lands to the ocean. smoke _issues_ from a chimney and _ascends_ toward the sky. light and heat _emanate_ from the sun. antonyms: decline, descend, drop, fall, go down, set, settle, sink. prepositions: rise _from_ slumber; rise _to_ duty; rise _at_ the summons; we rose _with_ the lark. * * * * * robber. synonyms: bandit, depredator, freebooter, pirate, brigand, despoiler, highwayman, plunderer, buccaneer, footpad, marauder, raider, burglar, forager, pillager, thief. a _robber_ seeks to obtain the property of others by force or intimidation; a _thief_ by stealth and secrecy. in early english _thief_ was freely used in both senses, as in shakespeare and the authorized version of the english bible, which has "two _thieves_" (_matt._ xxvii, ), where the revised version more correctly substitutes "two _robbers_." * * * * * royal. synonyms: august, kingly, majestic, princely, kinglike, magnificent, munificent, regal. _royal_ denotes that which actually belongs or pertains to a monarch; the _royal_ residence is that which the king occupies, _royal_ raiment that which the king wears. _regal_ denotes that which in outward state is appropriate for a king; a subject may assume _regal_ magnificence in residence, dress, and equipage. _kingly_ denotes that which is worthy of a king in personal qualities, especially of character and conduct; as, a _kingly_ bearing; a _kingly_ resolve. _princely_ is especially used of treasure, expenditure, gifts, etc., as _princely_ munificence, a _princely_ fortune, where _regal_ could not so well be used and _royal_ would change the sense. the distinctions between these words are not absolute, but the tendency of the best usage is as here suggested. antonyms: beggarly, contemptible, mean, poor, servile, slavish, vile. * * * * * rustic. synonyms: agricultural, coarse, pastoral, uncouth, artless, countrified, plain, unpolished, awkward, country, rude, unsophisticated, boorish, hoidenish, rural, untaught, bucolic, inelegant, sylvan, verdant. clownish, outlandish, _rural_ and _rustic_ are alike derived from the latin _rus_, country, and may be alike defined as pertaining to, characteristic of, or dwelling in the country; but in usage _rural_ refers especially to scenes or objects in the country, considered as the work of nature; _rustic_ refers to their effect upon man or to their condition as affected by human agency; as, a _rural_ scene; a _rustic_ party; a _rustic_ lass. we speak, however, of the _rural_ population, _rural_ simplicity, etc. _rural_ has always a favorable sense; _rustic_ frequently an unfavorable one, as denoting a lack of culture and refinement; thus, _rustic_ politeness expresses that which is well-meant, but awkward; similar ideas are suggested by a _rustic_ feast, _rustic_ garb, etc. _rustic_ is, however, often used of a studied simplicity, an artistic rudeness, which is pleasing and perhaps beautiful; as, a _rustic_ cottage; a _rustic_ chair. _pastoral_ refers to the care of flocks, and to the shepherd's life with the pleasing associations suggested by the old poetic ideal of that life; as, _pastoral_ poetry. _bucolic_ is kindred to _pastoral_, but is a less elevated term, and sometimes slightly contemptuous. antonyms: accomplished, cultured, polished, refined, urbane, city-like, elegant, polite, urban, well-bred. * * * * * sacrament. synonyms: ceremony, eucharist, observance, rite, solemnity. communion, lord's supper, ordinance, service, any religious act, especially a public act, viewed as a means of serving god is called a _service_; the word commonly includes the entire series of exercises of a single occasion of public worship. a religious _service_ ordained as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace is called a _sacrament_. _ceremony_ is a form expressing reverence, or at least respect; we may speak of religious _ceremonies_, the _ceremonies_ of polite society, the _ceremonies_ of a coronation, an inauguration, etc. an _observance_ has more than a formal obligation, reaching or approaching a religious sacredness; a stated religious _observance_, viewed as established by authority, is called an _ordinance_; viewed as an established custom, it is a _rite_. the terms _sacrament_ and _ordinance_, in the religious sense, are often used interchangeably; the _ordinance_ derives its sacredness from the authority that ordained it, while the _sacrament_ possesses a sacredness due to something in itself, even when viewed simply as a representation or memorial. the lord's supper is the scriptural name for the _observance_ commemorating the death of christ; the word _communion_ is once applied to it (_ cor._ x, ), but not as a distinctive name; at an early period, however, the name _communion_ was so applied, as denoting the communing of christians with their lord, or with one another. the term _eucharist_ describes the lord's supper as a thanksgiving _service_; it is also called by preeminence _the sacrament_, as the ratifying of a solemn vow of consecration to christ. * * * * * sagacious. synonyms: able, intelligent, perspicacious, sensible, acute, keen, quick of scent, sharp, apt, keen-sighted, quick-scented, sharp-witted, clear-sighted, keen-witted, rational, shrewd, discerning, judicious, sage, wise. _sagacious_ refers to a power of tracing the hidden or recondite by slight indications, as by instinct or intuition; it is not now applied to mere keenness of sense-perception. we do not call a hound _sagacious_ in following a clear trail; but if he loses the scent, as at the edge of a stream, and circles around till he strikes it again, his conduct is said to be _sagacious_. in human affairs _sagacious_ refers to a power of ready, far-reaching, and accurate inference from observed facts perhaps in themselves very slight, that seems like a special sense; or to a similar readiness to foresee the results of any action, especially upon human motives or conduct--a kind of prophetic common sense. _sagacious_ is a broader and nobler word than _shrewd_, and not capable of the invidious sense which the latter word often bears; on the other hand, _sagacious_ is less lofty and comprehensive than _wise_ in its full sense, and more limited to matters of direct practical moment. compare astute; wisdom. antonyms: absurd, futile, obtuse, silly, sottish, undiscerning, dull, ignorant, senseless, simple, stupid, unintelligent. foolish, irrational, * * * * * sale. synonyms: bargain, barter, change, deal, exchange, trade. a _bargain_ is strictly an agreement or contract to buy and sell, tho the word is often used to denote the entire transaction and also as a designation for the thing sold or purchased. _change_ and _exchange_ are words of wider signification, applying only incidentally to the transfer of property or value; a _change_ secures something different in any way or by any means; an _exchange_ secures something as an equivalent or return, tho not necessarily as payment for what is given. _barter_ is the _exchange_ of one commodity for another, the word being used generally with reference to portable commodities. _trade_ in the broad sense may apply to vast businesses (as the book-_trade_), but as denoting a single transaction is used chiefly in regard to things of moderate value, when it becomes nearly synonymous with _barter_. _sale_ is commonly, and with increasing strictness, limited to the transfer of property for money, or for something estimated at a money value or considered as equivalent to so much money in hand or to be paid. a _deal_ in the political sense is a _bargain_, substitution, or transfer for the benefit of certain persons or parties against all others; as, the nomination was the result of a _deal_; in business it may have a similar meaning, but it frequently signifies simply a _sale_ or _exchange_, a dealing; as, a heavy _deal_ in stocks. * * * * * sample. synonyms: case, exemplification, instance, example, illustration, specimen. a _sample_ is a portion taken at random out of a quantity supposed to be homogeneous, so that the qualities found in the _sample_ may reasonably be expected to be found in the whole; as, a _sample_ of sugar; a _sample_ of cloth. a _specimen_ is one unit of a series, or a fragment of a mass, all of which is supposed to possess the same essential qualities; as, a _specimen_ of coinage, or of architecture, or a _specimen_ of quartz. no other unit or portion may be exactly like the _specimen_, while all the rest is supposed to be exactly like the _sample_. an _instance_ is a _sample_ or _specimen_ of action. compare example. antonyms: abnormality, aggregate, exception, monstrosity, total, whole. * * * * * satisfy. synonyms: cloy, fill, sate, suffice, content, glut, satiate, surfeit. to _satisfy_ is to furnish just enough to meet physical, mental, or spiritual desire. to _sate_ or _satiate_ is to gratify desire so fully as for a time to extinguish it. to _cloy_ or _surfeit_ is to gratify to the point of revulsion or disgust. _glut_ is a strong but somewhat coarse word applied to the utmost satisfaction of vehement appetites and passions; as, to _glut_ a vengeful spirit with slaughter; we speak of _glutting_ the market with a supply so excessive as to extinguish the demand. much less than is needed to _satisfy_ may _suffice_ a frugal or abstemious person; less than a sufficiency may _content_ one of a patient and submissive spirit. compare pay; requite. antonyms: check, disappoint, restrain, starve, straiten, deny, refuse, restrict, stint, tantalize. prepositions: satisfy _with_ food, _with_ gifts, etc.; satisfy one (in the sense of make satisfaction) _for_ labors and sacrifices; satisfy oneself _by_ or _upon_ inquiry. * * * * * scholar. synonyms: disciple, learner, pupil, savant, student. the primary sense of a _scholar_ is one who is being schooled; thence the word passes to denote one who is apt in school work, and finally one who is thoroughly schooled, master of what the schools can teach, an erudite, accomplished person: when used without qualification, the word is generally understood in this latter sense; as, he is manifestly a _scholar_. _pupil_ signifies one under the close personal supervision or instruction of a teacher or tutor. those under instruction in schools below the academic grade are technically and officially termed _pupils_. the word _pupil_ is uniformly so used in the reports of the commissioner of education of the united states, but popular american usage prefers _scholar_ in the original sense; as, teachers and _scholars_ enjoyed a holiday. those under instruction in sunday-schools are uniformly designated as sunday-school _scholars_. _student_ is applied to those in the higher grades or courses of study, as the academic, collegiate, scientific, etc. _student_ suggests less proficiency than _scholar_ in the highest sense, the _student_ being one who is learning, the _scholar_ one who has learned. on the other hand, _student_ suggests less of personal supervision than _pupil_; thus, the college _student_ often becomes the private _pupil_ of some instructor in special studies. for _disciple_, etc., compare synonyms for adherent. antonyms: dunce, fool, idiot, idler, ignoramus, illiterate person. * * * * * science. synonyms: art, knowledge. _knowledge_ of a single fact, not known as related to any other, or of many facts not known as having any mutual relations or as comprehended under any general law, does not reach the meaning of _science_; _science_ is _knowledge_ reduced to law and embodied in system. the _knowledge_ of various countries gathered by an observant traveler may be a heterogeneous medley of facts, which gain real value only when coordinated and arranged by the man of _science_. _art_ always relates to something to be done, _science_ to something to be known. not only must _art_ be discriminated from _science_, but _art_ in the industrial or mechanical sense must be distinguished from _art_ in the esthetic sense; the former aims chiefly at utility, the latter at beauty. the mechanic _arts_ are the province of the artisan, the esthetic or fine _arts_ are the province of the artist; all the industrial _arts_, as of weaving or printing, arithmetic or navigation, are governed by exact rules. _art_ in the highest esthetic sense, while it makes use of rules, transcends all rule; no rules can be given for the production of a painting like raffael's "transfiguration," a statue like the apollo belvedere, or a poem like the iliad. _science_ does not, like the mechanic _arts_, make production its direct aim, yet its possible productive application in the _arts_ is a constant stimulus to scientific investigation; the _science_, as in the case of chemistry or electricity, is urged on to higher development by the demands of the _art_, while the _art_ is perfected by the advance of the _science_. creative _art_ seeking beauty for its own sake is closely akin to pure _science_ seeking _knowledge_ for its own sake. compare knowledge; literature. * * * * * security. synonyms: bail, earnest, gage, pledge, surety. the first four words agree in denoting something given or deposited as an assurance of something to be given, paid, or done. an _earnest_ is of the same kind as that to be given, a portion of it delivered in advance, as when part of the purchase-money is paid, according to the common expression, "to bind the bargain." a _pledge_ or _security_ may be wholly different in kind from that to be given or paid, and may greatly exceed it in value. _security_ may be of real or personal property--anything of sufficient value to make the creditor secure; a _pledge_ is always of personal property or chattels. every pawnshop contains unredeemed _pledges_; land, merchandise, bonds, etc., are frequently offered and accepted as _security_. a person may become _security_ or _surety_ for another's payment of a debt, appearance in court, etc.; in the latter case, he is said to become _bail_ for that person; the person accused gives _bail_ for himself. _gage_ survives only as a literary word, chiefly in certain phrases; as, "the _gage_ of battle." prepositions: security _for_ the payment of a debt; security _to_ the state, _for_ the prisoner, _in_ the sum of a thousand dollars. * * * * * self-abnegation. synonyms: self-control, self-devotion, self-renunciation, self-denial, self-immolation, self-sacrifice. _self-control_ is holding oneself within due limits in pleasures and duties, as in all things else; _self-denial_, the giving up of pleasures for the sake of duty. _self-renunciation_ surrenders conscious rights and claims; _self-abnegation_ forgets that there is anything to surrender. there have been devotees who practised very little _self-denial_ with very much _self-renunciation_. a mother will care for a sick child with complete _self-abnegation_, but without a thought of _self-denial_. _self-devotion_ is heart-consecration of self to a person or cause with readiness for any needed sacrifice. _self-sacrifice_ is the strongest and completest term of all, and contemplates the gift of self as actually made. we speak of the _self-sacrifice_ of christ, where any other of the above terms would be feeble or inappropriate. antonyms: self-gratification, selfishness, self-seeking, self-will. self-indulgence, * * * * * send. synonyms: cast, despatch, emit, impel, propel, dart, discharge, fling, lance, sling, delegate, dismiss, forward, launch, throw, depute, drive, hurl, project, transmit. to _send_ is to cause to go or pass from one place to another, and always in fact or thought away from the agent or agency that controls the act. _send_ in its most common use involves personal agency without personal presence; according to the adage, "if you want your business done, go; if not, _send_;" one _sends_ a letter or a bullet, a messenger or a message. in all the derived uses this same idea controls; if one _sends_ a ball into his own heart, the action is away from the directing hand, and he is viewed as the passive recipient of his own act; it is with an approach to personification that we speak of the bow _sending_ the arrow, or the gun the shot. to _despatch_ is to _send_ hastily or very promptly, ordinarily with a destination in view; to _dismiss_ is to _send_ away from oneself without reference to a destination; as, to _dismiss_ a clerk, an application, or an annoying subject. to _discharge_ is to _send_ away so as to relieve a person or thing of a load; we _discharge_ a gun or _discharge_ the contents; as applied to persons, _discharge_ is a harsher term than _dismiss_. to _emit_ is to _send_ forth from within, with no reference to a destination; as, the sun _emits_ light and heat. _transmit_, from the latin, is a dignified term, often less vigorous than the saxon _send_, but preferable at times in literary or scientific use; as, to _transmit_ the crown, or the feud, from generation to generation; to _transmit_ a charge of electricity. _transmit_ fixes the attention more on the intervening agency, as _send_ does upon the points of departure and destination. antonyms: bring, convey, give, hold, receive, carry, get, hand, keep, retain. prepositions: to send _from_ the hand _to_ or _toward_ (rarely _at_) a mark; send _to_ a friend _by_ a messenger or _by_ mail; send a person _into_ banishment; send a shell _among_ the enemy. * * * * * sensation. synonyms: emotion, feeling, perception, sense. _sensation_ is the mind's consciousness due to a bodily affection, as of heat or cold; _perception_ is the cognition of some external object which is the cause or occasion of the _sensation_; the _sensation_ of heat may be connected with the _perception_ of a fire. while _sensations_ are connected with the body, _emotions_, as joy, grief, etc., are wholly of the mind. "as the most of them [the _sensations_] are positively agreeable or the opposite, they are nearly akin to those _emotions_, as hope or terror, or those passions, as anger and envy, which are acknowledged by all to belong exclusively to the spirit, and to involve no relation whatever to matter or the bodily organism. such _feelings_ are not infrequently styled _sensations_, though improperly." porter _human intellect_ § , p. . [s. ' .] _feeling_ is a general term popularly denoting what is felt, whether through the body or by the mind alone, and includes both _sensation_ and _emotion_. a _sense_ is an organ or faculty of _sensation_ or of _perception_. * * * * * sensibility. synonyms: feeling, impressibility, sensitiveness, susceptibility. _sensibility_ in the philosophical sense, denotes the capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the intellect and the will. (compare synonyms for sensation.) in popular use _sensibility_ denotes sometimes capacity of feeling of any kind; as, _sensibility_ to heat or cold; sometimes, a peculiar readiness to be the subject of feeling, especially of the higher feelings; as, the _sensibility_ of the artist or the poet; a person of great or fine _sensibility_. _sensitiveness_ denotes an especial delicacy of _sensibility_, ready to be excited by the slightest cause, as displayed, for instance, in the "sensitive-plant." _susceptibility_ is rather a capacity to take up, receive, and, as it were, to contain feeling, so that a person of great _susceptibility_ is capable of being not only readily but deeply moved; _sensitiveness_ is more superficial, _susceptibility_ more pervading. thus, in physics, the _sensitiveness_ of a magnetic needle is the ease with which it may be deflected, as by another magnet; its _susceptibility_ is the degree to which it can be magnetized by a given magnetic force or the amount of magnetism it will hold. so a person of great _sensitiveness_ is quickly and keenly affected by any external influence, as by music, pathos, or ridicule, while a person of great _susceptibility_ is not only touched, but moved to his inmost soul. antonyms: coldness, hardness, insensibility, numbness, unconsciousness. deadness, prepositions: the sensibility _of_ the organism _to_ atmospheric changes. * * * * * severe. synonyms: austere, inflexible, rigorous, uncompromising, hard, morose, stern, unmitigated, harsh, relentless, stiff, unrelenting, inexorable, rigid, strict, unyielding. that is _severe_ which is devoid of all softness, mildness, tenderness, indulgence or levity, or (in literature and art) devoid of unnecessary ornament, amplification, or embellishment of any kind; as, a _severe_ style; as said of anything painful, _severe_ signifies such as heavily taxes endurance or resisting power; as, a _severe_ pain, fever, or winter. _rigid_ signifies primarily _stiff_, resisting any effort to change its shape; a corpse is said to be _rigid_ in death; hence, in metaphorical sense, a _rigid_ person or character is one that resists all efforts to change the will or course of conduct; a _rigid_ rule or statement is one that admits of no deviation. _rigorous_ is nearly akin to _rigid_, but is a stronger word, having reference to action or active qualities, as _rigid_ does to state or character; a _rigid_ rule may be _rigorously_ enforced. _strict_ (l. _stringo_, bind) signifies bound or stretched tight, tense, strenuously exact. _stern_ unites harshness and authority with strictness or severity; _stern_, as said even of inanimate objects, suggests something authoritative or forbidding. _austere_ signifies severely simple or temperate, _strict_ in self-restraint or discipline, and similarly _unrelenting_ toward others. we speak of _austere_ morality, _rigid_ rules, _rigorous_ discipline, _stern_ commands, _severe_ punishment, _harsh_ speech or a _harsh_ voice, _hard_ requirements, _strict_ injunctions, and _strict_ obedience. _strict_ discipline holds one exactly and unflinchingly to the rule; _rigorous_ discipline punishes severely any infraction of it. the _austere_ character is seldom lovely, but it is always strong and may be grand, commanding, and estimable. antonyms: affable, easy, gentle, lenient, pliable, sweet, tractable, bland, genial, indulgent, mild, soft, tender, yielding. * * * * * shake. synonyms: agitate, jar, quake, shiver, totter, brandish, joggle, quaver, shudder, tremble, flap, jolt, quiver, sway, vibrate, fluctuate, jounce, reel, swing, wave, flutter, oscillate, rock, thrill, waver. a thing is _shaken_ which is subjected to short and abruptly checked movements, as forward and backward, up and down, from side to side, etc. a tree is "_shaken_ with a mighty wind;" a man slowly _shakes_ his head. a thing _rocks_ that is sustained from below; it _swings_ if suspended from above, as a pendulum, or pivoted at the side, as a crane or a bridge-draw; to _oscillate_ is to _swing_ with a smooth and regular returning motion; a _vibrating_ motion may be tremulous or _jarring_. the pendulum of a clock may be said to _swing_, _vibrate_, or _oscillate_; a steel bridge _vibrates_ under the passage of a heavy train; the term _vibrate_ is also applied to molecular movements. _jolting_ is a lifting from and letting down suddenly upon an unyielding surface; as, a carriage _jolts_ over a rough road. a _jarring_ motion is abruptly and very rapidly repeated through an exceedingly limited space; the _jolting_ of the carriage _jars_ the windows. _rattling_ refers directly to the sound produced by _shaking_. to _joggle_ is to _shake_ slightly; as, a passing touch _joggles_ the desk on which one is writing. a thing _trembles_ that _shakes_ perceptibly and with an appearance of uncertainty and instability, as a person under the influence of fear; a thing _shivers_ when all its particles are stirred with a slight but pervading tremulous motion, as a human body under the influence of cold; _shuddering_ is a more pronounced movement of a similar kind, in human beings often the effect of emotional or moral recoil; hence, the word is applied by extension to such feelings even when they have no such outward manifestation; as, one says, "i _shudder_ at the thought." to _quiver_ is to have slight and often spasmodic contractile motions, as the flesh under the surgeon's knife. _thrill_ is applied to a pervasive movement felt rather than seen; as, the nerves _thrill_ with delight; _quiver_ is similarly used, but suggests somewhat more of outward manifestation. to _agitate_ in its literal use is nearly the same as to _shake_, tho we speak of the sea as _agitated_ when we could not say it is _shaken_; the latin _agitate_ is preferred in scientific or technical use to the saxon _shake_, and especially as applied to the action of mechanical contrivances; in the metaphorical use _agitate_ is more transitory and superficial, _shake_ more fundamental and enduring; a person's feelings are _agitated_ by distressing news; his courage, his faith, his credit, or his testimony is _shaken_. _sway_ applies to the movement of a body suspended from above or not firmly sustained from below, and the motion of which is less pronounced than _swinging_, smoother than _vibrating_, and not necessarily constant as _oscillating_; as, the _swaying_ of a reed in the wind. _sway_ used transitively especially applies to motions of grace or dignity; _brandish_ denotes a threatening or hostile motion; a monarch _sways_ the scepter; the ruffian _brandishes_ a club. to _reel_ or _totter_ always implies liability to fall; _reeling_ is more violent than _swaying_, _tottering_ more irregular; a drunken man _reels_; we speak of the _tottering_ step of age or infancy. an extended mass which seems to lack solidity or cohesion is said to _quake_; as, a _quaking_ bog. _quaver_ is applied almost exclusively to tremulous sounds of the human voice. _flap_, _flutter_, and _fluctuate_ refer to wave-like movements, _flap_ generally to such as produce a sharp sound; a cock _flaps_ his wings; _flutter_ applies to a less pronounced and more irregular motion; a captive bird or a feeble pulse _flutters_. compare fluctuate. * * * * * shelter. synonyms: cover, guard, protect, shield, defend, harbor, screen, ward. anything is _covered_ over which something is completely extended; a vessel is _covered_ with a lid; the head is _covered_ with a hat. that which _covers_ may also _defend_ or _protect_; thus, troops interposed between some portion of their own army and the enemy are often called a _covering_ party. to _shelter_ is to _cover_ so as to _protect_ from injury or annoyance; as, the roof _shelters_ from the storm; woods _shelter_ from the heat. to _defend_ (l. _defendere_, to strike away) implies the actual, _protect_ (l. _protegere_, to cover before) implies the possible use of force or resisting power; _guard_ implies sustained vigilance with readiness for conflict; we _defend_ a person or thing against actual attack; we _guard_ or _protect_ against possible assault or injury. a powerful person may _protect_ one who is weak by simply declaring himself his friend; he _defends_ him by some form of active championship. an inanimate object may _protect_, as a garment from cold; _defend_ is used but rarely, and by somewhat violent metaphor, in such connection. _protect_ is more complete than _guard_ or _defend_; an object may be faithfully _guarded_ or bravely _defended_ in vain, but that which is _protected_ is secure. to _shield_ is to interpose something over or before that which is assailed, so as to save from harm, and has a comparatively passive sense; one may _guard_ another by standing armed at his side, _defend_ him by fighting for him, or _shield_ him from a missile or a blow by interposing his own person. _harbor_ is generally used in an unfavorable sense; confederates or sympathizers _harbor_ a criminal; a person _harbors_ evil thoughts or designs. see cherish. compare synonyms for hide; defense. antonyms: betray, expel, expose, give up, refuse, reject, surrender. cast out, prepositions: shelter _under_ a roof _from_ the storm; _in_ the fortress, _behind_ or _within_ the walls, _from_ attack. * * * * * sign. synonyms: emblem, mark, presage, symbol, token, indication, note, prognostic, symptom, type. manifestation, omen, signal, a _sign_ (l. _signum_) is any distinctive _mark_ by which a thing may be recognized or its presence known, and may be intentional or accidental, natural or artificial, suggestive, descriptive, or wholly arbitrary; thus, a blush may be a _sign_ of shame; the footprint of an animal is a _sign_ that it has passed; the _sign_ of a business house now usually declares what is done or kept within, but formerly might be an object having no connection with the business, as "the _sign_ of the trout;" the letters of the alphabet are _signs_ of certain sounds. while a _sign_ may be involuntary, and even unconscious, a _signal_ is always voluntary, and is usually concerted; a ship may show _signs_ of distress to the casual observer, but _signals_ of distress are a distinct appeal for aid. a _symptom_ is a vital phenomenon resulting from a diseased condition; in medical language a _sign_ is an _indication_ of any physical condition, whether morbid or healthy; thus, a hot skin and rapid pulse are _symptoms_ of pneumonia; dulness of some portion of the lungs under percussion is one of the physical _signs_. compare augur; characteristic; emblem. * * * * * sin. synonyms: crime, fault, misdeed, vice, criminality, guilt, offense, viciousness, delinquency, ill-doing, transgression, wickedness, depravity, immorality, ungodliness, wrong, evil, iniquity, unrighteousness, wrong-doing. _sin_ is any lack of holiness, any defect of moral purity and truth, whether in heart or life, whether of commission or omission. "all _unrighteousness_ is _sin_," _ john_ v, . _transgression_, as its etymology indicates, is the stepping over a specific enactment, whether of god or man, ordinarily by overt act, but in the broadest sense, in volition or desire. _sin_ may be either act or state; _transgression_ is always an act, mental or physical. _crime_ is often used for a flagrant violation of right, but in the technical sense denotes specific violation of human law. _guilt_ is desert of and exposure to punishment because of _sin_. _depravity_ denotes not any action, but a perverted moral condition from which any act of _sin_ may proceed. _sin_ in the generic sense, as denoting a state of heart, is synonymous with _depravity_; in the specific sense, as in the expression a _sin_, the term may be synonymous with _transgression_, _crime_, _offense_, _misdeed_, etc., or may denote some moral activity that could not be characterized by terms so positive. _immorality_ denotes outward violation of the moral law. _sin_ is thus the broadest word, and _immorality_ next in scope; all _crimes_, properly so called, and all _immoralities_, are _sins_; but there may be _sin_, as ingratitude, which is neither _crime_, _transgression_, nor _immorality_; and there may be _immorality_ which is not _crime_, as falsehood. compare criminal. antonyms: blamelessness, goodness, integrity, rectitude, sinlessness, excellence, holiness, morality, right, uprightness, godliness, innocence, purity, righteousness, virtue. compare synonyms for virtue. * * * * * sing. synonyms: carol, chant, chirp, chirrup, hum, warble. to _sing_ is primarily and ordinarily to utter a succession of articulate musical sounds with the human voice. the word has come to include any succession of musical sounds; we say the bird or the rivulet _sings_; we speak of "the _singing_ quality" of an instrument, and by still wider extension of meaning we say the teakettle or the cricket _sings_. to _chant_ is to _sing_ in solemn and somewhat uniform cadence; _chant_ is ordinarily applied to non-metrical religious compositions. to _carol_ is to _sing_ joyously, and to _warble_ (kindred with _whirl_) is to _sing_ with trills or quavers, usually also with the idea of joy. _carol_ and _warble_ are especially applied to the _singing_ of birds. to _chirp_ is to utter a brief musical sound, perhaps often repeated in the same key, as by certain small birds, insects, etc. to _chirrup_ is to utter a somewhat similar sound; the word is often used of a brief, sharp sound uttered as a signal to animate or rouse a horse or other animal. to _hum_ is to utter murmuring sounds with somewhat monotonous musical cadence, usually with closed lips; we speak also of the _hum_ of machinery, etc. * * * * * skeptic. synonyms: agnostic, deist, doubter, infidel, unbeliever. atheist, disbeliever, freethinker, the _skeptic_ doubts divine revelation; the _disbeliever_ and the _unbeliever_ reject it, the _disbeliever_ with more of intellectual dissent, the _unbeliever_ (in the common acceptation) with indifference or with opposition of heart as well as of intellect. _infidel_ is an opprobrious term that might once almost have been said to be geographical in its range. the crusaders called all mohammedans _infidels_, and were so called by them in return; the word is commonly applied to any decided opponent of an accepted religion. the _atheist_ denies that there is a god; the _deist_ admits the existence of god, but denies that the christian scriptures are a revelation from him; the _agnostic_ denies either that we do know or that we can know whether there is a god. antonyms: believer, christian. * * * * * sketch. synonyms: brief, draft, outline, plan, design, drawing, picture, skeleton. a _sketch_ is a rough, suggestive presentation of anything, whether graphic or literary, commonly intended to be preliminary to a more complete or extended treatment. an _outline_ gives only the bounding or determining lines of a figure or a scene; a _sketch_ may give not only lines, but shading and color, but is hasty and incomplete. the lines of a _sketch_ are seldom so full and continuous as those of an _outline_, being, like the shading or color, little more than indications or suggestions according to which a finished _picture_ may be made; the artist's first representation of a sunset, the hues of which change so rapidly, must of necessity be a _sketch_. _draft_ and _plan_ apply especially to mechanical drawing, of which _outline_, _sketch_, and _drawing_ are also used; a _plan_ is strictly a view from above, as of a building or machine, giving the lines of a horizontal section, originally at the level of the ground, now in a wider sense at any height; as, a _plan_ of the cellar; a _plan_ of the attic. a mechanical _drawing_ is always understood to be in full detail; a _draft_ is an incomplete or unfinished _drawing_; a _design_ is such a preliminary _sketch_ as indicates the object to be accomplished or the result to be attained, and is understood to be original. one may make a _drawing_ of any well-known mechanism, or a _drawing_ from another man's _design_; but if he says, "the _design_ is mine," he claims it as his own invention or composition. in written composition an _outline_ gives simply the main divisions, and in the case of a sermon is often called a _skeleton_; a somewhat fuller suggestion of illustration, treatment, and style is given in a _sketch_. a lawyer's _brief_ is a succinct statement of the main facts involved in a case, and of the main heads of his argument on points of law, with reference to authorities cited; the _brief_ has none of the vagueness of a _sketch_, being sufficiently exact and complete to form, on occasion, the basis for the decision of the court without oral argument, when the case is said to be "submitted on _brief_." compare design. * * * * * skilful. synonyms: accomplished, apt, dexterous, happy, proficient, adept, clever, expert, ingenious, skilled, adroit, deft, handy, practised, trained. _skilful_ signifies possessing and using readily practical knowledge and ability, having alert and well-trained faculties with reference to a given work. one is _adept_ in that for which he has a natural gift improved by practise; he is _expert_ in that of which training, experience, and study have given him a thorough mastery; he is _dexterous_ in that which he can do effectively, with or without training, especially in work of the hand or bodily activities. in the case of the noun, "an expert" denotes one who is "experienced" in the fullest sense, a master of his branch of knowledge. a _skilled_ workman is one who has thoroughly learned his trade, though he may be naturally quite dull; a _skilful_ workman has some natural brightness, ability, and power of adaptation, in addition to his acquired knowledge and dexterity. compare clever; dexterity; power. antonyms: awkward, clumsy, inexpert, shiftless, unskilled, untrained. bungling, helpless, maladroit, unhandy, untaught, prepositions: skilful _at_ or _in_ a work, _with_ a pen or tool of any kind. * * * * * slander. synonyms: asperse, decry, disparage, revile, backbite, defame, libel, traduce, calumniate, depreciate, malign, vilify. to _slander_ a person is to utter a false and injurious report concerning him; to _defame_ is specifically and directly to attack one's reputation; to _defame_ by spoken words is to _slander_, by written words, to _libel_. to _asperse_ is, as it were, to bespatter with injurious charges; to _malign_ is to circulate studied and malicious attacks upon character; to _traduce_ is to exhibit one's real or assumed traits in an odious light; to _revile_ or _vilify_ is to attack with vile abuse. to _disparage_ is to represent one's admitted good traits or acts as less praiseworthy than they would naturally be thought to be, as for instance, by ascribing a man's benevolence to a desire for popularity or display. to _libel_ or _slander_ is to make an assault upon character and repute that comes within the scope of law; the _slander_ is uttered, the _libel_ written, printed, or pictured. to _backbite_ is to speak something secretly to one's injury; to _calumniate_ is to invent as well as utter the injurious charge. one may "abuse," "assail," or _vilify_ another to his face; he _asperses_, _calumniates_, _slanders_, or _traduces_ him behind his back. antonyms: defend, eulogize, extol, laud, praise, vindicate. * * * * * slang. synonyms: cant, colloquialism, vulgarism, vulgarity. a _colloquialism_ is an expression not coarse or low, and perhaps not incorrect, but below the literary grade; educated persons are apt to allow themselves some _colloquialisms_ in familiar conversation, which they would avoid in writing or public speaking. _slang_, in the primary sense, denotes expressions that are either coarse and rude in themselves or chiefly current among the coarser and ruder part of the community; there are also many expressions current in special senses in certain communities that may be characterized as _slang_; as, college _slang_; club _slang_; racing _slang_. in the evolution of language many words originally _slang_ are adopted by good writers and speakers, and ultimately take their place as accepted english. a _vulgarism_ is an expression decidedly incorrect, and the use of which is a mark of ignorance or low breeding. _cant_, as used in this connection, denotes the barbarous jargon used as a secret language by thieves, tramps, etc. compare diction; language. * * * * * slow. synonyms: dawdling, dilatory, gradual, lingering, slack, delaying, drowsy, inactive, moderate, sluggish, deliberate, dull, inert, procrastinating, tardy. _slow_ signifies moving through a relatively short distance, or with a relatively small number of motions in a given time; _slow_ also applies to that which is a relatively long while in beginning or accomplishing something; a watch or a clock is said to be _slow_ when its indications are behind those of the standard time. _tardy_ is applied to that which is behind the proper or desired time, especially in doing a work or arriving at a place. _deliberate_ and _dilatory_ are used of persons, tho the latter may be used also of things, as of a stream; a person is _deliberate_ who takes a noticeably long time to consider and decide before acting or who acts or speaks as if he were deliberating at every point; a person is _dilatory_ who lays aside, or puts off as long as possible, necessary or required action; both words may be applied either to undertaking or to doing. _gradual_ (l. _gradus_, a step) signifies advancing by steps, and refers to _slow_ but regular and sure progression. _slack_ refers to action that seems to indicate a lack of tension, as of muscle or of will, _sluggish_ to action that seems as if reluctant to advance. antonyms: see synonyms for nimble. * * * * * sneer. synonyms: fling, gibe, jeer, mock, scoff, taunt. a _sneer_ may be simply a contemptuous facial contortion, or it may be some brief satirical utterance that throws a contemptuous side-light on what it attacks without attempting to prove or disprove; a depreciatory implication may be given in a _sneer_ such as could only be answered by elaborate argument or proof, which would seem to give the attack undue importance: who can refute a _sneer_? paley _moral philosophy_ bk. v, ch. ix. a _fling_ is careless and commonly pettish; a _taunt_ is intentionally insulting and provoking; the _sneer_ is supercilious; the _taunt_ is defiant. the _jeer_ and _gibe_ are uttered; the _gibe_ is bitter, and often sly or covert; the _jeer_ is rude and open. a _scoff_ may be in act or word, and is commonly directed against that which claims honor, reverence, or worship. compare banter. preposition: only an essentially vicious mind is capable of a sneer _at_ virtue. * * * * * socialism. synonyms: collectivism, communism, fabianism. _socialism_, as defined by its advocates, is a theory of civil polity that aims to secure the reconstruction of society, increase of wealth, and a more equal distribution of the products of labor through the public collective ownership of land and capital (as distinguished from property), and the public collective management of all industries. its aim is extended industrial cooperation; _socialism_ is a purely economic term, applying to landownership and productive capital. many socialists call themselves _collectivists_, and their system _collectivism_. _communism_ would divide all things, including the profits of individual labor, among members of the community; many of its advocates would abolish marriage and the family relation. _anarchism_ is properly an antonym of _socialism_, as it would destroy, by violence if necessary, all existing government and social order, leaving the future to determine what, if anything, should be raised upon their ruins. * * * * * sound. synonyms: noise, note, tone. _sound_ is the sensation produced through the organs of hearing or the physical cause of this sensation. _sound_ is the most comprehensive word of this group, applying to anything that is audible. _tone_ is _sound_ considered as having some musical quality or as expressive of some feeling; _noise_ is _sound_ considered without reference to musical quality or as distinctly unmusical or discordant. thus, in the most general sense _noise_ and _sound_ scarcely differ, and we say almost indifferently, "i heard a _sound_," or "i heard a _noise_." we speak of a fine, musical, or pleasing _sound_, but never thus of a _noise_. in music, _tone_ may denote either a musical _sound_ or the interval between two such _sounds_, but in the most careful usage the latter is now distinguished as the "interval," leaving _tone_ to stand only for the _sound_. _note_ in music strictly denotes the character representing a _sound_, but in loose popular usage it denotes the _sound_ also, and becomes practically equivalent to _tone_. aside from its musical use, _tone_ is chiefly applied to that quality of the human voice by which feeling is expressed; as, he spoke in a cheery _tone_; the word is similarly applied to the voices of birds and other animals, and sometimes to inanimate objects. as used of a musical instrument, _tone_ denotes the general quality of its sounds collectively considered. * * * * * speak. synonyms: announce, converse, discourse, say, articulate, declaim, enunciate, talk, chat, declare, express, tell, chatter, deliver, pronounce, utter. to _utter_ is to give forth as an audible sound, articulate or not. to _talk_ is to _utter_ a succession of connected words, ordinarily with the expectation of being listened to. to _speak_ is to give articulate utterance even to a single word; the officer _speaks_ the word of command, but does not _talk_ it. to _speak_ is also to _utter_ words with the ordinary intonation, as distinguished from singing. to _chat_ is ordinarily to _utter_ in a familiar, conversational way; to _chatter_ is to _talk_ in an empty, ceaseless way like a magpie. prepositions: speak _to_ (address) a person; speak _with_ a person (converse with him); speak _of_ or _about_ a thing (make it the subject of remark); speak _on_ or _upon_ a subject; in parliamentary language, speak _to_ the question. * * * * * speech. synonyms: address, dissertation, oration, speaking, discourse, harangue, oratory, talk, disquisition, language, sermon, utterance. _speech_ is the general word for _utterance_ of thought in _language_. a _speech_ may be the delivering of one's sentiments in the simplest way; an _oration_ is an elaborate and prepared _speech_; a _harangue_ is a vehement appeal to passion, or a _speech_ that has something disputatious and combative in it. a _discourse_ is a set _speech_ on a definite subject, intended to convey instruction. compare conversation; diction; language. antonyms: hush, silence, speechlessness, stillness, taciturnity. * * * * * spontaneous. synonyms: automatic, impulsive, involuntary, voluntary, free, instinctive, unbidden, willing. that is _spontaneous_ which is freely done, with no external compulsion and, in human actions, without special premeditation or distinct determination of the will; that is _voluntary_ which is freely done with distinct act of will; that is _involuntary_ which is independent of the will, and perhaps in opposition to it; a _willing_ act is not only in accordance with will, but with desire. thus _voluntary_ and _involuntary_, which are antonyms of each other, are both partial synonyms of _spontaneous_. we speak of _spontaneous_ generation, _spontaneous_ combustion, _spontaneous_ sympathy, an _involuntary_ start, an _unbidden_ tear, _voluntary_ agreement, _willing_ submission. a babe's smile in answer to that of its mother is _spontaneous_; the smile of a pouting child wheedled into good humor is _involuntary_. in physiology the action of the heart and lungs is called _involuntary_; the growth of the hair and nails is _spontaneous_; the action of swallowing is _voluntary_ up to a certain point, beyond which it becomes _involuntary_ or _automatic_. in the fullest sense of that which is not only without the will but distinctly in opposition to it, or compulsory, _involuntary_ becomes an antonym, not only of _voluntary_ but of _spontaneous_; as, _involuntary_ servitude. a _spontaneous_ outburst of applause is of necessity an act of volition, but so completely dependent on sympathetic impulse that it would seem frigid to call it _voluntary_, while to call it _involuntary_ would imply some previous purpose or inclination not to applaud. * * * * * spy. synonyms: detective, emissary, scout. the _scout_ and the _spy_ are both employed to obtain information of the numbers, movements, etc., of an enemy. the _scout_ lurks on the outskirts of the hostile army with such concealment as the case admits of, but without disguise; a _spy_ enters in disguise within the enemy's lines. a _scout_, if captured, has the rights of a prisoner of war; a _spy_ is held to have forfeited all rights, and is liable, in case of capture, to capital punishment. an _emissary_ is rather political than military; sent rather to secretly influence opponents than to bring information concerning them; so far as he does the latter, he is not only an _emissary_, but a _spy_. * * * * * stain. synonyms: blot, discolor, dishonor, soil, sully, tinge, color, disgrace, dye, spot, tarnish, tint. to _color_ is to impart a color desired or undesired, temporary or permanent, or, in the intransitive use, to assume a color in any way; as, he _colored_ with shame and vexation. to _dye_ is to impart a color intentionally and with a view to permanence, and especially so as to pervade the substance or fiber of that to which it is applied. to _stain_ is primarily to _discolor_, to impart a color undesired and perhaps unintended, and which may or may not be permanent. thus, a character "_dyed_ in the wool" is one that has received some early, permanent, and pervading influence; a character _stained_ with crime or guilt is debased and perverted. _stain_ is, however, used of giving an intended and perhaps pleasing color to wood, glass, etc., by an application of coloring-matter which enters the substance a little below the surface, in distinction from painting, in which coloring-matter is spread upon the surface; _dyeing_ is generally said of wool, yarn, cloth, or similar materials which are dipped into the _coloring_ liquid. figuratively, a standard or a garment may be _dyed_ with blood in honorable warfare; an assassin's weapon is _stained_ with the blood of his victim. to _tinge_ is to _color_ slightly, and may also be used of giving a slight flavor, or a slight admixture of one ingredient or quality with another that is more pronounced. * * * * * state. synonyms: affirm, aver, declare, predicate, set forth, allege, avouch, depose, pronounce, specify, assert, avow, express, propound, swear, asseverate, certify, inform, protest, tell, assure, claim, maintain, say, testify. to _state_ (l. _sto_, stand) is to _set forth_ explicitly, formally, or particularly in speech or writing. _assert_ (l. _ad_, to, and _sero_, bind) is strongly personal, signifying to _state_ boldly and positively what the one making the statement has not attempted and may not attempt to prove. _affirm_ has less of egotism than _assert_ (as seen in the word _self-assertion_), coming nearer to _aver_. it has more solemnity than _declare_, and more composure and dignity than _asseverate_, which is to _assert_ excitedly. in legal usage, _affirm_ has a general agreement with _depose_ and _testify_; it differs from _swear_ in not invoking the name of god. to _assure_ is to _state_ with such authority and confidence as the speaker feels ought to make the hearer sure. _certify_ is more formal, and applies rather to written documents or legal processes. _assure_, _certify_, _inform_, apply to the person; _affirm_, etc., to the thing. _assert_ is combative; _assure_ is conciliatory. i _assert_ my right to cross the river; i _assure_ my friend it is perfectly safe. to _aver_ is to _state_ positively what is within one's own knowledge or matter of deep conviction. one may _assert_ himself, or _assert_ his right to what he is willing to contend for; or he may _assert_ in discussion what he is ready to maintain by argument or evidence. to _assert_ without proof is always to lay oneself open to the suspicion of having no proof to offer, and seems to arrogate too much to one's personal authority, and hence in such cases both the verb _assert_ and its noun _assertion_ have an unfavorable sense; we say a mere _assertion_, a bare _assertion_, his unsupported _assertion_; he _asserted_ his innocence has less force than he _affirmed_ or _maintained_ his innocence. _affirm_, _state_, and _tell_ have not the controversial sense of _assert_, but are simply declarative. to _vindicate_ is to defend successfully what is assailed. almost every criminal will _assert_ his innocence; the honest man will seldom lack means to _vindicate_ his integrity. antonyms: contradict, controvert, disprove, gainsay, refute, retract, contravene, deny, dispute, oppose, repudiate, waive. * * * * * steep. synonyms: abrupt, high, precipitous, sharp, sheer. _high_ is used of simple elevation; _steep_ is said only of an incline where the vertical measurement is sufficiently great in proportion to the horizontal to make it difficult of ascent. _steep_ is relative; an ascent of feet to the mile on a railway is a _steep_ grade; a rise of feet to the mile makes a _steep_ wagon-road; a roof is _steep_ when it makes with the horizontal line an angle of more than °. a _high_ mountain may be climbed by a winding road nowhere _steep_, while a little hill may be accessible only by a _steep_ path. a _sharp_ ascent or descent is one that makes a sudden, decided angle with the plane from which it starts; a _sheer_ ascent or descent is perpendicular, or nearly so; _precipitous_ applies to that which is of the nature of a precipice, and is used especially of a descent; _abrupt_ is as if broken sharply off, and applies to either acclivity or declivity. compare high. antonyms: easy, flat, gentle, gradual, horizontal, level, low, slight. * * * * * storm. synonyms: agitation, disturbance, tempest. a _storm_ is properly a _disturbance_ of the atmosphere, with or without rain, snow, hail, or thunder and lightning. thus we have rain-_storm_, snow-_storm_, etc., and by extension, magnetic _storm_. a _tempest_ is a _storm_ of extreme violence, always attended with some precipitation, as of rain, from the atmosphere. in the moral and figurative use, _storm_ and _tempest_ are not closely discriminated, except that _tempest_ commonly implies greater intensity. we speak of _agitation_ of feeling, _disturbance_ of mind, a _storm_ of passion, a _tempest_ of rage. antonyms: calm, fair weather, hush, peace, serenity, stillness, tranquillity. * * * * * story. synonyms: account, legend, narrative, recital, relation, anecdote, myth, novel, record, tale. incident, narration, a _story_ is the telling of some series of connected incidents or events, whether real or fictitious, in prose or verse, orally or in writing; or the series of incidents or events thus related may be termed a _story_. in children's talk, a _story_ is a common euphemism for a falsehood. _tale_ is nearly synonymous with _story_, but is somewhat archaic; it is used for an imaginative, legendary, or fictitious _recital_, especially if of ancient date; as, a fairy _tale_; also, for an idle or malicious report; as, do not tell _tales_; "where there is no _tale_-bearer, the strife ceaseth." _prov._ xxvi, . an _anecdote_ tells briefly some _incident_, assumed to be fact. if it passes close limits of brevity, it ceases to be an _anecdote_, and becomes a _narrative_ or _narration_. a traditional or mythical _story_ of ancient times is a _legend_. a history is often somewhat poetically called a _story_; as, the _story_ of the american civil war. compare allegory; fiction; history. antonyms: annals, biography, chronicle, history, memoir. * * * * * stupidity. synonyms: apathy, insensibility, slowness, stupefaction, dulness, obtuseness, sluggishness, stupor. _stupidity_ is sometimes loosely used for temporary _dulness_ or partial _stupor_, but chiefly for innate and chronic _dulness_ and _sluggishness_ of mental action, _obtuseness_ of apprehension, etc. _apathy_ may be temporary, and be dispelled by appeal to the feelings or by the presentation of an adequate motive, but _stupidity_ is inveterate and commonly incurable. compare apathy; idiocy; stupor. antonyms: acuteness, brilliancy, keenness, sagacity, alertness, cleverness, quickness, sense, animation, intelligence, readiness, sensibility. * * * * * stupor. synonyms: apathy, fainting, stupefaction, syncope, asphyxia, insensibility, swoon, torpor, coma, lethargy, swooning, unconsciousness. _stupor_ is a condition of the body in which the action of the senses and faculties is suspended or greatly dulled--weakness or loss of sensibility. the _apathy_ of disease is a mental affection, a state of morbid indifference; _lethargy_ is a morbid tendency to heavy and continued sleep, from which the patient may perhaps be momentarily aroused. _coma_ is a deep, abnormal sleep, from which the patient can not be aroused, or is aroused only with difficulty, a state of profound _insensibility_, perhaps with full pulse and deep, stertorous breathing, and is due to brain-oppression. _syncope_ or _swooning_ is a sudden loss of sensation and of power of motion, with suspension of pulse and of respiration, and is due to failure of heart-action, as from sudden nervous shock or intense mental emotion. _insensibility_ is a general term denoting loss of feeling from any cause, as from cold, intoxication, or injury. _stupor_ is especially profound and confirmed _insensibility_, properly comatose. _asphyxia_ is a special form of _syncope_ resulting from partial or total suspension of respiration, as in strangulation, drowning, or inhalation of noxious gases. * * * * * subjective. synonym: objective. _subjective_ and _objective_ are synonyms in but one point of view, being, for the most part, strictly antonyms. _subjective_ signifies relating to the subject of mental states, that is, to the person who experiences them; _objective_ signifies relating to the object of mental states, that is, to something outside the perceiving mind; in brief phrase it may be said that _subjective_ relates to something within the mind, _objective_ to something without. a mountain, as a mass of a certain size, contour, color, etc., is an _objective_ fact; the impression our mind receives, the mental picture it forms of the mountain, is _subjective_. but this _subjective_ impression may become itself the object of thought (called "subject-object"), as when we compare our mental picture of the mountain with our idea of a plain or river. the direct experiences of the soul, as joy, grief, hope, fear, are purely _subjective_; the outward causes of these experiences, as prosperity, bereavement, disappointment, are _objective_. that which has independent existence or authority apart from our experience or thought is said to have _objective_ existence or authority; thus we speak of the _objective_ authority of the moral law. different individuals may receive different _subjective_ impressions from the same _objective_ fact, that which to one is a cause of hope being to another a cause of fear, etc. the style of a writer is called _objective_ when it derives its materials mainly from or reaches out toward external objects; it is called _subjective_ when it derives its materials mainly from or constantly tends to revert to the personal experience of the author. compare inherent. * * * * * subsidy. synonyms: aid, bounty, indemnity, reward, support, allowance, gift, pension, subvention, tribute. bonus, grant, premium, a _subsidy_ is pecuniary aid directly granted by government to an individual or commercial enterprise, or money furnished by one nation to another to aid it in carrying on war against a common enemy. a nation grants a _subsidy_ to an ally, pays a _tribute_ to a conqueror. an _indemnity_ is in the nature of things limited and temporary, while a _tribute_ might be exacted indefinitely. a nation may also grant a _subsidy_ to its own citizens as a means of promoting the public welfare; as, a _subsidy_ to a steamship company. the somewhat rare term _subvention_ is especially applied to a _grant_ of governmental aid to a literary or artistic enterprise. governmental _aid_ to a commercial or industrial enterprise other than a transportation company is more frequently called a _bounty_ than a _subsidy_; as, the sugar _bounty_. the word _bounty_ may be applied to almost any regular or stipulated _allowance_ by a government to a citizen or citizens; as, a _bounty_ for enlisting in the army; a _bounty_ for killing wolves. a _bounty_ is offered for something to be done; a _pension_ is granted for something that has been done. * * * * * subvert. synonyms: destroy, overthrow, ruin, supplant, extinguish, overturn, supersede, suppress. to _subvert_ is to overthrow from or as from the very foundation; utterly destroy; bring to ruin. the word is now generally figurative, as of moral or political ruin. to _supersede_ implies the putting of something that is wisely or unwisely preferred in the place of that which is removed; to _subvert_ does not imply substitution. to _supplant_ is more often personal, signifying to take the place of another, usually by underhanded means; one is _superseded_ by authority, _supplanted_ by a rival. compare abolish. antonyms: conserve, keep, perpetuate, preserve, sustain, uphold. * * * * * succeed. synonyms: achieve, attain, flourish, prevail, prosper, thrive, win. a person _succeeds_ when he accomplishes what he attempts, or _attains_ a desired object or result; an enterprise or undertaking _succeeds_ that has a prosperous result. to _win_ implies that some one loses, but one may _succeed_ where no one fails. a solitary swimmer _succeeds_ in reaching the shore; if we say he _wins_ the shore we contrast him with himself as a possible loser. many students may _succeed_ in study; a few _win_ the special prizes, for which all compete. compare follow. antonyms: be defeated, come short, fail, fall short, lose, miss, miscarry. * * * * * suggestion. synonyms: hint, implication, innuendo, insinuation, intimation. a _suggestion_ (l. _sub_, under, and _gero_, bring) brings something before the mind less directly than by formal or explicit statement, as by a partial statement, an incidental allusion, an illustration, a question, or the like. _suggestion_ is often used of an unobtrusive statement of one's views or wishes to another, leaving consideration and any consequent action entirely to his judgment, and is hence, in many cases, the most respectful way in which one can convey his views to a superior or a stranger. a _suggestion_ may be given unintentionally, and even unconsciously, as when we say an author has "a _suggestive_ style." an _intimation_ is a _suggestion_ in brief utterance, or sometimes by significant act, gesture, or token, of one's meaning or wishes; in the latter case it is often the act of a superior; as, god in his providence gives us _intimations_ of his will. a _hint_ is still more limited in expression, and is always covert, but frequently with good intent; as, to give one a _hint_ of danger or of opportunity. _insinuation_ and _innuendo_ are used in the bad sense; an _insinuation_ is a covert or partly veiled injurious utterance, sometimes to the very person attacked; an _innuendo_ is commonly secret as well as sly, as if pointing one out by a significant nod (l. _in_, in, to, and _nuo_, nod). * * * * * supernatural. synonyms: miraculous, preternatural, superhuman. the _supernatural_ (_super_, above) is above or superior to the recognized powers of nature; the _preternatural_ (_preter_, beyond) is aside from or beyond the recognized results or operations of natural law, often in the sense of inauspicious; as, a _preternatural_ gloom. _miraculous_ is more emphatic and specific than _supernatural_, as referring to the direct personal intervention of divine power. some hold that a miracle, as the raising of the dead, is a direct suspension and even violation of natural laws by the fiat of the creator, and hence is, in the strictest sense, _supernatural_; others hold that the miracle is simply the calling forth of a power residing in the laws of nature, but not within their ordinary operation, and dependent on a distinct act of god, so that the _miraculous_ might be termed "extranatural," rather than _supernatural_. all that is beyond human power is _superhuman_; as, prophecy gives evidence of _superhuman_ knowledge; the word is sometimes applied to remarkable manifestations of human power, surpassing all that is ordinary. antonyms: common, commonplace, everyday, natural, ordinary, usual. * * * * * support. synonyms: bear, cherish, keep, maintain, sustain, carry, hold up, keep up, prop, uphold. _support_ and _sustain_ alike signify to _hold up_ or _keep up_, to prevent from falling or sinking; but _sustain_ has a special sense of continuous exertion or of great strength continuously exerted, as when we speak of _sustained_ endeavor or a _sustained_ note; a flower is _supported_ by the stem or a temple-roof by arches; the foundations of a great building _sustain_ an enormous pressure; to _sustain_ life implies a greater exigency and need than to _support_ life; to say one is _sustained_ under affliction is to say more both of the severity of the trial and the completeness of the _upholding_ than if we say he is _supported_. to _bear_ is the most general word, denoting all _holding up_ or _keeping up_ of any object, whether in rest or motion; in the derived senses it refers to something that is a tax upon strength or endurance; as, to _bear_ a strain; to _bear_ pain or grief. to _maintain_ is to _keep_ in a state or condition, especially in an excellent and desirable condition; as, to _maintain_ health or reputation; to _maintain_ one's position; to _maintain_ a cause or proposition is to hold it against opposition or difficulty. to _support_ may be partial, to _maintain_ is complete; _maintain_ is a word of more dignity than _support_; a man _supports_ his family; a state _maintains_ an army or navy. to _prop_ is always partial, signifying to add _support_ to something that is insecure. compare abet; endure; keep. antonyms: abandon, break down, demolish, destroy, let go, throw down, betray, cast down, desert, drop, overthrow, wreck. prepositions: the roof is supported _by_, _on_, or _upon_ pillars; the family was supported _on_ or _upon_ a pittance, or _by_ charity. * * * * * suppose. synonyms: conjecture, deem, guess, imagine, surmise, think. to _suppose_ is temporarily to assume a thing as true, either with the expectation of finding it so or for the purpose of ascertaining what would follow if it were so. to _suppose_ is also to think a thing to be true while aware or conceding that the belief does not rest upon any sure ground, and may not accord with fact; or yet again, to _suppose_ is to imply as true or involved as a necessary inference; as, design _supposes_ the existence of a designer. to _conjecture_ is to put together the nearest available materials for a provisional opinion, always with some expectation of finding the facts to be as _conjectured_. to _imagine_ is to form a mental image of something as existing, tho its actual existence may be unknown, or even impossible. to _think_, in this application, is to hold as the result of thought what is admitted not to be matter of exact or certain knowledge; as, i do not know, but i _think_ this to be the fact: a more conclusive statement than would be made by the use of _conjecture_ or _suppose_. compare doubt; hypothesis. antonyms: ascertain, be sure, conclude, discover, know, prove. * * * * * surrender. synonyms: abandon, cede, give over, relinquish, alienate, give, give up, sacrifice, capitulate, give oneself up, let go, yield. to _surrender_ is to _give up_ upon compulsion, as to an enemy in war, hence to _give up_ to any person, passion, influence, or power. to _yield_ is to give place or give way under pressure, and hence under compulsion. _yield_ implies more softness or concession than _surrender_; the most determined men may _surrender_ to overwhelming force; when one _yields_, his spirit is at least somewhat subdued. a monarch or a state _cedes_ territory perhaps for a consideration; _surrenders_ an army, a navy, or a fortified place to a conqueror; a military commander _abandons_ an untenable position or unavailable stores. we _sacrifice_ something precious through error, friendship, or duty, _yield_ to convincing reasons, a stronger will, winsome persuasion, or superior force. compare abandon. * * * * * synonymous. synonyms: alike, equivalent, like, similar, correspondent, identical, same, synonymic. corresponding, interchangeable, _synonymous_ (gr. _syn_, together, and _onyma_, name) strictly signifies being _interchangeable_ names for the same thing, or being one of two or more _interchangeable_ names for the same thing; to say that two words are _synonymous_ is strictly to say they are _alike_, _equivalent_, _identical_, or the _same_ in meaning; but the use of _synonymous_ in this strict sense is somewhat rare, and rather with reference to statements than to words. to say that we are morally developed is _synonymous_ with saying that we have reaped what some one has suffered for us. h. w. beecher _royal truths_ p. . [t. & f. ' .] in the strictest sense, _synonymous_ words scarcely exist; rarely, if ever, are any two words in any language _equivalent_ or _identical_ in meaning; where a difference in meaning can not easily be shown, a difference in usage commonly exists, so that the words are not _interchangeable_. by _synonymous_ words (or _synonyms_) we usually understand words that coincide or nearly coincide in some part of their meaning, and may hence within certain limits be used interchangeably, while outside of those limits they may differ very greatly in meaning and use. it is the office of a work on synonyms to point out these correspondences and differences, that language may have the flexibility that comes from freedom of selection within the common limits, with the perspicuity and precision that result from exact choice of the fittest words to express each shade of meaning outside of the common limits. to consider _synonymous_ words _identical_ is fatal to accuracy; to forget that they are _similar_, to some extent _equivalent_, and sometimes _interchangeable_, is destructive of freedom and variety. * * * * * system. synonyms: manner, method, mode, order, regularity, rule. _order_ in this connection denotes the fact or result of proper arrangement according to the due relation or sequence of the matters arranged; as, these papers are in _order_; in alphabetical _order_. _method_ denotes a process, a general or established way of doing or proceeding in anything; _rule_, an authoritative requirement or an established course of things; _system_, not merely a law of action or procedure, but a comprehensive plan in which all the parts are related to each other and to the whole; as, a _system_ of theology; a railroad _system_; the digestive _system_; _manner_ refers to the external qualities of actions, and to those often as settled and characteristic; we speak of a _system_ of taxation, a _method_ of collecting taxes, the _rules_ by which assessments are made; or we say, as a _rule_ the payments are heaviest at a certain time of year; a just tax may be made odious by the _manner_ of its collection. _regularity_ applies to the even disposition of objects or uniform recurrence of acts in a series. there may be _regularity_ without _order_, as in the recurrence of paroxysms of disease or insanity; there may be _order_ without _regularity_, as in the arrangement of furniture in a room, where the objects are placed at varying distances. _order_ commonly implies the design of an intelligent agent or the appearance or suggestion of such design; _regularity_ applies to an actual uniform disposition or recurrence with no suggestion of purpose, and as applied to human affairs is less intelligent and more mechanical than _order_. the most perfect _order_ is often secured with least _regularity_, as in a fine essay or oration. the same may be said of _system_. there is a _regularity_ of dividing a treatise into topics, paragraphs, and sentences, that is destructive of true rhetorical _system_. compare habit; hypothesis. antonyms: chaos, derangement, disarrangement, disorder, irregularity. confusion, * * * * * taciturn. synonyms: close, mute, reticent, speechless, dumb, reserved, silent, uncommunicative. _dumb_, _mute_, _silent_ and _speechless_ refer to fact or state; _taciturn_ refers to habit and disposition. the talkative person may be stricken _dumb_ with surprise or terror; the obstinate may remain _mute_; one may be _silent_ through preoccupation of mind or of set purpose; but the _taciturn_ person is averse to the utterance of thought or feeling and to communication with others, either from natural disposition or for the occasion. one who is _silent_ does not speak at all; one who is _taciturn_ speaks when compelled, but in a grudging way that repels further approach. _reserved_ suggests more of method and intention than _taciturn_, applying often to some special time or topic; one who is communicative regarding all else may be _reserved_ about his business. _reserved_ is thus closely equivalent to _uncommunicative_, but is a somewhat stronger word, often suggesting pride or haughtiness, as when we say one is _reserved_ toward inferiors. compare pride. antonyms: communicative, free, garrulous, loquacious, talkative, unreserved. * * * * * tasteful. synonyms: artistic, delicate, esthetic, fastidious, nice, chaste, delicious, esthetical, fine, tasty. dainty, elegant, exquisite, _elegant_ (l. _elegans_, select) refers to that assemblage of qualities which makes anything choice to persons of culture and refinement; it refers to the lighter, finer elements of beauty in form or motion, especially denoting that which exhibits faultless taste and perfection of finish. that which is _elegant_ is made so not merely by nature, but by art and culture; a woodland dell may be beautiful or picturesque, but would not ordinarily be termed _elegant_. _tasteful_ refers to that in which the element of taste is more prominent, standing, as it were, more by itself, while in _elegant_ it is blended as part of the whole. _tasty_ is an inferior word, used colloquially in a similar sense. _chaste_ (primarily _pure_), denotes in literature and art that which is true to the higher and finer feelings and free from all excess or meretricious ornament. _dainty_ and _delicate_ refer to the lighter and finer elements of taste and beauty, _dainty_ tending in personal use to an excessive scrupulousness which is more fully expressed by _fastidious_. _nice_ and _delicate_ both refer to exact adaptation to some standard; the bar of a balance can be said to be nicely or delicately poised; as regards matters of taste and beauty, _delicate_ is a higher and more discriminating word than _nice_, and is always used in a favorable sense; a _delicate_ distinction is one worth observing; a _nice_ distinction may be so, or may be overstrained and unduly subtle; _fine_ in such use, is closely similar to _delicate_ and _nice_, but (tho capable of an unfavorable sense) has commonly a suggestion of positive excellence or admirableness; a _fine_ touch does something; _fine_ perceptions are to some purpose; _delicate_ is capable of the single unfavorable sense of frail or fragile; as, a _delicate_ constitution. _esthetic_ or _esthetical_ refers to beauty or the appreciation of the beautiful, especially from the philosophic point of view. _exquisite_ denotes the utmost perfection of the _elegant_ in minute details; we speak of an _elegant_ garment, an _exquisite_ lace. _exquisite_ is also applied to intense keenness of any feeling; as, _exquisite_ delight; _exquisite_ pain. see beautiful; delicious; fine. antonyms: clumsy, displeasing, grotesque, inartistic, rough, coarse, distasteful, harsh, inharmonious, rude, deformed, fulsome, hideous, meretricious, rugged, disgusting, gaudy, horrid, offensive, tawdry. * * * * * teach. synonyms: discipline, give instruction, inform, nurture, drill, give lessons, initiate, school, educate, inculcate, instill, train, enlighten, indoctrinate, instruct, tutor. to _teach_ is simply to communicate knowledge; to _instruct_ (originally, to build in or into, put in order) is to impart knowledge with special method and completeness; _instruct_ has also an authoritative sense nearly equivalent to command. to _educate_ is to draw out or develop harmoniously the mental powers, and, in the fullest sense, the moral powers as well. to _train_ is to direct to a certain result powers already existing. _train_ is used in preference to _educate_ when the reference is to the inferior animals or to the physical powers of man; as, to _train_ a horse; to _train_ the hand or eye. to _discipline_ is to bring into habitual and complete subjection to authority; _discipline_ is a severe word, and is often used as a euphemism for _punish_; to be thoroughly effective in war, soldiers must be _disciplined_ as well as _trained_. to _nurture_ is to furnish the care and sustenance necessary for physical, mental, and moral growth; _nurture_ is a more tender and homelike word than _educate_. compare education. * * * * * temerity. synonyms: audacity, heedlessness, presumption, foolhardiness, over-confidence, rashness, hardihood, precipitancy, recklessness, hastiness, precipitation, venturesomeness. _rashness_ applies to the actual rushing into danger without counting the cost; _temerity_ denotes the needless exposure of oneself to peril which is or might be clearly seen to be such. _rashness_ is used chiefly of bodily acts, _temerity_ often of mental or social matters; there may be a noble _rashness_, but _temerity_ is always used in a bad sense. we say it is amazing that one should have had the _temerity_ to make a statement which could be readily proved a falsehood, or to make an unworthy proposal to one sure to resent it; in such use _temerity_ is often closely allied to _hardihood_, _audacity_, or _presumption_. _venturesomeness_ dallies on the edge of danger and experiments with it; _foolhardiness_ rushes in for want of sense, _heedlessness_ for want of attention, _rashness_ for want of reflection, _recklessness_ from disregard of consequences. _audacity_, in the sense here considered, denotes a dashing and somewhat reckless courage, in defiance of conventionalities, or of other men's opinions, or of what would be deemed probable consequences; as, the _audacity_ of a successful financier. compare effrontery. antonyms: care, circumspection, cowardice, hesitation, timidity, wariness. caution, * * * * * term. synonyms: article, denomination, member, phrase, condition, expression, name, word. _term_ in its figurative uses always retains something of its literal sense of a boundary or limit. the _articles_ of a contract or other instrument are simply the portions into which it is divided for convenience; the _terms_ are the essential statements on which its validity depends--as it were, the landmarks of its meaning or power; a _condition_ is a contingent _term_ which may become fixed upon the happening of some contemplated event. in logic a _term_ is one of the essential members of a proposition, the boundary of statement in some one direction. thus, in general use _term_ is more restricted than _word_, _expression_, or _phrase_; a _term_ is a _word_ that limits meaning to a fixed point of statement or to a special class of subjects, as when we speak of the definition of _terms_, that is of the key-_words_ in any discussion; or we say, that is a legal or scientific _term_. compare boundary; diction. * * * * * terse. synonyms: brief, concise, neat, short, compact, condensed, pithy, succinct. compendious, laconic, sententious, anything _short_ or _brief_ is of relatively small extent. that which is _concise_ (l. _con-_, with, together, and _cædo_, cut) is trimmed down, and that which is _condensed_ (l. _con-_, with, together, and _densus_, thick) is, as it were, pressed together, so as to include as much as possible within a small space. that which is _compendious_ (l. _com-_, together, and _pendo_, weigh) gathers the substance of a matter into a few words, weighty and effective. the _succinct_ (l. _succinctus_, from _sub-_, under, and _cingo_, gird; girded from below) has an alert effectiveness as if girded for action. the _summary_ is compacted to the utmost, often to the point of abruptness; as, we speak of a _summary_ statement or a _summary_ dismissal. that which is _terse_ (l. _tersus_, from _tergo_, rub off) has an elegant and finished completeness within the smallest possible compass, as if rubbed or polished down to the utmost. a _sententious_ style is one abounding in sentences that are singly striking or memorable, apart from the context; the word may be used invidiously of that which is pretentiously oracular. a _pithy_ utterance gives the gist of a matter effectively, whether in rude or elegant style. antonyms: diffuse, lengthy, long, prolix, tedious, verbose, wordy. * * * * * testimony. synonyms: affidavit, attestation, deposition, proof, affirmation, certification, evidence, witness. _testimony_, in legal as well as in common use, signifies the statements of witnesses. _deposition_ and _affidavit_ denote _testimony_ reduced to writing; the _deposition_ differs from the _affidavit_ in that the latter is voluntary and without cross-examination, while the former is made under interrogatories and subject to cross-examination. _evidence_ is a broader term, including the _testimony_ of witnesses and all facts of every kind that tend to prove a thing true; we have the _testimony_ of a traveler that a fugitive passed this way; his footprints in the sand are additional _evidence_ of the fact. compare demonstration; oath. * * * * * therefore. synonyms: accordingly, consequently, then, whence, because, hence, thence, wherefore. _therefore_, signifying for that (or this) reason, is the most precise and formal word for expressing the direct conclusion of a chain of reasoning; _then_ carries a similar but slighter sense of inference, which it gives incidentally rather than formally; as, "all men are mortal; cæsar is a man; _therefore_ cæsar is mortal;" or, "the contract is awarded; _then_ there is no more to be said." _consequently_ denotes a direct result, but more frequently of a practical than a theoretic kind; as, "important matters demand my attention; _consequently_ i shall not sail to-day." _consequently_ is rarely used in the formal conclusions of logic or mathematics, but marks rather the freer and looser style of rhetorical argument. _accordingly_ denotes correspondence, which may or may not be consequence; it is often used in narration; as, "the soldiers were eager and confident; _accordingly_ they sprang forward at the word of command." _thence_ is a word of more sweeping inference than _therefore_, applying not merely to a single set of premises, but often to all that has gone before, including the reasonable inferences that have not been formally stated. _wherefore_ is the correlative of _therefore_, and _whence_ of _hence_ or _thence_, appending the inference or conclusion to the previous statement without a break. compare synonyms for because. * * * * * throng. synonyms: concourse, crowd, host, jam, mass, multitude, press. a _crowd_ is a company of persons filling to excess the space they occupy and pressing inconveniently upon one another; the total number in a _crowd_ may be great or small. _throng_ is a word of vastness and dignity, always implying that the persons are numerous as well as pressed or pressing closely together; there may be a dense _crowd_ in a small room, but there can not be a _throng_. _host_ and _multitude_ both imply vast numbers, but a _multitude_ may be diffused over a great space so as to be nowhere a _crowd_; _host_ is a military term, and properly denotes an assembly too orderly for crowding. _concourse_ signifies a spontaneous gathering of many persons moved by a common impulse, and has a suggestion of stateliness not found in the word _crowd_, while suggesting less massing and pressure than is indicated by the word _throng_. * * * * * time. synonyms: age, duration, epoch, period, sequence, term, date, eon, era, season, succession, while. _sequence_ and _succession_ apply to events viewed as following one another; _time_ and _duration_ denote something conceived of as enduring while events take place and acts are done. according to the necessary conditions of human thought, events are contained in _time_ as objects are in space, _time_ existing before the event, measuring it as it passes, and still existing when the event is past. _duration_ and _succession_ are more general words than _time_; we can speak of infinite or eternal _duration_ or _succession_, but _time_ is commonly contrasted with eternity. _time_ is measured or measurable _duration_. * * * * * tip. synonyms: cant, dip, incline, list, slope, careen, heel over, lean, slant, tilt. to _tilt_ or _tip_ is to throw out of a horizontal position by raising one side or end or lowering the other; the words are closely similar, but _tilt_ suggests more of fluctuation or instability. _slant_ and _slope_ are said of things somewhat fixed or permanent in a position out of the horizontal or perpendicular; the roof _slants_, the hill _slopes_. _incline_ is a more formal word for _tip_, and also for _slant_ or _slope_. to _cant_ is to set slantingly; in many cases _tip_ and _cant_ might be interchanged, but _tip_ is more temporary, often momentary; one _tips_ a pail so that the water flows over the edge; a mechanic _cants_ a table by making or setting one side higher than the other. a vessel _careens_ in the wind; _lists_, usually, from shifting of cargo, from water in the hold, etc. _careening_ is always toward one side or the other; _listing_ may be forward or astern as well. to _heel over_ is the same as to _careen_, and must be distinguished from "keel over," which is to capsize. * * * * * tire. synonyms: exhaust, fatigue, harass, jade, wear out, weary. fag, to _tire_ is to reduce strength in any degree by exertion; one may be _tired_ just enough to make rest pleasant, or even unconsciously _tired_, becoming aware of the fact only when he ceases the exertion; or, on the other hand, he may be, according to the common phrase, "too _tired_ to stir;" but for this extreme condition the stronger words are commonly used. one who is _fatigued_ suffers from a conscious and painful lack of strength as the result of some overtaxing; an invalid may be _fatigued_ with very slight exertion; when one is _wearied_, the painful lack of strength is the result of long-continued demand or strain; one is _exhausted_ when the strain has been so severe and continuous as utterly to consume the strength, so that further exertion is for the time impossible. one is _fagged_ by drudgery; he is _jaded_ by incessant repetition of the same act until it becomes increasingly difficult or well-nigh impossible; as, a horse is _jaded_ by a long and unbroken journey. antonyms: invigorate, refresh, relax, relieve, repose, rest, restore. recreate, * * * * * tool. synonyms: apparatus, implement, machine, utensil, appliance, instrument, mechanism, weapon. a _tool_ is something that is both contrived and used for extending the force of an intelligent agent to something that is to be operated upon. those things by which pacific and industrial operations are performed are alone properly called _tools_, those designed for warlike purposes being designated _weapons_. an _instrument_ is anything through which power is applied and a result produced; in general usage, the word is of considerably wider meaning than _tool_; as, a piano is a musical _instrument_. _instrument_ is the word usually applied to _tools_ used in scientific pursuits; as, we speak of a surgeon's or an optician's _instruments_. an _implement_ is a mechanical agency considered with reference to some specific purpose to which it is adapted; as, an agricultural _implement_; _implements_ of war. _implement_ is a less technical and artificial term than _tool_. the paw of a tiger might be termed a terrible _implement_, but not a _tool_. a _utensil_ is that which may be used for some special purpose; the word is especially applied to articles used for domestic or agricultural purposes; as, kitchen _utensils_; farming _utensils_. an _appliance_ is that which is or may be applied to the accomplishment of a result, either independently or as subordinate to something more extensive or important; every mechanical _tool_ is an _appliance_, but not every _appliance_ is a _tool_; the traces of a harness are _appliances_ for traction, but they are not _tools_. _mechanism_ is a word of wide meaning, denoting any combination of mechanical devices for united action. a _machine_ in the most general sense is any mechanical _instrument_ for the conversion of motion; in this sense a lever is a _machine_; but in more commonly accepted usage a _machine_ is distinguished from a _tool_ by its complexity, and by the combination and coordination of powers and movements for the production of a result. a chisel by itself is a _tool_; when it is set so as to be operated by a crank and pitman, the entire _mechanism_ is called a _machine_; as, a mortising-_machine_. an _apparatus_ may be a _machine_, but the word is commonly used for a collection of distinct articles to be used in connection or combination for a certain purpose--a mechanical equipment; as, the _apparatus_ of a gymnasium; especially, for a collection of _appliances_ for some scientific purpose; as, a chemical or surgical _apparatus_; an _apparatus_ may include many _tools_, _instruments_, or _implements_. _implement_ is for the most part and _utensil_ is altogether restricted to the literal sense; _instrument_, _machine_, and _tool_ have figurative use, _instrument_ being used largely in a good, _tool_ always in a bad sense; _machine_ inclines to the unfavorable sense, as implying that human agents are made mechanically subservient to some controlling will; as, an _instrument_ of providence; the _tool_ of a tyrant; a political _machine_. * * * * * topic. synonyms: division, issue, motion, proposition, subject, head, matter, point, question, theme. a _topic_ (gr. _topos_, place) is a _head_ of discourse. since a _topic_ for discussion is often stated in the form of a _question_, _question_ has come to be extensively used to denote a debatable _topic_, especially of a practical nature--an _issue_; as, the labor _question_; the temperance _question_. in deliberative assemblies a _proposition_ presented or moved for acceptance is called a _motion_, and such a _motion_ or other matter for consideration is known as the _question_, since it is or may be stated in interrogative form to be answered by each member with a vote of "aye" or "no;" a member is required to speak to the _question_; the chairman puts the _question_. in speaking or writing the general _subject_ or _theme_ may be termed the _topic_, tho it is more usual to apply the latter term to the subordinate _divisions_, _points_, or _heads_ of discourse; as, to enlarge on this _topic_ would carry me too far from my _subject_; a pleasant drive will suggest many _topics_ for conversation. * * * * * trace. synonyms: footmark, impression, remains, token, trail, footprint, mark, remnant, track, vestige. footstep, memorial, sign, a _memorial_ is that which is intended or fitted to bring to remembrance something that has passed away; it may be vast and stately. on the other hand, a slight _token_ of regard may be a cherished _memorial_ of a friend; either a concrete object or an observance may be a _memorial_. a _vestige_ is always slight compared with that whose existence it recalls; as, scattered mounds containing implements, weapons, etc., are _vestiges_ of a former civilization. a _vestige_ is always a part of that which has passed away; a _trace_ may be merely the _mark_ made by something that has been present or passed by, and that is still existing, or some slight evidence of its presence or of the effect it has produced; as, _traces_ of game were observed by the hunter. compare characteristic. * * * * * transact. synonyms: accomplish, carry on, do, perform, act, conduct, negotiate, treat. there are many acts that one may _do_, _accomplish_, or _perform_ unaided; what he _transacts_ is by means of or in association with others; one may _do_ a duty, _perform_ a vow, _accomplish_ a task, but he _transacts_ business, since that always involves the agency of others. to _negotiate_ and to _treat_ are likewise collective acts, but both these words lay stress upon deliberation with adjustment of mutual claims and interests; _transact_, while it may depend upon previous deliberation, states execution only. notes, bills of exchange, loans, and treaties are said to be _negotiated_, the word so used covering not merely the preliminary consideration, but the final settlement. _negotiate_ has more reference to execution than _treat_; nations may _treat_ of peace without result, but when a treaty is _negotiated_, peace is secured; the citizens of the two nations are then free to _transact_ business with one another. compare do. * * * * * transaction. synonyms: act, action, affair, business, deed, doing, proceeding. one's _acts_ or _deeds_ may be exclusively his own; his _transactions_ involve the agency or participation of others. a _transaction_ is something completed; a _proceeding_ is or is viewed as something in progress; but since _transaction_ is often used to include the steps leading to the conclusion, while _proceedings_ may result in _action_, the dividing line between the two words becomes sometimes quite faint, tho _transaction_ often emphasizes the fact of something done, or brought to a conclusion. both _transactions_ and _proceedings_ are used of the records of a deliberative body, especially when published; strictly used, the two are distinguished; as, the philosophical _transactions_ of the royal society of london give in full the papers read; the _proceedings_ of the american philological association give in full the _business_ done, with mere abstracts of or extracts from the papers read. compare act; business. * * * * * transcendental. synonyms: a priori, intuitive, original, primordial, transcendent. _intuitive_ truths are those which are in the mind independently of all experience, not being derived from experience nor limited by it, as that the whole is greater than a part, or that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. all _intuitive_ truths or beliefs are _transcendental_. but _transcendental_ is a wider term than _intuitive_, including all within the limits of thought that is not derived from experience, as the ideas of space and time. "being is _transcendental_.... as being can not be included under any genus, but transcends them all, so the properties or affections of being have also been called _transcendental_." k.-f. _vocab. philos._ p. . "_transcendent_ he [kant] employed to denote what is wholly beyond experience, being neither given as an a posteriori nor _a priori_ element of cognition--what therefore transcends every category of thought." k.-f. _vocab. philos._ p. . _transcendental_ has been applied in the language of the emersonian school to the soul's supposed _intuitive_ knowledge of things divine and human, so far as they are capable of being known to man. compare mysterious. * * * * * transient. synonyms: brief, fleeting, fugitive, short, ephemeral, flitting, momentary, temporary, evanescent, flying, passing, transitory. _transient_ and _transitory_ are both derived from the same original source (l. _trans_, over, and _eo_, go), denoting that which quickly passes or is passing away, but there is between them a fine shade of difference. a thing is _transient_ which in fact is not lasting; a thing is _transitory_ which by its very nature must soon pass away; a thing is _temporary_ (l. _tempus_, time) which is intended to last or be made use of but a little while; as, a _transient_ joy; this _transitory_ life; a _temporary_ chairman. _ephemeral_ (gr. _epi_, on, and _hemera_, day) literally lasting but for a day, often marks more strongly than _transient_ exceeding brevity of duration; it agrees with _transitory_ in denoting that its object is destined to pass away, but is stronger, as denoting not only its certain but its speedy extinction; thus that which is _ephemeral_ is looked upon as at once slight and perishable, and the word carries often a suggestion of contempt; man's life is _transitory_, a butterfly's existence is _ephemeral_; with no solid qualities or worthy achievements a pretender may sometimes gain an _ephemeral_ popularity. that which is _fleeting_ is viewed as in the act of passing swiftly by, and that which is _fugitive_ (l. _fugio_, flee) as eluding attempts to detain it; that which is _evanescent_ (l. _evanesco_, from _e_, out, and _vanus_, empty, vain) as in the act of vanishing even while we gaze, as the hues of the sunset. antonyms: abiding, eternal, immortal, lasting, perpetual, undying, enduring, everlasting, imperishable, permanent, persistent, unfading. * * * * * union. synonyms: coalition, conjunction, juncture, unification, combination, junction, oneness, unity. _unity_ is _oneness_, the state of being one, especially of that which never has been divided or of that which can not be conceived of as resolved into parts; as, the _unity_ of god or the _unity_ of the human soul. _union_ is a bringing together of things that have been distinct, so that they combine or coalesce to form a new whole, or the state or condition of things thus brought together; in a _union_ the separate individuality of the things united is never lost sight of; we speak of the _union_ of the parts of a fractured bone or of the _union_ of hearts in marriage. but _unity_ can be said of that which is manifestly or even conspicuously made up of parts, when a single purpose or ideal is so subserved by all that their possible separateness is lost sight of; as, we speak of the _unity_ of the human body, or of the _unity_ of the church. compare alliance; association; attachment; harmony; marriage. antonyms: analysis, disconnection, disunion, divorce, separation, contrariety, disjunction, division, schism, severance. decomposition, dissociation, * * * * * usual. synonyms: accustomed, everyday, general, ordinary, public, common, familiar, habitual, prevailing, regular, customary, frequent, normal, prevalent, wonted. _usual_ (l. _usus_, use, habit, wont) signifies such as regularly or often recurs in the ordinary course of events, or is habitually repeated in the life of the same person. _ordinary_ (l. _ordo_, order) signifies according to an established order, hence of _everyday_ occurrence. in strictness, _common_ and _general_ apply to the greater number of individuals in a class; but both words are in good use as applying to the greater number of instances in a series, so that it is possible to speak of one person's _common_ practise or _general_ custom, tho _ordinary_ or _usual_ would in such case be preferable. compare general; normal. antonyms: exceptional, infrequent, rare, strange, unparalleled, extraordinary, out-of-the-way, singular, uncommon, unusual. * * * * * utility. synonyms: advantage, expediency, serviceableness, avail, profit, use, benefit, service, usefulness. _utility_ (l. _utilis_, useful) signifies primarily the quality of being useful, but is somewhat more abstract and philosophical than _usefulness_ or _use_, and is often employed to denote adaptation to produce a valuable result, while _usefulness_ denotes the actual production of such result. we contrast beauty and _utility_. we say of an invention, its _utility_ is questionable, or, on the other hand, its _usefulness_ has been proved by ample trial, or i have found it of _use_; still, _utility_ and _usefulness_ are frequently interchanged. _expediency_ (l. _ex_, out, and _pes_, foot; literally, the getting the foot out) refers primarily to escape from or avoidance of some difficulty or trouble; either _expediency_ or _utility_ may be used to signify _profit_ or _advantage_ considered apart from right as the ground of moral obligation, or of actions that have a moral character, _expediency_ denoting immediate _advantage_ on a contracted view, and especially with reference to avoiding danger, difficulty, or loss, while _utility_ may be so broadened as to cover all existence through all time, as in the utilitarian theory of morals. _policy_ is often used in a kindred sense, more positive than _expediency_ but narrower than _utility_, as in the proverb, "honesty is the best _policy_." compare profit. antonyms: disadvantage, futility, inadequacy, inutility, uselessness, folly, impolicy, inexpediency, unprofitableness, worthlessness. * * * * * vacant. synonyms: blank, leisure, unfilled, untenanted, void, empty, unemployed, unoccupied, vacuous, waste. that is _empty_ which contains nothing; that is _vacant_ which is without that which has filled or might be expected to fill it; _vacant_ has extensive reference to rights or possibilities of occupancy. a _vacant_ room may not be _empty_, and an _empty_ house may not be _vacant_. _vacant_, as derived from the latin, is applied to things of some dignity; _empty_, from the saxon, is preferred in speaking of slight, common, or homely matters, tho it may be applied with special force to the highest; we speak of _empty_ space, a _vacant_ lot, an _empty_ dish, an _empty_ sleeve, a _vacant_ mind, an _empty_ heart, an _empty_ boast, a _vacant_ office, a _vacant_ or _leisure_ hour. _void_ and _devoid_ are rarely used in the literal sense, but for the most part confined to abstract relations, _devoid_ being followed by _of_, and having with that addition the effect of a prepositional phrase; as, the article is _devoid of_ sense; the contract is _void_ for want of consideration. _waste_, in this connection, applies to that which is made so by devastation or ruin, or gives an impression of desolation, especially as combined with vastness, probably from association of the words _waste_ and vast: _waste_ is applied also to uncultivated or unproductive land, if of considerable extent; we speak of a _waste_ track or region, but not of a _waste_ city lot. _vacuous_ refers to the condition of being _empty_ or _vacant_, regarded as continuous or characteristic. antonyms: brimful, busy, filled, inhabited, overflowing, brimmed, crammed, full, jammed, packed, brimming, crowded, gorged, occupied, replete. * * * * * vain. synonyms: abortive, futile, shadowy, unsatisfying, baseless, idle, trifling, unserviceable, bootless, inconstant, trivial, unsubstantial, deceitful, ineffectual, unavailing, useless, delusive, nugatory, unimportant, vapid, empty, null, unprofitable, visionary, fruitless, profitless, unreal, worthless. _vain_ (l. _vanus_, empty) keeps the etymological idea through all changes of meaning; a _vain_ endeavor is _empty_ of result, or of adequate power to produce a result, a _vain_ pretension is _empty_ or destitute of support, a _vain_ person has a conceit that is _empty_ or destitute of adequate cause or reason. that which is _bootless_, _fruitless_, or _profitless_ fails to accomplish any valuable result; that which is _abortive_, _ineffectual_, or _unavailing_ fails to accomplish a result that it was, or was supposed to be, adapted to accomplish. that which is _useless_, _futile_, or _vain_ is inherently incapable of accomplishing a specified result. _useless_, in the widest sense, signifies not of use for any valuable purpose, and is thus closely similar to _valueless_ and _worthless_. _fruitless_ is more final than _ineffectual_, as applying to the sum or harvest of endeavor. that which is _useless_ lacks actual fitness for a purpose; that which is _vain_ lacks imaginable fitness. compare vacant; ostentation; pride. antonyms: adequate, effective, powerful, solid, useful, advantageous, efficient, profitable, sound, valid, beneficial, expedient, real, substantial, valuable, competent, potent, serviceable, sufficient, worthy. compare synonyms for utility. * * * * * venal. synonyms: hireling, mercenary, purchasable, salable. _venal_ (l. _venalis_, from _venum_, sale) signifies ready to sell one's influence, vote, or efforts for money or other consideration; _mercenary_ (l. _mercenarius_, from _merces_, pay, reward) signifies influenced chiefly or only by desire for gain or reward; thus, etymologically, the _mercenary_ can be hired, while the _venal_ are openly or actually for sale; _hireling_ (as. _hyrling_, from _hyr_) signifies serving for hire or pay, or having the spirit or character of one who works or of that which is done directly for hire or pay. _mercenary_ has especial application to character or disposition; as, a _mercenary_ spirit; _mercenary_ motives--_i. e._, a spirit or motives to which money is the chief consideration or the moving principle. the _hireling_, the _mercenary_, and the _venal_ are alike in making principle, conscience, and honor of less account than gold or sordid considerations; but the _mercenary_ and _venal_ may be simply open to the bargain and sale which the _hireling_ has already consummated; a clergyman may be _mercenary_ in making place and pay of undue importance while not _venal_ enough to forsake his own communion for another for any reward that could be offered him. the _mercenary_ may retain much show of independence; _hireling_ service sacrifices self-respect as well as principle; a public officer who makes his office tributary to private speculation in which he is interested is _mercenary_; if he receives a stipulated recompense for administering his office at the behest of some leader, faction, corporation, or the like, he is both _hireling_ and _venal_; if he gives essential advantages for pay, without subjecting himself to any direct domination, his course is _venal_, but not _hireling_. compare pay; venial. antonyms: disinterested, honest, incorruptible, public-spirited, generous, honorable, patriotic, unpurchasable. * * * * * venerate. synonyms: adore, honor, respect, revere, reverence. in the highest sense, to _revere_ or _reverence_ is to hold in mingled love and honor with something of sacred fear, as for that which while lovely is sublimely exalted and brings upon us by contrast a sense of our unworthiness or inferiority; to _revere_ is a wholly spiritual act; to _reverence_ is often, tho not necessarily, to give outward expression to the reverential feeling; we _revere_ or _reverence_ the divine majesty. _revere_ is a stronger word than _reverence_ or _venerate_. to _venerate_ is to hold in exalted honor without fear, and is applied to objects less removed from ourselves than those we _revere_, being said especially of aged persons, of places or objects having sacred associations, and of abstractions; we _venerate_ an aged pastor, the dust of heroes or martyrs, lofty virtue or self-sacrifice, or some great cause, as that of civil or religious liberty; we do not _venerate_ god, but _revere_ or _reverence_ him. we _adore_ with a humble yet free outflowing of soul. compare veneration. antonyms: contemn, detest, dishonor, scoff at, slight, despise, disdain, disregard, scorn, spurn. * * * * * veneration. synonyms: adoration, awe, dread, reverence. _awe_ is inspired by that in which there is sublimity or majesty so overwhelming as to awaken a feeling akin to fear; in _awe_, considered by itself, there is no element of esteem or affection, tho the sense of vastness, power, or grandeur in the object is always present. _dread_ is a shrinking apprehension or expectation of possible harm awakened by any one of many objects or causes, from that which is overwhelmingly vast and mighty to that which is productive of momentary physical pain; in its higher uses _dread_ approaches the meaning of _awe_, but with more of chilliness and cowering, and without that subjection of soul to the grandeur and worthiness of the object that is involved in _awe_. _awe_ is preoccupied with the object that inspires it; _dread_ with apprehension of personal consequences. _reverence_ and _veneration_ are less overwhelming than _awe_ or _dread_, and suggest something of esteem, affection, and personal nearness. we may feel _awe_ of that which we can not _reverence_, as a grandly terrible ocean storm; _awe_ of the divine presence is more distant and less trustful than _reverence_. _veneration_ is commonly applied to things which are not subjects of _awe_. _adoration_, in its full sense, is loftier than _veneration_, less restrained and awed than _reverence_, and with more of the spirit of direct, active, and joyful worship. compare esteem; venerate. antonyms: contempt, disdain, dishonor, disregard, scorn. * * * * * venial. synonyms: excusable, pardonable, slight, trivial. _venial_ (l. _venia_, pardon) signifies capable of being pardoned, and, in common use, capable of being readily pardoned, easily overlooked. aside from its technical ecclesiastical use, _venial_ is always understood as marking some fault comparatively _slight_ or _trivial_. a _venial_ offense is one readily overlooked; a _pardonable_ offense requires more serious consideration, but on deliberation is found to be susceptible of pardon. _excusable_ is scarcely applied to offenses, but to matters open to doubt or criticism rather than direct censure; so used, it often falls little short of justifiable; as, i think, under those circumstances, his action was _excusable_. protestants do not recognize the distinction between _venial_ and mortal sins. _venial_ must not be confounded with the very different word venal. compare venal. antonyms: inexcusable, inexpiable, mortal, unpardonable, unjustifiable. * * * * * veracity. synonyms: candor, honesty, reality, truthfulness, frankness, ingenuousness, truth, verity. _truth_ is primarily and _verity_ is always a quality of thought or speech, especially of speech, as in exact conformity to fact. _veracity_ is properly a quality of a person, the habit of speaking and the disposition to speak the _truth_; a habitual liar may on some occasions speak the _truth_, but that does not constitute him a man of _veracity_; on the other hand, a person of undoubted _veracity_ may state (through ignorance or misinformation) what is not the _truth_. _truthfulness_ is a quality that may inhere either in a person or in his statements or beliefs. _candor_, _frankness_, _honesty_, and _ingenuousness_ are allied with _veracity_, and _verity_ with _truth_, while _truthfulness_ may accord with either. _truth_ in a secondary sense may be applied to intellectual action or moral character, in the former case becoming a close synonym of _veracity_; as, i know him to be a man of _truth_. antonyms: deceit, duplicity, falsehood, fiction, lie, deception, error, falseness, guile, mendacity, delusion, fabrication, falsity, imposture, untruth. compare synonyms for deception. * * * * * verbal. synonyms: literal, oral, vocal. _oral_ (l. _os_, the mouth) signifies uttered through the mouth or (in common phrase) by word of mouth; _verbal_ (l. _verbum_, a word) signifies of, pertaining to, or connected with words, especially with words as distinguished from the ideas they convey; _vocal_ (l. _vox_, the voice) signifies of or pertaining to the voice, uttered or modulated by the voice, and especially uttered with or sounding with full, resonant voice; _literal_ (l. _litera_, a letter) signifies consisting of or expressed by letters, or according to the letter, in the broader sense of the exact meaning or requirement of the words used; what is called "the letter of the law" is its _literal_ meaning without going behind what is expressed by the letters on the page. thus _oral_ applies to that which is given by spoken words in distinction from that which is written or printed; as, _oral_ tradition; an _oral_ examination. by this rule we should in strictness speak of an _oral_ contract or an _oral_ message, but _verbal_ contract and _verbal_ message, as indicating that which is by spoken rather than by written words, have become so fixed in the language that they can probably never be changed; this usage is also in line with other idioms of the language; as, "i give you my _word_," "a true man's _word_ is as good as his bond," "by _word_ of mouth," etc. a _verbal_ translation may be _oral_ or written, so that it is word for word; a _literal_ translation follows the construction and idiom of the original as well as the words; a _literal_ translation is more than one that is merely _verbal_; both _verbal_ and _literal_ are opposed to _free_. in the same sense, of attending to words only, we speak of _verbal_ criticism, a _verbal_ change. _vocal_ has primary reference to the human voice; as, _vocal_ sounds, _vocal_ music; _vocal_ may be applied within certain limits to inarticulate sounds given forth by other animals than man; as, the woods were _vocal_ with the songs of birds; _oral_ is never so applied, but is limited to articulate utterance regarded as having a definite meaning; as, an _oral_ statement. * * * * * victory. synonyms: achievement, conquest, success, triumph. advantage, mastery, supremacy, _victory_ is the state resulting from the overcoming of an opponent or opponents in any contest, or from the overcoming of difficulties, obstacles, evils, etc., considered as opponents or enemies. in the latter sense any hard-won _achievement_, _advantage_, or _success_ may be termed a _victory_. in _conquest_ and _mastery_ there is implied a permanence of state that is not implied in _victory_. _triumph_, originally denoting the public rejoicing in honor of a _victory_, has come to signify also a peculiarly exultant, complete, and glorious _victory_. compare conquer. antonyms: defeat, disappointment, failure, miscarriage, retreat, destruction, disaster, frustration, overthrow, rout. * * * * * vigilant. synonyms: alert, cautious, on the lookout, wary, awake, circumspect, sleepless, watchful, careful, on the alert, wakeful, wide-awake. _vigilant_ implies more sustained activity and more intelligent volition than _alert_; one may be habitually _alert_ by reason of native quickness of perception and thought, or one may be momentarily _alert_ under some excitement or expectancy; one who is _vigilant_ is so with thoughtful purpose. one is _vigilant_ against danger or harm; he may be _alert_ or _watchful_ for good as well as against evil; he is _wary_ in view of suspected stratagem, trickery, or treachery. a person may be _wakeful_ because of some merely physical excitement or excitability, as through insomnia; yet he may be utterly careless and negligent in his wakefulness, the reverse of _watchful_; a person who is truly _watchful_ must keep himself _wakeful_ while on watch, in which case _wakeful_ has something of mental quality. _watchful_, from the saxon, and _vigilant_, from the latin, are almost exact equivalents; but _vigilant_ has somewhat more of sharp definiteness and somewhat more suggestion of volition; one may be habitually _watchful_; one is _vigilant_ of set purpose and for direct cause, as in the presence of an enemy. compare alert. antonyms: careless, heedless, inconsiderate, oblivious, drowsy, inattentive, neglectful, thoughtless, dull, incautious, negligent, unwary. * * * * * virtue. synonyms: chastity, honesty, probity, truth, duty, honor, purity, uprightness, excellence, integrity, rectitude, virtuousness, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, worth, goodness, morality, rightness, worthiness. _virtue_ (l. _virtus_, primarily manly strength or courage, from _vir_, a man, a hero) is, in its full sense, _goodness_ that is victorious through trial, perhaps through temptation and conflict. _goodness_, the being morally good, may be much less than _virtue_, as lacking the strength that comes from trial and conflict, or it may be very much more than _virtue_, as rising sublimely above the possibility of temptation and conflict--the infantile as contrasted with the divine _goodness_. _virtue_ is distinctively human; we do not predicate it of god. _morality_ is conformity to the moral law in action, whether in matters concerning ourselves or others, whether with or without right principle. _honesty_ and _probity_ are used especially of one's relations to his fellow men, _probity_ being to _honesty_ much what _virtue_ in some respects is to _goodness_; _probity_ is _honesty_ tried and proved, especially in those things that are beyond the reach of legal requirement; above the commercial sense, _honesty_ may be applied to the highest truthfulness of the soul to and with itself and its maker. _integrity_, in the full sense, is moral wholeness without a flaw; when used, as it often is, of contracts and dealings, it has reference to inherent character and principle, and denotes much more than superficial or conventional _honesty_. _honor_ is a lofty _honesty_ that scorns fraud or wrong as base and unworthy of itself. _honor_ rises far above thought of the motto that "_honesty_ is the best policy." _purity_ is freedom from all admixture, especially of that which debases; it is _chastity_ both of heart and life, but of the life because from the heart. _duty_, the rendering of what is due to any person or in any relation, is, in this connection, the fulfilment of moral obligation. _rectitude_ and _righteousness_ denote conformity to the standard of right, whether in heart or act; _righteousness_ is used especially in the religious sense. _uprightness_ refers especially to conduct. _virtuousness_ is a quality of the soul or of action; in the latter sense it is the essence of virtuous action. compare innocent; justice; religion. antonyms: evil, vice, viciousness, wickedness, wrong. compare synonyms for sin. * * * * * wander. synonyms: deviate, diverge, go astray, range, rove, swerve, digress, err, ramble, roam, stray, veer. to _wander_ (as. _windan_, wind) is to move in an indefinite or indeterminate way which may or may not be a departure from a prescribed way; to _deviate_ (l. _de_, from, and _via_, a way) is to turn from a prescribed or right way, physically, mentally, or morally, usually in an unfavorable sense; to _diverge_ (l. _di_, apart, and _vergo_, incline, tend) is to turn from a course previously followed or that something else follows, and has no unfavorable implication; to _digress_ (l. _di_, apart, aside, and _gradior_, step) is used only with reference to speaking or writing; to _err_ is used of intellectual or moral action, and of the moral with primary reference to the intellectual, an error being viewed as in some degree due to ignorance. _range_, _roam_, and _rove_ imply the traversing of considerable, often of vast, distances of land or sea; _range_ commonly implies a purpose; as, cattle _range_ for food; a hunting-dog _ranges_ a field for game. _roam_ and _rove_ are often purposeless, and always without definite aim. to _swerve_ or _veer_ is to turn suddenly from a prescribed or previous course, and often but momentarily; _veer_ is more capricious and repetitious; the horse _swerves_ at the flash of a sword; the wind _veers_; the ship _veers_ with the wind. to _stray_ is to go in a somewhat purposeless way aside from the regular path or usual limits or abode, usually with unfavorable implication; cattle _stray_ from their pastures; an author _strays_ from his subject; one _strays_ from the path of virtue. _stray_ is in most uses a lighter word than _wander_. _ramble_, in its literal use, is always a word of pleasant suggestion, but in its figurative use always somewhat contemptuous; as, _rambling_ talk. * * * * * way. synonyms: alley, course, lane, path, route, avenue, driveway, pass, pathway, street, bridle-path, highroad, passage, road, thoroughfare, channel, highway, passageway, roadway, track. wherever there is room for one object to pass another there is a _way_. a _road_ (originally a ride_way_) is a prepared _way_ for traveling with horses or vehicles, always the latter unless the contrary is expressly stated; a _way_ suitable to be traversed only by foot-passengers or by animals is called a _path_, _bridle-path_, or _track_; as, the _roads_ in that country are mere _bridle-paths_. a _road_ may be private; a _highway_ or _highroad_ is public, _highway_ being a specific name for a _road_ legally set apart for the use of the public forever; a _highway_ may be over water as well as over land. a _route_ is a line of travel, and may be over many _roads_. a _street_ is in some center of habitation, as a city, town, or village; when it passes between rows of dwellings the country _road_ becomes the village _street_. an _avenue_ is a long, broad, and imposing or principal street. _track_ is a word of wide signification; we speak of a goat-_track_ on a mountain-side, a railroad-_track_, a race-_track_, the _track_ of a comet; on a traveled _road_ the line worn by regular passing of hoofs and wheels in either direction is called the _track_. a _passage_ is between any two objects or lines of enclosure, a _pass_ commonly between mountains. a _driveway_ is within enclosed grounds, as of a private residence. a _channel_ is a water_way_. a _thoroughfare_ is a _way_ through; a _road_ or _street_ temporarily or permanently closed at any point ceases for such time to be a _thoroughfare_. compare air; direction. * * * * * wisdom. synonyms: attainment, insight, prudence, depth, judgment, reason, discernment, judiciousness, reasonableness, discretion, knowledge, sagacity, enlightenment, learning, sense, erudition, prescience, skill, foresight, profundity, understanding. information, _enlightenment_, _erudition_, _information_, _knowledge_, _learning_, and _skill_ are acquired, as by study or practise. _insight_, _judgment_, _profundity_ or _depth_, _reason_, _sagacity_, _sense_, and _understanding_ are native qualities of mind, tho capable of increase by cultivation. the other qualities are on the border-line. _wisdom_ has been defined as "the right use of _knowledge_," or "the use of the most important means for attaining the best ends," _wisdom_ thus presupposing _knowledge_ for its very existence and exercise. _wisdom_ is mental power acting upon the materials that fullest _knowledge_ gives in the most effective way. there may be what is termed "practical _wisdom_" that looks only to material results; but in its full sense, _wisdom_ implies the highest and noblest exercise of all the faculties of the moral nature as well as of the intellect. _prudence_ is a lower and more negative form of the same virtue, respecting outward and practical matters, and largely with a view of avoiding loss and injury; _wisdom_ transcends _prudence_, so that while the part of _prudence_ is ordinarily also that of _wisdom_, cases arise, as in the exigencies of business or of war, when the highest _wisdom_ is in the disregard of the maxims of _prudence_. _judgment_, the power of forming decisions, especially correct decisions, is broader and more positive than _prudence_, leading one to do, as readily as to refrain from doing; but _judgment_ is more limited in range and less exalted in character than _wisdom_; to say of one that he displayed good _judgment_ is much less than to say that he manifested _wisdom_. _skill_ is far inferior to _wisdom_, consisting largely in the practical application of acquired _knowledge_, power, and habitual processes, or in the ingenious contrivance that makes such application possible. in the making of something perfectly useless there may be great _skill_, but no _wisdom_. compare acumen; astute; knowledge; mind; prudence; sagacious; skilful. antonyms: absurdity, folly, imbecility, miscalculation, senselessness, error, foolishness, imprudence, misjudgment, silliness, fatuity, idiocy, indiscretion, nonsense, stupidity. compare synonyms for absurd; idiocy. * * * * * wit. synonyms: banter, fun, joke, waggery, burlesque, humor, playfulness, waggishness, drollery, jest, pleasantry, witticism. facetiousness, jocularity, raillery, _wit_ is the quick perception of unusual or commonly unperceived analogies or relations between things apparently unrelated, and has been said to depend upon a union of surprise and pleasure; it depends certainly on the production of a diverting, entertaining, or merrymaking surprise. the analogies with which _wit_ plays are often superficial or artificial; _humor_ deals with real analogies of an amusing or entertaining kind, or with traits of character that are seen to have a comical side as soon as brought to view. _wit_ is keen, sudden, brief, and sometimes severe; _humor_ is deep, thoughtful, sustained, and always kindly. _pleasantry_ is lighter and less vivid than _wit_. _fun_ denotes the merry results produced by _wit_ and _humor_, or by any fortuitous occasion of mirth, and is pronounced and often hilarious. antonyms: dulness, seriousness, sobriety, solemnity, stolidity, stupidity. gravity, * * * * * work. synonyms: achievement, doing, labor, product, action, drudgery, occupation, production, business, employment, performance, toil. deed, exertion. _work_ is the generic term for any continuous application of energy toward an end; _work_ may be hard or easy. _labor_ is hard and wearying _work_; _toil_ is straining and exhausting _work_. _work_ is also used for any result of working, physical or mental, and has special senses, as in mechanics, which _labor_ and _toil_ do not share. _drudgery_ is plodding, irksome, and often menial _work_. compare act; business. antonyms: ease, leisure, recreation, relaxation, repose, rest, vacation. idleness, * * * * * yet. synonyms: besides, further, hitherto, now, still, thus far. _yet_ and _still_ have many closely related senses, and, with verbs of past time, are often interchangeable; we may say "while he was _yet_ a child," or "while he was _still_ a child." _yet_, like _still_, often applies to past action or state extending to and including the present time, especially when joined with _as_; we can say "he is feeble _as yet_," or "he is _still_ feeble," with scarcely appreciable difference of meaning, except that the former statement implies somewhat more of expectation than the latter. _yet_ with a negative applies to completed action, often replacing a positive statement with _still_; "he is not gone _yet_" is nearly the same as "he is here _still_." _yet_ has a reference to the future which _still_ does not share; "we may be successful _yet_" implies that success may begin at some future time; "we may be successful _still_" implies that we may continue to enjoy in the future such success as we are winning now. * * * * * youthful. synonyms: adolescent, callow, childlike, immature, puerile, boyish, childish, girlish, juvenile, young. _boyish_, _childish_, and _girlish_ are used in a good sense of those to whom they properly belong, but in a bad sense of those from whom more maturity is to be expected; _childish_ eagerness or glee is pleasing in a child, but unbecoming in a man; _puerile_ in modern use is distinctly contemptuous. _juvenile_ and _youthful_ are commonly used in a favorable and kindly sense in their application to those still _young_; _youthful_ in the sense of having the characteristics of youth, hence fresh, vigorous, light-hearted, buoyant, may have a favorable import as applied to any age, as when we say the old man still retains his _youthful_ ardor, vigor, or hopefulness; _juvenile_ in such use would belittle the statement. _young_ is distinctively applied to those in the early stage of life or not arrived at maturity. compare new. antonyms: compare synonyms for old. suggestions to the teacher. the following exercises have been prepared expressly and solely to accompany the preceding text in which the distinctions of synonyms have been carefully pointed out. it is not expected, intended, or desired that the questions should be answered or the blanks in the examples supplied offhand. in such study nothing can be worse than guesswork. hence, leading questions have been avoided, and the order of synonyms given in part i. has frequently been departed from or reversed in part ii. to secure the study of part i. before coming into class, pupils should not be allowed to open it during recitation, unless on rare occasions to settle doubtful or disputed points. the very best method will be found to be to have the examples included in the lesson, with any others that may be added, copied on the blackboard before recitation, and no books brought into class. the _teacher_ should make a thorough study of the subject, not only mastering what is given in part i., but going beyond the necessarily brief statements there given, and consulting the ultimate authorities--the best dictionaries and the works of the best speakers and writers. for the latter purpose a good cyclopedia of quotations, like the hoyt, will be found very helpful. the teacher should so study out the subject as to be distinctly in advance of the class and able to speak authoritatively. such independent study will be found intensely interesting, and can be made delightful and even fascinating to any intelligent class. in answer to questions calling for definitive statement, the teacher should insist upon the very words of the text, unless the pupil can give in his own words what is manifestly as good. this will often be found not easy to do. definition by synonym should be absolutely forbidden. reasonable questions should be encouraged, but the class should not be allowed to become a debating society. the meaning of english words is not a matter of conjecture, and all disputed points should be promptly referred to the dictionary--usually to be looked up after the recitation, and considered, if need be, at the next recitation. the majority of them will not need to be referred to again, as the difficulties will simply represent an inferior usage which the dictionary will brush aside. one great advantage of synonym study is to exterminate colloquialisms. the class should be encouraged to bring quotations from first-class authors with blanks to be filled, such quotations being held authoritative, though not infallible; also quotations from the best newspapers, periodicals, speeches, etc., with words underlined for criticism, such quotations being held open to revision upon consultation of authorities. the change of usage, whereby that may be correct to-day which would not have been so at an earlier period, should be carefully noted, but always upon the authority of an approved dictionary. the examples have been in great part selected from the best literature, and all others carefully prepared for this work. hence, an appropriate word to fill each blank can always be found by careful study of the corresponding group of synonyms. in a few instances, either of two words would appropriately fill a blank and yield a good sense. in such case, either should be accepted as correct, but the resulting difference of meaning should be clearly pointed out. part ii. questions and examples. * * * * * abandon (page ). questions. . to what objects or classes of objects does _abandon_ apply? _abdicate_? _cede_? _quit_? _resign_? _surrender_? . is _abandon_ used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? _desert_ favorable or unfavorable? _forsake_? . what does _abandon_ commonly denote of previous relationship? _forsake_? examples. the soldiers ---- his standard in such numbers that the commander found it necessary to ---- the enterprise. france was compelled to ---- alsace and lorraine to germany. in the height of his power charles v. ---- the throne. finding resistance vain, the defenders agreed to ---- the fortress. to the surprise of his friends, senator conkling suddenly ---- his office. at the stroke of the bell, the men instantly ---- work. * * * * * abase (page ). questions. . how does _abase_ differ from _debase_? _humble_ from _humiliate_? _degrade_ from _disgrace_? examples. to provide funds, the king resolved to ---- the coinage. he came from the scene of his disgrace, haughty and defiant, ---- but not ----. the officer who had ---- himself by cowardice was ---- to the ranks. only the base in spirit will ---- themselves before wealth, rank, and power. the messenger was so ---- that no heed was paid to his message. * * * * * abash (page ). questions. . what has the effect to make one _abashed_? . how does _confuse_ differ from _abash_? . what do we mean when we say that a person is _mortified_? . give an instance of the use of _mortified_ where _abashed_ could not be substituted. why could not the words be interchanged? . can one be _daunted_ who is not _abashed_? . is _embarrass_ or _mortify_ the stronger word? give instances. examples. the peasant stood ---- in the royal presence. the numerous questions ---- the witness. the speaker was ---- for a moment, but quickly recovered himself. at the revelation of such depravity, i was utterly ----. when sensible of his error, the visitor was deeply ----. * * * * * abbreviation (page ). questions. . is an _abbreviation_ always a _contraction_? . is a _contraction_ always an _abbreviation_? give instances. . can we have an _abbreviation_ of a book, paragraph, or sentence? what can be _abbreviated_? and what _abridged_? examples. the treatise was already so brief that it did not admit of ----. the ---- dr. is used both for doctor and debtor. f. r. s. is an ---- of the title "fellow of the royal society." * * * * * abet (page ). questions. . _abet_, _incite_, _instigate_: which of these words are used in a good and which in a bad sense? . how does _abet_ differ from _incite_ and _instigate_ as to the time of the action? . which of the three words apply to persons and which to actions? give instances of the use of _abet_; _instigate_; _incite_. examples. to further his own schemes, he ---- the viceroy to rebel against the king. to ---- a crime may be worse than to originate it, as arguing less excitement and more calculation and cowardice. the prosecution was evidently malicious, ---- by envy and revenge. and you that do ---- him in this kind cherish rebellion, and are rebels all. * * * * * abhor (page ). questions. . which is the stronger word, _abhor_ or _despise_? . what does _abhor_ denote? . how does archbishop trench illustrate the difference between _abhor_ and _shun_? . what does _detest_ express? . what does _loathe_ imply? is it physical or moral in its application? . give illustrations of the appropriate uses of the above words. examples. he had sunk to such degradation as to be utterly ---- by all good men. such weakness can only be ----. talebearers and backbiters are everywhere ----. ---- that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. * * * * * abide (page ). questions. . what limit of time is expressed by _abide_? by _lodge_? by _live_, _dwell_, _reside_? . what is the meaning of _sojourn_? . should we say one is _stopping_ or _staying_ at a hotel? and why? . give examples of the extended, and of the limited use of _abide_. examples. one generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth ---- forever. and there were in the same country shepherds ---- in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. so great was the crowd of visitors that many were compelled to ---- in the neighboring villages. he is ---- at the albemarle. he has ---- for forty years in the same house. by faith he ---- in the land of promise, as in a strange country. * * * * * abolish (page ). questions. . is _abolish_ used of persons or material objects? . of what is it used? give examples. . what does _annihilate_ signify? is it stronger or weaker than _abolish_? . what terms do we use for doing away with _laws_, and how do those terms differ among themselves? . what are the differences between _overthrow_, _suppress_, and _subvert_? especially between the last two of those words? . how does _prohibit_ differ from _abolish_? . what word do we especially use of putting an end to a nuisance? . what other words of this class are especially referred to? . give some antonyms of _abolish_. examples. the one great endeavor of buddhism is to ---- sorrow. modern science seems to show conclusively that matter is never ----. the law, which had long been ---- by the revolutionists, was at last ---- by the legislature. the ancient statute was found to have been ---- by later enactments, though never formally ----. the supreme court ---- the adverse decision of the inferior tribunal. even in a republic, sedition should be promptly ----, or it may result in the ---- of free institutions. from the original settlement of vineland, new jersey, the sale of intoxicating liquor has been ----. * * * * * abomination (page ). questions. . to what was _abomination_ originally applied? . does it refer to a state of mind or to some act or other object of thought? . how does _abomination_ differ from _aversion_ or _disgust_? . how does an _abomination_ differ from an _offense_? from crime in general? examples. after the ship began to pitch and roll, we could not look upon food without ----. it is time that such a ---- should be abated. capital punishment was formerly inflicted in england for trivial ----. in spite of their high attainments in learning and art, the foulest ---- were prevalent among the greeks and romans of classic antiquity. * * * * * abridgment (page ). questions. . how does an _abridgment_ differ from an _outline_ or a _synopsis_? from an _abstract_ or _digest_? . how does an _abstract_ or _digest_ differ from an _outline_ or a _synopsis_? . does an _analysis_ of a treatise deal with what is expressed, or with what is implied? . what words may we use to express a condensed view of a subject, whether derived from a previous publication or not? examples. the new testament may be regarded as an ---- of religion. there are several excellent ---- of english literature. an ---- of the decision of the court was published in all the leading papers. the publishers determined to issue an ---- of their dictionary. such ---- as u. s. for united states should be rarely used, unless in hasty writing or technical works. * * * * * absolute (page ). questions. . what does _absolute_ in the strict sense denote? _supreme_? . to what are these words in such sense properly applied? . how are they used in a modified sense? . is _arbitrary_ ever used in a good sense? what is the chief use? give examples. . how does _autocratic_ differ from _arbitrary_? both these words from _despotic_? _despotic_ from _tyrannical_? . is _irresponsible_ good or bad in its implication? _arbitrary_? _imperative_? _imperious_? _peremptory_? _positive_? _authoritative_? examples. god alone is ---- and ----. the czar of russia is an ---- ruler. ---- power tends always to be ---- in its exercise. on all questions of law in the united states the decision of the ---- court is ---- and final. learning of the attack on our seamen, the government sent an ---- demand for apology and indemnity. man's ---- will and ---- intellect have given him dominion over all other creatures on the earth, so that they are either subjugated or exterminated. * * * * * absolve (page ). questions. . what is the original sense of _absolve_? . to what does it apply? . what is its special sense when used with reference to sins? . how does it differ from _acquit_? _forgive_? _justify_? _pardon_? . what are the chief antonyms of _absolve_? examples. no power under heaven can ---- a man from his personal responsibility. when the facts were known, he was ---- of all blame. * * * * * absorb (page ). questions. . when is a fluid said to be _absorbed_? . is the substance of the _absorbing_ body changed by that which it _absorbs_? give instances. . how does _consume_ differ from _absorb_? . give instances of the distinctive uses of _engross_, _swallow_, _imbibe_, and _absorb_ in the figurative sense. . what is the difference between _absorb_ and _emit_? _absorb_ and _radiate_? examples. tho the fuel was rapidly ---- within the furnace, very little heat was ---- from the outer surface. in setting steel rails special provision must be made for their expansion under the influence of the heat that they ----. jip stood on the table and barked at traddles so persistently that he may be said to have ---- the conversation. * * * * * abstinence (page ). questions. . how does _abstinence_ differ from _abstemiousness_? from _self-denial_? . what is _temperance_ regarding things lawful and worthy? regarding things vicious and injurious? . what is the more exact term for the proper course regarding evil indulgences? examples. he was so moderate in his desires that his ---- seemed to cost him no ----. among the anglo-saxons the idea of universal and total ---- from all intoxicants is little more than a century old. * * * * * abstract, _v._; abstracted (page , ). questions. . what is the difference between _abstract_ and _separate_? between _discriminate_ and _distinguish_?[c] . how does _abstract_, when said of the mind, differ from _divert_? from _distract_? . how do _abstracted_, _absorbed_, and _preoccupied_ differ from _absent-minded_? . can one who is _preoccupied_ be said to be _listless_ or _thoughtless_? one who is _absent-minded_? examples. he was so ---- with these perplexities as to be completely ---- of his surroundings. the busy student may be excused if ----; in the merely ---- or ---- it is intolerable. the power to ---- one idea from all its associations and view it alone is the ---- mark of a philosophical mind. numerous interruptions in the midst of ---- occupations had made him almost ----. [c] note. see these words under discern as referred to at the end of the paragraph on abstract in part i. the pupil should be instructed, in all cases, to look up and read over the synonyms referred to by the words in small capitals at the end of the paragraph in part i. * * * * * absurd (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _absurd_ and _paradoxical_? . what are the distinctions between _irrational_, _foolish_, and _silly_? . what is the especial implication in _unreasonable_? . how do _monstrous_ and _preposterous_ compare with _absurd_? . what is the especial element common to the _ludicrous_, the _ridiculous_, and the _nonsensical_? . what are some chief antonyms of _absurd_? examples. a statement may be disproved by deducing logically from it a conclusion that is ----. carlyle delighted in ---- utterances. the ---- hatred of the jews in the middle ages led the populace to believe the most ---- slanders concerning them. i attempted to dissuade him from the ---- plan, but found him altogether ----; many of his arguments were so ---- as to be positively ----. * * * * * abuse (page ). questions. . to what does _abuse_ apply? . how does _abuse_ differ from _damage_ (as in the case of rented property, _e. g._)? . how does _abuse_ differ from _harm_? . what words of this group are used in a bad sense? . is _reproach_ good or bad? . how do _persecute_ and _oppress_ differ? . do _misemploy_, _misuse_, and _pervert_ apply to persons or things? to which does _abuse_ apply? examples. the tenant shall not ---- the property beyond reasonable wear. ---- intellectual gifts make the dangerous villain. in his rage he began to ---- and ---- all who had formerly been his friends. to be ---- for doing right can never really ---- a true man. in no way has man ---- his fellow man more cruelly than by ---- him for his religious belief. * * * * * accessory, _n._ (page ). questions. . which words of this group are used in a good, and which in a bad sense? . which are indifferently either good or bad? . to what does _ally_ generally apply? _colleague_? . how does an _associate_ compare in rank with a principal? . is _assistant_ or _attendant_ the higher word? how do both these words compare with _associate_? . in what sense are _follower_, _henchman_, and _retainer_ used? _partner_? . what is the legal distinction between _abettor_ and _accessory_? . to what is _accomplice_ nearly equivalent? which is the preferred legal term? examples. the senator differed with his ---- in this matter. the baron rode into town with a great array of armed ----. france and russia seem to have become firm ----. the ---- called to the ---- for a fresh bandage. all persons, but especially the young, should take the greatest care in the choice of their ----. as he was not present at the actual commission of the crime, he was held to be only an ---- and not an ----. * * * * * accident (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _accident_ and _chance_? . how does _incident_ differ from both? . what is the special significance of _fortune_? . how does it differ in usage from _chance_? . how are _accident_, _misadventure_, and _mishap_ distinguished? examples. gambling clings almost inseparably to games of ----. bruises and contusions are regarded as ordinary ---- of the cavalry service. the prudent man is careful not to tempt ---- too far. the misplacement of the switch caused a terrible ----. great thoughts and high purposes keep one from being greatly disturbed by the little ---- of daily life. * * * * * acquaintance (page ). questions. . what does _acquaintance_ between persons imply? . how does _acquaintance_ differ from _companionship_? _acquaintance_ from _friendship_? from _intimacy_? . how does _fellowship_ differ from _friendship_? examples. a public speaker becomes known to many persons whom he does not know, but who are ready promptly to claim ---- with him. the ---- of life must bring us into ---- with many who can not be admitted within the inner circle of ----. the ---- of school and college life often develop into the most beautiful and enduring ----. between those most widely separated by distance of place and time, by language, station, occupation, and creed, there may yet be true ---- of soul. * * * * * acrimony (page ). questions. . how does _acerbity_ differ from _asperity_? _asperity_ from _acrimony_? . how is _acrimony_ distinguished from _malignity_? _malignity_ from _virulence_? . what is implied in the use of the word _severity_? examples. a certain ---- of speech had become habitual with him. to this ill-timed request, he answered with sudden ----. a constant sense of injustice may deepen into a settled ----. this smooth and pleasing address veiled a deep ----. great ---- will be patiently borne if the sufferer is convinced of its essential justice. * * * * * act (page ). questions. . how is _act_ distinguished from _action_? from _deed_? . which of the words in this group necessarily imply an external effect? which may be wholly mental? examples. he who does the truth will need no instruction as to individual ----s. ---- is the truth of thought. the ---- is done. * * * * * active (page ). questions. . with what two sets of words is _active_ allied? . how does _active_ differ from _busy_? from _industrious_? . how do _active_ and _restless_ compare? . to what sort of activity does _officious_ refer? . what are some chief antonyms of _active_? examples. being of an ---- disposition and without settled purpose or definite occupation, she became ---- as a hornet. he had his ---- days and hours, but could never be properly said to be ----. an ---- attendant instantly seized upon my baggage. the true student is ---- from the mere love of learning, independently of its rewards. * * * * * acumen (page ). questions. . how do _sharpness_, _acuteness_, _penetration_, and _insight_ compare with _acumen_? . what is the special characteristic of _acumen_? to what order of mind does it belong? . what is _sagacity_? is it attributed to men or brutes? . what is _perspicacity_? . what is _shrewdness_? is it ordinarily good or evil? . give illustrations of the uses of the above words as regards the possessors of the corresponding qualities. examples. the treatise displays great critical ----. the indians had developed a practical ---- that enabled them to follow a trail by scarcely perceptible signs almost as unerringly as the hound by scent. * * * * * add (page ). questions. . how is _add_ related to _increase_? how does it differ from _multiply_? . what does _augment_ signify? of what is it ordinarily used? . to what does _amplify_ apply? . in what ways may a discourse or treatise be _amplified_? examples. care to our coffin ---- a nail no doubt; and every grin, so merry, draws one out. ---- up at night, what thou hast done by day; and in the morning what thou hast to do. * * * * * address, _v._ (page ). questions. . what does _accost_ always signify? _greet_? _hail_? . how does _salute_ differ from _accost_ or _greet_? _address_? . what is it to _apostrophize_? examples. the pale snowdrop is springing to ---- the glowing sun. ---- to the chief who in triumph advances. his faithful dog ---- the smiling guest. ---- ye heroes! heaven-born band! who fought and died in freedom's cause. * * * * * address, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is _address_ in the sense here considered? . what is _tact_? . what qualities are included in _address_? examples. and the tear that is wiped with a little ---- may be follow'd perhaps by a smile. the ---- of doing doth expresse no other but the doer's willingnesse. i have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking; i could wish ---- would invent some other custom of entertainment. * * * * * adequate (page ). questions. . what do _adequate_, _commensurate_, and _sufficient_ alike signify? how does _commensurate_ specifically differ from the other two words? give examples. . to what do _adapted_, _fit_, _suitable_, and _qualified_ refer? . is _satisfactory_ a very high recommendation of any work? why? . is _able_ or _capable_ the higher word? illustrate. examples. we know not of what we are ---- till the trial comes. indeed, left nothing ---- for your purpose untouched, slightly handled, in discourse. * * * * * adherent (page ). questions. . what is an _adherent_? . how does an _adherent_ differ from a _supporter_? from a _disciple_? . how do both the above words differ from _ally_? . has _partisan_ a good or a bad sense, and why? . is it well to speak of a _supporter_ as a _backer_? examples. also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away ----s after them. woman is woman's natural ----. self-defense compelled the european nations to be ----s against napoleon. the deposed monarch was found to have a strong body of ----s. * * * * * adjacent (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _adjacent_ and _adjoining_? _contiguous_? _conterminous_? . what distance is implied in _near_? _neighboring_? . what does _next_ always imply? . give antonyms of _adjacent_; _near_. examples. stronger by weakness, wiser men become, as they draw ---- to their eternal home. * * * * * admire (page ). questions. . in what sense was _admire_ formerly used? what does it now express? . how does _admire_ compare with _revere_? _venerate_? _adore_? give instances of the use of these words. examples. the beautiful are sure to be ----. henceforth the majesty of god ----; fear him, and you have nothing else to fear. i value science--none can prize it more, it gives ten thousand motives to ----: be it religious, as it ought to be, the heart it humbles, and it bows the knee. * * * * * adorn (page ). questions. . how does _adorn_ differ from _ornament_? from _garnish_? from _deck_ or _bedeck_? from _decorate_? examples. at church, with meek and unaffected grace, his looks ---- the venerable place. the red breast oft, at evening hours, shall kindly lend his little aid, with hoary moss, and gathered flowers, to ---- the ground where thou art laid. * * * * * affront (page ). questions. . what is it to _affront_? . how does _affront_ compare with _insult_? with _tease_? _annoy_? examples. it is safer to ---- some people than to oblige them; for the better a man deserves, the worse they will speak of him. oh, rather give me commentators plain, who with no deep researches ---- the brain. the petty desire to ---- is simply a perversion of the human love of power. they rushed to meet the ---- foe. * * * * * agent (page ). questions. . how does _agent_ in the philosophical sense compare with _mover_ or _doer_? . what different sense has it in business usage? examples. that morality may mean anything, man must be held to be a free ----. the ---- declined to take the responsibility in the absence of the owner. * * * * * agree (page ). questions. . how do _concur_ and _coincide_ differ in range of meaning? how with reference to expression in action? . how does _accede_ compare with _consent_? . which is the most general word of this group? examples. a woman's lot is made for her by the love she ----. my poverty, but not my will, ----. * * * * * agriculture (page ). questions. . what does _agriculture_ include? how does it differ from _farming_? . what is _gardening_? _floriculture_? _horticulture_? examples. loan oft loses both itself and friend; and borrowing dulls the edge of ----. a field becomes exhausted by constant ----. * * * * * aim (page ). questions. . what is an _aim_? how does it differ from _mark_? from _goal_? . how do _end_ and _object_ compare? . to what does _aspiration_ apply? how does it differ in general from _design_, _endeavor_, or _purpose_? . how does _purpose_ compare with _intention_? . what is _design_? examples. in deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn for miserable ---- that end with self. o yet we trust that somehow good will be the final ---- of ill. how quickly nature falls into revolt, when gold becomes her ----. it is not ----, but ambition that is the mother of misery in man. * * * * * air (page ). questions. . what is _air_ in the sense here considered? . how does _air_ differ from _appearance_? . what is the difference between _expression_ and _look_? . what is the sense of _bearing_? _carriage_? . how does _mien_ differ from _air_? . what does _demeanor_ include? examples. i never, with important ----, in conversation overbear. vice is a monster of so frightful ----, as, to be hated, needs but to be seen. grief fills the room up of my absent child, lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, puts on his pretty ----, repeats his words. * * * * * airy (page ). questions. . how does _airy_ agree with and differ from _aerial_? give instances of the uses of the two words. . what does _ethereal_ signify? _sprightly_? . are _lively_ and _animated_ used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? examples. ---- tongues that syllable men's names, on sands and shores and desert wildernesses. the ---- mold incapable of stain, would soon expel her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, victorious. society became my glittering bride, and ---- hopes my children. soft o'er the shrouds ---- whispers breathe, that seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath. * * * * * alarm (page ). questions. . what is the derivation and distinctive meaning of _alarm_? . what do _affright_ and _fright_ express? give an illustration of the contrasted terms. . how are _apprehension_, _disquietude_, _dread_, and _misgiving_ related to the danger that excites them? . what are _consternation_, _dismay_, and _terror_, and how are they related to the danger? . what is _timidity_? * * * * * alert (page ). questions. . to what do _alert_, _wide-awake_, and _ready_ refer? . how does _ready_ differ from _alert_? from _prepared_? . what does _prompt_ signify? . what is the secondary meaning of _alert_? examples. to be ---- for war is one of the most effectual ways of preserving peace. he who is not ---- to-day will be less so to-morrow. thus ending loudly, as he would o'erleap his destiny, ---- he stood. * * * * * alien, _a. & n._ (page ). questions. . how does _alien_ differ from _foreign_? . is a _foreigner_ by birth necessarily an _alien_? . are the people of one country while residing in their own land _foreigners_ or _aliens_ to the people of other lands? . how can one residing in a _foreign_ country cease to be an _alien_ in that country? . how do _foreign_ and _alien_ differ in their figurative use? examples. by ---- hands thy dying eyes were closed . . . by ---- hands thy humble grave adorned by strangers honored and by strangers mourned. what is religion? not a ---- inhabitant, nor something ---- to our nature, which comes and takes up its abode in the soul. ---- from the commonwealth of israel and ---- from the covenants of promise. * * * * * alike (page ). questions. . how does _alike_ compare with _similar_? with _identical_? . what is the distinction often made between _equal_ and _equivalent_? . what is the sense of _analogous_? (compare synonyms for analogy.) . in what sense is _homogeneous_ used? examples. sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful; never the ---- for two moments together. fashioned for himself, a bride; an ----, taken from his side. * * * * * allay (page ). questions. . what is the distinction between _allay_ and _alleviate_? which word implies a partial removal of the cause of suffering, or an actual _lightening_ of the burden? . with which of the above words are we to class _appease_, _pacify_, _soothe_, and the like? . with what words is _alleviate_ especially to be grouped? (see synonyms for alleviate.) examples. such songs have power to ---- the restless pulse of care, and come like the benediction that follows after prayer. many a word, at random spoken may ---- or wound a heart that's broken! * * * * * allege (page ). questions. . which is the primary and which the secondary word, _allege_ or _adduce_? why? . how much of certainty is implied in _allege_? . how much does one admit when he speaks of an _alleged_ fact, document, signature, or the like? examples. in many ---- cases of haunted houses, the spirits have not ventured to face an armed man who has passed the night there. i can not ---- one thing and mean another. if i can't pray i will not make believe! * * * * * allegory (page ). questions. . how does _allegory_ compare with _simile_? _simile_ with _metaphor_? . what are the distinctions between _allegory_, _fable_, and _parable_? . under what general term are all these included? . to what is _fiction_ now most commonly applied? examples. in argument ---- are like songs in love: they much describe; they nothing prove. and he spake many things unto them in ----, saying, behold a sower went forth to sow. * * * * * alleviate (page ). questions. . how does _alleviate_ differ from _relieve_? from _remove_? . is _alleviate_ used of persons? . what are the special significations of _abate_? _assuage_? _mitigate_? _moderate_? . how does _alleviate_ compare with _allay_? (compare synonyms for allay.) examples. to pity distress is but human; to ---- it is godlike. but, o! what mighty magician can ---- a woman's envy? * * * * * alliance (page ). questions. . what is an _alliance_? how does it differ from _partnership_? from _coalition_? from _league_? . how does a _confederacy_ or _federation_ differ from a _union_? examples. the two nations formed an offensive and defensive ---- against the common enemy. till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled, in the parliament of man, the ---- of the world. business ---- are the warrant for the existence of trade ----. * * * * * allot (page ). questions. . does _allot_ refer to time, place, or person? . to what does _appoint_ refer? _assign_? . how does _destine_ differ from _appoint_? . how does _award_ differ from _allot_, _appoint_, and _assign_? examples. man hath his daily work of body or mind ----. he ----eth the moon for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down. the king is but as the hind ... who may not wander from the ---- field before his work be done. * * * * * allow (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _allow_ and _permit_? between a _permit_ and _permission_? . what instances can you give of the use of these words, also of _tolerate_ and _submit_? . what does _yield_ imply? examples. frederick ---- the austrians to cross the mountains that he might attack them on a field of his own choosing. the cruelty and envy of the people ---- by our dastard nobles, who have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest. state churches have ever been unwilling to ---- dissent. * * * * * allude (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive sense of _allude_? of _advert_? of _refer_? . how do the above words compare with _mention_ as to explicitness? . how do _hint_ and _insinuate_ differ? examples. late in the eighteenth century cowper did not venture to do more than ---- to the great allegorist [bunyan], saying: "i name thee not, lest so despised a name should move a sneer at thy deserved fame." * * * * * allure (page ). questions. . what is it to _allure_? . how does _allure_ differ from _attract_? from _lure_? . what does _coax_ express? . what is it to _cajole_? to _decoy_? to _inveigle_? . how does _seduce_ differ from _tempt_? . is _win_ used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? examples. the ruddy square of comfortable light ---- him, as the beacon blaze ---- the bird of passage. but satan now is wiser than of yore, and ---- by making rich, not making poor. he had a strange gift of ---- friends, and of ---- the love of women. * * * * * also (page ). questions. . into what two groups are the synonyms for _also_ naturally divided? . which words simply add a fact or thought? . which distinctly imply that what is added is like that to which it is added? examples. thine to work ---- to pray, clearing thorny wrongs away; plucking up the weeds of sin, letting heaven's warm sunshine in. * * * * * alternative (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _choice_ and _alternative_ in the strict use of language? . is _alternative_ always so severely restricted by leading writers? . what do _choice_, _pick_, _election_, and _preference_ imply regarding one's wishes? _alternative_? _resources_? examples. homer delights to call ulysses "the man of many ----." * * * * * amass (page ). questions. . what is it to _amass_? . how is _amass_ distinguished from _accumulate_? . is interest _amassed_ or _accumulated_? . how does _hoard_ differ from _store_? examples. by daring and successful speculation, he ---- a prodigious fortune. the sum was the ---- savings of an industrious and frugal life. o, to what purpose dost thou ---- thy words, that thou return'st no greeting to thy friends? * * * * * amateur (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _amateur_ and _connoisseur_? between _connoisseur_ and _critic_? . which word carries a natural implication of superficialness? . how do _novice_ and _tyro_ differ from _amateur_? examples. he was in logic a great ---- profoundly skill'd in analytic; he could distinguish, and divide a hair 'twixt south and south-west side. the greatest works in poetry, painting, and sculpture have not been done by ----. the mere ---- who produces nothing, and whose business is only to judge and enjoy. * * * * * amazement (page ). questions. . what do _amazement_ and _astonishment_ agree in expressing? . how do the two words differ? . what is the meaning of _awe_? of _admiration_? . how does _surprise_ differ from _astonishment_ and _amazement_? . what are the characteristics of _wonder_? examples. 'twas while he toiled him to be freed, and with the rein to raise the steed, that, from ----'s iron trance, all wycklif's soldiers waked at once. can such things be, and overcome us like a summer's cloud, without our special ----? the fool of nature stood with stupid eyes and gaping mouth that testified ----. * * * * * ambition (page ). questions. . what two senses has _ambition_? . how does _ambition_ differ from _aspiration_? which is the higher word? . what is the distinctive sense of _emulation_? . has _emulation_ a good side? how does it compare with _aspiration_? examples. cromwell, i charge thee, fling away ---- by that sin, fell the angels. envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, is ---- in the learn'd or brave. i have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ----. * * * * * amend (page ). questions. . what is it to _amend_? . how do _advance_, _better_, and _improve_ differ from _amend_? . are these words applied to matters decidedly bad, foul, or evil? . what is the difference between _amend_ and _emend_? examples. return ye now every man from his evil way, and ---- your doings. the construction here is difficult, and the text at this point has been variously ----. human characters and conditions never reach such perfection that they can not be ----. * * * * * amiable (page ). questions. . to what does _lovely_ often apply? . to what does _amiable_ always apply? . how do _agreeable_, _attractive_, and _charming_ differ from _amiable_? give examples. . is a _good-natured_ person necessarily _agreeable_? an _amiable_ person? examples. his life was ----; and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up and say to all the world, this was a man! the east is blossoming! yea a rose, vast as the heavens, soft as a kiss, ---- as the presence of woman is. * * * * * analogy (page ). questions. . what is the specific meaning of _analogy_? . what is _affinity_? _coincidence_? . does _coincidence_ necessarily involve _resemblance_ or _likeness_? . what is _parity_ of _reasoning_? . what is a _similitude_? . how do _resemblance_ and _similarity_ differ from _analogy_? examples. the two boys bore a close ---- to each other. it is not difficult to trace the ---- of the home to the state. * * * * * anger (page ). questions. . what are the especial characteristics of _anger_? how does it differ from _indignation_? _exasperation_? _rage_? _wrath_? _ire_? examples. my enemy has long borne me a feeling of ----. christ was filled with ---- at the hypocrisy of the jews. i was overcome by a sudden feeling of ----. * * * * * animal (page ). questions. . what is an _animal_? a _brute_? a _beast_? . is man an _animal_? . what is implied if we speak of any particular man as an _animal_? a _brute_? a _beast_? . what forms of existence does the word _creature_ include? . what are the animals of a country or region collectively called? examples. it is only within the last half century that societies have been organized for the prevention of cruelty to ----. o that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into ----! take a ---- out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding. spurning manhood and its joys to loot, to be a lawless, lazy, sensual ----. * * * * * announce (page ). questions. . what is it to _announce_? . does it apply chiefly to the past or the future? . to what is _advertise_ chiefly applied? _propound_? _promulgate_? _publish_? examples. the sphinx ---- its riddles with life and death depending on the answer. through the rare felicity of the times you are permitted to think what you please and to ---- what you please. the songs of birds and the wild flowers in the woodlands ---- the coming of spring. * * * * * answer (page ). questions. . what is a verbal _answer_? . in what wider sense is _answer_ used? . what is a _reply_? a _rejoinder_? . how does an _answer_ to a charge, an argument, or the like, differ from a _reply_ or _rejoinder_? . what is the special quality of a _response_? . what is a _retort_? how does it differ from _repartee_? examples. i can no other ---- make, but thanks. theirs not to make ---- theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die. upon thy princely warrant i descend, to give thee ---- of thy just demand. he could not be content without finding a ---- in nature to every mood of his mind; and he does find it. a man renowned for ---- will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's honest feeling. nothing is so easy and inviting as the ---- of abuse and sarcasm; but it is a paltry and unprofitable contest. * * * * * anticipate, anticipation (page ). questions. . what are the two contrasted senses of _anticipate_? . which is now the more common? . how does _anticipate_ differ from _expect_? from _hope_? from _apprehend_? . how does _anticipation_ differ from _presentiment_? from _apprehension_? from _foreboding_? . what special element is involved in _foretaste_? how do _foresight_ and _forethought_ go beyond the meaning of _anticipation_? examples. then some leaped overboard with fearful yell, as eager to ---- their grave. england ---- every man to do his duty. these are portents; but yet i ----, i hope, they do not point on me. if i know your sect, i ---- your argument. the happy ---- of a renewed existence in company with the spirits of the just. * * * * * antipathy (page ). questions. . how is _antipathy_ to be distinguished from _dislike_? from _antagonism_? from _aversion_? . what is _uncongeniality_? how does it differ from _antipathy_? which is positive? and which negative? examples. christianity is the solvent of all race ----. from my soul i loathe all affectation; 'tis my perfect scorn, object of my implacable ----. * * * * * antique (page ). questions. . to what does _antique_ refer? _antiquated_? . is the difference between them a matter of time? give examples. . can a modern building be _antiquated_? can it be _antique_? . what is the significance of _quaint_? examples. my copper lamps, at any rate, for being true ----, i bought. i do love these ---- ruins, we never tread upon them but we set our foot upon some reverend history. * * * * * anxiety (page ). questions. . what is _anxiety_ in the primary sense? is it mental or physical? . how does _anxiety_ differ from _anguish_? . what kind of possibility does _anxiety_ always suggest? . how does it differ from _apprehension_, _fear_, _dread_, etc., in this regard? . what is _worry_? _fretfulness_? . does _perplexity_ involve anxiety? examples. yield not to ---- the future, weep not for the past. superstition invested the slightest incidents of life with needless ----. ---- is harder than work, and far less profitable. * * * * * apathy (page ). questions. . what is _apathy_? . how does it differ from the saxon word _unfeelingness_? from _indifference_? from _insensibility_? from _unconcern_? . how does _stoicism_ differ from _apathy_? examples. in lazy ---- let stoics boast their virtue fixed: 'tis fixed as in a frost. at length the morn and cold ---- came. he sank into a ---- from which it was impossible to arouse him. * * * * * apology (page ). questions. . what change of meaning has _apology_ undergone? . what does an _apology_ now always imply? . how does an _apology_ differ from an _excuse_? . which of these words may refer to the future? . how does _confession_ differ from _apology_? examples. ---- only account for that which they do not alter. beauty is its own ---- for being. there is no refuge from ---- but suicide; and suicide is ----. * * * * * apparent (page ). questions. . what two contrasted senses arise from the root meaning of _apparent_? . what is implied when we speak of _apparent_ kindness or _apparent_ neglect? . how do _presumable_ and _probable_ differ? . what implication is conveyed in _seeming_? what do we suggest when we speak of "_seeming_ innocence"? examples. it is not ---- that the students will attempt to break the rules again. it is not yet ---- what his motive could have been in committing such an offense. it is ---- that something has been omitted which was essential to complete the construction. * * * * * appetite (page ). questions. . of what kind of demands or impulses is _appetite_ ordinarily used? . what demands or tendencies are included in _passion_? . what is implied by _passions_ and _appetites_ when used as contrasted terms? examples. govern well thy ----, lest sin surprise thee, and her black attendant death. take heed lest ---- sway thy judgment to do aught which else free will would not admit. * * * * * apportion (page ). questions. . what is the special significance of _apportion_ by which it is distinguished from _allot_, _assign_, _distribute_, or _divide_? . what is the significance of _dispense_ in the transitive use? . what is it to _appropriate_? examples. representatives are ---- among the several states according to the population. the treasure was ---- and their shares duly ---- among the captors. * * * * * approximation (page ). questions. . what is an _approximation_ in the mathematical sense? . how close an approach to exactness and certainty does _approximation_ imply? . how does _approximation_ differ from _resemblance_ and _similarity_? from _approach_? . how does _approximation_, as regards the class of objects to which it is applied, differ from _nearness_, _neighborhood_, or _propinquity_? examples. we have to be content with ---- to a solution. without faith, there is no real ---- to god. wit consists in knowing the ---- of things which differ, and the difference of things which are alike. * * * * * arms (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _arms_ and _armor_? . in what connection is _armor_ used in modern warfare? examples. ---- on ---- clashing brayed horrible discord. there is constant rivalry between irresistible projectiles and impenetrable ----. * * * * * army (page ). questions. . what are the essentials of an _army_? . is an _army_ large or small? . what term would be applied to a _multitude_ of armed men without order or organization? . in what sense is _host_ used? _legion_? examples. for the ---- is a school in which the miser becomes generous, and the generous, prodigal; miserly soldiers are like monsters, but very rarely seen. the still-discordant wavering ----. * * * * * arraign (page ). questions. . to what kind of proceedings do _indict_ and _arraign_ apply? . how is one _indicted_? how _arraigned_? . how do these words differ from _charge_? _accuse_? _censure_? examples. the criminal was ---- for trial for his offenses. religion does not ---- or exclude unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued. * * * * * artifice (page ). questions. . what is an _artifice_? a _device_? _finesse_? . in what sense are _cheat_, _maneuver_, and _imposture_ always used? . in what sense is _trick_ commonly used? . what is a _fraud_? . is _wile_ used in a good or a bad sense? . does the good or the bad sense commonly attach to the words _artifice_, _contrivance_, _ruse_, _blind_, _device_, and _finesse_? examples. those who can not gain their ends by force naturally resort to ----. the enemy were decoyed from their defenses by a skilful ----. quips and cranks and wanton ----, nods and becks and wreathed smiles. whoever has even once become notorious by base ----, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief. * * * * * artist (page ). questions. . what is an _artist_? an _artisan_? . what is an _artificer_? how related to _artist_ and _artisan_? examples. the power depends on the depth of the ----'s insight of that object he contemplates. infuse into the purpose with which you follow the various employments and professions of life the sense of beauty, and you are transformed at once from an ---- into an ----. if too many ---- turn shopkeepers, the whole natural quantity of that business divided among them all may afford too small a share for each. * * * * * ask (page ). questions. . for what class of objects does one _ask_? for what does he _beg_? . how do _entreat_ and _beseech_ compare with _ask_? . what is the special sense of _implore_? of _supplicate_? . how are _crave_ and _request_ distinguished? _pray_ and _petition_? . what kind of _asking_ is implied in _demand_? in _require_? how do these two words differ from one another? examples. we, ignorant of ourselves, ---- often our own harms, which the wise powers deny us for our good: so we find profit, by losing of our prayers. the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: ---- ye therefore the lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. speak with me, pity me, open the door, a beggar ---- that never begg'd before. be not afraid to ----; to ---- is right. ----, if thou canst, with hope; but ever ----. though hope be weak or sick with long delay; ---- in the darkness, if there be no light. * * * * * associate (page ). questions. . what does _associate_ imply, as used officially? what when used in popular language? . do we speak of associates in crime or wrong? what words are preferred in such connection? (see synonyms for accessory.) . is _companion_ used in a good or bad sense? . how does it differ in use from _associate_? . what is the significance of _peer_? _comrade_? _consort_? examples. his best ----, innocence and health, and his best riches, ignorance of wealth. the ---- accepted napoleon's abdication. the leader in the plot was betrayed by his ----. * * * * * assume (page ). questions. . does _assume_ apply to that which is rightfully or wrongfully taken? . in what use does _assume_ correspond with _arrogate_ and _usurp_? . how do _arrogate_ and _usurp_ differ from each other? how does _assume_ differ from _postulate_ as regards debate or reasoning of any kind? examples. wherefore do i ---- these royalties, and not refuse to reign. ---- a virtue if you have it not. for well we know no hand of blood and bone can gripe the sacred handle of our scepter, unless he do profane, steal, or ----. * * * * * assurance (page ). questions. . what is _assurance_ in the good sense? . what is _assurance_ in the bad sense? . how does _assurance_ compare with _impudence_? with _effrontery_? examples. let us draw near with a true heart in full ---- of faith. some wicked wits have libel'd all the fair. with matchless ---- they style a wife the dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life. with brazen ---- he denied the most indisputable facts. * * * * * astute (page ). questions. . from what language is _acute_ derived? what is its distinctive sense? . from what language is _keen_ derived? what does it distinctively denote? . from what language is _astute_ derived, and what was its original meaning? . in present use what does _astute_ add to the meaning of _acute_ or _keen_? . what does _astute_ imply regarding the ulterior purpose or object of the person who is credited with it? examples. you statesmen are so ---- in forming schemes! he taketh the wise in their own ----ness. the most ---- reasoner may be deluded, when he practises sophistry upon himself. * * * * * attachment (page ). questions. . what is _attachment_? how does it differ from _adherence_ or _adhesion_? from _affection_? from _inclination_? from _regard_? examples. talk not of wasted ----, ---- never was wasted. you do not weaken your ---- for your family by cultivating ----s beyond its pale, but deepen and intensify it. * * * * * attack, _v. & n._ (pages , ). questions. . what special element is involved in the meaning of _attack_? . how do _assail_ and _assault_ differ? . what is it to _encounter_? how does this word compare with _attack_? how does _attack_ differ from _aggression_? examples. we see time's furrows on another's brow, and death intrench'd, preparing his ----; how few themselves in that just mirror see! who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open ----? roger williams ---- the spirit of intolerance, the doctrine of persecution, and never his persecutors. * * * * * attain (page ). questions. . what kind of a word is _attain_, and to what does it point? . how does _attain_ differ from _obtain_? from _achieve_? . how does _obtain_ differ from _procure_? examples. the heights by great men ---- and kept were not ---- by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might ---- by fearing to attempt. * * * * * attitude (page ). questions. . how does _position_ as regards the human body differ from _attitude_, _posture_, or _pose_? . do the three latter words apply to the living or the dead? . what is the distinctive sense of _attitude_? is it conscious or unconscious? . how does _posture_ differ from _attitude_? . what is the distinctive sense of _pose_? how does it differ from, and how does it agree with _attitude_ and _posture_? examples. the ---- assumed indicated great indignation because of the insult implied. the ---- was graceful and pleasing. * * * * * attribute, _v._ (page ). questions. . what suggestion is often involved in _attribute_? . how does _attribute_ differ from _refer_ and _ascribe_? . is _charge_ (in this connection) used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? examples. ---- ye greatness unto our god. he ---- unworthy motives which proved a groundless charge. * * * * * attribute, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is the derivation and the inherent meaning of _quality_? . what is an _attribute_? . which of the above words expresses what necessarily belongs to the subject of which it is said to be an _attribute_ or _quality_? . what is the derivation and distinctive sense of _property_? . how does _property_ ordinarily differ from _quality_? . in what usage do _property_ and _quality_ become exact synonyms, and how are _properties_ then distinguished? examples. his scepter shows the force of temporal power, the ---- to awe and majesty, wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. nothing endures but personal ----s. * * * * * avaricious (page ). questions. . how do _avaricious_ and _covetous_ differ from _miserly_, _niggardly_, _parsimonious_, and _penurious_? . of what matters are _greedy_ and _stingy_ used? how do they differ from each other? examples. i am not ---- for gold; nor care i who doth feed upon my cost; it yearns me not if men my garments wear. it is better to be content with such things as ye have than to become ---- and ---- in accumulating. * * * * * avenge (page ). questions. . what is it to _avenge_? . how does _avenge_ differ from _revenge_? . which word would be used of an act of god? . is _retaliate_ used in the sense of _avenge_ or of _revenge_? examples. o, that the vain remorse, which must chastise crimes done, had but as loud a voice to warn as its keen sting is mortal to ----. i lost mine eye laying the prize aboard, and therefore to ---- it, shalt thou die. * * * * * avow (page ). questions. . which words of this group refer exclusively to one's own knowledge or action? . what is the distinctive sense of _aver_? of _avouch_? of _avow_? . how do _avouch_ and _avow_ differ from _aver_ in construction? . is _avow_ used in a good or a bad sense? what does it imply of others' probable feeling or action? . how does _avow_ compare with _confess_? examples. and, but herself, ---- no parallel. the child ---- his fault and was pardoned by his parent. * * * * * awful (page ). questions. . to what matters should _awful_ properly be restricted? . is _awful_ always interchangeable with _alarming_ or _terrible_? with _disagreeable_ or _annoying_? examples. then must it be an ---- thing to die. the silent falling of the snow is to me one of the most ---- things in nature. * * * * * awkward (page ). questions. . what is the derivation and original meaning of _awkward_? of _clumsy_? . to what, therefore, does _awkward_ primarily refer? and to what _clumsy_? . is a draft-horse distinctively _awkward_ or _clumsy_? . give some metaphorical uses of _awkward_. examples. though he was ----, he was kindly. the apprentice was not only ----, but ----, and had to be taught over and over again the same methods. the young girl stood in a ---- way, looking in at the showy shop-windows. * * * * * axiom (page ). questions. . in what do _axiom_ and _truism_ agree? . in what do they differ? . how do they compare in interest and utility? examples. it is almost an ---- that those who do most for the heathen abroad are most liberal for the heathen at home. trifling ----s clothed in great, swelling words of vanity. * * * * * babble (page ). questions. . to what class do most of the words in this group belong? why are they so called? . what is the special significance of _blab_ and _blurt_? how do they differ from each other in use? . what is _chat_? . how does _prattling_ differ from _chatting_? . in what sense is _jabber_ used? how does it compare with _chatter_? examples. "the crane," i said, "may ---- of the crane, the dove may ---- of the dove." two women sat contentedly ----ing, one of them amusing a ----ing babe. * * * * * banish (page ). questions. . from what land may one be _banished_? from what _expatriated_ or _exiled_? . by whom may one be said to be _banished_? by whom _expatriated_ or _exiled_? . which of these words is of widest import? give examples of its metaphorical use. * * * * * bank (page ). questions. . what is a _beach_? a _coast_? . how does each of the above words differ from _bank_? . what is the distinctive sense of _strand_? in what style of writing is it most commonly used? . what are the distinctive senses of _edge_ and _brink_? * * * * * banter (page ). questions. . what is _banter_? . how is _badinage_ distinguished from _banter_? _raillery_ from both? . what is the distinctive sense of _irony_? . is _irony_ kindly or the reverse? _badinage_? _banter_? . what words of this group are distinctly hostile? . is _ridicule_ or _derision_ the stronger word? what is the distinction between the two? between _satire_ and _sarcasm_? between _chaff_, _jeering_, and _mockery_? * * * * * barbarous (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _barbarian_? . what is the added significance of _barbaric_? . how does _barbarous_ in general use differ from both the above words? . what special element is commonly implied in _savage_? . in what less opprobrious sense may _barbarous_ and _savage_ be used? give instances. examples. a multitude like which the populous north poured never from her frozen loins, to pass rhene or the danaw, when her ---- sons came like a deluge on the south. or when the gorgeous east, with richest hand, showers on her kings ---- pearl and gold. it is most true, that a natural and secret hatred and aversation toward society, in any man, hath somewhat of the ---- beast. thou art bought and sold among those of any wit like a ---- slave. * * * * * barrier (page ). questions. . what is a _bar_? and what is its purpose? . what is a _barrier_? . which word is ordinarily applied to objects of great extent? . would a mountain range be termed a _bar_ or a _barrier_? . what distinctive name is given to a mass of sand across the mouth of a river or harbor? * * * * * battle (page ). questions. . what is the general meaning of _conflict_? . what is a _battle_? . how long may a _battle_ last? . on how many fields may one _battle_ be fought? . how does _engagement_ differ from _battle_? how does _combat_ differ? _action_? _skirmish_? _fight_? * * * * * beautiful (page ). questions. . what is necessary to constitute an object or a person _beautiful_? . can _beautiful_ be said of that which is harsh and ragged, however grand? . how is _beautiful_ related to our powers of appreciation? . how does _pretty_ compare with _beautiful_? _handsome_? . what does _fair_ denote? _comely_? _picturesque_? examples. i pray thee, o god, that i may be ---- within. a happy youth, and their old age is ---- and free. 'twas sung, how they were ---- in their lives and in their death had not divided been. how ---- has the day been, how bright was the sun. how lovely and joyful the course that he run. though he rose in a mist when his race he began and there followed some droppings of rain! * * * * * becoming (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _becoming_? of _decent_? of _suitable_? . can that which is worthy or beautiful in itself ever be otherwise than _becoming_ or _suitable_? give instances. . what is the meaning of _fit_? how does it differ from _fitting_ or _befitting_? examples. a merrier man, within the limit of ---- mirth, i never spent an hour's talk withal. still govern thou my song, urania, and ---- audience find, tho few. indeed, left nothing ---- for your purpose untouch'd, slightly handled, in discourse. in such a time as this, it is not ---- that every nice offense should bear his comment. how could money be better spent than in erecting a ---- building for the greatest library in the country? * * * * * beginning (page ). questions. . from what language is _beginning_ derived? _commencement_? how do the two words differ in application and use? give instances. . what is an _origin_? a _source_? a _rise_? . how are _fount_, _fountain_, and _spring_ used in the figurative sense? examples. for learning is the ---- pure, out from which all glory springs. truth is the ---- of every good to gods and men. courage, the mighty attribute of powers above, by which those great in war are great in love; the ---- of all brave acts is seated here. it can not be that desdemona should long continue her love to the moor, nor he his to her: it was a violent ----, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration. in the ---- god created the heaven and the earth. * * * * * behavior (page ). questions. . how do _behavior_ and _conduct_ differ? . what is the special sense of _carriage_? of _bearing_? _demeanor_? . what is _manner_? _manners_? examples. our thoughts and our ---- are our own. good ---- are made up of petty sacrifices. * * * * * benevolence (page ). questions. . what is the original distinction between _benevolence_ and _beneficence_? . in what sense is _benevolence_ now most commonly used? . what words are commonly used for _benevolence_ in the original sense? . what was the original sense of _charity_? the present popular sense? . what of _humanity_? _generosity_? _liberality_? _philanthropy_? examples. ---- is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands. the secrets of life are not shown except to ---- and likeness. * * * * * bind (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive sense of _bind_? . what is the special meaning of _tie_? . in how general a sense is _fasten_ used? . which of the above three words is used in a figurative sense? examples. shut, shut the door, good john! fatigu'd, i said; ---- up the knocker, say i'm sick, i'm dead. adjust our lives to loss, make friends with pain, ---- all our shattered hopes and bid them bloom again. * * * * * bitter (page ). questions. . how may _acid_, _bitter_, and _acrid_ be distinguished? _pungent_? _caustic_? . in metaphorical use, how are _harsh_ and _bitter_ distinguished? . what is the special significance of _caustic_? . give examples of these words in their various uses. * * * * * bleach (page ). questions. . how do _bleach_ and _blanch_ differ from _whiten_? from each other? examples. you can behold such sights, and keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, when mine is ---- with fear. we let the years go: wash them clean with tears, leave them to ---- out in the open day. * * * * * blemish (page ). questions. . what is a _blemish_? . how does it differ from a _flaw_ or _taint_? . what is a _defect_? a _fault_? . which words of this group are naturally applied to reputation, and which to character? examples. every page enclosing in the midst a square of text that looks a little ----. the noble brutus hath told you cæsar was ambitious: if it were so, it was a grievous ----. * * * * * bluff (page ). questions. . in what sense are _bluff_, _frank_, and _open_ used? . in what sense are _blunt_, _brusk_, _rough_, and _rude_ employed? examples. there are to whom my satire seems too ----. stout once a month they march, a ---- band and ever but in times of need, at hand. * * * * * boundary (page ). questions. . what is the original sense of _boundary_? . how does it differ in usage from _bound_ or _bounds_? . in what style and sense is _bourn_ used? . what is the distinctive meaning of _edge_? examples. so these lives ... parted by ----s strong, but drawing nearer and nearer, rushed together at last, and one was lost in the other. in worst extremes, and on the perilous ---- of battle. * * * * * brave (page ). questions. . how does _brave_ differ from _courageous_? . what is the special sense of _adventurous_? of _bold_? of _chivalrous_? . how do these words differ from _venturesome_? . what is especially denoted by _fearless_ and _intrepid_? . what does _valiant_ tell of results? . what ideas are combined in _heroic_? examples. a ---- man is also full of faith. fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts, in ---- youth we tempt the heights of arts. thy danger chiefly lies in acting well; no crime's so great as ---- to excel. * * * * * business (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _barter_? . what does _business_ add to the meaning of _barter_? . what is _occupation_? is it broader than _business_? . what is a _vocation_? . what (in the strict sense) is an _avocation_? . what is implied in _profession_? _pursuit_? . what is a _transaction_? . how does _trade_ differ from _commerce_? . what is _work_? . what is an _art_ in the industrial sense? a _craft_? examples. a man must serve his time to every ----. we turn to dust, and all our mightiest ----s die too. * * * * * calculate (page ). questions. . how do you distinguish between _count_ and _calculate_? _compute_, _reckon_ and _estimate_? . which is used mostly with regard to future probabilities? . do we use _compute_ or _estimate_ of numbers exactly known? . of _compute_, _calculate_, and _estimate_, which is used with especial reference to the future? examples. there were men in the district, by actual ----. the time of the eclipse was ---- to a second. we ask them to ---- approximately the cost of the building. * * * * * call (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _call_? . do we ever apply _bellow_ and _roar_ to human sounds? . can you give more than one sense of _cry_? . are _shout_ and _scream_ more or less expressive than _call_? . which of the words in this group are necessarily and which ordinarily applied to articulate utterance? which rarely, if ever, so used? examples. ---- for the robin redbreast and the wren. the pioneers could hear the savages ---- outside. i ---- my servant and he came. the captain ---- in a voice of thunder to the helmsman, "put your helm hard aport!" * * * * * calm (page ). questions. . to what classes of objects or states of mind do we apply _calm_? _collected_? _quiet_? _placid_? _serene_? _still_? _tranquil_? . do the antonyms _boisterous_, _excited_, _ruffled_, _turbulent_, and _wild_, also apply to the same? . can you contrast _calm_ and _quiet_? . how many of the preceding adjectives can be applied to water? . how does _composed_ differ from _calm_? examples. the possession of a ---- conscience is an estimable blessing. the water is said to be always ---- in the ocean depths. ---- on the listening ear of night fall heaven's melodious strains. * * * * * cancel (page ). questions. . what is the difference in method involved in the verbs _cancel_, _efface_, _erase_, _expunge_, and _obliterate_? . which suggest the most complete removal of all trace of a writing? . how do the figurative uses of these words compare with the literal? . is it possible to _obliterate_ or _efface_ that which has been previously _canceled_ or _erased_? examples. it is practically impossible to clean a postage-stamp that has been properly ---- so that it can be used again. with the aid of a sharp penknife the blot was quickly ----. by lapse of time and elemental action, the inscription had become completely ----. * * * * * candid (page ). questions. . to what class of things do we apply _aboveboard_? _candid_? _fair_? _frank_? _honest_? _sincere_? _transparent_? . can you state the similarity between _artless_, _guileless_, _naive_, _simple_, and _unsophisticated_? how do they differ as a class from the words above referred to? . how does it happen that "to be frank," or "to be candid" often precedes the utterance of something disagreeable? examples. the sophistry was so ---- as to disgust the assembly. a. t. stewart relied on ---- dealing as the secret of mercantile success. an ---- man will not steal or defraud. ---- she seems with artful care affecting to be unaffected. * * * * * care (page ). questions. . what is the special difference between _care_ and _anxiety_? . wherein does _care_ differ from _caution_? _solicitude_ from _anxiety_? _watchfulness_ from _wariness_? . can you give some of the senses of _care_? . is _concern_ as strong a term as _anxiety_? . what is _circumspection_? _precaution_? _heed_? examples. take her up tenderly, lift her with ----. a military commander should have as much ---- as bravery. the invaders fancied themselves so secure against attack that they had not taken the ---- to station sentinels. * * * * * caricature (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _caricature_? . what is the special difference between _parody_ and _travesty_? between both and _burlesque_? . to what is _caricature_ mostly confined? . how do _mimicry_ and _imitation_ differ? . is an _extravaganza_ an _exaggeration_? examples. the eagle nose of the general was magnified in every artist's ----. his laughable reproduction of the great actor's vagaries was a clever bit of ----. if it be not lying to say that a fox's tail is four feet long, it is certainly a huge ----. * * * * * carry (page ). questions. . to what sort of objects do we apply _bear_? _carry_? _move_? _take_? . what kinds of force or power do we indicate by _convey_, _lift_, _transmit_, and _transport_? . what is the distinction between _bring_ and _carry_? between _carry_ and _bear_? . what does _lift_ mean? . can you give some figurative uses of _carry_? examples. the strong man can ---- , pounds with apparent ease. napoleon always endeavored to ---- the war into the enemy's territory. it was found necessary to ---- the coal overland for a distance of miles. my punishment is greater than i can ----. * * * * * catastrophe (page ). questions. . what is a _catastrophe_ or _cataclysm_? . is a _catastrophe_ also necessarily a _calamity_ or a _disaster_? . which word has the broader meaning, _disaster_ or _calamity_? . does _misfortune_ suggest as serious a condition as any of the foregoing? . how does a _mishap_ compare with a _catastrophe_, a _calamity_, or a _disaster_? . give some chief antonyms of the above. examples. war and pestilence are properly ----, while the loss of a battle may be a ----, but not a ----. fortune is not satisfied with inflicting one ----. well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's ---- in his morning face. the failure of the crops of two successive years proved an irreparable ---- to the emigrants. * * * * * cause (page ). questions. . what is the central distinction between _antecedent_ and _cause_? . how are the words _cause_, _condition_, and _occasion_ illustrated by the fall of an avalanche? . and the antonyms _consequence_? _effect_? _outgrowth_? _result_? . what are _causality_ and _causation_? . how are _origin_ and _source_ related to _cause_? examples. where there is an effect there must be also a ----. it is necessary to know something of the ---- of a man before we can safely trust him. the ---- of the river was found to be a small lake among the hills. what was given as the ---- of the quarrel was really but the ----. * * * * * chagrin (page ). questions. . what feelings are combined in _chagrin_? . how do you distinguish between _chagrin_, _disappointment_, _humiliation_, _mortification_, and _shame_? . which involves a sense of having done wrong? examples. the king's ---- at the limitations imposed upon him was painfully manifest. he is not wholly lost who yet can blush from ----. hope tells a flattering tale, delusive, vain, and hollow. ah! let not hope prevail, lest ---- follow. * * * * * change (page ). questions. . what is the distinction between _change_ and _exchange_? are they ever used as equivalent, and how? . can you distinguish between _modify_ and _qualify_? examples. the tailor offered to ---- the armholes of the coat. we requested the pianist to ---- his music by introducing a few popular tunes. we often fail to recognize the actor who ---- his costume between the acts. * * * * * character (page ). questions. . how do you distinguish between _character_ and _reputation_? _constitution_ and _disposition_? . is _nature_ a broader word than any of the preceding? . if so, why? examples. the philanthropist's ---- for charity is often a great source of annoyance to him. let dogs delight to bark and bite, for 'tis their ---- to. misfortune may cause the loss of friends and reputation, yet if the man has not yielded to wrong, his ---- is superior to loss or change. * * * * * choose (page ). questions. . what are the shades of difference between _choose_, _cull_, _elect_, _pick_, _prefer_, and _select_? . also between the antonyms _cast away_, _decline_, _dismiss_, _refuse_, _repudiate_? . does _select_ imply more care or judgment than _choose_? examples. the prettiest flowers had all been ----. jacob was ---- to esau, tho he was the younger. when a man deliberately ---- to do wrong, there is little hope for him. * * * * * circumstance (page ). questions. . to what classes of things do we apply _accompaniment_? _concomitant_? _circumstance_? _event_? _fact_? _incident_? _occurrence_? _situation_? . can you give some instances of the use of _circumstance_? . is it a word of broader meaning than _incident_? examples. the ---- that there had been a fire was proved by the smoke-blackened walls. extreme provocation may be a mitigating ---- in a case of homicide. * * * * * class (page ). questions. . how does a _class_ differ from a _caste_? . in what connection is _rank_ used? _order_? . what is a _coterie_? how does it differ from a _clique_? examples. an ---- was formed for the relief of the poor and needy of the city. a select ---- met at the residence of one of the leading men of the city. there is a struggle of the masses against the ----. * * * * * clear (page ). questions. . what does _clear_ originally signify? . how does _clear_ differ from _transparent_ as regards a substance that may be a medium of vision? . with what meaning is _clear_ used of an object apprehended by the senses, as an object of sight or hearing? . what does _distinct_ signify? . what is _plain_? . what special sense does this word always retain? how does _transparent_ differ from _translucent_? . what do _lucid_ and _pellucid_ signify? . what is the special force of _limpid_? * * * * * clever (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _clever_ as used in england? . what was the early new england usage? . what is to be said of the use of _smart_ and _sharp_? . what other words of this group are preferable to _clever_ in many of its uses? examples. his brief experience in the department had made him very ---- in the work now assigned him. she was especially ---- in song. be good, sweet maid, and let who will be ----; do noble things, not dream them, all day long; and so make life, death, and the vast forever one grand, sweet song. * * * * * company (page ). questions. . from what is _company_ derived? what is its primary meaning? . for what are those associated who constitute a _company_? is their association temporary or permanent? . what is the difference between _assemblage_ and _assembly_? . what is a _conclave_? a _convocation_? a _convention_? . what are the characteristics of a _group_? . to what use is _congregation_ restricted? how does _meeting_ agree with and differ from it? examples. far from the madding ----'s ignoble strife, their sober wishes never learned to stray. the room contained a large ---- of miscellaneous objects. a fellow that makes no figure in ----. a great ---- had met, but without organization or officers. if ye inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful ----. * * * * * compel (page ). questions. . what is it to _compel_? . what does _force_ imply? . what is the especial significance of _coerce_? . what does _constrain_ imply? in what favorable sense is it used? examples. even if we were not willing, they possessed the power of ---- us to do justice. employers may ---- their employees into voting as they demand, but for the secret ballot. these considerations ---- us to aid them to the utmost of our power. * * * * * complain (page ). questions. . by what is _complaining_ prompted? _murmuring_? _repining_? . which finds outward expression, and which is limited to the mental act? . to whom does one _complain_, in the formal sense of the word? . with whom does one _remonstrate_? examples. it is not pleasant to live with one who is constantly ----ing. the dog gave a low ---- which frightened the tramp away. * * * * * complex (page ). questions. . how does _complex_ differ from _compound_? from _composite_? . what is _heterogeneous_? _conglomerate_? . how does _complicated_ differ from _intricate_? from _involved_? * * * * * conscious (page ). questions. . of what things is one _aware_? of what is he _conscious_? . how does _sensible_ compare with the above-mentioned words? . what does _sensible_ indicate regarding the emotions, that would not be expressed by _conscious_? examples. to be ---- that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. they are now ---- it would have been better to resist the first temptation. he was ---- of a stealthy step and a bulk dimly visible through the darkness. * * * * * consequence (page ). questions. . how does _consequence_ differ from _effect_? both from _result_? . how do _result_ and _issue_ compare? . in what sense is _consequent_ used? * * * * * contagion (page ). questions. . to what is _contagion_ now limited by the best medical usage? . to what is the term _infection_ applied? examples. during the plague in london persons walked in the middle of the streets for fear of the ---- from the houses. the mob thinks by ---- for the most part, catching an opinion like a cold. no pestilence is so much to be dreaded as the ---- of bad example. * * * * * continual (page ). questions. . how does _continuous_ differ from _continual_? _incessant_ from _ceaseless_? give examples. * * * * * contrast (page ). questions. . how is _contrast_ related to _compare_? . what are the special senses of _differentiate_, _discriminate_ and _distinguish_? * * * * * conversation (page ). questions. . what is the essential meaning of _conversation_? . how does _conversation_ differ from _talk_? . how is _discourse_ related to _conversation_? . what are the special senses of _dialogue_ and _colloquy_? examples. there can be no ---- with a great genius, who does all the ----ing. nor wanted sweet ----, the banquet of the mind. * * * * * convey (page ). questions. . in what do _convey_, _transmit_, and _transport_ agree? what is the distinctive sense of _convey_? . to what class of objects does _transport_ refer? . to what class of objects do _transfer_, _transmit_, and _convey_ apply? . which is the predominant sense of the latter words? * * * * * criminal (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _criminal_? how does it differ from _illegal_ or _unlawful_? . what is _felonious_? _flagitious_? . what is the primary meaning of _iniquitous_? . is an _iniquitous_ act necessarily _criminal_? * * * * * danger (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _danger_? . does _danger_ or _peril_ suggest the more immediate evil? . how are _jeopardy_ and _risk_ distinguished from _danger_ and _peril_? examples. delay always breeds ----. the careful rider avoids running ----. stir, at your ----! * * * * * decay (page ). questions. . what sort of things _decay_? _putrefy_? _rot_? . what is the essential difference between _decay_ and _decompose_? examples. the flowers wither, the tree's trunk ----. the water was ---- by the electric current. * * * * * deception (page ). questions. . how is _deceit_ distinguished from _deception_? from _guile_? _fraud_? _lying_? _hypocrisy_? . do all of these apply to conduct as well as to speech? . is _deception_ ever innocent? . have _craft_ and _cunning_ always a moral element? . how is _dissimulation_ distinguished from _duplicity_? examples. the ---- of his conduct was patent to all. it was a matter of self-----. the judge decided it to be a case of ----. * * * * * definition (page ). questions. . which is the more exact, a _definition_ or a _description_? . what must a _definition_ include, and what must it exclude? . what must a _description_ include? . in what respect has _interpretation_ a wider meaning than _translation_? . how does an _explanation_ compare with an _exposition_? examples. a prompt ---- of the difficulty prevented a quarrel. the ---- of scenery was admirable. the seer gave an ---- of the dream. many a controversy may be instantly ended by a clear ---- of terms. * * * * * deliberate (page ). questions. . what are the chief distinctions between _deliberate_? _consult_? _consider_? _meditate_? _reflect_? . do large gatherings of people _consult_, or _meditate_, or _deliberate_? . do we _reflect_ on things past or things to come? . how many persons are necessarily implied in _consult_, _confer_, and _debate_ as commonly used? in _deliberate_, _consider_, _ponder_, _reflect_? in _meditate_? . what idea of time is implied in _deliberate_? examples. the matter was carefully ---- in all its bearings. the legislature ---- for several days. * * * * * delusion (page ). questions. . what is the essential difference between _illusion_ and _delusion_? how does _hallucination_ differ from both? . which word is used especially of objects of sight? examples. the ---- of the sick are sometimes pitiful. in the soft light the ---- was complete. * * * * * demonstration (page ). questions. . to what kind of reasoning does _demonstration_ in the strict sense apply? . what is _evidence_? _proof_? . which is the stronger term? . which is the more comprehensive? examples. the ---- of the witness was so complete that no further ---- was required. a mathematical ---- must be final and conclusive. * * * * * design (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _design_? . what element is prominent in _intention_? _purpose_? _plan_? . does _purpose_ suggest more power to execute than _design_? . how does _intent_ specifically differ from _purpose_? which term do we use with reference to the divine being? examples. the architect's ---- involved much detail. hell is paved with good ----. it is the ---- of the voter that decides how his ballot shall be counted. the ---- of the almighty can not be thwarted. the adaption of means to ends in nature clearly indicates a ----, and so proves a ----er. * * * * * despair (page ). questions. . in what order might _despair_, _desperation_, _discouragement_, and _hopelessness_ follow, each as the result of the previous condition? . how does _despondency_ especially differ from _despair_? examples. the utter ---- of their condition was apparent. in weak ---- he abandoned all endeavor. * * * * * dexterity (page ). questions. . from what is _adroitness_ derived? from what _dexterity_? how might each be rendered? . how does _adroitness_ differ in use from _dexterity_? . from what is _aptitude_ derived, and what does it signify? . how does _skill_ differ from _dexterity_? which can and which can not be communicated? examples. he had a natural ---- for scientific investigation, and by long practise gained an inimitable ---- of manipulation. his ---- in debate enabled him to evade or parry arguments or attacks which he could not answer. the ---- of the best trained workman can not equal the precision of a machine. * * * * * diction (page ). questions. . which is the more comprehensive word, _diction_, _language_, or _phraseology_? . what is the true meaning of _verbiage_? should it ever be used as the equivalent of _language_ or _diction_? . what is _style_? how does it compare with _diction_ or _language_? examples. the ---- of the discourse was plain and emphatic. the ---- of a written contract should be such as to prevent misunderstandings. the poetic ---- of milton is so exquisitely perfect that another word can scarcely ever be substituted for the one he has chosen without marring the line. * * * * * difference (page ). questions. . which pertain mostly to realities, and which are matters of judgment--_difference_, _disparity_, _distinction_, or _inconsistency_? . what do we mean by "a _distinction_ without a _difference_"? examples. the proper ---- should be carefully observed in the use of "shall" and "will." the ---- between black and white is self-evident. the ---- of our representatives' conduct with their promises is unpardonable. * * * * * discern (page ). questions. . to what sort of objects do we apply _behold_, _discern_, _distinguish_, _observe_, and _see_? . what do _behold_ and _distinguish_ suggest in addition to _seeing_? examples. with the aid of a great telescope we may ---- what stars are double. ---- the upright man. let us minutely ---- the color of the goods. * * * * * discover (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _detect_? _discover_? _invent_? . how do _discover_ and _invent_ differ? . is _detect_ often used in a favorable sense? examples. an experienced policeman acquires wonderful skill in ----ing criminals. newton ---- the law of gravitation. to ---- a machine, one must first understand the laws of mechanics. * * * * * disease (page ). questions. . what was the early and general meaning of _sick_ and _sickness_ in english? . how long did that usage prevail? . what is the present restriction upon the use of these words in england? what words are there commonly substituted? . what is the prevalent usage in the united states? examples. ---- spread in the camp and proved deadlier than the sword. the ---- was found to be contagious. he is just recovering from a slight ----. it is not good manners to talk of one's ----s. * * * * * do (page ). questions. . what is the most comprehensive word of this group? . in what sense are _finish_ and _complete_ used, and how are they discriminated from each other? . how do we discriminate between _fulfil_, _realize_, _effect_, and _execute_? _perform_ and _accomplish_? _accomplish_ and _complete_? examples. a duty has been ----, a work of gratitude and affection has been ----. it is wonderful how much can be ---- by steady, plodding industry without brilliant talents. the work is not only grand in design but it is ---- with the most exquisite delicacy in every detail. it is the duty of the legislators to make laws, of the magistrates to ---- them. every one should labor to ---- his duties faithfully, and ---- the just expectations of those who have committed to him any trust. * * * * * doctrine (page ). questions. . to what matters do we apply the word _creed_? _doctrine_? _dogma_? _principle_? . which is the more inclusive word? . is _dogma_ used favorably or unfavorably? examples. the ---- rests either upon the authority of the scriptures, or upon a decision of the church. a man may have upright ----s even while he disregards commonly received ----s. * * * * * doubt, _v._ (page ). questions. . do we apply _doubt_, _distrust_, _surmise_, and _suspect_ mostly to persons and things, or to motives and intentions? . is _mistrust_ used of persons or of things? . is it used, in a favorable or an unfavorable sense? examples. we do not ---- that the earth moves around the sun. nearly every law of nature was by man first ----, then proved to be true. i ---- my own heart. i ---- that man from the outset. * * * * * doubt, _n._ (page ). questions. . to what class of objects do we apply _disbelief_? _doubt_? _hesitation_? _misgiving_? . which of these words most commonly implies an unfavorable meaning? . what meaning has _skepticism_ as applied to religious matters? examples. we feel no ---- in giving our approval. the jury had ----s of his guilt. we did all we could to further the enterprise, but still had our ----s as to the outcome. * * * * * duplicate (page ). questions. . can you give the distinction between a _copy_ and a _duplicate_? a _facsimile_, and an _imitation_? . what sort of a _copy_ is a _transcript_? examples. the ---- of an organ by the violinist was perfect. this key is a ----, and will open the lock. the signature was merely a printed ----. * * * * * duty (page ). questions. . do we use _duty_ and _right_ of civil things? or _business_ and _obligation_ of moral things? . does _responsibility_ imply connection with any other person or thing? examples. i go because it is my ----. we recognize a ---- for the good conduct of our own children, but do we not also rest under some ---- to society to exercise a good influence over the children of others? * * * * * eager (page ). questions. . what is the distinction between _eager_ and _earnest_ in the nature of the feeling implied? in the objects toward which it is directed? . how does _anxious_ in this acceptation differ from both _eager_ and _earnest_? examples. hark! the shrill trumpet sounds to horse! away! my soul's in arms, and ---- for the fray. i am in ----. i will not equivocate; i will not excuse; i will not retreat a single inch; and i will be heard! i am ---- to hear of your welfare, and of the prospects of the enterprise. * * * * * ease (page ). questions. . what does _ease_ denote, in the sense here considered? does it apply to action or condition? . is _facility_ active or passive? _readiness_? . what does _ease_ imply, and to what may it be limited? . what does _facility_ imply? _readiness_? . to what is _expertness_ limited? examples. he plays the violin with great ----, and delights an audience. whatever he did was done with so much ----, in him alone 'twas natural to please. it is often said with equal truth that we ought to take advantage of the ---- which children possess of learning. * * * * * education (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _education_? _instruction_? _teaching_? . how is _instruction_ or _teaching_ related to _education_? . how does _training_ differ from _teaching_? . what is _discipline_? _tuition_? . what are _breeding_ and _nurture_, and how do they differ from each other? . how are _knowledge_ and _learning_ related to _education_? examples. the true purpose of ---- is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us. by ----, we do learn ourselves to know and what to man, and what to god we owe. ---- maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by ----; and ----s themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. a branch of ---- is often put to an improper use, for fear of its being idle. * * * * * effrontery (page ). questions. . what is _audacity_? _hardihood_? . what special element does _effrontery_ add to the meaning of _audacity_ and _hardihood_? . what is _impudence_? _shamelessness_? . how does _effrontery_ compare with these words? . what is _boldness_? is it used in a favorable or an unfavorable sense? examples. when they saw the ---- of peter and john, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marvelled. i ne'er heard yet that any of these bolder vices wanted less ---- to gainsay what they did, than to perform it first. i am not a little surprised at the easy ---- with which political gentlemen in and out of congress take it upon them to say that there are not a thousand men in the north who sympathize with john brown. * * * * * egotism (page ). questions. . what is _egoism_ and how does it differ from _egotism_? . what is _self-assertion_? _self-conceit_? . does _conceit_ differ from _self-conceit_, and how? . what is _self-confidence_? is it worthy or unworthy? . is _self-assertion_ ever a duty? _self-conceit_? . what is _vanity_? how does it differ from _self-confidence_? from _pride_? . what is _self-esteem_? how does it differ from _self-conceit_? from _self-confidence_? examples. ---- may puff a man up, but never prop him up. ---- is as ill at ease under indifference, as tenderness is under the love which it can not return. * * * * * emblem (page ). questions. . from what language is _emblem_ derived? what did it originally signify? . what is the derivation and primary meaning of _symbol_? . how do the two words compare as now used? . how does a _sign_ suggest something other than itself? . can the same thing be both an _emblem_ and a _symbol_? a _sign_ and a _symbol_? . what is a _token_? a _figure_? an _image_? a _type_? examples. rose of the desert, thou art to me an ---- of stainless purity, ---- of those who, keeping their garments white, walk on through life with steps aright. all things are ----s: the external shows of nature have their ---- in the mind as flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves. moses, as israel's deliverer, was a ---- of christ. * * * * * emigrate (page ). questions. . what is the distinctive meaning of _migrate_? what is its application? . what do _emigrate_ and _immigrate_ signify? to what do they apply? can the two words be used of the same person and the same act? how? examples. the ship was crowded with ---- mostly from germany. ---- are pouring into the united states often at the rate of half a million a year. * * * * * employ (page ). questions. . what are the distinctive senses of _employ_ and _use_? give instances. . what does _use_ often imply as to materials _used_? . how does _hire_ compare with _employ_? examples. the young man had been ---- by the firm for several months and had proved faithful in every respect. the church was then ready to ---- a pastor. what one has, one ought to ----: and whatever he does he should do with all his might. * * * * * end, _v._ (page ). questions. . what is it to _end_, and what reference does _end_ have to intention or expectation? . what do _close_, _complete_, _conclude_, and _finish_ signify as to expectation or appropriateness? give instances. . what specially distinctive sense has _finish_? . does _terminate_ refer to reaching an arbitrary or an appropriate end? . what does _stop_ signify? examples. the life was suddenly ----. the train ---- long enough for the passengers to get off, then whirled on. * * * * * end, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is the _end_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _extremity_? . how does _extremity_ compare with _end_? . what reference is implied in _extremity_? . what is the meaning of _tip_? _point_? how does _extremity_ differ in use from the two latter words? . what is a _terminus_? what specific meaning has the word in modern travel? . what is the meaning of _termination_, and of what is it chiefly used? _expiration_? _limit_? examples. seeing that death, a necessary ---- will come when it will come. all rejoice at the successful ---- of the vast undertaking. he that endureth to the ---- shall be saved. do not turn back when you are just at the ----. * * * * * endeavor, _v._ (page ). questions. . what is it to _attempt_? to _endeavor_? to what sort of exertion does _endeavor_ especially apply? . how does _essay_ differ from _attempt_ and _endeavor_ in its view of the results of the action? . what is implied in _undertake_? give an instance. . what does _strive_ suggest? . how does _try_ compare with the other words of the group? examples. ---- first thyself, and after call on god, for to the worker god himself lends aid. ---- the end, and never stand to doubt; nothing's so hard but search will find it out. ---- to enter in at the strait gate. * * * * * endeavor, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is an _effort_? an _exertion_? which includes the other? . how does _attempt_ differ from _effort_? . what is a _struggle_? . what is an _essay_, and for what purpose is it made? . what is an _endeavor_, and how is it distinguished from _effort_? from _attempt_? examples. youth is a blunder; manhood a ----; old age a regret. so vast an ---- required more capital than he could command at that time. others combining with him enabled him to succeed with it. after a few spasmodic ----, he abandoned all ---- at improvement. * * * * * endure (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _bear_ as applied to care, pain, grief, and the like? . what does _endure_ add to the meaning of _bear_? . how do _allow_ and _permit_ compare with the words just mentioned? . how do _put up with_ and _tolerate_ compare with _allow_ and _permit_? . what is the special sense of _afford_? how does it come into connection with the words of this group? . what is the sense of _brook_? . of what words does _abide_ combine the meanings? examples. charity ---- long and is kind; charity ---- all things. i follow thee, safe guide, the path thou lead'st me, and to the hand of heav'n ----. for there was never yet philosopher that could ---- the toothache patiently. * * * * * enemy (page ). questions. . what is an _enemy_? an _adversary_? . what distinction is there between the two words as to the purpose implied? . what is an _antagonist_? an _opponent_? a _competitor_? a _rival_? . how does _foe_ compare with _enemy_? examples. he makes no friend who never made a ----. this friendship that possesses the whole soul, ... can admit of no ----. mountains interposed make ---- of nations who had else, like kindred drops been molded into one. he that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. our ---- is our helper. * * * * * enmity (page ). questions. . what is _enmity_? . how does _animosity_ differ from _enmity_? . what is _hostility_? what is meant by _hostilities_ between nations? . what is _bitterness_? _acrimony_? . how does _antagonism_ compare with the words above mentioned? examples. let all ----, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. but their ----, tho smothered for a while, burnt with redoubled violence. the carnal mind is ---- against god, for it is not subject to the law of god, neither indeed can be. * * * * * entertain (page ). questions. . what is it to _entertain_ mentally? to _amuse_? . what is the distinctive sense of _divert_? . can one be _amused_ or _entertained_ who is not _diverted_? . what is it to _recreate_? to _beguile_? examples. books can not always ----, however good; minds are not ever craving for their food. who god doth late and early pray more of his grace than gifts to lend; and ---- the harmless day with a religious book or friend. * * * * * entertainment (page ). questions. . what do _entertainment_ and _recreation_ imply? how, accordingly, do they rank among the lighter matters of life? . how do _amusement_ and _pastime_ differ? . on what plane are _sports_? how do they compare with _entertainment_ and _recreation_? . how do _amusement_ and _enjoyment_ compare? examples. at christmas play, and make good ----, for christmas comes but once a year. it is as ---- to fools to do mischief. no true heart can find ---- in another's pain or grief. the puritans hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave ---- to the spectators. as tammie glowered, amazed and curious, the mirth and ---- grew fast and furious. and so, if i might be judge, god never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent ---- than angling. * * * * * enthusiasm (page ). questions. . in what sense was _enthusiasm_ formerly used? . what is now its prevalent and controlling meaning? . how does _zeal_ differ from _enthusiasm_? examples. an ardent ---- leads to great results in exposing certain evils. his ---- was contagious and they rushed into battle. the precept had its use; it could make men feel it right to be humane, and desire to be so, but it could never inspire them with an ---- of humanity. * * * * * entrance (page ). questions. . to what does _entrance_ refer? . what do _admittance_ and _admission_ add to the meaning of _entrance_? . to what does _admittance_ refer? to what additional matters does _admission_ refer? illustrate. . what is the figurative use of _entrance_? examples. ---- was obtained by a side-door, and a good position secured to the crowded hall. no ---- except on business. he was never so engrossed with cares of state that the needy could not have ---- to him. however carefully church-membership may be guarded, unworthy members will sometimes gain ----. * * * * * envious (page ). questions. . what do we mean when we say that a person is _envious_? . what is the difference between _envious_ and _jealous_? . is an _envious_ spirit ever good? . is _jealous_ capable of being used in a good sense? . in what sense is _suspicious_ used? examples. neither be thou ---- against the workers of iniquity. ---- in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel. * * * * * equivocal (page ). questions. . what is the derivation and the original signification of _equivocal_? of _ambiguous_? how do the two words compare in present use? . what is the meaning of _enigmatical_? . how do _doubtful_ and _dubious_ compare? . in what sense is _questionable_ used? _suspicious_? examples. these sentences, to sugar or to gall, being strong on both sides, are ----. an ---- statement may result from the thoughtless use of a single word that is capable of more than one meaning. * * * * * esteem, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is the difference between _esteem_ and _estimate_? . is _esteem_ now used of concrete valuation? . what is its chief present use? . what is its meaning in popular use as said of persons? examples. they please, are pleas'd; they give to get ----, till seeming blest, they grow to what they seem. the loss of conscience or honor is one that can not be ----. * * * * * eternal (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _eternal_ in the fullest sense? . to what being, in that sense, may it be applied? . in what does _everlasting_ fall short of the meaning of _eternal_? . how does _endless_ agree with and differ from _everlasting_? . in what inferior senses are _everlasting_ and _interminable_ used? . is _eternal_, in good speech or writing, ever brought down to such inferior use? examples. truth crushed to earth shall rise again, the ---- years of god are hers. whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from ----. it were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with ---- motion. here comes the lady! oh, so light a foot will ne'er wear out the ---- flint. * * * * * event (page ). questions. . how do _event_ and _incident_ differ etymologically? . which is the greater and more important? give examples. . how does _circumstance_ compare with _incident_? . what is the primary meaning of _occurrence_? . what is an _episode_? . how does _event_ differ from _end_? . what meaning does _event_ often have when applied to the future? examples. fate shall yield to fickle ----, and chaos judge the strife. men are the sport of ---- when the ---- seem the sport of men. coming ---- cast their shadows before. where an equal poise of hope and fear does arbitrate the ----, my nature is that i incline to hope rather than fear, and gladly banish squint suspicion. * * * * * every (page ). questions. . in what are _all_ and _both_ alike? _any_, _each_, and _every_? . how does _any_ differ from _each_ and _every_? . how do _each_ and _every_ differ from _all_? . how does _each_ compare with _every_? with _both_? . what does _either_ properly denote? in what other sense is it often used? what is the objection to the latter use? examples. ---- person in the room arose to his feet. a free pardon was offered to ---- who should instantly lay down their arms. as the garrison marched out, the victorious troops stood in arms on ---- side of the way. in order to keep his secret inviolate, he revealed it privately to ---- of his most intimate friends. ---- person giving such information shall be duly rewarded. * * * * * evident (page ). questions. . how do _apparent_ and _evident_ compare? . what is the special sense of _manifest_? how does it compare in strength with _evident_? . what is the sense of _obvious_? . how wide is the range of _visible_? . how does _discernible_ compare with _visible_? what does it imply as to the observer's action? . what is the sense of _palpable_ and _tangible_? _conspicuous_? examples. a paradox is a real truth in the guise of an ---- absurdity or contradiction. the prime minister was ---- by his absence. the statement is a ---- absurdity. on a comparison of the two works the plagiarism was ----. yet from those flames no light; but only darkness ----. these lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, ----. * * * * * example (page ). questions. . what is the etymological meaning of _example_? . what two contradictory meanings does _example_ derive from this primary sense? . how does _example_ differ from _sample_? . how does it compare with _model_? with _pattern_? . how does _exemplar_ agree with, and differ from _example_? . what is an _exemplification_? an _ensample_? examples. i bid him look into the lives of men as tho himself a mirror, and from others to take an ---- for himself. we sleep, but the loom of life never stops and the ---- which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow. history is an ---- of philosophy. the commander was resolved to make an ---- to deter others from the like offense. * * * * * excess (page ). questions. . what is _excess_? is it used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? . what is _extravagance_? . what is _exorbitance_? . what kind of _excess_ do _overplus_ and _superabundance_ denote? _lavishness_ and _profusion_? . is _surplus_ used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? . to what do _redundance_ and _redundancy_ chiefly refer? . what words are used as synonyms of _excess_ in the moral sense? examples. saving requires self-denial, and ---- is the death of self-denial. where there is great ---- there usually follows corresponding ----. ---- of wealth is cause of covetousness. haste brings ----, and ---- brings want. the ---- of the demand caused unfeigned surprise. more of the present woes of the world are due to ---- than to any other single cause. ---- of language often weakens the impression of what would be impressive in sober statement. * * * * * execute (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _execute_? of _administer_? of _enforce_? . how are the words applied in special cases? give instances. . what secondary meaning has _administer_? examples. it is the place of the civil magistrate to ---- the laws. the pasha gave a signal and three attendants seized the culprit, and promptly ---- the bastinado. i can not illustrate a moral duty without at the same time ----ing a precept of our religion. * * * * * exercise (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _exercise_ apart from all qualifying words? . how does _exercise_ in that sense differ from _exertion_? . how may _exercise_ be brought up to the full meaning of _exertion_? . what is _practise_? how does it differ from _exercise_? . how is _practise_ discriminated from such theory or profession? . what is _drill_? examples. regular ---- tends to keep body and mind in the best working order. ---- in time becomes second nature. by constant ---- the most difficult feats may be done with no apparent ----. * * * * * expense (page ). questions. . what is _cost_? _expense_? . how are these words now commonly differentiated? . what is the meaning of _outlay_? of _outgo_? examples. which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the ----, whether he have sufficient to finish it. the entire receipts have not equaled the ----. when the ---- is more than the income, if the income can not be increased, it becomes an absolute necessity to reduce the ----. * * * * * explicit (page ). questions. . to what are _explicit_ and _express_ alike opposed? . how do the two words differ from each other? examples. i came here at this critical juncture by the ---- order of sir john st. clare. the language of the proposition was too ---- to admit of doubt. now the spirit speaketh ----ly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. * * * * * extemporaneous (page ). questions. . what did _extemporaneous_ originally mean? . what has it now come to signify in common use? . what is the original meaning of _impromptu_? the present meaning? . how does the _impromptu_ remark often differ from the _extemporaneous_? . how does _unpremeditated_ compare with the words above mentioned? examples. in ---- prayer, what men most admire, god least regardeth. as a speaker, he excelled in ---- address, while his opponent was at a loss to answer him because not gifted in the same way. no more on prancing palfrey borne, he carolled light as lark at morn, and poured to lord and lady gay the ---- lay. * * * * * exterminate (page ). questions. . what is the derivation, and what is the original meaning of _exterminate_? _eradicate_? _extirpate_? . to what are these words severally applied? examples. since the building of the pacific railroads in the united states, the buffalo has been quite ----. the evil of intemperance is one exceedingly difficult to ----. no inveterate improver should ever tempt me to ---- the dandelions from the green carpet of my lawn. * * * * * faint (page ). questions. . what are the chief meanings of _faint_? . how is _faint_ a synonym of _feeble_ or _purposeless_? of _irresolute_ or _timid_? of _dim_, _faded_, or _indistinct_? examples. great is the strength of ---- arms combined, and we can combat even with the brave. in his right hand a tipped staffe he held, with which his ---- steps he stayed still; for he was ---- with cold, and weak with eld; that scarce his loosed limbs he hable was to weld. * * * * * faith (page ). questions. . what is _belief_? . how does _credence_ compare with _belief_? . what is _conviction_? _assurance_? . what is an _opinion_? . how does a _persuasion_ compare with an _opinion_? . what is a _doctrine_? a _creed_? . what are _confidence_ and _reliance_? . what is _trust_? . what elements are combined in _faith_? . how is _belief_ often used in popular language as a precise equivalent of _faith_? . how is _belief_ discriminated from _faith_ in the strict religious sense? examples. ---- is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. put not your ---- in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. ---- is largely involuntary; a mathematical demonstration can not be doubted by a sane mind capable of understanding the terms and following the steps. every one of us, whatever our speculative ----, knows better than he practises, and recognizes a better law than he obeys. there are few greater dangers for an army in the face of an enemy than undue ----. * * * * * faithful (page ). questions. . in what sense may a person be called _faithful_? . in what sense may one be called _trusty_? . is _faithful_ commonly said of things as well as persons? is _trusty_? . what is the special difference of meaning between the two words? give examples. examples. be thou ---- unto death, and i will give thee a crown of life. thy purpose ---- is equal to the deed: who does the best his circumstance allows does well, acts nobly; angels could no more. * * * * * fame (page ). questions. . what is _fame_? is it commonly used in the favorable or unfavorable sense? . what are _reputation_ and _repute_, and in which sense commonly used? . what is _notoriety_? . from what do _eminence_ and _distinction_ result? . how does _celebrity_ compare with _fame_? . how does _renown_ compare with _fame_? . what is the import of _honor_? of _glory_? examples. saying, amen: blessing and ----, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and ----, and power and might, be unto our god for ever and ever. a good ---- is more valuable than money. great homer's birthplace seven rival cities claim, too mighty such monopoly of ----. do good by stealth, and blush to find it ----. seeking the bubble ---- even in the cannon's mouth. * * * * * fanaticism (page ). questions. . what is _fanaticism_? _bigotry_? . what do _fanaticism_ and _bigotry_ commonly include? . what is _intolerance_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _superstition_? . what is _credulity_? is it distinctively religious? examples. ---- is a senseless fear of god. the fierce ---- of the moslems was the mainspring of their early conquests. the ---- that will believe nothing contrary to a creed is often joined with a blind ---- that will believe anything in favor of it. * * * * * fanciful (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _fanciful_? . what does _fantastic_ add to the meaning of _fanciful_? . how does _grotesque_ especially differ from the _fanciful_ or _fantastic_? . how does _visionary_ differ from _fanciful_? examples. come see the north wind's masonry, ... his wild work; so ----, so savage, naught cares he for number or proportion. what ---- tints the year puts on, when falling leaves falter through motionless air or numbly cling and shiver to be gone! plays such ---- tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep. * * * * * fancy (page ). questions. . what is an intellectual _fancy_? . how does a _conceit_ differ from a _fancy_? a _conception_ from both? . what is an emotional or personal _fancy_? . what is _fancy_ as a faculty of the mind? examples. tell me where is ---- bred; or in the heart or in the head? elizabeth united the occasional ---- of her sex with that sense and sound policy in which neither man nor woman ever excelled her. that fellow seems to me to possess but one ----, and that is a wrong one. if she were to take a ---- to anybody in the house, she would soon settle, but not till then. * * * * * farewell (page ). questions. . to what language do _farewell_ and _good-by_ belong etymologically? how do they differ? . from what language have _adieu_ and _congé_ been adopted into english? . what is the special significance of _congé_? . what are _valediction_ and _valedictory_? examples. ---- my paper's out so nearly i've only room for yours sincerely. the train from out the castle drew, but marmion stopped to bid ----. ----! a word that must be, and hath been-- a sound which makes us linger;--yet------. * * * * * fear (page ). questions. . what is the generic term of this group? . what is _fear_? is it sudden or lingering? in view of what class of dangers? . what is the etymological meaning of _horror_? what does the word signify in accepted usage? . what are the characteristics of _affright_, _fright_, and _terror_? . how is _fear_ contrasted with _fright_ and _terror_ in actual or possible effects? . what is _panic_? what of the numbers affected by it? . what is _dismay_? how does it compare with _fright_ and _terror_? examples. even the bravest men may be swept along in a sudden ----. with much more ---- i view the fight than thou that mak'st the fray. look in, and see christ's chosen saint in triumph wear his christ-like chain; no ---- lest he should swerve or faint. the ghastly spectacle filled every beholder with ----. a lingering ---- crept upon him as he waited in the darkness. * * * * * feminine (page ). questions. . how are _female_ and _feminine_ discriminated? . what is the difference between a _female_ voice and a _feminine_ voice? . how are _womanly_ and _womanish_ discriminated in use? examples. notice, too, how precious are these ---- qualities in the sick room. the demand for closet-room is no mere ---- fancy, but the good sense of the sex. * * * * * fetter (page ). questions. . what are _fetters_ in the primary sense? . what are _manacles_ and _handcuffs_ designed to fasten or hold? _gyves_? . what are _shackles_ and what are they intended to fasten or hold? . of what material are all these restraining devices commonly composed? by what general name are they popularly known? . what are _bonds_ and of what material composed? . which of these words are used in the metaphorical sense? examples. but first set my poor heart free, bound in those icy ---- by thee. slaves can not breathe in england . . . they touch our country, and their ---- fall. * * * * * feud (page ). questions. . what is a _feud_? of what is it used? . is a _quarrel_ in word or act? _contention_? _strife_? _contest_? . how does _quarrel_ compare in importance with the other words cited? . what does an _affray_ always involve? to what may a _brawl_ or _broil_ be confined? . how do these words compare in dignity with _contention_, _contest_, _controversy_, and _dissension_? examples. could we forbear ---- and practise love we should agree as angels do above. "between my house and yours," he answered, "there is a ---- of five hundred years." beware of entrance to a ----. * * * * * fiction (page ). questions. . what is a _fiction_ in the most common modern meaning of the word? . how does a _fiction_ differ from a _novel_? from a _fable_? from a _myth_? . how does a _myth_ differ from a _legend_? . how do _falsehood_ and _fabrication_ differ from the words above mentioned? . is _fabrication_ or _falsehood_ the more odious term? which term is really the stronger? . what is a _story_? is it good or bad, true or false? with what words of the group does it agree? examples. o scenes surpassing ----, and yet true, scenes of accomplished bliss. a ---- strange is told of thee. i believe the whole account from beginning to end to be a pure ----. a thing sustained by such substantial evidence could not be a mere ---- of the imagination. * * * * * fierce (page ). questions. . what does _fierce_ signify? . to what does _ferocious_ refer? how do the two words differ? . what does _savage_ signify? examples. ---- was the day; the wintry sea moaned sadly on new england's strand, when first the thoughtful and the free, our fathers, trod the desert land. contentions ----, ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause. the ---- savages massacred the survivors to the last man. * * * * * financial (page ). questions. . to what does _monetary_ directly refer? . how does _pecuniary_ agree with and differ from _monetary_? . to what does _financial_ especially apply? . in what connection is _fiscal_ most commonly used? examples. the ---- year closes with the society out of debt. he was rejoiced to receive the ---- aid at a time when it was most needed. in a ---- panic, many a sound business house goes down for want of power to realize instantly on valuable securities. * * * * * fine (page ). questions. . from what is _fine_ derived, and what is its original meaning? . how, from this primary meaning does _fine_ become a synonym of _excellent_ and _beautiful_? . how does it come into connection with _clarified_, _clear_, _pure_, _refined_? . how is it connected with _dainty_, _delicate_, and _exquisite_? . how does _fine_ come to be a synonym for _minute_, _comminuted_? how for _filmy_, _tenuous_? for _keen_, _sharp_? give instances of the use of _fine_ in its various senses. examples. some people are more ---- than wise. ---- feathers do not always make ---- birds. the ----est balances must be kept under glass, because so ----ly adjusted as to be ---- to a film of dust or a breath of air. * * * * * fire (page ). questions. . what is the essential fact underlying the visible phenomena which we call _fire_? . what is _combustion_? . how wide is its range of meaning? . what is a _conflagration_? examples. he's gone, and who knows how he may report thy words by adding fuel to the ----? lo! as he comes, in heaven's array, and scattering wide the ---- of day. * * * * * flock (page ). questions. . what is the most general word of this group? . what is a _group_, and of what class of objects may it be composed? . to what class of animals does _brood_ apply? to what class does _litter_ apply? . of what is _bevy_ used? _flock_? . to what is _herd_ limited? . of what is _pack_ used? . what is a _drove_? examples. what is not good for the ---- is not good for the bee. he heard the bleating of the ----s and the twitter of birds among the trees. the lowing ---- winds slowly o'er the lea. excited ----s gathered at the corners discussing the affair. a ---- of brightly clad women and children were enjoying a picnic under the trees. * * * * * fluctuate (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _fluctuate_? . in what one characteristic do _swerve_ and _veer_ differ from _oscillate_, _fluctuate_, _undulate_, and _waver_? . what is the difference in mental action between _hesitate_ and _waver_? between _vacillate_ and _waver_? . which of the above-mentioned words apply to persons? which to feelings? examples. thou almost mak'st me ---- in my faith. the surface of the prairies rolls and ---- to the eye. it is almost universally true that the human mind ---- at the moment of committing a crime. the vessel suddenly ---- from her course. * * * * * fluid (page ). questions. . what is a _fluid_? . into what two sections are _fluids_ divided? . what is a _liquid_? a _gas_? . are all _liquids_ _fluids_? . are _gases_ _fluids_? . are _gases_ ever _liquids_? . what substance is at once a _liquid_ and a _fluid_ at the ordinary temperature and pressure? examples. now nature paints her colors, how the bee sits on the bloom, extracting ---- sweet. this earth was once a ---- haze of light. * * * * * follow (page ). questions. . what is it to _follow_? . how does _follow_ compare with _chase_ and _pursue_? . as regards succession in time, what is the difference between _follow_ and _ensue_? _result_? examples. say, shall my little bark attendant sail, ---- the triumph and partake the gale? when youth and pleasure meet to ---- the glowing hours with flying feet. "then ---- me, the prince," i answered; "each be hero in his turn! seven and yet one, like shadows in a dream." * * * * * formidable (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _formidable_? . how does _formidable_ differ from _dangerous_? _terrible_? _tremendous_? give examples. examples. all delays are ---- in war. ---- as an army with banners. the great fleet moved slowly toward the forts, a ---- array. * * * * * fortification (page ). questions. . how does a _fortress_ specifically differ from a _fortification_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _citadel_? . what is a _fort_? . what is a _fastness_ or _stronghold_? examples. for a man's house is his ----. a mighty ---- is our god, a bulwark never failing; our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. alva built a ---- in the heart of antwerp to overawe the city. * * * * * fortitude (page ). questions. . what is _fortitude_? . how does it compare with _courage_? . how do _resolution_ and _endurance_ compare? examples. unbounded ---- and compassion join'd, tempering each other in the victor's mind. tell thy story; if thine, consider'd, prove the thousandth part of my ----, thou art a man, and i have suffer'd like a girl. thou didst smile, infused with a ---- from heaven, when i had decked the sea with drops full salt. * * * * * fortunate (page ). questions. . how does _fortunate_ compare with _successful_? . how are _lucky_ and _fortunate_ discriminated? . in what special sense, and with what reference are _favored_ and _prospered_ used? examples. it is not a ---- word this same "impossible;" no good comes of those that have it so often in their mouth. ah, ---- years! once more who would not be a boy? i have a mind presages me such thrift that i should questionless be ----. * * * * * fraud (page ). questions. . what is a _fraud_? how does it differ from _deceit_ or _deception_? . what is the design of an _imposture_? . what is _dishonesty_? a _cheat_? a _swindle_? how do all these fall short of the meaning of _fraud_? . of what relations is _treachery_ used? _treason_? examples. ---- doth never prosper: what's the reason? why, if it prosper none dare call it ----. whoever has once become notorious by base ----, even if he speaks truth gains no belief. the first and the worst of all ---- is to cheat oneself. * * * * * friendly (page ). questions. . what does _friendly_ signify as applied to persons, or as applied to acts? . how does the adjective _friendly_ compare in strength with the noun _friend_? . what is the special meaning of _accessible_? of _companionable_ and _sociable_? of _cordial_ and _genial_? examples. he that hath friends must show himself ----. a fellow feeling makes one wondrous ----. * * * * * friendship (page ). questions. . what is _friendship_? . in what one quality does it differ from _affection_, _attachment_, _devotion_, and _friendliness_? . what is the meaning of _comity_ and _amity_? . how does _friendship_ differ from _love_? examples. talk not of wasted ----, ---- never was wasted; if it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment. ----, peculiar boon of heaven, the noble mind's delight and pride, to men and angels only given, to all the lower world denied. * * * * * frighten (page ). questions. . by what is one _frightened_? by what _intimidated_? . what is it to _browbeat_ or _cow_? . what is it to _scare_ or _terrify_? examples. the child was ---- by the stories the nurse told. the loud, loud winds, that o'er the billows sweep-- shake the firm nerve, ---- the bravest soul! * * * * * frugality (page ). questions. . what is _economy_? . what is _frugality_? . what is _parsimony_? how does it compare with _frugality_? what is the motive of _parsimony_? . what is _miserliness_? . what is the special characteristic of _prudence_ and _providence_? of _thrift_? . what is the motive of _economy_? examples. there are but two ways of paying debt: increase of industry in raising, increase of ---- in laying out. by close ---- the little home was at last paid for and there was a great thanksgiving time. * * * * * garrulous (page ). questions. . what does _garrulous_ signify? _chattering_? . how do _talkative_ and _loquacious_ differ from _garrulous_, and from each other? . what is the special application of _verbose_? examples. to tame a shrew, and charm her ---- tongue. guard against a feeble fluency, a ---- prosiness, a facility of saying nothing. * * * * * gender (page ). questions. . what is _sex_? . to what beings only does _sex_ apply? . what is _gender_? to what does it apply? do the distinctions of _gender_ correspond to the distinctions of _sex_? give examples of languages containing three _genders_, and of the classification in languages containing but two. examples. the maternal relation naturally and necessarily divides the work of the ----s giving to woman the indoor life, and to man, the work of the outer world. while in french every word is either of the masculine or feminine ----, the language sometimes fails for that very reason to indicate the ---- of some person referred to. * * * * * general (page ). questions. . what does _general_ signify? . how does _general_ compare with _universal_? with _common_? . what illustrations of the differences are given in the text? examples. ---- friendships will admit of division, one may love the beauty of this, the good humor of that person, ... and so on. a ---- feeling of unrest prevailed. death comes to all by ---- law. * * * * * generous (page ). questions. . what is the primary meaning of _generous_? the common meaning? . how does _generous_ differ from _liberal_? . what is the distinctive sense of _munificent_? . what does _munificent_ tell of the motive or spirit of the giver? what does _generous_ tell? . how does _disinterested_ compare with _generous_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _magnanimous_? how does it differ from _generous_ as regards dealing with insults or injuries? examples. to cunning men i will be very kind; and ---- to mine own children, in good bringing up. a ---- friendship no cold medium knows, burns with one love, with one resentment glows. the conqueror proved as ---- in victory as he was terrible in battle. * * * * * genius (page ). questions. . what is _genius_? . what is _talent_? . which is the higher quality? . which is the more dependent upon training? examples. the eternal master found his single ---- well employ'd. no great ---- was ever without some mixture of madness. * * * * * get (page ). questions. . what is a person said to _get_? . how is _get_ related to expectation or desire? how is _gain_ related to those words? . by what processes does one _acquire_? is the thing _acquired_ sought or desired, or not? . what does one _earn_? . does a person always _get_ what he _earns_ or always _earn_ what he _gets_? . what does _obtain_ imply? is the thing one _obtains_ an object of _desire_? how does _obtain_ differ from _get_? . what does _win_ imply? how is one said to _win_ a suit at law? what is the correct term in legal phrase? why? . by what special element does _procure_ differ from _obtain_? . what is especially implied in _secure_? examples. he ---- a living as umbrella mender but a poor living it is. ---- wisdom and with all thy getting, ---- understanding. in the strange city he found that all his learning would not ---- him a dinner. * * * * * gift (page ). questions. . what is a _gift_? is _gift_ used in the good or the bad sense? does the legal agree with the popular sense? . what synonymous word is always used in the evil sense? . what is a _benefaction_? a _donation_? what difference of usage is recognized between the two words? . what is a _gratuity_, and to whom given? . what is the sense and use of _largess_? . what is a _present_, and to whom given? . what is the special sense of _boon_? . what is a _grant_, and by whom made? examples. he gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, dominion absolute; that right we hold by his ----. true love's the ---- which god has given to man alone beneath the heaven. "----, ----, noble knights," cried the heralds. the courts of justice had fallen so low that it was practically impossible to win a cause without a ----. * * * * * give (page ). questions. . what is the primary meaning of _give_? the secondary meaning? . can we _give_ what is undesired? . can we _give_ what we are paid for? . how is _give_ always understood when there is no limitation in the context? . is it correct to say "he _gave_ it to me for nothing"? . what is to _grant_? . what is implied when we speak of _granting_ a favor? . what is to _confer_? . what is especially implied in _impart_? in _bestow_? examples. my god shall ---- all your need according to his riches in glory by christ jesus. ---- to every man that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. the court promptly ---- the injunction. the king ---- upon him the honor of knighthood. one of the pleasantest things in life is to ---- instruction to those who really desire to learn. * * * * * govern (page ). questions. . what does the word _govern_ imply? how does it differ from _control_? . how do _command_ and _control_ differ? . how do _rule_ and _govern_ differ? . what is the special significance of _sway_? of _mold_? . what is it to _manage_? . what is the present meaning of _reign_? how does it compare with _rule_? examples. he that ---- his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city. for some must follow, and some ---- tho all are made of clay. daniel webster well described the character of "old hickory" in the sentence, "i do not say that general jackson did not mean to ---- his country well, but i do say that general jackson meant to ---- his country." * * * * * graceful (page ). questions. . what does _graceful_ denote? how is it especially distinguished from _beautiful_? examples. how ---- upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace. a ---- myrtle rear'd its head. * * * * * grief (page ). questions. . what is _grief_? . how does _grief_ compare with _sorrow_? with _sadness_? with _melancholy_? . what two chief senses has _affliction_? . what is implied in _mourning_, in its most common acceptation? examples. we glory in ---- also. for our light ---- which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. what private ---- they have, alas! i know not, that made them do it. * * * * * habit (page ). questions. . what is _custom_? _routine_? which is the more mechanical? . what element does _habit_ add to _custom_ and _routine_? . should we preferably use _custom_ or _habit_ of a society? of an individual? . what is _fashion_? _rule_? _system_? . what are _use_ and _usage_, and how do they differ from each other? . what is _practise_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _wont_? examples. every ---- is preserved and increased by correspondent actions, as the ---- of walking by walking, of running by running. montaigne is wrong in declaring that ---- ought to be followed simply because it is ----, and not because it is reasonable or just. lord brougham says "the longer i live the more careful i am to entrust everything that i really care to do to the beneficent power of ----." ---- makes perfect. without ---- little that is valuable is ever learned or done. * * * * * happen (page ). questions. . what does _happen_ signify? . how does it differ from _chance_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _betide_? . how do both _befall_ and _betide_ differ from _happen_ in grammatical construction? . what is the meaning of _supervene_? . is _transpire_ correctly used in the sense of _happen_? when may an event be properly said to _transpire_? examples. whatever ---- at all ---- as it should. thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bear grain, it may ---- of wheat, or of some other grain. ill ---- the graceless renegade! it ---- that a secret treaty had been previously concluded between the powers. if mischief ---- him, thou shalt bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. * * * * * happiness (page ). questions. . what is _gratification_? _satisfaction_? . what is _happiness_? . how does _happiness_ differ from _comfort_? . how does _comfort_ differ from _enjoyment_? . how does _pleasure_ compare with _comfort_ and _enjoyment_? with _happiness_? . what do _gratification_ and _satisfaction_ express? how do they compare with each other? . how does _happiness_ compare with _gratification_, _satisfaction_, _comfort_, and _pleasure_? with _delight_ and _joy_? . what is _delight_? _ecstasy_? _rapture_? . what is _triumph_? _blessedness_? _bliss_? examples. sweet is ---- after pain. virtue alone is ---- below. hope elevates and ---- brightens his crest. the storm raged without, but within the house all was brightness and ----. there is no ---- so sweet and abiding as that of doing good. this is the very ---- of love. * * * * * happy (page ). questions. . what is the original meaning of _happy_? with what words is it allied in this sense? . in what way is _happy_ a synonym of _blessed_? . what is the meaning of _happy_ in its most frequent present use? examples. ---- are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. to what ---- accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit. a ---- heart maketh a ---- countenance. i would not spend another such a night, tho 'twere to buy a world of ---- days. * * * * * harmony (page ). questions. . what is _harmony_? . how does _harmony_ compare with _agreement_? . how do _concord_ and _accord_ compare with _harmony_ and with each other? . what is _conformity_? _congruity_? . what is _consistency_? . what is _unanimity_? . how do _consent_ and _concurrence_ compare? examples. we have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at ----. tyrants have made desperate efforts to secure outward ---- in religious observances without ---- of religious belief. that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the ---- of the universe. the speaker was, by general ----, allowed to proceed. * * * * * harvest (page ). questions. . what is the original meaning of _harvest_? its later meaning? . how does _harvest_ compare with _crop_? . what is _produce_? how does it differ from _product_? . what is the meaning of _proceeds_? _yield_? _return_? . is _harvest_ capable of figurative use, and in what sense? . what is the special meaning of _harvest-home_? _harvest-tide_? _harvest-time_? examples. just tickle the earth with a hoe, and she laughs with an abundant ----. and the ripe ---- of the new-mown hay gives it a sweet and wholesome odor. it soweth here with toil and care but the ---- of love is there. of no distemper, of no blast he died, but fell like autumn ---- that mellowed long. * * * * * hatred (page ). questions. . what is _repugnance_? _aversion_? . how does _hatred_ compare with _aversion_ as applied to persons? as applied to things? . what is _malice_? _malignity_? . what is _spite_? . what are _grudge_, _resentment_, and _revenge_, and how do they compare with one another? examples. heaven has no ---- like love to ---- turned. the slight put upon him filled him with deep ----. he ne'er bore ---- for stalwart blow ta'en in fair fight from gallant foe. in all cases of wilful injury to person or property, the law presumes ----. i felt from our first meeting an instinctive ---- for the man, which on acquaintance deepened into a settled ----. * * * * * have (page ). questions. . to what is _have_ applied? how widely inclusive a word is it? . what does _possess_ signify? . what is to _hold_? to _occupy_? . how does _be in possession_ compare with _possess_? . how does _own_ compare with _possess_ or with _be in possession_? . what is the difference between the statement that a man _has_ reason, and the statement that he _is in possession_ of his reason? examples. son, thou art ever with me, and all that i ---- is thine. i earnestly entreat you, for your own sakes, to ---- yourselves of solid reasons. he occupies the house, but does not ---- it. * * * * * hazard (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _hazard_? . how does _hazard_ compare with _danger_? . how do _risk_ and _venture_ compare with _chance_ and _hazard_, and with each other? . how do _accident_ and _casualty_ differ? . what is a _contingency_? examples. we must take the current when it serves or lose our ----. i have set my life upon a cast, and i will stand the ---- of the die. there is no ---- in doing known duty. do you think it necessary to provide for every ---- before taking the first step? * * * * * healthy (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _healthy_? of _healthful_? are the words properly interchangeable? . what are the chief synonyms of _healthy_? of _healthful_? . in what sense is _salubrious_ used, and to what is it applied? . to what realm does _salutary_ belong? examples. in books, or work, or ---- play let my first years be passed. blessed is the ---- nature; it is the coherent, sweetly cooperative, not the self-distracting one. * * * * * help (page ). questions. . is _help_ or _aid_ the stronger term? . which is used in excitement or emergency? . does _help_ include _aid_ or does _aid_ include _help_? . which implies the seconding of another's exertions? do we _aid_ or _help_ the helpless? . how do _cooperate_ and _assist_ differ? . to what do _encourage_ and _uphold_ refer? _succor_ and _support_? examples. he does not prevent a crime when he can ---- it. know then whatever cheerful and serene ---- the mind ---- the body too. * * * * * heretic (page ). questions. . what is a _heretic_? a _schismatic_? . in what does a _heretic_ differ from his church or religious body? a _schismatic_? . how do a _heretic_ and a _schismatic_ often differ in action? . how are the terms _dissenter_ and _non-conformist_ usually applied? examples. a man that is an ----, after the first and second admonition, reject. churchmen and ---- alike resisted the tyranny of james ii. * * * * * heterogeneous (page ). questions. . when are substances _heterogeneous_ as regards each other? . when is a mixture, as cement, said to be _heterogeneous_? when _homogeneous_? . what is the special significance of _non-homogeneous_? . how does _miscellaneous_ differ from _heterogeneous_? examples. my second son received a sort of ---- education at home. courtier and patriot can not mix their ---- politics without an effervescence. * * * * * hide (page ). questions. . which is the most general term of this group, and what does it signify? . is an object _hidden_ by intention, or in what other way or ways, if any? . does _conceal_ evince intention? . how does _secrete_ compare with _conceal_? how is it chiefly used? . what is it to _cover_? to _screen_? examples. men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to ---- their thoughts. ye little stars! ---- your diminished rays. * * * * * high (page ). questions. . what kind of a term is _high_? what does it signify? give instances of the relative use of the word. . how does _high_ compare with _deep_? to what objects may these words be severally applied? . what is the special significance of _tall_? . what element does _lofty_ add to the meaning of _high_ or _tall_? . how do _elevated_ and _eminent_ compare in the literal sense? in the figurative? . how do the words above mentioned compare with _exalted_? . what contrasted uses has _high_ in the figurative sense? . what is _towering_ in the literal, and in the figurative sense? examples. a pillar'd shade, ---- overarched, and echoing walks between. a daughter of the gods, divinely ---- and most divinely fair. what is that which the breeze on the ---- steep, as it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? he knew himself to sing, and build the ---- rime. * * * * * hinder (page ). questions. . what is it to _hinder_? . how does _hinder_ differ from _delay_? . how does _hinder_ compare with _prevent_? . what is the meaning of _retard_? . what is it to _obstruct_? to _resist_? how do these two words compare with each other? examples. ---- the devil, and he will flee from you. my tears must stop, for every drop ---- my needle and thread. it is the study of mankind to ---- that advance of age or death which can not be ----. * * * * * history (page ). questions. . what is _history_? how does it relate events? to what class of events does it apply? . how does _history_ differ from _annals_ or _chronicles_? examples. happy the people whose ---- are dulled. ---- is little else than a picture of human crimes and misfortunes. ---- is philosophy teaching by example. * * * * * holy (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _sacred_? . how does it compare with _holy_? . which term do we apply directly to god? . in what sense is _divine_ loosely used? what is its more appropriate sense? examples. the ---- time is quiet as a nun breathless with adoration. a ---- burden is this life ye bear. all sects and churches of christendom hold to some form of the doctrine of the ---- inspiration of the christian scriptures. * * * * * home (page ). questions. . what is the general sense of _abode_, _dwelling_, and _habitation_? what difference is there in the use of these words? . from what language is _home_ derived? what is its distinctive meaning? examples. an ---- giddy and unsure hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart. the attempt to abolish the ideal woman and keep the ideal ---- is a predestinated failure. a house without love may be a castle or a palace, but it is not a ----. love is the life of a true ----. * * * * * honest (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _honest_ in ordinary use? . what is the meaning of _honorable_? . how will the merely _honest_ and the truly _honorable_ man differ in action? . what is _honest_ in the highest and fullest sense? how, in this sense, does it differ from _honorable_? examples. ---- labor bears a lovely face. an ---- man's the noblest work of god. no form of pure, undisguised murder will be any longer allowed to confound itself with the necessities of ---- warfare. * * * * * horizontal (page ). questions. . what does _horizontal_ signify? how does it compare with _level_? . from what language is _flat_ derived? . what is its original meaning? its most common present sense? in what derived sense is it often used? . what are the senses of _plain_ and _plane_? examples. sun and moon were in the ---- sea sunk. ample spaces o'er the smooth and ---- pavement. the prominent lines in greek architecture were ----, and not vertical. * * * * * hunt (page ). questions. . what is a _hunt_? . for what is a _chase_ or _pursuit_ conducted? a _search_? . what does _hunt_ ordinarily include? . is it correct to use _hunt_ when _search_ only is contemplated? . how are these words used in the figurative senses? examples. among the inalienable rights of man are life, liberty, and the ---- of happiness. all things have an end, and so did our ---- for lodgings. the ---- formed the principal amusement of our norman kings, who for that purpose retained in their possession forests in every part of the kingdom. the ---- is up, but they shall know the stag at bay's a dangerous foe. * * * * * hypocrisy (page ). questions. . from what language is _pretense_ derived, and what does it signify? . what is _hypocrisy_? . what is _cant_? _sanctimoniousness_? . what is _pietism_? _formalism_? _sham_? . how does _affectation_ compare with _hypocrisy_? examples. let not the trojans, with a feigned ---- of proffered peace, delude the latian prince. ---- is a fawning and flexible art, which accommodates itself to human feelings, and flatters the weakness of men in order that it may gain its own ends. * * * * * hypocrite (page ). questions. . from what language is _hypocrite_ derived? what is its primary meaning? . what common term includes the other words of the group? . how are _hypocrite_ and _dissembler_ contrasted with each other? . what element is common to the _cheat_ and the _impostor_? how do the two compare with each other? examples. it is the weakest sort of politicians that are the greatest ----. i dare swear he is no ---- but prays from his heart. in the reign of henry vii., an ----, named perkin warbeck, laid claim to the english crown. * * * * * hypothesis (page ). questions. . what is a _hypothesis_? what is its use in scientific investigation and study? . what is a _guess_? a _conjecture_? a _supposition_? a _surmise_? . what implication does _surmise_ ordinarily convey? what is a _theory_? a _scheme_? a _speculation_? how do they differ? examples. ----, fancies, built on nothing firm. there are no other limits to ---- than those of the human mind. the development ----, tho widely accepted by men of science fails of proof at many important points. * * * * * idea (page ). questions. . from what language is _idea_ derived, and what did it originally mean? . what did _idea_ signify in early philosophical use? . what is its present popular use, and with what words is it now synonymous? examples. all rests with those who read. a work or ---- is what each makes it to himself. he who comes up to his own ---- of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind. * * * * * ideal (page ). questions. . what is an _ideal_? . what is an _archetype_? a _prototype_? . can a _prototype_ be equivalent to an _archetype_? . is an _ideal_ primal, or the result of development? . what is an _original_? . what is the _standard_? how does it compare with the _ideal_? . how are _idea_ and _ideal_ contrasted? examples. be a ---- to others and then all will go well. the mind's the ---- of the man. every man has at times in his mind the ---- of what he should be, but is not. * * * * * idiocy (page ). questions. . what is _idiocy_? . what is _imbecility_? how does it compare with _idiocy_? . how does _insanity_ differ from _idiocy_ or _imbecility_? . how do _folly_ and _foolishness_ compare with _idiocy_? . what is _fatuity_? _stupidity_? examples. where ignorance is bliss, 'tis ---- to be wise. to expect an effect without a cause, or attainment without application, is little less than ----. * * * * * idle (page ). questions. . from what language is _idle_ derived, and what is its original meaning? . what does _idle_ in present use properly denote? does it necessarily denote the absence of all action? . what does _lazy_ signify? how does it differ from _idle_? . what does _inert_ signify? _sluggish_? . in what realm does _slothful_ belong, and what does it denote? . how does _indolent_ compare with _slothful_? examples. the ---- stream was covered with a green scum. never ---- a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others. as the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the ---- turn upon his bed. * * * * * ignorant (page ). questions. . what does _ignorant_ signify? how wide is its range? . what is the meaning of _illiterate_? . how does _unlettered_ compare with _illiterate_? examples. so foolish was i and ----; i was as a beast before thee. a boy is better unborn than ----. * * * * * imagination (page ). questions. . into what two parts was _imagination_ divided in the old psychology? . what name is now preferably given to the so-called _reproductive imagination_ by president porter and others? . what is _fantasy_ or _phantasy_? in what mental actions is it manifested? . what is _fantasy_ in ordinary usage? . how is _imagination_ defined? _fancy_? . to what faculty of the mind do both of these activities or powers belong? . in what other respects do _imagination_ and _fancy_ agree? what is the one great distinction between them? how do they respectively treat the material objects or images with which they deal? which power finds use in philosophy, science, and mechanical invention, and how? examples. while ----, like the finger of a clock, runs the great circuit, and is still at home. and as ---- bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. * * * * * immediately (page ). questions. . what is the primary meaning of _immediately_? its meaning as an adverb of time? . what did _by and by_ formerly signify? what is its present meaning? . what did _directly_ formerly signify, and what does it now commonly mean? . what change has _presently_ undergone? . is _immediately_ losing anything of its force? what words now seem more emphatic? examples. nothing is there to come, and nothing past, but an eternal ---- does always last. let us go up ----, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. obey me ----! * * * * * immerse (page ). questions. . from what language is _dip_ derived? from what _immerse_? . how do the two words differ in dignity? how as to the completeness of the action? how as to the continuance of the object in or under the liquid? . which word is preferably used as to the rite of baptism? . what does _submerge_ imply? . what are _douse_ and _duck_? . what special sense has _dip_ which the other words do not share? examples. trust no future, howe'er pleasant! let the dead past ---- its dead. the ships of war, congress and cumberland, were ---- by the merrimac. when food can not be swallowed, life may be prolonged by ---- the body in nutritive fluids. * * * * * imminent (page ). questions. . from what language is _imminent_ derived and with what primary sense? _impending_? . how do _imminent_ and _impending_ differ in present use? . how does _threatening_ differ from the two words above given? examples. and nodding ilium waits the ---- fall. and these she does apply for warnings, portents, and evils ----. * * * * * impediment (page ). questions. . what does _impediment_ primarily signify? _obstacle_? _obstruction_? . how does _obstacle_ differ from _obstruction_? . what is a _hindrance_? . is an _impediment_ what one finds or what he carries? is it momentary or constant? what did the latin _impedimenta_ signify? . what is an _encumbrance_? how does it differ from an _obstacle_ or _obstruction_? . is a _difficulty_ within one or without? examples. something between a ---- and a help. thus far into the bowels of the land have we march'd without ----. demosthenes became the foremost orator of the world in spite of an ---- in his speech. ----s overcome are the stepping-stones by which great men rise. * * * * * impudence (page ). questions. . what does _impertinence_ primarily denote? what is its common acceptation? . what is _impudence_? _insolence_? . what is _officiousness_? . what does _rudeness_ suggest? examples. with matchless ---- they style a wife the dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life. it is better not to turn friendship into a system of lawful and unpunishable ----. a certain class of ill-natured people mistake ---- for frankness. * * * * * incongruous (page ). questions. . when are things said to be _incongruous_? . to what is _discordant_ applied? _inharmonious_? . what does _incompatible_ signify? when are things said to be _incompatible_? . to what does _inconsistent_ apply? . what illustrations of the uses of these words are given in the text? . what is the meaning of _incommensurable_? examples. no solitude is so solitary as that of ---- companionship. i hear a strain ---- as a merry dirge, or sacramental bacchanal might be. * * * * * induction (page ). questions. . what is _deduction_? _induction_? . what is the proof of an _induction_? . what process is ordinarily followed in what is known as scientific _induction_? . how do _deduction_ and _induction_ compare as to the certainty of the conclusion? . how does an _induction_ compare with an _inference_? examples. the longer one studies a vast subject the more cautious in ---- he becomes. perhaps the widest and best known ---- of biology, is that organisms grow. * * * * * industrious (page ). questions. . how does _busy_ differ from _industrious_? . what is the implication if we say one is _industrious_ just now? . what does _diligent_ add to the meaning of _industrious_? examples. look cheerfully upon me, here, love; thou see'st how ---- i am. the ---- have no time for tears. * * * * * industry (page ). questions. . what is _industry_? . what does _assiduity_ signify as indicated by its etymology? _diligence_? . how does _application_ compare with _assiduity_? . what is _constancy_? _patience_? _perseverance_? . what is _persistence_? what implication does it frequently convey? . how does _industry_ compare with _diligence_? . to what do _labor_ and _pains_ especially refer? examples. honors come by ----; riches spring from economy. 'tis ---- supports us all. there is no success in study without close, continuous, and intense ----. his ---- in wickedness would have won him enduring honor if it had taken the form of ---- in a better cause. * * * * * infinite (page ). questions. . from what language is _infinite_ derived, and with what meaning? to what may it be applied? . how do _countless_, _innumerable_, and _numberless_ compare with _infinite_? . what is the use of _boundless_, _illimitable_, _limitless_, _measureless_, and _unlimited_? . what are the dimensions of _infinite_ space? what is the duration of _infinite_ time? examples. my bounty is as ---- as the sea, my love as deep, the more i give to thee, the more i have, for both are ----. man's inhumanity to man makes ---- thousands mourn. * * * * * influence (page ). questions. . what is it to _influence_? is one _influenced_ by external or internal force? . to what kind of power does _actuate_ refer? does one person _actuate_ or _influence_ another? . what do _prompt_ and _stir_ imply? . what is it to _excite_? . what do _incite_ and _instigate_ signify? how do these two words differ? . what do _urge_ and _impel_ imply? how do they differ in the source of the power exerted? . what do _drive_ and _compel_ imply, and how do these two words compare with each other? examples. he was ---- by his own violent passions to desperate crime. and well she can ----. fine thoughts are wealth, for the right use of which men are and ought to be accountable, if not to thee, to those they ----. * * * * * inherent (page ). questions. . what does _inherent_ signify? . to what realm of thought does _immanent_ belong? what does it signify? how does it differ from _inherent_? which is applied to the divine being? . to what do _congenital_, _innate_, and _inborn_ apply as distinguished from _inherent_ and _intrinsic_? . with what special reference does _congenital_ occur in medical and legal use? . what is the difference in use between _innate_ and _inborn_? . what does _inbred_ add to the sense of _innate_ or _inborn_? . what is _ingrained_? examples. an ---- power in the life of the world. all men have an ---- right to life, liberty, and protection. he evinced an ---- stupidity that seemed almost tantamount to ---- idiocy. many philosophers hold that god is ---- in nature. any stable currency must be founded at last upon something, as gold or silver, that has ---- value. the wrongs and abuses which are ---- in the very structure and constitution of society as it now exists throughout christendom. * * * * * injury (page ). questions. . from what language is _injury_ derived? what is its primary meaning? its derived meaning? . how inclusive a word is _injury_? . from what is _damage_ derived, and with what original sense? _detriment_? how do these words compare in actual use? . how does _damage_ compare with _loss_? how can a _loss_ be said to be partial? . what is _evil_, and with what frequent suggestion? . what is _harm_? _hurt_? how do these words compare with _injury_? . what is _mischief_? how caused, and with what intent? examples. nothing can work me ----, except myself; the ---- that i sustain i carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault. hippolyta, i woo'd thee with my sword, and won thy love, doing thee ----. * * * * * injustice (page ). questions. . what is _injustice_? . how does _wrong_ differ from _injustice_ in legal use? how in popular use? . what is _iniquity_ in the legal sense? in the common sense? examples. war in men's eyes shall be a monster of ----. no man can mortgage his ---- as a pawn for his fidelity. such an act is an ---- upon humanity. * * * * * innocent (page ). questions. . what does _innocent_ in the full sense signify? . is _innocent_ positive or negative? how does it compare with _righteous_, _upright_, or _virtuous_? . in what two applications may _immaculate_, _pure_, and _sinless_ be used? . with what limited sense is _innocent_ used of moral beings? . in what sense is _innocent_ applied to inanimate substances? examples. they are as ---- as grace itself. for blessings ever wait on ---- deeds, and tho a late, a sure reward succeeds. the wicked flee where no man pursueth, but the ---- are bold as a lion. a daughter, and a goodly babe; ... the queen receives much comfort in't: says, _my poor prisoner, i am ---- as you_. * * * * * inquisitive (page ). questions. . what are the characteristics of an _inquisitive_ person? . is _inquisitive_ ever used in a good sense? what, in that sense, is ordinarily preferred? . what does _curious_ signify, and how does it differ from _inquisitive_? examples. his was an anxiously ---- mind, a scrupulously conscientious heart. adrian was the most ---- man that ever lived, and the most universal inquirer. i am ---- to know the cause of this sudden change of purpose. * * * * * insanity (page ). questions. . what is _insanity_ in the widest sense? in its restricted use? which use is the more frequent? . from what is _lunacy_ derived? what did it originally imply? in what sense is it now used? . what is _madness_? . what is _derangement_? _delirium_? . what is the specific meaning of _dementia_? . what is _aberration_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _hallucination_? . what is _monomania_? . what are _frenzy_ and _mania_? examples. go--you may call it ----, folly--you shall not chase my gloom away. all power of fancy over reason is a degree of ----. * * * * * interpose (page ). questions. . what is it to _interpose_? . how does _intercede_ differ from _interpose_? . what is it to _intermeddle_? how does it differ from _meddle_? from _interfere_? . what do _arbitrate_ and _mediate_ involve? examples. dion, his brother, ---- for him and his life was saved. nature has ---- a natural barrier between england and the continent. * * * * * involve (page ). questions. . from what language is _involve_ derived, and with what primary meaning? . how does _involve_ compare with _implicate_? . are these words used in the favorable or the unfavorable sense? . as regards results what is the difference between _include_, _imply_, and _involve_? examples. rocks may be squeezed into new forms, bent, contorted, and ----. an oyster-shell sometimes ---- a pearl. ---- in other men's affairs, he went down to their ruin. * * * * * journey (page ). questions. . from what language is _journey_ derived? what is its primary meaning? its present meaning? . what is _travel_? how does it differ from _journey_? . what was the former meaning of _voyage_? its present meaning? . what is a _trip_? a _tour_? . what is the meaning and common use of _passage_? of _transit_? . what is the original meaning of _pilgrimage_? how is it now used? examples. ---- makes all men countrymen. all the ---- of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. it were a ---- like the path to heaven, to help you find them. * * * * * judge (page ). questions. . what is a _judge_ in the legal sense? . what other senses has the word _judge_ in common use? . what is a _referee_, and how appointed? an _arbitrator_? . what is the popular sense of _umpire_? the legal sense? . what is the present use of _arbiter_? . what are the _judges_ of the united states supreme court officially called? examples. the end crowns all, and that old common ----, time, will one day end it. a man who is no ---- of law may be a good ---- of poetry. the ---- is only the mouth of law, and the magistrate who punishes is only the hand. * * * * * justice (page ). questions. . what is _justice_ in governmental relations? in social and personal relations? in matters of reasoning or literary treatment? . to what do _integrity_, _rectitude_, _right_, _righteousness_, and _virtue_ apply? what do all these include? . what two contrasted senses has _lawfulness_? . to what does _justness_ refer, and in what sense is it used? examples. ---- exalteth a nation. ---- of life is fame's best friend. he shall have merely ----, and his bond. * * * * * keep (page ). questions. . what is the general meaning of _keep_? . how does _keep_ compare with _preserve_? _fulfil_? _maintain_? . what does _keep_ imply when used as a synonym of _guard_ or _defend_? examples. these make and ---- the balance of the mind. the good old rule sufficeth them,--the simple plan, that they should take who have the power and they should ---- who can. ---- thy shop, and thy shop will ---- thee. * * * * * kill (page ). questions. . what is it to _kill_? . to what are _assassinate_, _execute_, and _murder_ restricted? . what is the specific meaning of _murder_? _execute_? _assassinate_? to what class of persons is the latter word ordinarily applied? . what is it to _slay_? . to what is _massacre_ limited? with what special meaning is it used? . to what do _butcher_ and _slaughter_ primarily apply? what is the sense of each when so used? . what is it to _despatch_? examples. to look into her eyes was to ---- doubt. two presidents of the united states have been ----. hamilton was ---- in a duel by aaron burr. the place was carried by storm, and the inhabitants ---- without distinction of age or sex. * * * * * kin (page ). questions. . how does _kind_ compare with _kin_? . what do _kin_ and _kindred_ denote? . what is _affinity_? how does it differ from _consanguinity_? examples. a little more than ----, and less than ----. he held his seat,--a friend to the human ----. the patient bride, a little sad, leaving of home and ----. * * * * * knowledge (page ). questions. . what is _knowledge_? how does it differ from _information_? . what is _perception_? _apprehension_? _cognizance_? . what is _intuition_? . what is _experience_, and how does it differ from _intuition_? . what is _learning_? _erudition_? examples. ---- comes, but wisdom lingers. the child is continually seeking ----; hence his endless questions. 'tis the sunset of life gives me mystical ----, and coming events cast their shadows before. ----s lie at the very foundation of all reasoning. * * * * * language (page ). questions. . what is the derivation of _language_? what was its original signification? how wide is its present meaning? . as regards the use of words, what does _language_ denote in the general and in the restricted sense? . what does _speech_ always involve? . can we speak of the _speech_ of animals? of their _language_? . what is a _dialect_? a _barbarism_? an _idiom_? . what is a _patois_? how does it differ from a _dialect_? . what is a _vernacular_? examples. we must be free or die, who speak the ---- that shakespeare spake: the faith and morals hold which milton held. ---- is great; but silence is greater. an infant crying in the night, an infant crying for the light, and with no ---- but a cry. thought leapt out to wed with thought, ere thought could wed itself with ----. a babylonish ---- which learned pedants much affect. o! good, my lord, no latin; i'm not such a truant since my coming as not to know the ---- i have lived in. * * * * * large (page ). questions. . to how many dimensions does _large_ apply? how does it differ from _long_? . how does _large_ compare with _great_? with _big_? examples. courage, the mighty attribute of powers above, by which those ---- in war, are ---- in love. everything is twice as ---- measured on a three-year-old's three-foot scale as on a thirty-year-old's six-foot scale. and his ---- manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in its sound. * * * * * law (page ). questions. . what is the definition of _law_ in its ideal? what does it signify in common use? . what are the characteristics of _command_ and _commandment_? of an _edict_? . what is a _mandate_? a _statute_? an _enactment_? . in what special connection is _formula_ commonly used? _ordinance_? _order_? . what is the meaning of _law_ in such an expression as "the _laws_ of nature?" what in more strictly scientific use? . what is a _code_? _jurisprudence_? _legislation_? what is an _economy_? is _law_ ever a synonym for these words, and in what way? examples. order is heaven's first ----; and this confest, some are, and must be, greater than the rest. those he commands move only in ----, nothing in love. his fair large front and eye sublime declared absolute ----. we have strict ----, and most biting ----. napoleon gave france the best ---- of ---- she has ever possessed. ---- is physical, established sequence; intellectual, a condition of intellectual action in order that truth may be reached; and moral, an imperative which determines the right guidance of our higher life. * * * * * liberty (page ). questions. . what is _freedom_? . what is _liberty_ in the primary sense? in the widest sense? . how do _freedom_ and _liberty_ compare? . how is _independence_ used in distinction from _freedom_ and _liberty_? . is _freedom_ or _liberty_ more freely used in a figurative sense? . what is _license_? how does it compare with _liberty_ and _freedom_? examples. in rousseau's philosophy ---- is conceived of as lawlessness. when ---- from her mountain-height unfurled her standard to the air, she tore the azure robe of night, and set the stars of glory there. the ---- to go higher than we are is given only when we have fulfilled amply the duty of our present sphere. ---- they mean when they cry ----! for who loves that must first be wise and good. * * * * * light (page ). questions. . what is _light_? . what are the characteristics of a _flame_? a _blaze_? . what is a _flare_? a _flash_? . what is the sense of _glare_ and _glow_? how do they differ, and to what are they applied? . to what do _shine_ and _sheen_ refer? . what do _glimmer_, _glitter_, and _shimmer_ denote? . what is _gleam_? a _glitter_? a _sparkle_? _glistening_? . what is _scintillation_? in what two senses used? . to what are _twinkle_ and _twinkling_ applied? . what is _illumination_? _incandescence_? examples. from a little spark may burst a mighty ----. a ---- as of another life, my kindling soul received. it is ----, that enables us to see the differences between things; and it is christ that gives us ----. white with the whiteness of the snow, pink with faintest rosy ----, they blossom on their sprays. ghastly in the ---- of day. ---- in golden coats like images. so ---- a good deed in a naughty world. there's but the ---- of a star between a man of peace and war. * * * * * listen (page ). questions. . what does _hear_ signify? what does _listen_ add to the meaning of _hear_? . what does _attend_ add to the meaning of _listen_? . what does _heed_ further imply? . what is the difference between _listen for_ and _listen to_? examples. and ----! how blithe the throstle sings; he, too, is no mean preacher; till i ---- and ---- if a step draweth near. chill airs and wintry winds! my ear has grown familiar with your song; i ---- it in the opening year, i ----, and it cheers me long. ----, every one that ---- may, unto a tale that's merrier than the nightingale. the men lay silent in the tall grass ---- for the signal gun that should bid them rise and charge. * * * * * literature (page ). questions. . what is _literature_ in the most general sense? in more limited sense? . what does _literature_, used absolutely, denote? . how may _literature_ include _science_? how is it ordinarily contrasted with _science_? examples. wherever ---- consoles sorrow or assuages pain; wherever it brings gladness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and tears--there is exhibited in its noblest form the immortal influence of athens. ---- are lifelong friends. ---- are embalmed minds. in our own language we have a ---- nowhere surpassed, in whose lock no foreign key will ever rust. * * * * * load (page ). questions. . from what language is _burden_ derived, and with what primary meaning? _load_? . what does _weight_ signify? how does it compare with _load_ and _burden_? . what are _cargo_, _freight_, and _lading_? . what is the distinctive sense of _pack_? examples. bear ye one another's ----. wearing all that ---- of learning lightly like a flower. the ass will carry his ----, but not a double ----. * * * * * look (page ). questions. . what is the distinction between _look_ and _see_? between these words and _behold_? . what is it to _gaze_? to _glance_? to _stare_? . what do _scan_, _inspect_, and _survey_ respectively express, and how are they distinguished from one another? . what element or elements does _watch_ add to the meaning of _look_? examples. it is always well to ---- at people when addressing them. having eyes they ---- not, and having ears hear not. then gently ---- your brother man, still gentler sister woman; tho' they may gang a kennin wrang, to step aside is human. my soul waiteth for the lord more than they that ---- for the morning. how peacefully the broad and golden moon comes up to ---- upon the reaper's toil! i am monarch of all i ----, my right there is none to dispute; from the center all round to the sea, i am lord of the fowl and the brute. but, ----, the morn in russet mantle clad, walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. * * * * * love (page ). questions. . what is _affection_? . what may be given as a brief definition of _love_? . does _affection_ apply to persons or things? to what does _love_ apply? . what term is preferable to _love_ as applying to articles of food and the like? . how does _love_ differ from _affection_? from _friendship_? examples. peace, commerce, and honest ---- with all nations help to form the bright constellation which has gone before us. and you must love him ere to you he will seem worthy of your ----. yet pity for a horse o'erdriven and ---- in which my hound has part can hang no weight upon my heart, in its assumptions up to heaven. such ---- and unbroken faith as temper life's worst bitterness. * * * * * make (page ). questions. . what is the essential idea of _make_? . how is _make_ allied with _create_? . how is _make_ allied with _compose_ or _constitute_? . what are some chief antonyms for _make_? . what are the prepositions chiefly used with _make_, and how employed? examples. in the beginning god ---- the heaven and the earth. the mason ----, the architect ----. i assert confidently that it is in the power of one american mother to ---- as many gentlemen as she has sons. newton discovered, but did not ---- the law of gravitation. the river flows over a bed of pebbles like those that ---- the beach and the surrounding plains. a hermit and a wolf or two my whole acquaintance ----. if we were not willing, they possessed the power of ---- us to do them justice. the lessons of adversity sometimes soften and ----, but as often they indurate and pervert. * * * * * marriage (page ). questions. . what does _matrimony_ specifically denote? . what two senses has _marriage_? . from what language is _wedlock_ derived? what is its distinctive use? . what is the meaning of _wedding_? _nuptials_? examples. let me not to the ---- of true minds admit impediments. the lover was killed in a duel on the night before the intended ----. i'll join my eldest daughter, and my joy, to him forthwith in holy ---- bonds. * * * * * masculine (page ). questions. . to what is _male_ applied? to what _masculine_? . to what does _manly_ refer? _manful_? in what connection can _manly_ be used where _manful_ could not be substituted? . what is the sense of _mannish_? _virile_? examples. every virtue in the higher phases of ---- character begins in truth and pity or truth and reverence to all womanhood. one brave and ---- struggle and he gained the solid land and the cover of the mountains and the carbines of his band. so god created man in his own image, in the image of god created he him; ---- and female created he them. * * * * * massacre (page ). questions. . what is _massacre_? _butchery_? _havoc_? . to what does _carnage_ especially refer? _slaughter_? . which of these words can be used of the destruction of life in open and honorable warfare? examples. mark! where his ---- and his conquests cease! he makes a solitude and calls it peace! forbade to wade through ---- to a throne, and shut the gates of mercy on mankind. the capture of port arthur was followed by a terrible ----. * * * * * meddlesome (page ). questions. . what is the conduct specially characteristic of a _meddlesome_ person? of an _intrusive_ person? of one who is _obtrusive_? _officious_? . to what is _obtrusive_ chiefly applied? _intrusive_? _officious_? _meddlesome_? examples. where sorrow's held ---- and turned out, there wisdom will not enter nor true power, nor aught that dignifies humanity. a ---- monkey had been among the papers. * * * * * melody (page ). questions. . what is _harmony_? _melody_? in what special feature does the one differ from the other? . how many parts are required for _harmony_? how many for _melody_? . what is _unison_? . what does _music_ include? examples. sweetest ---- are those that are by distance made more sweet. ----, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory. ring out ye crystal spheres and with your ninefold ---- make up full consort to the angelic ----. * * * * * memory (page ). questions. . what is _memory_ in the special and in the general sense? . what is _remembrance_, and how distinguished from _memory_? . is _remembrance_ voluntary or involuntary? . what is _recollection_, and what does it involve? . what is _reminiscence_? _retrospection_? how do these two words differ? examples. ---- like a purse, if it be over-full that it can not shut, all will drop out of it; take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy ---- spoil the digestion thereof. ---- wakes with all her busy train, swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain. it is a favorite device of eminent men to devote their old age to writing their ----s, thus quietly living over again a busy or tumultuous life. * * * * * mercy (page ). questions. . what is _mercy_ in the strictest sense? . to what class is _grace_ shown? . to what class are _mercy_, _forgiveness_, and _pardon_ extended? . in what wider significations is _mercy_ used? . what is _clemency_? _leniency_ or _lenity_? how do these words compare with _mercy_? examples. how would you be, if he, which is the top of judgment, should but judge you as you are? o, think on that; and ---- then will breathe within your lips, like man new made. the only protection which the conquered could find was in the moderation, the ----, and the enlarged policy of the conquerors. to favor sin is to discourage virtue; undue ---- to the bad is unkindness to the good. * * * * * meter (page ). questions. . what is _euphony_? how does it differ from _meter_, _measure_, and _rhythm_? . how are _rhythm_ and _meter_ produced? . how does _meter_ differ from _rhythm_? . what is a _verse_ in the strict sense? in what wider sense is the word often used? examples. ---- is a very vague and unscientific term. each nation considers its own language, each tribe its own dialect, euphonic. ---- may be defined to be a succession of poetical feet arranged in regular order according to certain types recognized as standards, in verses of a determinate length. we have three principal domains in which ---- manifests its nature and power--dancing, music, poetry. * * * * * mind (page ). questions. . what is _mind_? how does it differ from _intellect_? . what does _consciousness_ include? is it attended with distinct thinking and willing? . what is the _soul_? . from what is _spirit_ used in special contradistinction? how does it differ from _soul_? . what is paley's definition of _instinct_? . in what contrasted meanings is the word _sense_ employed? . what is _thought_? examples. a great ---- will be strong to live, as well as to think. god is a ----: and they that worship him must worship him in ---- and in truth. * * * * * minute (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _minute_? . when is a thing said to be _comminuted_? . how does _fine_ differ from _comminuted_? . what terms are applied to an account extended to _minute_ particulars? to an examination similarly extended? examples. no ---- room so warm and bright, wherein to read, wherein to write. life hangs on, held by a ---- thread. an organism so ---- as to be visible only under the microscope, yet possessed of life, motion, and seeming intelligence is a source of ceaseless wonder. * * * * * misfortune (page ). questions. . what is _misfortune_? is the sufferer considered blameworthy for it? . what is _calamity_? _disaster_? . in what special sense are the words _affliction_, _chastening_, _trial_, and _tribulation_ used? how are these four words discriminated the one from another? examples. he's not valiant that dares die, but he that boldly bears ----. i never knew a man in life who could not bear another's ---- perfectly like a christian. * * * * * model (page ). questions. . what is a _model_? a _pattern_? how are they distinguished from one another? . which admits of freedom or idealization? examples. things done without ----, in their issue are to be fear'd. be a ---- to others, and then all will go well. washington and his compeers had no ---- of a federal republic with constitutional bonds and limitations. moses was admonished, see that thou make all things according to the ---- shewed to thee in the mount. * * * * * modesty (page ). questions. . what is _modesty_ in the general sense? in what specific sense is the word also used? . what is _bashfulness_? _diffidence_? _coyness_? _reserve_? examples. for silence and chaste ---- is woman's genuine praise, and to remain quiet within the house. if a young lady has that discretion and ----, without which all knowledge is little worth, she will never make an ostentatious parade of it. his shrinking ---- was often mistaken for a proud ----. * * * * * money (page ). questions. . what is _money_? _specie_? _cash_? . how does _property_ differ from _money_? . what is _bullion_? _capital_? examples. i am not covetous for ----; nor care i who doth feed upon my cost. for the love of ---- is the root of all evil. he converted all his ---- into ready ----. one who undertakes to do business without ---- is likely to be speedily straitened for ----. ---- in reversion may be of far less value than ---- in hand. * * * * * morose (page ). questions. . by what characteristics are the _morose_ distinguished? the _sullen_ and _sulky_? . how does _sullen_ differ from _sulky_? . what is the meaning of _surly_? . which of these words denote transient moods and which denote enduring states or disposition? examples. my master is of ---- disposition, and little recks to find the way to heaven by doing deeds of hospitality. a poet who fails in writing, becomes often a ---- critic. he answered with a ---- growl. achilles remained in his tent in ---- inaction. * * * * * motion (page ). questions. . what is _motion_? . how does _motion_ differ from _movement_? give examples. . in what sense is _move_ employed? . what is the special sense of _motion_ in a deliberative assembly? . is _action_ or _motion_ the more comprehensive word? which is commonly used in reference to the mind? examples. that ---- is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. there is no death! what seems so is ----; this life of mortal breath is but a suburb of the life elysian, whose portal we call death. the copernican theory first clearly explained the ---- of the planets. * * * * * mutual (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _common_? _mutual_? _reciprocal_? . is it correct to speak of a _mutual_ friend? examples. ---- friendships will admit of division, one may love the beauty of this, the good humor of that person. in all true family life there is a ---- dependence which binds hearts together. ---- action is the rule in the human body, where every part is alternately means and end, and every action both cause and effect. * * * * * name (page ). questions. . what is a _name_ in the most general sense? . in the more limited sense, how does a _name_ differ from an _appellation_? a _title_? give instances of the use of these three words. . from what language is _epithet_ derived? what is its primary meaning? . what does _epithet_ signify in literary use? . what part of speech is an _epithet_? is it favorable or unfavorable in signification? . what is a _cognomen_? how does it differ from a _surname_? . what is _style_ considered as a synonym of _name_? examples. those he commands, move only in command nothing in love: now does he feel the ---- hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief. o magnify the lord with me, and let us exalt his ---- together. * * * * * native (page ). questions. . what does _native_ denote? _natal_? _natural_? . what examples are given in the text of the correct use of these words? examples. i would advise no child's being taught music who has not a ---- aptitude for it. it was the th of july, the ---- day of american freedom. * * * * * nautical (page ). questions. . from what is _marine_ derived? _maritime_? what do these two words respectively signify? . from what is _naval_ derived? _nautical_? how do these words differ in meaning? . how does _ocean_, used adjectively, differ from _oceanic_? examples. that sea-beast, leviathan, which god of all his works created hugest that swim the ---- stream. * * * * * neat (page ). questions. . what does _clean_ signify? . does _orderly_ apply to persons or things, and in what sense? . what does _tidy_ denote? . what is the meaning of _neat_? . how does _nice_ compare with _neat_? . what is the significance of _spruce_? _trim_? _dapper_? examples. if he (jefferson) condescended to turn ---- sentences for delicate ears--still, he was essentially an earnest man. still to be ----, still to be drest, as you were going to a feast, still to be powder'd, still perfum'd. * * * * * necessary (page ). questions. . when is a thing properly said to be _necessary_? . what is the meaning of _essential_? how does it differ from _indispensable_? . with reference to what is a thing said to be _requisite_? how does _requisite_ compare with _essential_ and _indispensable_? . how do _inevitable_ and _unavoidable_ compare? to what kind of things are both these words applied? . how do _needed_ and _needful_ compare with _necessary_? examples. as you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is ---- for you in a book. the ideas of space and time are called in philosophy ---- ideas. * * * * * necessity (page ). questions. . what is _necessity_? . what do _need_ and _want_ imply? how does _need_ compare with _want_? . how does _necessity_ compare with _need_? . what is an _essential_? examples. courage is, on all hands, considered as an ---- of high character. no living man can send me to the shades before my time; no man of woman born, coward or brave, can shun his ----. * * * * * neglect, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is _neglect_? _negligence_? how do the two words compare? . what senses has _negligence_ that _neglect_ has not? . which of the two words may be used in a passive sense? . what is the legal phrase for a punishable _omission_ of duty? examples. ah, why should we, in the world's riper years, ---- god's ancient sanctuaries, and adore only among the crowd. but, alas, to make a fixed figure, for the hand of ---- to point his slow unmoving finger at. * * * * * new (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _new_? of _modern_? of _recent_? . how does _recent_ compare with _new_? . what is the meaning of _novel_? of _fresh_? . to what do _young_ and _youthful_ distinctively apply? * * * * * nimble (page ). questions. . to what does _nimble_ properly refer? . to what does _swift_ apply? . how does _alert_ compare with _nimble_? for what is _alert_ more properly a synonym? examples. win her with gifts, if she respect not words; dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, more ---- than words, do move a woman's mind. profound thinkers are often helpless in society, while shallow men have ---- and ready minds. * * * * * normal (page ). questions. . what does _natural_ signify? _normal_? give instances of the distinctive use of the two words. . what does _typical_ signify? _regular_? _common_? examples. he does it with a better grace, but i do it more ----. the ---- round of work may grow monotonous, but it is evidently necessary. * * * * * notwithstanding (page ). questions. . what is the signification of _however_ as a conjunction? of _nevertheless_? . which is the most emphatic word of the group and what does it signify? . how do _yet_ and _still_ compare with _notwithstanding_? with _but_? . what is the force of _tho_ and _altho_? . how does _notwithstanding_ as a preposition differ from _despite_ or _in spite of_? examples. ---- do thy worst, old time; despite thy wrong, my love shall in my verse ever live young. ---- till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. there was an immense crowd ---- the inclement weather. * * * * * oath (page ). questions. . what is an _oath_? an _affidavit_? how does the _affidavit_ differ from the _oath_? . what is an _adjuration_? . what is a _vow_? how does it differ from an _oath_? . of what words is _oath_ a popular synonym? . in what do _anathema_, _curse_, _execration_, and _imprecation_ agree? . what is an _anathema_? . is a _curse_ just or unjust? . what does _execration_ express? _imprecation_? examples. better is it that thou shouldest not ----, than that thou shouldest ---- and not pay. then how can any man be said to break an ---- he never made? * * * * * obscure (page ). questions. . what is _obscure_? . how does _obscure_ compare with _complicated_? with _complex_? with _abstruse_? with _profound_? * * * * * obsolete (page ). questions. . when is a word _obsolete_? when is a word _archaic_? . is an _old_ or _ancient_ word necessarily _obsolete_? . what is meant by saying that a word is _rare_? . is a _rare_ word necessarily _obsolete_ or an _obsolete_ word necessarily _rare_? examples. when the labors of modern philologists began, sanscrit was the most ---- of all the aryan languages known to them. atlas, we read in ---- song, was so exceeding tall and strong, he bore the skies upon his back, just as the pedler does his pack. it is wonderful that so few ---- words are found in shakespeare after the lapse of three centuries. * * * * * obstinate (page ). questions. . how does _headstrong_ differ from _obstinate_ and _stubborn_? . how do _obstinate_ and _stubborn_ differ from each other? which is commonly applied to the inferior animals and to inanimate things? . what is the meaning of _refractory_? how does it differ from _stubborn_? which word is applied to metals, and in what sense? . what is the meaning of _obdurate_? _contumacious_? _pertinacious_? . what words do we apply to the _unyielding_ character or conduct that we approve? examples. is it in heav'n a crime to love too well? to bear too tender, or too ---- a heart, to act a lover's or a roman's part? "i shall talk of what i like," she said wilfully, clasping her hands round her knees with the gesture of an ---- child. * * * * * obstruct (page ). questions. . what is the literal meaning of _obstruct_? how does it compare with _hinder_? . how does _obstruct_ compare with _impede_? . what does _arrest_ signify in the sense here considered? examples. there is a certain wisdom of humanity which is common to the greatest men with the lowest, and which our ordinary education often labors to silence and ----. no, no ----ing the vast wheel of time, that round and round still turns with onward might. * * * * * old (page ). questions. . what does _old_ signify? . how do _old_ and _ancient_ compare? . what contrasted senses has _old_? . what is the special force of _olden_? . in what sense are _gray_, _hoary_, and _olden_ used of material objects? . to what is _aged_ chiefly applied? . to what do _decrepit_, _gray_, and _hoary_ apply, as said of human beings? . to what does _senile_ apply? . in what sense is _elderly_ used? . what are the primary and derived meanings of _remote_? . what does _venerable_ express? examples. the hills, rock-ribbed and ---- as the sun,--the vales stretching in pensive quietness between; the ---- woods, ... ... and, poured round all, ---- ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-- are but the solemn decorations all of the great tomb of man. through the sequestered vale of rural life, the ---- patriarch guileless held the tenor of his way. o good ---- head which all men knew! shall we, shall ---- men, like ---- trees, strike deeper their vile root, and closer cling, still more enamored of their wretched soil? * * * * * operation (page ). questions. . what does _operation_ denote? and by what kind of agent is it effected? . what do _performance_ and _execution_ denote? and by what kind of agents are they effected? . how does _performance_ differ from _execution_? examples. it requires a surgical ---- to get a joke well into a scotch understanding. his promises were, as he then was, mighty; but his ----, as he is now, nothing. * * * * * order (page ). questions. . what does _instruction_ imply? _direction_? . how does _order_ compare with _direction_? . to what classes of persons are _orders_ especially given? how does an _order_ in the commercial sense become authoritative? . how does _command_ compare with _order_? . in what sense is _requirement_ used? by what authority is a _requirement_ made? . in what sense is _prohibition_ used? _injunction_? examples. general sherman writes in his memoirs, "i have never in my life questioned or disobeyed an ----." "ye shall become like god"--transcendent fate! that god's ---- forgot, she plucked and ate. * * * * * ostentation (page ). questions. . what is _ostentation_? how does it compare with _boasting_? _display_? _show_? . what is _pomp_? _pageant_ or _pageantry_? what do the two latter words suggest, and how do they compare with _pomp_? . from what is _parade_ derived? what is its primary meaning? with what implication is it always used in the metaphorical sense? how does _parade_ compare with _ostentation_? examples. the boast of heraldry, the ---- of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. await alike the inevitable hour; the paths of glory lead but to the grave. the president's salary does not permit ----, nor, indeed, is ---- expected of him. with all his wealth, talent, and learning, he was singularly free from ----. * * * * * oversight (page ). questions. . in what two contrasted senses is _oversight_ used? . how does _superintendence_ compare with _oversight_? . with what special reference is _control_ used? . what kind of a term is _surveillance_, and what does it imply? examples. those able to conduct great enterprises must be allowed wages of ----. o friendship, equal poised ----! feed the flock of god which is among you, taking the ---- thereof not by constraint, but willingly. * * * * * ought (page ). questions. . what does _ought_ properly signify? . how does _ought_ compare with _should_? . in what secondary sense is _ought_ sometimes used? examples. he has not a right to do what he likes, but only what he ---- with his own, which after all is his own only in a qualified sense. age ---- have reverence, and ---- be worthy to have it. * * * * * pain (page ). questions. . what is _pain_? _suffering_? . how does _distress_ rank as compared with _pain_ and _suffering_? . what is an _ache_? a _throe_? a _paroxysm_? . what is _agony_? _anguish_? examples. to each his ----s; all are men, condemned alike to groan; the tender for another's ----, the unfeeling for his own. the weariest and most loathed worldly life that age, ----, penury, and imprisonment can lay on nature. * * * * * palliate (page ). questions. . how do _cloak_ and _palliate_ agree in original meaning? how do they differ in the derived senses? . what is it to _extenuate_, and how does that word compare with _palliate_? examples. speak of me as i am; nothing ---- nor aught set down in malice. we would not dissemble nor ---- [our transgressions] before the face of almighty god, our heavenly father. i shall never attempt to ---- my own foibles by exposing the error of another. * * * * * pardon, _v._ (page ). questions. . what is it to _pardon_? . to what does _forgive_ refer? . how do _pardon_ and _forgive_ differ in use in accordance with the difference in meaning? . what is it to _remit_? to _condone_? to _excuse_? examples. how many will say ----, and find a kind of license in the sound to hate a little longer! i ---- him, as heaven shall ---- me. to err is human, to ----, divine. * * * * * pardon, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is _acquittal_? how does it differ from _pardon_ as regards the person acquitted or pardoned? . is an innocent person ever pardoned? . what is _oblivion_? _amnesty_? _absolution_? examples. for 'tis sweet to stammer one letter of the eternal's language;--on earth it is called ----. ----, not wrath, is god's best attribute. ---- to the injured does belong, but they ne'er ---- who have done the wrong. * * * * * part, _n._ (page ). questions. . what is a _part_? . what is a _fragment_? a _piece_? . what do _division_ and _fraction_ signify? . what is a _portion_? . what is a _share_? an _instalment_? a _particle_? . what do _component_, _constituent_, _ingredient_, and _element_ signify? how do they differ from one another? . what is a _subdivision_? examples. the best ---- of a good man's life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. spirits that live throughout, vital in every ---- ... can not but by annihilating die. many cheap houses were built to be sold by ----s. * * * * * particle (page ). questions. . what is a _particle_? . what does _atom_ etymologically signify? what is its meaning in present scientific use? . what is a _molecule_, and of what is it regarded as composed? . what is an _element_ in chemistry? examples. lucretius held that the universe originated from a fortuitous concourse of ----s. but thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, unhurt amidst the war of ----s, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. many aquatic animals, whose food consists of small ---- diffused through the water, have an apparatus for creating currents so as to bring such ---- within their reach. * * * * * patience (page ). questions. . what is _patience_? . what is _endurance_? . how does _patience_ compare with _submission_ and _endurance_? . to what are _submission_ and _resignation_ ordinarily applied? . what is _forbearance_? how does it compare with _patience_? examples. with ---- bear the lot to thee assigned, nor think it chance, nor murmur at the load, for know what man calls fortune is from god. there is, however, a limit at which ---- ceases to be a virtue. * * * * * pay (page ). questions. . what is _pay_? _compensation_? _remuneration_? _recompense_? . what is an _allowance_? . what are _wages_? _earnings_? . what is _hire_? what does it imply? . for what is _salary_ paid? how does it differ from _wages_? . what is a _fee_, and for what given? examples. i am not aware that ----, or even favors, however gracious, bind any man's soul. our praises are our ----. carey, in early life, was a country minister with a small ----. laborers are remunerated by ----, and officials by ----. * * * * * people (page ). questions. . what is a _community_? a _commonwealth_? . what is a _people_? a _race_? . what is a _state_? a _nation_? . what does _population_ signify? _tribe_? examples. a ---- may let a king fall, and still remain a ----, but if a king let his ---- slip from him, he is no longer a king. questions of ---- have played a great part in the politics and wars of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the germanic ----, the slavonic ----, the italian, and the greek ----s struggling to assert their unity. * * * * * perceive (page ). questions. . what class of things do we _perceive_? . how does _apprehend_ differ in scope from _perceive_? . what does _conceive_ signify? . how does _comprehend_ compare with _apprehend_? with _conceive_? examples. we may ---- the tokens of the divine agency without being able to ---- or ---- the divine being. ... admitted once to his embrace, thou shalt ---- that thou wast blind before. o horror! horror! horror! tongue nor heart can not ---- nor name thee! * * * * * perfect (page ). questions. . what is _perfect_ in the fullest and highest sense? . what is _absolute_ in the fullest sense? . what is _perfect_ in the limited sense, and in popular language? examples. we have the idea of a being infinitely ----, and from this descartes reasoned that such a being really exists. 'shall remain'! hear you this triton of the minnows? mark you his ---- 'shall'? * * * * * permanent (page ). questions. . from what is _durable_ derived? to what class of substances is it applied? . what is _permanent_, and in what connections used? . how does _enduring_ compare with _durable_? with _permanent_? examples. my heart is wax, molded as she pleases, but ---- as marble to retain. a violet in the youth of primy nature, forward, not ----, sweet, not ----, the perfume and suppliance of a minute. for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the lord, to eat sufficiently, and for ---- clothing. * * * * * permission (page ). questions. . what is _authority_? . what is _permission_? . how does _permission_ compare with _allowance_? . what is a _permit_? . what is _license_? how does it compare with _authority_? with _permission_? . what does _consent_ involve? examples. god is more there than thou; for thou art there only by his ----. thieves for their robbery have ----, when judges steal themselves. very few of the egyptians avail themselves of the ---- which their religion allows them, of having four wives. * * * * * pernicious (page ). questions. . from what is _pernicious_ derived, and what does it signify? . how does _pernicious_ compare with _injurious_? . what does _noisome_ denote? . what is the distinctive sense of _noxious_? . how does _noxious_ compare with _noisome_? examples. inflaming wine, ---- to mankind. so bees with smoke, and doves with ---- stench, are from their hives, and houses, driven away. the strong smell of sulfur, and a choking sensation of the lungs indicated the presence of ---- gases. * * * * * perplexity (page ). questions. . what is _perplexity_? _confusion_? how do the two words compare? . how do _bewilderment_ and _confusion_ compare? . from what does _amazement_ result? examples. caius.--vere is mine host _de jarterre_? host.--here, master doctor, in ---- and doubtful dilemma. there is such ---- in my powers as, after some oration fairly spoke by a beloved prince, there doth appear among the buzzing, pleased multitude. * * * * * persuade (page ). questions. . what does _convince_ denote? how does it differ from the other words of the group? . what is it to _persuade_? . how is _convincing_ related to _persuasion_? . how does _coax_ compare with _persuade_? examples. a long train of these practises has at length unwillingly ---- me that there is something hid behind the throne greater than the king himself. he had a head to contrive, a tongue to ----, and a hand to execute any mischief. * * * * * perverse (page ). questions. . what is the etymological meaning of _perverse_? what does it signify in common use? . what does _petulant_ signify? _wayward_? examples. and you, my lords--methinks you do not well, to bear with their ---- objections. whining, purblind, ---- boy! good lord! what madness rules in brainsick men when, for so slight and frivolous a cause, such ---- emulations shall arise. * * * * * physical (page ). questions. . what does _material_ signify? . what idea does _physical_ add to that contained in _material_? . to what do _bodily_, _corporal_, and _corporeal_ apply? . how do _bodily_ and _corporal_ differ from _corporeal_? . to what is _corporal_ now for the most part limited? examples. ---- punishment is practically abandoned in the greater number of american schools. man has two parts, the one ---- and earthly, the other immaterial and spiritual. these races are all clearly differentiated by other ---- traits than the color of the skin. we can not think of substance save in terms that imply ---- properties. * * * * * pitiful (page ). questions. . what was the original meaning of _pitiful_? what does it now signify? . how does _pitiful_ differ in use from _pitiable_? . what was the early and what is the present sense of _piteous_? examples. there is something pleading and ---- in the simplicity of perfect ignorance. the most ---- sight one ever sees is a young man doing nothing; the furies early drag him to his doom. o, the most ---- cry of the poor souls! * * * * * pity (page ). questions. . what is _pity_? _sympathy_? . how does _sympathy_ in its exercise differ from _pity_? . how does _pity_ differ from _mercy_? . how does _compassion_ compare with _mercy_ and _pity_? . how does _commiseration_ differ from _compassion_? examples. nothing but the infinite ---- is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life. he hallows every heart he once has swayed, and when his presence we no longer share, still leaves ---- as a relic there. * * * * * plead (page ). questions. . what is it to _plead_ in the ordinary sense? in the legal sense? . how do _argue_ and _advocate_ differ? . what do _beseech_, _entreat_, and _implore_ imply? . how does _solicit_ compare with the above words? examples. speak to me low, my savior, low and sweet, . . . lest i should fear and fall, and miss thee so, who art not missed by any that ----. speaking of the honor paid to good men, is it not time to ---- for a reform in the writing of biographies? * * * * * pleasant (page ). questions. . what does _pleasant_ add to the sense of _pleasing_? . how does _pleasant_ compare with _kind_? . what does _good-natured_ signify? how does it compare with _pleasant_? examples. like one that wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to ---- dreams. when fiction rises ---- to the eye, men will believe because they love the lie. ... if we must part forever, give me but one ---- word to think upon. * * * * * plentiful (page ). questions. . what kind of a term is _enough_, and what does it mean? . how does _sufficient_ compare with _enough_? . what is _ample_? . to what do _abundant_, _ample_, _liberal_, and _plentiful_ apply? . how is _copious_ used? _affluent_? _plentiful_? . what does _complete_ express? . in what sense are _lavish_ and _profuse_ employed? . to what is _luxuriant_ applied? examples. my ---- joys, wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves in drops of sorrow. can anybody remember when the right sort of men and the right sort of women were ----? share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, the gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received, and is ---- for both. he hasted, and opposed the rocky orb of tenfold adamant, his ---- shield. * * * * * poetry (page ). questions. . what is _poetry_? . does _poetry_ involve _rime_? does it require _meter_? . what is imperatively required beyond _verse_, _rime_, or _meter_ to constitute _poetry_? examples. ---- is rhythmical, imaginative language, expressing the invention, taste, thought, passion, and insight of a human soul. he knew himself to sing, and build the lofty ----. and ever against eating cares, lap me in soft lydian airs, married to immortal ----. * * * * * polite (page ). questions. . what are the characteristics of a _civil_ person? what more is found in one who is _polite_? . how does _courteous_ compare with _civil_? . what does _courtly_ signify? _genteel_? _urbane_? . in what sense is _polished_ used? _complaisant_? examples. she is not ---- for the sake of seeming ----, but ---- for the sake of being kind. he was so generally ---- that nobody thanked him for it. her air, her manners, all who saw admired; ---- tho coy, and gentle tho retired. * * * * * poverty (page ). questions. . what does _poverty_ strictly denote? what does it signify in ordinary use? . what does _privation_ signify? how does it compare with _distress_? . what is _indigence_? _destitution_? _penury_? . what does _pauperism_ properly signify? how does it differ from _beggary_ and _mendicancy_? * * * * * power (page ). questions. . what is _power_? . is _power_ limited to intelligent agents, or how widely applied? . how does _ability_ compare with _power_? . what is _capacity_, and how related to _power_ and to _ability_? . what is _competency_? _faculty_? _talent_? . what are _dexterity_ and _skill_? how are they related to _talent_? . what is _efficacy_? _efficiency_? examples. bismarck was the one great figure of all europe, with more ---- for good or evil than any other human being possessed at that time. the soul, in its highest sense, is a vast ---- for god. i reckon it is an oversight in a great body of metaphysicians that they have been afraid to ascribe our apprehensions of ---- to intuition. in consequence of this neglect, some never get the idea of ----, but merely of succession, within the bare limits of experience. * * * * * praise (page ). questions. . what is _praise_? by how many is it given, and how is it expressed? . what is _applause_? by how many given? and how expressed? . what is _acclamation_? how does it differ from _applause_? . how does _approbation_ differ from _praise_? . what does _approval_ add to the meaning of _praise_? . how does _compliment_ compare with _praise_? . what is _flattery_? examples. the ---- of listening senates to command, the threats of pain and ruin to despise, to scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, and read their history in a nation's eyes. ---- no man e'er deserved who sought no more. gladly then he mixed among those friendly powers, who him received with joy and ----s loud. * * * * * pray (page ). questions. . what is it to _pray_ in the religious sense? . in what lighter and more familiar sense may _pray_ be used? is this latter use now common? examples. hesiod exhorted the husbandman to ---- for a harvest, but to do so with his hand upon the plow. i kneel, and then ---- her blessing. * * * * * precarious (page ). questions. . to what is the term _uncertain_ applied? . what did _precarious_ originally signify? how is it now used, and how does it differ from _uncertain_? examples. ... thou know'st, great son, the end of war's ----. life seems to be ---- in proportion to its value. * * * * * precedent (page ). questions. . what is a _precedent_? . how does _case_ fall short of the meaning of _precedent_? . what is an _obiter dictum_? how does it differ from a _precedent_? examples. where freedom broadens slowly down from ---- to ----. let us consider the reason of the ----, for nothing is law that is not reason. * * * * * predestination (page ). questions. . what is _predestination_? . how does _fate_ differ from _predestination_? . what does _necessity_ signify in the philosophical sense? . what is _foreknowledge_? does it involve _foreordination_ or _predestination_? examples. for ---- has wove the thread of life with pain. all high truth is the union of two contradictories. thus ---- and free-will are opposites; and the truth does not lie between these two, but in a higher reconciling truth which leaves both true. * * * * * prejudice (page ). questions. . what is a _presumption_? on what is it founded? . on what are _prejudice_ and _prepossession_ based? how do these two words differ from each other? examples. when the judgment's weak, the ---- is strong. the ---- is always in favor of what exists. his fine features, manly form, and perfect manners awakened an instant ---- in his favor. * * * * * pretense (page ). questions. . what is a _pretense_? how does it differ from a _pretext_? . what is a _ruse_? examples. the claim of a stronger nation to protect a weaker has commonly been but a ---- for conquest. it is not poverty so much as ---- that harasses a ruined man--the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse. the independent english nobility conspired to make an insurrection, and to support the prince's ----s. * * * * * prevent (page ). questions. . what is the original meaning of _prevent_? . what word is now commonly used in that sense? . what is the meaning of _obviate_? _preclude_? . how is _prevent_ at present used? examples. the contrary supposition is obviously ----. when the siberian pacific railway is finished, what is there to ---- russia from annexing nearly the whole of china? there appears to be no way to ---- the difficulty. * * * * * previous (page ). questions. . what does _antecedent_ denote? . how does _preceding_ differ from _antecedent_ and _previous_? . how is _anterior_ commonly used? _prior_? . of what is _former_ used? what does _former_ always imply? examples. these matters have been fully explained in ---- chapters of this work. the reader will be helped to an understanding of this process by a careful study of the diagram on the ---- page. in ---- times many things were attributed to witchcraft that now have a scientific explanation. * * * * * price (page ). questions. . what is the _cost_ of an article? the _price_? . how do _cost_ and _price_ ordinarily differ? . in what exceptional case may _cost_ and _price_ agree? . what does _price_ always imply? . what is the meaning of _value_? how does market _value_ differ from intrinsic _value_? . how does _value_ differ from _worth_? . to what are _charge_ and _expense_ ordinarily applied? examples. ---- is the life-giving power of anything; ----, the quantity of labor required to produce it; ----, the quantity of labor which its possessor will take in exchange for it. no man can permanently do business by making the ---- of his goods the same as their ---- to him, however such a method may help him momentarily in an emergency. * * * * * pride (page ). questions. . what is _pride_? _haughtiness_? _arrogance_? _disdain_? how do these qualities compare with _pride_? . what does _superciliousness_ imply according to its etymology? . how do _pride_ and _vanity_ differ? . what difference is noted between _self-conceit_ and _conceit_? . how do _self-respect_ and _self-esteem_ compare with each other and with the other words of the group? examples. ---- may puff a man up, but never prop him up. there is nothing ---- can so little bear with as ---- itself. ---- is as ill at ease under indifference, as tenderness is under the love which it can not return. * * * * * primeval (page ). questions. . what is the derivation and signification of _aboriginal_? _autochthonic_? _primeval_? . what do _prime_ and _primary_ denote? what special sense has _primary_ as in reference to a school? . how is _primordial_ used? . what does _primitive_ suggest, as in the expressions, the _primitive_ church, _primitive_ simplicity? . what is _pristine_? . how do _native_ and _indigenous_ compare? examples. thou from ---- nothingness didst call first chaos, then existence, lord. the ---- inhabitants of america are long since extinct, for even the races whom the white men conquered had themselves supplanted an earlier race. all the later ages have wondered at and admired the whole-souled consecration of the ---- church. * * * * * profit (page ). questions. . what are _returns_ or _receipts_? . what is _profit_ in the commercial sense? what in the intellectual and moral sense? . what is _utility_? . what does _advantage_ originally signify? does it now necessarily imply having or gaining superiority to another person, or securing anything at another's expense? . what is _gain_? _benefit_? _emolument_? . to what does _expediency_ especially refer? examples. silence has many ----s. no man can read with ---- that which he can not learn to read with pleasure. godliness with contentment is great ----. * * * * * progress (page ). questions. . what is _progress_? . what do _attainment_, _proficiency_, and _development_ imply? . what is _advance_? how does it differ from _progress_? examples. what is thy ---- compared with an alexander's, a mahomet's, a napoleon's? and dreams in their ---- have breath, and tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy. human ---- consists in a continual increase in the number of those who, ceasing to live by the animal life alone and to feel the pleasures of sense only, come to participate in the intellectual life also. * * * * * prohibit (page ). questions. . what is it to _prohibit_? . how does _forbid_ compare with _prohibit_? . how does _prohibit_ compare with _prevent_? examples. tho much i want which most would have, yet still my mind ---- to crave. the laws of england, from the early plantagenets, sternly ---- the conversion of malt into alcohol, excepting a small portion for medicinal purposes. human law must ---- many things that human administration of law can not absolutely ----; is not this true also of the divine government? * * * * * promote (page ). questions. . what is it to _promote_? . to what does _promote_ apply? to persons or things, and in what way? examples. the outlawed pirate of one year was ---- the next to be a governor and his country's representative. the imperial ensign, which full high ----ed, shone like a meteor streaming in the wind. * * * * * propitiation (page ). questions. . what did _atonement_ originally denote? what is its present theological and popular sense? . what does _expiation_ signify? _propitiation_? _satisfaction_? examples. ---- has respect to the bearing which satisfaction has upon sin or the sinner. ---- has respect to the effect of satisfaction in removing the judicial displeasure of god. when a man has been guilty of any sin or folly, i think the best ---- he can make is to warn others not to fall into the like. redemption implies the complete deliverance from the penalty, power, and all the consequences of sin; ---- is used in the sense of the sacrificial work, whereby the redemption from the condemning power of the law was insured. * * * * * proposal (page ). questions. . what does an _offer_ or _proposal_ do? . what does a _proposition_ set forth? . for what is the _proposition_ designed? the _proposal_? . in what way does _proposition_ come to have nearly the sense of _proposal_ in certain uses? . what is a _bid_? . what does an _overture_ accomplish? in what special application is the word commonly used? examples. garrison emphatically declared, "i can not listen to any ---- for a gradual abolition of wickedness." the theme in confirmation must always admit of being expressed in a logical ----, with subject, predicate, and copula. * * * * * propose (page ). questions. . how does _propose_ in its most frequent use differ from _purpose_? . how is _propose_ used so as to be nearly equivalent to _purpose_? what important difference appears in this latter use? examples. i know, indeed, the evil of that i ----, but my inclination gets the better of my judgment. man ----s, but god disposes. * * * * * protract (page ). questions. . what is it to _protract_? . what is the significance of _defer_ and _delay_, and how do these words differ in usage from _protract_? . how does _elongate_ differ from _protract_? . is _protract_ ordinarily favorable or unfavorable in sense? . is _continue_ favorable or unfavorable? examples. unseen hands ---- the coming of what oft seems close in ken. burton, a hypochondriac, wrote the "anatomy of melancholy," that marvel of learning, and ---- his life to the age of sixty-four. * * * * * proverb (page ). questions. . in what do the _proverb_ and the _adage_ agree? in what respects do they differ? . what is an _apothegm_? an _aphorism_? how do these two words differ? . what is a _dictum_? a _saying_? . what is a _precept_? how does it differ from a _motto_ or _maxim_? . how do _motto_ and _maxim_ differ from each other? examples. the ---- must be verified, that beggars mounted, run their horse to death. books, like ----s, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed. * * * * * prudence (page ). questions. . what is the definition of _prudence_? . how does _providence_ differ from _prudence_? . how does _care_ compare with _prudence_ and _providence_? . how is _frugality_ related to _prudence_? . how do _foresight_ and _forethought_ compare with each other, and both with _providence_? examples. when desp'rate ills demand a speedy cure, distrust is cowardice, and ---- folly. with a ---- unknown in other parts of scotland, the peasantry have in most places planted orchards around their cottages. * * * * * purchase (page ). questions. . from what language is _purchase_ derived? . from what is _buy_ derived? . how do _buy_ and _purchase_ agree in meaning? what single definition would answer for either? . how do _buy_ and _purchase_ differ in use? give instances. examples. i'll give thee england's treasure, enough to ---- such another island, so thou wilt make me live. 'tis gold which ----s admittance. ---- the truth, and sell it not. * * * * * pure (page ). questions. . what does _pure_ signify? . in what sense are material substances said to be _pure_? . what does _pure_ denote in moral and religious use? . how does _pure_ compare with _innocent_? with _virtuous_? examples. water from melted snow is ----r than rain-water, as it descends through the air in a solid form, incapable of absorbing atmospheric gases. stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage; minds ---- and quiet take that for a hermitage. in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a ---- offering, saith the lord of hosts. * * * * * queer (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _odd_? _singular_? are _odd_ and _singular_ precise equivalents? . when is a thing called _strange_? . what is the primary meaning of _peculiar_? with what implication is it now commonly used? . what is the meaning of _eccentric_? how does it differ in use from _odd_ or _queer_? . how does _erratic_ compare with _eccentric_? . what is the primary meaning of _queer_? its common meaning? . what is the significance of _quaint_? _grotesque_? examples. a ----, shy man was this pastor--a sort of living mummy, dried up and bleached by icelandic snows. in setting a hen, says grose, the good women hold it an indispensable rule to put an ---- number of eggs. only a man of undoubted genius can afford to be ----. the ---- architecture of these medieval towns has a strange fascination. * * * * * quicken (page ). questions. . what is it to _accelerate_? to _despatch_? . what does the verb _speed_ signify? _hasten_? _hurry_? what does _hurry_ suggest in addition to the meaning of _hasten_? examples. the motion of a falling body is continually ----ed. the muster-place is lanrick mead! ---- forth the signal! norman, ----! the pulsations of the heart are ----ed by exertion. * * * * * quote (page ). questions. . how does _cite_ differ from _quote_? . what is it to _paraphrase_? to _plagiarize_? examples. a great man ---- bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word as good. the devil can ---- scripture for his purpose. to appropriate others' thoughts or words mechanically and without credit is to ----. * * * * * racy (page ). questions. . to what does _racy_ in the first instance refer? _pungent_? . how does _piquant_ differ from _pungent_? . how are these words and the word _spicy_ used in reference to literary products? examples. pure mother english, ---- and fresh with idiomatic graces. the atmosphere was strangely impregnated with the ---- odor of burning peat. the spruce, the cedar, and the juniper, with their balsamic breath, filled the air with a ---- fragrance. * * * * * radical (page ). questions. . what is the primary meaning of _radical_? . what contrasted senses are derived from this primary meaning? examples. timidity is a ---- defect in a reformer. social and political leaders look to vested interests, and hence are inclined to regard all ---- measures as ----. * * * * * rare (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _unique_? can any one of a number of things of the same kind be _unique_? . what is the primary meaning of _rare_? what added sense is often blended with this primary meaning? . is _extraordinary_ favorable or unfavorable in meaning? examples. nothing is so ---- as time. that which gives to the jews their ---- position among the nations is what we are accustomed to regard as their sacred history. and what is so ---- as a day in june? then, if ever, come perfect days. * * * * * reach (page ). questions. . what is it to _reach_ in the sense here considered? . what is it to _arrive_? . what does _attain_ add to the meaning of _arrive_? what does _gain_ add? examples. and grasping down the boughs i ----ed the shore. he gathered the ripe nuts in the fall, and berries that grew by fence and wall so high she could not ---- them at all. the heights by great men ----ed and kept were not ----ed by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. it is only in this way that we can hope to ---- at truth. * * * * * real (page ). questions. . from what is _real_ derived? what does it mean? . from what is the _real_ distinguished? . to what is _actual_ opposed? . what shades of difference may be pointed out between the four words _actual_, _real_, _developed_, and _positive_? examples. in ---- life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us. if there was any trouble, ---- or impending, affecting those she had served, her place was with them. this was regarded as proof ---- of conspiracy. * * * * * reason, _v._ (page ). questions. . what is it to _reason_ about a matter? . from what is _argue_ derived, and what does it mean? . what is it to _demonstrate_? to _prove_? how do these two words agree and differ? examples. there are two ways of reaching truth: by ----ing it out and by feeling it out. in ----ing, too, the person owned his skill, for e'en tho vanquished, he could ---- still. a matter of fact may be ----ed by adequate evidence; only a mathematical proposition can be ----ed. * * * * * reason, _n._ (page ). questions. . how does _cause_ differ from _reason_ in the strict sense of each of the two words? . how is _reason_ often used so as to be a partial equivalent of _cause_? examples. no one is at liberty to speak ill of another without a justifiable ----, even tho he knows he is speaking truth. i am not only witty myself, but the ---- that wit is in other men. necessity is the ---- of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. alas! how light a ---- may move dissension between hearts that love! * * * * * reasoning (page ). questions. . what do _argumentation_ and _debate_ ordinarily imply? . how does _reasoning_ differ from both the above words in this respect? . to what kind of _reasoning_ were _argument_ and _argumentation_ formerly restricted? how widely are the words now applied? . how do _argument_ and _argumentation_ compare with _reasoning_ as regards logical form? examples. all ----, inductive or deductive, is a reaching of the unknown through the known; and where nothing unknown is reached there is no ----. early at bus'ness, and at hazard late, mad at a fox-chase, wise at a ----. if thou continuest to take delight in idle ----, thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but never know how to live with men. * * * * * refinement (page ). questions. . to what does _civilization_ apply, and what does it denote? . what is _refinement_? . what is the primary meaning of _cultivation_? the derived meaning? . by what word is _cultivation_ now largely superseded? . what does _culture_ denote? examples. what is ----? it is the humanization of man in society, the satisfaction for him in society of the true law of human nature. giving up wrong pleasure is not self-sacrifice, but self-----. this refined taste is the consequence of education and habit; we are born only with a capacity of entertaining this ----. * * * * * reliable (page ). questions. . what is to be said of the controversy regarding the formation and use of the word _reliable_? . what do _trusty_ and _trustworthy_ denote? . how does _reliable_ compare with these words? . what meaning may _reliable_ convey that _trusty_ and _trustworthy_ would not? examples. good lack! quoth he, yet bring it me my leathern belt likewise, in which i bear my ---- sword, when i do exercise. the first voyage to america, of which we have any perfectly ---- account, was performed by the norsemen. * * * * * religion (page ). questions. . what is the original sense of _piety_? the derived sense? . what is _religion_? what does it include? . what is _worship_? _devotion_? . what is _morality_? _godliness_? _holiness_? . how is _theology_ related to _religion_? examples. ---- is man's belief in a being or beings, mightier than himself and inaccessible to his senses, but not indifferent to his sentiments and actions, with the feelings and practises which flow from such belief. ----, whose soul sincere fears god, and knows no other fear. to deny the freedom of the will is to make ---- impossible. systematic ---- may be defined as the substance of the christian faith in a scientific form. * * * * * rend (page ). questions. . to what are _rend_ and _tear_ usually applied? which is the stronger word? . in what connection is _rive_ used, and in what sense? . what does _lacerate_ signify? . how does _mangle_ compare with _lacerate_? . what do _burst_ and _rupture_ signify? which is the stronger word? when is a steam-boiler said to be _ruptured_? . what does _rip_ signify? examples. storms do not ---- the sail that is furled. oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow ---- a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings. and now a bubble ----s, and now a world. the first blood shed in the revolutionary struggle; a mere drop in amount, but a deluge in its effects, ----ing the colonies forever from the mother country. * * * * * renounce (page ). questions. . from what is _renounce_ derived, and in what sense used? _recant_? _retract_? . what is it to _discard_? . how does _revoke_ compare with _recall_ in original meaning and in present use? . what is the derivation and the distinctive meaning of _abjure_? . in what sense is _repudiate_ used? examples. on his knees, with his hand on the bible, galileo was compelled to ---- and curse the doctrine of the movement of the earth. he adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide, ---- earth to forfeit heaven. he had no spiritual adviser, no human comforter, and was entirely in the hands of those who were determined that he should ---- or die. * * * * * repentance (page ). questions. . what is _regret_? . what does _penitence_ add to _regret_? . how does _repentance_ surpass the meaning of _penitence_, _regret_, _sorrow_, etc.? . what is _compunction_? _contrition_? . what is _remorse_, and how does it compare with _repentance_? examples. what then? what rests? try what ---- can: what can it not? forgive me, valentine, if hearty ---- be a sufficient ransom for offense, i tender't here. so writhes the mind ---- has riven, unmeet for earth, undoomed to heaven, darkness above, despair beneath, around it flame, within it death. * * * * * reproof (page ). questions. . are _blame_, _censure_, and _disapproval_ spoken or silent? . are _comment_, _criticism_, _rebuke_, _reflection_, _reprehension_, and _reproof_ expressed or not? . how of _admonition_ and _animadversion_? . are _comment_ and _criticism_ favorable or unfavorable? do they imply superiority on the part of commentator or critic? . do _reflection_ and _reprehension_ imply such superiority? how are these two words discriminated? . what does _rebuke_ literally signify? to what kind of person is a _rebuke_ administered? . to what kind of person is _reproof_ administered? . what do _rebuke_ and _reproof_ imply on the part of him who administers them? . what is _animadversion_? _admonition_? examples. a ---- is intolerable when it is administered out of pride or hatred. the best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful ---- of a friend. open ---- is better than secret love. * * * * * reprove (page ). questions. . what is it to _censure_? to _reprove_? to _reprimand_ . how does _admonish_ compare with the other words in the group? is its reference to the past or to the future? . what is it to _reproach_? does this word imply authority or superiority? . what is the force of _expostulate_ and _remonstrate_? examples. he that oppresseth the poor ----eth his maker. her answer ----ed me; for she said, "i never ask their crimes, for we have all come short." moses was ----ed of god when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. this witness is true. therefore ---- them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. * * * * * rest (page ). questions. . what is _ease_? _quiet_? _rest_? . what is _recreation_, and how is it related to _rest_? . what is _repose_ in the primary, and what in the derived, sense? . how does _repose_ compare with _rest_? . what is a _pause_? . how does _sleep_ compare with _repose_ and _rest_? examples. seek out, less often sought than found, a soldier's grave--for thee the best; then look around, and choose thy ground, and take thy ----. her manners had not that ---- that stamps the cast of vere de vere. shall i not take mine ---- in mine inn? * * * * * restrain (page ). questions. . what is it to _restrain_? . how does _constrain_ differ from _restrain_? . how does _restrain_ differ from _restrict_? . how does _repress_ compare with _restrain_? _suppress_? examples. the english puritans, ----ed at home, fled for freedom to america. in no political system is it so necessary to ---- the powers of the government as in a democratic state. * * * * * revenge (page ). questions. . what is _revenge_? . how does _retaliation_ compare with _revenge_? . what did _vengeance_ formerly mean, and what does it now imply? . what is a _requital_? . how do _avenging_ and _retribution_ differ from _retaliation_, _revenge_, and _vengeance_? . what difference may be noted between _avenging_ and _retribution_? examples. according to the wish of sulla himself, ... his monument was erected in the campus martius, bearing an inscription composed by himself: "no friend ever did me a kindness, no enemy a wrong, without receiving full ----." by the spirit of ----, as we sometimes express it, we generally understand a disposition, not merely to return suffering for suffering, but to inflict a degree of pain on the person who is supposed to have injured us, beyond what strict justice requires. in all great religions we find one god, and in all, personal immortality with ----. * * * * * revolution (page ). questions. . what is the essential idea of _revolution_? . does a _revolution_ necessarily involve war? . what is _anarchy_? _insubordination_? _sedition_? _revolt_? _rebellion_? . how does _rebellion_ differ from _revolution_? . by what class of persons is _insurrection_ made? _mutiny_? examples. ----s are not made; they come. ---- to tyrants is obedience to god. since government is of god, ---- must be contrary to his will. * * * * * revolve (page ). questions. . when is a body said to _roll_? to _rotate_? to _revolve_? . in what sense may the earth be said to _revolve_? and in what sense to _rotate_? . what are some of the extended uses of _roll_? . what kind of a word is _turn_, and what is its meaning? examples. any bright star close by the pole is seen to ---- in a very small circle whose center is the pole itself. the sun ----s on an axis in the same direction in which the planets ---- in their orbits. human nature can never rest; once in motion it ----s like the stone of sisyphus every instant when the resisting force is suspended. * * * * * right (page ). questions. . what is a _right_? is it general or special? . what is a _privilege_? an _exemption_? an _immunity_? . what is a _franchise_? a _prerogative_? examples. friendship gives no ---- to make ourselves disagreeable. all men are created equal, and endowed with certain inalienable ----s. * * * * * rustic (page ). questions. . from what are _rural_ and _rustic_ alike derived? how do the two words agree in general signification? how are they discriminated in use? . what is the meaning of _pastoral_? of _bucolic_? examples. how still the morning of the hallowed day! mute is the voice of ---- labor, hush'd the plowboy's whistle and the milkmaid's song. the ---- arbor which the summit crowned was woven of shining smilax, trumpet-vine, clematis, and the wild white eglantine. when hunting tribes begin to domesticate animals, they enter usually upon the ---- stage. * * * * * sacrament (page ). questions. . what is a religious _service_ in the extended sense? . what is a _sacrament_? . what is an _observance_? an _ordinance_? . how do _sacrament_ and _ordinance_ differ? . what is a _rite_? examples. religion will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ----s. nothing tends more to unite men's hearts than joining together in the same prayers and ----s. * * * * * sale (page ). questions. . what is _change_ or _exchange_? . what is _barter_? _sale_? . what is a _bargain_ in the strict sense? . what is _trade_ in the broad and in the limited sense? examples. honor sits smiling at the ---- of truth. i'll give thrice as much land to any well-deserving friend, but in the way of ----, mark ye me, i'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. stamps god's own name upon a lie just made to coin a penny in the way of ----. * * * * * sample (page ). questions. . what is a _sample_? a _specimen_? . how do _sample_ and _specimen_ compare as indications of the quality of that which they respectively represent? examples. there is, therefore, in this country, an implied warranty that the goods correspond to the ----. curzola is a perfect ---- of a venetian town. * * * * * scholar (page ). questions. . what is the primary sense of _scholar_? the derived sense? . what does _pupil_ signify? how is it technically used in educational work? . in what sense is _student_ employed? examples. the accent or turn of expression of a single sentence will at once mark a ----. the state of new york supplies all needed text-books free of charge to the ----s in the public schools. the ----s in american colleges have taken up athletics with intense enthusiasm. * * * * * science (page ). questions. . how does _science_ compare with _knowledge_? . how does _art_ compare with _science_? . what two senses of _art_ must be discriminated from each other? . in which sense is _art_ a system of rules? . in which sense does _art_ transcend rule? examples. beethoven took his ---- as seriously as a saint and martyr takes his religion. modern ---- may be regarded as one vast miracle, whether we view it in relation to the almighty being, by whom its objects and its laws were formed, or to the feeble intellect of man, by which its depths have been sounded, and its mysteries explored. printing has been aptly termed the ---- preservative of all other ----s. * * * * * security (page ). questions. . of what kind of value or property must an _earnest_ consist? . how do _pledge_ and _security_ differ from _earnest_? . how does _security_ differ from _pledge_? . what is _bail_? _gage_? examples. the ---- for a national or state debt is the honesty of its people. the surest ---- of a deathless name is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken. and for an ---- of a greater honor, he bade me, from him, call thee thane of cawdor. * * * * * sensation (page ). questions. . what is a _sensation_? a _perception_? . how does an _emotion_ differ from a _sensation_? . how does the popular term _feeling_ compare with _sensation_ and _emotion_? . what is a _sense_? examples. but ----, in the technical and limited sense of the term, is appropriated to the knowledge of material objects, and of the external world. this knowledge is gained or acquired by means of the ----s, and hence, to be more exact, we call it sensible ----, or, more briefly, sense ----. ----s sweet, felt in the blood, and felt along the heart. * * * * * sensibility (page ). questions. . what is _sensibility_ in the philosophical sense? in popular use? . what does _sensitiveness_ denote? . what is _susceptibility_? how does it compare with _sensitiveness_? . how are _susceptibility_ and _sensitiveness_ discriminated in physics? examples. the ---- of the external surface of the body is a special endowment adapted to the elements around and calculated to protect the interior parts from injury. ---- to pleasure is of necessity also ---- to pain. every mind is in a peculiar state of ---- to certain impressions. * * * * * severe (page ). questions. . what is _severe_? _rigid_? _strict_? . how does _rigorous_ compare with _rigid_? . what does _austere_ signify? what element is always found in an _austere_ character? examples. in mathematics we arrive at certitude by ---- demonstration. he who the sword of heaven will bear should be as holy as ----. ---- law is often ---- injustice. by ---- adherence to truth in official dealing with the natives, the english have come to be always believed in india. * * * * * shelter, _v._ (page ). questions. . when is anything said to be _covered_? . how does _shelter_ compare with _cover_? . what does _defend_ signify? . what does _guard_ imply? . how does _protect_ surpass _guard_ and _defend_? . what does _shield_ signify? how does it compare with _guard_ or _defend_? . in what sense is the verb _harbor_ commonly used? examples. he that ----eth his sins shall not prosper, but he that forsaketh them shall find mercy. thou who trod'st the billowy sea, ---- us in our jeopardy! in youth it ----ed me, and i'll protect it now. * * * * * sin (page ). questions. . what is _sin_? . how is _transgression_ discriminated from _sin_ in the general sense? . what is _crime_? _guilt_? _depravity_? examples. commit the oldest ----s the newest kind of ways. ---- is not punished as an offense against god, but as prejudicial to society. how ---- once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great. * * * * * sketch (page ). questions. . what is a _sketch_? how does it compare with _outline_? . in what special connection are _draft_ and _plan_ used? . how does a mechanical _drawing_ differ from a _draft_? . what is a _design_? how does it exceed the meaning of _drawing_? . what is an _outline_ in written composition? how does a _sketch_ in this sense compare with an _outline_? . what is an _outline_ of a sermon technically called? . what is a lawyer's _brief_? how does it compare with an _outline_ or _sketch_? examples. a ---- that is without vigor, and in which the anatomy has not been defined, is a bad foundation for a good picture. a little model the master wrought, which should be to the larger ---- what the child is to the man. * * * * * skilful (page ). questions. . what does _skilful_ signify? . how does _dexterous_ compare with _skilful_? . how does a _skilled_ compare with a _skilful_ workman? examples. so ---- seamen ken the land from far, which shows like mists to the dull passenger. thousands of ---- workmen are thrown into enforced idleness by the strikes and lockouts of every year. much that has been received as the work of disembodied spirits has been but the ---- sleight of hand of spirits embodied. * * * * * slander (page ). questions. . what is it to _slander_? to _defame_? to _libel_? . when is _defame_ equivalent to _slander_? when is it equivalent to _libel_? . what is it to _asperse_? to _malign_? to _traduce_? to _disparage_? . how do _slander_ and _libel_ differ in legal signification from the other words? . which words of the group apply to open attack in one's presence, and which to attack in his absence? examples. ----ed to death by villains that dare as well answer a man, indeed, as i dare take a serpent by the tongue. if the scriptures seem to ---- knowledge, it is the knowledge that despises virtue. challenging each recreant doubter who ----ed her spotless name. * * * * * slang (page ). questions. . what is a _colloquialism_? . what is _slang_ in the primary and ordinary sense? in special senses? . what is a _vulgarism_? . what is _cant_ in the sense here considered? examples. there is a ---- bred of vileness that is never redeemed; there is also a ---- that is the vigorous utterance of uncultured wit, that fills a gap in the language and mounts ultimately to the highest places. a ---- is worse than ----, because it bears the ineffaceable stamp of ignorance. * * * * * socialism (page ). questions. . what is _socialism_? what term do many of its advocates prefer? . what is _communism_? _anarchism_? examples. ---- in its full sense means the abolition of inheritance, the abolition of the family, the abolition of nationalities, the abolition of religion, the abolition of property. ----, in some modified form, is steadily making its way among thinking men under the guise of cooperation. ---- is the offspring of sore hearts and shallow brains. it is the wisdom of the man who burned down his house because his chimney smoked. * * * * * spontaneous (page ). questions. . when is anything properly said to be _spontaneous_? _voluntary_? _involuntary_? . how do _voluntary_ and _involuntary_ compare with each other? both with _spontaneous_? examples. ---- is opposed to reflective. those operations of mind which are continually going on without any effort or intention on our part are _spontaneous_. no action that is not ---- has any merit. * * * * * spy (page ). questions. . in what are the _spy_ and the _scout_ alike? . in what do they differ? . what are their respective rights in case of capture? . what is an _emissary_? examples. a daring ---- of general stuart made his way to my quarters, and informed me that general imboden had planned an attack upon the town. i had grown uneasy in regard to the disjointed situation of our army and, to inform myself of what was going on, determined to send a ---- into the enemy's lines. * * * * * state, _v._ (page ). questions. . from what is _state_ derived? what does it mean? . what is the significance of _assert_? what element is prominent in this word? . what is the relative force of _affirm_ and _assert_? _asseverate_? _aver_? _assure_? . what does _affirm_ signify in legal use, and how does it differ from _swear_? . what is it to _certify_? . what does _vindicate_ signify? examples. the first condition of intelligent debate is that the question be clearly ----ed. we ---- that the sciences dispose themselves round two great axes of thought, parallel and not unrelated, yet distinct--the natural sciences held together by the one, the moral by the other. it is impossible for the mind to ---- anything of that of which it knows nothing. * * * * * storm (page ). questions. . what is the essential meaning of _storm_? . what is a _tempest_? examples. the ---- is hard at hand will sweep away thrones, churches, ranks, traditions, customs, marriage. were any considerable mass of air to be suddenly transferred from beyond the tropics to the equator, the difference of the rotatory velocity proper to the two situations would be so great as to produce not merely a wind, but a ---- of the most destructive violence. * * * * * story (page ). questions. . what is a _story_? is it true or false? . what is an _anecdote_? a _narrative_ or _narration_? examples. there are ----, common to the different branches of the aryan stock.... they are ancient aryan ----, ... older than the odyssey, older than the dispersion of the aryan race. ----s are relations of detached, interesting particulars. fairy ----s have for children an inexhaustible charm. * * * * * subjective (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _subjective_? of _objective_? . how are these words illustrated in the case of a mountain? . what matters are purely _subjective_? . what matters are purely _objective_? . what is meant by saying that an author has a _subjective_ or an _objective_ style? examples. subject therefore, denotes the mind itself; and ----, that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the thinking subject. object is a term for that about which the knowing subject is conversant, ... while ---- means that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the object known, and not from the subject knowing; and thus denotes what is real, in opposition to what is ideal,--what exists in nature, in contrast to what exists merely in the thought of the individual. * * * * * suggestion (page ). questions. . in what way does a _suggestion_ bring a matter before the mind? . what is an _intimation_? a _hint_? . what are the special characteristics of _insinuation_ and _innuendo_? examples. behold in the bloom of apples, and the violets in the sward, a ---- of the old, lost beauty of the garden of the lord! time is truly the comforter, at once lessening the tendency to ---- of images of sorrow, and softening that very sorrow when the images arise. an ---- is cowardly because it can seldom be directly answered, and the one who makes it can always retreat behind an assumed misconstruction of his words; but the ---- is the stab in the back, sneaking as it is malicious. * * * * * supernatural (page ). questions. . what is the original meaning of _supernatural_? of _preternatural_? . what is commonly implied in the use of _preternatural_? . in what sense do some hold a miracle to be _supernatural_? what descriptive term would others prefer? . what is the meaning of _superhuman_? in what secondary sense is it often used? examples. it was something altogether ----, as when god said, 'let there be light,' and there was light. with an imagination of intense vividness and ---- activity, choate was as practical as the most sordid capitalist that ever became an "incarnation of fat dividends." * * * * * support (page ). questions. . what do _support_ and _sustain_ alike signify? . how does _sustain_ surpass _support_ in meaning and force? . what is the force and use of _bear_ in this connection? . what is it to _maintain_? . how does _maintain_ compare with _support_ as to fulness and as to dignity? . what is it to _prop_? what is the limit upon the meaning of this word? examples. and cain said, my punishment is great than i can ----. you take my house when you do take the prop that doth ---- my house. can a soul like mine, unus'd to power, and form'd for humbler scenes, ---- the splendid miseries of greatness? while less expert, tho stronger far, the gael ----ed unequal war. * * * * * suppose (page ). questions. . what is it to _suppose_? . how does _conjecture_ differ from _suppose_? . what does _think_ signify in the sense here considered? how does it compare with _conjecture_ or _suppose_? examples. newton ----ed that if the earth were to be so compressed as to be absolutely without pores, its dimensions might not exceed a cubic inch. let it not be ----ed that principles and opinions always go together. * * * * * synonymous (page ). questions. . are there any _synonymous_ words in the strict sense of the term? . what is meant by _synonymous_ words? . what are the two common faults with reference to _synonymous_ words or _synonyms_? examples. the great source of a loose style is the injudicious use of those words termed ----. to raise, with fitting observances, over the ruins of the historic fortress [sumter] the ---- flag which had waved over it during its first bombardment. * * * * * system (page ). questions. . what is _order_, in the sense here considered? . what does _method_ denote? . what is a _system_? . to what does _manner_ refer? . to what does _regularity_ apply? . can there be _order_ without _regularity_ or _regularity_ without _order_, and how? examples. if this be madness, there is ---- in it. a ---- is ... an organized body of truth, or truths arranged under one and the same idea, which idea is as the life or soul which assimilates all those truths. * * * * * teach (page ). questions. . what is it to _teach_? . how does _instruct_ surpass _teach_ in signification? . what secondary sense has _instruct_? . what is the full meaning of _educate_? . what is it to _train_? . to what is _train_ commonly applied where _educate_ could not well be used? . what is it to _discipline_? . what does _nurture_ signify, and how does it compare with _educate_? examples. plato returned to athens and began to ----; like his master, he ---- without money and without price. for the most effective mechanical work both mind and hand must be ----ed in childhood. the highlanders flocking to him from all quarters, though ill-armed, and worse ----ed, made him undervalue any enemy who, he thought, was yet to encounter him. * * * * * term (page ). questions. . what is the literal meaning of _term_? . is this meaning retained in the figurative uses of the word? . what are the _articles_ of a contract? the _terms_ of a contract? . what is a _condition_? . what is a _term_ in the logical sense? . how does _term_ in ordinary use compare with _word_, _expression_, or _phrase_? examples. for beauty's acme hath a ---- as brief as the wave's poise before it break in pearl. but what are these moral sermons [of seneca]? ----s, nothing but ----s. the very ---- miser is a confession of the misery which attends avarice. * * * * * terse (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _short_ or _brief_? . what is the derivation and meaning of _concise_? of _condensed_? of _compendious_? . what is the derivation and meaning of _succinct_? of _terse_? . what is the force of _summary_? . what is a _sententious_ style? a _pithy_ utterance? examples. with all his lucidity of statement, hamilton was not always ----. in most cases it will be found that the victorian idiom is clearer, but less ---- than the corresponding elizabethan idiom which it has supplanted. * * * * * testimony (page ). questions. . what is _testimony_? . how does it compare with _evidence_? . how does a _deposition_ differ from an _affidavit_? examples. the word ----, in legal acceptation, includes all the means by which any alleged matter of fact, the truth of which is submitted to us for investigation, is established or disproved. as to the fruits of sodom, fair without, full of ashes within, i saw nothing of them, tho from the ---- we have, something of this kind has been produced. * * * * * time (page ). questions. . to what do _sequence_ and _succession_ apply? . what does _time_ denote? how is it conceived of with reference to events? . how do _duration_ and _succession_ compare with _time_? examples. every event remembered is remembered as having happened in ---- past. this gives us the idea in the concrete.... we can now, by a process of abstraction, separate the ---- from the event, and we have the abstract idea of _time_. the ---- of each earthquake is measured generally only by seconds, or even parts of a second. it has been conjectured that our idea of ---- is founded upon the conscious ---- of sensations and ideas in our own minds. * * * * * tool (page ). questions. . what is a _tool_? . how does _instrument_ compare in meaning with _tool_? . what special _tools_ are ordinarily called _instruments_? . what is an _implement_? . what is a _utensil_? in what special relations is the word used? . what is an _appliance_? how does _appliance_ compare with _tool_? . what is a _mechanism_? . what is a _machine_ in the most general sense? in the technical and common use? . what is an _apparatus_? . which of these words have figurative use? . how are _instrument_ and _tool_ contrasted in figurative use? examples. the time is coming when the ----s of husbandry shall supplant the weapons of war. mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men, with his mere natural ----s, to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains of salt. the pick, stone-saw, wedge, chisel, and other ----s were already in use when the pyramids were built. * * * * * topic (page ). questions. . from what is _topic_ derived, and with what meaning? . how is _question_ used in a similar sense, and why? . is the general _subject_ or _theme_ properly known as the _topic_? to what is that name more appropriately given? examples. my father ... always took care to start some ingenious or useful ---- of discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children. one of the most important rules in a deliberative assembly is, that every speaker shall speak to the ----. the ---- of the iliad is not the war of troy, but the wrath of achilles exhibited during and in connection with the war of troy. * * * * * transact, transaction (page ). questions. . how does _transact_ differ from _do_? . how does _transact_ differ from _treat_ and _negotiate_? . how does _negotiate_ compare with _treat_? . how do _transactions_ differ from _proceedings_? examples. in the first parliament of james the house of commons refused for the first time to ---- business on a sunday. the treaty of peace that closed the war of had been already ---- before the battle of new orleans was fought. any direction of christ or any direction or act of his apostles respecting the ---- of business in the church, is binding upon us, unless such direction or act was grounded upon peculiar circumstances then existing. * * * * * transient (page ). questions. . what is the derivation of _transient_ and _transitory_? . how does _transient_ differ in signification from _transitory_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _temporary_? . from what is _ephemeral_ derived, and with what sense? . how does _ephemeral_ differ from _transient_ or _transitory_? . what does _ephemeral_ suggest besides brevity of time? . what is the derivation and meaning of _fugitive_? . what is the distinctive meaning of _evanescent_? examples. mirth is short and ----, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. neither gratitude nor revenge had any share in determining his [charles ii.'s] course; for never was there a mind on which both services and injuries left such faint and ---- impressions. a ---- chairman is commonly appointed at the opening of a meeting to conduct proceedings till a permanent presiding officer shall be elected. * * * * * union (page ). questions. . what is _unity_? . what is _union_? . how are _unity_ and _union_ contrasted? . when may _unity_ be predicated of that which is made up of parts? examples. behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in ----. out of the ---- of roman and teutonic elements arose the modern world of europe. * * * * * utility (page ). questions. . from what is _utility_ derived, and what is its primary meaning? . how is _utility_ discriminated from _use_ and _usefulness_? . what is the derivation and primary meaning of _expediency_? . how are _expediency_ and _utility_ used as regards moral action? which is the inferior word in such use? . how does _policy_ in such use compare with _expediency_ and _utility_? examples. principle is ever my motto, not ----. two words form the key of the baconian doctrine, ---- and progress. the ancient philosophy disdained to be useful, and was content to be stationary. justice itself is the great standing ---- of civil society, and any departure from it, under any circumstances, rests under the suspicion of being no ---- at all. the fundamental objection to the doctrine of ----, in all its modifications is that taken by dr. reid, viz., "that agreeableness and ---- are not moral conceptions, nor have they any connection with morality. what a man does merely because it is agreeable is not virtue." * * * * * vacant (page ). questions. . what is the meaning of _empty_? of _vacant_? . to what does _vacant_ especially refer? . what is the difference between an _empty_ house and a _vacant_ house? . what is the difference in dignity between the two words? . what is the significance of _void_ and _devoid_? . what does _waste_ imply? . in what sense is _vacuous_ used? examples. ---- heads console with ---- sound. the watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind and the loud laugh that spoke the ---- mind. * * * * * venal (page ). questions. . from what is _venal_ derived, and with what meaning? _mercenary_? _hireling_? . how are _mercenary_ and _venal_ discriminated from _hireling_? examples. the closing quarter of the nineteenth century may be termed the ---- era of american politics. never before has legislation been so universally, so unscrupulously, and unblushingly for sale. the body of greeks, immortalized under the name of the ten thousand, ... though embarking on a foreign ---- service, were by no means outcasts, or even men of extreme poverty. it is not the hire, but the working only for the hire that makes the ----. * * * * * veneration (page ). questions. . by what qualities is _awe_ inspired? . what elements are present and what lacking in _awe_? . what is _dread_ and by what aroused? . how do _reverence_ and _veneration_ differ from _awe_ or _dread_? . how does _adoration_ compare with _veneration_? examples. man craves an object of ----; and if not supplied with that which god has appointed, will take what offers. the italian climate robs age of its ----, and makes it look newer than it is. * * * * * venial (page ). questions. . from what is _venial_ derived, and what does it signify? . how does _venial_ compare with _pardonable_? . how does _excusable_ differ from the above words? . what very different word is sometimes confounded with _venial_? examples. theft on the part of a starving man is one of the most ---- of offenses. under all the circumstances, the error was ----. * * * * * veracity (page ). questions. . do _truth_ and _verity_ apply to thought and speech or to persons? . to what does _veracity_ apply? _truthfulness_? . into what two classes may the words in this group of synonyms be divided, and what words will be found in each class? examples. on a certain confidence in the ---- of mankind is founded so much of the knowledge on which we constantly depend, that, without it, the whole system of human things would go into confusion. if all the world and love were young, and ---- in every shepherd's tongue, these pretty pleasures might me move to live with thee and be thy love. * * * * * virtue (page ). questions. . what is the prominent idea in _virtue_? . how does _goodness_ differ from _virtue_? . of what relations are _honesty_ and _probity_ used? . how is _honesty_ used in a sense higher than the commercial? . what, in the full sense, is _integrity_? . what is _honor_? . what is _purity_? _duty_? . what do _rectitude_ and _righteousness_ denote? . to what does _uprightness_ especially refer? . what is _virtuousness_? examples. ---- is the fruit of exertion; it supposes conquest of temptation. in seeing that a thing is right, we see at the same time that it is our ---- to do it. it is true that ---- is the best policy; but if this be the motive of honest dealing, there is no real ----. where is that chastity of ---- that felt a stain like a wound? index. _abandon_, " _renounce_, " _surrender_, abandoned, _addicted_, _abase_, _abash_, _abate_, " _abolish_, " _alleviate_, _abbreviation_, " _abridgment_, abdicate, _abandon_, aberration, _insanity_, _abet_, " _help_, abetter, _accessory_, abettor, _accessory_, _abhor_, abhorrence, _abomination_, " _antipathy_, " _hatred_, _abide_, " _endure_, abiding, _permanent_, ability, _power_, abject, _pitiful_, abjure, _abandon_, " _renounce_, able, _adequate_, " _clever_, " _sagacious_, abode, _home_, _abolish_, " _cancel_, abominable, _criminal_, abominate, _abhor_, _abomination_, aboriginal, _primeval_, abortive, _vain_, abounding, _plentiful_, aboveboard, _candid_, abridge, _restrain_, _abridgment_, " _abbreviation_, abrogate, _abolish_, " _cancel_, abrupt, _bluff_, " _steep_, absent, _abstracted_, absent-minded, _abstracted_, _absolute_, " _infinite_, " _perfect_, " _pure_, absolution, _pardon_, _absolve_, " _pardon_, _absorb_, absorbed, _abstracted_, abstain, _cease_, abstemiousness, _abstinence_, _abstinence_, _abstract_, _v._, abstract, _n._, _abridgment_, _abstracted_, abstruse, _complex_, " _mysterious_, " _obscure_, _absurd_, " _incongruous_, abundant, _large_, " _plentiful_, _abuse_, " _abomination_, abutting, _adjacent_, accede, _agree_, accelerate, _quicken_, accept, _agree_, " _assume_, " _confess_, acceptable, _delightful_, accepted, _authentic_, access, _entrance_, accessible, _friendly_, accession, _entrance_, accessory, _a._, _auxiliary_, _accessory_, _n._, " _appendage_, _accident_, " _hazard_, acclaim, _praise_, acclamation, _praise_, accompaniment, _appendage_, " _circumstance_, accompany, _follow_, accomplice, _accessory_, " _associate_, accomplish, _attain_, " _do_, " _transact_, accomplished, _polite_, " _skilful_, accomplishment, _act_, " _end_, _n._, accord, _v._, _agree_, accord, _n._, _harmony_, accordance, _harmony_, accordingly, _therefore_, accost, _address_, _v._, account, _v._, _calculate_, account, _n._, _history_, " _reason_, _n._, " _record_, " _report_, " _story_, accountability, _duty_, accouterments, _arms_, " _caparison_, accredited, _authentic_, accumulate, _amass_, accurate, _perfect_, accuse, _arraign_, accustomed, _addicted_, " _usual_, acerb, _bitter_, acerbity, _acrimony_, acetous, _bitter_, ache, _pain_, achieve, _attain_, " _do_, " _get_, " _succeed_, achievement, _act_, " _career_, " _end_, _n._, " _victory_, " _work_, acid, _bitter_, acidulated, _bitter_, acidulous, _bitter_, acknowledge, _avow_, " _confess_, acknowledgment, _apology_, _acquaintance_, " _knowledge_, acquiesce, _agree_, acquire, _attain_, " _get_, " _purchase_, acquit, _absolve_, " _pardon_, acquittal, _pardon_, acrid, _bitter_, acrimonious, _bitter_, " _morose_, _acrimony_, " _enmity_, act, _v._, _transact_, _act_, _n._, " _exercise_, " _motion_, " _transaction_, action, _act_, " _battle_, " _behavior_, " _exercise_, " _motion_, " _operation_, " _transaction_, " _work_, _active_, " _alert_, " _alive_, " _industrious_, " _nimble_, activity, _exercise_, actor, _agent_, " _cause_, actual, _real_, actualize, _do_, actuate, _influence_, _acumen_, acute, _astute_, " _sagacious_, acuteness, _acumen_, adage, _proverb_, adapted, _adequate_, _add_, addendum, _appendage_, _addicted_, addition, _appendage_, _address_, _v._, _address_, _n._, " _speech_, adduce, _allege_, adept, _skilful_, _adequate_, " _plentiful_, adherence, _attachment_, _adherent_, adhesion, _attachment_, _adhesive_, adieu, _farewell_, adit, _entrance_, _adjacent_, adjoin, _add_, adjoining, _adjacent_, adjunct, _appendage_, adjuration, _oath_, administer, _execute_, admiration, _amazement_, _admire_, admission, _entrance_, admit, _agree_, " _allow_, " _avow_, " _confess_, admittance, _entrance_, admixture, _alloy_, admonish, _reprove_, admonition, _reproof_, adolescent, _youthful_, adoration, _veneration_, adore, _admire_, " _venerate_, _adorn_, adroit, _clever_, " _skilful_, adroitness, _address_, _n._, " _dexterity_, adulation, _praise_, adulteration, _alloy_, advance, _v._, _allege_, " _amend_, " _promote_, " _quicken_, advance, _n._, _progress_, advancement, _progress_, advantage, _profit_, " _utility_, " _victory_, adventure, _accident_, adventurous, _brave_, adversary, _enemy_, adversity, _misfortune_, advert, _allude_, advertise, _announce_, advised, _conscious_, advocate, _abet_, " _plead_, aerial, _airy_, affable, _friendly_, affair, _battle_, " _business_, " _transaction_, affect, _assume_, affectation, _hypocrisy_, " _pretense_, affection, _attachment_, " _disease_, " _friendship_, " _love_, affectionate, _friendly_, affidavit, _oath_, " _testimony_, affinity, _analogy_, " _kin_, affirm, _allege_, " _state_, affirmation, _testimony_, afflict, _chasten_, affliction, _grief_, " _misfortune_, affix, _add_, affluent, _plentiful_, afford, _endure_, affray, _feud_, affright, _n._, _alarm_, " _fear_, affright, _v._, _frighten_, _affront_, age, _time_, aged, _old_, agency, _operation_, _agent_, " _cause_, aggravate, _affront_, aggregate, _amass_, aggression, _attack_, _n._, aggrieve, _abuse_, agile, _active_, " _nimble_, agitate, _shake_, agitation, _storm_, agnomen, _name_, agnostic, _skeptic_, agony, _pain_, _agree_, agreeable, _amiable_, " _comfortable_, " _delightful_, " _pleasant_, agreement, _contract_, " _harmony_, agricultural, _rustic_, _agriculture_, aid, _v._, _abet_, " _promote_, aid, _n._, _adherent_, " _auxiliary_, " _help_, " _subsidy_, aider, _adherent_, ailment, _disease_, _aim_, " _design_, " _direction_, " _reason_, _n._, _air_, " _pretense_, _airy_, akin, _alike_, _alarm_, " _frighten_, alarming, _awful_, _alert_, " _active_, " _alive_, " _nimble_, " _vigilant_, _alien_, _a._ & _n._, alienate, _surrender_, alienation, _insanity_, _alike_, " _synonymous_, aliment, _food_, _alive_, all, _every_, _allay_, _allege_, " _state_, _allegiance_, _allegory_, " _fiction_, _alleviate_, " _allay_, alley, _way_, _alliance_, " _association_, " _kin_, _allot_, " _apportion_, _allow_, " _confess_, " _endure_, allowance, _pay_, " _permission_, " _subsidy_, _alloy_, _allude_, _allure_, " _draw_, " _persuade_, ally, _n._, _accessory_, " _adherent_, " _associate_, " _auxiliary_, almsgiving, _benevolence_, _also_, alter, _change_, _v._, alteration, _change_, _n._, _alternative_, altho, _notwithstanding_, _conj._, _amass_, _amateur_, _amazement_, " _perplexity_, ambiguous, _equivocal_, " _obscure_, _ambition_, ameliorate, _amend_, amenable, _docile_, _amend_, _amiable_, amicable, _friendly_, _amid_, amidst, _amid_, amity, _friendship_, " _harmony_, amnesty, _pardon_, among, _amid_, amongst, _amid_, ample, _large_, " _plentiful_, _amplify_, " _add_, amuse, _entertain_, amusement, _entertainment_, analogous, _alike_, _analogy_, analysis, _abridgment_, anarchism, _socialism_, anarchy, _revolution_, anathema, _oath_, ancient, _antique_, " _obsolete_, " _old_, " _primeval_, and, _but_, anecdote, _story_, _anger_, " _hatred_, anguish, _anxiety_, " _pain_, animadversion, _reproof_, animal, _a._, _brutish_, _animal_, _n._, animate, _alive_, animated, _airy_, " _alive_, " _eager_, animosity, _anger_, " _enmity_, " _feud_, " _hatred_, annals, _history_, annex, _add_, annihilate, _abolish_, " _exterminate_, annotation, _remark_, _announce_, " _speak_, annoy, _affront_, annoyance, _abomination_, annul, _abolish_, " _cancel_, anomalous, _absurd_, " _queer_, _answer_, antagonism, _antipathy_, " _enmity_, antagonist, _enemy_, antecedent, _a._, _previous_, antecedent, _n._, _cause_, " _precedent_, antepast, _anticipation_, anterior, _previous_, _anticipate_, " _abide_, " _prevent_, _anticipation_, _antipathy_, " _hatred_, antiquated, _antique_, " _obsolete_, " _old_, _antique_, " _old_, _anxiety_, " _care_, anxious, _eager_, any, _every_, _apathy_, " _stupidity_, " _stupor_, aphorism, _proverb_, _apiece_, apocalypse, _revelation_, apologize for, _palliate_, apologue, _fiction_, _apology_, " _defense_, apothegm, _proverb_, appal, _frighten_, appalling, _awful_, apparatus, _tool_, apparel, _dress_, _apparent_, " _clear_, " _evident_, appeal, _address_, _v._, _appear_, appearance _or_ semblance of, have, _appear_, appearance, _air_, appease, _allay_, appellation, _name_, append, _add_, _appendage_, appendix, _appendage_, appetency, _appetite_, " _desire_, _appetite_, " _desire_, applaud, _admire_, applause, _praise_, appliance, _tool_, application, _exercise_, " _industry_, appoint, _allot_, " _apportion_, _apportion_, " _allot_, appreciate, _esteem_, _v._, apprehend, _anticipate_, " _arrest_, " _catch_, " _perceive_, apprehension, _alarm_, " _anticipation_, " _anxiety_, " _fear_, " _idea_, " _knowledge_, apprised, _conscious_, approach, _address_, _v._, approach, _n._, _approximation_, " _entrance_, approbation, _praise_, appropriate, _abstract_, " _apportion_, " _assume_, approval, _praise_, approve, _admire_, " _agree_, _approximation_, appurtenance, _appendage_, apostrophize, _address_, _v._, a priori, _transcendental_, apt, _clever_, " _likely_, " _sagacious_, " _skilful_, aptitude, _dexterity_, " _power_, arbiter, _judge_, arbitrary, _absolute_, arbitrate, _interpose_, arbitrator, _judge_, archaic, _obsolete_, archetype, _example_, " _idea_, " _ideal_, " _model_, archive, _record_, archives, _history_, ardent, _eager_, ardor, _enthusiasm_, arduous, _difficult_, argue, _plead_, " _reason_, _v._, argument, _reason_, _n._, " _reasoning_, argumentation, _reasoning_, arise, _rise_, arising, _beginning_, armament, _army_, armor, _arms_, _arms_, _army_, " _array_, _arraign_, arrangement, _array_, " _contract_, _array_, " _army_, " _dress_, _arrest_, " _obstruct_, arrive, _attain_, " _reach_, arrogance, _assurance_, " _pride_, arrogant, _absolute_, " _dogmatic_, arrogate, _assume_, art, _artifice_, " _business_, " _science_, article, _term_, article of belief, _doctrine_, " of faith, _doctrine_, articulate, _speak_, _artifice_, " _fraud_, artificer, _artist_, artisan, _artist_, _artist_, artistic, _tasteful_, artless, _candid_, " _rustic_, as, _because_, ascend, _rise_, ascertain, _discover_, ascribe, _attribute_, _v._, ashes, _body_, _ask_, " _plead_, " _pray_, asperity, _acrimony_, asperse, _slander_, asphyxia, _stupor_, aspiration, _aim_, " _ambition_, " _desire_, assail, _attack_, _v._, assassinate, _kill_, assault, _v._, _attack_, _v._, assault, _n._, _attack_, _n._, assemblage, _company_, assemble, _convoke_, assembly, _company_, assent, _v._, _agree_, assent, _n._, _faith_, assert, _allege_, " _state_, assertion, _assurance_, asseverate, _allege_, " _state_, assiduity, _industry_, assiduous, _industrious_, assign, _allege_, " _allot_, " _apportion_, " _attribute_, _v._, " _commit_, assist, _abet_, " _help_, " _promote_, assistant, _accessory_, " _auxiliary_, _associate_, " _accessory_, " _attribute_, _v._, _association_, " _acquaintance_, " _class_, assuage, _alleviate_, _assume_, assumption, _assurance_, " _pretense_, " _pride_, _assurance_, " _effrontery_, " _faith_, " _impudence_, assure, _confirm_, " _state_, assured, _conscious_, astonishment, _amazement_, " _perplexity_, _astute_, as well, _also_, as well as, _also_, at ease, _comfortable_, atheist, _skeptic_, atom, _part_, " _particle_, at once, _immediately_, atonement, _propitiation_, at rest, _comfortable_, atrocious, _barbarous_, attach, _add_, attached, _addicted_, " _adjacent_, _attachment_, " _appendage_, " _friendship_, " _love_, _attack_, _v._, _attack_, _n._, _attain_, " _get_, " _reach_, " _succeed_, attainment, _progress_, " _wisdom_, attempt, _v._, _endeavor_, _v._, attempt, _n._, _endeavor_, _n._, attend, _follow_, " _listen_, attendant, _accessory_, attention, _care_, " _industry_, attestation, _testimony_, attire, _dress_, _attitude_, attract, _allure_, " _draw_, attraction, _love_, attractive, _amiable_, " _beautiful_, " _pleasant_, _attribute_, _v._, _attribute_, _n._, " _characteristic_, " _emblem_, audacity, _effrontery_, " _temerity_, augment, _add_, " _amplify_, _augur_, august, _awful_, " _royal_, auspicious, _propitious_, austere, _severe_, _authentic_, " _real_, author, _cause_, authoritative, _absolute_, " _authentic_, " _dogmatic_, authority, _permission_, " _precedent_, authorization, _permission_, authorized, _authentic_, autobiography, _history_, autochthonic, _primeval_, autocratic, _absolute_, automatic, _spontaneous_, _auxiliary_, " _appendage_, avail, _profit_, " _utility_, _avaricious_, _avenge_, " _requite_, avenging, _revenge_, avenue, _way_, aver, _allege_, " _avow_, " _state_, averse, _reluctant_, aversion, _abomination_, " _antipathy_, " _hatred_, avocation, _business_, avouch, _avow_, " _state_, _avow_, " _confess_, " _state_, await, _abide_, awake, _vigilant_, award, _allot_, aware, _conscious_, awe, _amazement_, " _fear_, " _veneration_, _awful_, _awkward_, " _rustic_, _axiom_, " _proverb_, _babble_, backbite, _slander_, backer, _adherent_, backward, _reluctant_, backwardness, _modesty_, bad, _pernicious_, badinage, _banter_, baffle, _hinder_, bail, _security_, balk, _hinder_, balky, _restive_, ban, _v._, _banish_, ban, _n._, _oath_, bandit, _robber_, baneful, _pernicious_, _banish_, " _exterminate_, _bank_, bankrupt, _break_, _banter_, " _wit_, bar, _barrier_, " _hinder_, " _impediment_, " _lock_, " _obstruct_, barbarian, _barbarous_, barbaric, _barbarous_, barbarism, _language_, _barbarous_, barely, _but_, bargain, _contract_, " _sale_, bargain for, _purchase_, barricade, _v._, _obstruct_, barricade, _n._, _barrier_, _barrier_, " _boundary_, " _impediment_, barter, _business_, " _sale_, barter for, _purchase_, base, _brutish_, " _pitiful_, baseless, _vain_, bashfulness, _modesty_, bastinado, _beat_, batter, _beat_, _battle_, battle array, _array_, bawl, _call_, beach, _bank_, bear, _abide_, " _carry_, " _endure_, " _support_, bearing, _air_, " _behavior_, " _direction_, bear up under, _endure_, bear with, _endure_, beast, _animal_, beastly, _brutish_, _beat_, " _conquer_, beauteous, _beautiful_, _beautiful_, " _fine_, " _graceful_, beautify, _adorn_, _because_, " _therefore_, bechance, _happen_, become, _make_, _becoming_, bedeck, _adorn_, befall, _happen_, befitting, _becoming_, befoul, _defile_, befriend, _help_, beg, _ask_, " _plead_, " _pray_, beggary, _poverty_, _beginning_, beguile, _entertain_, _behavior_, " _air_, behold, _discern_, " _look_, belabor, _beat_, beleaguer, _attack_, _v._, belief, _doctrine_, " _faith_, " _fancy_, " _idea_, belittle, _disparage_, belles-lettres, _literature_, bellow, _call_, bemoan, _mourn_, _bend_, benefaction, _gift_, beneficence, _benevolence_, benefit, _profit_, " _utility_, _benevolence_, " 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_transact_, tremble, _shake_, trembling, _fear_, tremendous, _formidable_, tremor, _fear_, trepidation, _fear_, trespass, _attack_, _n._, trial, _endeavor_, _n._, " _misfortune_, tribe, _people_, tribulation, _grief_, " _misfortune_, tribute, _subsidy_, trick, _artifice_, " _fraud_, " _pretense_, trickery, _deception_, trifling, _idle_, " _vain_, trim, _neat_, trip, _journey_, triumph, _happiness_, " _victory_, trivial, _vain_, " _venial_, troops, _army_, trouble, _anxiety_, " _care_, " _grief_, " _misfortune_, true, _authentic_, " _faithful_, " _honest_, " _pure_, " _real_, truism, _axiom_, " _proverb_, trunk, _body_, trust, _v._, _commit_, trust, _n._, _assurance_, " _faith_, trustworthy, _authentic_, " _faithful_, " _honest_, " _reliable_, trusty, _faithful_, " _honest_, " _reliable_, truth, _justice_, " _veracity_, " _virtue_, truthful, _candid_, truthfulness, _veracity_, try, _chasten_, " _endeavor_, _v._, trying, _difficult_, tug, _draw_, tuition, _education_, tumult, _revolution_, turbid, _obscure_, turn, _bend_, " _change_, _v._, " _revolve_, tutor, _teach_, twaddle, _babble_, twain, _both_, twine, _bend_, twinge, _pain_, twinkle, _light_, twinkling, _light_, twist, _bend_, two, _both_, type, _emblem_, " _example_, " _model_, " _sign_, typical, _normal_, tyrannical, _absolute_, tyro, _amateur_, umbrage, _pique_, umpire, _judge_, unadorned, _clear_, unadulterated, _pure_, unambiguous, _clear_, unanimity, _harmony_, unassured, _precarious_, unavailing, _vain_, unavoidable, _necessary_, unavoidableness, _necessity_, unbelief, _doubt_, _n._, unbeliever, _skeptic_, unbiased, _candid_, unbidden, _spontaneous_, unblemished, _perfect_, " _pure_, unbounded, _infinite_, unbroken, _continual_, unceasing, _continual_, " _eternal_, uncertain, _equivocal_, " _precarious_, uncertainty, _doubt_, _n._, unchangeable, _permanent_, unchanging, _permanent_, uncivil, _bluff_, uncivilized, _barbarous_, uncommon, _queer_, " _rare_, uncommunicative, _taciturn_, uncompromising, _severe_, unconcern, _apathy_, unconditional, _absolute_, unconditioned, _infinite_, uncongeniality, _antipathy_, unconnected, _alien_, _a._, unconquerable, _obstinate_, unconsciousness, _stupor_, uncontrollable, _rebellious_, uncorrupted, _pure_, uncouth, _awkward_, " _barbarous_, " _rustic_, uncreated, _primeval_, uncultivated, _fierce_, undaunted, _brave_, undefiled, _perfect_, " _pure_, undeniable, _necessary_, underestimate, _disparage_, undergo, _endure_, underrate, _disparage_, understand, _perceive_, understanding, _mind_, " _wisdom_, undertake, _endeavor_, _v._, undervalue, _disparage_, undismayed, _brave_, undisturbed, _calm_, undulate, _fluctuate_, undying, _eternal_, uneducated, _ignorant_, unemployed, _idle_, " _vacant_, unending, _eternal_, unenlightened, _ignorant_, unequivocal, _absolute_, " _clear_, unfading, _eternal_, unfailing, _eternal_, unfairness, _injustice_, " _prejudice_, unfathomable, _infinite_, " _mysterious_, unfathomed, _mysterious_, unfeelingness, _apathy_, unfilled, _vacant_, unflinching, _obstinate_, unfold, _amplify_, ungainly, _awkward_, ungodliness, _sin_, ungovernable, _perverse_, " _rebellious_, unhandy, _awkward_, unhealthful, _pernicious_, unhealthiness, _disease_, unhomogeneous, _heterogeneous_, unification, _union_, uniform, _a._, _alike_, uniform, _n._, _dress_, uniformity, _harmony_, unimportant, _vain_, uninformed, _ignorant_, uninstructed, _ignorant_, unintellectual, _brutish_, unintelligible, _obscure_, uninterrupted, _continual_, _union_, " _alliance_, " _association_, " _attachment_, " _harmony_, " _marriage_, unique, _queer_, " _rare_, unison, _harmony_, " _melody_, unity, _harmony_, " _union_, universal, _general_, unkindness, _acrimony_, unknown, _mysterious_, unlawful, _criminal_, unlearned, _ignorant_, unless, _but_, unlettered, _ignorant_, unlike, _alien_, _a._, " _heterogeneous_, unlikeness, _difference_, unlimited, _infinite_, unmanageable, _rebellious_, unmannerly, _bluff_, unmatched, _queer_, unmeasured, _infinite_, unmingled, _pure_, unmistakable, _evident_, " _clear_, unmitigated, _severe_, unmixed, _pure_, unobtrusiveness, _modesty_, unoccupied, _idle_, " _vacant_, unparalleled, _rare_, unpolished, _rustic_, unpolluted, _pure_, unprecedented, _rare_, unprejudiced, _candid_, unpremeditated, _extemporaneous_, unprofitable, _vain_, unquestionable, _real_, unreal, _vain_, unreasonable, _absurd_, unrelenting, _severe_, unremitting, _continual_, unreserved, _candid_, unrighteousness, _injustice_, " _sin_, unruffled, _calm_, unruly, _restive_, unsatisfying, _vain_, unselfishness, _benevolence_, unserviceable, _vain_, unsettle, _displace_, unsettled, _precarious_, unskilful, _awkward_, unskilled, _ignorant_, unsophisticated, _candid_, " _rustic_, unsoundness, _disease_, unspiritual, _brutish_, unspotted, _pure_, unstable, _precarious_, unstained, _pure_, unsteady, _precarious_, unsubstantial, _vain_, unsuitable, _incongruous_, unsullied, _pure_, untainted, _pure_, untamed, _barbarous_, untarnished, _pure_, untaught, _ignorant_, " _rustic_, untenanted, _vacant_, untoward, _perverse_, untrained, _fierce_, untruth, _deception_, untutored, _ignorant_, unusual, _queer_, " _rare_, unvarying, _continual_, unwavering, _faithful_, unwholesome, _pernicious_, unwilling, _reluctant_, unyielding, _severe_, " _obstinate_, upbraid, _reprove_, upbraiding, _reproof_, uphold, _abet_, " _confirm_, " _help_, " _support_, uplifted, _high_, upright, _honest_, " _innocent_, " _pure_, uprightness, _justice_, " _virtue_, uproot, _exterminate_, upshot, _consequence_, upstart, _new_, urbane, _polite_, urge, _influence_, " _persuade_, " _plead_, " _quicken_, urge forward, _promote_, urgency, _necessity_, urge on, _drive_, " _promote_, " _quicken_, usage, _habit_, use, _employ_, " _exercise_, " _habit_, " _utility_, usefulness, _profit_, " _utility_, useless, _vain_, use up, _employ_, _usual_, " _general_, " _normal_, usurp, _assume_, utensil, _tool_, _utility_, " _profit_, utmost, _end_, _n._, utter, _speak_, utterance, _remark_, " _speech_, uttermost, _end_, _n._, _vacant_, " _idle_, vacate, _abandon_, " _cancel_, vacillate, _fluctuate_, vacuous, _vacant_, vagary, _fancy_, _vain_, vainglory, _pride_, valediction, _farewell_, valedictory, _farewell_, valiant, _brave_, valor, _prowess_, value, _cherish_, " _esteem_, _v._, " _price_, " _profit_, vanity, _egotism_, " _pride_, vanquish, _beat_, " _conquer_, vapid, _vain_, variant, _heterogeneous_, variation, _change_, " _difference_, variety, _change_, " _difference_, various, _heterogeneous_, vary, _change_, " _fluctuate_, vast, _large_, vaunt, _ostentation_, vaunting, _ostentation_, veer, _change_, " _fluctuate_, " _wander_, vehemence, _enthusiasm_, vehement, _eager_, veil, _hide_, " _palliate_, _venal_, venerable, _old_, _venerate_, " _admire_, _veneration_, vengeance, _revenge_, _venial_, venture, _hazard_, venturesome, _brave_, venturesomeness, _temerity_, _veracity_, _verbal_, verbiage, _circumlocution_, " _diction_, verbose, _garrulous_, verbosity, _circumlocution_, verdant, _rustic_, verge, _boundary_, veritable, _authentic_, " _real_, verity, _veracity_, vernacular, _language_, verse, _meter_, " _poetry_, vestige, _trace_, vestments, _dress_, vesture, _dress_, vex, _affront_, vexation, _anger_, " _chagrin_, viands, _food_, vibrate, _shake_, vice, _sin_, vicious, _criminal_, " _restive_, viciousness, _sin_, vicissitude, _change_, _n._, victimize, _abuse_, _victory_, victuals, _food_, view, _look_, vigilance, _care_, _vigilant_, " _alert_, vigorous, _active_, " _healthy_, vile, _brutish_, " _criminal_, vilify, _abuse_, " _slander_, villainy, _abomination_, vindicate, _avenge_, vindication, _apology_, " _defense_, vinegarish, _bitter_, violate, _abuse_, violent, _fierce_, virile, _masculine_, _virtue_, " _justice_, virtuous, _innocent_, " _pure_, virtuousness, _virtue_, virulence, _acrimony_, virulent, _bitter_, viscid, _adhesive_, viscous, _adhesive_, visible, _evident_, " _physical_, vision, _dream_, visionary, _fanciful_, " _vain_, visit, _avenge_, visitation, _misfortune_, vitiate, _defile_, vituperate, _abuse_, vivacious, _alive_, vocabulary, _diction_, " _language_, vocal, _verbal_, vocation, _business_, vociferate, _call_, void, _vacant_, voluntary, _spontaneous_, vow, _oath_, voyage, _journey_, vulgar, the, _mob_, vulgarism, _slang_, vulgarity, _slang_, wages, _pay_, waggery, _wit_, waggishness, _wit_, wait, _abide_, wakeful, _vigilant_, _wander_, want, _necessity_, " _poverty_, warble, _sing_, ward, _shelter_, wariness, _care_, warmth, _enthusiasm_, warn, _reprove_, warning, _example_, warp, _bend_, warrant, _precedent_, wary, _vigilant_, wash, _cleanse_, waste, _excess_, " _vacant_, wastefulness, _excess_, watch, _look_, watch for, _abide_, watchful, _alert_, " _vigilant_, watchfulness, _care_, watch, on the, _alert_, wave, _shake_, waver, _fluctuate_, " _shake_, _way_, " _air_, " _direction_, wayward, _perverse_, weak, _faint_, weapon, _tool_, weapons, _arms_, wearied, _faint_, wear out, _tire_, weary, _tire_, wedded, _addicted_, wedding, _marriage_, wedlock, _marriage_, weigh, _deliberate_, weight, _load_, welcome, _delightful_, well, _healthy_, well-behaved, _polite_, well-bred, _polite_, well-disposed, _friendly_, well-mannered, _polite_, well off, _comfortable_, well-provided, _comfortable_, well to do, _comfortable_, whence, _therefore_, wherefore, _therefore_, while, _time_, whim, _fancy_, whimsical, _queer_, whip, _beat_, whit, _particle_, whiten, _bleach_, whitewash, _bleach_, wholesome, _healthy_, wicked, _criminal_, wickedness, _abomination_, " _sin_, wide, _large_, wide-awake, _active_, " _alert_, " _vigilant_, widen, _amplify_, wild, _absurd_, " _fierce_, wile, _artifice_, " _pretense_, wilful, _perverse_, willing, _spontaneous_, win, _allure_, " _attain_, " _conquer_, " _get_, " _succeed_, wind up, _end_, _v._, winning, _amiable_, " _charming_, win over, _persuade_, winsome, _amiable_, wipe, _cleanse_, wipe out, _exterminate_, _wisdom_, " _knowledge_, " _prudence_, wise, _sagacious_, wish, _desire_, _wit_, with, _by_, withal, _also_, withdraw, _abstract_, withdraw from, _abandon_, wither, _die_, withhold, _keep_, " _restrain_, without delay, _immediately_, without end, _eternal_, witness, _avow_, " _testimony_, witticism, _wit_, wo, _grief_, " _pain_, woful, _pitiful_, womanish, _feminine_, womanly, _feminine_, wonder, _admire_, " _amazement_, wont, _habit_, wonted, _usual_, woo, _address_, _v._, word, _term_, wordiness, _circumlocution_, wording, _diction_, _work_, " _act_, " _business_, workman, _artist_, work out, _do_, worn, _faint_, worn down, _faint_, worn out, _faint_, worry, _anxiety_, " _care_, worship, _religion_, worst, _beat_, " _conquer_, worth, _price_, " _virtue_, worthiness, _virtue_, worthless, _vain_, worthy, _becoming_, wound, _affront_, wrangle, _reason_, _v._, wrath, _anger_, wretched, _pitiful_, writing, metrical, _poetry_, writings, _literature_, wrong, _v._, _abuse_, wrong, _a._, _criminal_, wrong, _n._, _injury_, " _injustice_, " _sin_, wrong-doing, _sin_, yearning, _eager_, yell, _call_, _yet_, " _but_, " _notwithstanding_, _conj._, yield, _allow_, " _bend_, " _harvest_, " _surrender_, yielding, _docile_, young, _new_, " _youthful_, _youthful_, " _new_, zeal, _enthusiasm_, zealous, _eager_, zest, _appetite_, transcriber's endnotes: significant amendments, invalid links and further notes have been listed below. p. , animal, synonyms re-ordered (_fauna_ originally last); p. , animal, 'individal' amended to _individual_; p. , awful, 'mein' amended to _mien_; p. , beat, invalid reference: 'shatter', see index; p. , beginning, ' john ' amended to _john i, _; p. , bitter, 'quinin, or strychnin' amended to _quinine, or strychnine_; p. , cause, 'conseqeunce' amended to _consequence_; p. , desire, 'concupisence' amended to _concupiscence_; p. , end, _v._, 'synonymns' amended to _synonyms_; p. , end, _v._, invalid reference: 'begin', see index; p. , end, _n._, 'conseqence' amended to _consequence_; p. , enthusiasm, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_; p. , fanciful, 'arangement' amended to _arrangement_; p. , happiness, invalid reference: 'comfort', see index; p. , heterogeneous, 'heterogenious' amended to _heterogeneous_ (twice); p. , honest, 'fradulent' amended to _fraudulent_; p. , immerse, invalid reference: 'bury', see index; p. , impudence, invalid reference: 'arrogance', see index; p. , knowledge, 'or' amended to _of_--'... perception of external objects ...'; p. , plentiful, '(compare synonyms especial reference to giving or expending.', amended, using a later edition, to _(compare synonyms for adequate.)_; p. , polite, 'devolopment' amended to _development_; p. , queer, 'an' amended to _as_--'... and so uneven, as an _odd_ number ...'; p. , record, 'deposito' amended to _depository_; p. , revelation, 'mistery' amended to _mystery_; p. , sketch and p. , skeptic, out-of-sequence entries re-ordered; estimated new placement of p. marker; index amendments include: p. , agnostic; p. , atheist; p. , deist; p. , disbeliever; p. , doubter; p. , freethinker; p. , infidel; p. , skeptic; p. , unbeliever; p. , assume, 'and' amended to _or_--'unless he do profane, steal, or ----.'; p. , dexterity, 'imimitable' amended to _inimitable_; p. , exterminate, added _is_--'... what is the original meaning ...'; p. , fear, 'right' amended to _fright_--'how does it compare with _fright_ ...'; p. , feud, 'contentention' amended to _contention_; p. , happiness, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_; p. , proverb, 'apothem' amended to _apothegm_; p. , index, because: 'therefor' amended to _therefore_; p. , index, bodily: page number added to _physical_; p. , index, fancy: sub-listing ordered alphabetically; p. , index, imagination: page number corrected for _idea_; p. , index, 'immeasureable': amended to _immeasurable_; p. , index, kind: sub-listing ordered alphabetically; p. , index, loving: 'friendy' amended to _friendly_; p. , index, nutrition: _oath_ removed from sub-listing and listed separately; p. , index, plan: _horizontal_ removed from sub-listing. +------------------------------------------------+ |transcriber's note: the letter 'a' with a macron| |accent is indicated as +a+. | +------------------------------------------------+ a spelling-book for advanced classes. by william t. adams, master of bowditch school, boston. boston: brewer and tileston. . entered according to act of congress, in the year , by william t. adams, in the clerk's office of the district court of the district of massachusetts stereotyped by w. f. brown & co., no. cornhill, boston preface. this work, as its title indicates, is intended for the use of advanced classes,--for scholars who are, to some extent, familiar with the principles of pronunciation and syllabication. it is not intended to supersede the ordinary spelling-book, but rather to follow it, as a practical application of the pupil's knowledge, not only in spelling, but in dividing and pronouncing the more difficult words in common use. it is believed that, for advanced classes, the plan adopted in this book, of presenting the words without indicating the pronunciation or syllabication, will be found to possess some decided advantages; for the pupil, as in the study of arithmetic and the languages, is thereby thrown upon his own resources. this method will certainly test his knowledge, while the dictionary will always be available to supply deficiencies. the words have been arranged in lessons of thirty each, and numbered for convenience of reference. all classification has been carefully avoided, so that the initial letter, the terminational syllable, or the silent letters shall not be indicated by the preceding word. it is suggested that, in written lessons, the words be arranged in lines, instead of columns, in order to afford the scholar an occasional exercise in practical syllabication. bowditch school, boston, jan. , a spelling-book for advanced classes. lesson . . flageolet . dactyl . irony . hoopoe . blasphemous . abatable . nausea . secede . _élite_ . psalmody . subtile . cabalistic . secession . topsy-turvy . flagrancy . mushroom . superficies . caustic . passable . rappee . hysterics . irradiate . abbey . asphyxia . ellipse . italicize . daffodil . monetary . fogy . hungrily . . elixir . mustache . acknowledgment . seniority . boa-constrictor . quinine . sensibility . sensational . caboose . foible . iterate . daguerrotype . penetrable . cauterize . nauseous . banana . ellipsis . ignominy . acoustics . dahlia . flamingo . casuistry . horde . abbreviate . elliptical . irrational . moneyed . casualty . secrecy . psalter . . abdominal . beau . itinerant . boatswain . _succedaneum_ . cabriolet . elongation . volatile . iambic . pseudonyme . dairy . mongrel . juvenile . sententious . atomic . hurricane . elocution . foliaceous . cavalcade . acquiescence . itinerary . jezebel . secretion . cavalier . pyre . zigzag . dalliance . movable . movement . bivouac . . _caçhe_ . acquirement . bobolink . whinnying . ignore . musketeer . kremlin . pyrometer . bandanna . elopement . flagitious . horizon . aberration . catacombs . whippoorwill . musician . peroration . quinsy . secrete . elucidate . superfluity . sectarian . transmitted . transmuted . cacao . succinct . iambus . catalepsy . quintal . bedouins . . flatulence . damageable . juxtaposition . abeyance . elves . acquittal . fomentation . hurtle . cavilling . bodice . jib . nautical . eludible . phantasmagoria . zinc . labelled . rappel . sentient . cacique . rarefy . rarity . tornadoes . ceiling . iguana . navigable . forage . sentinel . ventricle . blackguard . _elysium_ . . abhorrence . jacconet . monochromatic . passover . boeotian . pshaw . secular . flaxy . cactus . emancipate . ibex . dandelion . justification . monopolize . catarrh . aborigines . whirligig . superintendent . torpedoes . pastel . atonement . foraging . celebrity . husky . emanation . adipocere . jockey . dandruff . mucilage . penguin . . bohea . pyrotechnic . separable . daub . emasculate . cadaverous . succory . iliad . labial . celerity . mucus, _n._ . mucous, _a._ . penitential . banditti . adjacent . forbearance . forcible . hornblende . abridgment . catastrophe . gabion . jackal . muskmelon . perpendicular . securely . debasement . supernumerary . embalm . sepoy . forebode . . _ibidem_ . _caduceus_ . abscission . embellish . katydid . debauchee . quintessence . perplexity . mussel . g+a+elic . befitting . hyacinth . embarrass . adjournment . jocose . celestial . garrison . frivolity . navy . navvy . boisterous . phantom . separately . succotash . freckle . debilitate . adjutant . embarkation . laborer . illegible . . vicarious . cæsura . blamable . nazarene . pharisee . garrulous . embezzle . horoscope . catchup . absence . debonair . jacketed . boll . monosyllable . pathetic . foregoing . psychology . sedative . _café_ . emblematical . pathology . mussulman . catechise . gaff . zodiacal . _débris_ . atrocity . kaleidoscope . abstemious . foreigner . . _début_ . hybrid . admiralty . celestine . joggle . pennant . emblazon . mucilaginous . supersede . _friseur_ . python . transparency . _caique_ . septuagint . embodiment . pennyroyal . celtic . neap-tide . gasconade . succulent . illiberal . banian . decade . laboratory . sediment . adolescence . frolicsome . horrible . emboguing . abstrusely . . musquash . catechism . plausible . quittance . bolster . forensic . decalogue . sedentary . caisson . perseverance . monotheism . icarian . supersedure . sepulchral . behavior . gainsaid . whetstone . keelhaul . academician . embracement . adscititious . hydra . embowelling . gaseous . deceased . diseased . joinery . monomania . cement . pharisaic . . frontier . raspberry . sepulchre . bomb . pharmaceutic . decennial . embrasure . caitiff . illicit . gasometer . muddied . deceptibility . labyrinth . _blanc-mange_ . adulation . embrocation . forerunner . _hors de combat_ . accelerate . jaguar . categorical . mutineer . _patois_ . garish . ratable . sequester . emersion . sudorific . transportable . ratafia . . forestall . monotony . bombardment . iceberg . patriarch . cajolery . keelson . atrophy . gala-day . accentuation . deciduous . advancement . frontlet . embryo . hydraulics . cenotaph . jointure . neapolitan . gastric . pentateuch . decimate . recommend . shallop . superstitious . recompense . emetic . zoölogy . _muezzin_ . illimitable . lacerate . . pentecost . calabash . banqueting . advertise . gastritis . _émeute_ . declamation . foretelling . hortatory . catering . acceptable . jalap . regatta . persimmon . galatians . myriad . sequestration . suet . bombastic . declension . regicide . calaboose . emissary . forfeiture . personify . kennelling . caterwaul . behoove . icelandic . accessary . . eminence . hydrocephalus . fructification . censer . censor . adze . joist . declination . neat's-foot . gastronomy . shamming . pharmacy . bombazine . renovate . pharynx . caterpillar . frugality . lachrymose . calcareous . whiskey . ægis . emission . gauge . illision . declivity . emmet . formality . cathedral . horticulture . accessible . . decrement . jam . galiot . moralist . patrician . renunciation . boneset . seraglio . formidable . supervise . attenuate . empanel . calcine . ichneumon . morass . ratios . galleon . phoenix . kernel . acclamation . emollient . emolument . census . fruition . aërial . hydrogen . decrepit . jonquil . gauntlet . mulatto . . peppery . rattan . bonfire . shampooing . dedicatory . frustration . pickerel . calendar . baptistery . illiterate . mulch . lackey . emphasize . +a+erolite . gavel . empiric . formulary . illness . catholicism . acclimation . gallery . jamb . belladonna . myrmidon . deducible . perspicacity . reconciliation . fortuitous . seraph . viceroy . . suffice . bonito . recondite . pittance . calender . myrrh . kerosene . empyrean . accommodate . impression . fugacious . +a+eronaut . journalize . centaur . whizzing . gazette . defalcation . pheasant . empiricist . shampooes . _belles-lettres_ . _nebula_ . plenipotentiary . _nebulæ_ . defamation . impassable . impassible . license . affiliation . laconic . . calipers . fugue . gallinaceous . emulation . catholicity . defendable . emulgent . caudal . fulcrum . incestuous . accompaniment . journeying . _bon-mot_ . moresque . gallinipper . phenomenon . ratiocination . defensible . supinely . truncated . fulfil . ventriloquist . caliph . morocco . philanthropy . attrition . galloon . lacquer . impressment . accomplice . . fossil . centipede . emulsive . caudle . deference . illogical . affirmative . janitor . bonneted . gazetteer . mulct . picnic . _reconnoissance_ . deficiency . sufficient . picturesque . calisthenics . janizary . fossilized . muleteer . baptizable . gearing . agglomerate . enamour . inchoate . encircling . foundery . centralize 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. discomfiture . manor . possession . troche . reticence . obesity . logical . _clepsydra_ . inodorous . . gimbals . clergyman . aperture . evanescent . indebted . laxity . malicious . castellan . opossum . precursor . _siesta_ . disconnect . rendezvous . tablature . _attaché_ . malign . tutelary . evangelical . predatory . renegade . opportune . climacteric . lineament . graphite . influenza . archetype . gnu . indorsable . codicil . leper . . discommode . mansuetude . opponent . primitive . skeleton . woad . retention . tariff . evangelize . reticule . disconcert . mantel . primogeniture . compelling . opposite . loiter . inquiry . collateral . guana . guano . eviction . amalgamate . compendium . indecent . layman . climatology . mall . gimlet . obligatory . penrhyn . . polytechnic . renewable . competency . sieve . tableau . eviscerate . malmsey . clique . maltese . obliquity . grasshopper . polytheism . lingual . information . discus, _n._ . discous, _a._ . evincible . competitor . 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yacht . sniveller . inheritance . ornithology . colic . typography . poplar . liturgy . halcyon . inextricable . distaff . liberality . medal . exorbitant . annexation . ornate . conflagration . snath . rheumatism . rhubarb . poudrette . sincerely . teutonic . . medallion . battalion . hermaphrodite . poultice . distasteful . orotund . ludicrous . exordium . insipid . commotion . gullibility . apostasy . collapse . indices . legerdemain . distention . merriment . painim . conformity . presbyterian . simultaneous . romancer . tamarind . ursuline . sobriety . mesmerism . prescience . paladin . distil . dissimilar . . inhibition . confusable . livelihood . ycleped . expansion . distich . halibut . congealable . argonaut . infallible . exotic . librarian . milliner . papillary . teetotaler . congener . prodigious . tyrannic . rhino . expansible . sinecure . _millionnaire_ . distillation . usquebaugh . lugubrious . producible . compatible . pappoose . hermetical . insinuate . . distillery . gum-arabic . ameliorate . congeries . indexical . legging . expatiate . martyred . celery . orphaned . populace . _rondeau_ . _sobriquet_ . tambour . conglomerate . tyrannize . extinction . usually . distraction . orthoëpy . porcelain . inhumation . marvellous . hebdomadal . liverwort . halyards . anniversary . distinction . infanticide . expatriate . . license . congressional . mediæval . orrery . practicable . rhinoceros . sinewy . cellarage . ogee . tegument . insoluble . rhomboid . congreve . orthography . practising . expectancy . medicament . heroic . lullaby . distraint . diurnal . gunnery . apostrophe . crease . indicative . legible . mesne . extirpate . palanquin . prescription . . sociable . congruity . rhododendron . tandem . _soi-disant_ . presidential . conic . palatial . expedite . hebraism . divergence . _messieurs_ . credential . _livre_ . inimical . expectorant . hallelujah . divan . arguable . crystallization . infantile . licentiate . yeast . parabola . extol . proffering . ropy . singing . diverse . divers . . proficiency . conjecture . parachute . rosary . minaret . extortion . lumbago . heroism . insolvency . conjugal . indictment . diversion . amenable . expedient . legibility . credible . maskinonge . oscillate . gunny . porcine . roseate . sinister . conjunction . porphyry . tangential . siphon . divestible . osnaburg . ribald . masquerade . . lizard . conjure . inimitable . expedition . hecatomb . annihilate . extractible . infatuate . crystallotype . licorice . medicine . divertisement . osier . halloo . connascent . pragmatical . rhymic . _soirée_ . heron . prairie . telescope . rosemary . solace . cuckoo . medicinal . osprey . extradition . inspiration . roster . divination . . gunwale . creosote . apothecary . indictable . divisible . legislature . metallic . connection . palatinate . prestige . expel . rhythm . sinuous . hectic . pretence . tangible . connivance . palette . siren . tyranny . divorce . metalline . llama . iniquitous . expense . divinize . arid . cucumber . hallucination . extraordinary . . infectious . lief . conquerable . mineralogy . paradigm . profited . sojourner . rosette . tellurian . profligacy . consanguinity . usurious . solder . docility . paradisiacal . install . miniature . extravagance . lunacy . hesitancy . cretaceous . amerce . expiate . indigence . massacre . documentary . osseous . porpoise . gusset . rosy . . sirloin . conscience . tannin . tyro . usurpation . solemnize . extricate . mastic . ostensible . consecrate . porringer . rouge . dogma . initial . hegira . annotation . cudgel . infer . doggerel . mediocre . conservatism . ossification . extravasation . prebend . halo . sacrilege . _crevasse_ . solecism . temerity . expiatory . . _soubrette_ . consequential . mediocrity . ostentatious . installation . precarious . ubiquity . dogmatist . sadducee . heterodox . dolorous . gustatory . apothegm . consignee . indigenous . explanatory . metallurgy . palette-knife . cuirass . pretension . pretentious . _roué_ . solely . tansy . consistory . solicit . usury . tantalize . expletive . initiate . . dominie . metamorphose . palfrey . heifer . _rouge-et-noir_ . hames . inference . crevice . aristocracy . domicile . extrinsic . minie-ball . cuirassier . paradox . progenitor . sacristy . _sortie_ . conscientious . tenable . _ukase_ . souchong . domineer . programme . tenacious . consols . saffron instalment . minion . exuberance . paraffine . . explicate . amethyst . conspicuous . gusto . dominical . indigestible . masticate . crewel . ostracism . portable . _rouleau_ . solidity . tantamount . conspiracy . utilitarian . explicit . soliloquize . donjon . dungeon . portcullis . _roulette_ . culinary . mastiff . injudicious . height . infidelity . crinoline . medley . dominos . handicraft . . annual . constable . ostracize . exudation . preceding . sagacious . sour-crout . pre-ce'dent . pre'ce-dent . tenacity . constituency . spacious . ulceration . eyelid . otter . instantaneous . donkey . sagacity . meerschaum . hexagon . gutta-percha . colander . exploding . apotheosis . _donna_ . donor . indirect . metaphor . crisis . paling . . preterite . roundelay . soliloquy . tendril . constabulary . pretor . inky . palisade . exploring . solstice . routine . dormitory . metaphysical . criterion . heinous . arithmetician . doric . handsomely . construe . infinite . eyry . ministerial . cultivator . prohibitory . sagamore . dormer . sovereignty . consul . tetrarch . luminary . . projectile . instigation . spaniel . consummate . parallel . salable . fabricate . hexameter . cumin . minnow . guttural . doublet . amicable . indispensable . consumption . mastodon . ottar . exportable . _porte-monnaie_ . solstitial . criticise . tenement . utopian . volition . doubtful . solvable . tenets . contagious . aught . ought . . matadore . _exposé_ . heirloom . critique . inly . harangue . _façade_ . infinitesimal . contemporary . annunciation . melancholy . doubloon . ottoman . spasmodical . cupidity . theatrical . _ultimatum_ . prevaricate . vigilance . uvula . contemptible . specialty . theodolite . weevilly . _douche_ . ousted . mellifluous . institution . cupola . hiatus . . douse . gybe . apparatus . contentious . indisputable . expressible . mete . palladium . _crochet_ . solubility . tennis . prolific . ultramarine . voltigeur . contestable . vivacity . heliotrope . _sombrero_ . exscind . pallet . tensile . crocodile . meteorology . dowager . innate . aromatic . curacoa . haranguing . infirmity . dovetail . . facial . contiguity . minstrelsy . paralleled . spatula . theologian . vaccinate . _vignette_ . weird . ultramontane . contingency . specification . theoretical . factitious . paralysis . minute . curfew . hibernation . instrumental . dowlas . gymnasium . doziness . ammonia . continuity . indissolubly . expulsion . methodically . palliating . crosier . portentous . . route . contraband . outrageous . somerset . helix . expunge . somnolency . tentacle . vaccine . cross-jack . mathematics . rowelling . dragoman . portfolio . innocency . drachm . drachma . harass . anointment . contractile . inflammable . facile . miracle . curmudgeon . outlying . precession . salad . contra-dance . specimen . therapeutics . . outstripped . contralto . _hibiscus_ . facility . salary . draughtsman . melodious . currency . insulate . precinct . dreadnaught . gymnast . crosswise . indistinct . expurgate . material . contrariety . paralytic . apparel . preventable . rowel . somnambulist . contravention . tepid . sphericity . exquisitely . pallid . umbrageous . driveller . rubicund . . preventive . crotchet . metonymy . hellebore . innovation . _fac-simile_ . melodeon . _curriculum_ . harbinger . salamander . dredging . inflammation . contrition . vacillate . arquebuse . prolixity . spermaceti . thermometer . volubility . controversial . paramount . factious . _sonata_ . umbrella . drollery . saleratus . insuperable . prologue . currier . mirage . . dromedary . exsiccation . ammunition . contusion . insurance . gymnote . matin . croup . ovarious . porticos . rubric . conundrum . spheroid . tergiversation . extant . vacuity . drosky . mattress . insurgent . crucible . overrun . spicy . ruminant . portmanteau . helmeted . faculty . anomaly . cursory . intestate . dropsy . . hardihood . melodrama . convalescence . overrate . precipitate . salient . coquetted . sonnet . _thesaurus_ . unbiassed . drowsy . soot . intestine . fagot . melon . curtailing . salmagundi . hickory . overseer . precision . gypsum . crucifixion . extemporaneous . apparition . druidical . insurrection . metre . cruse . palmetto . primacy . . metrical . rudimentary . coquetry . sphinx . termagant . extemporise . spigot . ruta-baga . convenient . primer . hemisphere . palmistry . dualism . duellist . integer . arrack . drier . fakir . harlequin . curvilinear . misanthrope . promenade . inthrall . parapet . sonorous . thibet-cloth . cushion . saliva . _vacuum_ . soothe . . miscellaneous . conventicle . satisfy . promethean . falcon . paraphernalia . _hidalgo_ . dubious . inthralment . coral . convention . gypsy . amphibious . ducat . integral . mat'-rice . crustaceous . overture . portraiture . extensible . retina . spikenard . terminus . convergence . unctuous . spiritualize . sabbatarian . promiscuous . dudgeon . owing . . fallacious . crypt . gyration . matricide . integrity . coralliform . intimacy . ductile . harmonica . custodian . membraneous . oviparous . extenuate . precocious . anonymous . saltatory . sophism . harmonize . thieving . vagabond . underpinning . salutary . duenna . sophomore . oxalic . fallacy . ptarmigan . intimidate . cutaneous . mementos . . hemlock . crystal . integument . dugong . appendage . metronome . coralline . palpable . falchion . primeval . repertory . spinach . terrace . conversant . metropolitan . fallible . vagary . dulcimer . _sabre-taçhe_ . spleeny . crystalline . palsy . quadrangular . intellectual . hemorrhage . felicity . prominence . cuticle . hideous . dulcamara . . intonate . arraignment . miscellany . cordelier . parasite . salubrity . sophistry . thinning . feline . mischievous . conversely . soporific . undiluted . dulse . salutatory . intractable . quoin . cycle . parasol . hierarchy . cyclopædia . gyratory . felon . arterial . intelligence . saline . matriculate . ox-eyed . promissory . sac . . splenetic . cordiality . mattock . _terra-cotta_ . falsify . spontaneity . valedictory . conversion . promontory . _valenciennes_ . sacerdotal . hemstitch . oxygen . duodecimal . intelligible . axiom . cygnet . _falsetto_ . hartbeest . dutiable . memoir . oxide . publicity . _in transitu_ . yeomanry . sopsavine . thole-pin . undulatory . vilified . sorghum . . felucca . cordon . menacing . puerile . duodenum . samphire . intrepidity . oxygenated . convertible . hieroglyphic . faltering . gyroscope . intendant . mezzotint . cylinder . paltry . basin . quadrate . saccharine . duplicate . sponginess . terrapin . unequalled . valerian . corduroy . spontaneous . sachem . familiarity . mica . quadrennial . . pamphlet . convexity . henbane . duress . intensively . harslet . intricacy . feminine . miscreant . parcel . cordwainer . quoit . bevy . samaritan . sorcery . duplicity . valentia . thompsonian . unicorn . sorrel . conveyancer . misdemeanor . sanctimonious . femoral . intrigue . parcelled . cynic . quondam . hilarity . duteous . . fanatical . gyve . coriander . artesian . intercalation . maudlin . dying . dyeing . paregoric . pronunciation . sacrament . sporadic . conviction . propagate . terraqueous . uniformity . fennel . maugre . heptarchy . volunteered . dynamics . parsley . sacrificial . cynosure . intercede . intriguing . dynasty . patrimony . hassock . fencible . . menagerie . bassoon . pugilist . corinthian . sandwich . springe . fanatic . thorax . valet . convivial . pugnacious . stinginess . mendacious . voracious . hindostanee . vizier . dysentery . patrolling . _sang-froid_ . intrinsic . intercessor . cypress . perambulate . fandango . grazier . michaelmas . dyspepsy . quadrilateral . axletree . sacrifice . . spurious . terrestrial . carnelian . squalid . sanguinary . quadrille . _fantasia_ . coolly . cooly . microscope . perceivable . earache . heraldry . interdict . cyst . introversion . hauberk . hosiery . perspiration . ferocity . cornice . misnomer . quorum . sangaree . bewray . stipendiary . thoracic . unique . corolla . stipulate . . villany . ferret . quota . _savant_ . coöperate . misogamist . hippodrome . persuasion . ear-ring . intrusion . ferruginous . geyser . artificiality . interfere . corollary . mausoleum . parleyed . propeller . earthy . sanguine . squirrel . coot . terrier . fertilization . _valet de chambre_ . easement . maxillary . sanhedrim . czar . herbaceous . . parleying . propensity . farcical . stalactite . interlocutory . bateau . _fantoccini_ . mendicity . hautboy . patronize . coronal . intuition . puissant . easel . saviour . stirrup . thorough-bass . _vinaigrette_ . copal . univalve . wesleyan . mensuration . valetudinarian . easiness . stomacher . scalloped . pulleys . hippopotamus . inundation . pavilion . . farina . ebony . hirsute . azure . interminable . coronet . mignonette . perceptible . quadrillion . sanguineous . stadtholder . thoroughwort . copeck . universalist . _vedette_ . migratory . farinaceous . sanitary . stanza . czarina . quadroon . intermission . eccaleobion . percolate . hydrometer . scabbard . _eau de cologne_ . hosanna . inure . fervency . . bibliography . misprision . persuasible . corporal . corporeal . quotidian . stoic . terrific . valiantly . ebullition . missal . _violoncello_ . copious . scalpel . stomachic . inutility . quotient . ichnology . pertinacity . _fête_ . farrago . intermittent . eccentric . mazarine . ascendency . parliament . sapient . historiography . prophecy, _n._ . prophesy, _v._ . . mazard . starboard . _corps_ . territorial . yew-tree . pulverize . wainscoting . copperas . vandalism . interpolate . sapphire . tersely . fetichism . parochial . hydropathy . peaceable . _in vacuo_ . fetich . mercenary . bacchanalian . hose . hoes . pulmonary . scaly . farrier . stonehenge . merchandise . thraldom . verification . icicle . . quadruple . _corps diplomatique_ . stationary . stationery . invalid . scarcity . copy . threshold . peasantry . ichthyology . _fasces_ . interposition . mileage . corpulency . pedestal . indelibly . saponaceous . histrionic . quadruped . starveling . eccentricity . veritable . whey . viragoes . fascination . militant . stony . echo . rabbinical . tertian . . copyright . saracen . peregrination . hoax . _interregnum_ . hydrophobia . biennial . invalidate . corpuscle . missionary . fetid . ecclesiastic . perturbation . rabbet . scandalize . coquet, _v._ . coquette, _n._ . stone-marten . vanilla . walrus . feud . mistletoe . stencil . hydrostatics . vermicelli . invariable . throstle . _éclaircissement_ . scarlatina . peruke . . eclat . hobgoblin . fastidious . interrogatory . coquettish . meagre . asiaticism . parole . prophylactic . corral . sarcenet . statistics . tertiary . fatalism . mitre . varicose . eclipse . paroxysm . propitiate . sardine . testaceous . virulency . statuary . hyena . interrupt . hospitality . eclectic . mercurial . feudal . bachelor . . invasion . peccadillo . correlative . puma . scathed . stenography . thyme . baubee . vermifuge . mullein . correspondent . pectoral . pumice . feverfew . scenic . tic-douloureux . ecliptic . invective . strategy . iconography . eclogue . hoiden . intersect . fatigue . military . peremptory . coquetry . quahaug . sarcophagus . statistician . . bifurcation . tessellated . corrigible . variegate . hygiene . morsel . fatiguing . perennial . qualified . sardonic . varioloid . economize . testamentary . statuette . intersperse . corroborate . inveigh . hospitaller . mitigate . fiat . perversion . raccoon . economy . scenery . stratagem . tiara . vermilion . iconoclast . strategist . waltzing . . myth . counterpoise . pestiferous . icy . raciness . fibrous . sceptre . economist . inveigle . ticketed . holiday . edacity . askew . interstice . corrodible . inverse . mnemonics . faucet . parquet . proprietary . satanic . ecstasy . statute . testimonial . steelyard . mobilization . eddying . satiate . fealty . hymeneal . . propugn . counterpane . parricide . invertible . intervene . _hospodar_ . eddy . badinage . irreconcilable . invention . corrugate . mortgage . pecuniary . fictitious . puncheon . schedule . strata . countervail . tiffany . vermin . mortise . strychnine . _virus_ . edible . schismatic . inventory . punctilious . ideality . fidget . pedagogue . . feasible . bawble . corruptible . investigate . multifarious . holily . perfectible . qualmish . satellite . edifice . stearine . countrified . satire . satyr . tetanus . vassal . febrifuge . mobocracy . stellar . _tête-à-tête_ . hyperbole . quandary . perigee . educator . inveterate . irredeemable . pestilential . fiduciary . mythology . bight . . hostilely . corsair . radius . schemer . edification . schist . _coup de main_ . stringent . tilbury . irrefragable . vernacular . waived . fief . mosaic . stucco . tillage . identical . radiuses . eel . pestle . effeminate . invidious . february . nadir . _cortege_ . asparagus . parsimonious . hollyhock . propulsion . satirize . . moidore . stentorian . _coup de soleil_ . timidity . vegetable . _visé_ . efficacious . prorogue . tortoise . feign . saturate . stereotype . parley . hymnology . invigorate . irrefutable . mohair . effervesce . pedantry . fiend . purchasable . hostler . cortes . bagatelle . schistous . stultify . mosque . torpidity . versatility . irregularly . . tortuous . _coup d'état_ . purlieu . wantonness . fiery . scholastic . stupefying . idealize . efficiency . pedestrian . holocaust . feint . invincible . perihelion . coruscation . quarantine . satrap . stereoscope . bayonet . multiplicity . tingeing . effigy . vegetarian . tiny . tinny . _coupé_ . visage . sterility . effluence . figurant . . quarrelling . inviolable . _naïve_ . periodical . hyperborean . hostelry . naiad . efflorescent . figment . irrelevant . corvette . petal . bigoted . saturnalia . _ragoût_ . flea . stupefaction . torricellian . irremediable . versification . _coupon_ . tippet . warily . toucan . stupidity . schooner . _schnapps_ . raid . idiocy . petard . . figurative . holster . assassination . coryza . moiety . invisible . effrontery . parsnip . prosaic . saturnine . stethoscope . tirade . vehemency . courageous . viscid . _moire-antique_ . stigmatize . titular . filaceous . sausage . invitation . _protégé_ . hypercritical . parterre . effulgence . pedigree . flexible . bagnio . mosquito . _hôtel-dieu_ . . irreparable . cosey . purport . sciatica . efflux . sturgeon . tourbillion . vertebra . warrantable . _courant_ . styptic . mosquitoes . _tourniquet_ . vocalization . flexile . scintillation . pursuivant . irresistible . pedler . idiom . homageable . ægis . bayou . municipal . invocation . peripatetic . filament . quarried . saucily . stickleback . . titillate . cosily . vehicle . egregious . viscount . munificent . _courier_ . savanna . stiletto . toadyism . hyphen . quartette . filial . periphery . invoice . _houdah_ . egotism . irrevocable . _naïveté_ . biliary . _petit_ . flimsy . raillery . scientific . styling . towelling . effusion . tournament . vertebræ . wassail . . nankeen . cosine . sciolist . suavity . irrigation . raiment . petition . idiosyncrasy . flirtation . courteous . assimilate . egress . involuntary . filibuster . molar . partial . homeliness . prototype . cosmetic . scion . subaltern . tobacconist . velocipede . wheyey . egyptian . motley . toilet . sublimate . filigree . scissors . . proverbial . courtesy . involution . partiality . hypochondriac . peevish . flippant . bailiff . muriate . irritability . hough . purveyor . seditious . cosmography . suffusion . traceable . eightieth . vertical . wasteful . visibility . murrain . covenant . suicide . tractable . irritate . seigneurial . wharfinger . floe . pusillanimity . idiotic . . fillet . homicide . bazaar . cosmopolite . involvement . naphtha . perishable . either . ether . quassia . scirrhus . subjugate . tocsin . filly . venality . covetous . sublunary . tomahawk . vendible . sconce . hypocrite . quay . invulnerable . peristaltic . ejaculate . petrel . houri . irruption . florescence . billiards . . seethe . _cosmos_ . suggestion . trachea . rallying . vertigo . wherry . _visite_ . narcissus . vesicle . traducible . cowardice . suitable . seignior . floriculture . isinglass . _rancho_ . putrefaction . petrifaction . idolatrous . homily . eke . filtrate . inwreathe . cossack . molecule . participate . assuage . providentially . scorbutic . . mollify . submissive . cow-herd . tomalley . veneering . _finale_ . hypocrisy . tompion . elasticity . scourge . subordinate . iodine . provincial . partisan . flotilla . islamism . housewife . elaborate . mottoes . pelisse . cosset . pustule . balk . seigniory . florin . sulphate . moult . trafficking . vestibule . wavy . . islander . cowlick . tragedy . elation . seize . sulphuric . financial . ejection . pellucid . idolize . hominy . elbow . bdellium . iolite . costumer . muscadine . peristyle . financier . querulous . scorpion . eider . muscatel . submitted . tomatoes . venetian . tonic . _subpoena_ . coxcomb . electrician . scrivener . . questionable . hypothecate . perjury . finesse . ionian . petroleum . eking . bismuth . housing . cotillon . islet . fluctuate . narcotic . rancid . florid . narrative . seizable . sulphur . cozen . cousin . sumach . tragacanth . veterinary . tragedian . electricity . selvage . isolated . idyl . rancorous . pettifogger . . electrotype . asthma . finical . ipecacuanha . couchant . mollusk . partition . homoeopathy . proximate . scrofula . cradling . subpoenaed . tonnage . venison . tonsorial . finite . moulten . visor . eleemosynary . sculpin . subsidize . isothermal . prudential . partridge . hypothenuse . isosceles . fluency . balsam . pemmican . huckleberry . . mountaineer . putrescence . cougar . semiannual . electuary . sumptuary . trammelled . vetoes . cranberry . weapon . vociferate . fluidity . mountebank . transcendental . seminary . igneous . superb . puzzling . eleusinian . penance . beach . elegancy . homogeneous . irascible . fiscal . muscle . permanency . quiescent . elegiac . scullion . . colter . subsidiary . hypothesis . tonsil . venom . vitiate . craniology . muscovado . tontine . substantial . scurrility . fissure . quieting . permeate . iridescent . huguenot . issue . flurry . narwhal . bissextile . elegy . pettitoes . semibreve . rapacious . superannuated . vexatious . _ignis-fatuus_ . tranquillity . weasel . transferred . . councillor . counsellor . nasal . supercilious . isthmian . senatorial . rapacity . flustrated . pewter . elephantine . potato . elevator . homologous . asylum . cranium . iridium . monarchical . prunello . scurrilous . fistula . subterfuge . topaz . hyson . permitting . venous . elide . vitreous . topography . whimsey . monastery . . zephyr . subtle . subtile . permissible . iris . _penchant_ . elicit . humidity . isthmus . crazy . baluster . mousing . fluxion . pyramidal . seneschal . castile-soap . supererogation . vicarage . phalanx . transient . viaduct . flaccid . weevil . eligible . _mousseline-de-laine_ . translucent . italian . senility . superficial . ignitible . . zendavesta . eliminate . beatific . ironical . causeway . muscovy . paschal . flagellate . quietus . scythe . humorous . subterranean . topical . caster . castor . rapine . transition . hyssop . museum . ventilator . elision . wednesday . vitriol . pencilling . ignition . italic . naturalize . senile . superfice . bituminous . . adherent . emaciate . catalogue . flaunt . horizontal . jacobin . gayety . galaxy . enamelling . impediment . camelia . algebraical . jasmine . deluge . gamut . necromancy . philopena . boudoir . ravine . seraphine . frequency . trunnion . cerebellum . impropriety . _ennui_ . nectar . suppliant . demesne . philosopher . gangrene . . kidneys . ennoble . furniture . charade . demarcation . debarkation . enthusiasm . larynx . groats . glycerine . gnome . grovelling . inquisitorial . disintegrate . lubricate . _ex parte_ . heterogeneous . facetious . hiccough . ferule . ferrule . effluvia . pelican . flue . phaeton . irrecoverable . irascibility . abatement . labelling . onerous . . labyrinthine . iridescence . _abbé_ . magpie . irrepealable . nascent . abdicate . jah . risibility . kangaroo . abstinence . nasturtium . javanese . management . abetted . piano-forte . kill-deer . mandrake . ability . nautilus . jesuitical . abyss . neuralgia . lactometer . abyssinian . _volante_ . kedge . triplicate . piazza . abolition transcriber's notes: in this book, as well as using _ to indicate the italic font, the = symbol has been used to show text printed in smaller capital letters in the original printed version. please see the html version for a more accurate reproduction. bracketed words, such as [the?], were present in the original text. they were not added by the transcriber. obvious printing errors were repaired; these changes are listed at the end of the text. in ambiguous cases, the text has been left as it appears in the original book. in particular, many mismatched quotation marks have not been changed. lectures on language, as particularly connected with english grammar. designed for the use of teachers and advanced learners. by wm. s. balch. silence is better than unmeaning words.--_pythagoras._ providence: b. cranston & co. . entered according to act of congress, in the year , by b. cranston & co. in the clerk's office of the district court of rhode-island. providence, feb. , . to wm. s. balch, sir--the undersigned, in behalf of the young people's institute, hasten to present to you the following _resolutions_, together with their personal thanks, for the lectures you have delivered before them, on the philosophy of language. the uncommon degree of interest, pleasure and profit, with which you have been listened to, is conclusive evidence, that whoever possesses taste and talents to comprehend and appreciate the philosophy of language, which you have so successfully cultivated, cannot fail to attain a powerful influence over the minds of his audience. the committee respectfully request you to favor them with a copy of your lectures for the press. very respectfully, your most obedient servants, c. t. james, e. f. miller, h. l. webster. * * * * * _resolved_, that we have been highly entertained and greatly instructed by the lectures of our president, on the subject of language; that we consider the principles he has advocated, immutably true, exceedingly important, and capable of an easy adoption in the study of that important branch of human knowledge. _resolved_, that we have long regretted the want of a system to explain the grammar of our vernacular tongue, on plain, rational, and consistent principles, in accordance with philosophy and truth, and in a way to be understood and practised by children and adults. _resolved_, that in our opinion, the manifold attempts which have been made, though doubtless undertaken with the purest intentions, to simplify and make easy existing systems, have failed entirely of their object, and tended only to perplex, rather than enlighten learners. _resolved_, that in our belief, the publication of these lectures would meet the wants of the community, and throw a flood of light upon this hitherto dark, and intricate, and yet exceedingly interesting department of a common education, and thus prove of immense service to the present and future generations. _resolved_, that messrs. charles t. james, edward f. miller, and henry l. webster, be a committee to wait on rev. william s. balch, and request the publication of his very interesting course of lectures before this institute. * * * * * providence, feb. , . messrs. c. t. james, e. f. miller, and h. l. webster: gentlemen--your letter, together with the resolutions accompanying it, was duly and gratefully received. it gives me no ordinary degree of pleasure to know that so deep an interest has been, and still is, felt by the members of our institute, as well as the public generally, on this important subject; for it is one which concerns the happiness and welfare of our whole community; but especially the rising generation. the only recommendation of these lectures is the subject of which they treat. they were written in the space of a few weeks, and in the midst of an accumulation of engagements which almost forbade the attempt. but presuming you will make all due allowances for whatever errors you may discover in the style of composition, and regard the _matter_ more than the _manner_, i consent to their publication, hoping they will be of some service in the great cause of human improvement. i am, gentlemen, very respectfully yours, wm. s. balch. preface. there is no subject so deeply interesting and important to rational beings as the knowledge of language, or one which presents a more direct and powerful claim upon all classes in the community; for there is no other so closely interwoven with all the affairs of human life, social, moral, political and religious. it forms a basis on which depends a vast portion of the happiness of mankind, and deserves the first attention of every philanthropist. great difficulty has been experienced in the common method of explaining language, and grammar has long been considered a dry, uninteresting, and tedious study, by nearly all the teachers and scholars in the land. but it is to be presumed that the fault in this case, if there is any, is to be sought for in the manner of teaching, rather than in the science itself; for it would be unreasonable to suppose that a subject which occupies the earliest attention of the parent, which is acquired at great expense of money, time, and thought, and is employed from the cradle to the grave, in all our waking hours, can possibly be dull or unimportant, if rightly explained. children have been required to learn verbal forms and changes, to look at the mere signs of ideas, instead of the things represented by them. the consequence has been that the whole subject has become uninteresting to all who do not possess a retentive verbal memory. the philosophy of language, the sublime principles on which it depends for its existence and use, have not been sufficiently regarded to render it delightful and profitable. the humble attempt here made is designed to open the way for an exposition of language on truly philosophical principles, which, when correctly explained, are abundantly simple and extensively useful. with what success this point has been labored the reader will determine. the author claims not the honor of entire originality. the principles here advanced have been advocated, believed, and successfully practised. william s. cardell, esq., a bright star in the firmament of american literature, reduced these principles to a system, which was taught with triumphant success by daniel h. barnes, formerly of the new-york high school, one of the most distinguished teachers who ever officiated in that high and responsible capacity in our country. both of these gentlemen, so eminently calculated to elevate the standard of education, were summoned from the career of the most active usefulness, from the scenes they had labored to brighten and beautify by the aid of their transcendant intellects, to unseen realities in the world of spirits; where mind communes with mind, and soul mingles with soul, disenthraled from error, and embosomed in the light and love of the great parent intellect. the author does not pretend to give a system of exposition in this work suited to the capacities of small children. it is designed for advanced scholars, and is introductory to a system of grammar which he has in preparation, which it is humbly hoped will be of some service in rendering easy and correct the study of our vernacular language. but this book, it is thought, may be successfully employed in the instruction of the higher classes in our schools, and will be found an efficient aid to teachers in inculcating the sublime principles of which it treats. these lectures, as now presented to the public, it is believed, will be found to contain some important information by which all may profit. the reader will bear in mind that they were written for, and delivered before a popular audience, and published with very little time for modification. this will be a sufficient apology for the mistakes which may occur, and for whatever may have the appearance of severity, irony, or pleasantry, in the composition. on the subject of contractions much more might be said. but verbal criticisms are rather uninteresting to a common audience; and hence the consideration of that matter was made more brief than was at first intended. it will however be resumed and carried out at length in another work. the hints given will enable the student to form a tolerable correct opinion of the use of most of those words and phrases, which have long been passed over with little knowledge of their meaning or importance. the author is aware that the principles he has advocated are new and opposed to established systems and the common method of inculcation. but the difficulties acknowledged on all hands to exist, is a sufficient justification of this humble attempt. he will not be condemned for his good intentions. all he asks is a patient and candid examination, a frank and honest approval of what is true, and as honest a rejection of what is false. but he hopes the reader will avoid a rash and precipitate conclusion, either for or against, lest he is compelled to do as the author himself once did, approve what he had previously condemned. with these remarks he enters the arena, and bares himself to receive the sentence of the public voice. contents. lecture i. general view of language. study of language long considered difficult.--its importance.--errors in teaching.--not understood by teachers.--attachment to old systems.--improvement preferable.--the subject important.--its advantages.--principles laid down.--orthography.--etymology.--syntax.-- prosody. lecture ii. the fundamental principles of language. general principles of language.--business of grammar.--children are philosophers.--things, ideas, and words.--actions.--qualities of things.--words without ideas.--grammatical terms inappropriate.-- principles of language permanent.--errors in mental science.--facts admit of no change.--complex ideas.--ideas of qualities.--an example.--new ideas.--unknown words.--signs without things signified.--fixed laws regulate matter and mind. lecture iii. written and spoken language. principles never alter.--they should be known.--grammar a most important branch of science.--spoken and written language.--idea of a thing.--how expressed.--an example.--picture writing.--an anecdote.--ideas expressed by actions.--principles of spoken and written language.--apply universally.--two examples.--english language.--foreign words.--words in science.--new words.--how formed. lecture iv. on nouns. nouns defined.--things.--qualities of matter.--mind.--spiritual beings.--qualities of mind.--how learned.--imaginary things.--negation. --names of actions.--proper nouns.--characteristic names.--proper nouns may become common. lecture v. on nouns and pronouns. nouns in respect to persons.--number.--singular.--plural.--how formed.--foreign plurals.--proper names admit of plurals.--gender.--no neuter.--in figurative language.--errors.--position or case.--agents.-- objects.--possessive case considered.--a definitive word.--pronouns.-- one kind.--originally nouns.--specifically applied. lecture vi. on adjectives. definition of adjectives.--general character.--derivation.--how understood.--defining and describing.--meaning changes to suit the noun.--too numerous.--derived from nouns.--nouns and verbs made from adjectives.--foreign adjectives.--a general list.--difficult to be understood.--an example.--often superfluous.--derived from verbs.--participles.--some prepositions.--meaning unknown.--with.-- in.--out.--of. lecture vii. on adjectives. adjectives.--how formed.--the syllable _ly_.--formed from proper nouns. --the apostrophe and letter _s_.--derived from pronouns.--articles.--_a_ comes from _an_.--_in_definite.--_the_.--meaning of _a_ and _the_.-- murray's example.--that.--what.--"pronoun adjectives."--_mon_, _ma_.--degrees of comparison.--secondary adjectives.--prepositions admit of comparison. lecture viii. on verbs. unpleasant to expose error.--verbs defined.--every thing acts.--actor and object.--laws.--man.--animals.--vegetables.--minerals.--neutrality degrading.--nobody can explain a neuter verb.--_one_ kind of verbs.--_you_ must decide.--importance of teaching children the truth.--active verbs.--transitive verbs false.--samples.--neuter verbs examined.--sit.--sleep.--stand.--lie.--opinion of mrs. w.--anecdote. lecture ix. on verbs. neuter and intransitive.--agents.--objects.--no actions as such can be known distinct from the agent.--imaginary actions.--actions known by their effects.--examples.--signs should guide to things signified.-- principles of action.--=power=.--animals.--vegetables.--minerals.--all things act.--magnetic needle.--=cause=.--explained.--first cause.--=means=.--illustrated.--sir i. newton's example.--these principles must be known.--=relative= action.--anecdote of gallileo. lecture x. on verbs. a philosophical axiom.--manner of expressing action.--things taken for granted.--simple facts must be known.--must never deviate from the truth.--every _cause_ will have an _effect_.--an example of an intransitive verb.--objects expressed or implied.--all language eliptical.--intransitive verbs examined.--i run.--i walk.--to step.-- birds fly.--it rains.--the fire burns.--the sun shines.--to smile.--eat and drink.--miscellaneous examples.--evils of false teaching.--a change is demanded.--these principles apply universally.--their importance. lecture xi. on verbs. the verb =to be=.--compounded of different radical words.--=am=. --defined.--the name of deity.--_ei_.--=is=.--=are=.--=were=, =was=.--=be=.--a dialogue.--examples.--passive verbs examined.--cannot be in the present tense.--the past participle is an adjective. lecture xii. on verbs. =mood=.--indicative.--imperative.--infinitive.--former distinctions.-- subjunctive mood.--=time=.--past.--present.--future.--the future explained.--how formed.--mr. murray's distinction of time.--imperfect.-- pluperfect.--second future.--how many tenses.--=auxiliary verbs=.--will. --shall.--may.--must.--can.--do.--have. lecture xiii. on verbs. person and number in the agent, not in the action.--similarity of agents, actions, and objects.--verbs made from nouns.--irregular verbs.--some examples.--regular verbs.--_ed_.--_ing_.--conjugation of verbs.--to love.--to have.--to be.--the indicative mood varied.--a whole sentence may be agent or object.--imperative mood.--infinitive mood.--is always future. lecture xiv. on contractions. a temporary expedient.--words not understood.--all words must have a meaning.--their formation.--changes of meaning and form.--should be observed.--=adverbs=.--ending in _ly_.--examples.--ago.--astray.--awake. --asleep.--then, when.--there, where, here.--while, till.--whether, together.--ever, never, whenever, etc.--oft.--hence.--perhaps.--not. --or.--nor.--than.--as.--so.--conjunctions.--rule .--if.--but.--tho. --yet. lectures on language. lecture i. general view of language. study of language long considered difficult.--its importance.--errors in teaching.--not understood by teachers.--attachment to old systems.--improvement preferable.--the subject important.--its advantages.--principles laid down.--orthography.--etymology.-- syntax.--prosody. ladies and gentlemen, it is proposed to commence, this evening, a course of lectures on the grammar of the english language. i am aware of the difficulties attending this subject, occasioned not so much by any fault in itself, as by the thousand and one methods adopted to teach it, the multiplicity of books pretending to "simplify" it, and the vast contrariety of opinion entertained by those who profess to be its masters. by many it has been considered a needless affair, an unnecessary appendage to a common education; by others, altogether beyond the reach of common capacities; and by all, cold, lifeless, and uninteresting, full of doubts and perplexities, where the wisest have differed, and the firmest often changed opinions. all this difficulty originates, i apprehend, in the wrong view that is taken of the subject. the most beautiful landscape may appear at great disadvantage, if viewed from an unfavorable position. i would be slow to believe that the means on which depends the whole business of the community, the study of the sciences, all improvement upon the past, the history of all nations in all ages of the world, social intercourse, oral or written, and, in a great measure, the knowledge of god, and the hopes of immortality, can be either unworthy of study, or, if rightly explained, uninteresting in the acquisition. in fact, on the principles i am about to advocate, i have seen the deepest interest manifested, from the small child to the grey-headed sire, from the mere novice to the statesman and philosopher, and all alike seemed to be edified and improved by the attention bestowed upon the subject. i confess, however, that with the mention of _grammar_, an association of ideas are called up by no means agreeable. the mind involuntarily reverts to the days of childhood, when we were compelled, at the risk of our bodily safety, to commit to memory a set of arbitrary rules, which we could neither understand nor apply in the correct use of language. formerly it was never dreamed that grammar depended on any higher authority than the books put into our hands. and learners were not only dissuaded, but strictly forbidden to go beyond the limits set them in the etymological and syntactical rules of the authors to whom they were referred. if a query ever arose in their minds, and they modestly proposed a plain question as to the _why_ and _wherefore_ things were thus, instead of giving an answer according to common sense, in a way to be understood, the authorities were pondered over, till some rule or remark could be found which would apply, and this settled the matter with "proof as strong as holy writ." in this way an end may be put to the inquiry; but the thinking mind will hardly be satisfied with the mere opinion of another, who has no evidence to afford, save the undisputed dignity of his station, or the authority of books. this course is easily accounted for. rather than expose his own ignorance, the teacher quotes the printed ignorance of others, thinking, no doubt, that folly and nonsense will appear better second-handed, than fresh from his own responsibility. or else on the more common score, that "misery loves company." teachers have not unfrequently found themselves placed in an unenviable position by the honest inquiries of some thinking urchin, who has demanded why "_one noun governs_ another in the possessive case," as "master's slave;" why there are more tenses than _three_; what is meant by a _neuter_ verb, which "signifies neither action nor passion;" or an "intransitive verb," which expresses the highest possible action, but terminates on no object; a cause without an effect; why _that_ is sometimes a pronoun, sometimes an adjective, and not unfrequently a conjunction, &c. &c. they may have succeeded, by dint of official authority, in silencing such inquiries, but they have failed to give a satisfactory answer to the questions proposed. long received opinions may, in some cases, become law, pleading no other reason than antiquity. but this is an age of investigation, which demands the most lucid and unequivocal proof of the point assumed. the dogmatism of the schoolmen will no longer satisfy. the dark ages of mental servility are passing away. the day light of science has long since dawned upon the world, and the noon day of truth, reason, and virtue, will ere long be established on a firm and immutable basis. the human mind, left free to investigate, will gradually advance onward in the course of knowledge and goodness marked out by the creator, till it attains to that perfection which shall constitute its highest glory, its truest bliss. you will perceive, at once, that our inquiries thro out these lectures will not be bounded by what has been said or written on the subject. we take a wider range. we adopt no sentiment because it is ancient or popular. we refer to no authority but what proves itself to be correct. and we ask no one to adopt our opinions any farther than they agree with the fixed laws of nature in the regulation of matter and thought, and apply in common practice among men. have we not a right to expect, in return, that you will be equally honest to yourselves and the subject before us? so far as the errors of existing systems shall be exposed, will you not reject them, and adopt whatever appears conclusively true and practically useful? will you, can you, be satisfied to adopt for yourselves and teach to others, systems of grammar, for no other reason than because they are old, and claim the support of the learned and honorable? such a course, generally adopted, would give the ever-lasting quietus to all improvement. it would be a practical adoption of the philosophy of the dutchman, who was content to carry his grist in one end of the sack and a stone to balance it in the other, assigning for a reason, that his honored father had always done so before him. who would be content to adopt the astrology of the ancients, in preferance to astronomy as now taught, because the latter is more modern? who would spend three years in transcribing a copy of the bible, when a better could be obtained for one dollar, because manuscripts were thus procured in former times? what lady would prefer to take her cards, wheel, and loom, and spend a month or two in manufacturing for herself a dress, when a better could be earned in half the time, merely because her respected grandmother did so before her? who would go back a thousand years to find a model for society, rejecting all improvements in the arts and sciences, because they are innovations, encroachments upon the opinions and practices of learned and honorable men? i can not believe there is a person in this respected audience whose mind is in such voluntary slavery as to induce the adoption of such a course. i see before me minds which sparkle in every look, and thoughts which are ever active, to acquire what is true, and adopt what is useful. and i flatter myself that the time spent in the investigation of the science of language will not be unpleasant or unprofitable. i feel the greater confidence from the consideration that your minds are yet untrammeled; not but what many, probably most of you, have already studied the popular systems of grammar, and understood them; if such a thing is possible; but because you have shown a disposition to learn, by becoming members of this institute, the object of which is the improvement of its members. let us therefore make an humble attempt, with all due candor and discretion, to enter upon the inquiry before us with an unflinching determination to push our investigations beyond all reasonable doubt, and never rest satisfied till we have conquered all conquerable obstacles, and come into the possession of the light and liberty of truth. the attempt here made will not be considered unimportant, by those who have known the difficulties attending the study of language. if any course can be marked out to shorten the time tediously spent in the acquisition of what is rarely attained--a thoro knowledge of language--a great benefit will result to the community; children will save months and years to engage in other useful attainments, and the high aspirations of the mind for truth and knowledge will not be curbed in its first efforts to improve by a set of technical and arbitrary rules. they will acquire a habit of thinking, of deep reflection; and never adopt, for fact, what appears unreasonable or inconsistent, merely because great or good men have said it is so. they will feel an independence of their own, and adopt a course of investigation which cannot fail of the most important consequences. it is not the saving of time, however, for which we propose a change in the system of teaching language. in this respect, it is the study of one's life. new facts are constantly developing themselves, new combinations of ideas and words are discovered, and new beauties presented at every advancing step. it is to acquire a knowledge of correct principles, to induce a habit of correct thinking, a freedom of investigation, and at that age when the character and language of life are forming. it is, in short, to exhibit before you truth of the greatest practical importance, not only to you, but to generations yet unborn, in the most essential affairs of human life, that i have broached the hated subject of grammar, and undertaken to reflect light upon this hitherto dark and disagreeable subject. with a brief sketch of the outlines of language, as based on the fixed laws of nature, and the agreement of those who employ it, i shall conclude the present lecture. we shall consider all language as governed by the invariable laws of nature, and as depending on the conventional regulations of men. words are the signs of ideas. ideas are the impressions of things. hence, in all our attempts to investigate the important principles of language, we shall employ the sign as the means of coming at the thing signified. language has usually been considered under four divisions, viz.: orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody. orthography is _right spelling_; the combination of certain letters into words in such a manner as to agree with the spoken words used to denote an idea. we shall not labor this point, altho we conceive a great improvement might be effected in this department of learning. my only wish is to select from all the forms of spelling, the most simple and consistent. constant changes are taking place in the method of making words, and we would not refuse to cast in our mite to make the standard more correct and easy. we would prune off by degrees all unnecessary appendages, as unsounded or italic letters, and write out words so as to be capable of a distinct pronunciation. but this change must be _gradually_ effected. from the spelling adopted two centuries ago, a wonderful improvement has taken place. and we have not yet gone beyond the possibility of improvement. let us not be too sensitive on this point, nor too tenacious of old forms. most of our dictionaries differ in many respects in regard to the true system of orthography, and our true course is to adopt every improvement which is offered. thro out this work we shall spell some words different from what is customary, but intend not, thereby, to incur the ignominy of bad spellers. let small improvements be adopted, and our language may soon be redeemed from the difficulties which have perplexed beginners in their first attempts to convey ideas by written words.[ ] in that department of language denominated etymology, we shall contend that all words are reducible to two general classes, nouns and verbs; or, _things_ and _actions_. we shall, however, admit of subdivisions, and treat of pronouns, adjectives, and contractions. we shall contend for only two cases of nouns, one kind of pronouns, one kind of verbs, that all are active; three modes, and as many tenses; that articles, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections, have no distinctive character, no existence, in fact, to warrant a "local habitation or a name." in the composition of sentences, a few general rules of syntax may be given; but the principal object to be obtained, is the possession of correct ideas derived from a knowledge of things, and the most approved words to express them; the combination of words in a sentence will readily enough follow. prosody relates to the quantity of syllables, rules of accent and pronunciation, and the arrangement of syllables and words so as to produce harmony. it applies specially to versification. as our object is not to make poets, who, it is said, "are born, and not made," but to teach the true principles of language, we shall give no attention to this finishing stroke of composition. in our next we shall lay before you the principles upon which all language depends, and the process by which its use is to be acquired. lecture ii. fundamental principles of language. general principles of language.--business of grammar.--children are philosophers.--things, ideas, and words.--actions.--qualities of things.--words without ideas.--grammatical terms inappropriate.-- principles of language permanent.--errors in mental science.--facts admit of no change.--complex ideas.--ideas of qualities.--an example.--new ideas.--unknown words.--signs without things signified.--fixed laws regulate matter and mind. all language depends on two general principles. _first._ the fixed and unvarying laws of nature which regulate matter and mind. _second._ the agreement of those who use it. in accordance with these principles all language must be explained. it is not only needless but impossible for us to deviate from them. they remain the same in all ages and in all countries. it should be the object of the grammarian, and of all who employ language in the expression of ideas, to become intimately acquainted with their use. it is the business of grammar to explain, not only verbal language, but also the sublime principles upon which all written or spoken language depends. it forms an important part of physical and mental science, which, correctly explained, is abundantly simple and extensively useful in its application to the affairs of human life and the promotion of human enjoyment. it will not be contended that we are assuming a position beyond the capacities of learners, that the course here adopted is too philosophic. such is not the fact. children are philosophers by nature. all their ideas are derived from things as presented to their observations. no mother learns her child to lisp the name of a thing which has no being, but she chooses objects with which it is most familiar, and which are most constantly before it; such as father, mother, brother, sister. she constantly points to the object named, that a distinct impression may be made upon its mind, and the thing signified, the idea of the thing, and the name which represents it, are all inseparably associated together. if the father is absent, the child may _think_ of him from the idea or impression which his person and affection has produced in the mind. if the mother pronounces his _name_ with which it has become familiar, the child will start, look about for the object, or thing signified by the _name_, father, and not being able to discover him, will settle down contented with the _idea_ of him deeply impressed on the mind, and as distinctly understood as if the father was present in person. so with every thing else. again, after the child has become familiar with the name of the being called father; the name, idea and object itself being intimately associated the mother will next begin to teach it another lesson; following most undeviatingly the course which nature and true philosophy mark out. the father comes and goes, is present or absent. she says on his return, father _come_, and the little one looks round to see the thing signified by the word father, the idea of which is distinctly impressed on the mind, and which it now sees present before it. but this loved object has not always been here. it had looked round and called for the father. but the mother had told it _he was gone_. father gone, father come, is her language, and here the child begins to learn ideas of actions. of this it had, at first, no notion whatever, and never thought of the father except when his person was present before it, for no impressions had been distinctly made upon the mind which could be called up by a sound of which it could have no conceptions whatever. now that it has advanced so far, the idea of the father is retained, even tho he is himself absent, and the child begins to associate the notion of coming and going with his presence or absence. following out this course the mind becomes acquainted with things and actions, or the changes which things undergo. next, the mother begins to learn her offspring the distinction and qualities of things. when the little sister comes to it in innocent playfulness the mother says, "_good_ sister," and with the descriptive word _good_ it soon begins to associate the quality expressed by the affectionate regard, of its sister. but when that sister strikes the child, or pesters it in any way, the mother says "_naughty_ sister," "bad sister." it soon comprehends the descriptive words, _good_ and _bad_, and along with them carries the association of ideas which such conduct produces. in the same way it learns to distinguish the difference between _great_ and _small_, _cold_ and _hot_, hard and soft. in this manner the child becomes acquainted with the use of language. it first becomes acquainted with things, the idea of which is left upon the mind, or, more properly, the _impression of which_, left on the mind, _constitutes the idea_; and a vocabulary of words are learned, which represent these ideas, from which it may select those best calculated to express its meaning whenever a conversation is had with another. you will readily perceive the correctness of our first proposition, that all language depends on the fixed and unerring laws of nature. things exist. a knowledge of them produces ideas in the mind, and sounds or signs are adopted as vehicles to convey these ideas from one to another. it would be absurd and ridiculous to suppose that any person, however great, or learned, or wise, could employ language correctly without a knowledge of the things expressed by that language. no matter how chaste his words, how lofty his phrases, how sweet the intonations, or mellow the accents. it would avail him nothing if _ideas_ were not represented thereby. it would all be an unknown tongue to the hearer or reader. it would not be like the loud rolling thunder, for that tells the wondrous power of god. it would not be like the soft zephyrs of evening, the radiance of the sun, the twinkling of the stars; for they speak the intelligible language of sublimity itself, and tell of the kindness and protection of our father who is in heaven. it would not be like the sweet notes of the choral songsters of the grove, for they warble hymns of gratitude to god; not like the boding of the distant owl, for that tells the profound solemnity of night; not like the hungry lion roaring for his prey, for that tells of death and plunder; not like the distant notes of the clarion, for that tells of blood and carnage, of tears and anguish, of widowhood and orphanage. it can be compared to nothing but a babel of confusion in which their own folly is worse confounded. and yet, i am sorry to say it, the languages of all ages and nations have been too frequently perverted, and compiled into a heterogeneous mass of abstruse, metaphysical volumes, whose only recommendation is the elegant bindings in which they are enclosed. and grammars themselves, whose pretended object is to teach the rules of speaking and writing correctly, form but a miserable exception to this sweeping remark. i defy any grammarian, author, or teacher of the numberless systems, which come, like the frogs of egypt, all of one genus, to cover the land, to give a reasonable explanation of even the terms they employ to define their meaning, if indeed, meaning they have. what is meant by an "_in_-definite article," a _dis_-junctive _con_-junction, an _ad_-verb which qualifies an _adjective_, and "sometimes another _ad_-verb?" such "parts of speech" have no existence in fact, and their adoption in rules of grammar, have been found exceedingly mischievous and perplexing. "adverbs and conjunctions," and "_adverbial_ phrases," and "conjunctive expressions," may serve as common sewers for a large and most useful class of words, which the teachers of grammar and lexicographers have been unable to explain; but learners will gain little information by being told that such is an _adverbial phrase_, and such, a _conjunctive expression_. this is an easy method, i confess, a sort of wholesale traffic, in parsing (_passing_) language, and may serve to cloak the ignorance of the teachers and makers of grammars. but it will reflect little light on the principles of language, or prove very efficient helps to "speak or write with propriety." those who _think_, will demand the _meaning_ of these words, and the reason of their use. when that is ascertained, little difficulty will be found in giving them a place in the company of respectable words. but i am digressing. more shall be said upon this point in a future lecture, and in its proper place. i was endeavoring to establish the position that all language depends upon permanent principles; that words are the signs of ideas, and ideas are the impressions of things communicated to the mind thro the medium of some one of the five senses. i think i have succeeded so far as simple material things are concerned, to the satisfaction of all who have heard me. it may, perhaps, be more difficult for me to explain the words employed to express complex ideas, and things of immateriality, such as mind, and its attributes. but the rules previously adopted will, i apprehend, apply with equal ease and correctness in this case; and we shall have cause to admire the simple yet sublime foundation upon which the whole superstructure of language is based. in pursuing this investigation i shall endeavor to avoid all abstruse and metaphysical reasoning, present no wild conjectures, or vain hypotheses; but confine myself to plain, common place matter of fact. we have reason to rejoice that a wonderful improvement in the science and cultivation of the mind has taken place in these last days; that we are no longer puzzled with the strange phantoms, the wild speculations which occupied the giant minds of a descartes, a malebranch, a locke, a reid, a stewart, and hosts of others, whose shining talents would have qualified them for the brightest ornaments of literature, real benefactors of mankind, had not their education lead them into dark and metaphysical reasonings, a continued tissue of the wildest vagaries, in which they became entangled, till, at length, they were entirely lost in the labyrinth of their own conjectures. the occasion of all their difficulty originated in an attempt to investigate the faculties of the mind without any means of getting at it. they did not content themselves with an adoption of the principles which lay at the foundation of all true philosophy, viz., that the facts to be accounted for, _do exist_; that truth is eternal, and we are to become acquainted with it by the means employed for its development. they quitted the world of materiality they inhabited, refused to examine the development of mind as the effect of an existing cause; and at one bold push, entered the world of thought, and made the unhallowed attempt to reason, a priori, concerning things which can only be known by their manifestations. but they soon found themselves in a strange land, confused with sights and sounds unknown, in the _explanation_ of which they, of course, choose terms as unintelligible to their readers, as the _ideal realities_ were to them. this course, adopted by aristotle, has been too closely followed by those who have come after him.[ ] but a new era has dawned upon the philosophy of the mind, and a corresponding change in the method of inculcating the principles of language must follow.[ ] in all our investigations we must take things as we find them, and account for them as far as we can. it would be a thankless task to attempt a change of principles in any thing. that would be an encroachment of the creator's rights. it belongs to mortals to use the things they have as not abusing them; and to deity to regulate the laws by which those things are governed. and that man is the wisest, the truest philosopher, and brightest christian, who acquaints himself with those laws as they do exist in the regulation of matter and mind, in the promotion of physical and moral enjoyment, and endeavors to conform to them in all his thoughts and actions. from this apparent digression you will at once discover our object. we must not endeavor to change the principles of language, but to understand and explain them; to ascertain, as far as possible, the actions of the mind in obtaining ideas, and the use of language in expressing them. we may not be able to make our sentiments understood; but if they are not, the fault will originate in no obscurity in the facts themselves, but in our inability either to understand them or the words employed in their expression. having been in the habit of using words with either no meaning or a wrong one, it may be difficult to comprehend the subject of which they treat. a man may have a quantity of sulphur, charcoal, and nitre, but it is not until he learns their properties and combinations that he can make gunpowder. let us then adopt a careful and independent course of reasoning, resolved to meddle with nothing we do not understand, and to use no words until we know their meaning. a complex idea is a combination of several simple ones, as a tree is made up of roots, a trunk, branches, twigs, and leaves. and these again may be divided into the wood, the bark, the sap, &c. or we may employ the botanical terms, and enumerate its external and internal parts and qualities; the whole anatomy and physiology, as well as variety and history of trees of that species, and show its characteristic distinctions; for the mind receives a different impression on looking at a maple, a birch, a poplar, a tamarisk, a sycamore, or hemlock. in this way complex ideas are formed, distinct in their parts, but blended in a common whole; and, in conformity with the law regulating language, words, sounds or signs, are employed to express the complex whole, or each distinctive part. the same may be said of all things of like character. but this idea i will illustrate more at large before the close of this lecture. first impressions are produced by a view of material things, as we have already seen; and the notion of action is obtained from a knowledge of the changes these things undergo. the idea of quality and definition is produced by contrast and comparison. children soon learn the difference between a sweet apple and a sour one, a white rose and a red one, a hard seat and a soft one, harmonious sounds and those that are discordant, a pleasant smell and one that is disagreeable. as the mind advances, the application is varied, and they speak of a sweet rose, changing from _taste_ and _sight_ to smell, of a sweet song, of a hard apple, &c. according to the qualities thus learned, you may talk to them intelligibly of the _sweetness_ of an apple, the _color_ of a rose, the _hardness_ of iron, the _harmony_ of sounds, the _smell_ or scent of things which possess that quality. as these agree or disagree with their comfort, they will call them _good_ or _bad_, and speak of the qualities of goodness and badness, as if possessed by the thing itself. in this apparently indiscriminate use of words, the ideas remain distinct; and each sign or object calls them up separately and associates them together, till, at length, in the single object is associated all the ideas entertained of its size, qualities, relations, and affinities. in this manner, after long, persevering toil, principles of thought are fixed, and a foundation laid for the whole course of future thinking and speaking. the ideas become less simple and distinct. just as fast as the mind advances in the knowledge of things, language keeps pace with the ideas, and even goes beyond them, so that in process of time a single term will not unfrequently represent a complexity of ideas, one of which will signify a whole combination of things. on the other hand, there are many instances where the single declaration of a fact may convey to the untutored mind, a single thought or nearly so, when the better cultivated will take into the account the whole process by which it is effected. to illustrate: _a man killed a deer_. here the boy would see and imagine more than he is yet fully able to comprehend. he will see the obvious fact that the man levels his musket, the gun goes off with a loud report, and the deer falls and dies. how this is all produced he does not understand, but knowing the fact he asserts the single truth--the man killed the deer. as the child advances, he will learn that the sentence conveys to the mind more than he at first perceived. he now understands how it was accomplished. the man had a gun. then he must go back to the gunsmith and see how it was made, thence back to the iron taken from its bed, and wrought into bars; all the processes by which it is brought into the shape of a gun, the tools and machinery employed; the wood for the stock, its quality and production; the size, form and color of the lock, the principle upon which it moves; the flint, the effect produced by a collision with the steel, or a percussion cap, and its composition; till he finds a single gun in the hands of a man. the man is present with this gun. the motives which brought him here; the movements of his limbs, regulated by the determinations of the mind, and a thousand other such thoughts, might be taken into the account. then the deer, his size, form, color, manner of living, next may claim a passing thought. but i need not enlarge. here they both stand. the man has just seen the deer. as quick as thought his eye passes over the ground, sees the prey is within proper distance, takes aim, pulls the trigger, that loosens a spring, which forces the flint against the steel; this produces a spark, which ignites the charcoal, and the sulphur and nitre combined, explode and force the wad, which forces the ball from the gun, and is borne thro the air till it reaches the deer, enters his body by displacing the skin and flesh, deranges the animal functions, and death ensues. the whole and much more is expressed in the single phrase, "a man killed a deer." it would be needless for me to stop here, and examine all the operations of the mind in coming at this state of knowledge. that is not the object of the present work. such a duty belongs to another treatise, which may some day be undertaken, on logic and the science of the mind. the hint here given will enable you to perceive how the mind expands, and how language keeps pace with every advancing step, and, also, how combinations are made from simple things, as a house is made of timber, boards, shingles, nails, and paints; or of bricks, stone, and mortar; as the case may be, and when completed, a single term may express the idea, and you speak of a wood, or a brick house. following this suggestion, by tracing the operations of the mind in the young child, or your own, very minutely, in the acquisition of any knowledge before wholly unknown to you, as a new language, or a new science; botany, mineralogy, chemistry, or phrenology; you will readily discover how the mind receives new impressions of things, and a new vocabulary is adopted to express the ideas formed of plants, minerals, chemical properties, and the development of the capacities of the mind as depending on material organs; how these things are changed and combined; and how their existence and qualities, changes and combinations, are expressed by words, to be retained, or conveyed to other minds. but suppose you talk to a person wholly unacquainted with these things, will he understand you? talk to him of stamens, pistils, calyxes; of monandria, diandria, triandria; of gypsum, talc, calcareous spar, quartz, topaz, mica, garnet, pyrites, hornblende, augite, actynolite; of hexahedral, prismatic, rhomboidal, dodecahedral; of acids and alkalies; of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon; of the configuration of the brain, and its relative powers; do all this, and what will he know of your meaning? so of all science. words are to be understood from the things they are employed to represent. you may as well talk to a man in the hebrew, chinese, or choctaw languages, as in our own, if he does not know what is signified by the words selected as the medium of thought. your language may be most pure, perfect, full of meaning, but you cannot make yourself understood till your hearers can look thro your signs to the things signified. you may as well present before them a picture of _nothing_. the great fault in the popular system of education is easily accounted for, particularly in reference to language. children are taught to study signs without looking at the thing signified. in this way they are mere copyists, and the mind can never expand so as to make them independent, original thinkers. in fact, they can, in this way, never learn to reason well or employ language correctly; no more than a painter can be successful in his art, by merely looking at the pictures of others without having ever seen the originals. a good artist is a close observer of nature. so children should be left free to examine and reflect, and the signs will then serve their proper use--the means of acquiring the knowledge of things. in vain you may give a scholar a knowledge of the hebrew, greek, or latin, learn him to translate with rapidity or speak our own language fluently. if he has not thereby learned the knowledge of things signified by such language, he is, in principle, advanced no farther than the parrot which says "pretty poll, pretty poll." i am happy, however, in the consideration that a valuable change is taking place in this respect. geography is no longer taught on the old systems, but maps are given to represent more vividly land and water, rivers, islands, and mountains. the study of arithmetic, chemistry, and nearly all the sciences have been materially improved within a few years. grammar alone remains in quiet possession of its unquestioned authority. its nine "parts of speech," its three genders, its three cases, its half dozen kinds of pronouns, and as many moods and tenses, have rarely been disquieted. a host of book makers have fondled around them, but few have dared molest them, finding them so snugly ensconced under the sanctity of age, and the venerated opinions of learned and good men. of the numberless attempts to simplify grammar, what has been the success? wherein do modern "simplifiers" differ from murray? and he was only a _compiler_! they have all discovered his errors. but who has corrected them? they have all deviated somewhat from his manner. but what is that but saying, that with all his grammatical knowledge, he could not explain his own meaning? all the trouble originates in this; the rules of grammar have not been sought for where they are only to be found, in the laws that govern matter and thought. arbitrary rules have been adopted which will never apply in practice, except in special cases, and the attempt to bind language down to them is as absurd as to undertake to chain thought, or stop the waters of niagara with a straw. language will go on, and keep pace with the mind, and grammar should explain it so as to be correctly understood. i wish you to keep these principles distinctly in view all thro my remarks, that you may challenge every position i assume till proved to be correct--till you distinctly understand it and definite impressions are made upon your minds. in this way you will discover a beauty and perfection in language before unknown; its rules will be found few and simple, holding with most unyielding tenacity to the sublime principles upon which they depend; and you will have reason to admire the works and adore the character of the great parent intellect, whose presence and protection pervade all his works and regulate the laws of matter and mind. you will feel yourselves involuntarily filled with sentiments of gratitude for the gift of mind, its affections, powers, and means of operation and communication, and resolved more than ever to employ these faculties in human improvement and the advancement of general happiness. lecture iii. written and spoken language. principles never alter.--they should be known.--grammar a most important branch of science.--spoken and written language.--idea of a thing.--how expressed.--an example.--picture writing.--an anecdote.--ideas expressed by actions.--principles of spoken and written language.--apply universally.--two examples.--english language.--foreign words.--words in science.--new words.--how formed. we now come to take a nearer view of language as generally understood by grammar. but we shall have no occasion to depart from the principles already advanced, for there is existing in practice nothing which may not be accounted for in theory; as there can be no effect without an efficient cause to produce it. we may, however, long remain ignorant of the true explanation of the principles involved; but the fault is ours, and not in the things themselves. the earth moved with as much grandeur and precision around its axis and in its orbit before the days of gallileo gallilei, when philosophers believed it flat and stationary, as it has done since. so the great principles on which depends the existence and use of all language are permanent, and may be correctly employed by those who have never examined them; but this does not prove that to be ignorant is better than to be wise. we may have taken food all our days without knowing much of the process by which it is converted into nourishment and incorporated into our bodies, without ever having heard of delutition chymification, chylification, or even digestion, as a whole; but this is far from convincing me that the knowledge of these things is unimportant, or that ignorance of them is not the cause of much disease and suffering among mankind. and it is, or should be, the business of the physiologist to explain these things, and show the great practical benefit resulting from a general knowledge of them. so the grammarian should act as a sort of physiologist of language. he should analyze all its parts and show how it is framed together to constitute a perfect whole. instead of exacting of you a blind submission to a set of technical expressions, and arbitrary rules, i most urgently exhort you to continue, with unremitting assiduity, your inquiries into the reason and propriety of the positions which may be taken. it is the business of philosophy, not to meddle with things to direct how they should be, but to account for them and their properties and relations as they are. so it is the business of grammar to explain language as it exists in use, and exhibit the reason why it is used thus, and what principles must be observed to employ it correctly in speaking and writing. this method is adopted to carry out the principles already established, and show their adaptation to the wants of the community, and how they may be correctly and successfully employed. grammar considered in this light forms a department in the science of the mind by no means unimportant. and it can not fail to be deeply interesting to all who would employ it in the business, social, literary, moral, or religious concerns of life. those who have thoughts to communicate, or desire an acquaintance with the minds of others, can not be indifferent to the means on which such intercourse depends. i am convinced, therefore, that you will give me your most profound attention as i pursue the subject of the present lecture somewhat in detail. and i hope you will not consider me tedious or unnecessarily prolix in my remarks. i will not be particular in my remarks upon the changes of spoken and written language, altho that topic of itself, in the different sounds and signs employed in different ages and by different nations to express the same idea, would form a most interesting theme for several lectures. but that work must be reserved for a future occasion. you are all acquainted with the signs, written and spoken, which are employed in our language as vehicles (some of them like omnibusses) of thought to carry ideas from one mind to another. some of you doubtless are acquainted with the application of this fact in other languages. in other words, you know how to sound the name of a thing, how to describe its properties as far as you understand them, and its attitudes or changes. this you can do by vocal sounds, or written, or printed signs. on the other hand, you can receive a similar impression by hearing the description of another, or by seeing it written or printed. but here you will bear in mind the fact that the word, spoken or written, is but the sign of the idea derived from the thing signified. for example: here is an apple. i do not now speak of its composition, the skin, the pulp, &c.; nor of its qualities, whether sour, or sweet, or bitter, good or bad, great or small, long or short, round or flat, red, or white, or yellow. i speak of a single thing--an apple. here it is, present before you. look at it. it is now removed. you do not see it. your minds are occupied with something else, in looking at that organ, or this representation of solomon's temple, or, perhaps, lingering in melancholy review of your old systems of grammar thro which you plodded at a tedious rate, goaded on by the stimulus of the ferule, or the fear of being called ignorant. from that unhappy reverie i recal your minds, by saying _apple_. an apple? where? there is none in sight. no; but you have distinct recollections of a single object i just now held before you. you see it, mentally, and were you painters you might paint its likeness. what has brought this object so vividly before you? the single sound _apple_. this sound has called up the idea produced in your mind on looking at this object which i now again present before you. here is the thing represented--the apple. again i lay it aside, and commence a conversation with you on the varieties of apples, the form, color, flavor, manner of production, their difference from other fruit, where found, when, and by whom. here! look again. what do you see? a-p-p-l-e--_apple_. what is that? the representation of the idea produced in the mind by a certain object you saw a little while ago. here then you have the spoken and written signs of this single object i now again present to your vision. this idea may also be called up by the sense of feeling, smelling, or tasting, under certain restrictions. here you would be no more liable to be mistaken than by seeing. we can indeed imagine things which would feel, and smell, and taste, and look some like an apple, but it falls to the lot of more abstruse reasoners to make their suppositions, and then account for them--to imagine things, and then treat of them as realities. we are content with the knowledge of things as they do exist, and think there is little danger of mistaking a potato for an apple, or a squash for a pear. tho in the dark we may lay hold of the frenchman's _pomme de terre_--apple of the earth, the first bite will satisfy us of our mistake if we are not too metaphysical. the same idea may be called up in your minds by a picture of the apple presented to your sight. on this ground the picture writing of the ancients may be accounted for; and after that, the hieroglyphics of egypt and other countries, which was but a step from picture writing towards the use of the alphabet. but these signs or vehicles for the conveyance or transmission of their thoughts, compared with the present perfect state of language, were as aukward and uncomly as the carriages employed for the conveyance of their bodies were compared with those now in use. they were like ox carts drawn by mules, compared with the most splendid barouches drawn by elegant dapple-greys. a similar mode would be adopted now by those unacquainted with alphabetical writing. it was so with the merchant who could not write. he sold his neighbor a grindstone, on trust. lest he should forget it--lest the _idea_ of it should be obliterated from the mind--he, in the absence of his clerk, took his book and a pen and drew out a _round picture_ to represent it. some months after, he dunned his neighbor for his pay for a cheese. "i have bought no cheese of you," was the reply. yes, you have, for i have it charged. "you must be mistaken, for i never bought a cheese. we always make our own." how then should i have one charged to you? "i cannot tell. i have never had any thing here on credit except a grindstone." ah! that's it, that's it, only i forgot to make a hole through it!" ideas may also be exchanged by actions. this is the first and strongest language of nature. it may be employed, when words have failed, in the most effectual manner. the angry man, choked with rage, unable to speak, tells the violent passions, burning in his bosom, in a language which can not be mistaken. the actions of a friend are a surer test of friendship than all the honied words he may utter. actions speak louder than words. the first impressions of maternal affection are produced in the infant mind by the soothing attentions of the mother. in the same way we may understand the language of the deaf and dumb. certain motions express certain ideas. these being duly arranged and conformed to our alphabetic signs, and well understood, the pupil may become acquainted with book knowledge as well as we. they go by sight and not by sound. a different method is adopted with the blind. letters with them are so arranged that they can _feel_ them. the signs thus felt correspond with the sounds they hear. here they must stop. they cannot see to describe. those who are so unfortunate as to be blind and deaf, can have but a faint knowledge of language, or the ideas of others. on similar principles we may explain the pantomime plays sometimes performed, where the most entertaining scenes of love and murder are represented, but not a word spoken. three things are always to be born in mind in the use and study of all language: st, the thing signified; d, the idea of the thing; and d, the word or sign chosen to represent it. _things_ exist. thinking beings conceive _ideas of things_. those who employ language adopt _sounds or signs to convey those ideas_ to others. on these obvious principles rest the whole superstructure of all language, spoken or written. objects are presented to the mind, impressions are there made, which, retained, constitute the idea, and, by agreement, certain words are employed as the future signs or representations of those ideas. if we saw an object in early life and knew its _name_, the mention of that name will recal afresh the idea which had long lain dormant in the memory, (if i may so speak,) and we can converse about it as correctly as when we first saw it. these principles, i have said, hold good in all languages. proof of this may not improperly be offered here, provided it be not too prolix. i will endeavor to be brief. in an open area of sufficient dimensions is congregated a delegation from every language under heaven. all are so arranged as to face a common center. a white horse is led into that spot and all look at the living animal which stands before them. the same impression must be made on all minds so far as a single animal is concerned. but as the whole is made up of parts, so their minds will soon diverge from a single idea, and one will think of his size, compared with other horses; another of his form; another of his color. some will think of his noble appearance, others of his ability to travel, or (in jockey phrase) his _speed_. the farrier will look for his blemishes, to see if he is _sound_, and the jockey at his teeth, to _guess_ at his _age_. the anatomist will, in thought, dissect him into parts and see every bone, sinew, cartilage, blood vessel, his stomach, lungs, liver, heart, entrails; every part will be laid open; and while the thoughtless urchin sees a single object--a white horse--others will, at a single glance, read volumes of instruction. oh! the importance of knowledge! how little is it regarded! what funds of instruction might be gathered from the lessons every where presented to the mind! one impression would be made on all minds in reference to the single tangible object before them; no matter how learned or ignorant. there stands an animal obvious to all. let him be removed out of sight, and a very exact picture of him suspended in his place. all again agree. here then is the proof of our first general principle, viz. all language depends on the fixed and unvarying laws of nature. let the picture be removed and a man step forth and pronounce the word, _ippos_. the greek starts up and says, "yes, it is so." the rest do not comprehend him. he then writes out distinctly, [greek: ippos]. they are in the dark as to the meaning. they know not whether a horse, a man, or a goose is named. all the greeks, however, understand the meaning the same as when the horse or picture was before them, for they had _agreed_ that _ippos_ should represent the _idea_ of that animal. forth steps another, and pronounces the word _cheval_. every frenchman is aroused: oui, monsieur? yes, sir. comprenez vous? do you understand? he says to the rest. but they are dumb. he then writes c-h-e-v-a-l. all are as ignorant as before, save the frenchmen who had agreed that _cheval_ should be the name for horse. next go yourself, thinking all will understand you, and say, _horse_; but, lo! none unacquainted with your language are the wiser for the sound you utter, or the sign you suspended before them; save, perhaps, a little old saxon, who, at first looks deceived by the similarity of sound, but, seeing the sign, is as demure as ever, for he omits the _e_, and pronounces it shorter than we do, more like a yorkshire man. but why are you not understood? because others have not entered into an _agreement_ with you that _h-o-r-s-e_, spoken or written, shall represent that animal. take another example. place the living animal called man before them. less trouble will be found in this case than in the former, for there is a nearer agreement than before in regard to the signs which shall be employed to express the idea. this word occurs with very little variation in the modern languages, derived undoubtedly from the teutonic, with a little change in the spelling, as saxon _mann_ or _mon_, gothic _manna_, german, danish, dutch, swedish and icelandic like ours. in the south of europe, however, this word varies as well as others. our language is derived more directly from the old saxon than from any other, but has a great similarity to the french and latin, and a kind of cousin-german to all the languages of europe, ancient and modern. ours, indeed, is a compound from most other languages, retaining some of their beauties and many of their defects. we can boast little distinctive character of our own. as england was possessed by different nations at different periods, so different dialects were introduced, and we can trace our language to as many sources, german, danish, saxon, french, and roman, which were the different nations amalgamated into the british empire. we retain little of the real old english--few words which may not be traced to a foreign extraction. different people settling in a country would of course carry their ideas and manner of expressing them; and from the whole compound a general agreement would, in process of time, take place, and a uniform language be established. such is the origin and condition of our language, as well as every other modern tongue of which we have any knowledge. there is one practice of which our savans are guilty, at which i do most seriously demur--the extravagant introduction of exotic words into our vocabulary, apparently for no other object than to swell the size of a dictionary, and boast of having found out and defined thousands of words more than any body else. a mania seems to have seized our lexicographers, so that they have forsaken the good old style of "plainness of speech," and are flourishing and brandishing about in a cloud of verbiage as though the whole end of instruction was to teach loquacity. and some of our popular writers and speakers have caught the infection, and flourish in borrowed garments, prizing themselves most highly when they use words and phrases which no body can understand. i will not contend that in the advancement of the arts and sciences it may not be proper to introduce foreign terms as the mean of conveying a knowledge of those improvements to others. it is better than to coin new words, inasmuch as they are generally adopted by all modern nations. in this way all languages are approximating together; and when the light of truth, science, and religion, has fully shone on all the nations, we may hope one language will be spoken, and the promise be fulfilled, that god has "turned unto the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the lord, to serve him with one consent." new ideas are formed like new inventions. established principles are employed in a new combination, so as to produce a new manifestation. words are chosen as nearly allied to former ideas as possible, to express or represent this new combination. thus, fulton applied steam power to navigation. a new idea was produced. a boat was seen passing along the waters without the aid of wind or tide. instead of coining a new word to express the whole, a word which nobody would understand, two old ones were combined, and "_steamboat_" became the sign to represent the idea of the thing beheld. so with rail-road, cotton-mill, and gun-powder. in the same way we may account for most words employed in science, although in that case we are more dependant on foreign languages, in as much as a large portion of our knowledge is derived from them. but we may account for them on the same principle as above. _phrenology_ is a compound of two greek words, and means the science or knowledge of the mind. so of geology, mineralogy, &c. but when improvements are made by those who speak the english, words in our own language are employed and used not only by ourselves, but also by those nations who profit by our investigations. i trust i have now said enough on the general principles of language as applied to things. in the next lecture i will come down to a sort of bird's eye view of grammar. but my soul abhors arbitrary rules so devoutly, i can make no promises how long i will continue in close communion with set forms of speech. i love to wander too well to remain confined to one spot, narrowed up in the limits fixed by others. freedom is the empire of the mind; it abjures all fetters, all slavery. it kneels at the altar of virtue and worships at the shrine of truth. no obstacles should be thrown in the way of its progress. no limits should be set to it but those of the almighty. lecture iv. on nouns. nouns defined.--things.--qualities of matter.--mind.--spiritual beings.--qualities of mind.--how learned.--imaginary things.-- negation.--names of actions.--proper nouns.--characteristic names.--proper nouns may become common. your attention is, this evening, invited to the first divisions of words, called _nouns_. this is a most important class, and as such deserves our particular notice. _nouns are the names of things._ the word _noun_ is derived from the latin _nomen_, french _nom_. it means _name_. hence the definition above given. in grammar it is employed to distinguish that class of words which name things, or stand as signs or representatives of things. we use the word _thing_ in its broadest sense, including every possible entity; every being, or thing, animate or inanimate, material or immaterial, real or imaginary, physical, moral, or intellectual. it is the noun of the saxon _thincan_ or _thingian_, to think; and is used to express every conceivable object of thought, in whatever form or manner presented to the human mind. every word employed to designate things, or name them, is to be ranked in the class called _nouns_, or names. you have only to determine whether a word is used thus, to learn whether it belongs to this or some other class of words. here let me repeat: . things exist. . we conceive ideas of things. . we use sounds or signs to communicate these ideas to others. . we denominate the class of words thus used, _nouns_. perhaps i ought to stop here, or pass to another topic. but as these lectures are intended to be so plain that all can understand my meaning, i must indulge in a few more remarks before advancing farther. in addition to individual, tangible objects, we conceive ideas of the _qualities_ of things, and give _names_ to such qualities, which become _nouns_. thus, the _hardness_ of iron, the _heat_ of fire, the _color_ of a rose, the _bitterness_ of gall, the _error_ of grammars. the following may serve to make my views more plain. take two tumblers, the one half filled with water, the other with milk; mix them together. you can now talk of the milk in the water, or the water in the milk. your ideas are distinct, tho the objects are so intimately blended, that they can not be separated. so with the qualities of things. we also speak of mind, intellect, soul; but to them we can give no form, and of them paint no likeness. yet we have ideas of them, and employ words to express them, which become _nouns_. this accounts for the reason why the great parent intellect has strictly forbidden, in the decalogue, that a likeness of him should be constructed. his being and attributes are discoverable only thro the medium of his works and word. no man can see him and live. it would be the height of folly--it would be more--it would be blasphemy--to attempt to paint the likeness of him whose presence fills immensity--whose center is every where, and whose circumference is no where. the name of this spirit or being was held in the most profound reverence by the jews, as we shall have occasion to mention when we come to treat of the verb =to be=. we talk of angels, and have seen the unhallowed attempt to describe their likeness in the form of pictures, which display the fancy of the artist very finely, but give a miserable idea of those pure spirits who minister at the altar of god, and chant his praises in notes of the most unspeakable delight. we have also seen _death_ and the pale horse, the firy dragon, the mystery of babylon, and such like things, represented on canvass; but they betoken more of human talent to depict the marvellous, than a strict regard for truth. beelzebub, imps, and all pandemonium, may be vividly imagined and finely arranged in fiction, and we can name them. wizzards, witches, and fairies, may play their sportive tricks in the human brain, and receive names as tho they were real. we also think and speak of the qualities and affections of the mind as well as matter, as wisdom, knowledge, virtue, vice, love, hatred, anger. our conceptions in this case may be less distinct, but we have ideas, and use words to express them. there is, we confess, a greater liability to mistake and misunderstand when treating of mind and its qualities, than of matter. the reason is evident, people know less of it. its operations are less distinct and more varying. the child first sees material objects. it is taught to name them. it next learns the qualities of things; as the sweetness of sugar, the darkness of night, the beauty of flowers. from this it ascends by gradation to the higher attainments of knowledge as revealed in the empire of mind, as well as matter. great care should be taken that this advancement be easy, natural, and thoro. it should be constantly impressed with the importance of obtaining clear and definite ideas of things, and never employ words till it has ideas to express; never name a thing of which it has no knowledge. this is ignorance. it would be well, perhaps, to extend this remark to those older than children, in years, but less in real practical knowledge. the remark is of such general application, that no specification need be made, except to the case before us; to those affected proficients in grammar, whose only knowledge is the memory of words, which to them have no meanings, if, indeed, the writers themselves had any to express by them; a fact we regard as questionable, at best. there is hardly a teacher of grammar, whose self-esteem is not enormous, who will not confess himself ignorant on many of the important principles of language; that he has never understood, and could never explain them. he finds no difficulty in repeating what the books say, but if called upon to express an opinion of his own, he has none to give. he has learned and used words without knowing their meaning. children should be taught language as they are taught music. they should learn the simple tones on which the whole science depends. distinct impressions of sounds should be made on their minds, and the characters which represent them should be inseparably associated with them. they will then learn tunes from the compositions of those sounds, as represented by notes. by dint of application, they will soon become familiar with these principles, if possessed of a talent for song, and may soon pass the acme with ease, accuracy, and rapidity. but there are those who may sing very prettily, and tolerably correct, who have never studied the first rudiments of music. but such can never become adepts in the science. so there are those who use language correctly, who never saw the inside of a grammar book, and who never examined the principles on which it depends. but this, by no means, proves that it is better to sing by rote, than "with the understanding." these rudiments, however, should form the business of the nursery, rather than the grammar school. every mother should labor to give distinct and forcible impressions of such things as she learns her children to _name_. she should carefully prevent them from employing words which have no meaning, and still more strictly should she guard them against attaching a wrong meaning to those they do use. in this way, the foundation for future knowledge and eminence, would be laid broad and deep. but i wander. we attach names to imaginary things; as ghosts, genii, imps. to this class belong the thirty thousand gods of the ancients, who were frequently represented by emblems significant of the characters attached to them. we employ words to name these imaginary things, so that we read and converse about them understandingly, tho our ideas may be exceedingly various. nouns are also used to express negation, of which no idea can be formed. in this case, the mind rests on what exists, and employs a word to express what does not. we speak of _a hole_ in the paper. but we can form no idea of _a hole_, separated from the surrounding substances. remove the parts of the paper till nothing is left, and then you may look in vain for the hole. it is not there. it never was. in the same way we use the words nothing, nobody, nonentity, vacuum, absence, space, blank, annihilation, and oblivion. these are relative terms, to be understood in reference to things which are known to exist. we must know of _some_thing before we can talk of _no_thing, of an entity before we can think of nonentity. in a similar way we employ words to name actions, which are produced by the changes of objects. we speak of a race, of a flight, of a sitting or session, of a journey, of a ride, of a walk, of a residence, etc. in all these cases, the mind is fixed on the persons who performed these things. take for example, a race. of that, we can conceive no idea separate from the agent or object which _ran_ the _race_. without some other word to inform us we could not decide whether a _horse_ race, a _foot_ race, a boat race, the race of a mill, or some other race, was the object of remark. the same may be said of flight, for we read of the flight of birds, the flight of mahommed, the flight of armies, and the flight of intellect. we also give names to actions as tho they were taking place in the present tense. "the _reading_ of the report was deferred;" steamboat _racing_ is dangerous to public safety; _stealing_ is a crime; false _teaching_ deserves the reprobation of all. the hints i have given will assist you in acquiring a knowledge of nouns as used to express ideas in vocal or written language. this subject might be pursued further with profit, if time would permit. as the time allotted to this lecture is nearly exhausted, i forbear. i shall hereafter have occasion to show how a whole phrase may be used to name an idea, and as such stand as the agent or object of a verb. some nouns are specifically used to designate certain objects, and distinguish them from the class to which they usually belong. in this way they assume a distinctive character, and are usually denominated =proper nouns=. they apply to persons, places and things; as, john smith, boston, hylax. _boy_ is applied in common to all young males of the human species, and as such is a _common noun_ or name. _john smith_ designates a particular boy from the rest. proper names may be also applied to animals and things. the stable keeper and stageman has a name for every horse he owns, to distinguish it from other horses; the dairyman for his cows, the boy for his dog, and the girl for her doll. any word, in fact, may become a proper name by being specifically used; as the ship fair trader, the brig success, sloop delight in peace, the race horse eclipse, black hawk, round nose, and red jacket. proper names were formerly used in reference to certain traits of character or circumstances connected with the place or thing. _abram_ was changed to _abraham_, the former signifying _an elevated father_, the latter, _the father of a multitude_. _isaac_ signified _laughter_, and was given because his mother laughed at the message of the angel. _jacob_ signified _a supplanter_, because he was to obtain the birthright of his elder brother. a ridiculous rage obtained with our puritan fathers to express scripture sentiments in the names of their children, as may be seen by consulting the records of the plymouth and massachusetts colonies. this practice has not wholly gone out of use in our day, for we hear of the names of hope, mercy, patience, comfort, experience, temperance, faith, deliverance, return, and such like, applied usually to females, (being more in character probably,) and sometimes to males. we have also the names of white, black, green, red, gray, brown, olive, whitefield, blackwood, redfield, woodhouse, stonehouse, waterhouse, woodbridge, swiftwater, lowater, drinkwater, spring, brooks, rivers, pond, lake, fairweather, merryweather, weatherhead, rice, wheat, straw, greatrakes, bird, fowle, crow, hawks, eagle, partridge, wren, goslings, fox, camel, zebra, bear, wolf, hogg, rain, snow, haile, frost, fogg, mudd, clay, sands, hills, valley, field, stone, flint, silver, gould, and diamond. proper nouns may also become common when used as words of general import; as, _dunces_, corrupted from duns scotus, a distinguished theologian, born at dunstane, northumberland, an opposer of the doctrines of thomas aquinus. he is a real _solomon_, jack tars, judases, antichrist, and so on. nouns may also be considered in respect to person, number, gender, and positive, or case. there are _three_ persons, _two_ numbers, _two_ genders, and _two_ cases. but the further consideration of these things will be deferred, which, together with pronouns, will form the subject of our next lecture. lecture v. on nouns and pronouns. nouns in respect to persons.--number.--singular.--plural.--how formed.--foreign plurals.--proper names admit of plurals.--gender. --no neuter.--in figurative language.--errors.--position or case.-- agents.--objects.--possessive case considered.--a definitive word.--pronouns.--one kind.--originally nouns.--specifically applied. we resume the consideration of nouns this evening, in relation to person, number, gender, and position or case. in the use of language there is a speaker, person spoken to, and things spoken of. those who speak are the _first_ persons, those who hear the _second_, and those who are the subject of conversation the _third_. the first and second persons are generally used in reference to human beings capable of speech and understanding. but we sometimes condesend to hold converse with animals and inanimate matter. the bird trainer talks to his parrots, the coachman to his horses, the sailor to the winds, and the poet to his landscapes, towers, and wild imaginings, to which he gives a "local habitation and a name." by metaphor, language is put into the mouths of animals, particularly in fables. by a still further license, places and things, flowers, trees, forests, brooks, lakes, mountains, towers, castles, stars, &c. are made to speak the most eloquent language, in the first person, in addresses the most pathetic. the propriety of such a use of words i will not stop to question, but simply remark that such figures should never be employed in the instruction of children. as the mind expands, no longer content to grovel amidst mundane things, we mount the pegasus of imagination and soar thro the blissful or terrific scenes of fancy and fiction, and study a language before unknown. but it would be an unrighteous demand upon others, to require them to understand us; and quite as unpardonable to brand them with ignorance because they do not. most nouns are in the third person. more things are talked about than talk themselves, or are talked to by others. hence there is little necessity for teaching children to specify except in the first or second person, which is very easily done. in english there are two _numbers_, singular and plural. the singular is confined to one, the plural is extended to any indefinite number. the greeks, adopted a dual number which they used to express two objects united in pairs, or couples; as, a span of horses, a yoke of oxen, a brace of pistols, a pair of shoes. we express the same idea with more words, using the singular to represent the union of the two. we also extend this use of words and employ what are called _nouns of multitude_; as, a people, an army, a host, a nation. these and similar words are used in the singular referring to many combined in a united whole, or in the plural comprehending a diversity; as, "the armies met," "the nations are at peace." _people_ admits no change on account of number. we say "_many_ people are collected together and form _a_ numerous people." the plural is not always to be understood as expressing an increase of number, but of qualities or sorts of things, as the merchant has a variety of _sugars_, _wines_, _teas_, _drugs_, _medicines_, _paints_ and _dye-woods_. we also speak of _hopes_, _fears_, _loves_, _anxieties_. some nouns admit of no plural, in fact, or in use; as, chaos, universe, fitness, immortality, immensity, eternity. others admit of no singular; as, scissors, tongs, vitals, molasses. these words probably once had singulars, but having no use for them they became obsolete. we have long been accustomed to associate the two halves of shears together, so that in speaking of one whole, we say shears, and of apart, half of a shears. but of some words originally, and in fact plural, we have formed a singular; as, "one twin died, and, tho the other one survived its dangerous illness, the mother wept bitterly for her twins." _twin_ is composed of _two_ and _one_. it is found in old books, spelled _twane_, two-one, or twin. thus, the _twi_-light is formed by the mingling of two lights, or the division of the rays of light by the approaching or receding darkness. they _twain_ shall be one flesh. sheep and deer are singular or plural. most plurals are formed by adding _s_ to the singular, or, when euphony requires it, _es_; as, tree, trees; sun, suns; dish, dishes; box, boxes. some retain the old plural form; as, ox, oxen; child, children; chick, chicken; kit, kitten. but habit has burst the barrier of old rules, and we now talk of chicks and chickens, kits and kittens. _oxen_ alone stands as a monument raised to the memory of unaltered saxon plurals. some nouns form irregular plurals. those ending in _f_ change that letter to _v_ and then add _es_; as, half, halves; leaf, leaves; wolf, wolves. those ending in _y_ change that to _i_ and add the _es_; as, cherry, cherries; berry, berries; except when the _y_ is preceded by a vowel, in which case it only adds the _s_; as, day, days; money, moneys (not _ies_); attorney, attorneys. all this is to make the sound more easy and harmonious. _f_ and _v_ were formerly used indiscriminately, in singulars as well as plurals, and, in fact, in the composition of all words where they occurred. the same may be said of _i_ and _y_. "the fader (father) almychty of the heven abuf (above) in the mene tyme, unto juno his _luf_ (love) thus spak; and sayd." _douglas, booke , pag. ._ "they lyued in ioye and in felycite for eche of hem had other lefe and dere." _chaucer, monks tale, fol. , p. ._ "when straite twane beefes he tooke and an the aultar layde." the reason why _y_ is changed into _i_ in the formation of plurals, and in certain other cases, is, i apprehend, accounted for from the fact that words which now end in _y_ formerly ended in _ie_, as may be seen in all old books. the regular plural was then formed by adding _s_. "and upon those members of the _bodie_, which _wee_ thinke most unhonest, put _wee_ more honestie on." "it rejoyceth not in iniquitie--diversitie of gifts--all thinges edifie not." see old bible, cor., chap. and . other words form their plurals still more differently, for which no other rule than habit can be given; as, man, men; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; die, dice; mouse, mice; penny, pence, and sometimes pennies, when applied to distinct pieces of money, and not to value. many foreign nouns retain the plural form as used by the nations from whom we have borrowed them; as, cherub, cherubim; seraph, seraphim; radius, radii; memorandum, memoranda; datum, data, &c. we should be pleased to have such words carried home, or, if they are ours by virtue of possession, let them be adopted into our family, and put on the garments of naturalized citizens, and no longer appear as lonely strangers among us. there is great aukwardness in adding the english to the hebrew plural of cherub, as the translators of the common version of the bible have done. they use _cherub_ in the singular and cherub_ims_ in the plural. the _s_ should be omitted and the hebrew plural retained, or the preferable course adopted, and the final _s_ be added, making cherubs, seraphs, &c. the same might be said of all foreign nouns. it would add much to the regularity, dignity, and beauty, of our vernacular tongue. proper nouns admit of the plural number; as, there are sixty-four john smiths in new-york, twenty arnolds in providence, and fifteen davises in boston. as we are not accustomed to form the plurals of proper names there is not that ease and harmony in the first use of them that we have found in those with which we are more familiar; especially those we have rarely heard pronounced. habit surmounts the greatest obstacles and makes things the most harsh and unpleasant appear soft and agreeable. gender is applied to the distinction of the sexes. there are two--masculine and feminine. the former is applied to males, the latter to females. those words which belong to neither gender, have been called _neuter_, that is, _no gender_. but it is hardly necessary to perplex the minds of learners with _negatives_. let them distinguish between masculine and feminine genders, and little need be said to them about a _neuter_. there are some nouns of both genders, as student, writer, pupil, person, citizen, resident. _poet_, _author_, editor, and some other words, have of late been applied to females, instead of poet_ess_, author_ess_, edit_ress_. fashion will soon preclude the necessity of this former distinction. some languages determine their genders by the form of the endings of their nouns, and what is thus made masculine in rome, may be feminine in france. it is owing, no doubt, to this practice, in other nations, that we have attached the idea of gender to inanimate things; as, "the sun, _he_ shines majestically;" while of the moon, it is said, "_she_ sheds a milder radiance." but we can not coincide with the reason assigned by mr. murray, for this distinction. his notion is not valid. it does not correspond with facts. while in the south of europe the sun is called masculine and the moon feminine, the northern nations invariably reverse the distinction, particularly the dialects of the scandinavian. it was so in our own language in the time of shakspeare. he calls the sun a "_fair wench_." by figures of rhetoric, genders may be attached to inanimate matter. where things are personified, we usually speak of them as masculine and feminine; but this practice depends on fancy, and not on any fixed rules. there is, in truth, but two genders, and those confined to animals. when we break these rules, and follow the undirected wanderings of fancy, we can form no rules to regulate our words. we may have as many fanciful ones as we please, but they will not apply in common practice. for example: poets and artists have usually attached female loveliness to angels, and placed them in the feminine gender. but they are invariably used in the masculine thro out the scriptures. there is an apparent absurdity in saying of the ship general williams, _she_ is beautiful; or, of the steamboat benjamin franklin, _she_ is out of date. it were far better to use no gender in such cases. but if people will continue the practice of making distinctions where there are none, they must do it from habit and whim, and not from any reason or propriety. there are three ways in which we usually distinguish the forms of words in reference to gender. st. by words which are different; as boy, girl; uncle, aunt; father, mother. d. by a different termination of the same word; as instructor, instructress; lion, lioness; poet, poetess. _ess_ is a contraction from the hebrew _essa_, a female. d. by prefixing another word; as, a male child, a female child; a man servant, a maid servant; a he-goat, a she-goat. the last consideration that attaches to nouns, is the _position_ they occupy in written or spoken language, in relation to other words, as being _agents_, or _objects_ of action. this is termed _position_. there are two positions in which nouns stand in reference to their meaning and use. first, as _agents_ of action, as _david_ killed goliath. second, as _objects_ on which action terminates; as, _richard_ conquered _henry_. these two distinctions should be observed in the use of all nouns. but the propriety of this division will be more evident when we come to treat of verbs, their agents and objects. it will be perceived that we have abandoned the use of the "_possessive case_," a distinction which has been insisted on in our grammars; and also changed the names of the other two. as we would adopt nothing that is new without first being convinced that something is needed which the thing proposed will supply; so we would reject nothing that is old, till we have found it useless and cumbersome. it will be admitted on all hands that the fewer and simpler the rules of grammar, the more readily will they be understood, and the more correctly applied. we should guard, on the one hand, against having so many as to perplex, and on the other, retain enough to apply in the correct use of language. it is on this ground that we have proposed an improvement in the names and number of cases, or positions. the word noun signifies name, and _nominative_ is the adjective derived from noun, and partakes of the same meaning. hence the _nominative_ or _naming_ case may apply as correctly to the object as the agent. "_john_ strikes _thomas_, and _thomas_ strikes _john_." john and thomas name the boys who strike, but in the first case john is the actor or agent and thomas the object. in the latter it is changed. to use a _nominative name_ is a redundancy which should be avoided. you will understand my meaning and see the propriety of the change proposed, as the mind of the learner should not be burthened with needless or irrelevant phrases. but our main objection lies against the "possessive case." we regard it as a false and unnecessary distinction. what is the possessive case? murray defines it as "expressing the relation of property or possession; as, my father's house." his rule of syntax is, "one substantive governs another, signifying a different thing, in the possessive or genitive case; as, my father's house." i desire you to understand the definition and use as here given. read it over again, and be careful that you know the meaning of _property_, _possession_, and _government_. now let a scholar parse correctly the example given. "_father's_" is a common noun, third person, singular number, masculine gender, and _governed_ by house:" rule, "one noun _governs_ another," &c. then my father does not govern his own house, but his house him! what must be the conduct and condition of the family, if they have usurped the government of their head? "john jones, hatter, keeps constantly for sale all kinds of _boy's hats_. parse boy's. it is a noun, possessive case, _governed_ by hats." what is the possessive case? it "signifies the _relation of property or possession_." do the hats belong to the boys? oh no. are they the _property_ or in the _possession_ of the boys? certainly not. then what relation is there of property or possession? none at all. they belong to john jones, were made by him, are his property, and by him are advertised for sale. he has used the word _boy's_ to distinguish their size, quality, and fitness for boy's use. "the master's slave." master's is in the possessive case, and _governed_ by slave! if grammars are true there can be no need of abolition societies, unless it is to look after the master and see that he is not abused. the rider's horse; the captain's ship; the general's army; the governor's cat; the king's subject. how false it would be to teach scholars the idea of _property_ and _government_ in such cases. the _teacher's scholars_ should never learn that by virtue of their grammars, or the _apostrophe_ and letter _s_, they have a right to _govern_ their teachers; nor the mother's son, to govern his mother. our merchants would dislike exceedingly to have the _ladies_ understand them to signify by their advertisements that the "ladies' merino shawls, the ladies's bonnets and lace wrought veils, the ladies' gloves and elegant thibet, silk and challa dresses, were the _property_ of the ladies; for in that case they might claim or _possess_ themselves of their _property_, and no longer trouble the merchant with the care of it. "peter's wife's mother lay sick of a fever." "_his_ physician said that _his_ disease would require _his_ utmost skill to defeat _its_ progress in _his_ limbs." phrases like these are constantly occurring, which can not be explained intelligibly by the existing grammars. in fact, the words said to be nouns in the possessive case, have changed their character, by use, from nouns to adjectives, or definitive words, and should thus be classed. russia iron, holland gin, china ware, american people, the washington tavern, lafayette house, astor house, hudson river, (formerly hudson's,) baffin's bay, van dieman's land, john street, harper's ferry, hill's bridge, a paper book, a bound book, a red book, john's book--one which john is known to use, it may be a borrowed one, but generally known as some way connected with him,--rev. mr. smith's church, st. john's church, grace church, murray's grammar; not the property nor in the possession of lindley murray, neither does it _govern him_; for he has gone to speak a purer language than he taught on earth. it is mine. i bought it, have possessed it these ten years; but, thank fortune, am little _governed_ by it. but more on this point when we come to the proper place. what i have said, will serve as a hint, which will enable you to see the impropriety of adopting the "possessive case." it may be said that more cases are employed in other languages. that is a poor reason why we should break the barriers of natural language. beside, i know not how we should decide by that rule, for none of them have a _case_ that will compare with the english possessive. the genitive of the french, latin, or greek, will apply in only a few respects. the former has _three_, the latter five, and the latin six cases, neither of which correspond with the possessive, as explained by murray and his satellites. we should be slow to adopt into our language an idiom which does not belong to it, and compel learners to make distinctions where none exist. it is an easy matter to tell children that the apostrophe and letter _s_ marks the possessive case; but when they ask the difference in the meaning between the use of the noun and those which all admit are adjectives, it will be no indifferent task to satisfy them. what is the difference in the construction of language or the sense conveyed, between hudson'_s_ river, and _hudson_ river? davis's straits, or bass straits? st. john's church, or episcopal church? the sun's beams, or sun shine? in all cases these words are used to define the succeeding noun. they regard "property or possession," only when attending circumstances, altogether foreign from any quality in the form or meaning of the word itself, are so combined as to give it that import. and in such cases, we retain these words as adjectives, long after the property has passed from the hands of the persons who gave it a name. _field's_ point, _fuller's_ rocks, _fisher's_ island, _fulton's_ invention, will long be retained after those whose names were given to distinguish these things, have slept with their fathers and been forgotten. blannerhassett's island, long since ceased to be his property or tranquil possession, by confiscation; but it will retain its specific name, till the inundations of the ohio's waters shall have washed it away and left not a wreck behind. the distinctions i have made in the positions of nouns, will be clearly understood when we come to the verbs. a few remarks upon pronouns will close the present lecture. pronouns. pronouns are such as the word indicates. _pro_ is the latin word _for_; pro-nomen, _for nouns_. they are words, originally nouns, used specifically _for_ other nouns, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same words; as, washington was the father of his country; _he_ was a valiant officer. _we_ ought to respect _him_. the word _we_, stands for the speaker and all present, and saves the trouble of naming them; _he_ and _him_, stand for washington, to avoid the monotony which would be produced by a recurrence of his name. pronouns are all of one kind, and few in number. i will give you a list of them in their respective positions. _agents._ _objects._ { st person, i, me, { d " thou, thee, _singular_ { d " mas. { he, him, { " fem. { she, her, { it, it. { st person, we, us, _plural_ { d " ye, or you, you, { d " they, them, who, whom. the two last may be used in either person, number, or gender. the frequent use of these words render them very important, in the elegant and rapid use of language. they are so short, and their sound so soft and easy, that the frequency of their recurrence does not mar the beauty of a sentence, but saves us from the redundancy of other words. they are substituted only when there is little danger of mistaking the nouns for which they stand. they are, however, sometimes used in a very broad sense; as, "_they say_ it is so;" meaning no particular persons, but the general sentiment. _it_ frequently takes the lead of a sentence, and the thing represented by it comes after; as, "it is currently reported, that things were thus and so." here _it_ represents the single idea which is afterward stated at length. "_it_ is so." "_it_ may be that the nations will be destroyed by wars, earthquakes, and famines." but more of this when we come to speak of the composition of sentences. the words now classed as pronouns were originally _names_ of things, but in this character they have long been obsolete. they are now used only in their secondary character as the representatives of other words. the word _he_, for instance, signified originally _to breathe_. it was applied to the living beings who inhaled air. it occurs with little change in the various languages of europe, ancient and modern, till at length it is applied to the male agent which lives and acts. the word _her_ means _light_, but is specifically applied to females which are the objects of action. was it in accordance with the design of these lectures, it would give me pleasure to go into a minute examination of the origin, changes and meaning of these words till they came to be applied as specific words of exceeding limited character. most of them might be traced thro all the languages of europe; the arabic, persic, arminian, chaldean, hebrew, and, for ought i know, all the languages of asia. but as they are now admitted a peculiar position in the expression of thought from which they never vary; and as we are contending about philosophic principles rather than verbal criticisms, i shall forbear a further consideration of these words. in the proper place i shall consider those words formerly called "adjective pronouns," "pronoun adjectives," or "pronominal adjectives," to suit the varying whims of those grammar makers, who desired to show off a speck of improvement in their "simplifying" works without ever having a new idea to express. it is a query in some minds whether the seventy-two "simplifiers" and "improvers" of murray's grammar ever had any distinct notions in their heads which they did not obtain from the very man, who, it would seem by their conduct, was unable to explain his own meaning. lecture vi. on adjectives. definition of adjectives.--general character.--derivation.--how understood.--defining and describing.--meaning changes to suit the noun.--too numerous.--derived from nouns.--nouns and verbs made from adjectives.--foreign adjectives.--a general list.--difficult to be understood.--an example.--often superfluous.--derived from verbs.--participles.--some prepositions.--meaning unknown.--with.-- in.--out.--of. the most important sub-division of words is the class called adjectives, which we propose to notice this evening. _adjective_ signifies _added_ or _joined to_. we employ the term in grammar to designate that class of words which are _added to nouns to define or describe them_. in doing this, we strictly adhere to the principles we have already advanced, and do not deviate from the laws of nature, as developed in the regulation of speech. in speaking of things, we had occasion to observe that the mind not only conceived ideas of things, but of their properties; as, the hardness of flint; the heat of fire; and that we spoke of one thing in reference to another. we come now to consider this subject more at large. in the use of language the mind first rests on the thing which is present before it, or the word which represents the idea of that thing. next it observes the changes and attitudes of these things. thirdly, it conceives ideas of their qualities and relations to other things. the first use of these words is to name things. this we call _nouns_. the second is to express their actions. this we call _verbs_. the last is to define or describe things. this we call _adjectives_. there is a great similarity between the words used to name things and to express their actions; as, builders build buildings; singers sing songs; writers write writings; painters paint paintings. in the popular use of language we vary these words to avoid the monotony and give pleasantness and variety. we say builders _erect_ houses, barns, and other buildings; singers perform pieces of music; musicians play tunes; the choir sing psalm tunes; artists paint pictures. from these two classes a third is derived which partakes somewhat of the nature of both, and yet from its secondary use, it has obtained a distinctive character, and as such is allowed a separate position among the classes of words. it might perhaps appear more in order to pass the consideration of adjectives till we have noticed the character and use of verbs, from which an important portion of them is derived. but as they are used in connexion with nouns, and as the character they borrow from the verb will be readily understood, i have preferred to retain the old arrangement, and consider them in this place. _adjectives are words added to nouns to define or describe them._ they are derived either, st, from nouns; as, _window_ glass, _glass_ window, a stone house, building stone, maple sugar, sugar cane; or, d, from verbs; as, a _written_ paper, a _printed_ book, a _painted_ house, a _writing_ desk. in the first case we employ one noun, or the name of one thing, to define another, thus giving it a secondary use. a _glass_ window is one made of glass, and not of any thing else. it is neither a _board_ window, nor a _paper_ window. _maple_ sugar is not _cane_ sugar, nor _beet_ sugar, nor _molasses_ sugar; but it may be _brown_ sugar, if it has been browned, or _white_ if it has been whit_ed_ or whit_ened_. in this case, you at once perceive the correctness of our second proposition, in the derivation of adjectives from verbs, by which we describe a thing in reference to its condition, in some way affected by the operation of a prior action. a _printed_ book is one on which the action of printing has been performed. a _written_ book differs from the former, in as much as its appearance was produced by writing and not by printing. in the definition or description of things, whatever is best understood is employed as a definitive or descriptive term, and is attached to the object to make known its properties and relations. speaking of nations, if we desire to distinguish some from others, we choose the words supposed to be best known, and talk of european, african, american, or indian nations; northern, southern, eastern, or western nations. these last words are used in reference to their relative position, and may be variously understood; for we speak of the northern, eastern, western, and southern nations of europe, of africa, and the world. again, we read of civiliz_ed_, half-civilized, and barbarous nations; learned, unlearned, ignorant, and enlightened; rich, powerful, enterprising, respected, ancient or modern, christian, mahomedan or pagan. in these, and a thousand similar cases, we decide the meaning, not alone from the word employed as an adjective, but from the subject of remark; for, were we to attach the same meaning to the same word, wherever used, we could not receive correct or definite impressions from the language of others--our inferences would be the most monstrous. a _great_ mountain and a _great_ pin, a _great_ continent and a _great_ farm, a _great_ ocean and a _great_ pond, a _great_ grammar and a _great_ scholar, refer to things of very different dimensions and character; or, as mr. murray would say, "_qualities_." a mountain is great by comparison with other mountains; and a pin, compared with other pins, may be very large--exceeding great--and yet fall very far short of the size of a very small mountain. a _small_ man may be a _great_ scholar, and a rich neighbor a poor friend. a sweet flower is often very bitter to the taste. a _good_ horse would make a _bad_ dinner, but _false_ grammar can never make _true_ philologists. all words are to be understood according to their use. their meaning can be determined in no other way. many words change their forms to express their relations, but fewer in our language than in most others, ancient or modern. other words remain the same, or nearly so, in every position; noun, adjective, or verb, agent or object, past or present. to determine whether a word is an adjective, first ascertain whether it names a thing, defines or describes it, or expresses its action, and you will never be at a loss to know to what class it belongs. the business of adjectives is twofold, and they may be distinguished by the appellations of _defining_ or _describing_ adjectives. this distinction is in many cases unimportant; in others it is quite essential. the same word in one case may _define_, in others _describe_ the object, and occasionally do both, for we often specify things by their descriptions. the learner has only to ascertain the meaning and use of the adjective to decide whether it defines or describes the subject of remark. if it is employed to distinguish one thing from the general mass, or one class from other classes, it has the former character; but after such thing is pointed out, if it is used to give a description of its character or properties, its character is different, and should be so understood and explained. _defining adjectives_ are used to _point out_, specify or distinguish certain things from others of their kind, or one sort from other sorts, and answer to the questions _which_, _what_, _how many_, or _how much_. _describing adjectives_ express the character and qualities of things, and give a more full and distinct knowledge than was before possessed. in a case before mentioned, we spoke of the "indian nations." the word _indian_ was chosen to specify or define what nations were alluded to. but all may not decide alike in this case. some may think we meant the aborigines of america; others, that the southern nations of asia were referred to. this difficulty originates in a misapprehension of the definitive word chosen. india was early known as the name of the south part of asia, and the people there, were called indians. when columbus discovered the new world, supposing he had reached the country of india, which had long been sought by a voyage round the coast of africa, he named it india, and the people indians. but when the mistake was discovered, and the truth fully known, instead of effecting a change in the name already very generally understood, and in common use, another word was chosen to distinguish between countries so opposite and _west_ india became the word to distinguish the newly discovered islands; and as india was little better known in europe at that time, instead of retaining their old name unaltered, another word was prefixed, and they called it _east_ india. when, therefore, we desire to be definite, we retain these words, and say, east indians and west indians. without this distinction, we should understand the native people of our own country; but in europe, asia, and africa, they would think we alluded to those in asia. so with all other adjectives which are not understood. _indian_, as an adjective, may also be employed to _describe_ the character and condition of the aborigines. we talk of an indian temper, indian looks, indian blankets, furs, &c. in writing and conversation we should employ words to explain, to define and describe, which are better understood than those things of which we speak. the pedantry of some modern writers in this respect is ridiculous. not satisfied to use plain terms which every body can understand, they hunt the dictionaries from alpha to omega, and not unfrequently overleap the "king's english," and ransack other languages to find an unheard of word, or a list of adjectives never before arranged together, in so nice a manner, so that their ideas are lost to the common reader, if not to themselves. this fault may be alleged against too many of our public speakers, as well as the affected gentry of the land. they are like shakspeare's gratiano, "who speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all venice; his reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them; and, when you have found them, they are not worth the search." such sentences remind us of the painting of the young artist who drew the form of an animal, but apprehensive that some might mistake it, wrote under it, "_this is a horse._" in forming our notions of what is signified by an adjective, the mind should pause to determine the meaning of such word when used as a distinct name for some object, in order to determine the import of it in this new capacity. a _tallow_ candle is one made of a substance called tallow, and is employed to distinguish it from wax or spermaceti candles. the adjective in this case, names the article of which the candle is made, and is thus a noun, but, as we are not speaking of tallow, but of candles, we place it in a new relation, and give it a new grammatical character. but you will perceive the correctness of a former assertion, that all words may be reduced to two classes, and that adjectives are derived from nouns or verbs. but you may inquire if there are not some adjectives in use which have no corresponding verb or noun from which they are derived. there are many words in our language which in certain uses have become obsolete, but are retained in others. we now use some words as verbs which originally were known only as nouns, and others as nouns which are unknown as verbs. we also put a new construction upon words and make nouns, verbs and adjectives promiscuously and with little regard to rule or propriety. words at one time unknown become familiar by use, and others are laid aside for those more new or fashionable. these facts are so obvious that i shall be excused from extending my remarks to any great length. but i will give an example which will serve as a clew to the whole. take the word _happy_, long known only as an adjective. instead of following this word _back_ to its primitive use and deriving it directly from its noun, or as a past participle, such as it is in truth, we have gone _forward_ and made from it the noun _happiness_, and, in more modern days, are using the verb _happify_, a word, by the way, in common use, but which has not yet been honored with a place in our dictionaries; altho mr. webster has given us, as he says, the _unauthorised_ (un-author-ised) word "_happifying_." perhaps he had never heard or read some of our greatest savans, who, if not the authors, employ the word _happify_ very frequently in the pulpit and halls of legislation, and at the bar, as well as in common parlance. _happy_ is the past participle of the verb _to hap_, or, as afterwards used, with a nice shade of change in the meaning, _to happen_. it means _happied_, or made happy by those favorable circumstances which have _happened_ to us. whoever will read our old writers no further back than shakspeare, will at once see the use and changes of this word. they will find it in all its forms, simple and compound, as a verb, noun, and adjective. "it may _hap_ that he will come." it happened as i was going that i found my lost child, and was thereby made quite happy. the man desired to _hap_pify himself and family without much labor, so he engaged in speculation; and _hap_pily he was not so _hap_less in his pursuit of _hap_piness as often _hap_pens to such _hap_-hazard fellows, for he soon became very _hap_py with a moderate fortune. but to the question. there are many adjectives in our language which are borrowed from foreign words. instead of _adjectiving_ our own nouns we go to our neighbors and _adjective_ and anglicise [english-ise] their words, and adopt the pampered urchins into our own family and call them our favorites. it is no wonder that they often appear aukward and unfamiliar, and that our children are slow in forming an intimate acquaintance with them. you are here favored with a short list of these words which will serve as examples, and enable you to comprehend my meaning and apply it in future use. some of them are regularly used as adjectives, with or without change; others are not. english nouns. foreign adjectives. alone sole, solitary alms eleemosynary age primeval belief credulous blame culpable breast pectoral being essential bosom graminal, sinuous boy, boyish puerile blood, bloody sanguinary, sanguine burden onerous beginning initial boundary conterminous brother fraternal bowels visceral body corporeal birth natal, native calf vituline carcass cadaverous cat feline cow vaccine country rural, rustic church ecclesiastical death mortal dog canine day diurnal, meridian, ephemeral disease morbid east oriental egg oval ear auricular eye ocular flesh carnal, carnivorous father paternal field agrarian flock gregarious foe hostile fear timorous, timid finger digital flattery adulatory fire igneous faith fiducial foot pedal groin inguinal guardian tutelar glass vitreous grape uveous grief dolorous gain lucrative help auxiliary heart cordial, cardiac hire stipendiary hurt noxious hatred odious health salutary, salubrious head capital, chief ice glacial island insular king regal, royal kitchen culinary life vital, vivid, vivarious lungs pulmonary lip labial leg crural, isosceles light lucid, luminous love amorous lust libidinous law legal, loyal mother maternal money pecuniary mixture promiscuous, miscellaneous moon lunar, sublunary mouth oral marrow medulary mind mental man virile, male, human, masculine milk lacteal meal ferinaceous nose nasal navel umbilical night nocturnal, equinoctial noise obstreperous one first parish parochial people popular, populous, public, epidemical, endemical point punctual pride superb, haughty plenty copious pitch bituminous priest sacerdotal rival emulous root radical ring annular reason rational revenge vindictive rule regular speech loquacious, garrulous, eloquent smell olfactory sight visual, optic, perspicuous, conspicuous side lateral, collateral skin cutaneous spittle salivial shoulder humeral shepherd pastoral sea marine, maritime share literal sun solar star astral, sideral, stellar sunday dominical spring vernal summer estival seed seminal ship naval, nautical shell testaceous sleep soporiferous strength robust sweat sudorific step gradual sole venal two second treaty federal trifle nugatory tax fiscal time temporal, chronical town oppidan thanks gratuitous theft furtive threat minatory treachery insidious thing real throat jugular, gutteral taste insipid thought pensive thigh femoral tooth dental tear lachrymal vessel vascular world mundane wood sylvan, savage way devious, obvious, impervious, trivial worm vermicular whale cutaceous wife uxorious word verbal, verbose weak hebdomadal wall mural will voluntary, spontaneous winter brumal wound vulnerary west occidental war martial women feminine, female, effeminate year annual, anniversary, perennial, triennial such are some of the adjectives introduced into our language from other nations. the list will enable you to discover that when we have no adjective of our own to correspond with the noun, we borrow from our neighbors an adjective derived from one of their nouns, to which we give an english termination. for example: _english noun._ _latin noun._ _adjective._ boy puer puerile grief dolor dolorous thought pensa pensive wife uxor uxorious word verbum verbal, verbose year annum annual body corpus corporeal head caput capital church ekklesia (_greek_) ecclesiastical king roi (_french_) royal law loi " loyal it is exceedingly difficult to understand the adjectives of many nouns with which we are familiar, from the fact above stated, that they are derived from other languages, and not our own. the most thoro scholars have found this task no easy affair. most grammarians have let it pass unobserved; but every person has seen the necessity of some explanation upon this point, to afford a means of ascertaining the etymological derivation and meaning of these words. i would here enter farther into this subject, but i am reminded that i am surpassing the limits set me for this course of lectures. the attention i have bestowed on this part of the present subject, will not be construed into a mere verbal criticism. it has been adopted to show you how, in the definition or description of things, the mind clings to one thing to gain some information concerning another. when we find a thing unlike any thing else we have ever known, in form, in size, in color, in every thing; we should find it a difficult task, if not an impossibility, to describe it to another in a way to give any correct idea of it. having never seen its like before, we can say little of its character. we may give it a _name_, but that would not be understood. we could say it was as large as--no, it had no size; that it was like--but no, it had no likeness; that it resembled--no, it had no resemblance. how could we describe it? what could we say of it? nothing at all. what idea could the pacha of egypt form of ice, having never seen any till the french chemists succeeded in freezing water in his presence? they told him of ice; that it was _cold_; that it would freeze; that whole streams were often frozen over, so that men and teams could walk over them. he believed no such thing--it was a "christian lie." this idea was confirmed on the first trial of the chemists, which failed of success. but when, on the second attempt, they succeeded, he was all in raptures. a new field was open before him. new ideas were produced in his mind. new qualities were learned; and he could now form some idea of the _ice_ bergs of the north; of _frozen_ regions, which he had never seen; of _icy_ hearts, and storms of _frozen_ rain. we often hear it said, such a man is very _stoical_; another is an _epicurean_; and another is a _bacchanal_, or _bacchanalian_. but what idea should we form of such persons, if we had never read of the stoics and their philosophy; of epicurus and his notions of happiness and duty; or of bacchus, the god of wine and revelry, whose annual feasts, or dionysia, were celebrated with the most extravagant licentiousness thro out greece and rome, till put down by the senate of the latter. you can not fail to see the importance of the knowledge on which we here insist. the meaning you attach to words is exceedingly diverse; and hence you are not always able to think alike, or understand each other, nor derive the same sentiment from the same language. the contradictory opinions which exist in the world may be accounted for, in a great measure, in this way. our knowledge of many things of which we speak, is limited, either from lack of means, or disposition to employ them. people always differ and contend most about things of which they know the least. did we all attach the same meaning to the same words, our opinions would all be the same, as true as the forty-fifth problem of euclid. how important, then, that children should always be taught the same meaning of words, and learn to use them correctly. etymology, viewed in this light, is a most important branch of science. whenever a word is sufficiently understood, no adjective should be connected with it. there is a ridiculous practice among many people, of appending to every noun one or more adjectives, which have no other effect than to expose their own folly. some writers are so in the habit of annexing adjectives to all nouns, that they dare not use one without. you will not unfrequently see adjectives different in form, added to a noun of very similar meaning; as, sad melancholy, an ominous sign, this mundane earth, pensive thoughts. when words can be obtained, which not only name the object, but also describe its properties, it should be preferred to a noun with an adjective; as _pirate_, for _sea robber_; _savan_, for a _learned_ or _wise man_.[ ] in relation to that class of adjectives derived from verbs, we will be brief. they include what have been termed participles, not a distinct "part of speech," but by some included in the verbs. we use them as adjectives to describe things as standing in some relation to other things on the account of the action expressed by the verb from which they are derived. "the man is respected." _respected_, in this case, describes the man in such a relation to those who have become acquainted with his good qualities, that he now receives their respect. he is respect_able_, (_able_ to command, or worthy of respect,) and of course, respected for his respectability. to avoid repetition, we select different words to assist in the expression of a complex idea. but i indulge in phrases like the above, to show the nice shades of meaning in the common use of words, endeavoring to analyze, as far as possible, our words and thoughts, and show their mutual connexion and dependencies. what has been termed the "present participle" is also an adjective, describing things in their present condition in reference to actions. "the man is writing." here, _writing_ describes the man in his present employment. but the consideration of this matter more properly belongs to the construction of sentences. * * * * * there is another class or variety of words properly belonging to this division of grammar, which may as well be noticed in this place as any other. i allude to those words generally called "prepositions." we have not time now to consider them at large, but will give you a brief view of our opinion of them, and reserve the remainder of our remarks till we come to another part of these lectures. most of the words called prepositions, in books of grammar, are participles, derived from verbs, many of which are still in use, but some are obsolete. they are used in the true character of adjectives, _describing one thing by its relation to another_. but their meaning has not been generally understood. our dictionaries have afforded no means by which we can trace their etymology. they have been regarded as a kind of cement to stick other words together, having no meaning or importance in themselves.[ ] until their meaning is known, we can not reasonably expect to draw them from their hiding places, and give them a respectable standing in the transmission of thought. many words, from the frequency of their use, fail to attract our attention as much as those less employed; not because they are less important, but because they are so familiarly known that the operations of thought are not observed in the choice made of them to express ideas. if we use words of which little is known, we ponder well before we adopt them, to determine whether the sense usually attached to them accords exactly with the notions we desire to convey by them. the same can not be said of small words which make up a large proportion of our language, and are, in fact, more necessary than the others, in as much as their meaning is more generally known. those who employ carriages to convey their bodies, observe little of their construction, unless there is something singular or fine in their appearance. the common parts are unobserved, yet as important as the small words used in the common construction of language, the vehicle of thought. as the apostle says of the body politic, "those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary;" so the words least understood by grammarians are most necessary in the correct formation of language. it is an easy matter to get along with the words called prepositions, after they are all learned by rote; but when their meaning and use are inquired into, the best grammarians have little to say of them. a list of prepositions, alphabetically arranged, is found in nearly every grammar, which scholars are required to commit to memory, without knowing any thing of their meaning or use, only that they are prepositions when an objective word comes after them, _because the books say so_; but occasionally the same words occur as adverbs and adjectives. there is, however, no trouble in "parsing" them, unless the list is forgotten. in that case, you will see the pupil, instead of inquiring after the meaning and duty of the word, go to the book and search for it in the lists of prepositions or conjunctions; or to the dictionary, to see if there is a "_prep._" appended to it. what will children ever learn of language in this way? of what avail is all such grammar teaching? as soon as they leave school it is all forgotten; and you will hear them say, at the very time they should be reaping the harvest of former toil, that they once understood grammar, but it is all gone from them. poor souls! their memory is very treacherous, else they have never learned language as they ought. there is a fault somewhere. to us it is not difficult to determine where it is. that certain words are prepositions, there can be no doubt, because the books say they are; but _why_ they are so, is quite another matter. all we desire is to have their meaning understood. little difficulty will then be found in determining their use. i have said they are derived from verbs, many of which are obsolete. some are still in use, both as verbs and nouns. take for example the word =with=. this word signifies _joined_ or _united_. it is used to show that two things are some how joined together so that they are spoke of in connexion. it frequently occurs in common conversation, as a verb and noun, but not as frequently in the books as formerly. the farmer says to his _hired_ man, "go and get a _withe_ and come and _withe_ up the fence;" that is, get some pliant twigs of tough wood, twist them together, and _withe_ or bind them round these posts, so that one may stand firm _with_, or _withed_ to, the other. a book _with_ a cover, is one that has a cover _joined_, bound, or attached to it. "a father _with_ a son, a man _with_ an estate, a nation _with_ a constitution." in all such cases _with_ expresses the relation between the two things mentioned, produced by a _union_ or connexion with each other.[ ] =in= is used in the same way. it is still retained as a noun and is suspended on the signs of many public houses. "the traveller's _inn_," is a house where travellers _in_ themselves, or go _in_, for entertainment. it occurs frequently in shakspeare and in more modern writers, as a verb, and is still used in common conversation as an imperative. "go, _in_ the crops of grain." "_in_ with you." "_in_ with it." in describes one thing by its relation to another, which is the business of adjectives. it admits of the regular degrees of comparison; as, _in_, _inner_, _innermost_ or _inmost_. it also has its compounds. _in_step, the _inner_ part of the foot, _in_let, _in_vestment, _in_heritance. in this capacity it is extensively used under its different shades of meaning which i cannot stop to notice. =of= signifies _divided_, _separated_, or _parted_. "the ship is _off_ the coast." "i am bound _off_, and you are bound _out_." "a part _of_ a pencil," is that part which is _separated_ from the rest, implying that the act of _separating_, or _offing_, has taken place. "a branch _of_ the tree." there is the tree; this branch is from it. "our communication was broken _off_ several years ago." "sailors record their _off_ings, and parents love their _off_spring," or those children which sprung from them.[ ] "we also _are his offspring_;" that is, sprung from god.[ ] in all these, and every other case, you will perceive the meaning of the word, and its office will soon appear essential in the expression of thought. had all the world been a compact whole, nothing ever separated from it, we could never speak of a part _of_ it, for we could never have such an idea. but we look at things, as separated, divided, parted; and speak of one thing as separated from the others. hence, when we speak of the part of the earth we inhabit, we, in imagination, separate it from some other _part_, or the general whole. we can not use this word in reference to a thing which is indivisible, because we can conceive no idea of a part _of_ an indivisible thing. we do not say, a portion _of_ our mind taken as a whole, but as capable of division. a share _of_ our regards, supposes that the remainder is reserved for something else. =out=, out_er_ or utter, outer_most_ or utmost, admits of the same remark as _in_. * * * * * in this manner, we might explain a long list of words, called adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. but i forbear, for the present, the further consideration of this subject, and leave it for another lecture. lecture vii. on adjectives. adjectives.--how formed.--the syllable _ly_.--formed from proper nouns.--the apostrophe and letter _s_.--derived from pronouns.-- articles.--_a_ comes from _an_.--_in_definite.--_the_.--meaning of _a_ and _the_.--murray's example.--that.--what.--"pronoun adjectives."--_mon_, _ma_.--degrees of comparison.--secondary adjectives.--prepositions admit of comparison. we resume the consideration of adjectives. the importance of this class of words in the expression of our thoughts, is my excuse for bestowing upon it so much labor. had words always been used according to their primitive meaning, there would be little danger of being misunderstood. but the fact long known, "_verba mutanter_"--words change--has been the prolific source of much of the diversity of opinion, asperity of feeling, and apparent misconstruction of other's sentiments, which has disturbed society, and disgraced mankind. i have, in a former lecture, alluded to this point, and call it up in this place to prepare your minds to understand what is to be said on the secondary use of words in the character of adjectives. i have already spoken of adjectives in general, as derived from nouns and verbs, and was somewhat particular upon the class sometimes called _prepositions_, which describe one thing by its relation to another, produced by some action which has placed them in such relation. we will now pass to examine a little more minutely into the character and use of certain adjectives, and the manner of their derivation. we commence with those derived from nouns, both common and proper, which are somewhat peculiar in their character. i wish you distinctly to bear in mind the use of adjectives. they are words _added to nouns to define or describe them_. many words which name things, are used as adjectives, with out change; as, _ox_ beef, _beef_ cattle, _paper_ books, _straw_ hats, _bonnet_ paper. others admit of change, or addition; as, nation_al_ character, a merci_ful_ (mercy-_ful_) man, a gloom_y_ prospect, a fam_ous_ horse, a gold_en_ ball. the syllables which are added, are parts of words, which are at first compounded with them, till, by frequency of use, they are incorporated into the same word. "a merci_ful_ man" is one who is full of mercy. a gold_en_ ball is one made of gold. this word is sometimes used without change; as, a _gold_ ring. a numerous portion of these words take the syllable _ly_, contracted from _like_, which is still retained in many words; as, judas-_like_, lady-_like_, gentleman-_like_. these two last words, are of late, occasionally used as other words, lady_ly_, gentleman_ly_; but the last more frequently than the former. she behaved very ladi_ly_, or lady_like_; and his appearance was quite gentleman_ly_. but to say ladi_ly_ appearance, does not yet sound quite soft enough; but it is incorrect only because it is uncommon. god_ly_ and god_like_ are both in use, and equally correct, with a nice shade of difference in meaning. all grammarians have found a difficulty in the word _like_, which they were unable to unravel. they could never account for its use in expressing a relation between two objectives. they forgot that to be like, one thing must be _likened_ to another, and that it was the very meaning of this word to express such like_ness_. john looks _like_ his brother. the looks, the countenance, or appearance of john, are _likened_ to his brother's looks or appearance. "this machine is more like the pattern than any i have seen." here the adjective _like_ takes the comparative degree, as it is called, to show a nearer resemblance than has been before observed between the things compared. "he has a statesman-_like_ appearance." i _like_ this apple, because it agrees with my taste; it has qualities _like_ my notion of what is palateable." in every situation the word is used to express likeness between two things. it describes one thing by its likeness to another. many adjectives are formed from proper nouns by adding an apostrophe and the letter _s_, except when the word ends in _s_, in which case the final _s_ is usually omitted for the sake of euphony. this, however, was not generally adopted by old writers. it is not observed in the earliest translations of the bible into the english language. it is now in common practice. thus, montgomery's monument in front of st. paul's church; washington's funeral; shay's rebelion; england's bitterest foes; hamlet's father's ghost; peter's wife's mother; todd's, walker's, johnson's dictionary; winchell's watts' hymns; pond's murray's grammar. no body would suppose that the "relation of property or possession" was expressed in these cases, as our grammar books tell us, but that the terms employed are used to _define_ certain objects, about which we are speaking. they possess the true character and use of adjectives, and as such let them be regarded. it must be as false as frivolous to say that montgomery, who nobly fell at the siege of quebec, _owns_ the monument erected over his remains, which were conveyed to new-york many years after his death; or that st. paul _owns_ or _possesses_ the church beneath which they were deposited; that hamlet owned his father, and his father his ghost; that todd owns walker, and walker owns johnson, and johnson his dictionary which may have had a hundred owners, and never been the property of its author, but printed fifty years after his death. these words, i repeat, are merely _definitive_ terms, and like others serve to point out or specify particular objects which may thus be better known. words, however, in common use form adjectives the same as other words; as, russia iron, china ships, india silks, vermont cheese, orange county butter, new-york flour, carolina potatoes. morocco leather was first manufactured in a city of africa called by that name, but it is now made in almost every town in our country. the same may be said of leghorn hats, russia binding, french shoes, and china ware. although made in our own country we still retain the words, morocco, leghorn, russia, french, and china, to define the fashion, kind, or quality of articles to which we allude. much china ware is made in liverpool, which, to distinguish it from the real, is called liverpool china. many french shoes are made in lynn, and many roxbury russets, newton pippins, and rhode-island greenings, grow in vermont. it may not be improper here to notice the adjectives derived from pronouns, which retain so much of their character as relates to the persons who employ them. these are _my_, _thy_, _his_, _her_, _its_, _our_, _your_, _their_, _whose_. this is _my_ book, that is _your_ pen, this is _his_ knife, and that is _her_ letter. some of these, like other words, vary their ending when standing alone; as, two apples are your_s_, three her_s_, six their_s_, five our_s_, and the rest mine. _his_ does not alter in popular use. hence the reason why you hear it so often, in common conversation, when standing without the noun expressed, pronounced as if written _hisen_. the word _other_, and some others, come under the same remark. when the nouns specified are expressed, they take the regular termination; as, give me these baldwin apples, and a few others--a few other apples. * * * * * there is a class of small words which from the frequency of their use have, like pronouns, lost their primitive character, and are now preserved only as adjectives. let us examine a few of them by endeavoring to ferret out their true meaning and application in the expression of ideas. we will begin with the old articles, _a_, _an_, and _the_, by testing the truth and propriety of the duty commonly assigned to them in our grammars. the standard grammar asserts that "an article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends; as, "a garden, an eagle, the woman." skepticism in grammar is no crime, so we will not hesitate to call in question the correctness of this "best of all grammars beyond all comparison." let us consider the very examples given. they were doubtless the best that could be found. does _a_ "point out" the garden, or "show how far its signification extends?" it does neither of these things. it may name "_any_" garden, and it certainly does not define whether it is a _great_ or a _small_ one. it simply determines that _one_ garden is the subject of remark. all else is to be determined by the word _garden_. we are told there are two articles, the one _in_definite, the other definite--_a_ is the former, and _the_ the latter. i shall leave it with you to reconcile the apparent contradiction of an _indefinite_ article which "is used in a _vague sense, to point out the signification_ of another word." but i challenge teachers to make their pupils comprehend such a jargon, if they can do it themselves. but it is as good sense as we find in many of the popular grammars of the day. again, murray says "_a_ becomes _an_ before a vowel or silent _h_;" and so say all his _simplifying_ satellites after him. is such the fact? is he right? he is, i most unqualifiedly admit, with this little correction, the addition of a single word--he is right _wrong_! instead of _a_ becoming _an_, the reverse is the fact. the word is derived directly from the same word which still stands as our first numeral. it was a short time since written _ane_, as any one may see by consulting all old books. by and by it dropped the _e_, and afterwards, for the sake of euphony, in certain cases, the _n_, so that now it stands a single letter. you all have lived long enough to have noticed the changes in the word. formerly we said _an_ union, _an_ holiday, _an_ universalist, _an_ unitarian, &c., expressions which are now rarely heard. we now say _a_ union, &c. this single instance proves that arbitrary rules of grammar have little to do in the regulation of language. its barriers are of sand, soon removed. it will not be said that this is an unimportant mistake, for, if an error, it is pernicious, and if a grammarian knows enough to say that _a_ becomes _an_, he ought to know that he tells a falsehood, and that _an_ becomes _a_ under certain circumstances. mr. murray gives the following example to illustrate the use of _a_. "give me _a_ book; that is, _any_ book." how can the learner understand such a rule? how will it apply? let us try it. "a man has _a_ wife;" that is, _any_ man has _any_ wife. i have a hat; that is, _any_ hat. a farmer has a farm--_any_ farmer has _any_ farm. a merchant in boston has a beautiful piece of broadcloth--_any_ merchant in boston has any beautiful piece of broadcloth. a certain king of europe decreed a protestant to be burned--_any_ king of europe decreed _any_ protestant to be burned. how ridiculous are the rules we have learned and taught to others, to enable them to "speak and write with propriety." no wonder we never understood grammar, if so at variance with truth and every day's experience. the rules of grammar as usually taught can never be observed in practice. hence it is called a _dry study_. in every thing else we learn something that we can understand, which will answer some good purpose in the affairs of life. but this branch of science is among the things which have been tediously learned to no purpose. no good account can be given of its advantages. _the_, we are told, "is called the definite article, because it ascertains what _particular_ thing or things are meant." a most unfortunate definition, and quite as erroneous as the former. let us try it. _the_ stars shine, _the_ lion roars, _the_ camel is a beast of burden, _the_ deer is good for food, _the_ wind blows, _the_ clouds appear, _the_ indians are abused. what is there in these examples, which "ascertain what _particular_ thing or things are meant?" they are expressions as _in_definite as we can imagine. on the other hand, should i say _a_ star shines, _a_ lion roars, _an_ indian is abused, _a_ wind blows, _a_ cloud appears, you would understand me to allude very _definitely_ to _one_ "particular" object, as separate and distinguished from others of its kind. but what is the wonderful peculiarity in the meaning and use of these two little words that makes them so unlike every thing else, as to demand a separate "part of speech?" you may be surprised when i tell you that there are other words in our language derived from the same source and possessed of the same meaning; but such is the fact, as will soon appear. let us ask for the etymology of these important words. _a_ signifies _one_, never more, never less. in this respect it is always _definite_. it is sometimes applied to a single thing, sometimes to a whole class of things, to a [one] man, or to a [one] hundred men. it may be traced thro other languages, ancient and modern, with little modification in spelling; greek _eis_, ein; latin _unus_; armoric _unan_; spanish and italian _uno_; portuguese _hum_; french _un_; german _ein_; danish _een_, _en_; dutch _een_; swedish _en_; saxon, _an_, _aen_, _one_--from which ours is directly derived--old english _ane_; and more modernly _one_, _an_, _a_. in all languages it defines a thing to be _one_, a united or congregated whole, and the word _one_ may always be substituted without affecting the sense. from it is derived our word _once_, which signifies _oned_, _united_, _joined_, as we shall see when we come to speak of "contractions." in some languages _a_ is styled an article, in others it is not. the latin, for instance, has no article, and the greek has no _indefinite_. but all languages have words which are like ours, pure adjectives, employed to specify certain things. the argument drawn from the fact that some other languages have _articles_, and therefore ours should, is fallacious. the latin, which was surpassed for beauty of style or power in deliverance by few, if any others, never suffered from the lack of articles. nor is there any reason why we should honor two small adjectives with that high rank to the exclusion of others quite as worthy. _the_ is always used as a definitive word, tho it is the least definite of the defining adjectives. in fact when we desire to "_ascertain particularly_ what thing is meant," we select some more definite word. "give me _the_ books." which? "those with red covers, that in calf, and this in russia binding." _the_ nations are at peace. what nations? _those_ which were at war. you perceive how we employ words which are more definite, that is, better understood, to "_point out_" the object of conversation, especially when there is any doubt in the case. what occasion, then, is there to give these [the?] words a separate "part of speech," since in character they do not differ from others in the language? we will notice another frivolous distinction made by mr. murray, merely to show how learned men may be mistaken, and the folly of trusting to special rules in the general application of words. he says, "thou art _a_ man," is a very general and _harmless_ expression; but, thou art _the_ man, (as nathan said to david,) is an assertion capable of striking terror and remorse into the heart." the distinction in meaning here, on which he insists, attaches to the articles _a_ and _the_. it is a sufficient refutation of this definition to make a counter statement. suppose we say, "murray is _the_ best grammarian in the world; or, he is _a_ fool, _a_ knave, and _a_ liar." which, think you, would be considered the most _harmless_ expression? suppose it had been said to aaron burr, thou art _a_ traitor, or to general william hull, thou art _a_ coward, would they regard the phrase as "_harmless!_" on the other hand, suppose a beautiful, accomplished, and talented young lady, should observe to one of her suitors, "i have received offers of marriage from several gentlemen besides yourself, but thou art =the= man of my choice;" would it, think you, _strike_ terror and remorse into his heart? i should pity the young student of murray whose feelings had become so stoical from the false teaching of his author as to be filled with "terror and remorse" under such favorable circumstances, while fair prospects of future happiness were thus rapidly brightening before him. i speak as to the wise, judge ye what i say. the adjective _that_ has obtained a very extensive application in language. however, it may seem to vary in its different positions, it still retains its primitive meaning. it is comprised of _the_ and _it_, thait, theat, thaet (saxon,) thata (gothic,) dat (dutch.) it is the most decided definitive in our language. it is by use applied to things in the singular, or to a multitude of things regarded as a whole. by use, it applies to a collection of ideas expressed in a sentence; as, it was resolved, _that_. what? then follows _that fact_ which was resolved. "provided _that_, in case he does" so and so. "it was agreed _that_," _that fact_ was agreed to which is about to be made known. i wish you to understand, all thro these lectures, _that_ i shall honestly endeavor to expose error and establish truth. wish you to understand _what_? _that fact_, afterwards stated, "i shall endeavor," &c. you can not mistake my meaning: _that_ would be impossible. what would be impossible? why, to mistake my meaning. you can not fail to observe the true character of this word called by our grammarians "adjective pronoun," "relative pronoun," and "conjunction." they did not think to look for its meaning. had that (duty) been done, it would have stood forth in its true character, an important defining word. the only difficulty in the explanation of this word, originates in the fact, that it was formerly applied to the plural as well as singular number. it is now applied to the singular only when referring directly to an object; as, _that man_. and it never should be used otherwise. but we often see phrases like this; "these are the men _that_ rebeled." it should be, "these are the men _who_ rebeled." this difficulty can not be overcome in existing grammars on any other ground. in modern writings, such instances are rare. _this_ and _that_ are applied to the singular; _these_ and _those_ to the plural. * * * * * =what= is a compound of two original words, and often retains the meaning of both, when employed as a compound relative, "having in itself both the antecedent and the relative," as our authors tell us. but when it is dissected, it will readily enough be understood to be an adjective, defining things under particular relations. but i shall weary your patience, i fear, if i stay longer in this place to examine the etymology of small words. i intended to have shown the meaning and use of many words included in the list of conjunctions, which are truly adjectives, such as _both_, _as_, _so_, _neither_, _and_, etc.; but i let them pass for the present, to be resumed under the head of contractions. from the view we have given of this class of words, we are saved the tediousness of studying the grammatical distinctions made in the books, where no real distinctions exist. in character these words are like adjectives; their meaning, like the meaning of all other words, is peculiar to themselves. let that be known, and there will be little difficulty in classing them. we need not confuse the learner with "adjective pronouns, possessive adjective pronouns, distributive adjective pronouns, demonstrative adjective pronouns, _indefinite_ adjective pronouns," nor any other adjective pronouns, which can never be understood nor explained. children will be slow to apprehend the propriety of a union of _adjectives_ and _pronouns_, when told that the former is always used _with_ a noun, and never _for_ one; and the latter always _for_ a noun, but never _with_ one; and yet, that there is such a strange combination as a "_distributive or indefinite adjective pronoun_,"--"confusion worse confounded." in the french language, the gender of adjectives is varied so as to agree with the nouns to which they belong. "possessive pronouns," as they are called, come under the same rule, which proves them to be in character, and formation, adjectives; else the person using them must change gender. the father says, _ma_ (feminine) _fille_, my daughter; and the mother, _mon_ (masculine) _fils_, my son; the same as they would say, _bon pere_, good father; _bonne mere_, good mother; or, in latin, _bonus pater_, or _bona mater_; or, in spanish, _bueno padre_, _buena madre_. in the two last languages, as well as all others, where the adjectives vary the termination so as to agree with the noun, the same fact may be observed in reference to their "pronouns." if it is a fact that these words are _pronouns_, that is, stand for other _nouns_, then the father is _feminine_, and the mother is _masculine_; and whoever uses them in reference to the opposite sex must change gender to do so. * * * * * describing adjectives admit of variation to express different degrees of comparison. the regular degrees have been reckoned three; positive, comparative, and superlative. these are usually marked by changing the termination. the _positive_ is determined by a comparison with other things; as, a great house, a small book, compared with others of their kind. this is truly a comparative degree. the _comparative_ adds _er_; as, a great_er_ house, a small_er_ book. the _superlative_, _est_; as, the great_est_ house, the small_est_ book. several adjectives express a comparison less than the positive, others increase or diminish the regular degrees; as, whit_ish_ white, _very_ white, _pure_ white; whit_er_, _considerable_ whiter, _much_ whiter; whit_est_, the _very_ whitest, _much_ the whitest _beyond all comparison_, so that there can be none _whiter_, nor _so white_. we make an aukward use of the words _great_ and _good_, in the comparison of things; as, a _good deal_, or _great deal_ whiter; a _good_ many men, or a _great_ many men. as we never hear of a _small_ deal, or a _bad_ deal whiter, nor of a _bad many_, nor _little many_, it would be well to avoid such phrases. the words which are added to other adjectives, to increase or diminish the comparison, or assist in their definition, may properly be called _secondary adjectives_, for such is their character. they do not refer to the thing to be _defined_ or _described_, but to the adjective which is affected, in some way, by them. they are easily distinguished from the rest by noticing this fact. take for example: "a _very dark red_ raw silk lady's dress handkerchief." the resolution of this sentence would stand thus: _a_ ( ) handkerchief. a ( ) _red_ ( ) handkerchief. a ( ) _dark_ red ( ) handkerchief. a _very_ dark red ( ) handkerchief. a very dark red ( ) _silk_ ( ) handkerchief. a very dark red _raw_ silk ( ) handkerchief. a very dark red raw silk ( ) _dress_ handkerchief. a very dark red raw silk _lady's_ dress handkerchief. we might also observe that _hand_ is an adjective, compounded by use with _kerchief_. it is derived from the french word _couvrir_, to cover, and _chef_, the head. it means a head dress, a cloth to cover, a neck cloth, a napkin. by habit we apply it to a single article, and speak of _neck_ handkerchief. the nice shade of meaning, and the appropriate use of adjectives, is more distinctly marked in distinguishing colors than in any thing else, for the simple reason, that there is nothing in nature so closely observed. for instance, take the word _green_, derived from _grain_, because it is grain color, or the color of the fair carpet of nature in spring and summer. but this hue changes from the _deep grass green_, to the light olive, and words are chosen to express the thousand varying tints produced by as many different objects. in the adaptation of language to the expression of ideas, we do not separate these shades of color from the things in which such colors are supposed to reside. hence we talk of _grass_, _pea_, _olive_, _leek_, _verdigris_, _emerald_, _sea_, and _bottle_ green; also, of _light_, _dark_, _medium_; _very_ light, or dark grass, pea, olive, or _invisible_ green. _red_, as a word, means _rayed_. it describes the appearance or substance produced when _rayed_, reddened, or radiated by the morning beams of the sun, or any other _radiating_ cause. _wh_ is used for _qu_, in white, which means _quite_, _quited_, _quitted_, _cleared_, _cleansed_ of all _color_, _spot_, or _stain_. _blue_ is another spelling for _blew_. applied to color, it describes something in appearance to the sky, when the clouds and mists are _blown_ away, and the clear _blue ether_ appears. you will be pleased with the following extract from an eloquent writer of the last century,[ ] who, tho somewhat extravagant in some of his speculations, was, nevertheless, a close observer of nature, which he studied as it is, without the aid of human theories. the beauty of the style, and the correctness of the sentiment, will be a sufficient apology for its length. "we shall employ a method, not quite so learned, to convey an idea of the generation of colors, and the decomposition of the solar ray. instead of examining them in a prism of glass, we shall consider them in the heavens, and there we shall behold the five primordial colours _unfold themselves_ in the order which we have indicated. "in a fine summer's night, when the sky is loaded only with some light vapours, sufficient to stop and to refract the rays of the sun, walk out into an open plain, where the first fires of aurora may be perceptible. you will first observe the horizon _whiten_ at the spot where she is to make her appearance; and this radiance, from its colour, has procured for it, in the french language, the name of _aube_, (the dawn,) from the latin word _alba_, white. this whiteness insensibly ascends in the heavens, _assuming_ a tint of yellow some degrees above the horizon; the yellow as it rises passes into orange; and this shade of orange rises upward into the lively vermilion, which extends as far as the zenith. from that point you will perceive in the heavens behind you the violet succeeding the vermilion, then the azure, after it the deep blue or indigo colour, and, last of all, the black, quite to the westward. "though this display of colours presents a multitude of intermediate shades, which rapidly succeed each other, yet at the moment the sun is going to exhibit his disk, the dazzling white is visible in the horizon, the pure yellow at an elevation of forty-five degrees; the fire color in the zenith; the pure blue forty-five degrees under it, toward the west; and in the very west the dark veil of night still lingering on the horizon. i think i have remarked this progression between the tropics, where there is scarcely any horizontal refraction to make the light prematurely encroach on the darkness, as in our climates. "sometimes the trade-winds, from the north-east or south-east, blow there, card the clouds through each other, then sweep them to the west, crossing and recrossing them over one another, like the osiers interwoven in a transparent basket. they throw over the sides of this chequered work the clouds which are not employed in the contexture, roll them up into enormous masses, as white as snow, draw them out along their extremities in the form of a crupper, and pile them upon each other, moulding them into the shape of mountains, caverns, and rocks; afterwards, as evening approaches, they grow somewhat calm, as if afraid of deranging their own workmanship. when the sun sets behind this magnificent netting, a multitude of luminous rays are transmitted through the interstices, which produce such an effect, that the two sides of the lozenge illuminated by them have the appearance of being girt with gold, and the other two in the shade seem tinged with _ruddy_ orange. four or five divergent streams of light, emanated from the setting sun up to the zenith, _clothe_ with fringes of gold the undeterminate summits of this celestial barrier, and strike with the reflexes of their fires the pyramids of the collateral aerial mountains, which then appear to consist of _silver_ and _vermilion_. at this moment of the evening are perceptible, amidst their redoubled ridges, a multitude of valleys extending into infinity, and distinguishing themselves at their opening by some shade of flesh or of rose colour. "these celestial valleys present in their different contours inimitable tints of white, melting away into white, or shades lengthening themselves out without mixing over other shades. you see, here and there, issuing from the cavernous sides of those mountains, tides of _light_ precipitating themselves, in ingots of gold and silver, over rocks of coral. here it is a gloomy rock, pierced through and through, disclosing, beyond the aperture, the pure azure of the firmament; there it is an extensive strand, covered with sands of gold, stretching over the rich ground of heaven; _poppy-coloured_, _scarlet_, and _green_ as the emerald. "the reverberation of those western colours diffuses itself over the sea, whose azure billows it _glazes_ with saffron and purple. the mariners, leaning over the gunwale of the ship, admire in silence those aerial landscapes. sometimes this sublime spectacle presents itself to them at the hour of prayer, and seems to invite them to lift up their hearts with their voices to the heavens. it changes every instant into forms as variable as the shades, presenting celestial colors and forms which no pencil can pretend to imitate, and no language can describe. "travellers who have, at various seasons, ascended to the summits of the highest mountains on the globe, never could perceive, in the clouds below them, any thing but a gray and lead-colored surface, similar to that of a lake. the sun, notwithstanding, illuminated them with his whole light; and his rays might there combine all the laws of refraction to which our systems of physics have subjected them. hence not a single shade of color is employed in vain, through the universe; those celestial decorations being made for the level of the earth, their magnificent point of view taken from the habitation of man. "these admirable concerts of lights and forms, manifest only in the lower region of the clouds the least illuminated by the sun, are produced by laws with which i am totally unacquainted. but the whole are reducible to five colors: yellow, a generation from white; red, a deeper shade of yellow; blue, a strong tint of red; and black, the extreme tint of blue. this progression cannot be doubted, on observing in the morning the expansion of the light in the heavens. you there see those five colors, with their intermediate shades, generating each other nearly in this order: white, sulphur yellow, lemon yellow, yolk of egg yellow, orange, aurora color, poppy red, full red, carmine red, purple, violet, azure, indigo, and black. each color seems to be only a strong tint of that which precedes it, and a faint tint of that which follows; thus the whole together appear to be only modulations of a progression, of which white is the first term, and black the last. "indeed trade cannot be carried on to any advantage, with the negroes, tartars, americans, and east-indians, but through the medium of red cloths. the testimonies of travellers are unanimous respecting the preference universally given to this color. i have indicated the universality of this taste, merely to demonstrate the falsehood of the philosophic axiom, that tastes are arbitrary, or that there are in nature no laws for beauty, and that our tastes are the effects of prejudice. the direct contrary of this is the truth; prejudice corrupts our natural tastes, otherwise the same over the whole earth. "with red nature heightens the brilliant parts of the most beautiful flowers. she has given a complete clothing of it to the rose, the queen of the garden: and bestowed this tint on the blood, the principle of life in animals: she invests most of the feathered race, in india, with a plumage of this color, especially in the season of love; and there are few birds without some shades, at least, of this rich hue. some preserve entirely the gray or brown ground of their plumage, but glazed over with red, as if they had been rolled in carmine; others are besprinkled with red, as if you had blown a scarlet powder over them. "the red (or _rayed_) color, in the midst of the five primordial colors, is the harmonic expression of them by way of excellence; and the result of the union of two contraries, light and darkness. there are, besides, agreeable tints, compounded of the oppositions of extremes. for example, of the second and fourth color, that is, of yellow and blue, is formed green, which constitutes a very beautiful harmony, and ought, perhaps, to possess the second rank in beauty, among colors, as it possesses the second in their generation. nay, green appears to many, if not the most beautiful tint, at least the most lovely, because it is less dazzling than red, and more congenial to the eye." many words come under the example previously given to illustrate the secondary character of adjectives, which should be carefully noticed by the learner, to distinguish whether they define or describe things, or are added to increase the distinction made by the adjectives themselves, for both defining and describing adjectives admit of this addition; as, _old_ english coin, new england rebelion; a mounted whip, and a _gold_ mounted sword--not a gold sword; a _very fine_ latin scholar. secondary adjectives, also, admit of comparison in various ways; as, _dearly_ beloved, a _more_ beloved, the _best_ beloved, the _very_ best beloved brother. words formerly called "prepositions," admit of comparison, as i have before observed. "benhadad fled into an _inner_ chamber." the in_ner_ temple. the in_most_ recesses of the heart. the _out_ fit of a squadron. the out_er_ coating of a vessel, or house. the ut_most_ reach of grammar. the _up_ and _down_ hill side of a field. the up_per_ end of the lot. the upper_most_ seats. a part _of_ the book. take it _farther off_. the _off_ cast. india _beyond_ the ganges. far beyond the boundaries of the nation. i shall go _to_ the city. i am _near to_ the town. _near_ does not _qualify the verb_, for it has nothing to do with it. i can exist in one place as well as another. it is _below_ the surface; _very far_ below it. it is above the earth--"high above all height." such expressions frequently occur in the expression of ideas, and are correctly understood; as difficult as it may have been to describe them with the theories learned in the books--sometimes calling them one thing, sometimes another--when their character and meaning was unchanged, or, according to old systems, had "no meaning at all of their own!" but i fear i have gone _far_ beyond your patience, and, perhaps, entered _deeper_ into this subject than was necessary, to enable you to discover my meaning. i desired to make the subject _as_ distinct _as_ possible, that all might see the important improvement suggested. i am apprehensive even now, that some will be compelled to _think_ many _profound thoughts_ before they will see the end of the obscurity under which they have long been shrouded, in reference to the false rules which they have been taught. but we have one consolation--those who are not bewildered by the grammars they have tried in vain to understand, will not be very likely to make a wrong use of adjectives, especially if they have ideas to express; for there is no more danger of mistaking an adjective for a noun, or verb, than there is of mistaking a _horse_ chestnut for a _chestnut_ horse. * * * * * in our next we shall commence the consideration of verbs, the most important department in the science of language, and particularly so in the system we are defending. i hope you have not been uninterested thus far in the prosecution of the subject of language, and i am confident you will not be in what remains to be said upon it. the science, so long regarded _dry_ and uninteresting, becomes delightful and easy; new and valuable truths burst upon us at each advancing step, and we feel to bless god for the ample means afforded us for obtaining knowledge from, and communicating it to others, on the most important affairs of time and eternity. lecture viii. on verbs. unpleasant to expose error.--verbs defined.--every thing acts.-- actor and object.--laws.--man.--animals.--vegetables.--minerals.-- neutrality degrading.--nobody can explain a neuter verb.--_one_ kind of verbs.--_you_ must decide.--importance of teaching children the truth.--active verbs.--transitive verbs false.--samples.--neuter verbs examined.--sit.--sleep.--stand.--lie.--opinion of mrs. w.--anecdote. we now come to the consideration of that class of words which in the formation of language are called _verbs_. you will allow me to bespeak your favorable attention, and to insist most strenuously on the propriety of a free and thoro examination into the nature and use of these words. i shall be under the necessity of performing the thankless task of exposing the errors of honest, wise, and good men, in order to remove difficulties which have long existed in works on language, and clear the way for a more easy and consistent explanation of this interesting and essential department of literature. i regret the necessity for such labors; but no person who wishes the improvement of mankind, or is willing to aid the growth of the human intellect, in its high aspirations after truth, knowledge, and goodness, should shrink from a frank exposition of what he deems to be error, nor refuse his assistance, feeble tho it may be, in the establishment of correct principles. in former lectures we have confined our remarks to things and a description of their characters and relations, so that every entity of which we can conceive a thought, or concerning which we can form an expression, has been defined and described in the use of nouns and adjectives. every thing in creation, of which we think, material or immaterial, real or imaginary, and to which we give a name, to represent the idea of it, comes under the class of words called nouns. the words which specify or distinguish one thing from another, or describe its properties, character, or relations, are designated as adjectives. there is only one other employment left for words, and that is the expression of the actions, changes, or inherent tendencies of things. this important department of knowledge is, in grammar, classed under the head of =verbs=. * * * * * _verb_ is derived from the latin _verbum_, which signifies a _word_. by specific application it is applied to those _words_ only which express action, correctly understood; the same as bible, derived from the greek "_biblos_" means literally _the book_, but, by way of eminence, is applied to the sacred scriptures only. this interesting class of words does not deviate from the correct principles which we have hitherto observed in these lectures. it depends on established laws, exerted in the regulation of matter and thought; and whoever would learn its sublime use must be a close observer of things, and the mode of their existence. the important character it sustains in the production of ideas of the changes and tendencies of things and in the transmission of thought, will be found simple, and obvious to all. things exist; nouns name them. things differ; adjectives define or describe them. things act; verbs express their actions. _all verbs denote action._ by action, we mean not only perceivable motion, but an inherent tendency to change, or resist action. it matters not whether we speak of animals possessed of the power of locomotion; of vegetables, which _send_ forth their branches, leaves, blossoms, and fruits; or of minerals, which _retain_ their forms, positions, and properties. the same principles are concerned, the same laws exist, and should be observed in all our attempts to understand their operations, or employ them in the promotion of human good. every thing acts according to the ability it possesses; from the small particle of sand, which _occupies_ its place upon the sea shore, up thro the various gradation of being, to the tall archangel, who _bows_ and _worships_ before the throne of the uncreated cause of all things and actions which exist thro out his vast dominions. as all actions presuppose an _actor_, so every action must result on some _object_. no effect can exist without an efficient cause to produce it; and no cause can exist without a corresponding effect resulting from it. these mutual relations, helps, and dependencies, are manifest in all creation. philosophy, religion, the arts, and all science, serve only to develope these primary laws of nature, which unite and strengthen, combine and regulate, preserve and guide the whole. from the eternal i am, the uncreated, self-existent, self-sustaining =cause= of all things, down to the minutest particle of dust, evidences may be traced of the existence and influence of these laws, in themselves irresistible, exceptionless, and immutable. every thing has a place and a duty assigned it; and harmony, peace, and perfection are the results of a careful and judicious observance of the laws given for its regulation. any infringement of these laws will produce disorder, confusion, and distraction. man is made a little lower than the angels, possessed of a mind capable of reason, improvement, and happiness; an intellectual soul inhabiting a mortal body, the connecting link between earth and heaven--the material and spiritual world. as a physical being, he is subject, in common with other things, to the laws which regulate matter: as an intellectual being, he is governed by the laws which regulate mind: as possessed of both a body and mind, a code of moral laws demand his observance in all the social relations and duties of life. obedience to these laws is the certain source of health of body, and peace of mind. an infringement of them will as certainly be attended with disease and suffering to the one, and sorrow and anguish to the other. lower grades of animals partake of many qualities in common with man. in some they are deficient; in others they are superior. some animals are possessed of all but reason, and even in that, the highest of them come very little short of the lowest of the human species. if they have not reason, they possess an instinct which nearly approaches it. these qualities dwindle down gradually thro the various orders and varieties of animated nature, to the lowest grade of animalculæ, a multitude of which may inhabit a single drop of water; or to the zoophytes and lythophytes, which form the connecting link between the animal and vegetable kingdom; as the star-fish, the polypus, and spunges. then strike off into another kingdom, and observe the laws vegetable life. mark the tall pine which has grown from a small seed which _sent_ forth its root downwards and its trunk upwards, drawing nourishment from earth, air, and water, till it now waves its top to the passing breeze, a hundred feet above this dirty earth: or the oak or olive, which have _maintained_ their respective positions a dozen centuries despite the operations of wind and weather, and have shed their foliage and their seeds to propagate their species and extend their kinds to different places. while a hundred generations have lived and died, and the country often changed masters, they resist oppression, scorn misrule, and retain rights and privileges which are slowly encroached upon by the inroads of time, which will one day triumph over them, and they fall helpless to the earth, to submit to the chemical operations which shall dissolve their very being and cause them to mingle with the common dust, yielding their strength to give life and power to other vegetables which shall occupy their places.[ ] or mark the living principle in the "sensitive plant," which withers at every touch, and suffers long ere it regains its former vigor. descend from thence, down thro the various gradations of vegetable life, till you pass the narrow border and enter the mineral world. here you will see displayed the same sublime principle, tho in a modified degree. minerals _assume_ different shapes, hues and relations; they increase and diminish, attach and divide under various circumstances, all the while _retaining_ their identity and properties, and exerting their abilities according to the means they possess, till compelled to yield to a superior power, and learn to submit to the laws which operate in every department of this mutable world. _every_ thing _acts_ according to the ability god has bestowed upon it; and man can do no more. he has authority over all things on earth, and yet he is made to depend upon all. his authority extends no farther than a privilege, under wholesome restrictions, of making the whole subservient to his real good. when he goes beyond this, he usurps a power which belongs not to him, and the destruction of his happiness pays the forfeit of his imprudence. the injured power rises triumphant over the aggressor, and the glory of god's government, in the righteous and immediate execution of his laws, is clearly revealed. so long as man obeys the laws which regulate health, observes temperance in all things, uses the things of this world as not abusing them, he is at rest, he is blessed, he is happy: but no sooner has he violated heaven's law than he becomes the slave, and the servant assumes the master. but i am digressing. i would gladly follow this subject further, but i shall go beyond my limits, and, it may be, your patience. i would insist, however, on the facts to which your attention has been given, for it is impossible, as i have before contended, to use language correctly without a knowledge of the things and ideas it is employed to represent. grovelling, indeed, must be the mind which will not trace the sublime exhibitions of divine power and skill in all the operations of nature; and false must be that theory which teaches the young mind to think and speak of neutrality as attached to things which do exist. as low and debasing as the speculations of the schoolmen were, they gave to things which they conceived to be incapable of action, a principle which they called "_vis inertiæ_," or, _power to lie still_. shall our systems of instruction descend below them, throw an insurmountable barrier in the way of human improvement, and teach the false principles that actions can exist without an effect, or that there is a class of words which "express neither action or passion." such a theory is at war with the first principles of philosophy, and denies that "like causes produce like effects." the ablest minds have never been able to explain the foundation of a "neuter verb," or to find a single word, with a solitary exception, which does not, in certain conditions, express a positive action, and terminate on a definite object; and that exception we shall see refers to a verb which expresses the highest degree of conceivable action. still they have insisted on _three_ and some on _four_ kinds of verbs, one expressing action, another passion or suffering, and the third neutrality. we propose to offer a brief review of these distinctions, which have so long perplexed, not only learners, but teachers themselves, and been the fruitful source of much dissention among grammarians. it is to be hoped you will come up to this work with as great candor as you have heretofore manifested, and as fully resolved to take nothing for granted, because it has been said by good or great men, and to reject nothing because it appears new or singular. let truth be our object and reason our guide to direct us to it. we can not fail of arriving at safe and correct conclusions. mr. murray tells us that "verbs are of three kinds, _active_, _passive_, and _neuter_. in a note he admits of "active _transitive_ and intransitive verbs," as a subdivision of his first kind. most of his "improvers" have adopted this distinction, and regard it as of essential importance. we shall contend, as before expressed, that _all_ verbs are of _one kind_, that they _express action_, for the simple yet sublime reason, that every thing acts, at all times, and under every possible condition; according to the true definition of _action_ as understood and employed by all writers on grammar, and natural and moral science. here we are at issue. both, contending for principles so opposite, can not be correct. one or the other, however pure the motives, must be attached to a system wrong in theory, and of course pernicious in practice. you are to be the umpires in the case, and, if you are faithful to your trust, you will not be bribed or influenced in the least by the opinions of others. if divested of all former attachments, if free from all prejudice, there can be no doubt of the safety and correctness of your conclusions. but i am apprehensive i expect too much, if i place the _new_ system of grammar on a footing equally favorable in your minds with those you have been taught to respect, as the only true expositions of language, from your childhood up, and which are recommended to you on the authority of the learned and good of many generations. i have to combat early prejudices, and systems long considered as almost sacred. but i have in my favor the common sense of the world, and a feeling of opposition to existing systems, which has been produced, not so much by a detection of their errors, as by a lack of capacity, as the learner verily thought, to understand their profound mysteries. i am, therefore, willing to risk the final decision with you, if _you_ will decide. but i am not willing to have you made the tools of the opposite party, determined, whether convinced or not, to hold to your old _neuter_ verb systems, right or wrong, merely because others are doing so. all i ask is _your_ adoption of what is proved to be undeniably true, and rejection of whatever is found to be false. here is where the matter must rest, for it will not be pretended that it is better to teach falsehood because it is ancient and popular, than truth because it is novel. teachers, in this respect, stand in a most responsible relation to their pupils. they should always insist with an unyielding pertinacity, on the importance of truth, and the evils of error. every trifling incident, in the course of education, which will serve to show the contrast, should be particularly observed. if an error can be detected in their books, they should be so taught as to be able to correct it; and they should be so inclined as to be willing to do it. they should not be skeptics, however, but close observers, original thinkers, and correct reasoners. it is degrading to the true dignity and independence of man, to submit blindly to any proposition. freedom of thought is the province of all. children should be made to breathe the free air of honest inquiry, and to inhale the sweet spirit of truth and charity. they should not study their books as the end of learning, but as a means of knowing. books should be regarded as lamps, which are set by the way side, not as the objects to be looked at, but the aids by which we may find the object of our search. knowledge and usefulness constitute the leading motives in all study, and no occasion should be lost, no means neglected, which will lead the young mind to their possession. your attention is now invited to some critical remarks on the distinctions usually observed in the use of verbs. let us carefully examine the meaning of these _three kinds_ and see if there is any occasion for such a division; if they have any foundation in truth, or application in the correct use of language. we will follow the arrangements adopted by the most popular grammars. "a _verb active_ expresses an action, and necessarily implies an agent, and an object acted upon; as, to love, i love penelope." a very excellent definition, indeed! had grammarians stopped here, their works would have been understood, and proved of some service in the study of language. but when they diverge from this bright spot in the consideration of verbs--this oasis in the midst of a desert--they soon become lost in the surrounding darkness of conjecture, and follow each their own dim light, to hit on a random track, which to follow in the pursuit of their object. we give our most hearty assent to the above definition of a verb. it expresses action, which necessarily implies an _actor_, and an _object_ influenced by the action. in our estimation it matters not whether the object on which the action terminates is expressed or _understood_. if i _love_, i must love some object; either my neighbor, my enemy, my family, _myself_, or something else. in either case the _action_ is the same, tho the objects may be different; and it is regarded, on all hands, as an active verb. hence when the object on which the action terminates is not expressed, it is necessarily understood. all language is, in this respect, more or less eliptical, which adds much to its richness and brevity. active verbs, we are told, are divided into _transitive_ and _intransitive_. mr. murray does not exactly approve of this distinction, but prefers to class the intransitive and neuter together. others, aware of the fallacy of attempting to make children conceive any thing like neutrality in the verbs, _run_, _fly_, _walk_, _live_, &c., have preferred to mark the distinction and call them _in_transitive; because, say they, they do not terminate on any object expressed. a _transitive verb_ "expresses an action which passes from the agent to the object; as, cæsar conquered pompey." to this definition we can not consent. it attempts a distinction where there is none. it is not true in principle, and can not be adopted in practice. "cæsar conquered pompey." did the act of conquering pass _transitively_ over from _cæsar_ to pompey? they might not have seen each other during the whole battle, nor been within many miles of each other. they, each of them, stood at the head of their armies, and alike gave orders to their subordinate officers, and they again to their inferiors, and so down, each man contending valiantly for _victory_, till, at last, the fate of the day sealed the downfall of pompey, and placed the crown of triumph on the head of cæsar. the expression is a correct one, but the action expressed by the verb "conquered," is not transitive, as that term is understood. a whole train of causes was put in operation which finally terminated in the defeat of one, and the conquest of the other. "bonaparte _lost_ the battle of waterloo." what did _he_ do to _lose_ the battle? he exerted his utmost skill to _gain_ the battle and escape defeat. he did not do a single act, he entertained not a single thought, which lead to such a result; but strove against it with all his power. if the fault was _his_, it was because he failed to act, and not because he labored to _lose_ the battle. he had too much at stake to adopt such a course, and no man but a teacher of grammar, would ever accuse him of _acting_ to _lose_ the battle. "a man was sick; he desired to recover (his health). he took, for medicine, opium by mistake, and _lost_ his life by it." was he guilty of suicide? certainly, if our grammars are true. but he _lost_ his life in trying to get well. "a man in america _possesses_ property in europe, and his children _inherit_ it after his death." what do the children do to _inherit_ this property, of which they know nothing? "the geese, by their gabbling, _saved_ rome from destruction." how did the geese save the city? they made a noise, which waked the sentinels, who roused the soldiers to arms; they fought, slew many gauls, and delivered the city. "a man in new-york _transacts_ business in canton." how does he do it? he has an agent there to whom he sends his orders, and he transacts the business. but how does he get his letters? the clerk writes them, the postman carries them on board the ship, the captain commands the sailors, who work the ropes which unfurl the sails, the wind blows, the vessel is managed by the pilot, and after a weary voyage of several months, the letters are delivered to the agent, who does the business that is required of him. the miser _denies_ himself every comfort, and spends his whole life in hoarding up riches; and yet he dies and _leaves_ his gold to be the possession of others. christians _suffer_ insults almost every day from the turks. windows _admit_ light and _exclude_ cold. who can discover any thing like _transitive_ action--a passing from the agent to the object--in these cases? what transitive action do the windows perform to _admit the light_; or the christians, to _suffer insults_; or the miser, to _leave his money_? if there is neutrality any where, we would look for it here. the fact is, these words express _relative_ action, as we shall explain when we come to the examination of the true character of the verb. _neutrality_ signifies (transitive verb!) no action, and _neuter_ verbs _express a state of being_! a class of words which can not act, which apply to things in a quiescent state, _perform_ the transitive action of "_expressing_ a state of being!" who does not perceive the inconsistency and folly of such distinctions? and who has not found himself perplexed, if not completely bewildered in the dark and intricate labyrinths into which he has been led by the false grammar books! every attempt he has made to extricate himself, by the dim light of the "simplifiers," has only tended to bewilder him still more, till he is utterly confounded, or else abandons the study altogether. * * * * * an _intransitive_ verb "denotes action which is confined to the actor, and does not pass over to another object; as, i sit, he lives, they sleep." "a verb _neuter_ expresses neither action nor passion, but being, or a state of being; as, i am, i sleep, i sit." these verbs are nearly allied in character; but we will examine them separately and fairly. the examples are the same, with exception of the verb _to be_, which we will notice by itself, and somewhat at large, in another place. our first object will be to ascertain the _meaning_ and use of the words which have been given as samples of neutrality. it is unfortunate for the neuter systems that they can not define a "neuter verb" without making it express an action which terminates on some object. * * * "the man _sits_ in his chair." _sits_, we are told, is a neuter verb. what does it mean? the man _places_ himself in a sitting posture in his _seat_. he _keeps_ himself in his chair by muscular energy, assisted by gravitation. the chair _upholds_ him in that condition. bring a small child and _sit_ it (active verb,) in a chair beside him. can it _sit_? no; it falls upon the floor and is injured. why did it fall? it was not able to _keep_ itself from falling. the lady fainted and _fell_ from her _seat_. if there is no action in sitting, why did she not remain as she was? a company of ladies and gentlemen from the boarding school and college, entered the parlor of a teacher of neuter verbs; and he asked them to _sit_ down, or be _seated_. they were neutral. he called them impolite. but they replied, that _sit_ "expresses neither action nor passion," and hence he could not expect them to occupy his seats. "_sit_ or _set_ it away; _sit_ near me; _sit_ farther along; _sit_ still;" are expressions used by every teacher in addressing his scholars. on the system we are examining, what would they understand by such inactive expressions? would he not correct them for disobeying his orders? but what did he order them to do? nothing at all, if _sit_ denotes no action. "i _sat_ me down and wept." "he _sat him_ down by a pillar's base, and drew his hand athwart his face." _byron._ "then, having shown his wounds, he'd _sit him_ down, and, all the live long day, discourse of war." _tragedy of douglass._ "but wherefore _sits he_ there? death on my state! _this act_ convinces me that this retiredness of the duke and her, is plain contempt." _king lear._ "_sitting_, the _act of resting_ on a seat. _session_, the _act of sitting_." _johnson's dictionary._ * * * "_i sleep._" is sleep a neuter verb? so we are gravely told by our authors. can grammarians follow their own rules? if so, they may spend the "live long night" and "its waking hours," without resorting to "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep;" for there is no process under heaven whereby they can procure sleep, unless they _sleep_ it. for one, i can never _sleep_ without sleeping _sleep_--sometimes only a short _nap_. it matters not whether the object is expressed or not. the action remains the same. the true object is necessarily understood, and it would be superfluous to name it. cases, however, often occur where, both in speaking and writing, it becomes indispensable to mention the object. "the stout hearted have _slept_ their sleep." "they shall _sleep_ the _sleep_ of death." "they shall _sleep_ the perpetual _sleep_, and shall not awake." "_sleep_ on now and _take_ your rest." the child was troublesome and the mother sung it to sleep, and it _slept itself_ quiet. a lady took opium and _slept herself_ to death. "many persons sleep themselves into a kind of unnatural stupidity." rip van winkle, according to the legend, _slept_ away a large portion of a common life. "sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares." "and _sleep_ dull _cares_ away." was your sleep refreshing last night? how did you procure it? let a person who still adheres to his _neuter_ verbs, that sleep expresses no action, and has no object on which it terminates, put his theory in practice; he may as well sleep with his eyes open, sitting up, as to _lie himself_ upon his bed. a man lodged in an open chamber, and while he was _sleeping_ (doing nothing) he _caught_ a severe _cold_ (active transitive verb) and had a long _run_ of the fever. who does not see, not only the bad, but also the false philosophy of such attempted distinctions? how can you make a child discover any difference in the _act of sleeping_, whether there is an object after it, or not? is it not the same? and is not the object necessarily implied, whether expressed or not? can a person _sleep_, without procuring _sleep_? * * * "_i stand._" the man _stands_ firm in his integrity. another stands in a very precarious condition, and being unable to retain his hold, _falls_ down the precipice and is killed. who is killed? the man, surely. why did he fall? because he could not _stand_. but there is no _action_ in _standing_, say the books. "_stand_ by thyself, come not near me?" "_stand_ fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made you free, and _be_ not again entangled in the yoke of bondage." "let him that thinketh he _standeth_, take heed lest he _fall_." if it requires no act to _stand_, there can be no danger of falling. "two pillars stood together; the rest had fallen to the ground. the one on the right was quite perfect in all its parts. the other _resembled it_ very much, except it had _lost_ its capital, and _suffered_ some other injuries." how could the latter column, while performing no action in _standing_, act _transitively_, according to our grammars, and do something to _resemble_ the other? or, what did it do to _lose_ its capital, and _suffer_ other injury? * * * "to _lie_, or _lay_." it has been admitted that the verbs before considered are often used as active verbs, and that there is, in truth, action expressed by them. but when the man has fallen from his seat and _lies_ upon the floor, it is contended that he no longer acts, and that _lie_ expresses no action. he has ceased from physical, muscular action regulated by his will, and is now subject to the common laws which govern matter. let us take a strong example. the book _lies_ or _lays_ on the desk. now you ask, does that book perform any action in laying on the desk? i answer, yes; and i will prove it on the principles of the soundest philosophy, to the satisfaction of every one present. nor will i deviate from existing grammars to do it, so far as real action is concerned. the book _lies_ on the desk. the desk _supports_ the book. will you parse _supports_? it is, according to every system, an active transitive verb. it has an objective case after it on which the action terminates. but what does the desk do to _support_ the book? it barely resists the action which the book _performs_ in lying on it. the action of the desk and book is reciprocal. but if the book does not act, neither can the desk act, for that only repels the force of the book in pressing upon it in its tendency towards the earth, in obedience to the law of gravitation. and yet our authors have told us that the desk is _active_ in resisting no action of the book! no wonder people are unable to understand grammar. it violates the first principles of natural science, and frames to itself a code of laws, unequal, false, and exceptionable, which bear no affinity to the rest of the world, and will not apply in the expression of ideas. i was once lecturing on this subject in one of the cities of new-york. mrs. w., the distinguished teacher of one of the most popular female seminaries in our country, attended. at the close of one lecture she remarked that the greatest fault she had discovered in the new system, was the want of a class of words to express neutrality. children, she said, conceived ideas of things in a quiescent state, and words should be taught them by which to communicate such ideas. i asked her for an example. she gave the rock in the side of the mountain. it had never moved. it could never act. there it had been from the foundation of the earth, and there it would remain unaltered and unchanged till time should be no longer. i remarked, that i would take another small stone and _lay_ it on the great one which could never act, and now we say the great rock _upholds_, _sustains_ or _supports_ the small one--all active transitive verbs with an object expressed. she replied, she would give it up, for it had satisfied her of a new principle which must be observed in the exposition of all language, which accords with _facts as developed in physical and mental science_. i continued, not only does that rock act in resisting the force of the small one which lays upon it, but, by the attraction of gravitation it is able to _maintain_ its _position_ in the side of the mountain; by cohesion it _retains_ its distinct identity and solidity, and repels all foreign bodies. it is also subject to the laws which govern the earth in its diurnal and annual revolutions, and moves in common with other matter at the astonishing rate of a thousand miles in an hour! who shall teach children, in these days of light and improvement, the grovelling doctrine of neutrality, this relic of the peripatetic philosophy? will parents send their children to school to learn falsehood? and can teachers be satisfied to remain in ignorance, following with blind reverence the books they have studied, and refuse to examine new principles, fearing they shall be compelled to acknowledge former errors and study new principles? they should remember it is wiser and more honorable to confess a fault and correct it, than it is to remain permanent in error. let us take another example of the verb "_to lie_." a country pedagogue who has followed his authorities most devotedly, and taught his pupils that _lie_ is a "_neuter verb_, expressing neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being," goes out, during the intermission, into a grove near by, to _exercise himself_. in attempting to roll a log up the hill, he _makes_ a mis-step, and _falls_ (intransitive verb, _nothing_ falls!) to the ground, and the log _rolls_ (_nothing_) on to him, and _lies_ across his legs. in this condition he is observed by his scholars to whom he cries (nothing) for help. "do (nothing) come (intransitive) and help me." they obey him and remain _neuter_, or at least act _intransitively_, and produce no effects. he cries again for help and his _cries_ are regarded. they _present_ themselves before him. "do roll this log off; it will break my legs." "oh no, master; how can that be? the log _lies_ on you, does it not?" "yes, and it will _press me_ to death." "no, no; that can never be. the log can not act. =lies= is a _neuter_ verb, signifying neither _action_ nor passion, but simply being or a state of being. you have a _state_ of being, and the log has a state of being. it can not harm you. you must have forgotten the practical application of the truths you have been teaching us." it would be difficult to explain neuter verbs in such a predicament. "now i _lay_ me down _to sleep_." "she died and they _laid her_ beside her lover under the spreading branches of the willow." "they _laid it_ away so secure that they could never find it." they _laid_ down to _rest themselves_ after the fatigue of a whole day's journey. we have now considered the model verbs of the neuter kind, with the exception of the verb =to be=, which is left for a distinct consideration, being the most active of all verbs. it is unnecessary to spend much time on this point. the errors i have examined have all been discovered by teachers of language, long ago, but few have ventured to correct them. an alleviation of the difficulty has been sought in the adoption of the intransitive verb, which "expresses an action that is confined to the actor or agent." the remarks which have been given in the present lecture will serve as a hint to the course we shall adopt in treating of them, but the more particular examination of their character and uses, together with some general observation on the agents and objects of verbs, will be deferred to our next lecture. lecture ix. on verbs. neuter and intransitive.--agents.--objects.--no actions as such can be known distinct from the agent.--imaginary actions.--actions known by their effects.--examples.--signs should guide to things signified.--principles of action.--=power=.--animals.--vegetables. --minerals.--all things act.--magnetic needle.--=cause=.--explained. --first cause.--=means=.--illustrated.--sir i. newton's example.-- these principles must be known.--=relative= action.--anecdote of gallileo. we resume the consideration of verbs. we closed our last lecture with the examination of _neuter verbs_, as they have been called. it appears to us that evidence strong enough to convince the most skeptical was adduced to prove that _sit_, _sleep_, _stand_ and _lie_, stand in the same relation to language as other verbs, that they do not, in any case, express neutrality, but frequently admit an objective word after them. these are regarded as the most neutral of all the verbs except _to be_, which, by the way, expresses the highest degree of action, as we shall see when we come to inquire into its meaning. grammarians have long ago discovered the falsity of the books in the use of a large portion of verbs which have been called neuter. to obviate the difficulty, some of them have adopted the distinction of _intransitive_ verbs, which express action, but terminate on no object; others still use the term _neuter_, but teach their scholars that when the _object_ is _expressed_, it is active. this distinction has only tended to perplex learners, while it afforded only a temporary expedient to teachers, by which to dodge the question at issue. so far as the action is concerned, which it is the business of the verb to express, what is the difference whether "i _run_, or _run_ myself?" "a man started in haste. he _ran_ so fast that he _ran himself_ to death." i strike thomas, thomas _strikes david_, thomas _strikes himself_. where is the difference in the action? what matters it whether the action passes over to another object, or is confined within itself? "but," says the objector, "you mistake. an intransitive verb is one where the 'effect is confined within the subject, and does not pass over to any object.'" very well, i think i understand the objection. when thomas strikes david the effects of the blow _passes over_ to him. and when he strikes himself, it "is confined within the subject," and hence the latter is an _intransitive_ verb. "no, no; there is an object on which the action terminates, in that case, and so we must call it a _transitive_ verb." will you give me an example of an _intransitive_ verb? "i _run_, he _walks_, birds _fly_, it _rains_, the fire _burns_. no objects are expressed after these words, so the action is confined within themselves." i now get your meaning. when the object is _expressed_ the verb is transitive, when it is not it is intransitive. this distinction is generally observed in teaching, however widely it may differ from the intention of the makers of grammars. and hence children acquire the habit of limiting their inquiries to what they see placed before them by others, and do not think for themselves. when the verb has an objective word after it _expressed_, they are taught to attach action to it; but tho the action may be even greater, if the object is not expressed, they consider the action as widely different in its character, and adopt the false philosophy that a cause can exist without an effect resulting from it. we assume this ground, and we shall labor to maintain it, that every verb necessarily presupposes an _agent_ or _actor_, an _action_, and an _object_ acted upon, or affected by the action. no action, as such, can be known to exist separate from the thing that acts. we can conceive no idea of action, only by keeping our minds fixed on the acting substance, marking its changes, movements, and tendencies. "the book _moves_." in this case the eye rests on the book, and observes its positions and attitudes, alternating one way and the other. you can separate no action from the book, nor conceive any idea of it, as a separate entity. let the book be taken away. where now is the action? what can you think or say of it? there is the same space just now occupied by the book, but no action is perceivable. the boy _rolls_ his marble upon the floor. all his ideas of the action performed by it are derived from an observation of the marble. his eye follows it as it moves along the floor. he sees it in that acting condition. when he speaks of the action as a whole, he thinks where it started and where it stopped. it is of no importance, so far as the verb is concerned, whether the marble received an impulse from his hand, or whether the floor was sufficiently inclined to allow it to roll by its own inherent tendency. the action is, in this case, the obvious change of the marble. our whole knowledge of action depends on an observance of things in a state of motion, or change, or exerting a tendency to change, or to counteract an opposing substance. this will be admitted so far as material things are concerned. the same principle holds good in reference to every thing of which we form ideas, or concerning which we use language. in our definition of nouns we spoke of immaterial and imaginary things to which we gave _names_ and which we consider as agencies capable of exerting an influence in the production of effects, or in resisting actions. it is therefore unimportant whether the action be real or imaginary. it is still inseparably connected with the thing that acts; and we employ it thus in the construction of language to express our thoughts. thus, lions roar; birds sing; minds reflect; fairies dance; knowledge increases; fancies err; imagination wanders. this fact should be borne in mind in all our attempts to understand or explain language. the mind should remain fixed to the acting substance, to observe its changes and relations at different periods, and in different circumstances. there is no other process by which any knowledge can be gained of actions. the mind contemplates the acting thing in a condition of change and determines the precise action by the _altered condition_ of the thing, and thus learns to judge of actions by their effects. the only method by which we can know whether a _vegetable grows_ or not is by comparing its form to-day with what it was some days ago. we can not decide on the improvement of our children only by observing the same rule. "by their fruits ye shall know them," will apply in physics as well as in morals; for we judge of causes only by their effects. first principles can never be known. we observe things as they _are_, and remember how they _have been_; and from hence deduce our conclusions in reference to the _cause_ of things we do not fully understand, or those consequences which will follow a condition of things as now existing. it is the business of philosophy to mark these effects, and trace them back to the causes which produced them, by observing all the intermediate changes, forms, attitudes, and conditions, in which such things have, at different times, been placed. we say, "_trees grow_." but suppose no change had ever been observed in trees, that they had always been as they now are; in stature as lofty, in foliage as green and beautiful, in location unaltered. who would then say, "trees grow?" in this single expression a whole train of facts are taken into the account, tho not particularly marked. as a single expression we imply that _trees increase their stature_. but this we all know could never be effected without the influence of other causes. the soil where it stands must contain properties suited to the _growth_ of the tree. a due portion of moisture and heat are also requisite. these facts all exist, and are indispensable to make good the expression that the "tree grows." we might also trace the capabilities of the tree itself, its roots, bark, veins or pores, fibres or grains, its succulent and absorbent powers. but, as in the case of the "man that killed the deer," noticed in a former lecture, the mind here conceives a single idea of a complete whole, which is signified by the single expression, "trees grow." let the following example serve in further illustration of this point. take two bricks, the one heated to a high temperature, the other cold. put them together, and in a short time you will find them of equal temperature. one has grown warm, the other cool. one has _imparted_ heat and _received_ cold, the other has _received_ heat and _imparted_ cold. yet all this would remain forever unknown, but for the effects which must appear obvious to all. from these effects the causes are to be learned. it must, i think, appear plain to all who are willing to see, that action, as such, can never exist distinct from the thing that acts; that all our notions of action are derived from an observance of _things_ in an acting condition; and hence that no words can be framed to express our ideas of action on any other principle. i hope you will bear these principles in mind. they are vastly important in the construction of language, as will appear when we come to speak of the _agents_ and _objects_ of action. we still adhere to the fact, that no rules of language can be successfully employed, which deviate from the permanent laws which operate in the regulation of matter and mind; a fact which can not be too deeply impressed on your minds. in the consideration of actions as expressed by verbs, we must observe that _power_, _cause_, _means_, _agency_, and _effects_, are indispensable to their existence. such principles exist _in fact_, and must be observed in obtaining a complete knowledge of language; for words, we have already seen, are the expression of ideas, and ideas are the impression of things. in our attempts at improvement, we should strip away the covering, and come at the reality. words should be measurably forgotten, while we search diligently for the things expressed by them. _signs_ should always conduct to the things _signified_. the weary traveller, hungry and faint, would hardly satisfy himself with an examination of the _sign_ before the inn, marking its form, the picture upon it, the nice shades of coloring in the painting. he would go in, and search for the thing signified. it has been the fault in teaching language, that learners have been limited to the mere _forms_ of words, while the important duty of teaching them to look at the thing signified, has been entirely disregarded. hence they have only obtained book knowledge. they know what the grammars say; but how to _apply_ what they say, or what is in reality meant by it, they have yet to learn. this explains the reason why almost every man who has studied grammar will tell you that "he _used_ to understand it, but it has all gone from him, for he has not looked into a _book_ these many years." has he lost a knowledge of language? oh, no, he learned that before he saw a grammar, and will preserve it to the day of his death. what good did his two or three years study of grammar do him? none at all; he has forgotten all that he ever knew of it, and that is not much, for he only learned what some author said, and a few arbitrary rules and technical expressions which he could never understand nor apply in practice, except in special cases. but i wander. i throw in this remark to show you the necessity of bringing your minds to a close observance of things as they do in truth exist; and from them you can draw the principles of speech, and be able to use language correctly. for we still insist on our former opinion, that all language depends on the permanent laws of nature, as exerted in the regulation of matter and mind. * * * to return. i have said that all action denotes _power_, _cause_, _means_, _agency_, and _effects_. * * * _power_ depends on _physical energy_, or _mental skill_. i have hinted at this fact before. things act according to the power or energy they possess. animals walk, birds fly, fishes swim, minerals sink, poisons kill. or, according to the adopted theories of naturalists: minerals _grow_. vegetables _grow_ and _live_. animals _grow_, and _live_, and _feel_. every thing acts according to the ability it possesses. man, possessed of reason, devises means and produces ends. beasts change locations, devour vegetables, and sometimes other beasts. the lowest grade of animals never change location, but yet eat and live. vegetables live and grow, but do not change location. they have the power to reproduce their species, and some of them to kill off surrounding objects. "the _carraguata_ of the west indies, clings round," says goldsmith, "whatever tree it happens to approach; there it quickly gains the ascendant, and, loading the tree with a verdure not its own, keeps away that nourishment designed to feed the trunk, and at last entirely destroys its supporter." in our country, many gardens and fields present convincing proof of the ability of weeds to kill out the vegetables designed to grow therein. you all have heard of the _upas_, which has a power sufficient to destroy the lives of animals and vegetables for a large distance around. its very exhalations are death to whatever approaches it. it serves in metaphor to illustrate the noxious effects of all vice, of slander and deceit, the effects of which are to the moral constitution, what the tree itself is to natural objects, blight and mildew upon whatever comes within its reach. minerals are possessed of _power_ no less astonishing, which may be observed whenever an opportunity is offered to call it forth. active poisons, able to slay the most powerful men and beasts, lie hid within their bosoms. they have strong attractive and repelling powers. from the iron is made the strong cable which _holds_ the vessel fast in her moorings, _enabling_ it to outride the collected force of the winds and waves which _threaten_ its destruction. from it also are manufactured the manacles which bind the strong man, or fasten the lion in his cage. gold _possesses_ a power which _charms_ nearly all men to sacrifice their ease, and too many their moral principles, to pay their blind devotions at its shrine. who will contend that the power of action is confined to the animal creation alone, and that inanimate matter can not act? that there is a superior power possessed by man, endowed with an immaterial spirit in a corporeal body, none will deny. by the agency of the mind he can accomplish wonders, which mere physical power without the aid of such mental skill, could never perform. but with all his boasted superiority, he is often made the slave of inanimate things. his lofty powers of body and soul bend beneath the weight of accumulated sorrows, produced by the secret _operations_ of contagious disease, which _slays_ his wife, children, and friends, who fall like the ripened harvest before the gatherers scythe. nay, he often submits to the controlling power of the vine, alcohol, or tobacco, which _gain_ a secret influence over his nobler powers, and _fix_ on him the stamp of disgrace, and _throw_ around him fetters from which he finds it no easy matter to extricate himself. by the illusions of error and vice he is often betrayed, and long endures darkness and suffering, till he _regains_ his native energies, and finds deliverance in the enjoyment of truth and virtue. what is that secret power which lies concealed beyond the reach of human ken, and is transported from land to land unknown, till exposed in conditions suited to its operation, will show its active and resistless force in the destruction of life, and the devastation of whole cities or nations? you may call it plague, or cholera, or small pox, miasma, contagion, particles of matter floating in the air surcharged with disease, or any thing else. it matters not what you call it. it is sufficient to our present purpose to know that it has the ability to put forth a prodigious power in the production of consequences, which the highest skill of man is yet unable to prevent. i might pursue this point to an indefinite length, and trace the secret powers possessed by all created things, as exhibited in the influence they exert in various ways, both as regards themselves and surrounding objects. but you will at once perceive my object, and the truth of the positions i assume. a common power pervades all creation, operating by pure and perfect laws, regulated by the great first cause, the moving principle, which guides, governs, and controls the whole.[ ] degrading indeed must be those sentiments which limit all action to the animal frame as an organized body, moved by a living principle. ours is a sublimer duty; to trace the operations of the divine wisdom which acts thro out all creation, in the minutest particle of dust which _keeps_ its _position_ secure, till moved by some superior power; or in the _needle_ which points with unerring skill to its fixed point, and _guides_ the vessel, freighted with a hundred lives, safe thro the midnight storm, to its destined haven; tho rocked by the waves and driven by the winds, it remains uninfluenced, and tremblingly alive to the important duties entrusted to its charge, continues its faithful service, and is watched with the most implicit confidence by all on board, as the only guide to safety. the same wisdom is displayed thro out all creation; in the beauty, order, and harmony of the universe; in the planets which float in the azure vault of heaven; in the glow worm that glitters in the dust; in the fish which cuts the liquid element; in the pearl which sparkles in the bottom of the ocean; in every thing that lives, moves, or has a being; but more distinctly in man, created in the moral image of his maker, possessed of a heart to feel, and a mind to understand--the third in the rank of intelligent beings. i cannot refuse to favor you with a quotation from that inimitable poem, pope's essay on man. it is rife with sentiment of the purest and most exalted character. it is direct to our purpose. you may have heard it a thousand times; but i am confident you will be pleased to hear it again. ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, earth for whose use? pride answers, "'tis for mine: "for me kind nature wakes her genial pow'r, "suckles each herb, and spreads out every flow'r; "annual for me, the grape, the rose renew "the juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; "for me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; "for me health gushes from a thousand springs; "seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; "my footstool earth, my canopy the skies." but errs not nature from this gracious end, from burning suns when livid deaths descend, when earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "_no_," ('tis replied,) "_the first almighty cause acts not by partial, but by general laws; th' exceptions few; some change since all began: and what created perfect?_" why then man? if the great end be human happiness, then nature deviates--and can man do less? as much that end a constant course requires of show'rs and sunshine, as of man's desires; as much eternal springs and cloudless skies, as man forever temp'rate, calm, and wise. if plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design. why then a borgia, or a cataline? who knows but he whose hand the lightning forms, who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms; pours fierce ambition in a cæsar's mind; or turns young ammon loose to scourge mankind? from pride, from pride our very reas'ning springs; account for moral as for nat'ral things: why charge we heaven in those, in these acquit? in both, to reason right, is to submit. better for us, perhaps, it might appear, were there all harmony, all virtue here; that never air or ocean felt the wind; that never passion discomposed the mind. but =all= subsists by elemental strife; and passions are the elements of life. the general =order=, since the whole began, is kept in nature, and is kept in man. * * * * * look round our world, behold the chain of love. combining all below and all above; see plastic nature working to this end, the single atoms each to other tend; attract, attracted to, the next in place formed and impelled its neighbor to embrace, see matter next, with various life endued, press to one center still the gen'ral good. see dying vegetables life sustain, see life dissolving, vegetate again; all forms that perish, other forms supply, (by turns we catch the vital breath, and die) like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, they rise, they break, and to that sea return, nothing is foreign--parts relate to whole; one all-extending, all-preserving soul connects each being greatest with the least; made beast in aid of man, and man of beast; all served, all serving; nothing stands alone; the chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown. but _power_ alone is not sufficient to produce action. there must be a =cause= to call it forth, to set in operation and exhibit its latent energies. it will remain hid in its secret chambers till efficient causes have set in operation the _means_ by which its existence is to be discovered in the production of change, effects, or results. there is, it is said, in every created thing a power sufficient to produce its own destruction, as well as to preserve its being. in the human body, for instance, there is a constant tendency to decay, to waste; which a counteracting power resists, and, with proper assistance, keeps alive. the same may be said of vegetables which are constantly throwing off, or exhaling the waste, offensive, or useless matter, and yet a restoring power, assisted by heat, moisture, and the nourishment of the earth, resists the tendency to decay and preserves it alive and growing. the air, the earth, nay, the ocean itself, philosophers assure us, contain powers sufficient to self-destruction. but i will not enlarge here. let the necessary _cause_ be exerted which will give vent to this hidden power and actions the most astonishing and destructive would be the effect. these are often witnessed in the tremendous earthquakes which devastate whole cities, states, and empires; in the tornados which pass, like the genius of evil, over the land, levelling whatever is found in its course; or in the waterspouts and maelstroms which prove the grave of all that comes within their grasp. in the attempted destruction of the royal family and parliament of england, by what is usually called the "gunpowder plot," the arrangements were all made; two hogsheads and thirty-six barrels of powder, sufficient to blow up the house of lords and the surrounding buildings, were secreted in a vault beneath it, strown over with faggots. guy fawkes, a spanish officer, employed for the purpose, lay at the door, on the th of november, , with the matches, or _means_, in his pocket, which should set in operation the prodigious dormant _power_, which would hurl to destruction james i., the royal family, and the protestant parliament, give the ascendancy to the catholics, and change the whole political condition of the nation. the _project_ was discovered, the _means_ were removed, the _cause_ taken away, and the threatened _effects_ were prevented. the =cause= of action is the immediate subject which precedes or tends to produce the action, without which it would not take place. it may result from volition, inherent tendency, or communicated impulse; and is known to exist from the effects produced by it, in the altered or new condition of the thing on which it operates; which change would not have been effected without it. causes are to be sought for by tracing back thro the effects which are produced by them. the factory is put in operation, and the cloth is manufactured. the careless observer would enter the building and see the spindles, looms, and wheels operated by the hands, and go away satisfied that he has seen enough, seen all. but the more careful will look farther. he will trace each band and wheel, each cog and shaft, down by the balance power, to the water race and floom; or thro the complicated machinery of the steam engine to the piston, condenser, water, wood, and fire; marking a new, more secret, and yet more efficient cause at each advancing step. but all this curiously wrought machinery is not the product of chance, operated without care. a superior cause must be sought in human skill, in the deep and active ingenuity of man. every contrivance presupposes a contriver. hence there must have been a power and means sufficient to combine and regulate the power of the water, or generate and direct the steam. that power is vested in man; and hence, man stands as the cause, in relation to the whole process operated by wheels, bands, spindles, and looms. yet we may say, with propriety, that the water, or the steam; the water-wheel, or the piston; the shafts, bands, cogs, pullies, spindles, springs, treddles, harnesses, reeds, shuttles, an almost endless concatenation of instruments, are alike the _causes_, which tend to produce the final result; for let one of these intermediate causes be removed, and the whole power will be diverted, and all will go wrong--the effect will not be produced. there must be a =first cause= to set in operation all inferior ones in the production of action; and to that _first_ cause all action, nay, the existence of all other causes, may be traced, directly, or more distant. the intervening causes, in the consecutive order of things, may be as diversified as the links in the chain of variant beings. yet all these causes are moved by the all-sufficient and ever present agency of the almighty father, the =uncaused cause= of all things and beings; who spoke into existence the universe with all its various and complicated parts and orders; who set the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament, gave the earth a place, and fixed the sea a bed; throwing around them barriers over which they can never pass. from the height of his eternal throne, his eye pervades all his works; from the tall archangel, that "adores and burns," down to the very hairs of our heads, which are all numbered, his wise, benevolent, and powerful supervision may be traced in legible lines, which may be seen and read of all men. and from effects, the most diminutive in character, may be traced back, from cause to cause, upward in the ascending scale of being, to the same unrivalled source of all power, splendor, and perfection, the presence of him, who spake, and it was done; who commanded, and it _stood still_; or, as the poet has it: "look thro nature up to nature's god." the _means_ of action are those aids which are displayed as the medium thro which existing causes are to exhibit their hidden powers in producing changes or effects. the matches in the pocket of guy fawkes were the direct means by which he intended to set in operation a train of causes which should terminate in the destruction of the house of lords and all its inmates. those matches, set on fire, would convey a spark to the faggots, and thence to the powder, and means after means, and cause after cause, in the rapid succession of events, would ensue, tending to a final, inevitable, and melancholy result. a ball shot from a cannon, receives its first impulse from the powder; but it is borne thro the air by the aid of a principle inherent in itself, which power is finally overcome by the density of the atmosphere which impedes its progress, and the law of gravitation finally attracts it to the earth. these contending principles may be known by observing the curved line in which the ball moves from the cannon's mouth to the spot where it rests. but if there is no power in the ball, why does not the ball of cork discharged from the same gun with the same momentum, travel to the same distance, at the same rate? the action commences in both cases with the same projectile force, the same exterior _means_ are employed, but the results are widely different. the cause of this difference must be sought for in the comparative power of each substance to _continue its own movements_. every boy who has played at ball has observed these principles. he throws his ball, which, if not _counteracted_, will continue in a straight line, _ad infinitum_--without end. but the air impedes its progress, and gravitation brings it to the ground. when he throws it against a hard substance, its velocity is not only overcome, but it is sent back with great force. but if he takes a ball of wax, of snow, or any strong adhesive substance, it will not bound. how shall we account to him for this difference? he did the same with both balls. the impetus given the one was as great as the other, and the resistance of the intervening substance was as great in one case as the other; and yet, one bounds and rebounds, while the other sticks fast as a friend, to the first object it meets. the cause of this difference is to be sought for in the different capabilities of the respective balls. one possesses a strong elastic and repelling power; in the other, the attraction of cohesion is predominant. take another example. let two substances of equal size and form, the one made of lead, the other of cork, be put upon the surface of a cistern of water. the external circumstances are the same, but the effects are widely different--one sinks, the other floats. we must look for the cause of this difference, not in the opposite qualities of surrounding matter, but in the things themselves. if you add to the cork another quality possessed by the lead, and give it the same form, size, and _weight_, it will as readily sink to the bottom. but this last property is possessed in different degrees by the two bodies, and hence, while the one floats upon the water, the other displaces its particles and sinks to the bottom. you may take another substance; say the mountain ebony, which is heavier than water, but lighter than lead, and immerse it in the water; it will not sink with the rapidity of lead, because its inherent _power_ is not so strong. take still another case. let two balls, suspended on strings, be equally, or, to use the technical term, _positively_ electrified. bring them within a certain distance, and they will repel each other. let the electric fluid be extracted from one, and the other will attract it. before, they were as enemies; now they embrace as friends. the magnet furnishes the most striking proof in favor of the theory we are laboring to establish. let one of sufficient power be let down within the proper distance, it will overcome the power of gravitation, and _attract_ the heavy steel to itself. what is the cause of this wonderful fact? who can account for it? who can trace out the hidden cause; the "_primum mobile_" of the ptolmaic philosophy--the secret spring of motion? but who will dare deny that such effects do exist, and that they are produced by an efficient cause? or who will descend into the still more dark and perplexing mazes of neuter verb grammars, and deny that matter has such a power to act? these instances will suffice to show you what we mean when we say, _every thing acts according to the ability god has given it to act_. i might go into a more minute examination of the properties of matter, affinity, hardness, weight, size, color, form, mobility, &c., which even old grammars will allow it to _possess_; but i shall leave that work for you to perform at your leisure. whoever has any doubts remaining in reference to the abilities of all things to _produce_, _continue_, or _prevent_ motion, will do well to consult the prince of philosophers, sir isaac newton, who, after gallileo, has treated largely upon the laws of motion. he asserts as a fact, full in illustration of the principles i am laboring to establish, that in ascending a hill, the trace rope pulls the horse back as much as he draws that forward, only the horse overcomes the resistance of the load, and moves it up the hill. on the old systems, no power would be requisite to move the load, for it could oppose no resistance to the horse; and the small child could move it with as much ease as the strong team. who has not an acquaintance sufficiently extensive to know these things? i can not believe there is a person present, who does not fully comprehend my meaning, and discover the correctness of the ground i have assumed. and it should be borne in mind, that no collection or arrangement of words can be composed into a sentence, which do not obtain their meaning from a connection of things as they exist and operate in the material and intellectual world, and that it is not in the power of man to frame a sentence, to think or speak, but in conformity with these general and exceptionless laws. this important consideration meets us at every advancing step, as if to admonish us to abandon the vain project of seeking a knowledge of language without an acquaintance with the great principles on which it depends. to look for the leading rules of speech in set forms of expression, or in the capricious customs of any nation, however learned, is as futile as to attempt to gain a knowledge of the world by shutting ourselves up in a room, and looking at paintings and drawings which may be furnished by those who know as little of it as we do. how fallacious would be the attempt, how much worse than time thrown away, for the parent to shut up his child in a lonely room, and undertake to impress upon its mind a knowledge of man, beasts, birds, fish, insects, rivers, mountains, fields, flowers, houses, cities, &c., with no other aid than a few miserable pictures, unlike the reality, and in many respects contradictory to each other. and yet that would be adopting a course very similar to the one long employed as the only means of acquiring a knowledge of language; limited to a set of arbitrary, false, and contradictory rules, which the brightest geniuses could never understand, nor the most erudite employ in the expression of ideas. the grammars, it was thought, must be studied to acquire the use of language, and yet they were forgotten before such knowledge was put in practice. * * * * * a simple remark on the principles of _relative_ action, and we will pass to the consideration of _agents_ and _objects_, or the more immediate _causes_ and _effects_ of action. we go forth at the evening hour and look upon the sun _sinking_ beneath the horizon; we mark the varying hues of light as they appear, and change, and fade away. we see the shades of night _approaching_, with a gradual pace, till the beautiful landscape on which we had been gazing, the hills and the meadows; the farm house and the cultivated fields, the grove, the orchard, and the garden; the tranquil lake and the babbling brook; the dairy returning home, and the lambkins gambolling beside their dams; all _recede_ from our view, and _appear_ to us no longer. all this is _relative_ action. but so far as language and ideas are concerned, it matters not whether the sun actually _sinks_ behind the hills, or the hills interpose between it and us; whether the landscape _recedes_ from our view, or the shades of night intercept so as to obscure our vision. the habit of thought is the same, and the form of expression must agree with it. we say the sun _rises_ and _sets_, in reference to the obvious fact, without stopping to inquire whether it really moves or not. nor is such an inquiry at all necessary, as to matter of fact, for all we mean by such expressions, is, that by some process, immaterial to the case in hand, the sun stands in a new relation to the earth, its altitude is elevated or depressed, and hence the action is strictly relative. for we should remember that _rising_ and _setting_, _up_ and _down_, _above_ and _below_, in reference to the earth, are only relative terms. we speak and read of the _changes_ of the moon, and we correctly understand each other. but in truth the moon changes no more at one time than at another. the action is purely relative. one day we observe it _before_ the sun, and the next _behind_ it, as we understand these terms. the precise time of the change, when it will appear to us in a different relation to the sun, is computed by astronomers, and set down in our almanacs; but it changes no more at that time than at any other, for like every thing else, it is _always changing_. in a case we mentioned in a former lecture, "john _looks_ like or _resembles_ his brother," we have an example of relative action. so in the case of two men travelling the same way, starting together, but advancing at different rates; one, we say, _falls_ behind the other. in this manner of expression, we follow exactly the principles on which we started, and suit our language to our ideas and habits of thinking. by the law of optics things are reflected upon the retina of the eye inversely, that is, upside down; but they are always seen in a proper relation to each other, and if there is any thing wrong in the case, it is overcome by early habit; and so our language accords with things as they are manifested to our understandings. these examples will serve to illustrate what we mean by relative action, when applied to natural philosophy or the construction of language. i had intended in this lecture to have treated of the agents and objects of verbs, to prove, in accordance with the first and closest principles of philosophy, that every "_cause_ must have an _effect_," or, in other words, that every action must terminate on some object, either expressed or necessarily understood; but i am admonished that i have occupied more than my usual quota of time in this lecture already, and hence i shall leave this work for our next. i will conclude by the relation of an anecdote or two from the life of that wonderful man, gallileo gallilei, who was many years professor of mathematics at padua. possessed of a strong, reflecting mind, he had early given his attention to the observation of things, their motions, tendencies, and power of resistance, from which he ascended, step by step, to the sublime science of astronomy. being of an honest and frank, as well as benevolent disposition, he shunned not to state and defend theories at war with the then received opinions. all learning was, at that time, in the hands or under the supervision of the ecclesiastics, who were content to follow blindly the aristotelian philosophy, which, in many respects, was not unlike that still embraced in our _neuter verb systems_ of grammar. there was a sworn hostility against all improvement, or innovation as it was called, in science as well as in theology. the copernican system, to which gallileo was inclined, if it had not been formally condemned, had been virtually denounced as false, and its advocates heretical. hence gallileo never dared openly to defend it, but, piece by piece, under different names, he brought it forth, which, carried out, would establish the heretical system. dwelling as a light in the midst of surrounding darkness, he cautiously discovered the precious truths revealed to his mind, lest the flood of light should distract and destroy the mental vision, break up the elements of society, let loose the resistless powers of ignorance, prejudice and bigotry, and envelope himself and friends in a common ruin. at length having prepared in a very guarded manner his famous "dialogues on the ptolmaic and copernican systems," he obtained permission, and ventured to publish it to the world, altho an edict had been promulgated enjoining silence on the subject, and he had been personally instructed "_not to believe or teach the motion of the earth in any manner_." by the false representation of his enemies, suspicions were aroused and busily circulated prejudicial to gallileo. pope urban himself, his former friend, became exasperated towards him, and a sentence against him and his books was fulminated by the cardinals, prohibiting the "sale and vending of the latter, and condemning him to the formal prison of the holy office for a period determined at their pleasure." the sentence of the inquisition was in part couched in these words--"we pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said gallileo, by reason of these things, which have been detailed in the course of this investigation, and which, as above, you have confessed, have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this holy office, of heresy; that is to say, that you believe and hold the false doctrine, and contrary to the holy and divine scriptures, namely, that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not _move_ from east to west, and that the earth does _move_, and is not the center of the world; also, that an opinion _can be held_ and _supported_ as _probable_, _after it has been_ declared, and finally decreed contrary to the holy scriptures"--by the holy see!! "from which," they continue, "it is _our_ pleasure that you be absolved, provided that, first, with a _sincere_ heart, and _unfeigned faith_, in our presence, you _abjure_, _curse_, and _detest_ the said errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the catholic and apostolic church of rome, in the form now shown to you." after suffering under this anathema some time, gallileo, by the advice of his friends, consented to make a public abjuration of his former heresies on the laws of motion. kneeling before the "most eminent and most reverend lords cardinals, general inquisitors of the universal christian republic, against _heretical depravity_, having before his eyes the holy gospels," he swears that he always "_believed_, and now _believes_, and with the help of god, _will in future believe_, every article which the holy catholic church of rome holds, teaches, and preaches"--that he does altogether "abandon the false opinion which maintains that the 'sun is the center of the world, and that the earth is _not_ the center and _movable_,' that with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, he abjures, curses, and detests the said errors and heresies, and every other error and sect contrary to the said holy church, and that he will never more in future, say or assert any thing verbally, or in writing, which may give rise to similar suspicion." as he arose from his knees, it is said, he whispered to a friend standing near him, "_e pur si muove_"--=it does move, tho=. in our times we are not fated to live under the terrors of the inquisition; but prejudice, if not as strong in power to execute, has the ability to blind as truly as in other ages, and keep us from the knowledge and adoption of practical improvements. and it is the same philosophy now, which _asks_ if _inanimate matter can act_, which _demanded_ of gallileo if this ponderous globe could fly a thousand miles in a minute, and no body feel the motion; and with deacon homespun, in the dialogue, "why, if this world turned upside down, the water did not spill from the mill ponds, and all the people fall headlong to the bottomless pit?" if there are any such peripatetics in these days of light and science, who still cling to the false and degrading systems of neutrality, because they are honorable for age, or sustained by learned and good men, and who will oppose all improvement, reject without examination, or, what is still worse, refuse to adopt, after being convinced of the truth of it, any system, because it is novel, an innovation upon established forms, i can only say of them, in the language of micanzio, the venetian friend of gallileo--"the efforts of such enemies to get these principles prohibited, will occasion no loss either to your reputation, or to the intelligent part of the world. as to posterity, this is just one of the surest ways to hand them down to them. but what a wretched set this must be, to whom every good thing, and _all that is found in nature_, necessarily appears hostile and odious." lecture x. on verbs. a philosophical axiom.--manner of expressing action.--things taken for granted.--simple facts must be known.--must never deviate from the truth.--every _cause_ will have an _effect_.--an example of an intransitive verb.--objects expressed or implied.--all language eliptical.--intransitive verbs examined.--i run.--i walk.--to step.--birds fly.--it rains.--the fire burns.--the sun shines.--to smile.--eat and drink.--miscellaneous examples.--evils of false teaching.--a change is demanded.--these principles apply universally.--their importance. we have made some general remarks on the power, cause, and means, necessary in the production of action. we now approach nearer to the application of these principles as observed in the immediate _agency_ and _effects_ which precede and follow action, and as connected with the verb. it is an axiom in philosophy which cannot be controverted, that every _effect_ is the product of a prior _cause_, and that every _cause_ will necessarily produce a corresponding _effect_. this fact has always existed and will forever remain unchanged. it applies universally in physical, mental, and moral science; to god or man; to angels or to atoms; in time or thro eternity. no language can be constructed which does not accord with it, for no ideas can be gained but by an observance of its manifestations in the material or spiritual universe. the manner of _expressing_ this cause and effect may differ in different nations or by people of the same nation, but the fact remains unaltered, and so far as understood the idea is the same. in the case of the horse mentioned in a former lecture,[ ] the idea was the same, but the manner of expressing it different. let that horse _walk_, _lay_ down, _roll_ over, _rise_ up, _shake_ himself, _rear_, or _stand_ still, all present will observe the same attitude of the horse, and will form the same ideas of his positions. some will doubtless inquire more minutely into the _cause_ and _means_ by which these various actions are produced, what muscles are employed, what supports are rendered by the bones; and the whole regulated by the will of the horse, and their conclusions may be quite opposite. but this has nothing to do with the obvious fact expressed by the words above; or, more properly, it is not necessary to enter into a minute detail of these minor considerations, these secret springs of motion, in order to relate the actions of the horse. for were we to do this we should be required to go back, step by step, and find the causes still more numerous, latent, and perplexing. the pursuit of causes would lead us beyond the mere organization of the horse, his muscular energy, and voluntary action; for gravitation has no small service to perform in the accomplishment of these results; as well as other principles. let gravitation be removed, and how could the horse _lay_ down? he could _roll_ over as well in the air as upon the ground. but the particular notice of these things is unnecessary in the construction of language to express the actions of the horse; for he stands as the obvious _agent_ of the whole, and the _effects_ are seen to follow--the _horse_ is laid down, _his body_ is rolled over, _the fore part_ of it is _reared up_, _himself_ is shaken, and the whole _feat_ is produced by the direction of his master. allow me to recal an idea we considered in a former lecture. i said no action as such could be known distinct from the thing which acts; that action as such is not perceptible, and that all things act, according to the ability they possess. to illustrate this idea: take a magnet and lower it down over a piece of iron, till it attracts it to itself and holds it suspended there. if you are not in possession of a magnet you can make one at your pleasure, by the following process. lay your knife blade on a flat iron, or any hard, smooth surface; let another take the old tongs or other iron which have stood erect for a considerable length of time, and draw it upon the blade for a minute or more. a magnetic power will be conveyed from the tongs to the blade sufficient to take up a common needle. the tongs themselves may be manufactured into a most perfect magnet. now as the knife _holds_ the needle suspended beneath it you perceive there must be an action, a power, and cause exerted beyond our comprehension. let the magnetic power be extracted from the blade, and the needle will drop to the floor. a common unmagnetized blade will not _raise_ and _hold_ a needle as this does. how those tongs come in possession of such astonishing power; by what process it is there retained; the power and means of transmission of a part of it to the knife blade, and the reason of the phenomena you now behold--an inanimate blade drawing to itself and there holding this needle suspended--will probably long remain unknown to mortals. but that such are the facts, incontestibly true, none will deny, for the evidence is before us. now fix your attention on that needle. there is an active and _acting_ principle in that as well as in the magnetized blade; for the blade will not attract a splinter of wood, of whalebone, or piece of glass, tho equal in size and weight. it will have no operation on them. then it is by a sort of mutual affinity, a reciprocity of attachment, between the blade and needle, that this phenomena is produced. to apply this illustration you have only to reverse the case--turn the knife and needle over--and see all things attracted to the earth by the law of gravitation, a principle abiding in all matter. all that renders the exhibition of the magnet curious or wonderful is that it is an uncommon condition of things, an apparent counteraction of the regular laws of nature. but we should know that the same sublime principle is constantly operating thro out universal nature. let that be suspended, cease its active operations for a moment, and our own earth will be decomposed into particles; the sun, moon and stars will dissolve and mingle with the common dust; all creation will crumble into atoms, and one vast ocean of darkness and chaos will fill the immensity of space. are you then prepared to deny the principles for which we are contending? i think you will not; but accede the ground, that such being the fact, true in nature, language, correctly explained, is only the medium by which the ideas of these great truths, may be conveyed from one mind to another, and must correspond therewith. if language is the sign of ideas, and ideas are the impressions of things, it follows of necessity, that no language can be employed unless it corresponds with these natural laws, or first principles. the untutored child cannot talk of these things, nor comprehend our meaning till clearly explained to it. but some people act as tho they thought children must first acquire a knowledge of words, and then begin to learn what such words mean. this is putting the "cart before the horse." much, in this world, is to be taken for granted. we can not enter into the minutiæ of all we would express, or have understood. we go upon the ground that other people know something as well as we, and that they will exercise that knowledge while listening to our relation of some new and important facts. hence it is said that "brevity is the soul of wit." but suppose you should talk of surds, simple and quadratic equations, diophantine problems, and logarithms, to a person who knows nothing of proportion or relation, addition or subtraction. what would they know about your words? you might as well give them a description in arabic or esquimaux. they must first learn the simple rules on which the whole science of mathematics depends, before they can comprehend a dissertation on the more abstruse principles or distant results. so children must learn to observe things as they are, in their simplest manifestations, in order to understand the more secret and sublime operations of nature. and our language should always be adapted to their capacities; that is, it should agree with their advancement. you may talk to a zealot in politics of religion, the qualities of forbearance, candor, and veracity; to the enthusiast of science and philosophy; to the bigot of liberality and improvement; to the miser of benevolence and suffering; to the profligate of industry and frugality; to the misanthrope of philanthropy and patriotism; to the degraded sinner of virtue, truth, and heaven; but what do they know of your meaning? how are they the wiser for your instruction? you have touched a cord which does not vibrate thro their hearts, or, phrenologically, addressed an organ they do not possess, except in a very moderate degree, at least. food must be seasoned to the palates of those who use it. milk is for babes and strong meat for men. our instruction must be suited to the capacities of those we would benefit, always elevated just far enough above them to attract them along the upward course of improvement. but it should be remembered that evils will only result from a deviation from truth, and that we can never be justified in doing wrong because others have, or for the sake of meeting them half way. and yet this very course is adopted in teaching, and children are learned to adopt certain technical rules in grammar, not because they are _true_, but because they are _convenient_! in fact, it is said by some, that language is an arbitrary affair altogether, and is only to be taught and learned mechanically! but who would teach children that _seven times seven_ are _fifty_, and _nine times nine_ a _hundred_, and assign as a reason for so doing, that _fifty_ and a _hundred_ are more easily remembered than _forty-nine_ and _eighty-one_? yet there would be as much propriety in adopting such a principle in mathematics, as in teaching for a rule of grammar that when an objective case comes after a verb, it is active; but when there is none expressed, it is intransitive or neuter. the great fault is, grammarians do not allow themselves to _think_ on the subject of language, or if they do, they only think intransitively, that is, produce no _thoughts_ by their cogitations. this brings us to a more direct consideration of the subject before us. all admit the correctness of the axiom that every effect must have a cause, and that every cause will have an effect. it is equally true that "_like causes will produce like effects_," a rule from which nature itself, and thought, and language, can never deviate. it is as plain as that two things mutually equal to each other, are equal to a third. on this immutable principle we base our theory of the activity of all verbs, and contend that they must have an object after them, either expressed or _necessarily understood_. we can not yield this position till it is proved that _causes_ can operate without producing effects, which can never be till the order of creation is reversed! there never was, to our knowledge, such a thing as an intransitive action, with the solitary exception of the burning bush.[ ] in that case the laws of nature were suspended, and no effects were produced; for the _bush burned_, but there was nothing burnt; no consequences followed to the bush; it was not consumed. the records of the past present no instance of like character, where effects have failed to follow, direct or more distantly, every cause which has been set in operation. it makes no difference whether the object of the action is expressed or not. it is the same in either case. but where it is not necessarily implied from the nature and fitness of things, it must be expressed, and but for such object or effect the action could not be understood. for example, _i run_; but if there is no effect produced, _nothing_ run, how can it be known whether i run or not. if i write, it is necessarily understood that i write _something_--a _letter_, a _book_, a _piece_ of poetry, a _communication_, or some other _writing_. when such object is not liable to be mistaken, it would be superfluous to express it--it would be a redundancy which should be avoided by all good writers and speakers. all languages are, in this respect, more or less eliptical, which constitutes no small share of their beauty, power, and elegance. this elipsis may be observed not only in regard to the objects of verbs, but in the omission of many nouns after adjectives, which thus assume the character of nouns; as, the almighty, the eternal, the allwise, applied to god, understood. so we say the wise, the learned, the good, the faithful, the wicked, the vile, the base, to which, if nouns, it would sound rather harsh to apply plurals. so we say, take your hat off ( ); put your gloves on ( ); lay your coat off ( ); and pull your boots on ( ); presuming the person so addressed knows enough to fill the elipsis, and not take his hat off his back, pull his gloves on his feet, or his boots on his head. in pursuing this subject farther, let us examine the sample words which are called _intransitive_ verbs, because frequently used without the object expressed after them; such as run, walk, step, fly, rain, snow, burn, roll, shine, smiles, &c. "_i run._" that here is an action of the first kind, none will deny. but it is contended by the old systems that there is no object on which the action terminates. if that be true then there is _nothing_ run, no effect produced, and the first law of nature is outraged, in the very onset; for there is a _cause_, but no _effect_; an _action_, but no _object_. how is the fact? have you run nothing? conveyed nothing, moved nothing from one place to another? no change, no effect, nothing moved? look at it and decide. it is said that a neuter or intransitive verb may be known from the fact that it takes after it a preposition. try it by this rule. "a man run _against_ a post in a dark night, and broke his neck;" that is, he run nothing against a post--no object to run--and yet he broke his neck. unfortunate man! the fact in relation to this verb is briefly this: it is used to express the action which more usually terminates on the actor, than on any other object. this circumstance being generally known, it would be superfluous to mention the object, except in cases where such is not the fact. but whenever we desire to be definite, or when there is the least liability to mistake the object, it is invariably expressed. instances of this kind are numerous. "they _ran_ the _boat_ ashore." "the captain _ran_ his _men_ to rescue them from the enemy." "they _ran_ the _gauntlet_." "they _run_ a _stage_ to boston." "he _ran himself_ into discredit." "one bank _runs_ another." "the man had a hard _run_ of it." "_run_ the _account_ over, and see if it is right." "they _run forty looms_ and two thousand spindles." "he _runs_ his _mill_ evenings." such expressions are common and correct, because they convey ideas, and are understood. two men were engaged in argument. the believer in intransitive verbs set out to _run his opponent_ into an evident absurdity, and, contrary to his expectation, he _ran himself_ into one. leave out the objects of this verb, run, and the sense is totally changed. he set out to _run_ into an _evident absurdity_, and he ran into one; that is, he did the very absurd thing which he intended to do.[ ] "_i walk._" the action expressed by this verb is very similar in character to the former, but rather _slower_ in performance. writers on health tell us that _to walk_ is a very healthy exercise, and that it would be well for men of sedentary habits _to walk_ several miles every day. but if there is no action in walk, or if it has no _object_ necessarily _walked_, it would be difficult to understand what good could result from it. "did you have a pleasant _walk_ this morning?" says a teacher to his grammar class. "we did have a very pleasant one. the flowers were _blooming_ on each side of the _walk_, and _sent_ forth their sweetest aroma, _perfuming_ the soft breezes of the morning. birds were _flitting from_ spray to spray, _carolling_ their hymns of praise to deity. the tranquil waters of the lake lay _slumbering_ in silence, and _reflected_ the bright _rays_ of the sun, _giving_ a sweet but solemn _aspect_ to the whole scene. _to go_ thro the grove, down by the lake, and up thro the meadow, is the most delightful _walk_ a person can take." "how did you get your _walk_?" "we walked it, to be sure; how did you think we got it?" "oh, i did not know. _walk_, your books tell you, is an intransitive verb, terminating on no object; so i supposed, if you followed them, you obtained it some other way; by _riding_, _running_, _sailing_, or, may be, _bought_ it, as you could not have _walked it_! were you tired on your return?" "we were exceedingly fatigued, for you know it is a very long _walk_, and we _walked it_ in an hour." "but _what_ tired you? if there are no effects produced by walking, i can not conceive why _you_ should be fatigued by such exercise." who does not perceive what flagrant violations of grammar rules are committed every day, and every hour, and in almost every sentence that is framed to express our knowledge of facts. _to step._ this verb is the same in character with the two just noticed. it expresses the act of _raising_ each foot alternately, and usually implies that the body is, by that means, conveyed from one place to another. but as people _step_ their _feet_ and not their hands, or any thing else, it is entirely useless to mention the object; for generally, that can not be mistaken any more than in the case of the gloves, boots, and hat. but it would be bad philosophy to teach children that there is no objective word after it, because it is not written out and placed before their eyes. they will find such teaching contradicted at every _step_ they take. let a believer in intransitive verbs _step_ on a red hot iron; he will soon find to his sorrow, that he was mistaken when he thought that he could _step_ without stepping any thing. it would be well for grammar, as well as many other things, to have more practice and less theory. the thief was detected by his steps. step softly; put your feet down carefully. _birds fly._ we learned from our primers, that "the eagle's _flight_ is out of sight," how did the eagle succeed in producing a _flight_? i suppose he _flew_ it. and if birds ever fly, they must produce a flight. such being the fact, it is needless to supply the object. but the action does not terminate solely on the flight produced, for that is only the name given to the action itself. the expression conveys to the mind the obvious fact, that, by strong muscular energy, by the aid of feathers, and the atmosphere, the bird carries itself thro the air, and changes its being from one place to another. as birds rarely fly a race, or any thing but _themselves_ and a _flight_, it is not necessary to suffix the object. _it rains._ this verb is insisted on as the strongest proof of intransitive action; with what propriety, we will now inquire. it will serve as a clear elucidation of the whole theory of intransitive verbs. what does the expression signify? it simply declares the fact, that _water is shed_ down from the clouds. but is there no object after _rains_? there is none expressed. is there nothing rained? no effect produced? if not, there can be no water fallen, and our cisterns would be as empty, our streams as low, and fields as parched, after a rain as before it! but who that has common sense, and has never been blinded by the false rules of grammar, does not know that when _it rains_, it never fails to _rain rain_, _water_, or _rain-water_, unless you have one of the paddy's dry rains? when it hails, it hails _hail_, _hail-stones_, or frozen _rain_. when it snows, it _snows snow_, sometimes two feet of it, sometimes less. i should think teachers in our northern countries would find it exceeding difficult to convince their readers that snow is an intransitive verb--that it snows _nothing_. and yet so it is; people will remain wedded to their old systems, and refuse to open their eyes and behold the evidences every where around them. teachers themselves, the guides of the young--and i blush to say it, for i was long among the number--have, with their scholars, labored all the morning, breaking roads, _shovelling snow_, and clearing paths, to get to the school-house, and then set down and taught them that _to snow_ is an _in_transitive verb. what nonsense; nay, worse, what falsehoods have been instilled into the youthful mind in the name of grammar! can we be surprised that people have not understood grammar? that it is a dry, cold, and lifeless business? i once lectured in poughkeepsie, n. y. in a conversation with miss b., a distinguished scholar, who had taught a popular female school for twenty years; was remarking upon the subject of intransitive verbs, and the apparent inconsistency of the new system, that all verbs must have an object after them, expressed or understood; she said, "there was the verb _rain_, (it happened to be a rainy day,) the whole action is confined to the agent; it does not pass on to another object; it is purely intransitive." her aged mother, who had never looked into a grammar book, heard the conversation, and very bluntly remarked, "why, you fool you, i want to know if you have studied grammar these thirty years, and taught it more than twenty, and have never _larned_ that when it rains it _always_ rains _rain_? if it didn't, do you s'pose you'd need an umbrella to go out now into the storm? i should think you'd know better. i always told you these plaguy grammars were good for nothing, i didn't b'lieve." "amen," said i, to the good sense of the old lady, "you are right, and have reason to be thankful that you have never been initiated into the intricate windings, nor been perplexed with the false and contradictory rules, which have blasted many bright geniuses in their earliest attempts to gain a true knowledge of the sublime principles of language, on which depends so much of the happiness of human life." the good matron's remark was a poser to the daughter, but it served as a means of her entire deliverance from the thraldom of neuter verbs, and the adoption of the new principles of the exposition of language. the anecdote shows us how the unsophisticated mind will observe facts, and employ words as correctly, if not more so, than those schooled in the high pretensions of science, falsely taught. who does not know from the commonest experience, that the direct object of _raining_ must follow as the necessary sequence? that it can never fail? and yet our philologists tell us that such is not always the case; and that the exception is to be marked on the singular ground, whether the word is written out or omitted! what a narrow view of the sublime laws of motion! what a limited knowledge of things! or else, what a _mistake_! "then the lord said unto moses, behold, i will _rain_ bread for you from heaven." "then the _lord rained_ down, upon sodom and gomorrah, _brimstone_ and _fire_, from the lord out of heaven."--_bible._ _the fire burns._ the fire _burns_ the wood, the coal, or the peat. the great fire in new-york _burned_ the buildings which covered fifty-two acres of ground. mr. experiment _burns_ coal in preference to wood. his new grate _burns it_ very finely. red ash coal _burns_ the best; it _makes_ the fewest _ashes_, and hence _is_ the most convenient. the cook _burns_ too much fuel. the house took fire and _burned_ up. _burned what_ up? burn is an intransitive verb. it would not trouble the unfortunate tenant to know that there must be an _object burned_, or what _it_ was. he would find it far more difficult to rebuild his _house_. do you suppose fires never burn any thing belonging to neuter verb folks? then they never need pay away insurance money. with the solitary exception i have mentioned--the burning bush--this verb can not be intransitive. _the sun shines._ this is an intransitive verb if there ever was one, because the object is not often expressed after it. but if the sun _emits_ no _rays_ of light, how shall it be known whether it shines or not? "the _radiance_ of the sun's bright beaming" is produced by the _exhibition_ of _itself_, when it _brightens_ the objects exposed to its _rays_ or _radiance_. we talk of _sun shine_ and moon shine, but if these bodies never produce _effects_ how shall it be known whether such things are real? _sun shine_ is the direct effect of the sun's _shining_. but clouds sometimes intervene and prevent the rays from extending to the earth; but _then_ we do not say "the sun _shines_." you see at once, that all we know or can know of the fact we state as truth, is derived from a knowledge of the very _effects_ which our grammars tell us do not exist. strange logic indeed! it is a mark of a wiser man, and a better scholar, not to know the popular grammars, than it is to profess any degree of proficiency in them! _to smile._ the _smiles_ of the morning, the _smiles_ of affection, a _smile_ of kindness, are only produced by the appearance of something that _smiles_ upon us. _smiles_ are the direct consequence of _smiling_. if a person should _smile_ ever so _sweetly_ and yet present no _smiles_, they might, for aught we could know to the contrary, be _sour_ as vinegar. but this verb frequently has another object after it; as, "to _smile_ the _wrinkles_ from the brow of age," or "_smile_ dull _cares_ away." "a sensible wife would soon _reason_ and _smile him_ into good nature." but i need not multiply examples. when such men as johnson, walker, webster, murray, lowthe, and a host of other wise and renowned men, gravely tell us that _eat_ and _drink_, which they define, "to _take food_; _to feed_; _to take a meal_; _to go to meals_; to be maintained in food; _to swallow liquors_; _to quench thirst_; to take any liquid;" are _intransitive_ or _neuter_ verbs, having no objects after them, we must think them insincere, egregiously mistaken, or else possessed of a means of subsistence different from people generally! did they _eat_ and _drink_, "take food and swallow liquors," _in_transitively; that is, without _eating_ or _drinking_ any thing? is it possible in the nature of things? who does not see the absurdity? and yet they were _great_ men, and nobody has a right to question such _high_ authority. and the "_simplifiers_" who have come after, making books and teaching grammar to _earn_ their _bread_, have followed close in their footsteps, and, i suppose, _eaten_ nothing, and thrown their bread away! was i a believer in neuter verbs and desired to get money, my first step would be to set up a boarding house for all believers in, and _practisers_ of, intransitive verbs. i would board cheap and give good fare. i could afford it, for no provisions would be consumed. some over cautious minds, who are always second, if not last, in a good cause, ask us why these principles, if so true and clear, were not found out before? why have not the learned who have studied for many centuries, never seen and adopted them? it is a sufficient answer to such a question, to ask why the copernican system of astronomy was not sooner adopted, why the principles of chemistry, the circulation of the blood, the power and application of steam, nay, why all improvement was not known before. when grammar and dictionary makers, those wise expounders of the principles of speech, have so far forgotten facts as to teach that _eat_ and _drink_, "express neither action nor passion," or are "confined to the agents;" that when a man eats, he eats nothing, or when he drinks, he drinks nothing, we need not stop long to decide why these things were unknown before. the wisest may sometimes mistake; and the proud aspirant for success, frequently passes over, unobserved, the humble means on which all true success depends. allow me to quote some miscellaneous examples which will serve to show more clearly the importance of supplying the elipses, in order to comprehend the meaning of the writers, or profit by their remarks. you will supply the objects correctly from the attendant circumstances where they are not expressed. "ask ( ) and ye shall receive ( ); seek ( ) and ye shall find ( ); knock ( ) and _it_ shall be opened unto you." ask _what_? seek _what_? knock _what_? that _it_ may be opened? our "grammars made easy" would teach us to _ask_ and _seek_ nothing! no objectives after them. what then could we reasonably expect to _receive_ or _find_? the _thing_ we _asked_ for, of course, and that was nothing! well might the language apply to such, "ye ask ( ) and _receive not_ (naught) because ye ask ( ) amiss." false teaching is as pernicious to religion and morals as to science. "charge them that are rich in this world--that they _do good_, that they be rich in good works, ready to _distribute_ ( ), willing to _communicate_ ( )."--_paul to timothy._ the hearer is to observe that there is no object after these words--_nothing_ distributed, or communicated! there is too much such charity in the world. "he spoke ( ), and _it_ was done; he commanded ( ), and _it_ stood fast." "_bless_ ( ), and _curse_ ( ) not."--_bible._ "_strike_ ( ) while the iron is hot."--_proverb._ "i _came_ ( ), i _saw_ ( ), i _conquered_ ( )."--_cæsar's letter._ he lives ( ) contented and happy. "the _life_ that i now _live_, in the flesh, i _live_ by the faith of the son of god."--_paul._ "let me _die_ the _death_ of the righteous, and let my last _end be_ like his."--_numbers._ as bodily exercise particularly strengthens ( ), as it invites ( ) to sleep ( ), and secures ( ) against great disorders, it is to be generally encouraged. gymnastic exercises may be established for all ages and for all classes. the jews were ordered to _take a walk_ out of the city on the sabbath day; and here rich and poor, young and old, master and slave, met ( ) and indulged ( ) in innocent mirth or in the pleasures of friendly intercourse.--_spurzheim on education._ "men will wrangle ( ) for religion; write ( ) for it; fight ( ) for it; die ( ) for it; any thing but live ( ) for it."--_lacon._ "i have addressed this volume to those that think ( ), and some may accuse me of an ostentatious independence, in presuming ( ) to inscribe a book to so small a minority. but a volume addressed to those that think ( ) is in fact addressed to all the world; for altho the proportion of those who _do_ ( ) think ( ) be extremely small, yet every individual _flatters himself_ that he is one of the number."--_idem._ what is the difference whether a man _thinks_ or not, if he produces no _thoughts_? "he that _thinks himself_ the happiest man, really is so; but he that _thinks himself_ the wisest, is generally the greatest fool."--_idem._ "a man _has_ many _workmen employed_; some to plough ( ) and sow ( ), others to chop ( ) and split ( ); some to mow ( ) and reap ( ); one to score ( ) and hew ( ); two to frame ( ) and raise ( ). in his factory he has persons to card ( ), spin ( ), reel ( ), spool ( ), warp ( ), and weave ( ), and a clerk to deliver ( ) and charge ( ), to receive ( ) and pay ( ). they eat ( ), and drink ( ), heartily, three times a day; and as they work ( ) hard, and feel ( ) tired at night, they lay ( ) down, sleep ( ) soundly, and dream ( ) pleasantly; they rise ( ) up early to go ( ) to work ( ) again. in the morning the children wash ( ) and dress ( ) and prepare ( ) to go ( ) to school, to learn ( ) to read ( ), write ( ), and cipher ( )." all neuter or intransitive verbs!! "the celebrated horse, corydon, will perform ( ) on tuesday evening in the circus. he will leap ( ) over four bars, separately, in imitation of the english hunter. he will lie ( ) down, and rise ( ) up instantly at the _word of command_. he will move ( ) backwards and sideways, rear ( ) and stand ( ) on his hind feet; he will sit ( ) down, like a turk, on a cushion. to conclude ( ), he will leap ( ), in a surprising manner, over two horses."--_cardell's grammar._ the gymnastic is not a mountebank; he palms off no legerdemain upon the public. he will stretch a line across the room, several feet from the floor, over which he will leap ( ) with surprising dexterity. he will stand ( ) on his head, balance, ( ) on one foot, and swing ( ) from side to side of the room; lay ( ) crosswise, and sideways; spring ( ) upon his feet; bound ( ) upon the floor; dance ( ) and keel ( ) over with out touching his hands. he will sing ( ), play ( ), and mimic ( ); look ( ) like a king, and act ( ) like a fool. he will laugh ( ) and cry ( ), as if real; roar ( ) like a lion, and chirp ( ) like a bird. to conclude ( ): he will do all this to an audience of neuter grammarians, without either "_action_ or _passion_," all the while having a "_state of being_," motionless, in the center of the room!! what a lie! say you. _a lie?_ i hope you do not accuse _me_ of lying. if there is any thing false in this matter it all _lies_ in the quotation, at the conclusion, from the standard grammar. if that is false, whose fault is it? not mine, certainly. but what if i should _lie_ ( ), intransitively? i should tell no falsehoods. but enough of this. if there is any thing irrational or inconsistent, any thing false or ridiculous, in this view of the subject, it should be remembered that it has been long taught, not only in common schools, but in our academies and colleges, as serious, practical truth; as the only means of acquiring a correct knowledge of language, or fitting ourselves for usefulness or respectability in society. you smile at such trash, and well you may; but you must bear in mind that grammar is not the only thing in which we may turn round and _laugh_ ( ) at past follies. but i am disposed to consider this matter of more serious consequence than to deserve our _laughter_. when i see the rising generation spend months and years of the best and most important part of their lives, which should be devoted to the acquisition of that which is true and useful, studying the dark and false theory of language as usually taught, i am far from feeling any desire to laugh at the folly which imposes such a task upon them. i remember too distinctly the years that have just gone by. i have seen too many blighted hopes, too many wearisome hours, too many sad countenances, too many broken resolutions; to say nothing of corporeal chastisements; to think it a small matter that children are erroneously taught the rudiments of language, because sanctioned by age, or great names. a change, an important change, a radical change, in this department of education, is imperiously demanded, and teachers must obey the call, and effect the change. there is a spirit abroad in the land which will not bow tamely and without complaint, to the unwarranted dictation of arbitrary, false, and contradictory rules, merely from respect to age. it demands reason, consistency and plainness; and yields assent only where they are found. and teachers, if they will not lead in the reformation, must be satisfied to follow after; for a reformation is loudly called for, and will be had. none are satisfied with existing grammars, which, in principle, are nearly alike. the seventy-three attempts to improve and simplify murray, have only acted _intransitively_, and accomplished very little, if any good, save the employment given to printers, paper makers, and booksellers. but i will not enlarge. we have little occasion to wonder at the errors and mistakes of grammar makers, when our lexicographers tell us for sober truth, that =to act=, _to be in action_, _not to rest_, to be in _motion_, to _move_, is _v. n._ a verb neuter, signifying _no action_!! or _v. i._ verb intransitive, producing _no effects_; and that a "_neuter verb_ =expresses= (active transitive verb) _a state of being_!! there are few minds capable of adopting such premises, and drawing therefrom conclusions which are rational or consistent. truth is rarely elicted from error, beauty from deformity, or order from confusion. while, therefore, we allow the neuter systems to sink into forgetfulness, as they usually do as soon as we leave school and shut our books, let us throw the mantle of charity over those who have thoughtlessly (without _thinking thoughts_) and innocently lead us many months in dark and doleful wanderings, in paths of error and contradiction, mistaken for the road to knowledge and usefulness. but let us resolve to save ourselves and future generations from following the same unpleasant and unprofitable course, and endeavor to _reflect_ the _light_ which may _shine_ upon our minds, to dispel the surrounding darkness, and secure the light and knowledge of truth to those who shall come after us. many philologists have undertaken to explain our language by the aid of foreign tongues. because there are genitive cases, different kinds of verbs, six tenses, etc. in the latin or greek, the same distinctions should exist in our grammars. but this argument will not apply, admitting that other languages will not allow of the plan of exposition we have adopted, which we very seriously question, tho we have not time to go into that investigation. we believe that the principles we have adopted are capable of universal application; that what is action in england would be action in greece, rome, turkey, and every where else; that "_like causes will produce like effects_" all the world over. it matters not by whom the action is seen, it is the same, and all who gather ideas therefrom will describe it as it appears to them, let them speak what language they may. but if they have no ideas to express, they need no language to speak. monkeys, for aught i know to the contrary, can speak as well as we; but the reason they do not, is because they have nothing to say. let maelzael's automaton chess-player be exhibited to a promiscuous multitude. they would all attempt a description of it, so far as they were able to gain a knowledge of its construction, each in his own language. some might be unable to trace the _cause_, the moving _power_, thro all the curiously arranged _means_, to the _agent_ who acted as prime mover to the whole affair. others, less cautious in their conclusions, might think it a perpetual motion. such would find a _first cause_ short of the creator, the great original of all things and actions; and thus violate the soundest principles of philosophy. heaven has never left a vacuum where a new and _self_ sustaining power may be set in operation independent of his ever-present supervision; and hence the long talked of _perpetual motion_ is the vainest chimera which ever occupied the human brain. it may well appear as the opposite extreme of neuter verbs; for, while one would give no action to matter according to the physical laws which regulate the world, the other would make matter act of itself, independent of the almighty. be it ours to take a more rational and consistent stand; to view all things and beings as occupying a place duly prescribed by infinite wisdom, _acting_ according to their several abilities, and subject to the regulation of the all-pervading laws which guide, preserve, and harmonize the whole. if there is a subject which teaches us beyond controversy the existence of a supreme power, a universal father, an all-wise and ever-present god, it is found in the order and harmony of all things, produced by the regulation of divine laws; and man's superiority to the rest of the world is most clearly proved, from the possession of a power to adapt language to the communication of ideas in free and social converse, or in the transmission of thought, drawn from an observation and knowledge of things as presented to his understanding. there is no science so directly important to the growth of intellect and the future happiness of the child, as the knowledge of language. without it, what is life? wherein would man be elevated above the brute? and what is language without ideas? a sound without harmony--a shadow without a substance. let language be taught on the principles of true philosophy, as a science, instead of an arbitrary, mechanical business, a mere art, and you will no longer hear the complaint of a "_dry_, _cold_, uninteresting study." its rules will be simple, plain, and easy; and at every step the child will increase in the knowledge of more than _words_, in an acquaintance with principles of natural and moral science. and if there is any thing that will carry the mind of the child above the low and grovelling things of earth, and fill the soul with reverence and devotion to the holy being who fills immensity with his presence, it is when, from observing the laws which govern matter, he passes to observe the powers and capabilities of the mind, and thence ascends to the intellectual source of _light_, _life_, and _being_, and contemplates the perennial and ecstatic joys which flow from the presence of deity; soul mingling with soul, love absorbed in love, and god all in all. lecture xi. on verbs. the verb =to be=.--compounded of different radical words.--=am=. --defined.--the name of deity.--_ei_.--=is=.--=are=.--=were=, =was=.--=be=.--a dialogue.--examples.--passive verbs examined.-- cannot be in the present tense.--the past participle is an adjective. we have gone through the examination of _neuter_ and _intransitive_ verbs, with the exception of the verb =to be=, which we propose to notice in this place. much more might be said on the subjects i have discussed, and many more examples given to illustrate the nature and operation of actions as expressed by verbs, and also in reference to the _objects_ of action; but i trust the hints i have given will be satisfactory. i am confident, if you will allow your minds to _think_ correct _thoughts_, and not _suffer_ them _to be_ misled by erroneous teaching, you will arrive at the same conclusion that i have, viz. that all verbs depend on a _common principle_ for their explanation; that they are alike active, and necessarily take an object after them, either expressed or understood, in accordance with the immutable law of nature, which teaches that like causes will produce like effects. * * * * * the verb =to be=, as it is called, is conjugated by the aid of six different words, in its various modes and tenses; _am_, _is_, _are_, _was_, _were_, _be_. _am_ is unchanged, always in the indicative mood, present tense, agreeing with the _first_ person singular. _is_ is also unchanged, in the same mood and tense, agreeing with the _third_ person singular. _art_, in the singular, is the same as _are_ in the plural. _was_ and _wast_, are the same as _were_ and _wert_ in meaning, being derived from the same etymon. _be_, _being_, and _been_, are changes of the same word. _be_ was formerly extensively used in the indicative present, but in that condition it is nearly obsolete. _were_ was also used in the singular as well as plural, especially when coming before the agent; as, "were i to go, i would do your business." but it is now more common to have _was_ correctly used in that case. but, as one extreme often follows another, people have laid _were_ quite too much aside, and often crowd _was_ into its place in common conversation; as "we _was_ (were) there yesterday." "there _was_ (were) five or six men engaged in the business." this error appears to be gaining ground, and should be checked before it goes farther. the combination of these different words was produced by habit, to avoid the monotony which the frequent recurrence of one word, so necessary in the expression of thought, would occasion: the same as the past tense of _go_ is made by the substitution of another word radically different, _went_, the past tense of _wend_ or _wind_. "o'er hills and dales they _wend_ their way." "the lowing herd _wind_ slowly o'er the lea." _go_ and _wend_ convey to our minds nearly the same ideas. the latter is a little more poetical, because less used. but originally their signification was quite different. so with the parts of the verb =to be=. they were consolidated as a matter of convenience, and now appear in their respective positions to express the idea of being, life, or existence. i have said this verb expresses the highest degree of action. i will now attempt to prove it. i should like to go into a labored and critical examination of the words, and trace their changes thro various languages, was it in accordance with the design of these lectures. but as it is not, i shall content myself with general observations. _i am._ this word is not defined in our dictionaries. it is only said to be "_the first person of to be_." we must look for its meaning some where else. it is a compound of two ancient words, _ah_, _breath_, to _breathe_, life, to _live_, _light_, to _light_; and _ma_, the _hand_, or to _hand_. it signifies to _vivify_, _sustain_, or _support_ one's self in being or existence. in process of time, like other things in this mutable world, its form was changed, but the meaning retained. but as one person could not _vivify_ or _live_ another, _inflate_ another's lungs, or breathe another's breath, it became restricted to the first person. it means, i _breathe breath_, _vivify myself_, _live life_, or _exercise_ the power of _being_ or _living_. it conveys this fact in every instance, for no person incapable of breathing can say _i am_. let any person pronounce the word _ah-ma_, and they will at once perceive the appropriateness of the meaning here given. it is very similar to the letter _h_, and the pronoun, (originally _noun_,) _he_, or the "_rough breathing_" in the greek language. _ma_ is compounded with many words which express action done by the hand; as, _ma_nufacture, _ma_numit. it denoted any action or work done by the hand as the instrument; but, like other words, it gradually changed its import, so as to express any _effective_ operation. hence the union of the words was natural and easy, and _ahma_ denoted _breathing_, _to live_ or sustain life. _h_ is a precarious letter in all languages that use it, as the pronunciation of it by many who speak the english language, will prove. it was long ago dropt, in this word, and after it the last _a_, so that we now have the plain word _am_. it was formerly used as a noun in our language, and as such may be found in exodus : , . "and moses said unto god, behold when i come unto the children of israel and shall say unto them, the god of your fathers sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, what is his _name_? what shall i say unto them? and god said unto moses, i =am= the i am; and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of israel, i am hath sent me unto you." chap. : .--"i appeared unto abraham, unto isaac, and unto jacob, by the name of god almighty; but by my name =jehovah= (i am) was i not known unto them." the word _jehovah_ is the same as _am_. it is the name of the _self-existent_, _self-sustaining_ =being=, who has not only power to uphold all things, but to perform the still more sublime action of _upholding_ or _sustaining himself_. this is the highest possible degree of action. let this fail, and all creation will be a wreck. he is the _ever-living_, _uncontrolled_, _unfailing_, _unassisted_, and _never-changing_ god, the creator, preserver, alpha and omega, the beginning and end of all things. he is the _first cause_ of all causes, the _agent_, original moving power, and guiding wisdom, which set in motion the wheels of universal nature, and guides and governs them without "variableness or the shadow of turning." "i am the first, and i, the last, thro endless years the same; i am is my memorial still, and my eternal name." _watts' hymn._ ask the jews the meaning of this _neuter verb_ in their language. they hold it in the most profound and superstitious reverence. after the captivity of their nation they never dared pronounce the name except once a year when the high priest went into the holy of holies, and hence the true pronunciation of it was lost. unto this day they dare not attempt to utter it. in all their writings it remains in characters untranslated. when their messiah comes they expect he will restore the pronunciation, and by it they shall be able to accomplish all things.[ ] according to plutarch the greeks had the letters ei, =thou art=, engraven on the temple of apollo at delphi, which is the second person of =eimi=, _i am_.[ ] this motto was doubtless borrowed from the jews, to whom it was given as the name of the god of jacob. the same name you may see engraven on monuments, on pictures of the bible, on masonic implements, and in various places, untranslated. who can suppose that this word "expresses no action," when the very person incapable of it can not utter it, and no one else can speak it for him? it denotes the highest conceivable action applied to deity or to man, and it is questionable philosophy which dares contradict this fact. the action expressed by it, is not changed, because it does not terminate on a foreign object. it remains the same. it is self-action. _he is._ this word is constructed from an old verb signifying _to stand forth_, _to appear_, _to show one's self_, and may be traced, i think, to the latin _eo_, _to go_, and _exist_, to _exeo_, _to go from_; that is, our _being_ or _existence_, _came_ or _stood forth_ from god. it is certainly a contraction from the old english _to exist_. _ist_ is the spelling still retained in the german and some other languages. it denotes self-action. one man does not _exist_ another, but himself. he _keeps himself_ in existence. _we are_, _thou are-est_, _arst_, or _art_. be not surprised when i tell you this is the same word as _air_, for such is the fact. it signifies to inhale air, to _air ourselves_, or _breathe air_. "god _breathed_ into man the _breath of life_, and man became a _living soul_." the new born infant _inhales air_, _inflates its lungs_ with _air_, and begins to live. we all know how essential _air_ is to the preservation of life. no animal can live an instant without it. drop a squirrel into a receiver from which all _air_ has been extracted, and it can not live. even vegetables will die where there is no air. _light_ is also indispensable to _life_ and _health_. _air_ is _inhaled_ and _exhaled_, and from it life receives support. the fact being common, it is not so distinctly observed by the careless, as tho it was more rare. but did you never see the man dying of a consumption, when the pulmonary or breathing organs were nearly decayed? how he labors for breath! he asks to have the windows thrown open. at length he _suffocates_ and dies. most persons struggle hard for _breath_ in the hour of dissolving nature. the heaving bosom, the hollow gasp for _air_, tells us that the lamp of life is soon to be extinguished, that the hour of their departure has come. when a person faints, we carry them into the _air_, or blow _air_ upon them, that nature may be restored to its regular course. in certain cases physicians find it necessary to force air into the lungs of infants; they can after that _air_, themselves, _imbibe_ or _drink in air_, or _inspirit_ themselves with air. but i need not enlarge. whoever has been deprived of air and labored hard for breath in a stifled or unwholesome air, can appreciate what we mean. _we were_; _he was_. i have said before that these words are the same, and are used in certain cases irrespective of number. i have good authority for this opinion, altho some etymologists give them different derivations. _were_, _wert_; _worth_, _werth_; _word_ and _werde_, are derived from the same etymon and retain a similarity of meaning. they signify _spirit_, _life_, _energy_. "in the beginning was the _word_, and the _word_ was with god." "by the _word_ of his grace." "_they were_," they _inspirited_ themselves, _possessed_ the life, vitality, or _spirit_, the creator gave them, and having that spirit, life, or energy, under proper regulation, in due degree, they were _worthy_ of the esteem, regard, sympathy, and good _word_ of others. _to be._ this is considered the root of all the words we have considered, and to it all others are referred for a definition. dictionaries give no definition to _am_, _is_, _are_, _was_, and _were_, all of them as truly principal verbs as _be_, and possessed of as distinct a meaning. it can hardly be possible that they should form so important a part of our language, and yet be incapable of definition. but such is the fact, the most significant words in our language, and those most frequently used, are undefined in the books. mr. webster says =to be= signifies, "to exist, to _have_ a real _state_ or _existence_," and so say walker and johnson. now if it is possible to "=have= _a state of being_ without action or passion," then may this word express neutrality. but the very definition requires activity, and an object expressed. it denotes the _act of being_, or living; to _exercise_ the powers of life, to _maintain_ a position or rank in the scale of existent things. the name of the action is _being_, and applies to the almighty being who _exists_ unchanged as the source of all inferior _beings_ and things, whose name is _jehovah_, i am, the being of beings, the fountain of _light_, _life_, and _wisdom_. _be_ is used in the imperative and infinitive moods correctly, by every body who employs language. "_be_ here in ten minutes." "_be it_ far from thee." "i will _be_ in boston before noon." if there is any action in going from providence to boston at rail-road speed, in two hours, or before noon, it is all expressed by the verb _be_, which we are told expresses _no action_. the teacher says to his scholars when out at play, "i want you _to be_ in your seats in five minutes." what would they understand him to mean? that they should stand still? or that they should _change their state of being_ from play in the yard, to a state of being in their seats? there is no word to denote such change, except the word _to be_. _be_ off, _be_ gone, _be_ here, _be_ there, are commands frequently given and correctly understood. the master says to a bright little lad, who has well learned his grammar, "_be_ here in a minute." "yes, sir, i will _be_ there;" but he does not move. "_be_ here immediately." "yes, yes, i will _be_ there." "don't you understand me? i say, _be_ here instantly." "oh, yes, i understand you and will obey." the good man is enraged. "you scoundrel," says he, "do you mean to disobey my orders and insult me?" "insult you and disobey you; i have done neither," replies the honest boy. "yes you have, and i will chastise you severely for it." "no, master, i have not; i declare, i have not. i have obeyed you as well as i know how, to the very letter and spirit of your command." "didn't i tell you _to be_ here in a minute, and have not you _remained_ where you were? and didn't you say you would _be_ here?" "yes, sir; and did not i do just what you told me to?" "why, no, you blockhead; i told you _to be_ here." "well, i told you i would _be_ there." "you _was_ not here." "nor did you expect i would _be_, if you have taught me to _speak_, _write_, and understand correctly." "what do you mean, you saucy boy?" "i mean to mind my master, and do what he tells me to." "why didn't you do so then?" "i did." "you didn't." "i did." "you lie, you insult me, you contradict me, you saucy fellow. you are not fit to be in school. i will punish you severely." and in a passion he starts for his ferrule, takes the boys hand, and bruises him badly; the honest little fellow all the while pleading innocence of any intended wrong. in a short time they commence _parsing_ this sentence: "it is necessary _to be_ very particular in ascertaining the meaning of words before we use them." the master puts _to be_ to the same boy. he says it is an _active verb_, infinitive mood. "how is that? an _active_ verb?" "yes, sir." "no, it is not. it is a _neuter_ verb." "begging your pardon, master, it is not. it is active." "have i got to punish you again so soon, you impudent fellow. you are not fit to be in school. i will inform your parents of your conduct." "what have i done that is wrong?" "you say _to be_ is an _active_ verb, when _i_ tell you, and the _grammar_ and _dictionary_ tell you, it is _neuter_!" "what is a _neuter_ verb, master?" "it expresses 'neither action nor passion, but being or a state of being.' have you forgotten it?" "no, sir, i _thought_ that was the case." "what did you ask me for then?" "because i supposed you had found another meaning for it." "to what do you allude, you troublesome fellow, you? i'll not bear your insults much longer." "for what did you punish me so severely just now?" "for disobeying my orders." "what did you order me to do?" "_to be_ here in a minute." "well, did not i do what you told me?" "no; you kept your seat, and did not come near me." "well, i thought and did just what you now tell me; that _to be_ is a _neuter_ verb, expressing no _action_, but _being_. i had a _state_ of _being_, and promised to keep it, and did keep it, and you punished me for doing the very thing you told me to do!!" the master looked down, shut up his book, and began to say that grammar is a "_dry_, _cold_, and _useless_" study, hardly worth the trouble of learning it. * * * * * "_i am_ alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the lord, who _is_, and who _was_, and who _is_ to come, the almighty."--_rev. : ._ if there is any action in maintaining eternal existence, by which all things were created and are upheld, it is expressed in the verbs _am_, _is_, and _was_. god said, "let there _be_ light, and there _was_ light;" or more properly rendered, "light =be=, and light =was=." was there no action in setting the sun, moon and stars in the firmament, and in causing them to _send_ forth the rays of light to _dispel_ the surrounding darkness? if there was, _be_ and _was_ denote that action. "you are commanded =to be= and _appear_ before the court of common pleas," etc. a heavy penalty is imposed upon those who fail to comply with this citation--for neglecting to do what is expressed by the _neuter verb_ to _be_. such cases might be multiplied without number, where this verb is correctly used by all who employ language, and correctly understood by all who are capable of knowing the meaning of words. but i think you must all be convinced of the truth of our proposition, that all verbs express action, either _real_ or _relative_; and in all cases have an object, expressed or necessarily implied, which stands as the _effect_, and an agent, as the cause of action: and hence that language, as a means for the communication of thought, does not deviate from the soundest principles of philosophy, but in all cases, rightly explained, serves to illustrate them, in the plainest manner. * * * * * a few remarks on the "passive verb," and i will conclude this part of our subject, which has already occupied much more of our attention than i expected at the outset. "_a verb passive_ expresses a passion or a suffering, or the receiving of an action; and necessarily implies an object acted upon, and an agent by which it is acted upon; as, to be loved; penelope is loved by me." in the explanation of this verb, grammarians further tell us that a passive verb is formed by adding the verb _to be_, which is thus made auxiliary, to a past participle; as, portia _was loved_. pompey _was conquered_. it is singular how forgetful our great men sometimes are about observing their own rules. take an instance in mr. walker's octavo dictionary. look for the word _simeter_, a small sword. you will find it spelled _scimitar_. then turn over, and you will find it _s_im_i_t_a_r, with the same definition, and the remark, "more properly _c_im_e_t_a_r." then turn back, and find the correct word as he spells it, and there you will find it cimet_e_r. unsettled as to the true spelling, go to our own honored webster. look for "scimiter." he says, see cimit_a_r. then look for "cimitar;" see cim_e_t_e_r. then hunt up the true word, be it _ar_ or _er_, and you will find it still another way, cim_i_t_e_r. here the scholar has seven different ways to spell this word, and neither of his authorities have followed their own examples. i cite this as one of a thousand instances, where our savans have laid down rules for others, and disregarded them themselves. portia _is loved_ and _happy_. she is _respectable_, _virtuous_, _talented_, and _respected_ by all who know her. she _is seated by the door_. does the _door_ seat her? what agent, then, causes her _passion_ or _suffering_? the book is printed. will you parse _is printed_? it is a passive verb, indicative mood, _present tense_. who _is_ printing it? causing it, in the present tense, to _suffer_ or _receive_ the action? the act of printing _was performed_ a hundred years ago. how can it be present time? penelope _is loved_ by me. the blow _is received_ by me. it _is given_ by me. penelope _is seated_ by me. the earthquake _is felt_ by her. the evils _are suffered_ by her. the thunder _is heard_ by her. does this mean that she is the agent, and the earthquake, evils, and thunder, are the objects which receive the _effects_ which she produces? that would be singular philosophy, indeed. but _to feel_, _to suffer_, and _to hear_, are active, and are constructed into passive verbs. why is it not as correct to say she _is suffering_ by another's wrongs, _is raging_ by the operation of passion, or _is travelling_ by rail-road, are passive verbs? the fact is, our language can not _be explained_ by set rules or forms of speech. we must regard the sense. the past participle, as it is called, becomes an adjective by use, and describes her as some way affected by a previous action. she is _learned_, _handsome_, _modest_, and, of course, _beloved_ by all who know her. to say "she _is placed_ by the water's edge," is a passive verb, and that the water's edge, as the agent, causes her "passion, suffering, or receiving of the action," is false and ridiculous, for she _placed_ herself there. "we _are seated_ on our seats by the stove." what power is _now_ operating on us to make us suffer or receive the action of being seated on our seats? does the stove perform this action? this is a passive verb, _present tense_, which requires an "object acted upon, and an _agent_ by which it is acted upon." but we came in and _seated ourselves_ here an hour ago. the man _is acquitted_. he _stands acquitted_ before the public. he _is learned_, wise, and happy, very much _improved_ within a few years. he _is_ always active, studious, and _engaged_ in his own affairs. he _is renowned_, and _valorous_. she _is respected_. she _lives respected_. if there is such a thing as a passive verb, it can never be used in the present tense, for the action expressed by the principal verb which is produced by the agent operating upon the object, is always _past_ tense, and the auxiliary, or helping verb _to be_, is always present. let this verb be analyzed, and the true meaning of each word understood, little difficulty will be found in giving it an explanation. i will not spend more time in exposing the futility of this attempted distinction. it depends solely on a verbal form, but can never _be explained_ so as _to be understood_ by any scholar. most grammarians have seen the fallacy of attempting to give the meaning of this verb. they can show its _form_, but _are_ frequently _compelled_, as in the cases above, to sort out the "_passed_ participles" from a host of adjectives, and it will _be found_ exceeding troublesome to make scholars perceive any difference in the use of the words, or in the construction of a sentence. but it may be they have never thought that duty belonged to them; that they have nothing to do but to show them what the book says. suppose they should teach arithmetic on the same principles, and learn the scholars to set down as the product of times . let them look at the form of the figures, observe just how they appear, and make some more like them, and thus go thro the book. what would the child know of arithmetic? just as much as they do of grammar, and no more. they would understand nothing of the science of numbers, of proportion, or addition. they would exercise the power of imitation, and make one figure look like another. beyond that, all would be a _terra incognita_, a land unknown. so in the science of language; children may learn that the verb _to be_, joined with the past participle of an active verb, makes _a passive verb_; but what that passive verb is when made, or how to apply it, especially in the present tense, they have no means of knowing. their knowledge is all taken on trust, and when thrown upon their own resources, they have none on which to rely. lecture xii. on verbs. =mood=.--indicative.--imperative.--infinitive.--former distinctions. --subjunctive mood.--=time=.--past.--present.--future.--the future explained.--how formed.--mr. murray's distinction of time.-- imperfect.--pluperfect.--second future.--how many tenses.-- =auxiliary verbs=.--will.--shall.--may.--must.--can.--do.--have. we are now come to consider the different relations of action in reference to _manner_ and _time_. we shall endeavor to be as brief as possible upon this subject, keeping in view meanwhile that candor and perspicuity which are indispensable in all our attempts to explain new views. _mood_ signifies _manner_. applied to verbs it explains _how_, in _what manner_, by what means, under what circumstances, actions are performed. there are _three_ moods, the _indicative_ or declarative, the _imperative_ or commanding, and the _infinitive_ or unlimited. the indicative mood declares an action to be _done_ or _doing_, _not done_, or _not doing_. it is always in the past or present tense; as, david _killed_ goliath; scholars _learn_ knowledge; i _spoke not_ a word; they _sing not_. the imperative mood denotes a command given from the first _person_ to the _second_, _to do_ or _not do_ an action. it expresses the wish or desire of the first person to have a certain action performed which depends on the agency of the second. the command is _present_, but the action signified by the word is _future_ to the giving of the command. the second person cannot comply with the will of the first till such will is made known; as, bring me a book; go to the door. the _infinitive_ mood has no direct personal agent, but is produced as a necessary consequence, growing out of a certain condition of things. it is always _future_ to such condition; that is, some prior arrangement must be had before such consequences will follow. it is always _future_; as, they are collecting a force _to besiege_ the city. we study grammar _to acquire_ a knowledge of language. windows are made _to admit_ light. the act of besieging the city depends on the previous circumstance, the collection of a force _to do_ it. were there no windows, the light would not be admitted to the room. these distinctions in regard to action must be obvious to every hearer. you all are aware of the fact that action necessarily implies an actor, as every effect must have an efficient cause; and such action clearly or distinctly _indicated_, must have such an agent to produce it. d. you are acquainted with the fact that one person can express his will to the second, directing him to do or avoid some thing. d. from an established condition of things, it is easy to deduce a consequence which will follow, in the nature of things, as an unavoidable result of such a combination of power, cause, and means. with these principles you are all familiar, whether you have studied grammar or not. they are clearly marked, abundantly simple, and must be obvious to all. they form the only necessary, because the only real, distinction, in the formation and use of the verb to express action. any minor distinctions are only calculated to perplex and embarrass the learner. but some grammarians have passed these natural barriers, and built to themselves schemes to accord with their own vain fancies. the remarks of mr. murray upon this point are very appropos. he says: "some writers have given our moods a much greater extent than we have assigned to them. they assert that the english language may be said, without any great impropriety, to have as many moods as it has auxiliary verbs; and they allege, in support of their opinion, that the compound expression which they help to form, point out those various dispositions and actions, which, in other languages, are expressed by moods. this would be to multiply the moods without advantage. it is, however, certain, that the conjugation or variation of verbs, in the english language, is effected, almost entirely, by the means of auxiliaries. we must, therefore, accommodate ourselves to this circumstance; and do that by their assistance, which has been done in the learned languages (a few instances to the contrary excepted) in another manner, namely, by varying the form of the verb itself. at the same time, it is necessary to set proper bounds to this business, so as not to occasion obscurity and perplexity, when we mean to be simple and perspicuous. instead, therefore, of making a separate mood for every auxiliary verb, and introducing moods _interrogative_, _optative_, _promissive_, _hortative_, _precative_, &c., we have exhibited such only as are obviously distinct; and which, whilst they are calculated to unfold and display the subject intelligibly to the learner, seem to be sufficient, and not more than sufficient, to answer all the purposes for which moods were introduced. "from grammarians who form their ideas, and make their decisions, respecting this part of english grammar, on the principles and constructions of languages which, in these points, do not suit the peculiar nature of our own, but differ considerably from it, we may naturally expect grammatical schemes that are not very perspicuous nor perfectly consistent, and which will tend more to perplex than to inform the learner." had he followed this rule, he would have saved weeks and months to every student in grammar in the community. but his remarks were aimed at mr. harris, who was by far the most popular writer on language in england at that time. he has adopted the very rules of mr. murray, and carried them out. by a careful observance of the different forms and changes of the verb and its auxiliaries, he makes out quite evidently to his own mind, _fourteen_ moods, which i forbear to name. most grammarians contend for _five_ moods, two of which, the _potential_ or powerful, and the _subjunctive_, are predicated on the same principles as mr. harris' optative, interrogative, etc., which they condemn. it is impossible to explain the character of these moods so as to be understood. _if_, it is said, is the sign of the subjunctive, and _may_ and _can_ of the potential; and yet they are often found together; as, "i will go _if i can_." no scholar can determine in what mood to put this last verb. it of right belongs to both the potential and subjunctive. _if_ i _may_ be allowed to speak my mind, i _should_ say that such distinctions were false. i will not go into an exposure of these useless and false distinctions, which are adopted to help carry out erroneous principles. the only pretence for a subjunctive mood is founded on the fact that _be_ and _were_ were formerly used in a character different from what they are at present. _be_ was used in the indicative mood, present tense, when doubt or supposition was implied; as, if i _be_ there; if they _be_ wise. _be_ i a man, and _receive_ such treatment? _were_ was also used instead of _was_ in the past tense; as, "_were_ i an american i would fight for liberty. if i _were_ to admit the fact." in this character these words are rapidly becoming obsolete. we now say, "if i _am_ there; am i a man, and _receive_ such abuses? _was_ i an american; if i was to admit," etc. all the round about, perplexing, and tedious affair of conjugating verbs thro the different modes and tenses will appear in its true character, when we come to give you a few brief examples, according to truth and plain sense. but before doing that it will be necessary to make some remarks on time. _tense_ means _time_. we distinguish time according to certain events which are generally observed. in the use of the verb we express action in reference to periods of time when it is performed. there are three tenses, or divisions of time; _past_, _present_, and _future_. _past tense_ applies to actions which are accomplished; as, i _wrote_ a book; he _recited_ his lesson. _present tense_ denotes actions commenced, but not finished, and now in operation; as, he _reads_ his book; we _sit_ on our seats and _hear_ the lecture. _future tense_ refers to actions, which are _to take_ place hereafter; as, i am _to go_ from the institute; we desire _to learn_ grammar correctly. every body can mark three plain distinctions of time, past, present, and future. with the past we have been acquainted. it has ceased to be. its works are ended. the present is a mere line--, nothing as it were--which is constantly passing unchecked from the past to the future. it is a mere division of the past and future. the hebrew, which is strictly a philosophic language, admits no present; only a _past_ and _future_. we speak of the present as denoting an action begun and not finished. in the summer, we say the trees grow, and bear fruit. but when the fruit is fallen, and the leaves seared by the frost, we change the expression, and say, it _grew_ and _bore_ fruit. of the _future_ we can know nothing definitely. heaven has hung before all human eyes an impenetrable veil which obscures all future events. no man without prophetic vision bestowed by him who "sees the end from the beginning," can know what is _to be_, and no expression can be made, no words employed which will positively declare a future action. we may see a present condition of things, and from it argue what is _to be_, or take place hereafter; but all that knowledge is drawn from the past and deduced from a review of the present relation and tendencies of things. i hold the paper near the fire and you say it _will_ burn, and you say truly, for it has a _will_, or what is the same, an inherent tendency _to burn_. it is made of combustible matter, like paper which we have seen burn, and hence we argue this has the same tendency to be consumed. but how does your mind arrive at that fact? if you had never seen a substance like it burn, why should you conclude this _will_? does the child know it _will_ burn? no; for it has not yet learned the quality of the paper. it is not till the child has been burned that it dreads the fire. suppose i take some asbestus, of the kind called amianthus, which is a mineral, and is formed of slender flexible fibres like flax; and in eastern countries, especially in savoy and corsica, is manufactured into cloth, paper, and lamp wicks. it was used in making winding sheets for the dead, in which the bodies were burned, and the ashes, retained in the incombustible sheet, were gathered into an urn, and revered as the manes of the dead. suppose i take some of this incombustible paper or cloth, and present to you. you say it _will_ burn. why do you say thus? because you have seen other materials which appear like this, consume to ashes. let us put it into the fire. it _will not_ burn. it has no _tendency_ to burn; no quality which will consume. but this is a new idea to you and hence your mistake. you did not know it _would_ burn, nor could you _indicate_ such a fact. you only told your opinion derived from the present appearance of things, and hence you made an assertion in the _indicative_ mood, present tense, and added to it an _infinitive_ mood, in order to deduce the consequence of this future action--it _wills_, or has a _tendency_ to burn. but you were mistaken, because ignorant of the _nature_ of things. this amianthus looks like flax, and to a person unacquainted with it, appears to be as truly combustible; but the mineralogist, and all who know its properties, know very well that it _will_ not--wills nothing, has no inclination, or tendency, to burn. take another example. here is a steel needle. i hold it before you. you say, "if i let go of it, it _will_ fall," and you say correctly, for it has such a tendency. but suppose a magnet, as great as that which is said to have drawn the iron coffin of mohammed to the roof of the temple at mecca, should be placed in the room above us. the needle, instead of falling to the floor, would be drawn in the nearest direction to that magnet. the _will_ or _tendency_ of the needle, as generally understood, would be overcome, the natural law of gravitation would lose its influence, by the counteracting power of the loadstone. i say, "i will go home in an hour." but does that expression _indicate_ the act of _going_? it is placed in the indicative mood in our grammars; and _go_ is the principal, and _will_ the auxiliary verb. may be i shall fall and die before i reach my home. but the expression is correct; _will_ is _present_, go _future_. i _will_, i now _resolve_, am now inclined _to go_ home. you see the correctness of our position, that we can not positively assert a future active in the indicative mood. try and form to yourselves a phrase by which it can be done. should you succeed, you would violate a law of nature. you would penetrate the dark curtain of the future, and claim to yourself what you do not possess, a power to declare future actions. prophets, by the help of the almighty, had this power conferred upon them. but in the revelation of the sublime truths they were instructed to make known, they were compelled to adopt human language, and make it agree with our manner of speech. the only method by which we express a future event, is to make an assertion in the indicative mood, present tense, and to that append the natural consequence in the infinitive or unlimited; as, i _am to go_ to boston. he is preparing _to visit_ new-york. the infinitive mood is always future to the circumstance on which it depends. mr. murray says, that "tense, being the distinction of time, might seem to admit of only the present, past, and future; but to mark it more _accurately_, it is made to consist of six variations, viz.: the present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, first and second future tenses." this _more accurate mark_, only serves to expose the author's folly, and distract the learner's mind. before, all was plain. the past, present, and future are distinct, natural divisions, easily understood by all. but what idea can a person form of an _imperfect_ tense in action. if there was ever such an action in the world, it was when _grammarians_ =made= their grammars, which is, if i mistake not, according to their own authority, in the _im-perfect_ tense! i _wrote_ a letter. he _read_ his piece well. the scholar learn_ed_ and recit_ed_ his lesson _perfectly_; and yet _learned_, tho made _perfect_ by the qualification of an _adverb_, is an _imperfect_ action! but this explains the whole mystery in the business of grammar. we can here discover the cause of all the troubles and difficulties we have encountered in the whole affair. when authors _made_ their books, they _did_ it _imperfectly_; when teachers _taught_ them, it was _imperfectly_; and when scholars _learned_ them, it was _imperfectly_!! so at last, we have found the origin of this whole difficulty, in the grammars themselves; it was all imperfectly done. but here, again, _mirabile dictu!_ wonderful to tell, we are presented with a _plu-perfect_ tense; that is,--_plus_ means _more_,--a _more_ than perfect tense! what must that be? if a thing is perfect, we can not easily conceive any thing beyond. that is a _ne plus ultra_ to all advancement--there can be no more beyond. if any change is introduced, it must be by falling from _perfect_ back to _imperfect_. i _have said_, "many of the distinctions in the grammar books _have proved_ mischievous; that they are as false as frivolous;" and this is said _perfectly_, in the perfect tense. if i should say, "they _had been_ of some benefit," that would be _more_ than _perfect_--plu-perfect. but when i say, "they _exhibited_ great depth of research, and _conveyed_ some light on the subject of which they _treated_," it would all be _im_-perfect. next, we are presented with a _second future_ tense, which attempts a division of time unbounded and unknown. in the greek, they have what is called a "_paulo post future_," which in plain english, means a "_little after the future_;" that is, i suppose, when futurity has come to an end, this tense will commence! at that time we may expect to meet a "_præter plus quam perfectum_"--a more than perfect tense! but till that period shall arrive, we see little need of making such false and unphilosophic distinctions. a teacher once told me that he explained the distinctions of time to his scholars from the clock dial which stood in the school room. suppose _twelve_ o'clock represents the _present_ tense; _nine_ would signify the _perfect_; any thing between nine and twelve would be _imperfect_; any thing beyond, _pluperfect_. on the other hand, any act, forward of twelve, would be _future_; and at _three_ the _second future_ would commence. i remarked that i thought this a wonderful improvement, especially to those who were able to have clocks by which to teach grammar, but that i could not discover why he did not have _three future_, as well as _three past_ tenses. why, he said, there were no such tenses marked in the books, and hence there was no occasion to explain them. i asked him why he did not have a tense for every hour, and so he could distinguish with mr. webster, _twelve_ tenses, without any trouble whatever; and, by going three times round the dial, he could easily prove the correctness of dr. beattie's division; for he says, in his grammar, there are _thirty-six_ tenses, and thinks there can not be less without "introducing confusion in the grammatical _art_." but he thought such a course would serve rather to perplex than enlighten; and so thought i. but he was the teacher of a popular school in the city of ----, and had published a duodecimo grammar of over pages, entitled "murray's grammar, _improved_, by ----." i will not give his name; it would be libellous! mr. murray thinks because certain things which he asserts, but does not prove, are found in greek and latin, "we may doubtless apply them to the english verb; and extend the principle _as far as convenience_, and the idiom of our language require." he found it to his "convenience" to note _six_ principal, and as many _indefinite_ tenses. mr. webster does the same. dr. beattie found it "convenient" to have _thirty-six_. in the greek they have _nine_. mr. bauzee distinguishes in the french _twenty_ tenses; and the royal academy of spain present a very learned and elaborate treatise on _seven future tenses_ in that language. the clock dial of my friend would be found quite "_convenient_" in aiding the "convenience" of such distinctions. the fact is, there are only three real divisions of time in any language, because there are only three in nature, and the ideas of all nations must agree in this respect. in framing language it was found impossible to mark any other distinctions, without introducing other words than those which express simple action. these words became compounded in process of time, till they are now used as changes of the same verb. i would here enter into an examination of the formation of the tenses of greek, latin, french, spanish, and german verbs, did i conceive it necessary, and show you how, by compounding two words, they form the various tenses found in the grammars. but it will be more edifying to you to confine my remarks to our own language. here it will be found impossible to distinguish more than three tenses, or find the verb in any different form, except by the aid of other words, wholly foreign from those that express the action under consideration. it is by the aid of auxiliary verbs that the perfect, pluperfect, or future tenses are formed. but when it is shown you that these are principal verbs, and like many other words, are used before the infinitive mood without the word _to_ prefixed to them, you will perceive the consistency of the plan we propose. that such is the fact we have abundant evidence to show, and with your consent we will introduce it in this place. i repeat, all the words long considered auxiliaries, are _principal_ verbs, declarative of positive action, and as such are in extensive use in our language. we can hardly agree that the words _will_, _shall_, _may_, _must_, _can_, _could_, _would_, _should_, etc. have no meaning, as our grammars and dictionaries would teach us; for you may look in vain for a definition of them, as principal verbs, with a few exceptions. the reason these words are not found in the same relation to other words, with a _to_ after them, is because they are so often used that we are accustomed to drop that word. the same may be said of all small words in frequent use; as, _bid_, _do_, _dare_, _feel_, _hear_, _have_, _let_, _make_, _see_, and sometimes _needs_, _tell_, and a few others. bid him go. i _dare say_ so. i _feel_ it _move_. we _hear_ him _sing_. _let_ us _go_. _make_ him _do_ it. he _must go_ thro samaria. _tell_ him _do_ it immediately. it is a singular fact, but in keeping with neuter verb systems, that all the _neuter_ verbs as well as the active, take these auxiliary or _helping_ verbs, which, according to their showing _help them do nothing_--"express neither action or passion." a wonderful _help_ indeed! * * * * * =will.= this verb signifies to _wish_, to _resolve_, to _exercise volition_, in reference to a certain thing or action. "i will go." i _now resolve_ to perform the act of going. when applied to inanimate things incapable of volition, it signifies what is analogous to it, _inherent tendency_; as, paper _will_ burn; iron _will_ sink; water _will_ run. all these things have an inherent or active tendency to change. water is composed of minute particles of a round form, piled together. while on a level they do not move; but let a descent be made, and these particles, under the influence of gravitation, _will_ change position, and roll one over another with a rapidity equalled to the condition in which they are placed. the same may be observed in a quantity of shot opened at one side which _will_ run thro the aperture; but the particles being larger, they will not find a level like water. grain, sand, and any thing composed of small particles, _will_ exhibit the same tendency. iron, lead, or any mineral, in a state of igneous solution, _will_ run, has the same _inclination_ to run as water, or any other liquid. in oil, tallow, and lard, when expanded by heat, the same tendency is observed; but severely chilled with the cold, it congeals, and _will_ not, has no such _tendency_, to run. you have doubtless observed a cask filled with water and nearly tight, (if it is possible, make it quite so,) and when an aperture is made in the side, it _will_ run but a trifle before it will stop. open a vent upon the top of the cask and it _will_ run freely. this _will_ or tendency was counteracted by other means which i will not stop here to explain. this is a most important word in science, physical and moral, and may be traced thro various languages where it exerts the same influence in the expression of thought. "to avoid multiplying of words, i would crave leave here, under the word _action_, to comprehend the _forbearance_ too of any action proposed; _sitting still_, or _holding one's peace_, when _walking_ or _speaking_ are proposed, tho mere forbearances, requiring as much the determination of the _will_, and being as often weighty in their consequences as the _contrary actions_, may, on that consideration, well enough pass for actions too. for he that shall turn his thoughts inwards upon what passes in his mind when he _wills_, shall see that the _will_ or power of volition is conversant about nothing."--_locke's essay_, b. ii. c. . § . it is correctly applied by writers to _matter_ as well as mind, as may be seen by consulting their works. "meanwhile as nature _wills_, night bids us rest." _milton._ the _lupulis_, or common hop, _feels_ for some elevated object which will assist it in its high aspirations, and _will_ climb it by winding from left to right, and _will_ not be obliged to go in an opposite direction; while the _phaseolus_, or kidney bean, takes the opposite direction. neither _will_ be compelled to change its course. they _will_ have their own way, and grow as they please, or they _will_ die in the contest for liberty. arsenic has a _tendency_ in itself, a latent power, which only requires an opportunity suited to its objects, when it _will act_ in the most efficacious manner. it _will_ destroy the life of the emperor, who has _voluntarily_ slain his thousand and tens of thousands. this secret power does not reside in the flour of wheat, for that _will not_, has no tendency, to produce such disastrous consequences. this word is applied in a similar manner to individuals and nations. the man _will_ fall, not of intention, but of accident. he _will_ kill himself. the man _will_ drown, and the boat _will_ swim. the water _will_ hold up the boat, but it _will_ allow the man to sink. the russians _will_ conquer the turks. if conquest depended solely on the _will_, the turks would as soon conquer as the russians. but i have not time to pursue this topic farther. you can follow out these hints at your leisure. =shall= signifies to be _bound_, _obligated_, or _required_, from external necessity. its etymology may be traced back thro various languages. it is derived direct from the saxon _scaelan_ or _scylan_, and is found as a principal verb in that language, as well as in ours. in the church homily they say, "to him alone we _schall us_ to devote ourselves;" we _bind_ or _obligate_ ourselves. chaucer, an early english poet, says. "the faith we _shall_ to god." great difficulty has been found in distinguishing between _shall_ and _will_, and frequent essays have been written, to give arbitrary rules for their use. if the words were well understood, there could be no difficulty in employing them correctly. _will_ signifies _inherent tendency_, _aptitude_, or _disposition_, and _volition_ in beings capable of using it. _shall_ implies _external necessity_, or foreign obligation. the parent says, "you _will_ suffer misery if you do evil," for it is in accordance with the nature of things for evil to produce misery. "you _shall_ regard my wishes," for you are under _obligation_, from the relation in which you stand to me, to do so. let these words be clearly explained, and there will be no difficulty in using them correctly. =may=, past tense _might_. this verb expresses _power_, _strength_, or _ability_ to perform an action. it is a mistake that it means permission or liberty only. it implies more than that, the delegation of a power to perform the contemplated action. suppose the scholar should faint, would the teacher say to him you _may_ go into the open air? he has no _power_, _might_, or _strength_, communicated by such liberty, and must receive the _might_ or strength of others to carry him out. but to the scholar in health he says you _may_ go out, thereby giving to him a power and liberty sufficient to perform the action. this is done on the same principle that one man gives another a "_power_ of attorney" to transact his business; and that _power_ constitutes his _liberty_ of action. =must= signifies to be _confined_, _limited_, _bound_, or _restrained_. i _must_, or am bound, to obey; certain obligations require me to obey. the adjective of this word is in common use. the air in the cask is _musty_. it has long been _bound_ or _confined_ there, and prevented from partaking of the purifying qualities of the atmosphere, and hence has become _musty_. =can.= this word is found as a principal verb and as a noun in our language, especially in the scotch dialect. "i _ken_ nae where he'd gone." beyond the _ken_ of mortals. far from all human _ken_. it signifies to _know_, to perceive, to understand. i knew not where he had gone. beyond the knowledge of mortals. far from all human reach. to _con_ or _cun_ is a different spelling of the same word. _cunning_ is that quick _perception_ of things, which enables a person to use his knowledge adroitly. the child _can_ read; _knows_ how to read. it _can_ walk. here it seems to imply _power_; but power, in this case, as in most others, is gained only by knowledge, for =knowledge is power=. many children have strength sufficient to walk, long before they do. the reason why they _can not_ walk, is, they do not _know how_; they have not learned to balance themselves in an erect position, so as to move forward without falling. a vast proportion of human ability is derived from knowledge. there is not a being in creation so entirely incapable of self-support, as the new-born infant; and yet, by the help of knowledge, he becomes the lord of this lower world. bonaparte was once as helpless as any other child, and yet by dint of _can_, _ken_, _cunning_, or knowledge, he made all europe tremble. but his knowledge was limited. he became blind to danger, bewildered by success, and he _could_ no longer follow the prudent course of wisdom, but fell a sacrifice to his own unbridled ambition, and blinded folly. an enlightened people _can_ govern themselves; but _power_ of government is gained by a knowledge of the principles of equality, and mutual help and dependency; and whenever the people become ignorant of that fact, they _will_ fall, the degraded victims of their own folly, and the wily influence of some more knowing aspirant for power. this is a most important topic; but i dare not pursue it farther, lest i weary your patience. a few examples _must_ suffice. "jason, she cried, for aught i _see_ or _can_, this deed," &c. _chaucer._ a famous man, of every _witte_ somewhat he _can_, _out take_ that him lacketh rule, his own estate to guide and rule. _gower._ =do= has been called a _helping_ verb; but it needs little observation to discover that it is no more so than a hundred other words. "_do_ thy diligence to come before winter." "_do_ the work of an evangelist."--_paul to timothy._ i _do_ all in my power _to expose_ the error and wickedness of false teaching. _do_ afford relief. _do_ something to afford relief. =have= has also been reckoned as an auxiliary by the "helping verb grammars," which has no other duty to perform than help conjugate other verbs thro some of their moods and tenses. it is a word in very common use, and of course must possess a very important character, which should be carefully examined and distinctly known by all who desire a knowledge of the construction of our language. the principal difficulty in the explanation of this word, is the peculiar meaning which some have attached to it. it has been defined to denote _possession_ merely. but when we say, a man _has_ much _property destroyed_ by fire, we do not mean that he _gains_ or _possesses_ much property by the fire; nor can we make _has_ auxiliary to _destroyed_, for in that case it would stand thus: a man _has destroyed_ much property by fire, which would be false, for the destruction was produced by an incendiary, or some other means wholly unknown to him. you at once perceive that _to possess_ is not the only meaning which attaches to _have_. it assumes a more important rank. it can be traced, with little change in form, back thro many generations. it is the same word as _heave_, originally, and retains nearly the same meaning. saxon _habban_, gothic _haban_, german _haben_, latin _habeo_, french _avoir_, are all the same word, varied in spelling more than in sound; for _b_ in many languages is sounded very much like _v_, or _bv_. it may mean to _hold_, _possess_, _retain_, _sway_, _control_, _dispose of_, either as a direct or _relative_ action; for a man sustains relations to his actors, duties, family, friends, enemies, and all the world, as well as to his possessions. he _has_ a hard task to perform. he _has_ much pain _to suffer_. he _has_ suffered much unhappiness. i _have written_ a letter. i _have_ a written letter. i _have_ a letter _written_. these expressions differ very little in meaning, but the verb _have_ is the same in each case. by the first expression, i signify that i have _caused_ the letter to be _written_; by the second that i have a letter on which such action has been performed; and by the third, that such written letter stands in such relation to myself. i _have written_ a letter and sent it away. _written_ is the past participle from _write_; as an adjective it describes the letter in the condition i placed it; so that it will be defined, wherever it is found, as my letter; that is, some way _related_ to me. we can here account for the old _perfect tense_, which is said, "not only to refer to what is _past_, but also _to convey an allusion to the present time_." the verb is in the _present_ tense, the participle is in the _past_, and hence the reason of this allusion. i _have_ no _space allowed_ me to go into a full investigation of this word, in its application to the expression of ideas. but it is necessary to _have_ it well _understood_, as it _has_ an important _service entrusted_ to it; and i hope you will _have_ clear _views presented_ to your minds, strong enough to _have_ former _errors eradicated_ therefrom. if you _have_ leisure _granted_, and patience and disposition equal-_ed_ to the task, you have my consent to go back and read this sentence over again. you will find it _has_ in it embodied much important information in relation to the use of _have_ and the perfect tense. lecture xiii. on verbs. person and number in the agent, not in the action.--similarity of agents, actions, and objects.--verbs made from nouns.--irregular verbs.--some examples.--regular verbs.--_ed_.--_ing_.--conjugation of verbs.--to love.--to have.--to be.--the indicative mood varied.--a whole sentence may be agent or object.--imperative mood.--infinitive mood.--is always future. i have said before that action can never be known separate from the actor; that the verb applies to the agent in an _acting_ condition, as that term has been defined and should be understood. hence person and number can never attach to the verb, but to the agent with which, of course, the action must, in every respect, agree; as, "_i write_." in this case the action corresponds with myself. but to say that _write_ is in the "first person, singular number," would be wrong, for no such number or person belongs to the verb, but is confined to myself as the agent of the action. the form of the verb is changed when it agrees with the second or third person singular; more on account of habit, i apprehend, than from any reason, or propriety as to a change of meaning in the word. we say, when using the regular _second_ person singular, "_thou writest_," a form rarely observed except in addresses to deity, or on solemn occasions. in the _third_ person, an _s_ is added to the regular form; as, "_he writes_." the old form, which was in general use at the time the common version of the bible was published, was still different, ending in _eth_; as, _he thinketh_, _he writeth_. this style, altho considerably used in the last century, is nearly obsolete. when the verb agrees with the plural number it is usually the same as when it agrees with the first person; as, "_we write_, _you write_, _they write_." there are few exceptions to these rules. some people have been very tenacious about retaining the old forms of words, and our books were long printed without alteration; but change will break thro every barrier, and book-makers must keep pace with the times, and put on the dress that is catered for them by the public taste; bearing in mind, meanwhile, that great and practical truths are more essential than the garb in which they appear. we should be more careful of our health of body and purity of morals than of the costume we put on. many genteel coats wrap up corrupt hearts, and fine hats cover silly heads. what is the chaff to the wheat? even our good friends, the quakers, who have particularly labored to retain old forms--"the plain language,"--have failed in their attempt, and have substituted the _object_ form of the pronoun for the _agent_, and say, "_thee thinks_," for _thou thinkest_. their mistake is even greater than the substitution of _you_ for _thou_. so far as language depends on the conventional regulation of those who use it, it will be constantly changing; new words will be introduced, and the spelling of old ones altered, so as to agree with modern pronounciation. we have all lived long enough to witness the truth of this remark. the only rule we can give in relation to this matter is, to follow our own judgments, aided by our best writers and speakers. the words which express action, are in many cases very similar to the agents which produce them; and the objects which are the direct results produced by such action, do not differ very materially. i will give you a few examples. _agent._ _verb._ _object._ actors act actions breathers breathe breath builders build buildings coiners coin coins casters cast casts or castings drinkers drink drink dreamers dream dreams earners earn earnings fishers fish fishes gainers gain gain hewers hew hewings innkeepers keep inns light or lighters light or shed lights miners mine or dig mines pleaders plead or make pleas producers produce products raisers raise raisings or houses runners or racers run runs or races sufferers suffer sufferings speakers speak speeches thinkers think thoughts writers write writings workers work works i give you these examples to show you the near alliance between _actors_, ( ,) and _actions_; or agents, _actions_, and objects. such expressions as the above are inelegant, because they are uncommon; but for no other reason, for we, in numberless cases, employ the same word for agent and verb; as, _painters paint_ buildings, and _artists_ paint paintings; _bookbinders bind books_; _printers print_ books, and other _prints_. a little observation will enable you to carry out these hints, and profit by them. you have observed the disposition in children, and foreigners, who are partially acquainted with our language, to make verbs out of almost every noun, which appears to us very aukward; but was it common, it would be just as correct as the verbs now used. there are very few verbs which have not a noun to correspond with them, for we make verbs, that is, we use words to express action, which are nearly allied to the agent with which such action agrees.[ ] from botany we have made _botanize_; from mr. mcadam, the inventor of a particular kind of road, _macadamize_, which means to make roads as he made them. words are formed in this way very frequently. the word _church_ is often used as a noun to express a building used for public worship; for the services performed in it; for the whole congregation; for a portion of believers associated together; for the episcopal order, etc. it is also used as a verb. mr. webster defines it, "to perform with any one the office of returning thanks in the church after any signal deliverance." but the word has taken quite a different turn of late. _to church_ a person, instead of receiving him into communion, as that term would seem to imply, signifies to deal with an offending member, to excommunicate, or turn him out. but i will not pursue this point any farther. the brief hints i have thrown out, will enable you to discover how the meaning and forms of words are changed from their original application to suit the notions and improvements of after ages. a field is here presented which needs cultivation. the young should be taught to search for the etymology of words, to trace their changes and meaning as used at different times and by different people, keeping their minds constantly directed to the object signified by such verbal sign. this is the business of philosophy, under whatever name it may be taught; for grammar, rhetoric, logic, and the science of the mind, are intimately blended, and should always be taught in connexion. we have already seen that words without meaning are like shadows without realities. and persons can not employ language "correctly," or "with propriety," till they have acquainted themselves with the import of such language--the ideas of things signified by it. let this course be adopted in the education of children, and they will not be required to spend months and years in the study of an "_art_" which they can not comprehend, for the simple reason that they can not apply it in practice. grammar has been taught as a mere _art_, depending on arbitrary rules to be mechanically learned, rather than a science involving the soundest and plainest principles of philosophy, which are to be known only as developed in common practice among men, and in accordance with the permanent laws which govern human thought. verbs differ in the manner of forming their _past_ tenses, and participles, or adjectives. those ending in _ed_ are called _regular_; those which take any other termination are _irregular_. there are about two hundred of the latter in our language, which differ in various ways. some of them have the _past_ tense and the past participle the same; as, bid bid bid knit knit knit shut shut shut let let let spread spread spread, etc. others have the past tense and participle alike, but different from the present; as, lend lent lent send sent sent bend bent bent wend went went build built or builded built think thought thought, etc. some have the present and past tense and participle different; as, blow blew blown grow grew grown begin began begun see saw seen write wrote written give gave given speak spoke spoken rise rose risen fall fell fallen, etc. there are a few which are made up of different radicals, which have been wedded together by habit, to avoid the frequent and unpleasant recurrence of the same word; as, am was been go (wend) went gone, etc. some which were formerly irregular, are now generally used with the regular termination, in either the past tense or participle, or both; as, hang hung or hanged hung or hanged dare dared or durst dared clothe clad or clothed clad or clothed work worked or wrought worked shine shined or shone shone or shined spill spilled or spilt spilt or spilled, etc. the syllable _ed_ is a contraction of the past tense of _do_; as, i _loved_, love _did_, _did_ love, or love-_ed_. he learn_ed_, learn did, did learn, or learned. it signifies action, _did_, done, or accomplished. you have all lived long enough to have noticed the change in the pronounciation of this syllable. old people sound it full and distinct; and so do most others in reading the scriptures; but not so generally as in former times. in poetry it was usually abbreviated so as to avoid the full sound; and hence we may account for the _irregular_ termination of many words, such as _heard_, for _heared_; _past_, for _passed_; _learnt_, for _learned_; _built_, for _builded_. in modern poetry, however, the _e_ is retained, tho sounded no more than formerly. _ing_ is derived from the verb to _be_, and signifies _being_, _existing_; and, attached to a verb, is used as a noun, or adjective, retaining so much of its former character as to have an object after it which is affected by it; as, "i am _writing_ a lecture." here _writing_, the present participle of _write_, describes myself in my present employment, and yet retains its action as a verb, and terminates on _lecture_ as the thing written. "the man was taken in the act of _stealing_ some money." in this case _stealing_ names the action which the man was performing when detected, which action thus named, has _money_ for the object on which it terminates. i barely allude to this subject in this place to give you an idea of the method we adopt to explain the meaning and use of participles. it deserves more attention, perhaps, to make it plain to your minds; but as it is not an essential feature in the new system, i shall leave it for consideration in a future work. whoever is acquainted with the formation of the present participle in other languages, can carry out the suggestions i have made, and fully comprehend my meaning. i will present you with an example of the conjugations of a few verbs which you are requested to compare with the "_might could would should have been loved_" systems, which you were required to learn in former times. you will find the verb in every _form_ or position in which it ever occurs in our language, written or spoken. conjugation of the regular verb =to love=. indicative mood. _singular_ _plural_ i _love_ we _love_ present tense thou _lovest_ you _love_ he, she, or it _loves_ they _love_ i _loved_ we _loved_ past tense thou _lovedst_ you _loved_ he, she, or it _loved_ they _loved_ imperative mood. _love._ infinitive mood. _to love._ participles. present, _loving_ past, _loved_ the irregular verb =to have=, is thus conjugated. indicative mood. i _have_ we _have_ present tense thou _hast_ you _have_ he _has_ they _have_ i _had_ we _had_ past tense thou _hadst_ you _had_ he _had_ they _had_ imperative mood. _have._ infinitive mood. _to have._ participles. present, _having_ past, _had_ the irregular verb =to be=, stands thus: indicative mood. i _am_ we _are_ present tense thou _art_ you _are_ he _is_ they _are_ i _was_ we _were_ past tense thou _wast_ you _were_ he _was_ they _were_ imperative mood. _be._ infinitive mood. _to be._ participles. present, _being_ past, _been_ these examples will suffice to give you an idea of the ease and simplicity of the construction of verbs, and by a comparison with old systems, you can, for yourselves, determine the superiority of the principles we advocate. the above tabular views present every form which the verb assumes, and every position in which it is found. in use, these words are frequently compounded together;[ ] but with a knowledge of the above principles, and the _meaning_ of the words--a most essential consideration--you will always be able to analyze any sentence, and parse it correctly. i have not time to enlarge on this point, to show how words are connected together. nor do i think it necessary to enable you to understand my views. to children such a work would be indispensable, and shall be attended to if we are able to publish a grammar containing the simple principles of language. * * * * * the indicative mood is varied four ways. st, affirmatively, _he writes_; d, negatively, _he writes not_; d, interrogatively, _does_ he write? or _writes_ he? th, suppositively, if _he writes_, _suppose he writes_, allow _he writes_. the _first_ is a simple affirmation of a fact, and is easily understood. the _second_ is formed by annexing a term to express negation. _not_ is a contraction from _nought_ or _naught_, which is a compound of _ne_, negative, and ought or aught, _ne-aught_, meaning _no-thing_. _he writes not_; he writes nothing. he does _not_ write; he does _nothing_ to write. _neither_ is a compound of _ne_ and _either_, _not either_. he _can not_ read; he _can_, _kens_, _knows nothing_, has no ability _to read_. the third is constructed into a question by placing the verb before the agent, or by prefixing another word before the agent, and then placing the former verb as an infinitive after it; as, _does_ he write? or _writes_ he? when another verb is prefixed, one is always chosen which will best decide the query. does he _any thing_ to write? does he make any motions or show any indications to write? when the _will_ or disposition of a person is concerned, we choose a word accordingly. _will_ he write? has he the _will_ or disposition to write? _can_ he write? is he able--_knows_ he how to write? a little observation will enable you to understand my meaning. in the fourth place, a supposition is made in the imperative mood, in accordance with which the action is performed. "_if_ ye _love_ me, keep my commandments." _give_, _grant_, _allow_, _suppose_ this fact--you _love_ me, keep my commandments. i will go if i can. i _resolve_, _will_, or _determine_ to go; _if_, _gif_, _give_, grant, allow this fact, i _can_, _ken_, _know_ how, or _am_ able _to go_. but more on this point when we come to the consideration of contractions. in this mood the verb must have an agent and object, expressed or implied; as, "_farmers_ cultivate the _soil_." but a whole sentence, that is, an idea written out, may perform this duty; as, "the study of grammar, on false principles, is productive of no good." what is productive of no good? what is the agent of _is_? "the _study_," our books and teachers tell us. but does such a construction give the true meaning of the sentence? i think not, for _study_ is indispensable to knowledge and usefulness, and _the study_ of grammar, properly directed, is a most useful branch of literature, which should never be dispensed with. it is the study of grammar _on false principles_, which _is productive of no good_. you discover my meaning, and will not question its correctness. you must also see how erroneous it would be to teach children that "_to study_ is productive of no good." the force of the sentence rests on the "false principles" taught. hence the whole statement is truly the agent of the verb. the object on which the action terminates is frequently expressed in a similar manner; as, "he wrote to me, that he will adopt the new system of grammar, if he can procure some books to give his scholars to learn." will you parse _wrote_? most grammarians will call it an _intransitive_ verb, and make out that "he wrote" _nothing_ to me, because there is no regular objective word after it. will you parse _that_? it is a "conjunction _copulative_." what does it connect? "_he wrote_" to the following sentence, according to rule of mr. murray; "conjunctions connect the _same_ moods and tenses of verbs and cases of nouns and pronouns." unluckily you have two different tenses connected in this case. will you parse _if_? it is a _copulative_ conjunction, connecting the two members of the sentence--_he will adopt_ if _he can procure_: rule, as above. how exceeding unfortunate! you have _two_ different moods, and too different tenses, connected by a _copulative_ conjunction which the rule says "connects _the same_ moods and tenses! what nonsense! what a falsehood! what a fine thing to be a grammarian! and yet, i venture the opinion, and i judge from what i have seen in myself and others, there is not one teacher in a hundred who will not learn children to parse as above, and apply the same rule to it. "i _will go_ if i _can_." "i _do_ and _will_ contend." "as it _was_ in the beginning, _is_ now, _and_ ever _shall be_." "i _am_ here and _must_ remain." "he _will do_ your business _if_ he _has_ time." "i _am_ resolved _to expose_ the errors of grammar, _and will do_ it thoroly _if_ i _can_." in these examples you have different moods and tenses, indiscriminately, yet correctly coupled together, despite the rules of syntax which teach us to explain language "with propriety." _that_, in the sentence before us, is an adjective, referring to the following sentence, which is the _object_ of _wrote_, or is the thing written. "he wrote to me _that_" fact, sentiment, opinion, determination, or resolution, that writing, letter, or word--"he will adopt the new system of grammar, if he can procure some books." this subject properly belongs to that department of language called syntax; but as i shall not be able to treat of that in this course of lectures, i throw in here these brief remarks to give you some general ideas of the arrangement of words into sentences, according to their true meaning, as obtained from a knowledge of their etymology. you cannot fail to observe this method of constructing language if you will pay a little attention to it when reading; keeping all the time in view the fact that words are only the signs of ideas, derived from an observation of things. you all know that it is not merely the steam that propels the boat, but that it is steam _applied to machinery_. steam is the more latent cause; and the engine with its complicated parts is the direct means. in the absence of either, the boat would not be propelled. in the formation of language, i may say correctly, "solomon _built_ the temple;" for he stood in that relation to the matter which supposes it would not have been built without his direction and command. to accomplish such an action, however, he need not raise a hammer or a gavel, or draw a line on the trestle board. his command made known to his ministers was sufficient to _cause_ the work to be done. hence the whole fact is _indicated_ or declared by the single expression, "solomon _built_ the temple." the imperative mood is unchanged in form. i can say to one man, _go_, or to a thousand, _go_. the commander when drilling _one_ soldier, says, _march_; and he bids the whole battalion, _march_. the agent who is _to perform_ the action is understood when not expressed; as, _go_, _go thou_, or _go you_. the agent is generally omitted, because the address is given direct to the person who is expected to obey the instruction, request, or command. this verb always agrees with an agent in the _second_ person. and yet our "grammars made easy" have given us _three persons_ in this mood--"_let me love_; _love_, _love thou_, or _do_ thou _love_; let him love." in the name of common sense, i ask, what can children learn by such instruction? "_let me love_," in the conjugation of the verb _to love_! to whom is this command given? to _myself_ of course! i command myself to "_let me love_!" what nonsense! "let _him_ love." i stand here, you set there, and the _third_ person is in philadelphia. i utter these words, "let _him love_." what is my meaning? why, our books tell us, that the verb to _love_ is _third_ person. then i command _him_ to _let himself love_! what jargon and falsehood! you all know that we can address the _second_ person only. you would call me insane if i should employ language according to the rules of grammar as laid down in the standard books. in my room alone, no person near me, i cry out, "_let me be quiet_"--imperative mood, first person of _to be_! do i command myself to _let_ myself _be_ quiet? most certainly, if _be_ is the principal verb in the first person, and _let_ the auxiliary. the teacher observes one of his pupils take a pencil from a classmate who sets near him. he says, "_let him have it_." to whom is the command given? it is the imperative mood, third person of the verb _to have_. does he command the third person, the boy who _has_ not the pencil? such is the resolution of the sentence, according to the authority of standard grammars. but where is there a child five years old who does not know better. every body knows that he addresses the second person, the boy who has the pencil, to _let_ the other _have_ it. teachers have learned their scholars the _first_ and _third_ persons of this mood when committing the conjugation of verbs; but not one in ten thousand ever adopted them in parsing. "_let me love._" _let_, all parse, mr. murray not excepted, in the _second_ person, and _love_ in the infinitive mood after it, without the sign _to_; according to the rule, that "verbs which follow _bid_, _dare_, _feel_, _hear_, _let_, _needs_, _speak_," etc. are in the infinitive mood. it is strange people will not eat their own cooking. there can be no trouble in understanding this mood, as we have explained it, always in the future tense, that is, future to the command or request, agreeing with the _second_ person, and never varied on account of number. the only variation in the infinitive mood is the omission of _to_ in certain cases, which is considered as a part of the verb; tho in truth it is no more so than when used in the character of an old fashioned preposition. in certain cases, as we have before observed, it is not expressed. this is when the infinitive verb follows small words in frequent use; as, shall, will, let, can, must, may, bid, do, have, make, feel, hear, etc. this mood is always in the future tense; that is, it is future to the circumstances or condition of things upon which it depends; as, they are making preparations _to raise_ the building. here _to raise_ is future to the preparations, for if they make no preparations, the buildings will not be raised. the boy studies his book _to learn_ his lesson. if he does not study, he will not be likely _to learn_ his lesson. the allied powers of europe combined their forces _to defeat_ napoleon. in this instance the whole expression is in the past tense; nevertheless, the action expressed in the infinitive mood, _was future_ to the circumstance on which it depended; that is, the _defeat_ was _future_ to the _combination_ of the forces. abraham raised the knife _to slay_ his son. not that he did _slay_ him, as that sentence must be explained on the common systems, which teach us that _to slay_ is in the _present tense_; but he raised the fatal knife for that purpose, the fulfilment of which was future; but the angel staid his hand, and averted the blow. the patriots of poland _made_ a noble attempt _to gain_ their liberty. but they did not _gain it_, as our grammars would teach us. _to gain_ was future to the attempt, and failed because the circumstances _indicated_ by the event, were insufficient to produce so favorable a result. no person of common discernment can fail to observe the absolute falsehood of existing systems in respect to this mood. it is used by our authors of grammar in the _present_ and _past_ tenses, but never in the _future_. let us give a moment to the consideration of this matter. take the following example. he _will prepare_ himself next week _to go_ to europe. let the school master parse _will prepare_. it is a verb, indicative mood, _first future_ tense. _next week_ is the point in futurity when the _preparation_ will be _made_. now parse _to go_. it is a verb, infinitive mood, _present tense_! then _he_ is already on his way to europe, when he is not _to prepare_ himself till next week! an army is collected _to fight_ the enemy. is the fight already commenced? _to fight_ is present tense, say the books. we shall study grammar next year, _to obtain_ a knowledge of the principles and use of language. is _to obtain_ present tense? if so there is little need of spending time and money to study for a knowledge we _already possess_. "hope springs eternal in the human breast; man never _is_, but always =to be= blest." _pope._ "who _was_, and who _is_, and who _is_ =to come=."--_bible._ it is not that a man thinks himself already in possession of a sufficiency, but hopes =to be= qualified, etc. i _am to go_ in an hour. he _is to go_ to-morrow. i _am_ ready _to hear_ you recite your lesson. he _has been waiting_ a long time _to see_ if some new principles will not be introduced. he is prepared _to appear_ before you whenever you shall direct. we _are_ resolved _to employ_ neuter verbs, potential and subjunctive moods, im-perfect, plu-perfect, and second future tenses, no longer. false grammars _are_ only fit-_ted to be_ laid aside. we are in duty bound _to regard_ and _adopt_ truth, and _reject_ error; and we _are_ determined _to do_ it in grammar, and every thing else. we are not surprised that people cannot comprehend grammar, as usually taught, for it is exceedingly difficult to make error appear like truth, or false teaching like sound sentiment. but i will not stop to moralize. the hints i have given must suffice. much more might be said upon the character and use of verbs; but as these lectures are not designed for _a system_ of grammar _to be taught_, but to expose the errors of existing systems, and prepare the way for a more rational and consistent exposition of language, i shall leave this department of our subject, presuming you will be able to comprehend our views, and appreciate their importance. we have been somewhat critical in a part of our remarks, and more brief than we should have been, had we not found that we were claiming too much of the time of the institute, which is designed as a means of improvement on general subjects. enough has been said, i am sure, to convince you, if you were not convinced before, why the study of grammar is so intricate and tedious, that it is to be accounted for from the fact that the theories by which it is taught are false in principle, and can not be adopted in practice; and that something ought to be done to make the study of language easy, interesting, and practical. such a work is here attempted; but it remains with the public to say whether these plain philosophical principles shall be sustained, matured, perfected, and adopted in schools, or the old roundabout course of useless and ineffectual teaching be still preserved. lecture xiv. on contractions. a temporary expedient.--words not understood.--all words must have a meaning.--their formation.--changes of meaning and form.--should be observed.--=adverbs=.--ending in _ly_.--examples.--ago.--astray. --awake.--asleep.--then, when.--there, where, here.--while, till.--whether, together.--ever, never, whenever, etc.--oft.--hence. --perhaps.--not.--or.--nor.--than.--as.--so.--distinctions false.--rule .--if.--but.--tho.--yet. we have concluded our remarks on the necessary divisions of words. things _named_, _defined_ and _described_, and their _actions_, _relations_, and _tendencies_, have been considered under the classes of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. to these classes all words belong when properly explained; a fact we desire you to bear constantly in mind in all your attempts to understand and employ language. but there are many words in our language as well as most others, which are so altered and disguised that their meaning is not easily comprehended. of course they are difficult of explanation. these words we have classed under the head of _contractions_, a term better calculated than any other we have seen adopted to express their character. we do not however lay any stress on the appropriateness of this appellation, but adopt it as a temporary expedient, till these words shall be better understood. they will then be ranked in their proper places among the classes already noticed. under this head may be considered the words usually known as "adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections." that the etymology and meaning of these words have not been generally understood will be conceded, i presume, on all hands. in our opinion, that is the only reason why they have been considered under these different heads, for in numberless cases there is nothing in their import to correspond with such distinctions. why "an adverb expresses some _quality_ or circumstance respecting a verb, adjective, or other adverb;" why "a conjunction is chiefly used to connect sentences, so as out of _two_ to make only _one_ sentence;" or why "prepositions serve to connect words with one another, and show the relation between them," has never been explained. they have been _passed over_ with little difficulty by teachers, having been furnished with lists of words in each "part of speech," which they require their pupils to commit to memory, and "for ever after hold their peace" concerning them. but that these words have been defined or explained in a way to be understood will not be pretended. in justification of such ignorance, it is contended that such explanation is not essential to their proper and elegant use. if such is the fact, we may easily account for the incorrect use of language, and exonerate children from the labor of studying etymology. but these words have meaning, and sustain a most important rank in the expression of ideas. they are, generally, abbreviated, compounded, and so disguised that their origin and formation are not generally known. horne tooke calls them "the _wheels_ of language, the _wings_ of mercury." he says "tho we might be dragged along without them, it would be with much difficulty, very heavily and tediously." but when he undertakes to show that they were _constructed_ for this object, he mistakes their true character; for they were not invented for that purpose, but were originally employed as nouns or verbs, from which they have been corrupted by use. and he seems to admit this fact when he says,[ ] "_abbreviation_ and _corruption_ are always busiest with the words which are most frequently in use. letters, like soldiers, being very apt to desert and drop off in a long march, and especially if their passage happens to lie near the confines of an enemy's country." in the original construction of language a set of literary men did not get together and manufacture a lot of words, finished thro out and exactly adapted to the expression of thought. had that been the case, language would doubtless have appeared in a much more regular, stiff, and formal dress, and been deprived of many of its beautiful and lofty figures, its richest and boldest expressions. necessity is the mother of invention. it was not until people had _ideas_ to communicate, that they sought a medium for the transmission of thought from one to another; and then such sounds and signs were adopted as would best answer their purpose. but language was not then framed like a cotton mill, every part completed before it was set in operation. single expressions, _sign_-ificant of things, or _ideas_ of _things_ and _actions_, were first employed, in the most simple, plain, and easy manner.[ ] as the human mind advanced in knowledge, by observing the character, relations, and differences of things, words were changed, altered, compounded, and contracted, so as to keep pace with such advancement; just as many simple parts of a machine, operating on perfect and distinct principles, may be combined together and form a most complicated, curious, and powerful engine, of astonishing power, and great utility. in the adaptation of steam to locomotives, the principles on which stationary engines operated were somewhat modified. some wheels, shafts, bands, screws, etc., were omitted, others of a different kind were added, till the whole appeared in a new character, and the engine, before fixed to a spot, was seen traversing the road with immense rapidity. the principles of the former engine, so far from being unessential, were indispensable to the construction of the new one, and should be clearly understood by him who would build or _use_ the latter. so, in the formation of language, simple _first_ principles must be observed and traced thro all their ramifications, by those who would obtain a clear and thoro knowledge of it, or "read and write it with propriety." in mathematics, the four simple rules, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, form the basis on which that interesting science depends. the modifications of these rules, according to their various capabilities, will give a complete knowledge of all that can be known of numbers, relations, and proportions, an acme to which all may aspire, tho none have yet attained it. the principles of language are equally simple, and, if correctly explained, may be as well understood. but the difficulty under which we labor in this department of science, is the paucity of _means_ to trace back to their original form and meaning many words and phrases in common use among us. language has been employed as the vehicle of thought, for six thousand years, and in that long space has undergone many and strange modifications. at the dispersion from babel, and the "confusion of tongues" occasioned thereby, people were thrown upon their own resources, and left to pick up by piecemeal such shreds as should afterwards be wove into a system, and adopted by their respective nations. wars, pestilence, and famine, as well as commerce, enterprize, literature, and religion, brought the different nations into intercourse with each other; and changes were thus produced in the languages of such people. whoever will take the trouble to compare the idioms of speech adopted by those nations whose affairs, civil, political, and religious, are most intimately allied, will be convinced of the correctness of the sentiment now advanced. in the lapse of ages, words would not only change their form, but in a measure their meaning, so as to correspond with the ideas of those who use them. some would become obsolete, and others be adopted in their stead. many words are found in the bible which are not in common use; and the manner of spelling, as well as some entire words, have been changed in that book, since it was translated and first published in . with these examples you are familiar, and i shall be spared the necessity of quoting them. i have already made some extracts from old writers, and may have occasion to do so again before i close this lecture. the words which we class under the head of contractions, are so altered and disguised in their appearance, that their etymology and connexion are not generally understood. it may appear like pedantry in me to attempt an investigation into their origin and meaning. but to avoid that charge, i will frankly acknowledge the truth, and own my inability to do justice to this subject, by offering a full explanation of all the words which belong to this class. i will be candid, if i am not successful. but i think most of the words long considered difficult, may be easily explained; enough to convince you of the feasibility of the ground we have assumed, and furnish a sample by which to pursue the subject in all our future inquiries into the etymology of words. but even if i fail in this matter, i shall have one comfort left, that i am not alone in the transgression; for no philologist, with few exceptions, has done any thing like justice to this subject. our common grammars have not even attempted an inquiry into the _meaning_ of these words, but have treated them as tho they had none. classes, like pens or reservoirs, are made for them, into which they are thrown, and allowed to rest, only to be named, without being disturbed. sometimes, however, they are found in one enclosure, sometimes in another, more by mistake, i apprehend, than by intention; for "prepositions" under certain circumstances are parsed as "adverbs," and "adverbs" as "adjectives," and "conjunctions" as either "adverbs" or "prepositions;" and not unfrequently the whole go off together, like the tail of the dragon, drawing other respectable words along with them, under the sweeping cognomen of "adverbial phrases," or "conjunctive expressions;" as, can you write your lesson? _not yet quite well enough._ "_but and if_ that evil servant,"[ ] etc. mr. murray says, "the same word is occasionally used _both as_ a conjunction _and as_ an adverb, and sometimes _as_ a preposition. let these words be correctly defined, their meaning be ferreted out from the rubbish in which they have been enclosed; or have their dismembered parts restored to them, they will then appear in their true character, and their connexion with other words will be found regular and easy. until such work is accomplished, they may as well be called contractions, for such they _mostly_ are, as adverbs or any thing else; for that appellation we regard as more appropriate than any other. in the attempts we are about to make, we shall endeavor to be guided by sound philosophic principles and the light of patient investigation; and whatever advances we may make shall be in strict accordance with the true and practical use of these words. let us begin with _adverbs_. i have not time to go into a thoro investigation of the mistakes into which grammarians have fallen in their attempts to explain this "part of speech." mr. murray says they "seem originally to have been _contrived_ to express compendiously in _one word_, what must _otherwise_ have required two or more; as, "he acted _wisely_." they could have been "_contrived_" for no such purpose, for we have already seen that they are made up of various words combined together, which are used to express relation, to define or describe other things. take the very example mr. m. has given. _wisely_ is made up of two words; _wise_ and _like_. "he acted wisely," wise-like. what did he _act_? _wisely_, we are taught, expresses the "_manner_ or quality" of the verb _act_. but _act_, in this case, is a neuter or intransitive verb, and _wisely_ expresses the _manner of action_ where there is none! but he must have _acted something_ which was _wise_ like something else. what did he act? if he produced no _actions_, how can it be known that he _acted_ wisely or unwisely? _action_ or _acts_ is the direct object of to _act_. hence the sentence fully stated would stand thus: "he acted _acts_ or _actions_ like wise actions or acts." but stated at length, it appears aukward and clumsy, like old fashioned vehicles. we have modified, improved, cut down, and made eliptical, all of our expressions, as we have previously observed, to suit the fashions and customs of the age in which we live; the same as tailors cut our garments to correspond with the latest fashions. "the bird sings _sweetly_." the bird sings _songs_, _notes_, or _tunes_, _like sweet notes_, _tunes,_ or _songs_. the comparison here made, is not in reference to the agent or action, but the _object_ of the action; and this explains the whole theory of those _adverbs_, which are said to "qualify manner" of action. we have already seen that no _action_, as such, can exist, or be conceived to exist, separate(-ed) from the _thing_ or _agent_ which _acts_; and such action can only be determined by the _changed_ or altered condition of something which is the _object_ of such action. how then, can any word, in truth, or in thought, be known to _qualify_ the action, as distinct from the object or agent? and if it does not in _fact_, how can we explain words to children, or to our own minds, so as to understand what is not true? hence all words of this character are adjectives, describing one thing by its relation or likeness to another, and as such, admit of comparison; as, a likely man, a _very_ likely man, a likelier, and the _likeliest_ man. "he is the _most likely_ pedlar i ever knew." "he is _more liable_ to be deceived." "a _lively_ little fellow." "he is worthless." he is worth less, _less worthy_ of respect and confidence. "he writes very correctly." he writes his letters and words _like very correct_ letters. but i need not enlarge. you have only to bear in mind the fact, that _ly_ is a contraction of _like_, which is often retained in many words; as god_like_, christian_like_, etc., and search for a definition accordingly; and you will find no trouble in disposing of a large portion of this adverb family. it is a curious fact, and should be maturely considered by all who still adhere to the neuter verb theory, that adverbs _qualify neuter_ as well as active verbs, and express the _quality_ or _manner of action_, where there is none! adverbs express "manner of action" in a neuter verb! when a person starts wrong it is very difficult to go right. the safest course is to return back and start again. adverbs have been divided into classes, varying from _eleven_ to _seventy-two_, to suit the fancies of those who have only observed the nice shades of form which these words have assumed. but a bonnet is a bonnet, let its shape, form, or fashion, be what it may. you may put on as many trimmings, flowers, bows, and ribbons, as you please; it is a bonnet still; and when we speak of it we will call it a _bonnet_, and talk about its _appendages_. but when it is constructed into something else, then we will give it a new name. adjectives, we have said, are _derived_ from either nouns or verbs, and we now contend that the words formerly regarded as adverbs are either adjectives, nouns, or verbs. in defence of this sentiment we will adduce a few words in this place for examples. =ago.= "three years _ago_, we dwelt in the country." this word is a past participle from the verb _ago_, meaning the same as _gone_ or _agone_, and was so used a few centuries _ago_--_agone_, or _gone by_. "for euer the latter ende of ioye is wo, god wotte, worldly ioye is soone _ago_." _chaucer._ "for if it erst was well, tho was it bet a thousand folde, this nedeth it not require _ago_ was euery sorowe and euery fere." _troylus, boke , p. ._ "of such examples as i finde upon this point of tyme _agone_ i thinke for to tellen one." _gower_, lib. , p. . "which is no more than has been done by knights for ladies, long _agone_." _hudibras._ "twenty years _agone_." _tillotson's sermon._ "are all _the go_." _knickerbocker._ =astray.= "they went astray." _astrayed_, wandered or were scattered, and of course soon became _estranged_ from each other. farmers all know what it is for cattle to _stray_ from home; and many parents have felt the keen pangs of sorrow when their sons _strayed_ from the paths of virtue. in that condition they are _astray-ed_. "this prest was drank and goth _astrayede_." "achab to the bottle went. when benedad for all his shelde him slough, so that upon the felde his people goth aboute _astraie_." _gower._ =awake.= "he is _awake_." "samson _awaked_ out of his sleep." "that i may _awake_ him out of sleep." "it is high time to _awake_." "as a man that is _wakened_ out of sleep." the irish hold _a wake_--they do not sleep the night after the loss of friends. =asleep.= "when that pyte, which longe _on sleep_ doth tary hath set the fyne of al my heuynesse." _chaucer, la belle dame, p. . c. ._ "ful sound _on sleep_ did caucht thare rest be kind." _douglas_, b. , p. . "in these provynces the fayth of chryste was all quenchyd and _in sleepe_."--_fabian._ a numerous portion of these contractions are nouns, which, from their frequent recurrence, are used without their usual connexion with small words. the letter _a_ is compounded with many of these words, which may have been joined to them by habit, or as a preposition, meaning _on_, _to_, _at_, _in_, as it is used in the french and some other languages. you often hear expressions like these, "he is _a_-going; he is _a_-writing; he began _a_-new," etc. the old adverbs which take this letter, you can easily analyze; as, "the house is _a_-fire"--on fire; "he fell _a_-sleep"--he fell _on_ sleep. "when deep sleep falleth on men."--_job._ "he stept _a_-side"--on one side. "he came _a_-board"--on board. "they put it _a_-foot"--on foot. "he went _a_-way"--a way, followed some _course_, to a distance. "blue bonnets are all the _go_ now _a_-days," etc. the following extracts will give you an idea of the etymology of these words: "turnus seyes the troianis in grete yre, and al thare schyppis and navy set _in fire_." _douglas_, b. , p. . "now hand in hand the dynt lichtis with _ane_ swak, now bendis he up his bourdon with _ane_ mynt, _on side_ (a-side) he bradis for to eschew the dynt." _idem._ "that easter fire and flame aboute both at mouth and at nase so that thei setten all _on blaze_," (ablaze.) _gower._ "and tyl a wicked deth him take _him had_ leuer _asondre_ (a-sunder) shake and let al his lymmes _asondre_ ryue thane leaue his richesse in his lyue." _chaucer._ examples of this kind might be multiplied to an indefinite length. but the above will suffice to give you an idea of the former use of these words, and also, by comparison with the present, of the changes which have taken place in the method of spelling within a few centuries. a large portion of adverbs relate to _time_ and _place_, because many of our ideas, and much of our language, are employed in reference to them; as, _then_, _when_, _where_, _there_, _here_, _hence_, _whence_, _thence_, _while_, _till_, _whether_, etc. these are compound words considerably disguised in their meaning and formation. let us briefly notice some of them. _per annum_ is a latin phrase, _for the year_, a _year_; and _the annum_ is _the year_, _round_ or _period_ of time, from which it was corrupted gradually into its present shape. _thanne_, tha anne, _thane_, _thenne_, _then_, _than_, are different forms of the same word. "we see nowe bi a mirror in darcnesse: thanne forsathe, face to face. nowe i know of partye; _thanne_ forsathe schal know as i am knowen."-- . cor. : . _translation in ._ i have a translation of the same passage in , which stands thus: "for nowe we see through a glasse darkley: but _thene_ face to face: now i know in part: but _then_ shal i know even as i am knowen." here several words are spelled differently in the same verse. =then=, _the anne_, that time. =when=, _wha anne_, "_wha-icht-anne_," which, or what _anne_, period of time. _area_ means an open space, a plat of ground, a spot or place. arena is from the same etymon, altered in application. =there=, _the area_, the _place_ or _spot_. "if we go _there_," to that place. =where=, which, or what ("wha-icht area") place. =here=, _his_ (latin word for _this_,) _area_, this place. these words refer to _place_, _state_, or _condition_. _while_ is another spelling for _wheel_. "to while away our time," is to _pass_, spend, or _wheel_ it away. _while_ applies to the _period_, or space of time, in which something _wheels_, _whirls_, _turns_ round, or transpires; as, "you had better remain here _while_ (during the time) he examines whether it is prudent for you to go." =till= is _to while_, to the _period_ at which something is expected to follow. "if i will that he tarry _till_ (to the time) i come what is that to thee?" the idea of _time_ and _place_ are often blended together. it is not uncommon to hear lads and professed scholars, in some parts of our country say "down _till_ the bottom, over _till_ the woods." etc. altho we do not regard such expressions correct, yet they serve to explain the meaning of the word. the only mistake is in applying it to _place_ instead of _time_. =whether= is _which either_. "shew _whether_ of these _two_ thou hast chosen."--_acts : ._ it is more frequently applied in modern times to circumstance and events _than to_ persons and things. "i will let you know _whether_ i _will_ or _will not_ adopt it," one or the other. =together= signifies two or more united. _gethered_ is the past participle of _gather_. "as mailie, an' her lambs _thegither_, were ae day nibbling on the tether." _burns._ =ever= means _time_, _age_, _period_. it originally and essentially signified _life_. _for ever_ is for the age or period. _for ever_ and _ever_, to the ages of ages. _ever-lasting_ is _age-lasting_. ever-lasting hills, snows, landmarks, etc. =never=, _ne-ever_, _not ever_, at no time, age or period. =when-ever.=--at what point or space of _time_ or _age_. =what-ever.=--what thing, fact, circumstance, or event. =where-ever.=--to, at, or in what place, period, age, or time. =whither-so-ever=, which-way-so-ever, where-so-ever, never-the-less, etc. need only be analyzed, and their meaning will appear obvious to all. =oft=, _often_, _oft-times_, often-_times_, can be understood by all, because the noun to which they belong is _oft-en_ retained in practice. =once=, twice, at one time, two times. =hence=, _thence_, _whence_, from _this_, _that_, or _what_, place, spot, circumstance, post, or starting place. =hence-for-ward=, _hence-forth_, in time _to come_, after this period. =here-after=, after this _era_, or present time. =hither=, to this spot or place. _thither_, to that place. _hither-to_, _hither-ward_, etc. the same as _to you ward_, or to god ward, still retained in our bibles. =per-haps=, it may hap. _perchance_, _peradventure_, by chance, by adventure. the latin _per_ means _by_. =not=, no ought, not any, nothing. it is a compound of _ne_ and _ought_ or _a_ught. =or= is a contraction from other, and _nor_ from _ne-or_, no-or, no other. =no-wise=, no ways. i will go, or, other-wise, in another way or manner, you must go. =than=, _the ane_, the one, that one, alluding to a particular object with which a comparison is made; as, this book is larger _than_ that bible. that _one_ bible, this book is larger. it is always used with the comparative degree, to define particularly the object with which the comparison is made. talent is better than flattery. than flattery, often bestowed regardless of merit, talent is better. =as= is an adjective, in extensive use. it means the, this, that, these, the same, etc. it is a defining word of the first kind. you practice _as_ you have been taught--_the same duties_ or _principles_ understood. we use language _as_ we have learned it; in _the same_ way or manner. it is often associated with other words to particularly specify the way, manner, or degree, in which something is done or compared. i can go _as well as_ you. in _the same well_, easy, convenient way or manner you can go, i can go in _the same_ way. he was _as_ learned, _as_ pious, _as_ benevolent, _as_ brave, _as_ faithful, _as_ ardent. these are purely adjectives, used to denote the degree of the likeness or similarity between the things compared. secondary words are often added to this, to aid the distinction or definition; as, (_the same_ illustrated,) he is _just as willing_. i am _quite as well_ pleased without it. _as_, like many other adjectives, often occurs without a noun expressed, in which case it was formerly parsed by murray himself _as_ (like, or the same) a relative pronoun; as, "and indeed it seldom at any period extends to the tip, _as happens_ in acute diseases."--_dr. sweetster._ "the ground i have assumed is tenable, _as will appear_."--_webster._ "bonaparte had a special motive in decorating paris, for 'paris is france, _as has_ often been observed."--_channing._ "the words are such _as seem_."--_murray's reader! p. , intro._ =so= has nearly the same signification as the word last noticed, and is frequently used along with it, to define the other member of the comparison. _as_ far _as_ i can understand, _so_ far i approve. _as_ he directed, _so_ i obeyed. it very often occurs as a secondary adjective; as, "in pious and benevolent offices _so_ simple, _so_ minute, _so_ steady, _so_ habitual, that they will carry," etc. "he pursued a course _so_ unvarying."--_channing._ these words are the most important of any small ones in our vocabulary, because (_for this cause_, be this the cause, this is the cause) they are the most frequently used; and yet there are no words _so_ little understood, or _so_ much abused by grammarians, _as_ these are. we have barely time to notice the remaining parts of speech. "conjunctions" are defined to be a "part of speech void of signification, but so formed as to help signification, by making two or more significant sentences to be one significant sentence." mr. harris gives about forty "species." murray admits of only the _dis_-junctive and copulative, and reduces the whole list of words to twenty-four. but what is meant by a _dis_-junctive _con_-junctive word, is left for you to determine. it must be in keeping with _in_definite _defining_ articles, and _post_-positive _pre_-positions. he says, "it joins words, but disjoins the sense."[ ] and what is a _word_ with out _sense_," pray tell us? if "words are the signs of ideas," how, in the name of reason, can you give the sign and separate the sense? you can as well separate the shadow from the substance, or a quality from matter. we have already noticed rule , which teaches the use of conjunctions. under that rule, you may examine these examples. "as it _was_ in the beginning, _is_ now, _and_ ever _shall be_."--_common prayer._ "what i _do_, _have done,_ or _may_ hereafter _do_, _has been_, and _will_ always _be_ matter of inclination, the gratifying of which _pays_ itself: and i _have_ no more merit in employing my time and money in the way i _am known_ to do, than another has in other occupations."--_howard._ the following examples must suffice. =if.= this word is derived from the saxon _gifan_, and was formerly written _giff_, _gyff_, _gif_, _geve_, _give_, _yiff_, _yef_, _yeve_. it signifies _give_, _grant_, _allow_, _suppose_, _admit_, and is always a verb in the imperative mood, having the following sentence or idea for its object. "_if_ a pound of sugar cost ten cents, what will ten pounds cost?" _give_, grant, allow, suppose, (the fact,) _one pound cost_, etc. in this case the supposition which stands as a predicate--_one pound of sugar cost ten cents_, is the object of _if_--the thing to be allowed, supposed, or granted, and from which the conclusion as to the cost of _ten_ pounds is to be drawn. "he will assist us if he has the means." allow, admit, (the fact,) he has the means, he will assist us. "_gif_ luf be vertew, than is it leful thing; _gif_ it be vice, it is your undoing." _douglas_ p. . "ne i ne wol non reherce, _yef_ that i may." _chaucer._ "she was so charitable and so pytous she wolde wepe _yf that_ she sawe a mous caught in a trappe, _if_ it were deed or bledde." _prioresse._ "o haste and come to my master dear." "_gin_ ye be barbara allen." _burns._ =but.= this word has two opposite significations. it is derived from two different radicals. _but_, from the saxon _be_ and _utan_, _out_, means _be out_, _leave out_, _save_, _except_, _omit_, as, "all _but_ one are here." _leave out_, _except_, _one_, all are here. "heaven from all creation hides the book of fate all _but_ (_save_, _except_) the page prescribed our present state." "when nought _but_ (_leave out_) the _torrent_ is heard on the hill, and nought _but_ (_save_) the nightingale's _song_ in the grove." "nothing _but fear_ restrains him." in these cases the direct _objects_ of the verb, the things to be omitted are expressed. _but_ is also derived from _botan_, which signifies _to add_, _superadd_, _join_ or _unite_; as, in the old form of a deed, "it is _butted_ and bounded as follows." two animals _butt_ their heads together. the _butt_ of a log is that end which was _joined_ to the stump. a _butt_, _butment_ or _a-butment_ is the joined end, where there is a connexion with something else. a _butt_ of ridicule is an object to which ridicule is attached. "not only saw he all that was, _but (add) much_ that never came to pass." _m'fingal._ _to button_, _butt-on_, is derived from the same word, to join one side to the other, to fasten together. it was formerly spelled _botan_, _boote_, _bote_, _bot_, _butte_, _bute_, _but_. it is still spelled _boot_ in certain cases as a verb; as, "what _boots it_ thee to fly from pole to pole, hang o'er the earth, and with the planets roll? what boots ( ) thro space's fartherest bourns to roam, _if_ thou, o man, a stranger art at home?" _grainger._ "if love had _booted_ care or cost." a man exchanged his house in the city for a farm, and received fifty dollars to _boot_; _to add_ to his property, and make the exchange equal. _let_ presents the same construction in form and meaning as _but_, for it is derived from two radicals of opposite significations. it means sometimes to _permit_ or _allow_; as, _let_ me go; _let_ me have it; and to _hinder_ or _prevent_; as, "i proposed to come unto you, _but_ (add this fact) i was _let_ hitherto."--_rom. : ._ "he who now _letteth_, will _let_ until he be taken out of the way."--_ thess. : ._ =and= is a past participle signifying _added_, _one-ed_, _joined_. it was formerly placed after the words; as, "james, john, david, _and_, (_united to-_gether_-ed_,) go to school." we now place it _before_ the last word. =tho=, _altho_, _yet_. "tho (_admit_, _allow_, _the fact_) he slay me, yet (_get_, _have_, _know_, _the fact_) i will trust in him." _yes_ is from the same word as _yet_. it means _get_ or _have_ my consent to the question asked. _nay_ is the opposite of _yes_, _ne_-aye, nay, no. the _ayes_ and _noes_ were called for. i can pursue this matter no farther. the limits assigned me have been overrun already. what light may have been afforded you in relation to these words, will enable you to discover that they have _meaning_ which must be learned before they can be explained correctly; that done, all difficulty is removed. interjections deserve no attention. they form no part of language, but may be used by beasts and birds as well as by men. they are indistinct utterances of emotions, which come not within the range of human speech. footnotes: [ ] the reader is referred to "the red book," by william bearcroft, revised by daniel h. barnes, late of the new-york high school, as a correct system of teaching practical orthography. [ ] gall, spurzheim, and combe, have reflected a light upon the science of the mind, which cannot fail of beneficial results. tho the doctrines of phrenology, as now taught, may prove false--which is quite doubtful--or receive extensive modifications, yet the consequences to the philosophy of the mind will be vastly useful. the very terms employed to express the faculties and affections of the mind, are so definite and clear, that phrenology will long deserve peculiar regard, if for no other reason than for the introduction of a vocabulary, from which may be selected words for the communication of ideas upon intellectual subjects. [ ] metaphysics originally signified the science of the causes and principles of all things. afterwards it was confined to the philosophy of the mind. in our times it has obtained still another meaning. metaphysicians became so abstruse, bewildered, and lost, that nobody could understand them; and hence, _metaphysical_ is now applied to whatever is abstruse, doubtful, and unintelligible. if a speaker is not understood, it is because he is too metaphysical. "how did you like the sermon, yesterday?" "tolerably well; but he was too metaphysical for common hearers." they could not understand him. [ ] in this respect, many foreign languages possess a great advantage over ours. they can augment or diminish the same word to increase or lessen the meaning. for instance; in the spanish, we can say _hombre_, a man; _hombron_, a _large_ man; _hombrecito_, a _young_ man, or youth; _hombrecillo_, a _miserable little_ man; _pagaro_, a bird; _pagarito_, a _pretty little_ bird; _perro_, a dog; _perrillo_, an _ugly little_ dog; _perrazo_, a _large_ dog. the indian languages admit of diminutives in a similar way. in the delaware dialect, they are formed by the suffix _tit_, in the class of animate nouns; but by _es_, to the inanimate; as, _senno_, a man; _sennotit_, a _little_ man; _wikwam_, a house; _wikwames_, a _small_ house.--_enc. amer. art. indian languages, vol. , p. ._ [ ] mr. harris, in his "hermes," says, "a preposition is a part of speech, _devoid itself of signification_; but so formed as to unite two words that are significant, and that refuse to coalesce or unite themselves." mr. murray says, "prepositions serve to _connect_ words with one another, and show the relation between them." [ ] "me thou shalt use in what thou wilt, and doe that with a slender _twist_, that none can doe with a tough _with_." _euphues and his england, p. ._ "they had arms under the straw in the boats, and had cut the _withes_ that held the oars of the town boats, to prevent any pursuit." _ludlow's memoirs, p. ._ "the only furniture belonging to the houses, appears to be an oblong vessel made of bark, by tying up the ends with a _withe_." _cooke's description of botany bay._ [ ] see galatians, chap. , verse . "when it pleased god, who _separated_ me," &c. [ ] acts, xvii, . [ ] st. pierre's studies of nature.--dr. hunter's translation, pp. - . [ ] it is reported on very good authority that the same olive trees are now standing in the garden of gethsemane under which the saviour wept and near which he was betrayed. this is rendered more probable from the fact, that a tax is laid, by the ottoman porte, on all olive trees planted since palestine passed into the possession of the turks, and that several trees standing in gethsemane do not pay such tribute, while all others do. [ ] we do not assent to the notions of ancient philosophers and poets, who believed the doctrine that the world is animated by a soul, like the human body, which is the spirit of deity himself; but that by the operation of wise and perfect laws, he exerts a supervision in the creation and preservation of all things animate and inanimate. virgil stated the opinions of his times, in his Ã�neid, b. vi. l. . "principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, lucentemque globum, lunæ, titaniaque astra spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." "know, first, that heaven, and earth's compacted frame, and flowing waters, and the starry flame, and both the radiant lights, _one common soul_ inspires and feeds--and _animates the whole_. this active mind, infused thro all the space, unites and mingles with the mighty mass." _dryden_, b. vi. l. . this sentiment, he probably borrowed from pythagoras and plato, who argue the same sentiment, and divide this spirit into "_intellectus_, _intelligentia_, et _natura_"--intellectual, intelligent, and natural. whence, "_ex hoc deo, qui est mundi anima: quasi decerptæ particulæ sunt vitæ hominum et pecudum._" or, "omnia animalia ex quatuor elementis et _divino spiritu_ constare manifestum est. trahunt enim a terra carnem, ab aqua humorem, ab ære anhelitum, ab igne fervorem, _a divino spiritu ingenium_."--_timeus, chap. , and virgil's geor. b. , l. , dryden's trans. l. ._ pope alludes to the same opinion in these lines: "all are but parts of one stupendous whole. whose body nature is, and god the soul." [ ] page . [ ] exodus, iii. , . [ ] cardell's grammar. [ ] the jews long preserved this name in samaritan letters to keep it from being known to strangers. the modern jews affirm that by this mysterious name, engraven on his rod, moses performed the wonders recorded of him; that jesus stole the name from the temple and put it into his thigh between the flesh and skin, and by its power accomplished the miracles attributed to him. they think if they could pronounce the word correctly, the very heavens and earth would tremble, and angels be filled with terror. [ ] plutarch says, "this title is not only _proper_ but _peculiar to god_, because =he= alone is _being_; for mortals have no participation of _true being_, because that which _begins_ and _ends_, and is constantly _changing_, is never _one_ nor the _same_, nor in the same state. the deity on whose temple this word was inscribed was called =apollo=, apollon, from _a_ negative and _pollus_, _many_, because god is =one=, his nature simple, and _uncompounded_."--_vide, clark's com._ [ ] the same fact may be observed in other languages, for all people form language alike, in a way to correspond with their ideas. the following hasty examples will illustrate this point. _agent._ _verb._ _object._ _english_ singers sing songs _french_ les chanteurs chantent les chansons _spanish_ los cantores cantan las cantinelas _italian_ i cantori cantano i canti _latin_ cantores canunt cantus _english_ givers give gifts _french_ les donneurs donnent les dons _spanish_ los donadores dan o donan los dones _italian_ i danatori dano o danano i doni _latin_ datores donant dona _english_ fishers fish fishes _french_ les pecheurs pechent les poissons _spanish_ los pescadores pescan los peces _italian_ i pescatori pescan i pesci _latin_ piscatores piscantur pisces _english_ students study studies _french_ les etudiens etudient les etudes _spanish_ los estudiantes estudian los estudios _italian_ i studienti studiano i studii _latin_ studiosi student studia [ ] mr. murray says, "these compounds," _have_, _shall_, _will_, _may_, _can_, _must_, _had_, _might_, _could_, _would_, and _should_, which he uses as auxiliaries to _help_ conjugate _other_ verbs, "are, however, to be considered as _different forms_ of the _same_ verb." i should like to know, if these words have any thing to do with the _principal_ verbs; if they only alter the _form_ of the verb which follows them. i _may_, _can_, _must_, _shall_, _will_, or _do love_. are these only different forms of _love_? or rather, are they not distinct, important, and original verbs, pure and perfect _in_ and _of_ themselves? ask for their etymons and meaning, and then decide. [ ] diversions of purley, vol. , p. . [ ] dr. edwards observes, in a communication to the connecticut society of arts and sciences, from personal knowledge, that "the mohegans (indians) have _no adjectives_ in all their language. altho it may at first seem not only singular and curious, but impossible, that a language should exist without adjectives, yet it is an indubitable fact." but it is proved that in later times the indians employ adjectives, derived from nouns or verbs, as well as other nations. altho many of their dialects are copious and harmonious, yet they suffered no inconvenience from a want of contracted words and phrases. they added the ideas of definition and description to the things themselves, and expressed them in the _same_ word, in a modified form. [ ] matthew, chap. , v. . [ ] examples of a _dis_-junctive conjunction. "they came with her, _but_ they went without her."--_murray._ murray is _wrong_, _and_ cardell is _right_. the simplifiers are wrong, _but_ their standard is so likewise. "me he restored to my office, _and_ him he hanged."--_pharaoh's letter._ transcriber's note the following printer's errors have been corrected in this etext. changes are indicated in brackets. contents on nouns amd [and] pronouns lecture i process of time as ingle [a single] will not unfrequenly [unfrequently] represent lecture iii german, danish, dutch, sweedish [swedish] lecture v _david_ killed goliah [goliath] lecture vi and cosinder [consider] them in this place lecture vii we are told there are are [are] two articles the mother is _mascu.line_ [masculine] dress handkerchief.["] the resolution lecture viii object will be to ascertion [ascertain] ["]but wherefore _sits he_ there? act _transitively_, acording [according] to lecture ix the pocket of guy fawks [fawkes] for we should rember [remember] _looks_ like or _resembles_ his brother,["] lecture x a philosophical axiom[.]--manner and our languge [language] should ["]i have addressed this volume lecture xi be not surprized [surprised] when i tell you lecture xii the qualifification [qualification] of an _adverb_, --"express neither actionn [action] or passion." lecture xiv trace back to their orignal [original] form ["]he stept _a_-side" ["]as mailie, an' her lambs ["]not only saw he all that was, footnote murray is _wroug_ [wrong] [transcriber's notes: . italic text is rendered with underscores _like this_, and bold with equal signs =like this=. . misprints and punctuation errors were corrected. a list of corrections can be found at the end of the text.] the century handbook of writing by garland greever _and_ easley s. jones new york the century co. copyright, , by the century co. printed in u.s.a. preface this handbook treats essential matters of grammar, diction, spelling, mechanics; and develops with thoroughness the principles of sentence structure. larger units of composition it leaves to the texts in formal rhetoric. the book is built on a decimal plan, the material being simplified and reduced to one hundred articles. headings of these articles are summarized on two opposite pages by a chart. here the student can see at a glance the resources of the volume, and the instructor can find immediately the number he wishes to write in the margin of a theme. the chart and the decimal scheme together make the rules accessible for instant reference. by a device equally efficient, the book throws upon the student the responsibility of teaching himself. each article begins with a concise rule, which is illustrated by examples; then follows a short "parallel exercise" which the instructor may assign by adding an _x_ to the number he writes in the margin of a theme. while correcting this exercise, the student will give attention to the rule, and will acquire theory and practice at the same time. moreover, every group of ten articles is followed by mixed exercises; these may be used for review, or imposed in the margin of a theme as a penalty for flagrant or repeated error. thus friendly counsel is backed by discipline, and the instructor has the means of compelling the student to make rapid progress toward good english. although a handbook of this nature is in some ways arbitrary, the arbitrariness is always in the interest of simplicity. the book does have simplicity, permits instant reference, and provides an adequate drill which may be assigned at the stroke of a pen. table of contents sentence structure completeness of thought . fragments wrongly used as sentences . incomplete constructions . necessary words omitted . comparisons not logically completed . cause and reason . _is when_ and _is where_ clauses . undeveloped thought . transitions . exercise a. incomplete sentences b. incomplete constructions c. incomplete logic d. undeveloped thought and transitions unity of thought . unrelated ideas in one sentence . excessive detail . stringy sentences to be broken up . choppy sentences to be combined . excessive coördination . faulty subordination of the main thought . subordination thwarted by _and_ . the _and which_ construction . the comma splice . exercise a. the comma splice b. one thought in a sentence c. excessive coördination d. upside-down subordination clearness of thought reference . divided reference . weak reference . broad reference . dangling participle or gerund coherence . general incoherence . logical sequence . squinting modifier . misplaced word . split construction . exercise a. reference of pronouns b. dangling modifiers c. coherence parallel structure . parallel structure for parallel thoughts . correlatives consistency . shift in subject or voice . shift in number, person, or tense . mixed constructions . mixed imagery use of connectives . the exact connective . repetition of connective with gain in clearness . repetition of connective with loss in clearness . exercise a. parallel structure b. shift in subject or voice c. shift in number, person, or tense d. the exact connective e. repetition of connectives emphasis . emphasis by position . emphasis by separation . emphasis by subordination . the periodic sentence . order of climax . the balanced sentence . weak effect of the passive voice . repetition effective: a words; b structure . repetition offensive: a words; b structure . exercise a. lack of emphasis in general b. loose structure c. repetition grammar . case: a nominative, especially after _than_ or _as_; b nominative _who_ and _whoever_; c predicate nominative; d objective; e objective with infinitive; f possessive; g possessive with gerund; h possession by inanimate objects; i agreement of pronouns . number: a _each_, _every one_, etc.; b _those kind_, etc.; c collective nouns; d _don't_ . agreement--not to be thwarted by: a intervening nouns; b _together with_ phrases; c _or_ or _nor_ after subject; d _and_ in the subject; e a predicate noun; f an introductory _there_ . _shall_ and _will_ . principal parts. list . tense, mode, auxiliaries: a tense in dependent clauses or infinitives; b the past perfect; c present tense for a general statement; d mode; e auxiliaries . adjective and adverb: a adjective misused for adverb; b ambiguous cases; c after verbs pertaining to the senses . a word in a double capacity . list of the terms of grammar . exercise a. case of pronouns b. agreement c. _shall_ and _will_ d. _lie, lay; sit, set; rise, raise_ e. principal parts of verbs f. general diction . wordiness . triteness . the exact word . concreteness . sound . subtle violations of good use: a faulty idiom; b colloquialism . gross violations of good use: a barbarisms; b improprieties; c slang . words often confused in meaning. list . glossary of faulty diction . exercise a. wordiness b. the exact word c. words sometimes confused in meaning d. colloquialisms, slang, faulty idioms spelling . recording errors . pronouncing accurately . logical kinship in words . superficial resemblances. list . words in _ei_ and _ie_ . doubling a final consonant . dropping final _e_ . plurals: a plurals in _s_ or _es_; b nouns ending in _y_; c compound nouns; d letters, figures, and signs; e old plurals; f foreign plurals . compounds: a compound adjectives; b compound nouns; c numbers; d words written solid; e general principle . spelling list ( words, in bold-face type) miscellaneous . manuscript: a titles; b spacing; c handwriting . capitals: a to begin a sentence or a quotation; b proper names; c proper adjectives; d in titles of books or themes; e miscellaneous uses . italics: a titles of books; b foreign words; c names of ships; d words taken out of context; e for emphasis . abbreviations: a in ordinary writing; b in business writing . numbers: a dates and street numbers; b long figures; sums of money, etc. . syllabication: a position of hyphen; b division between syllables; c monosyllabic words not divided; d one consonant between syllables; e two consonants between syllables; f prefixes and suffixes; g short words; h misleading division . outlines: a topic outline; b sentence outline; c paragraph outline; d indention; e parallel form; f faulty coördination; g too detailed subordination . letters: a heading; b inside address and greeting; c body, language; d close; e outside address; f miscellaneous directions; g model business letter; h formal notes . paragraphs: a indention; b length; c dialogue . exercise capitals, numbers, abbreviations, etc. punctuation . the period: a after sentences; b but not after fragments of sentences; c after abbreviations . the comma: a between clauses joined by _but_, _for_, _and_; b but not to splice clauses not joined by a conjunction; c after a subordinate clause preceding a main clause; d to set off non-restrictive clauses and phrases; e to set off parenthetical elements; f between adjectives; g between words in a series; h before a quotation; i to compel a pause for clearness; j superfluous uses . the semicolon: a between coördinate clauses not joined by a conjunction; b between long coördinate clauses; c before a formal conjunctive adverb; d but not before a quotation . the colon: a to introduce a formal series or quotation; b before concrete illustrations of a previous general statement . the dash: a to enclose a parenthetical statement; b to mark a breaking-off in thought; c before a summarizing statement; d but not to be used in place of a period; e not to be confused with the hyphen . parenthesis marks: a uses; b with other marks; c confirmatory symbols; d not used to cancel words; e brackets . quotation marks: a with quotations; b with paragraphs; c in dialogue; d with slang, etc.; e with words set apart; f quotation within a quotation; g together with other marks; h quotation interrupted by _he said_; i omission from a quotation; j unnecessary in the title of a theme, or as a label for humor or irony . the apostrophe: a in contractions; b to form the possessive; c to form the possessive of nouns ending in _s_; d not used with personal possessive pronouns; e to form the plural of certain signs and letters . the question mark: a after a direct question; b not followed by a comma within a sentence; c in parentheses to express uncertainty; d not used to label irony; e the exclamation point . exercise . general exercise to the student when a number is written in the margin of your theme, you are to turn to the article which corresponds to the number. read the rule (printed in bold-face type), and study the examples. when an _r_ follows the number on your theme, you are, in addition, to copy the rule. when an _x_ follows the number, you are, besides acquainting yourself with the rule, to write the exercise of five sentences, to correct your own faulty sentence, and to hand in the six on theme paper. if the number ends in ( , , , etc.), you will find, not a rule, but a long exercise which you are to write and hand in on theme paper. in the absence of special instructions from your teacher, you are invariably to proceed as this paragraph requires. try to grasp the principle which underlies the rule. in many places in this book the reason for the existence of the rule is clearly stated. thus under , the reason for the rule on parallel structure is explained in a prologue. in other instances, as in the rule on divided reference ( ), the reason becomes clear the moment you read the examples. in certain other instances the rule may appear arbitrary and without a basis in reason. but there is a basis in reason, as you will observe in the following illustration. suppose you write, "he is twenty one years old." the instructor asks you to put a hyphen in _twenty-one_, and refers you to . you cannot see why a hyphen is necessary, since the meaning is clear without it. but tomorrow you may write. "i will send you twenty five dollar bills." the reader cannot tell whether you mean twenty five-dollar bills or twenty-five dollar bills. in the first sentence the use of the hyphen in _twenty-one_ did not make much difference. in the second sentence the hyphen makes seventy-five dollars' worth of difference. thus the instructor, in asking you to write, "he is twenty-one years old," is helping you to form a habit that will save you from serious error in other sentences. whenever you cannot understand the reason for a rule, ask yourself whether the usage of many clear-thinking men for long years past may not be protecting you from difficulties which you do not foresee. instructors and writers of text books (impressive as is the evidence to the contrary) are human, and do not invent rules to puzzle you. they do not, in fact, invent rules at all, but only make convenient applications of principles which generations of writers have found to be wisest and best. the century handbook of writing sentence structure completeness of thought the first thing to make certain is that the thought of a sentence is complete. a fragment which has no meaning when read alone, or a sentence from which is omitted a necessary word, phrase, or idea, violates an elementary principle of writing. =fragments wrongly used as sentences= = . do not write a subordinate part of a sentence as if it were a complete sentence.= wrong: he stopped short. hearing some one approach. right: he stopped short, hearing some one approach. [or] hearing some one approach, he stopped short. wrong: the winters are cold. although the summers are pleasant. right: although the summers are pleasant, the winters are cold. wrong: the hunter tried to move the stone. which he found very heavy. right: the hunter tried to move the stone, which he found very heavy. [or] the hunter tried to move the stone. he found it very heavy. note.--a sentence must in itself express a complete thought. phrases or subordinate clauses, if used alone, carry only an incomplete meaning. they must therefore be attached to a sentence, or restated in independent form. elliptical expressions used in conversation may be regarded as exceptions: where? at what time? ten o'clock. by no means. certainly. go. exercise: . my next experience was in a grain elevator. where i worked for two summers. . the parts of a fountain pen are: first, the point. this is gold. second, the body. . the form is set rigidly. so that it will not be displaced when the concrete is thrown in. . there are several reasons to account for the swarming of bees. one of these having already been mentioned. . since june the company has increased its trade three per cent. since august, five per cent. =incomplete constructions= = . do not leave uncompleted a construction which you have begun.= wrong: you remember that in his speech in which he said he would oppose the bill. right: you remember that in his speech he said he would oppose the bill. [or] you remember the speech in which he said he would oppose the bill. wrong: he was a young man who, coming from the country, with ignorance of city ways, but with plenty of determination to succeed. right: he was a young man who, coming from the country, was ignorant of city ways, but had plenty of determination to succeed. wrong: from the window of the train i perceived one of those unsightly structures. right: from the window of the train i perceived one of those unsightly structures which are always to be seen near a station. exercise: . as far as his having been deceived, there is a difference of opinion on that matter. . the fact that he was always in trouble, his parents wondered whether he should remain in school or not. . people who go back to the scenes of their childhood everything looks strangely small. . it was the custom that whenever a political party came into office, for the incoming men to discharge all employees of the opposite party. . although the average man, if asked whether he could shoot a rabbit, would answer in the affirmative, even though he had never hunted rabbits, would find himself badly mistaken. =necessary words omitted= = . do not omit a word or a phrase which is necessary to an immediate understanding of a sentence.= ambiguous: i consulted the secretary and president. [did the speaker consult one man or two?] right: i consulted the secretary and the president. [or] i consulted the man who was president and secretary. ambiguous: water passes through the cement as well as the bricks. right: water passes through the cement as well as through the bricks. wrong: i have had experience in every phase of the automobile. right: i have had experience in every phase of automobile driving and repairing. wrong: about him were men whom he could not tell whether they were friends or foes. right: about him were men regarding whom he could not tell whether they were friends or foes. [or, better] about him were men who might have been either friends or foes. exercise: . when still a small boy, my family moved to centerville. . constantly in conversation with some one broadens our ideas and our vocabulary. . it was a trick which opposing teams were sure to be baffled. . they departed for the battle front with the knowledge they might never return. . at the banquet were all classes of people; i met a banker and plumber. =comparisons= = . comparisons must be completed logically.= wrong: his speed was equal to a racehorse. wrong: of course my opinion is worth less than a lawyer. wrong: the shells which are used in quail hunting are different than in rabbit hunting. compare a thing with another thing, an abstraction with another abstraction. do not carelessly compare a thing with a part or quality of another thing. always ask yourself: what is compared with what? right: his speed was equal to that of a racehorse. right: of course my opinion is worth less than a lawyer's. right: the shells used in quail hunting are different from those used in rabbit hunting. self-contradictory: chicago is larger than any city in illinois. right: chicago is larger than any other city in illinois. impossible: chicago is the largest of any other city in illinois. right: chicago is the largest of all the cities in illinois. [or] chicago is the largest city in illinois. note.--after a comparative, the subject of the comparison should be excluded from the class with which it is compared; after a superlative, the subject of the comparison should be included within the class. wrong: {taller of all the girls. {tallest of any girl. right: {taller than any other girl [comparative]. {tallest of all the girls [superlative]. exercise: . the climate of america helps her athletes to become superior to other countries. . this tobacco is the best of any other on the market. . you men are paid three dollars more than any other factory in the city. . i thought i was best fitted for an engineering course than any other. . care should be taken not to turn in more cattle than the grass in the pasture. =cause and reason= = . a simple statement of fact may be completed by a _because_ clause.= right: i am late because i was sick. =but a statement containing _the reason is_ must be completed by a _that_ clause.= wrong: the reason i am late is because i was sick. [the "reason" is not a "because"; the "reason" is the fact of sickness.] right: the reason i am late is that i was sick. =_because_, the conjunction, may introduce an adverbial clause only.= wrong: because a man wears old clothes is no proof that he is poor. [a _because_ clause cannot be the subject of _is_.] right: the fact that a man wears old clothes is no proof that he is poor. [or] the wearing of old clothes is not proof that a man is poor. note.--_because of_, _owing to_, _on account of_, introduce adverbial phrases only. _due to_ and _caused by_ introduce adjectival phrases only. wrong: he failed, due to weak eyes. [due is an adjective; it cannot modify a verb.] right: his failure was {due to } weak eyes {caused by} {because of } right: he failed {owing to } weak eyes. {on account of} exercise: . the reason why i would not buy a ford car is because it is too light. . my second reason for coming here is because of social advantages. . because john is rich does not make him happier than i. . because i like farming is the reason i chose it. . the only reason why vegetation does not grow here is because of the lack of water. =_is when_ or _is where_ clauses= = . do not use a _when_ or _where_ clause as a predicate noun. do not define a word by saying it is a "when" or a "where". define a noun by another noun, a verb by another verb, etc.= wrong: the great event is when the train arrives. right: the great event is the arrival of the train. wrong: immigration is where foreigners come into a country. right: immigration is the entering of foreigners into a country. wrong: a simile is when one object is compared with another. right: a simile is a figure of speech in which one object is compared with another. note.--a definition of a term is a statement which ( ) names the class to which the term belongs, and ( ) distinguishes it from other members of the class. example. a quadrilateral is a plane figure having four sides and four angles. to test a definition ask whether it separates the term defined from all other things. if the definition does not do this, it is incomplete. define _california_ (so as to exclude other states), _window_ (so as to exclude _door_), _star_ (exclude _moon_), _night_, _rain_, _circle_, _bible_, _metal_, _mile_, _rectangle_. exercise: . the pistol shot is when the race begins. . a snob is when a man treats others as inferior socially. . the wireless telegraph is where messages are sent a long distance through the air. . the definition of usury is where one charges interest higher than the legal rate. . biology is when one studies plant and animal life. =undeveloped thought= = . do not halfway express an idea. if the idea is important, develop it. if it is not important, omit it.= incomplete: we were now quite sure that we had lost our way, and jack said he had a business engagement that night. better: we were now quite sure that we had lost our way, a fact which was all the more annoying as jack said he had a business engagement that night. puzzling: since mcandrew had inherited money, his suitcase was plastered with labels. right: since mcandrew had inherited money, he had traveled extensively. his suitcase was plastered with the labels of foreign hotels. careless: in looking for gasoline troubles, we forgot to see whether the tank was supplied. right: in looking for the cause of the trouble, we forgot to see whether the tank was supplied with gasoline. note.--in giving information about books, do not confuse the title with the contents or some part of the contents. be accurate in referring to the time, scene, action, plot, or characters. loose thinking: shakespeare's _hamlet_ occurs in denmark [the scene is laid?]. many passages are powerful, especially the grave-digging [is grave-digging a passage?]. the character of horatio is a noble fellow [conception], and the same is true of ophelia [ophelia a fellow?]. the drama takes place over several weeks. [the action covers a period of several weeks.] exercise: . the victrola brings to the home the world's musical ability. . the user of dietzgen instruments is not vexed by numerous troubles that accompany the inferior makes. . to the picnicker rainy weather is bad weather, while the farmer raises a big crop. . some diseases can be checked by preventives, and in many cases can be of great use to an army. . this idea of breaking all records held for eating is naturally harmful to the digestion, and these important organs may thank their stars that christmas does not come very often. =transitions= the state of mind of a writer is not the state of mind of his reader. the writer knows his ideas, and has spent much time with them. the reader meets these ideas for the first time, and must gather them in at a glance. the relation between two ideas may be clear to the writer, and not at all clear to the reader. therefore, = . in passing from one thought to another, make the connection clear. if necessary, insert a word, a phrase, or even a sentence, to carry the reader safely across.= space transition needed: we were surprised to see a house in the distance, but we went to the door and knocked. [this sentence does not give a reader the effect of distance.] better: we were surprised to see a house in the distance. _but we hastened toward it with thoughts of a warm meal and a good lodging. we entered the yard_, and went up to the door, and knocked. exterior-interior transition needed: we noticed that the house was built of cobblestones. there was a broad window from which we could look out upon the small stream that dashed down the rocky hillside. better: we noticed that the house was built of cobblestones. _we went inside, and found that the living room was large and airy._ there was a broad window from which we could look out upon the small stream that dashed down the rocky hillside. cause transition lacking: the romans were great road-builders. they wished to maintain their empire. better: the romans were great road-builders, _because means of moving troops quickly were necessary_ to the maintenance of their empire. general-to-particular transition needed: modern machinery often makes men its slaves. last summer i worked for the chandler company. [this gap in thought occurs oftenest between the first two sentences of a paragraph or theme.] better: modern machinery often makes men its slaves. _this truth is well illustrated by my own experience._ last summer i worked for the chandler company. transition to be improved by changing order: a careless trainer may spoil a good colt. a good horse can never be made of a vicious colt. [here the order of ideas is: "trainer ... colt. horse ... colt." turn the last sentence end for end.] better: a careless trainer may spoil a good colt. and a vicious colt can never be made a good horse. [now the order of ideas is "trainer ... colt. colt ... horse."] transition to be improved by removal of a disturbing element: our class in physics last week visited a pumping station in which the corliss type of steam engine is used. _the engines are manufactured by the allis-chalmers company of milwaukee, wisconsin._ this type of engine is used because it has several advantages. [the italicized sentence should be omitted here, and used later in the theme.] note.--the divisions of thought within a paragraph may likewise be indicated by connectives: _however_, _on the other hand_, _equally important_, _another interesting problem is_, _for this reason_, _the remedy for this_, _so much for_, _it remains to mention_, _of course i admit_, _finally_. (for a longer list see .) such phrases are also useful in linking one paragraph to another. when a student first learns the art, he is likely to use transition phrases in excess, and produce something like the following: "when i have to write a theme, i first think of my subject. as soon as i have my subject, i take out my paper. on the paper i then make a rough outline." this abuse of transition causes an overlapping of thought, like shingles laid three inches to the weather. an abrupt transition is better than wordiness. exercise: . the shore looked far off. then we reached it. . a light snow was falling last night. this is a good day for hunting rabbits. . a dollar is often a large sum. i sold newspapers when i was a boy. . many english words still preserve their old meanings. there is the teller in the bank. . we had to walk half a mile across the pastures in the fresh morning air. exercise indoors does not arouse much zest or enthusiasm. = .= exercise in completeness of thought =a. fragments misused as sentences= rewrite the following statements in sentences each of which expresses a complete thought. . he gave me a flower. which was wilted. . the gasoline flows through the supply tube to the carburetor. where it should vaporize and enter the cylinders. . people of all ages were there. old men, young women, and even children. . he told us that you had a good standing among business men. that you always met your bills promptly. . excuse everett smith from school this morning. he having the measles. . the internal combustion engine may be either one of two types. the two cycle or the four cycle. . the young men and women acted like children. who should have known better. . there was a cross cow in the pasture. which had long horns. . bacteria are microscopic organisms. especially found where milk or some other substance decomposes. . we pass on down the street. the buildings rising two or three stories high on either side. . the y. m. c. a. enables you to keep your religious interests alive. as well as to associate with clean young men. . she wasted her time on foolish clothes. while her mother took in washing. . he was dressed in a ridiculous fashion. wearing, for instance, an orange necktie. . the point is similar to that of the ordinary steel pen, except that it is made of gold. gold being used on account of its greater smoothness and durability. . tire troubles have been made less formidable by the invention of a compact, efficient little vulcanizer. a factory for making which is now being built. =b. incomplete constructions= improve the following statements. supply missing words. make sure that each construction and each sentence is complete. . when one year old, my mother died. . yours received, and in reply would say your order has been filled. . while in there a man came in and bought a quarter's worth of soap. . war is largely dependent upon the engineers to design new machinery. . when you talk to a man look at him, not the floor or ceiling. . in writing a book, an author's first one is usually not very good. . every summer while in high school, our family has gone to our cottage on lake michigan. . when a boy, mary was my best friend. . there is, however, another reason a person should know how to swim. . i think more of her than anyone else. . corrupt laws are often the means rich people obtain the earnings of others. . a hundred dollars invested in a warning signal, future accidents would be prevented. . electric transmission is sometimes used on automobiles more of an experiment than anything else. . was delighted to hear from you. glad to hear you entered the wholesale business. wish you success. . as a rule people eat too much. this point should be noticed, and not overwork the digestive organs. =c. incomplete logic= the following sentences are inadequate statements of cause, comparison, etc. complete the thought. . his neck is as long as a giraffe. . his name was david meek, from new hampshire. . the pacific ocean is larger than any ocean. . because he never worked led to his failure. . a monitor is where a heavily armored boat of light draft can go near the shore. . democracy is when people, through representatives, govern themselves. . the story of _huckleberry finn_ is in reality mark twain himself. . because a man has money is no reason why he should be lazy. . the character of sydney carton is the real hero of this novel. . a forester leads an interesting life is the reason i want to be one. . tact is where a man anticipates the criticism of others, and acts with discretion. . the comfort of a modern house is much greater than the old-time house. . free trade is when no revenue is collected on imports, beyond enough to run the government. . the cost of room, board, and tuition is low at this school, compared to the more fashionable schools. . the theme of this novel tells how a peasant, jean valjean, from a convict comes to be a respected citizen. =d. undeveloped thought and transitions= complete the thought of the following sentences, and secure a smooth transition between parts. . as you enter this room, to the left is an interesting painting of the canterbury pilgrims. . poe delights in fantastic plots. a pirate's treasure chest was discovered in _the gold bug_. . i got up and ate a bite of breakfast. a few of my friends came over. we went to play golf. . all the loose material on the trail is carried off by the rush of the water. the last time i was on it was in early summer, and i found it in this rough condition. . i managed to find the softest board in the floor and went to sleep. some of the boys found pleasure in arousing me with a shower of cold water. . under guise of friendly escort the indians accompanied the inhabitants of the fort a few miles. only three escaped the massacre. . many people say that in civil engineering it depends on the prosperity of the country; in hard times they do not build and in good times they do build. . canada has more forests than minerals. canada has made only a start in the lumber industry. the minerals are found, for the most part, in the mountain district near lake superior. . thanksgiving day, as we are told, is a day on which our puritan forefathers gathered round the roast turkey and gave thanks to god for his goodness. last thanksgiving i was at home. . the old method was to dig the holes by hand, and drop two or three kernels in each hole. corn has become a staple crop. machinery is used. the preparing of a field for corn has become a science. unity of thought unity means oneness. a sentence should contain one thought. it may contain two or more statements only when these are closely related parts of a larger thought or impression. a writer should make certain, first, that his thought has unity; and second, that this unity will be obvious to the reader. =unrelated ideas in one sentence= = . do not combine ideas which have no obvious relation to each other. place the ideas in separate sentences. or, write the ideas as one sentence, making their relation obvious.= wrong: the spartans did not care for literature, and lived in the southern part of greece. wrong: the coffee business is not difficult to learn, and the most important work in preparing coffee for the market is the roasting of the green berries. the simplest method of correction is to divide the sentence. right: the spartans lived in the southern part of greece. they did not care for literature. right: the coffee business is not difficult to learn. the most important work in preparing the coffee for the market is the roasting of the green berries. another method of correction is to subordinate one idea to the other, or to change the wording until the relation between the ideas is obvious. right: the spartans, who lived in the southern part of greece, did not care for literature. right: the coffee business is not difficult to learn, since the only important work in preparing the coffee for the market is the roasting of the green berries. exercise: . franklin is often regarded as the typical american, and wrote an interesting autobiography. . coal miners wear little oil lamps in their caps, and they seldom receive very good wages. . my neighbor, mr. houghton, was always a very good friend of mine, and died last night. . i dropped the clock and injured the works, but the jeweler told me it would be cheaper for me to buy a new clock. . the next thing the camper should do is to make a bed, and the branches of the spruce are the best. =excessive detail= = . do not encumber the main idea of a sentence with superfluous details. place some of the details in another sentence, or omit them.= faulty: in the town in which i live there are several large churches, and about six o'clock one morning, in a violent storm, one of these churches was struck by lightning. right: in my home town there are several large churches. one morning about six o'clock, in a violent storm, one of these churches was struck by lightning. wrong: in , in baltimore, poe married virginia clemm, his cousin, who was hardly more than a child, being then fourteen years old, while poe himself was twenty-eight, and to her he wrote much of his best verse. right: in poe married virginia clemm. poe was then twenty-eight, and virginia was only fourteen. to this girl poe wrote much of his best verse. exercise: . the house with the red tile roof is the finest in the city, and is owned by mr. saunders, who made his money speculating in land. . then the engine tilted and fell over on one side, and the boiler exploded and added to the frightful scene. . the deer whose antlers you see over the fireplace as you enter the room was shot by my uncle will, who is now in south america on a hunting expedition. . the seeds, which have previously been soaked in water over night, are now planted carefully, not too deep, in straight rows sixteen inches apart, the best time being in april, when the ground is soft and has been thoroughly spaded. . one day last week my employer, mr. conway, a jolly, peculiar man, raised my salary, first telling me i was about to be discharged, and laughing at me when i looked so surprised. =stringy sentences to be broken up= = . avoid stringy compound sentences. the crude, rambling style which results from their use may be corrected by separating the material into shorter sentences, or by subordinating lesser ideas to the main thought.= faulty: the second speaker had sat quietly waiting, and he was a man of a different type, and he began calmly, yet from the very first words he showed great earnestness. right: the second speaker, who had sat quietly waiting, was a man of a different type. he began calmly, yet from his very first words he showed great earnestness. faulty: there are many stops on the organ which control the tones of the different pipes and one has to learn how and when to use these and this takes time and practice. right: on the organ are many stops which control the tones of the different pipes. to learn how and when to use these takes time and practice. faulty: he published prose fiction, and this was then the accepted literary form, and the drama was neglected. better: he published prose fiction, which was then the accepted literary form, the drama being neglected. [this sentence makes three statements in a diminishing series. the important idea is expressed in a main clause; a less important explanation is fitted into a relative clause; and a still less important comment takes a parenthetical phrase at the end.] note.--one of the crying faults of the immature writer is that by excessive coördination he obscures the fine shades of meaning. when two clauses are joined, the meaning will very often be more exact if one is subordinated to the other. for a list of subordinating connectives, see . exercise: . he went down town, and it began to rain, and so he decided to go to the city library. . there is an old saying which i have often heard and i believe in it to a certain extent, and it runs as follows: the more you live at your wit's end, the more the wit's end grows. . our salesman, mr. powers, has spoken very favorably of your firm, and we feel that our relations will be most pleasant, and the report of the commercial agencies is sufficient evidence of your good financial standing. . there was no escaping from this churn, so one of the frogs, after a brief struggle thought that he might just as well die one time as another, and so he gave up and sank to the bottom. . socrates did no writing himself, and the only information we have of him we get from the writings of his pupils and from later writers, and our most reliable knowledge comes from two of these writers, plato and xenophon. =choppy sentences to be combined= = . do not use two or three short sentences to express ideas which will make a more unified impression in one sentence. place subordinate ideas in subordinate grammatical constructions.= excessive predication: excavating is the first operation in street paving. the excavating is usually done by means of a steam shovel. the shovel scoops up the dirt and loads it directly into wagons. right: excavating, the first operation in street paving, is usually done by a steam shovel which loads the dirt directly into wagons. monotonous: the doe is wading along the shore. she is nibbling the lily pads as she goes. now she moves slowly around the point. she has a little spotted fawn with her. the fawn frolics along at the heels of his mother. better: wading along the shore, the doe nibbles the lily pads by the way, and moves slowly around the point. a spotted fawn frolics at her heels. primer style: rooms are marked on the floor. these rooms are about fourteen feet square. better: the floor is marked off into rooms about fourteen feet square. note.--an occasional short sentence is permissible, even desirable. successive short sentences may be used to express rapid action, or emphatic assertion, or deliberate simplicity. otherwise, avoid them. exercise. . decatur has wide streets. the streets are paved with brick, asphalt, and creosote blocks. . sixteen posts are set in a row. all of these are at equal intervals. . the boat approaches the leeward side of the ship. this side is the side protected from the wind. . the _scientific american_ reports the progress of science. it explains new inventions. it makes practical applications of scientific principles. . the beans are usually harvested about the middle of september. they are cut when the plants turn color at the roots and the beans turn white. they are cut by a bean-cutter which takes two rows at a time. =excessive coördination= in structure a sentence may be a. simple: the rain fell. b. compound: the rain continued and the stream rose. c. complex: when the rain ceased, the flood came. in b, the clauses are of almost equal importance, and the first is coördinated with the second. in c, the clauses are not of equal importance, and the first is subordinated to the second. _and_ is a coördinating conjunction. _when_ is a subordinating conjunction. for a list of connectives see . = . do not use coördination when subordination will secure a more clear and emphatic unit of thought. especially do not coördinate a main idea with an explanatory detail.= the speech of children connects all ideas, important and unimportant, with _and_. discriminating writers place minor ideas in subordinate clauses, consign still less important ideas to participial or prepositional phrases, and omit trivial details altogether. childish: i went down town and saw a crowd standing in the street, and wanted to know what was the matter, and so i went up and asked a man. right: when i went down town, i saw a crowd standing in the street, and since i wanted to know what was the matter, i asked a man. [two clauses are subordinated by the use of _when_ and _since_. this change abolishes two _ands_. the words _went up and_ are struck out. one _and_ remains, and deserves to remain, for it joins two ideas which are truly coördinate.] main idea not emphasized: i talked with an old man and his name was ned. better: i talked with an old man named ned. [a participial phrase replaces a clause. the name is now subordinated.] main idea not emphasized: developing is the next step in preparing the film, and it is very important. better: developing, the next step in preparing the film, is very important. [an appositional phrase replaces the first predicate.] main idea not emphasized: they began their perilous journey, and they had four horses. right [emphasizing _perilous journey_]: with four horses they began their perilous journey. [a prepositional phrase replaces a clause.] right [emphasizing _having the horses_]: when they began their perilous journey, they had four horses. [a subordinate clause replaces a main clause.] capable of greater unity: the frog is a stupid animal, and may be caught with a hook baited with red flannel. [is the writer trying to tell us _how to catch frogs_, or merely that _frogs are stupid_? coördination makes the two ideas appear equally important.] right [emphasizing _frogs are stupid_]: the fact that the frog can be caught with a hook baited with red flannel proves his stupidity. right [emphasizing _how to catch frogs_]: the frog, being stupid, will bite at a piece of red flannel. exercise. . men were sent to panama and could not live in such unsanitary conditions. . when a letter came and it bore a familiar handwriting, i always opened it eagerly. . west hickory is the name of the place where the tannery is situated, and it is a laboring man's town. . she wore a dress and it was silk, and cost her father a lot of money. . every race horse has a care taker or groom, and this man spends all his time and makes the horse comfortable. =faulty subordination of the main thought= = . do not put the principal statement of a sentence in a subordinate clause or phrase.= this violation of unity is sometimes called "upside-down subordination". faulty: i was going down the street, when i heard an explosion. [if _hearing the explosion_ is the main thought, it should be placed in the main clause.] right: when i was going down the street, i heard an explosion. faulty: longstreet received orders to attack the federal right wing, which he did immediately. right: as soon as longstreet received orders, he attacked the federal right wing. faulty: i suspected that it would rain, although i did not take an umbrella. right: although i suspected that it would rain, i did not take an umbrella. exercise: . an old man used to work for us, who died yesterday. . he became angry, saying he positively refused to go. . he is a bright boy, although i should not want to trust him with my pocketbook. . he had an ambition which was to become the best lawyer in the state by the time he was forty years old. . the cable breaks and the elevator starts to drop, when the safety device always operates at once to prevent an accident. =subordination thwarted by _and_= = . do not attach to a main clause by means of _and_, a word, phrase, or clause which you intend shall be subordinate. the presence of _and_ thwarts subordination.= wrong: major went to bed, and leaving the work unfinished. right: major went to bed, leaving the work unfinished. wrong: he ran home and with coat tails flying. right: he ran home with coat tails flying. exercise: . they denied my request, and giving no reason for the refusal. . he gave me his answer and in few words. . the girl stood on the edge of the cliff, and thus showing that she was not afraid. . a telegraph line is leased by the associated press, and thus giving the newspapers quick service. . when the summer passed, the fisherman returned home for the winter, and where he renewed his acquaintance with the villagers. =the _and which_ construction= = . use _and which_ (or _but which_), _and who_ (or _but who_) only between relative clauses similar in form. between a main clause and a relative clause, _and_ or _but_ thwarts subordination.= wrong: this is an important problem, and which we shall not find easy to solve. right: this problem is an important problem, which we shall not find easy to solve. right: this problem is one _which_ is important, _and which_ we cannot easily solve. wrong: _les miserables_ is a novel of great interest and which everybody should read. right: _les miserables_ is a novel of great interest, and one which everybody should read. wrong: their chief opponent was winter, a shrewd politician, but who is now less popular than he was. right: their chief opponent was winter, a shrewd politician, who is now less popular than he was. note.--rule is sometimes briefly stated: "do not use _and which_ unless you have already used _which_ in the sentence." this statement is generally true, but an exception must be made for sentences like the following: right: "he told me what countries he had visited, and which ones he liked most." exercise: . just outside is a small porch looking out over the street, and which can be used for sleeping purposes. . she is a woman of pleasing personality, and who can converse intelligently. . it is a difficult task, but which can be accomplished in time. . he is a good-looking man, but who is very snobbish. . the rule made by the conference of college professors in , and which has been followed ever since, applies to the case we are considering. =unity thwarted by punctuation= =the comma splice= = . do not splice two independent statements by means of a comma. write two sentences. or, if the two statements together form a unit of thought, combine them ( ) by a comma plus a conjunction, ( ) by a semicolon, or ( ) by reducing one of the statements to a phrase or a subordinate clause.= wrong: the town has two railroads, it was founded when oil was discovered. right: the town has two railroads. it was founded when oil was discovered. wrong: the speed of the car seemed slower than it really was, this was due, no doubt, to the absence of all noise. [here are three commas. the reader cannot quickly discover which one marks the great division of thought.] right: the speed of the car seemed slower than it really was. this was due, no doubt, to the absence of all noise. wrong: the winters were long and cold, nothing could live without shelter. right: the winters were long and cold. nothing could live without shelter. right: the winters were long and cold, and nothing could live without shelter [for the use of the comma, see a]. right: the winters were long and cold; nothing could live without shelter [for the use of the semicolon see ]. right: the winters were so long and cold that nothing could live without shelter. exception.--short coördinate clauses which are parallel in structure and leave a unified impression, may be joined by commas, even though the conjunctions be omitted. right: all was excitement. the ducks quacked, the pigs squealed, the dogs barked. [the general idea _excitement_ gives the three clauses a certain unity.] exercise: . the key is turned to the right, this unlocks the door. . the author keeps one guessing, there is no hint how the story will end. . the farmer is independent, he has no task-master. . there has been a change of government, in fact there has been a revolution. . lamb had failed in poetry, in the drama, and in the novel, in the essay, at last, he succeeded. = .= exercise in unity of thought =a. the comma splice= rewrite the following material in sentences each of which is a unit of thought. most of the statements should be summarily cut apart. if you decide that others taken together have unity of thought, combine them ( ) by a comma plus a conjunction, ( ) by a semicolon, or ( ) by reducing one of the statements to a phrase or a subordinate clause. . the canoe is long and narrow, it is made of birch bark. . i decided to serve tea, of course cream and sugar would be needed. . some men hunt rabbits for market purposes only, they are the sportsman's enemies. . this city furnished many boats for the siege of calais, when these boats returned they brought the plague with them. . the bottom of the box is then put in, it is nailed to the sides. . it is not easy to become a good musician, one must practice continually. . the northern and southern states could not be separate nations, there was no natural boundary between them. . the telephone is a great invention, it is very useful to the farmer. . why would no one come to help me, my feet ached and i was thirsty. . i know a girl who has a cynical disposition, she is always criticizing. . i went into the office hopeless, a dime stood between me and starvation. . the construction of the bridge has much to do with the tone of a violin, it should be lower on the side nearest the e string. . a private expense account does not require much labor or time, just one hour a week will suffice to keep tract of all expenditures. . we offer you sixty dollars a month to start, this is all we can afford to pay at present. . he wanted personal success but would not shirk a duty or harm any one in any way to gain that success, at all times he forgot his own personal importance and was ready to do any task set before him. =b. one thought in a sentence= by dividing, subordinating, or logically combining the following statements, secure unity of thought. . she was born in atlanta, georgia, on september , , where she has lived ever since and is now well known. . franklin was kindly, shrewd, and capable, and was the representative of the united states in france. . she said that mrs. brown was ill and that she was just caring for the baby, she loved babies anyway, she said. . one sunday afternoon there was an excursion to beaver and several of us decided to go and take our lunches and return on the eight o'clock car. . he gave me the dimensions of the room. the dimensions were ten by twelve feet. . good grades may be obtained in two ways: by honest work, and by cheating; however any one who cheats is doing himself more harm than good. . the wall studding is made of two-by-fours. these two-by-fours are placed sixteen inches apart. . the returning crusaders brought with them oriental learning, and found the peasantry impoverished. . the articles in this magazine are of high quality. the articles are well written and attractively illustrated. . a japanese woman going abroad at night must carry a lighted lamp and must not speak to any one, women do not have much freedom in japan. . the sugar beets are irrigated by river water. they are irrigated by means of furrows. the furrows run between the rows of beets. the beets are irrigated once a week. . the referee asked each captain if his men were ready, after which he blew the whistle, and the game was on, and within five minutes our team scored a touchdown. . the ground should be harrowed as soon as possible after it is plowed. it is a good plan to harrow the ground on the same day that it is plowed, or on the day following. . choose the middle of the prepared ground, which is about eighty-five by fifty feet, as your starting point, measure twenty-four feet east and west and set the net posts; then, after marking off the different courts with tape, you are ready for a good game of tennis. . there are two places on the island suitable for plays: one in the bungalow and the other down on the sandy point; the latter lends itself to the purpose readily, there are two trees which make a splendid support for wires on which to hang the curtain, and just east of these the ground slopes enough to make a natural amphitheater. =c. excessive coördination= the ideas in the following sentences are loosely strung together with coördinating conjunctions. place the important idea in the main clause. subordinate other ideas by reducing each to a dependent clause, or a phrase, or a word. . chris has a new coat and it is double-breasted. . i had a dog, and his name was scratcher. . he gave a laugh but it was forced. . the woodcock is so foolish and deliberately walks into a trap. . the engineers fastened rafts to the piles, and which were pulled up when the tide rose. . students often sit all doubled up, and raising their feet high on the table. . dunlap is carrying a palette, but without any paint on it. . the government has been successful in its suit, and the tobacco trust was dissolved. . the british troops had no protection against poisonous gas and the use of gas by the enemy was unexpected. . i make it a rule to study one thing at least an hour and no long rest between. . the concrete is spread in a layer, and this is about nine inches thick, and the width being ten feet. . rockwell is our postmaster, and is accommodating, but he has a disposition to be curious. . at the gatun dam there are concrete locks, and the purpose of these is to lift vessels into the lake. . they say to tourists that objects are historic but which are not historic at all. . i was lying quietly in the hammock, and i happened to look up in the tree, and there was a green bird and eating a cherry. . they disputed for a time, and afterward the officer became angry, and whipped out his sword. . a mirage is an illusion and the traveler thinks he sees water when there really is none. =d. upside-down subordination= in the following sentences the important idea is buried in a subordinate clause or phrase. rescue this main idea, express it in the main clause, and if possible subordinate the rest of the sentence to it. . i spoke to her on the street, when she did not answer. . she thanked me for my assistance, also asking me to come and visit her the following sunday. . the water froze in the buckets, although they did not burst. . the crows cawed angrily and circling around in one place. . he is threatened with tuberculosis, although he will not sleep in the open air. . we had hacked the bark, the tree dying after a few months. . one of the contestants was from wendover college, who received the prize. . you ask a person what a spiral staircase is, when he will go to showing you by motions of his hand. . it was about three o'clock, and we decided to return home, which we did. . the plumber came, stopping the leak as soon as he arrived. . benton sold stamps, in which business he grew rich. . the sun's heat beats down upon the brick tenements, which is terrible. . the chemist tested the purity of the water, but which he found unfit to drink. . montaigne wrote an essay on "solitude," where he pointed out the disadvantages of travel. . the house is set close to the edge of the bluff, overlooking a wide bend of the alleghany river. . things had been going from bad to worse among the indians, and some sioux were entertaining a few chippewas, and murdered them, when the government took a hand in the affair. . the slight knowledge of metals and wide-awake observation of an inexperienced miner discovered gold in arizona. clearness of thought clearness is fundamental. the writer should be content, not when his meaning may be understood, but only when his meaning cannot be misunderstood. he may attain this entire clearness by giving attention to five matters: reference ( - ) coherence ( - ) parallel structure ( - ) consistency ( - ) use of connectives ( - ) reference by the use of pronouns, participles, and other dependent words, language becomes flexible and free. but each dependent part must refer without confusion to a word which is reasonably near, and properly expressed. ordinarily a reader expects a pronoun or a participle to refer to the nearest noun (or pronoun) or to an emphatic noun. =divided reference= = . a pronoun should be placed near the word to which it refers, and separated from words to which it might falsely seem to refer. if this method does not secure clearness, discard the pronoun and change the sentence structure.= uncertain reference of _which_: he dropped the bundle in the mud which he was carrying to his mother. [the reader for a moment refers the pronoun to the wrong noun. bring _which_ nearer to its proper antecedent _bundle_.] right: he dropped in the mud the bundle which he was carrying to his mother. vague reference of _this_: my failure in mathematics was serious. my grades in english, history, and latin were good enough. but this brought down my average. [_this?_ what _this_? five nouns intrude between the pronoun _this_ and its proper antecedent _failure_.] right: in english, history, and latin i received fairly good grades. but in mathematics i received a failure. this brought down my average. remote reference of _it_: if you want to make a good speech, take your hands out of your pockets, open your mouth wide, and throw yourself into it. right: if you want to make a good speech, take your hands out of your pockets, open your mouth wide, and throw yourself into what you are saying. [or, better] take your hands out of your pockets, open your mouth wide, and throw yourself into the speech. ambiguous reference of _he_: john spoke to the stranger, and he was very surly. right: john spoke to the stranger, who was very surly. [or] john spoke in a surly manner to the stranger. note.--the reference of relative and demonstrative pronouns is largely dependent upon their position. the reference of a personal pronoun (_he_, _she_, _they_, etc.) is not so much dependent upon its position, the main consideration being that the antecedent shall be emphatic (see the next article.) exercise: . he was driving an old mule attached to a cart that was blind in one eye. . there is a grimy streak on the wall over the radiator which can be removed only with great difficulty. . the feet of chinese girls were bandaged so tightly when they were babies that they could not grow. . he gave me a receipt for the money which he told me to keep. . after the pictures have been taken and the film has been removed, they are sent to the developing room where it is developed and dried. =weak reference= = . do not allow a pronoun to refer to a word not likely to be central in the reader's thought; a word, for example, in the possessive case, or in a parenthetical expression, or in a compound, or not expressed at all. make the pronoun refer to an emphatic word.= wrong: when a poor woman came to jane addams' famous hull house, she always gave help. [_poor woman_ and _hull house_ are the emphatic words, to which any pronoun used later is instinctively referred by the reader.] right: when a poor woman came to jane addams' famous hull house, she always received help. [or] when a poor woman came to hull house, jane addams always gave help. wrong: in biology, which is the study of plants and animals we find that they are made up of unitary structures called cells. [since the words _plants and animals_ occur only in a parenthetical clause, the reader is surprised to find them used as an antecedent.] right: in the study of biology we find that plants and animals are made up of unitary structures called cells. wrong: this old scissors-grinder sharpens them for the whole neighborhood. [the center of interest in the reader's mind is a man, not scissors.] right: this old scissors-grinder sharpens scissors for the whole neighborhood. wrong: i always liked engineers, and i have chosen that as my profession. right: i always liked engineering, and i have chosen it as my profession. absurd: when the baby is through drinking milk, it should be disconnected and put in boiling water. [the central idea in the reader's mind is _baby_, not _milk-bottle_. the writer may have been thinking about the _bottle_, but he did not make the word emphatic; in fact, he did not express it at all.] right: when the baby is through drinking milk, the bottle should be taken apart and put in boiling water. note.--ordinarily, do not refer to the title in the first line of a theme. the reader expects you to assert something, and face forward, not to turn back to what you have said in the title. faulty: color photography i am interested in this new development of science. for a long time i ... right: color photography taking pictures in color has long appealed to me as an interesting possibility ... exercise: . in shakespeare's play _othello_ he makes iago a fiend. . the noodle-cutter is a kitchen device which saves time in making this troublesome dish. . the life of a forester is interesting, and i intend to follow that profession. . he took down his great-grandfather's old sword, who had carried it at bunker hill. . i was always making experiments in science, and i naturally acquired a liking for periodicals of that nature. =broad reference= = . do not use a pronoun to refer broadly to a general idea. supply a definite antecedent or abandon the pronoun.= wrong: the tapper strikes the gong, which continues as long as the push button is pressed. [the writer intends that _which_ shall refer to the entire preceding clause, but the reference is intercepted by the word _gong_.] right [supplying a definite antecedent]: the tapper strikes the gong, a process which continues as long as the push button is pressed. [or, abandoning the pronoun] the tapper strikes the gong as long as the push button is pressed. wrong: read the directions which are printed on the bottle and it may save you from making a mistake. right [supplying a definite antecedent]: read the directions which are printed on the bottle. this precaution may save you from making a mistake. [or, abandoning the pronoun] reading the directions on the bottle may prevent a mistake. wrong: the managers told him they would increase his salary if he would represent them in south america. he refused that. right: the managers told him they would increase his salary if he would represent them in south america. he refused the offer. exception.--it cannot be maintained that a pronoun must _always_ have one definite word for its antecedent. many of the best english authors occasionally use a pronoun to refer to a clause. but the reference must always be clear. note.--impersonal constructions must be used with caution. "it is raining" is correct, although _it_ has no antecedent. we desire that the antecedent shall be vague, impersonal. but unnecessary use of the indefinite _it_, _you_, or _they_ should be avoided. faulty: it says in our history that columbus was an italian. right: our history says that columbus was an italian. not complimentary to the reader: you aren't hanged nowadays for stealing. right: no one is hanged nowadays for stealing. faulty: they are noted for their tact in france. right: the french are noted for their tact. exercise: . you use little slang in your paper which is commendable. . they had no reinforcements which caused them to lose the battle. . the carbon must be removed from pig iron to make pure steel, and that is done by terrific heat. . our stenographer spends most of her spare time at a cheap movie theater, which is in itself an index of her character. . it says in the new rules that you aren't allowed in the building on sunday. =dangling participle or gerund= = . a participle, being dependent, must refer to a noun or pronoun. the noun or pronoun should be within the sentence which contains the participle, and should be so conspicuous that the participle will be associated with it instantly and without confusion.= wrong: coming in on the train, the high school building is seen. [is the building coming in? if not, who is?] right: coming in on the train, one sees the high school building. a sentence containing a dangling participle may be corrected ( ) by giving the word to which the participle refers a conspicuous position in the sentence, or ( ) by replacing the participial phrase by some other construction. wrong: having taken our seats, the umpire announced the batteries. right: having taken our seats, we heard the umpire announce the batteries. [or] when we had taken our seats, the umpire announced the batteries. wrong: she was for a long time sick, caused by overwork. [the participle _caused_ should not modify _sick_. a participle is used as an adjective, and should therefore modify a noun.] right--using an adjectival modifier: she had a long sickness, {caused by} overwork. {due to } right--using an adverbial modifier: {because of } she was for a long time sick {owing to } overwork. {on account of} =when a gerund phrase (_in passing_, _while speaking_ etc.) implies the action of a special agent, indicate what the agent is. otherwise the phrase will be dangling.= faulty: in talking to mr. brown the other day, he told me that you intend to buy a car. better: in talking to mr. brown the other day, i learned that you intend to buy a car. faulty: the address was concluded by reciting a passage from wordsworth. better: the speaker concluded his address by reciting a passage from wordsworth. [or] the address was concluded by the recitation of a passage from wordsworth. note.--two other kinds of dangling modifier, treated elsewhere in this book, may be briefly mentioned here. a phrase beginning with the adjective _due_ should refer to a noun; otherwise the phrase is left dangling (see note). an elliptical sentence (one from which words are omitted) is faulty when one of the elements is left dangling (see ). faulty: i was late _due_ to carelessness [use _because of_]. ludicrous: my shoestring always breaks when hurrying to the office at eight o'clock [say _when i am hurrying_]. exercise: . coming out of the house, a street car is seen. . while engaged in conversation with my host and hostess, my maid placed upon the table a steaming leg of lamb. . a small quantity of gold is thoroughly mixed with a few drops of turpentine, using the spatula to work it smooth. . after being in the oven twenty minutes, open the door. when fully baked, you are ready to put the sauce on the pudding. . entering the store, a soda fountain is observed. passing down the aisle, a candy counter comes into view. the rear of the store is bright and pleasant, caused by a skylight. coherence the verb _cohere_ means to stick or hold firmly together. and the noun _coherence_ as applied to writing means a close and natural sequence of parts. order is essential to clearness. =general incoherence= = . every part of a sentence must have a clear and natural connection with the adjoining part. like or related parts should normally be placed together.= bring related ideas together: little helen stood beside the horse wearing white stockings and slippers. right: little helen, in white stockings and slippers, stood beside the horse. keep unlike ideas apart: the colors of purple and green are pleasing to the eye as found in the thistle. right: the purple and green colors of the thistle are pleasing. distribute unrelated modifiers, instead of bunching them: i found a heap of snow on my bed in the morning which had drifted in through the window. [subject verb--object--place--time--explanation.] right: in the morning i found on my bed a heap of snow which had drifted in through the window. [time--subject verb--place--object--explanation.] bring related modifiers together: when he has prepared his lessons, he will come, as soon as he can put on his old clothes. [condition--main clause--condition.] right: when he has prepared his lessons and put on his old clothes, he will come. [condition and condition--main clause.] exercise: . he was gazing at the landscape which he had painted with a smiling face. . she turned the steak with a fork which she was cooking for dinner every few minutes. . dickens puts the various experiences he had in the form of a novel when he was a boy. . if the roads are made of dirt, the farmer has to wait, if the weather is rainy, till they dry. . we received practically very little or none at all experience in writing themes. =logical sequence= = . place first in the sentence the idea which naturally comes first in thought or in the order of time.= faulty: we went to the station from the house after bidding all goodby. right: we said goodby to all, and went from the house to the station. =do not begin one idea, abandon it for a second, and then return to the first. complete one idea at a time.= faulty: she looked up as he approached and smoothed her hair. [the writer begins a main clause, changes to a subordinate clause, and then attempts to add more to the main clause. unfortunately the last two verbs appear to be coördinate.] right: she looked up and smoothed her hair as he approached. [or] as he approached she looked up, and smoothed her hair. =ordinarily, let a second thought begin where the first leaves off.= faulty: an orange grove requires plenty of water. the young trees will die if they do not have plenty of water. [the order of ideas is: "grove ... water. trees ... water." reverse the order of the second sentence.] right: an orange grove requires plenty of water. for without water the young trees will die. [now the order of ideas is: "grove ... water. water ... trees."] exercise: . i boarded the train, after buying a ticket. . i dropped my pen when the whistle blew and sighed. . unless the bank clerk has ability he will never be successful unless he works faithfully and hard. . i remember the days when rover was a pup. now he is not half so interesting as he was then. . a chessboard is divided into sixty-four squares, and there is plenty of room between the opposing armies for a terrific battle, since each army occupies only sixteen squares. =squinting modifier= = . avoid the squinting construction. that is, do not place between two parts of a sentence a modifier that may attach itself to either. place the modifier where it cannot be misunderstood.= confusing: i told him when the time came i would do it. [_when the time came_ is said to "squint" because the reader cannot tell whether it looks forward to the end of the sentence, or backward to the beginning.] right: when the time came, i told him i would do it. [or] i told him i would do it when the time came. confusing: some friends i knew would enjoy the play. [_i knew_ squints.] right: some friends would enjoy the play, i knew. confusing: the orator whom every one was calling for enthusiastically hurried to the platform. [_enthusiastically_ squints.] clear: the orator whom every one was enthusiastically calling for hurried to the platform. exercise: . the man who laughs half the time does not understand the joke. . playing football in many ways improves the mind. . when she reached home much to her disgust the door was locked. . when the lightning struck for the first time in my life i was afraid. . the landlord wrote that he would if the rent were not paid in thirty days eject the tenant. =misplaced word= = . such an adverb as _only_, _ever_, _almost_, should be placed near the word it modifies, and separated from words which it might falsely seem to modify. such a conjunction as _nevertheless_, if required with a clause, should usually be placed near the beginning.= illogical: i only need a few dollars. right: i need only a few dollars. illogical: i don't ever intend to go there again. right: i don't intend ever to go there again. [or] i intend never to go there again. illogical: she has the sweetest voice i nearly ever heard. right: she has nearly [or _almost_] the sweetest voice i ever heard. tardy use of conjunction: i intend to try. i do not expect to accomplish much, however. right: i intend to try. i do not, however, expect to accomplish much. exercise: . students are only admitted to one lecture. . this is the smallest book i almost ever saw. . he is so poor he hasn't any food, scarcely. . she had one dress that she never expected to wear. . the difficulties were tremendous. he said that he would do his best, nevertheless. =split construction= = . elements that have a close grammatical connection should not be separated awkwardly or carelessly. these elements are: (a) subject and verb, or verb and object; (b) the parts of a compound verb; and (c) the parts of an infinitive.= awkward: one in the struggle for efficiency should not become a machine. better: in the struggle for efficiency one should not become a machine. awkward: what use of an education could a girl who married a penniless rogue and afterwards knew nothing but hard labor, make? better: what use of an education could a girl make who married a penniless rogue and afterward knew nothing but hard labor? crude: he was unable to even so much as stir a foot. better: he was unable even to stir a foot. note.--it is often desirable to separate the forms enumerated under (a) and (b) above, either for emphasis (see ) or to avoid a bunching of modifiers at the end of a sentence (see ). the whole point of rule is not to depart from a natural order needlessly. exercise: . one thing the beginner must remember is to not get excited. . ralph, when he heard the news, came flying out of the house. . the president called together, for the need was urgent, his cabinet. . bryce said that it is more patriotic to judiciously vote than to frantically wave the american flag. . about the time florence nightingale had to give up her plans, a war between turkey, england, and france on one side and russia on the other, broke out. = .= exercise in clearness of thought =a. reference of pronouns= in the following sentences make the reference of pronouns exact and unmistakable. . brown wrote to roberts that he had made a mistake. . we heard a voice through the door which told us to enter. . there is a walk leading from the street to the house which is made of thin slabs of stone. . a milking stool was beside the cow on which he was accustomed to sit. . should a community, such as a small village, spend the money they do on roads? . this magazine prints many special articles on politics and social reforms that are always instructive. . i wish i could do something for the protection of birds in our country which is neglected. . after a man has failed in one business, it is no sign he will fail in every other. . sometimes cane syrup is mixed with the maple syrup, which reduces the value of the product. . it means hard and diligent work to study latin, but it strengthens our brain or at least it gives it good exercise. . in the class room the students become acquainted, which may develop into lifelong friendships. . he was delighted with a ride on horseback, which animal he had been familiar with in his childhood on the farm. . it says in our history that the battle of new orleans was fought after the treaty of peace had been signed. . sparks flew about in the air, and it reminded me of a huge fourth of july celebration. . the doctor gave me medicine to stop the dull pain in my head. this made me feel much better. =b. dangling modifiers= remembering that a participle is used as an adjective and must therefore refer to a noun or pronoun, correct the following sentences. gerund phrases and a few elliptical sentences are included in the list. . having planned the basement, the next thing considered was the first floor. . glancing around the room, the ugly wall paper at once confronted me. . after ringing the bell, and waiting a few moments, a maid came to the door. . when selecting a site for an orchard, it should be well drained. . not being a skilled dancer, my feet moved awkwardly. . having no watch, the clock must be consulted. . he was sick, caused by eating too much dessert. . radium is very difficult to get, making it the most valuable metal. . one man goes home and beats his wife, resulting in internal injuries. . over the paper and kindling a few small chunks of coal are scattered, taking care not to choke the draft. . in speaking of character, it does not mean to be a governor or a general. . this town draws trade for a radius of twenty miles, thus accounting for the large volume of business. . while talking to ralph yesterday, he spoke about his recent success in the hardware business. . the bus holds fifteen people, and when full, the bus man shuts the door. . if bright and pleasant, the rabbit will be found sitting at the entrance of his burrow. =c. coherence= secure a clear, smooth, natural order for the following sentences. . i have a lot for sale near the city limits. . many men can only speak their native tongue. . i saw yesterday, crossing the street, a beautiful woman. . they entered the room, and sitting on the floor they saw a baby. . i put down my book when the clock struck and yawned. . she dropped the money on the sidewalk which she was carrying home. . the horse did not notice that the gate was open for several minutes. . it was worth the trouble. i do not wish to have the experience again, however. . my first trip away from home, of any distance, was made on a steamboat from st. louis to new orleans. . he gazed at a young man who was waving his hands violently, called a cheer leader. . any soil will grow some variety of strawberry, except sand and clay. . i turned triumphantly to will, who was still gazing at the place where the muskrat sank with a beaming face. . only the interest, the principal being kept intact, is spent. . a student should see that external conditions are favorable for study, such as light, temperature, and clothing. . draw a heavy line using a ruler to connect new york and san francisco across the map. parallel structure when the structure of a sentence is simple and uniform, the important words strike the eye at once. compare the following: parallel: beggars must not be choosers. confusing: beggars must not be the one who choose. a reader gives attention partly to the structure of a sentence, and partly to the thought. the less we puzzle him with our structure, the more we shall impress him with our thought. parallel: seeing is believing. [attention goes to the thought.] confusing: seeing is to believe. [attention is diverted to _structure_.] the reader's expectation is that uniform structure shall accompany uniform ideas, and that a departure from uniformity shall indicate a change of thought. =parallel structure for parallel thoughts= = . give parallel structure to those parts of a sentence which are parallel in thought. do not needlessly interchange an infinitive with a participle, a phrase with a clause, a single word with a phrase or clause, a main clause with a dependent clause, one voice or mode of the verb with another, etc.= faulty: riding is sometimes better exercise than to walk. right: riding is sometimes better exercise than walking. [or] to ride is sometimes better exercise than to walk. faulty: he had two desires, of which the first was for money; in the second place, he wanted fame. right: he had two desires, of which the first was for money and the second for fame. [or] he had two desires: in the first place, he wanted money; in the second, fame. faulty: his rival handled cigars of better quality and having a higher selling price. right: his rival handled cigars of better quality and higher price. faulty: when you have mastered the operation of shifting gears, and after a little practice you will be a good driver. right: when you have mastered the operation of shifting gears, and had a little practice, you will be a good driver. [or] after you master the gears and have a little practice, you will be a good driver. faulty. these are the duties of the president of a literary society: (a) to preside at regular meetings, (b) he calls special meetings, (c) appointment of committees. right: these are the duties of the president of a literary society: (a) to preside at regular meetings, (b) to call special meetings, (c) to appoint committees. faulty: she was actively connected with the club, church, and with several organized charities. [here parallelism is obscured by the omission from the second phrase of both the preposition and the article.] right: she was actively connected with the club, with the church, and with several organized charities. faulty: he was red-faced, awkward, and had a disposition to eat everything on the table. [the third element is like the others in thought, and should have similar form.] right: he had a red face, an awkward manner, and a disposition to eat everything on the table. [or] he was red-faced, awkward, and voracious. note.--avoid misleading parallelism. for ideas _different_ in kind, do _not_ use parallel structure. wrong: he was hot, puffing, and evidently had run very hard. [the third element is unlike the others in thought; hence the _and_ is misleading.] right: he was hot and puffing; evidently he had run very hard. confusing: he was admired for his knowledge of science, and for his taste for art, and for this i too honor him. [the last _for_ gives a false parallelism to unlike thoughts.] better: he was admired for his scientific knowledge and for his artistic taste. i honor him for both these qualities. exercise: . the duties of the secretary are to answer correspondence, and keeping the minutes of the meetings. . this process is the most difficult; it costs the most; and is most important. . i make it a rule to be orderly, spend no money foolishly, and keep still when i have nothing to say. . the cotton is put up in bales about five feet in length and three feet wide and four thick, and one of them weighing about five hundred pounds. . considerations of economy that one should bear in mind when planning a house are: first, a rectangular ground-plan; second, a one-chimney plan; third, to have only one stairway; fourth, eliminate as many doors as possible; fifth, the bathroom should be above the kitchen so as to reduce the cost of plumbing; and lastly, the rooms should be few and large rather than small and many of them. =correlatives= conjunctions that are used in pairs are called correlatives; for example, _not only_ ... _but also_ ..., _both_ ... _and_ ..., _either_ ... _or_ ..., _neither_ ... _nor_ ..., _not_ ... _or_ ..., _whether_ ... _or_ .... = . correlatives should usually be followed by elements parallel in form; if a predicate follows one, a predicate should follow the other; if a prepositional phrase follows one, a prepositional phrase should follow the other; and so on.= faulty: he was not only courteous to rich customers but also to poor ones. [here the phrases intended to be balanced against each other are _to rich customer's_ and _to poor ones_. as the sentence stands, it is the word _courteous_ that is balanced against _to poor ones_.] right: he was courteous not only to rich customers but also to poor ones. faulty: she could neither make up her mind to go nor could she decide to stay. right: she could neither make up her mind to go nor decide to stay. [or] she could not make up her mind either to go or to stay. faulty: i talked both with brown and miller. [here one conjunction is followed by a preposition and the other by a noun.] right: i talked with both brown and miller. [or] i talked both with brown and with miller. exercise: . he was courteous to both friends and his enemies. . such conduct is not only dangerous to society but becomes a national disgrace as well. . she had neither affectation of manners nor was she sharp-tongued. . after reading thoreau's _walden_ i appreciate not only the style but also i am inclined to believe in his ideas. . the good that the delegates derive from the convention not only helps them, but they tell others what happened. consistency =shift in subject or voice= = . do not needlessly shift the subject, voice, or mode in the middle of a sentence. keep one point of view, until there is a reason for changing.= faulty: in the stream which the road led over, fish were plentiful. [here the first mental picture is of a stream. then the thought is jerked away to the road above. then it returns to the fish in the stream.] right: in the stream which flowed under the roadway, fish were plentiful. faulty: mark twain was born in the west, but the east was his home in later years. [the change of subject is uncalled for.] right: mark twain was born in the west, but lived in the east in his later years. [or] the west was the birthplace of mark twain, and the east was his home in his later years. faulty: a careful driver can go fifteen miles on a gallon of gasoline, and at the same time very little lubricating oil is used. [the shift from active to passive voice is awkward and confusing.] right: a careful driver can go fifteen miles on a gallon of gasoline, and at the same time use very little lubricating oil. faulty: when a problem in chemistry is given, or when we wish to calculate certain formulas, we find that a knowledge of mathematics is indispensable. right: when a problem in chemistry is given, or when certain formulas are to be calculated, a knowledge of mathematics is indispensable. [or] when we face a problem in chemistry, or wish to calculate certain formulas, we find that a knowledge of mathematics is indispensable. faulty: next the ground should be harrowed. then you sow the wheat. [the subject changes from _ground_ to _you_. one verb explains what _should_ be done, the other what somebody _does_.] {is } right: next the ground { } harrowed. then it {should be} {is } { } sown to wheat. [or] next you should harrow {should be} the ground. then you should sow the wheat. exercise: . one end of a camera carries the film, and the lens and shutter are in the other end. . when an athlete is in training, good healthful food should be eaten. . an engineer's time is not devoted to one branch of science, but should include many. . by having only five men in charge of our city government, they would have more power, and we could then fix responsibility. . there are two main classes of cake, sponge and butter. we are taught to make both in cooking school. i like the sponge cake. the butter cake is preferred by most persons. =shift in number, person, or tense= = . avoid an inconsistent change in number, person, or tense.= faulty change in number: one should save their money. right: people should save their money. [or] a man should save his money. faulty change in person: place the seeds in water, and in a few days a person can see that they have started to grow. right: place the seeds in water, and in a few days you will see that they have started to grow. faulty change in number: take your umbrella with you. they will be needed today. right: take your umbrella with you. you will need it today. faulty change in tense: freedom means that a man may conduct his affairs as he pleases so long as he did not injure anybody else. right: freedom means that a man may conduct his affairs as he pleases so long as he does not injure anybody else. faulty change in tense: when he heard the news, he hurries down town and buys a paper. right: when he heard the news, he hurried down town and bought a paper. note.--a change of tense within a sentence is desirable and necessary in certain instances, for which see . sometimes, for the sake of vividness, past events are described in the present tense, as if they were taking place before our eyes. this usage is called the _historical present_. a shift to the historical present should not be made abruptly, or frequently, or for any subject except an important crisis. exercise: . a person should be careful of their conduct. . sentences should be so formed that the reader feels it to be a unit. . one should make the best of their surroundings and their possessions, provided they cannot better them. . when he sees me coming, he looked the other way. . silas marner lost many of his habits of solitude, and goes out among his neighbors. =mixed constructions= = . do not make a compromise between two constructions.= faulty: i cannot help but go. right: i cannot help going. [or] i cannot but go. [or] i can but go. faulty: they are as following: right: they are as follows: [or] they are the following: faulty: he tried, but of no avail. right: he tried, but to no avail. [or] he tried, but his effort was of no avail. faulty: there is no honor to be on this committee. right: it is no honor to be on this committee. [or] there is no honor in being on this committee. faulty: sparks from the chimney caught the house on fire. right: sparks from the chimney set the house on fire. [or] the house caught fire from the sparks from the chimney. note.--the double negative and kindred expressions (_not hardly_, _not scarcely_, etc.) are an especially gross form of mixed construction. wrong: he isn't no better now than he was then. [logically, not no better means _better_. the two negatives cancel each other and leave an affirmative.] right: he isn't any better now than he was then. [or] he is no better now than he was then. wrong: she couldn't see her friend nowhere. right: she couldn't see her friend anywhere. [or] she could see her friend nowhere. wrong: we couldn't hardly see through the mist. right: we could hardly see through the mist. [or] we couldn't see well through the mist. exercise: . he doesn't come here no more. . i cannot help but make this error. . i remember scarcely nothing of the occurrence. . i would not remain there only a few days. . john would not do this under no circumstances. =mixed imagery= = . avoid phrases which may call up conflicting mental images. when using metaphor, simile, etc., carry one figure of speech through, instead of shifting to another, or dropping suddenly back into literal speech.= crude: the republicans have gained a foothold in the heart of the cotton belt. right: the republicans have gained a foothold in the south. crude: he traveled a rough road and climbed with his burden the ladder of success, where he is a glowing example and guide to other men. [the suggestion which a reader with a sense of humor may get is, that a man starts out as a traveler, suddenly becomes a hod-carrier, and is then transformed into a bonfire or a lighthouse.] right: he traveled a rough road, but found success. other men followed in his steps. incongruous: spring came scattering flowers, and there was rain a great per cent of the time. [this sentence mingles the language of poetry with the language of science. it should be fanciful, or else literal, throughout.] right: spring came scattering flowers and rain. [or] spring came with much rain and many flowers. inconsistent use of irony: the phonograph was shrieking, "waltz me around again, willie." i am sure i love that beautiful song. the taste of the people who attend these cheap theaters is deplorable. [the three sentences should be ironical throughout, or not ironical at all.] exercise: . we should meet the future from the optimistic point of view. . general wolfe put every ounce of his life into the capture of quebec. . a key-note of sincerity should be the mainspring of a well-built speech. . he went drifting down the sands of time on flowery beds of ease. . the blank in my mind crystallized into action. use of connectives =the exact connective= = . use a connective which expresses the exact relation between two clauses. distinguish between time and cause, concession and condition, etc. do not overwork _and_, _so_, or _while_.= misleading: _while_ he is sick, he is able to walk. [use _though_.] misleading: miss brown sang, _while_ her sister spoke a piece. [use _but_.] faulty. work hard _when_ you want to succeed. [use _if_.] faulty: they will be sorry _without_ they do this. [use _unless_.] faulty: little poetry is read, _only_ at times when it is compulsory. [use _except_.] faulty. the early morning and evening are the best times to find ducks, _and_ we did not see many flying. [use _and for that reason_.] faulty: corbin says: "in america sportsmanship is almost a passion," _and_ in england "the player very seldom forgets that he is a man first and an athlete afterward." [use _whereas_.] note.--_so_ is an elastic word that covers a multitude of vague meanings. language has need of such a word, and in many instances (especially when the relation between clauses is obvious and does not need to be pointed out) _so_ serves well enough. use it, but not as a substitute for more exact connectives. beware of falling into the "_so_-habit." abuse of _so_ as a vague coördinating connective: so i went to call on mrs. woods, and so she told me about mrs. white's new gown; so then i missed the car, and so of course our supper is late. [strike out every _so_.] abuse of _so_ as a subordinating connective: you may go, _so_ you keep still. [use _provided_.] _so_ you do only that, i shall be satisfied. [use _though_.] permissible: i was excited, so i missed the target. _so_ may sometimes be used to express result. but when a clause of result is important and needs emphasis, it is perhaps better to strike out _so_ and subordinate the preceding clause. right: in my excitement i missed the target. right: because i was excited, i missed the target. right: being excited, i missed the target. =list of connectives= =a. with coördinate clauses, expressing= = . addition:= and, besides, furthermore, again, in addition, in like manner, likewise, moreover, then too, and finally. = . contrast:= but, and yet, however, in spite of, in contrast to this, nevertheless, notwithstanding, nor, on the contrary, for all that, rather still, but unhappily, yet unfortunately, whereas. = . alternative:= or, nor, else, otherwise, neither, nor, or on the other hand. = . consequence:= therefore, hence, consequently, accordingly, in this way, it follows that, the consequence is, and under such circumstances, wherefore, thus, as a result, as a consequence. = . explanation:= for example, for instance, in particular, more specifically, for, because. = . repetition for emphasis:= in other words, that is to say, and assuredly, certainly, in fact, and in truth, indeed it is certain, undoubtedly, for example, in the same way, as i have said. =b. with subordinate adverb clauses, expressing= = . time:= when, then, before, while, after, until at last, as long as, now that, upon which, until, whenever, whereupon, meanwhile. = . place:= where, whence, whither, wherever. = . degree or comparison:= as, more than, rather than, than, to the degree in which. = . manner:= as, as if, as though. = . cause:= because, for, as, inasmuch as, since, owing to the fact that, seeing that, in that. = . purpose:= that, so that, in order that, lest. = . result:= that is, so that, but that. = . condition:= if, provided that, in case that, on condition that, supposing that, unless. = . concession:= though, although, assuming that, admitting that, granting that, even if, no matter how, notwithstanding, of course. =c. with adjective clauses.= adjective or relative clauses are introduced by who, which, that, or an equivalent compound. exercise: insert within the parentheses all the connectives that might conceivably be used, and underscore the one which you consider to be most exact: . he is not a broad-minded man; ( ) he has many prejudices. . a number of friends came in, bringing refreshments, ( ) we spent a delightful evening. . we ought to return now, for it is growing dark; ( ) i told mary we would be home at six o'clock. . i do not believe that climate is responsible for many of the differences between races, ( ) taine says that it is. . she took the letter from me and read it slowly, ( ) her eyes filled with tears. =repetition of connective with a gain in clearness= = . connectives that accompany a parallel series should be repeated when clearness requires.= preposition to be repeated: he was regarded as a hero by all who had known him at school, and especially his old school mates. right: he was regarded as a hero _by_ all who had known him at school, and especially _by_ his old school mates. sign of the infinitive to be repeated: he wishes to join with those who love freedom and justice, and end needless suffering. right: he wishes _to_ join with those who love freedom and justice, and _to_ end needless suffering. conjunction to be repeated: since he was known to have succeeded in earlier enterprises, though confronted by difficulties that would have taxed the ability of older men, and his powers were now acknowledged to be mature, he was put in charge of the undertaking. right: _since_ he was known to have succeeded in earlier enterprises, though confronted by difficulties that would have taxed the ability of older men, and _since_ his powers were now acknowledged to be mature, he was put in charge of the undertaking. conjunction to be repeated: he explained that the strikers asked only a fair hearing, since their contentions were misunderstood; were by no means in favor of the violent measures to which the public had grown accustomed; and had no desire to resort to bloodshed and the destruction of property. right: he explained _that_ the strikers asked only a fair hearing, since their contentions were misunderstood; _that_ they were by no means in favor of the violent measures to which the public had grown accustomed; and _that_ they had no desire to resort to bloodshed and the destruction of property. exercise: . the place is often visited by fishermen who catch some strange varieties of fish and especially summer tourists. . the worth of a man depends upon his character, not his possessions. . he was delighted with that part of the city which overlooked the harbor and bay, and especially the citadel on the highest point. . although he was so youthful in appearance that the recruiting officer must have known he was under twenty-one, and had not yet become a fully naturalized citizen, his effort to enlist met with immediate success. . in the course of his speech he said that he was a foreigner, he came to this country when he was fourteen years old, landing in new york with his only possessions tied in a handkerchief, went to work in an iron foundry, and after many years of toil he found himself at the head of a great industry. =repetition of connective with a loss in clearness= = . do not complicate thought by persistent repetition of elements beginning with _that_, _which_, _of_, _for_, or _but_, and not parallel in structure.= complicated repetition of _that_: he gave a quarter to the boy that brought the paper that printed the news that the war was ended. [_that_, _which_, and _who_ are often used carelessly to form a chain of subordinate clauses. three successive subordinations are all that a reader can possibly keep straight; ordinarily a writer should not exceed two. but in parallel structure (see and ) the number of _that_, _which_, or _who_ clauses does not matter; a writer may fill a page with them and not confuse the reader at all.] right: he gave the boy a quarter for bringing him the paper with the news that the war was ended. complicated repetition of _of_: the east side civics club is an organization of helpers of the helpless of the lower classes of the city. right: the east side civics club is organized to help the helpless poor of the city. complicated repetition of _for_: the general was dismayed, for he had not expected resistance, for he had thought the power of the enemy was shattered. right: the general was dismayed; he had not expected resistance, for he had thought the power of the enemy was shattered. complicated repetition of _but_: he was undoubtedly a brave man, but now he was somewhat alarmed, but he would not turn back. right: he was undoubtedly a brave man; though now somewhat alarmed, he would not turn back. [or] he was undoubtedly a brave man. he was now somewhat alarmed, but he would not turn back. note.--guard against the _but_-habit. frequent recurrence of _but_ makes the reader's thought "tack" or change its course too often. there are ways to avoid an excessive use of _but_ and _however_. when one wishes to write about two things, a and b, which are opposed, he need not rush back and forth from one idea to the other. let him first say all he wants to say about a. then let him deliberately use the adversative _but_, and proceed to the discussion of b. in the following paragraph on "whipping children" the writer tries to be on both sides of the fence at once. confusing: it is easier to punish a child for a misdeed, than to explain and argue. _but_ the gentler method is better. _yet_ we all admit that the birch must be used sometimes. _however_, if it is used only for serious trangressions, the child will have a sense of proportion regarding what offenses are grave. _but_ for ordinary small misdemeanors i think we need a new motto: spoil the rod and spare the child. right: it is easier to punish a child for a misdeed than to explain and argue. and of course we all admit that the birch must be used sometimes. _but_ if it is used only for serious transgressions, the child will have a sense of proportion regarding what offenses are grave. for ordinary small misdemeanors i think we need a new motto: spoil the rod and spare the child. exercise: . he did not agree at first, but hesitated for a time, but finally said that he would go along. . push down on the foot lever, which closes a switch which starts an electric motor which turns the flywheel so that the gasoline engine starts. . apple dumplings are good, but they must be properly baked, but fortunately this is not difficult to do. . the work of the course consists partly of the study of the principles of grammar and of rhetoric, partly of the writing of themes, partly of oral composition, and partly of the reading and study of models of english prose. . the landscape which lay before me was one which was different from any which i had ever seen before. there was one thing which impressed me, and that was the miles and miles of grass which stretched and undulated away from the hill on which i stood. = .= exercise in clearness of thought =a. parallel structure= give parallel structure to elements which are parallel in thought. . baskets are of practical value as well as being used for ornaments. . the book of job ought to be interesting to a student, or for anybody. . the important considerations are whether the soil is sandy, and if it is well drained, and that it shall be easily cultivated. . a flower garden is a source of profit--profit not measured in money but in pleasure. . he was successful in business, and also attained success in the political world. . whether his object was writing for pastime, or to please a friend, or money, we do not know. . always praise your enemy, because if you whip him your glory is increased, and if he whips you it lets you down easy. . either the ship will sink in the rough sea or go to pieces on the shore. . an athlete must possess strength, nerve, and be able to think quickly. . we were interested in buying some dry-goods, and at the same time see the sights of the great city. . some people talk foolishness, and others on serious subjects, and some keep still. . not only she noticed my condition, but commented on it. . he abides by neither the laws of god nor man. he spoke both to harry and tom. . it is good for the health of one's mind to get new ideas every day, and expressing them clearly in writing. . everyone who is capable of understanding the tax laws should know them and how they are abused. . i began by making applications at federal, state, and city employment bureaus for a position as cost accountant, salesman, or clerical work. . the damage to the trunk was caused by rough handling and not from faults in construction. . pope, swift, addison, and defoe were four satirists, but differing greatly in their work. . the occupants of these buildings are engaged in various kinds of business, namely: shoe-shining, shoe repair shops, cleaning and pressing clothes, confectionery stores, and restaurants. . i sing of geese: of the biblical goose, that blew his bugle from the roof of noah's ark; the classical goose that picked his livelihood along the shores of the Ægean; of the historical goose, that squawked to save old rome; the mercenary goose, laying the golden egg; and, finally, of the roast goose. =b. shift in subject or voice= rewrite the following sentences, avoiding all unnecessary shift in construction. . after you decide on the plan of the house, your attention is turned to the materials of construction. . editors are careful to use words that are exact, yet simple, and the use of technical terms is not generally considered to be good. . bank accounts should be balanced once a month in order that you may know your exact standing. . we should have our athletic contest between the weakest students, and in that way they will become physically strong. . when one is making a long-distance run, several cautions should be borne in mind by him. . in melody the poem is good, but the author's ideas are eccentric. . lincoln's sentences are plain, blunt, and to the point. he lacks the ornate eloquence of jefferson. . the operator places a large shovelful of concrete in the mold, and the mixture is made solid by tamping. . he might become angry, but it was over in a few minutes. . the pauper chanced to gain entrance to the royal palace, and while there the young prince is met by him. . when the weather is hot, plowing is accomplished very slowly with horses, while on the tractor the heat has no effect. . first, one should mix one-half cup of corn syrup and one cup of brown sugar; then one cup of cream and the flavoring are added. . in the college situated in a small town there are dormitories for the student, but in the cities they usually room where they please. . an education should enable us to tell the valuable from the cheap book, and by it we should be able to tell the true from the counterfeit man. . moisten the sand thoroughly and set the box in a warm place, and in about a week's time it can readily be seen by the way the grains have sprouted which ears of seed corn have greatest vitality. =c. shift in number, person, or tense= rewrite the following sentences, removing all inconsistency in grammatical form. . every one has a right to their own opinion. . bryant rushed to the window and shouts at the postman. . the life of the honey bee has been studied, and their activities found to be remarkable. . he says to me, "are you ready?" and i answered, "no." . when a person keeps a store, you should remember the names and faces of your customers. . an automobile is expensive, and they are liable to become an elephant on your hands. . if one studies the market, he would find that prices rise every year. . if one went to europe, he will find everything different. . since these tires were different in construction, the method of repairing will vary. . contentment is a state of mind in which one is satisfied with themselves and their surroundings. . it is easy to catch 'possums if you can find the rascal. . the writer of a theme should not waste time on a long introduction, and get to the facts of your subject as quickly as possible. . shakespeare's comedies are great fun. i prefer it to tragedy. . often a man will knock at the door, and finds no one at home. . too much attention will spoil a child. they should not be entertained every minute. =d. the exact connective= each of the following sentences contains an idea which is, or may be, subordinate to another idea. ( ) decide what kind of subordinate relation should exist between the ideas. ( ) determine what connective best expresses this relation. (consult for a list of connectives.) ( ) write the sentence as it should be. . wealth is a good thing, while honest wealth is better. . spend an hour in the open air every day when you want to keep your health. . the rattlesnake gives warning and it is only afterward that he strikes. . south americans are our national neighbors, and we as a nation should understand them. . the city man knows nothing about a cow, only that it has horns. . he got up early in order that he might be able to see the sunrise. . the tenderfoot saw the funnel-shaped cloud when he made for a cyclone cellar. . men fear what they do not understand, and a coward is one who is ignorant. . hinting did not influence her; then he tried scolding. . the valet spilled the wine, and the duke started up with an oath. . while he writhed on the ground, he was not really hurt. . he will not cash the check without you indorse it. . we want this work done by the first of april, so please send an estimate soon. . he had traveled everywhere, and he had a vivid recollection of only three scenes: niagara falls, the jungfrau, and lake como. . i never hear him talk but he makes me angry. . animals have some of the same feelings as human beings have. . it was four o'clock and we decided to return and be home for supper. =e. repetition of connectives= in the following sentences determine whether repetition is desirable or undesirable, and change the sentences accordingly. . with the coming of meal time, the potatoes are removed from the fire with a fork with a long handle. . his clothes were brushed and neat, but patched and repatched. but still he could be bright and cheery. . to no other magazine do i look forward to the arrival of its new issue, more than i do to the _world's work_. . at the time the book was written, i believe forster was considered to be almost the best biographer living at that time. . the freshman has no spirit until the sophomores have provoked him until he resists until he finds that he has spirit. . some socialists are against the present system of initiative, referendum, and recall, but advocate a system much like it but applied in a different way. . the gun with which the germans bombarded paris with had a range of seventy-five miles. . basketball is a game that i have played for years, and i am greatly interested in. . this is the lever which throws the switch which directs the train that takes the track that goes to boston. . short talks were made by the captain, the coach, and by the faculty. . at this school one can study to be a doctor, dentist, farmer, a lawyer, or an engineer. . i like to cross the harbor on the ferry, to dodge in and out among the ships, see the gulls dart among the waves, smell the sharp tang of salty air, and to feel the rocking motion of the boat. . in the sultry autumn, and when the winter's storms came, and when in spring the winds whistled, and in the summer's heat, he always wore the same old coat. . he knew that if he did not ignite the piece of wet bark this time, that he could not dry his clothing or broil the bacon. . the next speaker said that the need was critical, the schools must be enlarged, and that the paving now begun must be completed, and a new board of health should be created, that the interest on past debts had to be paid, and the city treasury was at this moment out of funds. emphasis =emphasis by position= = . reserve the emphatic positions in a sentence for important words or ideas. (the emphatic positions are the beginning and the end--especially the end.)= weak ending: then like a flash a vivid memory of my uncle's death came to me. weak: i demand the release of the prisoners, in the first place. weak: this principle is one we cannot afford to accept, if my understanding of the question is correct. place the important idea at the end. secure, if possible, an emphatic beginning. "tuck in" unimportant modifiers. emphatic: like a flash came to me a vivid memory of my uncle's death. emphatic: i demand, in the first place, the release of the prisoners. emphatic: this principle, if my understanding of the question is correct, is one we cannot afford to accept. exercise: . "war is inevitable," he said. . the cat had been poisoned to all appearances. . there are several methods of learning to swim, as everyone knows. . a liar is as bad as a thief, in my estimation. . he saw a fight below him in the street, happening to look out of the window. =emphasis by separation= = . an idea which needs much emphasis may be detached, and allowed to stand in a sentence by itself.= faulty: the flames were by this time beyond control, and the walls collapsed, and several firemen were hurt. [the ideas here are too important to be run together in one sentence.] right: by this time the flames were beyond control, and the walls collapsed. several firemen were hurt. a quotation gains emphasis when it is separated from what follows. faulty: "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley," are some lines from burns which mcdonald was always quoting. right: "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." mcdonald was always quoting these lines from burns. direct discourse is more emphatic when it is separated from explanatory phrases, particularly from those which follow. faulty: mosher leaped to the stage and shouted defiantly, "i will never consent to that!" and he looked as if he meant what he said. right: mosher leaped to the stage and shouted his defiance: "i will never agree to that!" and he looked as if he meant what he said. exercise: . after the tents are pitched, the beds made, and the fires started, the first meal is cooked and served, and this meal is the beginning of camp-life joy. . he tried to make his wife vote for his own, the citizen's party, but she firmly refused. . at the word of command the dog rushed forward; the covey rose with a mighty whir, and the hunter fired both barrels, and the dog looked in vain for a dead bird, and then returned disconsolate. . i sat and gazed at the motto, "aim high, and believe yourself capable of great things," which my mother had placed there for me. . "a book of verses underneath the bough, a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou beside me singing in the wilderness." were the four things omar khayyam wanted to make him happy. =emphasis by subordination= = . do not place the important idea of a sentence in a subordinate clause or phrase. make the important idea grammatically independent. if possible, subordinate the rest of the sentence to it.= faulty: he had a manner which made me angry. faulty: the fire spread to the third story, when the house was doomed. faulty: for years the indians molested the white people, thereby causing the settlers to want revenge. the important idea should not be placed in a _which_ clause, or a _when_ clause, or a participial phrase. right: his manner made me angry. right: when the fire spread to the third story, the house was doomed. right: years of molestation by the indians made the white men want revenge. exercise: . i was riding on the train, when suddenly there was an accident. . there are two windows in each bedroom, thus insuring good ventilation. . yonder is the house which is my home. . he saw that argument was useless, so he let her talk. . his clothes were very old, making him look like a tramp. =the periodic sentence= a sentence is periodic when the completion of the main thought is delayed until the end. this delay creates a feeling of suspense. a periodic sentence is doubly emphatic: it has emphasis by position because the important idea comes at the end; it has emphasis by subordination because all ideas except the last one are grammatically dependent. = . to give emphasis to a loosely constructed sentence, turn it into periodic form.= loose: i saw two men fight a duel, many years ago, on a moonlit summer night, in a little village in northern france. [what is most important, the time? the place? or the actual duel? place the important idea last.] periodic: many years ago, on a moonlit summer night, in a little village in northern france, i saw two men fight a duel. loose: we left yellowstone gateway for the ride of our lives in a six-horse tally-ho. [place the important idea last, _and make all other ideas grammatically subordinate_.] periodic: leaving yellowstone gateway in a six-horse tally-ho, we had the ride of our lives. loose: the river was swollen with incessant rain, and it swept away the dam. [which is the important idea? why not make it appear more important by subordinating everything to it?] periodic: the river, swollen with incessant rain, swept away the dam. loose: war means to have our pursuit of knowledge and happiness rudely broken off, to feel the sting of death and bereavement, to saddle future generations with a burden of debt and national hatred. periodic: to have our pursuit of knowledge and happiness rudely broken off, to feel the sting of death and bereavement, to saddle future generations with a burden of debt and national hatred--this is war. exercise: . i am happy when the spring comes, when the sun is warm, when the fields revive. . he cares nothing for culture, for justice, for progress. . as the boat gathered speed, the golden sun was setting far across the harbor. . he amassed a great fortune, standing there behind his dingy counter, discounting bills, pinching coins, buying cheap and selling dear. . the shattered aqueducts, pier beyond pier, melt into the darkness, from the plains to the mountains. =order of climax= = . in a series of words, phrases, or clauses of noticeable difference in strength, use the order of climax.= wrong order: he was insolent and lazy. weak ending: literature has expanded into a sea, where before it was only a small stream. weak ending: as we listened to his story we felt the sordid misery and the peril and fear of war. emphatic: he was lazy and insolent. emphatic: the stream of literature has swollen into a torrent, expanded into a sea. emphatic: as we listened to his story we felt the fear, the peril, the sordid misery of war. exercise: . we boarded the train, after having bought our tickets and checked our baggage. . war brings famine, death, disease after it. . they have broken up our homes, enslaved our children, and stolen our property. . in the old story, the drunken man, carried into the duke's palace, sees himself surrounded with luxury, and imagines himself a true prince, after waking up. . the becalmed mariners were famished, hungry. =the balanced sentence= = . two ideas similar or opposite in thought gain in emphasis when set off, one against the other, in similar constructions.= weak and straggling: this paper, like many others, has many bad features, but in some ways it is very good. the news articles are far better than the editorials, which are feeble. balanced structure: this paper is in some respects good; in other respects very poor. the news articles are impressive, the editorials are feeble. weak and complicated: from the east a man who lives in the west can learn a great deal, and an easterner ought to be able to understand the west. balanced: a westerner can learn much from the east, and an easterner needs to understand the west. weak: both mill and macaulay influenced the younger writers. mill taught some of them to reason, but many more of them learned from macaulay only a superficial eloquence. balanced: both mill and macaulay influenced the younger writers. if mill taught some of them to reason, macaulay tempted many more of them to declaim. note.--although excessive use of balance is artificial, occasional use of it is powerful. it can give to writing either dignity (as in an oration) or point (as in an epigram). observe how many proverbs are in balanced structure. "seeing is believing.--nothing venture, nothing have.--for every grain of wit there is a grain of folly.--you cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.--an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." note the effective use of balance in emerson's _essays_, particularly in _compensation_; and in the old testament, particularly in _psalms_ and _proverbs_. exercise: . machinery is of course labor-saving, but countless men are thrown out of work. . there is a difference between success in business and in acquiring culture. . i attend concerts for the pleasure of it, and to get an understanding of music. . the stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet; but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterward, caught in the thicket, he was destroyed by his horns. . we do not see the stars at evening, sometimes because there are clouds intervening, but oftener because there are glimmerings of light; thus many truths escape us from the obscurity we stand in, and many more from the state of mind which induces us to sit down satisfied with our imaginations and of our knowledge unsuspicious. [this sentence is correctly balanced, except at the end.] =the weak effect of the passive voice= = . use the active voice unless there is a reason for doing otherwise. the passive voice is, as the name implies, not emphatic.= weak: your gift is appreciated by me. better: i appreciate your gift. weak and vague: his step on the porch was heard. better: his step sounded on the porch. [or] i heard his step on the porch. the passive voice is especially objectionable when by failing to indicate the agent of the verb it unnecessarily mystifies the reader. vague: the train was seen speeding toward us. better: we saw the train speeding toward us. exercise: . their minds were changed frequently as to what profession should be taken up by them. . a gun should be examined and oiled well before a hunter starts. . finally the serenaders were recognized. . in athletics a man is developed physically. . if a man uses slang constantly, a good impression is not made. =effective repetition= = a. the simplest and most natural way to emphasize a word or an idea is to repeat it.= the bible is the best standard of simplicity and dignity in our language, and the bible uses repetition constantly. a word or idea that is repeated must, of course, be important enough to deserve emphasis. fairly emphatic: he works and toils and labors, but he seems never to get anywhere. very emphatic: work, work, work, all he does is work, and still he seems never to get anywhere. fairly emphatic: how did the general meet this new menace? he withdrew before it! very emphatic: how did the general meet this new menace? he withdrew! he retreated! he ran away! homely but emphatic: "i went under," said the old salt; "bows, gunnels, and starn--all under." deliberately too emphatic: everywhere we hear of efficiency--efficiency experts, efficiency bureaus, efficiency methods, in the office, in the school, in the home--until one longs to fly to some savage island beyond the reach of inhuman modern science. =b. not only words, but an entire grammatical structure may be repeated on a large scale for emphasis.= weak: we hope that this shipment will reach you in good condition, and that you will favor us with other orders in the future, which will be given prompt and courteous attention. [this sentence is flimsy and spineless because the writer had a timid reluctance to repeat.] strong: we hope that this shipment will reach you in good condition. we believe that the quality of our goods will induce you to send us a second order. we assure you that such an order will receive prompt and courteous attention. [note the emphasis derived from the resolute march of the expressions _we hope_, _we believe_, _we assure_.] emphatic: through the patience, the courage, the high character of alfred the country was saved--saved from the rapacities of fortune, saved from the malignancy of its enemies, saved from the sluggish despair of the people of england themselves. emphatic and natural: this corner of the garden was my first playground. here i made my first toddling effort to walk. here on the soft grass i learned the delight of out-of-doors. here i became acquainted with the bull-frog, and the bumble-bee, and the neighbor's dog. emphatic and delightful: he maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. he restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. exercise: . he kept digging away for gold through long years. . breaking against the shore, came innumerable waves. . sand, sagebrush, shimmering flat horizon. i could not endure the barren monotony of the desert. . we want you to come and visit us, and bring along a good appetite and your customary high spirits. plan to stay a long time. . 'twas bitter cold outside. the cat meowed until i had to let her in. =offensive repetition= careless repetition attracts attention to words that do not need emphasis. it is extremely annoying to the reader. = a. unless a word or phrase is repeated deliberately to gain force or clearness, its repetition is a blunder. get rid of recurring expressions in one of three ways: ( ) by substituting equivalent expressions, ( ) by using pronouns more liberally, ( ) by rearranging the sentence so as to say once what has awkwardly been said twice.= each of these schemes is illustrated below. = .= repetition cured by the use of equivalent expressions (synonyms). bad: _just_ as we were half way down the lake, _just_ off milwaukee, we _began_ to feel a slight motion of the ship and the _wind began_ to freshen. the _wind began_ to blow more fiercely from the south and the waves _began_ to leap high. the boat _began_ to pitch and roll. right: _just_ as we were half way down the lake, _opposite_ milwaukee, we began to feel a slight motion of the ship, for the wind _had_ freshened. before long _a gale_, _blowing_ from the south, _kicked up a heavy sea and caused_ the boat to pitch and roll. [notice how combining the last two sentences helps to solve the problem of the last _began_, besides giving firmer texture to the construction.] = .= repetition cured by the use of pronouns. (in using this method, one should take care that the reference of the pronouns is clear.) bad: the _law building_, the _commerce building_, and the _science building_ are close together. the _commerce building_ is south of the _law building_, and the _science building_ is south of the _commerce building_. the _law building_ is old and dilapidated. the _commerce building_ is a red brick _building_, trimmed in terra-cotta. the _science building_ resembles the _commerce building_. right: the law, commerce, and science buildings are close together in a row. _the first of these_ is old and dilapidated. south of it stands the commerce building, _which_, because of _its_ red brick and terra-cotta trimmings, somewhat resembles the science building. = .= repetition cured by rearranging and condensing. bad: the _autumn_ is my favorite of all the _seasons_. while _autumn_ in the _city_ is not such a pleasant _season_ as _autumn_ in the country, yet even in the _city_ my preference will always be for the _autumn_. right: my favorite season is autumn. i like it best in the country, but even in the city it is the best time of the year. =b. avoid a monotonous repetition of sentence structure. to give variety to successive sentences: ( ) vary the length, ( ) vary the beginnings, ( ) avoid a series of similar compound sentences, ( ) interchange loose with periodic structure, ( ) use rhetorical question, exclamation, direct discourse, ( ) avoid an excessive use of participles or adjectives.= = .= vary the length of sentences. bad: walter came up the path carrying betty in his arms. she was wet from head to toe. damp curls clung to her pale face. water dripped from her clothes. one hand hung loosely over walter's arm. the other held a live duckling. she had saved the little duck from drowning. this was betty's first day in the country. right: walter came up the path carrying betty in his arms--little betty who was spending her first day in the country. she was wet from head to toe; damp curls clung to her pale face, and water dripped from her clothes. in one hand she held a live duckling. her face lighted with courage as she told how she jumped into the pond and saved the little duck from drowning. = .= vary the beginnings of sentences. do not allow too many sentences to begin with the subject, or with a time clause, or with a participle, or with _so_. when you have finished a composition, rapidly read over the opening words of each sentence, to see if there is sufficient variety. bad [too many sentences begin directly with the subject]: our way is circuitous. a sharp turn brings us round a rocky point. the road drops suddenly into a little valley. the roof of a house appears in a grove of trees below. a cottage is there and a flower garden. an old-fashioned well is near the door. right: presently, on our circuitous way, we make a sharp turn round a rocky point. before us the road drops suddenly into a little valley. in a grove of trees below appears the roof of a house, and as we draw nearer we see a cottage surrounded by flowers. nothing could be more attractive to a weary traveler than the old-fashioned well near the door. = .= avoid a series of similar compound sentences, especially those of two parts of equal length, joined by _and_ or _but_. bad: ring was a sheep dog, and tended the flock with his master. one day there came a deep snow, and the flock did not return. they found the herder frozen stiff, and the dog shivering beside him. right: ring was a sheep dog, and tended the flock with his master. one day there came a deep snow. when the flock failed to return, the men became uneasy, and began to search. they found the herder frozen stiff, with the dog shivering beside him. = .= change occasionally from loose to periodic or balanced structure (see and ). monotonous: i stood at the foot of tunbridge hill. i saw on the horizon a dense wood, which, in the evening sunlight, was veiled in purple haze [loose]. on the left was the village, the houses appearing like specks in the distance [loose]. nearer on the right was the creek, winding through the willows [loose]. the creek approached nearer until it reached the dam, over which it rushed tumultuously [loose]. near by was a thicket of tall trees, through which i could see the white tents of my fellow campers, and their glowing camp fires [loose]. right: far south from tunbridge hill, on the dim horizon, i saw, veiled in the evening haze, a dense wood [periodic, long, conveying the idea of distance better than a loose sentence]. on my left stood the village, the houses like specks; on my right wound the creek, nearer and nearer through the willows [balanced]. the creek advanced by slow sinuous turns, until, reaching the dam, it plunged over tumultuously [loose]. through a thicket of tall trees, near at hand, i could see the white tents of my fellow campers, and their glowing camp fires [periodic through the middle of the sentence; then loose]. = .= use question, exclamation, direct quotation. somewhat flat: he asked me the road to camden. i did not know. i told him to ask thurber, who knew the country well. better: he asked me the road to camden. the road to camden? how should i know? "ask thurber," i said impatiently; "he knows this country. i'm a stranger." = .= avoid an excessive use of participles. do not pile adjectives around every noun. above all, do not form a habit of using adjectives in pairs or triplets. bad: sitting by the window, i saw a sharp, dazzling flash of lightning, and heard a loud rumbling crash of heavy thunder, warning me of the coming of the storm. darting across the gray, leaden sky, the quick, jagged lightning flashed incessantly. the tall stately poplar trees thrashed around in the boisterous wind. then across the window, like a great white curtain, swept the streaming, blinding rain. right: i sat by the window. suddenly a sharp flash of lightning and a roll of thunder gave warning of the approach of a storm. soon lightning zig-zagged across the sky incessantly. the wind huddled the poplar trees. then like a white curtain across the window streamed the rain. exercise: . the parts of the tables are not put together at the factory, but the different parts are shipped in different shipments. . in order to convince the reader that the present management of farms is inefficient, i shall give some examples of efficiency in the farm management on some farms with which i am acquainted. . when one wishes to learn how to swim one must first become accustomed to the water. the best way to become accustomed to the water is to go into it frequently. after one has become accustomed to the water he may begin to learn the strokes. . _the life of sir walter scott_, written by j. g. lockhart, is an interesting biography of this great writer. it consists of a short biography by scott himself, and also consists of a continuation of this biography by his son-in-law, j. g. lockhart. . if a piece of steel is kept hot for several seconds, it will lose some of its hardness. if kept hot longer, it will lose more of its hardness. along with losing its hardness it will lose its brittleness. if the piece of steel is heated continually it will lose nearly all its hardness and brittleness. in other words, it will lose its "temper." = .= exercise in emphasis =a. lack of emphasis in general= make the following sentences emphatic. . the man is a thief who fails in business but continues to live in luxury. . the plant was withered and dry, not having been watered for over a week. . much time is saved in chicago by taking the elevated cars, if you have a great distance to travel. . the clock struck eleven, when he immediately seized his hat and left. . these liberal terms should be taken advantage of by us. . the study of biology has proved very interesting, as far as i have gone. . who is this that comes to the foot of the guillotine, crouching, trembling? . they must pay the penalty. their death is necessary. they have caused harm enough. . i intend to get up fifteen minutes earlier, thereby giving myself time to eat a good breakfast. . the book was reread several times, for i never grew tired of it. . "what is the aim of a university education?" the speaker asked. . a bicycle is sometimes ridden when a tire contains no air, total ruin resulting from the weight of the rim upon the flat tire. . he sprang forward the instant the pistol cracked, since the start of a sprint is very important, and one cannot overdo the practicing of it. . sometimes the fuses fail to burn, or burn too fast, causing an explosion before the workmen are prepared for it. . how father made soap was always a mystery to me. cracklings saved from butchering time, lye, and water went into the kettle on a warm spring day and came out in the form of soap a few hours later, to my great astonishment. =b. loose or unemphatic structure= make the following sentences more emphatic by throwing them into periodic form. . it was tom, as i had expected. . i will not tell, no matter how you beg. . the supremacy of the old river steamboat is gone forever, unless conditions should be utterly changed. . across the desert he traveled alone, and over strange seas, and through quaint foreign villages. . the hot water dissolves the glue in the muresco, making the mixture more easily applied. . visions of rich meadows and harvest-laden fields now pass before my eyes, as i sit by the fire. . some of the women were weeping bitterly, thinking they would never see their homes again. . i splashed along on foot for three miles after night in a driving rain. . very high rent is demanded, thus keeping the peasants constantly in debt. . roderigo was in despair because he had been rejected by desdemona, and was ready to end his life, by the time iago entered. . through storm and cold the open boat was brought to the shore at last, after toil and suffering, with great difficulty. . the car came to a violent stop against a rock pile, after it demolished two fences, upset a hen-house, and scared a pig out of his wits. . the panama canal is the fulfilment of the dreams of old spanish adventurers, the desires of later merchant princes, and the demand of modern nations for free traffic on the seas. . the fiddle yelled, and the feet of the dancers beat the floor, and the spectators applauded, and the room fairly rang. . the man with the best character, not the man with most money, will come out on top in the end. =c. faulty repetition= repetition in the following sentences is objectionable, because it attracts attention to words or constructions that do not need to be emphasized. improve the sentences, avoiding unnecessary repetition. . he is a great friend of boys, and views things from the boys' point of view. . in the case of the strike at lawrence, massachusetts, the real cause was low wages caused by immigration and child labor. . first, a subject must be chosen, and in choosing a subject, choose one that you know something about. . there are great opportunities in the field of science, and a scientist who makes a mark in the world of science makes a mark for himself everywhere. . while the practical man is learning skill in the practical world, the college man is attaining a development of mentality that will surpass that of the practical man when the college man learns the skill of the practical man. . the field is dragged and rolled. dragging and rolling leaves the ground smooth and ready for planting. . a great number and variety of articles appears in every issue. there is a complete review of each subject. it is treated in a short, but thorough manner. . they gave me a hearty welcome. they stood back and looked at me. they wanted to see if three months in the city had made any changes in me. but they said it had not. . engineering is looked upon by many students as an easy and uninteresting study, but to my knowledge it is not uninteresting and easy. engineering is probably one of the hardest courses in college. to me it is also the most interesting. . a duck hunter should have a place to hunt where ducks are frequently found in duck season. ducks often light in the backwater along a river, and in ponds. they are often found in small lakes. corn fields are common feeding places for ducks. ducks make regular trips to cornfields within reach of a body of water such as a river or lake. it is their nature to spend the night in the water, and in the morning and in the evening they go out to the fields to feed. grammar =case= = a. the subject of a verb is in the nominative case, even when the verb is remote, or understood (not expressed).= wrong: they are as old as us. right: they are as old as we [are]. wrong: he is taller than her. right: he is taller than she [is]. note.--_than_ and _as_ are conjunctions, not prepositions. when they are followed by a pronoun merely, this pronoun is not their object, but part of a clause the rest of which may be understood. the case of this pronoun is determined by its relation to the rest of the unexpressed clause. sometimes the understood clause calls for the objective: "i like his brother better than [i like] him." _than whom_, though ungrammatical, is sanctioned by usage. =b. guard against the improper attraction of _who_ into the objective case by intervening expressions like _he says_.= wrong: the man whom they believed was the cause of the trouble left the country. [_they believed_ is parenthetical, and the subject of _was_ is _who_.] right: the man who they believed was the cause of the trouble left the country. wrong: whom do you suppose made us a visit? right: who do you suppose made us a visit? =guard against the improper attraction of _who_ or _whoever_ into the objective case by a preceding verb or preposition.= wrong: punish whomever is guilty. [the pronoun is the subject of _is_. the object of _punish_ is the entire clause _whoever is guilty_.] right: punish whoever is guilty. wrong: the mystery as to whom had rendered him this service remained. [the pronoun is the subject of _had rendered_. the object of the preposition is the entire clause _who had rendered him this service_.] right: the mystery as to who had rendered him this service remained. =c. the predicate complement of the verb _to be_ (in any of its forms, _is_, _was_, _were_, _be_, etc.) is in the nominative case.= _to be_ never takes an object, because it does not express action. wrong: was it her? was it them? it is me. right: was it she? was it they? is it i. wrong: the happiest people there were him and his mother. right: the happiest people there were he and his mother. =d. the object of a preposition or a verb is in the objective case.= wrong: some of we fellows went fishing. right: some of us fellows went fishing. wrong: that seems incredible to you and i. right: that seems incredible to you and me. wrong: who did they detect? right: whom did they detect? =e. the "assumed" subject of an infinitive is in the objective case.= right: i wanted him to go. [_him to go_ is the group object of the verb _wanted_. _to go_, being an infinitive, cannot assert an action, and consequently cannot take a subject. but _to go_ implies that something is at least capable of action. _him_ is the latent or assumed subject of the action implied in _to go_.] right: _whom_ do you wish _to be_ your leader? [_whom_ is the assumed subject of the infinitive _to be_.] =f. a noun or pronoun used to express possession is in the possessive case.= do not omit the apostrophe (see ) from nouns, or from the pronouns _one's_ and _other's_. most of the other possessive pronouns do not require an apostrophe. right: the man's hair is gray. right: the machine does its work well. [_it's_ would mean _it is_.] right: one should do one's duty. =g. a noun or pronoun linked with a gerund should be in the possessive case whenever the use of the objective case might cause confusion.= faulty: is there any criticism of arthur going? right: is there any criticism of arthur's going? right: i had not heard of his being sick. right, but slightly less desirable: i had not heard of him being sick. note.--in other instances than those in which clearness is involved many good writers use the objective case with the gerund. but even in these instances most writers prefer the possessive case. =h. it is usually awkward and slightly illogical to attribute possession to inanimate objects.= awkward: the farm's management. better: the management of the farm. awkward: the stomach's lining. better: the lining of the stomach. note.--usage justifies many exceptions, particularly ( ) expressions that involve time or measure, _a day's work_, _a hair's breadth_, _a year's salary_, _a week's vacation_, _a cable's length_; and ( ) expressions that involve personification, explicit or implied, _reason's voice_, _the law's delay_, _for mercy's sake_, _the heart's desire_, _the tempest's breath_. =i. a pronoun agrees with its antecedent in person, gender, and number, but not in case.= right: _i, who am_ older, know better. right: tell _me, who am_ older, your trouble. right: many a man has saved _himself_ by counsel. exercise: . i am as old as (he, him). they may be pluckier than (we, us). nobody is less conceited than (she, her). . he gave help to (whoever, whomever) wanted it. the girls (who, whom) they say have the worst taste are on a committee to select the class pin. . four of (we, us) boys were left without a cent. that is a good investment for her cousin and (she, her). . it was (he, him). it is (they, them). the sole occupants of the car were his chum and (he, him). . i had not heard of (his, him) being sick. she does not approve of (our, us) being late to dinner. (they, them) who labor now the master will reward. =number= = a. _each_, _every_, _every one_, _everybody_, _anybody_, _either_, _neither_, _no one_, _nobody_, and similar words are singular.= wrong: everybody did their best. right: everybody did his best. wrong: each of my three friends were there. right: each of my three friends was there. wrong: either of the candidates are capable of making a good officer. right: either of the candidates is capable of making a good officer. =b. do not let _this_ or _that_ when modifying _kind_ or _sort_ be attracted into the plural by a following noun.= wrong: he knew nothing of those kind of activities. right: he knew nothing of that kind of activities. wrong: i never did like these sort of post cards. right: i never did like this sort of post cards. =c. collective nouns may be regarded as singular or plural, according to the meaning intended.= right: the crowd is waiting. right: the crowd are not agreed. right: webster maintained that the united states is an inseparable union; hayne that the united states are a separable union. english usage: the government were considering a new bill regarding labor. american usage: the government was glad to place our troops at the disposal of general foch. =d. do not use _don't_ in the third person singular. use _doesn't_. _don't_ is contraction of _do not_.= wrong: he don't get up early on sunday morning. right: he doesn't get up early on sunday morning. exercise: . she said not to buy those sort of carpet tacks. these kind of apples won't keep. i don't care for these boasting kind of travelers. . neither of us were in condition to run the race. every one assured mrs. merton they had spent a pleasant evening. . he don't suffer much now. i don't care if she don't come today. . each of us in that dismal waiting room were angry with the agent for telling us the train was not late. . no one of the girls will tell their age. it don't matter. =agreement= = a. a verb agrees in number with the subject, not with a noun which intervenes between it and the subject.= wrong: the size of the plantations vary. right: the size of the plantations varies. wrong: the increasing use of luxuries are a menace to the country. right: the increasing use of luxuries is a menace to the country. wrong: the prices of grain fluctuates in response to the demand. right: the prices of grain fluctuate in response to the demand. [or] the price of grain fluctuates in response to the demand. =b. the number of the verb is not affected by the addition to the subject of words introduced by _with_, _together with_, _no less than_, _as well as_, and the like.= wrong: the mayor of the city, as well as several aldermen, have investigated the charges. right: the mayor of the city, as well as several aldermen, has investigated the charges. =c. singular subjects joined by _or_ or _nor_ take a singular verb.= wrong: either the second or the third of the plans they have devised are acceptable. right: either the second or the third of the plans they have devised is acceptable. =d. a subject consisting of two or more nouns joined by _and_ takes a plural verb.= right: the hunting and fishing are good. =e. a verb should agree in number with the subject, not with a predicate noun.= wrong: the weak point in the team were the fielders. right: the weak point in the team was the fielders. wrong: laziness and dissipation is the cause of his failure. right: laziness and dissipation are the cause of his failure. =f. in _there is_ and _there are_ sentences the verb should agree in number with the noun that follows it.= wrong: there is very good grounds for such a decision. right: there are very good grounds for such a decision. wrong: there was present a man, two women, and a child. right: there were present a man, two women, and a child. exercise: . the sound of falling acorns (is, are) one of the delights of an autumn evening. eye strain through ill-fit glasses (is, are) injurious to the general health, but reading without glasses (is, are) often more harmful still. . neither the baritone nor the tenor (has, have) as good a voice as the soprano. the guitar or the mandolin (is, are) always out of tune. . the amazon with its tributaries (affords, afford) access to sea. the conductor of the freight train, along with the engineer and fireman of the passenger, (was, were) injured. . ghost stories late at night (is, are) a crime against children. my reason for knowing that it is six o'clock (is, are) the factory whistles. . there (was, were) in the same coach a dozen singing freshmen. years of experience in buying clothes (gives, give) me confidence in my judgment. =_shall_ and _will_, _should_ and _would_= although there is a tendency to disregard subtle distinctions between _shall_ and _will_ in ordinary speech, it is desirable to preserve the more important distinctions in written discourse. = . to express simple futurity or mere expectation, use _shall_ with the first person (both singular and plural) and _will_ with the second and third.= i shall go. we shall walk. you will play. you will hear. he will sing. they will reply. =to express resolution or emphatic assurance, reverse the usage; that is, use _will_ with the first person (both singular and plural), and _shall_ with the second and third.= i will; i tell you, i will. we will not be excluded. you shall do what i bid. you shall not delay us. he shall obey me. they shall pay the tribute. in asking questions, use the form expected in the answer. "shall i go?" i asked myself musingly. "shall we take a walk?" "you promise. but will you pay?" "will it rain tomorrow?" _should_ and _would_ follow the rules given for _shall_ and _will_. mere statement of a fact: i [or we] should like to go. you [or he or they] would of course accept the offer. resolution or emphatic assurance: i [or we] would never go under terms so degrading. you [or he or they] should decline; honor demands it. _should_ has also a special use in the subjunctive (in all persons) to express a condition; and _would_ has a special use (in all persons) to express a wish, or customary action. if it should rain, i shall not go. if i should remain, it would probably clear off. would that i could swim! he [i, we, you, they] would often sit there by the hour. exercise: . i (shall, will) probably do as he says. i'm determined; i (shall, will) go! we (shall, will) see what tomorrow (shall, will) bring forth. . the train (shall, will) whistle at this crossing, i suppose. when the log is nearly severed, it (shall, will) begin to pinch the saw. the weather (shall, will) be warmer tomorrow. . johnny, you (shall, will) not go near those strawberries! he (shall, will) not leave us in this predicament. i repeat it, he (shall, will) not! we (shall, will) never sell this good old horse. . (shall, will) this calico fade? (shall, will) you give the organ grinder some money? (shall, will) i raise the window? (should, would) i ask his permission? . if you (should, would) visit his laboratory, you (should, would) learn how a starfish preserved in alcohol smells. you (shall, will) all die some day, my friends. (shall, will) i ever forget this? time (shall, will) tell. =principal parts= = . use the correct form of the past tense and past participle.= avoid _come_, _done_, _bursted_, _knowed_, _says_ for the past tense; and [_had_] _eat_, [_had_] _froze_, [_have_] _ran_, [_has_] _went_, [_has_] _wrote_, [_are_] _suppose_ for the past participle. memorize the principal parts of difficult verbs. the principal parts are the present tense, the past tense, and the past participle. a good way to recall these is to repeat the formula: today i _sing_; yesterday i _sang_; often in the past i have _sung_. the principal parts of _sing_ are _sing_, _sang_, _sung_. a list of difficult verbs is given below. bear bore borne born begin began begun bend bent bent bid bid bid bade bidden bite bit bit bitten bleed bled bled blow blew blown break broke broken burn burnt burnt burned burned burst burst burst catch caught caught choose chose chosen come came come deal dealt dealt dive dived dived do did done drag dragged dragged draw drew drawn dream dreamt dreamt dreamed dreamed drink drank drunk drive drove driven drown drowned drowned dwell dwelt dwelt dwelled dwelled eat ate eaten fall fell fallen fight fought fought flee fled fled fly flew flown flow flowed flowed freeze froze frozen get got got go went gone grow grew grown hang hung hung hang hanged hanged hold held held kneel knelt knelt know knew known lay laid laid lead led led lend lent lent lie lay lain lie lied lied loose loosed loosed lose lost lost mean meant meant pay paid paid prove proved proved read read read rid rid rid ride rode ridden ring rang rung rise rose risen run ran run say said said see saw seen set set set shake shook shaken shine shone shone show showed shown shrink shrank shrunk sing sang sung sit sat sat slink slunk slunk speak spoke spoken spend spent spent spit spit spit spat spat steal stole stolen swear swore sworn sweep swept swept swim swam swum take took taken tear tore torn throw threw thrown thrust thrust thrust tread trod trod trodden wake woke waked waked wear wore worn weave wove woven weep wept wept write wrote written exercise: . adams ---- (past tense of _draw_) another glass of cider and ---- (past tense of _drink_) it. when those squashes once ---- (past tense of _begin_), they ---- (past tense of _grow_) like mad. . the thermometer had ---- (past participle of _fall_) twenty degrees, and three water pipes had ---- (past participle of _freeze_). afterward one ---- (past tense of _burst_). . annie had ---- (past participle of _speak_) a piece, and nancy had ---- (past participle of _write_) a poem, and isabel had nearly ---- (past participle of _burst_) with envy. . he ---- (past tense of _do_) a brave deed; he ---- (past tense of _swim_) straight for the whirlpool. i had ---- (past participle of _know_) him before, and had ---- (past participle of _shake_) hands with him. . he ---- (past tense of _come_) home late, and has ---- (past participle of _eat_) his dinner. now he has ---- (past participle of _go_) down town. he has ---- (past participle of _ride_) before. i ---- (past tense of _see_) him. he ---- (past tense of _run_) swiftly. =tense, mode, auxiliaries= = a. in dependent clauses and infinitives, the tense is to be considered in relation to the time expressed in the principal verb.= wrong: i intended to have gone. [the principal verb _intended_ indicates a past time. in that past time i intended to do something. what? did i intend _to go_, or _to have gone_?] right: i intended to go. wrong: we hoped that you would have come to the party. [the principal verb _hoped_ indicates a past time. in that past time our hope was that you _would_ come, not that you _would have come_.] right: we hoped that you would come. =b. when narration in the past tense is interrupted for reference to a preceding occurrence, the past perfect tense is used.= wrong: in the parlor my cousin kept a collection of animals which he shot. right: in the parlor my cousin kept a collection of animals which he had shot. =c. general statements equally true in the past and in the present are usually expressed in the present tense.= faulty: he said that venus was a planet. right: he said that venus is a planet. =d. the subjunctive mode of the verb _to be_ is used to express a condition contrary to fact, or a wish.= faulty: if he was here, i should be happy. right: if he were here, i should be happy. faulty: i wish that i was a man. right: i wish that i were a man. =e. use the correct auxiliary. make sure that the tense, mode, or aspect of successive verbs is not altered without reason.= wrong: by giving strict obedience to commands, a soldier _learns_ discipline, and consequently _would have_ steady nerves in time of war. [_learns_ should be followed by _will have_.] wrong: an automobile _should be_ kept in good working order so that its life _is_ lengthened. [_should be_ is properly followed by _may be_.] exercise: . every one hoped that you would have spoken. . i saw it in the window. it was the very book i wanted so long. . if i was sick, i should go home. . they expected to have won the game. . the masons never invite men to join their lodge, but if a person expresses a desire to join, his friends would probably be able to secure membership for him. =adjective and adverb= = a. do not use an adjective to modify a verb.= crude: he spoke slow and careful. right: he spoke slowly and carefully. crude: he sure did good in his classes. right: he surely did well in his classes. =b. in such sentences as _he stood firm_ and _the cry rang clear_ the modifier should be an adjective if it refers to the subject, an adverb if it refers to the verb.= right: the sun shines bright on my old kentucky home. [here the thought is that the sun which shines is bright.] right: he worked diligently. [here the modifier refers to the manner of working rather than to the person who works. it should therefore be an adverb.] right: it stood immovable. the shot rang loud. he becomes angry. the weeds grow thick. they remain obstinate. he seems intelligent. =c. after a verb pertaining to the senses, _look_, _sound_, _taste_, _smell_, _feel_, an adjective is used to denote a quality pertaining to the subject.= (an adverb is used only when the reference is clearly to the verb.) she looks _beautiful_. [not _beautifully_.] the dinner bell sounds _good_. [not _well_.] my food tastes _bad_. [not _badly_.] that flower smells _bad_. [not _badly_.] i feel good [_in good spirits_.] i feel well [_in good health_. an adjectival use of _well_.] i feel bad [_in bad health or spirits_. "i feel badly" would mean "my sense of touch is impaired."] exercise: . they fought ---- (heroic, heroically). dave stumbled ----(awkward, awkwardly). . margaret ---- (sure, surely) worked ---- (faithful, faithfully) in economics. . at this reply the teacher grew ---- (wrathful, wrathfully). i hear you ---- (plain, plainly). . i feel ---- (giddy, giddily). your rose looks ---- (sweet, sweetly). no perfume smells so ---- (dainty, daintily). . that salad tastes ---- (good, well). i feel ---- (bad, badly) today. your voice sounds ---- (good, well) and ----(familiar, familiarly). =a word in a double capacity= = . do not use a verb, conjunction, preposition, or noun in a double capacity when one of the uses is ungrammatical.= wrong [verb]: an opera house was built in one part of town, and two churches in another. right: an opera house was built in one part of town, and two churches were built in another. wrong [verb]: he always has and will do it. right: he always has done it, and always will do it. wrong [conjunction]: he was as old, if not older, than any other man in the community. right: he was as old as any other man in the community, if not older. wrong [preposition]: he was fond and diligent in work. right: he was fond of work and diligent in it. wrong [noun]: he is one of the most skilful, if not the most skilful, tennis players in the state. right: he is one of the most skilful tennis players in the state, if not the most skilful. exercise: . he is as old, if not older, than she is. . two boats were in the water, and one on the shore. . from childhood he has, and to old age he will, have many hobbies. . a visit to a ten cent store is better, or at least as good, as a visit to a circus. you see as many or more queer things than in any show. . one of the greatest, if not the greatest, secrets in keeping our health, is to keep our teeth in good condition. a famous physician said that one of the next, if not the very next, marked advance in medical science will be through discoveries in the realm of dentistry. parts of speech, other grammatical terms, conjugation the parts of speech and their uses =noun.= a noun is a name. it may be =proper= (_philip watkins_), or =common=. common nouns may be =concrete= (_man_, _windmill_), or =abstract= (_gratitude_, _nearness_). =a= noun applied to a group is said to be =collective= (_family_, _race_). the uses of a noun =are=: to serve as the subject of a verb, to serve as the object of a verb or a preposition, to be in apposition with another noun (jenkins, our _coach_), to indicate possession (_joseph's_ coat of many colors); and less frequently, to serve as an adjective (the _brick_ sidewalk) or adverb (john went _home_), and to indicate direct address (_jehovah_, help us!). =pronoun.= a pronoun is a word which takes the place of a noun. it may be =personal= (_i_, _thou_, _you_, _he_, _she_, _it_, _we_, _they_), =relative= (_who_, _which_, _what_, _that_, _as_, and compounds _whoever_, _whichsoever_, etc.), =interrogative= (_who_, _which_, _what_), =demonstrative= (_this_, _that_, _these_, _those_), or =indefinite= (_some_, _any_, _one_, _each_, _either_, _neither_, _none_, _few_, _all_, _both_, etc.). strictly speaking, the last two groups, demonstratives and indefinites, are adjectives used as pronouns. certain pronouns are also used as adjectives, notably the =possessives= (_my_, _his_, _their_, etc.) and the relative or interrogative _which_ and _what_. the addition of _-self_ to a personal pronoun forms a =reflexive pronoun= or =intensive= (i blamed _myself_. you _yourself_ are at fault). a noun for which the pronoun stands is called the =antecedent=. the uses of pronouns are in general the same as those of nouns. in addition, relatives serve as connectives (the man _who_ spoke), interrogatives ask questions (_what_ man?), and demonstratives point out (_that_ man). =verb.= a verb is a word or word-group which makes an assertion about the subject. it may express either action or mere existence. it may be =transitive= (_trans_ meaning "across"; hence action carried across, requiring a receiver of the act; brutus _stabbed_ cæsar; cæsar is _stabbed_) or =intransitive= (not requiring a receiver of the act: montgomery _fell_). its meaning is dependent upon its voice, mode, and tense. voice shows the relationship between the subject and the assertion made by the verb. the =active voice= shows the subject as actor (they _elected_ washington); the =passive voice=, as acted upon (washington _was elected_). (a transitive verb may be active or passive, but an intransitive verb has no voice.) mode indicates the manner of predicating an action, whether as assertion, condition, command, etc. there are three modes in english. the =indicative mode= affirms or denies (he _went_. she _did not dance_.) the =subjunctive= expresses condition or wish (if he _were_ older, he would be wiser. would that i _were_ there!). the =imperative= expresses command or exhortation (_remain_ there. _go!_ _let_ us pray). =modal auxiliaries= with these three modes form =modal aspects= of the verb. there are as many different aspects as there are auxiliaries. aspects are sometimes spoken of as separate modes or called collectively the "potential mode." tense expresses the time of the action or existence. the tenses are the =present=, the =past=, the =future= (employing the auxiliaries _shall_ and _will_), the =perfect= (employing _have_), the =past perfect= (employing _had_), and the =future perfect= (employing _shall have_ and _will have_). =verbals= are certain forms of the verb used as other parts of speech (noun, adjective, adverb). for the verbal forms, infinitive, gerund, and participle, see the separate headings. =adjective.= an adjective is a word used to modify a noun or pronoun. an adjective may be =attributive= (_bright_ sun, _cool-headed_ adventurers) or =predicate= (the field is _broad_. the meat tastes _bad_. i want this _ready_ by christmas). adjectives assume three forms known as degrees of comparison. the =positive degree= indicates the simple quality of the object without reference to any other. the =comparative degree= indicates that two objects are compared (stanley is the _older_ brother). the =superlative degree= indicates that three or more objects are compared (stanley is the _oldest_ child in the family) or that the speaker feels great interest or emotion (a _most excellent_ record). ordinarily _er_ or _r_ is added to the positive to form the comparative, and _est_ or _st_ to the positive to form the superlative (brave, braver, bravest). but some adjectives (sometimes those of two, and always those of more than two, syllables) prefix _more_ (or _less_) to the positive to form the comparative, and _most_ (or _least_) to the positive to form the superlative (beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful). some adjectives express qualities that do not permit comparison (_dead_, _four-sided_, _unique_). =adverb.= an adverb is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb (she played _well_; _unusually_ handsome; _very_ sternly); or, more rarely, a verbal noun (walking _fast_ is good for the health), a preposition (the ship drifted _almost_ upon the breakers), or a conjunction (it came _just_ when we wished). certain adverbs (_fatally_, _entirely_) do not logically admit of comparison. those that do are compared like adjectives of more than two syllables (_slowly_, _more_ or _less slowly_, _most_ or _least slowly_). =preposition.= a preposition is a connective _placed before_ a substantive (called its object) in order to subordinate the substantive to some other word in a sentence (the boast _of_ heraldry, the pomp _of_ power. he ran _toward_ the enemy _without_ fear). =conjunction.= a conjunction is a word used to _join together_ words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. a =coördinate conjunction= connects elements of equal rank (see ). =correlative conjunctions= are conjunctions used in pairs (see ). a =subordinate conjunction= is one that connects elements unequal in rank (see ). when a conjunction, in addition to its function as a connective, indicates a relation of time, place, or cause, it is often called a =conjunctive adverb= or =relative adverb=. =interjection.= an interjection is a word _thrown into_ speech to express emotion. it has no grammatical connection with other words. (_oh_, is that it? _well_, i'll do it. _hark!_) =other grammatical terms= =absolute expression.= an expression (usually composed of a substantive and a participle, perhaps with modifiers) which, though not formally and grammatically joined, is in thought related to the remainder of the sentence. (_the relief party having arrived_, we went home. _this disposed of_, the council proceeded to other matters. _defeated_, he was not dismayed.) =antecedent.= a substantive to which a pronoun or participle refers. literally, _antecedent_ means _that which goes before_; but sometimes the antecedent follows the dependent word. (the _man_ who hesitates is lost. entering the store, _we_ saw a barrel of apples.) _man_ is the antecedent of the pronoun _who_, and _we_ is the antecedent of the participle _entering_. =auxiliary.= _be_, _have_, _do_, _shall_, _will_, _ought_, _may_, _can_, _must_, _might_, _could_, _would_, _should_, etc., when used with participles and infinitives of other verbs, are called auxiliary verbs. =case.= the relation of a substantive to other words in the sentence as shown by inflectional form or position. the subject of a verb, or the predicate of the verb _to be_, is in the nominative case. the object of a verb or preposition, or the "assumed subject" of an infinitive, is in the objective case. a noun or pronoun which denotes possession is in the possessive case. =clause.= a portion of a sentence which contains a subject and a verb, perhaps with modifiers. the following sentence contains one dependent (subordinate) and one independent (principal) clause: _when the storm ceased, the grove was a ruin_. =conjugation.= the inflectional changes in the verb to indicate person, number, tense, voice, mode, and modal aspect. =declension.= the changes in a noun, pronoun, or adjective to indicate person, number, or case. =ellipsis, elliptical expression.= an expression partially incomplete, so that words have to be understood to complete the meaning. an idea or relation corresponding to the omitted words is present, at least vaguely, in the mind of the speaker. elliptical sentences are usually justifiable except when the reader cannot instantly supply the understood words. examples of proper ellipses: you are as tall as i [am tall]. is your sister coming? i think [my sister is] not [coming]. i will go if you will [go]. [i give you] thanks for your advice. =gerund.= a verbal in _-ing_ used as a noun. (i do not object to your _telling_. his _having deserted_ us makes little difference.) the gerund may be regarded as a special form of the infinitive. =infinitive.= a verbal ordinarily introduced by _to_ and used as a noun (_to err_ is human). in such sentences as "the road to follow is the river road," _follow_ may be regarded as the noun of a phrase (compare _the road to mandalay_), or the entire phrase may be regarded as an adjective. similarly, in "he hastened to comply," _comply_ may be regarded as a noun or _to comply_ as an adverb. after certain verbs (_bid_, _dare_, _help_, _make_, _need_, etc.) the _to_ is omitted from the infinitive group. (he bids me _go_. i need not _hesitate_.) =inflection.= change in the form of a word to show a modification or shade of meaning. at a very early period in our language there was a separate form for practically every modification. although separate forms are now less numerous, _inflection_ is still a convenient term in grammar. its scope is general: it includes the declension of nouns, the comparison of adjectives and adverbs, and the conjugation of verbs. =modify.= to be grammatically dependent upon and to limit or alter the quality of. in the expression "the very old man," _the_ and _old_ modify _man_, and _very_ modifies _old_. =participle.= a verbal used as an adjective, or as an adjective with adverbial qualities. in the sentence "mary, being oldest, is also the best liked," _being oldest_ refers exclusively, or almost exclusively, to the subject and is therefore adjectival. in such sentences as "he fell back, exhausted" and "running down the street, i collided with a baby carriage," the participle refers in part to the verb and is therefore adverbial as well as adjectival. =phrase.= a group of words forming a subordinate part of a sentence and not containing a subject and its verb. examples: _with a whistle and a roar_ the train arrived [prepositional phrase]. _bowing his head_, the prisoner listened to the verdict of the jury [participial phrase]. in a loose, untechnical sense _phrase_ may refer to any short group of words, even if the group includes a subject and its verb. =predicate.= the word or word-group in a sentence which makes an assertion about the subject. it consists of a finite verb with or without objects or modifiers. =predicate adjective.= an adjective in the predicate, usually linked with the subject by some form of the verb _to be_ (_is_, _was_, _were_, etc.). (john is _lazy_. the soldiers were very _eager_.) =predicate noun.= a noun linked with the subject by some form of the verb _to be_. (john is _halfback._ they were our _neighbors._) =sentence.= a sentence is a group of words containing ( ) a subject (with or without modifiers) and a predicate (with or without modifiers) and not grammatically dependent on any words outside of itself; or ( ) two or more such expressions related in thought. sentences of type are simple or complex; sentences of type are compound. a =simple sentence= contains one independent clause (the dog barks angrily). a =complex sentence= contains one independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses (the dog barks when the thief appears). a =compound sentence= contains two or more independent clauses (the dog barks, and the thief runs). =substantive.= a noun or a word standing in place of a noun. (the _king_ summoned _parliament_. the _bravest_ are the _tenderest_. _she_ was inconsolable.) a =substantive phrase= is a phrase used as a noun. (_from dan to beersheba_ is a term for the whole of israel.) a =substantive clause= is a clause used as a noun. (_that he owed the money_ is certain.) =syntax.= construction; the grammatical relation between the words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. =verbal.= any form of the verb used as another part of speech. infinitives, gerunds, and participles are verbals. they are used to express action without asserting it, and cannot, therefore, have subjects or be used as predicate verbs. =abridged conjugation of the verb _to take_= =tense= =active voice= =passive voice= =indicative mode= =present= i take i am taken =past= i took i was taken =future= i shall (will) take i shall (will) be taken =perfect= i have taken i have been taken =past perfect= i had taken i had been taken =future perfect= i shall (will) have taken i shall (will) have been taken =subjunctive mode= =present= if i take if i be taken =past= if i took if i were taken =perfect= if i have taken if i have been taken =past perfect= if i had taken if i had been taken =imperative mode= =present= take =modal aspects= (modal aspects, formed by combining auxiliaries with the main verb, give special meanings--emphatic, progressive, etc.--to the primary modes. since there are almost as many aspects as there are auxiliaries, only a few can be enumerated here.) =tense= =active voice= =passive voice= { =emphatic:= i do take { =progressive:= i am taking i am being taken =present= { =contingent:= i may take i may be taken =indicative= { =potential:= i can take i can be taken { =obligative:= i must take i must be taken { =etc.= { =emphatic:= i did take { =progressive:= i was taking i was being taken =past= { =contingent:= i might take i might be taken =indicative= { =potential:= i could take i could be taken { =obligative:= i must take i must be taken { =etc.= { =emphatic:= if i do take { =progressive:= if i be taking =present= { =contingent:= if i might take =subjunctive= { =potential:= if i could take { =obligative:= if i must take { =etc.= =present= { =emphatic:= do take =imperative= { =progressive:= be taking =verbals= =infinitive= =active voice= =passive voice= =present:= to take to be taken =perfect:= to have taken to have been taken =gerund= =present:= taking being taken =perfect:= having taken having been taken =participle= =present:= taking being taken =past:= taken =perfect:= having taken having been taken exercise: copy a page of good prose from any book, leaving wide spaces between the lines. indicate the part of speech of every word. this may be done by abbreviations placed beneath the words. for example: "von arden, having fallen into a very unquiet _noun_ _part._ _prep._ _art._ _adv._ _adj._ slumber, dreamed that he was an aged man _noun_ _verb_ _conj._ _pers pro._ _verb_ _art._ _adj._ _noun_ who stood beside a window." _rel. pro._ _verb_ _prep._ _art._ _noun_ = .= exercise in grammar =a. case of pronouns= determine the correct form of the pronoun. . it is (i, me). . no one knows better than (she, her). . then came the whistle for gerald and (i, me). . it was (they, them). . alice can drive a car as well as (he, him). . it was (she, her) (who, whom) you saw on the car. . john, you may go with dan and (i, me). . if i were (she, her), i could not think of accepting the questionable honor. . one evening four of (we, us) girls decided to go to the theater. . others are older than (we, us). . (who, whom) do you imagine will be our next president? . he does not approve of (our, us) walking on the grass. . counsel will be given to (they, them) who ask for it. . that seems strange to you and (i, me). . her mother has more regular features than (she, her). . women (who, whom) some people would call "quiet" are often the wisest. . between you and (i, me), i'm hungry. . the thought of (it, its) coming by parcel post never entered my mind. . he never discovered (who, whom) his enemy was. . in case of a fumble, the ball is given to (whoever, whomever) recovers it. =b. agreement= determine the correct form of the verb. . he (don't, doesn't) care for music. . the swimming, boating, and fishing (is, are) good. . each one of the two hands of the clock (is, are) made of gold. . the ore is sorted and the cars having good ore (is, are) hauled to the smelter. . a deck of ordinary playing cards consisting of fifty-two cards (is, are) used. . it is safe to say that only one out of every ten of the great number of students (realizes, realize) the value of economy. . in spite of all obstacles, the construction of the three hundred trestles and the twenty scaffolds (was, were) completed. . some nights may seem still, yet there (is, are) always noises. . the exact meaning of such words as _inspiration_, _prophecy_, and _orthodox_ (puzzles, puzzle) laymen. . hard roads (is, are) an important matter to all country people. . there (has, have) been many lives lost in arctic exploration. . personal gifts inspired by good will and directed by careful thought (is, are) the very best kind of charity. . in lincoln's replies to douglas there (is, are) no flights or oratory. . the conciseness of these lines (is, are) to be admired. . a constant stream of wagons and horses (was, were) passing as the circus was unloaded. . nevertheless there (exists, exist) a certain class of students who are socially submerged. . she (doesn't, don't) care for olives. . "current events" (is, are) a very useful department of this magazine. . no people (lives, live) in that house. . the corporal, together with two other members of the patrol, (was, were) captured by the enemy. =c. _shall_ and _will_, _should_ and _would_= determine the correct form of the verb. . perhaps i (shall, will) be able to go. . i tell you, i (shall will) not allow that dog in the car. . it is odd what a person (shall, will) do in a time of excitement. . they have never seen anything like it, and probably they never (shall, will). . "johnny, you (shall, will) not go!" johnny knew that further begging was useless. . as we (shall, will) find by investigation, our coast fortifications are few. . i (shouldn't, wouldn't) do that for anything. . i (should, would) think you (should, would) enjoy your bicycle. . (shall, will) you go driving with us? . do you think it (shall, will) rain? . where (shall, will) i hang my hat? . (should, would) you go if i (should, would) ask you? . rover (should, would) stay in the house all the time, if we (should, would) let him. . i promised that i (should, would) be at the station early, lest we (should, would) miss the train. . you (shall, will) have much trouble with that cold, i'm afraid. =d. _lie_, _lay_; _sit_, _set_; _rise_, _raise_= fix in mind the following principal parts: i lie i lay i have lain i lay i laid i have laid i sit i sat i have sat i set i set i have set i rise i rose i have risen i raise i raised i have raised _lie_, _sit_, _rise_ are used intransitively; _lay_, _set_, _raise_ are used transitively. _lay_, _set_, _raise_ are causatives; that is, _to lay_ means _to cause to lie_, etc. insert a correct form of the verb _lie_ or _lay_: . i ---- here and watch the clouds. my dog is ----ing at my feet. . in the evening i ---- aside all cares. i ---- down on the couch and read. yesterday i ---- there an hour. . the children have ---- in bed until seven o'clock. john has ---- his coat on a chair. he ---- there asleep now. . ---- the shovel down. the garden is now ---- out in rows. ---- down and take a little rest. . smoke ---- along the horizon. snow was ----ing here yesterday. he is ----ing plans for the future. insert a correct form of the verb _sit_ or _set_: . jerome ---- the box on the floor. then he ---- on the box. . four people are ----ing at the table. who ---- the lamp there? . i had ---- there an hour. they had ---- the pitcher outside the door. . i often ---- up late. last night i ---- up late. i must ----the alarm clock. . ---- the package down. ---- down and rest. while we are ----ing there the gardener is ----ing out the plants. insert a correct form of the verb _rise_ or _raise_: . ---- up and speak! ---- the window. . he quickly ---- his head. the cork had gone under, but now it ---- again to the surface. . during the night the bread ---- to the top of the pan. . the invalid slowly ---- himself in his bed. . the river has already ---- and overflowed its banks. =e. principal parts of verbs= in the following sentences supply the correct form of the verb. . he ---- (past tense of _come_) to this country in . . he has ---- (past participle of _eat_) breakfast and ---- (past participle of _go_) to the office. . have you ---- (past participle of _ride_) far? i have ----(past participle of _drive_) ten miles. . i am sure it was henry who ---- (past tense of _do_) it, for i ---- (past tense of _see_) him running away as fast as he could go. . the wind has ---- (past participle of _tear_) down the chimney and ---- (past participle of _blow_) down the tree. . after he ---- (past tense of _lie_) down, he remembered he had left his books ---- (present participle of _lie_) in the orchard. . he ---- (past tense of _throw_) the ball so hard that the window was ---- (past participle of _break_) into a hundred pieces. . the man ---- (past tense of _give_) warning before we had ---- (past participle of _go_) too far. . after we had ---- (past participle of _ride_) about ten miles we ---- (past tense of _come_) upon a stretch of hard road. . where ---- (past tense of _be_) you? you ----n't (past tense of _be_) at home when i ---- (past tense of _ring_) the bell. . the harness was ---- (past participle of _break_ or _burst_) beyond repair. who ---- (past tense of _break_) it? . i ---- (past tense of _take_) four shots at the rabbit, but every shot ---- (past tense of _go_) wild. . he has ---- (past participle of _swim_) across the harbor, and has ---- (past participle of _break_) the record. . i had ---- (past participle of _drink_) buttermilk for several weeks. i ---- (past tense of _begin_) to gain weight. . when we had ---- (past participle of _sit_) there an hour and ---- (past participle of _eat_) all we wanted, jim ---- (past tense of _draw_) out his purse and ---- (past tense of _give_) the waiter a dollar. =f. general= improve the grammar of the following sentences. . those kind of lamps are ugly. . it don't interest me any more. . nobody may enter the hall tonight without their admittance cards. . one does not need to strain their ears while at the movies. . nearly all people eat too much, too fast, and too irregular. . don't take this letter too serious. . he done the best he could with these kind of tools. . every person with a cold was blowing their nose. . it would help considerable if you would speak to the manager about existing conditions. . if i were the mayor, i could not do as good as he does. . talk polite to your customers. . it is important that a salesman has a good memory. . each tube must be capable of withstanding a pressure of five hundred pounds per square inch before they are lowered into place. . she is as tall, if not taller, than he is. . he always has and always will say that. . he is one of the worst, if not the very worst, player on the team. . final examinations require time and study that would not otherwise be done. . i feel badly. he talks rude. it smells fragrantly. diction =wordiness= = . avoid wordiness. strike out words not essential to the thought.= roundabout impersonal construction: there are many interesting things which may be seen in new york. [ words.] better: many interesting things may be seen in new york. [ words.] clause to be reduced to a phrase: the skeleton which stood in the office of dr. willard was terrifying to little cecil. [ words.] right: the skeleton in dr. willard's office was terrifying to little cecil. [ words.] clause and phrase each to be reduced to a word: men who cared only for their individual interests were now in a state of discouragement. [ words.] right: selfish men were now discouraged. [ words.] separate predication in excess: that day i was shocking wheat behind the binder. shocking wheat behind the binder was my usual job in harvest. that day while i was working at this job, i found a nest full of partridge eggs. [ words.] right: that day, while shocking wheat behind the binder, my usual job in harvest, i found a nest full of partridge eggs. [ words.] ponderous scientific terms for simple ideas: since, according to the physicists, the per cent of efficiency of a machine is equal to the amount of energy put in, divided by the amount of useful work performed, it naturally follows that in all human activities, unnecessary friction, since it lowers the amount of nervous energy, is going to lower the per cent of efficiency. while we may never reach an astonishing degree of efficiency by economizing nervous energy, nevertheless, if we consistently and perseveringly try to spare ourselves all unnecessary labor and exertion, we shall have an abundant supply of energy to direct into channels of usefulness. [ words.] right: if we economize our strength, we can make our actions more efficient and useful. [ words.] inflated writing: she was supreme in beauty among the daughters of eve whom his ravished eyes had hitherto beheld. [ words.] right: she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. [ words.] note.--a special form of wordiness is tautology--the useless repetition of an idea in different words. gross tautology: he had an entire monopoly of the whole fruit trade. [this is like saying "black blackbird."] right: he had a monopoly of the fruit trade. tautological expressions: this here where at return back ascend up repeat again biography of his life good benefits fellow playmates hallowe'en evening important essentials indorse on the back connect up meet up with combined together perfectly all right utter absence of quite round absolutely annihilated still continue to absolutely new creation necessary requisite total effect of all this exercise: . the people who act the parts in a play want the people who witness the performance to applaud them. . there is an oily grass which is found on the prairie, and which is called mesquite grass, and it covers the prairie. . you wish to call the operator. you take the receiver from the hook. by taking the receiver from the hook you call the operator. . at last the employer of the men, and those who were employed by him, having compromised their difficulties, effected a settlement, and reached an amicable understanding agreeable to both parties. . the two merchants joined up their forces together in order to secure a monopoly of the entire trade of the village. there was one absolutely essential preliminary which they thought must necessarily precede everything else. it was that they should take all the old shop-worn articles and dispose of them by selling them as bargains at a reduced rate. =triteness= = . avoid trite or hackneyed expressions.= such expressions may be tags from everyday speech (_the worse for wear_, _had the time of my life_); or stale phrases from newspapers (_taken into custody_, _the officiating clergyman_); or humorous substitutions (_ferocious canine_, _paternal ancestor_); or forced synonyms (_gridiron heroes_, _the hoosier metropolis_); or conventional fine writing (_reigns supreme_, _wind kissed the tree-tops_); or oft-repeated euphemisms (_limb_ for _leg_, _pass away_ for _die_); or overworked quotations from literature (_monarch of all i survey_, _footprints on the sands of time_). list of trite expressions: along these lines meets the eye feathered songsters a long-felt want the last sad rites launched into eternity last but not least doomed to disappointment at one fell swoop sadder but wiser did justice to a dinner a goodly number budding genius beggars description a dull thud silence broken only by wended their way abreast of the times trees stood like sentinels method in his madness sun-kissed meadows tired but happy hoping you are the same nipped in the bud the happy pair seething mass of humanity specimen of humanity with bated breath green with envy the proud possessor too full for utterance a pugilistic encounter conspicuous by its absence with whom they come in contact exception proves the rule favor with a selection as luck would have it more easily imagined than described where ignorance is bliss exercise: . halleck returned from his trip considerably the worse for wear. . the baby whom she had promised to keep quiet proved to be a foeman worthy of her steel. . i first saw the light of day in new orleans. it was in the crescent city also that my dear mother passed away. . americans come off second best in a vocalizing encounter with umlauted _u_, while germans and frenchmen wage sanguinary battles with our _th_. . the daily scramble for dear life to get aboard a trolley was like taking arms against a sea of troubles. even standing room was conspicuous by its absence. sheridan began to think along the line of getting to the office in some other way. =the exact word= = . find the exact word. do not be content with a loose meaning. seek the verb, the noun, the adjective, the adverb, or the phrase which expresses your thought with precision.= such words as _said_, _proposition_, and _nice_ are often used too loosely. observe the possible gain in definiteness by substitution. for _said_ (verb): _declared_, _related_, _insisted_, _exclaimed_, _added_, _repeated_, _replied_, _admitted_, _commented_, _corrected_, _protested_, _explained_, _besought_, _interrupted_, _inquired_, _stammered_, _sighed_, _murmured_, or _thundered_. for _proposition_ (noun): _transaction_, _undertaking_, _venture_, _recourse_, _suggestion_, _overture_, _proposal_, _proffer_, _convenience_, _difficulty_, _thesis_, or _doctrine_. for _nice_ (adjective): _discriminating_, _precise_, _fastidious_, _dainty_, _neat_, _pretty_, _pleasant_, _fragrant_, _delicious_, _well-behaved_, _good_, or _moral_. inexact verb: he had not sufficiently _regarded_ the difficulties of the task [use _considered_]. inexact noun: promptness is an _item_ which a manager should possess [use _quality_]. inexact adjective: he looked _awfully funny_ when i told him he had made a mistake [use _surprised_]. inexact phrasing throughout: health is first in every line of activity. a man who has it does not hold it with enough respect, and make efforts enough to keep it. right: health is indispensable to success in any work. even those who have it do not realize its value. exercise: . he was proud of the honorable record he had gained. . he resolved that some day he would be a banker, and i shall tell you how he tried to do so. . isn't the sunset grand? isn't it nice to be out of doors? . the mystery as to which ones of the piano keys to play was hard for him to acquire. . if the package comes by freight, you must negotiate the proposition of getting it home; but if it comes by express, the delivery is done free. =concreteness= = . concrete words are often more effective than vague, general, or abstract words.= not specific: she held herself aloof from her brothers' games and amusements. concrete: she never played soldier or sailed paper boats with her brothers. no appeal to the senses: i liked to watch the servant girl as she moved about the kitchen, preparing our morning repast. concrete: i liked to watch norah as she fried our crisp breakfast bacon and browned our buckwheat cakes. flat, not readily visualized: the first inhabitants overcame the barriers to settlement about a century ago. concrete: rough backwoodsmen broke through the underbrush and swamp-land a century ago. exercise: . the scientist discovered a bird in a tree. . our hostess set before us many good things to eat. . the sailor was carving queer figures on a piece of soft wood. . the night watchman heard something that made him suspicious. . i stood at the door of the shop to watch the astonishing things the blacksmith was doing. =sound= = . avoid the frequent repetition of a sound, especially if it be harsh or unpleasant.= bad: he is an exceedingly orderly secretary. better: as a secretary he is very systematic. [or] the secretary is very systematic. bad: immediately the squirrel hid himself behind the hickory tree. better: immediately the squirrel dodged behind the hickory tree. unfortunate rime: bert did not dare to go home with wet hair. better: bert did not dare to go home with his hair wet. [or] bert was afraid to go home with wet hair. exercise: . that christmas happened to be unusually happy. . i fear we must sit near the rear of the room. . the jackies went clambering and scurrying up the rigging. . the ship slips anchor while the idlers sip tea on the deck. . the third treasure-seeker heard a thud. his pick had struck an obstruction. =subtle violations of good use: faulty idioms, colloquialisms= = . avoid subtle violations of good use, particularly (a) faulty idioms and (b) colloquialisms.= =a. make your expression conform to english idiom.= a faulty idiom is an expression which, though correct in grammar and general meaning, combines words in a manner contrary to usage. idioms are established by custom, and cannot be explained by logical rules. "i enjoy to read" is wrong, not because the words offend logic or grammar, but merely because people do not instinctively make that combination of words. "i like to read" and "i enjoy reading" are good idioms. =faulty idioms= =correct idioms= in the city toledo in the city of toledo in the year of in the year i hope you a good time i wish you a good time the rev. hopkins the reverend mr. hopkins possessed with ability possessed of ability stay to home stay at home different than different from independent from independent of in search for in search of observe that many idioms are concerned with prepositions. make sure that a verb or adjective is accompanied by the right preposition. study the following list of correct idioms: accused of (a theft) accused by (a person) accord with (a person) agree with (a person) agree to (a proposal) agreeable to angry at (things or persons) angry with (a person) careful about (an affair) careful of (one's money) comply with convenient to (a person) convenient for (a purpose) correspond to (things) correspond with (persons) dissent from enamored of entrust to free from listen to part from (a person) part with (a thing) pleased with resolve on sympathize with take exception to =b. do not carry the standards of conversation into formal writing.= colloquial usage is more free than literary usage. the colloquial sentence _that's the man i talked with_ becomes in writing _that is the man with whom i talked._ the colloquial sentence _it was a cold day but there wasn't any wind blowing_ is a loose string of words. written discourse requires greater tension and more care in subordinating minor ideas: _the day, though cold, was still._ contractions are proper in conversation, and in personal or informal writing. in formal writing they are not appropriate. and do not let such expressions as _he doesn't_, _we aren't_, _it's proved_, used in talk by careful speakers, mislead you into expressions like _he don't_, _we ain't_, _it's proven_, which violate even colloquial good use. exercise: . he confessed of his inability to comply to the demand. . is he from irish descent? is humor characteristic with the irish? . she was not to home, but i was reluctant against leaving. . he dissented to the opinion of the committee's majority, for his ideas were utterly different than theirs. . he got a few jobs as a carpenter that summer, but they didn't pay him much, and so he went to loafing around, and he's been at it ever since. =gross violations of good use: barbarisms, improprieties, slang= = . avoid gross violations of good use, particularly (a) barbarisms, (b) improprieties, and (c) slang.= =a. barbarisms are distortions of words in good use, or coinages for which there is no need.= examples: _to concertize_, _to burgle_ or _burglarize_, _to jell_, _alright_, _a-plenty_, _most_ (for _almost_), _performess_, _fake_, _pep_, _tasty_, _illy_, _complected_, _undoubtably_, _nowheres_, _soph_, _lab_, _gents_. =b. improprieties are words wrenched from one part of speech to another, or made to perform an unnatural service.= examples: _to suspicion_, _to gesture_, _to suicide_, _a steal_, _a try_, _a go_, _an invite_, _the eats_, _humans_, _some_ or _real_ or _swell_ (as adverbs), _like_ (as a conjunction). =c. slang is speech consisting either of uncouth expressions of illiterate origin, or of legitimate expressions used in grotesque or irregular senses.= though sometimes (witness eighteenth century _mob_, and nineteenth century _buncombe_) it satisfies a real need and becomes established in the language, in most instances it is short-lived (witness the thieves' talk in _oliver twist_, or passages from any comic opera song popular five years ago). vicious types of slang are: expressions of vulgar origin (from criminal classes, the prize ring, the vaudeville circuit, etc.): _get pinched_, _down and out_, _took the count_, _bum hunch_, _nix on the comedy stuff_, _get across_. language strained or distorted for novel effect: _performed the feed act at a bang-up gastronomic emporium_, _bingled a tall drive that made the horsehide ramble out into center garden_. blanket expressions used as substitutes for thinking: _corking_, _stunning_, _ain't it fierce?_, _can you beat it?_, _going some_, _just so i get by with it_. the use of the last-named type is most to be regretted. it leads to a mental habit of phonographic repetition, with no resort to independent thinking. if a man really desires to use slang, let him invent new expressions every day, and make them fit the specific occasion. exercise: . i disremember what sort of an outfit he wore. . helen's as light-complected a girl as you'll run across, i calculate. . his ad brought a first-rate gent to hold down the job. . thompson hasn't stability, or it seems like it. he ain't got no gumption. he's too easy enthused. . the grub was to of cost us two bits, but we didn't have the dough. we gets outside the food, and when the cashier ain't lookin', we runs out the door and beats it. =words often confused in meaning= = . do not confuse or interchange the meanings of the following words:= =_accept_ and _except_.= _accept_ means _to receive_; _except_ as a verb means _to exclude_ and as a preposition means _with the exception of_. =_affect_ and _effect_.= _affect_ is not used as a noun; _effect_ as a noun means _result_. as verbs, _affect_ means _to influence in part_; _effect_ means _to accomplish totally_. "his story affected me deeply." "the russians effected a revolution." _affect_ also has a special meaning _to feign_. "she had an affected manner." =_allusion_ and _illusion_.= _allusion_ means _a reference_; _illusion_ means a _deceptive appearance_. "a biblical allusion." "an optical illusion." =_already_ and _all ready_.= _already_ means _by this time_ or _beforehand_; _all ready_ means _wholly ready_. "i have already invited him." "dinner is all ready." "we are all ready for dinner." =_altogether_ and _all together_.= _altogether_ means _wholly_, _entirely_; _all together_ means _collectively, in a group_. "he is altogether honest." "the king sent the people all together into exile." =_can_ and _may_.= _can_ means _to be able_; _may_ means _to have permission_. _can_ for _may_ has a certain colloquial standing, but is condemned by literary usage. =_emigrate_ and _immigrate_.= _emigrate_ means _to go out from a country_; _immigrate_ means _to enter into a country_. the same man may be an _emigrant_ when he leaves europe, and an _immigrant_ when he enters america. =_healthy_ and _healthful_.= _healthy_ means _having health_; _healthful_ means _giving health_. "milk is healthful." "the climate of colorado is healthful." "the boy is healthy." =_hanged_ and _hung_.= _hanged_ is the correct past tense of _hang_ in the sense _put to death, hanged on the gallows_; _hung_ is the correct past tense for the general meaning _suspended_. =_hygienic_ and _sanitary_.= both words mean _pertaining to health_. _hygienic_ is used when the condition is a matter of personal habits or rules; _sanitary_ is used when the condition is a matter of surroundings (water supply, food supply, sewage disposal, etc.) or the relations of numbers of people. =_instants_ and _instance_.= _instants_ means _small portions of time_; _instance_ means _an example_. =_later_ and _latter_.= _later_ means _more late_; _latter_ means _the second in a series of two_. "the latter" is used in conjunction with the phrase "the former." =_lead_ and _led_.= _led_ is the past tense of the verb _to lead_. _lead_ is the present tense. =_learn_ and _teach_.= _learn_ means _to get knowledge of_; _teach_ means _to give knowledge of_ or _to_. "the instructor _teaches_ (not _learns_) me physics." "he learns his lessons easily." =_leave_ and _let_.= _leave_ means _to abandon_; _let_ means _to permit_. =_less_ and _fewer_.= _less_ refers to quantity; _fewer_ refers to number. "he has _fewer_ (not _less_) horses than he needs." =_liable_, _likely_, and _apt_.= _likely_ merely predicts; _liable_ conveys the additional idea of harm or responsibility. _apt_ applies usually to persons, in the sense of _having natural capability_, and sometimes to things, in the sense of _fitting_, _appropriate_. "it is likely to be a pleasant day." "i fear it is liable to rain." "he is liable for damages." "he is an apt lad at his books." "that is an apt phrase." =_lie_ and _lay_.= _lay_, a transitive verb, means _to cause to lie_. "i lay the book on the table and it lies there." "now i lay me down to sleep." a source of confusion between the two words is that the past tense of _lie_ is _lay_: i lie down to sleep. i lay the book on the table. i lay there yesterday. i laid it there yesterday. i have lain here for hours. i have laid it there many times. =_like_ and _as_ or _as if_.= _like_ is in good use as a preposition, and may be followed by a noun; _as_ is in good use as a conjunction, and may be followed by a clause. "he is tall like his father." "he is tall, as his father is." "it looks _as if_ (not _like_) it were going to rain." =_lose_ and _loose_.= _lose_ means _to cease having_; _loose_ as a verb means _to set free_, and as an adjective, _free, not bound_. =_majority_ and _plurality_.= in a loose sense, _majority_ means the _greater part_. more strictly, it means the number by which votes cast for one candidate exceed those of the opposition. a _plurality_ is the excess of votes received by one candidate over his nearest competitor. in an election a receives votes; b, votes; and c, votes. a has a plurality of , but no majority. =_practical_ and _practicable_.= _practical_ means _not theoretical_; _practicable_ means _capable of being put into practice_. "a practical man." "the arrangement is practicable." =_principal_ and _principle_.= _principal_ as an adjective means _chief_ or _leading_; _principle_ as a noun means a _general truth_. _principal_ as a noun means a _sum of money_, or the _chief official of a school_. =_proof_ and _evidence_.= in a law court, _proof_ is _evidence sufficient to establish a fact_; _evidence_ is _whatever is brought forward in an attempt to establish a fact_. "the evidence against the prisoner was extensive, but hardly proof of his guilt." in ordinary speech, _proof_ is sometimes loosely used as a synonym for _evidence_. =_pseudo-_ and _quasi-_.= as a prefix, _pseudo-_ means _false_; _quasi-_ means literally _as if_, hence _seeming_, _so-called_. "phrenology is a pseudo-science." "a quasi-evolutionary doctrine." =_quiet_ and _quite_.= _quiet_ is an adjective meaning _calm_, _not noisy_; _quite_ is an adverb meaning _entirely_. =_respectfully_ and _respectively_.= _respectfully_ means _in a courteous manner_; _respectively_ means _in a way proper to each_. "yours _respectfully_" (not _respectively_). "he handed the commissions to gray and hodgins respectively." =_rise_ and _raise_.= _rise_ is an intransitive verb; _raise_ is a transitive verb. "i rise to go home." "i raise vegetables." "i raise the stone from the ground." =_sit_ and _set_.= _set_, a transitive verb, means _to cause to sit_. "he sets it in the corner and it sits there." the past tense of _sit_ is _sat_. i sit down. i always set it in its place. he sat in this very chair. i set it in its place yesterday. he has sat there an hour. i have always set it just here. =_stationary_ and _stationery_.= _stationary_ is an adjective meaning _fixed_; _stationery_ is a noun meaning _writing material_. =_statue_, _stature_, and _statute_.= _statue_ means a _carved_ or _moulded figure_; _stature_ means _height_; _statute_ means a _law_. exercise: . insert _affect_ or _effect_: noise does not ---- my studying. it has little ---- on me. by the exercise of will power i was able to ---- a change. . insert _healthy_ or _healthful_: new mexico has a ---- climate, graham bread is ----. you will be ---- if you take exercise. . insert _later_ or _latter_: i will see you ----. here are two plans: the former is complex; the ---- is simple. sooner or ---- you will learn the rule. . insert _less_ or _fewer_: they have ---- money than we; we have ---- pleasures than they. it seems to me there are ---- accidents. . insert _principal_ or _principle_: the ---- part of a clock is the pendulum, which swings regularly, according to a ---- of science. my ---- reason for trusting him is that he is a man of ----. he is the ---- of the high school. the widow spends the interest on the money, but keeps the ---- intact. =glossary of faulty diction= = . avoid faulty diction.= =_ad_= (for _advertisement_). avoid in formal writing and speaking. =_ain't_.= never correct. say _i'm not_, _you_ [_we_, _they_] _aren't_, _he_ [_she_, _it_] _isn't_. =_all the farther_, _all the faster_.= crude. use _as far as_, _as fast as_, in such sentences as "this is all the farther i can go." =_as_.= (a) incorrect in the sense of _that_ or _whether_. "i don't know _whether_ (not _as_) i can tell you." "not _that_ (not _as_) i know." (b) _as ... as_ are correlatives. _than_ must not replace the second _as_. right: "as good as or better than his neighbors." "as good as his neighbors, or better [than they]." see . =_auto_.= an abbreviation not desirable in formal writing. =_awful_.= means _filling with awe_ or _filled with awe_. do not use in the sense of _uncivil_, _serious_, or _ludicrous_, or (in the adverbial form) in the sense of _very_, _extremely_. =_balance_.= incorrect when used in the sense of _remainder_. =_because_.= not to be used for _the fact that_. "_the fact that_ (not _because_) he is absent is no reason why we should not proceed." see . =_between_.= used of two persons or things. not to be confused with _among_, which is used of more than two. =_blame on_.= a crudity for _put the blame on_ or _blame_. faulty: "don't blame it on me." better: "don't blame me." =_borned_.= a monstrosity for _born_. "i was _born_ (not _borned_) in ." =_bursted_.= the past tense of _burst_ is the same as the present. =_bust_ or _busted_.= vulgar for _burst_. right: "the balloon burst." "the bank failed." =_but what_.= _that_ is often preferable. "i do not doubt _that_ (not _but what_) he is honest." =_canine_.= an adjective. not in good use as a noun. =_cannot help but_.= a confusion of _can but_ and _cannot help_. "i can but believe you"; or "i cannot help believing you"; not "i cannot help but believe you." see . =_caused by_.= to be used only when it refers definitely to a noun. wrong: "he was disappointed, caused by the lateness of the train." the noun _disappointment_ should be used instead of the verb _disappointed_. then caused will have a definite reference. right: "his disappointment was caused by the lateness of the train." see . =_claim_.= means _to demand as a right_. incorrect for _maintain_ or _assert_. =_considerable_.= an adjective, not an adverb. "he talked _considerably_ (not _considerable_) about it." =_could of_.= an illiterate form arising from slovenly pronunciation. use _could have_. avoid also _may of_, _must of_, _would of_, etc. =_data_.= plural. the singular (seldom used) is _datum_. compare _stratum_, _strata_; _erratum_, _errata_. =_demean_.= means _to conduct oneself_, not _to lower_ or _to degrade_. =_different than_.= _different from_ is to be preferred. _than_ is a conjunction. the idea of separation implied in _different_ calls for a preposition, rather than a word of comparison. =_disremember_.= not in good use. =_done_.= a gross error when used as the past tense of _do_, or as an adverb meaning _already_. "_i did it_ (not _i done it_)." "i've _already_ (not _done_) got my lessons." =_don't_.= a contraction for _do not_; never to be used for _does not_. the contraction of _does not_ is _doesn't_. see d. =_drownded_.= vulgar for _drowned_. =_due to_.= to be used only when it refers definitely to a noun. faulty: "he refused the offer, due to his father's opposition." right: "his refusal of the offer was due to his father's opposition." the noun _refusal_ should be used instead of the verb _refused_. then _due_ will have a definite reference. see . =_enthuse_.= not in good use. =_etc._= an abbreviation for the latin _et cetera_, meaning _and other_ [things]. _et_ means _and_. _and etc._ is therefore grossly incorrect. do not write _ect._ =_expect_.= means _to look forward to_. hardly correct in the sense of _suppose_. =_fine_.= use cautiously as an adjective, and not at all as an adverb. seek the exact word. see . =_former_.= means the first or first named of two. not to be used when more than two have been named. the corresponding word is _latter_. =_for to_.= incorrect for _to_. "i want _you_ (not _for you_) to listen carefully." "he made up his mind _to_ (not _for to_) accept." =_gent_.= a vulgar abbreviation of _gentleman_. =_good_.= an adjective, not an adverb. wrong: "he did good in mathematics." right: "he did well in mathematics." "he did good work in mathematics." =_gotten_.= an old form now usually replaced by _got_ except in such expressions as _ill-gotten gains_. =_guess_.= expresses conjecture. not to be used in formal composition for _think_, _suppose_, or _expect_. =_had of_.= illiterate. "i wish i _had known_ (not _had of known_) about it." =_had ought_.= a vulgarism. "he _ought_ (not _had ought_) to have resigned." "we _oughtn't_ (not _hadn't ought_) to make this error." =_hardly_.= not to be used with a negative. see . =_home_.= do not use when you mean simply _house_. =_human_ or _humans_.= not in good use as a noun. say _human being_. right: "the house was not fit for _human beings_ (not _humans_) to live in." =_if_.= do not use for _whether_. "i can't say _whether_ (not _if_) the laundry will be finished today." =_in_.= often misused for _into_. "he jumped _into_ (not _in_) the pond." =_it's_.= means _it is_; not to be written for the possessive _its_. =_kind of_.= (a) should not modify adjectives or verbs. "he was _somewhat_ (not _kind of_) lean." "_she partly suspected_ (not _she kind of suspected_) what was going on." (b) when using with a noun, do not follow by _a_. "that kind of man"; not "that kind of a man." =_like_.= to be followed by a substantive; never by a substantive and a verb. "he ran like a deer." "do _as_ (not _like_) i do." "she felt _as if_ (not _like_) she was going to faint." _like_ is a preposition; _as_ is a conjunction. =_literally_.= do not use where you plainly do not mean it, as in the sentence, "i was literally tickled to death." =_loan_.= _lend_ is in better use as a verb. =_locate_.= do not use for _settle_ or _establish oneself_. =_lose out_.= not used in formal writing. say _lose_. =_lots of_.= a mercantile term which has a dubious colloquial standing. not in good literary use for _many_ or _much_. =_might of_.= a vulgarism for _might have_. =_most_.= do not use for _almost_. "_almost_ (not _most_) all." =_myself_.= intensive or reflexive; do not use when the simple personal pronoun would suffice. "i saw them myself." "some friends and _i_ (not _myself_) went walking." =_neither_.= used with _nor_, and not with _or_. "neither the man whom his associates had suspected _nor_ (not _or_) the one whom the police had arrested was the criminal." "she could neither paint a good picture _nor_ (not _or_) play the violin well." =_nice_.= means _delicate_ or _precise_. _nice_ is used in a loose colloquial way to indicate general approval, but should not be so used in formal writing. right: "he displayed nice judgment." "we had a _pleasant_ (not _nice_) time." see . =_nowhere near_.= vulgar for _not nearly_. =_nowheres_.= vulgar. =_o_ and _oh_.= _o_ is used with a noun in direct address; it is not separated from the noun by any marks of punctuation. _oh_ is used as an interjection; it is followed by a comma or an exclamation point. "hear, o king, what thy servants would say." "oh, dear!" =_of_.= do not use for _have_ in such combinations as _should have_, _may have_, _ought to have_. =_off of_.= _on_, _upon_, or some equivalent expression is usually preferable. =_ought to of_.= a vulgarism for _ought to have_. =_over with_.= crude for _over_. =_pants_.= _trousers_ is the approved term in literary usage. _pants_ (from _pantaloons_) has found some degree of colloquial and commercial acceptance. =_party_.= not to be used for _person_, except in legal phrases. =_phone_.= a contraction not employed in formal writing. say _telephone_. =_plenty_.= a noun; not in good use as an adjective or an adverb. "he had _plenty of_ (not _plenty_) resources." "he had _resources in plenty_ (not _resources plenty_)." =_proposition_.= means a _thing proposed_. do not use loosely, as in the sentence: "a berth on a pullman is a good proposition during a railway journey at night." see . =_proven_.= prefer _proved_. =_providing_.= prefer _provided_ in such expressions as "i will vote for him _provided_ (not _providing_) he is a candidate." =_quite a_.= colloquial in such expressions as _quite a while_, _quite a few_, _quite a number_. =_raise_.= _rear_ or _bring up_ is preferable in speaking of children. "she _reared_ (not _raised_) seven children." =_rarely ever_.= crude for _rarely_, _hardly ever_. =_real_.= crude for _very_ or _really_. "she was _very_ (not _real_) intelligent." "he was _really_ (not _real_) brave." =_remember of_.= not to be used for _remember_. =_right smart_ and _right smart of_.= extremely vulgar. =_same_.= no longer used as a pronoun except in legal documents. "he saw her drop the purse and restored _it_ (not _the same_) to her." =_scarcely_.= not to be used with a negative. see . =_seldom ever_.= crude for _seldom_, _hardly ever_. =_shall_.= do not confuse with _will_. see . =_sight_.= _a sight_ or _a sight of_ is very crude for _many_, _much_, _a great deal of_. "_a great many_ (not _a sight_) of them." =_so_.= not incorrect, but loose, vague, and often unnecessary. (a) as an intensive, the frequent use of _so_ has been christened "the feminine demonstrative." hackneyed: "i was so surprised." better: "i was much surprised." or, "i was surprised." (b) as a connective, the frequent use of _so_ is a mark of amateurishness. see note. =_some_.= not to be used as an adverb. "she was _somewhat_ (not _some_) better the next day." wrong: "he studied some that night." right: "he did some studying that night." =_somewheres_.= very crude. use _somewhere_. =_species_.= has the same form in singular and plural. "he discovered a new _species_ (not _specie_) of sunflower." =_such_.= (a) to be completed by _that_, rather than by _so that_, when a result clause follows. "there was such a crowd _that_ (not _so that_) he did not find his friends." (b) to be completed by _as_, rather than by _that_, _who_, or _which_, when a relative clause follows. "i will accept such arrangements _as_ (not _that_) may be made." "he called upon such soldiers _as_ (not _who_) would volunteer for this service to step forward." =_superior than_.= not in good use for _superior to_. =_sure_.= avoid the crude adverbial use. "it _surely_ (not _sure_) was pleasant." in answer to the question, "will you go?" either _sure_ or _surely_ is correct, though _surely_ is preferred. "[to be] sure." "[you may be] sure." "[i will] surely [go]." =_suspicion_.= a noun. never to be used as a verb. =_take and_.= often unnecessary, sometimes crude. redundant: "he took the ax and sharpened it." better: "he sharpened the ax." crude: "he took and nailed up the box." better: "he nailed up the box." =_tend_.= in the sense _to look after_, takes a direct object without an interposed _to_. _attend_, however, is followed by _to_. "the milliner's assistant _tends_ (not _tends to_) the shop." "i shall _attend to your wants in a moment_." =_that there_.= do not use for _that_. "i want _that_ (not _that there_) box of berries." =_them_.= not to be used as an adjective. "_those_ (not _them_) boys." =_there were_ or _there was_.= avoid the unnecessary use. crude: "there were seventeen senators voted for the bill." better: "seventeen senators voted for the bill." =_these sort_, _these kind_.= ungrammatical. see b. =_this here_.= do not use for _this_. =_those_.= do not carelessly omit a relative clause after _those_. faulty: "he is one of those talebearers." better: "he is a talebearer." [or] "he is one of those talebearers whom everybody dislikes." =_those kind_, _those sort_.= ungrammatical. see b. =_till_.= do not carelessly misuse for _when_: "i had scarcely strapped on my skates _when_ (not _till_) henry fell through an air hole." =_transpire_.= means _to give forth_ or _to become known_, not _to occur_. "the secret _transpired_." "the sale of the property _occurred_ (not _transpired_) last thursday." =_try_.= a verb, not a noun. =_unique_.= means _alone of its kind_, not _odd_ or _unusual_. =_united states_.= ordinarily preceded by _the_. "the united states raised a large army." (not "united states raised a large army.") =_up_.= do not needlessly insert after such verbs as _end_, _rest_, _settle_. =_used to could_.= very crude. say _used to be able_ or _once could_. =_very_.= accompanied by _much_ when used with the past participle. "he was _very much_ (not _very_) pleased with his reception." =_want to_.= not to be used in the sense of _should_, _had better_. "you _should_ (not _you want to_) keep in good physical condition." =_way_.= not to be used for _away_. "away (not _way_) down the street." =_ways_.= not to be used for _way_ in referring to distance. "a little _way_ (not _ways_)." =_when_.= (a) not to be used for _that_ in such a sentence as "it was in the afternoon that the races began." (b) a _when_ clause is not to be used as a predicate noun. see . =_where_.= (a) not to be used for _that_ in such a sentence as "i see in the paper that our team lost the game." (b) a _where_ clause is not to be used as a predicate noun. see . =_where at_.= vulgar. "where is he? (not _where is he at_?)" =_which_.= do not use for _who_ or _that_ in referring to persons. "the friends _who_ (not _which_) had loved him in his boyhood were still faithful to him." =_who_.= do not use unnecessarily for _which_ or _that_ in referring to animals. do not use the possessive form _whose_ for _of which_ unless the sentence is so turned as practically to require the substitution. =_will_.= do not confuse with _shall_. see . =_win out_.= not used in formal writing or speaking. =_woods_.= not ordinarily to be used as singular. "_a wood_ (not _a woods_)." =_would have_.= do not use for _had_ in if clauses. "if you _had_ (not _would have_) spoken boldly, he would have granted your request." =_would of_.= a vulgarism for _would have_. =_you was_.= use _you were_ in both singular and plural. =_yourself_.= intensive or reflexive; do not use when the personal pronoun would suffice. "_you_ (not _yourself_) and your family must come." exercise: . be sure the gun works alright. i was already when you came. . he talked considerable, but i couldn't scarcely remember what all he said. . i never suspicioned that john could of been guilty of forging his father's note. it don't seem hardly possible. . the island was not inhabited by humans. it was different than any place i ever remember of. one sailor and myself climbed a sand hill, but we couldn't see any signs of life anywheres. . hawkeye walked a ways into a woods. he was a right smart at ease, for he had kildeer with him. = .= exercise in diction =a. wordiness= strike out all that is superfluous, and make the following sentences simple and exact. . some students lack the ability of being able to spell. . he seems to enjoy the universal esteem of all men. . the mind rebels against the enforced discipline imposed upon it by others. . this is the house that was constructed and erected by a young fellow who went by the common name of jack. . there are invariably people in the world who always want to get something for nothing. i saw some today crowding round a soap man who was giving away free samples gratis. . strawberries which grow in the woods or anywhere like that have a flavor that is better than that of those which grow in gardens. . the people showed jackson the greatest honor it is within their power to bestow by electing him president. . it was an old man of about sixty years, and he carried a cane to support himself with when he took a walk. he pulled out his watch to see what time it was every few minutes. . my favorite magazine is the one called _popular mechanics_. i like it because it appeals to me. . there is a bird, and that bird is the cuckoo, that seems to think it unnecessary to build its own nest, and so it occupies any nest that it happens to find. . it is a good plan to follow if one would like to be able to develop his memory to make it a rule to learn at least a few lines of poetry every night before going to bed. . in the annals of history there is no historical character more unselfish than the character of robert e. lee. . there are quite a few hotels in estes park, which is in colorado, but the one that is the most picturesque and striking so that you remember it a long time on account of its unusual surroundings is long's peak inn. . it is often, but not always, a good sign that when one person is quick to suspect another person of disloyalty or dishonesty that he himself is disloyal or dishonest. . the canine quadruped was under suspicion of having obliterated by a process of mastication that article of sustenance which the butcher deposits at our posterior portal. =b. the exact word= substitute, for inaccurate words and phrases, expressions which carry an exact and reasonable meaning. . ostrich eggs made into omelets are a funny experience. . a small back porch can be built which will enter directly into the kitchen. . ruskin uses a great deal of unfamiliar words. . reading will broaden the point of view of a student. . to visit the plant in operation is indeed a spectacular sight. . my plants grew and looked nicer than any i ever saw. . i place little truth in that article, since it appeared in a strong partisan paper. . the manufacturing of automobiles has gained to quite an extent. . emerson has some real clever thoughts in his essays. . i do not mean to degrade our local street car system, for indeed, it is good along some lines. . i want to attain a greater per cent of efficiency in my study. . imagination is an important part in the successful writing of themes. . his employer praised him for the preparation he had done. . i used water-wings as a sort of a "safety first" until i learned how to swim. . in order to prevent infection from disease, two big things are necessary. . the pastor delivered the announcements and after the collection had been obtained, he presented the sermon of the morning. . another factor in my career that winter was that i became a part of the orchestra. . it was a mighty nice party that mrs. jones gave and everybody seemed to have an awfully nice time. . the more general word socialism might be divided into three distinct classes, namely: the political party, the theoretical socialist, and last what might be called a general tendency. . starting with the pioneer days and up to the present time every energy was set forth to lay low the forests and to get homes from the wilderness. =c. words sometimes confused in meaning= use the word which accurately expresses the thought. . the climate of california is very (healthful, healthy). . (leave, let) me have the book. . he is afraid that he will (loose, lose) his position. . the (principal, principle) speaker of the day was colonel walker. . i cannot run (as, like) he can. . an hour ago he (laid, lay) down to sleep. . i fear we are (liable, likely) to be punished. . the scolding did not much (affect, effect) him. . the light roller presses down the bricks so that the steam roller will break (fewer, less) of them. . whittier makes many (allusions, illusions) to the bible. . bread will (raise, rise) much more quickly in a warm place than in a place where there is a draft. . it hardly seems (credible, creditable) that a small child could walk ten miles. . i can't write a letter on this (stationary, stationery). . he (sets, sits) at the head of the table. . he spoke to the stranger (respectfully, respectively). . did the president (affect, effect) a settlement of the strike? . i cannot (accept, except) help from anyone. . are the guests (already, all ready) for dinner? . is the train moving or (stationary, stationery)? . it is (apt, likely, liable) to be pleasant tomorrow. =d. colloquialism, slang, faulty idiom, etc.= the diction of the following sentences is incorrect or inappropriate for written discourse. improve the sentences. . i was kind of tired this morning, but now i feel alright. . i should of known better. . a young lady and myself went walking. . he is out of town for a couple days. . i feel some better now. . he will benefit greatly from the results. . the puritans were a very odd acting people. . i like camping because of many reasons. . cook your meal, and after you are finished eating, wash the dishes. . he is a regular genius of a bookkeeper. . it is hard to see how humans can live in such tenements. . the soldiers destroyed property without the least regard of who owned it. . she was crazy for an invite to the hop. . it was up to me to get out before there was something doing. . the gettysburg address is very simple of understanding though very strong of meaning. . when we become located in a desirable locality, we intend to pay off some of our social indebtedness. . have some local glass dealer to mend the broken door, and send us the bill for the same. . the first part of franklin's _autobiography_ is different than the latter part, which he wrote after the revolutionary war. . in a fellow by the name of arkwright established a mill in which spinning machines were run by water power. . each day has brought closer to home the truth that the condition of mankind in one part of the world is certain to effect the equilibrium of mankind in most all other parts of the world. spelling no one is able to spell all unusual words on demand. but every one must spell correctly even unusual words in formal writing. the writer has time or must take time to consult a dictionary. the best dictionaries are _webster's new international dictionary_, the _standard dictionary_ (less conservative than webster's), the _century dictionary and cyclopedia_ (volume of the _century_ is the best place to look for proper names), and _murray's new english dictionary_ (very thorough, each word being illustrated with numerous quotations to show historical development). an abridged edition of one of these (the price is one to three dollars) should be accessible to each student who cannot buy the larger volumes. the best are: _webster's secondary school dictionary_, _funk and wagnalls desk standard dictionary_, the _oxford concise dictionary_, and _webster's collegiate dictionary_. but the student will be spared constant recourse to the dictionary, and will save himself much time and many humiliations, if he will employ the rules and principles which follow. =recording errors= = . keep a list of all the words you misspell, copying them several times in correct form.= concentrate your effort upon a few words at a time--upon those words which you yourself actually misspell. the list will be shorter than you think. it may comprise not more than twenty or thirty words. unless you are extraordinarily deficient, it will certainly not comprise more than a hundred or a hundred and fifty. find where your weakness lies; then master it. you can accomplish the difficult part of the task in a single afternoon. an occasional review, and constant care when you write, will make your mastery permanent. after this, and only after this, begin slowly to learn the spelling of words which you do not yourself use often, but which are a desirable equipment for all educated men. see the list under . _concentrate your efforts upon a few words at a time._ it is better to know a few exactly than a large number hazily. form the mental habit of being always right with a small group of words, and extend this group gradually. exercise: prepare for your instructor a corrected list of words which you have misspelled in your papers to the present time. =pronouncing accurately= = . avoid slovenly pronunciation.= careful articulation makes for correctness in spelling. watch the vowels of unaccented syllables; give them distinct (not exaggerated) utterance, at least until you are familiar with the spelling. examples: _sep=a=rate_, _opp=o=rtunity_, _ever=y=body_, _soph=o=more_, _d=i=vine_. sound accurately all the consonants between syllables, and do not sound a single consonant twice. examples: _can=d=idate_, _gover=n=ment_, _su=r=prise_ (not _supp=r=ise_), _o=m=i=ss=ion_ (compare _o=cc=a=s=ion_), _de=f=er_ (compare _di=ff=er_). sound the _g_ in final _-ing_. examples: _eating_, _running_. pronounce the _-al_ of adverbs derived from adjectives in _-ic_ or _-al_. examples: _tragically_, _occasionally_, _generally_, _ungrammatically_. do not transpose letters; place each letter where it belongs. examples: _p=er=spiration_ (not _p=re=spiration_), _tra=g=edy_ (not _tra=d=e=g=y_). note.--the principle of phonetic spelling as stated above applies to many words, but by no means to all. the simplified spelling board would extend this principle by changing the spelling of words to correspond with their actual sounds. it recommends such forms as _tho_, _thru_, _enuf_, _quartet_, _catalog_, _program_. if the student employs these forms, he must use them consistently. many writers oppose simplified spelling; many advocate it; many compromise. others desire to supplant our present alphabet with one more nearly phonetic, and prefer, until this fundamental reform takes place, to preserve our present spelling as it is. exercise: copy the following words slowly, pronouncing the syllables as you write: _accidentally_, _accommodate_, _accurately_, _artistically_, _athletics_ (not _atheletics_), _boundary_, _candidate_, _cavalry_, _commission_, _curiosity_, _defer_, _definite_, _description_, _despair_, _different_, _dining room_, _dinned_, _disappoint_, _divide_, _divine_, _emphatically_, _eighth_, _everybody_, _february_, _finally_, _goddess_, _government_, _hundred_, _hurrying_, _instinct_, _laboratory_, _library_, _lightning_, _might have_ (not _might of_), _naturally_, _necessary_, _occasionally_, _omission_, _opinion_, _opportunity_, _optimist_, _partner_, _perform_, _perhaps_, _perspiration_, _prescription_, _primitive_, _privilege_, _probably_, _quantity_, _really_, _recognise_, _recommend_, _reverence_, _separate_, _should have_ (not _should of_), _sophomore_, _strictly_, _superintendent_, _surprise_, _temperance_, _tragedy_, _usually_, _whether_. =logical kinship in words= = . get help in spelling a difficult word by thinking of related words.= to think of _ridiculous_ will prevent your writing _a_ for the second _i_ of _ridicule_; to think of _ridicule_ will prevent your writing _rediculous_. to think of _prepare_ will prevent your writing _preperation_; to think of _preparation_ will forestall _preparitory_. to think of _busy_ will save you from the monstrosity _buisness._ to think of the prefixes _re-_ (meaning _again_) and _dis-_ (meaning _not_), and the verbs _commend_ and _appoint_, will prevent your writing _recommend_ or _disappoint_ with a double _c_ or _s_. note.--the relationship between words is not always a safe guide to spelling. observe _four_, _forty_; _nine_, _ninth_; _maintain_, _maintenance_; _please_, _pleasant_; _speak_, _speech_; _prevail_, _prevalent_. do not confuse the following prefixes, which have no logical connection: _ante-_ (before) _anti-_ (against, opposite) _de-_ (from, about) _dis-_ (apart, away, not) _per-_ (through, entirely) _pre-_ (before) exercise: . write the nouns corresponding to the following verbs: _prepare_, _allude_, _govern_, _represent_, _degrade_. . write the adjectives corresponding to the following nouns and the nouns corresponding to the following adjectives: _desperation_, _academy_, _origin_, _ridiculous_, _miraculous_, _grammatical_, _arithmetical_, _busy_. . write the adverbs corresponding to the following adjectives: _real_, _sure_, _actual_, _hurried_, _accidental_, _incidental_, _grammatical_. . copy the following pairs of related words or related forms of words: _labor, laboratory_; _debate, debater_; _base, based_; _deal, dealt_; _chose, chosen_; _mean, meant_. . write each of the following words with a hyphen between the prefix and the body of the word: _describe_, _description_, _disappoint_, _disappear_, _disease_, _dissatisfy_, _dissever_, _permit_, _perspire_, _prescription_, _preconceive_, _recommend_, _recollect_, _reconsider_, _antedate_, _antecedent_, _anticlimax_, _antitoxin_. =superficial resemblances between words= = . guard against misspelling a word because it bears a superficial resemblance, in sound or appearance, to some other word.= most of the words in the following list have no logical connection; the resemblance is one of form only (_angel_, _angle_). but a few words are included which are different in spelling in spite of a logical relation (_breath_, _breathe_). accept (to receive) except (to exclude, with exclusion of) advice (noun) advise (verb) affect (to influence in part) effect (to bring to pass totally) allusion (a reference) illusion (a deceiving appearance) all right almost already altogether always alley (a back street) ally (a confederate) altar (a structure used in worship) alter (to make otherwise) angel (a celestial being) angle (the meeting place of two lines) baring (making bare) barring (obstructing) bearing (carrying) born (brought into being) borne (carried) breath (noun) breathe (verb) capital (a city) capitol (a building) canvas (a cloth) canvass (to solicit) clothes (garments) cloths (pieces of cloth) coarse (not fine) course (route, method of behavior) conscious (aware) conscience (an inner moral sense) dairy diary device (noun) devise (verb) desert (a barren country) dessert (food) dining room dinning disappear disappoint disavowal dissatisfaction dissimilar dissipate dissuade decent (adjective) descent (downward slope or motion) dissent (a disagreement) dual (adjective) duel (noun) formally (in a formal way) formerly (in time past) forth forty four fourth freshman freshmen (not used as adjective) gambling (wagering money on games of chance) gamboling (frisking or leaping with joy) guard regard hear here hinder hindrance holly (a tree) holy (hallowed, sacred) wholly (altogether) hoping (from _hope_) hopping instance (an example) instants (periods of time) isle (an island) aisle (a narrow passage) its (possessive pronoun) it's (contraction of _it is_) johnson, samuel jonson, ben later (comparative of _late_) latter (the second) lead (present tense) led (past tense) lessen (verb) lesson (noun) liable (expresses responsibility or disagreeable probability) likely (expresses probability) loose (free, not bound) lose (to suffer the loss of) maintain maintenance nineteenth ninetieth ninety ninth past (adjective, adverb, preposition) passed (verb, past tense) peace (a state of calm) piece (a fragment) perceive perform persevere persuade purchase pursue personal (private, individual) personnel (the body of persons engaged in some activity) philippines filipino plain (clear; adjective) plain (flat region; noun) plane (flat; adjective) plane (geometrical term; noun) planed (past tense of _plane_) planned (past tense of _plan_) pleasant please precede proceed } succeed } these three are the exceed } "double _e_ group" concede intercede recede supersede pre cé dence (act or right of preceding) préc e dents (things said or done before, now used as authority or model) presence (state of being present) presents (gifts) prevail prevalent principal (chief, leading, the leading official of a school, a sum of money) principle (a general truth) quiet (still) quite (completely) rain reign (rule of a monarch) rein (part of a harness) respectfully ("yours respectfully") respectively (in a way proper to each--should never be used to close a letter) right rite (ceremony) write shone (past tense of _shine_) shown (past tense of _show_) seize siege sight (view, spectacle) site (situation, a plot of ground reserved for some use) cite (to bring forward as evidence) speak speech spencer, herbert (scientist) spenser, edmund (poet) stationary (not moving) stationery (writing materials) statue (a sculptured likeness) stature (height, figure) statute (a law) steal (to take by theft) steel (a variety of iron) than then their (belonging to them) there (in that place) they're (they are) therefor (to that end, for that thing) therefore (for that reason) till until to too two track (an imprint, or a road) tract (an area of land) tract (a treatise on religion) village villain wandering wondering weak (not strong) week (seven days) weather whether whole (entire) hole (an opening) who's (who is) whose (the possessive of _who_) your (indicates possession) you're (contraction of _you are_) exercise: . insert _to_, _too_, or _two_: he is ---- tired ---- walk the ----miles ---- the town. then ----, it is ---- late ---- catch a car. it is ---- minutes of ----. it is ---- bad. . insert _lose_ or _loose_: you will ---- your money if you carry it ---- in your pocket. we are ----ing time. the sailor ----ens the rope. did you ---- your ticket? . insert _speak or speech_: i was ----ing with our congressman about his recent ----. i ---- from experience. . insert _plan_ or _plane_: the architect's ---- was accepted. the carpenter's ---- cuts a long shaving. the carpenter does not ---- the house. . insert _quite_ or _quiet_: the baby is ----ly sleeping. she is ---- well now, but last night she was ---- sick. be ----. walk ----ly when you go. =words in _ei_ or _ie_= = . write _i_ before _e_ when sounded as _ee_ except after _c_.= examples: _believe_, _grief_, _chief_; but _receive_, _deceive_, _ceiling_. exceptions: _neither financier seized either species of weird leisure._ (also a few uncommon words, like _seignior_, _inveigle_, _plebeian_.) rules based on a key-word, lice, alice, celia (_i_ follows _l_ and _e_ follows _c_) apply after two consonants only, and do not help one to spell a word like _grief_. rule applies after all consonants. note.--the words in which the sound is _ee_ are the words really difficult to spell. when the sound is any other than _ee_ (especially when it is _a_), _i_ usually follows _e_. examples: _veil_, _weigh_, _freight_, _neighbor_, _height_, _sleight_, _heir_, _heifer_, _counterfeit_, _foreign_, etc. exceptions: _ancient_, _friend_, _sieve_, _mischief_, _fiery_, _tries_, etc. exercise: write the following words, supplying _ei_ or _ie_: _conc--t_, _retr--ve_, _dec--tful_, _n--ce_, _y--ld_, _p--ce_, _s--ge_, _s--ze_, _rec--pt_, _n--ther_, _w--rd_, _rel--ve_, _l--sure_, _f--ld_, _v--n_, _r--gn_, _sover--gn_, _sl--gh_, _br--f_, _dec--ve_, _r--n_, _f--nt_, _perc--ve_, _w--ld_, _gr--vous_, _--ther_. =doubling a final consonant= = . monosyllables and words accented on the final syllable, if they end in one consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel.= examples: (a) words derived from monosyllables: _plan-ned_, _clan-nish_, _get-ting_, _hot-test_, _bag-gage_, (b) words derived from words accented on the final syllable: _begin-ning_, _repel-lent_, _unregret-ted_. note .--there are four distinct steps in the application of this rule. ( ) the primary word must be found. to decide whether _begging_ contains two _g's_, we must first think of _beg_. ( ) the primary word must be a monosyllable or a word accented on the final syllable. _hit_ and _allot_ meet this test; _open_ does not. _deferred_ and _differed_, _preferred_ and _proffered_, _committed_ (or _committee_) and _prohibited_ double or refrain from doubling the final consonant of the primary word according to the position of the accent. the seeming discrepancy between _preferred_ and _preferable_, between _conferred_ and _conference_, is due to a shifting of the accent to the first syllable in the case of _preferable_ and _conference_. ( ) the primary word must end in one consonant. _trace_, _oppose_, _interfere_, _help_, _reach_, and _perform_ fail to meet this test, and therefore in derivatives do not double the last consonant. _assurance_ has one _r_, as it should have; _occurrence_ has two _r's_, as it should have. ( ) the final consonant of the primary word must be preceded by a single vowel. this principle excludes the extra consonant from _needy_, _daubed_, and _proceeding_, and gives it to _running_. note .--after _q_, _u_ has the force of _w_. hence _quitting_, _quizzes_, _squatter_, _acquitted_, _equipped_, and similar words are not really exceptions to the rule. exercise: . write the present participle (in _-ing_) of _din_ (not _dine_), _begin_, _sin_ (compare _shine_), _stop_, _prefer_, _rob_, _drop_, _occur_, _omit_, _swim_, _get_, _commit_. . write the past tense (in _-ed_) of _plan_ (not _plane_), _star_ (compare _stare_), _stop_ (compare _slope_), _lop_ (not _lope_), _hop_ (not _hope_), _fit_, _benefit_, _occur_ (compare _cure_), _offer_, _confer_, _bat_ (compare _abate_). =final _e_ before a suffix beginning with a vowel= = . words that end in silent _e_ usually drop the _e_ in derivatives or before a suffix beginning with a vowel.= examples: _bride_, _bridal_; _guide_, _guidance_; _please_, _pleasure_; _fleece_, _fleecy_; _force_, _forcible_; _argue_, _arguing_; _arrive_, _arrival_; _conceive_, _conceivable_; _college_, _collegiate_; _write_, _writing_; _use_, _using_; _change_, _changing_; _judge_, _judging_; _believe_, _believing_. note .--of the exceptions some retain the _e_ to prevent confusion with other words. exceptions: _dyeing_, _singeing_, _mileage_, _acreage_, _hoeing_, _shoeing_, _agreeing_, _eyeing_. the exceptions cause comparatively little trouble. one rarely sees _hoing_ or _shoing_; he often sees _hopeing_ and _inviteing_. note .--after _c_ or _g_ and before a suffix beginning with _a_ or _o_ the _e_ is retained. the purpose of this retention is to preserve the soft sound of the _c_ or _g_. (observe that _c_ and _g_ have the hard sound in _cable_, _gable_, _cold_, _go_.) examples: _peaceable_, _changeable_, _noticeable_, _serviceable_, _outrageous_, _courageous_, _advantageous_. exercise: . write the present participle of the following words: _use_, _love_, _change_, _judge_, _shake_, _hope_, _shine_, _have_, _seize_, _slope_, _strike_, _dine_, _come_, _place_, _argue_, _achieve_, _emerge_, _arrange_, _abide_, _oblige_, _subdue_. . write the present participle of the following words: _singe_, _tinge_, _dye_, _agree_, _eye_. . write the _-ous_ or _-able_ form of the following words: _trace_, _love_, _blame_, _move_, _conceive_, _courage_, _service_, _advantage_, _umbrage_. . write the adjectives which correspond to the following nouns: _force_, _sphere_, _vice_, _sense_, _fleece_, _college_, _hygiene_. . write the nouns which correspond to the following verbs: _please_, _guide_, _grieve_, _arrive_, _oblige_, _prepare_, _inspire_. =plurals= = a. most nouns add _s_ or _es_ to form the plural.= examples: _word_, _words_; _fire_, _fires_, _negro_, _negroes_; _eskimo_, _eskimos_; _leaf_, _leaves_ (_f_ changes to _v_ for the sake of euphony); knife, knives. =b. nouns ending in _y_ preceded by a consonant (or by _u_ as _w_) change the _y_ to _i_ and add _es_ to form the plural.= examples: _sky_, _skies_; _lady_, _ladies_; _colloquy_, _colloquies_; _soliloquy_, _soliloquies_. =other nouns ending in _y_ form the plural in the usual way.= examples: _day_, _days_; _boy_, _boys_; _monkey_, _monkeys_; _valley_, _valleys_. =c. compound nouns usually form the plural by adding _s_ or _es_ to the principal word.= examples: _sons-in-law_, _passers-by_; but _stand-bys_, _hat-boxes_, _writing-desks_. =d. letters, signs, and sometimes figures, add _'s_ to form the plural.= examples: cross your t's and dot your i's; ?'s; $'s; 's or s. =e. a few nouns adhere to old declensions.= examples: _ox_, _oxen_; _child_, _children_; _goose_, _geese_; _foot_, _feet_; _mouse_, _mice_; _man_, _men_; _woman_, _women_; _sheep_, _sheep_; _deer_, _deer_; _swine_, _swine_. =f. words adopted from foreign languages sometimes retain the foreign plural.= examples: _alumnus_, _alumni_; _alumna_, _alumnæ_; _fungus_, _fungi_; _focus_, _foci_; _radius_, _radii_; _datum_, _data_; _medium_, _media_; _phenomenon_, _phenomena_; _stratum_, _strata_; _analysis_, _analyses_; _antithesis_, _antitheses_; _basis_, _bases_; _crisis_, _crises_; _oasis_, _oases_; _hypothesis_, _hypotheses_; _parenthesis_, _parentheses_; _thesis_, _theses_; _beau_, _beaux_; _tableau_, _tableaux_; _mr._, _messrs._ (_messieurs_); _mrs._, _mmes._ (_mesdames_). exercise: write the singular and plural of the following words: _day_, _sky_, _lady_, _wife_, _leaf_, _loaf_, _negro_, _potato_, _tomato_, _pass_, _glass_, _boat_, _beet_, _flash_, _crash_, _bead_, _box_, _passenger_, _messenger_, _son-in-law_, _smith_, _jones_, _jack-o'-lantern_, _hanger-on_, _stratum_, _datum_, _phenomenon_, _crisis_, _basis_, _thesis_, _analysis_. =compounds= = a. use a hyphen between two or more words which serve as a single adjective before a noun:= _iron-bound bucket_, _well-kept lawn_, _twelve-inch main_, _normal-school teacher_, _up-to-date methods_, _twentieth-century ideas_, _devil-may-care expression_, _a twenty-dollar-a-week clerk_. =but when the words follow the noun, the hyphen is omitted.= _the lawn is well kept. methods up to date in every way_. =also adverbs ending in _-ly_ are not ordinarily made into compound modifiers:= _nicely kept lawn_, _securely guarded treasure_. =b. use a hyphen between members of a compound noun when the second member is a preposition, or when the writing of two nouns solid or separately might confuse the meaning:= _runner-up_, _kick-off_; _letting-down of effort_, _son-in-law_, _jack-o'-lantern_, _pedro was a bull-fighter_, _a woman-hater_, _did you ever see a shoe-polish like this?_ =c. use a hyphen in compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine, and in fractions according to the following examples:= _twenty-three_, _eighty-nine_; but _one hundred and one_. _twenty-third_, _one-hundred-and-first man_. _three-fourths_, _four and two-thirds_, _thirty-hundredths_, _thirty-one hundredths_. but omit the hyphen in simple fractions when loosely used: _three quarters of my life are spent._ _one third of his fortune._ =d. a hyphen is not used in the following common words:= _airship_, _altogether_, _anybody_, _baseball_, _basketball_, _everybody_, _football_, _goodby_, _herself_, _handbook_, _himself_, _inasmuch_, _itself_, _midnight_, _myself_, _nevertheless_, _nobody_, _nothing_ (but _no one_), _nowadays_, _railroad_, _themselves_, _together_, _typewritten_, _wherever_, _without_, _workshop_, _yourself_, _newspaper_, _sunset_. =e. for words that do not come within the scope of rules, consult an up-to-date dictionary.= compounds tend, with the passing of time, to grow together. once men wrote _steam boat_, later _steam-boat_, and finally _steamboat_. new-coined words are usually hyphenated; old words are often written solid. the degree of intimacy between the parts of a compound word affects usage; thus we write _sun-motor_, but _sunbeam_; _birth-rate_, but _birthday_; _cooling-room_, but _bedroom_; _non-conductor_, but _nonsense_. the ease with which a vowel blends with the consonant of a syllable adjoining it affects usage; thus _self-evident_, but _selfsame_; _non-existent_, but _nondescript_; _un-american_, but _unwise_. many compounds, however, are still uncontrolled by usage; whether they should be written as two words or one, whether with or without the hyphen, the dictionaries themselves do not agree. exercise: copy the following expressions, inserting hyphens where they are necessary: _twenty two years old_, _twenty two dollar bills_ _make forty dollars_, _twenty seven eighths inch boards_, _a normal school graduate_, _two handled boxes_, _a cloth covered basket_, _blood red sun_, _water tight compartment_, _sixty horse power motor_, _seven dollar bathing suits_, _a happy go lucky fellow_, _germ destroying powder_, _he had a son in law_, _passers by on the street_, _the kick off is at three o'clock_, _dark complexioned woman_, _silver tongued orator_, _a dish like valley_, _a rope like tail_, _a fish shaped cloud_, _a touch me not expression_, _will o' the wisp_, _well to do merchant_, _rough and tumble existence_. = .= spelling list the english language comprises about , words. of these a student uses about (although he may understand more than twice that number when he encounters them in sentences). of these, in turn, not more than four or five hundred are frequently misspelled. the following list includes nearly all of the words which give serious trouble. certain american colleges using this list require of freshmen an accuracy of ninety per cent. absurd academy =accept= =accidentally= =accommodate= accumulate accustom acquainted acquitted =across= addressed =adviser= aeroplane =affects= aggravate alley allotted =all right= ally already altar alter =altogether= alumnus =always= =amateur= =among= analogous analysis =angel= angle annual anxiety apparatus =appearance= appropriate arctic =argument= =arising= =arithmetic= arrange arrival ascend asks =athletic= audience auxiliary awkward balance barbarous baring barring baseball =based= bearing =becoming= before beggar =begging= =beginning= =believing= =benefited= =biscuit= boundaries brilliant =britain= =britannica= buoyant bureau =business= =busy= =calendar= =candidate= =can't= cemetery =certain= =changeable= =changing= characteristic chauffeur =choose= chose chosen =clothes= =coarse= column =coming= commission =committee= comparative =compel= compelled competent concede conceivable =conferred= conquer conqueror conscience conscientious considered continuous control =controlled= coöperate country =course= =courteous= courtesy cruelty cylinder =dealt= debater deceitful decide decision deferred =definite= descend =describe= =description= derived =despair= =desperate= destroy device devise dictionary difference digging dilemma =dining room= dinning =disappear= =disappoint= disavowal discipline disease =dissatisfied= dissipate distinction distribute =divide= =divine= =doctor= =don't= dormitories drudgery dying ecstasy =effects= =eighth= eliminate =embarrass= eminent encouraging =enemy= =equipped= especially =etc.= everybody exaggerate exceed excellent except exceptional exhaust exhilarate =existence= expense experience explanation familiar fascinate =february= fiery fifth =finally= financier forfeit formally =formerly= forth =forty= =fourth= frantically fraternity =freshman= (adj.) =friend= fulfil furniture gallant gambling =generally= goddess =government= governor =grammar= grandeur =grievous= guard guess guidance harass haul =having= height hesitancy =holy= =hoping= huge =humorous= =hurriedly= hundredths hygienic =imaginary= imitative immediately immigration impromptu imminent incidentally incidents incredulous =independence= indispensable induce influence =infinite= =instance= instant =intellectual= intelligence =intentionally= intercede irresistible =its= it's itself invitation =judgment= =knowledge= laboratory =ladies= =laid= =later= =latter= =lead= =led= liable library =lightning= likely literature loneliness =loose= =lose= =losing= lying maintain =maintenance= manual manufacturer =many= marriage massachusetts material =mathematics= mattress =meant= messenger =miniature= minutes =mischievous= mississippi misspelled momentous month murmur muscle mysterious =necessary= =negroes= =neither= nickel nineteenth ninetieth =ninety= ninth =noticeable= =nowadays= oblige obstacle =occasion= occasionally occur =occurred= =occurrence= occurring =o'clock= officers =omitted= =omission= =opinion= opportunity =optimistic= =original= outrageous overrun paid pantomime =parallel= =parliament= particularly =partner= =pastime= peaceable =perceive= perception peremptory =perform= =perhaps= =permissible= perseverance pérsonal personnél =perspiration= persuade pertain pervade physical picnic picnicking =planned= =pleasant= politics politician =possession= possible practically =prairie= =precede= precédent précedents =preference= =preferred= prejudice =preparation= =primitive= =principal= =principle= prisoner =privilege= =probably= =proceed= prodigy profession =professor= proffered prohibition promissory =prove= purchase pursue putting quantity =quiet= =quite= quizzes rapid =ready= =really= recede =receive= recognize =recommend= =reference= =referred= =regard= region =religion= =religious= repetition replies representative =restaurant= rheumatism ridiculous sacrilegious safety =sandwich= schedule science scream screech =seems= =seize= sense =sentence= =separate= sergeant several shiftless =shining= shone shown =shriek= =siege= similar =since= smooth soliloquy =sophomore= speak specimen =speech= statement =stationary= =stationery= statue stature statute steal steel stops =stopped= =stopping= =stories= stretch =strictly= succeeds successful summarize =superintendent= supersede =sure= =surprise= syllable symmetrical =temperament= =tendency= than =their= there therefore =they're= thorough thousandths till to =too= =together= =tragedy= track =tract= transferred tranquillity translate treacherous treasurer =tries= =trouble= =truly= =tuesday= two typical tyranny universally =until= =using= =usually= vacancy vengeance vigilance village =villain= weak =wear= weather =wednesday= week =weird= welfare where wherever =whether= which whole =wholly= =who's= whose wintry wiry within without =women= world =writing= written your =you're= note .--the following words have more than one correct form, the one given here being preferred. abridgement acknowledgment analyze ax boulder caliber catalog center check criticize develop development dulness endorse envelop esthetic gaiety gild gipsy glamor goodby gray inquire medieval meter mold mustache odor program prolog skilful theater note .--in a few groups of words american spelling and english spelling differ. american spelling gives preference to _favor_, _honor_, _labor_, _rumor_; english spelling gives preference to _favour_, _honour_, _labour_, _rumour_. american spelling gives preference to _civilize_, _apprize_; _defense_, _pretense_; _traveler_, _woolen_; etc. english spelling gives preference to _civilise_, _apprise_; _defence_, _pretence_; _traveller_, _woollen_; etc. miscellaneous =manuscript= = a. titles.= center a title on the page. capitalize important words. it is unnecessary to place a period after a title, but a question mark or exclamation point should be used when one is appropriate. do not underscore the title, or unnecessarily place it in quotation marks. leave a blank line under the title, before beginning the body of the writing. =b. spacing.= careful spacing is as necessary as punctuation. place writing on a page as you would frame a picture, crowding it toward neither the top nor the bottom. leave liberal margins. write verse as verse; do not give it equal indention or length of line with prose. connect all the letters of a word. leave a space after a word, and a double space after a sentence. leave room between successive lines, and do not let the loops of letters run into the lines above or below. =c. handwriting.= write a clear, legible hand. form _a_, _o_, _u_, _n_, _e_, _i_, properly. write out _and_ horizontally. avoid unnecessary flourishes in capitals, and curlicues at the end of words. dot your _i's_ and cross your _t's_; not with circles or long eccentric strokes, but simply and accurately. let your originality express itself not in ornate penmanship, or unusual stationery, or literary affectations, but in the force and keenness of your ideas. =capitals= = a. begin with a capital a sentence, a line of poetry, or a quoted sentence. but if only a fragment of a sentence is quoted, the capital should be omitted.= right: he said, "the time has come." right: the question is, shall the bill pass? right: they said they would "not take no for an answer." right: "the good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket."--wordsworth. =b. begin proper names, and all important words used as or in proper names, with capitals.= words not so used should not begin with capitals. right: mr. george k. rogers, the principal of the urbana high school, a college president, the president of the senior class, a senior, the second corps of the army of northern virginia, three battalions of infantry, the fourth of july, on the tenth of june, the house of representatives, an assembly of delegates, a presbyterian church, the separation of church and state, the baptist church, the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, a creek known as black oak creek, the republican party, a party that advocates high tariff, rocky mountains, the bible, god, the christian era, wednesday, in the summer, living in the south, turning south after taking a few steps to the east, one morning, o dark-haired evening! italic type, watt, pasteurize, herculean effort. =c. begin an adjective which designates a language or a race with a capital.= right: a norwegian peasant, indian arrowheads, english literature, the study of french. =d. in the titles of books or themes capitalize the first word and all other important words.= prepositions, conjunctions, and articles are usually not important. right: _the english novel in the time of scott_, _war and peace_, _travels with a donkey_, _when i slept under the stars_. =e. miscellaneous uses. capitalize the pronoun _i_, the interjection _o_, titles that accompany a name, and abbreviations of proper names.= right: battery f, f. a.; mobile, ala.; dr. stebbins. exercise: . the teacher said, "let me read you a famous soliloquy." he began: "to be, or not to be: that is the question." . the chinese laundry man does not write out his lists in english. . the _la fayette tribune_ says that a principal of a school has been elected to congress. . mr. woodson, the lecturer, said that "the title of a book may be a poem." he mentioned _christmas eve on lonesome_ by john fox, jr. . i like architecture. as i approached the british museum, i noticed the ionic colonnade that runs along the front. the first room i visited was the one filled with marbles which lord elgin brought from the parthenon at athens. =italics= in manuscript, a horizontal line drawn under a letter or word is a sign for the printer to use italic type. = a. quoted titles of books, periodicals, and manuscripts are usually italicized.= right: i admire shakespeare's _hamlet_. [the italics make the reader know that the writer means, _hamlet_ the play, not hamlet the man.] right: john galsworthy's novel, _the patrician_, appeared in serial form in the _atlantic monthly_. note .--when the title of a book begins with an article (_a_, _an_, or _the_), the article is italicized. but _the_ before the title of a periodical is usually not italicized. note .--it is correct, but not the best practice, to indicate the titles of books by quotation marks. the best method is to use italics for the title of a book, and quotation marks for chapters or subdivisions of the same book. example: see _encyclopedia britannica_, vol. ii, p. , "modern architecture". =b. words from a foreign language, unless they have been anglicized by frequent use, are italicized.= right: a great noise announced the coming of the _enfant terrible_. right: a play always begins _in medias res_. =c. the names of ships are usually italicized.= right: the _saxonia_ will sail at four o'clock. =d. words taken out of their context and made the subject of discussion are italicized or placed in quotation marks.= right: _so_ is a word faded and colorless from constant use. right: the _t_ in the word _often_ is not pronounced. =e. a word or passage requiring great emphasis is italicized.= this device should not be used to excess. the proper way to secure emphasis is to have good ideas, and to use emphatic sentence structure in expressing them. exercise: . in vanity fair thackeray heads one chapter how to live well on nothing a year. . auf wiedersehen was his parting word. he had informed me, sub rosa of course, that he was going to bremen. . the battle between the monitor and the merrimac revolutionized naval warfare. how far back it seems to the days when decatur set fire to the old philadelphia! . her they say's are as plenteous as rabbits in australia. . a writer in the century magazine says the public may know better than an author what the title of his book should be. dickens, for example, called one of his works the posthumous papers of the pickwick club. =abbreviations= = a. in ordinary writing avoid abbreviations. the following, however, are always correct: mr., messrs., dr., or st. (saint), before proper names; b. c. or a. d., when necessary to avoid confusion, after a date; and no. or $ when followed by numerals.= in ordinary writing spell out all titles, except those listed above. names of months, states, countries. christian names, unless initials are used instead. names of weights and measures, except in statistics. street, avenue, road, railroad, park, fort, mountain, company, brothers, manufacturing, etc. in ordinary writing, instead of _&_ write _and_; for _viz._ write _namely_; for _i. e._, write _that is_; for _e. g._ write _for example_; for _a. m._ and _p. m._ write _in the morning_, _this afternoon_, _tomorrow evening_, _saturday night_. do not use _etc._ (_et cetera_) when it can be avoided. =b. in business correspondence, technical writing, tabulations, footnotes, and bibliographies, or wherever brevity is essential, other abbreviations may be used.= even here, short words should not be abbreviated: alaska, hawaii, idaho, iowa, maine, ohio, samoa, utah, march, april, may, june, july. exercise: . mr. gregg & dr. appleton were rivals. . harris lacked but one of having a grade of one hundred; _i. e._, he had the two o's already. . his inheritance tax was three thousand $. in apr. he moved from portland, me., to sandusky, o. . prof. kellogg came down beech st. at a quarter before eight every a. m. . a no. of old friends visited them on special occasions; _e. g._, on their wedding anniversaries. =numbers= = a. it is customary to use figures for dates, for the street numbers in addresses, for reference to the pages of a book, and for statistics.= right: june , . chalmers street. see chapter , especially page . note.--it is desirable not to write _st_, _nd_, or _th_ after the day of the month if the year is designated also. right: march , (not march rd, ). =b. figures are used for numbers which cannot be expressed in a few words. the dollar sign and figures are used with complicated sums of money.= right: the farm comprised acres. the population of kansas city, missouri, was , in . he earned $ while attending school. the cost of the improvement was $ , . . =c. in other instances than those specified in _a_ and _b_ numbers as a rule should be written out.= (this rule applies to numbers and to sums of money which can be expressed in a few words, to sums of money less than one dollar, and to ages and time of day.) right: the box weighs two hundred pounds. xerxes had an army of three million men. i enclose seventy-five cents. he owed twelve hundred dollars. grandfather toland is eighty-seven years old. the train is due at a quarter past three. exercise: . for pounds of excess baggage i had to pay $ . . . at o'clock rice gave him the nd capsule. . the letter was sent from twenty-one warner st. november the eleventh, nineteen hundred and eighteen. . knox earned $ a day he said; but they paid him only $ . . . at he owned a , acre farm and had an income of $ , a year. =syllabication= = a. when a word is broken at the end of a line, use a hyphen there. do not place a hyphen at the beginning of the second line.= =b. words are divided only between syllables:= _depart-ment_, _dis-charge_, _ab-surd_, _univer-sity_, _pro-fessor_ (not _depa-rtment_, _disc-harge_, _abs-urd_, _unive-rsity_, _prof-essor_). =c. monosyllabic words are never divided:= _which_, _through_, _dipped_, _speak_ (not _wh-ich_, _thr-ough_, _dip-ped_, _spe-ak_). =d. a consonant at the junction of two syllables usually goes with the second:= _recipro-cate_, _ordi-nance_, _inti-mate_ (not _reciproc-ate_, _ordin-ance_, _intim-ate_). sometimes two consonants are equivalent to a single letter: _falli-ble_, _photo-graph_ (not _fallib-le_, _photog-raph_). =e. two or more consonants at the junction of syllables are themselves divided:= _en-ter-prise_, _com-mis-sary_, _in-car-nate_ (not _ent-erpr-ise_, _comm-iss-ary_, _inc-arn-ate_). =f. a prefix or a suffix is usually set off from the rest of the word regardless of the rule for consonants between syllables:= _ex-empt_, _dis-appoint_, _sing-ing_, _pro-gress-ive_. but when a final consonant is doubled before a suffix the additional consonant goes with the suffix: _trip-ping_, _permit-ted_, _omis-sion_. =g. the best usage avoids separating one or two letters (unless in prefixes like _un_ or suffixes like _ly_) from the rest of the word:= _achieve-ment_, _enor-mous_, _remem-bered_, _dyspep-sia_ (not _a-chievement_, _e-normous_, remember-ed, dyspepsi-a). =h. the first part of a divided word should not be ludicrous or misleading:= _dogma-tize_, _croco-dile_, _de-cadence_, _metri-cal_, _goril-la_ (not _dog-matize_, _croc-odile_, _deca-dence_, _met-rical_, _go-rilla_). exercise: place a hyphen between each pair of syllables in each word of more than one syllable: _thoughtful_, _burrowing_, _thorough_, _chimney_, _brought_, _helped_, _harshnesses_, _which_, _murmur_, _superstition_, _ground_, _symmetry_, _ripped_, _compartment_, _disallow_, _obey_, _opinion_, _opportune_, _aggressive_, _intellectually_, _complicated_, _encyclopedia_, _wrought_, _electricity_, _abstraction_, _syllabication_, _punctuation_, _frustrate_, _except_, _substituting_, _distressful_. =outlines= three kinds of outlines are illustrated in this article: (a) the topic outline, (b) the sentence outline, and (c) the paragraph outline. = a. a topic outline consists of headings (nouns or phrases containing nouns) which indicate the important ideas in a composition, and their relation to each other. conform to the following model:= =the lumber problem= theme: the decline of our lumber supply requires that we shall take steps toward reforesting, conservation, and the use of substitutes for wood. i the depletion of our forests a former abundance b present scarcity (especially walnut, white pine, oak) ii the causes of the depletion a great demand for building for industrial expansion (ties, posts, etc.) for fuel, and other minor uses b wasteful methods of forestry iii the remedy a reforestation planting by individuals planting by the states extension of the present national forest reserves b the prevention of waste in fires, by insects, etc. in cutting and sawing in by-products (sawing, odd lengths, etc.) c the use of substitutes for wood (concrete, steel, brick, stone, etc.) =b. a sentence outline is expressed in complete sentences. conform to the following model:= =the lumber problem= i the depletion of our forests is evident when one compares a the former abundance, with b the present scarcity (of walnut, white pine, and oak, especially). ii the causes of the depletion are: a the great demand for building, for industrial expansion (ties, posts, etc.), for fuel and other minor uses; and b wasteful methods of forestry. iii the remedies for the depletion are: a reforestation by individuals, by the states, by extension of the present national forest reserves; b the prevention of waste in fires, by insects, etc., in cutting and sawing, in by-products (sawdust, odd lengths, etc.); and c the use of substitutes, for wood (concrete, steel, brick, stone, etc.) =c. a paragraph outline is a series of sentences summarizing the thought of successive paragraphs in a composition. conform to the following model:= =the disagreeable optimist= . the present age may be called an era of efficiency, prosperity, and optimism, since efficiency has produced prosperity, and this in turn has produced "optimism"--a word recurrent in common literature and conversation. . the optimist is often not natural or sincere, because his thoughts are centered on keeping up an appearance of being happy. . he is intrusive, for he thrusts comfort upon those who wish to mourn, and repeats irritating epigrams and poems about cheer. . he is undiscriminating, in that he prescribes the same remedy, "good cheer," for everybody and for every condition. . he is sometimes harmful, because he tells us that the world is going well, when conditions need changing, and need changing badly. =d. mechanical details.= indent headings that are coördinate (that is, of equal value) an equal distance from the margin. one inch to the right is a good distance for successive subordinate headings. use roman numerals, capital letters, arabic numerals, and small letters to indicate the comparative rank of ideas. when a heading runs over one line, use hanging indention; that is, do not allow the second line to run back to the left-hand margin, but indent it. make the numerals and letters (_ _, _a_, etc.) stand out prominently. the title of a theme should not be given a numeral or letter. faulty indention: sources of energy which may be utilized when the coal supply is exhausted are i rivers and streams, especially in mountain districts ii the tides iii the heat of the sun correct hanging indention: sources of energy which may be utilized when the coal supply is exhausted are i rivers and streams, especially in mountain districts ii the tides iii the heat of the sun =e. ideas parallel in thought should be expressed in parallel form.= nouns and phrases including nouns are ordinarily used. faulty parallelism: advantages of a garden: profitable it affords good exercise gives pleasure right: advantages of a garden: profit exercise pleasure =f. avoid faulty coördination (giving two ideas equal rank, when one should be subordinated to the other) and _vice versa_, avoid faulty subordination.= faulty coördination: how seeds scatter i by wind ii some seeds provided with parachutes iii others light, and easily blown about iv by water v by animals right: =how seeds scatter= i by wind a some seeds provided with parachutes b others light, and easily blown about ii by water iii by animals =g. avoid detailed subordination. especially avoid a single subheading when it can be joined to the preceding line, or omitted.= too detailed: a the mcclellan orchard situation a on a northern slope nature of soil a sandy kind of fruit a apple b cherry right: a the mcclellan orchard . situation: a northern slope . nature of soil: sandy . kind of fruit: apple and cherry exercise: . give a title to an outline which shall include the following topics. group the topics under two main headings, and give the headings names. uses of the grape the vine the fruit itself how marketed how cultivated . place in order the sentences of the following outline on "why keep a diary?" subordinate some of the headings to others. a diary affords great satisfaction in future years. we sometimes record in a diary information which proves useful. a few lines a day will suffice. a diary is not hard to keep. we may find time for writing in our diary if we do not waste time at the table or on newspapers. we may write in our diary just before we go to bed. a diary will bring back the past. we all have some moments to kill. a diary gives us pleasure even in the present. . place in order the headings of the following outline on "ulysses s. grant." subordinate some of the headings to others. obscurity in prominence in patience president general perseverance and resolution character the turning point in his career =letters= the parts of a letter are the heading, the inside address, the greeting, the body, the close, and the signature. for these parts good use prescribes definite forms, which we may sometimes ignore in personal letters, but must rigidly observe in formal or business letters. = a. the heading of a letter should give the full address of the writer and the date of writing. do not abbreviate short words, or omit street or avenue.= objectionable: # hickory, omaha. right: hickory street, omaha, nebraska. objectionable: / / ; - -' ; may nd, . right: april , ; october , ; may , . the following headings are correct: east race street, red oak, iowa, august , . michigan avenue chicago, illinois may , prescott, arizona, june , . note.--in personal letters the heading may be transferred to the end, below the signature, at the left-hand side. but it must not be so divided that the street address will appear in one place and the town and state in another. the "closed" form of punctuation (the use of punctuation at the ends of the lines) is best until the student learns what is correct. afterward, the adoption of the "open" form becomes purely a matter of individual taste and not a matter of carelessness or ignorance. =b. an inside address and a greeting are required in business letters.= personal letters contain the greeting, but may omit the inside address, or may supply it at the end of the letter. the jeffrey chemical works, marion street, norfolk, virginia. gentlemen: mr. joseph n. kellogg lake street cleveland, ohio dear mr. kellogg: secretary of rice institute, houston, texas. my dear sir: greetings used in business letters are: my dear sir: my dear madam: my dear mr. fisher: dear sir: sir: sirs: gentlemen: ladies: greetings used in personal letters are: my dear miss brown: dear professor ward: dear jones, dear mrs. vincent, dear robert, dear olive, "my dear miss brown" is more ceremonious than "dear miss brown". as a rule, the more familiar the letter, the shorter the greeting. a colon follows the greeting if the letter is formal or long; a comma, if the letter is familiar or in the nature of a note. both inside address and greeting begin at the left-hand margin. the body of the letter begins on the line below the greeting, and is indented as much as an ordinary paragraph (about an inch). =c. the body of a letter should be written in correct style.= = .= do not omit pronouns, or write a "telegraphic style". wrong: just received yours of the st, and in reply would say your order has been filled and shipped. right: i have your letter of march twenty-first. your order was promptly filled and shipped. = .= the idea that it is immodest to use _i_ is a superstition. undue repetition of _i_ is of course awkward; but entire avoidance of it is silly. = .= use simple language. say "your letter"; not "your kind favor", or "yours duly received", or "yours of the st is at hand". = .= avoid "begging" expressions which you obviously do not mean, especially the hackneyed "beg to advise". wrong: received yours of the rd instant, and beg to advise we are out of stock. right: we received your order of march . we find that we have no more dining-room chairs b - - in stock. wrong: i beg to enclose a booklet. right: i enclose a booklet. wrong: permit us to say that prices have been advanced. right: the prices on our goods have been advanced. = .= avoid the formula "please find enclosed". the reader will find what is enclosed; if you use "please", let it refer to what the reader shall do with what is enclosed. wrong: enclosed please find cents, for which send me bulletin . right: i enclose ten cents, for which please send me bulletin . = .= avoid unnecessary commercial slang: _on the job_, _a- service_, _o.k._, _your ad_, _popular-priced line_, _this party_, _as per schedule_. = .= get to the important idea quickly. in applying for a position, do not beat around the bush, or say you "wish to apply" or "would apply". begin, "i make application for ...", "kindly consider my application for ...", or "i apply ..." = .= group your ideas logically. do not scatter information. a letter applying for a position might consist of three paragraphs: personal qualifications (age, health, education, etc.); experience (nature of positions, dates, etc.); references (names, business or profession, exact street address). finish one group of ideas before passing to the next. = .= do not monotonously close all letters with a sentence beginning with a participle: _hoping to hear from you ..._, _asking your coöperation ..._, _awaiting your further favors ..._, _trusting this will be satisfactory ..._, _wishing you ..._, _thanking you ..._. the independent form of the verb is more emphatic (see ); _i hope to hear from you ..._, _we await further orders ..._, _we ask coöperation ..._. =d. the close= should be consistent in tone with the greeting. it is written on a separate line, beginning near the middle of the page, and is followed by a comma. only the first word is capitalized. preceding expressions like "i am", "i remain", "as ever", (if they are used at all) belong in the body of the letter. right: i thank you for your courtesy, and remain yours sincerely, robert blair right: i shall be grateful for any further information you can give me. yours truly, florence mitchell in business letters the following forms are used: yours truly, very truly yours, yours respectfully, in personal letters the following are used: yours truly, yours sincerely, sincerely yours, cordially yours, =e. the outside address should follow one of the forms given below:= +---------------------------------------------------+ | r. e. stearns | | chapel hill st. | | durham, n. c. | | | | | | mr. donald kemp | | salem street | | baltimore | | maryland | +---------------------------------------------------+ +---------------------------------------------------+ | bentley davis | | park street | | ogden, utah | | | | | | rogers, mead, and company | | eighth avenue | | los angeles | | california | +---------------------------------------------------+ note.--an abbreviation in an address is followed by a period. punctuation is also correct, but not necessary, after every line (a period after the last line, and a comma after the others). a married woman is ordinarily addressed thus: mrs. george h. turner. but a title belonging to the husband should not be transferred to the wife. wrong: mrs. dr. jenkins, mrs. professor ward. right: mrs. jenkins, mrs. ward. reverend mr. beecher is a correct address for a minister; not "rev. beecher". if a title of respect is placed before a name (professor, dr., honorable), it is undesirable to place another title after the name (secretary, m.d., ph.d., principal, esq.). =f. miscellaneous directions.= writing should be centered on the page, not crowded against the top, or against one side. letter paper so folded that each sheet is a little book of four pages is best for personal correspondence. both sides of such paper may be written on. the pages may be written on in any order which will be convenient to the reader. an order like that of the pages in a printed book ( , , , ) is best. business letters are usually written on one side only of flat sheets - / by inches in size. the sheet is folded once horizontally in the middle, and twice in the other direction, for insertion in the envelope. =g. a business letter should have, in general, the following form:= south garrison avenue. carthage, missouri, may , . j. e. pratt, general superintendent, the southwest missouri railroad company, north madison street, webb city, missouri. dear sir: i apply for a position as mechanic's assistant in the electrical department of your shops. i am nineteen years old, and in good physical condition. on june i shall graduate from carthage high school, and after that date i can begin work immediately. i have had no practical experience in electrical work. but i have for two years made a special study of physics, in and out of school. i worked last summer in the local garage of mr. r. s. bryant. in addition, i have become familiar with tools in my workshop at home, so that i both know and like machinery. for statements as to my character and ability, i refer you to r. s. bryant, manager bryant's garage; mr. frank darrow (lawyer), ninth street; w. c. barnes, superintendent of schools; and c. w. oldham, principal of the high school--all of this city. respectfully yours, howard rolfe =h. formal notes and replies are written in the third person (avoiding _i_, _my_, _me_, _you_, _your_) and permit no abbreviations except _mr._, _mrs._, _dr._ = mrs. clarence king requests the company of mr. charles eliot at dinner on friday, april the twenty-fourth, at six o'clock. pearl street, april the seventeenth. in accepting an invitation, the writer should repeat the day and hour mentioned, in order to avoid a misunderstanding; in declining an invitation, only the day need be mentioned. the verb used in the reply should be in the present tense; not "will be pleased to accept", or "regrets that he will be unable to accept"; but "is pleased to accept", or "regrets that circumstances prevent his accepting". mr. charles eliot gladly accepts the invitation of mrs. king to dinner on friday, april the twenty-fourth, at six o'clock. poplar avenue, april the eighteenth. =paragraphs= = a. the first lines of paragraphs are uniformly indented, in manuscript, about an inch; in print, somewhat less. after a sentence, the remainder of a line should not be left blank, except at the end of a paragraph.= =b. the length of a paragraph is ordinarily from fifty to three hundred words, depending on the importance or complexity of the thought.= in exposition, the paragraphs should be long enough to develop every idea thoroughly. scrappy expository paragraphs arouse the suspicion that the writer is incoherent, or that he has not given sufficient thought to the subject. short paragraphs are permissible, and even desirable, in the following cases: . in a formal introduction to the main body of a discourse, or in the formal conclusion. (in some instances the paragraph may consist of a single sentence.) . in the body of a composition, when a brief logical transition between two longer paragraphs is necessary. . in short compositions on complex subjects, where space forbids the development of each thought on a proper scale. (but, as a rule, the student should limit his subject to a few simple ideas, each of which can be developed fully.) . in newspapers, where brevity and emphasis are required. (but the student should not take the journalistic style as a model.) . in description or narration meant to be vivid, vigorous, or rapid. . in dialogue. =c. in representing dialogue, each speech, no matter how short, is placed in a separate paragraph.= right: "listen!" he said. "there was a noise outside. didn't you hear it?" "no," i whispered. it was dark in the room, except for a faint light at the window, and i felt my way cautiously to his side. "what is it? burglars?" "i believe it is." "i can't hear anything." "listen! there it is again." "pshaw!" i had to laugh aloud. "thompson's cow has got into the garden again." note that a slight amount of descriptive matter may be included in a paragraph with the direct discourse, the only requirement being that a change of speaker shall be indicated by a new paragraph. when special emphasis is desired, a quotation may be detached from a preceding introductory statement. right: the speaker turned gravely about, and facing the front row, he said slowly and solemnly: "small boys should be seen and not heard." in exceptional cases a long, rapid-fire dialogue may, for purposes of compression, be placed in one paragraph. dashes should then be used before successive quotations to indicate a change of speaker. omissions from a dialogue (as when only one side of a telephone conversation is reported), long pauses, and the unfinished part of interrupted statements, may be represented by a short row of dots. exercise: arrange in paragraphs, and insert quotation marks: . help! i cried, rolling over in the narrow crevasse, and wondering dazedly how far i had fallen through the snow. a muffled voice came from above: we'll have a rope down to you in a minute. tie that bottle of brandy on the end of it, i suggested, and it'll come faster. [the student will here insert a sentence of his own to complete the dialogue.] . good morning, james, said the deacon, suspiciously. how are you? and where are you going? i'm all right, answered the boy, and i'm goin' down to the creek. as he spoke, he tried to hide something bulky underneath his coat. you oughtn't to go fishing on sunday. [add another sentence to finish the dialogue.] = .= miscellaneous exercise the following sentences illustrate errors in the use of capitals, italics, numbers, abbreviations, etc. make necessary changes. . i met him at kansas city at a dinner of the commercial club. . the senate and the house of representatives are the two branches of congress. . in today's chicago herald the union pacific railroad advertises reduced rates to yellowstone park and the northwest. . there are men in each section in chemistry, but only in each section in french. . early in pres. wilson's administration troops crossed the rio grande river. pres. carranza protested. . in nineteen ten the population of new york city (including suburbs) was , , . . send the moving van to thirty walnut street at eight o'clock. . i like jane austen's pride and prejudice better than george eliot's adam bede. . may i call for you about : p. m., miss reynolds? . the note draws per cent interest, and is payable jan. st, . . he will remain in town until apr. th, and will then go away for the summer. he is going abroad to study the spanish and italian languages. . grays elegy in a country churchyard is perhaps the best known poem in english literature. . enclosed please find $ , for which send me the new republic for one year. . in reply to yours of - - wish to advise that we are out of stock. . i enclose $ . for a copy of bulletin # of the dept. of agriculture. thanking you, i remain ... yours respectively.... punctuation punctuation is not used for its own sake. it is used in writing as gestures, pauses, and changes of voice are used in speaking--to add force or to reveal the precise relationship of thoughts. the tendency at present is against the lavish use of punctuation. this does not mean, however, that one may do as he pleases. in minor details of punctuation there is room for individual preference, but in essential principles all trustworthy writers agree. =the period= = a. place a period after a complete declarative or imperative sentence.= =b. do not separate part of a sentence from the rest of the sentence by means of a period. (see .)= wrong: he denied the accusation. as every one expected him to do. right: he denied the accusation, as every one expected him to do. wrong: anderson wrote good editorials. the best that appeared in any paper in the city. right: anderson wrote good editorials, the best that appeared in any paper in the city. [or] anderson wrote good editorials--the best that appeared in any paper in the city. exception.--condensed or elliptical phrases established by long and frequent use may be written as separate sentences. they should be followed by appropriate punctuation--usually by a period. examples: yes. of course. really? by all means! note.--the student should distinguish clearly between a subordinate clause and a main clause. a subordinate clause is introduced by a subordinate conjunction (_when_, _while_, _if_, _as_, _since_, _although_, _that_, _lest_, _because_, _in order that_, etc.), or by a relative pronoun (_who_, _which_, _that_, etc.). since a subordinate clause does not express a complete thought, it cannot stand alone, but must be joined to a main clause to form a sentence. =c. place a period after an abbreviation.= bros. mr. e. g. ph.d. ll.d. etc. if an abbreviation falls at the end of a sentence, one period may serve two functions. exercise: . the hen clucks to her chickens. when she scratches up a worm. . before my brother could forewarn me. i had touched my tongue against the cold iron. on which it stuck. . the commission had the services of two men of international reputation. charles newman, esq. and gifford bailey, ph d. . since hugh had fished only in creeks. he was surprised that the lines were let down a hundred feet or more. the right distance for codfish. . between and virginia furnished the nation its leaders. such as the author of the declaration of independence. the orator of the revolution. the leader of the revolutionary army. the chief maker of the constitution. four of our first five presidents. and our greatest chief justice of the supreme court. =the comma= there are five principal uses of the comma: to separate clauses (a-d) to set off a parenthetical element (e) to mark a series (f-g) to introduce a quotation (h) to compel a pause for the sake of clearness (i) = a. a comma is used between clauses joined by _but_, _for_, _and_, or any other coördinating conjunction.= right: the hour arrived, but forbes did not appear. [the comma emphasizes the contrast.] right: she was glad she had looked, for a man was approaching the house. [the comma prevents the combination _looked for a man_.] right: he gave the money to burke, and reynolds received nothing. [the comma prevents confusion.] exception.--if the clauses are short and closely linked in thought, the comma may be omitted (she came and she was gone in a moment. mccoy talked and the rest of us listened.) if the clauses are long and complicated, a semicolon may be used (see b). note.--no comma should follow the conjunction. wrong: he was enthusiastic but, inexperienced. wrong: they went before the committee but, not one of them would answer a question. =b. do _not_ use a comma between independent clauses which are _not_ joined by a conjunction. use a period or a semicolon.= (this error, the "comma splice," betrays ignorance of what constitutes a unified sentence. see .) wrong: the circus had just come to town, every one wanted to see it. right: the circus had just come to town. every one wanted to see it. wrong: the story deals with the life of a youth, don juan, his mother desired to make an angel of him. right: the story deals with the life of a youth, don juan. his mother desired to make an angel of him. wrong: my courses required very hard study, did yours? right: my courses required very hard study. did yours? [or] my courses required very hard study; did yours? wrong: he will assist you without the slightest hesitation, indeed he will do so with alacrity. right: he will assist you without the slightest hesitation. indeed he will do so with alacrity. [or] he will assist you without the slightest hesitation; indeed he will do so with alacrity. exception.--short coördinate clauses which are not joined by conjunctions, but which are parallel in structure and leave a unified impression, may be joined by commas. right: he sowed, he reaped, he repented. =c. an adverbial clause which precedes a main clause is usually set off by a comma.= when long: right: while i have much confidence in his sincerity, i cannot approve his decision. [the comma marks the meeting point of clauses too long to be easily read together. brief clauses do not require the comma. right: where thou goest i will go.] when ending in words that link themselves with words in the main clause: right: if jacob finds time to plow, the garden can be planted tomorrow. [the comma prevents _plow the garden_ from being read as verb and object.] when not closely connected with the main clause in meaning: right: although they were few, they were resolute. [here the comma reveals the distinctness of the two stages of thought. in the sentence _if it freezes the skating will be good_ the distinctness of the two thoughts is less emphatic, and the comma may be omitted.] note.--the comma is usually omitted when the adverbial clause follows the main clause. right: the score stood twelve to twelve when the first half ended. [the adverbial clause is linked closely with the element it modifies, the predicate; punctuation is unnecessary. if the _when_ clause were placed before the element it does not modify, the subject, a comma should be inserted.] =d. restrictive clauses should not be set off by commas; non-restrictive clauses should be set off by commas.= (a restrictive clause is one inseparably connected with the noun or pronoun it modifies; to omit it would change the thought of the main clause. a non-restrictive clause is less vitally connected with the noun or pronoun; to omit it would not affect the thought of the main clause.) right: men who are industrious will succeed. [the relative clause restricts the meaning; it is inseparably connected with the noun it modifies, and to omit it would change the thought of the main clause.] right: thomas carlyle, who wrote forty volumes, was of peasant origin. [the relative clause is non-restrictive; it is not inseparably connected with the noun it modifies, and to omit it would not change the thought of the main clause. thus: thomas carlyle was of peasant origin.] right: where is the house that jack built? [restrictive.] right: i went to jack's house, which is across the street. [non-restrictive.] wrong: students, who are lazy, do not deserve to pass. [the sentence as it stands says that all students are lazy, and that none of them deserve to pass. without the commas, the sentence would mean that such students as are lazy do not deserve to pass.] right: students who are lazy do not deserve to pass. =the rule stated above for clauses applies also to phrases.= right. she, hearing the voice, turned quickly. [_hearing the voice_ is non-restrictive. it does not identify _she_, and the thought of the main clause is complete without it.] right: books pertaining to aeronautics are in demand. [_pertaining to aeronautics_ is restrictive. it explains what books are referred to, and without it the meaning of the main thought is changed.] right: our country, made up as it is of democratic people, lacks the centralized power of a monarchy. [non-restrictive.] right: a country made up of democratic people must be lacking in centralized power. [restrictive. _made up of democratic people_ explains _country_ and is essential to the thought of the sentence.] =e. slightly parenthetical elements are set off by commas:= direct address or explanation: write soon, henry, and tell all the news. they intend, as you know, to build a great dam across the river. his father, they say, was frugal and industrious. i, on my part, however, am unalterably opposed to the expenditure. he was, according to such reports as have reached me, altogether in the right. mild interjections: well, we shall see. come now, let's talk it over. but alas, the cupboard was bare. the custom is, oh, very old. absolute phrases: this being admitted, i shall proceed to my other evidence. geographical names which explain other names and dates which explain other dates: the convention met at madison, wisconsin, on march , . words in apposition: we arrived at austin, the capital of texas. it was archie, my best friend in boyhood. exception.--the comma is omitted ( ) when the appositive is part of a proper name. right: william the silent, alexander the great. ( ) when there is unusually close connection between the appositive and the noun it modifies. right: my one confidant was my brother robert. ( ) when the appositive is a word or phrase to which attention is called by italics or some other device which sets it apart. right: the word _sequent_ is derived from latin. right: the expression "that's fine" is one which i use indiscriminately. note.--when the parenthetical element occurs in the middle of a sentence, "set off by commas" means _punctuate before and after_. wrong: i was, madam at home yesterday. right: i was, madam, at home yesterday. wrong: i am to say the least, provoked. right: i am, to say the least, provoked. =f. consecutive adjectives that modify the same noun are separated from each other by commas. if, however, the last adjective is closely linked in meaning with the noun, no comma is used before it.= right: a short, slight, pitiable figure. right: a shrewd professional man. [_shrewd_ modifies, not _man_ alone, but _professional man_.] right: a bedraggled old rooster. [_old rooster_ has almost the force of a compound word. _bedraggled_ modifies the general idea _old rooster_.] note.--the commas in a series of adjectives are used to separate the adjectives from each other. no comma should intervene between the final adjective and the noun. wrong: he was only a frail, unarmed, frightened, youngster. right: he was only a frail, unarmed, frightened youngster. =g. words or phrases in series are separated by commas.= when the series takes the form _a, b, and c_, a comma precedes the _and_. confusing: the railroads in question are the new york central, pennsylvania and chesapeake and ohio. [the reader might surmise that the words _pennsylvania and chesapeake and ohio_ represent a single line or even three different lines.] right: the railroads in question are the new york central, pennsylvania, and chesapeake and ohio. confusing: for breakfast we had oatmeal, bacon, eggs and honey. [omission of the comma after _eggs_ suggests a mixture.] right: for breakfast we had oatmeal, bacon, eggs, and honey. =h. a comma should follow an expression like _he said_ which introduces a short quotation.= (for longer or more formal quotations use a colon.) right: he shouted, "come on! i dare you!" right: our captain replied, "we're ready." but for indirect quotations, a caution is necessary. do not place a comma between a verb and a _that_ or _how_ clause which the verb introduces. wrong: he explained, how the accident occurred. right: he explained how the accident occurred. wrong: the chauffeur told us, that the gasoline tank was empty. right: the chauffeur told us that the gasoline tank was empty. =i. a comma is used to separate parts of a sentence which might erroneously be read together.= confusing: long before she had received a letter. better: long before, she had received a letter. confusing: we turned the corner and the horse stopped throwing us off. better: we turned the corner and the horse stopped, throwing us off. confusing: through the alumni gathered there went a thrill of dismay. better: through the alumni gathered there, went a thrill of dismay. wrong: for a dime you can buy two pieces of pie or cake and ice cream. right: for a dime you can buy two pieces of pie, or cake and ice cream. right: the man whom everybody had for years regarded as a crank and a weakling, is now praised for his sagacity and his strength. right: in a situation so critical as to require the utmost coolness of mind, he lost his wits completely. [here the confusion might not be serious if the comma were omitted, but separation of the long introduction from the main clause is desirable.] =j. do not use superfluous commas:= = .= to mark a trivial pause: needless use of comma: in the road, stood a wagon. needless use of commas: the taking of notes, is a guarantee, against inattention, in class. slight pauses in a sentence are taken care of by the good sense of the reader. do not sprinkle commas when the sentence is moving along freely with no complication in the thought. right: in the road stood a wagon. right: the taking of notes is a guarantee against inattention in class. = .= to separate an adjective from its noun: wrong: a tall, solemn, antique, clock stood in the hallway. [the first two commas separate the adjectives from each other. there is no reason why _antique_ should be separated from the noun.] right: a tall, solemn, antique clock stood in the hallway. = .= before the first word or phrase in a series unless the comma would be employed if the word or phrase stood alone: wrong: he made a study of, gymnastics, medicine, and surgery. right: he made a study of gymnastics, medicine, and surgery. wrong: he had learned, to be prompt, to think clearly, and to write correctly. right: he had learned to be prompt, to think clearly, and to write correctly. exercise: . before the workmen finished eating the tunnel caved in. three italian laborers were crushed, the others with the foreman escaped. . sneed the new chairman proposed that the convention should meet at cheyenne wyoming. the suggestion however was according to reports not adopted. . he had a pen and an ink bottle was in the cupboard. by washing poor widows can earn but scant living. . saunders asked, how i liked the overland car as compared with the chalmers, the hudson and the buick. i started to reply but at that moment we were interrupted. . people, who steal watermelons, say the stolen melons are sweetest. farragut who was born in tennessee was the north's ablest naval commander. the developer is a chemical, which reduces the silver salt. =the semicolon= the semicolon represents a division in thought somewhat greater than that represented by a comma, and somewhat smaller than that represented by a period. it may represent grammatical separation and logical connection at the same time; that is, it may indicate that two statements are separate units in grammar, and are yet to be taken together to form a larger unit of logic or thought. = a. the semicolon is used between coördinate clauses which are not joined by a conjunction.= (for a possible exception see b.). wrong: he was alarmed in fact he was terrified. right: he was alarmed; in fact he was terrified. right: he drew up at the curb; he leaped from the car. note.--very often the writer may choose freely between the semicolon and the period; in such instances the use of the semicolon implies greater logical unity between the clauses than the use of the period would show. unless this logical unity is distinct, the period is to be preferred. =b. the semicolon is sometimes used between coördinate clauses which are joined by a conjunction if the clauses are long, or if the clauses have commas within themselves, or if obscurity would result were the semicolon not used.= (otherwise, see a.) right: very slowly the glow in the heavens deepened and extended itself along the eastern horizon; but at last the bright-red rim of the sun showed above the crest of the hill. right: he arrived, so they tell me, after nightfall; and immediately going to a hotel, called for a room. confusing: she enjoyed the dinners, and the dancing, and the music, and the whole gay round of fashionable life was a delight to her. better. she enjoyed the dinners, and the dancing, and the music; and the whole gay round of fashionable life was a delight to her. =c. the semicolon is used between coördinate clauses which are joined by a formal conjunctive adverb (_hence_, _thus_, _then_, _therefore_, _accordingly_, _consequently_, _besides_, _still_, _nevertheless_, or the like).= wrong: we have failed in this therefore let us try something else. right: we have failed in this; therefore let us try something else. wrong: he was tattered and muddy, besides he ate like a cormorant. right: he was tattered and muddy; besides he ate like a cormorant. note .--if a simple conjunction like _and_ is used in the sentences above, a comma will suffice. but a comma is not sufficient before a conjunctive adverb like _therefore_. conjunctive adverbs may be clearly distinguished from simple conjunctions (see a). they cannot always be easily distinguished from subordinating conjunctions (see b, note), but the distinction, when it can be made with certainty, is an aid to clear thinking. note .--good usage sometimes permits a comma to be used before a conjunctive adverb in short sentences where the break in the thought is not formal or emphatic. for instance, when the conjunctive adverb _so_ is used as a formal or emphatic connective, a semicolon is desirable (i won't go; so that's settled). but in the sentence, "i was excited, so i missed the target", a comma is sufficient. for the use of _so_ is here informal, and probably expresses degree as well as result. (compare "i was so excited that i missed the target"). =d. the semicolon is not used before quotations, or after the "dear sir" in letters. use a comma or a colon.= (see h, a, and b.) wrong: mother said; "let me get my needle." right: mother said, "let me get my needle." exercise: . the eggs tasted musty, they were cold storage eggs. . you should have seen that old, formally kept house, you should have sat in that stuffy and immaculate parlor. . i objected to the plan however since he insisted upon it i yielded. . i suppose i must go if i don't he will be anxious. . although the note is due on march , you have three days of grace, consequently you may pay it on march . =the colon= = a. the colon is used to introduce formally a word, a list, a statement or question, a series of statements or questions, or a long quotation.= right: only one man stood between burr and the presidency: jefferson. right: my favorite novels are the following: _ivanhoe_, _henry esmond_, and _the mill on the floss_. right: the difficulty is this: where is the money to come from? right: the measure must be considered from several standpoints: is it timely? is it expedient? is it just? is it superior to the other measures proposed? right: i shall do three things next year: study hard, take care of my health, and enter into various student activities. right: webster concluded with the following peroration: "when my eyes shall be turned for the last time to behold the sun in heaven," etc., etc. =b. the colon may be used before concrete illustrations of a general statement.= right: the colors were various: blue, purple, emerald, and orange. right: the day was propitious: the sun shone, the birds sang, the flowers sent forth their fragrance. exercise: . the city must have these improvements paved streets more schools better sanitation and a park. . a guild comprised men of a single class tailors, fishmongers, or goldsmiths. . everything was favorable, it was a wheat-raising district, there were no rival mills, the means of transportation were excellent. . the personal adornments of the eighteenth century "blood" were elaborate, wigs, cocked hat, colored breeches, red-heeled shoes, cane, and muff. . the chief of the engineers reported "the route, taken as a whole, is practicable enough, but near clifton, where the yards must be placed, it leads through a rocky defile." =the dash= = a. the dash may be used instead of the marks of parenthesis, especially where informality is desired.= right: she fell asleep--would you believe it?--in the middle of the lecture. right: that fellow actually--of course this is between you and me--stole money from his father. =b. insert a dash when a sentence is broken off abruptly.= right: the next morning--let's see, what happened the next morning? =c. the dash may be used near the end of a sentence, before a summarizing statement or an afterthought.= right: when you have carried in the wood and the water, and milked the cows, and fed all the stock and the poultry, and mended the harness--when you have done these things, you may consider the rest of the evening your own. right: barnes played a mischievous trick one day--in fact, barnes was always into mischief. =d. the use of the dash to end sentences is childish.= childish: at dawn i went on deck--far off to the left was a cloud, i thought, on the edge of the water--it grew more distinct as we angled toward it--it was land--before noon we had sailed into harbor. right: at dawn i went on deck. far off to the left was a cloud, i thought, on the edge of the water. it grew more distinct as we angled toward it. it was land. before noon we had sailed into harbor. =e. a dash should be made about three times as long as a hyphen; otherwise it may be mistaken as the sign of a compound word.= exercise: . the boy left the package on the where did that boy leave the package? . she was haughty independent as a queen in fact and she told him no. . the clatter of the other typewriters, the relentless movement of the hands of the clock, the calls from the press room for more copy, these made sears write like mad. . he made her acquaintance what do you think of this by scribbling his name and address on some eggs he sold to a grocer. . he obtained a position in a big department store--his good taste was quickly recognized--within a month he was dressing the windows. =parenthesis marks and brackets= = a.= parenthesis marks may be used to enclose matter foreign to the main thought of the sentence. (but see also a and e.) right: his testimony is conclusive (unless, to be sure, we find that he has perjured himself). =b. a comma or a semicolon used at the end of a parenthesis should as a rule follow the mark of parenthesis rather than precede it.= right: if there is snow on the ground (and i am sure there will be), we shall have plenty of sleighing. =c. when confirmatory symbols or figures are enclosed within parenthesis marks, they should follow rather than precede the words they confirm.= wrong: they earn ( ) dollars a day. right: they earn three ( ) dollars a day. [or] they earn three dollars ($ ) a day. =d. do not use parenthesis marks to cancel a word or passage.= draw a horizontal line through whatever is to be omitted. =e. brackets are used to insert explanatory matter in a quotation which one gives from another writer.= explanatory matter inserted by the original writer is enclosed within parenthesis marks. right: "bunyan's masterpiece (_the pilgrim's progress_)," declared the lecturer, "is out of harmony with the spirit of the age that produced it [the age of the restoration]." (here the explanatory words _the age of the restoration_ are inserted by the person who is quoting the lecturer.) exercise: . the supremacy of the horse-drawn vehicle is unless a miracle happens now gone forever. . my count shows ( ) forty-one bales of cotton in the mill yard. . [insert _the marne_ as your explanation]: "it was this battle," said the lecturer, "that made the name of joffre immortal." . [insert _florida_ as the explanation of the person you are quoting]: "in that state oranges are plentiful." . it was the opinion of bailey and events proved him right that the government must assume control of the railroads. =quotation marks= = a. quotation marks should be used to enclose a direct, but not an indirect, quotation.= right: "i am thirsty," he said. wrong: he said "that he was thirsty." right: he said that he was thirsty. =b. a quotation of several paragraphs should have quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end of the last paragraph.= =c. in narrative each separate speech, however short, should be enclosed within quotation marks=; but a single speech of several sentences should have only one set of quotation marks. wrong: "will you come? she pleaded. certainly." right: "will you come," she pleaded. "certainly." wrong: he replied, "it was not for my own sake that i did this." "there were others whom i had to consider." "i can mention no names." right: he replied, "it was not for my own sake that i did this. there were others whom i had to consider. i can mention no names." =d. quotation marks may be used with technical terms, with slang introduced into formal writing, or with nicknames=; but not with merely elevated diction, with good english that resembles slang, with nicknames that have practically become proper names, or with fictitious names from literature. permissible: the rime is called a "feminine rime". he is really "a corker". their name for my friend was "sissy". better without the quotation marks: he was awed by "the grandeur of the mountains". "a humbug". "fetch". "stonewall" jackson. he was a true "rip van winkle". =e. either quotation marks or italics may be used with words to which special attention is called.= (see the examples under e, exception, .) quotation marks are used with the titles of articles, of chapters in books, of individual short poems, and the like. italics are used with the titles of books or of periodicals, with the names of ships, and with foreign words which are still felt to be emphatically foreign. =f. a quotation within a quotation should be enclosed in single quotation marks; a quotation within that, in double marks.= right: "it required courage," the speaker said, "for a man to affirm in those days: 'i endorse every word of patrick henry's sentiment, "give me liberty, or give me death!"'" =g. when a word is followed by both a quotation mark and a question mark or an exclamation point, the question mark or the exclamation point should come first if it applies to the quotation; last, if it applies to the main sentence.= wrong: he shouted but one command, "give them the bayonet"! right: he shouted but one command, "give them the bayonet!" wrong: did savonarola say, "i recant?" right: did savonarola say, "i recant"? note.--regarding the position of a comma, semicolon, or period at the end of a quotation, usage differs. printers ordinarily place commas and periods inside the quotation marks, and semicolons outside, from considerations of spacing. but logic, not spacing, should determine the order, and all three marks should be treated alike. they should be placed within the quotation marks if they were a part of the original quotation; otherwise outside. in quoting manuscript, the quotation marks should enclose exactly what is in the original. in quoting oral discourse, a certain liberty is necessarily allowed. correct: he said calmly, "it is i." also correct, but not commonly used: he said calmly, "it is i". correct, and in common use, but slightly illogical: he began, "our father which art in heaven." [the period should follow the quotation mark, since there is no period in the original quotation.] correct, and in common use, but slightly illogical: can you tell me the difference between "apt," "likely," and "liable"; between "noted" and "notorious"? also correct: can you tell me the difference between "apt", "likely", and "liable"; between "noted" and "notorious"? =h. when a quotation is interrupted by such an expression as _he said,_= = . an extra set of quotation marks is employed, and the interpolated words are normally set off by commas.= wrong: "i rise said he to second the motion." right: "i rise," said he, "to second the motion." = . a question mark or exclamation point should precede the interpolated expression if it would be used were the expression omitted.= right: "'may i go?'" complained father, "is all that boy can ask." right: "merciful heavens!" he cried, "we are lost." = . the expression should be followed by a semicolon if the semicolon would follow the preceding words in case the expression were omitted.= right: "i admit it", he said; "it is true." = . neither the expression nor the words following it should begin with a capital.= wrong: "we must be quiet", said the old man, "if we expect to catch sight of a squirrel." right: "we must be quiet", said the old man, "if we expect to catch sight of a squirrel." =i. an omission from a quotation is indicated by dots.= right: "when a word is followed by both a quotation mark and ... an exclamation point, ... the exclamation point should come ... last, if it applies to the main sentence." [abridged citation of g above.] =j. do not use superfluous quotation marks:= . around the title at the head of a theme (unless it is a quoted title); . as a label for humor or irony. superfluous: the "abstemious" mr. crew ate an enormous dinner. better: the abstemious mr. crew ate an enormous dinner. exercise: . carew says, "that the profit comes from selling knickknacks." . what's the matter with that horse? asked williams. he's as frisky as if he had been shut up a week. . "who's your favorite character in the play?, persisted laura. is it "brutus"? no, answered howard; i admire his wife "portia". . "it's amazing, said mrs. phelps, how children love playthings. helen locke said yesterday, hughie always tells me when i am putting him to bed, i want my teddy bear". . "you see, said daugherty, the two offices across the corridor from each ether." "one is the county clerk's." "the other is the county collector's." =the apostrophe= = a. in contracted words place the apostrophe where letters are omitted, and do not place it elsewhere.= wrong: does'nt, theyr'e, oclock. right: doesn't, they're, o'clock. =b. to form the possessive of a noun, singular or plural, that does not end in _s_, add '_s_.= right: a hunter's gun, children's games, the cannon's mouth. =c. to form the possessive of a noun, singular or plural, that ends in _s_, place an apostrophe after (not before) the _s_ if there is no new syllable in pronunciation. if there is a new syllable in pronunciation, add _'s_.= wrong: moses's mandates, keat's poems, dicken's novels, those hunter's guns. right: moses' mandates, keats's poems (or keats' poems), dickens' (or dickens's) novels, those hunters' guns. =d. do not use an apostrophe with the possessive adjectives _its_, _his_, _hers_, _ours_, _yours_, and _theirs_. but _one's_, _other's_, _either's_ take the apostrophe.= =e. add _'s_ to form the plural of letters of the alphabet, of words spoken of as words, and sometimes numbers.= but do not form the regular plural of a word by adding _'s_ (see ). right: his _b's_, _ 's_ (or _ s_), and _it's_ look much alike. wrong: the jones's, the smith's, and the brown's. right: the joneses, the smiths, and the browns. exercise: . we don't know theyr'e dishonest. . the soldier's heads showed above the trenches. . five es, three es, and two es make . . pierce told the keslers that jones hogs were fatter than their's. . its three oclock by his watch; five minutes past three by her's. =the question mark and the exclamation point= = a. place a question mark after a direct question, but not after an indirect question.= wrong: what of it. what does it matter. right: what of it? what does it matter? wrong: he asked whether i belonged to the glee club? right: he asked whether i belonged to the glee club. note.--when the main sentence which introduces an indirect question is itself interrogatory, a question mark follows. right: did she inquire whether you had met her aunt? =b. a question mark is often used within a sentence, but should not be followed by a comma, semicolon, or period.= wrong: "what shall i do?," he asked. right: "what shall i do?" he asked. wrong: but where are the stocks?, the bonds?, the evidences of prosperity? right: but where are the stocks? the bonds? the evidences of prosperity? =c. a question mark within parentheses may be used to express uncertainty as to the correctness of an assertion.= right: shakespeare was born april (?), . right: in (?) was born geoffrey chaucer. =d. the use of a question mark as a label for humor or irony is childish.= superfluous: immediately the social lion (?) rose to his feet. better: immediately the social lion rose to his feet. =e. the exclamation point is used after words, expressions, or sentences to show strong emotion.= right: hark! i hear horses. give us a light there, ho! note.--the lavish use of the exclamation point is not in good taste. unless the emotion to be conveyed is strong, a comma will suffice. see e. exercise: . what is my temperature, doctor. . "shall we go by the old mill?", asked newcomb? . did wu ting fang say, "the chinese republic will survive." . he inquired whether lorado taft is the greatest living american sculptor. . farewell. othello's occupation's gone. = .= exercise in punctuation =a.= punctuate the following sentences: . why its ten oclock . it was a rainy foggy morning . arthurs cousin said lets go . i begged her to stay but she refused . his parents you know were wealthy . near by the children were playing house . ever since john has driven carefully . i smell something burning etta . well harry are you ready for a tramp . i well remember a trip which i once took . when the day has ended the twilight comes . she was a poor lonely defenseless old woman . trout bass and pickerel are often caught there . lees army was defeated at gettysburg pennsylvania on july . students who are poor appreciate the value of an education . clem rogers who is poor as jobs turkey has bought a phonograph . he had no resentment against the man who had injured him . he spoke to his father who sat on the veranda . the rifle which he used on this trip was the best he had . his long beard sticking out at an angle from his chin and his tall silk hat looked ridiculous =b.= punctuate the following sentences: . i found the work difficult did you find it so . if they had agreed to buy things would have been different but they didn't . i could satisfy myself if need be with dreams and imaginary delights she must have realities . well im not disappointed its just what i expected . hard roads are not only an advantage they are almost indispensable . the man who hesitates is lost the woman who hesitates is won . the nihilists accept no principle or creed they reject government and religion and all institutions which cramp the individuals desires . no longer are women considered weaklings although not so strong as man physically they are now assumed to have will and courage of their own . the pilgrims wished to thank god so they prepared a feast . our country roads are full of chuck holes consequently one must drive with caution . the first player advances ten paces the second eight the third six and so on . i told her it was her own fault she was too reticent and held herself aloof . he had complained of weariness therefore we left him in camp . the panama canal consists of four sections the atlantic level the lake the cut and the pacific level . there are three reasons why i do not like ford cars first they rattle second they bump and third they never wear out . protoplasm has been found to contain four elements carbon hydrogen oxygen and nitrogen but by no artificial combination can these be made into the living substance . phlox mignonette sweet peas cannas all these yield flowers until late in the fall. . he asked for hot water the mollycoddle as if this were a hotel . is this seat occupied sir asked brown who stood in the aisle . there are two types of democracy a pure democracy and a representative democracy =c.= punctuate the following sentences: . and harvey waiting all this time mind you sprang for the door . i want to go to memphis tennessee to the old house if it is still standing where i was born . my bill amounted to exactly counting the car fare nine dollars and ninety five cents . i do not believe it he cried then turning to the others in the group he asked nervously do you . which is better to borrow money for ones school expenses or to work ones way . he swore swore like a pirate and lashed the horses . dickens novel martin chuzzlewit is satirical . but what of the dakotas of minnesota of wisconsin are they to give us no political support . the grain is then run into a bin called the weighing bin from this it is let down on to the scales . lincoln showed very plainly what the phrase all men are created equal means and what its application was to the anti-slavery movement. . his name was lets see what was the fellows name. . he looks sharply for little points passed over by the average person are important to him . how uncomfortable i feel in a room whose windows are not covered by curtains i cannot describe . some time ago he moved away i was sorry because he was a fine young man . i went to the lawyers office to hear the reading of my uncles will . well well i havent seen you for years but youre the same stub nosed freckle faced good natured tom . i did not stop long to consider the football togs were nearest at hand so in they went cleated shoes trousers sweater pads headgear and the rest . today i shall outline explain and argue the subject which has already been announced to you namely the distribution of taxes in illinois . his piping voice his long crooked nose his white hair falling over the shoulders of his faded blue coat his shuffling shambling gait as he hobbled up to carletons grocery with his basket all this i shall remember as long as i live . we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these rights are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness . general exercise improve the following sentences, making as many changes as are necessary to express the thought clearly and accurately. =a.= . it don't sound right. . us fellows hadn't ought to complain. . the decision effects my brother and i alike. . following his breakfast he went up to the office. . one finds that beginning on a pipe organ is much more complicated than the piano. . she married before she was eighteen, she had never taken much interest in school work . new year's eve, a young lady who i was calling upon, and myself decided to fool the old folks. . williams drove across town at full speed, this was against the ordinances. . mr. black, who had been laying on the sofa, rose and set down by myself. . the agricultural course is a study which every person should have a great deal of knowledge along that line. . swinging around the curve, the open switch was seen in time, and directly the train stopped we rushed off of the cars. . i can say a little in regard to my expectations in connection with the next four years of my life, however. expectations of work, pleasure, and perhaps a little sorrow. . an interesting experience of mine was a collection of insects made when i studied biology. . a man can talk to an animal, and he learns to obey him by repeating certain commands. . the life of a princess as well as a hermit are made happy by a little child, as illustrated in the stories of pharaoh's daughter and silas marner. =b.= . every one in the office were busy invoicing. . their unconscious pranks and laughter is very amusing. . the tiger is a beautiful animal, it is also very ferocious. . either he or she are good companions for you. . again, take a student who has been forced to make his own way, the question may be harder to decide. . as for the proposition which is before you, if it was me, i would not even consider it. . the fly is the insect that causes more fatal deaths in a year than any other insect. . the success of a sponge cake depends upon two things. the beating of the eggs and the mixing of the flour in lightly. . james, a youth of such energy, and who is attractive in many ways, failed in his exams. . fish are only found in the deep holes, and they are hard to get at. . besides cigarettes, there are other forms of using tobacco, such as cigars, and in pipes, and chewing tobacco, making the total consumption very great. . i am endeavoring to secure for this position a man not only with ability as a manager, but one who is capable of understanding and sympathizing with rural community conditions. . any one having any question to ask or who has trouble with their camera, may write to this department. . when i hear oatmeal it nauseates me. i can see a mental picture of the breakfast table where i sat nearly all last summer. . in ones second year in high school the books to be read are burns poems, miltons paradise lost; bunyans pilgrims progress, and several of shakespeares plays. =c.= . he promised to on no consideration delay. . i heard a voice at the door which was familiar. . the most important part of a book is often to read the preface. . observing carefully, a number of errors are seen to exist. . unless one is very wealthy they cannot afford to own a car. . these kind of fellows usually make good athletes. . it was the custom of we campers to ride into town and back on freight cars, when in need of supplies. . as i was sitting near a radiator so i moved as i decided it was too warm there. . to thine own self be true is the advice polonius gave to his son. . in order that otto should not regain his political power back again, sarphina put him in jail. . for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction is the idea which emerson's essay on compensation begins. . to consult a bible encyclopedia and read it concerning easter, one learns quite a little about that religious holiday. . never try to shoot a rabbit or any animal when they are not moving, for among hunters it is very poor sportsmanship to kill any animal before they have had a chance to get away. . we find that many of whittier's poems were concerned with slavery, which he considered a very great moral wrong, and determined to do all in his power to eradicate this evil. . rhetoric is required in order that a person may learn how to express their thoughts so as to be readily understood, and the ability to do this greatly increases the value of your knowledge. =d.= . socialism is different than anarchy. . he ate the lunch instead of his sister. . the volga is the longest of any river in europe. . i come over to see if you will leave tilly go on a picnic with us tomorrow. . the value of the birds are studied and the good results taught to the older children. . despotism is where a ruler is not responsible to those under his authority. . when a boy or girl enters a high school they think they are very important. . i was anxious to begin eating, so no time was wasted by me. . they run out of ammunition, which caused them to loose the battle. . the mind is not only developed, but also the body. . he built a reservoir varying from to ft. in diameter and from to ft. high. . the most principal reason for going to college is so as to prepare myself for teaching. . while the room was not very large, yet it had a good-sized closet in which to put a trunk would be easy and lighted by a small window. . a college education is supposed to be general and thorough by training a man not only into something definite, but give him a wider scope from which to choose from. . motion pictures give actual battle scenes showing just how the different countries carry on warfare, in taking care of the wounded, making ammunition, and how they discharge the artillery, and advance or retreat. =e.= . he acted like the rest did. . he don't see anything attractive about her. . neither admiral beatty nor admiral sims are afraid to take chances. . the girl's campfire organization was organized when the boy scouts organization was proved such a success. . coal is found likely ft. from the waters edge, extending horizontally under the cliff. . it is no sure sign that just because a student has took a course in literature, that he really enjoys the best reading. . one of the most noticeable characteristics about lowell's letters were that they are brief, to the point, and emphatic. . on the license there will be found the laws regarding hunting and on the back of it tells when the different seasons are open. . the st. louis republic is a partisan democratic newspaper and thus it can be guessed as to what their editorials are like concerning political questions. . if the public in general is well posted on the subject and finds that the charity workers are in earnest, they are much more apt to donate. . some were laughing, some acted serious, others like myself were merely looking on. . entering the campus, the library is seen, which is a building nicer than all the others. . the ideal starter starts the engine perfectly without leaving the driver's seat. . the fly feeds on decayed vegetable matter, and also the decayed animal. . it is true that some people keep a fire extinguisher. it is of minor importance when considering organized fire protection. it is organized fire protection with which we are chiefly concerned, so let us dismiss the former and proceed to the latter subject. =f.= . in olden days the curfew rung everywheres at o'clock. . if a person was to become a charity worker, it would necessitate him giving time and effort. . i think most any person can appreciate a good joke when it is not on them. . your clothing for the hunt should be warm and of goods that will not tear easy. . life can be classified in four general stages. infancy, youth, maturity, and old age. . at the sound of the summons i had to arise from my downy cot and hurry to the morning repast. . he was surprised at the way people lived in the city. especially the dirt and misery of the slums. . the house is battered and dingy, being built twenty years ago by mr. robinson, and needs paint badly. . we hadn't scarcely more than begun the work when one of the engines got broke and we had to stop until it could be fixed. . neither self-denial nor self-sacrifice are to be admired, or even pardoned, at the cost of happiness, stevenson says. . the thing that took my eye most of all were the walls. pennants, pictures, and souvenirs were hanging everywhere. . grandmother had put the spectacles in the bible which she had lost. . in the summer time the weather is warm but some people are complaining of the hot weather and who wish the weather would turn cooler but is it not this kind of weather that makes the plants grow, which in turn furnish us food? . until athletics are demanded from the weaker students, the training will go to the one who does not need it, and the ones who do need it are sitting up on the bleachers exercising their lungs. . the people of olden times used pumps, but did not know why they worked, they thought it worked because "nature abhors a vacuum." =g.= . each one of these three books are interesting. . you may put this hat in any desired shape you like. . we motored over to bloomington which was much more pleasant than the train. . every one of his statements are so clear that they cannot be misconstrued what they mean. . analysis is when things are resolved into elements or parts. . she dropped the doll on the pavement, of which she was very fond. . he was offered money to keep still, but would not, thus showing his good character. . the first training center for training police dogs was in hildesheim, prussia, and was in the year . . the draining of land not only increases the yield, and it greatly lengthens the season that the land may be worked. . he next stated the number of the founders of the constitution, which were in no. . the life of doctor kingsley is a good example of a man who has succeeded. . the fortunes of our country are now standing at the cannon's mouth, and one vote may stem the tide of disaster. . there was little scenery on an elizabethan stage. while the parts intended for women were performed by men. . the cave which tom sawyer was lost in really existed. it was the cave just outside hannibal, missouri, it was near the mississippi. here was the place where mark twain was a boy. . yes, and the buildings werent what they are now, do you remember how we used to go to the old log meeting house, that was up on stilts, and the pigs crawled under the floor and raised such a disturbance that the preacher had to stop and have the pigs chased out before he could continue the sermon? index _the numbers refer to articles._ abbreviations, , c absolute expressions defined, punctuation of, e _accept_ and _except_, _ad_, addresses, b, e adjectives classes of, comparison of, distinguished from adverbs, in a series, f, j adverbs, classes of, comparison of, distinguished from adjectives, _affect_ and _effect_, _aggravate_, agreement of verbs, of pronouns, , i _ain't_, _all right_, _almost_, position of, _allusion and illusion_, _already_ and _all ready_, _and_ before a subordinate phrase or clause, , _and_ used to excess, _and which_ construction, antecedent defined, faulty reference to, - _anybody_, number of, a apostrophe in contractions, with possessive, , f application for a position, g articles, omission of, _as_, incorrect use of, a, aspect of the verb, auxiliary defined, use of, e _awful_, abuse of, balanced sentence, balanced structure, , barbarisms, _because_ clauses, _because of_ phrases, note _be_, nominative with, c _both ... and_, brackets, e brevity for emphasis, , business letters, c _bust_ or _busted_, _but_ used to excess, note _can_ and _may_, _cannot help but_, capitals, case defined, use of, cause, inaccurate statement of, _caused by_, note, , change in number or person, change in subject or voice, change in tense, , choppy sentences, _claim_, clauses cause, coördinated loosely, , defined, house-that-jack-built, misplaced, misused as sentences, , b restrictive and non-r., d subordinate. not to be used as complete sentences, subordination faulty, to be reduced to phrases, _when_ or _where_ clauses, clearness, - climax, coherence, - colon, collective nouns, number of, c colloquialisms, comma, , c notes and , b after quotation, note "comma splice" or "comma fault," not used after question mark, b comparison of adjectives and adverbs, comparisons, inaccurate, compound sentence structure in excess, , compound words, concreteness, conjugation, conjunctions defined, list of, omitted, repeated carelessly, conjunctive adverbs defined, punctuation with, c connectives, , , , consonants between syllables, , final (in spelling), construction incomplete, mixed, split, contractions apostrophe with, when proper, b coördination, excessive, , correlatives, _could of_, dangling gerund, dangling participle, dash, dates, writing of, , e declension, definition, note dialogue paragraphing, c punctuation before, h, a punctuation in, diction, faulty (list), _different than_, divided reference, _don't_, d double capacity, words in, double negative, note _drownded_, _due to_, proper use of, note, note, _each_, number of, a _ei_ or _ie_, _either_, number of, a _either ... or_, ellipsis defined, misuse of, , note _emigrate_ and _immigrate_, emphasis by brevity, by position, by repetition, by separation, by subordination, , by variety, _enthuse_, _etc._, use of, euphemism, _ever_, position of, _every_, _every one_, _everybody_, number of, a exclamation point, e exact connective, exact word, figures, use of, figures of speech, mixed, final consonant (in spelling), final _e_ before a suffix, _fine_, abuse of, fine writing, flowery language, formal invitations, h _former_, _gent_, geographical names, e gerund dangling, defined, with possessive, g good use, , _gotten_, grammar, - grammatical terms, _guess_, hackneyed expressions, _had ought_, handwriting, c _hanged_ and _hung_, _healthy_ and _healthful_, historical present, note _however_, position of, _human_, _humans_, _hygienic_ and _sanitary_, hyphen between syllables, in compound words, idioms, illogical thought, , , , imagery mixed, impersonal construction, needless use of, improprieties, incomplete construction, indefinite _it_, _you_, _they_, note indention of paragraphs, inflection, infinitive case with, e defined, sign of, to be repeated, split, tense of, _instants_ and _instance_, interjections defined, punctuation of, c, e invitations, formal, h _is when_ clauses, _is where_ clauses, italics, , e its (possessive adjective), without apostrophe, f, d _kind of_, _later_ and _latter_, _lead_ and _led_, _learn_ and _teach_, _leave_ and _let_, length of paragraph, b length of sentences, , , b _less_ and _fewer_, letters, _liable_ and _likely_, _lie_ and _lay_, d, _like_ (for _as_), , list of connectives, of principal parts, of grammatical terms, of words confused in meaning, of words incorrectly used, of words logically akin, of words confused in spelling, for spelling, _loan_, _locate_, logic, , , , logical agreement, , , logical sequence, _lose_ and loose, _lots of_, _majority_ and _plurality_, manuscript, _might of_, misplaced word, mixed constructions, mixed imagery, modal aspects, mode definition of, use of subjunctive, d modifiers grouping of, , needless separation of, , squinting, wrongly used as sentences, , b money, c _most_ (for _almost_), , _myself_, needlessly used for _i_ or _me_, negative, double, note _neither_, number of, a _neither ... nor_, _nice_, inaccurate use of, , nicknames, quotations with, d _not only ... but also_, nouns, classes of, number shift in, _these kind_, etc., b _each_, _every_, etc., a collective nouns, c of verbs, numbers, use of, formation of plural, d, e _o_ and _oh_, objective case, d, e _off of_, omission of words, from quotations, i _only_, position of, outlines, overlapping thought, note _owing to_, proper use of, note paragraphs, parallel structure, , , parenthesis and parenthetical elements, e, a, participle dangling, definition of, parts of speech, _party_, abuse of, passive voice, not emphatic, past tense, wrong forms of, past perfect tense, period, , b, a note after quotation, g note not used after question mark, b "period blunder," , b periodic sentence, person, change in, phonetic spelling, note phrases defined, not to be used as sentences, note absolute, e plurals, spelling of, poetry to be separated from prose, , b point of view, shift in, ponderous language, possessive with gerund, g apostrophe with, f, inanimate objects in, h _practical and practicable_, predicate adjective, predicate noun, prefixes, prepositions defined, omitted, , repeated carelessly, principal parts, _principal_ and _principle_, pronouns agreement with antecedent, i case of, kinds of, reference of, , , wrong use of _myself_, _yourself_, for _i_, _me_, _you_, pronunciation as a guide to spelling, _proof_ and _evidence_, _proposition_, synonyms for, _proven_, _pseudo-_ and _quasi-_, _quiet_ and _quite_, question mark, quotation marks _vs._ italics, a note , e quotations punctuation before, h, d, a punctuation of, reason, statement of, to be completed by a _that_ clause, redundance, reference ambiguous, broad, divided, impersonal, note remote, to a clause, to a title, note to an unemphatic word, weak, reflexive wrongly used for the simple pronoun, repetition of connectives, good, ; bad, of structure, good b; bad b of words, good, a; bad, a _respectfully_ and _respectively_, restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, d _right smart_, _rise_ and _raise_, d, _said_, synonyms for, _same_, abuse of, scrappy sentences, semicolon, b, , b after quotation, g note not used after question mark, b sequence of tense, sequence of thought, series, punctuation of, f, g, j _shall_ and _will_, shift in number, person, or tense, shift in subject or voice, _should_ and _would_, _sit_ and _set_, d, slang, quotations with, d _so_, note, _some_, abuse of, _somewheres_, sound, spacing, b specific words, spelling, - split construction, split infinitive, squinting, _stationary_ and _stationery_, _statue_, _stature_, and _statute_, stringy sentences, , subject in nominative case, a subjunctive mode defined, use of, d subordinating conjunctions defined, enumerated, subordination necessary, , , faulty, , , , _and which_, substantive defined, _such_, suffixes, , superlative degree in comparisons, , _sure_ and _surely_, _suspicion_, syllabication, syntax defined, tautology, note technical terms, quotations with, d tense in dependent clauses, a in general statements, c past perfect, b sequence of, shift in, _than_ or _as_, case of pronouns after, a _that there_, _them_ (misused as adjective), _these kind_, b _those_, omission of relative clause after, , thought undeveloped, title capitals in, reference to, note spacing, etc., a, j quoted (books, periodicals, etc.), a, e transitions, , _transpire_, triteness, undeveloped thought, unity, - upside-down subordination, usage, good, , verbals, verb, forms of the, _ways_, weak reference, _where at_, _while_, abuse of, _win out_, _who_, _whoever_, b _woods_, _would of_, wordiness, words confused in meaning, confused in spelling, double capacity of, misused, omission of, _yourself_ wrongly used for _you_, transcriber's notes: article , missing period added (many passages are powerful, especially the grave-digging [is grave-digging a passage?].) article , changed period to colon (exercise:) article , changed period to colon (exercise:) article , added missing article "a" (in the morning i found on my bed a heap of snow...) article , changed "them" to "then" (do not begin one idea, abandon it for a second, and then return to the first.) article , added missing comma (not only ... but also ..., both ... and ...) article , changed "men to "man" (he was undoubtedly a brave man...) article , changed "trangressions" to "transgressions" (however, if it is used only for serious transgressions...) article , added missing parenthesis ((consult for a list of connectives.)) article , changed period to colon (exercise:) article , changed "i was being taken" to "i must be taken" in the conjugation table for the verb "to take" as present indicative obligative in passive voice article , changed "idoms" to "idioms" (study the following list of correct idioms) article , added missing commas (ain't it fierce?, can you beat it?, going some) article , added missing quotation mark ("we oughtn't (not hadn't ought) to make this error.") article , changed "verb" to "very" (very. accompanied by much when used with the past participle.) article , removed italic style for the word "compare" (compare occasion) article , corrected numbering in a list changing " ." to " ." ( . place in order the headings of the following outline) article , added missing parenthesis ((in some instances the paragraph may consist of a single sentence.)) article , changed comma to period (we'll have a rope down to you in a minute.) article , added missing parenthesis ((she came and she was gone in a moment. mccoy talked and the rest of us listened.)) article , changed period to colon (right: for breakfast we had oatmeal, bacon, eggs, and honey.) article , changed period to colon (better: she enjoyed the dinners, and the dancing, and the music) article , changed "d." to "b.", and "b." to "d." (b. insert a dash when a sentence is broken off abruptly.; d. the use of the dash to end sentences is childish.) article , changed "dedeclared" to "declared" ("bunyan's masterpiece (the pilgrim's progress)," declared the lecturer) index, changed period to comma (impersonal construction, needless use of) [transcriber's notes] original "misspellings" such as "fulness" are unchanged. unfamiliar (to me) words are defined on the right side of the page in square brackets. for example: abstemious diet [abstemious = eating and drinking in moderation.] the blandness of contemporary ( ) speech would be relieved by the injection of some of these gems: "phraseological quagmire" "windy speech which hits all around the mark like a drunken carpenter." [end transcriber's notes] by grenville kleiser how to build mental power a book of thorough training for all the faculties of the mind. octa cloth, $ . , net; by mail, $ . . how to speak in public a practical self-instructor for lawyers, clergymen, teachers, businessmen, and others. cloth, pages, $ . . net; by mail, $ . . how to develop self-confidence in speech and manner a book of practical inspiration: trains men to rise above mediocrity and fearthought to their great possibilities. commended to ambitious men. cloth. pages, $ . . net; by mail, $ . . how to develop power and personality in speaking practical suggestions in english, word-building, imagination, memory conversation, and extemporaneous speaking. cloth, pages, $ . net; by mail, $ . . how to read and declaim a course of instruction in reading and declamation which will develop graceful carriage, correct standing, and accurate enunciation; and will furnish abundant exercise in the use of the best examples of prose and poetry. cloth, $ . , net; by mail, $ . . great speeches and how to make them in this work mr. kleiser points out methods by which young men may acquire and develop the essentials of forcible public speaking. cloth $ . , net; by mail, $ . . how to argue and win ninety-nine men in a hundred know how to argue to one who can argue and win. this book tells how to acquire this power. cloth, pages, $ . , net; by mail, $ . , humorous hits and how to hold an audience a collection of short stories, selections and sketches for all occasions. cloth, pages, $ . , net; by mail. $ . . complete guide to public speaking the only extensive, comprehensive encyclopedic work of its kind ever issued. the best advice by the world's great authorities upon oratory, preaching, platform and pulpit delivery, voice-building, argumentation, debate, rhetoric, personal power, mental development, etc. cloth, pages, $ . : by mail. $ . . talks on talking practical suggestions for developing naturalness, sincerity, and effectiveness in conversation. cloth, $ . , net; by mail, $ . . fifteen thousand useful phrases a practical handbook of felicitous expressions for enriching the vocabulary. mo, cloth, $ . , net; by mail. $ . . inspiration and ideals practical help and inspiration in right thinking and right living. mo, cloth, $ . , net: by mail, $ . . the world's great sermons masterpieces of pulpit oratory and biographical sketches of the speakers. cloth, volumes. write for terms. grenville kleiser's personal lessons in public speaking and the development of self-confidence, mental power, and personality. twenty-five lessons, with special handbooks, side-talks, personal letters. etc. write for terms. grenville kleiser's personal lessons in practical english twenty lessons, with daily drills, special books, personal letters, etc. write for terms. fifteen thousand useful phrases a practical handbook of pertinent expressions, striking similes, literary. commercial, conversational, and oratorical terms, for the embellishment of speech and literature, and the improvement of the vocabulary of those persons who read, write. and speak english by grenville kleiser formerly instructor in public speaking at yale divinity school, yale university; author of "how to speak in public," "how to develop power and personality in speaking," "how to develop self-confidence in speech and manner," "how to argue and win," "how to read and declaim," "complete guide to public speaking," etc. with an introduction by frank h. vizetelly, litt.d., ll.d. fifth edition funk & wagnalls company new york and london copyright, , by funk & wagnalls company (printed in the united states of america) ----- copyright under the articles of the copyright convention of the pan-american republics and the united states, august , ------ published. october, one cannot always live in the palaces and state apartments of language, but we can refuse to spend our days in searching for its vilest slums. --william watson words without thought are dead sounds; thoughts without words are nothing. to think is to speak low; to speak is to think aloud. --max muller the first merit which attracts in the pages of a good writer, or the talk of a brilliant conversationalist, is the apt choice and contrast of the words employed. it is indeed a strange art to take these blocks rudely conceived for the purpose of the market or the bar, and by tact of application touch them to the finest meanings and distinctions. --robert louis stevenson it is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. --southey no noble or right style was ever yet founded but out of a sincere heart. --ruskin words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --byron a good phrase may outweigh a poor library. --thomas w. higginson plan of classification section i. useful phrases ii. significant phrases iii. felicitous phrases iv. impressive phrases v. prepositional phrases vi. business phrases vii. literary expressions viii. striking similes ix. conversational phrases x. public speaking phrases xi. miscellaneous phrases introduction the most powerful and the most perfect expression of thought and feeling through the medium of oral language must be traced to the mastery of words. nothing is better suited to lead speakers and readers of english into an easy control of this language than the command of the phrase that perfectly expresses the thought. every speaker's aim is to be heard and understood. a clear, crisp articulation holds an audience as by the spell of some irresistible power. the choice word, the correct phrase, are instruments that may reach the heart, and awake the soul if they fall upon the ear in melodious cadence; but if the utterance be harsh and discordant they fail to interest, fall upon deaf ears, and are as barren as seed sown on fallow ground. in language, nothing conduces so emphatically to the harmony of sounds as perfect phrasing--that is, the emphasizing of the relation of clause to clause, and of sentence to sentence by the systematic grouping of words. the phrase consists usually of a few words which denote a single idea that forms a separate part of a sentence. in this respect it differs from the clause, which is a short sentence that forms a distinct part of a composition, paragraph, or discourse. correct phrasing is regulated by rests, such rests as do not break the continuity of a thought or the progress of the sense. grenville kleiser, who has devoted years of his diligent life to imparting the art of correct expression in speech and writing, has provided many aids for those who would know not merely what to say, but how to say it. he has taught also what the great holmes taught, that language is a temple in which the human soul is enshrined, and that it grows out of life--out of its joys and its sorrows, its burdens and its necessities. to him, as well as to the writer, the deep strong voice of man and the low sweet voice of woman are never heard at finer advantage than in the earnest but mellow tones of familiar speech. in the present volume mr. kleiser furnishes an additional and an exceptional aid for those who would have a mint of phrases at their command from which to draw when in need of the golden mean for expressing thought. few indeed are the books fitted to-day for the purpose of imparting this knowledge, yet two centuries ago phrase-books were esteemed as supplements to the dictionaries, and have not by any manner of means lost their value. the guide to familiar quotations, the index to similes, the grammars, the readers, the machine-made letter-writer of mechanically perfect letters of congratulation or condolence--none are sententious enough to supply the need. by the compilation of this praxis, mr. kleiser has not only supplied it, but has furnished a means for the increase of one's vocabulary by practical methods. there are thousands of persons who may profit by the systematic study of such a book as this if they will familiarize themselves with the author's purpose by a careful reading of the preliminary pages of his book. to speak in public pleasingly and readily and to read well are accomplishments acquired only after many days, weeks even, of practise. foreigners sometimes reproach us for the asperity and discordance of our speech, and in general, this reproach is just, for there are many persons who do scanty justice to the vowel-elements of our language. although these elements constitute its music they are continually mistreated. we flirt with and pirouette around them constantly. if it were not so, english would be found full of beauty and harmony of sound. familiar with the maxim, "take care of the vowels and the consonants will take care of themselves,"--a maxim that when put into practise has frequently led to the breaking-down of vowel values--the writer feels that the common custom of allowing "the consonants to take care of themselves" is pernicious. it leads to suppression or to imperfect utterance, and thus produces indistinct articulation. the english language is so complex in character that it can scarcely be learned by rule, and can best be mastered by the study of such idioms and phrases as are provided in this book; but just as care must be taken to place every accent or stress on the proper syllable in the pronouncing of every word it contains, so must the stress or emphasis be placed on the proper word in every sentence spoken. to read or speak pleasingly one should resort to constant practise by doing so aloud in private, or preferably, in the presence of such persons as know good reading when they hear it and are masters of the melody of sounds. it was dean swift's belief that the common fluency of speech in many men and most women was due to scarcity of matter and scarcity of words. he claimed that a master of language possessed a mind full of ideas, and that before speaking, such a mind paused to select the choice word--the phrase best suited to the occasion. "common speakers," he said, "have only one set of ideas, and one set of words to clothe them in," and these are always ready on the lips. because he holds the dean's view sound to-day, the writer will venture to warn the readers of this book against a habit that, growing far too common among us, should be checked, and this is the iteration and reiteration in conversation of "the battered, stale, and trite" phrases, the like of which were credited by the worthy dean to the women of his time. human thought elaborates itself with the progress of intelligence. speech is the harvest of thought, and the relation which exists between words and the mouths that speak them must be carefully observed. just as nothing is more beautiful than a word fitly spoken, so nothing is rarer than the use of a word in its exact meaning. there is a tendency to overwork both words and phrases that is not restricted to any particular class. the learned sin in this respect even as do the ignorant, and the practise spreads until it becomes an epidemic. the epidemic word with us yesterday was unquestionably "conscription"; several months ago it was "preparedness." before then "efficiency" was heard on every side and succeeded in superseding "vocational teaching," only to be displaced in turn by "life extension" activities. "safety-first" had a long run which was brought almost to abrupt end by "strict accountability," but these are mere reflections of our cosmopolitan life and activities. there are others that stand out as indicators of brain-weariness. these are most frequently met in the work of our novelists. english authors and journalists are abusing and overworking the word intrigue to-day. sir arthur quillercouch on page of his book "on the art of writing" uses it: "we are intrigued by the process of manufacture instead of being wearied by a description of the ready-made article." mrs. sidgwick in "salt and savour," page , wrote: "but what intrigued her was little mamma's remark at breakfast," from the parliamentary news, one learns that "mr. harcourt intrigued the house of commons by his sustained silence for two years" and that "london is interested in, and not a little intrigued, by the statement." this use of intrigue in the sense of "perplex, puzzle, trick, or deceive" dates from . then it fell into a state of somnolence, and after an existence of innocuous desuetude lasting till it was revived, only to hibernate again until . it owes its new lease of life to a writer on the westminster gazette, a london journal famous for its competitions in aid of the restoring of the dead meanings of words. one is almost exasperated by the repeated use and abuse of the word "intimate" in a recently published work of fiction, by an author who aspires to the first rank in his profession. he writes of "the intimate dimness of the room;" "a fierce intimate whispering;" "a look that was intimate;" "the noise of the city was intimate," etc. who has not heard, "the idea!" "what's the idea?" "is that the idea?" "yes, that's the idea," with increased inflection at each repetition. and who is without a friend who at some time or another has not sprung "meticulous" upon him? another example is afforded by the endemic use of "of sorts" which struck london while the writer was in that city a few years ago. whence it came no one knew, but it was heard on every side. "she was a woman of sorts;" "he is a tory of sorts;" "he had a religion of sorts;" "he was a critic of sorts." while it originally meant "of different or various kinds," as hats of sorts; offices of sorts; cheeses of sorts, etc., it is now used disparagingly, and implies something of a kind that is not satisfactory, or of a character that is rather poor. this, as shakespeare might have said, is "sodden business! there's a stewed phrase indeed!" [footnote: troilus and cressida, act iii, sc. .] the abuse of phrases and the misuse of words rife among us can be checked by diligent exercises in good english, such as this book provides. these exercises, in conjunction with others to be found in different volumes by the same author, will serve to correct careless diction and slovenly speech, and lead to the art of speaking and writing correctly; for, after all, accuracy in the use of words is more a matter of habit than of theory, and once it is acquired it becomes just as easy to speak or to write good english as bad english. it was chesterfield's resolution not to speak a word in conversation which was not the fittest he could recall. all persons should avoid using words whose meanings they do not know, and with the correct application of which they are unfamiliar. the best spoken and the best written english is that which conforms to the language as used by men and women of culture--a high standard, it is true, but one not so high that it is unattainable by any earnest student of the english tongue. frank h. vizetelly. how to use this book the study of words, phrases, and literary expressions is a highly interesting pursuit. there is a reciprocal influence between thought and language. what we think molds the words we use, and the words we use react upon our thoughts. hence a study of words is a study of ideas, and a stimulant to deep and original thinking. we should not, however, study "sparkling words and sonorous phrases" with the object of introducing them consciously into our speech. to do so would inevitably lead to stiltedness and superficiality. words and phrases should be studied as symbols of ideas, and as we become thoroughly familiar with them they will play an unconscious but effective part in our daily expression. we acquire our vocabulary largely from our reading and our personal associates. the words we use are an unmistakable indication of our thought habits, tastes, ideals, and interests in life. in like manner, the habitual language of a people is a barometer of their intellectual, civil, moral, and spiritual ideals. a great and noble people express themselves in great and noble words. ruskin earnestly counsels us to form the habit of looking intensely at words. we should scrutinize them closely and endeavor to grasp their innermost meaning. there is an indefinable satisfaction in knowing how to choose and use words with accuracy and precision. as fox once said, "i am never at a loss for a word, but pitt always has the word." all the great writers and orators have been diligent students of words. demosthenes and cicero were indefatigable in their study of language. shakespeare, "infinite in faculty," took infinite pains to embody his thought in words of crystal clearness. coleridge once said of him that one might as well try to dislodge a brick from a building with one's forefinger as to omit a single word from one of his finest passages. milton, master of majestic prose, under whose touch words became as living things; flaubert, who believed there was one and one only best word with which to express a given thought; de quincey, who exercised a weird-like power over words; ruskin, whose rhythmic prose enchanted the ear; keats, who brooded over phrases like a lover; newman, of pure and melodious style; stevenson, forever in quest of the scrupulously precise word; tennyson, graceful and exquisite as the limpid stream; emerson, of trenchant and epigrammatic style; webster, whose virile words sometimes weighed a pound; and lincoln, of simple, saxon speech,--all these illustrious men were assiduous in their study of words. many persons of good education unconsciously circumscribe themselves within a small vocabulary. they have a knowledge of hundreds of desirable words which they do not put into practical use in their speech or writing. many, too, are conscious of a poverty of language, which engenders in them a sense of timidity and self-depreciation. the method used for building a large vocabulary has usually been confined to the study of single words. this has produced good results, but it is believed that eminently better results can be obtained from a careful study of words and expressions, as furnished in this book, where words can be examined in their context. it is intended and suggested that this study should be pursued in connection with, and as a supplement to, a good standard dictionary. fifteen minutes a day devoted to this subject, in the manner outlined, will do more to improve and enlarge the vocabulary than an hour spent in desultory reading. there is no better way in which to develop the mental qualities of clearness, accuracy, and precision, and to improve and enlarge the intellectual powers generally, than by regular and painstaking study of judiciously selected phrases and literary expressions. plan of study first examine the book in a general way to grasp its character, scope, and purpose. carefully note the following plan of classification of the various kinds of phrases, and choose for initial study a section which you think will be of the most immediate value to you. i. useful phrases ii. significant phrases iii. felicitous phrases iv. impressive phrases v. prepositional phrases vi. business phrases vii. literary expressions viii. striking similes ix. conversational phrases x. public speaking phrases xi. miscellaneous phrases there are many advantages in keeping before you a definite purpose in your study of this book. a well-defined plan will act as an incentive to regular and systematic effort, and incidentally develop your power of concentration. it is desirable that you set apart a certain convenient time each day for this study. regularity tends to produce maximum results. as you progress with this work your interest will be quickened and you will realize the desirability of giving more and more time to this important subject. when you have chosen a section of the book which particularly appeals to you, begin your actual study by reading the phrases aloud. read them slowly and understandingly. this tends to impress them more deeply upon your mind, and is in itself one of the best and most practical ways of acquiring a large and varied vocabulary. moreover, the practise of fitting words to the mouth rapidly develops fluency and facility of speech. few persons realize the great value of reading aloud. many of the foremost english stylists devoted a certain period regularly to this practise. cardinal newman read aloud each day a chapter from cicero as a means of developing his ear for sentence-rhythm. rufus choate, in order to increase his command of language, and to avoid sinking into mere empty fluency, read aloud daily, during a large part of his life, a page or more from some great english author. as a writer has said, "the practise of storing the mind with choice passages from the best prose writers and poets, and thus flavoring it with the essence of good literatures, is one which is commended both by the best teachers and by the example of some of the most celebrated orators, who have adopted it with signal success." this study should be pursued with pencil in hand, so that you may readily underscore phrases which make a special appeal to you. the free use of a pencil in marking significant parts of a book is good evidence of thoroughness. this, too, will facilitate your work of subsequent review. the habit of regularly copying, in your own handwriting, one or more pages of phrases will be of immense practical value. this exercise is a great aid in developing a facile english style. the daily use of the pen has been recommended in all times as a valuable means of developing oral and literary expression. a helpful exercise is to pronounce a phrase aloud and then fit it into a complete sentence of your own making. this practice gives added facility and resourcefulness in the use of words. as an enthusiastic student of good english, you should carefully note striking and significant phrases or literary expressions which you find in your general reading. these should be set down in a note-book reserved for this exclusive purpose. in this way you can prepare many lists of your own, and thus greatly augment the value of this study. the taste for beauty, truth, and harmony in language can be developed by careful study of well-selected phrases and literary expressions as furnished in this book. a good literary style is formed principally by daily study of great english writers, by careful examination of words in their context, and by a discriminating use of language at all times. grenville kleiser. new york city, july, section i useful phrases a abandoned hope abated pride abbreviated visit abhorred thraldom [thraldom = enslaved or in bondage] abiding romance abject submission abjured ambition able strategist abnormal talents abominably perverse abounding happiness abridged statement abrogated law abrupt transition absolutely irrevocable absorbed reverie abstemious diet [abstemious = eating and drinking in moderation] abstract character abstruse reasoning absurdly dangerous abundant opportunity abusive epithet abysmally apologetic academic rigor accelerated progress accentuated playfulness accepted littleness accessible pleasures accessory circumstances accidental lapse accommodating temper accomplished ease accredited agent accumulated burden accurate appraisement accursed enemy accusing glance accustomed lucidity aching desire acknowledged authority acoustical effects acquired timidity acrid controversy acrimonious warfare actively zealous actualized ideals acutely conscious adamantine rigidity [adamantine = unyielding; inflexible] adaptive wit adduced facts [adduce = cite as an example] adequate execution adhesive quality administered rebuke admirable reserve admissible evidence admittedly inferior admonitory gesture adolescent youth adorable vanity adroit flatterer adulated stranger adventitious way [adventitious = not inherent; added extrinsically] adventurous mind adverse experience affably accommodating affected indifference affectionate approval affianced lady affirmative attitude affluent language affrighted slave aggravated faults aggregate body aggressive selfishness agile mind agitated imagination agonizing appeal agreeable frankness aimless confusion airy splendor alarming rapidity alert acceptance algebraic brevity alien splendor alleged reluctance allegorical vein allied subjects alliterative suggestion all-pervading influence alluring idleness alternating opinion altogether dissimilar altruistic ideal amatory effusions [amatory = expressive of sexual love] amazing artifice ambidextrous assistant ambiguous grimace ambitious project ambling pedestrian ambrosial essence [ambrosial = fragrant or delicious; worthy of the gods; divine.] amiable solicitude amicable arrangement amorous youth ample culture amusing artlessness analogous example analytical survey ancestral creed ancient garb angelic softness angry protestations anguished entreaty angular features animated eloquence annoying complications anomalous appearance anonymous benefactor answering response antagonistic views antecedent facts anticipated attention antiquated prudery anxious misgiving apathetic greeting aphoristic wit [aphoristic = tersely phrased statement] apish agility apocalyptic vision apocryphal lodger [apocryphal = questionable authenticity] apologetic explanation apostrophic dignity appalling difficulties apparent significance appealing picture appointed function apposite illustration appreciable relief appreciative fervor apprehensive dread apprentice touch appropriate designation approving smile approximately correct aptly suggested arbitrarily imposed arch conspirator arched embrasure [embrasure = flared opening for a gun in a wall or parapet] archeological pursuits architectural grandeur ardent protest arduous quest arid formula aristocratic lineage aromatic fragrance arrant trifling arrested development arrogant imposition artful adaptation artificial suavity artistic elegance artless candor ascending supremacy ascetic devotion ascribed productiveness aspiring genius assembled arguments asserted activity assiduously cultivated assimilative power assumed humiliation assuredly enshrined astonishing facility astounding mistakes astute observer athletic prowess atmospheric vagueness atoning sacrifice atrocious expression atrophied view attending circumstances attentive deference attenuated sound attested loyalty attractive exordium [exordium = introduction of a speech or treatise] audacious mendicant [mendicant = depending on alms; beggar] audible intimations augmented force august tribunal auspicious moment austere charm authentic indications authoritative critic autobiographical pages autocratic power automatic termination autumnal skies auxiliary aids available data avaricious eyes avenging fate average excellence averted calamity avowed intention awakened curiosity awed devotion awful dejection awkward dilemma axiomatic truth azure sky b babbling gossip bacchanalian desires bachelor freedom bad omen baffled sagacity [sagacity = farsighted; wise] balanced capacity baldly described baleful glances balmy fragrance bandying talk baneful impression banished silence barbarous statecraft barefaced appeal barest commonplaces barren opportunities base intrigues baseless assumptions bashful modesty basic principles battered witticism beaming countenance bearish rudeness beatific vision beautiful modesty beckoning horizon becoming diffidence bedraggled wretch befitting honor beggarly flimsiness beguiling voice belated acknowledgment belittling fears bellicose humanity beneficent career benevolent regard benighted sense benignant pity [benignant = favorable; beneficial; kind] beseeching gesture besetting heresy besotted fanaticism bestial ferocity bewildering maze bewitching airs beyond peradventure [peradventure = perhaps] bibulous diversions [bibulous = consumes alcoholic drink] bigoted contempt binding obligation bitter recrimination bizarre apparel blackening west blameless indolence blanched desolation bland confidence blank misgivings blasphemous hypocrisy blatant discourse blazing audacity blazoned shield bleak loneliness blended impression blessed condolence blighted happiness blind partizan blissful consciousness blistering satire blithe disregard bloated equivalent bloodless creature bloodthirsty malice blundering discourtesy blunt rusticity [rusticity = rustic; awkward or tactless] blurred vision blustering assertion boastful positiveness bodily activity boisterous edification bold generalization bombastic prating [prating = idle talk] bookish precision boon companion boorish abuse bored demeanor borrowed grace bottomless abyss boundless admiration bountiful supply boyish appreciation braggart pretense bravely vanquished braying trumpet brazen importunity [importunity = insistent request] breathless eagerness brief tenure briefless barrister bright interlude brilliant embodiment brisk energy bristling temper brittle sarcasm broadening fame broken murmurs brooding peace brutal composure bubbling frivolities bucolic cudgeling [bucolic = about shepherds or flocks; pastoral] [cudgeling = beat with a short heavy stick] budding joy bulky figure buoyant pluck burdensome business burly strength burning zeal bursting laugh busily engrossed business acumen bygone period c cabalistic phrase [cabalistic = secret or hidden meaning] cadaverous appearance calamitous course calculating admiration callous indifference calm resignation calumnious suspicions [calumnious = harmful and often untrue; discredit] cantankerous enemy canting hypocrite [canting = monotonous platitudes; hypocritically pious] capacious mind capricious allurements captivating speech cardinal merit careless parrying caressing grasp carping critic castellated towers [castellated = with turrets and battlements like a castle] casual violation cataclysmic elements causelessly frightened caustic remark cautious skepticism cavernous gloom ceaseless vigilance celebrated instance celestial joy censorious critic centralized wealth ceremonious courtesy cerulean blue [cerulean = azure; sky-blue] challenge admiration chance reflections changing exigencies [exigencies = pressing or urgent situation] chaotic plans characteristic audacity charitable allowance charming radiance chary instincts [chary = cautious; wary] chastened hope chatty familiarity cheap resentment cheery response chequered career cherished objects childlike ingenuousness [ingenuous = frank; candid.] chilled cynicism chirpy familiarities chivalrous spirit choicest refinements choleric temperament [choleric = easily angered; bad-tempered] choral chant chronic frailties churlish temper [churlish = boorish; vulgar; rude] circling eddyings circuitous information circumscribed purpose civic consciousness civilizing influence clammy death clamorous vibration clangorous industry clarion tone class demarcations classical objurgation [objurgation = harsh rebuke] clattering accents clear insight climactic revelation clinching proof cloaked nature cloistered virtue close condensation cloudy magnificence clownishly insensible cloying sweetness [cloying = too filling, rich, or sweet] clumsy talk clustering trees coarse necessity coaxing eloquence coercive enactment cogent statement coherent thinking coined metaphor cold formalities collateral duties collective wisdom colloquial display colonial character colossal failure comatose state combative tone comforting reassurance comic infelicity commanding attitude commendable purpose commercial opulence commingled emotion commodiously arranged common substratum commonplace allusions compact fitness comparative scantiness compassionate love compelling force compendious abstract compensatory character competent authority competitive enterprise complacent platitudes complaining sea complaisant observation complete aloofness complex notions complicated maze complimentary glance component aspects composed zeal composite growth compound idea comprehensive design compressed view compromising rashness compulsory repetition compunctious visitings [compunctious = feeling guilt] concatenated pedantries [pedantries = attention to detail or rules] concealed advantage conceivable comparison concentrated vigor concerted action conciliating air concomitant events concrete realities concurrent testimony condemnable rashness condescending badinage [badinage = frivolous banter] conditional approval confessed ardor confidently anticipated confirmed misanthrope [misanthrope = one who dislikes people in general] conflicting influences confused mingling conjectural estimate conjugal felicity connected series connotative damage connubial love conquering intelligence conscientious objection conscious repugnance consecrated endeavor consequent retribution conservative distrust considerate hint consistent friendliness consoling consciousness conspicuous ascendency constant reiteration constitutional reserve constrained politeness constructive idealists consuming zeal consummate mastery contagious wit contaminating influence contemplative nature contemporary fame contemptuous disrespect contented indolence contingent reasons continuous endeavor contorted expression contracted view contradictory theories contrary tendencies contrasted types controversial disputant contumelious epithet [contumelious = rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance] convenient footing conventional verbiage conversational decorum convincing forcefulness convivial habits convulsive agony cool confidence copious materials coquettish advances cordial approval corporate selfishness corporeal constituent correct forecast corresponding variation corroborated truth corrosive effect corrupting tendency cosmical changes cosmopolitan position costly advantages counterbalancing power countless barriers courageous eagerness courteous solicitude courtly bearing covert curiosity coveted honors cowardly concession cowering agitation coy reluctance crackling laughter crafty deception craggy eminence cramped energies crass stolidity craven determination creative faculty credibly informed creditable performance credulous superstition creeping progress criminal negligence cringing smile crisp dialogue critical judgment crouching culprit crowning indiscretion crucial instance crucifying irony crude affectation cruel handicap crumbling precipice crunching jangle crushing sorrow cryptic saying crystalline sky crystallized conclusions culinary myrmidons [myrmidon = one who carries out orders without question] culminating fascination culpable behavior cultivated ferocity cultured idleness cumbrous fragments [cumbrous = cumbersome; difficult to handle or use] cumulative tendency cunningly contrived curbed profligacy curious coincidence current gossip curry favor cursed inactivity cursory acquaintance curt formality curtained embrasure cutting directness cycloramic sweep cynical disregard d damaging admission damask cheek [damask = rich patterned fabric; wavy pattern on damascus steel] dampened ardor dancing sunshine dangerous temerity dappled shadows daring candor dark superstition dashing gallantry dastardly injustice dauntless courage dawning instinct dazed brain dazzling triumph deadly virulence deaf tribunal deathless structure debasing tendency debatable point debilitating features decadent poets deceiving mists decided superiority decisive manner declamatory treatment [declamatory = pretentiously rhetorical; bombastic] declared brotherhood decorously adorned deepening dusk deep-seated curiosity deep-toned lamentations defective construction defenseless innocence defensive alliance deferential regard defiant coldness deficient vitality definite conception deformed visage deft evasion degrading tendencies delectable speculations delegated power deliberate abnegation [abnegation = self-denial] delicate discrimination delicious vagueness delightful variation delirious ecstasies delusive charm demagogic style democratic institutions demoniacal force demonstrable conclusion demoralizing luxury demure composure denunciatory terms departed glories deplorable decay deprecatory shrug depressing concomitants depthless forest derisive voice derogatory denial descriptive power desecrated ideals deserted desert deserved approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] desirable distinction desolating dread despairing austerity desperate defiance despicable vices despondent exaggeration despotic rulers destructive radicalism desultory vacillation [desultory = disconnected; haphazard; random] detailed portraiture detected hypocrisies determinate swing detestable purpose dethroned princes detrimental result devastating effect devilish sophistries deviously subtle devitalized personality devoted attachment devouring ambition devout thanksgiving dewy coolness dexterous impudence diabolical passion dialectic power diametrically opposite dictatorial manner dictionary significance didactic exposition [didactic = intended to be morally instructive] different distortion difficult portraiture diffident civility [diffident = lacking self-confidence; shy; timid] diffuse verbosity dignified austerity digressional adventure dilettante mind [dilettante = dabbler in a field of knowledge] diligently propagated dim comprehension diminished efficacy diminutive stature diplomatic skill dire consummation direct obligation disappointing attitude disarmed criticism disastrous termination discarded reminiscences discerning critic disciplined mind disclosed insincerity discomfited opponent disconcerted conjecture disconnected fancies disconsolate opinions discordant sounds discredited statement discretional opinion discriminating homage discursive staggerings disdainful comment diseased hallucinations disembodied personality disengaged air disfiguring disguise disgraceful plight disgruntled pessimist disguised contempt disgusted protest disheartening facts dishonorable submission disillusioned youth disintegrating tendency disinterested motive disjoined reminiscences dismal seclusion dismantled appearance disordered imagination disparaging criticism dispassionate judgment dispelling fear displeasing softness disproportionate ideas disputative philosopher disquieting thrill disreputable aspect dissenting opinion dissimilar laws dissipated illusion dissolute audacity dissolving years dissonant jargon distant adherent distasteful notion distempered feeling distinct desideratum distorted vanity distracting babble distraught air distressing laxity disturbed equanimity diurnal rotation divergent calculations diversified attributes diverting interests divine potentialities dizzy precipice documentary evidence dogged determination doggerel expressions [doggerel = crude, humorous verse] dogmatic assurance doleful forebodings domestic endearment dominating influence domineering insolence dormant capacities doubly odious doubtful authenticity downright nonsense downtrodden drudge drab apology dramatic liveliness drastic action dread presence dreaming adventurer dreamless rest dreary disrelish droll incongruity droning world drowsy tranquillity dubious success ductile language dulcet tone dull aversion dumb surprise dumbfounded amazement durable impression dusky obscurity dutiful compliance dynamic energy dynastic insolence e eager animosity early servitude earnestly espoused earthly splendor easy garrulity [garrulity = excessive talkativeness] eccentric casuists [casuistry = excessively subtle reasoning intended to mislead] ecclesiastical rule echoless silence economic absurdity ecstatically happy edifying exhortation educational enterprise effective embellishment effectual stimulus effeminate grace effervescent multitude effete aristocracy efficacious power efficient education efflorescent style [efflorescent = bursting into flower] effulgent daybeams [effulgent = radiating light] egoistic sentiment egregious mistake [egregious = outrageously reprehensible] ejaculatory prayer elaborate composition elastic ductility electric effluvium [effluvium = invisible emanation; an aura] elegant mediocrity elemental emotions elephantine footsteps elevated enjoyment elfish grace eloquent refutation elusive charm emancipating labors embarrassing variety embellished truths embittered gaze emblazoned pinnacles embryo enterprise emerald scintillations eminent nonentity emotional warmth emotive power emphatic earnestness empirical corroboration empty phraseology emulative zeal enamored troubadour enchanted garden encircling embrace endearing appellation [appellation = name, title; act of naming] endless dissertation enduring charm energetic enthusiasm enervating humility [enervating = weaken or destroy the strength] enfeebled activity enforced silence engaging affability engendered feelings engrossing purpose engulfing waters enhanced reputation enigmatical silence enlightened solicitude enlivened monotony ennobling personality enormously outbalanced enraptured attention enriched experience entangled subject enthralling charm enthusiastic adherents enticing odors entire domain entrancing sadness enveloping presence envenomed attacks enviable superiority environing conditions ephemeral duration [ephemeral = markedly short-lived] epicurean taste epigrammatic sallies [epigrammatic = terse and witty] equable composure equally efficacious equitably governed equivocal compliment erotic poem errant thoughts erratic flight erroneous assumption erudite labors [erudite = having or showing profound knowledge] eruptive violence esoteric doctrine especial pleasure essential prerequisite estimable qualities eternal hostility ethereal azure ethical wisdom euphuistic affectations [euphuistic = affected elegance of language] evanescent glances [evanescent = vanishing like vapor] evangelic doctrine evasive answer eventful circumstance eventual failure everlasting mysteries everyday reality evident authority evil necromancy [necromancy = communicating with the dead to predict the future; black magic; sorcery] eviscerating shrieks exact antithesis exacting taskmaster exaggerated estimate exalted imagination exasperating coolness exceedingly acceptable excellent discernment exceptional magnitude excessive zeal excitable temperament exclusive pursuit excretory secretion excruciating accents excursive fancy execrable villainy [execrable = hateful; extremely inferior; very bad] executive efficiency exemplary conduct exhaustless energy exhilarating charm exoteric scorn [exoteric = easily comprehensible; popular; outside] exotic appearance expansive benevolence expectant throng expeditionary force expeditiously secreted experimental suggestion expiatory sacrifices explicit injunction explosive violence expressionless visage expressive lineaments [lineaments = distinctive shape, especially of the face] exquisite tact extemporaneous effusion extended magnitude extenuating circumstance external cheerfulness extraneous ideas extraordinary vivacity extravagant caprice extremely picturesque exuberant mirth exultant condition f facetious mood facile criticism factitious propensity faded magnificence faintly sinister faithfully perpetuated fallacious hopes false illusions faltering tongue familiar sacredness famished voracity fanatical admiration fanciful alliance fantastic display farcical expedient far-reaching influence fascinating illusiveness fashioned symmetrically fastidious taste fatal disclosure fatalistic belief fathomless powers fatiguing assertion fattening servitude fatuous pedantry [pedantry = attention to detail or rules] faultless taste favorable augury fawning flatteries fearful imprecations fearless integrity feasible mode feeble dribble feigned reluctance felicitous expression feminine capriciousness ferocious foe fertile fancy fervent invocation fervid enthusiasm festive illuminations fetid dampness fettered tyranny feverish bewilderment fickle fancy fictitious pretext fidgety impatience fierce resentment fiery indignation figurative eloquence filial tenderness final enthronement fine sensibilities finished artistry fireside delights fitful desire fitting opportunity fizzing flame flaccid faith flagging popularity flagitious attack [flagitious = extremely brutal or cruel crimes; vicious; infamous] flagrant boasting flamboyant brilliancy flaming zeal flashing wit flat denial flattering aspect flaunting insolence flawless constitution fleecy clouds fleeting intimation flickering conscience flighty obstinacy flimsy organization flippant ease floating blackness florid oratory [florid = ornate; flowery] flowery circumlocution flowing imagery fluctuating light fluent sophist fluffy indignation fluid ideas flushed embarrassment fluttering laugh focused attention foggy notion fond enthusiast foolish frenzy forbearing silence forbidding air forceful audacity foregone conclusion foremost opponent forensic orator forest stillness forgotten graveyard forlorn desolation formal acquiescence formidable barrier formless jottings formulated conclusions fortified selfishness fortuitous circumstance foul calumny [calumny = maliciously lying to injure a reputation] fragile form fragmentary facts fragrant reminiscence frail craft frank admiration frantic ardor fraternal pity freakish humor freeborn soul freezing disdain frenzied haste frequent digression fresh impetus freshening breeze fretful discontent friendly familiarity frightened sense frightful apparition frigid disdain frisky lightness frivolous expedient frolicsome extravagance frozen wonder fructifying thought [fructifying = make fruitful or productive] fruitful indignation fruitless repining fugitive thoughts full plenitude fulsome praise fumbling endeavor functional disparity fundamental principles funereal gloom furious invective [invective = abusive language] furrowed cheeks furtive glance fussy enthusiasms futile babble g gabbling reminiscences [gabbling = speak rapidly or incoherently; jabber] galling thought galvanic jumpings gaping chasm garbled information garish decorations garnered experience gathering gloom gaudy embellishments gaunt specter gay defiance general acclamation generative influence generic characteristics generous abundance genial tolerance genteel parlance gentle blandishments [blandishments = coax by flattery] gentlemanly personage genuine cynicism geological enigma geometrical progression germinal idea ghastly loneliness ghostly apparitions giant height giddy pleasure gifted intelligence gigantic sagacity [sagacity = discerning, sound in judgment; wisdom.] girlish sprightliness gladdening influence gladiatorial exercise gladsome glow glaring impropriety glassy smoothness gleaming escutcheon [escutcheon = shield-shaped emblem bearing a coat of arms] gleeful spirit glibly condoned gliding measures glimmering idea glistening dewdrop glittering epigram gloomy musing glorious freedom glossed faults glowering countenance glowing anticipations gnawing thoughts godlike independence golden opportunity good-humored gibes gorgeous splendor gossiping opinion governing impulse graceful demeanor gracious immunity graduated sequence grandiose nomenclature graphic portrayal grasping credulity gratuitous rudeness grave reticence greedy grasp gregarious humanity grievously mistaken grim swiftness grinding despotism grinning ghosts griping fascination grizzled warrior gross exaggeration grotesque perversion groundless fear groveling servility growing tension grudging thanks grumbling monotone guileless zeal gullible humanity gurgling brooks gushing enthusiasm gusty clamor guttural incoherence gymnastic agility h habitual deference hackneyed statement hairbreadth difference halcyon innocence [halcyon = tranquil; prosperous; golden] hallowed stillness halting praise hampered power handsomely recompensed haphazard ostentation happy intuition harassing anxiety hardened indifference harmless mirth harmonious grace harrowing details harsh jarrings hasty generalization hateful malignity haughty composure haunting despair hazardous enterprise hazy recollection headlong vehemence healthful vitality heartfelt amity heartless perfidy [perfidy = breach of faith; treachery] heartrending outcry hearty contempt heated discussion heathen hordes heavenly ecstasies heavy handicap hectic tittering hectoring rant heedless love heightened charm heinous enormity helpless innocence herculean monster hereditary arrogance heretical opinions hermetically sealed heroic fortitude hesitating courage heterogeneous mass hidden pitfalls hideous phantom high-flying theories highly meritorious hilarious outburst hillside mist hissing murmur historic edifice hoarded vengeance hoary antiquity hollow joys homebred virtues homeless wind homely pathos homespun play homicidal mania homogeneous whole honest admiration honeyed eloquence hooligan wind hopelessly befogged horrible swiftness horrid significance hortatory moonshine hospitable courtesy hostile partizan hot frenzy hovering presence howling chaos huddled faculties huge aspiration human derelict humanitarian impulse humbly propitiating [propitiating = appeasing] humdrum inconsistencies humid luster humiliating discomfiture humorless variety humorous urbanity hungry satisfaction hurrying years hurtful indulgence hushed laughter husky shrillness hybrid emotions hypnotic fascination hypochondriacal terrors hypocritical pretense hysterical agitation i iconoclastic attitude icy smile idealistic type identical mode idiomatic propriety idiotic obstinacy idle jesting idolatrous fervor idyllic nonsense ignoble domination ignominious retreat ill-concealed impatience illiberal superstition illimitable progression illiterate denizens illogical interruption illuminating insight illusive touch illustrative anecdote illustrious era imaginative warmth imbittered controversy immaterial connection immature dissent immeasurable scorn immediate abjuration [abjuration = renounce under oath] immemorial bulwark immense complacency imminent perplexities immitigable contempt immoderate grief immortal creation immovably silent immutable law impaired prestige impalpable nothingness impartial justice impassable serenity impassioned impulse impatient yearning impeccable felicity impecunious exile impelling movement impending fate impenetrable calmness imperative necessity imperceptible deviation imperfect equipment imperial authority imperious mind [imperious = arrogantly domineering or overbearing] imperishable renown impersonal compliment impertinent drollery imperturbable gravity impetuous zeal impious defiance impish humor implacable resentment implicit faith implied concealment implored pardon imponderable air important epoch importunate questions [importunate = insistent request] imposing mien [mien = manner revealing a state of mind; appearance or aspect] impossible contingency impotent desperation impoverished age impracticable obstinacy impregnable fortress impressionistic stroke imprisoning limitations improbable conjecture impromptu utterance improvising powers imprudent indebtedness impudent knowingness impulsive gratitude inaccessible dignity inadequate appreciation inadmissible expression inadvertent remark inalienable right inanimate existence inapposite blandness [inapposite = inappropriate or misapplied nature] inaptly designated inarticulate lispings inaugural discourse inborn refinement inbred taste incalculable mischief incarnate hate incendiary opinions incessant volume incidental duty incipient fancy incisive critic incoherent loquacity [loquacity = very talkative] incommunicable gift incomparable excellence incompletely apprehended inconceivable absurdity incongruous contrast inconsiderable trifle inconsistent conduct inconsolable cares incontestable inference incontrovertible proof incorrigible merriment incorruptible constancy increasing clamor incredible swiftness indecent saturnalia [saturnalia = unrestrained revelry; an orgy] indecorously amused indefatigable diligence [indefatigable = tireless] indefeasible title [indefeasible = cannot be annulled] indefinable reluctance indefinite yearning indelible obligation indelicate impetuosity indented outline independent research indescribably lugubriou [lugubriou = exaggerated gloom] indestructible atoms indeterminable value indifferent promise indigenous growth indignant denunciation indirect interrogation indiscriminate censure indispensable requisites indisputable chronicler indissoluble compact indistinct association individual valor indivisible aspects indolent neglect indomitable pride indubitable signs indulgent construction indwelling delight ineffable disdain ineffaceable incongruity [ineffaceable = indelible] ineffectual blandishment ineradicable coquetry inestimable honor inevitable corollary inexcusable laughter inexhaustible abundance inexorable authority [inexorable = incapable of being persuaded] inexplicable reluctance inexpressible benignity inextricable confusion infallible judgment infamous pretense infantile simplicity infectious hilarity infelicitous arrangement inferential method infernal machinations infinite deference infinitesimal gradations infirm purpose inflamed curiosity inflated optimism inflexible integrity influential voice informing feature infuriated demagogues ingenious trick inglorious victory ingrained love ingratiating exterior inharmonious prelude inherent dignity inherited anxieties inimitable felicity iniquitous fortune initiatory period injudicious yielding injured conceit inky blackness inmost recesses innate forbearance inner restlessness innocent amenities innocuous desuetude [desuetude = state of disuse or inactivity] innovating spirit inoffensive copiousness inopportune condition inordinate ambition inquisitional rack inquisitive observer insatiable vanity inscrutable austerity insecure truce insensate barbarism insensibly flattered inseparably associated insidious tendency insignificant blot insincere profession insinuatingly pursued insipid tameness insistent babel insolent placidity insoluble riddles inspiring achievement inspiriting spectacle instant readiness instantaneous cessations instinctive disapproval insufferably dull insufficient appeal insular strength insulting invectives [invective = abusive language] insuperable difficulty insurmountable obstacles intangible something integral element intellectual integrity intelligent adaptation intemperate scorn intense perplexity intensive cultivation intentional garbling interior spirit interlocking directorate intermediate link interminable question intermingled gloom intermittent threats internal dissension interpolated speech interpretative criticism interwoven thread intimately allied intolerably tedious intoxicating hum intractable temper intrenched privilege intrepid dexterity intricate interlacings intriguing braggart intrinsic fecundity [fecundity = productive or creative power] intrusive brightness intuitive perception invaluable composition invariable kindness inveighing incessantly [inveighing = angry disapproval] inventive jealousy inveterate antipathy invidious mention [invidious = rousing ill will or resentment] invigorating discipline invincible optimism inviolable confidence involuntary yearnings involuted sentences [involuted = intricate; complex] involved pomposity invulnerable solemnity inward disinclination irascible doggedness irate remonstrance iridescent sheen irksome task iron resolution ironic iciness irradiating spirit irrational awe irreclaimable dead irreconcilable parting irrecoverably lost irrefragable laws [irrefragable = indisputable] irrefutable argument irregular constellations irrelevant suggestion irremediable sorrow irreparable injury irrepressible excitement irreproachable exterior irresistible will irresponsible gossip irretrievable blunder irreverent audacity irreversible facts irrevocable verdict irritable impatience isolated splendor j jaded sensibility jagged outline jarring discord jaundiced opinion jaunty confidence jealous animosity jesting allusion jingling alliteration jocular mirth jocund host [jocund = sprightly; lighthearted] jostling confusion jovial fancy joyful alacrity joyous stagnation jubilant antagonist judicial impartiality judicious candor just rebuke juvenile attempt k kaleidoscopic pictures keen insight kindled enthusiasm kindly innocence kindred sympathies kingly generosity knavish conduct knightly achievement known disingenuousness [ingenuous = frank; candid.] l labored levity labyrinthian windings lacerated feelings lachrymose monotony lackadaisical manner laconic force lagging footsteps lamentable helplessness languid impertinence large receptivity lashing scorn latent conviction laudable zeal laughable absurdity lavish liberality lawless freedom lazy acquiescence leaden steps leaping ambition learned gravity leering smile legal perspicacity [perspicacity = perceptive, discerning] legendary associations legislative enactment legitimate inference leisurely composure lengthening shadows leonine powers lethargic temperament lettered coxcomb [coxcomb = conceited dandy; jester's cap] liberal contemplations lifeless imbecility lifelong adherence lightless eyes lightly disregard lightning glare limpid twilight lingering tenderness linguistic attainments liquid eloquence lisping utterance listening reverence listless apathy literal exactness literary research lithe contortions little idiosyncrasies lively susceptibility livid lightning living manifestation loathsome oppression local busybody loftiest aspirations logical precision lone magnificence longing fancy looming probabilities loquacious assurances [loquacious = very talkative] lordly abhorrence loud vociferation [vociferation = cry out loudly, especially in protest] lounging gait loutish rudeness lovingly quizzical lowering aspects lowest degradation loyal adhesion lucid treatment lucrative profession ludicrous incongruity lugubrious question [lugubrious = mournful, dismal, gloomy] lukewarm repentance lumbering gaiety luminous interpretation lurid picturesqueness lurking suspicion lustrous surface luxuriant richness lying equivocations m maddening monotony magic fascination magisterial emphasis magnanimous concessions magnetic fascination magnificent florescence magniloquent diction [magniloquent = extravagant in speech] maidenly timidity main ramifications majestic dignity maladjusted marriages malevolent ingenuity malicious aspersions malign influence malodorous gentility manageable proportions mangled arguments manifest reluctance manifold functions manly reticence mantling smile [mantling = cover with a mantle; concealing] manual dexterity manufactured melancholy marked individuality marketable commodity marshaled hosts martial footsteps marvelous lucidity masculine power masked expression massive strength master achievement matchless charm material misconception maternal solicitude mathematical precision matrimonial alliance matured reflection maudlin sentimentalism [maudlin = tearfully sentimental] mawkish insipidity maximum intensity meager evidence mean trickeries meaningless confusion measured cadence mechanical handicraft meditatively silent meek ambition melancholy musing mellifluous eloquence [mellifluous = flowing with sweetness or honey] mellow refinement melodious platitudes melodramatic resource melting mood memorable experience menacing attitude mendacious tongue [mendacious = false; untrue] mendicant pilgrim [mendicant = beggar] mental metamorphosis mercenary view merchantable literature merciful insensibility merciless censor mercurial temperament mere generalization meretricious allurements [meretricious = plausible but false] meridian splendor merited ridicule merry jest metallic immobility metaphysical obscurity meteoric splendors methodical regularity metrical exactness microscopic minuteness mighty animosity mild rejoinder militant struggles military autocracy millennial reign mimic gestures minatory shadow [minatory = menacing or threatening] mincing precision mingled decorousness miniature imitations minor impulses minute consideration miraculous profusion mirroring lake mirthful glance mischievous effusion miserable musings misleading notion misshapen oddities misspent strength mistaken assumption mistrustful superiority misty depression mitigating circumstances mobile countenance mock seriousness modest cheerfulness modified sentiment moldy doctrines mollifying conditions [mollifying = calming; soothing] momentary discomfiture momentous pause monarchial institutions monastic austerity monotonous sameness monstrous absurdity monumental structure moody silence moonlight witchery moral obliquity [obliquity = deviation or aberration] morbid imagination mordant wit moribund mediocrities mortal affront mortified coldness motley appearance mountainous inequalities mournful magnificence mouthing amplitude muddled opinion muddy inefficiency muffled detonations mullioned windows [mullioned = vertical member dividing a window] multifarious activity multiform truth multiple needs multitudinous details mundane importance mural decorations murderous parody murky recesses musical diapason [diapason = full, rich outpouring of harmonious sound] mute insensibility mutinous thoughts muttered warning mutual animosity myriad lights mysterious potency mystic meaning mythical kingdom n naive manner naked eye nameless fear narcotic effect narrowing axioms nasal drone nascent intercourse national shortcomings native incompetence natural sluggishness nauseous dose nautical venture neat refutation nebulous uncertainty necessary adjuncts necromantic power [necromancy = communicating with the dead to predict the future. black magic; sorcery.] needless depression nefarious scheme negative approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] negligible quantity neighboring mists nerveless hand nervous solicitude nettled opponent neutral eye new perplexities nice discrimination niggardly allowance nightmare fantasy nimble faculty noble condescension nocturnal scene nodding approval noiseless reverie noisy platitudes nomadic life nominal allegiance nonchalant manner non-committal way nondescript garb nonsense rhymes noonday splendor normal characteristics notable circumstance noteworthy friendship noticeably begrimed notoriously profligate novel signification nugatory cause [nugatory = little or no importance; trifling] numbed stillness numberless defeats numerical majority o obdurate courage [obdurate = hardened in wrongdoing] obedient compliance objectionably apologetic obligatory force obligingly expressed oblique tribute obscure intimation obsequious homage [obsequious = servile compliance; fawning] observant eye obsolete phraseology obstinate defiance obstreperous summons [obstreperous = noisily and stubbornly defiant] obtrusive neatness obvious boredom occasional flights occult sympathy ocean depth odd makeshifts odious tyranny odorous spring offensive hostility official asperity [asperity = harshness; ill temper or irritability] olfactory sense olive grayness ominous rumors omnipotent decree omniscient affirmation oncoming horde onerous cares onflaming volume opalescent sea opaque mass openly disseminated opinionated truculence [truculence = ferociously cruel behavior] opportunely contrived oppressive emptiness opprobrious epithet [opprobrious = contemptuous reproach; scornful] oracular utterance [oracular = solemnly prophetic; enigmatic; obscure] oratorical display ordinary delinquencies organic assimilation oriental spicery originally promulgated oscillatory movement ostensible occupation ostentatious display outlandish fashion outrageously vehement outspoken encouragement outstanding feature outstretching sympathies outward pomp outworn creed overbearing style overestimated importance overflowing sympathy overhanging darkness overmastering potency overpowering argument overshadowing dread overstrained enthusiasm overt act overvaulting clouds overweening sense [overweening = presumptuously arrogant; overbearing] overwhelming solicitude overworked drudge p pacific disposition painful obstinacy painstaking reticence palatable advice pallidly illumined palpable originality palpitating emotion paltry hypocrisies pampered darling panic fear panting eagerness parabolic obscureness paradoxical talker paralyzing sentimentalism paramount authority parasitical magnificence parental permission paroxysmal outburst particularly notable partizan prejudice passing panorama passionate insistence passive obedience patchwork manner patent example paternal tenderness pathetic helplessness patient endurance patriarchal visage patriotic enthusiasm peacefully propagated peculiar piquancy [piquancy = appealingly provocative; charming] pecuniary privation pedantic ineptitude [pedantic = attention to detail or rules] pedestrian vigor peerless raconteur [raconteur = skilled storyteller] peevish ingratitude pending determination penetrating warmth penitential cries penniless wanderer pensive reflections perceptible difference peremptory punishment [peremptory = ending all debate or action] perennial charm perfect embodiment perfunctory inquiries perilous expedient permanent significance pernicious doctrine perpetual oscillation perplexing problem persecuting zeal persistent adherence personal predilection [predilection = a preference] persuasive eloquence pert prig pertinacious solemnity [pertinacious = stubbornly persistent] pertinent question perusing earnestness pervading tendencies perverse quaintness pessimistic skepticism pestiferous career [pestiferous = evil or deadly; pernicious] pet aversion petrified smile petticoat diplomacy pettifogging business petty pedantries [pedantries = attention to detail or rules] phantom show philanthropic zeal philosophical acuteness phlegmatic temperament [phlegmatic = calm, sluggish; unemotional] phosphorescent shimmer photographic exactitude physical convulsion pictorial embellishments picturesque details piercing clearness pinchbeck dignity [pinchbeck = cheap imitation] pining melancholy pioneering spirit pious platitudes piquant allusions [piquant = attracting or delighting] pitiable frenzy pitiless precision pivotal point placid stupidity plainly expedient plainspoken rebuke plaintive cadence plastic mind plausible commonplaces playful wit pleasing reveries pleasurable excitement plenary argument plentiful harvest plighted word [plighted = promised by a solemn pledge] poignant clearness pointless tale poisonous counsels polished ease polite indifference political malcontent polluting taints pompous platitudes ponderous research pontifical manner popular resentment populous fertility portentous gulf positively deteriorating posthumous glory potential energy powerful stimulant practical helpfulness precarious path precautionary measure precipitous flight precise purpose precocious wisdom preconceived view predatory writers predestined spinster predominant habit pregnant hint preliminary assumption premature ripening premonitory symptoms preoccupied attention prepossessing appearance preposterous assertion prescient reflection [prescient = perceiving the significance of events before they occur] prescribed conditions presiding genius pressing necessity pretended surprise pretentious dignity preternatural sagacity [preternatural = extraordinary] [sagacity = farsighted; wise] pretty plaintiveness prevailing misconception priestly austerity primal energy prime factor [no integer factors; irreducible; , , , , , ...] primeval silence primordial conditions princely courtesy prismatic blush pristine dignity private contempt privileged caste prized possession problematic age prodigally lavished prodigious variety productive discipline profane denunciation professedly imitated professional garrulity [garrulity = excessive talkativeness] proffered service profitable adventure profligate expenditure profound conviction profuse generosity projected visit prolegomenous babbler [prolegomenous = preliminary discussion] prolific outpouring prolix narrative [prolix = wordy] prolonged happiness promiscuous multitude promising scions [scions = descendants] prompt courage propagandist literature propelling impulse proper punctilio [punctilio = fine point of etiquette] prophetic vision propitious moment [propitious = auspicious, favorable] proportionately vigilant proprietary sense prosaic excellence [prosaic = dull and lacking excitement] prospective success prosperity revival prostrate servility protoplasmic ancestors protracted agony proud destiny proverbial situation provincial prejudice provoked hostility prudential wisdom prurient desire prying criticism psychic processes public derision puerile fickleness [puerile = immature; childish] pugnacious defiance pulsating life punctilious care [punctilious = precise; scrupulous] pungent epigram puny dimensions purblind brutality [purblind = partly blind; slow to understanding] pure coincidence purgatorial fires puritanical primness purplish shadows purposed attempt purposeful drama pursuing fancies pusillanimous desertion [pusillanimous = cowardly] pyrotechnic outburst q quailing culprit quaint peculiarities qualifying service quavering voice queer tolerance quenchless despair querulous disposition [querulous = habitually complaining] questionable data questioning gaze quibbling speech quick sensibility quiescent melancholy quiet cynicism quivering excitement quixotic impulse quizzical expression quondam foe [quondam = former] r racial prejudice racy humor radiant happiness radical distinction raging billows rambling looseness rampant wickedness rancorous animosities random preconceptions rank luxuriance ranting optimism rapacious speculation [rapacious = taking by force; plundering] rapid transitions rapturous adoration rare endowment rarefied humor rashly overrated rational discourse ravenous eagerness ravishing spectacle raw composition reactionary movement ready sympathy realistic portrayal reanimating ideas reasonably probable rebellious thought reciprocal influence reckless lavishness recognized authority recondite description [recondite = not easily understood; abstruse] reconstructive era recovered composure recumbent figure recurring doubt reddening dawn redoubled activity refining influence reflective habits refractory temper refreshing novelty regal countenance regretful melancholy regular recurrence relatively mild relaxed discipline relentless justice religious scruples reluctant tolerance remarkable sagacity [sagacity = wisdom] remedial measure remorseless logic remote epoch renowned achievement repeated falsification repelling vices repentant sense reprehensible action repressed ardor reproachful misgiving repulsive spectacle reputed disposition requisite expertness resentful flame resilient spirit resistless might resolute daring resonant gaiety resounding blare resourceful wickedness respectful condescension resplendent brightness responsive throb restless inquisitiveness restorative influence restricted meaning resultant limitation retaliating blows retarding influence retreating footsteps revengeful scowl reverent enthusiasm revolting cynicism revolutionary tradition rhapsodical eulogy rhetorical amplification rhythmical movements richly emblazoned righteous indignation rightful distinction rigid propriety rigorous reservation riotous clamor ripe reflection rising misgivings riveted attention robust sense rollicking mirth romantic solitudes rooted habits roseate tints rough brutality roundabout approach rousing chorus royal exultations rubicund tinge [rubicund = healthy rosiness] rude awakening rudimentary effort rueful conclusion ruffled feelings rugged austerity ruling motive rumbling hoarseness ruminating mood rural imagery rustic simplicity rustling forest ruthless commercialism s sacerdotal preeminence [sacerdotal = priestly] sacred tenderness sacrilegious violence sacrosanct fetish sadly disconcerted sagacious mind [sagacious = keen discernment, sound judgment] sage reflections saintly serenity salient feature salutary amusement sanctimonious hypocrite [sanctimonious = feigning piety] sane observer sanguinary measures [sanguinary = eager for bloodshed; bloodthirsty] sanguine expectations [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic] sarcastic incredulity sardonic taciturnity [sardonic = cynically mocking] [taciturnity = habitually untalkative] satirical critic satisfying equipoise [equipoise = equilibrium] savage satirist scalding jests scandalous falsehood scant recognition scathing satire scattered distractions scholarly attainments scientific curiosity scintillating wit scoffing defiance scorching criticism scornful negligence scriptural exegesis [exegesis = critical explanation or analysis] scrubby foreland scrupulous fidelity sculptured sphinx scurrilous blustering [scurrilous = foul-mouthed] searching eye secluded byways secret dismay sectarian sternness secure anchorage sedentary occupation seditious speaking [seditious = arousing to action or rebellion] seductive whisperings sedulously fostered [sedulously = persevering] seeming artlessness seething hate selective instinct self-conscious activity self-deprecating irony selfish vindictiveness selfsame strain senile sensualist senseless gibberish sensibly abated sensitively courteous sensuous music sententious wisdom [sententious = terse and energetic; pithy] sentimental twaddle sepulchral quiet sequestered nook seraphic promiscuousness serene triumph serious resentment serpentine curves servile obedience sesquipedalian words [sesquipedalian = long] settled dislike severe censure shabby imitation shadowy abstraction shady retirements shallow sophistry sham enthusiasm shambling gait shamed demeanor shameless injustice shapeless conformations shaping impulses sharp rebuke shattered reason sheepish look sheer boredom sheltering hypocrisy shifting panorama shimmering gaiety shining virtues shivering soul shocking rudeness shoreless sea shortening days shrewd suspicion shrewish look shrill dissonance shrunken wisp shuddering reluctance shuffling preliminaries shy obeisance sibilant oath [sibilant = producing a hissing sound] sickening jealousy sidelong glance significant symbol silent agony silken filaments silly escapades silvery sea similar amplitude simple rectitude simulated rapture simultaneous acclamation sincere hospitality singular sensitiveness sinister forebodings sinuous movements skeptical contempt skillfully maintained skulking look slackened tension slavish imitation sledge-hammer blows sleepless soul sleepy enchantment slender resource slight acceleration slovenly deportment slow stupefaction sluggish resolution slumbering stream smacking breeze small aptitude smiling repose smirking commonplace smoldering resentment smothered sob smug hypocrisy snappish impertinence sneering jibes snowy whiteness snug retreat soaring ambition sobbing wail sober melancholy social banalities sociological bearing soft allurement solemn emptiness solid knowledge solidifying substance solitary grandeur somber relations somewhat scandalized somnolent state sonorous simplicity [sonorous = full, deep, rich sound; impressive in style of speech] sophistical argument soporific emanations [soporific = inducing sleep] sordid selfishness sorely beset sorrowful resignation soulless mechanism sounding verbiage sourly ascetic sovereign panacea spacious tracklessness sparkling splendor specialized skill specific characteristics specious artifice [specious = having the ring plausibility but actually fallacious] spectral fears speculative rubbish speechless surprise speedy extinction spendthrift prodigality spirited vindication spiritual dazzlement splendid irony splenetic imagination [splenetic = ill humor or irritability] spontaneous challenge sporadic exception sportive gaiety spotless honor sprightly talk spurious enthusiasm squalid distress [squalid = dirty and wretched; morally repulsive; sordid] squandered talent squeamish taste staggering surprise stainless womanhood stale sciolism [sciolism = superficial knowledge] stalwart defiance stammered apology starched sterility starlit eminence startling eccentricity starving proletariat stately stride statesmanlike person statistical knowledge statuesque immobility staunch manhood steadfast obedience stentorian voice [stentorian = extremely loud] stereotyped commonness sterile hatred sterling sense stern defiance stiff conceit stifled convulsions still solitudes stilted bombast stimulating impression stinging reproach stinted endowment stipulated reward stock pleasantries stoic callousness stolid obstinacy stony stare storied traditions stormy passion stout assertion straggling association straightforward logic straightway vanished strained interpretation straitened circumstance strange wistfulness strenuous insistence striking diversity stringent statement strong aversion stubborn reality studious reserve stultified mind stunning crash stupendous magnitude stupid bewilderment sturdy genuineness subaltern attitude [subaltern = secondary] subconscious conviction subduing influence sublime anticipations submissive behavior subordinate pursuit subsidiary advantage substantial agreement subterranean sunlessness subtle sophistry subversive accident successfully dispelled successive undulations succinct phrase sudden perturbation sullen submission summary vengeance sumptuously decorated superabundant energy superannuated coquette [superannuated = retired] [coquette = flirt] superb command supercilious discontent [supercilious = haughty disdain] superficial surliness superfluous precaution superhuman vigor superior skill superlative cleverness supernatural incident supine resignation suppliant posture suppressed excitement supreme exaltation surging multitude surly tone surpassing loveliness surprising intimacy surreptitious means [surreptitious = clandestine; stealthy] sustained vigor swaggering bully swampy flatness swarming population sweeping assertion sweet peaceableness swelling magnitude swift transition swinging cadence symmetrical brow sympathetic insight syncopated tune synthetic judgment systematic interaction t tacit assumption taciturn magnanimity [taciturn = habitually untalkative] tactical niceties tameless energy tangible realities tangled network tardy recognition tarnished reputation tart temper tasteful gratification tasteless insipidity tattered mendicant [mendicant = beggar] taunting accusation tawdry pretentiousness tearful sensibilities tearing gallop teasing persistency technical precision tedious formality teeming population temerarious assertion [temerarious = presumptuous; reckless] temperamental complacency tempered pathos tempestuous breeze temporary expedient tenacious memory tender solicitude tense attention tentative moment tepid conviction termagant wife [termagant = quarrelsome, scolding] terrible sublimity terrifying imprecations [imprecations = curses] terse realism testamentary document thankless task thawing laughter theological complexities thirsting ear thorny pathway thorough uprightness thoughtful silence thoughtless whim threadbare sentiment threatened wrath thrilling eloquence throbbing pride throneless monarch thronging images thundering rage thwarted impulse tideless depth tigerish stealth tightened ominously timid acquiescence tingling expectation tinkling cymbal tipsy jocularity [jocularity = given to joking] tip-toe curiosity tireless egotism tiresome braggadocio [braggadocio = pretentious bragging] titanic force toilsome pleasure tolerably comprehensive tolerant indifference tormenting thought torn asunder torpid faculties tortuous labyrinth tortured innocence totally engrossed touching pathos tousled head towering pride traceable consanguinity trackless forest traditional type tragic intensity trailing sweetness tranquil grandeur transcendent power transfiguring tints transient emotion translucent cup transmuting touch transparent complement treacherous intelligence treasured possessions trembling anxiety tremendous domination tremulous sense [tremulous = timid or fearful] trenchant phrase [trenchant = forceful, effective, vigorous] trifling superfluity trite remark triumphant boldness trivial conventionality tropical luxuriance troubled inertness trudging wayfarer trustworthy source tumultuous rapture tuneful expression turbulent times turgid appeal [turgid = excessively ornate or complex] twilight shadow twittered sleepily twofold bearing typical excellence tyrannical disposition u ubiquitous activity ugly revelation ulterior purpose ultimate sanction ultrafashionable world unabashed insolence unabated pleasure unaccountable protervity [protervity = peevishness; petulance] unaccustomed toil unadorned style unaffected pathos unaffrighted innocence unagitated abstraction unalloyed satisfaction unalterable determination unanimous acclamation unanswerable argument unapologetic air unappeasable resentment unapproached supremacy unassailable position unassuming dignity unattainable perfection unavailing consolation unavoidable propensities unballasted eloquence [unballasted = unsteady; wavering] unbeaten track unbecoming behavior unbending reserve unbiased judgment unblemished character unblinking observation unblushing iteration unbounded hospitality unbridgeable chasm unbridled fancy unbroken continuity uncanny fears unceasing variation unceremonious talk uncertain tenure unchallenged supremacy unchanging affection uncharitable ambition uncharted depths unchastised offense unclouded splendor uncomfortable doubt uncommonly attractive uncommunicable quality uncomplaining endurance uncomprehending smile uncompromising dogmatism unconcealed aversion unconditioned freedom uncongenial task unconquerable patience unconscious serenity uncontrollable delight unconventional demeanor uncounted generations uncouth gambols uncritical position unctuously belaud [unctuously = exaggerated, insincere] [belaud = praise greatly] undaunted defender undazzled eyes undefined anticipations undeniable charm underlying assumption undeviating consistency undignified peccadilloes [peccadilloes = small sin or fault] undiluted skepticism undiminished relish undimmed luster undisciplined genius undisguised amusement undismayed expression undisputed ascendency undistracted attention undisturbed silence undivided energies undoubted authenticity undue predilection [predilection = preference] undulating hills unduly troublesome undying friendship unearthly gladness uneasy craving unembarrassed scrutiny unembittered sweetness unending exactions unenlightened zealot unenvied insipidity unequaled skill unequivocally resented unerring fidelity unessential details unexampled sweetness unexhausted kindliness unexpected confidence unfailing courtesy unfaltering glance unfamiliar garb unfathomable indifference unfeigned assent unfettered liberty unflagging zest unflattering truth unflecked confidence unfledged novice [unfledged = young bird without feathers necessary to fly] unflinching zeal unfolding consciousness unforced acquiescence unforeseen vicissitudes [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes] unforgivable tragedy unfounded conjecture unfulfilled longing ungainly figure ungarnished reality ungenerously resolved ungenial temperament ungovernable vehemence ungracious temper ungrudging tribute unguessed riches unhallowed threshold unhampered expression unhappy predecessor unheeded beauties unheroic measure unhesitating faith unhindered flight unholy triumph uniform blending unimaginable bitterness unimpassioned dignity unimpeachable sentiment unimpeded activity uninstructed critic uninterrupted process unique personality universal reprobation [reprobation = condemned to hell; severe disapproval] unjust depreciation unknown appellations [appellation = name, title, or designation] unlettered laborer unlikely contingency unlimited opulence unlucky dissembler unmanly timidity unmastered possibility. unmeaning farce unmeasured hostility unmellowed dawn unmelodious echoes unmerciful plundering unmingled consent unmistakably fabulous unmitigated gloom unmixed astonishment unmodified passion unmurmuring sea unnecessary platitudes unnumbered thousands unobtrusive deference unostentatious display unpalatable truth unparalleled atrocities unpardonable error unphilosophical dreamer unpleasant excrescence [excrescence = abnormal enlargement] unprecedented advance unprejudiced intelligence unpretentious character unprincipled violence unprofitable craft unpurchasable luxury unqualified submission unquenchable tenderness unquestionable genius unquestioning fate unreasonable pretense unreasoning distrust unredeemable forfeit unrefreshing sameness unrelaxing emphasis unrelenting spirit unremembered winter unremitting toil unrepining sadness unreproved admiration unrequited love unresentful disposition unreserved assent unresisted authority unresolved exceptions unresponsive gloom unresting speed unrestrained anger unrestricted ease unrivaled distinction unruffled concord unsatisfied yearning unscrupulous adventurer unseasonable apology unseemly mirth unselfish fidelity unsettled trait unshakable foundation unshrinking determination unslackened volubility [volubility = ready flow of speech; fluent] unsophisticated youth unsparing abuse unspeakable delight unspiritual tone unspoiled goodness unstinted praise unsullied virtue unsurpassed purity unswerving integrity untameable energy unthinkable hypothesis untiring energy untold calamity untoward circumstances [untoward = improper] untrammeled expression untrodden woodland untroubled repose untuneful phrase untutored mind unusual audacity unutterable sadness unvarnished feeling unwarranted limitation unwasting energies unwavering allegiance unwearied diligence unwelcome alliance unwieldy bulk unwilling homage unwittingly mingled unwonted kindness [unwonted = unusual] unworldly foolishness unworthy alliance unyielding nature uproarious laughter upstart pretensions useless fripperies [fripperies = pretentious, showy] utmost scorn v vacant stupidity vacillating obedience vacuous ease vagabondish spirit vagrant wandering vaguely discursive vain contemplation vainglorious show valid objection valuable acquisition valueless assertion vampire tongue vanished centuries vantage ground vapid generalities [vapid = lacking liveliness, interest; dull] variable temperament variegated career [variegated = varied] vast advantage veering purpose vehement panting veiled insolence velvety lawn venerable placidity venomous passion veracious journals [veracious = honest; truthful; accurate; precise] verbal audacities verbose manner verdant hope verifiable facts veritable triumph vernacular expression vernal charm [vernal = resembling spring; fresh; youthful] versatile grace vexatious circumstances vicarious virtue vigilant sensibility vigorous invective [invective = abusive language] vile desecrater villainous inconsistency vindictive sentiment violent agitation virgin grace virile leadership virtual surrender virtuous disdain virulent prejudice visible embarrassment visionary dreamer vital interpretation vitiated taste [vitiated = reduce the value; corrupt morally] vitriolic sneer vivacious excitement vivid portrayal vociferous appeal voiceless multitude volatile fragrance volcanic suddenness voluble prose [voluble = ready flow of speech; fluent] voluminous biography voluntary relinquishment voracious animosity votive wreath vulgar prosperity vulnerable foe w wabbling enterprise [wabbling = wobbling] waggishly sapient [sapient = wise] wailing winds wandering fancy waning popularity wanton butchery warbling lute warlike trappings warning prophecy warped purpose warranted interference wasteful prodigality wavering courage waxwork sex wayward fancy weakly imaginative wearisome wordiness wedded incompatibility weighty argument weird fascination welcoming host well-turned period weltering current whimsical touch whirling confusion whirring loom whispering breeze whistling winds whited sepulcher wholesome aspirations wholly commendable wicked ingratitude wide signification widespread acclaim wild extravagance willful waywardness willing allegiance willowy nothingness wily antagonist winding pilgrimage windowless soul winged fancies winking stars winning plaintiveness winsome girlhood wise dissertations wistful entreaty withering scorn witnessing approval witty expedient wizard influence woebegone countenance woeful weariness wolfish tendency womanlike loveliness wonderful affluence wonted activity [wonted = usual] wordy warfare worthy achievement wounded avarice wrathful pugnacity wretched effeminacy wriggling disputant writhing opponent y yawning space yearning tenderness yielding disposition youthful ambition z zealous devotion zigzag method zoologically considered section ii significant phrases a abashed and ashamed abhorrence and repulsion abilities and attainments abject and hopeless ably and vigorously abrupt and perilous absolute and eternal absorbed and occupied abstinence and self-denial abstract and metaphysical absurd and impertinent abundant and sustained abuse and slander accentual and rhythmic accidental and temporary accomplished and popular accurate and illuminating achievement and character acquisition and possession active and aggressive actual and immediate acute and painful admirable and accomplished adorned and amplified adroitness and judgment adventurous and prodigal advice and assistance affable and courteous affectation and coquetry affectionate and warm-hearted affluent and exuberant affright and abhorrence agencies and influences ages and generations aggrandizement and plunder agreeable and ingenuous aggressive and sullen aghast and incredulous agility and briskness agitate and control agony and despair aids and auxiliaries aim and purpose airy and frivolous alarm and uneasiness alert and unsparing all and sundry allegiance and fidelity alone and undistracted alterations and additions amazement and admiration ambiguity and disagreement ambition and determination amiable and unpretending ample and admirable amusing and clever analytical and critical anarchy and chaos ancient and venerable anecdote and reminiscence anger and fury anguish and hopelessness animated and effective anomalies and absurdities antagonism and opposition antipathies and distastes antiquated and obsolete anxiety and trepidation apathy and torpor apologetic and uneasy appalling and devastating apparent and palpable appearance and surroundings apprehensive and anxious appropriate and eloquent approve and admire apt and novel archness and vivacity [archness = inappropriate playfulness] ardent and aspiring argument and inference arid and unprofitable arrangement and combination arrogant and overbearing artificial and elaborate artistic and literary artlessness and urbanity ashamed and speechless aspects and phases aspiring and triumphal assiduity and success assimilated and combined assuaged and pacified astonished and curious astound and perplex athletic and nimble atonement and forgiveness atrocious and abominable attacks and intrigues attention and respect attitudes and expressions attractiveness and ability audacity and skill august and splendid austere and icy available and capable avarice and cruelty avidity and earnestness [avidity = desire; craving] awake and active awe and reverence awkwardness and crudity b babel and confusion backbone and sinew baffled and disappointed balanced and forceful barbarity and wickedness bards and sages base and unworthy beam and blaze bearing and address beautiful and majestic bedraggled and disappointed befogged and stupefied beliefs and practises bellowing and shouting benevolence and candor benign and hopeful bent and disposition benumbed and powerless bewildered and stupefied bigots and blockheads billing and cooing birth and breeding bite and sting bits and scraps bitter and disdainful black and solitary bland and ingenious blasphemous and profane bleak and unrelenting blend and harmonize blessing and benediction blind and unreasoning blundering and plundering blurred and confused bluster and vulgarity boast and assertion bold and haughty bombast and egotism bone and sinew boundless and unlimited bourgeois and snobbish brag and chatter bravado and cowardice brave and chivalrous breathless and reverential brevity and condensation bribery and corruption brief and pithy bright and vivacious brilliancy and grace brisk and enlivening broad and deep brooding and solemn brutal and degrading bulks and masses bungling and trifling businesslike and practicable bustle and business c cajoled and bullied calamity and sorrow callous and impervious calmness and composure calumny and exaggeration [calumny = maliciously lying to injure a reputation] candor and kindness cant and hypocrisy [cant = hypocritically pious language] capable and efficient capacity and ability capricious and unreasonable career and occupation cares and anxieties carping and ungenerous casual and transient causes and circumstances cautious and reticent celebrated and praised celerity and violence [celerity = swiftness of action] ceremony and splendor certain and verifiable chafe and exasperate chagrin and despondency chance and opportunity change and variety chaos and confusion character and temperament characteristic and complete charges and insinuations charm and perfection chaste and refined cheap and convenient checked and thwarted cheerfulness and gaiety cherish and guard chief and paramount chilled and stiffened choleric and sanguine [choleric = easily angered; bad-tempered] [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic] churlishness and violence [churlish = boorish or vulgar] citation and allusion civility and communicativeness civilized and cultured clamorous and wild claptrap and platitude clarity and straightforwardness classical and perspicuous [perspicuous = easy to understand] clatter and clang clear and decisive cleverness and acuteness clogged and dulled clumsy and smudgy coarse and grotesque coaxed and threatened coexistent and correlative cogent and conclusive cohesion and sequence cold and unemotional comely and vivacious comfort and security command and threaten common and familiar commotion and annoyance compact and complete comparison and discrimination compass and power competent and experienced complaints and imprecations [imprecation = a curse] complaisance and readiness complete and permanent complex and various composure and gracefulness comprehensive and accurate compression and pregnancy conceal and deny conceit and impertinence conceived and consummated concentrated and intensified conception and treatment concern and wonder concise and emphatic concrete and definite condemned and upbraided conditions and limitations confession and doubt confidence and loyalty confusion and dismay congratulations and welcomings connection and interdependence conquered and transformed conquest and acquisition consciously and purposely consistent and harmonious conspicuous and impressive conspired and contrived constant and intimate constructive and vital contemn and decry [contemn = despise] contempt and indignation contentment and serenity continuous and undeviating contorted and fantastic contradictions and inconsistencies contrast and comparison contrivance and disguise conventional and limited cool and indifferent copiousness and vivacity cordial and cheerful corruption and decay costly and gorgeous counselor and guide countless and indescribable courage and endurance courted and feted courteous and sympathetic coveted and deserved coy and furtive cramped and distorted creative and inventive credulity and ignorance creeds and dogmas crime and misdemeanor crippled and maimed crises and struggles crisp and sparkling critical and skeptical crowded and jostled crowned and sceptered crude and primitive cruel and rapacious crumbling and shapeless crushed and bewildered cultured and refined cumbrous and diffuse [cumbrous = cumbersome] cunning and cruelty curious and inexpressible curved and channeled customs and manners cynical and contemptuous d dangers and pitfalls daring and resolute dark and starless dart and quiver dashing and careless dates and details dazzled and confounded debased and demoralized debilitating and futile decencies and restraints deception and cruelty decided and definite declamation and delivery decline and decay deductions and inferences deep and subtle deface and injure defame and tarnish deference and concession defiant and antagonistic deficient and unskilled definite and memorable deft and offensive degraded and dishonored deliberate and effective delicate and lambent [lambent = effortlessly brilliant] delight and consolation delusion and trickery demands and expectations demeanor and conduct demoralizing and enfeebling denial and defense dense and luminous denunciations and censures deplorable and baneful depravity and frivolity depressing and discouraging depth and richness derision and skepticism described and classified desecration and decay designs and activities desires and motives desolation and wretchedness despatch and resolution desperation and defiance despise and satirize despoiled and destroyed despondency and melancholy despotism and coercion destitution and misery desultory and slipshod [desultory = haphazardly; random] detached and isolated determined and courageous detestable and intolerable development and culture devoted and unwavering dictatorial and insolent diction and pronunciation differences and disputes difficult and arduous diffidence and constraint diffuseness and warmth dignified and austere digressive and wanton dilatory and hesitating [dilatory = postpone or delay] diligent and sedulous [sedulous = persevering ] dim and distant din and traffic directed and controlled disagreeable and painful disappointed and abashed disapprobation and condemnation [approbation = warm approval; praise] disapproval and apprehension discipline and development discomfiture and degradation disconcerted and dismayed discontent and disquiet discords and differences discouraging and distressing discovery and invention discretion and moderation disdain and mockery disfigured and shapeless disgrace and ruin disgust and dismay dishonor and ruin disillusioned and ironical disintegration and decay disinterested and gracious disjointed and voluble [voluble = fluent] dislike and disdain dislocation and chaos dismay and apprehension dispirit and discourage disposition and power disquietude and uneasiness dissolute and hateful dissolve and disappear distant and diverse distended and distorted distinctive and appropriate distinguishing and differentiating distress and humiliation distrust and aversion disturbed and anxious diverging and contracting docile and obedient dogma and ritual dominant and permanent dormant and subdued doubt and trepidation dramatic and sensational drastic and revolutionary dread and terror dreams and ambitions dreariness and desolation dregs and sediments drill and discipline driveling and childish drollery and ridicule drooping and disconsolate dubious and dangerous dull and spiritless dumb and nerveless dupe and victim duplicity and equivocation dust and oblivion duties and difficulties dwarfed and obscured dwindle and disappear e eagerness and ecstasy earnestness and animation ease and lightness ebb and flow eclectic and assimilated edifying and enchanting education and skill effective and competent efficiency and success egotism and bigotry elaboration and display elation and delight elegance and gentility elementary and simple elevate and ennoble eligibility and suitableness elongated and narrow eloquent and expressive elusive and exquisite embarrassed and concerned embittered and despairing embodiment and actualization emerged and flowered eminent and remarkable emoluments and honors [emoluments = compensation] emotion and passion emphasize and magnify employment and profession encouragement and stimulus energy and activity enfeebled and exhausted enfold and enwrap engulfed and buried enjoyment and satisfaction enlightenment and progress enraptured and amazed enriched and ennobled enslave and dominate enterprising and intelligent entertaining and diverting enthusiasm and zeal enticing and alluring entire and complete environment and training envy and despair ephemeral and feeble [ephemeral = markedly short-lived] episodes and interludes epithet and description equality and solidarity equity and justice erratic and confused errors and infirmities essential and predominating estimable and agreeable eternal and sublime ethical and religious ever and anon evident and manifest exactitude and completeness exaggerate and distort exaltation and enthusiasm examination and comparison examples and models exasperations and paroxysms [paroxysms = outbursts of emotion or action] excellent and worthy exceptional and remarkable excessive and unreasonable excitable and irritable exclusive and limited excusable and justifiable execration and defiance [execration = curse] exertion and excitement exhaustion and fatigue exhibition and display exhilarating and beneficial exigency and requirement [exigency = urgent situation] expansive and digressive expediency and utility expensive and unprofitable experience and skill experiment and explorations expert and vigorous explanation and elucidation explore and examine expressions and exclamations expressive and effective exquisite and powerful extent and importance extraordinary and unexpected extravagant and grotesque extreme and morbid exuberant and infectious f fabulous and fabricated facile and brilliant facts and traditions faculties and powers faded and withered failures and misadventures faint and obscure fair and impartial faith and reverence fallacy and danger false and fugitive fame and fortune familiar and gracious famous and foremost fancies and sentiments fanciful and chimerical [chimerical = highly improbable] fantastic and meretricious [meretricious = plausible but false] fascination and awe fashion and frivolity fastidious and exacting fatigued and careworn faults and delusions favors and kindnesses fear and bewilderment feasible and practical feebleness and folly feeling and passion felicitous and exquisite ferocious and mercenary fertility and vigor fervor and simplicity feverishly and furiously fickle and uncertain fidelity and zeal fierce and menacing fiery and controversial final and irreversible finish and completeness firm and decisive first and foremost fitful and capricious fitting and appropriate fixity and finality flaming and mendacious [mendacious = lying; untruthful] flare and flicker flatness and insipidity flattery and toadyism flexible and spontaneous flickering and ambiguous flighty and impetuous flippant and contemptuous florid and healthy [florid = ornate; flowery] flotsam and jetsam flow and fullness flowery and figurative fluctuating and transitory fluency and flippancy fluttering and restless focus and concentrate fogs and complications foibles and follies foiled and defeated folly and indecorum fools and underlings force and effectiveness formal and cold formidable and profound formlessness and exaggeration fortitude and perseverance foul and ominous fragile and pale fragments and morsels fragrance and beauty frailties and absurdities frank and genial free and independent frequent and poignant freshness and fragrance fretful and timorous friend and benefactor frigid and pompous frivolous and empty froth and effervescence frustrated and confounded fuddled and contradictory full and sonorous fumbling and blundering fuming and bustling fun and satire function and aim fundamental and necessary furrowed and ragged furtive and illusive fury and madness fussing and fuming futile and untrustworthy g gaiety and grace gallant and proud galling and humiliating gaunt and ghastly gay and genial general and universal generosity and prodigality generous and humane genial and refreshing genius and reputation gentle and amiable genuine and infectious germ and root gesticulation and emphasis [gesticulation = deliberate, vigorous motion or gesture] ghastly and inconceivable gifts and graces gigantic and portentous glamour and fascination glare and pretension glib and loquacious [loquacious = very talkative] glitter and glamour gloomy and morose glorious and gorgeous glowing and exaggerated glum and grim goodness and rectitude goodwill and merriment gorgeousness and splendor gossiping and grumbling govern and overrule grace and dignity gracious and generous gradual and progressive graft and dishonesty grand and sublime grandeur and massiveness grandiose and oracular [oracular = solemnly prophetic; obscure] graphic and gorgeous gratification and enjoyment gratitude and generosity gratuitous and ungracious grave and stately graveyards and solitudes greatness and stability greed and covetousness grief and remorse grim and sullen grimaces and gesticulations grope and fumble grossness and brutality grotesque and monstrous grouped and combined growth and development guesses and fancies guidance and inspiration gush and hysteria gusto and effect h habits and humors habitual and intuitive hackneyed and tawdry haggard and pale handsome and amiable haphazard and dangerous happiness and pleasantness harass and pursue hard and unsparing hardships and indignities harmony and beauty harsh and austere hasty and unwarranted hateful and loathsome haughtiness and arrogance hauteur and disdain [hauteur = arrogance] hazard and peril hazy and indefinite headstrong and foolish healthy and vigorous hearth and shrine heartless and hypocritical heat and impatience heaviness and weariness hecklings and interruptions hectic and pitiful heretics and schismatics heritage and privilege heroism and wisdom hesitation and irresolution hideous and grotesque high and conscientious hilarity and mirth hints and suggestions history and tradition hither and thither hoarse and rumbling hobbies and eccentricities hollowness and unreality holy and prayerful homeliness and simplicity honestly and confessedly honors and emoluments [emoluments = compensation] hooted and mobbed hopes and prospects horror and ghastliness hospitality and magnificence hubbub and confusion huge and unwieldy humane and sympathetic humility and devoutness humors and singularities hurry and bustle hushed and still husks and phantoms hypocrisy and impudence i ideas and achievements idle and presumptuous ignoble and shabby ignominy and misfortune ignorance and superstition illiterate and unfit ill-tempered and unjust illuminative and suggestive illustrative and typical images and impressions imagination and memory imbitter and exasperate imitators and disciples immature and unpromising immediate and instantaneous immensity and intricacy imminent and terrible immovable and unchangeable impalpable and spiritual impassioned and energetic impatient and restless imperfection and fallibility imperil and destroy imperious and ruthless [imperious = arrogantly domineering] impertinent and personal impinging and inexorable implacable and destructive important and formidable imposed and enforced impossibilities and absurdities impressible and plastic improvement and progress imprudent and thoughtless impulse and indignation inaccessible and audacious inactive and supine inadequate and misleading inapplicable and alien inarticulate and confused inborn and native incensed and alarmed inchoate and tentative [inchoate = imperfectly formed] incoherent and inconclusive incompetence and ignorance incomplete and erroneous incongruity and absurdity inconvenient and troublesome incorrigible and irrepressible incredulous and mortified indefatigable and irresistible indefinite and vague independent and democratic indifference and brevity indigence and obscurity indignation and chagrin indirectly and unconsciously indispensable and irreplaceable indistinct and misty indolence and indifference indomitable and dogged indorsed and applauded indulge and cherish industrious and vigilant ineffective and bungling inert and uncertain inevitable and assured inexhaustible and indomitable inexperienced and timid infallible and disdainful inference and suggestion infinite and eternal inflexible and unchanging influence and authority informed and competent ingenious and eloquent ingratitude and cruelty inharmonious and irregular injustice and inhumanity innocence and fidelity innuendo and suggestion inopportune and futile insanely and blindly inscrutable and perplexing insecurity and precariousness insensibly and graciously insignificant and transitory insincere and worthless insipid and silly insistent and incongruous insolence and absurdity inspiring and animating instant and momentous instinctive and rational insulted and thwarted intangible and indefinable integral and indestructible integrity and honor intelligence and insight intense and overpowering intentness and interest interesting and engrossing intimate and familiar intolerant and bumptious [bumptious = loudly assertive; pushy] intractable and untameable intricate and endless intrusive and unmannerly intuitive and axiomatic invasion and aggression invective and innuendo [invective = abusive language] investigation and research invidious and painful [invidious = rousing ill will, animosity] inviolate and unscathed invisible and silent involuntary and automatic irksome and distasteful irrational and excessive irregular and intermittent irreligious and immoral irremediable and eternal irrepressible and insistent irreverence and ingratitude irritable and churlish [churlish = boorish or vulgar] isolated and detached j jabber and chatter jagged and multifarious jargon and absurdity jaundiced and jealous jeer and scoff jeopardy and instability jests and sarcasms jocular and vivacious jostle and stumble joy and felicity jubilant and boastful judgment and discretion judicious and acute juggled and manipulated jumble and confuse juncture and circumstance jurisdiction and authority justice and virtue juvenile and budding k keen and pertinacious [pertinacious = stubbornly persistent] kind and forbearing kindle and intensify kindred and analogous kingly and autocratic knavish and tyrannical knowledge and conviction known and recognized l labor and drudgery lame and impotent lamentable and depressing languid and indifferent large and opulent lassitude and languor [languor = dreamy, lazy mood] latent and lifeless latitude and scope laudable and deserving laughable and grotesque lavish and wasteful lawlessness and violence laxity and forbearance laziness and profligacy leafage and fruitage learning and austerity legends and traditions legitimate and logical leisure and tranquillity lengthy and diffuse lenient and sympathetic lethargy and sloth levity and gaiety liberal and ample liberty and freedom license and laxity likely and plausible limited and abbreviated listless and inert literal and exact literary and artistic lithe and sinewy lively and poignant loathsome and abject lofty and sonorous [sonorous = producing a full, rich sound; impressive speech] logical and consistent loquacity and exuberance [loquacity = very talkative.] loss and deterioration loud and passionate loving and reverential low and groveling loyal and devoted lucidity and vividness lucky and propitious [propitious = auspicious, favorable; kindly] lucrative and advantageous ludicrous and detestable lugubrious and unfortunate [lugubrious = dismal, gloomy] lukewarm and indifferent lull and silence luminous and keen lure and captivate lurid and fiery luscious and lasting luster and resplendence lusty and big-sounding luxury and pomp m madness and folly magical and secret magnificent and luxurious majestic and imposing malice and revenge malignity and spitefulness manifold and complex manly and powerful manner and conduct marvels and mysteries massive and compact masterly and convincing materialistic and sordid maternal and filial maudlin and grotesque [maudlin = tearfully sentimental] maxims and morals meager and bare mean and debasing meaning and significance means and materials mechanical and monotonous meddling and muddling meditative and sympathetic meek and manageable melody and softness memorable and glorious menace and superciliousness [superciliousness = haughty disdain] merciful and chivalrous merciless and unpitying merit and virtue mighty and majestic mild and virtuous mince and temporize minds and memories minuteness and fidelity mirth and joviality misdemeanors and improprieties misery and degradation misrepresented and reviled misty and indefinite mobile and expressive mockery and imposture moderate and cautious modes and methods modest and retiring molding and upbuilding momentary and languid [languid = lacking energy; weak] momentous and appalling monopoly and injustice monotony and indecorum monstrous and insupportable moody and brooding moral and religious morbid and irritable motionless and commanding motives and aims mud and mire muddled and incoherent murmurs and reproaches muscularity and morality mutable and fleeting mute and insensate mutilated and disfigured muttering and murmuring mutual and friendly mysterious and incomprehensible mystic and wonderful n nagging and squabbling nameless and obscure narrow and timorous natural and spontaneous nauseous and disgusting neatness and propriety necessarily and essentially needs and demands nefarious and malevolent negations and contradictions neglect and evade negotiate and bargain nerve and fiber neutral and colorless nicety and precision nimble and airy noble and powerful nodding and blinking noisy and scurrilous [scurrilous = vulgar, coarse, abusive language] nonsense and absurdity nooks and corners notable and conspicuous noted and distinguished noteworthy and intelligible notoriety and prominence nourish and foster novelty and freshness novice and ignoramus nucleus and beginning nugatory and ineffectual [nugatory = no importance; trifling] nullify and destroy number and variety numerous and important o oaths and revilings obdurate and impenitent [obdurate = hardened in wrongdoing ] [impenitent = without remorse for sins] obedient and dutious obeisance and submission objectionable and inexpedient obligation and dependence obliquity and hypocrisy oblivious and insensible obloquy and detraction [obloquy = abusive language] obnoxious and odious obscure and enigmatical obsequies and panegyrics [obsequies = funeral rite] [panegyrics = elaborate praise] obsequious and conciliating [obsequious = servile compliance; fawning] observations and reflections obstacles and disasters obstinate and stupid obstreperous and noisy [obstreperous = stubbornly defiant] obtrusive and vulgar obtuse and imbecile obvious and palpable occasional and contingent occult and hidden occupations and habits odd and dismal odious and oppressive offensive and aggressive official and authoritative oily and servile old and decrepit ominous and untrustworthy omnivorous and sordid oneness and unity onerous and perplexing open and inviting opinions and hypotheses opportunism and inconsistency opposite and discordant oppressed and sullen optimistic and reassuring opulence and magnitude oracular and occult [oracular = solemnly prophetic; obscure] order and uniformity organic and rational organization and system origin and discovery original and attractive ornate and variegated ostensible and explicit ostentatiousness and gaiety outlines and appearances outrageous and scandalous overburdened and confused overcome and vanquish overstep and contravene overt and unmistakable overwearied and outworn overworked and fagged [fagged = worked to exhaustion] p pains and penalties painstaking and cumbersome pale and anxious palpable and plain paltry and inglorious pampered and petted parade and display parched and dry partial and provisional particularly and individually parties and sects passion and prejudice passive and indifferent pastimes and diversions patent and pertinent pathos and terror patience and perseverance patriotism and reverence pattern and exemplar [exemplar = worthy of imitation] peaks and pinnacles pedagogue and pedant [pedant = exhibits learning or scholarship ostentatiously] pedantries and affectations pedigree and genealogy peevishness and spleen pellucid and crystal [pellucid = transparently clear] penetrating and insidious penned and planned peppery and impetuous perception and recognition peremptorily and irrevocably [peremptorily = not allowing contradiction] perilous and shifting permanent and unchangeable permeate and purify pernicious and malign perplexity and confusion persistent and reiterated personal and specific perspicuous and flowing [perspicuous = clearly expressed] perturbed and restless perverted and prejudicial pessimistic and disenchanted pestilence and famine petted and indulged pettiness and prudence petulance and acrimony pharisaical and bitter [pharisaical = hypocritically self-righteous and condemnatory] pictorial and dramatic picturesque and illustrative pilgrim and crusader pillage and demolish piquant and palatable [piquant = agreeable pungent taste] pith and brevity pitiful and destitute place and power plagued and persecuted plainness and severity plaintive and mournful plans and projects plastic and ductile plausibility and humbug pleasant and pungent pleasurable and wholesome pliant and submissive plot and verisimilitude plunder and sacrilege poetical and pastoral pointless and ineffective polite and elegant political and sociological pomp and pageantry ponderous and unwieldy poor and barren possession and dominion potent and prevailing power and luxury praise and commend precedence and usage precision and efficiency preference and prejudice pregnant and suggestive prejudice and predilection [predilection = preference] presence and address present and tangible prestige and authority presumptuous and futile pretentious and inept pretty and enchanting pride and indignation primary and essential priority and predominance probity and candor [probity = integrity; uprightness] prodigal and careless profile and outline profound and philosophical profuse and tearful prolix and tedious [prolix = prolonged; wordy] prominence and importance promise and performance promptitude and dispatch proneness and readiness pronounced and diversified proof and illustration propensity and desire proportion and consistency propriety and delicacy prostration and loss protection and safety protesting and repelling protracted and fruitless provincialism and vulgarity prudent and sagacious [sagacious = keenly discerning] puerile and sickly [puerile = immature; childish] puffy and dissipated puissant and vigorous [puissant = with power, might] punctilious and severe [punctilious = precise; scrupulous] purity and simplicity purpose and intention pusillanimous and petty [pusillanimous = cowardly] puzzled and affected q quackery and incompetence quaintness and oddity qualities and gifts quarrel and wrangle queer and affected querulous and plaintive [querulous = complaining; peevish] quibble and fabricate quickness and agility quiet and unobtrusive quintessential and nuclear [quintessential = perfect example] quips and cranks quirks and graces quivering and fearful quizzical and whimsical r racked and oppressed racy and incisive rage and apprehension rank and learning rant and gush rapacity and villainy [rapacity = plundering] rapidity and precision rapt and silent rapture and enthusiasm rare and exquisite rashness and heedlessness ready and spontaneous real and positive realistic and effective reasonable and practical rebellion and disloyalty rebuffs and anxieties receptive and responsive recognized and honored recoil and reaction reconciliation and peace recondite and abstruse [recondite = concealed; hidden] [abstruse = difficult to understand] reconnoiter and explore recreation and amusement rectitude and delicacy redeeming and transforming refined and dignified refreshing and invigorating regard and esteem regret and remorse regular and symmetrical rejection and scorn reliable and trustworthy relief and redress [redress = set right; remedy] remarkable and interesting remorseful and sullen remote and distant rend and devastate repellent and ungracious repetition and reiteration repress and silence repugnance and aversion repulsive and loathsome resentment and indignation reserve and coyness resistless and implacable resolution and effort resonant and tuneful resourceful and unscrupulous respected and obeyed responsibilities and burdens restive and bored restless and impatient retaliation and revenge reticence and repose revered and cherished reverses and disasters revised and corrected revolution and sedition [sedition = insurrection; rebellion] rhapsodies and panegyrics [panegyrics = elaborate praise] richness and fertility ridicule and censure right and praiseworthy rigid and inexpressive ripeness and plenitude rivals and antagonists roar and ring robust and rugged rococo and affected [rococo = elaborate ornamentation] romantic and pathetic rough and barren roundabout and complicated roused and stimulated rude and fiery rugged and inaccessible rumors and impressions rushing and gurgling rust and disuse s sad and melancholy sagacity and virtue [sagacity = farsighted; wise] sane and simple sarcastic and cruel sayings and quibbles scant and incidental scattered and desultory [desultory = haphazard; random] scenes and associations scholastic and erudite [erudite = learned] scientific and exact scintillating and brilliant scoffing and unbelief scope and significance scorched and shriveled scorn and loathing scrupulous and anxious scrutiny and investigation searching and irresistible seared and scorched secondary and subsidiary secretive and furtive sedate and serious selfish and overbearing sensational and trivial senseless and unreasoning sensibilities and emotions sensitive and capricious sententious and tiresome [sententious = pompous moralizing; terse and energetic] sentiment and passion serene and quiet serious and studious severe and saturnine [saturnine = melancholy or sullen] shabbiness and vulgarity shadowy and confused shame and mortification shams and hypocrisies shaped and sculptured sharp and vigorous shelter and safeguard shifts and compromises shivering and chattering shocked and astonished short and precarious shreds and tatters shrewd and diligent shrill and piercing shrinking and nervous shy and subdued significant and sinister signs and tokens silence and obscurity similarities and resemblances simple and straightforward simpletons and nincompoops sincerity and frankness sinewy and active skill and coolness skulk and shirk sleek and languid [languid = lacking energy or vitality; weak] slight and precarious slipshod and untidy slothfulness and perversity slow and sluggish slumbering and unsuspected small and hampered smirched and tarnished smoothness and artifice sneering and sentimental soberly and truthfully softness and effeminacy solemn and dramatic solitary and idle solitude and depression sonorous and musical sons and scions [scions = descendant or heir] soporific and sodden [soporific = inducing sleep] sordid and stupid sorrow and lamentation soulless and mindless sovereign and independent spacious and lofty sparkling and spontaneous spasmodic and hysterical speedy and inevitable spicy and pungent spiritual and invisible spiteful and sordid splash and dash splendor and glory spontaneity and intensity sportive and playful sprightly and vigorous spur and impulse spurious and misleading squalid and dismal [squalid = wretched, dirty, repulsive] stare and gasp stately and ponderous statesmanship and character staunch and influential stay and solace steadfast and resolute steadily and patiently stealthy and hostile stern and unbending stiff and cumbersome stifling and venomous still and translucent stimulating and wholesome stings and stimulants stir and tumult stolid and soulless strain and struggle strange and incomprehensible stratagems and plots strenuous and energetic strictly and absolutely strife and contention striking and picturesque strong and youthful structure and organization struggles and misgivings studied and artificial stunned and insensible stupor and despair sturdy and manly style and temperament suave and winning sublime and aspiring submission and patience subordinate and dependent substance and basis subtle and elusive suddenness and vehemence suffering and desperation suffused and transfigured suggestions and stimulations sullen and fierce summarize and epitomize sumptuous and aromatic sunshine and smiles superb and showy supercilious and obstinate [supercilious = haughty disdain] superficial and obvious superfluous and impertinent suppressed and restrained surmises and suggestions surprise and wonder susceptibility and vulnerability suspense and excitement suspicion and innuendo [innuendo = indirect derogatory implication] sustained and measured sweet and wholesome swelled and bloated swift and stealthy swoop and range symbolism and imagery sympathetic and consoling t taciturn and laconic [taciturn = untalkative] [laconic = terse] tactful and conciliatory talkative and effusive tame and insipid tangible and sufficient tangled and shapeless tardy and belated tartness and contradiction taste and elegance tattle and babble taunt and reproach tawdry and penurious [tawdry = gaudy, cheap] [penurious = stingy] tears and lamentations tedious and trivial temperament and taste temperately and judiciously tempest and violence temporal and evanescent [evanescent = vanishing like vapor] tenacity and coherence tender and emotional tense and straining tentative and experimental terrible and satanical testiness and crabbedness thankfulness and acknowledgment theories and speculations thorough and effective threatening and formidable thriftless and unenterprising thrilling and vitalizing ties and associations time and opportunity timid and vacillating tiresome and laborious tolerant and kindly tone and treatment topics and instances tormented and tantalized tortuous and twisted tottering and hopeless touched and thrilled tractable and gracious traditions and practises training and temperament tranquillity and benevolence transfuse and irradiate transitory and temporary transparent and comprehensible treacherous and cowardly tremble and oscillate trenchant and straightforward [trenchant = effective, and vigorous] trials and tribulations tricks and stratagems trifling and doubtful trite and commonplace trivial and ridiculous troublous and menacing truisms and trivialities trust and confidence truth and righteousness turbid and noise some turgid and bombastic [turgid = excessively complex] [bombastic = pompous] turmoil and shouting twisted and perverted type and forerunner tyrant and oppressor u unaccountable and grotesque unaffected and undaunted unapproached and unapproachable unassuming and unpretending unchangeable and enduring unconsciously and innocently uncouth and barbarous unctuous and irresistible [trenchant = insincere earnestness] undeveloped and ignorant undignified and futile uneasiness and apprehension uneducated and inexperienced unfamiliar and distant unfettered and vigorous unforced and unchecked unfortunate and unparalleled unfounded and incredible ungracious and reluctant unhappiness and discomfort unique and original unity and completeness unjust and ungrateful unlimited and absolute unnatural and harmful unobserved and unsuspected unobtrusive and tactful unparalleled and inexhaustible unpleasant and bewildering unpopular and unimpressive unprecedented and objectionable unpremeditated and heartfelt unpromising and scanty unprotected and friendless unreal and unsubstantial unreasoning and uncompromising unrecognized and unrewarded unseemly and insufferable unseen and unsuspected unsmiling and critical unswerving and unfaltering unthinking and careless untutored and infantine unusual and unexpected unuttered and unutterable unwholesome and vile upright and credible uproar and confusion upstart and braggart urbanity and unction [unction = exaggerated earnestness] utter and disastrous v vacillation and uncertainty vague and indistinct vain and profitless validity and value vanities and vices vapory and chaotic varied and animated varnish and falsehood vassals and inferiors vast and superlative vehement and clamorous veiled and unreadable venality and corruption venerable and interesting veracity and fidelity verbally and literally versatility and sympathy vexation and anxiety vibrating and sonorous views and experiences vigilant and inflexible vigorous and graphic violent and ill-balanced virtuous and wise virulence and invective [invective = abusive language] visible and apparent visionary and obscure vistas and backgrounds vital and vigorous vitiate and poison [vitiate = reduce the value] vituperation and abuse [vituperation = abusive language] vivacious and agreeable vivid and varied void and nothingness volatile and fiery volubly and exuberantly [volubly = ready flow of speech] volume and impetus voluminous and varied voluntarily and habitually vulgar and artificial w wandering and erratic wanton and unnecessary war and revelry warp and woof [warp = lengthwise threads] [woof = crosswise threads] wasteful and circuitous waxing and waning weak and perfidious wealth and distinction wearisome and dull weighed and winnowed weighty and dominant weird and fantastic wheezing and puffing whims and inconsistencies wholesome and beautiful wholly and solely wicked and malicious widened and amplified wild and irregular wily and observant winking and blinking winning and unforced wise and beneficent wistful and dreamy wit and jocularity [jocularity = given to joking] withered and wan woe and lamentation wonder and delight work and utility worldly and ambitious worth and excellence wrath and menace wretched and suppliant y yearning and eagerness yielding and obedience yoke and bondage young and fragile youthful and callow [callow = immature] z zeal and vehemence zenith and climax zest and freshness zigzag and deviating section iii felicitous phrases a ability, humor, and perspicacity [perspicacity = perceptive] abrupt, rough, and immoderate abstruse, metaphysical, and idealistic abundant, varied, and vigorous accessible, knowable, and demonstrable accomplished, inventive, and deft-fingered accuracy, ease, and grace acquire, classify, and arrange action, incident, and interest active, learned, and liberal acts, activities, and aims actual, stern, and pathetic acuteness, honesty, and, fearlessness addition, correction, and amplification adventurous, eager, and afraid affected, pedantic, and vain [pedantic = attention to detail or rules] affluent, genial, and frank aggressive, envious, and arrogant agreeable, engaging, and delightful air, woodland, and water alarmed, anxious, and uneasy alert, hopeful, and practical amazement, resentment, and indignation ambiguous, strange, and sinister amiable, genial, and charitable amusing, sympathetic, and interesting ancient, subtle, and treacherous annoyances, shifts, and inconveniences anxious, fearful, and anticipative appearance, conversation, and bearing approbation, wealth, and power [approbation = warm approval; praise] apt, explicit, and communicative ardent, undisciplined, and undirected arrogance, conceit, and disdain artificial, rhetorical, and mundane artistic, progressive, and popular aspirations, dreams, and devotions assured, stern, and judicial astonishment, apprehension, and horror attainments, possessions, and character attention, forbearance, and patience attract, interest, and persuade augmenting, furthering, and reenforcing austere, calm, and somber authority, leadership, and command avarice, pride, and revenge awakened, girded, and active awe, reverence, and adoration awkwardness, narrowness, and self-consciousness b barbarous, shapeless, and irregular beautiful, graceful, and accomplished beggar, thief, and impostor belittling, personal, and selfish birth, rank, and fortune bitter, baleful, and venomous bland, patient, and methodical blessing, bestowing, and welcoming blind, partial, and prejudiced blithe, innocent, and free bluster, swagger, and might body, soul, and mind boisterous, undignified, and vulgar bold, original, and ingenious bombastic, incongruous, and unsymmetrical bountiful, exuberant, and luxurious brain, energy, and enterprise brave, authoritative, and confident breadth, richness, and freshness breathless, confused, and exhilarated brief, isolated, and fragmentary brilliancy, energy, and zeal broad, spare, and athletic broken, apologetic, and confused brotherhood, humanity, and chivalry brusqueness, rudeness, and self-assertion brutish, repulsive, and terrible busy, active, and toiling c calculated, logical, and dispassionate calm, earnest, and genial candor, integrity, and straightforwardness capricious, perverse, and prejudiced careful, reasoned, and courteous cautious, prudent, and decisive caviling, petulance, and discontent [caviling = finding trivial objections] censured, slighted, and despised certain, swift, and final chance, doubt, and mutability character, life, and aims charitable, just, and true charm, grace, and glory cheerful, modest, and delicate childish, discordant, and superfluous chill, harden, and repel circumstances, properties, and characteristics civilized, mild, and humane clear, cloudless, and serene cleverness, independence, and originality coarseness, violence, and cunning coherent, interdependent, and logical cold, cynical, and relentless color, intensity, and vivacity comfort, virtue, and happiness comments, criticisms, and judgments common, dull, and threadbare compact, determinate, and engaging conceited, commonplace, and uninspiring conception, direction, and organization confident, inflexible, and uncontrollable conflict, confusion, and disintegration confused, broken, and fragmentary conscience, heart, and life conscientious, clear-headed, and accurate consistent, thoughtful, and steadfast consoling, pacifying, and benign constant, wise, and sympathetic constitution, temperament, and habits convince, convert, and reconstruct copious, redundant, and involved corroding, venomous, and malignant corrupt, self-seeking, and dishonest countenance, voice, and manner country, lake, and mountain courage, patience, and honesty courteous, patient, and indefatigable covetousness, selfishness, and ignorance credulous, weak, and superstitious crimes, follies, and misfortunes crisp, emphatic, and powerful crude, warped, and barren cruelty, violence, and injustice culture, growth, and progress cunning, cruelty, and treachery curious, fantastic, and charming d danger, difficulty, and hardship darkness, doubt, and difficulty dazzle, amaze, and overpower deadly, silent, and inaccessible deceitful, lazy, and dishonest decent, respectable, and sensible decisions, affirmations, and denials deep, flexible, and melodious defeated, discredited, and despised deferential, conciliatory, and courteous definite, tangible, and practicable deftness, delicacy, and veracity degraded, defeated, and emasculated dejected, discouraged, and disappointed deliberately, coolly, and methodically delicate, mobile, and complex delightful, witty, and sensible denounced, persecuted, and reviled dependent, subsidiary, and allied depth, tenderness, and sublimity desolated, impoverished, and embittered despair, finality, and hopelessness detailed, described, and explained devastating, horrible, and irremediable devout, gentle, and kindly difficult, painful, and slow digestion, circulation, and assimilation dignity, solemnity, and responsibility diligent, cautious, and painstaking dingy, cumbersome, and depressing directness, spontaneity, and simplicity disciplined, drilled, and trained discontent, revolt, and despair discordant, coarse, and unpleasing discourses, lectures, and harangues disheveled, wild, and distracted disinterested, patient, and exact dislikes, jealousies, and ambitions dismal, cold, and dead dismay, remorse, and anguish disordered, wild, and incoherent dispassionate, wise, and intelligent disposition, taste, and temperament dissension, discord, and rebellion distracted, hopeless, and bankrupt disturbed, shaken, and distressed diversified, animated, and rapid division, prejudice, and antagonism doctrine, life, and destiny dogmatic, scientific, and philosophic doubt, cynicism, and indifference draggled, dirty, and slouching dramatic, picturesque, and vigorous dream, speculate, and philosophize drunkenness, licentiousness, and profanity dry, inane, and droll dull, hideous, and arid dullards, hypocrites, and cowards dust, turmoil, and smoke duties, labors, and anxieties dwarfed, scant, and wretched e eagerness, heartiness, and vehemence earnestness, zeal, and intelligence ease, power, and self-confidence easy, natural, and unembarrassed effluent, radiating, and fructifying [fructifying = make fruitful or productive] egotistic, disdainful, and proud elegant, convincing, and irresistible emotion, affection, and desire empty, noisy, and blundering end, aim, and purpose energies, capacities, and opportunities enlighten, uplift, and strengthen enmity, suspicion, and hatred enrich, discipline, and embellish enthusiasm, vehemence, and spirit envy, jealousy, and malice equable, animated, and alert erect, elastic, and graceful error, ignorance, and strife essence, existence, and identity esteem, confidence, and affection evil, disease, and death exact, logical, and convincing examine, compare, and decide excessive, inaccurate, and unliterary excitements, interests, and responsibilities experience, knowledge, and conduct exposure, ruin, and flight exterior, formal, and imposing f faded, dusty, and unread failures, experiences, and ambitions fair, proud, and handsome fairies, sprites, and angels faith, hope, and love false, wicked, and disloyal fantastic, absurd, and impossible fear, dread, and apprehension features, form, and height feeble, illogical, and vicious feelings, motives, and desires fertility, ingenuity, and resource fervently, patiently, and persistently fibs, myths, and fables fierce, dogmatic, and bigoted figure, face, and attitude fire, force, and passion flit, change, and vary flushed, trembling, and unstrung foibles, tricks, and fads foliage, color, and symmetry follies, fashions, and infatuations foolish, ignorant, and unscrupulous force, grace, and symmetry forcible, extraordinary, and sublime foremost, preeminent, and incomparable foresight, prudence, and economy form, color, and distance formless, silent, and awful forward, onward, and upward frank, kindly, and unfaltering free, equal, and just freedom, honor, and dignity fresh, vigorous, and telling fretfulness, irritability, and petulance friendly, amiable, and sincere frigid, austere, and splendid fruitful, luminous, and progressive full, animated, and varied fullness, force, and precision furious, sanguinary, and disorganizing [sanguinary = accompanied by bloodshed] fustian, padding, and irrelevancy [fustian = pompous, bombastic, and ranting] g gaunt, desolate, and despoiled gay, easy, and cordial generous, large-hearted, and magnanimous genial, frank, and confiding genius, learning, and virtue gentle, firm, and loving genuineness, disinterestedness, and strength germinate, develop, and radiate gesture, accent, and attitude ghastly, hateful, and ugly gibes, sneers, and anger gifts, graces, and accomplishments gladness, exaltation, and triumph glean, gather, and digest gloomy, silent, and tranquil glow, grace, and pleasantness good, gentle, and affectionate gorgeous, still, and warm grace, simplicity, and sweetness gracious, mild, and good gradual, cautious, and well-reasoned gratitude, happiness, and affection grave, disastrous, and wanton gravity, sweetness, and patience gray, monotonous, and uninteresting great, grand, and mighty greed, lust, and cruelty grim, lean, and hungry gross, ignorant, and impudent growth, progress, and extension guide, philosopher, and friend h habits, tastes, and opinions hard, stern, and inexorable harmony, peace, and happiness harsh, intolerant, and austere health, character, and efficiency helpful, suggestive, and inspiring helpless, hopeless, and downtrodden high, lofty, and noble high-spirited, confident, and genial history, philosophy, and eloquence homage, ability, and culture honesty, probity, and justice [probity = integrity; uprightness] honors, riches, and power hopes, aspirations, and longings hot, swift, and impatient humanity, freedom, and justice humble, submissive, and serviceable humor, fancy, and susceptibility i idle, profuse, and profligate ignorance, fear, and selfishness illuminating, chastening, and transforming images, events, and incidents imagination, judgment, and reason immediate, sure, and easy immethodical, irregular, and inconsecutive impatient, inconsiderate, and self-willed impetuous, fierce, and irresistible impracticable, chimerical, and contemptible impulse, energy, and activity inclinations, habits, and interests incoherent, loud, and confusing incomparable, matchless, and immortal inconsiderate, irritable, and insolent indignation, surprise, and reproach indirect, obscure, and ambiguous indolent, dreamy, and frolicsome inert, torpid, and lethargic ingenuity, force, and originality innocence, intelligence, and youth inordinate, excessive, and extravagant insight, knowledge, and capacity insincere, partial, and arbitrary insipid, commonplace, and chattering insolence, injustice, and imposture intelligence, taste, and manners intense, weighty, and philosophical inventions, sciences, and discoveries irksome, painful, and depressing irresolute, procrastinating, and unenterprising irritable, sulky, and furious issues, hopes, and interests j jealousy, exclusiveness, and taciturnity [taciturnity = habitually untalkative] jovial, ready-witted, and broad-gaged joyous, delightful, and gay justice, mercy, and peace k keen, clear, and accurate knowing, feeling, and willing knowledge, skill, and foresight l labors, anxieties, and trials large, rhythmical, and pleasing laughter, ridicule, and sneers lead, attack, and conquer learning, profundity, and imagination legislation, education, and religion levity, indolence, and procrastination libelers, reviewers, and rivals liberating, vitalizing, and cheering liberty, justice, and humanity light, easy, and playful literature, history, and legend lively, careless, and joyous lofty, serene, and impregnable logical, clear, and consistent loitering, heart-sick, and reluctant lonely, sad, and enslaved long, wailing, and passionate lost, ruined, and deserted loud, deep, and distinct love, veneration, and gratitude lucid, lively, and effective luxurious, whimsical, and selfish m magnificent, sumptuous, and stately magnitude, duration, and scope majesty, beauty, and truth malevolence, vanity, and falsehood manly, refined, and unaffected mean, pitiful, and sordid meek, humane, and temperate melancholy, grave, and serious mercy, truth, and righteousness methodical, sensible, and conscientious might, majesty, and power mild, sweet, and peaceable mischief, cruelty, and futility moans, shrieks, and curses mobile, quick, and sensitive modest, sympathetic, and kind molding, controlling, and conforming monstrous, incredible, and inhuman moral, material, and social motionless, staring, and appalled motives, purposes, and intentions mountains, seas, and vineyards moved, swayed, and ruled murder, destruction, and agony mystery, vagueness, and jargon n narrow, precise, and formal natural, innocent, and laudable neatness, order, and comfort necessary, just, and logical neglect, rashness, and incompetence new, strange, and unusual niggardly, sordid, and parsimonious [grudging, wretched and frugal] noble, laudable, and good noise, clatter, and clamor null, void, and useless o obscure, difficult, and subtle observation, discrimination, and comparison obsolete, artificial, and inadequate obstinacy, stupidity, and wilfulness officious, fidgety, and talkative old, absurd, and meaningless one, individual, and integral openly, frankly, and legitimately opposition, bitterness, and defiance oppressive, grasping, and slanderous opulent, powerful, and prosperous organization, monopoly, and pressure origin, character, and aim original, terse, and vigorous overriding, arrogant, and quarrelsome p pain, toil, and privation pale, ugly, and sinister parable, precept, and practise partial, false, and disastrous passion, tenderness, and reverence patient, gentle, and kind peace, order, and civilization pellucid, animated, and varied [pellucid = transparently clear] permanent, true, and real perplexed, tedious, and obscure personal, sharp, and pointed perspicuity, vivacity, and grace [perspicuity = clearness and lucidity] pert, smirking, and conceited pervading, searching, and saturating petty, unsuccessful, and unamiable philosophy, morals, and discoveries picturesque, daring, and potent piety, charity, and humility pillage, arson, and bloodshed pious, patient, and trustful pity, sympathy, and compassion placable, reasonable, and willing [placable = easily calmed; tolerant] place, fame, and fortune placid, clear, and mellow plague, pestilence, and famine plan, purpose, and work pleasant, friendly, and amiable pleased, interested, and delighted pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction plenty, content, and tranquillity plodding, sedentary, and laborious poise, dignity, and reserve polished, elegant, and sumptuous politics, business, and religion pompous, affected, and unreal poor, miserable, and helpless pose, gesture, and expression powerful, dazzling, and daring practical, visible, and tangible precious, massive, and splendid precise, formal, and cynical prejudice, dulness, and spite prepossessions, opinions, and prejudices presiding, directing, and controlling pride, passion, and conceit princely, picturesque, and pathetic principles, conduct, and habits progress, order, and happiness prolonged, obstinate, and continued prompt, fiery, and resolute propriety, perspicacity, and accuracy [perspicacity = perceptive] prosaic, dull, and unattractive protective, propitiatory, and accommodating [propitiatory = conciliatory] protests, criticisms, and rebukes proud, reserved, and disagreeable prudence, mildness, and firmness puckered, winking, and doddering pure, honorable, and just purge, brace, and strengthen purpose, intention, and meaning puzzles, tangles, and questionings q quarrels, misunderstandings, and enmities questions, disputes, and controversies quicken, sharpen, and intensify quiet, unaffected, and unostentatious r raise, refine, and elevate rapid, robust, and effective rapt, emotional, and mystic raptures, transports, and fancies rash, violent, and indefinite readiness, skill, and accuracy reading, reflection, and observation reaffirmed, amplified, and maintained real, earnest, and energetic regard, esteem, and affection relaxation, recreation, and pleasure religion, politics, and literature reminiscences, associations, and impressions remote, careless, and indifferent reparations, restitutions, and guarantees repress, curb, and correct reproach, shame, and remorse reproof, correction, and instruction resentment, hatred, and despair resolute, patient, and fervent resourceful, steadfast, and skilful respect, admiration, and homage rest, respite, and peace restless, discontented, and rebellious restraint, self-denial, and austerity reticent, restrained, and reserved reverie, contemplation, and loneliness rich, thoughtful, and glowing ridicule, sarcasm, and invective [invective = abusive language] rights, powers, and privileges rise, flourish, and decay robustness, elasticity, and firmness romance, adventure, and passion rough, barren, and unsightly rude, sulky, and overbearing rush, roar, and shriek s sacredness, dignity, and loveliness sad, gloomy, and suspicious safe, sensible, and sane sanguine, impulsive, and irrepressible [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic] sarcasm, satire, and ridicule satiety, surfeit, and tedium savage, fierce, and intractable scheming, contriving, and dishonesty self-absorbed, conceited, and contemptuous self-conscious, artificial, and affected self-exacting, laborious, and inexhaustible selfishness, coarseness, and mendacity [mendacity = untruthfulness] sense, grace, and good-will sensibility, harmony, and energy sensitive, ardent, and conscientious serene, ineffable, and flawless [ineffable = indescribable] serious, calm, and searching settled, adjusted, and balanced shallow, false, and petty shapes, forms, and artifices sharpness, bitterness, and sarcasm shivering, moaning, and weeping shrewd, artful, and designing shy, wild, and provocative sick, ashamed, and disillusioned silent, cold, and motionless simple, full, and impressive sin, selfishness, and luxury sincere, placable, and generous [placable = easily calmed; tolerant] skill, sagacity, and firmness [sagacity = farsighted; wise] sleekness, stealth, and savagery slovenly, base, and untrue slow, reluctant, and unwelcome smirking, garrulous, and pretentious [garrulous = excessive and trivial talk] smooth, sentimental, and harmonious smug, fat, and complacent sneers, innuendoes, and insinuations social, esthetic, and intellectual solitary, sedentary, and lifeless sound, human, and healthy sour, malignant, and envious spacious, clean, and comfortable speechless, motionless, and amazed spirit, vigor, and variety spitefulness, dishonesty, and cruelty splendid, powerful, and enduring startling, alarming, and vehement statesmen, philosophers, and divines steadiness, self-control, and serenity stern, forbidding, and unfeeling stiff, decorous, and formal strained, worn, and haggard strange, dark, and mysterious strengthen, invigorate, and discipline strenuous, intelligent, and alive striking, bold, and magnificent stripped, swept, and bare strong, cool, and inflexible studied, discussed, and debated sturdy, energetic, and high-minded style, manner, and disposition subtle, delicate, and refined successful, energetic, and ingenious sudden, vehement, and unfamed suggestive, stimulating, and inspiring sullen, silent, and disconsolate suppliant, gentle, and submissive [suppliant = asking humbly] surprise, admiration, and wonder suspicious, restive, and untractable swiftness, mobility, and penetrativeness sympathy, service, and compassion t talent, scholarship, and refinement tameness, monotony, and reserve taste, feeling, and sentiment tedious, painful, and distressing temper, pride, and sensuality temperament, character, and circumstance temperate, sweet, and venerable tenderness, loyalty, and devotion terror, remorse, and shame terseness, simplicity, and quaintness theatrical, sensational, and demonstrative thought, utterance, and action threats, cries, and prayers thrilling, dramatic, and picturesque thwart, criticize, and embarrass time, thought, and consideration touched, strengthened, and transformed tradition, prejudice, and stupidity tragic, tremendous, and horrible transparent, theatric, and insincere treachery, envy, and selfishness tremulous, soft, and bright [tremulous = trembling, quivering, shaking] trial, discipline, and temptation tricks, shufflings, and frauds trivial, labored, and wearisome true, lasting, and beneficial tyranny, injustice, and extortion u ugly, scowling, and offensive unbending, contemptuous, and scornful unclean, shameful, and degrading undecided, wavering, and cautious unearthly, horrible, and obnoxious uneasy, overstrained, and melancholy unity, emphasis, and coherence unmodulated, cold, and expressionless unphilosophical, unsystematic, and discursive unscrupulous, heartless, and hypocritical unwholesome, bewildering, and unprofitable unworldly, peaceable, and philosophical upright, kind-hearted, and blameless urgent, tumultuous, and incomprehensible v vague, impalpable, and incongruous vanities, stupidities, and falsehoods venerable, patriotic, and virtuous verities, certainties, and realities vigilant, inveterate, and unresting [inveterate = long established] vigorous, subtle, and comprehensive violent, sinister, and rebellious virtue, genius, and charm visionary, fraudulent, and empirical vital, formidable, and dominant vivid, comprehensible, and striking vulgarity, ignorance, and misapprehension w waddling, perspiring, and breathless want, worry, and woe wasteful, indolent, and evasive watchful, suspicious, and timid wealth, position, and influence wearied, despondent, and bewildered weight, size, and solidity well-proportioned, logical, and sane whimsical, fantastic, and impracticable wholesome, beautiful, and righteous wicked, pernicious, and degrading wild, confused, and dizzy wilful, wanton, and deliberate will, energy, and self-control wisdom, patriotism, and justice wit, fancy, and imagination worthless, broken, and defeated wretchedness, deformity, and malice wrinkled, careworn, and pale section iv impressive phrases a able, skilful, thorough, and genuine absolute, complete, unqualified, and final accurate, precise, exact, and truthful active, alert, vigorous, and industrious actual, positive, certain, and genuine adequate, uniform, proportionate, and equitable adventurous, fine, active, and gossipy adverse, antagonistic, unfriendly, and hostile advisable, advantageous, acceptable, and expedient affable, diffident, humble, and mild affectionate, tender, loving, and attached affluent, opulent, abundant, and ample allurements, pits, snares, and torments anger, indignation, resentment, and rage animate, impel, instigate, and embolden animosity, malice, enmity, and hatred annul, frustrate, reverse, and destroy anxiety, caution, watchfulness, and solicitude apparent, ostensible, plausible, and specious appropriate, use, arrogate, and usurp [arrogate = claim without right; appropriate] approval, enthusiasm, sympathy, and applause aptitude, capacity, efficiency, and power arbitrary, dictatorial, domineering, and imperious [imperious = arrogantly domineering or overbearing] architecture, sculpture, painting, and poetry ardent, impatient, keen, and vehement argue, discuss, dispute, and prove arrangement, place, time, and circumstance art, science, knowledge, and culture artful, wily, insincere, and disingenuous artificial, soulless, hectic, and unreal assemble, amass, accumulate, and acquire assiduity, tenderness, industry, and vigilance [assiduity = persistent application] assurance, persuasion, fidelity, and loyalty attention, effort, diligence, and assiduity [assiduity = persistent application] august, magnanimous, important, and distinguished authoritative, independent, arbitrary, and supreme avaricious, grasping, miserly, and parsimonious [parsimonious = excessively frugal] aversion, dislike, hatred, and repugnance b bad, vicious, unwholesome, and distressing babble, prate, chatter, and prattle barbarous, brutal, inhuman, and cruel base, cowardly, abject, and hideous battle, defeat, frustrate, and ruin bearing, deportment, manner, and behavior beg, entreat, implore, and supplicate beliefs, doctrines, ceremonies, and practices boorish, clownish, rude, and uncultivated boundless, immeasurable, unlimited, and infinite bravery, courage, fearlessness, and confidence breadth, knowledge, vision, and power brilliant, beautiful, elegant, and faithful broaden, enlarge, extend, and augment business, profession, occupation, and vocation c candid, sincere, familiar, and ingenuous captious, petulant, peevish, and splenetic [captious = point out trivial faults] cautious, discreet, considerate, and provident certain, confident, positive, and unquestionable chagrin, vexation, irritation, and mortification character, disposition, temperament, and reputation charm, fascinate, bewitch, and captivate cheap, inexpensive, inferior, and common cheer, animate, vivify, and exhilarate [vivify = bring life to] chiefly, particularly, principally, and especially childhood, youth, manhood, and age circumstance, condition, environment, and surroundings claim, grab, trick, and compel clean, fastidious, frugal, and refined clear, distinct, obvious, and intelligible clumsy, crawling, snobbish, and comfort-loving coarse, gross, offensive, and nauseous coax, flatter, wheedle, and persuade cogitate, contemplate, meditate, and ponder cold, frigid, unfeeling, and stoical commanding, authoritative, imperative, and peremptory [peremptory = ending all debate or action] compassion, goodwill, admiration, and enthusiasm confirm, establish, sustain, and strengthen conform, submit, obey, and satisfy confuse, distort, involve, and misinterpret consistent, congruous, firm, and harmonious cool, collected, calm, and self-possessed copious, commanding, sonorous, and emotional cowardly, timid, shrinking, and timorous crazy, absurd, nonsensical, and preposterous crude, rough, jagged, and pitiless d daring, cordial, discerning, and optimistic darkness, dimness, dulness, and blackness deadly, destructive, fatal, and implacable deceit, delusion, treachery, and sham deep, abstruse, learned, and profound deficient, inadequate, scanty, and incomplete define, explain, determine, and circumscribe degrade, defame, humble, and debase delicacy, daintiness, tact, and refinement delicious, sweet, palatable, and delightful democracy, equality, justice, and freedom deny, dismiss, exclude, and repudiate deprive, dispossess, divest, and despoil describe, delineate, depict, and characterize designed, contrived, planned, and executed desperate, extreme, wreckless, and irremediable despicable, abject, servile, and worthless destructive, detrimental, deleterious, and subversive desultory, discursive, loose, and unmethodical [desultory = disconnected: haphazard] detestable, abominable, horrible, and hideous developed, revealed, measured, and tested difference, disagreement, discord, and estrangement difficult, arduous, intricate, and perplexing diffuse, discursive, rambling, and wordy diligence, attention, industry, and assiduity [assiduity = persistent application] disagreement, discrepancy, difference, and divergence disconsolate, desolate, pessimistic, and impossible discrimination, acuteness, insight, and judgment disgust, distaste, loathing, and abhorrence dissatisfied, rebellious, unsettled, and satirical distinct, definite, clear, and obvious distinguished, glorious, illustrious, and eminent disturbed, shaken, distressed, and bewildered docile, tractable, compliant, and teachable dogmatic, bigoted, libelous, and unsympathizing doubt, indecision, suspense, and perplexity dread, disgust, repugnance, and dreariness dreary, dispirited, unhappy, and peevish dry, lifeless, tiresome, and uninteresting dubious, equivocal, fluctuating, and uncertain dull, heavy, painstaking, and conscientious e earth, air, stars, and sea efficient, forcible, adequate, and potent emaciated, scraggy, meager, and attenuated endless, ceaseless, immutable, and imperishable energy, eagerness, earnestness, and enthusiasm enhance, exalt, elevate, and intensify enormous, base, prodigious, and colossal enrage, incense, infuriate, and exasperate enthusiasm, devotion, intensity, and zeal envy, discontent, deception, and ignorance equitable, reasonable, just, and honest equivocal, uncertain, cloudy, and ambiguous eradicate, extirpate, exterminate, and annihilate [extirpate = pull up by the roots] erroneous, faulty, inaccurate, and inexact eternal, unchangeable, unerring, and intelligent evil, misfortune, corruption, and disaster exacting, suspicious, irritable, and wayward exalt, dignify, elevate, and extol examination, inquiry, scrutiny, and research exceed, outdo, surpass, and transcend exceptional, uncommon, abnormal, and extraordinary excitement, distraction, diversion, and stimulation exhaustive, thorough, radical, and complete expend, dissipate, waste, and squander f facile, showy, cheap, and superficial faithful, truthful, loyal, and trustworthy fame, distinction, dignity, and honor fanatic, enthusiast, visionary, and zealot fanciful, unreal, fantastic, and grotesque fancy, humor, vagary, and caprice [vagary = extravagant or erratic notion or action] fashion, practise, habit, and usage fastidious, proud, gracious, and poised fate, fortune, contingency, and opportunity fatuous, dreamy, moony, and impracticable fear, timidity, cowardice, and pusillanimity feeble, languid, timid, and irresolute ferocious, restive, savage, and uncultivated fervent, enthusiastic, anxious, and zealous fiction, fancy, falsehood, and fabrication fine, fragile, delicate, and dainty firmness, steadfastness, stability, and tenacity flash, flame, flare, and glare flat, insipid, tame, and monotonous fluctuating, hesitating, vacillating, and oscillating folly, foolishness, imbecility, and fatuity foolhardy, hasty, adventurous, and reckless fop, coxcomb, puppy, and jackanapes [jackanapes = conceited person] force, vigor, power, and energy formal, precise, stiff, and methodical fortunate, happy, prosperous, and successful fragile, frail, brittle, and delicate freedom, familiarity, liberty, and independence frightful, fearful, direful, and dreadful frivolous, trifling, petty, and childish fruitful, fertile, prolific, and productive fruitless, vain, trivial, and foolish frustrate, defeat, disappoint, and thwart fully, completely, abundantly, and perfectly furious, impetuous, boisterous, and vehement g gaiety, merriment, joy, and hilarity gallant, ardent, fearless, and self-sacrificing garnish, embellish, beautify, and decorate generous, candid, easy, and independent genius, intellect, aptitude, and capacity genteel, refined, polished, and well-bred gentle, persuasive, affective, and simple genuine, true, unaffected, and sincere ghastly, grim, shocking, and hideous gibe, mock, taunt, and jeer giddy, fickle, flighty, and thoughtless gleam, glimmer, glance, and glitter gloomy, dismal, dark, and dejected glorious, noble, exalted, and resplendent glut, gorge, cloy, and satiate [cloy = too filling, rich, or sweet] good, safe, venerable, and solid government, law, order, and organization grand, stately, dignified, and pompous grave, contemplative, reserved, and profound great, joyous, strong, and triumphant greed, avarice, covetousness, and cupidity gross, academic, vulgar, and indiscriminate h habit, custom, method, and fashion handsome, exquisite, brilliant, and accomplished harmless, innocent, innocuous, and inoffensive harmony, order, sublimity, and beauty harsh, discordant, disagreeable, and ungracious hasty, superficial, impatient, and desultory [desultory = disconnected: haphazard] healed, soothed, consoled, and assuaged healthy, hale, sound, and wholesome heavy, sluggish, dejected, and crushing high-minded, truthful, honest, and courageous holy, hallowed, sacred, and consecrated homely, hideous, horrid, and unsightly honor, obedience, virtue, and loyalty hopefulness, peace, sweetness, and strength hopes, dreams, programs, and ideals hospitable, generous, tolerant, and kindly hot, hasty, fervent, and fiery humane, gentle, kind, and generous humble, simple, submissive, and unostentatious i idea, imagination, conception, and ideal idleness, recreation, repose, and rest ignominious, infamous, despicable, and contemptible illumine, instruct, enlighten, and inform imaginative, sensitive, nervous, and highly-strung impatience, indolence, wastefulness, and inconclusiveness impel, stimulate, animate, and inspirit imperious, wayward, empirical, and impatient [imperious = arrogantly domineering or overbearing] improvident, incautious, prodigal, and thriftless impudent, insolent, irrelevant, and officious inadvertency, carelessness, negligence, and oversight indecision, doubt, fear, and lassitude indifference, caution, coldness, and weariness indolent, passive, sluggish, and slothful ineffectual, powerless, useless, and unavailing infamy, shame, dishonor, and disgrace infantile, childish, boyish, and dutiful informal, natural, unconventional, and careless insolent, impudent, impertinent, and flippant integrity, frankness, sincerity, and truthfulness intellectual, moral, emotional, and esthetic intense, earnest, violent, and extreme invent, discover, design, and contrive inveterate, confirmed, chronic, and obstinate invidious, envious, odious, and offensive invincible, unconquerable, insurmountable, and insuperable irksome, tiresome, tedious, and annoying irregular, uncertain, devious, and unsystematic irritable, choleric, petulant, and susceptible j jangle, wrangle, squabble, and quarrel jealousy, suspicion, envy, and watchfulness joyful, lively, happy, and hilarious judgment, discrimination, penetration, and sagacity [sagacity = farsighted; wise] just, impartial, equitable, and unbiased juvenile, childish, trifling, and puerile [puerile = immature; childish] k keen, intelligent, penetrating, and severe keep, protect, support, and sustain kind, sympathetic, ready, and appreciative kingly, noble, imperial, and august knowledge, learning, enlightenment, and understanding l lapses, makeshifts, delays, and irregularities lawful, legitimate, allowable, and just lazy, listless, drowsy, and indifferent lightly, freely, unscrupulously, and irresponsibly lively, vivacious, vigorous, and forcible loss, deprivation, forfeiture, and waste loud, noisy, showy, and clamorous loutish, prankish, selfish, and cunning love, depth, loyalty, and faithfulness lucidity, impressiveness, incisiveness, and pungency [pungency = to the point] m malice, anger, uncharitableness, and indignation malignity, brutality, malevolence, and inhumanity manners, morals, habits, and behavior marvelous, wonderful, extraordinary, and incredible massive, ponderous, solid, and substantial mastery, proficiency, dexterity, and superiority matchless, unrivaled, inimitable, and incomparable maxim, proverb, truism, and apothegm [apothegm = terse, witty, instructive saying] medley, mixture, jumble, and hodge-podge meekness, inwardness, patience, and self-denial merciless, remorseless, relentless, and ruthless mild, gentle, humble, and submissive mismanagement, indecision, obstinacy, and hardihood mixture, medley, variety, and diversification modesty, fineness, sensitiveness, and fastidiousness money, position, power, and consequence mood, temper, humor, and caprice motive, impulse, incentive, and intimation mysterious, dark, secret, and enigmatical n narrow, limited, selfish, and bigoted necessary, expedient, indispensable, and unavoidable necessity, emergency, exigency, and crisis [exigency = urgent situation] neglect, overlook, disregard, and contemn [contemn = despise] nice, finical, effeminate, and silly [finical = finicky] niggardly, close, miserly, and parsimonious [parsimonious = excessively frugal] noble, pure, exalted, and worthy nonsense, trash, twaddle, and rubbish novel, recent, rare, and unusual noxious, unwholesome, mischievous, and destructive o obdurate, unfeeling, callous, and obstinate obedient, respectful, dutiful, and submissive object, propose, protest, and decline obliging, kind, helpful, and courteous obscure, shadowy, intricate, and mysterious obsequious, cringing, fawning, and servile [obsequious = fawning.] observations, sentiments, ideas, and theories obstinacy, pertinacity, stubbornness, and inflexibility [pertinacity = persistent] offensive, disagreeable, distasteful, and obnoxious officious, impertinent, insolent, and meddlesome p particular, precise, formal, and punctilious [punctilious = scrupulous] passions, weaknesses, uglinesses, and deformities patient, loyal, hard-working, and true peace, quiet, tranquillity, and harmony peculiar, individual, specific, and appropriate perplex, embarrass, confuse, and mystify phrases, figures, metaphors, and quotations piteous, woebegone, dismal, and dolorous placid, meek, gentle, and moderate plain, transparent, simple, and obvious play, diversion, pastime, and amusement pleasant, jocular, witty, and facetious pliable, ductile, supple, and yielding poetry, sentiment, morality, and religion polished, deft, superficial, and conventional polite, polished, cultured, and refined positive, direct, explicit, and dogmatic powerful, efficient, vivid, and forcible precise, delicate, discriminating, and fastidious prejudicial, injurious, noxious, and pernicious preposterous, irrational, unreasonable, and nonsensical pretense, subterfuge, simulation, and disguise prevent, restrain, dissuade, and dishearten primary, foremost, leading, and principal probity, directness, simplicity, and sincerity [probity = integrity] profession, business, trade, and vocation profit, advantage, benefit, and emolument [emolument = compensation] profuse, excessive, copious, and extravagant progress, prosperity, peace, and happiness prolix, prosaic, prolonged, and wordy [prolix = excessive length] property, comforts, habits, and conveniences prudence, judgment, wisdom, and discretion pulsing, coursing, throbbing, and beating pure, kind, sweet-tempered, and unselfish purified, exalted, fortified, and illumined purpose, meaning, scope, and tendency q quack, imposture, charlatan, and mountebank [mountebank = flamboyant charlatan] qualified, powerful, vigorous, and effective quality, property, attribute, and character quarrels, misunderstandings, enmities, and disapprovals queries, echoes, reactions, and after-thoughts quick, impetuous, sweeping, and expeditious quiet, peaceful, sane, and normal r racy, smart, spicy, and pungent rational, sane, sound, and sensible ravenous, greedy, voracious, and grasping recreation, sport, pastime, and amusement relation, work, duty, and pleasure reliable, accurate, truthful, and duty-loving reports, stories, rumors, and suspicions reproach, dishonor, disgrace, and ignominy restrained, calm, quiet, and placid reverential, disciplined, self-controlling, and devoted rigid, inelastic, stiff, and unbending rough, rude, gruff, and surly rude, curt, insolent, and unpleasant s sad, despondent, melancholy, and depressed sane, sober, sound, and rational scandalize, vilify, traduce, and offend [traduce = humiliate with false statements] scanty, pinched, slender, and insufficient science, art, religion, and philosophy scope, design, purpose, and judgment sensual, cruel, selfish, and unscrupulous sentence, judgment, verdict, and doom serene, composed, conservative, and orderly several, sundry, many, and various severe, stern, stiff, and stringent shameless, corrupt, depraved, and vicious shock, surprise, terror, and forlornness simple, hearty, joyous, and affectionate sin, injustice, grievance, and crime skill, courage, prowess, and attractiveness sleepy, soporific, sluggish, and dull [soporific = induces sleep] slim, slender, slight, and scraggy slow, dilatory, slack, and procrastinating [dilatory = postpone] solemn, profound, serious, and difficult solicit, urge, implore, and importune [importune = insistent requests] sorrow, disaster, unhappiness, and bereavement spontaneity, freedom, ease, and adequacy stately, stern, august, and implacable steady, reliable, dependable, and well-balanced stern, severe, abrupt, and unreasonable stories, pictures, shows and representations strength, agility, violence, and activity strong, inventive, daring, and resourceful sublime, consoling, inspiring, and beautiful substantial, solid, strong, and durable suffering, regret, bitterness, and fatigue superficial, shallow, flimsy, and untrustworthy superfluous, excessive, unnecessary, and redundant suspicious, cynical, crafty, and timid symmetry, proportion, harmony, and regularity t tact, courtesy, adroitness, and skill talents, opportunities, influence, and power talkative, selfish, superstitious, and inquisitive tastes, appetites, passions, and desires tease, tantalize, worry, and provoke tenacious, stubborn, pertinacious, and obstinate [pertinacious = perversely persistent] tendency, drift, scope, and disposition tests, trials, temptations, and toils theatrical, ceremonious, meretricious, and ostentatious [meretricious = plausible but insincere] theory, assumption, speculation, and conjecture think, reflect, weigh, and ponder tortuous, twisted, sinuous, and circuitous tractable, gentle, pliant, and submissive traditional, uncertain, legendary, and unverified traffic, trade, commerce, and intercourse tricky, insincere, wily, and shifty trite, ordinary, commonplace, and hackneyed trivial, petty, frivolous, and insignificant true, upright, real, and authentic tumultuous, riotous, disorderly, and turbulent u ugly, evil, hateful, and base uncertain, questionable, erroneous, and mistaken unctuous, shrill, brisk, and demonstrative [unctuous = exaggerated, insincere] unhappy, unfortunate, distressed, and disastrous uninteresting, lifeless, obscure, and commonplace unity, aggressiveness, efficiency, and force unkind, severe, oppressive, and callous unpractical, childish, slipshod, and silly unreasonable, foolish, excessive, and absurd unrivaled, unequaled, incomparable, and matchless upright, high-minded, brave, and liberal urgent, important, immediate, and imperative usage, custom, habit, and practise v vain, useless, unproductive, and unavailing vanities, envies, devices, and jealousies vast, scattered, various, and incalculable versatile, eloquent, sagacious, and talented [sagacious = wise] vigorous, upright, dignified, and imperative vile, mean, debased, and sordid violent, impetuous, intense, and ungovernable virtuous, upright, honest, and moral visionary, dreamy, pensive, and sensitive vulgar, heavy, narrow, and obtuse w want, lack, poverty, and paucity warm, soft, clear, and serene waste, devastate, pillage, and destroy watched, tendered, fostered, and pruned weak, inefficient, stupid, and futile wealth, position, influence, and reputation well-being, happiness, prosperity, and distress wild, restless, aimless, and erring wisdom, judgment, understanding, and far-sightedness wit, purity, energy, and simplicity wonderful, interesting, active, and delightful works, sorrows, visions, and experiences worry, annoyance, awkwardness, and difficulty section v prepositional phrases preposition "of" a abandon of spontaneity abatement of misery aberrations of judgment abhorrence of meanness absence of vainglory abyss of ignominy accent of conviction accretions of time accumulation of ages accuracy of aim acquisition of knowledge activity of attention acuteness of sensibility admixture of fear affectation of content affinity of events age of ignorance agility of brain agony of despair air of assumption ambitious of success amiability of disposition amplitude of space anachronisms of thought anchor of moderation angle of vision annulment of influence aping of manners apostle of culture ardor of life arrogance of opinion aspect of grandeur assumption of sternness atmosphere of obscurity attitude of mind attribute of weakness austerities of fanaticism authority of manner avalanche of scorn avenues of dissemination b babel of tongues ban of exclusion barren of enthusiasm barriers of reticence bars of sunlight basis of fact beam of moonlight beast of prey beauty of imagery beggared of faith bent of mind betrayal of trust bevy of maidens bewilderment of feeling birds of prey bit of portraiture bitterness of anguish blackness of spirit blandishments of society blast of adversity blaze of fury blend of dignity bliss of solitude bloom of earth blow of fate boldness of conception bond of alliance bone of contention bouts of civility breach of law breath of life breeze of anxiety brilliancy of wit brimful of fun broil of politics brood of emotions brow of expectation brunt of disgrace bulk of mankind bundle of conceptions buoyancy of youth burden of proof burst of confidence business of life c cadences of delirium calmness of manner calumny of passion [calumny = maliciously lying to injure a reputation] caprice of inclination careless of opinion catholicity of spirit [catholicity = universality] cause of solicitude celerity of movement [celerity = swiftness; speed] chain of evidence change of habitude chaos of confusion chill of indifference chimera of superstition [chimera = fanciful illusion] chorus of approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] circle of hills clamor of envy clap of thunder clarity of thinking clash of arms cloak of ecclesiasticism code of morals cogency of argument combination of calamities command of wit community of interest compass of imagination complexity of life confidence of genius conflict of will conquest of difficulty consciousness of peril constellation of luminaries contagion of conflict continuity of life contradiction of terms contrariety of opinion convulsion of laughter copiousness of diction cord of sympathy countenance of authority courage of conviction course of existence courtliness of manner cover of hospitality crash of thunder creature of circumstance criteria of feeling crown of civilization crudity of thought cry of despair curl of contempt current of thought d darkness of calamity dash of eccentricity dawning of recognition day of reckoning daylight of faith decay of authority declaration of indifference deeds of prowess defects of temper degree of hostility delicacy of thought delirium of wonder depth of despair dereliction of duty derogation of character despoiled of riches destitute of power desultoriness of detail [desultoriness = haphazard; random] device of secrecy devoid of merit devoutness of faith dexterity of phrase diapason of motives [diapason = full, rich, harmonious sound] dictates of conscience difference of opinion difficult of attainment dignity of thought dilapidations of time diminution of brutality disabilities of age display of prowess distinctness of vision distortion of symmetry diversity of aspect divinity of tradition domain of imagination drama of action dream of vengeance drop of comfort ductility of expression dull of comprehension duplicities of might dust of defeat e earnestness of enthusiasm easy of access ebullitions of anger [ebullitions = sudden, violent outpouring; boiling] eccentricity of judgment ecstasy of despair effect of loveliness efficacy of change effusion of sentiment elasticity of mind element of compulsion elevation of sentiment eloquence of passion emotions of joy emulous of truth [emulous = prompted by a spirit of rivalry] encroachments of time encumbrance of mystery energy of youth enigma of life equanimity of mind era of fads error of judgment essence of eloquence excellence of vision excess of candor excitation of purpose excursiveness of thought exhibition of joy exhilaration of spirits expenditure of energy explosion of rage expression of sternness extension of experience extravagance of eulogy extremity of fortune exuberance of wit f fabric of fact facility of expression faculty of perception failure of coordination feast of reason feats of strength feebleness of purpose feeling of uneasiness felicities of expression fertility of invention fervor of devotion fickleness of fortune field of activity fierceness of jealousy fineness of vision fire of imagination firmament of literature firmness of purpose fit of laughter fitness of circumstance fixity of purpose flag of truce flash of humor flashlight of introspection fleetness of foot flexibility of spirit flicker of recognition flight of fancy flood of hatred flourish of manner flower of life fluctuation of fortune flush of youth flutter of expectation fog of sentimentalism force of conviction forest of faces form of captiousness [captiousness = point out trivial faults] fountain of learning fragment of conversation frame of mind frankness of manner freak of fancy freedom of enterprise frenzy of pursuit freshness of feeling frigidity of address frivolity of tone frown of meditation fulfilment of purpose fulness of time fury of resentment futility of pride g gaiety of spirit gales of laughter garb of thought garlands of roses gateway of fancy gem of truth genuineness of sentiment gesture of despair gift of repartee glamor of sensationalism glare of scrutiny gleam of light glib of speech glimmer of suspicion glory of salvation glow of enthusiasm gorgeousness of coloring grace of simplicity gradations of outrage grandeur of outline grasp of comprehension gravity of manner greatness of nature greed of office grimace of disappointment grimness of spirit grip of attention groundwork of melancholy growth of experience guide of aspiration gulf of incongruity gust of laughter h harbor of refuge harvest of regrets haven of rest haze of distance heat of enthusiasm height of absurdity hint of bitterness hopeful of success horizon of life horror of solitude hubbub of talk hue of divinity hum of pleasure hush of suspense i ideals of excellence idol of society illusion of youth immensity of extent immolation of genius impatient of restraint impetuosity of youth implacability of resentment impotent of ideas impress of individuality impulse of enthusiasm imputation of eccentricity incapable of veracity independence of mind index of character indolence of temperament indulgence of vanity inequality of treatment infinity of height infirmity of temper infusion of hatred inheritance of honor insensibility of danger insolence of office inspiration of genius instability of purpose instrument of expression integrity of mind intensity of faith interchange of ideas interval of leisure intoxication of vanity intrepidity of youth intuition of immortality invasion of thought irony of life j jangle of sounds jargon of philosophy jumble of facts justness of decision k keenness of intellect kernel of truth key of knowledge keynote of success king of finance kinship of humanity l lack of restraint languor of nature [languor = dreamy, lazy mood ] lapse of time laws of decorum laxity of mind legacy of thought liberty of conscience light of experience limit of endurance link of sequence loftiness of spirit look of dominance loophole of escape love of approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] lust of conquest lustihood of youth luxuriance of expression m magnanimity of mind majesty of despair man of iron mantle of verdure [verdure = lush greenness of flourishing vegetation] martyrdom of ambition marvel of competency mask of flippancy mass of mediocrity master of phrasing maze of words measure of absurdity minister of vengeance minuteness of description miracle of miracles mists of criticism modesty of reserve moment of lassitude monster of ingratitude monstrosities of character mood of tranquillity muddle of motives multitude of details mummery of words [mummery = meaningless ceremonies and flattery] murmur of satisfaction mutations of time myriads of stars mysteries of taste n narrowness of range nebulae of romance nectar of enjoyment neglect of duty niceties of difference nightingale of affection nobility of purpose note of triumph o obduracy of mind [obduracy = intractable; hardened] object of contempt obligation of loyalty obliquity of vision [obliquity = mental deviation or aberration] obscurity of twilight ocean of eloquence omission of fact onrush of life onsets of temptation openness of mind opulence of detail orgy of lying ornaments of eloquence outbreak of hostilities outburst of tears outflow of sympathy outposts of morality overflow of vitality p page of desolation pageant of life pang of regret parade of erudition [erudition = extensive learning] passion of patriotism passivity of mind pattern of virtue peals of laughter pendulum of opinion pensiveness of feeling perils of fortune period of lassitude perturbation of mind perversity of chance pests of society petrifaction of egoism [petrifaction = fossilization; paralyzed with fear] phantom of delight phase of belief physiognomy of nature piece of pedantry [pedantry = attention to detail] pinions of eloquence [pinions = primary feather of a bird] pinnacle of favor pit of oblivion plainness of speech play of fancy plea of urgency plenitude of power point of view poise of mind policy of severity portent of danger power of imagination precipice of stupefaction precision of phrase prerogative of age presence of mind pressure of expediency presumption of doubt prey of fancy pride of life process of effacement profundity of thought profusion of argument progress of events promptings of reason propriety of action provocative of scorn puff of applause pulse of life purity of diction pursuit of knowledge puzzledom of life q quagmire of distrust qualities of leadership qualm of conscience question of honor quickness of apprehension quivering of pain r radiance of morning range of experience rashness of intention ravages of time ray of hope reaches of achievement realities of life realm of peace rebound of fascination rectitude of soul redress of grievances redundance of words refinement of style reins of life relish of beauty remorse of guilt residue of truth resoluteness of conviction resource of expression restraint of speech revel of imagination revulsion of feeling richness of outline riddle of existence ridicule of ignorance riot of words ripeness of wisdom roars of exultation robe of humility robustness of mind root of individuality round of platitudes rush of agony rust of neglect ruts of conventionality s sadness of soul sanguine of success [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic] sanity of judgment savoring of quackery scantiness of resources scarves of smoke school of adversity scrap of knowledge scruple of conscience searchlight of truth semblance of composure sensation of pity sense of urgency sentiment of disapprobation [approbation = warm approval; praise] sequence of events serenity of mind severity of style shackles of civilization shade of doubt shadow of truth shallowness of thought shock of apprehension shouts of approval shower of abuse shriek of wrath shuttle of life sigh of wind singleness of purpose slave of malice slough of ignorance slumber of death smile of raillery [raillery = good-natured teasing; banter] solace of adversity soul of generosity source of renown spark of perception species of despotism spell of emotion sphere of influence spice of caricature splendor of imagination spur of necessity start of uneasiness stateliness of movement sting of satire stolidity of sensation storehouse of facts storm of criticism stream of humanity stress of life string of episodes stroke of fate substratum of belief subtlety of intellect succession of events suggestion of fancy sum of happiness summit of misery sunshine of life supremacy of good surface of events surfeit of verbiage [surfeit = supply to excess] surge of pathos suspense of judgment suspicion of flattery sweep of landscape symbol of admiration system of aspersion t taint of megalomania tardiness of speech task of conciliation tempest of passion tenacity of execution tenderness of sentiment term of reproach threshold of consciousness thrift of time thrill of delight throb of compunction throng of sensations tide of humanitarianism timid of innovation tincture of depreciation tinge of mockery tissue of misrepresentations tolerant of folly tone of severity top of ambition torrent of fervor totality of effect touch of severity touchstone of genius trace of bitterness tradition of mankind train of disasters trait of cynicism trance of delight transport of enthusiasm trappings of wisdom trend of consciousness tribute of admiration trick of fancy tumult of applause turmoil of controversy turn of events twilight of elderliness twinge of envy u unity of purpose universality of experience v vagrancy of thought valley of misfortune vanguard of progress vehemence of manner vehicle of intercourse veil of futurity vein of snobbishness velocity of movement vestige of regard vicissitudes of life [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes] vision of splendor vividness of memory voice of ambition void of authority volume of trade vow of allegiance w warmth of temperament waste of opportunity wave of depression wealth of meaning weariness of sorrow web of villainy weight of argument whiff of irritation whirl of delight whirligig of life whirlwind of words wilderness of perplexities wiles of innocence word of opprobrium [opprobrium = disgrace from shameful conduct] work of supererogation [supererogation = to do more than is required] world of fantasy worthy of mention y yoke of convention z zest of enjoyment zone of delusion preposition "by" a affected by externals allayed by sympathy animated by victory appraised by fashion assailed by conscience attained by effort avert by prayer b ballasted by brains beset by difficulties bound by opinion branded by defeat c characterized by discretion chastened by sorrow cheek by jowl circulated by malice clogged by insincerity colored by environment condemned by posterity confirmed by habit consoled by prayer convinced by argument convulsed by divisions d darkened by shadows dazzled by fame depraved by pain devoured by curiosity disgusted by servility driven by remorse e embarrassed by timidity encouraged by success enfeebled by age enforced by action enjoined by religion enriched by gifts established by convention evoked by shame f fascinated, by mystery favored by fortune fettered by systems fired by wrath forbid by authority fortified by faith g governed by precedent guided by instinct h haunted by visions hushed by denial i impelled by duty inculcated by practise induced by misrepresentation influenced by caution inspired by love l learned by rote m marked by acuteness measured by years n narrowed by custom o occasioned by irritation oppressed by destiny p parched by disuse persuaded by appeal portray by words prescribed by custom prevented by chance prompted by coquetry purged by sorrow r racked by suffering refuted by reason repelled by censure restrained by violence rising by industry s sanctioned by experience shaped by tradition soured by misfortune stung by derision supplanted by others supported by evidence t thwarted by fortune tempered by charity tormented by jealousy tortured by doubt u unadorned by artifice undaunted by failure undetermined by sorrow undone by treachery unfettered by fear urged by curiosity v vitalized by thought w won by aggression worn by time wrenched by emotions preposition "in" a absorbed in meditation affable in manner [affable = gentle and gracious] atone in measure b barren in intellect basking in sunshine buried in solitude c call in question clothed in truth cloying in sweetness [cloying = too filling, rich, or sweet] confident in opinion confute in argument contemplative in aspect cumbrous in style [cumbrous = cumbersome; difficult to use] d deficient in insight delight in learning deterioration in quality difference in detail diligent in application diminish in respect dwarfed in numbers e end in smoke enumerate in detail experienced in duplicity f feeble in influence fertile in consequence flourish in luxuriance founded in truth g gaze in astonishment go in pursuit graceful in proportion grievously in error h hold in bondage i immersed in thought indulge in reverie inferior in character influential in society ingenuity in planning instance in point involved in obscurity k kept in abeyance l landmarks in memory languish in obscurity lie in wait limited in scope linger in expectation listen in amazement lost in awe lower in estimation luxuriant in fancy m monstrous in dulness mysterious in origin n noble in amplitude nursed in luxury o organized in thought p petulant in expression plead in vain pleasing in outline plunged in darkness positive in judgment practical in application pride in success protest in vain pursued in leisure q quick in suggestion r ready in resource recoiling in terror remote in character revel in danger rich in variety rooted in prejudice s schooled in self-restraint scrupulous in conduct set in motion skilled in controversy sound in theory stammer in confusion stricken in years strides in civilization striking in character stunted in growth t tender in sentiment u unique in literature unity in diversity unprecedented in kind v versed in knowledge w wallow in idolatry wanting in dignity waver in purpose weak in conception preposition "into" a abashed into silence b beguile into reading betray into speech blending into harmony bring into disrepute bullied into silence burn into memory burst into view c call into question carry into conflict chill into apathy coming into vogue cringe into favor crumbled into dust crystallized into action d dash into fragments deepen into confusion degenerate into monotony deluded into believing descent into death dissolve into nothingness dragged into pursuit drawn into controversy dribbling into words driven into servitude dulled into acquiescence e electrify into activity elevated into importance enquire into precedents enter into controversy expand into weakness f fade into insignificance fall into decay fashion into festoons flame into war flower into sympathy forced into action frozen into form fuse into unity g galvanize into life go into raptures goaded into action h hushed into silence i incursions into controversy insight into truth inveigled into dispute [inveigled = convince by coaxing, flattery] k kindle into action l lapse into pedantry [pedantries = attention to detail or rules] lash into silence launch into disapproval lead into captivity leap into currency lulled into indifference m melt into space merge into character p pass into oblivion plunge into despair pour into print q quicken into life r relapse into savagery rendered into music resolve into nothingness retreat into silence ripened into love rush into print s shocked into attention sink into insignificance smitten into ice snubbed into quiescence stricken into silence summoned into being swollen into torrents t take into account thrown into disorder transform into beauty translated into fact u usher into society v vanish into mystery w wander into digression wheedled into acquiescence withdraw into solitude preposition "to" a addicted to flattery adherence to principle affect to believe akin to truth alive to opportunity allied to virtue amenable to reason aspire to rule attempt to suppress aversion to publicity b blind to demonstration brought to repentance c claim to perpetuity come to nothing committed to righteousness common to humanity conducive to happiness conformable to fact consigned to oblivion constrained to speak contribution to knowledge d deaf to entreaty dedicated to friendship deference to custom devoted to ideals disposed to cavil [cavil = raise trivial objections] doomed to destruction driven to despair dwarf to unimportance e empowered to act endeared to all excite to pity exposed to derision f fly to platitudes foredoomed to failure g given to extravagance ground to atoms h harassed to death hostile to progress i impervious to suggestion impossible to reconcile impotent to save incentive to devotion incitement to anger inclined to vascillate indifference to truth intent to deceive intolerable to society inured to fatigue [inured = habituate to something undesirable] invocation to sleep l laugh to scorn left to conjecture lost to remembrance o obedience to conscience oblivious to criticism offensive to modesty open to reason opposed to innovation p pander to prejudice pertaining to fashion prone to melancholy propose to undertake provoke to laughter put to confusion r recourse to falsehood reduced to impotence related to eternity repeat to satiety repugnant to justice requisite to success resort to violence run to seed s seek to overawe serve to embitter spur to action stimulus to ambition stirred to remonstrance subject to scrutiny succumb to fascination superior to circumstances susceptible to argument t temptation to doubt tend to frustrate trust to chance u utilize to advantage v venture to say vital to success w wedded to antiquity y yield to reason preposition "with" a abounding with plenty accord with nature act with deliberation adorn with beauty afflict with ugliness aflame with life allied with economy anticipate with delight ascertain with exactness attended with danger b beam with self-approval behave with servility big with fate blinded with tears blush with shame branded with cowardice bubbling with laughter burn with indignation c cling with tenacity clothe with authority compatible with freedom comply with tradition conceal with difficulty consistent with facts covered with ignominy crush with sorrow d deny with emphasis depressed with fear dispense with formality distort with passion e echo with merriment endow with intelligence endued with faith [endued = provide with a quality; put on] endure with fortitude examine with curiosity f face with indifference flushed with pride fraught with peril furious with indignation g glowing with delight i imbued with courage incompatible with reason inconsistent with beauty inflamed with rage inspired with patriotism intoxicated with joy k kindle with enthusiasm l laugh with glee m meet with rebuke mingled with curiosity move with alacrity o oppressed with hardship overcome with shyness overflowing with love overhung with gloom p performed with regularity pervaded with grandeur proceed with alertness punish with severity q quicken with pride quiver with anxiety r radiant with victory regard with loathing relate with zest repel with indignation s saddle with responsibility scream with terror scrutinize with care seething with sedition [sedition = conduct or language inciting rebellion] sick with dread sob with anguish squirm with delight suffuse with spirituality t tainted with fraud teeming with life tense with expectancy thrill with excitement throb with vitality tinged with romance touched with feeling treat with contempt tremble with fear u unmixed with emotion utter with sarcasm v vibrant with feeling view with awe w wield with power work with zeal section vi business phrases a a request for further particulars will not involve any obligation a telegram is enclosed for your use, as this matter is urgent accept our thanks for your recent remittance acknowledging the receipt of your recent inquiry after examination we can confidently say after very carefully considering again thanking you for the inquiry agreeable to our conversation an addressed envelope is enclosed for your convenience an early reply will greatly oblige answering your recent inquiry any information you may give us will be appreciated any time that may suit your convenience as a matter of convenience and economy as a special favor we ask as directed in your letter, we are shipping to you as explained in our previous letter as it will give us an opportunity to demonstrate our ability as stated in our previous letter as we have received no response from you as you, doubtless, are aware as you probably have been told as your experience has probably shown you assuring you of every courtesy assuring you of our entire willingness to comply with your request assuring you of prompt and careful cooperation at the present writing at the suggestion of one of our patrons at your earliest opportunity awaiting the favor of your prompt attention awaiting the pleasure of serving you awaiting your early communication awaiting your further commands awaiting your pleasure b believing you will answer this promptly c complying with your request conditions make it obligatory for us d do not hesitate to let us know do not overlook this opportunity do you realize that you can e enclosed please find a memorandum enclosed we beg to hand you enclosed you will find a circular which will fully explain f for some years past for your convenience we enclose a stamped envelope for your further information we take pleasure in sending to you frankly, we believe it is extremely worth while for you from the standpoint of serviceability h here is a complete answer to here is your opportunity hoping for a continuance of your interest hoping for a definite reply hoping that our relations may prove mutually satisfactory hoping to be favored with your order how may we serve you further? however, because of the special circumstances attached i i am compelled to inform you i am confident that you will be thoroughly satisfied i am directed to say to you i am, gentlemen, yours faithfully i am giving the matter my personal attention i am, my dear sir, yours faithfully i am still holding this offer open to you i ask that you be good enough i beg to request that you give me some information i believe i understand perfectly just how you feel about i have been favorably impressed by your i have now much pleasure in confirming i have pleasure in acknowledging i have the honor to acknowledge the receipt i have the honor to remain i herewith submit my application i highly appreciate this mark of confidence i look forward to pleasant personal relations in the future i regret exceedingly to inform you i remain, my dear sir, yours faithfully i shall be pleased to forward descriptive circulars i shall esteem it a personal favor i should welcome an interview at your convenience i sincerely hope that you will give the subject your earnest consideration i take pleasure in replying to your inquiry concerning i trust i shall hear from you soon i want to express the hope that our pleasant business relations will continue i want to interest you i want to thank you for your reply i wish to confirm my letter if i can be of further service, please address me if it is not convenient for you if there is any valid reason why you are unable if we can be of service to you if we can help you in any way if we have not made everything perfectly clear, please let us know if you accommodate us, the favor will be greatly appreciated if you are interested, please let us hear from you if you are thinking about ordering if you desire, our representative will call if you have any cause for dissatisfaction if you give this matter your prompt attention in accordance with the terms of our offer in accordance with your request in answering your inquiry regarding in any event, a reply to this will be very much appreciated in closing we can only assure you in compliance with your favor in compliance with your request, we are pleased to send to you in conclusion, we can assure you in order to facilitate our future transactions in reference to your application in regard to your proposition in reply thereto, we wish to inform you in reply to your valued favor in response to your recent request in spite of our best efforts it is not probable in thanking you for the patronage with which you have favored us in view of all these facts, we feel justified in claiming information has just reached me it gives us pleasure to recommend it has consistently been our aim to help our customers it is a matter of great regret to us it is a pleasure for me to answer your inquiry it is a well known fact it is interesting to note it is our very great pleasure to advise you it is the policy of our house it seems clear that our letter must have miscarried it was purely an oversight on our part it will be entirely satisfactory to us it will be our aim to interest you it will be readily appreciated it will be to your advantage it will doubtless be more convenient for you it will interest you to know it will receive the same careful attention j just mail the enclosed card k kindly endorse your reply on the enclosed sheet kindly let us have your confirmation at your earliest convenience kindly let us know your pleasure concerning kindly read the enclosed list l let me thank you for the opportunity to give this matter my personal attention let us assure you of our desire to cooperate with you let us assure you that we are very much pleased let us know if there is any further attention let us thank you again for opening an account with us looking forward to the early receipt of some of your orders m may i ask you to do us a great favor by may we be favored with a reply meantime soliciting your forbearance meanwhile permit me to thank you for your kind attention o on referring to your account we notice our letter must have gone astray our relations with your house must have hitherto been very pleasant our services are at your command our stock has been temporarily exhausted owing to our inability to collect out-standing debts p permit me to add permit us to express our sincere appreciation please accept the thanks of the writer please consider this letter an acknowledgment please favor us with a personal communication please feel assured that we shall use every endeavor possibly the enclosure may suggest to you promptly on receipt of your telegram pursuant to your letter r recently we had occasion referring to your esteemed favor regretting our inability to serve you in the present instance reluctant as we are to believe requesting your kind attention to this matter s should you decide to act upon this latter suggestion so many requests of a similar nature come to us soliciting a continuance of your patronage t thank you for your expression of confidence thanking you for your inquiry thanking you for your past patronage thanking you for your promptness. thanking you in advance for an early reply thanking you in anticipation the causes for the delay were beyond our control the margin of profit which we allow ourselves the proof is in this fact the proposition appeals to us as a good one therefore we are able to make you this offer therefore we trust you will write to us promptly these points should be most carefully considered this arrangement will help us over the present difficulty this is according to our discussion this matter has been considered very seriously this personal guarantee i look upon as a service to you this privileged communication is for the exclusive use this will amply repay you trusting that we may have the pleasure of serving you trusting to receive your best consideration u under no circumstances can we entertain such an arrangement under separate cover we are mailing to you under these circumstances we are willing to extend the terms unfortunately we are compelled at certain times unless you can give us reasonable assurance upon being advised that these terms are satisfactory upon receiving your letter of w we acknowledge with pleasure the receipt of your order we admit that you are justified in your complaint we again solicit an opportunity we again thank you for your inquiry we always endeavor to please we appreciate the order you were kind enough to send to us we appreciate your patronage very much we are always glad to furnish information we are anxious to make satisfactory adjustment we are at a loss to understand why we are at your service at all times we are confident that you will have no further trouble we are extremely desirous of pleasing our patrons we are in a position to give you considerable help we are in receipt of your communication regarding we are indeed sorry to learn we are perfectly willing to make concessions we are pleased to receive your request for information we are pleased to send you descriptive circulars we are reluctant to adopt such severe measures we are satisfied regarding your statement we are sending to you by mail we are sorry to learn from your letter we are thoroughly convinced of the need we are totally at a loss to understand we are very anxious to have you try we are very glad to testify to the merit of we ask for a continuance of your confidence we ask that you kindly let us hear from you we assume that you are considering we assure you of our confidence in the reliability we assure you of our desire to be of service we await an early, and we trust, a favorable reply we await the courtesy of an early answer we beg a moment of your attention and serious consideration we believe that if you will carefully consider the matter we believe you will readily understand our position we can assure you that any order with which you favor us we desire information pertaining to your financial condition we desire to effect a settlement we desire to express our appreciation of your patronage we desire to impress upon you we expect to be in the market soon we feel assured that you will appreciate we feel sure that you will approve of our action in this matter we frankly apologize to you we hasten to acknowledge the receipt we have anticipated a heavy demand we have, as yet, no definite understanding we have come to the conclusion we have endeavored to serve the needs of your organization we have found it impossible we have much pleasure in answering your inquiry we have no desire to adopt harsh measures we have not had the pleasure of placing your name on our ledgers we have not, however, had the pleasure of hearing from you we have not yet had time to sift the matter thoroughly we have the honor to be, gentlemen we have the honor to inform you we have thought it best to forward we have your request for information regarding we hesitated for a while to pursue the matter we hope that an understanding can be reached we hope that we shall have many opportunities to demonstrate our ability we hope that you will find the enclosed booklet very interesting we hope to hear favorably from you we hope you will appreciate we hope you will excuse the unavoidable delay we invite your attention to we must insist upon a prompt settlement we must, therefore, insist on the terms of the agreement we note that the time is at hand we offer you the services of an expert we particularly want to interest you we realize that this matter has escaped your attention we realize that this is simply an oversight on your part we regret exceedingly that you have been inconvenienced we regret our inability to meet your wishes we regret that owing to the press of business we regret that this misunderstanding has occurred we regret that we are not in a position we regret that we are unable to grant your request we regret the necessity of calling your attention we regret to be compelled for this reason to withdraw the privilege we regret to learn that you are disappointed we remain, dear sir, yours faithfully we remain, gentlemen, with thanks we shall await your early commands with interest we shall await your reply with interest we shall be glad to fill your order we shall be glad to have you tell us frankly we shall be glad to render you any assistance in our power we shall be happy to meet your requirements we shall be indebted to you for your courtesy we shall be pleased to receive the remittance we shall be pleased to take the matter up further we shall do everything in our power we shall do our best to correct the mistake we shall feel compelled we shall heartily appreciate any information we shall use every endeavor we suggest that this is an opportune time we suggest that you consider we take pleasure in enclosing herewith we take pleasure in explaining the matter you asked about we take the liberty of deviating from your instructions we take the liberty of writing to you. we thank you for calling our attention we thank you for your courteous letter we thank you for your kind inquiry of recent date we thank you very gratefully for your polite and friendly letter we thank you very much for the frank statement of your affairs we thank you very sincerely for your assistance we think you will agree we trust our explanation will meet with your approval we trust that we may hear favorably from you we trust that you will give this matter your immediate attention we trust you may secure some of the exceptional values we trust you will find it correct we trust you will not consider us unduly strict we trust you will promptly comply with our previous suggestions we understand your position we urge that you write to us by early mail we venture to enclose herewith we very much wish you to examine we want every opportunity to demonstrate our willingness we want particularly to impress upon you this fact we want to please you in every respect we want to remind you again we want you to read the booklet carefully we will at once enter your order we will be compelled to take the necessary steps we will be glad to lay before you the fullest details we will be pleased to give it careful consideration we will gladly accommodate you we will gladly extend to you similar courtesies whenever we can do so we will make it a point to give your correspondence close attention we would appreciate a remittance we would consider it a great favor we would draw your attention to the fact we would request, as a special favor we write to suggest to you we write to urge upon you the necessity we wrote to you at length while we appreciate the peculiar circumstances while we feel that we are in no way responsible why not allow us this opportunity to satisfy you will you give us, in confidence, your opinion will you give us the benefit of your experience will you kindly advise us in order that we may adjust our records will you please give us your immediate attention with our best respects and hoping to hear from you with reference to your favor of yesterday with regard to your inquiry with the fullest assurance that we are considering with the greatest esteem and respect y you are certainly justified in complaining you are evidently aware that there is a growing demand you are quite right in your statement you cannot regret more than i the necessity you undoubtedly are aware you will find interest, we believe, in this advance announcement you will get the benefit of this liberal offer you will have particular interest in the new and attractive policy your early attention to this matter will oblige your further orders will be esteemed your inquiry has just been received, and we are glad to send to you your orders and commands will always have our prompt and best attention your satisfaction will dictate our course your trial order is respectfully solicited your usual attention will oblige section vii literary expressions a a bitterness crept into her face a blazing blue sky poured down torrents of light a book to beguile the tedious hours a brave but turbulent aristocracy a broad, complacent, admiring imbecility breathed from his nose and lips a burlesque feint of evading a blow a callous and conscienceless brute a calm and premeditated prudence a calmness settled on his spirit a campaign of unbridled ferocity a carefully appraising eye a ceaselessly fleeting sky a certain implication of admiring confidence a charming air of vigor and vitality a childish belief in his own impeccability a cold, hard, frosty penuriousness was his prevalent characteristic [penuriousness = stingy; barren; poverty-stricken] a compassion perfectly angelic a constant stream of rhythmic memories a covertly triumphant voice a creature of the most delicate and rapid responses a crop of disappointments a cunning intellect patiently diverting every circumstance to its design a curious and inexplicable uneasiness a curious vexation fretted her a daily avalanche of vituperation [vituperation = harshly abusive language] a dandified, pretty-boy-looking sort of figure a dark and relentless fate a day monotonous and colorless a dazzling completeness of beauty a deep and brooding resentment a delicious throng of sensations a deliciously tantalizing sense a detached segment of life a dire monotony of bookish idiom a disheveled and distraught figure a face singularly acute and intelligent a faint accent of reproach a faint sense of compunction moved her a faint, transient, wistful smile lightened her brooding face a faint tremor of amusement was on his lips a faintly quizzical look came into his incisive stare a fawn-colored sea streaked here and there with tints of deepest orange a fever of enthusiasm a few tears came to soften her seared vision a fiery exclamation of wrath and disdain a figure full of decision and dignity a firm and balanced manhood a first faint trace of irritation a fitful boy full of dreams and hopes a flame of scarlet crept in a swift diagonal across his cheeks a fleeting and furtive air of triumph a flood of pride rose in him a foreboding of some destined change a fortuitous series of happy thoughts a frigid touch of the hand a fugitive intangible charm a gay exuberance of ambition a generation of men lavishly endowed with genius a gentle sarcasm ruffled her anger a ghastly whiteness overspread the cheek a glance of extraordinary meaning a glassy expression of inattention a glassy stare of deprecating horror a glittering infectious smile a gloom overcame him a golden haze of pensive light a golden summer of marvelous fertility a graceful readiness and vigor a grave man of pretending exterior a great pang gripped her heart a great process of searching and shifting a great sickness of heart smote him a great soul smitten and scourged, but still invested with the dignity of immortality a grim and shuddering fascination a gush of entrancing melody a gusty breeze blew her hair about unheeded a half-breathless murmur of amazement and incredulity a half-uneasy, half-laughing compunction a harassing anxiety of sorrow a harvest of barren regrets a haunting and horrible sense of insecurity a heavy oppression seemed to brood upon the air a helpless anger simmered in him a hint of death in the icy breath of the gale a hot and virulent skirmish a hot uprush of hatred and loathing a kind of ineffable splendor crowns the day a lapse from the well-ordered decencies of civilization a large, rich, copious human endowment a late star lingered, remotely burning a laugh of jovial significance a light of unwonted pleasure in her eyes [unwonted = unusual] a little jaded by gastronomical exertions a lukewarm and selfish love a man of imperious will [imperious = arrogantly domineering] a man of matchless modesty and refinement a manner bright with interest and interrogation a manner nervously anxious to please a melancholy monotone beat on one's heart a mere exhibition of fussy diffuseness a mere figment of a poet's fancy a mien and aspect singularly majestic [mien = bearing or manner] a mild and deprecating air a mind singularly practical and sagacious [sagacious = wise] a mouth of inflexible decision a murmur of complacency a mystery everlastingly impenetrable a nameless sadness which is always born of moonlight a new and overmastering impulse a new doubt assailed her a new marvel of the sky a new trouble was dawning on his thickening mental horizon a nimble-witted opponent a painful thought was flooding his mind a pang of jealousy not unmingled with scorn a patience worthy of admiration a perfect carnival of fun a perfect crime of clumsiness a piteous aspect of woe a portent full of possible danger a potion to be delicately supped at leisure a powerful agitation oppressed him a prevailing sentiment of uneasy discontent a prey to listless uneasiness a profound and absorbing interest a profound and eager hopefulness a profound and rather irritating egotist by nature a prop for my faint heart a propitious sky, marbled with pearly white [propitious = favorable; kindly; gracious] a protest wavered on her lip a puissant and brilliant family [puissant = powerful; mighty] a queer, uncomfortable perplexity began to invade her a quick flame leaped in his eyes a quick shiver ruffled the brooding stillness of the water a quiver of resistance ran through her a remarkable fusion of morality and art a random gleam of light a rare and dazzling order of beauty a rhythmical torrent of eloquent prophecy a river of shame swept over him a sad inquiry seemed to dwell in her gaze a satisfied sense of completeness a secret sweeter than the sea or sky can whisper a sensation of golden sweetness and delight a sense of desolation and disillusionment overwhelmed me a sense of infinite peace brooded over the place a sense of meditative content a sense of repression was upon her a sentiment of distrust in its worth had crept into her thoughts a sheaf of letters a shimmer of golden sun shaking through the trees a shiver of apprehension crisped her skin a shuffling compromise between defiance and prostration a sigh of large contentment a sight for the angels to weep over a skepticism which prompted rebellion a slight movement of incredulous dissent a smile full of subtle charm a smile of exquisite urbanity a soft insidious plea a soft intonation of profound sorrow a soft suspicion of ulterior motives a solemn glee possessed my mind a solemn gray expanse that lost itself far away in the gray of the sea a solemn utterance of destiny a somber and breathless calm hung over the deepening eve a somewhat melancholy indolence a somewhat sharp and incisive voice a sonorous voice bade me enter a soothing and quieting touch was gently laid upon her soul a sort of eager, almost appealing amiability a sort of stolid despairing acquiescence a sort of stunned incredulity a soundless breeze that was little more than a whisper a spacious sense of the amplitude of life's possibilities a staccato cough interrupted the flow of speech a state of sullen self-absorption a steady babble of talk and laughter a step was at her heels a stifling sensation of pain and suspense a stinging wind swept the woods a strange compound of contradictory elements a stream of easy talk a strong convulsion shook the vague indefinite form a strong susceptibility to the ridiculous a subtle emphasis of scorn a sudden and stinging delight a sudden gleam of insight a sudden uncontrollable outburst of feeling a super-abundance of boisterous animal spirits a supercilious scorn and pity [supercilious = haughty disdain] a super-refinement of taste a swaggering air of braggadocio [braggadocio = pretentious bragging] a sweet bewilderment of tremulous apprehension [tremulous = fearful] a sweet, quiet, sacred, stately seclusion a swift knowledge came to her a swift unformulated fear a swiftly unrolling panorama of dreams a tangle of ugly words a thousand evanescent memories of happy days [evanescent = vanishing like vapor] a thousand unutterable fears bore irresistible despotism over her thoughts a time of disillusion followed a tiny stream meandering amiably a tone of arduous admiration a torn and tumultuous sky a total impression ineffable and indescribable a tragic futility a treacherous throb of her voice a true similitude of what befalls many men and women a tumult of vehement feeling a tumultuous rush of sensations a twinge of embarrassment a vague and wistful melancholy a vast sweet silence crept through the trees a veritable spring-cleaning of the soul a very practised and somewhat fastidious critic a violent and mendacious tongue [mendacious = false; untrue] a vivid and arresting presentation a waking dream overshadowed her a weird world of morbid horrors a well-bred mixture of boldness and courtesy a wild vivacity was in her face and manner a wile of the devil's [wile = trick intended to deceive or ensnare] a wind strayed through the gardens a withering sensation of ineffable boredom a wordless farewell absolutely vulgarized by too perpetual a parroting absorbed in a stream of thoughts and reminiscences absorbed in the scent and murmur of the night accidents which perpetually deflect our vagrant attention across the gulf of years administering a little deft though veiled castigation affected an ironic incredulity affecting a tone of gayety after a first moment of reluctance after an eternity of resolutions, doubts, and indecisions aghast at his own helplessness agitated and enthralled by day-dreams agitated with violent and contending emotions alien paths and irrelevant junketings all embrowned and mossed with age all her gift of serene immobility brought into play all hope of discreet reticence was ripped to shreds all the lesser lights paled into insignificance all the magic of youth and joy of life was there all the place is peopled with sweet airs all the sky was mother-of-pearl and tender all the unknown of the night and of the universe was pressing upon him all the world was flooded with a soft golden light all was a vague jumble of chaotic impressions all was incomprehensible all was instinctive and spontaneous aloof from the motley throng ambition shivered into fragments amid distress and humiliation amid the direful calamities of the time an acute note of distress in her voice an agreeably grave vacuity an air half quizzical and half deferential an air of affected civility an air of being meticulously explicit an air of inimitable, scrutinizing, superb impertinence an air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all an air of uncanny familiarity an air which was distinctly critical an almost pathetic appearance of ephemeral fragility [ephemeral = markedly short-lived] an almost riotous prodigality of energy an answering glow of gratitude an antagonist worth her steel an artful stroke of policy an assumption of hostile intent an assurance of good-nature that forestalled hostility an atmosphere of extraordinary languor [languor = dreamy, lazy mood ] an atmosphere thick with flattery and toadyism an attack of peculiar virulence and malevolence an audacious challenge of ridicule an avidity that bespoke at once the restlessness, [avidity = eagerness] and the genius of her mind an awe crept over me an eager and thirsty ear an easy prey to the powers of folly an effusive air of welcome an equal degree of well-bred worldly cynicism an erect, martial, majestic, and imposing personage an eternity of silence oppressed him an expression of mildly humorous surprise an expression of rare and inexplicable personal energy an exquisite perception of things beautiful and rare an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart an ignoring eye an impenetrable screen of foliage an impersonal and slightly ironic interest an impervious beckoning motion an inarticulate echo of his longing an increased gentleness of aspect an incursion of the loud, the vulgar and meretricious [meretricious = plausible but false] an inexplicable and uselessly cruel caprice of fate an inexpressible fervor of serenity an ingratiating, awkward and, wistful grace an inspired ray was in his eyes an instant she stared unbelievingly an intense and insatiable hunger for light and truth an intense travail of mind an obscure thrill of alarm an odd little air of penitent self-depreciation an open wit and recklessness of bearing an oppressive sense of strange sweet odor an optimistic after-dinner mood an overburdening sense of the inexpressible an uncomfortable premonition of fear an unfailing sweetness and unerring perception an unpleasant and heavy sensation sat at his heart an unredeemed dreariness of thought an unsuspected moral obtuseness an utter depression of soul and day peers forth with her blank eyes and what is all this pother about? [pother = commotion; disturbance] animated by noble pride anticipation painted the world in rose appalled in speechless disgust appealing to the urgent temper of youth apprehensive solicitude about the future ardent words of admiration armed all over with subtle antagonisms artless and unquestioning devotion as if smitten by a sudden spasm as the long train sweeps away into the golden distance august and imperial names in the kingdom of thought awaiting his summons to the eternal silence b bandied about from mouth to mouth barricade the road to truth bartering the higher aspirations of life beaming with pleasurable anticipation before was the open malignant sea beguiled the weary soul of man beneath the cold glare of the desolate night bent on the lofty ends of her destiny beset by agreeable hallucinations beset with smiling hills beside himself in an ecstasy of pleasure betokening an impulsive character beyond the farthest edge of night birds were fluting in the tulip-trees biting sentences flew about black inky night blithe with the bliss of the morning blown about by every wind of doctrine bookish precision and professional peculiarity borne from lip to lip borne onward by slow-footed time borne with a faculty of willing compromise bowed with a certain frigid and deferential surprise broke in a stupendous roar upon the shuddering air browsing at will on all the uplands of knowledge and thought buffeted by all the winds of passion buried hopes rose from their sepulchers buried in the quicksands of ignorance but none the less peremptorily [peremptorily = ending all debate or action] by a curious irony of fate by a happy turn of thinking by virtue of his impassioned curiosity c carried the holiday in his eye chafed at the restraints imposed on him cheeks furrowed by strong purpose and feeling childlike contour of the body cleansed of prejudice and self-interest cloaked in prim pretense clothed with the witchery of fiction clutch at the very heart of the usurping mediocrity cold gaze of curiosity collapse into a dreary and hysterical depression comment of rare and delightful flavor conjuring up scenes of incredible beauty and terror conscious of unchallenged supremacy constant indulgence of wily stratagem and ambitious craft contemptuously indifferent to the tyranny of public opinion covered with vegetation in wild luxuriance crisp sparkle of the sea crystallize about a common nucleus cultivated with a commensurate zeal current play of light gossip curtains of opaque rain d dallying in maudlin regret over the past [maudlin = tearfully sentimental] dark with unutterable sorrows darkness oozed out from between the trees dawn had broken day stood distinct in the sky days of vague and fantastic melancholy days that are brief and shadowed deep shame and rankling remorse deficient in affectionate or tender impulses delicately emerging stars delicious throng of sensations despite her pretty insolence dignity and sweet patience were in her look dim opalescence of the moon dimly foreshadowed on the horizon dimmed by the cold touch of unjust suspicion disfigured by passages of solemn and pompous monotony. disguised itself as chill critical impartiality dismal march of death distinguished by hereditary rank or social position distract and beguile the soul distressing in their fatuous ugliness diverted into alien channels diverting her eyes, she pondered dogs the footsteps doled out in miserly measure doubt tortured him doubts beset her lonely and daring soul down the steep of disenchantment dreams and visions were surpassed dreams that fade and die in the dim west drear twilight of realities drift along the stream of fancy drowned in the deep reticence of the sea drowsiness coiled insidiously about him dull black eyes under their precipice of brows e earth danced under a heat haze easily moved to gaiety and pleasure either way her fate was cruel embrace with ardor the prospect of serene leisure endearing sweetness and manner endeavoring to smile away his chagrin endlessly shifting moods endowed with all those faculties that can make the world a garden of enchantment endowed with life and emphasis enduring with smiling composure the near presence of people who are distasteful enjoyed with astonishing unscrupulousness enticed irresistibly by the freedom of an open horizon essay a flight of folly evanescent shades of feeling [evanescent = vanishing like vapor] events took an unexpected sinister turn every curve of her features seemed to express a fine arrogant acrimony and harsh truculence everywhere the fragrance of a bountiful earth exasperated by what seemed a wilful pretense of ignorance exhibits itself in fastidious crotchets expectation darkened into anxiety experience and instinct warred within her exquisite graciousness of manner exquisitely stung by the thought f familiar and endearing intimacy fatally and indissolubly united fathomless depths of suffering fear held him in a vice feeding his scholarly curiosity feeling humiliated by the avowal felicitousness in the choice and exquisiteness in the collocation of words fettered by poverty and toil feverish tide of life fine precision of intent fitful tumults of noble passion fleeting touches of something alien and intrusive floating in the clouds of reverie fluctuations of prosperity and adversity flushed with a suffusion that crimsoned her whole countenance forebodings possessed her foreshadowing summer's end forever echo in the heart forever sings itself in memory formless verbosity and a passionate rhetoric fragments of most touching melody free from rigid or traditional fetters freedom and integrity of soul freighted with strange, vague longings frosty thraldom of winter [thraldom = servitude; bondage] fugitive felicities of thought and sensation full of dreams and refinements and intense abstractions full of majestic tenderness g gathering all her scattered impulses into a passionate act of courage gaze dimly through a maze of traditions generosity pushed to prudence gleams of sunlight, bewildered like ourselves, struggled, surprised, through the mist and disappeared glowing with haste and happiness go straight, as if by magic, to the inner meaning goaded on by his sense of strange importance graceful length of limb and fall of shoulders great shuddering seized on her green hills pile themselves upon each other's shoulders grim and sullen after the flush of the morning guilty of girlish sentimentality h half choked by a rising paroxysm of rage half-suffocated by his triumph hardened into convictions and resolves haughtiness and arrogance were largely attributed to him haunt the recesses of the memory haunted with a chill and unearthly foreboding he accosted me with trepidation he adroitly shifted his ground he airily lampooned their most cherished prejudices he bowed submission he braced himself to the exquisite burden of life he condescended to intimate speech with her he conversed with a colorless fluency he could detect the hollow ring of fundamental nothingness he could do absolutely naught he drank of the spirit of the universe he drew near to a desperate resolve he evinced his displeasure by a contemptuous sneer or a grim scowl he felt an unaccountable loathing he felt the ironic rebound of her words he flung diffidence to the winds he flushed crimson he found the silence intolerably irksome he frowned perplexedly he gave her a baffled stare he gave himself to a sudden day-dream he gave his ear to this demon of false glory he grew wanton with success he had acted with chivalrous delicacy of honor he had the eye of an eagle in his trade he had the gift of deep, dark silences he held his breath in admiring silence he laughed away my protestations he lent no countenance to the insensate prattle he listened greedily and gazed intent he made a loathsome object he made the politest of monosyllabic replies he murmured a civil rejoinder he murmured a vague acceptance he mused a little while in grave thought he never wears an argument to tatters he only smiled with fatuous superiority he paused, stunned and comprehending he perceived the iron hand within the velvet glove he raised a silencing hand he ruled autocratically he sacrificed the vulgar prizes of life he sat on thorns he set his imagination adrift he shambled away with speed he sighed deeply, from a kind of mental depletion he smote her quickening sensibilities he submitted in brooding silence he suppressed every sign of surprise he surrendered himself to gloomy thought he threaded a labyrinth of obscure streets he threw a ton's weight of resolve upon his muscles he threw out phrases of ill-humor he threw round a measuring eye he treads the primrose path of dalliance he used an unguarded adjective he was a tall, dark, saturnine youth, sparing of speech [saturnine = melancholy; sullen] he was aware of emotion he was born to a lively and intelligent patriotism he was dimly mistrustful of it he was discreetly silent he was empty of thought he was entangled in a paradox he was giving his youth away by handfuls he was haunted and begirt by presences he was measured and urbane he was most profoundly skeptical he was nothing if not grandiloquent he was quaking on the precipice of a bad bilious attack he was utterly detached from life he went hot and cold he would fall into the blackest melancholies he writhed in the grip of a definite apprehension he writhed with impotent humiliation her blank gaze chilled you her bright eyes were triumphant her eyes danced with malice her eyes dilated with pain and fear her eyes were full of wondering interest her eyes were limpid and her beauty was softened by an air of indolence and languor [languor = dreamy, lazy mood] her face stiffened anew into a gray obstinacy her face was lit up by a glow of inspiration and resolve her haughty step waxed timorous and vigilant her head throbbed dangerously her heart appeared to abdicate its duties her heart fluttered with a vague terror her heart pounded in her throat her heart was full of speechless sorrow her hurrying thoughts clamored for utterance her imagination recoiled her interest flagged her life had dwarfed her ambitions her limbs ran to marble her lips hardened her lips parted in a keen expectancy her mind was a store-house of innocuous anecdote her mind was beaten to the ground by the catastrophe her mood was unaccountably chilled her musings took a sudden and arbitrary twist her scarlet lip curled cruelly her smile was faintly depreciatory her smile was linked with a sigh her solicitude thrilled him her stare dissolved her step seemed to pity the grass it prest her strength was scattered in fits of agitation her stumbling ignorance which sought the road of wisdom her thoughts outstripped her erring feet her tone was gathering remonstrance her tongue on the subject was sharpness itself her tongue stumbled and was silent her voice had the coaxing inflections of a child her voice trailed off vaguely her voice was full of temper, hard-held her voice, with a tentative question in it, rested in air her wariness seemed put to rout his accents breathed profound relief his agitation increased his brow grew knit and gloomy his brow was in his hand his conscience leapt to the light his constraint was excruciating his curiosity is quenched his dignity counseled him to be silent his ears sang with the vibrating intensity of his secret existence his eyes had a twinkle of reminiscent pleasantry his eyes literally blazed with savage fire his eyes shone with the pure fire of a great purpose his eyes stared unseeingly his face caught the full strength of the rising wind his face dismissed its shadow his face fell abruptly into stern lines his face lit with a fire of decision his face showed a pleased bewilderment his face torn with conflict his face was gravely authoritative his gaze faltered and fell his gaze searched her face his gaze seemed full of unconquerable hopefulness his hand supported his chin his hands were small and prehensible [prehensible = capable of being seized] his heart asserted itself again, thunderously beating his heart rebuked him his heart was full of enterprise his impatient scorn expired his last illusions crumbled his lips loosened in a furtively exultant smile his lips seemed to be permanently parted in a good-humored smile his mind echoed with words his mind leaped gladly to meet new issues and fresh tides of thought his mind was dazed and wandering in a mist of memories his mood yielded his mouth quivered with pleasure his passions vented themselves with sneers his pulses leaped anew his reputation had withered his sensibilities were offended his shrewd gaze fixed appraisingly upon her his soul full of fire and eagle-winged his soul was compressed into a single agony of prayer his soul was wrung with a sudden wild homesickness his speech faltered his swift and caustic satire his temper was dark and explosive his thoughts galloped his thoughts were in clamoring confusion his tone assumed a certain asperity [asperity = roughness; harshness] his torpid ideas awoke again his troubled spirit shifted its load his vagrant thoughts were in full career his voice insensibly grew inquisitorial his voice was thick with resentment and futile protest his whole face was lighted with a fierce enthusiasm his whole frame seemed collapsed and shrinking his whole tone was flippant and bumptious his words trailed off brokenly his youthful zeal was contagious hope was far and dim how sweet and reasonable the pale shadows of those who smile from some dim corner of our memories humiliating paltriness of revenge i i capitulated by inadvertence i cut my reflections adrift i felt a qualm of apprehension i suffered agonies of shyness i took the good day from the hands of god as a perfect gift i was in a somber mood i was overshadowed by a deep boding i was piqued [piqued = resentment; indignation] i yielded to the ingratiating mood of the day ill-bred insolence was his only weapon ill-dissimulated fits of ambition imbued with a vernal freshness [vernal = resembling spring; fresh] immense and careless prodigality immense objects which dwarf us immersed in secret schemes immured in a trivial round of duty [immured = confine within] impassioned and earnest language impatient and authoritative tones impervious to the lessons of experience implying an immense melancholy imprisoned within an enchanted circle in a deprecating tone of apology in a flash of revelation in a gale of teasing merriment in a misery of annoyance and mortification in a musing ecstasy of contemplation in a sky stained with purple, the moon slowly rose in a spirit of indulgent irony in a strain of exaggerated gallantry in a tone of after-dinner perfunctoriness [perfunctoriness = with little interest] in a tone of musing surprise in a tumult of self-approval and towering exultation in a vague and fragmentary way in a wise, superior, slightly scornful manner in accents of menace and wrath in its whole unwieldy compass in moments of swift and momentous decision in quest of something to amuse in requital for various acts of rudeness in the air was the tang of spring in the dusky path of a dream in the face of smarting disillusions in the flush and heyday of youth and gaiety and loveliness in the heyday of friendship in the mild and mellow maturity of age in the perpetual presence of everlasting verities in this breathless chase of pleasure in this chastened mood i left him incapable of initiative or boldness inconceivable perversion of reasoning indolently handsome eyes indulge in pleasing discursiveness ineffable sensation of irritability infantile insensibility to the solemnity of his bereavement infantine simplicity and lavish waste innumerable starlings clove the air [clove = split] insensible to its subtle influence inspired by the immortal flame of youth intangible and indescribable essence intense love of excitement and adventure intimations of unpenetrated mysteries into her eyes had come a hostile challenge into the purple sea the orange hues of heaven sunk silently into the very vestibule of death involuntarily she sighed involuntary awkwardness and reserve involved in a labyrinth of perplexities it came to him with a stab of enlightenment it elicited a remarkably clear and coherent statement it is a flight beyond the reach of human magnanimity it is a thing infinitely subtle it is not every wind that can blow you from your anchorage it lends no dazzling tints to fancy it moved me to a strange exhilaration it parted to a liquid horizon and showed the gray rim of the sea it proved a bitter disillusion it seemed intolerably tragic it seemed to exhale a silent and calm authority it was a breathless night of suspense it was a desolating vision it was a night of little ease to his toiling mind it was a night of stupefying surprises it was all infinitely soft and refreshing to the eye it was an evening of great silences and spaces, wholly tranquil it was sheer, exuberant, instinctive, unreasoning, careless joy it was the ecstasy and festival of summer it was torture of the most exquisite kind j jealousies and animosities which pricked their sluggish blood to tingling joy rioted in his large dark eyes judging without waiting to ponder over bulky tomes k kind of unscrupulous contempt for gravity kiss-provoking lips l laden with the poignant scent of the garden honeysuckle language of excessive flattery and adulation lapped in soft music of adulation lapse into pathos and absurdity large, dark, luminous eyes that behold everything about them latent vein of whimsical humor lead to the strangest aberrations leaping from lambent flame into eager and passionate fire [lambent = effortlessly brilliant] leave to the imagination the endless vista of possibilities life flowed in its accustomed stream lights and shadows of reviving memory crossed her face lionized by fashionable society long intertangled lines of silver streamlets lost in a delirious wonder lost in irritable reflection love hovered in her gaze ludicrous attempts of clumsy playfulness and tawdry eloquence luke-warm assurance of continued love lulled by dreamy musings luminous with great thoughts m magnanimous indifference to meticulous niceties making the ear greedy to remark offense marching down to posterity with divine honors marked out for some strange and preternatural doom mawkishly effeminate sentiment memories plucked from wood and field memory was busy at his heart merged in a sentiment of unutterable sadness and compassion microscopic minuteness of eye misgivings of grave kinds mockery crept into her tone molded by the austere hand of adversity moments of utter idleness and insipidity moods of malicious reaction and vindictive recoil morn, in yellow and white, came broadening out of the mountains mumble only jargon of dotage my body is too frail for its moods n nature seemed to revel in unwonted contrasts [unwonted = unusual] new ambitions pressed upon his fancy new dreams began to take wing in his imagination night after night the skies were wine-blue and bubbling with stars night passes lightly in the open world, with its stars and dews and perfumes nights of fathomless blackness no mark of trick or artifice noble and sublime patience nursed by brooding thought o obsessed with the modishness of the hour occasional flashes of tenderness and love oddly disappointing and fickle one gracious fact emerges here one long torture of soul one of the golden twilights which transfigure the world oppressed and disheartened by an all-pervading desolation oppressed with a confused sense of cumbrous material [cumbrous = cumbersome] outweighing years of sorrow and bitterness over and over the paroxysms of grief and longing submerged her overhung and overspread with ivy overshadowed by a vague depression p pale and vague desolation pallor of reflected glories palpitating with rage and wounded sensibility panting after distinction peace brooded over all pelted with an interminable torrent of words penetrate beneath the surface to the core peopled the night with thoughts perpetual gloom and seclusion of life pertinent to the thread of the discussion pervasive silence which wraps us in a mantle of content piles of golden clouds just peering above the horizon platitudinous and pompously sentimental plaudits of the unlettered mob pleasant and flower-strewn vistas of airy fancy pledged with enthusiastic fervor plumbing the depth of my own fears poignant doubts and misgivings power of intellectual metamorphosis power to assuage the thirst of the soul precipitated into mysterious depths of nothingness preening its wings for a skyward flight pressing cares absorbed him pride working busily within her proclaimed with joyous defiance prodigal of discriminating epithets prodigious boldness and energy of intellect products of dreaming indolence profound and chilling solitude of the spot proof of his imperturbability and indifference provocative of bitter hostility pulling the strings of many enterprises purge the soul of nonsense q quickened and enriched by new contacts with life and truth quivering with restrained grief r radiant with the beautiful glamor of youth ransack the vocabulary red tape of officialdom redolent of the night lamp reflecting the solemn and unfathomable stars regarded with an exulting pride rehabilitated and restored to dignity remorselessly swept into oblivion resounding generalities and conventional rhetoric respect forbade downright contradiction restless and sore and haughty feelings were busy within retort leaped to his lips rigid adherence to conventionalities rudely disconcerting in her behavior rudely reminded of life's serious issues s sacrificed to a futile sort of treadmill sadness prevailed among her moods scorched with the lightning of momentary indignation scorning such paltry devices scotched but not slain scrupulous morality of conduct seem to swim in a sort of blurred mist before the eyes seething with suppressed wrath seize on greedily sensuous enjoyment of the outward show of life serenity beamed from his look serenity of paralysis and death seriousness lurked in the depths of her eyes served to recruit his own jaded ideas set anew in some fresh and appealing form setting all the sane traditions at defiance shadowy vistas of sylvan beauty she affected disdain she assented in precisely the right terms she bandies adjectives with the best she challenged his dissent she cherished no petty resentments she curled her fastidious lip she curled her lip with defiant scorn she did her best to mask her agitation she disarmed anger and softened asperity [asperity = harshness] she disclaimed fatigue she fell into a dreamy silence she fell into abstracted reverie she felt herself carried off her feet by the rush of incoherent impressions she flushed an agitated pink she forced a faint quivering smile she frowned incomprehension she had an air of restrained fury she had an undercurrent of acidity she hugged the thought of her own unknown and unapplauded integrity she lingered a few leisurely seconds she nodded mutely she nourished a dream of ambition she permitted herself a delicate little smile she poured out on him the full opulence of a proud recognition she questioned inimically [inimically = unfriendly; hostile] she recaptured herself with difficulty she regarded him stonily out of flint-blue eyes she sat eyeing him with frosty calm she seemed the embodiment of dauntless resolution she seemed wrapped in a veil of lassitude she shook hands grudgingly she softened her frown to a quivering smile she spoke with hurried eagerness she spoke with sweet severity she stilled and trampled on the inward protest she stood her ground with the most perfect dignity she strangled a fierce tide of feeling that welled up within her she swept away all opposing opinion with the swift rush of her enthusiasm she thrived on insincerity she twitted him merrily she was both weary and placated she was conscious of a tumultuous rush of sensations she was demure and dimly appealing she was exquisitely simple she was gripped with a sense of suffocation and panic she was in an anguish of sharp and penetrating remorse she was oppressed by a dead melancholy she was stricken to the soul she wore an air of wistful questioning sheer superfluity of happiness sickening contrasts and diabolic ironies of life silence fell singing lustily as if to exorcise the demon of gloom skirmishes and retreats of conscience slender experience of the facts of life slope towards extinction slow the movement was and tortuous slowly disengaging its significance from the thicket of words so innocent in her exuberant happiness soar into a rosy zone of contemplation softened by the solicitude of untiring and anxious love solitary and sorely smitten souls some dim-remembered and dream-like images some exquisite refinement in the architecture of the brain some flash of witty irrelevance something curiously suggestive and engaging something eminently human beaconed from his eyes something full of urgent haste something indescribably reckless and desperate in such a picture something that seizes tyrannously upon the soul sore beset by the pressure of temptation specious show of impeccability spectacular display of wrath spur and whip the tired mind into action stale and facile platitudes stamped with unutterable and solemn woe startled into perilous activity startling leaps over vast gulfs of time stem the tide of opinion stern emptying of the soul stimulated to an ever deepening subtlety stirred into a true access of enthusiasm stony insensibility to the small pricks and frictions of daily life strange capacities and suggestions both of vehemence and pride strange laughings and glitterings of silver streamlets stripped to its bare skeleton strode forth imperiously [imperious = arrogantly overbearing] struck by a sudden curiosity struck dumb with strange surprise stung by his thoughts, and impatient of rest stung by the splendor of the prospect subdued passages of unobtrusive majesty sublime indifference to contemporary usage and taste submission to an implied rebuke subtle indications of great mental agitation subtle suggestions of remoteness such things as the eye of history sees such was the petty chronicle suddenly a thought shook him suddenly overawed by a strange, delicious shyness suddenly smitten with unreality suddenly snuffed out in the middle of ambitious schemes suffered to languish in obscurity sugared remonstrances and cajoleries suggestions of veiled and vibrant feeling summer clouds floating feathery overhead sunk in a phraseological quagmire sunk into a gloomy reverie sunny silence broods over the realm of little cottages supreme arbiter of conduct susceptibility to fleeting impressions sweet smoke of burning twigs hovered in the autumn day swift summer into the autumn flowed t taking the larger sweeps in the march of mind tears of outraged vanity blurred her vision teased with impertinent questions tenderness breathed from her tense with the anguish of spiritual struggle terror filled the more remote chambers of his brain with riot tethered to earth that which flutters the brain for a moment the accelerated beat of his thoughts the affluent splendor of the summer day the afternoon was filled with sound and sunshine the afternoon was waning the air and sky belonged to midsummer the air darkened swiftly the air is touched with a lazy fragrance, as of hidden flowers the air was caressed with song the air was full of fugitive strains of old songs the air was raw and pointed the allurements of a coquette the ambition and rivalship of men the angry blood burned in his face the anguish of a spiritual conflict tore his heart the artificial smile of languor the awful and implacable approach of doom the babble of brooks grown audible the babbledom that dogs the heels of fame the bait proved incredibly successful the balm of solitary musing the beauty straightway vanished the beckonings of alien appeals the benign look of a father the blandishments of pleasure and pomp of power the blinding mist came down and hid the land the blue bowl of the sky, all glorious with the blaze of a million worlds the bound of the pulse of spring the buzz of idolizing admiration the caressing peace of bright soft sunshine the chaotic sound of the sea the chill of forlorn old age the chill of night crept in from the street the chivalric sentiment of honor the chivalrous homage of respect the clamorous agitation of rebellious passions the clouded, restless, jaded mood the constant iteration of the sea's wail the contagion of extravagant luxury the conversation became desultory [desultory = haphazardly; random] the crowning touch of pathos the current of his ideas flowed full and strong the dance whizzed on with cumulative fury the dawn is singing at the door the day sang itself into evening the day was at once redolent and vociferous [redolent = emitting fragrance; aromatic; suggestive; reminiscent] [vociferous = conspicuously and offensively loud] the day was blind with fog the day was gracious the days passed in a stately procession the days when you dared to dream the debilitating fears of alluring fate the deep and solemn purple of the summer night the deep flush ebbed out of his face the deep tranquillity of the shaded solitude the deepening twilight filled with shadowy visions the deepest wants and aspirations of his soul the delicatest reproof of imagined distrust the demerit of an unworthy alliance the desire of the moth for the star the dimness of the sealed eye and soul the dreamy solicitations of indescribable afterthoughts the dying day lies beautiful in the tender glow of the evening the early morning of the indian summer day was tinged with blue mistiness the earth looked despoiled the east alone frowned with clouds the easy grace of an unpremeditated agreeable talker the easy-going indolence of a sedentary life the echo of its wrathful roar surged and boomed among the hills the empurpled hills standing up, solemn and sharp, out of the green-gold air the enchanting days of youth the eternal questioning of inscrutable fate the evening comes with slow steps the evening star silvery and solitary on the girdle of the early night the exaggerations of morbid hallucinations the excitement of rival issues the extraordinary wistful look of innocence and simplicity the eye of a scrutinizing observer the eyes burnt with an amazing fire the eyes filled with playfulness and vivacity the father's vigil of questioning sorrow the fine flower of culture the first recoil from her disillusionment the flawless triumph of art the flight of the autumnal days the flower of courtesy the fluttering of untried wings the foreground was incredibly shabby the fragrance of a dear and honored name the freshening breeze struck his brow with a cooling hand the freshness of some pulse of air from an invisible sea the fruit of vast and heroic labors the general effect was of extraordinary lavish profusion the give and take was delicious the gloom of the afternoon deepened the gloom of winter dwelt on everything the gloomy insolence of self-conceit the glow of the ambitious fire the golden gloom of the past and the bright-hued hope of the future the golden riot of the autumn leaves the golden sunlight of a great summer day the gray air rang and rippled with lark music the grimaces and caperings of buffoonery the grotesque nightmare of a haunting fear the hand of time sweeps them into oblivion the haunting melody of some familiar line of verse the haunting phrase leaped to my brain the headlong vigor of sheer improvisation the heights of magnanimity and love the high-bred pride of an oriental the hills were clad in rose and amethyst the hill-tops gleam in morning's spring the hinted sweetness of the challenge aroused him the hot humiliation of it overwhelmed her the hungry curiosity of the mind the idiosyncratic peculiarities of thought the idle chatter of the crowd the immediate tyranny of a present emotion the inaccessible solitude of the sky the incarnation of all loveliness the incoherent loquacity of a nervous patient [loquacity = very talkative] the indefinable air of good-breeding the indefinable yearning for days that were dead the indefinite atmosphere of an opulent nature the intercepted glances of wondering eyes the intrusive question faded the invidious stigma of selfishness [invidious = rousing ill will] the iron hand of oppression the irresistible and ceaseless onflow of time the irrevocable past and the uncertain future the landscape ran, laughing, downhill to the sea the leaden sky rests heavily on the earth the leaves of time drop stealthily the leaves syllabled her name in cautious whispers the lights winked the little incident seemed to throb with significance the lofty grace of a prince the loud and urgent pageantry of the day the low hills on the horizon wore a haze of living blue the machinations of a relentless mountebank [mountebank = flamboyant charlatan] the machinations of an unscrupulous enemy the magical lights of the horizon the majestic solemnity of the moment yielded to the persuasive warmth of day the marvelous beauty of her womanhood the maximum of attainable and communicable truth the melancholy day weeps in monotonous despair the melodies of birds and bees the memory of the night grew fantastic and remote the meticulous observation of facts the mind freezes at the thought the mind was filled with a formless dread the mocking echoes of long-departed youth the moment marked an epoch the moon is waning below the horizon the more's the pity the morning beckons the morning droned along peacefully the most servile acquiescence the multiplicity of odors competing for your attention the murmur of soft winds in the tree-tops the murmur of the surf boomed in melancholy mockery the murmuring of summer seas the music and mystery of the sea the music of her delicious voice the music of her presence was singing a swift melody in his blood the music of unforgotten years sounded again in his soul the mute melancholy landscape the mystery obsessed him the naked fact of death the nameless and inexpressible fascination of midnight music the narrow glen was full of the brooding power of one universal spirit the nascent spirit of chivalry the night was drowned in stars the old ruddy conviction deserted me the onrush and vividness of life the opulent sunset the orange pomp of the setting sun the oscillations of human genius the outpourings of a tenderness reawakened by remorse the pageantry of sea and sky the palest abstractions of thought the palpitating silence lengthened the panorama of life was unrolled before him the paraphernalia of power and prosperity the parting crimson glory of the ripening summer sun the past slowly drifted out of his thought the pendulous eyelids of old age the penetrating odors assailed his memory as something unforgettable the pent-up intolerance of years of repression the perfume of the mounting sea saturated the night with wild fragrance the piquancy of the pageant of life [piquancy = tart spiciness] the pith and sinew of mature manhood the plenitude of her piquant ways [piquant = engagingly stimulating] the presage of disaster was in the air the pressure of accumulated misgivings the preternatural pomposities of the pulpit the pristine freshness of spring the pull of soul on body the pulse of the rebounding sea the purging sunlight of clear poetry the purple vaulted night the question drummed in head and heart day and night the question irresistibly emerged the quick pulse of gain the radiant serenity of the sky the radiant stars brooded over the stainless fields, white with freshly fallen snow the restlessness of offended vanity the retreating splendor of autumn the rising storm of words the river ran darkly, mysteriously by the river sang with its lips to the pebbles the roar of the traffic rose to thunder the romantic ardor of a generous mind the room had caught a solemn and awful quietude the rosy-hued sky went widening off into the distance the rosy twilight of boyhood the royal arrogance of youth the sadness in him deepened inexplicably the scars of rancor and remorse the scent of roses stole in with every breath of air the sea heaved silvery, far into the night the sea slept under a haze of golden winter sun the sea-sweep enfolds you, satisfying eye and mind the sea-wind buffeted their faces the secret and subduing charm of the woods the see-saw of a wavering courage the sentimental tourist will be tempted to tarry the shadows of the night seemed to retreat the shadows rested quietly under the breezeless sky the shafts of ridicule the sheer weight of unbearable loneliness the shiver of the dusk passed fragrantly down the valley the silence grew stolid the silence was uncomfortable and ominous the silent day perfumed with the hidden flowers the silver silence of the night the sinking sun made mellow gold of all the air the sky grew brighter with the imminent day the sky grew ensaffroned with the indescribable hue that heralds day the sky put on the panoply of evening the sky was a relentless, changeless blue the sky was dull and brooding the sky was heavily sprinkled with stars the sky was turning to the pearly gray of dawn the smiling incarnation of loveliness the song of hurrying rivers the sound of the sea waxed the spacious leisure of the forest the spell of a deathless dream was upon them the star-strewn spaces of the night the stars looked down in their silent splendor the stars seemed attentive the steadfast mind kept its hope the steady thunder of the sea accented the silence the still voice of the poet the stillness of a forced composure the stillness of the star-hung night the strangest thought shimmered through her the stream forgot to smile the streams laughed to themselves the strident discord seemed to mock his mood the stunning crash of the ocean saluted her the subtle emanation of other influences seemed to arrest and chill him the sudden rush of the awakened mind the summit of human attainment the sun blazed torridly the sun goes down in flame on the far horizon the sun lay golden-soft over the huddled hills the sunlight spread at a gallop along the hillside the sunset was rushing to its height through every possible phase of violence and splendor the suspicion of secret malevolence the swelling tide of memory the swing of the pendulum through an arch of centuries the tempered daylight of an olive garden the tender grace of a day that is fled the tension of struggling tears which strove for an outlet the thought leaped the timely effusion of tearful sentiment the tone betrayed a curious irritation the torture of his love and terror crushed him the trees rustled and whispered to the streams the tumult in her heart subsided the tumult in her mind found sudden speech the tumult of pride and pleasure the tune of moving feet in the lamplit city the tyranny of nipping winds and early frosts the unmasked batteries of her glorious gray eyes the vacant fields looked blankly irresponsive the vast and shadowy stream of time the vast cathedral of the world the vast unexplored land of dreams the velvet of the cloudless sky grew darker, and the stars more luminous the veneer of a spurious civilization the very pulsation and throbbing of his intellect the very silence of the place appeared a source of peril the vision fled him the vivifying touch of humor the web of lies is rent in pieces the wheel of her thought turned in the same desolate groove the whispering rumble of the ocean the white seething surf fell exhausted along the shore the whole exquisite night was his the whole sea of foliage is shaken and broken up with little momentary shiverings and shadows the wide horizon forever flames with summer the wild whirl of nameless regret and passionate sorrow the wild winds flew round, sobbing in their dismay the wind charged furiously through it, panting towards the downs the wind piped drearily the wind was in high frolic with the rain the winnowed tastes of the ages the woods were silent with adoration the youth of the soul the zenith turned shell pink their ephemeral but enchanting beauty had expired forever [ephemeral = markedly short-lived] their eyes met glancingly their troth had been plighted there was a kind of exhilaration in this subtle baiting there was a mild triumph in her tone there was a mournful and dim haze around the moon there was a strange massing and curving of the clouds there was a thrill in the air there was a time i might have trod the sunlit heights there was no glint of hope anywhere there was no menace in the night's silvern calmness there was something so kindly in its easy candor there was spendthrift grandeur these qualities were raised to the white heat of enthusiasm they became increasingly turbid and phantasmagorical [phantasmagorical = fantastic imagery] they escaped the baffled eye they sit heavy on the soul they were vastly dissimilar this exquisite conjunction and balance this little independent thread of inquiry ran through the texture of his mind and died away this shadowy and chilling sentiment unaccountably creeps over me thought shook through her in poignant pictures thoughts came thronging in panic haste thrilled by fresh and indescribable odors thrilled with a sense of strange adventure through a cycle of many ages through endless and labyrinthine sentences thrilled to the depths of her being time had passed unseen tinsel glitter of empty titles tired with a dull listless fatigue to all intents and purposes to speak with entire candor to stay his tottering constancy to the scourging he submitted with a good grace tossed disdainfully off from young and ardent lips touched every moment with shifting and enchanting beauty touched with a bewildering and elusive beauty transcendental contempt for money transformed with an overmastering passion trouble gathered on his brow turning the world topsy-turvey twilight creeps upon the darkening mind u unapproachable grandeur and simplicity unaware of her bitter taunt under the vivifying touch of genius unearthly in its malignant glee unfathomed depths and impossibilities unforced and unstudied depth of feeling unspoiled by praise or blame unspoken messages from some vaster world unstable moral equilibrium of boyhood until sleep overtakes us at a stride untouched by the ruthless spirit of improvement upon the mountain-tops of meditation urbanely plastic and versatile uttering grandiose puerilities [puerilities = childishness, silly] v vain allurements of folly and fashion variously ramified and delicately minute channels of expression varnished over with a cold repellent cynicism vast sweep of mellow distances veiled by some equivocation vibrant with the surge of human passions vicissitudes of wind and weather [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes] vigor and richness of resource visible and palpable pains and penalties voices that charm the ear and echo with a subtle resonance in the soul volcanic upheavings of imprisoned passions w wantonly and detestably unkind waylay destiny and bid him stand and deliver wayward and strangely playful responses wearing the white flower of a blameless life what sorry and pitiful quibbling when a pleasant countryside tunes the spirit to a serene harmony of mood when music is allied to words when the frame and the mind alike seem unstrung and listless when the profane voices are hushed when the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze whilst the morn kissed the sleep from her eyes whistled life away in perfect contentment wholly alien to his spirit with a vanquished and weary sigh womanly fickleness and caprice words and acts easily wrenched from their true significance worn to shreds by anxiety wrapped in a sudden intensity of reflection wrapped in an inaccessible mood wrapped in scudding rain wrapt in his odorous and many-colored robe wrapt in inward contemplation wrought of an emotion infectious and splendidly dangerous wrought out of intense and tragic experience y yielding to a wave of pity your mind enthroned in the seventh circle of content section viii striking similes a a blind rage like a fire swept over him a book that rends and tears like a broken saw a breath of melancholy made itself felt like a chill and sudden gust from some unknown sea a cloud in the west like a pall creeps upward a cloud like a flag from the sky a cluster of stars hangs like fruit in the tree a confused mass of impressions, like an old rubbish-heap a cry as of a sea-bird in the wind a dead leaf might as reasonably demand to return to the tree a drowsy murmur floats into the air like thistledown a face as imperturbable as fate a face as pale as wax a face tempered like steel a fatigued, faded, lusterless air, as of a caged creature a few pens parched by long disuse a figure like a carving on a spire a fluttering as of blind bewildered moths a giant galleon overhead, looked like some misty monster of the deep a glacial pang of pain like the stab of a dagger of ice frozen from a poisoned well a glance that flitted like a bird a great moon like a red lamp in the sycamore a grim face like a carved mask a hand icily cold and clammy as death a heart from which noble sentiments sprang like sparks from an anvil a jeweler that glittered like his shop a lady that lean'd on his arm like a queen in a fable of old fairy days a life, a presence, like the air a life as common and brown and bare as the box of earth in the window there a light wind outside the lattice swayed a branch of roses to and fro, shaking out their perfume as from a swung censer a lightning-phrase, as if shot from the quiver of infallible wisdom a list of our unread books torments some of us like a list of murders a little breeze ran through the corn like a swift serpent a little weed-clogged ship, gray as a ghost a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger a memory like a well-ordered cupboard a mighty wind, like a leviathan, plowed the brine a mind very like a bookcase a mystery, soft, soothing and gentle, like the whisper of a child murmuring its happiness in its sleep a name which sounds even now like the call of a trumpet a note of despairing appeal which fell like a cold hand upon one's living soul a purpose as the steady flame a question deep almost as the mystery of life a quibbling mouth that snapped at verbal errors like a lizard catching flies a radiant look came over her face, like a sudden burst of sunshine on a cloudy day a reputation that swelled like a sponge a ruby like a drop of blood a shadow of melancholy touched her lithe fancies, as a cloud dims the waving of golden grain a silver moon, like a new-stamped coin, rode triumphant in the sky a slow thought that crept like a cold worm through all his brain a smile flashed over her face, like sunshine over a flower a soft and purple mist like a vaporous amethyst a soft haze, like a fairy dream, is floating over wood and stream a soul as white as heaven a sound like the throb of a bell a stooping girl as pale as a pearl a sudden sense of fear ran through her nerves like the chill of an icy wind a sweet voice caroling like a gold-caged nightingale a thin shrill voice like the cry of an expiring mouse a thing of as frail enchantment as the gleam of stars upon snow a vague thought, as elusive as the smell of a primrose a vanishing loveliness as tender as the flush of the rose leaf and as ethereal as the light of a solitary star a voice as low as the sea a voice soft and sweet as a tune that one knows a white bird floats there, like a drifting leaf against a sky as clear as sapphire age, like winter weather agile as a leopard agitated like a storm-tossed ship air like wine all around them like a forest swept the deep and empurpled masses of her tangled hair all like an icicle it seemed, so tapering and cold all my life broke up, like some great river's ice at touch of spring all silent as the sheeted dead all sounds were lost in the whistle of air humming by like the flight of a million arrows all that's beautiful drifts away like the waters all the world lay stretched before him like the open palm of his hand all unconscious as a flower alone, like a storm-tossed wreck, on this night of the glad new year an anxiety hung like a dark impenetrable cloud an ardent face out-looking like a star an ecstasy which suddenly overwhelms your mind like an unexpected and exquisite thought an envious wind crept by like an unwelcome thought an ideal as sublime and comprehensive as the horizon an immortal spirit dwelt in that frail body, like a bird in an outworn cage an impudent trick as hackneyed as conjuring rabbits out of a hat an indefinable resemblance to a goat an isle of paradise, fair as a gem an old nodding negress whose sable head shined in the sun like a polished cocoanut an omnibus across the bridge crawls like a yellow butterfly an undefined sadness seemed to have fallen about her like a cloud an unknown world, wild as primeval chaos an unpleasing strain, like the vibration of a rope drawn out too fast and a pinnace like a flutter'd bird came flying from afar and a tear like silver, glistened in the corner of her eye and all our thoughts ran into tears like sunshine into rain and at first the road comes moving toward me, like a bride waving palms and dusk, with breast as of a dove, brooded and eyes as bright as the day and fell as cold as a lump of clay and her cheek was like a rose and here were forests ancient as the hills and many a fountain, rivulet, and pond, as clear as elemental diamond, or serene morning air and melting like the stars in june and night, as welcome as a friend and silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound and spangled o'er with twinkling points, like stars and the smile she softly uses fills the silence like a speech as a child in play scatters the heaps of sand that he has piled on the seashore as a cloud that gathers her robe like drifted snow as a flower after a drought drinks in the steady plunging rain as a leaf that beats on a mountain as a lion grieves at the loss of her whelps as a man plowing all day longs for supper and welcomes sunset as a sea disturbed by opposing winds as amusing as a litter of likely young pigs as arbitrary as a cyclone and as killing as a pestilence as austere as a roman matron as beautiful as the purple flush of dawn as blind as a mole as brief as sunset clouds in heaven as bright as sunlight on a stream as busy as a bee as cattle driven by a gadfly as chimney sweepers come to dust as clear as a whistle as clear as the parts of a tree in the morning sun as close as oak and ivy stand as delicate and as fair as a lily as delightful to the mind as cool well-water to thirsty lip as diamond cuts diamond as direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird as distinct as night and morning as dry as desert dust as dumb as a fish as easily as the sun shines as easy as a turn of the hand as elastic as a steel spring as extinct as the dodo as faint as the memory of a sound as familiar to him as his alphabet as fatal as the fang of the most venomous snake as fleeting and elusive as our dreams as foam from a ship's swiftness as fresh and invigorating as a sea-breeze as full of eager vigor as a mountain stream as full of spirit as a gray squirrel as gay and busy as a brook as gently as the flower gives forth its perfume as gently as withered leaves float from a tree as graceful as a bough as grave as a judge as great as the first day of creation as high as heaven as i dropped like a bolt from the blue as i dwelt like a sparrow among the spires as if a door were suddenly left ajar into some world unseen before as impossible as to count the stars in illimitable space as in the footsteps of a god as inaccessible to his feet as the clefts and gorges of the clouds as inexorable as the flight of time as innocent as a new laid egg as iridescent as a soap bubble as locusts gather to a stream before a fire as mellow and deep as a psalm as men strip for a race, so must an author strip for the race with time as merry as bees in clover as nimble as water as one who has climbed above the earth's eternal snowline and sees only white peaks and pinnacles as pale as any ghost as patient as the trees as quick as the movement of some wild animal as quiet as a nun breathless with adoration as radiant as the rose as readily and naturally as ducklings take to water as reticent as a well-bred stockbroker as ruthlessly as the hoof of a horse tramples on a rose as shallow streams run dimpling all the way as simple as the intercourse of a child with its mother as sleep falls upon the eyes of a child tired with a long summer day of eager pleasure and delight as some vast river of unfailing source as stars that shoot along the sky as still as a stone as stupid as a sheep as sudden as a dislocated joint slipping back into place as summer winds that creep from flower to flower as supple as a step-ladder as swaggering and sentimental as a penny novellete [novellete = short novel] as swift as thought as the accumulation of snowflakes makes the avalanche as the bubble is extinguished in the ocean as the dew upon the roses warms and melts the morning light as the fair cedar, fallen before the breeze, lies self-embalmed amidst the moldering trees as the light straw flies in dark'ning whirlwinds as the lightning cleaves the night as the loud blast that tears the skies as the slow shadows of the pointed grass mark the eternal periods as those move easiest who have learn'd to dance as though a rose should shut, and be a bud again as though pharaoh should set the israelites to make a pin instead of a pyramid as unapproachable as a star as weird as the elfin lights as well try to photograph the other side of the moon at extreme tension, like a drawn bow away he rushed like a cyclone awkward as a cart-horse b babbling like a child balmy in manner as a bland southern morning be like the granite of thy rock-ribbed land beauteous she looks as a water-lily beautiful as the dawn, dominant as the sun beauty maddens the soul like wine beheld great babel, wrathful, beautiful, burn like a blood-red cloud upon the plain beneath a sky as fair as summer flowers bent like a wand of willow black as a foam-swept rock black his hair as the wintry night blithe as a bird [blithe = carefree and lighthearted] bounded by the narrow fences of life bowed like a mountain breaking his oath and resolution like a twist of rotten silk breathed like a sea at rest bright as a diamond in the sun bright as a fallen fragment of the sky bright as the coming forth of the morning, in the cloud of an early shower bright as the sunbeams bright as the tear of an angel, glittered a lonely star brilliant and gay as a greek brisk as a wasp in the sunshine brittle and bent like a bow bronze-green beetles tumbled over stones, and lay helpless on their backs with the air of an elderly clergyman knocked down by an omnibus brown as the sweet smelling loam brute terrors like the scurrying of rats in a deserted attic buried in his library like a mouse in a cheese burns like a living coal in the soul but across it, like a mob's menace, fell the thunder but thou art fled, like some frail exhalation butterflies like gems c calm as the night calm like a flowing river calm like a mountain brooding o'er the sea calmly dropping care like a mantle from her shoulders cast thy voice abroad like thunder charm upon charm in her was packed, like rose-leaves in a costly vase chaste as the icicle cheeks as soft as july peaches chill breath of winter choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity cities scattered over the world like ant-hills cities that rise and sink like bubbles clear and definite like the glance of a child or the voice of a girl clear as a forest pool clear as crystal clenched little hands like rumpled roses, dimpled and dear cloud-like that island hung afar clouds like the petals of a rose cloudy mirror of opinion cold and hard as steel cold as the white rose waking at daybreak cold, glittering monotony like frosting around a cake collapsed like a concertina colored like a fairy tale companionless as the last cloud of an expiring storm whose thunder is its knell consecration that like a golden thread runs through the warp and woof of one's life [warp = lengthwise threads] [woof = crosswise threads] constant as gliding waters contending like ants for little molehill realms continuous as the stars that shine cowslips, like chance-found gold creeds like robes are laid aside creeping like a snail, unwillingly to school cruel as death curious as a lynx cuts into the matter as with a pen of fire d dainty as flowers dance like a wave of the sea dark and deep as night dark as pitch dark trees bending together as though whispering secrets dazzling white as snow in sunshine deafening and implacable as some elemental force dear as remembered kisses after death dear as the light that visits these sad eyes dearer than night to the thief debasing fancies gather like foul birds deep as the fathomless sea deep dark well of sorrow delicate as nymphs delicate as the flush on a rose or the sculptured line on a grecian urn denominational lines like stone walls dependency had dropped from her like a cast-off cloak despondency clung to him like a garment that is wet destructive as the lightning flash die like flies dip and surge lightly to and fro, like the red harbor-buoy disappearing into distance like a hazy sea dissatisfaction had settled on his mind like a shadow dissolve like some unsubstantial vision faded do make a music like to rustling satin dogging them like their own shadow dost thou not hear the murmuring nightingale like water bubbling from a silver jar? drop like a feather, softly to the ground drowned like rats dull as champagne e each like a corpse within its grave each moment was an iridescent bubble fresh-blown from the lips of fancy eager-hearted as a boy eager with the headlong zest of a hunter for the game ears that seemed as deaf as dead man's ears easy as a poet's dream emotions flashed across her face like the sweep of sun-rent clouds over a quiet landscape eternal as the skies evanescent as bubbles [evanescent = vanishing like vapor] every flake that fell from heaven was like an angel's kiss every lineament was clear as in the sculptor's thought [lineament = characteristic feature] everyone on the watch, like a falcon on its nest every phrase is like the flash of a scimitar exploded like a penny squib eyes as deeply dark as are the desert skies eyes as luminous and bright and brown as waters of a woodland river eyes half veiled by slumberous tears, like bluest water seen through mists of rain eyes like a very dark topaz eyes like deep wells of compassionate gloom eyes like limpid pools in shadow eyes like mountain water that o'erflowing on a rock f faces pale with bliss, like evening stars fade away like a cloud in the horizon faint and distant as the light of a sun that has long set faintly, like a falling dew fair and fleet as a fawn fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky fallen like dead leaves on the highway falling away like a speck in space fanciful and extravagant as a caliph's dream fawning like dumb neglected lap-dogs felt her breath upon his cheek like a perfumed air fields of young grain and verdured pastures like crushed velvet fierce as a bear in defeat fierce as the flames fills life up like a cup with bubbling and sparkling liquor fit closely together as the close-set stones of a building fix'd like a beacon-tower above the waves of a tempest flame like a flag unfurled flap loose and slack like a drooping sail flashed with the brilliancy of a well-cut jewel fled like sweet dreams fleet as an arrow flitted like a sylph on wings flowers as soft as thoughts of budding love fluent as a rill, that wanders silver-footed down a hill fluid as thought fluttered like gilded butterflies in giddy mazes fragile as a spider's web free as the air, from zone to zone i flew free as the winds that caress fresh and unworn as the sea that breaks languidly beside them fresh as a jewel found but yesterday fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail frightened like a child in the dark full-throated as the sea furious as eagles g gazed like a star into the morning light glaring like noontide gleam like a diamond on a dancing girl glistening like threads of gold glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid glittering like an aigrette of stars [aigrette = ornamental tuft of upright plumes] gone astray as a sheep that is lost gone like a glow on the cloud at the close of day gone like tenants that quit without warning gorgeous as the hues of heaven grazing through a circulating library as contentedly as cattle in a fresh meadow great scarlet poppies lay in drifts and heaps, like bodies fallen there in vain assault h hair as harsh as tropical grass and gray as ashes hangs like a blue thread loosen'd from the sky hard, sharp, and glittering as a sword harnessed men, like beasts of burden, drew it to the river-side haunts you like the memory of some former happiness he began to laugh with that sibilant laugh which resembles the hiss of a serpent [sibilant = producing a hissing sound] he bent upon the lightning page like some rapt poet o'er his rhyme he bolted down the stairs like a hare he clatters like a windmill he danced like a man in a swarm of hornets he fell as falls some forest lion, fighting well he fell down on my threshold like a wounded stag he had acted exactly like an automaton he lay as straight as a mummy he lay like a warrior taking his rest he lived as modestly as a hermit he looked fagged and sallow, like the day [fagged = worked to exhaustion] he looked with the bland, expressionless stare of an overgrown baby he played with grave questions as a cat plays with a mouse he radiated vigor and abundance like a happy child he sat down quaking like a jelly he saw disaster like a ghostly figure following her he snatched furiously at breath like a tiger snatching at meat he spoke with a uniformity of emphasis that made his words stand out like the raised type for the blind he swayed in the sudden grip of anger he sweeps the field of battle like a monsoon he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed he turned on me like a thunder-cloud he turned white as chalk he wandered restlessly through the house, like a prowling animal he was as splendidly serious as a reformer he was as steady as a clock he was as wax in those clever hands he was bold as the hawk he was so weak now, like a shrunk cedar white with the hoar-frost hearts unfold like flowers before thee heavy was my heart as stone heeled like an avalanche to leeward her arms like slumber o'er my shoulders crept her banners like a thousand sunsets glow her beauty broke on him like some rare flower her beauty fervent as a fiery moon her breath is like a cloud her cheeks are like the blushing cloud her cheeks were wan and her eyes like coals her dusky cheek would burn like a poppy her expression changed with the rapidity of a kaleidoscope her eyes as bright as a blazing star her eyes as stars of twilight fair her eyes, glimmering star-like in her pale face her eyes were as a dove that sickeneth her face changed with each turn of their talk, like a wheat-field under a summer breeze her face collapsed as if it were a pricked balloon her face was as solemn as a mask her face was dull as lead her face was like a light her face was passionless, like those by sculptor graved for niches in a temple her hair dropped on her pallid cheeks, like sea-weed on a clam her hair hung down like summer twilight her hair shone like a nimbus her hair was like a coronet her hands are white as the virgin rose that she wore on her wedding day her hands like moonlight brush the keys her head dropped into her hands like a storm-broken flower her heart has grown icy as a fountain in the fall her holy love that like a vestal flame had burned her impulse came and went like fireflies in the dusk her lashes like fans upon her cheek her laugh is like a rainbow-tinted spray her lips are like two budded roses her lips like a lovely song that ripples as it flows her lips like twilight water her little lips are tremulous as brook-water is [tremulous = timid or fearful] her long black hair danced round her like a snake her mouth as sweet as a ripe fig her neck is like a stately tower her pale robe clinging to the grass seemed like a snake her pulses flutter'd like a dove her skin was as the bark of birches her sweetness halting like a tardy may her two white hands like swans on a frozen lake her voice cut like a knife her voice like mournful bells crying on the wind her voice was like the voice the stars had when they sang together her voice was rich and vibrant, like the middle notes of a 'cello her words sounding like wavelets on a summer shore herding his thoughts as a collie dog herds sheep here and there a solitary volume greeted him like a friend in a crowd of strange faces here in statue-like repose, an old wrinkled mountain rose hers was the loveliness of some tall white lily cut in marble, splendid but chill his bashfulness melted like a spring frost his brow bent like a cliff o'er his thoughts his cheeks were furrowed and writhen like rain-washed crags [writhen = twisted] his eyes blazed like deep forests his eyes glowed like blue coals his eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like moldy hay his face burnt like a brand his face was glad as dawn to me his face was often lit up by a smile like pale wintry sunshine his fingers were knotted like a cord his formal kiss fell chill as a flake of snow on the cheek his fortune melted away like snow in a thaw his glorious moments were strung like pearls upon a string his indifference fell from him like a garment his invectives and vituperations bite and flay like steel whips [invective = abusive language] [vituperation = abusive language] his mind murmurs like a harp among the trees his mind was like a lonely wild his mind was like a summer sky his nerves thrilled like throbbing violins his retort was like a knife-cut across the sinews his revenge descends perfect, sudden, like a curse from heaven his spirits sank like a stone his talk is like an incessant play of fireworks his voice is as the thin faint song when the wind wearily sighs in the grass his voice rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes his voice was like the clap of thunder which interrupts the warbling birds among the leaves his whole soul wavered and shook like a wind-swept leaf his words gave a curious satisfaction, as when a coin, tested, rings true gold hopeful as the break of day how like a saint she sleeps how like a winter hath my absence been how like the sky she bends over her child howling in the wilderness like beasts huge as a hippopotamus humming-birds like lake of purple fire hushed as the grave hushed like a breathless lyre i i had grown pure as the dawn and the dew i have heard the hiddon people like the hum of swarming bees i have seen the ravens flying, like banners of old wars i saw a face bloom like a flower i saw a river of men marching like a tide i saw his senses swim dizzy as clouds i wander'd lonely as a cloud i was as sensitive as a barometer i was no more than a straw on the torrent of his will i will face thy wrath though it bite as a sword ideas which spread with the speed of light idle hopes, like empty shadows impassive as a statue impatient as the wind impregnable as gibraltar impressive as a warrant of arrest for high treason incredible little white teeth, like snow shut in a rose infrequent carriages sped like mechanical toys guided by manikins in honor spotless as unfallen snow in that head of his a flame burnt that was like an altar-fire in yonder cottage shines a light, far-gleaming like a gem instantly she revived like flowers in water intangible as a dream it came and faded like a wreath of mist at eve it cuts like knives, this air so chill it drops away like water from a smooth statue it pealed through her brain like a muffled bell it poured upon her like a trembling flood it racked his ears like an explosion of steam-whistles it ran as clear as a trout-brook it seems as motionless and still as the zenith in the skies it set his memories humming like a hive of bees it staggered the eye, like the sight of water running up hill it stung like a frozen lash it was as futile as to oppose an earthquake with argument it was as if a door had been opened into a furnace, so the eyes blazed it would collapse as if by enchantment its temples and its palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven j jealousy, fierce as the fires k kindle like an angel's wings the western skies in flame kindly mornings when autumn and winter seemed to go hand in hand like a happy aged couple kingdoms melt away like snow l laboring like a giant languid streams that cross softly, slowly, with a sound like smothered weeping laughter like a beautiful bubble from the rosebud of baby-hood laughter like the sudden outburst of the glad bird in the tree-top lazy merchantmen that crawled like flies over the blue enamel of the sea leapt like a hunted stag let his frolic fancy play, like a happy child let in confusion like a whirling flood let thy mouth murmur like the doves life had been arrested, as the horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock [horologist = one who repairs watches] life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road life sweet as perfume and pure as prayer light as a snowflake lights gleamed there like stars in a still sky like a ball of ice it glittered in a frozen sea of sky like a blade sent home to its scabbard like a blast from a horn like a blast from the suddenly opened door of a furnace like a blossom blown before a breeze, a white moon drifts before a shimmering sky like a bright window in a distant view like a caged lion shaking the bars of his prison like a calm flock of silver-fleeced sheep like a cloud of fire like a cold wind his words went through their flesh like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue like a damp-handed auctioneer like a deaf and dumb man wondering what it was all about like a dew-drop, ill-fitted to sustain unkindly shocks like a dipping swallow the stout ship dashed through the storm like a distant star glimmering steadily in the darkness like a dream she vanished like a festooned girdle encircling the waist of a bride like a flower her red lips parted like a game in which the important part is to keep from laughing like a glow-worm golden like a golden-shielded army like a great express train, roaring, flashing, dashing head-long like a great fragment of the dawn it lay like a great ring of pure and endless light like a great tune to which the planets roll like a high and radiant ocean like a high-born maiden like a jewel every cottage casement showed like a joyless eye that finds no object worth its constancy like a knight worn out by conflict like a knot of daisies lay the hamlets on the hill like a lily in bloom like a living meteor like a locomotive-engine with unsound lungs like a long arrow through the dark the train is darting like a mirage, vague, dimly seen at first like a miser who spoils his coat with scanting a little cloth [scanting = short] like a mist the music drifted from the silvery strings like a moral lighthouse in the midst of a dark and troubled sea like a murmur of the wind came a gentle sound of stillness like a noisy argument in a drawing-room like a pageant of the golden year, in rich memorial pomp the hours go by like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished like a poet hidden like a river of molten amethyst like a rocket discharging a shower of golden stars like a rose embower'd in its own green leaves like a sea of upturned faces like a shadow never to be overtaken like a shadow on a fair sunlit landscape like a sheeted ghost like a ship tossed to and fro on the waves of life's sea like a slim bronze statue of despair like a snow-flake lost in the ocean like a soul that wavers in the valley of the shadow like a stalled horse that breaks loose and goes at a gallop through the plain like a star, his love's pure face looked down like a star that dwelt apart like a star, unhasting, unresting like a stone thrown at random like a summer cloud, youth indeed has crept away like a summer-dried fountain like a swift eagle in the morning glare breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight like a thing at rest like a thing read in a book or remembered out of the faraway past like a tide of triumph through their veins, the red, rejoicing blood began to race like a triumphing fire the news was borne like a troop of boys let loose from school, the adventurers went by like a vaporous amethyst like a vision of the morning air like a voice from the unknown regions like a wandering star i fell through the deeps of desire like a watch-worn and weary sentinel like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed like a whirlwind they went past like a withered leaf the moon is blown across the bay like a world of sunshine like a yellow silken scarf the thick fog hangs like an alien ghost i stole away like an eagle clutching his prey, his arm swooped down like an eagle dallying with the wind like an engine of dread war, he set his shoulder to the mountain-side like an enraged tiger like an enthusiast leading about with him an indifferent tourist like an icy wave, a swift and tragic impression swept through him like an unbidden guest like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun like an unseen star of birth like an unwelcome thought like apparitions seen and gone like attempting to number the waves on the snore of a limitless sea like bells that waste the moments with their loudness like blasts of trumpets blown in wars like bright apollo like bright lamps, the fabled apples glow like building castles in the air like bursting waves from the ocean like cliffs which have been rent asunder like clouds of gnats with perfect lineaments [lineaments = distinctive shape] like cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant like crystals of snow like dead lovers who died true like death, who rides upon a thought, and makes his way through temple, tower, and palace like dew upon a sleeping flower like dining with a ghost like drawing nectar in a sieve like earth's decaying leaves like echoes from a hidden lyre like echoes from an antenatal dream like fixed eyes, whence the dear light of sense and thought has fled like footsteps upon wool like fragrance from dead flowers like ghosts, from an enchanter fleeing like ghosts the sentries come and go like golden boats on a sunny sea like great black birds, the demons haunt the woods like green waves on the sea like having to taste a hundred exquisite dishes in a single meal like heaven's free breath, which he who grasps can hold not like helpless birds in the warm nest like iridescent bubbles floating on a foul stream like kindred drops mingled into one like laying a burden on the back of a moth like lead his feet were like leaves in wintry weather like leviathans afloat like lighting a candle to the sun like making a mountain out of a mole-hill like mariners pulling the life-boat like mice that steal in and out as if they feared the light like mountain over mountain huddled like mountain streams we meet and part like music on the water like notes which die when born, but still haunt the echoes of the hill like oceans of liquid silver like one pale star against the dusk, a single diamond on her brow gleamed with imprisoned fire like one who halts with tired wings like one who talks of what he loves in dream like organ music came the deep reply like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream like phantoms gathered by the sick imagination like planets in the sky like pouring oil on troubled waters like roses that in deserts bloom and die like rowing upstream against a strong downward current like scents from a twilight garden like separated souls like serpents struggling in a vulture's grasp like sheep from out the fold of the sky, stars leapt like ships that have gone down at sea like shy elves hiding from the traveler's eye like skeletons, the sycamores uplift their wasted hands like some grave night thought threading a dream like some new-gathered snowy hyacinth, so white and cold and delicate it was like some poor nigh-related guest, that may not rudely be dismist like some suppressed and hideous thought which flits athwart our musings, but can find no rest within a pure and gentle mind like some unshriven churchyard thing, the friar crawled like something fashioned in a dream like sounds of wind and flood like splendor-winged moths about a taper like stepping out on summer evenings from the glaring ball-room upon the cool and still piazza like straws in a gust of wind like summer's beam and summer's stream like sunlight, in and out the leaves, the robins went like sweet thoughts in a dream like the awful shadow of some unseen power like the bellowing of bulls like the boar encircled by hunters and hounds like the bubbles on a river sparkling, bursting, borne away like the cold breath of the grave like the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar like the cry of an itinerant vendor in a quiet and picturesque town like the dance of some gay sunbeam like the dawn of the morn like the detestable and spidery araucaria [araucaria = evergreen trees of south america and australia] like the dew on the mountain like the dim scent in violets like the drifting foam of a restless sea when the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze like the embodiment of a perfect rose, complete in form and fragrance like the faint cry of unassisted woe like the faint exquisite music of a dream like the fair flower dishevel'd in the wind like the fair sun, when in his fresh array he cheers the morn, and all the earth revealeth like the falling thud of the blade of a murderous ax like the fierce fiend of a distempered dream like the fitting of an old glove to a hand like the foam on the river like the great thunder sounding like the jangling of all the strings of some musical instrument like the jewels that gleam in baby eyes like the kiss of maiden love the breeze is sweet and bland like the long wandering love, the weary heart may faint for rest like the moon in water seen by night like the music in the patter of small feet like the prodigal whom wealth softens into imbecility like the quivering image of a landscape in a flowing stream like the rainbow, thou didst fade like the rustling of grain moved by the west-wind like the sap that turns to nectar, in the velvet of the peach like the sea whose waves are set in motion by the winds like the sea-worm, that perforates the shell of the mussel, which straightway closes the wound with a pearl like the setting of a tropical sun like the shadow of a great hill that reaches far out over the plain like the shadows of the stars in the upheaved sea like the shudder of a doomed soul like the silver gleam when the poplar trees rustle their pale leaves listlessly like the soft light of an autumnal day like the spring-time, fresh and green like the stern-lights of a ship at sea, illuminating only the path which has been passed over like the sudden impulse of a madman like the swell of summer's ocean like the tattered effigy in a cornfield like the vase in which roses have once been distill'd like the visits of angels, short and far between like the whole sky when to the east the morning doth return like thistles of the wilderness, fit neither for food nor fuel like those great rivers, whose course everyone beholds, but their springs have been seen by but few like thoughts whose very sweetness yielded proof that they were born for immortality like to diamonds her white teeth shone between the parted lips like torrents from a mountain source, we rushed into each other's arms like troops of ghosts on the dry wind past like two doves with silvery wings, let our souls fly like two flaming stars were his eyes like vaporous shapes half seen like village curs that bark when their fellows do like wasted hours of youth like winds that bear sweet music, when they breathe through some dim latticed chamber like wine-stain to a flask the old distrust still clings like winged stars the fire-flies flash and glance like young lovers whom youth and love make dear lingering like an unloved guest lithe as a panther little white hands like pearls lofty as a queen loneliness struck him like a blow looked back with faithful eyes like a great mastiff to his master's face looking as sulky as the weather itself looking like a snarling beast baulked of its prey [baulked = checked, thwarted] loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed lost like the lightning in the sullen clod love as clean as starlight love brilliant as the morning love had like the canker-worm consumed her early prime love is a changing lord as the light on a turning sword love like a child around the world doth run love like a miser in the dark his joys would hide love shakes like a windy reed your heart love smiled like an unclouded sun love that sings and has wings as a bird lovely as starry water lovely the land unknown and like a river flowing m march on my soul nor like the laggard stay me on whose heart as a worm she trod meaningless as the syllables of an unknown tongue men moved hither and thither like insects in their crevices mentality as hard as bronze mentally round-shouldered and decrepit merge imperceptibly into one another like the hues of the prism meteors that dart like screaming birds milk-white pavements, clear and richly pale, like alabaster more variegated than the skin of a serpent motion like the spirit of that wind whose soft step deepens slumber motionless as a plumb line mountains like frozen wrinkles on a sea moving in the same dull round, like blind horses in a mill mute as an iceberg my age is as a lusty winter my body broken as a turning wheel my breath to heaven like vapor goes my head was like a great bronze bell with one thought for the clapper my heart is as some famine-murdered land my heart is like a full sponge and must weep a little my heart like a bird doth hover my heart will be as wind fainting in hot grass my life floweth away like a river my life was white as driven snow my love for thee is like the sovereign moon that rules the sea my love's like the steadfast sun my lungs began to crow like chanticleer [chanticleer = rooster] my mind swayed idly like a water-lily in a lake my muscles are as steel my skin is as sallow as gold my soul was as a lampless sea my spirit seemed to beat the void, like the bird from out the ark my thoughts came yapping and growling round me like a pack of curs my thoughts ran leaping through the green ways of my mind like fawns at play n night falls like fire no longer shall slander's venomed spite crawl like a snake across his perfect name now every nerve in my body seemed like a strained harp-string ready to snap at a touch now like a wild nymph she veils her shadowy form now like a wild rose in the fields of heaven slipt forth the slender figure of the dawn now memory and emotion surged in my soul like a tempest now thou seemest like a bankrupt beau, stripped of his gaudy hues o obscured with wrath as is the sun with cloud odorous as all arabia often enough life tosses like a fretful stream among rocky boulders oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud old as the evening star old happy hours that have long folded their wings once again, like madness, the black shapes of doubt swing through his brain one bleared star, faint glimmering like a bee one bright drop is like the gem that decks a monarch's crown one by one flitting like a mournful bird one deep roar as of a cloven world one winged cloud above like a spread dragon overhangs the west oppressed by the indefiniteness which hung in her mind, like a thick summer haze or shedding radiance like the smiles of god our enemies were broken like a dam of river reeds our hearts bowed down like violets after rain our sail like a dew-lit blossom shone overhead the intense blue of the noonday sky burst like a jewel in the sun p pale and grave as a sculptured nun pale as a drifting blossom passed like a phantom into the shadows passive and tractable as a child peaceful as a village cricket-green on sunday peevish and impatient, like some ill-trained man who is sick perished utterly, like a blown-out flame philosophy evolved itself, like a vast spider's loom pillowed upon its alabaster arms like to a child o'erwearied with sweet toil polished as the bosom of a star poured his heart out like the rending sea in passionate wave on wave pouting like the snowy buds o' roses in july presently she hovered like a fluttering leaf or flake of snow pride and self-disgust served her like first-aid surgeons on the battlefield proud as the proudest of church dignitaries pure as a wild-flower pure as the azure above them pure as the naked heavens pure as the snowy leaves that fold over the flower's heart purple, crimson, and scarlet, like the curtains of god's tabernacle put on gravity like a robe q quaking and quivering like a short-haired puppy after a ducking questions and answers sounding like a continuous popping of corks quiet as a nun's face quietly as a cloud he stole quietude which seemed to him beautiful as clear depths of water quivering like an eager race-horse to start r rage, rage ye tears, that never more should creep like hounds about god's footstool ran like a young fawn rattle in the ear like a flourish of trumpets rays springing from the east like golden arrows red as the print of a kiss might be redolent with the homely scent of old-fashioned herbs and flowers reflected each in the other like stars in a lake refreshed like dusty grass after a shower refreshing as descending rains to sunburnt climes remote as the hidden star restless as a blue-bottle fly on a warm summer's day revealed his doings like those of bees in a glass hive rich as the dawn ride like the wind through the night rivers that like silver threads ran through the green and gold of pasture lands roared like mountain torrents rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel round my chair the children run like little things of dancing gold ruddy as sunrise ruddy his face as the morning light ruffling out his cravat with a crackle of starch, like a turkey when it spreads its feathers running to and fro like frightened sheep rushing and hurrying about like a june-bug s sanctuaries where the passions may, like wild falcons, cover their faces with their wings sayings that stir the blood like the sound of a trumpet scattered love as stars do light sea-gulls flying like flakes of the sea sentences level and straight like a hurled lance shadowy faces, known in dreams, pass as petals upon a stream shake like an aspen leaf shaken off like a nightmare shapeless as a sack of wool shattered like so much glass she brightened like a child whose broken toy is glued together she could summon tears as one summons servants she danced like a flower in the wind she disclaimed the weariness that dragged upon her spirits like leaden weights she exuded a faint and intoxicating perfume of womanliness, like a crushed herb she felt like an unrepentant criminal she fled like a spirit from the room she flounders like a huge conger-eel in an ocean of dingy morality she gave him a surprised look, like a child catching an older person in a foolish statement she gave off antipathies as a liquid gives off vapor she has great eyes like the doe she heard him like one in a dream she let the soft waves of her deep hair fall like flowers from paradise she looked like a tall golden candle she looked like the picture of a young rapt saint, lost in heavenly musing she moved like mirth incarnate she nestles like a dove she played with a hundred possibilities fitfully and discursively as a musician runs his fingers over a key-board she played with grave cabinets as a cat plays with a mouse she saw this planet like a star hung in the glistening depths of even she seemed as happy as a wave that dances on the sea she shall be sportive as the fawn she stood silent a moment, dropping before him like a broken branch she that passed had lips like pinks she walked like a galley-slave she walks in beauty like the night she was as brilliant, and as hard too, as electric light she was silent, standing before him like a little statuesque figure shining like the dewy star of dawn shivering pine-trees, like phantoms showy as damask-rose and shy as musk shrill as the loon's call shrivel like paper thrust into a flame shy as the squirrel sights seen as a traveling swallow might see them on the wing silence deep as death silence now is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er the still and pulseless world silence that seemed heavy and dark; like a passing cloud sinks clamorous like mill-waters at wild play sits like the maniac on his fancied throne skies as clear as babies' eyes sleek and thick and yellow as gold slender and thin as a slender wire slowly as a tortoise slowly as the finger of a clock, her shadow came slowly moved off and disappeared like shapes breathed on a mirror and melting away slowly, unnoted, like the creeping rust that spreads insidious, had estrangement come small as a grain of mustard seed smooth as a pond smooth as the pillar flashing in the sun snug as a bug in a rug soaring as swift as smoke from a volcano springs so elusive that the memory of it afterwards was wont to come and go like a flash of light so my spirit beat itself like a caged bird against its prison bars in vain soft as a zephyr soft as sleep the snow fell soft as spring soft as the down of the turtle dove soft as the landscape of a dream soft as the south-wind soft in their color as gray pearls soft vibrations of verbal melody, like the sound of a golden bell rung far down under the humming waters some gleams of feeling pure and warm as sunshine on a sky of storm some like veiled ghosts hurrying past as though driven to their land of shadows by shuddering fear some minds are like an open fire--how direct and instant our communication with them something divine seemed to cling around her like some subtle vapor something resistant and inert, like the obstinate rolling over of a heavy sleeper after he has been called to get up something sharp and brilliant, like the glitter of a sword or a forked flash of lightning sorrowful eyes like those of wearied kine spent from the plowing [kine = cows] spread like wildfire squirrel-in-the-cage kind of movement stamping like a plowman to shuffle off the snow stared about like calves in a pen steadfast as the soul of truth steals lingering like a river smooth still as death stood like a wave-beaten rock straight as a ray of light straight as an arrow streamed like a meteor through the troubled air streamed o'er his memory like a forest flame streaming tears, like pearl drops from a flint striking with the force of an engine of destruction strong as a bison style comes, if at all, like the bloom upon fruit, or the glow of health upon the cheek subtle as jealousy sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose, flushing his brow sudden sprays of rain, like volleys of sharp arrows, rattled gustily against the windows suddenly, like death, the truth flashed on them sunbeams flashing on the face of things like sudden smilings of divine delight sunday mornings which seem to put on, like a sabbath garment, an atmosphere of divine quietude supple and sweet as a rose in bloom sway like blown moths against the rosewhite flame sweet as a summer night without a breath sweet as music she spoke sweet as the rain at noon sweet as the smile of a fairy swift as a swallow heading south swift as lightning swift as the panther in triumph swifter than the twinkling of an eye t talking and thinking became to him like the open page of a monthly magazine tall lance-like reeds wave sadly o'er his head that like a wounded snake drags its slow length along the anemone that weeps at day-break, like a silly girl before her lover the army blazed and glowed in the golden sunlight like a mosaic of a hundred thousand jewels the army like a witch's caldron seethed the beating of her heart was like a drum the beauty of her quiet life was like a rose in blowing the billows burst like cannon down the coast the birds swam the flood of air like tiny ships the boat cuts its swift way through little waves like molten gold and opal the boom of the surf grew ever less sonorous, like the thunder of a retreating storm the breast-plate of righteousness the breathless hours like phantoms stole away the breeze is as a pleasant tune the calm white brow as calm as earliest morn the camp fire reddens like angry skies the chambers of the house were haunted by an incessant echoing, like some dripping cavern the church swarmed like a hive the city is all in a turmoil; it boils like a pot of lentils the clouds that move like spirits o'er the welkin clear [welkin = sky] the clustered apples burnt like flame the colored bulbs swung noon-like from tree and shrub the crimson close of day the curl'd moon was like a little feather the curling wreaths like turbans seem the dark hours are swept away like crumbling ashes the dark mass of her hair shook round her like a sea the dawn is rising from the sea, like a white lady from her bed the dawn had whitened in the mist like a dead face the dawn with silver-sandaled feet crept like a frightened girl. the day stunned me like light upon some wizard way the day was sweeter than honey and the honey-comb the day have trampled me like armed men the dead past flew away over the fens like a flight of wild swans the deep like one black maelstrom round her whirls the deepening east like a scarlet poppy burnt the desolate rocky hills rolled like a solid wave along the horizon the dome of heaven is like one drop of dew the dreams of poets come like music heard at evening from the depth of some enchanted forest the eagerness faded from his eyes, leaving them cold as a winter sky after sunset the earth was like a frying-pan, or some such hissing matter the eternal sea, which like a childless mother, still must croon her ancient sorrows to the cold white moon the evening sky was as green as jade the excitement had spread through the whole house, like a piquant and agreeable odor the excitement of the thought buoyed his high-strung temperament like a tonic the feathery meadows like a lilac sea the firm body like a slope of snow the first whiff of reality dissipated them like smoke the floor, newly waxed, gleamed in the candle-light like beaten moonbeams the fragrant clouds of hair, they flowed round him like a snare the gathering glory of life shone like the dawn the gesture was all strength and will, like the stretching of a sea-bird's wings the girl's voice rang like a bird-call through his rustling fancies the glimmer of tall flowers standing like pensive moon-worshipers in an ecstasy of prayerless bloom the guides sniffed, like chamois, the air [chamois = extremely agile goat antelope] the heavens are like a scroll unfurled the hills across the valley were purple as thunder-clouds the hoofs of the horses rang like the dumb cadence of an old saga the hours crawled by like years the hum of the camp sounds like the sea the hurrying crowds of men gather like clouds the ideas succeeded each other like a dynasty of kings the impalpable presence of the new century rose like a vast empty house through which no human feet had walked the inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders hand-cuffing a convict the lake glimmered as still as a mirror the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell the land was like a dream the level boughs, like bars of iron across the setting sun the light of london flaring like a dreary dawn the lights blazed up like day the lilies were drooping, white, and wan, like the head and skin of a dying man the mellowing hand of time the melody rose tenderly and lingeringly like a haunting perfume of pressed flowers the milky way lay like diamond-dust upon the robe of some great king the monk's face whitened like sea-foam the moon drowsed between the trees like a great yellow moth the moon on the tower slept soft as snow the moonbeams rest like a pale spotless shroud the moonlight lay like snow the moonlight, like a fairy mist, upon the mesa spreads the mortal coldness of the soul, like death itself comes down the mountain shadows mingling, lay like pools above the earth the mountains loomed up dimly, like phantoms through the mist the music almost died away, then it burst like a pent-up flood the name that cuts into my soul like a knife the nervous little train winding its way like a jointed reptile the new ferns were spread upon the earth like some lacy coverlet the night like a battle-broken host is driven before the night yawned like a foul wind the ocean swelled like an undulating mirror of the bowl of heaven the old books look somewhat pathetically from the shelves, like aged dogs wondering why no one takes them for a walk the old infamy will pop into daylight like a toad out of fissure in the rock the penalty falls like a thunderbolt from heaven the phrase was like a spear-thrust the pine trees waved as waves a woman's hair the place was like some enchanted town of palaces the plains to northward change their color like the shimmering necks of doves the poppy burned like a crimson ember the prime of man has waxed like cedars the public press would chatter and make odd ambiguous sounds like a shipload of monkeys in a storm the purple heather rolls like dumb thunder the rainbows flashed like fire the river shouted as ever its cry of joy over the vitality of life, like a spirited boy before the face of inscrutable nature the roofs with their gables like hoods the roses lie upon the grass like little shreds of crimson silk the satire of the word cut like a knife the scullion with face shining like his pans the sea reeled round like a wine-vat splashing the sea-song of the trampling waves is as muffled bells the sea spread out like a wrinkled marble floor the sea, that gleamed still, like a myriad-petaled rose the sea was as untroubled as the turquoise vault which it reflected the setting of the sun is like a word of peace the sharp hail rattles against the panes and melts on my cheeks like tears the ships, like sheeted phantoms coming and going the silence seemed to crush to earth like a great looking-glass and shiver into a million pieces the silvery morning like a tranquil vision fills the world the sky burned like a heated opal the sky gleamed with the hardness and brilliancy of blue enamel the sky was as a shield that caught the stain of blood and battle from the dying sun the sky was clear and blue, and the air as soft as milk the sky was like a peach the sky where stars like lilies white and fair shine through the mists the solid air around me there heaved like a roaring ocean the solid mountains gleamed like the unsteady sea the soul is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life the sound is like a noon-day gale the sound is like a silver-fountain that springeth in a golden basin the sound of a thousand tears, like softly pattering wings the sound of your running feet that like the sea-hoofs beat the spear-tongued lightning slipped like a snake the spring breaks like a bird the stacks of corn in brown array, like tattered wigwams on the plain the stars come down and trembling glow like blossoms on the waves below the stars lay on the lapis-lazuli sky like white flower-petals on still deep water [lapis-lazuli = opaque to translucent blue, violet-blue, or greenish-blue gemstone] the stars pale and silent as a seer the strange cold sense of aloofness that had numbed her senses suddenly gave way like snow melting in the spring the sudden thought of your face is like a wound when it comes unsought the sun, like a great dragon, writhes in gold the sun on the sea-wave lies white as the moon the surf was like the advancing lines of an unknown enemy flinging itself upon the shore the terrible past lay afar, like a dream left behind in the night the tide was in the salt-weed, and like a knife it tore the time, gliding like a dream the torrent from the hills leaped down their rocky stairways like wild steeds the tree whose plumed boughs are soft as wings of birds the uproar and contention pierced him like arrows the veiled future bowed before me like a vision of promise the velvet grass that is like padding to earth's meager ribs the villa dips its foot in the lake, smiling at its reflection like a bather lingering on the brink the voice of fate, crying like some old bellman through the world the voice that rang in the night like a bugle call the warm kindling blood burned her cheeks like the breath of a hot wind the waves were rolling in, long and lazy, like sea-worn travelers the whole truth, naked, cold, and fatal as a patriot's blade the wind all round their ears hissed like a flight of white-winged geese the wind comes and it draws its length along like the genii from the earthen pot the wine flows like blood the woman seemed like a thing of stone the words kept ringing in my ears like the tolling of a bell the words of the wise fall like the tolling of sweet, grave bells upon the soul the world had vanished like a phantasmagoria the world is bitter as a tear the world is in a simmer, like a sea the world wavers within its circle like a dream the years stretched before her like some vast blank page out to receive the record of her toil the years vanished like a may snowdrift the yellow apples glowed like fire their glances met like crossed swords their joy like sunshine deep and broad falls on my heart their minds rested upon the thought, as chasing butterflies might rest together on a flower their music frightful as the serpent's hiss their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting then fall unheeded like the faded flower then felt i like some watcher of the skies then it swelled out to rich and glorious harmonies like a full orchestra playing under the sea then the lover sighing like furnace theories sprouted in his mind like mushrooms there is an air about you like the air that folds a star there, like a bird, it sits and sings there seemed to brood in the air a quiet benevolence of a father watching his myriad children at play there she soars like a seraph there she stood straight as a lily on its stem there slowly rose to sight, a country like a dragon fast asleep there streamed into the air the sweet smell of crushed grass, as though many fields had been pressed between giant's fingers and so had been left these eyes like stars have led me these final words snapped like a whip-lash these thoughts pierced me like thorns they are as cruel as creeping tigers they are as white foam on the swept sands they are as white swans in the dusk, thy white hands they are painted sharp as death they broke into pieces and fell on the ground, like a silvery, shimmering shower of hail they dropped like panthers they fly like spray they had hands like claws they had slipped away like visions they have as many principles as a fish has bones they have faces like flowers they hurried down like plovers that have heard the call [plovers = wading birds] they look like rose-buds filled with snow they seem like swarming flies, the crowd of little men they seemed like floating flowers they shine as sweet as simple doves they stand like solitary mountain forms on some hard, perfectly transparent day they vanished like the shapes that float upon a summer's dream thick as wind-blown leaves innumerable thickly the flakes drive past, each like a childish ghost thine eyes like two twin stars shining this life is like a bubble blown up in the air this love that dwells like moonlight in your face this thought is as death this tower rose in the sunset like a prayer those ancestral themes past which so many generations have slept like sea-going winds over pastures those death-like eyes, unconscious of the sun those eyelids folded like a white rose-leaf those eyes like bridal beacons shine thou art to me but as a wave of the wild sea thou as heaven art fair and young thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea thou must wither like a rose thou shalt be as free as mountain winds thou wouldst weep tears bitter as blood though bright as silver the meridian beams shine though thou be black as night thoughts vague as the fitful breeze three-cornered notes fly about like butterflies through the forest, like a fairy dream through some dark mind, the ferns in branching beauty stream through the moonlit trees, like ghosts of sounds haunting the moonlight, stole the faint tinkle of a guitar through the riot of his senses, like a silver blaze, ran the legend thy beauty like a beast it bites thy brown benignant eyes have sudden gleams of gladness and surprise, like woodland brooks that cross a sunlit spot thy carven columns must have grown by magic, like a dream in stone thy favors are but like the wind that kisses everything it meets thy heart is light as a leaf of a tree thy name burns like a gray and flickering candle flame thy name will be as honey on men's lips till death like sleep might steal on me till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven time drops in decay, like a candle burnt out time like a pulse shakes fierce to drag life on, which like a heavy chain lengthens behind with many a link of pain to forsake as the trees drop their leaves in autumn toys with smooth trifles like a child at play transitory as clouds without substance transparent like a shining sun tree and shrub altered their values and became transmuted to silver sentinels trees that spread their forked boughs like a stag's antlers trembling like an aspen-leaf truths which forever shine as fixed stars turning easily and securely as on a perfect axle u unbends like a loosened bow unbreakable as iron unconscious as an oak-tree of its growth under the willow-tree glimmered her face like a foam-flake drifting over the sea unheralded, like some tornado loosed out of the brooding hills, it came to pass unknown, like a seed in fallow ground, was the germ of a plan unmoving as a tombstone untameable as flies unutterable things pressing on my soul like a pent-up storm craving for outlet upcast like foam of the effacing tide uplifting the soul as on dovelike wings uplifting their stony peaks around us like the walls and turrets of a gigantic fortress urgent as the seas uttering wild cries like a creature in pain v vague as a dream vague thoughts that stream shapelessly through her mind like long sad vapors through the twilight sky vanish into thin air, like ghosts at the cockcrow vanished like snow when comes a thaw vanished like vapor before the sun vibrations set quivering like harp strings struck by the hand of a master vociferous praise following like a noisy wave w walking somewhat unsteadily like a blind man feeling his way waves glittered and danced on all sides like millions of diamonds we left her and retraced our steps like faithless hounds weak and frail like the vapor of a vale wearing their wounds like stars weary wind, who wanderest like the world's rejected guest when a draft might puff them out like a guttering candle [guttering = to melt through the side of the hollow in a candle formed by a burning wick; to burn low and unsteadily; flicker] when arm in arm they both came swiftly running, like a pair of turtle-doves that could not live asunder day or night when cards, invitations, and three-corn'd notes fly about like white butterflies when she died, her breath whistled like the wind in a keyhole when the fever pierced me like a knife where a lamp of deathless beauty shines like a beacon where heroes die as leaves fall where the intricate wheels of trade are grinding on, like a mill where the source of the waters is fine as a thread whilst the lagging hours of the day went by like windless clouds o'er a tender sky whistled sharply in the air like a handful of vipers white as a ghost from darkness white as chalk white as dove or lily, or spirit of the light white as the driven snow white as the moon's white flame white as the sea-bird's wing white clouds like daisies white hands she moves like swimming swans white hands through her hair, like white doves going into the shadow of a wood white like flame white sails of sloops like specters whose bodies are as strong as alabaster whose hair was as gold raiment on a king whose laugh moves like a bat through silent haunted woods whose little eyes glow like the sparks of fire whose music like a robe of living light reclothed each new-born age windy speech which hits all around the mark like a drunken carpenter winged like an arrow to its mark with a sting like a scorpion with all the complacency of a homeless cat with an angry broken roar, like billows on an unseen shore, their fury burst with hate darkling as the swift winter hail with music sweet as love with sounds like breakers with strength like steel with the whisper of leaves in one's ear with words like honey melting from the comb wits as sharp as gimlets [gimlet = small hand tool for boring holes] women with tongues like polar needles words as fresh as spring verdure [verdure = lush greenness of flourishing vegetation] words as soft as rain words like the gossamer film of the summer words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd words were flashing like brilliant birds through the boughs overhead wordsworth, thy music like a river rolls worthless like the conjurer's gold wrangle over details like a grasping pawnbroker wrinkled and scored like a dried apple writhing with an intensity that burnt like a steady flame y yielding like melted snow yonder flimsy crescent, bent like an archer's bow above the snowy summit you are as gloomy to-night as an undertaker out of employment you are as hard as stone you gave me such chill embraces as the snow-covered heights receive from clouds your blood is red like wine your charms lay like metals in a mine your eyes are like fantastic moons that shiver in some stagnant lake your eyes as blue as violets your eyes they were green and gray like an april day your frail fancies are swallowed up, like chance flowers flung upon the river's current your hair was golden as tints of sunrise your heart is as dry as a reed your locks are like the raven your love shall fall about me like sweet rain your step's like the rain to summer vexed farmer your thoughts are buzzing like a swarm of bees your tongue is like a scarlet snake your voice had a quaver in it just like the linnet [linnet = small finch] youth like a summer morn section ix conversational phrases a a most extraordinary idea! a thousand hopes for your success accept my best wishes all that is conjecture allow me to congratulate you an unfortunate comparison, don't you think? and even if it were so? and how am i to thank you? and in the end, what are you going to make of it? and yet the explanation does not wholly satisfy me apparently i was wrong are we wandering from the point? are you a trifle--bored? are you fully reconciled? are you not complicating the question? are you prepared to go to that length? are you still obdurate? [obdurate = hardened in wrongdoing; stubbornly impenitent] as it happens, your conjecture is right assuredly i do at first blush it may seem fantastic b banish such thoughts but are you not taking a slightly one-sided point of view? but consider for a moment but i look at the practical side but i wander from my point but now i'll confide something to you but perhaps i'm hardly fair when i say that but seriously speaking, what is the use of it? but surely that is inconsistent but that's a tremendous hazard but the thing is simply impossible but there's one thing you haven't said but, wait, you haven't heard the end but what do you yourself think about it? but who could foresee what was going to happen? but you are open to persuasion? but you do not know for certain but you must tell me more by a curious chance, i know it very well by no means desirable, i think c can i persuade you? can you imagine anything so horrible? certain circumstances make it undesirable certainly not, if it displeases you certainly, with the greatest pleasure come, where's your sense of humor? consult me when you want me--at any time d decidedly so dine with me to-morrow night?--if you are free? do i presume too much? do i seem very ungenerous? do not misunderstand me do not the circumstances justify it? don't be so dismal, please don't delude yourself don't let me encroach on your good nature don't think i am unappreciative of your kindness do you attach any particular meaning to that? do you know, i envy you that do you know what his chief interests are now? do you mind my making a suggestion? do you press me to tell? do you really regard him as a serious antagonist? do you think there is anything ominous in it? does it please you so tremendously? does it seem incredible? e either way is perplexing eminently proper, i think everyone looks at it differently excuse my bluntness f fanciful, i should say for the simplest of reasons forgive me if i seem disobliging fortunate, to say the least frankly, i don't see why it should frugal to a degree fulsome praise, i call it g give me your sympathy and counsel glorious to contemplate good! that is at least something gratifying, i am sure h happily there are exceptions to every rule has it really come to that? have i incurred your displeasure? have you any rooted objection to it? have you anything definite in your mind? have you reflected what the consequences might be to yourself? he does me too much honor he feels it acutely he has a queer conception of the proprieties he is a poor dissembler [dissemble = conceal behind a false appearance] he is anything but obtuse he is so ludicrously wrong he is the most guileless of men he was so extremely susceptible he writes uncommonly clever letters heaven forbid that i should wound your sensibility his sense of humor is unquenchable how amiable you are to say so how can i tell you how much i have enjoyed it all? how can i thank you? how can you be so unjust? how delightful to meet you how does the idea appeal to you? how droll you are! how extraordinary! how intensely interesting! how perfectly delightful! how utterly abominable how very agreeable this is! how very interesting how very surprising how well you do it! however, i should like to hear your views human nature interests me very much indeed i i admire your foresight i admit it most gratefully i agree--at least, i suppose i do i agree that something ought to be done i always welcome criticism so long as it is sincere i am absolutely bewildered i am afraid i am not familiar enough with the subject i am afraid i cannot suggest an alternative i am afraid i've allowed you to tire yourself i am afraid i must confess my ignorance i am afraid you will call me a sentimentalist i am always glad to do anything to please you i am anxious to discharge the very onerous debt i owe you i am appealing to your sense of humor i am at your service i am bound to secrecy i am compelled to, unluckily i am curious to learn what his motive was i am deeply flattered and grateful i am delighted to hear you say so i am dumb with admiration i am entirely at your disposal i am extremely glad you approve of it i am far from believing the maxim i am fortunate in being able to do you a service i am glad to be able to think that i am glad to have had this talk with you i am glad to say that i have entirely lost that faculty i am glad you can see it in that way i am glad you feel so deeply about it i am giving you well-deserved praise i am going to make a confession i am grateful for your good opinion i am honestly indignant i am, i confess, a little discouraged i am in a chastened mood i am inclined to agree with you i am incredulous i am indebted to you for the suggestion i am listening--i was about to propose i am lost in admiration i am luckily disengaged to-day i am more grieved than i can tell you i am naturally overjoyed i am not a person of prejudices i am not an alarmist i am not as unreasonable as you suppose i am not at all in the secret of his ambitions i am not capable of unraveling it i am not going into sordid details i am not going to let you evade the question i am not going to pay you any idle compliments i am not impervious to the obligations involved i am not in sympathy with it i am not in the least surprised i am not inquisitive i am not prepared to say i am not sure that i can manage it i am not vindictive i am overjoyed to hear you say so i am perfectly aware of what i am saying i am persuaded by your candor i am quite convinced of that i am quite discomfited i am quite interested to see what you will do i am quite ready to be convinced i am rather of the opinion that i was mistaken i am ready to make great allowances i am really afraid i don't know i am really gregarious i am sensible of the flattery i am seriously annoyed with myself about it i am so glad you think that i am so sorry--so very sorry i am sorry to disillusionize you i am sorry to interrupt this interesting discussion i am sorry to say it is impossible i am speaking plainly i am still a little of an idealist i am suppressing many of the details i am sure it sounds very strange to you i am sure you could pay me no higher compliment i am sure you will hear me out i am surprised, i confess i am sustained by the prospect of a good dinner i am vastly obliged to you i am vastly your debtor for the information i am very far from being a fanatic i am very glad of this opportunity i am very grateful--very much flattered i am wholly in agreement with you i am willing to accept all the consequences i am wonderfully well i am wondering if i may dare ask you a very personal question? i am your creditor unawares i anticipate your argument i appreciate your motives i assure you it is most painful to me i assure you my knowledge of it is limited i bear no malice about that i beg your indulgence i beg your pardon, but you take it too seriously i brazenly confess it i can easily understand your astonishment i can explain the apparent contradiction i can find no satisfaction in it i can hardly agree with you there i can never be sufficiently grateful i can only tell you the bare facts i can scarcely accept the offer i can scarcely boast that honor i can scarcely imagine anything more disagreeable i can sympathize with you i cannot altogether acquit myself of interested motives i cannot explain it even to myself i cannot find much real satisfaction in it i cannot forbear to press my advantage i cannot imagine what you mean i cannot precisely determine i can't pretend to make a jest of what i'm going to say i cannot say definitely at the moment i cannot say that in fact it is always so i cannot see how you draw that conclusion i cannot thank you enough for all your consideration i compliment you on your good sense i confess, i find it difficult i could ask for nothing better i could never forgive myself for that i dare say your intuition is quite right i decline to commit myself beforehand i detest exaggeration i didn't mean that--exactly i do not comprehend your meaning i don't deny that it is interesting i don't doubt it for a moment i do not doubt the sincerity of your arguments i do not exactly understand you i do not feel sure that i entirely share your views i don't feel that it is my business i do not find it an unpleasant subject i don't insist on your believing me i don't justify my presumption i don't know quite why you should say that i don't know that i can do that i don't know when i have heard anything so lamentable i don't know why you should be displeased i don't make myself clear, i see i don't pretend to explain i don't see anything particularly wonderful in it i don't underrate his kindness i don't want to disguise that from you i don't want to exaggerate i don't want to seem critical i doubt the truth of that saying i endorse it, every word i entirely approve of your plan i fancy it's just that i fear i cannot help you i fear that's too technical for me i feel a certain apprehension i feel an unwonted sense of gaiety [unwonted = unusual] i feel it my duty to be frank with you i feel myself scarcely competent to judge i feel very grateful to you for your kind offer i find it absorbing i find it rather monotonous i find this agreeable mental exhilaration i frankly confess that i generally trust my first impressions i give my word gladly i give you my most sacred word of honor i had better begin at the beginning i had no intention of being offensive i hadn't thought of it in that light i hardly think that could be so i have a hundred reasons for thinking so i have a peculiar affection for it i have an immense faith in him i have been constrained by circumstances i have been decidedly impressed i have been longing to see more of you i have been puzzling over a dilemma i have every reason to think so i have given you the best proof of it i have gone back to my first impressions i have known striking instances of the kind i have never heard it put so well i have no delusions on that score i have not succeeded in convincing myself of that i have not the influence you think i have not the least doubt of it i haven't the remotest idea i have often a difficulty in deciding i have often marveled at your courage i have quite changed my opinion about that i have something of great importance to say to you i have sometimes vaguely felt it i have the strongest possible prejudice against it i heartily congratulate you i hope it will not seem unreasonable to you i hope we may meet again i hope you will forgive an intruder i hope you will not think me irreverent i hope you will pardon my seeming carelessness i indulge the modest hope i know it is very presumptuous i know my request will appear singular i like it immensely i like your frankness i make no reflection whatever i mean it literally i might question all that i mistrust these wild impulses i most certainly agree with you i most humbly ask pardon i must add my congratulations on your taste i must apologize for intruding upon you i must ask you one more question, if i may i must confess i have never thought of that i must refrain from any comment i must respectfully decline to tell you i must take this opportunity to tell you i need not remind you that you have a grave responsibility i never heard anything so absurd i offer my humblest apologies i owe the idea wholly to you i partly agree with you i personally owe you a great debt of thankfulness i place myself entirely at your service i place the most implicit reliance on your good sense i prefer to reserve my judgment i purposely evaded the question i quite appreciate the very clever way you put it i quite see what the advantages are i really am curious to know how you guessed that i realize how painful it must be to you i recollect it clearly i rely on your good sense i remember the occasion perfectly i resent that kind of thing i respect you for that i respect your critical faculty i say it in all modesty i see disapproval in your face i see it from a different angle i see you are an enthusiast i see your point of view i seem to have heard that sentiment before i shall at once proceed to forget it i shall await your pleasure i shall be glad if you will join me i shall be interested to watch it develop i shall be most proud and pleased i shall certainly take you at your word i shall feel highly honored i shall make a point of thinking so i shall never forget your kindness i shall respect your confidence i should appreciate your confidence greatly i should be very ungrateful were i not satisfied with it i should feel unhappy if i did otherwise i should like your opinion of it i should not dream of asking you to do so i should think it very unlikely i simply cannot endure it i spoke only in jest i stand corrected i suppose i ought to feel flattered i surmised as much i sympathize deeply with you i take that for granted i think extremely well of it i think he has very noble ideals i think i can answer that for you i think i know what you are going to say i think it has its charm i think it is superb! i think it quite admirable i think its tone is remarkably temperate i think that is rather a brilliant idea i think what you say is reasonable i think you are quibbling i think you are rather severe in your opinions i think you have great appreciation of values i think you have summed it up perfectly i think your candor is charming i thoroughly agree with you i thought it most amusing i thought you were seriously indisposed i trust you will not consider it an impertinence i understand exactly how you feel about it i understand your delicacy of feeling i venture to propose another plan i very rarely allow myself that pleasure i want to have a frank understanding with you i was at a loss to understand the reason for it i was hoping that i could persuade you i was on the point of asking you i was speaking generally i watched you with admiration i will answer you frankly i will listen to no protestations i will take it only under compulsion i will tell you what puzzles me i will think of it, since you wish it i will, with great pleasure i wish i could explain my point more fully i wish i knew what you meant by that i wish to be perfectly fair i wish to put things as plainly as possible i wonder how much truth there is in it? i wonder if you have the smallest recollection of me? i would agree if i understood i wouldn't put it just that way if ever i can repay it, command me if i mistake not you were there once? if i speak strongly, it is because i feel strongly if i were disposed to offer counsel if i were sure you would not misunderstand my meaning if you don't mind my saying so if you insist upon it if you will pardon me the frankness in a manner that sometimes terrifies me in one respect you are quite right in that case let me rob you of a few minutes in what case, for example? incredible as it sounds, i had for a moment forgotten indeed, but it is quite possible indeed! how? indeed, you are wholly wrong indifferently so, i am afraid irony was ten thousand leagues from my intention is it sane--is it reasonable? isn't it amazing? isn't it extraordinarily funny? isn't it preposterous? isn't that a trifle unreasonable? isn't that rather a hasty conclusion? is that a fair question? it always seemed to me impossible it amuses you, doesn't it? it blunts the sensibilities it could never conceivably be anything but popular it depends on how you look at it it depends upon circumstances it doesn't sound plausible to me it has a lovely situation as i remember it it has amused me hugely it has been a relief to talk to you it has been an immense privilege to see you it has never occurred to me it is a curious fact it is a great pleasure to meet you it is a huge undertaking it is a most unfortunate affair it is a perfectly plain proposition it is a rather melancholy thought it is a truth universally acknowledged it is all very inexcusable it is all very well for you to be philosophical it is altogether probable it is an admirable way of putting it it is an error of taste it is an extreme case, but the principle is sound it is an ingenious theory it is an uncommonly fine description it is extremely interesting, i can assure you it is for you to decide it is historically true it is i who should ask forgiveness it is incredible! it is indeed generous of you to suggest it it is inexplicable it is interesting, as a theory it is literally impossible it is merely a mood it is most unfortunate it is my deliberately formed opinion it is my opinion you are too conscientious it is nevertheless true it is not a matter of the slightest consequence it is not always fair to judge by appearances it is not so unreasonable as you think it is often very misleading it is one of the grave problems of the day it is only a fancy of mine it is perfectly defensible it is perfectly trite it is permissible to gratify such an impulse it is possible, but i rather doubt it it is quite an easy matter it is quite conceivable it is quite too absurd it is rather startling it is really impressive it is really most callous of you to laugh it is sheer madness it is sickening and so insufferably arrogant it is simply a coincidence it is the most incomprehensible thing in the world it is to you that i am indebted for all this it is true, i am grieved to say it is true none the less it is very amusing it is very far from being a fiction it is very good of you to do this for my pleasure it is very ingenious it is very splendid of you it is wanton capriciousness it is your privilege to think so it's a difficult and delicate matter to discuss it's a matter of immediate urgency it's absolute folly it's absurd--it's impossible it's all nonsense it's as logical as it can be under the circumstances it's been a strange experience for you it's deliciously honest it's going to be rather troublesome it's inconceivable that it should ever be necessary it's mere pride of opinion it's my chief form of recreation it's not a matter of vast importance it's past my comprehension it's quite wonderful how logical and simple you make it it's really very perplexing it's so charming of you to say that it's so kind of you to come it's such a bore having to talk about it it's the natural sequence it's too melancholy it's very wonderful it makes it all quite interesting it may sound strange to you it must be a trifle dull at times it must be fascinating it must be very gratifying to you it must have been rather embarrassing it seems an age since we've last seen you it seems entirely wonderful to me it seems incredible it seems like a distracting dream it seems preposterous it seems the height of absurdity it seems to me that you have a perfect right to do so it seems unspeakably funny to me it seems very ridiculous it shall be as you wish it should not be objectionable it sounds plausible it sounds profoundly interesting it sounds rather appalling it sounds very alluring it strikes me as rather pathetic it was an unpardonable liberty it was inevitable that you should say that it was most stupid of me to have forgotten it it was not unkindly meant it was peculiarly unfortunate it was really an extraordinary experience it was so incredible it was the most amazing thing i ever heard it was very good of you to come out and join us it will create a considerable sensation it will divert your thoughts from a mournful subject it will give me pleasure to do it it will not alter my determination it would be ill-advised it would interest me very much it would seem to be a wise decision it would take too long to formulate my thought j join us, please, when you have time just trust to the inspiration of the moment justify it if you can l let me persuade you let me say how deeply indebted i feel for your kindness let me speak frankly let us grant that for the sake of the argument let us take a concrete instance m many thanks--how kind and good you are! may i ask to whom you allude? may i be privileged to hear it? may i speak freely? may i venture to ask what inference you would draw from that? might i suggest an alternative? most dangerous! my attitude would be one of disapproval my confidence in you is absolute my idea of it is quite the reverse my information is rather scanty my meaning is quite the contrary my point of view is different, but i shall not insist upon it my views are altered in many respects n no, i am speaking seriously no, i don't understand it not at all not to my knowledge nothing could be more delightful now is it very plain to you? now you are flippant o obviously the matter is settled of course, but that again isn't the point of course i am delighted of course i don't want to press you against your will of course you will do what you think best oh, certainly, if you wish it oh, do not form an erroneous impression oh, i appreciate that in you! oh, that's mere quibbling oh, that's splendid of you! oh, that was a manner of speaking oh, yes, i quite admit that oh, yes, you may take that for granted oh, you are very bitter oh, you may be as scornful as you like on the contrary, i agree with you thoroughly on the face of it, it sounds reasonable one assumption you make i should like to contest one has no choice to endure it one must be indulgent under the circumstances one thing i beg of you p pardon me, but i don't think so pardon me, i meant something different perhaps i am indiscreet perhaps not in the strictest sense perhaps you do not feel at liberty to do so perhaps you think me ungrateful personally i confess to an objection please continue to be frank please do not think i am asking out of mere curiosity please forgive my thoughtlessness please make yourself at home pray don't apologize pray forgive me for intruding on you so unceremoniously pray go on! precisely, that is just what i meant put in that way it certainly sounds very well q question me, if you wish quibbling, i call it quite so quite the wisest thing you can do r rather loquacious, i think [loquacious = very talkative] reading between the lines really? i should have thought otherwise really--you must go? reassure me, if you can reflect upon the possible consequences relatively speaking reluctantly i admit it reverting to another matter s shall we have a compact? she has an extraordinary gift of conversation she is easily prejudiced she seems uncommonly appreciative she will be immensely surprised show me that the two cases are analogous so far so good so i inferred so much the better for me so you observe the transformation? something amuses you sometimes the absurdity of it occurs to me speaking with all due respect still, you might make an exception strangely it's true such conduct seems to me unjustifiable surely there can be no question about that surely we can speak frankly surely you sound too harsh a note surely you would not countenance that t tell me in what way you want me to help you thank you for telling me that thank you for your good intentions that, at least, you will agree to that depends on one's point of view that doesn't sound very logical that is a counsel of perfection that is a fair question, perhaps that is a question i have often proposed to myself that is a stroke of good fortune that is a superb piece of work that is a very practical explanation that is admirably clear that is certainly ideal that is eminently proper that is hardly consistent that is inconceivable that is just like you, if you will forgive me for saying so that is most fortunate that is most kind of you that is most unexpected and distressing that is not fair--to me that is not to be lightly spoken of that is precisely what i mean that is quite true, theoretically that is rather a difficult question to answer that is rather a strange request to make that is rather awkward that is really good of you that is the prevailing idea that is tragic that is true and i think you are right that is very amiable in you that is very curious that is very felicitous that is very gracious that is what i call intelligent criticism that is what i meant to tell you that is a humiliating thought that is a most interesting idea that is such a hideous idea that is the most incredible part of it that might involve you in life-long self-reproach that must be exceedingly tiresome that ought to make you a little lenient that reassures me that shows the infirmity of his judgment that theory isn't tenable that was exceedingly generous that was intended ironically that was very thoughtful of you that was very well reasoned that will blast your chances, i am afraid that will suit me excellently that would be somewhat serious that would be very discreditable the agreement seems to be ideal the idea is monstrous the inference is obvious the notion is rather new to me the pleasure is certainly not all on your side the reason is not so far to seek the same problem has perplexed me the sentiment is worthy of you the simplest thing in the world the situation is uncommonly delicate the story seems to me incredible the subject is extremely interesting the tone of it was certainly hostile the very obvious moral is this the whole thing is an idle fancy then i have your permission? then you're really not disinclined? then you merely want to ask my advice? there are endless difficulties there are reasons which make such a course impossible there is a good deal of sense in that there is a grain of truth in that, i admit there is food for reflection in that there is my hand on it there is no resisting you there is nothing i should like so much there is one inevitable condition there is something almost terrifying about it there must be extenuating circumstances they amuse me immensely this is a most unexpected pleasure this is charmingly new to me this is indeed good fortune this is really appalling this is really not a laughing matter those are my own private feelings those things are not forgotten at once to me it's simply outrageous to speak frankly, i do not like it true, i forgot! u undeniably true unfortunately i must decline the proposal unlikely to be so unquestionably superior unwholesome influence, i would say v very good, i'll do so very well, i will consent vivacity is her greatest charm virtually accomplished, i believe vouch for its truth w we are all more or less susceptible we are drifting away from our point we are impervious to certain rules we are merely wasting energy in this duel we can safely take it for granted we couldn't have a better topic we had better agree to differ we have had some conclusions in common we must judge it leniently we must not expose ourselves to misinterpretation we owe you a debt of gratitude we shall be glad to see you, if you care to come we will devoutly hope not well, as a matter of fact, i have forgotten well done! i congratulate you well, i'm not going to argue that well, i call it scandalous well, i confess they don't appeal to me well, more's the pity well, perhaps it is none of my affair well, that is certainly ideal! well, this is good fortune well, yes--in a way well, you are a dreamer! what a beautiful idea what a charming place you have here what a curious coincidence! what a pretty compliment! what a tempting prospect! what an extraordinary idea! what are your misgivings? what can you possibly mean? what conceivable reason is there for it? what do you imagine my course should be? what do you propose? what is the next step in your argument? what is there so strange about that? what, may i ask, is your immediate object? what unseemly levity on his part what very kind things you say to me what would you expect me to do? what you have just said is even truer than you realize what you propose is utterly impossible who is your sagacious adviser? [sagacious = sound judgment, wise] why ask such embarrassing questions? why did you desert us so entirely? why do you take it so seriously? will you allow me to ask you a question? will you be more explicit? will you have the kindness to explain? will you pardon my curiosity? will you permit me a brief explanation? would you apply that to everyone? would you mind telling me your opinion? y yes and no yes, but that is just what i fail to comprehend yes, i dare say yes, if you will be so good yes, it was extraordinarily fine yes, that is my earnest wish yes, that's undeniable yes? you were saying? you agree with me, i know you are a profound philosopher you are a severe critic you are delightfully frank you are greatly to be envied you are heartily welcome you are incomprehensible you are incorrigible you are kind and comforting you are most kind you are not consistent you are not serious, i hope you are not seriously displeased with me? you are quite delightful you are rather puzzling to-day you are right to remind me of that you are unduly distressing yourself you are very complimentary you are very gracious you're so tremendously kind about it you're succeeding admirably you're taking it all much too seriously you're talking nonsense! you're very good, i'm sure you ask me--but i shouldn't wonder if you knew better than i do you astonish me greatly you behaved with great forbearance you can hardly be serious you cannot regret it more than i do you could not pay me a higher compliment you did it excellently you did not clearly understand what i meant you don't seem very enthusiastic you excite my curiosity you flatter my judgment you have a genius for saying the right thing you have asked me a riddle you have asked the impossible you have been wrongly informed you have done me a great service you have had a pleasant time, i hope you have my deepest sympathy you have my unbounded confidence you have received a false impression you have such an interesting way of putting things you interest me deeply you judge yourself too severely you know i'm in an agony of curiosity you know i'm not given to sentimentality you know the familiar axiom you leave no alternative you look incredulous you may be sure of my confidence you may rely on me absolutely you might make an exception you must have misunderstood me you must not fail to command me you overwhelm me with your kindness you really insist upon it? you rebuke me very fairly you say that as though you were surprised you see how widely we differ you see, it's all very vague you see things rose-colored you seem to be in a happy mood you seem to take a very mild interest in what i propose you shock me more than i can say you speak in enigmas you speak with authority you surely understand my position you take a great deal for granted you take a pessimistic view of things you take me quite by surprise you will admit i have some provocation you will become morbid if you are not careful you will have ample opportunity you will, of course, remember the incident you will please not be flippant you will understand my anxiety your argument is facile and superficial your consideration is entirely misplaced your judgments are very sound your logic is as clever as possible your opinion will be invaluable to me your request is granted before it is made your statement is somewhat startling section x public speaking phrases a a fact of vast moment a few words will suffice to answer a further objection is a great many people have said a little indulgence may be due to those a majority of us believe a man in my situation has a more plausible objection is found a proof of this is a servile mind can never know a short time since a specific answer can be given a thought occurred to me able men have reasoned out above all things, let us not forget absolutely true it is abundant reason is there accordingly by reason of this circumstance add this instance to after a careful study of all the evidence after full deliberation after reminding the hearer after this it remains only to say again, can we doubt again, i ask the gentleman again, in this view again, it is quite clear that again, it is urged again, let us compare again, very numerous are the cases again, we have abundant instances against all this concurring testimony all confess this to be true all i ask is all of us know all that i will say now all the facts which support this all the signs of the time indicate all these things you know all this being considered all this is historical fact all this is very well all this suggests all this we take for granted allow me for a moment to turn to allow me to tell a story altho i say it to myself amazing as it may seem am i mistaken in this among many examples among the distinguished guests who honor among the problems that confront us an answer to this is now ready an argument has often been put forward an example or two will illustrate an indescribably touching incident an opinion has now become established and again, it is said and again, it is to be presumed and coming nearer to our own day and did a man try to persuade me and do you really think and everybody here knows and for myself, as i said and further, all that i have said and hence the well-known doctrine and here again, when i speak and here allow me to call your attention and here i am led to observe and here i come to the closing evidence and here i have an opportunity and here i reproach and here i wish you to observe and here let me define my position and here let me give my explanation and here let us recall to mind and how is it possible to imagine and i am bound to say and i beg of you and i call on you and i might say this and i refuse assent and i rejoice to know and i say, it were better for you and i should in like manner repudiate and i speak with reverence and i submit to you and i trust that you will consider and i will make a practical suggestion and i will tell you why and i would, moreover submit and if a man could anywhere be found and if any of you should question and if i know anything of my countrymen and if i may presume to speak and if i take another instance and if this be true and if you come to a decision and if you think it your duty and in conclusion and in like manner and in order to see this and in thus speaking, i am not denying and is not this lamentable and is there not a presumption and it happens and it is certainly true and it is doubtful if and it is not difficult to see and it is not plain and it is one of the evidences and it is precisely in this and it is strikingly suggested to us and it is undeniable, i say and it is well that this should be so and last of all and lest anyone should marvel and let it be observed and lo! and behold and more than this and next i would ask and now allow me to call attention and now behold a mystery and now consider and now having discussed and now i beg that i may be permitted and now i go back to the statement and now i have completed my review and now i have said enough to explain and now i must touch upon one point and now if i may take for granted and now it would be very pleasant for me and now observe how and now, sir, what i had first to say and now supposing this point to be settled and now that i have mentioned and now the chief points of it and now the question is asked me and now, to close, let me give you and now, to what purpose do i mention and, of course, you are aware and of this i am perfectly certain and quite as difficult is it to create and right here lies the cause and, sir, a word and so, again, as regard and so i am reminded of a story and so i leave these words with you and so i may point out and so i might recount to you and so, in the other cases, i have named and so in the present case and so on and so through all phases and so, upon every hand and sometimes it will be difficult and that gave another distorted view and the reason is very obvious and the same holds good and then again and then hastily to conclude and then i may be reminded and then there is another thought and then when it is said and there are reasons why and there is also this view and therefore am i truly glad and therefore it is not unfrequently quoted and therefore it is not without regret and this brings me to the last thing and this is really the sense and this leads me to say a word and thus consistently and thus it is conceivable and thus it seems to me and thus we are led on then to further question and to all this must be added and to return to the topic and to this conclusion you must come and unquestionably and we are brought to the same conclusion and what do you suppose will be and when i have shown to you and when i recall that event and when we pass beyond the bounds of and where, let me ask and why should i insist and will you still insist and with these thoughts come others and yet i can not but reflect and yet i feel justified in believing and yet i think we all feel and yet let me say to you and yet one more quotation and yet this notion is, i conceive and yet though this be true and yet we ought, if we are wise and you may also remember this another circumstance that adds to the difficulty another consideration which i shall adduce [adduce = cite as an example] another instance of signal success another of these presumptions another point is made as clear as crystal another reason of a kindred nature another reflection which occurs to me another sign of our times another signal advantage another striking instance answers doubtless may be given are there not many of us are we content to believe are we forever to deprive ourselves are we not startled into astonishment are we satisfied to assume as a general rule i hold as a last illustration as a matter of fact as a proof of this as an illustration of this truth as briefly as i may as far as my limits allow as far as this is true as far as this objection relates as far as we know as for the rest as i have now replied to as i look around on this assembly as i rise to respond to the sentiment as i understand this matter as memory scans the past as society is now constituted as some one has well said as the foregoing instances have shown as to the particular instance before us as well might we compare as we shall see in a few moments assuredly it is this at the outset of this inquiry at the risk of digression at the same time, i candidly state at the utmost we can say at this juncture at this solemn moment away then with the notion b be assured, then be confident, therefore be it so be not deceived be sure that in spite of be these things as they may be your interests what they may be bear with me for a few moments bearing on this point before attempting to answer this question before going further before i close i will particularly remark before i come to the special matter before i proceed to compare being fully of the opinion being persuaded then believing, as i do beyond all question we bidden by your invitation to a discussion broadly speaking but, above all things, let us but after all, i think no one can say but again, when we carefully consider but am i wrong in saying but apart from the fact but besides these special facts but can this question but depend upon it but despite all this but do not let us depend but do you imagine but doubts here arise but even admitting these possibilities but everyone who deserves but first of all, remark, i beg you but, further, i shall now demonstrate but, gentlemen, i must be done but grave problems confront us but here i am discussing but here let me say but how can we pass over but how shall i describe my emotions but however that may be but i am bound to say but i am certain from my own experience but i am very sorry to say but i am willing enough to admit but i can at least say but i can not conceive but i can promise but i cherish the hope but i confess that i should be glad but i digress but i do not propose all these things but i do say this but i have been insisting simply but i have heard it argued but i have no fear of the future but i leave this train of thought but i may be permitted to speak but i may say in conclusion but i need hardly assert but i pass that over but i propose to speak to you but i repeat but i resist the temptation but i return to the question but i shall go still further but i simply ask but i submit the whole subject but i trust that you will all admit but i venture to assure you but i will allude but i will not further impress any idea but i would earnestly impress upon you but if i may even flatter myself but if i seek for illustrations but if you want more evidence but if you wish to know but in making this assertion but in my opinion there is no need but in the course of time but is it quite possible to hold but is this any reason why but it does not follow from this but it happens very fortunately but it has been suggested to me but it is a fact but it is impossible for one but it is necessary to explain but it is no use protesting but it is not fair to assert but it is not my intention but it is not necessary to suppose but it is not possible to believe but it is not really so but it is otherwise with but it is sometimes said but it may be doubted whether but it may happen that i forgot but it will be a misfortune but it will naturally be asked but it will perhaps be argued but it would be vain to attempt but let me ask you to glance but let me before closing refer but let none of you think but let us also keep ever in mind but let us look a little further but lo! all of a sudden but mark this but more than all things else but my allotted time is running away but my answer to this objection but, my friends, pause for a moment but never was a grosser wrong but not for one moment but notwithstanding all this but now look at the effect but now take notice of but on the other hand but on what ground are we but passing these by but perhaps i ought to speak distinctly but perhaps you are not yet weary but putting these questions aside but quite contrary to this, you will find but recollect, i pray you, how but, sir, it is manifest but some other things are to be noted but some will ask me but sooner or later but still, i repeat but suppose the fact but surely, you can not say but that i may not divert you from but that is not all but that must be always the impression but the fact is but the final value but the greatest proof of all but the most formidable problem but the necessity of the case but the question may arise but, then, let us ask ourselves but there is another duty imposed but there is much more than this but this i do not hesitate to say but this i fearlessly affirm but this i know but this is a circuitous argument but this is no place for controversy but this is not all but this is what i mean but this much i affirm as true but this warns me but this we may put aside but to go still further but to say the truth but we are met with the assertion but we are to recollect but we ask, perhaps but we may depend upon it but we think it is not wise but we want something more for explanation but what a blunder would be yours but what is the fact but what we must needs guard against but when it is declared but when we look a little deeper but while it may be admitted but who has not seen but why do i numerate these details but with these exceptions but yet nothing can be more splendid but you should know by no means by the way, i have not mentioned by this time it will be suspected c can it be supposed can the long records of humanity teach us can there be a better illustration can we pretend can you lightly contemplate can you yield yourselves cautious and practical thinkers ask certain it is certainly i am not blind to the faults certainly, one can conceive clearly enough coming back to the main subject coming down to modern times coming to present circumstances common sense indicates consequently, i am not discussing this matter consider, i beg you, what contemplating these marvelous changes d delude not yourselves with the belief depend upon it did it ever occur to you difficult then as the question may be do i need to describe do me the honor of believing do not imagine do not let us conceal from ourselves do not suppose for a moment do not talk to me of do not think me guilty of do we not know do what you will do you ask how that can be do you believe this can be truthfully said do you not know i am speaking of do you remember a concrete instance do you think, then does any man say does it ever occur to you does it not seem something like idiocy to does it not shock you to think does not the event show does not the nature of every man revolt doubtless the end is sought e every now and then you will find every one has asked himself every one therefore ought to look to every reader of history can recall f far from it few indeed there are few subjects are more fruitful few things impress the imagination more finally, it is my most fervent prayer first in my thoughts are first of all i ask for, be assured of this for behold for i must tell you for if any one thinks that there is for, in truth, if you please to recollect for instance, i can fancy for is it not true for it is not right to for let it be observed first for mark you for my own part, i believe for myself, certainly i think for observe what the real fact is for one i deny for, perhaps, after all for, perhaps, some one may say for so it generally happens for the sake of my argument for this is what i say for this reason, indeed, it is for we all know fortunately for us fortunately i am not obliged from one point of view we are from the circumstances already explained from the standpoint of from this statement you will perceive g generally speaking god be praised grant this true granting all this h had i time for all that might be said had my limits allowed it happily for us hardly less marvelous hardly will anyone venture to say have i exaggerated have you ever noticed having taken a view of having thus described what appears to me he is the best prophet who he seems at times to confuse he was an eminent instance of he who is insensible to hence arises a grave mischief hence, as i have said hence it follows here again the testimony corroborates here arises the eternal question here comes the practical matter here for a moment i seem here, however, it may be objected here i am considering here i end my illustrations here i must pause for a moment here i only insist upon here i ought to stop here is another strange thing here is good hope for us here is no question here let me meet one other question here, then, i am brought to the consideration here then i take up the subject here then is the key here, then, it is natural at last here then, we are brought to the question here, then, we are involved here undoubtedly it is here we can not but pause to contemplate here we come into direct antagonism with here we come to the very crux of here we have it on high authority history is replete with predictions hitherto i have spoken only of holding this view, i am concerned how can we help believing how do you account for how does it happen how human language staggers when how infinitely difficult it is how infinitely superior must it appear how is this to be explained how many a time how momentous, then how much better, i say, if how much more rational it would be how shall i attempt to enumerate how shall i describe to you however, i am viewing the matter however, i will not in any way admit however, it is to me a very refreshing thing i i abide by my statement i add a few suggestions i adduce these facts [adduce = cite as an example] i admire the main drift of i admit, of course, at once i admit the extreme complexity i again ask i allude to i always delight to think i always will assert the right to i am a great admirer i am a little at a loss to know i am about to supplement i am agitated by conflicting emotions i am alarmed, indeed, when i see i am also bound to say i am also satisfied i am apprehensive i am asked to-night to propose i am assured and fully believe i am at a loss for adequate terms i am bold to say i am but saying i am by no means certain i am certain that you will give me credit i am certainly in earnest sympathy i am confronted by the hope i am conscious of the fact i am convinced by what i have seen i am deeply imbued with the conviction i am deeply insensible of the compliment i am determined i am even bold enough to hazard i am exceeding my necessary limits i am exceedingly glad of this opportunity i am extremely obliged to you i am familiar with i am far from asserting i am filled with admiration i am firmly convinced i am free to admit i am fully convinced i am giving voice to what you all feel i am glad of this public opportunity i am glad to answer to the toast i am glad to express the belief i am glad to notice i am going to spare you and myself i am grateful to you for this honor i am greatly alarmed i am greatly indebted to you i am happy to be with you i am here by the favor of your invitation i am here the advocate of i am here to introduce i am in favor of i am in sympathy with i am inclined sometimes to believe i am inclined to suspect i am indebted for the honor i am, indeed, most solicitous i am informed i am led on by these reflections i am led to believe i am mainly concerned i am most deeply sensible of the welcome i am most grateful for the opportunity i am myself greatly indebted i am nevertheless too sensible i am not a stranger to i am not at liberty to discuss i am not at present concerned i am not about to defend i am not advocating i am not altogether clear i am not aware of a single instance i am not blind to the faults of i am not bold enough to i am not catching at sharp arguments i am not concerned to argue i am not defending myself i am not dreaming of denying i am not going into vexed questions i am not going to reproach i am not here to defend i am not insensible i am not of those who pretend i am not prepared to dispute the word i am not presumptuous to assert i am not proposing to set forth i am not ripe to pass sentence i am not so unreasonable as to tell you i am not surprised i am not taking into account i am not unaware i am not undertaking to deliver i am now going to attempt i am obliged to add i am obliged to go still further i am often reminded i am old enough to remember i am one of those who believe i am only too sensible of the fact i am perfectly willing to admit i am persuaded i am prepared to back that opinion by i am privileged to speak to i am quite conscious that i am rather disposed to think i am ready to do battle i am reassured by the presence here i am reluctantly but forcibly reminded i am resolved not to permit i am sensible, sir i am simply endeavoring to show i am so surrounded on every hand i am sometimes inclined to think i am somewhat relieved to know i am sorry to say i am suggesting the reason why i am sure, at any rate i am sure every impartial man will agree i am sure i feel no hostility i am sure that i echo the sentiment i am sure this generous audience will pardon me i am sure you all hope i am sure you feel the truth i am sure you will acquit me i am sure you will be kind enough i am sure you will do me the justice i am sure you will not be surprised i am surely not here to assert i am tempted further to offer to you i am thankful for the privilege i am thoroughly convinced i am to speak to you this evening i am to urge the interest of i am told occasionally i am told on authority i am too well aware of the difficulties i am totally at a loss to conceive i am trespassing too long on your time i am unable to understand i am unconscious of intentional error i am under a very great obligation i am under the deepest feeling of gratitude i am under the impression i am unwillingly bound to add i am uttering no paradox when i say i am very far from thinking. i am very glad to have the honor i am very happy to be here i am very much in the condition of i am very sure that if you ponder i am very sure you will believe i am well aware i am willing to know i anticipate with pleasing expectation i appeal in the first place i appeal to any man to say i appeal to the better judgment i appreciate the significance i argue this cause i ask again i ask no greater blessing i ask permission to speak to you i ask the attention i ask the audience i ask the audience to return with me i ask this of you i ask you calmly and dispassionately i ask you gentlemen, do you think i ask you if it is possible i ask you, if you please, to rise and give the toast i ask you in all candor i ask you now to follow me i ask you to consider i ask you to join me in drinking a toast i ask you to pledge with me i ask your attention i ask your indulgence i assert, sir, that it is i assure myself i assure you, of my own personal knowledge i attribute it to i avail myself of the opportunity i beg again to thank you for the honor i beg all to remember i beg and implore of you i beg emphatically to say i beg leave to make some observations i beg of you to remember i beg to tender my most fervent wishes i beg you not to mistake my meaning i beg you to accept my grateful expression i begin by observing i begin with expressing a sentiment i believe from my own personal experience i believe i can speak for all i believe i shall make it clear to you i believe i voice the sentiment i believe it to be the simple truth i believe most profoundly i believe that i am within the mark i believe that in this instance i bid you a most cordial and hearty welcome i bow with you in reverent commemoration i call on you to answer i call to mind how i can by no calculation justify i call hardly conceive i can make allowance for i can most truthfully assure you i call never sufficiently express my gratitude i can not allow myself to believe i can not avoid confessing i can not be content with i can not believe, i will not believe i can not better illustrate this argument i can not better sum up i can not boast of i can not bound my vision i can not but reflect i can not but see what mischief i can not charge myself with i can not close without giving expression i can not conceive a greater honor i can not feel any doubt myself i can not forbear from offering i can not give you a better illustration i can not help expressing a wish i can not help speaking urgently i can not here go into details i can not hesitate to say i can not hope adequately to respond i can not justly be responsible because i can not let this opportunity pass i can not persuade myself i can not prevail on myself i can not refrain from saying for myself i can not resist the train of thought i can not say how glad i am i can not say with confidence i can not stop to give in detail i can not sufficiently thank you i can not take back my word i can not take it for granted i can not thank you enough i can not well avoid saying i can only congratulate you i can only hope for indulgence i can readily understand i can scarcely concede anything more important i can scarcely find fitting words i can strongly recommend i can understand, moreover i can with propriety speak here i certainly have not so good an opinion i challenge any man i cheerfully own i cheerfully submit myself i claim a share also for i class them altogether under the head i close with the words i close with this sentiment i come at length to i come next to the question of i come to the other assumption i conceive this to be i confess i feel not the least alarmed i confess i have had my doubts i confess i have little sympathy i confess it affects me very deeply to i confess it is very difficult to i confess that i do not entirely approve i confess that it is a comfort to me i confess that my notions are widely different i confess to a little embarrassment i confess to you that i have no fear i confine myself to saying i congratulate you upon the auspicious character i consider i have said enough in proof i consider it amply explains i contend i content myself with pursuing i could do no less than i could easily mention i could enlarge upon it i could never understand i could wish that this belief i dare say you know i dare venture the remark i declare to you i deem it both necessary and just i deem it proper here to remind i deem myself honored i deny, once and for all i deny the inference i desire to be brief i desire to bear my testimony i desire to call attention i desire to know i desire to lay emphatic stress i dissent from the opinion i distrust all general theories of i do again and again urge upon you i do, indeed, recollect i do not absolutely assert i do not advocate i do not argue i do not ask you to i do not at this moment remember i do not believe it possible i do not belong to those who i do not choose to consume i do not complain of i do not consider it necessary i do not contend i do not countenance for a moment i do not deem it incumbent upon me i do not depreciate for a moment i do not desire to call in question i do not desire to put too much emphasis i do not despair of surmounting i do not disguise the fact i do not enter into the question i do not fail to admire i do not fear a contradiction i do not feel at liberty i do not forget the practical necessity i do not hesitate to say i do not imagine i do not in the least degree i do not indeed deny i do not indulge in the delusion i do not know how anyone can believe i do not know whether you are aware of it i do not know why i do not know with what correctness i do not mean anything so absurd i do not mean now to go further than i do not mean to impute i do not merely urge i do not mistrust i do not myself pretend to be i do not need to remind you i do not, of course, deny i do not pretend to argue i do not propose to take up your time i do not question for a moment i do not recount all i do not say anything about the future i do not say this with any affectation i do not see how it is possible i do not see much difference between i do not seek to palliate i do not speak exclusively i do not stop to discuss i do not, therefore, wonder i do not think it necessary to warn you i do not think it possible i do not think it unfair reasoning i do not think myself obliged to dwell i do not think that i need further discuss i do not think this at all an exaggeration i do not think we can go far wrong i do not think you will often hear i do not understand how it can apply i do not vouch for i do not want to discourage you i do not wish to be considered egotistic i do not wish to be misrepresented i do not wonder i doubt very much whether i dwell with pleasure on the considerations i earnestly maintain i embrace with peculiar satisfaction i end as i began i entertain great apprehension for i entertain no such chimerical hopes [chimerical = highly improbable] i entertain the hope and opinion i entirely dissent from the view i especially hail with approval i even add this i even venture to deny i fancy i hear you say i fear i may seem trifling i fear lest i may i fearlessly appeal i fearlessly challenge i feel a great necessity to i feel bound to add my expression i feel constrained to declare i feel entirely satisfied i feel i have a right to say i feel it a proud privilege i feel keenly myself impelled by every duty i feel only a great emotion of gratitude i feel respect and admiration i feel some explanation is due i feel sure i feel tempted to introduce here i feel that i have a special right to i feel that it is not true i feel the greatest satisfaction i feel the task is far beyond my power i fervently trust i find it difficult to utter in words i find it more easy i find my reference to this i find myself called upon to say something i find myself in the position of i find no better example than i find no fault with i find numberless cases i flatter myself i, for my part, would rather i, for one, greatly doubt i forbear to inquire i foresaw the consequence i fully recognize i gave notice just now i give you, in conclusion, this sentence i go further i grant all this i grant with my warmest admiration i gratefully accept i greatly deplore i had a kind of hope i had almost said i had in common with others i had occasion to criticize i happen to differ i hardly dare to dwell longer i hardly know anything more strange i hasten to concede i have a dark suspicion i have a great admiration for i have a pleasing and personal duty i have a profound pity for those i have a right to consider i have a strong belief i have a very high respect for i have abstained from i have acquired some useful experience i have all along implied i have all but finished i have already alluded to i have already shown the ground of my hope i have already stated, and now repeat i have always been under the impression i have always listened with the greatest satisfaction i have always maintained i have another objection i have another observation to add i have anticipated the objection i have assumed throughout i have attempted thus hastily i have barely touched some of the points i have been allowed the privilege i have been asked several times i have been extremely anxious i have been given to understand i have been glad to observe i have been heretofore treating i have been insisting then on this i have been interested in hearing i have been pointing out how i have been profoundly moved i have been requested to say a word i have been told by an eminent authority i have been too long accustomed to hear i have been touched by the large generosity i have been trying to show i have before me the statistics i have but one more word to add i have demonstrated to you i have depicted i have endeavored to emphasize i have enlarged on this subject i have felt it almost a duty to i have found great cause for wonder i have frequently been surprised at i have gazed with admiration i have generally observed i have gone so far as to suggest i have good reason for i have had steadily in mind i have had the honor i have had to take a long sweep i have heard it objected i have heard with relief and pleasure i have hitherto been adducing instances [adduce = cite as an example] i have hitherto been engaged in showing i have in a measure anticipated i have in my possession i have incidentally dwelt on i have introduced it to suggest i have labored to maintain i have laid much stress upon i have lately observed many strong indications i have listened with the utmost interest i have little hope that i can add anything i have lived to see i have long ago insisted i have long been of the conviction i have never heard it suggested i have never whispered a syllable i have no acquaintance with i have no doubt whatever i have no excuse for intruding i have no fear of myself i have no fears for the success i have no hesitation in asserting i have no intention to moralize i have no particular inclination i have no prejudice on the subject i have no pretention to be regarded i have no reason to think i have no scruple in saying i have no such gloomy forebodings i have no sympathy with the men i have no thought of venturing to say i have no wish at all to preach i have not accustomed myself i have not allowed myself i have not been able to deny i have not particularly referred to i have not said anything yet i have not the means of forming a judgment i have not the right to reproach i have not time to present i have nothing more to say i have noticed of late years i have now explained to you i have now made bold to touch upon i have now rather more than kept my word i have now said all that occurs to me i have often been impressed with i have often been struck with the resemblance i have often lingered in fancy i have one step farther to go i have only partially examined i have partly anticipated i have pleasant memories of i have pointed out i have pride and pleasure in quoting i have racked this brain of mine i have read with great regret i have said and i repeat i have said over and over again i have said what i solemnly believe i have scant patience i have seen for myself i have seen it stated in a recent journal i have seen some signs of encouragement i have shown i have some sort of fear i have sometimes asked myself i have sometimes fancied i have sometimes wondered whether i have still two comments to make i have taken pains to know i have the confident hope i have the greatest possible confidence i have the honor to propose i have then to investigate i have thought it incumbent on me i have thought it right on this day i have thought it well to suggest i have throughout highly appreciated i have thus been led by my feelings i have thus stated the reason i have to confess with a feeling of melancholy i have to force my imagination i have touched very cursorily i have tried to convey to you i have undertaken to speak i have very much less feeling of i have watched with some attention i have witnessed the extraordinary i have yet a more cogent reason i have yet to learn i hazard nothing in saying i hear it sometimes said i hear you say to yourselves i heartily feel the singular claims i hesitate to take an instance i hold it to be clearly expedient i hold myself obliged to i hold the maxim no less applicable i hold this to be a truth i hold to the principle i hope by this time we are all convinced i hope for our own sakes i hope i have expressed myself explicitly i hope i may be allowed to intimate i hope i shall not be told i hope it is no disparagement i hope most sincerely and truly i hope none who hear me i hope not to occupy more than a few minutes i hope that i shall not be so unfortunate i hope the day may be far distant i hope the time may come again i hope to be excused if i hope to be forgiven if i hope we may forget i hope you will not accuse me i imagine that no one will be disposed i insist upon it i intend to propose i know from experience how i know full well i know i am treading on thin ice i know it has been questioned i know it is said i know it will be said i know many reasons why i know not how else to express i know not in what direction to look i know not of my own knowledge i know not where else to find i know perfectly well i know that it is impossible for me to i know that this is the feeling i know that what i may say is true i know there are some who think i know there is a theory among us i know too well i know very well the difference between i know well it is not for me i know well the sentiments i know you are all impatient to hear i know you will do all in your power i know you will interpret what i say i labor under a degree of prejudice i lately heard it affirmed i lay it down as a principle i leave history to judge i leave it to you i leave the arduous task i leave to others to speak i long to speak a word or two i look hopefully to i look in vain i look with encouragement i look with inexpressible dread i look with mingled hope and terror i make my appeal to i make no extravagant claim i make this abrupt acknowledgment i marvel that i may add, speaking for my own part i may be allowed to make one remark i may be permitted to add i may confess to you i may safely appeal i may say to you calmly i may seem to have been diffuse i may take as an instance i may venture upon a review i mean by this i mean, moreover i mean something more than that i mention it to you to justify i mention these facts because i mention this, not by way of complaint i might bring you another such case i might deny that i might enter into such detail i might go further i might go on indefinitely i might go on to illustrate i might of course point first i might reasonably question the justice i might try to explain i might venture to claim i might well have desired i might well think i must ask an abrupt question i must be careful about what i say i must be contented with i must be excused if i say i must bow in reverence i must call your attention for a moment i must conclude abruptly i must confess that i became rather alarmed i must consider this as i must crave your indulgence i must express to you again i must fairly tell you i must find some fault with i must for want of time omit i must here admit i must lament i must leave any detailed development i must mention with praise i must not allow myself to indulge i must not for an instant be supposed i must not overlook i must now beg to ask i must pause a moment to i must proceed i must qualify the statement i must remind my hearers of i must reply to some observations i must return to the subject i must say that i am one of those i must speak plainly i must suppose, however i must take occasion to say i must thank you once more i must try to describe to you i myself have boundless faith i need not assure this brilliant company i need not dwell i need not enter into i need not follow out the application i need not, i am certain, assure you i need not say how much i thank you i need not show how inconsistent i need not specially recommend to you i need not wander far in search i need only to observe i need say nothing in praise i need scarcely observe i need to guard myself right here i neither affirm nor deny i next come to the implicit assumption i note with particular pleasure i notice it as affording an instance i noticed incidentally the fact i now address you on a question i now come, sir, to the second head i now have the pleasure of presenting to you i now pass to the question of i now proceed to inquire i now reiterate i object strongly to the use i observe, then, in the first place i only ask a favorable construction of i only marvel i only wish you to recognize i open the all-important question i ought to give an illustration i own i can not help feeling i particularly allude to i pass on from that i pass then to our second division i pause for a moment to say i pause to confess once more i pay tribute to i personally know that it is so i pray god i may never i predict that you will i prefer a practical view i presume i shall have to admit i presume that i shall not be disbelieved i proceed to another important phase i profess i propose briefly to glance at i propose, therefore to consider i protest i never had any doubt i purposely have avoided i question whether i quite endorse what has been said i rather look forward to a time i readily grant i really can not think it necessary to i really do not know i really thought that you would excuse me i recall another historical fact i recognize the high compliment conveyed i recollect hearing a sagacious remark [sagacious = sound judgment] i refer especially i refuse to believe i regard as an erroneous view i regard it as a tribute i regard it as a very great honor i regret that i am not able to remember i regret that it is not possible for me i regret the time limits me i regret this the less i rejoice in an occasion like this i rejoice that events have occurred i rejoice to think i remark here i remember a reference made i remember an intimation i remember full well i remember the enjoyment with which i remember to have heard i repeat, i am not speaking i repeat my statement in another form i respectfully counsel i respectfully submit i rest my opinion on i rise in behalf i rise to express my disapprobation [approbation = warm approval; praise] i rise to thank you i rise with some trepidation i return, in conclusion, to i return you my most grateful thanks i said a little way back i said it would be well i said that i thought i salute with profound reverence i sanction with all my heart i saw an ingenious argument the other day i say frankly i say in moderation i say it is extremely important i say it most confidently i say no more of these things i say not one syllable against i say, then, my first point is i say this is no disparagement of i say this the more gladly i say without fear of contradiction i see around me i see as clearly as any man possibly can i see little hope of i see no exception i see no possibility of i see no reason for doubting i seem to hear you say i seize upon this opportunity i seriously desire i set out with saying i shall add a few words i shall address myself to a single point i shall ask you to look very closely i shall be told i shall best attain my object i shall bestow a little attention upon i shall certainly admit i shall consider myself privileged i shall desist from i shall endeavor to be guided i shall give it in the words of i shall here briefly recite the i shall here use the word to denote i shall hope to interest you i shall invite you to follow me i shall just give the summary of i shall never believe i shall never cease to be grateful i shall not acknowledge i shall not attempt a detailed narrative i shall not end without appealing i shall not enlarge upon i shall not force into the discussion i shall not go so far as to say i shall not hesitate to say something i shall not tax your patience i shall not undertake to prophesy i shall not weary your patience i shall now give you some instances i shall now proceed to show i shall often have to advert to i shall pass by all this i shall presently show i shall proceed without further preface i shall recur to certain questions i shall say all this without entering into i shall show that i am not i shall speak first about i shall speak with becoming frankness i shall take a broader view of the subject i shall take it for granted here i shall therefore endeavor i shall touch upon one or two questions i shall waste no time in refuting i shall with your sanction i should be false to my own manhood i should be surprised if i should be the last man to deny i should fail in my duty if i should find it hard to discover i should have forfeited my own self-respect i should like at least to mention i should like to emphasize i should like to go a step farther i should like to refer to two events i should like to see that view answered i should like to-day to examine briefly i should much prefer i should not be satisfied with myself i should think it too absurd i shrink from the contemplation i shudder at the doctrine i simply lay my finger on a fact i simply pause here to ask i sincerely regret the absence i sincerely wish it were in my power i solemnly declare i sometimes hear a wish expressed i sorrowfully call to mind i speak forth my sentiment i speak from no little personal observation i speak of this to show i speak the fact when i tell you i speak the secret feeling of this company i speak what i know when i say i speak wholly without authority i speak with feeling upon this point i speak with some degree of encouragement i speak with the utmost sincerity i speak within the hearing of i stand in awed amazement before i stand in the midst of men i still view with respect i submit it to every candid mind i submit that in such a case i submit that it is high time i submit this proposition i summon you to do your share i suppose it is right to answer i suppose it to be entirely true i suppose most men will recollect i suppose that everyone who listens to me i suppose there is no one here i suppose we are all of one opinion i suspect that is why we so often i sympathize most heartily i take a broader and bolder position i take it for granted i take leave to say i take one picture as an illustration i take pleasure in saying i take the liberty of observing i take this instance at random i take two views of i tell him in reply i tell you, gentlemen i tender my thanks to you i thank you for having allowed me i thank you for the appreciative tone i thank you for the honor i thank you for your most generous greeting i thank you for your thoughtful courtesy i thank you from the bottom of my heart i thank you very gratefully i thank you very sincerely for the honor i think i am correct in saying i think i am not the first to utter i think i can claim a purpose i think i can sincerely declare i think i have a right to look upon i think i have rightly spoken i think i might safely say i think i need not say more i think it is not too much to say i think it is quite right i think it may be necessary to consider i think it might be said with safety i think it my duty to i think it observable i think it probable i think it will astonish you i think it will be granted i think no wise man can be indifferent i think, on the contrary i think something may be said in favor of i think that all will agree i think that i can explain i think that i can venture to say i think that, in these last years i think that none of us will deny i think there is no better evidence i think there is no call on me to listen i think we are justified i think we can hardly hope i think we may all easily see i think we may ask in reply i think we may safely conclude i think we may say, therefore i think we may well be proud of i think we may well congratulate each other i think we must draw a distinction i think we need neither doubt nor fear i think we ought to recur a moment to i think we shall all recognize i think we should do well to call to mind i think we take too narrow a view i think when we look back upon i think you may well rejoice in i think you will all agree i think you will pardon my saying i think you will see i thus explicitly reply i tremble at the task i tremble to think i trust i may be indulged i trust it is not presumptuous i trust that as the years roll on i trust that i shall have the indulgence i trust that this will not be regarded as i turn, gentlemen, to the case i use the word advisedly i use the word in the sense i use very plain language i utter this word with the deepest affection i value very much the honor i venture to ask permission i venture to say i verily believe i very confidently submit i view that prospect with the greatest misgiving i want to bespeak your attention i want to know the character i want to make some simple applications i want to say just a few words i want to say one word more i want to say to you seriously i want to think with you i warn and exhort you i was astonished to learn i was constantly watchful to i was exceedingly interested i was honored with the acquaintance i was lost in admiration i was not slow to accept and believe i was not without some anxiety i was overwhelmed i was sincerely astonished i was very much interested i was very much thrilled i well recollect the time i well remember an occasion i will accept the general proposition i will add the memorable words i will ask the indulgence i will ask you to accompany me i will ask you to bear witness i will dwell a little longer i will endeavor in a brief way i will endeavor to illustrate i will endeavor to show you i will enlarge no further i will even express a hope at the outset i will even go further and say i will first call your attention to i will give one more illustration i will illustrate this point by i will merely mention i will neither affirm nor deny i will not allude i will not argue this i will not attempt to note i will not be content until i will not condescend to i will not enumerate at present i will not pause to maintain i will not positively say i will not pretend to inquire into i will not quarrel with i will not relinquish the confidence i will not repeat the arguments here i will not try to gauge i will now consider with you i will now leave this question i will now take an instance i will only speak to one point i will only sum up my evidence i will only take an occasion to express i will only venture to remind you i will point out to your attention i will say at once i will speak but a word or two more i will speak plainly i will state with perfect distinctness i will suppose the objection to be i will take one more instance i will take the precaution to add i will tell you what i think of i will try to make the thing intelligible i will venture a single remark i will venture to add i will venture to express the hope i will yield the whole question i willingly admit i wish also to declare positively i wish at the outset i wish emphatically to reaffirm i wish i had the time and the power i wish it first observed i wish rather to call your attention i wish, sir, that justice might be done i wish to ask if you honestly and candidly believe i wish to be allowed to enforce in detail i wish to begin my statement i wish to confine what i have to say i wish to do full justice to i wish to draw your attention i wish to express my profound gratification i wish to give these arguments their full weight i wish to know whether i wish to offer a few words relative to i wish to remind you in how large a degree i wish to say a word or two i wish to state all this as a matter of fact i wish you success and happiness i wish you to observe i would also gratefully acknowledge i would as soon believe i would desire to speak simply and directly i would enter a protest i would further point out to you i would have you understand i would infinitely rather i would like to say one word just here i would not be understood as belittling i would not dwell upon that matter if i would not push the suggestion so far i would now gladly lay before you i would rather a thousand times i would recommend to your consideration i would suggest first of all i would that my voice could reach the ear i would urge and entreat you i would urge upon you i would venture to point out i yielded to the earnest solicitations if any man be so persuaded if anyone could conceive if anyone is so dim of vision if any other answer be made if at first view this should seem if, however, you determine to if i am asked for the proof if i am wrong if i can carry you with me if i can succeed in describing if i could find words if i have done no more than view the facts if i have in any way deserved if i may be allowed a little criticism if i may be allowed modestly to suggest if i may be allowed to refer if i may reverently say so if i may say so without presumption if i may so speak if i may take for granted if i may venture to say anything if i mistake not the sentiment if i recollect aright if i understand the matter at all if i venture a few remarks if i were asked if i were to act upon my conviction if i were to recapitulate if i wished to prove my contention if, in consequence we find it necessary if in the glow of conscious pride if in the years of the future if it be difficult to appreciate if it be so if it be true if it is contended if it means anything, it means this if more were needed to illustrate. if my opinions are true if on the contrary, we all foresee if, on the other hand, i say if one seeks to measure if only we go deep enough if still you have further doubt if the bare facts were studied if the experience of the world is worth anything if, then, i am asked if, then, i should here rest my cause if there be any among us if there be one lesson more than another if this be so if this seems doubtful to anyone if, unhappily, the day should ever come if we accept at all the argument if we are not blind to if we are rightly informed if we are to reason on the fact if we cast our glance back if we embark upon a career if we had the whole case before us if we isolate ourselves if we may trust to experience if we pursue a different course if we pursue our inquiries through if we sincerely desire if we survey if we would not be beguiled if what has been said is true if you remain silent if you seek the real meaning of if you think for a moment if you want to look if you were asked to point out if you will allow me to prophesy if you will forgive me the expression if you wish for a more interesting example if you wish to get at the bottom of facts if you would see the most conclusive proof if your view is right in a significant paragraph in a wider sense in a word, gentlemen in a word, i conceive in actual life, i suspect in addition to these arguments in addressing myself to the question in addressing you i feel in agreement with this obvious conclusion in all ages of the world in all or any of these views in all times and places in an unguarded moment in answering the inquiry in any view of the case in closing my speech, i ask each of you in conclusion, let me say in conclusion, may i repeat in consequence it becomes a necessity in contemplating the causes in days to come in examining this part of the subject in fine, it is no extravagance to say in former ages and generations in further illustration in further proof of my assertion in illustration of what i have said in like manner are to be explained in like manner i would advise in listening to the kind words in looking about me in many instances in meeting this difficulty, i will not urge in most cases i hold in my estimation in my humble opinion in my view in offering to you these counsels in one other respect in one point i wish no one to mistake me in one sense this is undoubtedly true in order to appreciate the force of in order to complete the proof in order to do justice to the question in order to prove plainly and intelligibly in order to realize adequately in other words in our estimate of the past in point of fact in precisely the same way in pursuance of these views in pursuing the great objects in regard to in rising to return my sincere thanks in saying all of this, i do not forget in saying this, i am not disposed to deny in short, i say in solving this difficulty in something of a parallel way in spite of the fact in such cases, strictly speaking in support of this assertion in that matchless epitome in that mood of high hope in the anomalies of fortune in the course of these remarks in the existing circumstances in the first place, therefore, i consider in the first place we see in the first place, we should be all agreed in the fullest sense in the fullness of time in the last suggestion in the meantime i will commend to you in the next place, be assured in the presence of this vast assembly in the present situation in the progress of events in the remarks i have made in the same manner i rely in the second place it is quite clear in the suggestion i have made in the very brief space at our disposal in these extraordinary circumstances in these sentiments i agree in this brief survey in this connection, i may be permitted to refer in this connection i remind myself in this necessarily brief and imperfect review in this rapid and slight enumeration in this respect in this sense only in this there is no contradiction in very many instances in very truth in view of these reflections in what has now been said in what i have now further to say in widening our view indeed, can anyone tell me indeed, i am not convinced indeed, i can not do better indeed, i have heard it whispered indeed, i may fairly say indeed, it will generally be found indeed we know instances abound is it logically consistent is it not legitimate to recognize is it not marvelous is it not obvious is it not quite possible is it not, then, preposterous is it not universally recognized is it not wise to argue is it possible, can it be believed is it, then, any wonder is not that the common sentiment is there any evidence here is there any language of reproach is there any possibility of mistaking is there any reason in the world it affords me gratification it also pleases me very much it amounts to this it appears from what has been said it appears to me, on the contrary it can rightly be said it certainly follows, then it comes to this it could not be otherwise it does not necessarily follow it exhibits a state of mind it follows as a matter of course it follows inevitably it gives us an exalted conception it grieves me to relate it hardly fits the character it has at all times been a just reproach it has been a very great pleasure for me it has been generally assumed it has been justly objected it has been my privilege it has been suggested fancifully it has been well said it has ever been my ambition it has struck me very forcibly it is a circumstance of happy augury [augury = sign of something coming; omen] it is a common error it is a curious trait it is a fact well known it is a falsehood to say it is a familiar charge against it is a good augury of success [augury = sign of something coming; omen] it is a great pleasure to me it is a living truth it is a matter of absorbing interest it is a matter of amusement it is a matter of fact it is a matter of just pride it is a melancholy story it is a memory i cherish it is a mischievous notion it is a mistake to suppose it is a most extraordinary thing it is a most pertinent question it is a noble thing it is a peculiar pleasure to me it is a perversion of terms it is a pleasing peculiarity it is a popular idea it is a rare privilege it is a recognized principle it is a remarkable and striking fact it is a strange fact it is a sure sign it is a theme too familiar it is a thing commonly said it is a touching reflection it is a true saying it is a very significant fact it is a vision which still inspires us it is a wholesome symptom it is, all things considered, a fact it is all very fine to think it is all very well to say it is almost proverbial it is also possible it is also probably true it is always pleasant to respond it is amazing how little it is an easy matter it is an egregious mistake [egregious = conspicuously and outrageously reprehensible] it is an established rule it is an incredible thing it is an interesting fact it is an unforgivable offense it is an unquestionable truth it is appropriate that we should celebrate it is asserted it is assumed as an axiom it is at once inconsistent it is but fair to say it is but too true it is by no means my design it is certainly especially pleasant it is certainly remarkable it is common in these days to lament it is commonly assumed it is comparatively easy it is curious sophistry it is curious to observe it is desirable for us it is difficult for me to respond fitly it is difficult to avoid saying it is difficult to describe it is difficult to overstate it is difficult to put a limit it is difficult to surmise it is doubtful whether it is easy enough to add it is easy to instance cases it is easy to understand it is eminently proper it is every man's duty to think it is evident that the answer to this it is evidently supposed by many people it is exceedingly gratifying to hear it is exceedingly unfortunate it is fair that you should hear it is fair to suppose it is far from me to desire it is fatal to suppose it is fitting it is for me to relate it is for others to illustrate it is for this reason it is for us to ask it is greatly assumed it is gratifying to have the honor it is hardly for me it is hardly necessary to pass judgment it is idle to think of it is immaterial whether it is impossible to avoid saying it is in every way appropriate it is in the highest degree worthy it is in this characteristic it is in vain it is in your power to give it is indeed a strange doctrine it is indeed not a little remarkable it is indeed true it is indeed very clear it is indispensable to have it is interesting and suggestive it is interesting to know it is just so far true it is likewise necessary it is made evident it is manifest it is manifestly absurd to say it is merely common sense to say it is more than probable it is my agreeable duty it is my belief it is my earnest wish it is my grateful duty to address you it is my hope it is my present purpose it is natural to ask the question it is necessary to refer it is necessary to take some notice it is needful to a complete understanding it is needless before this audience to repeat it is no doubt true it is no exaggeration to say it is no part of my business it is no significant thing it is no small indication it is no wonder it is not a practical question it is not altogether satisfactory it is not an unknown occurrence it is not by any means it is not difficult to comprehend it is not difficult to discern it is not easy for me to find words it is not enough to say it is not entirely clear to me it is not evident it is not for me on this occasion it is not given to many men it is not likely that any of you it is not logical to say it is not my intention to enter into it is not my purpose to discuss it is not necessarily true it is not necessary for me even to sketch it is not necessary for our purpose it is not often in these modern days it is not ours to pronounce it is not out of place to remind you it is not possible to recount it is not quite clear it is not to me so very surprising it is not too much to say it is not unknown to you it is not within the scope of this address it is now high time for me it is now perfectly plain it is observable enough it is obvious it is of course difficult it is of great importance to show it is of no moment it is of very little importance it is often remarked it is on these grounds it is one of the burning questions of the day it is one of the most natural visions it is one of the most significant things it is one of the queerest freaks of fate it is only a few short years since it is only just to say it is our duty to examine it is ours to bear witness it is owing to this truth it is peculiarly befitting at this time it is perfectly apparent it is pitiable to reflect it is pleasant to meet this brilliant company it is rather a pleasant coincidence it is rather an arduous task it is rather startling it is related it is ridiculous to say it is said, and i think said truly it is said to be impossible it is satisfactory to notice it is scarcely necessary to insist it is scarcely questioned it is self-evident it is sometimes hard to determine it is still an open question it is still more surprising it is substantially true it is surely necessary for me it is the clear duty of it is the doctrine of it is the fashion to extol it is the universal testimony it is therefore evident it is therefore necessary it is this which lies at the foundation it is to be expected it is to be remembered it is to me a very sincere satisfaction it is told traditionally it is too plain to be argued it is true it is unnecessary for me to remind you it is upon this line of reasoning it is very common to confuse it is very doubtful whether it is very interesting and pleasant it is well known it is with great pleasure it is with pity unspeakable it is within the memory of men now living it is worth while to notice it may appear absurd it may at first sight seem strange it may be added it may be conjectured it may be imagined it may be plausibly objected it may be rightly said it may be useful to trace it may be worth your while to keep in view it may indeed be unavoidable it may not be altogether certain it may not be uninteresting to any of you it may or may not be true it may, perhaps, seem wonderful it may seem a little strange it may still more probably be said it must be a cause of delight it must be borne in mind it must be the verdict of history it must create astonishment it must doubtless be admitted it must ever be recollected it must never be forgotten it must not be supposed it must seem to every thoughtful man it needs scarcely be said it now becomes my pride and privilege it only remains now to speak it ought to animate us it proves a great deal it remains only to speak briefly it remains that i inform you of it remains that i should say a few words it reminds me of an anecdote it reminds one of the compliment it requires no effort of imagination it scarcely seems to be in keeping it seems almost desperate to think of it seems almost incredible it seems now to be generally admitted it seems strange to be told it seems then that on the whole it seems to me a striking circumstance it seems to me idle to ask it seems to me singularly appropriate it seems to me the primary foundation it seems to me unphilosophical it should always be borne in mind it should be remembered it so happens it sometimes seems to me it still remains to be observed it strikes me with wonder it suggests at the outset it summons our imagination it surely is not too much to expect it therefore astonishes me it used to be a reproach it was a brilliant answer it was a fine and delicate rebuke it was a fit and beautiful circumstance it was a propitious circumstance [propitious = auspicious, favorable] it was certainly a gracious act it was in the full understanding it was my good fortune it was not to be expected it was said by one who ought to know it was, therefore, inevitable it was under these circumstances it will appeal to it will appear from what has been said it will be asked me how it will be easy to say too much it will be easy to trace the influence it will be evident to you it will be idle to imply it will be interesting to trace it will be just as reasonable to say it will be rather to our advantage it will be recollected it will be seen at a glance it will be well and wise it will carry out my meaning more fully it will, i suppose, be denied it will not be expected from me it will not be safe it will not do for a man to say it will not, i trust, be concluded it will not surely be objected it will not take many words to sum up it will thus be seen it would be a misfortune it would be a proud distinction it would be a very remarkable fact it would be absurd to pretend it would be an inexcusable omission it would be idle for me it would be imprudent in me it would be invidious for me [invidious = rousing ill will, animosity] it would be natural on such an occasion it would be no less impracticable it would be out of place here it would be preposterous to say it would be presumptuous in me it would be the height of absurdity it would be unfair to praise it would be unjust to deny it would be well for us to reflect it would indeed be unworthy it would seem perhaps most fitting j just the reverse is true l language is inadequate to voice my appreciation lastly, i do not understand lastly, it can not be denied less than this could not be said lest i should be accused of quibbling let all of us labor in this work let anyone imagine to himself let anyone who doubts let everyone consider let it be clearly understood, i repeat it let it be remembered let it not be objected let it not be supposed that i impute [impute = relate to a particular cause or source] let me add another thing let me add my final word let me add one other hint let me also say a word in regard let me answer these questions let me ask you to imagine let me ask your leave to propose let me be allowed to devote a few words let me call attention to another fact let me commend to you let me direct your attention now to let me entreat you to examine let me give one more instance let me give one parting word let me give you an illustration let me here make one remark let me here say let me hope that i have said enough let me illustrate again let me make myself distinctly understood let me make use of an illustration let me not be thought offensive let me now conclude with let me once more urge upon you let me protest against the manner let me quite temperately defend let me rather make the supposition let me say a practical word let me simply declare let me tell you an interesting reminiscence let me thank you once more let me urge you earnestly let no man congratulate himself let our conception be enlarged let our object be let that question be answered by let the facts be granted let these instances suffice let this be the record made let this inspire us with abhorrence of let us approach the subject from another side let us attempt a survey let us be perfectly just let us be quite practical let us bear perpetually in mind let us begin at the beginning let us begin by examining let us briefly review let us brush aside once for all let us cherish let us confirm our opinion let us consider for a moment let us devote ourselves let us discard all prejudice let us do all we can let us draw an illustration let us endeavor to understand let us enumerate let us figure to ourselves let us for the moment put aside let us get a clear understanding let us heed the voice let us hope and believe let us hope that future generations let us imitate let us inquire also let us labor and pray let us likewise remember let us look briefly at a few particulars let us look nearer home let us not be fearful let us not be misled let us not be misunderstood let us not flatter ourselves let us not for a moment forget let us not limit our view let us now apply the views presented let us now consider the characteristics let us now see the results let us now turn our consideration let us observe this analogy let us pass on to another fact let us pause a moment let us push the inquiry yet further let us rather listen to let us reflect how vain let us remember this let us remind ourselves let us resolve let us scrutinize the facts let us suppose, for argument's sake let us suppose the case to be let us take, for instance let us, then, be assured let us, then, be worthy of let us, therefore, say once for all let us try to form a mental picture let us turn to the contemplation of let your imagination realize like all citizens of high ideals likely enough little wonder therefore long have i been convinced look at it in another way look at some of these questions look at the situation m mainly, i believe making allowances for differences of opinion many of us have had the good fortune many of you, perhaps, recollect may i ask you to believe may i not speak here may i try to show that every effort may i venture to suggest may it not also be advanced may the day come quickly meantime it is encouraging to think meanwhile let us freely recognize men are in the habit of saying men are telling us nowadays men everywhere testify more and more it is felt more than once have i had to express more than this need not be said moreover, i have insisted moreover, i would counsel you moreover, when we pass judgment much has been said and written about my appreciation has been quickened my belief, therefore, is my duty is to endeavor to show my experience tells me my first duty is to express to you my friends, do you really believe my friends, i propose my heart tells me my idea, therefore, is my last criticism upon my mind is not moved by my mind most perfectly acquiesces my next objection is my own private opinion is my present business is my regret is intensified by the thought n nay, i boldly say nay, it will be a relief to my mind nay, there is a general feeling need i say that i mean neither should you deceive never before have i so strongly felt never can i cease to feel never did there devolve never for a moment believe never have i felt so forcibly never was a weaker defense attempted never was there a greater mistake never was there an instance nevertheless we can admit next, from what has been said it is plain next, i consider next, it will be denied no argument can overwhelm a fact no defense is to be found no distinct test can be named no doubt, in the first instance no doubt there are many questions no doubt to most of us no finer sentence has come down to us no greater service could be rendered no longer do we believe no man regrets more than i do no one can feel this more strongly no one can, i think, pretend no one can see the end no one here, i am sure no one, i suppose, would say no one, i think, can fail to observe no one, i think, will dispute the statement no one need to exaggerate no one will accuse me no true man ever believes none can have failed to observe nor am i disparaging or discouraging nor can i forget either nor can it justly be said nor can we afford to waste time nor can we forget how long nor can we now ask nor do i believe nor do i doubt nor do i pretend nor do i think there can be found nor does it matter much nor has there been wanting nor indeed am i supposing nor is it a fair objection nor is it probable nor is this all nor let me forget to add here nor must i be understood as saying nor must it be forgotten nor need we fear to speak nor should any attempt be made nor will history fail to record nor will i enlarge on the matter not at all not only so not that i quarrel with nothing but the deepest sense nothing can be further from the truth nothing could be clearer nothing could be more striking nothing is more common in the world nothing that you can do notwithstanding all that has been said notwithstanding all this, i hold now, bear with me when i say now comes the question now, comparing these instances together now, from these instances it is plain now, having spoken of now, i admit now, i am far from denying now, i am far from undervaluing now, i am justified in calling this now, i am obliged to say now, i do not wish you to believe now, i have a closing sentence or two now, i pass on to consider now, i shall not occupy your time now, i understand the argument now, i will undertake to say now, i wish to call your attention now, if you will clearly understand now, is there any ground or basis for now, it is an undoubted fact now, it is evident now, it is not at all strange now, it is unquestioned now, let me speak with the greatest care now, let me stop a moment now, let us consider now, observe, my drift now, sir, i am truly horrified now, the answer we should give now, the question here at issue now, the world will say now, there is a close alliance between now, this is precisely the danger now, this is to some extent now, understand me definitely now, we do not maintain now, we will inquire now, what i want you to realize now, with regard to now, you will allow me to state now, you will understand from this o observe again occasionally you ought to read of course i am aware of course i am putting an impossible case of course i can not be taken to mean of course i do not maintain of course i do not stop here of course i would not allow of course much may be said of course these remarks hold good of course we may, if we please of course you will sympathize of one thing, however, i am certain of this briefly of this statement i will only say of this truth i shall convince you by on a review of the whole subject on occasions of this kind on such a day as this on the contrary, i am assuming on the occasion to which i refer on the other hand, it is clear on the whole, then, i observe on this auspicious occasion on this point i do not mean to dwell on this subject you need not suspect once again, there are those once more i emphasize once more let me try to put into words one additional remark one almost wishes one can not decline to note one concluding remark has to be made one fact is clear and indisputable one further word one important topic remains one is fairly tempted to wish one lesson history may be said to repeat one might be challenged to produce one of the ancients said one of the most commonly known one of the most extraordinary incidents one of the things i recollect with most pride one of these signs is the fact one or two points are made clear one other circumstance one other remark suggests itself one remark i will make one thing more will complete this question one thing which always impressed me one very striking tendency one word in courtesy i must say one word more in a serious vein one would naturally suppose only so much do i know opinions are divided as to whether or to come nearer home or to take but one other example ordinarily speaking, such deductions others may hold other opinions ought we not to think our thoughts wander back over and above all this p pardon me if perhaps another reason why perhaps, however, in speaking to you perhaps, however, some among you will be perhaps i may be best able to illustrate perhaps i ought to say perhaps it may be doubted perhaps, sir, i am mistaken in permit me frankly to say permit me to add another circumstance permit me to bring home to you personally, i am far too firm a believer pray, sir, let me say r read but your history aright recollect, sir reflections such as these rely upon it remember, i do not seek to remembering some past occurrences returning, then, to the consideration s seriously, then, do i beg you shall i tell you shall we complain should there be objection, i answer since, then, it is provided since, then, this is the case sir, with all my heart, i respond so accustomed are we so at least it seems to me so far as i know so far as my observation and experience goes so far in general so i say to you so it comes to pass so long as we continue to love truth and duty so men are asking so much at first sight so much on this subject so that i may venture to say so that if you were persuaded so then ought we also so, to add one other example so, too, i may go on to speak so when i hear people say some have insisted some of you can recall the time some of you may think this visionary some of you will remember some one will perhaps object some prejudice is attached some writer has said sometimes i venture to think sometimes it may happen speaking in this place startling as this may appear to you stating only the truth, i affirm still another encouraging fact still further still i can not part from my subject still i have generally found still i imagine you would consider it still i know what answer i can make to still it may with justice be said still one thing more still we ought to be grateful strange as it may seem strictly in confidence, i do not think strictly speaking, there is no such thing such a doctrine is essentially superficial such are the rather tolerant ideas such considerations as these such, i believe, would be the consequences such illustrations are not frequent such, in brief, is the story such is steadfastly my opinion such is the deep prejudice now existing such is the intellectual view we take such is the lesson which i am taught such is the progress such is the truth such, sir, i conceive to be such, then, is the true idea such, too, is the characteristic of suffer me to point out suffice it to say here summing up what i have said suppose we turn our eyes to surely i do not misinterpret surely it is a paradox surely it is not too much for me to say t take another instance take one of the most recent cases take the simple fact take this example taking a broader view taking the facts by themselves that is a further point that is a natural boast that is a pure assumption that is all that it seems necessary to me that is all very good that is far from my thoughts that is final and conclusive that is the lesson of history that is the question of questions that you may conceive the force of the answer is easy to find the answer is ready the belief is born of the wish the broad principle which i would lay down the circumstances under which we meet the climax of my purpose in this address the common consent of civilized mankind the conclusion is irresistible the confusing assertion is sometimes made the day is at hand the decided objection is raised the doctrine i am combating the doctrine is admirable the effect too often is the evolution of events has brought the fact has made a deep impression on me the fact has often been insisted the fact to be particularly noted the facts are clear and unequivocal the facts may be strung together the first business of every man the first counsel i would offer the first great fact to remember is the first point to be ascertained the first practical thought is the first remarkable instance was the first thing i wish to note the first thing that we have to consider the future historian will, no doubt the generous feeling that has promoted you the great mass of the people the hour is at hand the illustration is analogous the important thing is the instance i shall choose the irresistible tendency of the kindness with which i have been received the last and distinguishing feature is the latest inclination i have seen the lesson which we should take most to heart the main cause of all this the more you examine this matter the most concise tribute paid the most reasonable anticipation the most remarkable step forward the most striking characteristic the most sublime instance that i know the next point is the next question to be considered is the next thing i consider indispensable the occasion that calls us together the one central difference between the only course that remains open the only plea to be offered the other day i observed the paramount consideration is the perils that beset us here the pleasing duty is assigned me the point i have urged upon you is the point i wish a little further to speak of the point to which i shall call your attention the popular notion is the practical inference from all this the presence of this brilliant assemblage the pressing question is the prevalent opinion, no doubt the proof of this statement is to be found the question is deeply involved the question, then, recurs the remedy i believe to be the result, i fancy, has been the result of the whole the rule will always hold good the sacred voice of inspiration the same is true in respect of the scene all comes back the sentiment to which i am to respond the sentiment which you have expressed the simple rule and test the simple truth is the soundness of this doctrine depends the strongest proof i have the subject of the evening's address the subject which has been assigned to me the task has been placed in my hands the testimony of history is the theory seems at first sight the thought with which i shall close the time has manifestly now arrived the time is not far distant the time is now come for me the times are full of signs and warnings the toast i am about to propose to you the vain wish has sometimes been indulged the view i have been enforcing the view is more misleading the warmth and kindness of your reception the welcome that has been extended to me the whole story of civilization then again, in corroboration then again, when men say then take the other side of the argument then the question arises then there is another story then, too, it must be remembered there are certain old truths there are few spectacles there are hopeful signs of there are, i believe, many who think there are, indeed, exceptions there are, indeed, persons who profess there are many educated and intelligent people there are people in every community there are several reasons why there are some slight modifications there are some who are fond of looking at there are some who have an idea there are those of us who can remember there are those who wish there are two conflicting theories there can be but one answer there can be no doubt there has been a great deal of discussion lately there has been no period of time there have been differences of opinion there is a characteristic saying there is a class of person there is a common saying there is a conviction there is a degree of evidence there is a genuine grief there is a great deal of rash talking there is a growing disposition there is a large class of thinkers there is a lesson of profound interest there is a more important question there is a most serious lesson there is a multitude of facts there is a question of vital importance there is a very common tendency there is a vital difference of opinion there is an analogy in this respect there is an ancient story to the effect there is an eternal controversy there is another class of men there is another factor there is another object equally important there is another point of view there is another remarkable analogy there is another sense in which there is, at any rate, to be said there is but one consideration there is certainly no reason there is hardly any limit there is, however, another opinion there is, however, one caution there is little truth in there is no field of human activity there is no good reason there is no justification for there is no mistaking the purpose there is no more insidious peril there is no more striking exemplification there is no occasion to exaggerate there is no page of history there is no sense in saying there is no worse perversion there is not a shadow of evidence there is nothing more repulsive there is nothing overstated in this description there is nothing to show there is one story which it is said there is only one sense in which there is some difference of opinion there is something strangely interesting there is yet another distinction there is yet one other remark there ought certainly to be there was but one alternative there was one remarkable incident there will always be a number of men there will be no difficulty there yet remains therefore, there is no possibility of a doubt therein lies your responsibility these alone would not be sufficient these are enough to refute the opinion these are general counsels these are generalizations these are my reasons for these are points for consideration these considerations have great weight with me these exceptions do not hold in the case of these ideas naturally present themselves these instances are far from common these instances are indications these last words lead me to say these objections only go to show these questions i shall examine these various partial views they mistake the intelligence they would persuade you to think for a moment think of the cool disregard this absurdity arises this appeal to the common sense this argument is especially cogent [cogent = powerfully persuasive] this, at least, is sure this being the case this being true this being undeniable, it is plain this being understood, i ask this brings me to a single remark this brings us to a subject this episode goes to prove this fact was soon made manifest this from the nature of the case this i conceive to be the business this i consider to be my own case this i have told you this is a general statement this is a very one-sided conception this is a very serious situation this is an astonishing announcement this is conceded by this is contrary to all argument this is doubtless the truth this is especially the case this is essentially an age of this is in the main just this is like saying this is not all this is not the main point of objection this is not the occasion or the place this is obvious this is on the whole reasonable this is only another illustration of this is owing in great measure to this is precisely what we ought to do this is said in no spirit of this is suggested to us this is the design and intention this is the great fact this is the main point on which the inquiry turns this is the meaning of this is the obvious answer this is the point i want to impress upon you this is the point of view this is the position of our minds this is the radical question this is the sentiment of mankind this is the starting-point this is the sum this is to be found in the fact this is what i am led to say this is what may be objected this is why i take the liberty this language is plain this leads me to the question this leads us to inquire this may be said without prejudice this might be illustrated at length this much is certain this sentiment was well-nigh universal this, surely, is the conclusion this, then, is the answer this, then, is the drift of my illustration this, then, is what i mean by saying this will be evident at once this you can not deny those who have watched the tendencies thus a great deal may be done thus analogy suggests thus far, i willingly admit thus i am led on to another remark thus if you look into thus instances occur now and then thus it comes to pass thus my imagination tells me thus much, however, i may say thus much i may be allowed to say thus much may be sufficient to recall thus we see time would not permit me to a man of the highest public spirit to avoid all possibility of being misunderstood to be more explicit to be sure, we sometimes hear to bring the matter nearer home to convince them of this to feel the true force of this argument to illustrate to make my story quite complete to me, however, it would appear to my way of conceiving such matters to prevent misapprehension to some it may sound like a paradox to sum up all that has been said to sum up in one word to take a very different instance to the conclusion thus drawn to the enormous majority of persons to these general considerations to this i answer to this it will be replied to what other cause can you ascribe to-day, as never before treading close upon the heels tried by this standard true it is true, there are difficulties truly it is a subject for astonishment two things are made very clear u under all the circumstances under these favoring conditions under this head undoubtedly we may find unfortunately it is a truth unless i could be sure up to this moment i have stated v very strange is this indeed w we all agree as to we all feel the force of the maxim we all in equal sincerity profess we almost shudder when we see we are accustomed to lay stress upon we are all familiar with we are approaching an era we are apt to forget we are assembled here to-day we are beginning to realize we are bound to give heed we are constantly being told we are fulfilling what i believe to be we are in the habit of saying we are met to-night we are not able to prove we are not disinterested we are quite unable to speculate we are told emphatically we are tolerably certain we believe with a sincere belief we can but pause to contemplate we can imagine the amazement of we can not but be struck with we can not escape the truth we can not have this too deeply fixed we can not too highly honor the temper of we can not wonder we can only applaud the sentiment we can only bow with awe we can presume we can remember with pride we can see to some extent we continually hear nowadays we deeply appreciate the circumstances of we do not quarrel with those we do not question the reality we do well to recall we easily persuade ourselves we feel keenly about such things we grope blindly along we have a firm assurance we have a right to claim we have an overpowering sense we have been accustomed to we have been told by more than one we have come together to-night we have great reason to be thankful we have heard lately we have here plain proof we have need to examine we have no means of knowing we have no other alternative we have not yet solved the problem we have sought on this occasion we have the evidence of this we have the good fortune to-night we have to admit we have witnessed on many occasions we hear it is said sometimes we hear no complaint we heartily wish and mean we hold fast to the principle we laugh to scorn the idea we may all of us agree we may be permitted to remember we may contemplate with satisfaction we may have a deep consciousness we may indeed consider we may not know precisely how we must also look we must constantly direct our purpose we must not be deceived we must not mistake we must realize conscientiously we must remember we need no proof to assure us we need not look far for reasons we need not trouble ourselves we of this generation we often hear persons say we ought in strict propriety we pride ourselves upon the fact we rightly pay all honor we see in a variety of ways we shall all doubtless concede we shall be blind not to perceive we shall do well to remember we shall have no difficulty in determining we should be convinced we should contemplate and compare we should dread nothing so much we should lend our influence we should not question for a moment we should not, therefore, question we stand astonished at we stumble and falter and fall we take it for granted we will not stop to inquire weighty as these conditions are well, gentlemen, it must be confessed well may we explain well, now, let us propose well, that being the case, i say were i to enter into a detailed description were i to speculate what are the precise characteristics what are we to think of what are you going to do what can avail what can be more intelligible what can be more monstrous than what can i say better what commonly happens is this what could be more captivating what could be more true what do we gain by what do we understand to have been what i mean is this what i now say is what i object to is what i propose to do is what i shall actually attempt to show here what i suggest is what is more important what is more remarkable what is the pretext what is this but to say what more shall i say what remains but to wish you what strikes the mind so forcibly what, then, are we to believe what, then, can be the reason what, then, i may be asked what, then, is the use what, then, was the nature of what was the consequence of what we are concerned to know is what we have most to complain of what would you say whatever a man thinks whatever difference of opinion may exist whatever opinion i may express whatever the truth may be when i am told when i hear it said when i remember the history when i review these circumstances when i speak of this question when i thus profess myself when one remembers when we consider the vastness when we contemplate when we get so far as this when we look closely at when will men understand when you are assured when you did me the honor to invite me whence it is, i say whence was the proof to come while acknowledging the great value while i feel most keenly the honor while i have hinted to you whilst i am on this matter who can deny the effect who can say in a word who does not like to see who has not felt the contrast who that reads does not see who will accuse me why, again, should i take notice why need you seek to disprove will any gentleman say will anyone answer will it be whispered will it not be well for us will you allow me to present to you will you bear with me will you mistake this will you permit me to thank you with all my heart i share with possibly a single exception with respect to what has been said with this ideal clearly before us with whatever opinions we come here without going into any details without my saying a word more y yet i am convinced yet i am willing to admit yet i am willing to conclude yet i feel quite free to say yet i, for one, do not hesitate to admit yet i have never been thoroughly satisfied yet i suppose it is worth while yet i would have to think yet if you were to ask the question yet it is instructive and interesting yet it is no less true yet it is perfectly plain yet let me consider what consequences must yet may i not remind you you all know the history of you and i are always contrasting you are at a parting of the ways you are now invited to do honor you can never forget you can not assert you do not need to be told you have all read the story you have been gracious enough to assign to me you have been mindful you have been pleased to confer upon me you have but to observe you have done me great honor you have no right you have not forgotten you have often pondered over you have sometimes been astonished you know that it is impossible to you know the legend which has grown up you know very well you may also be assured you may be acquainted with you may be sure you may depend upon it you may remember you may well be proud you may well study the example you might apply to yourselves you must not forget you must understand i do not mean to claim you ought not to disregard what i say you remember how you will allow me to say with becoming brevity you will be pleased to hear you will bear me out when i say you will clearly understand you will expect me to say something about you will forgive me you will join with me, i trust you will observe you will pardon me, i am sure you will scarcely be surprised you would never dream of urging you yourselves are the evidence your friendly and generous words your good sense must tell you your presence seems to say section xi miscellaneous phrases a a bewildering labyrinth of facts a blank absence of interest or sympathy a bloodless diplomatist a breach of confidence a brilliant and paradoxical talker a burning sense of shame and horror a century of disillusionment a certain catholicity of taste [catholicity = universality] a cheap and coarse cynicism a civilizing agency of conspicuous value a cleanness and probity of life [probity = integrity; uprightness] a commendable restraint a condescending and patronizing spirit a confused and troublesome time a conscientious anxiety to do the right thing a conspicuous and crowning service a constant source of surprise and delight a contemptible species of mockery a convenient makeshift a copious torrent of pleasantry a course of arrogant obstinacy a crumb of consolation a crystallized embodiment of the age a cynical and selfish hedonist a dangerous varnish of refinement a dead theological dogma a decorous and well-intentioned person a deep and most impressive solemnity a deep and strange suggestiveness a deep authentic impression of disinterestedness a dereliction of duty a disaster of the first magnitude a distorted and pessimistic view of life a dogmatic and self-righteous spirit a duel of brains a dull collocation of words a fastidious sense of fitness a fatal moral hollowness a feeling of lofty remoteness a feminine excess of inconsequence a final and irrevocable settlement a firmness tempered by the most scrupulous courtesy a fitting interval for penitence a flippant rejoinder a flood of external impressions a flourish of rhetoric a fund of curious information a furtive groping after knowledge a gambler's desperate chance a ghastly mixture of defiance and conceit a glaring example of rapacity [rapacity = plundering] a graceful nonentity a great and many-sided personality a great capacity for generous indignation a great source of confusion a gross piece of stupidity a habit of riding a theory too hard a habit of rigorous definition a happy and compensating experience a haughty self-assertion of equality a hideous absurdity a hideous orgy of massacre and outrage a high pitch of eloquence a homelike and festive aspect a hopeless enigma a hotbed of disturbance a hushed rustle of applause testified to a widespread approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] a keenly receptive and intensely sensitive temperament a kind of fantastic patchwork a kind of surly reluctance a laudable stimulus a law of retributive justice a less revolutionary innovation a life of studious contemplation a limpidity and lucidity of style [limpidity = transparent clearity; easily intelligible] a lingering tinge of admiration a lively sense of what is dishonorable a long accumulating store of discontent and unrest a long tangle of unavoidable detail a look threatening and peremptory [peremptory = ending all debate or action] a many-sided and far-reaching enthusiasm a marvelous sharpener of the faculties a melancholy preponderance of mischief a memory-haunting phrase a mercenary marriage a mere conjectural estimate a microscopic care in the search of words a misconception which is singularly prevalent a mixture of malignancy and madness a modicum of truth a monstrous travesty a mood of hard skepticism a more than ordinary share of baseness and depravity a most laudable zeal a most repulsive and incomprehensible idiom a most unseasonable piece of impertinence a multitude of groundless alarms a murderous tenacity about trifles a mysterious and an intractable pestilence a mysterious and inscrutable power a narrow and superficial survey a nature somewhat frivolous and irresolute a needlessly offensive manner a nimble interchange of uninteresting gossip a noble and puissant nation [puissant = with power, might] a novel and perplexing course a numerous company a painful and disconcerting deformity a partial disenchantment a passage of extraordinary daring a patchwork of compromises a permanent and habitual state of mind a pernicious and growing tendency a perversion of judgment a phantom of the brain a piece of grotesque stupidity a pleasant flow of appropriate language a pompous failure a potential menace to life a powerful and persuasive orator a prevalent characteristic of her nature a prey to the tongue of the public a pristine vigor of style a profusion of compliments a proposition inherently vicious a puerile illusion [puerile = immature; childish] a quenchless thirst for expression a rage akin to frenzy a rare precision of insight a rather desperate procedure a reckless fashion a recrudescence of superstition [recrudescence = recurrence of a pathological symptoms after a period of improvement] a relish for the sublime a reversion to the boldest paganism a rigid avoidance of extravagance and excess a ripple of applause a restraining and conservative force a robust and consistent application a sacred and indissoluble union a sane philosophy of life a secluded dreamer of dreams a secret and wistful charm a sense of deepening discouragement a sense of indescribable reverence a series of brief and irritating hopes a settled conviction of success a sharp difference of opinion a sharp pang of regretful surprise a shrewd eye to the main chance a signal deed of justice a skeptical suspension of judgment a slight and superficial tribute a slowly subsiding frenzy a snare and a delusion a somewhat complicated and abstruse calculation [abstruse = difficult to understand] a sordid and detestable motive a sort of incredulous stupefaction a source of unfailing delight and wonder a species of moral usurpation a spirit inimical to learning a spirit of complacent pessimism a startling and unfortunate digression a state of scarcely veiled insurrection a state of urgent necessity a stern decree of fate a stern foe of snobbishness a storm of public indignation a strange mixture of carelessness, generosity, and caprice a strangely perverse and poverty stricken imagination a strong assumption of superiority a subjugated and sullen population a sudden revulsion a supposed ground of affinity a synonym for retrogression a taunting accusation of falsehood a tedious and needless drudgery a temper which brooked no resistance a temporary expedient a tender tone of remonstrance a theme of endless meditation a thing of moods and moments a thoroughly sincere and unaffected effort a thousand mangled delusions a tissue of dull excuses a tone of exaggerated solicitude a touch of exquisite pathos a trace of obvious sarcasm a transcript of the common conscience a trifle prim and puritanic a truth begirt with fire a unique and overwhelming charm a vague aversion a variety of conflicting and profound emotions a variety of enfeebling amendments a vast multitude of facts a vastly extended vision of opportunity a vehement and direct attack a very elusive and delicate thought a very formidable problem a vigilant reserve a violent and base calumniator [calumniator = makes malicious or knowingly false statements] a voice of matchless compass and eloquence a warmth of seemingly generous indignations a wealth of resource that seemed inexhaustible a welcome release from besetting difficulties a whole catalog of disastrous blunders a whole whirlpool of various emotions abounding bodily vigor above and beyond and before all else absurd and inconsequential career abundant and congenial employment accidental rather than intentional accustomed to ascribe to chance acquired sentiments of propriety activities of the discursive intellect actuated by an unduly anxious desire acute sensibility coupled with quickness of intellect adhere too tenaciously to forms and modes admirable mastery of technique admit the soft impeachment admitted with a childlike cheerfulness advance by leaps and bounds advancing to dignity and honor adventitious aids to memory [adventitious = not inherent; added extrinsically] affectation and superfluous ornament aggravated to an unspeakable degree agitated and perplexed by a dozen cross-currents of conflicting tendency agreeable and humanizing intercourse aided by strong mental endowments airy swiftness of treatment alien to the purpose all sorts of petty tyrannies all the resources of a burnished rhetoric allied by taste and circumstances allied with a marked imperiousness [imperious = arrogantly overbearing] almost incredible obtuseness altogether monstrous and unnatural always observant and discriminating amaze and confound the imagination amiable and indulgent hostess amid many and pressing avocations amid the homeliest details of daily life amid the rush and roar of life ample scope for the exercise of his astonishing gifts an abandoned and exaggerated grief an accidental encounter an act of folly amounting to wickedness an afternoon of painfully constrained behavior an agreeable image of serene dignity an air of artificial constraint an air of round-eyed profundity an alarmed sense of strange responsibilities an almost excessive exactness an almost sepulchral regularity and seclusion an ample and imposing structure an apostle of unworldly ardor an appreciable menace an ardent and gifted youth an arid dictum an artful and malignant enemy an assumption entirely gratuitous an assumption which proved erroneous an atmosphere of sunny gaiety an attitude of passive impartiality an authoritative and conclusive inquiry an egregious assumption [egregious = outrageously reprehensible] an elaborate assumption of indifference an endless field for discussion an enervating and emasculating form of indulgence an ennobling and invigorating influence an entirely negligible quantity an essentially grotesque and commonplace thing an eternal and imperishable example an exalted and chimerical sense of honor [chimerical = highly improbable] an excess of unadulterated praise an excessive refinement of feeling an expression at once confident and appealing an extensive and populous country an habitual steadiness and coolness of reflection an honest and unquestioning pride an icy indifference an idle and unworthy action an ill-assorted vocabulary an immeasurable advantage an imminent and overmastering peril an imperturbable demeanor and steadiness of mind an implacable foe an inborn and irresistible impulse an incongruous spectacle an incredible mental agility an indefinable taint of priggishness [priggishness = exaggerated propriety] an indescribable frankness and simplicity of character an indolent surrender to mere sensuous experience an indomitable and unselfish soul an ineradicable love of fun and mystification an inevitable factor of human conduct an inexhaustible copiousness and readiness of speech an insatiable appetite for trifles an insatiable voracity an inscrutable mystery an intentional breach of politeness an interchange of civilities an intolerable deal of guesswork an involuntary gesture of remonstrance an irrelevant bit of magniloquence [magniloquence = extravagant in speech] an irrepressible and impassioned hopefulness an irritating and dangerous treatment an itching propensity for argument an object of indestructible interest an obnoxious member of society an ominous lull and silence an open and violent rupture an outburst of impassioned eloquence an unaccountable feeling of antipathy an unbecoming vehemence an undisciplined state of feeling an unerring sense of humor an unparalleled and almost miraculous growth an unparalleled atrocity an unpatriotic and ignoble act an unreasoning form of coercion an utterly vile and detestable spirit and now i address myself to my task and the like announced in a tone of pious satisfaction another thought importuned him [importuned = insistent or repeated requests] anticipated with lively expectation apparent rather than real appeal to a tardy justice appreciably above the level of mediocrity arbitrary assumption of power ardently and enthusiastically convinced argued with immense force and feeling arrayed with scrupulous neatness arrogance and untutored haughtiness as an impartial bystander as belated as they are fallacious as by a secret of freemasonry as odious as it is absurd as ridiculous as it was unnecessary as we scan the vague unknown assailed by poignant doubts assume a menacing attitude assumed almost heroic proportions at once epigrammatic and arresting [epigrammatic = terse and witty] at once misleading and infelicitous at the mercy of small prejudices attained by rigorous self-restraint attended by insuperable difficulties averted by some happy stroke of fortune await the sentence of impartial posterity awaited with feverish anxiety b bandied to and fro based on a fundamental error beguile the tedium of the journey bemoaning and bewailing his sad fortune beset with external dangers betrayed into deplorable error bewildering multiplication of details beyond the dreams of avarice blended with courage and devotion blind leaders of the blind blunt the finer sensibilities blustering desire for publicity bound up with impossibilities and absurdities breathed an almost exaggerated humility bred in the tepid reticence of propriety brief ventures of kindliness brilliant display of ingenious argument bring odium upon the individual brisk directness of speech brutal recognition of failure bursts of unpremeditated frankness but delusions and phantasmagoria but that is beside the mark but this is a digression by a curious perversity of fate by a happy turn of thinking by a whimsical diversion by common consent by means of crafty insinuations by no means inconsolable by temperament incompatible by the common judgment of the thinking world by the sheer centripetal force of sympathy by virtue of a common understanding by way of rejoinder c calculated to create disgust calm strength and constancy capable of a severe scientific treatment capacity for urbanity and moderation carried into port by fair winds caught unawares by a base impulse ceaseless tramp of humanity censured for his negligence championing the cause of religious education chastened and refined by experience checked by the voice of authority cherished the amiable illusion cherishing a huge fallacy childishly inaccurate and absurd chivalrous loyalty and high forbearance clever and captivating eloquence coarse and glittering ostentation coherent and continuous trend of thought commended by perfect suavity common ground of agreement complicated and infinitely embittered conceded from a sense of justice conceived with imperfect knowledge concentrated and implacable resolve conditions of unspeakable humiliation conducive to well-being and efficiency confused rumblings presaging a different epoch constrained by the sober exercise of judgment consumed by a demon of activity continuous and stubborn disregard contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment couched in terms of feigned devotion credulous and emotionally extravagant creed of incredulity and derision criticized with unsparing vigor crude undigested masses of suggestion cruel and baseless calumnies [calumnies = maliciously false statements; slander] cynically repudiate all obligations d daily usages and modes of thinking dangerously near snobbery darkly insinuating what may possibly happen dazzled by their novelty and brilliance debased by common use deep essentials of moral grandeur deeply engrossed in congenial work deeply moved as well as keenly stung deeply rooted in the heart of humanity defiant of analysis and rule degenerate into comparative feebleness degenerated into deadness and formality degrading and debasing curiosity deliberate and cautious reflection delicacy of perception and quick tact delude many minds into acquiescence dense to the point of stupidity descanting on them cursorily [descanting = discussion or discourse] devices generally held to be discreditable devious and perilous ways devoid of hysteria and extravagance dexterous modes of concealment dictated by an overweening partiality differ in degree only and not in kind difficult and abstruse questions [abstruse = incomprehensible ] diffidence overwhelmed him diffusing beneficent results dignified by deliberation and privacy dimly implying some sort of jest discreditable and insincere support disdaining the guidance of reason disenchanting effect of time and experience disfigured by glaring faults disguised in sentimental frippery dispel all anxious concern displayed enormous power and splendor distinguish themselves by their eccentricities distracted by contending desires diversity of mind and temperament divested of all personal feelings dogged and shameless beyond all precedent dominated by no prevailing taste or fashion doomed by inexorable fate doomed to impermanence and transiency draw back in distrust and misgiving dreaded and detested rival driven towards disaffection and violence due to historical perspective dull and trite commonplaces dwindled to alarmingly small dimensions e easy-going to the point of lethargy elementary principles of right and wrong embittered and fanatical agitation encrusted with pedantry and prejudice [pedantry = attention to detail] endless and intricate technicalities endowed with undreamed-of powers enforced by coercive measures enormities of crime and anomalies of law entangled in theological controversy entirely futile and negligible erroneous assumptions and sophistries espoused with extraordinary ardor essentially one-sided and incomplete eternally fruitful and stimulating evidently malicious and adroit evinces a hardened conscience and an insensibility to shame exact and resolute allegiance examples of terrific and explosive energy exasperating to the last degree excruciating cruelty and injustice exposed to damaging criticism exposing his arrogance and folly to merited contempt expressions of unrestrained grief exquisite lucidity of statement extraordinarily subtle and penetrating analysis exuberant rush of words f facile and fertile literary brains faithfully and religiously eschewed [eschew = avoid; shun] fallen into the convenient oblivion of the waste-basket fanatical and dangerous excesses far off and incredibly remote fastidious correctness of form fate had turned and twisted a thousand ways fed by many currents from the long stream of human experience feigning a virtuous indignation fertility of argumentative resource fictitious and adventitious aid finely touched to the fine issues fit to stand the gaze of millions fits and starts of generosity fixed convictions of mankind flouted as unpractical foolish and inflexible superstition fostering and preserving order free from all controversial pettifogging [pettifogging = quibbling over insignificant details] freighted with the most precious cargoes frequently recurring forms of awkwardness fresh and unsuspected loveliness from the standpoint of expediency and effectiveness full and tuneful diction full of ardent affection and gratitude full of presentiments of some evil full of singular freshness, insight and power full of speculation and a deep restrained excitement fumble and stumble in helpless incapacity g gain the applause of future ages generous to a pathetic and touching degree give vent to his indignation giving an ear to a little neighborly gossip glances and smiles of tacit contempt gnawing at the vitals of society grace and gentleness of manner graceful succession of sentences gratuitous and arbitrary meddling greeted with unalloyed satisfaction grooves of intellectual habit growing sense of bewilderment and dismay guilty and baffled antagonists h habits of unintelligent routine habitual self-possession and self-respect happy and gracious willingness hard-souled and joyously joyous haunted by blank misgivings he affected neither pomp nor grandeur he became more blandly garrulous [garrulous = excessive and trivial talk] he declined the proffered hospitality he dropped into an eloquent silence he eludes analysis and baffles description he glanced at her indulgently he had the habit of self-engrossed silences he harbored his misgivings in silence he poured bitter and biting ridicule on his discomfited opponents he spoke with sledgehammer directness he suffers nothing to draw him aside he took his courage in both hands he turned on me a glance of stored intelligence he was disheveled and untidy he was inexhaustibly voluble heavily freighted with erudition [erudition = extensive learning] heights of serene contemplation her voice had a wooden resonance and a ghost of a lisp hidebound in official pedantry [pedantry = attention to detail] high and undiscouraged hope high-handed indifference to all restraint his chin had too vanishing an aspect his first zeal was flagging his general attitude suggested an idea that he had an oration for you his gestures and his gait were untidy his mood was one of pure exaltation his plea was irresistible his tone verged on the ironical his work was ludicrously perfunctory hopelessly belated in its appearance i i adjured him [adjured = command or enjoin solemnly, as under oath] i am not without a lurking suspicion i bemoaned my unlucky fate i could almost allege it as a supreme example i have somewhat overshot the mark i lost myself in a reverie of gratitude i made bold to retort i must hazard the story i was extremely perplexed i will permit myself the liberty of saying i would fain believe [fain = happily; gladly] illuminate with sinister effect immediate and effectual steps immense capacity for ceaseless progress immunity from criticism and control impartial and exacting judgment impatience of despotic influence impelled by strong conviction imperiled in a restless age imperious in its demands [imperious = arrogantly domineering] impotent outbreaks of unreasoning rage impromptu parades of noisy patriotism in a diversity of application in a fever of apprehension in a frenzy of fussy excitement in a frowning abstraction in a great and fruitful way in a high degree culpable in a kind of confused astonishment in a most commendable fashion in a most impressive vein in a position of undisputed supremacy in a rapture of imagined ecstasy in a secret and surreptitious way [surreptitious = done by clandestine or stealthy means] in a spirit of friendliness and conciliation in a state of mulish reluctance [mulish = stubborn and intractable] in a state of nervous exacerbation in a state of virtuous complacency in a tone of uneasy interrogation in a transport of ambitious vanity in a whirlwind of feeling and memory in accents embarrassed and hesitating in alliance with steady clearness of intellect in amazed ejaculation in an eminent and unique sense in an eminent degree in deference to a unanimous sentiment in extenuation of the past in high good humor in his customary sententious fashion [sententious = terse and energetic; pithy] in its most odious and intolerable shape in language terse yet familiar in moments of the most imminent peril in quite incredible confusion in seasons of difficulty and trial in spite of plausible arguments in terms of imperishable beauty in the dim procession of years in the highest conceivable degree in the local phrase in the nature of things in the ordinarily accepted sense in the realm of conjecture in the scheme of things in the tone of one who moralizes in the twinkling of an eye in the world of letters in tones of genuine admiration incapable of flashy make-believe incited by a lust for gain incomparable lucidity and penetrativeness inconceivable clumsiness of organization indulge a train of gentle recollection indulging a sickly and nauseating petulance ineffably dreary and unpicturesque infected with a feverish dissatisfaction infuse a wholesome terror inimical to true and determined principle [inimical = harmful; adverse] inimitable grace and felicity [inimitable = defying imitation; matchless] injudicious and inelegant ostentation innumerable and incessant creations inordinate greed and love of wealth insatiably greedy of recognition insensibility to moral perspective and proportion insolent and riotous excess inspired by a vague malevolence inspirited by approval and applause instances might be multiplied indefinitely instantly alive to the slightest breach of decorum insufferable violence to the feelings intense and stubborn dogmatism intense sensitiveness to injustice intercourse with polished society intervals of respite and repose inveigh against established customs [inveigh = angry disapproval; protest vehemently] invested with a partial authority inveterate forces of opposition invincible jealousy and hate involuntary thrill of gratified vanity involved in profound uncertainty involving ourselves in embarrassments inward appraisal and self-renouncement irregulated and desultory education [desultory = haphazard; random] irrelevant to the main issue irresistibly impelled by conscience irritable bitterness and angry suspicion it assumes the shape of malignity it betrays a great want of prudence and discernment it defies description it dissipates every doubt and scruple it enslaves the imagination it extorted from him expressions of irritability it gives one a little grip at the throat it has been stigmatized as irrelevant it has more than passing interest it has seldom been surpassed it imposes no constraint it is a capital blunder it is a common error among ignorant people it is a consoling reflection it is a mark of great instability it is a staggering thought it is always something vicious it is an odd jealousy it is an intolerable idea it is impossible to resist acknowledging this it is little more than a platitude it is not consistent with elevated and dignified character it is not wholly insignificant it is notoriously easy to exaggerate it is the common consent of men it is unnecessary to multiply instances it makes life insupportable it must be a matter of conjecture it occasions suspicion and discontent it runs counter to all established customs it was a matter of notoriety it wears a ragged and dangerous front it would be a fruitless and unthankful task it would be superfluous to say it would not seem an improbable conclusion its dominating and inspiring influence j jealous and formidable foes justifiable in certain exigencies [exigencies = urgent situations] k keen power of calculation and unhesitating audacity kindle the flames of genuine oratory knotty and subtle disquisitions [disquisitions = formal discourse] l labored and far-fetched elocution laid down in a most unflinching and vigorous fashion lamentable instances of extravagance lash themselves into fury lax theories and corresponding practises lay hold of the affections leaden mood of dulness lend a critical ear lest the requirements of courtesy be disregarded links in the chain of reasoning little less than scandalous lofty and distinguished simplicity long-sighted continuity of thought and plan looking at the matter by and large looming large and ugly in the public view loose and otiose statement [otiose = lazy; indolent; of no use] lost in indolent content lovely beyond all words lucidity and argumentative vigor lulled into a sense of false satisfaction m maddened by a jealous hate maintained with ingenuity and vigor manifestly harsh and barbarous marvelous copiousness of illustration marvelously suggestive and inspiring men of profound erudition [erudition = extensive learning] mere effects of negligence microscopic analysis of character mingled distrust and fear ministering to mere pleasure and indulgence minutely and rationally exposing their imperfections morbid and subjective brooding more or less severe and prolonged moved to unaccustomed tears my worst suspicions were confirmed mysterious and invincible darkness n naked vigor of resolution naturally prone to believe necessity thus imposed by prudence nerveless and faithless folly no more than brief palliatives or mitigations noble and sublime patience noisy torrent of talk not averse to a little gossip not so much polished as varnished noted for their quixotic love of adventure nothing could be more captious or unfair [captious = disposition to find and point out trivial faults] nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence notoriously distracted by internecine jealousies o objects of general censure obscured beneath the rubbish of the age obsessed with an overweening pride obstacles that are difficult but not insuperable obviously at variance with facts occasioned by direct moral turpitude [turpitude = depravity; baseness] oddly amenable to the proposed innovations often employed promiscuously ominous and swift days omitting all compliments and commonplaces on a noble and commanding scale on sure ground of fact on the edge of great irritability on the horns of a dilemma one of life's ironical adjustments one of the foreseen and inevitable results one tissue of rashness, folly, ingratitude, and injustice openly flouted and disavowed oppressed by some vague dread organs of party rage and popular frenzy our opinions were diametrically opposed our vaunted civilization outward mark of obeisance and humiliation [obeisance = attitude of deference] overcome by an access of misery overshadowed by a fretful anxiety overwhelmed with reproach and popular indignation p painful and lamentable indifference palpably and unmistakably commonplace parading an exception to prove a rule paralyzed by infirmity of purpose paralyzing doubts and scruples paramount obligation and righteousness partial and fragmentary evidence passionately addicted to pleasure patently inimical to liberty patience under continual provocation peculiarly liable to misinterpretation peddling and pitiful compromises pelting one another with catchwords perfectly illustrated and exemplified perpetually excite our curiosity pierced to the quick pitiful shifts of policy plainly dictated by a lofty purpose pleading the exigencies of strategical interest [exigencies = urgent situations] plunged into tumultuous preoccupation pointed out with triumphant malice polished beauty of diction political storm and stress. position of titular command preached with a fierce unction [unction = exaggerated earnestness] precipitate and arbitrary changes predict the gloomiest consequences pregnant with a lesson of the deepest import presented with matchless vigor and courage princely generosity of praise prodigious and portentous events protracted to a vexatious length proud schemes for aggrandizement provocative of bitter hostility pruned of their excrescences and grotesque extremes [excrescences = abnormal growth, such as a wart] purged of glaringly offensive features pursued to a vicious extent q questioned and tested in the crucible of experience quickened into a stabbing suspicion quickness to conceive and courage to execute quite destitute of resources quixotically generous about money r radiantly and transparently happy railed at the world rare candor and flexibility of mind rare fidelity of purpose and achievement rarely brought to pass reeling headlong in luxury and sensuality regarded with sincere abhorrence regulated by the fixed rules of good-breeding religious rights and ceremonies reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character render null and void rent by internal contentions repugnant alike to reason and conscience resigned to growing infirmities resist a common adversary resting on some collateral circumstance rhetorical and ambitious diction rich and exuberant complexities rigid and exact boundaries rooted in immeasurable error and falsity roused to tumultuous activity rude and blind criticism s sadly counterbalanced by numerous faults said with epigrammatic point [epigrammatic = terse and witty] salutary in the extreme salutary tonic of a free current of public criticism sanity and quietness of soul scorned as an impracticable theory scornful of petty calculations screen themselves from punishment scrupulous and chivalrous loyalty see with eagle glance through conventionalisms seem to savor of paradox seize the auspicious moment self-centered anxiety and preoccupation self-command born of varied intercourse self-interest of the most compelling character selfish and uselessly recondite [recondite = not easily understood] selfishness pampered by abundance senses of marvelous acuteness sensible diminution of our comfort sensitive and apprehensive temperament sentimental wailings for the past serve the innocent purposes of life set down with meticulous care shames us out of our nonsense sharp outbursts of hatred and bitterness sharp restrictions of duty and opportunity sharply and definitely conceived she had lost her way in a labyrinth of conjecture she took refuge in a passionate exaggeration of her own insufficiency sheer midsummer madness silly displays of cheap animosity simple and obvious to a plain understanding sinister and fatal augury [augury = sign of something coming; omen] skulking beneath a high-sounding benevolence slack-minded skimming of newspapers slavish doctrines of sectarianism slow and resistless forces of conviction smug respectability and self-content snatch some advantage socialized and exacting studies some very undignified disclosures something essentially inexpressible something stifling and over-perfumed spinning a network of falsehoods spiritual and moral significance staring in helpless bewilderment stealthily escaping observation stern determination to inflict summary justice stigmatized as moral cowards stimulated to profitable industry stopped as if on the verge of profundities strange frankness of cynical brutality strange streak of melancholy strangled by a snare of words strenuous and conscientious endeavor stretched out in dreary monotony strict and unalloyed veracity struck incessantly and remorselessly stupendous and awe-inspiring spectacle subject to the vicissitudes of fortune [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes] subjected to the grossest cruelties subordination to the common weal subservient to the ends of religion sudden and inexplicable changes of mood suddenly and imperatively summoned suddenly swelled to unprecedented magnitude sufficient to repel vulgar curiosity suggestive sagacity and penetration [sagacity = farsighted; wise] suit the means to the end sullen and widespread discontent superior in strength and prowess supported by a splendid fearlessness supremely and undeniably great susceptible to every impulse and stimulus sustained dignity and mellifluous precision [mellifluous = flowing with honey; smooth and sweet] swamping every aspiration and ambition swift and vehement outbursts of feeling t take root in the heart take vengeance upon arrogant self-assertion taken in their totality tamed and wonted to a settled existence tempered by the emotional warmth of high moral ideals that way madness lies the abysmal depths of despair the accumulated bitterness of failure the agonies of conscious failure the air was full of the cry and clamor the animadversions of critics [animadversions = strong criticism] the applause was unbounded the best proof of its timeliness and salutariness [salutariness = favorable] the bewildered and tumultuous world the blackest abyss of despair the blemishes of an extraordinary reputation the bluntness of a provincial the bogey of bad luck [bogey = evil or mischievous spirit; hobgoblin] the bounding pulse of youth the brunt of life the capacity for refined pursuits the charming omniscience of youth the cloak of cowardice the collective life of humanity the combined dictates of reason and experience the companion of a noble and elevated spirit the complaining gate swung open the complex phenomena of life the consequence of an agitated mind the consequence of ignorance and childish assumption the constant pressure of anxieties the creature and tool of a party the critical eyes of posterity the dead and dusty past the delimitation is sufficiently definite the dictates of plain reason the disjointed babble of the chronicler the dull derision of the world the dullest and most vacant minds the dumb forces of brute nature the dupe of some imposture the eager pretentiousness of youth the ebb and flow of events the everlasting deluge of books the evil was irremediable the exchange of harmless amenities the exertion of an inherent power the expression was keenly intellectual the facile conjectures of ignorant onlookers the facts took him by the throat the fitful swerving of passion the flabbiness of our culture the flaccid moods of prose the flame of discord raged with redoubled fury the flattest and most obvious truisms the flippant insolence of a decadent skepticism the foe of excess and immoderation the fog of prejudice and ill-feeling the frustration of their dearest hopes the garb of civilization the general infusion of wit the gift of prophecy the golden years of youth and maturity the gratification of ambition the grim reality of defeat the hall-mark of a healthy humanity the handmaid of tyranny the hint of tranquillity and self-poise the hints of an imaginable alliance the hobgoblin of little minds the holiest and most ennobling sensations of the soul the hollowest of hollow shams the homely virtue of practical utility the hubbub and turmoil of the great world the huge and thoughtful night the hurly-burly of events the idea was utterly hateful and repugnant the idle of all hobbledehoys [hobbledehoys = gawky adolescent boy] the ignoble exploitation of public interests the imminent fatality awaiting him the impulse of prejudice or caprice the incorrigibility of perverse human nature the incursions of a venomous rabble the indulgence of an overweening self-conceit the inevitable climax and culmination the inference is inescapable the infirmity and fallibility of human nature the inflexible serenity of the wheeling sun the ingenuities of legal verbiage the inmost recesses of the human heart the insipidity of indifference the insolence of power the irony of circumstances the jaded weariness of overstrained living the jargon of well-handled and voice-worn phrases the jostling and ugliness of life the lawyer's habit of circumspection and delay the long-delayed hour of retribution the lowest grade of precarious mendacity [mendacity = untruthfulness] the makeshifts of mediocrity the malarious air of after-dinner gossip the mazes of conflicting testimony the mean and frivolous affections of the idle the menacing shadow of want the mere fruit of his distempered imagination the mere reversal of the wheel of fortune the merest smattering of knowledge the meticulous preciosity of the lawyer and the logician [preciosity = extreme overrefinement] the most absurd elementary questions the most amazing impudence the most exacting and exciting business the most fallacious of all fallacies the most implacable logic the most preposterous pride the multitudinous tongue of the people the outcome of unerring observation the outraged conscience of mankind the overpowering force of circumstances and necessity the overweening exercise of power the panacea for the evils of society the panorama of history the pernicious doctrines of skeptics the perpetrator of clumsy witticisms the precarious tenure of fame the precursor of violence the pretty and delicate game of talk the primitive instinct of self-preservation the property of little minds the prophecies of visionaries and enthusiasts the proprieties of etiquette the purse-proud inflation of the moneyed man the question was disconcertingly frank the ravening wolves of brute instinct the remark was sternly uncompromising the result of caprice the rigor of the law the sanction and authority of a great name the severest shocks of adverse fate the sharp and vehement assertion of authority the sinister influence of unprincipled men the speaker drew an indignant breath the springs of human action the staple of conversation the stillness of finality the stings of self-reproach the straightforward path of inexorable logic the strong hand of executive authority the sum and fruit of experience the sum total of her impressions was negative the summit of excellence the supernatural prescience of prophecy the sweet indulgence of good-nature the sycophants of the rich [sycophant = servile self-seeker attempting to win favor by flattery] the taint of fretful ingratitude the talk flowed the target for ill-informed criticism the tears welled up and flowed abundantly the tediousness of inactivity the tendency to evade implicit obligations the ties of a common cause the tranquil aspects of society the tribute of affectionate applause the ultimate verdict of mankind the unbroken habit of a lifetime the unimpeachable correctness of his demeanor the unlicensed indulgence of curiosity the unsophisticated period of youth the utmost excitement and agitation the vanishing thoughtlessness of youth the vanity and conceit of insular self-satisfaction the very texture of man's soul and life the victim of an increasing irritability the victorious assertion of personality the virtue of taciturnity [taciturnity = habitually untalkative] the voice was sharp and peremptory [peremptory = ending all debate or action] the want of serious and sustained thinking the widest compass of human life the wonderful pageant of consciousness the words stabbed him their authenticity may be greatly questioned their indignation waxed fast and furious themes of perennial interest there was a blank silence there was no sense of diminution they affected the tone of an impartial observer they rent the air with shouts and acclamations thoughts which mock at human life through ever-widening circles of devastation through the distortions of prejudice thwarted by seeming insuperable obstacles time was dissolving the circle of his friends times of unexampled difficulty tinseled over with a gaudy embellishment of words to a practised eye to be sedulously avoided [sedulously = persevering] to prosecute a scheme of personal ambition to state the case is to prove it too preposterous for belief too puerile to notice too sanguine a forecast [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic] torn asunder by eternal strife totally detached from all factions touched with a sort of reverential gratitude transcend the bounds of human credulity transitory in its nature transparent and ridiculous self-importance treasured up with a timid and niggardly thrift treated the idea with lofty scorn tremendous exploits and thrilling escapades true incentives to knowledge u unamiable and envious attributes unbounded devotion and indulgence uncharted oceans of thought unconquerable fidelity to duty under all conceivable circumstances under the sway of arbitrary opinions undertaken under propitious circumstances [propitious = auspicious, favorable; kindly] uneasy sense of impending change unequaled simplicity and directness of purpose unexceptional in point of breeding unexpected obstacles and inextricable difficulties unfailing and miraculous foresight unfeigned astonishment and indignation unfounded and incredible calumnies [calumnies = maliciously false statements] unhampered by binding alliances universal in their signification unjust and unrighteous persecution unreasoning and unquestioning attachment unrivaled beauty and excellence unrivaled gift of succinct and trenchant speech [trenchant = forceful, effective, vigorous; incisive; distinct] unsparing industry and attention unspeakably alluring and satisfying unsurpassed in force and fitness unswerving and unselfish fidelity untiring enunciation of platitudes and fallacies unutterably trivial and paltry unwavering and unquestioning approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] unworthy and ungenerous treatment upbraid ourselves with folly urgent warning and admonition utterly and essentially irreverent v vast and vague aspirations vastly complex and far-reaching problems vehemently and indignantly repudiated venerable and dignified conservatism versatile and essentially original versed in the arts of exciting tumult and sedition [sedition = insurrection; rebellion] viewed in its general tenor and substance vigorous and well compacted violating all decency violent and unforeseen vicissitudes [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes] vitiated by intolerance and shortsightedness [vitiated = reduce the value; corrupt morally; debase] vivid even to oppressiveness voracious and insatiable appetite vulgar eagerness for place w warnings too pregnant to be disregarded warped by personal pretensions and self-consequence we may parenthetically note we must profoundly revere it weigh the merits and demerits welcomed at first with skeptical contempt well-concerted and well-timed stratagems whirled into rapid and ceaseless motion wholesale friction and discontent wholly devoid of public interest widely divergent social traits wield an unequaled and paramount authority wiser counsels prevailed withal decidedly handsome written in indelible characters upon his heart y yield to urgent representations z zealous in the cause he affected to serve [pencilled into the flyleaf: "a navy blue feeling where my heart used to be"] [transcriber's notes: welcome to the schoolroom of . the moral tone is plain. "she is kind to the old blind man." the exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some contemporary alternatives. much is left to the teacher. explanations given in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. counting in roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson numbers. the form of contractions includes a space. the contemporary word "don't" was rendered as "do n't". the author, not listed in the text, is william holmes mcguffey. passages using non-asci characters are approximately rendered in this text version. see the pdf or doc versions for the original images. the section numbers are decimal in the table of contents but are in roman numerals in the body. page headings are removed, but section titles are followed by the page on which they appear. many items include a preceding biography of the author. this is ended with three pound symbols. ### don kostuch end transcriber's notes] [illustration: picture of a young woman and a trunk.] she sits, inclining forward as to speak, her lips half-open, and her finger up, as though she said, "beware!" (item xcv. ginevra) eclectic educational series. mcguffey's sixth eclectic reader. revised edition. mcguffey editions and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons. inc. new york-chichester-brisbane-singapore-toronto supplementary reading for grammar and high school grades eclectic english classics. arnold's (matthew) sohrab and rustum burke's conciliation with the american colonies carlyle's essay on burns coleridge's rime of the ancient mariner defoe's history of the plague in london de quincey's revolt of the tartars emerson's the american scholar, self-reliance and compensation franklin's autobiography "george eliot's" silas marner goldsmith's vicar of wakefield irving's sketch book (ten selections) irving's tales of a traveler macaulay's second essay on chatham macaulay's essay on milton macaulay's essay on addison macaulay's life of johnson milton's l'allegro, il penseroso, comus lycidas, milton's paradise lost, books i and. ii pope's homer's iliad, books i, vi, xxii, xxiv, scott's ivanhoe scott's marmion scott's lady of the lake scott's the abbot scott's woodstock. shakespeare's julius caesar shakespeare's twelfth night shakespeare's merchant of venice shakespeare's midsummer-night's dream shakespeare's as you like it shakespeare's macbeth shakespeare's hamlet, sir roger de coverley papers (the spectator), southey's life of nelson tennyson's the princess, webster's (daniel) bunker hill orations, ----- sent, postpaid on receipt of price. copyright, , by van antwerp, bragg & company copyright, , by american book company. copyright, and , by henry h. vail. m'g rev. th ec. ep preface ( ) in the sixth reader, the general plan of the revision of mcguffey's series has been carefully carried out to completion. that plan has been to retain, throughout, those characteristic features of mcguffey's readers, which have made the series so popular, and caused their widespread use throughout the schools of the country. at the same time, the books have been enlarged; old pieces have been exchanged for new wherever the advantage was manifest; and several new features have been incorporated, which it is thought will add largely to the value of the series. in the revision of the sixth reader, the introductory matter has been retained with but little change, and it will he found very valuable for elocutionary drill. in the preparation of this portion of the work, free use was made of the writings of standard authors upon elocution, such as walker, mcculloch, sheridan knowles, ewing, pinnock, scott, bell, graham, mylins, wood, rush, and many others. in making up the selections for reading, great care and deliberation have been exercised. the best pieces of the old book are retained in the revised sixth, and to the these been added a long list of selections from the best english and american literature. upwards of one hundred leading authors are represented (see "alphabetical list. of authors," page ix), and thus a wide range of specimens of the best style has been secured. close scrutiny revealed the fact that many popular selections common to several series of readers, had been largely adapted, but in mcguffey's revised readers, wherever it was possible to do so, the selections have been compared, and made to conform strictly with the originals as they appear in the latest editions authorized by the several writers. the character of the selections, aside from their elocutionary value, has also been duly considered. it will be found, upon examination, that they present the same instructive merit and healthful moral tone which gave the preceding edition its high reputation. two new features of the revised sixth deserve especial attention--the explanatory notes, and the biographical notices of authors. the first, in the absence of a large number of books of reference, are absolutely necessary, in some cases, for the intelligent reading of the piece; and it is believed that in all cases they will add largely to the interest and usefulness of the lessons. the biographical notices, if properly used, are hardly of less value than the lessons themselves. they have been carefully prepared, and are intended not only to add to the interest of the pieces, but to supply information usually obtained only by the separate study of english and american literature. the illustrations of the revised sixth reader are presented as specimens of fine art. they are the work of the best artists and engravers that could be secured for the purpose in this country. the names of these gentlemen may be found on page ten. the publishers would here repeat their acknowledgments to the numerous friends and critics who have kindly assisted in the work of revision, and would mention particularly president edwin c. hewett, of the state normal university, normal, illinois, and the hon. thomas w. harvey, of painesville, ohio, who have had the revision of the sixth reader under their direct advice. especial acknowledgment is due to messrs. houghton, osgood & co., for their permission to make liberal selections from their copyright editions of many of the foremost american authors whose works they publish. january, . contents ( ) introduction. subject. page i. articulation ii. inflection iii. accent and emphasis iv. instructions for reading verse v. the voice vi. gesture selections for reading. ( ) title. author. page. . anecdote of the duke of newcastle blackwood's magazine. . the needle samuel woodworth. . dawn edward everett. . description of a storm benjamin disraeli. . after the thunderstorm james thomson. . house cleaning francis hopkinson. . schemes of life often illusory samuel johnson. . the brave old oak henry fothergill chorley. . the artist surprised . pictures of memory alice cary. . the morning oratorio wilson flagg. . short selections in poetry: i. the cloud john wilson. ii. my mind william byrd. iii. a good name william shakespeare. v. sunrise james thomson. v. old age and death edmund waller. vi. milton john dryden. . death of little nell charles dickens. . vanity of life johann gottfried von herder. . a political pause charles james fox . my experience in elocution john neal. . elegy in a country churchyard thomas gray. . tact and talent . speech before the virginia convention patrick henry. . the american flag joseph rodman drake. . ironical eulogy on debt . the three warnings hester lynch thrale. . the memory of our fathers lyman beecher. . short selections in prose: i. dryden and pope samuel johnson. ii. las casas dissuading from battle r.b. sheridan. iii. action and repose john ruskin. iv. time and change sir humphry davy. v. the poet william ellery channing. vi. mountains william howitt. . the jolly old pedagogue george arnold. . the teacher and sick scholar. charles dickens. . the snow shower william cullen bryant. . character of napoleon bonaparte charles phillips. . napoleon at rest john pierpont. . war charles sumner. . speech of walpole in reproof of mr. pitt sir r. walpole. . pitt's reply to sir robert walpole william pitt. . character of mr. pitt henry grattan. . the soldier's rest sir walter scott. . henry v. to his troops william shakespeare. . speech of paul on mars' hill bible. . god is everywhere joseph hutton. . lafayette and robert raikes thomas s. grimke'. . fall of cardinal wolsey william shakespeare. . the philosopher john p. kennedy. . marmion and douglas sir walter scott. . the present adelaide anne procter. . the baptism john wilson. . sparrows adeline d. train whitney. . observance of the sabbath gardiner spring. . god's goodness to such as fear him bible. . character of columbus washington irving. . "he giveth his beloved sleep." elizabeth b. browning. . description of a siege sir walter scott . marco bozzaris fitz-greene halleck. . song of the greek bard lord george gordon byron. . north american indians charles sprague. . lochiel's warning thomas campbell. . on happiness of temper oliver goldsmith. . the fortune teller henry mackenzie. . renzi's address to the romans mary russell mitford. . the puritan fathers of new england f. w. p. greenwood. . landing of the pilgrim fathers felicia dorothea hemans. . necessity of education lyman beecher. . riding on a snowplow benjamin franklin taylor. . the quarrel of brutus and cassius william shakespeare. . the quack john tobin. . rip van winkle washington irving. . bill and joe oliver wendell holmes. . sorrow for the dead washington irving. . the eagle james gates percival. . political toleration thomas jefferson. . what constitutes a state? sir william jones. . the brave at home thomas buchanan read. . south carolina robert young hayne. . massachusetts and south carolina daniel webster. . the church scene from evangeline h. w. longfellow. . song of the shirt thomas hood. . diamond cut diamond. e'douard rene' lefebvre-laboulaye. . thanatopsis william cullen bryant. . indian jugglers william hazlitt. . antony over caesar's dead body william shakespeare. . the english character william hickling prescott. . the song of the potter. henry wadsworth longfellow. . a hot day in new york william dean howells. . discontent.--an allegory joseph addison. . jupiter and ten. james t. fields. . scene from "the poor gentleman" george colman. . my mother's picture william cowper. . death of samson john milton. . an evening adventure . the barefoot boy john greenleaf wittier. . the glove and the lions james henry leigh hunt. . the folly of intoxication william shakespeare. . starved rock francis parkman. . prince henry and falstaff. william shakespeare. . studies. sir francis bacon. . surrender of granada. sir edward george bulwer-lytton. . hamlet's soliloquy. william shakespeare. . ginevra samuel rogers. . inventions and discoveries john caldwell calhoun. . enoch arden at the window alfred tennyson. . lochinvar sir walter scott. . speech on the trial of a murderer daniel webster. . the closing year george denison prentice. . a new city in colorado helen hunt jackson. . importance of the union daniel webster. . the influences of the sun john tyndall. . colloquial powers of franklin william wirt. . the dream of clarence william shakespeare. . homeward bound richard h. dana, jr. . impeachment of warren hastings t. b. macaulay. . destruction of the carnatic edmund burke. . the raven edgar allan poe. . a view of the colosseum orville dewey. . the bridge henry wadsworth longfellow. . objects and limits of science robert charles winthrop. . the downfall of poland. thomas campbell. . labor horace greeley. . the last days of herculaneum edwin atherstone. . how men reason oliver wendell holmes. . thunderstorm on the alps lord byron. . origin of property sir william blackstone. . battle of waterloo lord byron. . "with brains, sir" john brown. . the new england pastor timothy dwight. . death of absalom bible. . abraham davenport john greenleaf whittier. . the falls of the yosemite thomas starr king. . a psalm of life henry wadsworth longfellow. . franklin's entry into philadelphia. benjamin franklin. . lines to a waterfowl william cullen bryant. . goldsmith and addison william makepeace thackeray. . immortality of the soul joseph addison. . character of washington jared sparks. . eulogy on washington henry lee. . the solitary reaper william wordsworth. . value of the present ralph waldo emerson. . happiness alexander pope. . marion william gilmore simms. . a common thought henry timrod. . a definite aim in reading noah porter. . ode to mt. blanc samuel taylor coleridge. alphabetical list of authors. ( ) name page name page . addison, joseph , . goldsmith . arnold. george . grattan. henry . atherstone. edwin . gray, thomas . bacon, sir francis . greeley, horace . beecher, lyman , . greenwood, f. w. p. . bible, the , , . grimke. thomas s. . blackstone, sir william . halleck. fitz-green . blackwood's magazine . hayne, robert young . brown, john . hazlitt, william . browning, elizabeth b. . hemans, falicia d. . bryant , , . henry, patrick . bulwer-lytton . holmes , . burke, edmund . hood, thomas . byrd, william . hopkinson, francis . byron , , . howells. w. d. . calhoun, john c. . howitt, william . campbell, thomas , . hunt, leigh . cary, alice . hutton, joseph . channing, willliam ellery . irving , , . chorley, h. f. . jackson, helen hunt . colridge. . jefferson, thomas . colman, george . johnson, samuel , . cowper . jones, sir william . dana, richard h. jr. . kennedy, john p. . davy, sir humphry . king, thomas starr . dewey, orville . lee, henry . dickens , . lefebvre-laboulaye . disraeli, benjamin . longfellow , , , . drake, joseph rodman . macaulay . dryden . mackenzie. henry . dwight, timothy . milton . emerson . mitford, mary russell . everett . neal, john . fields. james t. . parkman. francis . flagg, wilson . percival, j. g . fox, charles james . phillips. charles . franklin, benjamin . pierpont, john name page name page . pitt . taylor, b. f, . poe, edgar allan . tennyson . pope . thackeray , porter, noah . thomson, james , . prentice, geo. d. . thrale. hester lynch . prescott . timrod, henry . procter, adelaide anne l . tobin, john . read, t. b. . tyndall . rogers, samuel . von herder. j. g. . ruskin, john . waller, edmund . scott , , , . walpole . shakespeare. , , . webster , , , , , , , . whitney, adeline d. t. . sherman, r. b. . whittier , . simms, william gilmore . wilson, john , . sparks, jared . winthrop, r.c. . sprague, charles . wirt, william . spring, gardiner . woodworth, samuel . sumner . wordsworth list of illustrations. ( ) page drawn by engraved by ginevra frontspiece h. f. farney. timothy cole. duke of newcastle h. f. farney. f.juengling gray's elegy thomas moran. henry bogert. marmion c. s. reinhart. j. g. smithwick. the quack howard pyle. j. p. davis. diamond cut diamond alfred kappes. timothy cole. the glove and the lions h. f. farney. smithwick and french. herculaneum charles d. sauerwein. francis s. king. introduction. ( ) the subject of elocution, so far as it is deemed applicable to a work of this kind, will be considered under the following heads, viz: . articulation. . reading verse. . inflection. . the voice. . accent and emphasis. . gesture. i. articulation. ( ) articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and of their combinations. as words consist of one or more elementary sounds, the first object of the student should he to acquire the power of uttering those sounds with distinctness, smoothness, and force. this result can be secured only by careful practice, which must be persevered in until the learner has acquired a perfect control of his organs of speech. elementary sounds. ( ) an elementary sound is a simple, distinct sound made by the organs of speech. the elementary sounds of the english language are divided into vocals, subvocals, and aspirates. vocals. ( ) vocals are sounds which consist of pure tone only. they are the most prominent elements of all words, and it is proper that they should first receive attention. a vocal may be represented by one letter, as in the word hat, or by two or more letters, as in heat, beauty. a diphthong is a union of two vocals, commencing with one and ending with the other. it is usually represented by two letters, as in the words oil, boy, out, now. each of these can he uttered with great force, so as to give a distinct expression of its sound, although the voice be suddenly suspended, the moment the sound is produced. this is done by putting the lips, teeth, tongue, and palate in their proper position, and then expelling each sound from the throat in the same manner that the syllable "ah!" is uttered in endeavoring to deter a child from something it is about to do; thus, a'--a'--a'--. let the pupil he required to utter every one of the elements in the table with all possible suddenness and percussive force, until he is able to do it with ease and accuracy. this must not he considered as accomplished until he can give each sound with entire clearness, and with all the suddenness of the crack of a rifle. care must be taken that the vocal alone be heard; there must be no consonantal sound, and no vocal sound other than the one intended. at first, the elementary sounds may be repeated by the class in concert; then separately. table of vocals. ( ) long sounds. sound as in a hate e err a hare i pine a pass o no a far oo cool a fall u tube e eve u burn short sounds. sound as in a mat o hot e met oo book i it u us diphthongs. oi, oy, as in oil, boy. ou, ow, as in out, now. remark i.--in this table, the short sounds are nearly or quite the same, in quantity, as the long sounds. the difference consists chiefly in quality. let the pupil determine this fact by experiment. remark ii.--the vocals are often represented by other letters or combinations of letters than those used in the table: for instance, a is represented by ai as in hail, by ea as in steak, etc. remark iii.--as a general rule, the long vocals and the diphthongs should be articulated with full, clear utterance; but the short vocals have a sharp, distinct, and almost explosive utterance. weakness of speech follows a failure to observe the first point, while drawling results from carelessness with respect to the second. subvocals and aspirates ( ) subvocals are those sounds in which the vocalized breath is more or less obstructed. aspirates consist of breath only, modified by the vocal organs. words ending with subvocal sounds may be selected for practice on the subvocals; words beginning or ending with aspirate sounds may be used for practice on aspirates. pronounce these words forcibly and distinctly, several times in succession; then drop the other sounds, and repeat the subvocals and aspirates alone. let the class repeat the words and elements, at first, in concert; then separately. table of subvocals and aspirates. ( ) subvocals. as in b babe d bad g nag j judge v move th with z buzz z azure (azh-) w wine aspirates. as in p rap t at k book ch rich f life th smith s hiss sh rush wh what remark.--these eighteen sounds make nine pairs of cognates. in articulating the aspirates, the vocal organs are put in the position required in the articulation of the corresponding subvocals; but the breath is expelled with some force, without the utterance of any vocal sound. the pupil should first verify this by experiment, and then practice on these cognates. the following subvocals and aspirate have no cognates: subvocal as in l mill ng sing m rim r rule n run y yet aspirate. h, as in hat. substitutes. ( ) substitutes are characters used to represent sounds ordinarily represented by other characters. table of substitutes. sub for as in a o what y i hymn e a there c s cite e a freight c k cap i e police ch sh machine i e sir ch k chord o u son g j cage o oo to n ng rink o oo would s z rose o a corn s sh sugar o u worm x gz examine u oo pull gh f laugh u oo rude ph f sylph y i my qu k pique qu kw quick faults to be remedied. ( ) the most common faults of articulation are dropping an unaccented vowel, sounding incorrectly an unaccented vowel, suppressing final consonants, omitting or mispronouncing syllables, and blending words. . dropping an unaccented vocal. examples. correct incorrect gran'a-ry gran'ry a-ban'don a-ban-d'n im-mor'tal im-mor-t'l reg'u-lar reg'lar in-clem'ent in-clem'nt par-tic'u-lar par-tic'lar des'ti-ny des-t'ny cal-cu-la'tian cal-cl'a-sh'n un-cer'tain un-cer-t'n oc-ca'sion oc-ca-sh'n em'i-nent em'nent ef'i-gy ef'gy ag'o-ny ag'ny man'i-fold man'fold rev'er-ent rev'rent cul'ti-vate cult'vate . sounding incorrectly an unaccented vowel. examples. correct incorrect lam-en-ta'-tion lam-un-ta-tion ter'ri-ble ter-rub-ble e-ter'nal e-ter-nul fel'on-y fel-er-ny ob'sti-nate ob-stun-it fel'low-ship fel-ler-ship e-vent' uv-ent cal'cu-late cal-ker-late ef'fort uf-fort reg'u-lar reg-gy-lur exercises. ( ) the vocals most likely to be dropped or incorrectly sounded are italicized. he attended divine service regularly. this is my particular request. she is universally esteemed. george is sensible of his fault. this calculation is incorrect. what a terrible calamity. his eye through vast immensity can pierce. observe these nice dependencies. he is a formidable adversary. he is generous to his friends. a tempest desolated the land. he preferred death to servitude. god is the author of all things visible and invisible. . suppressing the final subvocals or aspirates. example ( ) john an' james are frien's o' my father. gi' me some bread. the want o' men is occasioned by the want o' money. we seldom fine' men o' principle to ac' thus. beas' an' creepin' things were foun' there. exercises. ( ) he learned to write. the masts of the ship were cast down. he entered the lists at the head of his troops. he is the merriest fellow in existence. i regard not the world's opinion. he has three assistants. the depths of the sea. she trusts too much to servants. his attempts were fruitless. he chanced to see a bee hovering over a flower. . omitting or mispronouncing whole syllables. examples. correct is improperly pronounced lit'er-ar-ry lit-rer-ry co-tem'po-ra-ry co-tem-po-ry het-er-o-ge'ne-ous het-ro-ge-nous in-quis-i-to'ri-al in-quis-i-to-ral mis'er-a-ble mis-rer-ble ac-com'pa-ni-ment ac-comp-ner-ment exercise he devoted his attention chiefly to literary pursuits. he is a miserable creature. his faults were owing to the degeneracy of the times. the manuscript was undecipherable. his spirit was unconquerable. great industry was necessary for the performance of the task. . blending the end of one word with the beginning of the next. examples i court thy gif sno more. the grove swere god sfir stemples. my hear twas a mirror, that show' devery treasure. it reflecte deach beautiful blosso mof pleasure. han d'me the slate. this worl dis all a fleeting show, for man' sillusion given. exercises. ( ) the magistrates ought to arrest the rogues speedily. the whirlwinds sweep the plain. linked to thy side, through every chance i go. but had he seen an actor in our days enacting shakespeare. what awful sounds assail my ears? we caught a glimpse of her. old age has on their temples shed her silver frost. our eagle shall rise mid the whirlwinds of war, and dart through the dun cloud of battle his eye. then honor shall weave of the laurel a crown, that beauty shall bind on the brow of the brave. ii. inflection. ( ) inflection is a bending or sliding of the voice either upward or downward. the upward or rising inflection is an upward slide of the voice, and is marked by the acute accent, thus, ('); as, did you call'? is he sick'? the downward or falling inflection is a downward slide of the voice, and is marked by the grave accent, thus, ('); as, where is london'? where have you been'? sometimes both the rising and falling inflections are given to the same sound. such sounds are designated by the circumflex, thus, (v) or thus, (^). the former is called the rising circumflex; the latter, the falling circumflex; as, but nobody can bear the death of clodius. when several successive syllables are uttered without either the upward or downward slide, they are said to be uttered in a monotone, which is marked thus, (--); as, roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean--roll examples. ( ) does he read correctly' or incorrectly'? in reading this sentence, the voice should slide somewhat as represented in the following diagram: does he read cor-rectly or incorrect-ly? if you said vinegar, i said sugar, to be read thus: if you said vinegar, i said sugar, if you said yes, i said no. to be read thus: if you said yes, i said no. what! did he say no? to be read thus: what! did he say no? he did'; he said no', to be read thus; he did; he said no. did he do it voluntarily', or involuntarily'? to be read thus: did he do it voluntarily, or involuntarily? he did it voluntarily', not involuntarily', to be read thus: he did it voluntarily, not involuntarily. exercises. ( ) do they act prudently', or imprudently'? are they at home', or abroad'? did you say europe', or asia'? is he rich', or poor'? he said pain', not pain'. are you engaged', or at leisure'? shall i say plain', or pain'? he went home' not abroad'. does he say able', or table'? he said hazy' not lazy'? must i say flat', or flat'? you should say flat' not flat'. my father', must i stay'? oh! but he paused upon the brink. it shall go hard with me, but i shall use the weapon. heard ye those loud contending waves, that shook cecropia's pillar'd state'? saw ye the mighty from their graves look up', and tremble at your fate'? first' fear', his hand, its skill to try', amid the chords bewildered laid'; and back recoiled', he knew not why' e'en at the sound himself had made'. where be your gibes' now? your gambols'? your songs'? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar'? thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy; "i dwell in the high and holy place." falling inflection. ( ) rule i.--sentences, and parts of sentences which make complete sense in themselves, require the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . by virtue we secure happiness'. . for thou hast said in thine heart, i will ascend into heaven': i will exalt my throne above the stars of god': i will sit, also, upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north'. . the wind and the rain are over'; calm is the noon of the day\: the clouds are divided in heaven'; over the green hills flies the inconstant sun'; red through the stormy vale comes down the stream'. . this proposition was, however, rejected,' and not merely rejected, but rejected with insult'. exception.--emphasis sometimes reverses this rule, and requires the rising inflection, apparently for the purpose of calling attention to the idea of an unusual manner of expressing it. examples. ( ) . i should not like to ride in that car'. . look out! a man was drowned there yesterday'. . presumptuous man! the gods' take care of cato', rule ii.--the language of emphasis generally requires the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . charge', chester, charge'; on', stanley, on'. . were i an american, as i am an englishman, while a single' foreign troop' remained' in my country, i would never' lay down my arms'--never', never', never.' . does anyone suppose that the payment of twenty shillings, would have ruined mr. hampden's fortune? no'. but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle' it was demanded, would have made him a slave'. . i insist' upon this point': i urge' you to it; i press' it, demand' it. . all that i have', all that i am', and all that i hope' in this life, i am now ready', here, to stake' upon it. rule iii.--interrogative sentences and members of sentences, which can not be answered by yes or no, generally require the falling inflection. example. ( ) . how many books did he purchase'? . why reason ye these things in your hearts'? . what see' you, that you frown so heavily to-day'? . ah! what is that flame which now bursts on his eye'? . whence this pleasing hope', this fond desire', this longing after immortality'? exception.--when questions usually requiring the falling inflection are emphatic or repeated, they take the rising inflection. examples. ( ) . where did you say he had gone'? . to whom did you say the blame was to be imputed'? . what is' he? a knave. what' is he? a knave, i say. rising inflection. ( ) rule iv.--the rising inflection is generally used where the sense is dependent or incomplete. remark.--this inflection is generally very slight, requiring an acute and educated ear to discern it, and it is difficult to teach pupils to distinguish it, though they constantly use it. care should be taken not to exaggerate it. examples. ( ) . nature being exhausted', he quietly resigned himself to his fate. . a chieftain to the highlands bound', cries', "boatman, do not tarry!" . as he spoke without fear of consequences', so his actions were marked with the most unbending resolution, . speaking in the open air', at the top of the voice', is an admirable exercise. . if then, his providence' out of our evil, seek to bring forth good', our labor must be to prevent that end. . he', born for the universe', narrowed his mind, and to party gave up what was meant for mankind. remark.--the names of persons or things addressed, when not used emphatically, are included in this rule. . brother', give me thy hand; and, gentle warwick!, let me embrace thee in my weary arms. . o lancaster', i fear thy overthrow. . ye crags' and peaks', i'm with you once again. exception .--relative emphasis often reverses this and the first rule, because emphasis is here expressed in part by changing the usual inflections. examples. ( ) . if you care not for your property', you surely value your life'. . if you will not labor for your own' advancement, you should regard that of your children'. . it is your place to obey', not to command'. . though by that course he should not destroy his reputation', he will lose all self-respect'. exception .--the names of persons addressed in a formal speech, or when used emphatically, have the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . romans, countrymen, and lovers', hear me for my cause, etc. . gentlemen of the jury', i solicit your attention, etc. . o hubert', hubert', save me from these men. rule v.--negative sentences and parts of sentences, usually require the rising inflection. examples. ( ) . it is not by starts of application that eminence can be attained'. . it was not an eclipse that caused the darkness at the crucifixion of our lord'; for the sun and moon were not relatively in a position' to produce an eclipse'. . they are not fighting': do not disturb' them: this man is not expiring with agony': that man is not dead': they are only pausing'. . my lord, we could not have had such designs'. . you are not left alone to climb the steep ascent': god is with you, who never suffers the spirit that rests on him to fail. exception .--emphasis may reverse this rule. example. ( ) we repeat it, we do not' desire to produce discord; we do not' wish to kindle the flames of a civil war. exception .--general propositions and commands usually have the falling inflection. examples. ( ) god is not the author of sin'. thou shalt not kill. rule vi.--interrogative sentences, and members of sentences which can be answered by yes or no generally require the rising inflection. examples. ( ) . are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation'? . does the gentleman suppose it is in his power', to exhibit in carolina a name so bright' as to produce envy' in my bosom? . if it be admitted, that strict integrity is not the shortest way to success, is it not the surest', the happiest', the best'? . is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, to wash this crimson hand as white as snow'? exception.--emphasis may reverse this rule. examples. ( ) , can' you be so blind to your interest? will' you rush headlong to destruction? . i ask again, is' there no hope of reconciliation? must' we abandon all our fond anticipations? . will you deny' it? will you deny' it? . am i dromio'? am i your man'? am i myself'? rule vii.--interrogative exclamations, and words repeated as a kind of echo to the thought, require the rising inflection. examples. ( ) . where grows', where grows it not'? . what'! might rome have been taken'? rome taken when i was consul'? . banished from rome'! tried and convicted traitor'! . prince henry. what's the matter'? falstaff. what's the matter'? here be four of us have taken a thousand pounds this morning. prince h. where is' it, jack, where is' it? fal. where is' it? taken from us, it is. . ha'! laughest thou, lochiel, my vision to scorn? . and this man is called a statesman. a statesman'? why, he never invented a decent humbug. . i can not say, sir, which of these motives influence the advocates of the bill before us; a bill', in which such cruelties are proposed as are yet unknown among the most savage nations. rising and falling inflections. ( ) rule viii.--words and members of a sentence expressing antithesis or contrast, require opposite inflections. examples. ( ) . by honor' and dishonor'; by evil' report and good' report; as deceivers' and yet true'. . what they know by reading', i know by experience'. . i could honor thy courage', but i detest thy crimes'. . it is easier to forgive the weak', who have injured us', than the powerful' whom we' have injured. . homer was the greater genius', virgil the better artist'. . the style of dryden is capricious and varied'; that of pope is cautious and uniform'. dryden obeys the emotions of his own mind'; pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition.' dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid'; pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle'. dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, varied by exuberant vegetation'; pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe and leveled by the roller'. . if the flights of dryden are higher', pope continues longer on the wing'. if the blaze of dryden's fire is brighter', the heat of pope's is more regular and constant'. dryden often surpasses' expectation, and pope never falls below' it. remark l.--words and members connected by or used disjunctively, generally express contrast or antithesis, and always receive opposite inflection. examples. ( ) . shall we advance', or retreat'? . do you seek wealth', or power'? . is the great chain upheld by god', or thee'? . shall we return to our allegiance while we may do so with safety and honor', or shall we wait until the ax of the executioner is at our throats'? . shall we crown' the author of these public calamities with garlands', or shall we wrest' from him his ill-deserved authority' ? remark .--when the antithesis is between affirmation and negation, the latter usually has the rising inflection, according to rule v. examples. ( ) . you were paid to fight' against philip, not to rail' at him. . i said rationally', not irrationally'. . i did not say rationally', but irrationally'. . i said an elder' soldier, not a better'. . let us retract while we can', not when we must'. remark .--the more emphatic member generally receives the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . a countenance more in sorrow', than anger'. . a countenance less in anger', than sorrow'. . you should show your courage by deeds', rather than by words. . if we can not remove' pain, we may alleviate' it. of series. ( ) a series is a number of particulars immediately following one another in the same grammatical construction. a commencing series is one which commences a sentence or clause. example. ( ) faith, hope, love, joy, are the fruits of the spirit. a concluding series is one which concludes a sentence or a clause. example. ( ) the fruits of the spirit are faith, hope, love, and joy. rule ix.--all the members of a commencing series, when not emphatic, usually require the rising inflection. examples. ( ) . war', famine', pestilence', storm', and fire' besiege mankind. . the knowledge', the power', the wisdom', the goodness' of god, must all be unbounded. . to advise the ignorant', to relieve the needy', and to comfort the afflicted' are the duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. . no state chicanery', no narrow system of vicious politics', no idle contest for ministerial victories', sank him to the vulgar level of the great. . for solidity of reasoning', force of sagacity', and wisdom of conclusion', no nation or body of men can compare with the congress at philadelphia. . the wise and the foolish', the virtuous and the evil', the learned and the ignorant', the temperate and the profligate', must often be blended together. . absalom's beauty', jonathan's love', david's valor', solomon's wisdom', the patience of job, the prudence of augustus', and the eloquence of cicero' are found in perfection in the creator. remark.--some elocutionists prefer to give the falling inflection to the last member of a commencing series. exception.--in a commencing series, forming a climax, the last term usually requires the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . days', months', years', and ages', shall circle away, and still the vast waters above thee shall roll. . property', character', reputation', everything', was sacrificed. . toils', sufferings', wounds', and death' was the price of our liberty. rule x.--all the members of a concluding series, when not at all emphatic, usually require the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . it is our duty to pity', to support', to defend', and to relieve' the oppressed. . at the sacred call of country, they sacrifice property', ease', health', applause' and even life'. . i protest against this measure as cruel', oppressive', tyrannous', and vindictive'. . god was manifest in the flesh', justified in the spirit', seen of angels', preached unto the gentiles', believed on in the world', received up into glory'. . charity vaunteth not itself', is not puffed up', doth not behave itself unseemly', seeketh not her own', is not easily provoked', thinketh no evil'; beareth' all things, believeth' all things, hopeth' all things, endureth' all things. remark.--some authors give the following rule for the reading of a concluding series: "all the particulars of a concluding series, except the last but one, require the falling inflection." exception l.--when the particulars enumerated in a concluding series are not at all emphatic, all except the last require the rising inflection. examples ( ) he was esteemed for his kindness', his intelligence', his self-denial', and his active benevolence'. exception .--when all the terms of a concluding series are strongly emphatic, they all receive the falling inflection. examples. ( ) . they saw not one man', not one woman', not one child', not one four-footed beast'. . his hopes', his happiness', his life', hung upon the words that fell from those lips, . they fought', they bled', they died', for freedom. parenthesis. ( ) rule xi.--a parenthesis should be read more rapidly and in a lower key than the rest of the sentence, and should terminate with the same inflection that next precedes it. if, however, it is complicated, or emphatic, or disconnected from the main subject, the inflections must be governed by the same rules as in the other cases. remark.--a smooth and expressive reading of a parenthesis is difficult of acquisition, and can be secured only by careful and persistent training. examples. ( ) . god is my witness' (whom i serve with my spirit, in the gospel of his son'), that, without ceasing, i make mention of you always in my prayers; making request' (if, by any means, now at length, i might have a prosperous journey by the will of god'), to come unto you. . when he had entered the room three paces, he stood still; and laying his left hand upon his breast' (a slender, white staff with which he journeyed being in his right'), he introduced himself with a little story of his convent. . if you, aeschines, in particular, were persuaded' (and it was no particular affection for me, that prompted you to give up the hopes, the appliances, the honors, which attended the course i then advised; but the superior force of truth, and your utter inability to point any course more eligible') if this was the case, i say, is it not highly cruel and unjust to arraign these measures now, when you could not then propose a better? . as the hour of conflict drew near' (and this was a conflict to be dreaded even by him'), he began to waver, and to abate much of his boasting. circumflex. ( ) rule xii.--the circumflex is used to express irony, sarcasm, hypothesis, or contrast. note.--for the reason that the circumflex always suggests a double or doubtful meaning, it is appropriate for the purposes expressed in the rule. it is, also, frequently used in sportive language; jokes and puns are commonly given with this inflection. examples. ( ) . man never is, but always to be, blest. . they follow an adventurer whom they fear; we serve a monarch whom we love. they boast, they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error. yes, they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. they offer us their protection: yes, such protection as vultures give to lambs, covering and devouring them. monotone. ( ) rule xiii.--the use of the monotone is confined chiefly to grave and solemn subjects. when carefully and properly employed, it gives great dignity to delivery. examples. ( ) . the unbeliever! one who can gaze upon the sun, and moon, and stars, and upon the unfading and imperishable sky, spread out so magnificently above him, and say, "all this is the work of chance!" . god walketh upon the ocean. brilliantly the glassy waters mirror back his smiles; the surging billows, and the gamboling storms come crouching to his feet. . i hail thee, as in gorgeous robes, blooming thou leav'st the chambers of the east, crowned with a gemmed tiara thick embossed with studs of living light. . high on a throne of royal state, which far outshone the wealth of ormus and of ind, or where the gorgeous east, with richest hand showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, satan exalted sat. . his broad expanded wings lay calm and motionless upon the air, as if he floated there without their aid, by the sole act of his unlorded will. . in dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds on half the nations, and with fear of change perplexes monarchs. iii. accent and emphasis. ( ) accent. that syllable in a word which is uttered more forcibly than the others, is said to be accented, and is marked thus, ('); as the italicized syllables in the following words: morn'ing. pos'si-ble. ty'rant. re-cum'bent. pro-cure'. ex-or'bi-tant, de-bate'. com-pre-hen'sive. common usage alone determines upon what syllable the accent should be placed, and to the lexicographer it belongs, to ascertain and record its decision on this point. in some few cases, we can trace the reasons for common usage in this respect. in words which are used as different parts of speech, or which have different meanings, the distinction is sometimes denoted by changing the accent. examples. ( ) sub'ject sub-ject' pres'ent pre-sent' ab'sent ab-sent' cem'ent ce-ment' con'jure con-jure' there is another case, in which we discover the reason for changing the accent, and that is, when it is required by emphasis, as in the following: examples. ( ) . his abil'ity or in'ability to perform the act materially varies the case. . this corrup'tion must put on in'corruption. secondary accent. ( ) in words of more than two syllables, there is often a second accent given, but more slight than the principal one, and this is called the secondary accent; as, em"igra'tion, rep"artee', where the principal accent is marked ('), and the secondary, ("); so, also, this accent is obvious, in nav"iga'tion, com"prehen'sion, plau"sibil'ity, etc. the whole subject, however, properly belongs to dictionaries and spelling books. emphasis. ( ) emphasis consists in uttering a word or phrase in such a manner as to give it force and energy, and to draw the attention of the hearer particularly to the idea expressed. this is most frequently accomplished by an increased stress of voice laid upon the word or phrase. sometimes, though more rarely, the same object is effected by an unusual lowering of the voice, even to a whisper, and not unfrequently by a pause before the emphatic word. the inflections are often made subsidiary to this object. to give emphasis to a word, the inflection is changed or increased in force or extent. when the rising inflection is ordinarily used, the word, when emphatic, frequently takes the falling inflection; and sometimes, also, the falling inflection is changed into the rising inflection, for the same purpose. emphatic words are often denoted by being written in italics, in small capitals, or in capitals. much care is necessary to train the pupil to give clear and expressive emphasis, and at the same time to avoid an unpleasant "jerky" movement of the voice. absolute emphasis. ( ) where the emphasis is independent of any contrast or comparison with other words or ideas, it is called absolute emphasis. examples. ( ) . we praise thee, o god; we acknowledge thee to be the lord. . roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean--roll! . arm, warriors, arm! . you know that you are brutus, that speak this, or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. . hamlet. saw, who? horatio. the king, your father. hamlet. the king, my father? . strike--till the last armed foe expires; strike--for your altars and your fires; strike--for the green graves of your sites; god, and your native land! relative emphasis. ( ) where there is antithesis, either expressed or implied, the emphasis is called relative. examples. ( ) . we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. . but i am describing your condition, rather than my own. . i fear not death, and shall i then fear thee? . hunting men, and not beasts, shall be his game. . he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. . it may moderate and restrain, but it was not designed to banish gladness from the heart of man. in the following examples, there are two sets of antitheses in the same sentence. . to err is human, to forgive, divine. . john was punished; william, rewarded. . without were fightings, within were fears. . business sweetens pleasure, as labor sweetens rest. . justice appropriates rewards to merit, and punishments to crime. . on the one side, all was alacrity and courage; on the other, all was timidity and indecision. . the wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains the applause of others. . his care was to polish the country by art, as he had protected it by arms. in the following examples, the relative emphasis is applied to three sets of antithetic words. . the difference between a madman and a fool is, that the former reasons justly from false data; and the latter, erroneously from just data. . he raised a mortal to the skies, she drew an angel down. sometimes the antithesis is implied, as in the following instances. . the spirit of the white man's heaven, forbids not thee to weep. . i shall enter on no encomiums upon massachusetts. emphasis and accent. ( ) when words, which are the same in part of their formation, are contrasted, the emphasis is expressed by accenting the syllables in which they differ. see accent, page . examples. ( ) . what is the difference between probability and possibility? . learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss. . john attends regularly. william, irregularly. . there is a great difference between giving and forgiving. . the conduct of antoninus was characterized by justice and humanity; that of nero, by injustice and inhumanity. . the conduct of the former is deserving of approbation, while that of the latter merits the severest reprobation. emphasis and inflection. ( ) emphasis sometimes changes the inflection from the rising to the falling, or from the falling to the rising. for instances of the former change, see rule ii, and exception to rule iv. in the first three following examples, the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling inflection; in the last three, it is changed from the falling to the rising, by the influence of emphasis. examples. ( ) . if we have no regard for religion in youth', we ought to have respect for it in age. . if we have no regard for our own' character, we ought to regard the character of others. . if content can not remove' the disquietudes of life, it will, at least, alleviate them. . the sweetest melody and the most perfect harmony fall powerless upon the ear of one who is deaf', . it is useless to expatiate upon the beauties of nature to one who is blind', . and they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren'; but rather let them do them service. emphatic phrase. ( ) when it is desired to give to a phrase great force of expression, each word, and even the parts of a compound word, are independently emphasized. examples. ( ) . cassius. must i endure all this? brutus. all this!--ay,--more. fret, till your proud--heart--break. . what! weep you when you but behold our caesar's vesture wounded? look ye here, here is himself, marred, as you see, by traitors. . there was a time, my fellow-citizens, when the lacedaemonians were sovereign masters, both by sea and by land; while this state had not one ship--no, not--one--wall. . shall i, the conqueror of spain and gaul; and not only of the alpine nations, but of the alps themselves; shall i compare myself with this half--year--captain? . you call me misbeliever--cutthroat--dog. hath a dog--money? is it possible-- a cur can lend three--thousand--ducats? emphatic pause. ( ) a short pause is often made before or after, and sometimes both before and after, an emphatic word or phrase,--thus very much increasing the emphatic expression of the thought. examples. ( ) . may one be pardoned, and retain--the offense? in the corrupted currents of this world, offense's gilded hand may shove by--justice; and oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself buys out the law: but 't is not so--above: there--is no shuffling: there--the action lies in its true nature. . he woke to hear his sentries shriek, "to arms! they come! the greek! the greek! he woke--to die--midst flame and smoke." . this--is no flattery: these--are counselors that feelingly persuade me what i am. . and this--our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues--in tree, books--in the running brooks, sermons--in stones, and--good in everything. . heaven gave this lyre, and thus decreed, be thou a bruised--but not a broken--reed. iv. instructions for reading verse. ( ) inflections. in reading verse, the inflections should be nearly the same as in reading prose; the chief difference is, that in poetry, the monotone and rising inflection are more frequently used than in prose. the greatest difficulty in reading this species of composition, consists in giving it that measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a chanting pronunciation. if, at any time, the reader is in doubt as to the proper inflection, let him reduce the passage to earnest conversation, and pronounce it in the most familiar and prosaic manner, and thus he will generally use the proper inflection. exercises in inflection. ( ) . meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings wide hovering', all the clouds together drove from under heaven': the hills to their supply', vapor and exhalation dusk and moist sent up amain': and now, the thickened sky like a dark ceiling stood': down rushed the rain impetuous', and continued till the earth no more was seen': the floating vessel swam uplifted', and, secure with beake'd prow', rode tilting o'er the waves'. . my friend', adown life's valley', hand in hand', with grateful change of grave and merry speech or song', our hearts unlocking each to each', we'll journey onward to the silent land'; and when stern death shall loose that loving band, taking in his cold hand, a hand of ours', the one shall strew the other's grave with flowers', nor shall his heart a moment be unmanned'. my friend and brother'! if thou goest first', wilt thou no more revisit me below'? yea, when my heart seems happy causelessly', and swells', not dreaming why', my soul shall know that thou', unseen', art bending over me'. . here rests his head upon the lap of earth', a youth, to fortune and to fame unknown'; fair science frowned not on his humble birth', and melancholy marked him for her own'. . large was his bounty', and his soul sincere', heaven did a recompense as largely send'; he gave to misery (all he had) a tear', he gained from heaven' ('t was all he wished') a friend'. . no further seek his merits to disclose', or draw his frailties from their dread abode'; (there they alike' in trembling hope repose',) the bosom of his father, and his god'. accent and emphasis. ( ) in reading verse, every syllable must have the same accent, and every word the same emphasis as in prose; and whenever the melody or music of the verse would lead to an incorrect accent or emphasis, this must be disregarded. if a poet has made his verse deficient in melody, this must not be remedied by the reader, at the expense of sense or the established rules of accent and quantity. take the following: example. ( ) o'er shields, and helms, and helme'd heads he rode, of thrones, and mighty seraphim prostrate according to the metrical accent, the last word must be pronounced "pros-trate'." but according to the authorized pronunciation it is "pros'trate. which shall yield, the poet or established usage? certainly not the latter. some writers advise a compromise of the matter, and that the word should he pronounced without accenting either syllable. sometimes this may be done, but where it is not practiced, the prosaic reading should be preserved. in the following examples, the words and syllables which are improperly accented or emphasized in the poetry, are marked in italics. according to the principle stated above, the reader should avoid giving them that pronunciation which the correct rending of the poetry would require, but should read them as prose, except where he can throw off all accent and thus compromise the conflict between the poetic reading and the correct reading. that is, he must read the poetry wrong, in order to read the language right. examples. ( ) . ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made taller and stronger than the weeds they shade. . their praise is still, "the style is excellent," the sense they humbly take upon content. . false eloquence, like the prismatic glass, its fairy colors spreads on every place. . to do aught good, never will be our task, but ever to do ill is our sole delight. . of all the causes which combine to blind man's erring judgment, and mislead the mind, what the weak head with strongest bias rules is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. . eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, and catch the manners living as they rise. . to whom then, first incensed, adam replied, "is this thy love, is this the recompense of mine to thee, ungrateful eve?" . we may, with more successful hope, resolve to wage, by force or guile, successful war, irreconcilable to our grand foe, who now triumphs, and in excess of joy sole reigning holds the tyranny of heaven. . which, when beelzebub perceived (than whom, satan except, none higher sat), with grave aspect, he rose, and in his rising seemed a pillar of state. . thee, sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, that wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow, nightly i visit: nor sometimes forget, those other two equaled with me in fate. note.--although it would be necessary, in these examples, to violate the laws of accent or emphasis, to give perfect rhythm, yet a careful and well-trained reader will be able to observe these laws and still give the rhythm in such a manner that the defect will scarcely be noticed. poetic pauses. ( ) in order to make the measure of poetry perceptible to the ear, there should generally be a slight pause at the end of each line, even where the sense does not require it. there is, also, in almost every line of poetry, a pause at or near its middle, which is called the caesura. this should, however, never be so placed as to injure the sense of the passage. it is indeed reckoned a great beauty, where it naturally coincides with the pause required by the sense. the caesura, though generally placed near the middle, may be placed at other intervals. there are sometimes, also, two additional pauses in each line, called demi-caesuras. the caesura is marked (||), and the demi-caesura thus, (|), in the examples given. there should be a marked accent upon the long syllable next preceding the caesura, and a slighter one upon that next before each of the demi-caesuras. when made too prominent, these pauses lead to a singsong style, which should be carefully avoided. in the following examples, the caesura is marked in each line; the demi-caesura is not marked in every case. examples. ( ) . nature | to all things || fixed | the limits fit, and wisely | curbed || proud man's | pretending wit. . then from his closing eyes || thy form shall part, and the last pang || shall tear thee from his heart. . warms in the sun, || refreshes in the breeze, glows in the stars, || and blossoms in the trees. . there is a land || of every land the pride, beloved by heaven || o'er all the world beside, where brighter suns || dispense serener light, and milder moons || imparadise the night; oh, thou shalt find, || howe'er thy footsteps roam, that land--thy country, || and that spot--thy home. . in slumbers | of midnight || the sailor | boy lay; his hammock | swung loose || at the sport | of the wind; but, watch-worn | and weary, || his cares | flew away, and visions | of happiness || danced | o'er his mind. . she said, | and struck; || deep entered | in her side the piercing steel, || with reeking purple dyed: clogged | in the wound || the cruel | weapon stands, the spouting blood || came streaming o'er her hands. her sad attendants || saw the deadly stroke, and with loud cries || the sounding palace shook. simile. ( ) simile is the likening of anything to another object of a different class; it is a poetical or imaginative comparison. a simile, in poetry, should usually he read in a lower key and more rapidly than other parts of the passage--somewhat as a parenthesis is read. examples. ( ) . part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal with rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form. as when, to warn proud cities, war appears, waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush to battle in the clouds. others with vast typhoean rage more fell, rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air in whirlwind. hell scarce holds the wild uproar. as when alcides felt the envenomed robe, and tore, through pain, up by the roots, thessialian pines, and lichas from the top of oeta threw into the euboic sea. . each at the head, leveled his deadly aim; their fatal hands no second stroke intend; and such a frown each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds, with heaven's artillery fraught, came rolling on over the caspian, there stand front to front, hovering a space, till winds the signal blow to join the dark encounter, in mid-air: so frowned the mighty combatants. . then pleased and thankful from the porch they go and, but the landlord, none had cause of woe: his cup was vanished; for, in secret guise, the younger guest purloined the glittering prize. as one who spies a serpent in his way, glistening and basking in the summer ray, disordered, stops to shun the danger near, then walks with faintness on, and looks with fear,-- so seemed the sire, when, far upon the road, the shining spoil his wily partner showed. v. the voice. ( ) pitch and compass. the natural pitch of the voice is its keynote, or governing note. it is that on which the voice usually dwells, and to which it most frequently returns when wearied. it is also the pitch used in conversation, and the one which a reader or speaker naturally adopts--when he reads or speaks-- most easily and agreeably. the compass of the voice is its range above and below this pitch. to avoid monotony in reading or speaking, the voice should rise above or fall below this keynote, but always with reference to the sense or character of that which is read or spoken. the proper natural pitch is that above and below which there is most room for variation. to strengthen the voice and increase its compass, select a short sentence, repeat it several times in succession in as low a key as the voice can sound naturally; then rise one note higher, and practice on that key, then another, and so on, until the highest pitch of the voice has been reached. next, reverse the process, until the lowest pitch has been reached. examples in pitch ( ) high pitch. note.--be careful to distinguish pitch from power in the following exercise. speaking in the open air, at the very top of the voice, is an exercise admirably adapted to strengthen the voice and give it compass, and should be frequently practiced. . charge'! chester" charge'! on'! stanley, on'! . a horse'! a horse'! my kingdom' for a horse'! . jump far out', boy' into the wave'! jump', or i fire'! . run'! run'! run for your lives! . fire'! fire'! fire'! ring the bell'! . gentlemen may cry peace'! peace'! but there is no peace! . rouse' ye romans! rouse' ye slaves'! have ye brave sons'? look in the next fierce brawl to see them die'. have ye fair daughters'? look to see them live, torn from your arms', distained', dishonored', and if ye dare call for justice', be answered by the lash'! medium pitch. ( ) note.--this is the pitch in which we converse. to strengthen it, we should read or speak in it as loud as possible, without rising to a higher key. to do this requires long-continued practice. . under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands'; the smith, a mighty man is he, with large and sinewy hands'; and the muscles of his brawny arms are strong as iron bands. . there is something in the thunder's voice that makes me tremble like a child. i have tried to conquer' this unmanly weakness'. i have called pride' to my aid'; i have sought for moral courage in the lessons of philosophy', but it avails me nothing'. at the first moaning of the distant cloud, my heart shrinks and dies within me. . he taught the scholars the rule of three', reading, and writing, and history', too'; he took the little ones on his knee', for a kind old heart in his breast had he', and the wants of the littlest child he knew'. "learn while you're young'," he often said', "there is much to enjoy down here below'; life for the living', and rest for the dead'," said the jolly old pedagogue' long ago'. low pitch. ( ) . o, proper stuff! this is the very painting of your fear: this is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, led you to duncan. o, these flaws and starts, impostors to true fear, would well become a woman's story at a winter's fire. authorized by her grandam. . thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward! thou little valiant, great in villainy! thou ever strong upon the stronger side! thou fortune's champion, thou dost never fight but when her humorous ladyship is by to teach thee safety! thou art perjured too, and sooth'st up greatness. what a fool art thou, a ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and sweat, upon my party! thou cold-blooded slave! . god! thou art mighty! at thy footstool bound, lie, gazing to thee, chance, and life, and death; nor in the angel circle flaming round, nor in the million worlds that blaze beneath, is one that can withstand thy wrath's hot breath. woe, in thy frown: in thy smile, victory: hear my last prayer! i ask no mortal wreath; let but these eyes my rescued country see, then take my spirit, all omnipotent, to thee. . o thou eternal one! whose presence bright all space doth occupy, all motion guide, unchanged through time's all-devastating blight! thou only god, there is no god beside! being above all things, mighty one, whom none can comprehend and none explore; who fill'st existence with thyself alone,-- embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er,-- being whom we call god, and know no more! quantity and quality. ( ) quantity, in reading and speaking, means the length of time occupied in uttering a syllable or a word. sounds and syllables vary greatly in quantity. some are long, some short, and others intermediate between those which are long or short. some sounds, also, may be prolonged or shortened in utterance to any desired extent. quantity may be classified as long, medium, or short. directions for practice on long quantity.--select some word of one syllable ending with a long vocal or a subvocal sound; pronounce it many times in succession, increasing the quantity at each repetition, until you can dwell upon it any desired length of time, without drawling, and in a natural tone. remark.--practice in accordance with this direction will enable the pupil to secure that fullness and roundness of voice which is exemplified in the hailing of a ship, "ship aho--y;" in the reply of the sailor, when, in the roar of the storm, he answers his captain, "ay--e. ay--e;" and in the command of the officer to his troops, when, amid the thunder of artillery, he gives the order, "ma--rch," or "ha--lt." this fullness or roundness of tone is secured, by dwelling on the vocal sound, and indefinitely protracting it, the mouth should be opened wide, the tongue kept down, and the aperture left as round and as free for the voice as possible. it is this artificial rotundity which, in connection with a distinct articulation, enables one who speaks in the open air, or in a very large apartment, to send his voice to the most distant point. it is a certain degree of this quality, which distinguishes declamatory or public speaking or reading from private conversation, and no one can accomplish much, as a public speaker, without cultivating it. it must be carefully distinguished from the "high tone," which is an elevation of pitch, and from "loudness." or "strength" of voice. it will be observed that clearness and distinctness of utterance are secured by a proper use of the subvocals and aspirates--these sounds giving to words their shape, as it were; but a clear, full, and well-modulated utterance of the vocals gives to words their fullness. long quantity. ( ) . liberty! freedom! tyranny is dead! . woe, woe, to the inhabitants of jerusalem! . o righteous heaven! ere freedom found a grave, why slept the sword, omnipotent to save? where was thine arm, o vengeance! where thy rod, that smote the foes of zion and of god? . o sailor boy! sailor boy! never again shall home, love, or kindred thy wishes repay; unblessed and unhonored, down deep in the main, full many a fathom, thy frame shall decay. . o lord, our lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens! when i consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. thou madest him to have dominion over the work of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. o lord, our lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! medium quantity. ( ) . between nose and eyes a strange contest arose; the spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong; the point in dispute was, as all the world knows, to which the said spectacles ought to belong. . bird of the broad and sweeping wing! thy home is high in heaven, where the wide storms their banners fling, and the tempest clouds are driven. . at midnight, in his guarded tent, the turk lay dreaming of the hour when greece, her knee in suppliance bent, should tremble at his power. . on new year's night, an old man stood at his window, and looked, with a glance of fearful despair, up the immovable, unfading heaven, and down upon the still, pure, white earth, on which no one was now so joyless and sleepless as he. short quantity. ( ) . quick! or he faints! stand with the cordial near! . back to thy punishment, false fugitive! . fret till your proud heart breaks! must i observe you? must i crouch beneath your testy humor? . up drawbridge, grooms! what, warder, ho! let the portcullis fall! . quick, man the lifeboat! see yon bark, that drives before the blast! there's a rock ahead, the fog is dark, and the storm comes thick and fast. . i am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, perhaps, i may have some ambition to please this gentleman, i shall not by myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction, or his mien, however matured by age or modeled by experience. movement. ( ) movement is the rapidity with which the voice moves in reading and speaking. it varies with the nature of the thought or sentiment to be expressed, and should be increased or diminished as good taste may determine. with pupils generally, the tendency is to read too fast. the result is, reading or speaking in too high a key and an unnatural style of delivery--both of which faults are difficult to be corrected when once formed. the kinds of movement are slow, moderate, and quick. directions.--read a selection as slowly us possible, without drawling. read it again and again, increasing the rate of movement at each reading, until it can be read no faster without the utterance becoming indistinct. reverse this process, reading more and more slowly at each repetition, until the slowest movement is obtained. slow movement. ( ) . oh that those lips had language! life has passed with me but roughly, since i heard them last. . a tremulous sigh from the gentle night wind through the forest leaves slowly is creeping, while stars up above, with their glittering eyes, keep guard; for the army is sleeping. . o lord'! have mercy upon us, miserable offenders'! . so live, that when thy summons comes to join the innumerable caravan that moves to the pale realms of shade, where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death, thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. moderate movement. ( ) . the good', the brave', the beautiful', how dreamless' is their sleep, where rolls the dirge-like music' of the over-tossing deep'! or where the surging night winds pale winter's robes have spread above the narrow palaces, in the cities of the dead'! . lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time. . cast your eyes over this extensive country. observe the salubrity of your climate, the variety and fertility of your soil; and see that soil intersected in every quarter by bold, navigable streams, flowing to the east and to the west, as if the finger of heaven were marking out the course of your settlements, inviting you to enterprise, and pointing the way to wealth. quick movement. ( ) . awake'! arise'! or be forever fallen. . merrily swinging on brier and weed, near to the nest of his little dame, over the mountain side or mead, robert of lincoln is telling his name. . not a word to each other; we kept the great pace-- neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; i turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, then shortened each stirrup and set the pique right, rebuckled the check strap, chained slacker the bit, nor galloped less steadily roland a whit. . oh my dear uncle, you don't know the effect of a fine spring morning upon a fellow just arrived from russia. the day looked bright, trees budding, birds singing, the park so gay, that i took a leap out of your balcony, made your deer fly before me like the wind, and chased them all around the park to get an appetite for breakfast, while you were snoring in bed, uncle. quality.--we notice a difference between the soft, insinuating tones of persuasion; the full, strong voice of command and decision; the harsh, irregular, and sometimes grating explosion of the sounds of passion; the plaintive notes of sorrow and pity; and the equable and unimpassioned flow of words in argumentative style. this difference consists in a variation in the quality of the voice by which it is adapted to the character of the thought or sentiment read or spoken. in our attempts to imitate nature, however, it is important that all affectation be avoided, for perfect monotony is preferable to this fault. the tones of the voice should be made to correspond with the nature of the subject, without apparent effort. examples. ( ) passion and grief "come back! come back!" he cried, in grief, "across this stormy water; and i'll forgive your highland chief, my daughter! o, my daughter!" plaintive i have lived long enough: my way of life is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf: and that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, i must not look to have. calm a very great portion of this globe is covered with water, which is called sea, and is very distinct from rivers and lakes. fierce anger burned marmion's swarthy cheek like fire, and shook his very frame for ire; and--"this to me!" he said,-- "an 't were not for thy hoary beard, such hand as marmion's had not spared to cleave the douglas' head! loud and explosive "even in thy pitch of pride, here, in thy hold, thy vassals near, i tell thee, thou 'rt defied! and if thou said'st i am not peer to any lord in scotland here, lowland or highland, far or near, lord angus, thou hast lied!" vi. gesture. ( ) gesture is that part of the speaker's manner which pertains to his attitude, to the use and carriage of his person, and the movement of his limbs in delivery. every person, in beginning to speak, feels the natural embarrassment resulting from his new position. the novelty of the situation destroys his self-possession, and, with the loss of that, he becomes awkward, his arms and hands hang clumsily, and now, for the first time, seem to him worse than superfluous members. this embarrassment will be overcome gradually, as the speaker becomes familiar with his position; and it is sometimes overcome at once, by a powerful exercise of the attention upon the matter of the speech. when that fills and possesses the mind, the orator is likely to take the attitude which is becoming, and, at least, easy and natural, if not graceful. st. the first general direction that should be given to the speaker is, that he should stand erect and firm, and in that posture which gives an expanded chest and full play to the organs of respiration and utterance. d. let the attitude be such that it can be shifted easily and gracefully. the student will find, by trial, that no attitude is so favorable to this end as that in which the weight of the body is thrown upon one leg, leaving the other free to be advanced or thrown back, as fatigue or the proper action of delivery may require. the student who has any regard to grace or elegance, will of course avoid all the gross faults which are so common among public speakers, such as resting one foot upon a stool or bench, or throwing the body forward upon the support of the rostrum. d. next to attitude, come the movements of the person and limbs. in these, two objects are to be observed, and, if possible, combined, viz., propriety and grace. there is expression in the extended arm, the clinched hand, the open palm, and the smiting of the breast. but let no gesture be made that is not in harmony with the thought or sentiment uttered; for it is this harmony which constitutes propriety. as far as possible, let there be a correspondence between the style of action and the train of thought. where the thought flows on calmly, let there be grace and ease in gesture and action. where the style is sharp and abrupt, there is propriety in quick, short, and abrupt gesticulation. especially avoid that ungraceful sawing of the air with the arms, into which all ill-regulated fervor betrays many young speakers. what is called graceful manner, can only be attained by those who have some natural advantages of person. so far as it is in the reach of study or practice, it seems to depend chiefly upon the general cultivation of manners, implying freedom from all embarrassments, and entire self-possession. the secret of acquiring a graceful style of gesture, we apprehend, lies in the habitual practice, not only when speaking but at all times, of free and graceful movements of the limbs. there is no limb nor feature which the accomplished speaker will not employ with effect, in the course of a various and animated delivery. the arms, however, are the chief reliance of the orator in gesture; and it will not be amiss to give a hint or two in reference to their proper use. first--it is not an uncommon fault to use one arm exclusively, and to give that a uniform movement. such movement may, sometimes, have become habitual from one's profession or employment; but in learners, also, there is often a predisposition to this fault. second--it is not unusual to see a speaker use only the lower half of his arm. this always gives a stiff and constrained manner to delivery. let the whole arm move, and let the movement be free and flowing. third--as a general rule, let the hand be open, with the fingers slightly curved. it then seems liberal, communicative, and candid; and, in some degree, gives that expression to the style of delivery. of course there are passages which require the clinched hand, the pointed finger, etc., etc.; but these are used to give a particular expression. fourth--in the movements of the arm, study variety and the grace of curved lines. when a gesture is made with one arm only, the eye should be cast in the direction of that arm; not at it, but over it. all speakers employ, more or less, the motions of the head. in reference to that member, we make but one observation. avoid the continuous shaking and bobbing of the head, which is so conspicuous in the action of many ambitious public speakers. the beauty and force of all gesture consist in its timely, judicious, and natural employment, when it can serve to illustrate the meaning or give emphasis to the force of an important passage. the usual fault of young speakers is too much action. to emphasize all parts alike, is equivalent to no emphasis; and by employing forcible gestures on unimportant passages, we diminish our power to render other parts impressive. elocution and reading. ( ) the business of training youth in elocution, must be commenced in childhood. the first school is the nursery. there, at least, may be formed a distinct articulation, which is the first requisite for good speaking. how rarely is it found in perfection among our orators. "words," says one, referring to articulation, should "be delivered out from the lips, as beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint; deeply and accurately impressed, perfectly finished; neatly struck by the proper organs, distinct, in due succession, and of due weight." how rarely do we hear a speaker whose tongue, teeth, and lips, do their office so perfectly as to answer to this beautiful description! and the common faults in articulation, it should be remembered, take their rise from the very nursery. grace in eloquence, in the pulpit, at the bar, can not be separated from grace in the ordinary manners, in private life, in the social circle, in the family. it can not well be superinduced upon all the other acquisitions of youth, any more than that nameless, but invaluable, quality called good breeding. begin, therefore, the work of forming the orator with the child; not merely by teaching him to declaim, but what is of more consequence, by observing and correcting his daily manners, motions, and attitudes. you can say, when he comes into your apartment, or presents you with something, a book or letter, in an awkward and blundering manner, "return, and enter this room again," or, "present me that book in a different manner," or, "put yourself in a different attitude." you can explain to him the difference between thrusting or pushing out his hand and arm, in straight lines and at acute angles, and moving them in flowing circular lines, and easy graceful action. he will readily understand you. nothing is more true than that the motions of children are originally graceful; it is by suffering them to be perverted, that we lay the foundation of invincible awkwardness in later life. in schools for children, it ought to be a leading object to teach the art of reading. it ought to occupy threefold more time than it does. the teachers of these schools should labor to improve themselves. they should feel that to them, for a time, are committed the future orators of the land. it is better that a girl should return from school a first-rate reader, than a first-rate performer on the pianoforte. the accomplishment, in its perfection, would give more pleasure. the voice of song is not sweeter than the voice of eloquence; and there may be eloquent readers, as well as eloquent speakers. we speak of perfection in this art: and it is something, we must say in defense of our preference, which we have never yet seen. let the same pains be devoted to reading, as are required to form an accomplished performer on an instrument; let us have, as the ancients had, the formers of the voice, the music masters of the reading voice; let us see years devoted to this accomplishment, and then we should be prepared to stand the comparison. reading is indeed, a most intellectual accomplishment. so is music, too, in its perfection. we do by no means undervalue this noble and most delightful art, to which socrates applied himself even in his old age. but one recommendation of the art of reading is, that it requires a constant exercise of mind. it involves, in its perfection, the whole art of criticism on language. a man may possess a fine genius without being a perfect reader; but he can not be a perfect reader without genius. on modulation. ( ) from lloyd. 't is not enough the voice' be sound and clear', 't is modulation' that must charm the ear. when desperate heroes grieve with tedious moan, and whine their sorrows in a seesaw tone, the same soft sounds of unimpassioned woes, can only make the yawning hearers doze. the voice all modes of passion can express that marks the proper word with proper stress: but none emphatic can that speaker call, who lays an equal emphasis on all. some o'er the tongue the labored measure roll, slow and deliberate as the parting toll; point every stop, mark every pause so strong, their words like stage processions stalk along. all affectation but creates disgust; and e'en in speaking, we may seem too just. in vain for them' the pleasing measure flows, whose recitation runs it all to prose: repeating what the poet sets not down, the verb disjointing from its favorite noun, while pause, and break, and repetition join to make it discord in each tuneful line'. some' placid natures fill the allotted scene with lifeless drawls, insipid and serene; while others' thunder every couplet o'er, and almost crack your ears with rant and roar; more nature oft, and finer strokes are shown in the low whisper than tempestuous tone; and hamlet's hollow voice and fixed amaze, more powerful terror to the mind conveys than he, who, swollen with impetuous rage, bullies the bulky phantom of the stage. he who, in earnest studies o'er his part, will find true nature cling about his heart. the modes of grief are not included all in the white handkerchief and mournful drawl: a single look' more marks the internal woe, than all the windings of the lengthened oh'! mcguffey's sixth reader. ( ) mcguffey's sixth reader. ( ) selections for reading. i. anecdote of the duke of newcastle. a laughable story was circulated during the administration of the old duke of newcastle, and retailed to the public in various forms. this nobleman, with many good points, was remarkable for being profuse of his promises on all occasions, and valued himself particularly on being able to anticipate the words or the wants of the various persons who attended his levees, before they uttered a word. this sometimes led him into ridiculous embarrassment; and it was this proneness to lavish promises, which gave occasion for the following anecdote: at the election of a certain borough in cornwall, where the opposite interests were almost equally poised, a single vote was of the highest importance. this object the duke, by well applied argument and personal application, at length attained; and the gentleman he recommended, gained the election. in the warmth of gratitude, his grace poured forth acknowledgments and promises without ceasing, on the fortunate possessor of the casting vote; called him his best and dearest friend; protested, that he should consider himself as forever indebted to him; and that he would serve him by night or by day. the cornish voter, who was an honest fellow, and would not have thought himself entitled to any reward, but for such a torrent of acknowledgments, thanked the duke for his kindness, and told him the supervisor of excise was old and infirm, and, if he would have the goodness to recommend his son-in-law to the commissioners, in case of the old man's death, he should think himself and his family bound to render his grace every assistance in their power, on any future occasion. "my dear friend, why do you ask for such a trifling employment?" exclaimed his grace; "your relative shall have it the moment the place is vacant, if you will but call my attention to it." "but how shall i get admitted to you, my lord? for in london, i understand, it is a very difficult business to get a sight of you great folks, though you are so kind and complaisant to us in the country." "the instant the man dies," replied the duke, "set out posthaste for london; drive directly to my house, and, be it by night or by day, thunder at the door; i will leave word with my porter to show you upstairs directly; and the employment shall be disposed of according to your wishes." the parties separated; the duke drove to a friend's house in the neighborhood, without a wish or desire to see his new acquaintance till that day seven years; but the memory of the cornish elector, not being burdened with such a variety of objects, was more retentive. the supervisor died a few months after, and the duke's humble friend, relying on the word of a peer, was conveyed to london posthaste, and ascended with alacrity the steps of that nobleman's palace. the reader should be informed, that just at this time, no less a person than the king of spain was expected hourly to depart this life, an event in which the minister of great britain was particularly concerned; and the duke of newcastle, on the very night that the proprietor of the decisive vote arrived at his door, had sat up anxiously expecting dispatches from madrid. wearied by official business and agitated spirits, he retired to rest, having previously given particular instructions to his porter not to go to bed, as he expected every minute a messenger with advices of the greatest importance, and desired that he might be shown upstairs, the moment of his arrival. his grace was sound asleep; and the porter, settled for the night in his armchair, had already commenced a sonorous nap, when the vigorous arm of the cornish voter roused him from his slumbers. to his first question, "is the duke at home?" the porter replied, "yes, and in bed; but has left particular orders that, come when you will, you are to go up to him directly." "bless him, for a worthy and honest gentleman," cried our applicant for the vacant post, smiling and nodding with approbation at the prime minister's kindness, "how punctual his grace is; i knew he would not deceive me; let me hear no more of lords and dukes not keeping their words; i verily believe they are as honest, and mean as well as any other folks." having ascended the stairs as he was speaking, he was ushered into the duke's bedchamber. "is he dead?" exclaimed his grace, rubbing his eyes, and scarcely awakened from dreaming of the king of spain, "is he dead?" "yes, my lord," replied the eager expectant, delighted to find the election promise, with all its circumstances, so fresh in the nobleman's memory. "when did he die?" "the day before yesterday, exactly at half past one o'clock, after being confined three weeks to his bed, and taking a power of doctor's stuff; and i hope your grace will be as good as your word, and let my son-in-law succeed him." the duke, by this time perfectly awake, was staggered at the impossibility of receiving intelligence from madrid in so short a space of time; and perplexed at the absurdity of a king's messenger applying for his son-in-law to succeed the king of spain: "is the man drunk, or mad? where are your dispatches?" exclaimed his grace, hastily drawing back his curtain; where, instead of a royal courier, he recognized at the bedside, the fat, good-humored countenance of his friend from cornwall, making low bows, with hat in hand, and "hoping my lord would not forget the gracious promise he was so good as to make, in favor of his son-in-law, at the last election." vexed at so untimely a disturbance, and disappointed of news from spain, the duke frowned for a moment; but chagrin soon gave way to mirth, at so singular and ridiculous a combination of circumstances, and, yielding to the impulse, he sunk upon the bed in a violent fit of laughter, which was communicated in a moment to the attendants. the relater of this little narrative, concludes, with observing, "although the duke of newcastle could not place the relative of his old acquaintance on the throne of his catholic majesty, he advanced him to a post not less honorable--he made him an exciseman." --blackwood's magazine. [illustration: bedroom: the duke is startled awake, sitting up in bed with distressed look on his face. a servant is holding a candlestick. a third man is slightly bowed and holding his hat in his hands. the duke's sword rests against a chair at the foot of the bed.] notes.--duke of newcastle.--thomas holles pelham (b. , d. ), one of the chief ministers of state in the reign of george ii. of england. cornwall.--a county forming the extreme southwestern part of england. king of spain.--ferdinand vi. was then the king of spain. he died in . his catholic majesty, a title applied to the kings of spain; first given to alfonso i. by pope gregory iii. in . ii. the needle. ( ) the gay belles of fashion may boast of excelling in waltz or cotillon, at whist or quadrille; and seek admiration by vauntingly telling of drawing, and painting, and musical skill: but give me the fair one, in country or city, whose home and its duties are dear to her heart, who cheerfully warbles some rustical ditty, while plying the needle with exquisite art: the bright little needle, the swift-flying needle, the needle directed by beauty and art. if love have a potent, a magical token, a talisman, ever resistless and true, a charm that is never evaded or broken, a witchery certain the heart to subdue, 't is this; and his armory never has furnished so keen and unerring, or polished a dart; let beauty direct it, so polished and burnished, and oh! it is certain of touching the heart: the bright little needle, the swift-flying needle, the needle directed by beauty and art. be wise, then, ye maidens, nor seek admiration, by dressing for conquest, and flirting with all; you never, whate'er be your fortune or station, appear half so lovely at rout or at ball, as gayly convened at the work-covered table, each cheerfully active, playing her part, beguiling the task with a song or a fable, and plying the needle with exquisite art: the bright little needle, the swift-flying needle, the needle directed by beauty and art. --samuel woodworth. iii. dawn. ( ) edward everett, - . he was born at dorchester, mass., now a part of boston, and graduated from harvard college with the highest honors of his class, at the age of seventeen. while yet in college, he had quite a reputation as a brilliant writer. before he was twenty years of age, he was settled as pastor over the brattle street church, in boston, and at once became famous as an eloquent preacher. in , he was elected professor of greek literature in his alma mater; and, in order to prepare himself for the duties of his office, he entered on an extended course of travel in europe. he edited the "north american review," in addition to the labors of his professorship, after he returned to america. in , mr. everett was elected to congress, and held his seat in the house for ten years. he was governor of his native state from to . in , he was appointed minister to england. on his return, in , he was chosen president of harvard university, and held the office for three years. in , he was appointed secretary of state. february , , he delivered, in boston, his celebrated lecture on washington. this lecture was afterwards delivered in most of the principal cities and towns in the united states. the proceeds were devoted to the purchase of mt. vernon. in , he was a candidate for the vice presidency of the united states, he is celebrated as an elegant and forcible writer, and a chaste orator. this extract, a wonderful piece of word painting, is a portion of an address on the "uses of astronomy," delivered at the inauguration of the dudley observatory, at albany, n, y, note the careful use of words, and the strong figures in the third and fourth paragraphs. ### i had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from providence to boston; and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the morning. everything around was wrapped in darkness and hushed in silence, broken only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the train. it was a mild, serene, midsummer's night,--the sky was without a cloud, the winds were whist. the moon, then in the last quarter, had just risen, and the stars shone with a spectral luster but little affected by her presence. jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of the day; the pleiades, just above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the east; lyra sparkled near the zenith; andromeda veiled her newly-discovered glories from the naked eye in the south; the steady pointers, far beneath the pole, looked meekly up from the depths of the north to their sovereign. such was the glorious spectacle as i entered the train. as we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister beams of the pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged. steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn. the blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch stars shut up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. faint streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above in one great ocean of radiance; till at length, as we reached the blue hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. in a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, began his state. i do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient magians, who, in the morning of the world, went up to the hilltops of central asia, and, ignorant of the true god, adored the most glorious work of his hand. but i am filled with amazement, when i am told, that, in this enlightened age and in the heart of the christian world, there are persons who can witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the creator, and yet say in their hearts, "there is no god." notes.--jupiter, the largest planet of the solar system, and, next to venus, the brightest. pleiades (pro. ple'ya-dez), a group of seven small stars in the constellation of taurus. lyra, androm'eda, two brilliant constellations in the northern part of the heavens. pointers, two stars of the group called the dipper, in the great bear. these stars and the polar star are nearly in the same straight line. blue hills, hills about seven hundred feet high, southwest of boston, massachusetts. magians, persian worshipers of fire and the sun, as representatives of the supreme being. iv. description of a storm. ( ) benjamin disraeli. - , was of jewish descent. his ancestors were driven out of spain by the inquisition, and went to venice. in , his grandfather came to england. his father was isaac disraeli, well known as a literary man. benjamin was born in london, and received his early education under his father. he afterwards studied for a lawyer, but soon gave up his profession for literature. his first novel, "vivian grey," appeared when the author was twenty-one years of age; it received much attention. after several defeats he succeeded in an election to parliament, and took his seat in that body, in the first year of victoria's reign. on his first attempt to speak in parliament, the house refused to hear him. it is said that, as he sat down, he remarked that the time would come when they would hear him. in , he became the leader of the conservative party in the house. during the administration of w. e. gladstone, mr. disraeli was leader of the opposition. in , he became prime minister, holding the office for a short time. in , he was again appointed to the same office, where he remained until . his wife was made viscountess of beaconsfield in . after her death, the title of earl of beaconsfield was conferred on disraeli. he ranked among the most eminent, statesmen of the age, but always devoted a portion of his time to literature. "lothair," a novel, was published in . ### * * * they looked round on every side, and hope gave way before the scene of desolation. immense branches were shivered from the largest trees; small ones were entirely stripped of their leaves; the long grass was bowed to the earth; the waters were whirled in eddies out of the little rivulets; birds, leaving their nests to seek shelter in the crevices of the rocks, unable to stem the driving air, flapped their wings and fell upon the earth; the frightened animals of the plain, almost suffocated by the impetuosity of the wind, sought safety and found destruction; some of the largest trees were torn up by the roots; the sluices of the mountains were filled, and innumerable torrents rushed down the before empty gullies. the heavens now open, and the lightning and thunder contend with the horrors of the wind. in a moment, all was again hushed. dead silence succeeded the bellow of the thunder, the roar of the wind, the rush of the waters, the moaning of the beasts, the screaming of the birds. nothing was heard save the plash of the agitated lake, as it beat up against the black rocks which girt it in. again, greater darkness enveloped the trembling earth. anon, the heavens were rent with lightning, which nothing could have quenched but the descending deluge. cataracts poured down from the lowering firmament. for an instant, the horses dashed madly forward; beast and rider blinded and stifled by the gushing rain, and gasping for breath. shelter was nowhere. the quivering beasts reared, and snorted, and sank upon their knees, dismounting their riders. he had scarcely spoken, when there burst forth a terrific noise, they knew not what; a rush, they could not understand; a vibration which shook them on their horses. every terror sank before the roar of the cataract. it seemed that the mighty mountain, unable to support its weight of waters, shook to the foundation. a lake had burst upon its summit, and the cataract became a falling ocean. the source of the great deep appeared to be discharging itself over the range of mountains; the great gray peak tottered on its foundation!--it shook!--it fell! and buried in its ruins the castle, the village, and the bridge! v. after the thunderstorm. ( ) james thomson, - , the son of a clergyman, was born in scotland. he studied at the university of edinburgh, and intended to follow the profession of his father, but never entered upon the duties of the sacred office. in he went to london, where he spent most of his subsequent life. he had shown some poetical talent when it boy; and, in , he published "winter," a part of a longer poem, entitled "the seasons," the best known of all his works. he also wrote several plays for the stage; none of them, however, achieved any great success. in the last year of his life, he published his "castle of indolence," the most famous of his works excepting "the seasons." thomson was heavy and dull in his personal appearance, and was indolent in his habits. the moral tone of his writings is always good. this extract is from "the seasons." ### as from the face of heaven the shattered clouds tumultuous rove, the interminable sky sublimer swells, and o'er the world expands a purer azure. through the lightened air a higher luster and a clearer calm, diffusive, tremble; while, as if in sign of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, set off abundant by the yellow ray, invests the fields; and nature smiles revived. 't is beauty all, and grateful song around, joined to the low of kine, and numerous bleat of flocks thick-nibbling through the clovered vale: and shall the hymn be marred by thankless man, most favored; who, with voice articulate, should lead the chorus of this lower world? shall man, so soon forgetful of the hand that hushed the thunder, and serenes the sky, extinguished fed that spark the tempest waked, that sense of powers exceeding far his own, ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears? vi. house cleaning. ( ) francis hopkinson, - . he was the son of an englishman; born in philadelphia, and was educated at the college of that city, now the university of pennsylvania. he represented new jersey in the congress of , and was one of the signers of the declaration of independence. he was one of the most sensible and elegant writers of his time, and distinguished himself both in prose and verse. his lighter writings abound in humor and keen satire; his more solid writings are marked by clearness and good sense. his pen did much to forward the cause of american independence. his "essay on whitewashing," from which the following extract is taken, was mistaken for the composition of dr. franklin, and published among his writings, it was originally in the form of "a letter from a gentleman in america to his friend in europe, on whitewashing." ### there is no season of the year in which the lady may not, if she pleases, claim her privilege; but the latter end of may is generally fixed upon for the purpose. the attentive husband may judge, by certain prognostics, when the storm is at hand. if the lady grows uncommonly fretful, finds fault with the servants, is discontented with the children, and complains much of the nastiness of everything about her, these are symptoms which ought not to be neglected, yet they sometimes go off without any further effect. but if, when the husband rises in the morning, he should observe in the yard a wheelbarrow with a quantity of lime in it, or should see certain buckets filled with a solution of lime in water, there is no time for hesitation. he immediately locks up the apartment or closet where his papers and private property are kept, and, putting the key into his pocket, betakes himself to flight. a husband, however beloved, becomes a perfect nuisance during this season of female rage. his authority is superseded, his commission suspended, and the very scullion who cleans the brasses in the kitchen becomes of more importance than he. he has nothing for it but to abdicate for a time, and run from an evil which he can neither prevent nor mollify. the husband gone, the ceremony begins. the walls are stripped of their furniture--paintings, prints, and looking-glasses lie huddled in heaps about the floors; the curtains are torn from their testers, the beds crammed into windows, chairs and tables, bedsteads and cradles, crowd the yard, and the garden fence bends beneath the weight of carpets, blankets, cloth cloaks, old coats, under petticoats, and ragged breeches. here may be seen the lumber of the kitchen, forming a dark and confused mass for the foreground of the picture; gridirons and frying pans, rusty shovels and broken tongs, joint stools, and the fractured remains of rush-bottomed chairs. there a closet has disgorged its bowels--riveted plates and dishes, halves of china bowls, cracked tumblers, broken wineglasses, phials of forgotten physic, papers of unknown powders, seeds and dried herbs, tops of teapots, and stoppers of departed decanters--from the rag hole in the garret, to the rat hole in the cellar, no place escapes unrummaged. it would seem as if the day of general doom had come, and the utensils of the house were dragged forth to judgment. in this tempest, the words of king lear unavoidably present themselves, and might, with little alteration, be made strictly applicable. "let the great gods, that keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, find out their enemies now. tremble, thou wretch, that hast within thee undivulged crimes unwhipp'd of justice. close pent-up guilts, rive your concealing continents, and cry these dreadful summoners grace." this ceremony completed, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to smear the walls and ceilings with brushes dipped into a solution of lime, called whitewash; to pour buckets of water over every floor; and scratch all the partitions and wainscots with hard brushes, charged with soft soap and stonecutters' sand. the windows by no means escape the general deluge. a servant scrambles out upon the penthouse, at the risk of her neck, and, with a mug in her hand and a bucket within reach, dashes innumerable gallons of water against the glass panes, to the great annoyance of passengers in the street. i have been told that an action at law was once brought against one of these water nymphs, by a person who had a new suit of clothes spoiled by this operation: but after long argument, it was determined that no damages could be awarded; inasmuch as the defendant was in the exercise of a legal right, and not answerable for the consequences. and so the poor gentleman was doubly non-suited; for he lost both his suit of clothes and his suit at law. these smearings and scratchings, these washings and dashings, being duly performed, the next ceremonial is to cleanse and replace the distracted furniture. you may have seen a house raising, or a ship launch-- recollect, if you can, the hurry, bustle, confusion, and noise of such a scene, and you will have some idea of this cleansing match. the misfortune is, that the sole object is to make things clean. it matters not how many useful, ornamental, or valuable articles suffer mutilation or death under the operation. a mahogany chair and a carved frame undergo the same discipline; they are to be made clean at all events; but their preservation is not worthy of attention. for instance: a fine large engraving is laid flat upon the floor; a number of smaller prints are piled upon it, until the superincumbent weight cracks the lower glass--but this is of no importance. a valuable picture is placed leaning against the sharp corner of a table; others are made to lean against that, till the pressure of the whole forces the corner of the table through the canvas of the first. the frame and glass of a fine print are to be cleaned; the spirit and oil used on this occasion are suffered to leak through and deface the engraving--no matter. if the glass is clean and the frame shines, it is sufficient--the rest is not worthy of consideration. an able arithmetician hath made a calculation, founded on long experience, and proved that the losses and destruction incident to two white washings are equal to one removal, and three removals equal to one fire. this cleansing frolic over, matters begin to resume their pristine appearance: the storm abates, and all would be well again; but it is impossible that so great a convulsion in so small a community should pass over without producing some consequences. for two or three weeks after the operation, the family are usually afflicted with sore eyes, sore throats, or severe colds, occasioned by exhalations from wet floors and damp walls. i know a gentleman here who is fond of accounting for everything in a philosophical way. he considers this, what i call a custom, as a real periodical disease peculiar to the climate. his train of reasoning is whimsical and ingenious, but i am not at leisure to give you the detail. the result was, that he found the distemper to be incurable; but after much study, he thought he had discovered a method to divert the evil he could not subdue. for this purpose, he caused a small building, about twelve feet square, to be erected in his garden, and furnished with some ordinary chairs and tables, and a few prints of the cheapest sort. his hope was, that when the whitewashing frenzy seized the females of his family, they might repair to this apartment, and scrub, and scour, and smear to their hearts' content; and so spend the violence of the disease in this outpost, whilst he enjoyed himself in quiet at headquarters. but the experiment did not answer his expectation. it was impossible it should, since a principal part of the gratification consists in the lady's having an uncontrolled right to torment her husband at least once in every year; to turn him out of doors, and take the reins of government into her own hands. there is a much better contrivance than this of the philosopher's; which is, to cover the walls of the house with paper. this is generally done. and though it does not abolish, it at least shortens the period of female dominion. this paper is decorated with various fancies; and made so ornamental that the women have admitted the fashion without perceiving the design. there is also another alleviation to the husband's distress. he generally has the sole use of a small room or closet for his books and papers, the key of which he is allowed to keep. this is considered as a privileged place, even in the whitewashing season, and stands like the land of goshen amidst the plagues of egypt. but then he must be extremely cautious, and ever upon his guard; for, should he inadvertently go abroad and leave the key in his door, the housemaid, who is always on the watch for such an opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and brushes--takes possession of the premises, and forthwith puts an his books and papers "to rights," to his utter confusion, and sometimes serious detriment. notes.--lear.--the reference is to shakespeare's tragedy, act iii, scene . goshen.--the portion of egypt settled by jacob and his family. in the bible, exodus viii, , goshen was exempted from the plague of the flies. the teacher should ascertain that the pupils note the satire and humor of this selection. this letter was written about a hundred years ago. what word in the first paragraph that would probably not be used by an elegant writer of the present day? note the words that indicate changes in domestic customs; such as testers, joint stools, wainscots, house raising. vii. schemes of life often illusory. ( ) samuel johnson, - . this truly remarkable man was the son of a bookseller and stationer; he was born in lichfield, staffordshire, england. he entered pembroke college, oxford, in ; but, at the end of three years, his poverty compelled him to leave without taking his degree. in , he married mrs. porter, a widow of little culture, much older than himself, but possessed of some property. the marriage seems to have been a happy one, nevertheless; and, on the death of his wife, in , johnson mourned for her, most sincerely. soon after his marriage, he opened a private school, but, obtained only three pupils, one of whom was david garrick, afterward the celebrated actor. in , he removed to london, where he lived for most of the remainder of his life. here he entered upon literary work, in which he continued, and from which he derived his chief support, although at times it was but a meager one, his "vanity of human wishes" was sold for ten guineas. his great dictionary, the first one of the english language worthy of mention, brought him pounds, and occupied his time for seven years. most of the money he received for the work went to pay his six amanuenses. the other most famous of his numerous literary works are "the rambler," "rasselas," "the lives of the english poets," and his edition of shakespeare. in person, johnson was heavy and awkward; he was the victim of scrofula in his youth, and of dropsy in his old age. in manner, he was boorish and overbearing; but his great powers and his wisdom caused his company to be sought by many eminent men of his time. ### omar, the son of hassan, had passed seventy-five years in honor and prosperity. the favor of three successive caliphs had filled his house with gold and silver; and whenever he appeared, the benedictions of the people proclaimed his passage. terrestrial happiness is of short continuance, the brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors. the vigor of omar began to fail; the curls of beauty fell from his head; strength departed from his hands, and agility from his feet. he gave back to the caliph the keys of trust, and the seals of secrecy; and sought no other pleasure for the remainder of life than the converse of the wise and the gratitude of the good. the powers of his mind were yet unimpaired. his chamber was filled by visitants, eager to catch the dictates of experience, and officious to pay the tribute of admiration. caleb, the son of the viceroy of egypt, entered every day early, and retired late. he was beautiful and eloquent; omar admired his wit, and loved his docility. "tell me," said caleb, "thou to whose voice nations have listened, and whose wisdom is known to the extremities of asia, tell me, how i may resemble omar the prudent? the arts by which thou hast gained power and preserved it, are to thee no longer necessary or useful; impart to me the secret of thy conduct, and teach me the plan upon which thy wisdom has built thy fortune." "young man," said omar, "it is of little use to form plans of life. when i took my first survey of the world, in my twentieth year, having considered the various conditions of mankind, in the hour of solitude i said thus to myself, leaning against a cedar which spread its branches over my head: 'seventy years are allowed to man; i have yet fifty remaining. " 'ten years i will allot to the attainment of knowledge, and ten i will pass in foreign countries; i shall be learned, and therefore i shall be honored; every city will shout at my arrival, and every student will solicit my friendship. twenty years thus passed will store my mind with images which i shall be busy through the rest of my life in combining and comparing. i shall revel in inexhaustible accumulations of intellectual riches; i shall find new pleasures for every moment, and shall never more be weary of myself. " 'i will not, however, deviate too far from the beaten track of life; but will try what can be found in female delicacy. i will marry a wife as beautiful as the houries, and wise as zobeide; and with her i will live twenty years within the suburbs of bagdad, in every pleasure that wealth can purchase, and fancy can invent. " 'i will then retire to a rural dwelling, pass my days in obscurity and contemplation; and lie silently down on the bed of death. through my life it shall be my settled resolution, that i will never depend on the smile of princes; that i will never stand exposed to the artifices of courts; i will never pant for public honors, nor disturb my quiet with the affairs of state.' such was my scheme of life, which i impressed indelibly upon my memory. "the first part of my ensuing time was to be spent in search of knowledge, and i know not how i was diverted from my design. i had no visible impediments without, nor any ungovernable passion within. i regarded knowledge as the highest honor, and the most engaging pleasure; yet day stole upon day, and month glided after month, till i found that seven years of the first ten had vanished, and left nothing behind them. "i now postponed my purpose of traveling; for why should i go abroad, while so much remained to be learned at home? i immured myself for four years, and studied the laws of the empire. the fame of my skill reached the judges: i was found able to speak upon doubtful questions, and i was commanded to stand at the footstool of the caliph. i was heard with attention; i was consulted with confidence, and the love of praise fastened on my heart. "i still wished to see distant countries; listened with rapture to the relations of travelers, and resolved some time to ask my dismission, that i might feast my soul with novelty; but my presence was always necessary, and the stream of business hurried me along. sometimes, i was afraid lest i should be charged with ingratitude; but i still proposed to travel, and therefore would not confine myself by marriage. "in my fiftieth year, i began to suspect that the time of my traveling was past; and thought it best to lay hold on the felicity yet in my power, and indulge myself in domestic pleasures. but, at fifty, no man easily finds a woman beautiful as the houries, and wise as zobeide. i inquired and rejected, consulted and deliberated, till the sixty-second year made me ashamed of wishing to marry. i had now nothing left but retirement; and for retirement i never found a time, till disease forced me from public employment. "such was my scheme, and such has been its consequence. with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, i trifled away the years of improvement; with a restless desire of seeing different countries, i have always resided in the same city; with the highest expectation of connubial felicity, i have lived unmarried; and with an unalterable resolution of contemplative retirement, i am going to die within the walls of bagdad." notes.--bag dad'--a large city of asiatic turkey, on the river tigris. in the ninth century, it was the greatest center of moslem power and learning. zobeide (zo-bad').--a lady of bagdad, whose story is given in the "three calendars" of the "arabian nights." in this selection the form of an allegory is used to express a general truth. viii. the brave old oak. ( ) henry fothergill chorley, - . he is known chiefly as a musical critic and author; for thirty-eight years he was connected with the "london athenaeum." his books are mostly novels. ### a song to the oak, the brave old oak, who hath ruled in the greenwood long; here's health and renown to his broad green crown, and his fifty arms so strong. there's fear in his frown, when the sun goes down, and the fire in the west fades out; and he showeth his might on a wild midnight, when the storms through his branches shout. in the days of old, when the spring with cold had brightened his branches gray, through the grass at his feet, crept maidens sweet, to gather the dews of may. and on that day, to the rebec gay they frolicked with lovesome swains; they are gone, they are dead, in the churchyard laid, but the tree--it still remains. he saw rare times when the christmas chimes were a merry sound to hear, when the squire's wide hall and the cottage small were filled with good english cheer. now gold hath the sway we all obey, and a ruthless king is he; but he never shall send our ancient friend to be tossed on the stormy sea. then here's to the oak, the brave old oak, who stands in his pride alone; and still flourish he, a hale green tree, when a hundred years are gone. ix. the artist surprised. ( ) it may not be known to all the admirers of the genius of albert durer, that that famous engraver was endowed with a "better half," so peevish in temper, that she was the torment not only of his own life, but also of his pupils and domestics. some of the former were cunning enough to purchase peace for themselves by conciliating the common tyrant, but woe to those unwilling or unable to offer aught in propitiation. even the wiser ones were spared only by having their offenses visited upon a scapegoat. this unfortunate individual was samuel duhobret, a disciple whom durer had admitted into his school out of charity. he was employed in painting signs and the coarser tapestry then used in germany. he was about forty years of age, little, ugly, and humpbacked; he was the butt of every ill joke among his fellow disciples, and was picked out as an object of especial dislike by madame durer. but he bore all with patience, and ate, without complaint, the scanty crusts given him every day for dinner, while his companions often fared sumptuously. poor samuel had not a spice of envy or malice in his heart. he would, at any time, have toiled half the night to assist or serve those who were wont oftenest to laugh at him, or abuse him loudest for his stupidity. true, he had not the qualities of social humor or wit, but he was an example of indefatigable industry. he came to his studies every morning at daybreak, and remained at work until sunset. then he retired into his lonely chamber, and wrought for his own amusement. duhobret labored three years in this way, giving himself no time for exercise or recreation. he said nothing to a single human being of the paintings he had produced in the solitude of his cell, by the light of his lamp. but his bodily energies wasted and declined under incessant toil. there was none sufficiently interested in the poor artist, to mark the feverish hue of his wrinkled cheek, or the increasing attenuation of his misshapen frame. none observed that the uninviting pittance set aside for his midday repast, remained for several days untouched. samuel made his appearance regularly as ever, and bore with the same meekness the gibes of his fellow-pupils, or the taunts of madame durer, and worked with the same untiring assiduity, though his hands would sometimes tremble, and his eyes become suffused, a weakness probably owing to the excessive use he had made of them. one morning duhobret was missing at the scene of his daily labors. his absence created much remark, and many were the jokes passed upon the occasion. one surmised this, and another that, as the cause of the phenomenon; and it was finally agreed that the poor fellow must have worked himself into an absolute skeleton, and taken his final stand in the glass frame of some apothecary, or been blown away by a puff of wind, while his door happened to stand open. no on thought of going to his lodgings to look after him or his remains. meanwhile, the object of their mirth was tossing on a bed of sickness. disease, which had been slowly sapping the foundations of his strength, burned in every vein; his eyes rolled and flashed in delirium; his lips, usually so silent, muttered wild and incoherent words. in his days of health, poor duhobret had his dreams, as all artists, rich or poor, will sometimes have. he had thought that the fruit of many years' labor, disposed of to advantage, might procure him enough to live, in an economical way, for the rest of his life. he never anticipated fame or fortune; the height of his ambition or hope was, to possess a tenement large enough to shelter him from the inclemencies of the weather, with means enough to purchase one comfortable meal per day. now, alas! however, even that one hope had deserted him. he thought himself dying, and thought it hard to die without one to look kindly upon him, without the words of comfort that might soothe his passage to another world. he fancied his bed surrounded by fiendish faces, grinning at his sufferings, and taunting his inability to summon power to disperse them. at length the apparition faded away, and the patient sunk into an exhausted slumber. he awoke unrefreshed; it was the fifth day he had lain there neglected. his mouth was parched; he turned over, and feebly stretched out his hand toward the earthen pitcher, from which, since the first day of his illness he had quenched his thirst. alas! it was empty! samuel lay for a few moments thinking what he should do. he knew he must die of want if he remained there alone; but to whom could he apply for aid? an idea seemed, at last, to strike him. he arose slowly, and with difficulty, from the bed, went to the other side of the room, and took up the picture he had painted last. he resolved to carry it to the shop of a salesman, and hoped to obtain for it sufficient to furnish him with the necessaries of life for a week longer. despair lent him strength to walk, and to carry his burden. on his way, he passed a house, about which there was a crowd. he drew nigh, asked what was going on, and received for an answer, that there was to be a sale of many specimens of art, collected by an amateur in the course of thirty years. it has often happened that collections made with infinite pains by the proprietor, have been sold without mercy or discrimination after his death. something whispered to the weary duhobret, that here would be the market for his picture. it was a long way yet to the house of the picture dealer, and he made up his mind at once. he worked his way through the crowd, dragged himself up the steps, and, after many inquiries, found the auctioneer. that personage was a busy man, with a handful of papers; he was inclined to notice somewhat roughly the interruption of the lean, sallow hunchback, imploring as were his gesture and language. "what do you call your picture?" at length, said he, carefully looking at it. "it is a view of the abbey of newburg, with its village and the surrounding landscape," replied the eager and trembling artist. the auctioneer again scanned it contemptuously, and asked what it was worth. "oh, that is what you please; whatever it will bring," answered duhobret. "hem! it is too odd to please, i should think; i can promise you no more than three thalers." poor samuel sighed deeply. he had spent on that piece the nights of many months. but he was starving now; and the pitiful sum offered would give bread for a few days. he nodded his head to the auctioneer, and retiring took his seat in a corner. the sale began. after some paintings and engravings had been disposed of, samuel's was exhibited. "who bids at three thalers? who bids?" was the cry. duhobret listened eagerly, but none answered. "will it find a purchaser?" said he despondingly, to himself. still there was a dead silence. he dared not look up; for it seemed to him that all the people were laughing at the folly of the artist, who could be insane enough to offer so worthless a piece at a public sale. "what will become of me?" was his mental inquiry. "that work is certainly my best;" and he ventured to steal another glance. "does it not seem that the wind actually stirs those boughs and moves those leaves! how transparent is the water! what life breathes in the animals that quench their thirst at that spring! how that steeple shines! how beautiful are those clustering trees!" this was the last expiring throb of an artist's vanity. the ominous silence continued, and samuel, sick at heart, buried his face in his hands. "twenty-one thalers!" murmured a faint voice, just as the auctioneer was about to knock down the picture. the stupefied painter gave a start of joy. he raised his head and looked to see from whose lips those blessed words had come. it was the picture dealer, to whom he had first thought of applying. "fifty thalers," cried a sonorous voice. this time a tall man in black was the speaker. there was a silence of hushed expectation. "one hundred thalers," at length thundered the picture dealer. "three hundred!" "five hundred!" "one thousand!" another profound silence, and the crowd pressed around the two opponents, who stood opposite each other with eager and angry looks. "two thousand thalers!" cried the picture dealer, and glanced around him triumphantly, when he saw his adversary hesitate. "ten thousand!" vociferated the tall man, his face crimson with rage, and his hands clinched convulsively. the dealer grew paler; his frame shook with agitation; he made two or three efforts, and at last cried out "twenty thousand!" his tall opponent was not to be vanquished. he bid forty thousand. the dealer stopped; the other laughed a low laugh of insolent triumph, and a murmur of admiration was heard in the crowd. it was too much for the dealer; he felt his peace was at stake. "fifty thousand!" exclaimed he in desperation. it was the tall man's turn to hesitate. again the whole crowd were breathless. at length, tossing his arms in defiance, he shouted "one hundred thousand!" the crestfallen picture dealer withdrew; the tall man victoriously bore away the prize. how was it, meanwhile, with duhobret, while this exciting scene was going on? he was hardly master of his senses. he rubbed his eyes repeatedly, and murmured to himself, "after such a dream, my misery will seem more cruel!" when the contest ceased, he rose up bewildered, and went about asking first one, then another, the price of the picture just sold. it seemed that his apprehension could not at once be enlarged to so vast a conception. the possessor was proceeding homeward, when a decrepit, lame, and humpbacked invalid, tottering along by the aid of a stick, presented himself before him. he threw him a piece of money, and waved his hand as dispensing with his thanks. "may it please your honor," said the supposed beggar, "i am the painter of that picture!" and again he rubbed his eyes. the tall mall was count dunkelsback, one of the richest noblemen in germany. he stopped, took out his pocketbook, took out a leaf, and wrote on it a few lines. "take it, friend," said he; "it is a check for your money. adieu." duhobret finally persuaded himself that it was not a dream. he became the master of a castle, sold it, and resolved to live luxuriously for the rest of his life, and to cultivate painting as a pastime. but, alas, for the vanity of human expectation! he had borne privation and toil; prosperity was too much for him, as was proved soon after, when an indigestion carried him off. his picture remained long in the cabinet of count dunkelsback, and afterward passed into the possession of the king of bavaria. notes.--albert durer (b. , d. ) lived at nuremburg, germany. he was eminent as a painter, and as an engraver on copper and wood. he was one of the first artists who studied anatomy and perspective. his influence on art is clearly felt even at the present day. newburg, or neuburg, is on the danube, fifty miles south of nuremburg. bergen abbey was north of the village. x. pictures of memory. ( ) alice cary, - , was born near cincinnati. one of her ancestors was among the "pilgrim fathers," and the first instructor of latin at plymouth, mass. miss cary commenced her literary career at her western home, and, in , published a volume of poems, the joint work of her younger sister, phoebe, and herself. in , she moved to new york. two of her sisters joined her there, and they supported themselves by their literary labor. their home became a noted resort for their literary and artistic friends. miss cary was the author of eleven volumes, besides many articles contributed to periodicals. her poetry is marked with great sweetness and pathos. some of her prose works are much admired, especially her "clovernook children." ### among the beautiful pictures that hang on memory's wall, is one of a dim old forest, that seemeth best of all; not for its gnarled oaks olden, dark with the mistletoe; not for the violets golden, that sprinkle the vale below; not for the milk-white lilies, that lean from the fragrant hedge, coquetting all day with the sunbeams, and stealing their golden edge; not for the vines on the upland, where the bright red berries rest, nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip, it seemeth to me the best. i once had a little brother, with eyes that were dark and deep; in the lap of that dim old forest, he lieth in peace asleep: light as the down of the thistle, free as the winds that blow, we roved there the beautiful summers, the summers of long ago; but his feet on the hills grew weary, and, one of the autumn eves, i made for my little brother, a bed of the yellow leaves. sweetly his pale arms folded my neck in a meek embrace, as the light of immortal beauty silently covered his face; and when the arrows of sunset lodged in the tree tops bright, he fell, in his saintlike beauty, asleep by the gates of light. therefore, of all the pictures that hang on memory's wall, the one of the dim old forest seemeth the best of all. xi. the morning oratorio. ( ) wilson flagg, - , was born in beverly, mass. he pursued his academical course in andover, at phillips academy, and entered harvard college, but did not graduate. his chief works are: "studies in the field and forest," "the woods and byways of new england," and "the birds and seasons of new england." ### nature, for the delight of waking eyes, has arrayed the morning heavens in the loveliest hues of beauty. fearing to dazzle by an excess of delight, she first announces day by a faint and glimmering twilight, then sheds a purple tint over the brows of the rising morn, and infuses a transparent ruddiness throughout the atmosphere. as daylight widens, successive groups of mottled and rosy-bosomed clouds assemble on the gilded sphere, and, crowned with wreaths of fickle rainbows, spread a mirrored flush over hill, grove, and lake, and every village spire is burnished with their splendor. at length, through crimsoned vapors, we behold the sun's broad disk, rising with a countenance so serene that every eye may view him ere he arrays himself in his meridian brightness. not many people who live in towns are aware of the pleasure attending a ramble near the woods and orchards at daybreak in the early part of summer. the drowsiness we feel on rising from our beds is gradually dispelled by the clear and healthful breezes of early day, and we soon experience an unusual amount of vigor and elasticity. during the night, the stillness of all things is the circumstance that most powerfully attracts our notice, rendering us peculiarly sensitive to every accidental sound that meets the ear. in the morning, at this time of year, on the contrary, we are overpowered by the vocal and multitudinous chorus of the feathered tribe. if you would hear the commencement of this grand anthem of nature, you must rise at the very first appearance of dawn, before the twilight has formed a complete semicircle above the eastern porch of heaven. the first note that proceeds from the little warbling host, is the shrill chirp of the hairbird,--occasionally vocal at an hours on a warm summer night. this strain, which is a continued trilling sound, is repeated with diminishing intervals, until it becomes almost incessant. but ere the hairbird has uttered many notes, a single robin begins to warble from a neighboring orchard, soon followed by others, increasing in numbers until, by the time the eastern sky is flushed with crimson, every male, robin in the country round is singing with fervor. it would be difficult to note the exact order in which the different birds successively begin their parts in this performance; but the bluebird, whose song is only a short, mellow warble, is heard nearly at the same time with the robin, and the song sparrow joins them soon after with his brief but finely modulated strain. the different species follow rapidly, one after another, in the chorus, until the whole welkin rings with their matin hymn of gladness. i have often wondered that the almost simultaneous utterance of so many different notes should produce no discords, and that they should result in such complete harmony. in this multitudinous confusion of voices, no two notes are confounded, and none has sufficient duration to grate harshly with a dissimilar sound. though each performer sings only a few strains and then makes a pause, the whole multitude succeed one another with such rapidity that we hear an uninterrupted flow of music until the broad light of day invites them to other employments. when there is just light enough to distinguish the birds, we may observe, here and there, a single swallow perched on the roof of a barn or shed, repeating two twittering notes incessantly, with a quick turn and a hop at every note he utters. it would seem to be the design of the bird to attract the attention of his mate, and this motion seems to be made to assist her in discovering his position. as soon as the light has tempted him to fly abroad, this twittering strain is uttered more like a continued song, as he flits rapidly through the air. but at this later moment the purple martins have commenced their more melodious chattering, so loud as to attract for a while the most of our attention. there is not a sound in nature so cheering and animating as the song of the purple martin, and none so well calculated to drive away melancholy. though not one of the earliest voices to be heard, the chorus is perceptibly more loud and effective when this bird has united with the choir. when the flush of the morning has brightened into vermilion, and the place from which the sun is soon to emerge has attained a dazzling brilliancy, the robins are already less tuneful. they are now becoming busy in collecting food for their morning repast, and one by one they leave the trees, and may be seen hopping upon the tilled ground, in quest of the worms and insects that, have crept out during the night from their subterranean retreats. but as the robins grow silent, the bobolinks begin their vocal revelries; and to a fanciful mind it might seem that the robins had gradually resigned their part in the performance to the bobolinks, not one of which is heard until some of the former have concluded their songs. the little hairbird still continues his almost incessant chirping, the first to begin and the last to quit the performance. though the voice of this bird is not very sweetly modulated, it blends harmoniously with the notes of other birds, and greatly increases the charming effect of the combination. it would be tedious to name all the birds that take part in this chorus; but we must not omit the pewee, with his melancholy ditty, occasionally heard like a short minor strain in an oratorio; nor the oriole, who is really one of the chief performers, and who, as his bright plumage flashes upon the sight, warbles forth a few notes so clear and mellow as to be beard above every other sound. adding a pleasing variety to all this harmony, the lisping notes of the meadowlark, uttered in a shrill tone, and with a peculiar pensive modulation, are plainly audible, with short rests between each repetition. there is a little brown sparrow, resembling the hairbird, save a general tint of russet in his plumage, that may be heard distinctly among the warbling host. he is rarely seen in cultivated grounds, but frequents the wild pastures, and is the bird that warbles so sweetly at midsummer, when the whortleberries are ripe, and the fields are beautifully spangled with red lilies. there is no confusion in the notes of his song, which consists of one syllable rapidly repeated, but increasing in rapidity and rising to a higher key towards the conclusion. he sometimes prolongs his strain, when his notes are observed to rise and fall in succession. these plaintive and expressive notes are very loud and constantly uttered, during the hour that precedes the rising of the sun. a dozen warblers of this species, singing in concert, and distributed in different parts of the field, form, perhaps, the most delightful part of the woodland oratorio to which we have listened. at sunrise hardly a robin can be beard in the whole neighborhood, and the character of the performance has completely changed during the last half hour. the first part was more melodious and tranquilizing, the last is more brilliant and animating. the grass finches, the vireos, the wrens, and the linnets have joined their voices to the chorus, and the bobolinks are loudest in their song. but the notes of the birds in general are not so incessant as before sunrise. one by one they discontinue their lays, until at high noon the bobolink and the warbling flycatcher are almost the only vocalists to be heard in the fields. xii. short selections in poetry. ( ) . the cloud. a cloud lay cradled near the setting sun, a gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow; long had i watched the glory moving on, o'er the still radiance of the lake below: tranquil its spirit seemed, and floated slow, e'en in its very motion there was rest, while every breath of eve that chanced to blow, wafted the traveler to the beauteous west. emblem, methought, of the departed soul, to whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given, and by the breath of mercy made to roll right onward to the golden gate of heaven, while to the eye of faith it peaceful lies, and tells to man his glorious destinies. --john wilson ii. my mind. my mind to me a kingdom is; such perfect joy therein i find, as far exceeds all earthly bliss that god or nature hath assigned; though much i want that most would have, yet still my mind forbids to crave. note.--this is the first stanza of a poem by william byrd (b, , d. ), an english composer of music. iii. a good name. ( ) good name, in man or woman, dear my lord, is the immediate jewel of their souls. who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; but he that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed. shakespeare.--othello, act iii, scene iii. iv. sunrise. but yonder comes the powerful king of day, rejoicing in the east. the lessening cloud, the kindling azure, and the mountain's brow illumed with liquid gold, his near approach betoken glad. lo! now apparent all, aslant the dew-bright earth and colored air he looks in boundless majesty abroad, and sheds the shining day that, burnished, plays on rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams, high gleaming from afar. thomson. v. old age and death. ( ) edmund waller, - , an english poet, was a cousin of john hampden, and related to oliver cromwell. he was educated at eton and cambridge. waller was for many years a member of parliament. he took part in the civil war, and was detected in a treasonable plot. several years of his life were spent in exile in france. after the restoration he came into favor at court. his poetry is celebrated for smoothness and sweetness, but is disfigured by affected conceits. ### the seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; so calm are we when passions are no more. for then we know how vain it was to boast of fleeting things, too certain to be lost. clouds of affection from our younger eyes conceal that emptiness which age descries. the soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, lets in new light through chinks that time has made: stronger by weakness, wiser men become, as they draw near to their eternal home. leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, that stand upon the threshold of the new. vi. milton. ( ) john dryden, - , was a noted english writer, who was made poet laureate by james ii. on the expulsion of james, and the accession of william and mary, dryden lost his offices and pension, and was compelled to earn his bread by literary work. it was during these last years of his life that his best work was done. his "ode for st. cecilia's day" is one of his most, celebrated poems. his prose writings are specimens of good, strong english. ### three poets, in three distant ages born, greece, italy, and england did adorn; the first in loftiness of thought surpassed, the next in majesty, in both the last. the force of nature could no further go; to make a third she joined the other two. note.--the two poets referred to, other than milton, are homer and dante. xiii. death of little nell. ( ) charles dickens. - , one of the greatest novelists of modern, times, was born in portsmouth, but spent nearly all his life in london. his father was a conscientious man, but lacked capacity for getting a livelihood. in consequence, the boy's youth was much darkened by poverty. it has been supposed that he pictured his father in the character of "micawber." he began his active life as a lawyer's apprentice; but soon left this employment to become a reporter. this occupation he followed from to . his first book was entitled "sketches of london society, by boz." this was followed, in , by the "pickwick papers," a work which suddenly brought much fame to the author. his other works followed with great rapidity, and his last was unfinished at the time of his death. he was buried in westminster abbey. mr. dickens visited america in , and again in . during his last visit, he read his works in public, in the principal cities of the united states. the resources of dickens's genius seemed exhaustless. he copied no author, imitated none, but relied entirely on his own powers. he excelled especially in humor and pathos. he gathered materials for his works by the most careful and faithful observation. and he painted his characters with a fidelity so true to their different individualities that, although they sometimes have a quaint grotesqueness bordering on caricature, they stand before the memory as living realities. he was particularly successful in the delineation of the joys and griefs of childhood. "little nell" and little "paul dombey" are known, and have been loved and wept over, in almost every household where the english language is read. his writings present very vividly the wants and sufferings of the poor, and have a tendency to prompt to kindness and benevolence. his works have not escaped criticism. it has been said that "his good characters act from impulse, not from principle," and that he shows "a tricksy spirit of fantastic exaggeration." it has also been said that his novels sometimes lack skillful plot, and that he seems to speak approvingly of conviviality and dissipation. "the old curiosity shop," from which the following extract is taken, was published in . ### she was dead. no sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from trace of pain, so fair to look upon. she seemed a creature fresh from the hand of god, and waiting for the breath of life; not one who had lived, and suffered death. her couch was dressed with here and there some winter berries and green leaves, gathered in a spot she had been used to favor. "when i die, put near me something that has loved the light, and had the sky above it always." these were her words. she was dead. dear, gentle, patient, noble nell was dead. her little bird, a poor, slight thing the pressure of a finger would have crushed, was stirring nimbly in its cage, and the strong heart of its child mistress was mute and motionless forever! where were the traces of her early cares, her sufferings, and fatigues? all gone. sorrow was dead, indeed, in her; but peace and perfect happiness were born, imaged in her tranquil beauty and profound repose. and still her former self lay there, unaltered in this change. yes! the old fireside had smiled upon that same sweet face; it had passed, like a dream, through haunts of misery and care; at the door of the poor schoolmaster on the summer evening, before the furnace fire upon the cold wet night, at the still bedside of the dying boy, there had been the same mild and lovely look. so shall we know the angels, in their majesty, after death. the old man held one languid arm in his, and had the small hand tight folded to his breast for warmth. it was the hand she had stretched out to him with her last smile; the hand that had led him on through all their wanderings. ever and anon he pressed it to his lips; then hugged it to his breast again, murmuring that it was warmer now, and, as he said it, he looked in agony to those who stood around, as if imploring them to help her. she was dead, and past all help, or need of help. the ancient rooms she had seemed to fill with life, even while her own was waning fast, the garden she had tended, the eyes she had gladdened, the noiseless haunts of many a thoughtful hour, the paths she had trodden, as it were, but yesterday, could know her no more. "it is not," said the schoolmaster, as he bent down to kiss her on the cheek, and gave his tears free vent, "it is not in this world that heaven's justice ends. think what earth is, compared with the world to which her young spirit has winged its early flight, and say, if one deliberate wish, expressed in solemn tones above this bed, could call her back to life, which of us would utter it?" she had been dead two days. they were all about her at the time, knowing that the end was drawing on. she died soon after daybreak. they had read and talked to her in the earlier portion of the night; but, as the hours crept on, she sank to sleep. they could tell by what she faintly uttered in her dreams, that they were of her journeyings with the old man; they were of no painful scenes, but of people who had helped them, and used them kindly; for she often said "god bless you!" with great fervor. waking, she never wandered in her mind but once, and that was at beautiful music, which, she said, was in the air. god knows. it may have been. opening her eyes, at last, from a very quiet sleep, she begged that they would kiss her once again. that done, she turned to the old man, with a lovely smile upon her face, such, they said, as they had never seen, and could never forget, and clung, with both her arms, about his neck. she had never murmured or complained; but, with a quiet mind, and manner quite unaltered, save that she every day became more earnest and more grateful to them, faded like the light upon the summer's evening. the child who had been her little friend, came there, almost as soon as it was day, with an offering of dried flowers, which he begged them to lay upon her breast. he told them of his dream again, and that it was of her being restored to them, just as she used to be. he begged hard to see her: saying, that he would be very quiet, and that they need not fear his being alarmed, for he had sat alone by his young brother all day long, when he was dead, and had felt glad to be so near him. they let him have his wish; and, indeed, he kept his word, and was, in his childish way, a lesson to them all. up to that time, the old man had not spoken once, except to her, or stirred from the bedside. but, when he saw her little favorite, he was moved as they had not seen him yet, and made as though he would have him come nearer. then, pointing to the bed, he burst into tears for the first time, and they who stood by, knowing that the sight of this child had done him good, left them alone together. soothing him with his artless talk of her, the child persuaded him to take some rest, to walk abroad, to do almost as he desired him. and, when the day came, on which they must remove her, in her earthly shape, from earthly eyes forever, he led him away, that he might not know when she was taken from him. they were to gather fresh leaves and berries for her bed. and now the bell, the bell she had so often heard by night and day, and listened to with solemn pleasure, almost as a living voice, rung its remorseless toll for her, so young, so beautiful, so good. decrepit age, and vigorous life, and blooming youth, and helpless infancy,--on crutches, in the pride of health and strength, in the full blush of promise, in the mere dawn of life, gathered round her. old men were there, whose eyes were dim and senses failing, grandmothers, who might have died ten years ago, and still been old, the deaf, the blind, the lame, the palsied, the living dead, in many shapes and forms, to see the closing of that early grave. along the crowded path they bore her now, pure as the newly fallen snow that covered it, whose day on earth had been as fleeting. under that porch, where she had sat when heaven, in its mercy, brought her to that peaceful spot, she passed again, and the old church received her in its quiet shade. xiv. vanity of life. ( ) johann gottfried von herder, - , an eminent german poet, preacher, and philosopher, was born in mohrungen, and died in weimar. his published works comprise sixty volumes. this selection is from his "hebrew poetry." ### man, born of woman, is of a few days, and full of trouble; he cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. upon such dost thou open thine eye, and bring me unto judgment with thee? among the impure is there none pure? not one. are his days so determined? hast thou numbered his months, and set fast his bounds for him which he can never pass? turn then from him that he may rest, and enjoy, as an hireling, his day. the tree hath hope, if it be cut down, it becometh green again, and new shoots are put forth. if even the root is old in the earth, and its stock die in the ground, from vapor of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs as a young plant. but man dieth, and his power is gone; he is taken away, and where is he? till the waters waste from the sea, till the river faileth and is dry land, man lieth low, and riseth not again. till the heavens are old, he shall not awake, nor be aroused from his sleep. oh, that thou wouldest conceal me in the realm of departed souls! hide me in secret, till thy wrath be past; appoint me then a new term, and remember me again. but alas! if a man die shall he live again? so long, then, as my toil endureth, will i wait till a change come to me. thou wilt call me, and i shall answer; thou wilt pity the work of thy hands. though now thou numberest my steps, thou shalt then not watch for my sin. my transgression will be sealed in a bag, thou wilt bind up and remove my iniquity. yet alas! the mountain falleth and is swallowed up, the rock is removed out of its place, the waters hollow out the stones, the floods overflow the dust of the earth, and thus, thou destroyest the hope of man. thou contendest with him, till he faileth, thou changest his countenance, and sendeth him away. though his sons become great and happy, yet he knoweth it not; if they come to shame and dishonor, he perceiveth it not. note.--compare with the translation of the same as given in the ordinary version of the bible. job xiv. xv. a political pause. ( ) charles james fox, - , a famous english orator and statesman, was the son of hon. henry fox, afterward lord holland; he was also a lineal descendant of charles ii. of england and of henry iv, of france. he received his education at westminster, eton, and oxford, but left the university without graduating. he was first elected to parliament before he was twenty years old. during the american revolution, he favored the colonies; later, he was a friend and fellow-partisan both with burke and wilberforce. burke said of him, "he is the most brilliant and successful debater the world ever saw." in his later years, mr. fox was as remarkable for carelessness in dress and personal appearance, as he had been for the opposite in his youth. he possessed many pleasing traits of character, but his morals were not commendable; he was a gambler and a spendthrift. yet he exercised a powerful influence on the politics of his times. this extract is from a speech delivered during a truce in the long war between england and france. ### "but we must pause," says the honorable gentleman. what! must the bowels of great britain be torn out, her best blood spilt, her treasures wasted, that you may make an experiment? put yourselves--oh! that you would put yourselves on the field of battle, and learn to judge of the sort of horrors you excite. in former wars, a man might at least have some feeling, some interest, that served to balance in his mind the impressions which a scene of carnage and death must inflict. but if a man were present now at the field of slaughter, and were to inquire for what they were fighting--"fighting!", would be the answer; "they are not fighting; they are pausing." "why is that man expiring? why is that other writhing with agony? what means this implacable fury?" the answer must be, "you are quite wrong, sir, you deceive yourself,--they are not fighting,--do not disturb them,--they are merely pausing! this man is not expiring with agony,--that man is not dead,--he is only pausing! bless you, sir, they are not angry with one another; they have now no cause of quarrel; but their country thinks that there should be a pause. all that you see is nothing like fighting,--there is no harm, nor cruelty, nor bloodshed in it; it is nothing more than a political pause. it is merely to try an experiment--to see whether bonaparte will not behave himself better than heretofore; and, in the meantime, we have agreed to a pause, in pure friendship!" and is this the way that you are to show yourselves the advocates of order? you take up a system calculated to uncivilize the world, to destroy order, to trample on religion, to stifle in the heart not merely the generosity of noble sentiment, but the affections of social nature; and in the prosecution of this system, you spread terror and devastation all around you. note.--in this lesson, the influence of a negative in determining the rising inflection, is noticeable. see rule v, p. . xvi. my experience in elocution. ( ) john neal. - , a brilliant but eccentric american writer, was born in portland, maine. he went into business, when quite young, in company with john pierpont, the well-known poet. they soon failed, and mr. neal then turned his attention to the study of law. he practiced his profession somewhat, but devoted most of his time to literature. for a time he resided in england, where he wrote for "blackwood's magazine" and other periodicals. his writings were produced with great rapidity, and with a purposed disregard of what is known as "classical english." ### in the academy i attended, elocution was taught in a way i shall never forget--never! we had a yearly exhibition, and the favorites of the preceptor were allowed to speak a piece; and a pretty time they had of it. somehow i was never a favorite with any of my teachers after the first two or three days; and, as i went barefooted, i dare say it was thought unseemly, or perhaps cruel, to expose me upon the platform. and then, as i had no particular aptitude for public speaking, and no relish for what was called oratory, it was never my luck to be called up. among my schoolmates, however, was one--a very amiable, shy boy--to whom was assigned, at the first exhibition i attended, that passage in pope's homer beginning with, "aurora, now, fair daughter of the dawn!" this the poor boy gave with so much emphasis and discretion, that, to me, it sounded like "o roarer!" and i was wicked enough, out of sheer envy, i dare say, to call him "o roarer!"--a nickname which clung to him for a long while, though no human being ever deserved it less; for in speech and action both, he was quiet, reserved, and sensitive. my next experience in elocution was still more disheartening, so that i never had a chance of showing what i was capable of in that way till i set up for myself. master moody, my next instructor, was thought to have uncommon qualifications for teaching oratory. he was a large, handsome, heavy man, over six feet high; and having understood that the first, second, and third prerequisite in oratory was action, the boys he put in training were encouraged to most vehement and obstreperous manifestations. let me give an example, and one that weighed heavily on my conscience for many years after the poor man passed away. among his pupils were two boys, brothers, who were thought highly gifted in elocution. the master, who was evidently of that opinion, had a habit of parading them on all occasions before visitors and strangers; though one bad lost his upper front teeth and lisped badly, and the other had the voice of a penny trumpet. week after week these boys went through the quarrel of brutus and cassius, for the benefit of myself and others, to see if their example would not provoke us to a generous competition for all the honors. how it operated on the other boys in after life i can not say; but the effect on me was decidedly unwholesome--discouraging, indeed,--until i was old enough to judge for myself, and to carry into operation a system of my own. on coming to the passage,-- "be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts; dash him to pieces!"-- the elder of the boys gave it after the following fashion: "be ready, godths, with all your thunderbolths,--dath him in pietheth!"--bringing his right fist down into his left palm with all his strength, and his lifted foot upon the platform, which was built like a sounding-board, so that the master himself, who had suggested the action and obliged the poor boy to rehearse it over and over again, appeared to be utterly carried away by the magnificent demonstration; while to me--so deficient was i in rhetorical taste--it sounded like a crash of broken crockery, intermingled with chicken peeps. i never got over it; and to this day can not endure stamping, nor even tapping of the foot, nor clapping the hands together, nor thumping the table for illustration; having an idea that such noises are not oratory, and that untranslatable sounds are not language. my next essay was of a somewhat different kind. i took the field in person, being in my nineteenth year, well proportioned, and already beginning to have a sincere relish for poetry, if not for declamation. i had always been a great reader; and in the course of my foraging depredations i had met with "the mariner's dream" and "the lake of the dismal swamp," both of which i had committed to memory before i knew it. and one day, happening to be alone with my sister, and newly rigged out in a student's gown, such as the lads at brunswick sported when they came to show off among their old companions, i proposed to astonish her by rehearsing these two poems in appropriate costume. being very proud of her brother, and very obliging, she consented at once,--upon condition that our dear mother, who had never seen anything of the sort, should be invited to make one of the audience. on the whole, i rather think that i succeeded in astonishing both. i well remember their looks of amazement--for they had never seen anything better or worse in all their lives, and were no judges of acting--as i swept to and fro in that magnificent robe, with outstretched arms and uplifted eyes, when i came to passages like the following, where an apostrophe was called for: "and near him the she wolf stirred the brake, and the copper snake breathed in his ear, till he, starting, cried, from his dream awake, 'oh, when shall i see the dusky lake, and the white canoe of my dear'!'" or like this: "on beds of green sea flowers thy limbs shall be laid; around thy white bones the red coral shall grow, of thy fair yellow locks, threads of amber be made, and every part suit to thy mansion below;"-- throwing up my arms, and throwing them out in every possible direction as the spirit moved me, or the sentiment prompted; for i always encouraged my limbs and features to think for themselves, and to act for themselves, and never predetermined, never forethought, a gesture nor an intonation in my life; and should as soon think of counterfeiting another's look or step or voice, or of modulating my own by a pitch pipe (as the ancient orators did, with whom oratory was acting elocution, a branch of the dramatic art), as of adopting or imitating the gestures and tones of the most celebrated rhetorician i ever saw. the result was rather encouraging. my mother and sister were both satisfied. at any rate, they said nothing to the contrary. being only in my nineteenth year, what might i not be able to accomplish after a little more experience! how little did i think, while rehearsing before my mother and sister, that anything serious would ever come of it, or that i was laying the foundations of character for life, or that i was beginning what i should not be able to finish within the next forty or fifty years following. yet so it was. i had broken the ice without knowing it. these things were but the foreshadowing of what happened long afterward. notes.--brunswick, maine, is the seat of bowdoin college. "the mariner's dream" is a poem by 'william dimond. "the lake of the dismal swamp" is by thomas moore. xvii. elegy in a country churchyard. ( ) thomas gray, - , is often spoken of as "the author of the elegy,"--this simple yet highly finished and beautiful poem being by far the best known of an his writings. it was finished in ,--seven years from the time it was commenced. probably no short poem in the language ever deserved or received more praise. gray was born in london; his father possessed property, but was indolent and selfish; his mother was a successful woman of business, and supported her son in college from her own earnings. the poet was educated at eton and cambridge; at the latter place, he resided for several years after his return from a continental tour, begun in . he was small and delicate in person, refined and precise in dress and manners, and shy and retiring in disposition. he was an accomplished scholar in many fields of learning, but left comparatively little finished work in any department. he declined the honor of poet laureate; but, in , was appointed professor of history at cambridge. ### the curfew tolls the knell of parting day, the lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, the plowman homeward plods his weary way, and leaves the world to darkness and to me. now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, and all the air a solemn stillness holds, save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, and drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, the moping owl does to the moon complain of such as, wandering near her secret bower, molest her ancient solitary reign. beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap, each in his narrow cell forever laid, the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. the breezy call of incense-breathing morn, the swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, the cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, no more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. for them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, or busy housewife ply her evening care; no children run to lisp their sire's return, or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke: how jocund did they drive their team afield! how bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! let not ambition mock their useful toil, their homely joys, and destiny obscure; nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile the short and simple annals of the poor. the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, await alike, the inevitable hour: the paths of glory lead but to the grave. nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, if memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise; where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, the pealing anthem swells the note of praise. can storied urn, or animated bust, back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death? perhaps, in this neglected spot is laid some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, or waked to ecstasy the living lyre: but knowledge to their eyes her ample page, rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll; chill penury repressed their noble rage, and froze the genial current of the soul. full many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear: full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air. some village hampden, that, with dauntless breast, the little tyrant of his fields withstood, some mute, inglorious milton here may rest, some cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. the applause of listening senates to command, the threats of pain and ruin to despise, to scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, and read their history in a nation's eyes, their lot forbade: nor, circumscribed alone their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne. and shut the gates of mercy on mankind, the struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, to quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, or heap the shrine of luxury and pride, with incense kindled at the muse's flame. far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, their sober wishes never learned to stray; along the cool, sequestered vale of life, they kept the noiseless tenor of their way. yet even these bones, from insult to protect, some frail memorial still, erected nigh, with uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, implores the passing tribute of a sigh. their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse, the place of fame and elegy supply; and many a holy text around she strews, that teach the rustic moralist to die. for who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, this pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned, left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, nor cast one longing, lingering look behind? on some fond breast the parting soul relies, some pious drops the closing eye requires; e'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries, e'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. for thee, who, mindful of the unhonored dead, dost in these lines their artless tale relate, if chance, by lonely contemplation led, some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,-- haply some hoary-headed swain may say, "oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn brushing, with hasty step, the dews away, to meet the sun upon the upland lawn: "there, at the foot of yonder nodding beech, that wreathes its old, fantastic roots so high, his listless length at noontide would he stretch, and pore upon the brook that babbles by. "hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, muttering his wayward fancies, he would rove; now, drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn, or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. "one morn, i missed him on the customed hill, along the heath, and near his favorite tree: another came; nor yet beside the rill, nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he: "the next, with dirges due, in sad array slow through the church-way path we saw him borne:-- approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay 'graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." the epitaph. here rests his head upon the lap of earth, a youth, to fortune and to fame unknown: fair science frowned not on his humble birth, and melancholy marked him for her own. large was his bounty and his soul sincere, heaven did a recompense as largely send: he gave to misery (all he had) a tear; he gained from heaven ('t was all he wished) a friend. no farther seek his merits to disclose, or draw his frailties from their dread abode (there they alike in trembling hope repose), the bosom of his father, and his god. [illustration: man on horseback riding past a church-yard (graveyard). the sky is cloudy; the church steeple stands in the background.] notes.--john hampden (b. , d. ) was noted for his resolute resistance to the forced loans and unjust taxes imposed by charles i. on england. he took part in the contest between king and parliament, and was killed in a skirmish. john milton. see biographical notice, page . oliver cromwell (b. , d. ) was the leading character in the great rebellion in england. he was lord protector the last five years of his life, and in many respects the ablest ruler that england ever had. xviii. tact and talent. ( ) talent is something, but tact is everything. talent is serious, sober, grave, and respectable: tact is all that, and more too. it is not a sixth sense, but it is the life of all the five. it is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. it is useful in all places, and at all times; it is useful in solitude, for it shows a man into the world; it is useful in society, for it shows him his way through the world. talent is power, tact is skill; talent is weight, tact is momentum; talent knows what to do, tact knows how to do it; talent makes a man respectable, tact will make him respected; talent is wealth, tact is ready money. for all the practical purposes, tact carries it against talent ten to one. take them to the theater, and put them against each other on the stage, and talent shall produce you a tragedy that shall scarcely live long enough to be condemned, while tact keeps the house in a roar, night after night, with its successful farces. there is no want of dramatic talent, there is no want of dramatic tact; but they are seldom together: so we have successful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable pieces which are not successful. take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned curls at each other in legal rivalry; talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first at its journey's end. talent has many a compliment from the bench, but tact touches fees. talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster, tact arouses astonishment that it gets on so fast. and the secret is, that it has no weight to carry; it makes no false steps; it hits the right nail on the head; it loses no time; it takes all hints; and, by keeping its eye on the weathercock, is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows. take them into the church: talent has always something worth hearing, tact is sure of abundance of hearers; talent may obtain a living, tact will make one; talent gets a good name, tact a great one; talent convinces, tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact gains honor from the profession. take them to court: talent feels its weight, tact finds its way; talent commands, tact is obeyed; talent is honored with approbation, and tact is blessed by preferment. place them in the senate: talent has the ear of the house, but tact wins its heart, and has its votes; talent is fit for employment, but tact is fitted for it. it has a knack of slipping into place with a sweet silence and glibness of movement, as a billiard ball insinuates itself into the pocket. it seems to know everything, without learning anything. it has served an extemporary apprenticeship; it wants no drilling; it never ranks in the awkward squad; it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. it puts on no look of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profundity, but plays with the details of place as dexterously as a well-taught hand flourishes over the keys of the pianoforte. it has all the air of commonplace, and all the force and power of genius. xix. speech before the virginia convention. ( ) patrick henry, - , was born in hanover county, virginia, he received instruction in latin and mathematics from his father, but seemed to develop a greater fondness for hunting, fishing, and playing the fiddle than for study. twice he was set up in business, and twice failed before he was twenty-four. he was then admitted to the bar after six weeks' study of the law. he got no business at first in his profession, but lived with his father-in-law. his wonderful powers of oratory first showed themselves in a celebrated case which he argued in hanover courthouse, his own father being the presiding magistrate. he began very awkwardly, but soon rose to a surprising height of eloquence, won his case against great odds, and was carried off in triumph by the delighted spectators. his fame was now established; business flowed in, and he was soon elected to the virginia legislature. he was a delegate to the congress of , and in made the prophetic speech of which the following selection is a portion. it was his own motion that the "colony be immediately put in a state of defense." during the revolution he was, for several years, governor of virginia. in he earnestly opposed the adoption of the federal constitution. when he died, he left a large family and an ample fortune. in person, mr. henry was tall and rather awkward, with a face stern and grave. when he spoke on great occasions, his awkwardness forsook him, his face lighted up, and his eyes flashed with a wonderful fire. in his life, he was good-humored, honest, and temperate. his patriotism was of the noblest type; and few men in those stormy times did better service for their country than he. ### it is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. we are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? for my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, i am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. i have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. i know of no way of judging of the future but by the past; and, judging by the past, i wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the british ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the house? is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? trust it not: it will prove a snare to your feet. suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. ask yourselves, how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? let us not deceive ourselves. these are the implements of war and subjugation,-- the last arguments to which kings resort. i ask, gentlemen, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us into submission? can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? has great britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? no, she has none. they are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. they are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the british ministry have been so long forging. and what have we to oppose to them? shall we try argument? we have been trying that for the last ten years. have we anything new to offer upon the subject? nothing. we have held the subject up in every light in which it was capable; but it has been all in vain. shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? what terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? let us not, i beseech you, deceive ourselves longer. we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. we have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves at the foot of the throne, and implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical bands of the ministry and parliament. our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. in vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. there is no longer any room for hope. if we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! i repeat it, we must fight! an appeal to arms and the god of hosts, is all that is left us. they tell us that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. but when shall we be stronger? will it be the next week, or the next year? will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a british guard shall be stationed in every house? shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the god of nature hath placed in our power. three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. besides, we shall not fight our battles alone. there is a just god who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. the battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. besides, we have no election. if we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. there is no retreat but in submission and slavery! our chains are forged. their clanking may be heard on the plains of boston! the war is inevitable; and; let it come! i repeat it, let it come! it is in vain to extenuate the matter. gentlemen may cry peace, peace; but there is no peace. the war is actually begun. the next gale that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! our brethren are already in the field! why stand we here idle? what is it that gentlemen wish? what would they have? is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? forbid it, almighty god! i know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death. notes.--observe, in this lesson, the all-controlling power of emphasis in determining the falling inflection. the words "see," "hear," and "my," in the first paragraph, the word "that" in the second, and "spurned" and "contempt" in the fourth paragraph, are examples of this. let the reader remember that a high degree of emphasis is sometimes expressed by a whisper; also, that emphasis is often expressed by a pause. it will be well to read in this connection some good history of the opening scenes of the revolution. xx: the american flag. ( ) joseph rodman drake. - , was born in new york city. his father died when he was very young, and his early life was a struggle with poverty. he studied medicine, and took his degree when he was about twenty years old. from a child, he showed remarkable poetical powers, having made rhymes at the early age of five. most of his published writings were produced during a period of less than two years. "the culprit fay" and the "american flag" are best known. in disposition, mr. drake was gentle and kindly; and, on the occasion of his death, his intimate friend, fitz-greene halleck, expressed his character in the well-known couplet: "none knew thee but to love thee, nor named thee but to praise." ### when freedom, from her mountain height, unfurled her standard to the air, she tore the azure robe of night, and set the stars of glory there: she mingled with its gorgeous dyes the milky baldric of the skies, and striped its pure, celestial white with streakings of the morning light; then, from his mansion in the sun, she called her eagle bearer down, and gave into his mighty hand the symbol of her chosen land. majestic monarch of the cloud! who rear'st aloft thy regal form, to hear the tempest trumpings loud, and see the lightning lances driven, when strive the warriors of the storm, and rolls the thunder drum of heaven;-- child of the sun! to thee 't is given to guard the banner of the free, to hover in the sulphur smoke, to ward away the battle stroke, and bid its blendings shine afar, like rainbows on the cloud of war, the harbingers of victory! flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, the sign of hope and triumph high! when speaks the signal trumpet tone, and the long line comes gleaming on, ere yet the lifeblood, warm and wet, has dimmed the glistening bayonet, each soldier's eye shall brightly turn to where thy sky-born glories burn, and, as his springing steps advance, catch war and vengeance from the glance. and when the cannon mouthings loud heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, and gory sabers rise and fall, like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, then shall thy meteor glances glow, and cowering foes shall sink beneath each gallant arm, that strikes below that lovely messenger of death. flag of the seas! on ocean's wave thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave; when death careering on the gale, sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, and frighted waves rush wildly back, before the broadside's reeling rack, each dying wanderer of the sea shall look at once to heaven and thee, and smile to see thy splendors fly in triumph o'er his closing eye. flag of the free heart's hope and home, by angel hands to valor given, thy stars have lit the welkin dome, and all thy hues were born in heaven. forever float that standard sheet! where breathes the foe but falls before us, with freedom's soil beneath our feet, and freedom's banner streaming o'er us? xxi. ironical eulogy on debt. ( ) debt is of the very highest antiquity. the first debt in the history of man is the debt of nature, and the first instinct is to put off the payment of it to the last moment. many persons, it will be observed, following the natural procedure, would die before they would pay their debts. society is composed of two classes, debtors and creditors. the creditor class has been erroneously supposed the more enviable. never was there a greater misconception; and the hold it yet maintains upon opinion is a remarkable example of the obstinacy of error, notwithstanding the plainest lessons of experience. the debtor has the sympathies of mankind. he is seldom spoken of but with expressions of tenderness and compassion--"the poor debtor!"--and "the unfortunate debtor!" on the other hand, "harsh" and "hard-hearted" are the epithets allotted to the creditor. who ever heard the "poor creditor," the "unfortunate creditor" spoken of? no, the creditor never becomes the object of pity, unless he passes into the debtor class. a creditor may be ruined by the poor debtor, but it is not until he becomes unable to pay his own debts, that he begins to be compassionated. a debtor is a man of mark. many eyes are fixed upon him; many have interest in his well-being; his movements are of concern; he can not disappear unheeded; his name is in many mouths; his name is upon many books; he is a man of note--of promissory note; he fills the speculation of many minds; men conjecture about him, wonder about him,--wonder and conjecture whether he will pay. he is a man of consequence, for many are running after him. his door is thronged with duns. he is inquired after every hour of the day. judges hear of him and know him. every meal he swallows, every coat he puts upon his back, every dollar he borrows, appears before the country in some formal document. compare his notoriety with the obscure lot of the creditor,--of the man who has nothing but claims on the world; a landlord, or fundholder, or some such disagreeable, hard character. the man who pays his way is unknown in his neighborhood. you ask the milkman at his door, and he can not tell his name. you ask the butcher where mr. payall lives, and he tells you he knows no such name, for it is not in his books. you shall ask the baker, and he will tell you there is no such person in the neighborhood. people that have his money fast in their pockets, have no thought of his person or appellation. his house only is known. no. is good pay. no. is ready money. not a scrap of paper is ever made out for no. . it is an anonymous house; its owner pays his way to obscurity. no one knows anything about him, or heeds his movements. if a carriage be seen at his door, the neighborhood is not full of concern lest he be going to run away. if a package be removed from his house, a score of boys are not employed to watch whether it be carried to the pawnbroker. mr. payall fills no place in the public mind; no one has any hopes or fears about him. the creditor always figures in the fancy as a sour, single man, with grizzled hair, a scowling countenance, and a peremptory air, who lives in a dark apartment, with musty deeds about him, and an iron safe, as impenetrable as his heart, grabbing together what he does not enjoy, and what there is no one about him to enjoy. the debtor, on the other hand, is always pictured with a wife and six fair-haired daughters, bound together in affection and misery, full of sensibility, and suffering without a fault. the creditor, it is never doubted, thrives without a merit. he has no wife and children to pity. no one ever thinks it desirable that he should have the means of living. he is a brute for insisting that he must receive, in order to pay. it is not in the imagination of man to conceive that his creditor has demands upon him which must be satisfied, and that he must do to others as others must do to him. a creditor is a personification of exaction. he is supposed to be always taking in, and never giving out. people idly fancy that the possession of riches is desirable. what blindness! spend and regale. save a shilling and you lay it by for a thief. the prudent men are the men that live beyond their means. happen what may, they are safe. they have taken time by the forelock. they have anticipated fortune. "the wealthy fool, with gold in store," has only denied himself so much enjoyment, which another will seize at his expense. look at these people in a panic. see who are the fools then. you know them by their long faces. you may say, as one of them goes by in an agony of apprehension, "there is a stupid fellow who fancied himself rich, because he had fifty thousand dollars in bank." the history of the last ten years has taught the moral, "spend and regale." whatever is laid up beyond the present hour, is put in jeopardy. there is no certainty but in instant enjoyment. look at schoolboys sharing a plum cake. the knowing ones eat, as for a race; but a stupid fellow saves his portion; just nibbles a bit, and "keeps the rest for another time." most provident blockhead! the others, when they have gobbled up their shares, set upon him, plunder him, and thrash him for crying out. before the terms "depreciation," "suspension," and "going into liquidation," were heard, there might have been some reason in the practice of "laying up;" but now it denotes the darkest blindness. the prudent men of the present time, are the men in debt. the tendency being to sacrifice creditors to debtors, and the debtor party acquiring daily new strength, everyone is in haste to get into the favored class. in any case, the debtor is safe. he has put his enjoyments behind him; they are safe; no turns of fortune can disturb them. the substance he has eaten up, is irrecoverable. the future can not trouble his past. he has nothing to apprehend. he has anticipated more than fortune would ever have granted him. he has tricked fortune; and his creditors--bah! who feels for creditors? what are creditors? landlords; a pitiless and unpitiable tribe; all griping extortioners! what would become of the world of debtors, if it did not steal a march upon this rapacious class? xxii. the three warnings. ( ) hester lynch thrale. -- , owes her celebrity almost wholly to her long intimacy with dr. samuel johnson. this continued for twenty years, during which johnson spent much time in her family. she was born in caernarvonshire, wales; her first husband was a wealthy brewer, by whom she had several children. in , she married an italian teacher of music named piozzi. her writings are quite numerous; the best known of her books is the "anecdotes of dr. johnson;" but nothing she ever wrote is so well known as the "three warnings." ### the tree of deepest root is found least willing still to quit the ground; 't was therefore said by ancient sages, that love of life increased with years so much, that in our latter stages, when pains grow sharp, and sickness rages, the greatest love of life appears. this great affection to believe, which all confess, but few perceive, if old assertions can't prevail, be pleased to hear a modern tale. when sports went round, and all were gay, on neighbor dodson's wedding day, death called aside the jocund groom with him into another room; and looking grave, "you must," says he, "quit your sweet bride, and come with me." "with you! and quit my susan's side? with you!" the hapless bridegroom cried: "young as i am, 't is monstrous hard! besides, in truth, i'm not prepared." what more he urged, i have not heard; his reasons could not well be stronger: so death the poor delinquent spared, and left to live a little longer. yet, calling up a serious look, his hourglass trembled while he spoke: "neighbor," he said, "farewell! no more shall death disturb your mirthful hour; and further, to avoid all blame of cruelty upon my name, to give you time for preparation, and fit you for your future station, three several warnings you shall have before you're summoned to the grave; willing for once i'll quit my prey, and grant a kind reprieve; in hopes you'll have no more to say, but, when i call again this way, well pleased the world will leave." to these conditions both consented, and parted perfectly contented. what next the hero of our tale befell, how long he lived, how wisely, and how well, it boots not that the muse should tell; he plowed, he sowed, he bought, he sold, nor once perceived his growing old, nor thought of death as near; his friends not false, his wife no shrew, many his gains, his children few, he passed his hours in peace. but, while he viewed his wealth increase, while thus along life's dusty road, the beaten track, content he trod, old time, whose haste no mortal spares, uncalled, unheeded, unawares, brought on his eightieth year. and now, one night, in musing mood, as all alone he sate, the unwelcome messenger of fate once more before him stood. half-killed with wonder and surprise, "so soon returned!" old dodson cries. "so soon d' ye call it?" death replies: "surely! my friend, you're but in jest; since i was here before, 't is six and thirty years at least, and you are now fourscore." "so much the worse!" the clown rejoined; "to spare the aged would be kind: besides, you promised me three warnings, which i have looked for nights and mornings!" "i know," cries death, "that at the best, i seldom am a welcome guest; but do n't be captious, friend; at least, i little thought that you'd be able to stump about your farm and stable; your years have run to a great length, yet still you seem to have your strength." "hold!" says the farmer, "not so fast! i have been lame, these four years past." "and no great wonder," death replies, "however, you still keep your eyes; and surely, sir, to see one's friends, for legs and arms would make amends." "perhaps," says dodson, "so it might, but latterly i've lost my sight." "this is a shocking story, faith; but there's some comfort still," says death; "each strives your sadness to amuse; i warrant you hear all the news." "there's none," cries he, "and if there were, i've grown so deaf, i could not hear." "nay, then," the specter stern rejoined, "these are unpardonable yearnings; if you are lame, and deaf, and blind, you've had your three sufficient warnings, so, come along; no more we'll part." he said, and touched him with his dart: and now old dodson, turning pale, yields to his fate--so ends my tale. xxiii. the memory of our fathers. ( ) lyman beecher, - , a famous congregational minister of new england, was born in new haven, graduated from yale college in , and studied theology with dr. timothy dwight. his first settlement was at east hampton, l. i., at a salary of three hundred dollars per year. he was pastor of the church in litchfield, ct., from till , when he removed to boston, and took charge of the hanover street church. in the religious controversies of the time, dr. beecher was one of the most prominent characters. from to , he was president of lane theological seminary, in the suburbs of cincinnati. he then returned to boston, where he spent most of the closing years of his long and active life. his death occurred in brooklyn, n. y. as a theologian, preacher, and advocate of education, temperance, and missions, dr. beecher occupied a very prominent place for nearly half a century. he left a large family of sons and two daughters, who are well known as among the most eminent preachers and authors in america. ### we are called upon to cherish with high veneration and grateful recollections, the memory of our fathers. both the ties of nature and the dictates of policy demand this. and surely no nation had ever less occasion to be ashamed of its ancestry, or more occasion for gratulation in that respect; for while most nations trace their origin to barbarians, the foundations of our nation were laid by civilized men, by christians. many of them were men of distinguished families, of powerful talents, of great learning and of preeminent wisdom, of decision of character, and of most inflexible integrity. and yet not unfrequently they have been treated as if they had no virtues; while their sins and follies have been sedulously immortalized in satirical anecdote. the influence of such treatment of our fathers is too manifest. it creates and lets loose upon their institutions, the vandal spirit of innovation and overthrow; for after the memory of our father shall have been rendered contemptible, who will appreciate and sustain their institutions? "the memory of our fathers" should be the watchword of liberty throughout the land; for, imperfect as they were, the world before had not seen their like, nor will it soon, we fear, behold their like again. such models of moral excellence, such apostles of civil and religious liberty, such shades of the illustrious dead looking down upon their descendants with approbation or reproof, according as they follow or depart from the good way, constitute a censorship inferior only to the eye of god; and to ridicule them is national suicide. the doctrines of our fathers have been represented as gloomy, superstitious, severe, irrational, and of a licentious tendency. but when other systems shall have produced a piety as devoted, a morality as pure, a patriotism as disinterested, and a state of society as happy, as have prevailed where their doctrines have been most prevalent, it may be in season to seek an answer to this objection. the persecutions instituted by our fathers have been the occasion of ceaseless obloquy upon their fair fame. and truly, it was a fault of no ordinary magnitude, that sometimes they did persecute. but let him whose ancestors were not ten times more guilty, cast the first stone, and the ashes of our fathers will no more be disturbed. theirs was the fault of the age, and it will be easy to show that no class of men had, at that time, approximated so nearly to just apprehensions of religious liberty; and that it is to them that the world is now indebted for the more just and definite views which now prevail. the superstition and bigotry of our fathers are themes on which some of their descendants, themselves far enough from superstition, if not from bigotry, have delighted to dwell. but when we look abroad, and behold the condition of the world, compared with the condition of new england, we may justly exclaim, "would to god that the ancestors of all the nations had been not only almost, but altogether such bigots as our fathers were." xxiv. short selections in prose. ( ) i. dryden and pope. dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and pope in his local manners. the notions of dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, those of pope by minute attention. there is more dignity in the knowledge of dryden, more certainty in that of pope. the style of dryden is capricious and varied, that of pope cautious and uniform. dryden obeys the motions of his own mind; pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; pope's is the velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller. if the flights of dryden are higher, pope continues longer on the wing. if, of dryden's fire, the blaze is brighter, of pope's the heat is more regular and constant. dryden often surpasses expectation, and pope never falls below it. dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and pope with perpetual delight. --samuel johnson. note.--a fine example of antithesis. see p. . ii. las casas dissuading from battle. ( ) is then the dreadful measure of your cruelty not yet complete? battle! against whom? against a king, in whose mild bosom your atrocious injuries, even yet, have not excited hate; but who, insulted or victorious, still sues for peace. against a people, who never wronged the living being their creator formed; a people, who received you as cherished guests, with eager hospitality and confiding kindness. generously and freely did they share with you their comforts, their treasures, and their homes; you repaid them by fraud, oppression, and dishonor. pizarro, hear me! hear me, chieftains! and thou, all-powerful! whose thunder can shiver into sand the adamantine rock, whose lightnings can pierce the core of the riven and quaking earth, oh let thy power give effect to thy servant's words, as thy spirit gives courage to his will! do not, i implore you, chieftains,--do not, i implore, you, renew the foul barbarities your insatiate avarice has inflicted on this wretched, unoffending race. but hush, my sighs! fall not, ye drops of useless sorrow! heart-breaking anguish, choke not my utterance. --e. b. sheridan. note.--examples of series. see p. . iii. action and repose. ( ) john ruskin, ---, is a distinguished english art critic and author. from to , he was professor of the fine arts at oxford university. his writings are very numerous, and are noted for their eloquent and brilliant style. ### about the river of human life there is a wintry wind, though a heavenly sunshine; the iris colors its agitation, the frost fixes upon its repose. let us beware that our rest become not the rest of stones, which, so long as they are tempest-tossed and thunderstricken, maintain their majesty; but when the stream is silent and the storm passed, suffer the grass to cover them, and are plowed into the dust. iv. time and change. ( ) sir humphry davy, - , was an eminent chemist of england. he made many important chemical discoveries, and was the inventor of the miner's safety lamp. ### time is almost a human word, and change entirely a human idea; in the system of nature, we should rather say progress than change. the sun appears to sink in the ocean in darkness, but it rises in another hemisphere; the ruins of a city fall, but they are often used to form more magnificent structures: even when they are destroyed so as to produce only dust, nature asserts her empire over them; and the vegetable world rises in constant youth, in a period of annual successions, by the labors of man--providing food, vitality, and beauty--upon the wrecks of monuments which were raised for the purposes of glory, but which are now applied to objects of utility. v. the poet. ( ) william ellery channing, - , was a distinguished clergyman and orator. he took a leading part in the public affairs of his day, and wrote and lectured eloquently on several topics. ### it is not true that the poet paints a life which does not exist. he only extracts and concentrates, as it were, life's ethereal essence, arrests and condenses its volatile fragrance, brings together its scattered beauties, and prolongs its more refined but evanescent joys; and in this he does well, for it is good to feel that life is not wholly usurped by cares for subsistence and physical gratifications, but admits, in measures which may be indefinitely enlarged, sentiments and delights worthy of a higher being. vi. mountains. ( ) william howitt, - , was an english author. he published many books, and was associated with his wife, mary howitt, in the publication of many others. ### there is a charm connected with mountains, so powerful that the merest mention of them, the merest sketch of their magnificent features, kindles the imagination, and carries the spirit at once into the bosom of their enchanted regions. how the mind is filled with their vast solitude! how the inward eye is fixed on their silent, their sublime, their everlasting peaks! how our hearts bound to the music of their solitary cries, to the tinkle of their gushing rills, to the sound of their cataracts! how inspiriting are the odors that breathe from the upland turf, from the rock-hung flower, from the hoary and solemn pine! how beautiful are those lights and shadows thrown abroad, and that fine, transparent haze which is diffused over the valleys and lower slopes, as over a vast, inimitable picture! xxv. the jolly old pedagogue. ( ) george arnold, -- , was born in new york city. he never attended school, but was educated at home, by his parents. his literary career occupied a period of about twelve years. in this time he wrote stories, essays, criticisms in art and literature, poems, sketches, etc., for several periodicals. two volumes of his poems have been published since his death. ### 't was a jolly old pedagogue, long ago, tall, and slender, and sallow, and dry; his form was bent, and his gait was slow, and his long, thin hair was white as snow, but a wonderful twinkle shone in his eye: and he sang every night as he went to bed, "let us be happy down here below; the living should live, though the dead be dead," said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. he taught the scholars the rule of three, reading, and writing, and history too; he took the little ones on his knee, for a kind old heart in his breast had he, and the wants of the littlest child he knew. "learn while you're young," he often said, "there is much to enjoy down here below; life for the living, and rest for the dead!" said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. with the stupidest boys, he was kind and cool, speaking only in gentlest tones; the rod was scarcely known in his school-- whipping to him was a barbarous rule, and too hard work for his poor old bones; besides it was painful, he sometimes said: "we should make life pleasant down here below-- the living need charity more than the dead," said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. he lived in the house by the hawthorn lane, with roses and woodbine over the door; his rooms were quiet, and neat, and plain, but a spirit of comfort there held reign, and made him forget he was old and poor. "i need so little," he often said; "and my friends and relatives here below won't litigate over me when i am dead," said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. but the pleasantest times he had of all, were the sociable hours he used to pass, with his chair tipped back to a neighbor's wall, making an unceremonious call, over a pipe and a friendly glass: this was the finest pleasure, he said, of the many he tasted here below: "who has no cronies had better be dead," said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. the jolly old pedagogue's wrinkled face melted all over in sunshiny smiles; he stirred his glass with an old-school grace, chuckled, and sipped, and prattled apace, till the house grew merry from cellar to tiles. "i'm a pretty old man," he gently said, "i've lingered a long time here below; but my heart is fresh, if my youth is fled!" said the jolly old pedagogue, long ago. he smoked his pipe in the balmy air every night, when the sun went down; and the soft wind played in his silvery hair, leaving its tenderest kisses there, on the jolly old pedagogue's jolly old crown; and feeling the kisses, he smiled, and said: " 't is it glorious world down here below; why wait for happiness till we are dead?" said this jolly old pedagogue, long ago. he sat at his door one midsummer night, after the sun had sunk in the west, and the lingering beams of golden light made his kindly old face look warm and bright, while the odorous night winds whispered, "rest!" gently, gently, he bowed his head; there were angels waiting for him, i know; he was sure of his happiness, living or dead, this jolly old pedagogue, long ago! xxvi. the teacher and sick scholar. ( ) shortly after the schoolmaster had arranged the forms and taken his seat behind his desk, a small white-headed boy with a sunburnt face appeared at the door, and, stopping there to make a rustic bow, came in and took his seat upon one of the forms. he then put an open book, astonishingly dog's-eared, upon his knees, and, thrusting his hands into his pockets, began counting the marbles with which they were filled; displaying, in the expression of his face, a remarkable capacity of totally abstracting his mind from the spelling on which his eyes were fixed. soon afterward, another white-headed little boy came straggling in, and after him, a red-headed lad, and then one with a flaxen poll, until the forms were occupied by a dozen boys, or thereabouts, with heads of every color but gray, and ranging in their ages from four years old to fourteen years or more; for the legs of the youngest were a long way from the floor, when he sat upon the form; and the eldest was a heavy, good-tempered fellow, about half a head taller than the schoolmaster. at the top of the first form--the post of honor in the school--was the vacant place of the little sick scholar; and, at the head of the row of pegs, on which those who wore hats or caps were wont to hang them, one was empty. no boy attempted to violate the sanctity of seat or peg, but many a one looked from the empty spaces to the schoolmaster, and whispered to his idle neighbor, behind his hand. then began the hum of conning over lessons and getting them by heart, the whispered jest and stealthy game, and all the noise and drawl of school; and in the midst of the din, sat the poor schoolmaster, vainly attempting to fix his mind upon the duties of the day, and to forget his little sick friend. but the tedium of his office reminded him more strongly of the willing scholar, and his thoughts were rambling from his pupils--it was plain. none knew this better than the idlest boys, who, growing bolder with impunity, waxed louder and more daring; playing "odd or even" under the master's eye; eating apples openly and without rebuke; pinching each other in sport or malice, without the least reserve; and cutting their initials in the very legs of his desk. the puzzled dunce, who stood beside it to say his lesson "off the book," looked no longer at the ceiling for forgotten words, but drew closer to the master's elbow, and boldly cast his eye upon the page; the wag of the little troop squinted and made grimaces (at the smallest boy, of course), holding no book before his face, and his approving companions knew no constraint in their delight. if the master did chance to rouse himself, and seem alive to what was going on, the noise subsided for a moment, and no eye met his but wore a studious and deeply humble look; but the instant he relapsed again, it broke out afresh, and ten times louder than before. oh! how some of those idle fellows longed to be outside, and how they looked at the open door and window, as if they half meditated rushing violently out, plunging into the woods, and being wild boys and savages from that time forth. what rebellious thoughts of the cool river, and some shady bathing place, beneath willow trees with branches dipping in the water, kept tempting and urging that sturdy boy, who, with his shirt collar unbuttoned, and flung back as far as it could go, sat fanning his flushed face with a spelling book, wishing himself a whale, or a minnow, or a fly, or anything but a boy at school, on that hot, broiling day. heat! ask that other boy, whose seat being nearest to the door, gave him opportunities of gliding out into the garden, and driving his companions to madness, by dipping his face into the bucket of the well, and then rolling on the grass,--ask him if there was ever such a day as that, when even the bees were diving deep down into the cups of the flowers, and stopping there, as if they had made up their minds to retire from business, and be manufacturers of honey no more. the day was made for laziness, and lying on one's back in green places, and staring at the sky, till its brightness forced the gazer to shut his eyes and go to sleep. and was this a time to be poring over musty books in a dark room, slighted by the very sun itself? monstrous! the lessons over, writing time began. this was a more quiet time; for the master would come and look over the writer's shoulder, and mildly tell him to observe how such a letter was turned up, in such a copy on the wall, which had been written by their sick companion, and bid him take it as a model. then he would stop and tell them what the sick child had said last night, and how he had longed to be among them once again; and such was the poor schoolmaster's gentle and affectionate manner, that the boys seemed quite remorseful that they had worried him so much, and were absolutely quiet; eating no apples, cutting no names, and making no grimaces for full two minutes afterward. "i think, boys," said the schoolmaster, when the clock struck twelve, "that i shall give you an extra half holiday this afternoon." at this intelligence, the boys, led on and headed by the tall boy, raised a great shout, in the midst of which the master was seen to speak, but could not be heard. as he held up his hand, however, in token of his wish that they should be silent, they were considerate enough to leave off, as soon as the longest-winded among them were quite out of breath. "you must promise me, first," said the schoolmaster, "that you'll not be noisy, or at least, if you are, that you'll go away first, out of the village, i mean. i'm sure you would n't disturb your old playmate and companion." there was a general murmur (and perhaps a very sincere one, for they were but boys) in the negative; and the tall boy, perhaps as sincerely as any of them, called those about him to witness, that he had only shouted in a whisper. "then pray do n't forget, there's my dear scholars," said the schoolmaster, "what i have asked you, and do it as a favor to me. be as happy as you can, and do n't be unmindful that you are blessed with health. good-by, all." "thank 'ee, sir," and "good-by, sir," were said a great many times in a great variety of voices, and the boys went out very slowly and softly. but there was the sun shining and there were birds singing, as the sun only shines and the birds only sing on holidays and half holidays; there were the trees waving to all free boys to climb, and nestle among their leafy branches; the hay, entreating them to come and scatter it to the pure air; the green corn, gently beckoning toward wood and stream; the smooth ground, rendered smoother still by blending lights and shadows, inviting to runs and leaps, and long walks, nobody knows whither. it was more than boy could bear, and with a joyous whoop, the whole cluster took to their heels, and spread themselves about, shouting and laughing as they went. " 't is natural, thank heaven!" said the poor schoolmaster, looking after them, "i am very glad they did n't mind me." toward night, the schoolmaster walked over to the cottage where his little friend lay sick. knocking gently at the cottage door, it was opened without loss of time. he entered a room where a group of women were gathered about one who was wringing her hands and crying bitterly. "o dame!" said the schoolmaster, drawing near her chair, "is it so bad as this?" without replying, she pointed to another room, which the schoolmaster immediately entered; and there lay his little friend, half-dressed, stretched upon a bed. he was a very young boy; quite a little child. his hair still hung in curls about his face, and his eyes were very bright; but their light was of heaven, not of earth. the schoolmaster took a seat beside him, and, stooping over the pillow whispered his name. the boy sprung up, stroked his face with his hand, and threw his wasted arms around his neck, crying, that he was his dear, kind friend. "i hope i always was. i meant to be, god knows," said the poor schoolmaster. "you remember my garden, henry?" whispered the old man, anxious to rouse him, for dullness seemed gathering upon the child, "and how pleasant it used to be in the evening time? you must make haste to visit it again, for i think the very flowers have missed you, and are less gay than they used to be. you will come soon, very soon now, won't you?" the boy smiled faintly--so very, very faintly--and put his hand upon his friend's gray head. he moved his lips too, but no voice came from them,-- no, not a sound. in the silence that ensued, the hum of distant voices, borne upon the evening air, came floating through the open window. "what's that?" said the sick child, opening his eyes. "the boys at play, upon the green." he took a handkerchief from his pillow, and tried to wave it above his head. but the feeble arm dropped powerless down. "shall i do it?" said the schoolmaster. "please wave it at the window," was the faint reply. "tie it to the lattice. some of them may see it there. perhaps they'll think of me, and look this way." he raised his head and glanced from the fluttering signal to his idle bat, that lay, with slate, and book, and other boyish property, upon the table in the room. and then he laid him softly down once more, and again clasped his little arms around the old man's neck. the two old friends and companions--for such they were, though they were man and child--held each other in a long embrace, and then the little scholar turned his face to the wall and fell asleep. * * * * * * * * * the poor schoolmaster sat in the same place, holding the small, cold hand in his, and chafing it. it was but the hand of a dead child. he felt that; and yet he chafed it still, and could not lay it down. from "the old curiosity shop," by dickens. xxvii. the snow shower. ( ) william cullen bryant, - , was the son of peter bryant, a physician of cummington, massachusetts. amid the beautiful scenery of this remote country town, the poet was born; and here he passed his early youth. at the age of sixteen, bryant entered williams college, but was honorably dismissed at the end of two years. he then entered on the study of law, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. he practiced his profession, with much success, for about nine years. in , he removed to new york, and became connected with the "evening post," a connection which continued to the time of his death. for more than thirty of the last years of his life, mr. bryant made his home near roslyn, long island, where he occupied an "old-time mansion," which he bought, fitted up, and surrounded in accordance with his excellent rural taste. a poem of his, written at the age of ten years, was published in the "county gazette," and two poems of considerable length were published in book form, when the author was only fourteen. "thanatopsis," perhaps the best known of all his poems, was written when he was but nineteen. but, notwithstanding his precocity, his powers continued to a remarkable age. his, excellent translations of the "iliad" and the "odyssey," together with some of his best poems, were accomplished after the poet, had passed the age of seventy. mr. bryant visited europe several times; and, in , he continued his travels into egypt and syria. abroad, he was received with many marks of distinction; and he added much to his extensive knowledge by studying the literature of the countries he visited. all his poems exhibit a peculiar love, and a careful study, of nature; and his language, both in prose and poetry, is always chaste, elegant, and correct. his mind was well-balanced; and his personal character was one to be admired, loved, and imitated. ### stand here by my side and turn, i pray, on the lake below thy gentle eyes; the clouds hang over it, heavy and gray, and dark and silent the water lies; and out of that frozen mist the snow in wavering flakes begins to flow; flake after flake they sink in the dark and silent lake. see how in a living swarm they come from the chambers beyond that misty veil; some hover in air awhile, and some rush prone from the sky like summer hail. all, dropping swiftly, or settling slow, meet, and are still in the depths below; flake after flake dissolved in the dark and silent lake. here delicate snow stars, out of the cloud, come floating downward in airy play, like spangles dropped from the glistening crowd that whiten by night the milky way; there broader and burlier masses fall; the sullen water buries them all,-- flake after flake,-- all drowned in the dark and silent lake. and some, as on tender wings they glide from their chilly birth cloud, dim and gray. are joined in their fall, and, side by side, come clinging along their unsteady way; as friend with friend, or husband with wife, makes hand in hand the passage of life; each mated flake soon sinks in the dark and silent lake. lo! while we are gazing, in swifter haste stream down the snows, till the air is white, as, myriads by myriads madly chased, they fling themselves from their shadowy height. the fair, frail creatures of middle sky, what speed they make, with their grave so nigh; flake after flake to lie in the dark and silent lake. i see in thy gentle eyes a tear; they turn to me in sorrowful thought; thou thinkest of friends, the good and dear, who were for a time, and now are not; like these fair children of cloud and frost, that glisten a moment an then are lost, flake after flake,-- all lost in the dark and silent lake. yet look again, for the clouds divide; a gleam of blue on the water lies; and far away, on the mountain side, a sunbeam falls from the opening skies. but the hurrying host that flew between the cloud and the water no more is seen; flake after flake at rest in the dark and silent lake. xxviii. character of napoleon bonaparte. ( ) charles phillips, - , an eminent barrister and orator, was born in sligo, ireland, and died in london. he gained much of his reputation as an advocate in criminal cases. in his youth he published some verses; later in life he became the author of several works, chiefly of biography. ### he is fallen! we may now pause before that splendid prodigy, which towered among us like some ancient ruin, whose power terrified the glance its magnificence attracted. grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptered hermit, wrapt in the solitude of his own originality. a mind, bold, independent, and decisive; a will, despotic in its dictates; an energy that distanced expedition; and a conscience, pliable to every touch of interest, marked the outlines of this extraordinary character--the most extraordinary, perhaps, that in the annals of this world ever rose, or reigned, or fell. flung into life in the midst of a revolution that quickened every energy of a people who acknowledged no superior, he commenced his course, a stranger by birth, and a scholar by charity. with no friend but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he rushed into the lists where rank, and wealth, and genius had arrayed themselves, and competition fled from him, as from the glance of destiny. he knew no motive but interest; acknowledged no criterion but success; he worshiped no god but ambition; and, with an eastern devotion, he knelt at the shrine of his idolatry. subsidiary to this, there was no creed that he did not profess, there was no opinion that he did not promulgate: in the hope of a dynasty, he upheld the crescent; for the sake of a divorce, he bowed before the cross; the orphan of st. louis, he became the adopted child of the republic; and, with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins both of the throne and the tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. a professed catholic, he imprisoned the pope; a pretended patriot, he impoverished the country; and in the name of brutus, he grasped without remorse, and wore without shame, the diadem of the caesars. the whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his designs, and the miracle of their execution. skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performance; romance assumed the air of history; nor was there aught too incredible for belief, or too fanciful for expectation, when the world saw a subaltern of corsica waving his imperial flag over her most ancient capitals. all the visions of antiquity became commonplace in his contemplation: kings were his people; nations were his outposts; and he disposed of courts, and crowns, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as if they were the titular dignitaries of the chessboard! amid all these changes, he stood immutable as adamant. it mattered little whether in the field, or in the drawing-room; with the mob, or the levee; wearing the jacobin bonnet, or the iron crown; banishing a braganza, or espousing a hapsburg; dictating peace on a raft to the czar of russia, or contemplating defeat at the gallows of leipsic he was still the same military despot. in this wonderful combination, his affectations of literature must not be omitted. the jailer of the press, he affected the patronage of letters; the proscriber of books, he encouraged philosophy; the persecutor of authors, and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to the protection of learning; the assassin of palm, the silencer of de stael, and the denouncer of kotzebue, he was the friend of david, the benefactor of de lille, and sent his academic prize to the philosopher of england. such a medley of contradictions, and, at the same time, such an individual consistency, were never united in the same character. a royalist, a republican, and an emperor; a mohammedan, a catholic, and a patron of the synagogue; a subaltern and a sovereign; a traitor and a tyrant; a christian and an infidel; he was, through all his vicissitudes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible original; the same mysterious, incomprehensible self; the man without a model, and without a shadow. notes.--st. louis (b. , d. ), a wise and pious king of france, known as louis ix. napoleon was appointed to the military school at brienne, by louis xvi. brutus, lucius junius, abolished the royal office at rome ( b. c.), and ruled as consul for two years. jacobin bonnet.--the jacobins were a powerful political club during the first french revolution. a peculiar bonnet or hat was their badge. braganza, the name of the royal family of portugal. maria of portugal, and her father, charles iv. of spain, were both expelled by napoleon. hapsburg, the name of the royal family of austria. napoleon's second wife was maria louisa, the daughter of the emperor. czar.--the treaty of tilsit was agreed to between bonaparte and the czar alexander on the river memel. leipsic.--napoleon was defeated by the allied forces, in october, , at this city. palm, a german publisher, shot, in , by order of napoleon, for publishing a pamphlet against him. de stael (pro. de stal), a celebrated french authoress, banished from paris, in , by napoleon. kotzebue, an eminent german dramatist. david, the leading historical painter of his times in france. de lille, an eminent french poet and professor. xxix. napoleon at rest. ( ) john pierpont, - , was born in litchfield, connecticut, and graduated from yale college in . the next four years he spent as a private tutor in the family of col. william allston, of south carolina. on his return, he studied law in the law school of his native town. he entered upon practice, but soon left the law for mercantile pursuits, in which he was unsuccessful. having studied theology at cambridge, in he was ordained pastor of the hollis street unitarian church, in boston, where he continued nearly twenty years. he afterwards preached four years for a church in troy, new york, and then removed to medford, massachusetts. at the age of seventy-six, he became chaplain of a massachusetts regiment; but, on account of infirmity, war soon obliged to give up the position. mr. pierpont published a series of school readers, which enjoyed a well-deserved popularity for many years. his poetry is smooth, musical, and vigorous. most of his pieces were written for special occasions. ### his falchion flashed along the nile; his hosts he led through alpine snows; o'er moscow's towers, that blazed the while, his eagle flag unrolled,--and froze. here sleeps he now, alone! not one of all the kings, whose crowns he gave, bends o'er his dust;--nor wife nor son has ever seen or sought his grave. behind this seagirt rock! the star, that led him on from crown to crown, has sunk; and nations from afar gazed as it faded and went down. high is his couch;--the ocean flood, far, far below, by storms is curled; as round him heaved, while high he stood, a stormy and unstable world. alone he sleeps! the mountain cloud, that night hangs round him, and the breath of morning scatters, is the shroud that wraps the conqueror's clay in death. pause here! the far-off world, at last, breathes free; the hand that shook its thrones, and to the earth its miters cast, lies powerless now beneath these stones. hark! comes there from the pyramids, and from siberian wastes of snow, and europe's hills, a voice that bids the world he awed to mourn him? no: the only, the perpetual dirge that's heard there is the sea bird's cry,-- the mournful murmur of the surge,-- the cloud's deep voice, the wind's low sigh. note.--seagirt rock, the island of st. helena, is in the atlantic ocean, nearly midway between africa and south america. napoleon was confined on this island six years; until , when he died and was buried there. in , his remains were removed to paris. xxx. war. ( ) charles sumner. - , was born in boston. he studied at the latin school in his native city, graduated from harvard university at the age of nineteen, studied law at the same institution, and was admitted to practice in . he at once took a prominent position in his profession, lectured to the law classes at cambridge for several successive years, wrote and edited several standard law books, and might have had a professorship in the law school, had he desired it. in his famous address on "the true grandeur of nations," delivered july , , before the municipal authorities of boston, he took strong grounds against war among nations. in he was elected to the united states senate and continued in that position till his death. as a jurist, as a statesman, as an orator, and as a profound and scholarly writer, mr. sumner stands high in the estimation of his countrymen. in physical appearance, mr. sumner was grand and imposing; men often turned to gaze after him, as he passed along the streets of his native city. ### i need not dwell now on the waste and cruelty of war. these stare us wildly in the face, like lurid meteor lights, as we travel the page of history. we see the desolation and death that pursue its demoniac footsteps. we look upon sacked towns, upon ravaged territories, upon violated homes; we behold all the sweet charities of life changed to wormwood and gall. our soul is penetrated by the sharp moan of mothers, sisters, and daughters--of fathers, brothers, and sons, who, in the bitterness of their bereavement, refuse to be comforted. our eyes rest at last upon one of these fair fields, where nature, in her abundance, spreads her cloth of gold, spacious and apt for the entertainment of mighty multitudes--or perhaps, from the curious subtlety of its position, like the carpet in the arabian tale, seeming to contract so as to be covered by a few only, or to dilate so as to receive an innumerable host. here, under a bright sun, such as shone at austerlitz or buena vista--amidst the peaceful harmonies of nature--on the sabbath of peace--we behold bands of brothers, children of a common father, heirs to a common happiness, struggling together in the deadly fight, with the madness of fallen spirits, seeking with murderous weapons the lives of brothers who have never injured them or their kindred. the havoc rages. the ground is soaked with their commingling blood. the air is rent by their commingling cries. horse and rider are stretched together on the earth. more revolting than the mangled victims, than the gashed limbs, than the lifeless trunks, than the spattering brains, are the lawless passions which sweep, tempest-like, through the fiendish tumult. horror-struck, we ask, wherefore this hateful contest? the melancholy, but truthful answer comes, that this is the established method of determining justice between nations! the scene changes. far away on the distant pathway of the ocean two ships approach each other, with white canvas broadly spread to receive the flying gales. they are proudly built. all of human art has been lavished in their graceful proportions, and in their well compacted sides, while they look in their dimensions like floating happy islands on the sea. a numerous crew, with costly appliances of comfort, hives in their secure shelter. surely these two travelers shall meet in joy and friendship; the flag at the masthead shall give the signal of friendship; the happy sailors shall cluster in the rigging, and even on the yardarms, to look each other in the face, while the exhilarating voices of both crews shall mingle in accents of gladness uncontrollable. it is not so. not as brothers, not as friends, not as wayfarers of the common ocean, do they come together; but as enemies. the gentle vessels now bristle fiercely with death-dealing instruments. on their spacious decks, aloft on all their masts, flashes the deadly musketry. from their sides spout cataracts of flame, amidst the pealing thunders of a fatal artillery. they, who had escaped "the dreadful touch of merchant-marring rocks"--who had sped on their long and solitary way unharmed by wind or wave--whom the hurricane had spared--in whose favor storms and seas had intermitted their immitigable war--now at last fall by the hand of each other. the same spectacle of horror greets us from both ships. on their decks, reddened with blood, the murderers of st. bartholomew and of the sicilian vespers, with the fires of smithfield, seem to break forth anew, and to concentrate their rage. each has now become a swimming golgotha. at length, these vessels--such pageants of the sea--once so stately--so proudly built--but now rudely shattered by cannon balls--with shivered mast's and ragged sails--exist only as unmanageable wrecks, weltering on the uncertain waves, whose temporary lull of peace is now their only safety. in amazement at this strange, unnatural contest--away from country and home--where there is no country or home to defend--we ask again, wherefore this dismal duel? again the melancholy but truthful answer promptly comes, that this is the established method of determining justice between nations. notes.--austerlitz, a small town in austria, seventy miles north from vienna. it is noted as the site of a battle, in december, , between the allied austrian and russian armies, and the french under napoleon. the latter were victorious. buena vista, a small hamlet in eastern mexico, where, in , five thousand americans, under gen. taylor, defeated twenty thousand mexicans, under gen. santa anna. dreadful touch.--quoted from merchant of venice, act iii, scene ii. st. bartholomew.--a terrible massacre took place in france, on st. bartholomew's day, august , . it has been estimated that twenty thousand persons perished. sicilian vespers, a revolt and uprising against the french in sicily, march , , at the hour of vespers. smithfield, a portion of london noted as a place for execution during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. xxxi. speech of walpole in reproof of mr. pitt. ( ) sir robert walpole, - , was educated at eton and cambridge. he entered parliament in , and soon became a good debater and skillful tactician. he was prime minister of great britain from to , in the reigns of george i. and george ii. he was an able statesman; but has been accused of employing corruption or bribery on a large scale, to control parliament and accomplish his purposes. ### i was unwilling to interrupt the course of this debate, while it was carried on with calmness and decency, by men who do not suffer the ardor of opposition to cloud their reason, or transport them to such expressions as the dignity of this assembly does not admit. i have hitherto deferred answering the gentleman, who declaimed against the bill with such fluency and rhetoric, and such vehemence of gesture; who charged the advocates for the expedients now proposed, with having no regard to any interests but their own, and with making laws only to consume paper, and threatened them with the defection of their adherents, and the loss of their influence, upon this new discovery of their folly and ignorance. nor, do i now answer him for any other purpose than to remind him how little the clamor of rage and petulancy of invective contribute to the end for which this assembly is called together; how little the discovery of truth is promoted, and the security of the nation established, by pompous diction and theatrical emotion. formidable sounds and furious declamation, confident assertions and lofty periods, may affect the young and inexperienced; and perhaps the gentleman may have contracted his habits of oratory by conversing more with those of his own age than with such as have more opportunities of acquiring knowledge, and more successful methods of communicating their sentiments. if the heat of temper would permit him to attend to those whose age and long acquaintance with business give them an indisputable right to deference and superiority, he would learn in time to reason, rather than declaim; and to prefer justness of argument and an accurate knowledge of facts, to sounding epithets and splendid superlatives, which may disturb the imagination for a moment, but leave no lasting impression upon the mind. he would learn, that to accuse and prove are very different; and that reproaches, unsupported by evidence, affect only the character of him that utters them. excursions of fancy and flights of oratory are indeed pardonable in young men, but in no other; and it would surely contribute more, even to the purpose for which some gentlemen appear to speak (that of depreciating the conduct of the administration), to prove the inconveniences and injustice of this bill, than barely to assert them, with whatever magnificence of language, or appearance of zeal, honesty, or compassion. xxxii. pitt's reply to sir robert walpole. ( ) william pitt, -- , one of the ablest statesmen and orators of his time, was born in cornwall, and educated at eton and oxford. he entered parliament in , and became a formidable opponent of the ministry of sir robert walpole. he gained great reputation by his wise and vigorous management of military affairs in the last years of the reign of george ii. he opposed the "stamp act" with great earnestness, as well as the course of the ministry in the early years of the american revolution. in , he rose from a sick bed to make his celebrated speech, in the house of lords, in opposition to a motion to acknowledge the independence of america. at its close, he fell in an apoplectic fit, and was borne home to die in a few weeks afterward. he was buried in westminster abbey. mr. pitt possessed a fine personal presence and a powerful voice; he was very popular with the people, and is often called the "great commoner." he was created "earl of chatham" in . ### the atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, i shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with hoping that i may be one of those whose follies cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience. whether youth can be imputed to a man as a reproach, i will not assume the province of determining; but surely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appears to prevail when the passions have subsided. the wretch, who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should secure him from insult. much more is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked--with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he can not enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country. but youth is not my only crime; i am accused of acting a theatrical part. a theatrical part may either imply some peculiarity of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and language of another man. in the first sense, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. i am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though, perhaps, i may have some ambition to please this gentleman, i shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or his mien, however matured by age, or modeled by experience. but, if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that i utter any sentiments but my own, i shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment he deserves. i shall, on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves, nor shall anything but age restrain my resentment; age,--which always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious, without punishment! but, with regard to those whom i have offended, i am of opinion that, if i had acted a borrowed part, i should have avoided their censure: the heat that offended them was the ardor of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. i will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery. i will exert my endeavors, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villainies, and whoever may partake of his plunder. xxxiii. character of mr. pitt. ( ) henry grattan, - , an irish orator and statesman, was born at dublin, and graduated from trinity college, in his native city. by his admiration of mr. pitt, the first earl of chatham, he was led to turn his attention to oratory. in personal appearance, he was unprepossessing; but his private character was without a blemish. ### the secretary stood alone. modern degeneracy had not reached him. original and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. his august mind overawed majesty itself. no state chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories, sank him to the vulgar level of the great; but overbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his object was england, his ambition was fame. without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. france sunk beneath him. with one hand he smote the house of bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of england. the sight of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to effect, not england, not the present age only, but europe and posterity. wonderful were the means by which those schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestion of an understanding animated by ardor and enlightened by prophecy. the ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent, were unknown to him. no domestic difficulties, no domestic weakness, reached him; but, aloof from the sordid occurrences of life, and unsullied by its intercourse, he came occasionally into our system, to counsel and decide. a character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of pitt, through all classes of venality. corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country, and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her. nor were his political his only talents. his eloquence was an era in the senate; peculiar and spontaneous; familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instructive wisdom; not like the torrent of demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration of tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres. he did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtilty of argumentation, nor was he ever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like those of the eye, were felt, but could not be followed. upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and to rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority; something that could establish or overwhelm empires, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe. notes.--demosthenes (b. , d. , b. c.) was the son of a cutler at athens, greece. by diligent study and unremitting toil, he became the greatest orator that ever lived. tully, marcus tullius cicero (b. , d. , b. c.), was the most remarkable of roman orators. he held the highest office of the republic. xxxiv. the soldier's rest. ( ) sir walter scott, - , the great scotch poet and novelist, was born in edinburgh. being a feeble child, he was sent to reside on his grandfather's estate in the south of scotland. here he spent several years, and gained much knowledge of the traditions of border warfare, as well as of the tales and ballads pertaining to it. he was also a great reader of romances in his youth. in be returned to edinburgh, and became a pupil in the high school. four years later, he entered the university; but in neither school nor college, was he distinguished for scholarship. in he was admitted to the practice of law,--a profession which he soon forsook for literature. his first poems appeared in . the "lay of the last minstrel" was published in , "marmion" in , and "the lady of the lake" in . several poems of less power followed. in "waverley," his first novel, made its appearance, but the author was unknown for some time. numerous other novels followed with great rapidity, the author reaping a rich harvest both in fame and money. in he purchased an estate near the tweed, to which he gave the name of abbotsford. in enlarging his estate and building a costly house, he spent vast sums of money. this, together with the failure of his publishers in , involved him very heavily in debt. but he set to work with almost superhuman effort to pay his debts by the labors of his pen. in about four years, he had paid more than $ , ; but the effort was too much for his strength, and hastened his death. in person, scott was tall, and apparently robust, except a slight lameness with which he was affected from childhood. he was kindly in disposition, hospitable in manner, fond of outdoor pursuits and of animals, especially dogs. he wrote with astonishing rapidity, and always in the early morning. at his death, he left two sons and two daughters. a magnificent monument to his memory has been erected in the city of his birth. the following selection is from "the lady of the lake." ### soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; dream of battlefields no more, days of danger, nights of waking. in our isle's enchanted hall, hands unseen thy couch are strewing, fairy strains of music fall, every sense in slumber dewing. soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, dream of battlefields no more; sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, morn of toil, nor night of waking. no rude sound shall reach thine ear, armor's clang, or war steed champing, trump nor pibroch summon here mustering clan, or squadron tramping. yet the lark's shrill fife may come, at the daybreak from the fallow, and the bittern sound his drum, booming from the sedgy shallow. ruder sounds shall none be near, guards nor warders challenge here, here's no war steed's neigh and champing, shouting clans or squadrons stamping. huntsman, rest! thy chase is done; while our slumb'rous spells assail ye, dream not, with the rising sun, bugles here shall sound reveille. sleep! the deer is in his den; sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying; sleep! nor dream in yonder glen, how thy gallant steed lay dying. huntsman, rest; thy chase is done, think not of the rising sun, for at dawning to assail ye, here no bugle sounds reveille. notes.--pibroch (pro. pe'brok). this is a wild, irregular species of music, peculiar to the highlands of scotland. it is performed on a bagpipe, and adapted to excite or assuage passion, and particularly to rouse a martial spirit among troops going to battle. reveille (pro. re-val'ya) is an awakening call at daybreak. in the army it is usually sounded on the drum. xxxv. henry v. to his troops. ( ) william shakespeare. - , was born at stratford-upon-avon. by many (perhaps most) critics, shakespeare is regarded as the greatest poet the world has ever produced; one calls him, "the most illustrious of the sons of men." and yet it is a curious fact that less is really known of his life and personal characteristics than is known of almost any other famous name in history. over one hundred years ago, a writer said, "all that is known with any degree of certainty concerning shakespeare is--that he was born at stratford-upon-avon--married and had children there--went to london, where he commenced acting, and wrote poems and plays--returned to stratford, made his will, died, and was buried." all the research of the last one hundred years has added but very little to this meager record. he was married, very young, to anne hathaway, a woman eight years his senior; was joint proprietor of blackfriar's theater in , and seems to have accumulated property, and retired three or four years before his death. he was buried in stratford church, where a monument has been erected to his memory; he also has a monument, in "poet's corner" of westminster abbey. his family soon became extinct. from all we can learn, he seems to have been highly respected and esteemed by his cotemporaries. his works consist chiefly of plays and sonnets. his writings show an astonishing knowledge of human nature, expressed in language wonderful for its point and beauty. his style is chaste and pure, judged by the standard of his times, although expressions may sometimes be found that would not be considered proper in a modern writer. it has been argued by some that shakespeare did not write the works imputed to him; but this theory seems to have little to support it. this extract is from king henry v., act iii, scene i. ### once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our english dead. in peace there 's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility: but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage; then lend the eye a terrible aspect; let it pry through the portage of the head like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it as fearfully as doth a galled rock o'er hang and jutty his confounded base, swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean. now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide, hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit to its full height! on, on, you noblest english, whose blood is fet from fathers of war proof! fathers, that, like so many alexanders, have, in these parts, from morn till even, fought, and sheathed their swords for lack of argument; be copy now to men of grosser blood, and teach them how to war. and you, good yeomen, whose limbs were made in england, show us here the mettle of your pasture; let us swear that you are worth your breeding, which i doubt not; for there is none of you so mean and base, that hath not noble luster in your eyes. i see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. the game's afoot; follow your spirit: and, upon this charge, cry--"god for harry, england, and st. george!" notes.--henry v. ( - ) was king of england for nine years. during this reign almost continuous war raged in france, to the throne of which henry laid claim. the battle of agincourt took place in his reign. fet is the old form of fetched. alexanders.--alexander the great ( - b. g) was king of macedonia, and the celebrated conqueror of persia, india, and the greater part of the world as then known. xxxvi. speech of paul on mars hill. ( ) then paul stood in the midst of mars hill, and said, ye men of athens! i perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. for as i passed by, and beheld your devotions, i found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown god. whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare i unto you. god that made the world and all things therein (seeing that he is lord of heaven and earth) dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from everyone of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. forasmuch then as we are the offspring of god, we ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. and the times of this ignorance god winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. so paul departed from among them. howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed; among the which was dionysius the areopagite, and a woman named damaris, and others with them. --bible. notes.--at the time this oration was delivered ( a. d.), athens still held the place she had occupied for centuries, as the center of the enlightened and refined world. mars hill, or the areopagus, was an eminence in the city made famous as the place where the court, also called areopagus, held its sittings, dionysius, surnamed areopageita, from being a member of this court, was an eminent greek scholar, who, after his conversion to christianity by st. paul, was installed, by the latter, as the first bishop of athens, he afterwards suffered martyrdom. xxxvii. god is everywhere. ( ) oh! show me where is he, the high and holy one, to whom thou bend'st the knee, and prayest, "thy will be done!" i hear thy song of praise, and lo! no form is near: thine eyes i see thee raise, but where doth god appear? oh! teach me who is god, and where his glories shine, that i may kneel and pray, and call thy father mine. "gaze on that arch above: the glittering vault admire. who taught those orbs to move? who lit their ceaseless fire? who guides the moon to run in silence through the skies? who bids that dawning sun in strength and beauty rise? there view immensity! behold! my god is there: the sun, the moon, the stars, his majesty declare. "see where the mountains rise: where thundering torrents foam; where, veiled in towering skies, the eagle makes his home: where savage nature dwells, my god is present, too: through all her wildest dells his footsteps i pursue: he reared those giant cliffs, supplies that dashing stream, provides the daily food which stills the wild bird's scream. "look on that world of waves, where finny nations glide; within whose deep, dark caves the ocean monsters hide: his power is sovereign there, to raise, to quell the storm; the depths his bounty share, where sport the scaly swarm: tempests and calms obey the same almighty voice, which rules the earth and skies, and bids far worlds rejoice." --joseph hutton. xxxviii. lafayette and robert raikes. ( ) thomas s. grimke', - , an eminent lawyer and scholar, was born in charleston, south carolina, graduated at yale in , and died of cholera near columbus, ohio. he descended from a huguenot family that was exiled from france by the revocation of the edict of nantes. he gained considerable reputation as a politician, but is best known as an advocate of peace, sunday schools, and the bible. he was a man of deep feeling, earnest purpose, and pure life. some of his views were very radical and very peculiar. he proposed sweeping reforms in english orthography[ ], and disapproved of the classics and of pure mathematics in any scheme of general education. the following is an extract from an address delivered at a sunday-school celebration. ### [transcriber's footnote : orthography: spelling using established usage.] it is but a few years since we beheld the most singular and memorable pageant in the annals of time. it was a pageant more sublime and affecting than the progress of elizabeth through england after the defeat of the armada; than the return of francis i. from a spanish prison to his own beautiful france; than the daring and rapid march of the conqueror at austerlitz from frejus to paris. it was a pageant, indeed, rivaled only in the elements of the grand and the pathetic, by the journey of our own washington through the different states. need i say that i allude to the visit of lafayette to america? but lafayette returned to the land of the dead, rather than of the living. how many who had fought with him in the war of ' , had died in arms, and lay buried in the grave of the soldier or the sailor! how many who had survived the perils of battle, on the land and the ocean, had expired on the deathbed of peace, in the arms of mother, sister, daughter, wife! those. who survived to celebrate with him the jubilee of , were stricken in years, and hoary-headed; many of them infirm in health; many the victims of poverty, or misfortune, or affliction. and, how venerable that patriotic company; how sublime their gathering through all the land; how joyful their welcome, how affecting their farewell to that beloved stranger! but the pageant has fled, and the very materials that gave it such depths of interest are rapidly perishing: and a humble, perhaps a nameless grave, shall hold the last soldier of the revolution. and shall they ever meet again? shall the patriots and soldiers of ' , the "immortal band," as history styles them, meet again in the amaranthine bowers of spotless purity, of perfect bliss, of eternal glory? shall theirs be the christian's heaven, the kingdom of the redeemer? the heathen points to his fabulous elysium as the paradise of the soldier and the sage. but the christian bows down with tears and sighs, for he knows that not many of the patriots, and statesmen, and warriors of christian lands are the disciples of jesus. but we turn from lafayette, the favorite of the old and the new world, to the peaceful benevolence, the unambitious achievements of robert raikes. let us imagine him to have been still alive, and to have visited our land, to celebrate this day with us. no national ships would have been offered to bear him, a nation's guest, in the pride of the star-spangled banner, from the bright shores of the rising, to the brighter shores of the setting sun. no cannon would have hailed him in the stern language of the battlefield, the fortunate champion of freedom, in europe and america. no martial music would have welcomed him in notes of rapture, as they rolled along the atlantic, and echoed through the valley of the mississippi. no military procession would have heralded his way through crowded streets, thickset with the banner and the plume, the glittering saber and the polished bayonet. no cities would have called forth beauty and fashion, wealth and rank, to honor him in the ballroom and theater. no states would have escorted him from boundary to boundary, nor have sent their chief magistrate to do him homage. no national liberality would have allotted to him a nobleman's domain and princely treasure. no national gratitude would have hailed him in the capitol itself, the nation's guest, because the nation's benefactor; and have consecrated a battle ship, in memory of his wounds and his gallantry. not such would have been the reception of robert raikes, in the land of the pilgrims and of penn, of the catholic, the cavalier, and the huguenot. and who does not rejoice that it would be impossible thus to welcome this primitive christian, the founder of sunday schools? his heralds would be the preachers of the gospel, and the eminent in piety, benevolence, and zeal. his procession would number in its ranks the messengers of the cross and the disciples of the savior, sunday-school teachers and white-robed scholars. the temples of the most high would be the scenes of his triumph. homage and gratitude to him, would be anthems of praise and thanksgiving to god. parents would honor him as more than a brother; children would reverence him as more than a father. the faltering words of age, the firm and sober voice of manhood, the silvery notes of youth, would bless him as a christian patron. the wise and the good would acknowledge him everywhere as a national benefactor, as a patriot even to a land of strangers. he would have come a messenger of peace to a land of peace. no images of camps, and sieges, and battles; no agonies of the dying and the wounded; no shouts of victory, or processions of triumph, would mingle with the recollections of the multitude who welcomed him. they would mourn over no common dangers, trials, and calamities; for the road of duty has been to them the path of pleasantness, the way of peace. their memory of the past would be rich in gratitude to god, and love to man; their enjoyment of the present would be a prelude to heavenly bliss; their prospects of the future, bright and glorious as faith and hope. * * * such was the reception of lafayette, the warrior; such would be that of robert raikes, the howard of the christian church. and which is the nobler benefactor, patriot, and philanthropist? mankind may admire and extol lafayette more than the founder of the sunday schools; but religion, philanthropy, and enlightened common sense must ever esteem robert raikes the superior of lafayette. his are the virtues, the services, the sacrifices of a more enduring and exalted order of being. his counsels and triumphs belong less to time than to eternity. the fame of lafayette is of this world; the glory of robert raikes is of the redeemer's everlasting kingdom. lafayette lived chiefly for his own age, and chiefly for his and our country; but robert raikes has lived for all ages and all countries. perhaps the historian and biographer may never interweave his name in the tapestry of national or individual renown. but the records of every single church honor him as a patron; the records of the universal church, on earth as in heaven, bless him as a benefactor. the time may come when the name of lafayette will be forgotten; or when the star of his fame, no longer glittering in the zenith, shall be seen, pale and glimmering, on the verge of the horizon. but the name of robert raikes shall never be forgotten; and the lambent flame of his glory is that eternal fire which rushed down from heaven to devour the sacrifice of elijah. let mortals then admire and imitate lafayette more than robert raikes. but the just made perfect, and the ministering spirits around the throne of god, have welcomed him as a fellow-servant of the same lord; as a fellow-laborer in the same glorious cause of man's redemption; as a coheir of the same precious promises and eternal rewards. notes.--armada, the great fleet sent out in , by philip ii. of spain, for the conquest of england, was defeated in the channel by the english and dutch fleets. after the victory, queen elizabeth made a triumphal journey through the kingdom. francis i. (b. , d. ), king of france, was taken prisoner at the battle of pavia, and confined at madrid, spain, nearly a year. austerlitz.--see note on p. . lafayette (b. , d. ), a french marquis, who served as major general in the revolutionary war in america, which terminated in . lafayette revisited this country in , and was received throughout the land with the greatest enthusiasm. robert raikes (b. , d. ), an english printer and philanthropist, noted as the founder of sunday schools. howard, john (b. , d. ), a celebrated english philanthropist, who spent much of his life in the endeavor to reform the condition of prisons in europe. xxxix. fall of cardinal wolsey. ( ) wolsey. farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness! this is the state of man: to-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms, and bears his blushing honors thick upon him; the third day comes a frost, a killing frost, and, when he thinks, good, easy man, full surely his greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, and then he falls, as i do. i have ventured, like little, wanton boys that swim on bladders, this many summers in a sea of glory, but far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride at length broke under me, and now has left me, weary and old with service, to the mercy of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. vain pomp and glory of this world, i hate ye: i feel my heart new open'd. oh, how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! there is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, that sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, more pangs and fears than wars or women have: and when he falls, he falls like lucifer, never to hope again. enter cromwell, and stands amazed. why, how now, cromwell! crom. i have no power to speak, sir. wol. what, amazed at my misfortunes? can thy spirit wonder, a great man should decline? nay, an you weep, i am fall'n indeed. crom. how does your grace? wol. why, well; never so truly happy, my good cromwell. i know myself now; and i fed within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience. the king has cured me, i humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders, these ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken a load would sink a navy!--too much honor: oh, 't is a burthen, cromwell, 'tis a burthen, too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven! crom. i am glad your grace has made that right use of it. wol. i hope i have: i am able now, methinks, out of a fortitude of soul i feel, to endure more miseries, and greater far, than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer. what news abroad? crom. the heaviest, and the worst, is your displeasure with the king. wol. god bless him! crom. the next is, that sir thomas more is chosen lord chancellor in your place. wol. that's somewhat sudden: but he's a learned man. may he continue long in his highness' favor, and do justice for truth's sake and his conscience; that his bones, when he has run his course, and sleeps in blessings, may have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em! what more? crom. that cranmer is return'd with welcome, install'd lord archbishop of canterbury. wol. that's news indeed! crom. last, that the lady anne, whom the king hath in secrecy long married, this day was viewed in open as his queen, going to chapel; and the voice is now only about her coronation. wol. there was the weight that pull'd me down. o cromwell, the king has gone beyond me: all my glories in that one woman i have lost forever: no sun shall ever usher forth mine honors, or gild again the noble troops that waited upon my smiles. go! get thee from me! cromwell; i am a poor, fall'n man, unworthy now to be thy lord and master: seek the king; that sun, i pray, may never set! i have told him what and how true thou art: he will advance thee; some little memory of me will stir him-- i know his noble nature--not to let thy hopeful service perish, too: good cromwell, neglect him not; make use now, and provide for thine own future safety. crom. o my lord, must i, then, leave you? must i needs forego so good, so noble, and so true a master? bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, with what a sorrow cromwell leaves his lord. the king shall have my service; but my prayers forever and forever shall be yours. wol. cromwell, i did not think to shed a tear in all my miseries; but thou hast forced me, out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, cromwell; and, when i am forgotten, as i shall be, and sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention of me more must be heard of, say, i taught thee; say, wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, and sounded all the depths and shoals of honor, found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in; a sure and safe one, though thy master missed it. mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me. cromwell, i charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, the image of his maker, hope to win by it? love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee; corruption wins not more than honesty. still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, to silence envious tongues. be just, and fear not: let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, thy god's, and truth's; then, if thou fall'st, o cromwell, thou fall'st, a blessed martyr! serve the king; and,--prithee, lead me in: there, take an inventory of all i have, to the last penny; 't is the king's: my robe, and my integrity to heaven, is all i dare now call mine own. o cromwell, cromwell! had i but served my god with half the zeal i served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies. crom. good sir, have patience. wol. so i have. farewell the hopes of court! my hopes in heaven do dwell. shakespeare.--henry viii, act iii, scene ii. notes.--wolsey, cardinal thomas (b. , d. ), was for several years the favored minister or henry viii. of england. he acquired great wealth and power. in , he was one of the candidates for the papal throne. in , he was disgraced at the english court and arrested. cromwell, thomas (b. , d. ), was wolsey's servant, after wolsey's death, he became secretary to henry viii., and towards the close of his life was made earl of essex. xl. the philosopher. ( ) john p. kennedy, - . this gentleman, eminent in american politics and literature, was born in baltimore, graduated at the college of baltimore, and died in the same city. he served several years in the legislature of his native state, and three terms in the united states house of representatives. he was secretary of the navy during a part of president fillmore's administration, and was active in sending out the famous japan expedition, and dr. kane's expedition in search of sir john franklin. mr. kennedy wrote several novels, as well as political and other papers. his writings are marked by ease and freshness, the following extract is from "swallow barn," a series of sketches of early virginia. ### from the house at swallow barn there is to be seen, at no great distance, a clump of trees, and in the midst of these a humble building is discernible, that seems to court the shade in which it is modestly embowered. it is an old structure built of logs. its figure is a cube, with a roof rising from all sides to a point, and surmounted by a wooden weathercock, which somewhat resembles a fish and somewhat a fowl. this little edifice is a rustic shrine devoted to cadmus, and is under the dominion of parson chub. he is a plump, rosy old gentleman, rather short and thickset, with the blood vessels meandering over his face like rivulets,--a pair of prominent blue eyes, and a head of silky hair not unlike the covering of a white spaniel. he may be said to be a man of jolly dimensions, with an evident taste for good living, sometimes sloven in his attire, for his coat--which is not of the newest--is decorated with sundry spots that are scattered over it in constellations. besides this, he wears an immense cravat, which, as it is wreathed around his short neck, forms a bowl beneath his chin, and--as ned says--gives the parson's head the appearance of that of john the baptist upon a charger, as it is sometimes represented in the children's picture books. his beard is grizzled with silver stubble, which the parson reaps about twice a week--if the weather be fair. mr. chub is a philosopher after the order of socrates. he was an emigrant from the emerald isle, where he suffered much tribulation in the disturbances, as they are mildly called, of his much-enduring country. but the old gentleman has weathered the storm without losing a jot of that broad, healthy benevolence with which nature has enveloped his heart, and whose ensign she has hoisted in his face. the early part of his life had been easy and prosperous, until the rebellion of stimulated his republicanism into a fever, and drove the full-blooded hero headlong into a quarrel, and put him, in spite of his peaceful profession, to standing by his pike in behalf of his principles. by this unhappy boiling over of the caldron of his valor, he fell under the ban of the ministers, and tested his share of government mercy. his house was burnt over his head, his horses and hounds (for, by all accounts, he was a perfect actaeon) were "confiscate to the state," and he was forced to fly. this brought him to america in no very compromising mood with royalty. here his fortunes appear to have been various, and he was tossed to and fro by the battledoor of fate, until he found a snug harbor at swallow barn; where, some years ago, he sat down in that quiet repose which a worried and badgered patriot is best fitted to enjoy. he is a good scholar, and, having confined his readings entirely to the learning of the ancients, his republicanism is somewhat after the grecian mold. he has never read any politics of later date than the time of the emperor constantine, not even a newspaper,--so that he may be said to have been contemporary with aeschines rather than lord castlereagh--until that eventful epoch of his life when his blazing rooftree awakened him from his anachronistical dream. this notable interruption, however, gave him but a feeble insight into the moderns, and he soon relapsed to thucydides and livy, with some such glimmerings of the american revolution upon his remembrance as most readers have of the exploits of the first brutus. the old gentleman had a learned passion for folios. he had been a long time urging meriwether to make some additions to his collections of literature, and descanted upon the value of some of the ancient authors as foundations, both moral and physical, to the library. frank gave way to the argument, partly to gratify the parson, and partly from the proposition itself having a smack that touched his fancy. the matter was therefore committed entirely to mr. chub, who forthwith set out on a voyage of exploration to the north. i believe he got as far as boston. he certainly contrived to execute his commission with a curious felicity. some famous elzevirs were picked up, and many other antiques that nobody but mr. chub would ever think of opening. the cargo arrived at swallow burn in the dead of winter. during the interval between the parson's return from his expedition and the coming of the books, the reverend little schoolmaster was in a remarkably unquiet state of body, which almost prevented him from sleeping: and it is said that the sight of the long-expected treasures had the happiest effect upon him. there was ample accommodation for this new acquisition of ancient wisdom provided before its arrival, and mr. chub now spent a whole week in arranging the volumes on their proper shelves, having, as report affirms, altered the arrangement at least seven times during that period. everybody wondered what the old gentleman was at, all this time; but it was discovered afterwards, that he was endeavoring to effect a distribution of the works according to a minute division of human science, which entirely failed, owing to the unlucky accident of several of his departments being without any volumes. after this matter was settled, he regularly spent his evenings in the library. frank meriwether was hardly behind the parson in this fancy, and took, for a short time, to abstruse reading. they both consequently deserted the little family circle every evening after tea, and might have continued to do so all the winter but for a discovery made by hazard. ned had seldom joined the two votaries of science in their philosophical retirement, and it was whispered in the family that the parson was giving frank a quiet course of lectures in the ancient philosophy, for meriwether was known to talk a great deal, about that time, of the old and new academicians. but it happened upon one dreary winter night, during a tremendous snowstorm, which was banging the shutters and doors of the house so as to keep up a continual uproar, that ned, having waited in the parlor for the philosophers until midnight, set out to invade their retreat--not doubting that he should find them deep in study. when he entered the library, both candles were burning in their sockets, with long, untrimmed wicks; the fire was reduced to its last embers, and, in an armchair on one side of the table, the parson was discovered in a sound sleep over jeremy taylor's "ductor dubitantium," whilst frank, in another chair on the opposite side, was snoring over a folio edition of montaigne. and upon the table stood a small stone pitcher, containing a residuum of whisky punch, now grown cold. frank started up in great consternation upon hearing ned's footstep beside him, and, from that time, almost entirely deserted the library. mr. chub, however, was not so easily drawn away from the career of his humor, and still shows his hankering after his leather-coated friends. notes.--cadmus is said to have taught the greeks the use of the alphabet. socrates (b. , d. b. c.), a noted athenian philosopher. rebellion.--in , the irish organized and rose against the english rule. the rebellion was suppressed. actaeon [ak-te'on], a fabled greek hunter, who was changed into a stag. constantine, the great (b. , d, ), the first christian emperor of rome. he was an able general and wise legislator, in , he removed his capital to byzantium, which he named constantinople. aeschines [es'ke-nez] (b. , d. b. c.), an athenian orator, the rival of demosthenes. castlereagh, lord (b. , d. ), a british statesman. he was in power, and prominent in the suppression of the rebellion. brutus, see p. . elzevirs [el'ze-virs], the name of a family of dutch printers noted for the beauty of their workmanship. they lived from to . academicians.-the old academy was founded by plato, at athens, about b. c. the new, by carneades, about two hundred years later. jeremy taylor (b. , d. ), an english bishop and writer. his ductor dubitantium, or "rule of conscience," was one of his chief works. montaigne, michel (b. , d. ), was a celebrated french writer of peculiar characteristics. he owes his reputation entirely to his "essais." xli. marmion and douglas. ( ) not far advanced was morning day, when marmion did his troop array to surrey's camp to ride; he had safe conduct for his band, beneath the royal seal and hand, and douglas gave a guide. the train from out the castle drew, but marmion stopped to bid adieu: "though something i might plain," he said, "of cold respect to stranger guest, sent hither by your king's behest, while in tantallon's towers i staid, part we in friendship from your land, and, noble earl, receive my hand." but douglas round him drew his cloak, folded his arms, and thus he spoke: "my manors, halls, and bowers shall still be open, at my sovereign's will, to each one whom he lists, howe'er unmeet to be the owner's peer. my castles are my king's alone, from turret to foundation stone; the hand of douglas is his own; and never shall, in friendly grasp, the hand of such as marmion clasp." burned marmion's swarthy cheek like fire, and shook his very frame for ire; and--"this to me!" he said,-- "an 't were not for thy hoary beard, such hand as marmion's had not spared to cleave the douglas' head! and, first, i tell thee, haughty peer, he who does england's message here, although the meanest in her state, may well, proud angus, be thy mate: and, douglas, more, i tell thee here, even in thy pitch of pride, here, in thy hold, thy vassals near, i tell thee, thou'rt defied! and if thou said'st i am not peer to any lord in scotland here, lowland or highland, far or near, lord angus, thou hast lied!" on the earl's cheek the flush of rage o'ercame the ashen hue of age. fierce he broke forth,--"and dar'st thou then to beard the lion in his den, the douglas in his hall? and hop'st thou hence unscathed to go? no, by saint bride of bothwell, no! up drawbridge, grooms,--what, warder, ho! let the portcullis fall." lord marmion turned,--well was his need,-- and dashed the rowels in his steed, like arrow through the archway sprung; the ponderous gate behind him rung: to pass there was such scanty room, the bars, descending, razed his plume. the steed along the drawbridge flies, just as it trembled on the rise; nor lighter does the swallow skim along the smooth lake's level brim: and when lord marmion reached his band he halts, and turns with clenched hand, [ ] and shout of loud defiance pours, and shook his gauntlet at the towers. [transcriber's note : clenched, pronounced "clench-ed".] "horse! horse!" the douglas cried, "and chase!" but soon he reined his fury's pace: "a royal messenger he came, though most unworthy of the name. saint mary mend my fiery mood! old age ne'er cools the douglas' blood; i thought to slay him where he stood. 'tis pity of him, too," he cried; "bold he can speak, and fairly ride; i warrant him a warrior tried." with this his mandate he recalls, and slowly seeks his castle halls. --walter scott. [illustration: a man in armor on a galloping horse; he is waving a clenched fist at a group behind a closed iron gate to a castle.] notes:--in the poem from which this extract is taken, marmion is represented as an embassador sent by henry viii., king of england, to james iv., king of scotland, with whom he was at war. having finished his mission to james, marmion was intrusted to the protection and hospitality of douglas, one of the scottish nobles. douglas entertained him, treated him with the respect due to his office and to the honor of his sovereign, yet he despised his private character. marmion perceived this, and took umbrage at it, though he attempted to repress his resentment, and desired to part in peace. under these circumstances the scene, as described in this sketch, takes place. tantallon is the name of the douglas castle at bothwell, scotland. xlii. the present. ( ) adelaide anne procter, - , was the daughter of bryan waller procter, known in literature as "barry cornwall." she is the author of several volumes of poetry, and was a contributor to "good words," "all the year round," and other london periodicals. her works have been republished in america. ### do not crouch to-day, and worship the dead past, whose life is fled hush your voice in tender reverence; crowned he lies, but cold and dead: for the present reigns, our monarch, with an added weight of hours; honor her, for she is mighty! honor her, for she is ours! see the shadows of his heroes girt around her cloudy throne; every day the ranks are strengthened by great hearts to him unknown; noble things the great past promised, holy dreams, both strange and new; but the present shall fulfill them; what he promised, she shall do. she inherits all his treasures, she is heir to all his fame, and the light that lightens round her is the luster of his name; she is wise with all his wisdom, living on his grave she stands, on her brow she bears his laurels, and his harvest in her hands. coward, can she reign and conquer if we thus her glory dim? let us fight for her as nobly as our fathers fought for him. god, who crowns the dying ages, bids her rule, and us obey, bids us cast our lives before her, bids us serve the great to-day. xliii. the baptism. ( ) john wilson, - , a distinguished scottish author, was born at paisley. when fifteen years of age, he entered the university of glasgow; but, three years later, he became a member of magdalen college, oxford. here he attained eminence both as a student, and as a proficient in gymnastic games and exercises. soon after graduating, he purchased an estate near lake windermere, and became a companion of wordsworth and southey; but he soon left his estate to reside in edinburgh. in , when "blackwood's magazine" was established in opposition to the "edinburgh review," he became chief contributor to that famous periodical. in its pages, he won his chief fame as a writer. in , he succeeded dr. thomas brown as professor of moral philosophy in the university of edinburgh; this position he held for thirty years. his "lights and shadows of scottish life" was published in . this is a collection of pathetic and beautiful tales of domestic life in scotland. his contributions to blackwood appeared over the pseudonym of "christopher north," or more familiarly, "kit north." professor wilson was a man of great physical power and of striking appearance. in character, he was vehement and impulsive; but his writings show that he possessed feelings of deep tenderness. ### the rite of baptism had not been performed for several months in the kirk of lanark. it was now the hottest time of persecution; and the inhabitants of that parish found other places in which to worship god, and celebrate the ordinances of religion. it was now the sabbath day, and a small congregation of about a hundred souls had met for divine service, in a place more magnificent than any temple that human hands had ever built to deity. the congregation had not assembled to the toll of the bell, but each heart knew the hour and observed it; for there are a hundred sundials among the hills, woods, moors, and fields; and the shepherd and the peasant see the hours passing by them in sunshine and shadow. the church in which they were assembled, was hewn by god's hand out of the eternal rock. a river rolled its way through a mighty chasm of cliffs, several hundred feet high, of which the one side presented enormous masses, and the other corresponding recesses, as if the great stone girdle had been rent by a convulsion. the channel was overspread with prodigious fragments of rocks or large loose stones, some of them smooth and bare, others containing soil and verdure in their rents and fissures, and here and there crowned with shrubs and trees. the eye could at once command a long-stretching vista, seemingly closed and shut up at both extremities by the coalescing cliffs. this majestic reach of river contained pools, streams, and waterfalls innumerable; and when the water was low--which was now the case, in the common drought--it was easy to walk up this scene with the calm, blue sky overhead, an utter and sublime solitude. on looking up, the soul was bowed down by the feeling of that prodigious height of unscalable, and often overhanging, cliff. between the channel and the summit of the far extended precipices, were perpetually flying rooks and wood pigeons, and now and then a hawk, filling the profound abyss with their wild cawing, deep murmur, or shrilly shriek. sometimes a heron would stand erect and still, on some little stone island, or rise up like a white cloud along the black walls of the chasm, and disappear. winged creatures alone could inhabit this region. the fox and wild cat chose more accessible haunts. yet, here came the persecuted christians and worshiped god, whose hand hung over their head those magnificent pillars and arches, scooped out those galleries from the solid rock, and laid at their feet the calm water, in its transparent beauty, in which they could see themselves sitting, in reflected groups, with their bibles in their hands. here, upon a semicircular ledge of rocks, over a narrow chasm, of which the tiny stream played in a murmuring waterfall, and divided the congregation into two equal parts, sat about a hundred persons, all devoutly listening to their minister, who stood before them on what might he called a small, natural pulpit of living stone. up to it there led a short flight of steps, and over it waved the canopy of a tall, graceful birch tree. the pulpit stood in the middle of the channel, directly facing the congregation, and separated from them by the clear, deep, sparkling pool, into which the scarce-heard water poured over the blackened rock. the water, as it left the pool, separated into two streams, and flowed on each side of that altar, thus placing it in an island, whose large, mossy stones were richly embowered under the golden blossoms and green tresses of the broom. at the close of divine service, a row of maidens, all clothed in purest white, came gliding off from the congregation, and, crossing the murmuring stream on stepping stones, arranged themselves at the foot of the pulpit with those who were about to be baptized. their devout fathers, just as though they had been in their own kirk, had been sitting there during worship, and now stood up before the minister. the baptismal water, taken from that pellucid pool, was lying, consecrated, in an appropriate receptacle, formed by the upright stones that composed one side of the pulpit, and the holy rite proceeded. some of the younger ones in that semicircle kept gazing down into the pool, in which the whole scene was reflected; and now and then, in spite of the grave looks and admonishing whispers of their elders, letting fall a pebble into the water, that they might judge of its depth, from the length of time that elapsed before the clear air bells lay sparkling on the agitated surface. the rite was over, and the religious service of the day closed by a psalm. the mighty rocks hemmed in the holy sound, and sent it in a more compact volume, clear, sweet, and strong, up to heaven. when the psalm ceased, an echo, like a spirit's voice, was heard dying away, high up among the magnificent architecture of the cliffs; and once more might be noticed in the silence, the reviving voice of the waterfall. just then, a large stone fell from the top of the cliff into the pool, a loud voice was heard, and a plaid was hung over on the point of a shepherd's staff. their wakeful sentinel had descried danger, and this was his warning. forthwith, the congregation rose. there were paths, dangerous to unpracticed feet, along the ledges of the rocks, leading up to several caves and places of concealment. the more active and young assisted the elder, more especially the old pastor, and the women with the infants; and many minutes had not elapsed, till not a living creature was visible in the channel of the stream, but all of them were hidden, or nearly so, in the clefts and caverns. the shepherd who had given the alarm, had lain down again instantly in his plaid on the greensward, upon the summit of these precipices. a party of soldiers was immediately upon him, and demanded what signals he had been making, and to whom; when one of them, looking over the edge of the cliff, exclaimed, "see, see! humphrey, we have caught the whole tabernacle of the lord in a net at last. there they are, praising god among the stones of the river mouse. these are the cartland craigs. a noble cathedral!" "fling the lying sentinel over the cliffs. here is a canting covenanter for you, deceiving honest soldiers on the very sabbath day. over with him, over with him; out of the gallery into the pit." but the shepherd had vanished like a shadow, and, mixing with the tall, green broom and bushes, was making his unseen way toward a wood. "satan has saved his servant; but come, my lads, follow me. i know the way down into the bed of the stream, and the steps up to wallace's cave. they are called, 'kittle nine stanes;' the hunt's up. we'll all be in at the death. halloo! my boys, halloo!" the soldiers dashed down a less precipitous part of the wooded banks, a little below the "craigs," and hurried up the channel. but when they reached the altar where the old, gray-haired minister had been seen standing, and the rocks that had been covered with people, all was silent and solitary; not a creature to be seen. "here is a bible, dropped by some of them," cried a soldier, and, with his foot, he spun it away into the pool. "a bonnet, a bonnet," cried another; "now for the pretty, sanctified face, that rolled its demure eyes below it." but after a few jests and oaths, the soldiers stood still, eying with a kind of mysterious dread the black and silent walls of the rocks that hemmed them in, and hearing only the small voice of the stream that sent a profounder stillness through the heart of that majestic solitude. "what if these cowardly covenanters should tumble down upon our heads pieces of rock, from their hiding places! advance, or retreat?" there was no reply; for a slight fear was upon every man. musket or bayonet could be of little use to men obliged to clamber up rocks, along slender paths, leading they know not where. and they were aware that armed men nowadays worshiped god; men of iron hearts, who feared not the glitter of the soldier's arms, neither barrel nor bayonet; men of long stride, firm step, and broad breast, who, on the open field, would have overthrown the marshaled line, and gone first and foremost, if a city had to be taken by storm. as the soldiers were standing together irresolute, a noise came upon their ears like distant thunder, but even more appalling; and a slight current of air, as if propelled by it, passed whispering along the sweetbriers, and the broom, and the tresses of the birch trees. it came deepening, and rolling, and roaring on; and the very cartland craigs shook to their foundation, as if in an earthquake. "the lord have mercy upon us! what is this?" and down fell many of the miserable wretches on their knees, and some on their faces, upon the sharp-pointed rocks. now, it was like the sound of many myriads of chariots rolling on their iron axles down the strong channel of the torrent. the old, gray-haired minister issued from the mouth of wallace's cave, and said, in a loud voice, "the lord god terrible reigneth!" a waterspout had burst up among the moorlands, and the river, in its power, was at hand. there it came, tumbling along into that long reach of cliffs, and, in a moment, filled it with one mass of waves. huge, agitated clouds of foam rode on the surface of a blood-red torrent. an army must have been swept off by that flood. the soldiers perished in a moment; but high up in the cliffs, above the sweep of destruction, were the covenanters, men, women, and children, uttering prayers to god, unheard by themselves, in the raging thunder. notes.--lanark is a small town in the valley of the clyde, in scotland. it is thirty miles southwest from edinburgh. mouse river flows to the clyde from the hills north of larmrk. covenanter.--under charles i., the scotch were so oppressed that they organized in resistance. the covenant was a famous paper, largely signed, in which they agreed to continue in the profession of their faith, and resist all errors. wallace's cave.--william wallace (b. , d. ) was the foremost scot of his times. he was declared, in the absence of the king, guardian of the kingdom. more than once was he outlawed and obliged to seek safety by concealment in the woods and caves. xliv. sparrows. ( ) adeline d. train whitney, --, was born in boston, and was educated in the school of dr. george b. emerson. her father was enoch train, a well-known merchant of that city. at the age of nineteen, she became the wife of mr. seth d. whitney. her literary career began about , since which time she has written several novels and poems; a number of them first appeared in the "atlantic monthly." her writings are marked by grace and sprightliness. ### little birds sit on the telegraph wires, and chitter, and flitter, and fold their wings; maybe they think that, for them and their sires, stretched always, on purpose, those wonderful strings: and, perhaps, the thought that the world inspires, did plan for the birds, among other things. little birds sit on the slender lines, and the news of the world runs under their feet,-- how value rises, and how declines, how kings with their armies in battle meet,-- and, all the while, 'mid the soundless signs, they chirp their small gossipings, foolish sweet. little things light on the lines of our lives,-- hopes, and joys, and acts of to-day,-- and we think that for these the lord contrives, nor catch what the hidden lightnings say. yet, from end to end, his meaning arrives, and his word runs underneath, all the way. is life only wires and lightning, then, apart from that which about it clings? are the thoughts, and the works, and the prayers of men only sparrows that light on god's telegraph strings, holding a moment, and gone again? nay; he planned for the birds, with the larger things. xlv. observance of the sabbath. ( ) gardiner spring, - , was the son of samuel spring, d.d., who was pastor of a congregational church in newburyport, massachusetts, for more than forty years. the son entered yale college, and was valedictorian of his class in . he studied law for a time; then went to bermuda, where he taught nearly two years. on his return he completed his law studies, and practiced his profession for more than a year. in , having studied theology at andover, he was ordained as pastor of the "brick church" in new york city. here he remained till his death. he was elected president of dartmouth college, and also of hamilton, but declined both positions. his works, embracing about twenty octavo volumes, have passed through several editions; some have been translated into foreign languages, and reprinted in europe. as a preacher, dr. spring was eloquent and energetic. ### the sabbath lies at the foundation of all true morality. morality flows from principle. let the principles of moral obligation become relaxed, and the practice of morality will not long survive the overthrow. no man can preserve his own morals, no parent can preserve the morals of his children, without the impressions of religious obligation. if you can induce a community to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the scriptures; to question the reality and obligations of religion; to hesitate, undeciding, whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice; whether there be an eternal state of retribution beyond the grave; or whether there exists any such being as god, you have broken down the barriers of moral virtue, and hoisted the flood gates of immorality and crime. i need not say that when a people have once done this, they can no longer exist as a tranquil and happy people. every bond that holds society together would be ruptured; fraud and treachery would take the place of confidence between man and man; the tribunals of justice would be scenes of bribery and injustice; avarice, perjury, ambition, and revenge would walk through the land, and render it more like the dwelling of savage beasts than the tranquil abode of civilized and christianized men. if there is an institution which opposes itself to this progress of human degeneracy, and throws a shield before the interests of moral virtue in our thoughtless and wayward world, it is the sabbath. in the fearful struggle between virtue and vice, notwithstanding the powerful auxiliaries which wickedness finds in the bosoms of men, and in the seductions and influence of popular example, wherever the sabbath has been suffered to live, the trembling interests of moral virtue have always been revered and sustained. one of the principal occupations of this day is to illustrate and enforce the great principles of sound morality. where this sacred trust is preserved inviolate, you behold a nation convened one day in seven for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the best moral principles and precepts; and it can not be otherwise than that the authority of moral virtue, under such auspices, should be acknowledged and felt. we may not, at once, perceive the effects which this weekly observance produces. like most moral causes, it operates slowly; but it operates surely, and gradually weakens the power and breaks the yoke of profligacy and sin. no villain regards the sabbath. no vicious family regards the sabbath. no immoral community regards the sabbath. the holy rest of this ever-memorable day is a barrier which is always broken down before men become giants in sin. blackstone, in his commentaries on the laws of england, remarks that "a corruption of morals usually follows a profanation of the sabbath." it is an observation of lord chief justice hale, that "of all the persons who were convicted of capital crimes, while he was on the bench, he found a few only who would not confess that they began their career of wickedness by a neglect of the duties of the sabbath and vicious conduct on that day." the prisons in our own land could probably tell us that they have scarcely a solitary tenant who had not broken over the restraints of the sabbath before he was abandoned to crime. you may enact laws for the suppression of immorality, but the secret and silent power of the sabbath constitutes a stronger shield to the vital interest of the community than any code of penal statutes that ever was enacted. the sabbath is the keystone of the arch which sustains the temple of virtue, which, however defaced, will survive many a rude shock so long as the foundation remains firm. the observance of the sabbath is also most influential in securing national prosperity. the god of heaven has said, "them that honor me i will honor," you will not often find a notorious sabbath breaker a permanently prosperous man; and a sabbath-breaking community is never a happy or prosperous community. there is a multitude of unobserved influences which the sabbath exerts upon the temporal welfare of men. it promotes the spirit of good order and harmony; it elevates the poor from want; it transforms squalid wretchedness; it imparts self-respect and elevation of character; it promotes softness and civility of manners; it brings together the rich and the poor upon one common level in the house of prayer; it purifies and strengthens the social affections, and makes the family circle the center of allurement and the source of instruction, comfort, and happiness. like its own divine religion, "it has the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come," for men can not put themselves beyond the reach of hope and heaven so long as they treasure up this one command, "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." notes.--sir william blackstone (b. , d. ) was the son of a london silk mercer. he is celebrated as the author of the "commentaries on the laws of england," now universally used by law students both in england and america. he once retired from the law through failure to secure a practice, but afterwards attained the highest honors in his profession. see biographical notice on page . sir matthew hale (b. , d. ), was lord chief justice of england from to . xlvi. god's goodness to such as fear him. ( ) fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity; for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. trust in the lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. delight thyself also in the lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. commit thy way unto the lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. rest in the lord, and wait patiently for him. fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, for evil doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the lord, they shall inherit the earth. for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. but the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked; for the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the lord upholdeth the righteous. the lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever; they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. but the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. the wicked borroweth, and payeth not again; but the righteous sheweth mercy and giveth. for such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth. the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord, and he delighteth in his way; though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the lord upholdeth him with his hand. i have been young, and now am old, yet have i not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. he is ever merciful, and lendeth, and his seed is blessed. depart from evil, and do good, and dwell for evermore; for the lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. the righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever. the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment; the law of his god is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. the wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. the lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. wait on the lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. i have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree; yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, i sought him, but he could not be found. --from the thirty-seventh psalm. xlvii. character of columbus. ( ) washington irving, - . among those whose works have enriched american literature, and have given it a place in the estimation of foreigners, no name stands higher than that of washington irving. he was born in the city of new york; his father was a native of scotland, and his mother was english. he had an ordinary school education, and at the age of sixteen began the study of law. two of his older brothers were interested in literary pursuits; and in his youth he studied the old english authors. he was also passionately fond of books of travel. at the age of nineteen, he began his literary career by writing for a paper published by his brother. in be made a voyage to the south of europe. on his return he completed his studies in law, but never practiced his profession. "salmagundi," his first book (partly written by others), was published in . this was followed, two years later, by "knickerbocker's history of new york." soon after, he entered into mercantile pursuits in company with two brothers. at the close at the war with england he sailed again for europe, and remained abroad seventeen years. during his absence he formed the acquaintance of the most eminent literary men of his time, and wrote several of his works; among them were: "the sketch book," "bracebridge hall," "tales of a traveler," "life and voyages of columbus," and the "conquest of granada." on his return he made a journey west of the mississippi, and gathered materials for several other books. from to he was minister to spain. on his return to america he established his residence at "sunnyside," near tarrytown, on the hudson, where he passed the last years of his life. a young lady to whom he was attached having died in early life, mr. irving never married. his works are marked by humor, just sentiment, and elegance and correctness of expression. they were popular both at home and abroad from the first, and their sale brought him a handsome fortune. the "life of washington," his last work, was completed in the same year in which he died. ### [transcriber's note: see "the life of columbus" by sir arthur helps,] columbus was a man of great and inventive genius. the operations of his mind were energetic, but irregular; bursting forth, at times, with that irresistible force which characterizes intellect of such an order. his ambition was lofty and noble, inspiring him with high thoughts and an anxiety to distinguish himself by great achievements. he aimed at dignity and wealth in the same elevated spirit with which he sought renown; they were to rise from the territories he should discover, and be commensurate in importance. his conduct was characterized by the grandeur of his views and the magnanimity of his spirit. instead of ravaging the newly-found countries, like many of his cotemporary discoverers, who were intent only on immediate gain, he regarded them with the eyes of a legislator; he sought to colonize and cultivate them, to civilize the natives, to build cities, introduce the useful arts, subject everything to the control of law, order, and religion, and thus to found regular and prosperous empires. that he failed in this was the fault of the dissolute rabble which it was his misfortune to command, with whom all law was tyranny and all order oppression. he was naturally irascible and impetuous, and keenly sensible to injury and injustice; yet the quickness of his temper was counteracted by the generosity and benevolence of his heart. the magnanimity of his nature shone forth through all the troubles of his stormy career. though continually outraged in his dignity, braved in his authority, foiled in his plans, and endangered in his person by the seditions of turbulent and worthless men, and that, too, at times when suffering under anguish of body and anxiety of mind enough to exasperate the most patient, yet he restrained his valiant and indignant spirit, and brought himself to forbear, and reason, and even to supplicate. nor can the reader of the story of his eventful life fail to notice how free he was from all feeling of revenge, how ready to forgive and forget on the least sign of repentance and atonement. he has been exalted for his skill in controlling others, but far greater praise is due to him for the firmness he displayed in governing himself. his piety was genuine and fervent. religion mingled with the whole course of his thoughts and actions, and shone forth in his most private and unstudied writings. whenever he made any great discovery he devoutly returned thanks to god. the voice of prayer and the melody of praise rose from his ships on discovering the new world, and his first action on landing was to prostrate himself upon the earth and offer up thanksgiving. all his great enterprises were undertaken in the name of the holy trinity, and he partook of the holy sacrament previous to embarkation. he observed the festivals of the church in the wildest situations. the sabbath was to him a day of sacred rest, on which he would never sail from a port unless in case of extreme necessity. the religion thus deeply seated in his soul diffused a sober dignity and a benign composure over his whole deportment; his very language was pure and guarded, and free from all gross or irreverent expressions. a peculiar trait in his rich and varied character remains to be noticed; namely, that ardent and enthusiastic imagination which threw a magnificence over his whole course of thought. a poetical temperament is discernible throughout all his writings and in all his actions. we see it in all his descriptions of the beauties of the wild land he was discovering, in the enthusiasm with which he extolled the blandness of the temperature, the purity of the atmosphere, the fragrance of the air, "full of dew and sweetness," the verdure of the forests, the grandeur of the mountains, and the crystal purity of the running streams. it spread a glorious and golden world around him, and tinged everything with its own gorgeous colors. with all the visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. he died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. until his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the east. what visions of glory would have broken upon his mind could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent equal to the old world in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled amid the afflictions of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which would arise in the beautiful world he had discovered, and the nations, and tongues, and languages which were to fill its land with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest posterity! note.--christopher columbus (b. , d. ) was the son of a wool comber of genoa. at the age of fifteen he became a sailor, and in his voyages visited england, iceland, the guinea coast, and the greek isles. he was an earnest student of navigation, of cosmography, and of books of travel; thus he thoroughly prepared himself for the great undertaking which led to the discovery of america. he struggled against every discouragement for almost ten years before he could persuade a sovereign to authorize and equip his expedition. xlviii. "he giveth his beloved sleep." ( ) elizabeth barrett browning, - , was born in london, married the poet robert browning in , and afterwards resided in italy most of the time till her death, which occurred at florence. she was thoroughly educated in severe and masculine studies, and began to write at a very early age. her "essay on mind," a metaphysical and reflective poem, was written at the age of sixteen. she wrote very rapidly, and her friend, miss mitford, tells us that "lady geraldine's courtship," containing ninety- three stanzas, was composed in twelve hours! she published several other long poems, "aurora leigh" being one of the most highly finished. mrs. browning is regarded as one of the most able female poets of modern times; but her writings are often obscure, and some have doubted whether she always clearly conceived what she meant to express. she had a warm sympathy with all forms of suffering and distress. "he giveth his beloved sleep" is one of the most beautiful of her minor poems. the thought is an amplification of verse d of psalm cxxvii. ### of all the thoughts of god that are borne inward unto souls afar, along the psalmist's music deep, now tell me if that any is, for gift or grace, surpassing this,-- "he giveth his beloved, sleep!" what would we give to our beloved? the hero's heart to be unmoved, the poet's star-tuned harp, to sweep, the patriot's voice, to teach and rouse, the monarch's crown, to light the brows?-- "he giveth his beloved, sleep." what do we give to our beloved? a little faith all undisproved, a little dust to overweep, and bitter memories to make the whole earth blasted for our sake,-- "he giveth his beloved, sleep." "sleep soft, beloved!" we sometimes say, but have no tune to charm away sad dreams that through the eyelids creep. but never doleful dream again shall break his happy slumber when "he giveth his beloved, sleep." o earth, so full of dreary noises! o men, with wailing in your voices! o delve'd gold, the wailers heap! o strife, o curse, that o'er it fall! god strikes a silence through you all, and "giveth his beloved, sleep." his dews drop mutely on the hill; his cloud above it saileth still, though on its slope men sow and reap. more softly than the dew is shed, or cloud is floated overhead, "he giveth his beloved, sleep." ay, men may wonder while they scan a living, thinking, feeing man, confirmed in such a rest to keep; but angels say--and through the word i think their happy smile is heard-- "he giveth his beloved, sleep." for me my heart, that erst did go most like a tired child at a show, that sees through tears the mummers leap, would now its wearied vision close, would childlike on his love repose who "giveth his beloved, sleep." and friends, dear friends,--when it shall be that this low breath is gone from me, and round my bier ye come to weep, let one most loving of you all say, "not a tear must o'er her fall; 'he giveth his beloved, sleep.' " xlix. description of a siege. ( ) "the skirts of the wood seem lined with archers, although only a few are advanced from its dark shadow." "under what banner?" asked ivanhoe. "under no ensign which i can observe," answered rebecca. "a singular novelty," muttered the knight, "to advance to storm such a castle without pennon or banner displayed. seest thou who they be that act as leaders?" "a knight clad in sable armor is the most conspicuous," said the jewess: "he alone is armed from head to heel, and seems to assume the direction of all around him." "seem there no other leaders?" exclaimed the anxious inquirer. "none of mark and distinction that i can behold from this station," said rebecca, "but doubtless the other side of the castle is also assailed. they seem, even now, preparing to advance. god of zion protect us! what a dreadful sight! those who advance first bear huge shields and defenses made of plank: the others follow, bending their bows as they come on. they raise their bows! god of moses, forgive the creatures thou hast made!" her description was here suddenly interrupted by the signal for assault, which was given by the blast of a shrill bugle, and at once answered by a flourish of the norman trumpets from the battlements, which, mingled with the deep and hollow clang of the kettledrums, retorted in notes of defiance the challenge of the enemy. the shouts of both parties augmented the fearful din, the assailants crying, "saint george, for merry england!" and the normans answering them with loud cries of "onward, de bracy! front de boeuf, to the rescue!" "and i must lie here like a bedridden monk," exclaimed ivanhoe, "while the game that gives me freedom or death is played out by the hand of others! look from the window once again, kind maiden, and tell me if they yet advance to the storm." with patient courage, strengthened by the interval which she had employed in mental devotion, rebecca again took post at the lattice, sheltering herself, however, so as not to be exposed to the arrows of the archers. "what dost thou see, rebecca?" again demanded the wounded knight. "nothing but the cloud of arrows flying so thick as to dazzle mine eyes, and to hide the bowmen who shoot them." "that can not endure," said ivanhoe. "if they press not right on, to carry the castle by force of arms, the archery may avail but little against stone walls and bulwarks. look for the knight in dark armor, fair rebecca, and see how he bears himself; for as the leader is, so will his followers be." "i see him not," said rebecca. "foul craven!" exclaimed ivanhoe; "does he blench from the helm when the wind blows highest?" "he blenches not! he blenches not!" said rebecca; "i see him now: he leads a body of men close under the outer barrier of the barbacan. they pull down the piles and palisades; they hew down the barriers with axes. his high black plume floats abroad over the throng like a raven over the field of the slain. they have made a breach in the barriers, they rush in, they are thrust back! front de boeuf heads the defenders. i see his gigantic form above the press. they throng again to the breach, and the pass is disputed, hand to hand, and man to man. god of jacob! it is the meeting of two fierce tides, the conflict of two oceans moved by adverse winds;" and she turned her head from the window as if unable longer to endure a sight so terrible. speedily recovering her self-control, rebecca again looked forth, and almost immediately exclaimed, "holy prophets of the law! front de boeuf and the black knight fight hand to hand on the breach, amid the roar of their followers, who watch the progress of the strife. heaven strike with the cause of the oppressed and of the captive!" she then uttered a loud shriek, and exclaimed, "he is down! he is down!" "who is down!" cried ivanhoe; "for our dear lady's sake, tell me which has fallen!" "the black knight," answered rebecca, faintly; then instantly again shouted with joyful eagerness--"but no! but no! the name of the lord of hosts be blessed! he is on foot again, and fights as if there were twenty men's strength in his single arm--his sword is broken--he snatches an ax from a yeoman--he presses front de boeuf, blow on blow--the giant stoops and totters like an oak under the steel of the woodman--he falls-he falls!" "front de boeuf?" exclaimed ivanhoe. "front de boeuf," answered the jewess; "his men rush to the rescue, headed by the haughty templar, --their united force compels the champion to pause--they drag front de boeuf within the walls." "the assailants have won the barriers, have they not?" said ivanhoe. "they have--they have--and they press the besieged hard upon the outer wall; some plant ladders, some swarm like bees, and endeavor to ascend upon the shoulders of each other; down go stones, beams, and trunks of trees upon their heads, and as fast as they bear the wounded to the rear, fresh men supply their places in the assault. great god! hast thou given men thine own image that it should be thus cruelly defaced by the hands of their brethren!" "think not of that," replied ivanhoe; "this is no time for such thoughts. who yield? who push their way?" "the ladders are thrown down," replied rebecca, shuddering; "the soldiers lie groveling under them like crushed reptiles; the besieged have the better." "saint george strike for us!" said the knight; "do the false yeomen give way?" "no," exclaimed rebecca, "they bear themselves right yeomanly; the black knight approaches the postern with his huge ax; the thundering blows which he deals, you may hear them above all the din and shouts of the battle; stones and beams are hailed down on the brave champion; he regards them no more than if they were thistle down and feathers." "saint john of acre!" said ivanhoe, raising himself joyfully on his couch, "methought there was but one man in england that might do such a deed." "the postern gate shakes," continued rebecca; "it crashes--it is splintered by his powerful blows--they rush in--the outwork is won! o god! they hurry the defenders from the battlements--they throw them into the moat! o men, if ye be indeed men, spare them that can resist no longer!" "the bridge--the bridge which communicates with the castle--have they won that pass?" exclaimed ivanhoe. "no," replied rebecca; "the templar has destroyed the plank on which they crossed--few of the defenders escaped with him into the castle--the shrieks and cries which you hear, tell the fate of the others. alas! i see that it is still more difficult to look upon victory than upon battle." "what do they now, maiden?" said ivanhoe; "look forth yet again--this is no time to faint at bloodshed." "it is over, for a time," said rebecca; "our friends strengthen themselves within the outwork which they have mastered." "our friends," said ivanhoe, "will surely not abandon an enterprise so gloriously begun, and so happily attained; oh no! i will put my faith in the good knight whose ax has rent heart of oak and bars of iron. singular," he again muttered to himself, "if there can be two who are capable of such achievements. it is,--it must be richard coeur de lion." "seest thou nothing else. rebecca, by which the black knight may be distinguished?" "nothing," said the jewess, "all about him is as black as the wing of the night raven. nothing can i spy that can mark him further; but having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks i could know him again among a thousand warriors. he rushes to the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet. there is more than mere strength; it seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. god forgive him the sin of bloodshed! it is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds." -- walter scott. notes.--ivanhoe, a wounded knight, and rebecca, a jewess, had been imprisoned in the castle of reginald front de boeuf. the friends of the prisoners undertake their rescue. at the request of ivanhoe, who is unable to leave his couch, rebecca takes her stand near a window overlooking the approach to the castle, and details to the knight the incidents of the contest as they take place. front de boeuf and his garrison were normans; the besiegers, saxons. the castles of this time (twelfth century) usually consisted of a keep, or castle proper, surrounded at some distance by two walls, one within the other. each wall was encircled on its outer side by a moat, or ditch, which was filled with water, and was crossed by means of a drawbridge. before the main entrance of the outer wall was an outwork called the barbacan, which was a high wall surmounted by battlements and turrets, built to defend the gate and drawbridge. here, also, were placed barriers of palisades, etc., to impede the advance of an attacking force. the postern gate was small, and was usually some distance from the ground; it was used for the egress of messengers during a siege; l. marco bozzaris. ( ) fitz-greene halleck, -- , was born in guilford, connecticut. at the age of eighteen he entered a banking house in new york, where he remained a long time. for many years he was bookkeeper and assistant in business for john jacob astor. nearly all his poems were written before he was forty years old, several of them in connection with his friend joseph rodman drake. his "young america," however, was written but a few years before his death. mr. halleck's poetry is carefully finished and musical; much of it is sportive, and some satirical. no one of his poems is better known than "marco bozzaris." ### at midnight, in his guarded tent, the turk was dreaming of the hour when greece, her knee in suppliance bent, should tremble at his power. in dreams, through camp and court he bore the trophies of a conqueror; in dreams, his song of triumph heard; then wore his monarch's signet ring; then pressed that monarch's throne--a king: as wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, as eden's garden bird. at midnight, in the forest shades, bozzaris ranged his suliote band, true as the steel of their tried blades, heroes in heart and hand. there had the persian's thousands stood, there had the glad earth drunk their blood, on old plataea's day: and now there breathed that haunted air, the sons of sires who conquered there, with arms to strike, and soul to dare, as quick, as far as they. an hour passed on--the turk awoke; that bright dream was his last: he woke--to hear his sentries shriek, "to arms! they come! the greek! the greek!" he woke--to die mid flame and smoke, and shout, and groan, and saber stroke, and death shots falling thick and fast as lightnings from the mountain cloud; and heard, with voice as trumpet loud, bozzaris cheer his band: "strike--till the last armed foe expires; strike--for your altars and your fires; strike--for the green graves of your sires; god--and your native land!" they fought--like brave men, long and well; they piled that ground with moslem slain; they conquered--but bozzaris fell, bleeding at every vein. his few surviving comrades saw his smile, when rang their proud hurrah, and the red field was won: then saw in death his eyelids close calmly, as to a night's repose, like flowers at set of sun. come to the bridal chamber, death! come to the mother, when she feels for the first time her firstborn's breath; come when the blessed seals that close the pestilence are broke, and crowded cities wail its stroke; come in consumption's ghastly form, the earthquake's shock, the ocean storm; come when the heart beats high and warm with banquet song, and dance, and wine: and thou art terrible--the tear, the groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, and all we know, or dream, or fear of agony, are thine. but to the hero, when his sword has won the battle for the free, thy voice sounds like a prophet's word; and in its hollow tones are heard the thanks of millions yet to be. bozzaris! with the storied brave greece nurtured in her glory's time, rest thee--there is no prouder grave even in her own proud clime. we tell thy doom without a sigh, for thou art freedom's, now, and fame's. one of the few, the immortal names, that were not born to die. notes.--marco bozzaris (b. about , d. ) was a famous greek patriot. his family were suliotes, a people inhabiting the suli mountains, and bitter enemies of the turks. bozzaris was engaged in war against the latter nearly all his life, and finally fell in a night attack upon their camp near carpenisi. this poem, a fitting tribute to his memory, has been translated into modern greek. plataea was the scene of a great victory of the greeks over the persians in the year b. c. moslem--the followers of mohammed are called moslems. li. song of the greek bard. ( ) george gordon byron, lord byron, - . this gifted poet was the son of a profligate father and of a fickle and passionate mother. he was afflicted with lameness from his birth; and, although he succeeded to his great-uncle's title at ten years of age, he inherited financial embarrassment with it. these may be some of the reasons for the morbid and wayward character of the youthful genius. it is certain that he was not lacking in affection, nor in generosity. in his college days, at cambridge, he was willful and careless of his studies. "hours of idleness," his first book, appeared in . it was severely treated by the "edinburgh review," which called forth his "english bards and scotch reviewers," in . soon after, he went abroad for two years; and, on his return, published the first two cantos of "childe harold's pligrimage," a work that made him suddenly famous. he married in , but separated from his wife after one year. soured and bitter, he now left england, purposing never to return. he spent most of the next seven years in italy, where most of his poems were written. the last year of his life was spent in greece, aiding in her struggle for liberty against the turks. he died at missolonghi. as a man, byron was impetuous, morbid and passionate. he was undoubtedly dissipated and immoral, but perhaps to a less degree than has sometimes been asserted. as a poet, he possessed noble powers, and he has written much that will last; in general, however, his poetry is not wholesome, and his fame is less than it once was. ### the isles of greece! the isles of greece! where burning sappho loved and sung, where grew the arts of war and peace,-- where delos rose, and phoebus sprung! eternal summer gilds them yet, but all, except their sun, is set. the scian and the teian muse, the hero's harp, the lover's lute, have found the fame your shores refuse; their place of birth alone is mute to sounds which echo further west than your sires' "islands of the blest." the mountains look on marathon, and marathon looks on the sea; and musing there an hour alone, i dreamed that greece might still be free; for, standing on the persian's grave, i could not deem myself a slave. a king sat on the rocky brow which looks o'er sea-born salamis; and ships, by thousands, lay below, and men in nations,--all were his! he counted them at break of day,-- and when the sun set, where were they? and where are they? and where art thou, my country? on thy voiceless shore the heroic lay is tuneless now,-- the heroic bosom beats no more! and must thy lyre, so long divine, degenerate into hands like mine? must we but weep o'er days more blest? must we but blush? our fathers bled. earth! render back from out thy breast a remnant of our spartan dead! of the three hundred, grant but three, to make a new thermopylae! what! silent still and silent all? ah! no;--the voices of the dead sound like a distant torrent's fall, and answer, "let one living head, but one, arise,--we come, we come!" 'tis but the living who are dumb! in vain--in vain!--strike other chords; fill high the cup with samian wine! leave battles to the turkish hordes, and shed the blood of scio's vine! hark! rising to the ignoble call, how answers each bold bacchanal! you have the pyrrhic dance as yet; where is the pyrrhic phalanx gone? of two such lessons, why forget the nobler and the manlier one? you have the letters cadmus gave; think ye he meant them for a slave? fill high the howl with samian wine! we will not think of themes like these! it made anacreon's song divine: he served, but served polycrates, a tyrant; but our masters then were still, at least, our countrymen. the tyrant of the chersonese was freedom's best and bravest friend; that tyrant was miltiades! oh that the present hour would lend another despot of the kind! such chains as his were sure to bind. fill high the bowl with samian wine! our virgins dance beneath the shade; i see their glorious, black eyes shine; but gazing on each glowing maid, my own the burning tear-drop laves, to think such breasts must suckle slaves. place me on sunium's marbled steep, where nothing save the waves and i may hear our mutual murmurs sweep; there, swanlike, let me sing and die: a land of slaves shall ne'er be mine,-- dash down yon cup of samian wine! notes.--sappho was a greek poetess living on the island of lesbos, about b. c. delos is one of the grecian archipelago, and is of volcanic origin. the ancient greeks believed that it rose from the sea at a stroke from neptune's trident, and was moored fast to the bottom by jupiter. it was the supposed birthplace of phoebus, or apollo. the island of chios, or scios, is one of the places which claim to be the birthplace of homer. teios, or teos, a city in ionia, is the birthplace of the greek poet anacreon. the islands of the blest, mentioned in ancient poetry, were imaginary islands in the west, where, it was believed, the favorites of the gods were conveyed without dying. at marathon. ( b. c.), on the east coast, of greece, , greeks, under the generalship of miltiades, routed , persians. the island of salamis lies very near the greek coast: in the narrow channel between, the greek fleet almost destroyed ( b.c.) that of xerxes, the persian king, who witnessed the contest from a throne on the mountain side. thermopylae is a narrow mountain pass in greece, where leonidas, with spartans and about , other greeks, held the entire persian army in check until every spartan, except one, was slain. samos is one of the grecian archipelago, noted for its cultivation of the vine and olive. a bacchanal was a disciple of bacchus, the god of wine. pyrrhus was a greek, and one of the greatest generals of the world. the phalanx was an almost invincible arrangement of troops, massed in close array, with their shields overlapping one another, and their spears projecting; this form of military tactics was peculiar to the greeks. polycrates seized the island of samos, and made himself tyrant: he was entrapped and crucified in b. c. chersonese is the ancient name for a peninsula. sunium is the name of a promontory southeast of athens. lii. north american indians. ( ) charles sprague, - , was born in boston, and received his education in the public schools of that city. for sixteen years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, as clerk and partner. in he became teller in a bank; and, from , he filled the office of cashier of the globe bank for about forty years. in be gave his most famous poem, "curiosity," before the phi beta kappa society, in cambridge. an active man of business all his days, he has written but little either in prose or poetry, but that little is excellent in quality, graceful, and pleasing. the address from which this extract is taken, was delivered before the citizens of boston, july th, . ### not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. here lived and loved another race of beings. beneath the same sun that rolls over your head, the indian hunter pursued the panting deer; gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, the indian lover wooed his dusky mate. here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, and the council fire glared on the wise and daring. now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes, and now they paddled the light canoe along your rocky shores. here they warred; the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death song, all were here; and when the tiger strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a fervent prayer to the great spirit. he had not written his laws for them on tables of stone, but he had traced them on the tables of their hearts. the poor child of nature knew not the god of revelation, but the god of the universe he acknowledged in everything around. he beheld him in the star that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling; in the sacred orb that flamed on him from his midday throne; in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze; in the lofty pine that defied a thousand whirlwinds; in the timid warbler that never left its native grove; in the fearless eagle, whose untired pinion was wet in clouds; in the worm that crawled at his feet; and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light, to whose mysterious source he bent in humble though blind adoration. and all this has passed away. across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds of life and death. the former were sown for you; the latter sprang up in the path of the simple native. two hundred years have changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from its face a whole, peculiar people. art has usurped the bowers of nature, and the anointed children of education have been too powerful for the tribes of the ignorant. here and there a stricken few remain; but how unlike their bold, untamable progenitors. the indian of falcon glance and lion bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic tale is gone, and his degraded offspring crawls upon the soil where he walked in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man when the foot of the conqueror is on his neck. as a race they have withered from the land. their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. their council fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast fading to the untrodden west. slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains, and read their doom in the setting sun. they are shrinking before the mighty tide which is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave which will settle over them forever. ages hence, the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed remains, and wonder to what manner of persons they belonged. they will live only in the songs and chronicles of their exterminators. let these be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people. liii. lochiel's warning. ( ) thomas campbell, - , was a descendant of the famous clan of campbells, in kirnan, scotland, and was born at glasgow. at the age of thirteen he entered the university in that city, from which he graduated with distinction, especially as a greek scholar; his translations of greek tragedy were considered without parallel in the history of the university. during the first year after graduation, he wrote several poems of minor importance. he then removed to edinburgh and adopted literature as his profession; here his "pleasures of hope" was published in , and achieved immediate success. he traveled extensively on the continent, and during his absence wrote "lochiel's warning," "hohenlinden," and other minor poems. in he published "gertrude of wyoming;" from to he edited the "new monthly magazine." in he was chosen lord rector of the university of glasgow, to which office he was twice reelected. he was active in founding the university of london. during the last years of his life he produced but little of note. he died at boulogne, in france. during most of his life he was in straitened pecuniary circumstances, and ill-health and family afflictions cast a melancholy over his later years. his poems were written with much care, and are uniformly smooth and musical. ### seer. lochiel! lochiel! beware of the day when the lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! for a field of the dead rushes red on my sight, and the clans of culloden are scattered in fight. they rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown; woe, woe to the riders that trample them down! proud cumberland prances, insulting the slain, and their hoof-beaten bosoms are trod to the plain. but hark! through the fast-flashing lightning of war, what steed to the desert flies frantic and far? 't is thine, o glenullin! whose bride shall await like a love-lighted watch fire all night at the gate. a steed comes at morning,--no rider is there, but its bridle is red with the sign of despair. weep, albin! to death and captivity led! oh, weep! but thy tears can not number the dead: for a merciless sword on culloden shall wave,-- culloden! that reeks with the blood of the brave. loch. go preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer! or, if gory culloden so dreadful appear, draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight, this mantle, to cover the phantoms of fright. seer. ha! laugh'st thou, lochiel, my vision to scorn? proud bird of the mountain thy plume shall be torn! say, rushed the bold eagle exultingly forth from his home in the dark-rolling clouds of the north? lo! the death shot of foemen outspeeding, he rode companionless, bearing destruction abroad; but down let him stoop from his havoc on high! ah! home let him speed, for the spoiler is nigh. why flames the far summit? why shoot to the blast those embers, like stars from the firmament cast? 't is the fire shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven from his eyrie that beacons the darkness of heaven, o crested lochiel! the peerless in might, whose banners arise on the battlements' height, heaven's fire is around thee, to blast and to burn; return to thy dwelling! all lonely return! for the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood, and a wild mother scream o'er her famishing brood. loch. false wizard, avaunt! i have marshaled my clan, their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one! they are true to the last of their blood and their breath, and like reapers descend to the harvest of death. then welcome be cumberland's steed to the shock! let him dash his proud foam like a wave on the rock! but woe to his kindred, and woe to his cause, when albin her claymore indignantly draws; when her bonneted chieftains to victory crowd, clanronald the dauntless, and moray the proud, all plaided and plumed in their tartan array-- seer. --lochiel, lochiel, beware of the day! for, dark and despairing, my sight i may seal, but man can not cover what god would reveal: 't is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, and coming events cast their shadows before. i tell thee, culloden's dread echoes shall ring with the bloodhounds that bark for thy fugitive king. lo! anointed by heaven with the vials of wrath, behold where he flies on his desolate path! now, in darkness and billows, he sweeps from my sight: rise, rise! ye wild tempests, and cover his flight! 'tis finished. their thunders are hushed on the moors; culloden is lost, and my country deplores. but where is the ironbound prisoner? where? for the red eye of battle is shut in despair. say, mounts he the ocean wave, banished, forlorn, like a limb from his country, cast bleeding and torn? ah no! for a darker departure is near; the war drum is muffled, and black is the bier; his death bell is tolling; o mercy, dispel yon sight that it freezes my spirit to tell! life flutters convulsed in his quivering limbs, and his blood-streaming nostril in agony swims. accursed be the fagots that blaze at his feet, where his heart shall be thrown ere it ceases to beat, with the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale-- loch. down, soothless insulter! i trust not the tale: for never shall albin a destiny meet so black with dishonor, so foul with retreat. though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore, like ocean weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore, lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains, while the kindling of life in his bosom remains, shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, with his back to the field and his feet to the foe! and leaving in battle no blot on his name, look proudly to heaven from the deathbed of fame. notes.--lochiel was a brave and influential highland chieftain. he espoused the cause of charles stuart, called the pretender, who claimed the british throne. in the preceding piece, he is supposed to be marching with the warriors of his clan to join charles's army. on his way he is met by a seer, who having, according to the popular superstition, the gift of second-sight, or prophecy, forewarns him of the disastrous event of the enterprise, and exhorts him to return home and avoid the destruction which certainly awaits him, and which afterward fell upon him at the battle of culloden, in . in this battle the highlanders were commanded by charles in person, and the english by the duke of cumberland. the highlanders wore completely routed, and the pretender's rebellion brought to a close. he himself shortly afterward made a narrow escape by water from the west of scotland; hence the reference to the fugitive king. albin is the poetic name of scotland, more particularly the highlands. the ironbound prisoner refers to lochiel. liv. on happiness of temper. ( ) oliver goldsmith, - . this eccentric son of genius was an irishman; his father was a poor curate. goldsmith received his education at several preparatory schools, at trinity college, dublin, at edinburgh, and at leyden. he was indolent and unruly as a student, often in disgrace with his teachers; but his generosity, recklessness, and love of athletic sports made him a favorite with his fellow-students. he spent some time in wandering over the continent, often in poverty and want. in he returned to england, and soon took up his abode in london. here he made the acquaintance and friendship of several notable men, among whom were johnson and sir joshua reynolds. "the traveler" was published in , and was soon followed by the "vicar of wakefield." he wrote in nearly all departments of literature, and always with purity, grace, and fluency. his fame as a poet is secured by the "traveler" and the "deserted village;" as a dramatist, by "she stoops to conquer;" as a satirist, by the "citizen of the world;" and as a novelist by the "vicar of wakefield." in his later years his writings were the source of a large income, but his gambling, careless generosity, and reckless extravagance always kept him in financial difficulty, and he died heavily in debt. his monument is in westminster abbey. ## writers of every age have endeavored to show that pleasure is in us, and not in the objects offered for our amusement. if the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name. every occurrence passes in review, like the figures of a procession; some may be awkward, others ill-dressed, but none but a fool is on that account enraged with the master of ceremonies. i remember to have once seen a slave, in a fortification in flanders, who appeared no way touched with his situation. he was maimed, deformed, and chained; obliged to toil from the appearance of day till nightfall, and condemned to this for life; yet, with all these circumstances of apparent wretchedness, he sang, would have danced, but that he wanted a leg, and appeared the merriest, happiest man of all the garrison. what a practical philosopher was here! a happy constitution supplied philosophy, and though seemingly destitute of wisdom he was really wise. no reading or study had contributed to disenchant the fairyland around him. everything furnished him with an opportunity of mirth; and though some thought him, from his insensibility, a fool, he was such an idiot as philosophers should wish to imitate. they who, like that slave, can place themselves all that side of the world in which everything appears in a pleasant light, will find something in every occurrence to excite their good humor. the most calamitous events, either to themselves or others, can bring no new affliction; the world is to them a theater, in which only comedies are acted. all the bustle of heroism, or the aspirations of ambition, seem only to heighten the absurdity of the scene, and make the humor more poignant. they feel, in short, as little anguish at their own distress, or the complaints of others, as the undertaker, though dressed in black, feels sorrow at a funeral. of all the men i ever read of, the famous cardinal de retz possessed this happiness in the highest degree. when fortune wore her angriest look, and he fell into the power of cardinal mazarin, his most deadly enemy, (being confined a close prisoner in the castle of valenciennes,) he never attempted to support his distress by wisdom or philosophy, for he pretended to neither. he only laughed at himself' and his persecutor, and seemed infinitely pleased at his new situation. in this mansion of distress, though denied all amusements, and even the conveniences of life, and entirely cut off from all intercourse with his friends, he still retained his good humor, laughed at the little spite of his enemies, and carried the jest so far as to write the life of his jailer. all that the wisdom of the proud can teach, is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes. the cardinal's example will teach us to be good- humored in circumstances of the highest affliction. it matters not whether our good humor be construed by others into insensibility or idiotism,--it is happiness to ourselves; and none but a fool could measure his satisfaction by what the world thinks of it. the happiest fellow i ever knew, was of the number of those good-natured creatures that are said to do no harm to anybody but themselves. whenever he fell into any misery, he called it "seeing life," if his head was broken by a chairman, or his pocket picked by a sharper, he comforted himself by imitating the hibernian dialect of the one, or the more fashionable cant of the other. nothing came amiss to him. his inattention to money matters had concerned his father to such a degree that all intercession of friends was fruitless. the old gentleman was on his deathbed. the whole family (and dick among the number) gathered around him. "i leave my second son, andrew," said the expiring miser, "my whole estate, and desire him to be frugal." andrew, in a sorrowful tone (as is usual on such occasions), prayed heaven to prolong his life and health to enjoy it himself. "i recommend simon, my third son, to the care of his elder brother, and leave him, besides, four thousand pounds." "ah, father!" cried simon (in great affliction, to be sure), "may heaven give you life and health to enjoy it yourself!" at last, turning to poor dick: "as for you, you have always been a sad dog; you'll never come to good; you'll never be rich; i leave you a shilling to buy a halter." "ah, father!" cries dick, without any emotion, "may heaven give you life and health to enjoy it yourself!" notes.--cardinal de retz, jean francois paul de gondi (b. , d. ), was leader of the revolt against jules mazarin (b. , d. ), the prime minister of france during the minority of louis xiv. this led to a war which lasted four or five years. after peace had been concluded, and louis xiv. established on the throne, mazarin was reinstated in power, and cardinal de retz was imprisoned. flanders, formerly part of the netherlands, is now included in belgium, holland and france. lv. the fortune teller. ( ) henry mackenzie, - , was born in edinburgh, educated at the university there, and died in the same city. he was an attorney by profession, and was the associate of many famous literary men residing at that time in edinburgh. his fame as a writer rests chiefly on two novels, "the man of feeling" and "the man of the world;" both were published before the author was forty years old. ### harley sat down on a large stone by the wayside, to take a pebble from his shoe, when he saw, at some distance, a beggar approaching him. he had on a loose sort of coat, mended with different-colored rags, among which the blue and russet were predominant. he had a short, knotty stick in his hand, and on the top of it was stuck a ram's horn; he wore no shoes, and his stockings had entirely lost that part of them which would have covered his feet and ankles; in his face, however, was the plump appearance of good humor; he walked a good, round pace, and a crook-legged dog trotted at his heels. "our delicacies," said harley to himself, "are fantastic; they are not in nature! that beggar walks over the sharpest of these stones barefooted, whilst i have lost the most delightful dream in the world from the smallest of them happening to get into my shoe." the beggar had by this time come up, and, pulling off a piece of a hat, asked charity of harley. the dog began to beg, too. it was impossible to resist both; and, in truth, the want of shoes and stockings had made both unnecessary, for harley had destined sixpence for him before. the beggar, on receiving it, poured forth blessings without number; and, with a sort of smile on his countenance, said to harley that if he wanted to have his fortune told--harley turned his eye briskly upon the beggar; it was an unpromising look for the subject of a prediction, and silenced the prophet immediately. "i would much rather learn" said harley, "what it is in your power to tell me. your trade must be an entertaining one; sit down on this stone, and let me know something of your profession; i have often thought of turning fortune teller for a week or two, myself." "master," replied the beggar, "i like your frankness much, for i had the humor of plain dealing in me from a child; but there is no doing with it in this world,--we must do as we can; and lying is, as you call it, my profession. but i was in some sort forced to the trade, for i once dealt in telling the truth. i was a laborer, sir, and gained as much as to make me live. i never laid by, indeed, for i was reckoned a piece of a wag, and your wags, i take it, are seldom rich, mr. harley." "so," said harley, "you seem to know me." "ay, there are few folks in the country that i do n't know something of. how should i tell fortunes else?" "true,--but go on with your story; you were a laborer, you say, and a wag; your industry, i suppose, you left with your old trade; but your humor you preserved to be of use to you in your new." "what signifies sadness, sir? a man grows lean on 't. but i was brought to my idleness by degrees; sickness first disabled me, and it went against my stomach to work, ever after. but, in truth, i was for a long time so weak that i spit blood whenever i attempted to work. i had no relation living, and i never kept a friend above a week when i was able to joke. thus i was forced to beg my bread, and a sorry trade i have found it, mr. harley. i told all my misfortunes truly, but they were seldom believed; and the few who gave me a half-penny as they passed, did it with a shake of the head, and an injunction not to trouble them with a long story. in short, i found that people do n't care to give alms without some security for their money,--such as a wooden leg, or a withered arm, for example. so i changed my plan, and instead of telling my own misfortunes, began to prophesy happiness to others. "this i found by much the better way. folks will always listen when the tale is their own, and of many who say they do not believe in fortune telling, i have known few on whom it had not a very sensible effect. i pick up the names of their acquaintance; amours and little squabbles are easily gleaned from among servants and neighbors; and, indeed, people themselves are the best intelligencers in the world for our purpose. they dare not puzzle us for their own sakes, for everyone is anxious to hear what he wishes to believe; and they who repeat it, to laugh at it when they have done, are generally more serious than their hearers are apt to imagine. with a tolerably good memory, and some share of cunning, i succeed reasonably well as a fortune teller. with this, and showing the tricks of that dog, i make shift to pick up a livelihood. "my trade is none of the most honest, yet people are not much cheated after all, who give a few half-pence for a prospect of happiness, which i have heard some persons say, is all a man can arrive at in this world. but i must bid you good day, sir; for i have three miles to walk before noon, to inform some boarding-school young ladies whether their husbands are to be peers of the realm or captains in the army; a question which i promised to answer them by that time." harley had drawn a shilling from his pocket; but virtue bade him to consider on whom he was going to bestow it. virtue held back his arm; but a milder form, a younger sister of virtue's, not so severe as virtue, nor so serious as pity, smiled upon him; his fingers lost their compression; nor did virtue appear to catch the money as it fell. it had no sooner reached the ground than the watchful cur (a trick he had been taught) snapped it up; and, contrary to the most approved method of stewardship, delivered it immediately into the hands of his master. lvi. rienzi's address to the romans. ( ) mary russell mitford, - . she was the daughter of a physician, and was born in hampshire, england. at twenty years of age, she published three volumes of poems; and soon after entered upon literature as a lifelong occupation. she wrote tales, sketches, poems, and dramas. "our village" is the best known of her prose works; the book describes the daily life of a rural people, is simple but finished in style, and is marked by mingled humor and pathos. her most noted drama is "rienzi." miss mitford passed the last forty years of her life in a little cottage in berkshire, among a simple, country people, to whom she was greatly endeared by her kindness and social virtues. ### i come not here to talk. you know too well the story of our thraldom. we are slaves! the bright sun rises to his course, and lights a race of slaves! he sets, and his last beams fall on a slave; not such as, swept along by the full tide of power, the conqueror led to crimson glory and undying fame; but base, ignoble slaves; slaves to a horde of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, rich in some dozen paltry villages; strong in some hundred spearmen; only great in that strange spell,--a name. each hour, dark fraud, or open rapine, or protected murder, cries out against them. but this very day, an honest man, my neighbor,--there he stands,-- was struck--struck like a dog, by one who wore the badge of ursini; because, forsooth, he tossed not high his ready cap in air, nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts, at sight of that great ruffian! be we men, and suffer such dishonor? men, and wash not the stain away in blood? such shames are common. i have known deeper wrongs; i that speak to ye, i had a brother once--a gracious boy, full of all gentleness, of calmest hope, of sweet and quiet joy,--there was the look of heaven upon his face, which limners give to the beloved disciple. how i loved that gracious boy! younger by fifteen years, brother at once, and son! he left my side, a summer bloom on his fair cheek; a smile parting his innocent lips. in one short hour, that pretty, harmless boy was slain! i saw the corse, the mangled corse, and then i cried for vengeance! rouse, ye romans! rouse, ye slaves! have ye brave sons? look in the next fierce brawl to see them die. have ye fair daughters? look to see them live, torn from your arms, distained, dishonored; and if ye dare call for justice, be answered by the lash. yet this is rome, that sat on her seven hills, and from her throne of beauty ruled the world! and we are romans. why, in that elder day, to be a roman was greater than a king! and once again,-- hear me, ye walls that echoed to the tread of either brutus! once again, i swear, the eternal city shall be free. notes.--rienzi (b. about , d. ) was the last of the roman tribunes. in he led a successful revolt against the nobles, who by their contentions kept rome in constant turmoil. he then assumed the title of tribune, but, after indulging in a life of reckless extravagance and pomp for a few months, he was compelled to abdicate, and fly for his life. in he was reinstated in power, but his tyranny caused his assassination the same year. the ursini wore one of the noble families of rome. this lesson is especially adapted for drill on inflection, emphasis, and modulation. lvll. character of the puritan fathers of new england. ( ) one of the most prominent features which distinguished our forefathers, was their determined resistance to oppression. they seemed born and brought up for the high and special purpose of showing to the world that the civil and religious rights of man--the rights of self-government, of conscience, and independent thought--are not merely things to be talked of and woven into theories, but to be adopted with the whole strength and ardor of the mind, and felt in the profoundest recesses of the heart, and carried out into the general life, and made the foundation of practical usefulness, and visible beauty, and true nobility. liberty, with them, was an object of too serious desire and stern resolve to be personified, allegorized, and enshrined. they made no goddess of it, as the ancients did; they had no time nor inclination for such trifling; they felt that liberty was the simple birthright of every human creature; they called it so; they claimed it as such; they reverenced and held it fast as the unalienable gift of the creator, which was not to be surrendered to power, nor sold for wages. it was theirs, as men; without it, they did not esteem themselves men; more than any other privilege or possession, it was essential to their happiness, for it was essential to their original nature; and therefore they preferred it above wealth, and ease, and country; and, that they might enjoy and exercise it fully, they forsook houses, and lands, and kindred, their homes, their native soil, and their fathers' graves. they left all these; they left england, which, whatever it might have been called, was not to them a land of freedom; they launched forth on the pathless ocean, the wide, fathomless ocean, soiled not by the earth beneath, and bounded, all round and above, only by heaven; and it seemed to them like that better and sublimer freedom, which their country knew not, but of which they had the conception and image in their hearts; and, after a toilsome and painful voyage, they came to a hard and wintry coast, unfruitful and desolate, but unguarded and boundless; its calm silence interrupted not the ascent of their prayers; it had no eyes to watch, no ears to hearken, no tongues to report of them; here, again, there was an answer to their soul's desire, and they were satisfied, and gave thanks; they saw that they were free, and the desert smiled. i am telling an old tale; but it is one which must be told when we speak of those men. it is to be added, that they transmitted their principles to their children, and that, peopled by such a race, our country was always free. so long as its inhabitants were unmolested by the mother country in the exercise of their important rights, they submitted to the form of english government; but when those rights were invaded, they spurned even the form away. this act was the revolution, which came of course and spontaneously, and had nothing in it of the wonderful or unforeseen. the wonder would have been if it had not occurred. it was, indeed, a happy and glorious event, but by no means unnatural; and i intend no slight to the revered actors in the revolution when i assert that their fathers before them were as free as they--every whit as free. the principles of the revolution were not the suddenly acquired property of a few bosoms: they were abroad in the land in the ages before; they had always been taught, like the truths of the bible; they had descended from father to son, down from those primitive days, when the pilgrim, established in his simple dwelling, and seated at his blazing fire, piled high from the forest which shaded his door, repeated to his listening children the story of his wrongs and his resistance, and bade them rejoice, though the wild winds and the wild beasts were howling without, that they had nothing to fear from great men's oppression. here are the beginnings of the revolution. every settler's hearth was a school of independence; the scholars were apt, and the lessons sunk deeply; and thus it came that our country was always free; it could not be other than free. as deeply seated as was the principle of liberty and resistance to arbitrary power in the breasts of the puritans, it was not more so than their piety and sense of religious obligation. they were emphatically a people whose god was the lord. their form of government was as strictly theocratical, if direct communication be excepted, as was that of the jews; insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil authority among them entirely distinct from ecclesiastical jurisdiction. whenever a few of them settled a town, they immediately gathered themselves into a church; and their elders were magistrates, and their code of laws was the pentateuch. these were forms, it is true, but forms which faithfully indicated principles and feelings; for no people could have adopted such forms, who were not thoroughly imbued with the spirit, and bent on the practice, of religion. god was their king; and they regarded him as truly and literally so, as if he had dwelt in a visible palace in the midst of their state. they were his devoted, resolute, humble subjects; they undertook nothing which they did not beg of him to prosper; they accomplished nothing without rendering to him the praise; they suffered nothing without carrying their sorrows to his throne; they ate nothing which they did not implore him to bless. their piety was not merely external; it was sincere; it had the proof of a good tree in bearing good fruit; it produced and sustained a strict morality. their tenacious purity of manners and speech obtained for them, in the mother country, their name of puritans, which, though given in derision, was as honorable an appellation as was ever bestowed by man on man. that there were hypocrites among them, is not to be doubted; but they were rare. the men who voluntarily exiled themselves to an unknown coast, and endured there every toil and hardship for conscience' sake, and that they might serve god in their own manner, were not likely to set conscience at defiance, and make the service of god a mockery; they were not likely to be, neither were they, hypocrites. i do not know that it would be arrogating too much for them to say, that, on the extended surface of the globe, there was not a single community of men to be compared with them, in the respects of deep religious impressions and an exact performance of moral duty. f. w. p. greenwood. note.--the pentateuch is the first five books of the old testament. the word is derived from two greek words, (pente), five, and (tenchos), book. lviii. landing of the pilgrim fathers. ( ) felicia dorothea hemans, - , was born in liverpool. her father, whose name was browne, was an irish merchant. she spent her childhood in wales, began to write poetry at a very early age, and was married when about eighteen to captain hemans. by this marriage, she became the mother of five sons; but, owing to differences of taste and disposition, her husband left her at the end of six years; and by mutual agreement they never again lived together. mrs. hemans now made literature a profession, and wrote much and well. in prof. andrews norton brought out an edition of her poems in america, where they became popular, and have remained so. mrs. hemans's poetry is smooth and graceful, frequently tinged with a shade of melancholy, but never despairing, cynical, or misanthropic. it never deals with the highest themes, nor rises to sublimity, but its influence is calculated to make the reader truer, nobler, and purer. ### the breaking waves dashed high on a stern and rock-bound coast, and the woods against a stormy sky their giant branches tossed; and the heavy night hung dark, the hills and waters o'er, when a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild new england shore. not as the conqueror comes, they, the true-hearted, came; not with the roll of the stirring drums. and the trumpet that sings of fame. not as the flying come, in silence, and in fear;-- they shook the depths of the desert gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer. amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard, and the sea; and the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang to the anthem of the free! the ocean eagle soared from his nest by the white wave's foam; and the rocking pines of the forest roared,-- this was their welcome home. there were men with hoary hair amidst that pilgrim band: why had they come to wither there, away from their childhood's land? there was woman's fearless eye, lit by her deep love's truth; there was manhood's brow, serenely high, and the fiery heart of youth. what sought they thus afar? bright jewels of the mine? the wealth of seas, the spoils of war? they sought a faith's pure shrine! ay, call it holy ground, the soil where first they trod: they have left unstained what there they found,-- freedom to worship god. note.--the pilgrim fathers landed at plymouth, mass, dec. th (old style), . the rock on which they first stepped, is in water street of the village, and is covered by a handsome granite canopy, surmounted by a colossal statue of faith. lix. necessity of education. ( ) we must educate! we must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity. if we do not, short will be our race from the cradle to the grave. if, in our haste to be rich and mighty, we outrun our literary and religious institutions, they will never overtake us; or only come up after the battle of liberty is fought and lost, as spoils to grace the victory, and as resources of inexorable despotism for the perpetuity of our bondage. but what will become of the west if her prosperity rushes up to such a majesty of power, while those great institutions linger which are necessary to form the mind, and the conscience, and the heart of the vast world? it must not be permitted. and yet what is done must be done quickly; for population will not wait, and commerce will not cast anchor, and manufactures will not shut off the steam, nor shut down the gate, and agriculture, pushed by millions of freemen on their fertile soil, will not withhold her corrupting abundance. and let no man at the east quiet himself, and dream of liberty, whatever may become of the west. our alliance of blood, and political institutions, and common interests, is such, that we can not stand aloof in the hour of her calamity, should it ever come. her destiny is our destiny; and the day that her gallant ship goes down, our little boat sinks in the vortex! the great experiment is now making, and from its extent and rapid filling up, is making in the west, whether the perpetuity of our republican institutions can be reconciled with universal suffrage. without the education of the head and heart of the nation, they can not be; and the question to be decided is, can the nation, or the vast balance power of it, be so imbued with intelligence and virtue as to bring out, in laws and their administration, a perpetual self-preserving energy. we know that the work is a vast one, and of great difficulty; and yet we believe it can be done. i am aware that our ablest patriots are looking out on the deep, vexed with storms, with great forebodings and failings of heart, for fear of the things that are coming upon us; and i perceive a spirit of impatience rising, and distrust in respect to the perpetuity of our republic; and i am sure that these fears are well founded, and am glad that they exist. it is the star of hope in our dark horizon. fear is what we need, as the ship needs wind on a rocking sea, after a storm, to prevent foundering. but when our fear and our efforts shall correspond with our danger, the danger is past. for it is not the impossibility of self-preservation which threatens us; nor is it the unwillingness of the nation to pay the price of the preservation, as she has paid the price of the purchase of our liberties. it is inattention and inconsideration, protracted till the crisis is past, and the things which belong to our peace are hid from our eyes. and blessed be god, that the tokens of a national waking up, the harbinger of god's mercy, are multiplying upon us! we did not, in the darkest hour, believe that god had brought our fathers to this goodly land to lay the foundation of religious liberty, and wrought such wonders in their preservation, and raised their descendants to such heights of civil and religious liberty, only to reverse the analogy of his providence, and abandon his work. and though there now be clouds, and the sea roaring, and men's hearts failing, we believe there is light behind the cloud, and that the imminence of our danger is intended, under the guidance of heaven, to call forth and apply a holy, fraternal fellowship between the east and the west, which shall secure our preservation, and make the prosperity of our nation durable as time, and as abundant as the waves of the sea. i would add, as a motive to immediate action, that if we do fail in our great experiment of self-government, our destruction will be as signal as the birthright abandoned, the mercies abused, and the provocation offered to beneficent heaven. the descent of desolation will correspond with the past elevation. no punishments of heaven are so severe as those for mercies abused; and no instrumentality employed in their infliction is so dreadful as the wrath of man. no spasms are like the spasms of expiring liberty, and no wailing such as her convulsions extort. it took rome three hundred years to die; and our death, if we perish, will be as much more terrific as our intelligence and free institutions have given us more bone, sinew, and vitality. may god hide from me the day when the dying agonies of my country shall begin! o thou beloved land, bound together by the ties of brotherhood, and common interest, and perils! live forever--one and undivided! --lyman beecher. lx. riding on a snowplow. ( ) benjamin franklin taylor, - , was born at lowville, new york, and graduated at madison university, of which his father was president. here he remained as resident graduate for about five years. his "attractions of language" was published in . for many years mr. taylor was literary editor of the "chicago journal." he wrote considerably for the magazines, and was the author of many well-known fugitive pieces, both in prose and verse. he also published several books, of which "january and june," "pictures in camp and field," "the world on wheels," "old-time pictures and sheaves of rhyme," "between the gates," and "songs of yesterday," are the best known. in his later years, mr. taylor achieved some reputation as a lecturer. his writings are marked by an exuberant fancy. ### did you ever ride on a snowplow? not the pet and pony of a thing that is attached to the front of an engine, sometimes, like a pilot; but a great two-storied monster of strong timbers, that runs upon wheels of its own, and that boys run after and stare at as they would after and at an elephant. you are snow-bound at buffalo. the lake shore line is piled with drifts like a surf. two passenger trains have been half-buried for twelve hours somewhere in snowy chautauqua. the storm howls like a congregation of arctic bears. but the superintendent at buffalo is determined to release his castaways, and clear the road to erie. he permits you to be a passenger on the great snowplow; and there it is, all ready to drive. harnessed behind it, is a tandem team of three engines. it does not occur to you that you are going to ride on a steam drill, and so you get aboard. it is a spacious and timbered room, with one large bull's eye window,--an overgrown lens. the thing is a sort of cyclops. there are ropes, and chains, and a windlass. there is a bell by which the engineer of the first engine can signal the plowman, and a cord whereby the plowman can talk back. there are two sweeps, or arms, worked by machinery, on the sides. you ask their use, and the superintendent replies, "when, in a violent shock, there is danger of the monster's upsetting, an arm is put out, on one side or the other, to keep the thing from turning a complete somersault." you get one idea, and an inkling of another. so you take out your accident policy for three thousand dollars, and examine it. it never mentions battles, nor duels, nor snowplows. it names "public conveyances." is a snowplow a public conveyance? you are inclined to think it is neither that nor any other kind that you should trust yourself to, but it is too late for consideration. you roll out of buffalo in the teeth of the wind, and the world is turned to snow. all goes merrily. the machine strikes little drifts, and they scurry away in a cloud. the three engines breathe easily; but by and by the earth seems broken into great billows of dazzling white. the sun comes out of a cloud, and touches it up till it out-silvers potosi. houses lie in the trough of the sea everywhere, and it requires little imagination to think they are pitching and tossing before your eyes. a great breaker rises right in the way. the monster, with you in it, works its way up and feels of it. it is packed like a ledge of marble. three whistles! the machine backs away and keeps backing, as a gymnast runs astern to get sea room and momentum for a big jump; as a giant swings aloft a heavy sledge, that it may come down with a heavy blow. one whistle! you have come to a halt. three pairs of whistles one after the other! and then, putting on all steam, you make for the drift. the superintendent locks the door, you do not quite understand why, and in a second the battle begins. the machine rocks and creaks in all its joints. there comes a tremendous shock. the cabin is as dark as midnight. the clouds of flying snow put out the day. the labored breathing of the locomotives behind you, the clouds of smoke and steam that wrap you up as in a mantle, the noonday eclipse of the sun, the surging of the ship, the rattling of chains, the creak of timbers as if the craft were aground and the sea getting out of its bed to whelm you altogether, the doubt as to what will come,--all combine to make a scene of strange excitement for a landlubber. you have made some impression on the breaker, and again the machine backs for a fair start, and then another plunge, and shock, and twilight. and so, from deep cut to deep cut, as if the season had packed all his winter clothes upon the track, until the stalled trains are reached and passed; and then, with alternate storm and calm, and halt and shock, till the way is cleared to erie. it is sunday afternoon, and erie--"mad anthony wayne's" old headquarters--has donned its sunday clothes, and turned out by hundreds to see the great plow come in,--its first voyage over the line. the locomotives set up a crazy scream, and you draw slowly into the depot. the door opened at last, you clamber down, and gaze up at the uneasy house in which you have been living. it looks as if an avalanche had tumbled down upon it,--white as an alpine shoulder. your first thought is gratitude that you have made a landing alive. your second, a resolution that, if again you ride a hammer, it will not be when three engines have hold of the handle! notes.--chautauqua is the most western county in the state of new york; it borders on lake erie. the cyclops are described in grecian mythology as giants having only one eye, which was circular, and placed in the middle of the forehead. cerro de potosi is a mountain in bolivia, south america, celebrated for its mineral wealth. more than five thousand mines have been opened in it; the product is chiefly silver. "mad anthony wayne" (b. , d. ), so called from his bravery and apparent recklessness, was a famous american officer during the revolution. in be conducted a successful campaign against the indians of the northwest, making his headquarters at erie, pa. lxi. the quarrel of brutus and cassius. ( ) cas. that you have wronged me doth appear in this: you have condemned and noted lucius pella for taking bribes here of the sardians; wherein my letters, praying on his side, because i knew the man, were slighted off. bru. you wronged yourself to write in such a case. cas. in such a time as this, it is not meet that every nice offense should bear his comment. bru. yet let me tell you, cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm, to sell and mart your offices for gold to undeservers. cas. i an itching palm! you know that you are brutus that speak this, or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. bru. the name of cassius honors this corruption, and chastisement doth therefore hide his head. cas. chastisement! bru. remember march, the ides of march remember! did not great julius bleed for justice' sake? what villain touched his body, that did stab, and not for justice? what! shall one of us, that struck the foremost man of all this world but for supporting robbers; shall we now contaminate our fingers with base bribes, and sell the mighty space of our large honors for so much trash as may be graspe'd thus? i had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, than such a roman. cas. brutus, bay not me; i'll not endure it: you forget yourself, to hedge me in; i am a soldier, i, older in practice, abler than yourself to make conditions. bru. go to; you are not, cassius. cas. i am. bru. i say you are not. cas. urge me no more, i shall forget myself: have mind upon your health; tempt me no further. bru. away, slight man! cas. is't possible? bru. hear me, for i will speak. must i give way and room to your rash choler? shall i be frighted when a madman stares? cas. o ye gods! ye gods! must i endure all this? bru. all this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break; go, show your slaves how choleric you are, and make your bondmen tremble. must i budge? must i observe you? must i stand and crouch under your testy humor? by the gods, you shall digest the venom of your spleen, though it do split you; for, from this day forth, i'll use you for my mirth, yea for my laughter, when you are waspish. cas. is it come to this? bru. you say you are a better soldier; let it appear so; make your vaunting true, and it shall please me well: for mine own part, i shall be glad to learn of noble men. cas. you wrong me every way; you wrong me, brutus; i said, an elder soldier, not a better: did i say "better"? bru. if you did, i care not. cas. when caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. bru. peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him. cas. i durst not? bru. no. cas. what! durst not tempt him? bru. for your life, you durst not. cas. do not presume too much upon my love; i may do that i shall be sorry for. bru. you have done that you should be sorry for. there is no terror, cassius, in your threats; for i am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me as the idle wind, which i respect not. i did send to you for certain sums of gold, which you denied me;-- for i can raise no money by vile means: by heaven! i had rather coin my heart, and drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring from the hard hands of peasants their vile trash by any indirection.--i did send to you for gold to pay my legions, which you denied me: was that done like cassius? should i have answered caius cassius so? when marcus brutus grows so covetous, to lock such rascal counters from his friends, be ready, gods, with an your thunderbolts; dash him to pieces! cas. i denied you not. bru. you did. cas. i did not: he was but a fool that brought my answer back. brutus hath rived my heart: a friend should bear his friend's infirmities, but brutus makes mine greater than they are. bru. i do not, till you practice them on me. cas. you love me not. bru. i do not like your faults. cas. a friendly eye could never see such faults. bru. a flatterer's would not, though they do appear as huge as high olympus. cas. come, antony, and young octavius, come, revenge yourselves alone on cassius, for cassius is aweary of the world; hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; checked like a bondman; all his faults observed, set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rate, to cast into my teeth. oh, i could weep my spirit from mine eyes! there is my dagger, and here my naked breast; within, a heart dearer than plutus' mine, richer than gold: if that thou be'st a roman, take it forth: i, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: strike, as thou didst at caesar; for, i know, when thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better than ever thou lovedst cassius. bru. sheathe your dagger: be angry when you will, it shall have scope; do what you will, dishonor shall be humor. o cassius, you are yoked with a lamb that carries anger as the flint bears fire; who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, and straight is cold again. cas. hath cassius lived to be but mirth and laughter to his brutus, when grief, and blood ill-tempered, vexeth him? bru. when i spoke that, i was ill-tempered, too. cas. do you confess so much? give me your hand. eclectic series. bru. and my heart, too. cas. o brutus! bru. what's the matter? cas. have you not love enough to bear with me, when that rash humor which my mother gave me makes me forgetful? bru. yes, cassius; and, from henceforth, when you are over earnest with your brutus, he'll think your mother chides, and leave you so. shakespeare.--julius caesar, act iv, scene iii. notes.--ides (pro. idz) was a term used in the roman calendar. it fell on the fifteenth day of march, may, july, and october, and on the thirteenth of other months. on the ides of march, b. c., julius caesar was murdered by brutus, cassius, and other conspirators. the populace were aroused to indignation, and the conspirators were compelled to fly. indirection; i. e., dishonest means. antony and octavius, who, with lepidus, formed the triumvirate now governing rome, were at this time marching against the forces of brutus and cassius. plutus, in ancient mythology, the god of wealth. lxii. the quack. ( ) john tobin, - , a solicitor, was born at salisbury, england, and died on shipboard near cork. he wrote several comedies, the most popular being "the honeymoon," from which this extract is taken; it was published in . ### scene--the inn. enter hostess followed by lampedo, a quack doctor. host. nay, nay; another fortnight. lamp. it can't be. the man's as well as i am: have some mercy! he hath been here almost three weeks already. host. well, then, a week. lamp. we may detain him a week. (enter balthazar, the patient, from behind, in his nightgown, with a drawn sword.) you talk now like a reasonable hostess, that sometimes has a reckoning with her conscience. host. he still believes he has an inward bruise. lamp. i would to heaven he had! or that he'd slipped his shoulder blade, or broke a leg or two, (not that i bear his person any malice,) or luxed an arm, or even sprained his ankle! host. ay, broken anything except his neck. lamp. however, for a week i'll manage him, though he had the constitution of a horse-- a farrier should prescribe for him. balth. a farrier! (aside. ) lamp. to-morrow, we phlebotomize again; next day, my new-invented patent draught; then, i have some pills prepared; on thursday, we throw in the bark; on friday-- balth. (coming forward.) well, sir, on friday--what, on friday? come, proceed. lamp. discovered! they (host.,lamp.) fall on their knees. host. mercy, noble sir! lamp. we crave your mercy! balth. on your knees? 'tis well! pray! for your time is short. host. nay, do not kill us. balth. you have been tried, condemned, and only wait for execution. which shall i begin with? lamp. the lady, by all means, sir. balth. come, prepare. (to the hostess.) host. have pity by the weakness of my sex! balth. tell me, thou quaking mountain of gross flesh, tell me, and in a breath, how many poisons-- if you attempt it--(to lampedo, who is making off) you have cooked up for me? host. none, as i hope for mercy! balth. is not thy wine a poison? host. no indeed, sir; 't is not, i own, of the first quality; but-- balth. what? host. i always give short measure, sir, and ease my conscience that way. balth. ease your conscience! i'll ease your conscience for you. host. mercy, sir! balth. rise, if thou canst, and hear me. host. your commands, sir? balth. if, in five minutes, all things are prepared for my departure, you may yet survive. host. it shall be done in less. balth. away, thou lumpfish. (exit hostess.) lamp. so! now comes my turn! 't is all over with me! there's dagger, rope, and ratsbane in his looks! baith. and now, thou sketch and outline of a man! thou thing that hast no shadow in the sun! thou eel in a consumption, eldest born of death and famine! thou anatomy of a starved pilchard! lamp. i do confess my leanness. i am spare, and, therefore, spare me. balth. why wouldst thou have made me a thoroughfare, for thy whole shop to pass through? lamp. man, you know, must live. balth. yes: he must die, too. lamp. for my patients' sake! balth. i'll send you to the major part of them-- the window, sir, is open;-come, prepare. lamp. pray consider! i may hurt some one in the street. [illustration: lampedo and hostess kneeling, with hands folded, pleading with balthazar, who is standing over them, holding a sword. several small glass bottles are on the table by the wall and scattered on the floor.] balth. why, then, i'll rattle thee to pieces in a dicebox, or grind thee in a coffee mill to powder, for thou must sup with pluto:--so, make ready! whilst i, with this good smallsword for a lancet, let thy starved spirit out (for blood thou hast none), and nail thee to the wall, where thou shalt look like a dried beetle with a pin stuck through him. lamp. consider my poor wife. balth. thy wife! lamp. my wife, sir. balth. hast thou dared think of matrimony, too? thou shadow of a man, and base as lean! lamp. o spare me for her sake! i have a wife, and three angelic babes, who, by those looks, are well nigh fatherless. balth. well, well! your wife and children shall plead for you. come, come; the pills! where are the pills? produce them. lamp. here is the box. balth. were it pandora's, and each single pill had ten diseases in it, you should take them. lamp. what, all? balth. ay, all; and quickly, too. come, sir, begin-- (lampedo takes one.) that's well!--another. lamp. one's a dose. balth. proceed, sir. lamp. what will become of me? let me go home, and set my shop to rights, and, like immortal caesar, die with decency. balth. away! and thank thy lucky star i have not brayed thee in thine own mortar, or exposed thee for a large specimen of the lizard genus. lamp. would i were one!--for they can feed on air. balth. home, sir! and be more honest. lump. if i am not, i'll be more wise, at least. notes.--pluto, in ancient mythology, the god of the lower world. pandora is described in the greek legends as the first created woman. she was sent by jupiter to epimetheus as a punishment, because the latter's brother, prometheus, had stolen fire from heaven. when she arrived among men, she opened a box in which were all the evils of mankind, and everything escaped except hope. lxiii. rip van winkle. ( ) the appearance of rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. they crowded around him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. the orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired on which side he voted. rip stared in vacant stupidity. another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear "whether he was federal or democrat." rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before van winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat, penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded, in an austere tone, what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village. "alas! gentlemen," cried rip, somewhat dismayed, "i am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, god bless him!" here a general shout burst from the bystanders.--"a tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" it was with great difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and, having a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, and whom he was seeking. the poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. "well, who are they? name them." rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "where's nicholas vedder?" there was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a thin, piping voice, "nicholas vedder! why he is dead and gone these eighteen years! there was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." "where's brom dutcher?" "oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war. some say he was killed at the storming of stony point; others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of anthony's nose. i don't know; he never came back again." "where's van bummel, the schoolmaster?" "he went off to the wars, too; was a great militia general, and is now in congress." rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. every answer puzzled him, too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of matters which he could not understand--war, congress, stony point. he had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, "does nobody here know rip van winkle?" "oh, rip van winkle!" exclaimed two or three. "oh, to be sure! that's rip van winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain; apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. the poor fellow was now completely confounded; he doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man. in the midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name. "god knows!" exclaimed he, at his wit's end. "i'm not myself; i'm somebody else; that's me yonder; no, that's somebody else got into my shoes. i was myself last night; but i fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and i'm changed, and i can't tell what's my name or who i am!" the bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. there was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. at this critical moment, a fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. she had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "hush, rip!" cried she, "hush, you little fool! the old man won't hurt you." the name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in his mind. "what is your name, my good woman?" asked he. "judith gardenier." "and your father's name?" "ah, poor man! rip van winkle was his name; but it's twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since; his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the indians, nobody can tell. i was then but a little girl." rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice: "where's your mother?" "oh, she, too, died but a short time since; she broke a blood vessel in a fit of passion at a new england peddler." there was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. the honest man could contain himself no longer. he caught his daughter and her child in his arms. "i am your father!" cried he. "young rip van winkle once, old rip van winkle now! does nobody know poor rip van winkle?" all stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and, peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, "sure enough! it is rip van winkle! it is himself! welcome home again, old neighbor! why, where have you been these twenty long years?" rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him but as one night. to make a long story short, the company broke up and returned to the more important concerns of the election. rip's daughter took him home to live with her. she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout, cheery farmer for a husband, whom rip recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb upon his back. rip now resumed his old walks and habits. he soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time, and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor. --irving. notes.--rip van winkle, according to irving's story in "the sketch book," was a great drunkard, and was driven from his home in the catskill mountains, one night, by his wife. wandering among the mountains, he fell in with the ghosts of hendrick hudson and his crew, with whom he played a game of ninepins. upon drinking the liquor which they offered him, however, he immediately fell into a deep sleep which lasted for twenty years. the above lesson recounts the events that befell him when he returned to his native village. in the meantime the revolution of had taken place. the federals and the democrats formed the two leading political parties of that time. stony point is a promontory on the hudson, at the entrance of the highlands, forty-two miles from new york. it was a fortified post during the revolution, captured by the british, and again retaken by the americans under wayne. anthony's nose is also a promontory on the hudson, about fifteen miles above stony point. lxiv. bill and joe. ( ) oliver wendell holmes, - , was the son of abiel holmes, d.d. he was born in cambridge, massachusetts, and graduated at harvard in , having for classmates several men who have since become distinguished. after graduating, he studied law for about one year, and then turned his attention to medicine. he studied his profession in paris, and elsewhere in europe, and took his degree at cambridge in . in he was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology in dartmouth college. he remained here but a short time, and then returned to boston and entered on the practice of medicine. in he was appointed professor at harvard, filling a similar position to the one held at dartmouth. he discharged the duties of his professorship for more than thirty years, with great success. literature was never his profession; yet few american authors attained higher success, both as a poet and as a prose writer. his poems are lively and sparkling, abound in wit and humor, but are not wanting in genuine pathos. many of them were composed for special occasions. his prose writings include works on medicine, essays, and novels; several appeared first as contributions to the "atlantic monthly." he gained reputation, also, as it popular lecturer. in person, dr. holmes was small and active, with a face expressive of thought and vivacity. ### come, dear old comrade, you and i will steal an hour from days gone by-- the shining days when life was new, and all was bright as morning dew, the lusty days of long ago, when you were bill and i was joe. your name may flaunt a titled trail proud as a cockerel's rainbow tail, and mine as brief appendix wear as tam o'shanter's luckless mare; to-day, old friend, remember still that i am joe and you are bill. you've won the great world's envied prize, and grand you look in people's eyes, with hon. and ll. d., in big, brave letters fair to see,-- your fist, old fellow! off they go!-- how are you, bill? how are you, joe? you've worn the judge's ermined robe; you've taught your name to half the globe; you've sung mankind a deathless strain; you've made the dead past live again: the world may call you what it will, but you and i are joe and bill. the chaffing young folks stare and say, "see those old buffers, bent and gray; they talk like fellows in their teens; mad, poor old boys! that's what it means" and shake their heads; they little know the throbbing hearts of bill and joe-- how bill forgets his hour of pride, while joe sits smiling at his side; how joe, in spite of time's disguise, finds the old schoolmate in his eyes,-- those calm, stern eyes, that melt and fill, as joe looks fondly up to bill. ah! pensive scholar, what is fame? a fitful tongue of leaping flame; a giddy whirlwind's fickle gust, that lifts a pinch of mortal dust; a few swift years, and who can show which dust was bill, and which was joe. the weary idol takes his stand, holds out his bruised and aching hand, while gaping thousands come and go-- how vain it seems, this empty show!-- till all at once his pulses thrill: 't is poor old joe's, "god bless you, bill!" and shall we breathe in happier spheres the names that pleased our mortal ears; in some sweet lull of heart and song for earth born spirits none too long, just whispering of the world below when this was bill, and that was joe? no matter; while our home is here, no sounding name is half so dear; when fades at length our lingering day, who cares what pompous tombstones say? read on the hearts that love us still, hic jacet joe. hic jacet bill. note.--hic jacet (pro. hic ja'cet) is a latin phrase, meaning here lies. it is frequently used in epitaphs. lxv. sorrow for the dead. ( ) the sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. every other wound we seek to heal; every other affliction, to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open. this affliction we cherish, and brood over in solitude. where is the mother who would willingly forget the infant that has perished like a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang? where is the child that would willingly forget a tender parent, though to remember be but to lament? who, even in the hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he mourns? no, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul. if it has its woes, it has likewise its delights: and when the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the gentle tear of recollection; when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved, is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness, who would root out such a sorrow from the heart? though it may, sometimes, throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of gayety, or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom; yet, who would exchange it even for the song of pleasure, or the burst of revelry? no, there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. there is a remembrance of the dead, to which we turn even from the charms of the living. oh, the grave! the grave! it buries every error, covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment! from its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. who can look down upon the grave even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that he should have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies moldering before him? but the grave of those we loved--what a place for meditation! there it is that we call up, in long review, the whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand endearments lavished upon us, almost unheeded in the daily intercourse of intimacy; there it is that we dwell upon the tenderness, the solemn, awful tenderness of the parting scene; the bed of death, with all its stifled griefs, its noiseless attendance, its mute, watchful assiduities! the last testimonies of expiring love! the feeble, fluttering, thrilling,--oh! how thrilling!--pressure of the hand! the last fond look of the glazing eye turning upon us, even from the threshold of existence! the faint, faltering accents, struggling in death to give one more assurance of affection! ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate! there settle the account with thy conscience for every past benefit unrequited; every past endearment unregarded, of that departed being, who can never--never-- never return to be soothed by thy contrition! if thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or a furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent; if thou art a husband, and hast ever caused the fond bosom that ventured its whole happiness in thy arms to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy truth; if thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged, in thought, or word, or deed, the spirit that generously confided in thee; if thou hast given one unmerited pang to that true heart, which now lies cold and still beneath thy feet; then be sure that every unkind look, every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging back upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul; then be sure that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear; more deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing. then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of nature about the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, with these tender, yet futile, tributes of regret: but take warning by the bitterness of this, thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living. --irving. lxvi. the eagle. ( ) james gates percival, - , was born at berlin, connecticut, and graduated at yale college in , at the head of his class. he was admitted to the practice of medicine in , and went to charleston, south carolina. in he was appointed professor of chemistry at west point, a position which he held but a few months. in he was appointed state geologist of wisconsin, and died at hazel green, in that state. dr. percival was eminent as a geographer, geologist, and linguist. he began to write poetry at an early age, and his fame rests chiefly upon his writings in this department. in his private life, percival was always shy, modest, and somewhat given to melancholy. financially, his life was one of struggle, and he was often greatly straitened for money. ### bird of the broad and sweeping wing! thy home is high in heaven, where the wide storms their banners fling, and the tempest clouds are driven. thy throne is on the mountain top; thy fields, the boundless air; and hoary peaks, that proudly prop the skies, thy dwellings are. thou art perched aloft on the beetling crag, and the waves are white below, and on, with a haste that can not lag, they rush in an endless flow. again thou hast plumed thy wing for flight to lands beyond the sea, and away, like a spirit wreathed in light, thou hurriest, wild and free. lord of the boundless realm of air! in thy imperial name, the hearts of the bold and ardent dare the dangerous path of fame, beneath the shade of thy golden wings, the roman legions bore, from the river of egypt's cloudy springs, their pride, to the polar shore. for thee they fought, for thee they fell, and their oath on thee was laid; to thee the clarions raised their swell, and the dying warrior prayed. thou wert, through an age of death and fears, the image of pride and power, till the gathered rage of a thousand years, burst forth in one awful hour. and then, a deluge of wrath, it came, and the nations shook with dread; and it swept the earth, till its fields were flame, and piled with the mingled dead. kings were rolled in the wasteful flood, with the low and crouching slave; and together lay, in a shroud of blood, the coward and the brave. notes.--roman legions. the roman standard was the image of an eagle. the soldiers swore by it, and the loss of it was considered a disgrace. one awful hour. alluding to the destruction of rome by the northern barbarians. lxvii. political toleration. ( ) thomas jefferson, - , the third president of the united states, and the author of the declaration of independence, was born in albemarle county, virginia. he received most of his early education under private tutors, and at the age of seventeen entered william and mary college, where he remained two years. at college, where he studied industriously, he formed the acquaintance of several distinguished men, among them was george wythe, with whom he entered on the study of law. at the age of twenty-four he was admitted to the bar, and soon rose to high standing in his profession. in he entered the colonial congress, having previously served ably in the legislature of his native state. although one of the youngest men in congress, he soon took a foremost place in that body. he left congress in the fall of , and, as a member of the legislature, and later as governor of virginia, he was chiefly instrumental in effecting several important reforms in the laws of that state,--the most notable were the abolition of the law of primogeniture, and the passage of a law making all religious denominations equal. from to he was minister to france. on his return to america he was made secretary of state, in the first cabinet. while in this office, he became the leader of the republican or anti-federalist party, in opposition to the federalist party led by alexander hamilton. from to he was president. on leaving his high office, he retired to his estate at "monticello," where he passed the closing years of his life, and died on the th of july, just fifty years after the passage of his famous declaration. his compatriot, and sometimes bitter political opponent, john adams, died on the same day. mr. jefferson, who was never a ready public speaker, was a remarkably clear and forcible writer; his works fill several large volumes. in personal character, he was pure and simple, cheerful, and disposed to look on the bright side. his knowledge of life rendered his conversation highly attractive. the chief enterprise of his later years was the founding of the university of virginia, at charlottesville. ### during the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers, unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. all, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that, though the will of the majority is, in all cases, to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression. let us then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; and let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. during the throes and convulsions of the ancient world; during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, through blood and slaughter, his long-lost liberty; it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. we have called by different names brethren of the same principle. we are all republicans; we are all federalists. if there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it. i know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong; that this government is not strong enough. but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? i trust not; i believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. i believe it to be the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. can he, then, be trusted with the government of others, or have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him? let history answer this question. let us, then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles; our attachment to union and representative government. note.--at the time of jefferson's election, party spirit ran very high. he had been defeated by john adams at the previous presidential election, but the federal party, to which adams belonged, became weakened by their management during difficulties with france; and now jefferson had been elected president over his formerly successful rival. the above selection is from his inaugural address. lxviii. what constitutes a state? ( ) sir william jones, - , was the son of an eminent mathematician; he early distinguished himself by his ability as a student. he graduated at oxford, became well versed in oriental literature, studied law, and wrote many able books. in he was appointed judge of the supreme court of judicature in bengal. he was a man of astonishing learning, upright life, and christian principles. ### what constitutes a state? not high-raised battlement or labored mound, thick wall or moated gate; not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; not bays and broad-armed ports, where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; not starred and spangled courts, where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. no:--men, high-minded men, with powers as far above dull brutes endued in forest, brake, or den, as beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude,-- men who their duties know, but know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, prevent the long-aimed blow, and crush the tyrant while they rend the chain: these constitute a state; and sovereign law, that state's collected will, o'er thrones and globes elate, sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. lxix. the brave at home. ( ) thomas buchanan read, - , an american poet and painter, was born in chester county, pennsylvania. at the age of seventeen he entered a sculptor's studio in cincinnati. here he gained reputation as a painter of portraits. from this city he went to new york, boston, and philadelphia, and soon after to florence, italy. in the later years of his life, he divided his time between cincinnati, philadelphia, and rome. his complete poetical works fill three volumes. several of his most stirring poems relate to the revolutionary war, and to the late civil war in america. many of his poems are marked by vigor and a ringing power, while smoothness and delicacy distinguish others, no less. ### the maid who binds her warrior's sash, and, smiling, all her pain dissembles, the while beneath the drooping lash, one starry tear-drop hangs and trembles; though heaven alone records the tear, and fame shall never know her story, her heart has shed a drop as dear as ever dewed the field of glory! the wife who girds her husband's sword, 'mid little ones who weep and wonder, and bravely speaks the cheering word, what though her heart be rent asunder;-- doomed nightly in her dreams to hear the bolts of war around him rattle,-- has shed as sacred blood as e'er was poured upon the field of battle! the mother who conceals her grief, while to her breast her son she presses, then breathes a few brave words and brief, kissing the patriot brow she blesses; with no one but her loving god, to know the pain that weighs upon her, sheds holy blood as e'er the sod received on freedom's field of honor! note.--the above selection is from the poem entitled "the wagoner of the alleghanies." lxx. south carolina. ( ) robert young hayne, - , was born in colleton district, south carolina, and studied and practiced law at charleston. he was early elected to the state legislature, and became speaker of the house and attorney-general of the state. he entered the senate of the united states at the age of thirty-one. he was governor of south carolina during the "nullification" troubles in and . mr. hayne was a clear and able debater, and a stanch advocate of the extreme doctrine of "state rights." in the senate he opposed the tariff bill of ; and, out of this struggle, grew his famous debate with daniel webster in . the following selection is an extract from mr. hayne's speech on that memorable occasion. ### if there be one state in the union, mr. president, that may challenge comparison with any other, for a uniform, zealous, ardent, and uncalculating devotion to the union, that state is south carolina. sir, from the very commencement of the revolution, up to this hour, there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not cheerfully made; no service she has ever hesitated to perform. she has adhered to you in your prosperity; but in your adversity she has clung to you with more than filial affection. no matter what was the condition of her domestic affairs; though deprived of her resources, divided by parties, or surrounded by difficulties, the call of the country has been to her as the voice of god. domestic discord ceased at the sound; every man became at once reconciled to his brethren, and the sons of carolina were all seen, crowding to the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar of their common country. what, sir, was the conduct of the south, during the revolution? sir, i honor new england for her conduct in that glorious struggle. but great as is the praise which belongs to her, i think at least equal honor is due to the south. never were there exhibited, in the history of the world, higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic endurance, than by the whigs of carolina, during the revolution. the whole state, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy. the fruits of industry perished on the spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. the plains of carolina drank up the most precious blood of her citizens. black, smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitation of her children. driven from their homes into the gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and south carolina, sustained by the example of her sumters and her marions, proved, by her conduct, that though her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her people was invincible. notes.--thomas sumter (b. , d. ) was by birth a virginian, but during the revolution commanded south carolina troops. he was one of the most active and able of the southern generals, and, after the war, was prominent in politics. he was the last surviving general of the revolution. francis marion (b. , d. ), known as the "swamp fox," was a native south carolinian, of french descent. marion's brigade became noted during the revolution for its daring and surprising attacks. see lesson cxxxv. lxxi. massachusetts and south carolina. ( ) daniel webster, - . this celebrated american statesman and orator was born in salisbury, new hampshire. his father, ebenezer webster, was a pioneer settler, a soldier in the old french war and the revolution, and a man of ability and strict integrity, daniel attended the common school in his youth, and fitted for college under rev. samuel wood, of boseawen, graduating at dartmouth in . he spent a few months of his boyhood at "phillips academy," exeter, where he attained distinction as a student, but was so diffident that he could never give a declamation before his class. during his college course, and later, he taught school several terms in order to increase his slender finances. he was admitted to the bar in boston in . for the next eleven years, he practiced his profession in his native state. in he was elected to the united states house of representatives, and at once took his place as one of the most prominent men of that body. in he removed to boston; and in he was elected to the united states senate, where he continued for twelve years. in he was made secretary of state, and soon after negotiated the famous "ashburton treaty" with england, settling the northern boundary of the united states. in he returned to the senate; and in he was re-appointed secretary of state, and continued in office till his death. he died at his country residence in marshfield, massachusetts. mr. webster's fame rests chiefly on his state papers and his speeches in congress; but he took a prominent part in some of the most famous law cases of the present century. several of his public addresses on occasional themes are well known, also. as a speaker, he was dignified and stately, using clear, straightforward, pure english. he had none of the tricks of oratory. he was large of person, with a massive head, a swarthy complexion, and deep-set, keen, and lustrous eyes. his grand presence added much to his power as a speaker. ### the eulogium pronounced on the character of the state of south carolina by the honorable gentleman, for her revolutionary and other merits, meets my hearty concurrence. i shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes before me, in regard for whatever of distinguished talent or distinguished character south carolina has produced. i claim part of the honor; i partake in the pride of her great names. i claim them for countrymen, one and all--the laurenses, the rutledges, the pinckneys, the sumters, the marions--americans all--whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by state lines than their talents and patriotism were capable of being circumscribed within the same narrow limits. in their day and generation, they served and honored the country, and the whole country, and their renown is of the treasures of the whole country. him whose honored name the gentleman himself bears,--does he suppose me less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for his suffering, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light in massachusetts, instead of south carolina? sir, does he suppose it in his power to exhibit in carolina a name so bright as to produce envy in my bosom? no, sir,--increased gratification and delight rather. sir, i thank god that, if i am gifted with little of the spirit which is said to be able to raise mortals to the skies, i have yet none, as i trust, of that other spirit which would drag angels down. when i shall be found, sir, in my place here in the senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit because it happened to spring up beyond the little limits of my own state or neighborhood; when i refuse for any such cause, or for any cause, the homage due to american talent, to elevated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the country; or if i see an uncommon endowment of heaven; if i see extraordinary capacity or virtue in any son of the south; and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by state jealousy, i get up here to abate a tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! mr. president, i shall enter on no encomium upon massachusetts. she needs none. there she is; behold her, and judge for yourselves. there is her history; the world knows it by heart. the past, at least, is secure. there is boston, and concord, and lexington, and bunker hill; and there they will remain forever. and, sir, where american liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. if discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm, with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gathered around it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its glory and on the very spot of its origin. notes.--the laurenses were of french descent. henry laurens was appointed on the commission with franklin and jay to negotiate the treaty of peace at paris at the close of the revolution. his son, john laurens, was an aid and secretary of washington, who was greatly attached to him. the rutledges were of irish descent. john rutledge was a celebrated statesman and lawyer. he was appointed chief justice of the united states, but the senate, for political reasons, refused to confirm his appointment. edward rutledge, brother of the preceding, was governor of south carolina during the last two years of his life. the pinckneys were an old english family who emigrated to charleston in . charles cotesworth pinckney and his brother thomas were both active participants in the revolution. the former was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the united states, in . thomas was elected governor of south carolina in . in the war of he served as major-general. charles pinckney, a second cousin of the two already mentioned, was four times elected governor of his state. lxxii. the church scene from evangeline. ( ) henry wadsworth longfellow, - , the son of hon. stephen longfellow, an eminent lawyer of portland, maine, was born in that city. he graduated, at the age of eighteen, at bowdoin college. he was soon appointed to the chair of modern languages and literature in that institution, and, to fit himself further for his work, he went abroad and spent four years in europe. he remained at bowdoin till , when he was appointed to the chair of modern languages and belles-lettres in harvard university. on receiving this appointment, he again went to europe and remained two years. he resigned his professorship in , and after that time resided in cambridge, pursuing his literary labors and giving to the public, from time to time, the fruits of his pen. in he made a voyage to england, where he was received with extraordinary marks of honor and esteem. in addition to mr. longfellow's original works, both in poetry and in prose, he distinguished himself by several translations; the most famous is that of the works of dante. mr. longfellow's poetry is always elegant and chaste, showing in every line traces of his careful scholarship. yet it is not above the popular taste or comprehension, as is shown by the numerous and varied editions of his poems. many of his poems treat of historical themes; "evangeline," from which the following selection is taken, is esteemed by many as the most beautiful of all his longer poems; it was first published in . ### so passed the morning away. and lo! with a summons sonorous sounded the bell from its tower, and over the meadows a drumbeat. thronged erelong was the church with men. without, in the churchyard, awaited the women. they stood by the graves, and hung on the headstones garlands of autumn leaves and evergreens fresh from the forest. then came the guard from the ships, and marching proudly among them entered the sacred portal. with loud and dissonant clangor echoed the sound of their brazen drums from ceiling and casement,-- echoed a moment only, and slowly the ponderous portal closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of the soldiers. then uprose their commander, and spake from the steps of the altar, holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission. "you have convened this day," he said, "by his majesty's orders. clement and kind has he been; but how you have answered his kindness, let your own hearts reply! to my natural make and my temper painful the task is i do, which to you i know must be grievous. yet must i bow and obey, and deliver the will of our monarch; namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle of all kinds forfeited be to the crown; and that you yourselves from this province be transported to other lands. god grant you may dwell there ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable people! prisoners now i declare you; for such is his majesty's pleasure!" as, when the air is serene in the sultry solstice of summer, suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones beats down the farmer's corn in the field and shatters his windows, hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch from the house roofs, bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their inclosure; so on the hearts of the people descended the words of the speaker. silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and then rose louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger, and, by one impulse moved, they madly rushed to the doorway. vain was the hope of escape; and cries and fierce imprecations rang through the house of prayer; and high o'er the heads of the others rose, with his arms uplifted, the figure of basil the blacksmith, as, on a stormy sea, a spar is tossed by the billows. flushed was his face and distorted with passion; and wildly he shouted,-- "down with the tyrants of england! we never have sworn them allegiance! death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our homes and our harvests!" more he fain would have said, but the merciless hand of a soldier smote him upon the mouth, and dragged him down to the pavement. in the midst of the strife and tumult of angry contention, lo! the door of the chancel opened, and father felician entered, with serious mien, and ascended the steps of the alter. raising his reverend hand, with a gesture he awed into silence all that clamorous throng; and thus he spake to his people; deep were his tones and solemn; in accents measured and mournful spake he, as, after the tocsin's alarum, distinctly the clock strikes. "what is this that ye do, my children? what madness has seized you? forty years of my life have i labored among you, and taught you, not in word alone, but in deed, to love one another! is this the fruit of my toils, of my vigils and prayers and privations? have you so soon forgotten all the lessons of love and forgiveness? this is the house of the prince of peace, and would you profane it thus with violent deeds and hearts overflowing with hatred? lo! where the crucified christ from his cross is gazing upon you! see! in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion! hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, 'o father, forgive them!' let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us, let us repeat it now, and say, 'o father, forgive them.' " few were his words of rebuke, but deep in the hearts of his people sank they, and sobs of contrition succeeded the passionate outbreak, while they repeated his prayer, and said, "o father, forgive them!" note.--nova scotia was first settled by the french, but, in , was ceded to the english. the inhabitants refusing either to take the oath of allegiance or to bear arms against their fellow-countrymen in the french and indian war, it was decided to remove the whole people, and distribute them among the other british provinces. this was accordingly done in . the villages were burned to the ground, and the people hurried on board the ships in such a way that but a few families remained undivided. longfellow's poem of "evangeline" is founded on this incident, and the above selection describes the scene where the male inhabitants of grand-pre' are assembled in the church, and the order for their banishment is first made known to them. lxxiii. song of the shirt. ( ) thomas hood, - , the son of a london bookseller, was born in that city. he undertook, after leaving school, to learn the art of an engraver, but soon gave up the business, and turned his attention to literature. his lighter pieces, exhibiting his skill as a wit and punster, soon became well known and popular. in he became subeditor of the "london magazine," and formed the acquaintance of the literary men of the metropolis. the last years of his life were clouded by poverty and ill health. some of his most humorous pieces were written on a sick bed. hood is best known as a joker--a writer of "whims and oddities"--but he was no mere joker. some of his pieces are filled with the tenderest pathos; and a gentle spirit, in love with justice and humanity, pervades even his lighter compositions. his "song of the shirt" first appeared in the "london punch." ### with fingers weary and worn, with eyelids heavy and red, a woman sat, in unwomanly rags, plying her needle and thread: stitch! stitch! stitch! in poverty, hunger, and dirt, and still with a voice of dolorous pitch, she sang the "song of the shirt!" "work! work! work! while the cock is crowing aloof! and work! work! work! till the stars shine through the roof! it is oh to be a slave along with the barbarous turk, where woman has never a soul to save, if this is christian work! "work! work! work! till the brain begins to swim; work! work! work! till the eyes are heavy and dim! seam, and gusset, and band, band, and gusset, and seam, till over the buttons i fall asleep, and sew them on in a dream! "o men, with sisters dear! o men, with mothers and wives! it is not linen you're wearing out, but human creatures' lives! stitch! stitch! stitch! in poverty, hunger, and dirt,-- sewing at once, with a double thread, a shroud as well as a shirt. "but why do i talk of death? that phantom of grisly bone, i hardly fear his terrible shape, it seems so like my own; it seems so like my own, because of the fasts i keep; o god! that bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap! "work! work! work! my labor never flags; and what are its wages? a bed of straw, a crust of bread--and rags, that shattered roof--and this naked floor-- a table--a broken chair-- and a wall so blank, my shadow i thank for sometimes falling there. "work! work! work! from weary chime to chime! work! work! work! as prisoners work for crime! band, and gusset, and seam, seam, and gusset, and band, till the heart is sick, and the brain benumbed, as well as the weary hand. "work! work! work! in the dull december light, and work! work! work! when the weather is warm and bright; while underneath the eaves the brooding swallows cling, as if to show me their sunny backs, and twit me with the spring. "oh but to breathe the breath of the cowslip and primrose sweet! with the sky above my head, and the grass beneath my feet! for only one short hour to feel as i used to feel, before i knew the woes of want, and the walk that costs a meal! "oh but for one short hour,-- a respite, however brief! no blessed leisure for love or hope, but only time for grief! a little weeping would ease my heart, but in their briny bed my tears must stop, for every drop hinders needle and thread." with fingers weary and worn, with eyelids heavy and red, a woman sat, in unwomanly rags, plying her needle and thread: stitch! stitch! stitch! in poverty, hunger, and dirt, and still with a voice of dolorous pitch-- would that its tone could reach the rich! she sang this "song of the shirt." lxxiv. diamond cut diamond. ( ) edouard rene lefebvre-laboulaye, - , was a french writer of note. most of his works involve questions of law and politics, and are considered high authority on the questions discussed. a few works, such as "abdallah," from which the following extract is adapted, were written as a mere recreation in the midst of law studies; they show great imaginative power. laboulaye took great interest in the united states, her people, and her literature; and many of his works are devoted to american questions. he translated the works of dr. william e. channing into french. ### mansour, the egyptian merchant, one day repaired to the cadi on account of a suit, the issue of which troubled him but little. a private conversation with the judge had given him hopes of the justice of his cause. the old man asked his son omar to accompany him in order to accustom him early to deal with the law. the cadi was seated in the courtyard of the mosque. he was a fat, good-looking man, who never thought, and talked little, which, added to his large turban and his air of perpetual astonishment, gave him a great reputation for justice and gravity. the spectators were numerous; the principal merchants were seated on the ground on carpets, forming a semicircle around the magistrate. mansour took his seat a little way from the sheik, and omar placed himself between the two, his curiosity strongly excited to see how the law was obeyed, and how it was trifled with in case of need. the first case called was that of a young banian, as yellow as an orange, with loose flowing robes and an effeminate air, who had lately landed from india, and who complained of having been cheated by one of mansour's rivals. "having found a casket of diamonds among the effects left by my father," said he, "i set out for egypt, to live there on the proceeds of their sale. i was obliged by bad weather to put into jidda, where i soon found myself in want of money. i went to the bazaar, and inquired for a dealer in precious stones. the richest, i was told, was mansour; the most honest, ali, the jeweler. i applied to ali. "he welcomed me as a son, as soon as he learned that i had diamonds to sell, and carried me home with him. he gained my confidence by every kind of attention, and advanced me all the money i needed. one day, after dinner, at which wine was not wanting, he examined the diamonds, one by one, and said, 'my child, these diamonds are of little value; my coffers are full of such stones. the rocks of the desert furnish them by thousands.' "to prove the truth of what he said, he opened a box, and, taking therefrom a diamond thrice as large as any of mine, gave it to the slave that was with me. 'what will become of me?' i cried; 'i thought myself rich, and here i am, poor, and a stranger.' "'my child,' replied ali, 'leave this casket with me, and i will give you a price for it such as no one else would offer. choose whatever you wish in jidda, and in two hours i will give you an equal weight of what you have chosen in exchange for your indian stones.' "on returning home, night brought reflection. i learned that ali had been deceiving me. what he had given to the slave was nothing but a bit of crystal. i demanded my casket. ali refused to restore it. venerable magistrate, my sole hope is in your justice." it was now ali's turn to speak. "illustrious cadi," said he, "it is true that we made a bargain, which i am ready to keep, the rest of the young man's story is false. what matters it what i gave the slave? did i force the stranger to leave the casket in my hands? why does he accuse me of treachery? have i broken my word, and has he kept his?" "young man," said the cadi to the banian, "have you witnesses to prove that ali deceived you? if not, i shall put the accused on his oath, as the law decrees." a koran was brought. ali placed his hand on it, and swore three times that he had not deceived the stranger. "wretch," said the banian, "thou art among those whose feet go down to destruction. thou hast thrown away thy soul." omar smiled, and while ali was enjoying the success of his ruse, he approached the stranger, and asked, "do you wish me to help you gain the suit?" "yes," was the reply; "but you are only a child--you can do nothing." "have confidence in me a few moments," said omar; "accept ali's bargain; let me choose in your stead, and fear nothing." the stranger bowed his head, and murmured, "what can i fear after having lost all?" then, turning to the cadi, and bowing respectfully, "let the bargain be consummated," said he, "since the law decrees it, and let this young man choose in my stead what i shall receive in payment." a profound silence ensued. omar rose, and, bowing to the cadi, "ali," said he to the jeweler, "you have doubtless brought the casket, and can tell us the weight thereof." "here it is," said ali; "it weighs twenty pounds. choose what you will; if the thing asked for is in jidda, you shall have it within two hours, otherwise the bargain is null and void." "what we desire," said omar, raising his voice, "is ants' wings, half male and half female. you have two hours in which to furnish the twenty pounds you have promised us." "this is absurd," cried the jeweler; "it is impossible. i should need half a score of persons and six months labor to satisfy so foolish a demand." "are there any winged ants in jidda?" asked the cadi. "of course," answered the merchants, laughing; "they are one of the plagues of egypt. our houses are full of them, and it would be doing us a great service to rid us of them." "then ali must keep his promise or give back the casket," said the cadi. "this young man was mad to sell his diamonds weight for weight; he is mad to exact such payment. so much the better for ali the first time: so much the worse for him the second. justice has not two weights and measures. every bargain holds good before the law. either furnish twenty pounds of ants' wings, or restore the casket to the banian." "a righteous judgment," shouted the spectators, wonder-struck at such equity. [illustration: in front of a middle-eastern building; a man seated with a sword and water-pipe, facing a crowd. a small boy with his left arm outstreached, is speaking to the man. a taller young man stands to the right of the small boy; an older man stands further to the right.] the stranger, beside himself with joy, took from the casket three diamonds of the finest water; he forced them on omar, who put them in his girdle, and seated himself by his father, his gravity unmoved by the gaze of the assembly. "well done," said mansour; "but it is my turn now; mark me well, and profit by the lesson i shall give you. stop, young man!" he cried to the banian, "we have an account to settle." "the day before yesterday," continued he, "this young man entered my shop, and, bursting into tears, kissed my hand and entreated me to sell him a necklace which i had already sold to the pasha of egypt, saying that his life and that of a lady depended upon it. 'ask of me what you will, my father,' said he, 'but i must have these gems or die.' "i have a weakness for young men, and, though i knew the danger of disappointing my master the pasha, i was unable to resist his supplications. 'take the necklace,' said i to him, 'but promise to give whatever i may ask in exchange.' 'my head itself, if you will,' he replied, 'for you have saved my life,' we were without witnesses, but," added mansour, turning to the banian, "is not my story true?" "yes," said the young man, "and i beg your pardon for not having satisfied you sooner: you know the cause. ask of me what you desire." "what i desire," said mansour, "is the casket with all its contents. illustrious magistrate, you have declared that all bargains hold good before the law; this young man has promised to give me what i please; now i declare that nothing pleases me but these diamonds." the cadi raised his head and looked about the assembly, as if to interrogate the faces, then stroked his beard, and relapsed into his meditations. "ali is defeated," said the sheik to omar, with a smile, "the fox is not yet born more cunning than the worthy mansour." "i am lost!" cried the banian. "o omar, have you saved me only to cast me down from the highest pinnacle of joy to the depths of despair? persuade your father to spare me, that i may owe my life to you a second time." "well, my son," said mansour, "doubtless you are shrewd, but this will teach you that your father knows rather more than you do. the cadi is about to decide: try whether you can dictate his decree." "it is mere child's play," answered omar, shrugging his shoulders; "but since you desire it, my father, you shall lose your suit." he rose, and taking a piaster from his girdle, put it into the hand of the banian, who laid it before the judge. "illustrious cadi," said omar, "this young man is ready to fulfill his engagement. this is what he offers mansour--piaster. in itself this coin is of little value; but examine it closely, and you will see that it is stamped with the likeness of the sultan, our glorious master. may god destroy and confound all who disobey his highness! "it is this precious likeness that we offer you," added he, turning to mansour; "if it pleases you, you are paid; to say that it displeases you is an insult to the pasha, a crime punishable by death; and i am sure that our worthy cadi will not become your accomplice--he who has always been and always will be the faithful servant of an the sultans." when omar had finished speaking, all eyes turned toward the cadi, who, more impenetrable than ever, stroked his face and waited for the old man to come to his aid. mansour was agitated and embarrassed. the silence of the cadi and the assembly terrified him, and he cast a supplicating glance toward his son. "my father," said omar, "permit this young man to thank you for the lesson of prudence which you have given him by frightening him a little. he knows well that it was you who sent me to his aid, and that all this is a farce. no one is deceived by hearing the son oppose the father, and who has ever doubted mansour's experience and generosity?" "no one," interrupted the cadi, starting up like a man suddenly awakened from a dream, "and i least of all; and this is why i have permitted you to speak, my young solomon. i wished to honor in you the wisdom of your father; but another time avoid meddling with his highness's name; it is not safe to sport with the lion's paws. the matter is settled. the necklace is worth a hundred thousand piasters, is it not, mansour? this madcap, shall give you, therefore, a hundred thousand piasters, and all parties will be satisfied." notes--a cadi in the mohammedan countries corresponds to our magistrate. a sheik among the arabs and moors, may mean simply an old man, or, as in this case, a man of eminence. a banian is a hindoo merchant, particularly one who visits foreign countries on business. jidda is a city in arabia, on the red sea a pasha is the governor of a turkish province. the turkish piaster was formerly worth twenty-five cents: it is now worth only about eight cents. lxxv. thanatopsis. ( ) to him who in the love of nature holds communion with her visible forms, she speaks a various language: for his gayer hours she has a voice of gladness, and a smile and eloquence of beauty; and she glides into his darker musings, with a mild and healing sympathy, that steals away their sharpness, ere he is aware. when thoughts of the last hitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, and breathless darkness, and the narrow house, make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;-- go forth, under the open sky, and list to nature's teachings, while from all around-- earth and her waters, and the depths of air-- comes a still voice,-- yet a few days, and thee the all-beholding sun shall see no more in all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, where thy pale form was laid, with many tears, nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist thy image. earth, that nourished thee, shall claim thy growth, to be resolved to earth again; and, lost each human trace, surrendering up thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements; to be a brother to the insensible rock and to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain turns with his share, and treads upon. the oak shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold. yet not to thine eternal resting place shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish couch more magnificent. thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world,--with kings, the powerful of the earth,--the wise, the good, fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,-- all in one mighty sepulcher. the hills, rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun; the vales stretching in pensive quietness between; the venerable woods; rivers that move in majesty, and the complaining brooks, that make the meadows green; and, poured round all, old ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-- are but the solemn decorations all of the great tomb of man. the golden sun, the planets, all the infinite host of heaven, are shining on the sad abodes of death, through the still lapse of ages. all that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes that slumber in its bosom. take the wings of morning, pierce the barcan wilderness, or lose thyself in the continuous woods where rolls the oregon, and hears no sound save his own dashings,--yet the dead are there: and millions in those solitudes, since first the flight of years began, have laid them down in their last sleep,--the dead reign there alone. so shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw in silence from the living, and no friend take note of thy departure? all that breathe will share thy destiny. the gay will laugh when thou art gone, the solemn brood of care plod on, and each one as before will chase his favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave their mirth and their employments, and shall come and make their bed with thee. as the long train of ages glide away, the sons of men-- the youth in life's green spring, and he who goes in the full strength of years, matron and maid, the speechless babe, and the gray-headed man shall one by one be gathered to thy side by those who in their turn shall follow them. so live, that when thy summons comes to join the innumerable caravan, which moves to that mysterious realm, where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death, thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. --bryant. notes.--thanatopsis is composed of two greek words, thanatos, meaning death, and opsis, a view. the word, therefore, signifies a view of death, or reflections on death. barca is in the northeastern part of africa: the southern and eastern portions of the country are a barren desert. the oregon (or columbia) river is the most important river of the united states emptying into the pacific. the lewis and clark expedition ( - ) had first explored the country through which it flows only five years before the poem was written. lxxvi. indian jugglers. ( ) william hazlitt, - , was born in maidstone, england. his father was a unitarian clergyman, and he was sent to a college of that denomination to be educated for the ministry; but having a greater taste for art than theology, he resolved, on leaving school, to devote himself to painting. he succeeded so well in his efforts as to meet the warmest commendation of his friends, but did not succeed in satisfying his own fastidious taste. on this account he threw away his pencil and took up his pen. his works, though numerous, are, with the exception of a life of napoleon, chiefly criticisms on literature and art. hazlitt is thought to have treated his contemporaries with an unjust severity; but his genial appreciation of the english classics, and the thorough and loving manner in which he discusses their merits, make his essays the delight of every lover of those perpetual wellsprings of intellectual pleasure. his "table talk," "characters of shakespeare's plays," "lectures on the english poets," and "lectures on the literature of the elizabethan age," are the works that exhibit his style and general merits in their most favorable light. ### coming forward and seating himself on the ground, in his white dress and tightened turban, the chief of the indian jugglers begins with tossing up two brass balls, which is what any of us could do, and concludes by keeping up four at the same time, which is what none of us could do to save our lives, not if we were to take our whole lives to do it in. is it then a trifling power we see at work, or is it not something next to miraculous? it is the utmost stretch of human ingenuity, which nothing but the bending the faculties of body and mind to it from the tenderest infancy with incessant, ever-anxious application up to manhood, can accomplish or make even a slight approach to. man, thou art a wonderful animal, and thy ways past finding out! thou canst do strange things, but thou turnest them to small account! to conceive of this extraordinary dexterity, distracts the imagination and makes admiration breathless. yet it costs nothing to the performer, any more than if it were a mere mechanical deception with which he had nothing to do, but to watch and laugh at the astonishment of the spectators. a single error of a hair's breadth, of the smallest conceivable portion of time, would be fatal; the precision of the movements must be like a mathematical truth; their rapidity is like lightning. to catch four balls in succession, in less than a second of time, and deliver them back so as to return with seeming consciousness to the hand again; to make them revolve around him at certain intervals, like the planets in their spheres; to make them chase each other like sparkles of fire, or shoot up like flowers or meteors; to throw them behind his back, and twine them round his neck like ribbons, or like serpents; to do what appears an impossibility, and to do it with all the ease, the grace, the carelessness imaginable; to laugh at, to play with the glittering mockeries, to follow them with his eye as if he could fascinate them with its lambent fire, or as if he had only to see that they kept time with the music on the stage--there is something in all this which he who does not admire may be quite sure he never really admired anything in the whole course of his life. it is skill surmounting difficulty, and beauty triumphing over skill. it seems as if the difficulty, once mastered, naturally resolved itself into ease and grace, and as if, to be overcome at all, it must be overcome without an effort. the smallest awkwardness or want of pliancy or self-possession would stop the whole process. it is the work of witchcraft, and yet sport for children. some of the other feats are quite as curious and wonderful--such as the balancing the artificial tree, and shooting a bird from each branch through a quill--though none of them have the elegance or facility of the keeping up of the brass balls. you are in pain for the result, and glad when the experiment is over; they are not accompanied with the same unmixed, unchecked delight as the former; and i would not give much to be merely astonished without being pleased at the same time. as to the swallowing of the sword, the police ought to interfere to prevent it. when i saw the indian juggler do the same things before, his feet were bare, and he had large rings on his toes, which he kept turning round all the time of the performance, as if they moved of themselves. the hearing a speech in parliament drawled or stammered out by the honorable member or the noble lord, the ringing the changes on their commonplaces, which anyone could repeat after them as well as they, stirs me not a jot,--shakes not my good opinion of myself. i ask what there is that i can do as well as this. nothing. what have i been doing all my life? have i been idle, or have i nothing to show for all my labor and pains? or have i passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them? is there no one thing in which i can challenge competition, that i can bring as an instance of exact perfection, in which others can not find a flaw? the utmost i can pretend to is to write a description of what this fellow can do. i can write a book: so can many others who have not even learned to spell. what abortions are these essays! what errors, what ill-pieced transitions, what crooked reasons, what lame conclusions! how little is made out, and that little how ill! yet they are the best i can do. i endeavor to recollect all i have ever heard or thought upon a subject, and to express it as neatly as i can. instead of writing on four subjects at a time, it is as much as i can manage, to keep the thread of one discourse clear and unentangled. i have also time on my hands to correct my opinions and polish my periods; but the one i can not, and the other i will not, do. i am fond of arguing; yet, with a good deal of pains and practice, it is often much as i can do to beat my man, though he may be a very indifferent hand. a common fencer would disarm his adversary in the twinkling of an eye, unless he were a professor like himself. a stroke of wit will sometimes produce this effect, but there is no such power or superiority in sense or reasoning. there is no complete mastery of execution to be shown there; and you hardly know the professor from the impudent pretender or the mere clown. lxxvii. antony over caesar's dead body. ( ) friends, romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: i come to bury caesar, not to praise him. the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with caesar. the noble brutus hath told you caesar was ambitious: if it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath caesar answered it. here, under leave of brutus and the rest-- for brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men-- come i to speak in caesar's funeral. he was my, friend, faithful and just to me: but brutus says he was ambitious; and brutus is an honorable man. he hath brought many captives home to rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: did this in caesar seem ambitious? when that the poor have cried, caesar hath wept: ambition should be made of sterner stuff: yet brutus says he was ambitious; and brutus is an honorable man. you all did see, that on the lupercal, i thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. was this ambition? yet brutus says he was ambitious; and, sure, he is an honorable man. i speak not to disprove what brutus spoke, but here i am to speak what i do know. you all did love him once, not without cause; what cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? o judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason. bear with me; my heart is in the coffin there with caesar, and i must pause till it come back to me. but yesterday the word of caesar might have stood against the world; now lies he there, and none so poor to do him reverence. o masters! if i were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, i should do brutus wrong, and cassius wrong, who, you all know, are honorable men. i will not do them wrong; i rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than i will wrong such honorable men. but here's a parchment with the seal of caesar; i found it in his closet; 't is his will: let but the commons hear this testament-- which, pardon me, i do not mean to read-- and they would go and kiss dead caesar's wounds, and dip their napkins in his sacred blood; yea, beg a hair of him for memory, and, dying, mention it within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue. citizen. we'll hear the will: read it, mark antony. all. the will, the will; we will hear caesar's will. ant. have patience, gentle friends, i must not read it; it is not meet you know how caesar loved you. you are not wood, you are not stones, but men; and, being men, hearing the will of caesar, it will inflame you, it will make you mad; 't is good you know not that you are his heirs; for, if you should, oh what would come of it! cit. read the will; we'll hear it, antony; you shall read the will, caesar's will. ant. will you be patient? will you stay awhile? i have o'ershot myself to tell you of it: i fear i wrong the honorable men whose daggers have stabbed caesar. i do fear it. cit. they were traitors: honorable men! all. the will! the testament! ant. you will compel me, then, to read the will? then make a ring about the corpse of caesar, and let me show you him that made the will. (he comes down from the pulpit.) if you have tears, prepare to shed them now. you all do know this mantle: i remember the first time ever caesar put it on; 't was on a summer's evening, in his tent, that day he overcame the nervii; look! in this place, ran cassius' dagger through: see what a rent the envious casca made: through this, the well belove'd brutus stabbed; and, as he plucked his cursed steel away, mark how the blood of caesar followed it, as rushing out of doors, to be resolved if brutus so unkindly knocked, or no; for brutus, as you know, was caesar's angel: judge, o you gods, how dearly caesar loved him! this was the most unkindest cut of all; for, when the noble caesar saw him stab, ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, quite vanquished him: then burst his mighty heart; and, in his mantle muffling up his face, even at the base of pompey's statua, which all the while ran blood, great caesar fell. oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen! then i, and you, and all of us fell down, whilst bloody treason flourished over us. oh, now you weep; and, i perceive, you feel the dint of pity: these are gracious drops. kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold our caesar's vesture wounded? look you here, here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors. st cit. o piteous spectacle! d cit. o noble caesar! d cit. we will be revenged! all. revenge! about! seek! burn! fire! kill! slay! let not a traitor live. ant. stay, countrymen. st cit. peace there! hear the noble antony. d cit. we'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him. ant. good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up to such a sudden flood of mutiny. they that have done this deed are honorable: what private griefs they have, alas, i know not, that made them do it; they are wise and honorable, and will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. i come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: i am no orator, as brutus is; but, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, that love my friend; and that they know full well that gave me public leave to speak of him: for i have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, to stir men's blood: i only speak right on: i tell you that which you yourselves do know; show you sweet caesar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths, and bid them speak for me: but were i brutus, and brutus antony, there were an antony would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue in every wound of caesar, that should move the stones of rome to rise and mutiny. shakespeare.--julius caesar, act iii, scene ii. notes.--gaius julius caesar (b. , d. b. c.) was the most remarkable genius of the ancient world, caesar ruled rome as imperator five years and a half, and, in the intervals of seven campaigns during that time, spent only fifteen months in rome. under his rule rome was probably at her best, and his murder at once produced a state of anarchy. the conspirators against caesar--among whom were brutus, cassius and casca--professed to be moved by honest zeal for the good of rome; but their own ambition was no doubt the true motive, except with brutus. mark antony was a strong friend of julius caesar. upon the latter's death, antony, by his funeral oration, incited the people and drove the conspirators from rome. the lupercal was a festival of purification and expiation held in rome on the th of february. antony was officiating as priest at this festival when he offered the crown to caesar. in his will caesar left to every citizen of rome a sum of money, and bequeathed his private gardens to the public. the nervii were one of the most warlike tribes of celtic gaul. caesar almost annihilated them in b. c. pompey, once associated with caesar in the government of rome, was afterwards at war with him. he was murdered by those who thought to propitiate caesar, but the latter wept when pompey's head was sent to him, and had the murderers put to death. statua is the latin form of statue, in common use in shakespeare's time; this form is required here by the meter. lxxviii. the english character. ( ) william hickling prescott, - , the historian, was the son of william prescott, an eminent jurist, and the grandson of col. william prescott, who commanded the americans at the battle of bunker hill. he was born in salem, massachusetts, graduated at harvard university in , and died in boston. just as he was completing his college course, the careless sport of a fellow-student injured one of his eyes so seriously that he never recovered from it. he had intended to adopt law as his profession; but, from his detective eyesight, he was obliged to choose work in which he could regulate his hours of labor, and could employ the aid of a secretary. he chose to be a historian; and followed his choice with wonderful system, perseverance, and success till the close of his life. his works are: "the reign of ferdinand and isabella," "the conquest of mexico," "the conquest of peru," "the reign of philip ii," and a volume of "miscellanies." he had not completed the history of philip at the time of his death. as a writer of history, mr. prescott ranks with the first for accuracy, precision, clearness, and beauty of style. as a man, he was genial, kind-hearted and even-tempered. ### on the whole, what i have seen raises my preconceived estimate of the english character. it is full of generous, true, and manly qualities; and i doubt if there ever was so high a standard of morality in an aristocracy which has such means for self-indulgence at its command, and which occupies a position that secures it so much deference. in general, they do not seem to abuse their great advantages. the respect for religion--at least for the forms of it--is universal, and there are few, i imagine, of the great proprietors who are not more or less occupied with improving their estates, and with providing for the comfort of their tenantry, while many take a leading part in the great political movements of the time. there never was an aristocracy which combined so much practical knowledge and industry with the advantages of exalted rank. the englishman is seen to most advantage in his country home. for he is constitutionally both domestic and rural in his habits. his fireside and his farm--these are the places in which one sees his simple and warm- hearted nature more freely unfolded. there is a shyness in an englishman, --a natural reserve, which makes him cold to strangers, and difficult to approach. but once corner him in his own house, a frank and full expansion will be given to his feelings that we should look for in vain in the colder yankee, and a depth not to be found in the light and superficial frenchman,--speaking of nationalities, not of individualities. the englishman is the most truly rural in his tastes and habits of any people in the world. i am speaking of the higher classes. the aristocracy of other countries affect the camp and the city. but the english love their old castles and country seats with a patriotic love. they are fond of country sports. every man shoots or hunts. no man is too old to be in the saddle some part of the day, and men of seventy years and more follow the hounds, and, take a five-barred gate at a leap. the women are good whips, are fond of horses and dogs, and other animals. duchesses have their cows, their poultry, their pigs,--all watched over and provided with accommodations of dutch-like neatness. all this is characteristic of the people. it may be thought to detract something from the feminine graces which in other lands make a woman so amiably dependent as to be nearly imbecile. but it produces a healthy and blooming race of women to match the hardy englishman,--the finest development of the physical and moral nature which the world has witnessed. for we are not to look on the english gentleman as a mere nimrod. with all his relish for field sports and country usages, he has his house filled with collections of art and with extensive libraries. the tables of the drawing-rooms are covered with the latest works, sent down by the london publisher. every guest is provided with an apparatus for writing, and often a little library of books for his own amusement. the english country gentleman of the present day is anything but a squire western, though he does retain all his relish for field sports. the character of an englishman, under its most refined aspect, has some disagreeable points which jar unpleasantly on the foreigner not accustomed to them. the consciousness of national superiority, combined with natural feelings of independence, gives him an air of arrogance, though it must be owned that this is never betrayed in his own house,--i may almost say in his own country. but abroad, when he seems to institute a comparison between himself and the people he is thrown with, it becomes so obvious that he is the most unpopular, not to say odious, person in the world. even the open hand with which he dispenses his bounty will not atone for the violence he offers to national vanity. there are other defects, which are visible even in his most favored circumstances. such is his bigotry, surpassing everything in a quiet passive form, that has been witnessed since the more active bigotry of the times of the spanish philips. such, too, is the exclusive, limited range of his knowledge and conceptions of all political and social topics and relations. the englishman, the cultivated englishman, has no standard of excellence borrowed from mankind. his speculation never travels beyond his own little--great little--island. that is the world to him. true, he travels, shoots lions among the hottentots, chases the grizzly bear over the rocky mountains, kills elephants in india and salmon on the coast of labrador, comes home, and very likely makes a book. but the scope of his ideas does not seem to be enlarged by all this. the body travels, not the mind. and, however he may abuse his own land, he returns home as hearty a john bull, with all his prejudices and national tastes as rooted, as before. the english--the men of fortune--all travel. yet how little sympathy they show for other people or institutions, and how slight is the interest they take in them! they are islanders, cut off from the great world. but their island is, indeed, a world of its own. with all their faults, never has the sun shone--if one may use the expression in reference to england--all a more noble race, or one that has done more for the great interests of humanity. notes.--nimrod is spoken of in genesis (x. ) as "a mighty hunter." thus the name came to be applied to any one devoted to hunting. squire western is a character in fielding's "tom jones." he is represented as an ignorant, prejudiced, irascible, but, withal, a jolly, good-humored english country gentleman. lxxix. the song of the potter. ( ) turn, turn, my wheel! turn round and round, without a pause, without a sound: so spins the flying world away! this clay, well mixed with marl and sand, follows the motion of my hand; for some must follow, and some command, though all are made of clay! turn, turn, my wheel! all things must change to something new, to something strange; nothing that is can pause or stay; the moon will wax, the moon will wane, the mist and cloud will turn to rain, the rain to mist and cloud again, to-morrow be to-day. turn, turn, my wheel! all life is brief; what now is bud will soon be leaf, what now is leaf will soon decay; the wind blows east, the wind blows west; the blue eggs in the robin's nest will soon have wings and beak and breast, and flutter and fly away. turn, turn, my wheel! this earthen jar a touch can make, a touch can mar; and shall it to the potter say, what makest thou? thou hast no hand? as men who think to understand a world by their creator planned, who wiser is than they. turn, turn, my wheel! 'tis nature's plan the child should grow into the man, the man grow wrinkled, old, and gray; in youth the heart exults and sings, the pulses leap, the feet have wings; in age the cricket chirps, and brings the harvest home of day. turn, turn, my wheel! the human race, of every tongue, of every place, caucasian, coptic, or malay, all that inhabit this great earth, whatever be their rank or worth, are kindred and allied by birth, and made of the same clay. turn, turn, my wheel! what is begun at daybreak must at dark be done, to-morrow will be another day; to-morrow the hot furnace flame will search the heart and try the frame, and stamp with honor or with shame these vessels made of clay. stop, stop, my wheel! too soon, too soon the noon will be the afternoon, too soon to-day be yesterday; behind us in our path we cast the broken potsherds of the past, and all are ground to dust at last, and trodden into clay. --longfellow. note.--coptic was formerly the language of egypt. and is preserved in the inscriptions of the ancient monuments found there; it has now given place entirely to arabic. lxxx. a hot day in new york. ( ) william dean howells, --, was born in belmont county. ohio. in boyhood he learned the printer's trade, at which he worked for several years. he published a volume of poems in , in connection with john j. piatt. from to he was united states consul at venice. on his return he resided for a time in new york city, and was one of the editors of the "nation." in he was appointed editor in chief of the "atlantic monthly." he held the position ten years, and then retired in order to devote himself to his own writings. since then, he has been connected with other literary magazines. mr. howells has written several books: novels and sketches: his writings are marked by an artistic finish, and a keen but subtile humor. the following selection is an extract from "their wedding journey." ### when they alighted, they took their way up through one of the streets of the great wholesale businesses, to broadway. on this street was a throng of trucks and wagons, lading and unlading; bales and boxes rose and sank by pulleys overhead; the footway was a labyrinth of packages of every shape and size; there was no flagging of the pitiless energy that moved all forward, no sign of how heavy a weight lay on it, save in the reeking faces of its helpless instruments. it was four o'clock, the deadliest hour of the deadly summer day. the spiritless air seemed to have a quality of blackness in it, as if filled with the gloom of low-hovering wings. one half the street lay in shadow, and one half in sun; but the sunshine itself was dim, as if a heat greater than its own had smitten it with languor. little gusts of sick, warm wind blew across the great avenue at the corners of the intersecting streets. in the upward distance, at which the journeyers looked, the loftier roofs and steeples lifted themselves dim out of the livid atmosphere, and far up and down the length of the street swept a stream of tormented life. all sorts of wheeled things thronged it, conspicuous among which rolled and jarred the gaudily painted stages, with quivering horses driven each by a man who sat in the shade of a branching, white umbrella, and suffered with a moody truculence of aspect, and as if he harbored the bitterness of death in his heart for the crowding passengers within, when one of them pulled the strap about his legs, and summoned him to halt. most of the foot passengers kept to the shady side, and to the unaccustomed eyes of the strangers they were not less in number than at any other time, though there were fewer women among them. indomitably resolute of soul, they held their course with the swift pace of custom, and only here and there they showed the effect of the heat. one man, collarless, with waistcoat unbuttoned, and hat set far back from his forehead, waved a fan before his death-white, flabby face, and set down one foot after the other with the heaviness of a somnambulist. another, as they passed him, was saying huskily to the friend at his side, "i can't stand this much longer. my hands tingle as if they had gone to sleep; my heart--" but still the multitude hurried on, passing, repassing, encountering, evading, vanishing into shop doors, and emerging from them, dispersing down the side streets, and swarming out of them. it was a scene that possessed the beholder with singular fascination, and in its effect of universal lunacy, it might well have seemed the last phase of a world presently to be destroyed. they who were in it, but not of it, as they fancied--though there was no reason for this--looked on it amazed, and at last their own errands being accomplished, and themselves so far cured of the madness of purpose, they cried with one voice that it was a hideous sight, and strove to take refuge from it in the nearest place where the soda fountain sparkled. it was a vain desire. at the front door of the apothecary's hung a thermometer, and as they entered they heard the next comer cry out with a maniacal pride in the affliction laid upon mankind, "ninety-seven degrees!" behind them, at the door, there poured in a ceaseless stream of people, each pausing at the shrine of heat, before he tossed off the hissing draught that two pale, close-clipped boys served them from either side of the fountain. then, in the order of their coming, they issued through another door upon the side street, each, as he disappeared, turning his face half round, and casting a casual glance upon a little group near another counter. the group was of a very patient, half-frightened, half-puzzled looking gentleman who sat perfectly still on a stool, and of a lady who stood beside him, rubbing all over his head a handkerchief full of pounded ice, and easing one hand with the other when the first became tired. basil drank his soda, and paused to look upon this group, which he felt would commend itself to realistic sculpture as eminently characteristic of the local life, and, as "the sunstroke," would sell enormously in the hot season. "better take a little more of that," the apothecary said, looking up from his prescription, and, as the organized sympathy of the seemingly indifferent crowd, smiling very kindly at his patient, who thereupon tasted something in the glass he held. "do you still feel like fainting?" asked the humane authority. "slightly, now and then," answered the other, "but i'm hanging on hard to the bottom curve of that icicled s on your soda fountain, and i feel that i'm all right as long as i can see that. the people get rather hazy occasionally, and have no features to speak of. but i do n't know that i look very impressive myself," he added in the jesting mood which seems the natural condition of americans in the face of an embarrassments. "oh, you'll do!" the apothecary answered, with a laugh; but he said, in an answer to an anxious question from the lady, "he mustn't be moved for an hour yet," and gayly pestled away at a prescription, while she resumed her office of grinding the pounded ice round and round upon her husband's skull. isabel offered her the commiseration of friendly words, and of looks kinder yet, and then, seeing that they could do nothing, she and basil fell into the endless procession, and passed out of the side door. "what a shocking thing," she whispered. "did you see how all the people looked, one after another, so indifferently at that couple, and evidently forgot them the next instant? it was dreadful. i should n't like to have you sun-struck in new york." "that's very considerate of you; but place for place, if any accident must happen to me among strangers, i think i should prefer to have it in new york. the biggest place is always the kindest as well as the cruelest place. amongst the thousands of spectators the good samaritan as well as the levite would be sure to be. as for a sunstroke, it requires peculiar gifts. but if you compel me to a choice in the matter, then i say give me the busiest part of broadway for a sunstroke. there is such experience of calamity there that you could hardly fall the first victim to any misfortune." lxxxi. discontent.--an allegory. ( ) joseph addison, - , the brilliant essayist and poet, has long occupied an exalted place in english literature. he was the son of an english clergyman, was born in wiltshire, and educated at oxford; he died at "holland house" (the property of his wile, to whom he had been married but about two years), and was buried in westminster abbey. several years of his life were spent in the political affairs of his time, he held several public offices, and was, for ten years, a member of parliament. his fame as an author rests chiefly upon his "hymns," his tragedy of "cato," and his "essays" contributed principally to the "tatler" and the "spectator." the excellent style of his essays, their genial wit and sprightly humor, made them conspicuous in an age when coarseness, bitterness, and exaggeration deformed the writings of the most eminent: and these characteristics have given them an unquestioned place among the classics of our language. mr. addison was shy and diffident, but genial and lovable; his moral character was above reproach, excepting that he is said to have been too fond of wine. ### it is a celebrated thought of socrates, that if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy, would prefer the share they are already possessed of before that which would fall to them by such a division. horace has carried this thought a great deal farther, and supposes that the hardships or misfortunes we lie under, are more easy to us than those of any other person would be, in case we could change conditions with him. as i was ruminating on these two remarks, and seated in my elbowchair, i insensibly fell asleep; when, on a sudden, methought there was a proclamation made by jupiter, that every mortal should bring in his griefs and calamities, and throw them together in a heap. there was a large plain appointed for this purpose. i took my stand in the center of it, and saw, with a great deal of pleasure, the whole human species marching one after another, and throwing down their several loads, which immediately grew up into a prodigious mountain, that seemed to rise above the clouds. there was a certain lady of a thin, airy shape, who was very active in this solemnity. she carried a magnifying glass in one of her hands, and was clothed in a loose, flowing robe, embroidered with several figures of fiends and specters, that discovered themselves in a thousand chimerical shapes as her garment hovered in the wind. there was something wild and distracted in her looks. her name was fancy. she led up every mortal to the appointed place, after having officiously assisted him in making up his pack, and laying it upon his shoulders. my heart melted within me to see my fellow-creatures groaning under their respective burdens, and to consider that prodigious bulk of human calamities which lay before me. there were, however, several persons who gave me great diversion upon this occasion. i observed one bringing in a fardel, very carefully concealed under an old embroidered cloak, which, upon his throwing it into the heap, i discovered to be poverty. another, after a great deal of puffing, threw down his luggage, which, upon examining, i found to be his wife. there were multitudes of lovers saddled with very whimsical burdens, composed of darts and flames; but, what was very odd, though they sighed as if their hearts would break under these bundles of calamities, they could not persuade themselves to cast them into the heap, when they came up to it; but, after a few faint efforts, shook their heads, and marched away as heavy loaden as they came. i saw multitudes of old women throw down their wrinkles, and several young ones who stripped themselves of a tawny skin. there were very great heaps of red noses, large lips, and rusty teeth. the truth of it is, i was surprised to see the greatest part of the mountain made up of bodily deformities. observing one advancing toward the heap with a larger cargo than ordinary upon his back, i found, upon his near approach, that it was only a natural hump, which he disposed of with great joy of heart among this collection of human miseries. there were, likewise, distempers of all sorts, though i could not but observe that there were many more imaginary than real. one little packet i could not but take notice of, which was a complication of all the diseases incident to human nature, and was in the hand of a great many fine people. this was called the spleen. but what most of all surprised me was, that there was not a single vice or folly thrown into the whole heap: at which i was very much astonished, having concluded within myself that everyone would take this opportunity of getting rid of his passions, prejudices, and frailties. i took notice in particular of a very profligate fellow, who, i did not question, came loaden with his crimes, but upon searching into his bundle, i found that instead of throwing his guilt from him, he had only laid down his memory. he was followed by another worthless rogue, who flung away his modesty instead of his ignorance. when the whole race of mankind had thus cast their burdens, the phantom which had been so busy on this occasion, seeing me an idle spectator of what passed, approached toward me. i grew uneasy at her presence, when, of a sudden, she held her magnifying glass full before my eyes. i no sooner saw my face in it, but was startled at the shortness of it, which now appeared to me in its utmost aggravation. the immoderate breadth of the features made me very much out of humor with my own countenance, upon which i threw it from me like a mask. it happened very luckily that one who stood by me had just before thrown down his visage, which, it seems, was too long for him. it was, indeed, extended to a most shameful length; i believe the very chin was, modestly speaking, as long as my whole face. we had both of us an opportunity of mending ourselves; and all the contributions being now brought in, every man was at liberty to exchange his misfortunes for those of another person. as we stood round the heap, and surveyed the several materials of which it was composed, there was scarcely a mortal in this vast multitude who did not discover what he thought pleasures and blessings of life, and wondered how the owners of them ever came to look upon them as burthens and grievances. as we were regarding very attentively this confusion of miseries, this chaos of calamity, jupiter issued out a second proclamation, that everyone was now at liberty to exchange his affliction, and to return to his habitation with any such other bundle as should be delivered to him. upon this, fancy began again to bestir herself, and, parceling out the whole heap with incredible activity, recommended to everyone his particular packet. the hurry and confusion at this time was not to be expressed. some observations, which i made upon the occasion, i shall communicate to the public. a venerable, gray-headed man, who had laid down the colic, and who, i found, wanted an heir to his estate, snatched up an undutiful son that had been thrown into the heap by an angry father. the graceless youth, in less than a quarter of an hour, pulled the old gentleman by the beard, and had liked to have knocked his brains out; so that meeting the true father, who came toward him with a fit of the gripes, he begged him to take his son again, and give him back his colic; but they were incapable, either of them, to recede from the choice they had made. a poor galley slave, who had thrown down his chains, took up the gout in their stead, but made such wry faces that one might easily perceive he was no great gainer by the bargain. the female world were very busy among themselves in bartering for features; one was trucking a lock of gray hairs for a carbuncle; and another was making over a short waist for a pair of round shoulders; but on all these occasions there was not one of them who did not think the new blemish, as soon as she had got it into her possession, much more disagreeable than the old one. i must not omit my own particular adventure. my friend with the long visage had no sooner taken upon him my short face, but he made such a grotesque figure in it, that as i looked upon him, i could not forbear laughing at myself, insomuch that i put my own face out of countenance. the poor gentleman was so sensible of the ridicule, that i found he was ashamed of what he had done. on the other side, i found that i myself had no great reason to triumph, for as i went to touch my forehead, i missed the place, and clapped my finger upon my upper lip. besides, as my nose was exceedingly prominent, i gave it two or three unlucky knocks as i was playing my hand about my face, and aiming at some other part of it. i saw two other gentlemen by me who were in the same ridiculous circumstances. these had made a foolish swap between a couple of thick bandy legs and two long trapsticks that had no calves to them. one of these looked like a man walking upon stilts, and was so lifted up into the air, above his ordinary height, that his head turned round with it, while the other made such awkward circles, as he attempted to walk, that he scarcely knew how to move forward upon his new supporters. observing him to be a pleasant kind of a fellow, i stuck my cane in the ground, and told him i would lay him a bottle of wine that he did not march up to it on a line that i drew for him, in a quarter of an hour. the heap was at last distributed among the two sexes, who made a most piteous sight, as they wandered up and down under the pressure of their several burthens. the whole plain was filled with murmurs and complaints, groans and lamentations. jupiter, at length taking compassion on the poor mortals, ordered them a second time to lay down their loads, with a design to give everyone his own again. they discharged themselves with a great deal of pleasure; after which, the phantom who had led them into such gross delusions, was commanded to disappear. there was sent in her stead a goddess of a quite different figure: her motions were steady and composed, and her aspect serious but cheerful. she every now and then cast her eyes toward heaven, and fixed them upon jupiter. her name was patience. she had no sooner placed herself by the mount of sorrows, but, what i thought very remarkable, the whole heap sunk to such a degree that it did not appear a third part so big as it was before. she afterward returned every man his own proper calamity, and, teaching him how to bear it in the most commodious manner, he marched off with it contentedly, being very well pleased that he had not been left to his own choice as to the kind of evil which fell to his lot. beside the several pieces of morality to be drawn out of this vision, i learnt from it never to repine at my own misfortunes, or to envy the happiness of another, since it is impossible for any man to form a right judgment of his neighbor's sufferings; for which reason, also, i have determined never to think too lightly of another's complaints, but to regard the sorrows of my fellow-creatures with sentiments of humanity and compassion. notes.--horace (b. , d. b. c.) was a celebrated roman poet. jupiter, according to mythology, was the greatest of the greek and roman gods; he was thought to be the supreme ruler of both mortals and immortals. lxxxii. jupiter and ten. ( ) james t. fields, - , was born at portsmouth, new hampshire. for many years he was partner in the well-known firm of ticknor & fields (later fields, osgood & co.), the leading publishers of standard american literature. for eight years, he was chief editor of the "atlantic monthly;" and, after he left that position, he often enriched its pages by the productions of his pen. during his latter years mr. fields gained some reputation as a lecturer. his literary abilities were of no mean order: but he did not do so much in producing literature himself, as in aiding others in its production. ### mrs. chub was rich and portly, mrs. chub was very grand, mrs. chub was always reckoned a lady in the land. you shall see her marble mansion in a very stately square,-- mr. c. knows what it cost him, but that's neither here nor there. mrs. chub was so sagacious, such a patron of the arts, and she gave such foreign orders that she won all foreign hearts. mrs. chub was always talking, when she went away from home, of a most prodigious painting which had just arrived from rome. "such a treasure," she insisted, "one might never see again!" "what's the subject?" we inquired. "it is jupiter and ten!" "ten what?" we blandly asked her for the knowledge we did lack, "ah! that i can not tell you, but the name is on the back. "there it stands in printed letters,-- come to-morrow, gentlemen,-- come and see our splendid painting, our fine jupiter and ten!" when mrs. chub departed, our brains began to rack,-- she could not be mistaken for the name was on the back. so we begged a great professor to lay aside his pen, and give some information touching "jupiter and ten." and we pondered well the subject, and our lempriere we turned, to find out who the ten were; but we could not, though we burned. but when we saw the picture,-- o mrs. chub! oh, fie! o! we perused the printed label, and 't was jupiter and io! notes.--john lempriere, an englishman, was the author of a "classical dictionary" which until the middle of the present century was the chief book of reference on ancient mythology. io is a mythical heroine of greece, with whom jupiter was enamored. lxxxiii. scene from "the poor gentleman." george colman, - , was the son of george colman, a writer of dramas, who in purchased the "haymarket theater," in london. owing to the illness of the father, colman the younger assumed the management of the theater in , which post he held for a long time. he was highly distinguished as a dramatic author and wit. "the poor gentleman," from which the following selection is adapted, is perhaps the best known of his works. ### sir robert bramble and humphrey dobbins. sir r. i'll tell you what, humphrey dobbins, there is not a syllable of sense in all you have been saying. but i suppose you will maintain there is. hum. yes. sir r. yes! is that the way you talk to me, you old boor? what's my name? hum. robert bramble. sir r. an't i a baronet? sir robert bramble, of blackberry hall, in the county of kent? 't is time you should know it, for you have been my clumsy, two-fisted valet these thirty years: can you deny that? hum. hem! sir r. hem? what do you mean by hem? open that rusty door of your mouth, and make your ugly voice walk out of it. why don't you answer my question? hum. because, if i contradict you, i shall tell you a lie, and whenever i agree with you, you are sure to fall out. sir r. humphrey dobbins. i have been so long endeavoring to beat a few brains into your pate that all your hair has tumbled off before my point is carried. hum. what then? our parson says my head is an emblem of both our honors. sir r. ay; because honors, like your head, are apt to be empty. hum. no; but if a servant has grown bald under his master's nose, it looks as if there was honesty on one side, and regard for it on the other. sir r. why, to be sure, old humphrey, you are as honest as a--pshaw! the parson means to palaver us; but, to return to my position, i tell you i do n't like your flat contradiction. hum. yes, you do. sir r. i tell you i don't. i only love to hear men's arguments. i hate their flummery. hum. what do you call flummery? sir r. flattery, blockhead! a dish too often served up by paltry poor men to paltry rich ones. hum. i never serve it up to you. sir r. no, you give me a dish of a different description. hum. hem! what is it? sir r. sauerkraut, you old crab hum. i have held you a stout tug at argument this many a year. sir r. and yet i could never teach you a syllogism. now mind, when a poor man assents to what a rich man says, i suspect he means to flatter him: now i am rich, and hate flattery. ergo--when a poor man subscribes to my opinion, i hate him. hum. that's wrong. sir r. very well; negatur; now prove it. hum. put the case then, i am a poor man. sir r. you an't, you scoundrel. you know you shall never want while i have a shilling. hum. bless you! sir r. pshaw! proceed. hum. well, then, i am a poor--i must be a poor man now, or i never shall get on. sir r. well, get on, be a poor man. hum. i am a poor man, and i argue with you, and convince you, you are wrong; then you call yourself a blockhead, and i am of your opinion: now, that's no flattery. sir r. why, no; but when a man's of the same opinion with me, he puts an end to the argument, and that puts an end to the conversation, and so i hate him for that. but where's my nephew frederic? hum. been out these two hours. sir r. an undutiful cub! only arrived from russia last night, and though i told him to stay at home till i rose, he's scampering over the fields like a calmuck tartar. hum. he's a fine fellow. sir r. he has a touch of our family. don't you think he is a little like me, humphrey? hum. no, not a bit; you are as ugly an old man as ever i clapped my eyes on. sir r. now that's plaguy impudent, but there's no flattery in it, and it keeps up the independence of argument. his father, my brother job, is of as tame a spirit--humphrey, you remember my brother job? hum. yes, you drove him to russia five and twenty years ago. sir r. i did not drive him. hum. yes, you did. you would never let him be at peace in the way of argument. sir r. at peace! zounds, he would never go to war. hum. he had the merit to be calm. sir r. so has a duck pond. he was a bit of still life; a chip; weak water gruel; a tame rabbit, boiled to rags, without sauce or salt. he received my arguments with his mouth open, like a poorbox gaping for half-pence, and, good or bad, he swallowed them all without any resistance. we could n't disagree, and so we parted. hum. and the poor, meek gentleman went to russia for a quiet life. sir r. a quiet life! why, he married the moment he got there, tacked himself to the shrew relict of a russian merchant, and continued a speculation with her in furs, flax, potashes, tallow, linen, and leather; what's the consequence? thirteen months ago he broke. hum. poor soul, his wife should have followed the business for him. sir r. i fancy she did follow it, for she died just as he broke, and now this madcap, frederic, is sent over to me for protection. poor job, now he is in distress, i must not neglect his son. hum. here comes his son; that's mr. frederic. enter frederic. fred. oh, my dear uncle, good morning! your park is nothing but beauty. sir r. who bid you caper over my beauty? i told you to stay in doors till i got up. fred. so you did, but i entirely forgot it. sir r. and pray, what made you forget it? fred. the sun. sir r. the sun! he's mad; you mean the moon, believe. fred. oh, my dear uncle, you don't know the effect of a fine spring morning upon a fellow just arrived from russia. the day looked bright, trees budding, birds singing, the park was so gay that i took a leap out of your old balcony, made your deer fly before me like the wind, and chased them all around the park to get an appetite for breakfast, while you were snoring in bed, uncle. sir r. oh, oh! so the effect of english sunshine upon a russian, is to make him jump out of a balcony, and worry my deer. fred. i confess it had that influence upon me. sir r. you had better be influenced by a rich old uncle, unless you think the sun likely to leave you a fat legacy. fred. i hate legacies. sir r. sir, that's mighty singular. they are pretty solid tokens, at least. fred. very melancholy tokens, uncle; they are the posthumous dispatches affection sends to gratitude, to inform us we have lost a gracious friend. sir r. how charmingly the dog argues! fred. but i own my spirits ran away with me this morning. i will obey you better in future; for they tell me you are a very worthy, good sort of old gentleman. sir r. now who had the familiar impudence to tell you that? fred. old rusty, there. sir r. why humphrey, you didn't? hum. yes, but i did though. fred, yes, he did, and on that score i shall be anxious to show you obedience, for 't is as meritorious to attempt sharing a good man's heart, as it is paltry to have designs upon a rich man's money. a noble nature aims its attentions full breast high, uncle; a mean mind levels its dirty assiduities at the pocket. sir r. (shaking him by the hand.) jump out of every window i have in my house; hunt my deer into high fevers, my fine fellow! ay, that's right. this is spunk, and plain speaking. give me a man who is always flinging his dissent to my doctrines smack in my teeth. fred. i disagree with you there, uncle. hum. and so do i. fred. you! you forward puppy! if you were not so old, i'd knock you down. sir r. i'll knock you down, if you do. i won't have my servants thumped into dumb flattery. hum. come, you are ruffled. let us go to the business of the morning. sir r. i hate the business of the morning. don't you see we are engaged in discussion. i tell you, i hate the business of the morning. hum. no you don't. sir r. don't i? why not? hum. because 't is charity. sir r. pshaw! well, we must not neglect the business, if there be any distress in the parish. read the list, humphrey. hum. (taking out a paper and reading.) "jonathan huggins, of muck mead, is put in prison for debt." sir r. why, it was only last week that gripe, the attorney, recovered two cottages for him by law, worth sixty pounds. hum. yes, and charged a hundred for his trouble; so seized the cottages for part of his bill, and threw jonathan into jail for the remainder. sir r. a harpy! i must relieve the poor fellow's distress. fred. and i must kick his attorney. hum. (reading.) "the curate's horse is dead." sir r. pshaw! there's no distress in that. hum. yes, there is, to a man that must go twenty miles every sunday to preach three sermons, for thirty pounds a year. sir r. why won't the vicar give him another nag? hum. because 't is cheaper to get another curate ready mounted. sir r. well, send him the black pad which i purchased last tuesday, and tell him to work him as long as he lives. what else have we upon the list? hum. something out of the common; there's one lieutenant worthington, a disabled officer and a widower, come to lodge at farmer harrowby's, in the village; he is, it seems, very poor, and more proud than poor, and more honest than proud. sir r. and so he sends to me for assistance? hum. he'd see you hanged first! no, he'd sooner die than ask you or any man for a shilling! there's his daughter, and his wife's aunt, and an old corporal that served in the wars with him, he keeps them all upon his half pay. sir r. starves them all, i'm afraid, humphrey. fred. (going.) good morning, uncle. sir r. you rogue, where are you running now? fred. to talk with lieutenant worthington. sir r. and what may you be going to say to him? fred. i can't tell till i encounter him; and then, uncle, when i have an old gentleman by the hand, who has been disabled in his country's service, and is struggling to support his motherless child, a poor relation, and a faithful servant, in honorable indigence, impulse will supply me with words to express my sentiments. sir r. stop, you rogue; i must be before you in this business. fred. that depends on who can run the fastest; so, start fair, uncle, and here goes.--(runs out.) sir r. stop, stop; why, frederic--a jackanapes--to take my department out of my hands! i'll disinherit the dog for his assurance. hum. no, you won't. sir r. won't i? hang me if i--but we'll argue that point as we go. so, come along humphrey. notes.-ergo (pro. er'go) is a latin word meaning therefore. negatur (pro. ne-ga'tur) is a latin verb, and means it is denied. the tartars are a branch of the mongolian race, embracing among other tribes the calmucks. the latter are a fierce, nomadic people inhabiting parts of the russian and chinese empires. lxxxiv. my mother's picture. ( ) william cowper, - , was the son of an english clergyman; both his parents were descended from noble families. he was always of a gentle, timid disposition; and the roughness of his schoolfellows increased his weakness in this respect. he studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced his profession. when he was about thirty years of age, he was appointed to a clerkship in the house of lords, but could not summon courage to enter upon the discharge of its duties. he was so disturbed by this affair that he became insane, sought to destroy himself, and had to be consigned to a private asylum. soon after his recovery, he found a congenial home in the family of the rev. mr. unwin. on the death of this gentleman, a few years later, he continued to reside with his widow till her death, a short time before that of cowper. most of this time their home was at olney. his first writings were published in . he wrote several beautiful hymns, "the task," and some minor poems. these, with his translations of homer and his correspondence, make up his published works. his life was always pure and gentle; he took great pleasure in simple, natural objects, and in playing with animals. his insanity returned from time to time, and darkened his life at its close. when six years of age, he lost his mother; and the following selection is part of a touching tribute to her memory, written many years later. ### oh that those lips had language! life has passed with me but roughly since i heard them last. my mother, when i learned that thou wast dead, say, wast thou conscious of the tears i shed? hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, wretch even then, life's journey just begun? perhaps thou gavest me, though unfelt, a kiss, perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss. ah, that maternal smile! it answers--yes! i heard the bell tolled on thy burial day; i saw the hearse that bore thee slow away; and, turning from my nursery window, drew a long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu! but was it such? it was. where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. may i but meet thee on that peaceful shore, the parting word shall pass my lips no more. thy maidens, grieved themselves at my concern, oft gave me promise of thy quick return; what ardently i wished, i long believed; and, disappointed still, was still deceived; by expectation, every day beguiled, dupe of to-morrow, even when a child. thus many a sad to-morrow came and went, till, all my stock of infant sorrows spent, i learned at last submission to my lot; but, though i less deplored thee, ne'er forgot. my boast is not that i deduce my birth from loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth; but higher far my proud pretensions rise,-- the son of parents passed into the skies. and now, farewell! time, unrevoked, has run his wonted course, yet what i wished is done. by contemplation's help, not sought in vain, i seem to have lived my childhood o'er again; to have renewed the joys that once were mine, without the sin of violating thine; and, while the wings of fancy still are free, and i can view this mimic show of thee, time has but half succeeded in his theft,-- thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left. lxxxv. death of samson. ( ) john milton, - , was born in london--eight years before the greatest english poet, shakespeare, died. his father followed the profession of a scrivener, in which he acquired a competence. as a boy, milton was exceedingly studious, continuing his studies till midnight. he graduated at christ's college, cambridge, where his singular beauty, his slight figure, and his fastidious morality caused his companions to nickname him "the lady of christ's." on leaving college he spent five years more in study, and produced his lighter poems. he then traveled on the continent, returning about the time the civil war broke out. for a time he taught a private school, but soon threw himself with all the power of his able and tried pen into the political struggle. he was the champion of parliament and of cromwell for about twenty years. on the accession of charles ii., he concealed himself for a time, but was soon allowed to live quietly in london. his eyesight had totally failed in ; but now, in blindness, age, family affliction, and comparative poverty, he produced his great work "paradise lost." in he sold the poem for pounds in cash, with a promise of pounds more on certain contingencies; the sum total received by himself and family for the immortal poem, was pounds. later, he produced "paradise regained" and "samson agonistes," from the latter of which the following extract is taken. milton is a wonderful example of a man, who, by the greatness of his own mind, triumphed over trials, afflictions, hardships, and the evil influence of bitter political controversy. ### occasions drew me early to this city; and, as the gates i entered with sunrise, the morning trumpets festival proclaimed through each high street: little i had dispatched, when all abroad was rumored that this day samson should be brought forth, to show the people proof of his mighty strength in feats and games. i sorrowed at his captive state, but minded not to be absent at that spectacle. the building was a spacious theater half-round, on two main pillars vaulted high, with seats where all the lords, and each degree of sort, might sit in order to behold; the other side was open, where the throng on banks and scaffolds under sky might stand: i among these aloof obscurely stood. the feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine, when to their sports they turned. immediately was samson as a public servant brought, in their state livery clad: before him pipes and timbrels; on each side went arme'd guards; both horse and foot before him and behind, archers and slingers, cataphracts, and spears. at sight of him the people with a shout rifted the air, clamoring their god with praise, who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall. he, patient, but undaunted, where they led him, came to the place; and what was set before him, which without help of eye might be essayed, to heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed all with incredible, stupendous force, none daring to appear antagonist. at length for intermission sake, they led him between the pillars; he his guide requested, as overtired, to let him lean awhile with both his arms on those two massy pillars, that to the arche'd roof gave main support. he unsuspicious led him; which when samson felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined, and eyes fast fixed, he stood, as one who prayed, or some great matter in his mind revolved: at last, with head erect, thus cried aloud:-- "hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed i have performed, as reason was, obeying, not without wonder or delight beheld; now, of my own accord, such other trial i mean to show you of my strength yet greater, as with amaze shall strike all who behold." this uttered, straining all his nerves, he bowed; as with the force of winds and waters pent when mountains tremble, those two massy pillars with horrible convulsion to and fro he tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew the whole roof after them with burst of thunder upon the heads of all who sat beneath,-- lords, ladies, captains, counselors, or priests, their choice nobility and flower, not only of this, but each philistian city round, met from all parts to solemnize this feast. samson, with these immixed, inevitably pulled down the same destruction on himself; the vulgar only 'scaped who stood without. note.--the person supposed to be speaking is a hebrew who chanced to be present at gaza when the, incidents related took place. after the catastrophe he rushes to manoah, the father of samson, to whom and his assembled friends he relates what he saw. (cf. bible, judges xvi, .) lxxxvi. an evening adventure. ( ) not long since, a gentleman was traveling in one of the counties of virginia, and about the close of the day stopped at a public house to obtain refreshment and spend the night. he had been there but a short time, before an old man alighted from his gig, with the apparent intention of becoming his fellow guest at the same house. as the old man drove up, he observed that both the shafts of his gig were broken, and that they were held together by withes, formed from the bark of a hickory sapling. our traveler observed further that he was plainly clad, that his knee buckles were loosened, and that something like negligence pervaded his dress. conceiving him to be one of the honest yeomanry of our land, the courtesies of strangers passed between them, and they entered the tavern. it was about the same time, that an addition of three or four young gentlemen was made to their number; most, if not all of them, of the legal profession. as soon as they became conveniently accommodated, the conversation was turned, by one of the latter, upon the eloquent harangue which had that day been displayed at the bar. it was replied by the other that he had witnessed, the same day, a degree of eloquence no doubt equal, but it was from the pulpit. something like a sarcastic rejoinder was made as to the eloquence of the pulpit, and a warm and able altercation ensued, in which the merits of the christian religion became the subject of discussion. from six o'clock until eleven, the young champions wielded the sword of argument, adducing with ingenuity and ability everything that could be said pro and con. during this protracted period, the old gentleman listened with the meekness and modesty of a child, as if he were adding new information to the stores of his own mind; or perhaps he was observing, with a philosophic eye, the faculties of the youthful mind, and how new energies are evolved by repeated action; or perhaps, with patriotic emotion, he was reflecting upon the future destinies of his country, and on the rising generation, upon whom those future destinies must devolve; or, most probably, with a sentiment of moral and religious feeling, he was collecting an argument which no art would be "able to elude, and no force to resist." our traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in what was said. at last one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to combat with long and established prejudices, wheeled around, and with some familiarity exclaimed, "well, my old gentleman, what think you of these things?" "if," said the traveler, "a streak of vivid lightning had at that moment crossed the room, their amazement could not have been greater than it was from what followed." the most eloquent and unanswerable appeal that he had ever heard or read, was made for nearly an hour by the old gentleman. so perfect was his recollection, that every argument urged against the christian religion was met in the order in which it was advanced. hume's sophistry on the subject of miracles, was, if possible, more perfectly answered than it had already been done by campbell. and in the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and energy, pathos and sublimity, that not another word was uttered. "an attempt to describe it," said the traveler, "would be an attempt to paint the sunbeams." it was now a matter of curiosity and inquiry who the old gentleman was. the traveler concluded that it was the preacher from whom the pulpit eloquence was heard; but no, it was john marshall, the chief justice of the united states. notes.--david hume (b. , d. ) was a celebrated scotch historian and essayist. his most important work is "the history of england." he was a skeptic in matters of religion, and was a peculiarly subtle writer. george campbell (b. , d. ) was a distinguished scotch minister. he wrote "a dissertation on miracles," ably answering hume's "essay on miracles." john marshall (b. , d. ) was chief justice of the united states from until his death. he was an eminent jurist, and wrote a "life of washington," which made him famous as an author. lxxxvii. the barefoot boy. ( ) john greenleaf whittier, - , was born in haverhill, mass., and, with short intervals of absence, he always resided in that vicinity. his parents were friends or "quakers," and he always held to the same faith. he spent his boyhood on a farm, occasionally writing verses for the papers even then. two years of study in the academy seem to have given him all the special opportunity for education that he ever enjoyed. in he edited a newspaper in boston, and the next year assumed a similar position in hartford. for two years he was a member of the massachusetts legislature. in he edited an anti-slavery paper in philadelphia, and was secretary of the american anti-slavery society. mr. whittier wrote extensively both in prose and verse. during the later years of his life he published several volumes of poems, and contributed frequently to the pages of the "atlantic monthly." an earnest opponent of slavery, some of his poems bearing on that subject are fiery and even bitter; but, in general, their sentiment is gentle, and often pathetic. as a poet, he took rank among those most highly esteemed by his countrymen. "snow-bound," published in , is one of the longest and best of his poems. several of his shorter pieces are marked by much smoothness and sweetness. ### blessings on thee, little man, barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! with thy turned-up pantaloons, and thy merry whistled tunes; with thy red lip, redder still kissed by strawberries on the hill; with the sunshine on thy face, through thy torn brim's jaunty grace; from my heart i give thee joy,-- i was once a barefoot boy! prince thou art,--the grown-up man only is republican. let the million-dollared ride! barefoot, trudging, at his side, thou hast more than he can buy in the reach of ear and eye,-- outward sunshine, inward joy: blessings on thee, barefoot boy! oh for boyhood's painless play, sleep that wakes in laughing day, health that mocks the doctor's rules, knowledge never learned of schools, of the wild bee's morning chase, of the wild flower's time and place, flight of fowl and habitude of the tenants of the wood; how the tortoise bears his shell, how the woodchuck digs his cell, and the ground mole sinks his well how the robin feeds her young, how the oriole's nest is hung; where the whitest lilies blow, where the freshest berries grow, where the groundnut trails its vine, where the wood grape's clusters shine; of the black wasp's cunning way, mason of his walls of clay, and the architectural plans of gray hornet artisans!-- for, eschewing books and tasks, nature answers all he asks; hand in hand with her he walks, face to face with her he talks, part and parcel of her joy,-- blessings on thee, barefoot boy! oh for boyhood's time of june, crowding years in one brief moon, when all things i heard or saw me, their master, waited for. i was rich in flowers and trees, humming birds and honeybees; for my sport the squirrel played, plied the snouted mole his spade; for my taste the blackberry cone purpled over hedge and stone; laughed the brook for my delight through the day and through the night, whispering at the garden wall, talked with me from fall to fall; mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, mine the walnut slopes beyond, mine, on bending orchard trees, apples of hesperides! still, as my horizon grew, larger grew my riches too; all the world i saw or knew seemed a complex chinese toy, fashioned for a barefoot boy! oh for festal dainties spread, like my bowl of milk and bread,-- pewter spoon and bowl of wood, on the doorstone, gray and rude! o'er me, like a regal tent, cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent, purple-curtained, fringed with gold, looped in many a wind-swung fold; while for music came the play of the pied frog's orchestra; and to light the noisy choir, lit the fly his lamp of fire. i was monarch: pomp and joy waited on the barefoot boy! cheerily, then, my little man, live and laugh, as boyhood can! though the flinty slopes be hard, stubble-speared the new-mown sward, every morn shall lead thee through fresh baptisms of the dew; every evening from thy feet shall the cool wind kiss the heat: all too soon these feet must hide in the prison cells of pride, lose the freedom of the sod, like a colt's for work be shod, made to tread the mills of toil, up and down in ceaseless moil: happy if their track be found never on forbidden ground; happy if they sink not in quick and treacherous sands of sin. ah! that thou shouldst know thy joy ere it passes, barefoot boy! note.--the hesperides, in grecian mythology, were four sisters (some traditions say three, and others, seven) who guarded the golden apples given to juno as a wedding present. the locality of the garden of the hesperides is a disputed point with mythologists. [illustration: a well-dressed man is reaching for a glove while facing three ferocious lions. several people are observing him from the safety of a raised platform.] lxxxviii. the glove and the lions. ( ) james henry leigh hunt, - . leigh hunt, as he is commonly called, was prominent before the public for fifty years as "a writer of essays, poems, plays, novels, and criticisms." he was born at southgate, middlesex, england. his mother was an american lady. he began to write for the public at a very early age. in , in connection with his brother, he established "the examiner," a newspaper advocating liberal opinions in politics. for certain articles offensive to the government, the brothers were fined pounds each and condemned to two years' imprisonment. leigh fitted up his prison like a boudoir, received his friends here, and wrote several works during his confinement. mr. hunt was intimate with byron, shelley, moore, and keats, and was associated with byron and shelley in the publication of a political and literary journal. his last years were peacefully devoted to literature, and in he received a pension from the government. ### king francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport, and one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court; the nobles filled the benches round, the ladies by their side, and 'mongst them sat the count de lorge, with one for whom he sighed: and truly 't was a gallant thing to see that crowning show, valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below. ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws; they bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws; with wallowing might and stifled roar, they rolled on one another: till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thunderous smother; the bloody foam above the bars came whizzing through the air: said francis, then, "faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there." de lorge's love o'erheard the king,--a beauteous, lively dame, with smiling lips, and sharp, bright eyes, which always seemed the same; she thought, "the count, my lover, is brave as brave call be, he surely would do wondrous things to show his love for me; king, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine; i'll drop my glove to prove his love; great glory will be mine." she dropped her glove to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled; he bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild; the leap was quick, return was quick, he soon regained his place, then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face. "in faith," cried francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat; "no love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that." note.--king francis. this is supposed to have been francis i. of france (b. , d. ). he was devoted to sports of this nature. lxxxix. the folly of intoxication. ( ) iago. what, are you hurt, lieutenant? cassio. ay, past all surgery. iago. marry, heaven forbid! cas. reputation, reputation, reputation! oh, i have lost my reputation! i have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. my reputation! iago, my reputation! iago. as i am an honest man, i thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more sense in that than in reputation. reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser. what, man! there are ways to recover the general again. sue to him again, and he's yours. cas. i will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow? o thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil! iago. what was he that you followed with your sword? what had he done to you? cas. i know not. iago. is't possible? cas. i remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. oh that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! iago. why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered? cas. it hath pleased the devil, drunkenness, to give place to the devil, wrath; one unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself. iago. come, you are too severe a moraler. as the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, i could heartily wish this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for your own good. cas. i will ask him for my place again: he shall tell me i am a drunkard! had i as many mouths as hydra, such an answer would stop them all. to be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! oh strange!--every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil! iago. come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it. and, good lieutenant, i think you think i love you. cas. i have well approved it, sir,--i, drunk! iago. you or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. i'll tell you what you shall do. our general's wife is now the general. confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place again. she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. this broken joint between you and her husband, entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before. cas. you advise me well. iago. i protest in the sincerity of love and honest kindness. cas. i think it freely, and betimes in the morning, i will beseech the virtuous desdemona to undertake for me; i am desperate of my fortunes if they check me here. iago. you are in the right. good night, lieutenant, i must to the watch. cas. good night, honest iago. shakespeare.--othello, act ii, scene iii. notes.--iago is represented as a crafty, unscrupulous villain. he applies for the position of lieutenant under othello, but the latter has already appointed cassio--who is honest, but of a weak character--to that position; he, however, makes iago his ensign. then iago, to revenge himself for this and other fancied wrongs, enters upon a systematic course of villainy, part of which is to bring about the intoxication of cassio, and his consequent discharge from the lieutenancy. the hydra was a fabled monster of grecian mythology, having nine heads, one of which was immortal. desdemona was the wife of othello. xc. starved rock. ( ) francis parkman, - , the son of a clergyman of the same name, was born in boston, and graduated at harvard university in . he spent more than twenty years in a careful study of the early french explorations and settlements in america; and he published the fruits of his labor in twelve large volumes. although troubled with an affection of the eyes, which sometimes wholly prevented reading or writing, his work was most carefully and successfully done. his narratives are written in a clear and animated style, and his volumes are a rich contribution to american history. ### the cliff called "starved rock," now pointed out to travelers as the chief natural curiosity of the region, rises, steep on three sides as a castle wall, to the height of a hundred and twenty-five feet above the river. in front, it overhangs the water that washes its base; its western brow looks down on the tops of the forest trees below; and on the east lies a wide gorge, or ravine, choked with the mingled foliage of oaks, walnuts, and elms; while in its rocky depths a little brook creeps down to mingle with the river. from the rugged trunk of the stunted cedar that leans forward from the brink, you may drop a plummet into the river below, where the catfish and the turtles may plainly be seen gliding over the wrinkled sands of the clear and shallow current. the cliff is accessible only from the south, where a man may climb up, not without difficulty, by a steep and narrow passage. the top is about an acre in extent. here, in the month of december, , la salle and tonty began to entrench themselves. they cut away the forest that crowned the rock, built storehouses and dwellings of its remains, dragged timber up the rugged pathway, and encircled the summit with a palisade. thus the winter was passed, and meanwhile the work of negotiation went prosperously on. the minds of the indians had been already prepared. in la salle they saw their champion against the iroquois, the standing terror of all this region. they gathered around his stronghold like the timorous peasantry of the middle ages around the rock-built castle of their feudal lord. from the wooden ramparts of st. louis,--for so he named his fort,--high and inaccessible as an eagle's nest, a strange scene lay before his eye. the broad, flat valley of the illinois was spread beneath him like a map, bounded in the distance by its low wall of wooded hills. the river wound at his feet in devious channels among islands bordered with lofty trees; then, far on the left, flowed calmly westward through the vast meadows, till its glimmering blue ribbon was lost in hazy distance. there had been a time, and that not remote, when these fair meadows were a waste of death and desolation, scathed with fire, and strewn with the ghastly relics of an iroquois victory. now, all was changed. la salle looked down from his rock on a concourse of wild human life. lodges of bark and rushes, or cabins of logs, were clustered on the open plain, or along the edges of the bordering forests. squaws labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children whooped and gamboled on the grass. beyond the river, a mile and a half on the left, the banks were studded once more with the lodges of the illinois, who, to the number of six thousand, had returned, since their defeat, to this their favorite dwelling place. scattered along the valley, among the adjacent hills, or over the neighboring prairie, were the cantonments of a half score of other tribes, and fragments of tribes, gathered under the protecting aegis of the french. notes.--the curious elevation called starved rock is on the south side of illinois river, between la salle and ottawa. there is a legend according to which it is said that over one hundred years ago, a party of illinois indians took refuge here from the pottawatomies; their besiegers, however, confined them so closely that the whole party perished of starvation, or, as some say, of thirst. from this circumstance the rock takes its name. la salle (b. , d. ) was a celebrated french explorer and fur trader. he established many forts throughout the mississippi valley,-- among them, fort st. louis, in . tonty was an italian, who formerly served in both the french army and navy, and afterwards joined la salle in his explorations. xci. prince henry and falstaff. ( ) prince henry and poins, in a back room, in a tavern. enter falstaff, gadshill, bardolph, and peto. poins. welcome, jack. where hast thou been? falstaff. a plague of all cowards, i say, and a vengeance too! marry, and amen! give me a cup of sack, boy. ere i lead this life long, i'll sew nether stocks, and mend them, and foot them, too. a plague of all cowards! give me a cup of sack, rogue. is there no virtue extant? (he drinks, and then continues.) you rogue, here's lime in this sack, too; there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it. a villainous coward! go thy ways, old jack; die when thou wilt: if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am i a shotten herring. there live not three good men unhanged, in england; and one of them is fat and grows old; a bad world, i say! i would i were a weaver; i could sing psalms, or anything. a plague of all cowards, i say still. prince henry. how now, woolsack? what mutter you? fal. a king's son! if i do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, i'll never wear hair on my face more. you, prince of wales! p. henry. why, you baseborn dog! what's the matter? fal. are you not a coward? answer me to that; and poins there? poins. ye fat braggart, an ye call me coward, i'll stab thee. fal. i call thee coward? i'll see thee gibbeted ere i call thee coward: but i would give a thousand pounds i could run as fast as thou canst. you are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back: call you that backing of your friends? a plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me. give me a cup of sack. i am a rogue, if i have drunk to-day. p. henry. o villain! thy lips ate scarce wiped since thou drunkest last. fal. all's one for that. a plague of all cowards, still say . (he drinks.) p. henry. what's the matter? fal. what's the matter! there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pounds this morning. p. henry. where is it, jack? where is it? fal. where is it? taken from us it is; a hundred upon poor four of us. p. henry. what! a hundred, man? fal. i am a rogue, if i were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. i have 'scaped by miracle. i am eight times thrust through the doublet; four, through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a handsaw; look here! (shows his sword.) i never dealt better since i was a man; all would not do. a plague of all cowards! let them speak (pointing to gadshill, bardolph, and peto); if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. p. henry. speak, sirs; how was it? gadshill. we four set upon some dozen-- fal. sixteen, at least, my lord. gad. and bound them. peta. no, no, they were not bound. fal. you rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or i am a jew, else--an ebrew jew. gad. as we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us-- fal. and unbound the rest; and then come in the other. p. henry. what! fought ye with them all? fal. all? i know not what ye call all; but if i fought not with fifty of them, i am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old jack, then i am no two-legged creature. p. henry. pray heaven, you have not murdered some of them. fal. nay, that's past praying for; for i have peppered two of them; two i am sure i have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. i tell thee what, hal, if i tell thee a lie, spit in my face, and call me a horse. thou knowest my old ward; (he draws his sword and stands if about to fight) here i lay, and thus i bore my point. four rogues in buckram let drive at me-- p. henry. what! four? thou saidst but two even now. fal. four, hal; i told thee four. poins. ay, ay, he said four. fal. these four came all afront, and mainly thrust at me. i made no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus. p. henry. seven? why, there were but four, even now. fal. in buckram? poins. ay, four, in buckram suits. fal. seven, by these hilts, or i am a villain else. p. henry. prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon. fal. dost thou hear me, hal? p. henry. ay, and mark thee, too, jack. fal. do so, for it is worth the listening to. these nine in buckram, that i told thee of-- p. henry. so, two more already. fal. their points being broken, began to give me ground; but i followed me close, came in foot and hand; and, with a thought, seven of the eleven i paid. p. henry. o, monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! fal. but three knaves, in kendal green, came at my back, and let drive at me; for it was so dark, hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand. p. henry. these lies are like the father of them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. why, thou clay-brained, nott-pated fool; thou greasy tallow keech-- fal. what! art thou mad! art thou mad? is not the truth the truth? p. henry. why, how couldst thou know these men in kendal green, when it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? come, tell us your reason; what sayest thou to this? poins. come, your reason, jack, your reason. fal. what, upon compulsion? no, were i at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, i would not tell you on compulsion. give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, i would give no man a reason on compulsion, i. p. henry. i'll be no longer guilty of this sin: this sanguine coward, this horseback breaker, this huge hill of flesh-- fal. away! you starveling, you eel skin, you dried neat's tongue, you stockfish! oh for breath to utter what is like thee!--you tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow case, you-- p. henry. well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. poins. mark, jack. p. henry. we two saw you four set on four; you bound them, and were masters of their wealth. mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. then did we two set on you four, and with a word outfaced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house.--and, falstaff, you carried yourself away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still ran and roared, as ever i heard a calf. what a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight! what trick, what device, what starting hole, canst thou now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? poins. come, let's hear, jack. what trick hast thou now? fal. why, i knew ye as well as he that made ye. why, bear ye, my masters: was it for me to kill the heir apparent? should i turn upon the true prince? why, thou knowest i am as valiant as hercules; but beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince; instinct is a great matter; i was a coward on instinct. i shall think the better of myself and thee during my life; i for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. but, lads, i am glad you have the money. hostess, clap to the doors. watch to-night, pray to-morrow. gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold; all the titles of good-fellowship come to you! what! shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore? p. henry. content; and the argument shall be thy running away. fal. ah, no more of that, hal, an thou lovest me! shakespeare.-henry iv, part i, act ii, scene iv. notes.--the lime is a fruit allied to the lemon, but smaller, and more intensely sour. the strappado was an instrument of torture by which the victim's limbs were wrenched out of joint and broken. hercules is a hero of fabulous history, remarkable for his great strength and wonderful achievements. xcii. studies. ( ) sir francis bacon, - . this eminent man was the youngest son of sir nicholas bacon, lord keeper of the seal in the early part of elizabeth's reign, and anne bacon, one of the most learned women of the time, daughter of sir anthony cooke. he was born in london, and educated at cambridge. he was a laborious and successful student, but even in his boyhood conceived a great distrust of the methods of study pursued at the seats of learning,--methods which he exerted his great powers to correct in his maturer years. much of his life was spent in the practice of law, in the discharge of the duties of high office, and as a member of parliament; but, to the end of life, he busied himself with philosophical pursuits, and he will be known to posterity chiefly for his deep and clear writings on these subjects. his constant direction in philosophy is to break away from assumption and tradition, and to be led only by sound induction based on a knowledge of observed phenomena. his "novum organum" and "advancement of learning" embody his ideas on philosophy and the true methods of seeking knowledge. bacon rose to no very great distinction during the reign of elizabeth; but, under james i, he was promoted to positions of great honor and influence. in he was made baron of verulam; and, three years later, he was made viscount of st. albans. during much of his life, bacon was in pecuniary straits, which was doubtless one reason of his downfall; for, in , he was accused of taking bribes, a charge to which he pleaded guilty. his disgrace followed, and he passed the last years of his life in retirement. among the distinguished names in english literature, none stands higher in his department than that of francis bacon. ### studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. their chief use for delight is in privateness, and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of the particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. to spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar; they perfect nature and are perfected by experience-- for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. some books also may he read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. xciii. surrender of granada. ( ) sir edward george bulwer-lytton, - , was born in norfolk county, england. his father died when he was young; his mother was a woman of strong literary tastes, and did much to form her son's mind. in , by royal license, he took the surname of lytton from his mother's family. bulwer graduated at cambridge. he began to publish in , and his novels and plays followed rapidly. "pelham," "the caxtons," "my novel," "what will he do with it?" and "kenelm chillingly" are among the best known of his numerous novels; and "the lady of lyons" and "richelieu" are his most successful plays. his novels are extensively read on the continent, and have been translated into most of the languages spoken there. "leila, or the siege of granada," from which this selection is adapted, was published in . ### day dawned upon granada, and the beams of the winter sun, smiling away the clouds of the past night, played cheerily on the murmuring waves of the xenil and the darro. alone, upon a balcony commanding a view of the beautiful landscape, stood boabdil, the last of the moorish kings. he had sought to bring to his aid all the lessons of the philosophy he had cultivated. "what are we," thought the musing prince, "that we should fill the world with ourselves--we kings? earth resounds with the crash of my falling throne; on the ear of races unborn the echo will live prolonged. but what have i lost? nothing that was necessary to my happiness, my repose: nothing save the source of all my wretchedness, the marah of my life! shall i less enjoy heaven and earth, or thought or action, or man's more material luxuries of food or sleep--the common and the cheap desires of all? arouse thee, then, o heart within me! many and deep emotions of sorrow or of joy are yet left to break the monotony of existence. . . . but it is time to depart." so saying, he descended to the court, flung himself on his barb, and, with a small and saddened train, passed through the gate which we yet survey, by a blackened and crumbling tower, overgrown with vines and ivy; thence, amidst gardens now appertaining to the convent of the victor faith, he took his mournful and unwitnessed way. when he came to the middle of the hill that rises above those gardens, the steel of the spanish armor gleamed upon him, as the detachment sent to occupy the palace marched over the summit in steady order and profound silence. at the head of this vanguard, rode, upon a snow-white palfrey, the bishop of avila, followed by a long train of barefooted monks. they halted as boabdil approached, and the grave bishop saluted him with the air of one who addresses an infidel and inferior. with the quick sense of dignity common to the great, and yet more to the fallen, boabdil felt, but resented not, the pride of the ecclesiastic. "go, christian," said he, mildly, "the gates of the alhambra are open, and allah has bestowed the palace and the city upon your king; may his virtues atone the faults of boabdil!" so saying, and waiting no answer, he rode on without looking to the right or the left. the spaniards also pursued their way. the sun had fairly risen above the mountains, when boabdil and his train beheld, from the eminence on which they were, the whole armament of spain; and at the same moment, louder than the tramp of horse or the clash of arms, was heard distinctly the solemn chant of te deum, which preceded the blaze of the unfurled and lofty standards. boabdil, himself still silent, heard the groans and exclamations of his train; he turned to cheer or chide them, and then saw, from his own watchtower, with the sun shining full upon its pure and dazzling surface, the silver cross of spain. his alhambra was already in the hands of the foe; while beside that badge of the holy war waved the gay and flaunting flag of st. iago, the canonized mars of the chivalry of spain. at that sight the king's voice died within him; he gave the rein to his barb, impatient to close the fatal ceremonial, and did not slacken his speed till almost within bowshot of the first ranks of the army. never had christian war assumed a more splendid and imposing aspect. far as the eye could reach, extended the glittering and gorgeous lines of that goodly power, bristling with sunlit spears and blazoned banners; while beside, murmured, and glowed, and danced, the silver and laughing xenil, careless what lord should possess, for his little day, the banks that bloomed by its everlasting course. by a small mosque halted the flower of the army. surrounded by the archpriests of that mighty hierarchy, the peers and princes of a court that rivaled the rolands of charlemagne, was seen the kingly form of ferdinand himself, with isabel at his right hand, and the highborn dames of spain, relieving, with their gay colors and sparkling gems, the sterner splendor of the crested helmet and polished mail. within sight of the royal group, boabdil halted, composed his aspect so as best to conceal his soul, and, a little in advance of his scanty train, but never in mien and majesty more a king, the son of abdallah met his haughty conqueror. at the sight of his princely countenance and golden hair, his comely and commanding beauty, made more touching by youth, a thrill of compassionate admiration ran through that assembly of the brave and fair. ferdinand and isabel slowly advanced to meet their late rival,--their new subject; and, as boabdil would have dismounted, the spanish king placed his hand upon his shoulder. "brother and prince," said he, "forget thy sorrows; and may our friendship hereafter console thee for reverses, against which thou hast contended as a hero and a king--resisting man, but resigned at length to god." boabdil did not affect to return this bitter but unintentional mockery of compliment, he bowed his head, and remained a moment silent; then motioning to his train, four of his officers approached, and, kneeling beside ferdinand, proffered to him, upon a silver buckler, the keys of the city. "o king!" then said boabdil, "accept the keys of the last hold which has resisted the arms of spain! the empire of the moslem is no more. thine are the city and the people of granada; yielding to thy prowess, they yet confide in thy mercy." "they do well," said the king; "our promises shall not be broken. but since we know the gallantry of moorish cavaliers, not to us, but to gentler hands, shall the keys of granada be surrendered." thus saying, ferdinand gave the keys to isabel, who would have addressed some soothing flatteries to boabdil, but the emotion and excitement were too much for her compassionate heart, heroine and queen though she was; and when she lifted her eyes upon the calm and pale features of the fallen monarch, the tears gushed from them irresistibly, and her voice died in murmurs. a faint flush overspread the features of boabdil, and there was a momentary pause of embarrassment, which the moor was the first to break. "fair queen," said he, with mournful and pathetic dignity, "thou canst read the heart that thy generous sympathy touches and subdues; this is thy last, nor least glorious conquest. but i detain ye; let not my aspect cloud your triumph. suffer me to say farewell." "farewell, my brother," replied ferdinand, "and may fair fortune go with you! forget the past!" boabdil smiled bitterly, saluted the royal pair with profound and silent reverence, and rode slowly on, leaving the army below as he ascended the path that led to his new principality beyond the alpuxarras. as the trees snatched the moorish cavalcade from the view of the king, ferdinand ordered the army to recommence its march; and trumpet and cymbal presently sent their music to the ear of the moslems. boabdil spurred on at full speed, till his panting charger halted at the little village where his mother, his slaves, and his faithful wife, amine--sent on before--awaited him. joining these, he proceeded without delay upon his melancholy path. they ascended that eminence which is the pass into the alpuxarras. from its height, the vale, the rivers, the spires, and the towers of granada broke gloriously upon the view of the little band. they halted mechanically and abruptly; every eye was turned to the beloved scene. the proud shame of baffled warriors, the tender memories of home, of childhood, of fatherland, swelled every heart, and gushed from every eye. suddenly the distant boom of artillery broke from the citadel, and rolled along the sunlit valley and crystal river. a universal wail burst from the exiles; it smote,--it overpowered the heart of the ill-starred king, in vain seeking to wrap himself in eastern pride or stoical philosophy. the tears gushed from his eyes, and he covered his face with his hands. the band wound slowly on through the solitary defiles; and that place where the king wept is still called the last sigh of the moor. notes.--granada was the capital of an ancient moorish kingdom of the same name, in the southeastern part of spain. the darro river flows through it, emptying into the xenil (or jenil) just outside the city walls. king ferdinand of spain drove out the moors, and captured the city in . marah. see exodus xv. . avila is an episcopal city in spain, capital of a province of the same name. the te deum is an ancient christian hymn, composed by st. ambrose; it is so called from the first latin words, "te deum laudamus," we praise thee, o god. mars, in mythology, the god of war. the alhambra is the ancient palace of the moorish kings, at granada. allah is the mohammedan name for the supreme being. roland was a nephew of charlemagne, or charles the great, emperor of the west and king of france. he was one of the most famous knights of the chivalric romances. the alpuxarras is a mountainous region in the old province of granada, where the moors were allowed to remain some time after their subjugation by ferdinand. xciv. hamlet's soliloquy. ( ) to be, or not to be; that is the question:-- whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? to die,--to sleep,-- no more: and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,--'t is a consummation devoutly to be wished. to die,--to sleep:-- to sleep! perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub; for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life; for who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death,-- the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns,--puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? thus conscience doth make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action. shakespeare.--hamlet, act iii, scene i. xcv. ginevra. ( ) samuel rogers, - , was the son of a london banker, and, in company with his father, followed the banking business for some years. he began to write at an early age, and published his "pleasures of memory," perhaps his most famous work, in . the next year his father died, leaving him an ample fortune. he now retired from business and established himself in an elegant house in st. james's place. this house was a place of resort for literary men during fifty years. in he published his longest poem, "italy," after which he wrote but little. he wrote with care, spending, as he said, nine years on the "pleasures of memory," and sixteen on "italy." "his writings are remarkable for elegance of diction, purity of taste, and beauty of sentiment." it is said that he was very agreeable in conversation and manners, and benevolent in his disposition; but he was addicted to ill-nature and satire in some of his criticisms. ### if thou shouldst ever come by choice or chance to modena,--where still religiously among her ancient trophies, is preserved bologna's bucket (in its chain it hangs within that reverend tower, the guirlandine),-- stop at a palace near the reggio gate, dwelt in of old by one of the orsini. its noble gardens, terrace above terrace, and rich in fountains, statues, cypresses, will long detain thee; through their arche'd walks, dim at noonday, discovering many a glimpse of knights and dames such as in old romance, and lovers such as in heroic song,-- perhaps the two, for groves were their delight, that in the springtime, as alone they sate, venturing together on a tale of love. read only part that day.--a summer sun sets ere one half is seen; but, ere thou go, enter the house--prithee, forget it not-- and look awhile upon a picture there. 't is of a lady in her earliest youth, the very last of that illustrious race, done by zampieri--but by whom i care not. he who observes it, ere he passes on, gazes his fill, and comes and comes again, that he may call it up when far away. she sits, inclining forward as to speak, her lips half-open, and her finger up, as though she said, "beware!" her vest of gold, broidered with flowers, and clasped from head to foot, an emerald stone in every golden clasp; and on her brow, fairer than alabaster, a coronet of pearls. but then her face, so lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth, the overflowings of an innocent heart,-- it haunts me still, though many a year has fled, like some wild melody! alone it hangs over a moldering heirloom, its companion, an oaken chest, half-eaten by the worm, but richly carved by antony of trent with scripture stories from the life of christ; a chest that came from venice, and had held the ducal robes of some old ancestors-- that, by the way, it may be true or false-- but don't forget the picture; and thou wilt not, when thou hast heard the tale they told me there. she was an only child; from infancy the joy, the pride, of an indulgent sire; the young ginevra was his all in life, still as she grew, forever in his sight; and in her fifteenth year became a bride, marrying an only son, francesco doria, her playmate from her birth, and her first love. just as she looks there in her bridal dress, she was all gentleness, all gayety, her pranks the favorite theme of every tongue. but now the day was come, the day, the hour; now, frowning, smiling, for the hundredth time, the nurse, that ancient lady, preached decorum: and, in the luster of her youth, she gave her hand, with her heart in it, to francesco. great was the joy; but at the bridal feast, when all sate down, the bride was wanting there. nor was she to be found! her father cried, " 'tis but to make a trial of our love!" and filled his glass to all; but his hand shook, and soon from guest to guest the panic spread. 't was but that instant she had left francesco, laughing and looking back and flying still, her ivory tooth imprinted on his finger. but now, alas! she was not to be found; nor from that hour could anything be guessed, but that she was not!--weary of his life, francesco flew to venice, and forthwith flung it away in battle with the turk. orsini lived; and long was to be seen an old man wandering as in quest of something, something he could not find--he knew not what. when he was gone, the house remained a while silent and tenantless--then went to strangers. full fifty years were past, and all forgot, when on an idle day, a day of search 'mid the old lumber in the gallery, that moldering chest was noticed; and 't was said by one as young, as thoughtless as ginevra, "why not remove it from its lurking place?" 't was done as soon as said; but on the way it burst, it fell; and lo! a skeleton, with here and there a pearl, an emerald stone, a golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold. all else had perished, save a nuptial ring, and a small seal, her mother's legacy, engraven with a name, the name of both, "ginevra."---there then had she found a grave! within that chest had she concealed herself, fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy; when a spring lock, that lay in ambush there, fastened her down forever! notes.--the above selection is part of the poem, "italy." of the story rogers says, "this story is, i believe, founded on fact; though the time and place are uncertain. many old houses in england lay claim to it." modena is the capital of a province of the same name in northern italy. bologna's bucket. this is affirmed to be the very bucket which tassoni, an italian poet, has celebrated in his mock heroics as the cause of a war between bologna and modena. reggio is a city about sixteen miles northwest of modena. the orsini. a famous italian family in the middle ages. zampieri, domenichino (b. , d. ), was one of the most celebrated of the italian painters. xcvi. inventions and discoveries. ( ) john caldwell calhoun, - . this great statesman, and champion of southern rights and opinions, was born in abbeville district, south carolina. in the line of both parents, he was of irish presbyterian descent. in youth he was very studious, and made the best use of such opportunities for education as the frontier settlement afforded. he graduated at yale college in , and studied law at litchfield, connecticut. in he was elected to the legislature of south carolina; and, three years later, he was chosen to the national house of representatives. during the six years that he remained in the house, he took an active and prominent part in the stirring events of the time. in he was appointed secretary of war, and held the office seven years. from to he was vice president of the united states. he then resigned this office, and took his seat as senator from south carolina. in president tyler called him to his cabinet as secretary of state; and, in , he returned to the senate, where he remained till his death. during all his public life mr. calhoun was active and outspoken. his earnestness and logical force commanded the respect of those who differed most widely from him in opinion. he took the most advanced ground in favor of "state rights," and defended slavery as neither morally nor politically wrong. his foes generally conceded his honesty, and respected his ability; while his friends regarded him as little less than an oracle. in private life mr. calhoun was highly esteemed and respected. his home was at "fort hill," in the northwestern district of south carolina; and here he spent all the time he could spare from his public duties, in the enjoyments of domestic life and in cultivating his plantation. in his home he was remarkable for kindness, cheerfulness, and sociability. ### to comprehend more fully the force and bearing of public opinion, and to form a just estimate of the changes to which, aided by the press, it will probably lead, politically and socially, it will be necessary to consider it in connection with the causes that have given it an influence so great as to entitle it to be regarded as a new political element. they will, upon investigation, be found in the many discoveries and inventions made in the last few centuries. all these have led to important results. through the invention of the mariner's compass, the globe has been circumnavigated and explored; and all who inhabit it, with but few exceptions, are brought within the sphere of an all-pervading commerce, which is daily diffusing over its surface the light and blessings of civilization. through that of the art of printing, the fruits of observation and reflection, of discoveries and inventions, with all the accumulated stores of previously acquired knowledge, are preserved and widely diffused. the application of gunpowder to the art of war has forever settled the long conflict for ascendency between civilization and barbarism, in favor of the former, and thereby guaranteed that, whatever knowledge is now accumulated, or may hereafter be added, shall never again be lost. the numerous discoveries and inventions, chemical and mechanical, and the application of steam to machinery, have increased many fold the productive powers of labor and capital, and have thereby greatly increased the number who may devote themselves to study and improvement, and the amount of means necessary for commercial exchanges, especially between the more and the less advanced and civilized portions of the globe, to the great advantage of both, but particularly of the latter. the application of steam to the purposes of travel and transportation, by land and water, has vastly increased the facility, cheapness, and rapidity of both: diffusing, with them, information and intelligence almost as quickly and as freely as if borne by the winds; while the electrical wires outstrip them in velocity, rivaling in rapidity even thought itself. the joint effect of all this has been a great increase and diffusion of knowledge; and, with this, an impulse to progress and civilization heretofore unexampled in the history of the world, accompanied by a mental energy and activity unprecedented. to all these causes, public opinion, and its organ, the press, owe their origin and great influence. already they have attained a force in the more civilized portions of the globe sufficient to be felt by all governments, even the most absolute and despotic. but, as great as they now are, they have, as yet, attained nothing like their maximum force. it is probable that not one of the causes which have contributed to their formation and influence, has yet produced its full effect; while several of the most powerful have just begun to operate; and many others, probably of equal or even greater force, yet remain to be brought to light. when the causes now in operation have produced their full effect, and inventions and discoveries shall have been exhausted--if that may ever be--they will give a force to public opinion, and cause changes, political and social, difficult to be anticipated. what will be their final bearing, time only can decide with any certainty. that they will, however, greatly improve the condition of man ultimately, it would be impious to doubt; it would be to suppose that the all-wise and beneficent being, the creator of all, had so constituted man as that the employment of the high intellectual faculties with which he has been pleased to endow him, in order that he might develop the laws that control the great agents of the material world, and make them subservient to his use, would prove to him the cause of permanent evil, and not of permanent good. note.--this selection is an extract from "a disquisition on government." mr. calhoun expected to revise his manuscript before it was printed, but death interrupted his plans. xcvii. enoch arden at the window. ( ) alfred tennyson, - , was born in somerby, lincolnshire, england; his father was a clergyman noted for his energy and physical stature. alfred, with his two older brothers, graduated at trinity college, cambridge. his first volume of poems appeared in ; it made little impression, and was severely treated by the critics. on the publication of his third series, in , his poetic genius began to receive general recognition. on the death of wordsworth he was made poet laureate, and he was then regarded as the foremost living poet of england. "in memoriam," written in memory of his friend arthur hallam, appeared in ; the "idyls of the king," in ; and "enoch arden," a touching story in verse, from which the following selection is taken, was published in . in he accepted a peerage as baron tennyson of aldworth, sussex, and of freshwater, isle of wight. ### but enoch yearned to see her face again; "if i might look on her sweet face again and know that she is happy." so the thought haunted and harassed him, and drove him forth, at evening when the dull november day was growing duller twilight, to the hill. there he sat down gazing on all below; there did a thousand memories roll upon him, unspeakable for sadness. by and by the ruddy square of comfortable light, far-blazing from the rear of philip's house, allured him, as the beacon blaze allures the bird of passage, till he mildly strikes against it, and beats out his weary life. for philip's dwelling fronted on the street, the latest house to landward; but behind, with one small gate that opened on the waste, flourished a little garden, square and walled: and in it throve an ancient evergreen, a yew tree, and all round it ran a walk of shingle, and a walk divided it: but enoch shunned the middle walk, and stole up by the wall, behind the yew; and thence that which he better might have shunned, if griefs like his have worse or better, enoch saw. for cups and silver on the burnished board sparkled and shone; so genial was the hearth: and on the right hand of the hearth he saw philip, the slighted suitor of old times, stout, rosy, with his babe across his knees; and o'er her second father stooped a girl, a later but a loftier annie lee, fair-haired and tall, and from her lifted hand dangled a length of ribbon and a ring to tempt the babe, who reared his creasy arms, caught at and ever missed it, and they laughed: and on the left hand of the hearth he saw the mother glancing often toward her babe, but turning now and then to speak with him, her son, who stood beside her tall and strong, and saying that which pleased him, for he smiled. now when the dead man come to life beheld his wife, his wife no more, and saw the babe, hers, yet not his, upon the father's knee, and all the warmth, the peace, the happiness. and his own children tall and beautiful, and him, that other, reigning in his place, lord of his rights and of his children's love, then he, tho' miriam lane had told him all, because things seen are mightier than things heard, staggered and shook, holding the branch, and feared to send abroad a shrill and terrible cry, which in one moment, like the blast of doom, would shatter all the happiness of the hearth. he, therefore, turning softly like a thief, lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot, and feeling all along the garden wall, lest he should swoon and tumble and be found, crept to the gate, and opened it, and closed, as lightly as a sick man's chamber door, behind him, and came out upon the waste. and there he would have knelt but that his knees were feeble, so that falling prone he dug his fingers into the wet earth, and prayed. "too hard to bear! why did they take me thence? o god almighty, blessed savior, thou that did'st uphold me on my lonely isle, uphold me, father, in my loneliness a little longer! aid me, give me strength not to tell her, never to let her know. help me not to break in upon her peace. my children too! must i not speak to these? they know me not. i should betray myself. never!--no father's kiss for me!--the girl so like her mother, and the boy, my son!" there speech and thought and nature failed a little, and he lay tranced; but when he rose and paced back toward his solitary home again, all down the long and narrow street he went beating it in upon his weary brain, as tho' it were the burden of a song, "not to tell her, never to let her know." note.--enoch arden had been wrecked on an uninhabited island, and was supposed to be dead. after many years he was rescued, and returned home, where he found his wife happily married a second time. for her happiness, he kept his existence a secret, but soon died of a broken heart. xcviii. lochinvar. ( ) oh, young lochinvar is come out of the west, through all the wide border his steed was the best; and save his good broadsword, he weapon had none, he rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone! so faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, there never was knight like the young lochinvar! he stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone, he swam the eske river where ford there was none; but ere he alighted at netherby gate, the bride had consented, the gallant came late: for a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, was to wed the fair ellen of brave lochinvar! so boldly he entered the netherby hall, among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all: then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword-- for the poor craven bridegroom said never a word-- "oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, or to dance at our bridal, young lord lochinvar?" "i long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;-- love swells like the solway, but ebbs like its tide-- and now am i come, with this lost love of mine, to lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. there are maidens in scotland more lovely by far, that would gladly be bride to the young lochinvar." the bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up, he quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup. she looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, with a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye. he took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar, "now tread we a measure!" said young lochinvar. so stately his form, and so lovely her face, that never a hall such a galliard did grace; while her mother did fret, and her father did fume, and the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume; and the bridemaidens whispered, "'twere better by far to have matched our fair cousin with young lochinvar." one touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, when they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near, so light to the croup the fair lady he swung, so light to the saddle before her he sprung! "she is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur: they'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young lochinvar. there was mounting 'mong graemes of the netherby clan; forsters, fenwicks, and musgraves, they rode and they ran; there was racing and chasing on cannobie lee, but the lost bride of netherby ne'er did they see. so daring in love, and so dauntless in war, have ye e'er heard of gallant like young lochinvar? -- walter scott. notes.--the above selection is a song taken from scott's poem of "marmion." it is in a slight degree founded on a ballad called "katharine janfarie," to be found in the "minstrelsy of the scottish border." the solway frith, on the southwest coast of scotland, is remarkable for its high spring tides. bonnet is the ordinary name in scotland for a man's cap. xcix. speech on the trial of a murderer. ( ) against the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, i can not have the slightest prejudice. i would not do him the smallest injury or injustice. but i do not affect to be indifferent to the discovery and the punishment of this deep guilt. i cheerfully share in the opprobrium, how much soever it may be, which is cast on those who feel and manifest an anxious concern that all who had a part in planning, or a hand in executing this deed of midnight assassination, may be brought to answer for their enormous crime at the bar of public justice. this is a most extraordinary case. in some respects it has hardly a precedent anywhere; certainly none in our new england history. this bloody drama exhibited no suddenly excited, ungovernable rage. the actors in it were not surprised by any lionlike temptation springing upon their virtue, and overcoming it before resistance could begin. nor did they do the deed to glut savage vengeance, or satiate long-settled and deadly hate. it was a cool, calculating, money-making murder. it was all "hire and salary, not revenge." it was the weighing of money against life; the counting out of so many pieces of silver against so many ounces of blood. an aged man, without an enemy in the world, in his own house, and in his own bed, is made the victim of a butcherly murder for mere pay. truly, here is a new lesson for painters and poets. whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it as it has been exhibited in an example, where such example was last to have been looked for, in the very bosom of our new england society, let him not give it the grim visage of moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with settled hate, and the bloodshot eye emitting livid fires of malice. let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; a picture in repose, rather than in action; not so much an example of human nature in its depravity, and in its paroxysms of crime, as an infernal nature, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his character. the deed was executed with a degree of self-possession and steadiness equal to the wickedness with which it was planned. the circumstances, now clearly in evidence, spread out the whole scene before us. deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his roof. a healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet,--the first sound slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace. the assassin enters through the window, already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment. with noiseless foot he paces the lonely hall, half-lighted by the moon; he winds up the ascent of the stairs, and reaches the door of the chamber. of this, he moves the lock by soft and continued pressure till it turns on its hinges without noise; and he enters, and beholds his victim before him. the room was uncommonly open to the admission of light. the face of the innocent sleeper was turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, showed him where to strike. the fatal blow is given! and the victim passes, without a struggle or a motion, from the repose of sleep to the repose of death! it is the assassin's purpose to make sure work; and he yet plies the dagger, though it was obvious that life had been destroyed by the blow of the bludgeon. he even raises the aged arm, that he may not fail in his aim at the heart; and replaces it again over the wounds of the poniard! to finish the picture, he explores the wrist for the pulse! he feels for it, and ascertains that it beats no longer! it is accomplished. the deed is done. he retreats, retraces his steps to the window, passes out through it as he came in, and escapes. he has done the murder; no eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. the secret is his own, and it is safe! ah! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. such a secret can be safe nowhere. the whole creation of god has neither nook nor corner where the guilty can bestow it, and say it is safe. not to speak of that eye which glances through all disguises, and beholds everything as in the splendor of noon; such secrets of guilt are never safe from detection, even by men. true it is, generally speaking, that "murder will out." true it is that providence hath so ordained, and doth so govern things, that those who break the great law of heaven by shedding man's blood, seldom succeed in avoiding discovery. especially, in a case exciting so much attention as this, discovery must come, and wilt come, sooner or later. a thousand eyes turn at once to explore every man, everything, every circumstance connected with the time and place; a thousand ears catch every whisper; a thousand excited minds intensely dwell on the scene, shedding all their light, and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance into a blaze of discovery. meantime, the guilty soul can not keep its own secret. it is false to itself, or rather it feels an irresistible impulse of conscience to be true to itself. it labors under its guilty possession, and knows not what to do with it. the human heart was not made for the residence of such an inhabitant. it finds itself preyed on by a torment, which it dares not acknowledge to god nor man. a vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no sympathy or assistance either from heaven or earth. the secret which the murderer possesses soon comes to possess him; and, like the evil spirits of which we read, it overcomes him, and leads him whithersoever it will. he feels it beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. he thinks the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very silence of his thoughts. it has become his master. it betrays his discretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his prudence. when suspicions from without begin to embarrass him, and the net of circumstance to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles with still greater violence to burst forth. it must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession. --daniel webster. note.--the above extract is from daniel webster's argument in the trial of john f. knapp for the murder of mr. white, a very wealthy and respectable citizen of salem, mass, four persons were arrested as being concerned in the conspiracy; one confessed the plot and all the details of the crime, implicating the others, but he afterwards refused to testify in court. the man who, by this confession, was the actual murderer, committed suicide, and mr. webster's assistance was obtained in prosecuting the others. john f. knapp was convicted as principal, and the other two as accessaries in the murder. c. the closing year. ( ) george denison prentice, - , widely known as a political writer, a poet, and a wit, was born in preston, connecticut, and graduated at brown university in . he studied law, but never practiced his profession. he edited a paper in hartford for two years; and, in , he became editor of the "louisville journal," which position he held for nearly forty years. as an editor, mr. prentice was an able, and sometimes bitter, political partisan, abounding in wit and satire; as a poet, he not only wrote gracefully himself, but he did much by his kindness and sympathy to develop the poetical talents of others. some who have since taken high rank, first became known to the world through the columns of the "louisville journal." ### 't is midnight's holy hour, and silence now is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er the still and pulseless world. hark! on the winds, the bell's deep notes are swelling; 't is the knell of the departed year. no funeral train is sweeping past; yet, on the stream and wood, with melancholy light, the moonbeams rest like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred as by a mourner's sigh; and, on yon cloud, that floats so still and placidly through heaven, the spirits of the seasons seem to stand-- young spring, bright summer, autumn's solemn form, and winter, with his aged locks--and breathe in mournful cadences, that come abroad like the far wind harp's wild and touching wail, a melancholy dirge o'er the dead year, gone from the earth forever. 'tis a time for memory and for tears. within the deep, still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, whose tones are like the wizard voice of time, heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold and solemn finger to the beautiful and holy visions, that have passed away, and left no shadow of their loveliness on the dead waste of life. that specter lifts the coffin lid of hope, and joy, and love, and, bending mournfully above the pale, sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers o'er what has passed to nothingness. the year has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng of happy dreams. its mark is on each brow, its shadow in each heart. in its swift course it waved its scepter o'er the beautiful, and they are not. it laid its pallid hand upon the strong man; and the haughty form is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim. it trod the hall of revelry, where thronged the bright and joyous; and the tearful wail of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song and reckless shout resounded. it passed o'er the battle plain, where sword, and spear, and shield flashed in the light of midday; and the strength of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass, green from the soil of carnage, waves above the crushed and moldering skeleton. it came, and faded like a wreath of mist at eve; yet, ere it melted in the viewless air, it heralded its millions to their home in the dim land of dreams. remorseless time!-- fierce spirit of the glass and scythe!--what power can stay him in his silent course, or melt his iron heart to pity! on, still on he presses, and forever. the proud bird, the condor of the andes, that can soar through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave the fury of the northern hurricane, and bathe his plumage in the thunder's home, furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down to rest upon his mountain crag; but time knows not the weight of sleep or weariness; and night's deep darkness has no chain to bind his rushing pinion. revolutions sweep o'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink like bubbles on the water; fiery isles spring blazing from the ocean, and go back to their mysterious caverns; mountains rear to heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow their tall heads to the plain; new empires rise, gathering the strength of hoary centuries, and rush down, like the alpine avalanche, startling the nations; and the very stars, yon bright and burning blazonry of god, glitter awhile in their eternal depths, and, like the pleiad, loveliest of their train, shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away, to darkle in the trackless void; yet time, time the tomb builder, holds his fierce career, dark, stern, all pitiless, and pauses not amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path, to sit and muse, like other conquerors, upon the fearful ruin he has wrought. ci. a new city in colorado. ( ) helen hunt jackson, - , was the daughter of the late professor nathan w. fiske, of amherst college. she was born in amherst, and educated at ipswich, massachusetts, and at new york. mrs. jackson was twice married. in the latter years of her life, she became deeply interested in the indians, and wrote two books, "ramona," a novel, and "a century of dishonor," setting forth vividly the wrongs to which the red race has been subjected. she had previously published several books of prose and poetry, less important but charming in their way. the following selection is adapted from "bits of travel at home." ### garland city is six miles from fort garland. the road to it from the fort lies for the last three miles on the top of a sage-grown plateau. it is straight as an arrow, looks in the distance like a brown furrow on the pale gray plain, and seems to pierce the mountains beyond. up to within an eighth of a mile of garland city, there is no trace of human habitation. knowing that the city must be near, you look in all directions for a glimpse of it; the hills ahead of you rise sharply across your way. where is the city? at your very feet, but you do not suspect it. the sunset light was fading when we reached the edge of the ravine in which the city lies. it was like looking unawares over the edge of a precipice; the gulch opened beneath us as suddenly as if the earth had that moment parted and made it. with brakes set firm, we drove cautiously down the steep road; the ravine twinkled with lights, and almost seemed to flutter with white tents and wagon tops. at the farther end it widened, opening out on an inlet of the san luis park; and, in its center, near this widening mouth, lay the twelve-days-old city. a strange din arose from it. "what is going on?" we exclaimed. "the building of the city," was the reply. "twelve days ago there was not a house here. to-day there are one hundred and five, and in a week more there will be two hundred; each man is building his own home, and working day and night to get it done ahead of his neighbor. there are four sawmills going constantly, but they can't turn out lumber half fast enough. everybody has to be content with a board at a time. if it were not for that, there would have been twice as many houses done as there are." we drove on down the ravine. a little creek on our right was half hid in willow thickets. hundreds of white tents gleamed among them: tents with poles; tents made by spreading sailcloth over the tops of bushes; round tents; square tents; big tents; little tents; and for every tent a camp fire; hundreds of white-topped wagons, also, at rest for the night, their great poles propped up by sticks, and their mules and drivers lying and standing in picturesque groups around them. it was a scene not to be forgotten. louder and louder sounded the chorus of the hammers as we drew near the center of the "city;" more and more the bustle thickened; great ox teams swaying unwieldily about, drawing logs and planks, backing up steep places; all sorts of vehicles driving at reckless speed up and down; men carrying doors; men walking along inside of window sashes,--the easiest way to carry them; men shoveling; men wheeling wheelbarrows; not a man standing still; not a man with empty hands; every man picking up something, and running to put it down somewhere else, as in a play; and, all the while, "clink! clink! clink!" ringing above the other sounds,--the strokes of hundreds of hammers, like the "anvil chorus." "where is perry's hotel?" we asked. one of the least busy of the throng spared time to point to it with his thumb, as he passed us. in some bewilderment we drew up in front of a large unfinished house, through the many uncased apertures of which we could see only scaffoldings, rough boards, carpenters' benches, and heaps of shavings. streams of men were passing in and out through these openings, which might be either doors or windows; no steps led to any of them. "oh, yes! oh, yes! can accommodate you all!" was the landlord's reply to our hesitating inquiries. he stood in the doorway of his dining-room; the streams of men we had seen going in and out were the fed and the unfed guests of the house. it was supper time; we also were hungry. we peered into the dining room: three tables full of men; a huge pile of beds on the floor, covered with hats and coats; a singular wall, made entirely of doors propped upright; a triangular space walled off by sailcloth,--this is what we saw. we stood outside, waiting among the scaffolding and benches. a black man was lighting the candles in a candelabrum made of two narrow bars of wood nailed across each other at right angles, and perforated with holes. the candles sputtered, and the hot fat fell on the shavings below. "dangerous way of lighting a room full of shavings," some one said. the landlord looked up at the swinging candelabra and laughed. "tried it pretty often," he said. "never burned a house down yet." i observed one peculiarity in the speech at garland city. personal pronouns, as a rule, were omitted; there was no time for a superfluous word. "took down this house at wagon creek," he continued, "just one week ago; took it down one morning while the people were eating breakfast; took it down over their heads; putting it up again over their heads now." this was literally true. the last part of it we ourselves were seeing while he spoke, and a friend at our elbow had seen the wagon creek crisis. "waiting for that round table for you," said the landlord; " 'll bring the chairs out here's fast's they quit 'em. that's the only way to get the table." so, watching his chances, as fast as a seat was vacated, he sprang into the room, seized the chair and brought it out to us; and we sat there in our "reserved seats," biding the time when there should be room enough vacant at the table for us to take our places. what an indescribable scene it was! the strange-looking wall of propped doors which we had seen, was the impromptu, wall separating the bedrooms from the dining-room. bedrooms? yes, five of them; that is, five bedsteads in a row, with just space enough between them to hang up a sheet, and with just room enough between them and the propped doors for a moderate-sized person to stand upright if he faced either the doors or the bed. chairs? oh, no! what do you want of a chair in a bedroom which has a bed in it? washstands? one tin basin out in the unfinished room. towels? uncertain. the little triangular space walled off by the sailcloth was a sixth bedroom, quite private and exclusive; and the big pile of beds on the dining-room floor was to be made up into seven bedrooms more between the tables, after everybody had finished supper. luckily for us we found a friend here,--a man who has been from the beginning one of colorado's chief pioneers; and who is never, even in the wildest wilderness, without resources of comfort. "you can't sleep here," he said. "i can do better for you than this." "better!" he offered us luxury. how movable a thing is one's standard of comfort! a two-roomed pine shanty, board walls, board floors, board ceilings, board partitions not reaching to the roof, looked to us that night like a palace. to have been entertained at windsor castle would not have made us half so grateful. it was late before the "city" grew quiet; and, long after most of the lights were out, and most of the sounds had ceased, i heard one solitary hammer in the distance, clink, clink, clink. i fell asleep listening to it. cii. importance of the union. ( ) mr. president: i am conscious of having detained you and the senate much too long. i was drawn into the debate with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. but it is a subject of which my heart is full, and i have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. i can not, even now, persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing once more my deep conviction, that, since it respects nothing less than the union of the states, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness. i profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our federal union. it is to that union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. it is to that union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. that union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of adversity. it had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and, although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. it has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. i have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. i have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. i have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, i can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could i regard him as a safe counselor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed. while the union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. beyond that, i seek not to penetrate the veil. god grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. god grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. when my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may i not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood. let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured--bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, what is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly, liberty first, and union afterwards--but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true american heart--liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable! --daniel webster. note.--this selection is the peroration of mr. webster's speech in reply to mr. hayne during the debate in the senate on mr. foot's resolution in regard to the public lands. ciii. the influences of the sun. ( ) john tyndall, - , one of the most celebrated modern scientists, was an irishman by birth. he was a pupil of the distinguished faraday. in he was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the royal institution of london. he is known chiefly for his brilliant experiments and clear writing respecting heat, light, and sound. he also wrote one or two interesting books concerning the alps and their glaciers. he visited america, and delighted the most intelligent audiences by his scientific lectures and his brilliant experiments. the scientific world is indebted to him for several remarkable discoveries. ### as surely as the force which moves a clock's hands is derived from the arm which winds up the clock, so surely is all terrestrial power drawn from the sun. leaving out of account the eruptions of volcanoes, and the ebb and flow of the tides, every mechanical action on the earth's surface, every manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is produced by the sun. his warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the atmosphere a gas, and all the storms which agitate both are blown by the mechanical force of the sun. he lifts the rivers and the glaciers up to the mountains; and thus the cataract and the avalanche shoot with an energy derived immediately from him. thunder and lightning are also his transmitted strength. every fire that burns and every flame that glows, dispenses light and heat which originally belonged to the sun. in these days, unhappily, the news of battle is familiar to us, but every shock and every charge is an application or misapplication of the mechanical force of the sun. he blows the trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. and, remember, this is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth. he rears, as i have said, the whole vegetable world, and through it the animal; the lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. he forms the muscles, he urges the blood, he builds the brain. his fleetness is in the lion's foot; he springs in the panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake. he builds the forest and hews it down, the power which raised the tree, and which wields the ax, being one and the same. the clover sprouts and blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings, by the operation of the same force. the sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the iron; he rivets the plates, he boils the water; he draws the train. he not only grows the cotton, but he spins the fiber and weaves the web. there is not a hammer raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not raised, and turned, and thrown by the sun. his energy is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting place where this energy is conditioned. here the proteus works his spells; the selfsame essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally dissolves into its primitive and almost formless form. the sun comes to us as heat; he quits us as heat; and between his entrance and departure the multiform powers of our globe appear. they are all special forms of solar power--the molds into which his strength is temporarily poured in passing from its source through infinitude. note.--proteus (pro. pro'te-us) was a mythological divinity. his distinguishing characteristic was the power of assuming different shapes. civ. colloquial powers of franklin. ( ) william wirt, - , an american lawyer and author, was born at bladensburg, maryland. left an orphan at an early age, he was placed in care of his uncle. he improved his opportunities for education so well that he became a private tutor at fifteen. in he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law in virginia; he removed to richmond in . from to he was attorney-general of the united states. his last years were spent in baltimore. mr. wirt was the author of several books; his "letters of a british spy," published in , and "life of patrick henry," published in , are the best known of his writings. ### never have i known such a fireside companion. great as he was both as a statesman and philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle. it was once my good fortune to pass two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the back part of pennsylvania, and we were confined to the house during the whole of that time by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snows. but confinement never could be felt where franklin was an inmate; his cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual spring. when i speak, however, of his colloquial powers, i do not mean to awaken any notion analogous to that which boswell has given us of johnson. the conversation of the latter continually reminds one of the "pomp and circumstance of glorious war." it was, indeed, a perpetual contest for victory, or an arbitrary or despotic exaction of homage to his superior talents. it was strong, acute, prompt, splendid, and vociferous; as loud, stormy, and sublime as those winds which he represents as shaking the hebrides, and rocking the old castle which frowned on the dark-rolling sea beneath. but one gets tired of storms, however sublime they may be, and longs for the more orderly current of nature. of franklin, no one ever became tired. there was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine in anything which came from him. there was nothing which made any demand upon either your allegiance or your admiration. his manner was as unaffected as infancy. it was nature's self. he talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and simplicity put you at once at your ease, and gave you the full and free possession and use of your faculties. his thoughts were of a character to shine by their own light, without any adventitious aid. they only required a medium of vision like his pure and simple style, to exhibit to the highest advantage their native radiance and beauty. his cheerfulness was unremitting. it seemed to be as much the effect of a systematic and salutary exercise of the mind, as of its superior organization. his wit was of the first order. it did not show itself merely in occasional coruscations[ ]; but, without any effort or force on his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of his discourse. whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always the same plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, with his faculties in full play, and the full orbit of his genius forever clear and unclouded. [transcriber's footnote : coruscations: flashes of light.] and then, the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. he had commenced life with an attention so vigilant that nothing had escaped his observation; and a judgment so solid that every incident was turned to advantage. his youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. he had been, all his life, a close and deep reader, as well as thinker; and by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials which he had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he has added a hundred fold to their original value, and justly made them his own. notes.--benjamin franklin (b. , d. ) was one of the most prominent men in the struggle of the american colonies for liberty. he was renowned as a statesman, and, although not an author by profession, was a very prolific writer. his "autobiography," which was first printed in france, is now a household volume in america. see page . boswell, james, (b. , d. ,) was a scotch lawyer, and is chiefly known as the biographer of dr. johnson, of whom he was the intimate friend and companion. johnson, samuel. see biographical notice, page . cv. the dream of clarence. ( ) scene--room in the tower of london. enter clarence and brakenbury. brak. why looks your grace so heavily to-day? clar. o, i have passed a miserable night, so full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, that, as i am a christian, faithful man, i would not spend another such a night, though 't were to buy a world of happy days, so full of dismal terror was the time! brak. what was your dream? i long to hear you tell it. clar. methoughts, that i had broken from the tower, and was embarked to cross to burgundy; and, in my company, my brother gloster; who, from my cabin, tempted me to walk upon the hatches; thence we looked toward england, and cited up a thousand fearful times, during the wars of york and lancaster, that had befallen us. as we paced along upon the giddy footing of the hatches, methought that gloster stumbled; and, in falling, struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard, into the tumbling billows of the main. oh, then, methought, what pain it was to drown! what dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! what ugly sights of death within mine eyes! methought i saw a thousand fearful wrecks; ten thousand men that fishes gnawed upon; wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, all scattered in the bottom of the sea. some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, as 't were in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, which wooed the slimy bottom of the deep, and mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by. brak. had you such leisure in the time of death, to gaze upon the secrets of the deep? clar. methought i had; and often did i strive to yield the ghost: but still the envious flood kept in my soul, and would not let it forth to seek the empty, vast, and wandering air; but smothered it within my panting bulk, which almost burst to belch it in the sea. brak. awaked you not with this sore agony? clar. oh, no; my dream was lengthened after life; oh, then began the tempest to my soul, who passed, methought, the melancholy flood, with that grim ferryman which poets write of, unto the kingdom of perpetual night. the first that there did greet my stranger soul, was my great father-in-law, renowne'd warwick; who cried aloud, "what scourge for perjury can this dark monarchy afford false clarence?" and so he vanished. then came wandering by a shadow like an angel, with bright hair dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud: "clarence is come! false, fleeting, perjured clarence! that stabbed me in the field by tewksbury: seize on him, furies, take him to your torments!" with that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends environed me, and howled in mine ears such hideous cries, that, with the very noise, i, trembling, waked, and, for a season after, could not believe but that i was in hell; such terrible impression made the dream. brak. no marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; i am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it. clar. o brakenbury, i have done those things, which now bear evidence against my soul, for edward's sake; and see how he requites me! o god! if my deep prayers can not appease thee, but thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds, yet execute thy wrath in me alone: oh, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children! --i pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me; my soul is heavy, and i fain would sleep. brak. i will, my lord: god give your grace good rest! clarence reposes himself on a chair. sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, makes the night morning, and the noontide night. shakespeare.--richard iii, act i, scene iv. notes.--the houses of york and lancaster were at war for the possession of the english throne. the duke of clarence and the duke of gloster were brothers of king edward iv., who was head of the house of york. clarence married the daughter of the earl of warwick, and joined the latter in several insurrections against the king. they finally plotted with queen margaret of the lancaster party for the restoration of the latter house to the english throne, but clarence betrayed warwick and the queen, and killed the latter's son at the battle of tewksbury. through the plots of gloster, clarence was imprisoned in the tower of london, and there murdered. brakenbury was lieutenant of the tower. the ferryman referred to is charon, of greek mythology, who was supposed to ferry the souls of the dead over the river acheron to the infernal regions. cvi. homeward bound. ( ) richard h. dana, jr., - , was the son of richard h. dana, the poet. he was born in cambridge, mass. in his boyhood be had a strong desire to be a sailor, but by his father's advice chose a student's life, and entered harvard university. at the age of nineteen an affection of the eyes compelled him to suspend his studies. he now made a voyage to california as a common sailor, and was gone two years. on his return, he resumed his studies and graduated in . he afterwards studied law, and entered upon an active and successful practice. most of his life was spent in law and politics, although he won distinction in literature. the following extract is from his "two years before the mast," a book published in , giving an account of his voyage to california. this book details, in a most clear and entertaining manner, the everyday life of a common sailor on shipboard, and is the best known of all mr. dana's works. ### it is usual, in voyages round the cape from the pacific, to keep to the eastward of the falkland islands; but, as there had now set in a strong, steady, and clear southwester, with every prospect of its lasting, and we had had enough of high latitudes, the captain determined to stand immediately to the northward, running inside the falkland islands. accordingly, when the wheel was relieved at eight o'clock, the order was given to keep her due north, and all hands were turned up to square away the yards and make sail. in a moment the news ran through the ship that the captain was keeping her off, with her nose straight for boston, and cape horn over her taffrail. it was a moment of enthusiasm. everyone was on the alert, and even the two sick men turned out to lend a hand at the halyards. the wind was now due southwest, and blowing a gale to which a vessel close-hauled could have shown no more than a single close-reefed sail; but as we were going before it, we could carry on. accordingly, hands were sent aloft and a reef shaken out of the topsails, and the reefed foresail set. when we came to masthead the topsail yards, with all hands at the halyards, we struck up, "cheerly, men," with a chorus which might have been heard halfway to staten island. under her increased sail, the ship drove on through the water. yet she could bear it well; and the captain sang out from the quarter-deck-- "another reef out of that fore topsail, and give it to her." two hands sprang aloft; the frozen reef points and earings were cast adrift, the halyards manned, and the sail gave out her increased canvas to the gale. all hands were kept on deck to watch the effect of the change. it was as much as she could well carry, and with a heavy sea astern, it took two men at the wheel to steer her. she flung the foam from her bows; the spray breaking aft as far as the gangway. she was going at a prodigious rate. still, everything held. preventer braces were reeved and hauled taut; tackles got upon the backstays; and everything done to keep all snug and strong. the captain walked the deck at a rapid stride, looked aloft at the sails, and then to windward; the mate stood in the gangway, rubbing his hands, and talking aloud to the ship--"hurrah, old bucket! the boston girls have got hold of the towrope!" and the like; and we were on the forecastle looking to see how the spars stood it, and guessing the rate at which she was going,--when the captain called out--"mr. brown, get up the topmast studding sail! what she can't carry she may drag!" the mate looked a moment; but he would let no one be before him in daring. he sprang forward,--"hurrah, men! rig out the topmast studding sail boom! lay aloft, and i'll send the rigging up to you!" we sprang aloft into the top; lowered a girtline down, by which we hauled up the rigging; rove the tacks and halyards; ran out the boom and lashed it fast, and sent down the lower halyards as a preventer. it was a clear starlight night, cold and blowing; but everybody worked with a will. some, indeed, looked as though they thought the "old man" was mad, but no one said a word. we had had a new topmast studding sail made with a reef in it,--a thing hardly ever heard of, and which the sailors had ridiculed a good deal, saying that when it was time to reef a studding sail it was time to take it in. but we found a use for it now; for, there being a reef in the topsail, the studding sail could not be set without one in it also. to be sure, a studding sail with reefed topsails was rather a novelty; yet there was some reason in it, for if we carried that away, we should lose only a sail and a boom; but a whole topsail might have carried away the mast and all. while we were aloft, the sail had been got out, bent to the yard, reefed, and ready for hoisting. waiting for a good opportunity, the halyards were manned and the yard hoisted fairly up to the block; but when the mate came to shake the cat's-paw out of the downhaul, and we began to boom end the sail, it shook the ship to her center. the boom buckled up and bent like a whipstick, and we looked every moment to see something go; but, being of the short, tough upland spruce, it bent like whalebone, and nothing could break it. the carpenter said it was the best stick he had ever seen. the strength of all hands soon brought the tack to the boom end, and the sheet was trimmed down, and the preventer and the weather brace hauled taut to take off the strain. every rope-yarn seemed stretched to the utmost, and every thread of canvas; and with this sail added to her, the ship sprang through the water like a thing possessed. the sail being nearly all forward, it lifted her out of the water, and she seemed actually to jump from sea to sea. from the time her keel was laid, she had never been so driven; and had it been life or death with everyone of us, she could not have borne another stitch of canvas. finding that she would bear the sail, the hands we're sent below, and our watch remained on deck. two men at the wheel had as much as they could do to keep her within three points of her course, for she steered as wild as a young colt. the mate walked the deck, looking at the sails, and then over the side to see the foam fly by her,--slapping his hands upon his thighs and talking to the ship--"hurrah, you jade, you've got the scent! you know where you're going!" and when she leaped over the seas, and almost out of the water, and trembled to her very keel, the spars and masts snapping and creaking, "there she goes!--there she goes--handsomely!--as long as she cracks, she holds!"--while we stood with the rigging laid down fair for letting go, and ready to take in sail and clear away if anything went. at four bells we have the log, and she was going eleven knots fairly; and had it not been for the sea from aft which sent the chip home, and threw her continually off her course, the log would have shown her to have been going somewhat faster. i went to the wheel with a young fellow from the kennebec, who was a good helmsman; and for two hours we had our hands full. a few minutes showed us that our monkey jackets must come off; and, cold as it was, we stood in our shirt sleeves in a perspiration, and were glad enough to have it eight bells and the wheels relieved. we turned in and slept as well as we could, though the sea made a constant roar under her bows, and washed over the forecastle like a small cataract. notes.--the falkland islands are a group in the atlantic just east of cape horn. bells. on shipboard time is counted in bells, the bell being struck every half hour. cvii. impeachment of warren hastings. ( ) thomas babington macaulay, - , was born in the village of rothley, leicestershire. on his father's side, he descended from scotch highlanders and ministers of the kirk. his education began at home, and was completed at trinity college, cambridge. while a student, he gained much reputation as a writer and a debater. in he was admitted to the bar. in began his connection with the "edinburgh review," which continued twenty years. some of his most brilliant essays appeared first in its pages. he was first chosen to parliament in , and was reelected several times. in his essays and some other writings were collected and published with the title of "miscellanies." his "lays of ancient rome" was published in . his "history of england" was published near the close of his life. in he was given the title of baron macaulay. "his style is vigorous, rapid in its movement, and brilliant; and yet, with all its splendor, has a crystalline clearness. indeed, the fault generally found with his style is, that it is so constantly brilliant that the vision is dazzled and wearied with its excessive brightness." he has sometimes been charged with sacrificing facts to fine sentences. in his statesmanship, macaulay was always an earnest defender of liberty. his first speech in parliament was in support of a bill to remove the civil disabilities of the jews, and his whole parliamentary career was consistent with this wise and liberal beginning. ### the place in which the impeachment of warren hastings was conducted, was worthy of such a trial. it was the great hall of william rufus; the hall which had resounded with acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings; the hall which had witnessed the just sentence of bacon, and the just absolution of somers; the hall where the eloquence of strafford had for a moment awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with just resentment; the hall where charles had confronted the high court of justice with the placid courage which half redeemed his fame. neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. the avenues were lined with grenadiers. the streets were kept clear by cavalry. the peers, robed in gold and ermine, were marshaled by heralds. the judges, in their vestments of state, attended to give advice on points of law. the long galleries were crowded by such an audience as has rarely excited the fears or the emulation of an orator. there were gathered together, from all parts of a great, free, enlightened, and prosperous realm, grace and female loveliness, wit and learning, the representatives of every science and of every art. there were seated around the queen, the fair-haired, young daughters of the house of brunswick. there the embassadors of great kings and commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country in the world could present. there siddons, in the prime of her majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a scene surpassing all the imitations of the stage. there gibbon, the historian of the roman empire, thought of the days when cicero pleaded the cause of sicily against verres; and when, before a senate which had still some show of freedom, tacitus thundered against the oppressor of africa. there, too, were seen, side by side, the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age; for the spectacle had allured reynolds from his easel and parr from his study. the sergeants made proclamation. hastings advanced to the bar, and bent his knee. the culprit was indeed not unworthy of that great presence. he had ruled an extensive and populous country; had made laws and treaties; had sent forth armies; had set up and pulled down princes; and in his high place he had so borne himself, that all had feared him, that most had loved him, and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory, except virtue. a person, small and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a carriage which, while it indicated deference to the court, indicated, also, habitual self-possession and self-respect; a high and intellectual forehead; a brow, pensive, but not gloomy; a mouth of inflexible decision; a face, pale and worn, but serene, on which a great and well-balanced mind was legibly written: such was the aspect with which the great proconsul presented himself to his judges. the charges, and the answers of hastings, were first read. this ceremony occupied two whole days. on the third, burke rose. four sittings of the court were occupied by his opening speech, which was intended to be a general introduction to all the charges. with an exuberance of thought and a splendor of diction, which more than satisfied the highly raised expectations of the audience, he described the character and institutions of the natives of india; recounted the circumstances in which the asiatic empire of britain had originated; and set forth the constitution of the company and of the english presidencies. having thus attempted to communicate to his hearers an idea of eastern society, as vivid as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded to arraign the administration of hastings, as systematically conducted in defiance of morality and public law. the energy and pathos of the great orator extorted expressions of unwonted admiration from all; and, for a moment, seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. the ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of the occasion, and perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and sensibility, were in a state of uncontrollable emotion. handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling bottles were handed round; hysterical sobs and screams were heard, and some were even carried out in fits. at length the orator concluded. raising his voice, till the old arches of irish oak resounded--"therefore," said he, "hath it with all confidence been ordered by the commons of great britain, that i impeach warren hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. i impeach him in the name of the commons house of parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. i impeach him in the name of the english nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. i impeach him in the name of the people of india, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, i impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all." notes.--warren hastings (b. , d. ) was governor-general of british india. he was impeached for maladministration, but, after a trial which extended from feb. th, , to april d, , and occupied one hundred and forty-eight days, he was acquitted by a large majority on each separate count of the impeachment. william rufus, or william ii. (b. , d. ), built westminster hall in which the trial was held. bacon; see biographical notice, pages and . somers, john (b. . d. ) was impeached for maladministration while holding the office of lord chamberlain. strafford, thomas wentworth, earl of, (b. , d. ,) was impeached for his mismanagement while governor of ireland. he conducted his own defense with such eloquence that the original impeachment was abandoned, although he was immediately condemned for high treason and executed. charles i. (b. , d. ), after a war with parliament, in which the rights of the people were at issue, was captured, tried, and condemned to death. the house of brunswick is one of the oldest families of germany. a branch of this family occupies the british throne. siddons, sarah (b. , d. ), was a famous english actress. gibbon, edward (b. , d. ), was a celebrated english historian. cicero; see note on page . tacitus (b. about , d. after a. d.) was a roman orator and historian, who conducted the prosecution of marius, proconsul of africa. reynolds, sir joshua (b. , d. ), an english portrait painter of note. parr, samuel (b. , d. ), was an english author. burke, edmund; see biographical sketch accompanying the following lesson. cviii. destruction of the carnatic. edmund burke, - , one of the most able and brilliant of england's essayists, orators, and statesmen, was born in dublin, and was the son of an able lawyer. he graduated at trinity college, dublin, in . as a student, he was distinguished for ability and industry. from to he was in london writing for periodicals, publishing books, or serving as private secretary. his work on "the sublime and beautiful" appeared in . from to he was a member of parliament, representing at different times different constituencies. on the first day of his appearance in the house of commons he made a successful speech. "in the three principal questions which excited his interest, and called forth the most splendid displays of his eloquence--the contest with the american colonies, the impeachment of warren hastings, and the french revolution--we see displayed a philanthropy the most pure, illustrated by a genius the most resplendent." mr. burke's foresight, uprightness, integrity, learning, magnanimity, and eloquence made him one of the most conspicuous men of his time; and his writings stand among the noblest contributions to english literature. ### when at length hyder ali found that he had to do with men who either would sign no convention, or whom no treaty and no signature could bind, and who were the determined enemies of human intercourse itself, he decreed to make the country possessed by these incorrigible and predestinated criminals a memorable example to mankind. he resolved, in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of such things, to leave the whole carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance, and to put perpetual desolation as a barrier between him and those against whom the faith which holds the moral elements of the world together was no protection. he became at length so confident of his force, so collected in his might, that he made no secret whatsoever of his dreadful resolution. having terminated his disputes with every enemy and every rival, who buried their mutual animosities in their common detestation against the creditors of the nabob of arcot, he drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts of destruction; and compounding all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation into one black cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains. whilst the authors of all these evils were idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor which blackened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the carnatic. then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. all the horrors of war before known or heard of, were mercy to that new havoc. a storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every temple. the miserable inhabitants, flying from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered; others, without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank, or sacredness of function,--fathers torn from children, husbands from wives, enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and, amidst the goading spears of drivers, and the trampling of pursuing horses,--were swept into captivity, in an unknown and hostile land. those who were able to evade this tempest, fled to the walled cities; but escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine. the alms of the settlement of madras, in this dreadful exigency, were certainly liberal, and all was done by charity that private charity could do; but it was a people in beggary; it was a nation which stretched out its hands for food. for months together these creatures of sufferance, whose very excess and luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance of our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned, without sedition or disturbance, almost without complaint, perished by a hundred a day in the streets of madras; every day seventy at least laid their bodies in the streets, or on the glacis of tanjore, and expired of famine in the granary of india. i was going to wake your justice toward this unhappy part of our fellow-citizens, by bringing before you some of the circumstances of this plague of hunger. of all the calamities which beset and waylay the life of man, this comes the nearest to our heart, and is that wherein the proudest of us all feels himself to be nothing more than he is. but i find myself unable to manage it with decorum. these details are of a species of horror so nauseous and disgusting; they are so degrading to the sufferers and to the hearers; they are so humiliating to human nature itself, that, on better thoughts, i find it more advisable to throw a pall over this hideous object, and to leave it to your general conceptions. for eighteen months, without intermission, this destruction raged from the gates of madras to the gates of tanjore; and so completely did these masters in their art, hyder ali, and his more ferocious son, absolve themselves of their impious vow, that when the british armies traversed, as they did, the carnatic, for hundreds of miles in all directions, through the whole line of their march they did not see one man--not one woman--not one child--not one four-footed beast of any description whatever! one dead, uniform silence reigned over the whole region. with the inconsiderable exceptions of the narrow vicinage of some few forts, i wish to be understood as speaking literally;--i mean to produce to you more than three witnesses, who will support this assertion in its full extent. that hurricane of war passed through every part of the central provinces of the carnatic. six or seven districts to the north and to the south (and these not wholly untouched) escaped the general ravage. notes.--this selection is an extract from burke's celebrated speech in parliament, in , on the nabob of arcot's debts; it bore upon the maladministration of hastings. arcot, a district in india, had been ceded to the british on condition that they should pay the former ruler's debts. these were found to be enormous, and the creditors proved to be individuals in the east india company's employ. the creditors, for their private gain, induced the nabob to attempt the subjugation of other native princes, among whom was hyder ali. the latter at first made successful resistance, and compelled the nabob and his allies to sign a treaty. the treaty was not kept, and the destruction above recounted took place. the carnatic is a province in british india, on the eastern side of the peninsula; it contains about , square miles. madras is a city, and tanjore a town, in this province. cix. the raven. edgar allan poe, - , was born in boston, and died in baltimore. he was left a destitute orphan at an early age, and was adopted by mr. john allan, a wealthy citizen of richmond. he entered the university of virginia, at charlottesville, where he excelled in his studies, and was always at the head of his class; but he was compelled to leave on account of irregularities. he was afterwards appointed a cadet at west point, but failed to graduate there for the same reason. poe now quarreled with his benefactor and left his house never to return. during the rest of his melancholy career, he obtained a precarious livelihood by different literary enterprises. his ability as a writer gained him positions with various periodicals in richmond, new york, and philadelphia, and during this time he wrote some of his finest prose. the appearance of "the raven" in , however, at once made poe a literary lion. he was quite successful for a time, but then fell back into his dissipated habits which finally caused his death. in his personal appearance, poe was neat and gentlemanly; his face was expressive of intellect and sensibility; and his mental powers in some directions were of a high order. his writings show care, and a great degree of skill in their construction; but their effect is generally morbid. ### once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-- while i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'tis some visitor," i muttered, "tapping at my chamber door only this, and nothing more." ah, distinctly i remember, it was in the bleak december, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. eagerly i wished the morrow; vainly i had sought to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow sorrow for the lost lenore-- for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name lenore-- nameless here for evermore. and the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me,--filled me with fantastic terrors, never felt before; so that now, to still the beating of my heart, i stood repeating, " 'tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; this it is, and nothing more." presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, "sir," said i, "or madam, truly your forgiveness i implore; but the fact is i was napping, and so gently you came rapping, and so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, that i scarce was sure i heard you."-- here i opened wide the door; darkness there, and nothing more. deep into that darkness peering, long i stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before; but the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, and the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "lenore!" this i whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "lenore!" merely this, and nothing more. back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, soon again i heard a tapping, something louder than before. "surely," said i, "surely, that is something at my window lattice; let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-- let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore;-- 'tis the wind, and nothing more." open here i flung the shutter. when, with many a flirt and flutter, in there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore; not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he, but, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-- perched upon a bust of pallas just above my chamber door-- perched, and sat, and nothing more. then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, by the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," i said, "art sure no craven, ghastly, grim, and ancient raven, wandering from the nightly shore, tell me what thy lordly name is on the night's plutonian shore!" quoth the raven, "nevermore." much i marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, though its answer little meaning-- little relevancy bore; for we can not help agreeing that no living human being ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door-- bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, with such name as "nevermore." but the raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only that one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. nothing farther then he uttered, not a feather then he fluttered, till i scarcely more than muttered, "other friends have flown before-- on the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before." then the bird said, "nevermore." startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, "doubtless," said i, "what it utters is its only stock and store, caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-- till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore of 'never--nevermore.' " but the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, straight i wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust, and door; then, upon the velvet sinking, i betook myself to linking fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-- what this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore meant in croaking "nevermore." this i sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing to the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; this and more i sat divining, with my head at ease reclining on the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er, but whose velvet violet lining, with the lamplight gloating o'er she shall press, ah, nevermore! then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer swung by seraphim, whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor. "wretch," i cried, "thy god hath lent thee-- by these angels he hath sent thee respite--respite and nepenthe [ ] from thy memories of lenore! quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost lenore!" quoth the raven, "nevermore." [transcriber's note : nepenthe--a drug to relieve grief, by blocking memory of sorrow or pain.] "prophet!" said i, "thing of evil!-- prophet still, if bird or devil!-- whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-- on this home by horror haunted-- tell me truly, i implore-- is there--is there balm in gilead? tell me--tell me, i implore!" quoth the raven, "nevermore." "prophet!" said i, "thing of evil,-- prophet still, if bird or devil!-- by that heaven that bends above us, by that god we both adore, tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant aidenn, it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name lenore-- clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name lenore." quoth the raven, "nevermore." "be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend," i shrieked, upstarting; "get thee back into the tempest and the night's plutonian shore! leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! leave my loneliness unbroken!-- quit the bust above my door! take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" quoth the raven, "nevermore." and the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of pallas just above my chamber door; and his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, and the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; and my soul from out that shadow, that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted--nevermore! notes.--pallas, or minerva, in ancient mythology, was the goddess of wisdom. plutonian, see note on pluto, page . gilead is the name of a mountain group of palestine, celebrated for its balsam or balm made from herbs. it is here used figuratively. aidenn is an anglicized and disguised spelling of the arabic form of the word eden: it is here used as a synonym for heaven. cx. a view of the colosseum. ( ) orville dewey, - , a well known unitarian clergyman and author, was born in sheffield, massachusetts, graduated with distinction at williams college in , and afterward studied theology at andover. for a while he was assistant to dr. w. e. channing in boston, and later, was a pastor in new bedford, new york city, and boston. he made two or three voyages to europe, and published accounts of his travels. "discourses on human life," "discourses on the nature of religion," "discourses on commerce and business," are among his published works. his writings are both philosophical and practical; and, as a preacher, he was esteemed original, earnest, and impressive. ### on the eighth of november, from the high land, about fourteen miles distant, i first saw rome; and although there is something very unfavorable to impression in the expectation that you are to be greatly impressed, or that you ought to be, or that such is the fashion; yet rome is too mighty a name to be withstood by such or any other influences. let you come upon that hill in what mood you may, the scene will lay hold upon you as with the hand of a giant. i scarcely know how to describe the impression, but it seemed to me as if something strong and stately, like the slow and majestic march of a mighty whirlwind, swept around those eternal towers; the storms of time, that had prostrated the proudest monuments of the world, seemed to have left their vibrations in the still and solemn air; ages of history passed before me; the mighty procession of nations, kings, consuls, emperors, empires, and generations had passed over that sublime theater. the fire, the storm, the earthquake, had gone by; but there was yet left the still, small voice like that at which the prophet "wrapped his face in his mantle." i went to see the colosseum by moonlight. it is the monarch, the majesty of all ruins; there is nothing like it. all the associations of the place, too, give it the most impressive character. when you enter within this stupendous circle of ruinous walls and arches, and grand terraces of masonry, rising one above another, you stand upon the arena of the old gladiatorial combats and christian martyrdom; and as you lift your eyes to the vast amphitheater, you meet, in imagination, the eyes of a hundred thousand romans, assembled to witness these bloody spectacles. what a multitude and mighty array of human beings; and how little do we know in modern times of great assemblies! one, two, and three, and, at its last enlargement by constantine, more than three hundred thousand persons could be seated in the circus maximus! but to return to the colosseum; we went up under the conduct of a guide upon the walls and terraces, or embankments, which supported the ranges of seats. the seats have long since disappeared; and grass overgrows the spots where the pride, and power, and wealth, and beauty of rome sat down to its barbarous entertainments. what thronging life was here then! what voices, what greetings, what hurrying footsteps upon the staircases of the eighty arches of entrance! and now, as we picked our way carefully through the decayed passages, or cautiously ascended some moldering flight of steps, or stood by the lonely walls--ourselves silent, and, for a wonder, the guide silent, too--there was no sound here but of the bat, and none came from without but the roll of a distant carriage, or the convent bell from the summit of the neighboring esquiline. it is scarcely possible to describe the effect of moonlight upon this ruin. through a hundred lonely arches and blackened passageways it streamed in, pure, bright, soft, lambent, and yet distinct and clear, as if it came there at once to reveal, and cheer, and pity the mighty desolation. but if the colosseum is a mournful and desolate spectacle as seen from within--without, and especially on the side which is in best preservation, it is glorious. we passed around it; and, as we looked upward, the moon shining through its arches, from the opposite side, it appeared as if it were the coronet of the heavens, so vast was it--or like a glorious crown upon the brow of night. i feel that i do not and can not describe this mighty ruin. i can only say that i came away paralyzed, and as passive as a child. a soldier stretched out his hand for "un dona," as we passed the guard; and when my companion said i did wrong to give, i told him that i should have given my cloak, if the man had asked it. would you break any spell that worldly feeling or selfish sorrow may have spread over your mind, go and see the colosseum by moonlight. notes.--the colosseum (pro. col-os-se'um) was commenced by the roman emperor vespasian, and was completed by titus, his son, a.d. its construction occupied but three years, notwithstanding its size; a great part of its walls are standing today. the circus maximus was an amphitheater built by tarquin the elder about b. c. constantine. see note on page . the esquiline is one of the seven hills upon which rome is built. un dona, an italian phrase meaning a gift or alms. cxi. the bridge. ( ) i stood on the bridge at midnight, as the clocks were striking the hour, and the moon rose o'er the city, behind the dark church tower. i saw her bright reflection in the waters under me, like a golden goblet falling and sinking into the sea. and far in the hazy distance of that lovely night in june, the blaze of the flaming furnace gleamed redder than the moon. among the long, black rafters the wavering shadows lay, and the current that came from the ocean seemed to lift and bear them away; as, sweeping and eddying through them, rose the belated tide, and, streaming into the moonlight, the seaweed floated wide. and like those waters rushing among the wooden piers, a flood of thoughts came o'er me that filled my eyes with tears how often, oh, how often, in the days that had gone by, i had stood on that bridge at midnight and gazed on that wave and sky! how often, oh, how often, i had wished that the ebbing tide would bear me away on its bosom o'er the ocean wild and wide. for my heart was hot and restless, and my life was full of care, and the burden laid upon me seemed greater than i could bear. but now it has fallen from me, it is buried in the sea; and only the sorrow of others throws its shadow over me. yet, whenever i cross the river on its bridge with wooden piers, like the odor of brine from the ocean comes the thought of other years. and i think how many thousands of care-encumbered men, each bearing his burden of sorrow, have crossed the bridge since then. i see the long procession still passing to and fro, the young heart hot and restless, and the old, subdued and slow! and forever and forever, as long as the river flows, as long as the heart has passions, as long as life has woes; the moon and its broken reflection and its shadows shall appear as the symbol of love in heaven, and its wavering image here. --longfellow. cxii. objects and limits of science. ( ) robert charles winthrop, - , was a descendant of john winthrop, the first governor of the colony of massachusetts bay. he was born in boston, studied at the public latin school, graduated at harvard in , and studied law with daniel webster. possessing an ample fortune, he made little effort to practice his profession. in he was elected to the legislature of his native state, and was reelected five times; three years he was speaker of the house of representatives. in he was chosen to congress, and sat as representative for ten years. in he was chosen speaker of the house. he also served a short time in the senate. his published writings are chiefly in the form of addresses and speeches; they are easy, finished, and scholarly. as a speaker, mr. winthrop was ready, full-voiced, and self-possessed. ### there are fields enough for the wildest and most extravagant theorizings, within man's own appropriate domain, without overleaping the barriers which separate things human and divine. indeed, i have often thought that modern science had afforded a most opportune and providential safety valve for the intellectual curiosity and ambition of man, at a moment when the progress of education, invention, and liberty had roused and stimulated him to a pitch of such unprecedented eagerness and ardor. astronomy, chemistry, and, more than all, geology, with their incidental branches of study, have opened an inexhaustible field for investigation and speculation. here, by the aid of modern instruments and modern modes of analysis, the most ardent and earnest spirits may find ample room and verge enough for their insatiate activity and audacious enterprise, and may pursue their course not only without the slightest danger of doing mischief to others, but with the certainty of promoting the great end of scientific truth. let them lift their vast reflectors or refractors to the skies, and detect new planets in their hiding places. let them waylay the fugitive comets in their flight, and compel them to disclose the precise period of their orbits, and to give bonds for their punctual return. let them drag out reluctant satellites from "their habitual concealments." let them resolve the unresolvable nebulae of orion or andromeda. they need not fear. the sky will not fall, nor a single star be shaken from its sphere. let them perfect and elaborate their marvelous processes of making the light and the lightning their ministers, for putting "a pencil of rays" into the hand of art, and providing tongues of fire for the communication of intelligence. let them foretell the path of the whirlwind, and calculate the orbit of the storm. let them hang out their gigantic pendulums, and make the earth do the work of describing and measuring her own motions. let them annihilate human pain, and literally "charm ache with air, and agony with ether." the blessing of god will attend all their toils, and the gratitude of man will await all their triumphs. let them dig down into the bowels of the earth. let them rive asunder the massive rocks, and unfold the history of creation as it lies written on the pages of their piled up strata. let them gather up the fossil fragments of a lost fauna, reproducing the ancient forms which inhabited the land or the seas, bringing them together, bone to his bone, till leviathan and behemoth stand before us in bodily presence and in their full proportions, and we almost tremble lest these dry bones should live again! let them put nature to the rack, and torture her, in all her forms, to the betrayal of her inmost secrets and confidences. they need not forbear. the foundations of the round world have been laid so strong that they can not be moved. but let them not think by searching to find out god. let them not dream of understanding the almighty to perfection. let them not dare to apply their tests and solvents, their modes of analysis or their terms of definition, to the secrets of the spiritual kingdom. let them spare the foundations of faith. let them be satisfied with what is revealed of the mysteries of the divine nature. let them not break through the bounds to gaze after the invisible. notes.--orion and andromeda are the names of two constellations. the leviathan is described in job, chap. xli, and the behemoth in job, chap. xl. it is not known exactly what beasts are meant by these descriptions. cxiii. the downfall of poland. ( ) o sacred truth! thy triumph ceased a while, and hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile, when leagued oppression poured to northern wars her whiskered pandours and her fierce hussars, waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn, pealed her loud drum, and twanged her trumpet horn; tumultuous horror brooded o'er her van, presaging wrath to poland--and to man! warsaw's last champion, from her height surveyed, wide o'er the fields a waste of ruin laid; "o heaven!" he cried, "my bleeding country save! is there no hand on high to shield the brave? yet, though destruction sweep those lovely plains, rise, fellow-men! our country yet remains! by that dread name, we wave the sword on high, and swear for her to live--with her to die!" he said, and on the rampart heights arrayed his trusty warriors, few, but undismayed; firm-paced and slow, a horrid front they form, still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm; low murmuring sounds along their banners fly, revenge or death--the watchword and reply; then pealed the notes, omnipotent to charm, and the loud tocsin tolled their last alarm. in vain, alas! in vain, ye gallant few! from rank to rank, your volleyed thunder flew! oh, bloodiest picture in the book of time, sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime; found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe! dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear, closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career; hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, and freedom shrieked as kosciusko fell! --thomas campbell. notes.--kosciusko (b. , d. ), a celebrated polish patriot, who had served in the american revolution, was besieged at warsaw, in , by a large force of russians, prussians, and austrians. after the siege was raised, he marched against a force of russians much larger than his own, and was defeated. he was himself severely wounded and captured. sarmatia is the ancient name for a region of europe which embraced poland, but was of greater extent. cxiv. labor. ( ) horace greeley, - , perhaps the most famous editor of america, was born in amherst, new hampshire, of poor parents. his boyhood was passed in farm labor, in attending the common school, and in reading every book on which he could lay his hands. his reading was mostly done by the light of pine knots. at fifteen he entered a printing office in vermont, became the best workman in the office, and continued to improve every opportunity for study. at the age of twenty he appeared in new york city, poorly clothed, and almost destitute of money. he worked at his trade for a year or two, and then set up printing for himself. for several years he was not successful, but struggled on, performing an immense amount of work as an editor. in he established the "new york tribune," which soon became one of the most successful and influential papers in the country. in he was elected to congress, but remained but a short time. in he was a candidate for the presidency, was defeated, and died a few days afterward. mr. greeley is a rare example of what may be accomplished by honesty and unflinching industry. besides the vast amount which he wrote for the newspapers, he published several books; the best known of which is "the american conflict." ### every child should be trained to dexterity in some useful branch of productive industry, not in order that he shall certainly follow that pursuit, but that he may at all events be able to do so in case he shall fail in the more intellectual or artificial calling which he may prefer to it. let him seek to be a doctor, lawyer, preacher, poet, if he will; but let him not stake his all on success in that pursuit, but have a second line to fall back upon if driven from his first. let him be so reared and trained that he may enter, if he will, upon some intellectual calling in the sustaining consciousness that he need not debase himself, nor do violence to his convictions, in order to achieve success therein, since he can live and thrive in another (if you choose, humbler) vocation, if driven from that of his choice. this buttress to integrity, this assurance of self-respect, is to be found in a universal training to efficiency in productive labor. the world is full of misdirection and waste; but all the calamities and losses endured by mankind through frost, drought, blight, hail, fires, earthquakes, inundations, are as nothing to those habitually suffered by them through human idleness and inefficiency, mainly caused (or excused) by lack of industrial training. it is quite within the truth to estimate that one tenth of our people, in the average, are habitually idle because (as they say) they can find no employment. they look for work where it can not be had. they seem to be, or they are, unable to do such as abundantly confronts and solicits them. suppose these to average but one million able-bodied persons, and that their work is worth but one dollar each per day; our loss by involuntary idleness can not be less than $ , , per annum. i judge that it is actually $ , , . many who stand waiting to be hired could earn from two to five dollars per day had they been properly trained to work. "there is plenty of room higher up," said daniel webster, in response to an inquiry as to the prospects of a young man just entering upon the practice of law; and there is never a dearth of employment for men or women of signal capacity or skill. in this city, ten thousand women are always doing needlework for less than fifty cents per day, finding themselves; yet twice their number of capable, skillful seamstresses could find steady employment and good living in wealthy families at not less than one dollar per day over and above board and lodging. he who is a good blacksmith, a fair millwright, a tolerable wagon maker, and can chop timber, make fence, and manage a small farm if required, is always sure of work and fair recompense; while he or she who can keep books or teach music fairly, but knows how to do nothing else, is in constant danger of falling into involuntary idleness and consequent beggary. it is a broad, general truth, that no boy was ever yet inured to daily, systematic, productive labor in field or shop throughout the latter half of his minority, who did not prove a useful man, and was notable to find work whenever he wished it. yet to the ample and constant employment of a whole community one prerequisite is indispensable,--that a variety of pursuits shall have been created or naturalized therein. a people who have but a single source of profit are uniformly poor, not because that vocation is necessarily ill-chosen, but because no single calling can employ and reward the varied capacities of male and female, old and young, robust and feeble. thus a lumbering or fishing region with us is apt to have a large proportion of needy inhabitants; and the same is true of a region exclusively devoted to cotton growing or gold mining. a diversity of pursuits is indispensable to general activity and enduring prosperity. sixty or seventy years ago, what was then the district, and is now the state, of maine, was a proverb in new england for the poverty of its people, mainly because they were so largely engaged in timber cutting. the great grain-growing, wheat-exporting districts of the russian empire have a poor and rude people for a like reason. thus the industry of massachusetts is immensely more productive per head than that of north carolina, or even that of indiana, as it will cease to be whenever manufactures shall have been diffused over our whole country, as they must and will be. in massachusetts half the women and nearly half the children add by their daily labor to the aggregate of realized wealth; in north carolina and in indiana little wealth is produced save by the labor of men, including boys of fifteen or upward. when this disparity shall have ceased, its consequence will also disappear. [illustration: a chained man in prison reclining against the wall. he is gazing down at a sleeping young boy.] cxv. the last days of herculaneum. ( ) edwin atherstone, - , was born at nottingham, england, and became known to the literary world chiefly through two poems, "the last days of herculaneum" and "the fall of nineveh." both poems are written in blank verse, and are remarkable for their splendor of diction and their great descriptive power. atherstone is compared to thomson, whom he resembles somewhat in style. ### there was a man, a roman soldier, for some daring deed that trespassed on the laws, in dungeon low chained down. his was a noble spirit, rough, but generous, and brave, and kind. he had a son; it was a rosy boy, a little faithful copy of his sire, in face and gesture. from infancy, the child had been his father's solace and his care. every sport the father shared and heightened. but at length, the rigorous law had grasped him, and condemned to fetters and to darkness. the captive's lot, he felt in all its bitterness: the walls of his deep dungeon answered many a sigh and heart-heaved groan. his tale was known, and touched his jailer with compassion; and the boy, thenceforth a frequent visitor, beguiled his father's lingering hours, and brought a balm with his loved presence, that in every wound dropped healing. but, in this terrific hour, he was a poisoned arrow in the breast where he had been a cure. with earliest morn of that first day of darkness and amaze, he came. the iron door was closed--for them never to open more! the day, the night dragged slowly by; nor did they know the fate impending o'er the city. well they heard the pent-up thunders in the earth beneath, and felt its giddy rocking; and the air grew hot at length, and thick; but in his straw the boy was sleeping: and the father hoped the earthquake might pass by: nor would he wake from his sound rest the unfearing child, nor tell the dangers of their state. on his low couch the fettered soldier sank, and, with deep awe, listened the fearful sounds: with upturned eye, to the great gods he breathed a prayer; then, strove to calm himself, and lose in sleep awhile his useless terrors. but he could not sleep: his body burned with feverish heat; his chains clanked loud, although he moved not; deep in earth groaned unimaginable thunders; sounds, fearful and ominous, arose and died, like the sad mornings of november's wind, in the blank midnight. deepest horror chilled his blood that burned before; cold, clammy sweats came o'er him; then anon, a fiery thrill shot through his veins. now, on his couch he shrunk and shivered as in fear; now, upright leaped, as though he heard the battle trumpet sound, and longed to cope with death. he slept, at last, a troubled, dreamy sleep. well had he slept never to waken more! his hours are few, but terrible his agony. soon the storm burst forth; the lightnings glanced; the air shook with the thunders. they awoke; they sprung amazed upon their feet. the dungeon glowed a moment as in sunshine--and was dark: again, a flood of white flame fills the cell, dying away upon the dazzled eye in darkening, quivering tints, as stunning sound dies throbbing, ringing in the ear. with intensest awe, the soldier's frame was filled; and many a thought of strange foreboding hurried through his mind, as underneath he felt the fevered earth jarring and lifting; and the massive walls, heard harshly grate and strain: yet knew he not, while evils undefined and yet to come glanced through his thoughts, what deep and cureless wound fate had already given.--where, man of woe! where, wretched father! is thy boy? thou call'st his name in vain:--he can not answer thee. loudly the father called upon his child: no voice replied. trembling and anxiously he searched their couch of straw; with headlong haste trod round his stinted limits, and, low bent, groped darkling on the earth:--no child was there. again he called: again, at farthest stretch of his accursed fetters, till the blood seemed bursting from his ears, and from his eyes fire flashed, he strained with arm extended far, and fingers widely spread, greedy to touch though but his idol's garment. useless toil! yet still renewed: still round and round he goes, and strains, and snatches, and with dreadful cries calls on his boy. mad frenzy fires him now. he plants against the wall his feet; his chain grasps; tugs with giant strength to force away the deep-driven staple; yells and shrieks with rage: and, like a desert lion in the snare, raging to break his toils,--to and fro bounds. but see! the ground is opening;--a blue light mounts, gently waving,--noiseless;--thin and cold it seems, and like a rainbow tint, not flame; but by its luster, on the earth outstretched, behold the lifeless child! his dress is singed, and, o'er his face serene, a darkened line points out the lightning's track. the father saw, and all his fury fled:--a dead calm fell that instant on him:--speechless--fixed--he stood, and with a look that never wandered, gazed intensely on the corse. those laughing eyes were not yet closed,--and round those ruby lips the wonted smile returned. silent and pale the father stands:--no tear is in his eye:-- the thunders bellow;--but he hears them not:-- the ground lifts like a sea;--he knows it not:-- the strong walls grind and gape:--the vaulted roof takes shape like bubble tossing in the wind; see! he looks up and smiles; for death to him is happiness. yet could one last embrace be given, 't were still a sweeter thing to die. it will be given. look! how the rolling ground, at every swell, nearer and still more near moves toward the father's outstretched arm his boy. once he has touched his garment:--how his eye lightens with love, and hope, and anxious fears! ha, see! he has him now!--he clasps him round; kisses his face; puts back the curling locks, that shaded his fine brow; looks in his eyes; grasps in his own those little dimpled hands; then folds him to his breast, as he was wont to lie when sleeping; and resigned, awaits undreaded death. and death came soon and swift and pangless. the huge pile sank down at once into the opening earth. walls--arches--roof-- and deep foundation stones--all--mingling--fell! notes.--herculaneum and pompeii were cities of italy, which were destroyed by an eruption of vesuvius in the year a. d., being entirely buried under ashes and lava. during the last century they have been dug out to a considerable extent, and many of the streets, buildings, and utensils have been found in a state of perfect preservation. cxvi. how men reason. ( ) my friend, the professor, whom i have mentioned to you once or twice, told me yesterday that somebody had been abusing him in some of the journals of his calling. i told him that i did n't doubt he deserved it; that i hoped he did deserve a little abuse occasionally, and would for a number of years to come; that nobody could do anything to make his neighbors wiser or better without being liable to abuse for it; especially that people hated to have their little mistakes made fun of, and perhaps he had been doing something of the kind. the professor smiled. now, said i, hear what i am going to say. it will not take many years to bring you to the period of life when men, at least the majority of writing and talking men, do nothing but praise. men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay. i don't know what it is,--whether a spontaneous change, mental or bodily, or whether it is through experience of the thanklessness of critical honesty,--but it is a fact, that most writers, except sour and unsuccessful ones, get tired of finding fault at about the time when they are beginning to grow old. as a general thing, i would not give a great deal for the fair words of a critic, if he is himself an author, over fifty years of age. at thirty, we are all trying to cut our names in big letters upon the walls of this tenement of life; twenty years later, we have carved it, or shut up our jackknives. then we are ready to help others, and care less to hinder any, because nobody's elbows are in our way. so i am glad you have a little life left; you will be saccharine enough in a few years. some of the softening effects of advancing age have struck me very much in what i have heard or seen here and elsewhere. i just now spoke of the sweetening process that authors undergo. do you know that in the gradual passage from maturity to helplessness the harshest characters sometimes have a period in which they are gentle and placid as young children? i have heard it said, but i can not be sponsor for its truth, that the famous chieftain, lochiel, was rocked in a cradle like a baby, in his old age. an old man, whose studies had been of the severest scholastic kind, used to love to hear little nursery stories read over and over to him. one who saw the duke of wellington in his last years describes him as very gentle in his aspect and demeanor. i remember a person of singularly stern and lofty bearing who became remarkably gracious and easy in all his ways in the later period of his life. and that leads me to say that men often remind me of pears in their way of coming to maturity. some are ripe at twenty, like human jargonelles, and must be made the most of, for their day is soon over. some come into their perfect condition late, like the autumn kinds, and they last better than the summer fruit. and some, that, like the winter nelis, have been hard and uninviting until all the rest have had their season, get their glow and perfume long after the frost and snow have done their worst with the orchards. beware of rash criticisms; the rough and stringent fruit you condemn may be an autumn or a winter pear, and that which you picked up beneath the same bough in august may have been only its worm--eaten windfalls. milton was a saint germain with a graft of the roseate early catherine. rich, juicy, lively, fragrant, russet-skinned old chaucer was an easter beurre'; the buds of a new summer were swelling when he ripened. --holmes. notes.--the above selection is from the "autocrat of the breakfast table." lochiel. see note on page . the duke of wellington (b. , d. ) was the most celebrated of english generals. he won great renown in india and in the "peninsular war," and commanded the allied forces when napoleon was defeated at waterloo. easter beurre', saint germain, winter nelis, early catherine and jargonelles are the names of certain varieties of pears. milton. see biographical notice on page . chaucer, geoffrey (b. , d. ). is often called "the father of english poetry." he was the first poet buried in westminster abbey. he was a prolific writer, but his "canterbury tales" is by far the best known of his works. cxvii. thunderstorm on the alps. ( ) clear, placid leman! thy contrasted lake, with the wild world i dwell in, is a thing which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. this quiet sail is as a noiseless wing to waft me from distraction; once i loved torn ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring sounds sweet, as if a sister's voice reproved, that i with stern delights should e'er have been so moved. all heaven and earth are still--though not in sleep, but breathless, as we grow when feeling most; and silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep-- all heaven and earth are still: from the high host of stars, to the lulled lake and mountain coast, all is concentered in a life intense, where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, but hath a part of being, and a sense of that which is of all creator and defense. the sky is changed! and such a change! o night, and storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, yet lovely in your strength, as is the light of a dark eye in woman! far along, from peak to peak, the rattling crags among, leaps the live thunder! not from one lone cloud, but every mountain now hath found a tongue, and jura answers, through her misty shroud, back to the joyous alps, who call to her aloud! and this is in the night.--most glorious night! thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be a sharer in thy fierce and far delight,-- a portion of the tempest and of thee! how the lit lake shines,--a phosphoric sea! and the big rain comes dancing to the earth! and now again, 'tis black,--and now, the glee of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, as if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. now, where the swift rhone cleaves his way between heights which appear as lovers who have parted in hate, whose mining depths so intervene, that they can meet no more, though broken-hearted; though in their souls, which thus each other thwarted, love was the very root of the fond rage, which blighted their life's bloom, and then--departed. itself expired, but leaving them an age of years, all winters,--war within themselves to wage. now, where the quick rhone thus hath cleft his way, the mightiest of the storms hath ta'en his stand! for here, not one, but many make their play, and fling their thunderbolts from hand to hand, flashing and cast around! of all the band, the brightest through these parted hills hath forked his lightnings,--as if he did understand, that in such gaps as desolation worked, there, the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurked. --byron. note.--lake leman (or lake of geneva) is in the south-western part of switzerland, separating it in part from savoy. the rhone flows through it, entering by a deep narrow gap, with mountain groups on either hand, eight or nine thousand feet above the water. the scenery about the lake is magnificent, the jura mountains bordering it on the northwest, and the alps lying on the south and east. cxviii. origin of property. ( ) sir william blackstone, - , was the son of a silk merchant, and was born in london. he studied with great success at oxford, and was admitted to the bar in . at first he could not obtain business enough in his profession to support himself, and for a time relinquished practice, and lectured at oxford. he afterwards returned to london, and resumed his practice with great success, still continuing to lecture at oxford. he was elected to parliament in ; and in was made a justice of the court of common pleas, which office he held till his death. blackstone's fame rests upon his "commentaries on the laws of england," published about . he was a man of great ability, sound learning, unflagging industry, and moral integrity. his great work is still a common text-book in the study of law. ### in the beginning of the world, we are informed by holy writ, the all- bountiful creator gave to man dominion over all the earth, and "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." this is the only true and solid foundation of man's dominion over external things, whatever airy, metaphysical notions may have been started by fanciful writers upon this subject. the earth, therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all mankind, exclusive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the creator. and while the earth continued bare of inhabitants, it is reasonable to suppose that all was in common among them, and that everyone took from the public stock, to his own use, such things as his immediate necessities required. these general notions of property were then sufficient to answer all the purposes of human life; and might, perhaps, still have answered them, had it been possible for mankind to have remained in a state of primeval simplicity, in which "all things were common to him." not that this communion of goods seems ever to have been applicable, even in the earliest ages, to aught but the substance of the thing; nor could it be extended to the use of it. for, by the law of nature and reason, he who first began to use it, acquired therein a kind of transient property, that lasted so long as he was using it, and no longer. or, to speak with greater precision, the right of possession continued for the same time, only, that the act of possession lasted. thus, the ground was in common, and no part of it was the permanent property of any man in particular; yet, whoever was in the occupation of any determined spot of it, for rest, for shade, or the like, acquired for the time a sort of ownership, from which it would have been unjust and contrary to the law of nature to have driven him by force; but, the instant that he quitted the use or occupation of it, another might seize it without injustice. thus, also, a vine or other tree might be said to be in common, as all men were equally entitled to its produce; and yet, any private individual might gain the sole property of the fruit which he had gathered for his own repast: a doctrine well illustrated by cicero, who compares the world to a great theater, which is common to the public, and yet the place which any man has taken is, for the time, his own. but when mankind increased in number, craft, and ambition, it became necessary to entertain conceptions of a more permanent dominion; and to appropriate to individuals not the immediate use only, but the very substance of the thing to be used. otherwise, innumerable tumults must have arisen, and the good order of the world been continually broken and disturbed, while a variety of persons were striving who should get the first occupation of the same thing, or disputing which of them had actually gained it. as human life also grew more and more refined, abundance of conveniences were devised to render it more easy, commodious, and agreeable; as habitations for shelter and safety, and raiment for warmth and decency. but no man would be at the trouble to provide either, so long as he had only a usufructuary property in them, which was to cease the instant that he quitted possession; if, as soon as he walked out of his tent or pulled off his garment, the next stranger who came by would have a right to inhabit the one and to wear the other. in the case of habitations, in particular, it was natural to observe that even the brute creation, to whom everything else was in common, maintained a kind of permanent property in their dwellings, especially for the protection of their young; that the birds of the air had nests, and the beasts of the fields had caverns, the invasion of which they esteemed a very flagrant injustice, and would sacrifice their lives to preserve them. hence a property was soon established in every man's house and homestead; which seem to have been originally mere temporary huts or movable cabins, suited to the design of providence for more speedily peopling the earth, and suited to the wandering life of their owners, before any extensive property in the soil or ground was established. there can be no doubt but that movables of every kind became sooner appropriated than the permanent, substantial soil; partly because they were more susceptible of a long occupancy, which might be continue for months together without any sensible interruption, and at length, by usage, ripen into an established right; but, principally, because few of them could be fit for use till improved and meliorated by the bodily labor of the occupant; which bodily labor, bestowed upon any subject which before lay in common to all men, is universally allowed to give the fairest and most reasonable title to an exclusive property therein. the article of food was a more immediate call, and therefore a more early consideration. such as were not contented with the spontaneous product of the earth, sought for a more solid refreshment in the flesh of beasts, which they obtained by hunting. but the frequent disappointments incident to that method of provision, induced them to gather together such animals as were of a more tame and sequacious nature and to establish themselves in a less precarious manner, partly by the milk of the dams, and partly by the flesh of the young. the support of these their cattle made the article of water also a very important point. and, therefore, the book of genesis, (the most venerable monument of antiquity, considered merely with a view to history,) will furnish us with frequent instances of violent contentions concerning wells; the exclusive property of which appears to have been established in the first digger or occupant, even in places where the ground and herbage remained yet in common. thus, we find abraham, who was but a sojourner, asserting his right to a well in the country of abimelech, and exacting an oath for his security "because he had digged that well." and isaac, about ninety years afterwards, reclaimed this his father's property; and, after much contention with the philistines, was suffered to enjoy it in peace. all this while, the soil and pasture of the earth remained still in common as before, and open to every occupant; except, perhaps, in the neighborhood of towns, where the necessity of a sale and exclusive property in lands, (for the sake of agriculture,) was earlier felt, and therefore more readily complied with. otherwise, when the multitude of men and cattle had consumed every convenience on one spot of ground, it was deemed a natural right to seize upon and occupy such other lands as would more easily supply their necessities. we have a striking example of this in the history of abraham and his nephew lot. when their joint substance became so great that pasture and other conveniences grew scarce, the natural consequence was that a strife arose between their servants; so that it was no longer practicable to dwell together. this contention, abraham thus endeavored to compose: "let there be no strife, i pray thee, between me and thee. is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, i pray thee, from me. if thou wilt take the left hand, then i will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then i will go to the left." this plainly implies an acknowledged right in either to occupy whatever ground he pleased that was not preoccupied by other tribes. "and lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, even as the garden of the lord. then lot chose him all the plain of jordan, and journeyed east; and abraham dwelt in the land of canaan." as the world by degrees grew more populous, it daily became more difficult to find out new spots to inhabit, without encroaching upon former occupants; and, by constantly occupying the same individual spot, the fruits of the earth were consumed, and its spontaneous products destroyed without any provision for future supply or succession. it, therefore, became necessary to pursue some regular method of providing a constant subsistence; and this necessity produced, or at least promoted and encouraged the art of agriculture. and the art of agriculture, by a regular connection and consequence, introduced and established the idea of a more permanent property in the soil than had hitherto been received and adopted. it was clear that the earth would not produce her fruits in sufficient quantities without the assistance of tillage; but who would be at the pains of tilling it, if another might watch an opportunity to seize upon and enjoy the product of his industry, art and labor? had not, therefore, a separate property in lands, as well as movables, been vested in some individuals, the world must have continued a forest, and men have been mere animals of prey. whereas, now, (so graciously has providence interwoven our duty and our happiness together,) the result of this very necessity has been the ennobling of the human species, by giving it opportunities of improving its rational, as well as of exerting its natural faculties. necessity begat property; and, in order to insure that property, recourse was had to civil society, which brought along with it a long train of inseparable concomitants: states, government, laws, punishments, and the public exercise of religious duties. thus connected together, it was found that a part only of society was sufficient to provide, by their manual labor, for the necessary subsistence of all; and leisure was given to others to cultivate the human mind, to invent useful arts, and to lay the foundations of science. note.--cicero. see note on page . cxix. battle of waterloo. ( ) there was a sound of revelry by night, and belgium's capital had gathered then her beauty and her chivalry, and bright the lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men. a thousand hearts beat happily; and when music arose with its voluptuous swell, soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, and all went merry as a marriage bell; but hush! hark!--a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! did ye not hear it?--no; 't was but the wind, or the car rattling o'er the stony street; on with the dance! let joy be unconfined; no sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet to chase the glowing hours with flying feet-- but, hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once mere, as if the clouds its echo would repeat, and nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! arm! arm! it is--it is the cannon's opening roar! ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, and gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, and cheeks all pale, which, but an hour ago blushed at the praise of their own loveliness; and there were sudden partings, such as press the life from out young hearts, and choking sighs which ne'er might be repeated: who could guess if ever more should meet those mutual eyes, since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise. and there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, the mustering squadron, and the clattering car went pouring forward with impetuous speed, and swiftly forming in the ranks of war; and the deep thunder, peal on peal afar; and near, the beat of the alarming drum roused up the soldier ere the morning star; while thronged the citizens with terror dumb, or whispering with white lips--"the foe! they come! they come!" and ardennes waves above them her green leaves, dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass, grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, over the unreturning brave!--alas! ere evening to be trodden like the grass, which, now, beneath them, but above, shall grow, in its next verdure, when this fiery mass of living valor, rolling on the foe, and burning with high hope, shall molder, cold and low last noon beheld them full of lusty life, last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay, the midnight brought the signal sound of strife, the morn, the marshaling in arms,--the day, battle's magnificently stern array! the thunderclouds close o'er it, which when rent, the earth is covered thick with other clay, which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, rider and horse,--friend, foe,--in one red burial blent. --byron. notes.--the battle of waterloo was fought on june th, , between the french army on one side, commanded by napoleon bonaparte, and the english army and allies on the other side, commanded by the duke of wellington. at the commencement of the battle, some of the officers were at a ball at brussels, a short distance from waterloo, and being notified of the approaching contest by the cannonade, left the ballroom for the field of battle. the wood of soignies lay between the field of waterloo and brussels. it is supposed to be a remnant of the forest of ardennes. cxx. "with brains, sir." ( ) john brown, - , was born in lanarkshire, scotland, and graduated at the university of edinburgh. his father was john brown, an eminent clergyman and the author of several books. dr. brown's literary reputation rests largely upon a series of papers contributed to the "north british review." "rab and his friends," a collection of papers published in book form, is the most widely known of all his writings. ### "pray, mr. opie, may i ask you what you mix your colors with?" said a brisk dilettante student to the great painter. "with brains, sir," was the gruff reply--and the right one. it did not give much of information; it did not expound the principles and rules of the art; but, if the inquirer had the commodity referred to, it would awaken him; it would set him agoing, athinking, and a-painting to good purpose. if he had not the wherewithal, as was likely enough, the less he had to do with colors and their mixture the better. many other artists, when asked such a question, would have either set about detailing the mechanical composition of such and such colors, in such and such proportions, rubbed up so and so; or perhaps they would (and so much the better, but not the best) have shown him how they laid them on; but even this would leave him at the critical point. opie preferred going to the quick and the heart of the matter: "with brains, sir." sir joshua reynolds was taken by a friend to see a picture. he was anxious to admire it, and he looked it over with a keen and careful but favorable eye. "capital composition; correct drawing; the color, tone, chiaroscuro excellent; but--but--it wants--hang it, it wants--that!" snapping his fingers; and, wanting "that," though it had everything else, it was worth nothing. again, etty was appointed teacher of the students of the royal academy, having been preceded by a clever, talkative, scientific expounder of aesthetics, who delighted to tell the young men how everything was done, how to copy this, and how to express that. a student came up to the new master, "how should i do this, sir?" "suppose you try." another, "what does this mean, mr. etty?" "suppose you look." "but i have looked." "suppose you look again." and they did try, and they did look, and looked again; and they saw and achieved what they never could have done had the how or the what (supposing this possible, which it is not, in full and highest meaning) been told them, or done for them; in the one case, sight and action were immediate, exact, intense, and secure; in the other, mediate, feeble, and lost as soon as gained. notes.--opie, john (b. , d. ), was born in wales, and was known as the "cornish wonder." he became celebrated as a portrait painter, but afterwards devoted himself to historical subjects. he was professor of painting at the royal academy. reynolds. see note on page . etty, william (b. , d. ), is considered one of the principal artists of the modern english school. his pictures are mainly historical. the royal academy of arts, in london, was founded in . it is under the direction of forty artists of the first rank in their several professions, who have the title of "royal academicians." the admission to the academy is free to all properly qualified students. cxxi. the new england pastor. ( ) timothy dwight, - , was born at northampton, massachusetts. his mother was a daughter of the celebrated jonathan edwards. it is said that she taught her son the alphabet in one lesson, that he could read the bible at four years of age, and that he studied latin by himself at six. he graduated at yale in , returned as tutor in , and continued six years. he was chaplain in a brigade under general putnam for a time. in his father died, and for five years he supported his mother and a family of twelve children by farming, teaching and preaching. from to he was pastor at greenfield, connecticut. he was then chosen president of yale college, and remained in office till he died. dr. dwight was a man of fine bodily presence, of extended learning, and untiring industry. his presidency of the college was highly successful. his patriotism was no less ardent and true than his piety. in his younger days he wrote considerably in verse. his poetry is not all of a very high order, but some pieces possess merit. ### the place, with east and western sides, a wide and verdant street divides: and here the houses faced the day, and there the lawns in beauty lay. there, turret-crowned, and central, stood a neat and solemn house of god. across the way, beneath the shade two elms with sober silence spread, the preacher lived. o'er all the place his mansion cast a sunday grace; dumb stillness sate the fields around; his garden seemed a hallowed ground; swains ceased to laugh aloud, when near, and schoolboys never sported there. in the same mild and temperate zone, twice twenty years, his course had run, his locks of flowing silver spread a crown of glory o'er his head; his face, the image of his mind, with grave and furrowed wisdom shined; not cold; but glowing still, and bright; yet glowing with october light: as evening blends, with beauteous ray, approaching night with shining day. his cure his thoughts engrossed alone: for them his painful course was run: to bless, to save, his only care; to chill the guilty soul with fear; to point the pathway to the skies, and teach, and urge, and aid, to rise; where strait, and difficult to keep, it climbs, and climbs, o'er virtue's steep. cxxii. death of absalom. ( ) david numbered the people that were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. and david sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of joab, and a third part under the hand of abishai, the son of zeruiah, joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of ittai, the gittite. and the king said unto the people, i will surely go forth with you myself also. but the people answered, thou shalt not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is better that thou succor us out of the city. and the king said unto them, what seemeth you best, i will do. and the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands. and the king commanded joab, and abishai, and ittai, saying, deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with absalom. and all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning absalom. so the people went out into the field against israel; and the battle was in the wood of ephraim; where the people of israel were slain before the servants of david, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men. for the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. and absalom met the servants of david. and absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. and a certain man saw it, and told joab, and said, behold, i saw absalom hanged in an oak. and joab said unto the man that told him, and, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and i would have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle. and the man said unto joab, though i should receive a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, yet would i not put forth my hand against the king's son; for, in our hearing, the king charged thee, and abishai, and ittai, saying, beware that none touch the young man absalom. otherwise, i should have wrought falsehood against mine own life; for there is no matter hid from the king, and thou thyself wouldst have set thyself against me. then said joab, i may not tarry thus with thee. and he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. and ten young men that bare joab's armor, compassed about and smote absalom, and slew him. and joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after israel; for joab held back the people. and they took absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him; and all israel fled, everyone to his tent. now absalom, in his lifetime, had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, i have no son to keep my name in remembrance; and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called unto this day, absalom's place. then said ahimaaz, the son of zadok, let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that the lord hath avenged him of his enemies. and joab said unto him, thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day: but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the king's son is dead. then said joab to cushi, go, tell the king what thou hast seen. and cushi bowed himself unto joab, and ran. then said ahimaaz the son of zadok yet again to joab, but howsoever, let me, i pray thee, also run after cushi. and joab said, wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready? but howsoever, said he, let me run. and he said unto him, run. then ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran cushi. and david sat between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, a man running alone. and the watchman cried, and told the king. and the king said, if he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth. and he came apace, and drew near. and the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called unto the porter, and said, behold, another man running alone. and the king said, he also bringeth tidings. and the watchman said, methinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of ahimaaz the son of zadok. and the king said, he is a good man, and cometh with good tidings. and ahimaaz called, and said unto the king, all is well. and he fell down to the earth upon his face before the king, and said, blessed be the lord thy god, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my lord the king. and the king said, is the young man absalom safe? and ahimaaz answered, when joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, i saw a great tumult, but i knew not what it was. and the king said unto him, turn aside and stand here. and he turned aside, and stood still. and behold, cushi came; and cushi said, tidings my lord the king; for the lord hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee. and the king said unto cushi, is the young man absalom safe? and cushi answered, the enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. and the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, thus he said, o my son absalom! my son, my son absalom! would god i had died for thee, o absalom, my son, my son! --ii samuel, chap. xviii. cxxiii. abraham davenport. ( ) 't was on a may day of the far old year seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell over the bloom and sweet life of the spring, over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, a horror of great darkness, like the night in day of which the norland sagas tell, the twilight of the gods. the low-hung sky was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs the crater's sides from the red hell below. birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp to hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter the black sky, that the dreadful face of christ might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked a loving guest at bethany, but stern as justice and inexorable law. meanwhile in the old statehouse, dim as ghosts, sat the lawgivers of connecticut, trembling beneath their legislative robes. "it is the lord's great day! let us adjourn," some said; and then, as if with one accord, all eyes were turned to abraham davenport. he rose, slow-cleaving with his steady voice the intolerable hush. "this well may be the day of judgment which the world awaits; but be it so or not, i only know my present duty, and my lord's command to occupy till he come. so at the post where he hath set me in his providence, i choose, for one, to meet him face to face, no faithless servant frightened from my task, but ready when the lord of the harvest calls; and therefore, with all reverence, i would say, let god do his work, we will see to ours. bring in the candles." and they brought them in. then by the flaring lights the speaker read, albeit with husky voice and shaking hands, an act to amend an act to regulate the shad and alewive fisheries. whereupon, wisely and well spake abraham davenport, straight to the question, with no figures of speech save the ten arab signs, yet not without the shrewd, dry humor natural to the man: his awe-struck colleagues listening all the while, between the pauses of his argument, to hear the thunder of the wrath of god break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud. and there he stands in memory to this day, erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half seen against the background of unnatural dark, a witness to the ages as they pass, that simple duty hath no place for fear. --whittier. note.--the "dark day," as it is known, occurred may th, , and extended over all new england. the darkness came on about ten o'clock in the morning, and lasted with varying degrees of intensity until midnight of the next day. the cause of the phenomenon is unknown. cxxiv. the falls of the yosemite. ( ) thomas starr king, - , was born in new york city. his father was a universalist minister; and, in , he settled in charlestown, massachusetts. the son was preparing to enter harvard university, when the death of his father devolved upon him the support of his mother, and his collegiate course had to be given up. he spent several years as clerk and teacher, improving meanwhile all possible opportunities for study. in he was settled over the church to which his father had preached in charlestown. two years later, he was called to the hollis street unitarian church in boston. here his eloquence and active public spirit soon made him well known. he also gained much reputation as a public lecturer. in he left the east to take charge of the unitarian church in san francisco. during the remaining years of his life, he exercised much influence in the public affairs of california. he died suddenly, of diphtheria, in the midst of his brilliant career. mr. king was a great lover of nature. his "white hills," describing the mountain scenery of new hampshire, is the most complete book ever written concerning that interesting region. ### the yosemite valley, in california, is a pass about ten miles long. at its eastern extremity it leads into three narrower passes, each of which extends several miles, winding by the wildest paths into the heart of the sierra nevada chain of mountains. for seven miles of the main valley, which varies in width from three quarters of a mile to a mile and a half, the walls on either side are from two thousand to nearly five thousand feet above the road, and are nearly perpendicular. from these walls, rocky splinters a thousand feet in height start up, and every winter drop a few hundred tons of granite, to adorn the base of the rampart with picturesque ruin. the valley is of such irregular width, and bends so much and often so abruptly, that there is a great variety and frequent surprise in the forms and combinations of the overhanging rocks as one rides along the bank of the stream. the patches of luxuriant meadow, with their dazzling green, and the grouping of the superb firs, two hundred feet high, that skirt them, and that shoot above the stout and graceful oaks and sycamores through which the horse path winds, are delightful rests of sweetness and beauty amid the threatening awfulness. the merced, which flows through the same pass, is a noble stream, a hundred feet wide and ten feet deep. it is formed chiefly of the streams that leap and rush through the narrower passes, and it is swollen, also, by the bounty of the marvelous waterfalls that pour down from the ramparts of the wider valley. the sublime poetry of habakkuk is needed to describe the impression, and, perhaps, the geology, of these mighty fissures: "thou didst cleave the earth with rivers." at the foot of the breakneck declivity of nearly three thousand feet by which we reach the banks of the merced, we are six miles from the hotel, and every rod of the ride awakens wonder, awe, and a solemn joy. as we approach the hotel, and turn toward the opposite bank of the river, what is that "which ever sounds and shines, a pillar of white light upon the wall of purple cliffs aloof descried"? that, reader, is the highest waterfall in the world--the yosemite cataract, nearly twenty-five hundred feet in its plunge, dashing from a break or depression in a cliff thirty-two hundred feet sheer. a writer who visited this valley in september, calls the cataract a mere tape line of water dropped from the sky. perhaps it is so, toward the close of the dry season; but as we saw it, the blended majesty and beauty of it, apart from the general sublimities of yosemite gorge, would repay a journey of a thousand miles. there was no deficiency of water. it was a powerful stream, thirty-five feet broad, fresh from the nevada, that made the plunge from the brow of the awful precipice. at the first leap it clears fourteen hundred and ninety-seven feet; then it tumbles down a series of steep stairways four hundred and two feet, and then makes a jump to the meadows five hundred and eighteen feet more. but it is the upper and highest cataract that is most wonderful to the eye, as well as most musical. the cliff is so sheer that there is no break in the body of the water during the whole of its descent of more than a quarter of a mile. it pours in a curve from the summit, fifteen hundred feet, to the basin that hoards it but a moment for the cascades that follow. and what endless complexities and opulence of beauty in the forms and motions of the cataract! it is comparatively narrow at the top of the precipice, although, as we said, the tide that pours over is thirty-five feet broad. but it widens as it descends, and curves a little on one side as it widens, so that it shapes itself, before it reaches its first bowl of granite, into the figure of a comet. more beautiful than the comet, however, we can see the substance of this watery loveliness ever renew itself and ever pour itself away. "it mounts in spray the skies, and thence again returns in an unceasing shower, which round with its unemptied cloud of gentle rain, is an eternal april to the ground, making it all one emerald;--how profound the gulf! and how the giant element from rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, crushing the cliffs." the cataract seems to shoot out a thousand serpentine heads or knots of water, which wriggle down deliberately through the air and expend themselves in mist before half the descent is over. then a new set burst from the body and sides of the fall, with the same fortune on the remaining distance; and thus the most charming fretwork of watery nodules, each trailing its vapory train for a hundred feet or more, is woven all over the cascade, which swings, now and then, thirty feet each way, on the mountain side, as if it were a pendulum of watery lace. once in a while, too, the wind manages to get back of the fall, between it and the cliff, and then it will whirl it round and round for two or three hundred feet, as if to try the experiment of twisting it to wring it dry. of course i visited the foot of the lowest fall of the yosemite, and looked up through the spray, five hundred feet, to its crown. and i tried to climb to the base of the first or highest cataract, but lost my way among the steep, sharp rocks, for there is only one line by which the cliff can be scaled. but no nearer view that i found or heard described, is comparable with the picture, from the hotel, of the comet curve of the upper cataract, fifteen hundred feet high, and the two falls immediately beneath it, in which the same water leaps to the level of the quiet merced. cxxv. a psalm of life. ( ) tell me not, in mournful numbers, life is but an empty dream! for the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem. life is real! life is earnest! and the grave is not its goal; dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul. not enjoyment, and not sorrow, is our destined end or way; but to act, that each to-morrow find us farther than to-day. art is long, and time is fleeting, and our hearts, though stout and brave, still, like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave. in the world's broad field of battle, in the bivouac of life, be not like dumb, driven cattle! be a hero in the strife! trust no future, howe'er pleasant! let the dead past bury its dead! act--act in the living present! heart within, and god o'erhead. lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time;-- footprints, that perhaps another, sailing o'er life's solemn main, a forlorn and shipwrecked brother, seeing, shall take heart again. let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait. --longfellow. cxxvi. franklin's entry into philadelphia. ( ) benjamin franklin, - , was born in boston. he received little schooling, but being apprenticed to his brother, a printer, he acquired a taste for reading and study. in , he went to philadelphia, where he followed his chosen calling, and in time became the publisher of the "pennsylvania gazette" and the celebrated "poor richard's almanac." as a philosopher franklin was rendered famous by his discovery of the identity of lightning with electricity. his career in public affairs may be briefly summarized as follows: in he was made clerk of the provincial assembly; in , deputy postmaster at philadelphia; and in , postmaster general for british america. he was twice in england as the agent of certain colonies. after signing the declaration of independence, he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to france in . on his return, in , he was made "president of the commonwealth of pennsylvania," holding the office three years. he was also one of the framers of the constitution of the united states. as a writer franklin commenced his career when only twelve years old by composing two ballads, which, however, he condemned as "wretched stuff." franklin's letters and papers on electricity, afterwards enlarged by essays on various philosophical subjects, have been translated into latin, french, italian, and german. the most noted of his works, and the one from which the following extract is taken, is his "autobiography." this book is "one of the half dozen most widely popular books ever printed," and has been published in nearly every written language. franklin founded the american philosophical society, and established an institution which has since grown into the university of pennsylvania. his life is a noble example of the results of industry and perseverance, and his death was the occasion of public mourning. ### walking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat came by, which i found was going towards philadelphia, with several people in her. they took me in, and, as there was no wind, we rowed all the way; and about midnight, not having yet seen the city, some of the company were confident we must have passed it, and would row no farther; the others knew not where we were; so we put toward the shore, got into a creek, landed near an old fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night being cold, in october, and there we remained till daylight. then one of the company knew the place to be cooper's creek, a little above philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived there about eight or nine o'clock on the sunday morning, and landed at the market street wharf. i have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure i have since made there. i was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by sea. i was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and i knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. i was fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest; i was very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a dutch dollar, and about a shilling in copper. the latter i gave the people of the boat for my passage, who at first refused it on account of my rowing; but i insisted on their taking it,--a man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little. then i walked up the street gazing about, till, near the market house, i met a boy with bread. i had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring where he got it, i went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, in second street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in boston: but they, it seems, were not made in philadelphia. then i asked for a threepenny loaf, and was told they had none such. so not considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the names of his bread, i bade him give threepenny worth of any sort. he gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. i was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and, having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other. thus i went up market street as far as fourth street, passing by the door of mr. read, my future wife's father: when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought i made, as i certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. then i turned and went down chestnut street and part of walnut street, eating my roll all the way, and, coming round, found myself again at market street wharf, near the boat i came in, to which i went for a draught of the river water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther. thus refreshed, i walked again up the street, which by this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. i joined them, and thereby was led into the great meetinghouse of the quakers, near the market. i sat down among them, and, after looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor and want of rest the preceding night, i fell fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. this was, therefore, the first house i was in, or slept in, in philadelphia. walking down again toward the river, and looking in the faces of people, i met a young quaker man, whose countenance i liked, and, accosting him, requested he would tell me where a stranger could get lodging. we were then near the sign of the three mariners. "here," says he, "is one place that entertains strangers, but it is not a reputable house; if thee wilt walk with me, i'll show thee a better." he brought me to the crooked billet, in water street. here i got a dinner; and, while i was eating it, several sly questions were asked me, as it seemed to be suspected from my youth and appearance that i might be some runaway. after dinner my sleepiness returned, and, being shown to a bed, i lay down without undressing, and slept till six in the evening; was called to supper, went to bed again very early, and slept soundly till next morning. note.--the river referred to is the delaware. franklin was on his way from boston to philadelphia, and had just walked from amboy to burlington, new jersey, a distance of fifty miles. cxxvii. lines to a waterfowl. ( ) whither 'midst falling dew, while glow the heavens with the last steps of day, far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue thy solitary way? vainly the fowler's eye might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, as, darkly painted on the crimson sky, thy figure floats along. seek'st thou the plashy brink of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, or where the rocky billows rise and sink on the chafed ocean side? there is a power whose care teaches thy way along that pathless coast. the desert and illimitable air, lone wandering, but not lost. all day, thy wings have fanned, at that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land though the dark night is near. and soon that toil shall end, soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, and scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, soon, o'er thy sheltered nest. thou'rt gone; the abyss of heaven hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart, deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, and shall not soon depart. he, who, from zone to zone, guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, in the long way that i must tread alone, will lead my steps aright. --bryant. cxxviii. goldsmith and addison. ( ) william makepeace thackeray, - , was born in calcutta, and is one of the most popular of english novelists, essayists, and humorists. while a boy, he removed from india to england, where he was educated at the charterhouse in london, and at cambridge. when twenty-one years of age, he came into possession of about , pounds. he rapidly dissipated his fortune, however, and was compelled to work for his living, first turning his attention to law and then to art, but finally choosing literature as his profession. he was for many years correspondent, under assumed names, at the "london times," "the new monthly magazine," "punch," and "fraser's magazine." his first novel under his own name, "vanity fair," appeared in monthly numbers during - , and is generally considered his finest production: although "pendennis," "henry esmond," and "the newcomes" are also much admired. his lectures on "english humorists of the eighteenth century," from which the following selections are taken, were delivered in england first in , and afterwards in america, which he visited in and again in - . during the latter visit, he first delivered his course of lectures on "the four georges," which were later repeated in england. at the close of , thackeray became editor of the "cornhill magazine," and made it one of the most successful serials ever published. thackeray has been charged with cynicism in his writings, but he was noted for his happy temper and genial disposition towards all who came in contact with him. ### . goldsmith. to be the most beloved of english writers, what a title that is for a man! a wild youth, wayward, but full of tenderness and affection, quits the country village where his boyhood has been passed in happy musing, in idle shelter, in fond longing to see the great world out of doors, and achieve name and fortune--and after years of dire struggle, and neglect, and poverty, his heart turning back as fondly to his native place as it had longed eagerly for change when sheltered there, he writes a book and a poem, full of the recollections and feelings of home; he paints the friends and scenes of his youth, and peoples auburn and wakefield with the remembrances of lissoy. wander he must, but he carries away a home relic with him, and dies with it on his breast. his nature is truant; in repose it longs for change: as on the journey it looks back for friends and quiet. he passes to-day in building an air castle for to-morrow, or in writing yesterday's elegy; and he would flyaway this hour, but that a cage, necessity, keeps him. what is the charm of his verse, of his style, and humor? his sweet regrets, his delicate compassion, his soft smile, his tremulous sympathy, the weakness which he owns? your love for him is half pity. you come hot and tired from the day's battle, and this sweet minstrel sings to you. who could harm the kind vagrant harper? whom did he ever hurt? he carries no weapon, save the harp on which he plays to you, and with which he delights great and humble, young and old, the captains in the tents, or the soldiers round the fire, or the women and children in the villages, at whose porches he stops and sings his simple songs of love and beauty. with that sweet story of "the vicar of wakefield" he has found entry into every castle and every hamlet in europe. not one of us, however busy or hard, but once or twice in our lives has passed an evening with him, and undergone the charm of his delightful music. ii. addison. ( ) we love him for his vanities as much as his virtues. what is ridiculous is delightful in him; we are so fond of him because we laugh at him so. and out of that laughter, and out of that sweet weakness, and out of those harmless eccentricities and follies, and out of that touched brain, and out of that honest manhood and simplicity--we get a result of happiness, goodness, tenderness, pity, piety; such as doctors and divines but seldom have the fortune to inspire. and why not? is the glory of heaven to be sung only by gentlemen in black coats? when this man looks from the world, whose weaknesses he describes so benevolently, up to the heaven which shines over us all, i can hardly fancy a human face lighted up with a more serene rapture; a human intellect thrilling with a purer love and adoration than joseph addison's. listen to him: from your childhood you have known the verses; but who can hear their sacred music without love and awe? "soon as the evening shades prevail, the moon takes up the wondrous tale, and nightly to the listening earth repeats the story of her birth; and all the stars that round her burn, and all the planets in their turn, confirm the tidings as they roll, and spread the truth from pole to pole. "what though, in solemn silence, all move round this dark terrestrial ball; what though no real voice nor sound among their radiant orbs be found; in reason's ear they all rejoice, and utter forth a glorious voice, forever singing, as they shine, the hand that made us is divine." it seems to me those verses shine like the stars. they shine out of a great, deep calm. when he turns to heaven, a sabbath comes over that man's mind; and his face lights up from it with a glory of thanks and prayers. his sense of religion stirs through his whole being. in the fields, in the town; looking at the birds in the trees; at the children in the streets; in the morning or in the moonlight; over his books in his own room; in a happy party at a country merrymaking or a town assembly, good will and peace to god's creatures, and love and awe of him who made them, fill his pure heart and shine from his kind face. if swift's life was the most wretched, i think addison's was one of the most enviable. a life prosperous and beautiful--a calm death--an immense fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless name. notes.--goldsmith (see biographical notice, page ) founded his descriptions of auburn in the poem of "the deserted village," and of wakefield, in "the vicar of wakefield," on recollections of his early home at lissoy. ireland. addison. see biographical notice, page . the quotation is from a "letter from italy to charles lord halifax." swift, jonathan (b. , d. ), the celebrated irish satirist and poet, was a misanthrope. his disposition made his life miserable in the extreme, and he finally became insane. cxxix. immortality of the soul. ( ) scene--cato, alone, sitting in a thoughtful posture;--in his hand, plato's book on the immortality of the soul; a drawn sword on the table by him. cato. it must be so. plato, thou reasonest well! else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, this longing after immortality? or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, of falling into naught? why shrinks the soul back on herself, and startles at destruction? 't is the divinity that stirs within us; 't is heaven itself that points out an hereafter, and intimates eternity to man. eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! through what variety of untried being, through what new scenes and changes must we pass? the wide, unbounded prospect lies before me: but shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. here will i hold. if there's a power above us, (and that there is, all nature cries aloud through all her works) he must delight in virtue; and that which he delights in must be happy. but when?--or where?--this world was made for caesar. i'm weary of conjectures--this must end them. (seizes the sword.) thus am i doubly armed: my death and life, my bane and antidote are both before me. this in a moment brings me to an end; but this informs me i shall never die. the soul, secured in her existence, smiles at the drawn dagger and defies its point. the stars shall fade away, the sun himself grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; but thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, unhurt amidst the war of elements, the wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. --addison. notes.--the above selection is cato's soliloquy just before committing suicide. it is from the tragedy of "cato." cato, marcus porcius, (b. , d. b. c.) was a roman general, statesman, and philosopher. he was exceptionally honest and conscientious, and strongly opposed caesar and pompey in their attempts to seize the state. when utica, the last african city to resist caesar, finally yielded, cato committed suicide. plato (b. , d. about b. c.) was a celebrated greek philosopher. his writings are all in the form of dialogues, and have been preserved in a wonderfully perfect state. cxxx. character of washington. ( ) jared sparks, - , was born at willington, connecticut, and graduated at harvard in . he was tutor in the university for two years, and in was ordained pastor of the unitarian church in baltimore. in he returned to boston, purchased the "north american review," and was its sole editor for seven years. from to he was professor in harvard, and for the next three years was president of the university. mr. sparks has written extensively on american history and biography, including the lives of washington and franklin. he collected the materials for his biographies with great care, and wrought them up with much skill. ### the person of washington was commanding, graceful, and fitly proportioned; his stature six feet, his chest broad and full, his limbs long and somewhat slender, but well-shaped and muscular. his features were regular and symmetrical, his eyes of a light blue color, and his whole countenance, in its quiet state, was grave, placid, and benignant. when alone, or not engaged in conversation, he appeared sedate and thoughtful; but when his attention was excited, his eye kindled quickly, and his face beamed with animation and intelligence. he was not fluent in speech, but what he said was apposite, and listened to with the more interest as being known to come from the heart. he seldom attempted sallies of wit or humor, but no man received more pleasure from an exhibition of them by others; and, although contented in seclusion, he sought his chief happiness in society, and participated with delight in all its rational and innocent amusements. without austerity on the one hand, or an appearance of condescending familiarity on the other, he was affable, courteous, and cheerful; but it has often been remarked that there was a dignity in his person and manner not easy to be defined, which impressed everyone that saw him for the first time with an instinctive deference and awe. this may have arisen, in part, from a conviction of his superiority, as well as from the effect produced by his external form and deportment. the character of his mind was unfolded in the public and private acts of his life; and the proofs of his greatness are seen almost as much in the one as the other. the same qualities which raised him to the ascendency he possessed over the will of a nation, as the commander of armies and chief magistrate, caused him to be loved and respected as an individual. wisdom, judgment, prudence, and firmness were his predominant traits. no man ever saw more clearly the relative importance of things and actions, or divested himself more entirely of the bias of personal interest, partiality, and prejudice, in discriminating between the true and the false, the right and the wrong, in all questions and subjects that were presented to him. he deliberated slowly, but decided surely; and when his decision was once formed he seldom reversed it, and never relaxed from the execution of a measure till it was completed. courage, physical and moral, was a part of his nature; and, whether in battle, or in the midst of popular excitement, he was fearless of danger, and regardless of consequences to himself. his ambition was of that noble kind which aims to excel in whatever it undertakes, and to acquire a power over the hearts of men by promoting their happiness and winning their affections. sensitive to the approbation of others, and solicitous to deserve it, he made no concessions to gain their applause, either by flattering their vanity or yielding to their caprices. cautious without timidity, bold without rashness, cool in counsel, deliberate but firm in action, clear in foresight, patient under reverses, steady, persevering, and self-possessed, he met and conquered every obstacle that obstructed his path to honor, renown and success. more confident in the uprightness of his intention than in his resources, he sought knowledge and advice from other men. he chose his counselors with unerring sagacity; and his quick perception of the soundness of an opinion, and of the strong points in an argument, enabled him to draw to his aid the best fruits of their talents, and the light of their collected wisdom. his moral qualities were in perfect harmony with those of his intellect. duty was the ruling principle of his conduct; and the rare endowments of his understanding were not more constantly tasked to devise the best methods of effecting an object, than they were to guard the sanctity of conscience. no instance can be adduced in which he was actuated by a sinister motive or endeavored to attain an end by unworthy means. truth, integrity, and justice were deeply rooted in his mind; and nothing could rouse his indignation so soon, or so utterly destroy his confidence, as the discovery of the want of these virtues in anyone whom he had trusted. weaknesses, follies, indiscretions be could forgive; but subterfuge and dishonesty he never forgot, rarely pardoned. he was candid and sincere, true to his friends, and faithful to all; neither practicing dissimulation, descending to artifice, nor holding out expectations which he did not intend should be realized. his passions were strong, and sometimes they broke out with vehemence: but he had the power of checking them in an instant. perhaps self-control was the most remarkable trait of his character. it was, in part, the effect of discipline; yet he seems by nature to have possessed this power in a degree which has been denied to other men. a christian in faith and practice, he was habitually devout. his reverence for religion is seen in his example, his public communications, and his private writings. he uniformly ascribed his successes to the beneficent agency of the supreme being. charitable and humane, he was liberal to the poor, and kind to those in distress. as a husband, son, and brother, he was tender and affectionate. without vanity, ostentation, or pride, he never spoke of himself or his actions unless required by circumstances which concerned the public interests. as he was free from envy, so he had the good fortune to escape the envy of others by standing on an elevation which none could hope to attain. if he had one passion more strong than another it was love of his country. the purity and ardor of his patriotism were commensurate with the greatness of its object. love of country in him was invested with the sacred obligation of a duty; and from the faithful discharge of this duty he never swerved for a moment, either in thought or deed, through the whole period of his eventful career. such are some of the traits in the character of washington, which have acquired for him the love and veneration of mankind. if they are not marked with the brilliancy, extravagance, and eccentricity, which, in other men, have excited the astonishment of the world, so neither are they tarnished by the follies, nor disgraced by the crimes of those men. it is the happy combination of rare talents and qualities, the harmonious union of the intellectual and moral powers, rather than the dazzling splendor of any one trait, which constitute the grandeur of his character. if the title of great man ought to be reserved for him who can not be charged with an indiscretion or a vice; who spent his life in establishing the independence, the glory, and durable prosperity of his country; who succeeded in all that he undertook; and whose successes were never won at the expense of honor, justice, integrity, or by the sacrifice of a single principle,--this title will not be denied to washington. how sweetly on the ear such echoes sound! while the mere victors may appall or stun the servile and the vain, such names will be a watchword till the future shall be free. --byron. cxxxi. eulogy on washington. ( ) general henry lee, - , a member of the celebrated lee family of virginia, was born in westmoreland county in that state, and died on cumberland island, georgia. he graduated at princeton in his eighteenth year. in he marched with a regiment of cavalry to join the patriot army, and served with fidelity and success till the close of the war. he was noted for his bravery, skill, and celerity, and received the nickname of "light-horse harry." he was a great favorite with both general greene and general washington. in virginia appointed him one of her delegates to congress; he also took an active part in favor of the adoption of the constitution in the virginia convention of . on the breaking out of the "whisky rebellion" in pennsylvania, in , the president sent general lee with an army to suppress the disturbance. the insurgents submitted without resistance. in he was again a member of congress; and, on the death of washington, that body appointed him to pronounce a eulogy upon the life and character of the great and good man. the following extract contains the closing part of the oration. ### who is there that has forgotten the vales of brandywine, the fields of germantown, or the plains of monmouth? everywhere present, wants of every kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering republic. shall i display to you the spread of the fire of his soul by rehearsing the praises of the hero of saratoga, and his much-loved compeer of the carolinas? no; our washington wears not borrowed glory. to gates--to greene, he gave without reserve the applause due to their eminent merit; and long may the chiefs of saratoga and of eutaw receive the grateful respect of a grateful people. moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites; and, combining the physical and moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistible weight he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until the auspicious hour arrived, when, united with the intrepid forces of a potent and magnanimous ally, he brought to submission cornwallis, since the conqueror of india; thus finishing his long career of military glory with a luster corresponding to his great name, and in this his last act of war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth. first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and endearing scenes of private life. pious, just, humane, temperate, sincere, uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting. to his equals, he was condescending; to his inferiors, kind; and to the dear object of his affections, exemplarily tender. correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues. his last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan, escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. such was the man america has lost! such was the man for whom our nation mourns! notes.--at brandywine creek, in pennsylvania, , british, under howe, defeated , americans under washington. germantown, near philadelphia, was the scene of an american defeat by the british, the same generals commanding as at brandywine. the battle of monmouth, in new jersey, resulted in victory for the americans. the hero of saratoga was general gates, who there compelled the surrender of general burgoyne. at eutaw springs, general greene defeated a superior force of british. cornwallis, charles, second earl and first marquis (b. , d. ), surrendered his forces to a combined american and french army and french fleet at yorktown, in , virtually ending the war. cxxxii. the solitary reaper. ( ) william wordsworth, - , the founder of the "lake school" of poets, was born at cockermouth, cumberland, england. from his boyhood he was a great lover and student of nature, and it is to his beautiful descriptions of landscape, largely, that he owes his fame. he was a graduate of cambridge university, and while there commenced the study of chaucer, spenser, milton, and shakespeare, as models for his own writings. two legacies having been bequeathed him, wordsworth determined to make poetry the aim of his life, and in located at racedown with his sister dorothy, where he commenced the tragedy of "the borderers." a visit from coleridge at this period made the two poets friends for life. in wordsworth married miss mary hutchinson, and in he settled at rydal mount, on lake windermere, where he passed the remainder of his life. wordsworth's poetry is remarkable for its extreme simplicity of language. at first his efforts were almost universally ridiculed, and in his entire income from literary work had not amounted to pounds. in his merit began to be recognized; in oxford university conferred upon him the degree of d. c. l.; and in he was made poet laureate. "the excursion" is by far the most beautiful and the most important of wordsworth's productions. "salisbury plain," "the white doe of rylstone," "yarrow revisited," and many of his sonnets and minor poems are also much admired. ### behold her, single in the field, yon solitary highland lass! reaping and singing by herself; stop here, or gently pass! alone she cuts and binds the grain, and sings a melancholy strain; oh listen! for the vale profound is overflowing with the sound. no nightingale did ever chant more welcome notes to weary bands of travelers in some shady haunt, among arabian sands: a voice so thrilling ne'er was heard in springtime from the cuckoo bird, breaking the silence of the seas among the farthest hebrides. will no one tell me what she sings? perhaps the plaintive numbers flow for old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago: or is it some more humble lay, familiar matter of to-day? some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, that has been, and may be again? whate'er the theme, the maiden sang as if her song could have no ending; i saw her singing at her work, and o'er the sickle bending;-- i listened motionless and still; and, as i mounted up the hill, the music in my heart i bore, long after it was heard no more. cxxxiii. value of the present. ( ) ralph waldo emerson, - , the celebrated essayist and philosopher, was born in boston. his father was a unitarian minister, and the son, after graduating at harvard university, entered the ministry also, and took charge of a unitarian congregation in boston. his peculiar ideas on religious topics soon caused him to retire from the ministry, and he then devoted himself to literature. as a lecturer, emerson attained a wide reputation, both in this country and in england, and he is considered as one of the most independent and original thinkers of the age. his style is brief and pithy, dazzling by its wit, but sometimes paradoxical. he wrote a few poems, but they are not generally admired, being didactic in style, bare, and obscure. among his best known publications are his volume "nature," and his lectures, "the mind and manners of the nineteenth century," "the superlative in manners and literature," "english character and manners," and "the conduct of life." in appeared "representative men," embracing sketches of plato, swedenborg, montaigne, shakespeare, napoleon, and goethe. such are the days,--the earth is the cup, the sky is the cover, of the immense bounty of nature which is offered us for our daily aliment; but what a force of illusion begins life with us, and attends us to the end! we are coaxed, flattered, and duped, from morn to eve, from birth to death; and where is the old eye that ever saw through the deception? the hindoos represent maia, the illusory energy of vishnu, as one of his principal attributes. as if, in this gale of warring elements, which life is, it was necessary to bind souls to human life as mariners in a tempest lash themselves to the mast and bulwarks of a ship, and nature employed certain illusions as her ties and straps,--a rattle, a doll, an apple, for a child; skates, a river, a boat, a horse, a gun, for the growing boy;--and i will not begin to name those of the youth and adult, for they are numberless. seldom and slowly the mask falls, and the pupil is permitted to see that all is one stuff, cooked and painted under many counterfeit appearances. hume's doctrine was that the circumstances vary, the amount of happiness does not; that the beggar cracking fleas in the sunshine under a hedge, and the duke rolling by in his chariot, the girl equipped for her first ball, and the orator returning triumphant from the debate, had different means, but the same quantity of pleasant excitement. this element of illusion lends all its force to hide the values of present time. who is he that does not always find himself doing something less than his best task? "what are you doing?" "oh, nothing; i have been doing thus, or i shall do so or so, but now i am only--" ah! poor dupe, will you never slip out of the web of the master juggler?--never learn that, as soon as the irrecoverable years have woven their blue glory between to-day and us, these passing hours shall glitter and draw us, as the wildest romance and the homes of beauty and poetry? how difficult to deal erect with them! the events they bring, their trade, entertainments, and gossip, their urgent work, all throw dust in the eyes and distract attention. he is a strong man who can look them in the eye, see through this juggle, feel their identity, and keep his own; who can know surely that one will be like another to the end of the world, nor permit love, or death, or politics, or money, war, or pleasure, to draw him from his task. the world is always equal to itself, and every man in moments of deeper thought is apprised that he is repeating the experiences of the people in the streets of thebes or byzantium. an everlasting now reigns in nature, which hangs the same roses on our bushes which charmed the roman and the chaldean in their hanging gardens. "to what end, then," he asks, "should i study languages, and traverse countries, to learn so simple truths?" history of ancient art, excavated cities, recovery of books and inscriptions,--yes, the works were beautiful, and the history worth knowing; and academies convene to settle the claims of the old schools. what journeys and measurements,--niebuhr and muller and layard,--to identify the plain of troy and nimroud town! and your homage to dante costs you so much sailing; and to ascertain the discoverers of america needs as much voyaging as the discovery cost. poor child! that flexible clay of which these old brothers molded their admirable symbols was not persian, nor memphian, nor teutonic, nor local at all, but was common lime and silex and water, and sunlight, the heat of the blood, and the heaving of the lungs; it was that clay which thou heldest but now in thy foolish hands, and threwest away to go and seek in vain in sepulchers, mummy pits, and old bookshops of asia minor, egypt, and england. it was the deep to-day which all men scorn; the rich poverty, which men hate; the populous, all-loving solitude, which men quit for the tattle of towns. he lurks, he hides,--he who is success, reality, joy, and power. one of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. no man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is doomsday. 't is the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises. 't is the vulgar great who come dizened with gold and jewels. real kings hide away their crowns in their wardrobes, and affect a plain and poor exterior. in the norse legend of our ancestors, odin dwells in a fisher's hut, and patches a boat. in the hindoo legends, hari dwells a peasant among peasants. in the greek legend, apollo lodges with the shepherds of admetus; and jove liked to rusticate among the poor ethiopians. so, in our history, jesus is born in a barn, and his twelve peers are fishermen. 't is the very principle of science that nature shows herself best in leasts; 't was the maxim of aristotle and lucretius; and, in modern times, of swedenborg and of hahnemann. the order of changes in the egg determines the age of fossil strata. so it was the rule of our poets, in the legends of fairy lore, that the fairies largest in power were the least in size. in the christian graces, humility stands highest of all, in the form of the madonna; and in life, this is the secret of the wise. we owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting disguised in the seeming gang of gypsies and peddlers. in daily life, what distinguishes the master is the using those materials he has, instead of looking about for what are more renowned, or what others have used well. "a general," said bonaparte, "always has troops enough, if he only knows how to employ those he has, and bivouacs with them." do not refuse the employment which the hour brings you, for one more ambitious. the highest heaven of wisdom is alike near from every point, and thou must find it, if at all, by methods native to thyself alone. notes.--the brahmanic religion teaches a trinity, of which vishnu is the savior of mankind. thebes, the ancient capital of upper egypt, was at its most flourishing period about b. c. byzantium was an important greek city during the second and third centuries b. c. niebuhr (b. , d. ), muller (b. , d. ), and layard (b. , d. ), are celebrated archaeologists. the first two were germans, and the last an englishman. cxxxiv. happiness. ( ) alexander pope, - , was the shining literary light of the so-called augustan reign of queen anne, the poetry of which was distinguished by the highest degree of polish and elegance. pope was the son of a retired linen draper, who lived in a pleasant country house near the windsor forest. he was so badly deformed that his life was "one long disease;" he was remarkably precocious, and had a most intelligent face, with great, flaming, tender eyes. in disposition pope was the reverse of admirable. he was extremely sensitive, petulant, and supercilious; fierce and even coarse in his attacks on opponents; boastful of his self-acquired wealth and of his intimacy with the nobility. the great redeeming feature of his character was his tender devotion to his aged parents. as a poet, however, pope challenges the highest admiration. at the age of sixteen he commenced his "pastorals," and when only twenty-one published his "essay on criticism," pronounced "the finest piece of argumentative and reasoning poetry in the english language." his reputation was now firmly established, and his literary activity ceased only at his death; although, during the latter portion of his life, he was so weak physically that he was unable to dress himself or even to rise from bed without assistance. pope's great admiration was dryden, whose style he studied and copied. he lacks the latter's strength, but in elegance and polish he remains unequaled. pope's most remarkable work is "the rape of the lock;" his greatest, the translation into english verse of homer's "iliad" and "odyssey." his "epistle of eloisa to abelard," "the dunciad," and the "essay on man" are also famous productions. he published an edition of "shakespeare," which was awaited with great curiosity, and received with equal disappointment. during the three years following its appearance, he united with swift and arbuthnot in writing the "miscellanies," an extensive satire on the abuses of learning and the extravagances of philosophy. his "epistles," addressed to various distinguished men, and covering a period of four years, were copied after those of horace; they were marked by great clearness, neatness of diction, and good sense, and by pope's usual elegance and grace. his "imitations of horace" was left unfinished at his death. the following selection is an extract from the "essay on man;" ### oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, by mountains piled on mountains, to the skies? heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, and buries madmen in the heaps they raise. know all the good that individuals find, or god and nature meant to mere mankind. reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, lie in three words,--health, peace, and competence. but health consists with temperance alone; and peace, o virtue! peace is all thy own. the good or bad the gifts of fortune gain; but these less taste them as they worse obtain. say, in pursuit of profit or delight, who risk the most, that take wrong means or right? of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst, which meets contempt, or which compassion first? count all th' advantage prosperous vice attains, 't is but what virtue flies from and disdains: and grant the bad what happiness they would, one they must want, which is, to pass for good. oh, blind to truth, and god's whole scheme below, who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe! who sees and follows that great scheme the best, best knows the blessing, and will most be blest. but fools the good alone unhappy call, for ills or accidents that chance to all. think we, like some weak prince, the eternal cause, prone for his favorites to reverse his laws? shall burning aetna, if a sage requires, forget to thunder, and recall her fires? when the loose mountain trembles from on high, shall gravitation cease, if you go by? "but sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed." what, then? is the reward of virtue bread? that, vice may merit, 't is the price of toil; the knave deserves it when he tills the soil, the knave deserves it when he tempts the main, where folly fights for kings or dives for gain. honor and shame from no condition rise; act well your part, there all the honor lies. worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; the rest is all but leather or prunella. a wit's a feather, and a chief a rod, an honest man's the noblest work of god. one self-approving hour whole years outweighs of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas. know then this truth (enough for man to know), "virtue alone is happiness below." the only point where human bliss stands still, and tastes the good without the fall to ill; where only merit constant pay receives, is blest in what it takes and what it gives. cxxxv. marion. ( ) william gilmore simms, - , one of the most versatile, prolific, and popular of american authors, was born at charleston, south carolina. his family was poor, and his means of education were limited, yet he managed to prepare himself for the bar, to which he was admitted when twenty-one years of age. the law proving uncongenial, he abandoned it, and in became editor of the "charleston city gazette." from this time till his death his literary activity was unceasing, and his writings were so numerous that it is possible only to group them under their various heads. they comprise biography; history; historical romance, both foreign and domestic, the latter being further divided into colonial, revolutionary, and border romances; pure romance; the drama; poetry; and criticism; besides miscellaneous books and pamphlets. in the midst of this remarkable literary activity, mr. simms still found time to devote to the affairs of state, being for several years a member of the south carolina legislature. he was also a lecturer, and was connected editorially with several magazines. most of his time was spent at his summer house in charleston, and at his winter residence, "woodlands," on a plantation at midway, s. c. the following selection is from "the life and times of francis marion." ### art had done little to increase the comforts or the securities of his fortress. it was one, complete to his hands, from those of nature--such an one as must have delighted the generous english outlaw of sherwood forest; insulated by deep ravines and rivers, a dense forest of mighty trees, and interminable undergrowth. the vine and brier guarded his passes. the laurel and the shrub, the vine and sweet-scented jessamine roofed his dwelling, and clambered up between his closed eyelids and the stars. obstructions scarcely penetrable by any foe, crowded the pathways to his tent; and no footstep not practiced in the secret, and to "the manner born," might pass unchallenged to his midnight rest. the swamp was his moat; his bulwarks were the deep ravines, which, watched by sleepless rifles, were quite as impregnable as the castles on the rhine. here, in the possession of his fortress, the partisan slept secure. his movements were marked by equal promptitude and wariness. he suffered no risks from a neglect of proper precaution. his habits of circumspection and resolve ran together in happy unison. his plans, carefully considered beforehand, were always timed with the happiest reference to the condition and feelings of his men. to prepare that condition, and to train those feelings, were the chief employment of his repose. he knew his game, and how it should be played, before a step was taken or a weapon drawn. when he himself or any of his parties left the island upon an expedition, they advanced along no beaten paths. they made them as they went. he had the indian faculty in perfection, of gathering his course from the sun, from the stars, from the bark and the tops of trees, and such other natural guides as the woodman acquires only through long and watchful experience. many of the trails thus opened by him, upon these expeditions, are now the ordinary avenues of the country. on starting, he almost invariably struck into the woods, and seeking the heads of the larger water courses, crossed them at their first and small beginnings. he destroyed the bridges where he could. he preferred fords. the former not only facilitated the progress of less fearless enemies, but apprised them of his own approach. if speed was essential, a more direct but not less cautious route was pursued. he intrusted his schemes to nobody, not even his most confidential officers. he consulted with them respectfully, heard them patiently, weighed their suggestions, and silently approached his conclusions. they knew his determinations only from his actions. he left no track behind him, if it were possible to avoid it. he was often vainly hunted after by his own detachments. he was more apt at finding them than they him. his scouts were taught a peculiar and shrill whistle, which, at night, could be heard at a most astonishing distance. we are reminded of a signal of roderick dhu:-- "he whistled shrill, and he was answered from the hill; wild as the scream of the curlew, from crag to crag the signal flew." his expeditions were frequently long, and his men, hurrying forth without due preparation, not unfrequently suffered much privation from want of food. to guard against this danger, it was their habit to watch his cook. if they saw him unusually busied in preparing supplies of the rude, portable food which it was marion's custom to carry on such occasions, they knew what was before them, and provided themselves accordingly. in no other way could they arrive at their general's intentions. his favorite time for moving was with the setting sun, and then it was known that the march would continue all night. his men were badly clothed in homespun,--a light wear which afforded little warmth. they slept in the open air, and frequently without a blanket. their ordinary food consisted of sweet potatoes, garnished, on fortunate occasions, with lean beef. their swords, unless taken from the enemy, were made out of mill saws, roughly manufactured by a forest blacksmith. his scouts were out in all directions, and at all hours. they did the double duty of patrol and spies. they hovered about the posts of the enemy, crouching in the thicket, or darting along the plain, picking up prisoners, and information, and spoils together. they cut off stragglers, encountered patrols of the foe, and arrested his supplies on the way to the garrison. sometimes the single scout, buried in the thick tops of the tree, looked down upon the march of his legions, or hung, perched over the hostile encampment, till it slept; then slipping down, stole through the silent host, carrying off a drowsy sentinel, or a favorite charger, upon which the daring spy flourished conspicuous among his less fortunate companions. notes.--the outlaw of sherwood forest was robin hood. roderick dhu is a character in sir walter scott's poem, "the lady of the lake," from which the quotation is taken. cxxxvi. a common thought. ( ) henry timrod, - , was born at charleston, south carolina. he inherited his father's literary taste and ability, and had the advantages of a liberal education. he entered the university of georgia before he was seventeen years of age, and while there commenced his career as a poet. poverty and ill health compelled him to leave the university without taking a degree; he then commenced the study of law, and for ten years taught in various private families. at the outbreak of the war, in , he warmly espoused the southern cause, and wrote many stirring war lyrics. in he joined the army of the west, as correspondent of the charleston "mercury," and in he became editor of the "south carolinian," published first at columbia and later at charleston. he also served for a time as assistant secretary to governor orr. the advance of sherman's army reduced him to poverty, and he was compelled to the greatest drudgery in order to earn a bare living. his health soon broke down, and he died of hemorrhage of the lungs. the following little poem seems, almost, to have been written under a presentiment, so accurately does it describe the closing incidents of the poet's life. the first volume of timrod's poems appeared in . a later edition, with a memoir of the author, was published in new york in . ### somewhere on this earthly planet in the dust of flowers that be, in the dewdrop, in the sunshine, sleeps a solemn day for me. at this wakeful hour of midnight i behold it dawn in mist, and i hear a sound of sobbing through the darkness,--hist! oh, hist! in a dim and musky chamber, i am breathing life away; some one draws a curtain softly, and i watch the broadening day. as it purples in the zenith, as it brightens on the lawn, there's a hush of death about me, and a whisper, "he is gone!" cxxxvii. a definite aim in reading. ( ) noah porter, - , was born at farmington, conn., and graduated at yale in . he remained in new haven as a school-teacher, a tutor in college, and a student in the theological department until , when he entered the ministry. in he was recalled to the college as clark professor of moral philosophy and metaphysics; and in he also assumed the duties of the professorship of systematic theology, for a period of seven years. upon the retirement of president woolsey in , he was elected to fill the office, which he held until , being the eleventh president of the college. president porter's greatest literary work is entitled, "the human intellect: with an introduction upon psychology and the human soul." it is remarkable for the clear thought and sound judgment it displays, as well as for its broad scholarship; and it has been pronounced "the most complete and exhaustive exhibition of the cognitive faculties of the human soul to be found in our language." his other important works are: "the sciences of nature versus the science of man," which is a review of the doctrines of herbert spencer; "american colleges and the american public;" and the book from which the following selection is taken, namely, "books and reading." besides these he wrote numerous essays, contributions to periodicals, etc. during his professorship he was called upon to act as chief editor in the important work of revising "webster's dictionary." the edition of was the result of his careful oversight, and the subsequent revisions were also under his superintendence. ## in reading, we do well to propose to ourselves definite ends and purposes. the more distinctly we are aware of our own wants and desires in reading, the more definite and permanent will be our acquisitions. hence it is a good rule to ask ourselves frequently, "why am i reading this book, essay, or poem? or why am i reading it at the present time rather than any other?" it may often be a satisfying answer, that it is convenient; that the book happens to be at hand: or that we read to pass away the time. such reasons are often very good, but they ought not always to satisfy us. yet the very habit of proposing these questions, however they may be answered, will involve the calling of ourselves to account for our reading, and the consideration of it in the light of wisdom and duty. the distinct consciousness of some object at present before us, imparts a manifoldly greater interest to the contents of any volume. it imparts to the reader an appropriate power, a force of affinity, by which he insensibly and unconsciously attracts to himself all that has a near or even a remote relation to the end for which he reads. anyone is conscious of this who reads a story with the purpose of repeating it to an absent friend; or an essay or a report with the design of using its facts or arguments in a debate; or a poem with the design of reviving its imagery, and reciting its finest passages. indeed, one never learns to read effectively until he learns to read in such a spirit--not always, indeed, for a definite end, yet always with a mind attent to appropriate and retain and turn to the uses of culture, if not to a more direct application. the private history of every self-educated man, from franklin onwards, attests that they all were uniformly not only earnest but select in their reading, and that they selected their books with distinct reference to the purposes for which they used them. indeed, the reason why self-trained men so often surpass men who are trained by others in the effectiveness and success of their reading, is that they know for what they read and study, and have definite aims and wishes in all their dealings with books. the omnivorous and indiscriminate reader, who is at the same time a listless and passive reader, however ardent is his curiosity, can never be a reader of the most effective sort. another good rule is suggested by the foregoing. always have some solid reading in hand; i. e., some work or author which we carry forward from one day to another, or one hour of leisure to the next, with persistence, till we have finished whatever we have undertaken. there are many great and successful readers who do not observe this rule, but it is a good rule notwithstanding. the writer once called upon one of the most extensive and persevering of modern travelers, at an early hour of the day, to attend him upon a walk to a distant village. it was after breakfast, and though he had but few minutes at command, he was sitting with book in hand--a book of solid history he was perusing day after day. he remarked: "this has been my habit for years in all my wanderings. it is the one habit which gives solidity to my intellectual activities and imparts tone to my life. it is only in this way that i can overcome and counteract the tendency to the dissipation of my powers and the distraction of my attention, as strange persons and strange scenes present themselves from day to day." to the rule already given--read with a definite aim--we could add the rule--make your aims to be definite by continuously holding them rigidly to a single book at all times, except when relaxation requires you to cease to work, and to live for amusement and play. always have at least one iron in the fire, and kindle the fire at least once every day. it is implied in the preceding that we should read upon definite subjects, and with a certain method and proportion in the choice of our books. if we have a single object to accomplish in our reading for the present, that object will of necessity direct the choice of what we read, and we shall arrange our reading with reference to this single end. this will be a nucleus around which our reading will for the moment naturally gather and arrange itself. if several subjects seem to us equally important and interesting, we should dispose of them in order, and give to each for the time our chief and perhaps our exclusive attention. that this is wise is so obvious as not to require illustration. "one thing at a time," is an accepted condition for all efficient activity, whether it is employed upon things or thoughts, upon men or books. if five or ten separate topics have equal claim upon our interest and attention, we shall do to each the amplest justice, if we make each in its turn the central subject of our reading. there is little danger of weariness or monotony from the workings of such a rule. most single topics admit or require a considerable variety of books, each different from the other, and each supplementing the other. hence it is one of the best of practices in prosecuting a course of reading, to read every author who can cast any light upon the subject which we have in hand. for example, if we are reading the history of the great rebellion in england, we should read, if we can, not a single author only, as clarendon, but a half dozen or a half score, each of whom writes from his own point of view, supplies what another omits, or corrects what he under- or overstates. but, besides the formal histories of the period, there are the various novels, the scenes and characters of which are placed in those times, such as scott's woodstock; there are also diaries, such as those by evelyn, pepys, and burton; and there are memoirs, such as those of col. hutchinson; while the last two have been imitated in scores of fictions. there are poems, such as those of andrew marvell, milton, and dryden. there are also shoals of political tracts and pamphlets, of handbills and caricatures. we name these various descriptions of works and classes of reading, not because we suppose all of them are accessible to those readers who live at a distance from large public libraries, or because we would advise everyone who may have access to such libraries, to read all these books and classes of books as a matter of course, but because we would illustrate how great is the variety of books and reading matter that are grouped around a single topic, and are embraced within a single period. every person must judge for himself how long a time he can bestow upon any single subject, or how many and various are the books in respect to it which it is wise to read; but of this everyone may be assured, that it is far easier, far more agreeable, and far more economical of time and energy, to concentrate the attention upon a single subject at a time than to extend it to half a score, and that six books read in succession or together upon a single topic, are far more interesting and profitable than twice as many which treat of topics remotely related. a lady well known to the writer, of the least possible scholarly pretensions or literary notoriety, spent fifteen months of leisure, snatched by fragments from onerous family cares and brilliant social engagements, in reading the history of greece as written by a great variety of authors and as illustrated by many accessories of literature and art. nor should it be argued that such rules as these, or the habits which they enjoin, are suitable for scholars only, or for people who have much leisure for reading. it should rather be urged that those who can read the fewest books and who have at command the scantiest time, should aim to read with the greatest concentration and method; should occupy all of their divided energy with single centers of interest, and husband the few hours which they can command, in reading whatever converges to a definite, because to a single, impression. cxxxviii. ode to mt. blanc. ( ) samuel taylor coleridge, - , was born in devonshire, england, and was educated at christ's hospital and cambridge university. through poverty he was compelled to enlist in the army, but his literary attainments soon brought him into notice, and he was enabled to withdraw from the distasteful life. coleridge's fame arises chiefly from his poems, of which the "rime of the ancient mariner," "genevieve," and "christabel" may be classed among the best of english poetry. he also wrote a number of dramas, besides numerous essays on religious and political topics. as a conversationalist coleridge had a remarkable reputation, and among his ardent admirers and friends may be ranked southey, wordsworth, lovell, lamb, and de quincey. he and his friends southey and lovell married sisters, and talked at one time of founding a community on the banks of the susquehanna. although possessing such brilliant natural gifts, coleridge fell far short of what he might have attained, through a great lack of energy and application, increased by an excessive use of opium. ### hast thou a charm to stay the morning star in his steep course? so long he seems to pause on thy bald, awful head, o sovran blanc! the arve and arveiron at thy base rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form, risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, how silently! around thee and above, deep is the air and dark, substantial, black-- an ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it, as with a wedge! but when i look again, it is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, thy habitation from eternity! o dread and silent mount! i gazed upon thee till thou, still present to the bodily sense, didst vanish from my thoughts: entranced in prayer, i worshiped the invisible alone. yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening to it, thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought-- yea, with my life and life's own secret joy till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, into the mighty vision passing--there, as in her natural form, swelled vast to heaven! awake, my soul! not only passive praise thou owest! not alone these swelling tears, mute thanks and secret ecstasy! awake, voice of sweet song! awake, my heart, awake! green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn. thou first and chief, sole sovran of the vale! oh, struggling with the darkness all the night, and visited all night by troops of stars, or when they climb the sky, or when they sink-- companion of the morning star at dawn, thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn coherald--wake, oh wake, and utter praise! who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth? who filled thy countenance with rosy light? who made thee parent of perpetual streams? and you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! who called you forth from night and utter death, from dark and icy caverns called you forth, down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, forever shattered, and the same forever? who gave you your invulnerable life, your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, unceasing thunder, and eternal foam? and who commanded (and the silence came), here let the billows stiffen, and have rest? ye icefalls! ye that from the mountain's brow adown enormous ravines slope amain-- torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, and stopped at once amid their maddest plunge! motionless torrents! silent cataracts! who made you glorious as the gates of heaven beneath the keen full moon? who bade the sun clothe you with rainbows? who, with living flowers of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? god!--let the torrents, like a shout of nations, answer! and let the ice plains echo, god! god! sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice! ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! and they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, and in their perilous fall shall thunder, god! ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest! ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm! ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! ye signs and wonders of the elements! utter forth, god, and fill the hills with praise! thou, too, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene, into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast-- thou too again, stupendous mountain! thou that as i raise my head, awhile bowed low in adoration, upward from thy base, slow traveling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, solemnly seemest, like a vapory cloud, to rise before me.--rise, oh ever rise! rise like a cloud of incense from the earth! thou kingly spirit throned among the hills, thou dread embassador from earth to heaven, great hierarch! tell thou the silent sky, and tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, earth, with her thousand voices, praises god. reading made easy for foreigners third reader by john l. hÜlshof teacher of modern languages in the public schools of new york city hinds, noble & eldredge - - west th street, new york city copyright, , by hinds, noble & eldredge preface this reader is intended more particularly for pupils in class a of the public evening schools. the pupils of this class may be considered as having passed the transition stage of which mention was made in the second reader, and as having entered upon the last stage in acquiring the english language. they have not only acquired a considerable vocabulary, but have now a practical mastery of our vernacular. they use english in their conversation; in short, they have acquired the power of expressing their feelings and thoughts in the english language. notwithstanding all this, they are conscious of the fact that their _language_ is less idiomatic than that of the native born, and their power over the written expression is wofully weak. to remedy these defects, they flock to the evening schools. they have decided to make this country their permanent home, and they are deeply interested in everything appertaining to our government, our institutions, our literature, in fact our civilization. a glance at the contents of this reader will convince the experienced teacher that the reading material is many-sided enough to satisfy the demands of both teacher and pupils. that this series of readers may become a powerful incentive in implanting right ideals of social conduct, and lay the foundation of true american citizenship, is the heartfelt wish of the author. contents preface remarks to the teacher lessons. i. flag day ii. breathe pure air iii. coffee iv. our national flag v. press on vi. resignation vii. statue of liberty in new york harbor viii. independence ix. newfoundland x. the use of trifles xi. rosa bonheur xii. alexander and the robber xiii. the american indian xiv. the first steamboat xv. knowledge and education xvi. tact and talent xvii. george washington, part i xviii. behavior xix. essence of the constitution of the united states xx. the art of observation xxi. letters xxii. reaping and mowing machines xxiii. ali baba xxiv. birds xxv. sleep xxvi. curious birds' nests xxvii. business qualifications xxviii. abbreviations of names of states xxix. the sun xxx. ivory xxxi. flowers xxxii. the mosquito xxxiii. self-reliance xxxiv. franklin's toast xxxv. humanity rewarded xxxvi. work proclaims a workman xxxvii. republics xxxviii. false notions of liberty xxxix. the voice xl. the intrepid youth xli. autumn xlii. words and their meaning xliii. how to select a boy xliv. salt xlv. studies xlvi. rules of behavior xlvii. using the eyes xlviii. the affection and reverence due a mother xlix. wheat l. countenance and character li. the value of time lii. the study of civics liii. the sea and its uses liv. wonderland lv. our country to-day, part i lvi. our country to-day, part ii lvii. pictures from american history lviii. thomas a. edison lix. abraham lincoln lx. address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at gettysburg lxi. wages lxii. love for the dead lxiii. economy of time lxiv. george stephenson, the engineer lxv. george washington, part ii lxvi. benjamin franklin lxvii. nobility rewarded poetry selection. i. a city street ii. the ship of state iii. be true iv. bring back my flowers v. "old ironsides" vi. treasure trove vii. the heritage viii. the star-spangled banner ix. the sword of bunker hill x. the hunters xi. my fatherland xii. woodman, spare that tree xiii. prayer in battle xiv. the retort xv. a psalm of life xvi. the old oaken bucket xvii. oft in the stilly night xviii. the picket of the potomac xix. columbia, the gem of the ocean; or, red, white, and blue xx. recessional xxi. human progress xxii. give me the people miscellaneous characteristic of heroism constitution of the united states declaration of independence freedom of thought useful information wise sayings remarks to the teacher complete answers should be given by the pupils. the simple words "yes" or "no" do not constitute an answer in these exercises; such expressions give no practice in the use of the language. the teacher should prepare himself thoroughly for each lesson in order to ask many pointed questions relative to the reading matter. the entire time spent in reading the lesson and questioning the class should not exceed thirty minutes. too much detail will only confuse and fatigue the pupils. five or six words that present any difficulty _either in spelling or pronunciation_ may be selected from the reading lesson for dictation. such words should not be given singly, but rather in short sentences. these sentences may first be read by the class from the blackboard and then copied. after new slips have been distributed, the same sentences should then be written from dictation (the writing on the blackboard being covered or erased in the meantime). the pupils are afterwards required to compare their work with that on the board and make the necessary corrections themselves. reading made easy for foreigners third reader lesson i flag day in this fair land of ours you can see the stars and stripes floating over every public school. this beautiful flag stands for our country. every american is proud of his country's flag. it stands for all that is good and dear to an american. it stands for liberty. it proclaims liberty to all. every star stands for liberty. every stripe stands for liberty. it stands for liberty of thought and liberty of speech as well. the first american flag was made in june, , by mrs. ross, in the city of philadelphia. when general washington saw the flag, he was delighted with it. every american is not only delighted with it, but he loves the dear old flag. the fourteenth day of june of each year is set apart as flag day. "_i pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all_." development of the above lesson according to the rational method. _see remarks to the teacher, page vii_. what kind of a land is ours? what is meant by the stars and stripes? over what buildings do we see the flag floating? what kind of a flag is it? for what does our flag stand? for what else does it stand? what does our flag proclaim? who is proud of the flag? what does our flag tell to all the people? how many stars are there in the flag? for what does each star stand? when was the first american flag made? by whom was it made? in what city was it made? what did washington think of it when he saw it? how do we americans look upon the flag? when is flag day? etc., etc. dictation exercises _see remarks to the teacher, page vii_. our country has a _beautiful_ flag. this flag _proclaims_ or declares liberty to the people. i am _delighted_ with my country's flag. i pledge _allegiance_ or _fidelity_ to my flag. our nation is _indivisible_; it cannot be parted. selection i a city street i love the woods, the fields, the streams, the wild flowers fresh and sweet, and yet i love no less than these the crowded city street; for haunts of men, where'er they be, awake my deepest sympathy. i see within the city street life's most extreme estates; the gorgeous domes of palaces; the dismal prison gates; the hearths by household virtues blest, the dens that are the serpent's nest. i see the rich man, proudly fed and richly clothed, pass by; i see the shivering, houseless wretch with hunger in his eye; for life's severest contrasts meet forever in the city street. hence is it that a city street can deepest thoughts impart, for all its people, high and low, are kindred to my heart; and with a yearning love i share in all their joy, their pain, their care. _mary howitt_. _questions_: can you put this little poem in prose? tell what you admire in nature. then tell what you observe in the city. tell about the rich and where they live. also about the poor and how they are housed and clothed. let us write a composition together. lesson ii breathe pure air some boys were playing hide-and-seek one day, when one of their number thought it would be good sport to hide little robert in a large empty trunk. he did so and then turned the key in the lock. the little fellow in the chest was very quiet indeed, and they almost forgot about him. after some time they thought of him and some one went to the trunk and asked: "hello, robert. do you want to come out now?" no answer came. they opened the trunk and found poor little robert nearly dead. the doctor had to be called, and he worked long and hard to restore the poor boy to health. the air which we breathe out is not fit to be breathed in again. we soon use up, in this way, all the pure air about us. so we must have a fresh supply. as soon as robert had breathed in all the good air that was in the trunk, there was nothing left but poisoned air. if fresh air had not been given to him by opening the trunk, he could not have lived three minutes longer. nothing is so needful to health as good, pure air. whether you are in the schoolroom or in the house, remember this. bad air is so much poison, and the more we breathe it the worse it gets. the poison is carbonic acid, and to breathe it long is certain death. not many years ago, during a storm at sea, a stupid sea-captain ordered his passengers to go below in the hold of the vessel. then he covered up the hold, so that no fresh air could enter. when the storm was over he opened the hold, and found that seventy human beings had died for want of pure air. through his gross ignorance of the laws of life, he had done all this mischief. remember what i say: insist on having good air; for impure air, though it may not always kill you, is always bad for your health. lesson iii coffee coffee is made from the berries of a tree called the coffee plant, or coffee tree. this tree grows in some of the hot countries of the world, as brazil, cuba, arabia, and java. the best coffee comes from arabia. but most of the coffee that is used in this country comes from brazil. when first known, the coffee tree was a wild shrub growing among the hills of caffa, in the northeastern part of africa. but when people learned what a pleasant drink could be made from its berries, they began to take it into other countries, where they cultivated it with much care. there is an old story told of a shepherd who, it is said, was the first to use this drink. he noticed that after his goats had fed on the leaves of a certain tree--the coffee plant--they were always very lively and wakeful. so he took some of the leaves and berries of the plant, and boiling them in water, he made a drink for himself. he found it so pleasant to the taste that he told some of his neighbors about it. they tried it and were as much pleased as himself. and so, little by little, the drink came, after a while, into common use. the coffee plant is a beautiful little tree, growing sometimes to the height of twenty feet. it has smooth, dark leaves, long and pointed. it has pretty, white blossoms, which grow in thick clusters close to the branches. its fruit looks a little like a cherry; and within it are the coffee berries, two in each cherry. when ripe, the red fruit turns to a deep purple and is sweet to the taste. in arabia the fruit is allowed to fall on mats placed under the trees; but in other countries it is commonly gathered as soon as it is ripe, and it is then dried by being placed on mats in the sun. after the outside part has been removed the berries are again dried. they are then put in sacks and boxes to be sent into other parts of the world. lesson iv our national flag there is a national flag. he must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country. if he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself with all its endearments. who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely? whose eyes, once fastened upon it, can fail to recognize the image of the whole nation? it has been called a "floating piece of poetry." its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. it is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence. it is a piece of bunting lifted in the air, but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice. its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen states. its stars of white on a field of blue proclaim the union of the states. a new star is added with every new state. the very colors have a language, which was understood by our fathers. white is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice. thus the bunting, stripes and stars together, make the flag of our country--loved by all our hearts and upheld by all our hands. selection ii the ship of state thou, too, sail on, o ship of state! sail on, o union, strong and great! humanity, with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years, is hanging breathless on thy fate. we know what master laid thy keel, what workman wrought thy ribs of steel, who made each mast, and sail, and rope, what anvils rang, what hammers beat, in what forge and what a heat were shaped the anchors of thy hope! fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'tis of the wave, and not the rock; 'tis but the flapping of the sail, and not a rent made by the gale. in spite of rock and tempest's roar, in spite of false lights on the shore, sail on, nor fear to breast the sea. our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee; our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, our faith triumphant o'er our fears, are all with thee,--are all with thee. _h. w. longfellow_. lesson v "press on" this is a speech, brief, but full of inspiration, and opening the way to all victory. the secret of napoleon's career was this,--under all difficulties and discouragements, "press on." it solves the problem of all heroes; it is the rule by which to weigh rightly all wonderful successes and triumphal marches to fortune and genius. it should be the motto of all, old and young, high and low, fortunate and unfortunate, so called. "press on." never despair; never be discouraged, however stormy the heavens, however dark the way; however great the difficulties, and repeated the failures, "press on." if fortune hath played false with thee today, do thou play true for thyself to-morrow. if thy riches have taken wings and left thee, do not weep thy life away; but be up and doing, and retrieve the loss by new energies and action. if an unfortunate bargain has deranged thy business, do not fold thy arms, and give up all as lost; but stir thyself and work the more vigorously. if those whom thou hast trusted have betrayed thee, do not be discouraged, do not idly weep, but "_press on_." find others: or, what is better, learn to live within thyself. let the foolishness of yesterday make thee wise to-day. lesson vi resignation rabbi meir, the great teacher, sat one sabbath day in the school of the holy law, and taught the people. the rabbi had two sons, who were youths of great promise and well instructed in the law. on that sabbath day they both died. tenderly their mother bore them to an upper chamber, laid them on her bed, and spread a white sheet over their bodies. in the evening rabbi meir came home. "where are my sons," asked he, "that i may give them my blessing?" "they are gone into the school of the law," was his wife's reply. "i looked around me," said he, "and i did not see them." she set before him a cup; he praised the lord for the close of the sabbath, drank, and then asked again, "where are my sons, that they may also drink of the wine of blessing?" "they cannot be far off," said his wife, as she placed food before him and begged him to eat. when he had given thanks after the meal, she said, "rabbi, allow me a question." "speak, my beloved," answered he. "some time ago," said she, "a certain one gave me jewels to keep for him, and now he asks them back. shall i give him them?" "my wife should not need to ask such a question," said rabbi meir. "would you hesitate to give anyone back his own?" "oh, no," replied she, "but i did not like to give them back without your knowing beforehand." then she led him to the upper chamber, stepped in, and took the covering off the bodies. "oh, my sons," sobbed the father, "my sons, my sons!" the mother turned herself away and wept. soon, however, his wife took him by the hand and said: "rabbi, have you not taught me that we must not refuse to give back what was intrusted to us to keep? see, the lord gave, and the lord hath taken away: the name of the lord be blessed." and rabbi meir repeated the words, and said from the depths of his heart, "amen." lesson vii statue of liberty in new york harbor "liberty," or bartholdi's statue, was presented to the united states by the french people in . it is the largest statue ever built. the great french sculptor bartholdi made it after the likeness of his mother. eight years were consumed in the construction of this gigantic image. its size is really enormous. the height of the figure alone is fully one hundred and fifty feet. forty persons can find standing room within the mighty head, which is fifteen feet in diameter. a six-foot man, standing upon the lower lip, can hardly reach the eyes of the colossal head. the index finger is eight feet long, and the nose is over three feet long. yet the proportion of all the parts of the figure is so well preserved that the whole statue is in perfect harmony. the materials of which the statue is composed are copper and steel. the immense torch which is held in the hand of the giantess is three hundred feet above tidewater. the colossus of rhodes was a pigmy compared with this huge wonder. lesson viii independence scholars, who are enjoying the priceless blessings of that liberty which cost our forefathers so much treasure and so much blood,--have you read the declaration of independence? if you have not, read it; if you have, read it again; study it; make its noble sentiments your own, and do not fail to grave deep in your memories these immortal lines:-- "we hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." selection iii be true thou must be true thyself, if thou the truth wouldst teach; thy soul must overflow, if thou another's soul would'st reach; it needs the overflow of hearts to give the lips full speech. think truly, and thy thoughts shall the world's famine feed; speak truly, and each word of thine shall be a fruitful seed; live truly, and thy life shall be a great and noble creed. _anonymous_. lesson ix newfoundland newfoundland is an island about the size of new york state. it belongs to england. the cod fisheries there are very extensive. the people of newfoundland are strong, healthy and industrious. they are law-abiding, and serious; crime is very rare among them. their kindness and hospitality to strangers who visit the country are proverbial. kindness to the poor and unfortunate is a marked feature in the character of the people. when business is poor they are ready to share their last morsel with those in distress. the fishermen are the working classes of the country. during the height of the fishery season, and when fish are abundant, their labors are severe; but during winter they are for the most part in a condition of enforced idleness. much of the work of curing the fish is done by women and girls, and their labors are often very heavy. when the fisheries are over, there are boats, nets, etc., to repair, stages to look after, and fuel to be cut in the woods and hauled over the snow. if the fishery has been successful, then the fisherman has a balance coming to him after paying for his summer supplies, and is enabled to lay in a stock of provisions for the winter. winter is the season for enjoyment among the fishermen. this season for fireside enjoyments, home-born pleasures, is welcome. they have their simple social enjoyments of various kinds. dancing is a favorite winter amusement among the fishermen and their families. weddings are celebrated with great festivity. newfoundland is often regarded as the very paradise of sportsmen. its countless lakes and ponds abound with trout of the finest description, and these bodies of water are the abodes of the wild goose, the wild duck, and other fresh-water fowl. the pine forests are the home of numerous wild animals. the fox, the bear and the caribou furnish the highest prizes for the hunter. selection iv bring back my flowers a child sat by a limpid stream, and gazed upon the tide beneath; upon her cheek was joy's bright beam, and on her brow a blooming wreath. her lap was filled with fragrant flowers, and, as the clear brook babbled by, she scattered down the rosy showers, with many a wild and joyous cry, and laughed to see the mingling tide upon its onward progress glide. and time flew on, and flower by flower was cast upon the sunny stream; but when the shades of eve did lower, she woke up from her blissful dream. "bring back my flowers!" she wildly cried; "bring back the flowers i flung to thee!" but echo's voice alone replied, as danced the streamlet down the lea; and still, amid night's gloomy hours, in vain she cried, "bring back my flowers!" o maiden, who on time's swift stream dost gayly see the moments flee, in this poor child's delusive dream an emblem may be found of thee. each moment is a perfumed rose, into thy hand by mercy given, that thou its fragrance might dispose and let its incense rise to heaven; else when death's shadow o'er thee lowers, thy heart will wail, "bring back my flowers!" _lucy larcom_. lesson x the use of trifles a certain painter once said he had become great in his art by never neglecting trifles. it would be well for all of us to follow that simple and easy rule. no man's house but would be more comfortable, and no family but would be more cheerful, if the value of trifles and the art of using them were better understood. attention to trifles is the true art of economy. we must, however, take care not to confound economy with parsimony. the former means a frugal and judicious use of things without waste, the latter a too close and sparing use of things needed. now a person who understands the use of little things is economical; for instance. if you wipe a pen before you put it away it will last twice as long as if you do not. generally the habits we acquire in our youth we carry with us into old age; hence the necessity of proper training in childhood. a woman who attends to trifles and has habits of economy will not hastily throw away bits of cotton or worsted, nor will she waste soap by letting it lie in the water. she will keep an eye to the pins and matches, knowing that the less often such things are bought, the more is saved. she will not think it above her care to mend the clothes or darn the stockings, remembering that "_a stitch in time saves nine_." lesson xi rosa bonheur rosa bonheur was born at bordeaux, france, the daughter of a painter. her father was her first teacher in art. at an early age, when most children draw in an aimless way, her father guided his little girl's efforts with his own experienced hand. he taught her to study and sketch from nature instead of relying on copies. as a child she cared nothing for dolls and toys, but loved animals dearly. is it any wonder, then, that she took them for her subject when she began to paint? in her childhood she had two dogs and a goat for pets, and later on kept a sheep in her parisian apartment. still later, when she had become a distinguished woman, her studio included a farmyard. her animal paintings are so real and life-like that a study of the faces of all the horses in that wonderful picture, "the horse fair," will reveal distinctly different expressions in each face. although most simple in her personal habits and in her life, rosa bonheur was the greatest woman artist that ever lived. "the horse fair," rosa bonheur's most famous painting, was bought by an american gentleman and presented by him to the metropolitan museum of art, in new york. lesson xii alexander and the robber _alexander_--what! art thou that thracian robber, of whose exploits i have heard so much? _robber_--i am a thracian, and a soldier. _alexander_--a soldier!--a thief, a plunderer, an assassin, the pest of the country; but i must detest and punish thy crimes. _robber_--what have i done of which you can complain? _alexander_--hast thou not set at defiance my authority, violated the public peace and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects? _robber_--alexander, i am your captive. i must hear what you please to say, and endure what you please to inflict. but my soul is unconquered; and if i reply at all to your reproaches, i will reply like a free man. _alexander_--speak freely. far be it from me to take advantage of my power, to silence those with whom i deign to converse. _robber_--i must, then, answer your question by another. how have you passed your life? _alexander_--like a hero. ask fame, and she will tell you. among the brave, the bravest; among sovereigns, the noblest; among conquerors, the mightiest. _robber_--and does not fame speak of me too? was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant band? was there ever--but i scorn to boast. you yourself know that i have not been easily subdued. _alexander_--still, what are you but a robber,--a base, dishonest robber? _robber_--and what is a conqueror? have not you too gone about the earth like an evil genius, plundering, killing without law, without justice, merely to gratify your thirst for dominion? what i have done in a single province with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations with a hundred thousand. what; then, is the difference, but that you were born a king, and i a private man; you have been able to become a mightier robber than i. _alexander_--but if i have taken like a king, i have given like a king. if i have overthrown empires, i have founded greater. i have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy. _robber_--i too have freely given to the poor what i took from the rich. i know, indeed, very little of the philosophy you speak of, but i believe neither you nor i shall ever atone to the world for the mischief we have done it. _alexander_--leave me. take off his chains, and use him well. are we, then, so much alike? alexander like a robber? let me reflect. lesson xiii the american indian not many generations ago, where you now sit, surrounded with all that makes life happy, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. here lived and loved another race of beings. beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, the indian hunter pursued the panting deer; he gazed on the same moon that smiles for you, and here too the indian lover wooed his dusky mate. here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council fire glared on the wise and daring. here they warred; and when the strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a pure prayer to the great spirit. he had written his laws for them, not on tables of stone, but he had traced them on the tables of their hearts. the poor child of nature knew not the god of revelation, but the god of the universe he acknowledged in everything around. he beheld him in the star that sunk in beauty behind his lonely dwelling; in the flower that swayed in the morning breeze; in the lofty trees as well as in the worm that crawled at his feet. all this has passed away. four hundred years have changed the face of this great continent, and this peculiar race has been well-nigh blotted out. art has taken the place of simple nature, and civilization has been too strong for the savage tribes of the red man. here and there a few indians remain; but these are merely the degraded offspring of this once noble race of men. selection xi my fatherland there is a land, of every land the pride, beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside, where brighter suns dispense serener light, and milder moons imparadise the night. o land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth! the wandering mariner, whose eye explores the wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, views not a realm so bountiful and fair, nor breathes the spirit of a purer air. in every clime, the magnet of his soul, touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole; for, in this land of heaven's peculiar race, the heritage of nature's noblest grace, there is a spot of earth supremely blest, a dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside his sword and scepter, pageantry and pride, while, in his softened looks, benignly blend the sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend. here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife, strew with fresh flowers the narrow way of life; in the clear heaven of her delightful eye, an angel guard of love and graces lie; around her knees domestic duties meet, and fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. "where shall that land, that spot of earth be found?" art thou a man?--a patriot?--look round; oh, thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, that land thy country, and that spot thy home. _james montgomery_. lesson xxix the sun how far away from us is the sun? are we to answer just as we think, or just as we know? on a fine summer day, when we can see him clearly, it looks as if a short trip in a balloon might take us to his throne in the sky, yet we know--because the astronomers tell us so--that he is more than ninety-one millions of miles distant from our earth. ninety-one millions of miles! it is not easy even to imagine this distance; but let us fancy ourselves in an express-train going sixty miles an hour without making a single stop. at that flying rate we could travel from the earth to the sun in one hundred and seventy-one years,--that is, if we had a road to run on and time to spare for the journey. arriving at the palace of the sun, we might then have some idea of his size. a learned greek who lived more than two thousand years ago thought the sun about as large as the peloponnesus; if he had lived in our country, he might have said, "about as large as massachusetts." as large as their peninsula! the other greeks laughed at him for believing that the shining ball was so vast. how astonished they would have been--yes, and the wise man too--if they had been told that the brilliant lord of the day was more than a million times as large as the whole world! lesson xxx ivory how many articles are made of ivory! here is a polished knife-handle, and there a strangely-carved paper-cutter. in the same shop may be found albums and prayer-books with ivory covers; and, not far away, penholders, curious toys, and parasol-handles, all made of the glossy white material. where ivory is abundant, chairs of state, and even thrones are made of it; and in russia, in the palaces of the great, floors inlaid with ivory help to beautify the grand apartments. one african sultan has a whole fence of elephants' tusks around his royal residence; the residence itself is straw-roofed and barbarous enough, both in design and in structure. yet imagine that ivory fence! the elephants slain in africa and india in the course of a year could not furnish half the ivory used in the great markets of the world during that time. vienna, paris, london and st. petersburg keep the elephant-hunters busy, yet it is impossible for them to satisfy all the demands made upon them, and the ivory-diggers must be called upon to add to the supply. every spring, when the ice begins to thaw, new mines or deposits of fossil ivory--a perfect treasure of mammoths' tusks--are discovered in the marsh-lands of eastern siberia. there are no mammoths now--unless we call elephants by that name; yet their remains have been found upon both continents. in the year , the perfect skeleton of one of these animals was found in an ice-bank near the mouth of a siberian river. as the vast ice-field thawed, the remains of the huge animal came to light. the traders who search for mammoths' tusks around the arctic coasts of asia make every effort to send off, each year, at least fifty thousand pounds of fossil ivory to the west along the great caravan road. so great is the demand, however, that this quantity, added to that sent by the elephant-hunters, is not large enough to make ivory cheap in trade or in manufacture. selection xii woodman, spare that tree woodman, spare that tree! touch not a single bough! in youth it sheltered me, and i'll protect it now. 'twas my forefather's hand that placed it near his cot: there, woodman, let it stand; thy ax shall harm it not. that old familiar tree, whose glory and renown are spread o'er land and sea,-- and wouldst thou hew it down? woodman, forbear thy stroke! cut not its earthbound ties! oh, spare that aged oak, now towering to the skies! when but an idle boy i sought its grateful shade; in all their gushing joy, here, too, my sisters played. my mother kissed me here, my father pressed my hand: forgive this foolish tear, but let that old oak stand. my heart-strings round thee cling, close as thy bark, old friend; here shall the wild bird sing, and still thy branches bend. old tree, the storm still brave! and, woodman, leave the spot! while i've a hand to save, thy ax shall harm it not. _george p. morris_. lesson xxxi flowers he who cannot appreciate floral beauty is to be pitied, like any other man who is born imperfect. it is a misfortune not unlike blindness. but men who reject flowers as effeminate and unworthy of manhood reveal a positive coarseness. many persons lose all enjoyment of many flowers by indulging false associations. there are some who think that no weed can be of interest as a flower. but all flowers are weeds where they grow wild and in abundance; and somewhere our rarest flowers are somebody's commonest. and generally there is a disposition to undervalue common flowers. there are few that will trouble themselves to examine minutely a blossom that they have often seen and neglected; and yet if they would question such flowers and commune with them, they would often be surprised to find extreme beauty where it had long been overlooked. it is not impertinent to offer flowers to a stranger. the poorest child can proffer them to the richest. a hundred persons turned into a meadow full of flowers would be drawn together in a transient brotherhood. it is affecting to see how serviceable flowers often are to the necessities of the poor. if they bring their little floral gift to you, it cannot but touch your heart to think that their grateful affection longed to express itself as much as yours. you have books, or gems, or services that you can render as you will. the poor can give but little and can do but little. were it not for flowers, they would be shut out from those exquisite pleasures which spring from such gifts. i never take one from a child, or from the poor, without thanking god, in their behalf, for flowers. characteristic of heroism the characteristic of heroism is its persistency. all men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. but when you have chosen your part, abide by it, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. the heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic. _r. w. emerson_. lesson xviii behavior there is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to open a book. manners are the happy ways of doing things. they form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. manners are very communicable; men catch them from each other. the power of manners is incessant,--an element as unconcealable as fire. the nobility cannot in any country be disguised, and no more in a republic or a democracy than in a kingdom. no man can resist their influence. there are certain manners which are learned in good society, and if a person have them, he or she must be considered, and is everywhere welcome, though without beauty, or wealth, or genius. give a boy address and accomplishments, and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortune wherever he goes. bad behavior the laws cannot reach. society is infested with rude, restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest. bad manners are social inflictions which the magistrate cannot cure or defend you from, and which must be intrusted to the restraining force of custom. familiar rules of behavior should be impressed on young people in their school-days. lesson xix essence of the constitution of the united states . congress must meet at least once a year. (congress consists of the senate and the house of representatives.) . one state cannot undo the acts of another. . congress may admit any number of new states. . one state must respect the laws and legal decisions of another. . every citizen is guaranteed a speedy trial by jury. . congress cannot pass a law to punish a crime already committed. . bills of revenue can originate only in the house of representatives. . a person committing a crime in one state cannot find refuge in another. . the constitution forbids excessive bail or cruel punishment. . treaties with foreign countries are made by the president and ratified by the senate. . writing alone does not constitute treason against the united states. there must be an overt act. . an act of congress cannot become law over the vote of the president except by a two-thirds vote of both houses. . the territories each send one delegate to congress, who has the right to debate, but not the right to vote. . an officer of the government cannot accept any title of nobility, order or gift without the permission of congress. . only a natural-born citizen of the united states can become president or vice-president of the united states. selection viii the star-spangled banner . oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming; and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? . on that shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, what is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, as it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, in full glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'tis the star-spangled banner; oh, long may it wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! . and where are the foes who so vauntingly swore that the havoc of war, and the battle's confusion, a home and a country should leave us no more? their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. no refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave; and the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. . oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation. blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation! then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto, "in god is our trust"; and the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. _francis scott key_. useful information to obtain a good knowledge of pronunciation, it is advisable for the reader to listen to the examples given by educated persons. we learn the pronunciation of words, to a great extent, by imitation. it must never be forgotten, however, that the dictionary alone can give us absolute certainty in doubtful cases. "if the riches of the indies," says fenelon, "or the crowns of all the kingdoms of the world, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love for reading, i would despise them all." that writer does the most good who gives his reader the greatest amount of knowledge and takes from him the least time. a tremendous thought may be packed into a small compass, and as solid as a cannon ball. "read much, but not many works," is the advice of a great writer. lesson xx the art of observation the indian trapper is a man of close observation, quick perception and prompt action. as he goes along, nothing escapes him. often not another step is taken until some mystery that presents itself is fairly solved. he will stand for hours in succession to account for certain signs, and he may even spend days and weeks upon that same mystery until he solves it. i rode once several hundred miles in the company of such an experienced trailer, and asked him many questions about his art. near the bank of a small river in dakota we crossed the track of a pony. the guide followed the track for some distance and then said: "it is a stray black horse, with a long bushy tail, nearly starved to death; it has a broken hoof on the left fore foot and goes very lame; he has passed here early this morning." i could scarcely believe what was said, and asked for an explanation. the trailer replied: "it is a stray horse, because he did not go in a straight line; his tail is long, for he dragged it over the ground; in brushing against a bush he left some of his black hair; he is very hungry, because he nipped at the dry weeds which horses seldom eat; the break of his left fore foot can be seen in its track, and the slight impression of the one foot shows that he is lame. the tracks are as yet fresh, and that shows that he passed only this morning, when the earth was soft." in this manner the whole story was accounted for, and late in the afternoon we really did come across a riderless horse of that description wandering aimlessly in the prairies. selection ix the sword of bunker hill he lay upon his dying bed, his eye was growing dim, when, with a feeble voice, he called his weeping son to him: "weep not, my boy," the veteran said, "i bow to heaven's high will; but quickly from yon antlers bring the sword of bunker hill." the sword was brought; the soldier's eye lit with a sudden flame; and, as he grasped the ancient blade, he murmured warren's name; then said: "my boy, i leave you gold, but what is richer still, i leave you,--mark me, mark me, now,-- the sword of bunker hill. "'twas on that dread immortal day, i dared the britons' band; a captain raised his blade on me, i tore it from his hand; and while the glorious battle raged, it lightened freedom's will; for, boy, the god of freedom blessed the sword of bunker hill. "oh, keep this sword,"--his accents broke,-- a smile--and he was dead; but his wrinkled hand still grasped the blade, upon the dying bed. the son remains, the sword remains, its glory growing still, and eighty millions bless the sire and sword of bunker hill. _william r. wallace_. the battle of bunker hill was fought on the th of june, , in charlestown, massachusetts. the americans, after having twice repulsed double their number of the english, were compelled to retreat for want of ammunition. this was the first actual battle of the revolutionary war. note:--joseph warren, a distinguished american general and patriot, born in massachusetts in , graduated at harvard college in . he was killed at the battle of bunker hill in . lesson xxi letters _notes of invitation_. formal note. march , . _mr. joseph h. curtis_:-- the pupils of class a, public school no. -- most cordially invite mr. and mrs. joseph h. curtis to attend the closing exercises to be held in the school on thursday evening, march eleventh, at eight o'clock. informal note. february , . _my dear mr. curtis_:-- may we have the pleasure of your company at dinner tuesday evening, february ninth, at seven o'clock? sincerely yours, charles story. elm street. informal reply to above invitation. february , . my dear mr. story:-- i thank you for your kind invitation to dine with you tuesday evening, but a previous business engagement makes it impossible for me to be present. i am very sorry. cordially yours, henry curtis. cedar street. formal note. mr. and mrs. george h. baldwin request the pleasure of the company of mr. and mrs. henry s. gray on thursday evening, march fourth, at eight o'clock. madison avenue. formal reply to above invitation. mr. henry s. gray regrets that he is unable to accept the invitation of mr. and mrs. george h. baldwin for thursday evening, at eight o'clock. myrtle avenue. informal letter. rochester, n. y., march , . my dear friend:-- i arrived here yesterday afternoon in the best of spirits. i am staying here at a nice, quiet hotel, and expect to remain here for the next few days. rochester is so different from the great metropolis. this morning i went to see the university and some other public buildings. i am delighted with my trip. from here i intend to proceed to buffalo and to niagara falls. from there i shall write you a much longer letter. please give my kindest regards to all the family. cordially yours, henry field. lesson xxii reaping and mowing machines the rapid settlement and improvement of many parts of our country have been greatly aided by the invention of various kinds of machinery. the work of many hands can now be done by one machine, and thus a great saving of human labor is effected. in former times, the crops of wheat and oats, rye and barley, were gathered with a sickle; the grain was thrashed with a flail; the grass in the meadows was cut with a scythe. but, now, all this is changed; on the great prairies of the west, the wheat, rye and oats are cut by the reaper, and with a steady hum the thrashing-machine does its work of cleaning the grain. the scythe has given place to the mowing machine, and the sickle and flail have been laid away as relics of other times. thus the machinery invented by the genius and skill of man, not only lightens the labor of the farmer, but it performs the work which formerly required the united effort of many men. many foreign countries send to the united states for mowers and reapers, because it is here these machines have reached their highest perfection. lesson xxiii ali baba ali baba was a poor persian wood carrier, who accidentally learned the magic words "_open sesame_," "_shut sesame_," by which he gained entrance into a vast cavern, in which forty thieves had stored their stolen treasures. he made himself rich by plundering these stores of wealth, and through the cunning of morgiana, his female slave, ali baba succeeded in destroying the whole band of thieves. he then gave morgiana her freedom and married her to his own son. lesson xxiv birds in the united states there are a great many birds. many of them live in the woods; others are found in the fields. some are seen in the gardens, and a few are kept in our houses. the eagle builds her nest upon the highest rock, while the wren forms her snug and tiny nest in the way-side hedge. the swallow plasters her nest upon the gable of the house or under the eaves of the barn. out in the wheat-field we hear the whistle of the quail. the noise of the ducks and geese comes to us from the pond. the birds of prey dart downward through the air. everywhere we find the birds. in autumn the migratory birds leave us, but they return in the spring. even in march we hear the call of the robin. at the same time the bold and saucy blue-jay pays us his first visit. one hears the sweet songs of the birds from may until october. some of them remain with us during the winter. there are many things that birds can do. the swallows fly with the greatest ease. the ostrich runs rapidly. swimming birds dive with much skill. the owl moves noiselessly through the night air. birds of prey search out their victims with keen vision. nearly all birds build skillfully made nests with their bills and feet. some make them out of straw, and the little birds usually line them with wool. the large birds of prey build theirs from small sticks and twigs. for the most part they hatch the eggs with the warmth of the body. many birds are highly valued on account of their eggs, while others are prized for their flesh and feathers. still others charm us with their songs. lesson xxv sleep of all the wonderful things about us, sleep is one of the most wonderful. how it comes, why it comes, how it does its kind, helpful work, not even the wisest people are able to tell. we do not have much trouble in seeking it, it comes to us of itself. it takes us in its kindly arms, quiets and comforts us, repairs and refreshes us, and turns us out in the morning quite like new people. sleep is necessary to life and health. we crave it as urgently as we do food or drink. in our waking hours, rest is obtained only at short intervals; the muscles, the nerves, and the brain are in full activity. repair goes on every moment, whether we are awake or asleep; but during the waking hours the waste of the tissues is far ahead of the repair, while during sleep the repair exceeds the waste. hence a need of rest which at regular intervals causes all parts of the bodily machinery to be run at their lowest rate. in other words, we are put to sleep. sleep is more or less sound, according to circumstances. fatigue, if not too great, aids it; idleness lessens it. anxious thought, and pain, and even anticipated pleasure, may keep us awake. hence we should not go to bed with the brain excited or too active. we should read some pleasant book, laugh, talk, sing, or take a brisk walk, or otherwise rest the brain for half an hour before going to bed. the best time for sleep is during the silence and darkness of night. people who have to work nights, and to sleep during the day, have a strained and wearied look. the amount of sleep needed depends upon the temperament of each individual. some require little sleep, while others need a great deal. eight hours of sleep for an adult, and from ten to twelve hours for children and old people is about the average amount required. some of the greatest men in history are known to have been light sleepers. most of the world's great workers took a goodly amount of sleep, however. sir walter scott, the great writer, took eight hours of sleep, and so did the famous philosopher emanuel kant. children need more sleep than grown people. they should retire early and sleep until they awake in the morning. when fairly awake we should get up. dozing is unhealthful, especially for young people. "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." lesson xxvi curious birds' nests among the most curious nests are those made by the birds called weavers. these feathered workmen serve no apprenticeship; their trade comes to them by nature; and how well they work at it! but then you must admit that nature is a skillful teacher and birds are apt scholars. the baltimore oriole is a weaver, and it makes its nest out of bark, fine grass, moss, and wool, strengthening it, when circumstances permit, with pieces of string or horse-hair. this nest, pouch-shaped, and open at the top, is fastened to the branch of a tree, and sometimes is interwoven with the twigs of a waving bough. the threads of grass and long fibers of moss are woven together, in and out, as if by machinery; and it seems hard to believe that the little birds can do such work without help. the tailor-bird of india makes a still more curious nest: it actually sews, using its long, slender bill as a needle. birds that fly, birds that run, birds that swim, and birds that sing are by no means rare; but birds that sew, seem like the wonderful birds in the fairy-tales. yet they really exist, and make their odd nests with great care and skill. they pick out a leaf large enough for their nest, and pierce rows of holes along the edges with their sharp bill; then, with the fibers of a plant or long threads of grass, they sew the leaf up into a bag. sometimes it is necessary to sew two leaves together, that the space within may be large enough. this kind of sewing resembles shoemakers' or saddlers' work; but, the leaf being like fine cloth and not like leather, perhaps the name "tailor-bird" is the most appropriate for the little worker. the bag is lined with soft, downy material, and in this the tiny eggs are laid--tiny indeed, for the tailor-bird is no larger than the hummingbird. the weight of the little creature does not even draw down the nest, and the leaf in which the eggs or young birds are hidden looks like the other leaves on the trees; so that there is nothing to attract the attention of the forest robbers. another bird, called the indian sparrow, makes her nest of grass-woven cloth and shaped like a bottle. the neck of the bottle hangs downward, and the bird enters from below. this structure, swinging from a high tree, over a river, is safe from the visits of mischievous animals. is it any wonder, then, that birds and their nests have always been a source of delight to thinking man? with no tools but their tiny feet and sharp little bills, these feathered songsters build their habitat, more cunningly and artfully than any artisan could hope to do even after a long apprenticeship. selection x the hunters in the bright october morning savoy's duke had left his bride. from the castle, past the drawbridge, flowed the hunters' merry tide. steeds are neighing, gallants glittering gay, her smiling lord to greet, from her splendid chamber casement smiles the duchess marguerite. from vienna by the danube here she came, a bride, in spring, now the autumn crisps the forest; hunters gather, bugles ring. hark! the game's on foot; they scatter; down the forest riding lone, furious, single horsemen gallop. hark! a shout--a crash--a groan! pale and breathless, came the hunters; on the turf, dead lies the boar, but the duke lies stretched beside him, senseless, weltering in his gore. in the dull october evening, down the leaf-strewn forest road, to the castle, past the drawbridge, came the hunters with their load. in the hall, with torches blazing, ladies waiting round her seat, clothed in smiles, beneath the dais sat the duchess marguerite. hark! below the gates unbarring, tramp of men and quick commands. "'tis my lord come back from hunting," and the duchess claps her hands. slow and tired, came the hunters; stopped in darkness in the court.-- "ho! this way, ye laggard hunters. to the hall! what sport, what sport?" slow they entered with their master; in the hall they laid him down; on his coat were leaves and blood-stains, on his brow an angry frown. dead her princely, youthful husband lay before his youthful wife; bloody 'neath the flaring torches: and the sight froze all her life. in vienna by the danube kings hold revel, gallants meet; gay of old amid the gayest was the duchess marguerite. in vienna by the danube feast and dance her youth beguiled. till that hour she never sorrowed; but from then she never smiled. _matthew arnold_. wise sayings a room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts. a fig for your bill of fare. show me your bill of company. let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. no evil can befall a good man, either in life or death. it is well to think well; it is divine to act well. they are never alone who are accompanied with noble, true thoughts. we find in life exactly what we put into it. too much rest is rust. order is heaven's first law. the difference between one boy and another is not so much in talent as in energy. lesson xxvii business qualifications attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality and dispatch are the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of any sort. it is the precept of every day's experience that steady attention to matters of detail lies at the root of human progress, and that diligence, above all, is the mother of what is erroneously called "good luck." a french statesman, being asked how he contrived to accomplish so much work, and at the same time attend to his social duties, replied, "i do it simply by never postponing till to-morrow what should be done to-day." it was said of an unsuccessful public man that he used to reverse this process, his maxim being, "never to transact to-day what could be postponed till to-morrow." but bear in mind this: there may be success in life without success in business. the merchant who failed, but who afterward recovered his fortune, and then spent it in paying his creditors their demands in full, principal and interest, thus leaving himself a poor man, had a glorious success: while he who failed, paid his creditors ten cents only on a dollar, and afterward rode in his carriage and occupied a magnificent mansion, was sorrowfully looked on by angels and by honest men as lamentably unsuccessful. true success in life is success in building up a pure, honest, energetic character--in so shaping our habits, our thoughts, and our aspirations as to best qualify us for a higher life. lesson xxviii abbreviations of names of states ala. alabama, mont. montana, alaska. alaska, nebr. nebraska, ariz. arizona, nev. nevada, ark. arkansas (sa), n. h. new hampshire, cal. california, n. j. new jersey, colo. colorado, n. mex. new mexico, conn. connecticut, n. y. new york, del. delaware, n. c. north carolina, fla. florida, n. dak. north dakota, ga. georgia, o. ohio, idaho. idaho, okla. oklahoma, ill. illinois (noi), ore. oregon, ind. indiana, pa. pennsylvania, ind. t. indian ter., r. i. rhode island, ia. iowa, s. c. south carolina, kans. kansas, s. dak. south dakota, ky. kentucky, tenn. tennessee, la. louisiana, tex. texas, me. maine, utah. utah, md. maryland (mer) vt. vermont, mass. massachusetts va. virginia, mich. michigan, wash. washington, minn. minnesota, w. va. west virginia, miss. mississippi, wis. wisconsin, mo. missouri, wyo. wyoming. *the words utah, idaho and alaska are not abbreviated. selection xi my fatherland there is a land, of every land the pride, beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside, where brighter suns dispense serener light, and milder moons imparadise the night. o land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth! the wandering mariner, whose eye explores the wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, views not a realm so bountiful and fair, nor breathes the spirit of a purer air. in every clime, the magnet of his soul, touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole; for, in this land of heaven's peculiar race, the heritage of nature's noblest grace, there is a spot of earth supremely blest, a dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside his sword and scepter, pageantry and pride, while, in his softened looks, benignly blend the sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend. here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife, strew with fresh flowers the narrow way of life; in the clear heaven of her delightful eye, an angel guard of love and graces lie; around her knees domestic duties meet, and fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. "where shall that land, that spot of earth be found?" art thou a man?--a patriot?--look round; oh, thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, that land thy country, and that spot thy home. _james montgomery_. lesson xxix the sun how far away from us is the sun? are we to answer just as we think, or just as we know? on a fine summer day, when we can see him clearly, it looks as if a short trip in a balloon might take us to his throne in the sky, yet we know--because the astronomers tell us so--that he is more than ninety-one millions of miles distant from our earth. ninety-one millions of miles! it is not easy even to imagine this distance; but let us fancy ourselves in an express-train going sixty miles an hour without making a single stop. at that flying rate we could travel from the earth to the sun in one hundred and seventy-one years,--that is, if we had a road to run on and time to spare for the journey. arriving at the palace of the sun, we might then have some idea of his size. a learned greek who lived more than two thousand years ago thought the sun about as large as the peloponnesus; if he had lived in our country, he might have said, "about as large as massachusetts." as large as their peninsula! the other greeks laughed at him for believing that the shining ball was so vast. how astonished they would have been--yes, and the wise man too--if they had been told that the brilliant lord of the day was more than a million times as large as the whole world! lesson xxx ivory how many articles are made of ivory! here is a polished knife-handle, and there a strangely-carved paper-cutter. in the same shop may be found albums and prayer-books with ivory covers; and, not far away, penholders, curious toys, and parasol-handles, all made of the glossy white material. where ivory is abundant, chairs of state, and even thrones are made of it; and in russia, in the palaces of the great, floors inlaid with ivory help to beautify the grand apartments. one african sultan has a whole fence of elephants' tusks around his royal residence; the residence itself is straw-roofed and barbarous enough, both in design and in structure. yet imagine that ivory fence! the elephants slain in africa and india in the course of a year could not furnish half the ivory used in the great markets of the world during that time. vienna, paris, london and st. petersburg keep the elephant-hunters busy, yet it is impossible for them to satisfy all the demands made upon them, and the ivory-diggers must be called upon to add to the supply. every spring, when the ice begins to thaw, new mines or deposits of fossil ivory--a perfect treasure of mammoths' tusks--are discovered in the marsh-lands of eastern siberia. there are no mammoths now--unless we call elephants by that name; yet their remains have been found upon both continents. in the year , the perfect skeleton of one of these animals was found in an ice-bank near the mouth of a siberian river. as the vast ice-field thawed, the remains of the huge animal came to light. the traders who search for mammoths' tusks around the arctic coasts of asia make every effort to send off, each year, at least fifty thousand pounds of fossil ivory to the west along the great caravan road. so great is the demand, however, that this quantity, added to that sent by the elephant-hunters, is not large enough to make ivory cheap in trade or in manufacture. selection xii woodman, spare that tree woodman, spare that tree! touch not a single bough! in youth it sheltered me, and i'll protect it now. 'twas my forefather's hand that placed it near his cot: there, woodman, let it stand; thy ax shall harm it not. that old familiar tree, whose glory and renown are spread o'er land and sea,-- and wouldst thou hew it down? woodman, forbear thy stroke! cut not its earthbound ties! oh, spare that aged oak, now towering to the skies! when but an idle boy i sought its grateful shade; in all their gushing joy, here, too, my sisters played. my mother kissed me here, my father pressed my hand: forgive this foolish tear, but let that old oak stand. my heart-strings round thee cling, close as thy bark, old friend; here shall the wild bird sing, and still thy branches bend. old tree, the storm still brave! and, woodman, leave the spot! while i've a hand to save, thy ax shall harm it not. _george p. morris_. lesson xxxi flowers he who cannot appreciate floral beauty is to be pitied, like any other man who is born imperfect. it is a misfortune not unlike blindness. but men who reject flowers as effeminate and unworthy of manhood reveal a positive coarseness. many persons lose all enjoyment of many flowers by indulging false associations. there are some who think that no weed can be of interest as a flower. but all flowers are weeds where they grow wild and in abundance; and somewhere our rarest flowers are somebody's commonest. and generally there is a disposition to undervalue common flowers. there are few that will trouble themselves to examine minutely a blossom that they have often seen and neglected; and yet if they would question such flowers and commune with them, they would often be surprised to find extreme beauty where it had long been overlooked. it is not impertinent to offer flowers to a stranger. the poorest child can proffer them to the richest. a hundred persons turned into a meadow full of flowers would be drawn together in a transient brotherhood. it is affecting to see how serviceable flowers often are to the necessities of the poor. if they bring their little floral gift to you, it cannot but touch your heart to think that their grateful affection longed to express itself as much as yours. you have books, or gems, or services that you can render as you will. the poor can give but little and can do but little. were it not for flowers, they would be shut out from those exquisite pleasures which spring from such gifts. i never take one from a child, or from the poor, without thanking god, in their behalf, for flowers. lesson xxxii the mosquito mosquitoes are found in many parts of the world where there are pools of water. they swarm along the rivers of the sunny south and by the lakes of the far north. the life of one of these troublesome little fellows is well worth some attention. did you ever hear about the little boats that they build? they lay their eggs on the water, in which the sun's warmth hatches them out. the insect leaves the water a full-fledged mosquito ready to annoy man and beast with its sting. the eyes of this insect are remarkable. they are so large that they cover the larger part of the head. its feelers are very delicate, and look as if they were made of the finest feathers. its wings are very pretty, and with them it makes a humming noise. the organ, which the female mosquito alone employs on her victims, is called a trunk, or proboscis. this trunk is a tube, inside of which is a bundle of stings with very sharp points. when she settles on your face or hands, she pierces the skin, extracts some blood, and at the same time injects a little poison; this produces the feeling which proves so annoying. lesson xxxiii self-reliance of all the elements of success none is more vital than self-reliance,--a determination to be one's own helper, and not to look to others for support. it is the secret of all individual growth and vigor, the master-key that unlocks all difficulties in every profession or calling. "help yourself, and heaven will help you," should be the motto of every man who would make himself useful in the world. he who begins with crutches will generally end with crutches. help from within always strengthens, but help from without invariably enfeebles. it is said that a lobster, when left high and dry among the rocks, has not instinct and energy enough to work his way back to the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. if it does not come, he remains where he is and dies, although the slightest effort would enable him to reach the waves. the world is full of human lobsters,--men stranded on the rocks of business, who, instead of putting forth their energy, are waiting for some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat. there are many young men, who, instead of carrying their own burdens, are always dreaming of some hercules, in the shape of a rich uncle, or some other benevolent relative, coming to give them a "lift." in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, pecuniary help to a beginner is not a blessing, but a calamity. under the appearance of aiding, it weakens its victims, and keeps them in perpetual slavery and degradation. let every young man have faith in himself, and take an earnest hold of life, scorning all props and buttresses, all crutches and life-preservers. instead of wielding the rusted swords of valorous forefathers, let him forge his own weapons; and, mindful of the providence over him, let him fight his own battles with his own good lance. selection xiii prayer in battle father, i call to thee. roaring enshrouds me, the din of the battle, round me like lightning the leaping shots rattle. leader of battles, i call to thee. father, thou lead me. father, thou lead me. lead me to victory, lead me to death; lord, at thy pleasure i offer my breath. lord, as thou wilt, so lead me. god, i acknowledge thee. god, i acknowledge thee. so when the thunders of battle are breaking, as when the leaves of the autumn are shaking, fountain of grace, i acknowledge thee. father, thou bless me. father, thou bless me. into thine hand i my being resign; thou didst bestow it--to take it be thine. living and dying, o bless me. father, i honor thee. father, i honor thee. not for earth's riches unsheath we the sword; 'tis our hearts we protect; 'tis thy temples, o lord; so railing or conquering, i honor thee. to thee, god, i yield me. to thee, god, i yield me. round me when death's fiery tempest is rushing, when from my veins the red currents are gushing, to thee, o my god, do i yield me. father, i call to thee. _theo. körner_. lesson xxxiv franklin's toast long after washington's judicious and intrepid conduct in respect to the french and english had made his name familiar to all europe, dr. franklin chanced to dine with the english and french ambassadors, when the following toasts were given:-- the british ambassador, rising, said: "england,--the sun whose bright beams enlighten and fertilize the remotest corners of the earth." the french ambassador, glowing with national pride, but too polite to dispute the previous toast, said: "france,--the moon whose mild, steady, and cheering rays are the delight of all nations, consoling them in darkness, and making their dreariness beautiful." dr. franklin then arose, and, with his usual dignified simplicity, said: "george washington,--the joshua who commanded the sun and moon to stand still, and they obeyed him." lesson xxxv humanity rewarded joseph the second, emperor of germany, once received a petition in favor of a poor old officer, with a family of ten children, who was reduced to the utmost poverty. after making inquiries respecting the man, and satisfying himself of his worth, the emperor determined to judge of his necessities by personal observation. accordingly he went alone to the house of the officer, whom he found seated at table, with eleven children around him, dining upon vegetables of his own planting. the emperor, who was disguised as a private citizen, after some general conversation with the officer, said: "i heard you had ten children, but i see here eleven." "this," replied the officer, pointing to one, "is a poor orphan, whom i found at my door. i have endeavored to obtain for him the assistance of persons who could better afford to provide for him, but have not been able to succeed; and of course, i could do no better than share my little portion with him." the emperor, admiring the generous humanity of the poor man, immediately made himself known to him, and said, "i desire that all these children may be my pensioners, and that you will continue to give them examples of virtue and honor. "i grant you one hundred florins per annum. for each, and also, an addition of two hundred florins to your pension. go tomorrow to my treasurer, where you will receive the first quarter's payment, together with a lieutenant's commission for your eldest son. henceforth i will be the father of all the family." lesson xxxvi work proclaims a workman a certain baron had an only son, who was not only a comfort to his father, but a blessing to all who lived on his father's land. once, when the young man was away from home, a gentleman called to see his father, and using the name of god irreverently, the good old baron reproved him. "are you not afraid," said he, "of offending the great being who reigns above, by thus using his name in vain?" the gentleman said he neither feared nor believed in a being he could not see. the next morning the baron showed the gentleman a beautiful painting that adorned his hall. the gentleman admired the picture very much, and, when told by the baron that his son painted it, said: "your son is an excellent painter." the baron then took his visitor into the garden, and showed him many beautiful flowers, arranged in the most perfect order. "who has the direction of this garden?" said the gentleman. "my son," said the baron. "indeed," said the gentleman; "i begin to think he is something uncommon." the baron then took him into the village, and showed him a small, neat cottage, where his son had established a school, in which a hundred orphans were fed and taught at his expense. "what a happy man you are," said the gentleman, "to have so good a son!" "how do you know that i have so good a son?" replied the baron. "because i have seen his works," said the gentleman, "and i know he must be talented and good." "but you have never seen him," said the baron. "i have seen what he has done, and am disposed to love him, without having seen him," said the gentleman. "can you see anything from that window?" asked the baron. "the landscape is beautiful," said the gentleman; "the golden sun, the mighty river, the vast forest, are admirable. how lovely, and pleasant and cheerful, every object appears!" "how happens it," said the baron, "that you could see such proof of my son's existence, in the imperfect work of his hands, and yet you can see no proof of the existence of a creator, in the wonders and beauties which are now before you? let me never hear you say again that you believe not in the existence of god, unless you would have me think that you have lost the use of your reason." lesson xxxvii republics the name republic is written upon the oldest monuments of mankind. it has been connected in all ages with the noble and the great in art and letters. it might be asked, what land has ever felt the influence of liberty, that has not flourished like the spring? with regard to ourselves, we can truly say that we live under a form of government the equal of which the world has never seen. is it, then, nothing to be free? how many nations in the history of the world have proved themselves worthy of being so? were all men as enlightened, as brave and as self-respecting as they ought to be, would they suffer themselves to be insulted by any other form of government than a republic? can anything be more striking or more sublime, than the idea of a republic like ours; which spreads over a territory far more extensive than that of the ancient roman empire? and upon what is this great and glorious combination of states, so admirably united, really founded? it is founded upon the maxims of common sense and reason, without military despotism or monarchical domination of any kind. the people simply govern themselves, and the government is of the people, by the people and for the people. freedom of thought we must have an end of all persecution of ideas. i condemn the government of france and prussia when they oppress the jesuits. i condemn the government of russia when it oppresses the jews. i affirm that to persecute ideas is like persecuting light, air, electricity, or the magnetic fluid. ideas escape all persecution. when repressed they explode like powder. lesson xxxviii false notions of liberty people talk of liberty as if it meant the liberty of doing what a man likes. the only liberty that a man should ask for is the privilege of removing all restrictions that prevent his doing what he ought to do. i call that man free who is able to rule himself. i call him free who has his flesh in subjection to his spirit; who fears doing wrong, but who fears nothing else. i call that man free who has learned that liberty consists in obedience to the power and to the will and to the law that his higher soul approves. he is not free because he does what he likes, but he is free because he does what he ought. some people think there is no liberty in obedience. i tell you there is no liberty except in loyal obedience. did you ever see a mother kept at home, a kind of prisoner, by her sick child, obeying its every wish and caprice? will you call that mother a slave? or is this obedience the obedience of slavery? i call it the obedience of the highest liberty--the liberty of love. we hear in these days a great deal respecting rights: the rights of private judgment, the rights of labor, the rights, of property, and the rights of man. i cannot see anything manly in the struggle between rich and poor; the one striving to take as much, and the other to keep as much, as he can. the cry of "my rights, your duties," we should change to something nobler. if we can say "my duties, your rights," we shall learn what real liberty is. lesson xxxix the voice a good voice has a charm in speech as in song. the voice, like the face, betrays the nature and disposition, and soon indicates what is the range of the speaker's mind. many people have no ear for music; but everyone has an ear for skillful reading. every one of us has at some time been the victim of a cunning voice, and perhaps been repelled once for all by a harsh, mechanical speaker. the voice, indeed, is a delicate index of the state of mind. what character, what infinite variety, belongs to the voice! sometimes it is a flute, sometimes a trip-hammer; what a range of force! in moments of clearer thought or deeper sympathy, the voice will attain a music and penetration which surprise the speaker as much as the hearer. lesson xl the intrepid youth it was a calm, sunny day in the year ; the scene a piece of forest land in the north of virginia, near a noble stream of water. implements for surveying were lying about, and several men composed a party engaged in laying out the wild lands of the country. these persons had apparently just finished their dinner. apart from the group walked a young man of a tall and compact frame. he moved with the elastic tread of one accustomed to constant exercise in the open air. his countenance wore a look of decision and manliness not usually found in one so young. suddenly there was a shriek, then another, and several in rapid succession. the voice was that of a woman, and seemed to proceed from the other side of a dense thicket. at the first scream, the youth turned his head in the direction of the sound. when it was repeated, he pushed aside the undergrowth and, quickening his footsteps, he soon dashed into an open space on the bank of the stream, where stood a rude log cabin. it was but the work of a moment for the young man to make his way through the crowd and confront the woman. the instant her eye fell on him, she exclaimed: "oh, sir, you will do something for me. make them release me, for the love of god. my boy, my poor boy is drowning, and they will not let me go." "it would be madness; she will jump into the river," said one, "and the rapids would dash her to pieces in a moment." the youth scarcely waited for these words, for he recollected the child, a fine little boy of four years old, who was a favorite with all who knew him. he had been accustomed to play in the little inclosure before the cabin, but the gate having been left open, he had stolen out, reached the edge of the bank, and was in the act of looking over, when his mother saw him. the shriek she uttered only hastened the catastrophe she feared; for the child lost its balance, and fell into the stream. scream now followed scream in rapid succession, as the agonized mother rushed to the bank. one glance at the situation was enough. to take off his coat and plunge in after the drowning child were but the actions of a moment. on went the youth and child; and it was miraculous how each escaped being dashed to pieces against the rocks. twice the boy went out of sight, and a suppressed shriek escaped the mother's lips; but twice he reappeared, and with great anxiety she followed his progress, as his tiny form was hurried onward with the current. the youth now appeared to redouble his exertions, for they were approaching the most dangerous part of the river. the rush of the waters at this spot was tremendous, and no one ventured to approach, even in a canoe, lest he should be dashed in pieces. what, then, would be the youth's fate, unless he soon overtook the child? he urged his way through the foaming current with desperate strength. three times he was on the point of grasping the child, when the waters whirled the prize from him. the third effort was made above the fall; and when it failed, the mother groaned, fully expecting the youth to give up his task. but no; he only pressed forward the more eagerly. and now, like an arrow from the bow, pursuer and pursued shot to the brink of the precipice. an instant they hung there, distinctly visible amid the foaming waters. every brain grew dizzy at the sight. but a shout of exultation burst from the spectators, when they saw the boy held aloft by the right arm of the young hero. and thus he brought the child back to the distracted mother. with a most fervent blessing, she thanked the young man for his heroic deed. and was this blessing heard? most assuredly; for the self-sacrificing spirit which characterized the life of this youth was none other than that of george washington, the first president of the united states. lesson xli autumn september has come. the fierce heat of summer is gone. men are at work in the fields cutting down the yellow grain, and binding it up into sheaves. the fields of corn stand in thick ranks, heavy with ears. the boughs of the orchard hang low with the red and golden fruit. laughing boys are picking up the purple plums and the red-cheeked peaches that have fallen in the high grass. large, rich melons are on the garden vines, and sweet grapes hang in clusters by the wall. the larks with their black and yellow breasts stand watching you on the close-mown meadow. as you come near, they spring up, fly a little distance, and light again. the robins, that long ago left the gardens, feed in flocks upon the red berries of the sumac, and the soft-eyed pigeons are with them to claim their share. the lazy blackbirds follow the cows and pick up crickets and other insects. at noon, the air is still, mild, and soft. you see blue smoke off by the distant wood and hills. the brook is almost dry. the water runs over the pebbles with a soft, low murmur. the goldenrod is on the hill, the aster by the brook, and the sunflower in the garden. the twitter of the birds is still heard. the sheep graze upon the brown hillside. the merry whistle of the plowboy comes up from the field, and the cow lows in the distant pasture. as the sun sinks in the october haze, the low, south wind creeps over the dry tree-tops, and the leaves fall in showers upon the ground. the sun sinks lower, and lower, and is gone; but his bright beams still linger in the west. then the evening star is seen shining with a soft, mellow light, and the moon rises slowly in the still and hazy air. november comes. the flowers are all dead. the grass is pale and white. the wind has blown the dry leaves into heaps. the timid rabbit treads softly on the dry leaves. the crow calls from the high tree-top. the sound of dropping nuts is heard in the wood. children go out morning and evening to gather nuts for the winter. the busy little squirrels will be sure to get their share. selection xiv the retort one day, a rich man, flushed with pride and wine, sitting with guests at table, all quite merry, conceived it would be vastly fine to crack a joke upon his secretary. "young man," said he, "by what art, craft, or trade did your good father earn his livelihood?" "he was a saddler, sir," the young man said; "and in his line was always reckoned good." "a saddler, eh? and had you stuffed with greek, instead of teaching you like him to sew? and pray, sir, why did not your father make a saddler, too, of you?" at this each flatterer, as in duty bound, the joke applauded, and the laugh went round. at length the secretary, bowing low, said (craving pardon if too free he made), "sir, by your leave i fain would know your father's trade." "my father's trade? why, sir, but that's too bad! my father's trade? why, blockhead, art thou mad? my, father, sir, was never brought so low: he was a gentleman, i'd have you know." "indeed! excuse the liberty i take; but if your story's true, how happened it your father did not make a gentleman of you?" _g. p. morris_. lesson xlii words and their meaning i tell you earnestly, you must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable, nay, letter by letter. you might read all the books in the british museum, if you could live long enough, and remain an utterly illiterate, uneducated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter,--that is to say, with real accuracy,--you are forevermore, in some measure, an educated person. the entire difference between education and non-education (as regards the merely intellectual part of it) consists in this accuracy. a well-educated gentleman may not know many languages, may not be able to speak any but his own, may have read very few books; but whatever word he pronounces, he pronounces rightly. an ordinarily clever and sensible seaman will be able to make his way ashore at most ports; yet he has only to speak a sentence to be known for an illiterate person; so also the accent, or turn of expression of a single sentence, will at once mark a scholar. let the accent of words be watched, and closely; let their meaning be watched more closely still. a few words, well chosen, will do the work that a thousand cannot do, when every one of those few is acting properly, in the function of one another. lesson xliii how to select a boy a gentleman advertised for a boy, and nearly fifty applicants presented themselves to him. out of the whole number he selected one and dismissed the rest. "i should like to know," said a friend, "on what ground you selected that boy, who had not a single recommendation?" "you are mistaken," said the gentleman; "he has a great many. he wiped his feet when he came in, and closed the door after him, showing that he was careful. he gave his seat instantly to that lame old man, showing that he was thoughtful. he took off his cap when he came in and answered my questions promptly, showing that he was gentlemanly. "he picked up the book which i had purposely laid on the floor and replaced it on the table, and he waited quietly for his turn, instead of pushing and crowding; showing that he was honorable and orderly. when i talked to him i noticed that his clothes were brushed and his hair in order. when he wrote his name i noticed that his finger-nails were clean. "don't you call those things letters of recommendation? i do; and i would give more for what i can tell about a boy by using my eyes ten minutes than for all the letters he can bring me." lesson xliv salt salt is an every-day article, so common that we rarely give it a thought; yet, like most common things, it is useful enough to be ranked among the necessaries of life. "i could not live without salt," would sound to us exaggerated in the mouth of any one. have you ever fancied that you could do without it? how would meat taste without salt? would not much of our vegetable food be insipid, if we neglected this common seasoning? and even the "daily bread" demands its share. where is this salt found, that we prize so little, yet need so much? the sea furnishes some, and salt-mines and salt-springs give the rest. most of the salt used in this country is obtained from the water of certain springs. among the richest of these springs are those at salina, now a part of the city of syracuse, new york. forty gallons of water from these wells yield one bushel of salt. lesson xlv studies studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. their chief use for delight is in privateness; for ornament, in discourse; and for ability in the judgment and disposition of business. to spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them. read not to contradict and confute, or to believe and take for granted, or to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. reading makes a full man; conference, a ready man; and writing, an exact man. selection xv a psalm of life tell me not, in mournful numbers, "life is but an empty dream!" for the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem. life is real! life is earnest! and the grave is not its goal; "dust thou art, to dust returnest," was not spoken of the soul. not enjoyment, and not sorrow, is our destined end or way, but to act, that each to-morrow find us farther than to-day. art is long, and time is fleeting; and our hearts, though strong and brave, still, like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave. in the world's broad field of battle, in the bivouac of life, be not like dumb, driven cattle, be a hero in the strife. trust no future, however pleasant; let the dead past bury its dead: act,--act in the living present, heart within, and god o'erhead. lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time. footprints, that perhaps another, sailing o'er life's solemn main, a forlorn and shipwrecked brother, seeing, shall take heart again. let us then be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait. _h. w. longfellow_. lesson xlvi rules of behavior every action in company ought to be done with some sign of respect to those present. in presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet. speak not when others speak; sit not when others stand; speak not when you should hold your peace; walk not when others stop. turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jog not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean not on any one. be no flatterer; neither play with any one that delights not to be played with. read no letters, books, or papers, in company; but when there is a necessity for doing it, you must ask leave. come not near the books or writings of any one so as to read them, unless desired. when another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb not the audience. if any one hesitates in his words, help him not, nor prompt him, without being desired; interrupt him not, nor answer him till his speech is ended. be not curious to know the affairs of others, neither approach to those that speak in private. make no show of taking great delight in your victuals; feed not with greediness; lean not on the table; neither find fault with what you eat. let your discourses with men of business be short. be not immoderate in urging your friend to discover a secret. speak not in an unknown tongue in company, but in your own language, and as those of quality do, and not as the vulgar. lesson xlvii using the eyes the difference between men consists, in great measure, in the intelligence of their observation. the russian proverb says of the non-observant man, "he goes through the forest and sees no firewood." "sir," said johnson, on one occasion, to a fine gentleman, just returned from italy, "some men will learn more in the hampstead stage than others in the tour of europe." it is the mind that sees as well as the eye. many, before galileo, had seen a suspended weight swing before their eyes with a measured beat; but he was the first to detect the value of the fact. one of the vergers in the cathedral at pisa, after filling with oil a lamp which swung from the roof, left it swinging to and fro. galileo, then a youth of only eighteen, noting it attentively, conceived the idea of applying it to the measurement of time. fifty years of study and labor, however, elapsed before he completed the invention of his pendulum,--an invention the importance of which, in the measurement of time and in astronomical calculations, can scarcely be overvalued. while captain brown was occupied in studying the construction of bridges, he was walking in his garden one dewy morning, when he saw a tiny spider's-net suspended across his path. the idea occurred to him, that a bridge of iron ropes might be constructed in like manner, and the result was the invention of his suspension bridge. so trifling a matter as a straw may indicate which way the wind blows. it is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science and in every other pursuit in life. lesson xlviii the affection and reverence due a mother what an awful state of mind must a man have attained, when he can despise a mother's counsel! her name is identified with every idea that can subdue the sternest mind; that can suggest the most profound respect, the deepest and most heartfelt attachment, the most unlimited obedience. it brings to the mind the first human being that loved us, the first guardian that protected us, the first friend that cherished us; who watched with anxious care over infant life, whilst yet we were unconscious of our being; whose days and nights were rendered wearisome by her anxious cares for our welfare; whose eager eye followed us through every path we took; who gloried in our honor; who sickened in heart at our shame; who loved and mourned, when others reviled and scorned; and whose affection for us survives the wreck of every other feeling within. when her voice is raised to inculcate religion, or to reprehend irregularity, it possesses unnumbered claims of attention, respect and obedience. she fills the place of the eternal god; by her lips that god is speaking; in her counsels he is conveying the most solemn admonitions; and to disregard such counsel, to despise such interference, to sneer at the wisdom that addresses you, or the aged piety that seeks to reform you, is the surest and the shortest path which the devil himself could have opened for your perdition. i know no grace that can have effect; i know not any authority upon earth to which you will listen, when once you have brought yourself to reject such advice. useful information the officials and clerks by whom the people's business in the administration of the government is carried on, constitute the civil service. about five thousand of these officials are appointed by the president alone or with the consent of the senate; about fifteen to twenty thousand more are appointed under what is known as the "civil-service rules," and the remainder of our office-holders are appointed by heads of departments. competitive examinations for admission to the civil service are held at regular intervals by a board of examiners in each of the principal cities of the united states. men and women receive the same pay for the same work in government service. the salary of the president of the united states is $ , a year. the vice-president receives $ , ; cabinet officers, $ , ; senators, $ , and mileage. the chief justice of the supreme court receives $ , . ministers to foreign nations receive from $ , to $ , annually. the amount varies with the importance of the post. the total number of indians in the united states is about , , alaska not included. the most numerous tribes are the cherokee and choctaw indians. the apaches are the most savage. about half of the indian tribes are now partly civilized and are self-supporting. wise sayings the first business of a state is the education of its citizens. every child has a right to the best education. the highest motive of school government is to give the child the power and necessary reason to control himself. we have no right to teach anything that does not go through the intellect and reach the heart. kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. lesson xlix wheat wheat was unknown in america till it was brought over by europeans, but it is now grown to an immense extent in the temperate regions of both north and south america. our country is the greatest wheat granary in the world. the production of this grain in the united states is over five hundred millions of bushels a year. the great "wheat belt" of the united states is in the northwest,--in iowa, illinois, wisconsin, minnesota and the neighboring states. california also is a splendid country for this cereal, and california's wheat crop is every year worth more than were ever her stores of gold. people who live in cities and towns get their bread for the most part at the baker's; so that in many families the good old art of bread-making is almost forgotten. then it must be said that it is the exception rather than the rule when one finds really good home-made bread. this is a great pity. now, let me add one hint for the benefit of the girls. in the english language there is no nobler word than _lady_. but go back to its origin, and what do we find that it means? we find that it means _she that looks after the loaf_. wise sayings shallow men believe in luck; strong men in pluck. if there is honor among thieves, they stole it. have a time and place for everything, and do everything in its time and place. you will never find time for anything. if you want time, you must make it. you will always find those men the most forward to do good, or to improve the times, who are always busy. trifles make perfection, yet perfection is no trifle. lesson l countenance and character we know men by their looks; we read men by looking at their faces--not at their features, their eyes, their lips, because god made these; but a certain cast of motion, and shape and expression, which their features have acquired. it is this that we call the countenance. and what makes this countenance? the inward and mental habits; the constant pressure of the mind; the perpetual repetition of its acts. you detect at once a conceited, or foolish person. it is stamped on his countenance. you can see on the faces of the cunning or dissembling, certain corresponding lines, traced on the face as legibly as if they were written there. as it is with the countenance, so it is with the character. character is the sum total of all our actions. it is the result of the habitual use we have been making of our intellect, heart and will. we are always at work, like the weaver at the loom. so we are always forming a character for ourselves. it is a plain truth, that everybody grows up in a certain character; some good, some bad, some excellent, and some unendurable. every character is formed by habits. if a man is habitually proud, or vain, or false, he forms for himself a character like in kind. the character shows itself outwardly, but it is wrought within. every habit is a chain of acts, and every one of those acts was a free link of the will. for instance, some people are habitually false. we sometimes meet with men whose word we can never take, and for this reason they have lost the perception of truth and falsehood. they do not know when they are speaking the truth and when they are speaking falsely. they bring this state upon themselves. but there was a time when these same men had never told a lie. a good character is to be more highly prized than riches. selection xvi the old oaken bucket . how dear to the heart are the scenes of my childhood, when fond recollection presents them to view! the orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wild-wood, and every loved spot which my infancy knew; the wide-spreading pond, and the mill which stood by it, the bridge and the rock where the cataract fell; the cot of my father, the dairy-house nigh it, and e'en the rude bucket which hung in the well: the old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket. the moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well. . that moss-covered vessel i hail as a treasure; for often, at noon, when returned from the field, i found it the source of an exquisite pleasure, the purest and sweetest that nature can yield. how ardent i seized it, with hands that were glowing, and quick to the white-pebbled bottom it fell; then soon, with the emblem of truth overflowing, and dripping with coolness, it rose from the well: the old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, the moss-covered bucket arose from the well. . how sweet from the green mossy brim to receive it, as poised on the curb it inclined to my lips! not a full blushing goblet could tempt me to leave it, though filled with the nectar that jupiter sips. and now, far removed from the loved situation, the tear of regret will intrusively swell, as fancy reverts to my father's plantation, and sighs for the bucket which hangs in the well; the old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, the moss-covered bucket, which hangs in the well. _samuel woodworth_. lesson li the value of time the value of time has passed into a proverb,--"time is money." it is so because its employment brings money. but it is more. it is knowledge. still more, it is virtue. time is more than money. it brings what money cannot purchase. it has in its lap all the learning of the past, the spoils of antiquity, the priceless treasures of knowledge. who would barter these for gold or silver? but knowledge is a means only, and not an end. it is valuable because it promotes the welfare, the development and the progress of man. and the highest value of time is not in knowledge, but in the opportunity of doing good. time is opportunity. little or much, it may be the occasion of usefulness. it is the point desired by the philosopher where to plant the lever that shall move the world. it is the napkin in which are wrapped, not only the talent of silver, but the treasures of knowledge and the fruits of virtue. saving time, we save all these. employing time to the best advantage, we exercise a true thrift. to each of us the passing day is of the same dimensions, nor can any one, by taking thought, add a moment to its hours. but, though unable to extend their duration, he may swell them with works. it is customary to say, "take care of the small sums, and the large will take care of themselves." with equal wisdom may it be said, "watch the minutes, and the hours and days will be safe." the moments are precious; they are gold filings, to be carefully preserved and melted into the rich ingot. time is the measure of life on earth. its enjoyment is life itself. its divisions, its days, its hours, its minutes, are fractions of this heavenly gift. every moment that flies over our heads takes from the future, shortening by so much the measure of our days. the moments lost in listlessness, or squandered in dissipation, are perhaps hours, days, weeks, months, years. the daily sacrifice of a single hour during a year comes at its end to thirty-six working days, an amount of time ample for the acquisition of important knowledge, and for the accomplishment of great good. who of us does not each day, in many ways, sacrifice these precious moments, these golden hours? seek, then, always to be usefully occupied. employ all the faculties, whether in study or in manual labor, and your days shall be filled with usefulness. lesson lii the study of civics few people have the time to undertake a thorough study of civics, but everyone ought to find time to learn the principal features of the government under which he lives. we should know also of the way in which our government came into existence, and how this government is administered to-day. such knowledge is necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of citizenship. all kinds of political questions are discussed daily in the newspapers and voted on at times at the polls, and it is the duty of every man to try to understand them. for if these questions are not intelligently settled, they will be settled by the ignorant, and the result will be very bad. eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. people sometimes think that, because our national government is called a republic, and we have free schools and free libraries and other such free institutions, our liberty is forever secure. our government is indeed a wonderful structure of political skill, and generally runs so very smoothly that we almost think it will run of itself. beware! in order that the government of the nation, of the state, of the city or the town shall be properly administered, it is necessary that every citizen be watchful to secure the best officers for its government. useful information the great obelisk in central park, new york, is one of the most noted monoliths in the world. it was quarried, carved and erected about the time of abraham, to commemorate the deeds of an ancient pharaoh. five hundred years later the conquering sesostris, the bad pharaoh of the bible, carved on its surface the record of his famous reign. now sesostris, or rameses ii, reigned one thousand years before the trojan war, so that all the symbols now seen on the obelisk were already very old in the days of priam, hector and ulysses. the roman poet horace says that there were many brave men before agamemnon, but there was no homer to put their valiant deeds in verse. sesostris was an exception. he escaped oblivion without the aid of homer, and the figures upon the hard granite of cleopatra's needle tell us even now, after more than thirty-five centuries, of the reign of that remarkable king. lesson liii the sea and its uses it is a common thing in speaking of the sea to call it "a waste of waters." but this is a mistake. instead of being a waste and a desert, it keeps the earth itself from becoming a waste and a desert. it is the world's fountain of life and health and beauty, and if it were taken away, the grass would perish from the mountains, the forests would crumble on the hills. water is as indispensable to all life, vegetable or animal, as the air itself. this element of water is supplied entirely by the sea. the sea is the great inexhaustible fountain which is continually pouring up into the sky precisely as many streams, and as large, as all the rivers of the world are pouring into the sea. the sea is the real birthplace of the clouds and the rivers, and out of it come all the rains and dews of heaven. instead of being a waste and an incumbrance, therefore, it is a vast fountain of fruitfulness, and the nurse and mother of all the living. out of its mighty breast come the resources that feed and support the population of the world. we are surrounded by the presence and bounty of the sea. it is the sea that feeds us. it is the sea that clothes us. it cools us with the summer cloud, and warms us with the blazing fires of winter. we make wealth for ourselves and for our children out of its rolling waters, though we may live a thousand leagues away from its shore. thus the sea, though it bears no harvest on its bosom, yet sustains all the harvest of the world. if like a desert itself, it makes all the other wildernesses of the earth to bud and blossom as the rose. though its own waters are as salt and wormwood, it makes the clouds of heaven drop with sweetness. the sea is a perpetual source of health to the world. without it there could be no drainage for the lands. it is the scavenger of the world. the sea is also set to purify the atmosphere. thus the sea, instead of being a waste of waters, is the very fountain of life, health and beauty. lesson liv wonderland many of you have read of the remarkable geysers of iceland and the more remarkable ones in new zealand, of grand cañons in arizona, of deep mountain gorges in colorado, of stupendous falls in africa, of lofty mountains covered with snow in europe, of elevated lakes in south america, of natural bridges in virginia; but who has ever conceived of having all these wonders in one spot of the earth, and forever free as a great national park, visited each summer by thousands of native and foreign travelers? travelers report that this corner of the earth seems to be not quite finished by the great creator. through all this region volcanic action has been exceedingly vigorous. the effect of fire upon the rocks is plainly visible and widely spread. whole mountains of volcanic rock exist. floods of lava everywhere abound. the last feeble evidence of this gigantic force is to be seen in the hot springs on gardiner river and on many other streams, and in the strange action of the geyser basins. there are sixteen important geysers in this section, and innumerable inferior ones. one geyser is called the "giantess." it throws a great mass of water to a small height, surging and splashing in all directions. one of the most noted geysers is called the "castle geyser," because of its size and general appearance. the opening of the geyser tube is circular, and about three feet in diameter. when this geyser is about to spout, a rumbling is heard as of thousands of tons of stones rolling round and round. louder and louder grows the noise and disturbance, till it has thrown out a few tons of water and obtained apparent relief. these are warnings to the observers to retreat to a safe distance. in a few moments the geyser increases in noise, the earth even trembles, and then a great column of water is hurled into the air. another geyser is "old faithful," so called because he plays regularly every sixty-five minutes. the crater is quite low, and contains an opening which is only the widening of a crack extending across the whole mound. on the summit are a number of beautiful little pools, several feet deep, filled with water so clear that a name written in pencil on a piece of stone and placed at the bottom of the deepest pool is seen as clearly as if held in the hand. another remarkable fact is, that the water does not efface the name, even after months of submersion. old faithful begins with a few feeble jets. soon every spasm becomes more powerful, till with a mighty roar, up comes the water in a great column. this rises to the height of one hundred and thirty feet for the space of about five minutes. after the column of water sinks down there is a discharge of steam. the "beehive geyser" is named after the shape of its cone. the water and steam issue from the opening in a steady stream, instead of in successive impulses, as in the two mentioned above. no water falls back from this geyser, but the whole mass appears to be driven up into fine spray or steam, which is carried away as cloud, or diffused into the atmosphere. the names of some of the other well-known geysers are the "giant," "grotto," "soda," "turban," and "young faithful." the tremendous force with which some of these hot springs even now act, and the peculiarities of the earth's formation in this section of our country, may give us some faint idea of the phenomena through which our little world has passed until it became the dwelling-place of man. lesson lv our country to-day _part i_ the united states is one of the youngest nations of the world. civilized men first went to england nearly twenty centuries ago, but since columbus discovered america only four centuries have passed. each of these four centuries has a character of its own and is quite unlike the others. the first was the time of exploring, the second of colonizing, the third of deciding who should rule in america, and the fourth of growth and development. during the first century explorers from france, england, and spain visited the new world, each claiming for his own country the part that he explored. each hoped to find gold, but only the spaniards, who went to mexico and peru, were successful. there was little thought of making settlements, and at the end of the first century the spanish colonies of st. augustine and santa fe were the only ones on the mainland of what is now the territory of the united states. during the second century much colonizing was done. the french settled chiefly along the saint lawrence river; the english settled along the atlantic coast of north america; the spanish in mexico and south america; the dutch by the hudson river; the swedes by the delaware. the european nations discovered that it was worth while to have american colonies. during the third century there was a long struggle to see which nation should rule in america. england and france were far ahead of the others, but which of them should it be? the french and indian wars gave the answer, "england." then another question arose; should it be england or the thirteen colonies? the revolutionary war answered, "the colonies." at the end of the third century the united states had been established, and the land east of the mississippi was under her rule. in the last century there has been a great gain in people and in land. to-day there are thirty times as many people in this country as there were then. useful information it may not be generally known that we have in the nickel five-cent piece of our american coinage a key to the tables of linear measures and weights. the diameter of a nickel is exactly two centimeters, and its weight is five grammes. five nickels in a row will give the length of the decimeter, and two of them will weigh a decagram. as the kiloliter is a cubic meter, the key of the measure of length is also that of capacity. among the north american indians polished shells were used as currency. this money was called _wampum_ and was recognized by the colonists. six white shells were exchanged for three purple beads, and these in turn were equivalent to one english penny. lesson lvi our country to-day _part ii_ how has it come about that the number of people in the united states has increased with such rapidity? it is partly because more have been born than have died, and partly because so many have come from foreign countries. fifty years ago large villages were common in which there were hardly any foreigners. now one-sixth of the whole number of inhabitants of the united states are people who were born in some other country. these people are glad to come because the workingmen of america receive higher wages than those of any other country, and because in america a man is free to rise to any position that he is fitted to hold. the country is ready to give the education that will prepare her citizens to rise to high positions. it is believed that an educated man is likely to make a better citizen than an ignorant man, and therefore the public schools of the united states are entirely free. then, too, there are public libraries not only in the cities but in many of the little villages, so that men who are too old to go to school may educate themselves by reading. there is opportunity to use all kinds of knowledge in carrying on the manufactures of the country. almost everything that used to be made by hand is now made by machinery, and the skill to invent a machine that will work a little better than the one in use is always well rewarded. knowledge is also needed to develop the mineral wealth of the country. within the limits of the united states are metals, coal, natural gas, and petroleum, and it is the skill and inventive genius of her citizens that have brought such great wealth to the country from these products. this inventive genius has also given us rapid and cheap transportation. in the old days a man had to make or raise most things for himself. manufactured articles that could be made very cheaply in one place became exceedingly dear when they had to be carried long distances by wagons over poor roads. many delicate kinds of fruit would spoil on such long journeys. now, fruit can be sent from california to maine in fine condition. cheap and rapid transportation is a great convenience. business men need not live in the cities near their offices,--the steam or electric cars will carry them eight or ten miles in the time that it would take to walk one mile. the postal service and the telegraph are sure and rapid. so also is the telephone. no wonder, then, that our commerce has reached the fabulous sum of one billion, five hundred million dollars in one year. what the united states will become tomorrow, will lie in the hands of those who are the children of to-day. lesson lvii pictures from american history on the southern bank of the james river in virginia stand the ruins of an old church. its crumbling tower and broken arch are almost hidden by the tangled vines which cover it. within the walls of the church-yard may be found a few ancient tombstones overgrown with ivy and long grass. this is all that remains of the first english settlement in america,--the colony of jamestown, virginia. this first permanent english settlement in the new world was made in the year , more than a hundred years after the discovery of america by columbus. some attempts to colonize had been made by the english before this time. the most important of these was undertaken by the famous but unfortunate sir walter raleigh. raleigh obtained from queen elizabeth a grant of a vast territory, to be called virginia, in honor of elizabeth, the "virgin queen." it extended from the hudson river to the boundary of what is now georgia. in attempting to colonize virginia, raleigh spent a large fortune. but his colonies never prospered. the settlers returned home disgusted with the hardships of the wilderness. in raleigh sold his rights to a stock company. nevertheless the enterprise which proved too difficult for raleigh was carried out during raleigh's lifetime, under the leadership of the famous john smith. the idea of colonizing virginia had been growing wonderfully. in a company of "noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants," called the london company, obtained from king james the first a charter for "planting and ruling" south virginia. the company had gathered together a band of men willing to try their fortunes in virginia, and they were just about to embark when smith reached london. to smith's bold and roving disposition the idea of a new world was irresistible, and he joined the colonists. in the last month of the year , the party--in all, one hundred and five men--set sail in a little fleet of three vessels commanded by captain newport. on the d of may, , after a weary and distressing voyage, the virginia colonists landed. they commenced the settlement of jamestown. when the king's sealed instructions were opened, and the names of the seven directors were made known, it was found that john smith was to be one of the seven. through the jealousy of wingfield, who was chosen president, he was not allowed to take his place in the council. but this did not prevent his being the ablest man among them, and the colonists were soon glad to turn to him for guidance. for now their condition was most deplorable. they were surrounded by hostile indians; the provisions they had brought from england were soon consumed; and the diseases caused by the hot, moist climate in a short time reduced their number by one-half. besides, the colonists were a troublesome class to deal with. many of them were broken-down "gentlemen," who despised hard work. a very few were farmers or mechanics or persons fitted for the life they sought. day by day smith made his influence more and more felt. he soon became the head of the colony. he put in force the good old rule that he who would not work should not eat. many strange adventures are told about john smith during the two years he remained in virginia. he left the colony in the autumn of on account of a severe wound which he received, and which obliged him to return to england to be cured. the colonists, having lost the guidance of this resourceful man, were soon reduced to great want; still they held out and later on became a flourishing colony. lesson lviii thomas a. edison one of the greatest inventors of the age is thomas a. edison, and his whole life is an interesting story for young people. his mother had been a teacher, and her greatest wish for her son was that he should love knowledge and grow up to be a good and useful man. when edison was only twelve years of age, he secured a position as train boy on the grand trunk railroad in one of the western states. he went through the train and sold apples, peanuts, papers, and books. he had such a pleasant face that everybody liked to buy his wares. he traded some of his papers for things with which to try experiments. he then fitted out an old baggage car as a little room in which he began his first efforts in the way of inventions. one of the things he did while working as a train boy was to print a paper on the train. the "london times" spoke of it as the only paper in the world published on a train. it was named the "grand trunk herald." young edison worked as a train boy for four years, and he had in that time saved two thousand dollars, which he gave to his parents. once he thought he would like to read all the books in the city library. he read for a long time, but he found that he could not finish all the books. he then made up his mind that one would have to live a thousand years in order to read all the books in that library, so he gave up the idea. one day he bought a book on electricity. soon after that the basement of his home was filled with many odd things. he used a stovepipe to connect his home with that of another boy, and through this the boys could talk when they wished. a kind friend taught young edison how to telegraph, and in five months he could operate well and was given a position. he worked very hard, night and day, so that he could learn all he could about electricity. he lost place after place because he was always trying some new idea. when he first proposed to send four messages on one wire at the same time, he was laughed at by the people; but edison succeeded. later on he invented the phonograph. his greatest invention is the incandescent light, which is used for lighting purposes. mr. edison loves his work, and although he is now a very wealthy man, he keeps on inventing and working every day. it is said that he sometimes works for twenty-four hours, day and night, without food or rest, until he has perfected some new invention. mr. edison is a true type of an american gentleman. selection xvii oft in the stilly night oft in the stilly night, ere slumber's chain has bound me, fond memory brings the light of other days around me; the smiles, the tears of boyhood's years, the words of love then spoken; the eyes that shone, now dimm'd and gone, the cheerful hearts now broken. thus in the stilly night, ere slumber's chain has bound me, sad memory brings the light of other days around me. when i remember all the friends, so linked together, i've seen around me fall, like leaves in wintry weather, i feel like one who treads alone some banquet hall deserted, whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, and all but he departed. thus in the stilly night, ere slumber's chain has bound me, sad memory brings the light of other days around me. _thomas moore_. lesson lix abraham lincoln abraham lincoln, the restorer of the union, the sixteenth president of the united states, was born in kentucky on the twelfth of february, . his father was a typical backwoodsman, and young lincoln grew up among frontier surroundings. the lincoln family came originally from pennsylvania. at a later period the lincolns moved south to virginia, and again they migrated to kentucky. it was here that the grandfather of abraham lincoln lost his life in a battle with the indians. the first seven years of lincoln's life were spent in the wilds of kentucky. in his father left that state and moved northward to indiana, but here the surroundings were not much better. a rude blockhouse, with a single large room below and a low garret above, was the home of our young hero. every hardship and privation of the pioneer's life was here the lot of our growing youth. but he loved the tangled woods, and hunting and fishing were his delight. there were no schools there, and abraham learned a little reading and writing from a man who shared the poor blockhouse with the lincoln family. for writing, a slate was used, and now and then a pine board, or even some flat stone upon which the figures were traced with charcoal. his books were few, but he read them over and over again, and the impressions they made on him were so much the deeper. in this way lincoln acquired the rudiments of education. when abraham was scarcely nine years old, his excellent mother died. his father married again, and fortunately for young lincoln, his stepmother was a lady of refinement, who took the greatest interest in her rugged but talented step-son. she sent him to a private school for a while, and abraham learned many useful things and easily kept at the head of his class. his stepmother also procured more books for him, for abraham was a most ardent reader, and he spent all his leisure time in reading and self-culture. being tall of stature and well built, young lincoln had to help his father on the farm a great deal, and the only time left for study was late at night or in the early morning. thus our future president grew up to manhood; a sturdy, awkward, but honest backwoodsman, with a sound mind in a healthy body. when lincoln was about eighteen years old, his father again moved northward, this time to illinois. here abraham continued to work and to improve his mind as best he might. borrowing books from some law office, he studied them at night and returned them in the morning. his honesty and true merit were soon recognized by the rest of the community where he lived, and he was elected to represent the people in the legislature. lincoln became a lawyer of more than ordinary ability, and although his appearance remained somewhat ungainly, he easily won his lawsuits by the clear and logical conclusions which he advanced over those of his opponents. he had thus secured a splendid law-practice and had settled in springfield, illinois, when he became the republican candidate for president of the united states in , and was elected the same year. the country at this time was agitated over two great questions: the question of slavery and that of secession. the south was ready to separate from the north, and the entire country was in a most critical condition. such was the state of affairs when abraham lincoln took the oath of office as president of the united states. lincoln was scarcely three weeks in office when the great war of the rebellion between the north and the south broke out; a war of which there is no parallel in history. brother fought against brother, and father against son. here it was that lincoln showed his heroic courage, and by his indomitable will kept the reins of government firmly in his hands, thus saving the country from utter anarchy. the war continued with unrelenting vigor for two years, and its horrible consequences were sorely felt throughout the land. in september, , lincoln issued his famous emancipation proclamation, by which slavery was forever banished from this country. still the warring did not cease. in lincoln was elected for a second term in office. the people knew his noble character and they had full confidence in him. at last peace seemed to be in sight. the north had sacrificed the blood of thousands of its men as well as the wealth of its treasuries. the south, in the same manner, had not only lost tens of thousands of its bravest men, but it was utterly ruined, on account of the terrible punishment the war had inflicted upon that sunny land. richmond, the stronghold of the rebellion, had fallen, and victory was on the side of the union. amidst universal rejoicings, there came the saddest news. on the th day of april, , abraham lincoln was assassinated. the whole nation was thrown into deepest mourning. the noble heart of lincoln beat no more. he is called the "martyr president." his remains were taken to springfield, illinois, where they rest at the foot of a small hill in oakwood cemetery. a simple monument, with the name--"lincoln"--upon it, is the only epitaph of him, who next to washington was the greatest man of our glorious republic. lesson lx address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at gettysburg four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. we are met on a great battle-field of that war. we have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. but, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow--this ground. the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. the world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. it is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. _abraham lincoln_. november th, . selection xviii the picket of the potomac "all quiet along the potomac," they say, "except now and then a stray picket is shot as he walks on his beat to and fro, by a rifleman hid in the thicket." 'tis nothing--a private or two now and then will not count in the tale of the battle; not an officer lost--only one of the men breathing out all alone the death-rattle. all quiet along the potomac to-night, where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming, their tents in the ray of the clear autumn moon, and the light of the watch-fires gleaming. a tremulous sigh from the gentle night wind through the forest leaves slowly is creeping, while the stars up above, with their glittering eyes, keep watch while the army is sleeping. there's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread, as he tramps from the rock to the fountain, and thinks of the two in the low trundle-bed far away in the hut on the mountain. his musket falls slack; his face, dark and grim, grows gentle with memories tender, as he mutters a prayer for the children asleep, for their mother,--may heaven defend her! the moon seems to shine as serenely as then, that night when the love, yet unspoken, lingered long on his lips, and when low-murmured vows were pledged, never more to be broken. then, drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes, he dashes the tears that are welling, and gathers his gun closer up to its place, as if to keep down the heart-swelling. he passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree-- the footstep is lagging and weary; yet onward he glides through the broad belt of light, towards the shade of a forest so dreary. hark! was it the night wind that rustled the leaves? is it moonlight so suddenly flashing? it looked like a rifle-- "ha, mary, good-night!" his life-blood is ebbing and dashing. all quiet along the potomac to-night, no sound save the rush of the river; but the dew falls unseen on the face of the dead-- the picket's off duty forever. _ethel l. beers_. lesson lxi wages wages are a compensation given to the laborer for the exertion of his physical powers, or of his skill and ingenuity. they must, therefore, vary according to the severity of the labor to be performed, or to the degree of skill and ingenuity required. a jeweller or engraver, for example, must be paid a higher rate of wages than a servant or laborer. a long course of training is necessary to instruct a man in the business of jewelling or engraving, and if the cost of his training were not made up to him in a higher rate of wages, he would, instead of learning so difficult an art, betake himself to such employments as require hardly any instruction. a skilled mason, who has served a long apprenticeship to his trade, will always obtain higher wages than a common laborer, who has simply to use his mere bodily strength. were it not so, there would be nothing to induce the mason to spend many years in learning a trade at which he could earn no higher wages than the man who was simply qualified to carry lime in a hod, or to roll a wheelbarrow. the wages of labor in different employments vary with the constancy and inconstancy of employment. employment is much more constant in some trades than in others. many trades can be carried on only in particular states of weather, and seasons of the year; and if the workmen who are employed in these cannot easily find employment in others during the time they are thrown out of work, their wages must be proportionally raised. a journeyman weaver, shoemaker, or tailor may reckon, unless trade is dull, upon obtaining constant employment; but masons, bricklayers, pavers, and in general all those workmen who carry on their business in the open air, are liable to constant interruptions. their wages, accordingly, must be sufficient to maintain them while they are employed, and also when they are necessarily idle. from the preceding observations it is evident that those who receive the highest wages are not, when the cost of their education, and the chances of their success, are taken into account, really better paid than those who receive the lowest. the wages earned by the different classes of workmen are equal, not when each individual earns the same number of dollars in a given space of time, but when each is paid in proportion to the severity of the labor he has to perform, and to the degree of previous education and skill it requires. so long as each individual is allowed to employ himself as he pleases, we may be assured that the rate of wages in different employments will be comparatively equal. selection xix columbia, the gem of the ocean; or, the red, white and blue . o columbia, the gem of the ocean, the home of the brave and the free, the shrine of each patriot's devotion, a world offers homage to thee. thy mandates make heroes assemble, when liberty's form stands in view, thy banners make tyranny tremble, when borne by the red, white and blue. chorus. when borne by the red, white and blue, when borne by the red, white and blue, thy banners make tyranny tremble, when borne by the red, white and blue. . when war winged its wide desolation. and threatened the land to deform, the ark then of freedom's foundation, columbia, rode safe thro' the storm; with her garlands of vict'ry around her, when so proudly she bore her brave crew, with her flag proudly floating before her, the boast of the red, white and blue. chorus. . the wine-cup, the wine-cup bring hither, and fill you it true to the brim; may the wreaths they have won never wither, nor the star of their glory grow dim. may the service united ne'er sever, but they to their colors prove true. the army and navy forever, three cheers for the red, white and blue. chorus. _david t. shaw_. lesson lxii love for the dead the sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. every other wound we seek to heal--every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open--this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. where is the mother who would willingly forget the infant that perished like a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang? where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of parents, though to remember be but to lament? who, even in the hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he mourns? who, even when the tomb is closing upon the remains of her he most loved--when he feels his heart, as it were, crushed in the closing of its portal--would accept of consolation that must be bought by forgetfulness? no, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul. if it has its woes, it has likewise its delights; and when the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the gentle tear of recollection--when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness--who would root out such a sorrow from the heart? though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of gayety, or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom, yet who would exchange it, even for the song of pleasure or the burst of revelry? no, there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. there is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living. oh, the grave! the grave! it buries every error--covers every defect. from its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. who can look down upon the grave even of an enemy, and not feel remorse that he should ever have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies mouldering before him? lesson lxiii economy of time one of the most important lessons to be learned in life is the art of economizing time. a celebrated italian was wont to call his time his estate; and it is true of this as of other estates of which the young come into possession, that it is rarely prized till it is nearly squandered. habits of indolence, listlessness, and sloth, once firmly fixed, cannot be suddenly thrown off, and the man who has wasted the precious hours of life's seed-time finds that he cannot reap a harvest in life's autumn. lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine; but lost time is gone forever. in the long catalogue of excuses for neglect of duty, there is none which drops more often from men's lips than the want of leisure. people are always cheating themselves with the idea that they would do this or that desirable thing, "if they only had the time." it is thus that the lazy and the selfish excuse themselves from a thousand things which conscience dictates should be done. now, the truth is, there is no condition in which the chance of doing any good is less than in that of leisure. go, seek out the men in any community who have done the most for their own and the general good, and you will find they are--who?--wealthy, leisurely people, who have plenty of time to themselves, and nothing to do? no; they are almost always the men who are in ceaseless activity from january to december. such men, however pressed with business, are always found capable of doing a little more; and you may rely on them in their busiest seasons with ten times more assurance than on idle men. the men who do the greatest things do them, not so much by fitful efforts, as by steady, unremitting toil,--by turning even the moments to account. they have the genius for hard work,--the most desirable kind of genius. selection xx recessional god of our fathers, known of old-- lord of our far-flung battle-line-- beneath whose awful hand we hold dominion over palm and pine-- lord god of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget. the tumult and the shouting dies-- the captain and the kings depart-- still stands thine ancient sacrifice, an humble and a contrite heart. lord god of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget. far-called our navies melt away-- on dune and headland sinks the fire-- lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with nineveh and tyre. judge of the nations, spare us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget. if, drunk with sight of power, we loose wild tongues that have not thee in awe-- such boasting as the gentiles use, or lesser breeds without the law-- lord god of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget. for heathen heart that puts her trust in reeking tube and iron shard-- all valiant dust that builds on dust, and guarding calls not thee to guard,-- for frantic boast and foolish word, thy mercy on thy people, lord. amen. _rudyard kipling_. selection xxi human progress all is action, all is motion, in this mighty world of ours; like the current of the ocean, man is urged by unseen powers. steadily, but strongly moving, life is onward evermore; still the present is improving on the age that went before. duty points with outstretched fingers, every soul to action high; woe betide the soul that lingers-- onward! onward! is the cry. though man's form may seem victorious, war may waste and famine blight, still from out the conflict glorious, mind comes forth with added light. o'er the darkest night of sorrow, from the deadliest field of strife, dawns a clearer, brighter morrow, springs a truer, nobler life. onward! onward! onward, ever! human progress none may stay; all who make the vain endeavor shall, like chaff, be swept away. _j. hagan_. lesson lxiv george stephenson, the engineer a famous engineer, named stephenson, was the first person to demonstrate the fact that an engine could be built which would draw a train of cars on a railway. he was an englishman. his parents were poor, and the whole family had to live in one room. george was one of six children; none of them were sent to school, because they had to work for their living. from an early age george had assisted his father in tending the fires of the steam engine which worked the machinery of a large coal mine. he devoted himself to the study of this engine until he had mastered every detail of its construction. in , a rich nobleman entrusted him with money to carry out his favorite plan of building a "traveling engine," as he then called it. he made an engine that was fairly successful, as it drew eight loaded cars on a railway at a speed of four miles an hour. but he was not contented; he knew that he could do much better. soon afterward, he was employed to construct another engine, in which he made some great improvements that enabled it to go twice as fast as the other. accounts of stephenson's great invention crept into print, and people began to have faith in the locomotive. in , a company began to build a line of railway between two towns named stockton and darlington. stephenson was employed to construct the road-bed and build the engines. it was completed three years later, and was the subject of great popular curiosity. great crowds came to see the line opened. stephenson himself drove the first engine. the train consisted of thirty-four cars. the signal was given and the train started. great was the sensation as it moved off, and still greater was the admiration of the people at stockton when the train arrived there after a safe journey. thus, in , was opened the first railway ever made for public use. stephenson was soon engaged in constructing a railway between manchester and liverpool. but now a storm of opposition broke out. pamphlets and newspaper articles were written, making fun of stephenson, and declaring that the new railroad would be a failure. it was claimed that the engine would certainly set fire to the surrounding country, that it would explode and kill the passengers, and that it would run over the people before they could get out of its way. a committee was appointed by the english parliament to look into the matter. they sneered at stephenson as a lunatic, when he assured them that he could run his engine at twelve miles an hour. one of these wise men said to him: "suppose a cow were to get in the way of an engine running at that rate of speed, wouldn't that be a very awkward circumstance?" "yes," answered stephenson, "very awkward for the cow." but the consent of parliament was at last obtained, and the line was completed in , after many great obstacles had been overcome. it was shown that a train could be run at thirty miles an hour with safety, and thus the enemies of stephenson were silenced. stephenson superintended the building of many other lines of railroad, and lived to see his best hopes realized. he became quite wealthy, and many honors were bestowed upon him. nevertheless he remained always a simple, kindly man, even in his years of prosperity. when england had experienced such success with railways, it was not long before america began building railroads on a large scale. more than three hundred thousand miles of railroads are now in operation in the united states, and many more miles are added each year. the great systems of railways, with their modern improvements for fast travel, are a triumph of skill, energy and enterprise. lesson lxv george washington _part ii_ the boundary war between france and the british possessions in america had been the cause of the war from to in which washington and thousands of his countrymen did gallant services. it ended with the surrender of quebec, by which france lost her foothold in the ohio valley and all the territory east of the mississippi. ten years later, the whole aspect had changed. the same country, for which our forefathers in the colonies had sacrificed some of their noblest sons, was now beginning to oppress these very colonies. by unjust taxation, england tried to replenish her treasury, which a protracted war across the seas had made empty. but though the war against the french in the interest of england had cost the colonies in america some of its best blood, it had not been without its salutary lesson. america had learned its own strength as well as the weakness of the british soldiers and her public officials. washington, above all, knew these facts too well. he was, however, no agitator, and for many reasons was deeply attached to old england. he, therefore, cautioned reserve and forbearance without sacrificing his patriotism. in the meantime the revolution came to an outbreak. washington was called upon by his compatriots to lead them on to liberty. after careful examination and due consideration he consented, and washington took command of the colonial troops in the war against england. "it is my intention," said he, "if needs be, to sacrifice my life, my liberty and all my possessions in this holy cause." thus, we see him leading the army, animated with the noblest sentiments. general washington was now forty-three years of age and in the full power of manhood. his personality was distinguished and his bearing serene. he electrified the whole army. the colonial troops, however, were not at all times equal to the well-drilled english soldiers, and general washington had a difficult task before him. but what the americans lacked in military tactics, they doubly possessed in enthusiasm and courage. from lexington and boston, bunker hill and concord, through connecticut, new york, philadelphia, valley forge, and from princeton to morristown was a wearisome march. want of provisions for the army under his command, as well as many other disappointments, might well have discouraged any but the stoutest heart. general washington was a hero, and he trusted in god and the ultimate success of the country's just cause. when at last the american army was in sorest distress, there came unexpected help from many quarters. such noble and self-sacrificing men as lafayette, steuben, kosciusko, de kalb and de grasse arrived to aid our new republic, and after an unrelenting war of six long years, british rule was forever banished from the land. on the th of december, , general washington took leave of the continental army. his memorable speech on that occasion is a masterpiece of unselfish patriotism. he retired to his home at mount vernon, followed by the heartfelt blessings of a grateful people. his private life was one of regularity in all his doings. his hospitality was renowned, and mount vernon soon became a much frequented, much beloved place of reunion for many distinguished visitors. not a great many years was washington permitted to enjoy his well-merited repose in his country home. the same country of which he had been the successful liberator, now called upon him to lead and guide this newly established government. washington was chosen the first president of the united states of america in . it was at this time that he wrote in his diary: "to-day i take leave of private life and domestic happiness with feelings of regret, and am preparing to enter upon my official career. i hope i shall be able to realize the expectations my country has placed in me." his journey from mount vernon to new york became one of triumph. he was met with the greatest enthusiasm throughout the country wherever he passed. he took his oath of office in new york city where the sub-treasury now stands. washington was elected a second time for the presidency. his presidential career was characteristic of the man and the hero. an equitable and conservative government was administered by him, and the young republic was prosperous and progressive during his two terms of office. having returned once more to his beloved virginia home, washington now spent his declining years in much needed rest and quiet recreation. in the fall of the year washington was seized with a malignant fever. the best medical aid proved unavailing, and the father of our country died on the th day of december. his last words were: "let me die in peace; i am not afraid to die, it is a debt we all must pay." the exemplary life and the many noble achievements of this truly great man stand almost unique in the history of nations. lesson lxvi benjamin franklin benjamin franklin was born poor, but nothing could keep him ignorant. his genius and strong will were wealth enough for any man. at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to his brother james, who was a printer. at the same time--perhaps a little later--he used to sell his own ballads in the streets of boston. at twenty-one years of age he was a master printer in philadelphia, in his shop on market street. he had been at school in boston for two years, but after the age of ten he had been obliged to teach himself: he was too poor to spend even those early years in a schoolhouse. yet he learned without such helps as schools and schoolmasters afford. he studied latin, french, italian, spanish, and german, and lived to hear two continents call him the greatest philosopher of his time. he discovered that lightning and electricity are the same, and taught men how to guard their houses against the thunder-bolt. to his great mind it seemed that all things came alike: no invention was too simple, and no idea too lofty. whatever had to be done was worth doing in the best and simplest way: that was the ruling principle of benjamin franklin's life. he was an earnest and fearless patriot, always on the side of the people and their rights. his strong will, his cool manner, and his bold spirit made him an enemy not to be scorned by england. "what used to be the pride of the americans?" asked a member of the english parliament in . and franklin, then pleading the cause of the colonies before the house of commons, replied, "to indulge in the fashions and wear the manufactures of great britain." the englishman, sure that franklin would be less ready to answer, continued: "what is now their pride?" and in a flash the old philosopher of threescore and ten said, "to wear their old clothes over again till they can make new ones." years had not broken the strong will or dulled the sharp wit. his efforts to secure for the americans the aid of france can never be forgotten by the american people. burgoyne's surrender made the french believe that the patriots' cause was worthy of assistance, but it is quite certain that the eloquence of dr. franklin, as the french people called the great american, had opened the way for all that followed. whatever favor he met with in society, whatever honor he received, whatever fame he acquired at home or abroad, he turned all to account for the good of his country. selection xxii give me the people some love the glow of outward show, the shine of wealth, and try to win it: the house to me may lowly be, if i but like the people in it. what's all the gold that glitters cold, when linked to hard and haughty feeling? whate'er we're told, the noblest gold is truth of heart and honest dealing. a humble roof may give us proof that simple flowers are often fairest; and trees whose bark is hard and dark may yield us fruit, and bloom the rarest. there's worth as sure among the poor as e'er adorned the highest station; and minds as just as theirs, we trust, whose claim is but of rank's creation. then let them seek, whose minds are weak, mere fashion's smile, and try to win it: the house to me may lowly be, if i but like the people in it. _charles swain_. lesson lxvii nobility rewarded a rich man, feeling himself growing old, called his three sons around him and said: "i am resolved to divide my goods equally among you. you shall each have your full share, but there is one thing which i have not included in the share of any one of you. it is this costly diamond which you see in my hand. i will give it to that one of you who shall earn it by the noblest deed. go, therefore, and travel for three months; at the end of that time we will meet here again, and you shall tell me what you have done." the sons departed accordingly, and traveled three months, each in a different direction. at the end of that time they returned; and all came together to their father to give an account of their journey. the eldest son spoke first. he said: "on my journey a stranger entrusted to me a great number of valuable jewels, without taking any account of them. indeed, i was well aware that he did not know how many the parcel contained. one or two of them would never have been missed, and i might easily have enriched myself without fear of detection. but i did no such thing; i gave back the parcel exactly as i had received it. was not this a noble deed?" "my son," said the father, "simple honesty cannot be called noble. you did what was right, and nothing more. if you had acted otherwise, you would have been dishonest, and your deed would have shamed you. you have done well, but not nobly." the second son now spoke. he said: "as i was traveling on my journey one day, i saw a poor child playing by the edge of a lake; and, just as i rode by, it fell into the water, and was in danger of being drowned. i immediately dismounted from my horse, and, wading into the water, brought it safe to land. all the people of the village where this occurred can bear witness of the deed. was it not a noble action?" "my son," replied the old man, "you did only what was your duty, and you could hardly have left the innocent child to die without making an effort to save it. you, too, have acted well, but not nobly." then the third son came forward to tell his tale. he said: "i had an enemy, who for years has done me much harm and sought to take my life. one evening, during my late journey, i was passing along a dangerous road which ran beside the summit of a steep cliff. as i rode cautiously along, my horse started at sight of something lying in the road. i dismounted to see what it was, and found my enemy lying fast asleep on the very edge of the cliff. the least movement in his sleep, and he must have rolled over, and would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks below. his life was in my hands. i drew him away from the edge, and then woke him, and told him to go on his way in peace." then the old man cried out, in a transport of joy: "dear son, the diamond is thine; for it is a noble and godlike thing to help the enemy, and to reward evil with good." the declaration of independence-- . in congress, july , . _the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of america_. when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.--such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. the history of the present king of great britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. he has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. he has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. he has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. he has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. he has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. he has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. he has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. he has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. he has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. he has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. he has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. he has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: for quartering large bodies of armed men among us: for protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences: for abolishing the free system of english laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. he has abdicated government, here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. he is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty, and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. he has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. he has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. a prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. nor have we been wanting in attention to our british brethren. we have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. we have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. we must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. we, therefore, the representatives of the united states of america, in general congress, assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the british crown and that all political connection between them and the state of great britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved: and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. the constitution of the united states of america.[ ] the preamble. "we, the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the united states of america." article i. the legislative department. section i.--the congress in general. "all legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a congress of the united states, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives." section ii.--the house of representatives. . "the house of representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature." . "no person shall be a representative, who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the united states, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen." . "representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. the actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the congress of the united states, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. the number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of new hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, massachusetts eight, rhode island and providence plantations one, connecticut five, new york six, new jersey four, pennsylvania eight, delaware one, maryland six, virginia ten, north carolina five, south carolina five, and georgia three."[ ] . "when vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies." . "the house of representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment." section iii.--the senate. . "the senate of the united states shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years, and each senator shall have one vote." . "immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be, into three classes. the seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class, at the expiration of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies." . "no person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the united states, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen." . "the vice-president of the united states shall be president of the senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided." . "the senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president _pro tempore_, in the absence of the vice-president, or when he shall exercise the office of president of the united states." . "the senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. when sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. when the president of the united states is tried, the chief-justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present." . "judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit, under the united states; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law." section iv.--both houses. . "the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators." . "the congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first monday in december, unless they shall by law appoint a different day." section v.--the houses separately. . "each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide." . "each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member." . "each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and, from time to time, publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal." . "neither house, during the session of congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting." section vi.--privileges and disabilities of members. . "the senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the united states. they shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to, and returning from, the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place." . "no senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the united states, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no person, holding any office under the united states, shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office." section vii.--mode of passing laws. . "all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the house of representatives; but the senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills." . "every bill which shall have passed the house of representatives and the senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the president of the united states; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. if, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall like-wise be reconsidered, and, if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. but in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house, respectively. if any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days (sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law." . "every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the senate and house of representatives may be necessary (except on a case of adjournment), shall be presented to the president of the united states; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the senate and house of representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill." section viii.--powers granted to congress. . "the congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, provide for the common defence and general welfare of the united states; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the united states." . "to borrow money on the credit of the united states." . "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the indian tribes." . "to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the united states." . "to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures." . "to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the united states." . "to establish post-offices and post-roads." . "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." . "to constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court." . "to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations." . "to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water." . "to raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years." . "to provide and maintain a navy." . "to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces." . "to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions." . "to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the united states; reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed by congress." . "to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square), as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of congress, become the seat of the government of the united states, and to exercise like authority over all places, purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings," and . "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the united states, or in any department or officer thereof." section ix.--powers denied to the united states. . "the migration or importation of such persons, as any of the states, now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the congress, prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person." . "the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." . "no bill of attainder, or _ex post facto_ law, shall be passed." . "no capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the _census_ or enumeration, herein before directed to be taken." . "no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state." . "no preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties, in another." . "no money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published, from time to time." . "no title of nobility shall be granted by the united states: and no person, holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state." section x.--powers denied to the states. . "no state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, pass any bill of attainder, _ex post facto_ law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility." . "no state shall, without the consent of the congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the united states; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the congress." . "no state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay." article ii. the executive department. section i.--president and vice-president. . "the executive power shall be vested in a president of the united states of america. he shall hold his office during the term of four years, and together with the vice-president, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: . "each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the congress: but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the united states, shall be appointed an elector." . "[ ]the electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. and they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government of the united states, directed to the president of the senate. the president of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. the person having the greatest number of votes shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such a majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the house of representatives shall immediately choose, by ballot, one of them for president; and if no person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said house shall, in like manner, choose the president. but in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. in every case, after the choice of the president, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the vice-president. but if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the senate shall choose from them, by ballot, the vice-president." . "the congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the united states." . "no person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the united states at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the united states." . "in case of the removal of the president from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president, and the congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability both of the president and vice-president, declaring what officer shall then act as president, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a president shall be elected." . "the president shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the united states, or any of them." . "before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: 'i do solemnly swear (or affirm), that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the united states.'" section ii.--powers of the president. . "the president shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the united states, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the united states; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the united states, except in cases of impeachment." . "he shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the united states, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments." . "the president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen, during the recess of the senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session." section iii.--duties of the president. "he shall, from time to time, give to the congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the united states." section iv.--impeachment of the president. "the president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the united states, shall be removed from office, on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." article iii. judicial department. section i.--united states courts. "the judicial power of the united states shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. the judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." section ii.--jurisdiction of the united states courts. . "the judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the united states, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the united states shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states; between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state, claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects." . "in all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. in all the other cases before mentioned, the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the congress shall make." . "the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place, or places, as the congress may by law have directed." section iii.--treason. . "treason against the united states shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." . "the congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted." article iv. section i.--state records. "full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. and the congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved and the effect thereof." section ii.--privileges of citizens. . "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states." . "a person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime." . "no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." section iii.--new states and territories. . "new states may be admitted by the congress into this union; but no new state shall be formed, or erected, within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed, by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the congress." . "the congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory, or other property, belonging to the united states; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the united states, or of any particular state." section iv.--guarantee to the states. "the united states shall guaranty to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence." article v. power of amendment. "the congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the congress; provided, that no amendment, which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall, in any manner, affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate." article vi. public debt, supremacy of the constitution, oath of office, religious test. . "all debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the united states, under this constitution, as under the confederation." . "this constitution, and the laws of the united states which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the united states, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." . "the senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the united states, and of the several states, shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the united states." article vii. ratification of the constitution. "the ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same." done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present, the seventeenth day of september, in the year of our lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the united states of america the twelfth. amendments to the constitution. articles in addition to, and amendment of, the constitution of the united states of america.[ ] _proposed by congress and ratified by the legislatures of the several states, pursuant to the fifth article of the original constitution_. article i.--freedom of religion, etc. "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." article ii.--right to bear arms. "a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." article iii.--quartering soldiers on citizens. "no soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner; nor, in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." article iv.--search-warrants. "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." article v.--trial for crime, etc. "no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war, or public danger; nor shall any person be subject, for the same offence, to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." article vi.--rights of accused persons. "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence." article vii.--suits at common law. "in suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the united states, than according to the rules of the common law." article viii.--excessive bail. "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." article ix.--rights retained by the people. "the enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." article x.---reserved powers of the states. "the powers not delegated to the united states by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." article xi. "the judicial power of the united states shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the united states by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state."[ ] article xii.--mode of choosing the president and vice-president. . "the electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice-president; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as president, and of all persons voted for as vice-president, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign, and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of government of the united states, directed to the president of the senate; the president of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for president shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as president, the house of representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the president. but in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. and if the house of representatives shall not choose a president, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of march next following, then the vice-president shall act as president, and in case of the death, or other constitutional disability, of the president." . "the person having the greatest number of votes as vice-president shall be the vice-president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the senate shall choose the vice-president; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators; and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice." . "but no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president, shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the united states." article xiii.--abolition of slavery. . "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the united states or any place subject to their jurisdiction." . "congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." article xiv.--right of citizenship, etc. . "all persons born or naturalized in the united states, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the united states and of the state wherein they reside. no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united states; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." . "representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding indians not taxed. but when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the united states, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the united states, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens, twenty-one years of age, in such state." . "no person shall be a senator or representative in congress, or elector of president and vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the united states, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of congress, or as an officer of the united states, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the constitution of the united states, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. but congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability." . "the validity of the public debt of the united states, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. but neither the united states nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the united states, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave, but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void." . "the congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." article xv.--right of suffrage. . "the right of citizens of the united states to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united states, or by any state, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." . "the congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." [ ]the articles of confederation proved by experience inadequate to the wants of the people of the united states, and they were supplanted by the constitution. "the american constitution, with its manifest defects, still remains one of the most abiding monuments of human wisdom, and it has received a tribute to its general excellence such as no other political system was ever honored with."--freeman. [ ]this clause has been superseded by amendment xiv., sect. . [ ]this clause has been amended and superseded by the twelfth amendment to the constitution. by the provisions of the original clause the person in the electoral college having the greatest number of votes (provided he had a majority of the whole number of electors appointed) became president, and the person having the next greatest number of votes became vice-president, thus giving the presidency to one political party and the vice-presidency to another. in the year the democratic republicans determined to elect thomas jefferson president and aaron burr vice-president. the result was that each secured an equal number of votes, and neither was elected. the constitution then, as now, provided that in case the electoral college failed to elect a president, the house of representatives, voting as states, should elect. the federalists distrusted and disliked jefferson; the democratic republicans and some of the federalists distrusted and disliked burr. the vote in the house on the thirty-sixth ballot gave the presidency to jefferson and the vice-presidency to burr. in order to prevent a repetition of so dangerous a struggle, the twelfth amendment, by which the electoral votes are cast separately for the candidates for president and for vice-president, was proposed by congress dec. , , and declared in force sept. , . [ ]more than seven hundred amendments to the constitution have been proposed since it was adopted. several are usually proposed at each session of congress. the first twelve articles of amendment to the federal constitution were adopted so soon after the original organization of the government under it in as to justify the statement that they were practically contemporaneous with the adoption of the original (justice miller, _u. s. supreme court_). [ ]in the case of chisholm _vs_. the state of georgia, the supreme court decided that under article iii., section , of the constitution a private citizen of a state might bring suit against a state other than the one of which he was a citizen. this decision, by which a state might be brought as defendant before the bar of a federal court, was highly displeasing to the majority of the states in . on the th of march of that year the eleventh amendment was passed by two-thirds of both houses of congress, and declared in force january , . practically, the amendment has been the authority for the repudiation of debts by several states. produced from scanned images of public domain material from the google print project.) transcriber's note minor changes have been made to correct typesetter errors; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the authors' words and intent. characters that could not be displayed directly in latin- are transcribed as follows: [)a], [)e], [)i], [)o], [)y] - breve above letter [=a], [=e], [=i], [=o], [=y] - macron above letter [:a], [:i], [:o], [:u] - umlaut above letter [+s] - tack up below letter [illustration: david copperfield at salem house (see page ).] reading with expression eighth reader by james baldwin author of "school reading by grades--baldwin's readers," "harper's readers," etc. and ida c. bender supervisor of primary grades, buffalo, new york _eight-book series_ new york ·:· cincinnati ·:· chicago american book company copyright, , by american book company. entered at stationers' hall, london. b. & b. eighth reader. w. p. to the teacher the paramount design of this series of school readers is to help young people to acquire the art and the habit of reading well--that is, of interpreting the printed page in such manner as to give pleasure and instruction to themselves and to those who listen to them. in his eighth year at school the pupil is supposed to be able to read, with ease and with some degree of fluency, anything in the english language that may come to his hand; but, that he may read always with the understanding and in a manner pleasing to his hearers and satisfactory to himself, he must still have daily systematic practice in the rendering of selections not too difficult for comprehension and yet embracing various styles of literary workmanship and illustrating the different forms of english composition. the contents of this volume have been chosen and arranged to supply--or, where not supplying, to suggest--the materials for this kind of practice. particular attention is called both to the high quality and to the wide variety of the selections herein presented. they include specimens of many styles of literary workmanship--the products of the best thought of modern times. it is believed that their study will not only prove interesting to pupils, but will inspire them with a desire to read still more upon the same subjects or from the works of the same authors; for it is only by loving books and learning to know them that any one can become a really good reader. the pupils should be encouraged to seek for and point out the particular passages in each selection that are distinguished for their beauty, their truth, or their peculiar adaptability to the purpose in view. the habit should be cultivated of looking for and enjoying the admirable qualities of any worthy literary production; and special attention should be given to the style of writing which characterizes and gives value to the works of various authors. these points should be the subjects of daily discussions between teacher and pupils. the notes under the head of "expression," which follow many of the lessons, are intended, not only to aid in securing correctness of expression, but also to afford suggestions for the appreciative reading of the selections and an intelligent comparison of their literary peculiarities. in the study of new, difficult, or unusual words, the pupils should invariably refer to the dictionary. contents page brother and sister _george eliot_ my last day at salem house _charles dickens_ the departure from miss pinkerton's _w. m. thackeray_ two gems from browning: i. incident of the french camp _robert browning_ ii. dog tray _robert browning_ the discovery of america _washington irving_ the glove and the lions _leigh hunt_ st. francis, the gentle _william canton_ the sermon of st. francis _henry w. longfellow_ in the woods _john burroughs_ bees and flowers _arabella b. buckley_ song of the river _abram j. ryan_ song of the chattahoochee _sidney lanier_ war and peace: i. war as the mother of valor and civilization _andrew carnegie_ ii. friendship among nations _victor hugo_ iii. soldier, rest _sir walter scott_ iv. the soldier's dream _thomas campbell_ v. how sleep the brave? _william collins_ early times in new york _washington irving_ a winter evening in old new england _j. g. whittier_ the old-fashioned thanksgiving _donald g. mitchell_ a thanksgiving _robert herrick_ first days at wakefield _oliver goldsmith_ doubting castle _john bunyan_ shooting with the longbow _sir walter scott_ a christmas hymn _alfred domett_ christmas eve at fezziwig's _charles dickens_ the christmas holly _eliza cook_ the new year's dinner party _charles lamb_ the town pump _nathaniel hawthorne_ come up from the fields, father _walt whitman_ the address at gettysburg _abraham lincoln_ ode to the confederate dead _henry timrod_ the chariot race _from sophocles_ the coliseum at midnight _henry w. longfellow_ the deacon's masterpiece _oliver wendell holmes_ dogs and cats _alexandre dumas_ the owl critic _james t. fields_ mrs. caudle's umbrella lecture _douglas william jerrold_ the dark day in connecticut _j. g. whittier_ two interesting letters: i. columbus to the lord treasurer of spain ii. governor winslow to a friend in england poems of home and country: i. "this is my own, my native land" _sir walter scott_ ii. the green little shamrock of ireland _andrew cherry_ iii. my heart's in the highlands _robert burns_ iv. the fatherland _james r. lowell_ v. home _oliver goldsmith_ the age of coal _agnes giberne_ something about the moon _richard a. proctor_ the coming of the birds _ralph waldo emerson_ the return of the birds _john burroughs_ the poet and the bird: i. the song of the lark ii. to a skylark _percy b. shelley_ hark, hark! the lark _william shakespeare_ echoes of the american revolution: i. patrick henry's famous speech ii. marion's men _w. gilmore simms_ iii. in memory of george washington _henry lee_ three great american poems: i. thanatopsis _william cullen bryant_ ii. the bells _edgar allan poe_ iii. marco bozzaris _fitz-greene halleck_ the indian _edward everett_ national retribution _theodore parker_ who are blessed _the bible_ little gems from the older poets: i. the noble nature _ben jonson_ ii. a contented mind _joshua sylvester_ iii. a happy life _sir henry wotton_ iv. solitude _alexander pope_ v. a wish _samuel rogers_ how king arthur got his name _fiona macleod_ antony's oration over cæsar's dead body _william shakespeare_ selections to be memorized: i. the prayer perfect _james whitcomb riley_ ii. be just and fear not _william shakespeare_ iii. if i can live _author unknown_ iv. the bugle song _alfred tennyson_ v. the ninetieth psalm _book of psalms_ vi. recessional _rudyard kipling_ proper names list of authors acknowledgments acknowledgment and thanks are proffered to andrew carnegie for permission to reprint in this volume his tract on "war as the mother of civilization and valor"; to the bobbs-merrill company for their courtesy in allowing us to use "the prayer perfect," from james whitcomb riley's _rhymes of childhood_; to david mackay for the poem by walt whitman entitled "come up from the fields, father"; to charles scribner's sons for the "song of the chattahoochee," from the _poems of sidney lanier_; and, also, to the same publishers for the selection, "the old-fashioned thanksgiving," from _bound together_ by donald g. mitchell. the selections from john burroughs, ralph waldo emerson, james t. fields, nathaniel hawthorne, oliver wendell holmes, henry w. longfellow, and john g. whittier are used by permission of, and special arrangement with, houghton mifflin company, the authorized publishers of the works of those authors. eighth reader brother and sister[ ] i. the home coming tom was to arrive early in the afternoon, and there was another fluttering heart besides maggie's when it was late enough for the sound of the gig wheels to be expected. for if mrs. tulliver had a strong feeling, it was fondness for her boy. at last the sound came--that quick light bowling of the gig wheels. "there he is, my sweet lad!" mrs. tulliver stood with her arms open; maggie jumped first on one leg and then on the other; while tom descended from the gig, and said, with masculine reticence as to the tender emotions, "hallo! yap--what! are you there?" nevertheless he submitted to be kissed willingly enough, though maggie hung on his neck in rather a strangling fashion, while his blue eyes wandered toward the croft and the lambs and the river, where he promised himself he would begin to fish the first thing to-morrow morning. he was one of those lads that grow everywhere in england, and at twelve or thirteen years of age look as much alike as goslings,--a lad with a physiognomy in which it seems impossible to discern anything but the generic character of boyhood. "maggie," said tom, confidentially, taking her into a corner, as soon as his mother was gone out to examine his box, and the warm parlor had taken off the chill he had felt from the long drive, "you don't know what i've got in my pockets," nodding his head up and down as a means of rousing her sense of mystery. "no," said maggie. "how stodgy they look, tom! is it marbles or cobnuts?" maggie's heart sank a little, because tom always said it was "no good" playing with her at those games--she played so badly. "marbles! no; i've swopped all my marbles with the little fellows, and cobnuts are no fun, you silly, only when the nuts are green. but see here!" he drew something half out of his right-hand pocket. "what is it?" said maggie, in a whisper. "i can see nothing but a bit of yellow." "why, it's--a--new--guess, maggie!" "oh, i can't guess, tom," said maggie, impatiently. "don't be a spitfire, else i won't tell you," said tom, thrusting his hand back into his pocket, and looking determined. "no, tom," said maggie, imploringly, laying hold of the arm that was held stiffly in the pocket. "i'm not cross, tom; it was only because i can't bear guessing. please be good to me." [illustration: the home coming.] tom's arm slowly relaxed, and he said, "well, then, it's a new fish line--two new ones--one for you, maggie, all to yourself. i wouldn't go halves in the toffee and gingerbread on purpose to save the money; and gibson and spouncer fought with me because i wouldn't. and here's hooks; see here!--i say, won't we go and fish to-morrow down by the round pool? and you shall catch your own fish, maggie, and put the worms on, and everything--won't it be fun?" maggie's answer was to throw her arms around tom's neck and hug him, and hold her cheek against his without speaking, while he slowly unwound some of the line, saying, after a pause:-- "wasn't i a good brother, now, to buy you a line all to yourself? you know, i needn't have bought it, if i hadn't liked." "yes, very, very good--i do love you, tom." tom had put the line back in his pocket, and was looking at the hooks one by one, before he spoke again. "and the fellows fought me, because i wouldn't give in about the toffee." "oh, dear! i wish they wouldn't fight at your school, tom. didn't it hurt you?" "hurt me? no," said tom, putting up the hooks again, taking out a large pocketknife, and slowly opening the largest blade, which he looked at meditatively as he rubbed his finger along it. then he added--"i gave spouncer a black eye, i know--that's what he got by wanting to leather me; i wasn't going to go halves because anybody leathered me." "oh, how brave you are, tom! i think you're like samson. if there came a lion roaring at me, i think you'd fight him--wouldn't you, tom?" "how can a lion come roaring at you, you silly thing? there's no lions, only in the shows." "no; but if we were in the lion countries--i mean in africa, where it's very hot--the lions eat people there. i can show it to you in the book where i read it." "well, i should get a gun and shoot him." "but if you hadn't got a gun--we might have gone out, you know, not thinking just as we go fishing; and then a great lion might run toward us roaring, and we couldn't get away from him. what should you do, tom?" tom paused, and at last turned away contemptuously, saying, "but the lion isn't coming. what's the use of talking?" "but i like to fancy how it would be," said maggie, following him. "just think what you would do, tom." "oh, don't bother, maggie! you're such a silly--i shall go and see my rabbits." ii. the falling out maggie's heart began to flutter with fear. she dared not tell the sad truth at once, but she walked after tom in trembling silence as he went out, thinking how she could tell him the news so as to soften at once his sorrow and his anger; for maggie dreaded tom's anger of all things--it was quite a different anger from her own. "tom," she said timidly, when they were out of doors, "how much money did you give for your rabbits?" "two half crowns and a sixpence," said tom. "i think i've got a great deal more than that in my steel purse upstairs. i'll ask mother to give it to you." "what for?" said tom. "i don't want your money, you silly thing. i've got a great deal more money than you, because i'm a boy. i always have half sovereigns and sovereigns for my christmas boxes, because i shall be a man, and you only have five-shilling pieces, because you're only a girl." "well, but, tom--if mother would let me give you two half crowns and a sixpence out of my purse to put into your pocket and spend, you know; and buy some more rabbits with it?" "more rabbits? i don't want any more." "oh, but, tom, they're all dead." tom stopped immediately in his walk and turned round toward maggie. "you forgot to feed 'em, then, and harry forgot," he said, his color heightening for a moment, but soon subsiding. "i'll pitch into harry--i'll have him turned away. and i don't love you, maggie. you shan't go fishing with me to-morrow. i told you to go and see the rabbits every day." he walked on again. "yes, but i forgot--and i couldn't help it, indeed, tom. i'm so very sorry," said maggie, while the tears rushed fast. "you're a naughty girl," said tom, severely; "and i'm sorry i bought you the fish line. i don't love you." "oh, tom, it's very cruel," sobbed maggie. "i'd forgive you, if you forgot anything--i wouldn't mind what you did--i'd forgive you and love you." "yes, you're a silly--but i never do forget things--i don't." "oh, please forgive me, tom; my heart will break," said maggie, shaking with sobs, clinging to tom's arm, and laying her wet cheek on his shoulder. tom shook her off, and stopped again, saying in a peremptory tone, "now, maggie, you just listen. aren't i a good brother to you?" "ye-ye-es," sobbed maggie, her chin rising and falling convulsedly. "didn't i think about your fish line all this quarter, and mean to buy it, and saved my money o' purpose, and wouldn't go halves in the toffee, and spouncer fought me because i wouldn't?" "ye-ye-es--and i--lo-lo-love you so, tom." "but you're a naughty girl. last holidays you licked the paint off my lozenge box, and the holidays before that you let the boat drag my fish line down when i'd set you to watch it, and you pushed your head through my kite, all for nothing." "but i didn't mean," said maggie; "i couldn't help it." "yes, you could," said tom, "if you'd minded what you were doing. and you're a naughty girl, and you shan't go fishing with me to-morrow." with this terrible conclusion, tom ran away from maggie toward the mill. maggie stood motionless, except for her sobs, for a minute or two; then she turned round and ran into the house, and up to her attic, where she sat on the floor, and laid her head against the worm-eaten shelf, with a crushing sense of misery. tom was come home, and she had thought how happy she should be--and now he was cruel to her. what use was anything, if tom didn't love her? oh, he was very cruel! hadn't she wanted to give him the money, and said how very sorry she was? she had never been naughty to tom--had never meant to be naughty to him. "oh, he is cruel!" maggie sobbed aloud, finding a wretched pleasure in the hollow resonance that came through the long empty space of the attic. she was too miserable to be angry. iii. the making up maggie soon thought she had been hours in the attic, and it must be tea time, and they were all having their tea, and not thinking of her. well, then, she would stay up there and starve herself--hide herself behind the tub, and stay there all night; and then they would all be frightened, and tom would be sorry. thus maggie thought as she crept behind the tub; but presently she began to cry again at the idea that they didn't mind her being there. tom had been too much interested in going the round of the premises, to think of maggie and the effect his anger had produced on her. he meant to punish her, and that business having been performed, he occupied himself with other matters, like a practical person. but when he had been called in to tea, his father said, "why, where's the little wench?" and mrs. tulliver, almost at the same moment, said, "where's your little sister?"--both of them having supposed that maggie and tom had been together all the afternoon. "i don't know," said tom. he didn't want to "tell" of maggie, though he was angry with her; for tom tulliver was a lad of honor. "what! hasn't she been playing with you all this while?" said the father. "she'd been thinking of nothing but your coming home." "i haven't seen her this two hours," says tom, commencing on the plum cake. "goodness heart! she's got drowned!" exclaimed mrs. tulliver, rising from her seat and running to the window. "how could you let her do so?" she added, as became a fearful woman, accusing she didn't know whom of she didn't know what. "nay, nay, she's none drowned," said mr. tulliver. "you've been naughty to her, i doubt, tom?" "i'm sure i haven't, father," said tom, indignantly. "i think she's in the house." "perhaps up in that attic," said mrs. tulliver, "a-singing and talking to herself, and forgetting all about mealtimes." "you go and fetch her down, tom," said mr. tulliver, rather sharply, his perspicacity or his fatherly fondness for maggie making him suspect that the lad had been hard upon "the little un," else she would never have left his side. "and be good to her, do you hear? else i'll let you know better." tom never disobeyed his father, for mr. tulliver was a peremptory man; but he went out rather sullenly, carrying his piece of plum cake, and not intending to reprieve maggie's punishment, which was no more than she deserved. tom was only thirteen, and had no decided views in grammar and arithmetic, regarding them for the most part as open questions, but he was particularly clear and positive on one point--namely, that he would punish everybody who deserved it; why, he wouldn't have minded being punished himself, if he deserved it; but, then, he never did deserve it. it was tom's step, then, that maggie heard on the stairs, when her need of love had triumphed over her pride, and she was going down with her swollen eyes and disheveled hair to beg for pity. at least her father would stroke her head and say, "never mind, my wench." but she knew tom's step, and her heart began to beat violently with the sudden shock of hope. he only stood still at the top of the stairs and said, "maggie, you're to come down." but she rushed to him and clung round his neck, sobbing, "o tom, please forgive me--i can't bear it--i will always be good--always remember things--do love me--please, dear tom!" maggie and tom were still very much like young animals, and so she could rub her cheek against his, and kiss his ear in a random, sobbing way; and there were tender fibers in the lad that had been used to answer to maggie's fondling; so that he behaved with a weakness quite inconsistent with his resolution to punish her as much as she deserved; he actually began to kiss her in return, and say:-- "don't cry, then, magsie--here, eat a bit o' cake." maggie's sobs began to subside, and she put out her mouth for the cake and bit a piece; and then tom bit a piece, just for company, and they ate together and rubbed each other's cheeks and brows and noses together, while they ate, with a humiliating resemblance to two friendly ponies. "come along, magsie, and have tea," said tom at last, when there was no more cake except what was downstairs. so ended the sorrows of this day. footnote: [footnote : from "the mill on the floss," by george eliot.] my last day at salem house[ ] i pass over all that happened at school, until the anniversary of my birthday came round in march. the great remembrance by which that time is marked in my mind seems to have swallowed up all lesser recollections, and to exist alone. it is even difficult for me to believe there was a gap of full two months between my return to salem house and the arrival of that birthday. i can only understand that the fact was so, because i know it must have been so; otherwise i should feel convinced there was no interval, and that the one occasion trod upon the other's heels. how well i recollect the kind of day it was! i smell the fog that hung about the place; i see the hoar-frost ghostly, through it; i feel my rimy hair fall clammy on my cheek; i look along the dim perspective of the schoolroom, with a spluttering candle here and there to light up the foggy morning, and the breath of the boys wreathing and smoking in the raw cold as they blow upon their fingers, and tap their feet upon the floor. it was after breakfast, and we had been summoned in from the playground, when mr. sharp entered and said, "david copperfield is to go into the parlor." i expected a hamper from home, and brightened at the order. some of the boys about me put in their claim not to be forgotten in the distribution of the good things, as i got out of my seat with great alacrity. "don't hurry, david," said mr. sharp. "there's time enough, my boy, don't hurry." i might have been surprised by the feeling tone in which he spoke, if i had given it a thought; but i gave it none until afterward. i hurried away to the parlor; and there i found mr. creakle, sitting at his breakfast with the cane and newspaper before him, and mrs. creakle with an opened letter in her hand. but no hamper. "david copperfield," said mrs. creakle, leading me to a sofa, and sitting down beside me, "i want to speak to you very particularly. i have something to tell you, my child." mr. creakle, at whom of course i looked, shook his head without looking at me, and stopped up a sigh with a very large piece of buttered toast. "you are too young to know how the world changes every day," said mrs. creakle, "and how the people in it pass away. but we all have to learn it, david; some of us when we are young, some of us when we are old, some of us at all times of our lives." i looked at her earnestly. "when you came away from home at the end of the vacation," said mrs. creakle, after a pause, "were they all well?" after another pause, "was your mamma well?" i trembled without distinctly knowing why, and still looked at her earnestly, making no attempt to answer. "because," said she, "i grieve to tell you that i hear this morning your mamma is very ill." a mist rose between mrs. creakle and me, and her figure seemed to move in it for an instant. then i felt the burning tears run down my face, and it was steady again. "she is very dangerously ill," she added. i knew all now. "she is dead." there was no need to tell me so. i had already broken out into a desolate cry, and felt an orphan in the wide world. she was very kind to me. she kept me there all day, and left me alone sometimes; and i cried and wore myself to sleep, and awoke and cried again. when i could cry no more, i began to think; and then the oppression on my breast was heaviest, and my grief a dull pain that there was no ease for. and yet my thoughts were idle; not intent on the calamity that weighed upon my heart, but idly loitering near it. i thought of our house shut up and hushed. i thought of the little baby, who, mrs. creakle said, had been pining away for some time, and who, they believed, would die too. i thought of my father's grave in the churchyard, by our house, and of my mother lying there beneath the tree i knew so well. i stood upon a chair when i was left alone, and looked into the glass to see how red my eyes were, and how sorrowful my face. i considered, after some hours were gone, if my tears were really hard to flow now, as they seemed to be, what, in connection with my loss, it would affect me most to think of when i drew near home--for i was going home to the funeral. i am sensible of having felt that a dignity attached to me among the rest of the boys, and that i was important in my affliction. if ever child were stricken with sincere grief, i was. but i remembered that this importance was a kind of satisfaction to me, when i walked in the playground that afternoon while the boys were in school. when i saw them glancing at me out of the windows, as they went up to their classes, i felt distinguished, and looked more melancholy, and walked slower. when school was over, and they came out and spoke to me, i felt it rather good in myself not to be proud to any of them, and to take exactly the same notice of them all, as before. i was to go home next night; not by the mail, but by the heavy night coach, which was called the farmer, and was principally used by country people traveling short intermediate distances upon the road. we had no story telling that evening, and traddles insisted on lending me his pillow. i don't know what good he thought it would do me, for i had one of my own; but it was all he had to lend, poor fellow, except a sheet of letter paper full of skeletons; and that he gave me at parting, as a soother of my sorrows and a contribution to my peace of mind. i left salem house upon the morrow afternoon. i little thought then that i left it, never to return. we traveled very slowly all night, and did not get into yarmouth before nine or ten o'clock in the morning. i looked out for mr. barkis, but he was not there; and instead of him a fat, short-winded, merry-looking little old man in black, with rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees of his breeches, black stockings, and a broad-brimmed hat, came puffing up to the coach window, and said, "master copperfield?" "yes, sir." "will you come with me, young sir, if you please," he said, opening the door, "and i shall have the pleasure of taking you home!" footnote: [footnote : from "david copperfield," by charles dickens.] expression: the two stories which you have just read were written by two of the greatest masters of fiction in english literature. talk with your teacher about george eliot and charles dickens, and learn all that you can about their works. which of these two stories do you prefer? why? reread the conversation on pages and . imagine yourself to be tom or maggie, and speak just as he or she did. read the conversation on pages and in the same way. reread other portions that you like particularly well. in what respect does the second story differ most strongly from the first? select the most striking passage and read it with expression sad feeling. the departure from miss pinkerton's[ ] i one sunshiny morning in june, there drove up to the great iron gate of miss pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on chiswick mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. a black servant, who reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs as soon as the equipage drew up opposite miss pinkerton's shining brass plate; and as he pulled the bell, at least a score of young heads were seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house. nay, the acute observer might have recognized the little red nose of good-natured miss jemima pinkerton herself, rising over some geranium pots in the window of that lady's own drawing room. "it is mrs. sedley's coach, sister," said miss jemima. "sambo, the black servant, has just rung the bell; and the coachman has a new red waistcoat." "have you completed all the necessary preparations incident to miss sedley's departure?" asked miss pinkerton, that majestic lady, the friend of the famous literary man, dr. johnson, the author of the great "dixonary" of the english language, called commonly the great lexicographer. "the girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister," answered miss jemima. "we have made her a bowpot." "say a bouquet, sister jemima; 'tis more genteel." "well, a booky as big almost as a haystack. i have put up two bottles of the gillyflower water for mrs. sedley, and the receipt for making it is in amelia's box." "and i trust, miss jemima, you have made a copy of miss sedley's account. that is it, is it? very good! ninety-three pounds, four shillings. be kind enough to address it to john sedley, esquire, and to seal this billet which i have written to his lady." ii in miss jemima's eyes an autograph letter of her sister, miss pinkerton, was an object of as deep veneration as would have been a letter from a sovereign. only when her pupils quitted the establishment, or when they were about to be married, and once when poor miss birch died of the scarlet fever, was miss pinkerton known to write personally to the parents of her pupils. in the present instance miss pinkerton's "billet" was to the following effect:-- _the mall, chiswick, june ._ madam: after her six years' residence at the mall, i have the honor and happiness of presenting miss amelia sedley to her parents, as a young lady not unworthy to occupy a fitting position in their polished and refined circle. those virtues which characterize the young english gentlewomen; those accomplishments which become her birth and station, will not be found wanting in the amiable miss sedley, whose industry and obedience have endeared her to her instructors, and whose delightful sweetness of temper has charmed her aged and her youthful companions. in music, dancing, in orthography, in every variety of embroidery and needle-work she will be found to have realized her friends' fondest wishes. in geography there is still much to be desired; and a careful and undeviating use of the back-board, for four hours daily during the next three years, is recommended as necessary to the acquirement of that dignified deportment and carriage so requisite for every young lady of fashion. in the principles of religion and morality, miss sedley will be found worthy of an establishment which has been honored by the presence of the great lexicographer and the patronage of the admirable mrs. chapone. in leaving them all, miss amelia carries with her the hearts of her companions and the affectionate regards of her mistress, who has the honor to subscribe herself, madam your most obliged humble servant, barbara pinkerton. p.s.--miss sharp accompanies miss sedley. it is particularly requested that miss sharp's stay in russell square may not exceed ten days. the family of distinction with whom she is engaged as governess desire to avail themselves of her services as soon as possible. this letter completed, miss pinkerton proceeded to write her own name and miss sedley's in the flyleaf of a johnson's dictionary, the interesting work which she invariably presented to her scholars on their departure from the mall. on the cover was inserted a copy of "lines addressed to a young lady on quitting miss pinkerton's school, at the mall; by the late revered dr. samuel johnson." in fact, the lexicographer's name was always on the lips of this majestic woman, and a visit he had paid to her was the cause of her reputation and her fortune. being commanded by her elder sister to get "the dixonary" from the cupboard, miss jemima had extracted two copies of the book from the receptacle in question. when miss pinkerton had finished the inscription in the first, jemima, with rather a dubious and timid air, handed her the second. "for whom is this, miss jemima?" said miss pinkerton with awful coldness. "for becky sharp," answered jemima, trembling very much, and blushing over her withered face and neck, as she turned her back on her sister. "for becky sharp. she's going, too." "miss jemima!" exclaimed miss pinkerton, in the largest capitals. "are you in your senses? replace the dixonary in the closet, and never venture to take such a liberty in future." with an unusual display of courage, miss jemima mildly protested: "well, sister, it's only two and nine-pence, and poor becky will be miserable if she doesn't get one." "send miss sedley instantly to me," was miss pinkerton's only answer. and, venturing not to say another word, poor jemima trotted off, exceedingly flurried and nervous, while the two pupils, miss sedley and miss sharp, were making final preparations for their departure for miss sedley's home. iii well, then. the flowers, and the presents, and the trunks, and the bonnet boxes of miss sedley having been arranged by mr. sambo in the carriage, together with a very small and weather-beaten old cowskin trunk with miss sharp's card neatly nailed upon it, which was delivered by sambo with a grin, and packed by the coachman with a corresponding sneer, the hour for parting came; and the grief of that moment was considerably lessened by the admirable discourse which miss pinkerton addressed to her pupil. not that the parting speech caused amelia to philosophize, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, miss sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ablutions of private grief. a seed cake and a bottle of wine were produced in the drawing room, as on the solemn occasions of the visits of parents; and these refreshments being partaken of, miss sedley was at liberty to depart. "you'll go in and say good-by to miss pinkerton, becky!" said miss jemima to that young lady, of whom nobody took any notice, and who was coming downstairs with her own bandbox. "i suppose i must," said miss sharp calmly, and much to the wonder of miss jemima; and the latter having knocked at the door, and receiving permission to come in, miss sharp advanced in a very unconcerned manner, and said in french, and with a perfect accent, "_mademoiselle, je viens vous faire mes adieux_."[ ] miss pinkerton did not understand french, as we know; she only directed those who did. biting her lips and throwing up her venerable and roman-nosed head, she said, "miss sharp, i wish you a good morning." as she spoke, she waved one hand, both by way of adieu and to give miss sharp an opportunity of shaking one of the fingers of the hand, which was left out for that purpose. miss sharp only folded her own hands with a very frigid smile and bow, and quite declined to accept the proffered honor; on which miss pinkerton tossed up her turban more indignantly than ever. in fact, it was a little battle between the young lady and the old one, and the latter was worsted. "come away, becky," said miss jemima, pulling the young woman away in great alarm; and the drawing room door closed upon her forever. [illustration: the parting.] then came the struggle and parting below. words refuse to tell it. all the servants were there in the hall--all the dear friends--all the young ladies--even the dancing master, who had just arrived; and there was such a scuffling and hugging, and kissing, and crying, with the hysterical _yoops_ of miss schwartz, the parlor boarder, as no pen can depict, and as the tender heart would feign pass over. the embracing was finished; they parted--that is, miss sedley parted from her friends. miss sharp had demurely entered the carriage some minutes before. nobody cried for leaving _her_. sambo of the bandy legs slammed the carriage door on his young weeping mistress. he sprang up behind the carriage. "stop!" cried miss jemima, rushing to the gate with a parcel. "it's some sandwiches, my dear," she called to amelia. "you may be hungry, you know; and, becky--becky sharp--here's a book for you, that my sister--that is, i--johnson's dixonary, you know. you mustn't leave us without that. good-by! drive on, coachman!--god bless you! good-by." then the kind creature retreated into the garden, overcome with emotion. but lo! and just as the coach drove off, miss sharp suddenly put her pale face out of the window, and flung the book back into the garden--flung it far and fast--watching it fall at the feet of astonished miss jemima; then sank back in the carriage, exclaiming, "so much for the 'dixonary'; and thank god i'm out of chiswick!" the shock of such an act almost caused jemima to faint with terror. "well, i never--" she began. "what an audacious--" she gasped. emotion prevented her from completing either sentence. the carriage rolled away; the great gates were closed; the bell rang for the dancing lesson. the world is before the two young ladies; and so, farewell to chiswick mall! footnotes: [footnote : from "vanity fair," by william makepeace thackeray.] [footnote : "madam, i have come to tell you good-by."] expression: by many able critics, thackeray is regarded as a greater novelist than either dickens or george eliot. compare this extract from one of his best works with the two selections which precede it. which of the three stories is the most interesting to you? which sounds the best when read aloud? which is the most humorous? which is the most pathetic? reread the three selections very carefully. now tell what you observe about the style of each. in what respects is the style of the third story different from that of either of the others? reread miss pinkerton's letter. what peculiarities do you observe in it? select and reread the most humorous passage in this last story. two gems from browning i. incident of the french camp in the small kingdom of bavaria, on the south bank of the danube river, there is a famous old city called ratisbon. it is not a very large city, but its history can be traced far back to the time when the romans had a military camp there which they used as an outpost against the german barbarians. at one time it ranked among the most flourishing towns of germany. it is now of little commercial importance--a quaint and quiet old place, with a fine cathedral and many notable buildings which testify to its former greatness. during the earlier years of the nineteenth century, napoleon bonaparte, emperor of the french, was engaged in bitter warfare with austria and indeed with nearly the whole of europe. in april, , the austrian army, under grand duke charles, was intrenched in ratisbon and the neighboring towns. there it was attacked by the french army commanded by napoleon himself and led by the brave marshal lannes, duke of montebello. the battle raged, first on this side of the city, then on that, and for several days no one could tell which of the combatants would be victorious. at length napoleon decided to end the matter by storming the city and, if possible, driving the archduke from his stronghold. he, therefore, sent marshal lannes forward to direct the battle, while he watched the conflict and gave commands from a distance. for a long time the issue seemed doubtful, and not even napoleon could guess what the result would be. late in the day, however, french valor prevailed, the austrians were routed, and marshal lannes forced his way into the city. it was at this time that the incident described so touchingly in the following poem by robert browning is supposed to have taken place. we do not know, nor does any one know, whether the story has any foundation in fact. it illustrates, however, the spirit of bravery and self-sacrifice that prevailed among the soldiers of napoleon; and such an incident might, indeed, have happened not only at ratisbon, but at almost any place where the emperor's presence urged his troops to victory. for, such was napoleon's magic influence and such was the love which he inspired among all his followers, that thousands of young men were ready cheerfully to give their lives for the promotion of his selfish ambition. the poem, which is now regarded as one of the classics of our language, was first published in , in a small volume entitled "dramatic lyrics." the same volume contained the well-known rime of "the pied piper of hamelin." robert browning was at that time a young man of thirty, and most of the poems which afterwards made him famous were still unwritten. browning's poem you know, we french stormed ratisbon: a mile or so away, on a little mound, napoleon stood on our storming day: with neck outthrust, you fancy how, legs wide, arms locked behind, as if to balance the prone brow oppressive with its mind. just as perhaps he mused, "my plans that soar, to earth may fall, let once my army leader lannes waver at yonder wall,"-- out 'twixt the battery smokes there flew a rider, bound on bound full galloping; nor bridle drew until he reached the mound. then off there flung in smiling joy, and held himself erect by just his horse's mane, a boy: you hardly could suspect-- (so tight he kept his lips compressed, scarce any blood came through) you looked twice ere you saw his breast was all but shot in two. [illustration: "we've got you ratisbon!"] "well," cried he, "emperor by god's grace we've got you ratisbon! the marshal's in the market place, and you'll be there anon to see your flag bird flap his vans where i, to heart's desire, perched him!" the chiefs eye flashed; his plans soared up again like fire. the chief's eye flashed; but presently softened itself, as sheathes a film the mother eagle's eye when her bruised eaglet breathes; "you're wounded!" "nay," the soldier's pride touched to the quick, he said: "i'm killed, sire!" and his chief beside, smiling, the boy fell dead. expression: this is a difficult selection to read properly and with spirit and feeling. study each stanza until you understand it thoroughly. practice reading the following passages, giving the proper emphasis and inflections. _you know, we french stormed ratisbon. with neck outthrust you fancy how. "we've got you ratisbon!" "you're wounded!" "nay, i'm killed, sire!"_ word study: _napoleon_, _ratisbon_, _bavaria_, _lannes_; _anon_, _vans_, _sheathes_, _eaglet_, _sire_. explain: "_to see your flag bird flap his vans._" "_his plans soared up again like fire._" [illustration] ii. dog tray[ ] a beggar child sat on a quay's edge: like a bird sang to herself at careless play, and fell into the stream. "dismay! help, you standers-by!" none stirred. bystanders reason, think of wives and children ere they risk their lives. over the balustrade has bounced a mere instinctive dog, and pounced plumb on the prize. "how well he dives!" "up he comes with the child, see, tight in mouth, alive, too, clutched from quite a depth of ten feet--twelve, i bet! good dog! what, off again? there's yet another child to save? all right!" "how strange we saw no other fall! it's instinct in the animal. good dog! but he's a long time under: if he got drowned, i should not wonder-- strong current, that against the wall! "here he comes, holds in mouth this time --what may the thing be? well, that's prime! now, did you ever? reason reigns in man alone, since all tray's pains have fished--the child's doll from the slime!" footnote: [footnote : by robert browning.] expression: read the story silently, being sure that you understand it clearly. then read each passage aloud, giving special attention to emphasis and inflections. answer these questions by reading from the poem: where was the child? what did she do? what did some one cry out? why did not the bystanders help? what did the dog do? what did one bystander say? what did another say when the dog came up? what did he say when the dog went back? read correctly: "_well, that's prime!_" "_now, did you ever?_" "_all right!_" "_if he got drowned, i should not wonder._" in what respects do these two poems differ from your favorite poems by longfellow or tennyson? do you think there is much music in them? the discovery of america[ ] it was on friday morning, the th of october, that columbus first beheld the new world. as the day dawned he saw before him a level island, several leagues in extent, and covered with trees like a continual orchard. though apparently uncultivated, it was populous, for the inhabitants were seen issuing from all parts of the woods and running to the shore. they stood gazing at the ships, and appeared, by their attitudes and gestures, to be lost in astonishment. columbus made signal for the ships to cast anchor and the boats to be manned and armed. he entered his own boat richly attired in scarlet and holding the royal standard; while martin alonzo pinzon and his brother put off in company in their boats, each with a banner of the enterprise emblazoned with a green cross, having on either side the letters f and y, the initials of the castilian monarchs fernando and ysabel, surmounted by crowns. as he approached the shore, columbus, who was disposed for all kinds of agreeable impressions, was delighted with the purity and suavity of the atmosphere, the crystal transparency of the sea, and the extraordinary beauty of the vegetation. he beheld also fruits of an unknown kind upon the trees which overhung the shores. on landing he threw himself on his knees, kissed the earth, and returned thanks to god with tears of joy. his example was followed by the rest, whose hearts indeed overflowed with the same feelings of gratitude. columbus then rising drew his sword, displayed the royal standard, and, assembling round him the two captains and the rest who had landed, he took solemn possession in the name of the castilian sovereigns, giving the island the name of san salvador. having complied with the requisite forms and ceremonies, he called upon all present to take the oath of obedience to him as admiral and viceroy, representing the persons of the sovereigns. the feelings of the crew now burst forth in the most extravagant transports. they had recently considered themselves devoted men hurrying forward to destruction; they now looked upon themselves as favorites of fortune and gave themselves up to the most unbounded joy. they thronged around the admiral with overflowing zeal, some embracing him, others kissing his hands. those who had been most mutinous and turbulent during the voyage were now most devoted and enthusiastic. some begged favors of him, as if he had already wealth and honors in his gift. many abject spirits, who had outraged him by their insolence, now crouched at his feet, begging pardon for all the trouble they had caused him and promising the blindest obedience for the future. the natives of the island, when at the dawn of day they had beheld the ships hovering on their coast, had supposed them monsters which had issued from the deep during the night. they had crowded to the beach and watched their movements with awful anxiety. their veering about apparently without effort, and the shifting and furling of their sails, resembling huge wings, filled them with astonishment. when they beheld their boats approach the shore, and a number of strange beings clad in glittering steel, or raiment of various colors, landing upon the beach, they fled in affright to the woods. finding, however, that there was no attempt to pursue or molest them, they gradually recovered from their terror and approached the spaniards with great awe, frequently prostrating themselves on the earth and making signs of adoration. during the ceremonies of taking possession, they remained gazing in timid admiration at the complexion, the beards, the shining armor and splendid dress of the spaniards. the admiral particularly attracted their attention, from his commanding height, his air of authority, his dress of scarlet, and the deference which was paid him by his companions; all which pointed him out to be the commander. when they had still further recovered from their fears, they approached the spaniards, touched their beards and examined their hands and faces, admiring their whiteness. columbus was pleased with their gentleness and confiding simplicity, and soon won them by his kindly bearing. they now supposed that the ships had sailed out of the crystal firmament which bounded their horizon, or had descended from above on their ample wings, and that these marvelous beings were inhabitants of the skies. the natives of the island were no less objects of curiosity to the spaniards, differing as they did from any race of men they had ever seen. their appearance gave no promise of either wealth or civilization, for they were entirely naked and painted with a variety of colors. with some it was confined merely to a part of the face, the nose, or around the eyes; with others it extended to the whole body and gave them a wild and fantastic appearance. their complexion was of a tawny, or copper hue, and they were entirely destitute of beards. their hair was not crisped, like the recently discovered tribes of the african coast, under the same latitude, but straight and coarse, partly cut short above the ears, but some locks were left long behind and falling upon their shoulders. their features, though obscured and disfigured by paint, were agreeable; they had lofty foreheads and remarkably fine eyes. they were of moderate stature and well shaped. as columbus supposed himself to have landed on an island at the extremity of india, he called the natives by the general name of indians, which was universally adopted before the true nature of his discovery was known, and has since been extended to all the aboriginals of the new world. the islanders were friendly and gentle. their only arms were lances, hardened at the end by fire, or pointed with a flint, or the teeth or bone of a fish. there was no iron to be seen, nor did they appear acquainted with its properties; for, when a drawn sword was presented to them, they unguardedly took it by the edge. columbus distributed among them colored caps, glass beads, hawks' bells and other trifles, such as the portuguese were accustomed to trade with among the nations of the gold coast of africa. they received them eagerly, hung the beads round their necks, and were wonderfully pleased with their finery, and with the sound of the bells. the spaniards remained all day on shore refreshing themselves, after their anxious voyage, amid the beautiful groves of the island, and returned on board late in the evening, delighted with all they had seen. the island where columbus had thus, for the first time, set his foot upon the new world, was called by the natives guanahane. it still retains the name of san salvador, which he gave to it, though called by the english cat island. footnote: [footnote : from "the life and voyages of christopher columbus," by washington irving.] the glove and the lions[ ] king francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport, and one day as his lions fought, sat looking on the court; the nobles filled the benches, with the ladies in their pride, and 'mong them sat the count de lorge with one for whom he sighed: and truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show, valor, and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below. ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws; they bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws; with wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled on one another, till all the pit with sand and mane was in a thundrous smother; the bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air; said francis then, "faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there." [illustration: the glove and the lions.] de lorge's love o'erheard the king,--a beauteous lively dame with smiling lips and sharp, bright eyes, which always seemed the same: she thought, "the count, my lover, is brave as brave can be; he surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me; king, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine; i'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine." she dropped her glove, to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled; he bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild: his leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place, then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face. "well done!" cried francis, "bravely done!" and he rose from where he sat: "no love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that." footnote: [footnote : by leigh hunt, an english essayist and poet ( - ).] expression: read this poem silently, trying to understand fully the circumstances of the story: ( ) the time; ( ) the place; ( ) the character of the leading actors. then read aloud each stanza with feeling and expression. st. francis, the gentle[ ] seven hundred years ago, francis the gentlest of the saints was born in assisi, the quaint umbrian town among the rocks; and for twenty years and more he cherished but one thought, and one desire, and one hope; and these were that he might lead the beautiful and holy and sorrowful life which our master lived on earth, and that in every way he might resemble him in the purity and loveliness of his humanity. not to men alone but to all living things on earth and air and water was st. francis most gracious and loving. they were all his little brothers and sisters, and he forgot them not, still less scorned or slighted them, but spoke to them often and blessed them, and in return they showed him great love and sought to be of his fellowship. he bade his companions keep plots of ground for their little sisters the flowers, and to these lovely and speechless creatures he spoke, with no great fear that they would not understand his words. and all this was a marvelous thing in a cruel time, when human life was accounted of slight worth by fierce barons and ruffling marauders. for the bees he set honey and wine in the winter, lest they should feel the nip of the cold too keenly; and bread for the birds, that they all, but especially "my brother lark," should have joy of christmastide, and at rieti a brood of redbreasts were the guests of the house and raided the tables while the brethren were at meals; and when a youth gave st. francis the turtledoves he had snared, the saint had nests made for them, and there they laid their eggs and hatched them, and fed from the hands of the brethren. out of affection a fisherman once gave him a great tench, but he put it back into the clear water of the lake, bidding it love god; and the fish played about the boat till st. francis blessed it and bade it go. "why dost thou torment my little brothers the lambs," he asked of a shepherd, "carrying them bound thus and hanging from a staff, so that they cry piteously?" and in exchange for the lambs he gave the shepherd his cloak. and at another time seeing amid a flock of goats one white lamb feeding, he was concerned that he had nothing but his brown robe to offer for it (for it reminded him of our lord among the pharisees); but a merchant came up and paid for it and gave it him, and he took it with him to the city and preached about it so that the hearts of those hearing him were melted. afterwards the lamb was left in the care of a convent of holy women, and to the saint's great delight, these wove him a gown of the lamb's innocent wool. fain would i tell of the coneys that took refuge in the folds of his habit, and of the swifts which flew screaming in their glee while he was preaching; but now it is time to speak of the sermon which he preached to a great multitude of birds in a field by the roadside, when he was on his way to bevagno. down from the trees flew the birds to hear him, and they nestled in the grassy bosom of the field, and listened till he had done. and these were the words he spoke to them:-- "little birds, little sisters mine, much are you holden to god your creator; and at all times and in every place you ought to praise him. freedom he has given you to fly everywhere; and raiment he has given you, double and threefold. more than this, he preserved your kind in the ark, so that your race might not come to an end. still more do you owe him for the element of air, which he has made your portion. over and above, you sow not, neither do you reap; but god feeds you, and gives you streams and springs for your thirst; the mountains he gives you, and the valleys for your refuge, and the tall trees wherein to build your nests. and because you cannot sew or spin, god takes thought to clothe you, you and your little ones. it must be, then, that your creator loves you much, since he has granted you so many benefits. be on your guard then against the sin of ingratitude, and strive always to give god praise." and when the saint ceased speaking, the birds made such signs as they might, by spreading their wings and opening their beaks, to show their love and pleasure; and when he had blessed them with the sign of the cross, they sprang up, and singing songs of unspeakable sweetness, away they streamed in a great cross to the four quarters of heaven. footnote: [footnote : by william canton, an english journalist and poet ( - ).] the sermon of st. francis[ ] up soared the lark into the air, a shaft of song, a winged prayer, as if a soul, released from pain, were flying back to heaven again. st. francis heard; it was to him an emblem of the seraphim; the upward motion of the fire, the light, the heat, the heart's desire. around assisi's convent gate the birds, god's poor who cannot wait, from moor and mere and darksome wood, came flocking for their dole of food. "o brother birds," st. francis said, "ye come to me and ask for bread, but not with bread alone to-day shall ye be fed and sent away. "ye shall be fed, ye happy birds, with manna of celestial words; not mine, though mine they seem to be, not mine, though they be spoken through me. "oh, doubly are ye bound to praise the great creator in your lays; he giveth you your plumes of down, your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown. "he giveth you your wings to fly and breathe a purer air on high, and careth for you everywhere who for yourselves so little care." with flutter of swift wings and songs together rose the feathered throngs and, singing, scattered far apart; deep peace was in st. francis' heart. he knew not if the brotherhood his homily had understood; he only knew that to one ear the meaning of his words was clear. footnote: [footnote : by henry w. longfellow.] expression: talk with your teacher about the life, work, and influence of st. francis. refer to cyclopedias for information. read aloud the prose version of his sermon to the birds; the poetical version. compare the two versions. what is said in one that is not said in the other? in the woods[ ] years ago, when quite a youth, i was rambling in the woods one day with my brothers, gathering black birch and wintergreens. as we lay upon the ground, gazing vaguely up into the trees, i caught sight of a bird, the like of which i had never before seen or heard of. it was the blue yellow-backed warbler, which i have found since; but to my young fancy it seemed like some fairy bird, so curiously marked was it, and so new and unexpected. i saw it a moment as the flickering leaves parted, noted the white spot on its wing, and it was gone. it was a revelation. it was the first intimation i had had that the woods we knew so well held birds that we knew not at all. were our eyes and ears so dull? did we pass by the beautiful things in nature without seeing them? had we been blind then? there were the robin, the bluejay, the yellowbird, and others familiar to every one; but who ever dreamed that there were still others that not even the hunters saw, and whose names few had ever heard? the surprise that awaits every close observer of birds, the thrill of delight that accompanies it, and the feeling of fresh eager inquiry that follows can hardly be awakened by any other pursuit. there is a fascination about it quite overpowering. it fits so well with other things--with fishing, hunting, farming, walking, camping out--with all that takes one to the fields and the woods. one may go blackberrying and make some rare discovery; or, while driving his cow to pasture, hear a new song, or make a new observation. secrets lurk on all sides. there is news in every bush. expectation is ever on tiptoe. what no man ever saw may the next moment be revealed to you. what a new interest this gives to the woods! how you long to explore every nook and corner of them! one must taste it to understand. the looker-on sees nothing to make such a fuss about. only a little glimpse of feathers and a half-musical note or two--why all this ado? it is not the mere knowledge of birds that you get, but a new interest in the fields and woods, the air, the sunshine, the healing fragrance and coolness, and the getting away from the worry of life. yesterday was an october day of rare brightness and warmth. i spent the most of it in a wild, wooded gorge of rock creek. a tree which stood upon the bank had dropped some of its fruit in the water. as i stood there, half-leg deep, a wood duck came flying down the creek. presently it returned, flying up; then it came back again, and sweeping low around a bend, prepared to alight in a still, dark reach in the creek which was hidden from my view. as i passed that way about half an hour afterward, the duck started up, uttering its wild alarm note. in the stillness i could hear the whistle of its wings and the splash of the water when it took flight. near by i saw where a raccoon had come down to the water for fresh clams, leaving its long, sharp track in the mud and sand. before i had passed this hidden stretch of water, a pair of strange thrushes flew up from the ground and perched on a low branch. who can tell how much this duck, this footprint on the sand, and these strange thrushes from the far north enhanced the interest and charm of the autumn woods? birds cannot be learned satisfactorily from books. the satisfaction is in learning them from nature. one must have an original experience with the birds. the books are only the guide, the invitation. but let me say in the same breath that the books can by no manner of means be dispensed with. in the beginning one finds it very difficult to identify a bird in any verbal description. first find your bird; observe its ways, its song, its calls, its flight, its haunts. then compare with your book. in this way the feathered kingdom may soon be conquered. footnote: [footnote : by john burroughs, an american writer on nature ( - ).] expression: this and the selection which follows are fine examples of descriptive writing. read them so that your hearers will understand every statement clearly and without special effort on their part. talk about the various objects that are mentioned, and tell what you have learned about them from other sources. bees and flowers[ ] fancy yourself to be in a pretty country garden on a hot summer's morning. perhaps you have been walking, or reading, or playing, but it is getting too hot now to do anything. so you have chosen the shadiest nook under the walnut tree, close to some pretty flower bed. as you lie there you notice a gentle buzzing near you, and you see that on the flower bed close by several bees are working busily among the flowers. they do not seem to mind the heat, nor do they wish to rest; and they fly so lightly, and look so happy over their work, that it is pleasant to watch them. that great bumblebee takes it leisurely enough as she goes lumbering along, poking her head into the larkspurs; she remains so long in each that you might almost think she had fallen asleep. the brown hive-bee, on the other hand, moves busily and quickly among the stocks, sweet peas, and mignonette. she is evidently out on active duty, and means to get all she can from each flower, so as to carry a good load back to the hive. in some blossoms she does not stay a moment, but draws her head back almost as soon as she has popped it in, as if to say, "no honey there." but over other flowers she lingers a little, and then scrambles out again with her drop of honey, and goes off to seek more. let us watch her a little more closely. there are many different plants growing in the flower bed, but, curiously enough, she does not go first to one kind and then to another, but keeps to one the whole time. now she flies away. rouse yourself to follow her, and you will see she takes her way back to the hive. we all know why she makes so many journeys between the garden and the hive, and that she is collecting drops of nectar from the flowers and carrying it to the hive to be stored up in the honeycomb for the winter's food. when she comes back again to the garden, we will follow her in her work among the flowers, and see what she is doing for them in return for their gifts to her. no doubt you have already learned that plants can make better and stronger seeds when they can get the pollen dust from other plants. but i am sure that you will be very much surprised to hear that the colors, the scent, and the curious shapes of the flowers are all so many baits to attract insects. and for what reason? in order that the insects may come and carry the pollen dust from one plant to another. so far as we know, it is entirely for this purpose that the plants form honey in different parts of the flower. this food they prepare for the insects, and then they have all sorts of contrivances to entice the little creatures to come and get it. the plants hang out gay-colored signs, as much as to say:-- "come to me, and i will give you honey, if you will bring me pollen dust in exchange." if you watch the different kinds of grasses, sedges, and rushes, which have such tiny flowers that you can scarcely see them, you will find that no insects visit them. neither will you ever find bees buzzing round oak trees, elms, or birches. but on the pretty and sweet-smelling apple blossoms you will find bees, wasps, and other insects. the reason of this is that grasses, sedges, rushes, and oak trees have a great deal of pollen dust. as the wind blows them to and fro it wafts the dust from one flower to another. and so these plants do not need to give out honey, or to have gaudy or sweet-scented flowers to attract insects. but the brilliant poppy, the large-flowered hollyhock, the flaunting dandelion, and the bright blue forget-me-not,--all these are visited by insects, which easily catch sight of them and hasten to sip their honey. we must not forget what the fragrance of the flowers can do. have you ever noticed the delicious odor which comes from beds of mignonette, mint, or sweet alyssum? these plants have found another way of attracting the insects; they have no need of bright colors, for their fragrance is quite as true and certain a guide. you will be surprised if you once begin to count them up, how many dull-looking flowers are sweet-scented, while some gaudy flowers have little or no scent. still we find some flowers, like the beautiful lily, the lovely rose, and the delicate hyacinth, which have color and fragrance and graceful shapes all combined. but there are still other ways by which flowers secure the visits of insects. have you not observed that different flowers open and close at different times? the daisy receives its name "day's eye" because it opens at sunrise and closes at sunset, while the evening primrose spreads out its flowers just as the daisy is going to bed. what do you think is the reason of this? if you go near a bed of evening primroses just when the sun is setting, you will soon be able to guess. they will then give out such a sweet odor that you will not doubt for a moment that they are calling the evening moths to come and visit them. the daisy, however, opens by day and is therefore visited by day insects. again, some flowers close whenever rain is coming. look at the daisies when a storm is threatening. as the sky grows dark and heavy, you will see them shrink and close till the sun shines again. they do this because in the center of the flower there is a drop of honey which would be spoiled if it were washed by the rain. and now you will see why the cup-shaped flowers so often droop their heads,--think of the snowdrop, the lily-of-the-valley, and a host of others. how pretty they look with their bells hanging so modestly from the slender stalk! they are bending down to protect the honey within their cups. we are gradually learning that everything which a plant does has its meaning, if we can only find it out. and when we are aware of this, a flower garden may become a new world to us if we open our eyes to all that is going on in it. and so we learn that even among insects and flowers, those who do most for others receive most in return. the bee and the flower do not reason about the matter; they only live their little lives as nature guides them, helping and improving each other. i have been able to tell you but very little about the hidden work that is going on around us, and you must not for a moment imagine that we have fully explored the fairy land of nature. but at least we have passed through the gates, and have learned that there is a world of wonder which we may visit if we will. and it lies quite close to us, hidden in every dewdrop and gust of wind, in every brook and valley, in every little plant and animal. footnote: [footnote : from "the fairy land of nature," by arabella b. buckley.] expression: make a list of all the natural objects that are mentioned in this selection. read what is said of each. describe as many of them as you can in your own words. tell what you have observed about bees and flowers. the daisy that is referred to is the true european daisy. the daisy, or whiteweed, of the united states does not open and close in the manner here described. song of the river[ ] a river went singing a-down to the sea, a-singing--low--singing-- and the dim rippling river said softly to me, "i'm bringing, a-bringing-- while floating along-- a beautiful song to the shores that are white where the waves are so weary, to the beach that is burdened with wrecks that are dreary. "a song sweet and calm as the peacefullest psalm; and the shore that was sad will be grateful and glad, and the weariest wave from its dreariest dream will wake to the sound of the song of the stream; and the tempests shall cease and there shall be peace." from the fairest of fountains and farthest of mountains, from the stillness of snow came the stream in its flow. down the slopes where the rocks are gray, through the vales where the flowers are fair-- where the sunlight flashed--where the shadows lay like stories that cloud a face of care, the river ran on--and on--and on, day and night, and night and day. going and going, and never gone, longing to flow to the "far away." staying and staying, and never still,-- going and staying, as if one will said, "beautiful river, go to the sea," and another will whispered, "stay with me"-- and the river made answer, soft and low, "i go and stay--i stay and go." "but what is the song?" i said at last to the passing river that never passed; and a white, white wave whispered, "list to me, i'm a note in the song for the beautiful sea, a song whose grand accents no earth din may sever, and the river flows on in the same mystic key that blends in one chord the 'forever and never.'" [footnote : by abram j. ryan, an american clergyman and poet.] expression: read aloud the three lines which introduce the song of the river. read them in such a manner as to call up a mental picture of the river on its way to the sea. read the first five lines of the third stanza in a similar way, and tell what picture is now called up in your mind. now read the river's song. read what the white wave said. read the whole poem with spirit and feeling. notice the words "a-down," "a-singing," "a-bringing." what effect is produced by the use of these unusual forms? song of the chattahoochee[ ] out of the hills of habersham, down the valleys of hall, i hurry amain to reach the plain, run the rapid and leap the fall, split at the rock and together again, accept my bed or narrow or wide, and flee from folly on every side with a lover's pain to attain the plain far from the hills of habersham, far from the valleys of hall. all down the hills of habersham, all through the valleys of hall, the rushes cried, "abide, abide," the willful waterweeds held me thrall, the loving laurel turned my tide, the ferns and the fondling grass said, "stay," the dewberry dipped for to work delay, and the little reeds sighed, "abide, abide," here in the hills of habersham, here in the valleys of hall. high o'er the hills of habersham, veiling the valleys of hall, the hickory told me manifold fair tales of shade; the poplar tall wrought me her shadowy self to hold; the chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine, overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign, said, "pass not so cold, these manifold deep shades of the hills of habersham, these glades in the valleys of hall." and oft in the hills of habersham, and oft in the valleys of hall, the white quartz shone, and the smooth brook stone did bar me of passage with friendly brawl; and many a luminous jewel lone (crystals clear or a-cloud with mist, ruby, garnet, or amethyst) made lures with the lights of streaming stone in the clefts of the hills of habersham, in the beds of the valleys of hall. footnote: [footnote : by sidney lanier, an american musician and poet ( - ). from the _poems of sidney lanier_, published by charles scribner's sons.] expression: compare this poem with the one which precedes it. compare them both with tennyson's "song of the brook" ("fifth reader," p. ). which is the most musical? which is the best simply as a description? make a list of the unusual words in this last poem, and refer to the dictionary for their meaning. in what state is the chattahoochee river? "habersham" and "hall" are the names of two counties in the same state. if you have access to a library, find southey's poem, "the cataract of lodore," and read it aloud. war and peace i. war as the mother of valor and civilization[ ] we still hear war extolled at times as the mother of valor and the prime agency in the world's advancement. by it, we are told, civilization has spread and nations have been created, slavery has been abolished and the american union preserved. it is even held that without war human progress would have been impossible. the answer: men were at first savages who preyed upon each other like wild beasts, and so they developed a physical courage which they shared with the brutes. moral courage was unknown to them. war was almost their sole occupation. peace existed only for short periods that tribes might regain strength to resume the sacred duty of killing each other. advancement in civilization was impossible while war reigned. only as wars became less frequent and long intervals of peace supervened could civilization, the mother of true heroism, take root. civilization has advanced just as war has receded, until in our day peace has become the rule and war the exception. arbitration of international disputes grows more and more in favor. successive generations of men now live and die without seeing war; and instead of the army and navy furnishing the only careers worthy of gentlemen, it is with difficulty that civilized nations can to-day obtain a sufficient supply of either officers or men. in the past, man's only method for removing obstacles and attaining desired ends was to use brute courage. the advance of civilization has developed moral courage. we use more beneficent means than men did of old. britain in the eighteenth century used force to prevent american independence. in more recent times she graciously grants canada the rights denied america. the united states also receives an award of the powers against china, and, finding it in excess of her expenditures, in the spirit of newer time, returns ten million dollars. won by this act of justice, china devotes the sum to the education of chinese students in the republic's universities. the greatest force is no longer that of brutal war, but the supreme force of gentlemen and generosity--the golden rule. the pen is rapidly superseding the sword. arbitration is banishing war. more than five hundred international disputes have already been peacefully settled. civilization, not barbarism, is the mother of true heroism. our lately departed poet and disciple of peace, richard watson gilder, has left us the answer to the false idea that brute force employed against our fellows ranks with heroic moral courage exerted to save or serve them:-- 'twas said: "when roll of drum and battle's roar shall cease upon the earth, oh, then no more the deed, the race, of heroes in the land." but scarce that word was breathed when one small hand lifted victorious o'er a giant wrong that had its victims crushed through ages long; some woman set her pale and quivering face, firm as a rock, against a man's disgrace; a little child suffered in silence lest his savage pain should wound a mother's breast; some quiet scholar flung his gauntlet down and risked, in truth's great name, the synod's frown; a civic hero, in the calm realm of laws, did that which suddenly drew a world's applause; and one to the pest his lithe young body gave that he a thousand thousand lives might save. on the field of carnage men lose all human instincts in the struggle to protect themselves. the true heroism inspired by moral courage prompts firemen, policemen, sailors, miners, and others to volunteer and risk their lives to save the lives of their fellowmen. such heroism is now of everyday occurrence. in our age there is no more reason for permitting war between civilized nations than for relaxing the reign of law within nations, which compels men to submit their personal disputes to peaceful courts, and never dreams that by so doing they will be made less heroic.... when war ceases, the sense of human brotherhood will be strengthened and "heroism" will no longer mean to kill, but only to serve or save our fellows. footnote: [footnote : by andrew carnegie, a scottish-american manufacturer and philanthropist ( - ).] ii. friendship among nations[ ] let us suppose that four centuries ago some far-seeing prophet dared to predict to the duchies composing the kingdom of france that the day would come when they would no longer make war upon each other. let us suppose him saying:-- "you will have many disputes to settle, interests to contend for, difficulties to resolve; but do you know what you will select instead of armed men, instead of cavalry, and infantry, of cannon, lances, pikes, and swords? "you will select, instead of all this destructive array, a small box of wood, which you will term a ballot-box, and from what shall issue--what? an assembly--an assembly in which you shall all live; an assembly which shall be, as it were, the soul of all; a supreme and popular council, which shall decide, judge, resolve everything; which shall say to each, 'here terminates your right, there commences your duty: lay down your arms!' "and in that day you will all have one common thought, common interests, a common destiny; you will embrace each other, and recognize each other as children of the same blood and of the same race; that day you shall no longer be hostile tribes--you will be a people; you will be no longer merely burgundy, normandy, brittany, provence--you will be france! you will no longer make appeals to war; you will do so to civilization." if, at that period i speak of, some one had uttered these words, all men would have cried out: "what a dreamer! what a dream! how little this pretended prophet is acquainted with the human heart!" yet time has gone on and on, and we find that this dream has been realized. well, then, at this moment we who are assembled here say to france, to england, to spain, to italy, to russia: "a day will come, when from your hands also the arms they have grasped shall fall. a day will come, when war shall appear as impossible, and will be as impossible, between paris and london, between st. petersburg and berlin, as it is now between rouen and amiens, between boston and philadelphia. "a day will come, when you, france; you, russia; you, italy; you, england; you, germany; all of you nations of the continent, shall, without losing your distinctive qualities and your glorious individuality, be blended into a superior unity, and shall constitute an european fraternity, just as normandy, brittany, burgundy, lorraine, have been blended into france. a day will come when the only battle field shall be the market open to commerce, and the mind open to new ideas. a day will come when bullets and shells shall be replaced by votes, by the universal suffrage of nations, by the arbitration of a great sovereign senate. nor is it necessary for four hundred years to pass away for that day to come. we live in a period in which a year often suffices to do the work of a century. suppose that the people of europe, instead of mistrusting each other, entertaining jealousy of each other, hating each other, become fast friends; suppose they say that before they are french or english or german they are men, and that if nations form countries, human kind forms a family. suppose that the enormous sums spent in maintaining armies should be spent in acts of mutual confidence. suppose that the millions that are lavished on hatred, were bestowed on love, given to peace instead of war, given to labor, to intelligence, to industry, to commerce, to navigation, to agriculture, to science, to art. if this enormous sum were expended in this manner, know you what would happen? the face of the world would be changed. isthmuses would be cut through. railroads would cover the continents; the merchant navy of the globe would be increased a hundredfold. there would be nowhere barren plains nor moors nor marshes. cities would be found where now there are only deserts. asia would be rescued to civilization; africa would be rescued to man; abundance would gush forth on every side, from every vein of the earth at the touch of man, like the living stream from the rock beneath the rod of moses. footnote: [footnote : by victor hugo, a celebrated french writer ( - ).] iii. soldier, rest[ ] soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; dream of battled fields no more, days of danger, nights of waking. in our isle's enchanted hall, hands unseen thy couch are strewing, fairy strains of music fall, every sense in slumber dewing. soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, dream of fighting fields no more; sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, morn of toil nor night of waking. no rude sound shall reach thine ear, armor's clang, or war steed champing, trump nor pibroch summon here mustering clan or squadron tramping. yet the lark's shrill fife may come at the daybreak from the fallow, and the bittern sound his drum, booming from the sedgy shallow. ruder sounds shall none be near, guards nor warders challenge here, here's no war steed's neigh and champing, shouting clans, or squadrons stamping. footnote: [footnote : by sir walter scott, a scottish novelist and poet ( - ).] iv. the soldier's dream[ ] our bugles sang truce, for the night cloud had lowered, and the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky; and thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered, the weary to sleep, and the wounded to die. when reposing that night on my pallet of straw, by the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain; at the dead of the night a sweet vision i saw, and thrice ere the morning i dreamt it again. methought from the battle field's dreadful array, far, far i had roamed on a desolate track; 'twas autumn, and sunshine arose on the way to the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back. i flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft in life's morning march, when my bosom was young; i heard my own mountain goats bleating aloft, and knew the sweet strain that the corn reapers sung. then pledged we the wine cup, and fondly i swore from my home and my weeping friends never to part; my little ones kissed me a thousand times o'er, and my wife sobbed aloud in her fullness of heart. "stay, stay with us--rest, thou art weary and worn;" and fain was their war-broken soldier to stay; but sorrow returned with the dawning of morn, and the voice in my dreaming ear melted away. footnote: [footnote : by thomas campbell, a scottish poet ( - ).] v. how sleep the brave[ ] how sleep the brave who sink to rest by all their country's wishes blest! when spring, with dewy fingers cold, returns to deck their hallowed mold, she there shall dress a sweeter sod than fancy's feet have ever trod. by fairy hands their knell is rung, by forms unseen their dirge is sung: there honor comes, a pilgrim gray, to bless the turf that wraps their clay, and freedom shall awhile repair to dwell a weeping hermit there. footnote: [footnote : by william collins, an english poet ( - ).] expression: which one of these three poems requires to be read with most spirit and enthusiasm? which is the most pathetic? which is the most musical? which calls up the most pleasing mental pictures? talk with your teacher about the three authors of these poems, and learn all you can about their lives and writings. early times in new york.[ ] in those good old days of simplicity and sunshine, a passion for cleanliness was the leading principle in domestic economy, and the universal test of an able housewife. the front door was never opened, except for marriages, funerals, new year's day, the festival of st. nicholas, or some such great occasion. it was ornamented with a gorgeous brass knocker, which was curiously wrought,--sometimes in the device of a dog, and sometimes in that of a lion's head,--and daily burnished with such religious zeal that it was often worn out by the very precautions taken for its preservation. the whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the discipline of mops and brooms and scrubbing brushes; and the good housewives of those days were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting exceedingly to be dabbling in water,--insomuch that an historian of the day gravely tells us that many of his townswomen grew to have webbed fingers, "like unto ducks." the grand parlor was the _sanctum sanctorum_, where the passion for cleaning was indulged without control. no one was permitted to enter this sacred apartment, except the mistress and her confidential maid, who visited it once a week for the purpose of giving it a thorough cleaning. on these occasions they always took the precaution of leaving their shoes at the door, and entering devoutly in their stocking feet. after scrubbing the floor, sprinkling it with fine white sand,--which was curiously stroked with a broom into angles and curves and rhomboids,--after washing the windows, rubbing and polishing the furniture, and putting a new branch of evergreens in the fireplace, the windows were again closed to keep out the flies, and the room was kept carefully locked, until the revolution of time brought round the weekly cleaning day. as to the family, they always entered in at the gate, and generally lived in the kitchen. to have seen a numerous household assembled round the fire, one would have imagined that he was transported to those happy days of primeval simplicity which float before our imaginations like golden visions. the fireplaces were of a truly patriarchal magnitude, where the whole family, old and young, master and servant, black and white,--nay, even the very cat and dog,--enjoyed a community of privilege, and had each a right to a corner. here the old burgher would sit in perfect silence, puffing his pipe, looking in the fire with half-shut eyes, and thinking of nothing, for hours together; the good wife, on the opposite side, would employ herself diligently in spinning yarn or knitting stockings. the young folks would crowd around the hearth, listening with breathless attention to some old crone of a negro, who was the oracle of the family, and who, perched like a raven in a corner of the chimney, would croak forth, for a long winter afternoon, a string of incredible stories about new england witches, grisly ghosts, and bloody encounters among indians. in those happy days, fashionable parties were generally confined to the higher classes, or _noblesse_; that is to say, such as kept their own cows, and drove their own wagons. the company usually assembled at three o'clock, and went away about six, unless it was in winter time, when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies might reach home before dark. the tea table was crowned with a huge earthen dish, well stored with slices of fat pork, fried brown, cut up into morsels, and swimming in gravy. the company seated round the genial board, evinced their dexterity in launching their forks at the fattest pieces in this mighty dish,--in much the same manner that sailors harpoon porpoises at sea, or our indians spear salmon in the lakes. sometimes the table was graced with immense apple pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat and called doughnuts or _olykoeks_, a delicious kind of cake, at present little known in this city, except in genuine dutch families. the tea was served out of a majestic delft teapot, ornamented with paintings of fat little dutch shepherds and shepherdesses tending pigs,--with boats sailing in the air, and houses built in the clouds, and sundry other ingenious dutch fancies. the beaux distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replenishing this pot from a huge copper teakettle. to sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup, and the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum; until an improvement was introduced by a shrewd and economic old lady, which was to suspend, by a string from the ceiling, a large lump directly over the tea table, so that it could be swung from mouth to mouth. at these primitive tea parties, the utmost propriety and dignity prevailed,--no flirting nor coquetting; no romping of young ladies; no self-satisfied struttings of wealthy gentlemen, with their brains in their pockets, nor amusing conceits and monkey divertisements of smart young gentlemen, with no brains at all. on the contrary, the young ladies seated themselves demurely in their rush-bottomed chairs, and knit their own woolen stockings; nor ever opened their lips, excepting to say "_yah, mynheer_," or "_yah, yah, vrouw_," to any question that was asked them; behaving in all things like decent, well-educated damsels. as to the gentlemen, each of them tranquilly smoked his pipe, and seemed lost in contemplation of the blue and white tiles with which the fireplaces were decorated; wherein sundry passages of scripture were piously portrayed. tobit and his dog figured to great advantage; haman swung conspicuously on his gibbet; and jonah appeared most manfully leaping from the whale's mouth, like harlequin through a barrel of fire. footnote: [footnote : from diedrich knickerbocker's, "history of new york," by washington irving.] notes: more than two hundred and fifty years have passed since the "good old days" described in this selection. new york in was a small place. it was called new amsterdam, and its inhabitants were chiefly dutch people from holland. knickerbocker's "history of new york" gives a delightfully humorous account of those early times. the festival of st. nicholas occurs on december , and with the dutch colonists was equivalent to our christmas. word study: _sanctum sanctorum_, a latin expression meaning "holy of holies," a most sacred place. _noblesse_, persons of high rank. _olykoeks_ (_[)o]l´ y cooks_), doughnuts, or crullers. _mynheer_ (_m[=i]n h[=a]r´_), sir, mr. _vrouw_ (_vrou_), madam, lady. _tobit_, a pious man of ancient times whose story is related in "the book of tobit." _haman_ (_ha´ man_), the prime minister of the king of babylon, who was hanged on a gibbet which he had prepared for another. see "the book of esther." _har´ le quin_, a clown well known in italian comedy. look in the dictionary for: _gorgeous_, _rhomboids_, _primeval_, _patriarchal_, _burgher_, _crone_, _porpoises_, _beverage_, _divertisements_. a winter evening in old new england shut in from all the world without, we sat the clean-winged hearth about, content to let the north wind roar in baffled rage at pane and door, while the red logs before us beat the frost line back with tropic heat; and ever, when a louder blast shook beam and rafter as it passed, the merrier up its roaring draft the great throat of the chimney laughed. the house dog on his paws outspread laid to the fire his drowsy head, the cat's dark silhouette on the wall a couchant tiger's seemed to fall; and, for the winter fireside meet, between the andirons' straddling feet the mug of cider simmered slow, and apples sputtered in a row. and, close at hand, the basket stood with nuts from brown october's woods. what matter how the night behaved? what matter how the north wind raved? blow high, blow low, not all its snow could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow. [illustration: a winter evening in old new england.] the old-fashioned thanksgiving[ ] i do not know but it is that old new england holiday of thanksgiving which, for one of new england birth, has most of home associations tied up with it, and most of gleeful memories. i know that they are very present ones. we all knew when it was coming; we all loved turkey--not turkey on the map, for which we cared very little after we had once bounded it--by the black sea on the east, and by something else on the other sides--but basted turkey, brown turkey, stuffed turkey. here was richness! we had scored off the days until we were sure, to a recitation mark, when it was due--well into the end of november, when winds would be blowing from the northwest, with great piles of dry leaves all down the sides of the street and in the angles of pasture walls. i cannot for my life conceive why any one should upset the old order of things by marking it down a fortnight earlier. a man in the country wants his crops well in and housed before he is ready to gush out with a round, outspoken thanksgiving; but everybody knows, who knows anything about it, that the purple tops and the cow-horn turnips are, nine times in ten, left out till the latter days of november, and husking not half over. we all knew, as i said, when it was coming. we had a stock of empty flour barrels on town-hill stuffed with leaves, and a big pole set in the ground, and a battered tar barrel, with its bung chopped out, to put on top of the pole. it was all to beat the last year's bonfire--and it did. the country wagoners had made their little stoppages at the back door. we knew what was to come of that. and if the old cook--a monstrous fine woman, who weighed two hundred if she weighed a pound--was brusque and wouldn't have us "round," we knew what was to come of that, too. such pies as hers demanded thoughtful consideration: not very large, and baked in scalloped tins, and with such a relishy flavor to them, as on my honor, i do not recognize in any pies of this generation.... the sermon on that thanksgiving (and we all heard it) was long. we boys were prepared for that too. but we couldn't treat a thanksgiving sermon as we would an ordinary one; we couldn't doze--there was too much ahead. it seemed to me that the preacher made rather a merit of holding us in check--with that basted turkey in waiting. at last, though, it came to an end; and i believe dick and i both joined in the doxology. all that followed is to me now a cloud of misty and joyful expectation, until we took our places--a score or more of cousins and kinsfolk; and the turkey, and celery, and cranberries, and what nots, were all in place. did dick whisper to me as we went in, "get next to me, old fellow"? i cannot say; i have a half recollection that he did. but bless me! what did anybody care for what dick said? and the old gentleman who bowed his head and said grace--there is no forgetting him. and the little golden-haired one who sat at his left--his pet, his idol--who lisped the thanksgiving after him, shall i forget her, and the games of forfeit afterwards at evening that brought her curls near to me? these fifty years she has been gone from sight, and is dust. what an awful tide of thanksgivings has drifted by since she bowed her golden locks, and clasped her hand, and murmured, "our father, we thank thee for this, and for all thy bounties!" who else? well, troops of cousins--good, bad, and indifferent. no man is accountable for his cousins, i think; or if he is, the law should be changed. if a man can't speak honestly of cousinhood, to the third or fourth degree, what _can_ he speak honestly of? didn't i see little floy (who wore pea-green silk) make a saucy grimace when i made a false cut at that rolypoly turkey drumstick and landed it on the tablecloth? there was that scamp tom, too, who loosened his waistcoat before he went into dinner. i saw him do it. didn't he make faces at me, till he caught a warning from aunt polly's uplifted finger? [illustration: a thanksgiving reunion.] how should i forget that good, kindly aunt polly--very severe in her turban, and with her meeting-house face upon her, but full of a great wealth of bonbons and dried fruits on saturday afternoons, in i know not what capacious pockets; ample, too, in her jokes and in her laugh; making that day a great maelstrom of mirth around her? h---- sells hides now, and is as rich as croesus, whatever that may mean; but does he remember his venturesome foray for a little bit of crisp roast pig that lay temptingly on the edge of the dish that day? there was sarah, too,--turned of seventeen, education complete, looking down on us all--terribly learned (i know for a fact that she kept mrs. hemans in her pocket); terribly self-asserting, too. if she had not married happily, and not had a little brood about her in after years (which she did), i think she would have made one of the most terrible sorosians of our time. at least that is the way i think of it now, looking back across the basted turkey (which she ate without gravy) and across the range of eager thanksgiving faces. there was uncle ned--no forgetting him--who had a way of patting a boy on the head so that the patting reached clear through to the boy's heart, and made him sure of a blessing hovering over. that was the patting i liked. _that's_ the sort of uncle to come to a thanksgiving dinner--the sort that eat double filberts with you, and pay up next day by noon with a pocketknife or a riding whip. hurrah for uncle ned! and aunt eliza--is there any keeping her out of mind? i never liked the name much; but the face and the kindliness which was always ready to cover, as well as she might, what wrong we did, and to make clear what good we did, make me enrol her now--where she belongs evermore--among the saints. so quiet, so gentle, so winning, making conquest of all of us, because she never sought it; full of dignity, yet never asserting it; queening it over all by downright kindliness of heart. what a wife she would have made! heigho! how we loved her, and made our boyish love of her--a thanksgiving! were there oranges? i think there were, with green spots on the peel--lately arrived from florida. tom boasted that he ate four. i dare say he told the truth--he looked peaked, and was a great deal the worse for the dinner next day, i remember. was there punch, or any strong liquors? no; so far as my recollection now goes, there was none. champagne? i have a faint remembrance of a loud pop or two which set some cousinly curls over opposite me into a nervous shake. yet i would not like to speak positively. good bottled cider or pop beer may possibly account for all the special phenomena i call to mind. was there coffee, and were there olives? not to the best of my recollection; or, if present, i lose them in the glamour of mince pies and marlborough puddings. how we ever sidled away from that board when that feast was done i have no clear conception. i am firm in the belief that thanksgiving was said at the end, as at the beginning. i have a faint recollection of a gray head passing out at the door, and of a fleece of golden curls beside him, against which i jostle--not unkindly. dark? yes; i think the sun had gone down about the time when the mince pies had faded. did dick and tom and the rest of us come sauntering in afterwards when the rooms were empty, foraging for any little tidbits of the feast that might be left, the tables showing only wreck under the dim light of a solitary candle? how we found our way with the weight of that stupendous dinner by us to the heights of town-hill it is hard to tell. but we did, and when our barrel pile was fairly ablaze, we danced like young satyrs round the flame, shouting at our very loudest when the fire caught the tar barrel at the top, and the yellow pile of blaze threw its lurid glare over hill and houses and town. afterwards i have recollection of an hour or more in a snug square parlor, which is given over to us youngsters and our games, dimly lighted, as was most fitting; but a fire upon the hearth flung out a red glory on the floor and on the walls. was it a high old time, or did we only pretend that it was? didn't i know little floy in that pea-green silk, with my hands clasped round her waist and my eyes blinded--ever so fast? didn't i give dick an awful pinch in the leg, when i lay _perdu_ under the sofa in another one of those tremendous games? didn't the door that led into the hall show a little open gap from time to time--old faces peering in, looking very kindly in the red firelight flaring on them? and didn't those we loved best look oftenest? don't they always? well, well--we were fagged at last: little floy in a snooze before we knew it; dick, pretending not to be sleepy, but gaping in a prodigious way. but the romps and the fatigue made sleep very grateful when it came at last: yet the sleep was very broken; the turkey and the nuts had their rights, and bred stupendous thanksgiving dreams. what gorgeous dreams they were, to be sure! i seem to dream them again to-day. once again i see the old, revered gray head bowing in utter thankfulness, with the hands clasped. once again, over the awful tide of intervening years--so full, and yet so short--i seem to see the shimmer of _her_ golden hair--an aureole of light blazing on the borders of boyhood: "_for this, and all thy bounties, our father, we thank thee._" footnote: [footnote : from "bound together," by donald g. mitchell, published by charles scribner's sons.] a thanksgiving[ ] lord, thou hast given me a cell wherein to dwell-- a little house, whose humble roof is weatherproof-- under the spans of which i lie both soft and dry, where thou, my chamber for to ward, hast set a guard of harmless thoughts, to watch and keep me while i sleep. low is my porch as is my fate-- both void of state-- and yet the threshold of my door is worn by the poor who hither come, and freely get good words or meat. like as my parlor, so my hall and kitchen's small. a little buttery, and therein a little bin. which keeps my little loaf of bread unchipt, unfled. some brittle sticks of thorn or brier make me a fire close by whose living coal i sit, and glow like it. lord, i confess too, when i dine, the pulse is thine, and all those other bits that be there placed by thee. 'tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth with guiltless mirth, and giv'st me wassail bowls to drink, spiced to the brink. lord, 'tis thy plenty-dropping hand that soils my land, and giv'st me for my bushel sown twice ten for one. all these and better thou dost send me to this end,-- that i should render for my part, a thankful heart; which, fired with incense, i resign as wholly thine-- but the acceptance, that must be, my god, by thee. footnote: [footnote : by robert herrick, an english poet ( - ).] first days at wakefield[ ] _a proof that even the humblest fortune may grant happiness, which depends not on circumstances but constitution._ the place of our retreat was in a little neighborhood consisting of farmers, who tilled their own grounds, and were equal strangers to opulence and poverty. as they had almost all the conveniences of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or cities in search of superfluity. remote from the polite, they still retained the primeval simplicity of manners; and frugal by habit, they scarcely knew that temperance was a virtue. they wrought with cheerfulness on days of labor; but observed festivals as intervals of idleness and pleasure. they kept up the christmas carol, sent true love knots on valentine morning, ate pancakes on shrovetide, showed their wit on the first of april, and religiously cracked nuts on michaelmas eve. being apprised of our approach, the whole neighborhood came out to meet their minister, dressed in their finest clothes, and preceded by a pipe and tabor. a feast also was provided for our reception, at which we sat cheerfully down; and what the conversation wanted in wit was made up in laughter. our little habitation was situated at the foot of a slopping bill, sheltered with a beautiful underwood behind, and a prattling river before; on one side a meadow, on the other a green. my farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill. nothing could exceed the neatness of my little inclosures, the elms and hedgerows appearing with inexpressible beauty. my house consisted of but one story, and was covered with thatch, which gave it an air of great snugness; the walls on the inside were nicely whitewashed, and my daughters undertook to adorn them with pictures of their own designing. though the same room served us for parlor and kitchen, that only made it the warmer. besides, as it was kept with the utmost neatness, the dishes, plates, and coppers being well scoured, and all disposed in bright rows on the shelves, the eye was agreeably relieved, and did not want richer furniture. there were three other apartments,--one for my wife and me, another for our two daughters, and the third, with two beds, for the rest of the children. the little republic to which i gave laws was regulated in the following manner: by sunrise we all assembled in our common apartment, the fire being previously kindled by the servant. after we had saluted each other with proper ceremony--for i always thought fit to keep up some mechanical forms of good breeding, without which freedom ever destroys friendship--we all bent in gratitude to that being who gave us another day. this duty being performed, my son and i went to pursue our usual industry abroad, while my wife and daughters employed themselves in providing breakfast, which was always ready at a certain time. i allowed half an hour for this meal and an hour for dinner, which time was taken up in innocent mirth between my wife and daughters, and in philosophical arguments between my son and me. as we rose with the sun, so we never pursued our labors after it was gone down, but returned home to the expecting family, where smiling looks, a neat hearth, and pleasant fire were prepared for our reception. nor were we without guests: sometimes farmer flamborough, our talkative neighbor, and often the blind piper would pay us a visit, and taste our gooseberry wine, for the making of which we had lost neither the receipt nor the reputation. the night was concluded in the manner we began the morning, my youngest boys being appointed to read the lessons of the day, and he that read loudest, distinctest and best was to have a halfpenny on sunday to put in the poor's box. when sunday came it was indeed a day of finery, which all my sumptuary edicts could not restrain. how well soever i fancied my lectures against pride had conquered the vanity of my daughters, yet i still found them secretly attached to all their former finery; they still loved laces, ribbons, bugles, and catgut; my wife herself retained a passion for her crimson paduasoy, because i formerly happened to say it became her. [illustration: the first sunday at wakefield.] the first sunday in particular their behavior served to mortify me; i had desired my girls the preceding night to be dressed early the next day; for i always loved to be at church a good while before the rest of the congregation. they punctually obeyed my directions; but when we were to assemble in the morning at breakfast, down came my wife and daughters dressed out all in their former splendor; their hair plastered up with pomatum, their faces patched to taste, their trains bundled up in a heap behind, and rustling at every motion. i could not help smiling at their vanity, particularly that of my wife, from whom i expected more discretion. in this exigence, therefore, my only resource was to order my son, with an important air, to call our coach. the girls were amazed at the command; but i repeated it with more solemnity than before. "surely, my dear, you jest," cried my wife; "we can walk it perfectly well; we want no coach to carry us now." "you mistake, child," returned i, "we do want a coach; for if we walk to church in this trim, the very children in the parish will hoot after us." "indeed," replied my wife, "i always imagined that my charles was fond of seeing his children neat and handsome about him." "you may be as neat as you please," interrupted i, "and i shall love you the better for it; but all this is not neatness, but frippery. these rufflings and pinkings and patchings will only make us hated by all the wives of all our neighbors. no, my children," continued i, more gravely, "those gowns may be altered into something of a plainer cut; for finery is very unbecoming in us, who want the means of decency. i do not know whether such flouncing and shredding is becoming even in the rich, if we consider, upon a moderate calculation, that the nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain." this remonstrance had the proper effect; they went with great composure, that very instant, to change their dress; and the next day i had the satisfaction of finding my daughters, at their own request, employed in cutting up their trains into sunday waistcoats for dick and bill, the two little ones; and what was still more satisfactory, the gowns seemed improved by this curtailing. footnote: [footnote : from "the vicar of wakefield," by oliver goldsmith, a celebrated english author ( - ).] expression: in this selection and the two which follow we have three other specimens of english prose fiction. you will observe that they are very different in style, as well as in subject, from the three specimens at the beginning of this book. compare them with one another. reread the selections from dickens, thackeray, and george eliot, and compare them with these. which do you like best? why? doubting castle[ ] i. the pilgrims lose their way now i beheld in my dream that christian and hopeful had not journeyed far until they came where the river and the way parted, at which they were not a little sorry; yet they durst not go out of the way. now the way from the river was rough, and their feet tender by reason of their travel; so the souls of the pilgrims were much discouraged because of the way. wherefore, still as they went on, they wished for a better way. now, a little before them, there was in the left hand of the road a meadow, and a stile to go over into it; and that meadow is called by-path meadow. then said christian to his fellow, "if this meadow lieth along by our wayside, let us go over into it." then he went to the stile to see, and behold a path lay along by the way on the other side of the fence. "'tis according to my wish," said christian; "here is the easiest going; come, good hopeful, and let us go over." "but how if this path should lead us out of the way?" "_that_ is not likely," said the other. "look, doth it not go along by the wayside?" so hopeful, being persuaded by his fellow, went after him over the stile. when they were gone over, and were got into the path, they found it very easy for their feet; and withal they, looking before them, espied a man walking as they did, and his name was vain-confidence: so they called after him, and asked him whither that way led. he said, "to the celestial gate." "look," said christian, "did not i tell you so?--by this you may see we are right." so they followed, and he went before them. but, behold, the night came on, and it grew very dark; so that they who were behind lost sight of them that went before. he, therefore, that went before--vain-confidence by name--not seeing the way before him, fell into a deep pit, and was dashed in pieces with his fall. now christian and his fellow heard him fall; so they called to know the matter. but there was none to answer, only they heard a groan. then said hopeful, "where are we now?" then was his fellow silent, as mistrusting that he had led him out of the way; and now it began to rain and thunder and lightning in a most dreadful manner, and the water rose amain, by reason of which the way of going back was very dangerous. yet they adventured to go back; but it was so dark and the flood so high, that in their going back they had like to have been drowned nine or ten times. neither could they, with all the skill they had, get back again to the stile that night. wherefore, at last lighting under a little shelter, they sat down there until daybreak. but, being weary, they fell asleep. [illustration: in the giant's dungeon.] ii. in the giant's dungeon now there was, not far from the place where they lay, a castle, called doubting castle, the owner whereof was giant despair; and it was in his grounds they now were sleeping. wherefore he, getting up in the morning early, and walking up and down in his fields, caught christian and hopeful asleep in his grounds. then with a grim and surly voice, he bid them awake, and asked them whence they were, and what they did in his grounds. they told him they were pilgrims, and that they had lost their way. then said the giant, "you have this night trespassed on me, by trampling in and lying on my grounds, and therefore you must go along with me." so they were forced to go, because he was stronger than they. they also had but little to say, for they knew themselves in a fault. the giant, therefore, drove them before him, and put them into his castle, in a very dark dungeon. here, then, they lay from wednesday morning till saturday night, without one bit of bread, or drop of drink, or light, or any to ask how they did: they were, therefore, here in evil case, and were far from friends and acquaintance. now giant despair had a wife, and her name was diffidence. so, when he was gone to bed, he told his wife that he had taken a couple of prisoners, and had cast them into his dungeon for trespassing on his grounds. then he asked her also what he had best do to them. so she asked him what they were, whence they came, and whither they were bound; and he told her. then she counseled him, that when he arose in the morning he should beat them without mercy. so when he arose, he getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel, and goes into the dungeon to them, and there first falls to rating of them as if they were dogs, although they never gave him an unpleasant word. then he fell upon them, and beat them fearfully, in such sort that they were not able to help themselves, or to turn them upon the floor. this done he withdraws, and leaves them there to condole their misery, and to mourn under their distress. so all that day they spent their time in nothing but sighs and bitter lamentations. the next night she, talking with her husband further about them, and understanding that they were yet alive, did advise him to counsel them to make away with themselves. so, when morning was come, he goes to them in a surly manner as before, and perceiving them to be very sore with the stripes that he had given them the day before, he told them that, since they were never like to come out of that place, their only way would be forthwith to make an end of themselves, either with knife, halter, or poison: "for why," he said, "should you choose to live, seeing it is attended with so much bitterness?" but they desired him to let them go. with that he looked ugly upon them, and, rushing to them, had doubtless made an end of them himself, but that he fell into one of his fits, and lost for a time the use of his hands. wherefore he withdrew, and left them, as before, to consider what to do. then did the prisoners consult between themselves, whether it was best to take his counsel or no. but they soon resolved to reject it; for it would be very wicked to kill themselves; and, besides, something might soon happen to enable them to make their escape. well, towards evening the giant goes down to the dungeon again, to see if his prisoners had taken his counsel; but when he came there, he found them alive. i say, he found them alive; at which he fell into a grievous rage, and told them that, seeing they had disobeyed his counsel, it should be worse with them than if they had never been born. at this they trembled greatly, and i think that christian fell into a swoon; but, coming a little to himself again, they renewed their discourse about the giant's counsel, and whether yet they had best take it or no. now christian again seemed for doing it, but hopeful reminded him of the hardships and terrors he had already gone through, and said that they ought to bear up with patience as well as they could, and steadily reject the giant's wicked counsel. now, night being come again, and the giant and his wife being in bed, she asked him concerning the prisoners, and if they had taken his counsel. to this he replied, "they are sturdy rogues, they choose rather to bear all hardships than to make away themselves." then said she, "take them into the castle yard to-morrow, and show them the bones and skulls of those that thou hast already dispatched, and make them believe, thou wilt tear them in pieces, as thou hast done their fellows before them." so when morning has come, the giant goes to them again, and takes them into the castle yard, and shows them as his wife had bidden him. "these," said he, "were pilgrims, as you are, once, and they trespassed on my grounds, as you have done; and when i thought fit, i tore them in pieces; and so within ten days i will do to you. get you down to your den again." and with that he beat them all the way thither. now, when night was come, mrs. diffidence and her husband began to renew their discourse of their prisoners. the old giant wondered that he could neither by his blows nor by his counsel bring them to an end. and with that his wife replied, "i fear," said she, "that they live in hopes that some will come to relieve them, or that they have picklocks about them, by the means of which they hope to escape." "and sayest thou so, my dear?" said the giant; "i will therefore search them in the morning." well, on saturday, about midnight, they began to pray, and continued in prayer till almost break of day. now a little before it was day, good christian, as one half amazed, brake out into a passionate speech: "what a fool am i, thus to lie in a dungeon! i have a key in my bosom, called promise, that will, i am persuaded, open any lock in doubting castle." then said hopeful, "that's good news, good brother; pluck it out of thy bosom and try." then christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at the dungeon door, whose bolt, as he turned the key, gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and christian and hopeful both came out. after that, he went to the iron gate, for that must be opened too, but that lock went desperately hard; yet the key did open it. then they thrust open the gate to make their escape with speed; but that gate, as it opened, made such a creaking, that it waked giant despair, who, hastily rising to pursue his prisoners, felt his limbs to fail, for his fits took him again, so that he could by no means go after them. then they went on, and came to the king's highway, again, and so were safe. footnote: [footnote : from "the pilgrim's progress," by john bunyan, a famous english preacher and writer ( - ).] expression: what peculiarities do you observe in bunyan's style of writing? select the three most striking passages in this story, and read them with spirit and correct expression. shooting with the longbow[ ] proclamation was made that prince john, suddenly called by high and peremptory public duties, held himself obliged to discontinue the entertainments of to-morrow's festival: nevertheless, that, unwilling so many good yeomen should depart without a trial of skill, he was pleased to appoint them, before leaving the ground, presently to execute the competition of archery intended for the morrow. to the best archer a prize was to be awarded, being a bugle-horn, mounted with silver, and a silken baldric richly ornamented with a medallion of st. hubert, the patron of sylvan sport. more than thirty yeomen at first presented themselves as competitors, several of whom were rangers and underkeepers in the royal forests of needwood and charnwood. when, however, the archers understood with whom they were to be matched, upwards of twenty withdrew themselves from the contest, unwilling to encounter the dishonor of almost certain defeat. the diminished list of competitors for sylvan fame still amounted to eight. prince john stepped from his royal seat to view more nearly the persons of these chosen yeomen, several of whom wore the royal livery. having satisfied his curiosity by this investigation, he looked for the object of his resentment, whom he observed standing on the same spot, and with the same composed countenance which he had exhibited upon the preceding day. "fellow," said prince john, "i guessed by thy insolent babble thou wert no true lover of the longbow, and i see thou darest not adventure thy skill among such merry men as stand yonder." "under favor, sir," replied the yeoman, "i have another reason for refraining to shoot, besides the fearing discomfiture and disgrace." "and what is thy other reason?" said prince john, who, for some cause which perhaps he could not himself have explained, felt a painful curiosity respecting this individual. "because," replied the woodsman, "i know not if these yeomen and i are used to shoot at the same marks; and because, moreover, i know not how your grace might relish the winning of a third prize by one who has unwittingly fallen under your displeasure." prince john colored as he put the question, "what is thy name, yeoman?" "locksley," answered the yeoman. "then, locksley," said prince john, "thou shalt shoot in thy turn, when these yeomen have displayed their skill. if thou carriest the prize, i will add to it twenty nobles; but if thou losest it, thou shalt be stripped of thy lincoln green, and scourged out of the lists with bowstrings, for a wordy and insolent braggart." "and how if i refuse to shoot on such a wager?" said the yeoman. "your grace's power, supported, as it is, by so many men at arms, may indeed easily strip and scourge me, but cannot compel me to bend or to draw my bow." "if thou refusest my fair proffer," said the prince, "the provost of the lists shall cut thy bowstring, break thy bow and arrows, and expel thee from the presence as a faint-hearted craven." "this is no fair chance you put on me, proud prince," said the yeoman, "to compel me to peril myself against the best archers of leicester and staffordshire, under the penalty of infamy if they should overshoot me. nevertheless, i will obey your pleasure." "look to him close, men at arms," said prince john, "his heart is sinking; i am jealous lest he attempt to escape the trial. and do you, good fellows, shoot boldly round; a buck and a butt of wine are ready for your refreshment in yonder tent, when the prize is won." a target was placed at the upper end of the southern avenue which led to the lists. the contending archers took their station in turn, at the bottom of the southern access; the distance between that station and the mark allowing full distance for what was called a "shot at rovers." the archers, having previously determined by lot their order of precedence, were to shoot each three shafts in succession. the sports were regulated by an officer of inferior rank, termed the provost of the games; for the high rank of the marshals of the lists would have been held degraded had they condescended to superintend the sports of the yeomanry. one by one the archers, stepping forward, delivered their shafts yeomanlike and bravely. of twenty-four arrows shot in succession, ten were fixed in the target, and the others ranged so near it that, considering the distance of the mark, it was accounted good archery. of the ten shafts which hit the target, two within the inner ring were shot by hubert, a forester, who was accordingly pronounced victorious. "now, locksley," said prince john to the bold yeoman, with a bitter smile, "wilt thou try conclusions with hubert, or wilt thou yield up bow, baldric, and quiver to the provost of the sports?" "sith it be no better," said locksley, "i am content to try my fortune; on condition that, when i have shot two shafts at yonder mark of hubert's, he shall be bound to shoot one at that which i shall propose." "that is but fair," answered prince john, "and it shall not be refused thee. if thou dost beat this braggart, hubert, i will fill the bugle with silver pennies for thee." "a man can but do his best," answered hubert; "but my grandsire drew a good longbow at hastings, and i trust not to dishonor his memory." the former target was now removed, and a fresh one of the same size placed in its room. hubert, who, as victor in the first trial of skill, had the right to shoot first, took his aim with great deliberation, long measuring the distance with his eye, while he held in his hand his bended bow, with the arrow placed on the string. at length he made a step forward, and raising the bow at the full stretch of his left arm, till the center of grasping place was nigh level with his face, he drew the bowstring to his ear. the arrow whistled through the air, and lighted within the inner ring of the target, but not exactly in the center. "you have not allowed for the wind, hubert," said his antagonist, bending his bow, "or that had been a better shot." so saying, and without showing the least anxiety to pause upon his aim, locksley stepped to the appointed station, and shot his arrow as carelessly in appearance as if he had not even looked at the mark. he was speaking almost at the instant that the shaft left the bowstring, yet it alighted in the target two inches nearer to the white spot which marked the center than that of hubert. "by the light of heaven!" said prince john to hubert, "an thou suffer that runagate knave to overcome thee, thou art worthy of the gallows!" hubert had but one set of speech for all occasions. "an your highness were to hang me," he said, "a man can but do his best. nevertheless, my grandsire drew a good bow--" "the foul fiend on thy grandsire and all his generation!" interrupted john. "shoot, knave, and shoot thy best, or it shall be the worse for thee!" thus exhorted, hubert resumed his place, and, not neglecting the caution which he had received from his adversary, he made the necessary allowance for a very light breath of wind which had just arisen, and shot so successfully that his arrow alighted in the very center of the target. "a hubert! a hubert!" shouted the populace, more interested in a known person than in a stranger. "in the clout!--in the clout! a hubert forever!" "thou canst not mend that shot, locksley," said the prince, with an insulting smile. "i will notch his shaft for him, however," replied locksley. and, letting fly his arrow with a little more precaution than before, it lighted right upon that of his competitor, which it split to shivers. the people who stood around were so astonished at his wonderful dexterity, that they could not even give vent to their surprise in their usual clamor. "this must be the devil, and no man of flesh and blood," whispered the yeomen to each other; "such archery was never seen since a bow was first bent in britain!" "and now," said locksley, "i will crave your grace's permission to plant such a mark as is used in the north country, and welcome every brave yeoman to try a shot at it." he then turned to leave the lists. "let your guards attend me," he said, "if you please. i go but to cut a rod from the next willow bush." prince john made a signal that some attendants should follow him, in case of his escape; but the cry of "shame! shame!" which burst from the multitude induced him to alter his ungenerous purpose. locksley returned almost instantly, with a willow wand about six feet in length, perfectly straight, and rather thicker than a man's thumb. he began to peel this with great composure, observing, at the same time, that to ask a good woodsman to shoot at a target so broad as had hitherto been used was to put shame upon his skill. "for my own part," said he, "in the land where i was bred, men would as soon take for their mark king arthur's round table, which held sixty knights around it. "a child of seven years old might hit yonder target with a headless shaft; but," he added, walking deliberately to the other end of the lists and sticking the willow wand upright in the ground, "he that hits that rod at fivescore yards, i call him an archer fit to bear both bow and quiver before a king, and it were the stout king richard himself!" "my grandsire," said hubert, "drew a good bow at the battle of hastings, and never shot at such a mark in his life; neither will i. if this yeoman can cleave that rod, i give him the bucklers--or, rather, i yield to the devil that is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill. a man can but do his best, and i will not shoot where i am sure to miss. i might as well shoot at the edge of our parson's whittle, or at a wheat straw, or at a sunbeam, as at a twinkling white streak which i can hardly see." "cowardly dog!" exclaimed prince john.--"sirrah locksley, do thou shoot; but if thou hittest such a mark, i will say thou art the first man ever did so. however it be, thou shalt not crow over us with a mere show of superior skill." "'a man can but do his best!' as hubert says," answered locksley. so saying, he again bent his bow, but, on the present occasion, looked with attention to his weapon, and changed the string, which he thought was no longer truly round, having been a little frayed by the two former shots. he then took his aim with some deliberation, and the multitude awaited the event in breathless silence. the archer vindicated their opinion of his skill: his arrow split the willow rod against which it was aimed. a jubilee of acclamations followed: and even prince john, in admiration of locksley's skill, lost for an instant his dislike to his person. "these twenty nobles," he said, "which with the bugle thou hast fairly won, are thine own: we will make them fifty if thou wilt take livery and service with us as a yeoman of our bodyguard, and be near to our person; for never did so strong a hand bend a bow, or so true an eye direct a shaft." "pardon me, noble prince," said locksley; "but i have vowed that, if ever i take service, it should be with your royal brother, king richard. these twenty nobles i leave to hubert, who has this day drawn as brave a bow as his grandsire did at hastings. had his modesty not refused the trial, he would have hit the wand as well as i." hubert shook his head as he received with reluctance the bounty of the stranger; and locksley, anxious to escape further observation, mixed with the crowd and was seen no more. footnote: [footnote : from "ivanhoe," by sir walter scott.] expression: compare this selection with the two which precede it. "pilgrim's progress," "the vicar of wakefield," and "ivanhoe" rank high among the world's most famous books. notice how long ago each was written. talk with your teacher about bunyan, goldsmith, and scott--their lives and their writings. a christmas hymn[ ] it was the calm and silent night! seven hundred years and fifty-three had rome been growing up to might, and now was queen of land and sea. no sound was heard of clashing wars-- peace brooded o'er the hushed domain; apollo, pallas, jove, and mars held undisturbed their ancient reign, in the solemn midnight, centuries ago. [illustration] 'twas in the calm and silent night, the senator of haughty rome impatient urged his chariot's flight, from lordly revel rolling home; triumphal arches, gleaming, swell his breast with thoughts of boundless sway; what recked the roman what befell a paltry province far away, in the solemn midnight, centuries ago? [illustration] within that province far away, went plodding home a weary boor; a streak of light before him lay, fallen through a half-shut stable door across his path. he paused--for naught told what was going on within; how keen the stars, his only thought,-- the air how cold and calm and thin, in the solemn midnight, centuries ago! oh, strange indifference! low and high drowsed over common joys and cares; the earth was still--but knew not why; the world was listening unawares. how calm a moment may precede one that shall thrill the world forever! to that still moment none would heed man's doom was linked no more to sever, in the solemn midnight, centuries ago. [illustration] it is the calm and solemn night: a thousand bells ring out and throw their joyous peals abroad, and smite the darkness--charmed and holy now! the night that erst no name had worn, to it a happy name is given; for in that stable lay, newborn, the peaceful prince of earth and heaven, in the solemn midnight, centuries ago. footnote: [footnote : by alfred domett, (d[)o]m´et), an english writer ( - ).] christmas eve at fezziwig's[ ] old fezziwig in his warehouse laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock which pointed to the hour of seven. he rubbed his hands; adjusted his waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice:-- "yo ho, there! ebenezer! dick!" ebenezer came briskly in, followed by his fellow-'prentice. "yo ho, my boys!" said fezziwig. "no more work to-night. christmas eve, dick! christmas, ebenezer! let's have the shutters up," cried old fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say jack robinson." you wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! they charged into the street with the shutters--one, two, three--had 'em in their places--four, five, six--barred 'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight, nine--and came back before you could have got to twelve, panting like race horses. "hilli-ho!" cried old fezziwig, skipping down from his desk, with wonderful agility. "clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here! hilli-ho, dick! chirrup, ebenezer!" clear away? there was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old fezziwig looking on. it was done in a minute. every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public life forevermore. the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug and warm, and dry and bright, as any ballroom you would desire to see upon a winter's night. in came a fiddler with a music book, and went up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it. in came mrs. fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. in came the three miss fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. in came the six young followers, whose hearts they broke. in came all the young men and young women employed in the business. in came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. in came the cook, with her brother's particular friend the milkman. in came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having enough to eat from his master. in they all came, one after another--some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling. in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. away they all went, twenty couples at once; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again as soon as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them! when this result was brought about, old fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out, "well done!" then there were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances; and there was cake, and there was a great piece of cold roast, and there was a great piece of cold boiled, and there were mince pies and other delicacies. but the great effect of the evening came after the roast and the boiled, when the fiddler, artful dog, struck up "sir roger de coverley." then old mr. fezziwig stood out to dance with mrs. fezziwig. top couple, too, with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled with--people who _would_ dance, and had no notion of walking. but if they had been twice as many--aye, four times--old mr. fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would mrs. fezziwig. as to _her_, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. if that's not high praise, tell me higher and i'll use it.... and when mr. fezziwig and mrs. fezziwig had gone all through the dance--advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsy, thread the needle, and back to your place--fezziwig "cut" so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger. [illustration: christmas eve at fezziwig's.] when the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. mr. and mrs. fezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him or her a merry christmas. when everybody had retired but the two apprentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died away and the lads were left to their beds--which were under a counter in the back shop. footnote: [footnote : from "a christmas carol," by charles dickens.] the christmas holly[ ] the holly! the holly! oh, twine it with bay-- come give the holly a song; for it helps to drive stern winter away, with his garment so somber and long; it peeps through the trees with its berries of red, and its leaves of burnished green, when the flowers and fruits have long been dead, and not even the daisy is seen. then sing to the holly, the christmas holly, that hangs over peasant and king; while we laugh and carouse 'neath its glittering boughs, to the christmas holly we'll sing. footnote: [footnote : by eliza cook, an english poet ( - ).] expression: imagine that you see mr. fezziwig with his apprentices preparing for the christmas festivities. what is your opinion of him? now read the story, paragraph by paragraph, trying to make it as interesting to your hearers as a real visit to fezziwig warehouse would have been. the new year's dinner party[ ] the old year being dead, the new year came of age, which he does by calendar law as soon as the breath is out of the old gentleman's body. nothing would serve the youth but he must give a dinner upon the occasion, to which all the days of the year were invited. the festivals, whom he appointed as his stewards, were mightily taken with the notion. they had been engaged time out of mind, they said, in providing mirth and cheer for mortals below; and it was time that they should have a taste of their bounty. all the days came to dinner. covers were provided for three hundred and sixty-five guests at the principal table; with an occasional knife and fork at the sideboard for the twenty-ninth of february. i should have told you that cards of invitation had been sent out. the carriers were the hours--twelve as merry little whirligig footpages as you should desire to see. they went all round, and found out the persons invited well enough, with the exception of easter day, shrove tuesday, and a few such movables, who had lately shifted their quarters. well, they were all met at last, four days, five days, all sorts of days, and a rare din they made of it. there was nothing but "hail! fellow day!" "well met, brother day! sister day!" only lady day kept a little on the aloof and seemed somewhat scornful. yet some said that twelfth day cut her out, for she came in a silk suit, white and gold, like a queen on a frost-cake, all royal and glittering. the rest came, some in green, some in white--but lent and his family were not yet out of mourning. rainy days came in dripping, and sunshiny days helped them to change their stockings. wedding day was there in his marriage finery. pay day came late, as he always does. doomsday sent word he might be expected. april fool (as my lord's jester) took upon himself to marshal the guests. and wild work he made of it; good days, bad days, all were shuffled together. he had stuck the twenty-first of june next to the twenty-second of december, and the former looked like a maypole by the side of a marrow bone. ash wednesday got wedged in betwixt christmas and lord mayor's day. at another part of the table, shrove tuesday was helping the second of september to some broth, which courtesy the latter returned with the delicate thigh of a pheasant. the last of lent was springing upon shrovetide's pancakes; april fool, seeing this, told him that he did well, for pancakes were proper to a good fry-day. may day, with that sweetness which is her own, made a neat speech proposing the health of the founder. this being done, the lordly new year from the upper end of the table, in a cordial but somewhat lofty tone, returned thanks. they next fell to quibbles and conundrums. the question being proposed, who had the greatest number of followers--the quarter days said there could be no question as to that; for they had all the creditors in the world dogging their heels. but april fool gave it in favor of the forty days before easter; because the debtors in all cases outnumbered the creditors, and they kept lent all the year. at last, dinner being ended, the days called for their cloaks, and great coats, and took their leaves. lord mayor's day went off in a mist as usual; shortest day in a deep black fog, which wrapped the little gentleman all round like a hedgehog. two vigils, or watchmen, saw christmas day safe home. another vigil--a stout, sturdy patrol, called the eve of st. christopher--escorted ash wednesday. longest day set off westward in beautiful crimson and gold--the rest, some in one fashion, some in another, took their departure. footnote: [footnote : by charles lamb, an english essayist and humorist ( - ).] expression: what holidays are named in this selection? what holidays do you know about that were not present at this dinner? refer to the dictionary and learn about all the days here mentioned. select the humorous passages in this story, and tell why you think they are humorous. the town pump[ ] [scene.--_the corner of two principal streets. the town pump talking through its nose._] noon, by the north clock! noon, by the east! high noon, too, by those hot sunbeams which fall, scarcely aslope, upon my head, and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my nose. truly, we public characters have a tough time of it! and among all the town officers, chosen at the annual meeting, where is he that sustains, for a single year, the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed in perpetuity, upon the town pump? the title of town treasurer is rightfully mine, as guardian of the best treasure the town has. the overseers of the poor ought to make me their chairman since i provide bountifully for the pauper, without expense to him that pays taxes. i am at the head of the fire department, and one of the physicians of the board of health. as a keeper of the peace all water drinkers confess me equal to the constable. i perform some of the duties of the town clerk, by promulgating public notices, when they am pasted on my front. to speak within bounds, i am chief person of the municipality, and exhibit, moreover, an admirable pattern to my brother officers by the cool, steady, upright, downright, and impartial discharge of my business, and the constancy with which i stand to my post. summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain; for, all day long i am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike; and at night i hold a lantern over my head, to show where i am, and to keep people out of the gutters. at this sultry noontide, i am cupbearer to the parched populace, for whose benefit an iron goblet is chained to my waist. like a dram seller on the public square, on a muster day, i cry aloud to all and sundry, in my plainest accents, and at the very tiptop of my voice, "here it is, gentlemen! here is the good liquor! walk up, walk up, gentlemen, walk up, walk up! here is the superior stuff! here is the unadulterated ale of father adam! better than cognac, hollands, jamaica, strong beer, or wine of any price; here it is by the hogshead or the single glass, and not a cent to pay. walk up, gentlemen, walk up, and help yourselves!" it were a pity if all this outcry should draw no customers. here they come. a hot day, gentlemen. quaff and away again, so as to keep yourselves in a nice, cool sweat. you, my friend, will need another cupful to wash the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your cowhide shoes. i see that you have trudged half a score of miles to-day, and, like a wise man, have passed by the taverns, and stopped at the running brooks and well curbs. otherwise, betwixt heat without and fire within, you would have been burnt to a cinder, or melted down to nothing at all--in the fashion of a jellyfish. drink, and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of mine. welcome, most rubicund sir! you and i have been strangers hitherto; nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent. mercy on you, man! the water absolutely hisses down your red-hot gullet, and is converted quite into steam in the miniature tophet, which you mistake for a stomach. fill again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any other kind of dramshop, spend the price of your children's food for a swig half so delicious? now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of cold water. good-by; and whenever you are thirsty, recollect that i keep a constant supply at the old stand. who next? oh, my little friend, you are just let loose from school, and come hither to scrub your blooming face, and drown the memory of certain taps of the ferule, and other schoolboy troubles, in a draft from the town pump. take it, pure as the current of your young life; take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than now. [illustration: the town pump.] there, my dear child, put down the cup, and yield your place to this elderly gentleman, who treads so tenderly over the paving stones that i suspect he is afraid of breaking them. what! he limps by without so much as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who have no wine cellars. well, well, sir, no harm done, i hope! go, draw the cork, tip the decanter; but when your great toe shall set you a-roaring, it will be no affair of mine. if gentlemen love the pleasant titillation of the gout, it is all one to the town pump. this thirsty dog, with his red tongue lolling out, does not scorn my hospitality, but stands on his hind legs and laps eagerly out of the trough. see how lightly he capers away again! jowler, did your worship ever have the gout? your pardon, good people! i must interrupt my stream of eloquence, and spout forth a stream of water, to replenish the trough for this teamster and his two yoke of oxen, who have come all the way from staunton, or somewhere along that way. no part of my business gives me more pleasure than the watering of cattle. look! how rapidly they lower the watermark on the sides of the trough, till their capacious stomachs are moistened with a gallon or two apiece, and they can afford time to breathe, with sighs of calm enjoyment! now they roll their quiet eyes around the brim of their monstrous drinking vessel. an ox is your true toper. i hold myself the grand reformer of the age. from the town pump, as from other sources of water supply, must flow the stream that will cleanse our earth of a vast portion of the crime and anguish which have gushed from the fiery fountains of the still. in this mighty enterprise, the cow shall be my great confederate. milk and water! ahem! dry work this speechifying, especially to all unpracticed orators. i never conceived, till now, what toil the temperance lecturers undergo for my sake. do, some kind christian, pump a stroke or two, just to wet my whistle. thank you, sir. but to proceed. the town pump and the cow! such is the glorious partnership that shall finally monopolize the whole business of quenching thirst. blessed consummation! then poverty shall pass away from the land, finding no hovel so wretched where her squalid form may shelter itself. then disease, for lack of other victims, shall gnaw his own heart and die. then sin, if she do not die, shall lose half her strength. then there will be no war of households. the husband and the wife, drinking deep of peaceful joy, a calm bliss of temperate affections, shall pass hand in hand through life, and lie down, not reluctantly, at its protracted close. to them the past will be no turmoil of mad dreams, nor the future an eternity of such moments as follow the delirium of a drunkard. their dead faces shall express what their spirits were, and are to be, by a lingering smile of memory and hope. drink, then, and be refreshed! the water is as pure and cold as when it slaked the thirst of the red hunter, and flowed beneath the aged bough, though now this gem of the wilderness is treasured under these hot stones, where no shadow falls but from the brick buildings. but still is this fountain the source of health, peace, and happiness, and i behold, with certainty and joy, the approach of the period when the virtues of cold water, too little valued since our father's days, will be fully appreciated and recognized by all. footnote: [footnote : by nathaniel hawthorne, an american writer of romances and short stories ( - ).] expression: read this selection again and again until you understand it clearly and appreciate its rare charm. study each paragraph separately, observing how the topic of each is developed. select the expressions which are the most pleasing to you. tell why each pleases. did you ever see a town pump? in the cities and larger towns, what has taken its place? can we imagine a hydrant or a water faucet talking as this town pump did? if hawthorne were writing to-day, would he represent the town pump as the "chief person of the municipality"? discuss this question fully. talk with your teacher about the life and works of the author of this selection. if you have access to any of his books, bring them to the class and read selections from them. compare the style of this story with that of the selection from dickens, page ; or from thackeray, page ; or from goldsmith, page . word study: refer to the dictionary for the pronunciation and meaning of: _perpetuity_, _constable_, _municipality_, _cognac_, _quaff_, _rubicund_, _tophet_, _decanter_, _titillation_, _capacious_. come up from the fields, father[ ] come up from the fields, father; here's a letter from our pete, and come to the front door, mother; here's a letter from thy dear son. lo, 'tis autumn; lo, where the fields, deeper green, yellower and redder, cool and sweeten ohio's villages, with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind; where apples ripe in the orchards hang, and grapes on the trellised vines, (smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines? smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately buzzing?) above all, lo! the sky so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds; below, too, all calm, all vital and beautiful,--and the farm prospers well. down in the fields all prospers well; but now from the fields come, father,--come at the daughter's call; and come to the entry, mother,--to the front door come, right away. fast as she can she hurries,--something ominous,--her steps trembling; she does not tarry to smooth her white hair, nor adjust her cap. open the envelope quickly; oh, this is not our son's writing, yet his name is signed! oh, a strange hand writes for our dear son--o stricken mother's soul! all swims before her eyes,--flashes with black,--she catches the main words only; sentences broken,--_gunshot wound in the breast_--_cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital, at present low, but will soon be better._ ah! now the single figure to me amid all teeming and wealthy ohio, with all its cities and farms, sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint, by the jamb of a door leans. _grieve not so, dear mother_ (the just grown daughter speaks through her sobs; the little sisters huddle around, speechless and dismayed). _see, dearest mother, the letter says pete will soon be better._ alas, poor boy! he will never be better (nor, maybe, needs to be better, that brave and simple soul). while they stand at home at the door he is dead already, the only son is dead. [illustration: "come up from the fields, father."] but the mother needs to be better; she, with thin form, presently dressed in black; by day her meals untouched,--then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking, in the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing, oh, that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life, escape and withdraw, to follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son! footnote: [footnote : by walt whitman, an american poet ( - ).] expression: this poem is descriptive of an incident which occurred during the civil war. there were many such incidents, both in the north and in the south. read the selection silently to understand its full meaning. who are the persons pictured to your imagination after reading it? describe the place and the time. now read the poem aloud, giving full expression to its pathetic meaning. select the most striking descriptive passage and read it. select the stanza which seems to you the most touching, and read it. study now the peculiarities of the poem. do the lines rime? are they of similar length? what can you say about the meter? compare this poem with the two gems from browning, pages and . compare it with the selection from longfellow, page ; with that from lanier, page . how does it differ from any or all of these? what is poetry? name three great american poets; three great english poets. the address at gettysburg[ ] fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation--or any nation so conceived and so dedicated--can long endure. we are met on a great battle field of that war. we have come to dedicate a portion of that field as the final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. but, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. the world will little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here. it is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us;--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion;--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. footnote: [footnote : by abraham lincoln, at the dedication of the national cemetery, .] ode to the confederate dead[ ] sleep sweetly in your humble graves, sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause; though yet no marble column craves the pilgrim here to pause. in seeds of laurel in the earth the blossom of your fame is blown, and somewhere, waiting for its birth, the shaft is in the stone. meanwhile, behalf the tardy years which keep in trust your storied tombs, behold! your sisters bring their tears and these memorial blooms. small tribute! but your shades will smile more proudly on these wreathes to-day, than when some cannon-molded pile shall overlook this bay. stoop, angels, hither from the skies! there is no holier spot of ground than where defeated valor lies, by mourning beauty crowned. footnote: [footnote : by henry timrod, an american poet ( - ).] the chariot race[ ] orestes? he is dead. i will tell all as it happened. he journeyed forth to attend the great games which hellas counts her pride, to join the delphic contests. there he heard the herald's voice, with loud and clear command, proclaim, as coming first, the chariot race, and so he entered, radiant, every eye admiring as he passed. and in the race he equaled all the promise of his form in those his rounds, and so with noblest prize of conquest left the ground. summing up in fewest words what many scarce could tell, i know of none in strength and act like him. and having won the prize in all the fivefold forms of race which the umpires had proclaimed, he then was hailed, proclaimed an argive, and his name orestes, the son of mighty agamemnon, who once led hellas's glorious host. so far, well. but when a god will injure, none can escape, strong though he be. for lo! another day, when, as the sun was rising, came the race swift-footed of the chariot and the horse, he entered the contest with many charioteers. one was an achæan, one was from sparta, two were from libya with four-horsed chariots, and orestes with swift thessalian mares came as the fifth. a sixth, with bright bay colts, came from Ætolia; the seventh was born in far magnesia; the eighth was an Ænian with white horses; the ninth was from athens, the city built by the gods; the tenth and last was a boeotian. [illustration: the chariot race.] and so they stood, their cars in order as the umpires had decided by lot. then, with sound of brazen trumpet, they started. all cheering their steeds at the same moment, they shook the reins, and at once the course was filled with the clash and din of rattling chariots, and the dust rose high. all were now commingled, each striving to pass the hubs of his neighbors' wheels. hard and hot were the horses' breathings, and their backs and the chariot wheels were white with foam. each charioteer, when he came to the place where the last stone marks the course's goal, turned the corner sharply, letting go the right-hand trace horse and pulling the nearer in. and so, at first, the chariots kept their course; but, at length, the Ænian's unbroken colts, just as they finished their sixth or seventh round, turned headlong back and dashed at full speed against the chariot wheels of those who were following. then with tremendous uproar, each crashed on the other, they fell overturned, and crissa's broad plain was filled with wreck of chariots. the man from athens, skilled and wise as a charioteer, saw the mischief in time, turned his steeds aside, and escaped the whirling, raging surge of man and horse. last of all, orestes came, holding his horses in check, and waiting for the end. but when he saw the athenian, his only rival left, he urged his colts forward, shaking the reins and speeding onward. and now the twain continued the race, their steeds sometimes head to head, sometimes one gaining ground, sometimes the other; and so all the other rounds were passed in safety. upright in his chariot still stood the ill-starred hero. then, just as his team was turning, he let loose the left rein unawares, and struck the farthest pillar, breaking the spokes right at his axles' center. slipping out of his chariot, he was dragged along, with reins dissevered. his frightened colts tore headlong through the midst of the field; and the people, seeing him in his desperate plight, bewailed him greatly--so young, so noble, so unfortunate, now hurled upon the ground, helpless, lifeless. the charioteers, scarcely able to restrain the rushing steeds, freed the poor broken body--so mangled that not one of all his friends would have known whose it was. they built a pyre and burned it; and now they bear hither, in a poor urn of bronze, the sad ashes of that mighty form--that so orestes may have his tomb in his fatherland. such is my tale, full sad to hear; but to me who saw this accident, nothing can ever be more sorrowful. [illustration] footnote: [footnote : translated from the "electra" of sophocles, written about years before christ. the narrative is supposed to have been related by the friend and attendant of the hero, orestes.] the coliseum at midnight[ ] i crossed the forum to the foot of the palatine, and, ascending the via sacra, passed beneath the arch of titus. from this point i saw below me the gigantic outline of the coliseum, like a cloud resting upon the earth. as i descended the hillside, it grew more broad and high,--more definite in its form, and yet more grand in its dimensions,--till, from the vale in which it stands encompassed by three of the seven hills of rome, the majestic ruin in all its solitary grandeur "swelled vast to heaven." a single sentinel was pacing to and fro beneath the arched gateway which leads to the interior, and his measured footsteps were the only sound that broke the breathless silence of night. what a contrast with the scene which that same midnight hour presented, when in domitian's time the eager populace began to gather at the gates, impatient for the morning sports! nor was the contrast within less striking. silence, and the quiet moonbeams, and the broad, deep shadow of the ruined wall! where now were the senators of rome, her matrons, and her virgins? where was the ferocious populace that rent the air with shouts, when, in the hundred holidays that marked the dedication of this imperial slaughter house, five thousand wild beasts from the libyan deserts and the forests of anatolia made the arena sick with blood? where were the christian martyrs that died with prayers upon their lips, amid the jeers and imprecations of their fellow men? where were the barbarian gladiators, brought forth to the festival of blood, and "butchered to make a roman holiday"? the awful silence answered, "they are mine!" the dust beneath me answered, "they are mine!" footnote: [footnote : from "outre mer," by henry w. longfellow.] expression: learn all you can about the coliseum. when was it built? by whom? for what was it used? word study: _forum_, _palatine_, _via sacra_, _titus_, _domitian_, _libyan_, _anatolia_. [illustration] the deacon's masterpiece[ ] have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay, that was built in such a logical way it ran a hundred years to a day, and then, of a sudden, it--ah, but stay, i'll tell you what happened, without delay, scaring the parson into fits, frightening people out of their wits,-- have you ever heard of that, i say? seventeen hundred and fifty-five. _georgius secundus_ was then alive,-- snuffy old drone from the german hive. that was the year when lisbon town saw the earth open and gulp her down, and braddock's army was done so brown, left without a scalp to its crown. it was on the terrible earthquake day that the deacon finished the one-hoss shay. now in building of chaises, i tell you what, there is always _somewhere_ a weakest spot,-- in hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill, in panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, in screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still, find it somewhere, you must and will,-- above or below, or within or without,-- and that's the reason, beyond a doubt, a chaise _breaks down_, but doesn't _wear out_. but the deacon swore (as deacons do, with an "i dew vum," or an "i tell _yeou_,") he would build one shay to beat the taown 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun'; it should be so built that it _couldn'_ break daown: "fur," said the deacon, "'t's mighty plain thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain; 'n' the way t' fix it, uz i maintain, is only jest t' make that place uz strong uz the rest." [illustration: the deacon's masterpiece.] so the deacon inquired of the village folk where he could find the strongest oak, that couldn't be split nor bent nor broke, that was for spokes and floor and sills; he sent for lancewood to make the thills; the crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees; the panels of white wood, that cuts like cheese, but lasts like iron for things like these; the hubs of logs from the "settler's ellum," last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em, never an ax had seen their chips, and the wedges flew from between their lips, their blunt ends frizzled like celery tips; step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, spring, tire, axle, and linchpin, too, steel of the finest, bright and blue; thoroughbrace bison skin, thick and wide; boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide found in the pit when the tanner died. that was the way he "put her through."-- "there!" said the deacon, "naow she'll dew." do! i tell you, i rather guess she was a wonder, and nothing less! colts grew horses, beards turned gray, deacon and deaconess dropped away, children and grandchildren--where were they? but there stood the stout old one-hoss shay as fresh as on lisbon-earthquake day! eighteen hundred,--it came and found the deacon's masterpiece strong and sound, eighteen hundred increased by ten,-- "hahnsum kerridge" they called it then. eighteen hundred and twenty came,-- running as usual; much the same. thirty and forty at last arrive, and then come fifty and fifty-five. little of all we value here wakes on the morn of its hundredth year without both feeling and looking queer. in fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, so far as i know, but a tree and truth. (this is a moral that runs at large; take it,--you're welcome.--no extra charge.) first of november,--the earthquake day.-- there are traces of age in the one-hoss shay, a general flavor of mild decay, but nothing local, as one may say. there couldn't be,--for the deacon's art had made it so like in every part that there wasn't a chance for one to start, for the wheels were just as strong as the thills, and the floor was just as strong as the sills, and the panels just as strong as the floor, and the whippletree neither less nor more, and the back crossbar as strong as the fore, and spring and axle and hub _encore_. and yet, as a _whole_, it is past a doubt in another hour it will be _worn out_! [illustration] first of november, fifty-five! this morning the parson takes a drive. now, small boys, get out of the way! here comes the wonderful one-hoss shay, drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay. "huddup!" said the parson.--off went they. the parson was working his sunday's text,-- had got to _fifthly_, and stopped perplexed at what the--moses--was coming next. all at once the horse stood still, close by the meet'n'house on the hill. --first a shiver, and then a thrill, then something decidedly like a spill,-- and the parson was sitting upon a rock, at half-past nine by the meet'n'house clock,-- just the hour of the earthquake shock! --what do you think the parson found, when he got up and stared around? the poor old chaise in a heap or mound, as if it had been to the mill and ground. you see, of course, if you're not a dunce, how it went to pieces all at once,-- all at once, and nothing first,-- just as bubbles do when they burst. end of the wonderful one-hoss shay. logic is logic. that's all i say. footnote: [footnote : from "the autocrat or the breakfast table," by oliver wendell holmes, a noted american author and physician ( -- ).] expression: read the selection silently to appreciate its humor. now read it aloud with careful attention to naturalness of expression. study the historical allusions--"georgius secundus," "lisbon town," "braddock's army," "the earthquake day," etc. read again the passages in which dialect expressions occur. try to speak these passages as the author intended them to be spoken. select the passages which appeal most strongly to your sense of humor. read them in such manner as to make their humorous quality thoroughly appreciable to those who listen to you. now study the selection as a poem, comparing it with several typical poems which you have already studied. remembering your definition of poetry (page ), what is the real poetical value of this delightful composition? is it a true poem? find some other poems written by dr. holmes. bring them to the class and read them aloud. talk with your teacher about the life of dr. holmes and about his prose and poetical works. as a poet, how does he compare with longfellow? with whittier? with walt whitman? with browning? dogs and cats[ ] most people agree that the dog has intelligence, a heart, and possibly a soul; on the other hand, they declare that the cat is a traitor, a deceiver, an ingrate, a thief. how many persons have i heard say: "oh, i can't bear a cat! the cat has no love for its master; it cares only for the house. i had one once, for i was living in the country, where there were mice. one day the cook left on the kitchen table a chicken she had just prepared for cooking; in came the cat, and carried it off, and we never saw a morsel of it. oh, i hate cats; i will never have one." true, the cat is unpopular. her reputation is bad, and she makes no effort to improve the general opinion which people have of her. she cares as little about your opinion as does the sultan of turkey. and--must i confess--this is the very reason i love her. in this world, no one can long be indifferent to things, whether trivial or serious--if, indeed, anything is serious. hence, every person must, sooner or later, declare himself on the subjects of dogs and cats. well, then! i love cats. ah, how many times people have said to me, "what! do you love cats?" "certainly." "well, don't you love dogs better?" "no, i prefer cats every time." "oh, that's very queer!" the truth is, i would rather have neither cat nor dog. but when i am obliged to live with one of these beings, i always choose the cat. i will tell you why. the cat seems to me to have the manners most necessary to good society. in her early youth she has all the graces, all the gentleness, all the unexpectedness that the most artistic imagination could desire. she is smart; she never loses herself. she is prudent, going everywhere, looking into everything, breaking nothing. the cat steals fresh mutton just as the dog steals it, but, unlike the dog, she takes no delight in carrion. she is fastidiously clean--and in this respect, she might well be imitated by many of her detractors. she washes her face, and in so doing foretells the weather into the bargain. you may please yourself by putting a ribbon around her neck, but never a collar; she cannot be enslaved. in short, the cat is a dignified, proud, disdainful animal. she defies advances and tolerates no insults. she abandons the house in which she is not treated according to her merits. she is, in both origin and character, a true aristocrat, while the dog is and always will be, a mere vulgar parvenu. the only serious argument that can be urged against the cat is that she destroys the birds, not caring whether they are sparrows or nightingales. if the dog does less, it is because of his stupidity and clumsiness, not because he is above such business. he also runs after the birds; but his foolish barking warns them of his coming, and as they fly away he can only watch them with open mouth and drooping tail. the dog submits himself to the slavery of the collar in order to be taught the art of circumventing rabbits and pigeons--and this not for his own profit, but for the pleasure of his master, the hunter. foolish, foolish fellow! an animal himself, he delights in persecuting other animals at the command of the man who beats him. but the cat, when she catches a bird, has a good excuse for her cruelty--she catches it only to eat it herself. shall she be slandered for such an act? before condemning her, men may well think of their own shortcomings. they will find among themselves, as well as in the race of cats, many individuals who have claws and often use them for the destruction of those who are gifted with wings. footnote: [footnote : translated from alexandre dumas, a noted french novelist ( - ).] expression: in what does the humor of this selection consist? read aloud and with expression the passages which appeal to you as the most enjoyable. do you agree with all the statements made by the author? read these with which you disagree, and then give reasons for your disagreement. the owl critic[ ] "who stuffed that white owl?" no one spoke in the shop; the barber was busy, and he couldn't stop; the customers, waiting their turns, were all reading the _daily_, the _herald_, the _post_, little heeding the young man who blurted out such a blunt question; not one raised a head, or even made a suggestion; and the barber kept on shaving. "don't you see, mister brown," cried the youth, with a frown, "how wrong the whole thing is, how preposterous each wing is, how flattened the head is, how jammed down the neck is-- in short, the whole owl, what an ignorant wreck 'tis? i make no apology; i've learned owl-eology, i've passed days and nights in a hundred collections, and cannot be blinded to any deflections arising from unskillful fingers that fail to stuff a bird right, from his beak to his tail. mister brown! mister brown! do take that bird down, or you'll soon be the laughingstock all over town!" and the barber kept on shaving. [illustration: the owl critic.] "i've _studied_ owls, and other night fowls, and i tell you what i know to be true: an owl cannot roost with his limbs so unloosed; no owl in this world ever had his claws curled, ever had his legs slanted, ever had his bill canted, ever had his neck screwed into that attitude. he can't _do_ it, because 'tis against all bird laws. anatomy teaches, ornithology preaches, an owl has a toe that _can't_ turn out so! i've made the white owl my study for years, and to see such a job almost moves me to tears! mister brown, i'm amazed you should be so gone crazed as to put up a bird in that posture absurd! to _look_ at that owl really brings on a dizziness; the man who stuffed _him_ don't half know his business!" and the barber kept on shaving. "examine those eyes. i'm filled with surprise taxidermists should pass off on you such poor glass; so unnatural they seem they'd make audubon scream, and john burroughs laugh to encounter such chaff. do take that bird down: have him stuffed again, brown!" and the barber kept on shaving. "with some sawdust and bark i could stuff in the dark an owl better than that. i could make an old hat look more like an owl than that horrid fowl stuck up there so stiff like a side of coarse leather. in fact, about _him_ there's not one natural feather." just then, with a wink and a sly normal lurch, the owl, very gravely, got down from his perch, walked round, and regarded his fault-finding critic (who thought he was stuffed) with a glance analytic, and then fairly hooted, as if he should say, "your learning's at fault _this_ time, anyway; don't waste it again on a live bird, i pray. i'm an owl; you're another. sir critic, good day!" and the barber kept on shaving. footnote: [footnote : by james t. fields, an american publisher and author ( - ).] mrs. caudle's umbrella lecture[ ] bah! that's the third umbrella gone since christmas. what were you to do? why, let him go home in the rain, to be sure. i'm very certain there was nothing about him that could spoil. take cold? indeed! he doesn't look like one of the sort to take cold. besides, he'd better have taken cold than taken our umbrella. do you hear the rain, mr. caudle? i say, do you hear the rain? pooh! don't think me a fool, mr. caudle. don't insult me. he return the umbrella? anybody would think you were born yesterday. as if anybody ever did return an umbrella! i should like to know how the children are to go to school to-morrow. they shan't go through such weather, i'm determined. no! they shall stay at home and never learn anything--the blessed creatures--sooner than go and get wet. and when they grow up, i wonder whom they'll have to thank for knowing nothing--who, indeed, but their father? but i know why you lent the umbrella. oh, yes! i know very well. i was going out to tea at dear mother's to-morrow--you knew that--and you did it on purpose. don't tell me; you hate to have me to go there, and take every mean advantage to hinder me. but don't you think it, mr. caudle. no, sir; if it comes down in bucketfuls i'll go all the more. no! and i won't have a cab! where do you think the money's to come from? you've got nice, high notions at that club of yours. a cab, indeed! cost me sixteen pence at least--sixteen pence?--two-and-eight-pence, for there's back again! cabs, indeed! i should like to know who is to pay for them! i can't pay for them, and i'm sure you can't if you go on as you do; throwing away your property and beggaring your children, buying umbrellas. do you hear the rain, mr. caudle? i say, do you hear it? but i don't care--i'll go to mother's to-morrow, i will; and what's more, i'll walk every step of the way; and you know that will give me my death. don't call me a foolish woman; it's you that's the foolish man. you know i can't wear clogs; and with no umbrella, the wet's sure to give me a cold--it always does. but what do you care for that? nothing at all. i may be laid up for what you care, as i dare say i shall--and a pretty doctor's bill there'll be. i hope there will! it will teach you to lend your umbrella again. i shouldn't wonder if i caught my death; and that's what you lent your umbrella for. of course! nice clothes i shall get, too, traipsing through weather like this. my gown and bonnet will be spoiled quite. needn't i wear them, then? indeed, mr. caudle, i shall wear them. no, sir; i'm not going out a dowdy to please you or anybody else. gracious knows, it isn't often i step over the threshold; indeed, i might as well be a slave at once--better, i should say. but when i go out, mr. caudle, i choose to go as a lady. ugh! i look forward with dread for to-morrow. how i'm to go to mother's i'm sure i can't tell. but, if i die, i'll go. no, sir; i won't _borrow_ an umbrella. no; and you shan't _buy_ one. mr. caudle, if you bring home another umbrella, i'll throw it into the street. ha! it was only last week i had a new nozzle put to that umbrella. i'm sure if i'd known as much as i do now, it might have gone without one, for all of me. the children, too, dear things, they'll be sopping wet; for they shan't stay at home; they shan't lose their learning; it's all their father will leave them, i'm sure. but they shall go to school. don't tell me i said they shouldn't; you are so aggravating, caudle, you'd spoil the temper of an angel; they shall go to school; mark that! and if they get their deaths of cold, it's not my fault. i didn't lend the umbrella. footnote: [footnote : by douglas william jerrold, an english humorous writer ( - ).] note: which of the various specimens of humor here presented do you enjoy most? give reasons. the dark day in connecticut[ ] 'twas on a mayday of the far old year, seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell over the bloom and sweet life of the spring, over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, a horror of great darkness, like the night in day of which the norland sagas tell,-- the twilight of the gods.... birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp to hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter the black sky, that the dreadful face of christ might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked a loving guest at bethany, but stern as justice and inexorable law. meanwhile in the old statehouse, dim as ghosts, sat the lawgivers of connecticut, trembling beneath their legislative robes. "it is the lord's great day! let us adjourn," some said; and then as if with one accord all eyes were turned to abraham davenport. [illustration: the dark day in connecticut.] he rose, slow cleaving with his steady voice the intolerable hush. "this well may be the day of judgment which the world awaits; but be it so or not, i only know my present duty, and my lord's command to occupy till he come. so at the post where he hath set me in his providence, i choose, for one, to meet him face to face,-- no faithless servant frightened from my task, but ready when the lord of the harvest calls; and therefore, with all reverence, i would say, let god do his work, we will see to ours.-- bring in the candles!" and they brought them in. then, by the flaring lights the speaker read, albeit with husky voice and shaking hands, an act to amend an act to regulate the shad and alewive fisheries. whereupon wisely and well spake abraham davenport, straight to the question, with no figures of speech save the ten arab signs, yet not without the shrewd, dry humor natural to the man-- his awestruck colleagues listening all the while, between the pauses of his argument, to hear the thunder of the wrath of god break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud. and there he stands in memory to this day, erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half seen against the background of unnatural dark, a witness to the ages as they pass, that simple duty hath no place for fear. footnote: [footnote : from "abraham davenport," by john greenleaf whittier.] two interesting letters i. columbus to the lord treasurer of spain barcelona, . to lord raphael sanchez:-- knowing that it will afford you pleasure to learn that i have brought my undertaking to a successful termination, i have decided upon writing you this letter to acquaint you with all the events which have occurred in my voyage, and the discoveries which have resulted from it. [illustration] thirty-three days after my departure from cadiz i reached the indian sea, where i discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of which i took possession without resistance in the name of our most illustrious monarchs, by public proclamation and with unfurled banners. to the first of these islands, which is called by the indians guanahani, i gave the name of the blessed saviour, relying upon whose protection i had reached this as well as the other islands. as soon as we arrived at that, which as i have said was named juana, i proceeded along its coast a short distance westward, and found it to be so large and apparently without termination, that i could not suppose it to be an island, but the continental province of cathay. in the meantime i had learned from some indians whom i had seized, that the country was certainly an island; and therefore i sailed toward the east, coasting to the distance of three hundred and twenty-two miles, which brought us to the extremity of it; from this point i saw lying eastwards another island, fifty-four miles distant from juana, to which i gave the name española. all these islands are very beautiful, and distinguished by a diversity of scenery; they are filled with a great variety of trees of immense height, and which i believe to retain their foliage in all seasons; for when i saw them they were as verdant and luxurious as they usually are in spain in the month of may,--some of them were blossoming, some bearing fruit, and all flourishing in the greatest perfection, according to their respective stages of growth, and the nature and quality of each; yet the islands are not so thickly wooded as to be impassable. the nightingale and various birds were singing in countless numbers, and that in november, the month in which i arrived there. the inhabitants are very simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have; none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. they exhibit great love toward all others in preference to themselves: they also give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little or nothing in return. i, however, forbade that these trifles and articles of no value (such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather straps) should be given to them, although, if they could obtain them, they imagined themselves to be possessed of the most beautiful trinkets in the world. it even happened that a sailor received for a leather strap as much gold as was worth three golden nobles, and for things of more trifling value offered by our men, the indian would give whatever the seller required. on my arrival i had taken some indians by force from the first island that i came to, in order that they might learn our language. these men are still traveling with me, and although they have been with us now a long time, they continue to entertain the idea that i have descended from heaven; and on our arrival at any new place they published this, crying out immediately with a loud voice to the other indians, "come, come and look upon beings of a celestial race": upon which both men and women, children and adults, young men and old, when they got rid of the fear they at first entertained, would come out in throngs, crowding the roads to see us, some bringing food, others drink, with astonishing affection and kindness. although all i have related may appear to be wonderful and unheard of, yet the results of my voyage would have been more astonishing if i had had at my disposal such ships as i required. but these great and marvelous results are not to be attributed to any merit of mine, but to the holy christian faith, and to the piety and religion of our sovereigns; for that which the unaided intellect of man could not compass, the spirit of god has granted to human exertions, for god is wont to hear the prayers of his servants who love his precepts even to the performance of apparent impossibilities. thus it has happened to me in the present instance, who have accomplished a task to which the powers of mortal men had never hitherto attained; for if there have been those who have anywhere written or spoken of these islands, they have done so with doubts and conjectures, and no one has ever asserted that he has seen them, on which account their writings have been looked upon as little else than fables. therefore let the king and queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all the other provinces of christendom, render thanks to our lord and saviour jesus christ, who has granted us so great a victory and such prosperity. christopher columbus. expression: in connection with this letter, read again the story of the discovery as narrated by washington irving, page . in what respect do the two accounts differ? ii. governor winslow to a friend in england dear friend,-- although i received no letter from you by this ship, yet forasmuch as i know you expect the performance of my promise, which was to write to you truly and faithfully of all things, i have therefore, at this time, sent unto you accordingly, referring you for further satisfaction to our more large relations. [illustration] you shall understand that in this little time that a few of us have been here, we have built seven dwelling houses and four for the use of the plantation, and have made preparation for divers others. we set the last spring some twenty acres of indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and pease; and according to the manner of the indians, we manured our ground with herrings, or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors. our corn did prove well; and god be praised, we had a good increase of indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our pease not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. they came up very well, and blossomed; but the sun parched them in the blossom. our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. they four, in one day, killed as much fowl as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. at which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the indians coming among us, and among the rest their greatest king, massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation, and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain and others. and although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of god we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.... we have often found the indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us, very loving, and ready to pleasure us. we often go to them, and they come to us.... yea, it hath pleased god so to possess the indians with a fear of us and love to us, that not only the greatest king amongst them, called massasoit, but also all the princes and peoples round about us, have either made suit to us, or been glad of any occasion to make peace with us; so that seven of them at once have sent their messengers to us to that end.... they are a people without any religion or knowledge of any god, yet very trusty, quick of apprehension, ripe-witted, just.... now, because i expect you coming unto us, with other of our friends, i thought good to advertise you of a few things needful. be careful to have a very good bread room to put your biscuits in. let not your meat be dry-salted; none can better do it than the sailors. let your meal be so hard trod in your cask that you shall need an adz or hatchet to work it out with. trust not too much on us for corn at this time, for we shall have little enough till harvest. build your cabins as open as you can, and bring good store of clothes and bedding with you. bring every man a musket or fowling piece. let your piece be long in the barrel, and fear not the weight of it, for most of our shooting is from stands. i forbear further to write for the present, hoping to see you by the next return. so i take my leave, commending you to the lord for a safe conduct unto us, resting in him, your loving friend, edward winslow. _plymouth in new england, this th of december, ._ poems of home and country i. "this is my own, my native land"[ ] breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own, my native land! whose heart hath ne'er within him burned as home his footsteps he hath turned, from wandering on a foreign strand? if such there breathe, go, mark him well. for him no minstrel raptures swell; high though his titles, proud his name, boundless his wealth as wish can claim; despite those titles, power, and pelf, the wretch concentered all in self, living, shall forfeit fair renown, and, doubly dying, shall go down to the vile dust, from whence he sprung, unwept, unhonored, and unsung. o caledonia! stern and wild, meet nurse for a poetic child! land of brown heath and shaggy wood, land of the mountain and the flood, land of my sires! what mortal hand can e'er untie the filial band, that knits me to thy rugged strand? footnote: [footnote : from the "lay of the last minstrel," by sir walter scott.] ii. the green little shamrock of ireland[ ] there's a dear little plant that grows in our isle, 'twas st. patrick himself, sure, that set it; and the sun on his labor with pleasure did smile, and with dew from his eye often wet it. it thrives through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland, and its name is the dear little shamrock of ireland-- the sweet little shamrock, the dear little shamrock, the sweet little, green little shamrock of ireland. this dear little plant still grows in our land, fresh and fair as the daughters of erin, whose smiles can bewitch, whose eyes can command, in what climate they chance to appear in; for they shine through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland, just like their own dear little shamrock of ireland-- the sweet little shamrock, the dear little shamrock, the sweet little, green little shamrock of ireland. this dear little plant that springs from our soil, when its three little leaves are extended, betokens that each for the other should toil, and ourselves by ourselves be befriended,-- and still through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland, from one root should branch like the shamrock of ireland-- the sweet little shamrock, the dear little shamrock, the sweet little, green little shamrock of ireland! footnote: [footnote : by andrew cherry, an irish poet ( - ).] iii. my heart's in the highlands[ ] my heart's in the highlands, my heart is not here; my heart's in the highlands a-chasing the deer, chasing the wild deer and following the roe-- my heart's in the highlands wherever i go. farewell to the highlands, farewell to the north, the birthplace of valor, the country of worth; wherever i wander, wherever i rove, the hills of the highlands forever i love. farewell to the mountains high covered with snow; farewell to the straths and green valleys below; farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods; farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods. my heart's in the highlands, my heart is not here; my heart's in the highlands a-chasing the deer, chasing the wild deer and following the roe-- my heart's in the highlands wherever i go. footnote: [footnote : by robert burns, a famous scottish poet ( - ).] iv. the fatherland[ ] where is the true man's fatherland? is it where he by chance is born? doth not the yearning spirit scorn in such scant borders to be spanned? oh, yes! his fatherland must be as the blue heaven wide and free! is it alone where freedom is, where god is god, and man is man? doth he not claim a broader span for the soul's love of home than this? oh, yes! his fatherland must be as the blue heaven wide and free! where'er a human heart doth wear joy's myrtle wreath or sorrow's gyves, where'er a human spirit strives after a life more true and fair, there is the true man's birthplace grand, his is a world-wide fatherland! where'er a single slave doth pine, where'er one man may help another,-- thank god for such a birthright, brother,-- that spot of earth is thine and mine! there is the true man's birthplace grand, his is a world-wide fatherland! footnote: [footnote : by james russell lowell.] v. home[ ] but where to find that happiest spot below, who can direct when all pretend to know? the shuddering tenant of the frigid zone boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own-- extols the treasures of his stormy seas, and his long nights of revelry and ease; the naked negro, panting at the line, boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine, basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave, and thanks his gods for all the good they gave. such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, his first, best country, ever is at home. and yet, perhaps, if countries we compare, and estimate the blessings which they share, though patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find an equal portion dealt to all mankind; as different good, by art or nature given, to different nations makes their blessing even. footnote: [footnote : by oliver goldsmith.] expression: read all of these poems silently with a view towards sympathizing with the feelings which they express. now read each one separately, and compare them, one with another. what is the leading sentiment inculcated by each? which poem appeals the most strongly to your own emotions? word study: _caledonia_, _shamrock_, _brake_, _erin_, _gyves_, _yearning_, _frigid_, _tepid_, _patriot_. the age of coal[ ] come with me, in fancy, back to those early ages of the world, thousands, yes millions, of years ago. stand with me on some low ancient hill, which overlooks the flat and swampy lands that are to become the american continent. few heights are yet in sight. the future rocky mountains lie still beneath the surface of the sea. the alleghanies are not yet heaved up above the level surface of the ground, for over them are spread the boggy lands and thick forests of future coal fields. the mississippi river is not yet in existence, or if in existence, is but an unimportant little stream. below us, as we stand, we can see a broad and sluggish body of water, in places widening into shallow lakes. on either side of this stream, vast forests extend in every direction as far as the horizon, bounded on one side by the distant ocean, clothing each hilly rise, and sending islets of matted trees and shrubs floating down the waters. strange forests these are to us. no oaks, no elms, no beeches, no birches, no palms, nor many colored wild flowers are there. the deciduous plants so common in our modern forests are nowhere found; but enormous club mosses are seen, as well as splendid pines and an abundance of ancient trees with waving, frondlike leaves. here also are graceful tree ferns and countless ferns of lower growth filling up all gaps. [illustration] no wild quadrupeds are yet in existence, and the silent forests are enlivened only by the stirring of the breeze among the trees or the occasional hum of monstrous insects. but upon the margin of yonder stream a huge four-footed creature creeps slowly along. he looks much like a gigantic salamander, and his broad, soft feet make deep impressions in the yielding mud. no sunshine but only a gleam of light can creep through the misty atmosphere. the earth seems clothed in a garment of clouds, and the air is positively reeking with damp warmth, like the air of a hothouse. this explains the luxuriant growth of foliage. could we thus stand upon the hilltops and keep watch through the long coal building ages, we should see generation after generation of forest trees and underwoods living, withering, dying, falling to earth. slowly a layer of dead and decaying vegetation thus collects, over which the forest flourishes still--tree for tree, and shrub for shrub, springing up in the place of each one that dies. then, after a very long time, through the working of mighty underground forces, the broad lands sink a little way--perhaps only a few feet--and the ocean tide rushes in, overwhelming the forests, trees and plants and living creatures, in one dire desolation.--no, not dire, for the ruin is not objectless or needless. it is all a part of the wonderful preparation for the life of man on earth. under the waves lie the overwhelmed forests--prostrate trunks and broken stumps in countless numbers overspreading the gathered vegetable remains of centuries before. upon these the sea builds a protective covering of sand or mud, more or less thick. here sea creatures come to live, fishes swim hungrily to and fro, and shellfishes die in the mud which, by and by, is to become firm rock with stony animal remains embedded in it. after a while the land rises again to its former position. there are bare, sandy flats as before, but they do not remain bare. lichens and hardier plants find a home. the light spores of the ancient forest trees take root and grow, and luxuriant forests, like those of old, spring again into being. upon river and lake bottoms, and over the low damp lands, rich layers of decaying vegetation again collect. then once more the land sinks and the ocean tide pours in; and another sandy or muddy stratum is built up on the overflowed lands. thus the second layer of forest growth is buried like the first, and both lie quietly through the long ages following, hidden from sight, slowly changing in their substance from wood to shining coal. * * * * * thus time after time, the land rose and sank, rose and sank, again and again. not the whole continent is believed to have risen or sunk at the same time; but here at one period, there at another period, the movements probably went on. the greater part of the vegetable mass decayed slowly; but when the final ruin of the forest came, whole trunks were snapped off close to the roots and flung down. these are now found in numbers on the tops of the coal layers, the barks being flattened and changed to shining black coal. how wonderful the tale of those ancient days told to us by these buried forests! footnote: [footnote : by agnes giberne, an english writer on scientific subjects.] something about the moon[ ] i am going to say a few words about the moon; but there are many matters relating to her of great interest which i must leave untouched, for the simple reason that there is not room to speak of them in a single paper. thus the moon's changes of shape from the horned moon to the half, and thence to the full moon, with the following changes from full to half, and so to the horned form again, are well worth studying; but i should want all the space i am going to occupy, merely to explain properly those changes alone. so a study of the way in which the moon rules the tides would, i am sure, interest every thoughtful reader; but there is not room for it here. let us now turn to consider the moon; not as the light which makes our nights beautiful, nor as the body which governs the mighty ocean in its tidal sway, but as another world,--the companion planet of the earth. it has always been a matter not only of the deepest curiosity, but of the greatest scientific import, whether other planets, and particularly our own satellite, are inhabited or exhibit any traces whatever of animal or vegetable life. one or two astronomers have claimed the discovery of vegetation on the moon's surface by reason of the periodic appearance of a greenish tint; but as the power of the telescope can bring the moon to within only about a hundred and twenty miles of us, these alleged appearances cannot be satisfactorily verified. the moon is a globe, two thousand one hundred and sixty-five miles in diameter; very much less, therefore, than our earth, which has a diameter of about seven thousand nine hundred and twenty miles. thus the moon's surface is less than one thirteenth of the earth's. instead of two hundred millions of square miles as the earth has, the moon has only about fourteen millions of square miles, or about the same surface as north and south america together, without the great american islands of the arctic regions. the volume of the earth exceeds that of the moon more than forty-nine times. but the moon's substance is somewhat lighter. thus the mass, or quantity of matter in the moon, instead of being a forty-ninth part of the earth's, is about an eighty-first part. this small companion world travels like our own earth around the sun, at a distance of ninety-three millions of miles. the path of the moon around the sun is, in fact, so nearly the same as that of the earth that it would be almost impossible to distinguish one from the other, if they were both drawn on a sheet of paper a foot or so in diameter. you may perhaps be surprised to find me thus saying that the moon travels round the sun, when you have been accustomed to hear that the moon travels round the earth. in reality, however, it is round the sun the moon travels, though certainly the moon and the earth circle around each other. the distance of the moon from the earth is not always the same; but the average, or mean distance, amounts to about two hundred and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight miles. this is the distance between the centers of the two globes. with this distance separating them, the companion worlds--the earth and the moon--circle round each other, as they both travel round the central sun. but now you will be curious to learn whether our companion planet, the moon, really presents the appearance of a world, when studied with a powerful telescope. if we judged the moon in this way, we should say that she is not only not inhabited by living creatures, but that she could not possibly be inhabited. what is it that makes our earth a fit abode for us who live upon it? her surface is divided into land and water. we live on the land; but without the water we should perish. were there no water, there would be no clouds, no rain, no snow, no rivers, brooks, or other streams. without these, there could be no vegetable life; and without vegetable life, there could be no animal life, even if animals themselves could live without water. yet again, the earth's globe is enwrapped in an atmosphere,--the air we breathe. without this air, neither animals nor vegetables could live. i might go further and show other features of the earth, which we are at present justified in regarding as essential to the mere existence, and still more to the comfort, of creatures living upon the earth. now, before the telescope was invented, many astronomers believed that there was water on the moon, and probably air also. but as soon as galileo examined the moon with his largest telescope (and a very weak telescope it was), he found that whatever the dark parts of the moon may be, they certainly are not seas. more and more powerful telescopes have since been turned on the moon. it has been shown that there are not only no seas, but no rivers, pools, lakes, or other water surfaces. no clouds are ever seen to gather over any part of the moon's surface. in fact, nothing has ever yet been seen on the moon which suggests in the slightest degree the existence of water on her surface, or even that water could at present possibly exist; and, of course, without water it is safe to infer there could be neither vegetable nor animal existence. it would seem, then, that apart from the absence of air on the moon, there is such an entire absence of water that no creatures now living on the earth could possibly exist upon the moon. certainly man could not exist there, nor could animals belonging to any except the lowest orders of animal life. footnote: [footnote : by richard a. proctor, a noted english astronomer ( - ).] the coming of the birds[ ] i know the trusty almanac of the punctual coming-back, on their due days, of the birds. i marked them yestermorn, a flock of finches darting beneath the crystal arch, piping, as they flew, a march,-- belike the one they used in parting last year from yon oak or larch; dusky sparrows in a crowd, diving, darting northward free, suddenly betook them all, every one to his hole in the wall, or to his niche in the apple tree. i greet with joy the choral trains fresh from palms and cuba's canes. best gems of nature's cabinet, with dews of tropic morning wet, beloved of children, bards and spring, o birds, your perfect virtues bring, your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight, your manners for the heart's delight; nestle in hedge, or barn, or roof, here weave your chamber weather-proof, forgive our harms, and condescend to man, as to a lubber friend, and, generous, teach his awkward race courage and probity and grace! footnote: [footnote : by ralph waldo emerson, an american poet and philosopher ( - ).] the return of the birds[ ] the coming and going of the birds is more or less a mystery and a surprise. we go out in the morning, and no thrush or finch is to be heard; we go out again, and every tree and grove is musical; yet again, and all is silent. who saw them come? who saw them depart? this pert little winter wren, for instance, darting in and out the fence, diving under the rubbish here and coming up yards away,--how does he manage with those little circular wings to compass degrees and zones, and arrive always in the nick of time? last august i saw him in the remotest wilds of the adirondacks, impatient and inquisitive as usual; a few weeks later, on the potomac, i was greeted by the same hardy little busybody. does he travel by easy stages from bush to bush and from wood to wood? or has that compact little body force and courage to brave the night and the upper air, and so achieve leagues at one pull? and yonder bluebird, with the earth tinge on his breast and the sky tinge on his back,--did he come down out of heaven on that bright march morning when he told us so softly and plaintively that spring had come? indeed, there is nothing in the return of the birds more curious and suggestive than in the first appearance, or rumors of the appearance, of this little bluecoat. the bird at first seems a mere wandering voice in the air; one hears its call or carol on some bright march morning, but is uncertain of its source or direction; it falls like a drop of rain when no cloud is visible; one looks and listens, but to no purpose. the weather changes, perhaps a cold snap with snow comes on, and it may be a week before i hear the note again, and this time or the next perchance see the bird sitting on a stake in the fence, lifting his wing as he calls cheerily to his mate. its notes now become daily more frequent; the birds multiply, and, flitting from point to point, call and warble more confidently and gleefully. not long after the bluebird comes the robin, sometimes in march, but in most of the northern states april is the month of the robin. in large numbers they scour the field and groves. you hear their piping in the meadow, in the pasture, on the hillside. walk in the woods, and the dry leaves rustle with the whir of their wings, the air is vocal with their cheery call. in excess of joy and vivacity, they run, leap, scream, chase each other through the air, diving and sweeping among the trees with perilous rapidity. in that free, fascinating, half work and half play pursuit,--sugar making,--a pursuit which still lingers in many parts of new york, as in new england, the robin is one's constant companion. when the day is sunny and the ground bare, you meet him at all points and hear him at all hours. at sunset, on the tops of the tall maples, with look heavenward, and in a spirit of utter abandonment, he carols his simple strain. and sitting thus amid the stark, silent trees, above the wet, cold earth, with the chill of winter in the air, there is no fitter or sweeter songster in the whole round year. it is in keeping with the scene and the occasion. how round and genuine the notes are, and how eagerly our ears drink them in! the first utterance, and the spell of winter is thoroughly broken, and the remembrance of it afar off. another april bird, which makes her appearance sometimes earlier and sometimes later than robin, and whose memory i fondly cherish, is the phoebe bird, the pioneer of the fly catchers. in the inland fanning districts, i used to notice her, on some bright morning about easter day, proclaiming her arrival with much variety of motion and attitude, from the peak of the barn or hay shed. as yet, you may have heard only the plaintive, homesick note of the bluebird, or the faint trill of the song sparrow; and phoebe's clear, vivacious assurance of her veritable bodily presence among us again is welcomed by all ears. at agreeable intervals in her lay she describes a circle, or an ellipse in the air, ostensibly prospecting for insects, but really, i suspect, as an artistic flourish, thrown in to make up in some way for the deficiency of her musical performance. another april comer, who arrives shortly after robin redbreast, with whom he associates both at this season and in the autumn, is the golden-winged woodpecker, _alias_ "high-hole," _alias_ "flicker," _alias_ "yarup." he is an old favorite of my boyhood, and his note to me means very much. he announces his arrival by a long, loud call, repeated from the dry branch of some tree, or a stake in the fence,--a thoroughly melodious april sound. i think how solomon finished that beautiful climax on spring, "and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land," and see that a description of spring in this farming country, to be equally characteristic, should culminate in like manner, "and the call of the high-hole comes up from the wood." the song sparrow, that universal favorite and firstling of the spring, comes before april, and its simple strain gladdens all hearts. may is the month of the swallows and the orioles. there are many other distinguished arrivals, indeed, nine tenths of the birds are here by the last week in may, yet the swallows and orioles are the most conspicuous. the bright plumage of the latter seems really like an arrival from the tropics. i see them flash through the blossoming trees, and all the forenoon hear their incessant warbling and wooing. the swallows dive and chatter about the barn, or squeak and build beneath the eaves; the partridge drums in the fresh sprouting woods; the long, tender note of the meadow lark comes up from the meadow; and at sunset, from every marsh and pond come the ten thousand voices of the hylas. may is the transition month, and exists to connect april and june, the root with the flower. with june the cup is full, our hearts are satisfied, there is no more to be desired. the perfection of the season, among other things, has brought the perfection of the song and plumage of the birds. the master artists are all here, and the expectations excited by the robin and the song sparrow are fully justified. the thrushes have all come; and i sit down upon the first rock, with hands full of the pink azalea, to listen. in the meadows the bobolink is in all his glory; in the high pastures the field sparrow sings his breezy vesper hymn; and the woods are unfolding to the music of the thrushes. footnote: [footnote : by john burroughs.] expression: read again the four descriptive selections beginning on page . observe the wide difference in style of composition. of the three prose extracts, which is the most interesting to you? give reasons why this is so. which passages require the most animation in reading? read these passages so that those who are listening to you may fully appreciate their meaning. the poet and the bird i. the song of the lark on a pleasant evening in late summer the poet percy bysshe shelley and his wife, mary shelley, were walking near the city of leghorn in italy. the sky was cloudless, the air was soft and balmy, and the earth seemed hushed into a restful stillness. the green lane along which they were walking was bordered by myrtle hedges, where crickets were softly chirping and fireflies were already beginning to light their lamps. from the fields beyond the hedges the grateful smell of new-mown hay was wafted, while in the hazy distance the church towers of the city glowed yellow in the last rays of the sun, and the gray-green sea rippled softly in the fading light of day. suddenly, from somewhere above them, a burst of music fell upon their ears. it receded upward, but swelled into an ecstatic harmony, with fluttering intervals and melodious swervings such as no musician's art can imitate. "what is that?" asked the poet, as the song seemed to die away in the blue vault of heaven. "it is a skylark," answered his wife. "nay," said the poet, his face all aglow with the joy of the moment; "no mere bird ever poured forth such strains of music as that. i think, rather, that it is some blithe spirit embodied as a bird." "let us imagine that it is so," said mary. "but, hearken. it is singing again, and soaring as it sings." "yes, and i can see it, too, like a flake of gold against the pale purple of the sky. it is so high that it soars in the bright rays of the sun, while we below are in the twilight shade. and now it is descending again, and the air is filled with its song. hark to the rain of melody which it showers down upon us." they listened enraptured, while the bird poured forth its flood of song. when at length it ceased, and the two walked home in the deepening twilight, the poet said:-- "we shall never know just what it was that sang so gloriously. but, mary, what do you think is most like it?" "a poet," she answered. "there is nothing so like it as a poet wrapt in his own sweet thoughts and singing till the world is made to sing with him for very joy." "and i," said he, "would compare it to a beautiful maiden singing for love in some high palace tower, while all who hear her are bewitched by the enchanting melody." "and i," said she, "would compare it to a red, red rose sitting among its green leaves and giving its sweet perfumes to the summer breezes." "you speak well, mary," said he; "but let me make one other comparison. is it not like a glowworm lying unseen amid the grass and flowers, and all through the night casting a mellow radiance over them and filling them with divine beauty?" [illustration: the song of the lark.] "i do not like the comparison so well," was the answer. "yet, after all, there is nothing so like it as a poet--as yourself, for instance." "no poet ever had its skill, because no poet was ever so free from care," said shelley, sadly. "it is like an unbodied joy floating unrestrained whithersoever it will. ah, mary, if i had but half the gladness that this bird or spirit must know, i would write such poetry as would bewitch the world, and all men would listen, entranced, to my song." that night the poet could not sleep for thinking of the skylark's song. the next day he sat alone in his study, putting into harmonious words the thoughts that filled his mind. in the evening he read to mary a new poem, entitled "to a skylark." it was full of the melody inspired by the song of the bird. its very meter suggested the joyous flight, the fluttering pauses, the melodious swervings, the heavenward ascent of the bird. no poem has ever been written that is fuller of beautiful images and sweet and joyous harmonies. have you ever listened to the song of a bird and tried to attune your own thoughts to its unrestrained and untaught melodies? there are no true skylarks in america, and therefore you may never be able to repeat the experience of the poet or fully to appreciate the "harmonious madness" of his matchless poem; for no other bird is so literally the embodiment of song as the european skylark. * * * * * but now let us read shelley's inimitable poem. ii. to a skylark hail to thee, blithe spirit! bird thou never wert, that from heaven, or near it, pourest thy full heart in profuse strains of unpremeditated art. higher still and higher from the earth thou springest like a cloud of fire; the blue deep thou wingest, and singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. in the golden lightning of the sunken sun, o'er which clouds are bright'ning, thou dost float and run, like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. the pale purple even melts around thy flight; like a star of heaven, in the broad daylight thou art unseen, but yet i hear thy shrill delight. keen as are the arrows of that silver sphere, whose intense lamp narrows in the white dawn clear, until we hardly see, we feel that it is there. all the earth and air with thy voice is loud, as, when night is bare, from one lonely cloud the moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed. what thou art we know not; what is most like thee? from rainbow clouds there flow not drops so bright to see, as from thy presence showers a rain of melody. like a poet hidden in the light of thought, singing hymns unbidden, till the world is wrought to sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not; like a highborn maiden in a palace tower, soothing her love-laden soul in secret hour with music sweet as love, which overflows her bower; like a glowworm golden in a dell of dew, scattering unbeholden its aërial hue among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view; like a rose embowered in its own green leaves, by warm winds deflowered, till the scent it gives make faint with too much sweet these heavy-wingèd thieves. sound of vernal showers on the twinkling grass, rain-awakened flowers, all that ever was joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass. teach us, sprite or bird, what sweet thoughts are thine: i have never heard praise of love or wine that panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. chorus hymeneal, or triumphal chaunt, matched with thine would be all but an empty vaunt, a thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. what objects are the fountains of thy happy strain? what fields, or waves, or mountains? what shapes of sky or plain? what love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain? with thy clear keen joyance languor cannot be: shadow of annoyance never came near thee: thou lovest; but ne'er knew love's sad satiety. waking or asleep, thou of death must deem things more true and deep than we mortals dream, or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream? we look before and after, and pine for what is not; our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught: our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. yet if we could scorn hate, and pride, and fear; if we were things born not to shed a tear, i know not how thy joy we ever should come near. better than all measures of delightful sound, better than all treasures that in books are found, thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! teach me half the gladness that thy brain must know, such harmonious madness from thy lips would flow, the world should listen then, as i am listening now. hark, hark! the lark[ ] hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, and phoebus 'gins arise, his steeds to water at those springs on chaliced flowers that lies; and winking mary-buds begin to ope their golden eyes; with everything that pretty is, my lady sweet, arise; arise, arise! footnote: [footnote : from "cymbeline," by william shakespeare.] expression: read shelley's poem with care, trying to understand and interpret the poet's enthusiasm as he watched the flight of the lark. point out the five passages in the poem which seem the most striking or the most beautiful. memorize shakespeare's song and repeat it in a pleasing manner. point out any peculiarities you may notice. echoes of the american revolution i. patrick henry's famous speech[ ] mr. president, it is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. we are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? for my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, i am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it. i have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that lamp is the lamp of experience. i know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. and, judging by the past, i wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the british ministry, for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the house? is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters, and darken our land. are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? let us not deceive ourselves, sir. these are the implements of war and subjugation,--the last arguments to which kings resort. i ask, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? has great britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? no, sir, she has none. they are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. they are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the british ministry have been so long forging. and what have we to oppose to them? shall we try argument? sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. have we anything new to offer upon the subject? nothing. we have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable, but it has been all in vain. shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? what terms shall we find, which have not been already exhausted? let us not, i beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. we have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. our petitions have been slighted, our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult, our supplications have been disregarded, and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. in vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. there is no longer any room for hope. if we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate these inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained,--we must fight. i repeat it, sir, we must fight. an appeal to arms, and to the god of hosts, is all that is left us. they tell us, sir, that we are weak,--unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. but when shall we be stronger? will it be the next week, or the next year? will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a british guard shall be stationed in every house? shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the god of nature hath placed in our power. three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. there is a just god who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. besides, sir, we have no election. if we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. there is no retreat, but in submission and slavery. our chains are forged. their clanking may be heard on the plains of boston. the war is inevitable; and let it come!--i repeat it, sir, let it come. it is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. gentlemen may cry, peace, peace! but there is no peace. the war is actually begun. the next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. our brethren are already in the field. why stand we here idle? what is it that gentlemen wish? what would they have? is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? forbid it, almighty god! i know not what course others may take; but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! footnote: [footnote : before the virginia convention, march , .] ii. marion's men[ ] we follow where the swamp fox guides, his friends and merry men are we, and when the troop of tarleton rides, we burrow in the cypress tree. the turfy hummock is our bed, our home is in the red deer's den, our roof, the treetop overhead, for we are wild and hunted men. we fly by day and shun its light, but, prompt to strike the sudden blow, we mount and start with early night, and through the forest track our foe. and soon he hears our chargers leap, the flashing saber blinds his eyes, and, ere he drives away his sleep and rushes from his camp, he dies. free bridle bit, good gallant steed, that will not ask a kind caress, to swim the santee at our need, when on his heels the foemen press,-- the true heart and the ready hand, the spirit stubborn to be free, the trusted bore, the smiting brand,-- and we are marion's men, you see. [illustration: marion's men.] now light the fire and cook the meal, the last perhaps that we shall taste; i hear the swamp fox round us steal, and that's a sign we move in haste. he whistles to the scouts, and hark! you hear his order calm and low, come, wave your torch across the dark, and let us see the boys that go. now pile the brush and roll the log-- hard pillow, but a soldier's head that's half the time in brake and bog must never think of softer bed. the owl is hooting to the night, the cooter crawling o'er the bank, and in that pond the flashing light tells where the alligator sank. * * * * * what! 'tis the signal! start so soon? and through the santee swamps so deep, without the aid of friendly moon, and we, heaven help us! half asleep? but courage, comrades! marion leads, the swamp fox takes us out to-night; so clear your swords and spur your steeds, there's goodly chance, i think, of fight. we follow where the swamp fox guides, we leave the swamp and cypress tree, our spurs are in our coursers' sides, and ready for the strife are we. the tory's camp is now in sight, and there he cowers within his den; he hears our shouts, he dreads the fight, he fears, and flies from marion's men. footnote: [footnote : by william gilmore simms, an american author ( - ).] iii. in memory of george washington[ ] how, my fellow-citizens, shall i single to your grateful hearts his preëminent worth? where shall i begin in opening to your view a character throughout sublime? shall i speak of his warlike achievements, all springing from obedience to his country's will--all directed to his country's good? will you go with me to the banks of the monongahela, to see our youthful washington supporting, in the dismal hour of indian victory, the ill-fated braddock and saving, by his judgment and his valor, the remains of a defeated army, pressed by the conquering savage foe? or when, oppressed america nobly resolving to risk her all in defense of her violated right, he was elevated by the unanimous vote of congress to the command of her armies? will you follow him to the high grounds of boston, where to an undisciplined, courageous, and virtuous yeomanry his presence gave the stability of system and infused the invincibility of love of country? or shall i carry you to the painful scenes of long island, york island, and new jersey, when, combating superior and gallant armies, aided by powerful fleets and led by chiefs high in the roll of fame, he stood the bulwark of our safety, undismayed by disasters, unchanged by change of fortune? or will you view him in the precarious fields of trenton, where deep gloom, unnerving every arm, reigned triumphant through our thinned, worn-down, unaided ranks, to himself unknown? dreadful was the night. it was about this time of winter; the storm raged; the delaware, rolling furiously with floating ice, forbade the approach of man. washington, self-collected, viewed the tremendous scene. his country called; unappalled by surrounding dangers, he passed to the hostile shore; he fought, he conquered. the morning sun cheered the american world. our country rose on the event, and her dauntless chief, pursuing his blow, completed in the lawns of princeton what his vast soul had conceived on the shores of the delaware. thence to the strong grounds of morristown he led his small but gallant band; and through an eventful winter, by the high effort of his genius, whose matchless force was measurable only by the growth of difficulties, he held in check formidable hostile legions, conducted by a chief experienced in the arts of war, and famed for his valor on the ever memorable heights of abraham, where fell wolfe, montcalm, and since our much-lamented montgomery, all covered with glory. in this fortunate interval, produced by his masterly conduct, our fathers, ourselves, animated by his resistless example, rallied around our country's standard, and continued to follow her beloved chief through the various and trying scenes to which the destinies of our union led. who is there that has forgotten the vales of brandywine, the fields of germantown, or the plains of monmouth? everywhere present, wants of every kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering republic. shall i display to you the spread of the fire of his soul, by rehearsing the praises of the hero of saratoga and his much-loved compeer of the carolinas? no; our washington wears not borrowed glory. to gates, to greene, he gave without reserve the applause due to their eminent merit; and long may the chiefs of saratoga and of eutaw receive the grateful respect of a grateful people. moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites; and combining the physical and moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistible weight, he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until the auspicious hour arrived when united with the intrepid forces of a potent and magnanimous ally, he brought to submission the since conqueror of india; thus finishing his long career of military glory with a luster corresponding to his great name, and in this, his last act of war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth.... first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere, uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting. to his equals he was condescending; to his inferiors, kind; and to the dear object of his affections, exemplarily tender. correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues. his last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan, escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. such was the man america has lost! such was the man for whom our nation mourns! footnote: [footnote : by henry lee of virginia. extract from an oration delivered in the house of representatives, .] three great american poems i one day when dr. peter bryant of cummington, massachusetts, was looking through his writing desk, he found a small package of papers on which some verses were written. he recognized the neat, legible handwriting as that of his son, and he paused to open the papers and read. presently, he called aloud to his wife, "here, sallie, just listen to this poem which cullen has written!" he began to read, and as he read, the proud mother listened with tears in her eyes. "isn't that grand?" she cried. "i've always told you that cullen would be a poet. and now just think what a pity it is that he must give up going to yale college and settle down to the study of law!" "yes, wife," responded dr. bryant, "it is to be regretted. but people with small means cannot always educate their children as they wish. a lawyer is a better breadwinner than most poets are, and i am satisfied that our boy will be a successful lawyer." "of course he will," said mrs. bryant; "he will succeed at anything he may undertake. but that poem--why, wordsworth never wrote anything half so grand or beautiful. what is the title?" "thanatopsis." "thanatopsis? i wonder what it means." "it is from two greek words, and means 'a view of death.' i have half a notion to take the poem to boston with me next winter. i want to show it to my friend mr. philips." "oh, do; and take some of cullen's other poems with it. perhaps he might think some of them good enough to publish." dr. peter bryant was at that time a member of the senate in the massachusetts general assembly. when the time came for the meeting of the assembly he went up to boston, and he did not forget to take several of his son's poems with him. the _north american review_ was a great magazine in those days, and dr. bryant was well acquainted with mr. philips, one of its editors. he called at the office of the _review_, and not finding mr. philips, he left the package of manuscript with his name written upon it. when mr. philips returned he found the package, and after reading the poems concluded that dr. bryant had written "thanatopsis," and that the others were probably by his son cullen. "it is a remarkable poem--a remarkable poem," he said, as he showed it to his two fellow-editors. "we have never published anything better in the _review_," he said, and he began to read it to them. when he had finished, one of them, richard henry dana, who was himself a poet, said doubtingly: "mr. philips, you have been imposed upon. there is no person in america who can write a poem like that." "ah, but i know the man who wrote it," answered mr. philips. "he is in the state senate, and he isn't a man who would impose upon any person." "well, i must have a look at the man who can write such lines as those," said mr. dana. he went to the statehouse, and to the senate chamber, and asked to see senator bryant. a tall, gray-bearded man was pointed out to him. mr. dana looked at him for a few minutes and then said to himself, "he has a fine head; but he is not the man who could write 'thanatopsis'" so without speaking to him he returned to his office. mr. philips, still full of enthusiasm, soon had an interview with dr. bryant, and learned the truth in regard to the authorship of the poem. it was printed in the next issue of the _north american review_. it was the first great poem ever produced in america; it was the work of a young man not eighteen years of age, and it is without doubt the greatest poem ever written by one so young. but let us read it. thanatopsis to him who in the love of nature holds communion with her visible forms, she speaks a various language; for his gayer hours she has a voice of gladness, and a smile and eloquence of beauty, and she glides into his darker musings with a mild and healing sympathy, that steals away their sharpness ere he is aware. when thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, and breathless darkness, and the narrow house, make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart, go forth, under the open sky, and list to nature's teachings, while from all around-- earth and her waters, and the depths of air-- comes a still voice: yet a few days, and thee the all-beholding sun shall see no more in all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, where thy pale form was laid, with many tears, nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist thy image. earth, that nourished thee, shall claim thy growth, to be resolved to earth again; and, lost each human trace, surrendering up thine individual being, shalt thou go to mix forever with the elements, to be a brother to the insensible rock and to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain turns with his share, and treads upon. the oak shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold. yet not to thine eternal resting place shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish couch more magnificent. thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world--with kings, the powerful of the earth--the wise, the good, fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, all in one mighty sepulcher. the hills rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun--the vales stretching in pensive quietness between-- the venerable woods--rivers that move in majesty, and the complaining brooks that make the meadows green; and, poured round all, old ocean's gray and melancholy waste-- are but the solemn decorations all of the great tomb of man. the golden sun, the planets, all the infinite host of heaven, are shining on the sad abodes of death, through the still lapse of ages. all that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes that slumber in its bosom. take the wings of morning, pierce the barcan wilderness, or lose thyself in the continuous woods where rolls the oregon, and hears no sound save his own dashings,--yet the dead are there; and millions in those solitudes, since first the flight of years began, have laid them down in their last sleep,--the dead reign there alone. so shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw in silence from the living, and no friend take note of thy departure? all that breathe will share thy destiny. the gay will laugh when thou art gone, the solemn brood of care plod on, and each one as before will chase his favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave their mirth and their employments and shall come and make their bed with thee. as the long train of ages glides away, the sons of men, the youth in life's fresh spring, and he who goes in the full strength of years, matron and maid, the speechless babe, and the gray-headed man, shall one by one be gathered to thy side by those who in their turn shall follow them. so live, that when thy summons comes to join the innumerable caravan that moves to the pale realms of shade, where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death, thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. expression: observe that this poem is written in blank verse. in what respects does it differ from other forms of verse? read it with great care, observing the marks of punctuation and giving to each passage the proper inflections and emphasis. compare it with some other poems you have read. ii one sunday evening, in the summer of , edgar allan poe was visiting at the house of a friend in new york city. the day was warm, and the windows of the conservatory where he was sitting were thrown wide open to admit the breeze. mr. poe was very despondent because of many sorrows and disappointments, and he was plainly annoyed by the sound of some near-by church bells pealing the hour of worship. "i have made an agreement with a publisher to write a poem for him," he said, "but i have no inspiration for such a task. what shall i do?" his friend mrs. shew gave him an encouraging reply, and invited him to drink tea with her. then she placed paper and ink before him and suggested that, if he would try to write, the required inspiration would come. "no," he answered; "i so dislike the noise of bells to-night, i cannot write. i have no subject--i am exhausted." mrs. shew then wrote at the top of the sheet of paper, _the bells, by e. a. poe_, and added a single line as a beginning: "the bells, the little silver bells." the poet accepted the suggestion, and after some effort finished the first stanza. then mrs. shew wrote another line: "the heavy iron bells." this idea was also elaborated by mr. poe, who copied off the two stanzas and entitled them _the bells, by mrs. m. l. shew_. he went home, pondering deeply upon the subject; the required inspiration was not long lacking; and in a few days the completed poem was ready to be submitted to the publisher. the bells hear the sledges with the bells-- silver bells! what a world of merriment their melody foretells! how they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, in the icy air of night! while the stars that oversprinkle all the heavens seem to twinkle with a crystalline delight, keeping time, time, time, in a sort of runic rime, to the tintinnabulation that so musically swells from the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells-- from the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. hear the mellow wedding bells-- golden bells! what a world of happiness their harmony foretells! through the balmy air of night how they ring out their delight! from the molten-golden notes, and all in tune, what a liquid ditty floats to the turtledove that listens while she gloats on the moon! oh, from out the sounding cells, what a gush of euphony voluminously wells! how it swells! how it dwells on the future! how it tells of the rapture that impels to the swinging and the ringing of the bells, bells, bells-- of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells-- to the riming and the chiming of the bells! hear the loud alarum bells-- brazen bells! what a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! in the startled ear of night how they scream out their affright! too much horrified to speak, they can only shriek, shriek, out of tune, in a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, in a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire leaping higher, higher, higher, with a desperate desire and a resolute endeavor now--now to sit or never, by the side of the pale-faced moon. oh, the bells, bells, bells, what a tale their terror tells of despair! how they clang and crash and roar! what a horror they outpour on the bosom of the palpitating air! yet the ear it fully knows, by the twanging and the clanging, how the danger ebbs and flows; yet the ear distinctly tells, in the jangling and the wrangling, how the danger sinks and swells, by the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells, of the bells, of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells! in the clamor and the clangor of the bells. hear the tolling of the bells-- iron bells! what a world of solemn thought their monody compels! in the silence of the night, how we shiver with affright at the melancholy menace of their tone! for every sound that floats from the rust within their throats is a groan. and the people--ah, the people-- they that dwell up in the steeple, all alone, and who, tolling, tolling, tolling, in that muffled monotone, feel a glory in so rolling on the human heart a stone: they are neither man nor woman; they are neither brute nor human; they are ghouls: and their king it is who tolls; and he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls a pæan from the bells! and his merry bosom swells with the pæan of the bells, and he dances and he yells, keeping time, time, time, in a sort of runic rime, to the pæan of the bells-- of the bells: keeping time, time, time, in a sort of runic rime, to the throbbing of the bells-- of the bells, bells, bells-- to the sobbing of the bells; keeping time, time, time, as he knells, knells, knells, in a happy runic rime, to the rolling of the bells-- of the bells, bells, bells,-- to the tolling of the bells-- of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells-- to the moaning and the groaning of the bells! iii in the early part of the nineteenth century fitz-greene halleck was regarded as one of the greatest of american poets. he is now, however, remembered chiefly as the author of a single poem, "marco bozzaris," published in . this poem has been described, perhaps justly, as "the best martial lyric in the english language." it was written at a time when the people of greece were fighting for their independence; and it celebrates the heroism of the young greek patriot, marco bozzaris, who was killed while leading a desperate but successful night attack upon the turks, august , . as here presented, it is slightly abridged. marco bozzaris at midnight, in his guarded tent, the turk was dreaming of the hour when greece, her knee in suppliance bent, should tremble at his power: in dreams, through camp and court, he bore the trophies of a conqueror; in dreams his song of triumph heard; then wore his monarch's signet ring: then pressed that monarch's throne--a king; as wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, as eden's garden bird. at midnight, in the forest shades, bozzaris ranged his suliote band, true as the steel of their tried blades, heroes in heart and hand. there had the persian's thousands stood, there had the glad earth drunk their blood on old platæa's day; and now there breathed that haunted air the sons of sires who conquered there, with arm to strike and soul to dare, as quick, as far as they. an hour passed on--the turk awoke; that bright dream was his last; he woke--to hear his sentries shriek, "to arms! they come! the greek! the greek!" he woke--to die midst flame, and smoke, and shout, and groan, and saber stroke, and death shots falling thick and fast as lightnings from the mountain cloud; and heard, with voice as trumpet loud, bozzaris cheer his band: "strike--till the last armed foe expires; strike--for your altars and your fires; strike--for the green graves of your sires; god--and your native land!" they fought--like brave men, long and well; they piled that ground with moslem slain, they conquered--but bozzaris fell, bleeding at every vein. his few surviving comrades saw his smile when rang their proud hurrah, and the red field was won; then saw in death his eyelids close calmly, as to a night's repose, like flowers at set of sun. * * * * * bozzaris! with the storied brave greece nurtured in her glory's time, rest thee--there is no prouder grave, even in her own proud clime. she wore no funeral weeds for thee, nor bade the dark hearse wave its plume like torn branch from death's leafless tree in sorrow's pomp and pageantry, the heartless luxury of the tomb; but she remembers thee as one long-loved and for a season gone. for thee her poet's lyre is wreathed, her marble wrought, her music breathed; for thee she rings the birthday bells; of thee her babes' first lisping tells; for thine her evening prayer is said at palace couch and cottage-bed.... and she, the mother of thy boys, though in her eye and faded cheek is read the grief she will not speak, the memory of her buried joys, and even she who gave thee birth, will, by their pilgrim-circled hearth, talk of thy doom without a sigh; for thou art freedom's now, and fame's: one of the few, the immortal names, that were not born to die. expression: talk with your teacher about these three poems, and the proper manner of reading each. learn all that you can about their authors. the indian[ ] think of the country for which the indians fought! who can blame them? as philip looked down from his seat on mount hope and beheld the lovely scene which spread beneath at a summer sunset,--the distant hilltops blazing with gold, the slanting beams streaming across the waters, the broad plains, the island groups, the majestic forests,--could he be blamed, if his heart burned within him, as he beheld it all passing, by no tardy process, from beneath his control, into the hands of the stranger? as the river chieftains--the lords of the waterfalls and the mountains--ranged this lovely valley, can it be wondered at, if they beheld with bitterness the forest disappearing beneath the settler's ax--the fishing places disturbed by his sawmills? can we not imagine the feelings, with which some strong-minded savage chief, who should have ascended the summit of the sugarloaf mountain, in company with a friendly settler, contemplating the progress already made by the white man and marking the gigantic strides with which he was advancing into the wilderness, should fold his arms, and say:-- "white man, there is an eternal war between me and thee. i quit not the land of my fathers, but with my life. in those woods where i bent my youthful bow, i will still hunt the deer; over yonder waters i will still glide unrestrained in my bark canoe; by those dashing waterfalls i will still lay up my winter's store of food; on these fertile meadows i will still plant my corn. "stranger! the land is mine. i understand not these paper rights. i gave not my consent, when, as thou sayest, these broad regions were purchased, for a few baubles, of my fathers. they could sell what was theirs; they could sell no more. how could my father sell that which the great spirit sent me into the world to live upon? he knew not what he did. "the stranger came, a timid suppliant; he asked to lie down on the red man's bearskin, and warm himself at the red man's fire, and have a little piece of land to raise corn for his women and children. now he is become strong and mighty and bold, and spreads out his parchment over the whole, and says, 'it is mine!' "stranger, there is no room for us both. the great spirit has not made us to live together. there is poison in the white man's cup; the white man's dog barks at the red man's heels. "if i should leave the land of my fathers, whither shall i fly? shall i go to the south, and dwell among the graves of the pequots? shall i wander to the west? the fierce mohawk--the man-eater--is my foe. shall i fly to the east? the great water is before me. no, stranger! here have i lived, and here will i die; and if here thou abidest, there is eternal war between me and thee. "thou hast taught me thy arts of destruction; for that alone i thank thee. and now take heed to thy steps--the red man is thy foe. "when thou goest forth by day, my bullet shall whistle past thee. when thou liest down by night, my knife shall be at thy throat. the noonday sun shall not discover thy enemy; and the darkness of midnight shall not protect thy rest. thou shalt plant in terror, and i will reap in blood. thou shalt sow the earth with corn, and i will strew it with ashes. thou shalt go forth with the sickle, and i will follow after with the scalping knife. thou shalt build, and i will burn--till the white man or the indian perish from the land." footnote: [footnote : by edward everett, an american statesman and orator ( - ).] expression: this selection and also the selections on pages , , and are fine examples of american oratory, such as was practiced by the statesmen and public speakers of the earlier years of our republic. learn all that you can about patrick henry, daniel webster, edward everett, theodore parker, and other eminent orators. before attempting to read this selection aloud, read it silently and try to understand every statement or allusion contained in it. call to mind all that you have learned in your histories or elsewhere concerning the indians and their treatment by the american colonists. now read with energy and feeling each paragraph of this extract from mr. everett's oration. try to make your hearers understand and appreciate the feelings which are expressed. national retribution[ ] do you know how empires find their end? yes. the great states eat up the little. as with fish, so with nations. come with me! let us bring up the awful shadows of empires buried long ago, and learn a lesson from the tomb. come, old assyria, with the ninevitish dove upon thy emerald crown! what laid thee low? assyria answers: "i fell by my own injustice. thereby nineveh and babylon came with me to the ground." o queenly persia, flame of the nations! wherefore art thou so fallen? thou who trod the people under thee, bridged the hellespont with ships, and poured thy temple-wasting millions on the western world? persia answers: "because i trod the people under me, because i bridged the hellespont with ships, and poured my temple-wasting millions on the western world, i fell by my own misdeeds!" and thou, muselike grecian queen, fairest of all thy classic sisterhood of states, enchanting yet the world with thy sweet witchery, speaking in art, and most seductive in song, why liest thou there with thy beauteous yet dishonored brow reposing on thy broken harp? greece answers: "i loved the loveliness of flesh, embalmed in parian stone. i loved the loveliness of thought, and treasured that more than parian speech. but the beauty of justice, the loveliness of love, i trod down to earth. lo! therefore have i become as those barbarian states, and one of them." o manly, majestic rome, with thy sevenfold mural crown all broken at thy feet, why art thou here? 'twas not injustice brought thee low, for thy great book of law is prefaced with these words, "justice is the unchanging, everlasting will to give each man his right." it was not the saint's ideal. it was the hypocrite's pretense. and rome says: "i made iniquity my law! i trod the nations under me! their wealth gilded my palaces, where now thou mayst see the fox and hear the owl. wicked men were my cabinet counselors. the flatterer breathed his poison in my ear. millions of bondmen wet the soil with tears and blood! do you not hear it crying yet to god? lo here have i my recompense, tormented with such downfalls as you see. "go back and tell the newborn child who sitteth on the alleghanies, laying his either hand upon a tributary sea,--tell him there are rights which states must keep, or they shall suffer punishment. tell him there is a god who hurls to earth the loftiest realm that breaks his just, eternal law. warn the young empire, that he come not down, dim and dishonored, to my shameful tomb. tell him that justice is the unchanging, everlasting will, to give each man his right. i knew this law. i broke it. bid him keep it, and be forever safe." footnote: [footnote : by theodore parker, an eminent american clergyman and author ( - ).] who are blessed[ ] and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying: blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see god. blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of god. blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. ye are the light of the world. a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.... ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but i say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. but i say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. footnote: [footnote : from the gospel of matthew.] little gems from the older poets i. the noble nature[ ] it is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be; or standing long an oak, three hundred year, to fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear. a lily of a day is fairer far in may, although it fall and die that night,-- it was the plant and flower of light. in small proportions we just beauties see; and in short measures life may perfect be. footnote: [footnote : by ben jonson ( - ).] ii. a contented mind[ ] i weigh not fortune's frown or smile; i joy not much in earthly joys; i seek not state, i seek not style; i am not fond of fancy's toys; i rest so pleased with what i have, i wish no more, no more i crave. i quake not at the thunder's crack; i tremble not at noise of war; i swound not at the news of wrack; i shrink not at a blazing star; i fear not loss, i hope not gain, i envy none, i none disdain. i feign not friendship, where i hate; i fawn not on the great in show; i prize, i praise a mean estate-- neither too lofty nor too low; this, this is all my choice, my cheer-- a mind content, a conscience clear. footnote: [footnote : by joshua sylvester ( - ).] iii. a happy life[ ] how happy is he born and taught that serveth not another's will; whose armor is his honest thought, and simple truth his utmost skill; whose passions not his masters are, whose soul is still prepared for death, not tied unto the world with care of public fame, or private breath; who envies none that chance doth raise, nor vice; who never understood how deepest wounds are given by praise; nor rules of state, but rules of good. this man is freed from servile bands of hope to rise or fear to fall; lord of himself, though not of lands, and having nothing, yet hath all. footnote: [footnote : by sir henry wotton ( - ).] iv. solitude[ ] happy the man, whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground. whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, whose flocks supply him with attire; whose trees in summer yield him shade, in winter, fire. blest, who can unconcern'dly find hours, days, and years slide soft away in health of body, peace of mind, quiet by day, sound sleep by night; study and ease together mixt, sweet recreation, and innocence, which most does please with meditation. thus let me live, unseen, unknown; thus unlamented let me die; steal from the world, and not a stone tell where i lie. footnote: [footnote : by alexander pope ( - ).] v. a wish[ ] mine be a cot beside the hill; a beehive's hum shall soothe my ear; a willowy brook that turns a mill with many a fall shall linger near. the swallow, oft, beneath my thatch shall twitter from her clay-built nest; oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch, and share my meal, a welcome guest. around my ivied porch shall spring each fragrant flower that drinks the dew; and lucy, at her wheel, shall sing in russet gown and apron blue. the village church among the trees, where first our marriage vows were given, with merry peals shall swell the breeze and point with taper spire to heaven. footnote: [footnote : by samuel rogers ( - ).] expression: which of these poems do you like best? give reasons for your preference. what sentiment is emphasized by all of them? what other pleasant ideas of life are expressed? what mental pictures are called up by reading the fourth poem? the fifth? what traits of character are alluded to in the first poem? the second? now read each poem aloud, giving to each line and each stanza the thought which was in the author's mind when he wrote it. how king arthur got his name[ ] one day at sunset, snowbird, the young son of a king, came over the brow of a hill that stepped forward from a dark company of mountains and leaned over the shoreless sea which fills the west and drowns the north. all day he had been wandering alone, his mind heavy with wonder over many things. he had heard strange tales of late, tales about his heroic father and the royal clan, and how they were not like other men, but half divine. he had heard, too, of his own destiny,--that he also was to be a great king. what was destiny, he wondered.... then, as he wondered, he turned over and over in his mind all the names he could think of that he might choose for his own; for the time was come for him to put away the name of his childhood and to take on that by which he should be known among men. he came over the brow of the hill, and out of the way of the mountain wind, and, being tired, lay down among the heather and stared across the gray wilderness of the sea. the sun set, and the invisible throwers of the nets trailed darkness across the waves and up the wild shores and over the faces of the cliffs. stars climbed out of shadowy abysses, and the great chariots of the constellations rode from the west to the east and from the north to the south. his eyes closed, ... but when he opened them again, he saw a great and kingly figure standing beside him. so great in stature, so splendid in kingly beauty, was the mysterious one who had so silently joined him, that he thought this must be one of the gods. "do you know me, my son?" said the kingly stranger. the boy looked at him in awe and wonder, but unrecognizingly. "do you not know me, my son?" he heard again ... "for i am your father, pendragon. but my home is yonder, and that is why i have come to you as a vision in a dream ..." and, as he spoke, he pointed to the constellation of the _arth_, or bear, which nightly prowls through the vast abysses of the polar sky. when the boy turned his gaze from the great constellation which hung in the dark wilderness overhead, he saw that he was alone again. while he yet wondered in great awe at what he had seen and heard, he felt himself float like a mist and become like a cloud, rise beyond the brows of the hills, and ascend the invisible stairways of the sky.... it seemed to him thereafter that a swoon came over him, in which he passed beyond the far-off blazing fires of strange stars. at last, suddenly, he stood on the verge of _arth_, _arth uthyr_, the great bear. there he saw, with the vision of immortal, not of mortal, eyes, a company of most noble and majestic figures seated at what he thought a circular abyss, but which had the semblance of a vast table. each of these seven great knights or lordly kings had a star upon his forehead, and these were stars of the mighty constellation of the bear which the boy had seen night after night from his home among the mountains by the sea. it was with a burning throb at his heart that he recognized in the king of all these kings no other than himself. while he looked, in amazement so great that he could hear the pulse of his heart, as in the silence of a wood one hears the tapping of a woodpecker, he saw this mighty phantom self rise till he stood towering over all there, and heard a voice as though an ocean rose and fell through the eternal silences. "comrades in god," it said, "the time is come when that which is great shall become small." and when the voice was ended, the mighty figure faded in the blue darkness, and only a great star shone where the uplifted dragon helm had brushed the roof of heaven. one by one the white lords of the sky followed in his mysterious way, till once more were to be seen only the stars of the bear. the boy dreamed that he fell as a falling meteor, and that he floated over land and sea as a cloud, and then that he sank as mist upon the hills of his own land. a noise of wind stirred in his ears. he rose stumblingly, and stood, staring around him. he glanced upward and saw the stars of the great bear in their slow march round the pole.... then he remembered. he went slowly down the hill, his mind heavy with thought. when he was come to his own place, lo! all the fierce chivalry of the land came out to meet him; for the archdruid had foretold that the great king to be had received his mystic initiation among the holy silences of the hills. "i am no more snowbird, the child," the boy said, looking at them fearless and as though already king. "henceforth i am arth-urthyr,[ ] for my place is in the great bear which we see yonder in the north." so all there acclaimed him as arthur, the wondrous one of the stars, the great bear. "i am old," said his father, "and soon you shall be king, arthur, my son. so ask now a great boon of me and it shall be granted to you." then arthur remembered his dream. "father and king," he said, "when i am king after you, i shall make a new order of knights, who shall be pure as the immortal ones, and be tender as women, and simple as little children. but first i ask of you seven flawless knights to be of my chosen company. to-morrow let the wood wrights make for me a round table, such as that where we eat our roasted meats, but round and of a size whereat i and my chosen knights may sit at ease." the king listened, and all there. "so be it," said the king. then arthur chose the seven flawless knights, and called them to him. "ye are now children of the great bear," he said, "and comrades and liegemen to me, arthur, who shall be king of the west. "and ye shall be known as the knights of the round table. but no man shall make a mock of that name and live: and in the end that name shall be so great in the mouths and minds of men that they shall consider no glory of the world to be so great as to be the youngest and frailest of that knighthood." and that is how arthur, who three years later became king of the west, read the rune of the stars that are called the great bear, and took their name upon him, and from the strongest and purest and noblest of the land made knighthood, such as the world had not seen, such as the world since has not seen. footnotes: [footnote : a gaelic legend, by fiona macleod.] [footnote : pronounced _arth-ur_. in the ancient british language, _arth_ means bear, and _urthyr_, great, wondrous.] expression: read this selection very carefully to get at the true meaning of each sentence and each thought. what peculiarities do you notice in the style of the language employed? talk about king arthur, and tell what you have learned elsewhere about him and his knights of the round table. in what respects does this legend differ from some other accounts of his boyhood? now reread the selection, picturing in your mind the peculiarities of place and time. antony's oration over cÆsar's dead body[ ] _antony._ friends, romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: i come to bury cæsar, not to praise him. the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interrèd with their bones; so let it be with cæsar. the noble brutus hath told you cæsar was ambitious: if it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath cæsar answered it. here, under leave of brutus and the rest-- for brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men-- come i to speak in cæsar's funeral. he was my friend, faithful and just to me; but brutus says he was ambitious, and brutus is an honorable man. he hath brought many captives home to rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill; did this in cæsar seem ambitious? when that the poor have cried, cæsar hath wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff. yet brutus says he was ambitious, and brutus is an honorable man. you all did see, that on the lupercal, i thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. was this ambition? yet brutus says he was ambitious, and, sure, he is an honorable man. i speak not to disprove what brutus spoke, but here i am to speak what i do know. you all did love him once, not without cause; what cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? o judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.--bear with me; my heart is in the coffin there with cæsar, and i must pause till it come back to me. but yesterday the word of cæsar might have stood against the world; now lies he there, and none so poor to do him reverence. o masters! if i were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, i should do brutus wrong and cassius wrong, who, you all know, are honorable men. i will not do them wrong; i rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than i will wrong such honorable men. but here's a parchment with the seal of cæsar, i found it in his closet; 'tis his will. let but the commons hear this testament,-- which, pardon me, i do not mean to read,-- and they would go and kiss dead cæsar's wounds, and dip their napkins in his sacred blood; yea, beg a hair of him for memory, and, dying, mention it within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue. _citizen._ we'll hear the will: read it, mark antony. _all._ the will, the will! we will hear cæsar's will. _ant._ have patience, gentle friends, i must not read it; it is not meet you know how cæsar loved you. you are not wood, you are not stones, but men; and, being men, hearing the will of cæsar, it will inflame you, it will make you mad. 'tis good you know not that you are his heirs; for, if you should, oh, what would come of it! _cit._ read the will! we'll hear it, antony! you shall read the will! cæsar's will! _ant._ will you be patient? will you stay awhile? i have o'ershot myself to tell you of it. i fear i wrong the honorable men whose daggers have stabbed cæsar. i do fear it. _cit._ they were traitors! honorable men! _all._ the will! the testament! _ant._ you will compel me, then, to read the will? then make a ring about the corpse of cæsar, and let me show you him that made the will. shall i descend? and will you give me leave? _all._ come down. _ citizen._ descend. you shall have leave. [illustration: "you all do know this mantle."] (_antony comes down from the pulpit._) _ant._ if you have tears, prepare to shed them now. you all do know this mantle; i remember the first time ever cæsar put it on. 'twas on a summer's evening, in his tent, that day he overcame the nervii. look! in this place, ran cassius's dagger through; see what a rent the envious casca made; through this, the well-belovèd brutus stabbed; and, as he plucked his cursèd steel away, mark how the blood of cæsar followed it, as rushing out of doors, to be resolved if brutus so unkindly knocked, or no; for brutus, as you know, was cæsar's angel.-- judge, o you gods, how dearly cæsar loved him!-- this was the most unkindest cut of all; for, when the noble cæsar saw him stab, ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, quite vanquished him. then burst his mighty heart; and, in his mantle muffling up his face, even at the base of pompey's statua, which all the while ran blood, great cæsar fell. oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen! then i, and you, and all of us fell down, whilst bloody treason flourished over us. oh, now you weep, and i perceive you feel the dint of pity; these are gracious drops. kind souls, what! weep you when you but behold our cæsar's vesture wounded? look you here, here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors. good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up to such a sudden flood of mutiny. they that have done this deed are honorable. what private griefs they have, alas! i know not, that made them do it; they are wise and honorable, and will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. i come not, friends, to steal away your hearts. i am no orator, as brutus is, but, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, that love my friend; and that they know full well that gave me public leave to speak of him. for i have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, to stir men's blood: i only speak right on; i tell you that which you yourselves do know; show you sweet cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, and bid them speak for me. but were i brutus, and brutus antony, there were an antony would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue in every wound of cæsar that should move the stones of rome to rise and mutiny. footnote: [footnote : from "julius cæsar" by william shakespeare ( - ).] selections to be memorized i. the prayer perfect[ ] dear lord! kind lord! gracious lord! i pray thou wilt look on all i love, tenderly to-day! weed their hearts of weariness; scatter every care down a wake of angel-wings, winnowing the air. bring unto the sorrowing all release from pain; let the lips of laughter overflow again; and with all the needy oh, divide, i pray, this vast treasure of content that is mine to-day! footnote: [footnote : from "rhymes of childhood," by james whitcomb riley, copyright, . used by special permission of the publishers, the bobbs-merrill company.] ii. be just and fear not[ ] be just and fear not; let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, thy god's, and truth's. footnote: [footnote : by william shakespeare.] iii. if i can live[ ] if i can live to make some pale face brighter and to give a second luster to some tear-dimmed eye, or e'en impart one throb of comfort to an aching heart, or cheer some wayworn soul in passing by; if i can lend a strong hand to the falling, or defend the right against one single envious strain, my life, though bare, perhaps, of much that seemeth dear and fair to us of earth, will not have been in vain. the purest joy, most near to heaven, far from earth's alloy, is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine; and 'twill be well if on that day of days the angels tell of me, "she did her best for one of thine." footnote: [footnote : author unknown.] iv. the bugle song[ ] the splendor falls on castle walls and snowy summits old in story: the long light shakes across the lakes, and the wild cataract leaps in glory. blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. o hark, o hear! how thin and clear, and thinner, dearer, farther going! o sweet and far from cliff and scar the horns of elfland faintly blowing! blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. o love, they die in yon rich sky, they faint on hill or field or river; our echoes roll from soul to soul, and grow for ever and for ever. blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, and answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. footnote: [footnote : by alfred tennyson.] v. the ninetieth psalm lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art god. thou turns man to destruction; and sayest, return, ye children of men. for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. thou carried them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. in the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. for we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. for all our days are passed away in thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told. the days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.... oh, satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.... let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. vi. recessional[ ] god of our fathers, known of old-- lord of our far-flung battle line-- beneath whose awful hand we hold dominion over palm and pine-- lord god of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget! the tumult and the shouting dies-- the captains and the kings depart-- still stands thine ancient sacrifice, a humble and a contrite heart. god of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget! far-called, our navies melt away-- on dune and headland sinks the fire-- lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with nineveh and tyre! judge of the nations, spare us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget! if, drunk with sight of power, we loose wild tongues that have not thee in awe-- such boasting as the gentiles use or lesser breeds without the law-- lord god of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget--lest we forget! for heathen heart that puts her trust in reeking tube and iron shard, all valiant dust that builds on dust, and guarding calls not thee to guard-- for frantic boast and foolish word, thy mercy on thy people, lord! amen. footnote: [footnote : by rudyard kipling.] proper names ad i ron'dacks Æ t[=o]'li a ag a mem'non a lon'zo a m[=e]'li a an a t[=o]'li a an'to ny a pol'lo ar'g[=i]ve ar'thur assisi ([:a]s s[=e] z[=e]) as s[)y]r'i a bar'ba ra ba v[=a]'ri a ber'lin bevagno (ba v[=a]n'yo) boetia (be [=o]'sh[)i] a) bo'na parte bozzaris (bo z[)a]r'is) brit'ta ny bru'tus bun'yan bur'gun dy bysshe (b[)i]sh) ca'diz cal e do'ni a ca thay' cau'dle charn'wood chat ta hoo'chee chi[+s]'_w_ick col i s[=e]'um cop'per field c[=o]v'er ley cr[=e]a'kle cris'sa d[=a]'na d[)a]n'ube d[=a]v'en port delft domitian (do m[)i]sh'i an) eb en [=e]'zer española ([)e]s pan y[=o]'la) eu'taw fer nan'do f[)e]z'z[)i] wig fran'cis gal i l[=e]'o get'tys burg gib'son gu[:a] n[:a] h[)a]'n[:i] hab'er sham h[=a]'man h[:a]m'elin har'le quin h[)e]l'las hel'les pont hu'bert ja m[=a]_i_'ca je m[=i]'ma john'son juana (hw[:a]'na) knick'erbock er la n_i_[=e]r' lannes (l[:a]n) leg'horn locks'ley lor raine' mag ne'si a m[)a]r'i on mas'sa soit m[)i]c_h_'ael mas mon'mouth mont calm' mon te bel'lo mont g[:o]m'er y na p[=o]'le on need'wood nic_h_'o las nin'e veh or'e gon o res't[=e]s pal'las phoe'bus pinzon (p[=e]n th[=o]n') pla tæ'a po to'mac pro vence' (-v[)a]ns) r[)a]ph'a el r[)a]t'is bon rieti (r[=e] [)e]'t[=e]) rog'er rouen (r[=o][=o] [:a]n') sa'lem san'c_h_ez san sal va dor' san tee' sar a to'ga sed'ley shel'ley spoun'cer t[=o]'bit t[=o]'phet tul'l[)i] ver t[=y]re um'br[)i] a v[)a]l'en t[=i]ne wake' field y[+s]'a bel list of authors (place of birth in parentheses. title of one noted book in italics. title of most famous poem in quotation marks.) _browning, robert._ english poet. _the ring and the book._ (born near london.) lived in italy. - . _bryant, william cullen._ american poet and journalist. "thanatopsis." (massachusetts.) new york. - . _buckley, arabella b._ (_mrs. fisher_). english writer on popular science. (brighton, england.) ----. _bunyan, john._ english preacher and writer. _pilgrim's progress._ (bedford.) london. - . _burns, robert._ scottish poet. "tam o'shanter." (alloway.) dumfries. - . _campbell, thomas._ scottish poet. "hohenlinden." (glasgow.) - . _canton, william._ english journalist and writer. ----. _carnegie (k[:a]r n[)e]g'[)i]), andrew._ american manufacturer and philanthropist. (scotland.) new york. ----. _cherry, andrew._ irish poet and dramatist. _all for fame._ (ireland.) - . _collins, william._ english poet. (chichester.) - . _columbus, christopher._ the discoverer of america. (genoa, italy.) spain. (?)- . _cook, eliza._ english poet. "the old arm-chair." - . _dickens, charles._ english novelist. _david copperfield._ (portsmouth.) london. - . _domett (d[)o]m'et), alfred._ english poet and statesman. "christmas hymn." - . _dumas (d[:u] m[:a]'), alexandre._ french novelist and dramatist. _the count of monte cristo._ - . _eliot, george (mrs. mary ann evans cross)._ english novelist. _the mill on the floss._ - . _emerson, ralph waldo._ american philosopher and poet. _essays._ (boston.) - . _everett, edward._ american statesman and orator. _orations and speeches._ (massachusetts.) - . _fields, james t._ american publisher and author. (new hampshire.) massachusetts. - . _giberne, agnes._ english writer on scientific subjects. _goldsmith, oliver._ english poet and novelist. _vicar of wakefield._ (ireland.) - . _halleck, fitz-greene._ american poet. "marco bozzaris." (connecticut.) - . _hawthorne, nathaniel._ american novelist. _the wonder book._ (massachusetts.) - . _henry, patrick._ american patriot. (virginia.) - . _herrick, robert._ english poet. - . _holmes, oliver wendell._ american author. _autocrat of the breakfast table._ (massachusetts.) - . _hugo, victor._ french novelist and poet. - . _hunt, leigh (james henry leigh hunt)._ english essayist and poet. "abou ben adhem." - . _irving, washington._ american prose writer. _the sketch book._ (new york.) - . _jerrold, douglas william._ english humorist. _mrs. caudle's curtain lectures._ (london.) - . _jonson, ben._ english dramatist. - . _kipling, rudyard._ english writer. _the jungle book._ (bombay, india.) england. ----. _lamb, charles._ english essayist. (london.) - . _lanier, sidney._ american musician and author. _poems._ (georgia.) maryland. - . _lee, henry._ american general, father of robert e. lee. (virginia.) - . _lincoln, abraham._ sixteenth president of the united states. (kentucky.) illinois. - . _longfellow, henry wadsworth._ american poet. _poems._ (maine.) massachusetts. - . _lowell, james russell._ american poet and essayist. (massachusetts.) - . _macleod, fiona (true name william sharp)._ scottish poet and story-writer. - . _mitchell, donald g._ american essayist. _reveries of a bachelor._ (connecticut.) - . _parker, theodore._ american clergyman and author. (massachusetts.) - . _poe, edgar allan._ american poet and story-writer. "the raven." (massachusetts.) virginia. - . _pope, alexander._ english poet. (london.) - . _proctor, richard a._ english astronomer. - . _riley, james whitcomb._ american poet. (indiana.) ----. _rogers, samuel._ english poet. (london.) - . _ryan, abram j._ american clergyman and poet. (virginia.) georgia; kentucky. - . _scott, sir walter._ scottish poet and novelist. _ivanhoe._ (edinburgh.) - . _shakespeare, william._ the greatest of english dramatists. (stratford-on-avon.) - . _sharp, william._ see macleod, fiona. _shelley, percy bysshe (b[)i]sh)._ english poet. _poems._ - . _simms, william gilmore._ american novelist and poet. (south carolina.) - . _sophocles (s[)o]f'o kl[=e]z)._ greek tragic poet. - b.c. _sylvester, joshua._ english poet. - . _tennyson, alfred._ english poet. _in memoriam._ (lincolnshire.) - . _thackeray, william makepeace._ english novelist and critic. (calcutta, india.) london. - . _timrod, henry._ american poet. (south carolina.) - . _whitman, walt._ american poet. _leaves of grass._ (new york.) washington, d.c.; new jersey. - . _whittier, john greenleaf._ american poet. _poems._ (massachusetts.) - . _winslow, edward._ governor of plymouth colony. (worcestershire, eng.) plymouth, massachusetts. - . _wotton, sir henry._ english poet. - . note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) english: composition and literature by w. f. webster principal of the east high school minneapolis, minnesota houghton mifflin company boston: park street; new york: fifth avenue chicago: - wabash avenue the riverside press cambridge copyright, and , by w. f. webster all rights reserved preface in july, , i presented at the national educational association, convened in washington, a course of study in english. at los angeles, in , the association indorsed the principles[ ] of this course, and made it the basis of the course in english for high schools. at the request of friends, i have prepared this short text-book, outlining the method of carrying forward the course, and emphasizing the principles necessary for the intelligent communication of ideas. it has not been the purpose to write a rhetoric. the many fine distinctions and divisions, the rarefied examples of very beautiful forms of language which a young pupil cannot possibly reproduce, or even appreciate, have been omitted. to teach the methods of simple, direct, and accurate expression has been the purpose; and this is all that can be expected of a high school course in english. the teaching of composition differs from the teaching of latin or mathematics in this point: whereas pupils can be compelled to solve a definite number of problems or to read a given number of lines, it is not possible to compel expression of the full thought. the full thought is made of an intellectual and an emotional element. whatever is intellectual may be compelled by dint of sheer purpose; whatever is emotional must spring undriven by outside authority, and uncompelled by inside determination. a boy saws a cord of wood because he has been commanded by his father; but he cannot laugh or cry because directed to do so by the same authority. there must be the conditions which call forth smiles or tears. so there must be the conditions which call forth the full expression of thought, both what is intellectual and what is emotional. this means that the subject shall be one of which the writer knows something, and in which he is interested; that the demands in the composition shall not be made a discouragement; and that the teacher shall be competent and enthusiastic, inspiring in each pupil a desire to say truly and adequately the best he thinks and feels. these conditions cannot be realized while working with dead fragments of language; but they are realized while constructing living wholes of composition. it is not two decades ago when the pupil in drawing was compelled to make straight lines until he made them all crooked. the pupil in manual training began by drawing intersecting lines on two sides of a board; then he drove nails into the intersections on one side, hoping that they would hit the corresponding points on the other. now no single line or exercise is an end in itself; it contributes to some whole. under the old method the pupil did not care or try to draw a straight line, or to drive a nail straight; but now, in order that he may realize the idea that lies in his mind, he does care and he does try: so lines are drawn better and nails are driven straighter than before. in all training that combines intellect and hand, the principle has been recognized that the best work is done when the pupil's interest has been enlisted by making each exercise contribute directly to the construction of some whole. only in the range of the spiritual are we twenty years behind time, trying to get the best construction by compulsion. it is quite time that we recognized that the best work in composition can be done, not while the pupil is correcting errors in the use of language which he never dreamed of, nor while he is writing ten similes or ten periodic sentences, but when both intellect and feeling combine and work together to produce some whole. then into the construction of this whole the pupil will throw all his strength, using the most apt comparisons, choosing the best words, framing adequate sentences, in order that the outward form may worthily present to others what to himself has appeared worthy of expression. there are some persons who say that other languages are taught by the word and sentence method; then why not english? these persons overlook the fact that we are leaving that method as rapidly as possible, and adopting a more rational method which at once uses a language to communicate thought. and they overlook another fact of even greater importance: the pupil entering the high school is by no means a beginner in english. he has been using the language ten or twelve years, and has a fluency of expression in english which he cannot attain in german throughout a high school and college course. the conditions under which a pupil begins the study of german in a high school and the study of english composition are entirely dissimilar; and a conclusion based upon a fancied analogy is worthless. it is preferable, then, to practice the construction of wholes rather than the making of exercises; and it is best at the beginning to study the different kinds of wholes, one at a time, rather than all together. no one would attempt to teach elimination by addition and subtraction, by comparison and by substitution, all together; nor would an instructor take up heat, light, and electricity together. in algebra, or physics, certain great principles underlie the whole subject; and these appear and reappear as the study progresses through its allied parts. still the best results are obtained by taking up these several divisions of the whole one after another. and in english the most certain and definite results are secured by studying the forms of discourse separately, learning the method of applying to each the great principles that underlie all composition. if the forms of discourse are to be studied one after another, which shall be taken up first? in general, all composition may be separated into two divisions: composition which deals with things, including narration and description; and composition which deals with ideas, comprising exposition and argument. it needs no argument to justify the position that an essay which deals with things seen and heard is easier for a beginner to construct than an essay which deals with ideas invisible and unheard. whether narration or description should precede appears yet to be undetermined; for many text-books treat one first, and perhaps as many the other. i have thought it wiser to begin with the short story, because it is easier to gain free, spontaneous expression with narration than with description. to write a whole page of description is a task for a master, and very few attempt it; but for the uninitiated amateur about three sentences of description mark the limit of his ability to see and describe. to get started, to gain confidence in one's ability to say something, to acquire freedom and spontaneity of expression,--this is the first step in the practice of composition. afterward, when the pupil has discovered that he really has something to say,--enough indeed to cover three or four pages of his tablet paper,--then it may be time to begin the study of description, and to acquire more careful and accurate forms of expression. spontaneity should be acquired first,--crude and unformed it may be, but spontaneity first; and this spontaneity is best gained while studying narration. there can be but little question about the order of the other forms. description, still dealing with the concrete, offers an admirable opportunity for shaping and forming the spontaneous expression gained in narration. following description, in order of difficulty, come exposition and argument. i should be quite misunderstood, did any one gather from this that during the time in which wholes are being studied, no attention is to be given to parts; that is, to paragraphs, sentences, and words. all things cannot be learned at once and thoroughly; there must be some order of succession. in the beginning the primary object to be aimed at is the construction of wholes; yet during their construction, parts can also be incidentally studied. during this time many errors which annoy and exasperate must be passed over with but a word, in order that the weight of the criticism may be concentrated on the point then under consideration. as a pupil advances, he is more and more competent to appreciate and to form good paragraphs and well-turned sentences, and to single out from the multitude of verbal signs the word that exactly presents his thought. the appreciation and the use of the stronger as well as the finer and more delicate forms of language come only with much reading and writing; and to demand everything at the very beginning is little less than sheer madness. moreover there never comes a time when the construction of a paragraph, the shaping of a phrase, or the choice of a word becomes an end in itself. paragraphs, sentences, and words are well chosen when they serve best the whole composition. he who becomes enamored of one form of paragraph, who always uses periodic sentences, who chooses only common words, has not yet recognized that the beauty of a phrase or a word is determined by its fitness, and that it is most beautiful because it exactly suits the place it fills. the graceful sweep of a line by praxiteles or the glorious radiancy of a color by angelico is most beautiful in the place it took from the master's hand. so lowell's wealth of figurative language and stevenson's unerring choice of delicate words are most beautiful, not when torn from their original setting to serve as examples in rhetorics, but when fulfilling their part in a well-planned whole. and it is only as the beauties of literature are born of the thought that they ever succeed. no one can say to himself, "i will now make a good simile," and straightway fulfill his promise. if, however, the thought of a writer takes fire, and instead of the cold, unimpassioned phraseology of the logician, glowing images crowd up, and phrases tipped with fire, then figurative language best suits the thought,--indeed, it is the thought. but imagery upon compulsion,--never. so that at no time should one attempt to mould fine phrases for the sake of the phrases themselves, but he should spare no pains with them when they spring from the whole, when they harmonize with the whole, and when they give to the whole added beauty and strength. it is quite unnecessary at this day to urge the study of literature. it is in the course of study for every secondary school. yet a word may be said of the value of this study to the practice of composition. there are two classes of artists: geniuses and men of talent. of geniuses in literature, one can count the names on his fingers; most authors are simply men of talent. talent learns to do by doing, and by observing how others have done. when brunelleschi left rome for florence, he had closely observed and had drawn every arch of the stupendous architecture in that ancient city; and so he was adjudged by his fellow citizens to be the only man competent to lift the dome of their duomo. his observation discovered the secret of rome's architectural grandeur; and the slow accumulation of such secrets marks the development of every art and science. milton had his method of writing prose, macaulay his, and arnold his,--all different and all excellent. and just as the architect stands before the cathedrals of cologne, milan, and salisbury to learn the secret of each; as the painter searches out the secret of raphael, murillo, and rembrandt; so the author analyzes the masterpieces of literature to discover the secret of irving, of eliot, and of burke. not that an author is to be a servile imitator of any man's manner; but that, having knowledge of all the secrets of composition, he shall so be enabled to set forth for others his own thought in all the beauty and perfection in which he himself conceives it. one thing further. a landscape painter would not make a primary study of angelo's anatomical drawings; a composer of lyric forms of music would not study sousa's marches; nor would a person writing a story look for much assistance in the arguments of burke. the most direct benefit is derived from studying the very thing one wishes to know about, not from studying something else. that the literature may give the greatest possible assistance to the composition, the course has been so arranged that narration shall be taught by hawthorne and irving, description by ruskin and stevenson, exposition by macaulay and newman, and argument by webster and burke. literature, arranged in this manner, is not only a stimulus to renewed effort, by showing what others have done; it is also the most skillful instructor in the art of composition, by showing how others have done. it would be quite impossible for any one at the present time to write a text-book in english that would not repeat what has already been said by many others. nor have i tried to. my purpose has been rather to select from the whole literature of the subject just those principles which every author of a book on composition or rhetoric has thought essential, and to omit minor matters and all those about which there is a difference of opinion. this limits the contents to topics already familiar to every teacher. it also makes it necessary to repeat what has been written before many times. certain books, however, have treated special divisions of the whole subject in a thorough and exhaustive manner. there is nothing new to say of unity, mass, and coherence; mr. wendell said all concerning these in his book entitled "english composition." so in paragraph development, scott and denney hold the field. other books which i have frequently used in the classroom are "talks on writing english," by arlo bates, and genung's "practical rhetoric." these books i have found very helpful in teaching, and i have drawn upon them often while writing this text-book. if the field has been covered, then why write a book at all? the answer is that the principles which are here treated have not been put into one book. they may be found in several. these essentials i have repeated many times with the hope that they will be fixed by this frequent repetition. the purpose has been to focus the attention upon these, to apply them in the construction of the different forms of discourse, paragraphs, and sentences, and to repeat them until it is impossible for a student to forget them. if the book fulfils this purpose, it was worth writing. acknowledgments are due to messrs. charles scribner's sons for their kind permission to use the selections from the writings of robert louis stevenson contained in this book; also, to messrs. d. appleton & co., the century co., and doubleday & mcclure co. for selections from the writings of rudyard kipling. w. f. webster. minneapolis, . contents chapter i.--forms of discourse composition english composition composition, written and oral conventions of composition five forms of discourse definitions difficulty in distinguishing purpose of the author chapter ii.--choice of subject form and material author's individuality knowledge of subject common subjects interest the familiar human life the strange chapter iii.--narration material of narration in action the commonest form of discourse language as a means of expression without plot plot unity, mass, and coherence main incident its importance unity introductions and conclusions tedious enumerations what to include consistency an actor as the story-teller the omniscience of an author the climax who? where? when? why? in what order? an outline movement rapidity slowness description and narration characters few, time short simple plot suggestive questions and exercises chapter iv.--description difficulties of language for making pictures painting and sculpture advantages of language enumeration and suggestion enumerative description suggestive description value of observation the point of view moving point of view the point of view should be stated mental point of view length of descriptions arrangement of details in description the end of a description proportion arrangement must be natural use familiar images simile, metaphor, personification choice of words. adjectives and nouns use of verbs suggestive questions and exercises chapter v.--exposition general terms difficult definition exposition and description distinguished logical definition genus and differentia requisites of a good definition how do men explain? first, by repetition second, by telling the obverse third, by details fourth, by illustrations fifth, by comparisons the subject the subject should allow concrete treatment the theme the title selection of material scale of treatment arrangement use cards for subdivisions an outline mass the end the beginning proportion in treatment emphasis of emotion phrases indicating emphasis coherence transition phrases summary and transition suggestive questions and exercises chapter vi.--argument induction and deduction syllogism premises terms enthymeme definition of terms undistributed middle false premises method of induction arguments from cause arguments from sign sequence and cause arguments from example selection of material plan called the brief climax inductive precedes deductive cause precedes sign example follows sign refutation analysis of burke's oration suggestive questions chapter vii.--paragraphs definition long and short paragraphs topic sentence no topic sentence the plan kinds of paragraphs details comparisons repetition obverse examples combines two or more forms unity need of outline mass what begins and what ends a paragraph? length of opening and closing sentences proportion coherence and clearness two arrangements of sentences in a paragraph definite references use of pronouns of conjunctions parallel constructions summary suggestive questions chapter viii.--sentences definition and classification. simple sentences compound sentences short sentences long sentences unity mass end of a sentence effect of anti-climax use of climax loose and periodic the period periodic and loose combined which shall be used? emphasis by change of order subdue unimportant elements the dynamic point of a sentence good use clearness gained by coherence parallel construction balanced sentences use of connectives suggestive questions chapter ix.--words need of a large vocabulary dictionary study of literature vulgarisms are not reputable slang is not reputable words must be national. provincialisms technical and bookish words foreign words words in present use words in their present meaning words of latin and saxon origin general and specific use words that suggest most synecdoche, metonymy care in choice of specific words avoid hackneyed phrases "fine writing" in prose avoid poetical words chapter x.--figures of speech figurative language figures based upon likeness metaphor epithet personification apostrophe allegory simile figures based upon sentence structure inversion exclamation interrogation climax irony metonymy synecdoche allusion hyperbole exercises in figures chapter xi.--verse forms singing verse poetic feet kinds of metre stanzas scansion variations in metres first and last foot kinds of poetry exercises in metres appendix a. suggestions to teachers b. the form of a composition c. marks for correction of compositions d. punctuation e. supplementary list of literature a course of study in literature and composition the course of study which follows is presented, not because it is better than many others which might be made. for the purposes of this book it was necessary that some course be adopted as the basis of the text. the principles which guided in arranging this course i believe are sound; but the preferences of teachers and the peculiarities of environment will often make it wise to use other selections from literature. of this a large "supplementary list" is given at the back of the book. it is now a generally accepted truth that the study of english should continue through the four years of a high-school course. the division of time that seems best is to take narration and description in the first year. in connection with description, figures of speech should be studied. the next year, exposition and paragraphs form the major part of the work. this may be pleasantly broken by a study of poetry, following the outline in the chapter on verse forms. in the third year, while the work in literature is mainly the novel and the drama, sentences and words should be studied in composition, with a review of the chapters on narration and description. towards the close of the year, exposition should be reviewed and the study of argument taken up. the fourth year should be devoted to the study of such college requirements as have not been taken in the course, and to the study of the history of english literature as given in some good text book. in some instances, it will be found impossible to give so much time to the study of english. in such cases, the amount of literature to be studied should be decreased, and the work in the text book should be more rapidly done. the sequence of the parts should remain the same, but the time should be modified to suit the needs of any special environment. narration. composition. _to give spontaneity._ i. external form of composition (p. ). ii. marks for the correction of compositions (p. ). iii. simple rules for punctuation (pp. - ). iv. forms of discourse. definitions (pp. - ). v. choice of subject (pp. - ). vi. study of narration (pp. - ). a. definition and general discussion. b. narration without plot. interest the essential feature. c. narration with plot. . selection of main incident of first importance. it gives to the story unity, ridding it of long introductions and conclusions, tedious enumerations, and irrelevant details. . arrangement of material. close of story contains main incident. opening of story contains characters, place, and time. incidents generally follow in order of time. . movement. . use of description in narration. . some general considerations. literature. the great stone face, the gentle boy, the gray champion, roger malvin's burial, and other stories. _hawthorne._ tales of a wayside inn. _longfellow._ the gold bug. _poe._ marmion, or the lady of the lake. _scott._ a christmas carol, or the cricket on the hearth. _dickens._ the vision of sir launfal, and other narrative poems. _lowell._ an incident of the french camp, hervé riel, the pied piper, how they brought the good news from ghent to aix. _browning._ meaning of the author, calling for a study of words. outline of story. turning points in the story. central idea, or purpose of the story. method of the author. is there a main incident? do all other incidents converge to it? is the order a sequence of time alone? is the interest centred in characters or plot? style of the author. compare the works of the author. description. composition. _to secure accuracy of expression_ (pp. - ). i. definition and general discussion. difficulties in language as a means of picturing. value of observation. ii. structure of whole. a. to secure unity. select a point of view. b. to secure coherence. arrange details in natural order. c. to secure emphasis. arrange and proportion treatment to effect your purpose. iii. paragraph structure. definition. length of paragraphs. development of paragraphs. iv. words. specific rather than general. adjectives, nouns, and verbs. v. figures of speech (pp. - ). based on likeness. based on sentence structure. miscellaneous figures. literature. the old manse, the old apple dealer. _hawthorne._ an indian-summer reverie, the dandelion, the birch, the oak, and other descriptive poems. _lowell._ the fall of the house of usher. _poe._ the legend of sleepy hollow, selections from the sketch book. _irving._ selections from childe harold. _byron._ the deserted village. _goldsmith._ julius cæsar. _shakespeare._ poems selected from palgrave's golden treasury. meaning of the author (as under narration). method of the author. does the author keep his point of view? are the details arranged in a natural order? has any detail a supreme importance? are the details treated in proper proportion? has the whole a unity of effect? do you see the picture distinctly? for what purpose has the author used description? does the author employ figures? style of the author. exposition, paragraphs, verse forms. composition. _to encourage logical thinking and adequate expression_ (pp. - ). _exposition._ i. definition and general considerations. ii. exposition of terms. definition. iii. exposition of propositions. a. clear statement of the proposition in a "key sentence." this will limit b. the discussion. . what shall be included? . what shall be excluded? . how shall important matters be emphasized? mass and proportion. expansion and condensation. to effect these ends use an . outline. _paragraphs_ (pp. - ). i. definition. ii. length of paragraphs. iii. development of paragraphs. iv. principles of structure. unity. mass. coherence. _verse forms_ (pp. - ). poetry defined. kinds of feet. number of feet in a verse. substitutions and rests. kinds of poetry. literature. essay on milton. _macaulay._ essay on addison. _macaulay._ commemoration ode. _lowell._ the rime of the ancient mariner. _coleridge._ intimations of immortality, and other poems. _wordsworth._ selections from palgrave's golden treasury. the bunker hill oration, or adams and jefferson. _webster._ sesame and lilies. _ruskin._ meaning of the author. outline showing the main thesis with the dependence of subordinate propositions. method of the author. does he hold to his point and so gain unity does he arrange his material so as to secure emphasis? does one paragraph grow out of another? does each paragraph treat a single topic? are the sentences dovetailed together? does the author use figures? are the figures effective? are his words general or specific? style of the author. is it clear? has it force? is the diction elegant? how has he gained these ends? sentences, words, argument. composition. _sentences_ (pp. - ). i. definition and classification. ii. principles of structure. a. unity. b. mass. . prominent positions in a sentence. . periodic sentences. . loose sentences. c. coherence. . parallel constructions. . connectives. _words_ (pp. - ). reputable words. latin or saxon words. general or specific. figures of speech. the one rule for the use of words. _narration and description reviewed._ _exposition reviewed._ literature. _argument_ (pp. - ). i. kinds of argument. ii. order of arguments. iii. refutation. sir roger de coverley papers. _addison._ the vicar of wakefield. _goldsmith._ silas marner. _eliot._ ivanhoe. _scott._ macbeth, the merchant of venice, a midsummer night's dream. _shakespeare._ conciliation with the colonies. _burke._ composition. in the last year of the course, the compositions should be such as will test the maturer powers of the pupil. they should be written under the careful supervision of the teacher. they should be of all forms of discourse, and the subjects should be drawn from the subjects of study in the high school, especially from the literature. literature. _difficult selections._ l'allegro, il penseroso, comus, and lycidas. _milton._ paradise lost. two books. _milton._ essay on burns. _carlyle._ in memoriam, the princess, and other poems. _tennyson._ selections. _browning._ selections. _emerson._ a history of english literature * * * * * english: composition and literature chapter i forms of discourse composition. composition, from the latin words _con,_ meaning together, and _ponere,_ meaning to place, signifies a placing together, a grouping or arrangement of objects or of ideas. this arrangement is generally made so that it will produce a desired result. speaking accurately, the putting together is the composition. much of the desired result is gained by care in the selection of materials. placing together a well-worn book, a lamp, and a pair of heavy bowed spectacles makes a suggestive picture. the selection and grouping of these objects is spoken of as the composition of the picture. so in music, an author composes, when he groups certain musical tones and phrases so that they produce a desired effect. in literature, too, composition is, strictly speaking, the selection and arrangement of materials, whether the incidents of a story or the details of a description, to fulfill a definite purpose. english composition. in practice, however, english composition has come to include more than the selection and arrangement of the materials,--incidents, objects, or ideas, as the case may be; the term has been extended to include the means by which the speaker or writer seeks to convey this impression to other persons. as a painter must understand drawing, the value of lights and shades, and the mixing of colors before he can successfully reproduce for others the idea he has to express, so the artist in literature needs a knowledge of elementary grammar and of the simpler usages of language in order clearly to represent to others the idea which lies in his own mind. as commonly understood, then, _english composition_ may be defined as _the art of selecting, arranging, and communicating ideas by means of the english language._ composition, written and oral. the term "english composition" is now generally understood to mean written composition, and not oral composition. at first thought they seem to be the same thing. so far as the selection and arrangement of matter is concerned, they are the same. moreover, both use words, and both employ sentences; but here the likeness ends. if sentences should be put upon paper exactly as they were spoken, in most instances they would not convey to a reader the same thought they conveyed to a listener. it is much more exacting to express the truth one wishes to convey, by silent, featureless symbols than by that wonderful organ of communication, the human voice. now, if to the human voice be added eyes, features, gestures, and pose, we easily understand the great advantage a speaker has over a writer. conventions of composition. moreover, there are imposed upon a writer certain established rules which he must follow. he must spell words correctly, and he must use correctly marks of punctuation. these things need not annoy a speaker; yet they are conditions which must be obeyed by a writer. a man who eats with a knife may succeed in getting his food to his mouth, yet certain conventions exclude such a person from polite society. so in composition, it is possible for a person to make himself understood, though he write "alright" instead of "all right," and never use a semicolon; still, such a person could hardly be considered a highly cultured writer. to express one's thoughts correctly and with refinement requires absolute obedience to the common conventions of good literature. the study of composition includes, first, the careful selection of materials and their effective arrangement; and second, a knowledge of the established conventions of literature: of spelling; of the common uses of the marks of punctuation,--period, question mark, exclamation point, colon, semicolon, comma; of the common idioms of our language; and of the elements of its grammar. from the beginning of the high school course, the essay, the paragraph, the sentence, the word, are to be studied with special attention to the effective use of each in adequately communicating ideas. five forms of discourse. all written composition may be arranged in two classes, or groups. the first group will include all composition that deals with actual happenings and real things; the second, all that deals with abstract thoughts and spiritual ideas. the first will include narration and description; the second, exposition, argument, and persuasion. all literature, then, may be separated into five classes,--narration, description, exposition, argument, and persuasion. narration tells what things do; description tells how things look. narration deals with occurrences; description deals with appearances. exposition defines a term, or explains a proposition; argument proves the truth or falsity of a proposition; persuasion urges to action upon a proposition. exposition explains; argument convinces; persuasion arouses. these are the broad lines of distinction which separate the five forms of discourse. definitions. _narration is that form of discourse which recounts events in a sequence._ it includes stories, novels, romances, biographies, some books of travel, and some histories. _description is that form of discourse which aims to present a picture._ it seldom occurs alone, but it is usually found in combination with the other forms of discourse. _exposition is that form of discourse which seeks to explain a term or a proposition._ text-books, books of information, theses, most histories, many magazine articles, and newspaper leaders are of this class of literature. _argument is that form of discourse which has for its object the proof of the truth or falsity of a proposition._ _persuasion is that form of discourse the purpose of which is to influence the will._ difficulty in distinguishing. though these definitions seem to set apart the great classes of literature, and to insure against any danger of confusion, it is not always easy to place individual pieces of literature in one of these divisions. whittier's "barbara frietchie" and stevenson's "treasure island" are narrative beyond any question; but what about "snow-bound" and "travels with a donkey" by the same authors? are they narration or description? in them the narrative and descriptive portions are so nearly equal that one hesitates to set them down to either class; the reader is constantly called from beautiful pictures to delightful stories. the narrative can easily be separated from the descriptive portions; but when this has been done, has it been decided whether the whole piece is narration or description? when a person takes up the other forms of discourse, the difficulty becomes still greater. description and narration are frequently used in exposition. if a boy should be asked to explain the working of a steam engine, he would, in all likelihood, begin with a description of an engine. if his purpose was to explain how an engine works, and was not to tell how an engine looks, the whole composition would be exposition. so, too, it is often the easiest way to explain what one means by telling a story. the expression of such thoughts would be exposition, although it might contain a number of stories and descriptions. narration and description may be found in a piece of exposition; and all three may be employed in argument. if a person should wish to prove the dangers of intemperance, he might enforce his proof by a story, or by a description of the condition of the nervous system after a drunken revel. and one does not need to do more than explain the results of intemperance to a sensible man to prove to him that he should avoid all excesses. the explanation alone is argument enough for such a person. still, is such an explanation exposition or argument? if the man cared nothing about convincing another that there are dangers in intemperance, did not wish to prove that the end of intemperance is death and dishonor, the composition is as much exposition as the explanation of a steam engine. if, on the other hand, he explained these results in order to convince another that he should avoid intemperance, then the piece is argument. persuasion introduces a new element into composition; for, while exposition and argument are directed to a man's reason, persuasion is addressed to the emotions and the will. its purpose is to arouse to action. one can readily imagine that a simple explanation of the evils of intemperance might be quite enough to convince a man that its dangers are truly great,--so great that he would determine to fight these evils with all his strength. in such a case explanation alone has convinced him; and it has aroused him to do something. is the piece exposition, or argument, or persuasion? here, as before, the answer is found in the purpose of the author. if he intended only to explain, the piece is exposition; if to convince, it is argument; if to arouse to action, it belongs to the literature of persuasion. it must now be plain that few pieces of literature are purely one form of discourse. the forms are mingled in most of our literature. hardly a story can be found that does not contain some descriptions; and a description of any considerable length is sure to contain some narrative portions. so, too, narration and description are often found in exposition, argument, and persuasion; and these last three forms are frequently combined. purpose of the author. it must also be evident that the whole piece of literature will best be classified by discovering the purpose of the author. if his purpose is simply to tell a good story, his work is narration; if the purpose is merely to place a picture before the reader's mind, it is description; if to explain conditions and nothing more, it is exposition; if to prove to the reason the truth or falsity of a proposition, it is argument; while, if the writer addresses himself to the emotions and the will, no matter whether he tells anecdotes or paints lurid pictures, explains conditions or convinces of the dangers of the present course,--if he does all these to urge the reader to do something, the composition belongs to the literature of persuasion. the five forms of discourse are most easily distinguished by discovering the purpose of the author. one addition should be made. few novels are written in which there is nothing more than a story. nearly all contain some teaching; and it is a safe conclusion that the authors have taught "on purpose." in "baa, baa, black sheep," kipling has shown the imperative necessity of a "real, live, lovely mamma;" in "the legend of sleepy hollow," irving has placed before us a charming picture of rural life in a dreamy dutch village on the hudson; and in his "christmas carol," dickens shows plainly that happiness is not bought and sold even in london, and that the only happy man is he who shares with another's need. yet all of these, and the hundreds of their kind, whatever the purpose of the authors when writing them, belong to the "story" or "novel" class. the purpose _in telling_ the story is secondary to the purpose _to tell_ a story. they are to be classified as narration. english composition, then, is a study of the selection and arrangement of ideas, and of the methods of using the english language to communicate them. all composition is divided into five great classes. these classes have broad lines of distinction, which are most easily applied by determining the purpose of the author. * * * * * chapter ii choice of subject form and material. from the considerations in the preceding chapter may be derived several principles regarding the choice of subject. if the composition is to be narrative, it should be upon a subject that readily lends itself to narrative form. one can tell a story about "a day's hunt" or "what we did hallowe'en;" but it would try one's powers of imagination to write a story of "a tree" or "a chair." the latter subjects do not lend themselves to narration, but they may be described. josiah p. cooke has written a brilliant exposition of "fire" in "the new chemistry;" yet a young person would be foolish to take "fire" as a subject for exposition, though he might easily write a good description of "how the fire looked from my window," or narrate "how a fireman rescued my sister." so in all work in composition, _select a subject that readily lends itself to the form of discourse demanded; or, conversely, select the form of discourse suitable for presenting most effectively your material._ author's individuality. if an author is writing for other purposes than for conscious practice, he should choose the form of discourse in which he can best work, and to which he can best shape his material. some men tell stories well; others are debaters; while yet others are wonderfully gifted with eloquence. emerson understood life thoroughly. he knew man's feelings, his motives, his hopes, his strength, his weakness; yet one cannot imagine emerson shaping this material into a novel. but just a little way down the road lived a wizard who could transmute the commonest events of this workaday world to the most beautiful shapes; no one wishes that hawthorne had written essays. the second principle guiding in the choice of a subject is this: _select a subject which is suited to your peculiar ability as an author._ knowledge of subject. the form, then, should suit the matter; and it should be the form in which the author can work. there is a third principle that should guide in the choice of a subject. _it should be a subject of which the author knows something._ pupils often exclaim, "what can i write about!" as if they were expected to find something new to write. an exercise in composition has not for its object the proclaiming of any new and unheard-of thing; it is an exercise in the expression of things already known. even when the subject is known, the treatment offers difficulties enough. it is not true that what is thoroughly understood is easily explained. many excellent scholars have written very poor text-books because they had not learned the art of expression. a necessary antecedent of all good composition is a full and accurate knowledge of the subject; and even when one knows all about it, the clear expression of the thought will be difficult enough. to demand accurate knowledge of the subject before an author begins work upon it narrows the field from which themes may be drawn. burroughs is an authority on all the tenants of our groves; "wake-robin," "pepacton," and his other books all show a master's certain hand. so stedman is an authority in matters relating to literature. but burroughs and stedman alike would find difficulty in writing an essay on "electricity in the treatment of nervous diseases." they do not know about it. a boy in school probably knows something of fishing; of this he can write. a girl can tell of "the last parlor concert." both could write very entertainingly of their "first algebra recitation;" neither could write a convincing essay on "the advantages of free trade." common subjects. this will seem to limit the list of subjects to the commonplace. the fact is that in a composition exercise the purpose is not to startle the world with some new thing; it is to learn the art of expression. and here in the region of common things, things thoroughly understood, every bit of effort can be given to the manner of expression. the truth is, it does not require much art to make a book containing new and interesting material popular; the matter in the book carries it in spite of poor composition. popular it may be, but popularity is not immortality. columns of poorly written articles upon "dewey" and "the philippines" have been eagerly read by thousands of americans; it would require a literary artist of great power to write a one-column article on "pigs" so that it would be eagerly read by thousands. real art in composition is much more manifest when an author takes a common subject and treats it in such a way that it glows with new life. richard le gallienne has written about a drove of pigs so beautifully that one forgets all the traditions about these common animals.[ ] choose common subjects, then,--subjects that allow every particle of your strength to go into the manner of saying what you already know. the requirement that the subject shall be common does not mean that the subject shall be trivial. "sliding to first," "how billy won the game," with all of this class of subjects, at once put the writer into a trifling, careless attitude toward his work. the subjects themselves seem to call forth a cheap, slangy vocabulary and the vulgar phrases of sporting life. an equally common subject could be selected which would call forth serious, earnest effort. if a boy knew nothing except about ball games, it would be advisable for him to write upon this subject. such a condition is hardly possible in a high school. _choose common subjects, but subjects that call for earnest thinking and dignified expression._ interest. interest is another consideration in the choice of a subject. it applies equally to writer and reader. _choose subjects that are interesting._ not only must an author know about the subject; he must be interested in it. a pupil may have accurate knowledge of the uses of a semicolon; but he would not be likely to succeed in a paragraph about semicolons, largely because he is not much interested in semicolons. this matter of interest is so important that it is well to know what things all persons, authors and readers alike, are interested in. what, then, is generally interesting? the familiar. first, _the familiar is interesting._ when reading a newspaper each one instinctively turns to the local column, or glances down the general news columns to see if there is anything from his home town. to a former resident, jim benson's fence in annandale is more interesting than the bronze doors of the congressional library in washington. for the same reason a physician lights upon "a new cure for consumption," a lawyer devours supreme court decisions, while the dealer in silks is absorbed in the process of making silk without the aid of the silkworm. each is interested in that which to him is most familiar. human life. second, _human life in all its phases is interesting._ the account of a fire or of a railroad accident takes on a new interest when, in addition to the loss of property, there has been a loss of life. war is horribly fascinating, not so much because there is a wanton destruction of property, as because it involves the slaughter of men. stories about trees and animals are usually failures, unless handled by artists who breathe into them the life of man. andersen's "tannenbaum" and kipling's "jungle books" are intensely interesting because in them trees and animals feel and act just as men do. the strange. third, _the romantic, the unique, and the impossible are interesting._ a new discovery, a new invention, a people of which little is known,--anything new is interesting. the stories of rider haggard and jules verne have been popular because they deal with things which eye hath not seen. this peculiar trait of man allows him to relish a good fish story, or the latest news from the sea-serpent. just for the same reason, children love to hear of little red riding hood and cinderella. children and their parents are equally interested in those things which are entirely outside of their own experience. these, then, are the general conditions which govern the choice of a subject. it shall easily lend itself to the form of discourse chosen; it shall be suited to the peculiar ability of the author; it shall be thoroughly understood by the author,--common, but not trivial; it shall be interesting to both reader and author. * * * * * chapter iii narration material of narration. narration has been defined as the form of discourse which recounts events in a sequence. it includes not only letters, journals, memoirs, biographies, and many histories, but, in addition, that great body of literature which people generally include in the comprehensive term of "stories." if this body of literature be examined, it will be found that it deals with things as opposed to ideas; incidents as opposed to propositions. sometimes, it is true, the author of a story is in reality dealing with ideas. in the fable about "the hare and the tortoise," the tortoise stands for the idea of slow, steady plodding; while the hare is the representative of quick wits which depend on their ability to show a brilliant burst of speed when called upon. the fable teaches better than an essay can that the dullness which perseveres will arrive at success sooner than brilliancy of mind which wastes its time in doing nothing to the purpose. andersen's "ugly duckling," ruskin's "king of the golden river," and lowell's "sir launfal" stand for deep spiritual ideas, which we understand better for this method of presentation. in an allegory like "pilgrim's progress," the passions and emotions, the sins and weaknesses of men are treated as if they were real persons. ideas are represented by living, breathing persons; and we may say that all such narratives deal, not with ideas, but, for want of a better word, with things. in action. not only does narration deal with things, but with things doing something. things inactive might be written of, but this would be description. it is necessary in narration that the things be in an active mood; that something be doing. "john struck james," then, is a narrative sentence; it tells that john has been doing something. still, this one sentence would not ordinarily be accepted as narration. for narration there must be a series, a sequence of individual actions. _recounting events in a sequence is narration._ the commonest form of discourse. narration is the most popular form of discourse. between one fourth and one third of all books published are stories; and more than one half of the books issued by public libraries belong to the narrative class. such a computation does not include the large number of stories read in our papers and magazines. in addition to being the most popular form of discourse, it is the most natural. it is the first form of connected discourse of the child; it is the form employed by the uncultured in giving his impressions; it is the form most used in conversation. moreover, narration is the first form found in great literatures: the iliad and the odyssey, the songs of the troubadours in france, and the minnesingers in germany, the chronicles and ballads of england,--all are narrative. language as a means of expression. narration is especially suited to the conditions imposed by language. men do not think in single words, but in groups of words,--phrases, clauses, and sentences. in hearing, too, men do not consider the individual words; the mind waits until a group of words, a phrase, or a simple sentence perhaps,--which expresses a unit of thought, has been uttered. in narration these groups of words follow in a sequence exactly as the actions which they represent do. take this rather lurid bit from stevenson:-- "he dropped his cutlass as he jumped, and when he felt the pistol, whipped straight round and laid hold of me, roaring out an oath; and at the same time either my courage came again, or i grew so much afraid as came to the same thing; for i gave a shriek and shot him in the midst of the body." ("kidnapped.") each phrase or clause here is a unit of thought, and each follows the others in the same order as the events they tell of occurred. on the other hand, when one attempts description, and exposition too in many cases, he realizes the great difficulties imposed by the language itself; for in these forms of discourse the author not infrequently wishes to put the whole picture before the reader at once, or to set out several propositions at the same time, as belonging to one general truth. in order that the reader may get the complete picture or the complete thought, he must hold in mind often a whole paragraph before he unites it into the one conception the author intended. in narration one action is completed; it can be dropped. then another follows, which can also be dropped. they need not be held in mind until the paragraph is finished. narration is exactly suited to the means of its communication. the events which are recorded, and the sentences which record them, both follow in a sequence. without plot. the sequence of events in narration may be a simple sequence of time, in which case the narrative is without plot. this is the form of narration employed in newspapers in giving the events of the day. it is used in journals, memoirs, biographies, and many elementary histories. it makes little demand upon an author further than that he shall say clearly something that is interesting. interesting it must be, if the author wishes it to be read; readers will not stay over dull material. newspapers and magazines look out for interesting material, and it is for the matter in them that they are read. so memoirs and biographies are read, not to find out what happens at last,--that is known,--but to pick up information concerning an interesting subject. plot. or the sequence may be a more subtle and binding relation of cause and effect. this is the sequence employed in stories. one thing happens because another thing has happened. generally the sequence of time and the sequence of cause and effect correspond; for effects come after causes. when, however, more than one cause is introduced, or when some cause is at work which the author hides until he can most advantageously produce it, or when an effect is held back for purposes of creating interest, the events may not be related exactly in the order in which they occurred. when any sequence is introduced in addition to the simple sequence of time, or when the time sequence is disturbed for the purpose of heightening interest, there is an arrangement of the parts which is generally termed plot. plot is a term difficult to define. we feel, however, that grant's "memoirs" have no plot, and we feel just as sure that "king lear" has a plot. so, too, we say that "robinson crusoe" has little, almost no plot; that the plot is simple in "treasure island," and that "les misérables" has an intricate plot. a plot seems to demand more than a mere succession of events. _any arrangement of the parts of a narrative so that the reader's interest is aroused concerning the result of the series of events detailed is a plot._ it often occurs that a book which, as a whole, is without a plot, contains incidents which have a plot. in "travels with a donkey," by stevenson, no one cares for the plot of the whole book,--in fact there is none; yet the reader is interested in the purchase of the "neat and high bred" modestine up to the "last interview with father adam in a billiard-room at the witching hour of dawn, when i administered the brandy." this incident has a plot. the following is a paragraph from "an autumn effect" by mr. stevenson. the simple events are perfectly ordered, and there is a delightful surprise at the end. this paragraph has a plot. yet the thirty pages of "an autumn effect" could not be said to have a plot. "bidding good-morning to my fellow-traveler, i left the road and struck across country. it was rather a revelation to pass from between the hedgerows and find quite a bustle on the other side, a great coming and going of school-children upon by-paths, and, in every second field, lusty horses and stout country-folk a-ploughing. the way i followed took me through many fields thus occupied, and through many strips of plantation, and then over a little space of smooth turf, very pleasant to the feet, set with tall fir-trees and clamorous with rooks, making ready for the winter, and so back again into the quiet road. i was now not far from the end of my day's journey. a few hundred yards farther, and, passing through a gap in the hedge, i began to go down hill through a pretty extensive tract of young beeches. i was soon in shadow myself, but the afternoon sun still colored the upmost boughs of the wood, and made a fire over my head in the autumnal foliage. a little faint vapor lay among the slim tree-stems in the bottom of the hollow; and from farther up i heard from time to time an outburst of gross laughter, as though clowns were making merry in the bush. there was something about the atmosphere that brought all sights and sounds home to one with a singular purity, so that i felt as if my senses had been washed with water. after i had crossed the little zone of mist, the path began to remount the hill; and just as i, mounting along with it, had got back again from the head downwards, into the thin golden sunshine, i saw in front of me a donkey tied to a tree. now, i have a certain liking for donkeys, principally, i believe, because of the delightful things that sterne has written of them. but this was not after the pattern of the ass at lyons. he was of a white color, that seemed to fit him rather for rare festal occasions than for constant drudgery. besides, he was very small, and of the daintiest proportions you can imagine in a donkey. and so, sure enough, you had only to look at him to see he had never worked. there was something too roguish and wanton in his face, a look too like that of a schoolboy or a street arab, to have survived much cudgeling. it was plain that these feet had kicked off sportive children oftener than they had plodded with freight through miry lanes. he was altogether a fine-weather, holiday sort of a donkey; and though he was just then somewhat solemnized and rueful, he still gave proof of the levity of his disposition by impudently wagging his ears at me as i drew near. i say he was somewhat solemnized just then; for with the admirable instinct of all men and animals under restraint, he had so wound and wound the halter about the tree that he could go neither back nor forwards, nor so much as put his head down to browse. there he stood, poor rogue, part puzzled, part angry, part, i believe, amused. he had not given up hope, and dully revolved the problem in his head, giving ever and again another jerk at the few inches of free rope that still remained unwound. a humorous sort of sympathy for the creature took hold upon me. i went up, and, not without some trouble on my part, and much distrust and resistance on the part of neddy, got him forced backwards until the whole length of the halter was set loose, and he was once more as free a donkey as i dared to make him. i was pleased (as people are) with this friendly action to a fellow-creature in tribulation, and glanced back over my shoulder to see how he was profiting by his freedom. the brute was looking after me; and no sooner did he catch my eye than he put up his long white face into the air, pulled an impudent mouth at me, and began to bray derisively. if ever any one person made a grimace at another, that donkey made a grimace at me. the hardened ingratitude of his behavior, and the impertinence that inspired his whole face as he curled up his lip, and showed his teeth and began to bray, so tickled me and was so much in keeping with what i had imagined to myself of his character, that i could not find it in my heart to be angry, and burst into a peal of hearty laughter. this seemed to strike the ass as a repartee, so he brayed at me again by way of rejoinder; and we went on for awhile, braying and laughing, until i began to grow a-weary of it, and shouting a derisive farewell, turned to pursue my way. in so doing--it was like going suddenly into cold water--i found myself face to face with a prim, little old maid. she was all in a flutter, the poor old dear! she had concluded beyond question that this must be a lunatic who stood laughing aloud at a white donkey in the placid beech-woods. i was sure, by her face, that she had already recommended her spirit most religiously to heaven, and prepared herself for the worst. and so, to reassure her, i uncovered and besought her, after a very staid fashion, to put me on my way to great missenden. her voice trembled a little, to be sure, but i think her mind was set at rest; and she told me, very explicitly, to follow the path until i came to the end of the wood, and then i should see the village below me in the bottom of the valley. and, with mutual courtesies, the little old maid and i went on our respective ways." books of travel, memoirs, and biographies, as whole books, are generally without any arrangement serious enough to be termed a plot; yet a large part of the interest in such books would be lost were the incidents there collected not well told, with a conscious attempt to set them out in the very best fashion; indeed, if each incident did not have a plot. in "vanity fair" with its six hundred pages, in "silas marner" with its two hundred pages, in the short stories of our best magazines, in the spicy little anecdotes in the "youth's companion,"--in the least bit of a good story as well as the three-volume novel, the authors have used the means best suited to retain the interest to the end. they have constructed plots. unity, mass, and coherence. in the construction of any piece of composition there are three principles of primary importance: they are unity, which is concerned with the material itself; and mass and coherence, which are concerned with the arrangement of the material. a composition has unity when all the material has been so sifted and selected that each part contributes its share to the central thought of the whole. whether of a sentence, a paragraph, or a whole composition, all those parts must be excluded which do not bring something of value to the whole; and everything must be included which is necessary to give a clear understanding of the whole. mass, the second principle of structure, demands that those parts of a composition, paragraph, or sentence which are of most importance shall be so placed that they will arrest the attention. by coherence is meant that principle of structure which, in sentences, paragraphs, and whole compositions, places those parts related in thought near together, and keeps separate those parts which are separated in thought. main incident. for the construction of a story that will retain the reader's interest to the end, for the selection of such material as will contribute to a central thought, for the arrangement of this material so that the most important matter shall occupy the most important position in the theme, one simple rule is of value. it is this: _first choose the main incident_ towards which all the other incidents converge, and for the accomplishment of which the preceding incidents are necessary. a few pages will be given to the application of this rule, and to the results of its application. its importance. there should be in each story, however slight the plot, some incident that is more important than the others, and toward which all the others converge. a reader is disappointed if, after reading a story through, he finds that there is no worthy ending, that all the preparation was made for no purpose. if, in "wee willie winkie," kipling had stopped just before miss allardyce started across the river, it would have been a poor story. it would have had no ending. it is because a story gets somewhere that we like it. yet not just somewhere; it must arrive at a place worthy of all the preparation that has preceded. a very common fault with the compositions of young persons is that they begin big and end little. it is not infrequent that the first paragraph promises well; the second is not quite so good; and the rest gradually fall off until the end is worthless. the order should be changed. have the first paragraph promise well, make the second better, and the last best of all. the main incident should be more important than each incident that precedes it. get the main incident in mind before beginning; be sure it is the main incident; then bend all your energies to make it the most important incident toward which all the other incidents converge. unity. the choice of a main incident will determine what incidents to exclude. the world is full of incidents--enough to make volumes more than we now have. a phonograph and a camera could gather enough any day at a busy corner in a city to fill a volume; yet these pictures and these bits of conversation, interesting as each in itself might be, would not be a unit,--not one story, but many. few persons, indeed, would write anything so disjointed as the report made by this phonograph; yet good writers are often led astray by the brilliancy of their own ideas. they have so many good stories on hand which they would like to tell, that they force some of them into their present story, and so spoil two stories. in the very popular "david harum," it would puzzle any one to know why the author has introduced the ladies from the city and the musical party at the lake. the episode is good enough in itself; but in this story it has not a shadow of excuse. there is a phrase of kipling's that should ring in every story-teller's ears. not once only, but a number of times, this prince of modern story-tellers catches himself--almost too late sometimes--and writes, "but that is another story." one incident calls up another; paragraph follows paragraph naturally. it is easy enough to look back and trace the road by which the writer arrived at his present position; yet it would be very hard to tell why he came hither, or to see how the journey up to this point will at all put him toward his destination. he has digressed; he has left the road. and he must get back to the road. by this digression he has wasted just as much time as it has taken to come from the direct road to this point added to the time it will take to go back. do not digress; tell one story at a time; let no incident into your story which cannot answer the question, "why are you here?" by "i help;" keep your eye on the main incident; things which do not unquestionably contribute something to the main incident should be excluded. introductions and conclusions. the choice of the main incident towards which all other incidents converge will rid compositions of worthless introductions and trailing conclusions. a story should get under way at once; and any explanations at the beginning, the introduction of long descriptions or tedious paragraphs of "fine writing," will be headed off if the pupil keeps constantly in mind that it must all lead directly toward the main incident. again, if everything converges to the main incident, when that has been told the story is finished. after that there must be no explanations, no moralizing, nothing. when the story has been told it is a good rule to stop. an excellent example of a short story well told is "an incident of the french camp," by robert browning. only the absolutely necessary has been introduced. the incidents flash before the reader. nothing can be said after the last line. "hervé riel" is a vivid piece of narrative too. such an exhibition of manliness appeals to all. was it necessary to attach the last stanza? if this poem needed it, why not the other? if the story has no moral in it, no man can tie it on; if there is one, the reader should be accounted intelligent enough to find it without any help. tedious enumerations. making all the incidents converge to one main incident will avoid tiresome enumerations of inconsequential events, which frequently fill the compositions of young pupils. such essays generally start with "a bright, clear morning," and "a party of four of us." after recounting a dozen events of no consequence whatever, "we came home to a late supper, well repaid for our day's outing." these compositions may be quite correct in the choice of words, sentences, and paragraphs, and with it all be flat. there is nothing to them; they get the reader nowhere. pick out one of the many incidents. work it up. turn back to the paragraph from stevenson and notice how little there is to it when reduced to bare outline. he has worked it up so that it is good. always remember that a short anecdote well told is worth pages of aimless enumeration. what to include. the selection of the main incident will guide in determining what to include; for every detail must be included that is necessary to make the main incident possible. a young pupil wrote of a party in the woods. the girls had found pleasant seats in a car and were chatting about their friends, when they felt a sudden lurch, and soon one of the party was besmeared by slippery, sticky whites of eggs. now, if eggs were in the habit of clinging to the roofs of cars and breaking at unfortunate moments, there would be no need of any explanation; but as the cook forgot to boil the eggs and the girl had put them up into the rack herself, some of this should have been told. enough at least should be told to make the main incident a possibility. stories are full of surprises, but they can be understood easily from the preceding incidents; or else the new element is one that happens frequently, and of itself is nothing new. in the paragraph from stevenson, the entrance of the "prim, little old maid" is a surprise, but it is a very common thing for ladies to walk upon a public highway. any surprise must be natural,--the result of causes at work in the story, or of circumstances which are always occurring and by themselves no surprises. if the story be a tangled web of incidents culminating in some horror, as the death of the beautiful young wife in hawthorne's "birthmark," all the events must be told that are necessary to carry the reader from the first time he beholds her beauty until he sees her again, her life ebbing away as the fairy hand fades from her cheek. in "baa, baa, black sheep" it would be impossible to pass directly from the sweet boy of the first chapter to the little liar of the last; something must be told of those miserable days that intervene, and their telling effect on the little fellow. so a reader could not harmonize his idea of old scrooge gained in the first chapter with generous mr. scrooge of the last without the intermediate chapters. keeping the main incident in mind, include all that is necessary to make it possible. consistency. this same rule more than any other will make a story consistent. if incidents are chosen with relation to the one main incident, they will all have a common quality; they can scarcely be inconsistent. it is much more essential that a story be consistent than that it be a fact. indeed, facts are not necessary in stories, and they are dangerous. ian maclaren says that the only part of his stories that has been severely criticised is a drowning episode, which was a fact, and the only one he ever used. yet to those who have read "the bonnie brier bush," the old doctor is as well known as any person who lives across the street; he is real to us, though he never lived. "old scrooge" and "brom bones" are better known than john adams is. a good character or a good story need not be drawn from facts. indeed, in literature as in actual life, facts are stubborn things, and will not accommodate themselves to new surroundings. make the story consistent; be not too careful about the facts. a story may be good and be entirely contrary to all known facts. "the ugly duckling" is as true as fiske's "history of the united states," and every whit as consistent. "alice in wonderland" is an excellent story; yet it contains no facts. the introduction of a single fact would ruin the story; for between the realm of fact and the region of fancy is a great gulf fixed, and no man has successfully crossed it. whatever conditions of life and action are assumed in one part of a story must be continued throughout. if walruses talk and hens are reasonable in one part of the story, to reduce them to every-day animals would be ruinous. consistency, that the parts stand together, that the story seem probable,--this is more essential than facts. and to gain this consistency the surest rule is to test the material by its relation to the main incident. the choice of the main incident, then, will determine to a great degree what to exclude and what to include; it will assist in ridding compositions of countless enumerations, aimless wanderings, and flat endings; it will help the writer to get started, and insure a stop when the story is told; and it will give to the story the quality most essential for its success, consistency. an actor as the storyteller. there is yet another condition that enters into the selection of materials: it makes a difference who tells the story. if the story be told in the first person, that is, if one of the actors tell the story, he cannot be supposed to know all that the other persons do when out of sight and hearing, nor can he know what they think. to take an illustration from a pupil's essay. a girl took her baby sister out upon the lake in a rowboat. a violent storm arose, lashing the lake into a fury. the oars were wrenched from her hands. helpless on the water, how was she to be saved? here the essayist recited an infinite amount of detail about the distress at home, giving the conversation and the actions. these things she could not have known in the character she had assumed at the beginning, that of the chief actor. all of that should have been excluded. when stevenson tells of the fight in the round house, though he knew what those old salts were doing outside, matters of great interest to the reader, he does not let david say anything except what he could see or hear, and a very little of what he "learned afterwards." stevenson knew well who was telling the story; david is too good a story-teller to tell what he could not know. in the pupil's essay and in "kidnapped," all such matters would have a direct bearing on the main incident; they could be included without destroying the unity of the story. but they cannot be included when the story is told by one of the actors. the omniscience of an author. many stories, probably most stories, are told in the third person. in this case the author assumes the position of an omniscient power who knows everything that is done, said, or thought by the characters in his story. not only what happens in the next room, but what is thought at the other side of the world, is comprehended in his omniscience. this is the position assumed by irving in "the legend of sleepy hollow," by kipling in the series of stories included with "wee willie winkie," by scott in "marmion," and by most great novelists. omniscience is, however, a dangerous prerogative for a young person. the power is so great that the person who has but recently come into possession of it becomes dizzy with it and uncertain in his movements. a young person knows what he would do under certain conditions; but to be able to know what some other person would do and think under a certain set of circumstances requires a sure knowledge of character, and the capability of assuming entirely different and unaccustomed points of view. it is much safer for the beginner to take the point of view of one of the actors, and tell the story in the first person. then when the grasp has become sure from this standpoint, he may assume the more difficult role of the omniscient third person. to sum up what has been said about the selection of materials: only those materials should be admitted to a story which contribute to its main incident, which are consistent with one another, and which could have been known by the narrator. the climax. when the materials for a story have been selected, the next consideration is their arrangement. if the materials have been selected to contribute to the main incident and converge toward it, it will follow that _the main incident_ will come last in the story; it _will be the climax_ towards which the several parts of the story are directed. moreover, it should be last, in order to retain the interest of the reader up to that time. this is in accordance with the demands of the second great principle of structure, mass. an essay is well massed if the parts are so arranged that things of importance will arrest the attention. in literature to be read, to arrest the attention is almost equivalent to catching the eye. the positions that catch the eye, whether in sentence, paragraph, or essay, are the beginning and the end. were it not for another element which enters into the calculation, these positions would be of nearly equal importance. since, however, the mind retains the most vivid impression of the thing it received last, the impression of the end of the sentence, paragraph, or essay is stronger than the impression made by its beginning. the climax of a story should come at the end, both because it is the result of preceding incidents, and because by this position it receives the additional emphasis due to its position. who? where? when? why? the beginning is the position of second importance. what, then, shall stand in this place? a story resembles a puzzle. the solution of the puzzle is given at the end; the thing of next importance is the conditions of the puzzle. in "baa, baa, black sheep" the story culminates in the surprise of a devoted mother when she discovers that her boy is a secretive little liar, who now deserves to be called "black sheep." this is the end; what was the beginning,--the conditions necessary to bring about this deplorable result? first, they were _the persons;_ second, _the place;_ third, _the time._ in many stories there is introduced the reason for telling the story. these conditions, answering the questions who? where? when? and why? are all, or some of them, introduced at the beginning of any narrative, and as soon as it can be done, they ought all to be given. in a short essay, they are in the first paragraph; in a novel, in the first chapters. in "marmion" the time, the place, and the principal character are introduced into the first canto. so irving begins "the legend of sleepy hollow" with the place and time, then follow the characters. in all stories the beginning is occupied in giving the conditions of the story; that is, the principal characters, the time, and the place. in what order? having the end and the beginning clearly in mind, the next question is how best to get from one to the other. shall the incidents be arranged in order of time? or shall other considerations govern? if it be any narrative of the journal form, whether a diary or a biography, the chronological arrangement will direct the sequence of events. again, if it be a simple story with a single series of events, the time order will prevail. if, however, it be a narrative which contains several series of events, as a history or a novel, it may be wise, even necessary, to deviate from the time sequence. it would have been unwise for scott to hold strictly to the order of time in "marmion;" after introducing the principal character, giving the time and the setting, it was necessary for him to bring in another element of the plot, constance, and to go backward in time to pick up this thread of the story. the really essential order in any narrative is the order of cause and effect. as causes precede effects, the causal order and the time order generally coincide. in a single series of events, that is, where one cause alone produces an effect, which in turn becomes the cause of another effect, the time order is the causal order. in a novel, or a short story frequently, where there are more than one series of incidents contributing to and converging towards the main incident, these causes must all be introduced before the effect, and may break the chronological order of the story. in "roger malvin's burial," it would be impossible to tell what the stricken father was doing and what the joyous mother was thinking at the same time. hawthorne must leave one and go to the other until they meet in their awful desolation. the only rule that can be given is, introduce causes before effects. in all stories, short or long, this will result in an approximation to the order of time; in a simple story it will invariably give a time sequence. there is one exception to this rule which should be noted. it is necessary at the very beginning to have some incident that will arrest the attention. this does not mean that persons, place, and time shall not come first. they shall come first, but they shall be so introduced as to make an interesting opening to the story. the novels of some decades ago did not sufficiently recognize the principle. one can frequently hear it said of scott's stories, "i can't get started with them; they are too dry." the introductory chapters are often uninteresting. so much history is introduced, so much scenery is described before the author sets out his characters; and all this is done before he begins the story. novelists of to-day realize that they must interest the reader at the beginning; when they have caught him, they are quite certain that he will bear with them while they bring up the other divisions of the story, which now have become interesting because they throw light on what has already been told. even more than novelists, dramatists recognize this principle. when the curtain rises on the first act, something interesting is going on. the action frequently begins far along in the time covered by the story; then by cleverly arranged conversation all circumstances before the time of the opening that are necessary to the development of the plot are introduced. the audience receives these minor yet essential details with no impatience, since they explain in part a situation already interesting. the time order may be broken in order to introduce at the beginning of the story some interesting situation which will immediately engage the reader's attention. in arranging the materials of a story, the main considerations are mass and coherence. mass demands important matters at the beginning and at the end of a story. coherence demands that events closely related shall stand close together: that an effect shall immediately follow its cause. beginning with some interesting situation that will also introduce the principal characters, the time, and the setting, the story follows in the main the order of time, and concludes with the main incident. an outline. one practical suggestion will assist in arranging the parts of a story. use an outline. it will guard against the omission of any detail that may afterward be found necessary, and against the necessity of offering the apology, inexcusable in prepared work, of "forgetting to say;" it will help the writer to see the best arrangement of the parts, to know that causes have preceded effects. the outline in narration should not be too much in detail, nor should it be followed if, as the story progresses, new light comes and the writer sees a better way to proceed. the writer should be above the outline, not its slave; but the outline is a most valuable servant of the writer. movement. _movement is an essential quality of narrative;_ a story must advance. this does not mean that the story shall always go at the same rate, though it does mean that it shall always go. if a story always had the rapidity and intensity of a climax, it would be intolerable. music that is all rushing climaxes is unbearable; a picture must not be a glare of high lights. the quiet passages in music, the grays and low tones in the background of the picture, the slow chapters in a story, are as necessary as their opposites; indeed, climaxes are dependent on contrasts in order to be climaxes. rapidity. the question of movement resolves itself into these two: how is rapidity of movement obtained, and how can the writer delay the movement. rapidity is gained by the omission of all unnecessary details, and the use of the shortest, tersest sentences to express the absolutely essential. dependent clauses disappear; either the sentences are simple, just one sharp statement, or they are made of coördinate clauses with no connectives. every weight that could clog the story is thrown away, and it runs with the swiftness of the thought. at such a time it would be a waste of good material to introduce beautiful descriptions or profound philosophy. such things would be skipped by the reader. everything must clear the way for the story. slowness. what has been said of rapidity will indicate the answer to the second question. slowness of movement is obtained by introducing long descriptions, analyses of characters, and information regarding the history or customs of the time. sentences become long and involved; dependent clauses abound; connective words and phrases are frequent. needless details may be introduced until the story becomes wearisome; it has almost no movement. very closely connected with what has been said above is another fact concerning movement. strip the sentences as you may, there are still the verbs remaining. verbs and derivatives from verbs are the words which denote action. if other classes of words be taken out, the ratio of verbs to the other words in the sentence is larger. shorter sentences and an increased ratio of verbs mark the passages in which the movement is more rapid. in "baa, baa, black sheep" the sentences average twenty-five words in the slower parts; in the intenser paragraphs the sentences have an average of fifteen words. poe's "gold-bug" changes from thirty-eight to twenty-one. again, stevenson's essays have a verb to eight words, while the fight at the round house has a verb to about five and a half words. one of kipling's stories starts in with a verb to eight and a half words, and the climax has a verb in every four words. these figures mean that as the sentences are shortened, adjectives, adverbs, phrases, connectives, disappear. everything not absolutely necessary is thrown away when the passage is to express rapid movement. no person should think that, by eliminating all dependent clauses, cutting away all unnecessary matters, and putting in a verb to every four words, he can gain intensity of expression. these are only accompanying circumstances. climaxes are in the thought. when the thought moves rapidly, when things are being done with a rush, when the climax has been reached, then the writer will find that he can approach the movement of the thought most nearly by using these means. description and narration. _a valuable accessory to narration is description;_ in truth, description for its own sake is not frequently found. the story must be somewhere; and it is more real when we know in what kind of a place it occurs. still it is not wise to do as scott so often has done,--give chapters of description at the beginning of the story. rather the setting should be scattered through the story so that it is hardly perceptible. at no time should the reader halt and realize that he is being treated to a description. even in the beautiful descriptions by stevenson quoted in the next chapter, the work is so intimately blended with the story that the reader unfortunately might pass over it. a large part of the pleasure derived from the best stories is supplied by good descriptions, giving a vivid picture of the setting of the story. description has another use in narration beside giving the setting of the story; it is often used to accent the mood of the action. in "the fall of the house of usher" by poe, much of the gloomy foreboding is caused by the weird descriptions. hawthorne understood well the harmony between man's feelings and his surroundings. the sylvan dance in "the marble faun" is wonderfully handled. irving, in "the legend of sleepy hollow," throws about the story a "witching influence," and long before the headless horseman appears, the reader is quite sure that the region abounds in "ghosts and goblins," dwelling in its "haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses." the danger in the use of description for this purpose is in overdoing it. the fact is, as arlo bates says, "the villains no longer steal through smiling gardens whose snowy lilies, all abloom, and sending up perfume like incense from censers of silver, seem to rebuke the wicked." yet when handled as stevenson and irving handled it, description assists in accenting the mood of the action. characters few, time short. _the number of characters should be few_ and the time of the action short. pupils are not able to handle a large number of persons. there is, however, a stronger reason for it than incapacity. a young person would have great trouble in remembering the large number of persons introduced into "little dorrit." many of them would always remain entire strangers. such a scattering of attention is unfavorable to a story. to focus the interest upon a few, to have the action centred in these few, increases the movement and intensity of the narrative. the writers of short stories in france (perhaps the best story-tellers of the present), kipling, davis, miss wilkins, and some others of our best authors, find few characters all that are necessary, and they gain in intensity by limiting the number of characters. for the same reason _the time should be short._ if all the incidents chosen are crowded into a short period of time, the action must be more rapid. the reader does not like to know five years have elapsed between one event and the next, even if the story-teller does not try to fill up the interim with matters of no consequence to the narrative. one exception must be made to this rule. in stories whose purpose is to portray a change of character, a long time is necessary; for the transformation is not usually the result of a day's experience, but a gradual process of years. "silas marner" and "baa, baa, black sheep" demand time to make naturally the great changes recounted. in general, however, the time should be short. simple plot. moreover, _the plot should be simple._ this is not saying that the plot should be evident. no one is quite satisfied if he knows just how the story will turn out. there are, however, so many conditions in a story that the accentuation of one or the subordination of another may bring about something quite unexpected, yet perfectly natural. complicated plots have had their day; simple plots are now in vogue. they are as natural as life, and quite as unfathomable. in davis's "gallegher" there is nothing complicated; one thing follows another in a perfectly natural way; yet there are many questions in the reader's mind as to how the little rascal will turn out, and whether he will accomplish his mission. much more cleverness is shown by the sleight-of-hand trickster, who, unassisted and in the open, with no accessories, dupes his staring assembly, than by him who, on the stage, with the aid of mirrors, lights, machines, and a crowd of assistants, manages to deceive your eyes. a story that by its frank simplicity takes the reader into its confidence, and brings him to a conclusion that is so natural that it should have been foreseen from the beginning, has a good plot. the conclusion of a story must be natural,--the result of the causes at work in the story. it must be an expected surprise. if it cannot be accounted for by the causes at work in the story, the construction is faulty. in the world of fiction there is not the liberty one experiences in the world of fact. there things unexpected and unexplainable occur. but the story-teller has no such privilege. truth is stranger than fiction dare be. a simple, natural story, with few characters and covering but a short period of time, has three elements of success. paragraph structure, sentence structure, and choice of words are taken up in subsequent chapters. of paragraphs it may be wise to say that there will be as many as there are divisions in the outline; and sometimes, by reason of the length of topic, a subdivision may be necessary. the paragraph most common in narration is the paragraph of details, the first form presented in the chapter on paragraphs. what needs to be said of sentences has already been said when treating of movement. of words one thing may be suggested. choose live words, specific words, words that have "go" in them. it should be remembered that everything cannot be learned at once. the study of the whole is the principal occupation just now. select the main incident; choose other incidents to be consistent with it; start out at once giving the conditions of the story; proceed now fast, now slow, as the thought demands, arriving at a conclusion that is an expected surprise, the result of forces at work in the story. suggestive questions and exercises the questions are only suggestive. they indicate how literature can be made to teach composition. some questions may seem hard, and will provoke discussion. to have even a false opinion, backed by only a few facts, is better than an entire absence of thought. encourage discussion. the answers to the questions have not been suggested in the questions themselves. the object has been to throw the pupil upon his own thinking. these questions upon the "method of the author" should not be considered until the far more important work of deriving the "meaning of the author" has been finished. only after the whole piece has been carefully studied can the relation of the parts to the whole be understood. reserve the questions for the review. questions. the great stone face. (riverside literature series, no. .) in what paragraphs is the main incident? can you find one sentence on the second page of the story that foreshadows the result? how many incidents or episodes contribute to the story? do these help in the development of ernest's character? if not, what is the use of them? why are they arranged in this order? introduce into its proper place an incident of a scientist. write it up. do you think one of the incidents could be omitted? which one? are the incidents related in the order in which they occurred? is one the cause of another? has the story a plot? why do you think so? what is a plot? where are introduced the time, place, and the principal character? what is the use of the description of "the great stone face"? why does the author tell only what "was reported" of the interior of mr. gathergold's palace? is it better so? are the descriptions to accent the mood of the story? or are they primarily to make concrete and real the persons and places? is there any place where the movement of the story is rapid? does the author begin at once, and close when the story is told? did you find any use of comparisons in the piece? (see top of p. , top of p. , middle of p. .)[ ] of what value are they in composition? the gentle boy. (riverside literature series, no. .) what is the main incident? in relation to the whole story, in what place does it stand? do the other incidents serve to develop the character of "the gentle boy"? or are they introduced to open up to the reader that character? (compare with "wee willie winkie.") do you consider all the incidents necessary? why has the author introduced the fact that ilbrahim gently cared for the little boy who fell from the tree? what is the use of the first two pages of the story? where does the story really begin? how could you know the time, if the first page were not there? is it a delicate way of telling "when"? notice that time, place, and principal characters all are introduced into the first paragraph of the real story. why does the author note the change in tobias's circumstances? does it add to the interest of the story? would you omit it? do you think this plot more complicated than that of "the great stone face"? what is the use of the description on p. ? what do you note as the difference between (a) second line of p. , sixth line of p. , sixteenth line of p. , and (b) fourth line of p. , the figure in the complete paragraph on p. ? the gray champion. (riverside literature series, no. .) note the successive stages by which the time is approached. (compare with the beginning of "silas marner.") can you feel any difference between the movement of this story and the movement in "the gentle boy"? is there any difference in the length of the sentences? (remember that the independent clauses of a compound sentence are very nearly the same as simple sentences.) is there any difference in the proportion of verbs and verbals? what parts of speech have almost disappeared? roger malvin's burial. (riverside literature series, no. .) why is the first paragraph needed? why could the incident in the first paragraph on p. not be omitted? do you find it later? how many chapters could you divide the story into? what is the basis of division? why did not hawthorne tell the result of the shot at once? a plot is usually made by introducing more than one cause, by hiding one of the causes, or by holding back an effect. which in this story? is there a change of movement between the beginning and the end of the story? look at the last two pages carefully. how has the author expressed the intensity of the situation? does the story end when it is finished? the wedding knell. (riverside literature series, no. .) of the three common ways of giving uncertainty to a plot, which has been used? do you call this plot more complicated than those of the other tales studied? why does the author say, at the top of p. , "necessary preface"? could it not be omitted? if not, what principle of narrative construction would be violated by its omission? why has he introduced the last paragraph on p. reaching over to p. ? the ambitious guest. (riverside literature series, no. .) in what order are the elements of the story introduced? pick out phrases which prepare you for the catastrophe. can you detect any difference in the movement of the different parts of the story? what aids its expression? the gold-bug. (riverside literature series, no. .) would you have been satisfied if the story had stopped when the treasure was discovered? what more do you want to know? what, then, is the main incident? was the main incident the last to occur in order of time? why did poe delay telling it until the end? do you see how relating the story in the first person helped him to throw the main incident last? why could he not tell it before? does poe tell any other stories in the first person? in what person are "treasure island" and "kidnapped" told? are they interesting? if a friend is telling you a story, do you care more for it if it is about a third party or about himself? why? what, then, is the advantage of making an actor the narrator? what are some of the disadvantages? do you think this plot as good as those of hawthorne's stories? why was it necessary to have "a day of remarkable chilliness" (p. ), and a newfoundland dog rushing into the room (p. )? what principle would it violate to omit these little matters? (text-book, p. .) what of the rapidity of movement when they are digging? how has rapidity been gained? what form of wit does poe attempt? does he succeed? do you think the conversation is natural? if not, what is the matter with it? are negroes usually profane? does jupiter's general character lead you to expect profanity from him? is anything gained by his oaths? is anything sacrificed? in this story is profanity artistic? (to know what is meant by "artistic," read the last line of "l'envoi" on p. of the text-book.) the vision of sir launfal. (riverside literature series, no. .) what is the purpose of the first stanza? what connection in thought is there between the second, third, and fourth stanzas? what have these stanzas to do with the story? if they have nothing to do with it, what principle of structure do they violate? would lowell be likely to do this? what is the use of the description beginning "and what is so rare as a day in june"? would the story be complete without the preludes? would the teaching be understood without them? are time and place definitely stated in the poem? why should they be, or not be? why does so much time elapse between part i. and part ii. of the story? in what lines do you find the main incident? in the first prelude is lowell describing a landscape of new england or old england? where is the story laid? what comment have you to make upon these facts? pick out the figures. are they useful? can you find passages of exposition and description in this narrative? why do you call it narration? what is lowell's criticism upon himself? (see "fable for critics.") a christmas carol. (riverside literature series, no. .) is the opening such as to catch the attention? what is the essential idea in the description of scrooge? do all details enforce this idea? do you know scrooge? in what paragraph does dickens tell where the story occurs? find places on p. and p. where dickens has used "in" or "into." what advantage to the story is the appearance in scrooge's office of his nephew and the two gentlemen? do they come into the story again? are the details in the description of the apparition on p. in the order in which they would be noted? which is the most important detail? where is it in the description? is the description of mrs. fezziwig on p. successful? what helps express rapidity of movement in the paragraph at the bottom of p. ? (see also paragraph on p. .) examining the words used by dickens and hawthorne, which are longer? which are most effectual? are you sure? rewrite one of hawthorne's paragraphs with a dickens vocabulary. what is the result? what word is the topic of the last paragraph on p. ? recast the first sentence of the last paragraph on p. . does dickens use slang? (do not consider conversation in the answer to this question.) what is the main incident? is there one of the minor incidents that could be omitted? which one could you most easily spare? what is the need of the last chapter? marmion. (rolfe's student's series, vol. .) how do you know the time of "marmion"? do you see any reason why stanza vi. of canto i. would better precede stanza v.? where is the first mention of de wilton? the first intimation of clara de clare? of constance? what form of discourse in stanza vii. of canto ii.? what part in the development of the narrative does fitz-eustace's song make? does the tale related by the host break the unity of the whole? is it "another story"? what value has it? why does scott not tell of marmion's encounter with the elfin knight in canto iii.? where is it told? why there? why is canto ii. put after canto i.? did the events related in ii. occur after those related in i.? how many of the descriptions of persons in "marmion" begin with the face? how many times are they of the face only? try to write the incident related in stanzas xix., xx., xxi., and xxii. of canto iii. in fewer words than scott has done it without sacrificing any detail. are you satisfied with the description of king james in stanza viii. canto v.? do you see him? write an outline of the plot of "marmion" in two hundred words. why is the story of lady clare reserved until canto v.? what cantos contain the main incident? were all that precedes omitted, would "the battle" be as interesting? do you think the plot good? is it complicated? what of the number of figures used in the last canto compared with those used in any other canto? do you find more in narrative or descriptive passages? why? read stanza viii. canto iii. can you describe a voice without using comparison? do the introductions to the several cantos form any part of the story? would they be just as good anywhere else? would the story be better with them, or without them? what principle of structure do they violate? exercises. the subjects for composition given below are not intended as a course to be followed, but only to suggest a plan for the work. the individual topics for essays may not be the best for all cases. long lists of topics can be found in rhetorics. bare subjects, however, are usually unsuggestive. they should be adapted to the class. put the subjects in such shape that there is something to get hold of. give the pupils a fair start. - . in order to place before the pupils good models for constructing stories, read one like "a piece of string" in "an odd number," by maupassant. stories for this purpose should not be long. talk the story over with the pupils, bringing out clearly the main incident and the several episodes which contribute to it. have them notice how characters, time, and place are introduced; and how each succeeding event is possible and natural. then have it rewritten. this will fix the idea of plan. for this purpose some of miss wilkins's stories are excellent; kenneth grahame's "the golden age," and miss jewett's short stories are good material. some of the short stories in current magazines serve well. , . read the first of a story and its close,--enough to indicate the main incident and the setting of the story. have the pupils write it complete. . read the close of a story. the pupils will then write the whole. . read the opening of a story. have the pupils complete it. . finish "the circus-man's story" (text-book, p. .) . my first algebra lesson. remember that in composition a good story is worth more than a true one. the basis may be a fact. do not hesitate to fix it up. . a delivery horse runs away. no persons are in the wagon. tell about it. . write about a runaway in which you and your little sister are injured. (i have found it very helpful to use the same subject, but having the relation of the narrator to the incident very different. it serves to bring out a whole new vocabulary in order to express the difference in the feelings of the narrator.) . write the story suggested to your mind by these words: digging in the sand i found a board much worn by the waves, on which were cut, in characters scarcely traceable, these words: "dec.---- , n. j." . a humorous incident in a street car, in which the joke was on the other fellow. . another in which the joke was on me. the same incident may be used with good effect. the choice of new words to express the difference of feelings makes an excellent exercise. . tell the story that doreas related to her neighbors about her husband's escape and her father's death. . to bring out the fact that the language must be varied to suit the character of the reader or listener, tell a fairy story to a sleepy five-year old so that he will not go to sleep. do not hesitate at exaggerations. only remember it must be consistent. . have "the gentle boy" tell one of the incidents in which he was cruelly treated. this may well be an incident of your own life adapted to its purpose. , . jim was a mean boy. meanness seemed to be in his blood. he was all mean. his hair was mean; his freckles were mean; his big, chapped hands were mean. and he was always mean. he was mean to his pets; he was meaner to small boys; and he was as mean as he dared to be to his equals in size. write one incident to show jim's meanness. write another to show how jim met his match, and learned a lesson. . work up the following into a story. it all occurs in one day at the present time. place, your own city. characters, a poor sewing girl, her little sick brother, and a wealthy society lady. incidents: a conversation between brother and sister about some fruit; a conversation between the sewing girl and the lady about money due for sewing; stealing apples; arrest; appearance of the lady. title: who was the criminal? . a story of a modern sir launfal. . the most thrilling moment of my life. . tell the whole story suggested by the stanza of "a nightingale in the study," by lowell, which begins, "cloaked shapes, a twanging of guitars." . write a story which teaches a lesson. remember that the lesson is in the story, not at its end. in the work at this time but little attention can be given to the teaching of paragraphs and sentences. the pupil should learn what a paragraph is, and should have his composition properly divided into paragraphs. but the form and massing of paragraphs cannot be taken up at this time. the same may be said of sentences. he should have no sentences broken in two by periods; nor should he have two sentences forced into one. grammatical errors should be severely criticised. however, the present work is to get the pupils started; and they cannot get started if there is a teacher holding them back by discouraging criticisms. mark all mistakes of whatever kind; but put the stress upon the whole composition: its unity, its coherence, its mass, and its movement. everything cannot be done at once; many distressing faults will have to be passed over until later. * * * * * chapter iv description difficulties of language for making pictures. description has been defined as the form of literature which presents a picture by means of language. in the preceding chapter, it has been pointed out that the sequence of language is perfectly adapted to detail the sequence of action in a narrative. for the purpose of constructing a picture, the means has serious drawbacks. the picture has to be presented in pieces; and the difficulties are much as would be experienced if "dissected maps and animals" used for children's amusement were to be put together in the head. it would not be easy to arrange the map of the united states from blocks, each containing a small part of it, taken one at a time from a box. yet this closely resembles the method language forces us to adopt in constructing a picture. each phrase is like one of the blocks, and introduces a new element into the picture; from these phrases the reader must reconstruct the whole. this means not alone that he shall remember them all, but there is a more serious trouble: he must often rearrange them. for example, a description by ruskin begins, "nine years old." either a boy or a girl, the reader thinks, as it may be in his own home. in the case of this reader it is a boy, rather tall of his age, with brown hair and dark eyes. but the next phrase reads, "neither tall nor short for her age." now the reader knows it is a girl of common stature. later on he learns that her eyes are "deep blue;" her lips "perfectly lovely in profile;" and so on through the details of the whole sketch. many times in the course of the description the reader makes up a new picture; he is continually reconstructing. any one who will observe his own mind while reading a new description can prove that the picture is arranged and rearranged many times. this is due to the means by which it is presented. language presents only a phrase at a time,--a fragment, not a whole,--and so fails in the instantaneous presentation of a complete picture. painting and sculpture. the painter or sculptor who upon canvas or in stone flashes the whole composition before us at the same instant of time, has great advantages over the worker in words. in these methods there is needed no reconstruction of previous images, no piecing together of a number of fragments. without any danger of mistakes which will have to be corrected later, the spectator can take in the whole picture at once,--every relation, every color, every difference in values. it is because pictures are the surest and quickest means of representing objects to the mind that books, especially text-books, and magazines are so profusely illustrated. no magazine can claim popularity to-day that does not use illustrations where possible; no text-book in science or history sells unless it contains pictures. and this is because all persons accurately and quickly get the idea from a picture. advantages of language. whatever be the disadvantages of language, there are some advantages. who could paint this from hawthorne? "soon the smoke ascended among the trees, impregnated with _savory incense,_ not _heavy, dull,_ and _surfeiting,_ like the steam of cookery indoors, but _sprightly_ and _piquant._ the _smell_ of our feast was akin to the woodland odors with which it mingled." ("mosses from an old manse.") or this from lowell?-- "under the yaller-pines i house, when sunshine makes 'em all _sweet-scented,_ an' _hear_ among their furry boughs the _baskin'_ west wind _purr contented,_ while 'way o'erhead, ez _sweet_ an' _low ez distant bells thet ring for meetin',_ the wedged wil' geese _their bugles blow,_ further an' further south retreatin'."[ ] or cut this from marble?-- "o mother ida, many-fountained ida, dear mother ida, hearken ere i die. for now the noonday quiet holds the hill; the grasshopper is silent in the grass; the lizard, with his shadow on the stone, rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead. the purple flower droops; the golden bee is lily-cradled; i alone awake. my eyes are full of tears, my heart of love, my heart is breaking, and my eyes are dim, and i am all aweary of my life."[ ] the painter cannot put sounds upon a canvas, nor can the sculptor carve from marble an odor or a taste. we use the other senses in determining qualities of objects; and words which describe effects produced by other senses beside sight are valuable in description. as lowell says, "we may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing" a large number of beautiful things. moreover, language suggests hidden ideas that the representative arts cannot so well do. the following from a "song" by lowell has in it suggestions which the picture could not present. "violet! sweet violet! thine eyes are full of tears; are they wet even yet with the thought of other years? or with gladness are they full, for the night so beautiful, and longing for those far-off spheres? "thy little heart, that hath with love grown colored like the sky above, on which thou lookest ever,-- can it know all the woe of hope for what returneth never, all the sorrow and the longing to these hearts of ours belonging?" enumeration and suggestion description, like narration, has two large divisions: one simply to give information or instruction; the other to present a vivid picture. one is _representative_ or _enumerative;_ the other, _suggestive._ one may be illustrated by guide-books; the other by the descriptions of stevenson or ruskin. and in the most artistic fashion the two have been made to supplement each other in the following picture of "bright and beautiful athens" by cardinal newman. from the first, to the sentence beginning "but what he would not think of," there is simply an enumeration of features which a commercial agent might see; the rest is what the artistic soul of the lover of beauty saw there. one is enumeration; the other a gloriously suggestive picture. "a confined triangle, perhaps fifty miles its greatest length, and thirty its greatest breadth; two elevated rocky barriers, meeting at an angle; three prominent mountains, commanding the plain,--parnes, pentelicus, and hymettus; an unsatisfactory soil; some streams, not always full;--such is about the report which the agent of a london company would have made of attica. he would report that the climate was mild; the hills were limestone; there was plenty of good marble; more pasture land than at first survey might have been expected, sufficient, certainly, for sheep and goats; fisheries productive; silver mines once, but long since worked out; figs fair; oil first-rate; olives in profusion. but what he would not think of noting down was that that olive-tree was so choice in nature and so noble in shape that it excited a religious veneration; and that it took so kindly to the light soil as to expand into woods upon the open plain, and to climb up and fringe the hills. he would not think of writing word to his employers, how that clear air, of which i have spoken, brought out, yet blended and subdued, the colors on the marble, till they had a softness and harmony, for all their richness, which in a picture looks exaggerated, yet is after all within the truth. he would not tell how that same delicate and brilliant atmosphere freshened up the pale olive, till the olive forgot its monotony, and its cheek glowed like the arbutus or beech of the umbrian hills. he would say nothing of the thyme and the thousand fragrant herbs which carpeted hymettus; he would hear nothing of the hum of its bees; nor take account of the rare flavor of its honey, since gaza and minorca were sufficient for the english demand. he would look over the Ã�gean from the height he had ascended; he would follow with his eyes the chain of islands, which, starting from the sunian headland, seemed to offer the fabled divinities of attica, when they would visit their ionian cousins, a sort of viaduct thereto across the sea; but that fancy would not occur to him, nor any admiration of the dark violet billows with their white edges down below; nor of those graceful, fan-like jets of silver upon the rocks, which slowly rise aloft like water spirits from the deep, then shiver, and break, and spread, and shroud themselves, and disappear in a soft mist of foam; nor of the gentle, incessant heaving and panting of the whole liquid plain; nor of the long waves, keeping steady time, like a line of soldiery as they resound upon the hollow shore,--he would not deign to notice the restless living element at all except to bless his stars that he was not upon it. nor the distinct details, nor the refined coloring, nor the graceful outline and roseate golden hue of the jutting crags, nor the bold shadows cast from otus or laurium by the declining sun;--our agent of a mercantile firm would not value these matters even at a low figure. rather, we must turn for the sympathy we seek to yon pilgrim student, come from a semi-barbarous land to that small corner of the earth, as to a shrine, where he might take his fill of gazing on those emblems and coruscations of invisible unoriginate perfection. it was the stranger from a remote province, from britain or from mauritania, who in a scene so different from that of his chilly, woody swamps, or of his fiery, choking sands, learned at once what a real university must be, by coming to understand the sort of country which was its suitable home."[ ] enumerative description. enumerative description has one point of great difference from suggestive description. in the former everything is told; in the latter the description is as fortunate in what it omits as in what it includes. were an architect to give specifications for the building of a house, every detail would have to be included; but after all the pages of careful enumeration the reader would know less of how it looked than after these few words from irving. "a large, rickety wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted 'the union hotel, by jonathan doolittle.'" so the manual training student uses five hundred words to describe in detail a box which would be thrown off with but a few words in a piece of literature. in enumerative description, one element is of as much importance as another; no special feature is made primary by the omission or subdual of other qualities. it has value in giving exact details of objects, as if for their construction, and in including an object in a class. suggestive description. suggestive description, description the aim of which is not information, but the reproduction of a picture, is the kind most employed in literature. to present a picture, not all the details should be given. the mind cannot carry them all, and, much worse, it cannot arrange them. nor is there any need for a detailed enumeration. a room has walls, floor, and ceiling; a man naturally has ears, arms, and feet. these things may be taken for granted. it is not what is common to a class that describes; it is what is individual, what takes one object out of a class. value of observation. this leads to the suggestion that _good description depends largely on accurate observation._ a selection frequently quoted, but none the less valuable because often seen, is in point here. it is the last word on the value of observation. "talent is long patience. it is a question of regarding whatever one desires to express long enough and with attention close enough to discover a side which no one has seen and which has been expressed by nobody. in everything there is something of the unexplored, because we are accustomed to use our eyes only with the thought of what has already been said concerning the thing we see. the smallest thing has in it a grain of the unknown. discover it. in order to describe a fire that flames or a tree in the plain, we must remain face to face with that fire or that tree until for us they no longer resemble any other tree or any other fire. this is the way to become original. "having, moreover, impressed upon me the fact that there are not in the whole world two grains of sand, two insects, two hands, or two noses absolutely alike, he forced me to describe a being or an object in such a manner as to individualize it clearly, to distinguish it from all other objects of the same kind. 'when you pass,' he said to me, 'a grocer seated in his doorway, a concierge smoking his pipe, a row of cabs, show me this grocer and this concierge, their attitude, all their physical appearance; suggest by the skill of your image all their moral nature, so that i shall not confound them with any other grocer or any other concierge; make me see, by a single word, wherein a cab-horse differs from the fifty others that follow or precede him.'... whatever may be the thing which one wishes to say, there is but one word for expressing it; only one verb to animate it, but one adjective to qualify it. it is essential to search for this verb, for this adjective, until they are discovered, and never to be satisfied with anything else."[ ] the point of view. with the closest observation, an author gets into his own mind what he wishes to present to another; but with this essential step taken, he is only ready to begin the work of communication. for the successful communication of a picture there are some considerations of value. and first is _the point of view._ it has much the same relation to description as the main incident has to narration. in large measure it determines what to exclude and what to include. when a writer has assumed his point of view, he must stay there, and tell not a thing more than he can see from there. it would hardly be possible for a man, telling only so much as he saw while gazing from eiffel tower into the streets below, to say that the people looked like lilliputians and that their hands were dirty. to one lying on the bank of a stream, it does not look like "a silver thread running through the landscape." things do not look the same when they are near as when at a distance. this fact has been acted upon more by the modern school of painting than ever before in art. verboeckhoven painted sheep in a marvelous way. the drawing is perfect, giving the animal to the life. still, no matter how far away the artist was standing, there are the same marvelously painted tufts of wool, showing almost the individual fibres. tufts of wool were on the sheep, and made of fibres; but no artist at twenty rods could see them. the new school gives only what actually can be seen. its first law is that each "shall draw the thing as he sees it for the god of things as they are." make no additions to what you can actually see because, as a result of experience, you know that there are some things not yet mentioned in your description; the hands may be dirty, but the man on the tower cannot see the dirt. neither make an addition simply because it sounds well; the "silver thread through the landscape" is beautiful, but, unfortunately, it is not always true. not only does distance cut out details from a picture; the fact that man sees in a straight line and not around a corner eliminates some features. in describing a house, remember that as you stand across the street from it, the back porch cannot be seen, neither can the shrubbery in the back yard. a writer would not be justified in speaking of a man's necktie, if the man he was describing were walking in front of him. in enumerative description the inside of a box may be told of; a man may be turned around, as it were; but to present a picture, only one side can be described, just as it would be shown in a photograph. any addition to what can actually be known from the point of view assumed by the author is a fault and a source of confusion. choose your point of view; stay there; and tell only what is seen from that point. moving point of view. it has been said that the point of view should not be changed. this requires one modification. it may be changed, if the reader is kept informed of the changes. if a person wished to describe an interior, he would be unable to see the whole from any one point of view. as he passed from room to room he should inform his reader of his change of position. then the description, though a unit, is a combination of several descriptions; just as the house is one, though made of dining-room, sitting-rooms, bedrooms, and attic. this kind of description is very common in books of travel, in which the author tells what he sees in passing. the thing to be remembered in writing this kind of description is to inform the reader where the author is when he writes the different parts of the description,--to give the points of view. the point of view should be stated. the point of view, whether fixed or moving, should be made clear. either it should be definitely stated, or it should be suggested by some phrase in the description. in the many examples which are quoted in this chapter, it would be well to see what it is that gives the point of view. the picture gains in distinctness when the point of view is known. the following sentences are from "the old manse;" there is no mistake here. the reader knows every move the author makes. it opens with:-- "between two tall gateposts of rough-hewn stone (the gate itself having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch) we beheld the gray front of the old parsonage terminating the vista of an avenue of black ash-trees." from the street the reader is taken to "the rear of the house," where there was "the most delightful little nook of a study that ever offered its snug seclusion to a scholar." through its window the clergyman saw the opening of the "deadly struggle between two nations." he heard the rattle of musketry, and "there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the battle smoke around this quiet house. perhaps the reader, whom i cannot help considering as my guest in the old manse and entitled to all courtesy in the way of sight-showing,--perhaps he will choose to take a nearer view of the memorable spot. we stand now on the river's brink."... "here we are, at the point where the river was crossed by the old bridge."... "the old manse! we had almost forgotten it, but will return thither through the orchard."... "what with the river, the battle-field, the orchard, and the garden, the reader begins to despair of finding his way back into the old manse. but in agreeable weather it is the truest hospitality to keep him out-of-doors. i never grew quite acquainted with my habitation till a long spell of sulky rain had confined me beneath its roof. there could not be a more sombre aspect of external nature than as then seen from the windows of my study." and so hawthorne continues through this long and beautiful description of "the old manse;" every change in the point of view is noted. mental point of view. closely connected with the physical point of view is the mood or purpose of the writer; this might be called _the mental point of view._ not everything should be told which the author could know from his position, but only those things which at the time serve his purpose. in the description already quoted from newman, the mercantile gentleman notes a large number of features which are the commercial advantages of attica; of these but three are worthy of mention by "yon pilgrim student" in giving his impression of athens as "a shrine where he might take his fill of gazing on those emblems and coruscations of invisible unoriginate perfection." the others--the soil, the streams, the climate, the limestone, the fisheries, and the silver mines--do not serve his purpose. hawthorne in the long description already mentioned has retained those features which suggest quiet and peace. such a profusion of "quiet," "half asleep," "peaceful," "unruffled," "unexcitable" words and phrases never "loitered" through forty pages of "dreamy" and "whispering" description. in the following bit from "lear," where edgar tells his blinded father how high the cliff is, only those details are included which measure distance. "how fearful and dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low! the crows and choughs that wing the midway air show scarce so gross as beetles; half way down hangs one that gathers samphire,--dreadful trade! methinks he seems no bigger than his head: the fishermen, that walk upon the beach, appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge, that on th' unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, cannot be heard so high.--i'll look no more, lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight topple down headlong." the following is from kipling's "the light that failed:"-- "what do you think of a big, red, dead city built of red sandstone, with green aloes growing between the stones, lying out neglected on honey-colored sands? there are forty dead kings there, maisie, each in a gorgeous tomb finer than all the others. you look at the palaces and streets and shops and tanks, and think that men must live there, till you find a wee gray squirrel rubbing its nose all alone in the marketplace, and a jeweled peacock struts out of a carved doorway and spreads its tail against a marble screen as fine pierced as point-lace. then a monkey--a little black monkey--walks through the main square to get a drink from a tank forty feet deep. he slides down the creepers to the water's edge, and a friend holds him by the tail, in case he should fall in. "is all that true? "i have been there and seen. then evening comes and the lights change till it's just as though you stood in the heart of a king-opal. a little before sundown, as punctually as clockwork, a big bristly wild boar, with all his family following, trots through the city gate, churning the foam on his tusks. you climb on the shoulder of a big black stone god, and watch that pig choose himself a palace for the night and stump in wagging his tail. then the night-wind gets up, and the sands move, and you hear the desert outside the city singing, 'now i lay me down to sleep,' and everything is dark till the moon rises." note how every detail introduced serves to make the city dead. dead kings, a wee gray squirrel, a little black monkey, a bristly wild boar, the night wind, and the desert singing,--these could not be seen or heard in a live city with street cars; but all serve to emphasize the fact that here is "a big, red, dead city." at the risk of over-emphasizing this point that the purpose of the author, the mental point of view of the writer, the feeling which the object gives him and which he wishes to convey to the reader, the central thought in the description, is primary, and an element that cannot be overlooked in successful description, i give another example. this point really cannot be over-emphasized: a writer cannot be too careful in selecting materials. careless grouping of incongruous matters cannot make a picture. nor does the artistic author leave the reader in doubt as to the purpose of the description; its central thought is usually suggested in the first sentence. in the quotations from shakespeare and kipling, the opening sentences are the germ of what follows. each detail seems to grow out of this sentence, and serves to emphasize it. in the following by stevenson, the paragraphs spring from the opening sentence; they explain it, they elaborate it, and they accent it. "night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of nature. what seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield. all night long he can hear nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet. it is then that the first cock crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of the night. cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on the dewy hillsides, and change to a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night. "at what inaudible summons, at what gentle touch of nature, are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to life? do the stars rain down an influence, or do we share some thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies? even shepherds and old country-folk, who are the deepest read in these arcana, have not a guess as to the means or purpose of this nightly resurrection. towards two in the morning they declare the thing takes place; and neither know nor inquire further. and at least it is a pleasant incident. we are disturbed in our slumber only, like the luxurious montaigne, 'that we may the better and more sensibly enjoy it.' we have a moment to look upon the stars. and there is a special pleasure for some minds in the reflection that we share the impulse with all outdoor creatures in our neighborhood, that we have escaped out of the bastille of civilization, and are become, for the time being, a more kindly animal and a sheep of nature's flock." ("travels with a donkey.") length of descriptions. there is one more step in the exclusion of details. this considers neither the point of view nor the purpose of the writer, but it is what is due the reader. stevenson says in one of his essays that a description which lasts longer than two minutes is never attempted in conversation. the listener cannot hold the details enumerated. the clearest statement regarding this comes from jules lemaître in a criticism upon some descriptions by emile zola which the critic says are praised by persons who have never read them. he says:-- "it has been one of the greatest literary blunders of the time to suppose that an enumeration of parts is a picture, to think that forever placing details side by side, however picturesque they may be, is able in the end to make a picture, to give us any conception of the vast spectacles in the physical universe. in reality, a written description arranges its parts in our mind only when the impression of the first features of which it is formed are remembered sufficiently, so that we can easily join the first to those which complete and end it. in short, a piece of description is ineffective if we cannot hold in mind all its details at one time. it is necessary that all the details coexist in our memory just as the parts of a painting coexist under our eye. this becomes next to impossible if the description of one definite object last over fifteen minutes of reading. the longer it is, the more obscure it becomes. the individual features fade away in proportion to the number which are presented; and for this reason one might say that we cannot see the forest for the trees. every description which is over fifty lines ceases to be clear to a mind of ordinary vigor. after that there is only a succession of fragmentary pictures which fatigues and overwhelms the reader."[ ] these, then, are the principles that guide in the choice of materials for a description. first, the point of view, whether fixed or movable, should be made clear to the reader; it should be retained throughout the description, or the change should be announced. by regard for it the writer will be guided to the exclusion of matters that could not be observed, and to the inclusion of such details as can be seen and are essential. second, the writer will keep out matters that do not contribute to his purpose, and will select only those details which assist in producing the desired impression. third, the limitations of the reader's powers advise a writer to be brief: five hundred words should be the outside; two hundred are enough for most writers. these principles will give to the whole that unity of materials and of structure which is the first requisite of an effective description. the next matter for consideration is the arrangement of the materials. the arrangement depends on the principles that guided in narration, mass and coherence. arrangement of details in description. after we have looked at any object long enough to be able to write about it, one feature comes to assume an importance that sets it far above all others. to a writer who has looked long at a man, he may shrink to a cringing piece of weakness, or he may grow to a strong, self-centred power whose presence alone inspires serenest trust. hawthorne, standing in st. peter's, saw only the gorgeous coloring; proportions, immensity, and sacredness were as nothing to the harmonious brilliancy of this expanded "jewel casket."[ ] stevenson, thinking of the beast of burden best suited to carry his great sleeping sack, discarded the horse, for, as he says, "she is a fine lady among animals."[ ] the description of a horse which follows this statement emphasizes the fact that a horse is not intended for carrying burdens. from the germinal impression of a description, all the details grow; to this primary impression they all contribute. in the case of buildings, or other things material, this impression is generally one of form, sometimes of the height of the object; if striking, it may be color. the strongest impression of persons is a quality of character which shows itself either in the face or in the pose of a man. an example of each may be found in the following paragraphs from "david copperfield:"-- "at length we stopped before a very old house bulging out over the road; a house with long, low lattice-windows bulging out still farther, and beams with carved heads on the ends bulging out too, so that i fancied the whole house was leaning forward, trying to see who was passing on the narrow pavement below. it was quite spotless in its cleanliness. the old-fashioned brass knocker on the low-arched door, ornamented with carved garlands of fruits and flowers, twinkled like a star; the two stone steps descending to the door were as white as if they had been covered with fair linen; and all the angles and corners, and carvings and mouldings, and quaint little panes of glass, and quainter little windows, though as old as the hills, were as pure as any snow that ever fell upon the hills. "when the pony-chaise stopped at the door, and my eyes were intent upon the house, i saw a cadaverous face appear at a small window on the ground floor (in a little round tower that formed one side of the house), and quickly disappear. the low arched door then opened, and the face came out. it was quite as cadaverous as it had looked in the window, though in the grain of it there was that tinge of red which is sometimes to be observed in the skins of red-haired people. it belonged to a red-haired person--a youth of fifteen, as i take it now, but looking much older whose hair was cropped as close as the closest stubble; who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown; so unsheltered and unshaded that i remember wondering how he went to sleep. he was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neck cloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand, which particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at the pony's head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us in the chaise." hawthorne thus begins his description of "the house of the seven gables:"-- "maule's lane, or pyncheon street, as it were now more decorous to call it, was thronged, at the appointed hour, as with a congregation on its way to church. all, as they approached, looked upward at the imposing edifice, which was henceforth to assume its rank among the habitations of mankind." and in the same volume his description of "the pyncheon of to-day" begins:-- "as the child went down the steps, a gentleman ascended them, and made his entrance into the shop. it was the portly, and, had it possessed the advantage of a little more height, would have been the stately figure of a man, considerably in the decline of life, dressed in a black suit of some thin stuff, resembling broadcloth as closely as possible." if the description be long, and the object will lend itself to such a treatment, a definite, tangible, easily understood shape or form should be suggested at once. notice newman's first sentence describing attica: "a confined triangle, perhaps fifty miles its greatest length, and thirty its greatest breadth." like this is the beginning of the description of the battle of waterloo by victor hugo. "those who would get a clear idea of the battle of waterloo have only to lay down upon the ground in their mind a capital letter a. the left stroke of the a is the road to nivelles, the right stroke is the road from genappe, the cross of the a is the sunken road from ohain to braine l'alleud. the top of the a is mont saint jean, wellington is there; the left-hand lower point is hougomont, reille is there with jerome bonaparte; the right-hand lower point is la belle alliance, napoleon is there. a little below the point where the cross of the a meets and cuts the right stroke, is la haie sainte. at the middle of this cross is the precise point where the final battle word was spoken. there the lion is placed, the involuntary symbol of the supreme heroism of the imperial guard. the triangle contained at the top of the a, between the two strokes and the cross, is the plateau of mont saint jean. the struggle for this plateau was the whole of the battle."[ ] in "the vision of sir launfal" lowell opens his beautiful description with the words, "and what is so rare as a day in june?" from this general and comprehensive sentence follow all the details which make a june day perfect. hawthorne, after telling how he happened to write of him, begins his long description of "the old apple dealer" with the following paragraph:-- "he is a small man, with gray hair and gray stubble beard, and is invariably clad in a shabby surtout of snuff color, closely buttoned, and half concealing a pair of gray pantaloons; the whole dress, though clean and entire, being evidently flimsy with much wear. his face, thin, withered, furrowed, and with features which even age has failed to render impressive, has a frost-bitten aspect. it is a moral frost which no physical warmth or comfortableness could counteract. the summer sunshine may fling its white heat upon him, or the good fire of the depot room may make him the focus of its blaze on a winter's day; but all in vain; for still the old man looks as if he were in a frosty atmosphere, with scarcely warmth enough to keep life in the region about his heart. it is a patient, long-suffering, quiet, hopeless, shivering aspect. he is not desperate,--that, though its etymology implies no more, would be too positive an expression,--but merely devoid of hope. as all his past life, probably, offers no spots of brightness to his memory, so he takes his present poverty and discomfort as entirely a matter of course; he thinks it the definition of existence, so far as himself is concerned, to be poor, cold, and uncomfortable. it may be added, that time has not thrown dignity as a mantle over the old man's figure: there is nothing venerable about him: you pity him without a scruple." so this old apple dealer shivers all through this description of nine pages to the last sentences:-- "god be praised, were it only for your sake, that the present shapes of human existence are not cast in iron nor hewn in everlasting adamant, but moulded of the vapors that vanish away while the essence flits upward to the infinite. there is a spiritual essence in this gray and lean old shape that shall flit upward too. yes; doubtless there is a region where the lifelong shiver will pass away from his being, and that quiet sigh, which it has taken him so many years to breathe, will be brought to a close for good and all." the prominent characteristic may be the feeling aroused by the object. it may be horror, as in a description of a haunted house or a murderer; it may be love, as in the picture of an old home or a sainted mother. the emotion occasioned is often mentioned or suggested at once, and the details are afterward given which have called forth the feeling. poe uses this in the first paragraph of "the house of usher." "during the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, i had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy house of usher. i know not how it was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, _a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit._ i say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. i looked upon the scene before me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain--upon the bleak walls--upon the vacant, eye-like windows--upon a few rank sedges--and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees--with an utter depression of soul which i can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of a reveler upon opium--the bitter lapse into every-day life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. there was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.... it was, possible, i reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, i reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows." and one may see from looking back at the illustrations given that the dominant impression which gives the character to the whole description, this leading quality which is the essence of the whole, usually stands at the very beginning, and to it all the succeeding details cling. the end of a description. the end of a description is equally as important as the opening. in most descriptions, whether short or long, the most important detail, the detail that emphasizes most the general feeling of the whole, stands at the end. if the description be short, the necessity of a comprehensive opening statement is not imperative,--indeed, it may be made so formal and ostentatious when compared with the rest of the description as to be ridiculous; yet even in the short description some important detail should close it. in a long description the repetition of the opening statement in a new form sometimes stands at the end. if the description be of movement or change, the end will be the climax of the movement, the result of the change. in the examples already given there are illustrations of the methods of closing. in each case, there is an important detail or an artistic repetition of the general impression. many examples of short characterization can be found in all narratives. in irving's description of ichabod crane, the next to the last sentence gives the significant detail, and the last gives another general impression. it reads:-- "the cognomen of crane was not inapplicable to his person. he was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. his head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew." ("the legend of sleepy hollow.") so far this is but an amplification of his likeness to a crane; certainly "a long snipe nose" "upon his spindle neck" is the most important detail. next the author gives another general impression:-- "to see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield." the following is from "the house of usher:"-- "shaking off from my spirit what _must_ have been a dream, i scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. the discoloration of ages had been great. minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. no portion of the masonry had fallen, and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. in this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. beyond this indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of instability. perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn." in this every detail emphasizes the "excessive antiquity" of the house; and on reading the story there is no question of the importance of the "barely perceptible fissure." thereby hangs the tale. the two following are descriptions of dawn, of change; they have marked climaxes. the first is by edward everett, the second by stevenson. the similarity in choice of words and in the feelings of the men is remarkable. "such was the glorious spectacle as i entered the train. as we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister-beams of the pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations of the west and north remained unchanged. steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into the glories of dawn. the blue sky now turned more softly gray; the great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. faint streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above in one great ocean of radiance, till at length, as we reached the blue hills, a flash of purple blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. in a few seconds, the everlasting gates of morning were thrown wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, began his state." ("the uses of astronomy.") "at last she began to be aware of a wonderful revolution, compared to which the fire of mittwalden palace was but a crack and flash of a percussion cap. the countenance with which the pines regarded her began insensibly to change; the grass, too, short as it was, and the whole winding staircase of the brook's course, began to wear a solemn freshness of appearance. and this slow transfiguration reached her heart, and played upon it, and transpierced it with a serious thrill. she looked all about; the whole face of nature looked back, brimful of meaning, finger on lip, leaking its glad secret. she looked up. heaven was almost emptied of stars. such as still lingered shone with a changed and waning brightness, and began to faint in their stations. and the color of the sky itself was most wonderful; for the rich blue of the night had now melted and softened and brightened; and there had succeeded a hue that has no name, and that is never seen but as the herald of the morning. 'oh!' she cried, joy catching at her voice, 'oh! it is the dawn!' "in a breath she passed over the brook, and looped up her skirts and fairly ran in the dim alleys. as she ran, her ears were aware of many pipings, more beautiful than music; in the small, dish-shaped houses in the fork of giant arms, where they had lain all night, lover by lover, warmly pressed, the bright-eyed, big-hearted singers began to awaken for the day. her heart melted and flowed forth to them in kindness. and they, from their small and high perches in the clerestories of the wood cathedral, peered down sidelong at the ragged princess as she flitted below them on the carpet of the moss and tassel. "soon she had struggled to a certain hilltop, and saw far before her the silent inflooding of the day. out of the east it welled and whitened; the darkness trembled into light; and the stars were extinguished like the street-lamps of a human city. the whiteness brightened into silver; the silver warmed into gold, and the gold kindled into pure and living fire; and the face of the east was barred with elemental scarlet. the day drew its first long breath, steady and chill; and for leagues around the woods sighed and shivered. and then, at one bound the sun had floated up; and her startled eyes received day's first arrow, and quailed under the buffet. on every side, the shadows leaped from their ambush and fell prone. the day was come, plain and garish; and up the steep and solitary eastern heaven, the sun, victorious over his competitors, continued slowly and royally to mount." ("prince otto.") proportion. one thing further should be said regarding mass. not everything can stand first or last; some important details must be placed in the midst of a description. these particulars will not be of equal importance. the more important details may be given their proportionate emphasis by relatively increasing the length of their treatment. if one detail is more important than another, it requires more to be said about it; unimportant matters should be passed over with a word. proportion in the length of treatment is a guide to the relative importance of the matters introduced into a description. in the description of "the house of usher," position emphasizes the barely perceptible fissure. proportion singles out the crumbling condition of the individual stones and makes this detail more emphatic than either the discoloration or the fungi. and in newman's description, the olive-tree, the brilliant atmosphere, the thyme, the bees, all add to the charms of bright and beautiful athens; but most of all the Ã�gean, with its chain of islands, its dark violet billows, its jets of silver, the heaving and panting of its long waves,--the restless living element fascinates and enraptures "yon pilgrim student." position and proportion are the means of emphasis in a paragraph of description. arrangement must be natural. having settled the massing of the description, the next matter for consideration is the arrangement. in order that the parts of a description may be coherent, hold together, they should be arranged in the order in which they would naturally be perceived. what strikes the eye of the beholder as most important, often the general characteristic of the whole, should be mentioned first; and the details should follow as they are seen. in a building, the usual way of observing and describing is from foundation to turret stone. a landscape may be described by beginning with what is near and extending the view; this is common. sometimes the very opposite plan is pursued; or one may begin on either hand and advance toward the other. of a person near by, the face is the first thing observed; for it is there that his character can be best discovered. afterward details of clothing follow as they would naturally be noticed. if a person be at a distance his pose and carriage would be about all that could be seen; as he approaches, the other details would be mentioned as they came into view. to arrange details in the order in which they are naturally observed will result in an association in the description of the details that are contiguous in the objects. jumping about in a description is a source of confusion. how entirely it may ruin a paragraph can be estimated by the effect upon this single sentence, "he was tall, with feet that might have served for shovels, narrow shoulders, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, long arms and legs, and his whole frame most loosely hung together." this rearrangement makes but a disjointed and feeble impression; and the reason is entirely that an order in which no person ever observed a man has been substituted for the commonest order,--from head to foot. arrange details so that the parts which are contiguous shall be associated in the description, and proceed in the order in which the details are naturally observed. the following is by irving; he is describing the stage-coachman:-- "he has commonly a broad, full face, curiously mottled with red, as if the blood had been forced by hard feeding into every vessel of the skin; he is swelled into jolly dimensions by frequent potations of malt liquors, and his bulk is still further increased by a multiplicity of coats, in which he is buried like a cauliflower, the upper one reaching to his heels. he wears a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat; a huge roll of colored handkerchief about his neck, knowingly knotted and tucked in at the bosom; and has in summer time a large bouquet of flowers in his buttonhole, the present, most probably, of some enamored country lass. his waistcoat is commonly of some bright color, striped, and his small-clothes extend far below the knees, to meet a pair of jockey boots which reach about half way up his legs."[ ] use familiar images. when the materials have been selected and arranged, the hardest part of the work has been done. it now remains to express in language the picture. a few suggestions regarding the kind of language will be helpful. the writer must always bear in mind the fact that in constructing a mental picture each reader does it from the images he already possesses. "quaint arabesques" is without meaning to many persons; and until the word has been looked up in the dictionary, and the picture seen there, the beautiful line of "sir launfal" suggests no image whatever. so when stevenson speaks of the birds in the "clerestories of the wood cathedral," the image is not distinct in the mind of a young american. supposing a pupil in california were asked to describe an orange to an esquimau. he might say that it is a spheroid about the size of an apple, and the color of one of lorraine's sunsets. this would be absolutely worthless to a child of the frigid zone. had he been told that an orange was about the size of a snowball, much the color of the flame of a candle, that the peeling came off like the skin from a seal, and that the inside was good to eat, he would have known more of this fruit. the images which lie in our minds and from which we construct new pictures are much like the blocks that a child-builder rearranges in many different forms; but the blocks do not change. from them he may build a castle or a mill; yet the only difference is a difference in arrangement. so it is with the pictures we build up in imagination: our castle in spain we have never seen, but the individual elements which we associate to lift up this happy dwelling-place are the things we know and have seen. a reader creates nothing new; all he does is to rearrange in his own mind the images already familiar. only so may he pass from the known to the unknown. the fact that we construct pictures of what we read from those images already in our minds warns the writer against using materials which those for whom he writes could not understand. it compels him to select definite images, and it urges him to use the common and the concrete. it frequently drives him to use comparisons. use of comparisons. to represent the extremely bare and unornamented appearance of a building, one might write, "it looked like a great barn," or "it was a great barn." in either case the image would be definite, common, and concrete. in both cases there is a comparison. in the first, where the comparison is expressed, there is a _simile;_ in the second, where the comparison is only implied, there is a _metaphor._ these two figures of speech are very common in description, and it is because they are of great value. one other is sometimes used,--_personification,_ which ascribes to inanimate things the attributes of life which are the property of animate nature. what could be happier than this by stevenson: "all night long he can hear nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles"? or this, "a faint sound, more like a moving coolness than a stream of air"? and at the end of the chapter which describes his "night under the pines," he speaks of the "tapestries" and "the inimitable ceiling" and "the view which i command from the windows." in this one chapter are personification, simile, metaphor,--all comparisons, and doing what could hardly be done without them. common, distinct, concrete images are surest. choice of words. adjectives and nouns. to body forth these common, distinct, concrete images calls for a discriminating choice of words; for in the choice of words lies a large part of the vividness of description. if the thing described be unknown to the reader, it requires the right word to place it before him; if it be common, still must the right word be found to set it apart from the thousand other objects of the same class. the words that may justly be called describing words are adjectives and nouns; and of these the adjective is the first descriptive word. the rule that a writer should never use two adjectives where one will do, and that he should not use one if a noun can be found that completely expresses the thought, is a good one to follow. one certain stroke of the crayon is worth a hundred lines, each approaching the right one. one word, the only one, will tell the truth more vividly than ten that approach its expression. for it must be remembered that a description must be done quickly; every word that is used and does nothing is not only a waste of time, but is actually in the way. in a description every word must count. it may be a comparison, an epithet, personification, or what not, but whatever method is adopted, the right word must do it quickly. how much depends on the nice choice of words may be seen by a study of the selections already quoted; and especially by a careful reading of those by stevenson and everett. to show the use of adjectives and nouns in description, the following from kipling is a good illustration. toomai had just reached the elephants' "ball-room" when he saw-- "white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears; fat, slow-footed she-elephants, with restless pinky-black calves only three or four feet high, running under their stomachs; young elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very proud of them; lanky, scraggy, old-maid elephants, with their hollow, anxious faces, and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull-elephants, scarred from shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of by-gone fights, and the caked dirt of their solitary mud bath dropping from their shoulders; and there was one with a broken tusk and the marks of the full-stroke, the terrible drawing scrape of a tiger's claw on his side."[ ] one third of the words in this paragraph are descriptive nouns and adjectives, none of which the reader wishes to change. use of verbs. verbs also have a great value in description. in the paragraph picturing the dawn, stevenson has not neglected the verbs. "welled," "whitened," "trembled," "brightened," "warmed," "kindled," and so on through the paragraph. try to change them, and it is apparent that something is lost by any substitution. kaa, the python, "_pours_ himself along the ground." if he is angry, "baloo and bagheera could see the big swallowing-muscles on either side of kaa's throat _ripple_ and _bulge._" yet in the choice of words, one may search for the bizarre and unusual rather than for the truly picturesque. stevenson at times seems to have lapsed. when he says that modestine would feel a switch "more _tenderly_ than my cane;" that he "must _instantly_ maltreat this uncomplaining animal," meaning constantly; and at another place that he "had to labor so _consistently_ with" his stick that the sweat ran into his eyes, there is a suspicion of a desire for the sensational rather than the direct truth. on the other hand, the beginner finds himself using words that have lost, their meaning through indiscriminate usage. "awful good," "awful pretty," and "awful sweet" mean something less than good, pretty, and sweet. "lovely," "dear," "splendid," "unique," and a large number of good words have been much dulled by the ignorant use of babblers. superlatives and all words denoting comparison should be used with stinginess. one cannot afford to part with this kind of coin frequently; the cheaper coins should be used, else he will find an empty purse when need arises. thackeray has this: "her voice was the sweetest, low song." how much better this, her voice was a sweet, low song. all the world is shut out from this, while in the former he challenges the world by the comparison. shakespeare was wiser when he made lear say,-- "her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low,--an excellent thing in woman." avoid words which have lost their meaning by indiscriminate use; shun the sensational and the bizarre; use superlatives with economy; but in all you do, whether in unadorned or figurative language, choose the word that is quick and sure and vivid--the one word that exactly suggests the picture. suggestive questions and exercises questions. the old manse. (riverside literature series, no. .) are there narrative portions in "the old manse"? paragraphs of exposition? do you term the whole narration, description, or exposition? why? frame a sentence which you think would be an adequate topic sentence for the whole piece. what phrase in the first paragraph allows the author to begin the second with the words, "nor, in truth, had the old manse," etc.? where in the second paragraph is found the words which are the source of "my design," mentioned in the third? how does the author pass from the fourth paragraph to the fifth? in the same way note the connections between the succeeding paragraphs. they are most skillfully dovetailed together. now make a list of the phrases in the first fifteen pages which introduce paragraphs, telling from what in the preceding paragraph each new paragraph springs. do you think that such a felicitous result just happened? or did hawthorne plan it? does hawthorne generally introduce his descriptions by giving the feeling aroused by the object described, a method very common with poe? in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of p. , what do you think of the selection of material? what have guided in the inclusion and exclusion of details? write a paragraph upon this topic: there could not be a more joyous aspect of external nature than as seen from the windows of my study just after the passing of a cooling shower. be careful to select things that have been made happy, and to use adjectives and nouns that are full of joy. make a list of the words used to describe "the old apple dealer." has this description unity? what relation to the whole has the first sentence of paragraph three? the last? do you think there is a grammatical error in the third sentence of this paragraph? by contrasts to what has hawthorne brought out better the character of the apple dealer? when can contrasts help? an indian-summer reverie, and other poems. (riverside literature series, no. .) in this poem what purpose is served by the first two stanzas? where in the landscape does the author begin? which way does he progress? quote stanzas in which other senses than sight are called upon. make a list of the figures of speech. how many similes? metaphors? examples of personification? which seems most effective? which instance of its use do you prefer? has lowell used too many figures? read "the oak," "the dandelion," and "al fresco." are they description or exposition? do they bear out lowell's estimate of himself? the sketch-book. (riverside literature series, nos. , .) why has irving given four pages to the description of sleepy hollow before he introduces ichabod crane? why, then, seven pages to ichabod before the story begins? what gives the peculiar interest to this tale? in the "legend of sleepy hollow" how many paragraphs of description close with an important detail? in how many with a general characterization? in all the descriptions of buildings by irving that you have read, what are the first things mentioned,--size, shape, color, or what? make a list, so as to be sure. does irving use many comparisons? are the likenesses to common things? select the ten you think best. are there more in narrative or descriptive passages? what do you gather from this fact? in "christmas day," on p. (r. l. s., no. ), does irving proceed from far to near in the landscape? is this common? find another example. how has irving emphasized the littleness of the minister described on p. (r. l. s., no. )? the fall of the house of usher. (riverside literature series, no. .) is the arrangement of the details in the last two lines of the first paragraph stronger than the arrangement of the same details on p. ? why, or why not? in the description of the hall, pp. and , do the details produce the effect upon you which they did upon poe? find a description in this piece which closes with an important detail. is usher described at all when poe says, "i gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, half of awe"? do the details enumerated arouse such feelings in you? would the feeling have been called forth if it had not been suggested by poe? is there, then, any advantage in this method of opening a description? what good was done by describing usher as poe knew him in youth? why is the parenthetical clause on p. necessary? on p. , should poe write "previously to its final interment"? what do you think of the length of the sentence quoted on p. ? does poe use description to accent the mood of the narrative, or to make concrete the places and persons? why is "the haunted palace" introduced into the story? is this story as good as "the gold-bug"? silas marner. (riverside literature series, no. .) why is not the early history of silas marner related first in the story? by what steps has the author approached the definite time? from the fragments about his appearance, do you get a clear idea of how marner looks? do you approve this method of scattering the description along through the story? write a description of marner on the night he was going to the tavern. could not the quarrel between godfrey and dunsey been omitted? describe the interior of marner's cottage. why should sally oates and her dropsy be admitted to the story? do you know as well how george eliot's characters look as how they think and feel? what do you think of the last sentence of chapter iv.? why does not chapter v. go on with dunsey's story? why is chapter vi. introduced at all? what of its close? what figure in the last sentence of chapter x.? would you prefer to know how tall eppie was, what kind of clothes she wore, etc., to the knowledge you gain of her on p. ? suppose that dunsey came home the night he staked wildfire, recite the conversation between him and godfrey. have dolly winthrop, priscilla lammeter, and mr. macey talk over "the new minister." write on "what i see in george eliot's face." the deserted village. (riverside literature series, no. .) is this piece description or exposition? in the first stanza where is the topic sentence? the author has made two groups of charms. would it be as well to change them about? give your reasons. where has he used the ear instead of the eye to suggest his picture? is it clear? what method is adopted in lines - ? see also lines - . can you unite the paragraphs on p. ? why do you think so? could you suggest a new arrangement of details in lines - that would be as good as the present? what are the last four lines for? exercises. enumerative description may well employ a few lessons. in it accuracy of detail must be studied, and every detail must be introduced. . the teacher's desk. . write a letter to a carpenter giving details for the construction of a small bookcase. . by telling how you made it, describe a camp, a kite, a dress, or a cake. narration may be employed for the purpose of description. a good example may be found in "robinson crusoe" in the chapter describing his home after the shipwreck. . describe an unfurnished room. shape, size, position, and number of windows, the fireplace, etc., should be definite. be sure to give the point of view. to say "on my right hand," "in front of me," or any similar phrases means nothing unless the reader knows where you are. in these exercises the pupil will doubtless employ the paragraph of particulars. this is the most common in description. other forms are valuable. . using a paragraph telling what it was not, finish this: i followed the great singer to her home. imagine my surprise in finding that the house in which this lady lived was not a home of luxury and splendor,--not even a home of comfort. go on with the details of a home of luxury which were _not_ there. finish with what you did see. this is really a description of two houses set in artistic contrast to heighten the effect. remember you are outside. . by the use of comparison finish this: the home of my poor little friend was but little better than a barn. choose only such details as emphasize the barn-like appearance of the home. there is but one room. remember where you are standing; and keep in mind the effect you wish to produce. . using a moving point of view, describe an interior. do not have too many rooms. . furnish the room described in number four to suit your taste. tell how it looks. remember that a few things give character to a room. . describe your childhood's home as it would look to you after years of absence. . using a paragraph of the obverse, describe the appearance of the house from which you were driven by the cruelty of a drunken father. . describe a single tree standing alone in a field. it will be well for the teacher to read to the class some descriptions of trees,--lowell's "birch" and "oak," "under the willows," and some stanzas from "an indian summer reverie." holmes has some good paragraphs on trees in "the autocrat." any good tree descriptions will help pupils to do it better than they can without suggestion. they should describe their own tree, however. . describe some single flower growing wild. read lowell's "dandelion," "violet, sweet violet," wordsworth's "daisy," "the daffodils," "the small celandine," and burns's "daisy." these do not so much describe as they arouse a feeling of love for the flowers which will show itself in the composition. . describe a view of a lake. if possible, have your point of view above the lake and use the paragraph of comparison. . describe a landscape from a single point of view. read curtis's "my castles in spain" from "prue and i," many descriptions in "an inland voyage" by stevenson, and "bay street" by bliss carman in "the atlantic monthly." . describe your first view of a small cluster of houses or a small town. . approach the town, describing its principal features. keep the reader informed as to where you are. . describe a dog of your own. . describe a dog of your neighbor's. before the description is undertaken read "our dogs" and "rab" by dr. brown; "a dog of flanders" by ouida. scott has some noble fellows in his novels. . describe a flock of chickens. there are good descriptions of chickens in "the house of the seven gables" and in "sketches" by dickens. . describe the burning of your own home. be careful not to narrate. . describe a stranger you met on the street to-day. it is easier to describe a person if you and the person you describe move toward each other. remember that you begin the description at a distance. details should be mentioned as they actually come into view. . describe your father in his favorite corner at home. . describe a person you do not like, by telling what he is not. . describe a person you admire, but are not acquainted with, using the paragraph of comparisons. . describe a picture. it would be well to have at the end of this year four or five stories written, in which description plays a part. its principal use is to give the setting to the story, to give concreteness to the characters, and to accent the mood of the story. most passages of description are short. rarely will any pupil write over three hundred words. one hundred are often better. the short composition gives an opportunity for the study of accuracy of expression. what details to include; in what order to arrange them that they produce the best effect, both of vividness and naturalness; and the influence of the point of view and the purpose of the author on the unity of description should be kept constantly present in the exercises. careful attention should be paid to choice of words, for on right words depends in a large degree the vividness of a description. right words in well-massed paragraphs of vivid description should be the object this term. * * * * * chapter v exposition so far we have studied discourse which deals with things,--things active, doing something, considered under the head of narration; and things at rest, and pictured, considered in description. now we come to exposition, which deals with ideas either separately or in combinations. instead of mr. smith's horse, exposition treats of the general term, horse. "the great stone face" may have taught a lesson by its story, but the discussion of the value of lofty ideals is a subject for exposition. general terms difficult. that general terms and propositions are harder to get hold of than concrete facts is readily apparent in the first reading of an author like emerson. to a young person it means little. yet when he puts in the place of the general terms some specific examples, and so verifies the statements, the general propositions have a mine of meaning, and "the sense of the author is as broad as the world." this stanza from lowell is but little suggestive to young readers:-- "such earnest natures are the fiery pith, the compact nucleus, round which systems grow! mass after mass becomes inspired therewith, and whirls impregnate with the central glow."[ ] yet when columbus and luther and garrison are mentioned as illustrations of the meaning, it becomes world-wide in its application. still in order to get at the thought, there is first the need of the specific and the concrete; afterward we pass to the general and the abstract. as abstract ideas are harder to get hold of than concrete facts, so exposition has difficulties greater than those found in narration and description. it is not so hard to tell what belongs in a story; the events are all distinct. nor is it so difficult to know what to include in a description; one can look and see. in exposition this is not so. in most minds ideas do not have distinct limits; the edges rather are indistinct. it is hard to tell where the idea stops. in writing of "the uses of coal," it is easy to wander over an indistinct boundary and to take a survey of "the origin of coal." not only may one include what unquestionably should be excluded, but there is no definite guide to the arrangement of the materials, such as was found in narration. there a sequence of time was an almost infallible rule; here the writer must search carefully how to arrange hazy ideas in some effective form. as discourse comes to deal more with general ideas, the difficulties of writing increase; and the difficulties are not due to any new principles of structure which must be introduced. when one says that the material should be selected according to the familiar law of unity, he has given the guiding principle. yet the real difficulty is still before an author: it is to decide what stamp to put upon such elusive matter as ideas. they cannot be kept long enough in the twilight of consciousness to analyze them; and often ideas that have been marked "accepted" have, upon reëxamination, to be "rejected." to examine ideas--the material used in this form of discourse--so thoroughly that they may be accurately, definitely known in their backward relation and their bearing upon what follows, this is the seat of the difficulty in exposition. exposition may conveniently be classified into exposition of a term, or definition; and exposition of a proposition, which is generally suggested by the term exposition. definition. definition of a word means giving its limits or boundaries. of man it might be said that it is a living animal, having a strong bony skeleton; that this skeleton consists of a trunk from which extend four limbs, called arms and legs, and is surmounted by a bony cavity, called a skull; that the skeleton protects the vital organs, and is itself covered by a muscular tissue which moves the bones and gives a rounded beauty to their ugliness; that man has a highly developed nervous system, the centre of which is the brain placed in the skull. so a person might go on for pages, enumerating the attributes which, taken together, make up the general idea of man. exposition and description distinguished. this sort of exposition is very near description; indeed, were the purpose different, it would be description. the purpose, however, is not to tell how an individual looks, but to place the object in a class. it is therefore not description, but exposition. moreover, the method is different. in description those characteristics are given that distinguish the object from the rest of the class; while in exposition those qualities are selected which are common to all objects of its class. logical definition. on account of the length of the definition by an enumeration of all the attributes, it is not frequently used except in long treatises. for it there has been substituted what is called a _logical definition._ instead of naming all the characteristics of an object, a logical definition groups many attributes under one general term, and then adds a quality which distinguishes the object from the others of the general class. man has been defined as the "reasoning animal." in this definition a large number of attributes have been gathered together in the general term "animal;" then man is separated from the whole class "animal" by the word "reasoning." a logical definition consists, then, of two parts: the general term naming the genus, and the limiting term naming the distinguishing attribute called the differentia. genus and differentia. genus and differentia are found in every good definition. the _genus_ should be a term more general than the term defined. "man is a person who reasons" is a poor definition; because "person" is no more general than "man." "a canine is a dog that is wild" is very bad, because "dog," the general term in the definition, is less general than the word defined. however, to say that "a dog is a canine that has been domesticated," is a definition in which the genus is more general than the term defined. next, the genus should be a term well understood. "man is a mammal who reasons" is all right, in having a genus more general than the term defined, but the definition fails with many because "mammal" is not well understood. "botany is that branch of biology which treats of plant life" has in it the same error. "biology" is not so well understood as "botany," though it is a more general term. in cases of this sort, the writer should go farther toward the more general until he finds a term perfectly clear to all. "man is an animal that reasons," "botany is the branch of science that treats of plant life," would both be easily understood. the genus should be a term better understood than the term defined; and it should be a term more general than the term defined. a definition may be faulty in its _differentia_ also. the differentia is that part of a definition which names the difference between the term defined and the general class to which it belongs. "man is a reasoning animal." "animal" names the general class, and "reasoning" is the differentia which separates "man" from other "animals." on the selection of this limiting word depends the accuracy of the definition. "man is an animal that walks," or "that has hands," or "that talks," are all faulty; because bears walk, monkeys have hands, and parrots talk. supposing the following definitions were given: "a cat is an animal that catches rats and mice;" "a rose is a flower that bears thorns;" "gold is a metal that is heavy;" all would be faulty because the differentia in each is faulty. notice, too, the definitions of "dog" and "canine" already given. even "man is a reasoning animal" may fail; since many men declare that other animals reason. the differentia should include all the members that the term denotes, and it should exclude all that it does not denote. requisites of a good definition. the requisites of a good definition are: first, that it shall include or denote all the members of the class; second, that it shall exclude everything which does not belong to its class; third, that the words used in the definition shall be better understood than the word defined; fourth, that it shall be brief. a definition may perfectly expound a term; and because of the very qualities that make it a good definition, accuracy and brevity, it may be almost valueless to the ordinary reader. for instance, this definition, "an acid is a substance, usually sour and sharp to the taste, that changes vegetable blue colors to red, and, combining with an earth, an alkali, or a metallic oxide, forms a salt," would not generally be understood. so it frequently becomes necessary to do more than give a definition in order to explain the meaning of a term. this brings us to the study of exposition, as it is generally understood, in which all the resources of language are called into service to explain a term or a proposition. how do men explain? first, by repetition. what, then, are the methods of explaining a proposition? first, _a proposition may be explained by the repetition of the thought in some other form._ to be effective, repetition must add something to what has been said; the words used may be more specific or they may be more general. for example, "a strong partisan may not be a good citizen. the stanchest republican may by reason of a blind adherence to party be working an injury to the country he loves. indeed, one can easily conceive a body of men so devoted to a theory, beautiful though it may be in many respects, that they stand in the way of the world's progress." the second sentence repeats the thought of the first in more specific terms; the third repeats it in more general terms. the specific may be explained by the general; more often the general is cleared up by the specific. in either case, the proposition must be brought one step nearer to the reader by the restatement, or the repetition is not good. speaking of written or printed words, barrett wendell writes:-- "in themselves, these black marks are nothing but black marks more or less regular in appearance. modern english type and script are rather simple to the eye. old english and german are less so; less so still, hebrew and chinese. but all alphabets present to the eye pretty obvious traces of regularity; in a written or printed page the same mark will occur over and over again. this is positively all we see,--a number of marks grouped together and occasionally repeated. a glance at a mummy-case, an old-fashioned tea-chest, a hebrew bible, will show us all that any eye can ever see in a written or printed document. the outward and visible body of style consists of a limited number of marks which, for all any reader is apt to know, are purely arbitrary." ("english composition.") in this paragraph every sentence is a repetition of some part of the opening or topic sentence, and serves to explain it. second, by telling the obverse. second, _a proposition may be explained by telling what it is not._ at times this is as valuable as telling what it is. care should be taken that the thing excluded or denied have some likeness to the proposition or term being explained; that the two be really in some danger of being confused. unless to a hopelessly ignorant person, it would not explain anything to say "a horse is not a man;" but to assert that "a whale is not a fish, though they have many points in common," would prepare the way for an explanation of what a whale is. the obverse statement is nearly always followed by a repetition of what the thing is. the following from newman illustrates the method: "now what is theology? first, i will tell you what it is not. and here, in the first place (though of course i speak on the subject as a catholic), observe that, strictly speaking, i am not assuming that catholicism is true, while i make myself the champion of theology. catholicism has not formally entered into my argument hitherto, nor shall i just now assume any principle peculiar to it, for reasons which will appear in the sequel, though of course i shall use catholic language. neither, secondly, will i fall into the fashion of the day, of identifying natural theology with physical theology; which said physical theology is a most jejune study, considered as a science, and really no science at all, for it is ordinarily no more than a series of pious or polemical remarks upon the physical world viewed religiously, whereas the word 'natural' comprehends man and society, and all that is involved therein, as the great protestant writer, dr. butler, shows us. nor, in the third place, do i mean by theology polemics of any kind; for instance, what are called 'evidences of religion,' or 'the christian evidences.'... nor, fourthly, do i mean by theology that vague thing called 'christianity,' or 'our common christianity,' or 'christianity the law of the land,' if there is any man alive who can tell what it is.... lastly, i do not understand by theology, acquaintance with the scriptures; for, though no person of religious feeling can read scripture but he will find those feelings roused, and gain much knowledge of history into the bargain, yet historical reading and religious feeling are not a science. i mean none of these things by theology. i simply mean the science of god, or the truths we know about god put into a system; just as we have a science of the stars, and call it astronomy, or of the crust of the earth, and call it geology."[ ] third, by details. third, _a common way of explaining a proposition is to go into particulars about it._ enough particulars should be given to furnish a reasonable explanation of the proposition. macaulay, writing of the "muster-rolls of names" which milton uses, goes into details. he says:-- "they are charmed names. every one of them is the first link in a long chain of associated ideas. like the dwelling place of our infancy revisited in manhood, like the song of our country heard in a strange land, they produce upon us an effect wholly independent of their intrinsic value. one transports us back to a remote period of history. another places us among the novel scenes and manners of a distant region. a third evokes all the dear classical recollections of childhood,--the schoolroom, the dog-eared virgil, the holiday, and the prize. a fourth brings before us the splendid phantoms of chivalrous romance, the trophied lists, the embroidered housings, the quaint devices, the haunted forests, the enchanted gardens, the achievements of enamoured knights, and the smiles of rescued princesses."[ ] fourth, by illustrations. fourth, _a proposition may be explained by the use of a single example or illustration._ the value of this method depends on the choice of the example. it must in no essential way differ from the general case it is intended to illustrate. supposing this proposition were advanced by some woman-hater: "all women are, by nature, liars," and it should be followed by this sentence, "for example, take this lady of fashion." such an illustration is worthless. the individual chosen does not fairly represent the class. if, on the other hand, a teacher in physics should announce that "all bodies fall at the same rate in a vacuum," and should illustrate by saying, "if i place a bullet and a feather in a tube from which the air has been exhausted, they will be found to fall equally fast," his example would be a fair one, as the two objects differ in no manner essential to the experiment from "all bodies." here should be included anecdotes used as illustrations. they are of value if they are of the same type as the general class they are intended to explain. they may be of little value, however. it could safely be said that half the stories told in campaign speeches are not instances in point at all, but are told only to amuse and deceive. specific instances must be chosen with care if they are to serve a useful purpose in exposition. this example is from newman:-- "to know is one thing, to do is another; the two things are altogether distinct. a man knows that he should get up in the morning,--he lies abed; he knows that he should not lose his temper, yet he cannot keep it. a laboring man knows that he should not go to the ale-house, and his wife knows that she should not filch when she goes out charing, but, nevertheless, in these cases, the consciousness of a duty is not all one with the performance of it. there are, then, large families of instances, to say the least, in which men may become wiser, without becoming better."[ ] fifth, by comparisons. last, _a thing may be explained by telling what it is like, or what it is not like._ this method of comparison is very frequently employed. to liken a thing to something already known is a vivid way of explaining. moreover in many cases it is easier than the method of repetition or that of details. by this method macaulay explains his proposition that "it is the character of such revolutions that we always see the worst of them first." he says:-- "a newly liberated people may be compared to a northern army encamped on the rhine or the xeres. it is said that when soldiers in such a situation first find themselves able to indulge without restraint in such a rare and expensive luxury, nothing is to be seen but intoxication. soon, however, plenty teaches discretion, and, after wine has been for a few months their daily fare, they become more temperate than they had ever been in their own country. in the same manner, the final and permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, moderation, and mercy. its immediate effects are often atrocious crimes, conflicting errors, skepticism on points the most clear, dogmatism on points the most mysterious."[ ] the comparison may be a simile or a metaphor, as when huxley writes, explaining "the physical basis of life:"-- "protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. it is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod."[ ] these, then, are the methods commonly adopted for explaining terms and propositions. first, by the use of definitions; second, by repeating the proposition either directly or obversely, adding something to the thought by each repetition; third, by enumerating particulars which form the ground for the statement; fourth, by selecting an instance which fairly illustrates the proposition; fifth, by the use of comparisons and analogies. the subject. some general considerations regarding the choice of a subject have been given. a subject should lend itself to the form of discourse employed; next, it should be a subject interesting to the readers; and third, it should be interesting to the writer and suited to his ability. the last condition makes it advisable to limit the subject to a narrow field. few persons have the ability to view a general subject in all its relations. "books" everybody knows something of; yet very few are able to treat this general subject in all its ramifications. a person writing of the general topic "books" would not only be compelled to know what a book is, what may truly be called a book, and what is the value of books to readers, and therefore the influence of the different kinds of literature; he would also be driven to study the machinery for making books, the history of printing, illustrating, and binding books, and all the mechanical processes connected with the manufacture of books. the subject might take quite another turn, and be the development of fiction or drama; it might be a discussion of the influences, political or social, that have moulded literature; it might be a study of character as manifested in an author's works. no one is well fitted to write on the general topic "books." a subject should be limited. the subject should allow concrete treatment. for young persons _the subject should be so selected and stated that the treatment may be concrete._ as persons advance they make more generalizations; few, however, go so far as to think in general terms. macaulay says, "logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great mass of men must have images." that author depended largely for his glittering effects upon the use of common, concrete things which the masses understand. the subject should be such that it can be treated concretely. "love," as a general proposition, is beautiful; but what more can a young writer say about it? let him leave the whole horde of abstract subjects found in old rhetorics alone. they are subjects for experience; they cannot be handled by youth. the theme. after the subject has been chosen, the writer next considers how he shall treat it. he selects the attitude he will assume toward the proposition, his point of view; and this position he embodies in a short sentence, called his _theme._ for instance, "patriotism" is the subject; as it stands it is abstract and very general. however, this, "can a partisan be a patriot?" would be sufficiently concrete to be treated. even yet there is no indication of the author's point of view. should he write, "a real partisan is no patriot," his theme is announced, and his point of view known. a _theme,_ either explicit or implicit, _is essential in exposition._ it is not necessary that it shall be stated to the reader, but it must be clearly stated by the writer for his own guidance. it is, however, usually announced at the opening of the essay. whether announced or not, it is most essential to the success of the essay. it is the touchstone by which the author tries all the material which he has collected. not everything on the subject of patriotism should be admitted to an essay that has for its theme, "a real partisan cannot be a true patriot." it would save many a digression if the theme were always written in bold, black letters, and placed before the author as he writes. every word in a theme should be there for a purpose, expressing some important modification of the thought. for instance, the statement above regarding a partisan may be too sweeping; perhaps the essayist would prefer to discuss the modified statement that "a blind partisan cannot always be a true patriot." the theme should state exactly what will be treated in the essay. the statement of it should employ the hardest kind of thinking; and when the theme is determined definitely and for all, the essay is safe from the intrusion of foreign ideas which disturb the harmony of the whole. another advantage in the theme is that, when once chosen, it will go far toward writing the essay. one great trouble with the young writer is that he is not willing to rely on his theme to suggest his composition. mr. palmer well says:-- "he examines his pen point, the curtains, his inkstand, to see if perhaps ideas may not be had from these. he wonders what the teacher will wish him to say, and he tries to recall how the passage sounded in the third reader. in every direction but one he turns, and that is the direction where lies the prime mover of his toil, his subject. of that he is afraid. now, what i want to make evident is that his subject is not in reality the foe, but the friend. it is his only helper. his composition is not to be, as he seems to suppose, a mass of laborious inventions, but it is made up exclusively of what the subject dictates. he has only to attend. at present he stands in his own way, making such a din with his private anxieties that he cannot hear the rich suggestions of his subject. he is bothered with considering how he feels, or what he or somebody else will like to see on his paper. this is debilitating business. he must lean on his subject, if he would have his writing strong, and busy himself with what it says, rather than with what he would say."[ ] the title. having selected a subject, and with care stated the theme, it yet remains to give the essay a name. there is something in a name, and those authors who make a living by the pen are the shrewdest in displaying their wares under the most attractive titles. _the title should be attractive,_ but it should not promise what the essay does not give. newspaper headlines are usually attractive enough, but shamefully untruthful. next, the title should _indicate the scope of the essay._ when mr. palmer calls his little book "self-cultivation in english," it is evident that it is not a text-book, and that it will not treat english as literature or as a science. then, the title should be _short._ the theme can rarely be used as a title; it is too long. but the paramount idea developed in the essay should be embodied in the title. "partisanship and patriotism" would be a good subject to give the essay we have spoken of. the title, then, should be attractive; it should be short; and it should truthfully indicate the contents of the essay. selection of material. one of the important factors in the construction of an essay is the selection of material. though theme and title have already been discussed, it was not because they are the things for a writer to consider next after he has chosen his subject, but because they are so intimately bound up in the subject that their consideration at that time was natural. before a writer can decide upon the position he will assume toward a proposition, he should have looked over the field in a general way; for only with the facts before him is he competent to choose his point of view and to state his theme. the title is not in the least essential to the writing of the essay; it may be deferred until the essay is finished. it is necessary, however, that the writer have much knowledge of his subject, and that from this knowledge he be able to frame an opinion regarding the subject. when this has been done he is ready to begin the work of constructing his essay; and the first question in exposition, as in narration and description, is the selection of material to develop the theme he has chosen. the selection of material is a more difficult matter in exposition than in narration and description. it requires the shrewdest scrutiny to keep out matter that does not help the thought forward. in narration we decided by the main incident; in description by the purpose and the point of view; in exposition we test all material by its relation to the theme. does it help to explain the theme? if not, however good material it may be, it has no business in the essay. association of ideas is a law by which, when one of two related ideas is mentioned, the other is suggested. to illustrate, when manila is mentioned, admiral dewey appears; when treason is spoken of, arnold is in the mind. this law is of fundamental importance in arranging an essay; one thing should suggest the next. but valuable as it is, even indispensable, it may become the source of much mischief. for instance, a pupil has this for a topic, "reading gives pleasure to many." he writes as his second sentence, "by pleasure i mean the opposite of pain," and goes on. "all things are understood by their opposites. if we did not know sickness, we could not enjoy our health. joy is understood through sorrow. i remember my first sorrow. my father had just given me a new knife,--my first knife," and so on from one thing to another. and not so unnaturally either; each sentence has suggested the next, but not one is on the topic. the most anxious watch must be kept in the selection of material. some will be admitted without any question; some will be excluded with a brusqueness almost brutal. there is a third class, however, that is allied with the subject, yet it is not so easy to determine whether it should be admitted or rejected. this class requires the closest questioning. it must contribute to the strength of the essay, not to its pages, or it has no place there. scale of treatment. _there is another condition which must be considered in the selection of material, the scale of treatment._ if macaulay had been asked by a daily paper to contribute a paragraph of five hundred words on milton, he could not have introduced all the numerous topics which have their place in his essay of one hundred pages. he might have mentioned milton's poetry and his character, the two main divisions of the present essay; but dante and Ã�schylus, puritan and royalist, would scarcely have received notice. the second consideration in selecting material is the purpose and length of the essay, and the consequent thoroughness with which the subject is to be treated. _the exhaustiveness with which an author treats any subject depends, first, on his knowledge._ any person could write a paragraph on milton; macaulay and lowell wrote delightful essays on the topic; david masson has written volumes about him. these would have been impossible except to a person who had been a special student of the subject. second, the thoroughness of the treatment depends _on the knowledge of the readers._ for persons acquainted with the record of the momentous events of milton's time, it would have been quite unnecessary, it might be considered even an insult to intelligence, to go into such details of history. the shortest statement suffices when the reader is already familiar with the subject and needs only to know the application in this case. third, the scale of treatment depends _on the purpose for which the essay is written._ if a newspaper paragraph, it is one thing; if for a magazine, it is quite another; if it is to be the final word on the subject, it may reach to volumes. an apt illustration of proportion in the scale of treatment has been given by scott and denny in their "composition-rhetoric." they suggest that three maps of the united states, one very large, another half the size of the first, and a third very small, be hung side by side. if a comparison be made, it will be found that, whereas a great number of cities are represented on the largest map, only half as many appear on the middle-sized map. if the smallest map be examined, only the largest cities, the longest rivers, the greatest lakes, and the highest mountains can be found; all others must be omitted. on all three maps the same relation of parts is maintained. in proportion to the whole, new york state will hold the same position in all of them. the mississippi river will flow from minnesota to the gulf of mexico, and the gulf will sweep in a curve from texas to florida. the scale is different, but the proportion does not change. this principle applies in the construction of themes. in a paragraph only very important topics will receive any mention. in an essay these important topics retain their proper place and relation, while many other points of subordinate rank will be introduced. if the treatment be lengthened to a book, a host of minor sub-topics will be considered, each adding something to the development of the theme, and each giving to its principal topic the relative importance which belongs to the main divisions of the essay. the scale of treatment will have much to do with the selection of material. using macaulay's "milton" as an illustration, the analyses below will show how by increasing the size of the essay new subjects come into the field for notice. the first is but a paragraph and has the two main divisions of the essay. the second is an outline for an essay of two thousand words. in the third only one of the sub-topics is analyzed, as macaulay has discussed it. it would take too much space to analyze minutely the whole essay. milton. a. milton's poetry has given him his position among great men. b. his conduct was such as was to be expected from a man of a spirit so high and of an intellect so powerful. in the following outline the same main headings are retained, and the sub-topics which explain them are introduced. the numbers indicate the paragraphs in macaulay's essay given to each topic. introduction ( - ). a. milton's poetry has given him his position among men. ( - .) i. no poet has ever triumphed over greater difficulties than milton. ( - .) ii. in his lesser works he shows his great power. ( - .) iii. there is but one modern poem that can be compared with "paradise lost;" dante's "divine comedy" has great power, is upon a kindred subject, but in style of treatment widely different. ( - .) transition. ( - .) b. his conduct was such as was to be expected from a man of a spirit so high and of an intellect so powerful. ( - .) i. he lived at one of the most memorable eras in the history of mankind, and his conduct must be judged as that of the people is judged. ( - .) ii. there were some peculiarities which distinguished him from his contemporaries. ( - .) conclusion. ( - .) again, taking up but one section, b, ii., the analysis is as follows:-- ii. there were some peculiarities which distinguished him from his contemporaries. ( - .) a. milton adopted the noblest qualities of every party-- . puritans. ( - .) a. they excited contempt. however b. they were no vulgar fanatics; but c. they derived their peculiarities from their daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. d. thus the puritan was made up of two men,--the one all self-abasement, the other all pride. e. résumé of character of puritans. . heathens were passionate lovers of freedom. ( .) . royalists had individual independence, learning, and polite manners of the court. b. but he alone fought the battle for the freedom of the mind. ( .) . this led him to discard parties; and ( ) . to dare the boldest literary services. ( .) the fundamental principle guiding in the selection of material is unity. it decides what may with propriety be admitted to the essay, and it determines in part what must be left out. another principle, secondary to this, is scale of treatment. if the essay is to be short, only essentials may be used; if long, many related sub-topics must take their subordinate positions in the essay. arrangement. following the selection of material comes its arrangement. here also there is greater difficulty than was experienced in narration or description. though the same principles of coherence and mass guide, they are more difficult to apply. the seat of the difficulty is in the elusiveness of the material. it is hard to picture distinctly the value and relation of the different topics of an essay. suppose the subject is "the evils of war." the first paragraph might contain a general statement announcing the theme. then these topics are to be discussed:-- . the effect on the _morale_ of a nation. . the suffering of friends and relatives. . the destruction of life. . the backward step in civilization. . the destruction of property. the order could not be much worse. how shall a better be obtained? use cards for subdivisions. the most helpful suggestion regarding a method of making the material in some degree visible, capable of being grasped, is that each subdivision be placed on a separate card, and that, as the material is gathered, it be put upon the card containing the group to which it belongs. by different arrangements of these cards the writer can find most easily the order that is natural and effective. it is much like anagrams, this ordering of matter in an essay. take these letters, s-l-y-w-a-r-e, and in your head try to put them together to make a word; you will have some trouble, probably. if, however, these same letters be put upon separate slips of paper, you may with some arrangement get out the rather common word, lawyers. it is much the same with topic cards in exposition; they can be moved and rearranged in all possible ways, and at last an order distinctly better than any other will be found. speaking of cards, it might be well to say that the habit of putting down a fact or an idea bearing on a topic just as soon as it occurs to one is invaluable for a writer. all men have good memories; some persons have better ones than others. but there is no one who does not forget; and each catches himself very often saying, "i knew that, but i forgot it." it is a fact, not perhaps complimentary, that paper tablets are surer than the tablets of memory. an outline. in exposition, where the whole attention of the reader should be given to the thought, where more than ever the mind should be freed from every hindrance, and its whole energy directed to getting the meaning, the greatest care should be given to making a plan. no person who has attained distinction in prose has worked without a plan. any piece of literature, even the most discursive, has in it something of plan; but in literature of the first rank the plan is easily discovered. how clear it is in macaulay's essay has been seen. in burke it is yet more logical and exact. however beautiful a piece may be, however naturally one thought grows out of another, as though it were always so and could be no other way, be sure it is so because of some man's thought, on account of careful planning. and it may be said without a chance of contradiction that when an essay has been well planned it is half done, and that half by far the harder. "we can hardly at the present day understand what menander meant, when he told a man who inquired as to the progress of his comedy that he had finished it, not having yet written a single line, because he had constructed the action of it in his mind. a modern critic would have assured him that the merit of his piece depended on the brilliant things which arose under his pen as he went along." the brilliant things are but the gargoyles and the scrolls, the ornaments of the structure; and when so brilliant as to attract especial attention, they divert the mind from the total effect much as a series of beautiful marbles set between those perfect columns would have ruined the parthenon. it was not in any single feature--not in pediment, column, or capital, not in frieze, architrave, or tympanum--that its glorious beauty lay, but in the simple strength and the harmonious symmetry of the whole, in the general plan. webster planned his orations, newman planned his essays, carlyle planned his frederick the great. their works are not a momentary inspiration; they are the result of forethought, long and painstaking. the absolute essential in the structure of an essay, that without which it will fail to arrive anywhere, that compared to which all ornament, all fine writing, is but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, that absolute essential is the total effect secured by making a plan. mass the end. the principles governing the arrangement of material are mass and coherence. both are equally essential, but in practice some questions regarding mass are settled first. _the important positions in an essay are the beginning and the end; of these the more important is the end._ in this place, then, there shall be those sentences or those paragraphs which deserve that distinction. here frequently stands the theme, the conclusion of the whole matter, that for which the composition was constructed. so that if one wished to know the theme of an essay, he would be justified in looking at its conclusion to find it. in the essay on "milton," it is evident from the last paragraph that macaulay never intended it to be only a criticism of his poetry, though he has devoted many pages to this discussion. here is just the last sentence: "nor do we envy the man who can study either the life or the writings of the great poet and patriot without aspiring to emulate, not indeed the sublime works with which his genius has enriched our literature, but the zeal with which he labored for the public good, the fortitude with which he endured every private calamity, the lofty disdain with which he looked down on temptations and dangers, the deadly hatred which he bore to bigots and tyrants, and the faith which he so sternly kept with his country and his fame." notice the last sentence of a delightful essay by george william curtis; one could easily guess the contents and the title. "fear of yourself, fear of your own rebuke, fear of betraying your consciousness of your duty and not doing it--that is the fear that lovelace loved better than lucasta; that is the fear which francis, having done his duty, saved, and justly called it honor." examples of the ending in which the theme of the essay stands in the place of greatest distinction are so plentiful that there needs no collector to establish the assertion. in a single paragraph of exposition not exceeding two or three hundred words, it is a very safe rule for a beginner always to have the theme in the last sentence; or if he has stated the theme in the opening, to have a restatement of it in different form, fuller and more explicit usually, sometimes a shorter and more epigrammatic form, in the conclusion. if the pupil should obey this little rule to have at the end something worthy of the position, a vast amount of time would be saved both to teacher and to pupil. it can be safely said that not more than one half the essays end when the thought ends. instead of quitting when he has finished, the writer dribbles on, repeating in diluted fashion what he has said with some force before, and often introducing matters that are not within hailing distance of his theme. when one has said what he started out to say, it is time to stop. if he stops then, he will have something important in the place of distinction. the beginning. _the position of second importance is the beginning._ if but a paragraph be written, the topic is usually announced at the opening. in short essays this is the most frequent beginning, and it may safely be used at all times. exposition is explanation; the natural thing is to let the reader know at once what the writer is attempting to explain. then the reader knows what the author is talking about and can relate every statement to the general proposition. to delay the topic compels the reader to hold in mind all that has been said up to the time the real theme is uncovered; this frequently results in inattention. in the little book by mr. palmer, the first paragraph opens with these two sentences: "english as a study has four aims: the mastery of our language as a science, as a history, as a joy, and as a tool. i am concerned with but one, the mastery of it as a tool." so, too, the essay of which the last sentence has been quoted begins: "these are very precious words of lovelace:-- 'i could not love thee, dear, so much, loved i not honor more.' and francis first's message to his mother after pavia, 'all is lost but honor,' is in the same key." instead of announcing the theme at the very beginning, in essays of some length there is sometimes an account of the occasion which led to the composition. macaulay has used this opening in the essay on "milton." second, the opening may be the clearing away of matters unrelated in reality, but which people have commonly associated with the topic. and third, the essay may open with definitions of the terms that will be used in the discussion. of these three, only the first will be much used by young persons. it makes an easy approach to the subject, and avoids the unpleasant jar of an abrupt start. it is common with macaulay, lowell, and many essayists that write in an easy, almost conversational style. there is one case in which the theme should not be announced at the opening. if the proposition were distasteful, if it were generally believed to be false, it would not be policy to announce it at the beginning. however reasonable men may be, it is still true that reason is subject to emotions and beliefs to a greater degree than is praiseworthy. if a man should open an address upon abraham lincoln by saying that he was a cringing coward, he would have difficulty to get an audience to hear anything he said after that, no matter how much truth he spoke. the author of such a statement would be so disliked that nothing would win for him favor. when an unwelcome theme is to be discussed, it must be approached carefully by successive steps which prepare the reader for the reception of a truth that before seemed false to him. in this case the theme will be stated at the end, but not at the beginning of the essay. get started as soon as you can, and stop when you have finished; by so doing you will have important matters in those places which will emphasize them. shun the allurements of high-sounding introductions and conclusions. professor marston used to tell his pupils to write the best introduction they could, to fashion their most gorgeous peroration, and to be sure to have the discussion clear, logical, and well expressed. then he said that when he had cut off both ends, he generally had left a good essay. an essay should be done much as a business man does business. he does not want the gentleman who calls on him during business hours to bow and scatter compliments before he takes up the matter which brought him there; nor does he care to see him swaying on the doorknob after the business is finished. to the business at once, and leave off when you have done. introductions, exordiums, perorations, and conclusions are worthless unless they be in reality a part of the discussion and necessary to the understanding of the whole. proportion in treatment. everything, however, cannot occupy the first and last places. how can other matters be emphasized? to refer to the parallel of the map, in order to make people see that the mississippi river is longer than the hudson, the designer made it longer on the map. that is exactly what is done in an essay. if one matter is of greater importance than another, it should take up a larger part of the essay. when macaulay passes over milton's sonnets with a paragraph, while he devotes sixteen paragraphs to "paradise lost," he indicates by the greater mass the greater value he ascribes to the epic. so again, a very good proof that he did not intend this essay to be a literary criticism primarily, another evidence beside the closing paragraph, is found in his division of the whole essay. to milton's poetry he has given forty-one paragraphs, and to his character fifty-two paragraphs. the most common way of emphasizing important divisions of an essay is by increasing the length of treatment. emphasis of emotion. however, there are times when this cannot be done: a point may be so well known that it needs no amplification. in such a case there may be an emphasis of emotion; that is, the statement may be made with an intensity that counterbalances the weight of the larger treatment. it might be said that the one has great velocity and little mass, while the other has great mass and little velocity. by hurling forth the smaller mass at a higher velocity, the momentum may be as great as when the larger mass moves with little velocity. the dynamic force of burning words may give an emphasis to a paragraph out of all proportion to the length of treatment. in one paragraph macaulay dashes aside all the defenses of charles. he writes:-- "the advocates of charles, like the advocates of other malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, generally decline all controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling testimony to character. he had so many private virtues! and had james ii. no private virtues? was oliver cromwell, his bitterest enemies themselves being the judges, destitute of private virtues? and what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to charles? a religious zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tombstones in england claim for those who lie beneath them. a good father! a good husband! ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood." ("essay on milton.") phrases indicating emphasis. moreover, phrases and sentences may be introduced to show that a writer considers some topics of equal importance to others, or even of greater importance, though they do not demand the same length of treatment. _of equal importance, not less weighty, beyond question the most pertinent,_ illustrate what is meant by phrases which indicate values. these and many of their class which the occasion will call forth are necessary to give certain topics the rank they hold in the writer's conception of the whole subject. in discussing the temper and character of the american people, burke ascribes it to six powerful causes. the relative value of these is indicated in the last three by phrases. i quote only the opening sentences. "first, the people of the colonies are descendants of englishmen."... "they were further confirmed in this pleasing error by the form of their provincial legislative assemblies."... "if anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the form of government, religion would have given it a complete effect."... "there is a circumstance attending these [southern] colonies which makes the spirit of liberty _still more_ high and haughty than in those to the northward."... "permit me, sir, to add another circumstance which contributes _no mean part_ towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit."... "the last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is _hardly less powerful_ than the rest."[ ] emphasis is indicated, then, by position; by the length of treatment; by dynamic statement; and by phrases denoting values. coherence. coherence is the second principle which modifies the internal structure of a composition. that arrangement should be sought for that places in proximity one to another those ideas which are most closely related. more than in composition dealing with things, in those forms of discourse dealing with intangible, invisible ideas,--with thoughts, with speculations,--the greatest care is necessary to make one topic spring of necessity from a preceding topic. and this is not impossible when the material has been carefully selected. the principal divisions of the subject bear a necessary and logical relation to the whole theme, and the subordinate divisions have a similar relation to their main topic. in the essay on "milton," macaulay is seeking to commend his hero to the reader for two reasons: first, because his writings "are powerful, not only to delight, but to elevate and purify;" second, because "the zeal with which he labored for the public good, the fortitude with which he endured every private calamity, the lofty disdain with which he looked down on temptations and dangers, the deadly hatred which he bore to bigots and tyrants, and the faith which he so sternly kept with his country and with his fame" made him a patriot worthy of emulation. we feel instinctively that this arrangement, poetry first and character next, and not the reverse, is the right order. to discuss character first and poetry last would have been ruinous to macaulay's purpose. notice next the development of a sub-topic in the same essay. only one sentence from a paragraph is given. the defenders of charles do not choose to discuss "the great points of the question," but "content themselves with exposing some of the crimes and follies to which public commotions necessarily give birth." "be it so." "many evils were produced by the civil war." "it is the character of such revolutions that we always see the worst of them first." yet "there is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom." "therefore it is that we decidedly approve of the conduct of milton and the other wise and good men who, in spite of much that was ridiculous and hateful in the conduct of their associates, stood firmly by the cause of public liberty." no other arrangement of these paragraphs seems possible. to shift the sequence would break the chain. each paragraph grows naturally from the paragraph preceding. closely related topics stand together. there is coherence. transition phrases. the logical connection between topics which have been well arranged may be made more evident by the skillful use of words and phrases that indicate the relation of what has been said to what is to be said. these phrases are guideposts pointing the direction the next topic will take. they advise the reader where he is and whither he is going. cardinal newman, who had the ability to write not only so that he could be understood, but so that he could not be misunderstood, made frequent use of these guides. the question in one of his essays is "whether knowledge, that is, acquirement, is the real principle of enlargement, or whether that is not rather something beyond it." these fragments of sentences open a series of paragraphs. . "for instance, let a person ... go for the first time where physical nature puts on her wilder and more awful forms," etc. . "again, the view of the heavens which the telescope opens," etc. . "and so again, the sight of beasts of prey and other foreign animals," etc. . "hence physical science generally," etc. . "again, the study of history," etc. . "and in like manner, what is called seeing the world," etc. . "and then again, the first time the mind comes across the arguments and speculations of unbelievers," etc. . "on the other hand, religion has its own enlargement," etc. . "now from these instances, ... it is plain, first, that the communication of knowledge certainly is either a condition or a means of that sense of enlargement, or enlightenment of which at this day we hear so much in certain quarters: this cannot be denied; but next, it is equally plain, that such communication is not the whole of the process." how extremely valuable such phrases are may be realized from the fact that, though the matter is entirely unknown, any one can know the relation of the parts of this essay, whither it tends, and can almost supply newman's thoughts. summary and transition. to secure coherence between the main divisions of an essay, instead of words and phrases, there are employed sentences and paragraphs of summary and transition. summaries gather up what has been said on the topic, much like a conclusion to a theme; transitions show the relation between the topic already discussed and the one next to be treated. summaries at the conclusion of any division of the whole subject are like the seats on a mountain path which are conveniently arranged to give the climber a needed rest, and to spread out at his feet the features of the landscape through which he has made his way. summaries put the reader in possession of the situation up to that point, and make him ready for the next stage of the advance. at the end of the summary there is frequently a transition, either a few sentences or sometimes a short paragraph. the sentence or paragraph of transition is much more frequent than the paragraph which summarizes. the examples of these summaries and transitions are so frequent in macaulay and burke that one transition is sufficient to indicate their use. macaulay writes:-- "there are several minor poems of milton on which we would willingly make a few remarks.... our limits, however, prevent us from discussing the point at length. we hasten on to that extraordinary production which the general suffrage of critics has placed in the highest class of human compositions." ("essay on milton.") to conclude, exposition embraces definition and explanation. definition is usually too concise to be clear, and needs an added explanation. in any piece of exposition there must be unity, and this principle will dispense with everything that is not essential to the theme; there must be judicious massing, that those parts of the essay deserving emphasis may receive it; and there must be a coherence between the parts, large and small, so close and intimate that the progress from one topic to another shall be steady and without hindrance. unity, mass, and coherence should be the main considerations in composition the aim of which is to explain a term or a proposition. suggestive questions and exercises. questions. macaulay's essay on milton. (riverside literature series, no. .) what makes up the introduction of this essay? does he use the same method in the essay on addison? take a volume of his essays and see how many begin in similar fashion. at what paragraph of this essay on milton does the introduction end? would it be as well to omit it? give reasons for your opinion. make an analysis of his argument of the proposition, "no poet has ever triumphed over greater difficulties than milton." does macaulay give a definition of poetry on page , or is it an exposition of the term? what figure of speech do you find in the last sentence of the paragraph on page ? when macaulay begins to discuss "the public conduct of milton," what method of introduction does he adopt? what value is there in it? do the trifles mentioned at the end of the paragraph on page make an anticlimax? what arrangement of sentences in the paragraph does he use most, individual or serial? does he close his paragraphs with a repetition of the topic more frequently than with a single detail emphasizing the topic? is his last sentence, in case it is a repetition of the topic, longer or shorter than the topic sentence? does macaulay frequently use epigrams? antitheses? find all transition paragraphs. find ten full sentence transitions outside of the transition paragraphs. where, in such paragraphs, is the topic sentence? in this essay find examples of the five methods of expounding a proposition. which method does macaulay use oftenest? is his treatment of the subject concrete? what advantage is there in such treatment? of kings' treasuries. (riverside literature series, no. .) do you think the title good? is ruskin wise in disclosing his subject at once? in section what purpose does the first paragraph fulfill? what method of exposition is adopted in the last paragraph? what method in section ? for what purpose is the first paragraph of section introduced? is the last paragraph of this section a digression? do you think the last sentence of section upon the topic announced in the first sentence? where does ruskin begin to treat the second topic? should there be two paragraphs? find the genus and differentia in the definition of "a good book of the hour." what is the use of the analogy in section ? what figure do you find in section ? do you think a large part of section a digression? what do you think of the structure of sentences and in section ? could you improve it by a change of punctuation? what is the effect of the supposed case at the end of section ? is it a fair deduction? is it at the right place in the paragraph, and why? where would you divide the paragraph in section ? is the example in section a fair one, and does it prove the case? what is a very common method with ruskin of connecting paragraphs? could you break up the sixth sentence of section so that it would be better? if his audience had been hostile to him would he have been fortunate in some of his assertions? make an analysis of the whole essay. does he seem to you to have digressed from his topic? at what point? should it be two essays? what led ruskin into this long criticism of english character? could you include all the main topics that ruskin has included, and by a change in proportion keep the essay on the subject? webster's bunker hill oration. (riverside literature series, no. .) number the paragraphs in this oration. why is paragraph introduced? what method of development is used in paragraph ? in paragraph ? in how many paragraphs is the last sentence short? in how many is the last sentence a repetition of the topic? what purpose is served in paragraphs , , and ? in paragraph note the use of contrast. what kind of development in paragraph ? analyze the oration from paragraph . does he place the topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraphs? does he frequently use transition sentences? do you think the outline of this as distinct as that of macaulay's essay on milton? should it be? what figure of speech in the word "axe" in paragraph , and "bayonet" in paragraph ? what figure at the end of paragraph ? does he use figures as frequently as macaulay? exercises. this year, taking up the study of exposition, offers especially good opportunities for exercises in paragraph and sentence construction. during the first eight or ten weeks the pupils will write isolated paragraphs. the unity and arrangement of these should be carefully criticised. also the exercises should be arranged so that the pupils will employ all forms of paragraphs. before he begins to write a paragraph, the pupil should know what he is to include in it, and in what order; otherwise the paragraph will fail in unity and effective massing. paragraphs are made by forethought, not by inspiration. following the writing of isolated paragraphs is the composition of the long essay. the first thing is a study of outlines. this will take up six or eight weeks. to secure the view of the whole in different arrangements, use the cards. when the class has gained some grasp of outlines, the writing of essays should be begun. at the option of the pupils, they may write some of the essays already outlined, or study new themes. two or three paragraphs are all that can be well done for a lesson. good, not much, should be the ideal. in this way a single essay may occupy a class from three to six weeks. it should be remembered that these exercises are written consciously for practice. they are exercises--no more. their purpose is to give skill and judgment in composition. it is because they are exercises that they may be somewhat stereotyped and artificial in form, just as exercises in music may be artificially constructed to meet the difficulties the young musician will have to confront. during the writing of these essays special attention should be given to sentence construction. the inclusion of just the ideas needed in the sentence and no more; the massing that makes prominent the thought that deserves prominence; and the nice adjustment of one sentence to the next: these objects should be striven for during this semester. , . write definitions of such common terms as jingoism, civil service, gold standard, the submerged tenth, sweat shop, internal revenue, cyclonic area, foreign policy, imperialism, free silver, mugwump, political pull, monroe doctrine, etc. five or six terms which are not found in a dictionary will make a hard exercise; and two or three lessons in definitions will set the pupils in the direction of accurate and adequate statements. for isolated paragraphs write upon the following subjects:-- . novel reading gives one a knowledge of the world not to be gained in any other way. particulars. . novel reading unfits people for the actualities of life. specific instances. . among the numerous uses of biography three stand forth preëminent,--it furnishes the material of history, it lets us into the secrets of the good and great, and it sets before us attainable ideals of noble humanity. repetition. . it is beyond any possibility of successful contradiction that the examination system encourages cheating. proofs. . electric cars and automobiles are driving horses out of the cities. instances. . every great development in the culture of a nation has followed a great war. proofs. . from the following general subjects have the pupils state definite themes. write isolated paragraphs on a few of them. political parties. war. books. machines. inventions. great men. planets. civil service. coeducation. roads. tramps. boycotts. . place another similar list on the board and have the pupils vote on what three they prefer. use these in making outlines. then select more. supposing they had settled upon this theme: the tramp is the logical result of our economic system; have it outlined. the result might be as follows:-- a. what is a tramp? . who become tramps? . their number. . where are they? b. why is he a tramp? . inventions have increased the power of production more rapidly than the demand for products has grown. a. on the farm. b. transportation. c. factories. d. piecework. . women now do much work formerly done by men. a. as clerks. b. as typewriters, stenographers, and bookkeepers. c. in the professions. . the result of these causes is that many men willing to work are out of employment. c. what must be done? . fill out the following outline. subject: the thermometer. a. its invention. b. its construction. c. its value and uses. . outline six more themes. . beginning the writing of long essays, write essays in sections. using "tramps" for an illustration, as it is outlined it contains about twelve paragraphs. all of section "a" may be included in one paragraph. "b, " may be a paragraph of repetition; "a," "b," "c," "d," may each make a paragraph of particulars. by stating "b, " in the following way, it may be a paragraph of "what not:" it was once considered unladylike for women to engage in any occupation outside of the home. men said that they could not retain, etc.--go on with the things woman could not do, closing with a statement of what she does do. "b, , a." on account of their fidelity, honesty, and courtesy, women succeed as clerks. repetition. b. the quickness of their intelligence and the accuracy of their work have made women more desirable for routine work in an office than men. comparison and contrast. c. there are certain feminine qualities which especially fit women for the practice of teaching and medicine. details. "b, ." by combination of forms. "c." by details. it would be a pleasure to go on with this list of exercises, but it is unnecessary and it is unwise. these indicate the objects to be sought for in the exercises. they are not a specific course, though they might suit a certain environment. each teacher knows her own pupils,--their attainments and their interests. the subjects should be chosen to suit their special cases. only make them interesting; put them into such form that there is something to get hold of; and adapt them so that all the topics to be studied will be illustrated in the work. the pupils should be able to write any form of paragraph, to arrange it so that any idea is made prominent, and to make easy transitions. arrange the exercises to accomplish definite results. during the third year, attention should be given to words and to the refinements of elegant composition. these the pupils will best learn by careful watch of the literature. the teacher should be quick to feel the strength and beauty of any passage and able to point out the means adopted to obtain the delightful effect. clearness first is the thing to be desired; if to this can be added force and a degree of elegance during the last two years, the work of the instructor has been well done. * * * * * chapter vi argument argument has been defined as that form of discourse the purpose of which is to convince the reader of the truth or falsity of a proposition. it is closely allied with exposition. to convince a person, it is first necessary that the proposition be explained to him. this is all that is necessary in many cases. did men decide all matters without prejudice, and were they willing to accept the truth at any cost, even to discard the beliefs that have been to them the source of greatest happiness, the simple explanation would be sufficient. however, as men are not all-wise, and as they are not always "reasonable," they are found to hold different opinions regarding the same subject; and one person often wishes to convince another of the error of his beliefs. men continually use the words _because_ and _therefore;_ indeed, a great deal of writing has in it an element of argument. from the fact that argument and exposition are so nearly alike, it follows that they will be governed by much the same principles. as argument, in addition to explaining, seeks to convince, it is necessary, in addition to knowing how to explain, to know what is considered convincing,--what are proofs; and secondly, what is the best order in which to arrange proofs. induction and deduction. arguments have been classified as inductive and deductive.[ ] induction includes arguments that proceed from individual cases to establish a general truth. deduction comprises arguments that proceed from a general truth to establish the proposition in specific instances, or groups of instances. syllogism. premises. if one should say "socrates is mortal because he is a man," or "socrates will die because all men are mortal," or "socrates is a man, therefore he will die," by any of these he has expressed a truth which all men accept. in any of these expressions are bound up two propositions, called premises, from which a third proposition, called a conclusion, is derived. if expanded, the three propositions assume this form: all men are mortal. socrates is a man. therefore socrates is mortal. this is termed a syllogism. a syllogism consists of a major premise, a predication about all the members of a general class of objects; a minor premise, a predication that includes an individual or a group of individuals in the general class named by the major premise; and a conclusion, the proposition which is derived from the relation existing between the other two propositions. the propositions above would be classified as follows:-- major premise: all men are mortal, a predication about _all_ men. minor premise: socrates is a man, including an individual in the general class. conclusion: socrates is mortal. terms. in every syllogism there are three terms,--major, minor, and middle. the middle term is found in both the premises, but not in the conclusion. it is the link connecting the major and minor terms. the major term is usually the predicate of the major premise and the predicate of the conclusion. the minor term is the subject of the minor premise and the subject of the conclusion. "men" is the middle term, "are mortal" the major term, and "socrates," the minor term. enthymeme. it is rarely the case in literature that the syllogism is fully stated: generally one of the premises is omitted. such a form of statement is termed an enthymeme. "socrates will die because all men are mortal" is an enthymeme. the minor premise has been omitted. "socrates is mortal because he is a man" is also an enthymeme, because the major premise which states that "all men are mortal" has been omitted. the conclusions arrived at by means of syllogisms are irresistible, provided the form be correct and the premises be true. it is impossible here to discuss the forms of syllogisms; they are too many. it will be of value, however, to call attention to a few of the commonest errors in syllogisms. definition of terms. the first error arises from a misunderstanding of terms. it is often said that george eliot is a poet; there are some who disagree. certain it is that she wrote in verse form; and it is true that she has embodied noble thoughts in verse; but it is quite as true that she lacks "the bird-note." if this were reduced to a syllogism, it would not be a discussion of whether george eliot be a poet, but rather a discussion of what is a poet. stated, it reads: all persons who embody noble thoughts in verse form are poets. george eliot is a person who has embodied noble thoughts in verse form. therefore george eliot is a poet. if the major premise of this syllogism be granted, the conclusion is unquestionable. the terms should be defined at the beginning; then this error, springing from a misunderstanding of terms, perhaps the most common, would be avoided. undistributed middle. the second error arises from the fact that the middle term is not "distributed;" that is, the major premise makes no statement about all the members of a class. the premises in the following are true, but the conclusion is nonsense. a horse is an animal. man is an animal. therefore, man is a horse. the middle term, in this case "animal," must be "distributed;" some statement must be made of _all_ animals. the following would be true: all animals have life; therefore man has life. the major premise predicates life of all animals. false premises. a third error in a syllogism is in the premises themselves. if either premise be false, the conclusion is not necessarily true. a parent might say to his son, "you are doing wrong, and you will pay the penalty for it soon." generally he would be right. however, if this were put into a syllogism, it would read as follows: all persons who do wrong pay the penalty soon. you are such a person. therefore, etc. admitting the son is breaking the law, the fact is that the major premise is not always true, and the conclusion holds the weakness of the weak premise. again, supposing everybody accepted the general truth, "all unrepentant sinners will be punished." the minister might then say to a young man, "you will certainly be punished, because all unrepentant sinners will be punished." the young man might deny the suppressed minor premise, which is, "you are an unrepentant sinner." both premises must be true if they prove anything. the conclusion contains the weakness of either premise. in both of these examples note that the mistake is in the premise which does not appear. in an enthymeme, great care should be taken with the suppressed premise. be sure it is true when you use this form of argument, and be sure to look for it and state it in full when examining another's argument. it is a common way of hiding a weak point to cover it in the suppressed premise of an enthymeme. method of induction. induction, which proceeds directly opposite to the method of deduction, is the method by which all our ultimate knowledge has been obtained. by observing individual instances man has gathered a great store of general truths. there was a time when the first man would not have been justified in saying, "the sun will rise in the east to-morrow." the general law had not been established. to-day it is practically certain that the sun will rise in the east to-morrow morning, because it has done so for thousands of years; the large number of instances establishes the general truth. yet there may come a day when it will rise in the south, or not rise at all. until every case has been tried and found to conform to the law, theoretically man cannot be absolutely certain of any general truth. there may come an exception to the general rule that all men must die. so far, however, there is no experience to justify any man in hoping to escape death. "as sure as death" means in practice absolutely sure, though this is not what is called a perfect induction; that is, an induction in which every possible case has been included. "all the other states are smaller than texas" is a perfect induction, but it forms no basis for argument. all the cases must be known for a perfect induction; there is no unknown to argue to. this, then, is only a short statement of many individual truths, and has but little of value. induction that is imperfect is more valuable; for with many cases the probability becomes so strong that it is a practical certainty. it is the method of science. more valuable for literature is another division of arguments into arguments from cause, arguments from sign, and arguments from example. arguments from cause. arguments from cause include those propositions which, if they were granted, would account for the fact or proposition maintained. the decisive test is to suppose the proposition to be true; then, if it will account for the condition, it is an argument from cause. a child holds its finger in a flame; therefore its finger is burned. if the first proposition be supposed to be true, it will account for a burned finger. it is an argument from cause, and it is conclusive. again, if a man severs his carotid artery, he will die. if the first proposition be supposed to be true, it will account for the man's subsequent death. now, supposing a man takes strychnine, he will die. this is not quite so sure. if a stomach-pump were used or an antidote given, he might not die. the cause has been hindered in its action, or another cause has intervened to counterbalance the first. if, then, a cause be adequate to produce the effect, and if it act unhindered or unmodified, the effect will certainly follow the active cause. an argument that uses as a premise such a cause may predicate its effect as a conclusion with absolute certainty. such an argument is conclusive. the argument from cause is used more frequently to establish a probability than to prove a fact or proposition. however strong the proofs of a statement may be, men hesitate to accept either the statement or the proofs if the proposition is not plausible, or, as people say, if "they do not understand it," or if "it is not reasonable." if a murder be done and circumstances all point to your friend, you do not believe your friend to be the criminal until some fact is produced sufficient to cause your friend to commit the crime,--until some motive is established. if it be shown that the friend hated the murdered man and would be benefited by his death, a motive is established,--the proposition is made plausible. a man could "understand how he came to do it." the hatred and the benefit being granted, they would account for his deed. it is an argument from cause, used not as a proof, but to establish a probability. it makes the proposition ready for proof. arguments from sign. the second class of arguments, arguments from sign, is most often used for proof. if two facts or conditions always occur together, the presence of one is a sign of the presence of the other. cause and effect are so related that if either be observed, it is an indication of the other. no cause acts without a consequent effect; an effect is a sure sign of a preceding cause. supposing one should say, "because the flowers are dead, there was a frost," or "if ice has formed on the river, it must have been cold," in both instances the argument would be an argument from sign. both also proceed from the effect to the cause. only a low temperature forms ice on the river; the argument from effect to cause is conclusive. in the first case, the argument is not conclusive, because flowers may die from other causes. in a case like this, it is necessary to find all possible causes, and then by testing each in succession to determine which could not have acted and leave the one that is the only actual cause. a man is found dead; death has resulted from natural causes, from murder, or from suicide. each possible cause would be tested; and by elimination of the other possible causes the one right cause would be left. this method of elimination is frequently employed in arguments from effect to cause. when this method is used the alternatives should be few, else it gives rise to confusion and to lack of attention caused by the tediousness of the discussion. and an enumeration of all possible causes must be made; for if one be omitted it may be the one that is in fact the right one. the relation between cause and effect is so intimate that the occurrence of one may be regarded as a sure sign of the presence of the other. if an effect is produced by only one cause, the presence of the effect is a certain indication of the cause. if several causes produce the same effect, some other methods must be used to determine the cause operating in this special case. sequence and cause. in reasoning from effect to cause, one must be sure that he is dealing with a cause. as effect follows cause, there is danger that anything that follows another may be considered as caused by it. because a man died just after eating, it would not be quite reasonable to connect eating and death as cause and effect. the fact is that death is surer to follow starvation. the glow at evening is generally followed by fair weather the next day; but the fair weather is not an effect of a clear sunset. common sense must be used to determine whether the relation is one of cause and effect; something more than a simple sequence is necessary. another argument from sign associates conditions that frequently occur together, though one is not the cause of the other. "james is near, because there is his blind father," means that james always accompanies his father; where the father is, the son is too. if one had noticed that potatoes planted at the full of the moon grew well, and potatoes planted at other times did not thrive, he might say as a result of years of observation that a certain crop would be a failure because it was not planted at the right time. this argument might have weight with ignorant people, but intelligent persons do not consider it a sure sign. all signs belong to this class of arguments; they are of value or worthless as they come true more or less frequently. every time there is an exception the argument is weakened; another case of its working strengthens it. where there is no sure relation like cause and effect, the strength of the argument depends on the frequency of the recurrence of the associated conditions. a third argument from sign associates two effects of the same cause. a lad on waking exclaims, "the window is covered with frost; i can go skating to-day." the frost on the window is not the cause of the ice on the river. rather, both phenomena are results of the same cause. this kind of argument is not necessarily conclusive; yet with others it always strengthens a case. testimony is usually called an argument from sign. the assertion by some one that a thing occurred is not sure proof; it is only a sign that it occurred. people have said that they have seen witches, ghosts, and sea serpents, and unquestionably believed it; men generally do not accept their testimony. in a criminal case, it would be difficult to accept the testimony of both sides. though testimony seems a strong argument, it is or it is not, according to the conditions under which it is given. one would care little for the testimony of an ignorant man in a matter that called for wisdom; he would hesitate to accept the testimony of a man who claimed he saw, but upon cross-examination could not report what he saw; and he would not think it fair to be condemned upon the testimony of his enemies. books have been written upon evidence, but three principles are all that are needed in ordinary arguments. first, the person giving testimony must be capable of observation; second, he must be able to report accurately what he has observed; third, he must have a desire to tell the exact truth. arguments from example. the third large division comprises arguments from example. that is, if a truth be asserted of an individual, it can therefore be predicated of the class to which the individual belongs. for instance, if the first time a person saw a giraffe, he observed that it was eating grass, he would be justified in saying that giraffes are herbivorous. all gold is yellow, heavy, and not corroded by acid, though no one has tested it all. however, every giraffe does not have one ear brown and the other gray because the first one seen happened to be so marked; neither is all gold in the shape of ten-dollar gold pieces. only common sense will serve to pick out essential qualities; but if essential and invariable qualities be selected, the argument from the example of an individual to all members of its class is very powerful. analogies resemble examples. in exposition they are used for illustration; in argument they are employed as proofs. though two things belong to different classes of objects, they may have some qualities that are similar, and so an argument may be made from one to another. "natural law in the spiritual world" is a book written to show how the physical laws hold true in the region of spirit. it is not because an enemy sowed tares in a neighbor's field that there are wicked men in the world; nor is it because a lover of jewels will sell everything that he has to buy the pearl of greatest price that men devote everything they have to the kingdom of heaven. analogies prove nothing. they clear up relations and often help the reader to appreciate other arguments. they are valuable when the likeness is broad and easily traced. they should never be used alone. these, then, are the principal forms of argument: deduction and induction; arguments from cause, from sign, and from example. upon these men depend when they wish to convince of truth or error. selection of material. in argument the material is selected with reference to its value as proof. every particle of matter must be carefully tested. while a piece of material that could be omitted without loss to the explanation may sometimes find a place in exposition, such a thing must not occur in argument. as soon as a reader discovers that the writer is off the track, either he loses respect for the author's words, or he suspects him of trying to hide the weakness of his position in a cloud of worthless and irrelevant matters. every bit of material should advance the argument one step; it should fill its niche in the well-planned structure; it should contribute its part to the strength of the whole. plan called the brief. when the material has been selected, it must be arranged. an argument is a demonstration. each of its parts is the natural result of what has preceded, and, up to the last step, each part is the basis for the next step. as in geometry a demonstration that omits one step in its development, or, which comes to the same thing, puts the point out of its logical order, is worthless as a demonstration, so in argument not one essential step can be omitted, nor can it be misplaced. the plan in an argument may be more evident than in exposition. we are a little offended if the framework shows too plainly in exposition; but there is no offense in a well-articulated skeleton in an argument. it is quite the rule that the general plan and the main divisions of the argument are announced at the very beginning. any device that will make the relation of the parts clearer should be used. over and over again the writer should arrange the cards with the topics until he is certain that no other order is so good. the writing is a mere trifle compared with the outline, called in argument the brief. though the brief is so essential, it is unfortunately a thing about which but few suggestions can be given. the circumstances under which arguments are written--especially whether written to defend a position or to attack it--are so various that rules cannot be given. still a few general principles may be of value. climax. proofs should be arranged in a climax. this does not mean that the weakest argument should come first, and the next stronger should follow, and so on until the last and strongest is reached. it is necessary to begin with something that will catch the attention; and in argument it is frequently a proof strong enough to convince the reader that the writer knows what he is contending for, and that he can strike a hard blow. then again, it is evident that in all arguments there are main points in the discussion that must be established by points of minor importance. the main points should be arranged in a logical climax, and the sub-topics which go to support one of the main divisions should have their climax. at the end of the whole should be the strongest and the most comprehensive argument. it should be a general advance of the whole line of argument, including all the propositions that have previously been called into action, sweeping everything before it. inductive precedes deductive. to gain this climax what kind of arguments should precede? of inductive and deductive, the inductive proofs generally go first. the advance from particular instances to general truths is the best suited to catch the attention, for men think with individual examples, and general truths make little appeal to them. moreover, if one is addressing people of opposing views,--and in most cases he is, else why is he arguing?--it is unwise to begin with bald statements of unwelcome truths. they will be rejected without consideration. they can with advantage be delayed until they are reached in the regular development, and the reader has been prepared for their reception. general truths and their application by deductive arguments usually stand late in the brief. cause precedes sign. of arguments from cause, sign, or example, it is ordinarily wise to place arguments from cause first. a person does not listen to any explanation of an unknown truth until he knows that the explanation is plausible; that the cause assigned is adequate to produce the result. after one knows that the cause is sufficient and may have brought about the result, he is in a position to learn that it is the very cause that produced the effect. arguments from cause are very rarely conclusive proofs of fact. they only establish a probability. and it would be unwise to prove that a thing might be a possibility after one had attempted to prove that it is a fact. it would be a long step backward, a retreat. therefore arguments from cause, unless absolutely conclusive proof of fact, should not come last; but by other arguments,--by testimony, by example, by analogy,--the possibility, which has been reached by the argument from cause, may be established as a fact. example follows sign. of the two, sign and example, example generally follows sign. in arguments about human affairs, examples seldom prove anything; for under similar conditions one person may not act like another. though this be true, the argument from example is one of the most effective--it is not at all conclusive--in that class of cases where oratory is combined with argument to convince and persuade. this is because men learn most readily from examples. to reason about matters of conduct on abstract principles of morality convinces but few; to point to a lincoln or a franklin has persuaded thousands. examples are of most use in enforcing and illustrating and strengthening a point already established, and they generally follow arguments from sign. refutation. one other class of arguments finds a place in debate: namely, indirect arguments. it is often as much an advantage to a debater to dispose of objections as it is to establish his own case. this is because a question usually has two alternatives. if one can refute the arguments in favor of the opponent's position, he has by that very process established his own. if the points of the refutation are of minor importance and are related to any division of his own direct argument, the refutation of such points should be taken up in connection with the related parts of the direct argument. if, however, it is an argument of some weight and should be considered separate and apart from the direct argument, it is generally wisest to proceed to its demolition at the end of the direct argument and before the conclusion of the whole. for then the whole weight of the direct argument will be thrown into the refutation and will render every word so much the more destructive. again, if the opposing argument be very strong and have taken complete possession of the audience, it must be attacked and disposed of at the very beginning. otherwise it is impossible for the direct argument to make any advance. from these suggestions one derives the general principle that each case must be considered by itself. there will be cases of conflict among the rules, and there must be a careful weighing of methods. common sense and patient labor are the most valuable assistants in arranging a powerful argument. it hardly needs to be said that the suggestions made in the chapter on exposition regarding mass and coherence should be observed here. in argument as in exposition, topics are emphasized by position, and by proportion in the scale of treatment. here as there, matters that are closely related in thought should be connected in the discourse, and matters that are not related in thought should not be associated in the essay. it will be an advantage now to look through "conciliation with the colonies" and note its general plan of structure. only the main divisions of this powerful oration can be given, as to make a full brief would deprive this piece of literature of half its value for study. analysis of burke's oration. mr. burke begins by saying that it is "an awful subject or there is none this side of the grave." he states that he has studied the question for years, and while parliament has pursued a vacillating policy and one aggravating to the colonies, he has a fixed policy and one sure to restore "the former unsuspecting confidence in the mother country." his policy is simple peace. this by way of introduction. he then divides the argument into two large divisions and proceeds. i. ought you to concede? a. what are "the true nature and the peculiar circumstances of the object which we have before us?" i. america has a rapidly growing population. ii. it has a rapidly increasing commercial value, shown by . its demand for our goods. . the value of its agricultural products. . the value of the products of its fisheries. iii. there is in the people a "fierce spirit of liberty." this is the result of . their descent from englishmen. . their popular form of government. . religion in the north. . the haughty spirit of the south. . their education. . their remoteness from the governing body. b. "you have before you the object." "what ... shall we do with it?" "there are but three ways of proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit in the colonies." i. to change it by removing the causes. this is impracticable. ii. to prosecute it as criminal. this is inexpedient. iii. _to comply with it as necessary._ this is the answer to the first question. ii. of what nature ought the concession to be? a. a concession that grants to any colony the satisfaction of the grievances it complains of brings about conciliation and peace. this general proposition is established by the following examples. it has done so in . ireland, . wales, . durham, and . chester. b. the grievances complained of in america are unjust taxation and no representation. c. therefore these resolutions rehearsing facts and calculated to satisfy their grievances will bring about conciliation and peace. i. they are unrepresented. ii. they are taxed. iii. no method has been devised for procuring a representation in parliament for the said colonies. iv. each colony has within itself a body with powers to raise, levy, and assess taxes. v. these assemblies have at sundry times granted large subsidies and aids to his majesty's service. vi. experience teaches that it is expedient to follow their method rather than force payment. d. as a result of the adoption of these resolutions, "everything which has been made to enforce a contrary system must, i take it for granted, fall along with it. on that ground, i have drawn the following resolutions." i. it is proper to repeal certain legislation regarding taxes, imports, and administration of justice. ii. to secure a fair and unbiased judiciary. iii. to provide better for the courts of admiralty. e. he next considers objections. conclusion. notice first the introduction. it goes straight to the question. to tell a large opposition that it has vacillated on a great question is not calculated to win a kind hearing; yet this point, necessary to burke's argument, is so delicately handled that no one could be seriously offended, nor could any one charge him with weakness. the introduction serves its purpose; it gains the attention of the audience and it exactly states the proposition. he then divides the whole argument into two parts. the framework is visible, and with intent. these great divisions he takes up separately. first, that there may be a perfect understanding of the question, he explains "the true nature and the peculiar circumstances of the object which we have before us." this illustrates the use of exposition in argument. the descent and education did not prove that the americans had a fiery spirit; that was acknowledged and needed no proof. it simply sets forth the facts,--facts which he afterward uses as powerful instruments of conviction. as long as a man can use exposition, he can carry his readers with him; it is when he begins to argue, to force matters, that he raises opposition. so this use of exposition was fortunate. america was an english colony. her strength and riches were england's strength and wealth. it would be pleasing to all englishmen to hear the recital of america's prosperity. up to the time he asks, "what, in the name of god, shall we do with it," the oration is not essentially argument; it does nothing more than place "before you the object." in the section marked "i. b," burke begins the real argument by the method of elimination. he asserts that there are only three ways of dealing with this fierce spirit of liberty. then he conclusively proves the first impracticable and the second inexpedient. there is left but the one course, concession. this method of proof is absolutely conclusive if every possible contingency is stated and provided for. notice that in this section "b" everything that was mentioned in the first section "a" is used, and the whole is one solid mass moving forward irresistibly to the conclusion of the first and the most important part of this argument. the second main division is devoted to the conclusion of the first. if you must concede,--the conclusion of the first half,--what will be the nature of your concession? a concession, to be a concession, must grant what the colonists wish, not what the ministry thinks would be good for them. then by the history of england's dealings with ireland, wales, chester, and durham, he proves that such a concession has been followed by peace. this makes the major premise of his syllogism, stated in "ii. a." the minor premise is a statement of the grievances of the colonies. the conclusion is in the resolutions for the redress of the grievances of the colonies. the second part is then one great syllogism, the premises of which are established by ample proof, the conclusion of which cannot well be disputed. "and here i should close," says the orator; the direct argument is finished. there are some objections which demand dignified consideration. at this point, however, it is easy to refute any objections, for behind each word there is now the crushing weight of the whole argument. the conclusion recites the advantages of burke's plan over all others, and reasserts its value, now proven at every point. it is a powerful summary, and a skillful plea for the adoption of a policy of conciliation with the colonies of america. every kind of argument is used in this oration. one would look long for a treasury better supplied with illustrations. the great conclusions are reached by the certain methods of elimination and deduction. in establishing the minor points burke has used arguments from sign, cause, example, and induction. he calls in testimony; he quotes authority; he illustrates. not any device of sound argument that a man honest in his search for truth may use has been omitted. it is worthy of patient study. in conclusion, the student of argument should learn well the value of different kinds of argument; he should exercise the most careful scrutiny in selecting his material, without any hesitation rejecting irrelevant matter; he should state the proposition so that it cannot be misunderstood; he must consider his readers, guiding his course wisely with regard for all the conditions under which he produces his argument; he should remember that the law in argument is climax, and that coherence should be sought with infinite pains. above all, the man who takes up a debate must be fair and honest; only so will he win favor from his readers, and gain what is worth more than victory,--the distinction of being a servant of truth. suggestive questions questions. macaulay's essay on milton. (riverside literature series, no. .) put into a syllogism, macaulay's opponents said, "an educated man living in an enlightened age has better facilities for writing poetry than an uneducated man at the dawn of civilization. milton was an educated man, living in an enlightened age; therefore macaulay had better facilities," etc. which premise does macaulay attack? does he demolish it? what value is there in an analogy between experimental sciences and imitative arts? between poetry and a magic-lantern? is either an argument that is convincing? are both effective in the essay? what do you think of macaulay's estimate of wordsworth? granting that this estimate is true, what kind of a proof is it of the proposition that "his very talents will be a hindrance to him"? is it a uniform phenomenon that as civilization advances, poetry declines? name some instances that prove it. name some instances that disprove it. what method of proof have you used in both? is an uncivilized state of society the cause of good poetry, or only an attendant circumstance? what method of proof is adopted on pages and ? granting that you cannot conceive "a good man and an unnatural father," does that prove anything about the first sentence at the bottom of page ? does the example of the prisoner on page prove anything? burke's speech on conciliation with the colonies. (riverside literature series, no. .) what argument does burke use to prove that hedging in the population is not practicable? when he says that they will occupy territory because they have done so, is that an inductive or deductive argument, or is it an argument from sign? if it is deductive, what is the suppressed premise? are the arguments from to more in the nature of direct or indirect proofs? what value is there in an indirect argument? "americans speak the english language, therefore they are english." is the argument good? where is the fault? look for the suppressed premise. is paragraph direct or indirect argument? does he prove that criminal procedure against the colonies would fail, by sign or by deduction? do the four precedents which he cites of ireland, wales, durham, and chester prove that his plan will work in america? upon what general principle do all arguments from example depend? is paragraph in itself exposition or argument? what method is adopted in paragraph to prove that the principle of concession is applicable to america? how does he prove that americans were grieved by taxes? how does he establish the competence of the colony assemblies? how could the arguments have made "the conclusion irresistible"? (paragraph .) what principle of argument is stated in paragraph ? in paragraph is the one example cited enough to prove the rule? find an example of argument from sign. is it a relation of cause and effect? is it conclusive? in paragraph what does burke mention as arguments of value? what kind of arguments in paragraphs to ? what is the conclusion? whenever burke states a general truth it forms a part of what? supply the other premise in five cases, and derive a conclusion. does he ever use an argument from cause to establish a probability? to establish a fact? does he use deduction more frequently than sign? does he seek for a climax in the arrangement of the parts of his brief? * * * * * chapter vii paragraphs definition. so far we have been dealing with whole compositions; we now take up the study of paragraphs, sentences, and words. a paragraph in many respects resembles a whole composition. it may be narrative, descriptive, expositive, or argumentative. it must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. it is constructed with regard to unity, mass, and coherence. and as a whole composition treats a single theme, so a paragraph treats one division of a theme. it has been defined as a composition in miniature. a paragraph is a sentence or a group of sentences serving a single purpose in the development of a theme. the purpose may be simply to announce the theme-subject, to make a conclusion, to indicate a transition; but in the great majority of cases its purpose is to treat a single topic. so true is this that many authors, with good reason, define a paragraph as a group of sentences treating a single topic. long and short paragraphs. nobody would have trouble in telling where on a page a paragraph began and where it ended. the indention at the beginning, and usually the incomplete line at the end, mark its visible limits. unfortunately there is no specified length after which the writer is to make a break in the lines and begin a new paragraph. the length of a paragraph depends on something deeper than appearances; as the topic requires a lengthy or but a short treatment, as the paragraph may be a long summary or a short transition, the length of a paragraph varies. yet there is one circumstance which should counsel an author to keep his paragraphs within certain bounds: he should always have regard for his readers. readers shirk heavy labor. if a book or an article looks hard, it is passed by; if it looks easy, it is read. if the paragraphs be long and the page solid, the composition looks difficult; if the paragraphs be short and the page broken, the piece looks easy. this fact should advise a writer to make the page attractive by using short paragraphs; provided, and the provision is important, he can so make real paragraphs, divisions of composition that fully treat one topic. these divisions may in reality be but one sentence, and they may just as unquestionably be two pages of hard reading. successive paragraphs, each more than a page of ordinary print in length, repel as too hard; and a series of paragraphs of less than a quarter of a page impresses a reader as scrappy, and the work seems to lack the authority of complete treatment. an author will serve his readers and himself best by so subdividing his subject that the paragraphs are within these limits. the following paragraph is much too long and can with no difficulty be subdivided. the paragraphs in the next group are too short, and they are incomplete. "keating rode up now, and the transaction became more complicated. it ended in the purchase of the horse by bryce for a hundred and twenty, to be paid on the delivery of wildfire, safe and sound, at the batherley stables. it did occur to dunsey that it might be wise for him to give up the day's hunting, proceed at once to batherley, and, having waited for bryce's return, hire a horse to carry him home with the money in his pocket. but the inclination for a run, encouraged by confidence in his luck, and by a draught of brandy from his pocket-pistol at the conclusion of the bargain, was not easy to overcome, especially with a horse under him that would take the fences to the admiration of the field. dunstan, however, took one fence too many, and got his horse pierced with a hedge-stake. his own ill-favored person, which was quite unmarketable, escaped without injury; but poor wildfire, unconscious of his price, turned on his flank, and painfully panted his last. it happened that dunstan, a short time before, having had to get down to arrange his stirrup, had muttered a good many curses at this interruption, which had thrown him in the rear of the hunt near the moment of glory, and under this exasperation had taken the fences more blindly. he would soon have been up with the hounds again, when the fatal accident happened; and hence he was between eager riders in advance, not troubling themselves about what happened behind them, and far-off stragglers, who were as likely as not to pass quite aloof from the line of road in which wildfire had fallen. dunstan, whose nature it was to care more for immediate annoyances than for remote consequences, no sooner recovered his legs, and saw that it was all over with wildfire, than he felt a satisfaction at the absence of witnesses to a position which no swaggering could make enviable. reinforcing himself, after his shake, with a little brandy and much swearing, he walked as fast as he could to a coppice on his right hand, through which it occurred to him that he could make his way to batherley without danger of encountering any member of the hunt. his first intention was to hire a horse there and ride home forthwith, for to walk many miles without a gun in his hand, and along an ordinary road, was as much out of the question to him as to other spirited young men of his kind. he did not much mind about taking the bad news to godfrey, for he had to offer him at the same time the resource of marner's money; and if godfrey kicked, as he always did, at the notion of making a fresh debt, from which he himself got the smallest share of advantage, why, he wouldn't kick long: dunstan felt sure he could worry godfrey into anything. the idea of marner's money kept growing in vividness, now the want of it had become immediate; the prospect of having to make his appearance with the muddy boots of a pedestrian at batherley, and to encounter the grinning queries of stablemen, stood unpleasantly in the way of his impatience to be back at raveloe and carry out his felicitous plan; and a casual visitation of his waistcoat-pocket, as he was ruminating, awakened his memory to the fact that the two or three small coins his fore-finger encountered there were of too pale a color to cover that small debt, without payment of which the stable-keeper had declared he would never do any more business with dunsey cass. after all, according to the direction in which the run had brought him, he was not so very much farther from home than he was from batherley; but dunsey, not being remarkable for clearness of head, was only led to this conclusion by the gradual perception that there were other reasons for choosing the unprecedented course of walking home. it was now nearly four o'clock, and a mist was gathering: the sooner he got into the road the better. he remembered having crossed the road and seen the finger-post only a little while before wildfire broke down; so, buttoning his coat, twisting the lash of his hunting-whip compactly round the handle, and rapping the tops of his boots with a self-possessed air, as if to assure himself that he was not at all taken by surprise, he set off with the sense that he was undertaking a remarkable feat of bodily exertion, which somehow, and at some time, he should be able to dress up and magnify to the admiration of a select circle at the rainbow. when a young gentleman like dunsey is reduced to so exceptional a mode of locomotion as walking, a whip in his hand is a desirable corrective to a too bewildering dreamy sense of unwontedness in his position; and dunstan, as he went along through the gathering mist, was always rapping his whip somewhere. it was godfrey's whip, which he had chosen to take without leave because it had a gold handle; of course no one could see, when dunstan held it, that the name _godfrey cass_ was cut in deep letters on that gold handle--they could only see that it was a very handsome whip. dunsey was not without fear that he might meet some acquaintance in whose eyes he would cut a pitiable figure, for mist is no screen when people get close to each other; but when he at last found himself in the well-known raveloe lanes without having met a soul, he silently remarked that that was part of his usual good luck. but now the mist, helped by the evening darkness, was more of a screen than he desired, for it hid the ruts into which his feet were liable to slip--hid everything, so that he had to guide his steps by dragging his whip along the low bushes in advance of the hedgerow. he must soon, he thought, be getting near the opening at the stone-pits: he should find it out by the break in the hedgerow. he found it out, however, by another circumstance which he had not expected--namely, by certain gleams of light, which he presently guessed to proceed from silas marner's cottage. that cottage and the money hidden within it had been in his mind continually during his walk, and he had been imagining ways of cajoling and tempting the weaver to part with the immediate possession of his money for the sake of receiving interest. dunstan felt as if there must be a little frightening added to the cajolery, for his own arithmetical convictions were not clear enough to afford him any forcible demonstration as to the advantages of interest; and as for security, he regarded it vaguely as a means of cheating a man by making him believe that he would be paid. altogether, the operation on the miser's mind was a task that godfrey would be sure to hand over to his more daring and cunning brother: dunstan had made up his mind to that; and by the time he saw the light gleaming through the chinks of marner's shutters, the idea of a dialogue with the weaver had become so familiar to him, that it occurred to him as quite a natural thing to make the acquaintance forthwith. there might be several conveniences attending this course: the weaver had possibly got a lantern, and dunstan was tired of feeling his way. he was still nearly three quarters of a mile from home, and the lane was becoming unpleasantly slippery, for the mist was passing into rain. he turned up the bank, not without some fear lest he might miss the right way, since he was not certain whether the light were in front or on the side of the cottage. but he felt the ground before him cautiously with his whip-handle, and at last arrived safely at the door. he knocked loudly, rather enjoying the idea that the old fellow would be frightened at the sudden noise. he heard no movement in reply: all was silence in the cottage. was the weaver gone to bed, then? if so, why had he left a light? that was a strange forgetfulness in a miser. dunstan knocked still more loudly, and, without pausing for a reply, pushed his fingers through the latch-hole, intending to shake the door and pull the latch-string up and down, not doubting that the door was fastened. but, to his surprise, at this double motion the door opened, and he found himself in front of a bright fire, which lit up every corner of the cottage--the bed, the loom, the three chairs, and the table--and showed him that marner was not there."[ ] "the country, all white, lit up by the fire, shone like a cloth of silver tinted with red. "a bell, far off, began to toll. "the old 'sauvage' remained standing before her ruined dwelling, armed with her gun, her son's gun, for fear lest one of those men might escape. "when she saw that it was ended, she threw her weapon into the brasier. a loud report rang back. "people were coming, the peasants, the prussians. "they found the woman seated on the trunk of a tree, calm and satisfied. "a german officer, who spoke french like a son of france, demanded of her:-- "'where are your soldiers?' "she extended her thin arm towards the red heap of fire which was gradually going out, and she answered with a strong voice:-- "'there!' "they crowded round her. the prussian asked:-- "'how did it take fire?' "she said:-- "'it was i who set it on fire.'"[ ] topic sentence. paragraphs are developments of a definite topic; and this topic is generally announced at the beginning of the paragraph. in isolated paragraphs, paragraphs that are indeed compositions in miniature, the topic-sentence is the first sentence. the reader is then advised of the subject of the discussion; and as sentence after sentence passes him, he can relate it to the topic, and the thought is a cumulative whole. if the subject be not announced, the individual sentences must be held in mind until the reader catches the drift of the discussion, or the author at last presents the topic. below are four paragraphs, from different forms of discourse, all having the topic-sentence at the beginning. "_but success or defeat was a minor matter to them, who had only thought for the safety of those they loved._ amelia, at the news of the victory, became still more agitated even than before. she was for going that moment to the army. she besought her brother with tears to conduct her thither. her doubts and terrors reached their paroxysm; and the poor girl, who for many hours had been plunged into stupor, raved and ran hither and thither in hysteric insanity,--a piteous sight. no man writhing in pain in the hard-fought field fifteen miles off, where lay, after their struggles, so many of the brave--no man suffered more keenly than this poor harmless victim of the war. jos could not bear the sight of her pain. he left his sister in the charge of her stouter female companion and descended once more to the threshold of the hotel, where everybody still lingered, and talked, and waited for more news."[ ] "_yet the fact remains that the honey-bee is essentially a wild creature, and never has been and cannot be thoroughly domesticated._ its proper home is the woods, and thither every new swarm counts on going; and thither many do go in spite of the care and watchfulness of the bee-keeper. if the woods in any given locality are deficient in trees with suitable cavities, the bees resort to all kinds of makeshifts; they go into chimneys, into barns and outhouses, under stones, into rocks, and so forth. several chimneys in my locality with disused flues are taken possession of by colonies of bees nearly every season. one day, while bee-hunting, i developed a line that went toward a farmhouse where i had reason to believe no bees were kept. i followed it up and questioned the farmer about his bees. he said he kept no bees, but that a swarm had taken possession of his chimney, and another had gone under the clapboards in the gable end of his house. he had taken a large lot of honey out of both places the year before. another farmer told me that one day his family had seen a number of bees examining a knot-hole in the side of his house; the next day as they were sitting down to dinner their attention was attracted by a loud humming noise, when they discovered a swarm of bees settling upon the side of the house and pouring into the knot-hole. in subsequent years other swarms came to the same place."[ ] "_it is important, therefore, to hold fast to this: that poetry is at bottom a criticism of life;_ that the greatness of a poet lies in his powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life,--to the question: how to live. morals are often treated in a narrow and false fashion; they are bound up with systems of thought and belief which have had their day; they have fallen into the hands of pedants and professional dealers; they grow tiresome to some of us. we find attraction, at times, even in a poetry of revolt against them; in a poetry which might take for its motto omar khayyam's words: 'let us make up in the tavern for the time which we have wasted in the mosque.' or we find attractions in a poetry indifferent to them; in a poetry where the contents may be what they will, but where the form is studied and exquisite. we delude ourselves in either case; and the best cure for our delusion is to let our minds rest upon that great and inexhaustible word _life,_ until we learn to enter into its meaning. a poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against _life;_ a poetry of indifference toward moral ideas is a poetry of indifference toward _life._"[ ] "_the advantages arising from a system of copyright are obvious._ it is desirable that we should have a supply of good books: we cannot have such a supply unless men of letters are liberally remunerated; and the least objectionable way of remunerating them is by means of copyright. you cannot depend for literary instruction and amusement on the leisure of men occupied in the pursuits of active life. such men may occasionally produce compositions of great merit. but you must not look to such men for works which require deep meditation and long research. works of that kind you can expect only from persons who make literature the business of their lives. of these persons few will be found among the rich and the noble. the rich and the noble are not impelled to intellectual exertion by necessity. they may be impelled to intellectual exertion by the desire of distinguishing themselves, or by the desire of benefiting the community. but it is generally within these walls that they seek to signalize themselves and to serve their fellow-creatures. both their ambition and their public spirit, in a country like this, naturally take a political turn. it is then on men whose profession is literature, and whose private means are not ample, that you must rely for a supply of valuable books. such men must be remunerated for their literary labor. and there are only two ways in which they can be remunerated. one of those ways is patronage; the other is copyright."[ ] frequently the topic-sentence is delayed until after the connection between what was said in the preceding paragraph and what will be said has been made. to establish this relation requires sometimes but a word or a short phrase, and sometimes sentences. in these cases the topic-sentence follows the transition, and it may come as late as the middle of the paragraph. "the crows we have always with us, but it is not every day or every season that one sees an eagle. _hence i must preserve the memory of one i saw the last day i went bee-hunting._ as i was laboring up the side of a mountain at the head of a valley, the noble bird sprang from the top of a dry tree above me and came sailing directly over my head. i saw him bend his eye down upon me, and i could hear the low hum of his plumage, as if the web of every quill in his great wings vibrated in his strong, level flight. i watched him as long as my eye could hold him. when he was fairly clear of the mountain he began that sweeping spiral movement in which he climbs the sky. up and up he went without once breaking his majestic poise till he appeared to sight some far-off alien geography, when he bent his course thitherward, and gradually vanished in the blue depths. the eagle is a bird of large ideas, he embraces long distances; the continent is his home. i never look upon one without emotion; i follow him with my eye as long as i can. i think of canada, of the great lakes, of the rocky mountains, of the wild and sounding sea-coast. the waters are his, and the woods and the inaccessible cliffs. he pierces behind the veil of the storm, and his joy is height and depth and vast spaces."[ ] "now these insinuations and questions shall be answered in their proper places; here i will but say that i scorn and detest lying, and quibbling, and double-tongued practice, and slyness, and cunning, and smoothness, and cant, and pretence, quite as much as any protestants hate them; and i pray to be kept from the snare of them. but all this is just now by the bye; _my present subject is my accuser;_ what i insist upon here is this unmanly attempt of his, in his concluding pages, to cut the ground from under my feet;--to poison by anticipation the public mind against me, john henry newman, and to infuse into the imaginations of my readers suspicion and mistrust of everything that i may say in reply to him. this i call poisoning the wells." ("apologia.") in exposition and argument, and sometimes in the other forms of discourse, the topic-sentence may be at the end of the paragraph. this is for emphasis in narration and description. in exposition and argument it is better to lead up to an unwelcome truth than to announce it at once. "thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have no right to speculate on any other), breaks up, in consequence of that continual death which is the condition of its manifesting vitality, into carbonic acid, water, and nitrogenous compounds which certainly possess no properties but those of ordinary matter. and out of these same forms of ordinary matter, and from none which are simpler, the vegetable world builds up all the protoplasm which keeps the animal world a-going. _plants are the accumulators of the power which animals distribute and disperse._"[ ] no topic-sentence. sometimes no topic-sentence appears in the paragraph. in such a case it is easily discovered; or at times it is too fragile to be compressed into any definite shape--a feeling, or a sentiment too delicate, too volatile for expression. a paragraph with no topic-sentence is most common in narration and description. "the tide of color has ebbed from the upper sky. in the west the sea of sunken fire draws back; and the stars leap forth, and tremble, and retire before the advancing moon, who slips the silver train of cloud from her shoulders, and, with her foot upon the pine-tops, surveys heaven." ("richard feverel," by george meredith.) the plan. whether the topic form a part of the paragraph or not, it should be distinctly before the writer, and he should write upon the topic. nothing contributes so much to the success of paragraphs as a definite treatment of one single topic. the paragraph is the development, the growth of this topic, as the plant is the development of its seed. moreover, the development is according to a definite plan. the different steps are not usually laid out, as was done in the outline of a theme. genung, in the "practical elements of rhetoric," presents what he calls a typical form for a paragraph. it shows that a paragraph which is fully developed is in reality a miniature theme. it is as follows:-- the subject proposed. i. whatever is needed to explain the subject. repetition. obverse. definition. ii. whatever is needed to establish the subject. exemplification or detail. illustration. proof. iii. whatever is needed to apply the subject. result or consequence. enforcement. summary or recapitulation. kinds of paragraphs. this typical form of a paragraph embodies all that paragraphs may do, and it is the logical arrangement. however, it is rare, perhaps it never occurs, that a paragraph is found having all these elements developed. the purpose determines which part of a paragraph should receive the amplification. if it be narrative or descriptive, there is no definition or proof; but the development by details will predominate. in an argument, definition and proof will form the large part of the paragraphs. again, the position in the theme determines what kind of a paragraph should be used. in exposition the first paragraphs would be devoted to stating the proposition, and would therefore be largely given up to definition and repetition; the body would be especially paragraphs of detail and illustration; while the closing paragraph would be taken up with results and a summary. as one of the elements of a paragraph has been especially developed, paragraphs have been named paragraphs of repetition,[ ] of the obverse, of details, of instances or examples, and of comparisons. such a division is somewhat mechanical; but for purposes of study and for conscious practice in construction it has value. details. the paragraph of details is by far the most common. it is found in all kinds of discourse. it originates from the fact that persons generally give the general truth first and follow this statement with the details or particulars. whether the storyteller begins by saying, "now i'll tell you just how they happened to be there;" or the traveler writes, "from the place de la concorde one has about him magnificent views," or "there were many unfortunate circumstances about the dreyfus affair;" in each case he will follow the general statement of the opening sentence with sentences going into particulars or details. _"all was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet schoolroom._ the scholars were hurried through their lessons without stopping at trifles; those who were nimble skipped over half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a smart application now and then in the rear, to quicken their speed or help them over a tall word. books were flung aside without being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, benches thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of young imps, yelping and racketing about the green in joy at their early emancipation."[ ] "it was toward evening that ichabod arrived at the castle of the heer van tassel, _which he found thronged with the pride and flower of the adjacent country._ old farmers, a spare leathern-faced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue stocking, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles. their brisk, withered little dames, in close crimped caps, long-waisted short-gowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and pincushions, and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside. buxom lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw hat, a fine ribbon, or perhaps a white frock gave symptoms of city innovation. the sons, in short square-skirted coats, with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an eelskin for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the country as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair."[ ] "the enemies of the parliament, indeed, rarely choose to take issue in the great points of the question. they content themselves with exposing some of _the crimes and follies_ to which public commotions necessarily give birth. they bewail the unmerited fate of strafford. they execrate the lawless violence of the army. they laugh at the scriptural names of the preachers. major-generals fleecing their districts; soldiers reveling on the spoils of a ruined peasantry; upstarts, enriched by the public plunder, taking possession of the hospitable firesides and hereditary trees of the old gentry; boys smashing the beautiful windows of cathedrals; quakers riding naked through the market-place; fifth-monarchy men shouting for king jesus; agitators lecturing from the tops of tubs on the fate of agag,--all these, they tell us, were the offspring of the great rebellion."[ ] in narration and in a short paragraph of description this paragraph of details is frequently without a topic-sentence. the circumstances that make up a transaction are grouped, but there is no need of writing, "i will now detail this." in the following, since the paragraph is plainly about the preparation for the fight, it is unnecessary to say so. such a patent statement would hinder the movement of the story. "alan drew a dirk, which he held in his left hand in case they should run in under his sword. i, on my part, clambered up into the berth with an armful of pistols and something of a heavy heart, and set open the window where i was to watch. it was a small part of the deck that i could overlook, but enough for our purpose. the sea had gone down, and the wind was steady and kept the sails quiet; so that there was a great stillness on the ship, in which i made sure i heard the sound of muttering voices. a little after, and there came a clash of steel upon the deck, by which i knew they were dealing out the cutlasses, and one had been let fall; and after that silence again."[ ] comparisons. the paragraph of comparisons tells what a thing is like and what a thing is not like. it is much used in description and exposition. it is often the clearest way to describe an object or to explain a proposition. one thing may be likened to a number of things, drawing from each a quality that more definitely pictures it; or it may be compared with but one, and the likeness may be followed out to the limit of its value. in the same manner it is often of value to tell what a thing or a proposition does not resemble, to contrast it with one or more ideas, and by this means exclude what might otherwise be confusing. note that after the negative comparison the paragraph closes with what it is like, or what it is. from macaulay's long comparison of the writings of milton and dante, one paragraph is enough to illustrate the use of contrast. "now let us _compare_ with the exact details of dante the dim intimations of milton. we will cite a few examples. the english poet has never thought of taking the measure of satan. he gives us merely a vague idea of vast bulk. in one passage the fiend lies stretched out, huge in length, floating many a rood, equal in size to the earth-born enemies of jove, or to the sea monster which the mariner mistakes for an island. when he addresses himself to battle against the guardian angels, he stands like teneriffe or atlas; his stature reaches the sky. contrast with these descriptions the lines in which dante has described the gigantic spectre of nimrod: 'his face seemed to me as long and as broad as the ball of st. peter's at rome, and his other limbs were in proportion; so that the bank, which concealed him from the waist downwards, nevertheless showed so much of him that three tall germans would in vain have attempted to reach to his hair.'" ("essay on milton.") the following indicates the use of similarity. "it is the character of such revolutions that we always see the worst of them at first. till men have been some time free, they know not how to use their freedom. the natives of wine countries are generally sober. in climates where wine is a rarity intemperance abounds. a newly liberated people may be _compared to_ a northern army encamped on the rhine or the xeres. it is said that, when soldiers in such a situation first find themselves able to indulge without restraint in such a rare and expensive luxury, nothing is to be seen but intoxication. soon, however, plenty teaches discretion, and, after wine has been for a few months their daily fare, they become more temperate than they had ever been in their own country. in the same manner, the final and permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, moderation, and mercy. its immediate effects are often atrocious crimes, conflicting errors, skepticism on points the most clear, dogmatism on points the most mysterious. it is just at this crisis that its enemies love to exhibit it. they pull down the scaffolding from the half-finished edifice; they point to the flying dust, the falling bricks, the comfortless rooms, the frightful irregularity of the whole appearance, and then ask in scorn where the promised splendor and comfort is to be found. if such miserable sophisms were to prevail, there would never be a good house or a good government in the world." ("essay on milton," by lord macaulay.) repetition. a third method of developing a paragraph from a topic-sentence is by repetition. simply to repeat in other words would be useless redundancy; but so to repeat that with each repetition the thought broadens or deepens is valuable in proposing a subject or explaining it. no person has attained greater skill in repetition than matthew arnold, and much of his clearness comes from his repetition, often of the very same phrases. "wordsworth has been in his grave for some thirty years, and certainly his lovers and admirers cannot flatter themselves that this great and steady light of glory as yet shines over him. he is not fully recognized at home; he is not recognized at all abroad. yet i firmly believe that the poetical performance of wordsworth is, after that of shakespeare and milton, of which all the world now recognizes the worth, undoubtedly the most considerable in our language from the elizabethan age to the present time. chaucer is anterior; and on other grounds, too, he cannot well be brought into the comparison. but taking the roll of our chief poetical names, besides shakespeare and milton, from the age of elizabeth downwards, and going through it,--spenser, dryden, pope, gray, goldsmith, cowper, burns, coleridge, scott, campbell, moore, byron, shelley, keats (i mention those only who are dead),--i think it certain that wordsworth's name deserves to stand, and will finally stand, above them all. several of the poets named have gifts and excellencies which wordsworth has not. but taking the performance of each as a whole, i say that wordsworth seems to me to have left a body of poetical work superior in power, in interest, in the qualities which give enduring freshness, to that which any one of the others has left." ("essay on wordsworth," by matthew arnold.) "perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind, if anything which gives so much pleasure ought to be called unsoundness. by poetry we mean not all writing in verse, nor even all good writing in verse. our definition excludes many metrical compositions which, on other grounds, deserve the highest praise. by poetry, we mean the art of employing words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination, the art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colors. thus the greatest of the poets has described it, in lines universally admired for the vigor and felicity of their diction, and still more valuable on account of the just notion which they convey of the art in which he excelled:-- 'as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.' these are the fruits of the 'fine frenzy' which he ascribes to the poet,--a fine frenzy, doubtless, but still a frenzy. truth, indeed, is essential to poetry, but it is the truth of madness. the reasonings are just, but the premises are false. after the first suppositions have been made, everything ought to be consistent; but those first suppositions require a degree of credulity which almost amounts to a partial and temporary derangement of the intellect. hence, of all people, children are the most imaginative. they abandon themselves without reserve to every illusion. every image which is strongly presented to their mental eye produces in them the effect of reality. no man, whatever his sensibility may be, is ever affected by hamlet or lear as a little girl is affected by the story of poor red riding hood. she knows it is all false, that wolves cannot speak, that there are no wolves in england. yet in spite of her knowledge she believes; she weeps; she trembles; she dares not go into a dark room lest she should feel the teeth of the monster at her throat. such is the despotism of the imagination over uncultivated minds." ("essay on milton," by macaulay.) obverse. a fourth method of building up a paragraph from a topic-sentence consists in telling what it is not; that is, giving the obverse. this is very effective in argument, and is employed in exposition and description. the obverse usually follows a positive statement, and again is followed by the affirmative; that is, first what it is, then what it is not, and last, what it is again. in the following description by ruskin, the method appears and reappears. notice the "nots" and "buts," indicating the change from the negative to the positive statement. it would be a sacrilege to omit the last paragraph, though it does not illustrate this manner of development. "for all other rivers there is a surface, and an underneath, and a vaguely displeasing idea of the bottom. but the rhone flows like one lambent jewel; its surface is nowhere, its ethereal self is everywhere, the iridescent rush and translucent strength of it blue to the shore, and radiant to the depth. "fifteen feet thick, not of flowing, but flying water; not water, neither--melted glacier, rather, one should call it; the force of the ice is with it, and the wreathing of the clouds, the gladness of the sky, and the continuance of time. "waves of clear sea are, indeed, lovely to watch, but they are always coming or gone, never in any taken shape to be seen for a second. but here was one mighty wave that was always itself, and every fluted swirl of it, constant as the wreathing of a shell. no wasting away of the fallen foam, no pause for gathering of power, no helpless ebb of discouraged recoil; but alike through bright day and lulling night, the never-pausing plunge, and never-fading flash, and never-hushing whisper, and, while the sun was up, the ever-answering glow of unearthly aquamarine, ultramarine, violet-blue, gentian-blue, peacock-blue, river-of-paradise blue, glass of a painted window melted in the sun, and the witch of the alps flinging the spun tresses of it forever from her snow. "the innocent way, too, in which the river used to stop to look into every little corner. great torrents always seem angry, and great rivers are often too sullen; but there is no anger, no disdain in the rhone. it seemed as if the mountain stream was in mere bliss at recovering itself again out of the lake-sleep, and raced because it rejoiced in racing, fain yet to return and stay. there were pieces of wave that danced all day, as if perdita were looking on to learn; there were little streams that skipped like lambs and leaped like chamois; there were pools that shook the sunshine all through them, and were rippled in layers of overlaid ripples, like crystal sand; there were currents that twisted the light into golden braids, and inlaid the threads with turquoise enamel; there were strips of stream that had certainly above the lake been mill-stream, and were looking busily for mills to turn again; and there were shoots of stream that had once shot fearfully into the air, and now sprang up again, laughing, that they had only fallen a foot or two;--and in the midst of all the gay glittering and eddied lingering, the noble bearing by of the midmost depth, so mighty, yet so terrorless and harmless, with its swallows skimming in spite of petrels, and the dear old decrepit town as safe in the embracing sweep of it as if it were set in a brooch of sapphires."[ ] this extract from burke's speech is a good example of the same method. "i put this consideration of the present and the growing numbers in the front of our deliberation, because, sir, this consideration will make it evident to a blunter discernment than yours, that _no_ partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, occasional system will be at all suitable to such an object. it will show you that it is _not_ to be considered as one of those _minima_ which are out of the eye and consideration of the law; _not_ a paltry excrescence of the state; _not_ a mean dependent, who may be neglected with little damage and provoked with little danger. it will prove that some degree of care and caution is required in the handling such an object; it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with so large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. you could at no time do so without guilt; and be assured you will not be able to do it long with impunity."[ ] examples. a fifth method of expanding a topic is by means of illustrations and examples. it is used largely in establishing or enforcing a proposition. the author selects one example, or perhaps more than one, to illustrate his proposition. note the words that may introduce specific instances: _for example, for instance, to illustrate, a case in point,_ and so forth. in the first of the following quotations, cardinal newman is showing that simply to acquire is not true mental enlargement. the paragraph is made up of a series of instances. the second paragraph is by macaulay. "the _case is the same still more strikingly when_ the persons in question are beyond dispute men of inferior powers and deficient education. perhaps they have been much in foreign countries, and they receive, in a passive, otiose, unfruitful way, the various facts which are forced upon them there. seafaring men, _for example,_ range from one end of the earth to the other; but the multiplicity of external objects which they have encountered forms no symmetrical and consistent picture upon their imagination; they see the tapestry of human life, as it were, on the wrong side, and it tells no story. they sleep, and they rise up, and they find themselves, now in europe, now in asia; they see visions of great cities and wild regions; they are in the marts of commerce, or amid the islands of the south; they gaze on pompey's pillar, or on the andes; and nothing which meets them carries them forward or backward, to any idea beyond itself. nothing has a drift or relation; nothing has a history or a promise. everything stands by itself and comes and goes in its turn, like the shifting scenes of a show, which leave the spectator where he was. perhaps you are near such a man on a particular occasion, and expect him to be shocked or perplexed at something which occurs; but one thing is much the same to him as another; or, if he is perplexed, it is as not knowing what to say, whether it is right to admire, or to ridicule, or to disapprove, while conscious that some expression of opinion is expected from him; for in fact he has no standard of judgment at all, and no landmarks to guide him to a conclusion. such is mere acquisition, and, i repeat, no one would dream of calling it philosophy." ("idea of a university," by cardinal newman.) "i will give _another instance._ one of the most instructive, interesting, and delightful books in our language is boswell's 'life of johnson.' now it is well known that boswell's eldest son considered this book, considered the whole relation of boswell to johnson, as a blot in the escutcheon of the family. he thought, not perhaps altogether without reason, that his father had exhibited himself in a ludicrous and degrading light. and thus he became so sore and irritable that at last he could not bear to hear the 'life of johnson' mentioned. suppose that the law had been what my honorable and learned friend wishes to make it. suppose that the copyright of boswell's 'life of johnson' had belonged, as it well might, during sixty years, to boswell's eldest son. what would have been the consequence? an unadulterated copy of the finest biographical work in the world would have been as scarce as the first edition of camden's 'britannia.'" (speech, "copyright," by macaulay.) combines two or more forms. as was said at the beginning, a paragraph is seldom made exclusively of one form. one part of the typical paragraph is usually developed more than any other and gives to the paragraph its character and its name. by far the most common variety of paragraph is that which combines two or more of the other forms. it is not necessary to cite examples; they are everywhere. though combination is the commonest method of development, it should be guarded. it is a poor paragraph that combines the forms indiscriminately. it should follow some plan; and the best plan is the one already given in the typical paragraph. all paragraphs, whatever be the special method of development, are governed by the three principles which have guided in the structure of whole compositions. whether the purpose be to prove or to narrate, to enforce a conclusion or to illustrate, if a paragraph is to produce its greatest effect, it should have unity, it should be well massed, and it should be coherent. it is not necessary now to define unity in a paragraph; the need is rather to notice the offenses against it that frequently occur. they are manifestly two: too much may be included, and not all may be included. the accompanying circumstance of the one, not necessarily the cause, however, is often a very long paragraph, and of the other a short paragraph. unity. violations of the unity of a paragraph most frequently result from including more than belongs there. the theme has been selected; it is narrow and concise. when one begins to write, many things crowd in pell-mell. impressions, which come and go, we hardly know how or why, are the only products of most minds. impressions, not shaped and logical thoughts, make up the mixed confusion frequently called a theme. the writer puts down enough of these impressions to make a paragraph, and then goes on to do it again, fancying that so he is really paragraphing. even should he keep within the limits of his theme, he cannot in this way paragraph. as everything upon a subject does not belong in a theme, so everything in a theme may not be introduced indiscriminately into any paragraph. the other danger lies in the short paragraph. it does not allow a writer room to say all he has to say upon the topic, so it runs over into the next paragraph. all of the thought-paragraph should appear in one division on the page. this error is not so common as the former. examples of each are to be found on pages - . need of outline. the remedy for this confusion clearly is hard thinking; and a great assistance is the outline. before a word is written, think through the theme; get clearly the purpose of each paragraph in the development of the whole. then write just what the paragraph was intended to include, and no more. more will be suggested because the parts of a whole theme are all closely related, but that more belongs somewhere else. make a sharp outline, and follow it. mass. a paragraph should be so arranged that the parts which arrest the eye will be important.[ ] when a person glances down a page, his eye rests upon the beginning and the end of each paragraph. a reader going rapidly through an article to get what he wants of it does not read religiously every word; he knows that he will be directed to the contents of each paragraph by the first and last sentences. if a writer considers his readers, if he desires to arrange his paragraph so that it will be most effective, he will have at these points such sentences as will accurately indicate its contents and the trend of the discussion; and he will form these sentences so well that they will deserve the attention which is given them by reason of their position in the paragraph. what begins and what ends a paragraph? what are the words that deserve the distinction of opening and closing a paragraph? as in the theme, so in a paragraph, the first thing is to announce the subject of discussion. when the subject is simply announced without giving any indication as to the drift of the discussion, the conclusion of the discussion is generally stated in the last sentence. burke says, "the first thing we have to consider with regard to the nature of the object is the number of people in the colonies." he concludes the paragraph with, "whilst we are discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. whilst we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we shall find we have millions more to manage. your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood than they spread from families to communities, and from villages to nations." in other cases the opening sentence states the conclusion at which the paragraph will arrive. then the closing sentence may be a repetition of the opening or topic sentence; or it may be one of the points used to exemplify or establish the proposition which opens the paragraph. again, in a short paragraph the topic need not be announced at the beginning; in this case it should be given in the concluding sentence. or, should the topic be given in the opening sentence of a short paragraph, it is unnecessary to repeat it at the end. in any case, whether the paragraph opens with a simple announcement of the topic to be discussed, or with the conclusion which the paragraph aims to explain, establish, or illustrate, or whether it closes with the conclusion of the whole matter, or with one of the main points in the development, the sentences at the beginning and the end of a paragraph should be strong sentences worthy of their distinguished position. in the first paragraph below, there is a proposition in the first sentence and its repetition in the last. in the two following, though they close with no general statement, the specific assertions used to substantiate and illustrate the first sentences are strong and carry in themselves the truth of the topic-sentence. "the eloquence of mr. adams resembled his general character, and formed, indeed, a part of it. it was bold, manly, and energetic; and such the crisis required. when public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech farther than as it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. true eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. it cannot be brought from far. labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. words and phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they cannot compass it. it must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it. it comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. the graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country hang on the decision of the hour. then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. then patriotism is eloquent; then self-devotion is eloquent. the clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object--this, this is eloquence: or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence; it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action."[ ] "the prejudiced man travels, and then everything he sees in catholic countries only serves to make him more thankful that his notions are so true; and the more he sees of popery, the more abominable he feels it to be. if there is any sin, any evil in a foreign population, though it be found among protestants also, still popery is clearly the cause of it. if great cities are the schools of vice, it is owing to popery. if sunday is profaned, if there is a carnival, it is the fault of the catholic church. then, there are no private houses, as in england; families live in staircases; see what it is to belong to a popish country. why do the roman laborers wheel their barrows so slow in the forum? why do the lazzaroni of naples lie so listlessly on the beach? why, but because they are under the _malaria_ of a false religion. rage, as is well known, is in the roman like a falling sickness, almost as if his will had no part in it and he had no responsibility; see what it is to be a papist. bloodletting is as frequent and as much a matter of course in the south as hair-cutting in england; it is a trick borrowed from the convents, when they wish to tame down refractory spirits."[ ] "excuse me, sir, if turning from such thoughts i resume this comparative view once more. you have seen it on a large scale; look at it on a small one. i will point out to your attention a particular instance of it in the single province of pennsylvania. in the year that province called for £ , in value of your commodities, native and foreign. this was the whole. what did it demand in ? why, nearly fifty times as much; for in that year the export to pennsylvania was £ , , nearly equal to the export to all the colonies together in the first period."[ ] the following illustrates the weakness of closing with a specific instance when it does not rise to the level of the remainder of a paragraph. the last sentence would better be omitted. "we often hear of the magical influence of poetry. the expression in general means nothing; but, applied to the writings of milton, it is most appropriate. his poetry acts like an incantation. its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. there would seem, at first sight, to be no more in his words than in other words. but they are words of enchantment. no sooner are they pronounced than the past is present and the distant near. new forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all the burial-places of memory give up their dead. change the structure of the sentence, substitute one synonym for another, and the whole effect is destroyed. the spell loses its power; and he who should then hope to conjure with it would find himself as much mistaken as cassim in the arabian tale, when he stood crying, 'open wheat,' 'open barley,' to the door which obeyed no sound but 'open sesame.' in the miserable failure of dryden in his attempt to translate into his own diction some parts of the 'paradise lost' is a remarkable instance of this." ("essay on milton," by macaulay.) length of opening and closing sentences. by examination, one finds that the first sentence of a paragraph of exposition and of argument is usually a terse statement of the proposition; and that after the proposition has been established there follows a longer sentence gathering up all the points of the discussion into a full, rounded period which forms a suitable climax and conclusion of the paragraph. of macaulay's "milton" one is quite inside the truth when he says that of those paragraphs containing an opening topic-sentence and its restatement as a conclusion, the closing sentence is the longer in the ratio of two to one. in burke's "conciliation," the ratio rises as high as four to one. there are, however, exceptions to the rule. paragraphs sometimes close with a shorter statement of the proposition, a sort of aphorism or epigram. as this kind of sentence is fascinating, some books have said that paragraphs should close so; that it is like cracking a whip, and gives a snap to the paragraph not gained in any other way. even if readers enjoyed having paragraphs close in this cracking manner, it must be borne in mind that not all conclusions are capable of such a statement, and, what is worse, that the tendency to seek for epigrams leads to untruth and a degenerated form of witticism. such forced sentences are only half truths, or they are a bit of cheap repartee. such a close is effective, if the whole truth can be so expressed; but to seek for such sentences is dangerous. the best rule is the one already stated; it applies to the long sentence and the short sentence alike. it is that a paragraph should close with words that deserve distinction. proportion. the body of a paragraph should have the matter so proportioned that the more important points shall receive the longer treatment. in a paragraph of proof, details, or comparison, that point in the proof, that particular, that part of the comparison, which for the specific purpose has most significance, should have proportionately fuller treatment. it is the same principle already noticed in exposition. indicate the relative importance of topics in a paragraph by the relative number of words used in their treatment. for mass in a paragraph, then, keep in mind that the last sentence should contain matter and form worthy of the position it occupies; that the position of next importance is at the beginning; and that the relative importance of the matters in the body of a paragraph is pretty correctly indicated by the relative length of treatment. coherence and clearness. coherence, the third principle of structure, is the most important; and it is the most difficult to apply. for one can make a beginning and an end, he can select his materials so that there is unity, but to make all the parts stick together, to arrange the sentences so that one grows naturally from the preceding and leads into the next, requires nice adjustment of parts, and rewriting many times. how essential coherence in a paragraph is, simply to make the thought easy to grasp, may be seen by taking a paragraph to pieces and mixing up its sentences, and at the same time removing all words that bind its parts together. the following can hardly be understood at all, but in its original condition it is so clear that it cannot be misunderstood. if the sentences be arranged in the following order, the original paragraph will appear: , , , , , , , , , . . "the first question which obviously suggests itself is how these wonderful moral effects are to be wrought under the instrumentality of the physical sciences. . to know is one thing, to do is another; the two things are altogether distinct. . does sir robert peel mean to say, that whatever be the occult reasons for the result, so it is; you have but to drench the popular mind with physics, and moral and religious advancement follows on the whole, in spite of individual failures? . a man knows he should get up in the morning,--he lies abed; he knows he should not lose his temper, yet he cannot keep it. . can the process be analyzed and drawn out, or does it act like a dose or a charm which comes into general use empirically? . it is natural and becoming to seek for some clear idea of the meaning of so dark an oracle. . a laboring man knows he should not go to the ale-house, and his wife knows she should not filch when she goes out charing, but, nevertheless, in these cases, the consciousness of a duty is not all one with the performance of it. . or rather, does he mean, that, from the nature of the case, he who is imbued with science and literature, unless adverse influences interfere, cannot but be a better man? . yet when has the experiment been tried on so large a scale as to justify such anticipations? . there are, then, large families of instances, to say the least, in which men may become wiser, without becoming better; what, then, is the meaning of this great maxim in the mouth of its promulgators?" coherence, so necessary to the easy understanding of a paragraph, is gained in three ways: by the order in which the sentences are arranged; by the use of parallel constructions for parallel ideas; and by the use of connectives. two arrangements of sentences in a paragraph. material which has been selected with regard to the principle of unity is all informed with one idea. yet though one thought runs through it all and unites it, the parts do not stand in an equally close relation to the conclusion, nor is each part equally related to every other part. had they been, the last paragraph quoted would have been as well in one order as another. rather the sentences seem to fall into groups of more closely related matters; or at times one sentence seems to follow as the direct consequence of the preceding sentence. with respect to the way in which the sentences contribute to the topic of the paragraph, whether the topic be announced first or last, sentences may be said to contribute directly to the proposition or indirectly. if directly, the paragraph is a collection of sentences, each having a common purpose, each having a similar relation to the topic, arranged, as it were, side by side, and advancing as one body to the conclusion. this may be termed an individual arrangement of sentences, since as individuals they each contribute to the topic. the conclusion derives its force from the combined mass of all. if indirectly, the paragraph is a series of sentences, each growing out of the one preceding it, each receiving a push from the sentence before, and the last having the combined force of all. this may be styled a serial arrangement of sentences, since in such a case each contributes to the topic only as one in a chain. the former overcomes by its mass; the latter strikes by reason of its velocity. the one advances in rank; the other advances in single file. an illustration of each will help to an understanding of this. in the following paragraph from macaulay's essay on milton, each of the details mentioned points directly to "those days" when the race became a "byword and a shaking of the head to the nations." their aggregate mass enforces the topic of the paragraph. they are all one body equally informed with the common principle which is the topic. notice that one sentence is not the source of the next, but that all the sentences stand in a similar relation to the conclusion. this arrangement is common in description. in the second paragraph, from irving's "legend of sleepy hollow," each detail contributes to the appearance of ichabod, not through some other sentence, but directly. "then came those days, never to be recalled without a blush, the days of servitude without loyalty and sensuality without love; of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices; the paradise of cold hearts and narrow minds; the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave. the king cringed to his rival that he might trample on his people; sank into a viceroy of france, and pocketed with complacent infamy her degrading insults and her more degrading gold. the caresses of harlots and the jests of buffoons regulated the policy of the state. the government had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. the principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the anathema maranatha of every fawning dean. in every high place, worship was paid to charles and james, belial and moloch; and england propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children. crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the race, accursed of god and man, was a second time driven forth to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a byword and a shaking of the head to the nations." "ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. he rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshoppers'; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand, like a sceptre, and as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. a small wool hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of forehead might be called, and the skirts of his black coat fluttered out almost to the horse's tail. such was the appearance of ichabod and his steed as they shambled out of the gate of hans van ripper, and it was altogether such an apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight." the following paragraph in the essay on milton contains an example of the second method of arrangement. each sentence is the result of the one before it. the sentences advance in single file. notice that each sentence does not contribute directly to the conclusion, but that it acts through the succeeding sentence. the phrases from which a succeeding sentence springs are in small capitals; and the phrases which refer back are in italics. "most of the remarks which we have hitherto made on the public character of milton apply to him only as one of a large body. we shall proceed to notice some of the peculiarities which distinguished him _from his contemporaries._ _and for that purpose_ it is necessary to take a short survey of the parties into which the political world was at that time divided. we must premise that our observations are intended to apply only to those who adhered, from a sincere preference, to one or to the other side. in days of public commotion, _every faction,_ like an oriental army, is attended by a crowd of camp-followers, a useless and heartless rabble, who prowl round its line of march in the hope of picking up something under its protection, but desert it in the day of battle, and often join to exterminate it after defeat. england, at the time of which we are treating, abounded with fickle and _selfish politicians,_ who transferred their support to every government as it rose; who kissed the hand of the king in , and spat in his face in ; who shouted with equal glee when cromwell was inaugurated in westminster hall, and when he was dug up to be hanged at tyburn; who dined on calves' heads or broiled rumps, and cut down oak branches or stuck them up, as circumstances altered, without the slightest shame or repugnance. _these_ we leave out of account. we take our estimate of parties from _those who_ really deserve to be called partisans." (for other examples of the same arrangement see the next quotation, and also a paragraph quoted on page .) paragraphs are most frequently found to combine the two methods. in the following, notice that the second sentence grows out of the first, the third from the second, and so the serial arrangement is maintained until the eighth is reached. sentences nine, ten, eleven, and twelve give body to sentence eight. then begins again the regular succession. sentences sixteen to twenty are the outgrowth of the phrase "on his account." " . the puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. . not content with acknowledging in general terms an overruling providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the great being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. . to know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. . they rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. . instead of catching occasional glimpses of the deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with him face to face. . hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. . the difference between the greatest and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. . they recognized no title to superiority but his favor; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. . if they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of god. . if their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded in the book of life. . if their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. . their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems, crowns of glory which should never fade away. . on the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. . the very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged, on whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest; who had been destined, before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. . events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes had been ordained on his account. . for his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. . for his sake the almighty had proclaimed his will by the pen of the evangelist and the harp of the prophet. . he had been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. . he had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. . it was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had risen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring god." this division has been made because by its aid an approach can be made toward rules for arrangement. in the paragraph quoted on page , the different sentences are equally related to the topic. is there, then, no reason why one should be first rather than another? notice the topics of the sentences and the order becomes a necessity. king, state policy, government, liberty, religion,--it is an ascending scale. on page is a paragraph on the charmed names used by milton. "one," "another," "a third," "a fourth,"--for all one can see as to the relation of each to the topic, "a fourth" might as well have been "one" as fourth. but upon reading the paragraph it is evident that macaulay thought the last more important than the first. so in the paragraph just quoted about the puritans, when the arrangement of the first eight sentences changes in sentences nine through eleven, and again in sentences sixteen to twenty, the order is a climax. moreover, those topics are associated which are more closely related in thought. king is more closely related to government than to religion, and religion is more intimately associated with the idea of liberty than with king. the order, then, is the natural order of association. from these examples we derive the first principle of arrangement. in a paragraph where several sentences contribute individually to the topic, they must be arranged in the order in which the thoughts are associated and follow each other; and, when possible, they should take the order of a climax. definite references. in the paragraph made up of sentences in a series, each linked to the sentence before and after, the difficulty is in transmitting the force of one sentence to the next one undiminished. this is done by binding the sentences so closely together that one cannot slip on the other. in the paragraph about the puritans, of the second sentence the "great being" goes back to "superior beings" of the first; and "him" in the next springs from "great being." "to know him, to serve him, to enjoy him,"--what is it but the "pure worship" of the fourth? while "ceremonious homage" of the fourth is the "occasional glimpses of the deity through an obscuring veil" of the fifth. one sentence grows out of some phrase of the preceding sentence; the sentences are firmly locked together by the repetition, a little modified, of the thought of a preceding phrase. there is no slipping. to get this result there must be no question of the thought-sequence in the sentences. each sentence must be a consequence of a preceding sentence. and there must be attention to the choice and position of the words from which the following sentence is to spring. such words cannot be indefinite, mushy words; they must be definite, firm words. moreover, they must not be buried out of sight by a mass of unimportant matters; they must be so placed that they are unhindered, free to push forward the thought toward its ultimate conclusion. this often requires inversion in the sentence. that phrase which is the source of the next sentence must be thrown up into a prominent position; and it is usually pressed toward the end of the sentence, nearer to the sentence which is its consequence. in a paragraph quoted on page , where this same subject is taken up in connection with sentences, there is an excellent illustration of this. "slow and obscure," "inadequate ideas," "small circle," and the numerous phrases which repeat the thought, though not the words, are firm words binding the sentences together indissolubly. use of pronouns. not all sentences permit such clear reference as this. still it must be said that where the thought is logical and clear, the reference is never missed: the binding words are important words and they occupy prominent positions. there is, however, a whole group of words whose function is to make the references sure. they are pronouns. pronouns refer back, and they point forward. their careful use is the commonest method of making sure of references, and so of binding sentences together. the ones in common use are _this, that, the former, the latter;_ the relatives _who, which,_ and _that;_ and the personal pronouns _he, she, it._ to these may be added some adverbs: _here, there, hence, whence, now, then, when,_ and _while._ the binding force of these words is manifest in every paragraph of composition. the following paragraph, from burke's speech on "conciliation with the colonies," illustrates the use of pronouns as words referring back, and binding the whole into one inseparable unit. "as to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. you surely thought _those_ acquisitions of value, for _they_ seemed even to excite your envy; and yet the spirit by which _that_ enterprising employment has been exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and admiration. and pray, sir, what in the world is equal to _it?_ pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of new england have of late carried on the whale fishery. whilst we follow _them_ among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold _them_ penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of hudson's bay and davis's straits, whilst we are looking for _them_ beneath the arctic circle, we hear that _they_ have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that _they_ are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. falkland island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of _their_ victorious industry. nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to _them_ than the accumulated winter of both the poles. we know that whilst _some_ of _them_ draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of africa, _others_ run the longitude and pursue _their_ gigantic game along the coast of brazil. no sea but what is vexed by _their_ fisheries; no climate that is not witness to _their_ toils. neither the perseverance of holland, nor the activity of france, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of english enterprise ever carried _this_ most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which _it_ has been pushed by _this_ recent people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. when i contemplate _these_ things; when i know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when i reflect upon _these_ effects, when i see how profitable _they_ have been to us, i feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die away within me. my rigor relents. i pardon something to the spirit of liberty." of conjunctions. another group of words which give coherence to a paragraph is conjunctions. they indicate the relations between sentences, and they point the direction of the new sentence. the common relations between sentences indicated by conjunctions are coördinative, subordinative, adversative, concessive, and illative. each young writer has usually but one word, at the most two words, in his vocabulary to express each of these relations. he knows _and, but, if, although,_ and _therefore._ each person should learn from a grammar the whole list, for no class of words indicates clear thinking so unmistakably as conjunctions. two words of advice should be given regarding the use of conjunctions. if the thought all bends one way, if this direction is perfectly clear, there is no need of conjunctions. it is when the course of the discussion is tortuous, when the road is not direct, when the reader may lose the way without these guides, that conjunctions should be used. on the other hand, conjunctions are an annoyance when not needed. just as guideposts along a road where there is no chance to leave the direct path are useless, and their recurrence is a cause of aggravation, so it is with unnecessary conjunctions. they attract attention to themselves, and so draw it from the thought. the first caution is, do not use conjunctions unless needed. in the following, the repetition of _and_ is unnecessary and annoying. "six shillings a week does not keep body and soul together very unitedly. they want to get away from each other when there is only such a very slight bond as that between them; and one day, i suppose, the pain and the dull monotony of it all had stood before her eyes plainer than usual, and the mocking spectre had frightened her. she had made one last appeal to friends, but, against the chill wall of their respectability, the voice of the erring outcast fell unheeded; _and_ then she had gone to see her child--had held it in her arms and kissed it, in a weary, dull sort of way, _and_ without betraying any particular emotion of any kind, _and_ had left it, after putting into its hand a penny box of chocolate she had bought it, _and_ afterwards, with her last few shillings, had taken a ticket _and_ come down to goring. "it seemed that the bitterest thoughts of her life must have centred about the wooded reaches and the bright green meadows around goring; but women strangely hug the knife that stabs them, and, perhaps, amidst the gall, there may have mingled also sunny memories of sweetest hours, spent upon those shadowed deeps over which the great trees bend their branches down so low. "she had wandered about the woods by the river's brink all day, _and_ then, when evening fell _and_ the gray twilight spread its dusky robe upon the waters, she stretched out her arms to the silent river that had known her sorrow and her joy. _and_ the old river had taken her into its gentle arms, _and_ had laid her weary head upon its bosom, _and_ had hushed away the pain." the other word is: when possible put the conjunction that connects two sentences into the body of the sentence, rather than at its beginning. in this way its binding power is increased. this principle should limit the use of _and_ and _but_ at the beginning of a sentence. rarely is _and_ needed in such a place. if the thought goes straight forward--and it must do so if _and_ correctly expresses the relation--there is usually no gain in its use. at times when the reader might be led to expect some change of direction from some phrase in the preceding sentence, then it would be wise to set him right by the use of _and._ moreover, there are times when coördinate thoughts are so important, and the expression of the coördination is so important, that a sentence beginning with _and_ is the only adequate means of expressing it. however, be very sure that there is need for every _and_ that you use. the same caution may be given about _but._ _but_ indicates an abrupt turn in the thought. is such a contrast in the thought? if so, is there no other word to express the thought? some persons go so far as to say that these words should never begin a sentence. this is too pedantic and not true. when coördinative and adversative relations are to be expressed, however, it is certainly more elegant if some variety can be obtained, and the union is closer if the conjunction be placed in the body of the sentence. this requires the use of other words besides _and_ and _but._ _also, in like manner, besides, too, nevertheless, however, after all, for all that,_ should be as familiar as the two overworked words _and_ and _but._ look for ways to bind sentences in the middle rather than at the end. it is more elegant and it is much safer. parallel constructions. a third principle of arrangement is the use of parallel constructions for parallel thoughts. by parallel structure is meant that the principal elements of the sentences shall be arranged in the same order. if subordinate clauses precede principal clauses in one sentence, they shall in the other; if they follow in one, they shall follow in the other. if an active voice be used in one, it shall be used in the other; if the predicate go before the subject in one, it shall in the other. the use of parallel structure frequently demands repetition of forms and even of identical words and phrases. it is very effective in giving clearness to a paragraph and in securing coherence of its parts. in the first of the two illustrations below, read one sentence this way and observe the ruin that is wrought. "the north american colonies made such a struggle against the mother country." in the second paragraph, change two of the sentences to the passive voice. the effect is evident loss in clearness and strength. "all history is full of revolutions, produced by causes similar to those which are now operating in england. a portion of the community which had been of no account, expands and becomes strong. it demands a place in the system, suited, not to its former weakness, but to its present power. if this is granted, all is well. if this is refused, then comes the struggle between the young energy of one class and the ancient privileges of another. such was the struggle between the plebeians and patricians of rome. such was the struggle of the italian allies for admission to the full rights of roman citizens. such was the struggle of our north american colonies against the mother country. such was the struggle which the third estate of france maintained against the aristocracy of birth. such was the struggle which the roman catholics of ireland maintained against the aristocracy of creed. such is the struggle which the free people of color in jamaica are now maintaining against the aristocracy of skin. such, finally, is the struggle which the middle classes in england are maintaining against an aristocracy of mere locality, against an aristocracy, the principle of which is to invest a hundred drunken pot-wallopers in one place, or the owner of a ruined hovel in another, with powers which are withheld from cities renowned to the furthest ends of the earth for the marvels of their wealth and of their industry."[ ] "man is a being of genius, passion, intellect, conscience, power. he exercises these various gifts in various ways, in great deeds, in great thoughts, in heroic acts, in hateful crimes. he founds states, he fights battles, he builds cities, he ploughs the forest, he subdues the elements, he rules his kind. he creates vast ideas, and influences many generations. he takes a thousand shapes, and undergoes a thousand fortunes. literature records them all to the life.... he pours out his fervid soul in poetry; he sways to and fro, he soars, he dives, in his restless speculations; his lips drop eloquence; he touches the canvas, and it glows with beauty; he sweeps the strings, and they thrill with an ecstatic meaning. he looks back into himself, and he reads his own thoughts, and notes them down; he looks out into the universe, and tells over and celebrates the elements and principles of which it is the product."[ ] (the principles of mass and coherence in paragraphs are closely allied with these same principles regarding sentences. some further discussion of these important matters, as well as more illustrations, will be found in the next chapter.) good sense must be exercised in the use of parallel constructions. although a short series of sentences containing parallel thoughts is common and demands this treatment, it is not at all frequent that one has such a long series as these paragraphs contain. in these paragraphs the parallel is in the thought; it has not been searched out. because one is pleased with these effects of parallel construction, he should not be led to seek for opportunities where he can force sentences into similar shapes. the thoughts must be parallel. if the thought is actually parallel, a parallel treatment may be adopted with great advantage to clearness and force; if it is not parallel, any attempt to treat it as such is detected as a shallow trick. to search for thoughts to trail along in a series results in thinnest bombast. as everywhere else in composition, so here a writer must rely on his good taste and good sense. summary. whatever may be the special mode of development, of whatever form of discourse it is to be a part, the three fundamental principles which guide in making a paragraph are unity, mass, and coherence. the unity of the paragraph is secured by referring all of the material to the topic, including what contributes to the main thought and excluding what has no value. paragraphs excessively long or very short may lead to offenses against unity. mass in a paragraph is gained by placing worthy words in the positions of distinction; by treating the more important matters at greater length; and, when possible without disturbing coherence, by arranging the material in a climax. coherence is secured by keeping together matters related in thought; by a wise choice and placing of all words which bind sentences together; and by the use of parallel constructions for parallel ideas. carefully chosen material, arranged so that worthy words occupy the positions of distinction, and all so skillfully knit together that every sentence, every phrase, every word, takes the reader one step toward the conclusion,--this constitutes a good paragraph. suggestive questions the old manse. (riverside literature series, no. .) in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page , what do you think of the selection of material? does the last detail give the finishing touch to the paragraph? is it a real climax? on page a paragraph begins, "lightly as," etc. in the second sentence "bound volume" goes back to what words in the first sentence? "he," of the third, to what of the second? "thus it was" to what before? now take the paragraph on pages and and trace the connection of the sentences, drawing two lines under the phrase from which a succeeding sentence springs, and one line under words that refer back to a preceding phrase; also trace out the dovetailing in the sentences on pages and . in the paragraph on pages and the development is not so. each sentence emphasizes "the sombre aspect of external nature." what is the law of their arrangement? (see text-book, pages - .) find other paragraphs arranged in this way. (see pages , .) what is the topic of the second paragraph? can you divide the paragraph filling the middle of page ? where? what is the relation between the first sentence and the last in the paragraph at the bottom of page ? give the words that join the sentences of the paragraph together. in the paragraph beginning on page , what is the purpose of the first two sentences? on page , does it seem to you that hawthorne had forgotten the old manse enough so that it could be called a digression? or do you think that the delightful, rambling character of the essay permits it? can you divide this paragraph on pages and ? where? what figure at the bottom of page ? is it the custom to use a capital letter in such a case? has the paragraph in which the figure occurs unity? where could you divide it? give the topic of both new paragraphs. of the paragraph on pages and , what is the relation of the last three sentences to the topic? what comment would you make upon the last sentence of the paragraph ending at the top of page ? at the opening of the paragraph beginning on page , do you like the figure? trace the relation between the first and second sentences; between the second and the third. could this paragraph be divided? rip van winkle and the legend of sleepy hollow. (riverside literature series, no. .) in the paragraph on page , what is the relation between the first and last sentences? why is the middle of the paragraph introduced? is it effective? what method of development is adopted in the next paragraph? trace out the connection of the paragraphs in the first five pages of this essay. what words at the beginning of each paragraph are especially helpful in joining the parts? on page irving writes, "times grew worse and worse for rip van winkle," etc. how many paragraphs are given to this topic? could all of them be put into one? should they? what is the last part of the first sentence of this paragraph? why are there so few topic sentences in this essay? how did irving know where to paragraph? give topics of the paragraphs on pages , , . in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of p. , why are the clothes of the man mentioned first? what method of paragraph development is adopted in the paragraph beginning in the middle of page ? is the last detail important? from the use on pages and , what do you gather as to the rule for paragraphing where dialogue is reported? in the paragraph on page , what reason has irving for saying "therefore"? from what sentence does the last of this paragraph arise? do you think the specific closing of the paragraph worthy of the position? when irving says on page that he was "an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity," did he mean that he was shrewd, or that he was not shrewd? can you find anything in the paragraphs to develop the thought that he was shrewd? how many paragraphs are given to his simple credulity? why so many? in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page , what advantage is there in the exclamatory sentences? would it be as well to divide the next paragraph into three sentences? give your reasons. as the paragraph stands, is the sentence loose or periodic? in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page , what is the method of development? why is the chanticleer mentioned last? are irving's sentences long? do they seem long? why, or why not? what is the relation of the first sentence of the first paragraph on page to the last? what is the topic of the next paragraph? do you think it would be just as well to put the second sentence of this paragraph last? in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page , what method of development has been used? why is the "blue jay" mentioned last? the fall of the house of usher. (riverside literature series, no. .) do you think the first paragraph too long? where can you divide it? what is the test of the length of a paragraph? at the bottom of page , do you think the first sentence of the paragraph the topic? or is it the last sentence? give reasons. is the detail at the end of the paragraph beginning on the middle of page upon the topic of the paragraph? is it good there? how do you know that usher did not say "him"? of the paragraph on page , what sentence is the topic? what proportion of the paragraphs have topic sentences? have the others topics? give them for the paragraphs on the first five pages. what method of paragraph development has poe adopted in the paragraph beginning in the middle of page ? what is the relation between the opening and the close of the paragraph? why is the middle needed? do you like the second sentence of the next paragraph? what is there disagreeable in it? as you read along do the paragraphs run into one another? is such a condition good? silas marner. (riverside literature series, no. .) divide paragraphs on pages and . what is the topic of each of the new paragraphs? in the first paragraph of chapter two each sentence grows out of the one preceding. put two lines under the words in each sentence which are the source of the next sentence. draw one line under the words in each sentence which refer back to the preceding sentence. in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page , what is the topic sentence? what relation has the last sentence to the first? what method of development in the paragraph? can the paragraphs of exposition usually be divided? do they violate unity? if not, upon what principle can you divide them? what is the tendency in regard to the length of paragraphs in recent literature? * * * * * chapter viii sentences definition and classification. simple sentences. a sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought. sentences have been classified as simple, complex, and compound. in reality there are but two classes of sentences,--simple and compound. it is not material to the construction of a sentence whether a modifier be a word, a phrase, or a clause; it still remains an adjective, adverb, or noun modifier, and the method in which the subject and predicate are developed is the same. by means of modifiers, a subject and predicate of but two words may grow to the size of a paragraph, and yet be a group of words expressing one complete thought. in the sentence below, the subject and predicate are "we are free." this does not, however, express burke's complete thought. it is not what he meant. free to do what? how free? when may it be done? why now? what bill? all these introduce modifications to the simple assertion, "we are free," modifications which are essential to the completeness of the thought. "by the return of this bill, which seemed to have taken its flight forever, we are at this very instant nearly as free to choose a plan for our american government as we were on the first day of the session." compound sentences. on the other hand, the compound sentence is usually said to consist of at least two independent clauses; and the very fact of their independence, which is only a grammatical independence, to be sure, makes the clauses very nearly independent sentences. so near to sentences may the clauses be in their independence that some writers would make them so. the following group of sentences kipling certainly could have handled in another way. "the reason for her wandering was simple enough. coppy, in a tone of too hastily assumed authority, had told her over night that she must not ride out by the river. and she had gone to prove her own spirit and teach coppy a lesson." certainly the last two sentences could be united into a compound sentence, nor would it be straining the structure to put all three sentences into one. this example is not exceptional. many similar cases may be found in all prose writers; and in macaulay's writings there are certainly occasions when it would be better to unite independent sentences. if the fundamental ideas of the two clauses bear certain definite and evident relations to each other, they should stand in one compound sentence. these evident relations are: first, an assertion and its repetition in some other form; second, an assertion and its contrast; third, an assertion and its consequence; and fourth, an assertion and an example. if the clauses do not bear one of these evident relations to each other, they should receive special attention; for they may be two separate, independent thoughts requiring for their expression two sentences. the following sentences illustrate the common relations that may exist between the clauses of a compound sentence. _repetition._ "nothing has a drift or relation; nothing has a promise or history." "but the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the protestant religion." _contrast._ "if the people approve the way in which these authorities are interpreting and using the constitution, they go on; if the people disapprove, they pause, or at least slacken their pace." "every court is equally bound to pronounce, and competent to pronounce, on such questions, a state court no less than a federal court; but as all the more important questions are carried by appeal to the supreme federal court, it is practically that court whose opinion determines them." _consequence._ "the british and american line had run near it during the war; it had, _therefore,_ been the scene of marauding, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of border chivalry." _example._ "he found favor in the eyes of the mothers by petting the children, particularly the youngest; and like the lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, he would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with his foot for whole hours together." there is another condition which masses many details into one compound sentence. if in narration a writer wishes to give the impression that many things are done in a moment of time, and together form one incident, he may group many circumstances, nearly independent except for the matter of time, into one compound sentence. in description he may present groups of details hastily in one sentence, and so give the impression of unity. the same thing may be done in exposition. many independent ideas may bear a common relation to another idea, either expressed or understood; and in order to get them before the reader as one whole, the author may group them in a single sentence. the examples below illustrate this method of sentence development. _narration._ "for a moment the terror of hans van ripper's wrath passed across his mind, for it was his sunday saddle; but this was no time for petty fears; the goblin was hard on his haunches; and (unskillful rider that he was!) he had much ado to maintain his seat; sometimes slipping on one side, sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted on the high ridge of his horse's backbone, with a violence that he verily feared would cleave him asunder."[ ] _description._ "in one corner stood a huge bag of wool, ready to be spun; in another, a quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom; ears of indian corn, and strings of dried apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled with the gaud of red peppers; and a door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed chairs and dark mahogany tables shone like mirrors; andirons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert of asparagus tops; mock oranges and conch shells decorated the mantelpiece; strings of various-colored birds' eggs were suspended above it; a great ostrich egg was hung from the centre of the room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly left open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended china."[ ] _exposition._ "that perfection of the intellect, which is the result of education, and its _beau idéal,_ to be imparted to individuals in their respective measures, is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension of all things, as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its place, and with its own characteristics upon it. it is almost prophetic from its knowledge of history; it is almost heart-searching from its knowledge of human nature; it has almost supernatural charity from its freedom from littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose of faith, because nothing can startle it; it has almost the beauty and harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal order of things and the music of the spheres."[ ] (notice the use of the semicolon in the last two groups of sentences. the parts of compound sentences such as these should be separated by semicolons.) short sentences. having determined approximately what relations may be grouped in a single sentence, the first question for consideration is whether sentences should be long or short. this cannot be definitely answered. since they should be concise, the short sentence is well suited for definitions. since a proposition should be announced in as few words as can be used, without sacrificing brevity to clearness, short sentences serve best for this purpose. as changes in the direction of the development of a thought should be quickly indicated, a short sentence is generally used for transition. and as at times when the mind is under a stress of strong feeling, or the action of a story is rapid, all explanatory matters are cut away, the barest statements in shortest sentences serve best to express strong emotion and rapid action. long sentences. long sentences have the very opposite uses. to amplify a topic, to develop a proposition by repetition, by details, by proofs, or by example, long sentences are serviceable; by them the finer modifications of a thought can be expressed. so, too, a summary of a paragraph or a chapter frequently employs long sentences to express the whole thought with precision and with proper subordination of parts. again, as short sentences best express haste and intensity, so long sentences give the feeling of quiet deliberation and dignified calm. illustrations of definitions, propositions, transitions, and exemplifications are to be found everywhere. slow movement expressed by long sentences is well illustrated in irving and hawthorne. one selection from george meredith, to show the peculiar adaptation of the short sentence to express intensity of feeling, is given. richard feverel has just learned that the wife whom he had deserted has borne him a son. description and narration are mingled. the short, nervous sentences express both the vividness of his impressions and the intensity of his emotions. "a pale gray light on the skirts of the flying tempest displayed the dawn. richard was walking hurriedly. the green drenched woods lay all about his path, bent thick, and the forest drooped glimmeringly. impelled as a man who feels a revelation mounting obscurely to his brain, richard was passing one of those little forest-chapels, hung with votive wreaths, where the peasants halt to kneel and pray. cold, still, in the twilight it stood, rain-drops pattering round it. he looked within, and saw the virgin holding her child. he moved not by. but not many steps had he gone before the strength went out of him, and he shuddered. what was it? he asked not. he was in other hands. vivid as lightning the spirit of life illumined him. he felt in his heart the cry of his child, his darling's touch. with shut eyes he saw them both. they drew him from the depths; they led him a blind and tottering man. and as they led him he had a sense of purification so sweet he shuddered again and again." unity. in a sentence, as in a theme or a paragraph, the first question regarding its structure is what to put into it. the germ of a paragraph is usually a sentence; of the sentence it is one word or but very few words. this kernel of a sentence may be developed through the many modifications of the thought; but always the additions must be distinctly related to the germ words. if this relation of parts to the kernel of the sentence be unmistakable, the sentence has unity; if there are parts whose connection with the germ of the sentence cannot be easily traced, they should be rejected as belonging to another sentence. the pith of the whole sentence can be stated in a few words, if the sentence has unity. long sentences should be watched. one thing easily suggests another, interesting too, it may be; and when an essay is to be written, anything,--especially if it have so worthy a quality as interest to recommend it,--anything is allowed to go in. such a sentence as the following can be explained on no other principle: "just then james came rushing downstairs like mad to find the fellow who had punched a hole in the tire of his bicycle, which was a columbia which he got two years before at a second-hand store, paying for it in work at fifteen cents an hour." plainly everything after "bicycle" is nothing to the present purpose and should be excluded. the following from a description of cologne cathedral is as bad, in some respects, worse; for there is one point where the break is so abrupt that a child would detect it. "the superintendence was intrusted to mr. ahlert, whose ideas were not well adapted to inspire him for his grand task, under his direction much of the former beauty and artistical skill was lost sight of, but at all events it was a great satisfaction to see the work go on and to have the expenses defrayed by the state." in this case the writer, beyond doubt, thinks long sentences the correct thing. long sentences are necessary at times; but the desire simply to write long sentences or to fill up space should never lead one to forget that a sentence is the expression of one--not more--of one complete thought. on the other hand, sentences should contain the whole of one thought; none of it should run over into another sentence. strange as it may seem, sentences are sometimes found like the following: "james was on the whole a bad boy. but he had some redeeming qualities." "the first day at school was all new to me. while it was interesting as well." "he said that he was going. and that i might go with him." there is no ground for an explanation of such errors as these except laziness and grossest illiteracy. it is by no device so simple as the insertion of a period that man can separate what has been joined in thought. _and_ and _but_ rarely begin sentences; in nearly all cases it will be found that the sentences they purport to connect are but the independent clauses of one compound sentence. _while_ or any other subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause; a dependent clause is not a sentence; it can never stand alone. the offenses against the unity of a sentence are including too much and including too little. both are the result of carelessness or inability to think. the purpose, the kernel, the germ of the sentence, should be so clearly in mind that every necessary modification of the thought shall be included and every unnecessary phrase be excluded. some further suggestions concerning unity are found in the paragraphs treating primarily of mass and coherence. mass. as advance is made in the ability to grasp quickly the thought of a book, it becomes more and more evident that the eye must be taken into account when arranging the parts of a composition. the eye sees the headings of the chapters; it catches the last words of one paragraph and the first words of the next; it lights upon the words near the periods; so the parts of a composition should be arranged so that these points shall contain worthy words. moreover, within the sentence the colon marks the greatest independence of the parts; the semicolon comes next; and the comma marks the smallest division of thought. following the guidance of the eye, then, the words before a period should be the most important; those near a colon, a semicolon, and a comma will have a descending scale of value. a speaker has no difficulty with punctuation; unconsciously he pauses with the thought. so true is this, that one is inclined to say that if the writer will read aloud his own composition, and punctuate where he pauses in the reading, always remembering the rank of the marks of punctuation, he will not be far from right. it will be noticed that he has paused in the reading after important words, as if the thought stayed a moment there for the help of the reader. naturally we pause after important words; and conversely, the places of importance in a sentence are near the marks of punctuation, increasing from the comma to the period. end of a sentence. the end of a sentence is more important than the beginning; and the difference in value is greater than in a paragraph. in a paragraph the opening is very important, generally containing the topic. in a sentence, however, the beginning more often has some phrase of transition, or some modifier; while it is the end that contains the gist of the sentence. this fact makes it imperative that no unworthy matter stand at the end. how important a position it is, and how much is expected of the final words of a sentence, is evident from the effect of failure produced by a sentence that closes with weak words. in the following sentences, phrases have been moved from their places; the weakness is apparent. abstract liberty is not to be found; and this is true of other mere abstractions. this is a persuasion built upon liberty, and not only favorable to it. i pass, therefore, to their agriculture, another point of view. of course burke never wrote such sentences as these. however, sentences like them can be found in school compositions. "lincoln's character is worthy to be any young man's ideal; having in it much to admire." "euclid avenue, with its broad lawns, and with wade park as the fitting climax of its spacious beauty, is the most attractive driveway in the united states, which is saying a good deal." "minnesota has many beautiful lakes; mille lacs, fringed with dark pines; osakis, with its beach of glistening sand; minnetonka, skirted by a lovely boulevard bordered by cool lawns and cosy cottages; and many others not so big." such sentences as these are not uncommon. their ruin is wrought by the closing words. watch for trailing relatives, dangling participles, and straggling generalities at the end of sentences. the end of a sentence is a position of distinction; it should be held by words of distinction. so influential is position in a sentence that by virtue of it a word or a clause of equal rank with others can be made to take on a certain added authority. by observing the end of a sentence, a reader can determine what was uppermost in the mind of an author careful of these things. in the following sentence as it was written by burke the emphasis is on the duration of the time; but by a change of position it is put upon the fact. "refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion; and ever will be so, as long as the world endures." changing the last clause it reads, "and, as long as the world endures, ever will be so." this is not weak; but the stress is not where burke placed it. the position of the words gives them an importance that does not inhere in the words themselves. effect of anti-climax. still, as the tenure of a place of distinction cannot save a fool from the reputation of folly, position in a sentence cannot redeem empty words from their truly insipid character. indeed, as the imbecility of a shallow pate is made all the more apparent by a position of distinction, so is the utter unfitness of certain words for their position painfully manifest. this is the secret of anti-climax. by reason of its very position in a sentence, the last phrase should be distinguished; instead the position is held by a silly nothing. disappointing anti-climaxes, like those already cited, are frequently made by young writers; and they are sometimes met with in the works of the best authors. the following sentence is from newman: from the point of view of an ardent churchman, it may be a climax; but from the point of view of the general reader who considers the whole greater than any of its parts, in spite of all the sense preceding the final phrase, that is absurd and disappointing nonsense. "i protest to you, gentlemen, that if i had to choose between a so-called university, which dispensed with residence and tutorial superintendence, and gave its degrees to any person who passed an examination in a wide range of subjects, and a university which had no professors and examinations at all, but merely brought a number of young men together for three or four years, and then sent them away as the university of oxford is said to have done some sixty years since, if i were asked which of these methods was the better discipline of the intellect,--mind, i do not say which is _morally_ the better, for it is plain that compulsory study must be a good and idleness an intolerable mischief,--but if i must determine which of the two courses was the more successful in training, moulding, and enlarging the mind, which sent out men the more fitted for their secular duties, which produced better public men, men of the world, men whose names would descend to posterity, i have no hesitation in giving the preference to that university which did nothing, over that which exacted an acquaintance with every science under the sun. and, paradox as this may seem, still if results be the test of systems, the influence of the public schools and colleges of england, in the course of the last century, at least will bear out one side of the contrast as i have drawn it. what could come, on the other hand, of the ideal systems of education which have fascinated the imagination of this age, could they ever take effect, and whether they would not produce a generation frivolous, narrow-minded, and resourceless, intellectually considered, is a fair subject for debate; but so far is certain, that the universities and scholastic establishments, to which i refer, and which did little more than bring together first boys and then youths in large numbers, these institutions, with miserable deformities on the side of morals, with a hollow profession of christianity, and a heathen code of ethics,--i say, at least, they can boast of a succession of heroes and statesmen, of literary men and philosophers, of men conspicuous for great natural virtues, for habits of business, for knowledge of life, for practical judgment, for cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who have made england what it is,--able to subdue the earth, _able to domineer over catholics._"[ ] use of climax. from what has been said, it is evident that the parts of a sentence, as far as may be, should be arranged in a climax. the climax should be in the thought, with a corresponding increase in the weight of the phrases. if the thoughts increase in importance, the words that express them should increase in number. the number of words in the treatment bears a pretty constant ratio to the importance of the subject treated. the paragraph quoted from newman is an excellent illustration of the use of climax,--until it comes to that last phrase. note in the first sentence the repetition of the condition, three times repeated. change the second to the third and see how different it is. then he has "public men, men of the world, men whose names would descend to posterity,"--a steady increase in the thought, and a corresponding increase in the length of phrases. the last sentence contains a fine example of climax. "of heroes and statesmen, of literary men and philosophers, of men conspicuous for great natural virtues, for habits of business, for knowledge of life, for practical judgment, for cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who have made england what it is,--able to subdue the earth." climax is the arrangement that produces the effect of vigorous strength. in arranging a succession of modifiers, so far as possible without breaking some other more important principle, a writer will gain in force if he seeks for climax. loose and periodic. sentences are divided into two classes: loose and periodic. a loose sentence may be broken at some point before the end, and up to that point be grammatically a complete sentence. an arrangement of the parts of a sentence that suspends the meaning until the close is called periodic. the periodic sentence is generally so massed that the end contains words of distinction, and the sentence forms a climax. not all climaxes are periods; but nearly all periods are climaxes. the period. the philosophy of the periodic sentence has been best stated by herbert spencer. he starts with the axiom that the whole amount of attention a reader can give at any moment is limited and fixed. a reader must give a part of it to merely acquiring the meaning; the remainder of his attention he can give to the thought itself. in reading cicero the pupil has to put a large part of his attention upon the vocabulary, upon the order and construction of the words; the barest fragment of attention he can bestow upon the thought of the great orator. so when the reader attacks one of browning's most involved and obscure passages, he is kept from the thought by the difficulties in the language. as it is the purpose of language to convey thought, and as it is usually the wish of an author to be understood, he should use up as little as possible of the reader's limited attention for the mere acquisition of the thought, and leave the reader as much as he can to put upon the meaning. in applying this to sentences, the question is, which form of sentence demands least effort to get at its meaning: the periodic sentence, which suspends the meaning to the end; or the loose sentence, which may be broken at several points and gives its meaning in installments? the old example is as good as any: shall we say as the french do, a horse black; or shall we say as the english do, a black horse? for in the arrangement of these three words there lies the difference between a loose and a periodic sentence. consider the french order first. when a person hears the words "a horse," he at once thinks of the horse he knows best; that is, generally, a bay horse. when the word "black" follows, the whole image has to be changed from the bay horse he knows to the black horse he has occasionally seen. there has been a waste of attention. on the other hand, when the words "a black" are heard, the mind constructs no image; it waits until the noun modified is spoken. then the whole image springs up at once; it is correct and it needs no remodeling. the following sentence illustrates the point. "i am wasting time" is the beginning. it would be difficult to enumerate the many thoughts suggested by these words; each person has his own idea of wasting time. when the rest of the sentence is added, "trying to learn my geometry lesson," the whole has to be reconstructed. on the other hand the periodic statement suspends the meaning to the end. there is no place where, without additions to the words used, the mind can rest. "trying to learn a geometry lesson is for me a waste of time." theoretically the periodic sentence is better than the loose sentence; for it economizes attention. there is another side to the question, however. if the details be many, and if each be long, they would be more than the mind could carry without great effort; and instead of economy of attention, there is improvident waste. the mind will carry a long, carefully arranged period at intervals; but a succession of periods is sure to result in its absolute refusal to do so any longer. there is a limit to the length of a period that economizes attention; and there is a limit to the number of successive periods which a reader can endure. periodic and loose combined. there is another form of sentence, which combines the loose and the periodic. it generally begins with the periodic form and sustains this until it is better to relieve the mind of the stress, when the period ends or the loose structure begins; and the sentence may as a whole be periodic while containing parts that are loose. this kind of sentence is a common form for long sentences. it gives to prose much of the dignity of the period, together with the familiarity of the loose sentence. the sentence below may be changed, by putting the last clause first, to a loose sentence; and by placing it after the word "subject" it becomes mixed. "by all persons who have written of the subject, for the grandeur of its mountains and the deep quiet of its green valleys for the leaping torrents of its foaming rivers and blue calm of its crag-walled lakes, switzerland has been named 'the paradise of europe.'" the following paragraph from burke contains examples of loose, periodic, and mixed sentences:-- "to restore order and repose to an empire so great and so distracted as, ours, is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest understanding. struggling a good while with these thoughts, by degrees i felt myself more firm. i derived, at length, some confidence from what in other circumstances usually produces timidity. i grew less anxious, even from the idea of my own insignificance. for, judging of what you are by what you ought to be, i persuaded myself that you would not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing but its reason to recommend it. on the other hand, being totally destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or adventitious, i was very sure that, if my proposition were futile or dangerous--if it were weakly conceived, or improperly timed,--there was nothing exterior to it of power to awe, dazzle, or delude you. you will see it just as it is; and you will treat it just as it deserves."[ ] which shall be used? which shall be used, loose sentences or periodic? in literature the loose more frequently occur. they are informal and conversational, and are especially suited to letter-writing, story-telling, and the light essay. the period is formal; it has the air of preparation. the oration, the formal essay, well-wrought argument,--forms of literature where preparation is expected,--may use the period with good effect. it has a finish, a scholarly refinement, not found in the loose sentence; and yet a series of periods would be as much out of place in a letter as a court regalia at a downtown restaurant. the loose sentence is easy, informal, and familiar; the periodic is stiff, artificial, and aristocratic. to use none but loose sentences gives a composition an air of familiarity even to the verge of vulgarity; to employ only periodic sentences induces a feeling of stiff artificiality bordering on bombast. the fitness of each for its purpose is the guide for its use. there is, however, a reason why young persons should be encouraged to use periodic sentences. usually they compose short sentences, so there is little danger of overburdening the reader's attention. with this danger removed, the result of the generous use of periodic sentences will be nothing worse than a too obvious preparation. the sentences will all be finished to a degree, and unquestionably will give a feeling of artificiality. however, the attention to sentence-structure necessary in order to make it periodic is a thing devoutly to be wished at this stage of growth. no other fault is so common in sentence-construction as carelessness. a theme will be logically outlined, a paragraph carefully planned, but a sentence,--anybody standing on one foot can make a sentence. a well-turned sentence is a work of art, and it is never made in moments when the writer "didn't think." the end must be seen at the beginning: else it does not end; it plays out. there is no other remedy for careless, slipshod sentence-making so effective as the construction of many periodic sentences. not only will there be care in the arrangement of the material, but when all details must be introduced before the principal thought, there will be little chance of any phrase slipping into the sentence that does not in truth belong there. dangling participles, trailing relatives, and straggling generalities can find no chance to hang on to a periodic sentence. every detail must be a real and necessary modification of the germ thought of the sentence, else it can hardly be forced in. periodic sentences, then, besides insuring a careful finish to the work, are also a safeguard against the introduction of irrelevant material,--the commonest offense against sentence-unity. emphasis by change of order. closely connected with the emphasis gained by the periodic arrangement of the parts of a sentence is the emphasis gained by forcing words out of their natural order. in a sentence the points which arrest the eye and the attention are the beginning and the end. however, if the subject stands first and the words of the predicate in their natural order, there is no more emphasis upon them than these important elements of a sentence ordinarily deserve. to emphasize either it is necessary to force it out of its natural position. "george next went to boston," is the natural order of this sentence. supposing, however, that a writer wished to emphasize the fact that it was george who went next, not james or fred, he could do it by forcing the word "george" from its present natural position to a position unnatural. he could write, "it was george who next went to boston," or, "the next to go to boston was george." forcing the subject toward the position usually occupied by the predicate emphasizes the subject. this is similar to the emphasis given by the period. "it was george" is so far periodic, followed by the loose structure; and the last arrangement is quite periodic. every device for throwing the subject back into the sentence makes the sentence up to the point where the subject is introduced periodic; this arrangement throws the emphasis forward to the word that closes the period. other parts of a sentence may be emphasized by being placed out of their natural order. in the natural order, adjectives and adverbs precede the words they modify; conditional and concessive clauses precede the clauses they modify; an object follows a verb; and prepositional phrases and adjective clauses follow the words they modify. these rules are general. moving a part of a sentence from this general order usually emphasizes it. "george went to boston next" emphasizes a little the time; but "next george went to boston" places great emphasis on the time. so "it was to boston that george went next" emphasizes the place. "went" cannot be so dealt with. it seems irrevocably fixed that in a prose declarative sentence the verb shall never stand first. it is not allowed by good use. the rearrangement of the following sentence illustrates the emphasis given by putting words out of their natural order:-- the strong and swarthy sailors of the patria slowly rowed the party to the shore. the sailors of the patria, strong and swarthy, slowly rowed the party to the shore. slowly the strong and swarthy sailors of the patria rowed the party to the shore. of the steamer patria, the sailors, strong and swarthy, rowed the party to the shore. to show the arrangement of clauses the following will be sufficient:-- he cannot make advancement, even if he studies hard. even if he studies hard, he cannot make advancement. "your irish pensioners would starve, if they had no other fund to live on than the taxes granted by english authority." if they had no other fund to live on than the taxes granted by english authority, your irish pensioners would starve. the latter arrangement emphasizes the conclusion much more than the former; at the same time it subordinates the condition. burke wished the emphasis to be upon the condition; he placed it after the conclusion. subdue unimportant elements. emphasis is gained by placing words in important positions in a sentence by arranging the parts to form a climax; by the use of the period; by forcing words out of their natural order. it is also gained by the subdual of parts not important. this emphasis is a matter of relative intensity. the beauty and strength of any artistic product depend as much upon the subdual of the accessories as upon the intensifying of the necessaries. in order to get the emphasis upon certain phrases, it is necessary to subordinate other phrases. in the talk of a child every thought phrases itself as a simple sentence. not until it grows to youth does the child recognize that there is a difference in values, and adopt means for expressing it. to grasp firmly the principal idea and then subdue all other ideas is an elegant way of emphasizing. the subdual of parts is accomplished by reducing to subordinate clauses, to phrases, to words, some of the ideas which in a child's talk would be expressed in sentences. a thought of barely enough importance to be mentioned should be squeezed into a word. if it deserves more notice, perhaps a prepositional phrase will express it. a participial phrase will often serve for a clause or a sentence. a subordinate clause may be needed if the thought is of great importance. and last, if it deserves such a distinction, the thought may demand an independent clause or a sentence for itself. if the following sentence be broken into bits as a child would tell it, the nice effects of emphasis which irving has given it are ruined:-- "when the dance was at an end, ichabod was attracted to a knot of the sager folks, who, with old van tassel, sat smoking at one end of the piazza, gossiping over former times, and drawing out long stories about the war."[ ] put into simple sentences, it would be like this: the dance was at an end. ichabod was attracted to a knot of folks. the folks were older. they sat at the end of the piazza. old van tassel was with them. they were smoking, etc. in such sentences, nothing is emphatic; it is all alike. in irving's sentences, where ideas are reduced to clause, phrase, even a word, there is no question about what is important and what is unimportant. he has secured an exquisite emphasis by a discriminating subdual of subordinate ideas. this brings up the sentences by kipling already quoted on page . the author has used three independent sentences. they can be written as one, thus: the reason of her wandering was simple enough; for coppy, in a tone of too-hastily-assumed authority, had told her over night that she must not ride out by the river, and she had gone to prove her own spirit and teach coppy a lesson. there is a reason, however, why kipling wished that last sentence to stand alone. subordinated as it is here rewritten, it does not half express the spiteful independence she assumed to teach coppy a lesson. it needs the independent construction. just as surely as kipling is right in putting the reasons into two sharp, independent sentences, is irving right when he puts the reason in the following sentence into a subordinate clause. it is not important enough to deserve a sentence all by itself. "he was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of cotton mather's 'history of new england witchcraft,' in which, by the way, he most firmly and potently believed." in the following sentence the effect of subordination is unmistakable:-- "he had a name in the village for brutally misusing the ass; yet it is certain that he shed a tear _which_ made a clean mark down one cheek." now read it again:-- "he had a name in the village for brutally misusing the ass; yet it is certain that he shed a tear, _and the tear_ made a clean mark down one cheek." the last clause has burst away from its former submission, and in its independence has made the most important announcement of the sentence,--the witty climax. emphasis is, to a large degree, a matter of position, but position cannot emancipate any clause from the thralldom of subordination. to emphasize one idea, subordinate ancillary ideas; make them take their proper rank in the sentence. reduce them to a clause or to a phrase; and if a word justly expresses the relative importance of the thought, reduce its expression to a single word. the dynamic point of a sentence. in the chapter on paragraphs it was said that one sentence is often the source of the succeeding sentence; that such a sentence seemed to be charged like a leyden jar, and to discharge its whole power through a single word or phrase; and further, that this word or phrase should be left free to act,--it should be uncovered. how a sentence can be arranged so that this word or phrase shall have the prominence it deserves, and can unhindered transmit the undiminished force of one sentence to the next, has now been explained. first, such words can be made dynamic by placing them at the beginning or the end of a sentence; second, by placing them near the major marks of punctuation; third, by forcing them from their natural order; and fourth, by the subdual of the other parts of the sentence. the greatest care in massing sentences so that none of their power be lost in transmission is one of the secrets of the literature that carries the reader irresistibly forward. sometimes he may be annoyed by the repetition of phrases; but he cannot get away; he must go forward. in the paragraph below, quoted from matthew arnold, every phrase that is the point from which the next sentence springs is in a position where it can act untrammeled. through it the whole force of the sentence passes:-- "it will be said that it is a very subtle and indirect action which i am thus prescribing for criticism, and that, by embracing in this manner the indian virtue of detachment and abandoning the sphere of practical life, it condemns itself as a slow and obscure work. slow and obscure it may be, but it is the only proper work of criticism. the mass of mankind will never have any ardent zeal for seeing things as they are; very inadequate ideas will satisfy them. on these inadequate ideas reposes, and must repose, the general practice of the world. that is as much as saying that whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find himself one of a very small circle; but it is only by this small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all. the rush and uproar of practical life will always have a dizzying and attracting effect upon the most collected spectator, and tend to draw him into its vortex; most of all will this be the case where that life is so powerful as it is in england. but it is only by remaining collected, and refusing to lend himself to the point of view of the practical man, that the critic can do the practical man any service; and it is only by the greatest sincerity in pursuing his own course, and by at last convincing even the practical man of his sincerity, that he can escape misunderstandings which perpetually threaten him."[ ] good use. good use has been mentioned. in massing the parts of a sentence for the purpose of emphasizing some idea, a writer has not entire freedom. good use, which is the use of acknowledged masters, decides what may be done. there are certain arrangements of words to which we are accustomed; and the disregard of them leads to obscurity or downright contrariety in the thought. "brutus stabbed cæsar" is the common order; "brutus cæsar stabbed," or "stabbed brutus cæsar," is obscure; while "cæsar stabbed brutus" is the very opposite of the truth. those who have studied latin know that as far as understanding the sentence is concerned, it would make no difference in which order the three latin words should be arranged; though it would make a mighty difference in the emphasis. in latin the case endings determine the construction of the words. in an inflected language the words may be massed almost to suit the writer; in an uninflected language, within certain limits the order determines the relation between groups of words. though for emphasis it might be advisable to have the object first, for the sake of clearness in a short sentence the object cannot stand first. the primary consideration in making any piece of literature is that it may be understood. to be understood, the sentence must be arranged in the order to which we are accustomed. the order to which we are accustomed has been determined by good use. the variety in the arrangement of the parts of a sentence that has been sanctioned by good usage is great, yet there are limits. grammar is based upon the usage of the best writers. any offense against the grammar of our language is a sin against good use. browning may use constructions so erratic that the ordinary reader does not know what he is reading about; carlyle may forge a new word rather than take the trouble to find one that other people have used. but the young writer, at least, is far safer while keeping within the limits of good use. clearness gained by coherence. coherence in a sentence is that principle of structure by which its parts are best arranged to stick together. the parts of a sentence containing related ideas should be so associated that there can be no mistake regarding the reference or the modification. such a sentence as the following cannot be understood; the reference is obscure. "james told him that he did not see what he was to do in the matter." if the reader were sure of the first "he," he could not come nearer than a guess at the reference of the second "he." the third personal pronoun--he, she, it--in all its cases is especially uncertain in its references. the first sentence below is from an english grammar. the second is from a recently published biography. both are obscure in the reference of the pronouns. "when 'self' is added to a pronoun of the first and second person, it is preceded by the possessive case. but when it is added to a pronoun of the third person, it is preceded by a pronoun in the objective case." "i am reminded of swinburne's view of providence when he said that he never saw an old gentleman give a sixpence to a beggar, but he was straightway run over by a 'bus." the relative pronoun is also uncertain in its references. some southerners were among the ship's passengers, of whom a few had served in the rebellion. (obscure reference.) red lights were displayed in a peculiar succession, which warned of impending storm. (no antecedent.) to make the reference of pronouns, personal and relative, distinct, the antecedent must be made prominent; sometimes the only way out of the difficulty is a repetition of the antecedent. and the pronoun should stand near the word to which it refers. keep associated ideas together. like pronouns in the uncertainty of their reference are participles. either the subject is not expressed, or it is uncertain. hastening up the steps, the door opened. (none.) coming from the spring, with a pail of water in either hand, he saw her for the first time. (uncertain.) adverbs are sometimes placed so that they make a sentence ridiculous; and frequently their meaning is lost by being separated from the words they modify. "only" is a word to be watched. like adverbs are correlative conjunctions. they are frequently so placed that they do not join the elements they were intended to unite. he seized the young girl as she rose from the water almost roughly. i think i hardly shall. i only went as far as the gate. "who shall say, of us who know only of rest and peace by toil and strife?" he not only learned algebra readily but also latin. phrases and clauses may lose their reference by being removed from the words they modify. toiling up the hill, he arrived at hotel bellevue through a drizzling rain. addison rose to a post which dukes, the heads of the great houses of talbot, russell, and bentinck, have thought it an honor to fill without high birth, and with little property. "fred was liked well; but he had the habit of that class that cannot get the english language in the right order when a little excited." all the classes of errors which have been exemplified here are due to the infringement of one rule: things that belong together in thought should stand together in composition. nothing should be allowed to come between a pronoun, an adjective, an adverb, a correlative, a phrase, or a clause, and the word it modifies. sometimes other modifiers have to be taken into account: where more than one word or phrase modifies the same word, a trial will have to be made to arrange them so that there shall be no obscurity or absurdity. keep related ideas together; keep unrelated ideas apart. parallel construction. the second principle which helps to make the relation of parts clear is parallel construction. it has already been explained in paragraphs. in sentences the commonest errors are in linking an infinitive with a gerund, a participle with a verb, an active with a passive voice, a phrase with a clause. the result is sentences like the following:-- you cannot persuade him to go and into buying what he does not want. thus he spoke, and turning to the door. the king began to force the collection of duties, and an army was sent by him to execute his wishes. he was resolved to use patience and that he would often exercise charity. such sentences are offensive to the ear; and were they as long as the ones below, they would not be clear. "you cannot persuade them _to burn_ their books of curious science; _to banish_ their lawyers from their courts of laws; or _to quench_ the lights of their assemblies by refusing to choose those persons who are best read in their privileges." "for though rebellion is declared, it _is_ not _proceeded against_ as such, nor _have_ any steps _been taken_ towards the apprehension or conviction of any individual offender, either on our late or our former address; but modes of public coercion _have been adopted,_ and such as have much more resemblance to a sort of qualified hostility towards an independent power than the punishment of rebellious subjects." "my resolutions therefore mean to establish the equity and justice of a taxation of america by grant and not by imposition; to mark the legal competency of the colony assemblies for the support of their government in peace, and for public aids in time of war; to acknowledge _that this legal competency has had_ a dutiful and beneficial exercise; and _that experience has shown_ the benefit of their grants, and the futility of parliamentary taxation as a method of supply."[ ] in the second sentence burke has used a passive voice when it would certainly be more elegant to change to the active. "is proceeded against" is surely awkward, but for uniformity and resulting clearness he has retained the passive. in the last sentence the infinitives "to establish," "to mark," and "to acknowledge" are in the same construction; they are objects of "mean." then comes a change of form to show that the clauses "that this legal competency has had," etc., and "that experience has shown," etc., are in a like relation to the infinitive "to acknowledge." though the last clause by reason of the punctuation looks correlative with the others, it is not related as object to the verb "mean," as the others are, but it is the object of "to acknowledge." there could hardly be a better example of the value of parallel constructions for the purpose of avoiding confusion, and linking together parts that are related. balanced sentences. parallel constructions are used in balanced sentences. in balanced sentences one part is balanced against another,--a noun and a noun, an adjective and an adjective, phrase and phrase. balanced sentences are especially suited to express antithesis, the figure of speech where two ideas are sharply opposed to each other. in the following from newman, the balancing is admirable: "inebriated with the cup of insanity, and flung upon the stream of recklessness, she dashes down the cataract of nonsense and whirls amid the pools of confusion." this is not antithesis, however; but the following from macaulay is: "she seems to have written about the elizabethan age, because she had read much about it; she seems, on the other hand, to have read a little about the age of addison, because she had determined to write about it." the danger in the use of balanced sentences is excess. macaulay is very fond of brilliant contrasts. _but_ is a very common word with him. in some cases the reader feels that for the sake of the figure he has forced the truth. balanced sentences are palpably artificial, and should be used but sparingly. there is, however, but little danger of overdoing the parallel construction where there is no antithesis. the parts of succeeding sentences do not resemble each other so much in thought that there is great danger of resulting monotony in its expression. however, should the difficulty arise, the monotony may be broken up by a trifling variation. macaulay has done this well in the sentences quoted on page , beginning with the words, "for his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed," and continuing to the end of the paragraph. use of connectives. the third method of securing coherence in a sentence is by the use of connectives. the skillful use of prepositions and conjunctions indicates a master of words. the use of connectives has been discussed when treating of emphasis secured by subdual of unimportant details. such parts are connected, and in a very definite way. the relations are evident. two examples will illustrate. the first group of sentences are the fragments of but one of irving's. he did not look to the right or left. he did not notice the scene. the scene was of rural wealth. he had often gloated on this scene. he went straight to the stable. he kicked and cuffed his steed several times, and so forth. now note the value of prepositions in giving these separate sentences coherence. "without looking to the right or left to notice the scene of rural wealth, on which he had so often gloated, he went straight to the stable, and with several hearty cuffs and kicks roused his steed most unceremoniously from the comfortable quarters in which he was soundly sleeping, dreaming of mountains of corn and oats, and whole valleys of timothy and clover." the next also is from irving, and shows the skillful use of conjunctions to point out unerringly the relation of the clauses in a sentence. "what seemed particularly odd to rip was that, though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed." coherence, the principle of structure that surely holds the parts of a sentence together, is of greater importance than mass. upon coherence depends the meaning of a sentence; upon mass the force with which the meaning is expressed. that the meaning may be clear, it is necessary that the relation of the parts shall be perfectly evident. this lucidity is gained by placing related parts near together, and conversely, by separating unrelated ideas; by using parallel constructions for parallel thoughts; and by indicating relations by the correct use of prepositions and conjunctions. to summarize, sentences are the elements of discourse. the ability of a sentence to effect with certainty its purpose depends upon unity, mass, and coherence. a sentence must contain all that is needed to express the whole thought, but it must contain no more. a sentence must be arranged so that its important parts shall be prominent. position and proportion are the means of emphasis in a sentence. by placing the important words near the major marks of punctuation, by arranging the parts in a climax or a period, by forcing words out of the natural order, and by subduing unimportant details, a sentence is massed to give the important elements their relative emphasis. last, the parts of a sentence should be arranged so that their relations shall be clear and unmistakable. proximity of related parts, parallel construction for parallel ideas, and connectives are the surest means of securing coherence in a sentence. suggestive questions silas marner. (riverside literature series, no. .) on page put together the sentence beginning "every man's work," etc., with the next. what connective and what punctuation will you use? what is the difference in effect? what one of the relations of a compound sentence does the second part bear to the first? on page could you make two sentences of the sentence beginning, "raveloe lay low among the bushy trees"? would it be as well? would it be better? on page do the three parts of the compound sentence beginning, "he would have liked," etc., belong to one sentence? which one? is it right to say, "he would have liked to spring," or would it be better to say, "he would have liked to have sprung"? do you think colons are used too frequently in silas marner? compare their use with their use in hawthorne's stories and irving's sketches. in the sentence beginning, "let him live," etc., at the bottom of page , is "a possible state of mind in some possible person not yet forthcoming," a climax or an anti-climax? why? at the bottom of page why was it necessary to crowd so much into one sentence? macaulay's essay on milton. (riverside literature series, no. .) re-write the sentence on page beginning, "of all poets," etc., making it loose. is it better or worse? why does "here" stand first in the next sentence? what poets with whom you are familiar have philosophized too much? is the first sentence of the paragraph beginning in the middle of page periodic or loose? how many periodic sentences in this paragraph? in the paragraph on pages and trace the relation of the succeeding sentences. at the bottom of page what is the reason for putting first in the sentence, "of those principles"? what do you think of the massing of the whole sentence? what has been made emphatic? note the last two sentences at the end of the paragraph on page . is their arrangement effective? change one. what is the effect? (see also the middle of page .) on page why did he not say, "she grovels like a beast, she hisses like a serpent, she stings like a scorpion"? what arrangement of clauses in the first sentence in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page ? does it add clearness? in the same paragraph find a balanced sentence. what advantage is there in the short sentences on page ? in the first sentence of the paragraph, beginning on page , read one of the clauses, "by whom king, church, and aristocracy were trampled down." what is the effect of the change? is the parallel construction in the last sentence beginning on page good? is it good in the last sentence of this paragraph? in the next paragraph, why is macaulay's way better than this: "he was neither puritan, free thinker, nor royalist"? when a sentence is introduced by a participial phrase or a dependent clause it is in part or wholly periodic. does macaulay frequently use this introduction? what is the effect upon his style? can you find examples of sentences beginning with a loose structure, and having within them examples of the periodic structure? in the paragraph filling pages and there are many examples of periodic and parallel structure. contrast this paragraph with some of lamb's paragraphs. what is the effect of position upon the phrase, "even in his hands," on page ? when macaulay inverts the order of a sentence does he usually do it for emphasis or to secure coherence? does he use many pronouns and conjunctions? does he repeat words? burke's speech on conciliation with the colonies. (riverside literature series, no. .) how many sentences in the first paragraph are periodic? what kind of sentences in paragraph ? what is the effect of this paragraph? notice the arrangement of loose and periodic clauses in the last sentence in paragraph . make this sentence entirely loose. in the long sentence in paragraph do the he's and him's all refer to the same person? what would you say of burke's use of pronouns? find examples of balanced sentences in this oration. are you ever astray regarding burke's meaning? what has he done to gain clearness? for what purpose does he frequently use questions? webster's bunker hill oration. (riverside literature series, no. .) what relation has the second sentence of paragraph to the first? is the last sentence in paragraph clear? how has he made it so? compare this sentence with the one beginning at the bottom of page . in the last sentence of paragraph where does loose structure change to the periodic? in paragraph why would it be a blemish to write, "that we may keep alive similar sentiments"? why does he repeat "we wish" so many times? why did he not substitute synonyms? in paragraph why has he used the word "interest" more than once? if the thought is to be repeated, why not some other word? in the eighth sentence of paragraph is the structure periodic or loose? reverse the order of clauses in the last sentence of paragraph . what is the effect? * * * * * chapter ix words a word is the sign of an idea. whether the idea be an object, a quality, an action, simple existence, or a relation, if it be communicated to another, it must have some sign; in language these signs are words. infinitely varied are the ideas man has to express. each day, each moment, has its new combination of circumstances; yet by the common person the effect of the novel situation is described as "horrid" or "awful" or "perfectly lovely." three adjectives to describe all creation! no wonder that people are constantly misunderstood; that others do not get their ideas. how can they? do the best the master can, the thought will not pass from him to his reader without considerable deflection. he cannot say exactly what he would. his words do not hold the same meaning for him as for others. "mother" to him is a dear woman with a gentle voice, always dressed in black, sitting by the window of home; to another she is a shrieking termagant, whose phrases are punctuated by blows. there is not a word that means exactly the same to two persons; yet with words men must express their thoughts, their feelings, their hopes, their purposes,--always changing, ever new,--and for all this shall they use but a few score of words? words are the last, least elements of language; without these least elements, these atoms of language, no sentence, however simple, can be made; by means of them, the master drives mobs to frenzy or soothes the pain of eternal loss. the calm and peace which emerson knew, we know; the perpetual benediction of past years which wordsworth felt, all may feel. these thoughts masters have expressed in words, but not in three words. thousands are not enough accurately to transfer their visions of this changing universe from them to us. ideas infinite in their variety demand for their expression all the means which our language has placed at the disposal of the master. for this true expression the whole dictionary with its thousands of words is all too small. need of a large vocabulary. whoever hopes to be understood must acquire a full, rich vocabulary. however clearly he may think, however much he may feel, until he has words, the thought, the emotion, must remain his alone. to get a vocabulary, then, is a person's business. he who has it can command him who has it not. not in literature alone, but in business,--in medicine, in law, behind the accountant's desk or the salesman's counter,--he is master who can say what he means so that the person to whom he speaks must know just what he means. now it is a singular truth that when we read any great author, the words which we do not understand are remarkably few. even in shakespeare there are not many; and the few are unknown by reason of a constantly changing vocabulary. it was probably true then, as it would certainly be to-day, that the large majority of audiences lost not a word of his fifteen thousand, while they themselves used less than eight hundred. we know what others say; yet we say nothing ourselves. what a vocabulary one could accumulate, if from six to eighteen he added only two words a day! twelve years, and each year more than seven hundred words! it does not look a difficult task. children do more, and never realize the superiority of their achievement. nine thousand words at eighteen! shakespeare alone used more. macaulay needed scarcely six thousand. dictionary. how shall a vocabulary be accumulated? one method is by the use of a dictionary; and many persons find it a source of great pleasure. the genealogy and biography of words are as fascinating to a devoted philologist as stamps to a philatelist or cathedrals to an architect. "canteen" is quite an unassuming little word. yet imperious cæsar knew it in its childhood. the roman camp was laid out like a small city, with regular streets and avenues. on one of these streets called the "via quintana" all the supplies were kept. when the word passed into the italian, it became "cantina;" and cantinas may be found among all nations who have drawn their language from the latin. there is this difference, however: that whereas eatables were to be had in the roman quintana, only drinkables can be found in the italian cantina. when the english adopted the word, the middle meaning, a place where wines are stored, a wine-cellar, came to be a small flask especially fitted for the rough usage of a soldier's life, in which a necessary supply of some sort of liquid may be carried. so the name of a street has become the much-berated canteen of the sutler and the much needed canteen of the soldier. the dictionary is full of such fascinating biographies. still its fascination is not the reason why most people study the dictionary: it is because such a study is necessary for the person who hopes for an accurate knowledge of the words he reads. it is not impossible to know "pretty nearly what it means" from the context; but no master uses words without knowing exactly what they mean. certainty of meaning precedes frequency of use; and this necessary confidence is gained from a study of the dictionary. in a general way we know all the words of macaulay's vocabulary; but the average man uses only eight hundred of them. his knowledge of words is no more than an indistinct, mumbling knowledge. to lift each word out of its context, to make it a distinct, living entity, capable of serving, the definition must be studied. then the student knows just what service the word is fitted for, and finds a pleasure in being competent to command that service. the dictionary is a necessity to the person who hopes to use words. study of literature. yet the knowledge of words that the student derives from the dictionary is not sufficient. when one hears an educated foreigner speak, he detects little errors in his use of words,--errors which are not the fault of definition, but errors in the idiomatic use of words. this use cannot be learned from a dictionary, where words are studied individually, but only by studying them in combination with other words where the influence of one word upon another may be noted. there is little difference in the size of a pile of stones, whether we say a great pile of stones or a large pile of stones; but a great man is of much more consequence than a large man. a dictionary could hardly have told a foreigner this. a man may pursue or chase a robber, as the author wishes; but he may not chase a course. prepositions are especially liable to be misused, and their correct use comes from a study of literature, not of the dictionary. the nice and discriminating refinements in the use of words are learned by careful reading. when a phrase is met, such as "the steep and solitary eastern heaven," where each word has been born to a new beauty; or this, "and the sweet city with her dreaming spires," where the adjectives "sweet" and "dreaming" have a richer content, they should be regarded with great care and greeted with even more delight than words entirely new. how to read that we may gain this complete mastery of words, mr. ruskin has best told us in "sesame and lilies." every person should know "of kings' treasuries" by reading and re-reading. literature, the way masters have used words, will furnish a knowledge of the nicer discriminations in their use. the dictionary and literature are the sources of a full and refined vocabulary. but the vocabulary which may be perfectly understood is not entirely in one's possession until it is used. seek the first opportunity to use the newly acquired word. it will be hard to utter it; you will feel an effort in getting it out. only once, however; after that it rises as easily as any old familiar word. because the companion with whom you speak is always "just as mad as" she can be, is no reason why you may not at times be vexed, annoyed, aggravated, exasperated, or angry. men are not always either "perfectly lovely" or "awful;" neither are all ladies "jewels." there are degrees of villainy and nobility; and all jewels have not the same lustre. know what you want to say, and find the one word that will exactly say it. this costs work, it is true; but what is there worth having which has not cost some one work? do the work; search for the word; then use it. in this way a vocabulary becomes a real possession. the words which a person may use are generally described as reputable, national, and present. words must be reputable; that is, sanctioned by the authority of the creators of english literature. they must be national; words that are the property of the mass of the people, not of a clique or a district. and they must be of the present; chaucer's vocabulary, though it be the source of english, will not satisfy the conditions of to-day. vulgarisms are not reputable. first, words must be of reputable use. no person would consider vulgarisms reputable. when a person says "i hain't got none," he has reached about the acme of vulgarisms, the language of the illiterate. grammar has been disregarded; a word has been used which is not a word; and another word has no reason for its appearance in the sentence. yet sometimes this expression is heard; seldom seen written. it is always set down to the account of an illiterate home; for no one can reach a high school without knowing its grammatical errors. the unerring use of _don't, me, i, lie, lay, set,_ and _sit,_ is not so assured that the list can be omitted. adjectives are used for adverbs; "real good" is not yet forgotten. nouns are called upon to do the work of verbs. this is the language of the illiterate, and it should be avoided; for vulgarisms are not reputable. slang is not reputable. neither is slang reputable. he would be a prude who would not recognize that slang is sometimes right to the point; and that many of our strongest idioms were originally slang. still, although many phrases which to-day are called slang were at one time reputable, the fact of their respectable birth cannot save them from the slight imputation that now they are slang. notwithstanding the fact that we owe some of our strongest idioms to slang, the free use of slang always vulgarizes. it generally is called upon to supply a deficiency either in thought or in the power of expression. people too lazy to think, too indolent to read, with little to say, and but a few slang phrases to say it with, may be allowed to practice this vulgarity; but cultured persons in cultured conversation will eschew all acquaintance with it. to find it in the serious composition of educated persons always raises a question of their refinement. it is the stock in trade of the lazy and the uncultured. it is used to divert attention from poverty of thought and a threadbare vocabulary. it is unnecessary for the complete expression of thought by the scholar and man of refinement. it is a real misfortune that many good words have been tarnished by the handling of the illiterate. "awful," "horrid," and "lovely" are good words; but they have been sullied by common use. so common have they become that they approach slang. they may be rescued from that charge in each person's writing, if he shows by accurate use of them that he is master of their secret strength. milton wrote in "paradise lost:"-- "no! let us rather choose, armed with hell-flames and fury, all at once o'er heav'n's high towers to force resistless way, turning our tortures into _horrid_ arms against the torturer." lord lytton makes richelieu exclaim:-- "look where she stands! around her form i draw the _awful_ circle of our solemn church." and in the new testament we read:-- "finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are _lovely,_ whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." there is no question here of the words; they have all the freshness and vigor of their youth. do not hesitate to use such words exactly. when the thought calls for them, they say with certainty what can be expressed only doubtfully by other words. words must be national. provincialisms. second, words must be of national use. they cannot be words confined to a locality. when morris talks of a house that has been "gammoned," he deprives a large number of readers of his meaning. "gums" and "brasses" may be good in certain districts of england, but in literature they should not be used, for they would not generally be understood. for the same reason much of the common conversation of the south is foreign to a native of new york. whoever employs the language of a locality limits his circle of readers to that locality. to write for all he must use the language of all; he must avoid provincialisms. technical and bookish words. like words that are used by a small region are words which are understood by a clique of persons. scholars are inclined to use a scholarly vocabulary. the biologist has one; the chemist another; the philosopher a third. this technical vocabulary may be a necessity at times; but when a specialist addresses the public, his words must be the words which an average cultured man can understand. such words can be found if the writer will look for them; if he does not, his work can scarcely be called literature. technical words and bookish terms are not words of national use. the following by josiah royce illustrates how clearly a most abstruse topic can be handled by a man willing to take the trouble:[ ]-- "if you ask what sort of thing this substance is, the first answer is, that it is something eternal; and that means, not that it lasts a good while, but that no possible temporal view of it could exhaust its nature. all things that happen result from the one substance. this surely means that what happens now and what happened millions of years ago are, for the substance, equally present and necessary results. to illustrate once more in my own way: a spider creeping back and forth across a circle could, if she were geometrically disposed, measure out in temporal succession first this diameter, and then that. crawling first over one diameter, she would say, 'i now find this so long.' afterwards examining another diameter, she would say, 'it has now happened that what i have just measured proves to be precisely as long as what i measured some time since, and no longer.' the toil of such a spider might last many hours, and be full of such successive measurements, each marked by a spun thread of web. but the true circle itself within which the web was spun, the circle in actual space as the geometer knows it, would its nature be thus a series of events, a mere succession of spun threads? no, the true circle would be timeless, a truth founded in the nature of space, outlasting, preceding, determining all the weary web-spinning of this time-worn spider. even so we, spinning our web of experience in all its dreary complications in the midst of the eternal nature of the world-embracing substance, imagine that our lives somehow contain true novelty, discover for the substance what it never knew before, invent new forms of being. we fancy our past wholly past, and our future wholly unmade. we think that where we have yet spun no web, there is nothing, and that what we long ago spun has vanished, broken by the winds of time into nothingness. it is not so. for the eternal substance there is no before and after; all truth is truth. 'far and forgot to me is near,' it says. in the unvarying precision of its mathematical universe, all is eternally written. 'not all your piety nor wit can lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out one word of it.'" foreign words. words and phrases from a foreign language should be used only as a last resort. _bon mot, sine qua non,_ and _dolce far niente_ are all very apt, and to a person like mr. lowell, who was intimately acquainted with many languages, they may come as soon as their english equivalents. in the case of such a person, the reason why they should not be used is that the reader cannot understand them. but when a young smatterer uses them to advertise his calling acquaintance with a language, he is but proclaiming his own lack of good taste. in his composition they are as ineffective to make it respectable as a large diamond on a gamester's finger to make him an honored gentleman. use the english language when writing for english-speaking people. it has the fullest, richest vocabulary in the world. it will not be found unequal to the task of expressing your thoughts. words in present use. third, words should be in present use. words may be so new that people do not know them; they may have passed out of use after years of good service. of new words, but little can be said. the language constantly changes. new discoveries and inventions demand new words. what ones will be more than temporary cannot be prophesied. "blizzard" and "mugwump" were new but a short time ago: the latter is dying from disuse, the former has come to stay. in this uncertainty one thing can be said, however. no word which has not secured recognition should be used by a young person, if by reputable words already in the language he can express his meaning. and just as he should not be the first to take up an untried word, so the young writer should not be the last to drop a dead one. there is at present a sort of fad for old english. a large number of words that have been resting quietly in their graves for centuries have been called forth. some may enjoy a second life; most of them will feel only the weakness of a second obsolescence. "foreword" and "inwit" were good once; but "preface" and "conscience" mean as much and have the advantage of being alive. to be understood use the words of the present. words in their present meaning. use words in their present signification. not only has language cast out many words; it has changed many others so that they are hardly recognized. when chaucer wrote, "ther may no man mercury mortify but hit be with his brother knowleching," "mortify" meant to make dead, to kill. to-day a lady may say she was mortified to death; but that is hyperbole. in "paradise lost" satan may "through the palpable obscure find out his uncouth way." but a person to-day is not justified in using "uncouth" for "unknown." the works of shakespeare and milton abound in words whose life has been prolonged to the present, but whose signification has been changed. the writer who seeks to use words with these old meanings is standing in his own light. such use always attracts attention to the words themselves, and by so much subtracts attention from the thought. words of latin and saxon origin. words that are in good use have been divided into two classes, as they have been drawn from two sources. some differences between anglo-saxon and latin words are marked. saxon words are generally short; latin words long. the first are the words of home and are concerned with the necessities of life; the second are the words of the court and the adornments of polite society. the former made the foundation of our language and gave to it its idiomatic strength; the latter came later, and added to the strength of the language its grace and refinement. in our speech there can be no doubt that short words are used when the purpose is to be understood quickly, even harshly, while the longer words are frequently employed for saying unpleasant things pleasantly. euphemism, the choice of words not harsh for harsh ideas, has its uses. it is not always wrong to say, "he was taken away" for "he was killed." but when the plain truth is to be spoken, when, as in most composition, the object is to be understood, the words should be chosen which exactly express the thought, be those words latin or saxon. for any one to say, "was launched into eternity" for "was hanged," or "when the fatal noose was adjusted about the neck of the unfortunate victim of his own unbridled passions" for "when the halter was put around his neck," is a useless parade of vocabulary.[ ] one knows that such phrases are made by a writer who is ignorant of the value of words, or by a penny-a-liner, willing to sacrifice every effect of language to the immediate needs of his purse. such writing has no power. the words are dictated by too low a motive to have any force in them. let a writer go straight to the point as directly as the hindrances of language will allow. even then his expression will lag behind his thought. this does not mean that one is to use saxon words always. it means that one shall use the words that say exactly what is to be said, so that the reader can get the exact thought with the least outlay of attention to the words. latin words are as common as saxon words. to search out a saxon word because it is saxon and short is as reprehensible as to use the indirection of latin words where directness is wanted. latin words have a place; they express the finer distinctions and gradations of thought. in the discussion of any question requiring nice precision of statement latin words are necessary. in the following from newman, it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to substitute words of anglo-saxon origin for the words of latin origin, and could it be done, the passage would not then have the clearness it now has from his use of common words, though they be latin:-- "i mean then by the supreme being, one who is simply self-dependent, and the only being who is such; moreover, that he is without beginning or eternal, and the only eternal; that in consequence he has lived a whole eternity by himself; and hence that he is all-sufficient, sufficient for his own blessedness, and all-blessed, and ever-blessed. further, i mean a being who, having these prerogatives, has the supreme good, or rather is the supreme good, or has all the attributes of good in infinite intenseness; all wisdom, all truth, all justice, all love, all holiness, all beautifulness; who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent; ineffably one, absolutely perfect; and such that what we do not know of him is far more wonderful than what we do and can."[ ] latin words, moreover, have a fullness of sound which gives them an added weight and dignity. one would hesitate long before changing one of milton's big-sounding phrases, even if he were not compelled to sacrifice the metre. in webster's orations there is a dignity, a sublimity, gained by the use of full-mouthed polysyllables. supposing he had said at the beginning of his eulogy of adams and jefferson, "this is a new sight" instead of "this is an unaccustomed spectacle," the whole effect of dignified utterance commensurate with the occasion would have been lost. the oration abounds in examples of reverberating cadences. milton's sentences are a stately procession of gorgeous words: the dignified pomp of the advance is occasioned by the wealth of essential beauty and historical association in the individual words:-- "that proud honor claimed azazel as his right, a cherube tall: who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurl'd th' imperial ensign, which, full high advanc't shon like a meteor streaming to the wind, with gemms and golden lustre rich emblaz'd seraphic arms and trophies; all the while sonorous metall blowing martial sounds: at which the universal host up-sent a shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond frighted the reign of chaos and old night. all in a moment through the gloom were seen ten thousand banners rise into the air, with orient colours waving; with them rose a forrest huge of spears; and thronging helms appear'd, and serried shields in thick array of depth immeasurable." ("paradise lost.") the choice of words does not depend on whether they are of latin or of saxon origin. in use it will be found that short words, like short sentences, give more directness and force to the composition; while long words have a dignified elegance and refinement of discrimination not the property of monosyllables. no one should think, however, that short words cause the force or long words cause the dignity. these qualities belong to the thought; the completeness of its expression is approached by a choice in words. choose words for their fitness to say what you think, or feel, or purpose, having no regard for their origin. general and specific. words are also classified as general and specific. by a general word is meant a word common to or denoting a large number of ideas. by specific is meant a word that denotes or specifies a single idea. "man," "move," "bad," are general and denote a large number of ideas; while "whittier," "glide," "thieving," are specific, denoting but one man, one movement, one kind of badness. "man" denotes the whole human race, while it implies a feeling, thinking, speaking, willing animal. "whittier" denotes but a single person, but beside all the common qualities implied by the, word "man," "whittier" suggests, among other things, a homely face, serious and kind, a poet, and an anti-slavery worker. use words that suggest most. as a principle in composition, it may be said that the more a word or phrase can be made to imply or suggest, while at the same time expressing all that the writer wishes to say, the more valuable does that word or phrase become. yet it should be remembered that words may be so specific that they do not include all that the author wishes to include. for instance, if instead of "blessed are the peacemakers," the beatitude should be made to read "blessed are the quakers," though this organized body of persons labor for the blessings of peace, yet the meaning would be restricted by the limited denotation of the term. it does not include enough. so in almost all of emerson's writing, it would not be possible to express his entire thought with more specific words. therefore regard must always be had for the thought,--that it may be expressed in its perfect fullness and entirety. keeping this full expression in view, those words are strongest, truest, richest, which suggest most. to say of a person that he is a bad man is one thing; that he is a traitor is quite another; but when one writes that he is a veritable judas, words fail to keep pace with suggestions, and reason yields to emotion. specific words, if they denote the whole idea, are as much better than general terms as their suggestion exceeds the suggestion of general terms. synecdoche, metonymy. much of the force of figures of speech is derived from the suggestive quality of the specific words employed. when a man calls another a dog, he has used a metaphor. he has availed himself of a term that gathers up all the snarling qualities of the worst of the dog species. the figure has high suggestive power. synecdoche, too, that figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, employs a term of higher suggestive power for one of lower connoting force. "all hands took hold" is better than "all persons went to work." metonymy is the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another to which the former bears a known and close relation. the most common of these known and close relations are those of cause and its effects, of container and the thing contained, and of sign and the thing signified. "he has read shakespeare," "he was addicted to the use of the bottle," "all patriots fight for the flag," are examples of metonymy. all these figures depend in large degree for their power upon the greater suggestiveness of specific words; and their use gives to composition an efficiency and directness commensurate with the greater connoting value of the specific words. care in choice of specific words. a writer should keep in mind the fact that the same word may mean widely different things to two persons. for this reason the specific word that appeals to him most may be of no value in addressing others. "free silver" means to one set of men the withdrawal of money from investment, consequent stagnation in business, followed by the closing of factories and penury among laborers. to others it means three dollars a day for unskilled labor, fire, clothes, and something to eat. again, if one wished to present the horrors of devastating disease, in the south he would mention yellow fever, in the north smallpox; but to a lady who saw six little brothers and sisters dead from it in one week, three carried to the graveyard on the hillside one chill november morning, all the terrors of contagious disease are suggested by the word "diphtheria." words are weighted with our experiences. they are laden with what we have lived into them. as persons have different experiences, each word carries to each person a different meaning. the wise writer chooses those specific words which suggest most to the men he addresses,--in general, to the average man. there are many words that carry some of the same suggestions to all. these words are connected with the common things of life: such words as "home," "death," "mother," and the many more that have been with all people from childhood. they are simple little words crowded with experiences. such words carry a weight of suggestion not found in strange new words. it is for this reason that simple language goes straight to the heart; it is so loaded with life. of two expressions that convey the thought with equal accuracy, always choose the simpler. the following poems--one by tennyson,[ ] steeped in pain, perfect in its phrasing; the other by kipling, rising to a conception of a true artist's work, never before so simply expressed--are both written in home words, little words, but words all know, words that carry to all a common meaning:-- "tears, idle tears, i know not what they mean: tears from the depth of some divine despair rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, in looking on the happy autumn fields, and thinking of the days that are no more. "fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail that brings our friends up from the underworld; sad as the last which reddens over one that sinks with all we love below the verge; so sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. "ah! sad and strange as in dark summer dawns the earliest pipe of half-awakened birds to dying ears, when unto dying eyes the casement slowly grows a glimmering square; so sad, so strange, the days that are no more. "dear as remembered kisses after death, and sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned on lips that are for others; deep as love, deep as first love, and wild with all regret; o death in life, the days that are no more!" l'envoi.[ ] "when earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried, when the oldest colors have faded, and the youngest critic has died, we shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it-- lie down for an æon or two, till the master of all good workmen shall put us to work anew! "and those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair; they shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair; they shall find real saints to draw from-- magdalene, peter, and paul; they shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all! "and only the master shall praise us, and only the master shall blame; and no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame; but each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star, shall draw the thing as he sees it for the god of things as they are!" avoid hackneyed phrases. much like general terms, which mean something or nothing, are expressions that have become trite and hackneyed. at some time they were accurate phrases, saying just what was needed. by being used for all sorts of purposes, they have lost the original thought of which they were the accurate expression. they have no freshness. the sounding phrases repeated in the pulpit, or the equally empty phrases of the scientist, however good they were at their inception, are, in the writing of many persons, but theological and scientific cant relied upon by ignorant people to cover up the vacuity of their thought. one's own expression, even though it be not so elegant and graceful, is better than any worn-out, hackneyed phrase. think for yourself; then say what you have thought in the best language you can find yourself. "fine writing." "fine writing," the subjection of noble words to ignoble service, is to be avoided. mr. micawber was addicted to this pomposity of language; and dickens, by the creation of this character, has done literature a real service, by showing how absurd it is, how valueless for anything more than humor. "'under the impression,' said mr. micawber, 'that your peregrinations in this metropolis have not as yet been extensive, and that you might have some difficulty in penetrating the arcana of the modern babylon in the direction of the city road--in short,' said mr. micawber, in another burst of confidence, 'that you might lose yourself--i shall be happy to call this evening, and install you in the knowledge of the nearest way.'" here are great words in profusion to dress out a little thought. "fine writing" is as much out of taste as over-dressing. when the thought calls for noble expression, then all one's energies should be bent to finding noble phrases; but for common things common expressions are the only ones in good taste. in prose avoid poetical words. much like "fine writing" is the use of poetical words in prose. _enow, erstwhile, besprent, methinks, agone,_ and _thine_ are examples of a large class of words which, though in perfectly good taste in poetry, are in extremely poor taste in prose. they are out of place; and so attract attention to themselves, not to the thought they express. when writing prose, avoid poetical words. all of this comes at last to one rule: be exact, be accurate in the choice of words. not a word that half expresses the thought, not even one that is pretty near, but the only word that exactly expresses the meaning, that word must be used. it is not a question of long or short, of latin or saxon, of general or specific; it is a question of accuracy or inaccuracy, the whole or a part, the whole or too much, of just right or about right. no one would entirely misunderstand the following sentence; and just as certainly no one would derive from these words the impression the author had when he wrote it. he has phrased it as follows: "another direction in which free education is most valuable to society, is the way in which it removes the gulf affixed between the rich and poor." the boy wanted the opening sentence to sound big, and forgot that the first use of words is accurately to express the thought. in this sentence are the commonest errors in the choice of words. "most valuable" says more than truth; "direction" says less than truth; and "affixed" does not say anything. had the boy studied the dictionary, had he been familiar with the bible, had he carefully considered the figure he introduced with the word "gulf," he would not have written this incongruous sentence; he would not have been inaccurate. spare no pains in your effort to be exact. search through the words of your own vocabulary; if these fall short, find others in the dictionary. get the word that exactly expresses the thought. let no fine-sounding or high-born word trick you into saying what you do not mean. be master of your words; never let fine expressions enslave you. in a word, be accurate. such painstaking labor has its reward not alone in the increased power of expression; there is also a corresponding growth in the ability to observe accurately and to think clearly. no man can write such descriptions as ruskin and stevenson have written without seeing accurately; nor can a man speak with the definite certainty of burke without thinking clearly. the desire to be accurate in expression drives a writer to be accurate in thinking. to think is the highest that man can hope from education. anything that contributes to this highest attainment should be undertaken with joy. whether planning a story or constructing an argument; whether excluding irrelevant matter or including what contributes to the perfection of the whole; whether massing the material so that all the parts shall receive their due emphasis; whether relating the parts so that the thought advances steadily and there can be no misunderstanding,--in all this the student will find arduous labor. yet after all this is done,--when the theme, the paragraphs, and the sentences contain exactly what is needed, are properly massed, and are set in perfect order,--then comes the long labor of revision, which does not stop until the exact word is hunted out. for upon words, at last, we are dependent for the expression of our observation and thought. he is most entirely master of his thoughts who can accurately express them: clearly, that he cannot be misunderstood; forcefully, that he will not be unread; and elegantly, that he give the reader joy. and this mastery he evinces in a finely discriminating choice of words. * * * * * chapter x figures of speech figurative language. there is a generally accepted division of language into literal and figurative. language that is literal uses words in their accepted and accurate meaning. figurative language employs words with meanings not strictly literal, but varying from their ordinary definitions. much of our language is figurative. when a person says, "he is a bright boy," he has used the word "bright" in a sense that is not literal; the use is figurative. in the following there is hardly a sentence that has not some variation from literal language. "down by the river there is, as yet, little sign of spring. its bed is all choked with last year's reeds, trampled about like a manger. yet its running seems to have caught a happier note, and here and there along its banks flash silvery wands of palm. right down among the shabby burnt-out underwood moves the sordid figure of a man. his hat is battered, and he wears no collar. i don't like staring at his face, for he has been unfortunate. yet a glimpse tells me that he is far down the hill of life, old and drink-corroded at fifty." (le gallienne.) in the second sentence there are at least three figurative expressions. "bed," "choked," and "trampled like a manger" are not literal. so, too, in the next sentence there are two beautiful variations from literal expression. going on through the selection the reader will find frequently some happy change from literalness,--sometimes just a word, sometimes a phrase. figurative language is of great value. it adds clearness to our speech; it gives it more force; or it imparts to literature beauty. the last use is the most common; indeed, it is so common that sometimes the other uses are overlooked. however, when such a sentence as the following is read, the comparison is of value in giving _clearness_ to the thought, although it does not state the literal truth. "in the early history of our planet, the moon was flung off into space, as mud is thrown from a turning wagon wheel." _force_ is often gained by the use of figurative language. the following is a good illustration:-- "neither the perseverance of holland, nor the activity of france, nor the dextrous and firm sagacity of english enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by these people [americans]; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." the next is an illustration of a figure used for _beauty:--_ "two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return." _a figure of speech is any use of words with a sense varying from their literal definition, to secure clearness, force, or beauty of expression._ figures add so much to the attractiveness of literature, that every one would like to use them. yet figures should never be sought for. when they come of themselves, when they insist on being used, and are a part of the thought itself, and seem to be its only adequate expression, then they should be used. in most cases figures are ornaments of literature; it must be remembered that ornament is always secondary, and that no ornament is good unless it is in entire harmony with the thing it is to beautify. (see preface, p. viii.) when a figure suggests itself, it must be so clearly seen that there can be no mixing of images. some people are determined to use figures, and they force them into every possible place. the result is that there is often a confusion of comparisons. the following is bad: "his name went resounding in golden letters through the corridors of time." just how a name could resound "in golden letters" is a difficult question. longfellow used the last phrase beautifully:-- "not from the grand old masters, not from the bards sublime, whose distant footsteps echo through the corridors of time." of the two hundred or more figures of speech which have been named and defined, only a few need be mentioned here. and the purpose is not that you shall use them more, but that you may recognize them when you meet them in literature. figures based upon likeness. there is a large group of figures of speech based upon likeness. one thing is so much like another that it is spoken of as like it, or, more frequently, one is said to be the other. yet if the things compared are very much alike, there is no figure. to say that a cat is like a panther is not considered figurative. it is when in objects essentially different we detect and name some likeness that we say there is a figure of speech. there is at first thought no likeness between hope and a nurse; yet were it not for hope most persons would die. thackeray was right when he said that "hope is the nurse of life." the principal figures based upon likeness are metaphor, epithet, personification, apostrophe, allegory, and simile. _a metaphor is an implied comparison between things essentially different, but having some common quality._ metaphor is by far the most common figure of speech; indeed, so common is it that figurative language is often called metaphorical. "tombs are the clothes of the dead; a grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered." "let me choose; for as i am, i live upon the rack." "the cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep." only a little removed from metaphor is epithet. _an epithet is a word, generally a descriptive adjective or a noun, used, not to give information, but to impart strength or ornament to diction._ it is like a shortened metaphor. it is very often found in impassioned prose or verse. notice that in each epithet there is a comparison; that the figure is based on likeness. "here are sever'd lips parted with _sugar_ breath." "base _dog!_ why shouldst thou stand here?" _personification is a figure that ascribes to inanimate things, abstract ideas, and the lower animals the attributes of human beings._ it is plain that there must be some resemblance of the lower to the higher, else this figure could not be used. personification, like the epithet, is a modification of the metaphor. indeed, in every personification there is also a metaphor. "when the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees and they did make no noise." "but ever heaves and moans the restless deep." _apostrophe is an address to the dead as if living; to abstract ideas or inanimate objects as if they were persons._ it is a variety of personification. "o caledonia! stern and wild, meet nurse for a poetic child!" "wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower, thou's met me in an evil hour; for i maun crush amang the stoure thy slender stem." "milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour." _allegory is a narrative in which material things and circumstances are used to illustrate and enforce high spiritual truths._ it is a continued personification. bunyan's "pilgrim's progress" and spenser's "faerie queene" are good examples of allegory. all these figures are varieties of metaphor. in them there is always an implied, not an expressed, comparison. _a simile is an expressed comparison between unlike things that have some common quality._ this comparison is usually indicated by _like_ or _as._ "ilbrahim was like a domesticated sunbeam, brightening moody countenances, and chasing away the gloom from the dark corners of the cottage." (does this figure change to another in its course?) "how far that little candle throws its beams! so shines a good deed in a naughty world." of retired dutch valleys, irving wrote:-- "they are like those little nooks of still water which border a rapid stream; where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current." figures based upon sentence structure. there are a number of figures that express emotion by simply changing the normal order of the sentence. among these are inversion, exclamation, interrogation, climax, and irony. _inversion is a figure intended to give emphasis to the thought by a change from the natural order of the words in a sentence._ "_thine_ be the glory!" "_few_ were the words they said." "he saved others; _himself_ he cannot save." _exclamation is an expression of strong emotion in abrupt, inverted, or elliptical phrases._ it is among sentences what the interjection is among words. "how far that little candle throws its beams!" "oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am i!" _interrogation is a figure in which a question is asked, not to get an answer, but for the sake of emphasis._ "do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?" "fear ye foes who kill for hire? will ye to your homes retire?" "am i a coward?" _climax is a figure in which the intensity of the thought and emotion gradually increases with the successive groups of words or phrases._ (see p. .) "your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood than they [the american colonists] spread from families to communities, from villages to nations." _irony is a figure in which one thing is said and the opposite is meant._ "and job answered and said, no doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." "o jew, an upright judge, a learned judge!" four other figures should be mentioned: metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, and hyperbole. _metonymy calls one thing by the name of another which is closely related to the first._ the most common relations are cause and effect, container and thing contained, and sign and the thing signified. "from the cradle to the grave is but a day." "i did dream of money-bags to-night." _synecdoche is that figure of speech in which a part is put for the whole, or the whole for a part._ "fifty sail came into harbor." "the redcoats are marching." _allusion is a reference to something in history or literature with which every one is supposed to be acquainted._ "a daniel come to judgment! yea, a daniel!" men still sigh for the flesh pots of egypt; still worship the golden calf. there is no "open sesame" to the treasures of learning; they must be acquired by hard study. milton and shakespeare are full of allusions to the classic literature of greece and rome. _hyperbole is an exaggerated statement made for effect._ "he was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together." "and, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw millions of acres on us, till our ground, singeing his pate against the burning zone, make ossa like a wart!" exercises in figures. name the following figures. of those that are based upon likeness, tell in what the similarity consists. in many of the selections more than one figure will be found.[ ] . "the long, hard winter of his youth had ended; the spring-time of his manhood was turning green like the woods." . a pig came up to a horse and said, "your feet are crooked, and your hair is worth nothing." . "the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but they were drawn swords." . "the lily maid of astolat." . "o truth! o freedom! how are ye still born in the rude stable, in the manger nursed!" . "the birch, most shy and ladylike of trees, her poverty, as best she may, retrieves, and hints at her foregone gentilities with some saved relics of her wealth of leaves." . "o friend, never strike sail to a fear! come into port grandly, or sail with god the seas!" . "primroses smile and daisies cannot frown." . "how deeply and warmly and spotlessly earth's nakedness is clothed!--the 'wool' of the psalmist nearly two feet deep. and as far as warmth and protection are concerned, there is a good deal of the virtue of wool in such a snow-fall. it is a veritable fleece, beneath which the shivering earth ('the frozen hills ached with pain,' says one of our young poets) is restored to warmth." . "we can win no laurels in a war for independence. earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. nor are there places for us by the side of solon and alfred and other founders of states. our fathers have filled them." . "i put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and diadem. "i was eyes to the blind, and feet was i to the lame. "i was father to the poor; and the cause which i knew not i searched out. "and i brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." . "his head and his heart were so well combined that he could not avoid becoming a power in his community." spenser, writing of honor, says:-- . "in woods, in waves, in wars, she wonts to dwell, and will be found with peril and with pain; nor can the man that moulds an idle cell unto her happy mansion attain: before her gate high god did sweat ordain, and wakeful watches ever to abide; but easy is the way and passage plain to pleasure's palace: it may soon be spied, and day and night her doors to all stand open wide." . "over the vast green sea of the wilderness, the moon swung her silvery lamp." . "the peace of the golden sunshine was supreme. even a tiny cloudlet anchored in the limitless sky would not sail to-day." . "a short way further along, i come across a boy gathering palm. he is a town boy, and has come all the way from whitechapel thus early. he has already gathered a great bundle--worth five shillings to him, he says. this same palm will to-morrow be distributed over london, and those who buy sprigs of it by the bank will know nothing of the blue-eyed boy who gathered it, and the murmuring river by which it grew. and the lad, once more lost in some squalid court, will be a sort of sir john mandeville to his companions--a sir john mandeville of the fields, with their water-rats, their birds' eggs, and many other wonders. and one can imagine him saying, 'and the sparrows there fly right up into the sun, and sing like angels.' but he won't get his comrades to believe _that._" . "we wandered to the pine forest that skirts the ocean's foam; the lightest wind was in its nest, the tempest in its home. the whispering waves were half asleep, the clouds were gone to play, and on the bosom of the deep the smile of heaven lay; it seemed as if the hour were one sent from beyond the skies which scattered from above the sun the light of paradise. "we paused amid the pines that stood the giants of the waste, tortured by storms to shapes as rude as serpents interlaced,-- and soothed by every azure breath that under heaven is blown, to harmonies and hues beneath, as tender as its own: now all the tree-tops lay asleep like green waves on the sea, as still as in the silent deep the ocean woods may be." . "when a bee brings pollen into the hive, he advances to the cell in which it is to be deposited and kicks it off as one might his overalls or rubber boots, making one foot help the other; then he walks off without ever looking behind him; another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes along and rams it down with his head and packs it in the cell as the dairy-maid packs butter into a firkin." . "for thy desires are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous." . "what a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" . "and in her cheeks the vermeil red did shew like roses in a bed of lilies shed." . he betrayed his friend with a judas kiss. . "a true poet is not one whom they can hire by money and flattery to be a minister of their pleasures, their writer of occasional verses, their purveyor of table wit; he cannot be their menial, he cannot even be their partisan. at the peril of both parties let no such union be attempted. will a courser of the sun work softly in the harness of a dray-horse? his hoofs are of fire, and his path is through the heavens, bringing light to all lands; will he lumber on mud highways, dragging ale for earthly appetites from door to door?" . "hath a dog money? is it possible a cur can lend three thousand ducats?" . "kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than norman blood." . they sleep together,--the gray and the blue. . "have not the indians been kindly and justly treated? have not the temporal things--the vain baubles and filthy lucre of this world--which were apt to engage their worldly and selfish thoughts, been benevolently taken from them? and have they not, instead thereof, been taught to set their affections on things above?" (quoted from meiklejohn's "the art of writing english.") . "poetry is truth in its sunday clothes." . "his words were shed softer than leaves from the pine, and they fell on sir launfal as snows on the brine, that mingle their softness and quiet in one with the shaggy unrest they float down upon." . too much red tape caused a great amount of suffering in the beginning of the war. . "roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain." . "the old mountain has thrown a stone at us for fear we should forget him. he sometimes nods his head, and threatens to come down." . "but pleasures are like poppies spread: you seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed; or like the snow falls in the river, a moment white--then melts for ever; or like the borealis race, that flit ere you can point their place; or like the rainbow's lovely form evanishing amid the storm." * * * * * chapter xi verse forms[ ] preparer's note: in this chapter, the rhythms of the sample poetry lines were indicated with musical notes and rests. in this text version, an eighth note is indicated by e, a quarter note by q, and an eighth rest by r. no pupil has passed through the graded schools without being told that he should not sing verses, though no one is inclined to sing prose. one can scarcely help singing verse, and one cannot well sing prose. what is there about the form that leads a person to sing verses of poetry? for example, when a person reads the first lines of "the lady of the lake," he falls naturally into a sing-song which can be represented by musical notation as follows:-- | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e q | e q | e q | e q | "the stag at eve had drunk his fill, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e q | e q | e q | e q | where danced the moon on mon an's rill, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e q | e q | e q | e q | and deep his mid night lair had made | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e q | e q | e q | e q | in lone glenart ney's ha zel shade." the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth syllables in each of these lines are naturally accented in reading, while the other syllables are read without stress. the eight syllables of each line fall naturally into groups of two, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable, just as in the musical notation given, an unaccented eighth note is followed by an accented quarter. in "hiawatha" the accented syllable comes first, and the unaccented follows it. | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | q e | q e | "by the shores of gitchee gumee, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | q e | q e | by the shining big-sea-water, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | q e | q e | stood the wigwam of no komis, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | q e | q e | daughter of the moon, no komis." so, too, there are groups in which there are three syllables. the accent may fall on any one of the three. in the following stanza from "the bridge of sighs," the accent falls on the first syllable of each group. | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | "touch her not scornfully; | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | think of her mournfully, | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | gently and humanly, | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | not of the stains of her; | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | all that re mains of her | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | now is pure womanly." the accent may be upon the second syllable of the group. this is not common. the following is from "the three fishers." | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | e e e | e q | "three fishers went sailing out into the west, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | e q | e q | out into the west as the sun went down; | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | e e e | e q | each thought on the woman that loved him the best; | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | [e] e e e | e e e | e e e | e q | [and] the children stood watching them out of the town." or the accent may be upon the last syllable of the group. this form is very common. it is found in the poem entitled "annabel lee." | ^ | ^ | ^ ^| | | e e e |e e e |e e e |e q | "it was man y and man y a year ago, | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e q | e q | in a king dom by the sea, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e |e e e | e q | e q | that a maid en there lived whom you may know | ^ | ^| ^ | | e e e | e q| e e e | by the name of an nabel lee; | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e |e e e | e q | e e e | and this maid en she lived with no other thought | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e |e q | than to love and be loved by me." poetic feet. if all these verses be observed carefully, it will be seen that in each group of syllables there is one accented syllable combined with one or two unaccented. such a group of syllables is called a foot. the foot is the basis of the verse; and from the prevailing kind of foot that is found in any verse, the verse derives its name. _a foot is a group of syllables composed of one accented syllable combined with one or more unaccented._ it will be noticed further that if musical notation be used, all of these forms are but variations of the one form, represented by the standard measure / . they are:-- | ^ | | ^ | | ^ | | ^ | | ^ | | e q |; | q e |; | e e e |; | e e e |; and | e e e |. accordingly there are five forms of poetic feet made of this musical rhythm. of these, four are in common use. _an iambus is a two-syllable foot accented on the last syllable. verse made of this kind of feet is called iambic._ it is the most common form found in english poetry. example:-- "the stag at eve had drunk his fill." _a trochee is a two-syllable foot accented on the first syllable. verse made of this kind of feet is called trochaic._ example:-- "stood the wigwam of nokomis." _a dactyl is a three-syllable foot accented on the first syllable. such verse is called dactylic._ example:-- "touch her not scornfully." _an amphibrach is a three-syllable foot accented on the middle syllable._ it is uncommon. example:-- "three fishers went sailing out into the west." _an anapest is a three-syllable foot accented on the last syllable._ example:-- "it was many and many a year ago." a spondee is a very uncommon foot in english. it consists of two long syllables accented about equally. it occurs as an occasional foot in a four-syllable rhythm. no english poem is entirely spondaic. the four-syllable foot and the spondee are so uncommon that there is little use in the pupil's knowing more than that there are such things. the example below is quoted from lanier's "the science of english verse." | ^ | ^ | ^ ^ | | e e e e | q e e | q q | "ah, the autumn days fade out, and the nights grow chill | ^ | ^ | ^ ^ | | e e e e | e e e e | q q | and we walk no more to gether as we used of yore when the rose was new in blossom and the sun was on the hill, and the eves were sweetly vocal with the happy whippoorwill, and the land-breeze piped its sweetest by the ocean shore." kinds of metre. _a verse is a single line of poetry._ it may contain from one foot to eight feet. _a line made of one foot is called monometer._ it is never used throughout a poem, except as a joke, but it sometimes occurs as an occasional verse in a poem that is made of longer lines. the two lines which follow are from the song of "winter" in shakespeare's "love's labour's lost." the last is monometer. "then nightly sings the staring owl tu-whit." _a line containing two feet is called dimeter._ it also is uncommon; but it does sometimes make up a whole poem; as, "the bridge of sighs," already mentioned. another example is:-- ^ ^ "i'm wearing awa', jean, ^ ^ like snaw when it's thaw, jean, ^ ^ i'm wearing awa' ^ ^ to the land o' the leal." it is frequently met as an occasional line in a poem. wordsworth's "daisy" shows it. "bright _flower!_ for by that name at last, when all my reveries are past, i call thee, and to that cleave fast, sweet, silent creature! that breath'st with me in sun and air, do thou, as thou art wont, repair my heart with gladness, and a share of thy meek nature!" _a line containing three feet is called trimeter._ example:-- ^ ^ ^ "the snow had begun in the gloaming, ^ ^ ^ and busily all the night ^ ^ ^ had been heaping field and highway ^ ^ ^ with a silence deep and white." _a line containing four feet is called tetrameter._ "marmion" is written in tetrameters. see the extract on p. . _a line containing five feet is called pentameter._ this line is very common in english poetry. it gives room enough for the poet to say something, and is not so long that it breaks down with its own weight. shakespeare's plays, milton's "paradise lost," tennyson's "idylls of the king,"--indeed, most of the great, serious work of the master-poets has been done in this verse. _a line containing six feet is called hexameter._ this is the form adopted in the iliad and the odyssey of the greeks, and the Ã�neid of the romans; it has been used sometimes by english writers in treating dignified subjects. "the courtship of miles standish" and "evangeline" are written in hexameter. verses of seven and eight feet are rare; they are called heptameter and octameter, respectively. the heptameter is usually divided into a tetrameter and a trimeter; the octameter, into two tetrameters. poe's "raven" and tennyson's "locksley hall" are in octameters, and bryant's "the death of the flowers" is in heptameters. a verse is named from its prevailing kind of foot and the number of feet. for example, "the merchant of venice" is in iambic pentameter, and "the courtship of miles standish" is in dactylic hexameter. stanzas. a stanza is a group of verses, but these verses are not necessarily of the same length. monometer, dimeter, and trimeter are not often used for a whole stanza; but they are frequently found in a stanza, introducing variety into it. a stanza made up of tetrameter alternating with trimeter is very common. the stanzas from "annabel lee" and "the village blacksmith," found on pages and , are excellent examples. scansion. _scansion is the separation of a verse of poetry into its component feet._ poetry was originally sung or chanted by bards and troubadours. the accompaniment was a simple strumming on a harp of very few strings, and was hardly more than the beating of time. the chanting must have been much like the sing-song that some people fall into when reading verses now. the first thing in scanning a line of poetry is to drop into its rhythm,--to let it sing itself. when the regular accent is felt, the lines can easily be separated into their metrical feet. read these lines from "marmion," and mark only the accented syllables. ^ ^ ^ ^ "and there she stood so calm and pale, ^ ^ ^ ^ that but her breathing did not fail, and motion slight of eyes and head, and of her bosom, warranted that neither sense nor pulse she lacks, you might have thought a form of wax wrought to the very life was there; so still she was, so pale, so fair." the marked verses have an accented syllable preceded by an unaccented syllable. such a foot is iambic. there are four feet in each verse; so the poem is written in iambic tetrameter. in the same way, one decides that "the song of hiawatha" is written in trochaic tetrameter. variations in metres. in music the bar or measure is not always filled with exactly the same kind of notes arranged in the same order. if the signature reads / , the measure may be filled by any notes that added together equal three eighth notes. it may be a quarter and an eighth, an eighth and a quarter, a dotted quarter, or three eighth notes. so, in poetry the verses are not always as regular as in "marmion" and "hiawatha," although poetry is more regular than music and there are usually few variations of metre in any one poem. a knowledge of the most common forms of variation is necessary to correct scansion. the commonest variation in verse is the substitution of three eighths for the quarter and the eighth, or the eighth and the quarter. and the very opposite of this often occurs; that is, the substitution of the two-syllable foot for the three-syllable foot. the following, from "the burial of sir john moore," illustrates what is done. notice, however, that the beat is quite regular, and the lines lilt along as if there were no change. | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | e e e | e q | e e e |e e e | "not a drum was heard, not a fun eral note, | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | e e e [e] | as his corse to the ram part we hur[ried]; | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e | e q | e q | not a sol dier discharged his fare well shot | ^ | ^| ^ | | e e e | e e e| e e e [e] | o'er the grave where our he ro we bur[ied]." in reading this the first time, a person is not likely to notice that there are three feet in it containing but two syllables. the rhythm is perfectly smooth, and cannot be called irregular. the accent remains on the last syllable of the foot. in the following selection from "evangeline," trochees are substituted for dactyls, yet there is no break in the rhythm. it does not seem in the least irregular. | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | e e e | q e | "be hind them followed the watch-dog, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | q e | e e e| e e e | e e e | e e e | q e | patient, full of im portance, and grand in the pride of his instinct, walking from side to side with a lordly air, and superbly waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the stragglers." these examples are enough to illustrate the fact that one kind of foot may be substituted for another and not make the rhythm feel irregular. so long as the accent is not changed from the first syllable to the last, or from the last to the first, there is no jar in the flow of the lines. _the trochee and the dactyl are interchangeable; and the iambus and the anapest are interchangeable._ we may take a step further. there are many times when some sudden change of thought, some strong emotion forces a poet to break the smooth rhythm, that the verses may harmonize with his feeling. such a variation is like an exclamation or a dash thrown into prose. the following is taken from "annabel lee." the regular foot has the accent on the last syllable. it is anapestic, in tetrameters and trimeters. but note the shudder in the third line when the accent is changed on the word "chilling." the music and the thought are in perfect harmony. "and this was the reason that, long ago, in this kingdom by the sea, | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | |e q | e q |e e e | q e | a wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful annabel lee; so that her highborn kinsman came and bore her away from me to shut her up in a sepulchre in this kingdom by the sea." another beautiful example is found in the last stanza of the same poem. it is in the first two feet of the fifth line. here the regular accent has yielded to an accent on the middle syllable and there are two amphibrachs. notice, too, how it is almost impossible to tell in the next foot whether the accent goes upon the second or upon the third syllable. it is hovering between the form of the first two feet and the anapest of the last foot. "for the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams of the beautiful annabel lee; and the stars never rise, but i feel the bright eyes of the beautiful annabel lee; | ^ | ^ | ^ ^ | ^ | | e e e | e e e |e e e | e e e | and so, all the night-tide, i lie down by the side of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride, in her sepulchre there by the sea in her tomb by the sounding sea." as has already been said, the iambus is the common foot of english verse. it is made of a short and a long syllable. at the beginning of a poem an unaccented syllable seems weak; and so very frequently the first foot of a poem is trochaic; often the first two or three feet are of this kind. at such a place the irregularity does not strike one. the following is an illustration:-- | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e |e q | e q | e q | "under a spread ing chest nut tree | ^ | ^ | ^ | | e q | e q |e q | the vil lage smith y stands; the smith, a mighty man is he, with large and sinewy hands; and the muscles of his brawny arms are strong as iron bands." in this stanza the prevailing foot is iambic, but the first foot is trochaic. in the following beautiful lines by ben jonson, there is the same thing:-- | ^ | ^| ^ | ^ | | q e |e q|e q | e q | "drink to me on ly with thine eyes and i will pledge with mine; or leave a kiss but in the cup and i'll not look for wine. the thirst that from the soul doth rise doth ask a drink divine; but might i of jove's nectar sup, i would not change for thine." a similar substitution may occur in any other verse of the stanza; but we feel the change more than when it is found in the first verse. the second stanza of jonson's song furnishes an example of the substitution of a trochee for an iambus:-- "i sent thee late a rosy wreath, | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | e q |e e e | not so much hon oring thee as giving it a hope that there it could not withered be, but thou thereon didst only breathe and sent'st it back to me; since when it grows and smells, i swear, not of itself, but thee." of all the great poets, but few have been such masters of the art of making musical verse as spenser. the following stanza is from "the faerie queene;" and the delicate changes from one foot to another are so skillfully made that one has to look twice before he finds them. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ "a little lowly hermitage it was, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ down in a dale, hard by a forest's side, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ far from resort of people that did pass ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ in travel to and fro; a little wide ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ there was a holy chapel edified, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ wherein a hermit duly wont to say ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ his holy things each morn and eventide; ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ thereby a crystal stream did gently play, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ which from a sacred fountain welléd forth alway." first and last foot. from the lines on "the burial of sir john moore," another fact about metres may be derived. the second and fourth lines apparently have one too many syllables. _this may occur when the accent is upon the last syllable of the foot;_ that is, when the foot is an iambus or an anapest. again, the last foot of each line may be one syllable short. _this may occur when the accent is on the first syllable of a foot;_ that is, when the foot is trochaic or dactylic. the scheme is like this: | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | q e | q e | "tell me not in mournful numbers | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | q e | q r | life is but an empty dream." the last foot of a verse of poetry, then, may have more or fewer syllables than the regular number; still the foot takes up the regular time and cannot be deemed unrhythmical. the first foot of a line, too, may contain an extra syllable; a good example has been given in the lines on page , beginning,-- "ah, the autumn days fade out, and the nights grow chill." and the first foot of a line may lack a syllable, as in the first line of "break, break, break," by tennyson. in a line like the following, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether the syllable is omitted from the first or the last foot. if from the first, the verse is iambic, and is scanned like this:-- | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | r q | e q |e q | e e e | "proud and low ly, beg gar and lord." if the last foot is not full, the line is trochaic. | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | | q e | q e | e e e | q r | "proud and low ly, beg gar and lord." now if the whole of "london bridge," from which this line is quoted, be read, there will be found several lines that are trochaic beyond question; and the last line of the chorus is iambic. the majority of trochaic lines leads us to decide that the verse is trochaic. from this example one learns to appreciate how nearly alike are trochaic and iambic verses. both are composed of alternating accented and unaccented syllables; and the kind of metre depends upon which comes first in the foot. in blake's "tiger, tiger," there is not a line that clearly shows what kind of verse the poet used. if the unaccented syllable is supplied at the beginning the poem is iambic; if at the end, it is trochaic. "tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye framed thy fearful symmetry?" silences may occur in the middle of a verse of poetry as well as at the beginning or the end. in the following nursery rhyme it is clear that the prevailing foot is anapestic, though several feet are iambic, and in the first two lines and the last line a single syllable makes a foot. silences are introduced here as rests are in music. | r q | r q | r q | "three blind mice! | r q | r q | e q | see how they run! | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | hurrah, hurrah for the farm er's wife! | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | she cut off their tails with a carv ing knife! | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | did you ev er see such a sight in your life |e q | r q | r q | as three blind mice!" like this is the scansion of tennyson's "break, break, break." | r q | r q | r q | "break, break, break! on thy cold gray stones, o sea! and i would that my tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me." in scanning, then, it is necessary-- _first._ to determine by reading a number of verses the kind of foot that predominates, and to make this the basis of the metrical scheme. _second._ to remember that one kind of foot may be substituted for another, at the will of the poet, introducing into the poem a delicate variety of rhythm. _third._ to keep in mind that the first foot of a verse and the last foot may have more or fewer syllables than the regular foot of the poem. _fourth._ that silences, like rests in music, may be introduced into a verse and give to it a perfect smoothness of rhythm. kinds of poetry. it is a difficult thing to give a definition of poetry. many have done so, yet no one has been fortunate enough to have his definition go without criticism. in general, it may be said that poetry deals with serious subjects, that it appeals to the feelings rather than to the reason, that it employs beautiful language, and that it is written in some metrical form. poetry has been divided into three great classes: narrative, lyric, and dramatic. narrative poetry deals with events, real or imaginary. it includes, among other varieties, the epic, the metrical romance, the tale, and the ballad. _the epic is a narrative poem of elevated character telling generally of the exploits of heroes._ the "iliad" of the greeks, the "Ã�neid" of the romans, the "nibelungen lied" of the germans, "beowulf" of the anglo-saxons, and "paradise lost" are good examples of the epic. _the metrical romance is any fictitious narrative of heroic, marvelous, or supernatural incidents derived from history or legend, and told at considerable length._ "the idylls of the king" are romances. the tale is but little different from the romance. it leaves the field of legend and occupies the place in poetry that a story or a novel does in prose. "marmion" and "enoch arden" are tales. _a ballad is a short narrative poem, generally rehearsing but one incident._ it is usually vigorous in style, and gives but little thought to elegance. "sir patrick spens," "the battle of otterburne," and "chevy chase" are examples. lyric poetry finds its source in the author's feelings and emotions. in this it differs from narrative poems, which find their material in external events and circumstances. epic poetry is written in a grand style, generally in pentameter, or hexameter; while the lyric adopts any verse that suits the emotion. the principal classes of lyric poetry are the song, the ode, the elegy, and the sonnet. _the song is a short poem intended to be sung._ it has great variety of metres and is generally divided into stanzas. "sweet and low," "ye banks and braes o' bonnie doon," "john anderson, my jo, john," are songs. _an ode is a lyric expressing exalted emotion; it usually has a complex and irregular metrical form._ collins's "the passions," wordsworth's "intimations of immortality," and lowell's "commemoration ode," are well known. _an elegy is a serious poem pervaded by a feeling of melancholy._ it is generally written to commemorate the death of some friend. milton's "lycidas" and gray's "elegy in a country churchyard" are examples of this form of lyric. _a sonnet is a lyric that deals with a single thought, idea, or sentiment in a fixed metrical form. the sonnet always contains fourteen lines._ it has, too, a very definite rhyme scheme. some of the best english sonnets have been written by shakespeare, wordsworth, and mrs. browning. dramatic poetry presents a course of human events, and is generally designed to be spoken on the stage. because such poetry presents human character in action, the term "dramatic" has come to be applied to any poetry having this quality. many of browning's poems are dramatic in this sense. in the first sense of the word, dramatic poetry includes tragedy and comedy. _tragedy is a drama in which the diction is dignified, the movement impressive, and the ending unhappy._ _comedy is a drama of a light and amusing character, with a happy conclusion to its plot._ exercises in metres. enough of each poem is given below so that the kind of metre can be determined. always name the verse form and write the verse scheme. some hard work will be necessary to work out the irregular lines, but it is only by work on these that any ability in scanning can be gained. always read a stanza two or three times to get the swing of the rhythm. remember the silences, and the substitutions that may be made. . "i stood on the bridge at midnight as the clocks were striking the hour, and the moon rose over the city, behind the dark church tower. "among the long black rafters the wavering shadows lay, and the current that came from the ocean seemed to lift and bear them away." . "all things are new;--the buds, the leaves, that gild the elm-tree's nodding crest, and even the nest beneath the eaves;-- there are no birds in last year's nest!" . "meanwhile we did our nightly chores,-- brought in the wood from out of doors, littered the stalls, and from the mows raked down the herd's-grass for the cows; heard the horse whinnying for his corn; and, sharply clashing horn on horn, impatient down the stanchion rows the cattle shake their walnut bows; while, peering from his early perch upon the scaffold's pole of birch, the cock his crested helmet bent and down his querulous challenge sent." . "you know, we french stormed ratisbon: a mile or so away, on a little mound, napoleon stood on our storming day; with neck out-thrust, you fancy how, legs wide, arms locked behind, as if to balance the prone brow oppressive with its mind." . "come, read to me some poem, some simple and heartfelt lay, that shall soothe this restless feeling, and banish the thoughts of day. "not from the grand old masters, not from the bards sublime, whose distant footsteps echo through the corridors of time. "for, like strains of martial music, their mighty thoughts suggest life's endless toil and endeavor; and to-night i long for rest. "read from some humbler poet whose songs gushed from his heart, as showers from the clouds of summer, or tears from the eyelids start; "who through long days of labor, and nights devoid of ease, still heard in his soul the music of the wonderful melodies." . "hickory, dickery, dock, the mouse ran up the clock; the clock struck one, and the mouse ran down; hickory, dickery, dock." . "two brothers had the maiden, and she thought, within herself: 'i would i were like them; for then i might go forth alone, to trace the mighty rivers downward to the sea, and upward to the brooks that, through the year, prattle to the cool valleys. i would know what races drink their waters; how their chiefs bear rule, and how men worship there, and how they build, and to what quaint device they frame, where sea and river meet, their stately ships; what flowers are in their gardens, and what trees bear fruit within their orchards; in what garb their bowmen meet on holidays, and how their maidens bind the waist and braid the hair.'" (in this quotation we have blank verse; that is, verse that does not rhyme. it is iambic pentameter,--the most common verse in great english poetry. what poems are you familiar with that use this verse-form?) . "a wet sheet and a flowing sea, a wind that follows fast and fills the rustling sails and bends the gallant mast; and bends the gallant mast, my boys, while like the eagle free away the good ship flies, and leaves old england on the lee. "o for a soft and gentle wind; i heard a fair one cry; but give to me the snoring breeze and white waves heaving high; and white waves heaving high, my lads, the good ship tight and free-- the world of waters is our home, and merry men are we. "there's tempest in yon horned moon, and lightning in yon cloud; but hark the music, mariners! the wind is piping loud; the wind is piping loud, my boys, the lightning flashes free-- while the hollow oak our palace is, our heritage the sea." . "once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, while i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door-- ''t is some visitor,' i muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door-- only this, and nothing more.'" . "somewhat back from the village street stands the old-fashioned country-seat, across its antique portico tall poplar trees their shadows throw; and from its station in the hall an ancient timepiece says to all,-- 'forever--never! never--forever!'" . "listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of paul revere, on the eighteenth of april, in seventy-five; hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year." . "sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea, low, low, breathe and blow, wind of the western sea! over the rolling waters go, come from the dying moon, and blow, blow him again to me; while my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps. "sleep and rest, sleep and rest, father will come to thee soon; rest, rest, on mother's breast, father will come to thee soon; father will come to his babe in the nest-- silver sails all out of the west under the silver moon: sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep." . "see what a lovely shell, small and pure as a pearl, lying close to my foot, frail, but a work divine, made so fairily well with delicate spire and whorl, how exquisitely minute, a miracle of design!" (if the pupils have palgrave's "golden treasury of songs and lyrics," they have a great fund of excellent material illustrating all varieties of metrical variation. there are very few pieces of literature that illustrate so many varieties of metre as wordsworth's "ode on the intimations of immortality.") * * * * * appendix a. suggestions to teachers. the course of study on pages xx-xxvi contemplates five days a week for the study of english. the text which is to be the subject of the term's work should first be studied for a few weeks. after it has been mastered, three days of each week should be given to literature and two to composition. in practice i have found it best to have the study of literature occupy three consecutive days,--for example, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. this arrangement leaves monday and friday for composition. friday is used for the study of the text-book and for general criticism and suggestion. on monday the compositions should be written in the classroom. to have them so written is, at least during the first year, distinctly better. the first draft of the composition should be brought to class ready for amendment and copying. during the writing the teacher should be among the pupils offering assistance, and insisting upon good penmanship. care at the beginning will form a habit of neatness, and keep the penmanship up to a high standard. the arrangement suggested is only one plan. this works well. many others may be adopted. but no plan should be accepted which makes the number of essays fewer than one a week; nor should the number of days given to literature be smaller than three a week. during the second year, if the instructor thinks it can be done without loss, the compositions may be written outside of school hours and brought to class on a definite day. a pupil should not be allowed to put off the writing of a composition any more than a lesson in geometry. on monday of each week a composition should be handed in; irregularity only makes the work displeasing and leads to shirking. writing out of school gives more time for criticism and study of composition, and during the second year this extra time is much needed. by the third year the pupils certainly can do the work out of school. as the compositions increase in length, more time will be necessary for their preparation. the teacher should, however, know exactly what progress has been made each week; and by individual criticisms and by wise suggestions she should help the pupil to meet the difficulties of his special case. in order that the instructor may have time for individual criticism, she should have two periods each day vacant in which to meet pupils for consultation. to make this clear, suppose that a teacher of english has one hundred pupils in her classes. she should have no more, for one hundred essays a week are enough for any person to correct. if there be six recitation periods daily, place twenty-five pupils in each of four sections for the study of literature, composition, and general criticism. this leaves two periods each day to meet individuals, giving ten pupils for each period. these should come on scheduled days, with the same regularity as for class recitation. the pupil's work should have been handed in on the second day before he comes up for consultation, in order that the teacher may be competent to give criticisms of any value. the inspiration of the first reading cannot be depended upon to suggest any help, nor is there time for such a reading during the recitation. there will be need of class recitation in argument. ten days or two weeks are all that is necessary for text-book work. this should be done before pupils read the "conciliation." in the reading constantly keep before the pupils the methods of the author. every teacher should be able to do what she asks of the pupils. no person would dare to offer herself as a teacher of latin or algebra until she could write all the translations of the one and solve all the problems of the other. yet there are persons who have the audacity to offer their services as teachers of english, when they cannot write a letter correctly, to say nothing of a more formal piece of composition. if an instructor in physics, who had asked his pupils to solve a problem in electricity, should say to each unfortunate person as he handed in his solution, "no, that isn't right; you'll have to try again," without offering any help or suggestion, and should continue this discouraging process until some bright pupil worked it out, or perhaps some one guessed it, we should say that such a person was no instructor at all. we might go so far as to question his intellectual competency. we certainly should think him quite deserving of dismissal. still many teachers of english do nothing more than say, "it isn't right. make it so." if the teacher does not know how to do the thing she asks the pupils to do, she should not be teaching. and even when she can do it, she will often benefit herself and the pupils by actually writing the composition. in this way not only does she gain command of her own powers of expression, but she finds out the difficulties with which the pupils have to contend. every teacher of english composition should be able to do some creditable work in english; and every teacher of english should put this talent into actual use. numerous examples of correct paragraphs, well-made sentences, and apt words have not been included in the text. they have been omitted because they can be found in the literature study. it is better for pupils to find these for themselves. it will put them in the way of reading with the senses always alert for something good; and all good paragraphs and sentences lose something of their beautiful adaptation when torn from the place of their birth and growth. so, too, there are no long lists of errors. one hundred pupils in a term make enough to fill a volume. when a teacher knows that sentences is to be her next subject she should begin three months in advance to get a good collection of specimens. these should be classified so that they may be most usable. by the time the class comes to the study of sentences some new, live material will be on hand for illustration. in the pupils' exercises each week those errors should be singled out and dwelt upon which are the special subject of text-book work. if the pupils are studying coherence in sentence structure, select all violations of this principle in the week's exercises, and by means of them nail that one principle down instead of trying to lay down the whole set of principles given in the chapter on sentences. alongside of this collection of mistakes in coherence of sentences show the pupils the best examples of tight-jointed sentences to be found in the literature they are studying. point out how these sentences have been made to hold together, and how their own shambling creations can be corrected. some teachers will fear the amount of literature required. it may seem large, especially in the first two years. it certainly would be quite impossible to read aloud in class all of this. however, that is not intended. there would be but sorry progress either in the course of study or in the power to analyze literature if the class time were taken up with oral reading of narration and description. the whole of a short story or one or two chapters of a novel are not too much for a lesson. the discussion of the meaning and the method of the author should take up the largest part of the time. then such portions should be read aloud as are especially suited to an exercise in oral reading. in this way the apparently large list will be easily covered within the time. moreover, there is distinct gain in reading much. if only three or four pages be given for a lesson, the study of literature degenerates into a study of words. a study of words is necessary, but it is only a part of the study of literature. such a method of study gives the pupil no sense of values. he does not get out into the wide spaces of the author's thought, but is eternally hedged about by the dwarfing barriers of etymology and grammar. b. the form of a composition. the margin. it is the custom to leave a margin of about an inch at the left side of the page. in this margin the corrections should be written, not in the composition. there should be no margin at the right. the device of writing incomplete lines, or of making each sentence a paragraph, is sometimes adopted by young persons in the hope of deceiving the teacher as to the length of the composition. remember that pages do not count for literature any more than yards of hideous advertising boards count as art. write a full page with a straight-lined margin at the left. indention. to designate the beginning of a new paragraph, it is customary to have the first line begin an inch farther in than the other lines. this indention of the margin and the incomplete line at the end mark the visible limits of the paragraph. the heading. the heading or title of the composition should be written about an inch and a half from the top of the page, and well placed in the middle from left to right. there should be a blank line between the title and the beginning of the composition. some persons prefer, in addition to the title, the name of the writer and the date of writing,--an unnecessary addition, it seems to me. if they are to appear, the name should be at the left and the date at the right, both on one line. the title will be on the next line below. jay phillips. jan. , . the circus-man's story. "there was once an old man whom they called a wizard, and who lived in a great cave by the sea and raised dragons. now when i was a very little boy, i had read a great deal about this old man and felt as if he were quite a friend of mine. i had planned for a long time to pay him a visit, although i had not decided just when i should start. but the day jim white's father brought him that camel, i was crazy to be after my dragon at once. "when bedtime came, i had made all my plans; and scarcely had nurse turned her back when i was on my way. it was really very far, but i traveled so swiftly that i arrived in a remarkably short time at the wizard's house. when i rapped, he opened the door and asked me in. "'i came to see if you had any dragons left,' i told him. 'i should like a very good, gentle dragon,' i added, 'that would not scare nurse; and if it is isn't too much trouble, i should want one that i could ride.'" the indorsement. when the composition is finished, it should be folded but once up and down the middle of the page. the indorsement upon the back is generally written toward the edges of the leaves, not toward the folded edge. i prefer the other way, however; and for this reason. if in a bunch of essays a teacher is searching for a particular one, she generally holds them in the left hand and with the fingers of the right lifts one essay after another. indorsing toward the folded edge insures lifting a whole essay every time; while if the edges of the leaves be toward the right hand, too many or too few may be lifted. the indorsement should contain: first, the name of the writer; second, the term and period of his recitation; third, the title of the essay; and fourth, the date. in describing the class and period, it is well to use a roman numeral for the term, counting two terms in each year, and an arabic numeral to denote the period of his recitation. ||============================= || | || jay phillips. | || | || ii, . | || | || the circus-man's story. | || | || jan. , . | | | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - penmanship. the penmanship should be neat and legible. not all persons can write elegantly; but all can write so that their work can be easily read, and all can make a clean page. scribbling is due to carelessness. a scribbled page points to a scribbling mind; clean-cut handwriting, perhaps not spencerian, but a clear, legible handwriting is not only an indication of clear-cut thinking but a means and promoter of accurate thought. moreover, as a business proposition, one cannot afford to become a slovenly penman. every composition should be a lesson in penmanship, and by so much improve one's chances in the business world. and last, the teacher who has to read and correct the compositions of from one hundred to two hundred persons each week demands some consideration. no one but a teacher knows the drudgery of this work; it can be much lightened if each pupil writes so that the composition can be read without difficulty. by doing this, the pupil is sure of better criticism; for the teacher can give all her attention to the composition, none being demanded for the penmanship. c. marks for correction of compositions. in correcting compositions certain abbreviations will save a teacher much time. some of the common ones are given below. underscore the element that needs correcting, and put the abbreviation in the margin. in case the whole paragraph needs remodeling, draw a line at its side and note the correction in the margin. cap. use a capital letter. l. c. use a small letter. d. see the dictionary for the correct use of the word. sp. spelling. gr. a mistake in grammatical use of language. cnst. the construction of the sentence is awkward or unidiomatic. cl. not clear. the remedy may be suggested by reference to certain pages of the text. w. weak. as above, point out the trouble by a page reference. rep. repetition is monotonous; or it may be necessary for clearness. p. punctuation. cond. condense. exp. expand. tr. transpose. ? some fault not designated. it is well to use page reference. ¶ make a new paragraph. no ¶ unite into one paragraph. [greek lower-case delta] cut out. ^ there is something omitted. in addition to the above very common corrections, many others should be made. instead of abbreviations, it will be better to refer the pupil to the page of the book which treats of the special fault. for instance, if there be an unexpected change of construction, underscore it, and write in the margin " ;" on this page is found "parallel construction" of sentences. it may be well to use the letters u., c., and m., in connection with the page numbers to indicate that the fault is in the unity, coherence, or mass of the element to be corrected. the constant reference to the fuller statement of the principles violated will serve to fix them in the mind. d. punctuation. punctuation seeks to do for written composition what inflections and pauses accomplish in vocal expression. it makes clear what kind of an expression the whole sentence is: whether declarative, exclamatory, or interrogative. and it assists in indicating the relations of the different parts within a sentence. while there is practically uniformity in the method of punctuation at the end of a sentence, within a sentence punctuation shows much variety of method. where one person uses a comma, another inserts a semicolon; and where one finds a semicolon sufficient, another requires a colon. it should be remembered that the parts of a sentence have not equal rank; and that the difference in rank should, as far as possible, be indicated by the marks of punctuation. keeping in mind, also, the fact that the internal marks of punctuation,--the colon, the semicolon, and the comma,--have a rank in the order mentioned, from the greatest to the least, a writer will use the stronger marks when the rank of the parts of a sentence demands them, and the weaker marks to separate the lesser elements of the sentence. the sentences below illustrate the variety which may be practiced, and the use of punctuation to show the relation and rank of the elements of a sentence. . internal punctuation is largely a matter of taste but there are definite rules for final punctuation. . internal punctuation is largely a matter of taste; there are, however, definite rules for final punctuation. . internal punctuation, the purpose of which is to group phrases and clauses which belong together and to separate those which do not belong together, and to indicate the relative rank of the parts separated, is, to a great extent, a matter of taste: on the other hand, there are definite rules for final punctuation, the object of which is to separate sentences, and also to assist in telling what kind of a sentence precedes it; that is, whether it be declarative, interrogative, or exclamatory. looking at the first sentence, we find two elements of equal rank separated by a comma. some authors would prefer no punctuation at all in a sentence as short as this. again, if one wished to make the two elements very independent, he would use a semicolon. there would be but little difference in meaning between no punctuation and a comma; but there is a wide difference in meaning between no punctuation and a semicolon. the independence caused by the use of the semicolon is felt in the second sentence, where the words are the same except one. in this sentence a colon might be used; and one might go so far as to make two sentences of it. notice that in these two sentences the question is how independent you wish the elements to be, and it is also a question of taste. in the third sentence, there are elements of different rank. to indicate the rank, punctuation of different value must be introduced. the two independent elements are separated by a colon. a semicolon might be used, if a semicolon were not used within the second independent element. this renders the greater mark necessary. look at the commas in the first independent element. the assertion is that "internal punctuation is a matter of taste." this is too sweeping. it is modified by an explanatory phrase, "to a large extent;" and this phrase is inclosed by commas. moreover, the long clause indicating the purpose of internal punctuation is inclosed by commas. the use of a semicolon in the second part falls under the third rule for the semicolon. if one should substitute for this semicolon a comma and a dash, he could use a semicolon instead of a colon for separating the two main divisions of the sentence. however, the method in which they are first punctuated is in accord with the rules generally accepted. the simplest of these rules are given below but one must never be surprised to find a piece of literature in which the internal punctuation is at variance with these rules. capital letters. . a capital letter begins every new sentence. . a capital letter begins every line of poetry. . all names of deity begin with a capital letter. . all proper names begin with capital letters. . all adjectives derived from proper nouns begin with capital letters. . the first word of every direct quotation begins with a capital letter. . most abbreviations use capital letters. commas. . a series of words or a series of phrases, performing similar functions in a sentence, are separated from each other by commas, unless all the connectives are expressed. "her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low,--an excellent thing in woman." "good my lord, you have begot me, bred me, loved me: i return those duties back as are right fit, obey you, love you, and most honor you." but, "shining and tall and fair and straight," because all the connectives are expressed. . words out of their natural order are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. "to the unlearned, punctuation is a matter of chance." . words and phrases, either explanatory or slightly parenthetical, are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. "then poor cordelia! and yet not so; since, i am sure, my love 's more richer than my tongue." however when phrases and clauses are quite parenthetic, they are separated from the remainder of the sentence by parentheses, or by commas and dashes. the comma and dash is more common, and generally indicates a lesser independence of the inclosed element. "then miss gunns smiled stiffly, and thought what a pity it was that these rich country people, who could afford to buy such good clothes (really miss nancy's lace and silk were very costly), should be brought up in utter ignorance and vulgarity." . the nominative of direct address, and phrases in the nominative absolute construction are cut off by commas. "goneril, our eldest born, speak first." "the ridges being taken, the troops advanced a thousand yards." . appositive words and phrases are separated from the remainder of the sentence by commas. "in the early years of this century, such a linen weaver, named silas marner, worked at his vocation, in a stone cottage that stood among the nutty hedgerows near the village of raveloe, and not far from the edge of a deserted stone-pit." . when words are omitted, the omission is indicated by the use of a comma. "fairest cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despis'd!" . a comma is used before a short and informal quotation. "in the bitterness of his wounded spirit, he said to himself, '_she_ will cast me off too.'" . a comma is used to separate the independent clauses of a compound sentence sufficiently involved to necessitate some mark of punctuation, and yet not involved enough to require marks of different ranks. "but about the christmas of the fifteenth year a second great change came over marner's life, and his history became blent in a singular manner with the life of his neighbors." . small groups of more closely related words are inclosed by commas to indicate their near relation and to separate them from words they might otherwise be thought to modify. "in this strange world, made a hopeless riddle to him, he might, if he had had a less intense nature, have sat weaving, weaving--looking towards the end of his pattern, or towards the end of his web, till he forgot the riddle, and everything else but his immediate sensations; but the money had come to mark off his weaving into periods, and the money not only grew, but it remained with him." semicolons. . a semicolon is used to separate the parts of a compound sentence if they are involved, or contain commas. it is also used to give independence to the members of a compound sentence when not very complex. "the meadow was searched in vain; and he got over the stile into the next field, looking with dying hope towards a small pond which was now reduced to its summer shallowness, so as to leave a wide margin of good adhesive mud." "as for the child, he would see that it was cared for; he would never forsake it; he would do everything but own it." . semicolons are used to separate a series of clauses in much the same way as commas are used to separate a series of words. "i love you more than words can wield the matter; dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty; beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; no less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; as much as child e'er loved, or father found; a love that makes breath poor, and speech unable; beyond all manner of so much i love thee." . a semicolon is generally used to introduce a clause of repetition, a clause stating the obverse, and a clause stating an inference. (many examples of the last two rules will be found in the discussion of compound sentences on pages , .) colons. . a colon is used to introduce a formal quotation. it is frequently followed by a dash. "under date of november , , she wrote to a friend:-- "'i am engaged now in writing a story--the idea of which came to me after our arrival in this house, and which has thrust itself between me and the other book i was meditating. it is silas manner, the weaver of raveloe.'" "on the last day of the same year she wrote: 'i am writing a story which came across my other plans by a sudden inspiration, etc.'" . a colon is used to introduce a series of particulars, either appositional or explanatory, which the reader has been led to expect by the first clause of the sentence. these particulars are separated from each other by semicolons. "the study of the principles of composition should include the following subjects: a study of words as to their origin and meaning; a study of the structure of the sentence and of the larger elements of discourse--in other words, of concrete logic; a study of the principles of effective literary composition, as illustrated in the various divisions of literature; and also a study of the æsthetics of literature." "what john morley once said of literature as a whole is even more accurate when applied to fiction alone: its purpose is 'to bring sunshine into our hearts and to drive moonshine out of our heads.'" . a colon is used to separate the major parts of a very complex and involved sentence, if the major parts, or either of them, contain within themselves semicolons. "for four years he had thought of nancy lammeter, and wooed her with a tacit patient worship, as the woman who made him think of the future with joy: she would be his wife, and would make home lovely to him, as his father's home had never been; and it would be easy, when she was always near, to shake off those foolish habits that were no pleasures, but only a feverish way of annulling vacancy." . a colon is sometimes used to mark a strong independence in the parts of a compound sentence. "he didn't want to give godfrey that pleasure: he preferred that master godfrey should be vexed." the dash. . a dash is frequently used with a colon to introduce a formal quotation. the quotation then begins a new paragraph. (example under colon.) . a dash is used alone or with a comma to inclose a phrase or clause which is parenthetic or explanatory. "'but as for being ugly, look at me, child, in this silver-colored silk--i told you how it 'ud be--i look as yallow as a daffadil.'" (example under comma.) . a dash is used to denote a sudden turn of the thought. "i've no opinion of the men, miss gunn--i don't know what _you_ have." "'it does make her look funny, though--partly like a short-necked bottle wi' a long quill in it." . a dash is frequently used when the composition should be interrupted to indicate the intensity of the emotion. "no--no--i can't part with it, i can't let it go,' said silas abruptly. 'it's come to me--i've a right to keep it.'" "and my poor fool is hang'd! no, no, no life! why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all? thou'lt come no more, never, never, never, never, never!-- pray you, undo this button:--thank you, sir.-- do you see this? look on her,--look,--her lips,-- look there, look there!"-- . a dash is sometimes used alone before an appositive phrase or clause. "for the first time he determined to try the coal-hole--a small closet near the hearth." period, exclamation point, interrogation mark. . a period closes every declarative sentence. . a period is used after abbreviations. . an exclamation point follows an expression of strong emotion. . an interrogation mark follows a direct question. . an interrogation mark is sometimes used in the body of a sentence, when the writer wishes to make the assertion forceful and uses a rhetorical question for the purpose. "the shepherd's dog barked fiercely when one of these alien-looking men appeared on the upland, dark against the early winter sunset; for what dog likes a figure bent under a heavy bag?--and these pale men rarely stirred abroad without that mysterious burden." . quotation marks inclose every quotation of the exact words of another. when one quotation is made within another, the inner or secondary quotation is inclosed with single marks, the main or outer quotation is included within the double marks. (examples of both may be found above.) suggestions for teaching punctuation. at the time the pupils are studying the rules for punctuation they are reading hawthorne or some other author equally careful of his punctuation. in his writing they will find numerous examples of the rules for punctuation. let them take five rules for the comma, finding all the examples in five pages of text. in the same way furnish semicolons, colons, and dashes. when the rules have all been learned, they should be able to give the reason for every mark they find in literature. next place upon the board paragraphs not punctuated, and have the pupils punctuate them. remember that there is not absolute uniformity in the use of the comma, semicolon, and colon; though in each author there is a general adherence to the principles he adopts. punctuation should be consistent. insist that the pupil punctuate his written work consistently. e. supplementary list of literature.[ ] hawthorne . . . . . . . a wonder-book for girls and boys. tennyson. . . . . . . . enoch arden. longfellow. . . . . . . tales of a wayside inn. whittier. . . . . . . . the tent on the beach. macaulay. . . . . . . . lays of ancient rome. dickens . . . . . . . . a christmas carol. kipling . . . . . . . . wee willie winkie, and other stories. kipling . . . . . . . . the jungle books. hawthorne . . . . . . . twice-told tales. hawthorne . . . . . . . mosses from an old manse. dickens . . . . . . . . the cricket on the hearth. brown . . . . . . . . . rab and his friends. ouida . . . . . . . . . a dog of flanders. hale. . . . . . . . . . the man without a country. defoe . . . . . . . . . robinson crusoe. poe . . . . . . . . . . the gold-bug. scott . . . . . . . . . marmion. scott . . . . . . . . . the lady of the lake. browning. . . . . . . . hervé riel, an incident of the french camp, and other narrative poems. franklin. . . . . . . . autobiography. cooper. . . . . . . . . the last of the mohicans. longfellow. . . . . . . evangeline. longfellow. . . . . . . miles standish. davis . . . . . . . . . gallegher, and other stories. maupassant. . . . . . . number thirteen. miss wilkins. . . . . . short stories. miss jewett . . . . . . short stories. pope. . . . . . . . . . the iliad. aldrich . . . . . . . . marjorie daw. lowell. . . . . . . . . the vision of sir launfal, and other poems. irving. . . . . . . . . tales of a traveller. irving. . . . . . . . . the sketch book. poe . . . . . . . . . . the fall of the house of usher. whittier. . . . . . . . snow-bound. burroughs . . . . . . . sharp eyes; birds and bees; pepacton. goldsmith . . . . . . . the deserted village. scott . . . . . . . . . ivanhoe. dickens . . . . . . . . david copperfield. shakespeare . . . . . . julius cæsar. shakespeare . . . . . . the merchant of venice. irving. . . . . . . . . rip van winkle. irving. . . . . . . . . the legend of sleepy hollow. bryant. . . . . . . . . selected poems. gray. . . . . . . . . . an elegy in a country churchyard. tennyson. . . . . . . . the princess; idylls of the king. dickens . . . . . . . . the pickwick papers. burns . . . . . . . . . selected poems. dryden. . . . . . . . . alexander's feast. byron . . . . . . . . . childe harold. george eliot. . . . . . silas marner. coleridge . . . . . . . the rime of the ancient mariner. macaulay. . . . . . . . essay on milton. ruskin. . . . . . . . . sesame and lilies. emerson . . . . . . . . friendship; self-reliance; fortune of the republic; the american scholar. arnold. . . . . . . . . on the study of poetry; wordsworth and keats. lowell. . . . . . . . . emerson, the lecturer; milton; books and libraries. holmes. . . . . . . . . the autocrat of the breakfast-table. addison . . . . . . . . the sir roger de coverley papers. wordsworth. . . . . . . intimations of immortality, and other poems. keats . . . . . . . . . selected poems. shelley . . . . . . . . selected poems. shakespeare . . . . . . macbeth. shakespeare . . . . . . a midsummer night's dream. shakespeare . . . . . . as you like it. webster . . . . . . . . bunker hill monument oration; adams and jefferson. goldsmith . . . . . . . the vicar of wakefield. milton. . . . . . . . . l'allegro; il penseroso; comus; lycidas. de quincey. . . . . . . confessions of an english opium eater, and other papers. john henry newman . . . selected essays. thackeray . . . . . . . henry esmond. stevenson . . . . . . . virginibus puerisque. stevenson . . . . . . . memories and portraits. schurz. . . . . . . . . abraham lincoln. george william curtis . selected addresses. charles lamb. . . . . . essays of elia. stevenson . . . . . . . travels with a donkey. stevenson . . . . . . . an inland voyage. burke . . . . . . . . . conciliation with the colonies. lincoln . . . . . . . . cooper union address; gettysburg speech. chaucer . . . . . . . . prologue, and two canterbury tales. milton. . . . . . . . . paradise lost, and sonnets. carlyle . . . . . . . . essay on burns. tennyson. . . . . . . . in memoriam, and lyrics. browning. . . . . . . . rabbi ben ezra; saul; a grammarian's funeral. thoreau . . . . . . . . walden. austen. . . . . . . . . pride and prejudice. george eliot. . . . . . romola. shakespeare . . . . . . king lear. shakespeare . . . . . . hamlet. macaulay. . . . . . . . essay on johnson. thackeray . . . . . . . vanity fair. lowell. . . . . . . . . democracy; lincoln. stevenson . . . . . . . lantern bearers; a humble remonstrance; gossip about romance. * * * * * index abstract vs. concrete, , . "adams and jefferson," webster's, quotation from, . adjectives, . "alice in wonderland," a story without facts, . allegory, . allusion, . amphibrach, . analogy, use of, . anapest, defined, ; interchangeable with iambus, . "and," use of, . andersen, hans christian, his "tannenbaum," . anecdotes in exposition, . "annabel lee," quotations from, , , . anti-climax, . antithesis, . "apologia," newman's, quotation from, . apostrophe, . argument, , - ; from cause, ; sign, - ; example, . arnold, matthew, quotation from, ; quotation to illustrate repetition, ; to illustrate sentence structure, . arrangement, in narration, - ; description, , ; exposition, - ; argument, - ; sentence, , . association of ideas, . "autumn effect, an," quotation from, . "baa, baa, black sheep," its purpose, ; beginning, ; length of sentences in, ; time for the action, . balanced sentences, , . ballad, defined, . "barbara frietchie," a narrative poem, . bates, arlo, quoted, . beauty, gained by use of figurative language, . beginning of a story, . bellamy, edward, his "looking backward," . "biglow papers," quotation from, . "birthmark," hawthorne's, . blake, william, "tiger, tiger," quoted, , . "bonnie brier bush, beside the," . bookish words, . "break, break, break," quotation from, . "bridge of sighs, the," quotation from, . brief in argument, , . browning, robert, vivid narration of, . "burial of sir john moore, the," quotation from, . burke, edmund, quotation from his speech on "conciliation with the colonies," ; that speech analyzed, - ; quotations to illustrate paragraph structure, , , , ; quotations to show sentence structure, , , , . burroughs, john, his knowledge of his field, ; quotations from, , . "but," use of, . capital letters, . cause and effect, - . characters, number of, . chaucer, geoffrey, quotation from, . choice of subject, - . choice of words, - , - . "cinderella," . clearness and coherence, - , , . clearness gained by use of figurative language, . climax, - , , ; defined, . coherence, ; in narration, , ; in description, , ; in exposition, - ; in paragraphs, - ; in sentences, , . colons, , . comedy, . commas, , . comparisons, use of, , ; paragraph of, ; confusion of, . composition, ; oral and written, ; conventions of, . "conciliation with the colonies," burke's speech on, quoted, , , , , , , ; analyzed, - . conclusion of a story, . concrete facts, use of, , . conjunctions, use of, , . connectives in sentences, , . consistency, . cooke, josiah p., his essay on "fire," . "copyright," quotations from macaulay's speech on, , . correction, marks for, . curtis, george william, quoted, . dactyl, defined, ; interchangeable with trochee, . "daisy, the," wordsworth's quotation from, . "darkness and dawn," . dash, , . "david copperfield," description quoted from, . "david harum," its construction criticised, . davis, richard harding, small number of characters in his books, ; simple plot in his "gallegher," . deduction, . definition, a, - . description, , - ; an aid to narration, ; and exposition, . description and painting, . details, in narration, - ; paragraph of, . dickens, charles, his "nicholas nickleby" as an exposition, ; description from his "david copperfield" quoted, ; quotations from mr. micawber's conversation, . dictionary, use of, . differentia, , . digression, . dimeter, . discourse, forms of, - . "discussions and arguments," newman's, quotation from, . dramatic poetry, . dynamic point of sentence, . elegy, the, . eliot, george, her "silas marner," ; quotation from, - . emerson, ralph waldo, primarily an essayist, . emotional statement, . emphasis, how secured, - , , , - . end of a paragraph, - ; of a sentence, - . "english composition," wendell's, quotation from, . enthymeme, . enumeration _vs._ suggestion, . enumerative description, . epic, the, . epithet, . "evangeline," quotation from, , . events, order of, , . everett, edward, description from, quoted, . examples, paragraph of, . exclamation, . exclamation point, . exclusion of details, , , . exposition, , - ; and description, . facts in stories, . "faerie queene, the," quotation from, . "fall of the house of usher, the," descriptions in, ; quotation from, , . familiar images, . farrar, canon, as a writer of sermons, . "feathertop," . figurative language, ; value of, . figures of speech, , , - . fine writing, . "first snow-fall, the," quotation from, . fiske, john, his "history of the united states," . foot, a, in poetry, ; one kind may be substituted for another, - ; first and last foot of a verse may be irregular, , . force, gained by use of figurative language, . foreign words, . francis i. quoted, . "function of criticism at the present time," arnold's, quotation from, . "gallegher," simple plot of, . general terms, , - . genung, j. f., on paragraph structure, . genus and differentia, , . "gold bug," length of sentences in, . good usage, , , - . grant, u. s., his "memoirs" have no plot, . hackneyed phrases, . haggard, rider, . hawthorne, nathaniel, a story writer, ; his "feathertop," ; his descriptions in "the marble faun," ; quoted, ; quotations from, about "the old manse," , ; descriptions from his "house of the seven gables" quoted, ; from "the old apple dealer," . heading of essay, . heptameter, . "hervé riel" as a piece of narrative, . hexameter, . "hiawatha," quotation from, . "historical sketches," newman's, quotation from, - . hood, thomas, "the bridge of sighs" quoted, . "house of the seven gables," descriptions quoted from, . hugo, victor, his description of waterloo quoted, . huxley, thomas, example of his use of comparison, ; quotation from, to illustrate paragraph structure, . hyperbole, . iambus, defined, ; the common foot of english verse, , ; interchangeable with anapest, . "idea of a university," quotations from, , , , , , . illustrations, their value, . "impressions de théâtre," quotation from, . "incident of a french camp, an," as an example of a short story, . incident, the main, , . incidents, order of, , . inclusion of material, . indention of paragraph, . individual arrangement of paragraph, - . individuality of author, . indorsement of essay, . induction, , . interest, , . interrogation, . interrogation point, . introduction of story, . inversion, . irony, . irrelevant matter, , . irving, washington, as a story writer in the third person, ; description from, quoted, ; short characterization quoted, ; description of a coachman quoted, ; quotations to illustrate paragraph structure, , ; to illustrate sentence construction, , , , , . jonson, ben, quotation from, . "jungle books," ; quotation from, . "kidnapped," quotations from, , ; its unity, . "king lear," its plot, ; quotation from, . kingsley, charles, "the three fishers" quoted, . kipling, rudyard, his "baa, baa, black sheep," ; his "jungle books," ; his use of climax, ; as a story-teller, , ; small number of characters in his stories, ; quotation from his "light that failed," ; description quoted from his "jungle books," ; quotation to illustrate sentence construction, ; his "l'envoi" quoted, . "lady of the lake, the," quotation from, . language _vs._ painting, - . lanier, sidney, "the science of english verse," cited, ; quoted, . latin words, - . le gallienne, richard, his essay on pigs, ; quoted, . "legend of sleepy hollow, the," , ; description in, ; quotation from to show paragraph structure, , ; to show sentence structure, , . lemaître, jules, criticism of zola quoted, . length, of a description, , ; of a paragraph, - ; of a sentence, , , , . "l'envoi" to "the seven seas," quoted, . "les misérables," its intricate plot, ; quotation from, . "light that failed, the," quotation from, . "little dorrit," large number of characters in, . "little red riding hood," . logical definition, . "london bridge," quotation from, . longfellow, henry wadsworth, "hiawatha" quoted, ; "evangeline" quoted, , ; "the village blacksmith" quoted, , . "looking backward," as a novel with a purpose, . loose sentences, , , . lovelace, richard, quoted, . lowell, james russell, his "sir launfal," ; quotation from "biglow papers," ; from a "song," ; from "to w. l. garrison," ; from "the first snow-fall," . lyric poetry, . lytton, lord, quotation from, . macaulay, lord, quotation on milton from, ; quotation to illustrate comparison, ; his essay on "milton" analyzed, ; last sentence of that essay quoted, ; that essay as an example of proportion in treatment, ; his denunciation of charles i. quoted, ; further quotations from his "milton," ; his speeches on "copyright" and the "reform bill" quoted, , , ; quotations from the "milton" to illustrate paragraph structure, , , , , , . "macbeth," . maclaren, ian, . main incident, - . major term, . "marble faun, the," description in, . margin of composition, . "marmion," , ; quoted, . mass, ; in description, - ; in exposition, - ; in paragraphs, - ; in sentences, - . masson, david, . maupassant, guy de, quotation from his "pierre et jean," ; from his "odd number," . meredith, george, quotation from, to illustrate paragraph structure, ; sentence structure, . metaphor, , . metonymy, , . metre, kinds of, - ; variations in, . metrical romance, the, . middle term, . "milton," macaulay's essay on, quotations from, , , , , , , , - , , ; analyzed, . milton, john, quotations from, , , . minor term, . monometer, . mood in description, - , - . "mosses from an old manse," quotation from, . movement of story, , . narration, , - . narrative poetry, . national usage, . "new testament," quotation from, . newman, cardinal, quotation from, about athens, ; quotation on theology, ; quotation to illustrate the use of specific instances in exposition, ; to illustrate paragraph structure, , , , ; to show sentence construction, , ; to show use of words, . "nicholas nickleby," as an exposition of school abuses, . nouns, . number of characters, . observation, its value, . obverse statement, , ; paragraph of, - . octameter, . "odd number, the," quotation from, . ode, defined, . "oenone," quotation from, . "old apple dealer, the," quotation from, . omniscience of an author, . order of events in stories, ; of words in sentences, - . outline, use of, , , , , , . palmer, professor g. h., quotations from, on composition writing, , . "paradise lost," quotations from, , , . paragraphs, - . parallel construction, - , , . particulars in exposition, ; paragraph of, . penmanship, . pentameter, . "pepacton," ; quotations from, , . period, . periodic sentences, - . personification, , . persuasion, . philippians iv. , . "physical basis of life," huxley's, quotations from, , . "pierre et jean," quotation from, . "pilgrim's progress," . place of a story, . plot, - , . poe, edgar allan, his sentences, ; his use of description in "the fall of the house of usher," ; quotations from that work, , ; "annabel lee" quoted, , , . poetic feet, . poetical words, . poetry, kinds of, - . point of view, - ; change of, ; mental, . position of words in sentences, . "præterita," ruskin's, quotations from, . premises, ; false, . "present position of catholics in england," newman's, quotation from, . present usage of words, , . "prince otto," quotations from, , . "princess, the," quotation from, . pronouns, use of, , . proportion in description, ; in exposition, - , ; in paragraphs, . "prose fancies," . provincialisms, . purpose, of an author, , ; in description, - . quotation marks, . "quo vadis," . rapidity of movement, . "reform bill," quotation from macaulay's speech on, . refutation in argument, . repetition, its value, ; paragraph of, . reputable words, - . "richard feverel," quotations from, , . "richelieu," quotation from, . "robinson crusoe," has little plot, . royce, josiah, quotation from, . ruskin, john, ; quotation to illustrate building up a paragraph, ; his "sesame and lilies," . saxon words, - . scale of treatment, - . scansion, - ; requisites for scanning, , . "science of english verse, the," quotation from, . scott, sir walter, as a story-teller in the third person, ; his dull introductory chapters, ; "the lady of the lake" quoted, ; "marmion" quoted, . selection of material in narration, - ; in description, - ; in exposition, - ; in argument, . "self-cultivation in english," quotation from, , . semicolons, , , , . sentences, - ; simple and compound, , ; long or short, , . sequence of events, , . serial arrangement of paragraph, - . "sesame and lilies," . sienkiewicz, henry, his "quo vadis," . "silas marner," written for a purpose, ; example of a plot, ; time consumed in the story, ; quotation to show paragraph length, - . simile, , . sing-song, natural tendency toward, , . slang, . slowness of movement, . "snow-bound," narrative or descriptive?, . song defined, . sonnet defined, . specific words, - . spencer, herbert, on the philosophy of the periodic sentence, . spenser, edmund, "the faerie queene" quoted, . "spirit of modern philosophy," royce's, quotation from, . spondee, . stanza, . stedman, e. c., an authority on literature, . stevenson, robert louis, his "treasure island" and "travels with a donkey" as narratives, ; quotation from "kidnapped," ; his "an autumn effect" quoted, ; unity in his stories, ; descriptions from, quoted, , ; examples of personification from, ; his unusual use of words, ; quotation to show paragraph structure, . subdual of subordinate parts, . subject, - ; common, ; interesting, ; in exposition, , . suggestion _vs._ enumeration, . suggestions to teachers, - . suggestive description, . summary, a, . superlatives, . syllogism, - . synecdoche, , . "tannenbaum," . technical words, . tennyson, lord, quotations from, , , . terms of syllogism, , . testimony, . tetrameter, . thackeray, w. m., quotation from, . theme in exposition, , . "three fishers, the," quotation from, . "tiger, tiger," quotation from, . time of story, . title in exposition, . "to w. l. garrison," quotation from, . topic-sentence, ; its position, - . tragedy, . transitions, , . "travels with a donkey," narrative or descriptive? ; absence of plot, ; quotations from, , , . "treasure island," a narrative, ; plot simple, . trimeter, . trochee, defined, ; interchangeable with dactyl, . type-form of paragraph, . "ugly duckling, the," . undistributed middle, . unity, ; in narration, , ; in description, - ; in exposition, , ; in argument, ; in paragraphs, ; in sentences, . "uses of astronomy, the," quotation from, . value of observation, . "vanity fair," example of a plot, ; quotation from, . variations in metre, - . verbs in description, . verne, jules, . verse, a, definition of, ; how named, . verse forms, - . "village blacksmith, the," quotation from, , . "vision of sir launfal, the," ; quotation from, . vocabulary, need of, . vulgarisms, . "wake robin," . webster, daniel, quotation from, to illustrate paragraph structure, ; his use of words, . "wee willie winkie," its climax, . wendell, barrett, quotation on printed words from, . whittier, john g., his "barbara frietchie" and "snow-bound" as narratives, . wilkins, miss, small number of characters in her books, . wolfe, charles, "the burial of sir john moore" quoted, . words, - ; choice of, , , , - ; reputable, , ; national, ; in present use, , ; latin and saxon, - ; general and specific, - . "wordsworth," arnold's essay on, quotations from, , ; "the daisy" quoted, . * * * * * footnotes . see pp. , , of the report of committee on college entrance requirements. . see the first essay in _prose fancies._ . unless otherwise stated, all page references are to the riverside literature series. . _biglow papers,_ no. x. . tennyson's _oenone._ . _historical sketches,_ by cardinal newman. . _pierre et jean,_ by maupassant. quoted from bates's _talks on writing english._ . _impressions de théâtre,_ by jules lemaître. . _the marble faun,_ by nathaniel hawthorne. . _travels with a donkey,_ by r. l. stevenson. . _les misérables,_ by victor hugo. . _the stage coach,_ in irving's _sketch book._ . _the jungle book,_ by rudyard kipling. . _to w. l. garrison,_ by j. r. lowell. . _idea of a university,_ by cardinal newman. . _essay on milton,_ by lord macaulay. . _discussions and arguments._ . _essay on milton._ . _the physical basis of life,_ by t. h. huxley. . _self-cultivation in english,_ by professor g. h. palmer. . speech on _conciliation with the colonies,_ by burke. . a text-book on logic, such as jevons's, should be used to illustrate the kinds of argument more fully. . _silas marner,_ by george eliot. . _the odd number,_ by guy de maupassant. . _vanity fair,_ by w. m. thackeray. . _idyl of the honey-bee,_ from burroughs's _pepacton._ . _essay on wordsworth,_ by matthew arnold. . speech on _copyright,_ by lord macaulay. . _idyl of the honey-bee,_ from burroughs's _pepacton._ . _the physical basis of life,_ by t. h. huxley. . see scott and denney's _composition-rhetoric._ . _legend of sleepy hollow,_ by w. irving. . _essay on milton,_ by lord macaulay. . _kidnapped,_ by r. l. stevenson. . _præterita,_ by john ruskin. . speech on _conciliation with the colonies,_ by burke. . barrett wendell's _english composition._ . oration on _adams and jefferson,_ by daniel webster. . _present position of catholics in england,_ by cardinal newman. . speech on _conciliation with the colonies,_ by burke. . speech on the _reform bill of ,_ by lord macaulay. . _idea of a university,_ by cardinal newman. . _legend of sleepy hollow,_ by w. irving. . _idea of a university,_ by cardinal newman. . _idea of a university,_ by cardinal newman. . _speech on conciliation with the colonies,_ by burke. . _legend of sleepy hollow,_ by w. irving. . _function of criticism at the present time,_ by matthew arnold. . _speech on conciliation with the colonies,_ by burke. . _the spirit of modern philosophy,_ by josiah royce. . see lowell's _biglow papers,_ introduction to second series. . _idea of a university,_ by cardinal newman. . from _the princess: a medley,_ part iv. . from _the seven seas,_ published by d. appleton & co., new york. copyright, , by rudyard kipling. . in any piece of literature there are many figures. the following should be used only to make pupils familiar with varieties of figures. they will find many more in the literature they read. . the treatment of this subject is based upon lanier's _the science of english verse._ . see p. xix. transcriber's notes: welcome to the schoolroom of . the moral tone is plain. "she is kind to the old blind man." the exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some contemporary alternatives. much is left to the teacher. explanations given in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. counting in roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson numbers. there is no text version because much of the material uses specialized characters that have no asci equivalent. wherever possible the "asci" text has been converted. the "non-asci" text remains as images. the "non-asci" text is approximated in text boxes to right of the image, as are script images. the form of contractions includes a space. the contemporary word "don't" was rendered as "do n't". the author, not listed in the text is william holmes mcguffey. don kostuc eclectic educational series. mcguffey's(r) third eclectic reader. revised edition. mcguffey editions and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons, inc. new york--chichester--weinheim--brisbane--singapore--toronto the long continued popularity of mcguffey's readers is sufficient evidence of the positive merits of the books. the aim of this revision has been to preserve unimpaired the distinctive features of the series, and at the same time to present the matter in a new dress, with new type, new illustrations, and with a considerable amount of new matter. spelling exercises are continued through the first half of the third reader. these exercises, with those furnished in the two lower books, are exhaustive of the words employed in the reading lessons. words are not repeated in the vocabularies. in the latter half of the book, definitions are introduced. it is hoped that the teacher will extend this defining exercise to all the words of the lesson liable to be misunderstood. the child should define the word in his own language sufficiently to show that he has a mastery of the word in its use. drills in articulation and emphasis should be given with every lesson. the essentials of good reading are not to be taught by one or two lessons. constant drill on good exercises, with frequent exhibitions of the correct method from the teacher, will be found more effectual than any form prescribed in type. if the pupils are not familiar with the diacritical marks, they should be carefully taught; such instruction constitutes an excellent drill on articulation, and enables the pupils to use the dictionary with intelligence. copyright, , by van antwerp, bragg & co. copyright, , by american book company. copyright, and , by h. h. vail. (ii) mg rev. ep contents introductory matter page. articulation emphasis punctuation selections in prose and poetry. lesson . the shepherd boy . johnny's first snowstorm . let it rain . castle-building . castle-building . lend a hand (script) . the truant . the white kitten . the beaver . the young teacher . the blacksmith . a walk in the garden . the wolf . the little bird's song . harry and annie . bird friends . what the minutes say . the widow and the merchant . the birds set free . a moment too late . humming birds . the wind and the sun . sunset (script) . beautiful hands . things to remember . three little mice z . the new year . the clock and the sundial . remember (iii) iv contents. lesson page. . courage and cowardice . weighing an elephant . the soldier . the echo . george's feast . the lord's prayer an evening: prayer (script.) . finding the owner . bats . a summer day . i will think of it . charlie and rob . ray and his kite . beware of the first drink . speak gently . the seven sticks . the mountain sister . harry and the guidepost . the money amy didn't earn . who made the stars? . deeds of kindness . the alarm clock . spring . true courage . the old clock . the waves . don't kill the birds . when to say no . which loved best? . john carpenter . persevere . the contented boy . little gustava . the insolent boy . we are seven . mary's dime . mary dow . the little loaf . susie and rover . the violet. . no crown for me . young soldiers . how willie got out of the shaft . the pert chicken . indian corn . the snowbird's song . mountains . a child's hymn . holding the fort . the little people . good night introduction. articulation. a distinct articulation can only be gained by constant and careful practice of the elementary sounds. whenever a word is imperfectly enunciated, the teacher should call attention to the sounds composing the spoken word. if the pupil fails to sound any element correctly, as in the case of lisping, the fault can be overcome by calling attention to the correct position of the organs of speech, and insisting upon exact execution. except in case of malformation of these organs, every pupil should sound each element correctly before such drill should cease. table of vocals. long sounds. eclectic series, short sounds. diphthongs. table of subvocals. table of aspirates. third reader. note.-the above forty-five sounds are those most employed in the english language. some of these sounds are represented by other letters, as shown in the following table. table of substitutes. exercises in articulation. the following exercises may be used for drill after the tables are fully understood. pronounce the word first; then, the sound indicated. eclectic series. exercise i. third reader. eclectic series. emphasis. note.--if the pupil has received proper oral instruction, he has been taught to understand what he has read, and has already acquired the habit of emphasizing words. he is now prepared for a more formal introduction to the subject of emphasis, and for more particular attention to its first principles. this lesson, and the examples given, should be repeatedly practiced. in reading and in talking, we always speak some words with more force than others. we do this, because the meaning of what we say depends most upon these words. if i wish to know whether it is george or his brother who is sick, i speak the words george and brother with more force than the other words. i say, is it george or his brother who is sick? this greater force with which we speak the words is called emphasis. the words upon which emphasis is put, are sometimes printed in slanting letters, called italics,* and sometimes in capitals. the words printed in italics in the following questions and answers, should be read with more force than the other words, that is, with emphasis. did you ride to town yesterday? no, my brother, did. did yon ride to town yesterday? no, i walked. * italics are also used for other purposes, though most frequently for emphasis. third reader. did you ride to town yesterday? no, i went into the country. did you ride to town yesterday? no, i went the day before. have you seen james or john lately? i have seen james, but not john. did you say there were four eggs in the nest, or three? there were only three eggs, not four. were the eggs white or blue? the eggs were white, not blue. had the boy a hat on his head, or a cap? he had a cap on, not a hat. punctuation. punctuation should be thoroughly studied by the pupil, in order that he may become perfectly familiar with the marks and pauses found in the reading lessons of this volume. marks and pauses. these marks are used to point off written or printed matter into sentences and parts of sentences, and thus to assist the reader in obtaining the meaning of the writer. they seldom indicate the length of the pause to be made; this must be determined by the sense. a hyphen (-) is used between syllables in a word divided at the end of a line; as, "be-cause," "ques-tion," and between the parts of a compound word; as, rocking-chair, good-by. eclectic series. the comma (,), semicolon (;), and colon (:) mark grammatical divisions in a sentence; as, god is good; for he gives us all things. be wise to-day, my child: 't is madness to defer. a period (.) is placed at the end of a sentence; as, god is love. life is short. or is used after an abbreviation; as, dr. murphy. jan. , . an interrogation point (?) denotes a question; as, has he come? who are you? an exclamation point (!) denotes strong feeling; as, o absalom! my son! my son! the dash (--) is used where there is a sudden break or pause in a sentence; as, the truth has power--such is god's will--to make us better. quotation marks (" ") denote the words of another; as, god said, "let there be light." an apostrophe (') denotes that a letter or letters are left out; as, o'er, for over; 't is, for it is. and is also used to show ownership; as, the man's hat. helen's book. mcguffey's third reader. lesson i. the shepherd boy. . little roy led his sheep down to pasture, and his cows, by the side of the brook; ( ) eclectic series. but his cows never drank any water, and his sheep never needed a crook. . for the pasture was gay as a garden, and it glowed with a flowery red; but the meadows had never a grass blade, and the brooklet--it slept in its bed: . and it lay without sparkle or murmur, nor reflected the blue of the skies; but the music was made by the shepherd, and the sparkle was all in his eyes. . oh, he sang like a bird in the summer! and, if sometimes you fancied a bleat, that, too, was the voice of the shepherd, and not of the lambs at his feet. . and the glossy brown cows were so gentle that they moved at the touch of his hand o'er the wonderful, rosy-red meadow, and they stood at the word of command. . so he led all his sheep to the pasture, and his cows, by the side of the brook; though it rained, yet the rain never pattered o'er the beautiful way that they took. . and it was n't in fairyland either, but a house in the midst of the town, where roy, as he looked from the window, saw the silvery drops trickle down. third reader. . for his pasture was only a table, with its cover so flowery fair, and his brooklet was just a green ribbon, that his sister had lost from her hair. . and his cows were but glossy horse-chestnuts, that had grown on his grandfather's tree; and his sheep only snowy-white pebbles, he had brought from the shore of the sea. . and at length when the shepherd was weary, and had taken his milk and his bread, and his mother had kissed him and tucked him, and had bid him "good night" in his bed; . then there entered his big brother walter, while the shepherd was soundly asleep, and he cut up the cows into baskets, and to jackstones turned all of the sheep. emily s. oakey. lesson ii. johnny's first snowstorm. . johnny reed was a little boy who never had seen a snowstorm till he was six years old. before this, he had lived in a warm country, where the sun shines down on beautiful eclectic series. orange groves, and fields always sweet with flowers. . but now he had come to visit his grandmother, who lived where the snow falls in winter. johnny was standing at the window when the snow came down. . "o mamma!" he cried, joyfully, "do come quick, and see these little white birds flying down from heaven." . "they are not birds, johnny," said mamma, smiling. . "then maybe the little angels are losing their feathers! oh! do tell me what it is; is it sugar? let me taste it," said third reader. johnny. but when he tasted it, he gave a little jump--it was so cold. . "that is only snow, johnny," said his mother. . "what is snow, mother?" . "the snowflakes, johnny, are little drops of water that fall from the clouds. but the air through which they pass is so cold it freezes them, and they come down turned into snow." . as she said this, she brought out an old black hat from the closet. "see, johnny! i have caught a snowflake on this hat. look quick through this glass, and you will see how beautiful it is." . johnny looked through the glass. there lay the pure, feathery snowflake like a lovely little star. . "twinkle, twinkle, little star!" he cried in delight. "oh! please show me more snow-flakes, mother." . so his mother caught several more, and they were all beautiful. . the next day johnny had a fine play in the snow, and when he carne in, he said, "i love snow; and i think snowballs are a great deal prettier than oranges." , eclectic series. lesson iii. let it rain. rose. see how it rains! oh dear, dear, dear! how dull it is! must i stay in doors all day? father. why, rose, are you sorry that you had any bread and butter for breakfast, this morning? rose. why, father, what a question! i should be sorry, indeed, if i could not get any. father. are you sorry, my daughter, when you see the flowers and the trees growing in the garden? rose. sorry? no, indeed. just now, i wished very much to go out and see them,--they look so pretty. father. well, are you sorry when you see the horses, cows, or sheep drinking at the brook to quench their thirst? rose. why, father, you must think i am a cruel girl, to wish that the poor horses that work so hard, the beautiful cows that third reader. give so much nice milk, and the pretty lambs should always be thirsty. father. do you not think they would die, if they had no water to drink? rose. yes, sir, i am sure they would. how shocking to think of such a thing! father. i thought little rose was sorry it rained. do you think the trees and flowers would grow, if they never had any water on them? rose. no, indeed, father, they would be dried up by the sun. then we should not have any pretty flowers to look at, and to make wreaths of for mother. father. i thought you were sorry it rained. rose, what is our bread made of? rose. it is made of flour, and the flour is made from wheat, which is ground in the mill. father. yes, rose, and it was rain that helped to make the wheat grow, and it was water that turned the mill to grind the wheat. i thought little rose was sorry it rained. rose. i did not think of all these things, father. i am truly very glad to see the rain falling. eclectic series. lesson iv. castle-building. . "o pussy!" cried herbert, in a voice of anger and dismay, as the blockhouse he was building fell in sudden ruin. the playful cat had rubbed against his mimic castle, third reader. and tower and wall went rattling down upon the floor. . herbert took up one of the blocks and threw it fiercely at pussy. happily, it passed over her and did no harm. his hand was reaching for another block, when his little sister hetty sprang toward the cat, and caught her up. . "no, no, no!" said she, "you sha'n't hurt pussy! she did n't mean to do it!" . herbert's passion was over quickly, and, sitting down upon the floor, he covered his face with his hands, and began to cry. . "what a baby!" said joe, his elder brother, who was reading on the sofa. "crying over spilled milk does no good. build it up again." . "no, i won't," said herbert, and he went on crying. . "what's all the trouble here?" exclaimed papa, as he opened the door and came in. . "pussy just rubbed against herbert's castle, and it fell down," answered hetty. "but she did n't mean to do it; she did n't know it would fall, did she, papa?" . "why, no! and is that all the trouble?" eclectic series. . "herbert!" his papa called, and held out his hands. "come." the little boy got up from the floor, and came slowly, his eyes full of tears, and stood by his father. . "there is a better way than this, my boy," said papa. "if you had taken that way, your heart would have been light already. i should have heard you singing over your blocks instead of crying. shall i show you that way?" . herbert nodded his head, and papa sat down on the floor by the pile of blocks, with his little son by his side, and began to lay the foundation for a new castle. lesson v. castle-building. (concluded) . soon, herbert was as much interested in castle-building as he had been a little while before. he began to sing over his work. all his trouble was gone. third reader. . "this is a great deal better than crying, is n't it?" said papa. . "crying for what?" asked herbert, forgetting his grief of a few minutes before. . "because pussy knocked your castle over." . "oh!" a shadow flitted across his face, but was gone in a moment, and he went on building as eagerly as ever. . "i told him not to cry over spilled milk," said joe, looking down from his place on the sofa. . "i wonder if you did n't cry when your kite string broke," retorted herbert. . "losing a kite is quite another thing," answered joe, a little dashed. "the kite was gone forever; but your blocks were as good as before, and you had only to build again." . "i do n't see," said papa, "that crying was of any more use in your case then in herbert's. sticks and paper are easily found, and you had only to go to work and make another kite." joe looked down at his book, and went on reading. by this time the castle was finished. . "it is ever so much nicer than the one eclectic series. pussy knocked down," said hetty. and so thought herbert, as he looked at it proudly from all sides. . "if pussy knocks that down, i'll-" . "build it up again," said papa, finishing the sentence for his little boy. . "but, papa, pussy must not knock my castles down. i can't have it," spoke out herbert, knitting his forehead. . "you must watch her, then. little boys, as well as grown up people, have to be often on their guard. if you go into the street, you have to look out for the carriages, so as not to be run over, and you have to keep out of people's way. . "in the house, if you go about heedlessly, you will be very apt to run against some one. i have seen a careless child dash suddenly into a room just as a servant was leaving it with a tray of dishes in her hands. a crash followed." third reader. . "it was i, was n't it?" said hetty. . "yes, i believe it was, and i hope it will never happen again." . papa now left the room, saying, "i do n't want any more of this crying over spilled milk, as joe says. if your castles get knocked down, build them up again." lesson vi. lend a hand. eclectic series. third reader. lesson vii. the truant. . james brown was ten years old when his parents sent him to school. it was not far from his home, and therefore they sent him by himself. . but, instead of going to school, he was in the habit of playing truant. he would go into the fields, or spend his time with idle boys. . but this was not all. when he went home, he would falsely tell his mother that he had been to school, and had said his lessons very well. . one fine morning, his mother told james to make haste home from school, for she wished, after he had come back, to take him to his aunt's. . but, instead of minding her, he went off to the water, where there were some boats. there he met plenty of idle boys. . some of these boys found that james eclectic series, had money, which his aunt had given him; and he was led by them to hire a boat, and to go with them upon the water. . little did james think of the danger into which he was running. soon the wind began to blow, and none of them knew how to manage the boat. . for some time, they struggled against the wind and the tide. at last, they became so tired that they could row no longer. . a large wave upset the boat, and they were all thrown into the water. think of james brown, the truant, at this time! . he was far from home, known by no one. his parents were ignorant of his danger. third reader. he was struggling in the water, on the point of being drowned. . some men, however, saw the boys, and went out to them in a boat. they reached them just in time to save them from a watery grave. . they were taken into a house, where their clothes were dried. after a while, they were sent home to their parents. . james was very sorry for his conduct, and he was never known to be guilty of the same thing again. . he became regular at school, learned to attend to his books, and, above all, to obey his parents perfectly. lesson viii. the white kitten. . my little white kitten's asleep on my knee; as white as the snow or the lilies is she; she wakes up with a pur when i stroke her soft fur: was there ever another white kitten like her? eclectic series. . my little white kitten now wants to go out and frolic, with no one to watch her about; "little kitten," i say, "just an hour you may stay, and be careful in choosing your places to play." . but night has come down, when i hear a loud "mew;" i open the door, and my kitten comes through; my white kitten! ah me! can it really be she-- this ill-looking, beggar-like cat that i see? . what ugly, gray streaks on her side and her back! her nose, once as pink as a rosebud, is black! oh, i very well know, though she does not say so, she has been where white kittens ought never to go. third reader. . if little good children intend to do right, if little white kittens would keep themselves white, it is needful that they should this counsel obey, and be careful in choosing their places to play. lesson ix. the beaver. . the beaver is found chiefly in north america. it is about three and a half feet long, including the flat, paddle- shaped tail, which is a foot in length. . the long, shining hair on the back is chestnut-colored, while the fine, soft fur that lies next the skin, is grayish brown. . beavers build themselves most curious huts to live in, and quite frequently a great number of these huts are placed close together, like the buildings in a town. . they always build their huts on the banks of rivers or lakes, for they swim much eclectic series. more easily than they walk, and prefer moving about in the water. . when they build on the bank of a running stream, they make a dam across the stream for the purpose of keeping the water at the height they wish. . these dams are made chiefly of mud, and stones, and the branches of trees. they are sometimes six or seven hundred feet in length, and are so constructed that they look more like the work of man than of little dumb beasts. . their huts are made of the same material as the dams, and are round in shape. the walls are very thick, and the roofs are finished off with a thick layer of mud, sticks, and leaves. . they commence building their houses late in the summer, but do not get them finished before the early frosts. the freezing makes them tighter and stronger. . they obtain the wood for their dams and huts by gnawing through the branches of trees, and even through the trunks of small ones, with their sharp front teeth. they peel off the bark, and lay it up in store for winter food. third reader. . the fur of the beaver is highly prized. the men who hunt these animals are called trappers. . a gentleman once saw five young beavers playing. they would leap on the trunk of a tree that lay near a beaver dam, and would push one another off into the water. . he crept forward very cautiously, and was about to fire on the little creatures; but their amusing tricks reminded him so much of some little children he knew at home, that he thought it would be inhuman to kill them. so he left them without even disturbing their play. , eclectic series. lesson x. the young teacher. . charles rose lived in the country with his father, who taught him to read and to write. . mr. rose told his son that, when his morning lessons were over, he might amuse himself for one hour as he pleased. . there was a river near by. on its bank stood the hut of a poor fisherman, who lived by selling fish. . his careful wife kept her wheel going early and late. they both worked very hard to keep themselves above want. . but they were greatly troubled lest their only son should never learn to read and to write. they could not teach him themselves, and they were too poor to send him to school. . charles called at the hut of this fisherman one day, to inquire about his dog, which was missing. third reader. . he found the little boy, whose name was joe, sitting by the table, on which he was making marks with a piece of chalk. charles asked him whether he was drawing pictures. . "no, i am trying to write," said little joe, "but i know only two words. those i saw upon a sign, and i am trying to write them." . "if i could only learn to read and write," said he, "i should be the happiest boy in the world." eclectic series. . "then i will make you happy," said charles. "i am only a little boy, but i can teach you that. . "my father gives me an hour every day for myself. now, if you will try to learn, you shall soon know how to read and to write." . both joe and his mother were ready to fall on their knees to thank charles. they told him it was what they wished above all things. . so, on the next day when the hour came, charles put his book in his pocket, and went to teach joe. joe learned very fast, and charles soon began to teach him how to write. . some time after, a gentleman called on mr. rose, and asked him if he knew where charles was. mr. rose said that he was taking a walk, he supposed. . "i am afraid," said the gentleman, "that he does not always amuse himself thus. i often see him go to the house of the fisherman. i fear he goes out in their boat." . mr. rose was much troubled. he had told charles that he must never venture on the river, and he thought he could trust him. third reader. . the moment the gentleman left, mr. rose went in search of his son. he went to the river, and walked up and down, in hope of seeing the boat. . not seeing it, he grew uneasy. he thought charles must have gone a long way off. unwilling to leave without learning something of him, he went to the hut. . he put his head in at the window, which was open. there a pleasant sight met his eyes. . charles was at the table, ruling a copybook joe was reading to him, while his mother was spinning in the corner. . charles was a little confused. he feared his father might not be pleased; but he had no need to be uneasy, for his father was delighted. . the next day, his father took him to town, and gave him books for himself and joe, with writing paper, pens, and ink. . charles was the happiest boy in the world when he came home. he ran to joe, his hands filled with parcels, and his heart beating with joy. eclectic series. lesson xi. the blacksmith. . clink, clink, clinkerty clink! we begin to hammer at morning's blink, and hammer away till the busy day, like us, aweary, to rest shall sink. . clink, clink, clinkerty clink! from labor and care we never will shrink; but our fires we'll blow till our forges glow with light intense, while our eyelids wink. third reader. . clink, clink, clinkerty clink; the chain we'll forge with many a link. we'll work each form while the iron is warm, with strokes as fast as we can think. . clink, clink, clinkerty clink! our faces may be as black as ink, but our hearts are true as man ever knew, and kindly of all we shall ever think. lesson xii. a walk in the garden. . frank was one day walking with his mother, when they came to a pretty garden. frank looked in, and saw that it had clean gravel walks, and beds of beautiful flowers all in bloom. . he called to his mother, and said, "mother, come and look at this pretty garden. i wish i might open the gate, and walk in." eclectic series. . the gardener, being near, heard what frank said, and kindly invited him and his mother to come into the garden. . frank's mother thanked the man. turning to her son, she said, "frank, if i take you to walk in this garden, you must take care not to meddle with anything in it." . frank walked along the neat gravel paths, and looked at everything, but touched nothing that he saw. . he did not tread on any of the borders, and was careful that his clothes should not brush the tops of the flowers, lest he might break them. third reader. . the gardener was much pleased with frank, because he was so careful not to do mischief. he showed him the seeds, and told him the name of many of the flowers and plants. . while frank was admiring the beauty of a flower, a boy came to the gate, and finding it locked, he shook it hard. but it would not open. then he said, "let me in; let me in; will you not let me in this garden?" . "no, indeed," said the gardener, "i will not let you in, i assure you; for when i let you in yesterday, you meddled with my flowers, and pulled some of my rare fruit. i do not choose to let a boy into my garden who meddles with the plants." . the boy looked ashamed, and when he found that the gardener would not let him in, he went slowly away. . frank saw and felt how much happier a boy may be by not meddling with what does not belong to him. . he and his mother then continued their walk in the garden, and enjoyed the day very much. before they left, the gardener gave each of them some pretty flowers. eclectic series. lesson xiii. the wolf. . a boy was once taking care of some sheep, not far from a forest. near by was a village, and he was told to call for help if there was any danger. . one day, in order to have some fun, he cried out, with all his might, "the wolf is coming! the wolf is coming!" . the men came running with clubs and axes to destroy the wolf. as they saw nothing they went home again, and left john laughing in his sleeve. . as he had had so much fun this time, john cried out again, the next day, "the wolf! the wolf!" . the men came again, but not so many as the first time. again they saw no trace of the wolf; so they shook their heads, and went back. . on the third day, the wolf came in earnest. john cried in dismay, "help! help! third reader. the wolf! the wolf!" but not a single man came to help him. . the wolf broke into the flock, and killed a great many sheep. among them was a beautiful lamb, which belonged to john. . then he felt very sorry that he had deceived his friends and neighbors, and grieved over the loss of his pet lamb. the truth itself is not believed, from one who often has deceived. eclectic series. lesson xiv. the little bird's song. . a little bird, with feathers brown, sat singing on a tree; the song was very soft and low, but sweet as it could be. . the people who were passing by, looked up to see the bird third reader. that made the sweetest melody that ever they had heard. . but all the bright eyes looked in vain; birdie was very small, and with his modest, dark-brown coat, he made no show at all. . "why, father," little gracie said "where can the birdie be? if i could sing a song like that, i'd sit where folks could see." . "i hope my little girl will learn a lesson from the bird, and try to do what good she can, not to be seen or heard. . "this birdie is content to sit unnoticed on the way, and sweetly sing his maker's praise from dawn to close of day. . "so live, my child, all through your life, that, be it short or long, though others may forget your looks, they'll not forget your song." eclectic series. lesson xv. harry and annie. . harry and annie lived a mile from town, but they went there to school every day. it was a pleasant walk down the lane, and through the meadow by the pond. . i hardly know whether they liked it better in summer or in winter. they used to pretend that they were travelers exploring a new country, and would scatter leaves on third reader. the road that they might find their way back again. . when the ice was thick and firm, they went across the pond. but their mother did not like to have them do this unless some one was with them. . "do n't go across the pond to-day, children," she said, as she kissed them and bade them good-by one morning; "it is beginning to thaw." . "all right, mother," said harry, not very good- naturedly, for he was very fond of running and sliding on the ice. when they came to the pond, the ice looked hard and safe. . "there," said he to his sister, "i knew it had n't thawed any. mother is always afraid we shall be drowned. come along, we will have a good time sliding. the school bell will not ring for an hour at least." . "but you promised mother," said annie. . "no, i did n't. i only said 'all right,' and it is all right." . "i did n't say anything; so i can do as i like," said annie. . so they stepped on the ice, and started to go across the pond. they had not gone eclectic series. far before the ice gave way, and they fell into the water. . a man who was at work near the shore, heard the screams of the children, and plunged into the water to save them. harry managed to get to the shore without any help, but poor annie was nearly drowned before the man could reach her. . harry went home almost frozen, and told his mother how disobedient he had been. he remembered the lesson learned that day as long as he lived. lesson xvi. bird friends. . i once knew a man who was rich in his love for birds, and in their love for him. he lived in the midst of a grove full of all kinds of trees. he had no wife or children in his home. . he was an old man with gray beard, blue and kind eyes, and a voice that the third reader. birds loved; and this was the way he made them his friends. . while he was at work with a rake on his nice walks in the grove, the birds came close to him to pick up the worms in the fresh earth he dug up. at first, they kept a rod or two from him, but they soon found he was a kind man, and would not hurt them, but liked to have them near him. . . eclectic series. . they knew this by his kind eyes and voice, which tell what is in the heart. so, day by day their faith in his love grew in them. . they came close to the rake. they would hop on top of it to be first at the worm. they would turn up their eyes into his when he spoke to them, as if they said, "he is a kind man; he loves us; we need not fear him." . all the birds of the grove were soon his fast friends. they were on the watch for him, and would fly down from the green tree tops to greet him with their chirp. . when he had no work on the walks to do with his rake or his hoe, he took crusts of bread with him, and dropped the crumbs on the ground. down they would dart on his head and feet to catch them as they fell from his hand. he showed me how they loved him. he put a crust of bread in his mouth, with one end of it out of his lips. down they came like bees at a flower, and flew off with it crumb by crumb. . when they thought he slept too long in the morning, they would fly in and sit third reader. on the bedpost, and call him up with their chirp. . they went with him to church, and while he said his prayers and sang his hymns in it, they sat in the trees, and sang their praises to the same good god who cares for them as he does for us. . thus the love and trust of birds were a joy to him all his life long; and such love and trust no boy or girl can fail to win with the same kind heart, voice, and eye that he had. adapted from elihu burritt. lesson xvii. what the minutes say. . we are but minutes--little things! each one furnished with sixty wings, with which we fly on our unseen track, and not a minute ever comes back. . we are but minutes; use us well, for how we are used we must one day tell. who uses minutes, has hours to use; who loses minutes, whole years must lose. eclectic series lesson xviii. the widow and the merchant. . a merchant, who was very fond of music, was asked by a poor widow to give her some assistance. her husband, who was a musician, had died, and left her very poor indeed. . the merchant saw that the widow and her daughter, who was with her, were in great third reader. distress. he looked with pity into their pale faces, and was convinced by their conduct that their sad story was true. . "how much do you want, my good woman?" said the merchant. . "five dollars will save us," said the poor widow, with some hesitation. . the merchant sat down at his desk, took a piece of paper, wrote a few lines on it, and gave it to the widow with the words, "take it to the bank you see on the other side of the street." . the grateful widow and her daughter, without stopping to read the note, hastened to the bank. the banker at once counted out fifty dollars instead of five, and passed them to the widow. . she was amazed when she saw so much money. "sir, there is a mistake here," she said. "you have given me fifty dollars, and i asked for only five." . the banker looked at the note once more, and said, "the check calls for fifty dollars." . "it is a mistake--indeed it is," said the widow. . the banker then asked her to wait eclectic series. a few minutes, while he went to see the merchant who gave her the note. . "yes." said the merchant, when he had heard the banker's story, "i did make a mistake. i wrote fifty instead of five hundred. give the poor widow five hundred dollars, for such honesty is poorly rewarded with even that sum." lesson xix. the birds set free. . a man was walking one day through a large city. on a street corner he saw a boy with a number of small birds for sale, in a cage. . he looked with sadness upon the little prisoners flying about the cage, peeping through the wires, beating them with their wings, and trying to get out. . he stood for some time looking at the birds. at last he said to the boy, "how much do you ask for your birds?" third reader. . "fifty cents apiece, sir," said the boy. "i do not mean how much apiece," said the man, "but how much for all of them? i want to buy them all." . the boy began to count, and found they came to five dollars. "there is your money," said the man. the boy took it, well pleased with his morning's trade. . no sooner was the bargain settled than the man opened the cage door, and let all the birds fly away. . the boy, in great surprise, cried, "what did you do that for, sir? you have lost all your birds." eclectic series. . "i will tell you why i did it," said the man. "i was shut up three years in a french prison, as a prisoner of war, and i am resolved never to see anything in prison which i can make free." lesson xx. a moment too late. . a moment too late, my beautiful bird, a moment too late are you now; the wind has your soft, downy nest disturbed-- the nest that you hung on the bough. . a moment too late; that string in your bill, would have fastened it firmly and strong; but see, there it goes, rolling over the hill! oh, you staid a moment too long. . a moment, one moment too late, busy bee; the honey has dropped from the flower: no use to creep under the petals and see; it stood ready to drop for an hour. . a moment too late; had you sped on your wing, the honey would not have been gone; third reader. now you see what a very, a very sad thing 't is to stay a moment too long. . little girl, never be a moment too late, it will soon end in trouble or crime; better be an hour early, and stand and wait, than a moment behind the time. . if the bird and the bee, little boy, were too late, remember, as you play along on your way to school, with pencil and slate, never stay a moment too long. lesson xxi. humming birds. . the most beautiful humming birds are found in the west indies and south america. the crest of the tiny head of one of these shines like a sparkling crown of colored light. . the shades of color that adorn its breast, are equally brilliant. as the bird eclectic series. flits from one object to another, it looks more like a bright flash of sunlight than it does like a living being. . but, you ask, why are they called humming birds? it is because they make a soft, humming noise by the rapid motion of their wings--a motion so rapid, that as they fly you can only see that they have wings. . one day when walking in the woods, i found the nest of one of the smallest humming birds. it was about half the size of a very small hen's egg, and third reader. was attached to a twig no thicker than a steel knitting needle. . it seemed to have been made of cotton fibers, and was covered with the softest bits of leaf and bark. it had two eggs in it, quite white, and each about as large as a small sugarplum. . when you approach the spot where one of these birds has built its nest, it is necessary to be careful. the mother bird will dart at you and try to peck your eyes. its sharp beak may hurt your eyes most severely, and even destroy the sight. . the poor little thing knows no other way of defending its young, and instinct teaches it that you might carry off its nest if you could find it. lesson xxii. the wind and the sun. a fable. . a dispute once arose between the wind and the sun, as to which was the stronger. eclectic series. . to decide the matter, they agreed to try their power on a traveler. that party which should first strip him of his cloak, was to win the day. . the wind began. he blew a cutting blast, which tore up the mountain oaks by their roots, and made the whole forest look like a wreck. . but the traveler, though at first he could scarcely keep his cloak on his back, ran under a hill for shelter, and buckled his mantle about him more closely. . the wind having thus tried his utmost power in vain, the sun began. . bursting through a thick cloud, he darted his sultry beams so forcibly upon the traveler's head, that the poor fellow was almost melted. . "this," said he, "is past all bearing. it is so hot, that one might as well be in an oven." . so he quickly threw off his cloak, and went into the shade of a tree to cool himself. . this fable teaches us, that gentle means will often succeed where forcible ones will fail. third reader. lesson xxiii. sunset. eclectic series, lesson xxiv. beautiful hands. . "o miss roberts! what coarse-looking hands mary jessup has!" said daisy marvin, as she walked home from school with her teacher. third reader. . "in my opinion, daisy, mary's hands are the prettiest in he class." . "why, miss roberts, they are as red and hard as they can be. how they would look if she were to try to play on a piano!" exclaimed daisy. . miss roberts took daisy's hands in hers, and said, "your hands are very soft and white, daisy--just the hands to look beautiful on a piano; yet they lack one beauty that mary's hands have. shall i tell you what the difference is?" . "yes, please, miss roberts." . "well, daisy, mary's hands are always busy. they wash dishes; they make fires; they hang out clothes, and help to wash them, too; they sweep, and dust, and sew; they are always trying to help her poor, hard-working mother. . "besides, they wash and dress the children; they mend their toys and dress their dolls; yet, they find time to bathe the head of the little girl who is so sick in the next house to theirs. . "they are full of good deeds to every living thing. i have seen them patting the tired horse and the lame dog in the street. eclectic series, they are always ready to help those who need help." . "i shall never think mary's hands are ugly any more, miss roberts." . "i am glad to hear you say that, daisy; and i must tell you that they are beautiful because they do their work gladly and cheerfully." . "o miss roberts! i feel so ashamed of myself, and so sorry," said daisy, looking into her teacher's face with tearful eyes. third reader. . "then, my dear, show your sorrow by deeds of kindness. the good alone are really beautiful." lesson xxv. things to remember. . when you rise in the morning, remember who kept you from danger during the night. remember who watched over you while you slept, and whose sun shines around you, and gives you the sweet light of day. . let god have the thanks of your heart, for his kindness and his care; and pray for his protection during the wakeful hours of day. . remember that god made all creatures to be happy, and will do nothing that may prevent their being so, without good reason for it. . when you are at the table, do not eat in a greedy manner, like a pig. eat quietly, , eclectic series. and do not reach forth your hand for the food, but ask some one to help you. . do not become peevish and pout, because you do not get a part of everything. be satisfied with what is given you. . avoid a pouting face, angry looks, and angry words. do not slam the doors. go quietly up and down stairs; and never make a loud noise about the house. . be kind and gentle in your manners; not like the howling winter storm, but like the bright summer morning. . do always as your parents bid you. obey them with a ready mind, and with a pleasant face. . never do anything that you would be afraid or ashamed that your parents should know. remember, if no one else sees you, god does, from whom you can not hide even your most secret thought. . at night, before you go to sleep, think whether you have done anything that was wrong during the day, and pray to god to forgive you. if anyone has done you wrong, forgive him in your heart. . if you have not learned something useful, or been in some way useful, during third reader. the past day, think that it is a day lost, and be very sorry for it. . trust in the lord, and he will guide you in the way of good men. the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. . we must do all the good we can to all men, for this is well pleasing in the sight of god. he delights to see his children walk in love, and do good one to another. lesson xxvi. three little mice. . i will tell you the story of three little mice, if you will keep still and listen to me, who live in a cage that is cozy and nice, and are just as cunning as cunning can be. they look very wise, with their pretty red eyes, that seem just exactly like little round beads; they are white as the snow, and stand up in a row whenever we do not attend to their needs;-- eclectic series. . stand up in a row in a comical way,-- now folding their forepaws as if saying, "please;" now rattling the lattice, as much as to say, "we shall not stay here without more bread and cheese," they are not at all shy, as you'll find, if you try to make them run up in their chamber to bed; if they do n't want to go, why, they won't go--ah! no, though you tap with your finger each queer little head. . one day as i stood by the side of the cage, through the bars there protruded a funny, round tail; third reader. just for mischief i caught it, and soon; in a rage, its owner set up a most pitiful wail. he looked in dismay,--there was something to pay,-- but what was the matter he could not make out; what was holding him so, when he wanted to go to see what his brothers upstairs were about? . but soon from the chamber the others rushed down, impatient to learn what the trouble might be; i have not a doubt that each brow wore a frown, only frowns on their brows are not easy to see. for a moment they gazed, perplexed and amazed; then began both together to--gnaw off the tail! so, quick i released him,--do you think that it pleased him? and up the small staircase they fled like a gale. julia c. r. dorr. lesson xxvii. the new year. . one pleasant new-year morning, edward rose, and washed and dressed himself eclectic series. in haste. he wanted to be first to wish a happy new year. . he looked in every room, and shouted the words of welcome. he ran into the street, to repeat them to those he might meet. . when he came back, his father gave him two bright, new silver dollars. . his face lighted up as he took them. he had wished for a long time to buy some pretty books that he had seen at the bookstore. third reader. . he left the house with a light heart, intending to buy the books. . as he ran down the street, he saw a poor german family, the father, mother, and three children shivering with cold. . "i wish you a happy new year," said edward, as he was gayly passing on. the man shook his head. . "you do not belong to this country," said edward. the man again shook his head, for he could not understand or speak our language. . but he pointed to his mouth, and to the children, as if to say, "these little ones have had nothing to eat for a long time." . edward quickly understood that these poor people were in distress. he took out his dollars, and gave one to the man, and the other to his wife. . how their eyes sparkled with gratitude! they said something in their language, which doubtless meant, "we thank you a thousand times, and will remember you in our prayers." . when edward came home, his father asked what books he had bought. he hung his head a moment, but quickly looked up. eclectic series. . "i have bought no books," said he, "i gave my money to some poor people, who seemed to be very hungry and wretched. . "i think i can wait for my books till next new year. oh, if you had seen how glad they were to receive the money!" . "my dear boy;" said his father, "here is a whole bundle of books. i give them to you, more as a reward for your goodness of heart than as a new-year gift. . "i saw you give the money to the poor german family. it was no small sum for a little boy to give cheerfully. . "be thus ever ready to help the poor, and wretched, and distressed; and every year of your life will be to you a happy new year." lesson xxviii. the clock and the sundial. a fable. . one gloomy day, the clock on a church steeple, looking down on a sundial, said, third reader. "how stupid it is in you to stand there all the while like a stock! . "you never tell the hour till a bright sun looks forth from the sky, and gives you leave. i go merrily round, day and night, in summer and winter the same, without asking his leave. . "i tell the people the time to rise, to go to dinner, and to come to church. eclectic series. . "hark! i am going to strike now; one, two, three, four. there it is for you. how silly you look! you can say nothing." . the sun, at that moment, broke forth from behind a cloud, and showed, by the sundial, that the clock was half an hour behind the right time. . the boasting clock now held his tongue, and the dial only smiled at his folly. . moral.--humble modesty is more often right than a proud and boasting spirit. lesson xxix. remember. . remember, child, remember, that god is in the sky; that he looks down on all we do, with an ever-wakeful eye. . remember, oh remember, that, all the day and night, he sees our thoughts and actions with an ever-watchful sight. third reader. . remember, child, remember, that god is good and true; that he wishes us to always be like him in all we do. . remember that he ever hates a falsehood or a lie; remember he will punish, too, the wicked, by and by. . remember, oh remember, that he is like a friend, and wishes us to holy be, and happy, in the end. . remember, child, remember, to pray to him in heaven; and if you have been doing wrong, oh, ask to be forgiven. . be sorry, in your little prayer, and whisper in his ear; ask his forgiveness and his love. and he will surely hear. . remember, child, remember, that you love, with all your might, eclectic series. the god who watches o'er us, and gives us each delight; who guards us ever through the day, and saves us in the night. lesson xxx.. courage and cowardice. . robert and henry were going home from school, when, on turning a corner, robert cried out, "a fight! let us go and see!" eclectic reader. . "no," said henry; "let us go quietly home and not meddle with this quarrel. we have nothing to do with it, and may get into mischief." . "you are a coward, and afraid to go," said robert, and off he ran. henry went straight home, and in the afternoon went to school, as usual. . but robert had told all the boys that henry was a coward, and they laughed at him a great deal. . henry had learned, however, that true courage is shown most in bearing reproach when not deserved, and that he ought to be afraid of nothing but doing wrong. . a few days after, robert was bathing with some schoolmates, and got out of his depth. he struggled, and screamed for help, but all in vain. . the boys who had called henry a coward, got out of the water as fast as they could, but they did not even try to help him. . robert was fast sinking, when henry threw off his clothes, and sprang into the water. he reached robert just as he was sinking the last time. eclectic series. . by great effort, and with much danger to himself, he brought robert to thc shore, and thus saved his life. . robert and his schoolmates were ashamed at having called henry a coward. they owned that he had more courage than any of them. . never be afraid to do good, but always fear to do evil. lesson xxxi. weighing an elephant. . "an eastern king," said teddy's mother, "had been saved from some great danger. to show his gratitude for deliverance, he vowed he would give to the poor the weight of his favorite elephant in silver." . "oh! what a great quantity that would be," cried lily, opening her eyes very wide. "but how could you weigh an elephant?" third reader. asked teddy, who was a quiet, thoughtful boy . "there was the difficulty," said his mother. "the wise and learned men of the court stroked their long beards, and talked the matter over, but no one found out how to weigh the elephant. . "at last, a poor old sailor found safe and simple means by which to weigh the enormous beast. the thousands and thousands of pieces of silver were counted out to the people; and crowds of the poor were relieved by the clever thought of the sailor." . "o mamma," said lily, "do tell us what it was!" . "stop, stop!" said teddy. "i want to think for myself-- think hard--and find out how an elephant's weight could be known, with little trouble and expense." . "i am well pleased," said his mother, "that my little boy should set his mind to work on the subject. if he can find out the sailor's secret before night, he shall have that orange for his pains." . the boy thought hard and long. lily laughed at her brother's grave looks, as he sat leaning his head on his hands. often eclectic series. she teased him with the question, "can you weigh an elephant, teddy?" . at last, while eating his supper, teddy suddenly cried out, "i have it now!" . "do you think so?" asked his mother. . "how would you do it," asked lily. third reader. . "first, i would have a big boat brought very close to the shore, and would have planks laid across, so that the elephant could walk right into it." . "oh, such a great, heavy beast would make it sink low in the water," said lily. . "of course it would," said her brother. then i would mark on the outside of the boat the exact height to which the water had risen all around it while the elephant was inside. then he should march on shore, leaving the boat quite empty." . "but i do n't see the use of all this," said lily. . "do n't you?" cried teddy, in surprise. "why, i should then bring the heaps of silver, and throw them into the boat till their weight would sink it to the mark made by the elephant. that would show that the weight of each was the same." . "how funny!" cried lily; "you would make a weighing machine of the boat?" . "that is my plan," said teddy. . "that was the sailor's plan," said his mother. "you have earned the orange, my boy;" and she gave it to him with a smile. adapted from a. l. o. e. , . eclectic series. lesson xxxii. the soldier. . a soldier! a soldier! i'm longing to he: the name and the life of a soldier for me! i would not be living at ease and at play; true honor and glory i'd win in my day. . a soldier! a soldier! in armor arrayed; my weapons in hand, of no contest afraid; i'd ever be ready to strike the first blow, and to fight my way through the ranks of the foe. . but then, let me tell you, no blood would i shed, no victory seek o'er the dying and dead; a far braver soldier than this would i be; a warrior of truth, in the ranks of the free. . a soldier! a soldier! oh, then, let me be! my friends, i invite you, enlist now with me. truth's bands shall be mustered, love's foes shall give way! let's up, and be clad in our battle array! j. g. adams. third reader. lesson xxxiii. the echo. . as robert was one day rambling about, he happened to cry out, "ho, ho!" he instantly heard coming back from a hill near by, the same words, "ho, ho!" . in great surprise, he said with a loud voice, "who are you?" upon this, the same words came back, "who are you?" . robert now cried out harshly, "you must be a very foolish fellow." "foolish fellow!" came back from the hill. . robert became angry, and with loud and fierce words went toward the spot whence the sounds came. the words all came back to him in the same angry tone. . he then went into the thicket, and looked for the boy who, as he thought, was mocking him; but he could find nobody anywhere. . when he went home, he told his mothe eclectic series. that some boy had hid himself in the wood, for the purpose of mocking him. . "robert," said his mother, "you are angry with yourself alone. you heard nothing but your own words." . "why, mother, how can that be?" said robert. "did you never hear an echo?" asked his mother. "an echo, dear mother? no, ma'am. what is it?" . "i will tell you," said his mother. "you know, when you play with your ball, third reader. and throw it against the side of a house, it bounds back to you." "yes, mother," said he, "and i catch it again." . "well," said his mother, "if i were in the open air, by the side of a hill or a large barn, and should speak very loud, my voice would be sent back, so that i could hear again the very words which i spoke. . "that, my son, is an echo. when you thought some one was mocking you, it was only the hill before you, echoing, or sending back, your own voice. . "the bad boy, as you thought it was, spoke no more angrily than yourself. if you had spoken kindly, you would have heard a kind reply. . "had you spoken in a low, sweet, gentle tone, the voice that came back would have been as low, sweet, and gentle as your own. . "the bible says, 'a soft answer turneth away wrath.' remember this when you are at play with your school mates. . "if any of them should be offended, and speak in a loud, angry tone, remember the echo, and let your words be soft and kind." eclectic series. . "when you come home from school, and find your little brother cross and peevish, speak mildly to him. you will soon see a smile on his lips, and find that his tones will become mild and sweet. . "whether you are in the fields or in the woods, at school or at play, at home or abroad, remember, the good and the kind, by kindness their love ever proving, will dwell with the pure and the loving." lesson xxxiv. george's feast. . george's mother was very poor. instead of having bright, blazing fires in winter, she had nothing to burn but dry sticks, which george picked up from under the trees and hedges. . one fine day in july, she sent george to the woods, which were about two miles from the village in which she lived. he third reader. was to stay there all day, to get as much wood as he could collect. . it was a bright, sunny day, and george worked very hard; so that by the time the sun was high, he was hot, and wished for a cool place where he might rest and eat his dinner. . while he hunted about the bank he saw among the moss some fine, wild strawberries, which were a bright scarlet with ripeness. eclectic series. . "how good these will be with my bread and butter!" thought george; and lining his little cap with leaves, he set to work eagerly to gather all he could find, and then seated himself by the brook. . it was a pleasant place, and george felt happy and contented. he thought how much his mother would like to see him there, and to be there herself, instead of in her dark, close room in the village. . george thought of all this, and just as he was lifting the first strawberry to his mouth, he said to himself, "how much mother would like these;" and he stopped, and put the strawberry back again. . "shall i save them for her?" said he, thinking how much they would refresh her, yet still looking at them with a longing eye. . "i will eat half, and take the other half to her," said he at last; and he divided them into two heaps. but each heap looked so small, that he put them together again. . "i will only taste one," thought he; but, as he again lifted it to his mouth, he saw that he had taken the finest, and he put it back. "i will keep them all for her," third reader. said he, and he covered them up nicely, till he should go home. . when the sun was beginning to sink, george set out for home. how happy he felt, then, that he had all his strawberries for his sick mother. the nearer he came to his home, the less he wished to taste them. . just as he had thrown down his wood, he heard his mother's faint voice calling him from the next room. "is that you, george? i am glad you have come, for i am thirsty, and am longing for some tea." . george ran in to her, and joyfully offered his wild strawberries. "and you saved them for your sick mother, did you?" said she, laying her hand fondly on his head, while the tears stood in her eyes. "god will bless you for all this, my child." . could the eating of the strawberries have given george half the happiness he felt at this moment? eclectic series. lesson xxxv. the lord's prayer. . our father in heaven, we hallow thy name; may thy kingdom holy on earth be the same; oh, give to us daily our portion of bread; it is from thy bounty, that all must be fed. . forgive our transgressions. and teach us to know the humble compassion that pardons each foe; keep us from temptation, from weakness and sin, and thine be the glory forever! amen! third reader. an evening prayer. eclectic series. lesson xxxvi. finding the owner. . "it's mine," said fred, showing a white handled pocketknife, with every blade perfect and shining. "just what i've always third reader. wanted." and he turned the prize over and over with evident satisfaction. . "i guess i know who owns it," said tom, looking at it with a critical eye. . "i guess you do n't," was the quick response. "it is n't mr. raymond's," said fred, shooting wide of the mark. . "i know that; mr. raymond's is twice as large," observed tom, going on with his drawing lesson. . do you suppose fred took any comfort in that knife? not a bit of comfort did he take. he was conscious all the time of having something in his possession that did eclectic series. not belong to him; and tom's suspicion interfered sadly with his enjoyment. . finally, it became such a torment to him, that he had serious thoughts of burning it, or burying it, or giving it away; but a better plan suggested itself. . "tom," said he, one day at recess, "did n't you say you thought you knew who owned that knife i found?" . "yes, i did; it looked like doctor perry's." and tom ran off to his play, without giving the knife another thought. . dr. perry's! why, fred would have time to go to the doctor's office before recess closed: so he started in haste, and found the old gentleman getting ready to visit a patient. "is this yours?" cried fred, in breathless haste, holding up the cause of a week's anxiety. . "it was," said the doctor; "but i lost it the other day." . "i found it," said fred, "and have felt like a thief ever since. here, take it; i've got to run." . "hold on!" said the doctor. "i've got a new one, and you are quite welcome to this." third reader. . "am i? may i? oh! thank you!" and with what a different feeling he kept it from that which he had experienced for a week! lesson xxxvii. bats. . bats are very strange little animals, having hair like mice, and wings like birds. during the day, they live in crevices of rocks, in caves, and in other dark places. . at night, they go forth in search of food; and, no doubt, you have seen them flying eclectic series. about, catching such insects as happen to be out rather late at night. . the wings of a bat have no quills. they are only thin pieces of skin stretched upon a framework of bones. besides this, it may be said that while he is a quadruped, he can rise into the air and fly from place to place like a bird. . there is a funny fable about the bat, founded upon this double character of beast and bird, which i will tell you. . an owl was once prowling about, when he came across a bat. so he caught him in his claws, and was about to devour him. upon this, the bat began to squeal terribly; and he said to the owl, "pray, what do you take me for, that you use me thus?" . "why, you are a bird, to be sure," said the owl, "and i am fond of birds. i love dearly to break their little bones." . "well," said the bat, "i thought there was some mistake. i am no bird. do n't you see, mr. owl, that i have no feathers, and that i am covered with hair like a mouse?" . "sure enough," said the owl, in great surprise; "i see it now. really, i took you third reader. for a bird, but it appears you are only a kind of mouse. i ate a mouse last night, and it gave me the nightmare. i can't bear mice! bah! it makes me sick to think of it." so the owl let the bat go. . the very next night, the bat encountered another danger. he was snapped up by puss, who took him for a mouse, and immediately prepared to eat him. . "i beg you to stop one moment," said the bat. "pray, miss puss, what do you suppose i am?" "a mouse, to be sure!" said the cat. "not at all," said the bat, spreading his long wings. . "sure enough," said the cat: "you seem to be a bird, though your feathers are , . eclectic series. not very fine. i eat birds sometimes, but i am tired of them just now, having lately devoured four young robins; so you may go. but, bird or mouse, it will be your best policy to keep out of my way hereafter." . the meaning of this fable is, that a person playing a double part may sometimes escape danger; but he is always, like the bat, a creature that is disgusting to everybody, and shunned by all. s. g. goodrich--adapted. lesson xxxviii. a summer day. . this is the way the morning dawns: rosy tints on flowers and trees, winds that wake the birds and bees, dewdrops on the fields and lawns-- this is the way the morning dawns. . this is the way the sun comes up: gold on brook and glossy leaves, third reader. mist that melts above the sheaves, vine, and rose, and buttercup-- this is the way the sun comes up. . this is the way the river flows: here a whirl, and there a dance; slowly now, then, like a lance, swiftly to the sea it goes-- this is the way the river flows. eclectic series. . this is the way the rain comes down: tinkle, tinkle, drop by drop, over roof and chimney top; boughs that bend, and skies that frown-- this is the way the rain comes down. . this is the way the birdie sings: "baby birdies in the nest, you i surely love the best; over you i fold my wings"-- this is the way the birdie sings. . this is the way the daylight dies: cows are lowing in the lane, fireflies wink on hill and plain; yellow, red, and purple skies-- this is the way the daylight dies. george cooper. third reader. lesson xxxix. i will think of it. . "i will think of it." it is easy to say this; but do you know what great things have come from thinking? . we can not see our thoughts, or hear, or taste, or feel them; and yet what mighty power they have! . sir isaac newton was seated in his garden on a summer's evening, when he saw an apple fall from a tree. he began to think, and, in trying to find out why the apple fell, discovered how the earth, sun, moon, and stars are kept in their places. . a boy named james watt sat quietly by the fireside, watching the lid of the tea kettle as it moved up and down. he began to think; he wanted to find out why the steam in the kettle moved the heavy lid. eclectic series. . from that time he went on thinking and thinking; and when he became a man, he improved the steam engine so much that it could, with the greatest ease, do the work of many horses. . when you see a steamboat, a steam mill, or a locomotive, remember that it would never have been built if it had not been for the hard thinking of some one. . a man named galileo was once standing in the cathedral of pisa, when he saw a chandelier swaying to and fro. third reader. . this set him thinking, and it led to the invention of the pendulum. . james ferguson was a poor scotch shepherd boy. once, seeing the inside of a watch, he was filled with wonder. "why should i not make a watch?" thought he. . but how was he to get the materials out of which to make the wheels and the mainspring? he soon found how to get them: he made the mainspring out of a piece of whalebone. he then made a wooden clock which kept good time. . he began, also, to copy pictures with a pen, and portraits with oil colors. in a few years, while still a small boy, he earned money enough to support his father. . when he became a man, he went to london to live. some of the wisest men in england, and the king himself, used to attend his lectures. his motto was, "i will think of it;" and he made his thoughts useful to himself and the world. . boys, when you have a difficult lesson to learn, do n't feel discouraged, and ask some one to help you before helping yourselves. think, and by thinking you will learn how to think to some purpose. eclectic series. lesson xl. charlie and rob. . "do n't you hate splitting wood?" asked charlie, as he sat down on a log to hinder rob for a while. . "no, i rather like it. when i get hold of a tough old fellow, i say, 'see here, now, you think you're the stronger, and are going to beat me; so i'll split you up into kindling wood." . "pshaw!" said charlie, laughing; "and it's only a stick of wood." . "yes; but you see i pretend it's a lesson, or a tough job of any kind, and it's nice to conquer it." . "i do n't want to conquer such things; i do n't care what becomes of them. i wish i were a man, and a rich one." . "well, charlie, if you live long enough you'll be a man, without wishing for it; and as for the rich part, i mean to be that myself." . "you do. how do you expect to get your money? by sawing wood?" . "may be--some of it; that's as good a third reader. way as any, so long as it lasts. i do n't care how i get rich, you know, so that it's in an honest and useful way." . "i'd like to sleep over the next ten years, and wake up to find myself a young man with a splendid education and plenty of money." eclectic series. . "humph! i am not sleepy--a night at a time is enough for me. i mean to work the next ten years. you see there are things that you've got to work out--you can't sleep them out." . "i hate work," said charlie, "that is, such work as sawing and splitting wood, and doing chores. i'd like to do some big work, like being a clerk in a bank or something of that sort." . "wood has to be sawed and split before it can be burned," said rob. "i do n't know but i'll be a clerk in a bank some time; i'm working towards it. i'm keeping father's accounts for him." . how charlie laughed! "i should think that was a long way from being a bank clerk. i suppose your father sells two tables and six chairs, some days, does n't he?" . "sometimes more than that, and sometimes not so much," said rob, in perfect good humor. . "i did n't say i was a bank clerk now. i said i was working towards it. am i not nearer it by keeping a little bit of a book than i should be if i did n't keep any book at all?" third reader. . "not a whit--such things happen," said charlie, as he started to go. . now, which of these boys, do you think, grew up to be a rich and useful man, and which of them joined a party of tramps before he was thirty years old? lesson xli. ray and his kite. . ray was thought to be an odd boy. you will think him so, too, when you have read this story. . ray liked well enough to play with the boys at school; yet he liked better to be alone under the shade of some tree, reading a fairy tale or dreaming daydreams. but there was one sport that he liked as well as his companions; that was kiteflying. . one day when he was flying his kite, he said to himself, "i wonder if anybody ever tried to fly a kite at night. it seems eclectic series. to me it would be nice. but then, if it were very dark, the kite could not be seen. what if i should fasten a light to it, though? that would make it show. i'll try it this very night." . as soon as it was dark, without saying a word to anybody, he took his kite and lantern, and went to a large, open lot, about a quarter of a mile from his home. "well," thought he, "this is queer. how lonely and still it seems without any other boys around! but i am going to fly my kite, anyway." . so he tied the lantern, which was made of tin punched full of small holes, to the tail of his kite. then he pitched the kite, and, third reader. after several attempts, succeeded in making it rise. up it went, higher and higher, as ray let out the string. when the string was all unwound, he tied it to a fence; and then he stood and gazed at his kite as it floated high up in the air. . while ray was enjoying his sport, some people who were out on the street in the village, saw a strange light in the sky. they gathered in groups to watch it. now it was still for a few seconds, then it seemed to be jumping up and down; then it made long sweeps back and forth through the air. . "what can it be?" said one person. "how strange!" said another. "it can not be a comet; for comets have tails," said a third. "perhaps it's a big firefly," said another. . at last some of the men determined to find out what this strange light was--whether it was a hobgoblin dancing in the air, or something dropped from the sky. so off they started to get as near it as they could. . while this was taking place, ray, who had got tired of standing, was seated in a fence corner, behind a tree. he could see eclectic series. the men as they approached; but they did not see him. . when they were directly under the light, and saw what it was, they looked at each other, laughing, and said, "this is some boy's trick; and it has fooled us nicely. let us keep the secret, and have our share of the joke." . then they laughed again, and went back to the village; and some of the simple people there have not yet found out what that strange light was. . when thc men had gone, ray thought it was time for him to go; so he wound up his string, picked up his kite and lantern, and went home. his mother had been wondering what had become of him. . when she heard what he had been doing, she hardly knew whether to laugh or scold; but i think she laughed, and told him that it was time for him to go to bed. third reader. lesson xlii. beware of the first drink. . "uncle philip, as the day is fine, will you take a walk with us this morning?" . "yes, boys. let me get my hat and cane, and we will take a ramble. i will tell you a story as we go. do you know poor old tom smith?" . "know him! why, uncle philip, everybody knows him. he is such a shocking drunkard, and swears so horribly." . "well, i have known him ever since we were boys together. there was not a more decent, well-behaved boy among us. after he left school, his father died, and he was put into a store in the city. there, he fell into bad company. . "instead of spending his evenings in reading, he would go to the theater and to balls. he soon learned to play cards, and of course to play for money. he lost more than he could pay. . "he wrote to his poor mother, and told her his losses. she sent him money to pay his debts, and told him to come home. eclectic series. . "he did come home. after all, he might still have been useful and happy, for his friends were willing to forgive the past. for a time, things went on well. he married a lovely woman, gave up his bad habits, and was doing well. . "but one thing, boys, ruined him forever. in the city, he had learned to take strong drink, and he said to me once, that when a man begins to drink, he never knows where it will end. 'therefore,' said tom, 'beware of the first drink!' . "it was not long before he began to follow his old habit. he knew the danger, but it seemed as if he could not resist his desire to drink. his poor mother soon died of grief and shame. his lovely wife followed her to the grave. . "he lost the respect of all, went on from bad to worse, and has long been a perfect sot. last night, i had a letter from the city, stating that tom smith had been found guilty of stealing, and sent to the state prison for ten years. . "there i suppose he will die, for he is now old. it is dreadful to think to what an end he has come. i could not but think, third reader. as i read the letter, of what he said to me years ago, 'beware of the first drink!' . "ah, my dear boys, when old uncle philip is gone, remember that he told you the story of tom smith, and said to you, 'beware of the first drink!' the man who does this will never be a drunkard." eclectic series. lesson xliii. speak gently. . speak gently; it is better far to rule by love than fear: speak gently; let no harsh words mar the good we might do here. . speak gently to the little child; its love be sure to gain; teach it in accents soft and mild; it may not long remain. . speak gently to the aged one; grieve not the careworn heart: the sands of life are nearly run; let such in peace depart. . speak gently, kindly, to the poor; let no harsh tone be heard; they have enough they must endure, without an unkind word. . speak gently to the erring; know they must have toiled in vain; perhaps unkindness made them so; oh, win them back again. third reader. . speak gently: 'tis a little thing dropped in the heart's deep well; the good, the joy, which it may bring, eternity shall tell. george washington langford. lesson xliv. the seven sticks. . a man had seven sons, who were always quarreling. they left their studies and work, to quarrel among themselves. some bad men were looking forward to the death of their father, to cheat them out of their property by making them quarrel about it. . the good old man, one day, called his sons around him. he laid before them seven sticks, which were bound together. he said, "i will pay a hundred dollars to the one who can break this bundle." . each one strained every nerve to break the bundle. after a long but vain trial, they all said that it could not be done. eclectic series. . "and yet, my boys," said the father, "nothing is easier to do." he then untied the bundle, and broke the sticks, one by one, with perfect ease. . "ah!" said his sons, "it is easy enough to do it so; anybody could do it in that way." . their father replied, "as it is with these sticks, so is it with you, my sons. so third reader. long as you hold fast together and aid each other, you will prosper, and none can injure you. . "but if the bond of union be broken, it will happen to you just as it has to these sticks, which lie here broken on the ground." home, city, country, all are prosperous found, when by the powerful link of union bound. lesson xlv. the mountain sister. . the home of little jeannette is far away, high up among the mountains. let us call her our mountain sister. . there are many things you would like to hear about her, but i can only tell you now how she goes with her father and brother, in the autumn, to help gather nuts for the long winter. eclectic series. . a little way down the mountain side is a chestnut wood. did you ever see a chestnut tree? in the spring its branches are covered with bunches of creamy flowers, like long tassels. all the hot summer these are turning into sweet nuts, wrapped safely in large, prickly, green balls. . but when the frost of autumn comes, these prickly balls turn brown, and crack open. then you may see inside one, two, three, and even four, sweet, brown nuts. . when her father says, one night at supper time, "i think there will be a frost tonight," jeannette knows very well what to do. she dances away early in the evening to her little bed, made in a box built up against the wall. . soon she falls asleep to dream about third reader. the chestnut wood, and the little brook that springs from rock to rock down under the tall, dark trees. she wakes with the first daylight, and is out of bed in a minute, when she hears her father's cheerful call, "come, children; it is time to be off." . their dinner is ready in a large basket. the donkey stands before the door with great bags for the nuts hanging at each side. they go merrily over the crisp, white frost to the chestnut trees. how the frost has opened the burs! it has done half their work for them already. . how they laugh and sing, and shout to each other as they fill their baskets! the sun looks down through the yellow leaves; the rocks give them mossy seats; the birds and squirrels wonder what these strange people are doing in their woods. . jeannette really helps, though she is only a little girl; and her father says at night, that his jane is a dear, good child. this makes her very happy. she thinks about it at night, when she says her prayers. then she goes to sleep to dream of the merry autumn days. . such is our little mountain sister, and eclectic series. here is a picture of her far-away home. the mountain life is ever a fresh and happy one. third reader. lesson xlvi. harry and the guidepost. . the night was dark, the sun was hid beneath the mountain gray, and not a single star appeared to shoot a silver ray. . across the heath the owlet flew, and screamed along the blast; and onward, with a quickened step, benighted harry passed. . now, in thickest darkness plunged, he groped his way to find; and now, he thought he saw beyond, a form of horrid kind. . in deadly white it upward rose, of cloak and mantle bare, and held its naked arms across, to catch him by the hair. . poor harry felt his blood run cold, at what before him stood; but then, thought he, no harm, i'm sure, can happen to the good. eclectic series. . so, calling all his courage up, he to the monster went; and eager through the dismal gloom his piercing eyes he bent. . and when he came well nigh the ghost that gave him such affright, he clapped his hands upon his side, and loudly laughed outright. . for 't was a friendly guidepost stood, his wandering steps to guide; and thus he found that to the good, no evil could betide. third reader. . ah well, thought he, one thing i've learned, nor shall i soon forget; whatever frightens me again, i'll march straight up to it. . and when i hear an idle tale, of monster or of ghost, i'll tell of this, my lonely walk, and one tall, white guidepost. lesson xlvii. the money amy did n't earn. . amy was a dear little girl, but she was too apt to waste time in getting ready to do her tasks, instead of doing them at once as she ought. eclectic series. . in the village in which she lived, mr. thornton kept a store where he sold fruit of all kinds, including berries in their season. one day he said to amy, whose parents were quite poor, "would you like to earn some money? " . "oh, yes," replied she, "for i want some new shoes, and papa has no money to buy them with." . "well, amy," said mr. thorhton, "i noticed some fine, ripe blackberries in mr. green's pasture to-day, and he said that anybody was welcome to them. i will pay you thirteen cents a quart for all you will pick for me." . amy was delighted at the thought of earning some money; so she ran home to get a basket, intending to go immediately to pick the berries. . then she thought she would like to know how much money she would get if she picked five quarts. with the help of her slate and pencil, she found out that she would get sixty-five cents. . "but supposing i should pick a dozen quarts," thought she, "how much should i earn then?" "dear me," she said, after third reader. figuring a while, "i should earn a dollar and fifty-six cents." . amy then found out what mr. thornton would pay her for fifty, a hundred, and two hundred quarts. it took her some time to do this, and then it was so near dinner time that she had to stay at home until afternoon. . as soon as dinner was over, she took eclectic series, her basket and hurried to the pasture. some boys had been there before dinner, and all the ripe berries were picked. she could not find enough to fill a quart measure. . as amy went home, she thought of what her teacher had often told her--"do your task at once; then think about it," for "one doer is worth a hundred dreamers." lesson xlviii. who made the stars? . "mother, who made the stars, which light the beautiful blue sky? who made the moon, so clear and bright, that rises up so high?" . "'t was god, my child, the glorious one, he formed them by his power; he made alike the brilliant sun, and every leaf and flower. third reader. . "he made your little feet to walk; your sparkling eyes to see; your busy, prattling tongue to talk, and limbs so light and free. . "he paints each fragrant flower that blows, with loveliness and bloom; he gives the violet and the rose their beauty and perfume. . "our various wants his hands supply; he guides us every hour; we're kept beneath his watchful eye, and guarded by his power. . "then let your little heart, my love, its grateful homage pay to that kind friend, who, from above, thus guides you every day. . "in all the changing scenes of time, on him our hopes depend; in every age, in every clime, our father and our friend." eclectic series. lesson xlix. deeds of kindness. . one day, as two little boys were walking along the road, they overtook a woman carrying a large basket of apples. . the boys thought the woman looked very pale and tired; so they said, "are you going to town? if you are, we will carry your basket." . "thank you," replied the woman, "you are very kind: you see i am weak and ill." then she told them that she was a widow, and had a lame son to support. . she lived in a cottage three miles away, and was now going to market to sell the apples which grew on the only tree in her little garden. she wanted the money to pay her rent. . "we are going the same way you are," said the boys. "let us have the basket;" and they took hold of it, one on each side, and trudged along with merry hearts. . the poor widow looked glad, and said that she hoped their mother would not be angry with them. "oh, no," they replied; third reader. "our mother has taught us to be kind to everybody, and to be useful in any way that we can." . she then offered to give them a few of the ripest apples for their trouble. "no, thank you," said they; "we do not want any pay for what we have done." . when the widow got home, she told her lame son what had happened on the road, . . eclectic series. and they were both made happier that day by the kindness of the two boys. . the other day, i saw a little girl stop and pick up a piece of orange peel, which she threw into the gutter. "i wish the boys would not throw orange peel on the sidewalk," said she. "some one may tread upon it, and fall." . "that is right, my dear," i said. "it is a little thing for you to do what you have done, but it shows that you have a thoughtful mind and a feeling heart." . perhaps some may say that these are little things. so they are; but we must not wait for occasions to do great things. we must begin with little labors of love. lesson l. the alarm clock. . a lady, who found it not easy to wake in the morning as early as she wished, third reader. bought an alarm clock. these clocks are so made as to strike with a loud whirring noise at any hour the owner pleases to set them. . the lady placed her clock at the head of the bed, and at the right time she found herself roused by the long, rattling sound. . she arose at once, and felt better all day for her early rising. this lasted for some weeks. the alarm clock faithfully did its duty, and was plainly heard so long as it was obeyed. . but, after a time, the lady grew tired of early rising. when she was waked by the noise, she merely turned over in bed, and slept again. . in a few days, the clock ceased to rouse her from her sleep. it spoke just as loudly as ever; but she did not hear it, because she had been in the habit of not obeying it. . finding that she might as well be without it, she resolved that when she heard the sound she would jump up. . just so it is with conscience. if we will obey its voice, even in the most trifling things, we can always hear it, clear and strong. eclectic series. . but if we allow ourselves to do what we have some fears may not be quite right, we shall grow more and more sleepy, until the voice of conscience has no longer power to wake as. lesson li. spring. . the alder by the river shakes out her powdery curls; the willow buds in silver for little boys and girls. . the little birds fly over, and oh, how sweet they sing! to tell the happy children that once again 't is spring. third reader. . the gay green grass comes creeping so soft beneath their feet; the frogs begin to ripple a music clear and sweet. . and buttercups are coming, and scarlet columbine, and in the sunny meadows the dandelions shine. . and just as many daisies as their soft hands can hold, the little ones may gather, all fair in white and gold. . here blows the warm red clover, there peeps the violet blue; oh, happy little children! god made them all for you. celia thaxter. eclectic series. lesson lii. true courage. one cold winter's day, three boys were passing by a schoolhouse. the oldest was a bad boy. always in trouble himself, and trying to get others into trouble. the youngest, whose name was george, was a very good boy. george wished to do right, but was very much wanting in courage. the other boys were named henry and james. as they walked along, they talked as follows: henry. what fun it would be to throw a snowball against the schoolroom door, and make the teacher and scholars all jump! james. you would jump, if you should. if the teacher did not catch you and whip you, he would tell your father, and you would get a whipping then; and that would make you jump higher than the scholars, i think. henry. why, we would get so far off, before the teacher could come to the door, that he could not tell who we are. here is a snowball just as hard as ice, and george third reader. would as soon throw it against the door as not. james. give it to him, and see. he would not dare to throw it. henry. do you think george is a coward? you do not know him as well as i do. here, george, take this snowball, and show james that you are not such a coward as he thinks you are. george. i am not afraid to throw it; but i do not want to. i do not see that it eclectic series. will do any good, or that there will be any fun in it. james. there! i told you he would not dare to throw it. henry. why, george, are you turning coward? i thought you did not fear anything. come, save your credit, and throw it. i know you are not afraid. george. well, i am not afraid to throw. give me the snowball. i would as soon throw it as not. whack! went the snowball against the door; and the boys took to their heels. henry was laughing as heartily as he could, to think what a fool he had made of george. george had a whipping for his folly, as he ought to have had. he was such a coward, that he was afraid of being called a coward. he did not dare refuse to do as henry told him, for fear that he would be laughed at. if he had been really a brave boy, he would have said, "henry, do you suppose that i am so foolish as to throw that snowball, just because you want to have me? you may throw your own snowballs, if you please!" third reader. henry would, perhaps, have laughed at him, and called him a coward. but george would have said, "do you think that care for your laughing? i do not think it right to throw the snowball. i will not do that which think to be wrong, if the whole town should join with you in laughing." this would have been real courage. henry would have seen, at once, that it would do no good to laugh at a boy who had so bold a heart. you must have this fearless spirit, or you will get into trouble, and will be, and ought to be, disliked by all. lesson liii. the old clock. . in the old, old hall the old clock stands, and round and round move the steady hands; with its tick, tick, tick, both night and day, while seconds and minutes pass away. eclectic series, . at the old, old clock oft wonders nell, for she can't make out what it has to tell; she has ne'er yet read, in prose or rhyme, that it marks the silent course of time. . when i was a child, as nell is now, and long ere time had wrinkled my brow, the old, old clock both by night and day said,--"tick, tick, tick!" time passes away. third reader. lesson liv. the waves. . "where are we to go?" said the little waves to the great, deep sea. "go, my darlings, to the yellow sands: you will find work to do there." . "i want to play," said one little wave; "i want to see who can jump the highest." "no; come on, come on," said an earnest wave; "mother must be right. i want to work." . "oh, i dare not go," said another; "look at those great, black rocks close to the sands; i dare not go there, for they will tear me to pieces." . "take my hand, sister," said the earnest wave; "let us go on together. how glorious it is to do some work." . "shall we ever go back to mother?" "yes, when our work is done." eclectic series. . so one and all hurried on. even the little wave that wanted to play, pressed on, and thought that work might be fun after all. the timid ones did not like to be left behind, and they became earnest as they got nearer the sands. . after all, it was fun, pressing on one after another-- jumping, laughing, running on to the broad, shining sands. . first, they came in their course to a great sand castle. splash, splash! they all third reader. went over it, and down it came. "oh, what fun!" they cried. . "mother told me to bring these seaweeds; i will find a pretty place for them," said one--and she ran a long way over the sands, and left them among the pebbles. the pebbles cried, "we are glad you are come. we wanted washing." . "mother sent these shells; i do n't know where to put them," said a little fretful wave. "lay them one by one on the sand, and do not break them," said the eldest wave. . and the little one went about its work, and learned to be quiet and gentle, for fear of breaking the shells. . "where is my work?" said a great, full-grown wave. "this is mere play. the little ones can do this and laugh over it. mother said there was work for me." and he came down upon some large rocks. . over the rocks and into a pool he went, and he heard the fishes say, "the sea is coming. thank you, great sea; you always send a big wave when a storm is nigh. thank you, kind wave; we are all ready for you now." eclectic series. . then the waves all went back over the wet sands, slowly and carelessly, for they were tired. . "all my shells are safe," said one. . and, "my seaweeds are left behind," said another. . "i washed all of the pebbles," said a third. . "and i--i only broke on a rock, and splashed into a pool," said the one that was so eager to work. "i have done no good, mother--no work at all" . "hush!" said the sea. and they heard a child that was walking on the shore, say, "o mother, the sea has been here! look, how nice and clean the sand is, and how clear the water is in that pool." . then the sea, said, "hark!" and far away they heard the deep moaning of the coming storm. . "come, my darlings," said she; "you have done your work, now let the storm do its work." third reader. lesson lv. do n't kill the birds. . do n't kill the birds! the little birds, that sing about your door soon as the joyous spring has come, and chilling storms are o'er. . the little birds! how sweet they sing! oh, let them joyous live; and do not seek to take the life which you can never give. . do n't kill the birds! the pretty birds, that play among the trees; eclectic series. for earth would be a cheerless place, if it were not for these. . the little birds! how fond they play! do not disturb their sport; but let them warble forth their songs, till winter cuts them short. . do n't kill the birds! the happy birds, that bless the field and grove; so innocent to look upon, they claim our warmest love. . the happy birds, the tuneful birds, how pleasant 't is to see! no spot can be a cheerless place where'er their presence be. lesson lvi. when to say no. . though "no" is a very little word, it is not always easy to say it; and the not doing so, often causes trouble. third reader. . when we are asked to stay away from school, and spend in idleness or mischief the time which ought to be spent in study, we should at once say "no." . when we are urged to loiter on our way to school, and thus be late, and interrupt our teacher and the school, we should say "no." when some schoolmate wishes us to whisper or play in the schoolroom, we should say "no." . when we are tempted to use angry or wicked words, we should remember that the eye of god is always upon us, and should say "no." . when we have done anything wrong, and are tempted to conceal it by falsehood, we should say "no, we can not tell a lie; it is wicked and cowardly." . if we are asked to do anything which we know to be wrong, we should not fear to say "no." . if we thus learn to say "no," we shall avoid much trouble, and be always safe. . . eclectic series. lesson lvii. which loved best? "i love you, mother," said little john; then, forgetting work, his cap went on, and he was off to the garden swing, leaving his mother the wood to bring. . "i love you, mother," said rosy nell; "i love you better than tongue can tell;" third reader. then she teased and pouted full half the day, till her mother rejoiced when she went to play. . "i love you, mother," said little fan; "to-day i'll help you all i can; how glad i am that school does n't keep!" so she rocked the baby till it fell asleep. . then, stepping softly, she took the broom, and swept the floor, and dusted the room; busy and happy all day was she, helpful and cheerful as child could be. . "i love you, mother," again they said-- three little children going to bed; how do you think that mother guessed which of them really loved her best? joy allison. lesson lviii. john carpenter. . john carpenter did not like to buy toys that somebody else had made. he liked the fun of making them himself. the thought that they were his own work delighted him. . tom austin, one of his playmates, thought a toy was worth nothing unless it cost a great deal of money. he never tried to make anything, but bought all his toys. eclectic series. . "come and look at my horse," said he, one day. "it cost a dollar, and it is such a beauty! come and see it." . john was soon admiring his friend's horse; and he was examining it carefully, to see how it was made. the same evening he began to make one for himself. . he went into the wood shed, and picked third reader. out two pieces of wood--one for the head of his horse, the other for the body. it took him two or three days to shape them to his satisfaction. . his father gave him a bit of red leather for a bridle, and a few brass nails, and his mother found a bit of old fur with which he made a mane and tail for his horse. . but what about the wheels? this puzzled him. at last he thought he would go to a turner's shop, and see if he could not get some round pieces of wood which might suit his purpose. . he found a large number of such pieces among the shavings on the floor, and asked permission to take a few of them. the turner asked him what he wanted them for, and he told him about his horse. . "oh," said the man, laughing, "if you wish it, i will make some wheels for your horse. but mind, when it is finished, you must let me see it." . john promised to do so, and he soon ran home with the wheels in his pocket. the next evening, he went to the turner's shop with his horse all complete, and was told that he was an ingenious little fellow eclectic series. . proud of this compliment, he ran to his friend tom, crying, "now then, tom, here is my horse,--look!" . "well, that is a funny horse," said tom; "where did you buy it?" "i did n't buy it," replied john; i made it." . "you made it yourself! oh, well, it's a good horse for you to make. but it is not so good as mine. mine cost a dollar, and yours did n't cost anything." . "it was real fun to make it, though," said john, and away he ran with his horse rolling after him. . do you want to know what became of john? well, i will tell you. he studied hard in school, and was called the best scholar in his class. when he left school, he went to work in a machine shop. he is now a master workman, and will soon have a shop of his own. third reader. lesson lix. persevere. . the fisher who draws in his net too soon, won't have any fish to sell; the child who shuts up his book too soon, won't learn any lessons well. . if you would have your learning stay, be patient,--do n't learn too fast: the man who travels a mile each day, may get round the world at last. lesson lx. the contented boy. mr. lenox was one morning riding by himself. he got off from his horse to look at something on the roadside. the horse broke away from him, and ran off. mr. lenox ran after him, but soon found that he could not catch him. a little boy at work in a field near the road, heard the horse. as soon as he saw him running from his master, the boy ran eclectic series. very quickly to the middle of the road, and, catching the horse by thc bridle, stopped him till mr. lenox came up. mr. lenox. thank you, my good boy, you have caught my horse very nicely. what shall i give you for your trouble? boy. i want nothing, sir. mr. l. you want nothing? so much the better for you. few men can say as much. but what were you doing in the field? b. i was rooting up weeds, and tending the sheep that were feeding on turnips. mr. l. do you like to work? b. yes, sir, very well, this fine weather. mr. l. but would you not rather play? b. this is not hard work. it is almost as good as play. mr. l. who set you to work? b. my father, sir. mr. l. what is your name? b. peter hurdle, sir. mr. l. how old are you? b. eight years old, next june. mr. l. how long have you been here? b. ever since six o'clock this morning. mr. l. are you not hungry? b. yes, sir, but i shall go to dinner soon. third reader. mr. l. if you had a dime now, what would you do with it? b. i do n't know, sir. i never had so much. mr. l. have you no playthings? eclectic series. b. playthings? what are they? mr. l. such things as ninepins, marbles, tops, and wooden horses. b. no, sir. tom and i play at football in winter, and i have a jumping rope. i had a hoop, but it is broken. mr. l. do you want nothing else? b. i have hardly time to play with what i have. i have to drive the cows, and to run on errands, and to ride the horses to the fields, and that is as good as play. mr. l. you could get apples and cakes, if you had money, you know. b. i can have apples at home. as for cake, i do not want that. my mother makes me a pie now and then, which is as good. mr. l. would you not like a knife to cut sticks? b. i have one. here it is. brother tom gave it to me. mr. l. your shoes are full of holes. do n't you want a new pair? b. i have a better pair for sundays. mr. l. but these let in water. b. i do not mind that, sir. mr. l. your hat is all torn, too. b. i have a better one at home. third reader. mr. l. what do yon do when it rains? b. if it rains very hard when i am in the field, i get under a tree for shelter. mr. l. what do you do, if you are hungry before it is time to go home? b. i sometimes eat a raw turnip. mr. l. but if there is none? b. then i do as well as i can without. i work on, and never think of it. mr. l. why, my little fellow, i am glad to see that you are so contented. were you ever at school? b. no, sir. but father means to send me next winter. mr. l. you will want books then. b. yes, sir; each boy has a spelling book, a reader, and a testament. mr. l. then i will give them to you. tell your father so, and that it is because you are an obliging, contented little boy. b. i will, sir. thank you. mr. l. good by, peter. b. good morning, sir. dr. john aiken eclectic series. lesson lxi. little gustava. . little gustava sits in the sun, safe in the porch, and the little drops run from the icicles under the eaves so fast, for the bright spring sun shines warm at last, and glad is little gustava. . she wears a quaint little scarlet cap, and a little green bowl she holds in her lap, filled with bread and milk to the brim, and a wreath of marigolds round the rim: "ha! ha!" laughs little gustava. . up comes her little gray, coaxing cat, with her little pink nose, and she mews, "what's that ?" gustava feeds her,--she begs for more, and a little brown hen walks in at the door: "good day!" cries little gustava. . she scatters crumbs for the little brown hen, there comes a rush and a flutter, and then down fly her little white doves so sweet, with their snowy wings and their crimson feet: "welcome!" cries little gustava. . so dainty and eager they pick up the crumbs. but who is this through the doorway comes? third reader. little scotch terrier, little dog rags, looks in her face, and his funny tail wags: "ha! ha!" laughs little gustava. . "you want some breakfast, too?" and down she sets her bowl on the brick floor brown, and little dog rags drinks up her milk, while she strokes his shaggy locks, like silk: "dear rags!" says little gustava. . waiting without stood sparrow and crow, cooling their feet in the melting snow. eclectic series. "won't you come in, good folk?" she cried, but they were too bashful, and staid outside, though "pray come in!" cried gustava. . so the last she threw them, and knelt on the mat, with doves, and biddy, and dog, and cat. and her mother came to the open house door: "dear little daughter, i bring you some more, my merry little gustava." . kitty and terrier, biddy and doves, all things harmless gustava loves, the shy, kind creatures 't is joy to feed, and, oh! her breakfast is sweet indeed to happy little gustava! celia thaxter. lesson lxii. the insolent boy. . james selton was one of the most insolent boys in the village where he lived. he would rarely pass people in the street without being guilty of some sort of abuse. third reader. . if a person were well dressed he would cry out, "dandy!" if a person's clothes were dirty or torn, he would throw stones at him, and annoy him in every way. . one afternoon, just as the school was dismissed, a stranger passed through the village. his dress was plain and somewhat old, but neat and clean. he carried a cane in his hand, on the end of which was a bundle, and he wore a broad-brimmed hat. . no sooner did james see the stranger, than he winked to his playmates, and said, "now for some fun!" he then silently went toward the stranger from behind, and, knocking off his hat, ran away. . the man turned and saw him, but james was out of hearing before he could speak. the stranger put on his hat, and went on his way. again did james approach; but this time, the man caught him by the arm, and held him fast. . however, he contented himself with looking james a moment in the face, and then pushed him from him. no sooner did the naughty boy find himself free again, than he began to pelt the stranger with dirt and stones. eclectic series. . but he was much frightened when the "rowdy," as he foolishly called the man, was struck on the head by a brick, and badly hurt. all the boys now ran away, and james skulked across the fields to his home. . as he drew near the house, his sister caroline came out to meet him, holding up third reader. a beautiful gold chain and some new books for him to see. . she told james, as fast as she could talk, that their uncle, who had been away several years, had come home, and was now in the house; that he had brought beautiful presents for the whole family; that he had left his carriage at the tavern, a mile or two off, and walked on foot, so as to surprise his brother, their father. . she said, that while he was coming through the village, some wicked boys threw stones at him, and hit him just over the eye, and that mother had bound up the wound. "but what makes you look so pale?" asked caroline, changing her tone. . the guilty boy told her that nothing was the matter with him; and running into the house, he went upstairs into his chamber. soon after, he heard his father calling him to come down. trembling from head to foot, he obeyed. when he reached the parlor door, he stood, fearing to enter. . his mother said, "james, why do you not come in? you are not usually so bashful. see this beautiful watch, which your uncle has brought for you." , . eclectic series, . what a sense of shame did james now feel! little caroline seized his arm, and pulled him into the room. but he hung down his head, and covered his face with his hands. . his uncle went up to him, and kindly taking away his hands, said, "james, will you not bid me welcome?" but quickly starting back, he cried, "brother, this is not your son. it is the boy who so shamefully insulted me in the street!" . with surprise and grief did the good father and mother learn this. his uncle was ready to forgive him, and forget the injury. but his father would never permit james to have the gold watch, nor the beautiful books, which his uncle had brought for him. . the rest of the children were loaded with presents. james was obliged to content himself with seeing them happy. he never forgot this lesson so long as he lived. it cured him entirely of his low and insolent manners. third reader. lesson lxiii. we are seven. . i met a little cottage girl: she was eight years old, she said; her hair was thick with many a curl, that clustered round her head. . she had a rustic, woodland air, and she was wildly clad: her eyes were fair, and very fair;-- her beauty made me glad. . "sisters and brothers, little maid, how many may you be?" "how many? seven in all," she said, and, wondering, looked at me. . "and where are they? i pray you tell." she answered, "seven are we; and two of us at conway dwell, and two are gone to sea. l eclectic series. . "two of us in the churchyard lie, my sister and my brother; and, in the churchyard cottage, i dwell near them with my mother," . "you say that two at conway dwell, and two are gone to sea, yet ye are seven! i pray you tell, sweet maid, how this may be." third reader. . then did the little maid reply, "seven boys and girls are we; two of us in the churchyard lie, beneath the churchyard tree." . "you run about, my little maid, your limbs, they are alive; if two are in the churchyard laid, then ye are only five." . "their graves are green, they may be seen," the little maid replied, "twelve steps or more from mother's door, and they are side by side. . "my stockings there i often knit, my kerchief there i hem; and there upon the ground i sit, and sing a song to them. . "and often after sunset, sir, when it is light and fair, i take my little porringer, and eat my supper there. . "the first that died was sister jane; in bed she moaning lay, eclectic series. till god released her from her pain; and then she went away. . "so in the churchyard she was laid; and, when the grass was dry, together round her grave we played, my brother john and i. . "and when the ground was white with snow, and i could run and slide, my brother john was forced to go, and he lies by her side." . "how many are you, then?" said i, "if they two are in heaven?" quick was the little maid's reply, "o master! we are seven." . "but they are dead; those two are dead! their spirits are in heaven!" 't was throwing words away: for still the little maid would have her will, and said, "nay, we are seven." william wordsworth. third reader. lesson lxiv. mary's dime. . there! i have drawn the chairs into the right corners, and dusted the room nicely. how cold papa and mamma will be when they return from their long ride! it is not time to toast the bread yet, and i am tired of reading. . what shall i do? somehow, i can't help thinking about the pale face of that little beggar girl all the time. i can see the glad light filling her eyes, just as plain as i did when i laid the dime in her little dirty hand. . how much i had thought of that dime, too! grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago, and i had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs; but those sugar apples looked so beautiful, and were so cheap--only a dime apiece--that i made up my mind to have one. . i can see her--the beggar girl, i mean--as she stood there in front of the store, in her old hood and faded dress, looking at the candies laid all in a row. i wonder eclectic series. what made me say, "little girl, what do you want?" . how she stared at me, just as if nobody had spoken kindly to her before. i guess she thought i was sorry for her, for she said, so earnestly and sorrowfully, "i was thinking how good one of those gingerbread rolls would taste. i have n't had anything to eat to-day." third reader. . now, i thought to myself, "mary williams, you have had a good breakfast and a good dinner this day, and this poor girl has not had a mouthful. you can give her your dime; she needs it a great deal more than you do." . i could not resist that little girl's sorrowful, hungry look--so i dropped the dime right into her hand, and, without waiting for her to speak, walked straight away. i'm so glad i gave her the dime, if i did have to go without the apple lying there in the window, and looking just like a real one. lesson lxv. mary dow. . "come in, little stranger," i said, as she tapped at my half open door; while the blanket, pinned over her head, just reached to the basket she bore. eclectic series. . a look full of innocence fell from her modest and pretty blue eye, as she said, "i have matches to sell, and hope you are willing to buy. . "a penny a bunch is the price, i think you'll not find it too much; they are tied up so even and nice, and ready to light with a touch." . i asked, "'what's your name, little girl?" "'tis mary," said she, "mary dow;" third reader. and carelessly tossed off a curl, that played on her delicate brow. . "my father was lost on the deep; the ship never got to the shore; and mother is sad, and will weep, to hear the wind blow and sea roar. . "she sits there at home, without food, beside our poor, sick willy's bed; she paid all her money for wood, and so i sell matches for bread. . "i'd go to the yard and get chips, but then it would make me too sad to see the men building the ships, and think they had made one so bad. . "but god, i am sure, who can take such fatherly care of a bird, will never forget nor forsake the children who trust in his word. . "and now, if i only can sell the matches i brought out to-day, i think i shall do very well, and we shall rejoice at the pay." eclectic series, . "fly home, little bird," then i thought, "fly home, full of joy, to your nest;" for i took all the matches she brought, and mary may tell you the rest. lesson lxvi. the little loaf. . once when there was a famine, a rich baker sent for twenty of the poorest children in the town, and said to them, "in this basket there is a loaf for each of you. take it, and come back to me every day at this hour till god sends us better times." . the hungry children gathered eagerly about the basket, and quarreled for the bread, because each wished to have the largest loaf. at last they went away without even thanking the good gentleman. . but gretchen, a poorly-dressed little girl, did not quarrel or struggle with the rest, third reader. but remained standing modestly in the distance. when the ill-behaved girls had left, she took the smallest loaf, which alone was left in the basket, kissed the gentleman's hand, and went home. . the next day the children were as ill behaved as before, and poor, timid gretchen received a loaf scarcely half the size of the one she got the first day. when she came home, and her mother cut the loaf open, many new, shining pieces of silver fell out of it. eclectic series. . her mother was very much alarmed, and said, "take the money back to the good gentleman at once, for it must have got into the dough by accident. be quick, gretchen! be quick!" . but when the little girl gave the rich man her mother's message, he said, "no, no, my child, it was no mistake. i had the silver pieces put into the smallest loaf to reward you. always be as contented, peaceable, and grateful as you now are. go home now, and tell your mother that the money is your own." lesson lxvii. susie and rover. . "mamma," said susie dean, one summer's morning, "may i go to the woods, and pick berries?" third reader. . "yes," replied mrs. dean, "but you must take rover with you." . susie brought her little basket, and her mother put up a nice lunch for her. she tied down the cover, and fastened a tin cup to it. . the little girl called rover--a great newfoundland dog--and gave him a tin pail to carry. "if i bring it home full, mamma," she said, "won't you make some berry cakes for tea?" . away she tripped, singing as she went down the lane and across the pasture. when she got to the woods, she put her dinner basket down beside a tree, and began to pick berries. . rover ran about, chasing a squirrel or a rabbit now and then, but never straying far from susie. . the tin pail was not a very small one. by the time it was two thirds full, susie began to feel hungry, and thought she would eat her lunch. . rover came and took his place at her side as soon as she began to eat. did she not give him some of the lunch? no, she was in a selfish mood, and did no such thing. eclectic series. . "there, rover, run away! there's a good dog," she said; but rover staid near her, watching her steadily with his clear brown eves. . the meat he wanted so much, was soon eaten up; and all he got of the nice dinner, was a small crust of gingerbread that susie threw away. . after dinner, susie played a while by third reader. the brook. she threw sticks into the water, and rover swam in and brought them back. then she began to pick berries again. . she did not enjoy the afternoon as she did the morning. the sunshine was as bright, the berries were as sweet and plentiful, and she was neither tired nor hungry. . but good, faithful rover was hungry, and she had not given him even one piece of meat. she tried to forget how selfish she had been; but she could not do so, and quite early she started for home. . when she was nearly out of the woods, a rustling in the underbrush attracted her attention. "i wonder if that is a bird or a squirrel," said she to herself. "if i can catch it, how glad i shall be!" . she tried to make her way quietly through the underbrush; but what was her terror when she saw it large snake coiled up before her, prepared for a spring! . she was so much frightened that she could not move; but brave rover saw the snake, and, springing forward, seized it by the neck and killed it. . when the faithful dog came and rubbed his head against her hand, susie put her , . eclectic series. arms 'round his neck, and burst into tears. "o rover," she cried, "you dear, good dog! how sorry i am that i was so selfish!" . rover understood the tone of her voice, if he did not understand her words, and capered about in great glee, barking all the time. you may be sure that he had a plentiful supper that evening. . susie never forgot the lesson of that day. she soon learned to be on her guard against a selfish spirit, and became a happier and more lovable little girl. mrs. m. o. johnson--adapted. lesson lxviii. the violet. . down in a green and shady bed, a modest violet grew; its stalk was bent, it hung its head, as if to hide from view third reader. . and yet it was a lovely flower, its colors bright and fair; it might have graced a rosy bower instead of hiding there. . yet there it was content to bloom, in modest tints arrayed, and there it spread its sweet perfume, within the silent shade. . then let me to the valley go, this pretty flower to see; that i may also learn to grow in sweet humility. jane taylor. eclectic series. lesson lxix. no crown for me. . "will you come with us, susan?" cried several little girls to a schoolmate. "we are going to the woods; do come, too." . "i should like to go with you very much," replied susan, with a sigh; "but i can not finish the task grandmother set me to do." . "how tiresome it must be to stay at home to work on a holiday!" said one of the girls, with a toss of her head. "susan's grandmother is too strict." . susan heard this remark, and, as she bent her head over her task, she wiped away a tear, and thought of the pleasant afternoon the girls would spend gathering wild flowers in the woods. . soon she said to herself, "what harm can there be in moving the mark grandmother put in the stocking? the woods must be very beautiful to-day, and how i should like to be in them!" . "grandmother," said she, a few minutes afterwards, "i am ready, now." "what, so third reader. soon, susan?" her grandmother took the work, and looked at it very closely. . "true, susan," said she, laying great stress on each word; "true, i count twenty turns from the mark; and, as you have never deceived me, you may go and amuse yourself as you like the rest of the day." . susan's cheeks were scarlet, and she did not say, "thank you." as she left the cottage, she walked slowly away, not singing as usual. . "why, here is susan!" the girls cried, when she joined their company; "but what is the matter? why have you left your dear, old grandmother?" they tauntingly added. . "there is nothing the matter." as susan repeated these words, she felt that she was trying to deceive herself. she had acted a lie. at the same time she remembered her grandmother's words, "you have never deceived me." . "yes, i have deceived her," said she to herself. "if she knew all, she would never trust me again." . when the little party had reached an open space in the woods, her companions ran about enjoying themselves; but susan sat on eclectic series. the grass, wishing she were at home confessing her fault. . after a while rose cried out, "let us make a crown of violets, and put it on the head of the best girl here." . "it will be easy enough to make the crown, but not so easy to decide who is to wear it," said julia. . "why, susan is to wear it, of course," said rose: "is she not said to be the best girl in school and the most obedient at home?" . "yes, yes; the crown shall be for susan," third reader. cried the other girls, and they began to make the crown. it was soon finished. . "now, susan," said rose, "put it on in a very dignified way, for you are to be our queen." . as these words were spoken, the crown was placed on her head. in a moment she snatched it off, and threw it on the ground, saying, "no crown for me; i do not deserve it." . the girls looked at her with surprise. "i have deceived my grandmother," said she, while tears flowed down her cheeks. "i altered the mark she put in the stocking, that i might join you in the woods." . "do you call that wicked?" asked one of the girls. "i am quite sure it is; and i have been miserable all the time i have been here." . susan now ran home, and as soon as she got there she said, with a beating heart, "o grandmother! i deserve to be punished, for i altered the mark you put in the stocking. do forgive me; i am very sorry and unhappy." . "susan," said her grandmother, "i knew it all the time; but i let you go out, hoping eclectic series. that your own conscience would tell you of your sin. i am so glad that you have confessed your fault and your sorrow." . "when shall i be your own little girl again?" "now," was the quick reply, and susan's grandmother kissed her forehead. lesson lxx. young soldiers. . oh, were you ne'er a schoolboy, and did you never train, and feel that swelling of the heart you ne'er can feel again? . did you never meet, far down the street, with plumes and banners gay, while the kettle, for the kettledrum, played your march, march away? third reader. . it seems to me but yesterday, nor scarce so long ago, since all our school their muskets took, to charge the fearful foe. . our muskets were of cedar wood, with ramrods bright and new; with bayonets forever set, and painted barrels, too. . we charged upon a flock of geese, and put them all to flight-- except one sturdy gander that thought to show us fight. eclectic series. . but, ah! we knew a thing or two; our captain wheeled the van; we routed him, we scouted him, nor lost a single man! . our captain was as brave a lad as e'er commission bore; and brightly shone his new tin sword; a paper cap he wore. . he led us up the steep hillside, against the western wind, while the cockerel plume that decked his head streamed bravely out behind. . we shouldered arms, we carried arms, we charged the bayonet; and woe unto the mullein stalk that in our course we met! third reader. . at two o'clock the roll we called, and till the close of day, with fearless hearts, though tired limbs, we fought the mimic fray,-- till the supper bell, from out the dell, bade us march, march away. lesson lxxi. how willie got out of the shaft. . willie's aunt sent him for a birthday present a little writing book. there was a place in the book for a pencil. willie thought a great deal of this little book, and always kept it in his pocket. . one day, his mother was very busy, and he called his dog, and said, "come, caper, let us have a play." eclectic series. . when willie's mother missed him, she went to the door and looked out, and could not see him anywhere; but she knew that caper was with him, and thought they would come back before long. . she waited an, hour, and still they did not come. when she came to the gate by the road, she met mr. lee, and told him how long willie had been gone. mr. lee thought he must have gone to sleep under the trees. so they went to all the trees under which willie was in the habit of playing, but he was nowhere to be found. . by this time the sun had gone down. the news that willie was lost soon spread over the neighborhood, and all the men and women turned out to hunt. they hunted all night. . the next morning the neighbors were gathered round, and all were trying to think what to do next, when caper came bounding into the room. there was a string tied round his neck, and a bit of paper tied to it. . willie's father, mr. lee, took the paper, and saw that it was a letter from willie. he read it aloud. it said, "o father! come to me. i am in the big hole in the pasture." third reader. . everybody ran at once to the far corner of the pasture; and there was willie, alive and well, in the shaft. oh, how glad he was when his father caught him in his arms, and lifted him out! . now i will tell you how willie came to be in the shaft. he and caper went to the pasture field, and came to the edge of the shaft and sat down. in bending over eclectic series. to see how deep it was, he lost his balance, and fell in. he tried very hard to get out, but could not. . when the good little dog saw that his master was in the shaft, he would not leave him, but ran round and round, reaching down and trying to pull him out. but while caper was pulling willie by the coat sleeves, a piece of sod gave way under his feet, and he fell in too. . willie called for his father and mother as loud as he could call; but he was so far away from the house that no one could hear him. . he cried and called till it was dark, and then he lay down on the ground, and caper lay down close beside him. it was not long before willie cried himself to sleep. . when he awoke it was morning, and he began to think of a way to get out. the little writing book that his aunt had given him, was in his pocket. he took it out, and, after a good deal of trouble, wrote the letter to his father. . then he tore the leaf out, and took a string out of his pocket, and tied it round caper's neck, and tied the letter to the third reader. string. then he lifted the dog up, and helped him out, and said to him, "go home, caper, go home!" the little dog scampered away, and was soon at home. lesson lxxii. the pert chicken. . there was once a pretty chicken; but his friends were very few, for he thought that there was nothing in the world but what he knew: so he always, in the farmyard, had a very forward way, telling all the hens and turkeys what they ought to do and say. "mrs. goose," he said, "i wonder that your goslings you should let go out paddling in the water; it will kill them to get wet." eclectic series, . "i wish, my old aunt dorking," he began to her, one day, "that you would n't sit all summer in your nest upon the hay. won't you come out to the meadow, where the grass with seeds is filled?" "if i should," said mrs. dorking, "then my eggs would all get chilled." "no, they wo n't," replied the chicken, "and no matter if they do; eggs are really good for nothing; what's an egg to me or you?" . "what's an egg!" said mrs. dorking, "can it be you do not know third reader. you yourself were in an eggshell just one little month ago? and, if kind wings had not warmed you, you would not be out to-day, telling hens, and geese, and turkeys, what they ought to do and say! . "to be very wise, and show it, is a pleasant thing, no doubt; but, when young folks talk to old folks, they should know what they're about." marian douglas. lesson lxxiii. indian corn. . few plants are more useful to man than indian corn, or maize. no grain, except rice, is used to so great an extent as an article of food. in some countries corn is almost the only food eaten by the people. , eclectic series. . do you know why it is called indian corn? it is because the american indians were the first corn growers. columbus found this grain widely cultivated by them when he discovered the new world. they pounded it in rude, stone bowls, and thus made a coarse flour, which they mixed with water and baked. . indian corn is now the leading crop in the united states. in whatever part of this land we live, we see corn growing every year in its proper season. yet how few can tell the most simple and important facts about its planting and its growth! . corn, to do well, must have a rich soil and a warm climate. it is a tender plant, and is easily injured by cold weather. the seed corn does not sprout, but rots, if the ground is cold and wet. . to prepare land properly for planting corn, the soil is made fine by plowing, and furrows are run across the field four feet apart each way. at every point where these furrows cross, the farmer drops from four to seven grains of seed corn. these are then covered with about two inches of earth, and thus form "hills" of corn. third reader. . in favorable weather, the tender blades push through the ground in ten days or two weeks; then the stalks mount up rapidly, and the long, streamer-like leaves unfold gracefully from day to day. corn must be carefully cultivated while the plants are small. after they begin to shade the ground, they need but little hoeing or plowing. . the moisture and earthy matter, drawn through the roots, become sap. this passes through the stalk, and enters the leaves. there a great change takes place which results in the starting of the ears and the growth of the grain. . the maize plant bears two kinds of flowers,--male and female. the two are widely separated. the male flowers are on the tassel; the fine silk threads which surround the ear, and peep out from the end of the husks, are the female flowers. . each grain on the cob is the starting point for a thread of silk; and, unless the thread receives some particle of the dust which falls from the tassel flowers, the kernel with which it is connected will not grow. . the many uses of indian corn and its products are worthy of note. the green eclectic series. stalks and leaves make excellent fodder for cattle. the ripe grain is used all over the earth as food for horses, pigs, and poultry. nothing is better for fattening stock. . green corn, or "roasting ears," hulled corn and hominy, new england hasty pudding, and succotash are favorite dishes with many persons. then there are parched corn and pop corn--the delight of long winter evenings. . cornstarch is an important article of commerce. sirup and sugar are made from the juice of the stalk, and oil and alcohol from the ripened grain. corn husks are largely used for filling third reader. mattresses, and are braided into mats, baskets, and other useful articles. . thus it will be seen how varied are the uses of indian corn. and besides being so useful, the plant is very beautiful. the sight of a large cornfield in the latter part of summer, with all its green banners waving and its tasseled plumes nodding, is one to admire, and not to be forgotten. lesson lxxiv. the snowbird's song. . the ground was all covered with snow one day, and two little sisters were busy at play, when a snowbird was sitting close by on a tree, and merrily singing his chick-a-de-dee. eclectic series. . he had not been singing that tune very long ere emily heard him, so loud was his song; "o sister, look out of the window!" said she; "here's a dear little bird singing chick-a-de-dee. . "poor fellow! he walks in the snow and the sleet, and has neither stockings nor shoes on his feet: i wonder what makes him so full of his glee; he's all the time singing his chick-a-de-dee. . "if i were a barefooted snowbird, i know, i would not stay out in the cold and the snow; i pity him so! oh, how cold he must be! and yet he keeps singing his chick-a-de-dee. third reader. . "o mother; do get him some stockings, and shoes, and a nice little frock, and a hat if he choose: i wish he'd come into the parlor, and see how warm we would make him, poor chick-a-de-dee!" . the bird had flown down for some sweet crumbs of bread, and heard every word little emily said: "what a figure i'd make in that dress" thought he, and laughed as he warbled his chick-a-de-dee. . "i am grateful," said he, "for the wish you express, but have no occasion for such a fine dress; i rather remain with my little limbs free, than to hobble about, singing chick-a-de-dee. . "there is one, my dear child, though i can not tell who, has clothed me already, and warm enough, too. good morning! oh, who are so happy as we?" and away he flew, singing his chick-a-de-dee. f. c. woodworth. eclectic series. lesson lxxv. mountains. . the himalayas are the highest mountains on our globe, they are in asia, and separate india from thibet. they extend in a continuous line for more than a thousand miles. . if you ever ascend one of these mountains from the plain below, you will have to cross an unhealthy border, twenty miles in width. it is, in fact, a swamp caused by the waters overflowing the river banks. . the soil of this swampy border is covered with trees and shrubs, where the tiger, the elephant, and other animals find secure retreat. beyond this border, you will reach smiling valleys and noble forests. . as you advance onward and upward, you will get among bolder and more rugged scenes. the sides of the mountains are very steep, sometimes well wooded to quite a height, but sometimes quite barren. . in crossing a river you must be content with three ropes for a bridge. you will find the streets of the towns to be simply stairs third reader. cut out of the rock, and see the houses rising in tiers. . the pathways into thibet, among these mountains, are mere tracks by the side of foaming torrents. often, as you advance, you will find every trace of the path swept away by the failing of rocks and earth from above. eclectic series. . sometimes you will find posts driven into the mountain side, upon which branches of trees and earth are spread. this forms a trembling foothold for the traveler. . in the andes, in south america, the sure-footed mule is used to carry travelers. quite often a chasm must be crossed that is many feet wide and hundreds of feet deep. the mule will leap across this chasm, but not until it is sure it can make a safe jump. . "one day," says a traveler, "i went by the worst pass over the andes mountains. the path for seventy yards was very narrow, and at one point it was washed entirely away. on one side the rock brushed my shoulder, and on the other side my foot overhung the precipice." . the guide told this man, after he was safely over the pass, that, to his knowledge, four hundred mules had fallen over that precipice, and in many instances travelers had lost their lives at that terrible spot. third reader. lesson lxxvi. a child's hymn. . god make my life a little light, within the world to glow; a little flame that burneth bright wherever i may go. . god make my life a little flower, that giveth joy to all, content to bloom in native bower, although its place be small. . god make my life a little song, that comforteth the sad; that helpeth others to be strong, and makes the singer glad. . god make my life a little hymn of tenderness and praise; of faith--that never waxeth dim in all his wondrous ways. eclectic series, lesson lxxvii. holding the fort. . while genie was walking slowly down street one day, she heard an odd rapping on the pavement behind her. looking round, she saw rob grey hobbling on crutches. . "why, what is the matter?" cried genie. "i have n't seen you for a week, and now you are walking in that way." . "i shall have to walk in this way as much as a week longer, genie. i sprained my ankle by stopping too quick-- no, not too quick, either, for there was something in my way." "what was it?" asked genie. . "one of the commandments," replied rob. "you remember how that lecturer talked to us about 'holding the fort'? well, i thought i should like to do it; but it's a pretty long war, you know--all a lifetime, and no vacations-- furloughs, i think they call them." . "if there was nothing to fight, we should not need to be soldiers," said genie. . "well, i thought i would try; but the third reader. first day, when we came out of the schoolhouse, jack lee snatched my books out of my hand, and threw them into the mud. . "i started after him as fast as i could run. i meant to throw him where he had thrown the books, when, all of a sudden, i thought of the commandment about returning good for evil. . "i stopped short--so short, that, somehow, eclectic series. my foot twisted under me. so, you see, it was one of the commandments." . "if one must stumble at them, it is a good thing to fall on the right side," said genie, with a wise nod of her head. . "the whole thing puzzles me, and makes me feel-- well, like giving it up," said rob. "it might have served me right when i was chasing jack; but when i thought of the commandment, i really tried to do the right thing." . "you did do it, rob," said genie. "you 'held the fort' that time. why, do n't you see--you are only a wounded soldier." . "i never thought of that," said rob. "if i believe that way--" he began to whistle, and limped off to school without finishing the sentence. but genie knew, by the way he behaved that day, that he had made up his mind to hold the fort. third reader. lesson lxxviii. the little people. . a dreary place would be this earth, were there no little people in it; the song of life would lose its mirth, were there no children to begin it; . no little forms, like buds to grow, and make the admiring heart surrender; no little hands on breast and brow, to keep the thrilling love chords tender. . the sterner souls would grow more stern, unfeeling nature more inhuman, and man to utter coldness turn, and woman would be less than woman. . life's song, indeed, would lose its charm, were there no babies to begin it; a doleful place this world would be, were there no little people in it. john g. whittier. third reader. lesson lxxix. good night. . the sun is hidden from our sight, the birds are sleeping sound; 't is time to say to all, "good night!" and give a kiss all round. . good night, my father, mother, dear! now kiss your little son; good night, my friends, both far and near! good night to every one. . good night, ye merry, merry birds! sleep well till morning light; perhaps, if you could sing in words, you would have said, "good night!" . to all my pretty flowers, good night! you blossom while i sleep; and all the stars, that shine so bright, with you their watches keep. . the moon is lighting up the skies, the stars are sparkling there; 't is time to shut our weary eyes, and say our evening prayer. mrs. follen. [transcriber's note: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. text that has been changed to correct an obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook.] the upward path a reader for colored children with an introduction by robert r. moton principal of tuskegee institute compiled by myron t. pritchard principal, everett school, boston and mary white ovington chairman of the board of the national association for the advancement of colored people new york harcourt, brace and howe copyright, , by harcourt, brace and howe, inc. [illustration] [illustration: the boy and the bayonet] foreword to the present time, there has been no collection of stories and poems by negro writers, which colored children could read with interest and pleasure and in which they could find a mirror of the traditions and aspirations of their race. realizing this lack, myron t. pritchard, principal of the everett school, boston, and mary white ovington, chairman of the board of the national association for the advancement of colored people, have brought together poems, stories, sketches and addresses which bear eloquent testimony to the richness of the literary product of our negro writers. it is the hope that this little book will find a large welcome in all sections of the country and will bring good cheer and encouragement to the young readers who have so largely the fortunes of their race in their own hands. the editors desire to express thanks to the authors who have generously granted the use of their work. especial acknowledgement is due to mrs. booker t. washington for the selection from _up from slavery_; to _the crisis_ for "the rondeau," by jessie fauset, "the brave son," by alston w. burleigh, "the black fairy," by fenton johnson, "the children at easter," by c. emily frazier, "his motto," by lottie b. dixon, "negro soldiers," by roscoe c. jamison, "a legend of the blue jay," by ruth anna fisher; to the american book company for "the dog and the clever rabbit," from _animal tales_, by a. o. stafford; to frederick a. stokes and company for "a negro explorer at the north pole," by matthew a. henson; to a. c. mcclurg and company for the selection from _souls of black folk_, by w. e. b. dubois; to henry holt and company for the selection from _the negro_, by w. e. b. dubois; to the cornhill company for the selections from the _band of gideon_, by joseph f. cotter, jr., and _the menace of the south_, by william j. edwards; to dodd, mead and company for "ere sleep comes down" and the "boy and the bayonet" (copyright ), by paul laurence dunbar. contents page the boy and the bayonet _paul laurence dunbar_ beginnings of a mississippi school _william h. holtzclaw_ up from slavery _booker t. washington_ booker t. washington _william h. holtzclaw_ anna-margaret _augusta bird_ charity _h. cordelia ray_ my first school _w. e. b. dubois_ ere sleep comes down _paul laurence dunbar_ the land of laughter _angelina w. grimke_ the web of circumstance _charles w. chesnutt_ is the game worth the candle? _james e. shepard_ o black and unknown bards _james weldon johnson_ the greatest menace of the south _william j. edwards_ the enchanted shell _h. cordelia ray_ behind a georgia mule _james weldon johnson_ hayti and toussaint l'ouverture _w. e. b. dubois_ his motto _lottie burrell dixon_ the months _h. cordelia ray_ the colored cadet at west point _lieut. henry ossian flipper, u.s.a._ an hymn to the evening _phyllis wheatley_ going to school under difficulties _william h. holtzclaw_ the brave son _alston w. burleigh_ victory _walter f. white_ the dog and the clever rabbit _a. o. stafford_ the boy and the ideal _joseph s. cotter_ children at easter _c. emily frazier_ abraham lincoln _william pickens_ rondeau _jessie fauset_ how i escaped _frederick douglass_ frederick douglass _w. h. crogman_ incident in the life of frederick douglass animal life in the congo _william henry sheppard_ coÖperation and the latin class _lillian b. witten_ the band of gideon _joseph f. cotter, jr._ the home of the colored girl beautiful _azalia hackley_ the knighting of donald _lillian b. witten_ a negro explorer at the north pole _matthew a. henson_ benjamin banneker _william wells brown_ the negro race _charles w. anderson_ paul cuffe _john w. cromwell_ the black fairy _fenton johnson_ it's a long way _william stanley braithwaite_ negro music that stirred france _emmett j. scott_ november , sea lyric _william stanley braithwaite_ a negro woman's hospitality _leila a. pendleton_ record of "the old fifteenth" in france _emmett j. scott_ negro soldiers _roscoe c. jamison_ the "devil bush" and the "greegree bush" _george w. ellis_ evening prayer _h. cordelia ray_ the strenuous life _silas x. floyd_ o little david, play on your harp _joseph f. cotter, jr._ a day at kalk bay, south africa _l. j. coppin_ bishop atticus g. haygood _w. h. crogman_ how two colored captains fell _ralph w. tyler_ the young warrior _james weldon johnson_ whole regiments decorated _emmett j. scott_ on planting artichokes _daniel a. rudd and theodore bond_ a song of thanks _edward smyth jones_ our dumb animals _silas x. floyd_ a legend of the blue jay _ruth anna fisher_ david livingstone _benjamin brawley_ ira aldridge _william j. simmons_ fifty years _james weldon johnson_ a great kingdom in the congo _william henry sheppard_ pillars of the state _william c. jason_ oath of afro-american youth _kelly miller_ notes introduction the negro has been in america just about three hundred years and in that time he has become intertwined in all the history of the nation. he has fought in her wars; he has endured hardships with her pioneers; he has toiled in her fields and factories; and the record of some of the nation's greatest heroes is in large part the story of their service and sacrifice for this people. the negro arrived in america as a slave in , just one year before the pilgrims arrived at plymouth in search of freedom. since then their lot has not always been a happy one, but nevertheless, in spite of difficulties and hardships, the race has learned many valuable lessons in its conflict with the american civilization. as a slave the lessons of labor, of constructive endeavor, of home-life and religion were learned, even if the opportunity was not always present to use these lessons to good advantage. after slavery other lessons were learned in their order. devoted self-sacrificing souls--soldiers of human brotherhood--took up the task in the schoolroom which their brothers began on the battlefield. here it was that the negro learned the history of america, of the deeds of her great men, the stirring events which marked her development, the ideals that made america great. and so well have they been learned, that to-day there are no more loyal americans than the twelve million negroes that make up so large a part of the nation. but the race has other things yet to learn: the education of any race is incomplete unless the members of that race know the history and character of its own people as well as those of other peoples. the negro has yet to learn of the part which his own race has played in making america great; has yet to learn of the noble and heroic souls among his own people, whose achievements are praiseworthy among any people. a number of books--poetry, history and fiction--have been written by negro authors in which the life of their own people has been faithfully and attractively set forth; but until recently no effort has been made on a large scale to see that negro boys and girls became acquainted with these books and the facts they contained concerning their people. in this volume the publishers have brought together a number of selections from the best literary works of negro authors, through which these young people may learn more of the character and accomplishments of the worthy members of their race. such matter is both informing and inspiring, and no negro boy or girl can read it without feeling a deeper pride in his own race. the selections are each calculated to teach a valuable lesson, and all make a direct appeal to the best impulses of the human heart. for a number of years several educational institutions for negro youths have conducted classes in negro history with a similar object in view. the results of these classes have been most gratifying and the present volume is a commendable contribution to the literature of such a course. robert r. moton tuskegee institute, ala., june , to the man in the tower the world below him is likely to look very small. men look like ants and all the bustle and stir of their hurrying lives seems pitifully confused and aimless. but the man in the street who is looking and striving upward is in a different situation. however poor his present plight, the thing he aims at and is striving toward stands out clear and distinct above him, inspiring him with hope and ambition in his struggle upward. for the man who is down there is always something to hope for, always something to be gained. the man who is down, looking up, may catch a glimpse now and then of heaven, but the man who is so situated that he can only look down is pretty likely to see another and quite different place. booker t. washington the upward path the boy and the bayonet paul laurence dunbar it was june, and nearing the closing time of school. the air was full of the sound of bustle and preparation for the final exercises, field day, and drills. drills especially, for nothing so gladdens the heart of the washington mother, be she black or white, as seeing her boy in the blue cadet's uniform, marching proudly to the huzzas of an admiring crowd. then she forgets the many nights when he has come in tired out and dusty from his practice drill, and feels only the pride and elation of the result. although tom did all he could outside of study hours, there were many days of hard work for hannah davis, when her son went into the high school. but she took it upon herself gladly, since it gave bud the chance to learn, that she wanted him to have. when, however, he entered the cadet corps it seemed to her as if the first steps toward the fulfilment of all her hopes had been made. it was a hard pull to her, getting the uniform, but bud himself helped manfully, and when his mother saw him rigged out in all his regimentals, she felt that she had not toiled in vain. and in fact it was worth all the trouble and expense just to see the joy and pride of "little sister," who adored bud. as the time for the competitive drill drew near there was an air of suppressed excitement about the little house on "d" street, where the three lived. all day long "little sister," who was never very well and did not go to school, sat and looked out of the window on the uninteresting prospect of a dusty thoroughfare lined on either side with dull red brick houses, all of the same ugly pattern, interspersed with older, uglier, and viler frame shanties. in the evening hannah hurried home to get supper against the time when bud should return, hungry and tired from his drilling, and the chore work which followed hard upon its heels. things were all cheerful, however, for as they applied themselves to the supper, the boy, with glowing face, would tell just how his company "a" was getting on, and what they were going to do to companies "b" and "c." it was not boasting so much as the expression of a confidence, founded upon the hard work he was doing, and hannah and the "little sister" shared that with him. the child often, listening to her brother, would clap her hands or cry, "oh, bud, you're just splendid an' i know you'll beat 'em." "if hard work'll beat 'em, we've got 'em beat," bud would reply, and hannah, to add an admonitory check to her own confidence, would break in with, "now, don't you be too sho'; dey ain't been no man so good dat dey wasn't somebody bettah." but all the while her face and manner were disputing what her words expressed. the great day came, and it was a wonderful crowd of people that packed the great baseball grounds to overflowing. it seemed that all of washington's colored population was out, when there were really only about one-tenth of them there. it was an enthusiastic, banner-waving, shouting, hallooing crowd. its component parts were strictly and frankly partisan, and so separated themselves into sections differentiated by the colors of the flags they carried and the ribbons they wore. side yelled defiance at side, and party bantered party. here the blue and white of company "a" flaunted audaciously on the breeze beside the very seats over which the crimson and gray of "b" were flying and they in their turn nodded defiance over the imaginary barrier between themselves and "c's" black and yellow. the band was thundering out sousa's "high school cadet's march," the school officials, the judges, and reporters, and some with less purpose were bustling about discussing and conferring. altogether doing nothing much with beautiful unanimity. all was noise, hurry, gaiety, and turbulence. in the midst of it all, with blue and white rosettes pinned on their breasts, sat two spectators, tense and silent, while the breakers of movement and sound struck and broke around them. it seemed too much to hannah and "little sister" for them to laugh and shout. bud was with company "a," and so the whole program was more like a religious ceremonial to them. the blare of the brass to them might have been the trumpet call to battle in old judea, and the far-thrown tones of the megaphone the voice of a prophet proclaiming from the hill-top. hannah's face glowed with expectation, and "little sister" sat very still and held her mother's hand save when amid a burst of cheers company "a" swept into the parade ground at a quick step, then she sprang up, crying shrilly, "there's bud! there's bud! i see him!" and then settled back into her seat overcome with embarrassment. the mother's eyes danced as soon as the sister's had singled out their dear one from the midst of the blue-coated boys, and it was an effort for her to keep from following her little daughter's example even to echoing her words. company "a" came swinging down the field toward the judges in a manner that called for more enthusiastic huzzas that carried even the freshmen of other commands "off their feet." they were, indeed, a set of fine-looking young fellows, brisk, straight, and soldierly in bearing. their captain was proud of them, and his very step showed it. he was like a skilled operator pressing the key of some great mechanism, and at his command they moved like clockwork. seen from the side it was as if they were all bound together by inflexible iron bars, and as the end man moved all must move with him. the crowd was full of exclamations of praise and admiration, but a tense quiet enveloped them as company "a" came from columns of four into line for volley firing. this was a real test; it meant not only grace and precision of movement, singleness of attention and steadiness, but quickness tempered by self-control. at the command the volley rang forth like a single shot. this was again the signal for wild cheering and the blue and white streamers kissed the sunlight with swift impulsive kisses. hannah and "little sister" drew closer together and pressed hands. the "a" adherents, however, were considerably cooled when the next volley came out, badly scattering, with one shot entirely apart and before the rest. bud's mother did not entirely understand the sudden quieting of the adherents; they felt vaguely that all was not as it should be, and the chill of fear laid hold upon their hearts. what if bud's company (it was always bud's company to them), what if his company should lose. but, of course, that couldn't be. bud himself had said that they would win. suppose, though, they didn't; and with these thoughts they were miserable until the cheering again told them that the company had redeemed itself. someone behind hannah said, "they are doing splendidly, they'll win, they'll win yet in spite of the second volley." company "a," in columns of four, had executed the right oblique in double time, and halted amid cheers; then formed left front into line without halting. the next movement was one looked forward to with much anxiety on account of its difficulty. the order was marching by fours to fix or unfix bayonets. they were going at a quick step, but the boys' hands were steady--hope was bright in their hearts. they were doing it rapidly and freely, when suddenly from the ranks there was the bright gleam of steel lower down than it should have been. a gasp broke from the breasts of company "a's" friends. the blue and white dropped disconsolately, while a few heartless ones who wore other colors attempted to hiss. someone had dropped his bayonet. but with muscles unquivering, without a turned head, the company moved on as if nothing had happened, while one of the judges, an army officer, stepped into the wake of the boys and picked up the fallen steel. no two eyes had seen half so quickly as hannah and "little sister's" who the blunderer was. in the whole drill there had been but one figure for them, and that was bud,--bud, and it was he who had dropped his bayonet. anxious, nervous with the desire to please them, perhaps with a shade too much of thought of them looking on with their hearts in their eyes, he had fumbled, and lost all he was striving for. his head went round and round and all seemed black before him. he executed the movements in a dazed way. the applause, generous and sympathetic, as his company left the parade ground, came to him from afar off, and like a wounded animal he crept away from his comrades, not because their reproaches stung him, for he did not hear them, but because he wanted to think what his mother and "little sister" would say, but his misery was as nothing to that of the two who sat up there amid the ranks of the blue and white, holding each other's hands with a despairing grip. to bud all of the rest of the contest was a horrid nightmare; he hardly knew when the three companies were marched back to receive the judges' decision. the applause that greeted company "b" when the blue ribbons were pinned on the members' coats meant nothing to his ears. he had disgraced himself and his company. what would his mother and his "little sister" say? to hannah and "little sister," as to bud, all of the remainder of the drill was a misery. the one interest they had had in it failed, and not even the dropping of his gun by one of company "e" when on the march, halting in line, could raise their spirits. the little girl tried to be brave, but when it was all over she was glad to hurry out before the crowd got started and to hasten away home. once there and her tears flowed freely; she hid her face in her mother's dress, and sobbed as if her heart would break. "don't cry, baby! don't cry, lammie, dis ain't da las' time da wah goin' to be a drill. bud'll have a chance anotha time and den he'll show 'em somethin'; bless you, i spec' he'll be a captain." but this consolation of philosophy was nothing to "little sister." it was so terrible to her, this failure of bud's. she couldn't blame him, she couldn't blame anyone else, and she had not yet learned to lay all such unfathomed catastrophes at the door of fate. what to her was the thought of another day; what did it matter to her whether he was a captain or a private? she didn't even know the meaning of the words, but "little sister," from the time she knew bud was a private, thought that was much better than being a captain or any other of those things with a long name, so that settled it. her mother finally set about getting the supper, while "little sister" drooped disconsolately in her own little splint-bottomed chair. she sat there weeping silently until she heard the sound of bud's step, then sprang up and ran away to hide. she didn't dare to face him with tears in her eyes. bud came in without a word and sat down in the dark front room. "dat you, bud?" asked his mother. "yassum." "bettah come now, supper's puty 'nigh ready." "i don't want no supper." "you bettah come on, bud, i reckon you's mighty tired." he did not reply, but just then a pair of thin arms were put around his neck and a soft cheek was placed close to his own. "come on, buddie," whispered "little sister," "mammy an' me know you didn't mean to do it, an' we don't keer." bud threw his arms around his little sister and held her tightly. "it's only you an' ma i care about," he said, "though i am sorry i spoiled the company's drill; they say "b" would have won anyway on account of our bad firing, but i did want you and ma to be proud." "we is proud," she whispered, "we's mos' prouder dan if you'd won," and pretty soon she led him by the hand to supper. hannah did all she could to cheer the boy and to encourage him to hope for next year, but he had little to say in reply, and went to bed early. in the morning, though it neared school time, bud lingered around and seemed in no disposition to get ready to go. "bettah git ready fer school," said hannah cheerily. "i don't believe i want to go any more," bud replied. "not go any more? why, ain't you 'shamed to talk that way! o' cose you goin' to school." "i'm ashamed to show my face to the boys." "what you say about de boys? de boys ain't a-goin' to give you an edgication when you need it." "oh, i don't want to go, ma; you don't know how i feel." "i'm kinder sorry i let you go into dat company," said hannah musingly, "'cause it was de teachin' i wanted you to git, not the prancin' and steppin'; but i did t'ink it would make mo' of a man of you, an' it ain't. yo' pappy was a po' man, ha'd wo'kin', an' he wasn't high-toned neither, but from the time i first see him to the day of his death, i nevah seen him back down because he was afeared of anything," and hannah turned to her work. "little sister" went up and slipped her hand in his. "you ain't a-goin to back down, is you, buddie?" she said. "no," said bud stoutly, as he braced his shoulders, "i'm a-goin'." but no persuasion could make him wear his uniform. the boys were a little cold to him, and some were brutal. but most of them recognized the fact that what had happened to tom harris might have happened to any one of them. besides, since the percentage had been shown, it was found that "b" had outpointed them in many ways, and so their loss was not due to the one grave error. bud's heart sank when he dropped into his seat in the assembly hall to find seated on the platform one of the blue-coated officers who had acted as judge the day before. after the opening exercises were over he was called upon to address the school. he spoke readily and pleasantly, laying especial stress upon the value of discipline; toward the end of his address he said "i suppose company 'a' is heaping accusations upon the head of the young man who dropped his bayonet yesterday." tom could have died. "it was most regrettable," the officer continued, "but to me the most significant thing at the drill was the conduct of that cadet afterward. i saw the whole proceeding; i saw that he did not pause for an instant, that he did not even turn his head, and it appeared to me as one of the finest bits of self-control i had ever seen in any youth; had he forgotten himself for a moment and stopped, however quickly, to secure the weapon, the next line would have been interfered with and your whole movement thrown into confusion." there were a half hundred eyes glancing furtively at bud, and the light began to dawn in his face. "this boy has shown what discipline means, and i for one want to shake hands with him, if he is here." when he had concluded the principal called bud forward, and the boys, even his detractors, cheered as the officer took his hand. "why are you not in uniform, sir?" he asked. "i was ashamed to wear it after yesterday," was the reply. "don't be ashamed to wear your uniform," the officer said to him, and bud could have fallen on his knees and thanked him. there were no more jeers from his comrades, and when he related it all at home that evening there were two more happy hearts in that south washington cottage. "i told you we was more prouder dan if you'd won," said "little sister." "an' what did i tell you 'bout backin' out?" asked his mother. bud was too happy and too busy to answer; he was brushing his uniform. the beginnings of a mississippi school william h. holtzclaw i had been unable to get permission to teach in the little church, so i started my school in the open air. we were out under the big trees amidst the shrubbery. this would have made a very good schoolhouse but for its size. in such a schoolhouse one could get along very well, if he could keep his pupils close enough to him, but the chances are, as i have found, that they will put bugs down one another's collars, and while you are hearing one class the other children will chase one another about. their buoyant spirits will not permit them to keep quiet while they are in the open. it is pretty hard to hear a class reciting and at the same time to witness a boxing-match, but those who teach in the open air must be prepared for such performances. these annoyances were accentuated by the fact that some of my pupils were forty years old while others were six. after a while we moved into an abandoned house, which we used for a schoolhouse, but it was little better than teaching out of doors. when it rained the water not only came through the roof, but through the sides as well. during cold winter rains i had to teach while standing with my overcoat on and with arctic rubbers to protect myself against pneumonia. during those rainy days miss lee, my assistant, would get up on a bench and stand there all day to keep her feet out of the water and would have an umbrella stretched over her to keep from getting wet from above. the little fellows would be standing in the water below like little ducks. they stood these conditions exceedingly well. many of them were not protected with overshoes or any shoes, but they came to school each day just as if they had been properly clad. it is impossible to describe the hardships that we suffered during that winter, which was severe for the south. as the winter came on and grew more and more severe a great many of the children were taken with pneumonia, la grippe, and similar ailments. i wished, in the interest of health, to abandon the school for a few weeks until better weather; but neither pupils, nor teachers, nor parents would listen to this, and so the school continued under these circumstances until the new schoolhouse was ready for use. it is needless to say that some of the pupils never survived those conditions; in fact, the strange thing is that any of us did. up from slavery the struggle for an education booker t. washington one day, while at work in the coal-mine, i happened to overhear two miners talking about a great school for colored people somewhere in virginia. this was the first time that i had ever heard anything about any kind of school or college that was more pretentious than the little colored school in our town. in the darkness of the mine i noiselessly crept as close as i could to the two men who were talking. i heard one tell the other that not only was the school established for the members of my race, but that opportunities were provided by which poor but worthy students could work out all or a part of the cost of board, and at the same time be taught some trade or industry. as they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it must be the greatest place on earth, and not even heaven presented more attractions for me at that time than did the hampton normal and agricultural institute in virginia, about which these men were talking. i resolved at once to go to that school, although i had no idea where it was, or how many miles away, or how i was going to reach it; i remembered only that i was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to hampton. this thought was with me day and night. after hearing of the hampton institute, i continued to work for a few months longer in the coal-mine. while at work there, i heard of a vacant position in the household of general lewis ruffner, the owner of the salt-furnace and coal-mine. mrs. viola ruffner, the wife of general ruffner, was a "yankee" woman from vermont. mrs. ruffner had a reputation all through the vicinity for being very strict with her servants, and especially with the boys who tried to serve her. few of them had remained with her more than two or three weeks. they all left with the same excuse: she was too strict. i decided, however, that i would rather try mrs. ruffner's house than remain in the coal-mine, and so my mother applied to her for the vacant position. i was hired at a salary of $ per month. i had heard so much about mrs. ruffner's severity that i was almost afraid to see her, and trembled when i went into her presence. i had not lived with her many weeks, however, before i began to understand her. i soon began to learn that, first of all, she wanted everything kept clean about her, that she wanted things done promptly and systematically, and that at the bottom of everything she wanted absolute honesty and frankness. nothing must be sloven or slipshod; every door, every fence, must be kept in repair. i cannot now recall how long i lived with mrs. ruffner before going to hampton, but i think it must have been a year and a half. at any rate, i here repeat what i have said more than once before, that the lessons that i learned in the home of mrs. ruffner were as valuable to me as any education i have ever gotten anywhere since. even to this day i never see bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that i do not want to pick them up at once. i never see a filthy yard that i do not want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that i do not want to put it on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that i do not want to paint or whitewash it, or a button off one's clothes, or a grease-spot on them or on a floor, that i do not want to call attention to it. from fearing mrs. ruffner i soon learned to look upon her as one of my best friends. when she found that she could trust me she did so implicitly. during the one or two winters that i was with her she gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour in the day during a portion of the winter months, but most of my studying was done at night, sometimes alone, sometimes under some one whom i could hire to teach me. mrs. ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts to get an education. it was while living with her that i began to get together my first library. i secured a dry-goods box, knocked out one side of it, put some shelves in it, and began putting into it every kind of book that i could get my hands upon, and called it "my library." without any unusual occurrence i reached hampton, with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education. to me it had been a long, eventful journey; but the first sight of the large, three-story, brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for all that i had undergone in order to reach the place. if the people who gave the money to provide that building could appreciate the influence the sight of it had upon me, as well as upon thousands of other youths, they would feel all the more encouraged to make such gifts. it seemed to me to be the largest and most beautiful building i had ever seen. the sight of it seemed to give me new life. i felt that a new kind of existence had now begun--that life would now have a new meaning. i felt that i had reached the promised land, and i resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the most good in the world. as soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the hampton institute, i presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, i did not, of course, make a very favorable impression upon her, and i could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. i felt that i could hardly blame her if she got the idea that i was a worthless loafer or tramp. for some time she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in my favor, and i continued to linger about her, and to impress her in all the ways i could with my worthiness. in the meantime i saw her admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort, for i felt, deep down in my heart, that i could do as well as they, if i could only get a chance to show what was in me. after some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me, "the adjoining recitation room needs sweeping. take the broom and sweep it." it occurred to me at once that here was my chance. never did i receive an order with more delight. i knew that i could sweep, for mrs. ruffner had thoroughly taught me how to do that when i lived with her. i swept the recitation-room three times. then i got a dusting-cloth and i dusted it four times. all the woodwork around the walls, every bench, table, and desk, i went over four times with my dusting-cloth. besides, every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. i had the feeling that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression i made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. when i was through, i reported to the head teacher. she was a "yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt. she went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the wood-work about the walls, and over the table and benches. when she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she remarked quietly, "i guess you will do to enter this institution." booker t. washington a student's memory of him william h. holtzclaw one thing about mr. washington that impressed me was his regularity. he was as regular as the clock. he appeared at his office in the morning exactly at eight o'clock, remained until twelve, very often took part in an executive council meeting until one, and then went to lunch. at two o'clock he would again be in his office and would invariably remain there until half-past four, when he would leave and tramp across the plantation; sometimes he would run for a mile or two, as fast as he could go, for exercise. when he returned he would go to his library and there would pass the time until six, when he would go to dinner. after dinner he played with the children for a while and then returned to his library until . . he would then go to chapel for evening prayers with the whole student body. this prayer service was one that mr. washington seldom ever missed and he always appeared on the rostrum exactly on the minute. mr. washington had a grasp of the details of the work of tuskegee that seemed almost incredible. i remember one evening that i was startled to hear my name, together with that of one of my friends, called out by mr. washington from the chapel platform. he simply said, "william holtzclaw and charles washington may rise." i was so weak in my knees that i could scarcely stand, but i knew nothing else to do but to rise at the command of that voice. after we stood up and the whole school was looking at us, mr. washington said: "these young men may pass out of the chapel and go and pick up the tools they worked with to-day." we had been ditching and when the work-bell rang had left our tools where we were working, when they should have been carried to the toolhouse. if the water main, or water pipe, had a defect in it so that it was leaking anywhere on the grounds, mr. washington was almost sure to see that something was wrong and to call the matter to the attention of the superintendent of industries. if he came into the dining-room while the students were eating their meals, he would notice such small details as a student's pouring out more molasses on his plate than he could eat and would stop in the dining-room, send for the matron, have some bread brought to the student, and wait until that student had eaten all the molasses he had poured on his plate. if one walked about the campus at night, he would be sure to meet mr. washington almost anywhere on the grounds. for instance, he might be found in the kitchen at two o'clock in the morning examining the method of preparing the students' breakfast. he seldom seemed to me to take sufficient rest for an average man. anna-margaret augusta bird to anna-margaret's mind, being the baby of the family was simply awful. this fact seemed to grow with it each day. it began in the morning when she watched her sisters as they laughed and rollicked through their dressing. "bet i'll beat, and you got on your stockings already," challenged edith. "i'll bet you won't,--bet i'll be out to the pump, my face washed, and be at the breakfast table and you won't have your shoes laced up," boasted ruth, the older of the two. "we'll see, we'll see," giggled edith. "oho, i guess you will. mother gave you new shoe strings," said ruth somewhat crestfallen. "i told you so, i told you so," and edith bounded out of the door, closely pursued by ruth who cried: "you didn't beat me but 'bout an inch." anna-margaret was left alone to sit and think for all the next hour how perfectly awful it was to be the baby, until mother dear was able to come and dress her. the next morning it was the same torture all over again. it seemed to anna-margaret that people never stopped to think or know what a baby was forced to go through. there were edith and ruth racing again. anna-margaret spied her shoes and stockings on a chair. out of the side of her crib she climbed. "look at anna-margaret!" screamed edith. "you, anna-margaret, get right back in that crib!" commanded ruth assuming her mother's tone. "i won't!" and right over to the chair where her shoes and stockings were, walked the baby. she seated herself on the floor and drew on her stocking as if she had been in the habit of doing it on preceding mornings. it was surprising to anna-margaret, herself, the ease with which it went on. "look at that child," gasped ruth. edith looked and said a little grudgingly, "i'll bet she can't put on her shoes though." edith remembered how long it was before she was able to put on her shoes, and this accomplishment, in her mind, seemed to give her a great superiority over her baby sister. "come on, edith," called ruth, "i'll beat you down to the pump and i'll give you to the rose bush, too." struggling, pulling and twisting sat anna-margaret all alone, but the shoe would not go on. she was just about to give up in utter despair and burst into tears when mother dear appeared in the doorway. "what is mother's angel doing? well, well, look at mother's smart child, she has got on her stocking already,--here, let mother help her." it was awful to think you were still such a baby that you couldn't do anything yourself, but it was very nice, so anna-margaret thought, to have such an adorable mother to come to your rescue. "there now, run out and tell ruth to wash your face and then mother will give you your breakfast." "wash my face, ruth," requested anna-margaret at the pump. "who laced up your shoes?" asked edith suspiciously. "i did." anna-margaret said it so easily that it startled herself. "i don't believe it, i don't believe it. i am going to ask mother." "hold still, will you, and let me wash your face," commanded ruth. as soon as she was free, away went anna-margaret back to the house. "muvver, muvver," cried anna-margaret almost breathless as she entered the big kitchen, "tell edith i laced up my shoes, tell 'er, muvver, will yo', muvver?" mother stopped her work at the breakfast table. "anna-margaret, i could not do that because you didn't." "but tell 'er i did, won't you, muvver," she pleaded. "anna-margaret, i can't do that because i would be telling a lie. don't i whip ruth and edith for telling lies?" "tell a lie, muvver, tell a lie, _i won't whip you_." mother dear was forced to smile. "here, eat your breakfast, i can't promise my baby i will tell a lie, even if she won't whip me." fortunately no one questioned mother dear and anna-margaret ate her breakfast in silence. then kissing her mother in a matter of fact way, she went out to play with her sisters. "ah, here comes anna-margaret to knock down our things," moaned edith. "let her come on," cried ruth, "and we'll go down in the bottom and build sand forts; it rained yesterday and the sand is nice and damp." "oh-oo, let's," echoed edith, and off they scampered. anna-margaret saw them and started after them as fast as her little chubby brown legs could carry her, which wasn't very fast. the other children were far in front of her. anna-margaret stopped suddenly,--she heard a little biddie in distress. there was a mother hen darting through the grass after a fleeing grasshopper, and close behind her was the whole flock save one. anna-margaret watched them as the young chickens spread open their wings and hurried in pursuit of their mother. far behind one little black, fuzzy biddie struggled and tripped over the tall grass stems. the baby looked at the little chick and then at the other ones and saw that they were different. she didn't know what the difference was. she could not understand that the other chickens were several days older and that this one had only been taken away from its own mother hen that morning in order that she would remain on her nest until all her chicks were hatched. all anna-margaret knew was that they were different. "poor l'll biddie, dey don't want you to play wif them," she sympathized, "come, come to anna-margaret." with little difficulty she captured the young chick and started back to the house. "dat's all 'ight, i know what i'm gonna do," she decided, "i'm gonna play dod. poor l'll biddie, just wait, anna-margaret'll fix yo', so you can run and fly and keep up with the biddies. won't dat be nice, uh?" and she put her curly head down close to the little chick as if to catch its answer. anna-margaret went straight to the big sewing-basket and placing the biddie on the machine extracted a threaded needle. cutting two small pieces of black cloth for wings, she took the chick and seated herself on the drop-step between the sewing-room and dining-room. she then attempted to sew one of the little black pieces of cloth to one of the tiny wings of the young chick. [illustration] "there, there, yo'll be all 'ight in dest a minute," she said amid the distressful chirping of the chick. the biddie's cries brought mother dear to the scene. "anna-margaret, what on earth are you doing to the little chicken?" anna-margaret turned her big brown eyes upon her mother. "i'm playin' dod and i'm puttin' some wings on des l'll biddie so it can run and fly like the oo-ver ones, and so they won't run off all the time and leave it." "but anna-margaret, don't you know you are hurting the little biddie?" "no-o, muvver," she said slowly, "but i know what it is to be always runned off and lef'." mother dear understood what was in her baby's mind as she gathered her up in her arms. anna-margaret dropped the sewing, cuddled the little biddie close in one arm and clasped her mother's neck with the other. mother dear held her closely. "i love yo', muvver dear," whispered anna-margaret. "i love you, baby dear," was the whispered answer. being the baby of the family to anna-margaret's mind, just now, was awfully nice. charity h. cordelia ray i saw a maiden, fairest of the fair, with every grace bedight beyond compare. said i, "what doest thou, pray, tell to me!" "i see the good in others," answered she. my first school w. e. b. dubois once upon a time i taught school in the hills of tennessee, where the broad dark vale of the mississippi begins to roll and crumple to greet the alleghanies. i was a fisk student then, and all fisk men thought that tennessee--beyond the veil--was theirs alone, and in vacation time they sallied forth in lusty bands to meet the county school-commissioners. young and happy, i too went, and i shall not soon forget that summer. first, there was a teachers' institute at the county-seat; and there distinguished guests of the superintendent taught the teachers fractions and spelling and other mysteries,--white teachers in the morning, negroes at night. a picnic now and then, and a supper, and the rough world was softened by laughter and song. i remember how--but i wander. there came a day when all the teachers left the institute and began the hunt for schools. i learn from hearsay (for my mother was mortally afraid of firearms) that the hunting of ducks and bears and men is wonderfully interesting, but i am sure that the man who has never hunted a country school has something to learn of the pleasures of the chase. i see now the white, hot roads lazily rise and fall and wind before me under the burning july sun; i feel the deep weariness of heart and limb as ten, eight, six miles stretch relentlessly ahead; i feel my heart sink heavily as i hear again and again, "got a teacher? yes." so i walked on--horses were too expensive--until i wandered beyond railways, beyond stage lines, to a land of "varmints" and rattlesnakes, where the coming of a stranger was an event, and men lived and died in the shadow of one blue hill. sprinkled over hill and dale lay cabins and farmhouses, shut out from the world by the forests and the rolling hills toward the east. there i found at last a little school. josie told me of it; she was a thin, homely girl of twenty, with a dark-brown face and thick, hard hair. i had crossed the stream at watertown, and rested under the great willows; then i had gone to the little cabin in the lot where josie was resting on her way to town. the gaunt farmer made me welcome, and josie, hearing my errand, told me anxiously that they wanted a school over the hill; that but once since the war had a teacher been there; that she herself longed to learn,--and thus she ran on, talking fast and loud, with much earnestness and energy. next morning i crossed the tall round hill, lingered to look at the blue and yellow mountains stretching toward the carolinas, then plunged into the wood, and came out at josie's home. it was a dull frame cottage with four rooms, perched just below the brow of the hill, amid peach trees. the father was a quiet, simple soul, calmly ignorant, with no touch of vulgarity. the mother was different,--strong, bustling, and energetic, with a quick, restless tongue, and an ambition to live "like folks." there was a crowd of children. two boys had gone away. there remained two growing girls; a shy midget of eight; john, tall, awkward, and eighteen; jim, younger, quicker, and better looking; and two babies of indefinite age. then there was josie herself. she seemed to be the center of the family: always busy at service, or at home, or berry-picking; a little nervous and inclined to scold, like her mother, yet faithful, too, like her father. she had about her a certain fineness, the shadow of an unconscious moral heroism that would willingly give all of life to make life broader, deeper, and fuller for her and hers. i saw much of this family afterwards, and grew to love them for their honest efforts to be decent and comfortable, and for their knowledge of their own ignorance. there was with them no affectation. the mother would scold the father for being so "easy"; josie would roundly berate the boys for carelessness; and all know that it was a hard thing to dig a living out of a rocky side-hill. i secured the school. i remember the day i rode horseback out to the commissioner's house with a pleasant young white fellow who wanted the white school. the road ran down the bed of a stream; the sun laughed and the water jingled, and we rode on. "come in," said the commissioner,--"come in. have a seat. yes, that certificate will do. stay to dinner. what do you want a month?" "oh," thought i, "this is lucky"; but even then fell the first awful shadow of the veil, for they ate first, then i--alone. the schoolhouse was a log hut, where colonel wheeler used to shelter his corn. it sat in a lot behind a rail fence and thorn bushes, near the sweetest of springs. there was an entrance where a door once was, and within, a massive rickety fireplace; great chinks between the logs served as windows. furniture was scarce. a pale blackboard crouched in the corner. my desk was made of three boards, reinforced at critical points, and my chair, borrowed from the landlady, had to be returned every night. seats for the children--these puzzled me much. i was haunted by a new england vision of neat little desks and chairs, but, alas! the reality was rough plank benches without backs, and at times without legs. they had the one virtue of making naps dangerous,--possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted. it was a hot morning late in july when the school opened. i trembled when i heard the patter of little feet down the dusty road, and saw the growing row of dark solemn faces and bright eager eyes facing me. first came josie and her brothers and sisters. the longing to know, to be a student in the great school at nashville, hovered like a star above this child-woman amid her work and worry, and she studied doggedly. there were the dowells from their farm over toward alexandria,--fanny, with her smooth black face and wondering eyes; martha, brown and dull; the pretty girl-wife of a brother, and the younger brood. there were the burkes,--two brown and yellow lads, and a tiny haughty-eyed girl. fat reuben's little chubby girl came, with golden face and old-gold hair, faithful and solemn. 'thenie was on hand early,--a jolly, ugly, good-hearted girl, who slyly dipped snuff and looked after her little bow-legged brother. when her mother could spare her, 'tildy came,--a midnight beauty, with starry eyes and tapering limbs; and her brother, correspondingly homely. and then the big boys,--the hulking lawrences; the lazy neills, unfathered sons of mother and daughter; hickman, with a stoop in his shoulders; and the rest. there they sat, nearly thirty of them, on the rough benches, their faces shading from a pale cream to a deep brown, the little feet bare and swinging, the eyes full of expectation, with here and there a twinkle of mischief, and the hands grasping webster's blue-back spelling-book. i loved my school, and the fine faith the children had in the wisdom of their teacher was truly marvelous. we read and spelled together, wrote a little, picked flowers, sang, and listened to stories of the world beyond the hill. at times the school would dwindle away, and i would start out. i would visit mun eddings, who lived in two very dirty rooms, and ask why little lugene, whose flaming face seemed ever ablaze with the dark-red hair uncombed, was absent all last week, or why i missed so often the inimitable rags of mack and ed. then the father, who worked colonel wheeler's farm on shares, would tell me how the crops needed the boys; and the thin, slovenly mother, whose face was pretty when washed, assured me that lugene must mind the baby. "but we'll start them again next week." when the lawrences stopped, i knew that the doubts of the old folks about book-learning had conquered again, and so, toiling up the hill, and getting as far into the cabin as possible, i put cicero "pro archia poeta" into the simplest english with local applications, and usually convinced them--for a week or so. on friday nights i often went home with some of the children,--sometimes to doc burke's farm. he was a great, loud, thin black, ever working, and trying to buy the seventy-five acres of hill and dale where he lived; but people said that he would surely fail, and the "white folks would get it all." his wife was a magnificent amazon, with saffron face and shining hair, uncorseted and barefooted, and the children were strong and beautiful. they lived in a one-and-a-half-room cabin in the hollow of the farm, near the spring. the front room was full of great fat white beds, scrupulously neat; and there were bad chromos on the walls, and a tired center-table. in the tiny back kitchen i was often invited to "take out and help" myself to fried chicken and wheat biscuit, "meat" and corn pone, string-beans and berries. at first i used to be a little alarmed at the approach of bedtime in the lone bedroom, but embarrassment was very deftly avoided. first, all the children nodded and slept, and were stowed away in one great pile of goose feathers; next, the mother and the father discreetly slipped away to the kitchen while i went to bed; then, blowing out the dim light, they retired in the dark. in the morning all were up and away before i thought of awaking. across the road, where fat reuben lived, they all went out-doors while the teacher retired, because they did not boast the luxury of a kitchen. i liked to stay with the dowells, for they had four rooms and plenty of good country fare. uncle bird had a small, rough farm, all woods and hills, miles from the big road; but he was full of tales,--he preached now and then,--and with his children, berries, horses, and wheat he was happy and prosperous. often, to keep the peace, i must go where life was less lovely; for instance, 'tildy's mother was incorrigibly dirty, reuben's larder was limited seriously, and herds of untamed insects wandered over the eddingses' beds. best of all i loved to go to josie's, and sit on the porch, eating peaches, while the mother bustled and talked: how josie had bought the sewing-machine; how josie worked at service in winter, but that four dollars a month was "mighty little" wages; how josie longed to go away to school, but that it "looked like" they never could get far enough ahead to let her; how the crops failed and the well was yet unfinished; and, finally, how "mean" some of the white folks were. for two summers i lived in this little world; it was dull and humdrum. the girls looked at the hill in wistful longing, and the boys fretted and haunted alexandria. alexandria was "town,"--a straggling, lay village of houses, churches, and shops, and an aristocracy of toms, dicks, and captains. cuddled on the hill to the north was the village of the colored folks, who lived in three- or four-room unpainted cottages, some neat and homelike, and some dirty. the dwellings were scattered rather aimlessly, but they centered about the twin temples of the hamlet, the methodist and the hard-shell baptist churches. these, in turn, leaned gingerly on a sad-colored schoolhouse. hither my little world wended its crooked way on sunday to meet other worlds, and gossip, and wonder, and make the weekly sacrifice with frenzied priest at the altar of the "old-time religion." then the soft melody and mighty cadences of negro song fluttered and thundered. i have called my tiny community a world, and so its isolation made it; and yet there was among us but a half-awakened common consciousness, sprung from common joy and grief, at burial, birth, or wedding; from a common hardship in poverty, poor land, and low wages; and above all, from the sight of the veil that hung between us and opportunity. all this caused us to think some thoughts together; but these, when ripe for speech, were spoken in various languages. those whose eyes twenty-five or more years before had seen "the glory of the coming of the lord," saw in every present hindrance or help a dark fatalism bound to bring all things right in his own good time. the mass of those to whom slavery was a dim recollection of childhood found the world a puzzling thing: it asked little of them, and they answered with little, and yet it ridiculed their offering. such a paradox they could not understand, and therefore sank into listless indifference, or shiftlessness, or reckless bravado. there were, however, some--such as josie, jim and ben--to whom war, hell, and slavery were but childhood tales, whose young appetites had been whetted to an edge by school and story and half-awakened thought. ill could they be content, born without and beyond the world. and their weak wings beat against their barriers,--barriers of caste, of youth, of life; at last, in dangerous moments, against everything that opposed even a whim. ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes paul laurence dunbar ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes, which all the day with ceaseless care have sought the magic gold which from the seeker flies; ere dreams put on the gown and cap of thought, and make the waking world a world of lies,-- of lies most palpable, uncouth, forlorn, that say life's full of aches and tears and sighs,-- oh, how with more than dreams the soul is torn, ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes. ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes, now all the griefs and heartaches we have known come up like pois'nous vapors that arise from some base witch's caldron, when the crone, to work some potent spell, her magic plies. the past which held its share of bitter pain, whose ghost we prayed that time might exorcise, comes up, is lived and suffered o'er again, ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes. ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes, what phantoms fill the dimly lighted room; what ghostly shades in awe-creating guise are bodied forth within the teeming gloom. what echoes great of sad and soul-sick cries, and pangs of vague inexplicable pain that pay the spirit's ceaseless enterprise, come thronging through the chambers of the brain, ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes. ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes, where ranges forth the spirit far and free? through what strange realms and unfamiliar skies tends her far course to lands of mystery? to lands unspeakable--beyond surmise, where shapes unknowable to being spring, till, faint of wing, the fancy fails and dies much wearied with the spirit's journeying, ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes. ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes, now questioneth the soul that other soul-- the inner sense which neither cheats nor lies, but self exposes unto self, a scroll full writ with all life's acts unwise or wise, in characters indelible and known; so, trembling with the shock of sad surprise, the soul doth view its awful self alone, ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes. when sleep comes down to seal the weary eyes, the last dear sleep whose soft embrace is balm, and whom sad sorrow teaches us to prize for kissing all our passions into calm, ah, then, no more we heed the sad world's cries, or seek to probe th' eternal mystery, or fret our souls at long-withheld replies, at glooms through which our visions cannot see, when sleep comes down to seal the weary eyes. the land of laughter angelina w. grimke once upon a time there were two dear little boys, and they were all alone in the world. they lived with a cruel old man and old woman, who made them work hard, very hard--all day, and beat them when they did not move fast enough, and always, every night, before they went to bed. they slept in an attic on a rickety, narrow bed, that went screech! screech! whenever they moved. and, in the summer, they nearly died with the heat up there; and in the winter with the cold. one wintry night, when they were both weeping very bitterly after a particularly hard beating, they suddenly heard a pleasant voice saying: "why are you crying, little boys?" they looked up, and there in the moonlight, by their bed, was the dearest little old lady. she was dressed all in grey, from the peak of her little pointed hat to her little, buckled shoes. she held a black cane much taller than her little self. her hair fell about her ears in tiny, grey corkscrew curls; and they bobbed about as she moved. her eyes were black and bright--as bright as--well, as that lovely, white light in the fire. and her cheeks were as red as an apple. "why are you crying, little boys?" she asked again, in a lovely, low, little voice. "because we are tired and sore and hungry and cold; and we are all alone in the world; and we don't know how to laugh any more. we should so like to laugh again." "why, that's easy," she said, "it's just like this," and she laughed a little, joyous, musical laugh. "try!" she commanded. they tried, but their laughing boxes were very rusty and they made horrid sounds. "well," she said, "i advise you to pack up, and go away, as soon as you can, to the land of laughter. you'll soon learn there, i can tell you." "is there such a land?" they asked doubtfully. "to be sure there is," she answered, the least bit sharply. "we never heard of it," they said. "well, i'm sure there must be plenty of things you never heard about," she said just the "leastest" bit more sharply. "in a moment you'll be telling me the flowers don't talk together, and the birds." "we never heard of such a thing," they said in surprise, their eyes like saucers. "there!" she said, bobbing her little curls. "what did i tell you. you have much to learn." "how do you get to the land of laughter?" they asked. "you go out of the eastern gate of the town, just as the sun is rising; and you take the highway there, and follow it; and if you go with it long enough, it will bring you to the gate of the land of laughter. it is a long, long way from here; and it will take you many days." the words had scarcely left her mouth when, lo! the little lady disappeared, and where she had stood was the white square of moonlight--nothing else. and without more ado these two little boys put their arms round each other, and fell fast asleep. and in the grey, just before daybreak, they awoke and dressed; and putting on their little ragged caps and mittens, for it was a wintry day, they stole out of the house, and made for the eastern gate. and just as they reached it and passed through, the whole east leapt into fire. [illustration: the land of laughter] all day they walked, and many days thereafter; and kindly people, by the way, took them in and gave them food and drink and sometimes a bed at night. often they slept by the roadside; but they didn't mind that for the climate was delightful--not too hot, and not too cold. they soon threw away their ragged little mittens. they walked for many days; and there was no land of laughter. once they met an old man, richly dressed, with shining jewels on his fingers, and he stopped them and asked: "where are you going so fast, little boys?" "we are going to the land of laughter," they said very gravely. "that," said the old man, "is a very foolish thing to do. come with me and i will take you to the land of riches. i will cover you with beautiful garments, and give you jewels and a castle to live in with servants and horses and many things besides." and they said to him, "no, we wish to learn how to laugh again; we have forgotten how, and we are going to the land of laughter." "you will regret not going with me. see if you don't," he said, and he left them in quite a huff. and they walked again, many days, and again they met an old man. he was tall and imposing-looking and very dignified. and he said: "where are you going so fast, little boys?" "we are going to the land of laughter," they said together very seriously. "what!" he said, "that is an extremely foolish thing to do. come with me, and i will give you power. i will make you great men; generals, kings, emperors. whatever you desire to accomplish will be permitted you." and they said politely: "thank you, very much, but we have forgotten how to laugh; and we are going there to learn how." he looked upon them haughtily, without speaking, and disappeared. and they walked and walked more days; and they met another old man. and he was clad in rags; and his face was thin; and his eyes were unhappy. and he whispered to them: "where are you going so fast, little boys?" "we are going to the land of laughter," they answered, without a smile. "laughter! laughter! that is useless. come with me and i will show you the beauty of life through sacrifice, suffering for others. that is the only life. i come from the land of sacrifice." and they thanked him kindly, but said: "we have suffered enough. we have forgotten how to laugh. we would learn again." and they went on; and he looked after them wistfully. they walked more days; and at last they came to the land of laughter. and how do you suppose they knew this? because they could hear, over the wall, the sound of joyous laughter--the laughter of men, women and little children. and one sat guarding the gate, and they went to her. "we have come a long, long distance; and we would enter the land of laughter." "let me see you smile, first," she said gently. "i sit at the gate and no one who does not know how to smile may enter into the land of laughter." and they tried to smile, but could not. "go away and practise," she said kindly, "and come back tomorrow." and they went away, and practised all night how to smile; and, in the morning, they returned. and the gentle lady at the gate said: "dear little boys, have you learned how to smile?" and they said: "we have tried. how is this?" "better," she said, "much better. practise some more, and come back tomorrow." and they went away obediently and practised. and they came the third day. and she said: "now, try again." and tears of delight came into her lovely eyes. "those were very beautiful smiles," she said. "now you may enter." and she unlocked the gate and kissed them both, and they entered the beautiful land of laughter. never had they seen such blue skies, such green trees and grass; never had they heard such bird song. and people, men, women and children, laughing softly, came to meet them, and took them in, and made them at home; and soon, very soon, they learned to laugh. all day they laughed, and even in their sleep. and they grew up here, and married, and had laughing, happy children. and sometimes they thought of the land of riches, and said, "ah! well"; and sometimes of the land of power, and sighed a little; and sometimes of the land of sacrifice--and their eyes were wistful. but they soon forgot, and laughed again. and they grew old, laughing. and when they died--a laugh was on their lips. thus are things in the beautiful land of laughter. the web of circumstance charles w. chesnutt some time, we are told, when the cycle of years has rolled around, there is to be another golden age, when all men will dwell together in love and harmony, and when peace and righteousness shall prevail for a thousand years. god speed the day, and let not the shining thread of hope become so enmeshed in the web of circumstance that we lose sight of it; but give us here and there, and now and then, some little foretaste of this golden age, that we may the more patiently and hopefully await its coming! is the game worth the candle? james e. shepard a man's life depends upon his emotions, his aspirations, his determinations. a young man, somebody's son, starts out with the determination that the world is indebted to him for a good time. "dollars were made to spend. i am young, and every man must sow his wild oats and then settle down. i want to be a 'hail fellow well met' with every one." with this determination uppermost in his life purpose he starts out to be a good-timer. perhaps some mother expects to hear great things of her boy, some father's hopes are centered in him, but what does that matter? "i am a good-timer." from one gayety to another, from one glass to another, from one sin to another, and the good-timer at last is broken in health, deserted by friends, and left alone to die. thus the "man about town" passes off the stage. when you ask some of his friends about him, the answer is, "oh, john was all right, but he lived too fast. i like good times as well as anyone, but i could not keep up with john." was the game worth the candle? two pictures came before my mind: two cousins, both of them young men. one started out early in life with the determination of getting along "easy," shirking work, and looking for a soft snap. his motto was, "the world owes me a living, and i am going to get mine." he was employed first by one firm and then by another; if anything that he considered hard came along, he would pay another fellow to do the work and he "took things easy." it was not long before no one would hire him. he continued to hold the idea that the world was indebted to him and furthermore, he arrogated a belief that what another man had accumulated he could borrow without his knowledge. he forged another man's name, was detected, and sentenced to the penitentiary and is now wearing the badge of felony and shame--the convict's stripes. is the game worth the candle? the other cousin started out with a determination altogether different. he believed with lord brougham, that if he were a bootblack he would strive to be the best bootblack in england. he began in a store as a window-cleaner, and washed windows so well that they sparkled like diamonds under the sun. as a clerk, no customer was too insignificant to be greeted with a smile or pleasant word; no task was too great for him to attempt. thus step by step, he advanced, each day bringing new duties and difficulties but each day also bringing new strength and determination to master them, and today that cousin is a man of wealth and an honored citizen, blessed, too, with a happy home. some young men start life with the idea that every dollar made requires that one dollar and a half shall be spent; in order to be noticed they must make a big show, give big dinners, carriage drives, and parties, invite friends to the theaters, and have a "swell" time; must do like mr. "so-and-so." they forget in their desire to copy, that mr. "so-and-so," their pattern, has already made his fortune; that he began to save before he began to spend. but no, his name appears often in the papers and they think also that theirs must. so they begin their careers. a few years pass. the young men marry; their debts begin to accumulate and to press them, their countenances are always woe-begone; where once were smiles, now are frowns, and the homes are pictures of gloom and shadows. the lesson is plain. debt is the greatest burden that can be put upon man; it makes him afraid to look honest men in the face. no man can be a leader in the fullest sense who is burdened by a great debt. if there is any young man who is spending more than he is making, let him ask himself the question, is the game worth the candle? i know another young man who believed he could be happy by spending one-third of what he made and saving the other portion. he said to me, "some day i want to marry and i want to treat my wife better, if possible, than she was treated at home. i want to respect my fellow man, i want to be a leader, and i know i can only do so by saving a part of what i make." it was my good pleasure, a few weeks ago, to visit the city where this young man is practising medicine. he carried me over that town in an automobile, he entertained me in his $ home, he showed me other property which he owned. ah, his indeed was a happy home. life to him was blessedly real. a young man starts out in life with the determination to fight his way by physical force to the front ranks. bruised, disfigured, or killed, he is forced back even beyond the lines again. a religiously inclined youth asked his pastor, "do you think it would be wrong for me to learn the noble art of self-defense?" "certainly not," replied the pastor, "i learned it in youth myself, and i have found it of great value in my life." "indeed, sir, did you learn the old english system or the sullivan system" "neither; i learned solomon's system!" replied the minister. "yes, you will find it laid down in the first verse of the fifteenth chapter of proverbs, 'a soft answer turneth away wrath'; it is the best system of self-defense i know." another young man starts life with a wrong idea regarding city and country life. born in the country he is free, his thoughts and ambitions can feed on a pure atmosphere, but he thinks his conditions and his surroundings are circumscribed; he longs for the city, with its bigness, its turmoil, and its conflicts. he leaves the old homestead, the quiet village, the country people, and hies himself to the city. he forgets to a large extent the good boy he used to be, in the desire to keep up with the fashions and to make the people forget that he was once a country boy. city life, as is often the case, breaks up his youth, destroys his morals, undermines his character, steals his reputation, and finally leaves the promising youth a wrecked man. was the game worth the candle? young men, never be ashamed of the old log-cabin in the country, or the old bonnet your mother used to wear, or the jean pants your father used to toil in. i had rather be a poor country boy with limited surroundings and a pure heart than to be a city man bedecked in the latest fashions and weighted down with money, having no morals, no character. i had rather have the religion and faith of my fathers than to have the highest offices. i had rather have glorious life, pure and lofty, than to have great riches. sir walter scott was right when he said: "sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife, to all the sensual world proclaim: one crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name." there are two old dutch words which have resounded through the world, "_neen nimmer_," "no, never." the fleets of spain heard it, and understood it fully, when they saw the sinking dutch ships with the flags nailed to the shattered mainmast, crying, "_neen nimmer_," which indicated that they would never surrender. will the young men who are to be the leaders, spend their hours in riotous living? no, never! will they be false to duty? no, never! will they shirk? no, never! will they be disloyal to self, to home, to country, and to god? no, never! croesus was a rich man, a king. one day croesus said to solon, the philosopher, "do you not think i am a happy man?" solon answered, "alas, i do not know, croesus; that life is happy that ends well." a few years later when croesus had lost his wealth, his kingdom, and his health, and had been deserted by those who in his days of glory ran to do his slightest bidding, croesus in anguish and misery exclaimed, "solon, solon, thou saidst truly that life is well and happy that ends well." o black and unknown bards james weldon johnson o black and unknown bards of long ago, how came your lips to touch the sacred fire? how, in your darkness, did you come to know the power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre? who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes? who first from out the still watch, lone and long, feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise within his dark-kept soul, burst into song? heart of what slave poured out such melody as "steal away to jesus"? on its strains his spirit must have nightly floated free, though still about his hands he felt his chains. who heard great "jordan roll"? whose starward eye saw chariot "swing low"? and who was he that breathed that comforting, melodic sigh, "nobody knows de trouble i see?" what merely living clod, what captive thing, could up toward god through all its darkness grope, and find within its deadened heart to sing these songs of sorrow, love, and faith, and hope? how did it catch that subtle undertone, that note in music heard not with the ears? how sound the elusive reed so seldom blown, which stirs the soul or melts the heart to tears. not that great german master in his dream of harmonies that thundered 'mongst the stars at the creation, ever heard a theme nobler than "go down, moses." mark its bars, how like a mighty trumpet-call they stir the blood. such are the notes that men have sung going to valorous deeds; such tones there were that helped make history when time was young. there is a wide, wide wonder in it all, that from degraded rest and servile toil the fiery spirit of the seer should call these simple children of the sun and soil. o black slave singers, gone, forgot, unfamed, you--you alone, of all the long, long line of those who've sung untaught, unknown, unnamed, have stretched out upward, seeking the divine. you sang not deeds of heroes or of kings; no chant of bloody war, no exulting pean of arms-won triumphs; but your humble strings you touched in chord with music empyrean. you sang far better than you knew; the songs that for your listeners' hungry hearts sufficed still live,--but more than this to you belongs: you sang a race from wood and stone to christ. the greatest menace of the south william j. edwards in every age there are great and pressing problems to be solved. perhaps no section of this country has been confronted with more difficult problems than the south. i therefore wish to present what i consider to be the greatest menace of this section. the one thing to-day, in which we stand in greatest danger, is the loss of the fertility of the soil. if we should lose this, as we are gradually doing, then all is lost. if we should save it, then all other things will be added. our great need is the conservation and preservation of the soil. the increased crops which we have in the south occasionally, are not due to improved methods of farming, but to increased acreage. thousands of acres of new land are added each year and our increase in farm production is due to the strength of these fresh lands. there is not much more woodland to be taken in as new farm lands, for this source has been well nigh exhausted. we must then, within a few years, expect a gradual reduction in the farm production of the south. already the old farm lands that have been in cultivation for the past fifty or fifty-five years are practically worn out. i have seen in my day where forty acres of land twenty or twenty-five years ago would produce from twenty to twenty-five bales of cotton each year, and from to bushels of corn. now, these forty acres will not produce more than eight or nine bales of cotton and hardly enough corn to feed two horses. in fact, one small family cannot obtain a decent support from the land which twenty years ago supported three families in abundance. this farm is not on the hillside, neither has it been worn away by erosion. it is situated in the lowlands, in the black prairie, and is considered the best farm on a large plantation. this condition obtains in all parts of the south today. this constant deterioration of land, this gradual reduction of crops year after year, if kept up for the next fifty years, will surely prove disastrous to the south. practically all the land in the black belt of the south is cultivated by negroes and the farm production has decreased so rapidly during the last ten or fifteen years that the average negro farmer hardly makes sufficient to pay his rent and buy the few necessaries of life. of course, here and there where a tenant has been lucky enough to get hold of some new land, he makes a good crop, but after three or four years of cultivation, his crop begins to decrease and this decrease is kept up as long as he keeps the land. instead of improving, the tenant's condition becomes worse each year until he finds it impossible to support his family on the farm. farm after farm is being abandoned or given up to the care of the old men and women. already, most of these are too old and feeble to do effective work. now, the chief cause of these farms becoming less productive is the failure on the part of the farmers to add something to the land after they have gathered their crops. they seem to think that the land contains an inexhaustible supply of plant food. another cause is the failure of the farmer to rotate his crop. there are farms being cultivated in the south today where the same piece of land has been planted in cotton every year for forty or fifty years. forty years ago, this same land would yield from one bale to one and a half per acre. and today it will take from four to six acres to produce one bale. still another cause for the deterioration of the soil is erosion. there is no effort put forth on the tenant's part to prevent his farm from washing away. the hillside and other rolling lands are not terraced and after being in use four or five years, practically all of these lands are washed away and as farm lands they are abandoned. not only are the hillside lands unprotected from the beating rains and flowing streams, but the bottom or lowlands are not properly drained, and the sand washed down from the hill, the chaff and raft from previous rains soon fill the ditches and creeks and almost any ordinary rain will cause an overflow of these streams. under these conditions an average crop is impossible even in the best of years. at present the south does not produce one-half of the foodstuff that it consumes and if the present conditions of things continue for the next fifty years, this section of the country will be on the verge of starvation and famines will be a frequent occurrence. of course, negro starvation will come first, but white man starvation will surely follow. i believe, therefore, that i am justified in saying that there is even more danger in negro starvation than there is in negro domination. i have noticed in this country that the sins of the races are contagious. if the negro in a community be lazy, indifferent, and careless about his farm, the white man in the community will soon fall into the same habit. on the other hand, if the white man is smart, industrious, energetic and persevering in his general makeup, the negro will soon fall into line; so after all, whatever helps one race in the south will help the other and whatever degrades one race in the south, sooner or later will degrade the other. but you may reply to this assertion by saying that the negro can go to the city and make an independent living for himself and family, but you forget that all real wealth must come from the soil and that the city cannot prosper unless the country is prosperous. when the country fails, the city feels the effect; when the country weeps, the city moans; when agriculture dies, all die. such are the conditions which face us today. now for the remedy. it is worth while to remember that there are ten essential elements of plant food. if the supply of any one of the elements fails, the crop will fail. these ten elements are carbon and oxygen taken into the leaves of the plant from the air as carbon dioxide; hydrogen, a constituent of water absorbed through the plant roots; nitrogen, taken from the soil by all plants also secured from the air by legumes. the other elements are phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and sulphur, all of which are secured from the soil. the soil nitrogen is contained in the organic matter or humus, and to maintain the supply of nitrogen we should keep the soil well stored with organic matter, making liberal use of clover or other legumes which have power to secure nitrogen from the inexhaustible supply in the air. it is interesting to note that one of the ablest chemists in this country, prof. e. w. clark of the united states geological survey, has said that an acre of ground seven inches deep contains sufficient iron to produce one hundred bushels of corn every year for , years, sufficient calcium to produce one hundred bushels of corn or one bale of cotton each year for , years, enough magnesium to produce such a crop , years, enough sulphur for , years and potassium for , years, but only enough phosphorus for years. the nitrogen resting upon the surface of an acre of ground is sufficient to produce one hundred bushels of corn or a bale of cotton for , years; but only enough in the plowed soil to produce fifty such crops. in other words, there are enough of eight of the elements of plant food in the ordinary soil to produce bushels of corn per acre or a bale of cotton per acre for each year for , years; but only enough of the other two, phosphorus and nitrogen, to produce such crops for forty or fifty years. let us grant that most of our farm lands in the south have been in cultivation for fifty or seventy-five years, and in many instances for one hundred years, it is readily seen that practically all of the phosphorus and nitrogen in the plowed soil have been exhausted. is it any wonder then that we are having such poor crops? the wonder is that our crops have kept up so well. unless a radical change is made in our mode of farming, we must expect less and less crops each year until we have no crops, or such little that we can hardly pay the rent. to improve and again make fertile our soils, we must restore to them the phosphorus and nitrogen which have been used up in the seventy-five or more crops that we have gathered from them. this is a herculean task but this is what confronts us and i for one believe we can accomplish it. by the proper rotation of crops, including oats, clover, cowpeas, as well as cotton and corn, and a liberal use of barnyard manure and cotton seed fertilizer, all of the necessary elements of plant food can be restored to our worn-out soil. but the proper use of these requires much painstaking study. if the negro is to remain the farming class in the black belt of the south, then he must be taught at least the rudiments of the modern methods of improving farming. he must have agricultural schools and must be encouraged to attend them. the loss of the fertility of the soil is the greatest menace of the south. how can we regain this lost fertility is the greatest question of the hour. the enchanted shell h. cordelia ray fair, fragile una, golden-haired, with melancholy, dark gray eyes, sits on a rock by laughing waves, gazing into the radiant skies; and holding to her ear a shell, a rosy shell of wondrous form; quite plaintively to her it coos marvelous lays of sea and storm. it whispers of a fairy home with coral halls and pearly floors, where mermaids clad in glist'ning gold guard smilingly the jeweled doors. she listens and her weird gray eyes grow weirder in their pensive gaze. the sea birds toss her tangled curls, the skiff lights glimmer through the haze. oh, strange sea-singer! what has lent such fascination to thy spell? is some celestial guardian prisoned within thee, tiny shell? [illustration: the enchanted shell] the maid sits rapt until the stars in myriad shining clusters gleam; "enchanted una," she is called by boatmen gliding down the stream. the tempest beats the restless seas, the wind blows loud, fierce from the skies; sweet, sylph-like una clasps the shell, peace brooding in her quiet eyes. the wind blows wilder, darkness comes, the rock is bare, night birds soar far; thick clouds scud o'er the gloomy heav'ns unvisited by any star. where is quaint una? on some isle, dreaming 'mid music, may she be? or does she listen to the shell in coral halls within the sea? the boatmen say on stormy nights they see rare una with the shell, sitting in pensive attitude, is it a vision? who can tell? behind a georgia mule james weldon johnson now if you wish to travel fast, i beg you not to fool with locomotion that's procured behind a georgia mule. when i was teaching school in the backwoods of georgia i had, one day, to attend to some business in mudville, an embryo city about eleven miles from my school. now you must know that a country school teacher can do nothing without first consulting his board of trustees; so i notified that honorable body that there was some business of vast importance to be attended to, and asked them to meet me on friday afternoon; they all promised to be on hand "two hours b'sun." friday afternoon, after school was dismissed, they came in one by one until they had all gathered. as the chairman called the meeting to order, he said: "brederen, de objick ob dis meeting is to consider de ways ob pervidin de means ob transposin de 'fessar to mudville." now, by the way, the chairman of the board was undoubtedly intended by nature for a smart man. he had a very strong weakness for using big words in the wrong place, and thought it his special duty to impress the "'fessar" at all times with his knowledge of the dictionary. well, after much debate it was finally decided that "brudder" whitesides would "furnish de mule" and "brudder jinks de buggy" and that i should start early the next morning. the next morning i was up quite early, because i wished to start as soon as possible in order to avoid the heat of the day. i ate breakfast and waited--six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock--and still that promised beast had not put in appearance. knowing the proclivity of the mule to meander along as his own sweet will dictates, especially when the sun shines hot, i began to despair of reaching mudville at all that day; but "brudder" jinks, with whom i boarded, seeing my melancholy state of mind, offered to hitch up gypsy, an antiquated specimen of the mule, whose general appearance was that of the skeleton of some prehistoric animal one sees in a museum. i accepted this proposition with haste, and repented at leisure. i could see a weary, long-suffering look in that mule's eye, and i could imagine how his heart must have sought the vicinity of his tail, when they disturbed his dreams of green fields and pleasant pastures, and hitched him to an old buggy, to encounter the stern realities of a dusty road. "verily, verily," i soliloquized, "the way of the mule is hard." but, putting aside all tender feelings, i jumped into the buggy and grasping a stick of quite ample proportions began to urge his muleship on his way. nothing of much consequence hampered our onward journey except the breaking down of three wheels and the excessive heat of the sun, which great luminary seemed not more than ninety-five miles away. i arrived at mudville sometime between m. and p. m. after having finished my business and having bountifully fed my mule on water and what grass he could nibble from around his hitching post, i bought a large watermelon and started for home. before i was out of sight of the town, i began to have serious misgivings about reaching home before a very late hour. in the morning by various admonitions and applications of the hickory, i had been able to get my mule into a jog trot, but on the homeward journey he would not even get up a respectable walk. well, we trudged on for two hours or more, when to my dismay he stopped,--stopped still. as the hour was getting late and it was growing dark, i began advising him--with the hickory--that it was best to proceed, but he seemed to have hardened his heart, and his back also, and paid me no heed. there i sat--all was as still as the grave, save for the dismal hoot of the screech-owl. there i was, five and a half miles from home with no prospect of getting there. i began to coax my mule with some words which perhaps are not in the sabbath school books, and to emphasize them with the rising and falling inflection of the stick across his back; but still he moved not. then all at once my conscience smote me. i thought perhaps the faithful beast might be sick. my mind reverted to balaam, whose beast spoke to him when he had smitten him but three times and here i had smitten my beast about , times. i listened almost in expectation of hearing him say, "johnson, johnson, why smitest thou me , times?" i got out of the buggy and looked at the mule; he gazed at me with a sad far-away expression in his eye, which sent pangs of remorse to my heart. i thought of the cruel treatment i had given him, and on the impulse of the moment i went to the buggy, got out my large, luscious melon, burst it open and laid it on the ground before the poor animal; and i firmly resolved to be a friend of the mule ever after, and to join the humane society as soon as i reached atlanta. as i watched that mule slowly munching away at my melon, i began to wonder if i had not acted a little too hastily in giving it to him, but i smothered that thought when i remembered the pledge i had just taken. when he had finished he looked around with a satisfied air which encouraged me; so i took hold of his bridle and after stroking him gently for a moment, attempted to lead him off. but he refused to be led. he looked at me from under his shabby eyebrows, but the sad, far-away expression had vanished and in its stead there was a mischievous gleam, born of malice afore-thought. i remonstrated with him, but it only seemed to confirm his convictions that it was right for him to stand there. i thought of my melon he had just devoured; then i grew wrathy, and right there and then renounced all my humane society resolutions, and began to shower down on that mule torrents of abuse and hickory also, but all to no effect. instead of advancing he began to "revance." i pulled on the bridle until my hands and arms were sore, but he only continued to back and pull me along with him. when i stopped pulling he stopped backing, and so things went on for the space of about half an hour. i wondered what time it was. just then the moon began to rise, from which i knew it was about o'clock. my physical exertion began to tell on me and i hungered. oh, how i hungered for a piece of that watermelon! and i hit the mule an extra blow as a result of those longings. i was now desperate. i sat down on the side of the road and groaned; that groan came from the depths of my soul, and i know that i presented a perfect picture of despair. however, i determined to gather all my remaining strength for one final effort; so i caressed him up and down the backbone two or three times as a sort of persuader, then grasping the bridle with both hands, i began to pull, pull as i had never pulled before and as i never hope to pull again. and he began to back. i continued to pull and he continued to back. how long this order of things might have gone on i do not know, but just then a brilliant idea struck me so forcibly as to come near knocking me down. i took the mule out, and by various tying, buckling and tangling, i hitched him up again, upside down, or wrong side out, or, well, i can't exactly explain, but anyhow when i got through his tail pointed in the direction i wanted him to go. then i got back in the buggy and taking hold of the bridle began to pull, and he began to back; and i continued to pull, and he continued to back; and will you believe me, that mule backed all the way home! it is true we did not travel very fast but every time he would slow down, i would put a little extra force into my pull and he would put a little extra speed into his back. ever and anon he would glance at me with that mischievous, malicious twinkle, which seemed to say "i've got you tonight," and i would smile back a quiet, self-satisfied smile and give an extra pull. but when we got home, that mischievous, malicious twinkle changed, and he looked at me in a dazed sort of way and i smiled back quite audibly. and do you know, that mule has been in a dark brown study ever since. he is trying to get through his slow brain how i managed to make him pull me home that night. as i jumped out of the buggy the clock struck twelve. and there at that solemn hour of the night, as the pale moon shed her silvery beams all around and as the bright stars peeped down upon me from the ethereal blue, and the gentle zephyrs wafted to me the odor of a hog-pen in the near distance, i vowed a vow, an awful vow, that so long as i breathed the vital air, never, no, never again, would i attempt to drive a georgia mule. hayti and toussaint l'ouverture w. e. b. dubois it was in the island of hayti that french slavery centered. pirates from many nations, but chiefly french, began to frequent the island, and in the french annexed the eastern part, thus dividing the island between france and spain. by there were so many slaves and mulattoes that louis xiv issued his celebrated code noir, which was notable in compelling bachelor masters, fathers of slave children, to marry their concubines. children followed the condition of the mother as to slavery or freedom; they could have no property; harsh punishments were provided for, but families could not be separated by sale except in the case of grown children; emancipation with full civil rights was made possible for any slave twenty years of age or more. when louisiana was settled and the alabama coast, slaves were introduced there. louisiana was transferred to spain in , against the resistance of both settlers and slaves, but spain took possession in and introduced more negroes. later, in hayti, a more liberal policy encouraged trade; war was over and capital and slaves poured in. sugar, coffee, chocolate, indigo, dyes, and spices were raised. there were large numbers of mulattoes, many of whom were educated in france, and many masters married negro women who had inherited large properties, just as in the united states to-day white men are marrying eagerly the landed indian women in the west. when white immigration increased in , however, prejudice arose against these mulattoes and severe laws were passed depriving them of civil rights, entrance into the professions, and the right to hold office; severe edicts were enforced as to clothing, names, and social intercourse. finally, after , mulattoes were forbidden to come to france. when the french revolution broke out, the haytians managed to send two delegates to paris. nevertheless the planters maintained the upper hand, and one of the colored delegates, oge, on returning, started a small rebellion. he and his companions were killed with great brutality. this led the french government to grant full civil rights to free negroes. immediately planters and free negroes flew to arms against each other and then, suddenly, august , , the black slaves, of whom there were four hundred and fifty-two thousand, arose in revolt to help the free negroes. for many years runaway slaves under their own chiefs had hidden in the mountains. one of the earliest of these chiefs was polydor, in , who was succeeded by macandal. the great chief of these runaways or "maroons" at the time of the slave revolt was jean françois, who was soon succeeded by biassou. pierre dominic toussaint, known as toussaint l'ouverture, joined these maroon bands, where he was called "the doctor of the armies of the king," and soon became chief aid to jean françois and biassou. upon their deaths toussaint rose to the chief command. he acquired complete control over the blacks, not only in military matters, but in politics and social organization; "the soldiers regarded him as a superior being, and the farmers prostrated themselves before him. all his generals trembled before him (dessalines did not dare to look in his face), and all the world trembled before his generals." the revolt once started, blacks and mulattoes murdered whites without mercy and the whites retaliated. commissioners were sent from france, who asked simply civil rights for freedmen, and not emancipation. indeed that was all that toussaint himself had as yet demanded. the planters intrigued with the british and this, together with the beheading of the king (an impious act in the eyes of negroes), induced toussaint to join the spaniards. in british troops were landed and the french commissioners in desperation declared the slaves emancipated. this at once won back toussaint from the spaniards. he became supreme in the north, while rigaud, leader of the mulattoes, held the south and the west. by the british, having lost most of their forces by yellow fever, surrendered mole st. nicholas to toussaint and departed. rigaud finally left for france, and toussaint in was master of hayti. he promulgated a constitution under which hayti was to be a self-governing colony; all men were equal before the law, and trade was practically free. toussaint was to be president for life, with the power to name his successor. napoleon bonaparte, master of france, had at this time dreams of a great american empire, and replied to toussaint's new government by sending twenty-five thousand men under his brother-in-law to subdue the presumptuous negroes, as a preliminary step to his occupation and development of the mississippi valley. fierce fighting and yellow fever decimated the french, but matters went hard with the negroes too, and toussaint finally offered to yield. he was courteously received with military honors and then, as soon as possible, treacherously seized, bound, and sent to france. he was imprisoned at fort joux and died, perhaps of poison, after studied humiliations, april , . thus perished the greatest of american negroes and one of the great men of all time, at the age of fifty-six. a french planter said, "god in his terrestrial globe did not commune with a purer spirit." wendell phillips said, "some doubt the courage of the negro. go to hayti and stand on those fifty thousand graves of the best soldiers france ever had and ask them what they think of the negro's sword. i would call him napoleon, but napoleon made his way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea of blood. this man never broke his word. i would call him cromwell, but cromwell was only a soldier, and the state he founded went down with him into his grave. i would call him washington, but the great virginian held slaves. this man risked his empire rather than permit the slave trade in the humblest village of his dominions. you think me a fanatic, for you read history, not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. but fifty years hence, when truth gets a hearing, the muse of history will put phocion for the greek, brutus for the roman, hampden for the english, la fayette for france, choose washington as the bright consummate flower of our earlier civilization, then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, toussaint l'ouverture." the treacherous killing of toussaint did not conquer hayti. in and some forty thousand french soldiers died of war and fever. a new colored leader, dessalines, arose and all the eight thousand remaining french surrendered to the blockading british fleet. the effect of all this was far-reaching. napoleon gave up his dream of american empire and sold louisiana for a song. "thus, all of indian territory, all of kansas and nebraska and iowa and wyoming and montana and the dakotas, and most of colorado and minnesota, and all of washington and oregon states, came to us as the indirect work of a despised negro. praise, if you will, the work of a robert livingstone or a jefferson, but to-day let us not forget our debt to toussaint l'ouverture, who was indirectly the means of america's expansion by the louisiana purchase of ." his motto lottie burrell dixon "but i can't leave my business affairs and go off on a fishing trip now." the friend and specialist who had tricked john durmont into a confession of physical bankruptcy, and made him submit to an examination in spite of himself, now sat back with an "i wash my hands of you" gesture. "very well, you can either go to maine, now, at once, or you'll go to--well, as i'm only your spiritual adviser, my prognostications as to your ultimate destination would probably have very little weight with you." "oh, well, if you are so sure, i suppose i can cut loose now, if it comes to a choice like that." the doctor smiled his satisfaction. "so you prefer to bear the ills of new york than to fly to others you know not of, eh?" "oh, have a little mercy on shakespeare, at least. i'll go." and thus it was that a week later found durmont as deep in the maine woods as he could get and still be within reach of a telegraph wire. and much to his surprise he found he liked it. as he lay stretched at full length on the soft turf, the breath of the pines filled his lungs, the lure of the lake made him eager to get to his fishing tackle, and he admitted to himself that a man needed just such a holiday as this in order to keep his mental and physical balance. returning to the gaily painted frame building, called by courtesy the "hotel," which nestled among the pines, he met the youthful operator from the near-by station looking for him with a message from his broker. a complicated situation had arisen in amalgamated copper, and an immediate answer was needed. durmont had heavy investments in copper, though his business was the manufacture of electrical instruments. he walked back to the office with the operator while pondering the answer, then having written it, handed it to the operator saying, "tell them to rush answer." the tall lank youth, whose every movement was a protest against being hurried, dragged himself over to the telegraph key. "'s open." "what's open?" "wire." "well, is that the only wire you have?" "yep." "what in the world am i going to do about this message?" "dunno, maybe it will close bime-by." and the young lightning slinger pulled towards him a lurid tale of the wild west, and proceeded to enjoy himself. "and meanwhile, what do you suppose is going to happen to me?" thundered durmont. "haven't you ambition enough to look around your wire and see if you can find the trouble?" "lineman's paid to look up trouble; i'm not," was the surly answer. durmont was furious, but what he was about to say was cut off by a quiet voice at his elbow. "i noticed linemen repairing wires upon the main road, that's where this wire is open. if you have any message you are in a hurry to send, perhaps i can help you out." durmont turned to see a colored boy of fifteen whose entrance he had not noticed. "what can you do about it?" he asked contemptuously, "take it into town in an ox team?" "i can send it by wireless, if that is sufficiently quick." durmont turned to the operator at the table. "is there a wireless near here?" "he owns one, you'll have to do business with him on that," said the youth with a grin at durmont's unconcealed prejudice. it would be hard to estimate the exact amount of respect, mingled with surprise, with which the city man now looked at the boy whose information he had evidently doubted till confirmed by the white boy. "suppose you've got some kind of tom-fool contraption that will take half a day to get a message into the next village. here i stand to lose several thousands because this blame company runs only one wire down to this camp. where is this apparatus of yours? might as well look at it while i'm waiting for this one-wire office to get into commission again." "it's right up on top of the hill," answered the colored boy. "here, george, i brought down this wireless book if you want to look it over, it's better worth reading than that stuff you have there," and tossing a book on the table he went out, followed by durmont. a couple of minutes' walk brought them in sight of the sixty-foot aerial erected on the top of a small shack. "not much to look at, but i made it all myself." [illustration: his motto] "how did you happen to construct this?" and durmont really tried to keep the emphasis off the "you." "well, i'm interested in all kinds of electrical experiments, and have kept up reading and studying ever since i left school, then when i came out here on my uncle's farm, he let me rig up this wireless, and i can talk to a chum of mine down in the city. and when i saw the wire at the station was gone up, i thought i might possibly get your message to new york through him." they had entered the one-room shack which contained a long table holding a wireless outfit, a couple of chairs and a shelf of books. on the walls were tacked pictures of aviators and drawings of aeroplanes. a three-foot model of a biplane hung in a corner. "now if he is only in," said the boy, going over to the table and giving the call. "he's there," he said eagerly, holding out his hand for the message. durmont handed it to him. his face still held the look of doubt and unbelief as he looked at the crude, home-made instruments. "suppose i might as well have hired a horse and taken it into town." but the sputtering wire drowned his voice. "and get on your wheel and go like blazes. tell 'em to rush answer. this guy here thinks a colored boy is only an animated shoe-blacking outfit; it's up to us to remedy that defect in his education, see!" thus sang the wires as durmont paced the floor. "i said," began the nervous man as the wires became quiet. "i--" again the wire sputtered, and he couldn't hear himself talk. when it was quiet, he tried again, but as soon as he began to grumble, the wire began to sputter. he glanced suspiciously at the boy, but the latter was earnestly watching his instruments. "say," shouted durmont, "does that thing have to keep up that confounded racket all the time?" "i had to give him some instructions, you know, and also keep in adjustment." "well, i'll get out of adjustment myself if that keeps up." durmont resigned himself to silence, and strangely enough, so did the wire. walking around the room he noticed over the shelf of books a large white sheet on which was printed in gilt letters: "i will study and make ready, and maybe my chance will come." --abraham lincoln. durmont read this, and then looked at the boy as if seeing him for the first time. again he looked at the words, and far beyond them he saw his own struggling boyhood, climbing daily life's slippery path, trying to find some hold by which to pull himself up. and as he watched the brown-skinned boy bending over the instruments, instinct told him here was one who would find it still harder to fight his way up, because of caste. "ah!" the exclamation startled him. the boy with phones adjusted was busily writing. "well, has that partner of yours got that message down at his end yet?" "yes, sir, and here is your answer from new york." "why it's only been half an hour since i wrote it," said durmont. "yes, that horse wouldn't have got into town yet," grinned the boy. durmont snatched the paper, read it, threw his cap in the air, exclaiming, "the day is saved. boy, you're a winner. how much?" putting his hand in his pocket suggestively. "how much you owe to my help, i don't know," answered the lad sagely. "i offered to help you because you needed it, and i was glad of the chance to prove what i believed i could do. i'm satisfied because i succeeded." durmont sat down heavily on the other chair; his nerves couldn't stand much more in one afternoon. to find himself threatened with a large financial loss; to have this averted by the help of the scientific knowledge of a colored boy, and that boy rating the fact of his success higher than any pecuniary compensation--he had to pull himself together a bit. his eyes fell on the motto on the wall. he read it thoughtfully, considered how hard the boy had worked because of that, his hopes of the future based on that; saw the human element in him as it had not appealed to him before, and then turning something over in his mind, muttered to himself, "it's nobody's business if i do." he got up, and walking over to the boy said: "what's your name?" "robert hilton." "well, robert, that motto you've got up there is a pretty good one to tie to. you certainly have studied; you have made yourself ready as far as your resources will permit, and i'll be hanged if i don't stand for the 'chance.' in the manufacturing of electrical instruments you could have great opportunity for inventive talent, and in my concern you shall have your chance, and go as far as your efficiency will carry you. what do you say, would you care for it?" "i'd care for it more than any other thing on earth, and am very grateful for the chance." "the chance wouldn't be standing here now if you had not had the inclination and the determination to live up to those words on the wall." the months h. cordelia ray january to herald in another year, with rhythmic note the snowflakes fall silently from their crystal courts, to answer winter's call. wake, mortal! time is winged anew! call love and hope and faith to fill the chambers of thy soul to-day; life hath its blessings still! february the icicles upon the pane are busy architects; they leave what temples and what chiseled forms of leaf and flower! then believe that though the woods be brown and bare, and sunbeams peep through cloudy veils, though tempests howl through leaden skies, the springtime never fails! march robin! robin! call the springtime! march is halting on his way; hear the gusts. what! snowflakes falling! look not for the grass to-day. ay, the wind will frisk and play, and we cannot say it nay. april she trips across the meadows, the weird, capricious elf! the buds unfold their perfumed cups for love of her sweet self; and silver-throated birds begin to tune their lyres, while wind-harps lend their strains to nature's magic choirs. may sweet, winsome may, coy, pensive fay, comes garlanded with lily-beds, and apple blooms shed incense through the bow'r, to be her dow'r; while through the deafy dells a wondrous concert swells to welcome may, the dainty fay. june roses, roses, roses, creamy, fragrant, dewy! see the rainbow shower! was there e'er so sweet a flower? i'm the rose-nymph, june they call me. sunset's blush is not more fair than the gift of bloom so rare, mortal, that i bring to thee! july sunshine and shadow play amid the trees in bosky groves, while from the vivid sky the sun's gold arrows fleck the fields at noon, where weary cattle to their slumber hie. how sweet the music of the purling rill, trickling adown the grassy hill! while dreamy fancies come to give repose when the first star of evening glows. august haste to the mighty ocean, list to the lapsing waves; with what a strange commotion they seek their coral caves. from heat and turmoil let us oft return, the ocean's solemn majesty to learn. september with what a gentle sound the autumn leaves drop to the ground; the many-colored dyes, they greet our watching eyes. rosy and russet, how they fall! throwing o'er earth a leafy pall. october the mellow moon hangs golden in the sky, the vintage song is over, far and nigh a richer beauty nature weareth now, and silently, in reverence we bow before the forest altars, off'ring praise to him who sweetness gives to all our days. november the leaves are sere, the woods are drear, the breeze that erst so merrily did play, naught giveth save a melancholy lay; yet life's great lessons do not fail e'en in november's gale. december list! list! the sleigh bells peal across the snow; the frost's sharp arrows touch the earth and lo! how diamond-bright the stars do scintillate when night hath lit her lamps to heaven's gate. to the dim forest's cloistered arches go, and seek the holly and the mistletoe; for soon the bells of christmas-tide will ring to hail the heavenly king! the colored cadet at west point lieut. henry ossian flipper, u. s. a. may th, ! auspicious day! from the deck of the little ferry-boat that steamed its way across from garrison's on that eventful afternoon i viewed the hills about west point, her stone structures perched thereon, thus rising still higher, as if providing access to the very pinnacle of fame, and shuddered. with my mind full of the horrors of the treatment of all former cadets of color, and the dread of inevitable ostracism, i approached tremblingly yet confidently. the little vessel having been moored, i stepped ashore and inquired of a soldier there where candidates should report. he very kindly gave me all information, wished me much success, for which i thanked him, and set out for the designated place. i soon reached it, and walked directly into the adjutant's office. he received me kindly, asked for my certificate of appointment, and receiving that--or assurance that i had it--i do not remember which--directed me to write in a book there for the purpose the name and occupation of my father, the state, congressional district, county and city of his residence, my own full name, age, state, county, and place of my birth, and my occupation when at home. this done i was sent in charge of an orderly to cadet barracks, where my "plebe quarters" were assigned me. the impression made upon me by what i saw while going from the adjutant's office to barracks was certainly not very encouraging. the rear windows were crowded with cadets watching my unpretending passage of the area of barracks with apparently as much astonishment and interest as they would, perhaps, have watched hannibal crossing the alps. their words and jeers were most insulting. having reached another office, i was shown in by the orderly. i walked in, hat in hand--nay, rather started in--when three cadets, who were seated in the room, simultaneously sprang to their feet and welcomed me somewhat after this fashion: "well, sir, what do you mean by coming into this office in that manner, sir? get out of here, sir." i walked out, followed by one of them, who, in a similar strain, ordered me to button my coat, get my hands around--"fins" he said--heels together, and head up. "now, sir," said he, leaving me, "when you are ready to come in, knock at that door," emphasizing the word "knock." the door was open. i knocked. he replied, "come in." i went in. i took my position in front of and facing him, my heels together, head up, the palms of my hands to the front, and my little fingers on the seams of my pantaloons, in which position we habitually carried them. after correcting my position and making it sufficiently military to suit himself, one of them, in a much milder tone, asked what i desired of them. i told him i had been sent by the adjutant to report there. he arose, and directing me to follow him, conducted me to the bath-rooms. having discharged the necessary duty there, i returned and was again put in charge of the orderly, who carried me to the hospital. there i was subjected to a rigid physical examination, which i "stood" with the greatest ease. i was given a certificate of ability by the surgeon, and by him sent again to the adjutant, who in turn sent me to the treasurer. from him i returned alone to barracks. the reception given to "plebes" upon reporting is often very much more severe than that given me. even members of my own class can testify to this. this reception has, however, i think, been best described in an anonymous work, where it is thus set forth: "how dare you come into the presence of your superior officer in that grossly careless and unmilitary manner? i'll have you imprisoned. stand, attention, sir!" (even louder than before.) "heels-together-and-on-the-same-line, toes-equally-turned-out, little-fingers-on-the-seams-of-your-pantaloons, button-your-coat, draw-in-your-chin, throw-out-your-chest, cast-your-eyes-fifteen-paces-to-the-front, don't-let-me-see-you-wearing-standing-collars-again. stand-steady, sir. you've evidently mistaken your profession, sir. in any other service, or at the seat of war, sir, you would have been shot, sir, without trial, sir, for such conduct, sir." the effect of such words can be easily imagined. a "plebe" will at once recognize the necessity for absolute obedience, even if he does know all this is hazing, and that it is doubtless forbidden. still "plebes" almost invariably tremble while it lasts, and when in their own quarters laugh over it, and even practise it upon each other for mutual amusement. on the way to barracks i met the squad of "beasts" marching to dinner. i was ordered to fall in, did so, marched to the mess hall, and ate my first dinner at west point. after dinner we were again marched to barracks and dismissed. i hastened to my quarters, and a short while after was turned out to take possession of my baggage. i lugged it into my room, was shown the directions on the back of the door for arrangement of articles, and ordered to obey them within half an hour. at the end of the time specified every article was arranged and the cadet corporal returned to inspect. he walked deliberately to the clothes-press, and, informing me that everything was arranged wrong, threw every article upon the floor, repeated his order and withdrew. and thus three times in less than two hours did i arrange and he disarrange my effects. i was not troubled again by him till after supper, when he inspected again, merely opening the door, however, and looking in. he told me i could not go to sleep till "tattoo." now tattoo, as he evidently used it, referred in some manner to time, and with such reference i had not the remotest idea of what it meant. i had no knowledge whatever of military terms or customs. however, as i was also told that i could do anything--writing, etc.--i might wish to do, i found sufficient to keep me awake until he again returned and told me it was then tattoo, that i could retire then or at any time within half an hour, and that at the end of that time the light _must_ be extinguished and i _must_ be in bed. i instantly extinguished it and retired. thus passed my first half day at west point, and thus began the military career of the fifth colored cadet. the other four were smith of south carolina, napier of tennessee, howard of mississippi, and gibbs of florida. an hymn to the evening phyllis wheatley soon as the sun forsook the eastern main the pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain; majestic grandeur! from the zephyr's wing, exhales the incense of the blooming spring. soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes, and through the air their mingled music floats, through all the heav'ns what beauteous dyes are spread! but the west glories in the deepest red; so may our breasts with every virtue glow the living temples of our god below! filled with the praise of him who gave the light, and draws the sable curtains of the night, let placid slumbers soothe each weary mind, at morn to wake more heaven'ly, more refin'd. so shall the labors of the day begin more pure, more guarded from the snares of sin. nights' leaden sceptor seal my drowsy eyes, when cease my song, till fair aurora rise. going to school under difficulties william h. holtzclaw when i was four years old i was put to work on the farm,--that is, at such work as i could do, such as riding a deaf and blind mule while my brother held the plow. when i was six years old my four-year-old brother and i had to go two miles through a lonely forest every morning in order to carry my father's breakfast and dinner to a sawmill, where he was hauling logs for sixty cents a day. the white man, frank weathers, who employed a large number of hands, both negroes and whites, was considered one of the best and most upright men in that section of the country. in those days there were no public schools in that part of the country for the negroes. indeed, public schools for whites were just beginning to be established. this man set aside a little house in the neighborhood of the sawmill, employed a teacher, and urged all the negroes to send their children to this school. not a great many of them, however, took advantage of his generosity, for this was at the time when everybody seemed to think that the negro's only hope was in politics. but my father and mother had great faith in education, and they were determined that their children should have that blessing of which they themselves had been deprived. soon, however, mr. weathers had cut all the timber that he could get in that section, and he therefore moved his mills to another district. this left us without a school. but my father was not to be outdone. he called a meeting of the men in that community, and they agreed to build a schoolhouse themselves. they went to the forest and cut pine poles about eight inches in diameter, split them in halves, and carried them on their shoulders to a nice shady spot, and there erected a little schoolhouse. the benches were made of the same material, and there was no floor nor chimney. some of the other boys' trousers suffered when they sat on the new pine benches, which exuded rosin, but i had an advantage of them in this respect, for i wore only a shirt. in fact, i never wore trousers until i got to be so large that the white neighbors complained of my insufficient clothes. at the end of the first school year there was a trying time in our family. on this occasion the teacher ordered all the pupils to appear dressed in white. we had no white clothes, nor many of any other sort, for that matter. father and mother discussed our predicament nearly all one night. father said it was foolish to buy clothes which could be used for that occasion only. but my ever resourceful mother was still determined that her children should look as well on this important occasion as any of our neighbors. however, when we went to bed the night before the exhibition we still had no white clothes and no cloth from which to make them. nevertheless, when we awoke the next morning, all three of us had beautiful white suits. it came about in this way. my mother had a beautiful white sunday petticoat, which she had cut up and made into suits for us. as there is just so much cloth in a petticoat and no more, the stuff had to be cut close to cover all of us children, and as the petticoat had been worn several times and was, therefore, likely to tear, we had to be very careful how we stooped in moving about the stage, lest there should be a general splitting and tearing, with consequences that we were afraid to imagine. at the exhibitions the next night we said our little pieces, and i suppose we looked about as well as the others; at least we thought so, and that was sufficient. one thing i am sure of,--there was no mother there who was prouder of her children than ours. the thing that made her so pleased was the fact that my speech made such an impression that our white landlord lifted me off the stage when i had finished speaking and gave me a quarter of a dollar. if there happened to be a school in the winter time, i had sometimes to go bare-footed and always with scant clothing. our landlady was very kind in such cases. she would give me clothes that had already been worn by her sons, and in turn i would bring broom straw from the sedges, with which she made her brooms. in this way i usually got enough clothes to keep me warm. [illustration] so, with my mother's encouragement, i went to school in spite of my bare feet. often the ground would be frozen, and often there would be snow. my feet would crack and bleed freely, but when i reached home mother would have a tub full of hot water ready to plunge me into and thaw me out. although this caused my feet and legs to swell, it usually got me into shape for school the next day. i remember once, when i had helped "lay by" the crops at home and was ready to enter the little one-month school, it was decided that i could not go, because i had no hat. my mother told me that if i could catch a 'coon and cure the skin, she would make me a cap out of that material. that night i went far into the forest with my hounds, and finally located a 'coon. the 'coon was a mighty fighter, and when he had driven off all my dogs i saw that the only chance for me to get a cap was to whip the 'coon myself, so together with the dogs i went at him, and finally we conquered him. the next week i went to school wearing my new 'coon-skin cap. exertions of this kind, from time to time, strengthened my will and my body, and prepared me for more trying tests which were to come later. as i grew older it became more and more difficult for me to go to school. when cotton first began to open,--early in the fall,--it brought a higher price than at any other time of the year. at this time the landlord wanted us all to stop school and pick cotton. but mother wanted me to remain in school, so, when the landlord came to the quarters early in the morning to stir up the cotton pickers, she used to outgeneral him by hiding me behind the skillets, ovens, and pots, throwing some old rags over me until he was gone. then she would slip me off to school through the back way. i can see her now with her hands upon my shoulder, shoving me along through the woods and underbrush, in a roundabout way, keeping me all the time out of sight of the great plantation until we reached the point, a mile away from home, where we came to the public road. there my mother would bid me good-bye, whereupon she would return to the plantation and try to make up to the landlord for the work of us both in the field as cotton pickers. the brave son alston w. burleigh a little boy, lost in his childish play, mid the deep'ning shades of the fading day, fancied the warrior he would be; he scattered his foes with his wooden sword and put to flight a mighty horde-- ere he crept to his daddy's knee. a soldier crawled o'er the death-strewn plain, and he uttered the name of his love, in vain, as he stumbled over the crest; he fought with the fierceness of dark despair and drove the cowering foe to his lair-- ere he crept to his father's breast. victory walter f. white "now, ted, just forget they're after you and remember you've got ten men out there with you. fight 'em and fight 'em hard, but hold that man-eating temper of yours. if you don't, we're lost." dawson, varsity coach of bliss university, affectionately known and revered by two thousand undergraduates as "skipper bill" sat in the locker room with his arm around ted robertson's shoulders, star halfback and punter of the varsity eleven. around them moved the other varsity players, substitutes, second string men, trainers and rubbers. in the stands overhead every seat was taken, for these were the last few minutes before the big game of the year--the annual battle with sloan college. on one side the sober blues and grays and blacks formed a background for huge yellow chrysanthemums and light blue ribbons, the bliss colors, and the same background in the stands opposite set off the crimson of sloan college. the rival college bands of the two most important colored universities of the united states blared almost unheeded in the din, while agile cheerleaders clad in white from head to foot performed gymnastics in leading rolling volumes of cheers. all were in that tense, nerve-gripping mood prior to that game in which victory or defeat meant success or failure of the season's efforts of the teams of young giants that represented the two schools. in the locker room, however, a different scene was being enacted. every man was acting according to his own temperament and each in his own way attempted to hide the anxious thrill that every real football player feels before "the big game." jimmy murray, quarterback and thrower of forward passes _par excellence_, nervously tied and untied his shoe laces a dozen times; "tiny" marshall, left tackle, who weighed two hundred and ten pounds, tried to whistle nonchalantly and failed miserably, while "bull" bascom, fullback, the only calm man in the room, was carefully adjusting his shoulder pads. around them hovered the odor of arnica and liniment mixed with the familiar tang of perspiration which has dried in woolen jerseys--perspiration that marked many a long and wearisome hour of training and perfection of the machine that to-day received its final "exam." ted robertson, the man around whom most of the team's offense was built, sat listening to dawson's advice. born with a fiery, almost unmanageable temper, his reckless, dauntless spirit had made him a terror to opposing teams. strong was the line that could check his plunges, and fleet were the ends who could tackle him when once he got loose in an open field. recognizing his phenomenal ability, both coach and players gave him the credit due him and consciously or unconsciously relied on him as the team's best player. but to-day sloan had declared that they were going to put robertson out of the game and threats had been freely uttered that before the game had been going very long he "would be in the hospital." this news added to the tenseness of feeling. if robertson should be put out of the game, or if he should lose his temper the chances of a victory for bliss were slim indeed, for rarely had two teams been so evenly matched in skill and brain and brawn. thus the final pleading of dawson to robertson to "hold that temper." a roar of cheers greeted their ears as the red jerseyed sloan team took the field. led by murray the bliss players were likewise greeted by a storm of applause as they trotted out on the field and the varsity started through a brisk signal drill. in a few minutes the referee called the rival captains to the center of the field. sloan won the toss and elected to defend the south goal, kicking off with the wind behind its back. a breathless hush--the shrill whistle of the referee--the thump of cleated shoe against the ball and the game was on. the teams, wonderfully even in strength and in knowledge of the game, surged back and forth, the ball repeatedly changing hands as one team would hold the other for downs. from the kick-off, the sloan players began their attempts to injure or anger robertson. vicious remarks were aimed at him while the referee was not near enough to hear. when robertson carried the ball and after he was downed under a mass of players, a fist would thud against his jaw or hard knuckles would be rubbed across his nose. once when an opposing player had fallen across robertson's right leg, another of his opponents seized his ankle and turned it. though he fought against it, his temper was slowly but surely slipping away from him. for three hectic quarters, with the tide of victory or defeat now surging towards bliss--now towards sloan, the battle raged. as play after play of brilliance or superbrilliance flashed forth, the stands alternately groaned or cheered, according to the sympathies of each. robertson, a veritable stonewall of defense, time and again checked the rushes of the sloan backs or threw himself recklessly at fleet backs on end runs when his own ends had failed to "get their man." on the offensive he repeatedly was called on to carry the ball and seldom did he fail to make the distance required. a great weariness settled on robertson and it was with difficulty that he was able to fight off a numbness and dizziness that almost overcame him. one thing sustained him. it was a bitter resentment against those who sought to hurt him. the fires within him had grown until they became a flaming, devastating thing that burned its way into his brain. it needed only a spark to make him forget the game, school, the coach and everything else. yet even as he realized this he knew that if he did lose his temper, bliss might as well concede the victory to sloan. it was not conceit that caused him to know this and admit it but the clearness of vision that comes oft-times in a moment of greatest mental strain. finally, with the score still tied, neither side having scored, the time keeper warned the rival teams that only three minutes remained for play. his warning served to cause a tightening of muscles and a grimness of countenance in a last final effort to put over a score and avert a tied score. the huge crowd prayed fervently for a score--a touchdown--a safety--a goal from field or placement--anything. it was sloan's ball on bliss's forty-five-yard line. only a fumble or some fluke could cause a score. every player was on his mettle burning with anxiety to get his hands on that ball and scamper down the field to a touchdown and everlasting fame in the annals of his school's football history. in a last desperate effort, the bliss quarterback called a trick play. it started out like a quarterback run around left end. the bliss left end ran straight down the field after delaying the man playing opposite him. when the bliss quarter had made a wide run drawing in the sloan secondary defense, he turned and like a flash shot a long forward pass over the heads of the incoming sloan backfield to the end who had gone straight down the field and who was practically free of danger of being tackled by any of the sloan backs. too late the sloan players saw the ruse. only robertson was between the swift running end and a score. with grim satisfaction, his face streaked with perspiration, drawn and weary with the long hard struggle and the yeoman part he had played in it, robertson saw that the man with the ball was the one player on the opposing side who had done most of the unfair playing in trying to put robertson out of the game. all of the bitterness--all of the anger in his heart swelled up and he determined to overtake the end, prevent the score and tackle the man so viciously that he would be certain to break an arm or a leg. robertson dug his cleats in the spongy turf with a phenomenal burst of speed, rapidly overtook his man, driving him meanwhile towards the sidelines. at last the moment came. by making a flying tackle, which would be illegal but which he hoped the referee would not see, robertson could get his man and get him in such fashion that he would have no chance of escaping injury. robertson crouched for the spring. a fierce light came into his eyes. in a flash he saw the end whom he now hated with an intensity that wiped every thought from his mind except that of revenge, lying prone on the ground. but even as he gloated over his revenge, the words of bill dawson came to him, "hold that man-eating temper of yours." in a lightning-like conflict, the impulse to injure fought a desperate battle with the instinct of clean playing. his decision was made in a moment. instead of making the vicious flying tackle, he ran all the faster, but the end was too swift and had too great a lead. amid the frantically jubilant shouts of the bliss rooters and the painful silence of the sloan supporters the end went across the line for a touchdown just as time was up. a gloom pervaded the dressing rooms of the sloan team after the game. robertson was in disgrace. forgotten was the playing through most of the game. forgotten were his desperate tackles that had saved the game more than once. forgotten were the long runs and the hard line plunges that time and again had made first downs for his team. only the fact that he had apparently failed in the last minute remained. only dawson and robertson knew that it was not cowardice, that most detested of all things in athletics, in life itself, had caused robertson to refuse to make that last dangerous, illegal flying tackle. but in the heart of robertson there was a strange peace. being human, he naturally resented the discernible thoughts in the minds of his comrades of many a hard-fought battle. but a calmness made him forgetful of all this for he knew that at last, in a moment of the supreme test, he had conquered that which had been his master throughout all of his life--his temper. all the slurs and coldness in the world could not rob him of the satisfaction of this. the dog and the clever rabbit a. o. stafford there were many days when the animals did not think about the kingship. they thought of their games and their tricks, and would play them from the rising to the setting of the sun. now, at that time, the little rabbit was known as a very clever fellow. his tricks, his schemes, and his funny little ways caused much mischief and at times much anger among his woodland cousins. at last the wolf made up his mind to catch him and give him a severe punishment for the many tricks he had played upon him. knowing that the rabbit could run faster than he, the wolf called at the home of the dog to seek his aid. "brother dog, frisky little rabbit must be caught and punished. for a nice bone will you help me?" asked the wolf. "certainly, my good friend," answered the dog, thinking of the promised bone. "be very careful, the rabbit is very clever," said the wolf as he left. a day or so later while passing through the woods the dog saw the rabbit frisking in the tall grass. quick as a flash the dog started after him. the little fellow ran and, to save himself, jumped into the hollow of an oak tree. the opening was too small for the other to follow and as he looked in he heard only the merry laugh of the frisky rabbit, "hee, hee! hello, mr. dog, you can't see me." "never mind, boy, i will get you yet," barked the angry dog. a short distance from the tree a goose was seen moving around looking for her dinner. "come, friend goose, watch the hollow of this tree while i go and get some moss and fire to smoke out this scamp of a rabbit," spoke the dog, remembering the advice of the wolf. "of course i'll watch, for he has played many of his schemes upon me," returned the bird. when the dog left, the rabbit called out from his hiding place, "how can you watch, friend goose, when you can't see me?" "well, i will see you then," she replied. with these words she pushed her long neck into the hollow of the tree. as the neck of the goose went into the opening the rabbit threw the dust of some dry wood into her eyes. "oh, oh, you little scamp, you have made me blind," cried out the bird in pain. [illustration] then while the goose was trying to get the dust from her eyes the rabbit jumped out and scampered away. in a short while the dog returned with the moss and fire, filled the opening, and, as he watched the smoke arise, barked with glee, "now i have you, my tricky friend, now i have you." but as no rabbit ran out the dog turned to the goose and saw from her red, streaming eyes that something was wrong. "where is the rabbit, friend goose?" he quickly asked. "why, he threw wood dust into my eyes when i peeped into the opening." at once the dog knew that the rabbit had escaped and became very angry. "you silly goose, you foolish bird with web feet, i will kill you now for such folly." with these words the dog sprang for the goose, but only a small feather was caught in his mouth as the frightened bird rose high in the air and flew away. the boy and the ideal joseph s. cotter once upon a time a mule, a hog, a snake, and a boy met. said the mule: "i eat and labor that i may grow strong in the heels. it is fine to have heels so gifted. my heels make people cultivate distance." said the hog: "i eat and labor that i may grow strong in the snout. it is fine to have a fine snout. i keep people watching for my snout." "no exchanging heels for snouts," broke in the mule. "no," answered the hog; "snouts are naturally above heels." said the snake: "i eat to live, and live to cultivate my sting. the way people shun me shows my greatness. beget stings, comrades, and stings will beget glory." said the boy: "there is a star in my life like unto a star in the sky. i eat and labor that i may think aright and feel aright. these rounds will conduct me to my star. oh, inviting star!" "i am not so certain of that," said the mule. "i have noticed your kind and ever see some of myself in them. your star is in the distance." the boy answered by smelling a flower and listening to the song of a bird. the mule looked at him and said: "he is all tenderness and care. the true and the beautiful have robbed me of a kinsman. his star is near." said the boy: "i approach my star." "i am not so certain of that," interrupted the hog. "i have noticed your kind and i ever see some of myself in them. your star is a delusion." the boy answered by painting the flower and setting the notes of the bird's song to music. the hog looked at the boy and said: "his soul is attuned by nature. the meddler in him is slain." "i can all but touch my star," cried the boy. "i am not so certain of that," remarked the snake. "i have watched your kind and ever see some of myself in them. stings are nearer than stars." the boy answered by meditating upon the picture and music. the snake departed, saying that stings and stars cannot keep company. the boy journeyed on, ever led by the star. some distance away the mule was bemoaning the presence of his heels and trying to rid himself of them by kicking a tree. the hog was dividing his time between looking into a brook and rubbing his snout on a rock to shorten it. the snake lay dead of its own bite. the boy journeyed on, led by an ever inviting star. children at easter c. emily frazier that day in old jerusalem when christ our lord was slain, i wonder if the children hid and wept in grief and pain; dear little ones, on whose fair brows his tender touch had been, whose infant forms had nestled close his loving arms within. i think that very soberly went mournful little feet when christ our lord was laid away in joseph's garden sweet, [illustration: children at easter] and wistful eyes grew very sad and dimpled cheeks grew white, when he who suffered babes to come was prisoned from the light. with beaming looks and eager words a glad surprise he gave to those who sought their buried lord and found an empty grave; for truly christ had conquered death, himself the prince of life, and none of all his followers shall fail in any strife. o little ones, around the cross your easter garlands twine, and bring your precious easter gifts to many a sacred shrine, and, better still, let offerings of pure young hearts be given on easter day to him who reigns the king of earth and heaven. abraham lincoln william pickens he was the first president of the republic who was american through and through. there was not one foreign element in his bringing up; he was an unmixed child of the western plains, born in the south, reared in the north. most of the presidents before him, being reared nearer the atlantic, had imbibed more or less of eastern culture and had european airs. this man lincoln was so thoroughly democratic as to astonish both old and new england. he never acted "the president," and was always a man among men, the honored servant of the people. from a five-dollar fee before a justice of the peace, he had risen to a five-thousand-dollar fee before the supreme court of illinois. from a study of "dilworth's spelling book" in his seventh year, he had risen to write, in his fifty-seventh year, his second inaugural, which is the greatest utterance of man, and yet all of his days in school added together are less than one year. his pioneer life had given him a vein of humor which became his "life-preserver" in times of stress; it had also given him a love for human liberty that was unaffected. he felt that the enslavement of some men was but the advance guard, the miner and sapper, of the enslavement of all men. from a poor captain of volunteers in the scandalous little black hawk war, where he jokingly said he "bled, died, and came away," although he never had a skirmish nor saw an indian, he had risen to the chief command in a war that numbered three thousand battles and skirmishes and cost three billion dollars. having no ancestry himself, being able to trace his line by rumor and tradition only as far back as his grandfather, he became, like george washington, the father of his country. born of a father who could not write his name, he himself had written the proclamation of emancipation, the fourth great state paper in the history of the anglo-saxon race,--the others being magna charta, the declaration of independence and the constitution. if we accept the statement of cicero that the days on which we are saved should be as illustrious as the days on which we are born, then lincoln the savior must always remain coördinate with washington, the father of his country. jackson was "old hickory," taylor was "old rough," and there have been various names given to the other presidents, but washington and lincoln were the only ones whom the american people styled "father." child of the american soil, cradled and nursed in the very bosom of nature, he loved his country with the passion with which most men love their human mothers. he could not bear the thought of one iota of detraction from her honor, her dignity or her welfare. against her dismemberment he was willing to fight to the end of his second administration or till the end of time. he might tolerate anything else except disunion,--even the right of some of his fellowmen to enslave others. of every concession which he made during his administration, to friend or foe, the _sine qua non_ was union. a house divided against itself cannot stand. in this he left us a great heritage; it is a lesson for both sections, and all races of any section. white men of america, black men of america, by the eternal god of heaven, there can be no division of destiny on the same soil and in the bosom and in the lap of the same natural mother. men may attempt and accomplish discrimination in a small way, but almighty god and all-mothering nature are absolutely impartial. they have woven the fabric of life so that the thread of each man's existence is a part of the whole. he who sets fire to his neighbor's house, endangers the existence of his own; he who degrades his neighbor's children, undermines the future of his own. together we rise and together we fall is the plan of god and the rule of nature. we must lean together in the common struggle of life: the syncline is stronger than the anticline. in a great nation with an increasing fame, the lesson of lincoln's life must grow in importance. as long as the human heart loves freedom his name will be a word on the tongues of men. his name will be a watchword wherever liberty in her struggles with tyranny lifts her embattled banners. no man of the ancient or the modern world has a securer place in the hearts and memories of men than this man lincoln, who was born in obscurity, who died in a halo, and who now rests in an aureole of historic glory. rondeau jessie fauset when april's here and meadows wide once more with spring's sweet growths are pied, i close each book, drop each pursuit, and past the brook, no longer mute, i joyous roam the countryside. look, here the violets shy abide and there the mating robins hide-- how keen my senses, how acute, when april's here! and list! down where the shimmering tide hard by that farthest hill doth glide, rise faint sweet strains from shepherd's flute, pan's pipes and berecynthian lute. each sight, each sound fresh joys provide when april's here. how i escaped frederick douglass although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked about among grown-up people in maryland, i frequently talked about it, and that very freely, with the white boys. i would sometimes say to them, while seated on a curbstone or a cellar door, "i wish i could be free, as you will be when you get to be men. you will be free, you know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but i am a slave for life. have i not as good a right to be free as you have?" words like these, i observed, always troubled them; and i had no small satisfaction in drawing out from them, as i occasionally did, that fresh and bitter condemnation of slavery which ever springs from natures unseared and unperverted. of all consciences, let me have those to deal with, which have not been seared and bewildered with the cares and perplexities of life. i do not remember ever to have met with a boy while i was in slavery, who defended the system, but i do remember many times, when i was consoled by them, and by them encouraged to hope that something would yet occur by which i would be made free. over and over again, they have told me that "they believed i had as good a right to be free as they had," and that "they did not believe god ever made any one to be a slave." on monday, the third day of september, , in accordance with my resolution, i bade farewell to the city of baltimore, and to slavery. my success was due to address rather than courage; to good luck rather than bravery. my means of escape were provided for me by the very men who were making laws to hold and bind me more securely in slavery. it was the custom in the state of maryland to require of the free colored people to have what were called free papers. this instrument they were required to renew very often, and by charging a fee for this writing, considerable sums from time to time were collected by the state. in these papers the name, age, color, height, and form of the free man were described, together with any scars or other marks upon his person. now more than one man could be found to answer the same general description. hence many slaves could escape by impersonating the owner of one set of papers; and this was often done as follows: a slave nearly or sufficiently answering the description set forth in the papers, would borrow or hire them till he could by their means escape to a free state, and then, by mail or otherwise, return them to the owner. the operation was a hazardous one for the lender as well as the borrower. a failure on the part of the fugitive to send back the papers would imperil his benefactor, and the discovery of the papers in possession of the wrong man would imperil both the fugitive and his friend. it was therefore an act of supreme trust on the part of a freeman of color thus to put in jeopardy his own liberty that another might be free. it was, however, not infrequently bravely done, and was seldom discovered. i was not so fortunate as to sufficiently resemble any of my free acquaintances to answer the description of their papers. but i had one friend--a sailor--who owned a sailor's protection, which answered somewhat the purpose of free papers--describing his person, and certifying to the fact that he was a free american sailor. the instrument had at its head the american eagle, which gave it the appearance at once of an authorized document. this protection did not, when in my hands, describe its bearer very accurately. indeed, it called for a man much darker than myself, and close examination of it would have caused my arrest at the start. in order to avoid this fatal scrutiny i had arranged with a hackman to bring my baggage to the train just on the moment of starting, and jumped upon the car myself when the train was already in motion. had i gone into the station and offered to purchase a ticket, i should have been instantly and carefully examined, and undoubtedly arrested. in choosing this plan upon which to act, i considered the jostle of the train, and the natural haste of the conductor, in a train crowded with passengers, and relied upon my skill and address in playing the sailor as described in my protection, to do the rest. one element in my favor was the kind feeling which prevailed in baltimore, and other seaports at the time, towards "those who go down to the sea in ships." "free trade and sailors' rights" expressed the sentiment of the country just then. in my clothing i was rigged out in sailor style. i had on a red shirt and a tarpaulin hat and black cravat, tied in sailor fashion, carelessly and loosely about my neck. my knowledge of ships and sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for i knew a ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an "old salt." on sped the train, and i was well on the way to havre de grace before the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets and examine the papers of his black passengers. this was a critical moment in the drama. my whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor. agitated i was while this ceremony was proceeding, but still externally, at least, i was apparently calm and self-possessed. he went on with his duty--examining several colored passengers before reaching me. he was somewhat harsh in tone, and peremptory in manner until he reached me, when, strangely enough, and to my surprise and relief, his whole manner changed. seeing that i did not readily produce my free papers, as the other colored persons in the car had done, he said to me in a friendly contrast with that observed towards the others: "i suppose you have your free papers?" to which i answered: "no, sir; i never carry my free papers to sea with me." "but you have something to show that you are a free man, have you not?" "yes, sir," i answered; "i have a paper with the american eagle on it, that will carry me around the world." with this i drew from my deep sailor's pocket my seaman's protection, as before described. the merest glance at the paper satisfied him, and he took my fare and went on about his business. this moment of time was one of the most anxious i ever experienced. had the conductor looked closely at the paper, he could not have failed to discover that it called for a very different looking person from myself, and in that case it would have been his duty to arrest me on the instant, and send me back to baltimore from the first station. when he left me with the assurance that i was all right, though much relieved, i realized that i was still in great danger: i was still in maryland, and subject to arrest at any moment. i saw on the train several persons who would have known me in any other clothes, and i feared they might recognize me, even in my sailor "rig," and report me to the conductor, who would then subject me to a closer examination, which i knew well would be fatal to me. though i was not a murderer fleeing from justice, i felt, perhaps, quite miserable as such a criminal. the train was moving at a very high rate of speed for that time of railroad travel, but to my anxious mind, it was moving far too slowly. minutes were hours, and hours were days during this part of my flight. after maryland i was to pass through delaware--another slave state. the border lines between slavery and freedom were the dangerous ones, for the fugitives. the heart of no fox or deer, with hungry hounds on his trail, in full chase, could have beaten more anxiously or noisily than did mine, from the time i left baltimore till i reached philadelphia. the passage of the susquehanna river at havre de grace was made by ferry-boat at that time, on board of which i met a young colored man by the name of nichols, who came very near betraying me. he was a "hand" on the boat, but instead of minding his business, he insisted upon knowing me, and asking me dangerous questions as to where i was going, and when i was coming back, etc. i got away from my old and inconvenient acquaintance as soon as i could decently do so, and went to another part of the boat. once across the river i encountered a new danger. only a few days before i had been at work on a revenue cutter, in mr. price's ship-yard, under the care of captain mcgowan. on the meeting at this point of the two trains, the one going south stopped on the track just opposite to the one going north, and it so happened that this captain mcgowan sat at a window where he could see me very distinctly, and would certainly have recognized me had he looked at me but for a second. fortunately, in the hurry of the moment, he did not see me; and the trains soon passed each other on their respective ways. but this was not the only hair-breadth escape. a german blacksmith, whom i knew well, was on the train with me, and looked at me very intently, as if he thought he had seen me somewhere before in his travels. i really believe he knew me, but had no heart to betray me. at any rate he saw me escaping and held his peace. the last point of imminent danger, and the one i dreaded most, was wilmington. here we left the train and took the steamboat for philadelphia. in making the change here i again apprehended arrest, but no one disturbed me, and i was soon on the broad and beautiful delaware, speeding away to the quaker city. on reaching philadelphia in the afternoon i inquired of a colored man how i could get on to new york? he directed me to the willow street depot, and thither i went, taking the train that night. i reached new york tuesday morning, having completed the journey in less than twenty-four hours. such is briefly the manner of my escape from slavery--and the end of my experience as a slave. frederick douglass w. h. crogman frederick douglass is dead! how strange that sounds to those of us who from earliest boyhood have been accustomed to hear him spoken of as the living exponent of all that is noblest and best in the race. the mind reluctantly accepts the unwelcome truth. and yet it is a truth--a serious, a solemn truth. frederick douglass is no more. the grand old hero of a thousand battles has at last fallen before the shaft of the common destroyer, and upon his well-battered shield loving hands have tenderly borne that stalwart form to its last, long resting place. earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes! this country will never again see another douglass; this world will never again see another douglass, for in all probability there will never again exist that peculiar combination of circumstances to produce exactly such a type of manhood. man is, in a measure, the product of environment. yet it would be injustice to frederick douglass to say that he was great simply because of environment. he was great in spite of environment. born a slave, subjected in his youth and early manhood to all the degrading, stultifying, demoralizing influences of slavery, he has left behind him, after a public life long and varied and stormy, a name as clean and spotless as driven snow. take notice of this, young men, you who have ambitions, you who are aspiring to public place, position, and power. take notice that a public life need not be separated from unsullied honor. i said frederick douglass was great in spite of environment. had there been no slavery to fight, no freedom to win, he would still have been a great man. greatness was inherent in his being, and circumstances simply evoked it. he was one of those choice spirits whom the almighty sends into this world with the stamp of a great mission on their very form and features. said sam johnson with reference to edmund burke: "burke, sir, is such a man that if you met him for the first time in the street, where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped aside to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a manner that when you parted you would say, 'this is an extraordinary man.'" the same could doubtless have been said of douglass; but it was not necessary to hear him talk, to discover his unusual ability and surpassing intelligence. there was in his very presence something that instantly indicated these. an eminent divine said some years ago that douglass's escape from slavery was a very fortunate thing for the south, as in any uprising of slaves he must have proved a very formidable leader. "he had," said he, "the mind to plan, the heart to dare, and the hand to execute," and added, "if you were to see him sitting in exeter hall in the midst of a sea of faces, you would instantly recognize in him a man of extraordinary force of character." such was the impression that douglass commonly made on people, and such was the impression he made on me at my first sight of him. it was in faneuil hall, in the summer of . the colored people of new england were assembled in political convention. entering the hall in the midst of one of their morning sessions, the first object that met my eyes was the old hero himself on the rostrum. there he stood, over six feet in height, erect, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, with massive, well-formed head, covered with thick, bushy hair, about half gray. i judged him then to be midway in his fifties. his face, strongly leonine, was clean shaven, except moustache, while those eyes, that even in the seventies could flash fire, lighted up the whole countenance, and made the general effect such as not to be easily forgotten by a young man. there stood the orator and the man, and never since have i seen the two in such exquisite combination. the old greek sculptor would have delighted to immortalize such a form in marble. whispering to a tall white brother beside me (the audience was half white) i asked: "who, sir, is that man speaking?" "that man? that man is frederick douglass." then looking down upon me with an expression of mingled pity and surprise in his face, he said: "why, don't you know fred douglass?" i need not say that that question brought to my mind feelings of pride not altogether unmixed with humiliation. as the old orator swept on, however, in his own inimitable style, sprinkling his remarks with genuine original wit i forgot everything else around me. his voice, a heavy barytone, or rendered a little heavier than usual by a slight hoarseness contracted in previous speaking, could be distinctly heard in that historic but most wretched of auditoriums. i was particularly struck with his perfect ease and naturalness, a seemingly childlike unconsciousness of his surroundings, while, like a master of his art, as he was, he swayed the feelings of that surging multitude. in the most impassioned portions of his speech, however, it was evident to the thoughtful observer that there was in the man immense reserved force which on momentous occasions might be used with startling effect. at first i had entered the hall to remain but a few minutes, and, consequently, had taken my stand just inside the door. how long i did remain i cannot tell, but it was until the speaker finished, at which time i found myself half way up towards the rostrum in the midst of that thickly standing audience. such was my first sight and impression of one of the world's great orators, and beyond comparison the greatest man of the race yet produced on this continent. his splendid physique, so often admired, was well in keeping with the strength and grasp of his masterly mind. without the privilege of a day's instruction in the schoolroom, he acquired a fund of useful knowledge that would put to shame the meager attainments of many a college graduate. his speeches and writing are models of a pure english style, and are characterized by simplicity, clearness, directness, force, and elegance. many of the interesting facts and incidents in the life of this great man are already well known--his escape from slavery, his arrival in the north, his early marriage, his settling down to work at his trade in new bedford, his first speech in an anti-slavery convention, that drew attention to his wonderful powers of oratory, and led to his employment by the anti-slavery bureau to lecture through the north on the most unpopular question that up to that time had been presented to the american people, his rise as an orator, his trip to england and its magical effects on the english people, his return to this country, and the purchase of his freedom, to relieve him of the apprehension of being seized and taken back into slavery, his editorship of the north star, his services to the government during the war in the raising of troops, his securing of pay for the black soldiers equal to that of the whites, the editorship immediately after the war of the new national era, his popularity as a lyceum lecturer, his mission to san domingo under grant, his marshalship of the district of columbia under hayes, his ministry to santo domingo. these are some of the experiences which came into that eventful life. if i were asked to sum up in a word what made frederick douglass great, i should say a noble purpose, fixed and unchangeable, a purpose to render to mankind the largest possible service. verily he has served us well, faithfully, unselfishly, and now, full of years and full of honors, loaded with such distinctions as this poor world has to give, he dies, dies as he lived, a brave, strong, good man. no more shall we behold that manly form. no more shall we listen to those eloquent lips upon which for over fifty years so many thousands have hung with rapture, those eloquent lips that made his name famous in two hemispheres, and will surely keep it so long as freedom has a history. god grant that the mantle of this old hero may fall upon a worthy successor! god grant that our young men, contemplating his life and emulating his example, may be lifted up to a higher conception of life, of duty, of responsibility, of usefulness! incident in the life of frederick douglass long after the civil war, mr. douglass once told the following story of his life to the pupils of a colored school in talbot county, maryland, the county in which he was born: "i once knew a little colored boy whose father and mother died when he was six years old. he was a slave and had no one to care for him. he slept on a dirt floor in a hovel and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag, headforemost, and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under the barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast in the fire and eat. "this boy did not wear pants as you do, only a tow linen shirt. schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell from an old webster's spelling book, and to read and write from posters on cellars and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. he would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. he finally held several high positions and accumulated some wealth. he wore broadcloth and did not have to divide crumbs with the dogs under the table. that boy was frederick douglass. "what was possible for me is possible for you. do not think because you are colored you can not accomplish anything. strive earnestly to add to your knowledge. so long as you remain in ignorance, so long will you fail to command the respect of your fellow men." animal life in the congo william henry sheppard at daybreak monday morning we had finished our breakfast by candle light and with staff in hand we marched northeast for lukunga. in two days we sighted the mission compound. word had reached the missionaries (a.b.m.u.) that foreigners were approaching, and they came out to meet and greet us. we were soon hurried into their cool and comfortable mud houses. our faithful cook was dismissed, for we were to take our meals with the missionaries. mr. hoste, who is at the head of this station, came into our room and mentioned that the numerous spiders, half the size of your hand, on the walls were harmless. "but," said he, as he raised his hand and pointed to a hole over the door, "there is a nest of scorpions; you must be careful in moving in or out, for they will spring upon you." well, you ought to have seen us dodging in and out that door. after supper, not discrediting the veracity of the gentleman, we set to work, and for an hour we spoiled the walls by smashing spiders with slippers. the next morning the mission station was excited over the loss of their only donkey. the donkey had been feeding in the field and a boa-constrictor had captured him, squeezed him into pulp, dragged him a hundred yards down to the river bank, and was preparing to swallow him. the missionaries, all with guns, took aim and fired, killing the twenty-five-foot boa-constrictor. the boa was turned over to the natives and they had a great feast. the missionaries told us many tales about how the boa-constrictor would come by night and steal away their goats, hogs, and dogs. the sand around lukunga is a hot-bed for miniature fleas, or "jiggers." the second day of our stay at lukunga our feet had swollen and itched terribly, and on examination we found that these "jiggers" had entered under our toe nails and had grown to the size of a pea. a native was called and with a small sharpened stick they were cut out. we saw natives with toes and fingers eaten entirely off by these pests. mr. hoste told us to keep our toes well greased with palm oil. we followed his instructions, but grease with sand and sun made our socks rather "heavy." the native church here is very strong spiritually. the church bell, a real big brass bell, begins to ring at a. m. and continues for an hour. the natives in the neighborhood come teeming by every trail, take their seats quietly, and listen attentively to the preaching of god's word. no excitement, no shouting, but an intelligent interest shown by looking and listening from start to finish. in the evening you can hear from every quarter our hymns sung by the natives in their own language. they are having their family devotions before retiring. our second day's march brought us to a large river. our loads and men were ferried over in canoes. mr. lapsley and i decided to swim it, and so we jumped in and struck out for the opposite shore. on landing we were told by a native watchman that we had done a very daring thing. he explained with much excitement and many gestures that the river was filled with crocodiles, and that he did not expect to see us land alive on his side. we camped on the top of the hill overlooking n'kissy and the wild rushing congo rapids. it was in one of these whirlpools that young pocock, stanley's last survivor, perished. in the "pool" we saw many hippopotami, and longed to go out in a canoe and shoot one, but being warned of the danger from the hippopotami and also of the treacherous current of the congo river, which might take us over the rapids and to death, we were afraid to venture. a native bateke fisherman, just a few days before our arrival, had been crushed in his canoe by a bull-hippopotamus. many stories of hippopotami horrors were told us. one day chief n'galiama with his attendant came to the mission and told dr. simms that the people in the village were very hungry and to see if it were possible for him to get some meat to eat. dr. simms called me and explained how the people were on the verge of a famine and if i could kill them a hippopotamus it would help greatly. he continued to explain that the meat and hide would be dried by the people and, using but a little at each meal, would last them a long time. dr. simms mentioned that he had never hunted, but he knew where the game was. he said, "i will give you a native guide, you go with him around the first cataract about two miles from here and you will find the hippopotami." i was delighted at the idea, and being anxious to use my "martini henry" rifle and to help the hungry people, i consented to go. in an hour and a half we had walked around the rapids, across the big boulders, and right before us were at least a dozen big hippopotami. some were frightened, ducked their heads and made off; others showed signs of fight and defiance. at about fifty yards distant i raised my rifle and let fly at one of the exposed heads. my guide told me that the hippopotamus was shot and killed. in a few minutes another head appeared above the surface of the water and again taking aim i fired with the same result. the guide, who was a subject of the chief n'galiama, sprang upon a big boulder and cried to me to look at the big bubbles which were appearing on the water; then explained in detail that the hippopotami had drowned and would rise to the top of the water within an hour. the guide asked to go to a fishing camp nearby and call some men to secure the hippopotami when they rose, or else they would go out with the current and over the rapids. in a very short time about fifty men, bringing native rope with them, were on the scene and truly, as the guide had said, up came the first hippopotamus, his big back showing first. a number of the men were off swimming with the long rope which was tied to the hippopotamus' foot. a signal was given and every man did his best. no sooner had we secured the one near shore than there was a wild shout to untie and hasten for the other. these two were securely tied by their feet and big boulders were rolled on the rope to keep them from drifting out into the current. the short tails of both of them were cut off and we started home. we reported to dr. simms that we had about four or five tons of meat down on the river bank. the native town ran wild with delight. many natives came to examine my gun which had sent the big bullets crashing through the brain of the hippopotami. early the next morning n'galiama sent his son nzelie with a long caravan of men to complete the work. they leaped upon the backs of the hippopotami, wrestled with each other for a while, and then with knives and axes fell to work. the missionaries enjoyed a hippopotamus steak that day also. before the chickens began to crow for dawn i was alarmed by a band of big, broad-headed, determined driver ants. they filled the cabin, the bed, the yard. there were millions. they were in my head, my eyes, my nose, and pulling at my toes. when i found it was not a dream, i didn't tarry long. some of our native boys came with torches of fire to my rescue. they are the largest and the most ferocious ant we know anything about. in an incredibly short space of time they can kill any goat, chicken, duck, hog or dog on the place. in a few hours there is not a rat, mouse, snake, centipede, spider, or scorpion in your house, as they are chased, killed and carried away. we built a fire and slept inside of the circle until day. we scraped the acquaintance of these soldier ants by being severely bitten and stung. they are near the size of a wasp and use both ends with splendid effect. they live deep down in the ground and come out of a smoothly cut hole, following each other single file, and when they reach a damp spot in the forest and hear the white ants cutting away on the fallen leaves, the leader stops until all the soldiers have caught up. a circle is formed, a peculiar hissing is the order to raid, and down under the leaves they dart, and in a few minutes they come out with their pinchers filled with white ants. the line, without the least excitement, is again formed and they march back home stepping high with their prey. the small white ants have a blue head and a white, soft body and are everywhere in the ground and on the surface. they live by eating dead wood and leaves. we got rid of the driver ants by keeping up a big fire in their cave for a week. we dug up the homes of the big black ants and they moved off. but there was no way possible to rid the place of the billions of white ants. they ate our dry goods boxes, our books, our trunks, our beds, shoes, hats and clothing. the natives make holes in the ground, entrapping the ants, and use them for food. the dogs look like ordinary curs, with but little hair on them, and they never bark or bite. i asked the people to explain why their dogs didn't bark. so they told me that once they did bark, but long ago the dogs and leopards had a big fight, the dogs whipped the leopards, and after that the leopards were very mad, so the mothers of the little dogs told them not to bark any more, and they hadn't barked since. the natives tie wooden bells around their dogs to know where they are. every man knows the sound of his bell just as we would know the bark of our dog. there are many, many kinds of birds of the air, all known and called by name, and the food they eat, their mode of building nests, etc., were familiar to the people. they knew the customs and habits of the elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, leopard, hyena, jackal, wildcat, monkey, mouse, and every animal which roams the great forest and plain,--from the thirty-foot boa-constrictor to a tiny tulu their names and nature were well known. the little children could tell you the native names of all insects, such as caterpillars, crickets, cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, mantis, honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, goliath beetles, stage beetles, ants, etc. the many species of fish, eels and terrapins were on the end of their tongues, and these were all gathered and used for food. all the trees of the forest and plain, the flowers, fruits, nuts and berries were known and named. roots which are good for all maladies were not only known to the medicine man, but the common people knew them also. co-operation and the latin class lillian b. witten the few minutes that intervened between the devotionals and the beginning of the first period were always eagerly seized by the senior class in the l---- high school for those last furious attempts at learning the date of the battle of marathon, the duties of the president of the united states, and other pieces of information that the faculty set so much store by. bored indifference was the sole notice they gave to the antics of the freshmen boys who were trying to get a webster's unabridged dictionary on the floor of the aisle without attracting the attention of the guardian of the room. one little group of seniors was especially busy, cooperatively busy one might say. this was one of the overflow divisions of eight students which made up a class in virgil. in all of the athletics of their three years in school they had been taught the value of team work and coöperation. one bright student had conceived the idea of bringing this same team work into the virgil class. it worked beautifully. sixty lines of virgil was their customary assignment. sixty lines divided among eight students, as everybody could see, was about eight lines per student. each pupil had his number and studied correspondingly: number one translated the first seven lines with great care, number two the second seven, et cetera down the line. then during the study period which preceded the latin recitation each one translated his lines for the benefit of the other seven, while they attentively followed his translation with the latin text. busy over those vindictive lines in which queen dido, spurned by aeneas, pronounces a curse upon his head and all his generation, the eight seniors on this particular morning translated one for the other, "hate, with a never-ceasing hate." all of the savage beauty of the lines was lost on them, floundering in the maze of ablatives, subjunctives and the like. but they managed between them all to make out some sort of translation. the composition work lent itself to team work much more effectively. there were ten sentences given them each day to be translated from english into latin. they were divided among the eight in the same manner as the virgil, each one taking turns in doing the two extra sentences. passed around from one to the other and carefully copied they made up a carefully done composition lesson. the beauty of it was that the latin teacher called upon them to put these sentences upon the board, each one being given a different sentence. thus the similarity of the work could not be a subject of unpleasant comment by the teacher who never presumed to collect the notebooks. the gong sounded for second period; noise and bustle commenced, the virgil class made for the latin recitation room with all the enthusiasm of prepared lessons. time dragged today of all days, the day of the annual football game between the juniors and the seniors, so much more vivid than the wanderings of aeneas. red and orange, the colors of the senior and junior classes respectively, were everywhere conspicuous. but lessons had to be gotten through somehow so with open books, making the final attempt to gather up loose ends in the translation, they waited for the recitation to commence. miss rhodes, the young latin teacher, had observed the class during the three weeks of the new term. she had noted the fact that none of the class excelled the others, that all of them sometimes made brilliant recitations, all sometimes stumbled through passages in a way to cause the long deceased virgil to blush with shame. the students could have explained that if she would always call upon them for the particular seven lines which had been their portion they could always be brilliant. however, they maintained a wise and discreet silence. scientific observation and analysis is never wasted, however. "will the class please pass their latin sentences to me?" miss rhodes requested at the beginning of the hour. eight pairs of eyes were instantly fixed on her in amazed consternation. eight pairs of unwilling hands fumbled among papers and slowly gave up the one paper, which was the exact duplicate of every other paper. "hurry, please, class. you may now write your translations of today's lesson for twenty minutes." the clock ticked, eight industrious students concentrated and slaved over dido's curse. translations which sounded plausible enough when orally stumbled through did not look well when written. in the meantime miss rhodes looked through the sentences which they had given her. her suspicions were confirmed. the class, unaware that they were harming only themselves, were daily copying their sentences from each other. stolen glances at the young and pretty teacher informed the students that her mouth had tightened, her chin had suddenly become terrifyingly firm. after an eternity had passed the period came to an end. "class is dismissed. please reassemble in this room this afternoon at . ," miss rhodes succinctly stated. did they hear aright? why, this afternoon was the afternoon of the game. it was incredible. eight seniors and one of them the crack halfback of the senior team, not to be at their own game. it was not to be dreamed of. in vain they protested. "if you expect to graduate, you will be here at . . cheaters deserve no consideration." half past two found the eight sad and wiser seniors again in the latin room. again they applied themselves to translating latin into english, english into latin, while in the distance they could hear the shouts of the football fans. the hours ticked by. the game was over, the juniors winners in one of the closest games of years over the seniors, who lost because of the absence of their halfback who sat translating latin, failing his class in their need. he would never live down the shame. just before dismissing this extra session of the class, miss rhodes quietly said, "let me tell you from experience that the ability to make a good bluff is a rare gift. good bluffs are always founded on consistent hard work." slowly and sadly the virgil class passed out of the room; realizing that the days of coöperative virgil were relegated to the dim, suffering past. the band of gideon joseph s. cotter the band of gideon roam the sky, the howling wind is their war-cry, the thunder's roll is their trump's peal, and the lightning's flash their vengeful steel. each black cloud is a fiery steed. and they cry aloud with each strong deed, "the sword of the lord and gideon." and men below rear temples high and mock their god with reasons why, and live, in arrogance, sin and shame, and rape their souls for the world's good name. each black cloud is a fiery steed. and they cry aloud with each strong deed, "the sword of the lord and gideon." the band of gideon roam the sky and view the earth with baleful eye; in holy wrath they scourge the land with earthquake, storm and burning brand. each black cloud is a fiery steed. and they cry aloud with each strong deed, "the sword of the lord and gideon." the lightnings flash and the thunders roll, and "lord have mercy on my soul," cry men as they fall on the stricken sod, in agony searching for their god. each black cloud is a fiery steed. and they cry aloud with each strong deed, "the sword of the lord and gideon." and men repent and then forget that heavenly wrath they ever met, the band of gideon yet will come and strike their tongues of blasphemy dumb. each black cloud is a fiery steed. and they cry aloud with each strong deed, "the sword of the lord and gideon." the home of the colored girl beautiful azalia hackley the home of the colored girl beautiful will reflect her. she will help her parents to buy a home that it may give her family more standing in the civic community. taste and simplicity will rule, for the home will harmonize with the girl. if her parents are not particular about the trifles in the way of curtains, fences, and yards, then it must be her special task to make the home represent the beautiful in her, the god, for all that is beautiful and good comes from god. windows generally express the character of the occupants of a house. the day has passed when soiled or ragged lace curtains are tolerated. the cheaper simpler scrims and cheese cloths which are easily laundered are now used by the best people. the colored girl beautiful will study the possibilities of her home and will attempt to secure the restful effects for the eye. too much furniture is bad taste. the less one has, the cleaner houses may be kept. the ornate heavy furniture and the upholstered parlor sets are passing away because they are no longer considered good taste, besides they are too heavy for cleanliness and are harmful to the health of women who do their own work. furniture of less expensive model, with simple lines and of less weight is being selected. this may be paid for in cash instead of "on time," as has been the custom of many people in smaller towns and in the country districts. the furniture sold by the payment houses always shows its source in its heaviness and shininess. the wall paper should be selected as one would select a color for clothes, to harmonize with the color of the skin in all lights, and for service. color schemes in decoration are being followed and we have no more stuffy parlors, often closed for days. instead we have living rooms, with cleanable furniture, strong but light, entirely suitable for winter, and cool in summer. no one has a parlor now-a-days. the best room is generally a living room for the whole family. no more do we see enlarged pictures which good taste demands should be placed in bedrooms and private sitting rooms. the ten-cent stores have done a great deal of good in educating the poor, white and black alike. these stores have everywhere sold small brown art prints of many of the great paintings, to take the place of the gaudy dust-laden chromos and family pictures. pictures are hung low that they may be thoroughly dusted, as well as to give a near view of the subject. expensive carpets are also things of the past. painted and stained floors with light weight rugs are more generally used. these may be cleaned and handled without giving the backache to women. many colored girls boast of having painted their own floors and woodwork. much of this has been learned in the boarding school. a tawdry home expresses its mistress as do her clothes. next to the kitchen a fully equipped bath room is now the most important room in the house. health and sanitation are the topics of the hour and a colored girl should know how to put a washer on a faucet as well as her father or brother. a house without books is indeed an unfurnished home. good books are the fad now. they are everywhere in evidence in the up-to-date colored home. they are exhibited almost as hand-painted china was. in every inventory or collection one finds a bible, a dictionary, and an atlas. the times are changing and the colored people are changing with the times. cleanliness and health are the watchwords, and "order" is heaven's first law. the knighting of donald lillian b. witten "with spear drawn sir cedric rode steadily through the forest, while ever nearer and nearer came the dragon. swift and sudden was the onslaught and great was the struggle, until finally sir cedric dismounted from his black charger and stood victor over the huge monster who had committed so many depredations against the country side." slowly and lingeringly donald closed the book. the many-branched tree under which he lay changed into a grey stone castle with moat and drawbridge upon which through the day armored knights on prancing steeds rode from castle to village, always on missions of good to the towns and hamlets. never did donald tire of reading about arthur, galahad, merlin and the others, but launcelot, the bold, was his favorite knight. as he read of their deeds his black eyes flashed, his nervous slim body quivered, the deep rich red flooded his brown cheeks. he was one of them, took part in their tournaments, rescued the lovely ladies and overcame wicked monsters for his king. of all the stories a never-to-be-forgotten one was of a little boy like himself who lived in a small cottage near a castle which harbored many knights. this little boy idolized them even as donald did. one day as the knights were returning from a strenuous day's work, one, weary and worn, stopped at the cottage and asked for a drink of water. eagerly the boy ran, filled his cup at the brimming spring, and gave it to the knight. "thank you, my little boy," smiled the man. "already you are a knight for you have learned the lesson of service." how donald envied the boy. to serve a knight, he dreamed, even to see one. would he had lived in the olden times when knighthood was in flower. but having been born centuries too late he tried in every way to live as the knights had lived. daily he exercised, practiced physical feats, restrained himself from over indulgence, following out the program of those who would be knights. with shining eyes he would often repeat his motto, the motto of arthur's knights: "live pure, speak the truth, right the wrong, follow the christ." thus dreaming donald grew and everybody loved him. dreamer though he was, he ever kept before him the ideal of service. tense with interest in the exploits of the black knight, he was often tempted not to answer when his mother called him from his reading to go on errands. only a second, however, would temptation last. launcelot could never approve of a boy who acted dishonestly. working, playing, and dreaming, donald grew into a lovable boy, adept in all of the sports of boyhood and with the manners of a prince. he had reached the last year in grammar school, the graduating class. already the obligations of maturity were forcing themselves upon the boys and girls. they, for the first time in their school career, were an organized group. they were going to elect officers, dignified officers. nominations had been many and enthusiasm surged around the youthful candidates, but the choice for president had narrowed itself down between donald and a laughing-eyed girl with crinkly black hair. as usual there were more girls in the class than boys, but while the boys stood solidly as one behind the masculine candidate, there were a few girls who put their trust in manly courage rather than feminine charm and were disposed to break loose from the suffragette camp. public opinion thus gave the election to donald. as the time for election drew near, the interest became more intense and the various camps campaigned vigorously, each striving to gain the majority vote. one day as the school was assembling in their usual room they were stopped by the sight of their principal questioning one of the members of the class. "but this is your knife, isn't it?" sternly inquired the principal. "yes, sir," responded john, a trustworthy boy, the son of a widowed mother whom he helped by working after school hours. "mr. starks found this knife underneath his broken window last night. it had evidently been dropped by the boy who, in climbing out of his cherry tree, accidentally smashed the window. you know that i announced last week that the next boy who was caught trespassing upon mr. starks' property would be suspended from school for the rest of the year. i am disappointed in you, john. this does not sound like you. did you drop this knife last night?" "no, sir," responded john. "no? well, speak up. who had the knife?" "i can't say, sir." "but you must. this is a serious matter. one of the rules of the school has been broken." then looking nervously around the room of girls and boys, the principal commanded: "will the boy who dropped this knife last night speak, or shall i be forced to find out the culprit for myself?" there was no answer. every boy stood taut, his eyes steadfastly before him in the thick silence that followed. "very well," snapped the principal. "john, who had the knife yesterday?" "i cannot say, sir," responded john unwillingly. "you may do one of two things, either you will tell the name of the boy to whom you lent the knife or you may be suspended from school for the rest of the year." the silence was more intense. one, two, three minutes passed. "you are dismissed," said the principal. slowly john left the room. three days passed. john's mother, much disturbed, bewailed the fact that he would lose this year out of his school life and, perhaps, would not have the opportunity of going again. john thought of the responsibility toward his mother and then of that toward the boy whose fault he was concealing. was he doing right or was he doing the easiest thing in not telling? on the fourth day john sought the principal. "if it is necessary to tell the name of the boy who had my knife before i can return to school, i will tell," he anxiously said. "it certainly is necessary." and john told. there was great excitement in the graduating class. the traditions of centuries had been broken. one of their number had become a tattler. john resumed his school work, systematically and obviously shunned by the other boys. but donald reflected over the incident. "after all," he thought, "john did the bravest thing. it would have been easier to appear heroic and to sacrifice his mother for the sake of a boy who needed to be punished." the next day donald sought john, accompanied him to school, and showed the class that he regarded john as a hero instead of a tell-tale. the boys divided into two camps, some following donald's example, and others loudly denouncing him. [illustration] donald's sponsorship of john cost him the presidential election just as he had foreseen, but he knew that he had lived up to the best within him and he was satisfied. as he climbed into bed at the end of the day upon which he had been defeated and yet had gained a great victory, his mother tucked the covers closely around him, kissed him good-night, and lowered the light. then she bent over him again and kissed him once more and whispered, "my brave little knight." a negro explorer at the north pole matthew a. henson "matthew a. henson, my negro assistant, has been with me in one capacity or another since my second trip to nicaragua in . i have taken him on each and all of my expeditions, except the first, and also without exception on each of my farthest sledge trips. this position i have given him primarily because of his adaptability and fitness for the work and secondly on account of his loyalty. he is a better dog driver and can handle a sledge better than any man living, except some of the best esquimo hunters themselves. "robert e. peary, rear admiral, u. s. n." exactly ° below zero when we pushed the sledges up to the curled-up dogs and started them off over rough ice covered with deep soft snow. it was like walking in loose granulated sugar. indeed i might compare the snow of the arctic to the granules of sugar, without their saccharine sweetness, but with freezing cold instead; you cannot make snowballs of it, for it is too thoroughly congealed, and when it is packed by the wind it is almost as solid as ice. it is from the packed snow that the blocks used to form the igloo-walls are cut. at the end of four hours, we came to the igloo where the captain and his boys were sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion. in order not to interrupt the captain's rest, we built another igloo and unloaded his sledge, and distributed the greater part of the load among the sledges of the party. the captain, on awakening, told us that the journey we had completed on that day had been made by him under the most trying conditions, and that it had taken him fourteen hours to do it. we were able to make better time because we had his trail to follow, and, therefore, the necessity of finding the easiest way was avoided. that was the object of the scout or pioneer party and captain bartlett had done practically all of it up to the time he turned back at ° ´ north. march , : you have undoubtedly taken into consideration the pangs of hunger and of cold that you know assailed us, going poleward; but have you ever considered that we were thirsty for water to drink or hungry for fat? to eat snow to quench our thirsts would have been the height of folly, and as well as being thirsty, we were continually assailed by the pangs of a hunger that called for the fat, good, rich, oily, juicy fat that our systems craved and demanded. had we succumbed to the temptations of the thirst and eaten the snow, we would not be able to tell the tale of the conquest of the pole; for the result of eating snow is death. true, the dogs licked up enough moisture to quench their thirsts, but we were not made of such stern stuff as they. snow would have reduced our temperatures and we would quickly have fallen by the way. we had to wait until camp was made and the fire of alcohol started before we had a chance, and it was with hot tea that we quenched our thirsts. the hunger for fat was not appeased; a dog or two was killed, but his carcass went to the esquimos and the entrails were fed to the rest of the pack. april , the farthest north of bartlett: i knew at this time that he was to go back, and that i was to continue, so i had no misgivings and neither had he. he was ready and anxious to take the back-trail. his five marches were up and he was glad of it, and he was told that in the morning he must turn back and knit the trail together, so that the main column could return over a beaten path. he swept his little party together and at three p. m., with a cheery "good-by! good luck!" he was off. his esquimo boys, attempting english, too, gave us their "good-bys." the captain had gone. commander peary and i were alone (save for the four esquimos), the same we had been with so often in the past years, and as we looked at each other we realized our position and we knew without speaking that the time had come for us to demonstrate that we were the men who it had been ordained, should unlock the door which held the mystery of the arctic. without an instant's hesitation, the order to push on was given, and we started off in the trail made by the captain to cover the farthest north he had made and to push on over one hundred and thirty miles to our final destination. day and night were the same. my thoughts were on the going and getting forward, and on nothing else. the wind was from the southeast, and seemed to push on, and the sun was at our backs, a ball of livid fire, rolling his way above the horizon in never-ending day. with my proven ability in gauging distances, commander peary was ready to take the reckoning as i made it and he did not resort to solar observations until we were within a hand's grasp of the pole. the memory of those last five marches, from the farthest north of captain bartlett to the arrival of our party at the pole, is a memory of toil, fatigue, and exhaustion, but we were urged on and encouraged by our relentless commander, who was himself being scourged by the final lashings of the dominating influence that had controlled his life. from the land to ° ´ north, commander peary had had the best of the going, for he had brought up the rear and had utilized the trail made by the preceding parties, and thus he had kept himself in the best of condition for the time when he made the spurt that brought him to the end of the race. from ° ´ north, he kept in the lead and did his work in such a way as to convince me that he was still as good a man as he had ever been. we marched and marched, falling down in our tracks repeatedly, until it was impossible to go on. we were forced to camp, in spite of the impatience of the commander, who found himself unable to rest, and who only waited long enough for us to relax into sound sleep, when he would wake us up and start us off again. i do not believe that he slept for one hour from april until after he had loaded us up and ordered us to go back over our old trail, and i often think that from the instant when the order to return was given until the land was again sighted, he was in a continual daze. onward we forced our weary way. commander peary took his sights from the time our chronometer-watches gave, and i, knowing that we had kept on going in practically a straight line, was sure that we had more than covered the necessary distance to insure our arrival at the top of the earth. it was during the march of the d of april that i endured an instant of hideous horror. we were crossing a lane of moving ice. commander peary was in the lead setting the pace, and a half hour later the four boys and myself followed in single file. they had all gone before, and i was standing and pushing at the upstanders of my sledge, when the block of ice i was using as a support slipped from underneath my feet, and before i knew it the sledge was out of my grasp, and i was floundering in the water of the lead. i did the best i could. i tore my hood from off my head and struggled frantically. my hands were gloved and i could not take hold of the ice, but before i could give the "grand hailing sigh of distress," faithful old ootah had grabbed me by the nape of the neck, the same as he would have grabbed a dog, and with one hand he pulled me out of the water, and with the other hurried the team across. he had saved my life, but i did not tell him so, for such occurrences are taken as part of the day's work, and the sledge he safeguarded was of much more importance, for it held, as part of its load, the commander's sextant, the mercury, and the coils of piano-wire that were the essential portion of the scientific part of the expedition. my kamiks (boots of sealskin) were stripped off, and the congealed water was beaten out of my bearskin trousers, and with a dry pair of kamiks, we hurried on to overtake the column. when we caught up, we found the boys gathered around the commander, doing their best to relieve him of his discomfort, for he had fallen into the water, also, and while he was not complaining, i was sure that his bath had not been any more voluntary than mine had been. it was about ten or ten-thirty a. m., on the th of april, , that the commander gave the order to build a snow-shield to protect him from the flying drift of the surface-snow. i knew that he was about to take an observation, and while we worked i was nervously apprehensive, for i felt that the end of our journey had come. when we handed him the pan of mercury the hour was within a very few minutes of noon. lying flat on his stomach, he took the elevation and made the notes on a piece of tissue-paper at his head. with sun-blinded eyes, he snapped shut the vernier (a graduated scale that subdivides the smallest divisions on the sector of the circular scale of the sextant) and with the resolute squaring of his jaws, i was sure that he was satisfied, and i was confident that the journey had ended. the commander gave the word, "we will plant the stars and stripes--_at the north pole_!" and it was done; on the peak of a huge paleocrystic floeberg the glorious banner was unfurled to the breeze, and as it snapped and crackled with the wind, i felt a savage joy and exultation. another world's accomplishment was done and finished, and as in the past, from the beginning of history, wherever the world's work was done by a white man, he had been accompanied by a colored man. from the building of the pyramids and the journey to the cross, to the discovery of the north pole, the negro had been the faithful and constant companion of the caucasian, and i felt all that it was possible for me to feel, that it was i, a lowly member of my race, who had been chosen by fate to represent it, at this, almost the last of the world's great work. benjamin banneker william wells brown benjamin banneker was born in the state of maryland, in the year , of pure african parentage; their blood never having been corrupted by the introduction of a drop of anglo-saxon. his father was a slave, and of course could do nothing towards the education of the child. the mother, however, being free, succeeded in purchasing the freedom of her husband, and they, with their son, settled on a few acres of land, where benjamin remained during the lifetime of his parents. his entire schooling was gained from an obscure country school, established for the education of the children of free negroes; and these advantages were poor, for the boy appears to have finished studying before he arrived at his fifteenth year. although out of school, banneker was still a student, and read with great care and attention such books as he could get. mr. george ellicott, a gentlemen of fortune and considerable literary taste, and who resided near to benjamin, became interested in him, and lent him books from his large library. among these books were three on astronomy. a few old and imperfect astronomical instruments also found their way into the boy's hands, all of which he used with great benefit to his own mind. banneker took delight in the study of the languages, and soon mastered the latin, greek and german. he was also proficient in the french. the classics were not neglected by him, and the general literary knowledge which he possessed caused mr. ellicott to regard him as the most learned man in the town, and he never failed to introduce banneker to his most distinguished guests. about this time benjamin turned his attention particularly to astronomy, and determined on making calculations for an almanac, and completed a set for the whole year. encouraged by this attempt, he entered upon calculations for subsequent years, which, as well as the former, he began and finished without the least assistance from any person or books than those already mentioned; so that whatever merit is attached to his performance is exclusively his own. he published an almanac in philadelphia for the years , ' , ' , and ' , which contained his calculations, exhibiting the different aspects of the planets, a table of the motions of the sun and moon, their risings and settings, and the courses of the bodies of the planetary system. by this time banneker's acquirements had become generally known, and the best scholars in the country opened correspondence with him. goddard & angell, the well-known baltimore publishers, engaged his pen for their establishment, and became the publishers of his almanacs. he knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; he had read all the original historians of england, france, and was a great antiquarian. with such a fund of knowledge his conversation was equally interesting, instructive, and entertaining. banneker was so favorably appreciated by the first families in virginia, that in he was invited by mr. jefferson, then president of the united states, to visit him at monticello, where the statesman had gone for recreation. but he was too infirm to undertake the journey. he died the following year, aged seventy-two. like the golden sun that has sunk beneath the western horizon, but still throws upon the world, which he sustained and enlightened in his career, the reflected beams of his departed genius, his name can only perish with his language. the negro race charles w. anderson as a race, we have done much, but we must not forget how much more there is still to do. to some extent we have been given opportunity, but we must not cease to remember that no race can be given relative rank--it must win equality of rating for itself. hence, we must not only acquire education, but character as well. it is not only necessary that we should speak well, but it is more necessary that we should speak the truth. paul cuffe john w. cromwell paul cuffe was born in on the island of cuttyhunk, near new bedford, massachusetts. there were four sons and six daughters of john cuffe who had been stolen from africa, and ruth, a woman of indian extraction. paul, the youngest son, lacked the advantage of an early education, but he supplied the deficiency by his personal efforts and learned not only to read and write with facility, but made such proficiency in the art of navigation as to become a skillful seaman and the instructor of both whites and blacks in the same art. his father, who had obtained his freedom and bought a farm of one hundred acres, died when paul was about fourteen. when he was sixteen, paul began the life of a sailor. on his third voyage he was captured by a british brig and was for three months a prisoner of war. on his release he planned to go into business on his own account. with the aid of an elder brother, david cuffe, an open boat was built in which they went to sea; but this brother on the first intimation of danger gave up the venture and paul was forced to undertake the work single-handed and alone, which was a sore disappointment. on his second attempt he lost all he had. before the close of the revolutionary war, paul refused to pay a personal tax, on the ground that free colored people did not enjoy the rights and privileges of citizenship. after considerable delay, and an appeal to the courts, he paid the tax under protest. he then petitioned to the legislature which finally agreed to his contention. his efforts are the first of which there is any record of a citizen of african descent making a successful appeal in behalf of his civil rights. on reaching the age of twenty-five he married a woman of the same tribe as his mother, and for a while gave up life on the ocean wave; but the growth of his family led him back to his fond pursuit on the briny deep. as he was unable to purchase a boat, with the aid of his brother he built one from keel to gunwale and launched into the enterprise. while on the way to a nearby island to consult his brother whom he had induced once more to venture forth with him, he was overtaken by pirates who robbed him of all he possessed. again paul returned home disappointed, though not discouraged. once more he applied for assistance to his brother david and another boat was built. after securing a cargo, he met again with pirates, but he eluded them though he was compelled to return and repair his boat. these having been made, he began a successful career along the coast as far north as newfoundland, to the south as far as savannah and as distant as gottenburg. in carrying on this business, starting in the small way indicated, he owned at different times besides smaller boats, "the ranger," a schooner of sixty or seventy tons, a half interest in a brig of tons, the brig "traveller," of tons, the ship "alpha," of tons and three-fourths interest in a larger vessel. a few noble incidents may illustrate his resourcefulness, difficulties and success over all obstacles. when engaged in the whaling business he was found with less than the customary outfit for effectually carrying on this work. the practice in such cases was for the other ships to loan the number of men needed. they denied this at first to cuffe, but fair play prevailed and they gave him what was customary, with the result that of the seven whales captured, paul's men secured five, and two of them fell by his own hand! in he took a cargo to norfolk, virginia, and learning that corn could be bought at a decided advantage, he made a trip to the nanticoke river, on the eastern shore of maryland. here his appearance as a black man commanding his own boat and with a crew of seven men all of his own complexion, alarmed the whites, who seemed to dread his presence there as the signal for a revolt on the part of their slaves. they opposed his landing, but the examination of his papers removed all doubts as to the regularity of his business, while his quiet dignity secured the respect of the leading white citizens. he had no difficulty after this in taking a cargo of three thousand bushels of corn, from which he realized a profit of $ . on a second voyage he was equally successful. although without the privilege of attending a school when a boy, he endeavored to have his friends and neighbors open and maintain one for the colored and indian children of the vicinity. failing to secure their active coöperation, he built in a schoolhouse without their aid. because of his independent means and his skill as a mariner, he visited with little or no difficulty most of the larger cities of the country, held frequent conferences with the representative men of his race, and recommended the formation of societies for their mutual relief and physical betterment. such societies he formed in philadelphia and new york, and then having made ample preparation he sailed in for africa in his brig "the traveller," reaching sierra leone on the west coast after a voyage of about two months. here he organized the friendly society of sierra leone and then went to liverpool. even here one of his characteristic traits manifested itself in taking with him to england for education a native of sierra leone. while in england, cuffe visited london twice and consulted such friends of the negro as granville sharp, thomas clarkson and william wilberforce! these men were all interested in a proposition to promote the settlement on the west coast of africa of the free people of color in america, many of whom had come into the domains of great britain as an outcome of the revolutionary war. this opinion was at this period the prevailing sentiment of england respecting what was best for the negro. sir j. j. crooks, a former governor of sierra leone, in alluding to its origin, says: "there is no doubt that the influence of their opinion was felt in america and that it led to emigration thence to africa before liberia was settled. paul cuffe, a man of color ... who was much interested in the promotion of the civil and religious liberty of his colored brethren in their native land, had been familiar with the ideas of these philanthropists, as well as with the movement in the same direction in england."[ ] [ ] _history of sierra leone_, dublin, , p. this explains cuffe's visit to england and to africa--a daring venture in those perilous days--and the formation of the friendly societies in africa and in his own country, the united states. when his special mission to england was concluded, he took out a cargo from liverpool for sierra leone, after which he returned to america. before he made his next move, cuffe consulted with the british government in london and president madison at washington. but the strained relations between the two nations, as well as the financial condition of the united states at the time, made governmental coöperation impracticable if not impossible. in he carried out the ideas long in his mind. in this year he sailed from boston for sierra leone with thirty-eight free negroes as settlers on the black continent. only eight of these could pay their own expenses, but cuffe, nevertheless, took out the entire party, landed them safe on the soil of their forefathers after a journey of fifty-five days and paid the expense for the outfit, transportation and maintenance of the remaining thirty, amounting to no less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($ , ), out of his own pocket. the colonists were cordially welcomed by the people of sierra leone, and each family received from thirty to forty acres from the crown government. he remained with the settlers two months and then returned home with the purpose of taking out another colony. before, however, he could do so, and while preparations were being made for the second colony, he was taken ill. after a protracted illness he died september , , in the fifty-ninth year of his age. at the time of his death he had no less than two thousand names of intending emigrants on his list awaiting transportation to africa. as to his personal characteristics: paul cuffe was "tall, well-formed and athletic, his deportment conciliating yet dignified and prepossessing. he was a member of the society of friends (quakers) and became a minister among them.... he believed it to be his duty to sacrifice private interest, rather than engage in any enterprise, however lawful ... or however profitable, that had the slightest tendency to injure his fellow man. he would not deal in intoxicating liquors or in slaves." the black fairy fenton johnson little annabelle was lying on the lawn, a volume of grimm before her. annabelle was nine years of age, the daughter of a colored lawyer, and the prettiest dark child in the village. she had long played in the fairyland of knowledge, and was far advanced for one of her years. a vivid imagination was her chief endowment, and her story creatures often became real flesh-and-blood creatures. "i wonder," she said to herself that afternoon, "if there is any such thing as a colored fairy? surely there must be, but in this book they're all white." closing the book, her eyes rested upon the landscape that rolled itself out lazily before her. the stalks in the cornfield bent and swayed, their tassels bowing to the breeze, until annabelle could have easily sworn that those were indian fairies. and beyond lay the woods, dark and mossy and cool, and there many a something mysterious could have sprung into being, for in the recess was a silvery pool where the children played barefooted. a summer mist like a thin veil hung over the scene, and the breeze whispered tales of far-away lands. hist! something stirred in the hazel bush near her. can i describe little annabelle's amazement at finding in the bush a palace and a tall and dark-faced fairy before it? "i am amunophis, the lily of ethiopia," said the strange creature. "and i come to the children of the seventh veil." she was black and regal, and her voice was soft and low and gentle like the niger on a summer evening. her dress was the wing of the sacred beetle, and whenever the wind stirred it played the dreamiest of music. her feet were bound with golden sandals, and on her head was a crown of lotus leaves. "and you're a fairy?" gasped annabelle. "yes, i am a fairy, just as you wished me to be. i live in the tall grass many, many miles away, where a beautiful river called the niger sleeps." and stretching herself beside annabelle, on the lawn, the fairy began to whisper: [illustration: the black fairy] "i have lived there for over five thousand years. in the long ago a city rested there, and from that spot black men and women ruled the world. great ships laden with spice and oil and wheat would come to its port, and would leave with wines and weapons of war and fine linens. proud and great were the black kings of this land, their palaces were built of gold, and i was the guardian of the city. but one night when i was visiting an indian grove the barbarians from the north came down and destroyed our shrines and palaces and took our people up to egypt. oh, it was desolate, and i shed many tears, for i missed the busy hum of the market and the merry voices of the children. "but come with me, little annabelle, i will show you all this, the rich past of the ethiopian." she bade the little girl take hold of her hand and close her eyes, and wish herself in the wood behind the cornfield. annabelle obeyed, and ere they knew it they were sitting beside the clear water in the pond. "you should see the niger," said the fairy. "it is still beautiful, but not as happy as in the old days. the white man's foot has been cooled by its water, and the white man's blossom is choking out the native flower." and she dropped a tear so beautiful the costliest pearl would seem worthless beside it. "ah! i did not come to weep," she continued, "but to show you the past." so in a voice sweet and sad she sang an old african lullaby and dropped into the water a lotus leaf. a strange mist formed, and when it had disappeared she bade the little girl to look into the pool. creeping up annabelle peered into the glassy surface, and beheld a series of vividly colored pictures. first she saw dark blacksmiths hammering in the primeval forests and giving fire and iron to all the world. then she saw the gold of old ghana and the bronzes of benin. then the black ethiopians poured down upon egypt and the lands and cities bowed and flamed. next she saw a great city with pyramids and stately temples. it was night, and a crimson moon was in the sky. red wine was flowing freely, and beautiful dusky maidens were dancing in a grove of palms. old and young were intoxicated with the joy of living, and a sense of superiority could be easily traced in their faces and attitude. presently red flame hissed everywhere, and the magnificence of remote ages soon crumbled into ash and dust. persian soldiers ran to and fro conquering the band of defenders and severing the woman and children. then came the mohammedans and kingdom on kingdom arose, and with the splendor came ever more slavery. the next picture was that of a group of fugitive slaves, forming the nucleus of three tribes, hurrying back to the wilderness of their fathers. in houses built as protection against the heat the blacks dwelt, communing with the beauty of water and sky and open air. it was just between twilight and evening and their minstrels were chanting impromptu hymns to their gods of nature. and as she listened closely, annabelle thought she caught traces of the sorrow songs in the weird pathetic strains of the african music mongers. from the east the warriors of the tribe came, bringing prisoners, whom they sold to white strangers from the west. "it is the beginning," whispered the fairy, as a large dutch vessel sailed westward. twenty boys and girls bound with strong ropes were given to a miserable existence in the hatchway of the boat. their captors were strange creatures, pale and yellow haired, who were destined to sell them as slaves in a country cold and wild, where the palm trees and the cocoanut never grew and men spoke a language without music. a light, airy creature, like an ancient goddess, flew before the craft guiding it in its course. "that is i," said the fairy. "in that picture i am bringing your ancestors to america. it was my hope that in the new civilization i could build a race that would be strong enough to redeem their brothers. they have gone through great tribulations and trials, and have mingled with the blood of the fairer race; yet though not entirely ethiopian they have not lost their identity. prejudice is a furnace through which molten gold is poured. heaven be merciful unto all races! there is one more picture--the greatest of all, but--farewell, little one, i am going." "going?" cried annabelle. "going? i want to see the last picture--and when will you return, fairy?" "when the race has been redeemed. when the brotherhood of man has come into the world; and there is no longer a white civilization or a black civilization, but the civilization of all men. i belong to the world council of the fairies, and we are all colors and kinds. why should not men be as charitable unto one another? when that glorious time comes i shall walk among you and be one of you, performing my deeds of magic and playing with the children of every nation, race and tribe. then, annabelle, you shall see the last picture--and the best." slowly she disappeared like a summer mist, leaving annabelle amazed. it's a long way william stanley braithwaite it's a long way the sea-winds blow over the sea-plains blue,-- but longer far has my heart to go before its dreams come true. it's work we must, and love we must, and do the best we may, and take the hope of dreams in trust to keep us day by day. it's a long way the sea-winds blow-- but somewhere lies a shore-- thus down the tide of time shall flow my dreams forevermore. negro music that stirred france emmett j. scott "you cannot defeat a singing nation," a keen-witted observer has said, in noting the victory spirit engendered by the martial music, the patriotic songs and the stirring melodies of hearth and home that have moved the souls of men to action on all the battlefields of history. "send me more singing regiments," cabled general pershing, and admiral mayo sent frequent requests that a song leader organize singing on every battleship of the atlantic fleet. since "the morning stars sang together" in scriptural narrative, music has exerted a profound influence upon mankind, be it in peace or in war, in gladness or in sorrow, or in the tender sentiment that makes for love of country, affection for kindred or the divine passion for "ye ladye fair." music knows no land or clime, no season or circumstance, and no race, creed or clan. it speaks the language universal, and appeals to all peoples with a force irresistible and no training in ethics or science is necessary to reach the common ground that its philosophy instinctively creates in the human understanding. the war department was conscious of this and gave practical application to its theory that music makes a soldier "fit to fight" when it instituted, through the commission on training camp activities, a systematic program of musical instruction throughout the american army at the home cantonments and followed up the work overseas. it was the belief that every man became a better warrior for freedom when his mind could be diverted from the dull routine of camp life by arousing his higher nature by song, and that he fared forth to battle with a stouter heart when his steps were attuned to the march by bands that drove out all fear of bodily danger and robbed "grim-visaged war" of its terrors. skilled song leaders were detailed to the various camps and cantonments here and abroad, and bands galore were brought into service for inspiration and cheer. the emotional nature of the negro fitted him for this musical program. the colored american was a "close up" in every picture from the start to the finish and was a conspicuous figure in every scenario, playing with credit and distinction alike in melody or with the musket. no instrumentality was more potent than music in off-setting the propaganda of the wily german agents, who sought to break down the loyalty of the negro. the music he knew was intensely american--in sentiment and rhythm. it saturated his being--and all the blandishments of the enemy were powerless to sway him from the flag he loved. his grievances were overshadowed by the realization that the welfare of the nation was menaced and that his help was needed. american music harmonized with the innate patriotism of the race, and the majestic sweep of "the star-spangled banner" or the sympathetic appeal of "my country, 'tis of thee," were sufficient to counteract the sinister efforts of the missionaries of the hohenzollerns to move him from his moorings. no labor is ever so onerous that it can bar music from the soul of black folk. this race sings at work, at play and in every mood. visitors to any army camp found the negro doing musical "stunts" of some kind from reveille to taps--every hour, every minute of the day. all the time the trumpeters were not blowing out actual routine bugle calls, they were somewhere practicing them. mouth-organs were going, concertinas were being drawn back and forth, and guitars, banjos, mandolins and whatnot were in use--playing all varieties of music, from the classic, like "lucia," "poet and peasant," and "il trovatore" to the folksongs and the rollicking "jazz." music is indeed the chiefest outlet of the negro's emotions, and the state of his soul can best be determined by the type of melody he pours forth. some writer has said that a handful of pipers at the head of a scotch regiment could lead that regiment down the mouth of a cannon. it is not doubted that a negro regiment could be made to duplicate the "charge of the light brigade" at balaklava--"into the mouth of hell," as tennyson puts it--if one of their regimental bands should play--as none but a colored band can play--the vivacious strains of "there'll be a hot time in the old town tonight." the negro's love of home is an integral part of his nature, and is exemplified in the themes he plaintively crooned in camp on both sides of the ocean. such melodies as "carry me back to old virginia," "my old kentucky home," "in the evening by de moonlight," and "swanee river" recalled memories of the "old folks at home," and kept his patriotism alive, for he hoped to return to them some day and swell their hearts with pride by reason of the glorious record he made at the front. the negro is essentially religious, and his deep spiritual temperament is vividly illustrated by the joy he finds in "harmonizing" such ballads of ancient days as "swing low, sweet chariot," "steal away to jesus," "standin' in the need of prayer," "every time i feel the spirit," "i wan' to be ready," and "roll, jordan, roll." the negro is also an optimist, whether he styles himself by that high-sounding title or not, and the sincerity of his "make the best of it" disposition is noted in the fervor he puts into those uplifting gems, "pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile," "there's a long, long trail," "keep the home fires burning," and "good-bye broadway, hello france." just as the negro folk-songs--or songs of war, interpreted with the characteristic negro flavor--stirred all france and gave poilu and populace a taste of the real american music, the marvelous "jazz bands" kept their feet patting and their shoulders "eagle-rocking" to its infectious motion. high officials are said to have been literally "carried away" with the "jazz" music furnished by the colored bands "over there" during the war. general petain is said to have paid a visit, at the height of the hostilities, to a sector in which there were american troops and had "the time of his life" listening to a colored band playing the entrancing "jazz" music, with some negro dance stunts in keeping with the spirit of the melodies. he warmly congratulated the colored leader upon the excellence of the work of his organization, and thanked him for the enjoyable entertainment that had been given him. the stolid briton is scarcely less susceptible to the "jazz" than his volatile french brother, for when another colored band from "the states" went to london to head a parade of american and english soldiers, and halted at buckingham palace, it is said that king george v and queen mary heard the lively airs with undisguised enthusiasm and were loath to have the players depart for the park where they were scheduled for a concert, with a dance engagement, under british military control, to follow. the colored bands scored heavily with the three great allied powers of europe by rendering with a brilliant touch and matchless finish their national anthems, "god save the queen," "la marseillaise" and the "marcia reale." november , (this letter was written by a young first lieutenant (colored) in the th infantry, company l, nd division, cleveland, ohio.) november th. my dearest mother and dad: well, folks, it's all over but the flowers. yesterday it was war, hard, gruelling, hideous. today it is peace. this morning i formed my platoon in line in the woods behind the line. they didn't know why. they were just a bunch of tired, hard-bitten, mud-spattered, rough-and-tumble soldiers standing stoically at attention, equally ready to go over the top, rebuild a shell-torn road, or march to a rest billet. at : i gave the command: "unload rifles!" they didn't know why and didn't particularly care. then--"unload pistols." and while they still stood rigid and motionless as graven images, i read the order declaring armistice and cessation of hostilities effective at o'clock. the perfect discipline of these veteran soldiers held them still motionless, but i could see their eyes begin to shine and their muscles to quiver as the import of this miraculous message began to dawn on them. the tension was fast straining their nerves to the breaking-point, so i dismissed them. you should have seen them! they yelled till they were hoarse. some sang. others, war-hardened veterans, who had faced the death hail of a machine-gun with a laugh, men who had gone through the horrors of artillery bombardments and had seen their fellows mangled and torn without a flinch, broke down and cried like babies. tonight something is wrong. the silence is almost uncanny. not a shot--not even a single shell. very faintly we can hear the mellow tones of the church bell in the little french town on the hill far to our rear. all day long it has been singing its song of joy and thanksgiving. it seems symbolical of the heart of france, which, today, is ringing. i don't know when i'm coming home, but when i do, i want a big roast turkey, golden brown, new spuds swimming in butter and cranberry sauce. love, jesse. sea lyric william stanley braithwaite over the seas to-night, love, over the darksome deeps, over the seas to-night, love, slowly my vessel creeps. over the seas to-night, love, waking the sleeping foam-- sailing away from thee, love, sailing from thee and home. over the seas to-night, love, dreaming beneath the spars-- till in my dreams you shine, love, bright as the listening stars. a negro woman's hospitality leila a. pendleton mungo park, a native of scotland, was one of the first of noble, brave men who devoted the best years of their lives to africa. in , when he was only twenty-four years old, he went to west africa to find the source of the river niger. one of the drawbacks of the west coast is its deadly climate, and shortly after arriving at kano young park fell ill of fever and remained an invalid for five months. while recovering, he learned the language of the mandingoes, a native tribe, and this was a great help to him. he finally started with only six natives on his journey. had he been older and wiser he would have taken a larger company. at one time they were captured by moors and a wild boar was turned loose upon them, but instead of attacking park the beast turned upon its owners, and this aroused their superstitious fears. the king then ordered him to be put into a hut where the boar was tied while he and his chief officers discussed whether park should lose his right hand, his eyes or his life. but he escaped from them, and after nearly two years of wandering in search of the niger's source, during which time he suffered many hardships and had many narrow escapes, he returned to kano, the place where he had been ill. at one time during his journey mr. park arrived in the neighborhood of sego, and as a white man had never been seen in that region before, the natives looked upon him with fear and astonishment. he asked to see the king, but no one would take him across the river, and the king sent word that he would by no means receive the strange traveler until he knew what the latter wanted. park was tired, hungry, and discouraged and was preparing to spend the night in the branches of a tree when a native woman pitied him. she invited him into her hut, and with the hospitality for which the natives are noted, shared with him her food. by signs she made him understand that he might occupy the sleeping mat and as she and her daughter sat spinning they sang their native songs, among them the following, which was impromptu and composed in honor of the stranger: the wind roared and the rain fell. the poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. he has no mother to bring him milk; no wife to grind his corn. chorus let us pity the white man; no mother has he to bring him milk; no wife to grind his corn. speaking of this incident, park says: "trifling as this recital may appear to the reader, to a person in my situation the circumstance was affecting in the highest degree. i was oppressed by such unexpected kindness and sleep fled from my eyes." and another writer says: "the name of the woman and the alabaster box of precious ointment, the nameless widow, who, giving only two mites, had given more than all the rich, and this nameless woman of sego, form a trio of feminine beauty and grandeur of which the sex in all ages may be proud." record of "the old fifteenth" in france emmett j. scott early in september, , the men of the th infantry were transferred from the th french division, in which they had been serving, and made an integral part of the st french division. and then, on the morning of september th, they joined with the moroccans on the left and native french on the right in the offensive which won for the entire regiment the french _croix de guerre_ and the citation of individual officers and enlisted men for the _croix de guerre_ and the legion of honor, for exceptional gallantry in action. the action began at maisons-en-champagne; it finished seven kilometers northward and eastward, and over the intervening territory the germans had retreated before the ferocious attacks of the fifteenth and its french comrades. a month later a new honor came to the regiment--the honor of being the first unit of all the allied armies to reach the river rhine. the regiment had left its trenches at thann, sunday, november , and, marching as the advance guard of the st division, second french army, reached the left bank of the rhine, monday, november . the th is proud of this achievement. it believes also that it was under fire for a greater number of days than any other american regiment. its historian will record: that the regiment never lost a man captured, a trench, or a foot of ground; that it was the only unit in the american expeditionary force which bore a state name and carried a state flag; that it was never in an american brigade or division; that it saw the first and the longest service of any american regiment as part of a foreign army; and that it had less training than any american unit before going into action. negro soldiers roscoe c. jamison these truly are the brave these men who cast aside old memories, to walk the blood-stained pave of sacrifice, joining the solemn tide that moves away, to suffer and to die for freedom--when their own is yet denied! o pride! o prejudice! when they pass by, hail them, the brave, for you now crucified! these truly are the free, these souls that grandly rise above base dreams of vengeance for their wrongs, who march to war with visions in their eyes of peace through brotherhood, lifting glad songs aforetime, while they front the firing-line. stand and behold! they take the field today, shedding their blood like him now held divine, that those who mock might find a better way! the "devil bush" and the "greegree bush" george w. ellis the "devil bush" is one of the most important social institutions of the vais,--in fact, of most of the tribes in liberia. it is a secret organization, and its operations are carried on in an unknown place. the penalty for divulging its secrets is said to be death. i know that it is very difficult to ascertain much information regarding it. the aim of this society is to train young boys for african life. the boys are taught the industrial trades, native warfare, religious duties, tribal laws and customs, and the social arts. [illustration] the bow and arrow may be called the vai alphabet. every morning the small boys are taught first to use skilfully this weapon. in addition they are taught to throw the spear and to wield the sword. in the afternoon they are taken on a hunt for small game, and later are given practice in target shooting and throwing the spear. after supper the boys take up singing and dancing. at this period they are taught also their duties to the gods, to whom a certain portion of their meals is said to be offered. each boy is taught the sacrificial ceremony; they all clap, dance, and sing their song of praise. when the boys have attained a certain advancement among other things they have sham battles, with or boys on a side. a district is given to one side to be captured by the other. each side has a captain, and at this stage of their development emphasis is placed upon the display of bravery. and sometimes the contests assume aspects of reality. when one side repulses another six times it is said to be victorious. [illustration] in addition to being taught the methods of warfare, the boys are taught the civil and military laws governing the vai people. every vai man must know the law. and as the penalties for violating the laws covering military expeditions are so severe, the customs and laws relating thereto are of paramount importance to every vai man. the members of the "devil bush" are not only taught everything pertaining to practical war, but they are taught hunting as well. they are first taught to capture small game and later the larger and dangerous animals like the leopard, elephant, and buffalo. what the africans call a real hunt requires about a month's work in preparation. the boys dig a large pit and surround the ends and sides with the trunks of large trees. with the pit of the apex, in triangular form, two fences are built about a mile long, and with a mile between the two extremities. the surrounding country is encircled by the hunters and the animals are driven into the pit. the smaller animals are eaten and the larger ones are sent to the king. as the valuable skins are preserved, the boys are taught to skin animals neatly. the ivories belong to the king, and various small horns are kept for amulets, and so on. these hunts are usually accompanied with much singing and dancing, after the cooking and eating of the game. [illustration] the "greegree bush" is a society for the training of girls for future life, just as the "devil bush" is for boys. it is death for a man to be found within the limits of the "greegree bush," no matter what his purpose may be. the sessions of the society are held near some town, yet few in that town know the exact place. no one is permitted to approach the scene. usually girls are admitted at seven or eight years of age, although women may be admitted. the "greegree bush" has both an industrial and an educational purpose. the girls are taught to embroider with gold and silver thread the tunics and togas of kings and chiefs. some of them become very artistic in working palm-trees, golden elephants, moons, half-moons, running vines, and other objects and scenes of nature in various articles of apparel. [illustration] the girls are taught hair-dressing in order that they may plait, beside their own, the hair of the richer vais, some of whom have their hair oiled and plaited two or three times a week. instruction is given in cutting inscriptions on shields, breastplates, and the like, and in housekeeping, singing, dancing, farming, sewing, weaving cotton, dyeing, making nets and mats and many other articles of domestic utility, decoration, and dress. i have seen vai women making some of the most beautiful fancy baskets of various kinds to be found along the coast. [illustration] evening prayer h. cordelia ray father of love! we leave our souls with thee! oh! may thy holy spirit to us be a peaceful dove! now when day's strife and bitterness are o'er, oh! in our hearts all bruisèd gently pour the dew of life. so as the rose-- though fading on the stem-- awakes to blush when morning's lustrous gem upon it glows;-- may we awake, soothed by thy priceless balm, to chant with grateful hearts our morning psalm, and blessings take. or let it be, that where the palm trees rise, and crystal streams flow, we uplift our eyes to thee!--to thee! the strenuous life silas x. floyd they were having a rough-and-tumble time of it and pansy was getting some pretty hard blows. she took them all good-naturedly, nevertheless, and tried to give as good as she received, much to the delight of her little boy friends. a lady who was standing near, afraid for the little girl, chided the boys and said: "you shouldn't handle pansy so roughly--you might hurt her." and then pansy looked up in sweet surprise and said with amusing seriousness: "no; they won't hurt me. i don't break easy." it was a thoroughly childlike expression, but it had more wisdom in it than pansy knew. she spoke of a little girl's experience with dolls, some of which, as she had learned, broke very easily. pansy knew how delightful it was to have a doll that didn't break so easily. though she was not a homely girl by any means, yet she wanted it understood that she was not like a piece of china. that was why the other children liked her so much--because she knew how to rough it without crying or complaining at every turn. pansy was not a cry-baby. there is all the time, my dear boys and girls, a great demand everywhere all through life for people who don't break easily--people who know how to take hard knocks without going all to pieces. the game of life is sometimes rough, even among those who mean to play fair. it is very trying when we have to deal with people who break easily, and are always getting hurt and spoiling the game with their tears and complaints. it is so much better when we have to deal with people who, like little pansy, do not break easily. some of them will laugh off the hardest words without wincing at all. you can jostle them as you will, but they don't fall down every time you shove them, and they don't cry every time they are pushed aside. you can't but like them, they take life so heartily and so sensibly. you don't have to hold yourself in with them all the time. you can let yourself out freely without being on pins as to the result. young people of this class make good playmates or good work-fellows, as the case may be. so, boys and girls, you must learn to _rough_ it a little. don't be a china doll, going to smash at every hard knock. if you get hard blows take them cheerily and as easily as you can. even if some blow comes when you least expect it, and knocks you off your feet for a minute, don't let it _floor_ you long. everybody likes the fellow who can get up when he is knocked down and blink the tears away and pitch in again. learning to get yourself accustomed to a little hard treatment will be good for you. hard words and hard fortune often make us--if we don't let them break us. stand up to your work or play courageously, and when you hear words that hurt, when you are hit hard with the blunders or misdeeds of others, when life goes roughly with you, keep right on in a happy, companionable, courageous, helpful spirit, and let the world know that you don't break easily. o little david, play on your harp joseph s. cotter, jr. o little david, play on your harp, that ivory harp with the golden strings; and sing as you did in jewry land, of the prince of peace and the god of love and the coming christ immanuel. o little david, play on your harp. o little david, play on your harp, that ivory harp with the golden strings; and psalm anew your songs of peace, of the soothing calm of a brotherly love, and the saving grace of a mighty god. o little david, play on your harp. a day at kalk bay, south africa l. j. coppin summer in cape town begins with november and lasts until march. this may seem strange to those living in north america, but a moment's reflection will suffice to remind them that during these months the sun is south of the equator, hence this natural result. the strong southeast winds, which are prevalent during the summer months, often make it very unpleasant in cape town on account of the dust, and one finds it most desirable occasionally to run out to one of the suburbs where "cape doctor" does not make such frequent and violent visits. of the chain of beautiful and pleasant suburban towns following the railway north, the most important as a summer resort, is kalk bay. one who has visited the beach at newport, r. i., in the united states, will, upon visiting kalk bay, see a resemblance. unlike the long sweep of ocean at atlantic city, the beach is narrow, being rather a bay than an open ocean front. instead of the cliffs as at newport, we have the massive mountains standing almost perpendicularly on the east side, at the foot of which the town is situated. the principal vocation among the laboring men there is fishing. in this respect it is very much like bermuda. they go to sea and return according to the tide. some days they are out by two and three o'clock in the morning. when they go this early they may be expected to return by noon or even before noon. i was told that of the sixty-five fishing boats on the bay fifty-six are owned by colored men. there are six men to a crew, five beside the captain, who is the owner of the boat. they sail out to sea, drop anchor, and fish with hook and line. half of what is caught belongs to the captain, and the other half is equally divided among the other five men. they can scarcely supply the market, so great is the demand for fish at the bay and in cape town. we were informed that a captain has been known to make as much as eight pounds in a single day; that is nearly forty dollars. of course, there are days when they have poorer luck. some days the wind blows such a gale that they are unable to go to sea at all. it is a beautiful sight to see the little fleet return. hundreds of people will gather about the landing and await their coming. farther up the bay, a drag net is used. on the day of our visit we were fortunate in being just in time to see a net land "full of great fishes." as the net is hauled near the shore, the fishermen all get around it, holding the lower portion of it down to keep the fish from escaping under it and holding the upper portion above the water to keep them from jumping over it. as the fish are drawn into shallow water they become very active, and notwithstanding the vigilance of the crew, some will make their escape. the captain would shout impulsively to the men; i could not understand him as he expressed himself in "cape dutch," but from the contortions of his face and the frightened look of the men, i guess he must have been using language that would not have been suitable in a church service. "a good haul," some one remarked when the net was finally landed. bishop atticus g. haygood w. h. crogman it is indeed the peculiar glory of the truly great man, that he cannot be restricted within the state lines or race lines. wide as the sweep of his sympathies is the empire of hearts over which he rules. to those of us, therefore, whose good fortune it was to be personally acquainted with bishop haygood, it was never a surprise that his influence in both sections of country and among all classes of people was so large and so commanding. he was a man of large sympathy, that royal quality in the human breast which invariably distinguishes the generous person from the mean, that divine quality which, despite our prejudices and antipathies, "makes the whole world kin," and is at the bottom of all christian and philanthropic endeavor. a thousand instances of kindness on the part of the good bishop to persons of all sorts and colors might, i suppose, be cited here in support of the statement made with reference to his sympathetic disposition. many of these little acts of pure benevolence, never intended for the light, are fast coming to light under the shadow cast by his death. for as dark nights best reveal the stars, so the gloom that at times envelopes a human life discovers to us its hidden virtues. this much, however, the world knows in common of bishop haygood: he was not a man who passed through life inquiring, "who is my neighbor?" his neighbor was the ignorant that needed to be instructed, the vicious that needed to be reclaimed, the despondent that needed to be encouraged. wherever honest effort was being made for a noble purpose, there he found his neighbor, and his neighbor found a helper. like "the man of galilee," he was abroad in the land, studying the needs of the people and striving to reach and influence individual lives. how two colored captains fell ralph w. tyler a colored unit was ordered to charge, and take, if possible, a very difficult objective held by the germans. captains fairfax and green, two colored officers, were in command of the detachments. they made the charge, running into several miles of barb-wire entanglements, and hampered by a murderous fire from nests of german machine guns which were camouflaged. just before charging, one of the colored sergeants, running up to captain fairfax, said: "do you know there is a nest of german machine guns ahead?" the captain replied: "i only know we have been ordered to go forward, and we are going." those were the last words he said, before giving the command to charge, "into the jaws of death." the colored troops followed their intrepid leader with all the enthusiasm and dash characteristic of patriots and courageous fighters. they went forward, they obeyed the order, and as a result sixty-two men and two officers were listed in the casualties reported. captain fairfax's last words, "i only know we have been ordered to go forward, and we are going," are words that will forever live in the memory of his race; they are words that match those of sergeant carney, the color sergeant of the th massachusetts during the civil war, who, although badly wounded, held the tattered, shot-pierced stars and stripes aloft and exclaimed, "the old flag never touched the ground!" men who have served under captains fairfax and green say two braver officers never fought and fell. the young warrior james weldon johnson mother, shed no mournful tears, but gird me on my sword; and give no utterance to thy fears, but bless me with thy word. the lines are drawn! the fight is on! a cause is to be won! mother, look not so white and wan; give godspeed to thy son. now let thine eyes my way pursue where'er my footsteps fare; and when they lead beyond thy view, send after me a prayer. but pray not to defend from harm, nor danger to dispel; pray, rather that with steadfast arm i fight the battle well. pray, mother of mine, that i always keep my heart and purpose strong, my sword unsullied and ready to leap unsheathed against the wrong. whole regiments decorated emmett j. scott four negro regiments won the signal honor of being awarded the _croix de guerre_ as a regiment. these were the th, the th, the st and the d. the th (old th new york national guard) was especially honored for its record of days on the firing line, exceeding by five days the term of service at the front of any other american regiment. on planting artichokes from the life of scott bond daniel a. rudd and theodore bond i was living at one time on a farm, which i had bought near forrest city, known as the neely farm. it was also known as a fine fruit farm. the land being upland was of a poor nature. i bought the farm mainly on account of the health of my wife and children. i paid old man neely $ for acres. this farm was two and a half miles from my main bottom farm. after moving on the neely place and getting straight, i looked over the farm and finding that the land was far from fertile, i decided to sow the whole farm in peas, knowing peas were a legume and hence fine to put life into the soil. i excepted several small spots that i planted in corn. i got a fine stand of peas, and looked as if i would make worlds of pea hay. when the peas were ripe i took my mower and rake to harvest my hay crop. this was the first time i had undertaken to cultivate this class of land. i prepared to house the hay and after the hay was cut and raked, i only got one-tenth of the amount of hay i counted on. i prepared the land that fall and sowed it down in clover. i got a fine stand. the clover grew and did well. the next year i took two four-horse wagons and hauled from the allen farm large loads of defective cotton seed. i turned all this under and planted the land the next year in corn. i made and gathered a large corn crop that year. i was at that time taking a farm paper and i would usually sit at night and entertain my wife, while she was sewing. i read an article, where a party in illinois had claimed that he had gathered bushels of artichokes from one acre of land. that did not look reasonable to me at that time. i said to my wife: "listen to what a mistake this fellow has made. he claims to have gathered bushels of artichokes from one acre of land." this seemed impossible to me. in the next issue of this paper i read where another man claimed to have raised , bushels to the acre. this put me at a further wonder as to the artichoke crop. i decided to try a crop of artichokes. i had a very nice spot of land that i thought would suit me for this purpose. i prepared it as i would prepare land for irish potatoes, knowing that artichokes were, like the irish potato, a tuber. i took a four-horse wagon and hauled one and a half tons of rotten cotton seed, and of this i put a double handful every inches apart in the drill; i then dropped the artichokes between the hills. i cultivated first as i would irish potatoes. the plants grew luxuriantly and were all the way from to feet tall. about the th of august i noticed the plants were blooming and it occurred to me that there must be artichokes on the roots. i got my spade and began to dig. i could not find a single artichoke. i took my spade back home and decided within myself that both parties were mistaken when they claimed to have grown so many hundreds of bushels to the acre. after a few days i went to my lower farm and started picking cotton, and was as busy as busy could be all that fall gathering and housing my cotton crop as usual. just before christmas i promised my wife that i would be at home on christmas eve in order to accompany her to our church conference. i was on time according to my promise, helped her to get her household affairs straight and the children settled. i had bought my wife a beautiful cape. she took the cape, i took my overcoat and off we went. in order to take a near route we decided to climb the fence and go through the artichoke patch. as we had none of the children along i, helping her over the fence, recalled our old days when we were courting. i remarked to her: "gee whiz, wife, you certainly look good under that cape!" she said, "do you think so?" "yes, i have always thought that you looked good." by this time we had gotten to the middle of the artichoke patch. i grabbed an artichoke stalk and tried to pull it up. i made one or two surges and it failed to come, but in bending it over i found a great number of artichokes attached to the tap root. i asked my wife to wait a few minutes. she asked me what i was going to do. i told her i would run back and get the grubbing hoe and see what is under these artichokes. she said, "doesn't this beat the band? stop on your way to church to go to digging artichokes." "all right, i will be back in a few minutes." i came with my grubbing hoe and went to work. i dug on all sides of the stalk, then raised it up. i believe i am safe in saying there was a half bushel of artichokes on the roots of this stalk. i then noticed that the dirt in the drills, the sides of the rows, and the middles were all puffed up. one could not stick the end of his finger in the ground without touching an artichoke. i found that the whole earth was matted with artichokes. i really believe that had i had a full acre in and could have gathered all the artichokes, i would have gotten at least , bushels. i told my wife that now i could see that those people had told the truth when they said they had gathered bushels and , bushels to the acre. when i returned from church, i at once turned my hogs into the artichoke patch. i then climbed up on the fence and took a seat to watch the hogs root and crush artichokes. i looked around and saw my clover had made a success, the little artichoke patch had turned out wonderfully. i said to myself: "just think of millions and millions of dollars deposited in all these lands, both rich and poor soils. and just to think how easy this money could be obtained if one would think right and hustle." a song of thanks edward smyth jones for the sun that shone at the dawn of spring, for the flowers which bloom and the birds that sing, for the verdant robe of the grey old earth, for her coffers filled with their countless worth, for the flocks which feed on a thousand hills, for the rippling streams which turn the mills, for the lowing herds in the lovely vale, for the songs of gladness on the gale,-- from the gulf and the lakes to the oceans' banks,-- lord god of hosts, we give thee thanks! for the farmer reaping his whitened fields, for the bounty which the rich soil yields, for the cooling dews and refreshing rains, for the sun which ripens the golden grains, for the bearded wheat and the fattened swine, for the stallèd ox and the fruitful vine, for the tubers large and cotton white, for the kid and the lambkin, frisk and blithe, for the swan which floats near the river-banks,-- lord god of hosts, we give thee thanks! for the pumpkin sweet and the yellow yam, for the corn and beans and the sugared ham, for the plum and the peach and the apple red, for the clustering nut trees overhead. for the cock which crows at the breaking dawn, and the proud old "turk" of the farmer's barn, for the fish which swim in the babbling brooks, for the game which hides in the shady nooks,-- from the gulf and the lakes to the oceans' banks,-- lord god of hosts, we give thee thanks! for the sturdy oaks and the stately pines, for the lead and the coal from the deep, dark mines, for the silver ores of a thousand fold, for the diamond bright and the yellow gold, for the river boat and the flying train, for the fleecy sail of the rolling main, for the velvet sponge and the glossy pearl, for the flag of peace which we now unfurl,-- from the gulf and the lakes to the oceans' banks,-- lord god of hosts, we give thee thanks! for the lowly cot and the mansion fair, for the peace and plenty together share, for the hand which guides us from above, for thy tender mercies, abiding love, for the blessed home with its children gay, for returnings of thanksgiving day, for the bearing toils and the sharing cares, we lift up our hearts in our songs and our prayers,-- from the gulf and the lakes to the oceans' banks,-- lord god of hosts, we give thee thanks! our dumb animals silas x. floyd domestic animals--like horses, cats and dogs--seem to be almost as dependent upon kind treatment and affection as human beings. horses and dogs especially are the most keenly intelligent of our dumb friends, and are alike sensitive to cruelty in any form. they are influenced to an equal degree by kind and affectionate treatment. if there is any form of cruelty that is more blameworthy than another, it is abuse of a faithful horse who gives his life to the service of the owner. when a horse is pulling a heavy load with all his might, doing the best he can to move under it, to strike him, spur him, or swear at him is barbarous. to kick a dog around or strike him with sticks just for the fun of hearing him yelp or seeing him run, is equally barbarous. no high-minded man, no high-minded boy or girl, would do such a thing. we should never forget how helpless, in a large sense, dumb animals are--and how absolutely dependent upon the humanity and kindness of their owners. they are really the slaves of man, having no language by which to express their feelings or needs. the poet cowper said: "i would not enter on my list of friends, though graced with polished manners and fine sense, yet wanting sensibility, the man who needlessly sets foot upon a worm." boys and girls should be willing to pledge themselves to be kind to all harmless living creatures, and every boy and girl should strive to protect such creatures from cruel usage on the part of others. it is noble, boys and girls, for us to speak for those that cannot speak for themselves, and it is noble, also, for us to protect those that cannot protect themselves. a legend of the blue jay ruth anna fisher it was a hot, sultry day in may and the children in the little school in virginia were wearily waiting for the gong to free them from lessons for the day. furtive glances were directed towards the clock. the call of the birds and fields was becoming more and more insistent. would the hour never strike! "the planting of the apple-tree" had no interest for them. little attention was given the boy as he read in a sing-song, spiritless manner: "what plant we in this apple-tree? buds, which the breath of summer days shall lengthen into leafy sprays; boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast, shall haunt and sing and hide her nest." the teacher, who had long since stopped trying to make the lesson interesting, found herself saying mechanically, "what other birds have their nests in the apple-tree?" the boy shifted lazily from one foot to the other as he began, "the sparrow, the robin, and wrens, and--the snow-birds and blue-jays--" "no, they don't, blue-jays don't have nests," came the excited outburst from some of the children, much to the surprise of the teacher. when order was restored some of these brown-skinned children, who came from the heart of the virginian mountains, told this legend of the blue-jay. long, long years ago, the devil came to buy the blue-jay's soul, for which he first offered a beautiful golden ear of corn. this the blue-jay liked and wanted badly, but said, "no, i cannot take it in exchange for my soul." then the devil came again, this time with a bright red ear of corn which was even more lovely than the golden one. this, too, the blue-jay refused. at last the devil came to offer him a wonderful blue ear. this one the blue-jay liked best of all, but still was unwilling to part with his soul. then the devil hung it up in the nest, and the blue-jay found that it exactly matched his own brilliant feathers, and knew at once that he must have it. the bargain was quickly made. and now in payment for that one blue ear of corn each friday the blue-jay must carry one grain of sand to the devil, and sometimes he gets back on sunday, but oftener not until monday. very seriously the children added, "and all the bad people are going to burn until the blue-jays have carried all the grains of sand in the ocean to the devil." the teacher must have smiled a little at the legend, for the children cried out again, "it is so. 'deed it is, for doesn't the black spot on the blue-jay come because he gets his wings scorched, and he doesn't have a nest like other birds." then, to dispel any further doubts the teacher might have, they asked triumphantly, "you never saw a blue-jay on friday, did you?" there was no need to answer, for just then the gong sounded and the children trooped happily out to play. david livingstone benjamin brawley when livingstone began his work of exploration in , practically all of africa between the sahara and the dutch settlements in the extreme south was unknown territory. by the time of his death in he had brought this entire region within the view of civilization. on his first journey, or series of journeys ( - ,) starting from cape town, he made his way northward for a thousand miles to lake ngami; then pushing on to linyanti, he undertook one of the most perilous excursions of his entire career, his objective for more than a thousand miles being loanda on the west coast, which point he reached after six months in the wilderness. coming back to linyanti, he turned his face eastward, discovered victoria falls on the zambesi, and finally arrived at cuilimane on the coast. on his second series of journeys ( - ) he explored the zambesi, the shire, and the rovuma rivers in the east, and discovered lake nyasa. on his final expedition ( - ), in hunting for the upper courses of the nile, he discovered lakes tanganyika, mweru, and bangweolo, and the lualaba river. his achievement as an explorer was as distinct as it was unparalleled. his work as a missionary and his worth as a man it is not quite so easy to express concretely; but in these capacities he was no less distinguished and his accomplishment no less signal. there had been missionaries, and great ones, in africa before livingstone. the difference between livingstone and consecrated men was not so much in devotion as in the conception of the task. he himself felt that a missionary in the africa of his day was to be more than a mere preacher of the word--that he would have also to be a christian statesman, and even a director of exploration and commerce if need be. this was his title to greatness; to him "the end of the geographical feat was only the beginning of the enterprise." knowing, however, that many honest persons did not sympathize with him in this conception of his mission, after he declined longer to accept salary from the missionary society that originally sent him out, working afterwards under the patronage of the british government and the royal geographical society. his sympathy and his courtesy were unfailing, even when he himself was placed in the greatest danger. said henry drummond of him: "wherever david livingstone's footsteps are crossed in africa the fragrance of his memory seems to remain." on one occasion a hunter was impaled on the horn of a rhinoceros, and a messenger ran eight miles for the physician. although he himself had been wounded for life by a lion and his friends insisted that he should not ride at night through a wood infested with wild beasts, livingstone insisted on his christian duty to go, only to find that the man had died and to have to retrace his footsteps. again and again his party would have been destroyed by some savage chieftain if it had not been for his own unbounded tact and courage. to the devoted men who helped him he gave the assurance that he would die before he would permit them to be taken; and after his death at chitambo's village susi and chuma journeyed for nine months and over eight hundred miles of dangerous country to take his body to the coast. livingstone was a man of tremendous faith, in his mission, in his country, in humanity, in god. he wrote on one occasion: "this age presents one great fact in the providence of god; missions are sent forth to all quarters of the world,--missions not of one section of the church, but from all sections, and from nearly all christian nations. it seems very unfair to judge of the success of these by the number of the conversions that have followed. these are rather proofs of the missions being of the right sort. the fact which ought to stimulate us above all others is, not that we have contributed to the conversion of a few souls, however valuable these may be, but that we are diffusing a knowledge of christianity throughout the world. future missionaries will see conversions follow every sermon. we prepare the way for them. we work for a glorious future which we are not destined to see--the golden age which has not been, but will yet be. we are only morning-stars shining in the dark, but the glorious morn will break, the good time coming yet. for this time we work; may god accept our imperfect service." of such quality was david livingstone--missionary, explorer, philanthropist. "for thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, and abolish the desolating slave trade of central africa." to what extent after sixty years have we advanced toward his ideals? with what justice are we the inheritors of his renown? ira aldridge william j. simmons the name of aldridge has always been placed at the head of the list of negro actors. he has indeed become the most noted of them, and his name is cited as standing first in his calling among all colored persons who have ever appeared on the stage. he was born at belaire, near baltimore, in . in complexion he was dark brown, and with heavy whiskers; standing six feet in height, with heavy frame, african features, and yet with due proportions; he was graceful in his attitudes, highly polished in manners. in his early days he was apprenticed to a ship carpenter, and had his association with the germans on the western shores of maryland. here he became familiar with the german language and spoke it not only with ease but with fluency. he was brought in contact with edmund kean, the great actor, in , whom he accompanied in his trip through europe. his ambition to become an actor was encouraged by kean, and receiving his assistance in the preparation, he made his appearance first at the royalty theatre in london, in the character of othello. public applause greeted him of such an extraordinary nature, that he was billed to appear at the covent garden theatre april , , in the same character. after many years' successful appearances in many of the metropolitan cities, he appeared in the provinces with still greater success. in ireland he performed othello, with edmund kean as iago. in he appeared in germany in shakespearean characters. he was pronounced excellent, and though a stranger and a foreigner, he undertook the very difficult task of playing in english, while his whole support was rendered in the language of the country. it is said that until this time, such an experiment was not considered susceptible of a successful end, but nevertheless, with his impersonations he succeeded admirably. it is said that the king of prussia was so deeply moved with his appearance in the character of othello, at berlin, that he spent him a congratulatory letter, and conferred upon him the title of chevalier, in recognition of his dramatic genius, and informed him that the lady who took the part of desdemona was so much affected at the manner in which he played his part that she was made ill from fright on account of the reality with which he acted his part. some idea of the character of his acting might be gained from the fact that the lady who played desdemona in st. petersburg, became very much alarmed at what appeared real passion on his part, in acting othello; though he was never rough or indelicate in any of his acting with ladies, yet she was so frightened that she used to scream with real fear. it is said that on another occasion in st. petersburg, that in the midst of his acting in scene two, act five, when he was quoting these words, "it is the cause, it is the cause, my soul; let me not name it to you, you chaste stars! it is the cause. yet i'll not shed her blood, nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, and smooth as monumental alabaster. yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. put out the light, and then--put out the light! if i quench thee, thou flaming minister, i can again thy former light restore, should i repent me: but once put out thy light, thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature; i know not where is that promethean heat, that can thy light relume. when i have plucked thy rose, i cannot give it vital growth again; it needs must wither:--i'll smell it on the tree-- (_kissing her_) o balmy breath, that dost almost persuade justice to break her sword:--one more, one more:-- be thus when thou art dead, and i will kill thee, and love thee after:--one more--and this the last: so sweet was ne'er so fatal. i must weep. but they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly: it strikes where it doth love." the house was so carried away with the manner in which he rendered it, that a young man stood up and exclaimed with the greatest earnestness: "she is innocent, othello, she is innocent," and yet so interested was he in the acting himself that he never moved a muscle but continued as if nothing had been said to embarrass him. the next day he learned, while dining with a russian prince, that a young man who had been present had been so affected by the play that he had been seized with a sudden illness and died the next day. mr. aldridge was a welcome guest in the ranks of the cultured and wealthy, and was often in the "salons" of the haughty aristocrats of st. petersburg and moscow. titled ladies wove, knitted and stitched their pleasing emotions into various memorials of friendship. in his palatial residence at sydenham, near london, were collected many presents of intrinsic value, rendered almost sacred by association. prominent among these tokens of regard was an autographic letter from the king of prussia, transmitting the first medal of art and sciences; the cross of leopold, from the emperor of russia, and a maltese cross received at berne. in all his triumphs he never lost interest in the condition of his race. he always took an interest in everything touching their welfare, and though exalted to the companionship of those who ranked high in every department of life, yet he never in any way forgot the humble race with which he was identified, and was always solicitous for their welfare and promotion. he was an associate of the most prominent men of paris, among whom was alexander dumas. when the great tragedian and great writer met they always kissed each other, and dumas always greeted aldridge with the words mon confrère. he died at lodes, in poland, august , . fifty years - james weldon johnson o brothers mine, to-day we stand where half a century sweeps our ken, since god, through lincoln's ready hand, struck off our bonds and made us men. just fifty years--a winter's day-- as runs the history of a race; yet, as we look back o'er the way, how distant seems our starting place! look farther back! three centuries! to where a naked, shivering score, snatched from their haunts across the seas, stood wild-eyed, on virginia's shore. far, far the way that we have trod, from heathen kraals and jungle dens, to freedmen, freemen, sons of god, americans and citizens. a part of his unknown design, we've lived within a mighty age; and we have helped to write a line on history's most wondrous page. a few black bondmen strewn along the borders of our eastern coast, now grown a race, ten million strong, an upward, onward marching host. then let us here erect a stone, to mark the place, to mark the time; a witness to god's mercies shown, a pledge to hold this day sublime. and let that stone an altar be, whereon thanksgivings we may lay, where we, in deep humility, for faith and strength renewed may pray. with open hearts ask from above new zeal, new courage and new pow'rs, that we may grow more worthy of this country and this land of ours. for never let the thought arise that we are here on sufferance bare; outcasts, asylumed 'neath these skies and aliens without part or share. this land is ours by right of birth, this land is ours by right of toil; we helped to turn its virgin earth, our sweat is in its fruitful soil. where once the tangled forest stood,-- where flourished once rank weed and thorn,-- behold the path-traced, peaceful wood, the cotton white, the yellow corn. to gain these fruits that have been earned, to hold these fields that have been won, our arms have strained, our backs have burned, bent bare beneath a ruthless sun. that banner which is now the type of victory on field and flood-- remember, its first crimson stripe was dyed by attucks' willing blood. and never yet has come the cry-- when that fair flag has been assailed-- for men to do, for men to die, that have we faltered or have failed. we've helped to bear it, rent and torn, through many a hot-breath'd battle breeze; held in our hands, it has been borne and planted far across the seas. and never yet--o haughty land, let us, at least, for this be praised-- has one black, treason-guided hand ever against that flag been raised. then should we speak but servile words, or shall we hang our heads in shame? stand back of new-come foreign hordes, and fear our heritage to claim? no! stand erect and without fear, and for our foes let this suffice-- we've bought a rightful sonship here, and we have more than paid the price. and yet, my brothers, well i know the tethered feet, the pinioned wings, the spirit bowed beneath the blow, the heart grown faint from wounds and stings; the staggering force of brutish might, that strikes and leaves us stunned and dazed; the long, vain waiting through the night to hear some voice for justice raised. full well i know the hour when hope sinks dead, and 'round us everywhere hangs stifling darkness, and we grope with hands uplifted in despair. courage! look out, beyond, and see the far horizon's beckoning span! faith in your god-known destiny! we are a part of some great plan. because the tongues of garrison and phillips now are cold in death, think you their work can be undone? or quenched the fires lit by their breath? think you that john brown's spirit stops? that lovejoy was but idly slain? or do you think those precious drops from lincoln's heart were shed in vain? that for which millions prayed and sighed, that for which tens of thousands fought, for which so many freely died, god cannot let it come to naught. a great kingdom in the congo william henry sheppard i had studied the new dialect of the bakuba and had made every preparation for our expedition into the "forbidden land" of king lukenga. i had met their people, a far interior tribe, and was interested in their apparent superiority in physique, manners, dress and dialect. i asked to be allowed to accompany them to their country and king, but they said it was impossible, their king would never allow a foreigner to come into the interior. nevertheless i determined to seek them out and after some weeks had elapsed, i called our station natives together and laid plainly before them the perils of the journey. i told them, from the information which i had, that the trails which had been made by elephant, buffalo, antelope and bakuba natives were many and they led over long, hot, sandy plains through deep dark forests, across streams without bridges, and through swamps infested with wild animals and poisonous serpents. and above all, the king had sent word throughout the land that we could not enter his country. not a man's muscle moved, and there was not a dissenting voice. i had picked up the bakuba dialect from some of the king's traders and tax collectors who journeyed our way. i received from them much information of the general direction leading north toward the capital, the names of large towns on the way, of the market towns, the approximate distances apart, the streams to be crossed, and their names; of the leopard, buffalo and elephant zones, and the names of some of the chiefs of the market towns, etc. two days later, when all was in readiness, tents loaded, cooking utensils, a bag of money (cowrie shells), some salt, etc., we left luebo, led by the master's hand. the trail lay northeast by north with a gradual ascent. the country was well wooded and watered. no stones could be seen anywhere, and the soil was sandy. there were many extensive plains with magnificent palm trees, hundreds and thousands of them ranging from a foot high, which the elephants fed upon, to those fifty and sixty feet high. the forest everywhere was ever green. trees blossomed and bloomed, sending out upon the gentle breeze their fragrance, so acceptable to the traveler. festoons of moss and running vines made the forest look like a beautifully painted theatre or an enormous swinging garden. in the meantime word had come to the king of lukenga of our presence and, as we neared his kingdom, we were met by a party of fighting men. my caravan had been resting in the village of a chief named kueta, who had repeatedly urged me to turn back, and, as the righting men of king lukenga appeared, the chief's men fled to the forest. i sat quietly, however, in my seat in front of my tent and my people began to gather around my chair, the youngest of the caravan nestling on his knees very close to me. the king's people drew near and the leading man, spear in hand, called to chief kueta in a voice that rang through the village: "now hear the words of king lukenga: because you have entertained a foreigner in your village, we have come to take you to the capital for trial." i knew things were now serious, so rising from my seat i called to the head man to meet me half way. he paid no attention. i called a second time and walked up to him and began to plead for chief kueta. "i understand you are sent by your king to arrest these people." "it is the word of the king," said he. i continued, "the chief of this village is not guilty; he gave me warning and told me to go away, to return the way i had come, and i did not. it is my fault and not kueta's." the leader, leaning on his spear, replied, "you speak our language?" "i do," was my quick answer. "that is strange," said he. the leader and his men moved off some distance and talked between themselves. in a little while he came back to me saying, "i will return to the capital and report these things to the king." i said to him, "tell your king i am not a bad man; i do not steal or kill; i have a message for him. wait a moment," said i. taking from one of my boxes a very large cowrie shell, near the size of one's fist, and holding it up, i said, "this we call the father of cowries; present it to the king as a token of friendship." the men were soon off for the capital and we settled down, hoping and praying for the best. kueta told me that the head man was king lukenga's son and his name was n'toinzide. n'toinzide stood more than six feet, of bronze color, blind in one eye, determined set lips, and seemed a man fearless of any foe--man or beast. the villagers told me many things of the king's son, both good and bad. after some days the messengers reached the capital and reported to king lukenga. "we saw the foreigner; he speaks our language, he knows all the trails of the country." the king was astonished and called a council and laid the matter before them. they deliberated over the affair and finally told the king that they knew who i was. "the foreigner who is at bixibing," said they, "who has come these long trails and who speaks our language is a makuba, one of the early settlers who died, and whose spirit went to a foreign country and now he has returned." the messengers hastened to return and accompany me to the capital. we had been longing and praying for days for the best. with the king's special envoy were many more men who had come through mere curiosity, as was their custom. n'toinzide stood in the center of the town and called with his loud voice saying who i was and giving briefly my history. the villagers were indeed happy. they flocked around as the king's son drew near and extended their hands to me. i arose from my chair and made these remarks: "i have heard distinctly all that you have said, but i am not a makuba; i have never been here before." n'toinzide insisted that they were right, and said that his father, the king, wanted me to come on at once to the capital. the people were mighty happy, kueta, our host, the townspeople, and my people, too. their appetites came back, and so did mine. with a hasty good-bye, "gala hola," to kueta, we were off. on the last morning our trail grew larger, the country more open, and the ascent greater, until we stood upon an extensive plain and had a beautiful view in every direction of all the land as far as we could see. we could see in the distance thousands and thousands of banana and palm trees and our escort of bakuba cried out, "muxenge! muxenge!" (meaning capital! capital!). just before entering the great town we were halted at a small guard post consisting of a few houses and some men who were the king's watchmen. they told me that on each of the four entrances to the capital these sentries were stationed. a man was dispatched to notify the king that we were near. in a short while the people came out of the town to meet and greet us, hundreds of them, and many little children, too. some of my caravan were frightened and would run away, but i told them that the oncoming crowd meant no harm. n'toinzide, the king's son, with spear in hand, took the lead and the interested and excited crowd after getting a peep at me fell in behind. we marched down a broad, clean street, lined on both sides by interested spectators jostling, gesticulating, talking aloud and laughing. the young boys and girls struck up a song which sounded to me like a band of sweet music and we all kept step to it. n'toinzide called a halt at a house which i presume was x feet in size. you could enter the doors front and back almost without stooping. the house was made like all the others of bamboo and had two rooms. there were a number of clay pots of various sizes for cooking and six large gourds for water. my caravan was comfortably housed. i did not put up my tent, but took my seat in a reclining chair under a large palm tree in front of my door. the crowd was immense, but we had them sit down on the ground so we could get a breath of air. in the afternoon the king sent greetings, and fourteen goats, six sheep, a number of chickens, corn, pumpkins, large dried fish, bushels of peanuts, bunches of bananas and plantains and a calabash of palm oil and other food. the prime minister, n'dola, who brought the greetings, mentioned that the king would see me next day; also that the king's servants would take out of the village all goats and chickens which i did not want for immediate use. for, said n'dola, no sheep, goats, hogs, dogs, ducks or chickens are allowed in the king's town. in the evening we started our song service and i delivered to them our king's message. the crowd was great. the order was good. i went to rest with the burden of these people upon my heart, and thanking god that he had led, protected and brought us through close places safely to the "forbidden land." early in the morning we heard the blast of ivory horns calling the attention of the people to put on their best robes and be in readiness for the big parade. i saw there was great activity in the town, men and women hurrying to and fro. soon two stalwart bakuba, with their red kilts on and feathers in their hats appeared before my house and announced their readiness to accompany me before king lukenga. they noticed an old brass button tied by a string around the neck of one of my men. very politely they removed it, saying, "only the king can wear brass or copper." i was dressed in what had once been white linen. coat, trousers, white canvas shoes and pith helmet. the officials on either side took me by the arm; we walked a block up the broad street, turned to the right and walked three blocks till we came to the big town square. thousands of the villagers had already taken their position and were seated on the green grass. king lukenga, his high officials and about of his wives occupied the eastern section of the square. the players of stringed instruments and drummers were in the center, and as we appeared a great shout went up from the people. the king's servants ran and spread leopard skins along the ground leading to his majesty. i approached with some timidity. the king arose from his throne of ivory, stretched forth his hand and greeted me with these words, "wyni" (you have come). i bowed low, clapped my hands in front of me, and answered, "ndini, nyimi" (i have come, king). as the drums beat and the harps played the king's sons entered the square and danced one after the other single handed, brandishing their big knives in the air. the king's great chair, or throne, was made of carved tusks of ivory, and his feet rested upon lion skins. i judged him to have been a little more than six feet high and with his crown, which was made of eagle feathers, he towered over all. the king's dress consisted of a red loin cloth, draped neatly about his waist in many folds. he wore a broad belt decorated with cowrie shells and beads. his armlets and anklets were made of polished cowrie shells reaching quite above the wrists and ankles. these decorations were beautifully white. his feet were painted with powdered canwood, resembling morocco boots. the king weighed about pounds. he wore a pleasant smile. he looked to be eighty years old, but he was as active as a middle-aged man. * * * * * as the sun was setting in the west the king stood up, made a slight bow to his people and to me. his slaves were ready with his cowrie-studded hammock to take him to his place, for his feet must never touch the ground. his hammock was like the body of a buggy carried on two long poles upon the shoulders of many men. through the shouts of the people i was accompanied back to my resting place. it was the most brilliant affair i had seen in africa, but my! i was so glad when it was all over. the town was laid off east and west. the broad streets ran at right angles, and there were blocks just as in any town. those in a block were always related in some way. around each house is a court and a high fence made of heavy matting of palm leaves, and around each block there is also a high fence, so you enter these homes by the many gates. each block has a chief called mbambi, and he is responsible to king lukenga for his block. when the king will deliver a message to the whole village or part of it, these chiefs are sent for and during the early evenings they ring their iron hand bells and call out in a loud voice the message in five minutes. the king desired of his own heart to give me peanuts for my people. i heard the messengers delivering the word and the next morning we had more peanuts than we could manage. there was not a visible light anywhere in the whole town. "a chunk or two" is always kept smouldering in the center of the house on the clay floor. the housewife is always careful to have a handful of split dry bamboo near, and when anyone is stung by a scorpion or snake (which often happens) they start up a blaze and hunt for the intruder and medicine. when there is neither moon nor stars it is truly a land of awful darkness, and is made more dismal by the yelping of the jackal on the plain. the moon shines more brightly and beautifully than on lukenga's plain. and the beauty is enhanced by the thousands of majestic palms, and the singing of birds with voices like the mocking bird and the nightingale. i have sat in front of my house moonlight nights until and o'clock. every morning the "courts" and streets were swept. men who had committed some offense were compelled to pull weeds and sweep the streets clean. there is a rule in all bakuba villages that every man every day sweep before his own door. the only littered places i observed were at the four public entrances of the town where markets were held daily at a.m., noon and p.m.--sugar cane, pulp, banana and plantain peelings, and peanut shells. when the king's drum taps the signal about p.m. at the conclusion of the sleep song there is not a sound again in the whole village. all the natives we have met in the kasal are, on the whole, honest. our private dwellings have never been locked day or night. your pocketbook is a sack of cowries or salt tied at the mouth with a string. but now and then something happens. n'susa, one of the boys of my caravan, misappropriated some cowries. i called him (in the presence of two witnesses) in question about the matter. he acknowledged removing the shells and innocently remarked, "you are the same as my father, and what is his is mine." from the great lukenga plateau as far as the eye can look you see villages dotted everywhere. you never find a family living alone isolated from the village. the people live together for mutual protection from enemies and animals. and usually everybody in a village is related in some near or distant way; but it does not keep them from fighting occasionally. the bakuba are monogamists. a young man sees a girl whom he likes; he has met her in his own town or at some other, or perhaps at a market place or a dance. he sends her tokens of love, bananas, plantains, peanuts, dried fish or grasshoppers. she in turn sends him similar presents. they often meet, sit down on the green, laugh and talk together. i have seen the girls often blush and really put on airs. he asks her to have him, if she has no one else on her heart, and tells her that he wants no one to eat the crop that is in the field but her. the girl and the parents both agree. on a set day when the market is in full blast, with hundreds of people from everywhere, the young man and girl, with their young friends, all dressed in their best robes, meet and march indian file through the open market and receive congratulations from everybody. the new bride and groom continue their march to the already prepared house of the young man. a feast of goat, sheep, monkey, chicken or fish, with plenty of palm wine is served and all is ended with a big dance. the women of the king's household select their own husbands, and no man dare decline; and no man would ever be so rude or presumptuous as to ask for the hand and heart of royalty. the husband knows that he must cut down the forest and assist in planting corn, millet, beans, pease, sweet potatoes and tobacco, hunt for game, bring the palm wine, palm nuts, make his wife's garments and repair the house. he is never to be out after o'clock at night unless sitting up at a wake or taking part in a public town dance. the young man before marriage sends a certain number of well-woven mats and so many thousands of cowries to the parents of the girl as a dowry. if they cease to love and must part, even twenty rainy seasons from marriage, the dowry or its equivalent is returned to the man. the wife is expected to shave and anoint the husband's body with palm oil, keep his toenails and fingernails manicured, bring water and wood, help in the field, cook his food, and take care of the children. i have had many a man come and ask to buy love medicine. they think charms and medicine can do anything. i always told them, of course, that it was a matter of the girl's heart, and charms or medicine could not help out in their "love affairs." the bakuba are morally a splendid people. i have asked a number of bakuba what was their real ideal of life, and they invariably answered to have a big corn field, marry a good wife, and have many children. we were astounded when we saw the first new-born baby. it was so very light. but in a few weeks the youngster rallied to his colors and we were assured that he would never change again. no baby is born in the regularly occupied house. a small house is built in the back yard and is surrounded by a fence of palm fronds. no one is admitted into the enclosure but a few women. the new youngster receives a bath of palm oil, then the notice is given and all the friends of the family with jugs of cold water vie with each other in giving mother and baby a shower bath. the drums beat and the dance in water and mud continues for hours. until you get accustomed to it you would be horrified to see the mothers stuff their young babies. the mother nurses the baby just as any mother, but she doesn't think that sufficient. so she has by her side a small pot of soft corn pone and a pot of water or palm oil. she makes a large pill from the pone, dips it in the water or oil, and while the baby is lying on his back in her lap these pills are dropped in its mouth. then the mother uses the forefinger to force the collection of pills down its throat. as the baby resists and kicks, water is poured down its throat to facilitate the process. if the baby strangles, the mother will shake him up and down a few times. when the feeding is over, he certainly looks "stuffed." the bakuba children have many games and but few toys. the girls have wooden dolls made by their fathers, and the boys make from bamboo bows and arrows. they shoot mice, lizards, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, butterflies, lightning bugs, etc. they make mud pies and play market, and tie the legs of may and june bugs to see them fly around and buzz. they love to play housekeeping. they are also trained to do some work, as bringing wood, sweeping or looking after the younger ones. there are no knives, forks or dishes to wash. "baby talk" is not used and the parents speak to the babies just as though they were speaking to grown-ups. i have seen the children in the streets drawing with a pointed stick or their finger on the smooth sand, men, leopards, monkeys, crocodiles, birds, snakes and other animals. the boys make a heap of clay and sod it, and with great speed run upon it and turn a somersault, lighting on their feet. a string of them together will play "leap frog," and hide-and-seek is great sport with them. in all these amusements they keep up a song. there is one thing you will certainly see them doing, both boys and girls, and that is beating their clenched fists into the hard clay just as hard as they can drive. a year later you will see them driving their knuckles against a log or a tree. in this way they become hardened and are used as a weapon in fights when they are grown. and, too, they can butt like a goat, so in their family fights they not only use their fists but their heads. i spent hours at king lukenga's and other villages playing with the little folks and trying to find out what they were thinking about. they had a name for the sun and moon, names for very brilliant and prominent stars and ordinary ones. the sun was the father of the heavens, the moon was his wife, and the stars were their children. the sun after going down was paddled around in a very large canoe on the great water by men who were more than human and started in the skies again. they knew that a year was divided into two general seasons, the rainy (eight moons), the dry (four moons); though even in the rainy season it doesn't rain every day and very seldom all day at any time; and in the dry season there is an occasional refreshing shower. they knew the names of all the lakes, rivers and small streams. roots that were good for medicine or to eat they knew. flowers and ferns were called by name. the names of all the many varieties of trees, birds and animals they knew. i was surprised to know from maxamalinge, the king's son, that every month the king had all the little children of the town before him and he in turn would talk to them, as a great and good father to his own children. the king would have his servants give to each boy and girl a handful of peanuts. when they were out of the king's quarters there was many a scrap over these peanuts. i grew very fond of bakuba and it was reciprocated. they were the finest looking race i had seen in africa, dignified, graceful, courageous, honest, with an open, smiling countenance and really hospitable. their knowledge of weaving, embroidering, wood carving and smelting was the highest in equatorial africa. pillars of the state william c. jason young people are the life-blood of the nation, the pillars of the state. the future of the world is wrapped up in the lives of its youth. as these unfold, the pages of history will tell the story of deeds noble and base. characters resplendent with jewels and ornaments of virtue will be held up for the admiration of the world and the emulation of generations not yet born. others, thoughtlessly or wilfully ignoring the plain path of duty, dwarfed, blighted, rejected of god and man, will be the sign-posts marking the road to ruin. oath of afro-american youth kelly miller i will never bring disgrace upon my race by any unworthy deed or dishonorable act. i will live a clean, decent, manly life; and will ever respect and defend the virtue and honor of womanhood; i will uphold and obey the just laws of my country and of the community in which i live, and will encourage others to do likewise; i will not allow prejudice, injustice, insult or outrage to cower my spirit or sour my soul; but will ever preserve the inner freedom of heart and conscience; i will not allow myself to be overcome of evil, but will strive to overcome evil with good; i will endeavor to develop and exert the best powers within me for my own personal improvement, and will strive unceasingly to quicken the sense of racial duty and responsibility; i will in all these ways aim to uplift my race so that, to everyone bound to it by ties of blood, it shall become a bond of ennoblement and not a byword of reproach. the end notes bird, augusta--born in tennessee. on the clerical force of the national association for the advancement of colored people. contributor to the brownies book. bond, scott--born in slavery in mississippi. now a wealthy farmer in madison, arkansas. braithwaite, william beaumont stanley ( -)--author and critic; born in boston. editor of "anthology of magazine verse," published annually, "the book of georgian verse," "the book of restoration verse," contributor of literary criticisms to the boston transcript and magazines. brawley, benjamin griffith ( -)--born at columbia, s.c. a.b., atlanta baptist college, ; a.b., university of chicago, ; a.m., harvard, . member american historical association, american geographical society; author, "negro in literature and art," "short history of american negro" and booklets of verse. dean of morehouse college, atlanta, ga. brown, william wells ( -?)--born in slavery in kentucky. escaped in youth to the north. prominent lecturer in america and england. author of "the black man," "clotelle," "the negro in the rebellion," "the rising sun," etc. burleigh, alston w., son of h. t. burleigh, the well-known composer of music. chesnutt, charles w. ( -)--born in cleveland, ohio. admitted to the ohio bar, . one of the foremost american novelists. author of "the house behind the cedars," "the wife of his youth," "the marrow of tradition," etc. contributor to the atlantic monthly and century magazine. coppin, levi j. ( -)--born at frederickstown, md. bishop of african methodist episcopal church. in south africa - . author of "observations of persons and things in south africa" and a number of religious books. d. d., wilberforce university, . ordained to ministry, . cotter, joseph s. ( -).--educator, author of "negro tales," etc. cotter, joseph s., jr. ( - )--a youth of great promise who wrote on a sick bed. author of "the band of gideon," "the white folks' nigger," "out of the shadows." crogman, william h. ( -)--born on st. martin island, west indies, a.b., a.m., atlanta university, , ; litt. d., ll.d., clark university, . for many years associated with clark university, atlanta, ga., as president and professor. member of the american philosophical association. cromwell, james w. ( -)--born portsmouth, va. ll.b., harvard ; hon. a.m. wilberforce university, . admitted to bar, district of columbia, . first colored lawyer to appear before interstate commerce commission. principal crummell school, washington, d.c.; secretary, american negro academy. author of "the negro in american history," etc. douglass, frederick ( - )--escaped from maryland as a slave when a young man. lectured on abolition in england and america. a noble orator, a clear thinker, and an untiring advocate of the rights of man. published an autobiography in many editions. du bois, w. e. burghardt ( -)--born in great barrington, mass. a.b., fisk university; a.b. and ph.d., harvard. scholar; editor of "the crisis"; author of "the suppression of the slave trade," "the souls of black folk," "darkwater," etc. dunbar, paul laurence ( - )--born in dayton, ohio. poet; author of "oak and ivy," "majors and minors," "lyrics of lowly life," "the uncalled," "the sport of the gods," etc. dunbar stands in the forefront among american poets. edwards, william j.--a tuskegee graduate who founded the snow hill school, one of most important industrial schools of the country. author of "twenty-five years in the black belt," etc. ellis, george w. ( - )--lawyer and author. while serving on the american legation to liberia, he studied the languages and customs of the tribes of west africa, and wrote his books on this subject. fauset, jessie r.--a. b., cornell, a.m., pennsylvania. associate editor of "the crisis" and the "brownies' book." author of short stories and verses. fisher, ruth anna--a. b., oberlin college. has engaged in teaching and social service work. flipper, henry ossian--served as lieutenant in american army. student and translator of spanish. floyd, silas x. ( --)--a.b., a.m., atlanta university, , ; d.d. morris brown college, . principal of a school in augusta, ga. author of "floyd's flowers," etc. member, american association political and social science and american historical association. grimke, angelina--teacher in the public schools of washington, d.c.; author of "rachel," etc. hackley, azalia--musician, pupil of jean de reszke. very successful teacher and conductor of choruses. henson, matthew a.--began life as a cabin boy. twenty-three years peary's companion. he was with him at the north pole. thoroughly acquainted with life customs and languages of the eskimos. holtzclaw, william h.--a tuskegee graduate who founded the utica normal and industrial institute in mississippi; author of "the black man's burden," etc. jamieson, r. c. ( - )--born, winchester, tenn. educated at fisk university. author, contributor to "the crisis." johnson, james weldon--poet and diplomat. at one time american consul at puerto cabello, venezuela and nicaragua. author of "fifty years and other poems," "an autobiography of an ex-colored man." field secretary of the national association for the advancement of colored people. jones, e. s.--author of "the sylvan cabin and other poems." miller, kelly ( --)--born at winnsboro, s.c. a.m., ll.d., howard university, , . dean, college of arts and sciences, howard university. lecturer on race problem. member academy political and social science, american social science association, american association for the advancement of science. author "race adjustment," "out of the house of bondage"; wrote chapter on "education of the negro" in report of u.s. bureau of education, . contributor to magazines and newspapers. pendelton, leila a.--teacher in washington public schools for many years. author of "a narrative of the negro," "an alphabet for negro children," etc. pickens, william ( -)--born in anderson co., s.c. a.b., talledaga college, ; a.b., yale, ; a.m., fisk, . won the ten eyck prize for oratory, yale, . educator and lecturer. formerly dean of morgan college, baltimore. associate field secretary for the national association for the advancement of colored people. author of "the new negro," "the spirit of freedom," etc. scott, emmett j. ( -)--born at houston, texas. wiley university, . secretary of howard university. appointed a member of american commission to liberia, , by president taft. assistant to secretary of war, - . author, "the american negro in the world war," etc. shepard, james e. ( -)--born, lehigh, n.c. author, lecturer, founder of religious training school at durham, n.c. has traveled in europe, africa and asia. sheppard, william henry ( -)--born at waynesboro, va. sent by southern presbyterian church as missionary to africa, . exposed to the congo atrocities. fellow of the royal geographical society. simmons, william j. ( -?)--born in charleston, s.c. boyhood of severe poverty. ab., howard university, . educator, editor, minister, author "his men of mark" which contains biographies of colored men. stafford, o. o.--principal of lincoln public school, washington, d.c. author of "animal fables." washington, booker t. ( - )--born in slavery. graduated at hampton institute. founded tuskegee institute. one of the foremost educators america has produced. author of "up from slavery," "working with the hands," etc. wheatley, phyllis ( - )--brought to boston as a slave in her childhood. kindly treated and educated; became one of america's well known poets of the early period. white, walter, f.--graduate of atlanta university. assistant secretary of the national association for the advancement of colored people. witten, lillian b.--graduate smith college. teacher in the st. louis high school. * * * * * [transcriber's notes: the transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious errors: . p. h cordelia ray --> h. cordelia ray . p. tousaint --> toussaint . p. correspondingly --> correspondingly: . p. greegee --> greegree . p. on all sorts --> of all sorts end of transcriber's notes] none none [transcribers note: subscripts in the text are represented by _{x} markup] a book of exposition edited by homer heath nugent laflin instructor in english at the rensselaer polytechnic institute preface it is a pleasure to acknowledge indebtedness to my wife for assistance in editing and to dr. ray palmer baker, head of the department of english at the institute, for suggestions and advice without which this collection would hardly have been made. contents introduction the exposition of a mechanism the levers or the human body. sir arthur keith the exposition of a machine the mergenthaler linotype. philip t. dodge the exposition of a process in nature the pea weevil. jean henri fabre. translated by bernard miall the exposition of a manufacturing process modern paper-making. j. w. butler paper company the exposition of an idea the gospel of relaxation. william james science and religion. charles proteus steinmetz biographical and critical notes introduction the articles here presented are modern and unhackneyed. selected primarily as models for teaching the methods of exposition employed in the explanation of mechanisms, processes, and ideas, they are nevertheless sufficiently representative of certain tendencies in science to be of intrinsic value. indeed, each author is a recognized authority. another feature is worthy of mention. although the material covers so wide a field--anatomy, zoölogy, physics, psychology, and applied science--that the collection will appeal to instructors in every type of college and technical school, the selections are related in such a way as to produce an impression of unity. this relation is apparent between the first selection, which deals with the student's body, and the third, which deals with another organism in nature. the second and fourth selections deal with kindred aspects of modern industry--the manufacture of paper and the linotype machine, by which it is used. the fifth selection is a protest against certain developments of the industrial regime; the last, an attempt to reconcile the spirit of science with that of religion. while monotony has been avoided, the essays form a distinct unit. in most cases, selections are longer than usual, long enough in fact to introduce a student to each field. as a result, he can be made to feel that every subject is of importance and to realize that every chapter contains a fund of valuable information. instead of confusing him by having him read twenty selections in, let us say, six weeks, it is possible by assigning but six in the same period, to impress him definitely with each. the text-book machinery has been sequestered in the biographical and critical notes at the end of the book. their character and position are intended to permit instructors freedom of treatment. some may wish to test a student's ability in the use of reference books by having him report on allusions. some may wish to explain these themselves. a few may find my experience helpful. for them suggestions are included in the critical notes. in general, i have assumed that instructors will prefer their own methods and have tried to leave them unhampered. the exposition of a mechanism the levers of the human body[ ] _sir arthur keith_ in all the foregoing chapters we have been considering only the muscular engines of the human machine, counting them over and comparing their construction and their mechanism with those of the internal-combustion engine of a motor cycle. but of the levers or crank-pins through which muscular engines exert their power we have said nothing hitherto. nor shall we get any help by now spending time on the levers of a motor cycle. we have already confessed that they are arranged in a way which is quite different from that which we find in the human machine. in the motor cycle all the levers are of that complex kind which are called wheels, and the joints at which these levers work are also circular, for the joints of a motor cycle are the surfaces between the axle and the bushes, which have to be kept constantly oiled. no, we freely admit that the systems of levers in the human machine are quite unlike those of a motor cycle. they are more simple, and it is easy to find in our bodies examples of all the three orders of levers. the joints at which bony levers meet and move on each other are very different from those we find in motor cycles. indeed, i must confess they are not nearly so simple. and, lastly, i must not forget to mention another difference. these levers we are going to study are living--at least, are so densely inhabited by myriads of minute bone builders that we must speak of them as living. i want to lay emphasis on that fact because i did not insist enough on the living nature of muscular engines. [illustration: fig. .--showing a chisel inches long used as a lever of the first order.] we are all well acquainted with levers. we apply them every day. a box arrives with its lid nailed down; we take a chisel, use it as a lever, pry the lid open, and see no marvel in what we have done (fig. ). and yet we thereby did with ease what would have been impossible for us even if we had put out the whole of our unaided strength. the use of levers is an old discovery; more than years before christ, englishmen, living on salisbury plain, applied the invention when they raised the great stones at stonehenge and at avebury; more than years earlier still, egyptians employed it in raising the pyramids. even at that time men had made great progress; they were already reaping the rewards of discoveries and inventions. but none, i am sure, surprised them more than the discovery of the lever; by its use one man could exert the strength of a hundred men. they soon observed that levers could be used in three different ways. the instance already given, the prying open of a lid by using a chisel as a lever, is an example of one way (fig. ); it is then used as a lever of the first order. now in the first order, one end of the lever is applied to the point of resistance, which in the case just mentioned was the lid of the box. at the other end we apply our strength, force, or power. the edge of the box against which the chisel is worked serves as a fulcrum and lies between the handle where the power is applied and the bevelled edge which moves the resistance or weight. a pair of ordinary weighing scales also exemplifies the first order of levers. the knife edge on which the beam is balanced serves as a fulcrum; it is placed exactly in the middle of the beam, which we shall suppose to be inches long. if we place a -lb. weight in one scale to represent the resistance to be overcome, the weight will be lifted the moment that a pound of sugar has been placed in the opposite scale--the sugar thus representing the power. if, however, we move the knife-edge or fulcrum so that it is only inch from the sugar end of the beam and inches from the weight end, then we find that we have to pour in lb. of sugar to equalise the -lb. weight. the chisel used in prying open the box lid was inches long; it was pushed under the lid for a distance of inch, leaving inches for use as a power lever. by using a lever in this way, we increased our strength ninefold. the longer we make the power arm, the nearer we push the fulcrum towards the weight or resistance end, the greater becomes our power. this we shall find is a discovery which nature made use of many millions of years ago in fashioning the body of man and of beast. when we apply our force to the long end of a lever, we increase our power. we may also apply it, as nature has done in our bodies, for another purpose. we have just noted that if the weight end of the beam of a pair of scales is nine times the length of the sugar end, that a -lb. weight will counterpoise lb. of sugar. we also see that the weight scale moves at nine times the speed of the sugar scale. now it often happens that nature wants to increase, not the power, but the speed with which a load is lifted. in that case the "sugar scale" is placed at the long end of the beam and the "weight scale" at the short end; it then takes a -lb. weight to raise a single pound of sugar, but the sugar scale moves with nine times the speed of the weight scale. nature often sacrifices power to obtain speed. the arm is used as a lever of this kind when a cricket ball is thrown. nothing could look less like a pair of scales than a man's head or skull, and yet when we watch how it is poised and the manner in which it is moved, we find that it, too, acts as a lever of the first order. the fulcrum on which it moves is the atlas--the first vertebra of the spine (fig. ). when a man stands quite erect, with the head well thrown back, the ear passages are almost directly over the fulcrum. it will be convenient to call that part of the head which is behind the ear passages the _post-fulcral,_ and the part which is in front the _pre-fulcral._ now the face is attached to the pre-fulcral part of the lever and represents the weight or load to be moved, while the muscles of the neck, which represent the power, are yoked to the post-fulcral end of the lever. the hinder part of the head serves as a crank-pin for seven pairs of neck muscles, but in fig. only the chief pair is drawn, known as the _complex_ muscles. when that pair is set in action, the post-fulcral end of the head lever is tilted downwards, while the pre-fulcral end, on which the face is set, is turned upwards. [illustration: fig. .--the skull as a lever of the first order.] the complex muscles thus tilt the head backwards and the face upwards, but where are the muscles which serve as their opponents or antagonists and reverse the movement? in a previous chapter it has been shown that every muscle has to work against an opponent or antagonist muscle. here we seem to come across a defect in the human machine, for the _greater straight_ muscles in the front of the neck, which serve as opposing muscles, are not only much smaller but at a further disadvantage by being yoked to the pre-fulcral end of the lever, very close to the cup on which the head rocks. however, if the _greater straight_ muscles lose power by working on a very short lever, they gain, in speed; we set them quickly and easily into action when we give a nod of recognition. all the strength or power is yoked to the post-fulcral end of the head; the pre-fulcral end of its lever is poorly guarded. japanese wrestlers know this fact very well, and seek to gain victory by pressing up the poorly guarded pre-fulcral lever of the head, thus producing a deadly lock at the fulcral joint. indeed, it will be found that those who use the jiu-jitsu method of fighting have discovered a great deal about the construction and weaknesses of the levers of the human body. merely to poise the head on the atlas may seem to you as easy a matter as balancing the beam of a pair of scales on an upright support. i am now going to show that a great number of difficulties had to be overcome before our heads could be safely poised on our necks. the head had to be balanced in such a way that through the pivot or joint on which it rests a safe passageway could be secured for one of the most delicate and most important of all the parts or structures of the human machine. we have never found a good english name for this structure, so we use its clumsy latin one--_medulla oblongata_--or medulla for short. in the medulla are placed offices or centres which regulate the vital operations carried on by the heart and by the lungs. it has also to serve as a passageway for thousands of delicate gossamer-like nerve fibres passing from the brain, which fills the whole chamber of the skull, to the spinal cord, situated in the canal of the backbone. by means of these delicate fibres the brain dispatches messages which control the muscular engines of the limbs and trunk. through it, too, ascend countless fibres along which messages pass from the limbs and trunk to the brain. in creating a movable joint for the head, then, a safe passage had to be obtained for the medulla--that part of the great nerve stem which joins the brain to the spinal cord. the medulla is part of the brain stem. this was only one of the difficulties which had to be overcome. the eyes are set on the pre-fulcral lever of the head. for our safety we must be able to look in all directions--over this shoulder or that. we must also be able to turn our heads so that our ears may discover in which direction a sound is reaching us. in fashioning a fulcral joint for the head, then, two different objects had to be secured: free mobility for the head, and a safe transit for the medullary part of the brain stem. how well these objects have been attained is known to all of us, for we can move our heads in the freest manner and suffer no damage whatsoever. indeed, so strong and perfect is the joint that damage to it is one of the most uncommon accidents of life. let us see, then, how this triumph in engineering has been secured. in her inventive moods nature always hits on the simplest plan possible. in this case she adopted a ball-and-socket joint--the kind by which older astronomers mounted their telescopes. by such a joint the telescope becomes, just as the head is, a lever of the first order. the eyeglass is placed at one end of the lever, while the object-glass, which can be swept across the face of the heavens, is placed at the other or more distant end. in the human body the first vertebra of the backbone--the atlas--is trimmed to form a socket, while an adjacent part of the base of the skull is shaped to play the part of ball. the kind of joint to be used having been hit upon, the next point was to secure a safe passage for the brain stem. that, too, was worked out in the simplest fashion. the central parts of both ball and socket were cut away, or, to state the matter more exactly, were never formed. thus a passage was obtained right through the centre of the fulcral joint of the head. the centre of the joint was selected because when a lever is set in motion the part at the fulcrum moves least, and the medulla, being placed at that point, is least exposed to disturbance when we bend our heads backwards, forwards, or from side to side. when we examine the base of the skull, all that we see of the ball of the joint are two knuckles of bone (fig. , a), covered by smooth slippery cartilage or gristle, to which anatomists give the name of occipital condyles. if we were to try to complete the ball, of which they form a part, we should close up the great opening--the _foramen magnum_--which provides a passageway for the brain stem on its way to the spinal canal. all that is to be seen of the socket or cup is two hollows on the upper surface of the atlas into which the occipital condyles fit (fig. , b). merely two parts of the brim of the cup have been preserved to provide a socket for the condyles or ball. [illustration: fig. .--a, the opening in the base of the skull, by which the brain stem passes to the spinal canal. the two occipital condyles represent part of the ball which fits into the cup formed by the atlas. b, the parts of the socket on the ring of the atlas.] as we bend our heads, the occipital condyles revolve or glide on the sockets of the atlas. but what will happen if we roll our heads backwards to such an extent that the bony edge of the opening in the base of the skull is made to press hard against the brain stem and crush it? that, of course, would mean instant death. such an accident has been made impossible ( ) by making the opening in the base of the skull so much larger than the brain stem that in extreme movements there can be no scissors-like action; ( ) the muscles which move the head on the atlas arrest all movements long before the danger-point is reached; ( ) even if the muscles are caught off their guard, as they sometimes are, certain strong ligaments--fastenings of tough fibres--are so set as automatically to jam the joint before the edge of the foramen can come in contact with the brain stem. these are only some of the devices which nature had to contrive in order to secure a safe passageway for the brain stem. but in obtaining safety for the brain stem, the movements of the head on the atlas had to be limited to mere nodding or side-to-side bending. the movements which are so necessary to us, that of turning our heads so that we can sweep our eyes along the whole stretch of the skyline from right to left, and from left to right, were rendered impossible. this defect was also overcome in a simple manner. the joints between the first and second vertebrae--the atlas and axis--were so modified that a turning movement could take place between them instead of between the atlas and skull. when we turn or rotate our heads, the atlas, carrying the skull upon it, swings or turns on the axis. when we search for the manner in which this has been accomplished, we see again that nature has made use of the simplest means at her disposal. when we examine a vertebra in the course of construction within an unborn animal, we see that it is really made up by the union of four parts (see fig. ): a central block which becomes the "body" or supporting part; a right and a left arch which enclose a passage for the spinal cord; and, lastly, a fourth part in front of the central block which becomes big and strong only in the first vertebra--the atlas. when we look at the atlas (fig. ), we see that it is merely a ring made up of three of the parts--the right and left arches and the fourth element,--but the body is missing. a glance at fig. , b, will show what has become of the body of the atlas. it has been joined to the central block of the second vertebra--the axis--and projects upwards within the front part of the ring of the atlas, and thus forms a pivot round which rotatory movements of the head can take place. here we have in the atlas an approach to the formation of a wheel--a wheel which has its axle or pivot placed at some distance from its centre, and therefore a complete revolution of the atlas is impossible. a battery of small muscles is attached to the lateral levers of the atlas and can swing it freely, and the head which it carries, a certain number of degrees to both right and left. the extent of the movements is limited by stout check ligaments. thus, by the simple expedient of allowing the body of the atlas to be stolen by the axis, a pivot was obtained round which the head could be turned on a horizontal plane. [illustration: fig. .--a, the original parts of the first or atlas vertebra. b, showing the "body" of the first vertebra fixed to the second, thus forming the pivot on which the head turns.] nature thus set up a double joint for the movements of the head, one between the atlas and axis for rotatory movements, another between the atlas and skull for nodding and side-to-side movements. and all these she increased by giving flexibility to the whole length of the neck. makers of modern telescopes have imitated the method nature invented when fixing the human head to the spine. their instruments are mounted with a double joint--one for movements in a horizontal plane, the other for movements in a vertical plane. we thus see that the young engineer, as well as the student of medicine, can learn something from the construction of the human body. in low forms of vertebrate animals like the fish and frog, the head is joined directly to the body, there being no neck. no matter what part of the human body we examine, we shall find that its mechanical work is performed by means of bony levers. having seen how the head is moved as a lever of the first order, we are now to choose a part which will show us the plan on which levers of the second order work, and there are many reasons why we should select the foot. it is a part which we are all familiar with; every day we can see it at rest and in action. the foot, as we have already noted, serves as a lever in walking. it is a bent or arched lever (fig. ); when we stand on one foot, the whole weight of our body rests on the summit of the arch. we are thus going to deal with a lever of a complex kind. [illustration: fig. .--showing a chisel used as a lever of the second order.] in using a chisel to pry open the lid of a box, we may use it as a lever either of the first or of the second order. we have already seen (fig. ) that, in using it as a lever of the first order, we pushed the handle downwards, while the bevelled end was raised, forcing open the lid. the edge of the box served as a rest or fulcrum for the chisel. if, however, after inserting the bevelled edge under the lid, we raise the handle instead of depressing it, we change the chisel into a lever of the second order. the lid is not now forced up on the bevelled edge, but is raised on the side of the chisel, some distance from the bevelled edge, which thus comes to represent the fulcrum. by using a chisel in this way, we reverse the positions of the weight and fulcrum and turn it into a lever of the second order. suppose we push the side of the chisel--which is inches long--under the lid to the extent of inch, then the advantage we gain in power is as to ; we thereby increase our strength tenfold. if we push the chisel under the lid for half its length, then our advantage stands as to ; our strength is only doubled. if we push it still further for two-thirds of its length, then our gain in strength is only as to . ; our power is increased by only one-third. now this has an important bearing on the problem we are going to investigate, for the weight of our body falls on the foot, so that only about one-third of the lever--that part of it which is formed by the heel--projects behind the point on which the weight of the body rests. the strength of the muscles which act on the heel will be increased only by about one-third. we have already seen that a double engine, made up of the _gastrocnemius_ and _soleus_, is the power which is applied to the heel when we walk, and that the pad of the foot, lying across the sole in line with the ball of the great toe, serves as a fulcrum or rest. the weight of the body falls on the foot between the fulcrum in front and the power behind, as in a lever of the second order. we have explained why the power of the muscles of the calf is increased the more the weight of the body is shifted towards the toes, but it is also evident that the speed and the extent to which the body is lifted are diminished. if, however, the weight be shifted more towards the heel, the muscles of the calf, although losing in power, can lift their load more quickly and to a greater extent. we must look closely at the foot lever if we are to understand it. it is arched or bent; the front pillar of the arch stretches from the summit or keystone, where the weight of the body is poised, to the pad of the foot or fulcrum (fig. ); the posterior pillar, projecting as the heel, extends from the summit to the point at which the muscular power is applied. a foot with a short anterior pillar and a long posterior pillar or heel is one designed for power, not speed. it is one which will serve a hill-climber well or a heavy, corpulent man. the opposite kind, one with a short heel and a long pillar in front, is well adapted for running and sprinting--for speed. now, we do find among the various races of mankind that some have been given long heels, such as the dark-skinned natives of africa and of australia, while other races have been given relatively short, stumpy heels, of which sort the natives of europe and of china may be cited as examples. with long heels less powerful muscular engines are required, and hence in dark races the calf of the leg is but ill developed, because the muscles which move the heel are small. we must admit, however, that the gait of dark-skinned races is usually easy and graceful. we europeans, on the other hand, having short heels, need more powerful muscles to move them, and hence our calves are usually well developed, but our gait is apt to be jerky. [illustration: fig. .--the bones forming the arch of the foot, seen from the inner side.] if we had the power to make our heels longer or shorter at will, we should be able, as is the case in a motor cycle, to alter our "speed-gear" according to the needs of the road. with a steep hill in front of us, we should adopt a long, slow, powerful heel; while going down an incline a short one would best suit our needs. with its four-change speed-gear a motor cycle seems better adapted for easy and economical travelling than the human machine. if, however, the human machine has no change of gear, it has one very marvellous mechanism--which we may call a _compensatory_ mechanism, for want of a short, easy name. the more we walk, the more we go hill-climbing, the more powerful do the muscular engines of the heel become. it is quite different with the engine of a motor cycle; the more it is used, the more does it become worn out. it is because a muscular engine is living that it can respond to work by growing stronger and quicker. i have no wish to extol the human machine unduly, nor to run down the motor cycle because of certain defects. there is one defect, however, which is inherent in all motor machines which man has invented, but from which the human machine is almost completely free. we can illustrate the defect best by comparing the movements of the heel with those of the crank-pin of an engine. one serves as the lever by which the gastrocnemius helps to propel the body; the other serves the same purpose in the propulsion of a motor cycle. on referring to fig. , a, the reader will see that the piston-rod and the crank-pin are in a straight line; in such a position the engine is powerless to move the crank-pin until the flywheel is started, thus setting the crank-pin in motion. once started, the leverage increases, until the crank-pin stands at right angles to the piston-rod--a point of maximum power which is reached when the piston is in the position shown in fig. , b. then the leverage decreases until the second dead centre is reached (fig. , c); from that point the leverage is increased until the second maximum is reached (fig. , d), whereafter it decreases until the arrival at the first position completes the cycle. thus, in each revolution there are two points where all leverage or power is lost, points which are surmounted because of the momentum given by the flywheel. clearly we should get most out of an engine if it could be kept working near the points of maximum leverage--with the lever as nearly as possible at right angles to the crank-pin. [illustration: fig. .--showing the crank-pin of an engine at: a, first dead centre. b, first maximum leverage. c, second dead centre. d, second maximum leverage.] now, we have seen that the tendon of achilles is the piston cord, and the heel the crank-pin, of the muscular engine represented by the gastrocnemius and soleus. in the standing posture the heel slopes downwards and backwards, and is thus in a position, as regards its piston cord, considerably beyond the point of maximum leverage. as the heel is lifted by the muscles, it gradually becomes horizontal and at right angles to its tendon or piston cord. as the heel rises, then, it becomes a more effective lever; the muscles gain in power. the more the foot is arched, the more obliquely is the heel set and the greater is the strength needed to start it moving. hence, races like the european and mongolian, which have short as well as steeply set heels, need large calf muscles. it is at the end of the upward stroke that the heel becomes most effective as a lever, and it is just then that we most need power to propel our bodies in a forward direction. it will be noted that the heel, unlike the crank-pin of an engine, never reaches, never even approaches, that point of powerlessness known to engineers as a dead centre. work is always performed within the limits of the most effective working radius of the lever. it is a law for all the levers of the body; they are set and moved in such a way as to avoid the occurrence of dead centres. think what our condition would have been were this not so; why, we should require revolving fly-wheels set in all our joints! [illustration: fig. .--the arch of the foot from the inner side, showing some of the muscles which maintain it.] another property is essential in a lever: it must be rigid; otherwise it will bend, and power will be lost. now, if the foot were a rigid lever, there would be missing two of its most useful qualities. it could no longer act as a spring or buffer to the body, nor could it adapt its sole to the various kinds of surfaces on which we have to tread or stand. nature, with her usual ingenuity, has succeeded in combining those opposing qualities--rigidity, suppleness, and elasticity or springiness--by resorting to her favorite device, the use of muscular engines. the arch is necessarily constructed of a number of bones which can move on each other to a certain extent, so that the foot may adapt itself to all kinds of roads and paths. it is true that the bones of the arch are loosely bound together by passive ties or ligaments, but as these cannot be lengthened or shortened at will, nature had to fall back on the use of muscular engines for the maintenance of the foot as an arched lever. some of these are shown in fig. . the foot, then, is a lever of a very remarkable kind; all the time we stand or walk, its rigidity, its power to serve as a lever, has to be maintained by an elaborate battery of muscular engines all kept constantly at work. no wonder our feet and legs become tired when we have to stand a great deal. some of these engines, the larger ones, are kept in the leg, but their tendons or piston cords descend below the ankle-joint to be fixed to various parts of the arch, and thus help to keep it up (fig. ). within the sole of the foot has been placed an installation of seventeen small engines, all of them springing into action when we stand up, thus helping to maintain the foot as a rigid yet flexible lever. we have already seen why our muscles are so easily exhausted when we stand stock-still; they then get no rest at all. now, it sometimes happens in people who have to stand for long periods at a stretch that these muscular engines which maintain the arch are overtaxed; the arch of the foot gives way. the foot becomes flat and flexible, and can no longer serve as a lever. many men and women thus become permanently crippled; they cannot step off their toes, but must shuffle along on the inner sides of their feet. but if the case of the overworked muscles which maintain the arch is hard in grown-up people, it is even harder in boys and girls who have to stand quite still for a long time, or who have to carry such burdens as are beyond their strength. when we are young, the bony levers and muscular engines of our feet have not only their daily work to do, but they have continually to effect those wonderful alterations which we call growth. hence, the muscular engines of young people need special care; they must be given plenty of work to do, but that kind of active action which gives them alternate strokes of work and rest. even the engine of a motor cycle has three strokes of play for one of work. our engines, too, must have a liberal supply of the right kind of fuel. but even with all those precautions, we have to confess that the muscular engines of the foot do sometimes break down, and the leverage of the foot becomes threatened. nor have we succeeded in finding out why they are so liable to break down in some boys and girls and not in others. some day we shall discover this too. we are now to look at another part of the human machine so that we may study a lever of the third order. the lever formed by the forearm and hand will suit our purpose very well. it is pivoted or jointed at the elbow; the elbow is its fulcrum (fig. b). at the opposite end of the lever, in the, upturned palm of the hand, we shall place a weight of lb. to represent the load to be moved. the power which we are to yoke to the lever is a strong muscular engine we have not mentioned before, called the _brachialis anticus_, or front brachial muscle. it lies in the upper arm, where it is fixed to the bone of that part--the humerus. it is attached to one of the bones of the forearm--the ulna--just beyond the elbow. in the second order of lever, we have seen that the muscle worked on one end, while the weight rested on the lever somewhere between the muscular attachment and the fulcrum. in levers of the third order, the load is placed at the end of the lever, and the muscle is attached somewhere between the load and the fulcrum (fig. a). in the example we are considering, the brachial muscle is attached about half an inch beyond the fulcrum at the elbow, while the total length of the lever, measured from the elbow to the palm, is inches. now, it is very evident that the muscle or power being attached so close to the elbow, works under a great disadvantage as regards strength. it could lift a -lb. weight placed on the forearm directly over its attachment as easily as a single pound weight placed on the palm. but, then, there is this advantage: the -lb. weight placed in the hand moves with twenty-four times the speed of the -lb. weight situated near the elbow. what is lost in strength is gained in speed. whenever nature wishes to move a light load quickly, she employs levers of the third order. [illustration: fig. a.--a chisel used as a lever of the third order. w, weight; p, power; f, fulcrum.] we have often to move our forearm very quickly, sometimes to save our lives. the difference of one-hundredth of a second may mean life or death to us on the face of a cliff when we clutch at a branch or jutting rock to save a fall. the quickness of a blow we give or fend depends on the length of our reach. a long forearm and hand are ill adapted for lifting heavy burdens; strength is sacrificed if they are too long. hence, we find that the laboring peoples of the world--europeans and mongolians--have usually short forearms and hands, while the peoples who live on such bounties as nature may provide for them have relatively long forearms and hands. [illustration: fig. b.--the forearm and hand as a lever of the third order.] now, man differs from anthropoid apes, which are distant cousins of his, in having a forearm which is considerably shorter than the upper arm; whereas in anthropoid apes the forearm is much the longer. that fact surprises us at first, especially when we remember that anthropoids spend most of their lives amongst trees and use their arms much more than their legs in swinging the weight of their heavy bodies from branch to branch and from tree to tree. a long forearm and hand give them a long and quick reach, so that they can seize distant branches and swing themselves along safely and at a good pace. our first thought is to suppose that a long forearm, being a weak lever, will be ill adapted for climbing. but when you look at fig. , the explanation becomes plain. when a branch is seized by the hand, and the whole weight of the body is supported from it, the entire machinery of the arm changes its action. the forearm is no longer the lever which the brachial muscle moves (fig. ), but now becomes the base from which it acts. the part which was its piston cord now serves as its base of fixation, and what was its base of fixation to the humerus becomes its piston cord. the humerus has become a lever of the third order; its fulcrum is at the elbow; the weight of the body is attached to it at the shoulder and represents the load which has to be lifted. we also notice that the brachial muscle is attached a long way up the humerus, thus increasing its power very greatly, although the rate at which it helps in lifting the body is diminished. we can see, then, why the humerus is short and the forearm long in anthropoid apes; shortening the humerus makes it more powerful as a lever for lifting the body. that is why anthropoids are strong and agile tree-climbers. but then watch them use those long hands and forearms for the varied and precise movements we have to perform in our daily lives, and you will see how clumsy they are. [illustration: fig. .--showing the action of the brachialis anticus in the arm of an anthropoid ape.] in the human machine the levers of the arm have been fashioned, not for climbing, but for work of another kind--the kind which brings us a livelihood. we must have perfect control over our hands; the longer the lever of the forearm is made, the more difficult does control of the hand become. hence, in the human machine the forearm is made relatively short and the upper arm long. we have just seen that the brachial muscle could at one time move the forearm and hand, but that when they are fixed it could then use the humerus as a lever and thereby lift the weight of the body. what should we think of a metal engine which could reverse its action so that it could act through its piston-rod at one time and through its cylinder at another? yet that is what a great number of the muscular engines of the human machine do every day. there is another little point, but an important one, which i must mention before this chapter is finished. i have spoken of the forearm and hand as if they formed a single solid lever. of course that is not so; there are joints at the wrist where the hand can be moved on the forearm. but when a weight is placed in the hand, these joints became fixed by the action of muscles. the fixing muscles are placed in the forearm, both in front and behind, and are set in action the moment the hand is loaded. the wrist joint is fixed just in the same way as the joints of the foot are made rigid by muscles when it has to serve as a lever. even when we take a pen in our hand and write, these engines which balance and fix the wrist have to be in action all the time. the steadiness of our writing depends on how delicately they are balanced. like the muscles of the foot, the fixers of the wrist may become overworked and exhausted, as occasionally happens in men and women who do not hold their pens correctly and write for long spells day after day. the break-down which happens in them is called "writer's cramp," but it is a disaster of the same kind as that which overtakes the foot when its arch collapses, and its utility as a lever is lost. footnotes: [footnote : from _the engines of the human body_, chapters vi and vii. j.b. lippincott company, philadelphia, ; williams and norgate, london, .] the exposition of a machine the mergenthaler linotype[ ] _philip t. dodge_ the mergenthaler linotype machine appeared in crude form about . this machine differs widely from all others in that it is adapted to produce the type-faces for each line properly justified on the edge of a solid slug or linotype. these slugs, automatically produced and assembled by the machine, are used in the same manner as other type-forms, whether for direct printing or for electrotyping, and are remelted after use. general organization the general organization of the machine will first be described. after this the details will be more fully explained and attention plainly directed to the various parts which require special consideration. [illustration: fig. .] the machine contains, as the vital element, about sixteen hundred matrices, such as are shown in fig. , each consisting of a small brass plate having in one edge the female character or matrix proper, and in the upper end a series of teeth, used as hereinafter explained for distributing the matrices after use to their proper places in the magazine of the machine. there are in the machine a number of matrices for each letter and also matrices representing special characters, and spaces or quadrats of different thicknesses for use in table-work. there is a series of finger keys representing the various characters and spaces, and the machine is so organized that on manipulating the keys it selects the matrices in the order in which their characters are to appear in print, and assembles them in a line, with wedge-shaped spaces or justifiers between the words. the series of matrices thus assembled in line forms a line matrix, or, in other words, a line of female dies adapted to mold or form a line of raised type on a slug cast against the matrices. after the matrix line is composed, it is automatically transferred to the face of a slotted mold into which molten type-metal is delivered to form a slug or linotype against the matrices. this done, the matrices are returned to the magazine and distributed, to be again composed in new relations for succeeding lines. [illustration: fig. .] fig. illustrates the general organization of the machine. _a_ represents an inclined channelled magazine in which the matrices are stored. each channel has at the lower end an escapement _b_ to release the matrices one at a time. each of these escapements is connected by a rod _c_ and intermediate devices to one of the finger-keys in the keyboard _d_. these keys represent the various characters as in a typewriter. the keys are depressed in the order in which the characters and spaces are to appear, and the matricies, released successively from the lower end of the magazine, descend between the guides _e_ to the surface of an inclined travelling belt _f_, by which they are carried downward and delivered successively into a channel in the upper part of the assembling elevator _g_, in which they are advanced by a star-shaped wheel, seen at the right. the wedge-shaped spaces or justifiers _i_ are held in a magazine _h_, from which they are delivered at proper intervals by finger-key _j_ in the keyboard, so that they may pass downward and assume their proper positions in the line of matrices. when the composition of the line is completed, the assembling elevator _g_ is raised and the line is transferred, as indicated by dotted lines, first to the left and then downward to the casting position in front of the slotted mold seated in and extending through the vertical wheel _k_, as shown in figs. and . the line of matrices is pressed against and closes the front of the mold, the characters on the matrices standing directly opposite the slot in the mold, as shown. the back of the mold communicates with and is closed by the mouth of a melting-pot _m_, containing a supply of molten metal and heated by a bunsen burner underneath. within the pot is a vertical pump-plunger which acts at the proper time to drive the molten metal through the perforated mouth of the pot into the mold and into all the characters in the matrices. the metal, solidifying, forms a slug or linotype bearing on its edge, in relief, type-characters produced from the matrices. the matrices and the pot are immediately separated from the mold, and the mold wheel rotates until the slug contained in the mold is presented in front of an ejector blade, where the slug is ejected from the mold through a pair of knives, which trim the sides to the required size, into the receiving galley, as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] after the line of matrices and spaces has served its purpose, it is raised from the casting position and moved to the right, as shown by the dotted lines and arrows in fig. . the teeth in the upper ends of the matrices are engaged with a toothed bar _r_, known as the second elevator. this elevator swings upward, as shown by dotted lines, carrying the matrices to the level of the upper end of the magazine, and leaving the spaces or justifiers behind to be transferred to their magazine _h_. the distributing mechanism consists essentially of a fixed bar _t_, lying in a horizontal position above the upper end of the magazine, and having along its lower edge, as shown in fig. , horizontal teeth to engage the teeth in the upper end of the matrices and hold them in suspension. the teeth of the matrix for each letter differ in number or arrangement, or both, from the teeth of matrices bearing other letters, and the teeth on the lower edge of the distributor bar are correspondingly varied in arrangement at different points in the length of the bar. (see fig. .) the matrices are moved forward into engagement with the distributor bar and also into engagement with the threads of horizontal screws _u_, which are extended parallel with the distributor bar and constantly rotated so that they cause the matrices to travel one after another along the distributor and over the mouths of the channels in the magazines. each matrix is held in suspension until it arrives over its proper channel, where for the first time its teeth bear such relation to those of the bar that it is released and permitted to fall into the magazine. the speed of the machine, which is commonly from four to five thousand ems per hour, but which has reached ten thousand and upward in competitive trials, is due to the fact that the matrices pursue a circulatory course, leaving the magazine at the lower end, passing thence to the line and to the casting mechanism, and finally returning to the top of the magazine. this permits the composition of one line, the casting of another, and the distribution of a third to proceed simultaneously. assembling and keyboard mechanisms the matrices pass through the magazine by gravity. their release is effected by mechanisms shown in figs. and , which are vertical sections through the magazine, the keyboard, and intermediate connections. under each channel of the magazine, there is an escapement _b_, consisting of a small lever rocking at its centre on a horizontal pivot, and carrying at its opposite ends two dogs or pawls _b, b_, which are projected up alternately into the magazine by the motion of the lever. the key-rod _c_, suspended from the rear end of the escapement _b_, tends to hold the lower pawl _b_ in an elevated position, as shown in fig. , so that it engages under the upper ear of the foremost matrix to prevent its escape. [illustration: fig. .] when the escapement _b_ is rocked, it withdraws the lower pawl _b_, as shown in fig. , at the same time raising the upper pawl, so that it engages and momentarily arrests the next matrix. as soon as the first matrix has escaped, the escapement resumes its original position, the upper pawl falling, while the lower one rises so as to hold the second matrix, which assumes the position previously occupied by the one released. [illustration: fig. .] thus it is that the alternate rising and falling of the two escapement pawls permits the matrices to escape one at a time. it is evident that the escapements could be operated directly by rods connected with the finger-keys, but this direct connection is objectionable because of the labor required on the part of the operator, and the danger that the keys may not be fully depressed. moreover, it is essential that the escapements should act individually with moderate speed to the end that the matrices may be properly engaged and disengaged by the pawls. for these reasons, and to secure easy and uniform action of the parts, the mechanism shown in figs. and is introduced between the finger-keys and escapements. the vertical rods _c_, which actuate the escapements, are guided in the main frame, and each is urged downward by a spring _c_. each rod _c_ terminates directly over one end of a rising and falling yoke-bar _c _, turning on a pivot _c _ at the opposite end. each of the yokes _c _ is slotted vertically to admit an eccentric _c _ turning on a pivot therein. a constantly rotating rubber-covered roll _c _ is extended across the entire keyboard beneath the cams, which stand normally as shown in fig. , out of contact with the roll. when the parts are in this position, the cam-yoke is sustained at its free end by the yoke-trigger _c _, and a cross-bar in the cam engages a vertical pin _c _ on the frame, whereby the cam is prevented from falling on to the roller, as it has a tendency to do. each of the yoke-triggers _c _ is connected with a vertical bar _c _, which is in turn connected to the rear end of a finger-key lever _d_. the parts stand normally at rest in the position shown in fig. , the roll _c _ turning freely under the cam without effect upon it. when the finger-key is depressed, it raises the bar _c _, which in turn trips the yoke-trigger _c _ from under the cam-yoke _c _, permitting the latter to fall, thereby lowering the cam _c _ into peripheral engagement with the rubber roll, at the same time disengaging the cam from the stop-pin _c _. the roll, engaging frictionally with the cam, causes the latter to turn on its centre in the direction indicated by the arrow in fig. . owing to the eccentric shape of the cam, its rotation while resting on the roller causes it to lift the yoke _c _ above its original position, so that it acts upon the escapement rod _c_, lifting it and causing it to reverse the position of the escapement _b_, to release the matrix, as plainly seen in fig. . while this is taking place, the yoke-trigger _c _ resumes its first position, as shown in dotted lines in fig. , so that as the rotating cam lowers the yoke, it is again supported in its first position, the cam at the same time turning forward by momentum out of engagement with the roll until arrested in its original position by the pin _c _. it will be observed that the parts between each key lever and escapement operate independently of the others, so that a number of cams may be in engagement with the rollers at one time, and a number of escapements at different stages of their action at one time. the matrices falling from the magazine descend through the front channels and are received on the inclined belt _f_, on which they are carried over and guided on the upper rounding surface of the assembler entrance-block _f _, by which they are guided downward in front of the star-wheel _f _, which pushes them forward one after another. the spaces or justifiers _i_, released from their magazine _h_, as heretofore described, descend into the assembler _g_ in front of the star-wheel in the same manner as the matrices. the line in course of composition is sustained at its front end by a yielding finger or resistant _g_, secured to a horizontal assembler slide _g _, the purpose of these parts being to hold the line together in compact form. [illustration: fig. .] as the matrices approach the line, their upper ends are carried over a spring _g _, projecting through the assembler face-plate from the rear, as shown in fig. , its purpose being to hold the matrices forward and prevent them from falling back in such a manner that succeeding matrices and spaces or justifiers will pass improperly ahead of them. the descending matrices also pass beneath a long depending spring _g _, which should be so adjusted as barely to permit the passage of the thickest matrix. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] after the composition of the line is completed in the assembling elevator _g_, as shown in fig. , the elevator is raised as shown in fig. , so as to present the line between the depending fingers of the transfer-carriage _n_, which then moves to the left to the position shown by dotted lines in fig. , thereby bringing the line into the first elevator _o_, which then descends, carrying the line of matrices downwards, as shown in fig. , to its position in front of the mold and between the confining jaws _p_, _p_, mounted in the main frame, which determine the length of the line. figs. and show the casting mechanism in vertical section from front to rear. when the first elevator _o_ lowers the line, as just described, the mold and the pot _m_ stand in their rearward positions, as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the mold-carrying wheel is sustained by a horizontal slide, and as soon as the matrix line is lowered to the casting position, a cam at the rear pushes the slide and mold wheel forward until the front face of the mold is closed tightly against the rear face of the matrix line, as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. .] while this is taking place, the pot, having its supporting legs mounted on a horizontal shaft, swings forward until its mouth is closed tightly against the back of the mold, as shown in fig. . while the parts are in this position, the justifying bar _q_ is driven up and pushes the spaces or justifiers upward through the line of matrices until the line is expanded or elongated to fill completely the gap between jaws _p_, _p_. in order to secure exact alignment of the matrices vertically and horizontally, the bar _q_ acts repeatedly on the spaces, and the line is slightly unlocked endwise and relocked. this is done that the matrices may be temporarily released to facilitate the accurate adjustment demanded. while the justified line is locked fast between the jaws, the elevator, and the mold, the plunger _m _ in the pot descends and drives the molten metal before it through the spout or mouth of the pot into the mold, which is filled under pressure, so that a solid slug is produced against the matrices. the pot then retreats, and its mouth breaks away from the back of the slug in the mold, while, at the same time, the mold retreats to draw the type-characters on the contained slug out of the matrices. the mold wheel now revolves, carrying the rear edge of the slug past a stationary trimming-knife, not shown, and around to the position in front of the ejector, as previously described and shown in fig. , whereupon the ejector advances and drives the slug between two side trimming-knives into the galley at the front. distribution after the casting action the first elevator _o_ rises and carries the matrix line above the original or composing level, as shown in fig. . the line is then drawn horizontally to the right until the teeth of the matrices engage the toothed elevator bar _r_, which swings upward with the matrices, thus separating the matrices from the spaces or justifiers _i_, which remain suspended in the frame, so that they may be pushed to the right, as indicated by the arrow, into their magazine. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] when the line of matrices is raised to the distributor, it is necessary that the matrices shall be separated and presented one at a time to the distributor bar, between the threads of the horizontal carrier-screws. this is accomplished as shown in figs. and . a horizontal pusher or line-shifter _s_ carries the line of matrices forward from the elevator bar _r_ into the so-called distributor box, containing at its opposite sides two rails _u_, having near their forward ends shoulders _u _, against which the forward matrix abuts so as to prevent further advance of the line, which is urged constantly forward by the follower or line-shifter _s_. a vertically reciprocating lifting finger _v_ has its upper end shouldered to engage beneath the foremost matrix, so as to push it upward until its upper ears are lifted above the detaining shoulder _u _, so that they may ride forward on the upwardly inclined inner ends of the rails, as shown in fig. . the matrices thus lifted are engaged by the screws and carried forward, and, as they move forward, they are gradually raised by the rails until the teeth finally engage themselves on the distributor bar _t_, from which they are suspended as they are carried forward, over the mouth of the magazine, until they fall into their respective channels, as shown in fig. . the distributor box also contains on opposite sides shorter rails, _u _, adapted to engage the lower ends of the matrices, to hold them in position as they are lifted. the lifting finger _v_ is mounted on a horizontal pivot in one end of an elbow lever mounted on pivot _v _ and actuated by a cam on the end of one of the carrier-screws, as shown in figs. and . trimming-knives in practice there is occasionally found a slight irregularity in the thickness of slugs, and thin fins are sometimes cast around the forward edges. for the purpose of reducing them to a uniform thickness, they are driven on their way to the galley between two vertical knives, as shown in figs. and . the inner knife is stationary, but the outer knife is adjustable in order that it may accommodate slugs of different thicknesses. this adjustment is made by the knife being seated at its outer edge against a supporting bar or wedge, having at opposite ends two inclined surfaces seated against supporting screws in the knife-block. a lever engages a pin on the wedge for the purpose of moving it endwise; when moving in one direction, it forces the knife inward toward the stationary knife, and when moved in the other direction, it forces it to retreat under the influence of a spring seated in the block. the wedge is provided with a series of teeth engaged by a spring-actuated pin or dog, whereby the wedge and the knife are stopped in proper positions to insure the exact space required between the two knives. [illustration: fig. .] the back knife, secured to the frame for trimming the base of the slug as it is carried past by the revolving wheel, should be kept moderately sharp and adjusted so as to fit closely against the back of the passing mold. particular attention should be paid to this feature. the edge of the knife must bear uniformly across the face of the mold. [illustration: fig. .] the front knives, between which the slug is ejected, should not be made too sharp. after being sharpened, the thin edge can be advantageously removed by the use of a thin oilstone applied against the side face; that is, against the face past which the slug is carried. the stationary or left-hand knife should be so adjusted as to align exactly with the inner side of the mold. under proper conditions this knife does not trim the side face of the slug, but acts only to remove any slight fins or projections at the front edge. the right-hand knife, adjustable by means of a wedge and lever, should stand exactly parallel with the stationary knife. it trims the side of the slug on which the ribs are formed, and it serves to bring the slug to the exact thickness required. footnotes: [footnote : from theodore l. de vinne's _modern methods of book composition_, pp. - . the century company, new york, .] the exposition of a process in nature the pea weevil[ ] _jean henri fabre_ peas are held in high esteem by mankind. from remote ages man has endeavored, by careful culture, to produce larger, tenderer, and sweeter varieties. of an adaptable character, under careful treatment the plant has evolved in a docile fashion, and has ended by giving us what the ambition of the gardener desired. to-day we have gone far beyond the yield of the varrons and columelles, and further still beyond the original pea; from the wild seeds confided to the soil by the first man who thought to scratch up the surface of the earth, perhaps with the half-jaw of a cave-bear, whose powerful canine tooth would serve him as a ploughshare! where is it, this original pea, in the world of spontaneous vegetation? our own country has nothing resembling it. is it to be found elsewhere? on this point botany is silent, or replies only with vague probabilities. we find the same ignorance elsewhere on the subject of the majority of our alimentary vegetables. whence comes wheat, the blessed grain which gives us bread? no one knows. you will not find it here, except in the care of man; nor will you find it abroad. in the east, the birthplace of agriculture, no botanist has ever encountered the sacred ear growing of itself on unbroken soil. barley, oats, and rye, the turnip and the beet, the beetroot, the carrot, the pumpkin, and so many other vegetable products, leave us in the same perplexity; their point of departure is unknown to us, or at most suspected behind the impenetrable cloud of the centuries. nature delivered them to us in the full vigor of the thing untamed, when their value as food was indifferent, as to-day she offers us the sloe, the bullace, the blackberry, the crab; she gave them to us in the state of imperfect sketches, for us to fill out and complete; it was for our skill and our labor patiently to induce the nourishing pulp which was the earliest form of capital, whose interest is always increasing in the primordial bank of the tiller of the soil. as storehouses of food the cereal and the vegetable are, for the greater part, the work of man. the fundamental species, a poor resource in their original state, we borrowed as they were from the natural treasury of the vegetable world; the perfected race, rich in alimentary materials, is the result of our art. if wheat, peas, and all the rest are indispensable to us, our care, by a just return, is absolutely necessary to them. such as our needs have made them, incapable of resistance in the bitter struggle for survival, these vegetables, left to themselves without culture, would rapidly disappear, despite the numerical abundance of their seeds, as the foolish sheep would disappear were there no more sheep-folds. they are our work, but not always our exclusive property. wherever food is amassed, the consumers collect from the four corners of the sky; they invite themselves to the feast of abundance, and the richer the food the greater their numbers. man, who alone is capable of inducing agrarian abundance, is by that very fact the giver of an immense banquet at which legions of feasters take their place. by creating more juicy and more generous fruits, he calls to his enclosures, despite himself, thousands and thousands of hungry creatures, against whose appetites his prohibitions are helpless. the more he produces, the larger is the tribute demanded of him. wholesale agriculture and vegetable abundance favor our rival, the insect. this is the immanent law. nature, with an equal zeal, offers her mighty breast to all her nurslings alike; to those who live by the goods of others no less than to the producers. for us, who plough, sow, and reap, and weary ourselves with labor, she ripens the wheat; she ripens it also for the little calender-beetle, which, although exempted from the labor of the fields, enters our granaries none the less, and there, with its pointed beak, nibbles our wheat, grain by grain, to the husk. for us, who dig, weed, and water, bent with fatigue and burned by the sun, she swells the pods of the pea; she swells them also for the weevil, which does no gardener's work, yet takes its share of the harvest at its own hour, when the earth is joyful with the new life of spring. let us follow the manoeuvres of this insect which takes its tithe of the green pea. i, a benevolent rate-payer, will allow it to take its dues; it is precisely to benefit it that i have sown a few rows of the beloved plant in a corner of my garden. without other invitation on my part than this modest expenditure of seed-peas, it arrives punctually during the month of may. it has learned that this stony soil, rebellious at the culture of the kitchen-gardener, is bearing peas for the first time. in all haste therefore it has hurried, an agent of the entomological revenue system, to demand its dues. whence does it come? it is impossible to say precisely. it has come from some shelter, somewhere, in which it has passed the winter in a state of torpor. the plane-tree, which sheds its rind during the heats of the summer, furnishes an excellent refuge for homeless insects under its partly detached sheets of bark. i have often found our weevil in such a winter refuge. sheltered under the dead covering of the plane, or otherwise protected while the winter lasts, it awakens from its torpor at the first touch of a kindly sun. the almanac of the instincts has aroused it; it knows as well as the gardener when the pea-vines are in flower, and seeks its favorite plant, journeying thither from every side, running with quick, short steps, or nimbly flying. a small head, a fine snout, a costume of ashen grey sprinkled with brown, flattened wing-covers, a dumpy, compact body, with two large black dots on the rear segment--such is the summary portrait of my visitor. the middle of may approaches, and with it the van of the invasion. they settle on the flowers, which are not unlike white-winged butterflies. i see them at the base of the blossom or inside the cavity of the "keel" of the flower, but the majority explore the petals and take possession of them. the time for laying the eggs has not yet arrived. the morning is mild; the sun is warm without being oppressive. it is the moment of nuptial flights; the time of rejoicing in the splendor of the sunshine. everywhere are creatures rejoicing to be alive. couples come together, part, and re-form. when towards noon the heat becomes too great, the weevils retire into the shadow, taking refuge singly in the folds of the flowers whose secret corners they know so well. to-morrow will be another day of festival, and the next day also, until the pods, emerging from the shelter of the "keel" of the flower, are plainly visible, enlarging from day to day. a few gravid females, more pressed for time than the others, confide their eggs to the growing pod, flat and meager as it issues from its floral sheath. these hastily laid batches of eggs, expelled perhaps by the exigencies of an ovary incapable of further delay, seem to me in serious danger; for the seed in which the grub must establish itself is as yet no more than a tender speck of green, without firmness and without any farinaceous tissue. no larva could possibly find sufficient nourishment there, unless it waited for the pea to mature. but is the grub capable of fasting for any length of time when once hatched? it is doubtful. the little i have seen tells me that the newborn grub must establish itself in the midst of its food as quickly as possible, and that it perishes unless it can do so. i am therefore of opinion that such eggs as are deposited in immature pods are lost. however, the race will hardly suffer by such a loss, so fertile is the little beetle. we shall see directly how prodigal the female is of her eggs, the majority of which are destined to perish. the important part of the maternal task is completed by the end of may, when the shells are swollen by the expanding peas, which have reached their final growth, or are but little short of it. i was anxious to see the female bruchus at work in her quality of curculionid, as our classification declares her.[ ] the other weevils are rhyncophora, beaked insects, armed with a drill with which to prepare the hole in which the egg is laid. the bruchus possesses only a short snout or muzzle, excellently adapted for eating soft tissues, but valueless as a drill. the method of installing the family is consequently absolutely different. there are no industrious preparations as with the balinidae, the larinidae, and the rhynchitides. not being equipped with a long oviscapt, the mother sows her eggs in the open, with no protection against the heat of the sun and the variations of temperature. nothing could be simpler, and nothing more perilous to the eggs, in the absence of special characteristics which, would enable them to resist the alternate trials of heat and cold, moisture and drought. in the caressing sunlight of ten o'clock in the morning, the mother runs up and down the chosen pod, first on one side, then on the other, with a jerky, capricious, unmethodical gait. she repeatedly extrudes a short oviduct, which oscillates right and left as though to graze the skin of the pod. an egg follows, which is abandoned as soon as laid. a hasty touch of the oviduct, first here, then there, on the green skin of the pea-pod, and that is all. the egg is left there, unprotected, in the full sunlight. no choice of position is made such as might assist the grub when it seeks to penetrate its larder. some eggs are laid on the swellings created by the peas beneath; others in the barren valleys which separate them. the first are close to the peas, the second at some distance from them. in short, the eggs of the bruchus are laid at random, as though on the wing. we observe a still more serious vice: the number of eggs is out of all proportion to the number of peas in the pod. let us note at the outset that each grub requires one pea; it is the necessary ration, and is largely sufficient for one larva, but is not enough for several, nor even for two. one pea to each grub, neither more nor less, is the unchangeable rule. we should expect to find signs of a procreative economy which would impel the female to take into account the number of peas contained in the pod which she has just explored; we might expect her to set a numerical limit on her eggs in conformity with that of the peas available. but no such limit is observed. the rule of one pea to one grub is always contradicted by the multiplicity of consumers. my observations are unanimous on this point. the number of eggs deposited on one pod always exceeds the number of peas available, and often to a scandalous degree. however meager the contents of the pod, there is a superabundance of consumers. dividing the sum of the eggs upon such or such a pod by that of the peas contained therein, i find there are five to eight claimants for each pea; i have found ten, and there is no reason why this prodigality should not go still further. many are called, but few are chosen! what is to become of all these supernumeraries, perforce excluded from the banquet for want of space? the eggs are of a fairly bright amber yellow, cylindrical in form, smooth, and rounded at the ends. their length is at most a twenty-fifth of an inch. each is affixed to the pod by means of a slight network of threads of coagulated albumen. neither wind nor rain can loosen their hold. the mother not infrequently emits them two at a time, one above the other; not infrequently, also, the uppermost of the two eggs hatches before the other, while the latter fades and perishes. what was lacking to this egg, that it should fail to produce a grub? perhaps a bath of sunlight; the incubating heat of which the outer egg has robbed it. whether on account of the fact that it is shadowed by the other egg, or for other reasons, the elder of the eggs in a group of two rarely follows the normal course, but perishes on the pod, dead without having lived. there are exceptions to this premature end; sometimes the two eggs develop equally well; but such cases are exceptional, so that the bruchid family would be reduced to about half its dimensions if the binary system were the rule. to the detriment of our peas and to the advantage of the beetle, the eggs are commonly laid one by one and in isolation. a recent emergence is shown by a little sinuous ribbon-like mark, pale or whitish, where the skin of the pod is raised and withered, which starts from the egg and is the work of the newborn larva; a sub-epidermic tunnel along which the grub works its way, while seeking a point from which it can escape into a pea. this point once attained, the larva, which is scarcely a twenty-fifth of an inch in length, and is white with a black head, perforates the envelope and plunges into the capacious hollow of the pod. it has reached the peas and crawls upon the nearest. i have observed it with the magnifier. having explored the green globe, its new world, it begins to sink a well perpendicularly into the sphere. i have often seen it halfway in, wriggling its tail in the effort to work the quicker. in a short time the grub disappears and is at home. the point of entry, minute, but always easily recognizable by its brown coloration on the pale green background of the pea, has no fixed location; it may be at almost any point on the surface of the pea, but an exception is usually made of the lower half; that is, the hemisphere whose pole is formed by the supporting stem. it is precisely in this portion that the germ is found, which will not be eaten by the larva, and will remain capable of developing into a plant, in spite of the large aperture made by the emergence of the adult insect. why is this particular portion left untouched? what are the motives that safeguard the germ? it goes without saying that the bruchus is not considering the gardener. the pea is meant for it and for no one else. in refusing the few bites that would lead to the death of the seed, it has no intention of limiting its destruction. it abstains from other motives. let us remark that the peas touch laterally, and are pressed one against the other, so that the grub, when searching for a point of attack, cannot circulate at will. let us also note that the lower pole expands into the umbilical excrescence, which is less easy of perforation than those parts protected by the skin alone. it is even possible that the umbilicum, whose organization differs from that of the rest of the pea, contains a peculiar sap that is distasteful to the little grub. such, doubtless, is the reason why the peas exploited by the bruchus are still able to germinate. they are damaged, but not dead, because the invasion was conducted from the free hemisphere, a portion less vulnerable and more easy of access. moreover, as the pea in its entirety is too large for a single grub to consume, the consumption is limited to the portion preferred by the consumer, and this portion is not the essential portion of the pea. with other conditions, with very much smaller or very much larger seeds, we shall observe very different results. if too small, the germ will perish, gnawed like the rest by the insufficiently provisioned inmate; if too large, the abundance of food will permit of several inmates. exploited in the absence of the pea, the cultivated vetch and the broad bean afford us an excellent example; the smaller seed, of which all but the skin is devoured, is left incapable of germination; but the large bean, even though it may have held a number of grubs, is still capable of sprouting. knowing that the pod always exhibits a number of eggs greatly in excess of the enclosed peas, and that each pea is the exclusive property of one grub, we naturally ask what becomes of the superfluous grubs. do they perish outside when the more precocious have one by one taken their places in their vegetable larder? or do they succumb to the intolerant teeth of the first occupants? neither explanation is correct. let us relate the facts. on all old peas--they are at this stage dry--from which the adult bruchus has emerged, leaving a large round hole of exit, the magnifying-glass will show a variable number of fine reddish punctuations, perforated in the centre. what are these spots, of which i count five, six, and even more on a single pea? it is impossible to be mistaken: they are the points of entry of as many grubs. several grubs have entered the pea, but of the whole group only one has survived, fattened, and attained the adult age. and the others? we shall see. at the end of may, and in june, the period of egg-laying, let us inspect the still green and tender peas. nearly all the peas invaded show us the multiple perforations already observed on the dry peas abandoned by the weevils. does this actually mean that there are several grubs in the pea? yes. skin the peas in question, separate the cotyledons, and break them up as may be necessary. we shall discover several grubs, extremely youthful, curled up comma-wise, fat and lively, each in a little round niche in the body of the pea. peace and welfare seem to reign in the little community. there is no quarrelling, no jealousy between neighbors. the feast has commenced; food is abundant, and the feasters are separated one from another by the walls of uneaten substance. with this isolation in separate cells no conflicts need be feared; no sudden bite of the mandibles, whether intentional or accidental. all the occupants enjoy the same rights of property, the same appetite, and the same strength. how does this communal feast terminate? having first opened them, i place a number of peas which are found to be well peopled in a glass test-tube. i open others daily. in this way i keep myself informed as to the progress of the various larvae. at first nothing noteworthy is to be seen. isolated in its narrow chamber, each grub nibbles the substance around it, peacefully and parsimoniously. it is still very small; a mere speck of food is a feast; but the contents of one pea will not suffice the whole number to the end. famine is ahead, and all but one must perish. soon, indeed, the aspect of things is entirely changed. one of the grubs--that which occupies the central position in the pea--begins to grow more quickly than the others. scarcely has it surpassed the others in size when the latter cease to eat, and no longer attempt to burrow forwards. they lie motionless and resigned; they die that gentle death which comes to unconscious lives. henceforth the entire pea belongs to the sole survivor. now what has happened that these lives around the privileged one should be thus annihilated? in default of a satisfactory reply, i will propose a suggestion. in the centre of the pea, less ripened than the rest of the seed by the chemistry of the sun, may there not be a softer pulp, of a quality better adapted to the infantile digestion of the grub? there, perhaps, being nourished by tenderer, sweeter, and perhaps, more tasty tissues, the stomach becomes more vigorous, until it is fit to undertake less easily digested food. a nursling is fed on milk before proceeding to bread and broth. may not the central portion of the pea be the feeding-bottle of the bruchid? with equal rights, fired by an equal ambition, all the occupants of the pea bore their way towards the delicious morsel. the journey is laborious, and the grubs must rest frequently in their provisional niches. they rest; while resting they frugally gnaw the riper tissues surrounding them; they gnaw rather to open a way than to fill their stomachs. finally one of the excavators, favored by the direction taken, attains the central portion. it establishes itself there, and all is over; the others have only to die. how are they warned that the place is taken? do they hear their brother gnawing at the walls of his lodging? can they feel the vibration set up by his nibbling mandibles? something of the kind must happen, for from that moment they make no attempt to burrow further. without struggling against the fortunate winner, without seeking to dislodge him, those which are beaten in the race give themselves up to death. i admire this candid resignation on the part of the departed. another condition--that of space--is also present as a factor. the pea weevil is the largest of our bruchidae. when it attains the adult stage, it requires a certain amplitude of lodging, which the other weevils do not require in the same degree. a pea provides it with a sufficiently spacious cell; nevertheless, the cohabitation of two in one pea would be impossible; there would be no room, even were the two to put up with a certain discomfort. hence the necessity of an inevitable decimation, which will suppress all the competitors save one. now the superior volume of the broad bean, which is almost as much beloved by the weevil as the pea, can lodge a considerable community, and the solitary can live as a cenobite. without encroaching on the domain of their neighbors, five or six or more can find room in the one bean. moreover, each grub can find its infant diet; that is, that layer which, remote from the surface, hardens only gradually and remains full of sap until a comparatively late period. this inner layer represents the crumb of a loaf, the rest of the bean being the crust. in a pea, a sphere of much less capacity, it occupies the central portion; a limited point at which the grub develops, and lacking which it perishes; but in the bean it lines the wide adjoining faces of the two flattened cotyledons. no matter where the point of attack is made, the grub has only to bore straight down when it quickly reaches the softer tissues. what is the result? i have counted the eggs adhering to a bean-pod and the beans included in the pod, and comparing the two figures i find that there is plenty of room for the whole family at the rate of five or six dwellers in each bean. no superfluous larvae perish of hunger when barely issued from the egg; all have their share of the ample provision; all live and prosper. the abundance of food balances the prodigal fertility of the mother. if the bruchus were always to adopt the broad bean for the establishment of her family, i could well understand the exuberant allowance of eggs to one pod; a rich foodstuff easily obtained evokes a large batch of eggs. but the case of the pea perplexes me. by what aberration does the mother abandon her children to starvation on this totally insufficient vegetable? why so many grubs to each pea when one pea is sufficient only for one grub? matters are not so arranged in the general balance-sheet of life. a certain foresight seems to rule over the ovary so that the number of mouths is in proportion to the abundance or scarcity of the food consumed. the scarabaeus, the sphex, the necrophorus, and other insects which prepare and preserve alimentary provision for their families, are all of a narrowly limited fertility, because the balls of dung, the dead or paralyzed insects, or the buried corpses of animals on which their offspring are nourished are provided only at the cost of laborious efforts. the ordinary bluebottle, on the contrary, which lays her eggs upon butcher's meat or carrion, lays them in enormous batches. trusting in the inexhaustible riches represented by the corpse, she is prodigal of offspring, and takes no account of numbers. in other cases the provision is acquired by audacious brigandage, which exposes the newly born offspring to a thousand mortal accidents. in such cases the mother balances the chances of destruction by an exaggerated flux of eggs. such is the case with the meloides, which, stealing the goods of others under conditions of the greatest peril, are accordingly endowed with a prodigious fertility. the bruchus knows neither the fatigues of the laborious, obliged to limit the size of her family, nor the misfortunes of the parasite, obliged to produce an exaggerated number of offspring. without painful search, entirely at her ease, merely moving in the sunshine over her favorite plant, she can insure a sufficient provision for each of her offspring; she can do so, yet is foolish enough to over-populate the pod of the pea; a nursery insufficiently provided, in which the great majority will perish of starvation. this ineptitude is a thing i cannot understand; it clashes too completely with the habitual foresight of the maternal instinct. i am inclined to believe that the pea is not the original food plant of the bruchus. the original plant must rather have been the bean, one seed of which is capable of supporting a dozen or more larvae. with the larger cotyledon the crying disproportion between the number of eggs and the available provision disappears. moreover, it is indubitable that the bean is of earlier date than the pea. its exceptional size and its agreeable flavor would certainly have attracted the attention of man from the remotest periods. the bean is a ready-made mouthful, and would be of the greatest value to the hungry tribe. primitive man would at an early date have sown it beside his wattled hut. coming from central asia by long stages, their wagons drawn by shaggy oxen and rolling on the circular discs cut from the trunks of trees, the early immigrants would have brought to our virgin land, first the bean, then the pea, and finally the cereal, that best of safeguards against famine. they taught us the care of herds, and the use of bronze, the material of the first metal implement. thus the dawn of civilization arose over france. with the bean did those ancient teachers also involuntarily bring us the insect which to-day disputes it with us? it is doubtful; the bruchidae seem to be indigenous. at all events, i find them levying tribute from various indigenous plants, wild vegetables which have never tempted the appetite of man. they abound in particular upon the great forest vetch (_lathyrus latifolius_), with its magnificent heads of flowers and long handsome pods. the seeds are not large, being indeed smaller than the garden pea; but, eaten to the very skin, as they invariably are, each is sufficient to the needs of its grub. we must not fail to note their number. i have counted more than twenty in a single pod, a number unknown in the case of the pea, even in the most prolific varieties. consequently this superb vetch is in general able to nourish without much loss the family confided to its pod. where the forest vetch is lacking, the bruchus, none the less, bestows its habitual prodigality of eggs upon another vegetable of similar flavor, but incapable of nourishing all the grubs: for example, the travelling vetch (_vicia peregrina_) or the cultivated vetch (_vicia saliva_). the number of eggs remains high even upon insufficient pods, because the original food-plant offered a copious provision, both in the multiplicity and the size of the seeds. if the bruchus is really a stranger, let us regard the bean as the original food-plant; if indigenous, the large vetch. sometime in the remote past we received the pea, growing it at first in the prehistoric vegetable garden which already supplied the bean. it was found a better article of diet than the broad bean, which to-day, after such good service, is comparatively neglected. the weevil was of the same opinion as man, and without entirely forgetting the bean and the vetch it established the greater part of its tribe upon the pea, which from century to century was more widely cultivated. to-day we have to share our peas; the bruchidae take what they need, and bestow their leavings on us. this prosperity of the insect which is the offspring of the abundance and equality of our garden products is from another point of view equivalent to decadence. for the weevil, as for ourselves, progress in matters of food and drink is not always beneficial. the race would profit better if it remained frugal. on the bean and the vetch the bruchus founded colonies in which the infant mortality was low. there was room for all. on the pea-vine, delicious though its fruits may be, the greater part of its offspring die of starvation. the rations are few, and the hungry mouths are multitudinous. we will linger over this problem no longer. let us observe the grub which has now become the sole tenant of the pea by the death of its brothers. it has had no part in their death; chance has favored it, that is all. in the centre of the pea, a wealthy solitude, it performs the duty of a grub, the sole duty of eating. it nibbles the walls enclosing it, enlarging its lodgment, which is always entirely filled by its corpulent body. it is well shaped, fat, and shining with health. if i disturb it, it turns gently in its niche and sways its head. this is its manner of complaining of my importunities. let us leave it in peace. it profits so greatly and so swiftly by its position that by the time the dog-days have come it is already preparing for its approaching liberation. the adult is not sufficiently well equipped to open for itself a way out through the pea, which is now completely hardened. the larva knows of this future helplessness, and with consummate art provides for its release. with its powerful mandibles it bores a channel of exit, exactly round, with extremely clean-cut sides. the most skilful ivory-carver could do no better. to prepare the door of exit in advance is not enough; the grub must also provide for the tranquillity essential to the delicate processes of nymphosis. an intruder might enter by the open door and injure the helpless nymph. this passage must therefore remain closed. but how? as the grub bores the passage of exit, it consumes the farinaceous matter without leaving a crumb. having come to the skin of the pea, it stops short. this membrane, semi-translucid, is the door to the chamber of metamorphosis, its protection against the evil intentions of external creatures. it is also the only obstacle which the adult will encounter at the moment of exit. to lessen the difficulty of opening it, the grub takes the precaution of gnawing at the inner side of the skin, all round the circumference, so as to make a line of least resistance. the perfect insect will only have to heave with its shoulder and strike a few blows with its head in order to raise the circular door and knock it off like the lid of a box. the passage of exit shows through the diaphanous skin of the pea as a large circular spot, which is darkened by the obscurity of the interior. what passes behind it is invisible, hidden as, it is behind a sort of ground-glass window. a pretty invention, this little closed porthole, this barricade against the invader, this trap-door raised by a push when the time has come for the hermit to enter the world. shall we credit it to the bruchus? did the ingenious insect conceive the undertaking? did it think out a plan and work out a scheme of its own devising? this would be no small triumph for the brain of a weevil. before coming to a conclusion, let us try an experiment. i deprive certain occupied peas of their skin, and i dry them with abnormal rapidity, placing them in glass test-tubes. the grubs prosper as well as in the intact peas. at the proper time the preparations for emergence are made. if the grub acts on its own inspiration, if it ceases to prolong its boring directly it recognizes that the outer coating, auscultated from time to time, is sufficiently thin, what will it do under the conditions of the present test? feeling itself at the requisite distance from the surface, it will stop boring; it will respect the outer layer of the bare pea, and will thus obtain the indispensable protecting screen. nothing of the kind occurs. in every case the passage is completely excavated; the entrance gapes wide open, as large and as carefully executed as though the skin of the pea were in its place. reasons of security have failed to modify the usual method of work. this open lodging has no defence against the enemy; but the grub exhibits no anxiety on this score. neither is it thinking of the outer enemy when it bores down to the skin when the pea is intact, and then stops short. it suddenly stops because the innutritious skin is not to its taste. we ourselves remove the parchment-like skins from a mess of pease-pudding, as from a culinary point of view they are so much waste matter. the larva of the bruchus, like ourselves, dislikes the skin of the pea. it stops short at the horny covering, simply because it is checked by an uneatable substance. from this aversion a little miracle arises; but the insect has no sense of logic; it is passively obedient to the superior logic of facts. it obeys its instinct, as unconscious of its act as is a crystal when it assembles, in exquisite order, its battalions of atoms. sooner or later during the month of august we see a shadowy circle form on each inhabited pea; but only one on each seed. these circles of shadow mark the doors of exit. most of them open in september. the lid, as though cut out with a punch, detaches itself cleanly and falls to the ground, leaving the orifice free. the bruchus emerges, freshly clad, in its final form. the weather is delightful. flowers are abundant, awakened by the summer showers; and the weevils visit them in the lovely autumn weather. then, when the cold sets in, they take up their winter quarters in any suitable retreat. others, still numerous, are less hasty in quitting the native seed. they remain within during the whole winter, sheltered behind the trap-door, which they take care not to touch. the door of the cell will not open on its hinges, or, to be exact, will not yield along the line of least resistance, until the warm days return. then the late arrivals will leave their shelter and rejoin the more impatient, and both will be ready for work when the pea-vines are in flower. to take a general view of the instincts in their inexhaustible variety is, for the observer, the great attraction of the entomological world, for nowhere do we gain a clearer sight of the wonderful way in which the processes of life are ordered. thus regarded, entomology is not, i know, to the taste of everybody; the simple creature absorbed in the doings and habits of insects is held in low esteem. to the terrible utilitarian, a bushel of peas preserved from the weevil is of more importance than a volume of observations which bring no immediate profit. yet who has told you, o man of little faith, that what is useless to-day will not be useful to-morrow? if we learn the customs of insects or animals, we shall understand better how to protect our goods. do not despise disinterested knowledge, or you may rue the day. it is by the accumulation of ideas, whether immediately applicable or otherwise, that humanity has done, and will continue to do, better to-day than yesterday, and better to-morrow than to-day. if we live on peas and beans, which we dispute with the weevil, we also live by knowledge, that mighty kneading-trough in which the bread of progress is mixed and leavened. knowledge is well worth a few beans. among other things, knowledge tells us: "the seedsman need not go to the expense of waging war upon the weevil. when the peas arrive in the granary, the harm is already done; it is irreparable, but not transmissible. the untouched peas have nothing to fear from the neighborhood of those which have been attacked, however long the mixture is left. from the latter the weevils will issue when their time has come; they will fly away from the storehouse if escape is possible; if not, they will perish without in any way attacking the sound peas. no eggs, no new generation will ever be seen upon or within the dried peas in the storehouse; there the adult weevil can work no further mischief." the bruchus is not a sedentary inhabitant of granaries: it requires the open air, the sun, the liberty of the fields. frugal in everything, it absolutely disdains the hard tissues of the vegetable; its tiny mouth is content with a few honeyed mouthfuls, enjoyed upon the flowers. the larvae, on the other hand, require the tender tissues of the green pea growing in the pod. for these reasons the granary knows no final multiplication on the part of the despoiler. the origin of the evil is in the kitchen-garden. it is there that we ought to keep a watch on the misdeeds of the bruchus, were it not for the fact that we are nearly always weaponless when it comes to fighting an insect. indestructible by reason of its numbers, its small size, and its cunning, the little creature laughs at the anger of man. the gardener curses it, but the weevil is not disturbed; it imperturbably continues its trade of levying tribute. happily we have assistants more patient and more clear-sighted than ourselves. during the first week of august, when the mature bruchus begins to emerge, i notice a little chalcidian, the protector of our peas. in my rearing-cages it issues under my eyes in abundance from the peas infested by the grub of the weevil. the female has a reddish head and thorax; the abdomen is black, with a long augur-like oviscapt. the male, a little smaller, is black. both sexes have reddish claws and thread-like antennae. in order to escape from the pea, the slayer of the weevil makes an opening in the centre of the circular trap-door which the grub of the weevil prepared in view of its future deliverance. the slain has prepared the way for the slayer. after this detail the rest may be divined. when the preliminaries to the metamorphosis are completed, when the passage of escape is bored and furnished with its lid of superficial membrane, the female chalcidian arrives in a busy mood. she inspects the peas, still on the vine, and enclosed in their pods; she auscultates them with her antennae; she discovers, hidden under the general envelope, the weak points in the epidermic covering of the peas. then, applying her oviscapt, she thrusts it through the side of the pod and perforates the circular trap-door. however far withdrawn into the centre of the pea, the bruchus, whether larvae or nymph, is reached by the long oviduct. it receives an egg in its tender flesh, and the thing is done. without possibility of defence, since it is by now a somnolent grub or a helpless pupa, the embryo weevil is eaten until nothing but skin remains. what a pity that we cannot at will assist the multiplication of this eager exterminator! alas! our assistants have got us in a vicious circle, for if we wished to obtain the help of any great number of chalcidians we should be obliged in the first place to breed a multiplicity of bruchidae. footnotes: [footnote : from _social life in the insect world_, translated by bernard miall, chapter xviii. the century company, new york, .] [footnote : this classification is now superseded; the pea and bee weevils--_bruchus pisi_ and _bruchus lenti_--are classed as bruchidae, in the series of phytophaga. most of the other weevils are classed as curculionidae, series rhyncophora.--(trans.)] the exposition of a manufacturing process modern paper-making[ ] _j.w. butler paper company_ though the steady march of progress and invention has given to the modern paper-maker marvelous machines by which the output is increased a thousandfold over that of the old, slow methods, he still has many of the same difficulties to overcome that confronted his predecessor. while the use of wood pulp has greatly changed the conditions as regards the cheaper grades of this staple, the ragman is to-day almost as important to the manufacturer of the higher grades as he was one hundred years ago when the saving of rags was inculcated as a domestic virtue and a patriotic duty. methods have changed, but the material remains the same. in a complete modern mill making writing and other high-grade papers, the process begins with unsightly rags as the material from which to form the white sheets that are to receive upon their spotless polished surface the thoughts of philosophers and statesmen, the tender messages of affection, the counsels and admonitions of ministers, the decisions of grave and learned judges, and all the wisdom of things, mysterious, divine, that illustriously doth on paper shine, as was duly set forth in rhyme by the _boston news letter_ in . "the bell cart will go through boston about the end of next month," it announced, and appealed to the inhabitants of that modern seat of learning and philosophy to save their rags for the occasion, and thus encourage the industry. the rags do not come to the mammoth factories of to-day in bell carts, but by the carload in huge bales gathered from all sections of this great republic, as well as from lands beyond the eastern and western oceans. the square, compact, steam-compressed bundles are carried by elevators well up toward the top of the building, where they await the knife of the "opener." when they have been opened, the "feeder" throws the contents by armfuls into the "thrasher." the novice or layman, ignorant of the state in which rags come to the mill, will find their condition a most unpleasant surprise, especially disagreeable to his olfactory nerves. yet the unsavory revelation comes with more force a little farther on, in the "assorting-room." the "thrasher" is a great cylindrical receptacle, revolving rapidly, which is supplied with long wooden beaters or arms passing through a wooden cylinder and driven by power. when the rags have been tossed in, there ensues a great pounding and thrashing, and the dust is carried off in suction air-tubes, while the whipped rags are discharged and carried to the "sorting" and "shredding" room. here the rags are assorted as to size, condition, and the presence of buttons, hooks and eyes, or other material that must be removed. then those that need further attention are passed on to the "shredders," these as well as the "sorters" being women. the "shredders" stand along a narrow counter; in front of each one there is fastened a long scythe-blade with its back toward the operator and its point extending upward, the shank being firmly fixed to the table or operating board. here buttons, hard seams, and all similar intruders are disposed of, and the larger pieces of rags are cut into numerous small ones on the scythe-blades. the rags thus prepared are tossed by the women into receptacles in the tables. the work in this room is the most disagreeable and unwholesome in the entire process of manufacture, and this despite the fact that these rags, too, have been thrashed, and freed from an amount of dust and dirt beyond belief. while one is watching the operations carried on here, it is impossible to repress the wish that rags might be bought otherwise than by the pound, for, unfortunately, filth, dust, and dirt weigh, and to wash rags only reduces the weight. while this is a true reflection of the condition in the average mill, it is pleasant to know, however, there are others of the higher class that are decided exceptions as far as dust and dirt are concerned. such are the mills making high-grade ledger and bond papers, as well as the mill manufacturing the paper that is used for the printing of our "greenbacks," to which further reference will be made later. in these exceptional mills everything is neat and perfectly clean, all the stock used being new and fresh from the cotton or linen mills, or from factories producing cloth goods, like shirt and corset factories, and others of the same sort. the sorting and shredding room is always large and light, with windows on all sides, and well ventilated, offering a decided contrast in many respects to the less cleanly mills first referred to where the women must wear bonnets or hoods for the protection of the hair. in either case the process is certainly an improvement over the old plan of leaving the rags to decay in a cellar to expedite the removal of the glutinous matter from them. from the "sorting" and "shredding" room the rags are conveyed to the "cutter," where they are cut and chopped by revolving knives, leaving them in small pieces and much freer from dust and grit. various ingenious devices are employed for removing metal and other hard and injurious matter, magnetic brushes serving this purpose in some mills. when the "cutter" has finished its work, the still very dirty rags go for a further cleansing to the "devil," or "whipper," a hollow cone with spikes projecting within, against which work the spikes of a drum, dashing the rags about at great speed. human lives are often freed of their baser elements and restored to purity and beauty through the chastening influences of tribulation or adversity; in like manner the "whipper" carries the rags forward a step in the process of purification that is necessary before they can be brought to their highest usefulness. but the cleansing process, which is only a preparation for what is to follow, does not end with the "whipper," which has served merely to loosen, not to dislodge, a great deal of dust and dirt. the final operation in the preliminary cleaning is performed by the "duster" proper, which is a conical revolving sieve. as the mass of rags is tossed and shaken about, the loosened dust is carried away by the suction of the air, which draws the dust particles into tubes furnished with suction fans. in most modern mills the rags are carried forward from the "duster" on an endless belt, and a careful watch is kept upon them as they emerge to detect the presence of unchopped pieces, buttons, or other foreign substances. the journey of the rags over this endless belt or conveyor terminates in a receiving-room, in the floor of which there are several openings, and immediately below these the mouths of the "digesters," which are in a room beneath. the "digesters," as they are suggestively and appropriately termed, are huge revolving boilers, usually upright, which often have as great a diameter as eight feet, with a height of twenty-two feet and a digestive capacity of upward of five tons of rags each. the rags that are to be "cooked" are fed in to the "digesters" through the openings in the floor, and the great movable manhole plates are then put in place and closed, hermetically sealing the openings or mouths through which the boilers have been fed, these having first been charged with a mixed solution of lime and soda and with live hot steam in lieu of gastric juice as a digesting fluid and force. in some mills the boilers are placed in a horizontal position, while in others they are in the form of a large ball or globe, in either case being operated in the manner described; those of upright form, however, are most commonly in use. the rags are boiled under steam pressure of about forty pounds to the square inch, and the cooking is continued from twelve to fourteen hours. it is here that the process of cleaning begins in earnest; and as the mass of rags is tumbled about in its scalding bath of steam-heated lime-water, or "milk of lime," the coloring and glutinous matters, as well as all other impurities, are loosened from the fibers, which are in the end so cleansed and purified as to come forth unstained and of virgin purity. having been sufficiently boiled and digested, the mushy material, still looking dark and forbidding, is emptied onto the floor below or into receptacles placed directly beneath the boilers, where the color and dirt are allowed to drain off. the mass is then conveyed to the "washers," great tub-like receptacles, which are known as "hollanders," from the fact that these rag engines were invented in holland about the year a.d. they are oval-shaped tubs, about twenty feet long, nine feet wide, and three feet high, varying somewhat according to the conditions. each tub is divided for two-thirds of its length by an upright partition, or "mid-feather," as it is called, which makes a narrow course around the vat. on one side of the partition, the tub is raised in a half-circle, close to which revolves an iron roll about three or four feet in diameter, and covered with knives; in the bottom of the tub, and directly under the revolving roll, is another set of knives called a "bed-plate," which is stationary, and against which the roll can be lowered. but let us not anticipate. when the emptyings from the boiler have been thrown into the "washer," a continuous stream of water is turned in at one end, the knife-roll having been adjusted so as to open up the rags as they are set in motion. these then begin a lively chase around the edge of the vat, through the race-course formed by the "mid-feather," and under the rag-opening knives, where the water is given a chance to wash out all impurities, then on up the incline over the "back-fall," so-called from the elevation in the tub. a cylinder of wire-cloth, partly immersed in the moving mass, holds back the now rapidly whitening fibers, while the dirty water escapes into buckets inside the wire-cloth drum, and is discharged into and through an escape-spout. the heavy particles of dirt settle into what is termed a "sand-trap" at the bottom of the tub. as the water clears, the roll is lowered closer and closer to the bottom of the bed-plate, in order to open up the fibers more thoroughly for the free circulation of the water among them. when the several agencies of the "washer" have accomplished their purpose and the water runs clear and unsullied, a bleaching material is put into the mass, which in the course of from two to six hours becomes as white as milk. the dirty offscourings of all ragdom, first seen in the original bales, and gathered from the four corners of the globe, have endured many buffetings, many bruisings and tribulations, and having been washed come forth pure, sweet, and clean. from the washers the rags are precipitated through a trap into drainers, which are chambers made of stone and brick, with a false bottom through which the water is allowed to drain. this rag pulp, now called half stock, is kept in this receptacle until the water and liquor are thoroughly drained off, when it becomes a white and compact mass of fibers. the rags should stand in the drainers for at least one week, though better results are obtained if they are left for a period two or three times as long, as the fibers become more subdued. the process of paper-making as it has already been described, applies more particularly to papers made from rags. to-day, a very large proportion of the cheaper papers are made from wood, either entirely or in part, and these wood-made papers are subjected to a different treatment, to which further reference will be made. from the drainer the mass is carted to the beating engine, or "beater," which is very similar in construction to the washer just described. the knives on the roll in the beater are grouped three together instead of two, and are placed nearer the bottom or bed-plate in order to separate more thoroughly the fibers. in the beater are performed many and varying manipulations, designed not only to secure a more perfect product but also to produce different varieties of paper. it is the theory of the beating process that the fibers are not cut, but are drawn out to their utmost extent. in watching the operations of the "beater," one notices on the surface of the slowly revolving mass of fibers, floating bluing, such as the thrifty housewife uses to whiten fine fabrics. this familiar agency of the laundry is introduced into the solution of fibers with the same end in view that is sought in the washtub--to give the clear white color that is so desirable. many of the inventions and discoveries by which the world has profited largely have been due primarily to some fortunate accident, and according to a pretty story upon which paper-makers have set the seal of their belief for more than one hundred and fifty years, the use of bluing was brought about in the same way. about the year , so runs the story, a mrs. buttonshaw, the wife of an english paper-maker, accidentally dropped into a tub of pulp the bag of bluing, or its contents, which she was about to use in a washing of fine linen. frightened at what she had done and considering it the part of wisdom to keep silence, she discreetly held her peace and awaited results. but when her husband had expressed great wonder and admiration over the paper made from that particular pulp, and had sold it in london at an advance of several shillings over the price of his other paper, which had not met with any such accident, she realized that the time for silence had passed. her account of the happy accident led her grateful husband to purchase a costly scarlet cloak for her on his next visit to london town. this accident brought about another result which was to prove of inestimable value to the future paper-maker--the use of bluing in paper when especial whiteness is desired. important as the bluing or coloring is, however, it is only one of the numerous operations or manipulations that take place in the beater. many of these, such as engine-sizing and body-coloring, require skill and constant watchfulness. here, too, if anywhere, adulteration takes place. it is sometimes necessary to secure a fine-appearing paper at small cost, and it is profitable to add to its weight. in such cases a process of "loading" takes place here, and clay or cheap, heavy fibers are added. clay is of value not only to increase the weight but also to render the paper more opaque, so as to prevent type or illustrations from showing through, while at the same time it makes possible a smoother surface by filling the pores in the paper. but while it adds to the weight, clay must, of necessity, weaken the paper. in engine-sizing, which is done in the beater, the size is thoroughly incorporated with the fibers as these revolve or flow around the engine. this sizing renders the paper more nearly impervious to moisture. the difference between a paper that is sized and that has a repellent surface which prevents the ink from settling into it when it is written upon, and an ordinary blotting-paper with its absorbent surface, is due entirely to the fact that the former is most carefully treated with sizing both in the beating engine and in the size tub or vat referred to later, whereas in the latter paper it is omitted. if the paper is to be tinted or body-colored, colors made from aniline are generally used. only in the highest grade of writing-paper and in some few papers that demand colors fast to the light is any other order of coloring matter employed. as may be easily imagined, considerable skill is required to secure exactly the desired tint, and to get the coloring matter so evenly mixed that each small fiber shall receive its proper tint, and thus to insure that the paper when finished shall be of uniform color and not present a mottled appearance. when the operations of the beating engine have been completed, a most interesting process begins which marks a vast advance over the earlier method of forming the sheets of paper with mould and deckel, straining off the water, and shaking the frame with a quick motion to mat the fibers together. the patient striving toward something better which has marked all the centuries since man first learned to carve his rude records, finds its consummation in the process of making paper in a continuous web. this result is accomplished by a machine first invented by louis robert, a workman in a mill at enonnes, france, who obtained a french patent, with a bounty of eight thousand francs for its development. this he later sold to m. didot, the proprietor of the mill, who crossed the channel into england, where, with the aid of a skilled mechanic, the machine was in a measure perfected, and then sold to henry and sealy fourdrinier. they, with the further aid of bryan donkin, their employee and expert engineer, made many additional improvements, and sank in the enterprise some sixty thousand pounds sterling, for which their only reward was blighted hopes and embittered lives. in the london _times_ made a fruitless appeal on behalf of the surviving brother, who was eighty years of age and in great poverty. it is seldom that the world voluntarily makes return to those who have bestowed upon it great material or moral benefits, though it is ever ready to expend its treasure for engines of destruction and to magnify and reward those who have been most successful in destroying human life. the first "machine" mill was started at frogmore, hertz, england, in , which was the year of the great louisiana purchase by the united states, and it is not difficult to say which event has been productive of the greater and more beneficial results to this nation. through this invention and its improvements, the modern newspaper and magazine, with their tens and hundreds of thousands of copies daily, have been made possible, and men of all classes have been brought in touch with the best thought of the day. whatever makes for greater intelligence and enlightenment throughout a nation makes for the greater stability of the national life, and gives new emphasis to bulwer's words: take away the sword; states can be saved without it--bring the pen. if to-day the power of the pen over the sword is greater than it has ever been before, its increased and increasing influence must be credited in large measure to the inventive genius and the public-spirited enterprise that has made possible the great output of our modern paper-mills. so thoroughly did these forces do their work in the beginning that in the century that has elapsed since the fourdrinier brothers sacrificed themselves and their means in the perfecting of their machine, there have been really no changes in the fundamental principle. those that have been made have been in the nature of further development and improvement, such as increasing the speed and widening the web, thereby multiplying the product many fold. but let us resume the interesting journey of the rags, which had reached a state of purification and perfection as pulp, and which we left in the beaters. in some grades of paper the perfected and prepared pulp is taken from the beaters and passed through what is known as a "refining" or "jordan" engine for the purpose of more thoroughly separating the fibers and reducing them to extreme fineness. the refining engines are, however, used only in the manufacture of certain grades of paper. the pulp is next taken from the beater or refining engine, as the case may be, to what is called a "stuff-chest," an inclosed vat partly filled with water, in which a contrivance for shaking and shifting, properly called an "agitator," keeps the fibers in suspension. from the stuff-chest the mixture is pumped into what is known as the "mixing" or "regulating" box. here the stream first passes over the "sand-tables" in a continuous flow. these are composed of little troughs with cross-pieces, and are covered at the bottom with long-haired felt, to catch any sand or dirt that may still adhere after the numerous operations to which the pulp has been subjected. the flow is then forced through the "screen," which is a horizontal piece of metal pierced with slots. for very fine paper these slots are so small as to be only one one-hundredth of an inch in width. they are usually about a quarter of an inch apart. through these tiny apertures the fibers must find their way, leaving behind in their difficult passage all lumps, dirt, or knotted fibers which would mar the perfection of the product toward which they are tending. a vibrating motion is given to the screen as the flow passes over it, or revolving strainers may be used. when the screen has finished its work, the water carrying the pulp in solution flows in an even stream, the volume of which varies according to the width of the web of paper to be produced, through a discharge-cock onto the fourdrinier or cylinder machine, as the case may be, each of which will be duly described. this stream has a filmy appearance and is of diverse color, depending upon the shade of paper to be produced. from its consistency, which is about that of milk, it is difficult to imagine that it floats separate particles of fiber in such quantities as, when gathered on the wire cloth and passed to a felt blanket and then pressed between rollers, to form in a second of time a broad web of embryo paper sufficiently strong and firm to take definite form. man's mastery of the process by which this startling and wonderful change is effected has come as one of the rewards of his long and patient study. the fourdrinier machine, which preserves at least the name of the enterprising developers of the invention, takes up the work that was formerly done by the molder. the wire cloth upon which the fibers are discharged is an endless belt, the full width of the paper machine. upon this the fibers spread out evenly, being aided by a fan-shaped rubber or oil cloth, which delivers the smooth stream under a gate regulated to insure perfect evenness and to fix uniformly the fibers of the web now commencing its final formation. deckel-straps of india-rubber are fastened on both sides of the wire screen, and move with it, thus holding the watery pulp in place. the deckel-straps are adjustable and fix or regulate the width of the paper. these and the gate, or "slicer," are attached to what is termed the deckel-frame, which corresponds to the deckel used by paper-makers in the days when the manufacture was carried on by hand. as the stream flows onto the endless belt of wire cloth, the water which has borne the fibers filters into the trough beneath. being charged with very fine fibers, size, coloring matter, and other similar ingredients, it is carried back into the pulp-chest to save these materials, as well as to contribute again to the extra supply of water needed. for this reason the trough into which it falls from the revolving "wire" is called the "save-all." a shaking motion is imparted to the "wire" from the frame upon which rest the rolls that keep it in its never-ending round. this aids in draining away the water and mats or interlaces the fibers together. at the end of the "save-all," where the fibers are to leave the "wire" for the next stage of their journey, suction-boxes are placed, provided with an air-pump to take up the surplus water that has not yet found its way through the meshes. between these suction-boxes above the wire is a wire-covered roll which impresses the newly formed sheet; this impression cylinder is called a "dandy roll," and it is from this that the web receives the markings or impressions that characterize different papers. all watermarks, patterns, and designs which it is desired to have appear in the paper are put upon this roll and here impressed upon the soft sheet, which is clarified and left transparent at the point of contact. thus the impression is permanently fixed in the fiber, so that it can be seen at any time by holding the sheet to the light. the power of suggestiveness is a quality which is highly esteemed wherever it is found, and which frequently furnishes a standard of judgment. judged by such a criterion, the impression cylinder, or "dandy roll," has an added value, for in all probability its operation suggested the idea of printing from cylinders, as in our present web or perfecting presses. the matted pulp, now having sufficient body, passes on between two rolls covered with felt which deliver the web of damp paper upon an endless belt of moist felt, while the "wire" passes under and back to continue a fresh supply. the paper is as yet too fragile to travel alone, and the web felt carries it between two metal rolls called the first press-rolls. these squeeze out more water, give a greater degree of compactness to the fibers, smooth the upper surface, and finally deliver the web of paper to a second felt apron which carries it under and to the back of the second press-rolls. in this way the under surface comes to the top, and is in its turn subjected to the smoothing process. a delicate scraper or blade, the length of the press-rolls, is so placed on each roll that should the endless web from any cause be broken, the blade may operate with sufficient force to prevent the wet paper from clinging to the rolls and winding about them. from this point the paper travels alone, having become firm and strong enough to sustain its own weight; passing above the second press-rolls, it resumes its onward journey around the drying cylinders, passing over and under and over and under. the drying cylinders are hollow and heated by steam, their temperature being regulated according to requirements. these driers, made from iron or steel, are usually from three to four feet in diameter and vary in length according to the width of the machine. there are from twelve to fifty of these cylinders, their number depending upon the character and weight of the paper to be produced, very heavy sheets requiring many more drying cylinders than sheets of lighter weight. strange, almost phenomenal, conditions come about in the transformation from filmy pulp to finished paper. a sheet which, though formed, is at the first press-roll too fragile to carry its own weight, becomes possessed of a final strength and power that is almost incredible. the myriad of minute fibers composing the sheet, upon drying uniformly, possesses great aggregate strength. a sheet of paper yields readily to tearing, but the same sheet, when a perfectly even tension is applied, will demonstrate that it is possessed of wonderful resisting power. in evidence may be cited an instance that seems almost beyond belief. through some curious mishap a web of heavy paper, in fact, bristol board, which had been thoroughly formed, was suddenly superheated and then cooled while still on the driers. this was caused by a difference in temperature of the driers and resulted in the sudden contraction of the web of bristol; the strain on the machine was so great that not only were the driving-cogs broken on two of the driers around which the paper was at the moment passing, but the driers themselves were actually lifted out of place, showing a resisting power in the paper of at least several tons. the paper now passes to the upright stack of rolls which are known as "calenders." the word is derived from calendra; a corruption of cylindrus, a roller or cylinder. they are simply rollers revolving in contact, and heated from the interior by steam. these calenders are used for giving to the paper a smooth and even surface, and are also employed in the smoothing and finishing of cloth. the speed with which the paper passes through these cylinders is remarkable, from one hundred to five hundred feet running through and over the machine in a minute; and in some of the most recent mills the web is as wide as one hundred and fifty-six inches (thirteen feet); this is very nearly double the average machine width of a very few years ago, while the speed has increased in proportionate ratio; only a few years ago the maximum speed was from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet per minute; at this writing ( ) there are machines in operation which run as high as five hundred feet per minute. but great as has been the increase in the production of paper, the demand has kept pace steadily. the wonderful product of the rag-bag holds an invincible position in the world's economy. for machine-finished book and print papers, as well as for other cheaper grades, the process ends with the calenders, after which the paper is slit into required widths by disc-knives which are revolving, and so cut continuously. paper intended for web newspaper presses is taken off in continuous rolls of the widths required, varying from seventeen to seventy-six inches, according to the size of the paper to be printed. these reels contain from fifteen to twenty-five thousand lineal feet of paper, or from three to five miles. the amount of paper used in disseminating the news of the day is enormous; sometimes one or two mills are required to manufacture the supply for a single metropolitan daily, while one new york newspaper claims to have used four hundred and fifty tons of paper in one christmas edition, which is about four times the amount of its regular daily consumption. after having been slit into the proper widths by the revolving knives, ordinary flat and book papers are cut into sheets by a straight knife revolving at proper intervals on a horizontal drum. the paper, in sheets, is carried by a travelling apron to a receiving table at the end of the machine, where the sheets as they fall are carefully examined by experts, usually women, who remove any that may be imperfect. the entire length of a paper machine, from the screens to the calenders, is about one hundred and twenty-five feet, while the height varies, the average being about ten feet. the machines, while necessarily of the finest adjustment, are ponderous and heavy, weighing in some cases as much as four hundred tons, this being the weight of the machine itself, exclusive of its foundations. the machine-room is of necessity well lighted and thoroughly ventilated, and should be kept clean throughout, as cleanliness is an essential factor in the making of good paper. while the same general process applies to all classes of paper made, the particular character of any paper that is to be produced determines exactly the details of the process through which it shall pass and regulates the deviations to be made from the general operations in order to secure special results. for example, some papers are wanted with a rough or "antique" finish, as it is called; in such cases calendering is omitted. another special process is that by which the paper is made with a ragged or "deckel-edge;" this result is obtained in some mills by playing a stream of water upon the edge of the pulp, crushing and thinning it, and thus giving it a jagged appearance. at the present time this "deckel-edge" paper is being quite extensively used in high-class bookwork. in the case of writing papers, as has already been stated in the description of the beating engines, a vegetable sizing made from resinous matter is introduced into the paper pulp while it is still in solution, and mixes with it thoroughly, thus filling more or less completely the pores of the pulp fibers. this is found sufficient for all ordinary book-papers, for papers that are to be printed upon in the usual way, and for the cheapest grades of writing-paper, where the requirements are not very exacting and where a curtailment of expense is necessary. for the higher grades of writing-paper, however, a distinctly separate and additional process is required. these papers while on the machine in web form are passed through a vat which is called the size-tub, and which is filled with a liquid sizing made of gelatine from clippings of the horns, hides, and hoofs of cattle, this gelatine or glue being mixed with dissolved alum and made fluid in the vat. papers which are treated in this way are known as "animal," or "tub-sized." we have duly described machine-dried papers, but these higher grades of writing-papers are dried by what is known as the loft, or pole-dried process. such paper is permitted to dry very slowly in a loft specially constructed for the purpose, where it is hung on poles several days, during which time the loft is kept at a temperature of about ° fahrenheit. another detail of considerable importance is that of the "finish" or surface of the paper. when paper with a particularly high or glossy surface is desired, it is subjected to a separate process, after leaving the paper machine, known as supercalendering. "supercalendering" is effected by passing the web through a stack of rolls which are similar to the machine calenders already described. these rolls are composed of metal cylinders, alternating with rolls made of solidified paper or cotton, turned exactly true, the top and bottom rolls being of metal and heavier than the others; a stack of supercalenders is necessarily composed of an odd number of rolls, as seven, nine, or eleven. the paper passes and repasses through these calenders until the requisite degree of smoothness and polish has been acquired. the friction in this machine produces so much electricity that ground wires are often used to carry it off in order that the paper may not become so highly charged as to attract dust or cause the sheets to cling together. when the fine polish has been imparted, the rolls of paper go to the cutting machines, which are automatic in action, cutting regular sheets of the required length as the paper is fed to them in a continuous web. in the manufacture of some high grades of paper, such as linens and bonds, where an especially fine, smooth surface is required, the sheets after being cut are arranged in piles of from twelve to fifteen sheets, plates of zinc are inserted alternately between them, and they are subjected to powerful hydraulic pressure. this process is termed "plating," and is, of course, very much more expensive than the process of supercalendering described above. from the cutters, the sheets are carried to the inspectors, who are seated in a row along an extended board table before two divisions with partitions ten or twelve inches high, affording spaces for the sheets before and after sorting. the work of inspection is performed by women, who detect almost instantly any blemish or imperfection in the finished product as it passes through their hands. if the paper is to be ruled for writing purposes, it is then taken to the ruling machines, where it is passed under revolving discs or pens, set at regular intervals. these convey the ruling ink to the paper as it passes on through the machine, and thus form true and continuous lines. if the paper is to be folded after ruling, as in the case of fine note-papers, the sheets pass on from the ruling machine to the folding machines, which are entirely automatic in their action. the paper is stacked at the back of the first folding guide and is fed in by the action of small rubber rollers which loosen each sheet from the one beneath, and push it forward until it is caught by the folding apparatus. man's mechanical ingenuity has given to the machines of his invention something that seems almost like human intelligence, and in the case of the folding machine, the action is so regular and perfect that there seems to be no need of an attendant, save to furnish a constant supply of sheets. the folding completed, cutting machines are again brought into requisition, to cut and trim the sheets to the size of folded note or letter-paper, which is the final operation before they are sent out into the world on their mission of usefulness. the finished paper may or may not have passed through the ruling and folding process, but in either case it goes from the cutters to the wrappers and packers, and then to the shipping-clerks, all of whom perform the duties indicated by their names. the wonderful transformation wrought by the magic wand of science and human invention is complete, and what came into the factory as great bales of offensive rags, disgusting to sight and smell, goes forth as delicate, beautiful, perfected paper, redeemed from filth, and glorified into a high and noble use. purity and beauty have come from what was foul and unwholesome; the highly useful has been summoned forth from the seemingly useless; a product that is one of the essential factors in the world's progress, and that promises to serve an ever-increasing purpose, has been developed from a material that apparently held not the slightest promise. well might the _boston news letter_ of exclaim in quaint old rhyme: rags are as beauties which concealèd lie, but when in paper, charming to the eye! pray save your rags, new beauties to discover, for of paper truly every one's a lover; by the pen and press such knowledge is displayed as would not exist if paper was not made. and well may man pride himself on this achievement, this marvelous transformation, which represents the fruitage of centuries of striving and endeavor! up to this point the reference has been almost entirely to paper made from rags, but radical improvements have been made, caused by the introduction of wood pulp, and these are of such importance that the account would not be complete without some mention of them. these changes are mainly in the methods of manipulating the wood to obtain the pulp, for when that is ready, the process from and including the "washers" and "beaters," is very similar to that already described. all papers, whether made from rags or wood, depend upon vegetable fiber for their substance and fundamental base, and it is found that the different fibers used in paper-making, when finally subdued, do not differ, in fact, whether obtained from rags or from the tree growing in the forest. in the latter case the raw wood is subjected to chemical treatment which destroys all resinous and foreign matters, leaving merely the cellular tissue, which, it is found, does not differ in substance from the cell tissue obtained after treating rags. in either case this cellular tissue, through the treatment to which the raw material is subjected, becomes perfectly plastic or moldable, and while the paper made from one differs slightly in certain characteristics from the paper made from the other, they are nevertheless very similar, and it might be safe to predict that further perfecting of processes will eventually make them practically alike. the woods used for this purpose are principally poplar and spruce, and there are three classes of the wood pulp: ( ) mechanical wood, ( ) soda process wood, and ( ) sulphite wood pulp. the first method was invented in germany in . the logs are hewn in the forest, roughly barked, and shipped to the factory, where the first operation is to cut them up by steam saws into blocks about two feet in length. any bark that may still cling to the log is removed by a rapidly revolving corrugated wheel of steel, while the larger blocks are split by a steam splitter. the next stage of their journey takes these blocks to a great millstone set perpendicularly instead of horizontally. here a very strong and ingenious machine receives one block at a time, and with an automatically elastic pressure holds it sidewise against the millstone, which, like the mills of the gods, "grinds exceeding fine," and with the aid of constantly flowing water rapidly reduces these blocks to a pulpy form. this pulp is carried into tanks, from which it is passed between rollers, which leave it in thick, damp sheets, which are folded up evenly for shipment, or for storage for future use. if a paper-mill is operated in connection with the pulp-mill, the wood pulp is not necessarily rolled out in sheets, but is pumped directly from the tanks to the beaters. in the preparation of pulp by the other processes, the blocks are first thrown into a chipping machine with great wheels, the short, slanting knives of which quickly cut the blocks into small chips. in the soda process, invented by m. meliner in france in , the chips from spruce and poplar logs are boiled under pressure in a strong solution of caustic soda. when sulphite wood pulp is to be prepared, the chips are conveyed from the chipper into hoppers in the upper part of the building. here they are thrown into great upright iron boilers or digesters charged with lime-water and fed with the fumes of sulphur which is burned for the purpose in a furnace adjoining the building and which thus forms acid sulphide of lime. the sulphite process was originally invented by a celebrated philadelphia chemist, but was perfected in europe. the "cooking," or boiling, to which the wood is subjected in both the soda and sulphite processes, effects a complete separation of all resinous and foreign substances from the fine and true cell tissue, or cellulose, which is left a pure fiber, ready for use as described. in the case of all fibers, whether rag or wood, painstaking work counts, and the excellence of the paper is largely dependent upon the time and care given to the reduction of the pulp from the original raw material. chemical wood pulp of the best quality makes an excellent product, and is largely used for both print and book paper; it is frequently mixed with rag pulp, making a paper that can scarcely be distinguished from that made entirely from fine rags, though it is not of the proper firmness for the best flat or writing papers. all ordinary newspapers, as well as some of the cheaper grades of book and wrapping paper, are made entirely from wood, the sulphite or soda process supplying the fiber, and ground wood being used as a filler. in the average newspaper of to-day's issue, twenty-five per cent of sulphite fiber is sufficient to carry seventy-five per cent of the ground wood filler. the value of the idea is an economical one entirely, as the ground wood employed costs less than any other of the component parts of a print-paper sheet. the cylinder machine, to which reference was made earlier in the chapter, was patented in by a prominent paper-maker of england, mr. john dickinson. in this machine, a cylinder covered with wire cloth revolves with its lower portion dipping into a vat of pulp, while by suction a partial vacuum is maintained in the cylinder, causing the pulp to cling to the wire until it is conveyed to a covered cylinder, which takes it up and carries it forward in a manner similar to the system already described. this machine is employed in making straw-board and other heavy and cheap grades of paper. generous mother nature, who supplies man's wants in such bountiful fashion, has furnished on her plains and in her forests an abundance of material that may be transformed into this fine product of human ingenuity. esparto, a spanish grass grown in south africa, has entered largely into the making of print-paper in england. mixed with rags it makes an excellent product, but the chemicals required to free it from resin and gritty silica are expensive, while the cost of importation has rendered its use in america impractical. flax, hemp, manila, jute and straw, and of course old paper that has been once used, are extensively employed in this manufacture, the process beginning with the chemical treatment and boiling that are found necessary in the manipulation of rags. the successful use of these materials has met demands that would not otherwise have been supplied. as a result, the price has been so cheapened that the demand for paper has greatly increased, and its use has been extended to many and various purposes. many additional items of interest might be described in connection with the methods of manufacturing paper, but as this work is intended for the general reader, rather than for the manufacturer, those wishing further information are referred to technical works on the subject. the best linen rags are used for the highest grades of writing and bond papers, while ordinary note, letter, and flat papers are made from cotton rags. in some mills, such as the government mill at dalton, massachusetts, where the government paper is made for banknotes, and in others where the finest ledger papers are manufactured, none but new, clean rags are used. these come from the remnants left in the making of linen goods. in the government mill where is made the paper for our national currency, or "greenbacks," there is a special attachment on the machine for introducing into the paper the silk threads that are always to be seen in our paper money. this attachment is just above the "wire" on the machine, and consists of a little conducting trough, through which flows, from a receptacle near the machine, a stream of water holding the silk threads in solution. the trough extends across the machine, and is provided at intervals with openings through which the short pieces of silk thread are automatically released, and sprinkled continuously onto the web of pulp as it passes beneath. the paper is thus distinguished, and infringement and possible counterfeiting are made extremely difficult by the fact that the government absolutely forbids the making of paper by others under a similar process, as well as the production of any paper containing these silk threads. the laws of the united states pertaining to anything that borders on infringement of our various money issues, both metal and currency, are most rigid; anything approaching a similarity of impression is prohibited, and a cut, stamp, or impression of any character that approaches in its appearance any money issue of our government is considered a violation of the law against counterfeiting, and is dealt with severely. the government takes the same uncompromising position in regard to the fabrics used in printing its paper-money issues, and it will be quickly seen that the silk thread process described above it is so great a variation from anything required in the mercantile world that it would be difficult to produce a paper at all similar without an ulterior purpose being at once apparent. for this reason the silk thread interspersion is in reality a very effective medium in preventing counterfeiting, not only on account of its peculiar appearance but also because of the elaborate methods necessary in its production. in those mills making the finest grades of paper, much of the process of thrashing, beating, dusting, and cleaning necessary in the ordinary mill is omitted. the cleanliness and brightness which are reached only at the "washer" and "beater" engines in the process of manufacturing the lower grades of paper from cheaper rags, prevail at every step in these higher grade mills. one of the first requisites in making good paper, especially the better grades, is an abundance of pure water, and spring-water, where available, is preferred. the effort has been made in the description given to cover the process of making paper from the crudest rags. in enumerating the several kinds of paper in another chapter, brief reference will be made to the varying methods required in their manufacture. in this chapter, no attempt has been made to cover more than the principal divisions or varieties of paper--writing, print, and wrapping papers. the united states, with characteristic enterprise, leads the world in paper-making, supplying about one-third of all that is used on the globe. the city of holyoke, in massachusetts, is the greatest paper center in the world, turning out each working-day some two hundred tons of paper, nearly one-half of which is "tub-sized," "loft-dried" writings. the region in the vicinity of holyoke is dotted with paper-mills, and within a few miles of the city is made about one-half of all the "loft-dried" writings produced in the united states. the tiny acorn planted two centuries ago has waxed with the years, gaining strength and vigor with the increasing strength of the nation, till now it has become a giant oak, whose branches extend to the lands beyond the seas. footnotes: [footnote : from _the story of paper-making_, chapter v.j.w. butler paper company, chicago, .] the exposition of an idea the gospel of relaxation[ ] _william james_ i wish in the following hour to take certain psychological doctrines and show their practical applications to mental hygiene,--to the hygiene of our american life more particularly. our people, especially in academic circles, are turning towards psychology nowadays with great expectations; and, if psychology is to justify them, it must be by showing fruits in the pedagogic and therapeutic lines. the reader may possibly have heard of a peculiar theory of the emotions, commonly referred to in psychological literature as the lange-james theory. according to this theory, our emotions are mainly due to those organic stirrings that are aroused in us in a reflex way by the stimulus of the exciting object or situation. an emotion of fear, for example, or surprise, is not a direct effect of the object's presence on the mind, but an effect of that still earlier effect, the bodily commotion which the object suddenly excites; so that, were this bodily commotion suppressed, we should not so much _feel_ fear as call the situation fearful; we should not feel surprise, but coldly recognize that the object was indeed astonishing. one enthusiast has even gone so far as to say that when we feel sorry it is because we weep, when we feel afraid it is because we run away, and not conversely. some of you may perhaps be acquainted with the paradoxical formula. now, whatever exaggeration may possibly lurk in this account of our emotions (and i doubt myself whether the exaggeration be very great), it is certain that the main core of it is true, and that the mere giving way to tears, for example, or to the outward expression of an anger-fit, will result for the moment in making the inner grief or anger more acutely felt. there is, accordingly, no better known or more generally useful precept in the moral training of youth, or in one's personal self-discipline, than that which bids us pay primary attention to what we do and express, and not to care too much for what we feel. if we only check a cowardly impulse in time, for example, or if we only _don't_ strike the blow or rip out with the complaining or insulting word that we shall regret as long as we live, our feelings themselves will presently be the calmer and better, with no particular guidance from us on their own account. action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. if such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on that occasion can. so to feel brave, act as if we _were_ brave, use all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear. again, in order to feel kindly toward a person to whom we have been inimical, the only way is more or less deliberately to smile, to make sympathetic inquiries, and to force ourselves to say genial things. one hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling. to wrestle with a bad feeling only pins our attention on it, and keeps it still fastened in the mind; whereas, if we act as if from some better feeling, the old bad feeling soon folds its tent like an arab, and silently steals away. the best manuals of religious devotion accordingly reiterate the maxim that we must let our feelings go, and pay no regard to them whatever. in an admirable and widely successful little book called _the christian's secret of a happy life_, by mrs. hannah whitall smith, i find this lesson on almost every page. _act_ faithfully, and you really have faith, no matter how cold and even how dubious you may feel. "it is your purpose god looks at," writes mrs. smith, "not your feelings about that purpose; and your purpose, or will, is therefore the only thing you need attend to.... let your emotions come or let them go, just as god pleases, and make no account of them either way.... they really have nothing to do with the matter. they are not the indicators of your spiritual state, but are merely the indicators of your temperament or of your present physical condition." but you all know these facts already, so i need no longer press them on your attention. from our acts and from our attitudes ceaseless inpouring currents of sensation come, which help to determine from moment to moment what our inner states shall be: that is a fundamental law of psychology which i will therefore proceed to assume. a viennese neurologist of considerable reputation has recently written about the _binnenleben,_ as he terms it, or buried life of human beings. no doctor, this writer says, can get into really profitable relations with a nervous patient until he gets some sense of what the patient's _binnenleben_ is, of the sort of unuttered inner atmosphere in which his consciousness dwells alone with the secrets of its prison-house. this inner personal tone is what we can't communicate or describe articulately to others; but the wraith and ghost of it, so to speak, are often what our friends and intimates feel as our most characteristic quality. in the unhealthy-minded, apart from all sorts of old regrets, ambitions checked by shames and aspirations obstructed by timidities, it consists mainly of bodily discomforts not distinctly localized by the sufferer, but breeding a general self-mistrust and sense that things are not as they should be with him. half the thirst for alcohol that exists in the world exists simply because alcohol acts as a temporary anaesthetic and effacer to all these morbid feelings that never ought to be in a human being at all. in the healthy-minded, on the contrary, there are no fears or shames to discover; and the sensations that pour in from the organism only help to swell the general vital sense of security and readiness for anything that may turn up. consider, for example, the effects of a well-toned _motor-apparatus,_ nervous and muscular, on our general personal self-consciousness, the sense of elasticity and efficiency that results. they tell us that in norway the life of the women has lately been entirely revolutionized by the new order of muscular feelings with which the use of the _ski_, or long snow-shoes, as a sport for both sexes, has made the women acquainted. fifteen years ago the norwegian women were even more than the women of other lands votaries of the old-fashioned ideal of femininity, "the domestic angel," the "gentle and refining influence" sort of thing. now these sedentary fireside tabby-cats of norway have been trained, they say, by the snow-shoes into lithe and audacious creatures, for whom no night is too dark or height too giddy, and who are not only saying good-bye to the traditional feminine pallor and delicacy of constitution, but actually taking the lead in every educational and social reform. i cannot but think that the tennis and tramping and skating habits and the bicycle-craze which are so rapidly extending among our dear sisters and daughters in this country are going also; to lead to a sounder and heartier moral tone, which will send its tonic breath through all our american life. i hope that here in america more and more the ideal of the well-trained and vigorous body will be maintained neck by neck with that of the well-trained and vigorous mind as the two coequal halves of the higher education for men and women alike. the strength of the british empire lies in the strength of character of the individual englishman, taken all alone by himself. and that strength, i am persuaded, is perennially nourished and kept up by nothing so much as by the national worship, in which all classes meet, of athletic outdoor life and sport. i recollect, years ago, reading a certain work by an american doctor on hygiene and the laws of life and the type of future humanity. i have forgotten its author's name and its title, but i remember well an awful prophecy that it contained about the future of our muscular system. human perfection, the writer said, means ability to cope with the environment; but the environment will more and more require mental power from us, and less and less will ask for bare brute strength. wars will cease, machines will do all our heavy work, man will become more and more a mere director of nature's energies, and less and less an exerter of energy on his own account. so that, if the _homo sapiens_ of the future can only digest his food and think, what need will he have of well-developed muscles at all? and why, pursued this writer, should we not even now be satisfied with a more delicate and intellectual type of beauty than that which pleased our ancestors? nay, i have heard a fanciful friend make a still further advance in this "new-man" direction. with our future food, he says, itself prepared in liquid form from the chemical elements of the atmosphere, pepsinated or half-digested in advance, and sucked up through a glass tube from a tin can, what need shall we have of teeth, or stomachs even? they may go, along with our muscles and our physical courage, while, challenging even more and more our proper admiration, will grow the gigantic domes of our crania, arching over our spectacled eyes, and animating our flexible little lips to those floods of learned and ingenious talk which will constitute our most congenial occupation. i am sure that your flesh creeps at this apocalyptic vision. mine certainly did so; and i cannot believe that our muscular vigor will ever be a superfluity. even if the day ever dawns in which it will not be needed for fighting the old heavy battles against nature, it will still always be needed to furnish the background of sanity, serenity, and cheerfulness to life, to give moral elasticity to our disposition, to round off the wiry edge of our fretfulness, and make us good-humored and easy to approach. weakness is too apt to be what the doctors call irritable weakness. and that blessed internal peace and confidence, that _acquiescentia in seipso_, as spinoza used to call it, that wells up from every part of the body of a muscularly well-trained human being, and soaks the indwelling soul of him with satisfaction, is, quite apart from every consideration of its mechanical utility, an element of spiritual hygiene of supreme significance. and now let me go a step deeper into mental hygiene, and try to enlist your insight and sympathy in a cause which i believe is one of paramount patriotic importance to us yankees. many years ago a scottish medical man, dr. clouston, a mad-doctor as they call him there, or what we should call an asylum physician (the most eminent one in scotland), visited this country, and said something that has remained in my memory ever since. "you americans," he said, "wear too much expression on your faces. you are living like an army with all its reserves engaged in action. the duller countenances of the british population betoken a better scheme of life. they suggest stores of reserved nervous force to fall back upon, if any occasion should arise that requires it. this inexcitability, this presence at all times of power not used, i regard," continued dr. clouston, "as the great safeguard of our british people. the other thing in you gives me a sense of insecurity, and you ought somehow to tone yourselves down. you really do carry too much expression, you take too intensely the trivial moments of life." now dr. clouston is a trained reader of the secrets of the soul as expressed upon the countenance, and the observation of his which i quote seems to me to mean a great deal. and all americans who stay in europe long enough to get accustomed to the spirit, that reigns and expresses itself there, so unexcitable as compared with ours, make a similar observation when they return to their native shores. they find a wild-eyed look upon their compatriots' faces, either of too desperate eagerness and anxiety or of too intense responsiveness and good-will. it is hard to say whether the men or the women show it most. it is true that we do not all feel about it as dr. clouston felt. many of us, far from deploring it, admire it. we say: "what intelligence it shows! how different from the stolid cheeks, the codfish eyes, the slow, inanimate demeanor we have been seeing in the british isles!" intensity, rapidity, vivacity of appearance, are indeed with us something of a nationally accepted ideal; and the medical notion of "irritable weakness" is not the first thing suggested by them to our mind, as it was to dr. clouston's. in a weekly paper not very long ago i remember reading a story in which, after describing the beauty and interest of the heroine's personality, the author summed up her charms by saying that to all who looked upon her an impression as of "bottled lightning" was irresistibly conveyed. bottled lightning, in truth, is one of our american ideals, even of a, young girl's character! now it is most ungracious, and it may seem to some persons unpatriotic, to criticise in public the physical peculiarities of one's own people, of one's own family, so to speak. besides, it may be said, and said with justice, that there are plenty of bottled-lightning temperaments in other countries, and plenty of phlegmatic temperaments here; and that, when all is said and done, the more or less of tension about which i am making such a fuss is a small item in the sum total of a nation's life, and not worth solemn treatment at a time when agreeable rather than disagreeable things should be talked about. well, in one sense the more or less of tension in our faces and in our unused muscles _is_ a small thing: not much mechanical work is done by these contractions. but it is not always the material size of a thing that measures its importance: often it is its place and function. one of the most philosophical remarks i ever heard made was by an unlettered workman who was doing some repairs at my house many years ago. "there is very little difference between one man and another," he said, "when you go to the bottom of it. but what little there is, is very important." and the remark certainly applies to this case. the general over-contraction may be small when estimated in foot-pounds, but its importance is immense on account of its _effects on the over-contracted person's spiritual life_. this follows as a necessary consequence from the theory of our emotions to which i made reference at the beginning of this article. for by the sensations that so incessantly pour in from the over-tense excited body the over-tense and excited habit of mind is kept up; and the sultry, threatening, exhausting, thunderous inner atmosphere never quite clears away. if you never wholly give yourself up to the chair you sit in, but always keep your leg- and body-muscles half contracted for a rise; if you breathe eighteen or nineteen instead of sixteen times a minute, and never quite breathe out at that,--what mental mood _can_ you be in but one of inner panting and expectancy, and how can the future and its worries possibly forsake your mind? on the other hand, how can they gain admission to your mind if your brow be unruffled, your respiration calm and complete, and your muscles all relaxed? now what is the cause of this absence of repose, this bottled-lightning quality in us americans? the explanation of it that is usually given is that it comes from the extreme dryness of our climate and the acrobatic performances of our thermometer, coupled with the extraordinary progressiveness of our life, the hard work, the railroad speed, the rapid success, and all the other things we know so well by heart. well, our climate is certainly exciting, but hardly more so than that of many parts of europe, where nevertheless no bottled-lightning girls are found. and the work done and the pace of life are as extreme in every great capital of europe as they are here. to me both of these pretended causes are utterly insufficient to explain the facts. to explain them, we must go not to physical geography, but to psychology and sociology. the latest chapter both in sociology and in psychology to be developed in a manner that approaches adequacy is the chapter on the imitative impulse. first bagehot, then tarde, then royce and baldwin here, have shown that invention and imitation, taken together, form, one may say, the entire warp and woof of human life, in so far as it is social. the american over-tension and jerkiness and breathlessness and intensity and agony of expression are primarily social, and only secondarily physiological, phenomena. they are _bad habits_, nothing more or less, bred of custom and example, born of the imitation of bad models and the cultivation of false personal ideals. how are idioms acquired, how do local peculiarities of phrase and accent come about? through an accidental example set by some one, which struck the ears of others, and was quoted and copied till at last every one in the locality chimed in. just so it is with national tricks of vocalization or intonation, with national manners, fashions of movement and gesture, and habitual expressions of face. we, here in america, through following a succession of pattern-setters whom it is now impossible to trace, and through influencing each other in a bad direction, have at last settled down collectively into what, for better or worse, is our own characteristic national type,--a type with the production of which, so far as these habits go, the climate and conditions have had practically nothing at all to do. this type; which we have thus reached by our imitativeness, we now have fixed upon us, for better or worse. now no type can be _wholly_ disadvantageous; but, so far as our type follows the bottled-lightning fashion, it cannot be wholly good. dr. clouston was certainly right in thinking that eagerness, breathlessness, and anxiety are not signs of strength: they are signs of weakness and of bad co-ordination. the even forehead, the slab-like cheek, the codfish eye, may be less interesting for the moment; but they are more promising signs than intense expression is of what we may expect of their possessor in the long run. your dull, unhurried worker gets over a great deal of ground, because he never goes backward or breaks down. your intense, convulsive worker breaks down and has bad moods so often that you never know where he may be when you most need his help,--he may be having one of his "bad days." we say that so many of our fellow-countrymen collapse, and have to be sent abroad to rest their nerves, because they work so hard. i suspect that this is an immense mistake. i suspect that neither the nature nor the amount of our work is accountable for the frequency and severity of our breakdowns, but that their cause lies rather in those absurd feelings of hurry and having no time, in that breathlessness and tension, that anxiety of feature and that solicitude for results, that lack of inner harmony and ease, in short, by which with us the work is so apt to be accompanied, and from which a european who should do the same work would nine times out of ten be free. these perfectly wanton and unnecessary tricks of inner attitude and outer manner in us, caught from the social atmosphere, kept up by tradition, and idealized by many as the admirable way of life, are the last straws that break the american camel's back, the final overflowers of our measure of wear and tear and fatigue. the voice, for example, in a surprisingly large number of us has a tired and plaintive sound. some of us are really tired (for i do not mean absolutely to deny that our climate has a tiring quality); but far more of us are not tired at all, or would not be tired at all unless we had got into a wretched trick of feeling tired, by following the prevalent habits of vocalization and expression. and if talking high and tired, and living excitedly and hurriedly, would only enable us to _do_ more by the way, even while breaking us down in the end, it would be different. there would be some compensation, some excuse, for going on so. but the exact reverse is the case. it is your relaxed and easy worker, who is in no hurry, and quite thoughtless most of the while of consequences, who is your efficient worker; and tension and anxiety, and present and future, all mixed up together in our mind at once, are the surest drags upon steady progress and hindrances to our success. my colleague, professor münsterberg, an excellent observer, who came here recently, has written some notes on america to german papers. he says in substance that the appearance of unusual energy in america is superficial and illusory, being really due to nothing but the habits of jerkiness and bad co-ordination for which we have to thank the defective training of our people. i think myself that it is high time for old legends and traditional opinions to be changed; and that, if any one should begin to write about yankee inefficiency and feebleness, and inability to do anything with time except to waste it, he would have a very pretty paradoxical thesis to sustain, with a great many facts to quote, and a great deal of experience to appeal to in its proof. well, my friends, if our dear american character is weakened by all this over-tension,--and i think, whatever reserves you may make, that you will agree as to the main facts,--where does the remedy lie? it lies, of course, where lay the origins of the disease. if a vicious fashion and taste are to blame for the thing, the fashion and taste must be changed. and, though it is no small thing to inoculate seventy millions of people with new standards, yet, if there is to be any relief, that will have to be done. we must change ourselves from a race that admires jerk and snap for their own sakes, and looks down upon low voices and quiet ways as dull, to one that, on the contrary, has calm for its ideal, and for their own sakes loves harmony, dignity, and ease. so we go back to the psychology of imitation again. there is only one way to improve ourselves, and that is by some of us setting an example which the others may pick up and imitate till the new fashion spreads from east to west. some of us are in more favorable positions than others to set new fashions. some are much more striking personally and imitable, so to speak. but no living person is sunk so low as not to be imitated by somebody. thackeray somewhere says of the irish nation that there never was an irishman so poor that he didn't have a still poorer irishman living at his expense; and, surely, there is no human being whose example doesn't work contagiously in _some_ particular. the very idiots at our public institutions imitate each other's peculiarities. and, if you should individually achieve calmness and harmony in your own person, you may depend upon it that a wave of imitation will spread from you, as surely as the circles spread outward when a stone is dropped into a lake. fortunately, we shall not have to be absolute pioneers. even now in new york they have formed a society for the improvement of our national vocalization, and one perceives its machinations already in the shape of various newspaper paragraphs intended to stir up dissatisfaction with the awful thing that it is. and, better still than that, because more radical and general, is the gospel of relaxation, as one may call it, preached by miss annie payson call, of boston, in her admirable little volume called _power through repose_, a book that ought to be in the hands of every teacher and student in america of either sex. you need only be followers, then, on a path already opened up by others. but of one thing be confident: others still will follow you. and this brings me to one more application of psychology to practical life, to which i will call attention briefly, and then close. if one's example of easy and calm ways is to be effectively contagious, one feels by instinct that the less voluntarily one aims at getting imitated, the more unconscious one keeps in the matter, the more likely one is to succeed. _become the imitable thing,_ and you may then discharge your minds of all responsibility for the imitation. the laws of social nature will take care of that result. now the psychological principle on which this precept reposes is a law of very deep and widespread importance in the conduct of our lives, and at the same time a law which we americans most grievously neglect. stated technically, the law is this: that _strong feeling about one's self tends to arrest the free association of one's objective ideas and motor processes._ we get the extreme example of this in the mental disease called melancholia. a melancholic patient is filled through and through with intensely painful emotion about himself. he is threatened, he is guilty, he is doomed, he is annihilated, he is lost. his mind is fixed as if in a cramp on these feelings of his own situation, and in all the books on insanity you may read that the usual varied flow of his thoughts has ceased. his associative processes, to use the technical phrase, are inhibited; and his ideas stand stock-still, shut up to their one monotonous function of reiterating inwardly the fact of the man's desperate estate. and this inhibitive influence is not due to the mere fact that his emotion is _painful_. joyous emotions about the self also stop the association of our ideas. a saint in ecstasy is as motionless and irresponsive and one-idea'd as a melancholiac. and, without going as far as ecstatic saints, we know how in every one a great or sudden pleasure may paralyze the flow of thought. ask young people returning from a party or a spectacle, and all excited about it, what it was. "oh, it was _fine!_ it was _fine!_ it was _fine!_" is all the information you are likely to receive until the excitement has calmed down. probably every one of my hearers has been made temporarily half-idiotic by some great success or piece of good fortune. "_good!_ good! good!" is all we can at such times say to ourselves until we smile at our own very foolishness. now from all this we can draw an extremely practical conclusion. if, namely, we wish our trains of ideation and volition to be copious and varied and effective, we must form the habit of freeing them from the inhibitive influence of reflection upon them, of egoistic pre-occupation about their results. such a habit, like other habits, can be formed. prudence and duty and self-regard, emotions of ambition and emotions of anxiety, have, of course, a needful part to play in our lives. but confine them as far as possible to the occasions when you are making your general resolutions and deciding on your plan of campaign, and keep them out of the details. when once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome. _unclamp_, in a word, your intellectual and practical machinery, and let it run free; and the service it will do you will be twice as good. who are the scholars who get "rattled" in the recitation-room? those who think of the possibilities of failure and feel the great importance of the act. who are those who do recite well? often those who are most indifferent. _their_ ideas reel themselves out of their memory of their own accord. why do we hear the complaint so often that social life in new england is either less rich and expressive or more fatiguing than it is in some other parts of the world? to what is the fact, if fact it be, due unless to the over-active conscience of the people, afraid of either saying something too trivial and obvious, or something insincere, or something unworthy of one's interlocutor, or something in some way or other not adequate to the occasion? how can conversation possibly steer itself through such a sea of responsibilities and inhibitions as this? on the other hand, conversation does flourish and society is refreshing, and neither dull on the one hand nor exhausting from its efforts on the other, wherever people forget their scruples and take the brakes off their hearts, and let their tongues wag as automatically and irresponsibly as they will. they talk much in pedagogic circles to-day about the duty of the teacher to prepare for every lesson in advance. to some extent this is useful. but we yankees are assuredly not those to whom such a general doctrine should be preached. we are only too careful as it is. the advice i should give to most teachers would be in the words of one who is herself an admirable teacher. prepare yourself in the _subject so well that it shall be always on tap_: then in the class-room trust your spontaneity and fling away all further care. my advice to students, especially to girl-students, would be somewhat similar. just as a bicycle-chain may be too tight, so may one's carefulness and conscientiousness be so tense as to hinder the running of one's mind. take, for example, periods when there are many successive days of examination pending. one ounce of good nervous tone in an examination is worth many pounds of anxious study for it in advance. if you want really to do your best at an examination, fling away the book the day before, say to yourself, "i won't waste another minute on this miserable thing, and i don't care an iota whether i succeed or not." say this sincerely and feel it; and go out and play, or go to bed and sleep, and i am sure the results next day will encourage you to use the method permanently. i have heard this advice given to a student by miss call, whose book on muscular relaxation i quoted a moment ago. in her later book, entitled _as a matter of course_, the gospel of moral relaxation, of dropping things from the mind, and not "caring," is preached with equal success. not only our preachers, but our friends the theosophists and mind-curers of various religious sects are also harping on this string. and with the doctors, the delsarteans, the various mind-curing sects, and such writers as mr. dresser, prentice mulford, mr. horace fletcher, and mr. trine to help, and the whole band of schoolteachers and magazine-readers chiming in, it really looks as if a good start might be made in the direction of changing our american mental habit into something more indifferent and strong. worry means always and invariably inhibition of associations and loss of effective power. of course, the sovereign cure for worry is religious faith; and this, of course, you also know. the turbulent billows of the fretful surface leave the deep parts of the ocean undisturbed, and to him who has a hold on vaster and more permanent realities the hourly vicissitudes of his personal destiny seem relatively insignificant things. the really religious person is accordingly unshakable and full of equanimity, and calmly ready for any duty that the day may bring forth. this is charmingly illustrated by a little work with which i recently became acquainted, "the practice of the presence of god, the best ruler of a holy life, by brother lawrence, being conversations and letters of nicholas herman of lorraine, translated from the french."[ ] i extract a few passages, the conversations being given in indirect discourse. brother lawrence was a carmelite friar, converted at paris in . "he said that he had been footman to m. fieubert, the treasurer, and that he was a great awkward fellow, who broke everything. that he had desired to be received into a monastery, thinking that he would there be made to smart for his awkwardness and the faults he should commit, and so he should sacrifice to god his life, with its pleasures; but that god had disappointed him, he having met with nothing but satisfaction in that state.... "that he had long been troubled in mind from a certain belief that he should be damned; that all the men in the world could not have persuaded him to the contrary; but that he had thus reasoned with himself about it: _i engaged in a religious life only for the love of god, and i have endeavored to act only for him; whatever becomes of me, whether i be lost or saved, i will always continue to act purely for the love of god. i shall have this good at least, that till death i shall have done all that is in me to love him ..._ that since then he had passed his life in perfect liberty and continual joy. "that when an occasion of practicing some virtue offered, he addressed himself to god, saying, 'lord, i cannot do this unless thou enablest me'; and that then he received strength more than sufficient. that, when he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault, saying to god, 'i shall never do otherwise, if you leave me to myself: it is you who must hinder my failing, and mend what is amiss.' that after this he gave himself no further uneasiness about it. "that he had been lately sent into burgundy to buy the provision of wine for the society, which was a very unwelcome task for him, because he had no turn for business, and because he was lame, and could not go about the boat but by rolling himself over the casks. that, however, he gave himself no uneasiness about it, nor about the purchase of the wine. that he said to god, 'it was his business he was about,' and that he afterward found it well performed. that he had been sent into auvergne, the year before, upon the same account; that he could not tell how the matter passed, but that it proved very well. "so, likewise, in his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally a great aversion), having accustomed himself to do everything there for the love of god, and with prayer upon all occasions, for his grace to do his work well, he had found everything easy during fifteen years that he had been employed there. "that he was very well pleased with the post he was now in, but that he was as ready to quit that as the former, since he was always pleasing himself in every condition, by doing little things for the love of god. "that the goodness of god assured him he would not forsake him utterly, and that he would give him strength to bear whatever evil he permitted to happen to him; and, therefore, that he feared nothing, and had no occasion to consult with anybody about his state. that, when he had attempted to do it, he had always come away more perplexed." the simple-heartedness of the good brother lawrence, and the relaxation of all unnecessary solicitudes and anxieties in him is a refreshing spectacle. * * * * * the need of feeling responsible all the livelong day has been preached long enough in our new england. long enough exclusively, at any rate,--and long enough to the female sex. what our girl-students and women-teachers most need nowadays is not the exacerbation, but rather the toning-down of their moral tensions. even now i fear that some one of my fair hearers may be making an undying resolve to become strenuously relaxed, cost what it will, for the remainder of her life. it is needless to say that that is not the way to do it. the way to do it, paradoxical as it may seem, is genuinely not to care whether you are doing it or not. then, possibly, by the grace of god, you may all at once find that you _are_ doing it, and, having learned what the trick feels like, you may (again by the grace of god) be enabled to go on. and that something like this may be the happy experience of all my hearers is, in closing, my most earnest wish. footnotes: [footnote : from _talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of life's problems_. henry holt and company, new york, .] [footnote : fleming h. revell company, new york (author).] science and religion[ ] _charles proteus steinmetz_ the problem of religion--that is, of the relations of man with the supernatural, with god and immortality, with the soul, our personality or the ego, and its existence or nonexistence after death--is the greatest and deepest which ever confronted mankind. in the present state of human knowledge, science can give no definite and final conclusions on these subjects, because of the limitations inherent in science. we must realize that all our knowledge and information and the entire structure of science are ultimately derived from the perceptions of our senses and thereby limited in the same manner and to the same extent as our sense perceptions and our intellect are limited. the success or failure of scientific achievement largely depends on the extent to which we can abstract--that is, make our observations and conclusions independent of the limitations of the human mind. but there are limitations inherent in the human mind beyond which our intellect cannot reach, and therefore science does not and cannot show us the world as it actually is, with its true facts and laws, but only as it appears to us within the inherent limitations of the human mind. the greatest limitation of the human mind is that all its perceptions are finite, and our intellect cannot grasp the conception of infinity. the same limitation therefore applies to the world as it appears to our reasoning intellect, and in the world of science there is no infinity, and conceptions such as god and the immortality of the ego are beyond the realm of empirical science. science deals only with finite events in finite time and space, and the farther we pass onward in space or time, the more uncertain becomes the scientific reasoning, until, in trying to approach the infinite, we are lost in the fog of unreasonable contradiction, "beyond science"--that is, "transcendental". thus, we may never know and understand the infinite, whether in nature, in the ultimate deductions from the laws of nature in time and in space, or beyond nature, on such transcendental conceptions as god and immortality. but we may approach these subjects as far as the limitations of our mind permit, reach the border line beyond which we cannot go, and so derive some understanding of how far these subjects may appear nonexisting or unreasonable, merely because they are beyond the limitations of our intellect. there appear to me two promising directions of approach--first, from the complex of thought and research, which in physics has culminated in the theory of relativity; and, second, in a study of the gaps found in the structure of empirical science and what they may teach us. all events of nature occur in space and in time. whatever we perceive, whatever record we receive through our senses, always is attached to, and contained in, space and time. but are space and time real existing things? have they an absolute reality outside of our mind, as a part or framework of nature, as entities--that is, things that are? or are they merely a conception of the human mind, a form given by the character of our mind to the events of nature--that is, to the hypothetical cause of our sense perceptions? kant, the greatest and most critical of all philosophers, in his _critique of pure reason (kritik der reinen vernunft)_, concludes that space and time have no absolute existence, but are categories--that is, forms in which the human mind conceives his relation to nature. the same idea is expressed by the poet-philosopher goethe in his dramatic autobiography _faust_ (in the second part), when he refers to the "mütter," to the marriage of achilles and helena "outside of all time." it is found in ancient time. so revelation speaks of "there should be time no longer" (hoti chronos ouketi estai). the work of the great mathematicians of the nineteenth century--gauss, riemann, lobatschefsky, bolyai--offered further evidence that space is not an empirical deduction from nature, but a conception of the mind, by showing that various forms of space can be conceived, differing from one another and from the form in which the mind has cast the events of nature (the "euclidean" space). finally, physical science, in the theory of relativity, has deduced the same conclusions: space and time do not exist in nature by themselves, as empty space and empty time, but their existence is only due to things and events as they occur in nature. they are relative in the relation between us and the events of nature, so much so that they are not fixed and invariable in their properties, but depend upon the observer and the conditions of observation. we can get an idea of how utterly our perception of nature depends on the particular form of our time conception by picturing to ourselves how nature would look if our time perception were , times faster, or , times slower. in the first case, with our sense perceptions , times faster, all events in nature would appear to us , times slower. this would then be a stationary and immovable world. the only motion which we could see with our eyes would be that of the cannon ball, which would crawl slowly along, at less than a snail's pace. the express train going at sixty miles per hour would appear to stand still, and deliberate experiment be required to discover its motion. by noting its position on the track, and noting it again after a period of time as long as five minutes appears to us now, we should find its position changed by three inches. it would be a dangerous world, as there would be many objects--not distinguishable to the senses from other harmless objects--contact with which would be dangerous, even fatal; and one and the same object (as the express train) might sometimes be harmless (when at rest), sometimes dangerous (when in motion), without our senses being able to see any difference. on the other hand, with our sense perceptions , times slower, all events in nature would appear to us to occur , times faster. there would be little rest in nature, and we should see plants, and even stones, move. we should observe, in a period of time not longer than a minute or two appear to us now, a plant start from seed, grow up, flower, bring fruit, and die. sun and moon would be luminous bands traversing the sky; day and night alternate seconds of light and darkness. much of nature, all moving things, would be invisible to us. if i moved my arm, it would disappear, to reappear again when i held it still. it would be a usual occurrence to have somebody suddenly appear and just as suddenly disappear from our midst, or to see only a part of a body. the vanishing and the appearance of objects would be common occurrences in nature; and we should speak of "vanishing" and "appearing," instead of "moving" and "stopping." collisions, usually harmless, with invisible objects would be common occurrences. as seen, nature and its laws would appear to us very different from what we find them now, with our present time perception. thus philosophy, mathematics, and physical science agree that space and time cannot be entities, but are conceptions of the human mind in its relation to nature. but what does this mean, and what conclusions follow from it? the space of our conception is three-dimensional--that is, extended in three directions. for instance, the north-south direction, the east-west direction, and the up-down direction. any place or "point" in space thus is located, relative to some other point, by giving its three distances from the latter, in three (arbitrarily chosen) directions. time has only one dimension--that is, extends in one direction only, from the past to the future--and a moment or "point" in time thus is located, with reference to another point in time, by one time distance. but there is a fundamental difference between our space conception and our time conception, in that we can pass through time only in one direction, from the past to the future, while we can pass through space in any direction, from north to south, as well as from south to north--that is, time is irreversible, flows uniformly in one direction, while space is reversible, can be traversed in any direction. this means that when we enter a thing in space, as a house, we can approach it, pass through it, leave it, come back to it, and the thing therefore appears permanent to us, and we know, even when we have left the house and do not see it any more, that it still exists, and that we can go back to it again and enter it. not so with time. on approaching a thing in time, an event such as a human life, it extends from a point in time--birth--over a length of time--the life--to an end point in time--death--just as the house in space extends from a point in space--say the north wall--over a length of space--its extent--to an end point in space--say the south wall. but when we pass beyond the end point of an event in time--the death of a life--we cannot go back to the event any more; the event has ceased, ended, the life is extinct. but let us imagine that the same irreversibility applied to the conception of space--that is, that we could move through space only from north to south, and not in the opposite direction. then a thing in space, as a house, would not exist for us until we approached it. when we were approaching it, it would first appear indistinctly, and more and more distinctly the nearer we approached it, just as an event in time does not exist until we reach the point of its beginning, but may appear in anticipation, in time perspective, when we approach it, the more distinctly, the closer we approach it, until we reach the threshold of the time span covered by the event, and the event begins to exist, the life is born. so to us, if we could move only from north to south, the house would begin to exist only when we reached its north door. that point would be the "birth" of the house. passing through the span of space covered by the house--this would for us be its existence, its "life," and when we stepped out of the south door the house would cease to exist for us, we could never enter it and turn back to it again--that is, it would be dead and extinct, just as the life when we pass beyond its end point in time. thus birth and death, appearance and extinction of an event in time, as our life, are the same as the beginning and end point of a thing in space, like a house. but the house appears to us to exist permanently, whether we are in it, within the length between beginning and end point, or not; while the event in time, our life, appears to us to exist only during the length of time when we are between its beginning and its end point in time, and before and after it does not exist for us, because we cannot go back to it or ahead into it. but assume time were reversible, like space--that is, we could go through it in any direction. there would then be no such thing as birth or origin, and death or extinction, but our life would exist permanently, as a part or span of time, just as the house exists as a part or section of space, and the question of immortality, of extinction or nonextinction by death, would then be meaningless. we should not exist outside of the span of time covered by our life, just as we do not exist outside of the part of space covered by our body in space, and to reach an event, as our life, we should have to go to the part of space and to the part of time where it occurs; but there would be no more extinction of the life by going beyond its length in time as there is extinction of a house by going outside of its door, and everything, like a human being, would have four extensions or dimensions--three extensions in space and one in time.[ ] if space and time, and therefore the characteristics of space and time, are not real things or entities, but conceptions of the human mind, then those transcendental questions, as that of immortality after death and existence before birth, are not problems of fact in nature or outside of nature, but are meaningless, just as the question whether a house exists for an observer outside of the space covered by it. in other words, the questions of birth and death, of extinction or immortality, are merely the incidental results of the peculiarity of our conceptions of time, the peculiarity that the time of our conceptions is irreversible, flows continuously at a uniform rate in the same direction from the past to the future. but if time has no reality, is not an existing entity, then these transcendental problems resulting from our time conception, of extinction or immortality, have no real existence, but are really phenomena of the human mind, and cease to exist if we go beyond the limitations of our mind, beyond our peculiar time conception. it is interesting to realize that the modern development of science, in the relativity theory, has proved not only that time is not real, but a conception, but also has proved that the time of our conception does not flow uniformly at constant rate from past to future, but that the rate of the flow of time varies with the conditions; the rate of time flow of an event slows down with the motion relative to the event. but the conception of a reversal of the flow of time is no more illogical than the conception of a change of the rate of the flow of time. it is inconceivable, because it is beyond the limitations of our mind. thus we see that the questions of life and death, of extinction and immortality, are not absolute problems, but merely the result of the limitations of our mind in its conception of time, and have no existence outside of us. after all, to some extent we conceive time as reversible, in the conception of historical time. in history we go back in time at our will, and traverse with the mind's eye the times of the past, and we then find that death and extinction do not exist in history, but the events of history, the lives of those who made history, exist just as much outside of the span of time of their physiological life--that is, are immortal in historical time. they may fade and become more indistinct with the distance in time, just as things in space become more indistinct with the distance in space, but they can be brought back to full clearness and distinction by again approaching the things and events, the former moving through space, the latter moving through the historical time--that is, by looking up and studying the history of the time. the entity "x" scientifically, life is a physico-chemical process. transformations of matter, with which the chemist deals, and transformations of energy, with which the physicist deals, are all that is comprised in the phenomenon of life; and mind, intellect, soul, personality, the ego, are mere functions of the physico-chemical process of life, vanishing when this process ceases, but are not a part of the transformations of matter and of energy. if you thus speak of "mental energy," it scientifically is a misnomer, and mind is not energy in the physical sense. it is true that mental effort, intellectual work, is accompanied by transformations of matter, chemical changes in the brain, and by transformations of energy. but the mental activity is not a part of the energy or of the matter which is transformed, but the balance of energy and of matter closes. in the energy transformations accompanying mental activity, just as much energy of one form appears as energy of some other form is consumed, and the mental activity is no part of the energy. in the transformations of matter accompanying mental activity, just as much matter of one form appears as matter of some other form is consumed, and the mental activity is no part of either--that is, neither energy nor matter has been transformed into mental activity, nor has energy or matter been produced by mental activity. all attempts to account for the mental activity as produced by the expenditure of physical energy, or as producing physical energy--that is, exerting forces and action--have failed and must fail, and so must any attempt to record or observe and measure mental activity by physical methods--that is, methods sensitive to the action of physical forces. but what, then, is mind? is it a mere phenomenon, accompanying the physico-chemical reactions of life and vanishing with the end of the reaction, just as the phenomenon of a flame may accompany a chemical reaction, and vanish when the reaction is completed? or is mind an entity, just like the entity energy and the entity matter, but differing from either of them--in short, a third entity? we have compared mind with the phenomenon of a flame accompanying a chemical reaction; but, after all, the flame is not a mere phenomenon, but is an entity, is energy. more than once, in the apparently continuous and unbroken structure of science, wide gaps have been discovered into which new sections of knowledge fitted, sections the existence of which had never been suspected. so in mendelejeff's _periodic system of the elements_ all chemical elements fitted in without gaps--in a continuous series (except a few missing links, which were gradually discovered and filled in). nevertheless, the whole group of six noble gases, from helium to emanium, were discovered and fitted into the periodic system at a place where nobody had suspected a gap. one of the most interesting of such unsuspected gaps in the structure of science is the following, because of its pertinency to the subject of our discussion. in studying the transformations of matter, the chemist records them by equations of the form: ( ) h_{ } + o_{ } = h_{ }o, which means: two gram molecules of hydrogen h_{ }( x = grams) and gram molecule of oxygen o_{ }( x grams), combine to gram molecules of water vapor h_{ }o ( x = grams). for nearly a hundred years chemists wrote and accepted this equation; innumerable times it has been experimentally proved by combining parts of hydrogen and parts of oxygen to parts of water vapor; so that this chemical equation would appear as correct and unquestionable as anything can be. nevertheless, it is wrong, or rather incomplete. it does not give the whole event, but omits an essential part of it, and now we write it: ( ) h_{ } + o_{ } = h_{ }o + , j., which means: the matter _and energy_ of gram molecules of hydrogen, and the matter _and energy_ of gram molecule of oxygen, combine to the matter _and energy_ of gram molecules of water vapor and , joules, or units, of _free energy_. for a hundred years the chemists thus saw only the material transformation as represented by equation ( ), but overlooked and did not recognize the energy transformation coincident with the transformation of matter, though every time the experiment was made, the , j. of energy in equation ( ) made themselves felt as flame, as heat and mechanical force, sometimes even explosively shattering the container in which the experiment was made. but the flame and the explosion appeared only as an incidental phenomenon without significance, as it represents and contains no part of the matter, but equation ( ) gives the complete balance of matter in transformation. it was much later that the scientists realized the significance of the flame accompanying the material transformation as not a mere incidental phenomenon, but as the manifestation of the entity energy, permanent and indestructible, like matter, and the complete equation ( ) appeared, giving the balance of energy as well as the balance of matter--that is, coincident with the transformation of matter is a transformation of energy, and both are indissoluble from each other, either involves the other, and both may be called different aspects of the same phenomenon. but we have seen, when mental activity occurs in our mind, chemical and physical transformations accompany it, are coincident with it, and apparently indissoluble from it. does there possibly exist the same relation between mental activity and the transformations of energy and matter, as we have seen to exist between the latter two? are mental activity, energy transformation, and transformation of matter three aspects of the same biochemical phenomenon? if for nearly a hundred years equation ( ) was considered complete, until we found that one side was incomplete, and arrived at the more complete equation ( ), the question may well be raised: is equation ( ) complete, dealing as it does with two entities, matter and energy, or is it not possibly still incomplete, and a third entity should appear in the equation, an entity "x," as i may call it, differing from energy and from matter, just as energy and matter differ from each other, and therefore not recognizable and measurable by the means which measure energy or matter, just as energy cannot be measured by the same means as matter? that is, the complete equation of transformation would read: ( ) h_{ } + o_{ } = h_{ }o + , j. + x, involving all three entities, matter, energy, and mind, pertaining, respectively, to the realm of chemistry, of physics, and of psychology, or possibly a broader science of which psychology is one branch. there is no scientific evidence whatsoever of the existence of such a third entity, "x," but all our deductions have been by analogy, which proves nothing--that is, by speculation, dreaming, and unavoidably so--since in these conceptions we are close to the border line of the human mind where logical reasoning loses itself in the fog of contradiction. but at the same time there is no evidence against the conception of an entity "x"; it is not illogical, at least no more so than all such general conceptions, no more so than, for instance, that of energy or of matter. as empirical science deals with energy and matter, and entity "x" is neither, it could not be observed by any of the methods of experimental physics or chemistry. if mind is a third entity, correlated with the entities of energy and of matter, we should expect that mental activity, or entity "x," should occur not only in the highly complex transformations of energy and of matter taking place in the brains of the highest orders of living beings, but that entity "x" should appear in all physico-chemical reactions, just as energy transformations always occur in transformations of matter, and inversely. but this seems not so, and in most of the transformations of energy and of matter entity "x" does not appear. however, we have no satisfactory means of recognizing entity "x," no methods of studying it. therefore, it may well be that it is noticed only in those rare instances when it appears of high intensity, but in most reactions entity "x" may be so small or appear in such way as to escape observation by the means and by the methods now available. like energy or matter, entity "x" may have many forms in which it is not recognized by us, just as for a long time the flame was not recognized as the entity energy. to illustrate, again by analogy: in many transformations of matter, indeed, in most of the more complex ones of the organic world, the concurrent energy transformation is of such slowness and of such low intensity that it appears nonexisting, and can be discovered and measured only by the delicate experiments devised by science. furthermore, the energy may appear in different forms. thus the , j. of energy in equation ( ) may appear as heat, or as electrical energy, or as a combination of heat, light, sound, and mechanical energy. now assume that we could observe and notice only one of the forms of energy--for instance, only electrical energy. we should then find that in the equation ( ) we only sometimes get energy--that is, electrical energy--under special peculiar conditions, but usually do not seem to get any of the entity energy, simply because we do not recognize it in the form in which it appears. analogously, there might be a term of entity "x" in all transformations, even such simple ones as equation ( ), but entity "x" may appear in a far different, simpler form. it would mean that "mind" is only one form of entity "x," perhaps the high-grade form, as it appears in highly complex reactions. in the simpler physico-chemical processes of nature, entity "x" also would appear, but in other, simpler forms. it would mean that things such as mind and intellect are not limited to the higher living beings, but characteristics akin thereto would be found grading down throughout all living and inanimate nature. this does not appear unreasonable when we consider that some characteristics of life are found throughout all nature, even in the crystal which, in its mother liquor, repairs a lesion, "heals a wound," or which, in the colloidal solution, may be "poisoned" by prussic acid. assume, then, that mind, intellect, personality, the ego, were forms of a third entity, an entity "x," correlated in nature with the entities energy and matter. then, just as energy and matter continuously change their forms, so with the transformations of energy and of matter, entity "x" would continuously change, disappear in one form and reappear in another form. entity "x" could therefore not exist permanently in one and the same form, and the permanency of the ego--that is, immortality--would still be illogical, would not exist within the realm of science, but would carry us beyond the limitations of the human mind into the unknowable. permanency of the ego--that is, individual immortality--would require a form of entity "x," in which it is not further transformable. this would be the case if the transformations of entity "x" are not completely reversible, but tend one definite direction, from lower-grade to higher-grade forms, and the latter thus would gradually build up to increasing permanency. there is nothing unreasonable in this, but a similar condition--in the reverse direction--exists with the transformations of energy. they also are not completely reversible, but tend in a definite direction, from higher- to lower-grade form--unavailable heat energy (the increase of entropy by the second law of thermodynamics). thus in infinite time the universe should come to a standstill, in spite of the law of conservation of energy, by all energy becoming unavailable for further transformation--that is, becoming dead energy. if entity "x" existed, could it not also have become unavailable for further transformation by reaching its maximum high-grade form and thus become not susceptible to further change--that is, "immortal"--just as the unavailable heat of the physicist is "immortal," and not capable of further transformation? here we are again in the fog of illogic, beyond the limitations. however, it sounds familiar to the nirvana of the buddhist. physics and chemistry obviously could not deal with entity "x," and the most delicate and sensitive physical or chemical instruments could get no indication of it, and all attempts at investigation by physical or chemical means thus must be doomed to failure. but such investigations of entity "x" belong to the realm of the science of psychology, or, rather, a broader science, of which psychology is one branch dealing with one form of entity "x," mind, just as, for instance, electro-physics is one branch of the broader science of physics, dealing with electrical energy, while physics deals with all forms of energy. in concluding, i wish to say that nothing in the preceding speculations can possibly encourage spiritism or other pseudo-science. on the contrary, from the preceding it is obvious that the alleged manifestations of spiritism must be fake or self-deception, since they are manifestations of energy. entity "x," if it exists, certainly is not energy, and therefore could not manifest itself as such. footnotes: [footnote : from _harpers magazine_ for february, .] [footnote : it is interesting to note that the relativity theory leads to the conception of a symmetrical four-dimensional world space (minkowski), in which in general each of the four dimensions comprises space and time conceptions, and the segregation into three dimensions of space and one dimension of time occurs only under special conditions of observation. (author.)] biographical and critical notes sir arthur keith, m.d., ll.d., f.r.s., born in aberdeen, , was educated at the university of aberdeen; at university college, london; and at the university of leipzig. from to , he was secretary of the anatomical society of great britain, and was president of the royal anthropological institute from to . at present he is hunterian professor and conservator of museum, royal college of surgeons, london, and also holds the fullerian professorship of physiology, royal institution of great britain and ireland. beginning with his _introduction to the study of anthropoid apes_ in , he has produced some ten volumes. among them are _human embryology and morphology_ ( ); _ancient types of man_ ( ); _the human body_ ( ); _menders of the maimed_ ( ); and _nationality and race_ ( ). he was knighted in . "the levers of the human body" is helpful in illustrating the value of diagrams and of analogy in the exposition of a mechanism. it may be used also for teaching the student to adapt his work to the audience, for, although prepared at first for an immature audience, its material has since been so adapted that in addition to the general reader it is of particular interest to the physician and to the engineer. the series of volumes in which _modern methods of book composition_ appears, is but one of the distinguished services in improving the practice of typography rendered by theodore low de vinne ( - ). at his invitation, the chapter, "mechanical composition," was contributed by philip t. dodge, president of the mergenthaler linotype company. "the mergenthaler linotype," which is taken from mr. dodge's chapter, is well adapted for teaching the correlation of diagrams and text in the exposition of mechanisms and machines. some idea of the length of jean henri fabre's life ( - ) may be obtained when we recall that his place as a scientist was established early enough for victor hugo to refer to him as the "insects' homer" and for darwin to refer to him in _the origin of species_ as "that incomparable observer." by , fabre had escaped from the poverty of his boyhood and had qualified as a pupil teacher at the normal college at vaucluse. later, he became professor of physics and chemistry at the _lycée_ of ajaccio and, by , held a similar position at avignon. the greater part of his life was spent in the study of insects. the results are recorded in several volumes. an interesting _life_, written by the abbé augustin fabre and translated by mr. miall, was published in . "the pea weevil," which offers an example of the exposition of a process achieved by impersonal narration, should prove especially helpful in showing the student how interest may be secured in such work. the j.w. butler paper company, which published the little volume from which the selection is taken, is recognized as an important factor in the industry. "modern paper-making" may be utilized in teaching the emphasis placed on chronological order in the impersonal narration of a process; the explanation of machines by generalized description in such narration; and the methods employed in explaining alternate or parallel steps in the process. william james ( - ), like his equally distinguished brother, received his elementary education in new york city and in europe. from to , he studied at the lawrence scientific school, harvard university, leaving to join the thayer expedition to brazil. he was graduated in from the harvard medical school and, two years later, was appointed instructor in anatomy and physiology. in , while assistant professor of physiology at the medical school, he was appointed assistant professor of philosophy at harvard university. his later work at the university is well-known. among his published works are his _principles of psychology_ ( ); _the will to believe_ ( ); _the varieties of religious experience_ ( ); _pragmatism_ ( ); _memories and studies_ ( ); and _essays in radical empiricism_ ( ). his _letters_, edited by his son, appeared in . "the gospel of relaxation" offers a model in the adaptation of scientific material to a lay audience, through the way in which the author makes clear the lange-james theory by concrete examples and practical applications. charles proteus steinmetz ( -), born in breslau, germany, was educated at breslau, berlin, and zurich. for twenty-five years he has been consulting engineer to the general electric company, and for twenty years professor of electro-physics at union university. besides several authoritative volumes on subjects within his field, he is the author of _america and the new epoch_ ( ) and is a frequent contributor to literary as well as to technical journals. "science and religion" may be used to show the student how even so technical a topic as the einstein theory may be rendered concrete for the general reader through analogy and specific examples. note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) transcriber's note: superscripted letters are indicated by the carat character followed by the letter(s) within curly brackets. example: ^{a} "stops" or, how to punctuate a practical handbook for writers and students by paul allardyce "for a reader that pointeth ill, a good sentence oft may spill." --chaucer--_romaunt of the rose_ london t. fisher unwin ltd. adelphi terrace eighteenth impression contents introduction the full stop the comma the semicolon the colon the point of interrogation the mark of exclamation the dash brackets (or the parenthesis) inverted commas italics the hyphen the apostrophe ellipsis references to notes correction of proofs introduction _the use of punctuation._--punctuation is a device for marking out the arrangement of a writer's ideas. reading is thereby made easier than it otherwise would be. a writer's ideas are expressed by a number of words arranged in groups, the words in one group being more closely connected with one another than they are with those in the next group. an example will show this grouping in its simplest form: he never convinces the reason, or fills the imagination, ----------------------------- --------------------- or touches the heart. ----------------- to understand what is written, the reader must group the words together in the way intended by the writer; and in doing this he can receive assistance in various ways. partly by the inflection of the words; partly by their arrangement; partly also by punctuation. as to inflection, we see in latin an adjective and a substantive standing together, yet differing in gender, in number, or in case; and we know that the adjective does not qualify the substantive. but english has not the numerous inflections of latin. more scrupulous care therefore is needed in the arrangement of words in order to bring together in position such as are connected in meaning. yet this is not always enough. except in the very simplest sentences there are generally several arrangements which are grammatically possible; and, though all save one may be absurd in meaning, the reader may waver for a moment before the absurdity strikes him. some artificial aid is thus needed to prevent him from thinking of any arrangement but the right one. there is no fault, for instance, to be found with the arrangement of the following words, yet, printed without points, they form a mere puzzle: he had arrived already prepossessed with a strong feeling of the neglect which he had experienced from the whigs his old friends however all of them appeared ravished to see him offered apologies for the mode in which they had treated him and caught at him as at a twig when they were drowning the influence of his talents they understood and were willing to see it thrown into the opposite scale. of course, with a little effort the meaning can be discovered; but if such a little effort had to be put forth in every page of a whole book, reading would become a serious task. by means of points, or "stops," we are spared much of this. the groups are presented ready-made to the eye; and the mind, bent on understanding the thought, is not distracted by having first to discover the connection of the words. the reader's task is more difficult where two or more ways of grouping the words not only are grammatically possible, but lead each to a more or less intelligible meaning. as a rule he can find out from the context which way the writer meant him to take. one politician writes to another: "i ask you as the recognized leader of our party what you think of this measure;" and nobody accuses the writer of presumption. we might even pass over the following startling sentence without observing the reflection which it casts on a respectable body of men: hence he considered marriage with a modern political economist as dangerous. but when we read that "the state may impose restrictions on the mothers of young children employed in factories," we may well have some doubt whether it is the mothers or the children who are employed in factories. and it would not be easy to give an answer, if we were asked to state the precise meaning of gray's line: and all the air a solemn stillness holds. in longer and more involved sentences the risk of ambiguity is obviously much greater. now by the judicious use of points ambiguous language can occasionally be made clear. "the mothers-of-young-children employed in factories" is no doubt a bold form, but it leaves us in no doubt as to the meaning. so the ambiguous word "too" does not embarrass us when we read: "this problem, too, easy as it may seem, remains unsolved." (see other examples under rules xiv. and xv.) only occasionally, however, can clearness be secured by punctuation. no pointing can help us much in gray's line, or could have given to pyrrhus the true reading of "credo te Æacida romanos vincere posse." and, even where it would make the meaning clear, it is a lazy device, the over-use of which is the sure sign of careless or unskilful composition. the true remedy for ambiguity is not punctuation, but re-writing. punctuation, it is sometimes said, serves to mark the pauses that would be made in speaking. this is so far true; for by the pause we arrange our spoken words into proper groups, thereby enabling our hearers readily to seize the meaning. but between the punctuation of the pen and that of the voice there is a great difference in degree. by the voice we can express the most delicate shades of thought, while only in the roughest way can the comma, the semicolon, and the other points, imitate its effects. as to how far the attempt at imitation should be carried, every writer will have to use his own discretion; but, whether we point freely or sparingly, we must for the reader's sake point consistently. it should at the same time be borne in mind that the lavish use of points often leads to confusion. _general rules._--keeping in view the use of punctuation, we can now form two general rules to guide us when we are in doubt which point we should insert, or whether we should insert a point at all. ( ) _the point that will keep the passage most free from ambiguity, or make it easiest to read, is the right point to use._ ( ) _if the passage be perfectly free from ambiguity and be not less easy to understand without any point, let no point be used._ _the relativity of points._--in order to decide in any given case what point ought to be used, we begin by considering the nature of the pause in itself. but we must do more. we must consider how we have pointed the rest of the passage. the pause that should be marked by a comma in one case, may require a semicolon in another case; the colon may take the place that the semicolon would generally fill. this will be best understood by means of the examples that will afterwards be given. (see rules xxiii., xxv.) _usage._--except within somewhat narrow limits, usage does not help us much. different writers have different methods, and few are consistent. to some extent there is a fair degree of uniformity; for instance, in the placing of colons before quotations, and in the use of inverted commas. but in many cases there can hardly be said to be any fixed usage, and in these we can freely apply the general rules already laid down. much might be said for a complete disregard of usage, for a thorough recasting of our system of punctuation. sooner or later something must be done to relieve the overburdened comma of part of the work which it is expected to perform. not only is the comma a less effective point than it might be, but the habit of using it for so many purposes is exercising a really mischievous effect on english style. in the meantime, and as a step towards a better system, there is an evident advantage in giving to the existing vague usage a more or less precise form. nothing more than this has been aimed at in the present work. in giving rules of punctuation we cannot hope to deal with all, or with nearly all, the cases that may arise in writing. punctuation is intimately connected with style. as forms of thought are infinite in number, so are the modes of expression; and punctuation, adapting itself to these, is an instrument capable of manipulation in a thousand ways. we can therefore set forth only some typical cases, forming a body of examples to which a little reflection will suggest a variety both of applications and of exceptions. it will be noticed that we do not take the points exactly in their order of strength. it seemed better to deal with the full stop before passing to the punctuation of the parts of a sentence. again, it may be said that, strictly speaking, italics do not form part of the subject. but they are at any rate so intimately connected with it that to have passed them over would have been merely pedantic. even the sections on references to notes and on the correction of proofs may not be considered altogether out of place. as few grammatical terms as possible have been made use of. some have been found necessary in order to secure the brevity of statement proper to a little work on a little subject. the full stop i. a full stop is placed at the end of every sentence that is neither exclamatory nor interrogative. a penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are incurred. the sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties without limit. he was, therefore, competent to annul virtually a penal statute. it might seem that there could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually. how much should be put into a sentence is rather a matter of style than of punctuation. the tendency of modern literature is in favour of the short sentence. in the prose of milton and of jeremy taylor, the full stop does not come to release the thought till all the circumstances have been grouped around it, and the necessary qualifications made. in macaulay the circumstances and the qualifications are set out sentence by sentence. so the steps of reasoning in the example which we have given are stated with that distinct pause between each of them which the reader would make if he thought them out for himself. they might be welded together thus: seeing that a penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are incurred, and seeing that the sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties without limit, it follows that he was competent to annul virtually a penal statute; and it might seem that there could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually. both forms are correct in point of punctuation. which is the better form is a question of style. take another example: the sides of the mountain were covered with trees; the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks; and every mouth dropped fruits upon the ground. there is here an advantage in putting these four statements together, instead of making four separate sentences. we can more easily combine the details, and so form a single picture--a picture of fertility. ii. as a rule the full stop is not to be inserted till the sentence be grammatically complete. but some parts of the sentence necessary to make it grammatically complete may be left for the reader to supply. it is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him. a man's or a nation of men's. by religion i do not mean here the church-creed which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign and, in words or otherwise, assert. not this wholly, in many cases not this at all. iii. when a sentence is purposely left unfinished, the dash takes the place of the full stop. (see rule xl.) "excuse me," said i, "but i am a sort of collector." "not income-tax?" cried his majesty, hastily removing his pipe from his lips. iv. a full stop is placed after most abbreviations, after initial letters, and after ordinal numbers in roman characters. gen. i. ; two lbs.; a.d. ; p.m.; &c., and etc.; m.d., j. s. mill; william iii., king of england; ms., ll.d. (not m.s. and l.l.d.). note that the use of the full stop in these cases does not prevent another point from being used immediately after it. but if they occur at the end of a sentence, another full stop is not added; or, more correctly, it may be said that rule iv. does not apply at the end of a sentence. "mr," "messrs," "dr"--abbreviations which retain the last letter of the whole word--are written without a point. the comma v. the comma indicates a short pause in a sentence. it is used when we wish to separate words that stand together, and at the same time to stop as little as possible the flow of the sentence. when the earl reached his own province, he found that preparations had been made to repel him. though it is difficult, or almost impossible, to reclaim a savage, bred from his youth to war and the chase, to the restraints and the duties of civilized life, nothing is more easy or common than to find men who have been educated in all the habits and comforts of improved society, willing to exchange them for the wild labours of the hunter and the fisher. vi. where there is no danger of obscurity, the subject must not be separated from the predicate by any point. the eminence of your station gave you a commanding prospect of your duty. vii. when the subject is long, a comma may be placed after it. to say that he endured without a murmur the misfortune that now came upon him, is to say only what his previous life would have led us to expect. in every sentence the subject, whether expressed in one word or in several words, must be grasped as a whole; and, when the subject is long, one is often assisted in doing this by having a point to mark its termination. the eye at once observes the separating line. note the corresponding pause in the reading of such sentences. viii. when the subject consists of several parts, _e.g._, of several nouns, a comma is placed after the last part. a few daring jests, a brawl, and a fatal stab, make up the life of marlowe. time, money, and friends, were needed to carry on the work. this rule will appear reasonable if we consider an apparent exception to it. when the last noun sums up all the others, or marks the highest point of a climax, no comma is placed after it. freedom, honour, religion was at stake. if "religion" be regarded as marking the highest point of a climax, the predicate is read with "religion," and with it alone. when so great a thing as religion is said to be at stake, everything else is dropped out of sight, or is held to be included. but write the three names as if they were of equal importance; the comma should then be inserted: freedom, honour, and religion, were at stake. but it is not necessary to use a point in such a sentence as this: "time and tide wait for no man." for we see without the aid of a point that the predicate is to be read with the two nouns equally. the principle might be applied also in cases like the following, though few writers carry it so far: it was the act of a high-spirited, generous, just nation. it was the act of a high-spirited, generous, and just, nation. ix. dependent clauses are generally separated from the rest of the sentence in which they occur. the usual point is the comma. be his motives what they may, he must soon disperse his followers. this relation of your army to the crown will, if i am not greatly mistaken, become a serious dilemma in your politics. of course, this rule must be qualified by the rules for the stronger points, especially by those for the semicolon and the colon. it is often necessary to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence by a strong point. exceptions.--(i) no point is needed if either the dependent clause or the principal clause be short. he would be shocked if he were to know the truth. but if the dependent clause be inserted parenthetically, it is marked off by commas or the other marks of parenthesis, however short it may be. (see rule x.) if the sentence last quoted were inverted, a comma would be placed after the dependent clause. if he were to know the truth, he would be shocked. in the first form of this example, "he would be shocked" is a definite, finished statement, the necessary qualification to which should follow with as little pause as possible. but in the inverted form, the first part of the sentence--"if he were to know the truth"--is not a finished statement, and the mind may pause for a moment before going on to the consequence, knowing that the consequence must follow. ( ) no point is needed if there be a very close grammatical connection between the dependent clause and some word or words preceding it. they had so long brooded over their own distresses that they knew nothing of how the world was changing around them. note that by the word "so" the clause "that they knew nothing" is joined very closely to the previous part of the sentence; and that the two clauses "that they knew nothing" and "how the world was changing around them," are even more closely joined to one another by the preposition "of." for the same reason, where the object is a clause, there is no point before it. he confessed to us that he had not thought over the matter. a useful distinction will afterwards be drawn between the different kinds of relative clauses. (rule xiv.) x. words thrown in so as to interrupt slightly the flow of a sentence are marked off by commas. he resolved, therefore, to visit the prisoner early in the morning. this, i think, is the right view of the case. the first ideas of beauty formed by the mind are, in all probability, derived from colours. the following are some of the words and phrases that come under this rule: _therefore_, _too_, _indeed_, _however_, _moreover_, _then_, _accordingly_, _consequently_; _in short_, _in fine_, _in truth_, _in fact_, _to a certain extent_, _all things considered_. this rule of high pointing should be applied very sparingly, and might really be restricted to cases like the "i think" of the second example. nowadays the tendency is against the pointing of such words as "therefore" and "indeed." where the words thrown in make a very distinct break in the sentence, they should be pointed off by means of the dash or of brackets. xi. where two parts of a sentence have some words in common, which are not expressed for each of them, but are given only when the words in which they differ have been separately stated, the second part is marked off by commas. his classification is different from, and more comprehensive than, any other which we have met. this foundation is a nursing-mother of lay, as distinguished from religious, oratorios. these examples come within the principle of rule x. xii. when words are common to two or more parts of a sentence, and are expressed only in one part, a comma is often used to show that they are omitted in the other parts. london is the capital of england; paris, of france; berlin, of germany. in the worst volume of elder date, the historian may find something to assist or direct his enquiries; the antiquarian, something to elucidate what requires illustration; the philologist, something to insert in the margin of his dictionary. though many writers constantly punctuate contracted sentences in this way, it is well not to insert the comma when the meaning is equally clear without it. it is unnecessary in the following sentence: saul hath slain his thousands, and david his ten thousands. xiii. words placed out of their natural position in the sentence are often followed by a comma. ( ) the object is usually placed after the verb; when placed at the beginning of the sentence, it should be separated from the subject by a comma, unless the meaning would otherwise be perfectly clear and be readily seized. the proportions of belief and of unbelief in the human mind in such cases, no human judgment can determine. there is the same reason for inserting the comma in such cases as there is for inserting it after a long subject. moreover, there is often need of some device to remove the ambiguities that are caused by inversion. in english, the meaning of words is so greatly determined by their position that, in altering the usual arrangement of a sentence, there is risk of being misunderstood. the danger of inserting the point in this case is that the object may be read with the words going before, and not with its own verb. if there is a possibility of this, the point should not be used. of course no point should be placed after the object in such a sentence as the following:--"one i love, and the other i hate." ( ) an adverbial phrase, that is a phrase used as an adverb, is usually placed after the verb; when it begins the sentence, a comma follows it unless it is very short. from the ridge a little way to the east, one can easily trace the windings of the river. in order to gain his point, he did not hesitate to use deception. in ordinary circumstances i should have acted differently. no point would be used in the above sentences, if the adverbial phrases occurred in their usual position. he did not hesitate to use deception in order to gain his point. nor is any point used when, as often happens in such sentences, the verb precedes the subject. not very far from the foot of the mountain lies the village we hope to reach. ( ) an adjective phrase, that is a phrase used as an adjective, is usually placed immediately after the word which it qualifies; when it appears in any other place, a comma is often usefully placed before it. a question was next put to the assembly, of supreme importance at such a moment. the phrase "of supreme importance at such a moment" is to be taken along with "question"; the comma shows that it is not to be taken along with "assembly." there is here a further reason for the point, inasmuch as the phrase acquires from its position almost the importance of an independent statement. but, where the connexion between the adjective phrase and the substantive is very close, and where there is no risk of ambiguity, no point is to be used. "the morning was come of a mighty day"--such a sentence needs no point. observe also that co-ordinate adjective phrases take a comma before them, wherever they are placed. (see next rule.) xiv. adjective clauses and contracted adjective clauses are marked off by commas, if they are used parenthetically or co-ordinately; no point is used if they are used restrictively.[ ] the "religio laici," which borrows its title from the "religio medici" of browne, is almost the only work of dryden which can be considered as a voluntary effusion. that sentiment of homely benevolence was worth all the splendid sayings that are recorded of kings. the advocates for this revolution, not satisfied with exaggerating the vices of their ancient government, strike at the fame of their country itself. the ships bound on these voyages were not advertised. chapter vii., where we stopped reading, is full of interest. the chapter where we stopped reading is full of interest. we must explain this distinction at some length; for, on the one hand, it is hardly ever observed, and, on the other hand, almost every sentence that we write furnishes an example of it. [footnote : to distinguish the different kinds of adjective clauses, different names have been used: "co-ordinating" and "restrictive" (bain); "continuative" and "definitive," or "restrictive" (mason).] examine the first sentence which we have quoted. it contains both a co-ordinate clause, "which borrows its title," &c., and a restrictive clause, "which can be considered as a voluntary effusion." in distinguishing them we may begin by applying tests of almost a mechanical nature. (_a_) the first clause may be thrown into the form of an independent statement; the second cannot. thus: "the 'religio laici' borrows its title from the 'religio medici' of browne. it is almost the only work," &c.; or, "the 'religio laici' (it borrows its title from the 'religio medici' of browne) is almost the only work," &c. we cannot in the same way destroy the close connexion of the second clause with "the only work of dryden." (_b_) the first clause may be omitted and still leave a complete and intelligent sentence; if we were to omit the second clause, the sentence would cease to have any meaning. these tests may be practically useful; but they are rough and by no means infallible. let us see the reason for the distinction. the name "religio laici" of itself tells us what thing is spoken about. it is the name of one thing, and only of one thing. the clause that follows informs us, indeed, of a fact concerning the poem; but the information is given purely as information, not in order to keep us from confounding this "religio laici" with some other "religio laici" that did not borrow its title. "work of dryden," however, is the name of a class, for dryden wrote many works. now the whole class is not here in question; it must be limited, narrowed, or restricted, to one part of it, namely dryden's voluntary effusions; and it is thus limited, narrowed, or restricted, by the relative clause "which can be considered as a voluntary effusion." take another example, where the name in both cases is that of a class, and note the difference of meaning which results from different pointing:--"the houses in london which are badly built, ought to be pulled down." "the houses in london" expresses a class of objects; the relative clause limits the name to a smaller class, the badly built houses; and the meaning is, that houses of this smaller class ought to be pulled down. now insert the comma:--"the houses in london, which are badly built, ought to be pulled down." the class is not narrowed; and the meaning is, that all houses in london, seeing they are badly built, ought to be pulled down. the difference between the two kinds of relative clauses being understood, there will be no difficulty in applying the rule where an adjective clause is contracted. compare the fourth example given under the rule with the following sentence:--"people not satisfied with their present condition, should strive to alter it." in this sentence "not satisfied" limits the general name "people"; the advice is given only to one section of the people: the dissatisfied as distinguished from the satisfied people. so a single adjective may be used co-ordinately: "what!" replied the emperor, "you do not see it? it is my star, brilliant." this is a case where a dash would be more expressive. note that the rule applies only where the adjunct immediately follows the substantive. if the adjunct is placed elsewhere, different considerations apply. see rule xiii. ( ). neither can any man marvel at the play of puppets, that goeth behind the curtain and adviseth well of the motion. xv. words in apposition are generally marked off by commas. james watt, the great improver of the steam-engine, died on the th of august, . but where the words in apposition are used in a limiting or distinguishing sense, the principle of rule xiv. applies, and no point is used. thus we should write "burns, the poet," "dickens, the novelist"; but, if we wished to distinguish them from another burns and another dickens, we should omit the comma. it is of pliny the naturalist, not of pliny the letter-writer, that we are now speaking. again, where the general name precedes, we should in most cases use no point, for the special name will be restrictive: "the poet burns," "the novelist dickens." there is, perhaps, not much authority for the consistent carrying out of this distinction; but it seems useful and logical. some cases, such as "paul the apostle," "william the conqueror," "thomas the rhymer," "peter the hermit," present no difficulty. the name and the descriptive title are blended together, and form as distinctly one name as does "roderick random." xvi. a conjunction marks a transition to something new--enforcing, qualifying, or explaining, what has gone before, and is therefore generally preceded by some point. the proper point before a conjunction is determined by many circumstances: among others, by the more or less close connexion of the things joined, by the number of words, and by the use of points for other purposes in the same sentence. to deal with the different conjunctions one by one, would involve a repetition of much that is said in other rules. for instance, _if_, _unless_, _though_, _for_, _because_, _since_, and the like, will be pointed in accordance with rule ix. it will be well, however, to lay down separate rules for the pointing of the common conjunctions, _and_ and _or_. . _and._--(a) where "and" joins two single words, as a rule no point is used. no work has been so much studied and discussed. compare this with the following sentence, where groups of words are joined. the work has been much studied, and has been much discussed. in the following sentence the insertion of a comma would change the meaning. on this shelf you will put books and pamphlets published in the present year. as the sentence stands, "published in the present year" applies both to books and to pamphlets: books published in the present year, and pamphlets published in the present year. if there were a comma before "and," the meaning would be: "on this shelf you will put books of any date, and pamphlets of the present year." (b) when "and" joins the separate words of a series of three or more words, a comma is placed before it. trees, and bridges, and houses, were swept down by the flooded stream. (c) but where the different words are intended to be combined quickly, so as to present to the mind only one picture, they would be spoken without any pause, and in writing must not be separated by any point. whirling and boiling and roaring like thunder, the stream came down upon them. (d) two of the words of the series may be more closely connected with one another than with the other words of the series, and are, therefore, not to be separated by any point. in the following sentence, "all" qualifies both "tracts" and "pamphlets," and thus joins them closely. my unbound books, and all my tracts and pamphlets, are to be tied up with pink tape. (e) when "and" occurs only between the two last words of the series, the comma is usually inserted before it. trumpets, drums, and kettle-drums, contended in noise with the shouts of a numerous rabble. many writers omit this comma. but it seems useful in order to make the previous rule (_d_) effective. . when "and" joins two phrases, a comma generally precedes it. the ceremony was performed in the accustomed manner, and with due solemnity. if, as in the following sentence, a preposition is common to two phrases, and is not repeated in the second, no comma is used. with proper care and good instruments, the work may be successfully carried out. . when "and" joins two clauses, the preceding point may be the comma, the semicolon, or even the full stop. which point is right in any particular case, will depend upon considerations set out in other rules. the following example illustrates different cases: within that charmed rock, so torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old norse viking in his leaden coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his crown of gold; and, as the boy looks at the spot, he fancies, and almost hopes, that the day may come when he shall have to do his duty against the invader as boldly as the men of devon did then. and past him, far below, upon the soft south-eastern breeze, the stately ships go sliding out to sea. _or._--the rules for the conjunction "and" apply with little change to the conjunction "or"; but there are one or two special points to note. (a) when "or" is preceded at no great distance by "either" or "whether," the two words should be separated by no point. they must either yield this point or resign. it does not matter whether we go or stay. but a point is inserted if the words stand farther apart, or if each is followed by a complete clause. either this road leads to the town, or we have misunderstood the directions. (b) "or," joining two alternatives, takes no point before it; but when it joins two words that are used, not as real alternatives, but as synonyms, a comma is inserted. england or france might be asked to join the alliance. here "or" is used as a real alternative conjecture, and therefore without any point. in the following examples, the "or" joins equivalent expressions: england, or the nation of shopkeepers, would never be asked to join such an alliance. we perceive, or are conscious of, nothing but changes, or events. as a reason for the insertion of the comma in these two examples, it may be said that the repetition of an idea already expressed does for a moment stop the flow of the sentence. a real alternative, on the other hand, forms an essential part of it, and is within its current. xvii. in cases where no point would be used before a conjunction, a comma is inserted if the conjunction be omitted. i pay this tribute to the memory of that noble, reverend, learned, excellent person. in the following examples no point occurs; for it cannot be said that a conjunction is omitted. to insert the conjunction would be to express a slightly different shade of meaning: a grand old man. three tall young soldiers. "old man" is virtually a single word and in fact many languages use only a single word to express the idea. xviii. where a comma would be used if the conjunction were expressed, some stronger point may be used if it be omitted. let us get an american revenue as we have got an american empire. english privileges have made it all that it is; english privileges alone will make it all that it can be. xix. a comma is placed after a noun or a pronoun in the vocative case, if a mark of exclamation be not used, or be reserved till the first distinct pause in the sentence. yet i own, my lord, that yours is not an uncommon character. i am, sir, yours truly, john smith. o italy, gather thy blood into thy heart! o thou, who in the heavens dost dwell! whether a comma or a mark of exclamation ought to be used after the vocative case, depends entirely on the degree of emphasis with which the words would be spoken. if, in speaking, a slight pause would be made, the comma, not the mark of exclamation, is the proper point. xx. if a word be repeated in order to give it intensive force, a comma follows it each time that it occurs; but, in the case of an adjective repeated before a noun, not after the last expression of it. it was work, work, work, from morning till night. he travelled a long, long way. dean alford, in "the queen's english," says that this mode of pointing such expressions as "the wide wide world," "the deep deep sea," makes them absolute nonsense. the suggestion of a pause seems to us to bring out more effectively the intensive force of the repetition. and we doubt whether dean alford himself would have omitted the comma in our first example. the semicolon xxi. the semicolon is the point usually employed to separate parts of a sentence between which there is a very distinct break, but which are too intimately connected to be made separate sentences. the patient dates his pleasure from the day when he feels that his cure has begun; and, perhaps, the day of his perfect re-establishment does not yield him pleasure so great. the author himself is the best judge of his own performance; no one has so deeply meditated on the subject; no one is so sincerely interested in the event. not one word is said, nor one suggestion made, of a general right to choose our own governors; to cashier them for misconduct; and to form a government for ourselves. the semicolon is used in enumerations, as in the last example, in order to keep the parts more distinctly separate. xxii. when a sentence consists of two or more independent clauses not joined by conjunctions, the clauses are separated by semicolons. to command a crime is to commit one; he who commands an assassination, is by every one regarded as an assassin. his knowledge was too multifarious to be always exact; his pursuits were too eager to be always cautious. if the conjunction "and" were inserted in the last sentence, the comma would be used instead of the semicolon. a conjunction forms a bridge over the gap between two statements, and, where they are neither long nor complicated, we pass from one to the other without noticing any distinct break. but there is such a break when the conjunction is omitted, and therefore we use a stronger point. the two parts of an antithesis are generally separated in this way. xxiii. a pause generally indicated by a comma may be indicated by a semicolon when commas are used in the sentence for other purposes. (see _introduction: relativity of points_.) i got several things of less value, but not all less useful to me, which i omitted setting down before: as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of navigation. in this i was certainly in the wrong too, the honest, grateful creature having no thought but what consisted of the best principles, both as a religious christian and as a grateful friend; as appeared afterward to my full satisfaction. in the first sentence the semicolon enables us to group the objects enumerated. had commas been used throughout, the reader would have been left to find out the arrangement for himself. the colon xxiv. the colon is used to indicate pauses more abrupt than those indicated by the semicolon. god has willed it: submit in thankfulness. the wind raged, and the rain beat against the window: it was a miserable day. nevertheless, you will say that there must be a difference between true poetry and true speech not poetical: what is the difference? the first example contains two clauses that are connected in such a way as to justify us in putting them into one sentence; that it is god's will, is a reason for submitting. the proper point therefore should be something less than the full stop. but there is a striking difference between the clauses; for we pass from an affirmation to a command. therefore something more than the semicolon is needed. had the clauses been similar in construction, the pause would have been sufficiently indicated by the semicolon: "god has willed it; man has resisted." in the second example there is not the same change of grammatical construction, but the change in thought is equally great; we pass from a statement of details to a statement of the general result. the colon is frequently used in sentences of this kind, where the phrase "in short" is implied but is not expressed. many writers indicate such abrupt changes by means of the dash. xxv. a pause generally indicated by a semicolon may be indicated by a colon, when the semicolon is used in the sentence for pauses of a different nature. the "essay" plainly appears the fabric of a poet: what bolingbroke supplied could be only the first principles; the order, illustration, and embellishments, must all be pope's. not that we are to think that homer wanted judgment, because virgil had it in a more eminent degree; or that virgil wanted invention, because homer possessed a larger share of it: each of these great authors had more of both than, perhaps, any man besides, and are only said to have less in comparison with one another. homer hurries and transports us with a commanding impetuosity; virgil leads us with an attractive majesty: homer scatters with a generous profusion; virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. compare these examples with those given to show how the semicolon replaces the comma. (rule xxiii.) note also how the last sentence is divided in the middle into two parts, and that each of these two parts is itself divided into two parts. by rule xxii. the second division is indicated by the semicolon; and we bring out the grouping of the sentence by using a colon for the first division. xxvi. the colon is used before enumerations, especially where "namely," or "viz.," is implied but is not expressed; and when so used it is sometimes followed by the dash. three nations adopted this law: england, france, and germany. one thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor. dr johnson's chief works are the following:--"rasselas," the dictionary, "the lives of the poets," and "the vanity of human wishes." when, as in the last example, a list of things is given in a formal way, the dash is generally added. the combination of the two points is partly an attempt to find a point stronger than the colon and not so strong as the full stop, partly, perhaps, an imitation of a finger-post. xxvii. the colon is generally placed before a quotation, when notice of the quotation is given by some introductory words. in this case also the dash is sometimes used. in this passage exception may fairly be taken to one short sentence, that in which he says: "the law ought to forbid it, because conscience does not permit it." on the last morning of his life he wrote these words:--"i have named none to their disadvantage. i thank god he hath supported me wonderfully." the colon and the dash are used together where the quotation is introduced by formal words such as the following:--"he spoke these words," "he spoke as follows," "he made this speech." but, in the first sentence quoted above, the introductory words are grammatically incomplete without the quotation, which forms the object of the verb "says"; the colon accordingly is the strongest point that can be used. sometimes the connexion between the introductory words and the quotation may be so close, or the quotation itself may be so short, as to make the comma sufficient. he kept repeating to us, "the world has sadly changed." short phrases quoted in the course of the sentence need not have any point before them. it was a usual saying of his own, that he had "no genius for friendship." xxviii. the colon may be placed after such words and phrases as the following, when used in marking a new stage in an argument:--again, further, to proceed, to sum up, to resume. to sum up: if you will conform to the conditions i have mentioned, i will sign the agreement. but to bring this sermon to its proper conclusion: if astrea, or justice, never finally took her leave of the world till the day that, &c. after these words, we have a choice of the comma, the colon, and the full stop. the comma will generally be used if the argument be contained in a single sentence; the full stop, if the argument be of very considerable length. the point of interrogation xxix. the point of interrogation is placed after a direct question. where are you going, my pretty maid? whether of them twain did the will of his father? the question may end in the middle of a sentence: is he happy? you ask. we have sometimes the choice of putting the point of interrogation in the middle or at the end of the sentence. you would not consent to that, by whomsoever proposed. you would not consent to that?--by whomsoever proposed. there is a slight shade of difference in meaning; in the second form, "by whomsoever proposed" is added as an afterthought. xxx. indirect questions are not strictly questions at all, and therefore should not be followed by a point of interrogation. he asked me whether i had seen his friend; whether i had spoken to him; and how i liked him. if we restore these questions to the direct form, the point of interrogation is inserted. he asked me: "have you seen my friend? have you spoken to him? how do you like him?" xxxi. when a sentence contains more than one question, sometimes the point of interrogation is placed after each of them, sometimes it is placed only at the end of the sentence. it is placed after each, if each is in reality a distinct question; it is placed only at the end, if the separate questions so unite as to need but a single answer. in many cases it will be a matter of individual taste to say whether they do so unite. is it better that estates should be held by those who have no duty than by those who have one? by those whose character and destination point to virtues than by those who have no rule and direction in the expenditure of their estates but their own will and appetite? do you imagine that it is the land tax act which raises your revenue, that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply which gives you your army, or that it is the mutiny bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? no! surely no! oh! why should hymen ever blight the roses cupid wore? or why should it be ever night where it was day before? or why should women have a tongue, or why should it be cursed, in being, like my second, long, and louder than my first? xxxii. exclamations in an interrogative form take a mark of exclamation after them, not a point of interrogation. (see rule xxxv.) xxxiii. a point of interrogation enclosed within brackets is sometimes used to indicate that there is a doubt whether the statement preceding it is true, or whether the expression preceding it is well applied, or that some statement or expression is made or used ironically. while you are revelling in the delights (?) of the london season, i am leading a hermit life, with no companions save my books. the mark of exclamation xxxiv. the mark of exclamation is placed after interjections and words used interjectionally; that is to say, after expressions of an exclamatory nature. the exclamation may be one of surprise or of fear, or the utterance of a wish, a command, or a prayer. quick! begone! out of my sight! heaven preserve us! would that better feelings moved them! o lord, be merciful unto me, a sinner! interjections are not always followed immediately, and are sometimes not allowed at all, by a mark of exclamation. no rule can be given more precise than this: ( ) that we should not insert a mark of exclamation immediately after an interjection, unless we should make a distinct pause after it in speaking; and ( ) that no mark of exclamation is to be used at all, unless the exclamatory nature of the sentence is more or less strongly marked. it is useful to notice the difference between "o" and "oh." the former is used only before the vocative case, and never has a mark of exclamation, or indeed any point, placed immediately after it. alas! all our hopes are blasted. lo, he cometh! o dido, dido, most unhappy dido! unhappy wife, still more unhappy widow! oh, do not reckon that old debt to my account to-day! xxxv. the mark of exclamation is placed after sentences which, though interrogatory in form, are really exclamatory. how could he have been so foolish! and shall he never see an end to this state of things! shall he never have the due reward of labour! shall unsparing taxation never cease to make him a miserable dejected being, a creature famishing in the midst of abundance, fainting, expiring with hunger's feeble moan, surrounded by a carolling creation! this rule might be put in another way by saying that a mark of exclamation, and not a point of interrogation, is placed after what are called rhetorical questions, or statements made more striking by being put in the form of questions. they are not asked for the sake of receiving a direct answer, and are in reality exclamations. still all rhetorical questions are not thus punctuated; the point of interrogation is sometimes more effective. the sentences quoted under rule xxxi. would lose much of their force if marks of exclamation were used. in each case we must decide whether the sentence strikes us most as a question or as the expression of emotion. xxxvi. the mark of exclamation is sometimes placed after an ironical statement. they did not fight, tens against thousands; they did not fight for wives and children, but for lands and plunder: therefore they are heroes! the mark of exclamation keeps up the semblance of seriousness which is of the essence of irony. xxxvii. the mark of exclamation is placed after the statement of some absurdity. he has been labouring to prove that shakespeare's plays were written by bacon! to him the parliamentary vote was a panacea for all human ills, and the ballot-box an object as sacred as the holy grail to a knight of the round table! the same reason applies to its use after such sentences as after ironical statements. xxxviii. the mark of exclamation may be placed after any impressive or striking thought. the angel of death has been abroad throughout the land: you may almost hear the very beating of his wings! it may be doubted whether the mark of exclamation is in such cases of any great service; for the impressiveness of a sentence ought to appear in the sentence itself, or to be given to it by the context. there is a real danger, as the style of many people shows, in thinking that punctuation is intended to save the trouble of careful composition. in putting the mark after pure exclamations, usage is more or less uniform; with regard to impressive sentences, we are left entirely to our own discretion. xxxix. when a sentence contains more than one exclamation, sometimes the mark of exclamation is placed only after the last, sometimes it is placed after each of them, the test being whether or not they are in reality, as well as in form, several exclamations. (compare rule xxxi.) though all are thus satisfied with the dispensations of nature, how few listen to her voice! how few follow her as a guide! what a mighty work he has thus brought to a successful end, with what perseverance, what energy, with what fruitfulness of resource! the dash xl. the chief purpose of the dash is to indicate that something is left unfinished. accordingly, it marks a sudden, or abrupt, change in the grammatical structure of a sentence. when i remember how we have worked together, and together borne misfortune; when i remember--but what avails it to remember? and all this long story was about--what do you think? "we cannot hope to succeed, unless----" "but we must succeed." note that it is the long dash that is used at the end of a sentence. the full stop is not added where the dash marks an unfinished sentence. but it is common to add the point of interrogation or the mark of exclamation. xli. the dash is used to mark a faltering or hesitating speech. well--i don't know--that is--no, i cannot accept it. xlii. an unexpected turn of the thought may be marked by the dash. he entereth smiling and--embarrassed. he holdeth out his hand to you to shake, and--draweth it back again. he casually looketh in about dinner-time--when the table is full. he offereth to go away, seeing you have company--but is induced to stay. french history tends naturally to memoirs and anecdotes, in which there is no improvement to desire but that they were--true. xliii. when the subject of a sentence is of such length, or of such complexity, that its connexion with the verb might easily be lost sight of, it is sometimes left hanging in the sentence, and its place supplied by some short expression that sums it up. a dash follows the subject when thus abandoned. physical science, including chemistry, geology, geography, astronomy; metaphysics, philology, theology; economics, including taxation and finance; politics and general literature--all occupied by turn, and almost simultaneously, his incessantly active mind. the colon is sometimes used in such cases; but the dash seems preferable, as it is the point that marks a change in the structure of a sentence. xliv. the dash is sometimes used instead of brackets before and after a parenthesis. this was amongst the strongest pledges for thy truth, that never once--no, not for a moment of weakness--didst thou revel in the vision of coronets and honour from man. xlv. the dash is sometimes used instead of the colon, where the word "namely" is implied, but is not expressed. the most extreme example of such theories is perhaps to be found in the attempt to distribute all law under the two great commandments--love to god, and love to one's neighbour. in this sentence, however, the colon is preferable. (see rule xxvi.). the dash should be used for this purpose only when it is necessary to use the colon in the same sentence for other purposes. xlvi. the dash is used in rhetorical repetition; for instance, where one part of the sentence, such as the subject, is repeated at intervals throughout the sentence, and the rest of the sentence is kept suspended. cannot you, in england--cannot you, at this time of day--cannot you, a house of commons, trust to the principle which has raised so mighty a revenue? xlvii. a dash following a full stop occurs between the side-heading of a paragraph and the paragraph itself. _extent and boundaries._--england (including wales) is bounded on the north by scotland; on the west by the irish sea, st george's channel, and the atlantic ocean; on the south by the english channel; and on the east by the german ocean. xlviii. when we place after a quotation the name of the author from whom it is taken, the full stop and the dash are used in the same way. "one touch of nature makes the whole word kin."--_shakespeare._ xlix. the dash is sometimes used in place of, or in addition to, other points, in order to indicate a pause greater than usual. now where is the revenue which is to do all these mighty things? five-sixths repealed--abandoned-sunk--gone--lost for ever. the highest rank;--a splendid fortune;--and a name, glorious till it was yours,--were sufficient to have supported you with meaner abilities than i think you possess. there is seldom any reason for the use of double points. in the last example they cannot be said to be of any real service. but the dash may sometimes be rightly employed in addition to the full stop, in order to mark a division of discourse midway between the sentence and the paragraph. even cobbett, who abhors the dash, permits it to be used for this purpose. the report of a conversation is often printed in this way. brackets (or the parenthesis.[ ]) l. when a clause not strictly belonging to a sentence is thrown in, so to speak, in passing, the clause is enclosed within brackets. [footnote : it seems better to use the term "brackets" both for the curved and for the square brackets. "parenthesis" can then be kept to its proper use, as the name for the words themselves which form the break in the sentence. we may note that in like manner the terms "comma," "colon," "semicolon," originally signified divisions of a sentence, not marks denoting the divisions. "period" meant a complete sentence; and it still retains the meaning, somewhat specialized.] it is said, because the priests are paid by the people (the pay is four shillings per family yearly), therefore they object to their leaving. in full confidence of this unalterable truth, i now (_quod felix faustumque sit_) lay the first stone of the temple of peace. over and above the enclosing brackets, a parenthesis causes no change in the punctuation of the sentence that contains it; in other words, if we were to omit the parenthesis, no change ought to be necessary in the punctuation of the rest of the sentence. the comma is inserted after the parenthesis in the first example, because the comma would be needed even if there were no parenthesis. in the second example, there would be no comma before "lay," if there were no parenthesis; accordingly the comma is not to be inserted merely because there is a parenthesis. a parenthesis is sufficiently marked off by brackets. observe also that the comma in the first example is placed after, not before, the parenthesis. the reason for this is that the parenthesis belongs to the first part of the sentence, not to the second. li. a complete sentence occurring parenthetically in a paragraph is sometimes placed within brackets. godfrey knew all this, and felt it with the greater force because he had constantly suffered annoyance from witnessing his father's sudden fits of unrelentingness, for which his own habitual irresolution deprived him of all sympathy. (he was not critical on the faulty indulgence which preceded these fits; _that_ seemed to him natural enough.) still there was just the chance, godfrey thought, that his father's pride might see this marriage in a light that would induce him to hush it up, rather than turn his son out and make the family the talk of the country for ten miles round. note that the full stop should be placed inside, not outside, the brackets. lii. where, in quoting a passage, we throw in parenthetically something of our own, we may use square brackets. compare the following account of lord palmerston: "i have heard him [lord palmerston] say that he occasionally found that they [foreign ministers] had been deceived by the open manner in which he told them the truth." "the _leviathan_ of hobbes, a work now-a-days but little known [and not better known now than in bentham's time], and detested through prejudice, and at second-hand, as a defence of despotism, is an attempt to base all political society upon a pretended contract between the people and the sovereign."--_principles of legislation._ to use the square brackets in this way is often more convenient than to break the inverted commas and to begin them again. but in the case of the word _sic_--where it is inserted in a quotation to point out that the word preceding it is rightly quoted, and is not inserted by mistake--the ordinary brackets are used. "the number of inhabitants were (_sic_) not more than four millions." another case may be mentioned in which the square brackets are used: where in the passage quoted some words have been lost, and are filled in by conjecture. prof. stubbs quotes from one of the anglo-saxon laws: "if ceorls have a common meadow, or other partible land to fence, and some have fenced their part, some have not, and [strange cattle come in and] eat up the common corn or grass, let those go who own the gap and compensate to the others." inverted commas liii. when we quote without any change the words of another person, they are enclosed within inverted commas. if they are quoted in the indirect form, or if we quote merely the substance, and neglect the exact words, inverted commas are not used. thereupon the mob bursts in and inquires, "what are you doing for the people?" thereupon the mob bursts in and inquires what you are doing for the people. he says: "there is no property of any description, if it be rightfully held, which had not its foundation in labour." he frequently calls them "absurd," and applies to them such epithets as "jargon," "fustian," and the like. the last sentence might be written without inverted commas. by using them we call special attention to the fact that these were the words actually employed, and are not simply words like them. so, in a passage quoted in the indirect form, if part be quoted exactly, it is placed within inverted commas. the duke of portland warmly approved of the work, but justly remarked that the king was not "so absolute a thing of straw" as he was represented in it. words referred to simply as words are either placed within inverted commas or put in italics. the word "friendship," in the sense we commonly mean by it, is not so much as named in the new testament. liv. when a quotation is interrupted, as in the report of a conversation, each continuous part of the quotation is enclosed within inverted commas. "pardon me, madam," answered henry, "it was of one silas morton i spoke." lv. when a quotation occurs in another quotation, single inverted commas are used for the former. "what have you done?" said one of balfour's brother officers. "my duty," said balfour firmly. "is it not written, 'thou shalt be zealous even to slaying'?" some writers use the single commas in ordinary cases. for the inner quotation they would then use the double commas. lvi. a word that is not classical english, or is used in a sense in which it is not classical english, is either enclosed within inverted commas or italicized. those that have "located" (_located_) previous to this period are left in undisputed possession, provided they have improved the land. before long, beckey received not only "the best" foreigners (as the phrase is in our noble and admirable society slang), but some of "the best" english people too. foreign words are always italicized. (rule lxiv.) lvii. the titles of books, of essays, and of other compositions; the names of periodicals; and the names of ships, are either enclosed within inverted commas or italicized. in these "miscellanies" was first published the "art of sinking in poetry," which, by such a train of consequences as usually passes in literary quarrels, gave in a short time, according to pope's account, occasion to the "dunciad." the "emily st pierre" (or _emily st pierre_), a british ship, was captured on the th march, . it appeared in the "london gazette" (or _london gazette_). the names of periodicals and of ships are more often written in italics than enclosed within inverted commas. lviii. if a quotation contains a question, the point of interrogation stands within the inverted commas. in a voice which was fascination itself, the being addressed me, saying, "wilt thou come with me? wilt thou be mine?" lix. if an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation, the point of interrogation stands outside the inverted commas. what does this honourable person mean by "a tempest that outrides the wind"? observe how in the example given under rule lv. the point of interrogation stands within the double inverted commas, but outside the single inverted commas. lx. if an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation which is itself interrogatory, the point of interrogation is placed outside the inverted commas. hast thou never cried, "what must i do to be saved"? the reason is, that the question to be answered is not the quoted question, but "hast thou never cried?" no writer has been bold enough to insert two points of interrogation. lxi. the last three rules apply also to exclamatory sentences. ( ) but i boldly cried out, "woe unto this city!" ( ) alas, how few of them can say, "i have striven to the very utmost"! ( ) how fearful was the cry: "help, or we perish"! lxii. where an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation of an exclamatory nature, or an exclamatory sentence ends with a quotation of an interrogative nature, it seems better to place at the end both the point of interrogation and the mark of exclamation, the one inside, the other outside, the inverted commas. do you remember who it was that wrote "whatever england's fields display, the fairest scenes are thine, torbay!"? how much better to cease asking the question, "what would he have done in different circumstances?"! where inverted commas are not used, it seems sufficient to have only one point, which must be the one required by the whole sentence, not by the quotation. do you remember the passage where burke alludes to the old warning of the church--_sursum corda_? italics lxiii. words to be specially emphasized may be put in italics. in writing, the substitute for italics is underlining. what, it may well be asked, can the interests of the community be those of--i do not say _an_ individual, but--_the_ individual? the voice can unmistakably indicate what are the emphatic words; but italics, only a feeble substitute, ought not to be used unless every other means of emphasizing fail. many writers of authority have strongly, and very justly, condemned the too frequent use of them. double underlining in letter-writing need not be here adverted to. if the person to whom one writes a letter is likely to read it without appreciation or care, one is entitled to adopt any means that will ensure attention. but if double underlining is allowable only on this ground, general rules are obviously of no use. lxiv. words from a foreign language which have not become classical english words, are written in italics. the slightest _double entendre_ made him blush to the eyes. knowledge of french is a _sine quâ non_. when foreign words become english, they are no longer italicized. among such words are: rationale, aide-de-camp, quartette, naïve, libretto. it is often a matter of discretion to say whether a word is so far naturalized that it should be written in the ordinary way. lxv. names of newspapers and magazines, and names of ships, are generally written in italics; as the _times_, the _fort-nightly review_, the _great eastern_. the hyphen lxvi. the hyphen is used between the component parts of some compound words. paper-knife; book-keeping; coal-pit; water-carrier; printing-press; sea-water; man-of-war; now-a-days; high-art decoration; good-looking. there is no rule to distinguish the compound words that take a hyphen from those that do not. if one be in doubt about a particular word, the best thing to do is to refer to a dictionary. lxvii. when one syllable of a word ends with a vowel, and the next syllable begins with the same vowel, the hyphen is placed between the syllables to indicate that the two vowels do not form a diphthong, that is, that they should not be pronounced together. co-operative; co-ordinate; pre-eminently; re-establish; re-echo. in the same way the hyphen sometimes ensures that two consonants shall be pronounced separately; as in "book-keeping," "shell-less," "cock-crow," "sword-dance." lxviii. as a rule, a hyphen should not be placed after a simple prefix: "contravene," "preternatural," "hypercritical," "bilateral." to this there are some exceptions: (_a_) "anti-religious," "ultra-liberal," "semi-lunar," "co-eval." in these words the pronunciation is more clearly marked by inserting the hyphen. compare "antiseptic," "antinomian," "ultramontane," "semicircle." perhaps among these exceptions should also be included such words as "pseudo-critic," "non-ego," "non-existent." compare "pseudonym," where the prefix is contracted, and "nonentity." words like "pre-eminent," divided for the same reason, have already been noted. (_b_) "re-creation," "re-mark." the hyphen distinguishes the etymological meaning of these words as distinguished from their derived and ordinary meaning. (_c_) "pre-norman," "anti-darwinian," "philo-turk." if the capital-letter be retained where a prefix is put to a proper name, the hyphen is obviously necessary. lxix. when a number is written in words and not in figures, the words making up the number, if there be more words than one, are in certain cases separated from each other by the hyphen. the numbers to which this rule applies are the cardinal and the ordinal numbers from twenty-one and twenty-first to ninety-nine and ninety-ninth inclusive. the hyphen is used also when the words are inverted; as "four-and-thirty," "six-and-fortieth." lxx. fractional parts written in words are separated in the same way, a hyphen being placed between the numerator and denominator; as "two-thirds," "three-sixteenths." but if the word "part" or the word "share" follows, the hyphen is not used; as "two third parts." lxxi. several words may be joined by hyphens, in order to indicate that they are to be read together. the i-believe-of-eastern-derivation monosyllable "bosh." additional restrictions were advocated in the cases of mothers-of-young-children employed in factories. as this last sentence stands, the hyphen is really the only means of making it perfectly clear that those who are referred to as employed in factories are the mothers, not the children. hyphens are sometimes used in cases like the following: "a never-to-be-forgotten event," "peace-at-any-rate principles." they are almost invariably used in "well-to-do," "alack-a-day." lxxii. the prefix "a" before the gerund is followed by a hyphen. they went a-hunting. i lay a-thinking. note that "agoing" is not divided. lxxiii. when a word is divided at the end of a line, part of the word being in the next line, a hyphen is placed after the part at the end of the line. so far as rules can be given for the division of the word, it may be said: (_a_) the division must be at the end of a syllable. the syllable according to etymological derivation, and the syllable according to pronunciation, are not always the same. in case of conflict the pronunciation is to be the guide. (_b_) the part in the next line should, if possible, begin with a consonant. an examination of a number of words will show that this is only another way of saying that we should be guided by pronunciation. (_c_) double letters are divided; as "at-tract," "profes-sion," "dif-ficulty." the following examples are given consecutively from a book taken at random. this seems the best way of illustrating the rule: con-fidently; investi-gated; some-thing; institu-tion; diffi-culty; at-tractions; exclu-sively; kins-man; self-organized; en-tangled; col-lective; intermis-sion; ma-terials; chan-cellor; col-lege; indus-trious; sub-ject; his-tory; con-dition; low-landers; or-ganization; re-cognized; in-famous. some selected examples may be also given: resem-blance; hum-ble; se-cond; trans-lator; justifi-able; east-ern; endea-vour. the apostrophe lxxiv. the apostrophe is used to indicate that some letter or letters of a word are left out. "e'er" for "ever," "can't" for "cannot," "don't" for "do not," "'gin" for "begin." the apostrophe is not used when the word, though contracted in the middle, retains its original pronunciation; as "dr." or "mr." but it is used where the contraction is at the end of the word: "tho'," "peterboro'." lxxv. the apostrophe marks the possessive case of nouns. the following rules determine where it is to be placed: _nouns in the singular number--_ ( ) the letter "s" is added, and the apostrophe is placed before it. the king's abode. a patriot's reward. ( ) if the nominative singular of the noun ends in "s," another "s" is not added if the repetition of hissing sounds would be displeasing to the ear. the apostrophe is then placed at the end of the word. hercules' club. augustus' dignity. words of one syllable follow the first rule: "james's share." some words of two syllables follow the first rule, some the second: "the princess's birthday"; "francis' style." this distinction is sanctioned by usage. but it may judiciously be disregarded. in speaking we almost entirely ignore it. why should we trouble ourselves with it in writing? _nouns in the plural number--_ ( ) the apostrophe is placed after the "s" of the plural. boys' clothing. our friends' troubles. ( ) if the plural do not end in "s," an "s" is added, and the apostrophe is placed before it. men's opinions. the children's pleasure. lxxvi. the apostrophe is used before the "s" of the plural when single letters are used as words. mind your p's and q's. he does not dot his i's nor cross his t's. marks of ellipsis lxxvii. when, in the middle of a quotation, a part is omitted, several asterisks or several full stops are placed in a line to mark the omission. clarendon makes the following remark about lord falkland: "yet two things he could never bring himself to whilst he continued in that office, that was to his death; for which he was contented to be reproached as for omissions in a most necessary part of his place. the one, employing of spies, or giving any countenance or entertainment to them. * * * the other, the liberty of opening letters, upon a suspicion that they might contain matter of a dangerous consequence." (one sentence omitted.) "the french and spanish nations," said louis xiv., "are so united that they will henceforth be only one.... my grandson, at the head of the spaniards, will defend the french. i, at the head of the french, will defend the spaniards." "he who in former years," wrote horace walpole of his father, "was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow ... now never sleeps above an hour without waking." if the passage omitted be of very considerable length, for instance if it be a complete paragraph, or if a line of poetry be omitted, the asterisks are placed in a line by themselves. there is a tendency to confine the asterisk to such cases, and to use the full stop for shorter ellipses. if a complete sentence be omitted, the number of additional full stops is generally four; if a passage be omitted in the middle of a sentence, the number is generally three. when some of the letters of a name are omitted, their place is supplied by a line or dash, whose length depends on the number of letters omitted. the scene of our story is laid in the town of b----. there was one h----, who, i learned in after days, was seen expiating some maturer offence in the hulks. blakesmoor in h----shire. references to notes notes are generally placed at the foot of a page; though sometimes they are collected at the end of a chapter, or even at the end of a book. various devices are in use for indicating the passage in the text to which a note refers. ( ) the six reference signs: the "asterisk" (*), the "dagger" ([dagger character]) (also called the "obelisk"), the "double dagger" ([double dagger character]), the "section" (§), the "parallels" (||), the "paragraph" (¶). they are suitable only where the notes are placed at the foot of a page, and are invariably used in the order in which we have mentioned them. if the number of notes in one page exceeds six, the signs are doubled. the seventh note is marked thus: **; the eighth, [dagger character][dagger character]; the ninth, [double dagger character][double dagger character]; and so on. but it is better, in cases where the notes are so numerous, to use other means of reference. ( ) figures: either within parentheses, as ( ), ( ), ( ), &c.; or, more usually, printed in the raised or "superior" form, as ¹²³, &c. sometimes the first note in each page is marked;¹ but it is now common, in books divided into chapters, to mark the first note in each chapter with ¹ and then go on with continuous numbers to the end of the chapter. "superior" figures are now the most usual marks of reference in english books. ( ) letters; which also may either be placed within parentheses or be printed in "superior" form: (a), (b), (c), &c., or ^{a} ^{b} ^{c}, &c. italic letters are sometimes used. as a rule the first note in each page is marked (a) or ^{a}. if in one page there are more notes than there are letters in the alphabet (which sometimes happens), we go to (aa), (bb), (cc), &c., ^{aa} ^{bb} ^{cc}. the letter "j" is often omitted. it is less common to make the letters continuous from page to page. the sign, whatever it may be, is placed at the beginning of the note, and also in the text immediately after the part to which the note refers. the note may refer to a whole sentence, to a part of a sentence, even to a single word; the sign is placed as the case may be, at the end of the sentence, at the end of the part referred to, or after the single word. how to correct a printer's proof [illustration] explanation . where a word is to be changed from small letters to capitals, draw three lines under it, and write _caps._ in the margin. . where there is a wrong letter, draw the pen through it, and make the right letter opposite in the margin. . a letter turned upside down. . the substitution of a comma for another point, or for a letter put in by mistake. . the insertion of a hyphen. . to draw close together the letters of a word that stand apart. . to take away a superfluous letter or word, the pen is struck through it and a round top _d_ made opposite, being the contraction of _deleatur_='expunge.' . where a word has to be changed to italic, draw a line under it, and write _ital._ in the margin; and where a word has to be changed from italic to roman, write _rom._ opposite. . when words are to be transposed, three ways of marking them are shown; but they are not usually numbered unless more than three words have their order changed. . the transposition of letters in a word. . to change one word for another. . the substitution of a period or a colon for any other point. it is customary to encircle these two points with a line. . the substitution of a capital for a small letter. . the insertion of a word or of a letter. . when a paragraph commences where it is not intended, connect the matter by a line, and write in the margin opposite _run on_. . where a space or a quadrat stands up and appears, draw a line under it, and make a strong perpendicular line in the margin. . when a letter of a different size from that used, or of a different face, appears in a word, draw a line either through it or under it, and write opposite _w.f._, for 'wrong fount.' . the marks for a paragraph, when its commencement has been omitted. . when a word or words have been struck out, and it is subsequently decided that they shall remain, make dots under them, and write the word _stet_ in the margin. . the mark for a space where it has been omitted between two words. . to change a word from small letters to small capitals, make two lines under the word, and write _sm. caps._ opposite. to change a word from small capitals to small letters, make one line under the word, and write in the margin _lo. ca._, for 'lower case.' . the mark for the apostrophe; and also the marks for inverted commas. . the manner of marking an omitted passage when it is too long to be written in the side margin. when this occurs, it may be written either at the top or the bottom of the page. . marks when lines or words are not straight. when corrected, the passage given above would read as follows-- antiquity, like every other quality that attracts the notice of mankind, has undoubtedly votaries that _reverence_ it, not from reason, but from prejudice. some seem to admire indiscriminately whatever has been long preserved, without considering that time has sometimes co-operated with chance: all perhaps are more willing to honour past than present excellence; and the mind contemplates genius through the shades of age, as the eye surveys the sun through artificial opacity. the great contention of criticism is to find the faults of the moderns and the beauties of the ancients. while an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performances; and when he is dead, we rate them by his best. to works, however, of which the excellence is not absolute and definite, but gradual and comparative; to works, not raised upon principles demonstrative and scientific, but appealing wholly to observation and experience, no other test can be applied than length of duration and continuance of esteem. [transcriber's note: welcome to the schoolroom of . the moral tone is plain. "she is kind to the old blind man." the exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some contemporary alternatives. much is left to the teacher. explanations given in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. counting in roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson numbers. the form of contractions includes a space. the contemporary word "don't" was rendered as "do n't". the author, not listed in the text, is william holmes mcguffey. passages using non-asci characters are approximately rendered in this text version. see the pdf or doc versions for the original images. the section numbers are decimal in the table of contents but are in roman numerals in the body. page headings are removed, but section titles are followed by the page on which they appear. don kostuch end transcriber's note] eclectic educational series. mcguffey's (registered) fourth eclectic reader. revised edition. mcguffey edition and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons, inc. new york-chichester-weinheim-brisbane-toronto in revising the fourth reader, the aim has been--as it has with the other books of the series--to preserve unimpaired all the essential characteristics of mcguffey's readers. new articles have been substituted for old ones only where the advantage was manifest. the book has been considerably enlarged, and has been liberally illustrated by the first artists of the country. it can not be presumed that every pupil has at hand all the works of reference necessary for the proper preparation of each lesson; hence all the aids that seem requisite to this purpose have been given. brief notices concerning the various authors represented have been inserted; the more difficult words have been defined, and their pronunciation has been indicated by diacritical marks; and short explanatory notes have been given wherever required for a full understanding of the text. especial acknowledgment is due to messrs. houghton, osgood & co. for their permission to make liberal selections from their copyright editions of many of the foremost american author whose works they publish. copyright, , by van antwerp, bragg & co. copyright, , by american book company. copyright, and , by h. h. vail. m'g th rev. ep introductory matter. subject. page punctuation marks articulation accent and inflection selections in prose and poetry. title. author. page . perseverance charlotte elizabeth . try, try again t. h. palmer . why the sea is salt mary howitt . why the sea is salt mary howitt . popping corn . smiles . lazy ned . the monkey . meddlesome matty . the good son . to-morrow mrs. m. b. johnson. . where there is a will there is a way . piccola celia thaxter . true manliness mrs. m. q. johnson . true manliness mrs. m. o. johnson . the brown thrush lucy larcom . a ship in a storm . the sailor's consolation charles dibdin . two ways of telling a story henry k. oliver . freaks of the frost hannah flagg gould . waste not, want not . jeannette and jo mary mapes dodge . the lion . strawberries j. t. trowbridge . harry's riches . in time's swing lucy larcom . harry and his dog mary russell mitford . the voice of the grass sarah roberts . the eagle . the old eagle tree dr. john todd . alpine song w. w. story . circumstances alter cases . the noblest revenge . evening hymn . how margery wondered lucy larcom . the child's world . susie's composition . the summer shower t. b. read . consequences of idleness abbott . advantages of industry abbott . the fountain lowell . coffee . the winter king hannah flagg gould . the nettle dr. walsh . the tempest james t. fields . the creator john keble . the horse bingley . emulation . the sandpiper celia thaxter . the right way f. r. stockton . the golden rule emma c. embury . the snow man marian douglas . robinson crusoe's house daniel defoe . robinson crusoe's dress daniel defoe . somebody's darling . knowledge is power . good will j. t. trowbridge . a chinese story c. p. cranch . the way to be happy . the giraffe . the lost child abbott . which? mrs. e. l. beers . the pet fawn miss s. f. cooper . annie's dream . my ghost mrs. s. m. b. platt . the elephant . dare to do right thomas hughes . dare to do right thomas hughes . wreck of the hesperus longfellow . anecdotes of birds hall . the rainbow pilgrimage grace greenwood . the old oaken bucket samuel woodworth . the sermon on the mount . the young witness s. h. hammond . king solomon and the ants whittier . rivermouth theater t. b. aldrich . alfred the great . living on a farm . hugh idle and mr. toil hawthorne . hugh idle and mr. toil hawthorne . burning of fallow mrs. susanna moodie . dying soldiers . the attack on nymwegen motley . the seasons spring h. g. adams summer lowell autumn thomas hood winter c. t. brooks . brandywine ford bayard taylor . brandywine ford bayard taylor . the best capital louisa m. alcott . the inchcape rock southey . my mother's grave . a mother's gift w. fergusson list of illustrations. [see pdf or doc versions.] subject page perseverance popping corn the monkey piccola true manliness a ship in a storm two ways of telling a story the lion harry and his dog circumstances alter cases evening hymn how margery wondered susie's composition coffee the horse the sandpiper robinson crusoe's dress a chinese story which? which? dare to do right the old oaken bucket rivermouth theater the attack on nymwegen the inchcape rock punctuation marks. ( ) . the hyphen (-) is used between syllables and between the parts of a compound word; as, no-ble, col-o-ny, and text- book, easy-chair. . the comma (,), the semicolon (;), and the colon (:) denote grammatical divisions. note--these marks do not indicate the comparative length of the pauses to be made where they occur. . the period (.) is placed at the end of a sentence. it is also used after an abbreviation; as, god is love. dr. eben goodwin. . the interrogation point (?) denotes a question; as, has he come? who are you? . the exclamation point (!) denotes strong feeling; as, oh absaom! my son! my son! . quotation marks (" ") denote the words of another; as, god said, "let there be light." . the apostrophe (') denotes that a letter or letters are left out; as, o'er, for over; 't is, for it is. it also denotes the possessive case; as, john's hat. . the curves ( ) include what, if omitted, would not obscure the sense. the parenthesis, or words included by the curves, should be read in a low key, and with greater rapidity than the rest of the sentence. . brackets [ ] include something intended to exemplify what goes before, or to supply some deficiency, or rectify some mistake. . a dash (-) denotes a long or significant pause, or an abrupt change or transition in a sentence. . marks of ellipsis (***) indicate the omission of letters of a word, or words of a sentence; as, p * * * * e j**n, for prince john; the ******* was hung, for the traitor was hung. sometimes a long line, or a succession of dots is used instead of stars; as, j--n a---s, for john adams; the d..e w.....m, for the duke william. . a brace (}) is used to connect several lines or words together. . a diaeresis is put over the latter of two vowels, to show that they belong to two distinct syllables; thus, cooperate. . a section is used to divide a discourse or chapter into parts. . an index points out something that requires particular attention. . a paragraph denotes a new subject. it is used in the common version of the bible. . certain marks and sometimes figures and letters are used to refer to some remark in the margin. . a caret (^) is used in writing, to show that some-thing is omitted; as, manner. i love her for her modesty and virtue. articulation. ( ) elementary sounds articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and of their combinations. an elementary sound is a simple, distinct sound made by the organs of speech. the elementary sounds of the english language are divided into vocals, subvocals, and aspirates. vocals are those sounds which consist of pure tone only. they are the most prominent elements of speech. a diphthong is a union of two vocals, commencing with one and ending with the other. subvocals are those sounds in which the vocalized breath is more or less obstructed. aspirates consist of breath only, modified by the vocal organs. vocals. directions for articulation. . let the mouth be open, and the teeth, tongue, and palate in their proper position. . pronounce the word in the chart forcibly, and with the falling inflection, several times in succession; then drop the subvocal or aspirate sounds which precede or follow the vocal, and repeat the vocals alone. table. long vocals. sound word sound word a hate e err a hare i pine a far o no a pass u tube a fall u burn e eve oo cool short vocals. sound word sound word a mat o not e met u us i it oo book remark.--in this table, the short sounds, except u, are nearly or quite the same, in quality, as certain of the long sounds. the difference consists chiefly in quantity. as a rule, the long vocals should be prolonged with a full, clear utterance; but the short vocals should be uttered sharply and almost explosively. diphthongs. oi, oy, as in coin, boy. ou, ow, as in noun, now. subvocals and aspirates. directions for articulation. pronounce distinctly and forcibly, several times in succession, words in which these sounds occur as elements; then drop the other sounds, and repeat the subvocals and aspirates alone. each subvocal in the first table should be practiced in connection with its cognate sound. let the class repeat the words and elements, at first in concert; then separately. select words ending with subvocal sounds for practice on subvocals; words beginning or ending with aspirate sounds, for practice on aspirates. cognate sounds. subvocals aspirates sound example sound example b babe p rap d rod t at g fog k book j judge ch chat v live f file th them th myth z buzz s sink zh azure sh shine w win wh when remark.--these eighteen sounds make nine pairs of cognate sounds. in articulating the aspirates, the vocal organs are put in the position as required for the articulation of the corresponding subvocals; but the breath is expelled with some force, without the utterance of any vocal sound. let the pupil verify this by experiment, and then practice on these cognates. the following sounds are not cognates. sub vocals. sound example l mill m him n tin ng sing, think r (rough) rule r (smooth) car aspirate. h, as in hat. substitutes. substitutes are characters used to represent sounds ordinarily represented by other characters. the following table indicates nearly every form of substitution used in the language: a few exceptional cases only are omitted table of substitutes. sub for as in sub for as in a e any o oo to a o what o oo would c z suffice o u son c s cite ph v stephen c k cap ph f sylph ch k ache q k liquor ch sh machine qu kw quote d j soldier s sh sure e i england s zh rasure e a there s z rose e a feint u e bury ee i been u i busy f v of u oo rude g j cage u oo pull gh f laugh x ks wax gh k lough x ksh noxious i e police x z xerxes i e thirst x gz examine i y filial y e myrrh n ng rink y i my o u work y i hymn o i women z s quartz o a form vocals. let the teacher utter each word, and then its vocal sound, and let the pupil imitate closely and carefully, thus: mate, a; rate, a: man, a: far, a: etc. a--mate, rain, say, they, feint, gauge, break, vein, gaol a--man, pan, tan, shall, lamp, back, mat, stand a--far, hard, ah, aunt, heart, guard, psalm a--ball, talk, pause, saw, broad, storm, naught, bought a--was, what, wash, swap, nod, blot, knowledge e--me, tree, sea, key, field, ceiling, people, police e--met, bread, said (sed), says (sez), friend, heifer, leopard, guess, any (en'y), bury (ber'ry). e--her, clerk, earn, were, first, myrrh. i--pine, sign, lie, type, sleight, buy, guide, aisle, choir. i--pin, fountain, been (bin), busy (biz'y), surfeit, sieve, hymn, build, myth. i--sir, bird, girl, birch, mirth, birth. o--no, door, loam, hoe, soul, snow, sew (so), yeomen, bureau (bu'ro), hautboy (ho'boy). o--not, blot, chop, throb, bother, body, wan. o--nor, born, storm, cork, fork, small, stall. o--wolf, woman, bushel, would, should, pull o--move, who, tomb, group, soup, shoe, do, lose o.--love, son, flood, front, shove, touch, does, tongue. oo--wool, book, cook, rook, goodly. oo.--food, troop, tooth, goose, spoon, noon. u.--use, abuse, beauty, feud, view, adieu. u.--rub, sum, sun, such, much, tuck, luck, trouble. u.--fur, curl, hurt, burn, turn, spurn, work. u.--full, bull, push, bush oi, oy.-oil, point, voice, noise, boiler, boy, joy, alloy. ou, ow.-our, sour, cloud, owl, now, bow, couch. sub vocals. let the sound of each letter be given, and not its name. after articulating the sounds, each word should be pronounced distinctly. b.--be, by, boy, bib, sob, bite, bone, band, bubble. d.--deed, did, dab, bid, bud, dead, door, indeed. g.--go, gag, gig, bag, beg, fog, fig, girl, rag, log. j.--jay, joy, jig, gill, job, judge, ginger, soldier. l.--lad, led, dell, mill, line, lily, folly. m--me, my, mad, mug, him, aim, blame. n.--no, now, nab, nod, man, sun, none, noun. r. (rough)--rear, red, rough, riot, ripe, rude, ragged. r. (smooth)--form, farm, worn, for, ear, manner. v.--van, vine, vale, vivid, stove, of, stephen. w.--we, woe, web, wed, wig, wag, wood, will, wonder. y.--ye, yam, yon, yes, yarn, yoke, yawn, filial. z.--zag, rose, rise, zone, lives, stars, suffice. zh.--azure, osier, usual, measure, rouge (roozh). th.--thee, thy, them, blithe, beneath, those. ng.--bang, fang, gang, bring, sing, fling. aspirates. f.--fib, fob, buff, beef, if, off, life, phrase, laugh. h.--ha, he, hub, had, how, hill, home, hire, horse. k.--kill, bake, cat, cow, come, chord, black. p.--pop, pig, lip, map, pipe, pope, apple, path, pile. s.--sad, fuss, miss, cent, cease, sick, sound, sincere. t.--hat, mat, toe, totter, tint, time, sleet, taught. sh.--dash, shad, rush, sure, ocean, notion, passion, chaise. ch.--chin, chop, chat, rich, much, church, bastion. th.--thin, hath, think, teeth, truth, breath, pith. subvocals combined. utter the sounds only, and pronounce very distinctly. br.--bred, brag, brow, brim, brush, breed, brown. bz, bst.--fibs, fib'st, robs, rob'st, rubs, rub'st. bd, bdst.--fibbed, fib'd'st, sobbed, sob'd'st, robbed, rob'd'st. bl.--blab, blow, bluff, bliss, stable, babble, gobble. blz, blst.--fables, fabl'st, nibbles, nibbl'st. bid, bldst.--fabled, fabl'd'st, nibbled, nibbl'd'st. dr.--drab, drip, drop, drag drum, dress, drink. dz, dst.--rids, rid'st, adds, add'st, sheds, shed'st. dl.--addle, paddle, fiddle, riddle, needle, idle, ladle. dlz, dlst.--addles, addl'st, fiddles, fiddl'st. dld.--addled, fiddled, huddled, idled, ladled. fr.--fret, frog, from, fry, fresh, frame, free. fs, fst.--cuffs, cuff'st, stuffs, stuff'st, doffs, doff'st. ft.--lift, waft, drift, graft, soft, theft, craft, shaft. fts, ftst.--lifts, lift'st, wafts, waft'st, sifts, sift'st. fi.--baffle, raffle, shuffle, muffle, rifle, trifle, whiffle. fls, flst.--baffles, baffl'st, shuffles, shuffl'st, rifles, rifl'st. fld, fldst.--baffled, baffl'd'st, shuffled, shuffl'd'st. gr.--grab, grim, grip, grate, grant, grass, green. gz, gst.--begs, beg'st, digs, dig'st, gags, gag'st. gd, gdst.--begged, begg'd'st, digged, digg'd'st. gl.--higgle, joggle, straggle, glib, glow, glaze. glz, glst.--higgles, higgl'st, juggles, juggl'st. gld, gldst.--higgled, higgl'd'st, joggled, joggl'd'st. jd.--caged, hedged, bridged, lodged, judged, waged. kr.--cram, crag, crash, crop, cry, creel, crone, crown. kw, (qu).--quell, quick, quite, quote, quake, queen. ks, kst, (x).--kicks, kick'st, mix, mixed, box, boxed. kt, kts.--act, acts, fact, facts, tact, tacts, sect, sects. kl.--clad, clip, clown, clean, close, cackle, pickle. klz, klst.--cackles, cackl'st, buckles, buckl'st. kld, kldst.--cackled, cackl'd'st, buckled, buckl'd'st. lf.--elf, ralph, shelf, gulf, sylph, wolf. ld.--hold, mold, bold, cold, wild, mild, field, yield. ldz, ldst.--holds, hold'st, gilds, gild'st, yields, yield'st. lz, lst.--fills, fill'st, pulls, pull'st, drills, drill'st. lt, lts.--melt, melts, tilt, tilts, salt, salts, bolt, bolts. mz, mst.--names, nam'st, hems, hem'st, dims, dim'st. md, mdst.--named, nam'd'st, dimmed, dimm'd'st. nd.--and, lend, band, blonde, fund, bound, round, sound. ndz, ndst.--lends, lend'st, hands, hand'st. ndl.--handle, kindle, fondle, trundle, brindle. ndlz, ndlst.--handles, halldl'st, kindles, kindl'st. ndld, ndldst.--handled, handl'd'st, kindled, kindl'd'st. nks, nkst.--banks, hank'st, sinks, sink'st. nkd.--banked, clank'd, winked, thank'd, flank'd. nz, nst.--wins, win'st, tans, tan'st, runs run'st. nt, nts.--hint, hints, cent, cents, want, wants. nch, nchd.--pinch, pinch'd, blanch, blanch'd. ngz, ngd.--hangs, hang'd, rings, ring'd. nj, njd.--range, ranged, hinge, hinged. pr.--prat, prim, print, prone, prune, pry, prank. pl.--plant, plod, plum, plus, apple, cripple. ps, pst.--nips, nip'st, taps, tap'st, mops, mop'st. pt, pts.--adopt, adopts, adept, adepts, crypt, crypts. rj, rjd.--merge, merged, charge, charged, urge, urged. rd.--card, cord, curd, herd, ford, ward, bird. rdz, rdst.--cards, card'st, herds, herd'st, cords, cord'st. rk.--bark, jerk, dirk, cork, lurk, work. rks, rkst.--barks, bark'st, lurks, lurk'st. rl.--marl, curl, whirl, pearl, whorl, snarl. rlz, rlst.--curls, curl'st, whirls, whirl'st, twirls, twirl'st. rld, rldst.-- curled, curl'd'st, whirled, whirl'd'st, snarled, snarl'd'st. rm.--arm, term, form, warm, storm, worm, sperm. rmz, rmst.--arms, arm'st, fbrms, form'st. rmd, rmdst.--armed, arm'd'st, formed, form'd'st. rn.--barn, warn, scorn, worn, earn, turn. rnz, rnst.--turns, turn'st, scorns, scorn'st. rnd, rndst.--turned, turn'd'st, scorned, scorn'd'st. rt.--dart, heart, pert, sort, girt, dirt, hurt. rts, rtst.--darts, dart'st, girts, girt'st, hurts, hurt'st. rch, rchd.--arch, arched, perch, perched. sk.--ask, scab, skip, risk, skum, bask, husk. sks.--asks, tasks. risks, whisks, husks. skd, skst.--asked, ask'st, risked, risk'st, husked, husk'st. sp, sps.--gasp, gasps, rasp, rasps, crisp, crisps. spd.--gasped, lisped, crisped, wisped, cusped. st, sts.--mast, masts, nest, nests, fist, fists. sw.--swim, swell, swill, swan, sweet, swing, swam. str.--strap, strip, strop, stress, strut, strife, strew. tl.--rattle, nettle, whittle, bottle, hurtle, scuttle. tlz, tlst.--rattles, rattl'st, nettles, nettl'st. tld, tldst.--rattled, rattl'd'st, settled, settl'd'st. ts, tst.--bat, bat'st, bets, bet'st, pits, pit'st, dots, dot'st. tw.--twin, twirl, twice, tweed, twist, twelve, twain. tr.--trap, trip, trot, tress, truss, trash, try, truce, trice. vz, vst.--gives, giv'st, loves, lov'st, saves, sav'st. zm, zmz.--chasm, chasms, prism, prisms. zl.--dazzle, frizzle, nozzle, puzzle. zlz, zld.--dazzles, dazzled, frizzles, frizzled. sht.--dashed, meshed, dished, rushed, washed. shr.--shrank, shred, shrill, shrunk, shrine, shroud, shrew. thd.--bathed, sheathed, soothed, smoothed, wreathed. thz, thzt.--bathes, bath'st, sheathes, sheath'st. ngz, ngst.--hangs, hang'st, brings, bring'st. ngd, ngdst.--hanged, hang'd'st., stringed, string'd'st. nks, nkst.--thanks, thank'st, thinks, think'st. nkd, nkdst.--thanked, thank'd'st, kinked, kink'd'st. dth, dths.--width, widths, breadth, breadths. kld, kldst.--circled, circl'd'st, darkle, darkl'd'st. kl, klz.--circle, circles, cycle, cycles. lj, ljd.--bilge, bilged, bulge, bulged, indulge, indulged. lb, lbz.--alb, albs, bulb, bulbs. lk, lks, lkst, lkdst.--milk, milks, milk'st, milk'd'st. lm, lmz.--elm, elms, whelm, whelms, film, films. lp, lpd, lpst, lpdst.--help, helped, help'st, help'd'st. lv, lvz, lvd.--valve, valves, valved, delve, delves, delved. lch, lchd.--belch, belched, filch, filched, gulch, gulched. lth, lth --health, healths, tilth, tilth mf, mfs.--nymph, nymphs, triumph, triumphs. gth, gths.--length, lengths, strength, strengths. rb, rbz, rbd, rbst, rbdst.--curb, curbs, curbed, curb'st, curb'd'st. rf, rfs, rfst, rfdst.--dwarf, dwarfs, dwarf'st, dwarf'd'st. rv, rvz, rvst, rvd, rvdst.--curve, curves, curv'st, curved, curv'd'st. rth, rths.--birth, births, girth, girths, hearth, hearths. rp, rps, rpd, rpst, rpdst.--harp, harps, harped, harp'st, harp'd'st. rs, rst.--nurse, nursed, verse, versed, course, coursed. thr.--thrash, thresh, thrift, throb, thrush, thrust, throng, three, thrive, thrice, throat, throne, throve, thrill, thrum. thw.--thwack, thwart. exercises in articulation. errors to be corrected. to teachers.--in the following exercises, the more common errors in articulation and pronunciation are denoted. the letters in italics are not silent letters, but are thus marked to point them out as the representatives of sounds which are apt to be defectively articulated, omitted, or incorrectly sounded. a incorrect correct incorrect correct fa-t fa-tal sep-er-ate sep-a-rate reel re-al temp-per-unce tem-per-ance ras-cul ras-cal up-pear ap-pear crit-ic-ul crit-ic-al tem-per-it tem-per-ate test'ment tes-ta-ment mod-er-it med-er-ate firm'ment fir-ma-ment in-ti-mit int-ti-mate e incorrect correct incorrect correct ev'ry ev-er-y sev'ral sev-er-al b'lief be-lief prov-i-dunce prov-i-dence pr'vail pre-vail ev-i-dunce ev-i-dence r'tain re-tain si-lunt si-lent trav'ler trav-el-er mon-u-munt mon-u-ment flut'ring flut-ter-ing con-ti-nunt con-ti-nent tel'scope tel-e-scope con-fi-dunt con-fi-dent i incorrect correct incorrect correct d'rect di-rect rad'cal rad-i-cal d'spose dis-pose sal'vate sal-i-vate van'ty van-i-ty can'bal can-ni-bal ven-t'late ven-ti-late mount'n moun-tain ju-b'lee ju-bi-lee fount'n foun-tain rid-cule rid-i-cule vill'ny vil-lain-y o incorrect correct incorrect correct des'late des-o-late rhet-er-ic rhet-o-tic hist'ry his-to-ry in-ser-lent in-so-lent mem'ry mem-o-ry croc-ud-ile croc-o-dile col'ny col-o-ny com-prum-ise com-pro-mise ag'ny ag-o-ny anch-ur-ite an-cho-rite balc'ny bal-co-ny cor-per-al cor-po-ral ob-s'lete ob-so-lete ob-luq-quy ob-lo-quy wil-ler wil-low or-ther-dox or-tho-dox wid-der wid-ow cun-di-tion con-di-tion pil-ler pil-low pus-i-tion po-si-tion mead-er mead-ow tug-eth-er to-geth-er fel-ler fel-low put-a-ter po-ta-to win-der win-dow tub-ac-cur to-bac-co u the most common mistake in the sound of u occurs in words of the following kind: as, crea-ter or crea-choor, for crea-ture; nat-er or na- choor for na-ture, etc. incorrect correct lec'-ter lec'-choor lec'-ture fea'-ter fea'-choor fea'-ture mois'-ter mois'-choor mois'-ture ver'-der ver'-jer ver-dure mix'-ter mix'-cher mix'-ture rup'ter rup'-cher rup'-ture sculp'-ter sculp'-cher sculp'-ture ges'-ter ges'cher ges'-ture struc'-ter struc'-cher struc'-ture stric'-ter stric'-choor stric'-ture ves'-ter ves'-cher ves'-ture tex'-ter tex'-cher tex'-ture fix'-ter fix'-cher fix'-ture vul'-ter vul'-cher vul'-ture for'-ten for'-choon for'-tune stat'-er sta'-choor stat'-ure stat'-ew stat'-choo stat'ue stat'-ewt sta'-choot stat'-ute ed'-di-cate ed'-ju-cate ed'-u-cate h in order to accustom the learner to sound h properly, let him pronounce certain words without and then with it: as aft, haft; ail, hail, etc. the h should be clearly sounded. aft haft edge hedge ail hail eel heel air hair ell hell all hall elm helm ark hark eye high arm harm ill hill art hart it hit ash hash old hold at hat yew he d final. incorrect correct incorrect correct an and frien friend lan land soun sound mine mind groun ground boun bound fiel field k final. incorrect correct incorrect correct fris frisk dus dusk des desk mos mosque tas task tus tusk ris risk hus husk n for ng. incorrect correct incorrect correct morn-in morn-ing shav-in shav-ing run-nin run-ning hid-in hid-ing talk-in talk-ing see-in see-ing walk-in walk-ing lov-in lov-ing drink-in drink-ing fight-in fight-ing slid-in slid-ing laugh-in laugh-ing r sound the r clearly and forcibly. when it precedes a vowel, give it a slight trill. rule ruin rat rug reck rate reed rill rub rig rim rite ride rise red rag rick rote run reek rib rob rip ruse roar roam rack rid rip rouse arch farm lark far snare for march harm bark bar spare war larch charm mark hair sure corn starch dark are stair lure born arm spark star care pure horn t final incorrect correct incorrect correct eas east wep wept moce most ob-jec ob-ject los lost per-fec per-fect nes nest dear-es dear-est gues guest high-es high-est ts final incorrect correct incorrect correct hoce hosts sec's sects tes tests bus busts lifs lifts cense cents tuffs tufts ob-jec's ob-jects ac's acts re-spec's re-spects w for wh incorrect correct incorrect correct wale whale wet whet weal wheel wine whine wen when wip whip sentences for practice sentences like the following may be read with great advantage, for the purpose of acquiring distinctness and precision in articulation. this act, more than all other acts, laid the ax at the root of the evil. it is false to say he had no other faults. the hosts still stand in strangest plight. that last still night. that lasts till night. on either side an ocean exists. on neither side a notion exists. among the rugged rocks the restless ranger ran. i said pop-u-lar, not pop'lar. i said pre-vail, not pr'vail. i said be-hold, not b'hold. think'st thou so meanly of my phocion? henceforth look to your hearths. canst thou minister to a mind diseased? a thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call. accent. accent, marked thus ('), is an increased force of voice upon some one syllable of a word; as, col'o-ny, bot'a-ny; re-mem'ber, im-por'tant; rec-ol-lect', rep-re-sent'. in the words col'o-ny and bot'a-ny, the first syllable is accented. in the words re-mem'ber and im-por'tant, the second syllable is accented. in the words rec-ol-lect' and rep-re-sent', the third syllable is accented. inflection. inflection is an upward or downward slide of the voice. the rising inflection, sometimes marked thus ('), is an upward slide of the voice. examples has he come'? has he gone? are you sick'? will you go'? are they here'? the falling inflection, marked thus (') is a downward slide of the voice. examples they are here. he has gone. he has come i will go. i am well. let the pupil practice these examples until he is perfectly familiar with the rising and falling inflections. are you sick or well? will you go, or stay? did he ride, or walk? is it black, or white? is he rich, or poor? are they old, or young? did you say cap, or cat? i said cat, not cap. did you say am, or ham? i said ham, not am. is the dog white', or black'? the dog is black', not white'. did you say and', or hand'? i said and', not hand'. is the tree large', or small'? the tree is small', not large'. are the apples sweet', or sour'? the apples are sour' not sweet'. is the tide high', or low'? the tide is high', not low'. did you say play', or pray'? i said pray', not play'. mcguffey's fourth reader. i. perseverance. ( ) . "will you give my kite a lift?" said my little nephew to his sister, after trying in vain to make it fly by dragging it along the ground. lucy very kindly took it up and threw it into the air, but, her brother neglecting to run off at the same moment, the kite fell down again. . "ah! now, how awkward you are!" said the little fellow. "it was your fault entirely," answered his sister. "try again, children," said i. . lucy once more took up the kite. but now john was in too great a hurry; he ran off so suddenly that he twitched the kite out of her hand, and it fell flat as before. "well, who is to blame now?" asked lucy. "try again," said i. . they did, and with more care; but a side wind coming suddenly, as lucy let go the kite, it was blown against some shrubs, and the tail became entangled in a moment, leaving the poor kite hanging with its head downward. . "there, there!" exclaimed john, "that comes of your throwing it all to one side." "as if i could make the wind blow straight," said lucy. in the meantime, i went to the kite's assistance; and having disengaged the long tail, i rolled it up, saying, "come, children, there are too many trees here; let us find a more open space, and then try again." . we presently found a nice grassplot, at one side of which i took my stand; and all things being prepared, i tossed the kite up just as little john ran off. it rose with all the dignity of a balloon, and promised a lofty flight; but john, delighted to find it pulling so hard at the string, stopped short to look upward and admire. the string slackened, the kite wavered, and, the wind not being very favorable, down came the kite to the grass. "o john, you should not have stopped," said i. "however, try again." . "i won't try any more," replied he, rather sullenly. "it is of no use, you see. the kite won't fly, and i don't want to be plagued with it any longer." "oh, fie, my little man! would you give up the sport, after all the pains we have taken both to make and to fly the kite? a few disappointments ought not to discourage us. come, i have wound up your string, and now try again." . and he did try, and succeeded, for the kite was carried upward on the breeze as lightly as a feather; and when the string was all out, john stood in great delight, holding fast the stick and gazing on the kite, which now seemed like a little white speck in the blue sky. "look, look, aunt, how high it flies! and it pulls like a team of horses, so that i can hardly hold it. i wish i had a mile of string: i am sure it would go to the end of it." . after enjoying the sight as long as he pleased, little john proceeded to roll up the string slowly; and when the kite fell, he took it up with great glee, saying that it was not at all hurt, and that it had behaved very well. "shall we come out to-morrow, aunt, after lessons, and try again?" . "i have no objection, my dear, if the weather is fine. and now, as we walk home, tell me what you have learned from your morning's sport." "i have learned to fly my kite properly." "you may thank aunt for it, brother," said lucy, "for you would have given it up long ago, if she had not persuaded you to try again." . "yes, dear children, i wish to teach you the value of perseverance, even when nothing more depends upon it than the flying of a kite. whenever you fail in your attempts to do any good thing, let your motto be,--try again." definitions.--in defining words, that meaning is given which is appropriate to them in the connection in which they are used. . en-tan'gled, twisted in, disordered. . as-sist'-ance, help, aid. dis-en-gaged, cleared, set free. . grass'plot, a space covered with grass. dig'ni-ty, majestic manner. . dis-ap-point/ments, failures or defeats of expectation. dis-cour'age, take away courage. . glee, joy . per-se-ver'ance, continuance in anything once begun. mot'to, a short sentence or a word full of meaning. exercises--what is the subject of this lesson? why was john discouraged in his attempts to fly his kite? what did his, aunt say to him? what may we learn from this? what should be our motto if we expect to be successful? ii. try, try again. ( ) . 't is a lesson you should heed, try, try again; if at first you don't succeed, try, try again; then your courage should appear, for, if you will persevere, you will conquer, never fear; try, try again. . once or twice though you should fail, try, try again; if you would at last prevail, try, try again; if we strive, 'tis no disgrace though we do not win the race; what should you do in the case? try, try again. . if you find your task is hard, try, try again; time will bring you your reward, try, try again. all that other folks can do, why, with patience, should not you? only keep this rule in view: try, try again. definitions.--l. cour'age, resolution. con'quer, gain the vic-tory. . pre-vail, overcome. dis-grace', shame. win, gain, ob-tain. . re-ward', anything given in return for good or bad con-duct. pa'-tience, constany in labor. exercises.--what does the mark before "'t is" mean? what is it called? what point is used after the word "case" in the second stanza? why? iii. why the sea is salt. ( ) a fairy tale. mary howitt was born in , at coleford, england. she wrote many charming stories for children in prose and verse, and also translated many from swedish, danish, and german authors. this story is arranged from one in a collection named "peter drake's dream, and other stories." she died in . . there were, in very ancient times, two brothers, one of whom was rich, and the other poor. christmas was approaching, but the poor man had nothing in the house for a christmas dinner; so he went to his brother and asked him for a trifling gift. . the rich man was ill-natured, and when he heard his brother's request he looked very surly. but as christmas is a time when even the worst people give gifts, he took a fine ham down from the chimney, where it was hanging to smoke, threw it at his brother, and bade him begone and never to let him see his face again. . the poor man thanked his brother for the ham, put it under his arm, and went his way. he had to pass through a great forest on his way home. when he had reached the thickest part of it, he saw an old man, with a long, white beard, hewing timber. "good evening," said he to him. . "good evening," returned the old man, raising himself up from his work, and looking at him. "that is a fine ham you are carrying." on this, the poor man told him all about it. . "it is lucky for you," said the old man, "that you have met with me. if you will take that ham into the land of the dwarfs, the entrance to which lies just under the roots of this tree, you can make a capital bargain with it; for the dwarfs are very fond of ham, and rarely get any. but mind what i say: you must not sell it for money, but demand for it the 'old hand mill which stands behind the door.' when you come back, i'll show you how to use it." . the poor man thanked his new friend, who showed him the door under a stone below the roots of the tree, and by this door he entered into the land of the dwarfs. no sooner had he set his foot in it, than the dwarfs swarmed about him, attracted by the smell of the ham. they offered him queer, old-fashioned money and gold and silver ore for it; but he refused all their tempting offers, and said that he would sell it only for the old hand mill behind the door. . at this, the dwarfs held up their little old hands, and looked quite perplexed. "we can not make a bargain, it seems," said the poor man, "so i'll bid you all a good day." . the fragrance of the ham had by this time reached the remote parts of dwarf land. the dwarfs came flocking around in little troops, leaving their work of digging out precious ores, eager for the ham. . "let him have the old mill," said some of the newcomers; "it is quite out of order, and he don't know how to use it. let him have it, and we will have the ham." . so the bargain was made. the poor man took the old hand mill, which was a little thing not half so large as the ham, and went back to the woods. here the old man showed him how to use it. all this had taken up a great deal of time, and it was midnight before he reached home. . "where in the world have you been?" said his wife. "here i have been waiting and waiting, and we have no wood to make a fire, nor anything to put into the porridge pot for our christmas supper." . the house was dark and cold; but the poor man bade his wife wait and see what would happen. he placed the little hand mill on the table, and began to turn the crank. first, out there came some grand, lighted wax candles, and a fire on the hearth, and a porridge pot boiling over it, because in his mind he said they should come first. then he ground out a tablecloth, and dishes, and spoons, and knives and forks. . he was himself astonished at his good luck, as you may believe; and his wife was almost beside herself with joy and astonishment. well, they had a capital supper; and after it was eaten, they ground out of the mill every possible thing to make their house and themselves warm and comfortable. so they had a merry christmas eve and morning. definitions.--l. tri'-fling, of small value. . hand 'mill, a mill turned by hand. . at-tract'ed, drawn to, allured. . perplexed', puzzled. . fra'grance, sweetness of smell. iv. why the sea is salt. ( ) (concluded.) . when the people went by the house to church, the next day, they could hardly believe their eyes. there was glass in the windows instead of a wooden shutter, and the poor man and his wife, dressed in nice new clothes, were seen devoutly kneeling in the church. . "there is something very strange in all this," said everyone. "something very strange indeed," said the rich man, when three days afterwards he received an invitation from his once poor brother to a grand feast. and what a feast it was! the table was covered with a cloth as white as snow, and the dishes were all of silver or gold. the rich man could not, in his great house, and with all his wealth, set out such a table. . "where did you get all these things?" exclaimed he. his brother told him all about the bargain he had made with the dwarfs, and putting the mill on the table, ground out boots and shoes, coats and cloaks, stockings, gowns, and blankets, and bade his wife give them to the poor people that had gathered about the house to get a sight of the grand feast the poor brother had made for the rich one. . the rich man, was very envious of his brother's good fortune, and wanted to borrow the mill, intending--for he was not an honest man--never to return it again. his brother would not lend it, for the old man with the white beard had told him never to sell or lend it to anyone. . some years went on, and, at last, the possessor of the mill built himself a grand castle on a rock by the sea, facing the west. its windows, reflecting the golden sunset, could be seen far out from the shore. it became a noted landmark for sailors. strangers from foreign parts often came to see this castle and the wonderful mill of which the most extraordinary tales were told. . at length, a great foreign merchant came, and when he had seen the mill, inquired whether it would grind salt. being told that it would, he wanted to buy it; for he traded in salt, and thought that if he owned it he could supply all his customers without taking long and dangerous voyages. . the man would not sell it, of course. he was so rich now that he did not want to use it for himself; but every christmas he ground out food and clothes and coal for the poor, and nice presents for the little children. so he rejected all the offers of the rich merchant. the merchant, however, determined to have it; he bribed one of the man's servants to let him go into the castle at night, and he stole the mill and sailed away with it in triumph. . he had scarcely got out to sea, before he determined to set the mill to work. "now, mill, grind salt," said he; "grind salt with all your might!--salt, salt, and nothing but salt!" the mill began to grind and the sailors to fill the sacks; but these were soon full, and in spite of all that could be done, it began to fill the ship. . the dishonest merchant was now very much frightened. what was to be done? the mill would not stop grinding; and at last the ship was overloaded, and down it went, making a great whirlpool where it sank. the ship soon went to pieces; but the mill stands on the bottom of the sea, and keeps grinding out "salt, salt, nothing but salt!" that is the reason, say the peasants of denmark and norway, why the sea is salt. definitions.--l. de-vout'ly, in a reverent manner. . re--flect'ing, throwing back light, heat, etc., as a mirror. land'-mark, an object on land serving as a guide to seamen. ex-traor'--di-na-ry, wonderful. . whirl'-pool, a gulf in which the water moves round in a circle. peas'ents, those belonging to the lowest class of tillers of the soil in europe. exercises.--what is a "fairy tale"? what fairy people are told about in this story? how did the poor man find the way to the land of the dwarfs? do you think the old man would have told him if the poor man had not been so polite? how did the poor man treat his rich brother in return for his unkindness? how was the greed of the dishonest merchant punished? what is meant by "strangers from foreign parts"? where are denmark and norway? v. popping corn. ( ) . one autumn night, when the wind was high, and the rain fell in heavy plashes, a little boy sat by the kitchen fire, a-popping corn in the ashes; and his sister, a curly-haired child of three, sat looking on, just close to his knee. . pop! pop! and the kernels, one by one, came out of the embers flying; the boy held a long pine stick in his hand, and kept it busily plying; he stirred the corn and it snapped the more, and faster jumped to the clean-swept floor. . part of the kernels flew one way, and a part hopped out the other; some flew plump into the sister's lap, some under the stool of the brother; the little girl gathered them into a heap, and called them a flock of milk-white sheep. vi. smiles. ( ) . poor lame jennie sat at her window, looking out upon the dismal, narrow street, with a look of pain and weariness on her face. "oh, dear," she said with a sigh, "what a long day this is going to be," and she looked wishfully up the street. . suddenly she leaned forward and pressed her pale face against the glass, as a rosy-checked boy came racing down the street, swinging his schoolbooks by the strap. looking up to the window, he took off his hat and bowed with a bright, pleasant smile. . "what a nice boy he is," said jennie to herself, as he ran out of sight. "i am so glad he goes by here on his way to school. when he smiles, it seems like having the sun shine. i wish everybody who goes by would look up and smile." . "mamma," said george west, as he came from school, "i can't help thinking about that poor little girl i told you of the other day. she looks so tired. i took off my hat and bowed to her to-day. i wish i could do something for her," . "suppose you should carry her a handful of pretty flowers some time when you go to school," said mrs. west. "i'll do that to-morrow morning," said george, "if i can find my way into that rickety old house." . the next morning, as jennie sat leaning her head wearily against the window, watching the raindrops chasing one another down the glass, she spied george with a handful of beautiful flowers carefully picking his way across the street. he stopped in front of her window, and, smiling very pleasantly, said, "how shall i find the way to your room?" . jennie pointed to an alley near by, where he turned in, and with some difficulty found his way to the dingy staircase. opening the door to jennie's gentle "come in," he said, "i have brought you a handful of flowers to look at this rainy day." . "are they for me?" exclaimed jennie, clapping her hands in delight. "how kind you are," she continued, as george laid them in her lap. "i have not had a flower since we live in the city." . "did you use to live in the country?" asked george. "oh, yes," answered jennie, "we used to live in a beautiful cottage, and there were trees and flowers and green grass, and the air was so sweet." . "well, what made you move here?" "oh," said jennie, softly, "papa died, and mamma was sick so long that the money was all gone. then mamma had to sell the cottage, and she moved here to try to get work to do." . "do you have to sit here all day?" asked george, glancing around the bare room and out into the dismal street. "yes," said jennie, "because i am lame; but i would not care for that, if i could only help mamma." . "i declare, it's too had!" said george, who dreaded nothing so much as being obliged to stay in the house. "oh, no, it isn't," said jennie, pleasantly; "mamma says maybe we should forget the lord if we had everything we wanted, and he never forgets us, you know." . "well, i must rush for school," said george, not knowing exactly what to say next; and he was soon out of jennie's sight, but had a happy little corner in his heart, because he had tried to do a kind act. he did not know how much good he had done in making a pleasant day out of a dreary one for a little sick girl. . "mamma," said george, that evening, after he had told her what jennie said, "papa must give them some money, so they can go back to their home." . "no," said his mother; "he can not do that, and they would not wish him to do so; but perhaps he can help us contrive some way to assist them, so that they can live more comfortably." . "i am going to carry jennie some of the grapes grandpa sent me, to-morrow," said george, turning over the leaves of his geography. "i will put some of my pears into your basket, and go with you," said his mother; "but there is one thing we can always give, and sometimes it does more good than nice things to eat, or even money." . "what is that, mamma,--smiles?" asked george, looking up. "yes," answered his mother; "and it is a good plan to throw in a kind word or two with them when you can." definitions.-l. dis'mal, gloomy, cheerless. wish'ful-ly, with desire. . rick'et-y, imperfect, worn out. . din'gy, dark. . glan'cing, looking about quickly. . drear'y, comfortless, gloomy. . con-trive', to plan. exercises.--what is the subject of this lesson? how did george west make the day pleasant for jennie? what did his mother suggest? what happened next day? what did jennie tell george about her life? relate what happened at george's home that evening. what does the lesson teach? vii. lazy ned. ( ) . "'t is royal fun," cried lazy ned, "to coast, upon my fine, new sled, and beat the other boys; but then, i can not bear to climb the tiresome hill, for every time it more and more annoys." . so, while his schoolmates glided by, and gladly tugged uphill, to try another merry race, too indolent to share their plays, ned was compelled to stand and gaze, while shivering in his place. . thus, he would never take the pains to seek the prize that labor gains, until the time had passed; for, all his life, he dreaded still the silly bugbear of uphill, and died a dunce at last. definitions.-l. roy'al, excellent, noble. coast, to slide. an--noys', troubles. . in'do-lent, lazy. . prize, a reward. bug-bear, something frightful. dunce, a silly fellow. exercises.--what did ned like? what did he not like? viii. the monkey. ( ) . the monkey is a very cunning little animal, and is found in many parts of the world. . a lady once had a monkey, which had been brought to her as a present. this monkey, like all others, was very fond of mischief and of doing whatever he saw others do. . his mistress found him one day sitting on her toilet table, holding in one hand a little china mug with water in it, and in the other her toothbrush, with which he was cleaning his teeth, looking all the time in the glass. . her little daughter, maria, had a large doll with a very handsome head and face. she one day left this doll in the cradle, and went out of the room. the monkey came in, took the doll in his arms, and jumping upon the washstand, he began to wash its face. . he first rubbed it all over with soap. then seizing the towel, he dipped it in the wash bowl, and rubbed it so hard that the doll's face was entirely spoiled, the paint being all washed off. . there have been many tales of monkeys who, armed with sticks, have joined together and made war or resisted their enemies with great effect. these are not true, as it is known that in their native state monkeys have no idea of weapons. . the sticks and other missiles said to be thrown at travelers as they pass under the branches of trees, are usually the dead branches, etc., accidentally broken off, as the monkeys, with the natural curiosity of their tribe, pass along the tops of trees to watch the actions of the people below. . they can, however, be taught to use a stick, and to use it well. some time ago, two italians together owned an organ and a monkey, by means of which they earned their living. during one of their exhibitions, a dog flew at the little monkey, which made its owners very angry. . they and the owner of the dog quarreled about it, and at last it was agreed that the dog and the monkey should fight it out; the monkey, because he was smaller, was to be allowed a stick. . the monkey was taught what he was to do in the following manner: one of the italians crawled on his hands and knees, barking like a dog, while the other got on his back, grasped his hair, and beat him about the head with a stick. . the monkey looked on with great gravity, and, when the instruction was over, received the stick with the air of a man who knew his work and meant to do it. . everything being settled the dog flew at the monkey with open month. the monkey immediately leaped on his back, and, grasping the dog's ear, beat away at his head with such good will that his adversary speedily gave in. the monkey, however, was not content with a mere victory, but continued pounding at the dog's head until he left him senseless on the ground. definitions.-- . cun'ning, sly. . toi'let ta'ble, dressing table. . re-sist'ed, opposed. . mis'siles, weapons thrown. . ex-hi-bi'tions, public shows. . grav'i-ty, seriousness. in-struc'-tion, lesson, . sense'less, without apparent life. exercises.--what kind of an animal is a monkey? where did the lady find the monkey one day? what was he doing? what did he do with maria's doll? do monkeys in their native state know how to use sticks as weapons? can they be taught to use them? relate the story of the two italians. what is the meaning of "etc." in the seventh paragraph? ix. meddlesome matty. ( ) . oh, how one ugly trick has spoiled the sweetest and the best! matilda, though a pleasant child, one grievous fault possessed, which, like a cloud before the skies, hid all her better qualities. . sometimes, she'd lift the teapot lid to peep at what was in it; or tilt, the kettle, if you did but turn your back a minute. in vain you told her not to touch, her trick of meddling grew so much. . her grand mamma went out one day, and, by mistake, she laid her spectacles and snuffbox gay, too near the little maid; "ah! well," thought she, "i'll try them on, as soon as grand mamma is gone." . forthwith, she placed upon her nose the glasses large and wide; and looking round, as i suppose, the snuffbox, too, she spied. "oh, what a pretty box is this! i'll open it," said little miss. . "i know that grandmamma would say, 'don't meddle with it, dear;' but then she's far enough away, and no one else is near; beside, what can there be amiss in opening such a box as this?" . so, thumb and finger went to work to move the stubborn lid; and, presently, a mighty jerk the mighty mischief did; for all at once, ah! woeful case! the snuff came puffing in her face. . poor eyes, and nose, and mouth, and chin a dismal sight presented; and as the snuff got further in, sincerely she repented. in vain she ran about for ease, she could do nothing else but sneeze. . she dashed the spectacles away, to wipe her tingling eyes; and, as in twenty bits they lay, her grandmamma she spies. "heyday! and what's the matter now?" cried grandmamma, with angry brow. . matilda, smarting with the pain, and tingling still, and sore, made many a promise to refrain from meddling evermore; and 't is a fact, as i have heard, she ever since has kept her word. definitions.-l. qual'i-ties, traits of character. . med'-dling, interfering without right. . forth-with', at once. spied, saw. . a-miss', wrong, faulty. . woe'ful, sad, sorrowful . tin'gling, smarting. . re-frain', to keep from. exercises.--what did matilda do? how was she punished? what effect did it have on her? x. the good son. ( ) . there was once a jeweler, noted for many virtues. one day, the jewish elders came to him to buy some diamonds, to put upon that part of the dress of their high priest, which the bible calls an ephod. . they told him what they wanted, and offered him a fair price for the diamonds. he replied that he could not let them see the jewels at that moment, and requested them to call again. . as they wanted them without delay, and thought that the object of the jeweler was only to increase the price of the diamonds, the elders offered him twice, then three times, as much as they were worth. but he still refused, and they went away in very bad humor. . some hours after, he went to them, and placed before them the diamonds, for which they again offered him the last price they had named; but he said, "i will only accept the first one you offered to me this morning." . "why, then, did you not close with us at once?" asked they in surprise. "when you came," replied he, "my father had the key of the chest, in which the diamonds were kept, and as he was asleep, i should have been obliged to wake him to obtain them. . "at his age, a short hour of sleep does him a great deal of good; and for all the gold in the world, i would not be wanting in respect to my father, or take from him a single comfort." . the elders, affected by these feeling words, spread their hands upon the jeweler's head, and said, "thou shalt be blessed of him who has said, 'honor thy father and thy mother;' and thy children shall one day pay thee the same respect and love thou hast shown to thy father." definitions.--l. jew'el-er, one who buys and sells precious stones. not'ed, well known. eld'er, an officer of the jewish church. eph'od, part of the dress of a jewish priest, made of two pieces, one covering the chest and the other the back, united by a girdle. . di'a-monds, precious stones. . hu'mor, state of mind, temper. . close, come to an agreement. exercises.--relate the story of the jeweler and his diamonds. what did the elders say to him, when they heard his reason for not giving them the diamonds at first? xi. to-morrow. ( ) mrs. m. b. johnson is the authoress of "to-morrow," one of a collection of poems; entitled "poems of home life." . a bright, merry boy, with laughing face, whose every motion was full of grace, who knew no trouble and feared no care, was the light of our household--the youngest there. . he was too young, this little elf, with troublesome questions to vex himself; but for many days a thought would rise, and bring a shade to his dancing eyes. . he went to one whom he thought more wise than any other beneath the skies; "mother,"--o word that makes the home!-- "tell me, when will to-morrow come?" . "it is almost night," the mother said, "and time for my boy to be in bed; when you wake up and it's day again, it will be to-morrow, my darling, then." . the little boy slept through all the night, but woke with the first red streak of light; he pressed a kiss to his mother's brow, and whispered, "is it to-morrow now?" . "no, little eddie, this is to-day: to-morrow is always one night away." he pondered a while, but joys came fast, and this vexing question quickly passed. . but it came again with the shades of night; "will it be to-morrow when it is light?" from years to come he seemed care to borrow, he tried so hard to catch to-morrow. . "you can not catch it, my little ted; enjoy to-day," the mother said; "some wait for to-morrow through many a year it is always coming, but never is here." definitions.-- . house'hold, family, those living in the same house. . elf, a small fairy-like person. vex, worry, trouble. pon'dered, thought anxiously. a-while', for a short time. exercises.--what is meant by "dancing eyes" in the second stanza? what is meant by "the shades of night," in the seventh stanza? of what name are "eddie" and "ted" nicknames? what troubled eddie? can you define tomorrow? what did eddie's mother advise him to do? xii. where there is a will there is a way. ( ) . henry bond was about ten years old when his father died. his mother found it difficult to provide for the support of a large family, thus left entirely in her care. by good management, however, she contrived to do so, and also to send henry, the oldest, to school, and to supply him, for the most part, with such books as he needed. . at one time, however, henry wanted a grammar, in order to join a class in that study, and his mother could not furnish him with the money to buy it. he was very much troubled about it, and went to bed with a heavy heart, thinking what could be done. . on waking in the morning, he found that a deep snow had fallen, and the cold wind was blowing furiously. "ah," said he, "it is an ill wind that blows nobody good." . he rose, ran to the house of a neighbor, and offered his service to clear a path around his premises. the offer was accepted. having completed this work, and received his pay, he went to another place for the same purpose, and then to another, until he had earned enough to buy a grammar. . when school commenced, henry was in his seat, the happiest boy there, ready to begin the lesson in his new book. . from that time, henry, was always the first in all his classes. he knew no such word as fail, but always succeeded in all he attempted. having the will, he always found the way. definitions.--l. man'age-ment, manner of directing things. . fur'nish, to supply. . fu'ri-ous-ly, violently. . serv'ice, labor. prem'i-ses, grounds around a house. xiii. piccola. ( ) by celia laighton thaxter, who was born at portsmouth, n. h., june , . much of her childhood was passed at white island, one of the isles of shoals, off the coast of new hampshire. "among the isles of shoals," is her most noted work in prose. she published a volume of poems, many of which are favorites with children. she died in . . poor, sweet piccola! did you hear what happened to piccola, children dear? 't is seldom fortune such favor grants as fell to this little maid of france. . 't was christmas time, and her parents poor could hardly drive the wolf from the door, striving with poverty's patient pain only to live till summer again. . no gift for piccola! sad were they when dawned the morning of christmas day! their little darling no joy might stir; st. nicholas nothing would bring to her! . but piccola never doubted at all that something beautiful must befall every child upon christmas day, and so she slept till the dawn was gray. . and full of faith, when at last she woke, she stole to her shoe as the morning broke; such sounds of gladness filled all the air, 't was plain st. nicholas had been there. . in rushed piccola, sweet, half wild-- never was seen such a joyful child-- "see what the good saint brought!" she cried, and mother and father must peep inside. . now such a story i never heard! there was a little shivering bird! a sparrow, that in at the window flew, had crept into piccola's tiny shoe! . "how good poor piccola must have been!" she cried, as happy as any queen, while the starving sparrow she fed and warmed, and danced with rapture, she was so charmed. . children, this story i tell to you of piccola sweet and her bird, is true. in the far-off land of france, they say, still do they live to this very day. definitions.-- . dawned, began to grow light. stir, excite. . be-fall, happen. . shiv'er-ing, trembling from cold. ti'ny, very small. . rapture, great joy. charmed, greatly. exercises.--what is meant by "driving the wolf from the door"? in the third stanza, what does "st." before nicholas mean? who is st. nicholas? what did piccola find in her shoe on christmas morning? xiv. true manliness. ( ) by mrs. m. o. johnson.--(adapted.) . "please, mother, do sit down and let me try my hand," said fred liscom, a bright, active boy twelve years old. mrs. liscom, looking pale and worn, was moving languidly about, trying to clear away the breakfast she had scarcely tasted. . she smiled, and said, "you, fred, you wash dishes?" "yes, indeed, mother," replied fred; "i should be a poor scholar if i couldn't, when i've seen you do it so many times. just try me." . a look of relief came over his mother's face as she seated herself in her low rocking-chair. fred washed the dishes, and put them in the closet. he then swept the kitchen, brought up the potatoes from the cellar for the dinner and washed them, and then set out for school. . fred's father was away from home, and as there was some cold meat in the pantry, mrs. liscom found it an easy task to prepare dinner. fred hurried home from school, set the table, and again washed the dishes. . he kept on in this way for two or three days, till his mother was able to resume her usual work, and he felt amply rewarded when the doctor, who happened in one day, said, "well, madam, it's my opinion that you would have been very sick if you had not kept quiet." . the doctor did not know how the "quiet" had been secured, nor how the boy's heart bounded at his words. fred had given up a great deal of what boys hold dear, for the purpose of helping his mother, coasting and skating being just at this time in perfection. . besides this, his temper and his patience had been severely tried. he had been in the habit of going early to school, and staying to play after it was dismissed. . the boys missed him, and their curiosity was excited when he would give no other reason for not coming to school earlier, or staying after school, than that he was a "wanted at home." "i'll tell you," said tom barton, "i'll find him out, boys--see if i don't!" . so he called for fred to go to school, and on his way to the side door walked lightly and somewhat nearer the kitchen window than was absolutely needful. looking in, he saw fred standing at the table with a dishcloth in his hand. . of course he reported this at school, and various were the greetings poor fred received at recess. "well, you're a brave one to stay at home washing dishes." "girl boy!" "pretty bessie!" "lost your apron, have n't you, polly!" . fred was not wanting either in spirit or courage, and he was strongly tempted to resent these insults and to fight some of his tormentors. but his consciousness of right and his love for his mother helped him. . while he was struggling for self mastery, his teacher appeared at the door of the schoolhouse. fred caught his eye, and it seemed to look, if it did not say, "don't give up! be really brave!" he knew the teacher had heard the insulting taunts of his thoughtless schoolmates. . the boys received notice during the day that fred must not be taunted or teased in any manner. they knew that the teacher meant what he said; and so the brave little boy had no farther trouble. definitions.-- . lan'guid-ly, feebly. . am'ply, fully. o-pin'ion, judgment, belief. . ab'so-lute-ly, wholly, entirely. . re-sent', to consider as an injury. con'scious-ness, inward feeling, knowledge of what passes in one's own mind. exercises.--why did fred offer to wash the dishes? was it a disgraceful thing to do? how was he rewarded? how did his schoolmates show their lack of manliness? xv. true manliness. ( ) (concluded.) . "fire! fire!" the cry crept out on the still night air, and the fire bells began to ring. fred was wakened by the alarm and the red light streaming into his room. he dressed himself in a moment, almost, and tapped at the door of his mother's bedroom. . "it is mr. barton's house, mother. do let me go," he said in eager, excited tones. mrs. liscom thought a moment. he was young, but she could trust him, and she knew how much his heart was in the request. . "yes, you may go," she answered; "but be careful, my boy. if you can help, do so; but do nothing rashly." fred promised to follow her advice, and hurried to the fire. . mr. and mrs. barton were not at home. the house had been left in charge of the servants. the fire spread with fearful speed, for there was a high wind, and it was found impossible to save the house. the servants ran about, screaming and lamenting, but doing nothing to any purpose. . fred found tom outside, in safety. "where is katy?" he asked. tom, trembling with terror, seemed to have had no thought but of his own escape. he said, "katy is in the house!" "in what room?" asked fred. "in that one," pointing to a window in the upper story. . it was no time for words, but for instant, vigorous action. the staircase was already on fire; there was but one way to reach katy, and that full of danger. the second floor might fall at any moment, and fred knew it. but he trusted in an arm stronger than his own, and silently sought help and guidance. . a ladder was quickly brought, and placed against the house. fred mounted it, followed by the hired man, dashed in the sash of the window, and pushed his way into the room where the poor child lay nearly suffocated with smoke. . he roused her with some difficulty, carried her to the window, and placed her upon the sill. she was instantly grasped by strong arms, and carried down the ladder, fred following as fast as possible. they had scarcely reached the ground before a crash of falling timbers told them that they had barely escaped with their lives. . tom barton never forgot the lesson of that night; and he came to believe, and to act upon the belief, in after years, that true manliness is in harmony with gentleness, kindness, and self-denial. exercises.--relate the story of the fire. what is meant by "to any purpose," in paragraph four? did fred show any lack of manliness when tested? what does this lesson teach? xvi. the brown thrush. ( ) lucy larcom, the author of the following poem, was born in , and passed many years of her life as a factory girl at lowell, mass. she died in . . there's a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree; "he's singing to me! he's singing to me!" and what does he say, little girl, little boy? "oh, the world's running over with joy! don't you hear? don't you see? hush! look! in my tree i'm as happy as happy can be!" . and the brown thrush keeps singing, "a nest do you see, and five eggs hid by me in the juniper tree? don't meddle! don't touch! little girl, little boy, or the world will lose some of its joy! now i'm glad! now i'm free! and i always shall be, if you never bring sorrow to me." . so the merry brown thrush sings away in the tree, to you and to me, to you and to me; and he sings all the day, little girl, little boy, "oh, the world's running over with joy! but long it won't be, don't you know? don't you see? unless we're as good as can be." exercises.--what is a thrush? why was the thrush so happy? do you think he would have been happy if the little boy or girl had robbed the nest? xvii. a ship in a storm. ( ) . did you ever go far out upon the great ocean? how beautiful it is to be out at sea, when the sea is smooth and still! . let a storm approach, and the scene is changed. the heavy, black clouds appear in the distance, and throw a deep, deathlike shade over the world of waters. . the captain and sailors soon see in the clouds the signs of evil. all hands are then set to work to take in sail. . the hoarse notes of the captain, speaking through his trumpet, are echoed from lip to lip among the rigging. happy will it be, if all is made snug before the gale strikes the vessel. . at last, the gale comes like a vast moving mountain of air. it strikes the ship. the vessel heaves and groans under the dreadful weight, and struggles to escape through the foaming waters. . if she is far out at sea, she will be likely to ride out the storm in safety. but if the wind is driving her upon the shore, the poor sailors will hardly escape being dashed upon the rocks, and drowned. . once there was a ship in a storm. some of her masts were already broken, and her sails lost. while the wind was raging, and the billows were dashing against her, the cry was heard, "a man has fallen overboard!" . quickly was the boat lowered, and she was soon seen bounding on her way over the mountain waves. at one moment, the boat seemed lifted to the skies, and the next, it sank down, and appeared to be lost beneath the waves! . at length, the man was found. he was well nigh drowned; but he was taken on board, and now they made for the ship. but the ship rolled so dreadfully, that it seemed certain death to go near her. and now, what should they do? . the captain told one of the men to go aloft and throw down a rope. this was made fast to the boat, and when the sea was somewhat calm it was hoisted, and all fell down into the ship with a dreadful crash. it was a desperate way of getting on board; but fortunately no lives were lost. . on the dangerous points along our seacoast are lighthouses, which can be seen far out at sea, and serve as guides to ships. sometimes the fog is so dense that these lights can not be seen, but most lighthouses have great fog bells or fog horns; some of the latter are made to sound by steam, and can be heard for a long distance. these bells and horns are kept sounding as long as the fog lasts. . there are also many life-saving stations along the coast where trained men are ready with lifeboats. "when a ship is driven ashore they at once go to the rescue of those on board, and thus many valuable lives are saved. . take it all in all, a sailor's life is a very hard one. our young friends owe a debt of gratitude to those whose home is upon the great waters, and who bring them the luxuries of other countries. definitions.-- . ech'oed, sounded again. gale, a wind storm. . heaves, pitches up and down. . bil'lows, waves. . des'-per-ate, hopeless. . fog, watery vapor, mist. . grat'i-tude, thankfulness. lux'u-ries, nice things. exercises.--what is this lesson about? when is it dangerous to be at sea? what do sailors then do? in what situation are they most likely to be saved? relate the story of the man overboard. tell about the lighthouses. how are vessels warned of danger in a fog? what about the life-saving stations? what is said of a sailor's life? xviii. the sailor's consolation. ( ) charles dibdin, the author, was born at southampton, england, in . he wrote a number of fine sea songs. he died in . . one night came on a hurricane, the sea was mountains rolling, when barney buntline turned his quid, and said to billy bowling: "a strong norwester's blowing, bill; hark! don't ye hear it roar now? lord help 'em, how i pities all unhappy folks on shore now! . "foolhardy chaps who live in town, what danger they are all in, and now are quaking in their beds, for fear the roof shall fall in; poor creatures, how they envy us, and wish, as i've a notion, for our good luck, in such a storm, to be upon the ocean. . "but as for them who're out all day, on business from their houses, and late at night are coming home, to cheer the babes and spouses; while you and i, bill, on the deck, are comfortably lying, my eyes! what tiles and chimney pots about their heads are flying! . "and very often have we heard how men are killed and undone by overturns of carriages, by thieves, and fires in london. we know what risks all landsmen run, from noblemen to tailors; then, bill, let us thank providence that you and i are sailors." definitions.-l. hur'ri-cane, a violent windstorm. quid, a small piece of tobacco. . fool'har'dy, reckless. quak'ing, shak-ing with fear. no'tion, idea. . spous'es, wives. tiles, thin pieces of baked clay used in roofing houses. chim'ney pots, earthenware tops of chimneys. . un-done', injured, ruined. notes.--l. "barney buntline" and "billy bowling" are supposed to be two sailors. "norwester" is a sailor's name for a northwest storm. . "landsmen" is a term applied by sailors to all who live on shore. xix. two ways of telling a story. ( ) by henry k. oliver. . in one of the most populous cities of new england, a few years ago, a party of lads, all members of the same school, got up a grand sleigh ride. the sleigh was a very large one, drawn by six gray horses. . on the following day, as the teacher entered the schoolroom, he found his pupils in high glee, as they chattered about the fun and frolic of their excursion. in answer to some inquiries, one of the lads gave him an account of their trip and its various incidents. . as he drew near the end of his story, he exclaimed: "oh, sir! there was one thing i had almost forgotten. as we were coming home, we saw ahead of us a queer looking affair in the road. it proved to be a rusty old sleigh, fastened behind a covered wagon, proceeding at a very slow rate, and taking up the whole road. . "finding that the owner was not disposed to turn out, we determined upon a volley of snowballs and a good hurrah. they produced the right effect, for the crazy machine turned out into the deep snow, and the skinny old pony started on a full trot. . "as we passed, some one gave the horse a good crack, which made him run faster than he ever did before, i'll warrant. . "with that, an old fellow in the wagon, who was buried up under an old hat, bawled out, 'why do you frighten my horse?' 'why don't you turn out, then?' says the driver. so we gave him three rousing cheers more. his horse was frightened again, and ran up against a loaded wagon, and, i believe, almost capsized the old creature--and so we left him." . "well, boys," replied the teacher, "take your seat", and i will tell you a story, and all about a sleigh ride, too. yesterday afternoon a very venerable old clergyman was on his way from boston to salem, to pass the rest of the winter at the house of his son. that he might be prepared for journeying in the following spring he took with him his wagon, and for the winter his sleigh, which he fastened behind the wagon. . "his sight and hearing were somewhat blunted by age, and he was proceeding very slowly; for his horse was old and feeble, like his owner. he was suddenly disturbed by loud hurrahs from behind, and by a furious pelting of balls of snow and ice upon the top of his wagon. . "in his alarm he dropped his reins, and his horse began to run away. in the midst of the old man's trouble, there rushed by him, with loud shouts, a large party of boys, in a sleigh drawn by six horses. 'turn out! turn out, old fellow!' 'give us the road!' 'what will you take for your pony?' 'what's the price of oats, old man?' were the various cries that met his cars. . "'pray, do not frighten my horse!' exclaimed the infirm driver. 'turn out, then! turn out!' was the answer, which was followed by repeated cracks and blows from the long whip of the 'grand sleigh,' with showers of snowballs, and three tremendous hurrahs from the boys. . "the terror of the old man and his horse was increased, and the latter ran away with him, to the great danger of his life. he contrived, however, to stop his horse just in season to prevent his being dashed against a loaded wagon. a short distance brought him to the house of his son. that son, boys, is your instructor, and that 'old fellow,' was your teacher's father!" . when the boys perceived how rude and unkind their conduct appeared from another point of view, they were very much ashamed of their thoughtlessness, and most of them had the manliness to apologize to their teacher for what they had done. definitions.-l. pop'u-lous, full of inhabitants. . ex-cur'-sion, a pleasure trip. in'ci-dents, things that happen, events. . war'rant, to declare with assurance. . cap-sized', upset. . ven'er-a-ble, deserving of honor and respect. . blunt'ed, dulled. exercises.--repeat the boys' story of the sleigh ride. the teacher's story. were the boys ill-natured or only thoughtless? is thoughtlessness any excuse for rudeness or unkindness? xx. freaks of the frost. ( ) by hannah flagg gould, who was born at lancaster, vermont, in . she published several volumes of poems (one for children) and one collection of prose articles, entitled "gathered leaves." she died in . . the frost looked forth one still, clear night, and whispered, "now i shall be out of sight; so through the valley and over the height in silence i'll take my way; i will not go on, like that blustering train, the wind and the snow, the hail and the rain, who make so much bustle and noise in vain, but i'll be as busy as they." . then he flew to the mountain, and powdered its crest; he lit on the trees, and their boughs he dressed in diamond beads; and over the breast of the quivering lake, he spread a coat of mail, that it need not fear the downward point of many a spear, that he hung on its margin, far and near, where a rock could rear its head. . he went to the windows of those who slept, and over each pane, like a fairy, crept; wherever he breathed, wherever he stepped, by the light of the morn were seen most beautiful things; there were flowers and trees; there were bevies of birds, and swarms of bees; there were cities with temples and towers, and these all pictured in silver sheen. . but he did one thing that was hardly fair; he peeped in the cupboard, and, finding there that all had forgotten for him to prepare, "now just to set them a-thinking, i'll bite this basket of fruit," said he, "this costly pitcher i'll burst in three; and the glass of water they've left for me shall 'tchick!' to tell them i'm drinking." definitions.--l. blus'ter-ing, being noisy and loud. bus'tle, stir. . crest, the top. quiv'er-ing, trembling, shaking. mar'gin, edge, border. . bev'ies, flocks. pic'tured, painted. sheen, brightness, splendor of appearance. exercises.--what did the frost say? what did he do to the mountain? the trees? the lake? what is a "coat of mail"? what did he do to the window? the pitcher? xxi. waste not, want not. ( ) . mr. jones. boys, if you have nothing to do, will you unpack these parcels for me? . the two parcels were exactly alike, both of them well tied up with good whipcord. ben took his parcel to the table, and began to examine the knot, and then to untie it. . john took the other parcel, and tried first at one corner, and then at the other, to pull off the string. but the cord had been too well secured, and he only drew the knots tighter. . john. i wish these people would not tie up their parcels so tightly, as if they were never to be undone. why, ben, how did you get yours undone? what is in your parcel? i wonder what is in mine! i wish i could get the string off. i will cut it. . ben. oh, no, do not cut it, john! look, what a nice cord this is, and yours is the same. it is a pity to cut it. . john. pooh! what signifies a bit of pack thread? . ben. it is whipcord. . john. well, whipcord then! what signifies a bit of whipcord? you can get a piece of whipcord twice as long as that for three cents; and who cares for three cents? not i, for one. so, here it goes. . so he took out his knife, and cut it in several places. . mr. jones. well, my boys, have you undone the parcels for me? . john. yes, sir; here is the parcel. . ben. and here is my parcel, father, and here is also the string. . mr. jones. you may keep the string, ben. . ben. thank you, sir. what excellent whipcord it is! . mr. jones. and you, john, may keep your string, too, if it will be of any use to you. . john. it will be of no use to me, thank you, sir. . mr. jones. no, i am afraid not, if this is it. . a few weeks after this, mr. jones gave each of his sons a new top. . john. how is this, ben? these tops have no strings. what shall we do for strings? . ben. i have a string that will do very well for mine. and he pulled it out of his pocket. . john. why, if that is not the whipcord! i wish i had saved mine. . a few days afterward, there was a shooting match, with bows and arrows, among the lads. the prize was a fine bow and arrows, to be given to the best marksman. "come, come," said master sharp, "i am within one inch of the mark. i should like to see who will go nearer." . john drew his bow, and shot. the arrow struck within a quarter of an inch of master sharp's. "shoot away," said sharp; "but you must understand the rules. we settled them before you came. you are to have three shots with your own arrows. nobody is to borrow or lend. so shoot away." . john seized his second arrow; "if i have any luck," said he;--but just as he pronounced the word "luck," the string broke, and the arrow fell from his hands. . master sharp. there! it is all over with you. . ben. here is my bow for him, and welcome. . master sharp. no, no, sir; that is not fair. did you not hear the rules? there is to be no lending. . it was now ben's turn to make his trial. his first arrow missed the mark; the second was exactly as near as john's first. before venturing the last arrow, ben very prudently examined the string of his bow; and, as he pulled it to try its strength, it snapped. . master sharp clapped his hands and danced for joy. but his dancing suddenly ceased, when careful ben drew out of his pocket an excellent piece of cord, and began to tie it to the bow. . "the everlasting whipcord, i declare!" cried john. "yes," said ben, "i put it in my pocket today, because i thought i might want it." . ben's last arrow won the prize; and when the bow and arrows were handed to him, john said, "how valuable that whipcord has been to you, ben. i'll take care how i waste anything hereafter." definitions,-- . ex-am'ine, to look at carefully. . sig'ni--fies, to be important. . marks'man, one who shoots well. . pru'dent-ly, with proper caution. . ceased, stopped. . ev--er-last'ing, lasting always. exercises.--what is this lesson designed to teach? which of the boys preserved his whipcord? what good did it do him? what did the other boy do with his? what was the consequence? what did he learn from it? xxii. jeannette and jo. ( ) by mary mapes dodge, who was born in new york city in . she is the editor of the "st. nicholas" magazine, and has written many stories for children. . two girls i know--jeannette and jo, and one is always moping; the other lassie, come what may, is ever bravely hoping. . beauty of face and girlish grace are theirs, for joy or sorrow; jeannette takes brightly every day, and jo dreads each to-morrow. . one early morn they watched the dawn-- i saw them stand together; their whole day's sport, 't was very plain, depended on the weather. . "'t will storm!" cried jo. jeannette spoke low; "yes, but 't will soon be over." and, as she spoke, the sudden shower came, beating down the clover. . "i told you so!" cried angry jo: "it always is a-raining!" then hid her face in dire despair, lamenting and complaining. . but sweet jeannette, quite hopeful yet,-- i tell it to her honor,-- looked up and waited till the sun came streaming in upon her. . the broken clouds sailed off in crowds, across a sea of glory. jeannette and jo ran, laughing, in-- which ends my simple story. . joy is divine. come storm, come shine, the hopeful are the gladdest; and doubt and dread, children, believe of all things are the saddest. . in morning's light, let youth be bright; take in the sunshine tender; then, at the close, shall life's decline be full of sunset splendor. . and ye who fret, try, like jeannette, to shun all weak complaining; and not, like jo, cry out too soon-- "it always is a-raining!" xxiii. the lion. ( ) . the lion is often called the "king of beasts," his height varies from three to four feet, and he is from six to nine feet long. his coat is of it yellowish brown or tawny color, and about his neck is a great shaggy mane which gives his head a majestic appearance. . the strength of the lion is so great that he can easily crush the skulls of such animals as the horse or ox with one blow of his paw. no one who has not seen the teeth of a full grown lion taken out of their sockets can have any idea of their real size; one of them forms a good handful, and might easily be mistaken for a small elephant's tooth. . the home of the lion is in the forests of asia and africa, where he is a terror to man and beast. he generally lies concealed during the day, but as darkness comes on he prowls about where other animals are accustomed to go for food or drink, and springs upon them unawares, with a roar that sounds like the rumble of thunder. . the lion sometimes lives to a great age. one by the name of pompey died at london, in the year , at the age of seventy years. if taken when young the lion can be tamed, and will even show marks of kindness to his keeper. . in a menagerie at brussels, there was a cell where a large lion, called danco, used to be kept. the cell happened to be in need of repair, and the keeper, whose name was william, desired a carpenter to come and mend it. the carpenter came, but was so afraid of the lion, that he would not go near the cell alone. . so william entered the cell, and led the lion to the upper part of it, while the other part was refitting. he played with the lion for some time; but, at last, being wearied, both he and the lion fell asleep. the carpenter went on with his work, and when he had finished he called out for william to come and see it. . he called again and again, but no william answered. the poor carpenter began to be frightened, lest the lion had made his dinner of the keeper, or else crushed him with his great paws. he crept round to the upper part of the cell, and there, looking through the railing, he saw the lion and william sleeping side by side as contentedly as two little brothers. . he was so astonished that he uttered a loud cry. the lion, awakened by the noise, stared at the carpenter with an eye of fury, and then placing his paw on the breast of his keeper, as if to say, "touch him if you dare," the heroic beast lay down to sleep again. the carpenter was dreadfully alarmed, and, not knowing how he could rouse william, he ran out and related what he had seen. . some people came, and, opening the door of the cell, contrived to awaken the keeper, who, rubbing his eyes, quietly looked around him, and expressed himself very well satisfied with his nap. he took the lion's paw, shook it kindly, and then retired uninjured from the cell. definitions.--l. ma-jes'tic, royal, noble. . prowls, wanders in search of prey. un-a-wares', unexpectedly. rum'ble, a low heavy sound. . men-ag'er-ie, a collection of wild animals. . re-fit'ting, repairing. . he-ro'-ic, bold. exercises.--describe the lion's appearance. what is said of his strength? his teeth? describe the lion's home and habits. to what age do lions live? can they be tamed? relate the story about the lion danco. xxiv. strawberries. ( ) by john townsend trowbridge, who was born at ogden, n. y., in . he is a well-known author, and has written much for children both in poetry and prose. . little pearl honeydew, six years old, from her bright ear parted the curls of gold; and laid her head on the strawberry bed, to hear what the red-cheeked berries said. . their cheeks were blushing, their breath was sweet, she could almost hear their little hearts beat; and the tiniest, lisping, whispering sound that ever you heard, came up from the ground. . "little friends," she said, "i wish i knew how it is you thrive on sun and dew!" and this is the story the berries told to little pearl honeydew, six years old. . "you wish you knew? and so do we. but we can't tell you, unless it be that the same kind power that cares for you takes care of poor little berries, too. . "tucked up snugly, and nestled below our coverlid of wind-woven snow, we peep and listen, all winter long, for the first spring day and the bluebird's song. . "when the swallows fly home to the old brown shed, and the robins build on the bough overhead, then out from the mold, from the darkness and cold, blossom and runner and leaf unfold. . "good children, then, if they come near, and hearken a good long while, may hear a wonderful tramping of little feet,-- so fast we grow in the summer heat. . "our clocks are the flowers; and they count the hours till we can mellow in suns and showers, with warmth of the west wind and heat of the south, a ripe red berry for a ripe red month. . "apple blooms whiten, and peach blooms fall, and roses are gay by the garden wall, ere the daisy's dial gives the sign that we may invite little pearl to dine. . "the days are longest, the month is june, the year is nearing its golden noon, the weather is fine, and our feast is spread with a green cloth and berries red. . "just take us betwixt your finger and thumb, and quick, oh, quick! for, see! there come tom on all fours, and martin the man, and margaret, picking as fast as they can. . "oh, dear! if you only knew how it shocks nice berries like us to be sold by the box, and eaten by strangers, and paid for with pelf, you would surely take pity, and eat us yourself!" . and this is the story the small lips told to dear pearl honeydew, six years old, when she laid her head on the strawberry bed to hear what the red-cheeked berries said. definitions.-- . thrive, to grow well, to flourish. . nes'tled, gathered closely together. . mold, fine, soft earth. run'ner, a slender branch running along the ground. . mel'low, to ripen. . di'al, the face of a timepiece. . feast, a festive or joyous meal, a banquet. . pelf, money. exercises.--what did little pearl ask of the strawberries? what did they reply? can you tell what name is given to this kind of story? xvv. harry's riches. ( ) . one day, our little harry spent the morning with his young playmate, johnny crane, who lived in a fine house, and on sundays rode to church in the grandest carriage to be seen in all the country round. . when harry returned home, he said, "mother, johnny has money in both pockets!" . "has he, dear?" . "yes, ma'am; and he says he could get ever so much more if he wanted it." . "well, now, that's very pleasant for him," i returned, cheerfully, as a reply was plainly expected. "very pleasant; don't you think so?" . "yes, ma'am; only--" . "only what, harry?" . "why, he has a big popgun, and a watch, and a hobbyhorse, and lots of things." and harry looked up at my face with a disconsolate stare. . "well, my boy, what of that?" . "nothing, mother," and the telltale tears sprang to his eyes, "only i guess we are very poor, aren't we?" . "no, indeed, harry, we are very far from being poor. we are not so rich as mr. crane's family, if that is what you mean." . "o mother!" insisted the little fellow, "i do think we are very poor; anyhow, i am!" . "o harry!" i exclaimed, reproachfully. . "yes, ma'am i am," he sobbed; "i have scarcely any thing--i mean anything that's worth money--except things to eat and wear, and i'd have to have them anyway." . "have to have them?" i echoed, at the same time laying my sewing upon the table, so that i might reason with him on that point; "do you not know, my son--" . just then uncle ben looked up from the paper he had been reading: "harry," said he, "i want to find out something about eyes; so, if you will let me have yours, i will give you a dollar apiece for them." . "for my eyes!" exclaimed harry, very much astonished. . "yes," resumed uncle ben, quietly, "for your eyes. i will give you chloroform, so it will not hurt you in the least, and you shall have a beautiful glass pair for nothing, to wear in their place. come, a dollar apiece, cash down! what do you say? i will take them out as quick as a wink." . "give you my eyes, uncle!" cried harry, looking wild at the very thought, "i think not." and the startled little fellow shook his head defiantly. . "well, five, ten, twenty dollars, then." harry shook his head at every offer. . "no, sir! i wouldn't let you have them for a thousand dollars! what could i do without my eyes? i couldn't see mother, nor the baby, nor the flowers, nor the horses, nor anything," added harry, growing warmer and warmer. . "i will give you two thousand," urged uncle ben, taking a roll of bank notes out of his pocket. harry, standing at a respectful distance, shouted that he never would do any such thing. . "very well," continued the uncle, with a serious air, at the same time writing something in his notebook, "i can't afford to give you more than two thousand dollars, so i shall have to do without your eyes; but," he added, "i will tell you what i will do, i will give you twenty dollars if you will let me put a few drops from this bottle in your ears. it will not hurt, but it will make you deaf. i want to try some experiments with deafness, you see. come quickly, now! here are the twenty dollars all ready for you." . "make me deaf!" shouted harry, without even looking at the gold pieces temptingly displayed upon the table. "i guess you will not do that, either. why, i couldn't hear a single word if i were deaf, could i?" . "probably not," replied uncle ben. so, of course, harry refused again. he would never give up his hearing, he said, "no, not for three thousand dollars." . uncle ben made another note in his book, and then came out with large bids for "a right arm," then "left arm," "hands," "feet," "nose," finally ending with an offer of ten thousand dollars for "mother," and five thousand for "the baby." . to all of these offers harry shook his head, his eyes flashing, and exclamations of surprise and indignation bursting from his lips. at last, uncle ben said he must give up his experiments, for harry's prices were entirely too high. . "ha! ha!" laughed the boy, exultingly, and he folded his dimpled arms and looked as if to say, "i'd like to see the man who could pay them!" . "why, harry, look here!" exclaimed uncle ben, peeping into his notebook, "here is a big addition sum, i tell you!" he added the numbers, and they amounted to thirty-two thousand dollars. . "there, harry," said uncle ben, "don't you think you are foolish not to accept some of my offers?" "no, sir, i don't," answered harry, resolutely. "then," said uncle ben, "you talk of being poor, and by your own showing you have treasures for which you will not take thirty-two thousand dollars. what do you say to that?" . harry didn't know exactly what to say. so he blushed for a second, and just then tears came rolling down his cheeks, and he threw his chubby arms around my neck. "mother," he whispered, "isn't god good to make everybody so rich?" definitions.-- . dis-con'so-late, filled with grief. . re-proach'ful-ly, with censure or reproof. . chlo're-form, an oily liquid, the vapor of which causes insensibility. . startled, shocked. de-fi'ant-ly, daringly. . af-ford', to be able to pay for. ex-per'i-ments, acts performed to discover some truth. . ex-cla-ma'tions, expressions of surprise, anger, etc. . ex-ult'ing-ly, in a triumphant manner. . treas'ures, things which are very much valued. xxvi. in time's swing. ( ) by lucy larcom. . father time, your footsteps go lightly as the falling snow. in your swing i'm sitting, see! push me softly; one, two; three, twelve times only. like a sheet, spread the snow beneath my feet. singing merrily, let me swing out of winter into spring. . swing me out, and swing me in! trees are bare, but birds begin twittering to the peeping leaves, on the bough beneath the eaves. wait,--one lilac bud i saw. icy hillsides feel the thaw. april chased off march to-day; now i catch a glimpse of may. . oh, the smell of sprouting grass! in a blur the violets pass. whispering from the wildwood come mayflower's breath and insect's hum. roses carpeting the ground; thrushes, orioles, warbling sound:-- swing me low, and swing me high, to the warm clouds of july. . slower now, for at my side white pond lilies open wide. underneath the pine's tall spire cardinal blossoms burn like fire. they are gone; the golden-rod flashes from the dark green sod. crickets in the grass i hear; asters light the fading year. . slower still! october weaves rainbows of the forest leaves. gentians fringed, like eyes of blue, glimmer out of sleety dew. meadow green i sadly miss: winds through withered sedges hiss. oh, 't is snowing, swing me fast, while december shivers past! . frosty-bearded father time, stop your footfall on the rime! hard you push, your hand is rough; you have swung me long enough. "nay, no stopping," say you? well, some of your best stories tell, while you swing me--gently, do!-- from the old year to the new. definitions.-- . twit'ter-ing, making a succession of small, chirping noises. glimpse, a short, hurried view. . blur, a dim, confused appearance. . rime, whitefrost, hoarfrost. xxvii. harry and his dog. ( ) . "beg, frisk, beg," said little harry, as he sat on an inverted basket, at his grandmother's door, eating, with great satisfaction, a porringer of bread and milk. his little sister annie, who had already dispatched her breakfast, sat on the ground opposite to him, now twisting her flowers into garlands, and now throwing them away. . "beg, frisk, beg!" repeated harry, holding a bit of bread just out of the dog's reach; and the obedient frisk squatted himself on his hind legs, and held up his fore paws, waiting for master harry to give him the tempting morsel. . the little boy and the little dog were great friends. frisk loved him dearly, much better than he did anyone else; perhaps, because he recollected that harry was his earliest and firmest friend during a time of great trouble. . poor frisk had come as a stray dog to milton, the place where harry lived. if he could have told his own story, it would probably have been a very pitiful one, of kicks and cuffs, of hunger and foul weather. . certain it is, he made his appearance at the very door where harry was now sitting, in miserable plight, wet, dirty, and half starved; and that there he met harry, who took a fancy to him, and harry's grandmother, who drove him off with a broom. . harry, at length, obtained permission for the little dog to remain as a sort of outdoor pensioner, and fed him with stray bones and cold potatoes, and such things as he could get for him. he also provided him with a little basket to sleep in, the very same which, turned up, afterward served harry for a seat. . after a while, having proved his good qualities by barking away a set of pilferers, who were making an attack on the great pear tree, he was admitted into the house, and became one of its most vigilant and valued inmates. he could fetch or carry either by land or water; would pick up a thimble or a ball of cotton, if little annie should happen to drop them; or take harry's dinner to school for him with perfect honesty. . "beg, frisk, beg!" said harry, and gave him, after long waiting, the expected morsel. frisk was satisfied, but harry was not. the little boy, though a good-humored fellow in the main, had turns of naughtiness, which were apt to last him all day, and this promised to prove one of his worst. it was a holiday, and in the afternoon his cousins, jane and william, were to come and see him and annie; and the pears were to be gathered, and the children were to have a treat. . harry, in his impatience, thought the morning would never be over. he played such pranks--buffeting frisk, cutting the curls off of annie's doll, and finally breaking his grandmother's spectacles--that before his visitors arrived, indeed, almost immediately after dinner, he contrived to be sent to bed in disgrace. . poor harry! there he lay, rolling and kicking, while jane, and william, and annie were busy about the fine, mellow windsor pears. william was up in the tree, gathering and shaking; annie and jane catching them in their aprons, and picking them up from the ground; now piling them in baskets, and now eating the nicest and ripest; while frisk was barking gayly among them, as if he were catching windsor pears, too! . poor harry! he could hear all this glee and merriment through the open window as he lay in bed. the storm of passion having subsided, there he lay weeping and disconsolate, a grievous sob bursting forth every now and then, as he heard the loud peals of childish laughter, and as he thought how he should have laughed, and how happy he should have been, had he not forfeited all this pleasure by his own bad conduct. . he wondered if annie would not be so good-natured as to bring him a pear. all on a sudden, he heard a little foot on the stair, pitapat, and he thought she was coming. pitapat came the foot, nearer and nearer, and at last a small head peeped, half afraid, through the half-open door. . but it was not annie's head; it was frisk's--poor frisk, whom harry had been teasing and tormenting all the morning, and who came into the room wagging his tail, with a great pear in his mouth; and, jumping upon the bed, he laid it in the little boy's hand. . is not frisk a fine, grateful fellow? and does he not deserve a share of harry's breakfast, whether he begs for it or not? and little harry will remember from the events of this day that kindness, even though shown to a dog, will always be rewarded; and that ill nature and bad temper are connected with nothing but pain and disgrace. definitions.--l. in-vert'ed, turned upside down. por'rin-ger, a small metallic dish. . rec-ol-lect'ed, brought back to mind. . plight, condition. . pen'sion-er, one who is supported by others. . pil'fer-ers, those who steal little things. vig'i-lant, watchful. intimates, those living in the same house. . holiday, a day of amusement. . buf'fet-ing, striking with the hand. . sub-sid'ed, become quiet. for'feit-ed, lost. . con-nect'ed, united, have a close relation. xxviii. the voice of the grass. ( ) by sarah roberts. . here i come, creeping, creeping, everywhere; by the dusty roadside, on the sunny hillside, close by the noisy brook, in every shady nook, i come creeping, creeping, everywhere. . here i come, creeping, creeping everywhere; all round the open door, where sit the aged poor, here where the children play, in the bright and merry may, i come creeping, creeping, everywhere. . here i come, creeping, creeping, everywhere; you can not see me coming, nor hear my low, sweet humming, for in the starry night, and the glad morning light, i come, quietly creeping, everywhere. . here i come, creeping, creeping, everywhere; more welcome than the flowers, in summer's pleasant hours; the gentle cow is glad, and the merry birds not sad, to see me creeping, creeping, everywhere. . here i come, creeping, creeping, everywhere; when you're numbered with the dead, in your still and narrow bed, in the happy spring i'll come, and deck your narrow home, creeping, silently creeping, everywhere. . here i come, creeping, creeping, everywhere; my humble song of praise, most gratefully i raise, to him at whose command i beautify the land, creeping, silently creeping, everywhere. xxix. the eagle. ( ) . the eagle seems to enjoy a kind of supremacy over the rest of the inhabitants of the air. such is the loftiness of his flight, that he often soars in the sky beyond the reach of the naked eye, and such is his strength that he has been known to carry away children in his talons. but many of the noble qualities imputed to him are rather fanciful than true. . he has been described as showing a lofty independence, which makes him disdain to feed on anything that is not slain by his own strength. but alexander wilson, the great naturalist, says that he has seen an eagle feasting on the carcass of a horse. the eagle lives to a great age. one at vienna is stated to have died after a confinement of one hundred and four years. . there are several species of the eagle. the golden eagle, which is one of the largest, is nearly four feet from the point of the beak to the end of the tail. he is found in most parts of europe, and is also met with in america. high rocks and ruined and lonely towers are the places which he chooses for his abode. his nest is composed of sticks and rushes. the tail feathers are highly valued as ornaments by the american indians. . the most interesting species is the bald eagle, as this is an american bird, and the adopted emblem of our country. he lives chiefly upon fish, and is found in the neighborhood of the sea, and along the shores and cliffs of our large lakes and rivers. . according to the description given by wilson, he depends, in procuring his food, chiefly upon the labors of others. he watches the fish hawk as he dives into the sea for his prey, and darting down upon him as he rises, forces him to relinquish his victim, and then seizes it before it again reaches the water. . one of the most notable species is the harpy eagle. this is said to be bold and strong, and to attack beasts, and even man himself. he is fierce, quarrelsome, and sullen, living alone in the deepest forests. he is found chiefly in south america. xxx. the old eagle tree. ( ) . in a distant field, stood a large tulip tree, apparently of a century's growth, and one of the most gigantic. it looked like the father of the surrounding forest. a single tree of huge dimensions, standing all alone, is a sublime object. . on the top of this tree, an old eagle, commonly called the "fishing eagle," had built her nest every year, for many years, and, undisturbed, had raised her young. a remarkable place to choose, as she procured her food from the ocean, and this tree stood full ten miles from the seashore. it had long been known as the "old eagle tree." . on a warm, sunny day, the workmen were hoeing corn in an adjoining field. at a certain hour of the day, the old eagle was known to set off for the seaside, to gather food for her young. as she this day returned with a large fish in her claws, the workmen surrounded the tree, and, by yelling and hooting, and throwing stones, so scared the poor bird that she dropped her fish, and they carried it off in triumph. . the men soon dispersed, but joseph sat down under a hush near by, to watch, and to bestow unavailing pity. the bird soon returned to her nest, without food. the eaglets at once set up a cry for food, so shrill, so clear, and so clamorous that the boy was greatly moved. . the parent bird seemed to try to soothe them; but their appetites were too keen, and it was all in vain. she then perched herself on a limb near them, and looked down into the nest in a manner that seemed to say, "i know not what to do next." . her indecision was but momentary; again she poised herself, uttered one or two sharp notes, as if telling them to a "lie still," balanced her body, spread her wings, and was away again for the sea. . joseph was determined to see the result. his eye followed her till she grew small, smaller, a mere speck in the sky, and then disappeared. what boy has not thus watched the flight of the bird of his country! . she was gone nearly two hours, about double her usual time for a voyage, when she again returned, on a slow, weary wing, flying uncommonly low, in order to have a heavier atmosphere to sustain her, with another fish in her talons. . on nearing the field, she made a circuit round it, to see if her enemies were again there. finding the coast clear, she once more reached the tree, drooping, faint, and weary, and evidently nearly exhausted. again the eaglets set up their cry, which was soon hushed by the distribution of a dinner, such as, save the cooking, a king might admire. . "glorious bird!" cried the boy, "what a spirit!" other birds can fly more swiftly, others can sing more sweetly, others scream more loudly; but what other bird, when persecuted and robbed, when weary, when discouraged, when so far from the sea, would do this? . "glorious bird! i will learn a lesson from thee to-day. i will never forget, hereafter, that when the spirit is determined it can do almost anything. others would have drooped, and hung the head, and mourned over the cruelty of man, and sighed over the wants of the nestlings; but thou, by at once recovering the loss, hast forgotten all." . "i will learn of thee, noble bird! i will remember this. i will set my mark high. i will try to do something, and to be something in the world; i will never yield to discouragements." definitions.--l. cen'tu-ry, the space of a hundred years. gi-gan'tic, very large. di-men'sions, size. sub-lime', grand, noble. . dis-persed', scattered. un-a-vail'ing, useless. ea'glets, young eagles. clam'or-ous, loud, noisy. . in-de-ci'sion, want of fixed purpose. mo'men-ta-ry, for a single moment. . cir'cuit, movement round in a circle. ex-haust'ed, wholly tired. . nes'-tlings, young birds in the nest. exercises.--relate the story of the "old eagle tree." what lesson was taught the boy who watched the eagle's actions? xxxi. alpine song. ( ) william w. story, the author, was born in salem, mass., in . his writings in poetry and prose are well known, and he also gained distinction in his profession as a sculptor. he died in . . with alpenstock and knapsack light, i wander o'er hill and valley; i climb the snow peak's flashing height, and sleep in the sheltered chalet,-- free in heart--happy and free-- this is the summer life for me. . the city's dust i leave behind for the keen, sweet air of the mountain, the grassy path by the wild rose lined, the gush of the living fountain,-- free in heart--happy and free-- this is the summer life for me. . high above me snow clouds rise, in the early morning gleaming; and the patterned valley beneath me lies softly in sunshine dreaming,-- free in heart--happy and free-- this is the summer life for me. . the bells of wandering herds i list, chiming in upland meadows; how sweet they sound, as i lie at rest under the dark pine shadows-- glad in heart--happy and free-- this is the summer life for me. definitions.--l. al'pen-stock, a long staff, pointed with iron, used in traveling among the alps. knap'sack, a leather sack for carrying food or clothing, borne on the back. cha-let' (pro. sha-la'), a mountain hut. . gush, a rapid outflowing. . pat'terned, marked off in figures or patterns. . list, hearken to. xxxii. circumstances alter cases. ( ) . derby. good morning, neighbor scrapewell. i have half a dozen miles to ride to-day, and shall be extremely obliged if you will lend me your gray mare. . scrapewell. it would give me great pleasure to oblige you, friend derby; but i am under the necessity of going to the mill this very morning, with a bag of corn. my wife wants the meal to-day, and you know what a time there'll be if i disappoint her. . d. then she must want it still, for i can assure you the mill does not go to-day. i heard the miller tell will davis that the water was too low. . s. you don't say so! that is bad, indeed; for in that case i shall be obliged to gallop off to town for the meal. my wife would comb my head for me if i should neglect it. . d. i can save you this journey, for i have plenty of meal at home, and will lend your wife as much as she wants. . s. ah! neighbor derby, i am sure your meal would never suit my wife. you can't conceive how whimsical she is. . d. if she were ten times more whimsical than she is, i am certain she would like it; for you sold it to me yourself, and you assured me it was the best you ever had. . s. yes, yes! that's true, indeed; i always have the best of everything. you know, neighbor derby, that no one is more ready to oblige a friend than i am; but i must tell you the mare this morning refused to eat hay; and, truly, i am afraid she will not carry you. . d. oh, never fear! i will feed her well with oats on the road. . s. oats! neighbor; oats are very dear. . d. never mind that. when i have a good job in view, i never stand for trifles. . s. but it is very slippery; and i am really afraid she will fall and break your neck. . d. give yourself no uneasiness about that. the mare is certainly sure-footed; and, besides, you were just now talking of galloping her to town. . s. well, then, to tell you the plain truth, though i wish to oblige you with all my heart, my saddle is torn quite in pieces, and i have just sent my bridle to be mended. . d. luckily, i have both a bridle and a saddle hanging up at home. . s. ah! that may be; but i am sure your saddle will never fit my mare. she's very notional. . d. why, then i'll borrow neighbor clodpole's. . s. clodpole's! his will no more fit than yours. . d. at the worst, then, i will go to my good friend, squire jones. he has half a score of them; and i am sure he will lend me one that will fit her. . s. you know, friend derby, that no one is more willing to oblige his neighbors than i am. i do assure you the beast should be at your service, with all my heart; but she has not been curried, i believe, for three weeks past. her foretop and mane want combing and cutting very much. if anyone should see her in her present plight, it would ruin the sale of her. . d. oh, a horse is soon curried, and my son sam shall attend to it at once. . s. yes, very likely; but i this moment recollect the creature has no shoes on. . d. well, is there not a blacksmith hard by? . s. what, that tinker, dobson? i would not trust such a bungler to shoe a goat. no, no; none but uncle tom thumper shall shoe my mare. . d. as good luck will have it, then, i shall pass right by his door. . s. [calling to his son.] tim, tim! here's neighbor derby, who wants the loan of the gray mare, to ride to town to-day. you know the skin was rubbed off her back, last week, a hand's breadth or more. [gives tim a wink.] however, i believe she is well enough by this time. you know, tim, how ready i am to oblige my neighbors; indeed, we ought to do all the good we can in this world. we must certainly let neighbor derby have her if she will possibly answer his purpose. yes, yes; i see plainly by tim's countenance, neighbor derby, that he's disposed to oblige you. i would not have refused you the mare for the worth of her. if i had, i should have expected you to refuse me in turn. none of my neighbors can accuse me of being backward in doing them a kindness whenever it is possible. come, tim, what do you say? . tim. what do i say, father? why, sir, i say that i am no less ready than you are to do a neighborly kindness. but the mare is by no means capable of performing the journey. about a hand's breadth, did you say? why, sir, the skin is torn from the poor creature's back the bigness of your broad-brimmed hat! and, besides, i have promised her, so soon as she is able to travel, to ned saunders, to carry a load of apples to market. . s. do you hear that, neighbor? i am very sorry matters are thus. i would not have disobliged you for the price of two such mares. believe me, neighbor derby, i am really sorry, for your sake, that matters turn out thus. . d. and i as much for yours, neighbor scrapewell; for to tell you the truth i received a letter this morning from mr. griffin, who tells me if i will be in town to-day he will give me the refusal of all that lot of timber, which he is about cutting down, on the side of the hill; and i had intended you should have shared half of it, which would have been not less than fitly dollars in your pocket. but, as your-- . s. fifty dollars, did you say? . d. ay, truly, did i; but as your mare is out of order, i'll go and see if i can get old roan, the blacksmith's horse. . s. old roan! my mare is at your service, neighbor, here, tim, tell ned saunders he can't have the mare: neighbor derby wants her; and i won't refuse so good a friend anything he asks for. . d. but what are you to do for meal? . s. my wife can do without it for a week if you want the mare so long. . d. but, then, your saddle is all in pieces. . s. i meant the old one. i have bought a new one since, and you shall have the first use of it. . d. and shall i call at thumper's and get the mare shod? . s. no, no; i had forgotten to tell you that i let neighbor dobson shoe her, last week, by way of trial; and, to do him justice, he shoes extremely well. . d. but, if the poor creature has lost so much skin from off her back-- . s. poh, poh! that is just one of tim's large stories. i do assure you it was not, at first, bigger than my thumb nail, and i am certain it has not grown any since. . d. at least, however, let her have something she will eat, since she refuses hay. . s. she did, indeed, refuse hay this morning; but the only reason was that she was crammed full of oats. you have nothing to fear, neighbor; the mare is in perfect trim; and she will skim you over the ground like a bird. i wish you a good journey and a profitable job. definitions.--l. ex-treme'ly, very much. . whim'si-cal, full of whims. . cur'ried, cleaned. fore'top, hair on the forepart of the head. . bun'gler, a clumsy workman. . dis-posed', inclined to, back'ward, slow, unwilling. . ca'pa-ble, possessing ability. per-form'ing, accomplishing. . re-fus'al, choice of tak-ing. . crammed, stuffed. xxxiii. the noblest revenge. ( ) . "i will have revenge on him, that i will, and make him heartily repent it," said philip to himself, with a countenance quite red with anger. his mind was so engaged that he did not see stephen, who happened at that instant to meet him. . "who is that," said stephen, "on whom you intend to be revenged?" philip, as if awakened from a dream, stopped short, and looking at his friend, soon resumed a smile that was natural to his countenance. "ah," said he, "you remember my bamboo, a very pretty cane which was given me by my father, do you not? look! there it is in pieces. it was farmer robinson's son who reduced it to this worthless state." . stephen very coolly asked him what had induced young robinson to break it. "i was walking peaceably along," replied he, "and was playing with my cane by twisting it round my body. by accident, one of the ends slipped out of my hand, when i was opposite the gate, just by the wooden bridge, where the ill natured fellow had put down a pitcher of water, which he was taking home from the well." . "it so happened that my cane, in springing back, upset the pitcher, but did not break it. he came up close to me, and began to call me names, when i assured him that what i had done had happened by accident, and that i was sorry for it. without regarding what i said, he instantly seized my cane, and twisted it, as you see; but i will make him repent of it." . "to be sure," said stephen, "he is a very wicked boy, and is already very properly punished for being such, since nobody likes him or will have anything to do with him. he can scarcely find a companion to play with him; and is often at a loss for amusement, as he deserves to be. this, properly considered, i think will appear sufficient revenge for you." . "all this is true," replied philip, "but he has broken my cane. it was a present from my father, and a very pretty cane it was. i offered to fill his pitcher for him again, as i knocked it down by accident. i will be revenged." . "now, philip;" said stephen, "i think you will act better in not minding him, as your contempt will be the best punishment you can inflict upon him. be assured, he will always be able to do more mischief to you than you choose to do to him. and, now i think of it, i will tell you what happened to him not long since." . "very unluckily for him, he chanced to see a bee hovering about a flower which he caught, and was going to pull off its wings out of sport, when the animal stung him, and flew away in safety to the hive. the pain put him into a furious passion, and, like you, he vowed revenge. he accordingly procured a stick, and thrust it into the beehive." . "in an instant the whole swarm flew out, and alighting upon him stung him in a hundred different places. he uttered the most piercing cries, and rolled upon the ground in the excess of his agony. his father immediately ran to him, but could not put the bees to flight until they had stung him so severely that he was confined several days to his bed." l . "thus, you see, he was not very successful in his pursuit of revenge. i would advise you, therefore, to pass over his insult. he is a wicked boy, and much stronger than you; so that your ability to obtain this revenge may be doubtful." . "i must own," replied philip, "that your advice seems very good. so come along with me, and i will tell my father the whole matter, and i think he will not be angry with me." they went, and philip told his father what had happened. he thanked stephen for the good advice he had given his son, and promised philip to give him another cane exactly like the first. . a few days afterward, philip saw this ill-natured boy fall as he was carrying home a heavy log of wood, which he could not lift up again. philip ran to him, and helped him to replace it on his shoulder. young robinson was quite ashamed at the thought of this unmerited kindness, and heartily repented of his behavior. philip went home quite satisfied. "this," said he, "is the noblest vengeance i could take, in returning good for evil. it is impossible i should repent of it." definitions.--l. re-venge', return for an injury. re-pent', to feel sorry for. coun'te-nance, the face. . re-sumed', took again. . in-duced', caused. . as-sured, declared positively. re-gard'ing, noticing. . con-sid'ered, thought of care'fully. . con-tempt', disdain, scorn. in-flict', to impose, to put on. . hov'er-ing, hanging over or about. . ag'o-ny, very great pain. . a-bil'i-ty, power. exercises.--what is revenge? is it right to take revenge on those who injure us? how should we treat such persons? xxxiv. evening hymn. ( ) . come to the sunset tree, the day is past and gone; the woodman's ax lies free, and the reaper's work is done; the twilight star to heaven, and the summer dew to flowers, and rest to us is given, by the soft evening hours. . sweet is the hour of rest, pleasant the woods' low sigh, and the gleaming of the west, and the turf whereon we lie, when the burden and the heat of the laborer's task is o'er, and kindly voices greet the tired one at the door. . yes, tuneful is the sound that dwells in whispering boughs: welcome the freshness round, and the gale that fans our brows; but rest more sweet and still than ever the nightfall gave, our yearning hearts shall fill, in the world beyond the grave. . there, shall no tempests blow, nor scorching noontide heat; there, shall be no more snow, no weary, wandering feet; so we lift our trusting eyes from the hills our fathers trod, to the quiet of the skies, to the sabbath of our god. xxxv. how margery wondered. ( ) by lucy larcom. . one bright morning late in march, little margery put on her hood and her highland plaid shawl, and went trudging across the beach. it was the first time she had been trusted out alone, for margery was a little girl; nothing about her was large, except her round gray eyes, which had yet scarcely opened upon half a dozen springs and summers. . there was a pale mist on the far-off sea and sky, and up around the sun were white clouds edged with the hues of pinks and violets. the sunshine and the mild air made margery's very heart feel warm, and she let the soft wind blow aside her highland shawl, as she looked across the waters at the sun, and wondered! for, somehow, the sun had never looked before as it did to-day;--it seemed like a great golden flower bursting out of its pearl-lined calyx,--a flower without a stem. or was there a strong stem away behind it in the sky, that reached down below the sea, to a root, nobody could guess where? . margery did not stop to puzzle herself about the answer to her question, for now the tide, was coming in, and the waves, little at first, but growing larger every moment, were crowding up along the sand and pebbles, laughing, winking, and whispering, as they tumbled over each other, like thousands of children hurrying home from somewhere, each with its own precious little secret to tell. . where did the waves come from? who was down there under the blue wall of the horizon, with the hoarse, hollow voice, urging and pushing them across the beach at her feet? and what secret was it they were lisping to each other with their pleasant voices? oh, what was there beneath the sea, and beyond the sea, so deep, so broad, and so dim, too, away off where the white ships, that looked smaller than sea birds, were gliding out and in? . but while margery stood still for a moment on a dry rock, and wondered, there came a low, rippling warble to her ear from a cedar tree on the cliff above her. it had been a long winter, and margery had forgotten that there were birds, and that birds could sing. so she wondered again what the music was. . and when she saw the bird perched on a yellow-brown bough, she wondered yet more. it was only a bluebird, but then it was the first bluebird margery had ever seen. he fluttered among the prickly twigs, and looked as if he had grown out of them, as the cedar berries had, which were dusty blue, the color of his coat. but how did the music get in his throat? and after it was in his throat, how could it untangle itself, and wind itself off so evenly? and where had the bluebird flown from, across the snow banks down to the shore of the blue sea? . the waves sang a welcome to him, and he sang a welcome to the waves; they seemed to know each other well; and the ripple and the warble sounded so much alike, the bird and the wave must have both learned their music of the same teacher. and margery kept on wondering as she stepped between the song of the bluebird and the echo of the sea, and climbed a sloping bank, just turning faintly green in the spring sunshine. . the grass was surely beginning to grow! there were fresh, juicy shoots running up among the withered blades of last year, as if in hopes of bringing them back to life; and closer down she saw the sharp points of new spears peeping from their sheaths. and scattered here and there were small, dark green leaves folded around buds shut up so tightly that only those who had watched them many seasons could tell what flowers were to be let out of their safe prisons by and by. so no one could blame margery for not knowing that they were only common things, nor for stooping over the tiny buds, and wondering. . what made the grass come up so green out of the black earth? and how did the buds know when it was time to take off their little green hoods, and see what there was in the world around them? and how came they to be buds at all? did they bloom in another world before they sprung up here?--and did they know, themselves, what kind of flowers they should blossom into? had flowers souls, like little girls, that would live in another world when their forms had faded away in this? . margery thought she would like to sit down on the bank, and wait beside the buds until they opened; perhaps they would tell her their secret if the very first thing they saw was her eyes watching them. one bud was beginning to unfold; it was streaked with yellow in little stripes that she could imagine became wider every minute. but she would not touch it, for it seemed almost as much alive as herself. she only wondered, and wondered! . margery heard her mother calling her, and she trudged home across the shells and pebbles with a pleasant smile dimpling her cheeks; for she felt very much at home in this large, wonderful world, and was happy to be alive, although she neither could have told, nor cared to know, the reason why. but when her mother unpinned the little girl's highland shawl, and took off her hood, she said, "o mother, do let me live on the doorstep! i don't like houses to stay in. what makes everything so pretty and so glad? don't you like to wonder?" . margery's mother was a good woman. but then there was all the housework to do, and, if she had thoughts, she did not often let them wander outside of the kitchen door. and just now she was baking some gingerbread, which was in danger of getting burned in the oven. so she pinned the shawl around the child's neck again, and left her on the doorstep, saying to herself, as she returned to her work, "queer child! i wonder what kind of a woman she will be!" . but margery sat on the doorstep, and wondered, as the sea sounded louder, and the sunshine grew warmer around her. it was all so strange, and grand, and beautiful! her heart danced with joy to the music that went echoing through the wide world from the roots of the sprouting grass to the great golden blossom of the sun. . and when the round, gray eyes closed that night, at the first peep of the stars, the angels looked down and wondered over margery. for the wisdom of the wisest being god has made, ends in wonder; and there is nothing on earth so wonderful as the budding soul of a little child. definitions.-l. trudg'ing, walking sturdily. . hues, colors. ca'lyx, the outer covering of a flower. . ho-ri'zon, the line where the sky and earth seem to meet. . war'ble, a trill of the voice. spears, shoots of grass. sheaths, coverings. exercises.--name the things about which margery wondered. what did she wonder about each? what is still more wonderful than all that at which margery wondered? xxxvi. the child's world. ( ) . "great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world, with the wonderful water round you curled, and the wonderful grass upon your breast,-- world, you are beautifully drest." . "the wonderful air is over me, and the wonderful wind is shaking the tree; it walks on the water, and whirls the mills, and talks to itself on the tops of the hills." . "you friendly earth! how far do you go with the wheat fields that nod, and the rivers that flow; with cities and gardens, and cliffs and isles, and people upon you for thousands of miles?" . "ah, you are so great, and i am so small, i tremble to think of you, world, at all: and yet, when i said my prayers, to-day, a whisper inside me seemed to say, you are more than the earth, though you are such a dot: you can love and think, and the earth can not!'" xxxvii. susie's composition. ( ) . susie smith came home from school one day, and had no sooner entered the sitting room than she burst into tears. "what is the matter, my dear child?" said her mother, drawing her daughter to her side and smiling. . "o mother, matter enough," sobbed susie. "all our class must bring in compositions to-morrow morning, and i never, never can write one. we must write twelve lines at least, and i have written only a few words after trying nearly all the afternoon. see what work i have made of it!" . mrs. smith took the rumpled, tear-stained paper which susie held in her hand, and glanced at what she had written. in a careful hand she had tried to write upon three themes: "time," "temperance," and "industry." . "time is short. we should all improve our time." "temperance is a very useful thing." "we should all be industrious if we wish to do anything in the world." these sentences were all she had written. . "now," said susie, "i can't think of another word to say upon any of these subjects, and i know i shall have to go to school without a composition, for i won't be so mean as to copy one from a book, or to ask you or papa to write one for me." . "that is right, my dear," said her mother. "you will be far happier with a poor composition, if it is all your own, than with a fine one written by somebody else. but cheer up. you have not begun right--you have been trying to write upon subjects that you know nothing about. run into the garden and play. i will call you in half an hour." . "but my composition," began susie. "don't think about your composition while you are gone," said mrs. smith, "but have as pleasant a time as you can." . it seemed but a few minutes to susie before she heard her mother's voice calling her. she went into the house at once--her hands full of sweet flowers, and her cheeks rosy with exercise. . "now, susie," said her mother, "i want you to sit by the window with this nice sheet of paper and a pencil, and write something about what you can see." "but my composition, mother," said susie; "when shall i begin that?" "never mind your composition, my dear; do this to please me, and we will talk about that by and by." . susie thought her mother's request was a strange one; but she knew that she always had a good reason for everything she did: so she took the paper and pencil, and sat by the window. . "do not talk to me at all," said her mother. "look out of the window, and then write down your thoughts about everything you see." . susie could not help laughing, it seemed such a funny thing to be doing. as she looked out, she first saw the western sky and some bright, sunset clouds. "o mother!" she exclaimed, "what a splendid sunset!" "don't talk," said her mother, "but write." . "i'll write about the sunset, then," said she, and the pencil began to move rapidly across the paper. in a few moments she said, "mother, shall i read you what i have written?" "no, not now," answered her mother; "i am going into the dining room. you may sit and write until i return." . as susie went on writing, she became very much interested in her occupation, and for a time forgot all about the dreaded composition. she wrote about the sunset clouds, the appearance of the distant hills, the trees, the river, the garden with its gay flowers, and the birds flying past the window. . just as she had reached the bottom of the page, her mother came in. "well, susie," said she, with a smile, "how does that composition come on?" "composition!" exclaimed susie; "you told me not to think about my composition, and i have not thought of it once; i have had such a nice time writing about what i could see from the window." . mrs. smith took the paper and read aloud what susie had written: "i am sitting on a low seat at the bay window, one half of which is open, so that i can smell the sweet flowers in the garden. the sky is all bright with sunset; i can see purple, and pink, and golden. i do not believe that anyone on earth has a paint box with such lovely colors in it." . "i can see one cloud, far above the rest, that looks like a ship sailing in the blue sea. i should like to sail on a cloud, if it would not make me dizzy. now, while i have been writing, the clouds have changed in color and form, but they are just as beautiful as they were before." . "the green hills are tipped with light, and look as if they were wearing golden crowns. i can see a river a great way off, and it looks quite still, although i know it is running as fast as it can to get to the ocean." . "the birds are flying past the window to go home and take care of their little ones. i am glad the birds are not afraid to live in our garden, and to build nests in our trees." . "our garden is full of flowers--pinks, lilies, and roses. mother calls this the month of roses. my birthday will come in a week, and we can have all the flowers we wish for wreaths and bouquets." . "there, susie," said mrs. smith, "that is a very nice composition, indeed." "a composition!" exclaimed susie, "is that a composition?" "yes, my dear, and a very good one, too," replied her mother. "when it hasn't even a subject?" . "we can find one for it, and i do not doubt it will please your teacher, as it does me. you see, my dear," continued her mother, "that it is easy enough to write if you have anything interesting to write about." . the next morning susie copied her composition very neatly, and started to school with a happy heart, saying, as she gave her mother a kiss, "just think how funny it is, dear mother, that i should have written so long a composition without knowing it." definitions.--com-po-si'tion, that which is thought out and arranged, a written or literary work. . rum'pled, wrinkled, creased. themes, subjects or topics on which a person writes. . re-quest', that which is asked. . oc-cu-pa'tion, that which employs the time. . bou-quets' (pro. boo-kas'), bunches of flowers. exercises.--what is a composition? why was susie so troubled? why could she not write about "time," "temperance," or "industry"? what did her mother have her do? what did susie write? was it a composition? did she know, at the time, that it was? what fault did she find with it? can you give her composition a proper subject? xxxviii. the summer shower. ( ) the author, thomas buchanan read, was born in chester co., pa., march , . his life was devoted to the fine arts, and he attained a high reputation both as artist and poet. he died in new york, may , . . before the stout harvesters falleth the grain, as when the strong stormwind is reaping the plain, and loiters the boy in the briery lane; but yonder aslant comes the silvery rain, like a long line of spears brightly burnished and tall. . adown the white highway like cavalry fleet, it dashes the dust with its numberless feet. like a murmurless school, in their leafy retreat, the wild birds sit listening the drops round them beat; and the boy crouches close to the blackberry wall. . the swallows alone take the storm on the wing, and, taunting the tree-sheltered laborers, sing. like pebbles the rain breaks the face of the spring, while a bubble darts up from each widening ring; and the boy in dismay hears the loud shower fall. . but soon are the harvesters tossing their sheaves; the robin darts out from his bower of leaves; the wren peereth forth from the moss-covered eaves; and the rain-spattered urchin now gladly perceives that the beautiful bow bendeth over them all. definitions.--l. a-slant', toward one side. . high'way, a public road. re-treat', a place of refuge or safety, crouch'es, stoops low. . taunt'ing, deriding, mocking. . ur'chin, a child. xxxix. consequences of idleness. ( ) . many young persons seem to think it of not much consequence if they do not improve their time well in youth, vainly expecting that they can make it up by diligence when they are older. they also think it is disgraceful for men and women to be idle, but that there can be no harm for persons who are young to spend their time in any manner they please. . george jones thought so. when he was twelve years old, he went to an academy to prepare to enter college. his father was at great expense in obtaining books for him, clothing him, and paying his tuition. but george was idle. the preceptor of the academy would often tell him that if he did not study diligently when young he would never succeed well. . but george thought of nothing but present pleasure. he would often go to school without having made any preparation for his morning lesson; and, when called to recite with his class, he would stammer and make such blunders that the rest of the class could not help laughing at him. he was one of the poorest scholars in the school, because he was one of the most idle. . when recess came, and all the boys ran out of the academy upon the playground, idle george would come moping along. instead of studying diligently while in school, he was indolent and half asleep. when the proper time for play came, he had no relish for it. i recollect very well, that, when "tossing up" for a game of ball, we used to choose everybody on the playground before we chose george; and if there were enough without him we used to leave him out. thus he was unhappy in school and out of school. . there is nothing which makes a person enjoy play so well as to study hard. when recess was over, and the rest of the boys returned, fresh and vigorous, to their studies, george might be seen lagging and moping along to his seat. sometimes he would be asleep in school; sometimes he would pass his time in catching flies, and penning them up in little holes, which he cut in his seat; and sometimes, when the preceptor's back was turned, he would throw a paper ball across the room. . when the class was called up to recite, george would come drowsily along, looking as mean and ashamed as though he were going to be whipped. the rest of the class stepped up to the recitation with alacrity, and appeared happy and contented. when it came george's turn to recite, he would be so long in doing it, and make such blunders, that all most heartily wished him out of the class. . at last, george went with his class to enter college. though he passed a very poor examination, he was admitted with the rest; for those who examined him thought it was possible that the reason why he did not answer questions better was because he was frightened. now came hard times for poor george. in college there is not much mercy shown to bad scholars; and george had neglected his studies so long that he could not now keep up with his class, let him try ever so hard. . he could, without much difficulty, get along in the academy, where there were only two or three boys of his own class to laugh at him. but now he had to go into a large recitation room, filled with students from all parts of the country. in the presence of all these, he must rise and recite to a professor. poor fellow! he paid dearly for his idleness. . you would have pitied him if you could have seen him trembling in his scat, every moment expecting to be called upon to recite. and when he was called upon, he would stand up and take what the class called a "dead set;" that is, he could not recite at all. sometimes he would make such ludicrous blunders that the whole class would burst into a laugh. such are the applauses an idler gets. he was wretched, of course. he had been idle so long that he hardly knew how to apply his mind to study. all the good scholars avoided him; they were ashamed to be seen in his company. he became discouraged, and gradually grew dissipated. . the officers of the college were soon compelled to suspend him. he returned in a few months, but did no better; and his father was then advised to take him from college. he left college, despised by everyone. a few months ago, i met him, a poor wanderer, without money and without friends. such are the wages of idleness. i hope every reader will, from this history, take warning, and "stamp improvement on the wings of time." definitions.-- . con'se-quence, importance, influence. . a-cad'e-my, a school of high order. col'lege, a seminary of learning of the highest order. pre-cep'tor, a teacher. . prep-a-ra'-tion, a making ready. . vig'or-ous, full of activity and strength. . a-lac'ri-ty, cheerfulness, sprightliness. . pro-fess'or, a teacher in a college. . lu'di-crous, adapted to raise laughter. ap--plaus'es, praises. dis'-si-pa-ted, given up to bad habits. . im-prove'ment, increase of knowledge. xl. advantages of industry. ( ) . i gave you, in the last lesson, the history of george jones, an idle boy, and showed you the consequences of his idleness. i shall now give you the history of charles bullard, a classmate of george. charles was about the same age as george, and did not possess superior talents. indeed, i doubt whether he was equal to him in natural powers of mind. . but charles was a hard student. when quite young, he was always careful and diligent in school. sometimes, when there was a very hard lesson, instead of going out to play during recess, he would stay in to study. he had resolved that his first object should be to get his lessons well, and then he could play with a good conscience. he loved play as well as anybody, and was one of the best players on the ground. i hardly ever saw any boy catch a ball better than he could. when playing any game, everyone was glad to get charles on his side. . i have said that charles would sometimes stay in at recess. this, however, was very seldom; it was only when the lessons were very hard indeed. generally, he was among the first on the playground, and he was also among the first to go into school when called. hard study gave him a relish for play, and play again gave him a relish for hard study; so he was happy both in school and out. the preceptor could not help liking him, for he always had his lessons well committed, and never gave him any trouble. . when he went to enter college, the preceptor gave him a good recommendation. he was able to answer all the questions which were put to him when he was examined. he had studied so well when he was in the academy, and was so thoroughly prepared for college, that he found it very easy to keep up with his class, and had much time for reading interesting books. . but he would always get his lesson well before he did anything else, and would review it just before recitation. when called upon to recite, he rose tranquil and happy, and very seldom made mistakes. the officers of the college had a high opinion of him, and he was respected by all the students. . there was, in the college, a society made up of all the best scholars. charles was chosen a member of that society. it was the custom to choose some one of the society to deliver a public address every year. this honor was conferred on charles; and he had studied so diligently, and read so much, that he delivered an address which was very interesting to all who heard it. . at last he graduated, as it is called; that is, he finished his collegiate course, and received his degree. it was known by all that he was a good scholar, and by all that he was respected. his father and mother, brothers and sisters, came on the commencement day to hear him speak. . they all felt gratified, and loved charles more than ever. many situations of usefulness and profit were opened to him; for charles was now an intelligent man, and universally respected. he is still a useful and a happy man. he has a cheerful home, and is esteemed by all who know him. . such are the rewards of industry. how strange it is that any person should be willing to live in idleness when it will certainly make him unhappy! the idle boy is almost invariably poor and miserable; the industrious boy is happy and prosperous. . but perhaps some child who reads this, asks, "does god notice little children in school?" he certainly does. and if you are not diligent in the improvement of your time, it is one of the surest evidences that your heart is not right with god. you are placed in this world to improve your time. in youth you must be preparing for future usefulness. and if you do not improve the advantages you enjoy, you sin against your maker. with books, or work, or healthful play, let your first years be passed; that you may give, for every day, some good account, at last. definitions.--l. his'to-ry, a description or a narration of events. . con'science, our own knowledge of right and wrong. game, play, sport. . com-mit'ted, fixed in mind. . rec-om-men-da'tion, what is said in praise of anyone. . re view', to examine again. tran'quil, quiet, calm. . con-ferred', given to or bestowed upon anyone. . grad'u-a-ted, received a degree from a college. com-mence'ment, the day when students receive their degree. . u-ni-ver'sal-ly, by all, without exception. . in-va'ri-a-bly, always, uniformly. . ev'i-den-ces, proofs. ad-van'ta-ges, opportunities for improvement. exercises.--what was the character of george jones? of charles bullard? how did george appear in the class at school? how did he behave at recess? how did charles differ from him in these respects? relate what happened when george went to college. what became of him? did charles succeed at college? which of them do you think more worthy of imitation? what is said of the idle? what is said of the industrious? who watches all our actions wherever we may be? for what are we placed in this world? should you not then be diligent in your studies? xli. the fountain. ( ) by james russell lowell, one of the most noted of american poets; also well known as an essayist and lecturer. he was born at cambridge, mass., in , and died there in . . into the sunshine, full of the light, leaping and flashing, from morn till night! . into the moonlight, whiter than snow, waving so flower-like when the winds blow! . into the starlight, rushing in spray, happy at midnight, happy by day! . ever in motion, blithesome and cheery, still climbing heavenward, never aweary; . glad of all weathers, still seeming best, upward or downward, motion, thy rest; . full of a nature nothing can tame, changed every moment, ever the same; . ceaseless aspiring, ceaseless content, darkness or sunshine thy element; . glorious fountain! let my heart be fresh, changeful, constant, upward like thee! definitions.-- . blithe'some, gay. cheer'y, in good spirits. a-wea'ry, weary, tired. . as-pir'ing, ambitious. el'e-ment, the proper habitation or sphere of anything, suitable state. . con'-stant, fixed, not to be changed. xlii. coffee. ( ) . the coffee tree is a native of eastern africa, but it was in arabia that it first became known to the people of europe, and until about the year a. d. that country afforded the entire supply. . then the coffee seeds found their way to java, by means of some traders, and one of the first plants grown on that island was sent as a present to the governor of the dutch east india company, who lived in holland. . it was planted in the botanical gardens at amsterdam, and in a few years seeds taken from it were sent to south america, where the cultivation of coffee has steadily increased, extending to the west indies, until now the offspring of this one plant produce more coffee than is obtained from all the other plants in the world. . the plant is an evergreen, and is from six to twelve feet high, the stem being from ten to fifteen inches in diameter. the lower branches bend down when the tree begins to grow old, and extend themselves into a round form somewhat like an umbrella; and the wood is so pliable that the ends of the largest branches may be bent down to within two or three feet of the earth. . the bark is whitish and somewhat rough. a tree is never without leaves, which are at small distances from one another, and on almost opposite sides of a bough. blossoms and green and ripe fruit may be seen on the same tree at the same time. when the blossom falls off, there grows in its place a small green fruit, which becomes dark red as it ripens. . this fruit is not unlike a cherry, and is very good to eat. under the pulp of this cherry is found the bean or berry we call coffee, wrapped in a fine, thin skin. the berry is at first very soft, and has a bad taste; but as the cherry ripens the berry grows harder, and the dried-up fruit becomes a shell or pod of a deep brown color. . the berry is now solid, and its color is a translucent green. each shell contains two seeds, rounded on one side and flat on the other. the seeds lie with the flat sides together, and, in one highly prized variety, the two seeds grow together, forming one: this is known as the pea berry. when the fruit is so ripe that it can be shaken from the tree, the husks are separated from the berries, and are used, in arabia, by the natives, while the berries are sold. . the young plants are inserted in holes from twelve to eighteen inches deep, and six or eight feet apart. if left to themselves, they would grow to the height of eighteen or twenty feet; but they are usually dwarfed by pruning, so that the fruit may be easily got at by the gatherer. . thus dwarfed, they extend their branches until they cover the whole space about them. they begin to yield fruit the third year. by the sixth or seventh year they are at full bearing, and continue to bear for twenty years or more. l . before the berry can be used, it undergoes a process of roasting. the amount of aromatic oil brought out in roasting has much to do with the market value of coffee, and it has been found that the longer the raw coffee is kept, the richer it becomes in this peculiar oil, and so the more valuable. but after the coffee is roasted, and especially after it is ground, it loses its aroma rapidly. . arabia produces the celebrated mocha, or "mokha," coffee, which is the finest in the world; but little or none of the best product is ever taken out of that country. the java coffee from the east indies is next prized, but the best quality of this kind is also quite difficult to obtain, and many, therefore, prefer the finest grades of rio coffee from south america to such mocha and java as can be had in our country. definitions.--l. af-ford'ed, yielded, produced. . off'spring, descendants, however remote, from, the stock. . pli'a-ble, easily bent. . trans-lu'cent, permitting the passage of light. . prun'-ing, trimming. . ar-o-mat'ic, containing aroma, fragrant. exercises.--what country first supplied coffee? how did the plant come to be grown in other countries? describe the plant. what is said of the fruit? how are the plants cultivated? what is said about the roasting of coffee? what are the three principal kinds of coffee used, and how are they valued? xliii. the winter king. ( ) . oh! what will become of thee, poor little bird? the muttering storm in the distance is heard; the rough winds are waking, the clouds growing black, they'll soon scatter snowflakes all over thy back! from what sunny clime hast thou wandered away? and what art thou doing this cold winter day? . "i'm picking the gum from the old peach tree; the storm doesn't trouble me. pee, dee, dee!" . but what makes thee seem so unconscious of care? the brown earth is frozen, the branches are bare: and how canst thou be so light-hearted and free, as if danger and suffering thou never should'st see, when no place is near for thy evening nest, no leaf for thy screen, for thy bosom no rest? . "because the same hand is a shelter for me, that took off the summer leaves. pee, dee, dee!" . but man feels a burden of care and of grief, while plucking the cluster and binding the sheaf: in the summer we faint, in the winter we're chilled, with ever a void that is yet to be filled. we take from the ocean, the earth, and the air, yet all their rich gifts do not silence our care. . "a very small portion sufficient will be, if sweetened with gratitude. pee, dee, dee!" . but soon there'll be ice weighing down the light bough, on which thou art flitting so playfully now; and though there's a vesture well fitted and warm, protecting the rest of thy delicate form, what, then, wilt thou do with thy little bare feet, to save them from pain, mid the frost and the sleet? . "i can draw them right up in my feathers, you see, to warm them, and fly away. pee, dee, dee!" . i thank thee, bright monitor; what thou hast taught will oft be the theme of the happiest thought; we look at the clouds; while the birds have an eye to him who reigns over them, changeless and high. and now little hero, just tell me thy name, that i may be sure whence my oracle came. . "because, in all weather, i'm merry and free, they call me the winter king. pee, dee, dee!" definitions.--l. mut'ter-ing, murmuring, rumbling. . un-con'scious, not knowing, not perceiving. . clus'ter, a bunch. . flit'ing, moving about in a lively manner. ves'ture, clothing, covering. . mon'i-tor, one who warns of faults. or'a-cle, a wise sentence or decision. xliv. the nettle. ( ) . anna. o papa! i have stung my hand with that nettle. . father. well, my dear, i am sorry for it; but pull up that large dock leaf you see near it; now bruise the juice out of it on the part which is stung. well, is the pain lessened? . a. oh, very much indeed, i hardly feel it now. but i wish there was not a nettle in the world. i am sure i do not know what use there can be in them. . f. if you knew anything of botany, nanny, you would not say so. . a. what is botany, papa? . f. botany, my dear, is the knowledge of plants. . a. some plants are very beautiful. if the lily were growing in our fields, i should not complain. but this ugly nettle! i do not know what beauty or use there can be in that. . f. and yet, nanny, there is more beauty, use, and instruction in a nettle, than even in a lily. . a. o papa, how can you make that out? . f. put on your gloves, pluck up that nettle, and let us examine it. first, look at the flower. . a. the flower, papa? i see no flower, unless those little ragged knobs are flowers, which have neither color nor smell, and are not much larger than the heads of pins. . f. here, take this magnifying glass and examine them. . a. oh, i see now; every little knob is folded up in leaves, like a rosebud. perhaps there is a flower inside. . f. try; take this pin and touch the knob. well, what do you see? . a. oh, how curious! . f. what is curious? . a. the moment i touched it, it flew open. a little cloud rose out like enchantment, and four beautiful little stems sprung up as if they were alive; and, now that i look again with the glass, i see an elegant little flower as nice and perfect as a lily itself. . f. well, now examine the leaves. . a. oh, i see they are all covered over with little bristles; and when i examine them with the glass, i see a little bag, filled with a juice like water, at the bottom of each. ha! these are the things which stung me. . f. now touch the little bag with the point of the pin. . a. when i press the bag, the juice runs up and comes out at the small point at the top; so i suppose the little thorn must be hollow inside, though it is finer than the point of my cambric needle. . f. have all the leaves those stings? . a. no, papa; some of the young ones are quite green and soft, like velvet, and i may handle them without any danger. . f. now look at the stem, and break it. . a. i can easily crack it, but i can not break it asunder, for the bark is so strong that it holds it together. . f. well, now you see there are more curious things in the nettle than you expected. . a. yes, indeed, i see that. but you have often told me that god makes nothing without its use; and i am sure i can not see any use in all these things. . f. that we will now consider. you saw the little flower burst open, and a cloud rose, you say, like enchantment. now all this is necessary for the nature of the plant. there are many thousand plants in the world, and it has pleased god, in his wisdom, to make them all different. now look at this other nettle, which grew on the opposite side of the road; you see that it is not exactly like the one you have just examined. . a. no, papa; this has little flat seeds instead of flowers. . f. very right, my dear. now, in order to make those seeds grow, it is necessary that the little flower of this plant and the seed of that should be together, as they are in most others. but plants can not walk, like animals. the wisdom of god, therefore, has provided a remedy for this. when the little flower bursts open it throws out a fine powder, which you saw rise like a cloud; this is conveyed by the air to the other plant, and when it falls upon the seed of that plant it gives it power to grow, and makes it a perfect seed, which, in its turn, when it falls to the ground, will produce a new plant. were it not for this fine powder, that seed would never be perfect or complete. . a. that is very curious, indeed; and i see the use of the little cloud and the flower; but the leaf that stung me, of what use can that be? there, dear papa, i am afraid i puzzle you to tell me that. . p. even these stings are made useful to man. the poor people in some countries use them instead of blisters, when they are sick. those leaves which do not sting are used by some for food, and from the stalk others get a stringy bark, which answers the purpose of flax. thus you see that even the despised nettle is not made in vain; and this lesson may serve to teach you that we only need to understand the works of god to see that "in goodness and wisdom he has made them all." definitions.-- . mag'ni-fy-ing glass, an instrument used to make objects appear larger. . en-chant'ment, magic art, witch-craft. . a-sun'der, apart, into parts. . rem'e-dy, that which removes an evil. con-veyed', carried. . string'y, full of strings. xlv. the tempest. ( ) by james t. fields (born , died ), who was born at portsmouth, n. h. he was a poet, and the author, also, of some well known prose works. of these, his "yesterdays with authors" is the most noted. . we were crowded in the cabin; not a soul would dare to sleep: it was midnight on the waters, and a storm was on the deep. . 't is a fearful thing in winter to be shattered by the blast, and to hear the rattling trumpet thunder, "cut away the mast!" . so we shuddered there in silence, for the stoutest held his breath, while the hungry sea was roaring, and the breakers threatened death. . and as thus we sat in darkness, each one busy in his prayers, "we are lost!" the captain shouted, as he staggered down the stairs. . but his little daughter whispered, as she took his icy hand, "is n't god upon the ocean, just the same as on the land?" . then we kissed the little maiden, and we spoke in better cheer; and we anchored safe in harbor when the morn was shining clear. definitions.--l. deep, the ocean. . blast, tempest. . break'ers, waves of the sea broken by rocks. . cheer, state of mind. xlvi. the creator. ( ) the poetry at the close of this selection is by john keble, a celebrated english clergyman, born in . he held for some years the professorship of poetry at oxford university. he died in . . come, and i will show you what is beautiful. it is a rose fully blown. see how she sits upon her mossy stem, the queen of flowers. her leaves glow like fire. the air is filled with her sweet odor. she is the delight of every eye. . but there is one fairer than the rose. he that made the rose is more beautiful than the rose. he is altogether lovely. he is the delight of every heart. . i will show you what is strong. the lion is strong. when he raiseth himself up from his lair, when he shaketh his mane, when the voice of his roaring is heard, the cattle of the field fly, and the wild beasts of the desert hide themselves; for he is terrible. . but he who made the lion is stronger than the lion. he can do all things. he gave us life, and in a moment can take it away, and no one can save us from his hand. . i will show you what is glorious. the sun is glorious. when he shineth in the clear sky, when he sitteth on his throne in the heavens, and looketh abroad over the earth, he is the most glorious and excellent object the eye can behold. . but he who made the sun is more glorious than the sun. the eye cannot look on his dazzling brightness. he seeth all dark places, by night as well as by day. the light of his countenance is over all the world. . this great being is god. he made all things, but he is more excellent than all that he has made. he is the creator, they are the creatures. they may be beautiful, but he is beauty. they may be strong, but he is strength. they may be perfect, but he is perfection. . there is a book, who runs may read, which heavenly truth imparts, and all the lore its scholars need-- pure eyes and loving hearts. . the works of god, above, below, within us, and around, are pages in that book, to show how god himself is found. . the glorious sky, embracing all, is like the father's love; wherewith encompassed, great and small in peace and order move. . thou who hast given me eyes to see and love this sight so fair, give me a heart to find out thee and read thee everywhere. definitions.-- . blown, blossomed, bloomed. o'dor, smell, scent. . lair, bed of a wild beast. des'ert, a wilderness, a place where no one lives. . ex'cel-lent, surpassing others in worth, su-perior. . daz'zling, overpowering with light. . per-fec'tion, the state of being perfect, so that nothing is wanting. . im-parts', makes known. lore, learning. . en-com'passed, surrounded. exercises.--what is described as beautiful? as strong? as glorious? who is more beautiful than the rose, stronger than the lion, and more glorious than the sun? what is the book which we may all read? what should it teach us? xlvii. the horse. ( ) . uncle thomas. well, boys, i am glad to see you again. since i last saw you i have made quite a tour, and at some future time will describe to you what i have seen. i promised at this meeting, however, to tell you something about animals, and i propose to begin with the horse. but i know that you like stories better than lecturing, so i will proceed at once to tell you some which i have gathered for you. . frank. we never feel tired of listening to you, uncle thomas. we know you always have something curious to tell us. . uncle thomas. well then, frank, to begin at once with the horse. . in several parts of the world there are to be found large herds of wild horses. in south america the immense plains are inhabited by them, and it is said that ten thousand are sometimes found in a single herd. these herds are always preceded by a leader, who directs their motions; and such is the regularity with which they perform their movements, that it seems as if they could hardly be surpassed by the best trained cavalry. . it is extremely dangerous for travelers to meet a herd of this description. when they are unaccustomed to the sight of such a mass of creatures, they can not help feeling greatly alarmed at their rapid and apparently irresistible approach. the trampling of the animals sounds like distant thunder; and such is the rapidity and impetuosity of their advance, that it seems to threaten instant destruction. . sometimes, however, they suddenly stop short, utter a loud and piercing neigh, and, with a rapid wheel, take an opposite course, and altogether disappear. on such occasions it requires great care in the traveler to prevent his horses from breaking loose and escaping with the wild herd. . in those countries where wild horses are so plentiful, the inhabitants do not take the trouble to raise others, but whenever they want one they mount upon an animal accustomed to the sport, and gallop over the plain toward a herd, which is readily found at no great distance. . the rider gradually approaches some stragglers from the main body, and, having selected the one he wishes, he dexterously throws the lasso (which is a long rope with a running noose, and is firmly fixed to his saddle) either over the wild horse's head or in such a manner as to entangle his hind legs; and by the sudden checking of his own horse, he throws the captured animal over on its side. . in an instant he jumps off his horse, wraps his cloak round the head of the captive, forces a bit into his mouth, and straps a saddle on his back. he then removes the cloak, and the animal starts to his feet. with equal quickness the hunter leaps into his saddle; and, in spite of the kicking of the captive, keeps his seat, till, being wearied out with his efforts, the horse submits to the guidance of his new master, and is reduced to complete obedience. . frank. but, uncle thomas, are all horses originally wild? i have heard that arabia is famous for raising horses. . uncle thomas. arabia has, for a long time, been noted for the beauty and speed of its horses. it is not strange, however, that the arabian horse should be the most excellent, when we consider the care and kindness with which it is treated. one of the best stories which i have ever heard of the love of an arabian for his steed, is that related of an arab, from whom an english officer wished to purchase his horse. . the animal was a bright bay mare, of fine form and great beauty; and the owner, proud of her appearance and qualities, paraded her before the englishman's tent until she attracted his attention. on being asked if he would sell her, "what will you give me?" was the reply. "that depends upon her age. i suppose she is past five?" "guess again," said he. "four?" "look at her mouth," said the arab, with a smile. on examination she was found to be about three. this, from her size and symmetry, greatly increased her value. . the gentleman said, "i will give you eighty tomans," (nearly two hundred and fifty dollars). "a little more, if you please," said the fellow, somewhat entertained. "ninety--a hundred." he shook his head and smiled. the officer at last came to three hundred tomans, (nearly one thousand dollars). "well," said the arab, "you need not tempt me further. you are a rich nobleman, and, i am told, have loads of silver and gold. now," added he, "you want my mare, but you shall not have her for all you have got." he put spurs to his horse, and was soon out of the reach of temptation. . the horse can swim, when necessary, as well as most other animals, although he is not very fond of the water. some years ago a vessel was driven upon the rocks, on the coast of the cape of good hope, and most of the crew fell an immediate sacrifice to the waves. those who were left were seen from the shore, clinging to the different pieces of the wreck. the sea ran so high that no boat could venture off to their assistance. . meanwhile, a planter had come from his farm to be a spectator of the shipwreck. his heart was melted at the sight of the unhappy seamen, and, knowing the bold spirit of his horse and his excellence as a swimmer, he determined to make a desperate effort for their deliverance. having blown a little brandy into his horse's nostrils, he pushed into the midst of the breakers. at first both horse and rider disappeared, but it was not long before they floated to the surface, and swam up to the wreck; when, taking two men with him, each of whom held on by one of his boots, the planter brought them safe to shore. . this was repeated no less than seven times, and he saved fourteen lives; but on his return the eighth time, being much fatigued, and meeting a tremendous wave, he lost his balance and sank in a moment. his horse swam safely to land, but its gallant rider sank, to rise no more. definitions.-- . im-mense', very large. in-hab'it-ed, occupied as a home. cav'al-ry, a body of military troops on horses. . im--pet-u-os'i-ty, fury, violence. . dex'ter-ous-ly, skillfully. . re--duced', brought into. . o-rig'i-nal-ly, at first. . pa-rad'ed, showed off. . sym'me-try, a proper proportion of the several parts. . to-man', a persian coin valued at about three dollars. . des'per-ate, without care of safety. de-liv'er-ance, release from danger. . gal'lant, brave, heroic. exercises.--where are wild horses found? how are they taken? for what purpose are they taken? in what country are the finest horses raised? why are the horses so excellent there? are not animals always made better by kind treatment? why would not the arab sell his horse? relate the anecdote of the planter and the shipwrecked seamen. xlviii. emulation. ( ) . frank's father was speaking to a friend, one day, on the subject of competition at school. he said that he could answer for it that envy is not always connected with it. . he had been excelled by many, but did not recollect ever having felt envious of his successful rivals; "nor did my winning many a prize from my friend birch," said he, "ever lessen his friendship for me." . in support of the truth of this, a friend who was present related an anecdote which had fallen under his own notice in a school in his neighborhood. . at this school the sons of several wealthy farmers, and others, who were poorer, received instruction. frank listened with great attention while the gentleman gave the following account of the two rivals: . it happened that the son of a rich farmer and the son of a poor widow came in competition for the head of their class. they were so nearly equal that the teacher could scarcely decide between them; some days one, and some days the other, gained the head of the class. it was determined by seeing who should be at the head of the class for the greater number of days in the week. . the widow's son, by the last day's trial, gained the victory, and kept his place the following week, till the school was dismissed for the holidays. . when they met again the widow's son did not appear, and the farmer's son, being next to him, might now have been at the head of his class. instead of seizing the vacant place, however, he went to the widow's house to inquire what could be the cause of her son's absence. . poverty was the cause; the poor woman found that she was not able, with her utmost efforts, to continue to pay for the tuition and books of her son, and so he, poor fellow! had been compelled to give up his schooling, and to return to labor for her support. . the farmer's son, out of the allowance of pocket money which his father gave him, bought all the necessary books and paid for the tuition of his rival. he also permitted him to be brought back again to the head of his class, where he continued for some time, at the expense of his generous rival. definitions.--em-u-la'tion, rivalry, contest. . com-pe-ti'tion, rivalry. . ex-celled', surpassed, exceeded in good qualities. ri'vals, those who pursue the same thing. . an'ec-dote, a short story. . tu-i'tion, payment for teaching. exercises.--what is the subject of this lesson? what do you mean by emulation? what is envy? what story is told about the two rivals? is it right to envy any person? xlix. the sandpiper. ( ) by celia thaxter. . across the lonely beach we flit, one little sandpiper and i, and fast i gather, bit by bit, the scattered driftwood, bleached and dry. the wild waves reach their hands for it, the wild wind raves, the tide runs high, as up and down the beach we flit, one little sandpiper and i. . above our heads the sullen clouds scud, black and swift, across the sky; like silent ghosts in misty shrouds stand out the white lighthouses high. almost as far as eye can reach i see the close-reefed vessels fly, as fast we flit across the beach, one little sandpiper and i. . i watch him as he skims along, uttering his sweet and mournful cry; he starts not at my fitful song, nor flash of fluttering drapery. he has no thought of any wrong, he scans me with a fearless eye; stanch friends are we, well-tried and strong, the little sandpiper and i. . comrade, where wilt thou be to-night, when the loosed storm breaks furiously? my driftwood fire will burn so bright! to what warm shelter canst thou fly? i do not fear for thee, though wroth the tempest rushes through the sky; for are we not god's children both, thou, little sandpiper, and i? definitions.--l. sand'pi-per, a bird of the snipe family, found along the seacoast. drift'wood. wood tossed on shore by the waves. bleached, whitened. tide, the regular rise and fall of the ocean which occurs twice in a little over twenty-four hours. . scud, fly hastily. shrouds, winding sheets, dresses of the dead. close'reefed, with sails contracted as much as possible. . fit'ful, irregularly variable. draper-y, garments. scans, looks at care-fully. stanch, firm. . wroth, angry. l. the right way. ( ) adapted from a story by frank h. stockton. he was born at philadelphia, april , , and when quite a young boy used to write stories for his own pleasure. he was once a designer and engraver on wood, and afterwards an editor; but he now devotes himself entirely to writing, not only for young but also for grown people. . "o andy!" said little jenny murdock, "i'm so glad you came along this way. i can't get over." . "can't get over?" said andrew. "why what's the matter?" . "the bridge is gone," said jenny. "when i came across after breakfast it was there, and now it's over on the other side, and how can i get back home?" . "why, so it is," said andrew. "it was all right when i came over a little while ago, but old donald pulls it on the other side every morning after he has driven his cows across, and i don't think he has any right to do it. i suppose he thinks the bridge was made for him and his cows." . "now i must go down to the big bridge, andy, and i want you to go with me. i'm afraid to go through all those dark woods by myself," said jenny. . "but i can't go, jenny," said andrew, "it's nearly school time now." . andrew was a scotch boy, and a fine fellow. he was next to the head of his school, and he was as good at play as he was at his book. . jenny murdock, his most particular friend, was a little girl who lived very near andrew's home. she had no brothers or sisters, but andrew had always been as good as a brother to her; and, therefore, when she stood by the water's edge that morning, just ready to burst into tears, she thought all her troubles over when she saw andrew coming along the road. . he had always helped her out of her troubles before, and she saw no reason why he should not do it now. she had crossed the creek in search of wild flowers, and when she wished to return had found the bridge removed, as andrew supposed, by old donald mckensie, who pastured his cows on this side of the creek. . this stream was not very wide, nor very deep at its edges, but the center it was four or five feet deep; and in the spring the water ran very swiftly, so that wading across it, either by cattle or men, was quite a difficult undertaking. as for jenny, she could not get across at all without a bridge, and there was none nearer than the wagon bridge, a mile and a half below. . "you will go with me, andy, won't you?" said the little girl. . "and be late to school?" said he. "i have not been late yet, you know, jenny." . "perhaps dominie black will think you have been sick or had to mind the cows," said jenny. . "he won't think so unless i tell him," said andrew, "and you know i won't do that." . "if we were to run all the way, would you be too late?" said jenny. . "if we were to run all the way to the bridge, and i were to run all the way back, i should not get to school till after copy time. i expect every minute to hear the school bell ring," said andrew. . "but what can i do, then?" said poor little jenny. "i can't wait here till school's out, and i don't want to go up to the schoolhouse, for all the boys to laugh at me." . "no," said andrew, reflecting very seriously, "i must take you home some way or other. it won't do to leave you here, and, no matter where you might stay, your mother would be very much troubled about you." . "yes," said jenny, "she would think i was drowned." . time pressed, and jenny's countenance became more and more overcast, but andrew could think of no way in which he could take the little girl home without being late and losing his standing in the school. . it was impossible to get her across the stream at any place nearer than the "big bridge;" he would not take her that way, and make up a false story to account for his lateness at school, and he could not leave her alone or take her with him. . what was to be done? while several absurd and impracticable plans were passing through his brain, the school bell began to ring, and he must start immediately to reach the schoolhouse in time. . and now his anxiety and perplexity became more intense than ever; and jenny, looking up into his troubled countenance, began to cry. . andrew, who had never before failed to be at the school door before the first tap of the bell, began to despair. was there nothing to be done? . yes! a happy thought passed through his mind. how strange that he should not have thought of it before! he would ask dominie black to let him take jenny home. what could be more sensible and straightforward than such a plan? . of course, the good old schoolmaster gave andrew the desired permission, and everything ended happily. but the best thing about the whole affair was the lesson that the young scotch boy learned that day. . the lesson was this: when we are puzzling our brains with plans to help ourselves out of trouble, let us always stop a moment in our planning, and try to think if there is not some simple way out of the difficulty, which shall be in every respect perfectly right. if we do this, we shall probably find a way more easy and satisfactory than any which we can devise. definitions.-- . par-tic'u-lar, not ordinary, worthy of partic-ular attention, chief. . dom'i-nie, the scotch name for school-master. . re-flect'ing, thinking earnestly. over-cast', cov-ered with gloom. . ac-count', to state the reasons. . im--prac'ti-ca-ble, not possible. . anx-i'e-ty, care, trouble of mind. . de-vise', plan, contrive. exercises.--why could not jenny cross the stream? whom did she ask to help her? what can you tell about andrew? who was jenny murdock? what did jenny wish andrew to do? why could he not go with her? would it have been right for andrew to have told an untruth even to help jenny out of trouble? what did he finally do? what does this lesson teach us to do in case of trouble? li. the golden rule. ( ) . to act with integrity and good faith was such a habit with susan that she had never before thought of examining the golden rule: "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." but the longer she reflected upon it, the stronger was her conviction that she did not always obey the precept; at length, she appealed to her mother for its meaning. . "it implies," said her mother, "in the first place, a total destruction of all selfishness: for a man who loves himself better than his neighbors, can never do to others as he would have others do to him. we are bound not only to do, but to feel, toward others as we would have others feel toward us. remember, it is much easier to reprove the sin of others than to overcome temptation when it assails ourselves. . "a man may be perfectly honest and yet very selfish; but the command implies something more than mere honesty; it requires charity as well as integrity. the meaning of the command is fully explained in the parable of the good samaritan. the levite, who passed by the wounded man without offering him assistance, may have been a man of great honesty; but he did not do unto the poor stranger as he would have wished others to do unto him." . susan pondered carefully and seriously on what her mother had said. when she thought over her past conduct, a blush of shame crept to her cheeks, and a look of sorrow into her eyes, as many little acts of selfishness and unkindness came back to her memory. she resolved that for the future, both in great things and small, she would remember and follow the golden rule. . it was not long after this that an opportunity occurred of trying susan's principles. one saturday evening when she went, as usual, to farmer thompson's inn, to receive the price of her mother's washing for the boarders, which amounted to five dollars, she found the farmer in the stable yard. . he was apparently in a terrible rage with some horse dealers with whom he had been bargaining. he held in his hand an open pocketbook, full of bills; and scarcely noticing the child as she made her request, except to swear at her, as usual, for troubling him when he was busy, he handed her a bank note. . glad to escape so easily, susan hurried out of the gate, and then, pausing to pin the money safely in the folds of her shawl, she discovered that he had given her two bills instead of one. she looked around; nobody was near to share her discovery; and her first impulse was joy at the unexpected prize. . "it is mine, all mine," said she to herself; "i will buy mother a new cloak with it, and she can give her old one to sister mary, and then mary can go to the sunday school with me next winter. i wonder if it will not buy a pair of shoes for brother tom, too." . at that moment she remembered that he must have given it to her by mistake; and therefore she had no right to it. but again the voice of the tempter whispered, "he gave it, and how do you know that he did not intend to make you a present of it? keep it; he will never know it, even if it should be a mistake; for he had too many such bills in that great pocketbook to miss one." . while this conflict was going on in her mind between good and evil, she was hurrying homeward as fast as possible. yet, before she came in sight of her home, she had repeatedly balanced the comforts which the money would buy against the sin of wronging her neighbor. . as she crossed the little bridge over the narrow creek before her mother's door, her eye fell upon a rustic seat which they had occupied during the conversation i have before narrated. instantly the words of scripture, "whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," sounded in her ears like a trumpet. . turning suddenly round, as if flying from some unseen peril, the child hastened along the road with breathless speed until she found herself once more at farmer thompson's gate. "what do you want now?" asked the gruff old fellow, as he saw her again at his side. . "sir, you paid me two bills, instead of one," said she, trembling in every limb. "two bills? did i? let me see; well, so i did; but did you just find it out? why did you not bring it back sooner?" susan blushed and hung her head. . "you wanted to keep it, i suppose," said he. "well, i am glad your mother was more honest than you, or i should have been five dollars poorer and none the wiser." "my mother knows nothing about it, sir," said susan; "i brought it back before i went home." . the old man looked at the child, and, as he saw the tears rolling down her checks, he seemed touched by her distress. putting his band in his pocket, he drew out a shilling and offered it to her. . "no, sir, i thank you," sobbed she; "i do not want to be paid for doing right; i only wish you would not think me dishonest, for, indeed, it was a sore temptation. oh! sir, if you had ever seen those you love best wanting the common comforts of life, you would know how hard it is for us always to do unto others as we would have others do unto us," . the heart of the selfish man was touched. "there be things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise," murmured he, as he bade the little girl good night, and entered his house a sadder, and, it is to be hoped, a better man. susan returned to her humble home with a lightened heart, and through the course of a long and useful life she never forgot her first temptation. definitions.-- . in-teg'ri-ty, honesty, uprightness. con-vic'tion, strong belief. ap-pealed', referred to. . temp-ta'tion, that which has a tendency to induce one to do wrong. as-sails', attacks. . con'flict, struggle. bal'anced, weighed, compared. . gruff, rough. . mur'mured, spoke in a low voice. light'ened, made cheerful or lighter. exercises.--what is the golden rule? what does it imply? can a man be perfectly honest and still not follow the golden rule? what parable is a perfect illustration of its meaning? how was susan tempted? what did she first think of doing? what changed her intention? relate what happened when she returned the money. what effect did her action have? lii. the snow man. ( ) by marian douglas. . look! how the clouds are flying south! the winds pipe loud and shrill! and high above the white drifts stands the snow man on the hill. . blow, wild wind from the icy north! here's one who will not fear to feel thy coldest touch, or shrink thy loudest blast to hear. . proud triumph of the schoolboy's skill! far rather would i be a winter giant, ruling o'er a frosty realm, like thee, . and stand amid the drifted snow, like thee, a thing apart, than be a man who walks with men, but has a frozen heart! definitions.--l. pipe, whistle. . shrink, to draw back on account of fear. . triumph, success causing exultation. realm, the territory over which authority is used, dominion. exercises.--with what is the snow man compared in this poem? what is meant by a man with "a frozen heart"? do you think such a man would follow the golden rule? liii. robinson crusoe's house. ( ) daniel defoe, the author of "robinson crusoe" (from which these selections are adapted), was born in london, england, in , and died in . he wrote a number of books; but his "robinson crusoe" is the only one that attained great notoriety. . i have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables, but i might now rather call it a wall, for i raised a kind of wall up against it of turf, about two feet thick on the outside; and, after some time (i think it was a year and a half) i raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees and such things as i could get to keep out the rain, which i found at some times of the year very violent. . i have already observed how i brought all my goods into this pale, and into the cave which i had made behind me; but i must observe, too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, took up all my place, so that i had no room to turn myself. so i set to work to enlarge my cave and work farther into the earth; for it was a loose, sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labor i bestowed upon it. . and so when i found that i was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, i worked sideways into the rock; and then, turning to the right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out on the outside of my pale or fortification. this gave me not only egress and regress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods. . and now i began to apply myself to make such necessary things as i found i most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these i was not able to enjoy the few comforts i had in the world. i could not write or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure without a table. . so i went to work. i had never handled a tool in my life; and yet in time by labor, application, and contrivance, i found that i wanted nothing but i could have made it, especially if i had had tools; however, i made abundance of things, even without tools, and some with no more tools than an adz and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that with infinite labor. . for example, if i wanted a board, i had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it before me, and hew it flat on either side with my ax till i had brought it to be as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adz. . it is true, by this method i could make but one board out of a whole tree; but this i had no remedy for but patience, any more than i had for the prodigious deal of time and labor which it took me to make a plank or board; but my time or labor was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another. . however, i made me a table and a chair, as i observed above; and this i did out of the short pieces of boards which i brought on my raft from the ship; but when i had wrought out some boards, as above, i made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, one over another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and ironwork on, and, in a word, to separate everything at large in their places, that i might come easily at them. . i knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and all things that would hang up. so that, had my cave been seen, it would have looked like a general magazine of all necessary things; and i had everything so ready at my hand that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great. definitions.--l. hab-i-ta'tion, a dwelling place. pale, a fence. ca'bles, large ropes. turf, sod. . for-ti-fi-ca'tion, a place built for defense against attack. e'gress, going out. re'gress, coming back, return. stow, to arrange compactly. . ap-ply', to employ diligently. . dub, to cut down or bring to an even surface. . pro-di'gious, very great. deal, part, amount. . mag-a-zine', a storehouse, exercises.--how did robinson crusoe make a house? of what did he make a chair and table? how did he obtain boards? what does this lesson teach us in regard to perseverance? liv. robinson crusoe's dress. ( ) . but had any man in england met such a man as i was, it must either have frightened him or raised a great deal of laughter; and, as i frequently stood still to look at myself, i could not but smile at the notion of my traveling through yorkshire in such a dress. . i had a great, high, shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in these climates as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes. . i had a short jacket of goatskin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old goat, and the hair hung down such a length on either side that it reached to the middle of my legs like pantaloons. . stockings and shoes i had none; but i made a pair of something, i scarce know what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes; but they were of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes. . i had on a broad belt of goatskin dried, which i drew together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and, in a kind of frog on each side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw and hatchet; one on one side, and one on the other. i had another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of goatskin, too; in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot. . at my back i carried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a great, clumsy, ugly, goatskin umbrella, but which, after all, was the most necessary thing i had about me, next to my gun. . as for my face, the color of it was really not so dark as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of the equator. my beard i had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but, as i had both scissors and razors sufficient, i had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip, which i had trimmed into a large pair of mahometan whiskers, such as i had seen worn by some turks. . of these mustaches or whiskers, i will not say that they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but they were of a length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in england would have passed for frightful. but all this is by the bye; for, as to my figure, i had so few to observe me that it was of no manner of consequence; so i say no more on that part. definitions.-- . bus'kins, coverings for the feet coming some distance up the leg, and fit for a defense against thorns, etc. spat'-ter-dash-es, coverings for the legs to keep them clean from water and mud. bar'ba-rous, uncouth, clumsy. . thongs, strips of leather. frog, a loop similar to that sometimes used in fastening a cloak or coat. pouch'es bags. . mon'strous, very large, enormous. notes.--the novel, "robinson crusoe," was first published in . it was founded on the adventures of alexander selkirk, a scotch buccaneer, who was cast on the island of juan fernandez, west of south america, in , and remained there for more than four years, before he was rescued. . yorkshire. this was the district of england where, according to the story, robinson crusoe was born and passed his early life. . open-kneed breeches. at this period knee breeches were worn almost altogether in england. those referred to here appear to have been loose about the knee, and not close, as usual. . instead of sword and dagger. it was then the fashion in england for gentlemen to wear such weapons. . such as in england would have passed for frightful. it was not the custom in england, in defoe's time, to wear a full beard. lv. somebody's darling. ( ) . into a ward of the whitewashed halls, where the dead and dying lay, wounded by bayonets, shells, and balls, somebody's darling was borne one day; . somebody's darling, so young and brave, wearing yet on his pale, sweet face, soon to be hid by the dust of the grave, the lingering light of his boyhood's grace. . matted and damp are the curls of gold, kissing the snow of that fair young brow; pale are the lips of delicate mold somebody's darling is dying now. . back from his beautiful, blue-veined brow, brush all the wandering waves of gold; cross his hands on his bosom now; somebody's darling is still and cold. . kiss him once for somebody's sake, murmur a prayer soft and low; one bright curl from its fair mates take; they were somebody's pride, you know; . somebody's hand has rested there; was it a mother's, soft and white? and have the lips of a sister fair been baptized in the waves of light? . god knows best! he was somebody's love: somebody's heart enshrined him there; somebody wafted his name above, night and morn, on the wings of prayer. . somebody wept when he marched away, looking so handsome, brave, and grand; somebody's kiss on his forehead lay; somebody clung to his parting hand. . somebody's watching and waiting for him, yearning to hold him again to her heart; and there he lies, with his blue eyes dim, and the smiling, childlike lips apart. . tenderly bury the fair young dead, pausing too drop on his grave a tear; carve on the wooden slab at his head, "somebody's darling slumbers here." definitions.-- . bay'o-net, a short, pointed iron weapon, fitted to the muzzle of a gun. dar'ling, one dearly loved. . lin'ger-ing, protracted. . mat'ted, twisted together. del'i-cate, soft and fair. mold, shape. . wan'der-ing, straying. . en-shrined', cherished. waft'ed, caused to float. . yearn'ing, being eager, longing. . ten'der-ly, gently, kindly. lvi. knowledge is power. ( ) . "what an excellent thing is knowledge," said a sharp-looking, hustling little man, to one who was much older than himself. "knowledge is an excellent thing," repeated he. "my boys know more at six and seven years old than i did at twelve. they can read all sorts of books, and talk on all sorts of subjects. the world is a great deal wiser than it used to he. everybody knows something of everything now. do you not think, sir, that knowledge is all excellent thing?" . "why, sir," replied the old man, looking grave, "that depends entirely upon the use to which it is applied. it may be a blessing or a curse. knowledge is only an increase of power, and power may be a bad, as well as a good thing." "that is what i can not understand," said the bustling little man. "how can power he a bad thing?" . "i will tell you," meekly replied the old man; and thus he went on: "when the power of a horse is under restraint, the animal is useful in bearing burdens, drawing loads, and carrying his master; but when that power is unrestrained, the horse breaks his bridle, dashes to pieces the carriage that he draws, or throws his rider." "i see!" said the little man. . "when the water of a large pond is properly conducted by trenches, it renders the fields around fertile; but when it bursts through its banks, it sweeps everything before it and destroys the produce of the fields." "i see!" said the little man, "i see!" . "when the ship is steered aright, the sail that she hoists enables her sooner to get into port; but if steered wrong, the more sail she carries the further will she go out of her course." "i see!" said the little man, "i see clearly!" . "well, then," continued the old man, "if you see these things so clearly, i hope you can see, too, that knowledge, to be a good thing, must be rightly applied. god's grace in the heart will render the knowledge of the head a blessing; but without this, it may prove to us no better than a curse." "i see! i see!" said the little man, "i see!" definitions.--l. bus'tling, very active, stirring. sub'ject, the thing treated of. . meek'ly, mildly, quietly, gently. re-straint', anything which hinders. bur'dens, loads. . con-duct'ed, led, guided. trench'es, ditches. fer'tile, producing much fruit, rich. prod'uce, that which is yielded or produced. . steered', guided, directed. hoists, raises. . ap-plied', directed, made use of. exercises--what is the subject of this lesson? is knowledge always a power? is it always blessing? relate the several examples of power wrongly used. if we use the powers that god has given us for bad purposes, what will our knowledge prove to be? lvii. good will. ( ) by j. t. trowbridge.--(adapted) . i suppose you all, my boys, are looking for some sort of success in life; it is right that you should; but what are your notions of success? to get rich as soon as possible, without regard to the means by which your wealth is acquired? . there is no true success in that: when you have gained millions, you may yet be poorer than when you had nothing; and it is that same reckless ambition which has brought many a bright and capable boy, not to great estate at last, but to miserable failure and disgrace; not to a palace, but to a prison. . wealth rightly got and rightly used, rational enjoyment, power, fame,--these are all worthy objects of ambition; but they are not the highest objects, and you may acquire them all without achieving true success. but if, whatever you seek, you put good will into all your actions, you are sure of the best success at last; for whatever else you gain or miss, you are building up a noble and beautiful character, which is not only the best of possessions in this world, but also is about all you can expect to take with you into the next. . i say, good will in all your actions. you are not simply to be kind and helpful to others; but, whatever you do, give honest, earnest purpose to it. thomas is put by his parents to learn a business. but thomas does not like to apply himself very closely. "what's the use?" he says. "i'm not paid much, and i'm not going to work much. i'll get along just as easily as i can, and have as good times as i can." . so he shirks his tasks; and instead of thinking about his employer's interests, or his own self improvement, gives his mind to trifles,--often to evil things, which in their ruinous effects upon his life are not trifles. as soon as he is free from his daily duties, he is off with his companions, having what they call a good time; his heart is with them even while his hands are employed in the shop or store. . he does nothing thoroughly well,--not at all for want of talent, but solely for lack of good will. he is not preparing himself to be one of those efficient clerks or workmen who are always in demand, and who receive the highest wages. . there is a class of people who are the pest of every community, workmen who do not know their trade, men of business ignorant of the first principles of business. they can never be relied upon to do well anything they undertake. they are always making blunders which other people have to suffer for, and which react upon themselves. they are always getting out of employment, and failing in business. . to make up for what they lack in knowledge and thoroughness, they often resort to trick and fraud, and become not merely contemptible but criminal. thomas is preparing himself to be one of this class. you can not, boys, expect to raise a good crop from evil seed. . by thomas's side works another boy, whom we will call james,--a lad of only ordinary capacity, very likely. if thomas and all the other boys did their best, there would be but small chance for james ever to become eminent. but he has something better than talent: he brings good will to his work. whatever he learns, he learns so well that it becomes a part of himself. . his employers find that they can depend upon jim. customers soon learn to like and trust him. by diligence, self-culture, good habits, cheerful and kindly conduct, he is laying the foundation of a generous manhood and a genuine success. . in short, boys, by slighting your tasks you hurt yourself more than you wrong your employer. by honest service you benefit yourself more than you help him. if you were aiming at mere worldly advancement only, i should still say that good will was the very best investment you could make in business. . by cheating a customer, you gain only a temporary and unreal advantage. by serving him with right good will,--doing by him as you would be done by,--you not only secure his confidence but also his good will in return. but this is a sordid consideration compared with the inward satisfaction, the glow and expansion of soul which attend a good action done for itself alone. if i were to sum up all i have to say to you in one last word of love and counsel, that one word should be--good will. definitions.-- . char'ac-ter, the sum of qualities which distin-guish one person from another. . purpose, intention, aim. . prin'ci-ples, fixed rules. . ca-pac'i-ty, ability, the power of re-ceiving ideas. . sor'did, base, meanly avaricious. exercises.--what is meant by the phrase "to apply himself," in the fourth paragraph? what is meant by "a generous manhood," tenth paragraph? by "expansion of soul," twelfth paragraph? tell what is meant by "good will," as taught by this lesson. how did tom and james differ in character? lviii. a chinese story. ( ) by christopher pearse cranch, who was born at alexandria, va. (then d. c.), in . he has written some well-known children's stories, besides numerous poems; but his greatest literary work is "the aeneid of vergil, translated into english blank verse." he died in cambridge mass., . . two young, near-sighted fellows, chang and ching, over their chopsticks idly chattering, fell to disputing which could see the best; at last, they agreed to put it to the test. said chang, "a marble tablet, so i hear, is placed upon the bo-hee temple near, with an inscription on it. let us go and read it (since you boast your optics so), standing together at a certain place in front, where we the letters just may trace; then he who quickest reads the inscription there, the palm for keenest eyes henceforth shall bear." "agreed," said ching, "but let us try it soon: suppose we say to-morrow afternoon." . "nay, not so soon," said chang; "i'm bound to go to-morrow a day's ride from hoang-ho, and sha'n't be ready till the following day: at ten a. m., on thursday, let us say." . so 'twas arranged; but ching was wide-awake: time by the forelock he resolved to take; and to the temple went at once, and read, upon the tablet, "to the illustrious dead, the chief of mandarins, the great goh-bang." scarce had he gone when stealthily came chang, who read the same; but peering closer, he spied in a corner what ching failed to see-- the words, "this tablet is erected here by those to whom the great goh-bang was dear." . so on the appointed day--both innocent as babes, of course--these honest fellows went, and took their distant station; and ching said, "i can read plainly, 'to the illustrious dead, the chief of mandarins, the great goh-bang.'" "and is that all that you can spell?" said chang; "i see what you have read, but furthermore, in smaller letters, toward the temple door, quite plain, 'this tablet is erected here by those to whom the great goh-bang was dear.'" . "my sharp-eyed friend, there are no such words!" said ching. "they're there," said chang, "if i see anything, as clear as daylight." "patent eyes, indeed, you have!" cried ching; "do you think i can not read?" "not at this distance as i can," chang said, "if what you say you saw is all you read." . in fine, they quarreled, and their wrath increased, till chang said, "let us leave it to the priest; lo! here he comes to meet us," "it is well," said honest ching; "no falsehood he will tell." . the good man heard their artless story through, and said, "i think, dear sirs, there must be few blest with such wondrous eyes as those you wear: there's no such tablet or inscription there! there was one, it is true; 't was moved away and placed within the temple yesterday." definitions.-- . near-sight'ed, seeing at a short distance only. chop'sticks, small sticks of wood, ivory, etc., used in pairs by chinese to carry food to the mouth. tab'let, a small, flat piece of anything on which to write or engrave. in-scrip'tion, something written or engraved on a solid substance. op'tics, eyes. palm, the reward of victory, prize. . a. m., an abbreviation for the latin ante meridian, meaning before noon. . man-da-rin', a chinese public officer. . pat'ent, secured from general use, peculiar to one person. lxx. the way to be happy. ( ) . every child must observe how much more happy and beloved some children are than others. there are some children you always love to be with. they are happy themselves, and they make you happy. . there are others whom you always avoid. they seem to have no friends. no person can be happy without friends. the heart is formed for love, and can not be happy without it. . "'tis not in titles nor in rank, 'tis not in wealth like london bank, to make us truly blest. if happiness have not her seat and center in the breast, we may be wise, or rich, or great, but never can be blest." . but you can not receive affection unless you will also give it. you can not find others to love you unless you will also love them. love is only to be obtained by giving love in return. hence the importance of cultivating a good disposition. you can not be happy without it. . i have sometimes heard a girl say, "i know that i am very unpopular at school." now, this plainly shows that she is not amiable. . if your companions do not love you, it is your own fault. they can not help loving you if you will be kind and friendly. if you are not loved, it is a good proof that you do not deserve to be loved. it is true that a sense of duty may, at times, render it necessary for you to do that which will displease your companions. . but if it is seen that you have a noble spirit, that you are above selfishness, that you are willing to make sacrifices to promote the happiness of others, you will never be in want of friends. . you must not regard it as your misfortune that others do not love you, but your fault. it is not beauty, it is not wealth, that will give you friends. your heart must glow with kindness, if you would attract to yourself the esteem and affection of those around you. . you are little aware how much the happiness of your whole life depends upon the cultivation of a good disposition. if you will adopt the resolution that you will confer favors whenever you can, you will certainly be surrounded by ardent friends. begin upon this principle in childhood, and act upon it through life, and you will make yourself happy, and promote the happiness of all within your influence. . you go to school on a cold winter morning. a bright fire is blazing in the stove, surrounded with boys struggling to get near it to warm themselves. after you are slightly warmed, a schoolmate comes in suffering with cold. "here, james," you pleasantly call out to him, "i am almost warm; you may have my place." . as you slip aside to allow him to take your place at the fire, will he not feel that you are kind? the worst boy in the world can not help admiring such generosity; and, even though he be so ungrateful as not to return the favor, you may depend upon it that he will be your friend as far as he is capable of friendship. if you will always act upon this principle, you will never want for friends. . suppose, some day, you are out with your companions playing ball. after you have been playing for some time, another boy comes along. he can not be chosen upon either side, for there is no one to match him. "henry," you say, "you may take my place a little while, and i will rest." . you throw yourself down upon the grass, while henry, fresh and vigorous, takes your bat and engages in the game. he knows that you give up to oblige him, and how can he help liking you for it? the fact is, that neither man nor child can cultivate such a spirit of generosity and kindness without attracting affection and esteem. . look and see which of your companions have the most friends, and you will find that they are those who have this noble spirit; who are willing to deny themselves, that they may make others happy. there is but one way to make friends; and that is, by being friendly to others. . perhaps some child who reads this feels conscious of being disliked, and yet desires to have the affection of his companions. you ask me what you shall do. i will tell you. i will give you an infallible rule: do all in your power to make others happy. be willing to make sacrifices, that you may promote the happiness of others. . this is the way to make friends, and the only way. when you are playing with your brothers and sisters at home, be always ready to give them more than their share of privileges. manifest an obliging disposition, and they can not but regard you with affection. in all your intercourse with others, at home or abroad, let these feelings influence you, and you will receive a rich reward. definitions.-- . cul'ti-vat-ing, cherishing, encouraging. . un-pop'u-lar, not pleasing others. . com-pan'ions, those who keep company with anyone. . sac'ri-fic-es, things given up to oblige others. pro-mote', advance, forward. . suf'fer-ing, undergoing pain. . gen-er-os'i-ty, kindness, nobleness of soul. . in-fal'li-ble, certain, that can not fail. . man'i-fest, to show plainly. in'ter-course, communication, mutual dealings. exercises.--what is this lesson about? can we be happy without friends? how can we win the love of those about us? whose fault is it if we are not loved? what rule will surely gain us love and friendship if we always follow it? lx. the giraffe, or camelopard. ( ) . the giraffe is a native of africa. it is of singular shape and size, and bears some resemblance both to the camel and the deer. the mouth is small; the eyes are full and brilliant; the tongue is rough, very long, and ending in a point. the neck is long and slender, and, from the shoulder to the top of the head, it measures between seven and eight feet; from the ground to the top of the shoulder, it is commonly ten or eleven feet; so that the height of a full-grown giraffe is seventeen or eighteen feet. . the hair is of a deep brown color in the male, and of a light or yellowish brown in the female. the skin is beautifully diversified with white spots. they have short, blunt horns, and hoofs like those of the ox. in their wild state, they feed on the leaves of a gum-bearing tree peculiar to warm climates. . the giraffe, like the horse and other hoofed animals, defends itself by kicking; and its hinder limbs are so light, and its blows so rapid, that the eye can not follow them. they are sufficient for its defense against the lion. it never employs its horns in resisting the attack of an enemy. its disposition is gentle, and it flees to its native forest upon the least alarm. . le vaillant (the celebrated french traveler and naturalist) was the first who gave us any exact account of the form and habits of the giraffe. while he was traveling in south africa, he happened one day to discover a hut covered with the skin of one of those animals; and learned to his surprise that he was now in a part of the country where the creature was found. he could not rest contented until he had seen the animal alive, and had secured a specimen. . having on several days obtained sight of some of them, he, with his attendants, on horseback and accompanied with dogs, gave chase; but they baffled all pursuit. after a chase of a whole day, which effected nothing but the fatigue of the party, he began to despair of success. . "the next day," says he, "by sunrise, i was in pursuit of game, in the hope of obtaining some provisions for my men. after several hours' fatigue, we saw, at the turn of a hill, seven giraffes, which my pack of dogs instantly pursued. six of them went off together; but the seventh, cut off by my dogs, took another way. . "i followed the single one at full speed, but, in spite of the efforts of my horse, she got so much ahead of me, that, in turning a little hill, i lost sight of her altogether, and i gave up the pursuit. my dogs, however, were not so easily exhausted. they were soon so close upon her that she was obliged to stop and defend herself. from the noise they made, i conjectured that they had got the animal into a corner, and i again pushed forward. . "i had scarcely got round the hill, when i perceived her surrounded by the dogs, and endeavoring to drive them away by heavy kicks. in a moment i was on my feet, and a shot from my carbine brought her to the earth. i was delighted with my victory, which enabled me to add to the riches of natural history. i was now able, also, to destroy the romance which attached to this animal, and to establish the truth of its existence." definitions.--l. bril'liant, sparkling, shining. . di-ver'si-fied, made various. pe-cul'iar, especially belonging to. . le vaillant (pro. leh va yon'). nat'u-ral-ist, one who is acquainted with objects of nature. spec'i-men, a sample. . baf 'fled, defeated, escaped from. fa-tigue', weariness. . con-jec'tured, guessed. . car'bine, a short gun. ro-mance', a story without truth. exercises.--of what country is the giraffe a native? to what height does it attain when full grown? on what does it live? how does it defend itself? relate the story of le vaillant's giraffe hunt. lxi. the lost child. ( ) . a few years since, a child was lost in the woods. he was out with his brothers and sisters gathering berries, and was accidentally separated from them, and lost. the children, after looking in vain for some time in search of the little wanderer, returned, just in the dusk of the evening, to inform their parents that their brother was lost and could not be found. . the woods, at that time, were full of bears. the darkness of a cloudy night was rapidly coming on, and the alarmed father, gathering a few of his neighbors, hastened in search of the lost child. the mother remained at home, almost distracted with suspense. . as the clouds gathered, and the darkness increased, the father and the neighbors, with highly excited fears, traversed the woods in all directions, and raised loud shouts to attract the attention of the child. but their search was in vain. they could find no trace of the wanderer; and, as they stood under the boughs of the lofty trees, and listened, that if possible they might hear his feeble voice, no sound was borne to their ears but the melancholy moaning of the wind as it swept through the thick branches of the forest. . the gathering clouds threatened an approaching storm, and the deep darkness of the night had already enveloped them. it is difficult to conceive what were the feelings of that father. and who could imagine how deep the distress which filled the bosom of that mother, as she heard the wind, and beheld the darkness in which her child was wandering! . the search was continued in vain till nine o'clock in the evening. then, one of the party was sent back to the village, to collect the inhabitants for a more extensive search. the bell rung the alarm, and the cry of fire resounded through the streets. it was ascertained, however, that it was not fire which caused the alarm, but that the bell tolled the more solemn tidings of a lost child. . every heart sympathized in the sorrows of the distracted parents. soon, multitudes of the people were seen ascending the hill, upon the declivity of which the village stood, to aid in the search. ere long, the rain began to fall, but no tidings came back to the village of the lost child. hardly an eye was that night closed in sleep, and there was not a mother who did not feel for the parents. . the night passed away, and the morning dawned, and yet no tidings came. at last, those engaged in the search met together and held a consultation. they made arrangements for a more minute search, and agreed that, in case the child was found, a gun should be fired, to give a signal to the rest of the party. . as the sun arose, the clouds were scattered, and the whole landscape glittered in the rays of the bright morning. but that village was deserted and still. the stores were closed, and business was hushed. mothers were walking the streets, with sympathizing countenances and anxious hearts. there was but one thought in every mind: "what has become of the lost child?" . all the affections and interest of the neighborhood were flowing in one deep and broad channel toward the little wanderer. about nine in the morning, the signal gun was fired, which announced that the child was found; and, for a moment, how dreadful was the suspense! was it found a mangled corpse? or was it alive and well? . soon, a joyful shout proclaimed the safety of the child. the shout was borne from tongue to tongue, till the whole forest rang again with the joyful sound. a messenger rapidly bore the tidings to the distracted mother. a procession was immediately formed by those engaged in the search. the child was placed upon a platform, hastily formed from the boughs of trees, and borne in triumph at the head of the procession. when they arrived at the brow of the hill, they rested for a moment, and proclaimed their success with three loud and animated cheers. . the procession then moved on till they arrived in front of the dwelling where the parents of the child resided. the mother, who stood at the door, with streaming eyes and throbbing heart, could no longer restrain herself or her feelings. . she rushed into the street, clasped her child to her bosom, and wept aloud. every eye was filled with tears, and, for a moment, all were silent. but suddenly some one gave a signal for a shout. one loud, and long, and happy note of joy rose from the assembled multitude, and they went to their business and their homes. . there was more joy over the one child that was found than over the ninety and nine that went not astray. likewise, there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over one sinner that repenteth. but still, this is a feeble representation of the love of our father in heaven for us, and of the joy with which the angels welcome the returning wanderer. . the mother can not feel for her child that is lost as god feels for the unhappy wanderer in the paths of sin. if a mother can feel so much, what must be the feelings of our father in heaven for those who have strayed from his love? if man can feel so deep a sympathy, what must be the emotions which glow in the bosom of angels? definitions.--l. sep'a-rat-ed, parted. . dis-tract'ed, made crazy. sus-pense', doubt, uncertainty. . trav'ersed, passed over and examined. . as-cer-tained', made certain. . sym'pa-thized, felt for. de-cliv'i-ty, descent of land. . con-sul-ta'tion, a meeting of persons to advise together. . land'scape, a portion of territory which the eye can see in a single view. . pro-claimed', made known publicly. . pro-ces'sion, a train of persons walking or riding. l . rep-re-sen-ta'tion, the act of describing or showing. lxii. which? ( ) by mrs. e. l. beers. . which shall it be? which shall it be? i looked at john--john looked at me; dear, patient john, who loves me yet as well as though my locks were jet. and when i found that i must speak, my voice seemed strangely low and weak: "tell me again what robert said!" and then i, listening, bent my head. "this is his letter:" . "'i will give a house and land while you shall live, if, in return, from out your seven, one child to me for aye is given.'" i looked at john's old garments worn, i thought of all that john had borne of poverty, and work, and care, which i, though willing, could not share; i thought of seven mouths to feed, of seven little children's need, and then of this. . "come, john," said i, "we'll choose among them as they lie asleep;" so, walking hand in hand, dear john and i surveyed our band. first to the cradle light we stepped, where lilian the baby slept, a glory 'gainst the pillow white. softly the father stooped to lay his rough hand down in loving way, when dream or whisper made her stir, and huskily he said: "not her!" . we stooped beside the trundle-bed, and one long ray of lamplight shed athwart the boyish faces there, in sleep so pitiful and fair; i saw on jamie's rough, red cheek, a tear undried. ere john could speak, "he's but a baby, too," said i, and kissed him as we hurried by. . pale, patient robbie's angel face still in his sleep bore suffering's trace: "no, for a thousand crowns, not him," he whispered, while our eyes were dim. . poor dick! bad dick! our wayward son, turbulent, reckless, idle one-- could he be spared? "nay, he who gave, bade us befriend him to the grave; only a mother's heart can be patient enough for such as he; and so," said john, "i would not dare to send him from her bedside prayer." . then stole we softly up above and knelt by mary, child of love. "perhaps for her 't would better be," i said to john. quite silently he lifted up a curl that lay across her cheek in willful way, and shook his head. "nay, love, not thee," the while my heart beat audibly. . only one more, our eldest lad, trusty and truthful, good and glad so like his father. "no, john, no-- i can not, will not let him go." . and so we wrote in courteous way, we could not drive one child away. and afterward, toil lighter seemed, thinking of that of which we dreamed; happy, in truth, that not one face we missed from its accustomed place; thankful to work for all the seven, trusting the rest to one in heaven! definitions.-- . aye, always, . sur-veyed', took a view of. . crown, an english silver coin worth about $ . . . way-ward, willful. tur'bu-lent, disposed to disorder. . cour'te-ous, polite. ac-cus'tomed, usual. lxiii. the pet fawn. ( ) . a pretty little fawn had been brought in from the woods, when very young, and nursed and petted by a lady in the village until it had become as tame as possible. it was graceful, as those little creatures always are, and so gentle and playful that it became a great favorite, following the different members of the family about, being caressed by the neighbors, and welcome everywhere. . one morning, after playing about as usual until weary, it lay down in the sunshine, at the feet of one of its friends, upon the steps of a store. there came along a countryman, who for several years had been a hunter by pursuit, and who still kept several hounds, one of which was now with him. . the dog, as it approached the spot where the fawn lay, suddenly stopped. the little animal saw him, and started to its feet. it had lived more than half its life among the dogs of the village, and had apparently lost all fear of them; but it seemed now to know that an enemy was near. in an instant, its whole nature seemed changed; all its past habits were forgotten; every wild impulse was awake; its head erect, its nostrils dilated, its eyes flashing. . in another instant, before the spectators had thought of the danger, and before its friends could secure it, the fawn was bounding away through the street, and the hound in full chase. the bystanders were eager to save it; several persons immediately followed its track; the friends who had long fed and fondled it, calling the name it had hitherto known, in vain. . the hunter endeavored to whistle back his dog, but with no success. in half a minute the fawn had turned the first corner, dashed onward toward the lake, and thrown itself into the water. but if for a moment the startled creature believed itself safe in the cool bosom of the lake, it was soon undeceived; for the hound followed in hot and eager chase, while a dozen village dogs joined blindly in the pursuit. . a large crowd collected on the bank--men, women, and children--anxious for the fate of the little animal so well known to them all. some threw themselves into boats, hoping to intercept the hound before he reached his prey. the plashing of the oars, the eager voices of men and boys, and the barking of the dogs, must have filled the heart of the poor fawn with terror and anguish,--as though every creature on the spot where it had once been caressed and fondled, had suddenly turned into a deadly foe. . it was soon seen that the little animal was directing its course across a bay toward the nearest borders of the forest. immediately the owner of the hound crossed the bridge, and ran at full speed, hoping to stop his dog as he landed. on swam the fawn, as it never swam before; its delicate head scarcely seen above the water, but leaving a disturbed track, which betrayed its course alike to its friends and foes. . as it approached the land, the interest became intense. the hunter was already on the same side of the lake, calling loudly and angrily to his dog; but the hound seemed to have quite forgotten his master's voice in the pitiless pursuit. the fawn reached the shore. with a leap it had crossed the narrow strip of beach, and in another instant it would reach the cover of the woods. . the hound followed true to the scent, pointing to the same spot on the shore; his master, anxious to meet him, had run at full speed, and was now coming up at the same critical moment. will the dog listen to his voice? or can the hunter reach him in time to seize and control him? a shout from the bank told that the fawn had passed out of sight into the forest. at the same instant, the hound, as he touched the land, felt the hunter's strong arm clutching his neck. the worst was believed to be over; the fawn was leaping up the mountain side, and its enemy was restrained. the other dogs, seeing their leader cowed, were easily managed. . a number of persons, men and boys, dispersed themselves through the woods in search of the little creature, but without success; they all returned to the village, reporting that the fawn had not been seen. some thought that after its fright had passed it would return of its own accord. it wore a pretty collar with its owner's name engraved upon it, so that it could be easily known from any other fawn that might be straying about the woods. . before many hours had passed, a hunter presented himself to the lady whose pet the little creature had been, and showed a collar with her name upon it. he said that he was out hunting in the morning, and saw a fawn in the distance. the little pet, instead of bounding away, as he expected, moved toward him; he took aim, fired, and shot it through the heart. definitions.--l. fawn, a young deer. ca-ressed', fondled, petted. . di-lat'ed, extended, spread out. . spec-ta'tors, those who look on. . in-ter-cept', to stop, to seize. . be-trayed', showed. . in-tense', extreme. . scent, track followed by the sense of smell. cowed, made afraid. lxiv. annie's dream. ( ) . it was a clear, cold, winter evening, and all the sinclairs but annie had gone out for a neighborly visit. she had resolved to stay at home and study a long, difficult lesson in natural philosophy. . left to herself, the evening passed quickly, but the lesson was learned a full half hour before the time set for the family to come home. . closing her book, she leaned back in the soft armchair in which she was sitting, soon fell asleep, and began to dream. she dreamed that it was a very cold morning, and that she was standing by the dining-room stove, looking into the glass basin which was every day filled with water for evaporation. . "oh, dear," she sighed, "it is nearly school time. i don't want to go out in the cold this morning. then there is that long lesson. i wonder if i can say it. let me see--it takes two hundred and twelve degrees of heat, i believe, for water to evaporate--" . "nonsense!" "ridiculous!" shouted a chorus of strange little voices near by; "look here! is this water boiling? what an idea; two hundred and twelve degrees before we can fly, ha, ha!" . "who are you?" asked annie, in amazement. "where must i look?" "in the basin, of course." . annie looked, and saw a multitude of tiny forms moving swiftly around, their numbers increasing as the heat of the fire increased. "why you dear little things!" said she, "what are you doing down there?" . "we are water sprites," answered one, in the clearest voice that can be imagined, "and when this delightful warmth comes all about us, we become so light that we fly off, as you see." . in another moment he had joined a crowd of his companions that were spreading their wings and flying off in curling, white clouds over annie's head. but they were so light and thin that they soon disappeared in the air. . she could not see where they went, so she again turned to the basin. "does n't it hurt you," she asked one, "to be heated--?" "not always to two hundred and twelve," said the sprite, mischievously. . "no, no," replied annie, half-vexed; "i remember, that is boiling point--but i mean, to be heated as you all are, and then to fly off in the cold?" . "oh, no," laughed the little sprite; "we like it. we are made to change by god's wise laws, and so it can't hurt us. we are all the time at work, in our way, taking different shapes. it is good for us. if you will go to the window, you will find some of my brothers and sisters on the glass." . annie went to the window, and at first could see nothing but some beautiful frostwork on it. soon, however, the panes seemed to swarm with little folks. their wings were as white as snow, and sparkled with ice jewels. . "oh," cried annie, "this is the prettiest sight i ever saw. what is your name, darling?" she asked one that wore a crown of snow roses. the little voice that replied was so sharp and fine that annie thought it seemed like a needle point of sound, and she began to laugh. . "fine frost is our family name," it said. "i have a first name of my own, but i shall not tell you what it is, for you are so impolite as to laugh at me." . "i beg your pardon, dear," said annie; "i could not help it. i will not laugh at you any more if you will tell me how you came here. i have been talking with one of your brothers over there in the basin." . the little sprite then folded her wings in a dignified manner, and said, "i will tell you all i know about it, since you promise to be polite. it is a very short story, however. . "last evening we all escaped from the glass basin, as you have seen our companions do this morning. oh, how light and free we felt! but we were so very delicate and thin that no one saw us as we flew about in the air of the room. . "after a while i flew with these others to this window, and, as we alighted on the glass, the cold changed us from water sprites into sprites of the fine frost family." "it is very wonderful," said annie. "is it nice to be a sprite?" . "oh, yes, we are very gay. all last night we had a fine time sparkling in the moonlight. i wore a long wreath full of ice pearls and diamonds. here is a piece of it. before long we shall be water sprites again. i see the sun is coming this way." . "shall you dread to be melted?" inquired annie. "no, indeed," answered the sprite. "i like to change my form now and then." . a thought flashed across annie's brain. what if she should breathe on the frost and not wait for the sun to melt it. in a moment more she had done so. down fell a great number of the tiny mountains and castles, carrying with them a multitude of frost sprites, and all that could be seen was a drop of water on the window sill. . "oh, dear! have i hurt them?" she exclaimed. "no, no," replied a chorus of many small voices from the drop of water, "we are only water sprites again. nothing hurts us; we merely change." "but you are always pretty little things," said annie. "i wish--" . here a ring at the doorbell woke annie. she started up to find the family had returned from their visit, which all declared was a delightful one. but annie said she did not believe they had enjoyed their visit better than she had her half hour's dream. definitions.-- . nat'u-ral phi-los'o-phy, the study which teaches about the laws of matter in nature. . e-vap-o-ra'tion, the act of turning into vapor. . de-gree', a division of space marked on an instrument such as a thermometer. . wa'ter sprite, a spirit or fairy living in the water. . mis'chie-vous-ly, in a teasing manner. . swarm, to be crowded. , es-caped', got away, fled. lxv. my ghost. ( ) by mrs. s. m. b. piatt, who was born near lexington, ky., in . among her published works may be mentioned "the nests at washington, and other poems," and "a woman's poems." . yes, katie, i think you are very sweet, now that the tangles are out of your hair, and you sing as well as the birds you meet, that are playing, like you, in the blossoms there. but now you are coming to kiss me, you say: well, what is it for? shall i tie your shoe? or loop up your sleeve in a prettier way? "do i know about ghosts?" indeed i do. . "have i seen one?" yes; last evening, you know, we were taking a walk that you had to miss, (i think you were naughty, and cried to go, but, surely, you'll stay at home after this!) and, away in the twilight, lonesomely, ("what is the twilight?" it's--getting late!) i was thinking of things that were sad to me!-- there, hush! you know nothing about them, kate. . well, we had to go through the rocky lane, close to that bridge where the water roars, by a still, red house, where the dark and rain go in when they will at the open doors. and the moon, that had just waked up, looked through the broken old windows, and seemed afraid, and the wild bats flew, and the thistles grew where once in the roses the children played. . just across the road by the cherry trees some fallen white stones had been lying so long, half hid in the grass, and under these there were people dead. i could hear the song of a very sleepy dove as i passed the graveyard near, and the cricket that cried; and i look'd (ah! the ghost is coming at last!) and something was walking at my side. . it seemed to be wrapped in a great dark shawl (for the night was a little cold, you know,); it would not speak. it was black and tall; and it walked so proudly and very slow. then it mocked me everything i could do: now it caught at the lightning flies like me; now it stopped where the elder blossoms grew; now it tore the thorns from a gray bent tree. . still it followed me under the yellow moon, looking back to the graveyard now and then, where the winds were playing the night a tune-- but, kate, a ghost doesn't care for men, and your papa could n't have done it harm. ah! dark-eyed darling, what is it you see? there, you needn't hide in your dimpled arm-- it was only my shadow that walk'd with me! lxvi. the elephant. ( ) . the elephant is the largest of quadrupeds; his height is from eight to fourteen feet, and his length, from ten to fifteen feet. his form is that of a hog; his eyes are small and lively; his ears are long, broad and pendulous. he has two large tusks, which form the ivory of commerce, and a trunk, or proboscis, at the end of the nose, which he uses to take his food with, and for attack or defense. his color is a dark ash-brown. . elephants often assemble in large troops; and, as they march in search of food, the forests seem to tremble under them. they eat the branches of trees, together with roots, herbs, leaves, grain, and fruit, but will not touch fish nor flesh. in a state of nature, they are peaceable, mild, and brave; exerting their power only for their own protection or in defense of their own species. . elephants are found both in asia and africa, but they are of different species, the asiatic elephant having five toes, and the african, three. these animals are caught by stratagem, and, when tamed, they are the most gentle, obedient, and patient, as well as the most docile and sagacious of all quadrupeds. they are used to carry burdens, and for traveling. their attachment to their masters is remarkable; and they seem to live but to serve and obey them. they always kneel to receive their riders; or the loads they have to carry. . the anecdotes illustrating the character of the elephant are numerous. an elephant which was kept for exhibition at london, was often required, as is usual in such exhibitions, to pick up with his trunk a piece of money thrown upon the floor for this purpose. on one occasion a sixpence was thrown, which happened to roll a little out of his reach, not far from the wall. being desired to pick it up, he stretched out his proboscis several times to reach it; failing in this, he stood motionless a few seconds, evidently considering how to act. . he then stretched his proboscis in a straight line as far as he could, a little distance above the coin, and blew with great force against the wall. the angle produced by the opposition of the wall, made the current of air act under the coin, as he evidently supposed it would, and it was curious to observe the sixpence traveling toward the animal till it came within his reach, when he picked it up. . a soldier in india, who had frequently carried an elephant some arrack, being one day intoxicated, and seeing himself pursued by the guard whose orders were to conduct him to prison, took refuge under the elephant. the guard soon finding his retreat, attempted in vain to take him from his asylum; for the elephant vigorously defended him with his trunk. . as soon as the soldier became sober, and saw himself placed under such an unwieldy animal, he was so terrified that he scarcely durst move either hand or foot; but the elephant soon caused his fears to subside by caressing him with his trunk, and thus tacitly saying, "depart in peace." . a pleasing anecdote is related of an elephant which was the property of the nabob of lucknow. there was in that city an epidemic disorder, making dreadful havoc among the inhabitants. the road to the palace gate was covered with the sick and dying, lying on the ground at the moment the nabob was about to pass. . regardless of the suffering he must cause, the nabob held on his way, not caring whether his beast trod upon the poor helpless creatures or not. but the animal, more kind-hearted than his master, carefully cleared the path of the poor, helpless wretches as he went along. some he lifted with his trunk, entirely out of the road. some he set upon their feet, and among the others he stepped so carefully that not an individual was injured. definitions.--l. quad'ru-ped, an animal having four feet. pen'du-lous, hanging down. com'merce, trade, pro-bos'cis, snout, trunk. . strat'a-gem, artifice. doc'ile, teachable. . ar'rack, a spirituous liquor made from the juice of the cocoanut. a-sy'lum, a refuge. . un-wield'y, heavy, unmanageable. tac'-it-ly, silently. . ep-i-dm'ic, affecting many people. na'bob, a prince in india. lxvii. dare to do right. ( ) adapted from "school days at rugby," by thomas hughes, an english writer well known through this book, and its sequel, "tom brown at oxford." the author was born in , and died in . . the little schoolboys went quietly to their own beds, and began undressing and talking to one another in whispers: while the elder, amongst whom was tom, sat chatting about on one another's beds, with their jackets and waistcoats off. . poor little arthur was overwhelmed with the novelty of his position. the idea of sleeping in the room with strange boys had clearly never crossed his mind before, and was as painful as it was strange to him. he could hardly bear to take his jacket off; however, presently, with an effort, off it came, and then he paused and looked at tom, who was sitting at the bottom of his bed, talking and laughing. . "please, brown," he whispered, "may i wash my face and hands?" "of course, if you like," said tom, staring: "that's your wash-hand stand under the window, second from your bed. you'll have to go down for more water in the morning if you use it all." . and on he went with his talk, while arthur stole timidly from between the beds out to his wash-hand stand, and began his ablutions, thereby drawing for a moment on himself the attention of the room. . on went the talk and laughter. arthur finished his washing and undressing, and put on his nightgown. he then looked round more nervously than ever. two or three of the little boys were already in bed, sitting up with their chins on their knees. the light burned clear, the noise went on. . it was a trying moment for the poor, little, lonely boy; however, this time he did not ask tom what he might or might not do, but dropped all his knees by his bedside, as he had done every day from his childhood, to open his heart to him who heareth the cry and beareth the sorrows of the tender child, and the strong man in agony. . tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that his back was towards arthur, and he did not see what had happened, and looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big, brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of the room, picked up a slipper and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a sniveling young shaver. . then tom saw the whole, and the next moment the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the head of the bully, who had just time to throw up his arm and catch it on his elbow. "confound you, brown; what's that for?" roared he, stamping with pain. "never mind what i mean," said tom, stepping on to the floor, every drop of blood in his body tingling: "if any fellow wants the other boot, he knows how to get it." . what would have been the result is doubtful, for at this moment the sixth-form boy came in, and not another word could be said. tom and the rest rushed into bed and finished their unrobing there, and the old janitor had put out the candle in another minute, and toddled on to the next room, shutting the door with his usual, "good night, gen'l'm'n." . there were many boys in the room by whom that little scene was taken to heart before they slept. but sleep seemed to have deserted the pillow of poor tom. for some time his excitement and the flood of memories which chased one another though his brain, kept him from thinking or resolving. his head throbbed, his heart leapt, and he could hardly keep himself from springing out of bed and rushing about the room. . then the thought of his own mother came across him, and the promise he had made at her knee, years ago, never to forget to kneel by his bedside and give himself up to his father before he laid his head on the pillow, from which it might never rise; and he lay down gently, and cried as if his heart would break. he was only fourteen years old. definitions.--l. waist'coat, a vest. . o-ver-whelmed', over-come, cast down. . nov'el-ty, newness. . ab-lu'tion, the act of washing. . sneered, showed contempt. . bul'ly, a noisy, blustering fellow, more insolent than courageous. tin'gling, having a thrilling feeling. notes.--"rugby," the scene of this story, is a celebrated grammar school which was established at the town of rugby, england, in . . sixth-form boy. the school was graded into six classes or "forms," and the boys of the highest, or sixth, form were expected to keep the smaller boys under them in order. exercises.--what were arthur's feelings the first night at rugby? relate what happened when he said his prayers. what do you think of the boy who threw the slipper? was tom right in defending arthur from insult? lxviii. dare to do right. (concluded.) ( ) . it was no light act of courage in those days for a little fellow to say his prayers publicly, even at rugby. a few years later, when arnold's manly piety had begun to leaven the school, the tables turned: before he died, in the schoolhouse at least, and i believe in the other houses, the rule was the other way. . but poor tom had come to school in other times. the first few nights after he came he did not kneel down because of the noise, but sat up in bed till the candle was out, and then stole out and said his prayers, in fear lest some one should find him out. so did many another poor little fellow. . then he began to think that he might just as well say his prayers in bed, and then that it did not matter whether he was kneeling, or sitting, or lying down. and so it had come to pass with tom, as with all who will not confess their lord before men; and for the last year he had probably not said his prayers in earnest a dozen times. . poor tom! the first and bitterest feeling, which was like to break his heart, was the sense of his own cowardice. the vice of all others which he loathed was brought in and burned in on his own soul. he had lied to his mother, to his conscience, to his god. how could he bear it? and then the poor, little, weak boy, whom he had pitied and almost scorned for his weakness, had done that which he, braggart as he was, dared not do. . the first dawn of comfort came to him in vowing to himself that he would stand by that boy through thick and thin, and cheer him, and help him, and bear his burdens, for the good deed done that night. then he resolved to write home next day and tell his mother all, and what a coward her son had been. and then peace came to him as he resolved, lastly, to bear his testimony next morning. . the morning would be harder than the night to begin with, but he felt that he could not afford to let one chance slip. several times he faltered, for the devil showed him, first, all his old friends calling him "saint," and "squaretoes" and a dozen hard names, and whispered to him that his motives would be misunderstood, and he would be left alone with the new boy; whereas, it was his duty to keep all means of influence, that he might do good to the largest number. . and then came the more subtle temptation, "shall i not be showing myself braver than others by doing this? have i any right to begin it now? ought i not rather to pray in my own study, letting other boys know that i do so, and trying to lead them to it, while in public, at least, i should go on as i have done?" however, his good angel was too strong that night, and he turned on his side and slept, tired of trying to reason, but resolved to follow the impulse which had been so strong, and in which he had found peace. . next morning he was up and washed and dressed, all but his jacket and waistcoat, just as the ten minutes' bell began to ring, and then in the face of the whole room he knelt down to pray. not five words could he say,--the bell mocked him; he was listening for every whisper in the room,--what were they all thinking of him? . he was ashamed to go on kneeling, ashamed to rise from his knees. at last, as it were from his inmost heart, a still, small voice seemed to breathe forth the words of the publican, "god be merciful to me a sinner!" he repeated them over and over, clinging to them as for his life, and rose from his knees comforted and humbled, and ready to face the whole world. . it was not needed: two other boys besides arthur had already followed his example, and he went down to the great school with a glimmering of another lesson in his heart,--the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old prophet learned in the cave at mount horeb, when he hid his face, and the still, small voice asked, "what doest thou here, elijah?"--that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the king and lord of men is nowhere without his witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and godless, there are those who have not bowed the knee to baal. [transcriber's footnote: baal--various fertility and nature gods of the ancient semitic peoples considered to be false gods by the hebrews.] . he found, too, how greatly he had exaggerated the effect to be produced by his act. for a few nights there was a sneer or a laugh when he knelt down, but this passed off soon, and one by one all the other boys but three or four followed the lead. definitions.--l. leav'en, to make a general change, to imbue. . loathed, hated, detested. brag'gart, a boaster. . vow'ing, making a solemn promise to god. tes'ti-mo-ny, open declaration. . fal'tered, hesitated. mo'tive, that which causes action, cause, reason. . sub'tle (pro. sut'l), artful, cunning. stud'y, a private room devoted to study. . glim'mer-ing, a faint view. notes.-- . arnold's. dr. thomas arnold was head master at rugby nearly fifteen years. his influence on the character of the boys was very marked, and soon made the school celebrated throughout england. the schoolhouse was the name of one of the numerous buildings belonging to rugby. exercises.--relate tom's early experience at rugby. was it courageous in him to stop saying his prayers? how did he feel over it? what did he resolve to do? did he carry out his resolve? what two lessons was he taught? lxix. the wreck of the hesperus. ( ) by henry wadsworth longfellow, one of the greatest of american poets. he was born in portland, me., in . for some years he held the professorship of modern languages in bowdoin college, and later a similar professorship in harvard college. he died march th, . . it was the schooner hesperus, that sailed the wintry sea; and the skipper had taken his little daughter, to bear him company. . blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, her checks like the dawn of day, and her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, that ope in the month of may. . the skipper, he stood beside the helm, his pipe was in his mouth, and he watched how the veering flaw did blow the smoke now west, now south. . then up and spake an old sailor, had sailed to the spanish main, "i pray thee, put into yonder port, for i fear the hurricane. . "last night, the moon had a golden ring, and to-night no moon we see!" the skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, and a scornful laugh laughed he. . colder and louder blew the wind, a gale from the northeast; the snow fell hissing in the brine, and the billows frothed like yeast. . down came the storm, and smote amain the vessel in its strength; she shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, then leaped her cable's length. . "come hither! come hither! my little daughter, and do not tremble so; for i can weather the roughest gale that ever wind did blow." . he wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat, against the stinging blast: he cut a rope from a broken spar, and bound her to the mast. . "o father! i hear the church bells ring, oh say, what may it be?" "'tis a fog bell on a rock-bound coast!" and he steered for the open sea. . "o father! i hear the sound of guns, oh say, what may it be?" "some ship in distress, that can not live in such an angry sea!" . "o father! i see a gleaming light, oh say, what may it be?" but the father answered never a word, a frozen corpse was he. . lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, with his face turned to the skies, the lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow on his fixed and glassy eyes. . then the maiden clasped her hands, and prayed that saved she might be; and she thought of christ, who stilled the wave on the lake of galilee. . and fast through the midnight dark and drear, through the whistling sleet and snow, like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept tow'rds the reef of norman's woe. . and ever the fitful gusts between a sound came from the land: it was the sound of the trampling surf on the rocks and the hard sea sand. . the breakers were right beneath her bows, she drifted a dreary wreck, and a whooping billow swept the crew like icicles from her deck. . she struck where the white and fleecy waves looked soft as carded wool, but the cruel rocks, they gored her side like the horns of an angry bull. . her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, with the masts, went by the board; like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank, ho! ho! the breakers roared! . at day break, on the bleak seabeach, a fisherman stood aghast, to see the form of a maiden fair lashed close to a drifting mast. . the salt sea was frozen on her breast, the salt tears in her eyes; and he saw her hair, like the brown seaweed, on the billows fall and rise. . such was the wreck of the hesperus in the midnight and the snow: heav'n save us all from a death like this on the reef of norman's woe! definitions.--l. skip'per, the master of a small merchant ves-sel. . veer'ing, changing. flaw, a sudden gust of wind. . port, harbor. . brine, the sea. . a-main', with sudden force. . weath'er, to endure, to resist. . spar, a long beam. . helm, the instrument by which a ship is steered. . card'ed, cleaned by combing. . shrouds, sets of ropes reaching from the mastheads to the sides of a vessel to support the masts. stove, broke in. notes.--this piece is written in the style of the old english ballads. the syllables marked (') have a peculiar accent not usually allowed. . the spanish main was the name formerly applied to the northern coast of south america from the mosquito territory to the leeward islands. . the reef of norman's woe. a dangerous ledge of rocks on the massachusetts coast, near gloucester harbor. . went by the board. a sailor's expression, meaning "fell over the side of the vessel." lxx. anecdotes of birds. ( ) . i had once a favorite black hen, "a great beauty," as she was called by everyone, and so i thought her; her feathers were so jetty, and her topping so white and full! she knew my voice as well as any dog, and used to run cackling and bustling to my hand to receive the fragments that i never failed to collect from the breakfast table for "yarico," as she was called. . yarico, by the time she was a year old, hatched a respectable family of chickens; little, cowering, timid things at first, but, in due time, they became fine chubby ones; and old norah said, "if i could only keep yarico out of the copse, it would do; but the copse is full of weasels and of foxes. . "i have driven her back twenty times; but she watches till some one goes out of the gate, and then she's off again. it is always the case with young hens, miss; they think they know better than their keepers; and nothing cures them but losing a brood or two of chickens." i have often thought since that young people, as well as young hens, buy their experience equally dear. . one morning; after breakfast, i went to seek my favorite in the poultry yard; plenty of hens were there, but no yarico. the gate was open, and, as i concluded she had sought the forbidden copse, i proceeded there, accompanied by the yard mastiff; a noble fellow, steady and sagacious as a judge. . at the end of a lane, flanked on one side by a quickset hedge, on the other by a wild common, what was called the copse commenced; but before i arrived near the spot i heard a loud and tremendous cackling, and met two young, long-legged pullets, running with both wings and feet toward home. jock pricked up his sharp ears, and would have set off at full gallop to the copse; but i restrained him, hastening onward, however, at the top of my speed, thinking i had as good a right to see what was the matter as jock. . poor yarico! an impertinent fox cub had attempted to carry off one of her children; but she had managed to get them behind her in the hedge, and venturing boldly forth had placed herself in front, and positively kept the impudent animal at bay. his desire for plunder had prevented his noticing our approach, and jock soon made him feel the superiority of an english mastiff over a cub fox. . the most interesting portion of my tale is to come. yarico not only never afterward ventured to the copse, but formed a strong friendship for the dog which had preserved her family. whenever he appeared in the yard, she would run to meet him, prating and clucking all the time, and impeding his progress by walking between his legs, to his no small annoyance. if any other dog entered the yard, she would fly at him most furiously, thinking, perhaps, that he would injure her chickens; but she evidently considered jock her especial protector, and treated him accordingly. . it was very droll to see the peculiar look with which he regarded his feathered friend; not knowing exactly what to make of her civilities, and doubting how they should be received. when her family were educated, and able to do without her care, she was a frequent visitor at jock's kennel, and would, if permitted, roost there at night, instead of returning with the rest of the poultry to the henhouse. yarico certainly was a most grateful and interesting bird. * * . one could almost believe a parrot had intellect, when he keeps up a conversation so spiritedly; and it is certainly singular to observe how accurately a well-trained bird will apply his knowledge. a friend of mine knew one that had been taught many sentences; thus, "sally, poll wants her breakfast!" "sally, poll wants her tea!" but she never mistook the one for the other; breakfast was invariably demanded in the morning, and tea in the afternoon; and she always hailed her master, but no one else, by "how do you do, mr. a?" . she was a most amusing bird, and could whistle dogs, which she had great pleasure in doing. she would drop bread out of her cage as she hung at the street door, and whistle a number about her, and then, just as they were going to possess themselves of her bounty, utter a shrill scream of "get out, dogs!" with such vehemence and authority as dispersed the assembled company without a morsel, to her infinite delight. * * * . how wonderful is that instinct by which the bird of passage performs its annual migration! but how still more wonderful is it when the bird, after its voyage of thousands of miles has been performed, and new lands visited, returns to the precise window or eaves where, the summer before, it first enjoyed existence! and yet, such is unquestionably the fact. . four brothers had watched with indignation the felonious attempts of a sparrow to possess himself of the nest of a house martin, in which lay its young brood of four unfledged birds. . the little fellows considered themselves as champions for the bird which had come over land and sea, and chosen its shelter under their mother's roof. they therefore marshaled themselves with blowguns, to execute summary vengeance; but their well-meant endeavors brought destruction upon the mud-built domicile they wished to defend. their artillery loosened the foundations, and down it came, precipitating its four little inmates to the ground. the mother of the children, good samaritan-like, replaced the little outcasts in their nest, and set it in the open window of an unoccupied chamber. . the parent birds, after the first terror was over, did not appear disconcerted by the change of situation, but hourly fed their young as usual, and testified, by their unwearied twitter of pleasure, the satisfaction and confidence they felt. there the young birds were duly fledged, and from that window they began their flight, and entered upon life. . the next spring, with the reappearance of the martins, came four, which familiarly flew into the chamber, visited all the walls, and expressed their recognition by the most clamorous twitterings of joy. they were, without question, the very birds that had been bred there the preceding year. definitions.-- . copse, a grove of small trees or bushes. . sa-ga'cious, quick in discernment. . im-per'ti-nent, rude, intru-sive. . ken'nel, a place for dogs. . ve'he-mence, force. . mi-gra'tion, change of place, removal. . fe-lo'ni-ous, criminal. . dom'i-cile, the home or residence of anyone. ar-til'er-y, weapons of warfare. . dis-con-cert'ed, interrupted, confused. . rec-og-ni'tion, recollection of a former acquaintance. lxxi. the rainbow pilgrimage. ( ) by sara j. lippincott, born at onondaga, n. y., in , of new england parentage. under the name of "grace greenwood" she has written many charming stories for children. some of her best sketches are in "records of five years." . one summer afternoon, when i was about eight years of age, i was standing at an eastern window, looking at a beautiful rainbow that, bending from the sky, seemed to be losing itself in a thick, swampy wood about a quarter of a mile distant. . it happened that no one was in the room with me then but my brother rufus, who was just recovering from a severe illness, and was sitting, propped up with pillows, in an easy-chair, looking out, with me, at the rainbow. . "see, brother," i said, "it drops right down among the cedars, where we go in the spring to find wintergreens!" . "do you know, gracie," said my brother, with a very serious face, "that if you should go to the end of the rain how, you would find there purses filled with money, and great pots of gold and silver?" . "is it truly so?" i asked. . "truly so," answered my brother, with a smile. now, i was a simple-hearted child who believed everything that was told me, although i was again and again imposed upon; so, without another word, i darted out of the door, and set forth toward the wood. my brother called after me as loudly as he was able, but i did not heed him. . i cared nothing for the wet grass, which was sadly drabbling my clean frock,--on and on i ran: i was so sure that i knew just where that rainbow ended. i remember how glad and proud i was in my thoughts, and what fine presents i promised to all my friends out of my great riches. . so thinking, and laying delightful plans, almost before i knew it i had reached the cedar grove, and the end of the rainbow was not there! but i saw it shining down among the trees a little farther off; so on and on i struggled, through the thick bushes and over logs, till i came within the sound of a stream which ran through the swamp. then i thought, "what if the rainbow should come down right in the middle of that deep, muddy brook!" . ah! but i was frightened for my heavy pots of gold and silver, and my purses of money. how should i ever find them there? and what a time i should have getting them out! i reached the bank of the stream, and "the end was not yet." but i could see it a little way off on the other side. i crossed the creek on a fallen tree, and still ran on, though my limbs seemed to give way, and my side ached with fatigue. . the woods grew thicker and darker, the ground more wet and swampy, and i found, as many grown people had found before me, that there was rather hard traveling in a journey after, riches. suddenly i met in my way a large porcupine, who made himself still larger when he saw me, as a cross cat raises its back and makes tails at a dog. fearing that he would shoot his sharp quills at me, i ran from him as fast as my tired feet would carry me. . in my fright and hurry i forgot to keep my eye on the rainbow, as i had done before; and when, at last, i remembered and looked for it, it was nowhere in sight! it had quite faded away. when i saw that it was indeed gone, i burst into tears; for i had lost all my treasures, and had nothing to show for my pilgrimage but muddy feet and a wet and torn frock. so i set out for home. . but i soon found that my troubles had only begun; i could not find my way: i was lost! i could not tell which was east or west, north or south, but wandered about here and there, crying and calling, though i knew that no one could hear me. . all at once i heard voices shouting and hallooing; but, instead of being rejoiced at this, i was frightened, fearing that the indians were upon me! i crawled under some bushes, by the side of a large log, and lay perfectly still. i was wet, cold, scared, altogether very miserable indeed; yet, when the voices came near, i did not start up and show myself. . at last i heard my own name called; but i remembered that indians were very cunning, and thought they might have found it out some way, so i did not answer. then came a voice near me, that sounded like that of my eldest brother, who lived away from home, and whom i had not seen for many months; but i dared not believe that the voice was his. . soon some one sprang up on the log by which i lay, and stood there calling. i could not see his face; i could only see the tips of his toes, but by them i saw that he wore a nice pair of boots, and not moccasins. yet i remembered that some indians dressed like white folks; so i still kept quiet, till i heard shouted over me a pet name, which this brother had given me. it was the funniest name in the world. . i knew that no indian knew of the name, as it was a little family secret; so i sprang up, and caught my brother about the ankles. i hardly think that an indian could have given a louder yell than he gave then; and he jumped so that he fell off the log down by my side. but nobody was hurt; and, after kissing me till he had kissed away all my tears, he hoisted me on to his shoulder, called my other brothers, who were hunting in different directions, and we all set out for home. . i had been gone nearly three hours, and had wandered a number of miles. my brother joseph's coming and asking for me, had first set them to inquiring and searching me out. when i went into the room where my brother rufus sat, he said, "why, my poor little sister! i did not mean to send you off on such a wild-goose chase to the end of the rainbow. i thought you would know i was only quizzing you." . then my eldest brother took me on his knee, and told me what the rainbow really is: that it is only painted air, and does not rest on the earth, so nobody could ever find the end; and that god has set it in the cloud to remind him and us of his promise never again to drown the world with a flood. "oh, i think god's promise would be a beautiful name for the rainbow!" i said. . "yes," replied my mother, "but it tells us something more than that he will not send great floods upon the earth,--it tells us of his beautiful love always bending over us from the skies. and i trust that when my little girl sets forth on a pilgrimage to find god's love, she will be led by the rainbow of his promise through all the dark places of this world to 'treasures laid up in heaven,' better, far better, than silver or gold." definitions.-- . re-cov'er-ing, growing well. . win'ter--green, a creeping evergreen plant with bright red berries. . im--posed', (used with on or upon), deceived, misled. . drab'-bling, making dirty by drawing in mud and water. . por'cu--pine, a small quadruped whose body is covered with sharp quills. . pil'grim-age, journey. . moc'ca-sins, shoes of deerskin without soles, such as are usually worn by indians. . quiz'zing, making sport of. lxxii. the old oaken bucket. ( ) by samuel woodworth, who was born in massachusetts in . he was both author and editor. this is his best known poem. he died in . . how dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, when fond recollection presents them to view! the orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood, and every loved spot which my infancy knew; the wide-spreading pond, and the mill that stood by it: the bridge and the rock where the cataract fell: the cot of my father, the dairy house nigh it, and e'en the rude bucket which hung in the well: the old oaken bucket, the ironbound bucket, the moss-covered bucket which hung in the well. . that moss-covered vessel i hail as a treasure; for often, at noon, when returned from the field, i found it the source of an exquisite pleasure, the purest and sweetest that nature can yield. how ardent i seized it, with hands that were glowing, and quick to the white-pebble bottom it fell; then soon, with the emblem of truth overflowing, and dripping with coolness, it rose from the well: the old oaken bucket, the ironbound bucket, the moss-covered bucket arose from the well. . how sweet from the green mossy brim to receive it, as poised on the curb, it inclined to my lips! not a full blushing goblet could tempt me to leave it, though filled with the nectar which jupiter sips; and now, far removed from thy loved situation, the tear of regret will intrusively swell, as fancy reverts to my father's plantation, and sighs for the bucket which hangs in the well: the old oaken bucket, the ironbound bucket, the moss-covered bucket, which hangs in the well. definitions.--l. cat'a-ract, a great fall of water. . o-ver--flow'ing, running over. ex'qui-site, exceeding, extreme. . poised', balanced. goblet, a kind of cup or drinking vessel. nec'tar, the drink of the gods. in-tru'sive-ly, without right or welcome. re-verts', returns. exercises.--who was the author of "the old oaken bucket"? what is said of this piece? what does the poem describe? and what feeling does it express? lxxiii. the sermon on the mount. ( ) . and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him; and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, . blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. . blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled. blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see god. . blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of god. blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven. * * * . ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the lord thine oaths: but i say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is god's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by jerusalem; for it is the city of the great king. . neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. but let your communication be, yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. . ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but i say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. . ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy: but i say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. . for if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? and if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. * * * . judge not, that ye be not judged. for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? . or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. * * * . ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? . if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. * * * . whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, i will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. . and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. . and it came to pass, when jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. definitions.--l. dis-ci'ple, one who receives instruction from another. . bless'ed, happy. in-her'it, to come into possession of. . re-vile', to speak against without cause. per'se-cute, to punish on account of religion. . for-swear', to swear falsely. . de-spite'ful-ly, maliciously, cruelly. . pub'li-cans, tax collectors (they were often oppressive and were hated by the jews). . mete, to measure. mote, a small particle. . hyp'o-crite, a false pretender. . scribes, men among the jews who read and explained the law to the people. exercises.--who delivered this sermon? who are blessed? and why? is it right to swear? how should we treat our enemies? should we judge others harshly? what does jesus say of him who finds faults in his neighbor, but does not see his own? what is said about prayer? about our conduct to others? lxxiv. the young witness. ( ) by s. h. hammond. . a little girl nine years of age was brought into court, and offered as a witness against a prisoner who was on trial for a crime committed in her father's house. . "now, emily," said the counsel for the prisoner, "i wish to know if you understand the nature of an oath?" . "i don't know what you mean," was the simple answer. . "your honor," said the counsel, addressing the judge, "it is evident that this witness should be rejected. she does not understand the nature of an oath." . "let us see," said the judge. "come here, my daughter." . assured by the kind tone and manner of the judge, the child stepped toward him, and looked confidingly in his face, with a calm, clear eye, and in a manner so artless and frank that it went straight to the heart. . "did you ever take an oath?" inquired the judge. . the little girl stepped back with a look of horror; and the red blood rose and spread in a blush all over her face and neck, as she answered, "no, sir." she thought he intended to ask if she had ever used profane language. . "i do not mean that," said the judge, who saw her mistake; "i mean were you ever a witness?" . "no, sir; i never was in court before," was the answer. . he handed her the bible open. "do you know that book, my daughter?" . she looked at it and answered, "yes, sir; it is the bible." . "do you ever read in it?" he asked. . "yes, sir; every evening." . "can you tell me what the bible is?" inquired the judge. . "it is the word of the great god," she answered. . "well," said the judge, "place your hand upon this bible, and listen to what i say;" and he repeated slowly and solemnly the following oath: "do you swear that in the evidence which you shall give in this case, you will tell the truth, and nothing but the truth; and that you will ask god to help you?" . "i do," she replied. . "now," said the judge, "you have been sworn as a witness; will you tell me what will befall you if you do not tell the truth?" . "i shall be shut up in the state prison," answered the child. . "anything else?" asked the judge. . "i shall never go to heaven," she replied. . "how do you know this?" asked the judge again. . the child took the bible, turned rapidly to the chapter containing the commandments, and, pointing to the one which reads, "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," said, "i learned that before i could read." . "has anyone talked with you about being a witness in court here against this man?" inquired the judge. . "yes, sir," she replied, "my mother heard they wanted me to be a witness; and last night she called me to her room, and asked me to tell her the ten commandments; and then we kneeled down together, and she prayed that i might understand how wicked it was to bear false witness against my neighbor, and that god would help me, a little child, to tell the truth as it was before him. . "and when i came up here with father, she kissed me, and told me to remember the ninth commandment, and that god would hear every word that i said." . "do you believe this?" asked the judge, while a tear glistened in his eye, and his lip quivered with emotion. . "yes, sir," said the child, with a voice and manner which showed that her conviction of the truth was perfect. . "god bless you, my child," said the judge, "you have a good mother. the witness is competent," he continued. "were i on trial for my life, and innocent of the charge against me, i would pray god for such a witness as this. let her be examined." . she told her story with the simplicity of a child, as she was; but her voice and manner carried conviction of her truthfulness to every heart. . the lawyers asked her many perplexing questions, but she did not vary in the least from her first statement. . the truth, as spoken by a little child, was sublime. falsehood and perjury had preceded her testimony; but before her testimony, falsehood was scattered like chaff. . the little child, for whom a mother had prayed for strength to be given her to speak the truth as it was before god, broke the cunning device of matured villainy to pieces, like a potter's vessel. the strength that her mother prayed for was given her; and the sublime and terrible simplicity,--terrible to the prisoner and his associates,--was like a revelation from god himself. definitions.--l. wit'ness, one who gives testimony. com--mit'ted, done, performed. . coun'sel, a lawyer. . re-ject'ed, refused. . as-sured', made bold. con-fid'ing-ly, with trust. . pro-fane', irreverent, taking the name of god in vain. . per'ju-ry, the act of willfully making a false oath. chaff, the light dry husk of grains or grasses. . ma-tured', perfected, fully developed. pot'ter, one whose occupation is to make earthen vessels. rev--e-la'tion, the act of disclosing or showing what was before unknown. exercises.--what is this story about? why did the counsel wish to have emily refused as a witness? was she a fit person to be a witness? how was this shown? which commandment forbids us to bear false witness? what was the result of emily's testimony? lxxv. king solomon and the ants. ( ) by john greenleaf whittier, born near haverhill, mass., in , and died at hampton falls, n. h., in . until he was eighteen years old he worked on the farm, and during that time learned the trade at a shoemaker. he afterwards became an editor and one of the first poets of america. . out from jerusalem the king rode with his great war chiefs and lords of state, and sheba's queen with them. . proud in the syrian sun, in gold and purple sheen, the dusky ethiop queen smiled on king solomon. . wisest of men, he knew the languages of all the creatures great or small that trod the earth or flew. . across an ant-hill led the king's path, and he heard its small folk, and their word he thus interpreted: . "here comes the king men greet as wise and good and just, to crush us in the dust under his heedless feet." . the great king bowed his head, and saw the wide surprise of the queen of sheba's eyes as he told her what they said. . "o king!" she whispered sweet, "too happy fate have they who perish in thy way beneath thy gracious feet! . "thou of the god-lent crown, shall these vile creatures dare murmur against thee where the knees of kings kneel down?" . "nay," solomon replied, "the wise and strong should seek the welfare of the weak;" and turned his horse aside. . his train, with quick alarm, curved with their leader round the ant-hill's peopled mound, and left it free from harm. . the jeweled head bent low; "o king!" she said, "henceforth the secret of thy worth and wisdom well i know. . "happy must be the state whose ruler heedeth more the murmurs of the poor than flatteries of the great." definitions.-- . in-ter'pret-ed, explained the meaning of. . greet, address, salute. . wel'fare, happiness. . train, a body of followers. . flat'ter-ies, praises for the purpose of gratifying vanity or gaining favor. lxxvi. rivermouth theater. ( ) from "the story of a bad boy," by thomas bailey aldrich. the author was born at portsmouth, n. h., in . when quite young his family moved to louisiana, but he was sent back to new england to be educated, and later he located at new york. he is a well-known writer of both prose and poetry. . "now, boys, what shall we do?" i asked, addressing a thoughtful conclave of seven, assembled in our barn one dismal, rainy afternoon. "let's have a theater," suggested binny wallace. . the very thing! but where? the loft of the stable was ready to burst with hay provided for gypsy, but the long room over the carriage house was unoccupied. the place of all places! my managerial eye saw at a glance its capabilities for a theater. . i had been to the play a great many times in new orleans, and was wise in matters pertaining to the drama. so here, in due time, was set up some extraordinary scenery of my own painting. the curtain, i recollect, though it worked smoothly enough on other occasions, invariably hitched during the performances. . the theater, however, was a success, as far as it went. i retired from the business with no fewer than fifteen hundred pins, after deducting the headless, the pointless, and the crooked pins with which our doorkeeper frequently got "stuck." from first to last we took in a great deal of this counterfeit money. the price of admission to the "rivermouth theater" was twenty pins. i played all the principal characters myself--not that i was a finer actor than the other boys, but because i owned the establishment. . at the tenth representation, my dramatic career was brought to a close by an unfortunate circumstance. we were playing the drama of "william tell, the hero of switzerland." of course i was william tell, in spite of fred langdon, who wanted to act that character himself. i wouldn't let him, so he withdrew from the company, taking the only bow and arrow we had. . i made a crossbow out of a piece of whalebone, and did very well without him. we had reached that exciting scene where gesler, the austrian tyrant, commands tell to shoot the apple from his son's head. pepper whitcomb, who played all the juvenile and women parts, was my son. . to guard against mischance, a piece of pasteboard was fastened by a handkerchief over the upper portion of whitcomb's face, while the arrow to be used was sewed up in a strip of flannel. i was a capital marksman, and the big apple, only two yards distant, turned its russet cheek fairly towards me. . i can see poor little pepper now, as he stood without flinching, waiting for me to perform my great feat. i raised the crossbow amid the breathless silence of the crowded audience--consisting of seven boys and three girls, exclusive of kitty collins, who insisted on paying her way in with a clothespin. i raised the crossbow, i repeat. twang! went the whipcord; but, alas! instead of hitting the apple, the arrow flew right into pepper whitcomb's mouth, which happened to be open at the time, and destroyed my aim. . i shall never be able to banish that awful moment from my memory. pepper's roar, expressive of astonishment, indignation, and pain, is still ringing in my ears. i looked upon him as a corpse, and, glancing not far into the dreary future, pictured myself led forth to execution in the presence of the very same spectators then assembled. . luckily, poor pepper was not seriously hurt; but grandfather nutter, appearing in the midst of the confusion (attracted by the howls of young tell), issued an injunction against all theatricals thereafter, and the place was closed; not, however, without a farewell speech from me, in which i said that this would have been the proudest moment of my life if i hadn't hit pepper whitcomb in the mouth. whereupon the audience (assisted, i am glad to state, by pepper) cried, "hear! hear!" . i then attributed the accident to pepper himself, whose mouth, being open at the instant i fired, acted upon the arrow much after the fashion of a whirlpool, and drew in the fatal shaft. i was about to explain how a comparatively small maelstrom could suck in the largest ship, when the curtain fell of its own accord, amid the shouts of the audience. . this was my last appearance on any stage. it was some time, though, before i heard the end of the william tell business. malicious little boys who hadn't been allowed to buy tickets to my theater used to cry out after me in the street,-"'who killed cock robin?'" definitions.--l. con'clave, a private meeting. . man-a-ge'ri-al, of or pertaining to a manager. . de-duct'ing, taking away, subtracting. . ca-reer', course of action. . au'di-ence, an assembly of hearers. . ex-e-cu'tion, a putting to death by law. . in-junc'tion, a command. . at-trib'ut-ed, assigned, charged. mael'strom (pro, mal'strum), a whirlpool. note.--the revised fifth reader of this series contains the portion of "william tell" probably alluded to. see mcguffey's fifth reader, pp. - . lxxvii. alfred the great. ( ) . more than a thousand years ago, (in the year ), a prince was born in england, who afterwards became one of the most celebrated and best loved kings in the world. his name was alfred--afterwards called alfred the great--and he was the favorite son both of the king and queen. . in those days the common people were very ignorant; few of them could even read and write. there were no schools, and the monasteries, where almost the only teaching had been done, were nearly all destroyed in the wars which were continually going on. only the higher classes had any chance to study, and even they paid much more attention to fighting than to studying. . but alfred was different from most persons of his time. even when a little boy, he delighted in listening to poems and to the ballads which harpers used to sing, and he learned many of them by heart. when he was twelve years old, his mother, the queen, offered to give a volume of poems to that one of her four sons who would first learn to read it. alfred was the youngest of them all, yet he easily won the prize of which his brothers thought so little. . but, as has been said, these were stirring times, and alfred was soon called on to show his great abilities as a soldier. the danes, a warlike people, were continually swooping down in their vessels upon the coast of england. often they spread over the entire country, plundering and burning the towns, and killing the people. . in the midst of these invasions alfred became king, when he was only twenty-two years old. he proved as good a warrior as he was a student. he thought that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. he was generally successful against the danes, but at one time they seemed to have the country entirely in their power, and alfred was compelled to hide for his life. . for some time he dressed as a peasant, and lived in the cottage of a cowherd, who was so careful of his king's safety that he did not even tell his wife who he was. so she treated the king as a common peasant, and one day gave him a sharp scolding because he allowed some cakes to burn on the griddle, after she had left him to watch them. she told him he was clever enough at eating cakes though he managed so badly at baking them. . when the search for him grew less active, alfred gradually collected some of his followers, with whom he encamped on a small spot of firm ground in the center of a bog. it was surrounded by almost impassable forests, and alfred fortified the place so that it could not well be taken. then he made frequent sudden and successful attacks on the enemy until his troops and the people became encouraged. . one victory in particular, when they captured a banner which the danes thought enchanted, led alfred to take bolder steps. he wished to find out the exact condition of the enemy, and, for this purpose, disguised himself as a harper and entered their camp. he was so successful in his disguise that he remained there some days, even being admitted to the tent of the danish leader guthrum. . he found their entire army living in careless security, and so he determined to make a sudden and bold attack on them, to try and rid his country once more of these cruel invaders. he summoned his people about him from far and wide. many of them had long thought their beloved king dead, but now all eagerly obeyed his call. . he at once led them against that part of the camp which he had seen to be most unguarded. the attack was entirely unexpected; and, although the danes were greater in numbers, they were defeated with great slaughter. some of them, with their leader, fled to a fortified place, but were soon obliged to surrender. . alfred granted them their lives, and settled them in a part of his kingdom where nearly all his own people had been destroyed. he hoped by this to change obstinate enemies into useful friends who would protect england from further attacks of their own countrymen. however, some years later, when the danes made another invasion, these people joined them in fighting against alfred, but he soon succeeded in driving them all out of the country. . much as alfred did for his people in war, he did more in time of peace. above all else he gave careful attention to their education. he rebuilt the monasteries and aided the young university of oxford. he also founded many schools, to which every owner of a certain portion of land was compelled to send his children. . but he did as much good by the example that he set as by these acts. his time was divided into three parts. one was given to business, one to refreshment by sleep and food, and the third to study and devotion. clocks and watches, and probably even sundials, were then unknown, so these divisions were marked by burning candles of equal lengths. . alfred did not study for his own pleasure merely, but translated and wrote many works for the good of his people, using the simple language which they could easily understand and enjoy. his person was handsome and dignified, full of grace and activity. but the more noble beauty was within, in the enlightened mind and virtuous heart of the king. after his name, which has its place on an ancient record of english kings, is written the noble title of "truth teller." definitions.-- . mon'as-ter-y, a religious house where monks live. . in-va'sion, the warlike entrance of an army. . dis-guised', hidden by an unusual dress and appearance. . u-ni--ver'si-ty, a school of the highest grade, in which are taught all branches of learning. . trans-lat'ed, changed from one language to another. en-light'ened, well informed. lxxvii. living on a farm. ( ) . how brightly through the mist of years, my quiet country home appears! my father busy all the day in plowing corn or raking hay; my mother moving with delight among the milk pans, silver-bright; we children, just from school set free, filling the garden with our glee. the blood of life was flowing warm when i was living on a farm. . i hear the sweet churchgoing bell, as o'er the fields its music fell, i see the country neighbors round gathering beneath the pleasant sound; they stop awhile beside the door, to talk their homely matters o'er the springing corn, the ripening grain, and "how we need a little rain;" "a little sun would do no harm, we want good weather for the farm." . when autumn came, what joy to see the gathering of the husking bee, to hear the voices keeping tune, of girls and boys beneath the moon, to mark the golden corn ears bright, more golden in the yellow light! since i have learned the ways of men, i often turn to these again, and feel life wore its highest charm. when i was living on the farm. lxxix. hugh idle and mr. toil. ( ) adapted from the story of "little daffydowndilly," by nathaniel hawthorne. the author was born at salem, mass., in , and ranks among the first of american novelists. he died in . . hugh idle loved to do only what was agreeable, and took no delight in labor of any kind. but while hugh was yet a little boy, he was sent away from home, and put under the care of a very strict schoolmaster, who went by the name of mr. toil. . those who knew him best, affirmed that mr. toil was a very worthy character, and that he had done more good, both to children and grown people, than anybody else in the world. he had, however, a severe and ugly countenance; his voice was harsh; and all his ways and customs were disagreeable to our young friend, hugh idle. . the whole day long this terrible old schoolmaster sulked about among his scholars, with a big cane in his hand; and unless a lad chose to attend constantly and quietly to his book, he had no chance of enjoying a single quiet moment. "this will never do for me," thought hugh; "i'll run off, and try to find my way home." . so the very next morning off he started, with only some bread and cheese for his breakfast, and very little pocket money to pay his expenses. he had gone but a short distance, when he overtook a man of grave and sedate appearance trudging at a moderate pace along the road. . "good morning, my fine lad!" said the stranger; and his voice seemed hard and severe, yet had a sort of kindness in it; "whence do you come so early, and whither are you going?" . now hugh was a boy of very frank disposition, and had never been known to tell a lie in all his life. nor did he tell one now, but confessed that he had run away from school on account of his great dislike to mr. toil. "oh, very well, my little friend!" answered the stranger; "then we will go together; for i likewise have had a good deal to do with mr. toil, and should be glad to find some place where he was never heard of." so they walked on very sociably side by side. . by and by their road led them past a field, where some haymakers were at work. hugh could not help thinking how much pleasanter it must be to make hay in the sunshine, under the blue sky, than to learn lessons all day long, shut up in a dismal schoolroom, continually watched by mr. toil. . but in the midst of these thoughts, while he was stopping to peep over the stone wall, he started back and caught hold of his companion's hand. "quick, quick!" cried he; "let us run away, or he will catch us!" . "who will catch us?" asked the stranger. . "mr. toil, the old schoolmaster," answered hugh; "don't you see him among the haymakers?" and hugh pointed to an elderly man, who seemed to be the owner of the field. . he was busily at work in his shirt sleeves. the drops of sweat stood upon his brow; and he kept constantly crying out to his work people to make hay while the sun shone. strange to say, the features of the old farmer were precisely the same as those of mr. toil, who at that very moment must have been just entering the schoolroom. . "don't be afraid," said the stranger; "this is not mr. toil, the schoolmaster, but a brother of his, who was bred a farmer. he won't trouble you, unless you become a laborer on his farm." . hugh believed what his companion said, but was glad when they were out of sight of the old farmer who bore such a singular resemblance to mr. toil. the two travelers came to a spot where some carpenters were building a house. hugh begged his companion to stop awhile, for it was a pretty sight to see how neatly the carpenters did their work with their saws, planes, and hammers; and he was beginning to think he too should like to use the saw, and the plane, and the hammer, and be a carpenter himself. but suddenly he caught sight of something that made him seize his friend's hand, in a great fright. . "make haste! quick, quick!" cried he; "there's old mr. toil again." the stranger cast his eyes where hugh pointed his finger, and saw an elderly man, who seemed to be overseeing the carpenters, as he went to and fro about the unfinished house, marking out the work to be done, and urging the men to be diligent; and wherever he turned his hard and wrinkled visage, they sawed and hammered as if for dear life. . "oh, no! this is not mr. toil, the schoolmaster," said the stranger; "it is another brother of his who follows the trade of carpenter." . "i am very glad to hear it," quoth hugh; "but if you please, sir, i should like to get out of his way as soon as possible." definitions.-- . a-gree'a-ble, pleasing. . af-firmed', declared. . ex-pens'es, costs. se-date', calm. mod'er-ate, neither fast nor slow, dis-po-si'tion, natural state of mind. con-fessed', ac-knowledged. so'cia-bly, in a friendly way. . fea'tures, the distinctive marks of the face. . re-sem'blance, likeness. . dil'i-gent, industrious. vis'age, the face. . quoth, said. lxxx. hugh idle and mr. toil. (concluded.) ( ) . now hugh and the stranger had not gone much further, when they met a company of soldiers, gayly dressed, with feathers in their caps, and glittering muskets on their shoulders. in front marched the drummers and fifers, making such merry music that hugh would gladly have followed them to the end of the world. if he were only a soldier, he said to himself, old mr. toil would never venture to look him in the face. . "quickstep! forward! march!" shouted a gruff voice. . little hugh started in great dismay; for this voice sounded precisely like that which he had heard every day in mr. toil's schoolroom. and turning his eyes to the captain of the company, what should he see but the very image of old mr. toil himself, in an officer's dress, to be sure, but looking as ugly and disagreeable as ever. . "this is certainly old mr. toil," said hugh, in a trembling voice. "let us away, for fear he should make us enlist in his company." . "you are mistaken again, my little friend," replied the stranger very composedly. "this is only a brother of mr. toil's, who has served in the army all his life. you and i need not be afraid of him." . "well, well," said hugh, "if you please, sir, i don't want to see the soldiers any more." so the child and the stranger resumed their journey; and, after awhile, they came to a house by the roadside, where a number of young men and rosy-cheeked girls, with smiles on their faces, were dancing to the sound of a fiddle. . "oh, let us stop here," cried hugh; "mr. toil will never dare to show his face where there is a fiddler, and where people are dancing and making merry." . but the words had scarcely died away on the little boy's tongue, when, happening to cast his eyes on the fiddler, whom should he behold again but the likeness of mr. toil, armed with a fiddle bow this time, and flourishing it with as much ease and dexterity as if he had been a fiddler all his life. . "oh, dear me!" whispered he, turning pale; "it seems as if there were nobody but mr. toil in the world." . "this is not your old schoolmaster," observed the stranger, "but another brother of his, who has learned to be a fiddler. he is ashamed of his family, and generally calls himself master pleasure; but his real name is toil, and those who know him best think him still more disagreeable than his brothers." . "pray, let us go on," said hugh. . well, thus the two went wandering along the highway and in shady lanes and through pleasant villages, and wherever they went, behold! there was the image of old mr. toil. if they entered a house, he sat in the parlor; if they peeped into the kitchen, he was there! he made himself at home in every cottage, and stole, under one disguise or another, into the most splendid mansions. everywhere they stumbled on some of the old schoolmaster's innumerable brothers. . at length, little hugh found himself completely worn out with running away from mr. toil. "take me back! take me back!" cried the poor fellow, bursting into tears. "if there is nothing but toil all the world over, i may just as well go back to the schoolhouse." . "yonder it is; there is the schoolhouse!" said the stranger; for though he and little hugh had taken a great many steps, they had traveled in a circle instead of a straight line. "come, we will go back to the school together." . there was something in his companion's voice that little hugh now remembered; and it is strange that he had not remembered it sooner. looking up into his face, behold! there again was the likeness of old mr. toil, so that the poor child had been in company with toil all day, even while he had been doing his best to run away from him. . little hugh idle, however, had learned a good lesson, and from that time forward was diligent at his task, because he now knew that diligence is not a whit more toilsome than sport or idleness. and when he became better acquainted with mr. toil, he began to think his ways were not so disagreeable, and that the old schoolmaster's smile of approbation made his face sometimes appear almost as pleasant as even that of hugh's mother. definitions.--l. ven'ture, to dare, to risk. . dis-may', fright, terror. pre-cise'ly, exactly. . en-list', to put one's name on a roll, to join. . com-pos'ed-ly, calmly, quietly. . re--sumed', recommenced. . ob-served', remarked. . in-nu'mer--a-ble, not to be counted. . ap-pro-ba'tion, the act of regarding with pleasure. exercises.--to whose school was hugh idle sent? why did he run away? relate the adventures of hugh and the stranger. what lesson is taught by this story? lxxxi. burning the fallow. ( ) adapted from "roughing it in the bush," a story by mrs. susanna moodie (sister of agnes strickland), who was born in suffolk, england, in . she died in . . the day was sultry, and towards noon a strong wind sprang up that roared in the pine tops like the dashing of distant billows, but without in the least degree abating the heat. the children were lying listlessly upon the floor, and the girl and i were finishing sunbonnets, when mary suddenly exclaimed, "bless us, mistress, what a smoke!" . i ran immediately to the door, but was not able to distinguish ten yards before me. the swamp immediately below us was on fire, and the heavy wind was driving a dense black cloud of smoke directly towards us. . "what can this mean?" i cried. "who can have set fire to the fallow?" as i ceased speaking, john thomas stood pale and trembling before me. "john, what is the meaning of this fire?" . "oh, ma'am, i hope you will forgive me; it was i set fire to it, and i would give all i have in the world if i had not done it." . "what is the danger?" . "oh, i'm afraid that we shall all be burnt up," said john, beginning to whimper. "what shall we do?" . "why, we must get out of it as fast as we can, and leave the house to its fate." . "we can't get out," said the man, in a low, hollow tone, which seemed the concentration of fear; "i would have got out of it if i could; but just step to the back door, ma'am, and see." . behind, before, on every side, we were surrounded by a wall of fire, burning furiously within a hundred yards of us, and cutting off all possibility of retreat; for, could we have found an opening through the burning heaps, we could not have seen our way through the dense canopy of smoke; and, buried as we were in the heart of the forest, no one could discover our situation till we were beyond the reach of help. . i closed the door, and went back to the parlor. fear was knocking loudly at my heart, for our utter helplessness destroyed all hope of our being able to effect our escape. the girl sat upon the floor by the children, who, unconscious of the peril that hung over them, had both fallen asleep. she was silently weeping; while the boy who had caused the mischief was crying aloud. . a strange calm succeeded my first alarm. i sat down upon the step of the door, and watched the awful scene in silence. the fire was raging in the cedar swamp immediately below the ridge on which the house stood, and it presented a spectacle truly appalling. . from out of the dense folds of a canopy of black smoke--the blackest i ever saw--leaped up red forks of lurid flame as high as the tree tops, igniting the branches of a group of tall pines that had been left for saw logs. a deep gloom blotted out the heavens from our sight. the air was filled with fiery particles, which floated even to the doorstep--while the crackling and roaring of the flames might have been heard at a great distance. . to reach the shore of the lake, we must pass through the burning swamp, and not a bird could pass over it with unscorched wings. the fierce wind drove the flames at the sides and back of the house up the clearing; and our passage to the road or to the forest, on the right and left, was entirely obstructed by a sea of flames. our only ark of safety was the house, so long as it remained untouched by the fire. . i turned to young thomas, and asked him how long he thought that would he. "when the fire clears this little ridge in front, ma'am. the lord have mercy on us then, or we must all go." . i threw myself down on the floor beside my children, and pressed them to my heart, while inwardly i thanked god that they were asleep, unconscious of danger, and unable by their cries to distract our attention from adopting any plan which might offer to effect their escape. . the heat soon became suffocating. we were parched with thirst, and there was not a drop of water in the house, and none to be procured nearer than the lake. i turned once more to the door, hoping that a passage might have been burnt through to the water. i saw nothing but a dense cloud of fire and smoke--could hear nothing but the crackling and roaring of flames, which was gaining so fast upon us that i felt their scorching breath in my face. . "ah," thought i--and it was a most bitter thought--"what will my beloved husband say when he returns and finds that his poor wife and his dear girls have perished in this miserable manner? but god can save us yet." . the thought had scarcely found a voice in my heart before the wind rose to a hurricane, scattering the flames on all sides into a tempest of burning billows. i buried my head in my apron, for i thought that all was lost, when a most terrific crash of thunder burst over our heads, and, like the breaking of a waterspout, down came the rushing torrent of rain which had been pent up for so many weeks. . in a few minutes the chip yard was all afloat, and the fire effectually checked. the storm which, unnoticed by us, had been gathering all day, and which was the only one of any note we had that summer, continued to rage all night, and before morning had quite subdued the cruel enemy whose approach we had viewed with such dread. definitions.-l. a-bat'ing, lessening. list'less-ly, not paying attention, heedlessly. . fal'low, a new clearing usually covered with brush heaps. . con-cen-tra'tion, bringing into a small space, the essence. . can'o-py, a covering or curtain. . ef-fect', to bring to pass. . suc-ceed'ed, followed. ap-pall'ing, terrifying. . lu'rid, dull red. ig-nit'ing, setting on fire. . dis-tract', con-fuse, perplex. . parched, made very dry. . wa'ter-spout, a column of water caught up by a whirlwind. lxxxii. the dying soldiers. ( ) . a waste of land, a sodden plain, a lurid sunset sky, with clouds that fled and faded fast in ghostly phantasy; a field upturned by trampling feet, a field uppiled with slain, with horse and rider blent in death upon the battle plain. . the dying and the dead lie low; for them, no more shall rise the evening moon, nor midnight stars, nor day light's soft surprise: they will not wake to tenderest call, nor see again each home, where waiting hearts shall throb and break, when this day's tidings come. . two soldiers, lying as they fell upon the reddened clay-- in daytime, foes; at night, in peace breathing their lives away! brave hearts had stirred each manly breast; fate only, made them foes; and lying, dying, side by side, a softened feeling rose. . "our time is short," one faint voice said; "to-day we've done our best on different sides: what matters now? to-morrow we shall rest! life lies behind. i might not care for only my own sake; but far away are other hearts, that this day's work will break. . "among new hampshire's snowy hills, there pray for me to-night a woman, and a little girl with hair like golden light;" and at the thought, broke forth, at last, the cry of anguish wild, that would not longer be repressed "o god, my wife, my child!" . "and," said the other dying man, "across the georgia plain, there watch and wait for me loved ones i ne'er shall see again: a little girl, with dark, bright eyes, each day waits at the door; her father's step, her father's kiss, will never greet her more. . "to-day we sought each other's lives: death levels all that now; for soon before god's mercy seat together we shall bow. forgive each other while we may; life's but a weary game, and, right or wrong, the morning sun will find us, dead, the same." . the dying lips the pardon breathe; the dying hands entwine; the last ray fades, and over all the stars from heaven shine; and the little girl with golden hair, and one with dark eyes bright, on hampshire's hills, and georgia's plain, were fatherless that night! definitions.--l. sod'den, soaked. phan'ta-sy, specter-like ap-pearance. blent, mingled together. . ti'dings, news. . an'guish, deep distress. re-pressed', kept back. . par'don, forgiveness. en-twine', clasp together. exercise.--what do the first two stanzas describe? what does the third? what did one soldier say to the other? where was his home? what friends had he there? where was the home of the other soldier? who waited for him? did they forgive each other? lxxxiii. the attack on nymwegen. ( ) from "the history of the united netherlands," by john lothrop motley, who was born in , at dorchester, mass. he graduated at harvard in , and afterwards lived many years in europe, writing the histories which made him famous. he died in . . on the evening of the th of august, , there was a wedding feast in one of the splendid mansions of the stately city. the festivities were prolonged until deep in the midsummer's night, and harp and viol were still inspiring the feet of the dancers, when on a sudden, in the midst of the holiday groups, appeared the grim visage of martin schenk, the man who never smiled. . clad in no wedding garment, but in armor of proof, with morion on head, and sword in hand, the great freebooter strode heavily through the ballroom, followed by a party of those terrible musketeers who never gave or asked for quarter, while the affrighted revelers fluttered away before them. . taking advantage of a dark night, he had just dropped down the river from his castle, with five and twenty barges, had landed with his most trusted soldiers in the foremost vessels, had battered down the gate of st. anthony, and surprised and slain the guard. . without waiting for the rest of his boats, he had then stolen with his comrades through the silent streets, and torn away the latticework, and other slight defenses on the rear of the house which they had now entered, and through which they intended to possess themselves of the market place. . martin had long since selected this mansion as a proper position for his enterprise, but he had not been bidden to the wedding, and was somewhat disconcerted when he found himself on the festive scene which he had so grimly interrupted. . some of the merrymakers escaped from the house, and proceeded to alarm the town; while schenk hastily fortified his position, and took possession of the square. but the burghers and garrison were soon on foot, and he was driven back into the house. . three times he recovered the square by main strength of his own arm, seconded by the handful of men whom he had brought with him, and three times he was beaten back by overwhelming numbers into the wedding mansion. . the arrival of the greater part of his followers, with whose assistance he could easily have mastered the city in the first moments of surprise, was mysteriously delayed. he could not account for their prolonged absence, and was meanwhile supported only by those who had arrived with him in the foremost barges. . the truth--of which he was ignorant--was, that the remainder of the flotilla, borne along by the strong and deep current of the waal, then in a state of freshet, had shot past the landing place, and had ever since been vainly struggling against wind and tide to force their way back to the necessary point. . meantime schenk and his followers fought desperately in the market place, and desperately in the house which he had seized. but a whole garrison, and a town full of citizens in arms proved too much for him, and he was now hotly besieged in the mansion, and at last driven forth into the streets. . by this time day was dawning, the whole population, soldiers and burghers, men, women, and children, were thronging about the little band of marauders, and assailing them with every weapon and every missile to be found. schenk fought with his usual ferocity, but at last the musketeers, in spite of his indignant commands, began rapidly to retreat toward the quay. . in vain martin stormed and cursed, in vain with his own hand he struck more than one of his soldiers dead. he was swept along with the panic-stricken band, and when, shouting and gnashing his teeth with frenzy, he reached the quay at last, he saw at a glance why his great enterprise had failed. . the few empty barges of his own party were moored at the steps; the rest were half a mile off, contending hopelessly against the swollen and rapid waal. schenk, desperately wounded, was left almost alone upon the wharf, for his routed followers had plunged helter-skelter into the boats, several of which, overladen in the panic, sank at once, leaving the soldiers to drown or struggle with the waves. . the game was lost. nothing was left the freebooter but retreat. reluctantly turning his back on his enemies, now in full cry close behind him, schenk sprang into the last remaining boat just pushing from the quay. already overladen, it foundered with his additional weight, and martin schenk, encumbered with his heavy armor, sank at once to the bottom of the waal. . some of the fugitives succeeded in swimming down the stream, and were picked up by their comrades in the barges below the town, and so made their escape. many were drowned with their captain. a few days afterward, the inhabitants of nymwegen fished up the body of the famous partisan. he was easily recognized by his armor, and by his truculent face, still wearing the scowl with which he had last rebuked his followers. definitions.-- . mo'ri-on, a kind of helmet. free'boot-er, one who plunders. mus-ket-eer', a soldier armed with a musket. quar'ter, mercy. . burgh'ers, inhabitants of a town. gar'ri-son, troops stationed in a fort or town. . flo-til'la, a fleet of small vessels. . ma-raud'ers, plunderers. quay (pro. ke), a wharf . foun'dered, sank. en-cum'bered, weighed down. . par'ti-san, a commander of a body of roving troops. tru'cu-lent, fierce. lxxxiv. the seasons. ( ) . spring. h. g. adams, an english writer, has compiled two volumes of poetical quotations, and is the author of several volumes of original poems. the following is from the "story of the seasons." a bursting into greenness; a waking as from sleep; a twitter and a warble that make the pulses leap: a watching, as in childhood, for the flowers that, one by one, open their golden petals to woo the fitful sun. a gust, a flash, a gurgle, a wish to shout and sing, as, filled with hope and gladness, we hail the vernal spring. ii. summer. now is the high tide of the year, and whatever of life hath ebbed away comes flooding back with a ripply cheer, into every bare inlet and creek and bay. we may shut our eyes, but we can not help knowing that skies are clear and grass is growing; the breeze comes whispering in our ear, that dandelions are blossoming near, that maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing, that the river is bluer than the sky, that the robin is plastering his house hard by; and if the breeze kept the good news back for other couriers we should not lack; we could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,-- and hark! how clear bold chanticleer, warmed with the new wine of the year, tells all in his lusty crowing. --lowell. iii. autumn. thomas hood, author of the following selection, was born in , at london, where he was editor of the "london magazine," and died in . he is best known as a humorist, but some of his poems are full of tender feeling. the autumn is old; the sear leaves are flying; he hath gathered up gold and now he is dying: old age, begin sighing! the year's in the wane; there is nothing adorning; the night has no eve, and the day has no morning; cold winter gives warning. iv. winter. charles t. brooks translated the following selection from the original by the german poet, ludwig holty. mr. brooks was born at salem, mass., in . after graduation at harvard he entered the ministry. he translated much from the german, both of poetry and prose. he died in . now no plumed throng charms the wood with song; icebound trees are glittering; merry snowbirds, twittering, fondly strive to cheer scenes so cold and drear. winter, still i see many charms in thee, love thy chilly greeting, snowstorms fiercely beating, and the dear delights of the long, long nights. lxxxv. brandywine ford. ( ) bayard taylor was born at kennett square, penn., in . he received a limited school education, but at an early age displayed great energy and talent. he was a great traveler, and a fluent, graceful writer, both of prose and verse. mr. taylor held high official positions under the government. the following selection is adapted from "the story of kennett," he died in . . the black, dreary night, seemed interminable. he could only guess, here and there, at a landmark, and was forced to rely more upon roger's instinct of the road than upon the guidance of his senses. toward midnight, as he judged, by the solitary crow of a cock, the rain almost entirely ceased. . the wind began to blow sharp and keen, and the hard vault of the sky to lift a little. he fancied that the hills on his right had fallen away, and that the horizon was suddenly depressed towards the north. roger's feet began to splash in constantly deepening water, and presently a roar, distinct from that of the wind, filled the air. . it was the brandywine. the stream had overflowed its broad meadow bottoms, and was running high and fierce beyond its main channel. the turbid waters made a dim, dusky gleam around him; soon the fences disappeared, and the flood reached to his horse's body. . but he knew that the ford could be distinguished by the break in the fringe of timber; moreover, that the creek bank was a little higher than the meadows behind it, and so far, at least, he might venture. the ford was not more than twenty yards across, and he could trust roger to swim that distance. . the faithful animal pressed bravely on, but gilbert soon noticed that he seemed at fault. the swift water had forced him out of the road, and he stopped from time to time, as if anxious and uneasy. the timber could now be discerned, only a short distance in advance, and in a few minutes they would gain the bank. . what was that? a strange, rustling, hissing sound, as of cattle trampling through dry reeds,--a sound which quivered and shook, even in the breath of the hurrying wind! roger snorted, stood still, and trembled in every limb; and a sensation of awe and terror struck a chill through gilbert's heart. the sound drew swiftly nearer, and became a wild, seething roar, filling the whole breadth of the valley. . "the dam! the dam!" cried gilbert, "the dam has given way!" he turned roger's head, gave him the rein, struck, spurred, cheered, and shouted. the brave beast struggled through the impeding flood, but the advance wave of the coming inundation already touched his side. he staggered; a line of churning foam bore down upon them, the terrible roar was all around and over them, and horse and rider were whirled away. . what happened during the first few seconds, gilbert could never distinctly recall. now they were whelmed in the water, now riding its careering tide, torn through the tops of brushwood, jostled by floating logs and timbers of the dam, but always, as it seemed, remorselessly held in the heart of the tumult and the ruin. [transcriber's footnote: careering--path or course, as the moon through the sky.] . he saw at last that they had fallen behind the furious onset of the flood, but roger was still swimming with it, desperately throwing up his head from time to time, and snorting the water from his nostrils. all his efforts to gain a foothold failed; his strength was nearly spent, and unless some help should come in a few minutes it would come in vain. and in the darkness, and the rapidity with which they were borne along, how should help come? . all at once roger's course stopped. he became an obstacle to the flood, which pressed him against some other obstacle below, and rushed over horse and rider. thrusting out his hand, gilbert felt the rough bark of a tree. leaning towards it, and clasping the log in his arms, he drew himself from the saddle, while roger, freed from his burden, struggled into the current and instantly disappeared. . as nearly as gilbert could ascertain, several timbers, thrown over each other, had lodged, probably upon a rocky islet in the stream, the uppermost one projecting slantingly out of the flood. it required all his strength to resist the current which sucked, and whirled, and tugged at his body, and to climb high enough to escape its force, without overbalancing his support. at last, though still half immerged, he found himself comparatively safe for a time, yet as far as ever from a final rescue. . yet a new danger now assailed him, from the increasing cold. there was already a sting of frost, a breath of ice, in the wind. in another hour the sky was nearly swept bare of clouds, and he could note the lapse of the night by the sinking of the moon. but he was by this time hardly in a condition to note anything more. definitions.-- . in-ter'mi-na-ble, endless. . de-pressed', low-ered. . tur'bid, muddy. . dis-cerncd' (pro. diz-zerned'), made out, distinguished. . seeth'ing, boiling, bubbling. . im-ped'ing, hindering, obstucting. in-un-da'tion, a flood. . on'set, a rushing upon, attack. . im-merged', plunged under a liquid. . lapse, a gradual passing away. lxxxvi. brandywine ford. (concluded.) ( ) . the moon was low in the west, and there was a pale glimmer of the coming dawn in the sky, when gilbert potter suddenly raised his head. above the noise of the water and the whistle of the wind, he heard a familiar sound,--the shrill, sharp neigh of a horse. lifting himself with great exertion, to a sitting posture, he saw two men, on horseback, in the flooded meadow, a little below him. they stopped, seemed to consult, and presently drew nearer. . gilbert tried to shout, but the muscles of his throat were stiff, and his lungs refused to act. the horse neighed again. this time there was no mistake; it was roger that he heard! voice came to him, and he cried aloud,--a hoarse, strange, unnatural cry. the horsemen heard it, and rapidly pushed up the bank, until they reached a point directly opposite to him. the prospect of escape brought a thrill of life to his frame; he looked around and saw that the flood had indeed fallen. . "we have no rope," he heard one of the men say. "how shall we reach him?" "there is no time to get one now," the other answered. "my horse is stronger than yours. i'll go into the creek just below, where it's broader and not so deep, and work my way up to him," "but one horse can't carry both." "his will follow, be sure, when it sees me." . as the last speaker moved away, gilbert saw a led horse plunging through the water beside the other. it was a difficult and dangerous undertaking. the horseman and the loose horse entered the main stream below, where its divided channel met and broadened, but it was still above the saddle girths, and very swift. . sometimes the animals plunged, losing their foothold; nevertheless, they gallantly breasted the current, and inch by inch worked their way to a point about six feet below gilbert. it seemed impossible to approach nearer. "can you swim?" asked the man. gilbert shook his head. "throw me the end of roger's bridle!" he then cried. . the man unbuckled the bridle and threw it, keeping the end of the rein in his hand. gilbert tried to grasp it, but his hands were too numb. he managed, however, to get one arm and his head through the opening, and relaxed his hold on the log. . a plunge, and the man had him by the collar. he felt himself lifted by a strong arm and laid across roger's saddle. with his failing strength and stiff limbs, it was no slight task to get into place; and the return, though less laborious to the horses, was equally dangerous, because gilbert was scarcely able to support himself without help. "you're safe now," said the man, when they reached the bank, "but it's a downright mercy of god that you're alive!" . the other horseman joined them, and they rode slowly across the flooded meadow. they had both thrown their cloaks around gilbert, and carefully steadied him in the saddle, one on each side. he was too much exhausted to ask how they had found him, or whither they were taking him,--too numb for curiosity, almost for gratitude. . "here's your savior!" said one of the men, patting roger's shoulder. "it was through him that we found you. do you wish to know how? well--about three o'clock it was, maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later, my wife woke me up. 'do you hear that?' she said. . "i listened and heard a horse in the lane before the door, neighing,--i can't tell you exactly how it was,--as though he would call up the house. it was rather queer, i thought, so i got up and looked out of the window, and it seemed to me he had a saddle on. he stamped, and pawed, and then he gave another neigh, and stamped again. . "said i to my wife, 'there is something wrong here,' and i dressed and went out. when he saw me, he acted in the strangest way you ever saw; thought i, if ever an animal wanted to speak, that animal does. when i tried to catch him, he shot off, ran down the lane a bit, and then came back acting as strangely as ever. . "i went into the house and woke up my brother, here, and we saddled our horses and started. away went yours ahead, stopping every minute to look around and see if we followed. when we came to the water i rather hesitated, but it was of no use; the horse would have us go on and on, till we found you. i never heard of such a thing before, in all my life." gilbert did not speak, but two large tears slowly gathered in his eyes, and rolled down his cheeks. the men saw his emotion, and respected it. . in the light of the cold, keen dawn, they reached a snug farmhouse, a mile from the brandywine. the men lifted gilbert from the saddle, and would have carried him immediately into the house, but he first leaned upon roger's neck, took the faithful creature's head in his arms, and kissed it. definitions.-- . pros'pect, ground or reason for hoping, antic-ipation. . breast'ed (pro. brest'ed), opposed courageously. . numb, without the power of feeling or motion. re-laxed', loosened. . e-mo'tion, excited feeling, agitation. lxxxvii. the best capital ( ) louisa may alcott was born at germantown, pa., in , and, among other works, wrote many beautiful stories for children. during the civil war she was a hospital nurse at washington. the following selection is adapted from "little men." she died in . . one would have said that modest john brooke, in his busy, quiet, humble life, had had little time to make friends; but now they seemed to start up everywhere,--old and young, rich and poor, high and low; for all unconsciously his influence had made itself widely felt, his virtues were remembered, and his hidden charities rose up to bless him. . the group about his coffin was a far more eloquent eulogy than any that man could utter. there were the rich men whom he had served faithfully for years; the poor old women whom he cherished with his little store, in memory of his mother; the wife to whom he had given such happiness that death could not mar it utterly; the brothers and sisters in whose hearts he had made a place forever; the little son and daughter who already felt the loss of his strong arm and tender voice; the young children, sobbing for their kindest playmate, and the tall lads, watching with softened faces a scene which they never could forget. . that evening, as the plumfield boys sat on the steps, as usual, in the mild september moonlight, they naturally fell to talking of the event of the day. emil began by breaking out in his impetuous way, "uncle fritz is the wisest, and uncle laurie the jolliest, but uncle john was the best; and i'd rather be like him than any man i ever saw." . "so would i. did you hear what those gentlemen said to grandpa to-day? i would like to have that said of me when i was dead;" and franz felt with regret that he had not appreciated uncle john enough. "what did they say?" asked jack, who had been much impressed by the scenes of the day. . "why, one of the partners of mr. laurence, where uncle john has been ever so long, was saying that he was conscientious almost to a fault as a business man, and above reproach in all things. another gentleman said no money could repay the fidelity and honesty with which uncle john had served him, and then grandpa told them the best of all. . "uncle john once had a place in the office of a man who cheated, and when this man wanted uncle to help him do it, uncle wouldn't, though he was offered a big salary. the man was angry, and said, 'you will never get on in business with such strict principles;' and uncle answered back, 'i never will try to get on without them,' and left the place for a much harder and poorer one." . "good !" cried several of the boys warmly, for they were in the mood to understand and value the little story as never before. "he wasn't rich, was he?" asked jack. "no." "he never did anything to make a stir in the world, did he?" "no." "he was only good?" "that's all;" and franz found himself wishing that uncle john had done something to boast of, for it was evident that jack was disappointed by his replies. . "only good. that is all and everything," said uncle fritz, who had overheard the last few words, and guessed what was going on in the minds of the lads. "let me tell you a little about john brooke, and you will see why men honor him, and why he was satisfied to be good rather than rich or famous. he simply did his duty in all things, and did it so cheerfully, so faithfully, that it kept him patient, brave, and happy, through poverty and loneliness and years of hard work. . "he was a good son, and gave up his own plans to stay and live with his mother while she needed him. he was a good friend, and taught your uncle laurie much beside his greek and latin, did it unconsciously, perhaps, by showing him an example of an upright man. . "he was a faithful servant, and made himself so valuable to those who employed him that they will find it hard to fill his place. he was a good husband and father, so tender, wise, and thoughtful, that laurie and i learned much of him, and only knew how well he loved his family when we discovered all he had done for them, unsuspected and unassisted." . uncle fritz stopped a minute, and the boys sat like statues in the moonlight until he went on again, in a subdued and earnest voice: "as he lay dying, i said to him, 'have no care for your wife and the little ones; i will see that they never want.' then he smiled and pressed my hand, and answered, in his cheerful way, 'no need of that; i have cared for them.' . "and so he had, for when we looked among his papers, all was in order,--not a debt remained; and safely put away was enough to keep his wife comfortable and independent. then we knew why he had lived so plainly, denied himself so many pleasures, except that of charity, and worked so hard that i fear he shortened his good life. . "he never asked help for himself, though often for others, but bore his own burden and worked out his own task bravely and quietly. no one can say a word of complaint against him, so just and generous and kind was he; and now, when he is gone, all find so much to love and praise and honor, that i am proud to have been his friend, and would rather leave my children the legacy he leaves his than the largest fortune ever made. . "yes! simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. it lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us. remember that, my boys; and, if you want to earn respect and confidence and love, follow in the footsteps of john brooke." definitions.-- . eu'lo-gy, a speech or writing in praise of the character of a person. cher'ished, supported, nurtured with care. . ap-pre'ci-at-ed (pro. ap-pre'shi-at-ed), valued justly. . con--sci-en'tious (pro. kon-shi-en'shus), governed by a strict regard to the rules of right and wrong. . mood, state of mind, disposition. . sub-dued', reduced to tenderness, softened. . in-de-pend'ent, not relying on others. . leg'a-cy, a gift by will, a bequest. . cap'i-tal stock employed in any business. lxxxviii. the inchcape rock. robert southey was a celebrated english poet, born , who once held the honorable position of poet laureate. he wrote a great deal both in prose and verse. he died in . . no stir in the air, no stir in the sea, the ship was as still as she could be, her sails from heaven received no motion, her keel was steady in the ocean. . without either sign or sound of their shock the waves flowed over the inchcape rock; so little they rose, so little they fell, they did not move the inchcape bell. . the good old abbot of aberbrothok had placed that bell on the lnchcape rock; on a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, and over the waves its warning rung. . when the rock was hid by the surges' swell, the mariners heard the warning bell; and then they knew the perilous rock, and blest the abbot of aberbrothok. . the sun in heaven was shining gay, all things were joyful on that day; the sea birds screamed as they wheeled round, and there was joyance in their sound. . the buoy of the inchcape bell was seen a darker speck on the ocean green; sir ralph the rover walked his deck, and he fixed his eye on the darker speck. . he felt the cheering power of spring, it made him whistle, it made him sing; his heart was mirthful to excess, but the rover's mirth was wickedness. . his eye was on the inchcape float; quoth he, "my men put out the boat, and row me to the inchcape rock, and i'll plague the abbot of aberbrothok." . the boat is lowered, the boatmen row, and to the inchcape rock they go; sir ralph bent over from the boat, and he cut the bell from the inchcape float. . down sunk the bell, with a gurgling sound, the bubbles rose and burst around; quoth sir ralph, "the next who comes to the rock, won't bless the abbot of aberbrothok." . sir ralph the rover sailed away, he scoured the seas for many a day; and now grown rich with plundered store, he steers his course for scotland's shore. . so thick a haze o'erspreads the sky they can not see the sun on high; the wind hath blown a gale all day, at evening it hath died away. . on the deck the rover takes his stand, so dark it is they see no land. quoth sir ralph, "it will be lighter soon, for there is the dawn of the rising moon." . "canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar? for methinks we should be near the shore." "now where we are i can not tell, but i wish i could hear the inchcape bell." . they hear no sound, the swell is strong; though the wind hath fallen, they drift along, till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock: cried they, "it is the inchcape rock!" . sir ralph the rover tore his hair, he curst himself in his despair; the waves rush in on every side, the ship is sinking beneath the tide. . but even in his dying fear one dreadful sound could the rover hear, a sound as if with the inchcape bell the fiends below were ringing his knell. definitions.--l. keel, the principal timber in a ship, extending from bow to stern, at the bottom. . buoy (pro. bwoi) a float-ing mark to point out the position of rocks, etc., beneath the water. . surge, a large wave. . joy'ance, gayety. . scoured, roved over, ranged about. store, that which is massed together. . me-thinks', it seems to me. . fiends (pro. fends). evil spirits. knell (pro. nel), the stroke of a bell rung at a funeral or at the death of a person. notes.--the above poem was written at bristol, england, in , and recounts an old tradition. . the inchcape rock is at the entrance of the frith of tay, scotland, about fifteen miles from shore. lxxxix. my mother's grave. ( ) . it was thirteen years since my mother's death, when, after a long absence from my native village, i stood beside the sacred mound beneath which i had seen her buried. since that mournful period, a great change had come over me. my childish years had passed away, and with them my youthful character. the world was altered, too; and as i stood at my mother's grave, i could hardly realize that i was the same thoughtless, happy creature, whose checks she so often kissed in an excess of tenderness. . but the varied events of thirteen years had not effaced the remembrance of that mother's smile. it seemed as if i had seen her but yesterday--as if the blessed sound of her well-remembered voice was in my ear. the gay dreams of my infancy and childhood were brought back so distinctly to my mind that, had it not been for one bitter recollection, the tears i shed would have been gentle and refreshing. . the circumstance may seem a trifling one, but the thought of it now pains my heart; and i relate it, that those children who have parents to love them may learn to value them as they ought. my mother had been ill a long time, and i had become so accustomed to her pale face and weak voice, that i was not frightened at them, as children usually are. at first, it is true, i sobbed violently; but when, day after day, i returned from school, and found her the same, i began to believe she would always be spared to me; but they told me she would die. . one day when i had lost my place in the class, i came home discouraged and fretful. i went to my mother's chamber. she was paler than usual, but she met me with the same affectionate smile that always welcomed my return. alas! when i look back through the lapse of thirteen years, i think my heart must have been stone not to have been melted by it. she requested me to go downstairs and bring her a glass of water. i pettishly asked her why she did not call a domestic to do it. with a look of mild reproach, which i shall never forget if i live to be a hundred years old, she said, "will not my daughter bring a glass of water for her poor, sick mother?" . i went and brought her the water, but i did not do it kindly. instead of smiling, and kissing her as i had been wont to do, i set the glass down very quickly, and left the room. after playing a short time, i went to bed without bidding my mother good night; but when alone in my room, in darkness and silence, i remembered how pale she looked, and how her voice trembled when she said, "will not my daughter bring a glass of water for her poor, sick mother?" i could not sleep. i stole into her chamber to ask forgiveness. she had sunk into an easy slumber, and they told me i must not waken her. . i did not tell anyone what troubled me, but stole back to my bed, resolved to rise early in the morning and tell her how sorry i was for my conduct. the sun was shining brightly when i awoke, and, hurrying on my clothes, i hastened to my mother's chamber. she was dead! she never spoke more--never smiled upon me again; and when i touched the hand that used to rest upon my head in blessing, it was so cold that it made me start. . i bowed down by her side, and sobbed in the bitterness of my heart. i then wished that i might die, and be buried with her; and, old as i now am, i would give worlds, were they mine to give, could my mother but have lived to tell me she forgave my childish ingratitude. but i can not call her back; and when i stand by her grave, and whenever i think of her manifold kindness, the memory of that reproachful look she gave me will bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. xc. a mother's gift-the bible. ( ) . remember, love, who gave thee this, when other days shall come, when she who had thine earliest kiss, sleeps in her narrow home. remember! 'twas a mother gave the gift to one she'd die to save! . that mother sought a pledge of love, the holiest for her son, and from the gifts of god above, she chose a goodly one; she chose for her beloved boy, the source of light, and life, and joy. . she bade him keep the gift, that, when the parting hour should come, they might have hope to meet again in an eternal home. she said his faith in this would be sweet incense to her memory. . and should the scoffer, in his pride, laugh that fond faith to scorn, and bid him cast the pledge aside, that he from youth had borne, she bade him pause, and ask his breast if she or he had loved him best. . a parent's blessing on her son goes with this holy thing; the love that would retain the one, must to the other cling. remember! 'tis no idle toy: a mother's gift! remember, boy. definitions.-- . pledge, proof, evidence. . in'cense, some-thing offered in honor of anyone. faith, belief . scoff'er, one who laughs at what is good. practical grammar and composition by thomas wood, a.m., ll.b. the braddock (pennsylvania) high school d. appleton and company new york chicago preface this book was begun as a result of the author's experience in teaching some classes in english in the night preparatory department of the carnegie technical schools of pittsburg. the pupils in those classes were all adults, and needed only such a course as would enable them to express themselves in clear and correct english. english grammar, with them, was not to be preliminary to the grammar of another language, and composition was not to be studied beyond the everyday needs of the practical man. great difficulty was experienced because of inability to secure a text that was suited to the needs of the class. a book was needed that would be simple, direct and dignified; that would cover grammar, and the essential principles of sentence structure, choice of words, and general composition; that would deal particularly with the sources of frequent error, and would omit the non-essential points; and, finally that would contain an abundance of exercises and practical work. it is with these ends in view that this book has been prepared. the parts devoted to grammar have followed a plan varying widely from that of most grammars, and an effort has been made to secure a more sensible and effective treatment. the parts devoted to composition contain brief expositions of only the essential principles of ordinary composition. especial stress has been laid upon letter-writing, since this is believed to be one of the most practical fields for actual composition work. because such a style seemed best suited to the general scheme and purpose of the book, the method of treatment has at times been intentionally rather formal. abundant and varied exercises have been incorporated at frequent intervals throughout the text. so far as was practicable the exercises have been kept constructive in their nature, and upon critical points have been made very extensive. the author claims little credit except for the plan of the book and for the labor that he has expended in developing the details of that plan and in devising the various exercises. in the statement of principles and in the working out of details great originality would have been as undesirable as it was impossible. therefore, for these details the author has drawn from the great common stores of learning upon the subjects discussed. no doubt many traces of the books that he has used in study and in teaching may be found in this volume. he has, at times, consciously adapted matter from other texts; but, for the most part, such slight borrowings as may be discovered have been made wholly unconsciously. among the books to which he is aware of heavy literary obligations are the following excellent texts: lockwood and emerson's composition and rhetoric, sherwin cody's errors in composition, a. h. espenshade's composition and rhetoric, edwin c. woolley's handbook of composition, mclean, blaisdell and morrow's steps in english, huber gray buehler's practical exercises in english, and carl c. marshall's business english. to messrs. ginn and company, publishers of lockwood and emerson's composition and rhetoric, and to the goodyear-marshall publishing company, publishers of marshall's business english, the author is indebted for their kind permission to make a rather free adaptation of certain parts of their texts. not a little gratitude does the author owe to those of his friends who have encouraged and aided him in the preparation of his manuscript, and to the careful criticisms and suggestions made by those persons who examined the completed manuscript in behalf of his publishers. above all, a great debt of gratitude is owed to mr. grant norris, superintendent of schools, braddock, pennsylvania, for the encouragement and painstaking aid he has given both in preparation of the manuscript and in reading the proof of the book. t.w. braddock, pennsylvania. contents chapter i.--sentences--parts of speech--elements of sentence--phrases and clauses ii.--nouns common and proper inflection defined number the formation of plurals compound nouns case the formation of the possessive case gender iii.--pronouns agreement with antecedents person gender rules governing gender number compound antecedents relative interrogative case forms rules governing use of cases compound personal compound relative adjective miscellaneous cautions iv.--adjectives and adverbs comparison confusion of adjectives and adverbs improper forms of adjectives errors in comparison singular and plural adjectives placing of adverbs and adjectives double negatives the articles v.--verbs principal parts name-form past tense past participle transitive and intransitive verbs active and passive voice mode forms of the subjunctive use of indicative and subjunctive agreement of verb with its subject rules governing agreement of the verb miscellaneous cautions use of _shall_ and _will_ use of _should_ and _would_ use of _may_ and _might_, _can_ and _could_ participles and gerunds misuses of participles and gerunds infinitives sequence of infinitive tenses split infinitives agreement of verb in clauses omission of verb or parts of verb model conjugations _to be_ _to see_ vi.--connectives: relative pronouns, relative adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions independent and dependent clauses case and number of relative and interrogative pronouns conjunctive or relative adverbs conjunctions placing of correlatives prepositions questions for the review of grammar a general exercise on grammar vii.--sentences loose periodic balanced sentence length the essential qualities of a sentence unity coherence emphasis euphony viii.--capitalization and punctuation rules for capitalization rules for punctuation ix.--the paragraph length paragraphing of speech indentation of the paragraph essential qualities of the paragraph unity coherence emphasis x.--letter-writing heading inside address salutation body of the letter close miscellaneous directions outside address correctly written letters notes in the third person xi.--the whole composition statement of subject the outline the beginning essential qualities of the whole composition unity coherence the ending illustrative examples lincoln's _gettysburg speech_ selection from _cranford_ list of books for reading xii.--words--spelling--pronunciation words good use offenses against good use solecisms barbarisms improprieties idioms choice of words how to improve one's vocabulary spelling pronunciation glossary of miscellaneous errors practical grammar and composition * * * * * chapter i sentences.--parts of speech.--elements of the sentence.--phrases and clauses . in thinking we arrange and associate ideas and objects together. words are the symbols of ideas or objects. a sentence is a group of words that expresses a single complete thought. . sentences are of four kinds: . declarative; a sentence that tells or declares something; as, _that book is mine_. . imperative; a sentence that expresses a command; as, _bring me that book_. . interrogative; a sentence that asks a question; as, _is that book mine?_ . exclamatory; a declarative, imperative, or interrogative sentence that expresses violent emotion, such as terror, surprise, or anger; as, _you shall take that book!_ or, _can that book be mine?_ . parts of speech. words have different uses in sentences. according to their uses, words are divided into classes called parts of speech. the parts of speech are as follows: . noun; a word used as the name of something; as, _man, box, pittsburgh, harry, silence, justice_. . pronoun; a word used instead of a noun; as, _i, he, it, that._ nouns, pronouns, or groups of words that are used as nouns or pronouns, are called by the general term, substantives. . adjective; a word used to limit or qualify the meaning of a noun or a pronoun; as, _good, five, tall, many_. the words _a, an_, and _the_ are words used to modify nouns or pronouns. they are adjectives, but are usually called articles. . verb; a word used to state something about some person or thing; as, _do, see, think, make_. . adverb; a word used to modify the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb; as, _very, slowly, clearly, often_. . preposition; a word used to join a substantive, as a modifier, to some other preceding word, and to show the relation of the substantive to that word; as, _by, in, between, beyond_. . conjunction; a word used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences; as, _and, but, if, although, or_. . interjection; a word used to express surprise or emotion; as, _oh! alas! hurrah! bah!_ sometimes a word adds nothing to the meaning of the sentence, but helps to fill out its form or sound, and serves as a device to alter its natural order. such a word is called an expletive. in the following sentence _there_ is an expletive: _there are no such books in print_. . a sentence is made up of distinct parts or elements. the essential or principal elements are the subject and the predicate. the subject of a sentence is the part which mentions that about which something is said. the predicate is the part which states that which is said about the subject. _man walks_. in this sentence, _man_ is the subject, and _walks_ is the predicate. the subject may be simple or modified; that is, may consist of the subject alone, or of the subject with its modifiers. the same is true of the predicate. thus, in the sentence, _man walks_, there is a simple subject and a simple predicate. in the sentence, _the good man walks very rapidly_, there is a modified subject and a modified predicate. there may be, also, more than one subject connected with the same predicate; as, _the man and the woman walk_. this is called a compound subject. a compound predicate consists of more than one predicate used with the same subject; as, _the man both walks and runs_. . besides the principal elements in a sentence, there are subordinate elements. these are the attribute complement, the object complement, the adjective modifier, and the adverbial modifier. some verbs, to complete their sense, need to be followed by some other word or group of words. these words which "complement," or complete the meanings of verbs are called complements. the attribute complement completes the meaning of the verb by stating some class, condition, or attribute of the subject; as, _my friend is a student, i am well, the man is good student, well_, and _good_ complete the meanings of their respective verbs, by stating some class, condition, or attribute of the subjects of the verbs. the attribute complement usually follows the verb _be_ or its forms, _is, are, was, will be_, etc. the attribute complement is usually a noun, pronoun, or adjective, although it may be a phrase or clause fulfilling the function of any of these parts of speech. it must not be confused with an adverb or an adverbial modifier. in the sentence, _he is there, there_ is an adverb, not an attribute complement. the verb used with an attribute complement, because such verb _joins_ the subject to its attribute, is called the copula ("to couple") or copulative verb. some verbs require an object to complete their meaning. this object is called the object complement. in the sentence, _i carry a book_, the object, _book_, is required to complete the meaning of the transitive verb _carry_; so, also in the sentences, _i hold the horse_, and _i touch a desk_, the objects _horse_ and _desk_ are necessary to complete the meanings of their respective verbs. these verbs that require objects to complete their meaning are called transitive verbs. adjective and adverbial modifiers may consist simply of adjectives and adverbs, or of phrases and clauses used as adjectives or adverbs. . a phrase is a group of words that is used as a single part of speech and that does not contain a subject and a predicate. a prepositional phrase, always used as either an adjective or an adverbial modifier, consists of a preposition with its object and the modifiers of the object; as, _he lives in pittsburg, mr. smith of this place is the manager of the mill, the letter is in the nearest desk_. there are also verb-phrases. a verb-phrase is a phrase that serves as a verb; as, _i am coming, he shall be told, he ought to have been told_. . a clause is a group of words containing a subject and a predicate; as, _the man that i saw was tall_. the clause, _that i saw_, contains both a subject, _i_, and a predicate, _saw_. this clause, since it merely states something of minor importance in the sentence, is called the subordinate clause. the principal clause, the one making the most important assertion, is, _the man was tall_. clauses may be used as adjectives, as adverbs, and as nouns. a clause used as a noun is called a substantive clause. examine the following examples: adjective clause: the book _that i want_ is a history. adverbial clause: he came _when he had finished with the work_. noun clause as subject: _that i am here_ is true. noun clause as object: he said _that i was mistaken_. . sentences, as to their composition, are classified as follows: simple; a sentence consisting of a single statement; as, _the man walks_. complex; a sentence consisting of one principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses; as, _the man that i saw is tall_. compound; a sentence consisting of two or more clauses of equal importance connected by conjunctions expressed or understood; as, _the man is tall and walks rapidly_, and _watch the little things; they are important_. exercise i _in this and in all following exercises, be able to give the reason for everything you do and for every conclusion you reach. only intelligent and reasoning work is worth while. in the following list of sentences: ( ) determine the part of speech of every word. ( ) determine the unmodified subject and the unmodified predicate; and the modified subject and the modified predicate. ( ) pick out every attribute complement and every object complement. ( ) pick out every phrase and determine whether it is a prepositional phrase or a verb-phrase. if it is a prepositional phrase, determine whether it is used as an adjective or as an adverb. ( ) determine the principal and the subordinate clauses. if they are subordinate clauses, determine whether they are used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. ( ) classify every sentence as simple, complex, or compound._ . houses are built of wood, brick, stone, and other materials, and are constructed in various styles. . the path of glory leads but to the grave. . we gladly accepted the offer which he made. . i am nearly ready, and shall soon join you. . there are few men who do not try to be honest. . men may come, and men may go, but i go on forever. . he works hard, and rests little. . she is still no better, but we hope that there will be a change. . let each speak for himself. . it was i who told him to go. . to live an honest life should be the aim of every one. . who it really was no one knew, but all believed it to have been him. . in city and in country people think very differently. . to be or not to be, that is the question. . in truth, i think that i saw a brother of his in that place. . by a great effort he managed to make headway against the current. . beyond this, i have nothing to say. . that we are never too old to learn is a true saying. . full often wished he that the wind might rage. . lucky is he who has been educated to bear his fate. . it is i whom you see. . the study of history is a study that demands a well-trained memory. . beyond the city limits the trains run more rapidly than they do here. . alas! i can travel no more. . a lamp that smokes is a torture to one who wants to study. exercise ( ) _write a list of six examples of every part of speech._ ( ) _write eight sentences, each containing an attribute complement. use adjectives, nouns, and pronouns._ ( ) _write eight sentences, each containing an object complement._ ( ) _write five sentences, in each using some form of the verb to be, followed by an adverbial modifier._ chapter ii nouns . a noun has been defined as a word used as the name of something. it may be the name of a person, a place, a thing, or of some abstract quality, such as, _justice_ or _truth_. . common and proper nouns. a proper noun is a noun that names some particular or special place, person, people, or thing. a proper noun should always begin with a capital letter; as, _english, rome, jews, john_. a common noun is a general or class name. . inflection defined. the variation in the forms of the different parts of speech to show grammatical relation, is called inflection. though there is some inflection in english, grammatical relation is usually shown by position rather than by inflection. the noun is inflected to show number, case, and gender. . number is that quality of a word which shows whether it refers to one or to more than one. singular number refers to one. plural number refers to more than one. . plurals of singular nouns are formed according to the following rules: . most nouns add _s_ to the singular; as, _boy, boys; stove, stoves_. . nouns ending in _s, ch, sh_, or _x_, add _es_ to the singular; as, _fox, foxes; wish, wishes; glass, glasses; coach, coaches_. . nouns ending in _y_ preceded by a vowel (_a, e, i, o, u_) add _s_; as, _valley, valleys_, (_soliloquy, soliloquies_ and _colloquy, colloquies_ are exceptions). when _y_ is preceded by a consonant (any letter other than a vowel), _y_ is changed to _i_ and _es_ is added; as, _army, armies; pony, ponies; sty, sties_. . most nouns ending in _f_ or _fe_ add _s_, as, _scarf, scarfs; safe, safes_. a few change _f_ or _fe_ to _v_ and add _es_; as, _wife, wives; self, selves_. the others are: _beef, calf, elf, half, leaf, loaf, sheaf, shelf, staff, thief, wharf, wolf, life_. (_wharf_ has also a plural, _wharfs_.) . most nouns ending in _o_ add _s_; as, _cameo, cameos_. a number of nouns ending in _o_ preceded by a consonant add _es_; as, _volcano, volcanoes_. the most important of the latter class are: _buffalo, cargo, calico, echo, embargo, flamingo, hero, motto, mulatto, negro, potato, tomato, tornado, torpedo, veto_. . letters, figures, characters, etc., add the apostrophe and _s_ (_'s_); as, _ 's, c's, t's, that's_. . the following common words always form their plurals in an irregular way; as, _man, men; ox, oxen; goose, geese; woman, women; foot, feet; mouse, mice; child, children; tooth, teeth; louse, lice_. compound nouns are those formed by the union of two words, either two nouns or a noun joined to some descriptive word or phrase. . the principal noun of a compound noun, whether it precedes or follows the descriptive part, is in most cases the noun that changes in forming the plural; as, _mothers-in-law, knights-errant, mouse-traps_. in a few compound words, both parts take a plural form; as, _man-servant, men-servants; knight-templar, knights-templars_. . proper names and titles generally form plurals in the same way as do other nouns; as, _senators webster and clay, the three henrys_. abbreviations of titles are little used in the plural, except _messrs._ (_mr._), and _drs._ (_dr._). . in forming the plurals of proper names where a title is used, either the title or the name may be put in the plural form. sometimes both are made plural; as, _miss brown, the misses brown, the miss browns, the two mrs. browns_. . some nouns are the same in both the singular and the plural; as, _deer, series, means, gross_, etc. . some nouns used in two senses have two plural forms. the most important are the following: brother _brothers_ (by blood) _brethren_ (by association) cloth _cloths_ (kinds of cloth) _clothes_ (garments) die _dies_ (for coinage) _dice_ (for games) fish _fishes_ (separately) _fish_ (collectively) genius _geniuses_ (men of genius) _genii_ (imaginary beings) head _heads_ (of the body) _head_ (of cattle) index _indexes_ (of books) _indices_ (in algebra) pea _peas_ (separately) _pease_ (collectively) penny _pennies_ (separately) _pence_ (collectively) sail _sails_ (pieces of canvas) _sail_ (number of vessels) shot _ shots_ (number of discharges) _shot_ (number of balls) . nouns from foreign languages frequently retain in the plural the form that they have in the language from which they are taken; as, _focus, foci; terminus, termini; alumnus, alumni; datum, data; stratum, strata; formula, formulÂ�; vortex, vortices; appendix, appendices; crisis, crises; oasis, oases; axis, axes; phenomenon, phenomena; automaton, automata; analysis, analyses; hypothesis, hypotheses; medium, media; vertebra, vertebrÂ�; ellipsis, ellipses; genus, genera; fungus, fungi; minimum, minima; thesis, theses_. exercise _write the plural, if any, of every singular noun in the following list; and the singular, if any, of every plural noun. note those having no singular and those having no plural_. news, goods, thanks, scissors, proceeds, puppy, studio, survey, attorney, arch, belief, chief, charity, half, hero, negro, majority, mary, vortex, memento, joy, lily, knight-templar, knight-errant, why, , x, son-in-law, miss smith, mr. anderson, country-man, hanger-on, major-general, oxen, geese, man-servant, brethren, strata, sheep, mathematics, pride, money, pea, head, piano, veto, knives, ratios, alumni, feet, wolves, president, sailor-boy, spoonful, rope-ladder, grandmother, attorney-general, cupful, go-between. _when in doubt respecting the form of any of the above, consult an unabridged dictionary._ . case. there are three cases in english: the nominative, the possessive, and the objective. the nominative case; the form used in address and as the subject of a verb. the objective case; the form used as the object of a verb or a preposition. it is always the same in form as is the nominative. since no error in grammar can arise in the use of the nominative or the objective cases of nouns, no further discussion of these cases is here needed. the possessive case; the form used to show ownership. in the forming of this case we have inflection. . the following are the rules for the forming of the possessive case: . most nouns form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and _s_ (_'s_); as, _man, man's; men, men's; pupil, pupil's; john, john's_. . plural nouns ending in _s_ form the possessive by adding only the apostrophe ('); as, _persons, persons'; writers, writers'_. in stating possession in the plural, then one should say: _carpenters' tools sharpened here, odd fellows' wives are invited_, etc. . some singular nouns ending in an _s_ sound form the possessive by adding the apostrophe alone; as, _for appearance' sake, for goodness' sake_. but usage inclines to the adding of the apostrophe and _s_ (_'s_) even if the singular noun does end in an _s_ sound; as, _charles's book, frances's dress, the mistress's dress_. . when a compound noun, or a group of words treated as one name, is used to denote possession, the sign of the possessive is added to the last word only; as, _charles and john's mother_ (the mother of both charles and john), _brown and smith's store_ (the store of the firm brown & smith). . where the succession of possessives is unpleasant or confusing, the substitution of a prepositional phrase should be made; as, _the house of the mother of charles's partner_, instead of, _charles's partner's mother's house_. . the sign of the possessive should be used with the word immediately preceding the word naming the thing possessed; as, _father and mother's house, smith, the lawyer's, office, the senator from utah's seat_. . generally, nouns representing inanimate objects should not be used in the possessive case. it is better to say _the hands of the clock_ than _the clock's hands_. note.--one should say _somebody else's_, not _somebody's else_. the expression _somebody else_ always occurs in the one form, and in such cases the sign of the possessive should be added to the last word. similarly, say, _no one else's, everybody else's_, etc. exercise _write the possessives of the following:_ oxen, ox, brother-in-law, miss jones, goose, man, men, men-servants, man-servant, maine, dogs, attorneys-at-law, jackson & jones, john the student, my friend john, coat, shoe, boy, boys, mayor of cleveland. exercise _write sentences illustrating the use of the possessives you have formed for the first ten words under exercise ._ exercise _change the following expressions from the prepositional phrase form to the possessive:_ . the ships of germany and france. . the garden of his mother and sister. . the credit of jackson & jones. . the signature of the president of the firm. . the coming of my grandfather. . the lives of our friends. . the dog of both john and william. . the dog of john and the dog of william. . the act of anybody else. . the shortcomings of alice. . the poems of robert burns. . the wives of henry the eighth. . the home of mary and martha. . the novels of dickens and the novels of scott. . the farm of my mother and of my father. . the recommendation of superintendent norris. exercise _correct such of the following expressions as need correction. if apostrophes are omitted, insert them in the proper places:_ . he walked to the precipices edge. . both john and william's books were lost. . they sell boy's hats and mens' coats. . my friends' umbrella was stolen. . i shall buy a hat at wanamaker's & brown's. . this student's lessons. . these students books. . my daughters coming. . john's wife's cousin. . my son's wife's aunt. . five years imprisonment under texas's law. . john's books and williams. . the democrat's and republican convention. . france's and england's interests differ widely. . the moons' face was hidden. . wine is made from the grape's juice. . morton, the principals, signature. . jones & smith, the lawyers, office. . gender. gender in grammar is the quality of nouns or pronouns that denotes the sex of the person or thing represented. those nouns or pronouns meaning males are in the masculine gender. those meaning females are in the feminine gender. those referring to things without sex are in the neuter gender. in nouns gender is of little consequence. the only regular inflection is the addition of the syllable-_ess_ to certain masculine nouns to denote the change to the feminine gender; as, _author, authoress; poet, poetess_. -i_x_ is also sometimes added for the same purpose; as, _administrator, administratrix_. the feminine forms were formerly much used, but their use is now being discontinued, and the noun of masculine gender used to designate both sexes. chapter iii pronouns . pronoun and antecedent. a pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. the noun in whose stead it stands is called its antecedent. _john took mary's book and gave it to his friend_. in this sentence _book_ is the antecedent of the pronoun _it_, and _john_ is the antecedent of _his_. . pronouns should agree with their antecedents in person, gender, and number. . personal pronouns are those that by their form indicate the speaker, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken about. pronouns of the first person indicate the speaker; they are: _i, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours_. pronouns of the second person indicate the person or thing spoken to; they are: _you, your, yours_. there are also the grave or solemn forms in the second person, which are now little used; these are: _thou, thee, thy, thine_, and _ye_. pronouns of the third person indicate the person or thing spoken of; they are: _he, his, him, she, her, hers, they, their, theirs, them, it, its_. few errors are made in the use of the proper person of the pronoun. . gender of pronouns. the following pronouns indicate sex or gender; masculine: _he, his, him_. feminine: _she, her, hers_. neuter: _it, its_. in order to secure agreement in gender it is necessary to know the gender of the noun, expressed or understood, to which the pronoun refers. gender of nouns is important only so far as it concerns the use of pronouns. study carefully the following rules in regard to gender. these rules apply to the singular number only, since all plurals of whatever gender are referred to by _they, their, theirs_, etc. the following rules govern the gender of pronouns: masculine; referred to by _he, his_, and _him_: . nouns denoting males are always masculine. . nouns denoting things remarkable for strength, power, sublimity, or size, when those things are regarded as if they were persons, are masculine; _as, winter, with his chilly army, destroyed them all_. . singular nouns denoting persons of both sexes are masculine; as, _every one brought his umbrella_. feminine; referred to by _she, her_, or _hers_: . nouns denoting females are always feminine. . nouns denoting objects remarkable for beauty, gentleness, and peace, when spoken of as if they were persons, are feminine; as, _sleep healed him with her fostering care_. neuter; referred to by _it_ and _its_: . nouns denoting objects without sex are neuter. . nouns denoting objects whose sex is disregarded are neuter; as, _it is a pretty child, the wolf is the most savage of its race_. . collective nouns referring to a group of individuals as a unit are neuter; as, _the jury gives its verdict, the committee makes its report_. an animal named may be regarded as masculine; feminine, or neuter, according to the characteristics the writer fancies it to possess; as, _the wolf seeks his prey, the mouse nibbled her way into the box, the bird seeks its nest. certain nouns may be applied to persons of either sex. they are then said to be of common gender. there are no pronouns of common gender; hence those nouns are referred to as follows: . by masculine pronouns when known to denote males; as, _my class-mate_ (known to be harry) _is taking his examinations_. . by feminine pronouns when known to denote females; as, _each of the pupils of the girls high school brought her book._ . by masculine pronouns when there is nothing in the connection of the thought to show the sex of the object; as, _let every person bring his book_. . number of pronouns. a more common source of error than disagreement in gender is disagreement in number. _they, their, theirs_, and _them_ are plural, but are often improperly used when only singular pronouns should be used. the cause of the error is failure to realize the true antecedent. _if anybody makes that statement, they are misinformed_. this sentence is wrong. _anybody_ refers to only one person; both _any_ and _body_, the parts of the word, denote the singular. the sentence should read, _if anybody makes that statement, he is misinformed. similarly, _let everybody keep their peace_, should read, _let everybody keep his peace. . compound antecedents. two or more antecedents connected by _or_ or _nor_ are frequently referred to by the plural when the singular should be used. _neither john nor james brought their books_, should read, _neither john nor james brought his books_. when a pronoun has two or more singular antecedents connected by _or_ or _nor_, the pronoun must be in the singular number; but if one of the antecedents is plural, the pronoun must, also, be in the plural; as, _neither the mormon nor his wives denied their religion_. when a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by _and_, the pronoun must be in the plural number; as, _john and james brought their books_. further treatment of number will be given under verbs. exercise _fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the proper pronouns. see that there is agreement in person, gender, and number:_ . has everybody finished ---- work. . if any one wishes a longer time, let ---- hold up ---- hand. . the panther sprang from ---- lurking place. . many a man has (have) lost ---- money in speculation. . the cat came each day for ---- bit of meat. . everyone has to prove ---- right to a seat. . let every boy answer for ---- self (selves). . the crowd was so great that we could hardly get through ----. . let any boy guess this riddle if ---- can. . company h was greatly reduced in ---- numbers. . every animal has some weapon with which ---- can defend ----self (selves). . nowhere does each dare do as ---- pleases (please). . the elephant placed ---- great foot on the man's chest. . the child did not know ---- mother. . death gathers ---- unfailing harvest. . every kind of animal has ---- natural enemies. . the committee instructed ---- chairman to report the matter. . two men were present, but neither would tell what ---- saw. . truth always triumphs over ---- enemies. . nobody did ---- duty more readily than i. . the cat never fails to catch ---- prey. . i have used both blue crayon and red crayon, but ---- does (do) not write so clearly as white. . if john and henry whisper (whispers) ---- will be punished. . if john or henry whisper (whispers) ---- will be punished. . both columbus and cabot failed to realize the importance of ---- discoveries. . neither the lawyer nor the sheriff liked ---- task. . the canary longed to escape from ---- cage. . the rat ran to ---- hole. . the dog seemed to know ---- master was dead. . everyone should try to gather a host of friends about ----. . if any one wishes to see me, send ---- to the pierce building. . probably everybody is discouraged at least once in ---- life. . nobody should deceive ----selves (self). . let each take ---- own seat. . let each girl in the class bring ---- book. . let each bring ---- book. . let each bring ---- sewing. . the fox dropped ---- meat in the pool. . the rock lay on ---- side. . let sleep enter with ---- healing touch. . each believed that ---- had been elected a delegate to the mother's congress. . consumption demands each year ---- thousands of victims. . summer arrays ----self (selves) with flowers. . despair seized him in ---- powerful grasp. . if any boy or any girl finds the book, let ---- bring it to me. . let every man and every woman speak ----mind. . spring set forth ---- beauties. . how does the mouse save ---- self (selves) from being caught? . the hen cackled ---- loudest. . some man or boy lost ---- hat. . john or james will favor us with ---- company. . neither the captain nor the soldiers showed ----self (selves) during the fight. . if the boys or their father come we shall be glad to see ----. . every man and every boy received ---- dinner. . every man or boy gave ---- offering. exercise _by what gender of the pronouns would you refer to the following nouns?_ snake, death, care, mercy, fox, bear, walrus, child, baby, friend (uncertain sex), friend (known to be mary), everybody, someone, artist, flower, moon, sun, sorrow, fate, student, foreigner, harvard university, earth, germany? . relative pronouns. relative pronouns are pronouns used to introduce adjective or noun clauses that are not interrogative. in the sentence, _the man that i mentioned has come_, the relative clause, _that i mentioned_, is an adjective clause modifying _man_. in the sentence, _whom she means, i do not know_, the relative clause is, _whom she means_, and is a noun clause forming the object of the verb _know_. the relative pronouns are _who_ (_whose, whom_), _which, that_ and _what_. _but_ and _as_ are sometimes relative pronouns. there are, also, compound relative pronouns, which will be mentioned later. . _who_ (with its possessive and objective forms, _whose_ and _whom_) should be used when the antecedent denotes persons. when the antecedent denotes things or animals, _which_ should be used. _that_ may be used with antecedents denoting persons, animals or things, and is the proper relative to use when the antecedent includes both persons and things. _what_, when used as a relative, seldom properly refers to persons. it always introduces a substantive clause, and is equivalent to _that which_; as, _it is what (that which) he wants_. . _that_ is known as the restrictive relative, because it should be used whenever the relative clause limits the substantive, unless _who_ or _which_ is of more pleasing sound in the sentence. in the sentence, _he is the man that did the act_, the relative clause, _that did the act_, defines what is meant by man; without the relative clause the sentence clearly would be incomplete. similarly, in the sentence, _the book that i want is that red-backed history_, the restrictive relative clause is, _that i want_, and limits the application of _book_. . _who_ and _which_ are known as the explanatory or non-restrictive relatives, and should be used ordinarily only to introduce relative clauses which add some new thought to the author's principal thought. _spanish, which is the least complex language, is the easiest to learn_. in this sentence the principal thought is, _spanish is the easiest language to learn_. the relative clause, _which is the least complex language_, is a thought, which, though not fully so important as the principal thought, is more nearly coördinate than subordinate in its value. it adds an additional thought of the speaker explaining the character of the spanish language. when _who_ and _which_ are thus used as explanatory relatives, we see that the relative clause may be omitted without making the sentence incomplete. compare the following sentences: explanatory relative clause: that book, _which is about history_, has a red cover. restrictive relative clause: the book _that is about history_ has a red cover. explanatory relative clause: lincoln, _who was one of the world's greatest men_, was killed by booth. restrictive relative clause: the lincoln _that was killed by booth_ was one of the world's greatest men. note.--see § , for rule as to the punctuation of relative clauses. . interrogative pronouns. an interrogative pronoun is a pronoun used to ask a question. the interrogative pronouns are, _who_ (_whose, whom_), _which_, and _what_. in respect to antecedents, _who_ should be used only in reference to persons; _which_ and _what_ may be used with any antecedent, persons, animals, or things. exercise _choose the proper relative or interrogative pronoun to be inserted in each of the following sentences. insert commas where they are needed._ (_see_ § ): . the kindly physician ---- was so greatly loved is dead. . this is the man ---- all are praising. . john ---- is my coachman is sick. . the intelligence ---- he displayed was remarkable. . intelligence ---- he had hitherto not manifested now showed its presence. . he maintains that the book ---- you used is now ruined. (does _which_ or _that_ have the more pleasing sound here?) . the pleasure ---- education gives the man ---- has it is a sufficient reward for the trouble ---- it has cost. . that man ---- wears a cap is a foreigner. . the best hotel is the one ---- is nearest the station. . who is it ---- is worthy of that honor? . the carriages and the drivers ---- you ordered yesterday have arrived. . ---- thing is it ---- you want? . he purchased ---- he wished. . there is no cloud ---- has not its silver lining. . it is the same dog ---- i bought. . the man and horse ---- you see pass here every afternoon. . ---- did they seek? . they inquired ---- he was going to do. . who was it ---- lost the book? . the man ---- was a frenchman was very much excited. . it is neither the party nor its candidate ---- gains support. . that is a characteristic ---- makes him seem almost rude. . it is the same tool ---- i used all day. . he is a man ---- inspires little confidence. . ---- does he expect of us? . it is just such a thing ---- i need. . there are few ---- will vote for him. . the wagon and children ---- you just saw came from our town. . he ---- writes out his lesson does all ---- can be expected. . was it you or the cat ---- made that noise? . it is the same song ---- he always sings. . such ---- i have is yours. . all the men and horses ---- we had were lost. . that is ---- pleased me most and ---- everyone talked about. . the horse was one ---- i had never ridden before. . that is ---- everyone said. . case forms of pronouns. some personal, relative, and interrogative pronouns have distinctive forms for the different cases, and the failure to use the proper case forms in the sentence is one of the most frequent sources of error. the case to be used is to be determined by the use which the pronoun, not its antecedent, has in the sentence. in the sentence, _i name him_, note that _him_ is the object of the verb _name_. in the sentence, _whom do you seek_, although coming at the first of the sentence, _whom_ is grammatically the object of the verb _seek_. in the use of pronouns comes the most important need for a knowledge of when to use the different cases. note the following different case forms of pronouns: nominative: _i, we, you, thou, ye, he, she, they, it, who_. objective: _me, us, you, thee, ye, him, her, it, them, whom_. possessive: _my, mine, our, ours, thy, thine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs, whose_. it will be noted that, while some forms are the same in both the nominative and objective cases, _i, we, he, she, they, thou_, and _who_ are only proper where the nominative case should be used. _me, us, him, them, thee, whom_, and _her_, except when _her_ is possessive, are only proper when the objective case is demanded. these forms must be remembered. it is only with these pronouns that mistakes are made in the use of the nominative and objective cases. . the following outline explains the use of the different case forms of the pronouns. the outline should be mastered. the nominative case should be used: . when the noun or pronoun is the subject of a finite verb; that is, a verb other than an infinitive. see under objective case. . when it is an attribute complement. an attribute complement, as explained in chapter i, is a word used in the predicate explaining or stating something about the subject. examples: _it is i, the man was he, the people were they of whom we spoke._ . when it is used without relation to any other part of speech, as in direct address or exclamation. the objective case should be used: . when the noun or pronoun is the object of a verb; as, _he named me, she deceived them, they watch us_. . when it is the object of a preposition, expressed or understood: as, _he spoke of me, for whom do you take me, he told (to) me a story._ . when it is the subject of an infinitive; as, _i told him to go, i desire her to hope_. the infinitives are the parts of the verb preceded by _to_; as, _to go, to see, to be, to have been seen_, etc. the sign of the infinitive, to, is not always expressed. the objective case is, nevertheless, used; as, _let him (to) go, have her (to be) told about it._ . when it is an attribute complement of an expressed subject of the infinitive _to be_; as, _they believed her to be me, he denied it to have been him_. (see note below.) the possessive case should be used: when the word is used as a possessive modifier; as, _they spoke of her being present, the book is his (book), it is their fault._ note i.--when a substantive is placed by the side of another substantive and is used to explain it, it is said to be in apposition with that other substantive and takes the case of that word; as, _it_ was given _to john smith, him whom you see there._ note .--the attribute complement should always have the case of that subject of the verb which is expressed in the sentence. thus, in the sentence, _i could not wish john to be him, him_ is properly in the objective case, since there is an expressed subject of the infinitive, _john_, which is in the objective case. but in the sentence, _i should hate to be he, he_ is properly in the nominative case, since the only subject that is expressed in the sentence is _i_, in the nominative case. note .--where the relative pronoun _who (whom)_ is the subject of a clause that itself is the object clause of a verb or a preposition, it is always in the nominative case. thus the following sentences are both correct: _i delivered it to who owned it, bring home whoever will come with you._ exercise _write sentences illustrating the correct use of each of the following pronouns:_ i, whom, who, we, me, us, they, whose, theirs, them, she, him, he, its, mine, our, thee, thou. exercise _in the following sentences choose the proper form from the words in italics:_ . my brother and _i me_ drove to the east end of the town. . between you and _i me_ things are doubtful. . may james and _i me_ go to the circus? . will you permit james and _i me_ to go to the play? . who made that noise? only _i me_. . he introduced us all, _i me_ among the rest. . he promised to bring candy to helen and _i me_. . was it _i me_ that you asked for? . who spoke? _i me_. . i am taken to be _he him_. . no, it could not have been _me i_. . all have gone but you and _i me_. . you suffer more than _me i_. . everyone has failed in the examination except you and _i me_. . he asked you and _i me_ to come to his office. . see if there is any mail for mary and _me i_. . neither you nor _i me_ can teach the class. . they think it to be _i me_. . this is the student _whom who_ all are praising. . the one that is _he him_ wears a brown hat. . he is a man _who whom_ all admired. . he is one of those men _who whom_ we call snobs. . i did not see that it was _her she_. . it is in fact _he him_. . he still believes it to be _them they_. . between you and _i me_, it is my opinion that _him he_ and john will disagree. . we saw john and _she her_; we know it was _them they_. . i did not speak of either you or _she her_. . our cousins and _we us_ are going to the art gallery. . aunt mary has asked our cousins and _us we_ to take dinner at her house. . they are more eager than _we us_ since they have not seen her for a long time. . it could not have been _we us who whom_ you suspected. . _we us_ boys are going to the ball game. . they sent letters to all _who whom_ they thought would contribute. . this money was given by john _who whom_ you know is very stingy. . the superintendent, _who whom_, i cannot doubt, is responsible for this error, must be discharged. . the teacher told you and _i me_ to stay. . the teacher told you and _him he_ to stay. . the teacher told you and _she her_ to stay. . there are many miles between england and _we us_. . they can't play the game better than _we us_. . it is unpleasant for such as _they them_ to witness such things. . between a teacher and _he him who whom_ he teaches there is sometimes a strong fellowship. . you are nearly as strong as _him he_. . all were present but john and _he him_. . father believed it was _she her_. . mother knew it to be _her she_. . it was either _he him_ or _she her_ that called. . because of _his him_ being young, they tried to shield him. . it was _he him who whom_ the manager said ought to be promoted. . the throne was held by a king _who whom_ historians believe to have been insane. . _who whom_ did he say the man was? . _who whom_ did he say the judge suspected? . _who whom_ do you consider to be the brightest man? . _who whom_ do you think is the brightest man? . he cannot learn from such as _thou thee_. . if they only rob such as _thou thee_, they are honest. . what dost _thou thee_ know? . they do tell _thee thou_ the truth. . she told john and _me i_ to study. . my father allowed my brother and _her she_ to go. . my brother and _she her_ were allowed to go by my father. . turn not away from _him he_ that is needy. . neither frances nor _she her_ was at fault. . the property goes to _they them_. . he thought it was _her she_, but it was _him he_ and william who did it. . it was through _she her_ that word came to _me i_. . i thought it was _her she_. . i wish you were more like _he him_. . i thought it to be _she her_. . it seems to be _he_. i should hate to be _he_. i should like to be _he_ or _she_. (all these sentences are in the correct form.) . he is a man in _whom who_ i have little faith. . you are as skillful as _she her_. . we escorted her mother and _her she_ to the station. . _she her_ and _i me_ are going on the boat. . if any are late it will not be _us we_. . _who whom_ are you going to collect it from? . _who whom_ do men say that he is? . _who whom_ do you think _him he_ to be? . _they them_ and their children have gone abroad. . it was not _they them_. . _who whom_ am i said to be? . i do not know to _who whom_ to direct him. . how can one tell _who whom_ is at home now? . _who whom_ is that for? . choose _who whom_ you please. . do you think _i me_ to be _her she who whom_ you call kate? . some _who whom_ their friends expected were kept away. . give it to _who whom_ seems to want it most. . _who whom_ do you think i saw there? . i hope it was _she her who whom_ we saw. . it could not have been _him he_. . _who whom_ did you say did it? . let _them they_ come at once. . the man on _who whom_ i relied was absent. . i know it was _they them who whom_ did it. . will he let _us we_ go? . it came from _they them who whom_ should not have sent it. . it was not _us we_ from _who whom_ it came. . can it be _she her_? . _thou thee_ art mistaken. . let me tell _thee thou, thee thou_ wilt do wrong. . send _who whom_ wants the pass to me. . tell _who whom_ you choose to come. . is he the man for _who whom_ the city is named? . the book is for _who whom_ needs it. . i do not know _who whom_ the book is for. . the compound personal pronouns are formed by adding _self_ or _selves_ to certain of the objective and possessive personal pronouns; as, _herself, myself, itself, themselves_, etc. they are used to add emphasis to an expression; as, _i, myself, did it, he, himself, said so._ they are also used reflexively after verbs and prepositions; as, _he mentioned himself, he did it for himself_. the compound personal pronouns should generally be confined to their emphatic and reflexive use. do not say, _myself and john will come_, but, _john and i will come_. do not say, _they invited john and myself_, but, _they invited john and me_. the compound personal pronouns have no possessive forms; but for the sake of emphasis _own_ with the ordinary possessive form is used; as, _i have my own book, bring your own work, he has a home of his own._ . there are no such forms as _hisself, your'n, his'n, her'n, theirself, theirselves, their'n_. in place of these use simply _his, her, their_, or _your_. exercise _write sentences illustrating the correct use of the following simple and compound personal pronouns:_ myself, me, i, them, themselves, him, himself, her, herself, itself, our, ourselves. exercise _choose the correct form in the following sentences. punctuate properly._ (_see_ § ): . _yourself you_ and john were mentioned . she told mary and _me myself_ to go with _her herself_. . the book is for _you yourself_ and _i me myself_. . henry and _i me myself_ are in the same class. . he thinks _you yourself_ and _i me myself_ should bring the books. . our friends and _we us ourselves_ are going out to-night. . _herself she_ and her husband have been sick. . _they themselves_ and their children have gone abroad. . you play the violin better than _he himself_. . the machine failed to work well, because _it itself_ and the engine were not properly adjusted to each other. . let them do it _theirselves themselves_. . he came by _hisself himself_. . the teacher _hisself himself_ could not have done better. . i'll bring my gun, and you bring _your'n yours your_ own. . that book is _his'n his_. exercise _fill the blanks in the following sentences with the proper emphatic or reflexive forms. punctuate properly._ (_see_ § ): . he ---- said so. . i ---- will do it. . we ---- will look after her. . that, i tell you, is ---- book. . it belongs to me ----. . those books are my ----. . let them ---- pay for it. . the horse is to be for ---- use. . the horse is to be for the use of ----. . he said it to ----. . he deceived ----. . i do not wish ---- to be prominent. . the compound relative pronouns are formed by adding _ever, so_, or _soever_ to the relative pronouns, _who, which_, and _what_; as, _whoever, whatever, whomever, whosoever, whoso, whosoever_, etc. it will be noted that _whoever, whosoever_, and _whoso_ have objective forms, _whomever, whomsoever_, and _whomso_; and possessive forms, _whosoever, whosesoever_, and _whoseso_. these forms must be used whenever the objective or possessive case is demanded. thus, one should say, _i will give it to whomever i find there_. (see § and note .) exercise _fill the following blanks with the proper forms of the compound relatives:_ . we will refer the question to ---- you may name. . ---- it may have been, it was not he. . i shall receive presents from ---- i wish. . it was between him and ---- was with him. . ---- they may choose, i will not vote for him. . let them name ---- they think will win. . give it to ---- you think needs it most. . he may take ---- he cares to. . he will take ---- property he finds there. . he promised to ask the question of ---- he found there. . ---- can have done it? . ---- else may be said, that is not true. . there are the two chairs; you may take ---- you like. . ---- you take will suit me. . you may have ---- you wish. . ---- is nominated, will you vote for him? . ---- they nominate, i will vote for him. . ---- does that is a partizan. . ---- candidate is elected, i will be satisfied. . he may name ---- he thinks best. . ---- he says is worthy of attention. . ---- she takes after, she is honest. . ---- follows him will be sorry. . ---- he may be, he is no gentleman. . ---- they do is praised. . there are certain words, called adjective pronouns, which are regarded as pronouns, because, although they are properly adjective in their meaning, the nouns which they modify are never expressed; as, _one_ (there is a possessive form, _one's_, and a plural form, _ones_), _none, this, that, these, those, other, former, some, few, many_, etc. . some miscellaneous cautions in the use of pronouns: . the pronoun _i_ should always be capitalized, and should, when used as part of a compound subject, be placed second; as, _james and i were present, not i and james were present_. . do not use the common and grave forms of the personal pronouns in the same sentence; as, _thou wilt do this whether you wish or not_. . avoid the use of personal pronouns where they are unnecessary; as, _john, he did it, or mary, she said_. this is a frequent error in speech. . let the antecedent of each pronoun be clearly apparent. note the uncertainty in the following sentence; _he sent a box of cheese, and it was made of wood_. the antecedent of _it_ is not clear. again, _a man told his son to take his coat home_. the antecedent of _his_ is very uncertain. such errors are frequent. in relative clauses this error may sometimes be avoided by placing the relative clause as near as possible to the noun it limits. note the following sentence: _a cat was found in the yard which wore a blue ribbon_. the grammatical inference would be that the yard wore the blue ribbon. the sentence might be changed to, _a cat, which wore a blue ribbon, was found in the yard_. . relative clauses referring to the same thing require the same relative pronoun to introduce them; as, _the book that we found and the book that he lost are the same_. . use _but that_ when _but_ is a conjunction and _that_ introduces a noun clause; as, _there is no doubt but that he will go_. use _but what_ when _but_ is a preposition in the sense of _except_; as, _he has no money but (except) what i gave him_. . _them_ is a pronoun and should never be used as an adjective. _those_ is the adjective which should be used in its place; as, _those people_, not, _them people_. . avoid using _you_ and _they_ indefinitely; as, _you seldom hear of such things, they make chairs there_. instead, say, _one seldom hears of such things, chairs are made there_. . _which_ should not be used with a clause or phrase as its antecedent. both the following sentences are wrong: _he sent me to see john, which i did. their whispering became very loud, which annoyed the preacher_. . never use an apostrophe with the possessive pronouns, _its, yours, theirs, ours_ and _hers_. exercise _correct the following sentences so that they do not violate the cautions above stated_: . how can you say that when thou knowest better? . may i and mary go to the concert? . he asked me to write to him, which i did. . grant thou to us your blessing. . the train it was twenty minutes late. . mother she said i might go. . mary told her mother she was mistaken. . the man cannot leave his friend, for if he should leave him he would be angry. . sarah asked her aunt how old she was. . that is the man whom we named and that did it. . mr. jones went to mr. smith and told him that his dog was lost. . this is the book that we found and which he lost. . she told her sister that if she could not get to the city, she thought she had better go home. . jack cannot see henry because he is so short. . then jack and george, they went home. . bring them books here. . them are all wrong. . there are no men in the room but that can be bought. . i have no doubt but what it was done. . them there should be corrected. . i have faith in everything but that he says. . i have no fears but what it can be done. . napoleon, he threw his armies across the rhine. . thou knowest not what you are doing. . it was thought advisable to exile napoleon, which was done. . a grapevine had grown along the fence which was full of grapes. . keep them people out of here. . the two cars contained horses that were painted yellow. . she is a girl who is always smiling and that all like. . you never can tell about foreigners. . they say that is not true. . the cabin needed to be swept, which we did. . they use those methods in some schools. . it is the house that is on the corner and which is painted white. . you can easily learn history if you have a good memory. . how can you tell but what it will rain? . he does everything but what he should do. . he has everything but that he needs. . it was a collie dog which we had and that was stolen. . aunt, she said that she didn't know but what she would go. . tell i and john about it. . he went to his father and told him he had sinned. . dost thou know what you doest? . it's appearance was deceitful. . the chair was also their's. . there is a slight difference between mine and your's. . which of the two is her's? . they are both our's. chapter iv adjectives and adverbs . an adjective is a word used to modify a noun or a pronoun. an adverb is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. adjectives and adverbs are very closely related in both their forms and their use. . comparison. the variation of adjectives and adverbs to indicate the degree of modification they express is called comparison. there are three degrees of comparison. the positive degree indicates the mere possession of a quality; as, _true, good, sweet, fast, lovely_. the comparative degree indicates a stronger degree of the quality than the positive; as, _truer, sweeter, better, faster, lovelier_. the superlative degree indicates the highest degree of quality; as, _truest, sweetest, best, fastest, loveliest_. where the adjectives and adverbs are compared by inflection they are said to be compared regularly. in regular comparison the comparative is formed by adding _er_, and the superlative by adding _est_. if the word ends in _y_, the _y_ is changed to _i_ before adding the ending; as, _pretty, prettier, prettiest_. where the adjectives and adverbs have two or more syllables, most of them are compared by the use of the adverbs _more_ and _most_, or, if the comparison be a descending one, by the use of _less_ and _least_; as, _beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful_, and _less beautiful, least beautiful_. . some adjectives and adverbs are compared by changing to entirely different words in the comparative and superlative. note the following: positive comparative superlative bad, ill, evil, badly worse worst far farther, further farthest, furthest forth further furthest fore former foremost, first good, well better best hind hinder hindmost late later, latter latest, last little less least much, many more most old older, elder oldest, eldest note.--_badly_ and _forth_ may be used only as adverbs. _well_ is usually an adverb; as, _he talks well_, but may be used as an adjective; as, _he seems well_. . confusion of adjectives and adverbs. an adjective is often used where an adverb is required, and vice versa. the sentence, _she talks foolish_, is wrong, because here the word to be modified is _talks_, and since _talks_ is a verb, the adverb _foolishly_ should be used. the sentence, _she looks charmingly_, means, as it stands, that her manner of looking at a thing is charming. what is intended to be said is that she appears as if she was a charming woman. to convey that meaning, the adjective, _charming_, should have been used, and the sentence should read, _she looks charming_. wherever the word modifies a verb or an adjective or another adverb, an adverb should be used, and wherever the word, whatever its location in the sentence, modifies a noun or pronoun, an adjective should be used. . the adjective and the adverb are sometimes alike in form. thus, both the following sentences are correct: _he works hard_ (adverb), and _his work is hard_ (adjective). but, usually, where the adjective and the adverb correspond at all, the adverb has the additional ending _ly_; as, _the track is smooth_, (adjective), and _the train runs smoothly_, (adverb). exercise _in the following sentences choose from the italicized words the proper word to be used:_ . the sunset looks _beautiful beautifully_. . the man acted _strange strangely_. . write _careful carefully_ and speak _distinct distinctly_. . speak _slow slowly_. . he acted _bad badly_. . he behaved very _proper properly_. . the boat runs _smooth smoothly_. . he is a _remarkable remarkably_ poor writer. . i am in _extremely extreme_ good health. . the typewriter works _good well_. . the bird warbles _sweet sweetly_. . he was _terrible terribly_ angry. . he was in a _terrible terribly_ dangerous place. . he talks _plainer more plainly_ than he ever did before. . the dead roman looked _fierce fiercely_. . the fire burns _brilliant brilliantly_. . you are _exceeding exceedingly_ generous. . he struggled _manful manfully_ against the opposition. . my health is _poor poorly_. . he is sure surely a _fine fellow_. . have everything _suitable suitably_ decorated. . that can be done _easy easily_. . i can speak _easier more easily_ than i can write. . the music of the orchestra was _decided decidedly_ poor. . she is a _remarkable remarkably_ beautiful girl. . the wind roared _awful awfully_. . the roar of the wind was _awful awfully_. . i have studied grammar _previous previously_ to this year. . i didn't study because i felt too _bad badly_ to read. . the roses smell _sweetly sweet_. . they felt very _bad badly_ at being beaten. . that violin sounds _different differently_ from this one. . the soldiers fought _gallant gallantly_. . she looks _sweet sweetly_ in that dress. . i can wear this coat _easy easily_. . speak _gentle gently_ to him. . he talks _warm warmly_ on that subject. . he works _well good_ and _steady steadily_. . he stood _thoughtful thoughtfully_ for a moment and then went _quiet quietly_ to his tent. . he walked down the street _slow slowly_, but all the time looked _eager eagerly_ about him. . the music sounds _loud loudly_. . that coin rings _true truly_. . he looked _angry angrily_ at his class. . he moved _silent silently_ about in the crowd. . his coat fits _nice nicely_. . that is _easy easily_ to do. . he went over the work very _thorough thoroughly_. exercise _the adjectives and adverbs in the following sentences are correctly used. in every case show what they modify:_ . the water lay smooth in the lake. . she looked cold. . the train runs smoothly now. . the sun shone bright at the horizon. . the sun shone brightly all day. . she looks coldly about her. . be careful in your study of these sentences. . study these sentences carefully. . we found the way easy. . we found the way easily. . he looked good. . he looked well. . we arrived safe. . we arrived safely. . speak gently. . let your speech be gentle. exercise _write sentences containing the following words correctly used:_ thoughtful, thoughtfully, masterful, masterfully, hard, hardly, cool, coolly, rapid, rapidly, ungainly, careful, carefully, eager, eagerly, sweet, sweetly, gracious, graciously. . improper forms of adjectives. the wrong forms in the following list of adjectives are frequently used in place of the right forms: right wrong everywhere everywheres not nearly nowhere near not at all not much or not muchly ill illy first firstly thus thusly much muchly unknown unbeknown complexioned complected exercise _correct the errors in the following sentences:_ . she goes everywheres. . hers is the most illy behaved child i know. . not muchly will i go. . use the lesser quantity first. . he is nowhere near so bright as john. . you do the problem thusly. . the causes are firstly, ignorance, and second, lack of energy. . they came unbeknown to me. . he is a dark complected man. . it all happened unbeknownst to them. . his vote was nowhere near so large as usual. . errors in comparison are frequently made. observe carefully the following rules: . the superlative should not be used in comparing only two things. one should say, _he is the larger of the two_, not _he is the largest of the two_. but, _he is the largest of the three_, is right. . a comparison should not be attempted by adjectives that express absolute quality--adjectives that cannot be compared; as, _round, perfect, equally, universal_. a thing may be _round_ or _perfect_, but it cannot be _more round_ or _most round_, _more perfect_ or _most perfect_. . when two objects are used in the comparative, one must not be included in the other; but, when two objects are used in the superlative, one must be included in the other. it is wrong to say, _the discovery of america was more important than any geographical discovery_, for that is saying that the discovery of america was more important than itself--an absurdity. but it would be right to say, _the discovery of america was more important than any other geographical discovery_. one should not say, _he is the most honest of his fellow-workmen_, for he is not one of his fellow-workmen. one should say, _he is more honest than any of his fellow-workmen_, or, _he is the most honest of all the workmen_. to say, _this machine is better than any machine_, is incorrect, but to say, _this machine is better than any other machine_, is correct. to say, _this machine is the best of any machine_ (or _any other machine_), is wrong, because all machines are meant, not one machine or some machines. to say, _this machine is the best of machines_ (or _the best of all machines_), is correct. note the following rules in regard to the use of _other_ in comparisons: a. after comparatives followed by _than_ the words _any_ and _all_ should be followed by _other_. b. after superlatives followed by _of, any_ and _other_ should not be used. . avoid mixed comparisons. _john is as good, if not better than she_. if the clause, _if not better_, were left out, this sentence would read, _john is as good than she_. it could be corrected to read, _john is as good as, if not better than she_. similarly, it is wrong to say, _he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, man in history_. exercise _choose the correct word from those italicized:_ . the _older oldest_ of the three boys was sick. . of smith and jones, smith is the _wealthiest wealthier_. . of two burdens choose the _less least_. . which can run the _fastest faster_, john or henry? . of the two men, smith and jones, the _first former_ is the _better best_ known. . which is the _larger largest_ of the two? . which is the _best better_ of the six? . which is the _larger largest_ number, six or seven . which is the _more most_ desirable, health or wealth? . my mother is the _oldest older_ of four sisters. . the _prettier prettiest_ of the twins is the _brighter brightest_. . this is the _duller dullest_ season of the year. . the other is the _worse worst_ behaved of the two. . which was the _hotter hottest_, yesterday or to-day? . that is the _cleaner cleanest_ of the three streets. exercise _correct any of the following sentences that may be wrong. give a valid reason for each correction:_ . he was the most active of all his friends. . he is the brightest of all his brothers. . of all the other american colleges, this is the largest. . philadelphia is larger than any city in pennsylvania. . philadelphia is the largest of all other cities in pennsylvania. . no city in pennsylvania is so large as philadelphia. . that theory is more universally adopted. . he was, of all others, the most clever. . this apple is more perfect than that. . no fruit is so good as the orange. . the orange is better than any fruit. . of all other fruits the orange is the best. . the orange is the best of all the fruits. . the orange is better than any other fruit. . that is the most principal thing in the lesson. . which has been of most importance, steam or electricity? . he was more active than any other of his companions. . this apple is rounder than that. . this apple is more nearly round than that. . paris is the most famous of any other european city. . pennsylvania is the wealthiest of her sister states. . no state is so wealthy as pennsylvania. . pennsylvania is the wealthiest of any of the states. . pennsylvania is wealthier than any of her other sister states. . new york is one of the largest, if not the largest city in the world. . that book is as good if not better than mine. . john is taller than any other boy in his classes. . john is taller than any boy in his class. . iron is the most useful of all other metals. . iron is the more useful of the metals. . iron is the most useful of the metals. . of iron and lead, lead is the heaviest. . iron is among the most useful, if not the most useful metal. . he is among the oldest if not the oldest of the men in the senate. . that picture is more beautiful than all the pictures. . singular and plural adjectives. some adjectives can be used only with singular nouns and some only with plural nouns. such adjectives as _one, each, every_, etc., can be used only with singular nouns. such adjectives as _several, various, many, sundry, two_, etc., can be used only with plural nouns. in many cases, the noun which the adjective modifies is omitted, and the adjective thus acquires the force of a pronoun; as, _few are seen, several have come_. the adjective pronouns _this_ and _that_ have plural forms, _these_ and _those_. the plurals must be used with plural nouns. to say _those kind_ is then incorrect. it should be _those kinds_. _those sort of men_ should be _that sort of men_ or _those sorts of men_. . either and neither are used to designate one of two objects only. if more than two are referred to, use _any, none, any one, no one_. note the following correct sentences: _neither john nor henry may go._ _any one of the three boys may go._ . each other should be used when referring to two; one another when referring to more than two. note the following correct sentences: _the two brothers love each other._ _the four brothers love one another._ exercise _correct such of the following sentences as are incorrect. be able to give reasons:_ . he is six foot tall. . i like those kind of fruit. . he lost several pound. . i have not seen him this twenty year. . have you heard these news? . are they those kind of people? . he rode ten mile. . there were fifteen car-load of people. . these kind of books are interesting. . several phenomenon marked his character. . there are a few crisis in every man's career. . each strata of the rock lies at an angle. . the poem has six verse in it. . either of the five will do. . little children should love each other. . neither of the large cities in the united states is so large as london. . you will be able to find it in either one of those three books. . those two brothers treat one another very coldly. . neither of the many newspapers published an account of it. . either law or medicine is his profession. . some ten box of shoes were on the train. . those two statements contradict one another. . the sahara desert has several oasis. . how can he associate with those sort of men? . placing of adverbs and adjectives. in the placing of adjective elements and adverbial elements in the sentence, one should so arrange them as to leave no doubt as to what they are intended to modify. wrong: a man was riding on a _horse wearing gray trousers_. right: a _man wearing gray trousers_ was riding on a horse. the adverb _only_ requires especial attention. generally _only_ should come before the word it is intended to modify. compare the following correct sentences, and note the differences in meaning. _only_ he found the book. he _only_ found the book. he found _only_ the book. he found the book _only_. the placing of the words, _almost, ever, hardly, scarcely, merely_, and _quite_, also requires care and thought. exercise _correct the errors in the location of adjectives and adverbs in the following sentences:_ . i only paid five dollars. . i have only done six problems. . the clothing business is only profitable in large towns. . the school is only open in the evening. . i only need ten minutes in which to do it. . he had almost climbed to the top when the ladder broke. . i never expect to see the like again. . a black base-ball player's suit was found. . do you ever remember to have seen the man before? . the building was trimmed with granite carved corners. . people ceased to wonder gradually. . the captain only escaped by hiding in a ditch. . i never wish to think of it again. . on the trip in that direction he almost went to philadelphia. . acetylene lamps are only used now in the country. . he only spoke of history, not of art. . i know hardly what to say. . i was merely talking of grammar, not of english literature. . the girls were nearly dressed in the same color. . he merely wanted to see you. . double negatives. _i am here_ is called an affirmative statement. a denial of that, _i am not here_, is called a negative statement. the words, _not, neither, never, none, nothing_, etc., are all negative words; that is, they serve to make denials of statements. two negatives should never be used in the same sentence, since the effect is then to deny the negative you wish to assert, and an affirmative is made where a negative is intended. _we haven't no books_, means that we have some books. the proper negative form would be, _we have no books_, or _we haven't any books_. the mistake occurs usually where such forms as _isn't, don't, haven't_, etc., are used. examine the following sentences: wrong: _it isn't no_ use. wrong: there _don't none_ of them believe it. wrong: we _didn't_ do _nothing_. _hardly, scarcely, only_, and _but_ (in the sense of _only_) are often incorrectly used with a negative. compare the following right and wrong forms: wrong: it was so dark that we _couldn't hardly_ see. right: it was so dark that we _could hardly_ see. wrong: there _wasn't only_ one person present. right: there _was only_ one person present. exercise correct the following sentences: . i can't find it nowhere. . for a time i couldn't scarcely tell where i was. . they are not allowed to go only on holidays. . there isn't but one person that can make the speech. . they didn't find no treasure. . it won't take but a few minutes to read it all. . i haven't seen but two men there. . there isn't no one here who knows it. . i didn't see no fire; my opinion is that there wasn't no fire. . i can't hardly prove that statement. . i didn't feel hardly able to go. . she couldn't stay only a week. . i hadn't scarcely reached shelter when the storm began. . you wouldn't scarcely believe that it could be done. . he said that he wouldn't bring only his wife. . there isn't nothing in the story. . he doesn't do nothing. . i can't think of nothing but that. . he can't hardly mean that. . he isn't nowhere near so bright as i. . he can't hardly come to-night. . it is better to not think nothing about it. . she can't only do that. . there isn't no use of his objecting to it. . there shan't none of them go along with us. . don't never do that again. . we could not find but three specimens of the plant. . he wasn't scarcely able to walk. . he hasn't none of his work prepared. . the articles. _a, an_, and _the_, are called articles. _a_ and _an_ are called the indefinite articles, because they are used to limit the noun to any one thing of a class; as, _a book, a chair_. but _a_ or _an_ is not used to denote the whole of that class; as, _silence is golden_, or, _he was elected to the office of president_. _the_ is called the definite article because it picks out some one definite individual from a class. in the sentence, _on the street are a brick and a stone house_, the article is repeated before each adjective; the effect of this repetition is to make the sentence mean two houses. but, in the sentence, _on the street is a brick and stone house_, since the article is used only before the first of the two adjectives, the sentence means that there is only one house and that it is constructed of brick and stone. where two nouns refer to the same object, the article need appear only before the first of the two; as, _god, the author and creator of the universe_. but where the nouns refer to two different objects, regarded as distinct from each other, the article should appear before each; as, _he bought a horse and a cow_. _a_ is used before all words except those beginning with a vowel sound. before those beginning with a vowel sound _an_ is used. if, in a succession of words, one of these forms could not be used before all of the words, then the article must be repeated before each. thus, one should say, _an ax, a saw, and an adze_ (not _an ax, saw and adze_), _made up his outfit_. generally it is better to repeat the article in each case, whether or not it be the same. do not say, _kind of a house_. since _a house_ is singular, it can have but one kind. say instead, a _kind of house, a sort of man_, etc. exercise _correct the following where you think correction is needed:_ . where did you get that kind of a notion? . she is an eager and an ambitious girl. . he received the degree of a master of arts. . the boy and girl came yesterday. . neither the man nor woman was here. . he was accompanied by a large and small man. . he planted an oak, maple and ash. . the third of the team were hurt. . the noun and verb will be discussed later. . i read a pittsburg and philadelphia paper. . read the third and sixth sentence. . read the comments in a monthly and weekly periodical. . he is dying from the typhoid fever. . he was elected the secretary and the treasurer of the association. . what sort of a student are you? . he is a funny kind of a fellow. . bring me a new and old chair. . that is a sort of a peculiar idea. . he was operated upon for the appendicitis. . lock the cat and dog up. . no adverb necessary to the sense should be omitted from the sentence. such improper omission is frequently made when _very_ or _too_ are used with past participles that are not also recognized as adjectives; as, poor: i am _very insulted_. he was _too wrapped_ in thought to notice the mistake. right: i am _very much insulted_. he was _too much wrapped_ in thought to notice the mistake. exercise _write sentences containing the following adjectives and adverbs. be sure that they are used correctly._ both, each, every, only, evidently, hard, latest, awful, terribly, charming, charmingly, lovely, brave, perfect, straight, extreme, very, either, neither, larger, oldest, one, none, hardly, scarcely, only, but, finally, almost, ever, never, new, newly, very. chapter v verbs . a verb has already been defined as a word stating something about the subject. verbs are inflected or changed to indicate the time of the action as past, present, or future; as, _i talk, i talked, i shall talk_, etc. verbs also vary to indicate completed or incompleted action; as, _i have talked, i shall have talked_, etc. to these variations, which indicate the time of the action, the name tense is given. the full verbal statement may consist of several words; as, _he may have gone home_. here the verb is _may have gone_. the last word of such a verb phrase is called the principal verb, and the other words the auxiliaries. in the sentence above, _go (gone)_ is the principal verb, and _may_ and _have_ are the auxiliaries. . in constructing the full form of the verb or verb phrase there are three distinct parts from which all other forms are made. these are called the principal parts. the first principal part, since it is the part by which the verb is referred to as a word, may be called the name-form. the following are name-forms: _do, see, come, walk, pass_. the second principal part is called the past tense. it is formed by adding _ed_ to the name-form; as, _walked, pushed, passed_. these verbs that add _ed_ are called regular verbs. the verb form is often entirely changed; as, _done (do), saw (see), came (come)_. these verbs are called irregular verbs. the third principal part is called the past participle. it is used mainly in expressing completed action or in the passive voice. in regular verbs the past participle is the same in form as the past tense. in irregular verbs it may differ entirely from both the name-form and the past tense, or it may resemble one or both of them. examples: _done (do, did), seen (see, saw), come (come, came), set (set, set)_. . the name-form, when unaccompanied by auxiliaries, is used with all subjects, except those in the third person singular, to assert action in the present time or present tense; as, _i go, we come, you see, horses run_. the name-form is also used with various auxiliaries (_may, might, can, must, will, should, shall_, etc.) to assert futurity, determination, possibility, possession, etc. examples: _i may go, we shall come, you can see, horses should run_. by preceding it with the word _to_, the name-form is used to form what is called the present infinitive; as, _i wish to go, i hope to see_. what may be called the s-form of the verb, or the singular form, is usually constructed by adding _s_ or _es_ to the name-form. the s-form is used with singular subjects in the third person; as, _he goes, she comes, it runs, the dog trots_. the s-form is found in the third personal singular of the present tense. in other tenses, if present at all, the s-form is in the auxiliary, where the present tense of the auxiliary is used to form some other tense of the principal verb. examples: _he has_ (present tense), _he has gone_ (perfect tense), _he has been seen_. some verbs have no s-form; as, _will, shall, may_. the verb _be_ has two irregular s-forms: _is_, in the present tense, and _was_ in the past tense. the s-form of _have_ is _has_. . the past tense always stands alone in the predicate; i. e., it should never be used with any auxiliaries. to use it so, however, is one of the most frequent errors in grammar. the following are past tense forms: _went, saw, wore, tore_. to say, therefore, _i have saw, i have went, it was tore, they were wore_, would be grossly incorrect. . the third principal part, the past participle, on the other hand, can never be used as a predicate verb without an auxiliary. the following are distinctly past participle forms: _done, seen, sung_, etc. one could not then properly say, _i seen, i done, i sung_, etc. the distinction as to use with and without auxiliaries applies, of course, only to irregular verbs. in regular verbs, the past tense and past participle are always the same, and so no error could result from their confusion. the past participle is used to form the _perfect infinitives_; as, _to have gone, to have seen, to have been seen_. . the following is a list of the principal parts of the most important irregular verbs. the list should be mastered thoroughly. the student should bear in mind always that, the past tense form should never be used with an auxiliary, and that the past participle form should never be used as a predicate verb without an auxiliary. in some instances verbs have been included in the list below which are always regular in their forms, or which have both regular and irregular forms. these are verbs for whose principal parts incorrect forms are often used. principal parts of verbs _name-form past tense past participle_ awake awoke or awaked awaked begin began begun beseech besought besought bid (to order or to greet) bade bidden or bid bid (at auction) bid bidden or bid blow blew blown break broke broken burst burst burst choose chose chosen chide chid chidden or chid come came come deal dealt dealt dive dived dived _name-form past tense past participle_ do did done draw drew drawn drink drank drunk or drank drive drove driven eat ate eaten fall fell fallen flee fled fled fly flew flown forsake forsook forsaken forget forgot forgot or forgotten freeze froze frozen get got got (gotten) give gave given go went gone hang (clothes) hung hung hang (a man) hanged hanged know knew known lay laid laid lie lay lain mean meant meant plead pleaded pleaded prove proved proved ride rode ridden raise raised raised rise rose risen run ran run see saw seen seek sought sought set set set shake shook shaken shed shed shed shoe shod shod sing sang sung sit sat sat slay slew slain sink sank sunk speak spoke spoken _name-form past tense past participle_ steal stole stolen swim swam swum take took taken teach taught taught tear tore torn throw threw thrown tread trod trod or trodden wake woke or waked woke or waked wear wore worn weave wove woven write wrote written notes.--_ought_ has no past participle. it may then never be used with an auxiliary. _i had ought to go_ is incorrect. the idea would be amply expressed by _i ought to go_. model conjugations of the verbs _to be_ and _to see_ in all forms are given under § at the end of this chapter. exercise _in the following sentences change the italicized verb so as to use the past tense, and then so as to use the past participle:_ example: (original sentence), _the guests begin to go home._ (changed to past tense), _the guests began to go home._ (changed to past participle), _the guests have begun to go home._ . our books _lie_ on the mantel. . john _comes_ in and _lays_ his books on the desk. . i _see_ the parade. . he _runs_ up the road. . they _set_ their chairs in a row. . the noise _wakes_ me. . cæsar _bids_ him enter. . if they _prove_ their innocence, they should be discharged. . his friends _plead_ strongly for him. . do you know what they _mean_ by that? . i _awake_ early every morning. . he _begins_ to think of strange things. . the children _beseech_ me to go with them. . my mother _bids_ me to say that she will be here at six. . smith _bids_ fifty dollars for the chair. . my servants _break_ many dishes. . they _choose_ their associates. . the box _bursts_ open. . his mother _chides_ him for his misbehavior. . he _comes_ here every day. . i _deal_ there this week. . the boys _dive_ beautifully. . you _do_ so much more than is necessary. . they _draw_ lots for the watch. . jones _drinks_ this wine very seldom. . they _drive_ over to milton once a week. . they _drive_ a sorrel horse. . the cows _eat_ grass. . the gauls _flee_ before cæsar. . the swallows all _fly_ into the chimney at evening. . they _forsake_ the cause without any reason. . cæsar _gives_ them no answer. . they _get_ no money for their services. . you _forget_ that we have no right to do that. . water _freezes_ at thirty-two degrees fahrenheit. . the ball _goes_ to the opposing team. . you _hang_ the rope on the tree. . the sheriff _hangs_ the murderer at noon. . i _know_ of nothing more worrying. . she _lays_ the knife on the table. . they _lie_ in bed until eleven. . why they _rise_ so late, i do not know. . they _raise_ no objection. . john _runs_ very rapidly. . you _sit_ very quietly. . cæsar _seeks_ to learn the intention of the enemy. . the politician vigorously _shakes_ all hands. . the roof _sheds_ water in all storms. . the blacksmith _shoes_ horses. . the choir _sings_ for each service. . you _speak_ too rapidly to be easily understood. . few men _steal_ because they want to. . i _swim_ one hundred yards very readily. . they _teach_ all the elementary branches there. . you _take_ all subscriptions for the concert. . those clothes _tear_ readily. . they _tread_ the grapes in making wine. . who _throws_ paper on the floor? . i always _wear_ old clothes in which to work. . she _writes_ to her mother daily. . they _weave_ the best rugs in philadelphia. exercise _write original sentences containing the following verbs, correctly used:_ begun, blew, bidden, bad, chose, broke, come, dealt, dived, drew, driven, flew, forsook, froze, given, give, gave, went, hanged, knew, rode, pleaded, ran, seen, saw, shook, shod, sung, slew, spoke, swum, taken, torn, wore, threw, woven, wrote, written. exercise _insert the proper form of the verb in the following sentences. the verb to be used is in black-faced type at the beginning of each group:_ . begin. he ---- to act at once. the reports ---- to disturb him a little. he has ---- to feel hurt over them. . bid. the proprietor ---- us a pleasant good day. no matter how much he ---- the auctioneer will not hear him. we were ---- to enter. . blow. the cornetist ---- with all his might. the ship was ---- about all day. the wind does ---- terrifically sometimes. it may ---- to-night. the wind ---- all last night. . break. he fell and ---- his leg. it is well that his neck was not ----. . burst. during the battle the shells frequently ---- right over us. oaken casks have often ----. . chide. he ---- us frequently about our actions. he was never ---- himself. . choose. they ---- him president. they have ---- wisely. . come. he ---- at nine to-day. he has always ---- earlier heretofore. let him ---- when he wishes. . deal. before explaining the game, he ---- out the cards. . dive. twice last summer he ---- off the bridge. . do. thou canst not say i ---- it. he often ---- it. . draw. the picture was ---- by a famous artist. he formerly ---- very well, but i think that now he ---- very poorly. . drive. the horse was ---- twenty miles. he almost ---- it to death. . eat. he ---- everything which the others had not ----. how can he ---- that? . flee. since the cashier has ----, they think that a warrant would be useless. . fly. the air-ship ---- three hundred miles on its first trip. that it has ---- so far is sufficient proof of its success. . forsake. he ---- his new friends just as he had ---- all the others. . freeze. the man was ---- stiff. he evidently ---- to death so easily because he had been so long without food. . give. she was not ---- as much as her sisters. her father ---- her less because of her extravagance. but, he now ---- her enough to make it up. . go. she ---- to school to-day. she ---- yesterday. she has ---- every day this month. . know. he ---- that he cannot live. as long as i have ---- him, this is the first time i ever ---- he was married. . mean. he ---- to do right, and has always ---- to do so. . ride. they ---- as if they had ---- a long distance. they say that they ---- from larimer this morning. . plead. the mother ---- an hour for her son's life. . prove. they ---- him a thief in the eyes of the people, even if he was not ---- so to the satisfaction of the jury. . run. john ---- the race as though he had ---- races all his life. the race was ---- very rapidly. soon after that race, he ---- in another race. . see. smith, who has just arrived, says he ---- two men skulking along the road. he was not ---- by them. that play is the best i ever ----. . seek. the detectives ---- all through the slums for him. now they ---- him in the better parts of the city. no criminal was ever more eagerly ----. . shake. during the day his hand was ---- five hundred times. he ---- hands with all who came. . shoe. the entire army was ---- with blank's shoes. . sing. the choir ---- the anthem as they had never ---- it before. they always ---- it well. . sink. the stone ---- as soon as it is in the water. the ship was ---- in forty fathoms of water. they ---- the ship in . . speak. though they claimed that they always ---- to her, she was really never ---- to by any member of the family. . steal. the money was ----; whether or not he ---- it i do not know. everyone believes that he has frequently ---- goods from the store. . take. i was ---- for him several times that day. no one ever ---- me for him before. . teach. john ---- school every day. he has ---- for ten years. he first ---- when he was eighteen years old. . tear. the dog ---- at the paper until it was ---- entirely to pieces. he ---- up everything he finds. . throw. he was ---- by a horse which never before ---- anyone. . wear. the trousers were ---- entirely out in a month, but i ---- the coat and vest for six months. . weave. this carpet was ---- at philadelphia. the manufacturers say they never ---- a better one, and they ---- the best in the country. . write. although he has ---- several times, he has never ---- anything about that. he ---- to me just last week. he ---- at least once a month. exercise _correct the errors in the use of verbs in the following sentences:_ . he plead all day to be released. . the horse was rode to death. . the letter was wrote before he knowed the truth. . he was immediately threw out of the room. . she run around all day and then was sick the next day. . i never seen anything like it. . he was very much shook by the news. . the matter was took up by the committee. . the horse has been stole from the owner. . goliath was slew by david. . the words have been spoke in anger. . i have went to church every day. . was the river froze enough for skating? . he begun to take notice immediately. . the umbrella was blew to pieces. . i have broke my ruler. . jones was chose as leader of the class. . he said he come as soon as he could. . i done it. . i have never did anything so foolish. . i have ate all that was in the lunch-box. . the horse was drove ten miles. exercise _write sentences in which the following verb forms are properly used:_ begun, blew, broke, chose, come, came, done, did, drew, drunk, drove, ate, flew, forsook, froze, forgot, gave, give, went, hang, hung, knew, rode, run, shook, sung, slew, spoke, stole, took, tore, threw, wore, wrote. . transitive and intransitive verbs. a transitive verb is one in which the action of the verb goes over to a receiver; as, _he killed the horse, i keep my word_. in both these sentences, the verb serves to transfer the action from the subject to the object or receiver of the action. the verbs in these sentences, and all similar verbs, are transitive verbs. all others, in which the action does not go to a receiver, are called intransitive verbs. . active and passive voice. the active voice represents the subject as the doer of the action; as, _i tell, i see, he makes chairs_. the passive voice represents the subject as the receiver of the action; as, _i am told, i am seen, i have been seen, chairs are made by me_. since only transitive verbs can have a receiver of the action, only transitive verbs can have both active and passive voice. . there are a few special verbs in which the failure to distinguish between the transitive and the intransitive verbs leads to frequent error. the most important of these verbs are the following: _sit, set, awake, wake, lie, lay, rise, arise, raise, fell_, and _fall_. note again the principal parts of these verbs: wake (to rouse another) woke, waked woke, waked awake (to cease to sleep) awoke, awaked awaked fell (to strike down) felled felled fall (to topple over) fell fallen lay (to place) laid laid lie (to recline) lay lain raise (to cause to ascend) raised raised (a)rise (to ascend) (a)rose (a)risen set (to place) set set sit (to rest) sat sat the first of each pair of the above verbs is transitive, and the second is intransitive. only the first, then, of each pair can have an object or can be used in the passive voice. notes.--the following exceptions in the use of _sit_ and _set_ are, by reason of usage, regarded as correct: _the sun sets, the moon sets, they sat themselves down to rest_, and _he set out for chicago_. _lie_, meaning to deceive, has for its principal parts, _lie, lied, lied. lie_, however, with this meaning is seldom confused with _lie_ meaning to recline. the present participle of _lie_ is _lying_. compare the following sentences, and note the reasons why the second form in each case is the correct form. wrong right awake me early to-morrow. wake me early to-morrow. he was awoke by the noise. he was woke (waked) by the noise. he has fallen a tree. he has felled a tree. i have laid down. i have lain down. i lay the book down (past tense). i laid the book down. the river has raised. the river has risen. he raised in bed. he rose in bed. i set there. i sat there. i sat the chair there. i set the chair there. exercise _form an original sentence showing the proper use of each of the following words:_ lie, lay (to place), sit, set, sat, sitting, setting, lie (to recline), lie (to deceive), lying, laying, rise, arose, raised, raise, fell (to topple over), fallen, felled, awake, wake, awaked, woke, falling, felling, rising, raising, waking, awaking, lain, laid, lied. exercise _correct such of the following sentences as are wrong:_ . let sleeping dogs lay. . the sun has sat in the golden west. . he has laid in bed all morning. . he will sit out on his journey this morning. . let him sit there as long as he wishes. . he sat the chair by the table. . he awoke everybody at daylight. . he laid down to sleep. . let him lie there until he wakes. . the shower has lain the dust. . the curtain raised because it was raised by his orders. . the river has risen four feet. . falling trees is his amusement. . to have been awaked then would have been sad. . to have waked then would have been sad. . waking at dawn, they renewed the journey. . he has set there all day. . he lay the papers before the judge. . the judge laid the papers aside. . lieing in the shade is his most strenuous occupation. exercise _in the following sentences fill the blanks with the proper forms of the verbs indicated:_ sit and set . i ---- in that seat all the evening. . please ---- here until i return. . he was still ----ting there on my return. . the sun ---- in the west. . he ---- out for home yesterday. . ---- down and rest awhile. . james ---- down and talked to me. . he was engaged in ----ting out flowers. . i ---- the bucket on the rock above the bridge. . last evening we ---- at the table for more than an hour. . ---- here until i call my mother. . ---- the lamp on the table. . he has ---- there all day. . the chair was ---- by the desk. . i usually ---- up until twelve. . she ---- the hen on some eggs and she remained ---- there. . she told me to ---- there, and i ---- down. . by whom has the lamp been ---- there? . i ---- my chair by the window and ---- there all the afternoon. . how can she ---- still for so long? . the moon ---- at twelve. lay and lie . i ---- down this afternoon to rest. . i ---- in bed until late every morning. . i have frequently ---- in bed until eleven. . he always ---- his books on the desk. . he just now ---- his books on the desk. . he has ---- them there every morning. . his books have sometimes ---- there all day. . his books have sometimes been ----ing there before i arrive. . after he ---- down he remembered that he had left a letter on his desk. . will it not be well for you to ---- down for a while? . i ---- on the grass yesterday for an hour or more. . i have ---- down and feel much better. . now i ---- me down to sleep. . the scene of the play is ---- in rural pennsylvania. . the tramps ---- behind the barn waiting for dawn. . i had ---- down to rest before (set or sit) ting out on my journey. . the floor was ---- by an expert carpenter. . she told me to ---- the matter before the teacher. . ---- down, fido. . when we are weary, we ---- down. . who ---- that on the table? . he has repeatedly ---- about the matter. . he ---- without the slightest hesitation. . ----ing down is a good way to rest. . ----ing is a sin. . he ---- to his father, and his father knew it. raise and rise (arise) . i will ---- and go unto my father. . he has ---- early to-day. . i do not know why he ---- so early. . ---- your hand if you know. . everyone ---- his hand. . they have all ---- their hands. . all their hands were ---- at once. . the price of meat has ----. . the bread would not ----. . i ---- in order that i might see better. . the flag was very carefully ----. . he tried to ---- himself from the condition into which he had fallen. . the curtain is to ---- at eight. i myself shall see to ----ing it then. . the boy ---- and answers. . he is ---- rapidly to prominence. . will you please ---- the window? . the safe was ---- by means of a rope. . it is like trying to ---- one's self by one's boot-straps. . ---- and march to the front of the room. . the river ---- rapidly. fell and fall . gladstone, when living, ---- a tree each morning for exercise. . to ---- an ox with one blow of the fist is a feat of wonderful strength. . he was ---- to the earth by a blow from a club. . to ---- often is to be expected in learning to skate. . ----ing down is a small matter to the young. . he has often ---- from the roof of the porch. . after he ---- once, he seemed to try to do so again. . i did not see him----. . not a shot is fired but a bird ----. . let the tree be ---- across the road. . it is hard to avoid ----ing on the ice. awake and wake . have them ---- me very early. . he went upstairs and ---- his brother. . his brother did not wish to be ---- so early. . this morning i ---- at dawn. . it is unpleasant to ---- so early. . you say that you have never ---- after nine? . who ---- so early, this morning? . he would not say who ---- him. . ----ing in the dead of night is unpleasant. . ----ing everybody up by their noise is an every night occurrence. . the sun ---- me early. . the whole country-side seemed to ---- at once. . he had himself ---- at six o'clock. . mode. mode is that form of the verb which indicates the manner in which the action or state is to be regarded. there are several modes in english, but only between the indicative and subjunctive modes is the distinction important. generally speaking, the indicative mode is used when the statement is regarded as a fact or as truth, and the subjunctive mode is used when the statement expresses uncertainty or implies some degree of doubt. . forms of the subjunctive. the places in which the subjunctive differs from the indicative are in the present and past tenses of the verb _be_, and in the present tense of active verbs. the following outline will show the difference between the indicative and the subjunctive of _be_: indicative present of be indicative past of be i am we are i was we were thou art you are thou wert or wast you were he (she, it) is they are he (she, it) was they were subjunctive present of be subjunctive past of be if i be if we be if i were if we were if thou be if you be if thou were if you were if he (she, it) be if they be if he (she, it) were if they were _if_ is used only as an example of the conjunctions on which the subjunctive depends. other conjunctions may be used, or the verb may precede the subject. note.--it will be noticed that _thou art_ and _thou wast_, etc., have been used in the second person singular. strictly speaking, these are the proper forms to be used here, even though _you are_ and _you were_, etc., are customarily used in addressing a single person. in the subjunctive of _be_, it will be noted that the form _be_ is used throughout the present tense; and the form _were_ throughout the past tense. in other verbs the subjunctive, instead of having the s-form in the third person singular of the present tense, has the name-form, or the same form as all the other forms of the present tense; as, indicative, _he runs, she sees, it seems, he has;_ subjunctive, _if he run, though she see, lest it seem, if he have_. note.--an examination of the model conjugations under § will give a further understanding of the forms of the subjunctive. . use of indicative and subjunctive. the indicative mode would be properly used in the following sentence, when the statement is regarded as true: _if that evidence is true, then he is a criminal_. similarly: _if he is rich, he ought to be charitable_. most directly declarative statements are put in the indicative mode. but when the sense of the statement shows uncertainty in the speaker's mind, or shows that the condition stated is regarded as contrary to fact or as untrue, the subjunctive is used. note the two sentences following, in which the conditions are properly in the subjunctive: _if those statements be true, then all statements are true, were i rich, i might be charitable_. the subjunctive is usually preceded by the conjunctions, _if, though, lest, although_, or the verb precedes the subject. but it must be borne in mind that these do not always indicate the subjunctive mode. the use of the subjunctive depends on whether the condition is regarded as a fact or as contrary to fact, certain or uncertain. it should be added that the subjunctive is perhaps going out of use; some of the best writers no longer use its forms. this passing of the subjunctive is to be regretted and to be discouraged, since its forms give opportunity for many fine shades of meaning. exercise _write five sentences which illustrate the correct use of be in the third person singular without an auxiliary, and five which illustrate the correct use of were in the third person singular._ exercise _choose the preferable form in the following sentences, and be able to give a definite reason for your choice. in some of the sentences either form may be used correctly:_ . he acts as if it _were was_ possible always to escape death. . if it _was were_ near enough, i should walk. . if i _was were_ only wealthy! . if i _were was_ in his place, i should study medicine. . if you _are be_ right, then the book is wrong. . if he _was were_ i, he would come. . though he _was were_ very economical, he remained poor. . though she _was were_ an angel, i should dislike her. . if he _be is_ there, ask him to pay the bill. . if he _be is_ there, he makes no sign of his presence. . if this _be is_ wrong, then all love of country is wrong. . if it _rains rain_, i stay at school. . take care lest you _are be_ deceived by appearances. . would that i _was were_ a bird. . if it _snow snows_, i can't come. . if your father _comes come_, bring him to dinner. . if your father _was were_ here, you would act differently. . though he _were was_ king over all the earth i should despise him. . if he _come comes_, he will find me at home. . _was were_ it necessary, i should jump. . if to-morrow _be is_ pleasant, we shall go driving. . if my mother _was were_ here, she would say i might go. . if she _was were_ at home, i did not hear of it. . if that _is be_ his motive, he is unworthy. . though this _seem seems_ improbable, it is true. . if a speech _is be_ praised by none but literary men, it is bad. . if the father _pays pay_ the debt, he will be released. . though mary _be is_ young, she is a writer of note. . unless he _takes take_ better care of his health, he will die. . if he _be is_ honest, he has not shown it. . if he _be is_ honest, he will insist on paying me. . if he ever _tell tells_ the truth, he conceals the fact. . agreement of verb with its subject. the verb should agree with its subject in person and number. the most frequent error is the failure of the verb to agree in number with its subject. singular subjects are used with plural verbs, and plural subjects with singular verbs. these errors arise chiefly from a misapprehension of the true number of the subject. the s-form of the verb is the only distinct singular form, and occurs only in the third person, singular, present indicative; as, _he runs, she goes, it moves_. _is, was_, and _has_ are the singular forms of the auxiliaries. _am_ is used only with a subject in the first person, and is not a source of confusion. the other auxiliaries have no singular forms. failure of the verb and its subject to agree in person seldom occurs, and so can cause little confusion. examine the following correct forms of agreement of verb and subject: a barrel of clothes was shipped (not _were shipped_). a man and a woman have been here (not _has been here_). boxes are scarce (not _is scarce_). when were the brothers here (not _when was_)? . agreement of subject and verb in number. the general rule to be borne in mind in regard to number, is that it is the meaning and not the form of the subject that determines whether to use the singular or the plural form of the verb. this rule also applies to the use of singular or plural pronouns. many nouns plural in form are singular in meaning; as, _politics, measles, news_, etc. many, also, are treated as plurals, though in meaning they are singular; as, _forceps, tongs, trousers_. some nouns, singular in form, are, according to the sense in which, they are used, either singular or plural in meaning; as, _committee, family, pair, jury, assembly, means_. the following sentences are all correct: _the assembly has closed its meeting, the assembly are all total abstainers, the whole family is a famous one, the whole family are sick_. in the use of the adjective pronouns, _some, each_, etc., the noun is often omitted. when this is done, error is often made by using the wrong number of the verb. _each, either, neither, this, that_, and _one_, when used alone as subjects, require singular verbs. _all, those, these, few, many_, always require plural verbs. _any, none_, and _some_ may take either singular or plural verbs. in most of these cases, as is true throughout the subject of agreement in number, reason will determine the form to be used. some nouns in a plural form express quantity rather than number. when quantity is plainly intended the singular verb should be used. examine the following sentences; each is correct: _three drops of medicine is a dose, ten thousand tons of coal was purchased by the firm, two hundred dollars was the amount of the collection, two hundred silver dollars were in the collection_. exercise _in each of the following sentences, by giving a reason, justify the correctness of the agreement in number of the verb and the noun:_ . the jury have agreed. . the jury has been sent out to reconsider its verdict. . the committee has presented its report, but they have differed in regard to one matter. . the whole tribe was destroyed. . the tribe were scattered through the different states. . the regiment were almost all sick. . a variety of persons was there. . the society meets each month. . the society is divided in its opinion. . a number were unable to be present. . a great number was present. . the number present was great. . what means were used to gain his vote? . that means of gaining votes is corrupt. . seventeen pounds was the cat's weight. . twenty years of his life was spent in prison. . two hundred pounds was his weight. . the family are all at home. . the family is large. . a pair of gloves has been lost. . a pair of twins were sitting in the doorway. . the army was defeated. exercise _construct sentences in which each of the words named below is used correctly as the subject of some one of the verbs, is, was, has, have, are, was, have, go, goes, run, runs, come, comes:_ one, none, nobody, everybody, this, that, these, those, former, latter, few, some, many, other, any, all, such, news, pains, measles, gallows, ashes, dregs, goods, pincers, thanks, victuals, vitals, mumps, flock, crowd, fleet, group, choir, class, army, mob, tribe, herd, committee, tons, dollars, bushels, carloads, gallons, days, months. exercise _go over each of the above sentences and determine whether it or they should be used in referring to the subject._ . the following rules govern the agreement of the verb with a compound subject: . when a singular noun is modified by two adjectives so as to mean two distinct things, the verb should be in the plural; as, _french and german literature are studied._ . when the verb applies to the different parts of the compound subject, the plural form of the verb should be used; as, _john and harry are still to come._ . when the verb applies to one subject and not to the others, it should agree with that subject to which it applies; as, _the employee, and not the employers, was to blame, the employers, and not the employee, were to blame, the boy, as well as his sisters, deserves praise._ . when the verb applies separately to several subjects, each in the singular, the verb should be singular; as, _each book and each paper was in its place, no help and no hope is found for him, either one or the other is he, neither one nor the other is he._ . when the verb applies separately to several subjects, some of which are singular and some plural, it should agree with the subject nearest to it; as, _neither the boy, nor his sisters deserve praise, neither the sisters nor the boy deserves praise._ . when a verb separates its subjects, it should agree with the first; as, _the leader was slain and all his men, the men were slain, and also the leader._ exercise _choose the proper form of the verb in the following sentences:_ . hard and soft coal _is are_ used. . the boy and the girl _have has_ come. . neither james nor i _are is_ to go. . neither james nor they _are is_ to go. . henry, and not his sister, _is are_ sure to be invited. . the children and their father _was were_ on the train. . each man and each woman _was were_ present. . either tennyson or wordsworth _was were_ the author of that poem. . either the man or his children _was were_ lost. . either the children or their father _was were_ lost. . bread and milk _are is_ frugal but wholesome fare. . the teacher _was were_ cut off by the fire, and also her pupils. . the pupils _was were_ cut off by the fire, and also the teacher. . dogs and cats _is are_ useless animals. . neither the daughters nor their mother _is are_ at home. . either the soldier or his officers _is are_ mistaken. . the cat and all her kittens _was were_ at the door. . tennyson, not wordsworth, _were was_ the author. . each of the trustees _has have_ a vote. . our success or our failure _is are_ due solely to ourselves. . neither sincerity nor cordiality _characterize characterizes_ him. . everyone of these chairs _is are_ mine. . each day and each hour _bring brings_ new questions. . the car and all its passengers _was were_ blown up. . the ambition and activity of the man _has have_ been the _cause causes_ of his success. . old and new hay _is are_ equally good for horses. . matthew or paul _are is_ responsible for that belief. . a man, a woman, and a child _is are_ comprised in the group. . the pupils and also the teacher _were was_ embarrassed. . the teacher and also the pupils _were was_ embarrassed. . neither he nor i _are is am_ going. . book after book _was were_ taken from the shelves. . either aunt mary or her daughters _is are_ coming. . either the daughters or aunt mary _is are_ coming. . aunt mary, but not her daughters, _is are_ coming. . the daughters, but not aunt mary, _is are_ coming. . both aunt mary and her daughter _is are_ coming. . mary, and not her mother, _is are_ coming. . no preacher and no woman _is are_ allowed to enter. . every adult man and woman _has have_ a vote. . money, if not culture, _gains gain_ a way. . brain power, as well as money, _talk talks_. . each boy and girl _bring brings_ books. . some miscellaneous cautions in regard to agreement in number: . do not use a plural verb after a singular subject modified by an adjective phrase; as, _the thief, with all his booty, was captured_. . do not use a singular form of the verb after _you_ and _they_. say: _you were, they are, they were_, etc., not, _you was, they was,_ etc. . do not mistake a noun modifier for the noun subject. in the sentence, _the sale of boxes was increased, sale_, not _boxes_, is the subject of the verb. . when the subject is a relative pronoun, the number and the person of the antecedent determine the number and the person of the verb. both of the following sentences are correct: _he is the only one of the men that is to be trusted, he is one of those men that are to be trusted._ it is to be remembered that the singulars and the plurals of the relative pronouns are alike in form; _that, who_, etc., may refer to one or more than one. . do not use incorrect contractions of the verb with _not_. _don't_ cannot be used with _he_ or _she_ or _it_, or with any other singular subject in the third person. one should say, _he doesn't_, not _he don't; it doesn't_, not _it don't; man doesn't_, not _man don't_. the proper form of the verb that is being contracted in these instances is _does_, not _do_. _ain't_ and _hain't_ are always wrong; no such contractions are recognized. such colloquial contractions as _don't, can't_, etc., should not be used at all in formal composition. exercise _correct such of the following sentences as are wrong:_ . the ship, with all her crew, were lost. . you was there, john, was you not? . they was never known to do that before. . a barrel of apples were sold. . how many were there who was there? . this is one of the books that is always read. . he don't know his own relatives. . i ain't coming to-night. . the art gallery, with all its pictures, was destroyed. . john, when was you in the city? . the book, with all its errors, is valuable. . who they was, i couldn't tell. . this is one of the mountains which are called "the triplets." . this is one of the eleven pictures that has gained prizes. . the hands of the clock is wrong. . the gallery of pictures are splendid. . this is one of those four metals that is valuable. . this is the one of those four metals that are valuable. . that answer, as you will see, hain't right. . the whole box of books were shipped. exercise _in the following sentences correct such as are wrong:_ . "cows" are a common noun. . such crises seldom occurs. . fifty dollars were given him as a present. . there were four men, each of which were sent by a different bank. . at that time the morals of men were very low. . mathematics are my most interesting study. . there was once two boys who was imprisoned in the tower. . the jury is delivering its verdict. . the "virginians" is a famous book. . ten minutes were given him in which to answer. . everyone of these farms are mine. . lee, with his whole army, surrender. . farm after farm were passed by the train. . he is one of the greatest men that has ever been president. . three hundred miles of wires were cut down. . three fourths of his time are wasted. . three quarts of oats is all that is needed. . a variety of sounds charms the ear. . a variety of recitations were given. . the committee have adjourned. . washington was one of the greatest generals that has ever lived. . take one of the books that is lying on the table. . the house is one of those that overlooks the bay. . question after question were propounded to him. . he was one of the best orators that has been produced by the school. . he is one of those persons who are quick to learn. . a black and white horse were in the ring. . a black and a white horse was in the ring. . the committee disagree on some points. . mary, where was you yesterday? . the end and aim of his life are to get money. . all the crop were lost. . one of them are gone. . there comes the children. . were either of these men elected? . the alumni of this school is not very loyal. . there seem to be few here. . there seems to be a few here. . neither of the letters were received. . in all those songs there are a sprightliness and charm. . the association of engineers are still flourishing. . neither john nor henry have come. . either this book or that are wrong. . this book and that is wrong. . this book, not that, is wrong. . either this book or those students is wrong. . either those students, or this book is wrong. . this chemical with its compounds were the agents used in tanning. . use of shall and will. the use of the auxiliaries, _shall_ and _will_, with their past tenses, is a source of very many errors. the following outline will show the correct use of _shall_ and _will_, except in dependent clauses and questions: to indicate simple futurity or probability: use _shall_ with _i_ and _we_; use _will_ with all other subjects. to indicate promise, determination, threat, or command on the part of the speaker; i. e., action which the speaker means to control; use _will_ with _i_ and _we_; use _shall_ with all other subjects. examine the following examples of the correct use of _shall_ and _will_: statements as to probable future events: _we shall_ probably be there. i think _you will_ want to be there. _it will_ rain before night. statements of determination on the part of the speaker: _i will_ come in spite of his command. _you shall_ go home. _it shall_ not happen again, i promise you. . shall and will in questions. in interrogative sentences _shall_ should always be used with the first person. in the second and third persons that auxiliary should be used which is logically expected in the answer. examine the agreement in the use of _shall_ and _will_ in the following questions and answers: questions. answers. _shall_ i miss the car? you _will_ miss it. _shall_ you be there? i think i _shall_ (probability). _will_ he do it? i think he _will_ (assertion). _shall_ your son obey the teacher? he _shall_ (determination). _will_ you promise to come? we _will_ come (promise). . shall and will in dependent clauses. in dependent clauses which are introduced by _that_, expressed or understood, the auxiliary should be used which would be proper if the dependent clause were a principal clause. the sentence, _they assure us that they shall come_, is wrong. the direct assurance would be, _we will come_. the auxiliary, then, in a principal clause would be _will_. _will_ should, therefore, be the auxiliary in the dependent construction, and the sentence should read, _they assure us that they will come_. further examples: i suppose _we shall_ have to pay. he thinks that _you will_ be able to do it. he has decided that _john shall_ replace the book. in all dependent clauses expressing a condition or contingency use _shall_ with all subjects. examples; _if he shall_ go to europe, it will be his tenth trip abroad. _if you shall_ go away, who will run the farm? _if i shall_ die, i shall die as an honest man. exercise _justify the correct use of shall and will in the following sentences:_ . i will go if you wish. . i shall probably go if you wish. . i will have it in spite of all you can do. . we shall return by way of dover. . we will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer. . i feel that i shall not live long. . we think we shall come to-morrow. . i promise you, the money shall be raised. . you will then go to philadelphia. . you shall never hear from me again. . he will surely come to-morrow. . how shall you answer him? . i think i shall ride. . he is sure they will come. . he is sure that i will come. . shall you be there? . will he who fails be allowed to have a reexamination? . will you be there? . will all be there? . he says he shall be there. . he has promised that he will be there. . i fear that he will fail to pass. . we think she will soon be well. . we are determined that they shall pay. . we expect that they will bring their books. . i doubt that he will pay. . we have promised that we will do it. . if he shall ask, shall i refer him to you? exercise _fill the blanks in the following sentences with shall or will:_ . i think i ---- find the work easy. . i ---- probably be refused, but i ---- go anyway. . ---- you be busy to-night? yes, i ---- be in class until ten. . i ---- probably fail to pass the examination. . if no one assists me, i ---- drown. . no. i ---- never sell my library. . if i fail i ---- be obliged to take an examination. . ---- my men begin work to-day? . ---- you stop at chicago on your way west? no, i don't, think i ----. . ---- you promise me to sing at the concert to-night? yes, i ---- sing to-night. . ---- i put more wood on the fire? . i ---- be lost; no one ---- help me. . it ---- be there when you need it. . it is demanded that the pupils ---- be orderly and attentive. . i think it ---- rain soon. . we ---- be disappointed. . ---- we be permitted to go? . we ---- do it for you. . ---- i go or remain at home? . i ---- be very grateful to you if you ---- do this. . if you ---- ask her, she ---- go with you. . if you ---- stop, i ---- go with you. . where ---- we join you? . i think we ---- be there in time. . i ---- go to the river for a boat ride. . when ---- you be twenty years of age? . ---- we ever see you again? . perhaps we ---- return next year. . we promise, we ---- return. . you ---- probably suffer for it. . i ---- not impose on you in that way. . ---- i ask for your mail? . i hope that we ---- be there before the curtain rises. . ---- they probably be there? . ---- you please fetch me a paper? . ---- we stop for you on our way downtown? . when ---- i find you in your office? . they ---- never do it if i can help. . you ---- do as i say. . i ---- never, never, go there again. . we ---- decide what to do about that at our next meeting which ---- be in october. . ---- it make any difference to you? . ---- i go with you? . no, you ---- please stay here. . he ---- never enter this house again. . it is believed that they ---- probably be present. . he fears that he ---- die. . he requests that you ---- come to-day at seven o'clock. . she asks that it ---- be sent at once. . it is thought that his death ---- not seriously change things. . it is believed that the emperor ---- have to retract. . a story is told that ---- gain little credence. . i fear that i ---- take cold. . she says that i ---- take cold. . they say that they ---- do it in spite of anything done to prevent. . he is determined that he ---- go away. . she is determined that he ---- go to school. . they say they ---- probably not go. . john thinks he ---- probably live to be past sixty. . he tells me that he thinks that he ---- be elected. . they say that they ---- meet you. . they assure us that we ---- find good stores in berlin. . he says he fears he ---- miss his train. . wright says his father ---- become famous. . he writes that he ---- be here to-day. . do you say that you ---- be present? . the book says that ---- be wrong. . does she say that she ---- come? . i told you that i ---- not come. . i tell you that she ---- not come. . he says that he ---- go as a matter of duty. . john says that ---- not happen anyway. . does he say that he ---- surely come? . does john write what he ---- promise to do in the matter? . ---- you be sure to be there? exercise _write five sentences in which shall is used in an independent clause, and five in which shall is used in a dependent clause._ _write five sentences in which will is used in an independent clause, and five in which will is used in a dependent clause._ _write five interrogative sentences in which shall is used and five in which will is used._ . should and would. _should_ and _would_ are the past tenses of _shall_ and _will_, and have corresponding uses. _should_ is used with _i_ and _we_, and _would_ with other subjects, to express mere futurity or probability. _would_ is used with _i_ and _we_, and _should_ with other subjects, to express conditional promise or determination on the part of the speaker. examples: futurity: i _should_ be sorry to lose this book. if we _should_ be afraid of the storm, we _should_ be foolish. it was expected that they _would_ be here. volition or determination: if it _should_ occur, we _would_ not come. it was promised that it _should_ not occur again. he decided that it _should_ be done. _should_ is sometimes used in the sense of _ought_, to imply duty; as, _he should have gone to her aid_. _would_ is often used to indicate habitual action; as, _this would often occur when he was preaching_. exercise _justify the correct use of should and would in the following sentences:_ . i feared that they would not come. . he should know his duty better than that. . i should be displeased if he would act that way. . we should be ruined if we did that. . you should have seen his face. . we would often take that road. . he said that he would come at once. . if that should happen, we should not come. . if you were i, what should you do? . i should see the president of the class. . we should have been at the meeting. . he said that we should have been at the meeting. . he promised that he would be at the meeting. . if i should say so, he would dislike me. . should he come, i would go with him. . they would usually stop at the new hotel. . what would they do in the city? . she asked if she should write the letter. . she said they would write the letter. . she agreed that it would be right. . she assured us that she would attend to it. exercise _fill in the blanks with should or would in the following sentences:_ . i fear i ---- be drowned if i ---- go swimming. . i ---- be much pleased to meet him. . it was feared that they ---- not accept. . if it ---- storm, we ---- not start. . she ---- often come to class with no books. . i believed that he ---- come late. . he ---- never have been invited. . if that had become known, we ---- surely have been ruined. . to think that he ---- do such a thing! . i ---- like to see the game. . you ---- not enjoy it. . ---- you like to see the game? . ---- i bring my opera glasses? . mary ---- never have known it. . he ---- have easily deceived her. . they were anxious that we ---- not miss the train. . if we ---- come late, ---- it make any difference? . if they had proposed it, we ---- have voted it down. . on what date ---- that come? . i suppose i ---- have done it; but, it ---- have inconvenienced me. . had lee known that, he ---- never have surrendered. . i ---- never have believed she ---- do such a thing. . we ---- never have come. . ---- you think him capable of such a trick? . i knew i ---- not be here on time. . ---- they dare to attempt opposition? . how ---- you go about it? . lincoln, under those circumstances, ---- probable not have been elected. . it ---- have changed our whole history. . he said that it ---- have changed our whole history. . he said he ---- come. . she thinks they ---- not do it. . we believe that we ---- like to go at once. . they say it ---- be done now. . i think i ---- like to go. exercise _write five sentences in which should is used independently, and five in which should is used dependently._ _write five sentences in which would is used independently, and five in which would is used dependently._ _write five sentences in which should is used in questions, and five in which would is used in questions._ . use of may and might, can and could. _may_, with its past tense, _might_, is properly used to denote permission. _can_, with its past tense, _could_, refers to the ability or possibility to do a thing. these two words are often confused. exercise _fill the blanks in the following sentences:_ . ---- i go home? . ---- we get tickets at that store? . ---- the mountain be climbed? . ---- we come into your office? . you ---- stay as long as you wish. . ---- you finish the work in an hour? . how ---- you say such a thing? . several people ---- use the same book. . we ---- afford to delay a while. . ---- john go with me? . you ---- often hear the noise. . what ---- not be done in a week? . that ---- be true, but it ---- not be relied on. . what ---- he do to prevent it? . when ---- we hand in the work? . participles and gerunds. the past participle has already been mentioned as one of the principal parts of the verb. generally, the participles are those forms of the verb that are used adjectively; as, _seeing, having seen, being seen, having been seen, seen, playing, having played_, etc. in the following sentences note that the verb form in each case modifies a substantive: _he, having been invited to dine, came early, john, being sick, could not come_. the verb form in all these cases is called a participle, and must be used in connection with either a nominative or objective case of a noun or pronoun. the gerund is the same as the participle in its forms, but differs in that, while the participle is always used adjectively, the gerund is always used substantively; as, _i told of his winning the race, after his asserting it, i believe the statement_. . misuses of participles and gerunds. . a participle should not be used unless it stands in a grammatical and logical relation to some substantive that is present in the sentence. failure to follow this rule leads to the error known as the "dangling participle." it is wrong to say, _the dish was broken, resulting from its fall_, because _resulting_ does not stand in grammatical relation to any word in the sentence. but it would be right to say, _the dish was broken as a result of its fall_. examine, also, the following examples: wrong: i spent a week in virginia, _followed_ by a week at atlantic city. right: i spent a week in virginia, _following_ it by a week at atlantic city. right: i spent a week in virginia, _and then_ a week at atlantic city. . a participle should not stand at the beginning of a sentence or principal clause unless it belongs to the subject of that sentence or clause. compare the following: wrong: having been sick, it was decided to remain at home. right: having been sick, i decided to remain at home. . a participle preceded by _thus_ should not be used unless it modifies the subject of the preceding verb. compare the following: wrong: he had to rewrite several pages, _thus causing_ him a great deal of trouble. right: he had to rewrite several pages, _and was thus caused_ a great deal of trouble. right: he had to rewrite several pages, _thus experiencing_ a great deal of trouble. . the gerund is often used as the object of a preposition, and frequently has a noun or pronoun modifier. owing to confusion between the gerund and the participle, and to the failure to realize that the gerund can only be used substantively, the objective case of a modifying noun or pronoun is often wrongly used before the gerund. a substantive used with the gerund should always be in the possessive case. say, _i heard of john's coming_, not, _i heard of john coming_. . when a gerund and a preposition are used, the phrase should be in logical and immediate connection with the substantive it modifies, and the phrase should never introduce a sentence unless it logically belongs to the subject of that sentence. exception: when the gerund phrase denotes a general action, it may be used without grammatical connection to the sentence; as, _in traveling, good drinking water is essential_. compare the following wrong and right forms: wrong: _after seeing his mistake_, a new start was made. right: _after seeing his mistake_, he made a new start. wrong: _by writing rapidly, the work_ can be finished. right: _by writing rapidly, you_ can finish the work. wrong: _in copying the exercise_, a mistake was made. right: _in copying the exercise, i_ made a mistake. exercise _in the following sentences, choose the proper form of the substantive from those italicized:_ . he spoke of _john john's_ coming down. . the idea of _his him_ singing is absurd. . do you remember _me my_ speaking about it? . what is the use of _you your_ reading that? . _he his him_ being arrested was a sufficient disgrace. . _he him his_ being now of age, sold the farm. . _he him his_ selling it was very unexpected. . you should have heard _him his_ telling the story. . you should have heard _his him_ telling of the story. . to think of _them they their_ having been seen there! . what is the object of _mary mary's_ studying french? . _it its_ being john was a great surprise. . what is the use of _them they their_ talking so much? . _john john's_ going to school takes all his evenings. . the beauty of _james james's_ writing got him the position. . he had heard about _me my_ coming to-day. . _john john's_ coming was a surprise. exercise _wherever participles or gerunds are improperly used in the following sentences, correct the sentences so as to avoid such impropriety. see § for rule as to punctuation:_ . having assented to your plan, you try to hold me responsible. . he asked him to make the plans, owing to the need of an experienced architect. . it was decided to send his son abroad being anxious for his health. . on hearing that, a new plan was made. . moving slowly past our window, we saw a great load of lumber. . intending to go to the theater, the whole afternoon was spent in town. . he was taken into the firm, thus gaining an increased income. . not having the lesson prepared, he told john to stay after class. . no letter was written for more than a week, causing considerable anxiety. . expecting us to come, we disappointed him. . after telling me the story, i left him. . by reading aloud to the class, they do not gain much. . he had to wait several hours for the train, thus causing him to lose a great deal of valuable time. . after listening to his lecture for an hour he became tiresome. . we listened attentively to his lecture, thus showing our interest. . infinitives. the infinitives are formed by the word _to_ and some part of the verb or of the verb and auxiliary. for _see_ and _play_ as model verbs, the infinitives are as follows: present active present passive to see to be seen to play to be played present perfect active present perfect passive to have seen to have been seen to have played to have been played the word _to_ is frequently omitted. in general, other verbs follow the same endings and forms as do the infinitives above. it is necessary to know the difference between the two tenses, since the misuse of tenses leads to a certain class of errors. . sequence of infinitive tenses. the wrong tense of the infinitive is frequently used. the following rules should be observed: . if the action referred to by the infinitive is of the same time or of later time than that indicated by the predicate verb, the present infinitive should be used. . when the action referred to by the infinitive is regarded as completed at the time indicated by the predicate verb, the perfect infinitive should be used. examine the following examples: wrong: _i should have liked to have gone._ right: _i should have liked to go_ (same or later time). right: _i should like to have gone_ (earlier time). wrong: _it was bad to have been discovered._ right: _it is bad to have been discovered_ (earlier time). right: _it was bad to be discovered_ (same or later time). right: _she did not believe her son to have committed the crime_ (earlier time). right: _when he died, he believed himself to have been defeated for the office_ (earlier time.) exercise _in the following sentences choose the proper form from those italicized:_ . i was sorry _to have heard to hear_ of john's death. . should you have been willing _to go to have gone_ with us? . the game was intended _to be played to have been played_ yesterday. . i intended _to write to have written_ long ago. . he wished _to have met to meet_ you. . i should have liked _to meet to have met_ you. . mary was eager _to have gone to go_. . nero was seen _to have fiddled to fiddle_ while rome burned. . nero is said _to have fiddled to fiddle_ while rome burned. . this was _to be done to have been done_ yesterday. . they agreed _to finish to have finished_ it yesterday. . he was willing _to sing to have sung_ alone. . he expected _to have spoken to speak_ here to-morrow. . the civil war is said _to cause to have caused_ more loss of life than any other war. . blackstone is said _to have failed to fail_ at the practice of law. . it would have been hard _to accomplish to have accomplished_ that result. . he was foolish enough _to have spoiled to spoil_ six negatives. . i wanted _to have attended to attend_ the convention. . it would be terrible _to be lost to have been lost_ in the forest. . we were asked _to have waited to wait_. . i am eager _to have seen to see it_. . i am pleased _to meet to have met_ you. . split infinitives. in the sentence, care should be taken to avoid as much as possible the inserting of an adverb or an adverbial modifier between the parts of the infinitive. this error is called the "split infinitive." compare the following: bad: he seemed _to easily learn_. good: he seemed _to learn easily_. bad: he is said _to have rapidly run_ along the street. good: he is said _to have run rapidly_ along the street. exercise _correct the following split infinitives:_ . she is known to have hurriedly read the note. . mary tried to quickly call help. . he was asked to slowly read the next paragraph. . john attempted to rudely break into the conversation. . the plan was to secretly destroy the documents. . his policy was to never offend. . he wished to in this way gain friends. . he proposed to greatly decrease his son's allowance. . agreement of verb in clauses. in a compound predicate, the parts of the predicate should agree in tense; past tense should follow past tense, and perfect tense follow perfect tense. examine the following: wrong: he _has tried_ to do, and really _did_ everything possible to stop his son. right: he _has tried_ to do, and really _has done_ everything possible to stop his son. right: he _tried_ to do, and really _did_ everything possible to stop his son. wrong: i _hoped_ and _have worked_ to gain this recognition. right: i _hoped_ and _worked_ to gain this recognition. right: i _have hoped_ and _have worked_ to gain this recognition. exercise _correct the following sentences:_ . i went last week and have gone again this week. . i have heard of his being here, but not saw him. . i saw john, but i have not seen henry. . he desired to see john, but has not wished to see henry. . john was sent for, but has not yet arrived. . i endeavored to find a way of avoiding that, but have not succeeded. . i have never seen its superior, and, in fact, never saw its equal. . she has succeeded in getting his promise, but did not succeed in getting his money. . i hoped and have prayed for your coming. . i have believed and usually taught that theory. . i intended to and have endeavored to finish the work. . no one has wished to see so much and saw so little of the world as i. . he has gained the favor of the king and was sent to italy. . we have needed you and did our best to find you. . omission of the verb or parts of the verb. the verb or some of its parts are often omitted. this omission sometimes makes the sentence ungrammatical or doubtful in its meaning. _i like him better than john_. this sentence may have the meaning shown in either of its following corrected forms: _i like him better than john does_, or _i like him better than i like john_. as a matter of good usage, the verb or any other part of speech should be repeated wherever its omission either makes the sentence ambiguous or gives it an incomplete sound. bad: _he was told to go where he ought not_. good: _he was told to go where he ought not to go_. good: _he was told to go where he should not go_. exercise _correct the following sentences:_ . i admire mary more than john. . i think she is older than john. . he should have succeeded in gaining the end he tried. . i asked him to do what i should not have. . i did what i ought not. . we wish him better luck than mary. . we want to see him more than henry. . i should hate him worse than you. . he wanted me to do what i didn't care to. . you may, as you please, do it or not. . she may go if she wishes or not. . we think of you oftener than mother. . model conjugations of the verbs to be and to see. conjugation of to be principal parts: am, was, been indicative mode present tense _person singular number plural number_ . i _am_ we _are_ . [*]thou _art_ (you _are_) you _are_ . he _is_ they _are_ [footnote *: the forms, _thou art, thou wast, thou hast_, etc., are the proper forms in the second person singular, but customarily the forms of the second person plural, _you are, you were, you have_, etc., are used also in the second person singular. these distinct second person singular forms will be used throughout the model conjugations.] past tense . i _was_ we _were_ . thou _wast_ or _wert_ you _were_ . he _was_ they _were_ present perfect tense (_have_ with the past participle, _been_.) . i _have been_ we _have been_ . thou _hast been_ you _have been_ . he _has been_ they _have been_ past perfect tense (_had_ with the past participle, _been_.) . i _had been_ we _had been_ . thou _hadst been_ you _had been_ . he _had been_ they _had been_ future tense (_shall_ or _will_ with the present infinitive, _be_.[*]) _person singular number plural number_ . i _shall be_ we _shall be_ . thou _shalt be_ you _shall be_ . he _shall be_ they _shall be_ [footnote *: to determine when to use _shall_ and when to use _will_ in the future and future perfect tenses, see §§ , , and . in these model conjugations the forms of _shall_ are given with the future and the forms of _will_ with the future perfect.] future perfect tense (_shall_ or _will_ with the perfect infinitive, _have been_.[*]) . i _will have been_ we _will have been_ . thou _wilt have been_ you _will have been_ . he _will have been_ they _will have been_ [footnote *: see note under future tense.] subjunctive mode (generally follows _if, though, lest, although_, etc. see § .) present tense . (if) i _be_ (if) we _be_ . (if) thou _be_ (if) you _be_ . (if) he _be_ (if) they _be_ past tense . (if) i _were_ (if) we _were_ . (if) thou _were_ (if) you _were_ . (if) he _were_ (if) they _were_ present perfect tense (_have_, unchanged, with the past participle, _been_.) . (if) i _have been_ (if) we _have been_ . (if) thou _have been_ (if) you _have been_ . (if) he _have been_ (if) they _have been_ past perfect tense (_had_, unchanged, with the past participle, _been_.) _person singular number plural number_ . (if) i _had been_ (if) we _had been_ . (if) thou _had been_ (if) you _had been_ . (if) he _had been_ (if) they _had been_ future tense (_shall_ or _will_, unchanged, with present infinitive _be_.[*]) [footnote *: see note to future indicative.] . (if) i _shall be_ (if) we _shall be_ . (if) thou _shall be_ (if) you _shall be_ . (if) he _shall be_ (if) they _shall be_ future perfect tense (_shall_ or _will_, unchanged, with the perfect infinitive, _have been_.*) . (if) i _shall have been_ (if) we _shall have been_ . (if) thou _shall have been_ (if) you _shall have been_ . (if) he _shall have been_ (if) they _shall have been_ potential mode[*] [footnote *: the distinct potential mode is no longer used by many authorities on grammar, and the potential forms are regarded as of the indicative mode. it has, however, been thought best to use it in these model conjugations. as to when to use the different auxiliaries of the potential mode see §§ and . the conjugation with _must_ (or _ought to_) is sometimes called the obligative mode. the conjugation with _should_ or _would_ is sometimes called the conditional mode.] present tense (_may, can_, or _must_, with the present infinitive, _be_.) . i _may, can_, or _must be_ we _may, can_, or _must be_ . thou _mayst, canst_, or _must be_ you _may, can_, or _must be_ . he _may, can_, or _must be_ they _may, can_, or _must be_ past tense (_might, could, would_, or _should_, with the present infinitive, _be_.) _person singular number plural number_ . i _might, could, would_, or we _might, could, would_, or _should be_ _should be_ . thou _mightst, couldst,_ you _might, could, would,_ or _wouldst,_ or _shouldst be_ _should be_ . he _might, could, would,_ they _might, could, would,_ or or _should be_ _should be_ present perfect tense (_may, can_, or _must_, with the perfect infinitive, _have been_. for forms substitute _have been_ for _be_ in the present potential.) past perfect tense (_might, could, would_, or _should_, with the perfect infinitive _have been_. for forms substitute _have been_ for _be_ in the past potential.) imperative mode[*] [footnote *: the imperative is the same in both singular and plural.] _be_ infinitive mode present tense present perfect tense _to be to have been_ participles present tense perfect tense _being having been_ gerunds (same as participles) conjugation of to see principal parts: see, saw, seen indicative mode present tense--active voice _simple_ _person singular number plural number_ . i _see_ we _see_ . thou _seest_ you _see_ . he _sees_ they _see_ _emphatic_ . i _do see_ we _do see_ . thou _dost see_ you _do see_ . he _does see_ they _do see_ _progressive_ . i _am seeing_ we _are seeing_ . thou _art seeing_ you _are seeing_ . he _is seeing_ they _are seeing_ present tense--passive voice _simple_ . i _am seen_ we _are seen_ . thou _art seen_ you _are seen_ . he _is seen_ they _are seen_ _progressive_ . i _am being seen_ we _are being seen_ . thou _art being seen_ you _are being seen_ . he _is being seen_ they _are being seen_ past tense--active voice _simple_ . i _saw_ we _saw_ . thou _sawest_ you _saw_ . he _saw_ they _saw_ _emphatic_ _person singular number plural number_ . i _did see_ we _did see_ . thou _didst see_ you _did see_ . he _did see_ they _did see_ _progressive_ . i _was seeing_ we _were seeing_ . thou _wast_ or _wert seeing_ you _were seeing_ . he _was seeing_ they _were seeing_ past tense--passive voice _simple_ . i _was seen_ we _were seen_ . thou _wast_ or _wert seen_ you _were seen_ . he _was seen_ they _were seen_ _progressive_ . i _was being seen_ we _were being seen_ . thou _wert_ or _wast being seen_ you _were being seen_ . he _was being seen_ they _were being seen_ present perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _seen_ for _been_ in the present perfect indicative of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _been seeing_ for _been_ in the present perfect indicative of _to be_.) present perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _been seen_ for _been_ in the present perfect indicative of _to be_.) past perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _seen_ for _been_ in the past perfect indicative of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _been seeing_ for _been_ in the past perfect indicative of _to be_.) past perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _been seen_ for _been_ in the past perfect indicative of _to be_.) future tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _see_ for _be_ in the future indicative of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _be seeing_ for _be_ in the future indicative of _to be_.) future tense--passive voice (substitute _be seen_ for _be_ in the future indicative of _to be_.) future perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _have seen_ for _have been_ in the future perfect indicative of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _have been seeing_ for _have been_ in the future perfect indicative of _to be_.) future perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _have been seen_ for _have been_ in the future perfect indicative of _to be_.) subjunctive mode present tense--active voice _simple_ _person singular number plural number_ . (if) i _see_ (if) we _see_ . (if) thou _see_ (if) you _see_ . (if) he _see_ (if) they _see_ _emphatic_ _person singular number plural number_ . (if) i _do see_ (if) we _do see_ . (if) thou _do see_ (if) you _do see_ . (if) he _do see_ (if) they _do see_ _progressive_ . (if) i _be seeing_ (if) we _be seeing_ . (if) thou _be seeing_ (if) you _be seeing_ . (if) he _be seeing_ (if) they _be seeing_ present tense--passive voice . (if) i _be seen_ (if) we _be seen_ . (if) thou _be seen_ (if) you _be seen_ . (if) he _be seen_ (if) they _be seen_ past tense--active voice _simple_ . (if) i _saw_ (if) we _saw_ . (if) thou _saw_ (if) you _saw_ . (if) he _saw_ (if) they _saw_ _emphatic_ . (if) i _did see_ (if) we _did see_ . (if) thou _did see_ (if) you _did see_ . (if) he _did see_ (if) they _did see_ _progressive_ . (if) i _were seeing_ (if) we _were seeing_ . (if) thou _were seeing_ (if) you _were seeing_ . (if) he _were seeing_ (if) they _were seeing_ past tense--passive voice . (if) i _were seen_ (if) we _were seen_ . (if) thou _were seen_ (if) you _were seen_ . (if) he _were seen_ (if) they _were seen_ present perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _seen_ for _been_ in the present perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _been seeing_ for _been_ in the present perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) present perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _been seen_ for _been_ in the present perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) past perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _seen_ for _been_ in the past perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _been seeing_ for _been_ in the past perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) past perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _been seen_ for _been_ in the past perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) future tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _see_ for _be_ in the future subjunctive of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _be seeing_ for _be_ in the future subjunctive of _to be_.) future tense--passive voice (substitute _be seen_ for _be_ in the future subjunctive of _to be_.) future perfect--active voice _simple_ (substitute _seen_ for _been_ in the future perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _been seeing_ for _been_ in the future perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) future perfect--passive voice (substitute _been seen_ for the future perfect subjunctive of _to be_.) potential mode present tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _see_ for _be_ in the present potential of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _be seeing_ for _be_ in the present potential of _to be_.) present tense--passive voice _simple_ (substitute _be seen_ for _be_ in the present potential of _to be_.) past tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _see_ for _be_ in the past potential of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _be seeing_ for _be_ in the past potential of _to be_.) past tense--passive voice (substitute _be seen_ for _be_ in the past potential of _to be_.) present perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _have seen_ for _be_ in the present potential of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _have been seeing_ for _be_ in the present potential of _to be_.) present perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _have been seen_ for _be_ in the present potential of _to be_.) past perfect tense--active voice _simple_ (substitute _have seen_ for _be_ in the past potential of _to be_.) _progressive_ (substitute _have been seeing_ for _be_ in the past potential of _to be_.) past perfect tense--passive voice (substitute _have been seen_ for _be_ in the past potential of _to be_.) imperative mode active voice _simple_ _see_. _emphatic_ _do see_. _progressive_ _be seeing_. passive voice _be seen_ infinitive mode present tense--active voice _simple_ _to see._ _progressive_ _to be seeing._ present tense--passive voice _simple_ _to be seen_ perfect tense--active voice _simple_ _to have seen._ _progressive_ _to have been seeing._ perfect tense--passive voice _simple_ _to have been seen._ participles present tense--active voice _seeing_ present tense--passive voice _being seen_ past tense--passive voice[*] _seen_ [footnote *: there is no past participle in the active voice.] perfect tense--active voice _simple_ _having seen_ _progressive_ _having been seeing_ perfect tense--passive voice _having been seen_ gerunds present tense--active voice _seeing_ present tense--passive voice _being seen_ perfect tense--active voice _having seen_ perfect tense--passive voice _having been seen_ chapter vi connectives: relative pronouns, relative adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions . independent and dependent clauses. a sentence may consist of two or more independent clauses, or it may consist of one principal clause and one or more dependent clauses. independent clauses are joined by conjunctions; such as, _hence, but, and, although_, etc. dependent clauses are joined to the sentence by relative adverbs; such as, _where, when_, etc., or by relative pronouns; as, _who, what_, etc. these dependent clauses may have the same office in the sentence as nouns, pronouns, adjectives, or adverbs. (see § .) . case and number of relative and interrogative pronouns. failure to use the proper case and number of the relative pronouns has already been touched upon (see § ), but a further mention of this fault may well be made here. the relative pronoun has other offices in the sentence than that of connecting the dependent and principal clauses. it may serve as a subject or an object in the clause. the sentence, _i wonder whom will be chosen_, is wrong, because the relative here is the subject of _will be chosen_, not the object of _wonder_, and should have the nominative form _who_. corrected, it reads, _i wonder who will be chosen_. examine the following sentences: wrong: we know _who_ we mean. right: we know _whom_ we mean. wrong: you may give it to _whoever_ you wish. right: you may give it to _whomever_ you wish. wrong: do you know _whom_ it is? right: do you know _who_ it is? (attribute complement.) wrong: everybody _who were_ there were disappointed. (disagreement in number.) right: everybody _who was_ there was disappointed. the relative pronoun takes the case required by the clause it introduces, not the case required by any word preceding it. thus, the sentence, _he gave it to who had the clearest right_, is correct, because _who_ is the subject of the verb _had_, and therefore in the nominative case. _give it to whomever they name_, is right, because _whomever_ is the object of _they name_. errors in the use of interrogative pronouns are made in the same way as in the use of the relatives. the interrogative pronoun has other functions besides making an interrogation. it serves also as the subject or object in the sentence. care must be taken, then, to use the proper case. say, _whom are you looking for?_ not, _who are you looking for?_ note. some writers justify the use of _who_ in sentences like the last one on the ground that it is an idiom. when, as in this book, the object is training in grammar, it is deemed better to adhere to the strictly grammatical form. exercise _in the following sentences, choose the proper forms from those italicized:_ . _who whom_ do you wish to see? . you will please write out the name of _whoever whomever_ you want. . i saw _who whom_ was there. . _who whom_ was it you saw? . _who whom_ did you see? . john did not know _whom who_ to ask. . why did he not ask _whomever whoever_ was there? . _who whom_ can tell the difference? . give it to _whoever whomever_ you please. . none of those who _were was_ wanted _was were_ there. . the one of those who _were was_ wanted was not there. . he is one of those fellows who _are is_ always joking. . _whom who_ was called "the rail splitter?" . do you not know _whom who_ it was? . that is one of the birds that _is are_ very rare. . one of the books which _was were_ brought was one hundred years old. . i am not among those _who whom were was_ there. . only one of the men who _were was_ on board survived. . everyone else who _was were_ there _was were_ lost. . i am the one of the three men who _is am are_ guilty. . he was chosen one of the four speakers who _was were_ to speak on commencement day. . it was one of the books which _were was_ being sought by the librarian. . give it to one of the men _who whom_ is found there. . to _who whom_ did you give it? . it was for _whomever whoever_ was present. . ask _whomever whoever_ is nearest the door. . conjunctive or relative adverbs. it is better to use a _when_ clause only in the subordinate part of the sentence, to state the time of an event. compare the following: bad: he was turning the corner, when suddenly he saw a car approaching. good: when he was turning the corner, he suddenly saw a car approaching. bad: when the news of the fire came, it was still in the early morning. good: the news of the fire came when it was still in the early morning. . do not use a _when_ or a _where_ clause in defining a subject or in place of a predicate noun. bad: commencement is when one formally completes his school course. good: commencement is the formal completion of one's school course. bad: astronomy is where one studies about the stars. good: astronomy is the study of the stars. . _so, then_, and _also_, the conjunctive adverbs, should not be used to unite coördinate verbs in a sentence unless _and_ or _but_ be used in addition to the adverb. bad: the boys' grades are low, _so_ they indicate lack of application. good: the boys' grades are low, _and so_ indicate lack of application. bad: he read for a while, _then_ fell asleep. good: he read for a while, _and then_ fell asleep. bad: i'll be down next week; _also_ i shall bring jack along. good: i'll be down next week; _and also_ i shall bring jack along. exercise _correct the following sentences:_ . anarchism is when one believes in no government. . i am studying german, also french. . the clock had just struck five when the cab came. . i shall work until nine o'clock, then i shall retire. . i was sick all day, so i couldn't come to the office. . i was going up street yesterday when unexpectedly i met jones. . death is when one ceases to live. . dinner is ready, so i shall have to cease work. . he told half of the story, then he suddenly stopped. . he loves good music, also good pictures. . a restaurant is where meals are served. . conjunctions. there are certain conjunctions, and also certain pairs of conjunctions that frequently cause trouble. and or but should not be used to join a dependent clause to an independent clause; as, _it was a new valise and differing much from his old one_. say instead, _it was a new valise, differing much from his old one_, or _it was a new valise, and differed very much from his old one_. similarly, _it was a new book which_ (not _and which_) _interested him very much_. this "and which" construction is a frequent error; _and which_ should never be used unless there is more than one relative clause, and then never with the first one. but or for should not be used to introduce both of two succeeding statements. both of the following sentences are bad by reason of this error: _he likes geometry, but fails in algebra, but studies it hard, he read all night, for the book interested him, for it was along the line of his ambition_. than and as should not be followed by objective pronouns in sentences like this: _i am as large as him_. the verb in these sentences is omitted. if it is supplied, the error will be apparent. the sentence would then read, _i am as large as him (is large)_. the correct form is, _i am as large as he (is large)_. similarly, _he is taller than i (am tall), she is brighter than he (is bright)_. as may be used as either a conjunction or an adverb. _he is as tall as i_. the first _as_ is an adverb, the second _as_ is a conjunction. _as_ is properly used as an adverb when the equality is asserted, but, when the equality is denied, _so_ should be used in its place. _he is as old as i_, is correct, but the denial should be, _he is not so old as i_. after _not_ do not use _as_ when _as_ is an adverb. neither, when used as a conjunction, should be followed by nor; as, _neither he nor (not or) i can come. neither_ should never be followed by _or_. either, when used as a conjunction, should be followed by or. . placing of correlatives. the correlatives, such as _neither--nor, either--or, not only--but also_, should be placed in clear relation to similar parts of speech or similar parts of the sentence. one should not be directed toward a verb and the other toward some other part of speech. bad: he _not only_ brought a book, _but also_ a pencil. good: he brought _not only_ a book _but also_ a pencil. bad: he would offer _neither_ reparation _nor_ would he apologize. good: _neither_ would he offer reparation _nor_ would he apologize. good: he would offer _neither_ reparation _nor_ apology. . the prepositions _without, except, like_, and the adverb _directly_ should not be used as conjunctions. wrong: _without_ (_unless_) you attend to class-room work, you cannot pass. wrong: this she would not do _except_ (_unless_) we promised to pay at once. wrong: i acted just _like_ (_as_) all the others (did). wrong: _directly_ (_as soon as_) he came, we harnessed the horses. exercise _correct the following sentences:_ . mary is as old as her. . i read as much as him. . he either wore his coat or a sort of vest. . he walked to the next town, but did not come back, but stayed all night. . we are better players than them. . he became thoroughly under the influence of the hypnotist and doing many absurd things. . there we met a man named harmon and whom we found very entertaining. . they work harder than us. . john is not as tall as you. . neither john or james is as tall as you. . i admire mary more than she. . that can't be done without you get permission from the principal. . he dresses just like i do. . directly he came we launched the canoes. . this cannot be done except you are a senior. . neither she nor i was present. . he not only had a trained pig but also a goose. . mary is not as pretty as helen. . the men neither interested him nor the places. . he has traveled more than me. . we like him very much, for he is very interesting, for he has traveled so much. . it is a good book and which has much valuable information. . it was a rough town and harboring many criminals. . he took an interest neither in studies, nor did he care for athletics. . he neither took an interest in studies nor athletics. exercise _construct sentences in which the following words are correctly used:_ when, where, than, as--as, so--as, neither--nor, not only--but also, either--or, except, like, without, directly. . prepositions. some mistakes are made in the use of prepositions. note the following brief list of words with the appropriate prepositions to be used with each: agree _with_ a person differ _from_ (person or thing) agree _to_ a proposition differ _from_ or _with_ an opinion bestow _upon_ different _from_ compare _with_ (to determine value) glad _of_ compare _to_ (because of similarity) need _of_ comply _with_ part _from_ (a person) confide _in_ (to trust in) part _with_ (a thing) confide _to_ (to intrust to) profit _by_ confer _on_ (to give) prohibit _from_ confer _with_ (to talk with) reconcile _to_ (a person) convenient _to_ (a place) reconcile _with_ (a statement) convenient _for_ (a purpose) scared _by_ dependent _on_ think _of_ or _about_ do not use prepositions where they are unnecessary. note the following improper expressions in which the preposition should be omitted: continue _on_ _down_ until covered _over_ inside _of_ off _of_ outside _of_ started _out_ where _to_? wish _for_ to come remember _of_ more than you think _for_ do not omit any preposition that is necessary to the completeness of the sentence. bad: he is a dealer and shipper _of_ coal. good: he is a dealer _in_ and shipper _of_ coal. exercise _illustrate in sentences the correct use of each of the expressions listed under the first paragraph of_ § . _form sentences in which correct expressions are used in place of each of the incorrect expressions listed under the second paragraph of_ § . questions for the review of grammar sentences, parts of speech, and sentence elements. what are the four kinds of sentences? what are the different parts of speech? define each. what is the difference between a clause and a phrase? what is the difference between a principal clause and a subordinate clause? illustrate. illustrate an adverbial clause. an adjective clause. illustrate an adverbial phrase. an adjective phrase. what is an attribute complement? illustrate. what is an object complement? illustrate. illustrate and explain the difference between simple, complex, and compound sentences. nouns. what is the difference between singular and plural number? how is the plural of most nouns formed? of nouns ending in _s, ch, sh, x_, or _z_? in _y_? in _f_ or _fe_? in _o_? of letters, figures, etc.? of compound nouns? of proper names and titles? how is the possessive case of most nouns formed? of nouns ending in _s_ or in an _s_ sound? of a compound noun or of a group of words? what is gender? how is the feminine gender formed from the masculine? what is the difference between common and proper nouns? pronouns. what is a pronoun? what is the antecedent of a pronoun? what is the rule for their agreement? what is meant by "person" in pronouns? name five pronouns of each person. name the pronouns that indicate masculine gender. feminine. neuter. what pronouns may be used to refer to antecedents that stand for persons of either sex? to antecedents that are collective nouns of unity? to animals? what are nouns of common gender? by what pronouns are they referred to? should a singular or a plural pronoun be used after _everybody_? after _some one_? after _some people_? after two nouns connected by _or_? by _nor_? by _and_? what are relative pronouns? name them. with what kind of antecedents may each be used? what is the difference between the explanatory relative and the restrictive relative? illustrate. what is an interrogative pronoun? what pronouns may be used only in the nominative case? in the objective case? when should the nominative case be used? the objective? the possessive? may _thou_ and _you_ be used in the same sentence? when should _but that_ be used, and when _but what_? may _them_ be used adjectively? may _which_ be used with a clause as an antecedent? may _which_ and _that_, or _who_ and _that_ be used in the same sentence with the same antecedent? adjectives and adverbs. distinguish between adjectives and adverbs. illustrate. what is comparison? what is the positive degree, the comparative, the superlative? illustrate each. may one say, _he is the largest of the two?_ reason? _he is the larger of the three?_ reason? _he is the largest of all?_ reason? name three adjectives which cannot be compared. may one say, _paris is larger than any city?_ reason? _paris is larger than all cities?_ reason? _paris is the largest of any other city?_ reason? is a singular or plural noun demanded by _every_? by _two_? by _various_? by _each_? with how many objects may _either_ be used? _neither_? where should the adjective or adverb be placed in the sentence? what is meant by a double negative? illustrate. what is its effect? what is the definite article? verbs. what is a verb? what is a principal verb? an auxiliary? illustrate. what are the principal parts of a verb? name each. with what is the s-form used? with which form can no auxiliary be used? make a sentence using each of the principal parts of the verbs, _go, see, begin, come, drink, write_. what is a transitive verb? illustrate. an intransitive verb? illustrate. what is the difference between active and passive voice? does a transitive or does an intransitive verb have both voices? illustrate the passive voice. distinguish between the use of _sit_ and _set_. of _lay_ and _lie_. of _rise_ and _raise_. what is the general rule for the use of the subjunctive mode? in what way and where does the subjunctive of _be_ differ from the indicative in its forms? how do other verbs differ in the form of the subjunctive? in what respects should a verb agree with its subject? does the form of the subject always determine its number? what should be the guide in determining whether to use a singular or plural verb? what class of subjects may not be used with _don't, can't_, etc.? what determines whether to use a singular or a plural verb after _who_, _which_, and _that_? what form of the verb is used after _you_? after _they_? when are _shall_ and _should_ used with _i_ and _we_? when with other subjects? what rule governs their use in questions. what form is used in dependent clauses introduced by _that_, expressed or understood? in contingent clauses? distinguish the use of _may_ and _might_ from _can_ and _could_. what is a "dangling participle"? is it an error? may the gerund be correctly used without any grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence? as the object of a preposition is a participle or gerund used? which is used adjectively? which may be used in connection with a possessive substantive as a modifier? when it is dependent on another verb, in what case should the present infinitive be used? when the perfect infinitive? what is a "split infinitive"? need the parts of a compound predicate agree in tense? connectives. by what are independent clauses connected? dependent clauses? name two conjunctive adverbs. should a _when_ clause be used in a subordinate or in the principal part of the sentence? may _so, then_, or _also_ be used alone as conjunctive adverbs? may _and_ or _but_ be used to join a dependent clause to a principal clause? what case should follow _than_ or _as_? should _neither_ be followed by _nor_ or _or_? a general exercise on grammar exercise _correct such of the following sentences as are wrong. after each sentence, in parenthesis, is placed the number of the paragraph in which is discussed the question involved:_ . he likes to boast of mary cooking. ( .) . it is an error and which can't be corrected. ( .) . he said he should come if he could. ( .) . can i use your pencil? ( .) . if you were i, what would you do? ( .) . we would like to go. ( .) . neither the members of the committee nor the chairman is present. ( - .) . he only spoke of history, not of art. ( .) . socialists don't have no use for trusts. ( .) . this is john's book. ( .) . i feared that they should not come. ( .) . mother's and father's death. ( - .) . mary was eager to have gone. ( .) . the boys, as well as their teacher, is to be praised. ( - .) . the members of congress watch each other. ( .) . i fear that i will take cold. ( .) . some one has forgotten their umbrella. ( .) . neither of the three is well. ( .) . whom do you consider to be the brighter man in the class? ( ) ( .) . he is determined that he shall go away. ( .) . neither john nor james brought their books. ( .) . whom did the man say he was? ( .) . his clothes look prettily. ( .) . the play progressed smooth until the last act. ( .) . henry and william is to come to-morrow. ( .) . this is the lesser of the two evils. ( .) . do you think you will stop at chicago? ( .) . i am believed to be him. ( .) . he sings very illy. ( .) . when they come to build the bridge the stream was too deep for them to work. ( .) . she is very discontented. ( .) . iron is the most useful of all other metals. ( - .) . the barrel bursted from the pressure. ( .) . shall my work soon begin? ( .) . he is six foot tall. ( .) . seeing his mistake, i was not urged further by him. ( .) . will the dog bite? ( .) . i am believed to be he. ( .) . i am eager to have seen it. ( .) . i think it shall rain soon. ( .) . she showed the dish to mary and i. ( .) . mary asked her mother to wash her face. ( - .) . who did the man say he was? ( .) . he deserved the place, for he is well educated, for he has been through oxford university. ( .) . choose who you please. ( .) . it don't make any difference about that. ( - .) . the pump was froze fast. ( .) . a boat load of fishes was the days catch. ( - .) . wagner was never too rattled to play. ( .) . it is him. ( .) . he did it hisself. ( .) . he eat all there was on the table. ( .) . he sent a chest of tea, and it was made of tin. ( - .) . the murderer was hung at noon. ( .) . it is a queer kind of a book. ( .) . you may give it to whoever you wish. ( .) . whoever is nominated, will you vote for him? ( .) . i think i will find the work easy. ( .) . he sent his son abroad, being anxious for his health. ( .) . neither they nor mary was there. ( .) . brewer's the blacksmith's shop. ( - .) . goliath was slew by david. ( .) . myself and mother are sick. ( .) . john is as good, if not better than she. ( - .) . if anybody creates a disturbance, have the police put them out. ( .) . the paper was addressed to john and herself. ( .) . john's and william's dog. ( - .) . tell the boy and girl to come here. ( .) . everybody's else mail has came. ( , .) . he knows nothing about it but that he has read in the paper. ( - .) . awake me early in the morning. ( .) . if he be honest, he has not shown it. ( .) . either adams or monroe were president. ( - .) . washington, the general and the president, was born on february d. ( .) . horne's and company's store. ( - .) . a hole had been tore in the ships' side. ( .) . i sat my chair by the window. ( .) . i sat myself down to rest. ( .) . i can't hardly see to write. ( .) . john is one of the people who comes each night. ( - .) . he laid on the couch all day. ( .) . death is when one ceases to live. ( .) . i was told to set here. ( .) . iron is more useful than any other metal. ( - .) . i not only told him, but also morton. ( .) . mckinley was nowhere near so strenuous as roosevelt. ( .) . it weighs several ton. ( .) . john is not as bright as henry. ( .) . germany and france's ships. ( - .) . john's employer's wife's friend. ( - .) . you had ought to go home. ( .) . this is the man who wants the ticket. ( .) . which is the larger of the three? ( - .) . an axe is the tool which they use. ( .) . it is that characteristic that makes him so disagreeable. ( .) . the horse which we drove, and the horse which you had last week are the same. ( , - .) . i don't like those kind of people. ( .) . i do not question but what he is right. ( - .) . let him lay there. ( .) . my friend and me drove to hughesville. ( .) . american and english grammar is alike. ( - .) . william and mary has to go to the city. ( - .) . the boy, and not his parents, were wrong. ( - .) . the price of meat has raised. ( .) . this train runs slow. ( .) . which is the best of the two? ( - .) . iron is the most useful of all other metals. ( - .) . without the safety catch is raised, the gun can't be discharged. ( .) . the family is all at home. ( .) . the horse run the mile in two minutes. ( .) . this suit hasn't hardly been wore. ( , .) . the knife has laid there all day. ( .) . the noise of the street was very loud, which kept me awake. ( - .) . the jury has agreed. ( .) . such things make him terrible nervous. ( .) . whom do you think is the brightest man? ( .) . the army were defeated. ( .) . if i was you, i should go at once. ( .) . she may go if she wishes or not. ( .) . everybody whom was there was given a vote. ( .) . i like her better than you. ( .) . who do you want? ( .) . knox is one of the alumnuses of the college. ( - .) . by law, no one is allowed to kill more than two deers. ( .) . the clock had just struck five when the cab came. ( .) . when was you there? ( - .) . he is as tall as me. ( .) . neither john nor her will come. ( .) . you hear such statements everywheres. ( - , .) . you never can tell whom you will meet on the train. ( .) . i wish you were more like she. ( .) . winter, with her frost, destroyed them all. ( .) . tell everybody to cast their vote for jones. ( .) . he is the only one of the members who pay dues. ( - .) . was it necessary, i should jump? ( .) . the production of oranges were encouraged. ( - .) . the ship, with all its passengers, were lost. ( - .) . he has fell from his chair. ( .) . i will raise and go to my father. ( .) . the policeman failed the ruffian with his club. ( .) . they make pottery in trenton. ( - .) . iron is more useful than all metals. ( - .) . i intended to and have endeavored to finish the work. ( .) . he won't come, except we pay his expenses. ( .) . neither german or french is taught there. ( .) . we have needed you and did our best to find you. ( .) . he awoke at nine. ( .) . i wish i was a bird. ( .) . if it rains, i stay at school. ( .) . thou shouldst pray when you are in trouble. ( - .) . the indians, they hid behind trees. ( - .) . we started out for the city at noon. ( .) . the king, he said they should kill him. ( - .) . outside of the house stood a large moving van. ( .) chapter vii sentences . classified as to their rhetorical construction, sentences are considered as loose, periodic, and balanced. the loose sentence is so constructed that it may be closed at two or more places and yet make complete sense; as, napoleon felt his _weakness_, and tried to win back popular _favor_ by concession after _concession_, until, at his fall, he had nearly restored parliamentary _government_. note that this sentence could be closed after the words. _weakness, favor_, and _concession_, as well as after _government_. . the periodic sentence holds the complete thought in suspense until the close of the sentence. compare the following periodic sentence with the loose sentence under § : napoleon, feeling his weakness, and trying to win back popular favor by concession after concession, had, at his fall, nearly restored parliamentary government. both loose and periodic sentences are proper to use, but, since periodic sentences demand more careful and definite thought, the untrained writer should try to use them as much as possible. . the balanced sentence is made up of parts similar in form, but often contrasted in meaning; as, _he is a man; jones is a gentleman._ . sentence length. as to the length of the sentence there is no fixed rule. frequently, sentences are too long, and are, in their thought, involved and hard to follow. on the other hand, if there is a succession of short sentences, choppiness and roughness are the result. one should carefully examine sentences which contain more than thirty or thirty-five words to see that they are clear in their meaning and accurate in their construction. exercise _compose, or search out in your reading, five loose sentences, five periodic sentences, and five balanced sentences._ exercise _in the following sentences, determine whether each sentence is loose, periodic, or balanced. change all loose sentences to the periodic form:_ . at the same time the discontent of the artisans made the lower class fear a revolution, and that class turned to napoleon, because they felt him to be the sole hope for order and stable government. . the members of the council were appointed by the king, and held office only at his pleasure. . a society and institutions that had been growing up for years was overturned and swept away by the french revolution. . galileo was summoned to rome, imprisoned, and forced publicly to adjure his teaching that the earth moved around the sun. . he draws and sketches with tolerable skill, but paints abominably. . loose sentences may be clear; periodic sentences may not be clear. . he rode up the mountains as far as he could before dismounting and continuing the ascent on foot. . they visited the town where their father had lived, and while there, procured the key to the house in which he had been born. . his death caused great grief and extreme financial distress in the family. . there stands the tower of london in all its grimness and centuries of age, holding within its walls the scene of many a stirring tragedy. . few men dislike him, but many would gladly see him overthrown merely as an example. . germany is moving in the same direction, although the reformers find it a hard task to influence public opinion, and a far harder one to change the various laws prevalent in the many german states. . is this thing we call life, with all its troubles, pains, and woes, after all, worth living? . he read much, but advanced little intellectually, for all the facts and philosophy of his reading found no permanent lodgment in his mind. . his coming home was very unexpected, because he had started on a trip that usually took ten days, and that he had said would take longer this time. . it was during the time of the national convention that napoleon first became very prominent by defending the convention against a mob. exercise _combine each of the following groups of sentences into one well constructed long sentence:_ . in highly developed commercial communities banks cannot afford space in their vaults for valuables. especially, they cannot afford it merely to accommodate their patrons. hence, in such communities the furnishing of places for safe deposit has become a separate business. . history should be a part of the course in all schools. it develops the memory. it furnishes the explanation of many social phenomena. it broadens the intellectual view. it gives culture as no other study can give it. . he never desired a higher education. this was possible because of the money bequeathed to him by his father. it had left him no need for a great earning capacity. more likely, it was because of the inborn dulness and lethargy of his mind. . new york is the pivotal state in all national elections. its great number of electors makes it always possible for it to throw the election either way. therefore, until one knows to which party new york will fall, he cannot tell how the election will result. . our forefathers were devout. they were easily shocked in many ways. however, they permitted many liberties in the application of sermons to particular individuals. such things would nowadays be strongly disapproved or resented. . man's life is divided into two parts by a constantly moving point. this point is called the present. it divides the past from the future. . the spartans were tormented by ten thousand absurd restraints. they were unable to please themselves in the choice of their wives. they were unable to please themselves in their choice of food or clothing. they were compelled to assume a peculiar manner, and to talk in a peculiar style. yet they gloried in their liberty. . the mere approach to the temperance question is through a forest of statistics. this forest is formidable and complicated. it causes one, in time, to doubt the truth of numbers. . they passed the old castle. it was almost unrecognizable. this was by reason of the scaffolding which surrounded it. the castle was now being transformed into a national museum. . he stood looking with curiosity at john peters. peters limped slightly. otherwise, he looked well and happy. he was moving about shaking hands right and left. . they rushed at him with a yell. he had by this time reached the base of the fountain. with a sudden wonderful leap he sprang onto the railing. there he was out of reach. he balanced himself by touching the brackets which held the lamps. . the unintelligent worker reminds one of the squirrel on the wheel. the squirrel rushes round and round and round all day long. at the end of the day the squirrel is still a squirrel. it is still rushing round and round. it is getting nowhere. . the man looked at the ladder. he believed he could reach it. there was a sudden flash of hope in his face. his face was already scorched by the fire. . smith was financially embarrassed. he was determined to get to his home. he crawled on top of the trucks of an express car. the car was about to leave the terminal. he courted almost certain death. . the commander again looks toward the hills. he looks for a long time. something seems to excite his apprehension. he converses earnestly with the staff officer. then the two look more than once toward a poplar tree. the tree stands at the top of the hill. only its top half shows. the hill is on the east. . the most important political question has been the tariff question. this has been most important for ten years. it is important because it is believed to have caused high prices and trusts. . the pleasantest month is june. it has flowers. it has mild weather. it has a slight haze in the atmosphere. these things seem to flood one's soul with peace and contentment. . the essential qualities that a sentence should possess, aside from correctness, are those of unity, coherence, emphasis, and euphony. unity. unity demands that the sentence deal with but one general thought, and that it deal with it in such a consistent and connected manner that the thought is clearly and effectively presented. unity demands, also, that closely related thoughts should not be improperly scattered among several sentences. . statements having no necessary relation to one another should not be embodied in one sentence. bad: the house sat well back from the road, _and its owner_ was a married man. good: the house sat well back from the road. _its owner_ was a married man. a. avoid the "comma blunder"; that is, do not use a comma to divide into clauses what should be separate sentences, or should be connected by a conjunction. bad: jones lives in the country, _he_ has a fine library. good: jones lives in the country. _he_ has a fine library. good: jones lives in the country _and has_ a fine library. b. avoid the frequent use of the parenthesis in the sentence. bad: this is a city (it is called a city, though it has but twelve hundred people) that has no school-house. . avoid all slipshod construction of sentences. a. avoid adding a clause to an apparently complete thought. bad: that is not an easy problem, _i think_. good: that, _i think_, is not an easy problem. good: _i do not think_ that is an easy problem. bad: he could not be elected mayor again under any circumstances, _at least so i am told_. good: he could not, _i am told_, be elected mayor again under any circumstances. good: _i am told_ that he could not under any circumstances be elected mayor again. b. avoid long straggling sentences. poor: the students often gathered to watch the practice of the team, but, just before the last game, the management excluded almost all, and only a few who had influence were allowed to enter, and this favoritism caused much hard feeling and disgust, so that the students were reluctant to support the team, and lost most of their interest, a fact which had a bad effect on the athletics of the institution. . unite into one sentence short sentences and clauses that are closely and logically connected with one another. bad: that it is a good school is not without proof. its diploma admits to all colleges. good: that it is a good school is not without proof, for its diploma admits to all colleges. good: that its diploma admits to all colleges is proof that it is a good school. bad: this fact was true of all of us. with the exception of john. good: this fact was true of all of us, with the exception of john. bad: edward came. but john never appeared. good: edward came, but john never appeared. bad: the town has two railroads running through it. also, three trolley lines. good: the town has two railroads running through it, and also three trolley lines. good: the town has two railroads and three trolley lines running through it. . do not change the point of view. bad: _we_ completed our themes, and _they_ were handed in to the teacher. (in the first part of the sentence, the subject is _we_; in the second it is _themes_.) good: we completed our themes and handed them in to the teacher. good: our themes were completed and handed in to the teacher. bad: the _stage_ took us to the foot of the hill, and _we_ walked from there to the top, where _our friends_ met us. good: _we_ were taken to the foot of the hill by the stage, and _we_ walked from there to the top, where _we_ were met by our friends. exercise _revise such of the following sentences as violate the principles of unity:_ . i frequently had ridden on a bicycle, and though the first ride made me stiff, i felt little inconvenience afterwards. . of the firm jones & smith, jones is a man to be respected. while smith is thoroughly dishonest. . john had plenty of energy and ambition. and it is hard to understand why he didn't succeed. . i have taken thorough courses in history in both grade school and high school, and i also worked on the farm in the summer. . in the east the people are conservative. but, in the west, they are radical and progressive. . the news came that special rates would be given from chicago, and that we could go to seattle and back for fifty dollars, and so, when our checks came, we seized our grips and started on a trip which was so long and eventful, but as enjoyable as any two months we had ever spent, and gave us an experience that was very valuable in our work, which we took up on our return in the fall. . the town has a fine public library, besides there are a number of steel mills. . one may reach boston in two ways. either by water or by rail. . women (and christian american women, too) frequently try to evade the customs laws. . my aunt has some of jefferson's silver spoons, so she says. . he graduated from college (i think it was harvard, though i am not sure) and then taught for three years. . this is one of hugo's novels, it is very good. . he accomplishes everything he undertakes, if it is at all possible. . washington was president of the united states. but hamilton guided its financial policy. . every year they sell three hundred sets, and mr. west helps to write the letters. . the country people were the chief patrons of the store. although no small amount of trade came from the town. . the box sat under a tree, and the dog, which was a collie, would go when he was told and sit on it, and no one could call him away but his master who was very often cruelly slow in doing so, but the dog never lost patience. . he was one of those persons (of whom there are so painfully many) who never do what they promise. . he then went to his room, which was in the back of the house, to sleep, and his books were found there the next day. . he was the man that i had mentioned, who had been recommended for the position. who had been refused because of his deficiencies in english. . i can't go, i don't think. . he was a very big and very strong man. and, he should have made a great football player. . he will surely be elected, i haven't any fear. . the food was good, and the service was fine, but we did not care to stay on account of the weather, which was rainy most of the time, and because it was an out-of-the-way place. . he converses intelligently and pleasantly, and never gossips, hence he is an agreeable companion. . he died of smallpox, and was ninety years old. . there were twenty boys in the class. each past twenty-five years of age. . he is in every way honorable, at least so far as money matters are concerned. . i had not previously thought of going to college, but now i was enthusiastic on the matter, and all my time (at least most of it) was devoted to poring over catalogues, of which i had a great number, and many of which i knew by heart from having gone over them so often, and finally a college was selected which seemed to suit me, so i went there in the fall to study chemistry. . he was very sensitive. so that we could tease him very little without making him angry. . there are a great number of stations along this short line of railroad, these, however, do little business. . they stopped and asked us the road to milton, and it was discovered that they were going in the wrong direction, as milton lay south of williamsport, and we were camping twenty miles north. . he will most likely be suspended, it may perhaps be. . that day my cousin went home, and the next day john came to spend a few hours with me, and in the afternoon we drove all over the valley, but neither of us grew tired, because there were so many things to converse about, and so many long treasured questions to ask, and john left in the evening, and then i went to bed. . he has been proved a gambler, there you have it all. . mrs. smith (whose husband had been killed by a falling beam in one of the buildings he was constructing) consented to give us a room and board. . he read his lesson carefully, then he closed the book to think it over. . he is the most peculiar person i ever met--in the last few years at least. . i am reading a book, it is very interesting. . they get a great deal of amusement when he is walking (which he does every nice day) by whistling in time with his steps. . he gave me this book which you see, and i have been able to get a vast amount of information out of it. . it was noticed by everyone that he always behaved well. when he was in school. . the magician was present. and pleased everybody with his performances. . because he liked music, john was considered an odd fellow, and his father was dead. . coherence. coherence in the sentence demands that the arrangement and the construction of the sentence be clear and free from ambiguity. . frame the sentence so that it can have but one possible meaning. wrong: he owned several dogs and was greatly troubled with the mange. right: he owned several dogs and was greatly troubled _because they had_ the mange. right: he was greatly troubled because several of _his dogs had_ the mange. . see that the antecedent of every pronoun is clear and explicit. wrong: the dog was bitten on the front _foot which_ has since died. right: the _dog, which_ has since died, was bitten on the front foot. right: the dog was bitten on the front foot and has since died. . see that the word to which each modifier refers is unmistakable. a. place every modifying element as near as possible to the word which it modifies. wrong: he was sitting in a chair reading a _book made_ in the mission style. right: he was sitting in a _chair made_ in the mission style and was reading a book. right: he was sitting reading a book in a chair made in the mission style. wrong: the table had been inlaid by his _father, containing_ over fifteen hundred pieces. right: the _table, containing_ over fifteen hundred pieces, had been inlaid by his father. right: the table contained over fifteen hundred pieces and had been inlaid by his father. b. avoid the "squinting construction." by this term is meant the placing of a clause so that it is impossible to tell whether it refers to the preceding or succeeding part of the sentence. wrong: it would be hard to explain, _if you were to ask me_, what the trouble was. right: if you were to ask me what the trouble was, it would be hard to explain. . place correlatives so that there can be no doubt as to their office. _neither--nor, both--and_, etc., are frequently not placed next to the expressions they are meant to connect. see § . wrong: he _neither_ brought a trunk _nor_ a suit-case. right: he brought _neither_ a trunk _nor_ a suit-case. wrong: he _not only_ received money from his father, _but also_ his mother. right: he received money _not only_ from his father, _but also_ from his mother. right: he _not only_ received money from his father, _but also_ received it from his mother. . omit no word that is not accurately implied in the sentence. wrong: the man _never has_, and _never will_ be successful. right: the man _never has been_, and _never will be_ successful. wrong: it _is no_ concern to him. right: it _is of no_ concern to him. . use a summarizing word, in general, to collect the parts of a long complex sentence. republicans, democrats, socialists, prohibitionists, and populists--_all_ were there. . express similar thoughts, when connected in the same sentence, in a similar manner. bad: i decided _on doing_ the work that night, and _to write_ it out on the typewriter. good: i decided _to do_ the work that night and _to write_ it out on the typewriter. bad: _textbooks are going_ out of use in the modern law schools, but some schools still use them. good: _textbooks are going_ out of use in the modern law schools, but in some _they_ are still used. good: though _textbooks are going_ out of use in modern law schools, _they are still used_ in some of them. bad: _one_ should never try to avoid work in school, for _you_ always increase your trouble by doing so. good: _one_ should never try to avoid work in school, for _one_ always increases his trouble by doing so. good: _one_ usually only increases _his_ troubles by trying to avoid work in school. exercise _point out and correct any lack of coherence that exists in the following sentences:_ . chicken lice are troubling all the farmers in the state. . the statute requires that one study three years, and that you pass an examination. . he is home. . rich and poor, old and young, large and small, good and bad, were in the assemblage. . he both presented me with a gold piece and an increase in salary. . tell the doctor, if he comes before seven, to call. . when the dog came on the porch, feeling playful, i laid aside my paper. . i only knew john. . the cart was pulled by a man creaking under a heavy load. . john told his father that his coat was too tight for him. . i not only knew the president but also the whole board of directors. . the boxes were full of broken glass with which we made fire. . mrs. smith wants washing. . a young woman died very suddenly last sunday while i was away from home as a result of a druggist's mistake. . he was hit in the discharge of his duty by a policeman. . a dog has been found by mrs. jones with one black ear. . in taking the census innumerable errors are made, thus making the result unreliable. . it was a pleasure to see them work and their good nature. . the boy went to the teacher and told him that his trouble was that he used the wrong book. . john was not punished because of his ill health, and he was not entirely to blame for it. . they said they saw them coming before they saw them. . the officers arrested the men and they were then locked up. . you made the same mistake that you now make last week. . wishing to make no mistake the boy was told by him to see the professor. . it resulted opposite to that in which it was expected. . they are required to report both on their way to work and coming home. . under his direction we were taught grammar and something of composition was taken up. . taking all precautions, a watchman is on duty every night. . we tried to study, but didn't do any. . i do not care either to see you or henry. . he has a number of kennels with many dogs scattered over the farm. . mrs. x. wants a picture of her children painted very badly. . one of the drawbacks to the work is that time is very scarce, in this way limiting what can be done. . the bicycle was easy to learn to ride, which i did. . rails are placed along the sides of the bridges, and horses are forbidden to trot over them. . john told henry that he thought he needed help. . he has to stop for rest, and to avoid getting too far ahead. . board, room, clothes, laundry, and amusements, are higher there than here. . mathematics is not only necessary, but also languages. . after having read the proof, it is rolled up, and you mail it back to the printer. . the baskets were unpacked and the girls waited upon them. . they knew all that was to be learned, including john. . we could say that the greater part of us had both seen the niagara falls and canada. . let him wear a loose shoe that has sore feet. . being out of work, and as i did not wish to loaf, i started to school. . he tried to study unsuccessfully, and in the end failed. . he built a house for his wife with seven windows. . he sent her an invitation to go for a ride on the back of his business card. . i saw five automobiles the other night sitting on our front door step. . mrs. smith was killed last night while cooking in a dreadful manner. . post cards are both increasing in variety and beauty. . he neither told john nor his father. . mary told her mother, if she were needed, she would be called. . he bought a horse when ten years old. . the child the parent often rebuked. . sitting on a chair the entire house could be watched. . coming along the road a peculiar noise was heard by us. . under the enforced sanitary laws people ceased to die gradually. . i knew him as a physician when a boy. . he came leading his dog on a bicycle. . when wanted he sent me a letter. . emphasis. emphasis demands that the sentence be so arranged that the principal idea shall be brought into prominence and the minor details subordinated. . avoid weak beginnings and weak endings in the sentence. bad: he was a student who did nothing right _as a rule_. good: he was a student, who, _as a rule_, did nothing right. . a change from the normal order often makes a great change in emphasis. normal: a lonely owl shrieked from a thick tree not far back of our camp. changed: from a thick tree not far back of our camp a lonely owl shrieked. . where it is suitable, arrange words and clauses so as to produce a climax; i. e., have the most important come last. bad: human beings, dogs, cats, horses, all living things were destroyed. good: cats, dogs, horses, human beings, all living things were destroyed. . avoid all words which add nothing to the thought. bad: he is universally praised by all people. good: he is universally praised. bad: the darkness was absolutely impenetrable, and not a thing could be seen. good: the darkness was absolutely impenetrable. bad: mr. smith bids me say that he regrets that a slight indisposition in health precludes his granting himself the pleasure of accepting your invitation to come to your house to dine. good: mr. smith bids me say that he regrets that sickness prevents his accepting your invitation to dine. exercise _reconstruct all of the following sentences that violate the principles of emphasis:_ . children, women, and men were slain without pity. . i'll prove his guilt by means of marked money, if i can. . most of the students have done good work, although some have not. . will you please start up the machine. . where ignorance leads to a condition of blissful happiness, it would be folly to seek a condition of great wisdom. . a man having foolishly tried to board a moving train yesterday, was killed by being run over. . as a maker of violins he has never had an equal before nor since. . all his friends were collected together. . the field was so wet that we could not play on it, except occasionally. . few were superior to him as a sculptor. . railway companies, trolley companies, cable companies, and even hack lines were affected by the change. . books were his constant companions, and he was with them always. . that great, gaunt mass of stones, rock, and earth, which falls upon your vision at the edge of the horizon of your view, is known by the appellation of maxon mountain. . the noise of trains is heard ceaselessly from morning till night, without stopping at all. . he tried to do right so far as we know. . that knowledge is the important thing to gain beyond all else. . euphony. euphony demands that the sentence be of pleasing sound. . avoid repeating the same word in a sentence. bad: he _commanded_ his son to obey his _commands_. . avoid words and combinations of words that are hard to pronounce. bad: he seized quickly a thick stick. . avoid a rhyme and the repetition of a similar syllable. bad: they went for a _walk_ in order to _talk_. exercise _correct such of the following sentences as lack euphony:_ . in the problems, he solved one once. . most of the time he does the most he can. . she worries about what to wear wherever she goes. . it is impossible for one to believe that one so changeable can be capable of such work. . those are our books. . every time there was a chance for error, error was made. . it is true that the man spoke truly when he said, "truth is stranger than fiction." . the well must have been well made, else it would not have served so well. . everything he said was audible throughout the auditorium. . he acted very sillily. . he is still worried over the ill fulfillment of john's promise. . in his letters there is something fine in every line. . they ordered the members of the order to pay their dues. exercise . a general exercise on sentences _revise the following sentences. in parentheses after each sentence is the number of the paragraph in which the error involved is set forth:_ . not only should we go to church, but also prayer-meeting. ( - .) . in the east, just above the horizon, mars may be readily seen in the evenings. ( - .) . there is nothing distinctive about the style of the book, and it tells the story of a young russian couple. ( - .) . the nasal noise in his enunciation was displeasing. ( - .) . books, papers, records, money, checks, and receipts, were burned. ( - .) . i tried to learn to write plainly, and have failed. ( - .) . he has not and never will succeed in doing that. ( - .) . he is sick as a result of the picnic, it may be. ( - .) . finally they stepped from the boat into the water, and tried to move it by all of them pushing. ( - .) . one is sure to become dull in mind, and ill in health, if you fail to exercise. ( - .) . the trip was comparatively quickly and easily made. ( - .) . she was of ordinary family, but he didn't think of criticizing that, since his own parents were of the german peasantry. ( - .) . the man was sentenced to either be hanged or life-imprisonment. ( - .) . people of wealth (and it is by no means an exception to the rule) fail to notice the misery about them. ( - -b.) . there one can see miles and miles. for there are no mountains. ( - -a.) . she told her that she thought that she had come too soon. ( - .) . by the judge's mistake, he was made a free man, and started on a career of crime again. ( - .) . flora macdonald was a genuine heroine. ( - .) . no criticism was made of the object, but of the means. ( - .) . if you observe the relation of spelling to pronunciation, you will have little trouble in pronunciation. ( - .) . he threw the stone at the window. and then he ran. ( - .) . the reading of poe's stories at least is entertaining, if not elevating. ( - -b.) . john the lion killed. ( - -b.) . he arose suddenly upsetting the table. ( - -b.) . bridget was a faithful servant, she never failed in her duties for more than five years. ( - -a.) . instead of six, now four years only are to be spent in college. ( - -a.) . we started down the river toward harrisburg. but we did not get very far. for a storm soon came upon us. ( - .) . he says that he has the book at his home which belongs to anderson. ( - ). . i secured a horse and went for a ride, and after my return, we had supper. ( - .) . two of the company were killed in the battle. the others escaped without a scratch. ( - .) . different from most persons, he will not mention to any one his faults. ( - .) . not only is the book interesting, but it is instructive also. ( - .) . may not only he be satisfied with the result, but delighted. ( - .) . main street is very long, and the hotels are on market street. ( - .) . he saw the money passing the store which had been lost. ( - .) chapter viii capitalization and punctuation rules for capitalization . capitalize all proper nouns and adjectives derived from proper nouns. france, french, paris, parisian, john, etc. . capitalize all titles when used with proper nouns. capitalize, also, the titles of governmental officers of high rank even when used separately. do not capitalize other titles when used separately. uncle sam, bishop anselm, professor morton, the postmaster general, postmaster smith of kelley cross roads, the postmaster of kelley cross roads. . capitalize the important words in titles of books. the master of ballantrae, the trail of the lonesome pine, the discovery of america. . capitalize the first word of every sentence, of every line of poetry, and of every complete sentence that is quoted. he said, "is it i whom you seek?" he said she was a "perfect woman, nobly planned." . capitalize the words, _mother, father_, etc., when used with proper names of persons, or when used without a possessive pronoun to refer to some definite person. capitalize also, common nouns in phrases used as proper nouns. father john, my uncle john, my uncle, if uncle writes, if my uncle writes, along the river, along the hudson river, madison square. . capitalize the names, _north, south, east_, and _west_, when referring to parts of the country; words used to name the deity; the words, _bible_ and _scriptures_; and the words _i_ and _o_, but not _oh_ unless it is at the beginning of a sentence. exercise _secure five examples under each of the above rules, except the last._ rules for punctuation . punctuation should not be done for its own sake, but simply to make the meaning clearer; never punctuate where no punctuation is needed. the following rules of punctuation are generally accepted: _the period_ (.) . use the period after ( ) every complete sentence that is not interrogative nor exclamatory; ( ) after every abbreviation; and ( ) after _yes_ and _no_ when used alone. _the interrogation point_ (?) . use the interrogation point after every direct question. _the exclamation point_ (!) . use the exclamation point after every exclamatory sentence or expression. alas! it is too late. fire if you dare! _the comma_ (,) . use the comma after each word of a series of words that all have the same grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence, unless conjunctions are used between all of those words. ours is a red, white, and blue flag. he talked, smoked, and read. he talked and smoked and read. do not, however, precede the series by a comma. wrong: he lectures on, tuesdays, thursdays, and fridays. right: he lectures on tuesdays, thursdays, and fridays. . use the comma to separate two adjectives modifying the same noun, but not if one modifies both the other adjective and the noun. an honest, upright man. an old colored man. a soiled red dress. . use the comma to set off non-emphatic introductory words or phrases, and participial phrases. john, come here. by the way, did you see mary? after having done this, cæsar crossed the rubicon. cæsar crossed the rubicon, thus taking a decisive step. . use the comma to set off appositive expression (see § , note ), or a geographical name that limits a preceding name. he was told to see dr. morton, the principal of the school. muncy, pennsylvania, is not spelled the same as muncie, indiana. . use the comma to set off any sentence element that is placed out of its natural order. if it is possible, he will do it. to most people, this will seem absurd. . use the comma to set off slightly parenthetical remarks that are thrown into the sentence. if the break is very marked, use the dash or parenthesis. that, if you will permit me to explain, cannot be done without permission from the police. two men, chase and arnold, were injured. he, himself, said it. . use the comma to set off explanatory or non-restrictive clauses, but not to set off restrictive clauses. (see §§ and .) mr. gardner, who has been working in the bank, sang at the church. but: the mr. gardner whom you know is his brother. . use the comma to separate coördinate clauses that are united by a simple conjunction. he can sing well, but he seldom will sing in public. he doesn't wish to sing, and i do not like to urge him. . use the comma to separate the members of a compound sentence when those members are short and closely connected in their thought. john carried the suit-case, i the hat box, and william the umbrella. . use the comma to separate dependent and conditional clauses introduced by such words as _if, when, though,_ unless the connection be close. he did not stop, though i called repeatedly. your solution is right in method, even if you have made a mistake in the work. but: you are wrong when you say that. . use the comma to set off short, informal quotations, unless such quotation is a word or phrase closely woven into the sentence. william said, "good morning"; but, "hello," was henry's greeting. but: he introduced the man as "my distinguished friend." . use the comma to set off adverbs and adverbial phrases; such as, _however, then, also, for example, so to speak,_ etc. such a man, however, can seldom be found. this sentence, for example, can be improved by changing the order. . use the comma whenever for any reason there is any distinct pause in the sentence that is not otherwise indicated by punctuation, or whenever something clearly is omitted. we want students, not boys who simply come to school. cæsar had his brutus; charles the first, his cromwell; ... _the semicolon_ (;) . use the semicolon to separate the clauses of a compound sentence that are long or that are not joined by conjunctions. he says that he shall teach for two more years; then he shall probably return to college. . use a semicolon to separate the clauses of a compound sentence that are joined by a conjunction, only when it is desirable to indicate a very definite pause. i have told you of the theft; but i have yet to tell you of the reason for it. . use a semicolon to separate the parts of a compound or a complex sentence, when some of those parts are punctuated by commas. as men, we admire the man that succeeds; but, as honest men, we cannot admire the man that succeeds by dishonesty. wrong: he spends his money for theatres, and dinners, and wine, and for his family he has not a cent. right: he spends his money for theatres, and dinners, and wine; and for his family he has not a cent. . use a semicolon before certain adverbs and adverbial expressions, when they occur in the body of the sentence and are used conjunctively; such as, _accordingly, besides, hence, thus, therefore_, etc. i do not care to see the game; besides, it is too cold. john is sick; however, i think he will be here. . use the semicolon before the expressions, _namely, as, that is_, etc., or before their abbreviations, _viz., i.e.,_ etc., when they are used to introduce a series of particular terms, simple in form, which are in apposition with a general term. at present there are four prominent political parties; namely, the republican, the democratic, the prohibition, and the socialist. _the colon_ (:) . use the colon after an introduction to a long or formal quotation, before an enumeration, or after a word, phrase, or sentence that constitutes an introduction to something that follows. mr. royer says in his letter: "you will remember that i promised to send you a copy of my latest musical composition. i am mailing it to you to-day." there are four essentials of a legal contract: competent parties, consideration, agreement, and legal subject matter. . use the colon after the salutation of a formal letter. (see § .) _the dash_ (--) . use the dash to indicate any sudden break in thought or construction. i am pleased to meet you, captain--what did you say your name is? the man i met--i refer to captain jones--was in the naval service. . use the dash in the place of the comma to set off more definitely some part of a sentence. i was always lacking what i needed most--money. . use the dash preceded by a comma before a word which sums up the preceding part of a sentence. democrats, republicans, prohibitionists, socialists, and populists,--_all_ were there. . do not use dashes where not required or in place of some other mark of punctuation. _the parenthesis marks_ ( ) . use the parenthesis marks only to enclose a statement that is thrown into the sentence, but is grammatically independent of it. he belongs (at least so it is said) to every secret society in town. . do not use a comma or other punctuation mark with the parenthesis marks unless it would be required even if there were no parenthesis. when other punctuation is used it should follow the parenthesis. they sent us (as they had agreed to do) all the papers in the case. we expect john to bring his roommate home with him (he has been very anxious to do so); but we expect no one else. modern usage is to avoid entirely the use of the parentheses. _the bracket_ [ ] . use the bracket to enclose some statement or word of the writer that is thrown into a quotation by way of explanation or otherwise. his letter reads: "we have decided to get mr. howard [his cousin] to deliver the address..." _the quotation marks_ (" ") . use quotation marks to enclose quotations of the exact language of another. the bible says, "charity suffereth long." . use single quotation marks (' ') to enclose a quotation within a quotation. the speaker in closing said: "i can imagine no more inspiring words than those of nelson at trafalgar, 'england expects every man to do his duty.'" . if a quotation consists of several paragraphs, quotation marks should precede each paragraph and follow the last. . do not use quotation marks to enclose each separate sentence of a single continuous quotation. . do not use quotation marks to enclose well-known nicknames, titles of books, proverbial phrases, or to indicate one's own literary invention. . examine the location of quotation marks and other punctuation in the following sentences: wrong: "you may do as you wish, he said, if you only wish to do right." right: "you may do as you wish," he said, "if you only wish to do right." wrong: "can you come," she asked? right: "can you come?" she asked. _the apostrophe_ (') . use the apostrophe to mark certain plurals and possessives. see §§ and . use the apostrophe to indicate the omission of letters. doesn't, can't, what's the matter? _the hyphen_ (-) . use the hyphen when a word must be divided at the end of a line. never divide words of one syllable, nor short words; such as, _though, through, also, besides, over_, etc. never divide words except at the end of a syllable, and always put the hyphen at the end of the first line, not at the beginning of the second. wrong division: _int-end, prop-ose, superint-endent, expre-ssion_. proper division: _in-tend, pro-pose, superin-tendent, expres-sion_. in writing it is good usage not to divide a word like _expression_ by placing _ex_ on one line and the rest of the word on the next line. . use the hyphen to divide certain compound words. no rule can be given by which to determine when compounded words demand the hyphen. only custom determines. always use a hyphen with _to-day, to-morrow_, and _to-night_. exercise _punctuate and capitalize the following selections. for instructions as to paragraphing and the arrangement of conversation, see_ §§ _and_ : . however father had told us not to expect good accommodations because it is a very small town . tomorrow if it is a clear day we will go to pittsburgh . will that be satisfactory was his question . it doesnt make any difference said she whether you come or not . whats the matter with you john . john replied i mean that poem that begins the curfew tolls the knell of parting day . and that day i was only a child then i travelled all alone to new york city . he is a member at least he claims to be of the presbyterian church . the author says that the hero of waterloo wellington was a general of great military training . buddhist brahmin mohammedan christian jewish every religion was represented . his letter will tell what he wants or will attempt to do so . you will please hand in the following sentences one three seven and nine . four presidents have been unitarians namely the two adams fillmore and taft . the verse to which you refer is as follows the boast of heraldry the pomp of power all that beauty all that wealth eer gave await alike the inevitable hour the paths of glory lead but to the grave . a noun is the name of something as william france book cat . the train leaves at eight therefore we shall have to rise at seven at latest . the different points discussed are these first the history of the divine right theory second the exponents of the theory and third the result of the theory . in the first problem divide in the second multiply . if the break is slight use a comma if it is more perceptible use a semicolon if it is very sharp use a period . william if you gear me answer . he told mother that he must go home at least that is what she understood . as noise it is an undoubted success as music it is a flat failure . that may be true but i still doubt it . separate the clauses by a comma unless the connection be close . even though that be true it does not prove what we want proved . mary said yes but helen said no . he is called the peerless leader . such a man for example was lincoln . if as you say it ought to be done why dont you do it . that too is a mistake . that is wool not cotton as you seem to think . the english are stolid the french lively . in that case let us have war . such an opinion i may say is absurd . alas when i had noticed my mistake it was too late . the house which was built by smith is on the corner of a large lot . he means the house that has green shutters . those are all good books but none of them will do . dickens wrote nicholas nickleby hugo les miserables thackeray henry esmond . he is a good student and also a great athlete . he gave me a red silk handkerchief . having assigned the lesson he left the room . royers address is danville illinois . you will find it discussed in paragraphs one two and three . i had classes under the president dr harris . moreover naxon the cashier has fled . oh that is what you mean is it . for this you will need a piece of clean white paper . the bible says the lord thy god is a jealous god . the boundary of uncle sams lands is the rio grande river . theodore roosevelt is not the only strenuous man in history . the north quickly recovered from the civil war . he told mother to write to my uncle about it . he said then why are you here . in that army old young and middle aged men served for their country could no longer raise a picked army . he was told to ask the principal professor morton . in the same town muncy lives smith now a respected man . a peasant named ali according to a good old oriental story needing badly a donkey for some urgent work decided to apply to his neighbor mehmed whose donkey ali knew to be idle in the stable that day i am sorry my dear neighbor said mehmed in reply to alis request but i cannot please you my son took the donkey this morning to the next village i assure you insisted ali i shall take the very best care of him my dear neighbor can you not take my word demanded mehmed with a show of anger i tell you the donkey is out but at this point the donkey began to bray loudly there that is the donkey braying now well said the justly indignant mehmed if you would rather take my donkeys word than my word we can be friends no longer and under no circumstances can i lend you anything. . a coroner was called upon to hold an inquest over the body of an italian the only witness was a small boy of the same nationality who spoke no english the examination proceeded thus where do you live my boy the boy shook his head do you speak english another shake of the head do you speak french another shake do you speak german still no answer how old are you no reply have you father and mother no reply do you speak italian the boy gave no sign well said the coroner i have questioned the witness in four languages and can get no answer it is useless to proceed the court is adjourned. note. further exercise in punctuation may be had by copying without the marks of punctuation selections from books, and afterwards inserting the proper marks. chapter ix the paragraph . the paragraph is a connected series of sentences all dealing with the development of a single topic. where the general subject under discussion is very narrow, the paragraph may constitute the whole composition; but usually, it forms one of a number of subtopics, each dealing with some subdivision of the general subject. for each one of these subtopics a separate paragraph should be made. the purpose of the paragraph is to aid the reader to comprehend the thought to be expressed. the paragraph groups in a logical way the different ideas to be communicated. it gives rest to the eye of the reader, and makes clearer the fact that there is a change of topic at each new paragraph. . paragraph length. there is no fixed rule governing the proper length of the paragraph, but, probably, no paragraph need be more than three hundred words in length. if the whole composition is not more than two hundred and fifty words in length, it will not often need to be subdivided into paragraphs. in a letter, paragraphing should be more frequent than in other compositions. paragraphing should not be too frequent. if paragraphing is too frequent, by making each minute subdivision of equal importance, it defeats its purpose of grouping ideas about some general topic. . sometimes a sentence or even a part of a sentence may be set off as a separate paragraph in order to secure greater emphasis. this, however, is only using the paragraph for a proper purpose--to aid in gaining clearness. . paragraphing of speech. in a narrative, each direct quotation, together with the rest of the sentence of which it is a part, should constitute a separate paragraph. this rule should be always followed in writing a conversation. examine the following: a certain scotch family cherishes this anecdote of a trip which dr. samuel johnson made to scotland. he had stopped at the house of this family for a meal, and was helped to the national dish. during the meal the hostess asked: "dr. johnson, what do you think of our scotch broth?" "madam," was the answer, "in my opinion it is fit only for pigs." "then have some more," said the woman. the only case in which the quoted words can be detached from the remainder of the sentence is where they form the end of the sentence after some introductory words, as in the second paragraph of the example just given. . indentation of the paragraph. the first sentence of each new paragraph should be indented. see example under § . no other sentence should be so indented. . the essential qualities which each paragraph should have are: unity, coherence, and emphasis. unity. unity requires that the paragraph should deal with only one subject, and should include nothing which does not have a direct bearing on that subject. thus, in the following paragraph, the italicized sentence violates the principle of unity, because, very obviously it belongs to some other paragraph: never did any race receive the gospel with more ardent enthusiasm than the irish. _st. patrick, a zealous priest, was thought to have banished the snakes from the island_. so enthusiastic were the irish, that, not content with the religious work in ireland, the irish church sent out its missionaries to scotland, to germany, and to the alps and apennines. it founded religious houses and monasteries.... separate paragraphs should not be made of matter which belongs together. if the ideas can all be fairly included under one general topic, unity demands that they be grouped in one paragraph. thus, in describing the route followed in a certain journey, one should not use a separate paragraph for each step in the journey. wrong: in returning to the university, i went from pittsburgh to cleveland. then i took a berth for the night on one of the lake steamers running from cleveland to detroit. from detroit i completed the journey to ann arbor on an early train the next morning. if unity is to be secured, not only must all the ideas brought out in the paragraph deal with the same topic, but also, they must be developed in some consistent, systematic order. a certain point of view should be generally maintained as to tense, subject, and manner of expression. . how to gain unity. careful thought before beginning the paragraph is necessary if unity is to be gained. the topic of the paragraph should be determined, and should be clearly indicated by a topic sentence. usually this topic sentence should be placed near the beginning of the paragraph. the first sentence is the clearest and best place for it. the topic sentence need not be a formal statement of the subject to be discussed, but may be any sentence that shows what is to be the central idea of the paragraph. with the topic determined, there are various ways of developing it. it may be developed by repetition; by adding details and specific instances to the general statement; by presenting proof; by illustration; or by showing cause or effect. . examine the following paragraphs. each possesses the quality of unity. the topic sentence in each case is italicized. _to rule was not enough for bonaparte._ he wanted to amaze, to dazzle, to overpower men's souls, by striking, bold, magnificent, and unanticipated results. to govern ever so absolutely would not have satisfied him, if he must have governed silently. he wanted to reign through wonder and awe, by the grandeur and terror of his name, by displays of power which would rivet on him every eye, and make him the theme of every tongue. power was his supreme object; but power which should be gazed at as well as felt, which should strike men as a prodigy, which should shake old thrones as an earthquake, and, by the suddenness of its new creations, should awaken something of the submissive wonder which miraculous agency inspires. from _the character of napoleon bonaparte_, by channing. _there is something in the very season of the year that gives a charm to the festivity of christmas._ at other times we derive a great portion of our pleasures from the mere beauties of nature. our feelings sally forth and dissipate themselves over the sunny landscape and we "live abroad and everywhere." the song of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, the golden pomp of autumn; earth with its mantle of refreshing green, and heaven with its deep delicious blue and its cloudy magnificence--all fill us with mute but exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury of mere sensation. but in the depth of winter, when nature lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn our gratifications to moral sources. the dreariness and desolation of the landscape, the short gloomy days and darksome nights, while they circumscribe our wanderings, shut in also our feelings from rambling abroad, and make us more keenly disposed for the pleasures of the social circle. our thoughts are more concentrated; our friendly sympathies more aroused. we feel more sensibly the charm of each other's society, and are brought more closely together by dependence on each other for enjoyment. heart calleth unto heart, and we draw our pleasures from the deep wells of living kindness which lie in the quiet recesses of our bosoms; and which, where resorted to, furnish forth the pure element of domestic felicity. from _christmas_, by washington irving. . coherence. coherence demands that each paragraph shall be perfectly clear in its meaning, and that it be so constructed that it may be readily grasped by the reader. the relation of sentence to sentence, of idea to idea, must be clearly brought out. the whole fabric of the paragraph must be woven together--it must not consist of disconnected pieces. . how to gain coherence. where vividness or some other quality does not gain coherence in the sentence, it is usually gained by the use of words or phrases which refer to or help to keep in mind the effect of the preceding sentences, or which show the bearing of the sentence on the paragraph topic. these words may be of various sorts; as, _it, this view, however, in this way_, etc. sometimes the subject is repeated occasionally throughout the paragraph, or is directly or indirectly indicated again at the end of the paragraph. examine carefully the following selections. note the italicized words of coherence, and note in each case how they aid the flow of thought from sentence to sentence, and help to keep in mind the paragraph topic. i will give you my opinion and advice in regard to the _two books_ you have named. the _first_ is interesting and easy to read. _it_ is, _also_, by no means lacking in the value of the information it presents. _but the second_, while it is no less interesting and equally valuable in its contents, seems to me far more logical and scholarly in its construction. _in addition to this_ i think you will find it cheaper in price, by reason of its not being so profusely illustrated. _therefore_, i should advise you to procure the _second_ for your study. _either, indeed_, will do, but since you have a choice, take the better one. a husbandman who had a quarrelsome family, after having tried in vain to reconcile them by words, thought he might more readily prevail by an example. _so_ he called his sons and bade them lay a bundle of sticks before him. _then having tied them_ up into a fagot, he told _the lads_, one after another, to take it up and break it. _they all tried_, but tried in vain. _then_, untying _the fagot_, he gave _them_ the sticks to break one by one. _this_ they did with the greatest ease. _then_ said the father: "_thus_, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for all your enemies; but differ and separate, and you are undone." _Ã�sop's fables_. examine also the selections under §§ and . . emphasis. the third quality which a paragraph should possess is emphasis. the paragraph should be so constituted as to bring into prominence the topic or the point it is intended to present. the places of greatest emphasis are usually at the beginning and at the end of the paragraph. in short paragraphs sufficient emphasis is generally gained by having a topic sentence at the beginning. in longer paragraphs it is often well to indicate again the topic at the end by way of summary in order to impress thoroughly on the reader the effect of the paragraph. exercise _the few following suggestions for practice in paragraph construction are given by way of outline. additional subjects and exercises will readily suggest themselves to teacher or student._ _these topics are intended to apply only to isolated paragraphs--"paragraph themes." as has been suggested, more latitude in the matter of unity is allowed in compositions so brief that more than one paragraph is unnecessary._ write paragraphs: . stating the refusal of a position that has been offered to you, and giving your reasons for the refusal. . describing the appearance of some building. give the general appearance and then the details. . explaining how to tie a four-in-hand necktie. . stating your reasons for liking or not liking some book or play. . describing the personal appearance of some one of your acquaintance. . to prove that the world is round. . to prove that it pays to buy good shoes. (develop by illustration.) . showing by comparison that there are more advantages in city life than in country life. write paragraphs on the following subjects: . my earliest recollection. . the sort of books i like best. . why i like to study x branch. . my opinion of my relatives. . the man i room with. . why i was late to class. . what i do on sundays. . how to prevent taking cold. . how to cure a cold. . my best teacher. . my favorite town. . why i go fishing. . my favorite month. . what becomes of my matches. . baseball is a better game than football. . the view from x building. . why i go to school. . my opinion of rainy days. . my most useful friend. . why i dislike surprise parties. . why i like to visit at x's. . the police service of x town. chapter x letter-writing note to teacher.--for the purpose of training in composition, in the more elementary work, letter-writing affords probably the most feasible and successful means. letter-writing does not demand any gathering of material, gains much interest, and affords much latitude for individual tastes in topics and expression. besides, letter-writing is the field in which almost all written composition will be done after leaving school; and so all training in school will be thoroughly useful. for this reason, it is suggested that letter-writing be made one of the chief fields for composition work. in exercise , are given a number of suggestions for letter-writing. others will readily occur to the teacher. the heading . position of heading. in all business letters the writer's address and the date of writing should precede the letter and be placed at the upper right hand side of the sheet not less than an inch from the top. this address and date is called the heading. in friendly letters the parts of the heading are sometimes placed at the end of the letter on the left side a short distance below the body of the letter. this is permissible, but to place it at the beginning in all letters is more logical and customary. never write part of the heading at the beginning and part at the end of the letter. . order of heading. the parts of the heading should be sufficient to enable the accurate addressing of a reply, and should be in the following order: ( ) the street address, ( ) the town or the city address, ( ) the date. if all cannot be easily placed on one line, two or even three lines should be used; but, in no case, should the above order be varied. examples: wrong: march , , red oaks, iowa, semple street. right: semple street, red oaks, iowa, march , . right: semple street, red oaks, iowa, march , . right: semple street, red oaks, iowa, march , . if only two lines are used, put the writer's address on the first line and the date on the second. wrong: january , , sharon, pennsylvania, the hotel lafayette. right: the hotel lafayette, sharon, pennsylvania, january , . . punctuation of heading. place a period after each abbreviation that is used. in addition to this, place commas after the street address, after the town address, after the state address, and after the number of the day of the month. place a period after the number of the year. examine the correct address under § . . faults to be avoided in headings. avoid the use of abbreviations in the friendly letter, and avoid their too frequent use in the business letter. it is better to avoid abbreviating any but the longer names of states. avoid all such abbreviations as the following: _st._ for _street; ave._ for _avenue; apart._ for _apartments; chi._ for _chicago; phila._ for _philadelphia_. wrong: hardie apart., pbg., pa. right: hardie apartments, pittsburg, pa. do not use the sign # before the street number. do not omit the word _street_. wrong: market. right: market street. do not write the date thus: _ / / _. represent the numbers by figures, not words. see §§ and . do not use _st., rd.,_ etc., after the number of the day. wrong: / / . right: september , . wrong: september the ninth, nineteen hundred and nine. right: september , . wrong: march th, . right: march , . the inside address . position of inside address. in strictly commercial letters the name and the address of the person to whom the letter is being sent should come at the beginning of the letter, and should begin flush with the margin at the left side of the page, and a little below the level of the heading. the second line of the inside address should be set in a little from the margin. see model letters under § . in formal friendly letters and in letters of a non-commercial nature, the inside address should stand a little below the bottom of the letter at the left side of the page. in informal friendly letters the inside address may be omitted. . punctuation of inside address. in punctuating the inside address, place a period after each abbreviation that is used. in addition to this, place a comma after the name of the addressee, a comma after the street address, if one be given, and after the name of the town or city. place a period after the name of the state or country. examine the correct inside address under § . . faults to be avoided in the inside address. do not omit the town, city, or state address from the inside address. wrong: mr. e. p. griffith, my dear sir: right: mr. e. p. griffith. muskogee, oklahoma. my dear sir: right: mr. e. p. griffith, fiji avenue, muskogee, oklahoma. my dear sir: do not omit proper titles. wrong: r. r. stolz, muncy, pennsylvania. right: mr. r. r. stolz, muncy, pennsylvania. when two or more men are addressed, do not omit the title _mr._, before the name of each of the men, unless their names constitute a partnership or trading name. right: jones & smith, (_firm name_) new york city. gentlemen: right: mr. jones and mr. smith, (_not a firm name_) new york city. gentlemen: avoid all abbreviations of titles preceding the name except _mr., mrs., messrs._, and _dr._ abbreviations of titles placed after the name, such as, _esq., d.d., a.m._, etc., are proper. do not use _mr._ and _esq._ with the same name. avoid all other abbreviations except in case of a state with a very long name. in this case it is permissible to abbreviate, but it is better form to write the name in full. _united states of america_ may be abbreviated to _u. s. a._ wrong: merch. mfg. co., n. y. c. gentlemen: right: the merchants' manufacturing company. new york city. gentlemen: wrong: mr. william shipp, bangor, me. dear sir: right: mr. william shipp, bangor, maine. dear sir: do not place a period after the title _miss. miss_ is not an abbreviation. the salutation . position of salutation. the salutation should begin flush with the margin and on the line next below the inside address. see correctly written letters under § . . form of salutation. the salutation varies with the form of the letter and the relations between the writer and receiver of the letter. where the parties are strangers or mere business acquaintances the most common salutations for individuals are, _dear sir, dear madam_, or _my dear sir, my dear madam_. for a group of persons, or for a company or a partnership, _gentlemen, dear sirs, dear madams_ or _mesdames_ are used. in less formal business letters such salutations as, _my dear mr. smith_, or _dear miss jaekel_ may be used. in the case of informal and friendly letters, as in business and formal letters, the salutation to be used is largely a matter of taste. the following are illustrations of proper salutations for friendly letters: _my dear doctor, dear cousin, dear cousin albert, dear miss jaekel, dear major, my dear miss smith, dear william, dear friend,_ etc. it is considered more formal to prefix _my_ to the salutation. it is over formal to use simply _sir_ or _madam_ in any letter, or to use _dear sir_ or _dear madam_ when writing to a familiar friend. if one uses a very familiar salutation, such as _dear brown, dear john,_ etc., it is better to put the inside address at the close of the letter, or to omit it. . punctuation of salutation. punctuate the salutation with a colon, except in informal letters, when a comma may be used. . faults to be avoided in the salutation. use no abbreviations except _dr., mr., mrs._ do not use the abbreviation _dr._, when that title is used as a final word in a salutation. wrong: my dear maj. wren: right: my dear major wren: wrong: my dear dr.: right: my dear doctor: do not use a name alone as a salutation. wrong: mr. w. w. braker: will you please inform ... right: mr. w. w. braker, muncy, pennsylvania. dear sir: will you please inform ... in the salutation capitalize only the important nouns and the first word of the salutation. wrong: my dear sir: right: my dear sir: wrong: my very dear friend: right: my very dear friend: wrong: dear sir: right: dear sir: the body of the letter . the subject matter of the letter. in friendly letters much latitude is allowed in the body of the letter, but business letters should be brief and to the point. no letter, however, should be lacking in the courteous forms or in completeness. . form of body. the body of the letter usually begins on the line below the salutation and is indented the same distance from the margin as any other paragraph would be indented. see model letters under § . in commercial letters paragraph divisions are made more frequently than in other composition. each separate point should be made the subject of a separate paragraph. . faults in body of the letter. in letters that are intended to be complete and formal, avoid the omission of articles, pronouns, and prepositions. avoid also expressions that are grammatically incomplete. only in extremely familiar and hasty letters should the "telegraph style" be adopted. bad: received yours of the th. have had no chance to look up man. will do so soon. good: i have received your letter of the tenth. i have had no chance as yet to look up the man, but i will do so soon. bad: address c/o john smith, mgr. penna. tele. good: address in care of john smith, manager of the pennsylvania telegraph. bad: in reply will say ... good: in reply i wish to say ... bad: yours of the th at hand. good: your letter of the th is at hand. bad: your favor received ... good: we have received your letter ... bad: enclose p. o. money order for $ . good: we enclose post office money order for two dollars, ($ ). bad: we have read your plan. same is satisfactory. good: we have read your plan, and it is satisfactory. avoid the use of abbreviations in the letter. it is well to avoid the too frequent use of the pronoun _i_ in the letter, though care must be taken not to carry this caution to extremes. _i_, however, should not be omitted when necessary to the completeness of the sentence. do not try to avoid its use by omitting it from the sentence, but by substituting a different form of sentence. there is no objection to beginning a letter with _i_. punctuate the letter just as carefully as any other composition. excepting in letters of a formal nature, there is no objection to the use of colloquial expressions such as _can't, don't,_ etc. unless you have some clear reason to the contrary, avoid the use of expressions that have been used so much that they are worn out and often almost meaningless. such expressions as the following ones are not wrong, but are often used when they are both inappropriate and unnecessary. your esteemed favor is at hand. in reply permit me to say ... we beg leave to advise ... we beg to suggest ... thanking you for the favor, we are ... please find enclosed ... in answer to your favor of the tenth ... we take pleasure in informing you ... in reply would say ... we beg to acknowledge receipt of your favor ... awaiting your further orders, we are ... the close . final words. business letters frequently close with some final words, such as, _thanking you again for your kind assistance, i am ..., a waiting your further orders, we are_ ..., etc. these expressions are not wrong, but are often used when not at all necessary. . the complimentary close. the complimentary close should be written on a separate line near the middle of the page, and should begin with a capital letter. appropriateness is the only guide to the choice of a complimentary close. the following complimentary closes are proper for business letters: yours respectfully, yours very truly, yours truly, very truly yours, the following complimentary closes are proper for friendly letters: yours sincerely, very truly yours, yours very truly, your loving son, yours cordially, affectionately yours, . faults in the close. do not use abbreviations, such as, _yrs. respy., yrs. try.,_ etc. . the signature of the writer. the letter should be so signed as to cause no doubt or embarrassment to any one addressing a reply. the signature should show whether the writer is a man or a woman; and, if a woman, it should indicate whether she is to be addressed as _miss_ or _mrs._ in formal letters it is customary for a woman to indicate how she is to be addressed by signing her name in the following manner: sincerely yours, caroline jones. (mrs. william jones). very truly yours, (miss) matilda stephens. in signing a company name write first the name of the company, and after it the name of the writer. example: d. appleton & company, per j. w. miller. miscellaneous directions . in beginning the letter, place the address and date an inch and a half or two inches below the top of the page. leave a margin of about a half inch or more on the left side of the page. indent the beginning of each paragraph about an inch or more beyond the margin. in using a four-page sheet, write on the pages in their order, , , , . in the correctly written forms of letters under § observe the indentation of the lines. the first line of the inside address should be flush with the margin, the second somewhat set in. the salutation should begin flush with the margin. the body of the letter should begin on the line below the salutation, and some distance in from the margin. the outside address . position of outside address. place the address on the envelope so that it balances well. do not have it too far toward the top, too close to the bottom, nor too far to one side. see addressed envelope under § . place the stamp squarely in the upper right-hand corner, not obliquely to the sides of the envelope. . punctuation of outside address. punctuation may be omitted at the end of the lines of the address. if it is used, place a period at the end of the last line, and a comma after each preceding line. within the lines punctuate just as you would in the inside address. if an abbreviation ends the line, always place a period after it, whether the other lines are punctuated or not. . faults in the outside address. avoid the use of abbreviations except those that would be proper in the inside address or in the heading. see §§ and . do not use the sign # before the number of the street address. no letters or sign at all should be used there. see § . compare the following forms of addresses: bad: col. wm. point, # john st., trenton, n. j. good: colonel william point, john street, trenton, new jersey. good: colonel william point john street trenton, new jersey bad: chas. jones, c/o edward furrey, wilkinsburg, pa. good: mr. charles jones in care of mr. edward furrey wilkinsburg pennsylvania bad: rev. walter bertin good: the reverend walter bertin bad: pres. of bucknell univ. good: for the president of bucknell university. a properly arranged address: [illustration: mr. robert d. royer, tenth street, danville, illinois.] . correctly written letters mead avenue, wilkinsburg, pennsylvania, january , . mr. a. m. weaver, cambridge, massachusetts. my dear sir: i have received your letter of inquiry about the sale of my law books. i will say in answer that at present i have no intention of selling them. you may, however, be able to secure what you want from h. b. wassel, esquire, commonwealth building, pittsburg, pennsylvania. he has advertised the sale of a rather extensive list of books. very truly yours, charles m. howell. muncy, new york, january , . my dear professor morton: we are trying to establish in the school here some permanent system of keeping students' records. i have been told that you have worked out a card method that operates successfully. if you can give me any information in regard to your method, i shall consider it a very great favor. i enclose a stamped envelope for your reply. very sincerely yours, harris a. plotts. professor e. a. morton, braddock, pennsylvania. braddock, pennsylvania, january , . my dear mrs. hagon: i wish to thank you for your kind aid in securing captain howard to deliver one of the lectures in our course. only your influence enabled us to get so good a man at so iowa price. very sincerely, sylvester d. dunlop. state street, detroit, michigan, january , . to whom it may concern: it gives me great pleasure to testify to the character, ability and attainments of mr. e. j. heidenreich. he has been a trusted personal associate of mine for more than twenty years. he may be counted upon to do successfully anything that he is willing to undertake. harry b. hutchins. my dear walter: i am to be in the city only a few more weeks before leaving permanently. before i go, i should like to have you come out and take dinner with me some evening. how would next wednesday at six o'clock suit you? if you can come at that time, will you please write or telephone to me sometime before tuesday? very cordially yours, paul b. vandine. broad street, philadelphia, pennsylvania, march , . the lafayette, philadelphia, pennsylvania, march , . my dear paul: i shall be very glad to accept your invitation to take dinner with you before you take final leave of the city. the time you mention, next wednesday evening, is entirely satisfactory to me. i was more than pleased to receive your invitation, for the prospect of talking over old times with you is delightful. sincerely yours, walter powell. napoleon, ohio, february , . the american stove company, alverton, pennsylvania. gentlemen: with this letter i enclose a check for ten dollars, for which please send me one of your small cook stoves, of the sort listed in your catalogue on page two hundred thirty-eight. it will be a great favor if you will hasten the shipment of this stove as much as possible, since it is urgently needed in a summer cottage that i have for rent. very truly yours, ernest burrows. siegel street, new york city, june , . the acme tapestry company, syracuse, new york. dear sirs: will you please send me a price list and descriptive catalogue of your tapestries and carpets? i have been commissioned to purchase all the tapestries and carpets that may be needed for the new young women's christian association building, on arlington avenue, this city. i understand that institutions of this sort are allowed a ten per cent discount by you. will you please tell me if this is true? very truly yours, anna r. fleegor. (mrs. c. c. fleegor.) lewisburg, pennsylvania, may , . the merchant's electric wiring company, philadelphia, pennsylvania. gentlemen: i am writing to ask if you can give me employment in your work for about ten weeks beginning june th. i am at present taking a course in electrical engineering at bucknell university, and am in my sophomore year., it is my plan to gain some practical experience in various sorts of electrical work during the vacations occurring in my course. this summer i want to secure practical experience in electric wiring. if you wish references as to my character and ability, i would refer you to mr. william r. stevenson, lewisburg, pennsylvania, and to mr. harry e. mccormick, superintendent of the street railways company, danville, illinois. salary is a very slight object to me in this work, and i shall be willing to accept whatever compensation you may see fit to offer me. respectfully yours, harvey h. wilkins. drawsburg, ohio, may , . my dear norman: i have just heard of your good fortune and hasten to assure you of my sincere pleasure in the news. may you find happiness and prosperity in your new location. but do not forget that your old friends are still living and will always be interested in your welfare. your affectionate cousin, mary e. johnston. holbrook avenue, wilkinsburg, indiana. november , . the jefferson life insurance company, norfolk, virginia. gentlemen: i am the holder of policy number in your company. in that policy, which was taken out about ten years ago, my occupation is stated to be carpenter. lately i have changed occupations, and am now engaged in conducting a store. if, in order to maintain the validity of my policy, the change of occupation should be recorded on your books, will you please have the proper entry made. i should like to know if at the present time my policy has any cash surrender value, and if so, what that value is. very truly yours, arthur j. pearse. bunnell building, scranton, pennsylvania, april , . mr. james r. elliot, germantown, colorado. my dear elliot: will you please send me, as soon as you conveniently can, the addresses of george english, ira s. shepherd, and g. n. wilkinson. this request for addresses may lead you to think that wedding invitations are to be looked for. your conclusion, i am happy to say, is a correct one; i expect to be married sometime in june. cordially your friend, charles r. harris. the anglo-american hotel, vienna, austria, march , . dear aunt emily: you will no doubt be surprised when you read the heading of this letter and learn that we are now in vienna. we had really intended, as i wrote to you, to spend the entire months of march and april in berlin, but a sudden whim sent us on to this city. until we came to vienna i had but a very vague idea of the city, and thought it a place of little interest. i was surprised to find it a place of so many beautiful buildings and beautiful streets. still more was i surprised to find what a festive, stylish place it is. paris may have the reputation for fashion and frivolity, but vienna lacks only the reputation; it certainly does not lack the fashionable and frivolous air. the other day in one of the shops here, i discovered, as i thought, a very fine miniature. i purchased it to present to you, and have already sent it by post. it ought to reach you as soon as this letter. we have not received the usual letter from you this week, but suppose it is because we so suddenly changed our address. the necessity of forwarding it from berlin has probably caused the delay. father and mother join in sending their love to you. your affectionate niece, mary. notes in the third person . it is customary and desirable to write certain kinds of notes in the third person. such a note contains nothing but the body of the note, followed at the left side of the paper, by the time and the place of writing. use no pronoun but that of the third person. never use any heading, salutation, or signature. use no abbreviations except _mr., mrs._, or _dr._ spell out all dates. . correctly written notes in the third person. mrs. harry moore requests the pleasure of mr. leighou's company at dinner on sunday, june the first, at two o'clock. highland street, washington, pennsylvania, may the twenty-fifth. the senior class of bucknell university requests the pleasure of professor and mrs. morton's company on tuesday evening, june the tenth, at a reception in honor of governor edwin s. stuart. bucknell university, june the fifth. mr. leighou regrets that a previous engagement prevents his acceptance of mrs. moore's kind invitation for sunday, june the first. braddock avenue, may the twenty-seventh. exercise _make use of some of the following suggestions for letters. have every letter complete in all its formal parts. fill in details according to your own fancy:_ . a letter to the x express company of your town, complaining of their delay in delivering a package to you. . a letter to a friend, thanking him for the entertainment afforded you on a recent visit to his house. . a letter to the x book company, inquiring what dictionary they publish, the prices, etc. . a letter to mr. x, asking him for a position in his office, and stating your qualifications. . a letter congratulating a friend on some good fortune that has befallen him. . a letter asking a friend his opinion of some business venture that you are thinking of entering upon. explain the venture. . a letter to your home, describing to your parents your school. . a letter to a friend, telling him of the chance meeting with some friend. . a letter to the x store ordering from them material for covering a canoe that you are building. explain your needs. . a letter describing experiences which you had on your vacation. . a letter arranging to meet a friend at a certain place, time, etc. . a letter explaining how to reach your home from the railway station. leave no doubt. . a letter describing some new acquaintance. . a letter telling some humorous story that you have recently heard. . a letter to a relative telling him the recent occurrences in your town. . a letter detailing your plans for the succeeding year. . a letter describing some play which you have recently attended. . a letter to your parents explaining to them why you failed in an examination. . a letter inviting a friend to visit you at a certain time. . a letter accepting an invitation to visit a friend. . a letter stating your opinions on some public question; as, prohibition, woman suffrage, etc. . a letter discussing the baseball prospects in your town or school. . a letter to the x school, inquiring about courses of study given, prices, etc. . a formal third person invitation to a reception given to some organization to which you belong. . a formal third person acceptance of such invitation. . a travel letter describing your visit to various places of interest. . a letter describing a day's outing to a friend who was unable to go with you. . a letter describing a house to a man who wishes to purchase it. . a letter to a schoolmate describing to him various events which happened at school during his absence. . a letter in reply to an inquiry from a friend as to what outfit he will need to take along on a prospective camping trip. . a letter describing to a friend the appearance and characteristics of a dog which you have lately bought. . a letter to your parents telling them of your boarding place, your recent visit to the theater, your meeting an old friend, your work, your new acquaintances. arrange the topics and make the transition as smooth as possible. . a letter telling about an intended celebration by the school of some national holiday. . a letter about a lecture that you recently attended. describe the place, occasion, lecturer, address, etc. . a letter telling a friend the first impression you formed of your school. chapter xi the whole composition . by the term whole composition or theme is meant a composition consisting of a number of related paragraphs all dealing with one general subject, whether the composition be a narration, a description, or an exposition. the following general principles applying to the construction of the whole composition are stated for the guidance of the inexperienced writer. . statement of subject. care should be used in the statement of the subject. it should not be so stated as to be more comprehensive than the composition, but should be limited to cover only what is discussed. for a small essay, instead of a big subject, take some limited phase of that subject: too broad: _college, photography, picnics_. properly limited: _a college education as an aid to earning power, does college life make loafers? photography as a recreation, how picnics help the doctor._ . the outline. just as in the building of a house or of a machine, if anything creditable is to be attained, a carefully made plan is necessary before entering on the construction; so in the writing of an essay or theme, there should be made some plan or outline, which will determine what different things are to be discussed, and what is to be the method of developing the discussion. by the inexperienced writer, at least, a composition should never be begun until an outline has been formed for its development. as soon as the material for the composition is in hand, the outline should be made. it should be an aid in the construction of the composition, not a thing to be derived after the composition is completed. only by the previous making of an outline can a logical arrangement be gained, topics properly subordinated, and a suitable proportion secured in their discussion. in the previous chapter on the paragraph the following different subtopics, were discussed: definition of paragraph. how to secure unity. length of paragraph. how to secure coherence. the topic sentence. too frequent paragraphing. unity in the paragraph. paragraphing of speech. coherence in the paragraph. paragraphing for emphasis. examples of unity. examples showing how unity is purpose of the paragraph. destroyed. emphasis in the paragraph. the paragraph theme. if the topics had been taken up in the above irregular order, a sorry result would have been obtained. compare the above list of topics with the following arrangement of the same topics in a logical outline. the paragraph . its definition and purpose. . its length. paragraphing of speech. paragraphing for emphasis. too frequent paragraphing. . its essential qualities. a. unity. definition. examples showing how unity is destroyed. how to secure unity. the topic sentence. development of topic sentence. examples showing unity. b. coherence. definition. how to secure coherence. examples showing coherence. c. emphasis. places of emphasis in the paragraph. . practical construction of the paragraph. . the paragraph theme. . use and qualities of the outline. the use of the outline is not restricted to an expository composition, as above, but is also necessary in narration and description. usually, in a narration, the order of time in which events occurred, is the best order in which to present them, though other arrangements may frequently be followed with very good reason. in a description different methods may be followed. often a general description is given, and then followed by a statement of various details. thus, in describing a building, one might first describe in a general way its size, its general style of architecture, and the impression it makes on the observer. then more particular description might be made of its details of arrangement and peculiarities of architecture and ornamentation. the whole object of the outline is to secure clearness of statement and to avoid confusion and repetition. to secure this end the outline should present a few main topics to which all others either lead up or upon which they depend. these topics or subtopics should all bear some apparent and logical relation to one another. the relation may be that of chronology; that of general statement followed by details; that of cause and effect; or any other relation, so long as it is a logical and natural one. the outline should not be too minute and detailed. it should be sufficient only to cover the various divisions of the subject-matter, and to prevent the confusion of subtopics. a too detailed outline tends to make the composition stiff and formal. the outline should have proportion. the essential features of the subject should be the main topics. minor subjects should not be given too great prominence, but should be subordinated to the main topics. . the beginning of the composition. to choose a method of beginning a composition often causes trouble. usually a simple, direct beginning is the best. but sometimes an introductory paragraph is necessary in order to explain the writer's point of view, or to indicate to what phases of the subject attention is to be given. examine the following methods of beginning. the industry of lawyer oddly enough, hardly any notice is taken of an industry in which the united states towers in unapproachable supremacy above all other nations of the earth. the census does not say a word about it, nor does there exist more than the merest word about it in all the literature of american self-praise. my childhood fear of ghosts nothing stands out more keenly in the recollection of my childhood, than the feelings of terror which i experienced when forced to go to bed without the protecting light of a lamp. then it was that dread, indefinite ghosts lurked behind every door, hid in every clothes-press, or lay in wait beneath every bed. the uses of iron no other metal is put to so many uses and is so indispensable as iron. the opening sentences of a composition should be able to stand alone; their meaning or clearness should not depend upon reference to the title. bad: the value of latin in the high school there is a rapidly growing belief _that this study_ has too large a place in our high-school courses of study. good: the value of latin in the high school there is a rapidly growing belief _that latin_ has too large a place in our high school courses of study. . unity in the composition. unity is an essential element of the whole composition as well as of the paragraph, and its demands here are in general the same. nothing must be brought into the composition which does not fall well within the limits of the subject. in the different subdivisions, also, nothing must be discussed which properly belongs to some other division of the topic. as in the paragraph, a definite point of view should be adopted and adhered to. there must not be a continual changing of relation of parts of the composition to the subject, nor of the writer's relation to the subject. a consistent point of view is especially necessary in a narrative. if the writer is telling of events within his own experience, care must be taken not to bring in any conversation or occurrence, at which, by his own story, he could not have been present. a continual changing back and forth between present and past tenses must also be avoided. one or the other should be adopted consistently. . coherence in the composition. a composition must also be coherent. its different parts must be closely knit together and the whole closely knit to the subject. just as in the paragraph, words of reference and transition are needed, so in the composition, words, or sentences of reference and transition are needed, in order to bind the whole together and show the relation of its parts. for this purpose, the beginning of a new division or any definite change of topic should be closely marked, so as to prevent confusion. there should be transition sentences, or sentences which show the change of topic from paragraph to paragraph, and yet at the same time bridge the thought from paragraph to paragraph. these transition sentences may come at the end of a preceding paragraph, or at the beginning of a following one, or at both of these places. examine the following parts of paragraphs in which the words or phrases showing transition from part to part are italicized: (last sentence of first paragraph) ... the american war was pregnant with misery of every kind. (second paragraph) _the mischief, however,_ recoiled on the unhappy people of this country, who were made the instruments by which the wicked purposes of the authors were effected. the nation was drained of its best blood, and of its vital resources of men and money. the expense of the war was enormous--much beyond any former experience. (third paragraph) _and yet, what has the british nation received in return_ for this expense.... ... i was now enabled to see the _extent and aspect of my prison. in its size_ i had been greatly mistaken.... (beginning of paragraph following one on unity in the paragraph) _the second of the essentials of the paragraph_, coherence, demands that.... frequently, in the longer compositions, a separate paragraph is devoted to accomplishing the transition from part to part. observe the following: (paragraph ) ... the only other law bearing on this matter is the act of assembly of last year authorizing the receipts from the automobile taxes to be used in the construction of roads. this then completes the enumeration of what has already been done toward building good roads. (paragraph . transitional paragraph) _there are, however, several promising plans for the securing of this important result, which are now being seriously discussed._ (paragraph ) _the first of these plans is_ ... the following are a few of the words and phrases often used to indicate transition and to show relation between the paragraphs: _so much for, it remains to mention, in the next place, again, an additional reason, therefore, hence, moreover, as a result of this, by way of exception._ examine the selection under § . . the ending of the composition. in a longer composition, the ending should neither be too abrupt, nor, on the other hand, should it be too long drawn out. it should be in proportion to the length of the composition. usually, except in the case of a story, it should consist of a paragraph or two by way of summary or inference. in a story, however, the ending may be abrupt or not. the kind of ending depends entirely upon the nature and the scheme of development of the story. examine the following endings: ending of a theme on _the uses of iron_: only some of the more important uses of this wonderful metal, iron, have been mentioned. there are hundreds of other uses to which it is constantly put--uses which no other metal could fill. gold may once have been called the king of metals, but it has long since lost its claim to that title. ending of a story: john heard her answer, and began to move slowly away from the gate. "good-bye," he said. and then he was gone, forever. suggested subjects for the making of outlines and compositions. . how i spent my vacation. . shall final examinations be abolished? . the subjects which should be taught in high schools. . my qualifications for a position. . the uses of iron. . paul revere's ride. . the city park. . my town as a place of residence. . the value of railroads. . why i believe in local option. . a winter's sleigh ride. . shall foreign immigration be restricted? . my youthful business ventures. . why i belong to the x political party. . various methods of heating a house. . below is given in full lincoln's _gettysburg speech_. it is perfect in its english and its construction. study it with especial reference to its coherence, unity, and emphasis. some of the words of coherence have been italicized. fourscore and seven years ago our fathers, brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. _now_ we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether _that nation_, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. we are met on a great battle-field of _that war_. we have come to dedicate a portion of _that field_ as the final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do _this. but_ in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. the brave men, living and dead, who _struggled here_ have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never forget what _they did here_. it is for us, the living, _rather_, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which _they who fought here_ have thus far so nobly advanced. _it is rather for us_ to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that _these dead_ shall not have died in vain; that _this nation_, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. . _small economies_, from mrs. gaskell's _cranford_. i have often noticed that everyone has his own individual small economies--careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction--any disturbance of which annoys him more than spending shillings or pounds on some real extravagance. an old gentleman of my acquaintance, who took the intelligence of the failure of a joint-stock bank, in which some of his money was invested, with a stoical mildness, worried his family all through a long summer's day because one of them had torn (instead of cutting) out the written leaves of his now useless bank-book. of course, the corresponding pages at the other end came out as well, and this little unnecessary waste of paper (his private economy) chafed him more than all the loss of his money. envelopes fretted his soul terribly when they first came in. the only way in which he could reconcile himself to such waste of his cherished article was by patiently turning inside out all that were sent to him, and so making them serve again. even now, though tamed by age, i see him casting wistful glances at his daughters when they send a whole inside of a half-sheet of note paper, with the three lines of acceptance to an invitation, written on only one of the sides. i am not above owning that i have this human weakness myself. string is my foible. my pockets get full of little hanks of it, picked up and twisted together, ready for uses that never come. i am seriously annoyed if any one cuts the string of a parcel instead of patiently and faithfully undoing it fold by fold. how people can bring themselves to use india-rubber bands, which are a sort of deification of string, as lightly as they do, i cannot imagine. to me an india rubber band is a precious treasure. i have one which is not new--one that i picked up off the floor nearly six years ago. i have really tried to use it, but my heart failed me, and i could not commit the extravagance. small pieces of butter grieve others. they cannot attend to conversation because of the annoyance occasioned by the habit which some people have of invariably taking more butter than they want. have you not seen the anxious look (almost mesmeric) which such persons fix on the article? they would feel it a relief if they might bury it out of their sight by popping it into their own mouths and swallowing it down; and they are really made happy if the person on whose plate it lies unused suddenly breaks off a piece of toast (which he does not want at all) and eats up his butter. they think that this is not waste. now miss matty jenkins was chary of candles. we had many devices to use as few as possible. in the winter afternoons she would sit knitting for two or three hours--she could do this in the dark, or by firelight--and when i asked if i might not ring for candles to finish stitching my wristbands, she told me to "keep blind man's holiday." they were usually brought in with tea; but we only burnt one at a time. as we lived in constant preparation for a friend who might come in any evening (but who never did), it required some contrivance to keep our two candles of the same length, ready to be lighted, and to look as if we burnt two always. the candles took it in turns; and, whatever we might be talking or doing, miss matty's eyes were habitually fixed upon the candle, ready to jump up and extinguish it and to light the other before they had become too uneven in length to be restored to equality in the course of the evening. one night, i remember this candle economy particularly annoyed me. i had been very much tired of my compulsory "blind man's holiday," especially as miss matty had fallen asleep, and i did not like to stir the fire and run the risk of awakening her; and so i could not even sit on the rug, and scorch myself with sewing by firelight, according to my usual custom.... . a list of books for reading. these books are of a varied character and are all interesting and of recognized excellence in their english. most of them are books that, as a matter of general education, should be read by everyone. fiction: treasure island--stevenson. kidnapped--stevenson. dr. jekyll and mr. hyde--stevenson. the scarlet letter--hawthorne. twice told tales--hawthorne. the luck of roaring camp--bret harte. tales of mystery and imagination--poe. silas marner--eliot. robinson crusoe--defoe. ivanhoe--scott. henry esmond--thackeray. pilgrim's progress--bunyan. the spy--cooper. the man without a country--hale. tales of a traveller--irving. the legend of sleepy hollow--irving. rip van winkle--irving. lorna doone--blackmore. uncle william--lee. the blue flower--van dyke. non-fiction: sesame and lilies--ruskin. stones of venice--ruskin. the american commonwealth--bryce. a history of the english people--green. views afoot--taylor. the autocrat of the breakfast table--holmes. conspiracy of pontiac--parkman. autobiography--franklin. lincoln--douglas debates. critical periods of american history--fiske. certain delightful english towns--howells. the declaration of independence. bunker hill oration--webster. on conciliation with america--burke. the sketch book--irving. chapter xii words.--spelling.--pronunciation . to write and to speak good english, one must have a good working vocabulary. he must know words and be able to use them correctly; he must employ only words that are in good use; he must be able to choose words and phrases that accurately express his meaning; and he must be able to spell and pronounce correctly the words that he uses. words . good use. the first essential that a word should have, is that it be in good use. a word is in good use when it is used grammatically and in its true sense, and is also: ( ) _reputable_; in use by good authors and writers in general. the use of a word by one or two good writers is not sufficient to make a word reputable; the use must be general. ( ) _national_; not foreign or local in its use. ( ) _present_; used by the writers of one's own time. . offenses against good use. the offenses against good use are usually said to be of three classes: solecisms, barbarisms, and improprieties. . solecisms are the violations of the principles of grammar. solecisms have been treated under the earlier chapters on grammar. . barbarisms. the second offense against good use, a barbarism, is a word not in reputable, present or national use. the following rules may be given on this subject: . avoid obsolete words. obsolete words are words that, once in good use, have since passed out of general use. this rule might also be made to include obsolescent words: words that are at present time passing out of use. examples of obsolete words: methinks yesterwhiles twixt yclept afeard shoon . avoid newly coined expressions or new uses of old expressions. there are a great many words current in the newspapers and in other hasty writing that have not the sanction of general good use at the present time, though many of these words may in time come into use. a safe rule is to avoid all words that are at all doubtful. examples: an invite an exposé a try enthuse a combine fake a common newspaper fault is the coining of a verb or adjective from a noun, or a noun from a verb. examples: locomote suicided derailment pluralized burglarized refereed . avoid foreign words. a foreign word should not be used until it has become naturalized by being in general, reputable use. since there are almost always english words just as expressive as the foreign words, the use of the foreign words usually indicates affectation on the part of the one using them. examples: billet-doux (love letter) conversazione (conversation) ad nauseam (to disgust) distingué (distinguished) ad infinitum (infinitely) entre nous (between us) . avoid provincialisms. provincialisms are expressions current and well understood in one locality, but not current or differently understood in another locality. examples: guess (think) reckon (suppose) near (stingy) smart (clever) tuckered (tired out) lift (elevator) tote (carry) ruination (ruin) . avoid vulgarisms. vulgarisms are words whose use shows vulgarity or ignorance. such words as the following are always in bad taste: chaw nigger your'n gal flustrated hadn't oughter haint dern his'n . avoid slang. slang is a form of vulgarism that is very prevalent in its use even by educated people. slang words, it is true, sometimes come into good repute and usage, but the process is slow. the safest rule is to avoid slang expressions because of their general bad taste and because of their weakening effect on one's vocabulary of good words. examples of slang: grind swipe booze long green on a toot dough pinch peach dukes . avoid clipped or abbreviated words. the use of such words is another form of vulgarism. examples: pard (partner) rep (reputation) doc (doctor) cal'late (calculate) musee (museum) a comp (complimentary ticket) . avoid technical or professional words. such words are usually clearly understood only by persons of one class or profession. examples: valence hagiology allonge kilowatt sclerosis estoppel . when barbarisms may be used. in the foregoing rules barbarisms have been treated as at all times to be avoided. this is true of their use in general composition, and in a measure true of their use in composition of a special nature. but barbarisms may sometimes be used properly. obsolete words would be permissible in poetry or in historical novels, technical words permissible in technical writing, and even vulgarisms and provincialisms permissible in dialect stories. exercise _substitute for each of the barbarisms in the following list an expression that is in good use. when in doubt consult a good dictionary:_ chaw, quoth, fake, reckon, dern, forsooth, his'n, an invite, entre nous, tote, hadn't oughter, yclept, a combine, ain't, dole, a try, nouveau riche, puny, grub, twain, a boom, alter ego, a poke, cuss, eld, enthused, mesalliance, tollable, disremember, locomote, a right smart ways, chink, afeard, orate, nary a one, yore, pluralized, distingué, ruination, complected, mayhap, burglarized, mal de mer, tuckered, grind, near, suicided, callate, cracker-jack, erst, railroaded, chic, down town, deceased (verb), a rig, swipe, spake, on a toot, knocker, peradventure, guess, prof, classy, booze, per se, cute, biz, bug-house, swell, opry, rep, photo, cinch, corker, in cahoot, pants, fess up, exam, bike, incog, zoo, secondhanded, getable, outclassed, gents, mucker, galoot, dub, up against it, on tick, to rattle, in hock, busted on the bum, to watch out, get left. exercise _make a list of such barbarisms as you yourself use, and devise for them as many good substitute expressions as you can. practice using the good expressions that you have made._ exercise _correct the italicized barbarisms in the following sentences:_ . they can go _everywheres_. . he spends all his time _grinding_. . there _ain't_ a _sightlier_ town in the state. . he ate the whole _hunk_ of cake. . he was treated very _illy_. . smith's new house is very _showy_. . not _muchly_ will i go. . all were ready for breakfast before _sun-up_. . do you like _light-complected_ people? . i had never _orated_ before. . their clothes are always _tasty_ in appearance. . he has money, but he is very _near_. . he left the room _unbeknown_ to his mother. . if manners are any indication, she belongs to the _nouveau riche_. . i feel pretty _tollable_ today. . i _reckon_ all will be able to get seats. . do you _callate_ to get there before noon? . if i had as much _long green_ as he has, i wouldn't be such a _tight-wad_. . he was the _beau ideal_ of soldier. . john is a _crazy cuss_. . let me say _en passant_ we did not ask for the tickets. . even at that time john had a bad _rep_. . that woman is the countess of verdun, _née_ smith. . _methinks_ you are wrong. . the teacher _spake_ sharply to her. . i _didn't go for to do_ it. . it will be published _inside of_ two months. . the duke and his wife were travelling _incog_. . i hadn't _thought on_ that. . there is little difference _twixt_ the two. . come now, _fess up_. . it's a _right smart ways_ to williamsport. . you _wot_ not what you say. . he bought a _poke_ of apples for his lunch. . brown runs a pretty _classy_ store. . i finally _got shut_ of him. . i _could of_ jumped across. . that can't be done _nohow_. . you make such _dumb_ mistakes. . i never saw such a _bum_ show. . improprieties. the third offense against good use, an impropriety, is the use of a proper word in an improper sense. in many cases an offense against good use may be called a barbarism, an impropriety, or a solecism, since the fields covered by the three terms somewhat overlap one another. many improprieties have their origin in the similarities in sound, spelling or meaning of words. the following exercises deal with a number of common improprieties resulting from the confusion of two similar words. exercise _study the proper use of the words given under each of the following divisions. in each group of sentences fill the blanks with the proper words:_ accept, except. see glossary at end of book, under _except_. . i cannot ---- your gift. . have you no books ---- these? . cicero was not ---- from the list of those condemned. . he ---- the invitation. affect, effect. see glossary under _effect_. . will your plan ---- a reform from the present condition? . the sad news will seriously ---- his mother. . how was the bank ---- by the indictment of its president? . the change of schedule was ---- without a hitch. aggravate, irritate. see glossary. . her manner ---- me. . the crime was ---- by being committed in cold blood. . the children do everything they can to ---- her. . his illness was ---- by lack of proper food. allude, mention. see glossary. . he ---- (to) certain events which he dared not name directly. . the attorney ---- (to) no names. . that passage in his book delicately ---- (to) his mother. . in his speech the labor leader boldly ---- (to) his recent arrest. argue, augur. _to argue_ is to state reasons for one's belief. _to augur_ means _to foretell, to presage_. . the reported quarrel ---- ill for the army. . he will ---- at length on any subject. . her darkening looks ---- a quarrel. avocation, vocation. a _vocation_ is one's principal work or calling. _an avocation_ is something aside from or subordinate to that principal calling. . the young physician enthusiastically pursues his ----. . law is his ----, but politics is his ----. . the ministry should be one's ----, never his ----. . while preparing for his life work, school teaching was for a time his ----. besides, beside. _besides_ means _in addition to. beside_ refers to place; as, _he sits beside you_. . ---- you, who else was there? . is there nothing ---- this to do? . john walked ---- me. . ---- me was a tree. calculate, intend. _to calculate_ means _to compute, to adjust_ or _to adapt. intend_ means _to have formed the plan to do something_. . he ---- to sell books this summer. . he ---- that the work will take ten years. . he ---- to finish it as soon as he can. . the oil is ---- to flow at the rate of a gallon a minute. character, reputation. see glossary. . in this community his ---- is excellent. . one's friends may endow him with a good ----, but not with a good ----. . slander may ruin one's ----, but it will not destroy his ----. . see that your ---- is right, and your ---- will establish itself. claim, assert. _to claim_ means to make a demand for what is one's own. it should not be confused with _assert_. . i ---- that i am innocent. . john ---- the property as his. . they ---- their right to the land. . the cashier ---- the money in payment of a note. . do you still ---- that you were born in america? council, counsel, consul. a _council_ is a group of persons called in to hold consultation. _counsel_ means _an adviser_, as a lawyer; or _advice_ that is given. _consul_ is an officer of the government. . in the colonies each governor had his ----. . the advisers gave him ---- when he desired it. . the united states has a ---- in every important foreign port. . in criminal cases the accused must be provided with ----. . the president's cabinet constitutes for him a sort of ----. . in rome two ---- were elected to manage the affairs of the state. emigration, immigration. see glossary. . foreign ---- into the united states is greatly restricted. . the ---- of the citizens of the united states to canada is becoming a matter of concern. . our ---- bureau enforces the chinese exclusion act. . the treatment of the royalists caused a great ---- from france. good, well. _good_ is an adjective. _well_ is usually an adverb, though sometimes an adjective; as, _are you well to-day?_ . she talks very ----. . she prepares a ---- paper, even if she does not write ----. . do ---- what you are doing. . did you have a ---- time? . recite it as ---- as you can. house, home. _house_ means only _a building. home_ means a place that is one's habitual place of residence. . he thought often of the flowers about the door of his old ----. . they have recently bought a ---- which they intend to make their ----. . mr. heim lives here now, but his ---- is in lewisburg. . he has several miserable ---- that he rents. . such a place is not fit to be called a ----. most, almost. _almost_ is an adverb meaning _nearly. most_ never has this meaning. . i was ---- injured when the machine broke. . it is ---- time for him to come. . the ---- discouraging thing was his indifference. . i ---- missed the car. . ---- of the books are torn. let, leave. see glossary, under _leave_. . will his employer ---- him go so early. . i shall ---- at noon. . ---- me help you with your coat. . ---- me here for a while. . this book i ---- with you. . do not ---- that danger disturb you. like, as. _like_ should not be used as a conjunction in the sense of _as_. as a preposition it is correct. it is wrong to say, _do like i do_; but right to say, _do as i do_. . he looks ---- james. . read ---- james does. . does she look ---- me? . she thinks of it ---- i thought. . lincoln could do a thing ---- that. . other men could not do ---- lincoln did. likely, liable, probably. it is better to avoid using _likely_ as an adverb; but it may be used as an adjective; as, _he is likely to come. probably_ refers to any sort of possibility. _liable_ refers to an unpleasant or unfavorable possibility; it should not be used as equivalent to _likely_. . he is ---- to arrest for doing that. . the president's car will ---- arrive at noon. . it is ---- to rain to-day. . is he ---- to write to us? . continued exposure makes one more ---- to serious illness. . what will ---- come of it? loan, lend. _loan_ should be used only as a noun, and _lend_ only as a verb. . i wish to obtain a ---- of fifty dollars. . will you ---- me your knife? . a ---- of money loses both itself and friend. . a ---- is something that one ---- to another. mad, angry. mad means _insane, uncontrollably excited through fear_, etc. it should not be used for _angry_ or _vexed_. . his manner of speaking makes me ----. . it makes one ---- to see such behavior. . the noise almost drove me ----. much, many. _much_ refers to quantity; _many_ to number. . sometimes they have as ---- as fifty in a class. . ---- of the trouble comes from his weak eyes. . do you use ---- horses on the farm? . how ---- marbles did the boy have? near, nearly. _near_ is an adjective; _nearly_ an adverb. . is the work ---- finished? . the man was ---- the end of the porch. . it was ---- noon when blucher came. . they are ---- insane with worry. . mary is not ---- so old as john. observation, observance. _observation_ means to _watch, to look at. observance_ means _to celebrate, to keep_. _observation_ applies to a fact or an object; _observance_ to a festival, a holiday, or a rule. . the ---- of the astronomer proved the theory. . sunday ---- is of value to one's bodily as well as to one's spiritual health. . the ---- of the sanitary regulations was insisted upon. . the scientist needs highly developed powers of ----. respectively, respectfully. _respectively_ means _particularly, relating to each. respectfully_ means _characterized by high regard._ . these three kinds of architecture were characterized ---- as "severe," "graceful," and "ornate." . sign your letter "yours ----," not "yours ----." . their shares were ---- two hundred dollars and five hundred dollars, . the class ---- informed the faculty of their desire. suspect, expect. _suspect_ means _to mistrust. expect_ means _to look forward to_. . i ---- that he will come. . he ---- his brother of hiding his coat. . when do you ---- to finish the work? . the man was never before ---- of having done wrong. teach, learn. see glossary under _learn_. . you must ---- him to be careful. . he must ---- to be careful. . to ---- a class to study is a difficult task. . who ---- your class to-day. transpire, happen. _transpire_ does not mean _to happen_. it means _to become gradually known, to leak out_. . she knows everything that ---- in the village. . it ---- that he had secretly sold the farm. . no more important event than this has ---- in the last ten years. . it has now ---- that some money was stolen. quite, very. _quite_ is not in good use in the sense of _very_ or _to a great degree_. it properly means _entirely_. . the book is ---- easy to study. . have you ---- finished your work. . the train ran ---- slowly for most of the distance. . that is ---- easy to do. . we were ---- unable to reach the city any sooner. exercise _the following list includes some groups of words that are often confused. far the proper meaning of the words refer to a good dictionary. write sentences using the words in their proper senses:_ practical, skilled sensible, sensitive couple, two access, accession future, subsequent allusion, illusion, delusion folk, family conscience, consciousness evidence, testimony identity, identification party, person, firm limit, limitation plenty, many, enough of majority, plurality portion, part materialize, appear solicitation, solicitude invent, discover human, humane prescribe, proscribe bound, determined some, somewhat, something fix, mend mutual, common foot, pay noted, notorious creditable, credible wait for, wait on exceptionable, exceptional in, into exercise _show how the use of each of the two italicized words in the following sentences would affect the meaning of the sentence:_ . we experienced a _succession series_ of hindrances. . that _statement assertion_ was made by an eye witness. . the student has remarkable _ability capacity_. . in my _estimate estimation_ the cost will be higher than fifty dollars. . the _import importance_ of his words is not fully understood. . the _union unity_ of the clubs is remarkable. . the _acts actions_ of the president were closely watched. . the man needed a new _stimulus stimulant_. . he was _captivated captured_ by her unusual charms. . we are quick to _impute impugn_ motives that we think to exist. . he was _convinced convicted_ by john's argument. . the dog's suffering was _alleviated relieved_ by the medicine. . he _persuaded advised_ me to consult a lawyer. . his behavior was _funny odd_. . the plan seems _practical practicable_. . that is the _latest last_ letter. . that certainly was not a _human humane_ action. . he _waited on waited for_ his mother. . the _completeness completion_ of the work brought many congratulations. exercise _supply a word which will remedy the italicized impropriety in each of the following sentences. when in doubt consult a dictionary:_ . the _majority_ of the illustrations are good. . no one can accurately _predicate_ what the weather will be. . shall you _except_ the invitation? . they _claim_ that the assertion cannot be proved. . they finally _located_ the criminal in dravosburg. . i shall _leave_ you go at noon. . the _balance_ of the essay was uninteresting. . by questions they tried to _eliminate_ the true story. . they _impugn_ false motives to me. . he was greatly _effected_ by the news. . sabbath _observation_ was then very strict. . they _expect_ that she wrote the letter. . the _invention_ of electricity has revolutionized all manufactures. . who _learned_ her to sing? . edison _discovered_ the phonograph. . one cannot comprehend the _enormity_ of a billion of dollars. . many _complements_ were paid to her beauty. . his _consciousness_ pricked him. . how could any one be guilty of such a cruel _action_. . the _advancement_ of the army was very slow. . idioms. there are in english, as in other languages, a number of expressions that cannot be justified by the rules of grammar or rhetoric; and yet these expressions are among the most forcible ones in the language, and are continually used by the best writers. these expressions that lie outside all rules we call idioms. compare the following idiomatic expressions with the unidiomatic expressions that succeed them. the second expression in each group is in accord with the strict rules of composition; but the first, the idiomatic, is far more forceful. idiomatic: the book which i read about. unidiomatic: the book about which i read. idiomatic: more than one life was lost. unidiomatic: more lives than one life were lost. idiomatic: speak loud. speak louder. unidiomatic: speak loudly. speak more loudly. idiomatic: a ten-foot pole. unidiomatic: a ten-feet pole. idiomatic: he strove with might and main. unidiomatic: he strove with might. (might and main are two words of the same meaning.) idiomatic: he lectured on every other day. unidiomatic: he lectured on one day out of every two. idioms are not to be avoided. on the contrary, because they contribute great ease and force to composition, their use is to be encouraged. but the distinction between idiomatic and unidiomatic expressions is a fine one, and rests solely on usage. care must be taken not to go beyond the idiomatic. there is probably little danger that the ordinary writer or speaker will not use idioms enough. the following expressions are examples of commonly used idioms: he was standing at the door _in his shirt sleeves_. i _don't think_ it will rain (i think it will not rain). she walked out of the room _on her father's arm_. john was a poor _shot_. do you feel _like a little candy_? see what my foolishness has brought me _to_. what part of the city will they settle _in_? what was the house built _for_? john needs a match to light his pipe _with_. that is all i ask _for_. what are you driving _at_? _hard put to it._ _by all odds._ _must needs._ i must _get up_ by noon. _get rid of._ _get used to._ _never so good._ _whether or no._ i can't go _either_. _you forget yourself_ when you speak so harshly. i can come only _every other_ day. if the bell rings _answer the door_. _i take it_ that you will be there too. _come and see_ me. _try and_ do it. the thief _took to his heels_. . choice of words. the words in which a thought is expressed may not offend against good use, and yet still be objectionable because they do not accurately and appropriately express the thought. one should choose not merely a word that will approximately express the thought, but the one word that best expresses it. the following suggestions are given to aid in the choice of words: . choose simple english words and avoid what is called "fine writing." young writers and newspaper writers are greatly given to this offense of fine or bombastic writing. examples: fine writing simple style was launched into eternity was hanged disastrous conflagration great fire called into requisition the services sent for the doctor of the family physician was accorded an ovation was applauded palatial mansion comfortable house acute auricular perceptions sharp ears a disciple of izaak walton a fisherman . distinguish between general and specific terms. in some cases general words may be used to advantage, but more often specific words should be used, since they call to the mind a definite image. compare these sentences: the _high color_ of his face showed his embarrassment. his _crimson_ face showed his embarrassment. he was a _large_ man. he was a _fat_ man. he was a man of _large frame_. he was a _tall, heavily proportioned_ man. he was a man _six feet four inches tall_ and _heavy_ in proportion. it was an _impressive_ building. it was a building of _impressive size_. it was a building of _impressive beauty_. his _fault_ was robbery. his _crime_ was robbery. . avoid over-statement of facts. the use of words that are too strong is a fault especially characteristic of americans. examples: poor: the concert was _simply exquisite_. better: the concert was _very good_. poor: she was _wild_ over the mistake. better: she was _much annoyed_ by the mistake. . avoid hackneyed phrases; expressions that have been worked to death. examples: his paternal acres. the infuriated beast. the gentle zephyrs of springtime. was gathered to his fathers. the blushing bride was led to the hymeneal altar. applauded to the echo. exercise _for each of the following expressions devise the best simple english expression that you can:_ . individual was precipitated. . tendered him a banquet. . at the witching hour of midnight. . the devouring element was checked. . piscatorial sport. . pedal extremities. . fraught with tremendous possibilities. . amid the plaudits of the multitude. . caudal extremity. . passed to his long home. . dissected the thanksgiving bird. . presided at the organ. . finger of scorn pointed at him. . wended his way. . the green eyed monster. . the whole aggregation of knowledge chasers. . maternal ancestor. . shuffled off this mortal coil. . failed to materialize at the banquet. . tonsorial artist. . twirler of the sphere. . pugilistic encounters. . performed his matutinal ablutions. . partook of a magnificent collation. . solemnized the rites of matrimony. exercise _in the third paragraph of the selection from cranford (see § ) observe the use of the following words: human, weakness, hanks, twisted, annoyed, and undoing. study the specific nature of these words by grouping about each of them other words of somewhat similar meaning, and then comparing the force of the various words in each group._ _this sort of exercise may be continued by choosing passages from any careful writer and studying the words that he has used._ exercise _substitute for each of the following expressions some expression that will be less general or less exaggerated:_ . she is _nice_ looking. . we had a _perfectly gorgeous_ time. . john is a _professional_ man. . the play was _simply exquisite_. . to hear his voice makes me feel _funny_. . the opposing team was _completely annihilated_. . a _noise_ caught our attention. . his manners are _horrid_. . we had a _great_ time. . such arrogance is _unendurable_. . that is a _good_ book. . how to improve one's vocabulary. the few following suggestions may be found helpful in the acquiring of a good vocabulary: . cultivate the dictionary habit. learn the meaning, pronunciation, and spelling of each new word that you meet. only when these three things are grasped about each word, does one really know the word. some persons have found it an invaluable aid to carry with them a small note book or card on which they note down to be looked up at a convenient time words concerning which they are in doubt. . in your writing and speaking use as much as possible the new words that you acquire. . construct good english expressions for all the slang, fine writing, and hackneyed phrases that you meet, and then use the good expressions instead of the bad ones. . study synonyms; words of similar form and meaning. only by a knowledge of synonyms can you express fine shades of meaning. _crabbe's_ english synonyms and _fernald's_ synonyms and antonyms are good books of reference for this purpose. in addition to these books, lists of synonyms will be found in many books that are designed for general reference. . try to get the one word that will best express the idea. . read good books and good magazines, and read them carefully. . cultivate the society of those who use good language. exercise _look up the meaning of each of the words in the following groups of synonyms. construct sentences in which each word is used correctly:_ . love, like. . wit, humor. . discover, invent. . observe, watch. . pride, vanity, conceit. . proof, evidence, testimony. . balance, rest, remainder. . word, term, expression. . bring, fetch, carry. . abandon, desert, forsake. . propose, purpose, intend. . healthful, healthy, wholesome. . student, pupil, scholar. . capacity, power, ability. . blame, censure, criticism. . accede, agree, yield, acquiesce. . trickery, cunning, chicane, fraud. . instruction, education, training, tuition. . hardship, obstacle, hindrance, difficulty. . maxim, precept, rule, law . multitude, crowd, throng, swarm. . delight, happiness, pleasure, joy. . work, labor, toil, drudgery, task. . silent, mute, dumb, speechless. . kill, murder, assassinate, slay. . hatred, enmity, dislike, ill-will. . example, pattern, sample, model. . obvious, plain, clear, apparent. . noted, eminent, famous, prominent, notorious. . old, aged, antique, ancient, antiquated, obsolete. spelling . the following is a list of words that are frequently misspelled or confused. where possible, an effort has been made to arrange them in groups in order that they may be more easily remembered. the word with an added ending has been used in most cases in place of the bare word itself as, _occasional_ instead of _occasion_. a few rules have been included. accede descend pressure accident fascinate misspelled accommodate mischievous possession accordance miscellaneous accuracy muscle recollection succeed susceptible dispelled occasional miscellaneous occur existence monosyllable experience intellectual across sentence parallel amount embellishment apart foregoing wholly arouse forehead woolly village already forty villain all right foreign till forfeit amateur formally perpetual grandeur formerly persuade perspiration appal fulfill apparatus willful police appetite policies approximate guardian opportunity guessing presence opposite precede disappoint imminent preceptor disappearance immediately accommodation fiend choose commission siege chosen grammar friend inflammation yielding boundary recommend elementary summary seize symmetrical receive final committee receipt finally usual ledger succeed usually legible proceed ascend assassin recede ascent dissimilar secede discerning essential accede discipline messenger intercede discontent concede discreet necessary supersede descent necessity passport . words ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, if monosyllables, or if the last syllable is accented, double the final consonant before the ending _-ed_ and _-ing_, but not before _-ence_; as, rob, rob_bed_, rob_bing_, rob_bers_. confer, confer_red_, confer_ring_, confer_ence_. transmit, transmit_ted_, transmit_ting_, transmi_ssion_. impel, impel_led_, impel_ling_, imp_ulsion_. similar to the above are. defer, infer, prefer, refer, transfer, occur (occurrence), abhor (abhorrence), omit, remit, permit, commit, beset, impel, compel, repel, excel (excellence), mob, sob, rub, skid. if these words are not accented on the last syllable, the consonant is not doubled; as, benefit, benefit_ed_, benefit_ing_, benefi_cial_. similar are: differ, summon, model. . words ending in silent _e_ drop the _e_ before a suffix beginning with a vowel; as, arrive, arriv_ing_, arriv_ed_, arriv_al_. precede, preced_ed_, preced_ing_, preced_ence_. receive, receiv_ed_, receiv_ing_. similar are: move, write, blame, tame, come, receive, believe, relieve, grieve, deceive, conceive, perceive, seize, precede, concede, supersede, recede, argue, rue, construe, woe, pursue. . words ending in _-ge, -ce_, or _-se_, retain the _e_ before endings: as, arrange, arrangement; arrange, arranging. similar are: gauge, manage, balance, finance, peace, service, amuse, use. . words in _-dge_ do not retain the _e_ before endings; as, acknowledge, acknowledg_ment_, acknowledg_ed_, acknowledg_ing_. similar are: nudge, judge. . most words ending in _y_ preceded by a consonant change _y_ to _i_ before all endings except-_ing_: busy, bus_iness_, bus_ied_, busy_ing_. similar are: duty, mercy, penny, pity, vary, weary, study. . words of similar sound: canvas (cloth) principle (rule) canvass (all meanings except _cloth_) principal (chief) capitol (a building) stationary (immovable) capital (all meanings except _building_) stationery (articles) counsel (advice or an adviser) miner (a workman) council (a body of persons) minor (under age) complement (a completing element) angel (a spiritual being) compliment (praise) angle (geometrical) . miscellaneous words: annual laundry schedule awkward leisure separate beneficial lenient spaniard decimal license speak exhilarate mechanical specimen familiarize mediæval speech fiber medicine spherical fibrous militia subtle genuine motor surely gluey negotiate technical height origin tenement hideous pacified their hundredths phalanx therefore hysterical physique thinnest icicle privilege until irremediable prodigies vengeance laboratory rarefy visible laid rinse wherein larynx saucer yielding pronunciation . the following list is made up of words that are frequently mispronounced. an effort has been made to arrange them in groups according to the most frequent source of error in their pronunciation. the only marks regularly used are the signs for the long and short sounds of the vowel. a as in _hate_ i as in _high_ u as in _use_ a as in _hat_ i as in _hit_ u as in _run_ e as in _me_ o as in _old_ oo as in _boot_ e as in _met_ o as in _hop_ oo as in _foot_ when sounds are not otherwise indicated take the sound that comes most naturally to the tongue. . a as in _hate_: word correct pronunciation alma mater _alma mater_ apparatus _apparatus_ apricot _apricot_ attaché _attasha'_ audacious _audashus_ ballet _bal'la_ blasé _blaza'_ blatant _blatant_ chasten _chasen_ cleopatra _cleopatra_ compatriot _compatriot_ gratis _gratis_ or _grahtis_ harem _harem_ or _hahrem_ heinous _hanous_ hiatus _hiatus_ implacable _implakable_ nape _nap_ née _na_ négligé _naglezha'_ patron _patron_ protégé _protazha'_ résumé _razuma'_ tenacious _tenashus_ tomato _tomato_ or _tomahto_ valet _va'la_ or _val'et_ vase _vas, vahz_, or _vaz_ veracious _verashus_ vivacious _vivashus_ . a as in _hat_: alternative _alternative_ arab _ar'ab_, not _arab_ arid _ar'id_ asphalt _asfalt_, not _fawlt_ bade _bad_ catch not _ketch_ defalcate _defal'kate_, not _fawl_ dilletante _dilletan'te_ forbade _forbad_ granary _granary_ program _pro'gram_, not _grum_ rapine _rap'in_ rational _rational_ sacrament _sacrament_ . Ã� as in _arm_: aunt _änt_ behalf _behäf_ calf _käf_ calm _käm_ half _häf_ laugh _läf_ psalm _säm_ . e as in _me_: amenable _amenable_ clique _klek_, not _klick_ creek _krek_, not _krick_ either _eether_ (preferable) mediocre _mediocre_ naïve _na'eve_ (_a_ as in _arm_) neither _neether_ (preferable) precedence _prece'dence_ precedent _prece'dent_ (when an adjective) predecessor _predecessor_ predilection _predilection_ premature _premature_ quay _ke_ resplendent _resplen'dent_ sacrilegious _sacrilegious_, not -_religious_ series _serez_ sleek _slek_, not _slick_ suite _swet_, not like _boot_ . e as in _met_: again _agen_ against _agenst_ crematory _krem'atory_ deaf _def_, not _def_ heroine _heroin_, not like _hero_ measure _mezhure_, not _ma_ metric _metrik_ precedent _prec'edent_ (noun) prelate _prel'at_ presentation _prezentation_ sesame _ses'ame_ steady _stedy_, not _stiddy_ tenet _ten'et_ weapon _wepon_, not _wepon_ . i as in _high_: appendicitis _appendicitis_ biennial _biennial_ biography _biography_ bronchitis _bronkitis_ carbine _carbine_ decisive _decisive_ demise _demise_ dynasty _di'nasty_ finis _finis_ grimy _grimy_ hiatus _hia'tus_ inquiry _inqui'ry_ long-lived _long-livd_ peritonitis _peritonitis_ privacy _privacy_ short-lived _short-livd_ simultaneous _simultaneous_ tiny _tiny_, not _teny_ . i as in _hit_: bicycle _bi'sicle_ breeches _briches_ breeching _briching_ feminine _feminin_ genuine _genuin_ hypocrisy _hipok'risy_ italic _ital'ik_ italian _italyan_ maritime _maritim_ pretty _pritty_ puerile _pu'eril_ respite _res'pit_ tribune _trib'un_ . o as in _old_: adonis _adonis_ apropos _apropo_ bowsprit _bowsprit_ brooch _broch_ not _broosh_ compromise _compromize_ jowl _jol_, not like _owl_ molecular _molecular_ ogle _ogle_ trow _tro_ vocable _vocable_ zoology _zoology_, not _zoo_ . o as in _hop_: choler _koler_ dolorous _dolorous_ florid _florid_ molecule _molecule_ obelisk _obelisk_ probity _probity_ solecism _solesism_ solstice _solstice_ stolid _stolid_ . oo as in _boot_: bouquet _booka'_ canteloupe _can'taloop_ coup d'état _koo data'_ coupon _koo'pon_ ghoul _gool_ hoof _hoof_ roof _roof_ root _root_ route _root_ routine _rootine_ wound _woond_ . u as in _use_: accurate _ak'kurat_ culinary _kulinary_ gubernatorial _gubernatorial_ jugular _jugular_ . u as in _us_: constable _kunstable_ courtesan _kur'tezan_ hover _huver_ iron _iurn_ monetary _munetary_ nothing _nuthing_ wont _wunt_ (different from _won't_) . miscellaneous words. adobe _ado'ba_ algebra not _bra_ alien _alyen_, not _alien_ ameliorate _amelyorate_ antarctic _antarktik_ anti not _anti_ archangel _arkangel_ archbishop _arch_, not _ark_ arch fiend _arch_, not _ark_ architect _arkitect_ awkward _awkward_, not _ard_ beethoven _batoven_ bingen _bing'en_ blackguard _blag'gard_ bowdoin _bodn_ brougham _broom_ business _bizness_ caldron _kawldron_ calk _kawk_ cayenne _kien'_ courtier _kortyer_ cuckoo _kookoo_ dilemma _dilem'ma_ directly not _directly_ dishevelled _dishev'ld_ don juan _don juan_ or _hooan_ drought _drowt_ drouth _drowth_ extempore _extempore_ (four syllables) familiarity _familyarity_ gaol _jal_ genealogy _-alogy_, not _-ology_ gemus _genyus_ gloucester _gloster_ gooseberry _gooz_, not _goos_ hawaiian _hawi'yan_ (_a_ as in _arm_) helena _hel'ena_ (except _st. hele'na_) inconvenience _inconvenyence_ israel _izrael_, not _issrael_ jeans _janes_ joust _just_ or _joost_ larynx _lar'inx'_ or _la'rinx_, not _larnix_ literature _literature_, or _choor_ messrs. _meshyerz_ or _mesyerz_ mineralogy _-alogy_, not _-ology_ nature _nature_, or _choor_ oleomargarine _g_ is hard, as in _get_ orchid _orkid_ oust _owst_, not _oost_ peculiar _peculyar_ pecuniary _pekun'yari_ perspiration not _prespiratian_ prestige _pres'tij_ or _prestezh'_ pronunciation _pronunzeashun_ or _pronunsheashun_ saucy not _sassy_ schedule _skedyul_ semi not _semi_ theater _the'ater_ not _thea'ter_ turgid _turjid_ usage _uzage_ usurp _uzurp_ vermilion _vermilyun_ wife's not _wives_ xerxes _zerxes_ . words with a silent letter: almond _ahmund_ chasten _chasen_ chestnut _chesnut_ glisten _glissen_ kiln _kill_ often _ofen_ ostler _osler_ poignant _poin'ant_ psalter _sawlter_ salmon _samun_ schism _sism_ soften _sofen_ subtle _sutle_ sword _sord_ thyme _time_ toward _tord_ . works chiefly of foreign pronunciation: word correct pronunciation bivouac _biv'wak_ chargé d'affaires _shar zha'daffar'_ connoisseur _connissur_ dishabille _dis'abil_ ennui _onwe_, not _ongwe_ finale _finah'le_ foyer _fwaya'_ massage _masahzh_ naïve _nah'ev_ papier maché _papya mahsha_ piquant _pe'kant_ prima facie _prima fa'shie_ pro tempore _pro tem'pore_ régime _razhem'_ . words often pronounced with a wrong number of syllables: aerial _aereal_, not _areal_ athlete two sylables, not _ath e lete_ attacked _attakt_, two syllables casualty _kazh'ualte_, not _ality_ conduit _condit_ or _kundit_, not _dooit_ different three syllables, not _diffrunt_ elm not _ellum_ helm not _hel um_ history three syllables, not _histry_ honorable not _honrable_ hygienic _hy gi en' ic_, four syllables interest not _intrust_ interesting not _intrusting_ ivory not _ivry_ omelet not _omlet_ realm not _rellum_ separable not _seprable_ ticklish two syllables, not _tickelish_ valuable _valuable_, not _valuble_ vaudeville _vodvil_ zeus _zus_, not _zeus_ . words accented on the first syllable: admirable _ad'mirable_ alias _a'lias_ applicable _ap'plicable_ bicycle _bi'sikle_ chastisement _chas'tisement_ construe _con'strue_ despicable _des'picable_ desultory _des'ultory_ disputant _dis'putant_ exigency _ex'ijency_ explicable _ex'plicable_ exquisite _ex'quisite_ extant _ex'tant_ formidable _for'midable_ genoa _jen'oa_ gondola _gon'dola_ harass _har'ass_ hospitable _hos'pitable_ impious _im'pious_, not _imp?ous_ industry _in'dustry_ inventory _in'ventory_ lamentable _lam'entable_ mischievous _mis'chievous_ obligatory _ob'ligatory_ pariah _pa'riah_ peremptory _per'emptory_ preferable _pref'erable_ romola _rom'ola_ vehemence _ve'hemence_ . words accented on the second syllable: word correct pronunciation abdomen _abdo'men_ acclimate _accli'mate_ acumen _acu'men_ albumen _albu'men_ artificer _artif'iser_ bitumen _bitu'men_ chicanery _shika'nery_ illustrate _illus'trate_ incognito _inkog'nito_ incomparable _incom'parable_ indisputable _indis'putable_ inexorable _inex'orable_ inexplicable _inex'plicable_ inhospitable _inhos'pitable_ inquiry _inqui'ry_ irrevocable _irrev'ocable_ misconstrue _miscon'strue_ nitrogenous _nitroj'enous_ opponent _oppo'nent_ pianist _pian'ist_ refutable _refut'able_ syllabic _syllab'ic_ telegraphy _teleg'raphy_ vagary _vaga'ry_ yosemite _yo swm' i te_ . words accented on the last syllable: address _address'_ adept _adept'_ adult _adult'_ ally _ally'_ commandant _commandänt' (ä as in arm)_ contour _contour'_ dessert _dessert'_ dilate _dilate'_ excise _eksiz'_ finance _finance'_ grimace _grimace'_ importune _importune'_ occult _occult'_ pretence _pretence'_ research _research'_ robust _robust'_ romance _romance'_ tirade _tirade'_ . words whose pronunciation depends on meaning: accent _accent'_ the first syllable. place the _ac'cent_ upon the first syllable. aged an _a'ged_ man. properly _aged_ wine (one syllable). blessed the _bless'ed_ saints. let them be _blessed_ (one syllable). contrast the strange _con'trast_. _contrast'_ the two. converse did you _converse'_ with him? is the _con'verse_ true? desert the sandy _des'ert_. they _desert'_ their friends. learned he _learned_ (one syllable) to sing. a _learn ed_ man. precedent a _prece'dent_ place. it establishes a _prec'edent_. project a new _proj'ect_. to _project'_ from. glossary of miscellaneous errors admire. do not use _admire_ in the sense of _like_. wrong: i should _admire_ to be able to do that. right: i should _like_ to be able to do that. aggravate. do not use _aggravate_ in the sense of _irritate_ or _disturb_. _aggravate_ means _to make worse_. wrong: his impudence _aggravates_ me. right: his impudence _irritates_ me. ain't. _ain't_ and _hain't_ are never proper as contractions of _am not, is not_, or _are not_. allow. do not use _allow_ in the sense of _assert, say_, or _intend_. wrong: he _allowed_ that he had better start. i _allow_ to be back before noon. right: he _said_ that he had better start. i _intend_ to be back before noon. allude. do not use _allude_ in the sense of _refer_. to _allude_ to a thing means to refer to it in an indirect way. wrong: he _alluded_ by name to john milton. right: he _alluded_ to milton by the term "blind poet." any. do not use _any_ in the sense of _at all_ or _to any degree_. wrong: because of the injury he can not see _any_. as. do not use _as_ for the relative pronouns _who_ and _that_. wrong: i am the man _as_ digs your garden. not _as_ i remember. right: i am the man _who_ digs your garden. not _that_ i remember. as. do not use _as_ in the sense of _since_ or _because_. wrong: i cannot come _as_ i am sick now. right: i cannot come; i am sick now. right: i cannot come _because_ i am sick now. at. do not use _at_ for _in_ with the names of large cities wrong: he lives _at_ philadelphia. right: he lives _in_ philadelphia. attackted. do not use this form for _attacked_. awful, awfully. these are two very much overworked words. substitute other and more accurate expressions. wrong: we have had an _awfully_ good time. that is an _awfully_ pretty dress. right: we have had an _exceedingly_ nice time. that is a _very_ pretty dress. badly. do not use _badly_ in the sense of _very much_. wrong: she wanted _badly_ to come. right: she wanted _very much_ to come. beside, besides. _beside_ means _next to. besides_ means _in addition to_. right: john lives _beside_ his mother. right: _besides_ the daughters, there are three sons. between. do not use _between_ when referring to more than two objects. wrong: there is bad feeling _between_ the members of the class. right: there is bad feeling _among_ the members of the class. blowed. do not use _blowed_ for _blew_ or _blown_. there is no such word. best. do not use _best_ when only two objects are referred to. use _better_. _best_ should be used only when more than two are referred to. wrong: he is the _best_ of the two brothers. right: he is the _better_ of the two brothers. right: he is the _best_ of the three brothers. bound. do not use _bound_ for _determined_. wrong: he was _bound_ to go skating. right: he was _determined_ to go skating. right: he _bound_ himself to pay three hundred dollars. but. do not use _but_ after a negative in the sense of _only_. see § . wrong: there _isn't but_ one apple left. right: there _is but_ one apple left. calculate. do not use _calculate_ in the sense of _think, expect_, or _intend_. can. do not use _can_ to denote permission. it denotes ability or possibility. _may_ denotes permission. see § wrong: _can_ i speak to you for a minute? right: _may_ i speak to you for a moment? character, reputation. do not confuse these two words. _character_ means one's moral condition. _reputation_ means the morality that others believe one to possess. clum. there is no such form of the verb _climb_. complected. do not use _complected_ for _complexioned_. see § . conclude. do not use conclude in the sense of _forming an intention._ right: finally, i _decided_ to go home. right: i was forced to _conclude_ that i had made an error. considerable. do not use _considerable_ in the sense of _very much_. wrong: this lesson is _considerable_ better than yesterday's. cute. a much overworked word. use some expression that is more accurate; as, _pretty, amusing_, etc. decease, disease. do not confuse _decease_ and _disease_. the first means _death_, the second _sickness_. _the deceased_ means a person who is dead. wrong: the _diseased_ will be buried at four o'clock. wrong: the property of the _diseased_ will be sold at auction. decease. do not use _decease_ as a verb in the sense of _die_. wrong: his father _deceased_ last year. demand. _demand_ should not have a person as its object. wrong: he _demanded_ john to pay. right: he _demanded_ payment from john. he _demanded_ that john pay. different. use the preposition _from_ after _different_, not _than_. don't. do not use _don't_ with a subject in the third person singular. see § . down. do not use _down_ as a verb in the sense of _defeat_ or _overthrow_. wrong: our football team _has downed_ every other team in the state. right: our football team _has defeated_ every other team in the state. drownded. _drownded_ is not a proper form of the verb _drown_. say _drowned_. (pronounced _drownd._) each other. do not use _each other_ to refer to more than two objects. see § . wrong: the members of the regiment helped _each other_. right: the members of the regiment helped _one another_. effect, affect. do not confuse _effect_ and _affect. effect_ means _a result_, or _to cause a thing to be done. affect_ means _to disturb_ or _have an influence on_. wrong: the news _effected_ him seriously. right: the news _affected_ him seriously. wrong: the _affect_ of this news was to cause war. right: the _effect_ of this news was to cause war. either. do not use _either_ with reference to more than two objects, nor follow it by a plural verb. see § . wrong: _either_ of the three will do. _either_ you or john _have_ done it. right: _any one_ of the three will do. _either_ you or john _has_ done it. emigrate, immigrate. do not confuse _emigrate_ and _immigrate_. _to emigrate_ means _to go out of a place_, to _immigrate_ means _to come into a place_. right: the italians _emigrate_ from their country. right: of those who _immigrate_ to america, a large number are italians. enough. do not follow _enough_ by a clause beginning with _that_ or _so that_. wrong: i studied _enough_ that i could recite the lesson. right: i studied _enough to_ recite the lesson. enthuse. do not use _enthuse_ in the sense of to create enthusiasm. wrong: he tried to _enthuse_ his audience. right: he tried to _arouse_ enthusiasm in his audience. etc. _etc._ stands for _et cetera_, and means _and so forth_. do not spell it _ect_. do not use it in composition that is intended to be elegant. everybody. _everybody_ should not be followed by a plural verb or a plural pronoun. see § . except, accept. do not confuse these two words. _accept_ means _to acknowledge_. _except_ means _to exclude_. right: i cannot _accept_ such slovenly work. wrong: i _except_ your apology. except. do not use _except_ for _unless_. see § . wrong: i can not sleep _except_ it is quiet. expect. do not use _expect_ in the sense of _suppose_ or _think_. wrong: i _expect_ you have read that book. right: i _suppose_ you have read that book. fine. do not use _fine_ in place of some more definite word. _fine_ is a much over-worked word. wrong: the book is _fine_ for class-room work. right: the book is _well adapted_ for class-room work. firstly. _firstly_ should never be used. say _first_. see § . first-rate. do not use _first-rate_ as an adverb in the sense of _very well_. wrong: that does _first-rate_. right: that does _very well_. right: he is a _first-rate fellow_. former. do not use _former_ when more than two are referred to. say _first_. see § . from. do not use _from_ with _whence, hence_ and _thence_. wrong: _from whence_ have you come? right: _whence_ have you come? _from where_ have you come? funny. do not use _funny_ for _singular_ or _strange_. _funny_ is an overworked word. wrong: it is _funny_ that he died. right: it is _singular_ that he died. gent. do not use the word at all. say _gentleman_ or _man_. gentleman. do not use _gentleman_ to denote sex only. say _man_. _gentleman_ is properly used, however, to denote a person of refinement. wrong: only _gentlemen_ are allowed to vote in pennsylvania. right: mr. lincoln was a _gentleman_ in the true sense of the word. got. do not use got with _have_ or _had_ to indicate merely _possession_ or _obligation. got_ means acquired through effort. wrong: i _have got_ the measles. you _have got_ to do it. right: i _have_ the measles. you _must_ do it. right: after much study i _have got_ my lesson. grand. do not use _grand_ in place of some more definite and accurate expression. it is another over-worked word. wrong: we have had a _grand time_ this afternoon. right: we have had a _very pleasant_ time this afternoon. guess. do not use _guess_ in the sense of _think_ or _suppose_. wrong: i _guess_ the trains are late to-day. right: i _suppose_ the trains are late to-day. right: can you _guess_ the riddle? had ought. do not use _had_ with _ought_. see § . hardly. do not use _hardly_ after a negative. see § . wrong: i _can not hardly_ believe that. right: i _can hardly_ believe that. have. do not use _have_ after _had_. wrong: if i _had have been_ able to go. right: if i _had been_ able to go. heighth. do not use _heighth_ for _height_. hung. do not confuse _hung_ and _hanged_. _hanged_ is the proper word to use in reference to executions. wrong: he was condemned _to be hung_. right: he was condemned _to be hanged_. right: the picture was _hung_ in the parlor. humbug. do not use _humbug_ as a verb. wrong: he has _humbugged_ the people for years. illy. do not use _illy_ for the adverb _ill_. see § . in, into. do not confuse _in_ and _into_. wrong: he went _in_ the house. right: he went _into_ the house. right: he exercised _in_ a gymnasium. kind. do not precede kind by _those_ or _these_. wrong: i do not like _those kind_ of plays. right: i do not like _that kind_ of play. kind of a. do not use _a_ or _an_ after _kind of_. see § . wrong: it is _one kind of_ a mistake. right: it is _one kind of_ mistake. lady. do not use _lady_ to designate sex only. it is properly used to indicate persons of refinement. wrong: is mrs. johnson a colored _lady_? right: is mrs. johnson a colored _woman_? right: mrs. johnson is a colored _woman_, and _a lady_. latter. do not use _latter_ to refer to more than two objects. use _last_. see § . lay. do not confuse _lay_ and _lie_. see § . learn. do not confuse _learn_ and _teach_. _learn_ means _to acquire knowledge. teach_ means _to impart knowledge_. wrong: he can _learn_ you as much as any one can. right: he can _teach_ you as much as any one can. leave. do not confuse _leave_ and _let_. leave means _to let remain_. let means _to give permission_. wrong: will your mother _leave_ you go? right: will your mother _let_ you go? right: i shall _leave_ my trunk in my room. liable. do not use _liable_ for _likely_. wrong: it is _liable_ to rain to-day. right: it is _likely_ to rain to-day. right: he is _liable_ for all that he has agreed to pay. lightning. do not use _lightning_ as a verb in place of _lightens_. wrong: during the storm, it _lightnings_ frequently. right: during the storm, it _lightens_ frequently. like. do not use _like_ for _as_. _like_ is a preposition. _as_ is a conjunction. wrong: he doesn't talk _like_ he did yesterday. right: he doesn't talk _as_ he did yesterday. right: it looks _like_ a mahogany chair. lit on. do not use _lit on_ in the sense of _met with_ or _discovered_. wrong: i at last _lit on_ this plan. lot. do not use _lot_ in the sense of _a great number_ or _a great deal_. wrong: a _lot_ of people were there, she talks _a lot_. most. do not use _most_ for _almost_. wrong: i have _most_ completed the book. right: i have _almost_ completed the book. right: he has done _the most_ of the work. mrs. do not use _mrs._ before titles; as, _mrs. president, mrs. professor, mrs. doctor_. much. do not use _much_ for _many_. _much_ refers to quantity. _many_ refers to number. wrong: as _much as_ five hundred people were present. right: as _many as_ five hundred people were present. mutual. do not confuse _mutual_ and _common_. _mutual_ means _interchanged_. wrong: john and william had a _mutual_ liking for mary. right: john and william had a _common_ liking for mary. right: john and william had a _mutual_ liking for each other. near. do not use _near_ for _nearly_. wrong: he ran _near_ all the way to the station. i came _nearly_ making the same mistake. right: he ran _nearly_ all the way to the station. i came _near_ making the same mistake. nerve. do not use _nerve_ in the sense of _impudence_. newsy. do not use _newsy_ in the sense of _full of news_. neither. do not use _neither_ with reference to more than two objects, nor follow it by a plural verb. wrong: _neither_ of the three could come. _neither_ of the two _are_ here. right: _no one_ of the three could come. _neither_ of the two _is_ here. no good. do not use _no good_ in the sense of _worthless_ or _not good_. wrong: the book is _no good_. no place. do not use _no place_ after a negative. see § . wrong: i am not going _no place_. right: i am not going _anywhere_. i _am going nowhere_. notorious. do not use _notorious_ in the sense of _famous_ or _noted. notorious_ means of _evil reputation_. wrong: gladstone was a _notorious_ statesman of england. right: several _notorious thieves_ were arrested. nowhere near. do not use _nowhere near_ for _not nearly_. see § . wrong: _nowhere near_ so many people came as were expected. right: _not nearly_ so many people came as were expected. right: james was _nowhere near_ the scene of the fire. of. do not use _of_ for _have_ in such expressions as _could, have, might have, should have_, etc. wrong: if i _could of_ been there. right: if i _could have_ been there. only. guard against the improper use of _only_ after a negative. see § . wrong: there _are not only_ four books on that subject. right: there _are only_ four books on that subject. outside of. do not use _outside of_ for _aside from_. wrong: _outside of_ james, all had a good time. right: _aside from_ james, all had a good time. over with. do not use _over with_ for _over_. wrong: i must write the letter and have it _over with_. pants. do not use the word _pants_ for _trousers_. photo. do not use _photo_ for _photograph_. piece. do not use _piece_ in the sense of _way_ or _distance_. wrong: i shall walk a _little piece_ with you. right: i shall walk a _little way_ with you. place. do not use _place_ after _any, every, no_, etc., in the sense of _anywhere, everywhere, nowhere_, etc. wrong: i can not find it _any place_. right: i can not find it _anywhere_. plenty. do not use _plenty_ as an adjective or an adverb. wrong: money is _plenty_. he is _plenty able_ to do it. right: money is _plentiful_. he is _quite able_ to do it. poorly. do not use _poorly_ for _ill_ or _bad_. wrong: he feels very _poorly_. principle, principal. do not confuse _principle_ and _principal_. _principle_ means a _rule_ or _truth_. _principal_ means _leader, chief, the most important_. propose. do not use _propose_ in the sense of _intend_. wrong: i _propose_ to tell all i know. right: i _intend_ to tell all i know. providing. do not use _providing_ for _if_ or _on the condition_. wrong: i will go _providing_ you can get tickets for three. right: i will go _on the condition that_ you get the tickets. raise, rise. do not confuse _raise_ with _rise_. see § . recommend, recommendation. do not use _recommend_ as a noun. _recommendation_ is the noun. wrong: her employer gave her a good _recommend_. right: her employer gave her a good _recommendation_. right away, right off. do not use _right away_ or _right off_ in the sense of _immediately_. wrong: after the play we will come _right off_. right: after the play we will come _at once_. same. do not use _same_ as a pronoun. wrong: i will write the letter and mail _same_ at once. right: i will write the letter and mail _it_ at once. say. do not use _say_ in the sense of _order_ or _command_. wrong: your mother _said for_ you to come home at once. right: your mother _said that_ you should come home at once. scarcely. do not use _scarcely_ after a negative. see § . wrong: there _was not scarcely_ a pound of meat for us all. right: there _was scarcely_ a pound of meat for us all. seldom ever. do not use _seldom_ with _ever_. say instead _seldom_ or _seldom, if ever_. wrong: fires _seldom ever_ occur. right: fires _seldom_ occur. fires _seldom, if ever_ occur. shut of. do not use _shut of_ in the sense of _rid of_. wrong: we are _shut of_ him at last. sight. do not use _sight_ in the sense of _many_ or _much_. wrong: a great _sight of people_ flocked to hear him. right: a great _many people_ flocked to hear him. sit, set. do not confuse these two words. see § . so. do not use _so_ alone as a conjunction. say _so that_. wrong: he spoke in the open air, _so_ more could see and hear him. right: he spoke in the open air, _so that_ more could see and hear him. some. do not use _some_ as an adverb in the sense of _somewhat_ or a _little_. wrong: he plays the violin _some_. right: he plays the violin _a little_. sort of a. do not use _a_ after _sort of_. see _kind of a_. sort. do not precede _sort_ by _these_ or _those_. see _kind_. such. do not follow _such_ by _who, which_, or _that_ as relatives. wrong: all _such persons who_ think so will soon see their mistake. right: all _such persons as_ think so will soon see their mistake. right: he spoke with _such_ force _that_ we were compelled to listen. (_that_ is not a relative here.) tasty. do not use _tasty_ in the sense of _tasteful_. that. do not use _that_ as an adverb. wrong: i did not think the book was _that_ small. right: i did not think that the book was _so_ small. that there, this here, these here, those there. _there_ and _here_, in all these expressions are worse than unnecessary. them there. do not use _them there_ for _those_. wrong: bring me _them there_ books. right: bring me _those_ books. three first, two first, etc. do not say _three first_, but _first three_. there can be only one _first_. too. do not use _too_ alone before a verb or a participle. wrong: he is _too excited_ to listen to you. right: he is _too much excited_ to listen to you. very. do not use _very_ alone before a verb or a participle. wrong: you are _very_ mistaken. right: you are _very much_ mistaken. wait on, wait for. do not confuse these two expressions. _wait on_ means _to serve_. _wait for_ means _to await_. wrong: do not _wait on_ me if i do not come at noon. right: do not _wait for_ me if i do not come at noon. wake, awake. do not confuse _wake_ and _awake_. see § . index references are to pages. sections or subdivisions on the pages are sometimes indicated in parenthesis after the page numbers. since the _exercises_ follow throughout the subjects treated, exercises on any subject may be found by looking up that subject in this text index. _a_, use of article. abbreviated words, rule against. abbreviations, punctuation of (§ ); use of, in letters. _accept_, for _except_, glossary. active voice and passive voice, explained; forms of. adjectives, defined; capitalization of proper; confused with adverbs; distinguished from adverbs; errors in comparison of; improper forms of; list of irregular; placing of; adjective pronouns; punctuation of two or more adjectives modifying same noun (§ ); singular and plural. _admire_, for _like_, glossary. adverbs, defined; comparison of; conjunctive; confusion with adjectives; distinguished from adjectives; double negative; errors in comparison; list of irregularly compared; omission of; punctuation of (§ ), (§ ). _Ã�sop's fables_, quotation from. _affect_, for _effect_, glossary. _aggravate_, for _irritate_, glossary. agreement, of adjective and noun; of pronoun and antecedent; of verb and subject; of verb in clauses. ain't, glossary. _allow_, for _assert_ or _intend_, glossary. _allude_, for _refer_, glossary. _also_, without _and_. _among_, for _between_, glossary. _an_, use of article. _and_, use of. antecedents, of pronouns, defined; agreement of pronouns and; clearness of; compound; indefinite; of relative pronouns. _any_, for _at all_, glossary. apostrophe, general use of; with plural nouns; with possessive nouns; with possessive pronouns. apposition, explained. appositives, punctuation of (§ ). _argue_, for _augur_. _arise_. articles, explained; use of. _as_, as conjunction or adverb; as a relative pronoun, glossary; for _like_; for _since_, glossary; punctuation of (§ ). _at_, for _in_, glossary. _attackted_, mispronunciation of _attacked_, glossary. attribute complement, explained; case of (note ). auxiliary verbs, explained; _shall_ and _will_; _should_ and _would_; _may, can, might_, and _could_. _avocation_, for _vocation_. _awake_, for _wake_, glossary. _awful_, for _awfully_, glossary. _bad_, for _badly_, glossary. balanced sentence. barbarisms, defined; rules for avoidance of; when proper. beginning of the composition. _beside_, for _besides_, glossary. _best_, for _better_, glossary. _between_, for _among_, glossary. _bible_, capitalization of (§ ). _blowed_, for _blew_, glossary. body, of the letter. books for reading, list of. _bound_, for _determined_, glossary. brackets, use of. _but_, as a relative pronoun; with a negative; with a dependent clause; to introduce two succeeding statements. _but that_, for _but what_. _calculate_, for _intend_. _can_, use of; model conjugation of. "cant expressions," in letters. capitalization, rules for. cases, classified and defined; case forms of pronouns; case of word in apposition; case forms of relative pronouns; outline for use of case forms; rules for forming possessive. _character_, for _reputation_, glossary. _character of napoleon bonaparte_, by channing, quotation from. choice of words, rules to aid in. _christmas_, by washington irving, quotation from. _claim_, for _assert_. clauses, defined; adjective; adverbial; agreement, of verb in; principal or independent; subordinate or dependent; substantive; _when_ and _where_ clauses. climax in sentences. clipped words, rule against. close of letter. _clum_, for _climbed_, glossary. "_in care of_," misuse of _c|o_ for. coherence, of paragraph; how to gain in paragraph; illustrations of in paragraph; of sentence; of whole composition; words of. colon. "comma blunder". comma. common gender, defined, of nouns and pronouns. comparative degree; misuse of, in reference to more than two things. comparison, degrees of; irregular forms in; errors in; manner of comparing. _complected_, for _complexioned_, glossary. complex sentence. complimentary close, in letters. compound nouns, explained; rules for forming plurals of. compound pronouns, personal; relative. compound sentence. compound subject; agreement of verb with. compound words, use of hyphen with (§ ). _concluded_, for _to form an opinion_, glossary. conditional clauses, punctuation of (§ ). confusion of adjectives and adverbs. conjunctions, defined; misuses of; correlatives. _considerable_, for _considerably_, glossary. _consul_, for _council_, or _counsel_. contractions of _not_, use of, in formal composition. co-ordinate clauses, punctuation of (§§ , ), (§§ , , ). copulative verb. correctly written letters. correlatives, placing of. _could_, use of; model conjugations of. _council, counsel_ and _consul_ confused. _cranford_, by mrs. gaskell, selection from. _cute_, for _pretty, clever_, etc., glossary. dash, use of. _decease_, glossary. definition, by a _when_ or _where_ clause. degrees in comparison, classified. _demand_, glossary. dependent and conditional clauses, punctuation of (§ ), (§§ , ). dictionary, value of its use. _different_, with _than_, glossary. _directly_, misused as a conjunction. _disease_, glossary. division of words at ends of lines (§ ). _don't_, glossary. double negatives. _down_, misuse as a verb, glossary. _drownded_, mispronunciation of _drowned_, glossary. _east_, capitalization of (§ ). _each other_, misuse with more than two objects, glossary. _effect_, for _affect_, glossary. _either_, misuse with more than two objects, glossary. _either-or_. elements of the sentence: principal elements, subject; predicate. subordinate elements: attribute complement; adjective modifier; adverbial modifier; object complement. _emigration_, for _immigration_, glossary. emphasis, in paragraphs; in sentence. ending of whole composition. _enough_, glossary. _euthuse_, glossary. enumerations, punctuation before, (§§ , ). _esq._, misuse after mr.. _etc._, misspelling of, glossary. euphony, in sentences. _everybody_, followed by a plural form, glossary. _everywheres_, for _everywhere_. examples, of beginning of whole composition; of correctly written letters; of ending of whole composition; of outline of whole composition. exclamation point, use of. _except_, for _accept_, glossary. explanatory relative clauses, punctuation of (§ ). expletives. _expect_, for _suppose_. _fall_, for _fell_. _father_, capitalization of (§ ). _fell_, for _fall_. feminine gender, defined; of nouns and pronouns. final words, in letters. "fine-writing". _fine_, glossary. _firstly_, glossary. _first-rate_, glossary. _for_, used to introduce two succeeding clauses. foreign words. _former_, glossary. form of letters. from, glossary. _funny_, for _singular_, glossary. gender, defined and classified formation of feminine from masculine; gender of pronouns. general terms, use of. _gent_, glossary. _gentleman_, glossary. geographical names, punctuation of (§ ). gerunds, explanation of; confusion with participle; with noun or pronoun modifier; placing of gerund phrase. gettysburg speech, by lincoln. _good_, for _well_. good use of words; offenses against. _got_, glossary. _grand_, glossary. grave forms of personal pronouns, use of. _guess_, for _think_, glossary. hackneyed expressions, general rule against; in letters. _had, ought_, glossary. _hain't_, glossary. _hanged_, confused with _hung_, glossary. _hardly_, placing of; with a negative, glossary. _have_, misuse after _had_, glossary. heading, of letters. _heighth_, for _height_, glossary. _here_, misuse with demonstratives, glossary. _her'n_. _him_, misuse with gerund. _hisself_. _his'n_. _home_, confused with _house_; for _at home_, glossary. _humbug_, glossary. _hung_, confused with _hanged_, glossary. hyphen, use of. _i_, capitalization of (§ ). order of. in the letter. idioms. _i. e._, punctuation of (§ ). _illy_, glossary. _immigration_, confused with _emigration_, glossary. imperative mode. improving one's vocabulary, rules for. improprieties. indentation, of paragraph; of paragraph, in letters. infinitives, explanation of; forms of; cases used with; rules for sequence of infinitive tenses; split. inflection, defined. _in_, confused with _into_, glossary. inside address of letters. interjection. interrogation point, use of. interrogative pronouns. intransitive verbs, see _transitive_. introductory words or phrases, punctuation of (§ ). _kind_, with plural modifiers, glossary. _kind of a_. _lady_, glossary. _latter_, confused with _last_, glossary. _lay_, confused with lie. _learn_, for _teach_, glossary. _leave_, for _let_, glossary. _lend_, confused with _loan_. length, of paragraphs; of sentences. letter writing; body of letter; close; heading; illustrations of correctly written letters; inside address; miscellaneous directions; notes in third person; outside address; salutation. _liable_, for _likely_. _lie_, confused with _lay_. _lightning_, glossary. _like_, misuse as a conjunction. _lit on_, glossary. _loan_, confused with _lend_. loose sentences. _lot_ for _a great deal_, glossary. _mad_, for _angry_. masculine gender, defined; of pronouns. _may_; model conjugation of. _messrs._, use of. _might_; model conjugations of. mode, definition of; indicative; infinitive; imperative; obligative, footnote; participal; potential, of; subjunctive. modifiers, placing of. _most_ for _almost_. _mother_, capitalization of (§ ). _mrs._, glossary. _much_, for _many_. _muchly_. _mutual_, confused with _common_, glossary. name, form of verb. _namely_, punctuation of (§ ). _near_, confused with _nearly_. _neither_, misuse with more than two objects, glossary. _neither-nor_. _nerve_, glossary. neuter gender, defined; of nouns and pronouns. newly coined expressions, rule against. _newsy_, glossary. nominative case, defined; when used, note. _no place_, glossary. _no_, punctuation of (§ ). _no good_, for _worthless_. _north_, capitalization of (§ ). _not muchly_. notes in the third person. _not only--but also_. _notorious_, confused with _noted_, glossary. nouns, common; proper; case of; gender of; number of. _nowhere near_, for _not nearly_, glossary. number, defined; agreement of verb and subject in number; singular; plural; of relative pronouns; of pronouns; of pronouns with compounded antecedent; rules for forming plurals of nouns. _number_, sign #, used for. _o_ and _oh_, capitalization of (§ ). object complement, explained. objective case, defined; when used. obligative mode (footnote). _observance_, confused with _observation_. obsolete words. _of_, glossary. omission, of adverb _much_; of important words; of prepositions; punctuation in case of (§ ); (§ ); of verbs. _one another_, use of. _only_, placing of; with a negative, glossary. order of heading in letters. _other_, use of in comparison. _ought_. outline, for composition; illustration of. outside address, of letters. _outside of_, glossary. over-statement of facts, rule against. _over with_, glossary. _pants_, glossary. paragraphing of letters. paragraphs; coherence in; emphasis in; indentation of; in letters; length of; unity in. parenthesis marks, use of; too frequent use of. parts of speech, classified. passive voice and active voice explained; forms of. past participle, explanation and use of. past tense, explanation and use of. participles, explanation of; confusion with gerunds; dangling; at beginning of sentence; preceded by _thus_. period, use of. periodic sentence. personal pronouns, defined; classified; compound personal pronouns; use of common and of grave forms of; unnecessary use of. _piece_, glossary. _photo_, glossary. phrases, defined; prepositional; verb; punctuation of adverbial phrases (§ ), (§ ). _place_, glossary. placing of adjectives and adverbs. _plenty_, glossary. plural number, explained; rules for forming plurals of nouns. point of view, in paragraph; in sentence; in whole composition. _poorly_, for _ill_, glossary. positive degree. position, in letters, of complimentary close; of heading; of inside address; of salutation; of outside address. possessive case, defined; rules for forming possessives of nouns; when used. potential mode, explanation and forms of. predicate of the sentence; defined; compound, predicate, explained. prepositional phrase. prepositions, defined; omission of; proper use of; unnecessary use of; used as conjunctions. _principal_, confused with _principle_, glossary. principal parts of verbs, explained; classified; list of; rules for use of. principal verbs, explained. professional words. pronouns, defined; adjective; antecedent of, defined; agreement with antecedent; case forms of; compound personal; compound relative; gender of; interrogative; number of; outline of, use of case forms of; relative; rules determining gender of; with compound antecedents. pronunciation, lists of frequently mispronounced words; words given wrong sounds; words given wrong accent; words of foreign pronunciation; words of similar spelling. proper adjectives, capitalization of (§ ). proper nouns, defined; capitalization of (§ ). _propose_, for _intend_, glossary. _providing_, for _if_, glossary. provincialisms, definition and rule against use of. punctuation, rules for; in letters, body; heading; inside address; outside address; salutation. qualities, essential: of sentences, unity; emphasis; euphony. of paragraphs, unity; coherence; emphasis. of whole composition, unity; coherence. _quite_, for _very_. quotation marks, use of. quotations, punctuation of (§ ), (§ ), (§ ), (§§ - ). _raise_, confused with _rise_, glossary. _recommend_, confused with _recommendation_, glossary. relative causes, cases in; explanatory or non-restrictive; introduction of successive; punctuation of (§ ); use of _when_ or _where_ clause. relative pronouns, defined and explained; agreement of verb with; case and number of; compound; explanatory or non-restrictive; restrictive; use of, with different antecedents. repetition of similar words or syllables. _reputation_, confused with _character_, glossary. _respectfully_, confused with _respectively_. _rev._. _right away_, glossary. _right off_, glossary. _rise_, confused with _raise_, glossary. salutation, in letters. _some_, misuse as a pronoun, glossary. _say_, for _order_ or _command_, glossary. _scarcely_, placing of; with a negative, glossary. scriptures, capitalization, of (§ ). _seldom ever_, glossary. semi-colon, use of. sentence elements out of natural order, (§ ). sentences: defined; declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory; essential qualities of; loose, periodic, balanced; simple, complex, compound; length of; slipshod construction of. sequence of tenses, infinitive; in clauses. series of words, punctuation of. _set_, confused with _sit_, glossary. s-form of verb. _shut of_, for _rid of_, glossary. _sight_, for _many_, glossary. signature of writer, in letters. simple sentence, defined. simple words, use of. similar expressions of similar thoughts. singular form of verb, explanation and use of, after you and they. singular number, explained. _sit_, confused with _set_, glossary. _shall_ and _will_, use of, in dependent clauses; in principal clauses; in questions; model conjugations of; past tenses of. _should_ and _would_, model conjugations of; use of. slang. _so_, use of. solecisms. _some_, misuse as an adverb, glossary. _somebody else's_. _sort_, with plurals, glossary. _sort of a_, glossary. _south_, capitalization of, (§ ). speech, paragraphing of. specific terms, use of. spelling, lists of words frequently misspelled; rules for; of words of similar sound. "squinting construction." _street_, omission of in letters. subject of sentence or clause, defined; agreement of verb and subject; compound; relative pronoun as, of whole composition; statement of, in composition. subject matter of letters. subjunctive mode. _such_, glossary. summarizing word, use of; punctuation of, (§ ). superlative degree; misuse in comparing only two things. _suspect_, for _expect_. syllables, division of words into, (§ ). synonyoms, value of. _tasty_, for _tasteful_, glossary. technical words. "telegraph style," in letters. tense, explained; sequence of. _than_, use of. _that_, with what antecedents used; as a restrictive relative; misuse of, glossary. _that is_, punctuation of, (§ ). _the_, use of article. _their'n, theirself, theirselves_. _them_, for _those_. _then_, use of. _there_, improper use of after demonstratives, glossary. _they_, indefinite use of; with singular verb. third person, notes in the. _those kind_, and _these sort_. _three first_, glossary. _thusly_. title of whole composition. titles, abbreviations of; capitalization of, (§§ , ). _to-day, to-morrow, to-night_, hyphens with, (§ ). _too_, misuse of, glossary. transition, in whole composition. transitive and intransitive verbs, confusion of; explanation of. _transpire_, for _happen_. _try and_, glossary. _two first_, glossary. _unbeknown_, for _unknown_. unity: of paragraph; how to gain; illustrations of. of sentence. of whole composition. unnecessary words, use of. verb phrase, explained. verbs, defined; agreement of verb and subject; agreement of verb in clauses; auxiliary; gerunds; infinitives; mode; model conjugations of _to-be_ and _to see_; omission of verbs or parts of; participles; principal; principal parts; principal parts, list of; transitive and intransitive; use of auxiliaries; voice. _very_. _viz._, punctuation of, (§ ). vocabulary, rules for improvement of. _vocation_, confused with _avocation_. vulgarisms. _wake_, confused with _awake_, glossary. _wait on_, confused with _wait for_, glossary. _ways_, glossary. weak beginnings and endings of sentences. _well_, confused with _good_. _west_, capitalization of, (§ ). _what_, with what antecedents. _when_. _where_. _which_, with clause or phrase as antecedent; with what antecedents used. _who_, with what antecedents used. whole composition; beginning of, ending of; paragraph composition or paragraph theme. _will_, use of, see _shall_. _without_, misuse as a conjunction. words, choice of; clipped or abbreviated; division of at ends of lines, (§ ); foreign; good use of; how to improve vocabulary of, idioms; in place of figures in letters; newly-coined; of coherence; professional; pronunciation of, provincialisms; simple english; slang; spelling of; technical words; vulgarisms. _would_, see _should_. _yes_, punctuation of, ( ). _you_, indefinite use of; with singular verb. _yours truly_ and _yours respectfully_, wrong abbreviation of. _your'n_. none note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) transcriber's notes where reference is made to page numbers, there is an annotation showing a footnote number and the relative information is appended at the end of each lesson or section. pronunciation marks have been ignored. however, accented syllables precede the single apostrophe, which also serves as a break. otherwise breaks are shown by spaces. barnes' new national readers new national fourth reader by charles j. barnes and j. marshall hawkes [illustration: destruction of pompeii by vesuvius.] preface it is thought that the following special features of this book will commend themselves to teachers and school officers. _the reading matter of the book is more of a descriptive than conversational style_, as it is presumed that the pupil, after having finished the previous books of the series, will have formed the habit of easy intonation and distinct articulation. _the interesting character of the selections_, so unlike the reading books of former times. _the large amount of information_ which has been combined with incidents of an interesting nature, to insure the pupil's earnest and thoughtful attention. _the length of the selections for reading_,--the attention of pupils being held more readily by long selections than by short ones, though of equal interest. _the gradation of the lessons_, which has been systematically maintained by keeping a careful record of all new words as fast as they appeared, and using only such pieces as contained a limited number. _the simplicity of the lessons_, which becomes absolutely necessary in the schools of to-day, owing to the short school life of the pupil, his immature age, and inability to comprehend pieces of a metaphysical or highly poetical nature. _the ease with which pupils may pass from the third reader of this series to this book_, thereby avoiding the necessity of supplementary reading before commencing the fourth reader, or of using a book of another series much lower in grade. _language lessons_, of a nature to secure intelligent observation, and lead the pupil to habits of thought and reflection. nothing being done for the learner that he could do for himself. _directions for reading_, which accompany the lessons--specific in their treatment and not of that general character which young teachers and pupils are unable to apply. _all new words of special difficulty, at the heads of the lessons_, having their syllabication, accent, and pronunciation indicated according to webster. other new words are placed in a vocabulary at the close of the book. _the type of this book, like that of the previous books of the series, is much larger than that generally used_, for a single reason. parents, every-where, are complaining that the eye-sight of their children is being ruined by reading from small, condensed type. it is confidently expected that this large, clear style will obviate such unfortunate results. _the illustrations have been prepared regardless of expense_, and will commend themselves to every person of taste and refinement. contents lessons in prose. .--"i'm going to" (part i) _charlotte daly_. .--"i'm going to" (part ii) _charlotte daly_. .--the bean and the stone .--an adventure with dusky wolves (i) _mayne reid_. .--an adventure with dusky wolves (ii) _mayne reid_. .--the sailor cat _david ker_. .--the lion .--adventure with a lion _livingstone_. .--the noblest deed of all .--the story of indian spring (i) _aunt mary_. .--the story of indian spring (ii) .--an adventure with a shark .--a funny horseshoe "_christian union_." .--the giraffe .--the trader's trick .--ali, the camel driver (i) .--ali, the camel driver (ii) .--a queer people .--water .--the hidden treasure (i) .--the hidden treasure (ii) .--the hidden treasure (iii) .--air _j. berners_ (adapted). .--a timely rescue .--true courtesy (i) .--true courtesy (ii) .--why an apple falls .--the jaguar .--holland (i) _mary mapes dodge_. .--holland (ii) _mary mapes dodge_. .--something about plants .--forest on fire (i) _audubon_. .--forest on fire (ii) _audubon_. .--a ghost story (i) _louisa m. alcott_. .--a ghost story (ii) _louisa m. alcott_. .--a ghost story (iii) _louisa m. alcott_. .--the rhinoceros .--presence of mind .--halbert and his dog .--the caterpillar and butterfly .--wild horses of south america .--an emperor's kindness .--story of the sioux war (i) .--story of the sioux war (ii) .--volcanoes .--anecdote of washington (i) .--anecdote of washington (ii) .--the ostrich .--an incident of the revolution .--tropical fruits .--story of detroit .--making maple sugar (i) _charles dudley warner_. .--making maple sugar (ii) _charles dudley warner_. .--natural wonders of america (i) .--natural wonders of america (ii) .--african ants _du chaillu_. .--egypt and its ruins (i) .--egypt and its ruins (ii) lessons in verse. .--to-morrow _mrs. m.r. johnson_. .--rescued _celia thaxter_. .--marjorie's almanac _t.b. aldrich_. .--a legend of the northland _phoebe cary_. .--a happy pair _florence percy_. .--ill-natured brier _mrs. anna bache_. .--looking for the fairies _julia bacon_. .--birds in summer _mary howitt_. .--the miller of the dee _charles mackay_. .--the wind in a frolic _william howitt_. .--common gifts .--what the chimney sang _bret harte_. .--the light-house .--united at last .--the brook _alfred tennyson_. .--to-day and to-morrow _charles mackay_. .--the fisherman _john g. whittier_. .--old ironsides _oliver wendell holmes_. .--the leap of roushan beg _henry w. longfellow_. definitions geographical and proper names acknowledgments. the publishers desire to thank messrs. houghton, mifflin & co., the century co., roberts brothers, and charles scribner's sons, for permission to use and adapt some of their valuable copyright matter. suggestions to teachers the following suggestions are submitted for the benefit of young teachers. in order that pupils may learn how to define words at the heads of the lessons, let the teacher read the sentences containing such words and have pupils copy them upon slate or paper. then indicate what words are to be defined, and insist upon the proper syllabication, accent, marking of letters, etc. in this way the pupil learns the meaning of the word as it is used, and not an abstract definition that may be meaningless. have pupils study their reading lessons carefully before coming to recitation. the position of pupils while reading should be erect, easy, and graceful. give special attention to the subject of articulation, and insist upon a clear and distinct enunciation. in order to develop a clear tone of voice, let pupils practice, in concert, upon some of the open vowel sounds, using such words as _arm, all, old_. in this exercise, the force of utterance should be gentle at first, and the words repeated a number of times; then the force should be increased by degrees, until "calling tones" are used. encourage a natural use of the voice, with such modulations as may be proper for a correct rendering of the thoughts which are read. it should, be remembered that the development of a good tone of voice is the result of careful and constant practice. concert reading is recommended as a useful exercise, inasmuch as any feeling of restraint or timidity disappears while reading with others. question individual pupils upon the manner in which lessons should be read. in this way they will learn to think for themselves. do not interrupt a pupil while reading until a thought or sentence is completed, since such a course tends to make reading mechanical and deprive it of expression. errors in time, force of utterance, emphasis, and inflection should be carefully corrected, and then the passage read over again. the "directions for reading" throughout the book are intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive, and can be added to as occasion requires. the "language lessons" in this book, should not be neglected. they contain only such matter as is necessary to meet the requirements of pupils. words and expressions not readily understood, must be made intelligible to pupils. this has been done in part by definitions, and in part by interpreting some of the difficult phrases. after the habit of acquiring the usual meaning has been formed, the original meaning of those words which are made up of stems modified by prefixes or affixes should be shown. the real meaning of such words can be understood far better by a study of their formation, than by abstract definitions. it will be found, also, that pupils readily become interested in this kind of work. as the capabilities of classes of the same grade will differ, it may sometimes occur that a greater amount of language work can be done effectively than is laid down in this book. when this happens, more time can be devoted to such special kinds of work as the needs of the classes suggest. constant drill upon the analysis of lessons, varied at times by the analysis of short stories taken from other sources and read to the class, will develop the reasoning faculties of pupils and render the writing of original compositions a comparatively easy exercise. encourage the habit of self-reliance on the part of pupils. original investigation, even if followed at first by somewhat crude results, is in the end more satisfactory than any other course. the definitions (pages - ) and the list of proper names (pages and ) may be used in the preparation of the lessons.[ ] when exercises are written, particular care should be required in regard to penmanship, correct spelling, punctuation, and neatness. [ ] "the definitions" are found at the end of the text, however "the list of proper names" has not been included in this production. phonic chart. vowels. a as in lake a " " at a " " far a " " all a " " care a " " ask a as in what e " " be e " " let i " " ice i " " in o " " so o as in box u " " use u " " up u " " fur oo " " too oo " " look diphthongs. oi, oy (unmarked), as in oil, boy ou, ow " " " out, now consonants b as in bad d " " do f " " fox g " " go h " " he j " " just k " " kite l " " let m as in me n " " no p " " put r " " rat s " " so t " " too v " " very w " " we y as in yes z " " froze ng " " sing ch " " chick sh " " she th " " think th " " the wh(hw)," what equivalents. vowels. a like o as in what e " a " " where e " a " " they e " u " " her i " u " " girl i " e " " police o, u like oo as in to, rule o " u " " come o " a " " for u, o " oo " " put, could y " i " " by y " i " " kit'ty consonants. c like s as in race c " k " " cat g " j " " cage n like ng as in think s " z " " has x " ks, or gz " box, exist fourth reader lesson i spokes'man, _one who speaks for others_. cho'rus, _a number of speakers or singers_. apt, _likely; ready_. folks, _people; family_. mis'er a ble, _very unhappy; very poor_. lone'some, _without friends; lonely_. score, _twenty_. wretch'ed, _unhappy; very sad_. * * * * * "i'm going to." part i. once upon a time, there was a little boy, whose name was johnny. "johnny," said his mamma, one day, "will you bring me an armful of wood?" "yes," said johnny, "i'm going to"; but just then he heard carlo, the dog, barking at a chipmunk over in the meadow, so he ran off as fast as he could go. now this was not the first time that johnny had said to his mamma, "yes, i'm going to." he never thought of that wood again until about dinner-time, when he began to feel hungry. when he got back, he found that dinner was over, and papa and mamma had gone to ride. he found a piece of bread and butter, and sat down on a large rock, with his back against the stump of a tree, to eat it. when it was all gone, johnny began to think what he should do next. he closed his eyes as people are apt to do when they think. presently he heard a score of voices about him. one was saying, "wait a bit"; another, "pretty soon"; another, "in a minute"; another, "by and by"; and still another, louder than the rest, kept screaming as loud as it could, "going to, going to, going to," till johnny thought they were crazy. "who in the world are you?" said he, in great surprise, "and what are you making such a noise about?" "we are telling our names," said they; "didn't you ask us to tell our names?" "no," said johnny, "i didn't." "o what a story!" cried they all in a breath. [illustration] "let's shake him for it," said one. "no, let us carry him to the king," said another. so they began to spin about him like so many spiders; for each one of them carried a long web, and when that gets wound around a boy or a girl, it is a very difficult thing to get rid of. in a few minutes they had him all wound up--hands and feet, nose and eyes, all tied up tight. then they took him among them, and flew away with him, miles and miles, over the hills, and up to a big cave in the mountain. there he heard ever so many more voices, and it was noisier than ever. "where am i?" he said, as soon as he could speak. "o you're safe at home," answered wait-a-bit, for he seemed to be the spokesman; "and they have been expecting you for some time." "this isn't my home," said johnny, feeling very miserable and beginning to cry. "o yes, it is," said a chorus of voices. "this is just where such folks as you belong. there are many of your fellows here, and you won't be lonesome a bit." they had begun to unwind the web from his eyes now, so he opened them and looked about him. o what a wretched place it was! against the sides of the cave, stood long rows of boys and girls, with very sorry faces, all of them saying over as fast as they could speak, "going to, going to!" "wait a bit, wait a bit!" "pretty soon, pretty soon!" "in a minute, in a minute!" studying the names just as hard as if they were lessons. there were delays, and tardys, and put-offs, with ever so many more; and in a corner by themselves, and looking more unhappy than all the rest, were the poor little fellows whose names were "too late." * * * * * directions for reading.--pupils should read loud enough for all the class to hear them. the words forming a _quotation_ should usually be spoken in a louder tone than the other words in the lesson, as-- _"johnny,"_ said his mamma, one day, _"will you bring me an armful of wood?"_ * * * * * language lesson.--divide into syllables, accent, and mark the sounds of the letters in the following words: _carlo, armful, mountain, unwind_. what two words can be used for each of the following: _i'm, didn't, let's, you're, isn't, won't?_ what other words could be used instead of _got_ (page , line )?[ ] proper names should begin with capital letters: as, _johnny, carlo_. give three other words used as proper names in this lesson. [ ] paragraph of this lesson * * * * * lesson ii. de spair', _loss of hope_. pro cras' ti na tor, _one who puts off doing any thing_. res o lu'tions, _promises made to one's self; resolves_. yon'der, _there; in that place_. mon'strous, _of great size_. gi'ant, _an unreal person, supposed to be of great size_. hor'rid, _causing great fear or alarm_. ex pect'ed, _thought; looked for_. * * * * * "i'm going to." part ii. "o dear, dear! where am i?" said johnny in despair. "please let me out! i want my mamma!" "no, you don't," said wait-a-bit. "you don't care much about her, and this is really where you belong. this is the kingdom of procrastination, and yonder comes the king." "the kingdom of what?" said johnny, who had never heard such a long word in his life before. but just then he heard a heavy foot-fall, and a great voice that sounded like a roar, saying, "has he come? did you get him?" "yes, here he is," said wait-a-bit, "and he'd just been saying it a little while before we picked him up." johnny looked up and saw a monstrous giant, with a bright green body and red legs, and a yellow head and two horrid coal-black eyes. "let me have him," said the giant. so he took him up just as if he had been a rag-baby, and looked him all over, turning him from side to side, and from head to feet. o but johnny was frightened, and expected every moment to be swallowed! "let's see," said the giant; "he always says 'pretty soon.' no, that isn't it. what is it, my fine fellow, that you always say to your mamma when she asks you to do any thing for her? "it isn't 'pretty soon,' nor 'in a minute.' what is it? they all mean about the same thing, to be sure, and bring every body to me in the end; but i must know exactly, or i can't put you in the right place." johnny hung his head, and did not want to tell; but an extra hard poke of the giant's big finger made him open his mouth and say with shame, that he always said, "i'm going to." "o that's it!" said the giant. "well, then, you stand there." so he unwound a bit of the web from his fingers--just enough so that he could hold the procrastinator's primer--and stood him at the end of a long row of children, who were saying over and over again, just as fast as they could speak, "going to, going to, going to, going to," just that, and nothing else in the world. johnny was tired and hungry by this time, and longed to see his mamma, thinking that, if he could only get back: to her, he would always mind the very moment she told him to do any thing. he made a great many good resolutions while he stood there. at last the giant called him to come and say his lesson. "you shall have a short one to-day," said he, "and need say it only a thousand times, because it is your first day here. to-morrow, you must say it a million." johnny tried to step forward, but the web was still about his feet, so he fell with, a bang to the floor. just then he opened his eyes to find that he had rolled from the rock to the grass, and that mamma was calling him in a loud voice to come to supper, and this time he didn't say, "i'm going to." * * * * * directions for reading.--the words in quotation marks should be read in the same manner as in lesson i. read words in dark type in the following sentences with more force than the other words: "has he _come?_ did you _get_ him?" words that are read more forcibly than other words in a sentence are called _emphatic words_. which are the _emphatic words_ in the following sentences? "you shall have a short one to-day." "i must know exactly." * * * * * language lesson.--divide into syllables, accent, and mark the sounds of the letters in the following words: _extra, primer, moment, coal-black_. * * * * * lesson iii. remark'able, _worthy of notice; unusual_. moist'ure, _wetness; that which makes wet_. absorbed', _sucked up; drunk up_. with'er, _lose freshness_. starched, _stiffened, as starch_. germ, _that from which the plant grows; bud_. hand'some, _pleasing in appearance; very pretty_. clasped, _surrounded; inclosed_. * * * * * the bean and the stone. "i think i ought to be doing something in the world!" said a little voice out in the garden. "pray, what can you do?" asked another and somewhat stronger voice. "i think i can grow," answered the little voice. if you had seen the owner of the little voice, perhaps you would not have thought him any thing remarkable. it is true he had on a clean white coat, so smooth and shining that it looked as if it had been newly starched and ironed, and inside of this, he hugged two stout packages. the coat had only one fastening; but that fastening extended down the back, and was a curious thing to see. it looked just as if the coat had been cut with a knife, and had afterward grown together again. it was like a scar on your hand; and a scar it is called. "yes, i ought to be growing," said the little voice, "for i am a bean, and in the spring a bean ought to grow." now you know how the coat came by its scar, for the scar was the spot which showed where the bean had been broken from the pod. "what do you mean by growing?" said the other voice, which came from a large red stone. "why," said the bean, "don't you know what growing means? i thought every thing knew how to grow. you see, when i grow, my root goes down into the soil to get moisture, and my stem goes up into the light to find heat. heat and moisture are my food and drink. "by and by, i shall be a full-grown plant, and that is wonderful! in the ground, my roots will travel far and wide. "in the air, how happy my stem will be! i shall learn a great deal, and see beautiful things every day. o how i long for that time to come!" "what you say is very strange," said the red stone. "here i have been in this same place for many years, and i have not grown at all. i have no root; i have no stem; or, if i have, they never move upward nor downward, as you say. are you sure you are not mistaken?" "why, of course i'm not mistaken," cried the bean. "i feel within myself that i can grow; and i have absorbed so much moisture that i must soon begin." just then the bean's coat split from end to end, and for one or two minutes neither the stone nor the bean spoke. the stone was astonished, and the bean was a little frightened. however, he soon recovered his courage. "there!" said he, showing the two packages he had been carrying; "these are my seed-leaves. in them is the food on which i intend to live when i begin growing. "when my stem is strong enough to do without them, they will wither away. my coat is all worn-out, too. i shall not need it any longer. look inside the seed-leaves, and you will see the germ. part of it is root, and part of it is stem. do you see?" "i see two little white lumps," replied the stone; "but i can not understand how they will ever be a root and a stem." "i do believe you are a poor, dull mineral, after all," said the bean; "and if so, of course you can not understand what pleasure a vegetable has in growing. "i wouldn't be a mineral for the world! i would not lie still and do nothing, year after year. i would rather spread my branches in the sunshine, and drink in the sweet spring air through my leaves." "what you say must be all nonsense," said the stone. "i can't understand it." but the bean grew on without minding him. the roots pushed down into the soil and drank up the moisture from the ground. then this moisture went into the stem, and the stem climbed bravely up into the light. "how happy i am!" cried the bean. it ran over the red stone, and clasped it with long green branches, covered with white bean flowers. "o indeed!" said the stone. "is this what you call growing? i thought you were only in fun. how handsome you are!" "may i hang my pods on you, so that they can ripen in the sun?" said the bean. "certainly, friend," said the stone. he was very polite, now that he saw the bean was a full-grown vine. * * * * * directions for reading.--read in a conversational tone of voice, as in lessons i and ii. what word is emphatic in the third paragraph? * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the words, _broken, packages, courage, polite_. tell in your own words how the bean grew. * * * * * lesson iv. elf, _a very small person; an unreal being_. vex, _make angry; trouble_. pon'dered, _thought about with care_. streak, _line; long mark_. * * * * * to-morrow. a bright little boy with laughing face, whose every motion was full of grace, who knew no trouble and feared no care, was the light of our household--the youngest there. he was too young--this little elf-- with troublesome questions to vex himself; but for many days a thought would rise, and bring a shade to the dancing eyes. he went to one whom he thought more wise than any other beneath the skies: "mother,"--o word that makes the home!-- "tell me, when will to-morrow come?" "it is almost night," the mother said, "and time for my boy to be in bed; when you wake up and it's day again, it will be to-morrow, my darling, then." the little boy slept through all the night, but woke with the first red streak of light; he pressed a kiss on his mother's brow, and whispered, "is it to-morrow now?" "no, little eddie, this is to-day; to-morrow is always one night away." he pondered awhile, but joys came fast, and this vexing question quickly passed. but it came again with the shades of night: "will it be to-morrow when it is light?" from years to come, he seemed care to borrow, he tried so hard to catch to-morrow. "you can not catch it, my little ted; enjoy to-day," the mother said; "some wait for to-morrow through many a year-- it always is coming, but never is here." * * * * * directions for reading.--in reading poetry, pupils should notice the emphatic words, and give them proper force. example. "_mother_,"--o word that makes the home!-- "_tell_ me, when will _to-morrow_ come?" the two dashes in the first line of the preceding example are used instead of a parenthesis, and have the same value. when there is no pause at the end of a line (see first line, third stanza), it should be closely joined in reading to the line which follows it, thus making the two lines read as one. * * * * * lesson v. ap'pe tite, _wish for food_. a muse'ment, _play; enjoyment_. gaunt, _lean; hungry looking_. spe'cies, _kind_. oc curred', _took place; happened_. en cour'age ment, _hope given by another's words or actions_. di rec'tion, _way; course_. dusk'y, _very dark; almost black_. sin'gu lar, _unusual; strange_. * * * * * an adventure with dusky wolves. part i. "during the summer and winter, we had several adventures in the trapping and killing of wild animals. one of them was of such a singular and dangerous kind, that you may feel interested in hearing it. "it occurred in the dead of winter, when there was snow upon the ground. the lake was frozen over, and the ice was as smooth as glass. we spent much of our time in skating about over its surface, as the exercise gave us health and a good appetite. "even cudjo, our colored servant, had taken a fancy for this amusement, and was a very good skater. frank was fonder of it than the rest of us, and was, in fact, the best skater among us. "one day, however, neither cudjo nor i had gone out, but only frank and harry. the rest of us were busy at some carpenter work within doors. "we could hear the merry laugh of the boys, and the ring of their skates as they glided over the smooth ice. all at once, a cry reached our ears, which we knew meant the presence of some danger. "'o robert!' cried my wife, 'they have broken through the ice!' "we all dropped what we held in our hands, and rushed to the door. i seized a rope as i ran, while cudjo took his long spear, thinking it might be of use to us. this was the work of a moment, and the next we were outside the house. "what was our astonishment to see both the boys, away at the farthest end of the lake, but skating toward us as fast as they could! "at the same time, our eyes rested upon a terrible sight. close behind them upon the ice, and following at full gallop, was a pack of wolves! "they were not the small prairie wolves, which either of the boys might have chased with a stick, but of a species known as the 'great dusky wolf' of the rocky mountains. "there were six of them in all. each of them was twice the size of the prairie wolf, and their long, dark bodies, gaunt with hunger, and crested from head to tail with a high, bristling mane, gave them a most fearful appearance. "they ran with their ears set back and their jaws apart, so that we could see their red tongues and white teeth. "we did not stop a moment, but rushed toward the lake. i threw down the rope, and seized hold of a large rail as i ran, while cudjo hurried forward armed with a spear. my wife, with presence of mind, turned back into the house for my rifle. "i saw that harry was foremost, and that the fierce wolves were fast closing upon frank. this was strange, for we knew that frank was by far the better skater. we all called out to him, uttering loud shouts of encouragement. both were bearing themselves manfully, but frank was most in danger. "the wolves were upon his heels! 'o they will kill him!' i cried, expecting the next moment to see him thrown down upon the ice. what was my joy at seeing him suddenly wheel and dart off in a new direction." * * * * * directions for reading.--this lesson should be read with spirit, and in a full, clear tone of voice. * * * * * language lesson.--_presence of mind_ is the power to act quickly when sudden danger threatens. _upon his heels_ means very close to. _dead of winter_ is the middle of winter, as that is supposed to be the quietest or most lifeless time. syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _fancy, gallop, prairie, bristling, rifle_. * * * * * lesson vi. e lud'ed, _got away from; avoided_. ex cit'ing, _causing deep interest_. marks'man, _one who shoots well_. re treat'ing, _going away from_. en a'bled, _helped; made able_. sim'i lar, _like; nearly the same_. pur suit', _following after_. nim'bly, _with a quick motion_. com menced', _began_. * * * * * an adventure with dusky wolves. part ii. "the wolves, thus nimbly eluded, now kept on after harry, who, in turn, became the object of our anxiety. "in a moment they were close upon him; but he, already warned by his brother, wheeled in a similar manner, while the fierce brutes, swept along by the force of their running, were carried a long distance upon the ice before they could turn themselves. "their long, bushy tails, however, soon enabled them to turn about and follow in the new direction, and they galloped after harry, who was now the nearest to them. "frank, in the meantime, had again turned, and came sweeping past behind them, at the same time shouting loudly, as if to tempt them away from their pursuit of harry. "they heeded him not, and again he changed his direction, and, as though he was about to skate into their midst, followed the wolves. "this time he skated up close behind them, just at the moment when harry had turned again, and thus made his second escape. "at this moment, we heard frank calling out to his brother to make for the shore, while, instead of retreating himself, he stopped until harry had passed, and then dashed off, followed closely by the whole pack. "another slight turn brought him nearly in our direction; but there was a large hole broken through the ice close by the shore, and we saw that, unless he turned again, he would skate into it. "we thought he was watching the wolves too intently to see it, and we shouted to warn him. not so; he knew better than we what he was about. "when he had reached within a few feet of the hole, he wheeled sharply to the left, and came dashing up to the point where we stood to receive him. "the wolves, too intent upon their chase to see any thing else, went sweeping past the point where he had turned, and the next moment plunged through the broken ice into the water. "then cudjo and i ran forward, shouting loudly, and, with the heavy rail and the long spear, commenced dealing death among them. "it was but a short, though exciting scene. five of them were speared and drowned, while the sixth crawled out upon the ice and was rapidly making off, frightened enough at his cold ducking. [illustration] "at that moment i heard the crack of a rifle and saw the wolf tumble over. "on turning round i saw harry with, my rifle, which my wife had brought down and handed to him, as a better marksman than herself. "the wolf, only wounded, was kicking furiously about on the ice; but cudjo now ran out, and, after a short struggle, finished the business with his spear. "this was, indeed, a day of great excitement in our forest home. frank, who was the hero of the day, although he said nothing, was no doubt not a little proud of his skating feat. "and well he might be, as, but for his skill, poor harry would no doubt have fallen a prey to the fierce wolves." * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils use other words to express the meaning of what is given below in dark type. again he _changed his direction_. he then _dashed off_. he wheeled _sharply_ to the left. cudjo and i commenced _dealing death among them_. cudjo _finished the business_ with his spear. harry would have _fallen a prey to_ the fierce wolves. tell the story in your own words, using the points in the following analysis.-- . frank and harry go to skate. . the alarm. . the wolves. . the pursuit. . the escape. . death of the wolves. * * * * * lesson vii. craft, _ship; a boat of any kind_. mew'ing, _crying, like a cat_. a dopt'ed, _received as one's own_. ad mir'er, _one who likes another_. voy'age, _journey by water_. dain'ty, _nice in form or taste_. a loft', _on high; in the air_. wind'ward, _the point from which the wind blows_. star'board, _the right-hand side of a ship_. bruised, _injured, hurt_. * * * * * our sailor cat. she was a sailor cat, indeed, and it was a sailor who first brought her on board. our steamer was lying at her pier in the north river, at new york, taking in cargo. one of our men, who had been ashore, came back with a little gray-and-white kitten in his arms. she was very poor and thin, and her little furry coat was sadly soiled with dirt and grease. but she had not lost all her fun, for she was making play with her tiny fore-paws at the ends of the sailor's red beard, to honest jack's great delight. "where did you pick that up, jack?" asked the third officer. "well, your honor," said jack harmon, touching his cap with a grin, "seems to me she must have left her ship and gone to look for another, for i found her tramping along the pier there, and mewing as if she was calling out for somebody to show her the road. "so i thought that, as we have many rats aboard the old craft, she would be able to pick up a good living there; and i called to her, and she came at once, and here she is." here she was, sure enough; and as jack ended his story, she chimed in with a plaintive little "me-ow," which said, as plainly as ever any cat spoke yet, "i'm very cold and hungry, and i do wish somebody would take me below and give me some food!" she had not long to wait. half an hour later she was the best-fed cat in that part of new york city, and that night she lay snugly curled up with a good warm blanket over her. of course, the first thing to do with an adopted cat is to give it a name, and jack harmon, who was a bit of a wag in his way, and a great admirer of the monster elephant which was just then making such a stir in new york, called his new pet "jumbo." jumbo soon became the pet of the whole crew, and of the passengers, too, when they came on board, a few days later, for the voyage back to england. before we were half-way across the ocean, the bits of meat or cake, and bits of white bread soaked in milk, which were being constantly given her by one and another, had made her look as round as an apple. the ladies were never tired of stroking her soft fur and admiring her dainty white paws, which were now as spotless as snow. the children romped all day with this new playmate, who seemed to enjoy the sport quite as much as themselves. but jumbo was not content with mere play. she seemed to think herself bound to do something to "work her passage." whenever any of the crew went aloft to take in sail, jumbo would always climb up, too, as if to help them. jack harmon was still her favorite, and whenever it came his turn to stand at the bow and keep watch, there was jumbo going backward and forward. on the eighth night of the voyage, the stars looked dim and watery, and a low bank of clouds began to rise to windward of us, just between sea and sky. the old sailors shook their heads and looked grave, as if they expected an unusual storm. suddenly the wind began to blow strongly upon the starboard quarter, stirring up a cross-sea which tossed the great ship like a toy. nearly all the passengers had gone below, and the few who remained on deck buttoned their water-proof coats, and held tightly on by any thing they could seize. jack harmon had shut up his cat below, but poor puss escaped somehow, for all at once a shrill cry was heard, and there was jumbo clinging to a rail, with a great mountain of a wave coming right down upon her. several men sprang toward the spot, but jack was foremost, and he had just reached his little pet when down came the great wave upon them both. instantly the whole after-deck was one roaring, foaming waterfall, the flying spray of which blinded one for a moment. but when it cleared, there stood our brave jack--dripping, bruised, and bleeding from a cut on the head. but his little favorite was safe in his arms, and as he came back with her, such a cheer went up from all who were on deck, as the old ship had not heard for many a day. "let's send round the hat for him," said one of the passengers. and the hat was sent around, so successfully that jack got enough money to give his poor old mother a happy christmas, and still have something left over for himself and jumbo, who was his mother's pet ever after. * * * * * directions for reading.--should this lesson be read with the same tone of voice as lessons v. and vi.? in the first paragraph, do not say _pier rin_ for _pier in; dir' tand_ for _dirt and_. point out two other places in the lesson where mistakes similar to those just given might occur. * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark the sounds of letters in the following words: _cargo, officer, blanket, passengers, instantly, bleeding_. _work her passage_ means to pay her fare by making herself useful. make out an _analysis_ in six parts for this lesson, and use it in telling the story in your own words. * * * * * lesson viii. loi'ter ing, _going slowly, lingering_. pro tect'or, _one who keeps another from harm_. throng'ing, _gathering in large numbers_. wrecked, _dashed to pieces_. thatched, _covered with straw or twigs_. bronzed, _brown, darked-colored_. bleach'ing, _whitening_. van'ished, _gone out of sight; departed suddenly_. rapt'ure, _great joy; delight_. * * * * * rescued. "little lad, slow wandering across the sands so yellow, leading safe a lassie small--o tell me, little fellow, whither go you, loitering in the summer weather, chattering like sweet-voiced birds on a bough together?" "i am robert, if you please, and this is rose, my sister, youngest of us all"--he bent his curly head and kissed her, "every day we come and wait here till the sun is setting, watching for our father's ship, for mother dear is fretting. "long ago he sailed away, out of sight and hearing, straight across the bay he went, into sunset steering. every day we look for him, and hope for his returning, every night my mother keeps the candle for him burning. "summer goes, and winter comes, and spring returns but never father's step comes to the gate. o, is he gone forever? the great, grand ship that bore him off, think you some tempest wrecked her?" tears shone in little rose's eyes, upturned to her protector. eagerly the bonny boy went on: "o, sir, look yonder! in the offing see the sails that east and westward wander; every hour they come and go, the misty distance thronging. while we watch and see them fade, with sorrow and with longing." "little robert, little rose!" the stranger's eyes were glistening at his bronzed and bearded face, upgazed the children, listening; he knelt upon the yellow sand, and clasped them to his bosom, robert brave, and little rose, as bright as any blossom. "father, father! is it you?" the still air rings with rapture; all the vanished joy of years the waiting ones recapture! finds he welcome wild and sweet, the low-thatched cottage reaching, but the ship that into sunset steered, upon the rocks lies bleaching. [illustration] * * * * * directions for reading.--read the conversational parts of this poem like conversation in prose. point out the _emphatic words_ in the first line of the last stanza. * * * * * language lesson.--_into sunset steering_, means sailing westward. _the misty distance thronging_, means gathering together in the distance. _the still air rings with rapture_, means that the air becomes full of joyful shouts. _all the vanished joy of years the waiting ones recapture_, means that the children regain the happiness lost during their father's absence. * * * * * lesson ix. impos'ing, _grand looking; of great size_. glar'ing, _fierce looking_. lim'its, _space_. e nor'mous, _very large; huge_. start'led, _suddenly alarmed; surprised_. au'dible, _that may be heard_. maj'esty, _greatness; nobility_. increas'ing, _growing larger_. * * * * * the lion. there is, in the appearance of the lion, something both noble and imposing. nature has given him wonderful strength and beauty. his body, when full grown, is only about seven feet long and less than four feet high; but his large and shapely head, with its powerful jaws, his glaring eye, and long, flowing mane, give him an air of majesty that shows him worthy of the name--"king of beasts." yet we are told that a lion will not willingly attack man, unless first attacked himself or driven by hunger to forget his habits. on meeting man suddenly, he will turn, retreat slowly for a short distance, and then run away. the lion belongs to the cat family, and his teeth and claws are similar in form and action to those of the house cat. his food is the flesh of animals; and so great is his appetite, that it must require several thousand other animals to supply one lion with food during his life-time. his strength is so enormous that he can crush the skull of an ox with a single blow of his powerful paw, and then grasp it in his jaws and bound away. unless driven by hunger to bolder measures, he will hide in the bushes, or in the tall reeds along the banks of rivers, and spring suddenly upon the unlucky animal that chances to come near him. many lions have been captured, and their habits and appearance carefully studied. although there is a difference in color--some being of a yellowish brown, others of a deep red, and a few silvery gray--the general form and appearance of all lions is the same. the mane is of a dark brown, or of a dusky color, and the tail nearly three feet long, with a bunch of hair at the tip. the lioness, or female lion, is smaller in every way than the male and has no mane. it is in the night-time that the lion goes out from his den to seek for food, and his color is so dark and his movements so silent, that his presence is not known even at the distance of a few yards. these dangerous beasts are no longer found in europe, although they lived there in numbers many hundred years ago. it is only in the deserts and rocky hills of asia and africa that they are met with. those who have visited a menagerie, and have seen a lion within the limits of a narrow iron cage, can form no idea of the majesty of the brute when roaming about freely on his native soil. the voice of the lion is loud and strong. it is likely to strike terror to the bravest heart. "it consists," says a well-known writer, "at times of a low, deep moaning, repeated five or six times, and ending in scarcely audible sighs; at other times, the forest is startled with loud, deep-toned, solemn roars, increasing in loudness to the third or fourth, and then dying away in sounds like distant thunder." * * * * * directions for reading.--this lesson should be read a little more slowly than conversation. when we wish to describe any thing, we must give time for those who listen to us to get the meaning of what we say. do not run the words together when reading. (see directions for reading, page .)[ ] example.--"there is, in the appearance of the lion, something both noble and imposing." * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _meeting, require, europe, idea, terror, measures, unlucky, narrow, bolder_. _air of majesty_ means the noble appearance supposed to belong to kings. [ ] see lesson vii. * * * * * lesson x. ar ti fi' cial, _not real; made by human skill_. ex er'tion, _great effort; attempt_. destroyed', _killed; put an end to_. cleansed, _cleaned; freed from dirt_. sit u a'tion, _position_. fa'mous, _much talked of; well known_. fre'quent ly, _often_. in'ci dent, _adventure; event_. nar rat'ed, _told_. hurled, _thrown with force_. stu'por, _sleepy feeling_. * * * * * adventure with a lion. the dangers of lion-hunting may be understood from the following incident, narrated by livingstone, the famous african traveler: "the villagers among whom i was staying were much troubled by lions, which leaped into their cattle-pens and destroyed their cows. "as i knew well that, if one of a number of lions is killed, the others frequently take the hint and leave that part of the country, i gave the villagers advice to that end, and, to encourage them, offered to lead the hunt. "the lions were found hiding among the rocks on a hill covered with trees, and about a quarter of a mile in length. the men circled the hill, and slowly edged in closer and closer, so that the lions might be completely surrounded. "presently one of the natives spied a lion sitting on a piece of rock, and fired at him, the ball missing the beast and striking the rock. "the lion turned, bit like a dog at the spot where the bullet had struck, and then bounded off to the shelter of the brushwood. "soon i saw another lion in much the same situation as the former, and, being not more than thirty yards from it, let fly with both barrels. "as the lion was still on its legs, i hastened to reload my gun; but hearing a sudden and frightful cry from the natives, i looked up and saw the wounded lion springing upon me. "i was caught by the shoulder and hurled to the ground. growling terribly in my ear, the lion shook me as a dog does a rat. "the shock produced a stupor, similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of a cat. "the lion then leaped upon one of the natives who had tried to shoot at him, and then sprang at the neck of a second native who, armed with a spear, was rushing to the rescue. [illustration] "the exertion was too much for the wounded beast, and so, with his claws bedded in the spearman's shoulder, he rolled over and died. "i had escaped, but with a shoulder so broken as to need an artificial joint, and with eleven teeth wounds in my arm. "these wounds were less severe than they would have been, had not a heavy jacket which i had on, cleansed the teeth of the lion in their passage. as it was, they were soon cured and gave me no trouble afterward." * * * * * directions for reading.--read this lesson in a full and clear conversational tone of voice. those parts of the lesson to which we wish to call attention, should be read slowly. example.--"the men edged in closer and closer, so that the lions might be completely surrounded." should the slow and clear reading be kept up throughout pages and , or should those pages be read more rapidly?[ ] * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _livingstone, bullet, growling, jacket, offered, advice, severe_. _edged in closer and closer_ means went slowly nearer and nearer. _let fly with both barrels_ means fired both barrels of his gun at the same time. _still on its legs_ means not so badly wounded but that it was able to stand up. tell the story in your own words. [ ] see this lesson. * * * * * lesson xi. en riched', _made rich_. de tec'tion, _being found out_. dis mount'ed, _got down from_. sat' is fied, _supplied with all one wants_. sum'mit, _top; highest point_. en trust'ed, _gave the care of_. em ployed', _used; made use of_. im por'tant, _worthy of attention_. ad dressed', _spoke to_. di' a mond, _a very valuable stone_. in clud' ed, _put in as a part_. * * * * * the noblest deed of all. a rich persian, feeling himself growing old, and finding that the cares of business were too great for him, resolved, to divide his goods among his three sons, keeping a very small part to protect him from want in his old age. the sons were all well satisfied, and each took his share with thanks, and promised that it should be well and properly employed. when this important business was thus finished, the father addressed the sons in the following words: "my sons, there is one thing which i have not included in the share of any one of you. it is this costly diamond which you see in my hand. i will give it to that one of you who shall earn it by the noblest deed. "go, therefore, and travel for three months; at the end of that time, we will meet here again, and you shall tell me what you have done." the sons thereupon departed, and traveled for three months, each in a different direction. at the end of that time they returned; and all came together to their father to give an account of their journey. the eldest son spoke first. "father, on my journey a stranger entrusted to me a great number of valuable jewels, without taking any account of them. indeed, i was well aware that he did not know how many the package contained. "one or two of them would never have been missed, and i might easily have enriched myself without fear of detection. but i gave back the package exactly as i had received it. was not this a noble deed?" "my son," replied the father, "simple honesty cannot be called noble. you did what was right, and nothing more. if you had acted otherwise, you would have been dishonest, and your deed would have shamed you. you have done well, but not nobly." the second son now spoke. he said: "as i was riding along on my journey, i one day saw a poor child playing by the shore of a lake; and just as i rode by, it fell into the water, and was in danger of being drowned. "i at once dismounted from my horse, and plunging into the water, brought it safe to land. all the people of the village where this happened will tell you that what i say is true. was it not a noble action?" "my son," replied the old man, "you did only what was your duty. you could hardly have left the child to die without exerting yourself to save it. you, too, have acted well, but not nobly." then the third son came forward to tell his tale. he said: "father, i had an enemy, who for years had done me much harm and tried to take my life. "one evening during my journey, i was passing along a dangerous road which ran beside the summit of a cliff. as i rode along, my horse started at sight of something in the road. "i dismounted to see what it was, and found my enemy lying fast asleep on the very edge of the cliff. the least movement in his sleep and he must have rolled over and been dashed to pieces on the rocks below. "his life was in my hands. i drew him away from the edge and then woke him, and told him to go on his way in peace." then the old persian cried out with great joy, "dear son, the diamond is yours, for it is a noble and godlike thing to help an enemy and return good for evil." * * * * * directions for reading.--read this lesson in a conversational tone of voice, and somewhat more slowly than lesson iii. read what is said by each one of the four different persons, as you think each one of them would speak. how would you read the third and fourth paragraphs?--the last paragraph? point out the _emphatic words_ in the last paragraph. * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _persian, therefore, valuable, account, jewels, aware, contained, dishonest, duty, enemy_. let pupils use other words, to express the following: to go on his way in peace. return good for evil. tell the story in your own words, using the points in the following analysis.-- . the father divides his goods. . what he said to his sons. . what the eldest son did. . what the second son did. . what the third son did. . what the father said. * * * * * lesson xii. a new', _over again_. al'ma nac, _a book giving days, weeks, and months of the year_. rus'tling, _shaking with a gentle sound_. scents, _smells_. drow'sy, _sleepy; making sleepy_. larch, _a kind of tree_. flue, _an opening for air or smoke to pass through_. haunt'ing, _staying in; returning often_. mur'mur, _a low sound_. fra' grant, _sweet smelling_. * * * * * marjorie's almanac. robins in the tree-top, blossoms in the grass, green things a-growing every-where you pass; sudden fragrant breezes, showers of silver dew, black bough and bent twig budding out anew; pine-tree and willow-tree, fringed elm and larch,-- don't you think that may-time's pleasanter than march? apples in the orchard mellowing one by one; strawberries upturning soft cheeks to the sun; roses faint with sweetness, lilies fair of face, drowsy scents and murmurs haunting every place; lengths of golden sunshine, moonlight bright as day,-- don't you think that summer's pleasanter than may? roger in the corn-patch whistling negro songs; pussy by the hearth-side romping with the tongs; chestnuts in the ashes bursting through the rind; red leaf and gold leaf rustling down the wind; mother "doin' peaches" all the afternoon,-- don't you think that autumn's pleasanter than june? little fairy snow-flakes dancing in the flue; old mr. santa claus, what is keeping you? twilight and firelight, shadows come and go; merry chime of sleigh-bells tinkling through the snow; mother knitting stockings (pussy's got the ball!)-- don't you think that winter's pleasanter than all? * * * * * directions for reading.--read the lesson with spirit, and avoid anything like sing-song. do not make the last word of each line _emphatic_, unless it is really an _emphatic word_. * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words; _marjorie's, chestnuts, peaches, afternoon_. what part of the year is described in each stanza? what two words can be used for each of the following: _may-time's, summer's_. * * * * * lesson xiii. col'o ny, _a number of people living together in one place_. set'tlers, _those people who form a colony_. shy, _easily frightened; timid_. es tab'lished, _formed; settled_. war'rior, _a soldier; one who fights in war_. fur'ni ture, _articles used in a house_. dread'ed, _feared very much_. pros' per ous, _successful; rich_. * * * * * the story of indian spring. part i. "you want to know why this is called indian spring, robbie? i will tell you. "when mary and i were little girls, father moved away from our pleasant home on the bank of the delaware river, and came to this part of the country. there were five of us: father, mother, mary, our dear nurse lizzie, and i. "lizzie was a colored woman, who had lived with us a long time. she was very handsome, and straight as an arrow. she was a few years older than mother. "grandfather thorpe, your great grandfather, boys, gave her to mother when she was married. your grandfather was a miller. the old mill that i went to see to-day, was his. it was the first mill built in this part of pennsylvania. "o, this was a beautiful country! my eyes never were tired of looking out over these mountains and valleys. but i saw that mother's face was getting thinner and whiter every day; they said she was homesick, and before we had been in the colony a year, a grave was made under an elm-tree close by, and that grave was mother's. "i thought my heart was broken then, but i soon forgot my sorrow: i still had father, sister mary, and lizzie. "in this part of pennsylvania at that time there were very few white people, and besides our own, there was no other colony within ten miles. but our people being so near together, and well armed, felt quite safe. "ten miles away on the susquehanna, was a small village established by a colony from the north, which was used as a trading-post. there the friendly indians often came to trade. "father went twice a year to this village to get supplies that came up the river. he often spoke of red feather, an old indian warrior. father liked red feather, and he learned to trust him almost as he would have trusted a white man. "time passed on until i was thirteen years old, a tall, strong girl, and very brave for a girl. i could shoot almost as well as father. "little mary was very quiet and shy, not like me at all. i loved fishing, and often went out hunting with father, but she staid at home with lizzie, or sat down under the trees by the spring, watching the shadow of the trees moving in it. "our colony had by this time become quite prosperous. a good many of the settlers had built houses for themselves more like those they had left behind on the delaware. "the spring that i was fourteen, father built this house. the mill had already been grinding away for two years. we were very happy when we moved out of our little log cabin into this pleasant house. "we had but little furniture, but we had plenty of room. up to this time, there had not been much trouble with the indians, and though we had often dreaded it, and lived in fear many days at a time, only four of our men had been killed by them. "we had trusted many of the friendly indians, and red feather had frequently spent days at our settlement. he seemed to like the mill. "i became quite attached to the old man; but mary was always afraid of him, and lizzie kept her sharp eyes on him whenever he came into the house. she hated him, and he knew it. "one beautiful clear morning in august of that year, father went down to the mill as usual. lizzie was busy with her work, and little mary was playing with some tame doves, when looking up, i saw lizzie start suddenly. "she had seen something in the woods that frightened her. without speaking, she went to the door, closed and fastened it, then turned and looked out of the window. she never told mo what she saw. "father came home early that day; he looked anxious, and i knew that something troubled him. without waiting to eat his supper, he went out, and very soon most of the men of the colony had gathered round him at the spring." * * * * * directions for reading.--with what tone of voice should this lesson be read? what other lessons before this, have been read with the same tone of voice? name two _emphatic words_ in the following _exclamation_: "o, this was a beautiful country!" * * * * * language lesson.--change the _exclamation_ given above to a _statement_. what word would be omitted? how would the punctuation be changed? syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _delaware, thinner, susquehanna, grinding_. * * * * * lesson xiv. con fu'sion, _disorder_. sense'less, _without the power of thinking or acting; seemingly lifeless_. re vived', _came back to life; recovered_. cun'ning, _slyness; skill_. pro voke', _make angry_. stunned_, made senseless by a blow on the head_. meek'ly, _in a gentle manner_. his'to ry, _what is told of the past; a story_. tot'ter, _shake as if about to fall_. * * * * * the story of indian spring. part ii. "it was as i had feared; we were in danger of an attack from the indians. "something had happened at the trading-post to provoke them, and rouse their thirst for blood. but a quiet night passed by and the sun shone again over the hills in wonderful beauty. "suddenly, there sounded from the forest a scream. i had never heard it before, but i knew it. it was the terrible war-whoop. then all was confusion and horror. "i saw nanito, an indian that i knew, who had eaten at our table. i saw him strike down our father, while lizzie fought to save him. "but it was no use, there was no mercy in the heart of the indian. they carried lizzie away from us, and we never saw her again. "poor little frightened mary and i were tied together, our hands fastened behind us, and we were given, to--whom do you think, robbie?--to red feather. then i hated him, and resolved that i would kill him if i could. "after a while he took us out of the house, and then i saw that most of the houses in the little village were burning. the women and children were saved alive, but nearly all the men were killed. "i was very quiet, for i wanted my hands untied, and i thought perhaps red feather would pity me and unfasten them. "little mary was frightened nearly to death. she had not spoken since she saw the indian strike father down,--when she screamed and fell senseless. "for a good while i thought she was dead. she had revived a great deal, but had not spoken. "about sundown red feather led us down past the spring, out into the woods, but not far away. we could still see the smoke rising from the burning houses. the indians had gone some distance farther and camped with the white prisoners. "red feather could speak english, so i told him if he would untie my hands, i would make his fire, and bake his corn cake for him. "he was old and feeble, and had lost much of his natural cunning. he knew me, and trusted me; so without speaking, he took his hunting knife from his belt, cut the cords, and i was free. "i took the hatchet that he gave me to cut some branches for a fire, and went to work very meekly, with my head down. "i dared not speak to mary, for fear he might see me, for his eyes were fixed on me every moment. i baked his corn cake in the ashes, and gave it to him. by this time it was dark, but the light from our fire shone far out into the woods. "i noticed red feather did not watch me so closely, and his eyes would now and then shut, for he was very tired. "he leaned forward to light his pipe in the ashes, when instantly, almost without thinking, i seized the hatchet, and struck him with all my might. "with a loud scream, i plunged into the woods toward home. turning an instant, i saw mary spring up, totter, and fall. with another sharp report came a twinge of pain in my side. suddenly i fell, and in the darkness of the woods, they passed on, leaving me stunned and nearly dead. "i will not tell you now, my dear robbie, how i was cared for, and who brought home little mary and laid her to rest under the elm, beside mother--but the bullet that struck me then, i still carry in my side, and shall as long as i live. "many years have passed since that terrible day, but i can never forget it. as long as the history of this country lasts, indian spring will be remembered, and other boys will listen, with eyes as wide open as yours, to the tale it has to tell." * * * * * directions for reading.--should the second or third paragraph of the lesson be read the faster? when do we speak more rapidly--in telling an exciting story, or in common conversation? do our feelings guide us when we speak slowly or rapidly?--when, we speak quietly or forcibly? point out three paragraphs in the lesson that you would read as slowly as lesson xiii.; three that you would read more rapidly. in reading rapidly, be careful not to omit syllables, and not to run words together. (see directions for reading, page .)[ ] [ ] see lesson vii. * * * * * lesson xv. aft, _near the stern of a ship_. anch'or, _a large iron for holding a ship_. aimed, _directed or pointed at, as a gun_. car'tridge, _a small case containing powder and ball_. mood, _state of mind; temper_. sul'try, _very hot_. cleav'ing, _cutting through; dividing_. dis cov'ered, _found out; seen clearly_. buoys, _floats, made of wood, hollow iron, or copper_. re sults', _what follows an act_. * * * * * an adventure with a shark. our noble ship lay at anchor in the bay of tangiers, a town in the north-west part of africa. the day had been very mild, with a gentle breeze sweeping to the northward and westward. toward the close of the day the sea-breeze died away, and hot, sultry breathings came from the great, sunburnt desert of sahara. half an hour before sundown, the captain gave the cheering order to call the hands to "go in swimming"; and, in less than five minutes, the forms of our sailors were seen leaping from the arms of the lower yards into the water. one of the sails, with its corners fastened from the main yard-arm and the swinging boom, had been lowered into the water, and into this most of the swimmers made their way. among those who seemed to be enjoying the sport most heartily were two boys, one of whom was the son of our old gunner; and, in a laughing mood, they started out from the sail on a race. there was a loud ringing shout of joy on their lips as they put off; they darted through the water like fishes. the surface of the sea was smooth as glass, though its bosom rose in long, heavy swells that set in from the ocean. one of the buoys which was attached to the anchor, to show where it lay, was far away on the starboard quarter, where it rose and fell with the lazy swell of the waves. towards this buoy the two lads made their way, the old gunner's son taking the lead; but, when they were within about sixty yards of the buoy, the other boy shot ahead and promised to win the race. the old gunner had watched the progress of his son with great pride; and when he saw him drop behind, he leaped upon the quarter-deck, and was just upon the point of urging him on by a shout, when a cry was heard that struck him with instant horror. "a shark! a shark!" shouted the officer of the deck; and, at the sound of those terrible words, the men who were in the water, leaped and plunged toward the ship. three or four hundred yards away, the back of a monster shark was seen cleaving the water. its course was for the boys. for a moment the gunner stood like one who had lost his reason; then he shouted at the top of his voice for the boys to turn; but they heard him not. stoutly the two swimmers strove, knowing nothing of the danger from the shark. their merry laughter still rang over the waters, as they were both nearing the buoy. o, what anxiety filled the heart of the gunner! a boat had put off, but he knew it could not reach the boys in time to prevent the shark from overtaking them. every moment he expected to see the monster sink from sight,--then he knew all hope would be gone. at this moment a cry was heard on board the ship, that reached every heart,--the boys had discovered their enemy. the cry startled the old gunner, and, quicker than thought, he sprung from the quarter-deck. the guns were all loaded and shotted, fore and aft, and none knew their temper better than he. with steady hand, made strong by sudden hope, the old gunner pricked the cartridge of one of the quarter guns; then he took from his pocket a percussion cap, fixed it on its place, and set back the hammer of the gun-lock. with great exertions, the old man turned the heavy gun to its bearing, and then seizing the string of the lock, he stood back and watched for the next swell that would bring the shark in range. he had aimed the piece some distance ahead of his mark; but yet a moment would settle his hopes and fears. every breath was hushed, and every heart in that old ship beat painfully. the boat was yet some distance from the boys, while the horrid sea-monster was fearfully near. [illustration] suddenly the silence was broken by the roar of the gun; and, as the old man knew his shot was gone, he covered his face with his hands, as if afraid to see the result. if he had failed, he knew that his boy was lost. for a moment after the report of the gun had died away upon the air, there was an unbroken silence; but, as the thick smoke arose from the surface of the water, there was, at first, a low murmur breaking from the lips of the men,--that murmur grew louder and stronger, till it swelled to a joyous, deafening shout. the old gunner sprung to his feet, and gazed off on the water, and the first thing that met his sight was the huge body of the shark floating on its back, the shot aimed by him having instantly killed it. in a few moments the boat reached the daring swimmers, and, greatly frightened, they were brought on board. the old man clasped his boy in his arms, and then, overcome by the powerful excitement, he leaned upon a gun for support. * * * * * directions for reading.--what paragraphs should be read rapidly? does the feeling require it? use _calling tones_ for the words, "a shark! a shark!" * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _tangiers, sahara, percussion, excitement, support_. tell the story in your own words, using the points in the following analysis.-- . where the ship was. . the race. . the shark. . the gunner's trial. . the result. * * * * * lesson xvi. scant'y, _not enough for use_. hu'man, _belonging to man or mankind_. cubs, _the young of wild animals_. le'gend, _a story; a tale_. soot'y, _blackened with smoke_. scar'let, _of a bright red color_. self'ish ly, _as if caring only for one's self_. knead'ed, _pressed and rolled with the hands_. dough, _unbaked bread or cake_. * * * * * a legend of the northland. away, away in the northland, where the hours of the day are few, and the nights are so long in winter, they can not sleep them through; where they harness the swift reindeer to the sledges when it snows; and the children look like bear's cubs, in their funny, furry clothes: they tell them a curious story-- i don't believe 'tis true; and yet you may learn a lesson if i tell the tale to you. once, when the good saint peter lived in the world below, and walked about it, preaching, just as he did, you know; he came to the door of a cottage, in traveling round the earth, where a little woman was making cakes, in the ashes on the hearth. and being faint with fasting-- for the day was almost done-- he asked her, from her store of cakes, to give him a single one. so she made a very little cake, but as it baking lay, she looked at it and thought it seemed too large to give away. therefore she kneaded another, and still a smaller one; but it looked, when she turned it over, as large as the first had done. then she took a tiny scrap of dough, and rolled and rolled it flat; and baked it thin as a wafer-- but she couldn't part with that. for she said, "my cakes that seem so small when i eat of them myself, are yet too large to give away." so she put them on a shelf. then good saint peter grew angry, for he was hungry and faint; and surely such, a woman was enough to provoke a saint. and he said, "you are far too selfish to dwell in a human form, to have both food and shelter, and fire to keep you warm. "now, you shall build as the birds do, and shall get your scanty food by boring, and boring, and boring, all day in the hard dry wood." then up she went through the chimney. never speaking a word; and out of the top flew a woodpecker, for she was changed to a bird. she had a scarlet cap on her head, and that was left the same, but all the rest of her clothes were burned black as a coal in the flame. and every country school-boy has seen her in the wood; where she lives in the trees till this very day boring and boring for food. and this is the lesson she teaches: live not for yourselves alone, lest the needs you will not pity shall one day be your own. give plenty of what is given to you, listen to pity's call; don't think the little you give is great, and the much you get is small. now, my little boy, remember that, and try to be kind and good, when you see the woodpecker's sooty dress, and see her scarlet hood. you mayn't be changed to a bird, though you live as selfishly as you can; but you will be changed to a smaller thing-- a mean and selfish man. * * * * * directions for reading.--in what manner should this lesson be read at the beginning--quietly, or with much spirit? on page , beginning with the second stanza, is what saint peter says quiet and slow, or emphatic and somewhat rapid?[ ] point out three places where two lines are to be joined and read as one. what two lines in each stanza end with similar sounds? [ ] see stanza number of the poem. * * * * * lesson xvii. ex pres'sion, _a look showing feeling_. a maze'ment, _great surprise; astonishment_. mag'netisnm, _an unknown power of drawing or pulling_. con tin'ued, _went on; stayed_. test'ing, _trying_. con ven'ience, _ease; the saving of trouble_. ex per'i ments, _the trials made to find out facts_. * * * * * a funny horseshoe. "what a funny horseshoe!" said charlie, "it has no holes for the nails!" i looked up and saw that he had taken up a small "horseshoe magnet." "why that isn't a horseshoe," i said. "it's a magnet." "magnet! what's that?" charlie turned it over in his hands, and pulled the bar a little. the bar slipped so that it hung only by a corner. "never mind," i said, as he looked up with a scared expression. "it isn't broken. put the bar back." charlie put it back, and it sprung into place with a sharp click. "that's funny!" he cried again. "what made it jump so? and what makes it stick? it doesn't feel sticky." "we call it magnetism," i said. "now, take hold of the bar, and see if you can pull it straight off." "i can't. it sticks fast." "pull harder." charlie braced himself for a strong pull. suddenly the bar came off, and he went tumbling backward. "what did you say makes it hold so hard?" said he, getting up. "magnetism," said i again. "but what is magnetism?" "i couldn't tell you if i tried; but i think you could learn a great deal about it with that magnet. you will find a lot of things in that box that may help you." saying this, i left him to pursue his studies as best he could. when i came back, i found him more puzzled than when i left him. "that's the queerest thing i ever saw," he said. "some things just jump at it as though they were alive; some things it pulls; and some things it doesn't pull a bit." "that's a very long lesson you have learned," i said. "what does it pull?" "these," he said, pointing to a pile of things on one side of the box. "and these things it doesn't pull." "let us see what you have in this pile," i said, looking at the first little heap; "keys?" "trunk keys," said charlie. "it doesn't pull door keys. i tried ever so many." "try this key," said i, taking one from my pocket. "this is a trunk key. see if the magnet pulls it." "no-o," said charlie, thoughtfully, "it doesn't; but it pulled all the rest of the trunk keys i could find." "try this key to my office door." charlie tried it, and to his great amazement the key stuck fast to the magnet. "surely," said i, "it pulls some door keys, and fails to pull some trunk keys." charlie was more puzzled than ever. he looked at the keys, thought a moment, then picked up my trunk key, and said: "this key is brass; the rest are iron." "that's so," i said. "and all these door keys that the magnet didn't pull," he continued, "are brass, too. perhaps it can't pull brass things." "suppose you try. but first see if there are any brass things that the magnet pulled." charlie looked them over. then we tried the casters of my chair, and all the other brass things we could find, none of which the magnet would pull. "there's no use in trying any longer," said charlie. "it won't pull brass." "then, there's another matter settled," i said. "the magnet does not pull brass. is there any thing else it does not pull?" "wood," said charlie. "i tried lots of pieces." "any thing else?" "stones," said charlie, eagerly. "what are these?" i asked, holding up a couple of heavy stones he had put among the things the magnet pulled. "i guess i put those there by mistake," said charlie, testing with, the magnet a number of stones in the other pile. "try them," i said. "o!" he said, as the magnet lifted them; "i forgot. it does lift some stones." "well, what else have you in that pile of things the magnet did not pull?" "glass, leather, lead, bone, cloth, tin, zinc, corn, and a lot of things." "very well. now let us see what the magnet does pull." "iron keys," said charlie, "and nails." "here's a nail in this other pile." "that's a brass nail. the magnet pulls only iron nails." "what else have we in this pile?" "needles, hair-pins, screws, wire--iron wire," he added quickly. "brass wire doesn't stick, you know." "how about this?" i asked, taking a small coil of copper wire from my desk. "i guess that won't stick," said charlie. "because that's copper wire, and the magnet doesn't seem to pull any thing that isn't iron." much to charlie's satisfaction, the magnet did not pull the copper wire. then i took up two stones, one rusty red, the other black, and said: "what about these?" "i guess they must have iron in them too," said charlie. "have they?" "they have," i replied. "they are iron ores from which iron is made. why did you think there was iron in them?" "because they wouldn't have stuck to the magnet if there wasn't." "quite true. so you have learned another very important fact. can you tell me what it is?" "the magnet pulls iron," said charlie. "good," said i; "and it is also true that the magnet does not pull--" "things that are not iron," said charlie. "true again," i said. "so far as our experiments go, the magnet pulls iron always, and never any thing else." "but what makes it pull iron?" "that i can not tell. we see it does pull, but just how the pulling is done, or what makes it, no one has yet found out. "for convenience we call the pulling power magnetism. you may keep the magnet, and at some other time, i will tell you more about it." * * * * * language lesson.--name six words in the lesson, each of which is made up of two words by leaving out letters. write out the two words in each case. what is the name of the mark which shows the omission of letters? point out the _statement, command, question_, and _exclamation_ in the sentences given below. "o, isn't it a funny horseshoe!" "put the bar back." "what made it jump so?" "the magnet pulls iron." * * * * * lesson xviii. ex pos'es, _shows_. mi mo'sa, _a tree that grows in africa_. mot'tled, _marked with spots of different color_. re sem'bling, _looking like_. ap proach', _coming near_. pub'lic, _open to all; free_. va'ri ous, _different; unlike in kind_. de fend', _take care of; protect_. gait, _manner of stepping_. pre vents', _keeps from; stops_. ca' pa ble, _having power; able_. * * * * * the giraffe or camelopard. there are few sights more pleasing than a herd of tall and graceful giraffes. with, their heads reaching a height of from twelve to eighteen feet, they move about in small herds on the open plains of africa, eating the tender twigs and leaves of the mimosa and other trees. the legs of a large giraffe are about nine feet long, and its neck nearly six feet; while its body measures only seven feet in length and slopes rapidly from the neck to the tail. the graceful appearance of the giraffe is increased by the beauty of its skin, which is orange red in color and mottled with dark spots. its long tail has at the end a tuft of thick hair which serves the purpose of keeping off the flies and stinging insects, so plentiful in the hot climate of africa. [illustration] its tongue is very wonderful. it is from thirteen to seventeen inches in length, is slender and pointed, and is capable of being moved in various ways. it is almost as useful to the giraffe as the trunk is to the elephant. the horns of the giraffe are very short and covered with skin. at the ends there are tufts of short hair. the animal has divided hoofs somewhat resembling those of the ox. the head of the giraffe is small, and its eyes, large and mild looking. these eyes are set in such a way that the animal can see a great deal of what is behind it without turning its head. in addition to its wonderful power of sight, the giraffe can scent danger from a great distance; so there is no animal more difficult of approach. strange to relate, the giraffe has no voice. in london, some years ago, two giraffes were burned to death in their stables, when the slightest sound would have given notice of their danger, and saved their lives. the giraffe is naturally both gentle and timid, and he will always try to avoid danger by flight. it is when running that he exposes his only ungraceful point. he runs swiftly, but as he moves the fore and hind legs on each side at the same time, it gives him a very displeasing and awkward gait. but though timid, he will, when overtaken, turn even upon the lion or panther, and defend himself successfully by powerful kicks with his strong legs. the natives of africa capture the giraffe in pitfalls, which are deep holes covered over with branches of trees and dirt. when captured, he can be tamed, and gives scarcely any trouble during captivity. fifty years ago, but little was known about giraffes in europe or america. now we can find them in menageries and the public gardens of our large cities. the giraffe thrives in captivity and seems to be well satisfied with a diet of corn and hay. it is a source of great satisfaction to those who admire this beautiful animal, that there is no reason which prevents him from living in a climate so different from that of his african home. * * * * * language lesson.--write statements containing each of the following words, used in such a manner as to show their proper meaning: _feet, feat; red, read; fore, four; gait, gate_. model.-- we are coming to _see_ you to-morrow. he stood watching the ships sailing on the _sea_. * * * * * lesson xix. ex pert', _skillful_. ad vise', _offer advice; give notice of what has happened_. civ'il ized, _having laws, learning, and good manners_. quan'ti ty, _a large amount; part_. in duce', _lead one to think or act_. pre pared', _made ready for use_. de part'ed, _went away_. hence forth', _from this time forward_. part'ner, _one who shares with another, as a partner in business_. ar riv'ing, _coming to; reaching a point_. con vince', _make one believe_. * * * * * the trader's trick. out in the west, where many indians live, there are white men who go among them to trade for furs and skins of animals. these furs and skins are collected and prepared by the indians, and serve the purpose of money when the traders visit them to dispose of various kinds of goods. in old times, before the white men came to this country, the indians had only bows and arrows, and spears with which to hunt. but the white men soon taught them to use guns, and to-day, nearly all the tribes in america are well supplied with rifles or shotguns. they are very expert with these fire-arms, and as they use them a great deal, must have a large and constant supply of gunpowder. a story is told of how, at one time, a tribe of indians tried to raise gunpowder by planting seed. this shows how little they knew of civilized life and habits. a trader went to a certain indian nation to dispose of a stock of goods. among other things he had a quantity of gunpowder. the indians traded for his cloths, hats, axes, beads, and other things, but would not take the powder, saying: "we do not wish for the powder; we have plenty." the trader did not like to carry all the powder back to his camp; so thought he would play a trick on the indians, and induce them to buy it. going to an open piece of ground near the indian camp, he dug some little holes in the soft, rich soil; then mixing a quantity of onion seed with his powder, he began to plant it. the indians were curious to know what he was doing, and stood by greatly interested. "what are you doing?" said one. "planting gunpowder," replied the trader. "why do you plant it?" inquired another. "to raise a crop of powder. how could i raise it without planting?" said the trader. "do you not plant corn in the ground?" "and will gunpowder grow like corn?" exclaimed half a dozen at once. "certainly it will," said the trader. "did you not know it? as you do not want my powder, i thought i would plant it, and raise a crop which i could gather and sell to the crows." now the crows were another tribe of indians, which was always at war with this tribe. the idea of their enemies having a large supply of powder increased the excitement, and one of the indians said: "well, well, if we can raise powder like corn, we will buy your stock and plant it." but some of the indians thought best to wait, and see if the seed would grow. so the trader agreed to wait a few days. in about a week the tiny sprouts of the onion seed began to appear above the ground. the trader calling the indians to the spot, said: "you see now for yourselves. the powder already begins to grow, just as i told you it would." the fact that some small plants appeared where the trader had put the gunpowder, was enough to convince the indians. every one of them became anxious to raise a crop of gunpowder. the trader sold them his stock, in which there was a large mixture of onion seeds, at a very high price, and then left. from this time, the indians gave no attention to their corn crop. if they could raise gunpowder, they would be happy. they took great care of the little plants as they came up out of the ground, and watched every day for the appearance of the gunpowder blossoms. they planned a buffalo hunt which was to take place after the powder harvest. after a while the onions bore a plentiful crop of seeds, and the indians began to gather and thresh it. they believed that threshing the onion seeds would produce the powder. but threshing failed to bring it. then they discovered that they had been cheated. of course the dishonest trader avoided these indians, and did not make them a second visit. after some time, however, he sent his partner to them for the purpose of trading goods for furs and skins. by chance they found out that this man was the partner of the one who had cheated them. they said nothing to him about the matter; but when he had opened his goods and was ready to trade, they coolly helped themselves to all he had, and walked off. the trader did not understand this. he became furiously angry, and went to make his complaint to the chief of the nation. "i am an honest man," said he to the chief. "i came here to trade honestly. but your people are thieves; they have stolen all my goods." the old chief looked at him some time in silence, and then said: "my children are all honest. they have not stolen your goods. they will pay you as soon as they gather their gunpowder harvest." the man had heard of the trick played upon the indians; but did not know before this, that his partner was the one who had cheated them. he could not say a word. he departed at once. arriving at his home, he said to his partner: "we must separate. i have learned a lesson. i can not remain in business with a dishonest man. you cheated the indians for a little gain. you have lost it, and i advise you, henceforth, to deal honestly with all men." * * * * * directions for reading.--in the first paragraph of the lesson, notice the places marked below (__) where words are likely to be run together in reading, and avoid making such errors. "out__in the west, there__are men who trade for furs__and skins__of animals." point out similar places in the second paragraph. name four _emphatic words_ occurring in the last sentence of the lesson. * * * * * language lesson. syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _dispose, gunpowder, complaint, henceforth_. give reasons for the capital letters and marks of punctuation used in the last paragraph of the lesson. tell the story in your own words, using the points given in the following analysis.-- . trading with the indians. . the use of fire-arms among the indians. . the trader's trick. . visit of the trader's partner. . what the indians did. . the return of the partner. . what he said to the trader. * * * * * lesson xx. floss'y, _made of silk_. mag'ic, _unnatural power_. war'bling, _singing_. mope, _become stupid or dull_. boun'ty, _what is given freely_. lan'guish, _become weak; wither_. * * * * * a happy pair. over my shaded doorway two little brown-winged birds have chosen to fashion their dwelling, and utter their loving words; all day they are going and coming on errands frequent and fleet, and warbling over and over, "sweetest, sweet, sweet, o sweet!" their necks are changeful and shining, their eyes like living gems; and all day long they are busy gathering straws and stems, lint and feathers and grasses, and half forgetting to eat, yet never failing to warble, "sweetest, sweet, sweet, o sweet!" i scatter crumbs on the doorstep, and fling them some flossy threads; they fearlessly gather my bounty, and turn up their grateful heads. and chatter and dance and flutter, and scrape with their tiny feet, telling me over and over, "sweetest, sweet, sweet, o sweet!" what if the sky is clouded? what if the rain comes down? they are all dressed to meet it, in water-proof suits of brown. they never mope nor languish, nor murmur at storm or heat; but say, whatever the weather, "sweetest, sweet, sweet, o sweet!" always merry and busy, dear little brown-winged birds! teach me the happy magic hidden in those soft words, which always, in shine or shadow, so lovingly you repeat, over and over and over, "sweetest, sweet, sweet, o sweet!" * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils express, in their own language, the words given below in dark type. their eyes are like _living gems_. which you always repeat _in shine or shadow_. what kind of birds are described in the lesson? why did they gather straws, stems, lint, feathers, and grasses? * * * * * lesson xxi. mes'sage, _word; notice_. mer'chan dise, _things traded; goods_. guid'ance _leading; directing_. halt, _stop_. de cid'ed, _made up their minds_. re trac'ing, _going back over_. ho ri'zon, _line where the earth and sky seem to meet_. en camped', _set up tents_. sole, _only_. gushed, _flowed rapidly; poured_. * * * * * ali, the boy camel-driver part i. hassan was a camel-driver who dwelt at gaza. it was his business to go with caravans, backwards and forwards, across the desert to suez, to take care of the camels. he had a wife and one young son, called ali. hassan had been, absent for many weeks, when his wife received from him a message, brought by another camel-driver, who had returned with a caravan from suez. it said: "send the boy with the camel to suez with the next caravan. i have some merchandise to bring home, and i will stop at suez till he comes." ali's mother was pained at the thought of sending her young son away to such a distance for the first time; but she said to herself that ali was now quite old enough to be helping his father, and she at once set about doing what was required for his journey. ali got out the trappings for the camel, and looked to the water-bottles to see that they did not leak. his mother did all that was needed to make him quite ready to join the next caravan that started. ali was delighted to think that he was to go to his father, and that at last the day was come when, he too was to be a camel-driver, and to take a journey with the dear old camel which he was so fond of. he had long wanted to ride on its back across the desert, and to lie down by its side to rest at night. he had no fear. the camel, of which ali was so fond, had been bought by his father with the savings of many a year's hard work, and formed the sole riches of the family. hassan was looked upon as quite a rich man by the other camel-drivers, and ali, besides having a great love for the animal, was proud of his father being a camel owner. though it was a great creature by the side of the young boy, it would obey the voice of ali, and come and go at his bidding, and lie down and rise up just as he wished. hassan called his camel by an arabian word, which meant "meek-eye." at last, there was a caravan about to start for suez which ali could join. the party met near the gates of the city, where there were some wells, at which the water-bottles could be filled. ali's mother attended, and bid her son a loving farewell. the caravan started. the camels which were to lead the way, had around their necks jingling bells, which the others hearing, followed without other guidance. ali looked about and saw his mother standing near the city gate. he took his cap off and waved it above his head, and his mother took off the linen cloth which she wore over her head, and waved it. tramp, tramp, tramp went the camels, their soft spongy feet making a noise as they trod the ground. the camel-drivers laughed, and talked to each other. ali was the only boy in the caravan, and no one seemed to notice him. he had a stout heart, and tried not to care. he could talk to meek-eye, and this he did, patting the creature's back, and telling him they would soon see his father. the sun rose higher and higher, and the day grew hotter and hotter. the morning breeze died away, and the noon was close and sultry. the sand glowed like fire. there was nothing to be seen but sand and sky. at mid-day a halt was made at one of the places well known to the drivers, where shade and water could be had. the water-bottles were not to be touched that day, for at this place a little stream, which gushed from a rock, supplied enough for the men, while the camels needed no water for many days. after resting a short time, the kneeling camels were made to rise, the riders first placing themselves on their backs, and the caravan then moved on. at night the party encamped for rest, the camels lying down, while fires were lighted and food was prepared. several days were thus passed, and ali found that he liked this kind of life as well as he thought he should. no arabs were met with, nor even seen; but a danger of the desert, worse than a party of arabs, came upon them. there arose one day at noon, one of those fearful burning winds which do such mischief to the traveler and his camel. the loose sand was raised like a cloud. it filled the nostrils and blinded the eyes. the only thing to be done, was for the men to get off the backs of the camels, and lie down with their faces to the earth. after the storm had passed, they arose to continue their journey. but the sand had been so blown as to cover the beaten track, and thus all trace of the road was lost. the camel-drivers who led the way stood still, and said that they did not know which way to turn. no distant rock or palm-tree was to be seen, and no one could say which was the south, towards which their faces ought to be turned. they wandered on, now turning to the right, and now to the left; and sometimes, when they had gone some distance in one direction, retracing their steps and trying another. the caravan made a halt, and it was now decided to journey towards the setting sun, in hopes of finding once more the right track. night came on, however, and they had not found it, nor had they reached any place where they could fill their water-bottles, which were empty. once or twice, some one of the party fancied that he saw in the distance the top of a palm-tree; but no, it turned out to be but a little cloud upon the horizon. they had not yet found the old track; neither had they supplied themselves with water to cool their parched lips. * * * * * directions for reading.--always take breath before beginning to read a sentence. if the sentence is a long one, choose such places for breathing as will not injure the sense. when we are out of breath, we are likely either to read too fast, or stop to breathe at such places as to injure the sense. in the first sentence of the second paragraph on page , we may make slight pauses to take breath after _noon_ and after _winds_.[ ] point out breathing-places in the last paragraph on page .[ ] * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _jingling, nostrils, farewell_. let pupils use other words to express the following: a stout heart. towards the setting sun. [ ] see paragraph beginning, "there arose one day at noon...." [ ] see paragraph beginning, "several days were thus passed...." * * * * * lesson xxii. pro pose', _offer; advise_. group, _a number of persons or things together_. grief, _great sorrow; distress_. draughts (drafts), _quantities of water taken at one time_. quenched, _satisfied; put out_. re' cently, _newly; lately_. flick'er ing, _fluttering; keeping in motion_. greed'ily, _very eagerly_ pre'cious, _of great price; costly_. wea'ry, _very tired_. refresh'ing, _cooling; reviving_. * * * * * ali, the boy camel-driver. part ii. poor ali suffered like the rest from terrible thirst. he drank the last drop of water from his water-bottle, and thought of the morrow with fear. he was so tired when night came, he was glad to lie down by the side of meek-eye and go to sleep. ali slept, but before morning, was awakened by the sound of voices. he listened, and heard the chief driver tell one of the merchants that, if they did not find water very soon, the next day a camel must be killed, in order to get the water contained in its stomach. this is often done in cases of great need in the desert, the stomach of the camel being so formed as to hold a great quantity of water. ali was not surprised to hear such a thing spoken of; but what was his distress and alarm, when he heard the merchant propose that it should be "the boy's camel" that should be killed! the merchant said the other camels were of too good a kind, and of too much value; while, as to this young boy, what business had he to have a camel of his own? it would be better far, they said, for him to lose his camel than for him to die, like the rest, of thirst. and so it was decided that meek-eye should be killed, unless water were found the next morning. ali slept no more. his heart was full of grief; but his grief was mixed with courage and resolution. he said to himself that meek-eye should not die. his father had trusted him to bring the camel, and what would he say if he should arrive at suez without it? he would try to find his way alone, and leave the caravan as soon as possible. that night when all was quiet, and the merchant and camel-driver had gone to sleep, ali arose, and gently patting the neck of meek-eye, awoke him. he placed his empty bag and water-bottles on his back, and seating himself on him, made signs for the creature to rise, and then suddenly started off. tramp, tramp, tramp, went meek-eye over the soft sand. the night was cool and refreshing, and ali felt stronger and braver with every tramp. the stars were shining brightly, and they were his only guides. he knew the star which was always in the north, and the one which was in the west after the sun had gone down. he must keep that star to the right, and he would be sure to be going towards the south. he journeyed on till day began to dawn. the sun came up on the edge of the desert, and rose higher and higher. ali felt faint, weary, and thirsty, and could scarcely hold himself on to meek-eye. when he thought of his father and mother, he took courage again, and bore up bravely. the sun was now at its height. ali fancied he saw a palm-tree in the distance. it seemed as if meek-eye saw it also, for he raised his head and quickened his step. it was not long before ali found himself at one of those pleasant green islands which are found throughout the desert, and are called oases. he threw himself from the camel's back, and hunted out the pool of water that he knew he should find in the midst of the reeds and long grass which grew there. he dipped in his water-bottle and drank, while meek-eye, lying down, stretched out his long neck, and greedily sucked up great draughts of the cool water. how sweet was the sleep which crept over them as they lay down in the shade of the great palm-tree, now that they had quenched their thirst! refreshed and rested, ali was able to satisfy his hunger on some ripe dates from the palm-tree, while meek-eye began to feed upon the grass and leaves around. ali noticed, while eating his dates, that other travelers had been there recently: as the grass at the side of the pool was trampled down. this greatly cheered him. he quickly followed in their track, still going in a southerly direction. he kept the setting sun to his right, and when it had gone down, he noticed the bright star that had guided him before. he traveled on, tired and faint with hunger for many a mile, till at last he saw, a long way off, the fires of a caravan which had halted for the night. ali soon came up to them. he got down, from meek-eye, and leading him by the bridle, came towards a group of camel-drivers, who were sitting in a circle. he told them his story, and asked permission to join the party, and begged a little rice, for which he was ready to pay with the piece of money that his mother had given him when he left home. ali was kindly received by them, and allowed to partake of their supper. the men admired the courage with which he had saved his favorite camel. after supper ali soon closed his weary eyes, and slept soundly by the side of meek-eye. in the midst of a pleasant dream, ali was suddenly aroused by the sound of tinkling bells, and on waking up he saw that another caravan had arrived, which had come from the south. the merchants sat down to wait until their supper was brought to them, and a party of camel-drivers drew round the fire near which ali had been sleeping. they raked up its ashes, put on fresh fuel, and then prepared to boil their rice. what voice was that which roused ali just as he was falling asleep again? he listened, he started to his feet, he looked about him, and waited for a flash of flame from the fire to fall on the faces of the camel-drivers who stood around it. it came flickering up at first, and then all at once blazing out, flashed upon the camel-driver who stood stooping over it, and lighted up the face of ali's father! the father had waited at suez many days, wondering why ali did not come; and then, thinking there had been some mistake, determined to return home with the caravan, which was starting for gaza. we need hardly describe the joy of both father and son at thus meeting, nor the pleasure with which the father listened to the history of ali the fears and dangers to which his young son had been exposed. he was glad, too, that their precious meek-eye had been saved. there was no one in the whole caravan so happy as hassan, when, the next morning, he continued, his journey to gaza in company with meek-eye and his beloved son ali. * * * * * language lesson.--syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the following words: _suffered, permission, partake, merchants, beloved_. let pupils use other words to express the meaning of what is given below in dark type. ali _bore up bravely_. meek-eye _quickened his step_. _the sun_ was now _at its height_. write statements containing each of the following words, used in such a manner as to show their proper meaning: _herd, heard; need, knead; no, know; way, weigh; knew, new_. make out an _analysis_ of the two lessons, and use it in telling the story in your own words. * * * * * lesson xxiii. ob served', _saw; noticed_. trans par'ent, _clear; easily seen through_. ma te'ri al, _that of which any thing is made or to be made_. ob tained', _taken from; received_. gar'ments, _articles of clothing_. verd'ure, _any green growth_. a dorn', _dress with taste; beautify_. par tic'ular, _of an unusual kind_. va ri'e ty, _a number of different kinds_. del'i cate, _gentle; tender_. ca ressed', _treated with fondness_. * * * * * a queer people. one evening, as captain perry was sitting by the fireside at his home in liverpool, his children asked him to tell them a story. [illustration] "what shall it be about?" said the captain. "o," said harry, "tell us about other countries, and the curious people you have seen in them." "yes, yes!" exclaimed mary. "we were much interested, while you were away the last time, in reading 'gulliver's travels' and 'sindbad the sailor.'" "you have seen as wonderful things as they did, haven't you, father?" said harry. "no, my dears," said the captain. "i never met such wonderful people as they tell about, i assure you; nor have i seen the 'black loadstone mountain' or the 'valley of diamonds.'" "but," said mary, "you have seen a great many people, and their different manners and ways of living." "yes," said the captain, "and if it will interest you, i will tell you some of the curious things that i have observed." "pray, do so!" cried harry, as both the children drew close to him. "well, then," began the captain, "i was once in a country where it was very cold, and the poor people could scarcely keep themselves from starving. "they were clothed partly in the skins of beasts, made smooth and soft by some particular art; but chiefly in garments made from the outer covering of an animal cruelly stripped off its back while alive. "they lived in houses partly sunk below the ground. these houses were mostly built of stones or of earth hardened by fire. "the walls of the houses had holes to let in light; but to prevent the cold air and rain from coming in, they were covered with a sort of transparent stone, made of melted sand. "as wood was rather scarce, they used for fuel a certain kind of stone which they dug out of the earth, and which, when put among burning wood, catches fire and makes a bright flame." "dear me!" said harry. "what a wonderful stone! why didn't you bring a piece home with you, father?" "i have a piece, which i will show you some time," replied the captain. "but to go on with my story. "what these people eat is remarkable, too. some of the poor people eat fish which had been hung up and smoked until quite dry and hard, and along with it they eat the roots of plants, or coarse, black cake made of powdered seeds. "the rich people have a whiter kind of cake upon which they spread a greasy matter that is obtained from a large animal. they eat also the flesh of many birds and beasts when they can get it, and the leaves and other parts of a variety of vegetables--some raw and others cooked. "for drink they use the water in which certain dry leaves have been steeped. these leaves, i was told, came from a country a great distance away. "i was glad to leave this country because it was so very cold; but about six months after, i was obliged to go there again. what was my surprise to find that great changes had taken place! "the climate was mild and warm, and the country was full of beauty and verdure. the trees and shrubs bore a great variety of fruits, which, with other vegetable products, were used largely as food. "the people were gentle and civilized. their dress was varied. many wore cloth woven from a sort of wool grown in pods on bushes. "another singular material was a fine, glossy stuff used chiefly by the rich people. i was told that it was made out of the webs of caterpillars, which to me seemed quite wonderful, as it must have taken a great number of caterpillars to produce the large quantity of the stuff that i saw. "these people have queer ideas about their dress. the women wear strangely figured garments, and adorn their heads, like some indian nations, with feathers and other fanciful head-dresses. "one thing surprised me very much. they bring up in their houses an animal of the tiger species, having the same kind of teeth and claws as the tiger. "in spite of the natural fierceness of this little beast, it is played with and caressed by the most timid and delicate of their women and children." "i am sure i would not play with it," said harry. "you might get an ugly scratch, if you did," said the captain. "aha!" cried mary; "i've found you out: you have been telling us of our country and what is done at home all this while!" "but we don't burn stones, or eat grease and powdered seeds, or wear skins and caterpillars' webs, or play with tigers," said harry. "no?" said the captain. "pray, what is coal but a kind of stone; and is not butter, grease; and wheat, seeds; and leather, skins; and silk, the web of a kind of caterpillar; and may we not as well call a cat an animal of the tiger kind, as a tiger an animal of the cat kind?" "so, if you will remember what i have been describing, you will find that all the other wonderful things that i have told you of, are well known among ourselves." "i have told you the story to show that a foreigner might easily represent every thing among us as equally strange and wonderful, as we could with respect to his country." * * * * * directions for reading.--point out breathing-places in the last paragraph. name the _emphatic words_ in the last paragraph. pronounce carefully the following words: _vegetable, foreigner, beasts, products, across, again, also, apron_. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils express the meaning of what is given below in dark type, using a single word for each example. houses built of _earth hardened by fire_. the walls have _holes to let in the light_. they were covered with _a sort of transparent stone_. they drink _water in which dry leaves have been steeped_. many wore cloth woven from _a sort of wool grown in pods_. * * * * * lesson xxiv. lin'net, _a kind of bird_. com pare', _be equal; have similar appearance_. wor'ried, _troubled; anxious_. hum'ble, _meek; lowly_. mis'chiev ous, _full of mischief; troublesome_. grub, _dig up by the roots_. * * * * * the ill-natured brier little miss brier came out of the ground, she put out her thorns, and scratched ev'ry thing 'round. "i'll just try," said she, "how bad i can be; at pricking and scratching, there are few can match me." little miss brier was handsome and bright, her leaves were dark green, and her flowers pure white; but all who came nigh her were so worried by her, they'd go out of their way to keep clear of the brier. little miss brier was looking one day at her neighbor, the violet, over the way; "i wonder," said she, "that no one pets me, while all seem so glad little violet to see." a sober old linnet, who sat on a tree, heard the speech of the brier, and thus answered he: "'tis not that she's fair, for you may compare in beauty with even miss violet there; "but violet is always so pleasant and kind, so gentle in manner, so humble in mind, e'en the worms at her feet she would never ill-treat, and to bird, bee, and butterfly always is sweet." then the gardener's wife the pathway came down, and the mischievous brier caught hold of her gown; "o dear, what a tear! my gown's spoiled, i declare! that troublesome brier!--it has no business there; here, john, grub it up; throw it into the fire." and that was the end of the ill-natured brier. * * * * * directions for reading.--this lesson should be read in a spirited manner. it is suggested to vary the reading exercise by having one pupil read each stanza, and the class repeat it in concert. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils use other words to express the meaning of what is given below in dark type. there are few can _match_ me. they'd go out of their way to _keep clear of_ the brier. supply letters omitted from the following words: _they'd, gown's, e'en, 'round_. write the words in full. * * * * * lesson xxv. ply, _make regular journeys_. com'merce, _trade between places or peoples_. might'y, _of great power_. trav'erse, _pass over; cross_. re'al ize, _understand the truth of_. pro pel', _drive forward_. prop'erty, _any thing that belongs to a person_. or'chards, _numbers of fruit-trees_. im mense', _very large_. glit'ter ing, _sparkling with light_. * * * * * water. it is difficult to realize that nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth is water; yet it is a fact. think of the immense space covered by oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers, and how useful all this water is to mankind. sailing ships and steam-ships traverse the oceans and lakes. steam-boats ply along the rivers, carrying people and merchandise to and fro, going sometimes as far as three thousand miles from their starting point. it is by water that men float their rafts of logs or lumber to distant places. water turns the great wheels of many of our mills, and thus harnessed to mighty machines, does more work than thousands of men and horses. these machines produce paper, cloth, flour, lumber, and many other useful articles. when water is heated and turned into steam, it moves powerful engines. these engines propel our great steam-ships and steam-boats and drive machines of all kinds in mills and factories. many of you have seen water, clear and cool, trickling from the rocks in the side of a hill. this water first forms a spring. from this spring, the water escapes in a tiny stream, called a rivulet or creek, and flows along until it enters a river. many springs make many rivulets; many rivulets make large rivers. rivers sometimes receive such great quantities of water that they overflow their banks, and destroy much valuable property. this is called a freshet or a flood. many people who live near some of our rivers have lost their houses, furniture, and cattle, which were all swept away by these floods. in the winter of , the ohio river received so much water from the thousands of rivulets flowing into it, that it overflowed its banks. the result of this overflow was one of the greatest floods ever known, and many, no doubt, who read this, were there to see its terrible effects. but where does all this water come from? you may ask. let me see if i can explain it to you. the water in all these rivers, lakes, and oceans is constantly rising into the air in what is called moisture or vapor. we can not see this moisture, neither can we see the air. if the air is cold, moisture does not rise rapidly; but, as the air becomes heated, it takes up more moisture, so that the more heat there is in the air, the more moisture rises. heated air is light, and rises higher and higher from the ground, taking the moisture with it, until it reaches a point where it begins to cool. then as the air cools, the moisture forms into clouds, and these clouds are, in a certain sense, floating water. floating water! how can water float! do you ask? well, i will tell you. cold air is heavier than heated air, and until the clouds become so full of moisture as to return some of it to the earth, in the shape of rain, they float because they are lighter than the air underneath them. the winds, by the flapping of their mighty wings, drive the clouds over the land to the hills and the mountains and the thirsty fields; and there they pour their blessings on the farms, pastures, orchards, and the dusty roads and way-side grass, bringing greenness and gladness every-where. without water nothing would grow; every thing would dry up and wither. all animals drink water, for it forms a part of their blood and thus helps to keep them alive. all trees and plants drink it by drawing it through their roots or leaves, for it helps to form their sap. sometimes on a summer morning you will see drops of clear sparkling water on flowers and grass. to look at them you would think it had rained during the night; but, noticing that the ground is dry, you know that no rain has fallen. what then are these glittering drops of water? where do they come from? i will tell you. these drops are called dew. as night comes on, the grass and the leaves of flowers and plants become cool. when the warm air touches them, it becomes chilled, and as the air can not then carry so much moisture as before, it leaves some of its moisture on the flowers and grass. a moisture like dew sometimes collects in the house. did you ever observe it in drops on the outside of a pitcher of cold water? some people suppose that the water comes through the pitcher, but it does not. the water being cold makes the pitcher cold, and as the warm air of the room strikes it, a moisture like dew is left on the pitcher, in the same manner as dew is left on grass, leaves, and flowers. in cold weather, when the dew gathers on plants and flowers, it sometimes freezes and forms frost, and when the clouds throw off their moisture in rain drops, the rain becomes sleet, hail, or snow. so you see that dew, rain, frost, sleet, snow, and hail are only different forms of water. * * * * * lesson xxvi. treas'ure, _a large quantity of money; valuable things_. for'mer ly, _in time past; heretofore_. mod'er ate, _not great; limited in quantity_. or'phan, _a child whose father and mother are dead_. at tract'ive, _inviting; having power to draw toward_. em'er y, _a kind of hard, sharp sand_. ex treme', _last point or limit_. rub'bish, _things of no value_. fit'tings, _things needed in making an article ready for use_. * * * * * the hidden treasure. part i. on a pleasant street in the old town of fairfield, stands a neat, little cottage. this was formerly the home of mrs. reed, an old lady respected by her neighbors and loved by all the young people of the place. there was about mrs. reed a kindly manner which pleased all who knew her. although very poor, she took much interest in her young friends and tried to make them happy. mrs. reed had not always been poor. her husband when alive was supposed to be rich; but after his death, it was found that nothing was left to his widow but two small cottages. in one of these cottages, mrs. reed lived; the other, she rented. but the rent received was no more than enough to enable her to live with moderate comfort. she had little or nothing left with which to do for others. one cold winter morning, two persons were talking together in the cozy sitting-room of the cottage. one was mrs. reed, and the other, alice brown, a poor orphan girl, who lived with some distant relatives in fairfield. "you are very kind to come to see me so often, alice," said mrs. reed. "i wonder why you do; because there is nothing attractive here." "why, mrs. reed!" replied alice; "how can you talk so? are you not here? do i not always receive a kind word and a welcome smile from you?" "well, you know i love you, alice, and am always delighted to have you come," said mrs. reed; "i am sure that were it in my power to do so, i would have you here all the time. "i would like to give you books, have you attend school, and do every thing to make you happy. but alas! alice, you know i am too poor to do what i wish, and at times it makes me feel very sad." "o, indeed you are too good, mrs. reed! my greatest pleasure is to come and see you, and i hope you will always love me. "i wish i could stay here all day; but you know that the day after to-morrow will be christmas, and i must hurry home now, as auntie wants me to help her prepare for it. so good-by." "but, alice, you will come to see me christmas morning, will you not?" asked mrs. reed. "yes," replied alice, "for a little while." and with a kiss and another good-by, she left mrs. reed alone. "what a dear good girl she is," said mrs. reed to herself, as she watched alice tripping down the street toward her home. "she was so good to me last summer when i was ill! and here is christmas and i have no money with which to buy her a present. "o dear, dear! why was i left so poor! i am sure my husband had some money; what could he have done with it!" mrs. reed sat down in her rocking-chair and for a full half hour looked thoughtfully into the fire. starting up suddenly, she again exclaimed to herself: "i do really believe that if i go up into the garret, i can find, something for a christmas present, that will please alice. "i remember a curious old box that mr. reed had, that was sent to him from india. if i can find some bits of ribbon, and silk, i will line it and make it into a nice little work-box for alice." then mrs. reed climbed up the narrow stairway into the garret, and, after searching some time among the rubbish that lay around in all the nooks and corners, discovered the box. taking it down-stairs and finding some pieces of silk, she spent the rest of the day in making it into a work-box. she made a pretty needle-book, a tiny pincushion, and an emery bag like a big strawberry. then from her own scanty stock she added needles, pins, thread, and her only pair of small scissors, scoured to the last extreme of brightness. one thing only she had to buy--a thimble; and that she bought for a penny. the thimble was of brass and so bright that it was quite as handsome as gold. when full, the little box was very pretty. in the bottom lay a quilted lining, which had always been there, and upon which she had placed the fittings. * * * * * directions for reading.--the conversational parts of this lesson may be read as a dialogue by two pupils. which is the most _emphatic word_ in the following sentence? "o dear, dear! why was i left so poor!" point out the _emphatic words_ in the third paragraph of the lesson. * * * * * lesson xxvii. hand'y, _convenient; ready for use_. ad join'ing, _next to; neighboring_. sin cere'ly, _honestly; truly_. fort'u nate, _favored; lucky_. act'u al ly, _really; truly_. suf fi'cient, _enough; plenty_. carv'ings, _figures cut in wood or stone_. mys'ter y, _something entirely unknown_. thresh'old, _a piece of board which lies under a door_. tile, _a thin piece of baked clay_. ex am'ine, _look at with care_. * * * * * the hidden treasure. part ii. christmas morning came, and soon alice brown entered mrs. reed's cottage and received a warm welcome. "merry christmas! mrs. reed," said alice. "thank you, my dear," replied mrs. reed; "it will indeed be a 'merry christmas' if you can remain with me this forenoon." "well, i can stay till dinner-time," said alice. "see what a pretty present cousin john sent me!" and alice held up a new pocket-book. "that is very nice, alice," said mrs. reed; "now if you had some one to fill it with money, it would be better still." "yes, indeed," cried alice, laughingly; "but as i was not so fortunate as to receive any money, and have none of my own to put in it, the pocket-book is not likely to be worn out for a long time." "well, well, alice," replied mrs. reed, "it is always handy to have things in the house; for some time they may be needed. "excuse me a moment, alice," continued mrs. reed; "sit down here by the fire and warm yourself." alice took a seat by the fire and warmed her fingers; for, although it was a bright sunshiny day, it was very cold. mrs. reed stepped into the adjoining room, and with a light heart and an expression on her face that no one had seen for many a day, took up the little work-box she had prepared for alice. returning again to the sitting-room with the box in her hand, she approached alice and said; "here, my dear, is a little christmas present i have for you. i sincerely wish it were something better. it will be useful, i know, and i hope it will please you." "o how beautiful!" exclaimed alice, as she caught sight of the curious carvings on the outside of the box. "and a work-box, too!" she continued, as she took it in her hands and lifted the cover; "is it really for me?" "for no one else, i assure you," replied mrs. reed, as her face lighted up with joy, at seeing alice so happy. "o how can i ever thank you enough!" exclaimed alice, as she threw her arms around mrs. reed's neck and kissed her again and again. then taking a seat by mrs. reed, alice began to examine the contents of the new work-box, lifting out the articles one by one, and placing them in her lap. she then admired the beautiful lining which. mrs. reed had put in the box, asking her where she got such pretty pieces of silk. "that piece of silk at the top, alice, is a bit of my wedding-dress; and that on the sides, is a part of my wedding-sash. those remind me of happy days, alice. "i had plenty then: a good husband, a happy home, and never thought that i should come to poverty." "what is this from?" asked alice, touching the silk lining at the bottom of the box. "o that was always in the box, alice. it was there when my husband received it, and must be a piece of india silk. "is any thing the matter with it?" continued mrs. reed, as she noticed alice picking at one corner of it. "o nothing is the matter," replied alice; "it only seemed to me to be a little loose." "let me look," said mrs. reed. "i don't think it can be loose, or i should have seen it when i was lining the box." "it is actually quite loose," said alice, as she examined it further, and picked up one corner with, a pin; "and here is a little piece of paper underneath it." "that is remarkable," said mrs. reed, as she put on her spectacles and drew up her chair a little closer to alice. "and there is some writing on it too," said alice, as she drew it from its hiding-place and handed it to mrs. reed. "why, it's my husband's writing!" exclaimed mrs. reed, as she closely examined the faded letters. "what can it mean? i never saw it before. read it, alice; your eyes are younger than mine." alice read: "'look and ye shall find,' and underneath this," continued alice, "is a picture of a mantel-piece, and underneath that, it reads: 'a word to the wise is sufficient.'" mrs. reed again took the paper. her hand trembled and her face became a little pale. "alice," said she, "this is a picture of the old tile mantel-piece in the other room. there is some mystery about this. what can it mean?" "yes," said alice, "the tiles in that mantel have quotations on them." in an instant, alice was on her feet and sprung into the other room, leaving mrs. reed in a state of wonderment. hastily examining the tiles in the mantel, alice cried out: "o mrs. reed, do come! here is a tile with exactly the same words on it!" mrs. reed hurried into the room, and had scarcely passed the threshold, when the tile fell to the hearth and broke into a dozen pieces. * * * * * directions for reading.--point out breathing-places in the last paragraph. pronounce carefully the following words: _fortunate, adjoining, clothes, hearth, sitting-room, wedding-dress_. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils use other words to express the meaning of the following sentences. _alice received a warm welcome_. _mrs. reed stepped into the adjoining room with a light heart_. _her face lighted up with joy_. _those things remind me of happy days_. "_a word, to the wise is sufficient_." change the _statements_ given above to _questions_. change the following _exclamations_ to complete _statements_. do come! let me look! read it, alice! model.--see my pocket-book! = i wish you would look at my pocket-book. * * * * * lesson xxviii. be fall'en, _happened to_. thrust, _move suddenly or with force_. mis hap', _something which has occurred to cause pain or sorrow_. ex cit'ed ly, _in a very earnest manner_. min'gled, _joined closely; united_. le'gal ly, _as the law requires_. a bun'dant, _beyond one's need; plentiful_. com'fort a ble, _having everything needed to keep one from pain or want_. re la'tions, _the feelings or acts of people toward each other_. charm'ing, _very pleasant_. * * * * * the hidden treasure. part iii. "o what have i done! what have i done!" cried alice. "o mrs. reed, i'm so sorry--i have broken the tile!" "how did it happen, alice? was it loose?" "why yes," replied alice; "i put my hand on it, and thought it appeared to move a little. having my scissors with, me, i, through curiosity, ran the points in between that tile and the next one." "never mind, child," said mrs. reed kindly, seeing that alice was feeling sad over the mishap; "perhaps the tile can be mended--let us see." as they both stooped down to pick up the pieces, alice noticed that there was a hollow space back of where the tile had been, and that it contained something of a dingy white color. "o mrs. reed!" cried she; "there is something in there! see, it looks like a bag tied up! may i take it out?" mrs. reed turned deadly pale. "yes," she replied, scarcely knowing what she expected or dared hope. alice thrust her hand into the hole to pull the hag out, but as it was very old, it fell apart, and o wonder of wonders! as many as a hundred pieces of gold coin fell with a jingle on the hearth and rolled every way. "my husband's money!" exclaimed mrs. reed, as she leaned on alice to keep from falling. alice was nearly wild and talked like a crazy person. "o goody, goody!" she cried, clapping her hands and jumping up and down. "now you can have everything you want! you won't be poor any longer!" but mrs. reed was too much overcome to hear what alice said. [illustration] she could scarcely realize the good fortune that had so suddenly befallen her. presently, however, with the tenderness of a mother, she placed her arms around alice and said: "o you precious child! but for you, i should never have known this!" "and if you had not given me the work-box," said alice, "perhaps no one would ever have found it out. "but," continued she, excitedly, "let us see if there is any thing more in there." again reaching into the hole in the mantel-piece, she sprung back with a look of amazement that frightened mrs. reed. "why, alice, what is the matter?" inquired the old lady. "matter!" exclaimed alice. "why, dear me! mrs. reed, there are lots and lots of bags in there yet!" "is it possible!" said mrs. reed hoarsely. then reaching her hand into the hole, she drew out bag after bag, handling them very carefully, so that they would not fall to pieces as the first one had done. in the meantime alice had pushed a table up near the fire-place. the bags were emptied upon it, until the glittering gold made a heap that struck mrs. reed and alice with greater amazement than ever. "alice," said mrs. reed, "this is a blessing from heaven that i do not deserve. i can not tell you how thankful i am for it. my happiness now will be in doing for others." alice said nothing; her heart was too full. a look of sadness came over her face. she was wondering whether mrs. reed would continue to love her, and thinking, with a mingled feeling of fear and dread, that now her friend was rich, perhaps she, the poor orphan girl, might not be so welcome at the cottage as before. mrs. reed seemed to understand somewhat the nature of alice's thoughts. "cheer up, alice," said she; "this is not a time to be sad! come, help me put away this gold. "by the way, alice, now is the time to use your pocket-book; you know i told you it was handy to have things in the house, they might be needed," she continued, smilingly. "why, certainly, mrs. reed; do you want to borrow my pocket-book? here it is." "yes, my dear," replied mrs. reed, "i shall want a new one myself, and i want to see yours. i wonder how many pieces of gold it will hold." then mrs. reed crammed the pocket-book full of gold pieces. "there!" said she, handing it to alice; "that is the christmas present i wanted to give you this morning, but did not have it." "what! this for me! o no, no! i do not deserve it!" cried alice. "but you must take it, alice, and listen; for i have something to tell you. i want you to be my daughter now. i will have abundant means to make both of us comfortable and happy." "o mrs. reed," said alice, bursting into tears; "i would love to be your daughter, nothing could make me happier." in a very short time every thing was changed in the little cottage. mrs. reed had legally adopted alice as her daughter and was sending her to school. fresh paint, inside and out, and many new comforts, made the old house charming and bright. but nothing could change the happy relations between the two friends, and a more contented and cheerful household could not be found anywhere. * * * * * language lesson.--tell the story in your own words, using the points given in the following analysis.-- . mrs. reed's home. . her talk with alice. . mrs. reed prepares a present for alice. . alice receives the work-box. . what was found in it. . the broken tile and the discovery of the money. . what happened after that. * * * * * lesson xxix. dells, _small valleys_. bow'ers, _covered places made of boughs_. troupe, _a number of living beings; a company_. daf'fo dils, _yellow flowers_. sheen, _brightness; splendor_. sprite, _an unreal person_. sus pend'ed, _stopped for a time; hung_. va'ries, _is different; changes_. blue'bell, _a kind of flower_. ram'bling, _wandering_. rev'el, _play in a noisy manner_. * * * * * looking for the fairies. i've peeped in many a bluebell, and crept among the flowers, and hunted in the acorn cups, and in the woodland bowers; and shook the yellow daffodils, and searched the gardens round, a-looking for the little folk i never, never found. i've linger'd till the setting sun threw out a golden sheen, in hope to see a fairy troupe come dancing on the green; and marveled that they did not come to revel in the air, and wondered if they slept, and where their hiding-places were. i've wandered with a timid step beneath the moon's pale light, and every blazing dew-drop seemed to be a tiny sprite; and listened with suspended breath, among the grand, old trees, for fairy music floating soft upon the evening breeze. ah me! those pleasant, sunny days, in youthful fancies wild,-- rambling through the wooded dells, a careless, happy child! and now i sit and sigh to think age from childhood varies, and never more may we be found looking for the fairies. * * * * * directions for reading.--which one of the stanzas should be read more slowly than the others? point out the _emphatic words_ in the last four lines of the lesson. * * * * * language lesson.--which lines in each stanza end in similar sounds? let pupils explain the meaning of what is given below in dark type. i've hunted in the _acorn cups_. i've wandered with a _timid step_. _age from childhood varies._ * * * * * lesson xxx. poi'son ous, _likely to do great harm or injury_. sep'a rate, _apart from other things_. con di'tion, _state; situation_. nec'es sa ry, _really needed_. dis a gree'a ble, _very unpleasant_. sen'si ble, _wise; knowing what is proper_. ac cus'tomed, _being used to_. es pe'cial ly, _more than usual_. * * * * * air. we all know very well that we can not live without breathing. what we do not all know, or do not all think of, is that we want not only air, but good air. we are apt to take it for granted that any air will do for us; stale air, dirty air, even poisonous air. what makes the matter worse is, that we can not help spoiling air ourselves by the very act of breathing. if people are shut up in rooms where the bad air can not get out and the good air can not get in at all, they are sure to be made ill. some people in scotland thought they would have a merry christmas party, and invited their friends to come to a dance. as it was very cold weather, they shut all the doors and windows tight, and then they began to dance. it was a small room with a low ceiling, and there were thirty-six people dancing in it all night. by the time morning came the air was so bad that it was really like poison; and very soon seven of the poor dancers were seized with a terrible fever, and two of them actually died. the air we breathe out is different from the air we take in. we send away some things with our breath which were not in the air when we took it in. one of these is water. sometimes you can see this for yourself. on a cold, frosty day, you know we can see the clouds of steam coming out of our mouths. this steam is only very fine particles of water. in warm weather we do not see the steam, but the water is there all the same; if you will breathe on a looking-glass at any time, you will make it dim and damp directly with the water that is contained in your breath. we also breathe out animal matter, little particles of our own bodies just ready to decay. we can not see them, but they soon give the air a close, disagreeable smell. good air has no smell at all. and now i have something to say to you about the use of noses. i dare say you can not see much use in the sense of smell. seeing, hearing, touching, are very needful to us, we all know; but as to smelling, that does not seem to have any particular value. it is pleasant to smell a sweet rose or violet; and, i believe, smelling really forms a good part of what we call tasting. of all our senses, smell is the one that soonest gets out of practice. if people would always accustom themselves to use their noses, they never would consent to live in the horrid air they do. if you go from the fresh air into a close room, you will notice the smell at once. then, if you remain there, you will soon get accustomed to the smell and not notice it; but it will still be there, and will be doing you a great deal of harm. in good air there are, mainly, two sorts of gas. the first is a very lively sort of gas, called oxygen; it is very fond of joining itself with other things, and burning them, and things burn very fast indeed in oxygen. the second is a very slow, dull gas, called nitrogen; and nothing will burn in it at all. pure oxygen would be too active for us to live in, so it is mixed with nitrogen. when we breathe, the air goes down into our lungs, which are something like sponges, inside our chests. these sponges have in them an immense quantity of little blood-vessels, and great numbers of little air-vessels; so that the blood almost touches the air; there is only a very, very thin skin between them. through that skin, the blood sends away the waste and useless things it has collected from all parts of the body, and takes in the fresh oxygen which the body wants. you have often heard man's life compared to a candle. i will show you some ways in which they are much alike. when a candle or lamp burns, if we keep it from getting any new air, it soon uses all the lively gas, or oxygen, and then it goes out. this is easily shown by placing a glass jar over a lighted candle. if the candle gets only a little fresh air, it burns dim and weak. if we get only a little fresh air, we are sickly and weak. the candle makes another kind of gas. it is called carbonic acid gas, which, is unhealthy and not fit for breathing. the heat of our bodies also makes this gas, and we throw it off in our breath. oxygen and carbon, in a separate condition, make up a good part of our flesh, blood, and bones; but when they are joined together, and make carbonic acid gas, they are of no further use to us. you might go to a store and buy sand and sugar; but if they became mixed together as you brought them home, you would not be able to use either one of them, unless some clever fairy could pick them apart for you. you see now one great way of spoiling the air. how are we to get rid of this bad air, and obtain fresh air, without being too cold? in summer time this is quite simple, but in winter it is more difficult; because it is a very bad thing to be cold, and a thin, cold draught of air is especially bad. the bad air loaded with carbonic acid gas, when we first breathe it out, is warm. warm gases are much lighter than cold ones, therefore the bad air at first goes up to the ceiling. if there is an opening near the top of the room, the bad air goes out; but if there is no opening, it by and by grows cold and heavy, and comes down again. then we have to breathe it. if you open the window at the top, it will let out the bad air, and you will not feel a draught. it is not often so very cold that you cannot bear the window open, even a little way from the top, and that is the best way of airing a room. this is just as necessary by night as by day. people who shut in the bad air, and shut out the good air, all night long, can never expect to awake refreshed, feeling better for their sleep. what becomes of the carbonic acid gas which the body throws off through our breath? can any thing pick the carbon and oxygen in it apart, and make them fit for us to use again? yes. every plant, every green leaf, every blade of grass, does that for us. when the sun shines on them, they pick the carbon out and send back the oxygen for us to breathe. they keep the carbon and make that fit for us and animals to eat. the grass makes the carbon fit for sheep and cows, and then we eat their flesh or drink their milk; and the corn makes the carbon fit to eat; so do potatoes, and all the other vegetables and fruits which we eat. is not this a wonderful arrangement? but perhaps you think, considering what an amazing number of people there are in the world, besides all the animals--for all creatures that breathe, spoil the air just as we do--there can hardly be trees and plants enough to set all the air right again. round about cities and large towns there are certainly more people than there are trees, but in many other parts of the world there are a great many more trees than there are people. i have heard of forests in south america so thick and so large, that the monkeys might run along the tops of the trees for a hundred miles. so you see there are plenty of trees in the world to do the work. but then, how does all the bad air leave the towns and cities where men live, and get to the forests and meadows? the air is constantly moving about; rising and falling, sweeping this way or that way, and traveling from place to place. not only the little particles out of our breath, but any thing that gives the air any smell, does it some harm. even nice smells, like those of roses, are unhealthy, if shut up in a room for some time. dirty walls, ceilings, and floors give the air a musty, close, smell; so do dirty clothes, muddy boots, cooking, and washing. some of these ought not to be in the house at all; others remind us to open our windows wide. all the things i have been saying to you about pure air, apply still more to sick people than to healthy ones. * * * * * directions for reading.--read the following sentences carefully, and avoid running the words together. the good__air can not get__in at__all. we are__apt to take__it for granted. it__is sure to make them__ill. point out three other places in the lesson where similar errors are likely to occur. * * * * * language lesson.--add _ment_ to each of the following words, and then give the meaning of the words so formed. _arrange move settle encourage_ * * * * * lesson xxxi. dis tinct'ly, _clearly; plainly_. a roused', _wakened_. re ced'ing, _going backward or away from_ vig'i lant, _watchful; careful_. ex haust'ed, _tired out with work_. pre ced'ing, _going before_. fort'night, _two weeks' time_. con vul'sive, _irregular in movement_. tar'ried, _delayed; remained_. grad'u al ly, _step by step; slowly_. * * * * * a timely rescue. it was in the month of february, , a bright moonlight night, and extremely cold, that the little brig i commanded lay quietly at her anchors inside the bay. we had had a hard time of it, beating about for eleven days, with cutting north-easters blowing, and snow and sleet falling for the greater part of the time. when at length we made the port, all hands were almost exhausted, and we could not have held out two days longer without relief. "a bitter cold night, mr. larkin," i said to my mate, as i tarried for a moment on deck to finish my pipe. "the tide is running out swift and strong; it will be well to keep a sharp look-out for this floating ice, mr. larkin." "ay, ay, sir," answered the mate, and i went below. two hours afterwards i was aroused from a sound sleep by the vigilant officer. "excuse me for disturbing you, captain," said he, as he detected an expression of vexation on my face; "but i wish you would turn out, and come on deck as soon as possible." "why--what's the matter, mr. larkin?" "why, sir, i have been watching a cake of ice that swept by at a little distance a moment ago; i saw something black upon it--something that i thought moved." we were on deck before either spoke another word. the mate pointed out, with no little difficulty, the cake of ice floating off to leeward, and its white, glittering surface was broken by a black spot. "get me a spy-glass, mr. larkin--the moon will be out of that cloud in a moment, and then we can see distinctly." i kept my eye on the receding mass of ice, while the moon was slowly working its way through a heavy bank of clouds. the mate stood by with a spy-glass. when the full light fell at last upon the water, i put the glass to my eye. one glance was enough.. "forward, there!" i shouted at the top of my voice; and with, one bound i readied the main hatch, and began to clear away the ship's cutter. mr. larkin had received the glass from my hand to take a look for himself. "o, pitiful sight!" he said in a whisper, as he set to work to aid me in getting out the boat; "there are two children on that cake of ice!" in a very short space of time we launched the cutter, into which mr. larkin and myself jumped, followed by two men, who took the oars. i held the tiller, and the mate sat beside me. "do you see that cake of ice with something black upon it, lads?" i cried; "put me alongside of that, and i will give you a month's extra wages when you are paid off." the men were worn out by the hard duty of the preceding fortnight; and, though they did their best, the boat made little more way than the tide. this was a long chase; and mr. larkin, who was suffering as he saw how little we gained, cried out-- "pull, lads--i'll double the captain's prize. pull, lads, for the sake of mercy, pull!" a convulsive effort at the oars told how willing the men were to obey, but their strength was gone. one of the poor fellows splashed us twice in recovering his oar, and then gave out; the other was nearly as far gone. mr. larkin sprung forward and seized the deserted oar. "lie down in the bottom of the boat," said he to the man; "and, captain, take the other oar; we must row for ourselves." i took the second man's place. larkin had stripped to his guernsey shirt; as he pulled the bow i waited the signal stroke. it came gently, but firmly; and the next moment we were pulling a long, steady stroke, gradually increasing in rapidity until the wood seemed to smoke in the oar-locks. we kept time with each other by our long, deep breathing. such a pull! at every stroke the boat shot ahead like an arrow. thus we worked at the oars for fifteen minutes--it seemed to me as many hours. "have we almost come to it, mr. larkin?" i asked. "almost, captain,--don't give up: for the love of our dear little ones at home, don't give up, captain," replied larkin. the oars flashed as the blades turned up to the moonlight. the men who plied them were fathers, and had fathers' hearts; the strength which nerved them at that moment was more than human. suddenly mr. larkin stopped pulling, and my heart for a moment almost ceased its beating; for the terrible thought that he had given out crossed my mind. but i was quickly reassured by his saying-- "gently, captain, gently--a stroke or two more--there, that will do"--and the next moment the boat's side came in contact with something. larkin sprung from the boat upon the ice. i started up, and, calling upon the men to make fast the boat to the ice, followed. we ran to the dark spot in the centre of the mass, and found two little boys--the head of the smaller nestling in the bosom of the larger. both were fast asleep! they were benumbed with cold, and would surely have frozen to death, but for our timely rescue. mr. larkin grasped one of the lads, cut off his shoes, tore off his jacket; and then, loosening his own garments to the skin, placed the chilled child in contact with his own warm body, carefully wrapping over him his great-coat. i did the same with the other child; and we then returned to the boat; and the men having partly recovered, pulled slowly back. the children, as we learned when we afterwards had the delight of returning them to their parents, were playing on the ice, and had ventured on the cake. a movement of the tide set the ice in motion, and the little fellows were borne away on that cold night, and would certainly have perished, had not mr. larkin seen them as the ice was sweeping out to sea. "how do you feel?" i said to the mate, the next morning after this adventure. "a little stiff in the arms, captain," the noble fellow replied, while the big tears of grateful happiness gushed from his eyes--"a little stiff in the arms, captain, but very easy here," and he laid his hand on his manly heart. * * * * * language lesson.--change the following _commands_ to _statements_. take the other oar. don't give up! give the meaning of the word _lads_ in the third and fourth lines of page , and in the fourth line of page .[ ] make out an _analysis_ of the lesson, and use it in telling the story in your own words. [ ] see lesson xxxi. * * * * * lesson xxxii. re'gion, _place; space_. furze, _a thorny shrub with yellow flowers_. list'eth, _wishes; pleases_. mirth, _joy; fun_. boon, _gay; merry_. shaft, _an arrow; the stem of an arrow_. up borne', _held or borne up_. crest'ing, _touching the tops of_. * * * * * birds in summer. how pleasant the life of a bird must be, flitting about in each leafy tree;-- in the leafy trees so broad and tall, like a green and beautiful palace hall, with its airy chambers, light and boon, that open to sun, and stars, and moon; that open unto the bright blue sky, and the frolicsome winds, as they wander by! [illustration] they have left their nests in the forest bough; those homes of delight they need not now; and the young and old they wander out, and traverse their green world round about; and hark! at the top of this leafy hall, how, one to the other, they lovingly call: "come up, come up!" they seem to say, "where the topmost twigs in the breezes play! "come up, come up, for the world is fair, where the merry leaves dance in the summer air!" and the birds below give back the cry, "we come, we come to the branches high!" how pleasant the life of the birds must be, living in love in a leafy tree; and away through the air what joy to go, and to look on the green, bright earth below! how pleasant the life of a bird must be, skimming about on the breezy sea, cresting the billows like silvery foam, and then wheeling away to its cliff-built home! what joy it must be to sail, upborne by a strong, free wing, through the rosy morn, to meet the young sun, face to face, and pierce, like a shaft, the boundless space! how pleasant the life of a bird must be, wherever it listeth there to flee: to go, when a joyful fancy calls, dashing down, 'mong the waterfalls; then wheeling about, with its mates at play, above and below, and among the spray, hither and thither, with screams as wild as the laughing mirth of a rosy child! what a joy it must be, like a living breeze, to flutter among the flowering trees; lightly to soar, and to see beneath, the wastes of the blossoming purple heath, and the yellow furze, like fields of gold, that gladden some fairy region old. on mountain tops, on the billowy sea, on the leafy stems of the forest tree, how pleasant the life of a bird must be! * * * * * directions for reading.--the words of the first line of the poem, when repeated on pages and , should be slightly emphasized.[ ] point out the lines on page which would be joined in reading. let the class read one or more stanzas of the poem in concert. [ ] this lesson, lesson xxxii. * * * * * lesson xxxiii. stroll'ing, _wandering on foot_. quaint, _unusual; curious looking_. con sult'ed, _asked advice of_. roy'al, _belonging to a king or a queen_. en ter tain', _receive and care for_. court'esy, _politeness of manners_. bod'ice, _an article of clothing_. loy'al ty, _love of one's country or ruler_. a miss', _out of the way; wrong_. tri'fles, _articles small in size or value_. mut'tered, _said in a low voice_. ad mis'sion, _permission to enter_. * * * * * true courtesy. part i. prince george, the husband of queen anne of england, one time visited the town of bristol, having with him as a companion, an officer of his household. while strolling about the town, looking at the people and the quaint old buildings, they stepped into the exchange, where all the great merchants of the town had come together doing business. prince george walked about, talking quite freely, first to one and then to another. as the towns-people had not expected him, no preparation had been made to receive him with honor; and the merchants stood in little groups, and consulted together with, a look of anxiety upon their faces. "what is to be done?" asked one. "i do not know," replied another. "if his royal highness does not give us notice of his coming, how can we entertain him in a proper manner?" "would it be well to ask him to come to one of our homes?" inquired a third. "no, no!" cried another. "we could not ask him to partake of our humble fare, or even come to our homes, after the splendor to which he has been accustomed. for my part, i shall go home to dinner." "and i also," said the first one. "i do not care to remain here, and stare at the prince, when we have nothing to offer." then one by one, the merchants slipped away, afraid or ashamed to ask the great prince to their homes. prince george and the officer wondered at seeing the merchants disappear. at last there was but one man left, and as he walked toward the prince, he bowed low, and said-- "excuse me, sir; are you the husband of our queen anne, as folks here say you are?" "yes, i am," was the answer; "and have come for a few hours to see the sights of the good town of bristol." "sir," said the man, "i have seen with much distress that none of our great merchants have invited you to their homes. think not, sir, that it is because they are wanting in love and loyalty. they doubtless were all afraid to ask one so high as yourself to dine with them. "i am one john duddlestone, sir, only a bodice-maker, and i pray you not to take it amiss if i ask you and the gentleman who is with, you, to come to my humble home, where you will be most welcome." "indeed," answered the prince, laughing, "i am only too delighted to accept your kind invitation, and i thank you for it very heartily. if you lead the way, we will follow at once." so prince george, the officer, and duddlestone, passed out of the exchange together. "ours is but humble fare," said duddlestone; "for, sir, i can offer you only roast beef and plum-pudding." "very good, very good indeed!" exclaimed the prince; "it is food to which i bring a hearty appetite." they stopped before a small house. john pulled the latch, and, walking in, looked for his wife; but she was upstairs. "here, wife, wife!" he called in a loud whisper, as he put his head up the narrow staircase; "put on a clean apron, and make haste and come down, for the queen's husband and a soldier-gentleman have come to dine with, us." as you may think, mrs. duddlestone was strangely surprised at the news; but she did not become excited; she very seldom did, i believe. "ay, ay!" she called. "i'm coming;" and then muttered, "the queen's husband! the queen's husband! sure, that can never be--however, i'll go down and see." she ran to her closet, and pulled out a nice, clean apron and cap, and tied, the one round her waist, and the other round her comely face, saying all the time, "dear me, dear me, to think of it!" and away she ran down stairs, where stood her husband and the two gentlemen. the good woman bowed low, first to one and then to the other. "indeed, but i'm proud," she said, turning to prince george, "to welcome you to our home. 'tis but poor and humble, but we shall think more of it after this. i'll hurry and get dinner at once. i dare say you are hungry, gentlemen." prince george laughed gayly, as he thanked her for her kind welcome, and sat down. the table was soon spread, and the prince ate well, and appeared to enjoy himself so much, that mrs. duddlestone could scarcely believe he had always been accustomed to lords and ladies and footmen, and had never before sat down in such an humble way. prince george inquired about their business and pleasures. "do you never come up to london?" he asked; "i think you would find it worth your while to take a holiday some time, and see the great city." "ah well," said mrs. duddlestone, "if that is not just the thing i long for. i've never been yet, nor am i likely to go, but john has been once or twice." "and why, john, have you never taken your wife as well, to see the great sights?" "well, to say the truth," answered john, "i do not go to see the sights; for though i've been two or three times, i don't think i've seen any. "i must needs go sometimes to buy whalebone, and other trifles which i must have for my business here. so i just go and come back, and meddle with none." "well, well," said the prince, "the next time you come to london, you must bring your wife with you, and pay me a visit." mrs. duddlestone clasped her fat little hands with delight. "and shall i see the queen?" she exclaimed. "and see both the queen and myself," answered the prince. "come, john, say you will do so!" "surely, sir," said john, "i should like to give the good woman a bit of pleasure in that way, but your grand servants would shut the doors before us, and never let us in, perhaps." "i can soon set that right!" and taking a card from his pocket, prince george wrote a few words on it, and gave it to them. "that will gain you ready admission," he said, "and now i must leave you. next time we meet, i shall entertain and care for you. for the present, i thank you for your kind welcome and good dinner, which i have heartily enjoyed." then rising, he and the officer bade farewell to the good people and took their leave. * * * * * language lesson--let pupils use other words to express what is given below in dark type. i _must needs go_. indeed, _but i'm proud_. ours is _but humble fare_. he _pulled the latch_. so i _meddle with none_. to see _the great sights_. notes.--queen anne ruled over england from to . royal highness is a title belonging to all persons in a royal family. * * * * * lesson xxxiv. de sired', _asked; expressed a wish_. as sem'bled, _come together_. in tro duce', _make known_. sum'moned, _called_. knight, _a man of noble position_. grat'i tude, _thankfulness_. el'e gant, _beautiful; handsome_. pos sess'ing, _having; holding_. dis play', _a grand show_. e vent', _anything that takes place_. * * * * * true courtesy. part ii. it was some weeks later that john duddlestone found his stock of whalebone was growing low. "wife," said he, "the whalebone's nearly gone, and i must have some more at once." "surely, john, i know well it's nearly gone!" she answered. "haven't i watched every bit as you've used it? and haven't i pretty near cried to see it go so slowly?" "pooh! you foolish woman!" he cried. "but, john, you'll take me, and go to see the king and queen?" she inquired. "why, you silly woman, do you think i should leave you behind, when i know you're nearly crazed to go?" "o john, john, you dear, good man! i've mended all my dresses, and made myself trim and neat. i've seen to your coats; and all's done; and i feel as if i could scarcely live till i see the queen." "you'd best keep alive," said her husband; "and if all goes well we'll start by the coach on monday." monday was as lovely a day as heart could wish; and john and his wife walked down the bristol streets to the public-house from which the coach was to start. it was a great event in mrs. duddlestone's life, for she had never been beyond her own town, except for a drive into the country in a neighbor's cart. they were quiet people; but it had got about the town, that they were going to london to visit the queen, and numbers came out to see them go. perhaps some of the great merchants wished they had been simple and humble enough to offer to entertain prince george when he had visited their town. they journeyed straight to london, where john bought his whalebone, and then found their way to st. james' palace, where, presenting the prince's card, they gained ready admittance. they were shown into a room, more beautiful than any that they had ever seen. very shortly the door opened, and the well-remembered face of their guest appeared. almost before he had greeted them, a quiet-looking lady followed him, and came smilingly to greet them. "this is the queen," said prince george; and then, turning to her, he added, "these are the good people who showed me such kindness in bristol." the queen was so gentle and courteous that neither john nor his wife felt confused in her presence. she talked kindly to them, asking after their trade, and how they had fared in their journey. she then asked them to dine with her that evening, and said dresses would be provided for them, so that they should not feel strange by seeing that they were dressed differently from all her other guests. she then called an attendant, and desired that refreshment should be given them, and that they should be well cared for, and shown all that might interest them until dinner time. it was a long, wonderful day to them, as they walked about from place to place. before dinner they were taken to the room that was prepared for them, and there they found elegant court dresses of purple velvet ready to put on. "surely, john, they can not be for us!" cried mrs. duddlestone. "yes, but they must be! did not the queen say she would give us dresses? and do not these dresses look as if they had been given by a queen?" "john, i shall feel very strange before all the grand ladies!" "then you need not, wife, for the queen and prince will be there; and the others will not trouble you; but this is a queer dress. it's like being somebody else." and very queer they felt, as for the first time they walked down the grand stairs, in such, splendid dresses, to dine at the queen's table, with the queen's servants to wait on them. "you must go first, john," said his wife, for shyness came over her. "be not so foolish, wife," whispered john; and, though feeling rather awkward in his new dress, he walked simply forward, as he might have done in a friend's house. the queen met them at the door, and, turning to her other guests, who were assembled, she said, "gentlemen, i have to introduce to you, with great pleasure, the most loyal people in the town of bristol." at these words they all rose and bowed low, while john and his wife did the same, and then sat down, and ate a good dinner. after the dinner was over, the prince summoned john duddlestone to the queen. at her command john knelt before her, and she laid a sword lightly on his shoulder, with the words, "rise up, sir john duddlestone"; and the simple, kind-hearted bodice-maker of bristol rose up a knight. his wife stood by, watching with eagerness, and could hardly believe that from plain mistress duddlestone she had become lady duddlestone. she would, have been very proud if the queen had laid the sword upon her also; but she heard that was not needed. however, she was made very happy by being called to the queen's side. "lady duddlestone," said her majesty, "allow me to present you with my gold watch, in remembrance of your visit to st. james' palace, and of the prince's visit to bristol, which led to our knowing two such loyal and courteous subjects." lady duddlestone bowed lower and lower, almost unable to find any words in which to express her gratitude. a gold watch! was it possible? watches were not common in those times. she had heard of watches, and had even seen some; but had never dreamt of possessing one. such a big beauty it was! she was glad to fall back behind the other guests, and get time to think quietly, and realize that all was true, and not a dream from which she would wake, and find herself in her little attic bed-room at bristol. queen anne then spoke to sir john, offering to give him a position under government; but he begged to be excused. "it would be strange, your majesty, very strange, up in london, and my work at bristol suits me far the best. we want for nothing, and should never feel so well and home-like as in our little house at bristol." the queen understood him, and did not press him; and in another day or two the couple were again on their way home. "you're glad, wife, that we're going home?" john asked; "and you think i did well not to take some office in london?" "well! you could have clone no better. it's been grand to see, and grand to hear; but it would be very strange and uncomfortable to live always like that, and i'll be right glad to be back once more. "i'm more than proud of it all. but i should never like our own room, in which prince george sat so home-like with us, to belong to another." "no, no--we will keep our own snug home," replied john with earnestness. and so they did, living on quietly as of old; and the only display ever made by lady duddlestone was, that whenever she went to church or to market, she always wore the queen's big gold watch. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils use other words to express the meaning of what is given below in dark type. you'd _best keep_ alive. it's been _grand_ to see. _then you need not_. you're _nearly crazed to go_. _attendant_ is made up of two parts--the stem, _attend_, and the ending, _ant_ (meaning one who). the meaning of the word _attendant_ is _one who attends_. make out an _analysis_ of the last two lessons, and use it in telling the story in your own words. * * * * * lesson xxxv. pre sume', _suppose; think without being sure_. mus'cles, _those parts of the body which give us motion, and by which we exert our strength_. ex tent', _space; distance_. or'di na ry, _common; usual_. knowl'edge, _that which is known through study_. de gree', _measure, as of space or time_. spent, _used up; exhausted_. snapped, _broken off_. de tached', _taken away from_. * * * * * why an apple falls. "father," said lucy, "i have been reading to-day that sir isaac newton was led to make a great discovery, by seeing an apple fall from a tree. what was there wonderful about the apple falling?" "nothing very wonderful in that," replied her father; "but it set him to thinking of what made it fall." "why, i could have told him that," said lucy; "because the stem snapped and there was nothing to support it." "and what then?" asked her father. "why, then, of course it must fall." "ah!" said her father, "that is the point: why must it fall?" "i am sure i don't know," said lucy. "i presume it was because there was nothing to keep it up." "well, lucy, suppose there was not--does it follow that it must come to the ground?" "yes, certainly," replied lucy, wonderingly. "let us see," said her father; "but first answer this question: what is an animate object?" "any thing that has animal life, and power to move at will," replied lucy. "very good," said her father; "now, what is an inanimate object?" "any thing that does not possess animal life, or can not move at will." "very good again," said her father. "now an apple is, of course, an inanimate object; and therefore it could not move itself, and sir isaac newton thought that he would try to find out what power moved it." "well, then," said lucy; "did he find that the apple fell, because it was forced to fall?" "yes," replied her father; "he found that there was some force outside of the apple itself that acted upon it, otherwise it would have remained forever where it was, no matter if it were detached from the tree." "would it, indeed?" asked lucy. "yes, without doubt," replied her father, "for there are only two ways in which it could be moved--by its own power of motion, or the power of something else moving it. now the first power, you know it does not have; so the cause of its motion must be the second." "but every thing falls to the ground as well as an apple, when there is nothing to keep it up," said lucy. "true. there must therefore be some power or force which causes things to fall," said her father. "and what is it?" asked lucy. "if things away from the earth can not move themselves to it," said her father, "there can be no other cause of their falling than that the earth pulls them." "but," said lucy, "the earth is no more animate than they are; so how can it pull?" "that is not an ordinary question, but i will try an explanation," said her father. "sir isaac newton discovered that there was a law in nature called attraction, and that all bodies exert this force upon each other. the greater the body, the greater is its power of attraction. "now, the earth is an immense mass of matter, with which nothing near it can compare in size. it draws therefore with mighty force all things within its reach, which is the cause of their falling. do you understand this?" "i think that i do," said lucy; "the earth is like a great magnet." "yes," said her father; "but the attraction of the magnet is of a particular kind and is only over iron, while the attraction of the earth acts upon every thing alike." "then it is pulling you and me at this moment!" said lucy. "certainly it is," replied her father; "and as i am the larger, it is pulling me with more force than it is pulling you. this attraction is what gives every thing weight. "if i lift up any thing, i am acting against this force, for which reason the article seems heavy; and the more matter it contains, the greater is the force of attraction and the heavier it appears to me." "then," said lucy, "if this attraction is so powerful, why do we not stick to the ground?" "because," replied her father, "we are animate beings, and have the power of motion, by which, to a limited degree, we overcome the attraction of the earth." "well then, father," said lucy, "if our power of motion can overcome the attraction, why can not we jump a mile high as well as a foot?" "because," replied her father, "as i said before, we can only overcome the attraction to a certain extent. as soon as the force our muscles give to the jump is spent, the attraction of the earth pulls us back." "did sir isaac newton think of all these things, because he saw the apple fall?" inquired lucy. "yes; of all these and many more. he was a man of great knowledge. the name by which the force he discovered is generally known, is the attraction of gravitation, and some time you will learn how this force keeps the earth, and the sun, moon, and stars, all in their places." * * * * * lesson xxxvi. en'vy, _wish one's self in another's place_. doffed, _took off, as an article of dress_. blithe, _very happy; gay_. fee, _what is received as pay for service done_. boast, _object of pride_. quoth, _spoke_. hale, _in good health; strong_. * * * * * the miller of the dee. there dwelt a miller, hale and bold, beside the river dee; he worked and sang from morn till night-- no lark so blithe as he; and this the burden of his song forever used to be: "i envy nobody--no, not i, and nobody envies me!" "thou'rt wrong, my friend," said good king hal; "as wrong as wrong can be; for could my heart be light as thine, i'd gladly change with thee. and tell me now, what makes thee sing, with voice so loud and free. while i am sad, though i'm a king, beside the river dee?" the miller smiled and doffed his cap: "i earn my bread," quoth he; "i love my wife, i love my friend, i love my children three; i owe no penny i can not pay; i thank the river dee, that turns the mill that grinds the corn that feeds my babes and me." "good friend," said hal, and sighed the while, "farewell! and happy be! but say no more, if thou'dst be true, that no one envies thee. thy mealy cap is worth my crown; thy mill, my kingdom's fee; such men as thou are england's boast, o miller of the dee!" * * * * * directions for reading.--in the second stanza of the lesson, _wrong_ becomes very _emphatic_ on account of _repetition_ (being repeated a number of times). _my_ and _thine_, in the same stanza, are _emphatic_ on account of _contrast_ (contrary meaning of the words). point out an example of _emphasis_ by _repetition_, and an example of _emphasis_ by _contrast_, in the third stanza. * * * * * language lesson.--hal = harry = henry. let pupils place _un_ before each of the following words, and give their meaning. changed burdened envied * * * * * lesson xxxvii. fero'cious, _savage; fierce_. rosette', _an article made to resemble a rose_. aban'doned, _left forever; given up_. encoun'ter, _meet face to face_. in'fluence, _power over others_. keen, _sharp; piercing_. reputa'tion, _what is known of a person_. wit'ness, _see or know by personal presence_. trail, _track; footsteps_. alert', _on the watch; careful_. * * * * * the jaguar. the jaguar, or as he is sometimes called, the american tiger, is the largest and most ferocious of the cat family found on this continent. some jaguars have been seen equal in size to the asiatic tiger; but in most cases the american, animal is smaller. he is strong enough, however, to drag a horse or an ox to his den--sometimes to a long distance; and this feat has been frequently observed. the jaguar is found in all the tropical parts of north and south america. while he bears a considerable likeness to the tiger, both in shape and habits, the markings of his skin are quite different. instead of being striped like the tiger, the skin of the jaguar is beautifully spotted. each spot resembles a rosette, and consists of a black ring with a single dark-colored spot in the middle. jaguars are not always of the same color; some have skins of an orange color, and these are the most beautiful. others are lighter colored; and some few have been seen that were very nearly white. there, is a "black jaguar," which is thought to be of a different species. it is larger and fiercer than the other kinds, and is found only in south america. this animal is more dreaded by the inhabitants than the other kinds and is said always to attack man wherever it may encounter him. all the other beasts fear it. its roar produces terror and confusion among them and causes them to flee in every direction. it is never heard by the natives without a feeling of fear, and no wonder; for a year does not pass without a number of these people falling victims to its ferocity. it is difficult for one living in a country where such fierce animals are unknown, to believe that they have an influence over man, to such an extent as to prevent his settling in a particular place; yet such is the fact. in many parts of south america, not only plantations, but whole villages, have been abandoned solely from fear of the jaguars. there are men, however, who can deal single-handed with the jaguar; and who do not fear to attack the brute in its own haunts. they do not trust to fire-arms, but to a sharp spear. on their left arm they carry a strong shield. this shield is held forward and is usually seized by the jaguar. while it is busied with this, the hunter thrusts at the animal with his sharp spear, and generally with deadly effect. a traveler in south america relates the following incident as having come under his observation: "desiring to witness a jaguar hunt, i employed two well-known indian hunters, and set out for the forest. the names of these hunters were niño and guapo. both of them had long been accustomed to hunt the jaguar, and i felt perfectly safe in their company. "guapo, the larger of the two, was a man of wonderful muscular power, and had the reputation of having at one time killed a black jaguar with only a stout club. "when all the preparations had been made for our start, we looked as if we might capture all the jaguars that came in our way. "some hours after we had entered the forest, the quick eye of guapo discovered the trail of a large jaguar which he assured me was recently made. "stopping for a moment, both guapo and niño looked carefully about in every direction, and listened attentively, in order that they might see or hear the animal if he were near. "then motioning me to follow at a little distance behind them, they stepped off quietly in the direction of the trail, guapo being about thirty feet in advance of niño. "we went forward in this manner several hundred yards, not a word being spoken, and the keen eyes of both the hunters constantly on the alert. "guapo, in the meantime, who seemed to have no fear and became more and more excited as he approached to where he thought the animal must be, had increased the distance between himself and niño considerably. [illustration] "suddenly a terrific roar, and at the same time a cry of pain and a shout, warned us that guapo had met the jaguar. "niño bounded forward, and i followed as quickly as i could. a fearful sight met our eyes! "the jaguar, which had been hiding in the branches of a large tree, had sprung down upon guapo and fastened its terrible teeth in his thigh. "with a shout filled with fury and determination, niño at once sprung forward and savagely attacked the beast with his spear. "this caused the jaguar to let go its hold of guapo, who, made furious from the pain of the wound the animal had given him, turned, and with his spear attacked it with a mad ferocity as savage as that of the beast itself. "in a moment all was over, and the jaguar lay dead at our feet. i dressed guapo's wound the best i could, while niño took the skin from the body of the animal, which proved to be nearly eight feet long. "we returned very slowly to the village with the wounded man and our prize. in a few weeks guapo had entirely recovered from his wounds, and was ready for another hunt." * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils pronounce in concert, and singly, the following words: _o, most, ferocious, only, whole, hold, slowly, over, both, roar_. what tone of voice should be used in reading this lesson? * * * * * language lesson.--place _re_ before each of the following words, and then give the meaning of each. turned told join capture call * * * * * lesson xxxviii. dikes, _high banks of earth_. con'tra ry, _quite different from what is usual_. dis as'trous, _causing great loss or suffering_. keels, _strong timbers extending along the bottom of boats_. stork, _a kind of bird_. bus'tle, _quick and excited motion_. mire, _soft and wet earth_. scorn'ing, _turning from any thing as if of no value_. sat'u rat ed, _wet through and through_. moored, _tied fast, as a ship to land_. slouched, _hung down_. mim'ic, _copied in a smaller form_. * * * * * holland. part i. holland is one of the queerest countries under the sun. it should be called odd-land, or contrary-land; for, in nearly every thing, it is different from other parts of the world. in the first place, a large portion of the country is lower than the level of the sea. great dikes have been built at a heavy cost of money and labor, to keep the ocean where it belongs. on certain parts of the coast it sometimes leans with all its weight against the land, and it is as much as the poor country can do to stand the pressure. sometimes the dikes give way, or spring a leak, and the most disastrous results follow. they are high and wide, and the tops of some of them are covered with buildings and trees. they have even fine public roads upon them, from which horses may look down upon wayside cottages. often the keels of floating ships are higher than the roofs of the dwellings. the stork, on the house-peak, may feel that her nest is lifted far out of danger, but the croaking frog in the neighboring bulrushes is nearer the stars than she. water-bugs dart backward and forward above the heads of the chimney swallows; and willow-trees seem drooping with shame, because they can not reach so high as the reeds near by. ditches, canals, ponds, rivers, and lakes are every-where to be seen. high, but not dry, they shine in the sunlight, catching nearly all the bustle and the business, quite scorning the tame fields, stretching damply beside them. one is tempted to ask: "which is holland--the shores or the water?" the very verdure that should be confined to the land has made a mistake and settled upon the fish ponds. in fact the entire country is a kind of saturated sponge, or, as the english poet butler called it-- "a land that rides at anchor, and is moored, in which they do not live, but go aboard." persons are born, live, and die, and even have their gardens on canal-boats. farmhouses, with roofs like great slouched hats pulled over their eyes, stand on wooden legs, with a tucked up sort of air, as if to say, "we intend to keep dry if we can." even the horses wear a wide stool on each hoof to lift them out of the mire. it is a glorious country in summer for bare-footed girls and boys. such wadings! such mimic ship sailing! such rowing, fishing, and swimming! only think of a chain of puddles where one can launch chip boats all day long, and never make a return trip! but enough. a full recital would set all young america rushing in a body toward the zuyder zee. * * * * * directions for reading.--in reading the first line of page , there will be a slight rising of the voice after each of the words, _ditches', canals', ponds', rivers'_, and a slight falling of the voice after _lakes'_.[ ] this rising or falling of the voice is called _inflection_, and may be indicated as above. language lesson.--what is the meaning of "young america"? [ ] see paragraph . * * * * * lesson xxxix. freight, _cargo; that which forms a load_. convey'ance, _the act of carrying_. jum'ble, _a number of things crowded together without order_. bobbed, _cut off short_. bewil'dering, _confusing_. gild'ed, _covered with a thin, surface of gold_. yoked, _joined together with harness_. rare'ly, _not often_. impris'oned, _shut up or confined, as in a prison_. clat'tering, _making a loud noise_. * * * * * holland. part ii. dutch cities seem, at first sight, to be a bewildering jumble of houses, bridges, churches, and ships, sprouting into masts, steeples, and trees. in some cities boats are hitched, like horses, to their owners' door-posts, and receive their freight from the upper windows. [illustration] mothers scream to their children not to swing on the garden gate for fear they may be drowned. water roads are more frequent there than common roads and railroads; water-fences, in the form of lazy green ditches, inclose pleasure-ground, farm, and garden. sometimes fine green hedges are seen; but wooden fences, such as we have in america, are rarely met with in holland. as for stone fences, a hollander would lift his hands with astonishment at the very idea. there is no stone there excepting those great masses of rock that have been brought from other lands to strengthen and protect the coast. all the small stones or pebbles, if there ever were any, seem to be imprisoned in pavements, or quite melted away. boys, with strong, quick arms, may grow from aprons to full beards without ever finding one to start the water-rings, or set the rabbits flying. the water roads are nothing less than canals crossing the country in every direction. these are of all sizes, from the great north holland ship canal, which is the wonder of the world, to those which a boy can leap. water-omnibuses constantly ply up and down these roads for the conveyance of passengers; and water-drays are used for carrying fuel and merchandise. instead of green country lanes, green canals stretch from field to barn, and from barn to garden; and the farms are merely great lakes pumped dry. some of the busiest streets are water, while many of the country roads are paved with brick. the city boats, with their rounded sterns, gilded bows, and gayly-painted sides, are unlike any others under the sun; a dutch wagon with its funny little crooked pole is a perfect mystery of mysteries. one thing is clear, you may think that the inhabitants need never be thirsty. but no, odd-land is true to itself still. with the sea pushing to get in, and the lakes struggling to get out, and the overflowing canals, rivers, and ditches, in many districts there is no water that is fit to swallow. our poor hollanders must go dry, or send far inland for that precious fluid, older than adam, yet young as the morning dew. sometimes, indeed, the inhabitants can swallow a shower, when they are provided with any means of catching it; but generally they are like the sailors told of in a famous poem, who saw "water, water, every-where, nor any drop to drink!" great flapping windmills all over the country make it look as if flocks of huge sea birds were just settling upon it. every-where one sees the funniest trees, bobbed into all sorts of odd shapes, with their trunks painted a dazzling' white, yellow, or red. horses are often yoked three abreast. men, women, and children, go clattering about in wooden shoes with loose heels. husbands and wives lovingly harness themselves side by side on the bank of the canal and drag their produce to market. * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils practice upon the inflections marked in the following model.--houses', bridges', churches', and ships', sprouting into masts', steeples', and trees'. which words take the _falling inflection_? * * * * * lesson xl. whisk'ing, _pulling suddenly and with force_. lus'ti er, _stronger; louder_. of fend'ed, _made angry_. fa mil'iar, _friendly; as of a friend_. ma'tron ly, _elderly; motherly_. com mo'tion, _noise; confusion_. pant'ed, _breathed quickly_. sa lute', _greeting_. mute, _silent; unable to speak_. stur'dy, _strong; powerful_. ker'chiefs, _pieces of cloth worn about the head_. a do', _trouble; delay_. in'mates, _the persons in a house_. * * * * * the wind in a frolic. the wind one morning sprung up from sleep, saying, "now for a frolic! now for a leap! now for a madcap galloping chase! i'll make a commotion in every place!" so it swept with a bustle right through a great town, creaking the signs and scattering down shutters, and whisking with merciless squalls, old women's bonnets and gingerbread stalls. there never was heard a much lustier shout, as the apples and oranges tumbled about. then away to the fields it went blustering and humming, and the cattle all wondered whatever was coming. it pulled by their tails the grave, matronly cows, and tossed the colts' manes all about their brows, till, offended at such a familiar salute, they all turned their backs and stood silently mute. so on it went, capering and playing its pranks; whistling with reeds on the broad river banks; puffing the birds, as they sat on the spray, or the traveler grave on the king's highway. it was not too nice to hustle the bags of the beggar, and flutter his dirty rags. 'twas so bold that it feared not to play its joke with the doctor's wig, and the gentleman's cloak. through the forest it roared, and cried gayly, "now you sturdy old oaks, i'll make you bow!" and it made them bow without more ado, or it cracked their great branches through and through. then it rushed like a monster o'er cottage and farm, striking their inmates with sudden alarm; and they ran out like bees in a midsummer swarm. there were dames with their kerchiefs tied over their caps, to see if their poultry were free from mishaps; the turkeys they gobbled, the geese screamed aloud, and the hens crept to roost in a terrified crowd; there was raising of ladders, and logs laying on, where the thatch from the roof threatened soon to be gone. but the wind had passed on, and had met in a lane with a school-boy, who panted and struggled in vain; for it tossed him, and whirled him, then passed, and he stood with his hat in a pool, and his shoe in the mud. then away went the wind in its holiday glee, and now it was far on the billowy sea; and the lordly ships felt its powerful blow, and the little boats darted to and fro. but, lo! it was night, and it sunk to rest on the sea-birds' rock in the gleaming west, laughing to think, in its frolicsome fun, how little of mischief it really had done. * * * * * directions for reading.--let some pupil in the class state the manner in which the lesson should be read. point out four lines that should be read more quietly than the rest of the lesson. vary the reading by having parts of lesson read as a concert exercise. what effect has the repetition of the word _now_, in the second and third lines? * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils write six sentences, each containing one of the following words, used in such a manner as to show its proper meaning: _right, write; reed, read; tied, tide_. let pupils make out an _analysis_ of the lesson, and use it in giving the story in their own words. * * * * * lesson xli. veg e ta'tion, _every thing that grows out of the ground_. meth'od, _way; manner_. ta'per ing, _growing smaller toward the end_. men'tioned, _spoken of_. struct'ure, _arrangement of parts; a building of any kind_. marsh'y, _wet_. swamp, _low ground filled with water_. sprung, _started; begun_. * * * * * something about plants. the name plant belongs in a general way to all vegetation, from the tiniest spear of grass or creeping flower one sees on the rocks by the brook-side, to the largest and tallest of forest trees. plants are divided into numerous groups of families, and the study of the many species belonging to each family, is very interesting. there are thousands of kinds of grasses, shrubs, and trees, scattered over the different parts of the earth, and the larger portion of them are in some way useful to mankind. in speaking of grasses, we are apt to think only of the grass in the meadows, which is the food for our horses and cattle; but there are other kinds of grasses which are just as important to man as the grass of the meadow is to the beast. these are oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn, and others, all of which belong to the grass family. perhaps it appears strange to you to hear wheat and corn called grass, and you ask how can that be. in the first place, all plants that have the same general form and method of growth, belong to the same family. now, if you will pull up a stalk of grass and a stalk of wheat or rye and compare them, you will find that they are alike in all important respects. the roots of each look like a little bundle of strings or fibers, and are therefore called fibrous; the stalks you will find jointed and hollow; and the leaves are long and narrow, tapering to a point at their ends. then, if you examine the seeds, you will see that they are placed near together and form what we call an ear or head, as in an ear of corn, or a head of wheat. this same general form or structure applies to every one of the plants belonging to the grass family; and in this family are included all the different kinds of canes and reeds that grow in swamps and marshy places, as well as the bamboo of the tropics. shrubs are those plants which have woody stems and branches. they are generally of small size, rarely reaching over twenty feet in height. small shrubs are usually called bushes. in this class of plants, the branches generally start close to the ground, and in some cases, a little below the surface of the ground, rising and spreading out in all directions. the common currant bushes, blackberry bushes, and rose bushes which we see in gardens, are shrubs. so also are grape-vines, honeysuckles, ivy, and all other creeping vines. these are called climbing plants, because little tendrils or claspers which grow out of their branches, wind around and fasten themselves to any thing in their way. trees are the largest and strongest of all plants. they have woody stems or trunks, and branches. these branches do not, as in shrubs, start close to the ground, but at some distance above, from which height they extend in different directions. it is difficult to believe that some of the large trees we see, sprung from small seeds; yet it is true that all trees started in this manner. the seeds are scattered about by birds and tempests, and falling on the soft ground, where they become covered with, leaves and earth, they take root and grow. thus the little acorn sprouts, and from it springs the sturdy oak, which is not only the noblest of trees, but lives hundreds of years. the trunks and branches of trees are protected by a covering called bark. this bark is thicker near the base or root of the tree than it is higher up among the branches. on some trees, the bark is very rough and shaggy looking, as on the oak, ash, walnut, and pine; on others, the bark is smooth, as on the beech, apple, and birch. some trees live for only a few years, rapidly reaching their full growth, and rapidly decaying. the peach-tree is one of this kind. other trees live to a great age. an elm-tree has been known to live for three hundred years; a chestnut-tree, six hundred years; and oaks, eight hundred years. the baobab-tree of africa lives to be many hundred years old. there is a yew-tree in england that is known to be over two thousand years old. the "big trees" of california are the largest in the world, although not of so great an age as some that have been mentioned. the tallest of these trees that has yet been discovered, measures over three hundred and fifty feet in height, and the distance around it near the ground is almost one hundred feet. the age of this tree must be between one thousand five hundred and two thousand years. * * * * * directions for reading.--let, pupils pronounce in concert and singly, the following words: _corn, stalks, important, form, tall, walnut, horses_. in the fifth paragraph on page , why are _some_ and _others_ emphatic?[ ] mark _inflections_ of _oak, ash, walnut_, and _pine_; and of _beech, apple_, and _birch_. * * * * * language lesson.--place _dis_ before each of the following words, and then give the meaning of each of the words so formed. appear covered able like believe [ ] see fifth paragraph from the end of the lesson. * * * * * lesson xlii. flush, _bright red color_. low'ing, _the bellowing or cry of cattle_. rang'ing, _wandering_. in tent', _determined_. striv'ing, _making great efforts_. pre serve', _keep in safety_. re flect'ed, _shining back; thrown back, as by a looking-glass_. pro ceed'ed, _went forward_. checked, _stopped_. blasts, _sounds made by blowing_. * * * * * a forest on fire. part i. we were sound asleep one night, when, about two hours before day, the snorting of our horses and lowing of our cattle, which were ranging in the woods, suddenly awoke us. i took my rifle and went to the door to see what beast had caused the hubbub, when i was struck by the glare of light reflected on all the trees before me, as far as i could see through the woods. my horses were leaping about, snorting loudly, and the cattle ran among them in great confusion. on going to the back of the house i plainly heard the crackling made by the burning brushwood, and saw the flames coming toward us in a far-extended line. i ran to the house, told my wife to dress herself and the child as quickly as possible, and take the little money we had, while i managed to catch and saddle two of the best horses. all this was done in a very short time, for i felt that every moment was precious to us. we then mounted our horses, and made off from the fire. my wife, who is an excellent rider, kept close to me; and my daughter, who was then a small child, i took in one arm. when making off, i looked back and saw that the frightful blaze was close upon us, and had already laid hold of the house. by good luck there was a horn attached to my hunting-clothes, and i blew it, to bring after us, if possible, the remainder of my live-stock, as well as the dogs. the cattle followed for a while; but before an hour had passed they all ran, as if mad, through the woods, and that was the last we saw of them. my dogs, too, although at all other times easily managed, ran after the deer that in great numbers sprung before us as if fully aware of the death, that was so rapidly approaching. we heard blasts from the horns of our neighbors as we proceeded, and knew that they were in the same unfortunate condition that we were in ourselves. intent on striving to the utmost to preserve our lives, i thought of a large lake, some miles off, where the flames might possibly be checked, and we might find a place of safety. urging my wife to whip up her horse, we set off at full speed, making the best way we could over the fallen trees and the brush heaps, which lay like so many articles placed on purpose to keep up the terrific fires that advanced with a broad front upon us. by this time we were suffering greatly from the effects of the heat, and we were afraid that our horses would be overcome and drop down at any moment. a singular kind of breeze was passing over our heads, and the glare of the burning trees shone more brightly than the daylight. i was sensible of a slight faintness, and my wife looked pale. the heat had produced such a flush in the child's face that, when she turned toward either of us, our grief and anxiety were greatly increased. * * * * * directions for reading.--what tone of voice should be used in reading the lesson? should the rate of reading be slow or rapid? point out two paragraphs requiring a somewhat different rate. should the feelings expressed in the lesson be rendered in a quiet or loud tone? different inflections are sometimes used, simply to give variety to the reading and not for emphasis. in the first paragraph, mark _inflection_ of _night, day, horses, cattle, woods, us_. * * * * * lesson xliii. de voured', _eaten up greedily, as by wild animals_. por'cu pine, _a kind of animal_. smold'der ing, _burning slowly; smoking_. in suf'fer a ble, _not to be borne_. shift'ed, _moved about; changed position_. sti'fling, _stopping the breath_. dismal, _gloomy; cheerless_. un grate'ful, _not thankful_. rem'e died, _relieved; cured_. * * * * * a forest on fire. part ii. ten miles are soon gone over on swift horses; but yet, when we reached the borders of the lake we were quite exhausted, and our hearts failed us. the heat of the smoke was insufferable, and sheets of blazing fire flew over us in a manner beyond belief. [illustration] we reached the shore, however, coasted the lake for a while, and got round to the sheltered side. there we gave up our horses, which we never saw again. we plunged down among the rushes, by the edge of the water, and laid ourselves down flat, to await the chance of escaping from being burned or devoured. the water greatly refreshed us, and we enjoyed the coolness. on went the fire, rushing and crashing through the woods. such a morning may we never again see! the heavens themselves, i thought, were frightened. all above us was a bright, red glare, mingled with, dark, threatening clouds and black smoke, rolling and sweeping away in the distance. our bodies were cool enough, but our heads were scorching; and the child, who now seemed to understand the matter, cried so as nearly to break our hearts. the day passed on, and we became hungry. many wild beasts came plunging into the water beside us, and others swam across to our side, and stood still. although faint and weary, i managed to shoot a porcupine, and we all tasted its flesh. the night passed, i cannot tell you how. smoldering fires covered the ground, and the trees stood like pillars of fire, or fell across each other. the stifling and sickening smoke still rushed over us, and the burnt cinders and ashes fell thick around us. when morning came, every thing about us was calm; but a dismal smoke still filled the air, and the smell seemed worse than ever. what was to become of us i did not know. my wife hugged the child to her breast, and wept bitterly; but god had preserved us through the worst of the danger, and the flames had gone past, so i thought it would be both ungrateful to him and unmanly to despair now. hunger once more pressed upon us, but this was soon remedied. several deer were standing in the water, up to the head, and i shot one of them. some of its flesh was soon roasted, and after eating it we felt wonderfully strengthened. by this time the blaze of the burning forest was beyond our sight, although the remains of the fires of the night before were still burning in many places, and it was dangerous to go among the burnt trees. after resting for some time, we prepared to commence our march. taking up the child in my arms, i led the way over the hot ground and rocks; and after two weary days and nights of suffering, during which we shifted in the best manner we could, we at last succeeded in reaching the hard woods, which had been free from the fire. soon after we came to a house, where we were kindly treated. since then i have worked hard and constantly as a lumber-man; and, thanks to god, we are safe, sound, and happy. * * * * * directions for reading.--point out, breathing-places in the last paragraph of page .[ ] name the _emphatic words_ in the last sentence of the lesson. mark _inflection_ in the last line of the lesson. pronounce carefully the following words: _dark, march, hard, calm, hearts_. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils define the following words: _complete, attract, locate, intent, procrastinate, separate_; then add to each word as a stem, the ending _ion_, and define the words so formed. point out the omissions of letters necessary in joining the stems and endings. let pupils make out an _analysis_ in six parts for the last two lessons, and use it in writing or telling the story in their own words. [ ] see third paragraph from the end of the lesson. * * * * * lesson xliv. peas'ants, _those who work on farms_. hedge'rows, _rows of shrubs or trees used to inclose a space_. tow'ers, _very high buildings_. an ces'tral, _belonging to a family for a great many years_. mon'arch, _king; ruler_. roy'al ty, _kings and queens_. gifts, _things given; presents_. * * * * * common gifts. the sunshine is a glorious thing, that comes alike to all, lighting the peasant's lowly cot, the noble's painted hall. the moonlight is a gentle thing, which through the window gleams upon the snowy pillow, where the happy infant dreams. it shines upon the fisher's boat out on the lonely sea, as well as on the flags which float on towers of royalty. the dewdrops of the summer morn display their silver sheen upon the smoothly shaven lawn, and on the village green. there are no gems in monarch's crown more beautiful than they; and yet you scarcely notice them, but tread them off in play. the music of the birds is heard, borne on the passing breeze, as sweetly from the hedgerows as from old ancestral trees. there are as many lovely things, as many pleasant tones, for those who dwell by cottage hearths as those who sit on thrones. * * * * * directions for reading.--this lesson should be read with a full and clear tone of voice. the thoughts expressed are not of a conversational nature. in the first stanza, in the contrast between _peasant's lowly cot_ and _noble's painted hall_, the inflections are _rising circumflexes_ and _falling circumflexes_. the _rising circumflex_ consists of a downward turn of the voice followed by an upward turn; the _falling circumflex_, of an upward turn followed by a downward turn. let pupils mark the inflections in the last two lines of the poem. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils express the meaning of what is given below in dark type, using a single word for each example. for _those who dwell by cottage hearths_ as _those who sit on thrones_. * * * * * lesson xlv. re quest', _a wish that is expressed; desire_. har'bor, _a sheltered place where ships can anchor_. lo'cate, _place; choose as a place to live_. both'er, _trouble_. beach, _the shore of the sea_. knack, _an easy way of doing any thing_. in dulged', _gave way to, as to appetite_. ban'quet, _a very good dinner or other meal_. rheu'ma tism, _a painful trouble in the muscles or joints_. * * * * * a ghost story. part i. "i have not a room in the house; but if you don't mind going down to the cottage, and coming up here to your meals, i can take you, and would be glad to," said mrs. grant, in answer to my request for board. "where is the cottage?" and i looked about me, feeling ready to accept any thing in the way of shelter, after the long, hot journey from boston to breezy york harbor. "right down there--just a step, you see. it's all in order; and next week it will be full, for many folks prefer it because of the quiet." at the end of a very steep path, which offered every chance for accidents of all sorts, from a sprained ankle to a broken neck, stood the cottage--a little white building, with a pretty vine over the door, gay flowers in the garden, and the blue atlantic rolling up at the foot of the cliff. "a regular 'cottage by the sea.' it will suit me exactly if i can have the upper front room. i don't mind being alone; so have my trunk taken down, please, and i'll get ready for tea," said i, feeling very happy on account of my good luck. alas, how little i knew what a night of terror i was to pass in that pretty white cottage! an hour later, refreshed by my tea and the coolness of the place, i plunged into the pleasures of the season, and accepted two invitations for the evening--one to a, walk on sunset hill, the other to a clam-bake on the beach. the stroll came first, and on the hill-top we met an old gentleman with a spy-glass, who welcomed me with the remark-- "pretty likely place for a prospect." after replying to what he said, i asked the old gentleman if he knew any legend or stories about the old houses all around us. "yes, many of them," he replied; "and it isn't always the old places that have the most stories about 'em. "why, that cottage down yonder isn't more'n fifty years old, and they do say there's been a lot of ghosts seen there, owin' to a man's killin' of himself in the back bed-room." "what! that house at the end of the lane?" i asked, with sudden interest. "just so; nice place, but lonesome and dampish. ghosts and toadstools are apt to locate in houses of that sort," was his mild reply. the dampness scared me more than the ghosts, for i had never seen a ghost yet; but i had been haunted by rheumatism, and found it a hard thing to get rid of. "i've taken a room there, so i'm rather interested in knowing what company i'm to have." "taken a room, have you? well, i dare say you won't be troubled. some folks have a knack of seeing spirits, and then again some haven't. "my wife is uncommon powerful that way, but i an't; my sight's dreadful poor for that sort." there was such a sly look in the starboard eye of the old fellow as he spoke, that i laughed outright, and asked, sociably-- "has she ever seen the ghosts of the cottage? i think i have rather a knack that way, and i'd like to know what to expect." "no, her sort is the rapping kind. down yonder, the only ghost i take much stock in is old bezee tucker's. some folks say they've heard him groaning there nights, and a dripping sound; he bled to death, you know. "it was kept quiet at the time, and is forgotten now by all but a few old fellows like me. bezee was always polite to the ladies, so i guess he won't bother you, ma'am;" and the old fellow laughed. "if he does, i'll let you know;" and with that i left him, for i was called and told that the beach party was anxious for my company. in the delights of that happy hour, i forgot the warning of the old gentleman on the hill, for i was about to taste a clam for the first time in my life, and it was a most absorbing moment. perched about on the rocks like hungry birds, we sat and watched the happy cooks with breathless interest, as they struggled with frying-pans, fish that refused to brown, steaming sea-weed, and hot ashes. little margie grant waited upon me so prettily, that i should have been tempted to try a sea porcupine if she had offered it, so charming was her way of saying, "o here's a perfectly lovely one! do take him by his little black head and eat him quick!" i indulged without thought, in clams, served hot between two shells, little dreaming what a price i was to pay for that banquet. * * * * * language lesson--let pupils use other words to express the meaning of the parts given below in dark type. "right down there--_just a step_, you see." "_pretty likely_ place for a prospect." "the only one i _take much stock in_." write out in full the words for which _'em_ and _an't_ are used. * * * * * lesson xlvi. quaked, _shook, as with fear_. cha'os, _a great number of things without order_. gi gan'tic, _of very great size_. stealth'y, _very quiet, so as to escape notice_. fa'tal, _causing great harm_. mis'sion, _what one is sent to do_. in'ter vals, _spaces of time_. thrill, _feeling, as of pain or pleasure_. af fect'ing, _making a show of_. a pol'o gize, _express sorrow for an act_. ret ri bu'tion, _paying back for one's acts; punishment_. * * * * * a ghost story. part ii. we staid up till late, and then i was left, at my own door by my friends, who informed me that york was a very quiet, safe place, where people slept with unlocked doors, and nothing ever went amiss o' nights. i said nothing of ghosts, being ashamed to own that i quaked, a little at the idea of the "back bed-room," as i shut out the friendly faces and fastened myself in. a lamp and matches stood in the hall, and lighting the lamp, i whisked up stairs with suspicious rapidity, locking my door, and went to bed, firmly refusing to own even to myself that i had ever heard the name of bezee tucker. being very tired, i soon fell asleep; but fried potatoes and a dozen or two of hot clams are not kinds of food best fitted to bring quiet sleep, so a fit of nightmare brought me to a realizing sense of my foolishness. from a chaos of wild dreams was finally brought forth a gigantic clam, whose mission it was to devour me as i had devoured its relatives. the sharp shells were open before me, and a solemn voice said, "take her by her little head and eat her quick." retribution was at hand, and, with a despairing effort to escape by diving, i bumped my head smartly against the wall, and woke up feeling as if there was an earthquake under the bed. collecting my scattered wits, i tried to go to sleep again; but alas! that fatal feast had destroyed sleep, and i vainly tried to quiet my wakeful senses with the rustle of leaves about the window and the breaking waves upon the beach. in one of the pauses between the sounds of the waves, i heard a curious noise in the house--a sort of moan, coming at regular intervals. and, as i sat up to make out where it was, another sound caught my attentive ear. drip, drip, drip, went something out in the hall, and in an instant the tale told me on sunset hill came back with unpleasant reality. "nonsense! it is raining, and the roof leaks," i said to myself, while an unpleasant thrill went through me, and fancy, aided by indigestion, began to people the house with ghostly inmates. no rain had fallen for weeks, and peeping through my curtain, i saw the big, bright stars shining in a cloudless sky; so that explanation failed, and still the drip, drip, drip went on. likewise the moaning--so distinctly now that it was clear that the little back bed-room was next the chamber in which i was quaking at that very moment. "some one is sleeping there," i said, and then remembered that all the rooms were locked, and all the keys but mine in mrs. grant's pocket, up at the house. "well, let the ghosts enjoy themselves; i won't disturb them if they let me alone. some of the ladies thought me brave to dare to sleep here, and it never will do to own i was scared by a foolish story and an odd sound." so down i lay, and said the multiplication table with great determination for several minutes, trying to turn a deaf ear to the outside world and check my unruly thoughts. but it was a failure; and when i found myself saying over and over "four times twelve is twenty-four," i gave up affecting courage, and went in for a good, honest scare. as a cheerful subject for midnight consideration, i kept thinking of b. tucker, in spite of every effort to give it up. in vain i remembered the fact that the departed gentleman was "always polite to ladies." i still was in great fear lest he might think it necessary to come and apologize in person for "bothering" me. presently a clock struck three, and i gave a moan that beat the ghost's all hollow, so full of deep suffering was i at the thought of several hours of weary waiting. i was not sure at what time the daylight would appear, and i was bitterly sorry for not gathering useful information about sunrise, tides, and such things, instead of listening to the foolish gossip of uncle peter on the hill-top. minute after minute dragged slowly on, and i was just thinking that i should be obliged to shout "fire!" as the only means of relief in my power, when, a stealthy step under the window gave me a new feeling. * * * * * directions for reading.--to give greater effect to certain parts of the lesson, read them very slowly. the first line of the last paragraph is a good example of adding _emphasis_ by reading slowly. point oat two other places in the lesson where slow reading would be best. what word in the last paragraph may be made very emphatic, even to the extent of using the _calling tone_ of voice? let pupils pronounce in concert, and singly, the following words: _soon, do, two, foolish, roof, food, room_. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils write statements, each containing one of the following words, used in such a manner as to show its proper meaning: _beech, beach; sense, scents; fourth, forth; hear, here_. give rules for the capital letters in the first three paragraphs of the lesson. let pupils place _un_ before each of the following words, and then define them. safe lock heard pleasant fit define each of the following words formed from _please_, and state in each case what change of meaning occurs. please pleasant pleasantly unpleasantly * * * * * lesson xlvii. dag'ger, _a short sword_. spell, _a feeling which prevents one from moving_. bran'dished, _raised, and moved in different directions_. in spir'ing, _making one feel_. awe, _deep fear_. de mand'ed, _asked as a right_. punct'u al, _always on time_. ro mance, _a story of surprising adventures_. bur'glar, _one who breaks into a house at night_. cus'tom, _a way or a manner of doing things_. reigned, _ruled; held power_. * * * * * a ghost story. part iii. this was a start, not a scare--for the new visitor was a human foe, and i had little fear of such, being possessed of good lungs, strong arms, and a roman dagger nearly as big as a carving-knife. the step that i had just heard broke the spell, and creeping noiselessly to the window, i peeped out to see a dark figure coming up the stem of the tall tree close by, hand-over-hand, like a sailor or a monkey. "two can play at that game, my friend; you scare me, and i'll scare you." and with an actual sense of relief in breaking the silence, i suddenly flung up the curtain, and leaned out. i brandished my dagger with what i intended to be an awe-inspiring screech; but, owing to the flutter of my breath, the effort ended in a curious mixture of howl and bray. a most effective sound, nevertheless; for the burglar dropped to the ground as if he had been shot, and, with one upward glance at the white figure dimly seen in the starlight, fled as if a thousand ghosts were at his heels. "what next?" thought i, wondering whether this eventful night would ever come to a close. i sat and waited, chilly but brave, while the strange sounds went on within the house and silence reigned without, till the cheerful crow of the punctual "cockadoo," as margie called him, told me that it was sunrise and laid the ghosts. a red glow in the east drove away my last fear, and i soon lay down and slept quietly, quite worn out. the sun shining upon my face waked me, and a bell ringing warned me to hurry. a childish voice calling out, "betfast is most weady, miss wee," assured me that sweet little spirits haunted the cottage as well as ghostly ones. as i left my room to join margie, who was waiting for me, i saw two things which caused me to feel that the horrors of the night were not all unreal. just outside the back bed-room door was a damp place, as if that part of the floor had been newly washed; and when led by curiosity, i peeped through the keyhole of the haunted chamber, my eye distinctly saw an open razor lying on a dusty table. my seeing was limited to that one object, but it was quite enough. i went up the hill thinking over the terrible secret hidden in my breast. i longed to tell some one, but was ashamed; and, when asked why i was so pale and absent-minded, i answered with a gloomy smile-- "it is the clams." all day i hid my sufferings pretty well, but as night approached and i thought of sleeping again in that haunted cottage, my heart began to fail. as we sat telling stories in the dusk, a bright idea came into my head. i would relate my ghost story, and rouse the curiosity of my hearers, so that some of them would offer to stay at the cottage in hopes of seeing the spirit of the restless tucker. cheered by this fancy, when my turn came i made a thrilling tale about bezee tucker and my night's adventure. after my hearers were worked up to a proper state of excitement, i paused for applause. it came in a most unexpected form, however, for mrs. grant burst out laughing, and the two boys--johnny and joe--rolled about in convulsions of merriment. much displeased, i demanded the cause of their laughter, and then joined in the general shout when mrs. grant informed me that bezee tucker lived, died in, and haunted the tumble-down house at the other end of the lane, and not the cottage where i was staying. "then who or what made those mysterious noises?" i asked, relieved but rather displeased at the downfall of my romance. "my brother seth," replied mrs. grant, still laughing. "i thought you might be afraid to be there all alone, so he slipped into the bed-room, and i forgot to tell you. he's a powerful snorer, and that's one of the awful sounds. "the other was the dripping of salt water; for you wanted some, and the girl got it in a leaky pail. seth swept out the water when he left the cottage early in the morning." i said nothing about having seen through the keyhole the harmless razor; but wishing to get some praise for my heroic encounter with the burglar, i mildly asked if it was the custom in york for men as well as turkeys to roost in trees. another burst of laughter from the boys did away with my last hope of glory. as soon as he could speak, joe answered-- "johnny planned to be up early to pick the last cherries off that tree. i wanted to get ahead of him, and as i was going a-fishing, i went off quietly before daylight." "did you get the cherries?" i asked, bound to have some laugh on my side. "guess i didn't," grumbled joe, rubbing his knees, while johnny added-- "he got a horrid scare and a right good scraping, for he didn't know any one was down there. couldn't go a-fishing, either--he was so lame--and i had the cherries after all. served him right, didn't it?" no answer was necessary. mrs. grant went off to repeat the tale in the kitchen, and the sounds of hearty laughter that i heard, assured me that seth was enjoying the joke as well as the rest of us. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils make out an _analysis_ for so much of the last three lessons as may be included under the subject--"a night at the cottage." suggestion.--the _analysis_ of _simple subjects_, and their treatment orally or in writing, are valuable exercises, and should be assigned to pupils as frequently as possible during the whole of their school life. * * * * * lesson xlviii. mel'o dy, _sounds pleasant to the ear_. chant'ed, _sung in a simple melody_. witch, _a person supposed to deal with evil spirits_. trump'et, _a hollow piece of metal used to make music_. har'mo ny, _the effect produced by uniting two or more different parts in music_. * * * * * what the chimney sang. over the chimney the night-wind sang and chanted a melody no one knew; and the woman stopped, as her babe she tossed, and thought of the one she had long since lost: and said, as her tear-drop back she forced, "i hate the wind in the chimney." over the chimney the night-wind sang and chanted a melody no one knew; and the children said, as they closer drew, "'tis some witch that is cleaving the black night through-- 'tis a fairy trumpet that just then blew, and we fear the wind in the chimney." over the chimney the night-wind sang and chanted a melody no one knew; and the man, as he sat on his hearth below, said to himself, "it will surely snow, and fuel is dear and wages low, and i'll stop the leak in the chimney." over the chimney the night-wind sang and chanted a melody no one knew; but the poet listened and smiled, for he was man, and woman, and child--all three, and said, "it is god's own harmony, this wind we hear in the chimney." * * * * * directions for reading.--the first two lines of each stanza may be read more slowly and with a fuller tone of voice than the rest of the stanza. notice that the words of special _emphasis_ throughout the poem begin with capital letters. mark _inflections_ in the last four lines of the first and last stanzas. * * * * * lesson xlix. sel'dom, _not often; rarely_. jun'gles, _places covered with trees and brushwood_. tough (tuf), _not easily separated_. ap par'ent ly, _seemingly; in appearance_. a cute', _quick in action; sharp_. charg'es, _rushes forward_. gram'p us, _a kind of fish_. re sumed', _started again; took up again_. hid'e ous, _horrid to look at_. de struc'tion, _death; entire loss_. re sist', _stand against_. des'per ate, _without hope or care_. ex cur'sions, _journeys; rambles_. * * * * * the rhinoceros. next to the mighty elephant, the rhinoceros is the largest and strongest of animals. there are several species of the rhinoceros, some of which are found in asia, and others in different parts of africa. in the latter country there are four varieties--the black rhinoceros, having a single horn; the black species having two horns; the long-horned white rhinoceros; and the common white species, which has a short, stubby horn. the largest of the african species is the long-horned, white, or square-nosed rhinoceros. when full-grown, it sometimes measures eighteen feet in length, and about the same around the body. its horn frequently reaches a length of thirty inches. the black rhinoceros, although much, smaller than the white, and seldom having a horn over eighteen inches long, is far more ferocious than the white species, and possesses a wonderful degree of strength. the form of the rhinoceros is clumsy, and its appearance dull and heavy. the limbs are thick and powerful, and each, foot has three toes, which are covered with broad, hoof-like nails. the tail is small; the head very long and large. taken altogether, there are few--if any--animals that compare with the rhinoceros in ugliness. the eyes are set in such a manner that the animal can not see any thing exactly in front of it; but the senses of hearing and smelling are so keen that sight is not required to detect an enemy, whether it be man or beast. the skin of the african rhinoceros is smooth, and has only a few scattering hairs here and there. it is, however, very thick and tough, and can resist the force of a rifle-ball unless it is fired from a very short distance. the largest known species of the rhinoceros is found in asia. it lives chiefly in the marshy jungles, and on the banks of lakes and rivers in india. some of this species are over live feet in height, and have horns three feet in length and eighteen inches around the base. unlike the african rhinoceros, the skin of the asiatic species is not smooth, but lies in thick folds upon the body, forming flaps which can be lifted with the hand. the food of the rhinoceros consists of roots, and the young branches and leaves of trees and shrubs. it plows up the roots with the aid of its horn, and gathers the branches and leaves with the upper lip which is long and pointed, and with which the food is rolled together before placing it in the mouth. the flesh of the rhinoceros is good to eat; and its strong, thick skin is made by the natives, into shields, whips, and other articles. though clumsy and apparently very stupid, the rhinoceros is a very active animal when attacked or otherwise alarmed, dashing about with wonderful rapidity. it is very fierce and savage--so much so that the natives dread it more than they do the lion. in hunting the animal, it is dangerous for a man to fire at one unless he is mounted upon a swift horse, and can easily reach some place of safety. when attacking an enemy, the rhinoceros lowers its head and rushes forward like an angry goat. though it may not see the object of its attack, the sense of smell is so acute that it knows about when the enemy is reached. then begins a furious tossing of the head, and if the powerful horn strikes the foe, a terrible wound is the result. when wounded itself, the rhinoceros loses all sense of fear, and charges again and again with such desperate fury that the enemy is almost always overcome. a famous traveler in south africa relates the following incident that happened during one of his hunting excursions: "having proceeded about two miles, i came upon a black rhinoceros, feeding on some wait-a-bit thorns within fifty yards of me. "i fired from the saddle, and sent a bullet in behind his shoulder, when he rushed forward, blowing like a grampus, and then stood looking about him. "presently he started off, and i followed. i expected that he would come to bay, but it seems a rhinoceros never does that--a fact i did not know at that time. "suddenly he fell flat upon the ground; but soon recovering his feet, he resumed his course as if nothing had happened. "i spurred on my horse, dashed ahead, and rode right in his path. upon this, the hideous monster charged me in the most resolute manner, blowing loudly through his nostrils. "although i quickly turned about, he followed me at such a furious pace for several hundred yards, with his horrid horny snout within a few yards of my horse's tail, that i thought my destruction was certain. "the animal, however, suddenly turned and ran in another direction. i had now become so excited with the incident, that i determined to give him one more shot any way. "nerving my horse again, i made another dash, after the rhinoceros, and coming up pretty close to him, i again fired, though with little effect, the ball striking some thick portion of his skin and doing no harm. "feeling that i did not care to run the chance of the huge brute again charging me, and believing that my rifle-ball was not powerful enough to kill him, i determined to give up the pursuit, and accordingly let him run off while i returned to the camp." [illustration] * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils mark _inflections_ in the first sentence of the lesson. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils express in other words the meaning of what is given below in dark type. "i expected that he would _come to bay_." * * * * * lesson l. per'il, _great danger that is near one_. pru'dent, _careful in regard to what may happen_. con'fi dence, _courage; freedom from doubt_. oc ca'sion, _a chance event; an incident_. tor'rents, _violent streams, as of water_. ford, _a place to cross a river_. per suad'ed, _influenced by advice_. op'po site, _on the other side; in front of_. fran'tic, _without power to act properly_. her'o ism, _great courage, which makes one willing to face danger of any kind_. res'o lute, _decided; firm_. af fec'tion ate, _kind and loving_. * * * * * presence of mind. many years ago, there lived on the banks of the naugatuck river, in connecticut, a family by the name of bishop. the father was not wealthy, but a good man, and respected by all who knew him. he had fought in the battles of his country during the revolutionary war, and was familiar with scenes of danger and peril. he had learned that it is always more prudent to preserve an air of confidence in danger, than to show signs of fear, and especially so, since his conduct might have a great influence upon the minds of those about him. on one occasion he sent his son james, a boy twelve years old, across the river to the house of a relative, on an errand. as there was no bridge or ferry, all who crossed the river were obliged to ford it. james was familiar with every part of the fording-place, and when the water was low, which was the case at this time, there was no danger in crossing. mounted on one of his father's best horses, james set out. he crossed the river, and soon reached the house of his relatives. he was ready to start on his return, when suddenly the heavens became black with clouds, the wind blew with great violence, and the rain fell in torrents. it was late in the afternoon, and as his relatives feared to have him attempt to reach home in such a storm, they persuaded him to remain over night and wait until daylight before starting for home. his father suspected the cause of james' delay, and was not over anxious on his account. he knew that the boy was prudent, and did not fear that any accident would happen to him during the night. but he knew that he had taught james to obey his commands in every particular, and as the boy possessed, a daring and fearless spirit, that he would attempt to ford the river as soon as it was light enough in the morning. he knew, also, that the immense quantity of water that appeared to be falling, would cause the river to rise to a considerable height by morning, and make it very dangerous even for a strong man to attempt to cross it. the thought of what might befall his child caused mr. bishop to pass a sleepless night; for although he was very strict with his children, he possessed an affectionate nature and loved them dearly. the day dawned; the storm had ceased; the wind was still, and nothing was to be heard but the roar of the river. the rise of the river was even greater than mr. bishop expected, and as soon as it was light enough, for him to see objects across it, he took up a position on the bank to watch for the approach of his son. james arrived on the opposite shore at the same time, and his horse was beginning to enter the stream. all his father's feelings were roused into action, for he knew that his son was in fearful danger. james had already proceeded too far to return--in fact, to go forward or back was equally dangerous. his horse had arrived at the deepest part of the river, and was struggling against the current. the animal was being hurried down the stream, and apparently making but little progress toward the shore. james became very much alarmed. raising his eyes toward the landing-place, he discovered his father. almost frantic with fear, he exclaimed, "o father, father! i shall drown! i shall drown!" "no," replied his father, in a stern and resolute tone of voice, dismissing for a moment his feelings of tenderness; "if you do, i will whip you severely. cling to your horse! cling to your horse!" the son, who feared his father more than he did the raging river, obeyed the command; and the noble animal on which he was mounted, struggling for some time, carried him safe to shore. "my son!" exclaimed the glad father, bursting into tears, "remember, hereafter, that in danger you must possess courage, and being determined to save your life, cling to the last hope! "if i had replied to you with the tenderness and fear which i felt, you might have lost your life; you would have lost your presence of mind, been carried away by the current, and i should have seen you no more." what a noble example is this! the heroism of this father and his presence of mind saved the life of his boy. * * * * * directions for reading.--in _calling tones_, as on pages and , notice that the falling inflections only can be used.[ ] * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils make out an _analysis_, and use it in telling the story in their own words. [ ] see the last six paragraphs. * * * * * lesson li. rug'ged, _full of rough places_. con cealed', _covered over; hidden_. ra vines', _deep and narrow hollow places_. prec'i pice, _a very steep place_. dis'lo cate ed, _thrown out of joint_. mis'er y, _great unhappiness_. ev'i dence, _signs; that which is shown_. de scent', _going down_. haz'ards, _dangers; difficulties_. toil, _hard work_. pro ject'ing, _hanging over_. * * * * * halbert and his dog. far up in the highlands of scotland lived malcolm, a shepherd, with his wife and his son halbert. their little cottage was far from any village, and could only be reached by a rugged path through the mountains. one evening halbert's mother was taken very ill, and malcolm made preparations to go to the village to obtain some medicine for her. "father," said halbert, "i know the path through the dark glen better than you. shag will walk before me, and i will be quite safe. let me go for the doctor, and you stay at home and comfort mother." old shag, the dog, stood by, wagging his tail and looking up into malcolm's face as if to say, "yes, master, i will take good care of halbert. let him go." malcolm did not like to have his boy undertake a journey of so much peril, as the snow was falling in heavy flakes, and it was growing very dark. but the boy again repeated his request, and malcolm gave his consent. halbert had been accustomed to the mountains from his earliest boyhood, and shag set out with his young master, not seeming to care for wind, snow, or storm. they reached the village safely. halbert saw the doctor, received some medicine for his mother, and then started on his return home with a cheerful heart. shag trotted along before him to see that all was right. suddenly, however, in one of the most dangerous parts of the rocky path, he stopped and began snuffing and smelling about. "go on, shag," said halbert. shag would not stir. "shag, go on, sir," repeated the boy. "we are nearly at the top of the glen. look through the dark, and you can see the candle shining through our window." shag disobeyed for the first time in his life, and halbert advanced ahead of him, heedless of the warning growl of his companion. he had proceeded but a few steps when he fell over a precipice, the approach to which had been concealed by the snow. it was getting late in the night, and malcolm began to be alarmed at the long absence of halbert. he placed the candle so as to throw the light over his boy's path, piled wood on the great hearth fire, and often went to the door. but no footstep sounded on the crackling ice; no figure darkened the wide waste of snow. "perhaps the doctor is not at home, and he is waiting for him," said halbert's mother. she felt so uneasy at her boy's absence, that she almost forgot her own pain. it was midnight when malcolm heard the well-known bark of the faithful shag. "o there is halbert!" cried both parents at the same moment. malcolm sprang to the door and opened it, expecting to see his son. but alas! halbert was not there. shag was alone. the old dog entered the door, and began to whine in a piteous manner. "o malcolm, malcolm, my brave son has perished in the snow!" exclaimed the mother. malcolm stood wondering. his heart beat rapidly. a fear that the worst had happened almost overcame him. at that moment he saw a small package around the dog's neck. seizing it in his hands, he exclaimed, "no, wife; look! our boy lives! here is the medicine, tied with his handkerchief; he has fallen into one of the deep ravines, but he is safe. "i will go out, and shag shall go with me. he will conduct me safely to the rescue of my child." in an instant shag was again on his feet, and gave evidence of great joy as he left the cottage with his old master. you may imagine the misery and grief the poor mother suffered--alone in her mountain dwelling; the certainty of her son's danger, and the fear that her husband also might perish. shag went on straight and steadily for some distance after he left the cottage. suddenly he turned down a path which led to the foot of the precipice over which halbert had fallen. the descent was steep and dangerous, and malcolm was frequently obliged to support himself by clinging to the frozen branches of the trees. at last malcolm stood on the lower and opposite edge of the pit into which his son had fallen. he called to him, "halbert! halbert!" he looked in every direction, but could not see or hear any thing. shag was making his way down a very steep and dangerous ledge of rocks, and malcolm resolved at all hazards to follow him. after getting to the bottom, shag scrambled to a projecting rock, which was covered with snow, and commenced whining and scratching in a violent manner. malcolm followed, and after some search found what appeared to be the dead body of his son. he hastily tore off the jacket, which was soaked with blood and snow, and wrapping halbert in his great cloak, took him upon his shoulders, and with much toil and difficulty reached the path again, and soon had his boy at home. halbert was placed in his mother's bed, and by using great exertion, they aroused him from his dangerous sleep. he was much bruised and had his ankle dislocated, but was not otherwise hurt. when he recovered his senses, he fixed his eyes on his mother, and his first words were, "did you get the medicine, mother?" when he fell, shag had descended after him. the affectionate son used what little strength he had left to tie the medicine that he had received from the doctor around the dog's neck, and then sent him home with it. you may be sure that shag was well taken care of after this incident. even after halbert became a man shag was his constant companion, and he lived to a good old age. * * * * * language lesson--let pupils add _ship_ to each of the following words, and then give their meaning. friend hard relation partner fellow make out an _analysis_ of the lesson, and use it in telling the story in your own words. * * * * * lesson lii. ebb'ing, _flowing out; falling_. break'ers, _waves breaking into foam against_ the shore_. main, _the great sea; the ocean_. reef, _a row or chain of rocks_. dis mayed', _having lost courage_. strand, _beach; shore_. treach'er ous, _likely to do harm_. vic'tor, _a successful warrior_. shroud'ing, _covering over_. murk'y, _gloomy; dark_. bea'con, _a signal fire or light_. * * * * * the light-house. the tide comes up, and the tide goes down, over the rocks, so rugged and brown, and the cruel sea, with a hungry roar, dashes its breakers along the shore; but steady and clear, with a constant ray, the star of the light-house shines alway. the ships come sailing across the main, but the harbor mouth is hard to gain, for the treacherous reef lies close beside, and the rocks are bare at the ebbing tide, and the blinding fog comes down at night, shrouding and hiding the harbor light. the sailors, sailing their ships along, will tell you a tale of the light-house strong; how once, when the keeper was far away, a terrible storm swept down the bay, and two little children were left to keep their awesome watch with the angry deep. the fair little sister wept, dismayed, but the brother said, "i am not afraid; there's one who ruleth on sea and land, and holds the sea in his mighty hand; for mercy's sake i will watch to-night, and feed, for the sailors, the beacon light." so the sailors heard through the murky shroud the fog-bell sounding its warning loud! while the children, up in the lonely tower, tended the lamp in the midnight hour, and prayed for any whose souls might be in deadly peril by land or sea. ghostly and dim, when the storm was o'er, the ships rode safely, far off the shore, and a boat shot out from the town that lay dusk and purple, across the bay, she touched her keel to the light-house strand, and the eager keeper leaped to land. and swiftly climbing the light-house stair, he called to his children, young and fair; but, worn with their toilsome watch, they slept, while slowly o'er their foreheads crept, the golden light of the morning sun, like a victor's crown, when his palm is won. "god bless you, children!" the keeper cried; "god bless thee, father!" the boy replied. "i dreamed that there stood beside my bed a beautiful angel, who smiled and said, 'blessed are they whose love can make joy of labor, for mercy's sake!'" [illustration] * * * * * directions for reading.--mark the _inflection_ of the following lines. the tide comes up, and the tide goes down. the fair little sister wept, dismayed, but the brother said, "i am not afraid." name the _emphatic words_ in the lines just quoted. state whether the emphasis falls upon words that are inflected. * * * * * language lesson.--why is the sea called _cruel_ and its roar _hungry?_ give two examples of a similar use of words. * * * * * lesson liii. oc'cu pant, _one who is in possession of a thing_. ac quired', _gained_. mi'cro scope, _a glass so formed as to make small_ _objects appear large_. slug'gish, _slow; stupid_. in spect'ing, _looking at with attention_. com posed', _made up_. se'ries, _a number of things in order_. stub'bed, _short and thick_. dis turbed', _interfered with_. * * * * * the caterpillar and butterfly. last summer, when the trees were covered with green leaves, and when the little stream was sparkling and dancing in the sun, there appeared in the garden, a large caterpillar of many colors, and about as pretty as a caterpillar could be. all day long it was nibbling the green leaves, and leaf after leaf disappeared before it with wonderful rapidity. it seemed to live only for eating. as autumn came on, it quite lost its appetite; so much so, that even the tenderest and most juicy leaves could not tempt it to eat any more. it grew dull and stiff, and lost all interest in life. feeling that some change was about to happen, it crawled into a little hole in the old garden wall. it wrapped itself up in a cobweb, and fell into a long sleep, during which it became changed from a caterpillar into a dried-up, dead-looking grub or chrysalis. it remained in this state through all the long winter, till the snow and frost had gone, and the cold march winds were over. in april the trees burst forth with their bright green leaves, and the grass looked fresh under the power of the warm rains. in may the many-tinted flowers appeared, filling the air with their sweetness, and brightening the fields and gardens with their gay colors. at this time another great change came over the old grub. it showed signs of life again; but it was now no longer a caterpillar--it was something else. it wriggled and turned in its narrow little home, and seemed anxious to get out and look at the sunshine and flowers. it bumped its head up and down until it succeeded in pushing off a little door. when the door was off, and the bright sunlight shone in, this little occupant of the chrysalis took a look at itself. it saw that during its long winter's nap, it had acquired a pair of beautiful wings, and its legs had grown longer and stronger than they were before. crawling out of the chrysalis, and taking a position on a branch of the tree, it discovered that instead of a caterpillar, it was now a beautiful butterfly. it was a kind that is called the swallow-tail butterfly, because each of its wings tapered to a point, something like the tail of a swallow. we will call the butterfly, miss swallow-tail, and now let us see what her next move was. her wings were damp and heavy, and she stood shivering and trembling; for although she had six legs, they were weak, having never before borne such a weight. but fresh air brings strength; so she soon felt like trying to walk. at first her movements were sluggish, but she finally reached a sunny spot where she dried and warmed herself, giving her wings a little shake now and then, until they opened grandly above her back. and how beautiful they were! dark brown, bordered with two rows of yellow spots; and there were seven blue spots on each of the hind wings. as she stood there in the sun, a little wind came along and raised miss swallow-tail off her feet. she spread her wings to keep from falling, and found herself floating in the air. this proved to be such a delightful way of traveling, that she lifted her wings occasionally, and so kept herself floating; and in a short time she learned to turn in any direction she chose. as she flew along, growing stronger every minute, she was attracted by the bright colors of a flower, and stopped to admire it. the sweet perfume tempted her to taste, and unrolling her long tongue from under her chin, where she carried it, she put it down into the flower and drew up the honey hidden there. miss swallow-tail had wonderful eyes. all butterflies have wonderful eyes. if you will look at them through a microscope you will find that each eye is composed of a great many smaller ones, that can see in all directions. they have great need of such eyes, because there are so many birds and other hungry creatures, that want to eat them. one day a whiff of celery coming from a garden near by, reminded miss swallow-tail of the time when she was a baby and liked to eat celery. so she flew over into the garden, and fastened her eggs to a celery bush with some glue that she carried with her. then she left them, and never thought of them again. in about ten days the babies that had been growing inside of the eggs, broke open the shells and crawled out. and what do you think they were? butterflies? like their mamma, only very much smaller? no, indeed! for you know butterflies never grow any larger. they were the smallest green and black worms you ever saw! as soon as they were out of the shells, they began eating the celery, and grew so fast that in a week they were quite large worms. they were covered with green rings and black rings dotted with yellow. they each had sixteen short legs, and they had a flesh-colored, y-shaped horn hidden away under a ring above the head, that they would show when they were disturbed. one morning the gardener discovered that something was eating his celery. searching among the leaves he found all but one of the little worms, and put them where they could do no more mischief. soon the little worm that had escaped his notice, had grown so fat that he was too stupid to eat any more; so he crawled away to a dark place on the fence and fastened himself there. but first he covered a small spot of the fence with a white, silken carpet, that he wove from a web which he drew from his under lip. he then glued the end of a web to the carpet, carried the rest of it up over his breast, and down on the other side and fastened it there. he then bent his head down under it, letting it pass over his head, and by bending forward and backward worked it down near the middle of his back. after inspecting his work, he bent his head upon his breast, and leaned against the fence. after resting two days, he began a series of twistings and turnings that burst open his skin from the corners of his mouth down a short way, and worked it all off himself. he drew his head in out of sight, and sent out a stubbed horn on each side of it, and lo! no worm was to be seen!--but a chrysalis, like the one his mother was sleeping in when we first found her. * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils read the following lines, and then mark the _inflection_. "and what do you think they were? butterflies? like their mamma, only very much smaller?" does the first question expect the answer _yes_ or _no?_ do the last two questions expect the answer _yes_ or _no?_ what would be the inflections used in the following questions? what kind of an answer is expected to each question? "where are you going?" "are you coming back again?" fill blanks in the following statements. questions which may be answered by _yes_ or _no_, regularly require the ---- inflection. questions which can not be answered by _yes_ or _no_, regularly require the ---- inflection. * * * * * language lesson. let pupils copy the following words. seize chief grief fear beach receive relief believe weary beacon write sentences, each containing one of the preceding words, used in such a way as to show its meaning. * * * * * lesson liv. ob'sti nate, _determined to have one's own way_. vi'cious, _not well tamed; given to bad tricks_. sub dued', _made gentle; overcome_. swerve, _turn from a direct line_. squad'ron, _a number of horses drawn up together_. pli'able, _capable of being turned or bent_. strove, _attempted; tried hard_. ex ceed'ed, _went beyond_. thong, _a long strip of leather_. * * * * * wild horses of south america. at the time of the discovery of america there were no wild horses in any part of the continent. soon, however, some of the horses brought over from europe by the early settlers, wandered away, and now wild horses are to be met with in large numbers, in some cases as many as a thousand at a time. they appear to be under the command of a leader, the strongest and boldest of the herd, whom they obey. when threatened with danger, at some signal, understood by them all, they either close together and trample their enemy to death, or form themselves into a circle and welcome him with their heels. the leader first faces the danger, and when he finds it prudent to retreat, all follow his rapid flight. byron thus describes a troop of wild horses: "a trampling troop; i see them come! in one vast squadron they advance! i strove to cry--my lips were dumb. the steeds rush on in plunging pride; but where are they the reins to guide? a thousand horse--and none to ride! with flowing tail, and flying mane, wide nostrils--never stretch'd by pain, mouths bloodless to the bit or rein and feet that iron never shod, and flanks unscarr'd by spur or rod, a thousand horse, the wild, the free, like waves that follow o'er the sea. on came the troop.... they stop--they start--they snuff the air, gallop a moment here and there, approach, retire, wheel round and round, then plunging back with sudden bound, they snort--they foam--neigh--swerve aside, and backward to the forest fly." the capture and breaking in of wild horses in america are described by miers as follows-- "the lasso is used by the natives of south america. it is a very strong braided thong, half an inch thick, and forty feet long, made of many strips of rawhide, braided like a whip-thong, and made soft and pliable by rubbing with grease. "it has at one end an iron ring, about an inch and a half in diameter, through which the thong is passed, forming a running noose. "the herdsmen--gauchos, as they are called--are generally mounted on horseback when they use the lasso. one end of the thong is attached to the saddle; the remainder is coiled in the left hand, except about twelve feet belonging to the noose end, which is held in a coil in the right hand. "this long noose is then swung around the head, the weight of the iron ring at the end of the noose assisting in giving to it, by a continued circular motion, a sufficient force to project it the whole length of the line. "the gauchos drive the wild horses into a corral, which is a circular space surrounded by rough posts firmly driven into the ground. the corral," relates miers, "was quite full of horses, most of which were young ones about two or three years old. "the chief gaucho, mounted on a strong, steady horse, rode into the corral, and threw his lasso over the neck of a young horse and dragged him to the gate. "for some time he was very unwilling to lose his companions; but the moment he was forced out of the corral his first idea was to gallop away; however, a timely jerk of the lasso checked him. "some of the gauchos now ran after him on foot, and threw a lasso over his fore legs, and jerking it, they pulled his legs from under him so suddenly that i really thought the fall had killed him. "in an instant a gaucho was seated on his head. they then put a piece of hide in his mouth to serve for a bit, and a strong hide halter on his head, and allowed him to get on his feet. "while two men held the horse by his ears, the gaucho who was to mount him fastened on the saddle, and then quickly sprung into it. "the horse instantly began to jump in a manner which made it very difficult for the rider to keep his seat; however, the gaucho's spurs soon set him going, and off he galloped, doing every thing in his power to throw his rider. "then another horse was brought from the corral; and so quickly was every thing done that twelve gauchos were mounted in less than an hour. "it was wonderful to see the different manner in which different horses behaved. some would actually scream while the gauchos were fastening the saddle upon their backs, and some would instantly lie down and roll upon it. "others would stand without being held, their legs stiff and in unnatural positions, their necks half bent towards their tails, and looking vicious and obstinate. "it was now curious to look around and see the gauchos trying to bring their horses back to the corral, which is the most difficult part of their work, for the poor creatures had been so scared there that they were unwilling to return to the place. "at last they brought the horses back, apparently subdued and broken in. the saddles and bridles were taken off, and the young horses trotted off towards the corral, neighing to one another. "when a gaucho wishes to take a wild horse, he mounts a horse that has been used to the sport, and gallops over the plain. "as soon as he comes near his victim, the lasso is thrown round the two hind-legs, and as the gaucho rides a little on one side, the jerk throws the wild horse without doing injury to his knees or his face. [illustration] "before the horse can recover from the shock, the rider dismounts, and snatching his cloak from his shoulders, wraps it round the fallen animal's head. "he then forces into his mouth one of the powerful bridles of the country, fastens a saddle on his back, and, mounting him, removes the cloak. "upon this the astonished horse springs to his feet, and attempts to throw off his new master, who sits calmly on his back. "by a treatment which never fails, the gaucho brings the horse to such complete obedience that he is soon trained to give his whole speed and strength to the capture of his companions." * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils pronounce in concert, and singly, the following words: _i, hide, side, rides, flight, wild, finds, retire, describe_. mark the inflection of the last six lines of poetry on page .[ ] what _inflection_ is used ( ) to keep up the interest?--( ) to show hesitation?--( ) to express a decided opinion?--( ) to give the conclusion of a story?--( ) to ask a question that may be answered by _yes_ or _no_?--( ) to ask a question that can not be answered by _yes_ or _no_? let pupils state the special uses of _inflection_ shown in the following examples. i, i think perhaps you may go. i know that you may go. they silently went away. yesterday, about three o'clock, just as we were preparing to go home, suddenly we heard a band of music. [ ] this lesson. * * * * * lesson lv. career', _course of life_. gen'erous, _free in giving aid to others_. char'ity, _goodwill; desire to aid others_. in her'ited, _came into possession of_. in jus'tice, _wrong-doing_. ac cused', _charged with a fault_. hes i ta'tion, _delay_. pre scrip'tion, _an order for medicine_. flor'ins, _pieces of money, each valued at about fifty cents_. pen'sion, _money paid for service in war_. re stor'ing, _giving back_. phy si'cian, _doctor of medicine_. * * * * * an emperor's kindness. joseph ii., emperor of austria, was a generous, warm-hearted man, who took great delight in doing acts of kindness and charity. one time, as he was passing through the streets of vienna, dressed as a private gentleman, his attention was attracted to a boy about twelve years old, who timidly approached, and seemed, anxious to speak to him. "what do you wish, my little friend?" said the gentleman. his voice was so tender, and he had such a kindly look in his eyes, that the boy had courage to say: "o sir, you are very good to speak to me so kindly. i believe you will not refuse to do something for me." "i should be sorry to refuse you," replied the gentleman; "but why are you begging? you appear to be something better than a beggar; your voice and your manner show it." "i am not a beggar, sir," replied the boy, as a tear trickled down his cheek. "my father was a brave officer in the army. owing to illness, he was obliged to leave the service, and was granted a pension by the emperor. "with this pension he supported our family; but a few months ago he died, and we are left very poor indeed." "poor child!" said the gentleman. "is your mother living?" "yes, sir, she is; and i have two brothers who are at home with her now. she has been unable to leave her bed for weeks, and one of us must watch beside her, while the others go out to beg." saying this, the poor boy tried very hard to keep back the great tears, but they would come in spite of all he could do to stop them. "well, well, my boy," said the gentleman, "do not feel so unhappy; i will see what can be done to help you. is there a physician to be found near you?" "there are two, sir, only a little way from where we live." "that is well. now you go at once and have one of them visit your mother. here is money, not only for the physician, but for other things to feed you and make you comfortable." "o sir," said the boy, as he looked upon the gentleman in amazement, "how can i thank you enough? this money will save my mother's life, and keep my brothers from want." "never mind, my child; go and get the physician." the boy obeyed, and the good emperor having learned the situation of the house where the boy's mother lived, bent his steps in that direction, and soon arrived there. the room in which he found the poor woman gave evidence of great misery. she was lying on a low bedstead, and though still young, her face was pale and thin from sickness and want. very little furniture of any kind was to be seen, for the mother had disposed of nearly all she possessed to obtain bread for her children. when the emperor entered the room, the widow and her children looked at him in astonishment. they did not know he was their emperor. "i am a physician, madam," said he, bowing respectfully; "your neighbors have informed me of your illness, and i am come to offer what service may be in my power." "alas! sir," she answered with some hesitation, "i have no means of paying you for your attention." "do not distress yourself on that account; i shall be fully repaid if i have the happiness of restoring you to health." with these words, the emperor approached the bed and inquired all about her illness, after which he wrote a few lines and placed them on the chimney-piece. "i will leave you this prescription, madam; and on my next visit, i hope to find you much better." he then withdrew. almost immediately after this, the eldest son of the widow came in with a medical man. "o mother!" cried the boy, "a kind, good gentleman has given me all this!" and he placed in his mother's hand, the money which the emperor had given him. "there now, don't cry, mother; this money will pay the doctor and buy every thing till you are well and strong again." "a physician has already been here, my child, and has left his prescription. see, there it is." and she pointed to the paper on the chimney-piece. the boy took the paper, and no sooner had he glanced at its contents, than he uttered an exclamation of joyful surprise. "o mother! it's the best prescription a physician ever wrote; it's an order for a pension, mother--a pension for you--signed by the emperor himself; listen, mother; hear what he says:-- "'_madam:_--your son was fortunate enough to meet me in the city, and informed me of the fact that the widow of one of my bravest officers was suffering from poverty and sickness, without any means of assistance. i had no knowledge of this, therefore i can not be accused of injustice. "'it is difficult for me to know every thing that takes place in my empire. now that i do know of your distress, i should indeed be ungrateful, did i not render you all the help in my power. i shall immediately place your name on the pension list for the yearly sum of two thousand florins, and trust that you may live many years to enjoy it. "'_joseph ii_.'" the widow and her children were taken under the especial care of the emperor, and a brilliant career was opened up for the boys, who had inherited all their father's bravery as well as their mother's gentle nature. * * * * * directions for reading.--mark the _inflection_ of the following questions. where do you live? is your name harry or john? why are you begging? do you wish to walk? in such a question as the last one, if _emphasis_ be given in turn to the words _you, wish, walk_, the answer might still be _yes_ or _no_; and yet the meaning of the answer would be different in each case. do _you_ wish to walk? yes, i do. do you _wish_ to walk? no, i do not _wish_ to walk; but suppose i must. do you wish to _walk?_ no, i would rather _ride_. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils write a letter to some friend, using the last paragraph of the lesson as a subject. * * * * * lesson lvi. persist'ed, _continued_. crip'ples, _those who have lost the use of a limb_. merged, _united; joined_. stal'wart, _strong; powerful_. in'nocent, _harmless_. pass'port, _what enables one to go in safety_. gal'lant, _brave; noble_. riv'en, _taken away; deprived_. * * * * * united at last. "o mother! what do they mean by blue? and what do they mean by gray?" was heard from the lips of a little child as she bounded in from play. the mother's eyes filled up with tears; she turned to her darling fair, and smoothed away from the sunny brow its treasure of golden hair. "why, mother's eyes are blue, my sweet, and grandpa's hair is gray, and the love we bear our darling child grows stronger every day." "but what did they mean?" persisted the child; "for i saw two cripples to-day, and one of them said he fought for the blue, the other, he fought for the gray. "now he of the blue had lost a leg, and the other had but one arm, and both seemed worn and weary and sad, yet their greeting was kind and warm. they told of the battles in days gone by, till it made my young blood thrill; the leg was lost in the wilderness fight, and the arm on malvern hill. "they sat on the stone by the farm-yard gate, and talked for an hour or more, till their eyes grew bright and their hearts seemed warm with fighting their battles o'er; and they parted at last with a friendly grasp, in a kindly, brotherly way, each calling on god to speed the time uniting the blue and the gray." then the mother thought of other days-- two stalwart boys from her riven; how they knelt at her side and lispingly prayed, "our father which art in heaven;" how one wore the gray and the other the blue; how they passed away from sight, and had gone to the land where gray and blue are merged in colors of light. and she answered her darling with golden hair, while her heart was sadly wrung with the thoughts awakened in that sad hour by her innocent, prattling tongue: "the blue and the gray are the colors of god, they are seen in the sky at even, and many a noble, gallant soul has found them a passport to heaven." * * * * * lesson lvii. declin'ing, _failing_. expe'rience, _that which happens to any one_. regard', _look at; consider_. robust', _sound in health_. ben'efit ed, _made better; helped_. intense', _extreme_. moc'ca sin, _a kind of shoe made of deer-skin_. tem'po ra ry, _for a time_. pe cul'iar, _strange; unusual_. in tel'li gent, _showing good sense_. * * * * * a story of the sioux war. part i. in the summer of , while we were living in the state of minnesota, i had an experience which i regard as one of the most remarkable that i ever met with. we lived at lac qui parle, or rather quite close to it, for we were about a mile from the place. there were only three of us--father, mother, and myself. we had moved to minnesota three years before, the main object of my parents being to restore their health; for they were feeble and needed a change of climate. the first year, both father and mother were much benefited; but not long after, father began to fail. i remember that he used to take his chair out in front of the house in pleasant weather and sit there, with his eyes turned toward the blue horizon, or into the depths of the vast wilderness which was not more than a stone's throw from our door. mother would sometimes go out and sit beside father, and they would talk long and earnestly in low tones. i was too young to understand all this at the time, but it was not long afterward that i learned the truth. father was steadily and surely declining in health; but mother had become strong and robust, and her disease seemed to have left her altogether. she tried to encourage father, and really believed his weakness was only temporary. scarcely a day passed that i did not see some of the sioux indians who were scattered through that portion of the state. in going to, and coming from the agency, they would sometimes stop at our house. father was very quick in picking up languages, and he was able to converse quite easily with the red men. how i used to laugh to hear them talk in their odd language, which sounded to me just as if they were grunting at each other. but the visits used to please father and mother, and i was always glad to see some of the rather ragged and not over-clean warriors stop at the house. i remember one hot day in june, when father was sitting under a tree in front of the house, and i was inside helping mother, we heard the peculiar noises which told us that father had an indian visitor. we both went to the door, and i passed outside to laugh at their queer talk. sure enough, an indian was seated in the other chair, and he and father were talking with great animation. the indian was of a stout build, and wore a straw hat with a broad, red band around it; he had on a fine, black broad-cloth coat, but his trousers were shabby and his shoes were pretty well worn. his face was bright and intelligent, and i watched it very closely as he talked in his earnest way with father, who was equally animated in answering him. the indian carried a rifle and a revolver--the latter being in plain sight at his waist--but i never connected the thought of danger with him as he sat there talking with father. i describe this indian rather closely, as he was no other than the well-known chief, little crow, who was at the head of the frightful sioux war, which broke out within sixty days from that time. the famous chieftain staid until the sun went down. then he started up and walked away rapidly in the direction of lac qui parle. father called good-by to him, but he did not reply and soon disappeared in the woods. the sky was cloudy, and it looked as if a storm was coming; so, as it was dark and blustering, we remained within doors the rest of the evening. a fine drizzling rain began to fall, and the darkness was intense. the evening was well advanced, and father was reading to us, when there came a rap upon the door. it was so gentle and timid that it sounded like the pecking of a bird, and we all looked in the direction of the door, uncertain what it meant. "it is a bird, scared by the storm," said father, "and we may as well admit it." i sat much nearer the door than either of my parents, and instantly started up and opened it. as i did so, i looked out into the gloom, but sprung back the next moment with a low cry of alarm. "what's the matter?" asked father, hastily laying down his book and walking rapidly toward me. "it isn't a bird; it's a person." as i spoke, a little indian girl, about my own age, walked into the room, and looking in each of our faces, asked in the sioux language whether she could stay all night. i closed the door and we gathered around her. she had the prettiest, daintiest moccasins, but her limbs were bare from the knee downward. she wore a large shawl about her shoulders, while her coarse, black hair hung loosely below her waist. her face was very pretty, and her eyes were as black as coal and seemed to flash fire whenever she looked upon any one. of course, her clothing was dripping with moisture, and her call filled us all with wonder. she could speak only a few words of english, so her face lighted up with pleasure when father addressed her in the sioux language. as near as we could find out, her name was chitto, and she lived with her parents at lac qui parle. she told us that there were several families in a spot by themselves, and that day they had secured a quantity of strong drink, of which they were partaking very freely. at such times indians are dangerous, and little chitto was terrified almost out of her senses. she fled through the storm and the darkness, not caring where she went, but only anxious to get away from the dreadful scene. entering, without any intention on her part, the path in the woods, she followed it until she saw in the distance the glimmer of the light in our window, when she hastened to the house and asked for admission. i need scarcely say it was gladly granted. my mother removed the damp clothes from the little sioux girl, and replaced them with some warm, dry ones belonging to me. at the same time she gave her hot, refreshing tea, and did every thing to make her comfortable. i removed the little moccasins from the wondering chitto's feet, kissed her dark cheeks, and, as i uttered expressions of pity, though in an unknown tongue, i am quite sure that they were understood by chitto, who looked the gratitude she could not express. she soon began to show signs of drowsiness and was put to bed with me, falling asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. i lay awake a little longer and noticed that the storm had ceased. the patter of the rain was heard no more upon the roof, and the wind blew just as it sometimes does late in the fall. at last i sunk into a sound sleep. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils write a short letter to some friend, taking as a subject, "a visit from little crow," as given on pages and .[ ] let pupils add _y_ to each of the following words, make such other changes as may be necessary, and then define them. earth air fire water sleep rain rust fun fur stick what two words double their final letter before adding _y_? _fiery_, from _fire_, is irregular in spelling. [ ] this lesson. * * * * * lesson lviii. de'mons, _spirits; evil spirits_. groped, _found one's way by feeling with the hands_. pre'vi ous, _going before in time; preceding_. in clined', _leaning towards; disposed_. dis tract'ed, _confused by grief_. ex pired', _died_. stat'ue, _a figure carved to represent a living being_. stag'gered, _walked with trembling steps_. as cer tained', _found out by inquiring_. re tain', _keep possession of_. * * * * * a story of the sioux war. part ii. i awoke in the morning and saw the rays of the sun entering the window. recalling the incidents of the previous evening, i turned to speak to my young friend. to my surprise she was gone, and supposing she had risen a short time before, i hurriedly dressed myself and went down stairs to help keep her company. but she was not there, and father and mother had seen nothing of her. she had no doubt risen in the night and gone quietly away. there was something curious and touching in the fact that she had groped about in the darkness, until she found her own clothing, which she put on and departed without taking so much as a pin that belonged to us. we all felt a strong interest in chitto, and father took me with him a few days later when he visited lac qui parle. he made many inquiries for the little girl, but could learn nothing about her. i felt very much disappointed, for i had built up strong hopes of taking her out home with me to spend several days. father and i went a number of times afterward, and always made an effort to discover chitto; but we did not gain any knowledge of her. on the afternoon of august , father was sitting in his accustomed seat in front of the house, and mother was engaged, as usual about her household duties. i was playing and amusing myself as a girl of my age is inclined to do at all times. the day was sultry and close, and i remember that father was unusually pale and weak. he coughed a great deal, and sat for a long time so still that i thought he must be asleep. "mother," said i, "what is that smoke yonder?" i pointed in the direction of lac qui parle. she saw a dark column of smoke floating off in the horizon, its location being such, that there could be no doubt that it was at the agency. "there is a fire of some kind there," she said, while she shaded her eyes with her hand and gazed long and earnestly in that direction. "the indians are coming, edward," she called to father; "they will be here in a few minutes!" suddenly, a splendid black horse came galloping from the woods, and with two or three powerful bounds, halted directly in front of me. as it did so, i saw that the bareback rider was a small girl, and she was our little sioux friend, chitto. she made a striking picture, with her long, black hair streaming over her shoulders, and her dress fluttering in the wind. "why, chitto," said i, in amazement, "where did you come from?" "must go--must go--must go!" she exclaimed, in great excitement. "indian soon be here!" so it seemed that, in the few weeks since she had been at our house, she had picked up enough of the english language to make herself understood. "what do you mean?" asked mother, as she and i advanced to the side of the black steed upon which the little sioux sat; "what are the indians doing?" "they burn buildings--have killed people--coming this way!" chitto spoke the truth, for the sioux were raging like demons at that very hour at lac qui parle. "what shall we do, chitto?" asked my mother. "get on horse--he carry you." "but my husband; the horse can not carry all three of us." my poor distracted mother scarcely knew what to do. all this time father sat like a statue in his chair. a terrible suspicion suddenly entered her mind, and she ran to him. placing her hand upon his shoulder, she addressed him in a low tone, and then uttered a fearful shriek, as she staggered backward, saying: "he is dead! he is dead!" such was the fact. the shock of the news brought by the little indian girl was too much, and he had expired in his chair without a struggle. the wild cry which escaped my mother was answered by several whoops from the woods, and chitto became frantic with terror. "indian be here in minute!" said she. mother instantly helped me upon the back of the horse and then followed herself. she was a skillful rider, but she allowed chitto to retain the bridle, and we started off. looking back i saw a half-dozen sioux horsemen come out of the woods and start on a trot toward us. just then chitto spoke to the horse, and he bounded off at a terrible rate, never halting until he had gone two or three miles. then, when we looked back, we saw nothing of the indians, and the horse was brought down to a walk; and finally, when the sun went down, we entered a dense wood, where we staid all night. i shall not attempt to describe those fearful hours. not one of us slept a wink. mother sat weeping over the loss of father, while i was heart-broken, too. chitto, like the indian she was, kept on the move continually. here and there she stole as noiselessly through the wood as a shadow, while playing the part of sentinel. at daylight we all fell into a feverish slumber, which lasted several hours. when we awoke, we were hungry and miserable. seeing a settler's house in the distance, chitto offered to go to it for food. we were afraid she would get into trouble, but she was sure there was no danger and went. in less than an hour she was back again with an abundance of bread. she said there was no one in the house, and we supposed the people had become alarmed and escaped. we staid where we were for three days, during which time we saw a party of sioux warriors burn the house where chitto had obtained the food for us. it seemed to mother that the indians would not remain at lac qui parle long, and that we would be likely to find safety there. accordingly, she induced chitto to start on the return. when we reached our house nothing was to be seen of father's body; but we soon, discovered a newly-made grave, where we had reason to believe he was buried. as was afterward ascertained, he had been given a decent burial by orders of little crow himself, who, doubtless, would have protected us, had we awaited his coming. we rode carefully through the woods, and when we came out on the other side, our hearts were made glad by the sight of the white tents of united states soldiers. colonel sibley was encamped at lac qui parle, and we were safe at last. chitto disappeared from this post in the same sudden manner as before; but i am happy to say that i have seen her several times since. mother and i were afraid her people would punish her for the part she took in helping us, but they did not. probably the friendship which little crow showed toward our family, may have had something to do with the gentle treatment which the indians showed her. * * * * * language lesson.--supply the words omitted from the following sentences. "must go! indian soon be here!" "indian be here in minute!" let pupils make out an _analysis_ for the subject-- "our second visit from chitto," and use it in giving that part of the story in their own words. * * * * * lesson lix. e mit', _send forth_. con'trast, _difference in form or appearance_. molt'en, _melted_. con'ic al, _having the shape of a cone_. vol'umes, _quantities; masses_. char'ac ter, _kind; formation_. del'uge, _flood; drown_. com pre hen'sion, _the power of the mind to understand_. ap pall'ing, _terrifying_. grand'eur, _majesty; vastness of size_. lu'rid, _gloomy; dismal_. tre men'dous, _terrific; awful_. * * * * * volcanoes. in various parts of the earth, there are mountains that send out from their highest peaks, smoke, ashes, and fire. mountains of this class are called volcanoes, and they present a striking contrast to other mountains, on account of their conical form and the character of the rocks of which they are composed. all volcanoes have at their summits what are called craters. these are large, hollow, circular openings, from which the smoke and fire escape. nearly all volcanoes emit smoke constantly. this smoke proceeds from fires that are burning far down in the depths of the earth. sometimes these fires burst forth from the crater of the volcano with tremendous force. the smoke becomes thick and black, and lurid flames shoot up to a height of hundreds of feet, making a scene of amazing grandeur. [illustration] with the flames there are thrown out stones, ashes, and streams of melted rock, called lava. this lava flows down the sides of the mountain, and, being red-hot, destroys every thing with which it comes in contact. at such times, a volcano is said to be in eruption. a volcanic eruption is generally preceded by low, rumbling sounds, and trembling of the earth's surface. then follows greater activity of the volcano, from which dense volumes of smoke and steam issue, and fire and molten lava make their appearance. such is the force of some of these eruptions, that large rocks have been hurled to great distances from the crater, and towns and cities have been buried under a vast covering of ashes and lava. the quantity of lava and ashes which sometimes escapes from volcanoes during an eruption, is almost beyond comprehension. in , a volcano in the island of java, threw out ashes and cinders that covered the ground fifty feet deep, for a distance of seven miles all around the mountain. this eruption destroyed nearly forty towns and villages. in , a volcano in iceland sent out two streams of lava; one forty miles long and seven miles wide, and the other fifty miles long and fifteen miles wide. these streams were from one hundred to six hundred feet deep. near the city of naples, italy, is situated the volcano mt. vesuvius. this fiery monster has probably caused more destruction than any other volcano known. in the year a.d., it suddenly burst forth in a violent eruption, that resulted in one of the most appalling disasters that ever happened. such immense quantities of ashes, stones, and lava were poured forth from its crater, that within the short space of twenty hours, two large cities were completely destroyed. these cities were herculaneum and pompeii. at this eruption of vesuvius, the stream of lava flowed directly through and over the city of herculaneum into the sea. the quantity was so great that, as it cooled and became hardened, it gradually filled up all the streets and ran over the tops of the houses. while the lava was thus turning the city into a mass of solid stone, the inhabitants were fleeing from it along the shore toward naples, and in boats on the sea. at the same time, too, the wind carried the ashes and cinders in such a direction as to deluge the city of pompeii. slowly and steadily the immense volume of ashes and small stones, blocked up the streets and settled on the roofs of houses. the light of the flames that burst out from the awful crater, aided the people in their escape; but many who for some reason could not get away, perished. pompeii was so completely covered that, nothing could be seen of it. thus it remained buried under the ground until the year , when it was discovered by accident. since that time much of the city has been uncovered, and now one can walk along the streets, look into the houses, and form some idea how the people lived there eighteen hundred years ago. * * * * * _language lesson_.--let pupils write an account of a supposed journey from their homes to naples, telling about the route they would take, and the particulars as to time and distance. be very particular about handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and capital letters. * * * * * lesson lx. coot, _a water-bird_. hern (her'on), _a wading bird_. ed'dying, _moving in small circles_. mal'low, _a kind of plant_. bick'er, _move quickly; quarrel_. fal'low, _plowed land_. gray'ling, _a kind of fish_. cress'es, _a kind of water-plant_. sal'ly, _a rushing or bursting forth_. thorps, _villages_. bram'bly, _full of rough shrubs_. * * * * * the brook. i come from haunts of coot and hern, i make a sudden sally, and sparkle out among the fern, to bicker down a valley. by thirty hills i hurry down, or slip between the ridges, by twenty thorps, a little town, and half a hundred bridges. till last by philip's farm i flow to join the brimming river, for men may come, and men may go, but i go on forever. i chatter over stony ways, in little sharps and trebles, i bubble into eddying bays, i babble on the pebbles. with many a curve my bank i fret by many a field and fallow, and many a fairy foreland set with willow-wood and mallow. i chatter, chatter, as i flow to join the brimming river, for men may come, and men may go, but i go on forever. i wind about, and in and out, with here a blossom sailing, and here and there a lusty trout, and here and there a grayling. and here and there a foamy flake upon me, as i travel with many a silvery waterbreak above the golden gravel. and draw them all along, and flow to join the brimming river, for men may come, and men may go, but i go on forever. i steal by lawns and grassy plots, i slide by hazel covers; i move the sweet forget-me-nots that grow for happy lovers. i slip, i slide, i gloom, i glance, among my skimming swallows; i make the netted sunbeam dance against my sandy shallows. i murmur under moon and stars in brambly wildernesses; i linger by my shingly bars; i loiter round my cresses. and out again i curve and flow to join the brimming river, for men may come, and men may go, but i go on forever. * * * * * directions for reading.--point out the places in the poem where two lines should be joined in reading. mark the _inflection_ of the following lines. "i slip, i slide, i gloom, i glance, among my skimming swallows." "for men may come, and men may go, but i go on forever." read the last two lines, and state whether the _inflected words_ are also _emphatic words_. find a similar example of _inflection_ and _emphasis_ upon the same words in the last stanza of lesson xxxvi. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils explain the meaning of the following expressions. _join the brimming river_. _netted sunbeam_. * * * * * lesson lxi. de terred', _kept from_. en'ter prise, _an undertaking_. im'ple ments, _articles used in a trade_. sur vey'ing, _measuring land_. in'di cated, _showed; pointed out_. re clin'ing, _partly lying down_. re lease', _let go_. con clu'sion, _final decision_. suc ces'sion, _following one after another_. hur'ri cane, _a high wind_. an'ec dote, _incident; story_. com pact', _closely put together_. * * * * * anecdote of washington. part i it was a calm, sunny day in the year ; the scene, a piece of forest land in the north of virginia, near a noble stream of water. implements of surveying were lying about, and several men reclining under the trees, indicated by their dress and appearance, that they were engaged in laying out the wild lands of the country. these persons had just finished their dinner. apart from the group walked a young man of a tall and compact frame, who moved with the firm and steady tread of one accustomed to constant exercise in the open air. his face wore a look of decision and manliness not usually found in one so young, for he was but little over eighteen years of age. suddenly there was a shriek, then another, and then several more in rapid succession. the voice was that of a woman, and seemed to proceed from the other side of a small piece of wooded land. at the first scream, the youth turned his head in the direction of the sound; but when it was repeated, he pushed aside the undergrowth and soon dashed into an open space on the banks of the stream, where stood a small log-cabin. as the young man broke from the undergrowth, he saw his companions crowded together on the banks of the river, while in their midst stood a woman, from whom proceeded the shrieks he had heard. she was held by two of the men, but was struggling to free herself. the instant the woman saw the young man, she exclaimed, "o sir, you will do something for me! make them release me. my boy--my poor boy is drowning, and they will not let me go!" "it would be madness; she will jump into the river," said one of the men, "and the rapids would dash her to pieces in a moment!" the youth had scarcely waited for these words; for he remembered the child, a bold little boy four years of age, whose beautiful blue eyes and flaxen ringlets made him a favorite with every one. he had been accustomed to play in the little inclosure before the cabin; but the gate having been left open, he had stolen out, reached the edge of the bank, and was in the act of looking over, when his mother saw him. the shriek she uttered only hastened the accident she feared; for the child, frightened at the cry of his mother, lost his balance and fell into the stream, which here went foaming and roaring along among rocks and dangerous rapids. several of the men approached the edge of the river, and were on the point of springing in after the boy. but the sight of the sharp rocks crowding the channel, the rush and whirl of the waters, and the want of any knowledge where to look for the child, deterred them, and they gave up the enterprise. not so with the noble youth. his first act was to throw off his coat; next to spring to the edge of the bank. here he stood for a moment, running his eyes rapidly over the scene below, taking in with a glance the different currents and the most dangerous of the rocks, in order to shape his course when in the stream. he had scarcely formed his conclusion, when he saw in the water a white object, which he knew was the boy's dress; and then he plunged into the wild and roaring rapids. "thank god, he will save my child!" cried the mother; "there he is!--o my boy, my darling boy! how could i leave you!" every one had rushed to the brink of the precipice and were now following with eager eyes the progress of the youth, as the current bore him onward, like a feather in the power of a hurricane. now it seemed as if he would be dashed against a projecting rock, over which the water flew in foam, and a whirlpool would drag him in, from whose grasp escape would appear impossible. at times, the current bore him under, and he would be lost to sight; then in a few seconds he would come to the surface again, though his position would be far from where he had disappeared. thus struggling amid the rocks and angry waters, was the noble youth borne onward, eager to succeed in his perilous undertaking. those on shore looked on with breathless interest. * * * * * directions for reading.--point out the _emphatic words_ and mark _inflection_ in the third paragraph on page .[ ] what effect has very strong _emphasis_ upon _inflection_? (see _directions for reading_, page .)[ ] should this lesson be read more slowly, or somewhat faster than conversation? * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils fill blanks in the sentences given below, using in turn, each of the following sets of words: ( ) _saw, knew, was, plunged;_ ( ) _sees, knows, is, plunges;_ ( ) _perceived, thought, was, jumped;_ ( ) _perceives, thinks, is, jumps;_ ( ) _noticed, concluded, was, dived;_ ( ) _notices, concludes, is, dives_. he ---- in the water a white object, which he ---- -- the boy's dress. then he ---- into the roaring rapids. when the first, third, and fifth sets of words are used, the action is represented as something that is past; but when the second, fourth, and sixth sets are used, the action is represented as going on at the present time. the forms of _verbs_ (_action-words_) which are given in the first, third, and fifth sets are used to indicate past time, and are called _past tenses_; and the forms given in the second, fourth, and sixth sets are used to indicate present time, and are called _present tenses_. [ ] see fifth paragraph from the end of the passage. [ ] see lesson l. * * * * * lesson lxii. e merge', _come out_. vor'tex, _water in whirling motion; a whirlpool_. con fid'ed, _given into the care of_. vis'i ble, _in sight_. spec ta'tors, _those who look on_. vent'ured, _dared_. re ward', _that which is received in return for one's acts_. des'ti nies, _lives and fortunes_. sup pressed', _kept back_. re doub'led, _made twice as great_. * * * * * anecdote of washington. part ii. o, how that mother's straining eyes followed the struggling youth! how her heart sunk when he went under, and with what joy she saw him emerge again from the waters, and, flinging the waves aside with his strong arms, struggle on in pursuit of her boy! but it seemed as if his generous efforts were not to succeed; for, though the current was bearing off the boy before his eyes, scarcely ten feet distant, he could not overtake the drowning child. twice the boy went out of sight; and a suppressed shriek escaped the mother's lips; but twice he reappeared, and then, with hands wrung wildly together, and breathless anxiety, she followed his progress, as his form was hurried onward. the youth now appeared to redouble his exertions, for they were approaching the most dangerous part of the river. the rush of waters at this spot was tremendous, and no one ventured to approach it, even in a canoe, lest he should be dashed to pieces. what, then, would be the youth's fate, unless he soon overtook the child? he seemed fully sensible of the increasing peril, and now urged his way through the foaming current with a desperate strength. three times he was on the point of grasping the child, when the water's whirled the prize from him. the third effort was made just as they were entering within the influence of the current above the falls; and when it failed, the mother's heart sunk within her, and she groaned, fully expecting the youth to give up his task. but no; he only pressed forward the more eagerly; and, as they breathlessly watched, amid the boiling waters, they saw the form of the youth following close after that of the boy. and now both pursuer and pursued shot to the brink of the falls. an instant they hung there, distinctly visible amid the foaming waters. every brain grew dizzy at the sight. but a shout burst from the spectators, when they saw the child held aloft by the right arm of the youth--a shout that was suddenly changed to a cry of horror, when they both vanished into the raging waters below! the mother ran forward, and then stood gazing with fixed eyes at the foot of the falls. suddenly she gave the glad cry, "there they are! see! they are safe! great god, i thank thee!" and, sure enough, there was the youth still unharmed. he had just emerged from the boiling vortex below the falls. with, one hand he held aloft the child, and with the other he was making for the shore. they ran, they shouted, they scarcely knew what they did, until they reached his side, just as he was struggling to the bank. they drew him out almost exhausted. the boy was senseless; but his mother declared that he still lived, as she pressed him to her bosom. the youth could scarcely stand, so faint was he from his exertions. who can describe the scene that followed--the mother's calmness while striving to bring her boy to life, and her wild gratitude to his preserver, when the child was out of danger, and sweetly sleeping in her arms? "god will give you a reward," said she. "he will do great things for you in return for this day's work, and the blessings of thousands besides mine will attend you." and so it was: for, to the hero of that hour were afterward confided the destinies of a mighty nation. throughout his long career, what tended to make him honored and respected beyond all men, was the spirit of self-sacrifice which, in the rescue of that mother's child, as in the more important events of his life, characterized george washington. * * * * * directions for reading.--read the first two pages of the lesson quietly, but not slowly. about the middle of page , the manner of reading should be changed, when the feeling of anxiety is turned to that of joy.[ ] * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils rewrite the first paragraph of the lesson, changing _past tenses_ to _present tenses_ throughout. what effect will this change have upon the meaning? [ ] this lesson, seventh paragraph from the end. * * * * * lesson lxiii ex ist'ing, _living_. mas'sive _large and solid_. hy e'na, _a beast of prey_. cau'tion, _great care_. strat'a gem, _a secret way; trick_. de pends', _trusts to_. mar'vel ous, _wonderful_. jack'al, _a beast of prey_. pro cure', _obtain_. a dorn', _make beautiful_. * * * * * the ostrich. the ostrich is the largest of all birds now existing, and is found chiefly in the sandy deserts of africa and arabia. a full-grown african ostrich stands from seven to nine feet in height, to the top of its head, and will weigh from two to three hundred pounds. the body of the ostrich is large and massive; the legs are long, measuring four feet or more, and the neck is of about the same length as the legs. the head is small for so large a bird; but its feet with their two great toes are of good size, and possess astonishing strength. an ostrich's beak is short and blunt; its neck slender and covered with gray down. its eyes are large and bright, and the sense of sight so keen that it can readily see a distance of from four to six miles. it hears and sees equally well, and can only be approached by stratagem. the feathers of the male ostrich are of a glossy black, with the exception of the large plumes of the wing-feathers, which in both the male and female are snowy white. to procure these beautiful white plumes is the chief object in hunting the ostrich. those plumes when plucked are sent to foreign countries, and used to adorn ladies' hats, and for various other purposes. the ostrich feeds on vegetable substances; but as an aid to digestion, it sometimes swallows stones, glass, paper, nails, and pieces of wood. an incident is related of an ostrich on exhibition in paris, swallowing a gold watch and chain. a gentleman approached within reach of the beak of the bird, and, in the twinkling of an eye, the watch and chain were snatched from his pocket and swallowed. although the ostrich has wings, it can not fly--it depends upon its strong legs and feet for speed, and can run much faster than a horse. the strength of the ostrich is marvelous. its only weapon of defence is its long and muscular leg. [illustration.] it is accustomed to kick directly forward, and it is said by those who have observed this habit, that a single blow from its gigantic two-toed foot is sufficient to kill a panther, a jackal, or a hyena. no better idea of its strength can be given than the fact of its being employed for riding. a traveler, writing about two ostriches he saw in a village in africa, says: "these gigantic birds were so tame that two boys mounted together the larger one. the ostrich no sooner felt their weight, than it started off at full speed and carried them several times around the village. "this trial pleased me so much that i wished to have it repeated; and in order to test their strength, i had a full-grown man mount the smaller bird, and two men the larger bird. "at first, they started with caution; but presently they spread their wings and went off at such a speed that they seemed scarcely to touch the ground." the voice of the ostrich is deep and hollow, and is said to resemble at times the roar of the lion. the bird frequently makes a kind of cackling noise, and when enraged at an enemy, it hisses very loudly. ostriches make their nests in the sand. one female will, in a single season, lay from twenty to thirty eggs, weighing about three pounds each. most of these she places in the nest, standing them on one end; but some of them are left outside of the nest as food for her young when they are hatched. the natives of africa are very fond of ostrich eggs, using them for food. in taking the eggs, they exercise great caution; for should the birds discover them, they would break all the eggs and leave the nest. young ostriches are readily tamed. some families in africa keep them as we do chickens. they play with children, sleep in the houses, and when a family moves, the ostriches follow the camels, frequently carrying the children on their backs. within the past few years, ostriches have been brought to this country; and places called ostrich farms have been established in california and other states, for the purpose of raising them for their feathers. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils point out any points that are omitted from the following analysis.-- . where the ostrich lives. . its size and appearance--body, head, neck, eyes, feathers, and plumes. . its food. . an incident. . its speed. . its strength,--leg and foot. . riding ostriches. . voice of ostrich. . nests and habits of the birds. . ostriches in this country. change such points as may be found necessary, and use the _analysis_ in describing some well-known bird. * * * * * lesson lxiv. plead, _urge as a reason_. breach, _a breaking, as of a promise_. re buke', _call attention to wrong-doing_. strew, _spread; scatter_. chide, _find fault with_. re sent'nent, _anger on account of an injury_. un a vail'ing, _useless; not helping in any way_. jus'tice, _honesty; what is right_. * * * * * to-day and to-morrow. if fortune, with a smiling face, strew roses on our way, when shall we stoop to pick them up?-- to-day, my friend, to-day. but should she frown with face of care, and talk of coming sorrow, when shall we grieve, if grieve we must?-- to-morrow, friend, to-morrow. if those who have wronged us own their fault, and kindly pity pray, when shall we listen and forgive?-- to-day, my friend, to-day. but if stern justice urge rebuke, and warmth from memory borrow, when shall we chide, if chide we dare?-- to-morrow, friend, to-morrow. if those to whom we owe a debt are harmed unless we pay, when shall we struggle to be just?-- to-day, my friend, to-day. but if our debtor fail our hope, and plead his ruin thorough, when shall we weigh his breach of faith?-- to-morrow, friend, to-morrow. for virtuous acts and harmless joys the minutes will not stay;-- we have always time to welcome them to-day, my friend, to-day. but care, resentment, angry words, and unavailing sorrow, come far too soon, if they appear to-morrow, friend, to-morrow. * * * * * directions for reading.--let some pupil in the class state the manner in which the lesson should be read. what is the effect of repeating the words _to-day_ and _to-morrow_, in the fourth and eighth lines of each stanza? * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils give the meaning of each stanza in their own words. _warmth from memory borrow_ means become more angry when we remember our own acts of kindness toward the person now doing us injury. explain the meaning of the following expressions. _strew roses on our way._ _breach of faith._ * * * * * lesson lxv. ref'uge, _a place of safety_. fo'li age, _leaves and branches of trees or shrubs_. op pressed', _heavily burdened_. be tray', _give information to an enemy_. con trived', _managed; arranged_. rec'og nized, _knew by seeing_. ren'der, _give; make_. im'mi nent, _close by; threatening_. com pel', _make one do any thing_. cav'al ry, _soldiers mounted on horses_. false, _not true; unreal_. re spond'ed, _answered; replied_. * * * * * an incident of the revolution. during the revolutionary war, when the american people were fighting for independence, a governor of one of the colonies found himself in great danger of being captured by british soldiers. the governor, whose name was griswold, contrived to reach the house of a relative, and while there, was informed that the soldiers had discovered his place of refuge and were then on their way to seize him. griswold at once realizing that his peril was imminent, determined, if possible, to reach a small stream, where he had left a boat so hidden, by the foliage that it could not be seen from the road. in great haste and excitement, he left the house and proceeded in the direction of the river. passing through an orchard, he encountered a young girl about twelve years old. she was watching some pieces of linen cloth which were stretched out on the grass for the purpose of bleaching. hetty--that was the girl's name--was seated under a tree with her knitting, and had near her a pail of water, from which she occasionally sprinkled the cloths to keep them damp. she started up and was somewhat frightened when she saw a man leaping over the fence; but soon recognized him to be her cousin. "o, is it you, cousin!" exclaimed hetty; "you frightened me--where are you going?" "hetty," he replied, "the soldiers are seeking for me, and i shall lose my life, unless i can reach the boat before they come. i want you to run down toward the shore and meet them." "they will surely ask for me; and then you must tell them that i have gone up the road to catch the mail-cart, and they will turn off the other way." "but, cousin, how can i say so?--it would not be true. o, why did you tell me which way you were going?" "would you betray me, hetty, and see me put to death? hark! they are coming. i hear the clink of their horses' feet. tell them i have gone up the road and heaven will bless you." "those who speak false words will never be happy," said hetty. "but they shall not compel me to tell which way you go, even if they kill me--so run as fast as you can." "i am afraid it is too late to run, hetty; where can i hide myself?" "be quick, cousin. get down and lie under this cloth; i will throw it over you and go on sprinkling the linen." "i will do it, for it is my last chance." he was soon concealed under the heavy folds of the long cloth. a few minutes afterward, a party of cavalry dashed along the road. an officer saw the girl and called out to her in a loud voice-- "have you seen a man run this way?" "yes, sir," replied hetty. "which way did he go?" "i promised not to tell, sir." "but you must tell me this instant; or it will be worse for you." "i will not tell, for i must keep my word." "let me question her, for i think i know the child," said a man who was guide to the party. "is your name hetty marvin?" "yes, sir." "perhaps the man who ran past you was your cousin?" "yes, sir, he was." "well, we wish to speak with him. what did he say to you when, he came by?" "he told me that he had to run to save his life." "just so--that was quite true. i hope he will not have far to run. where was he going to hide himself?" "my cousin said that he would go to the river to find a boat, and he wanted me to tell the men in search of him that he had gone the other way to meet the mail-cart." "you are a good girl, hetty, and we know you speak the truth. what did your cousin say when he heard that you could not tell a lie to save his life?" "he asked, would i betray him and see him put to death?" "and you said you would not tell, if you were killed for it." poor hetty's tears fell fast as she responded, "yes, sir." "those were brave words, and i suppose he thanked you and ran down the road as fast as he could?" "i promised not to tell which way he went, sir." "o yes, i forgot; but tell me his last words, and i will not trouble you any more." "he said, 'i will do it, for it is my last chance.'" hetty was now oppressed with great fear; she sobbed aloud, and hid her face in her apron. the soldiers thought they had obtained all the information they could, and rode off toward the river-side. while griswold lay hidden at the farm, he had agreed upon a signal with his boatmen, that if in trouble he would put a white cloth by day, or a light at night, in the attic window of his place of concealment. when either signal was seen, the men were to be on the watch, ready to render him assistance in case of need. no sooner had the soldiers ridden away, than griswold's friends in the house hung out a white cloth from the window, to warn the boatmen, who then pulled out to sea. the boat, with two men in it, was nearly out of sight by the time the soldiers reached the shore, and this caused them to conclude that griswold had effected his escape. meantime he lay safe and quiet until the time came for hetty to go home to supper. then he requested her to go and ask her mother to put the signal-lamp in the window as it grew dark, and send him clothes and food. the signal was seen, the boat returned, and griswold made his way to it in safety. in better days, when the war was over, and peace declared, he named one of his daughters hetty marvin, that he might daily think of the brave young cousin whose sense and truth-speaking had saved his life. * * * * * lesson lxvi. con sume', _use entirely; exhaust_. cul ti va'tion, _attending to the growth of plants_. ex'ports, _the products of a country which are sold to other countries_ trans por ta'tion, _carrying_. o'val, _shaped like an egg_. prin'ci pal, _chief; that which is most important_. es'ti mat ed, _stated in regard to quantity_. se lect'ed, _chosen; picked out_. ter'mi nates, _comes to an end_. * * * * * tropical fruits. those who have not visited tropical countries, can scarcely imagine the wonders of their vegetation. there is nothing in the northern half of the united states, with which to compare the richness of the vegetable growth of the tropics. in the southern states of our union, as well as in mexico and central america, there are found many of the same plants and trees that grow in countries lying still nearer the equator. the various kinds of fruits which grow in these countries, form a very large portion of the exports. among those that are most commonly sent to us, are bananas, oranges, lemons, dates, cocoa-nuts, and figs. in countries where the banana grows most abundantly, no article of food which the natives can obtain, requires so little trouble in its cultivation. one has only to set out a few banana sprouts, and await the result. in a short time, a juicy stem shoots up to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. it is formed of nothing more than a number of leaf stalks rolled one over the other, and grows sometimes to a thickness of two feet. two gigantic leaves grow out from the top, ten feet long and two feet broad. they are so very thin and tender that a light wind splits them into ribbons. from the center of the leaves a very strong stalk rises up, which supports the cluster of bananas. there are sometimes over one hundred bananas to a single stalk. a cluster of ripe bananas will weigh from sixty to seventy pounds, and represents a large amount of food. when a stalk has produced and ripened its fruit, it begins to wither and soon dies. in a very short time, however, new sprouts spring up from the old root, and ere long the native has another cluster. so rapidly do they follow each other, that one cluster is scarcely consumed before another one is ready to ripen. bananas ripened on the stalk will not bear transportation to any great distance; therefore, when selected for export, the clusters are cut off while the bananas are very green. another valuable fruit of the tropics is the date. this fruit grows on a tree called the date-palm, that is found in both asia and africa. the date-palm is a majestic tree, rising to the height of sixty feet or more, without branches, and with a trunk of uniform thickness throughout its entire length. it begins to bear fruit about eight years after it has been planted, and continues to be productive from seventy to one hundred years. dates are oval in shape, and have a long solid stone. they form the principal food of the inhabitants of some of the eastern countries, and are an important article of commerce. when they are perfectly ripe, they possess a delightful perfume, and are very agreeable to the taste. in preparing dates to be sent to distant countries, they are gathered a short time before they are quite ripe, dried in the sun on mats, and finally packed in boxes or straw sacks. travelers in the deserts of africa, often carry dried dates with them for their chief food, during a journey of hundreds of miles. the arabs grind dried dates into a powder which they call date flour. if this is packed away in a dry place, it will keep for years, and only has to be moistened with a little water to prepare it for eating. one of the most valuable and productive of tropical trees is the cocoa-nut palm. it grows largely in both the east and west indies, and elsewhere throughout the torrid zone. it rises to a height of from sixty to one hundred feet, and terminates in a crown, of graceful, waving leaves. some of these leaves reach a length of twenty feet, and have the appearance of gigantic feathers. the fruit consists of a thick outward husk of a fibrous structure, and within this, is the ordinary cocoa-nut of commerce. the shell of the nut is hard and woody, and a little over a quarter of an inch in thickness. next to this shell is the kernel, which is also a shell about half an inch thick, and composed of a white substance very pleasant to the taste. within this white eatable shell, is a milky liquid, called cocoa-nut milk. [illustration] the cocoa-nut is very useful to the natives of the regions in which it grows. the nuts supply a large portion of their food, and the milky fluid inclosed within, forms a pleasant and refreshing drink. the shell of the nut is made into cups, and from the kernel, cocoa-nut oil is pressed out and largely used in making soap and for other purposes. in ceylon, the tree is cultivated extensively. it is estimated that there are twenty million trees in that island, and that each tree produces about sixty nuts yearly. the wealth of a native is based upon the number of cocoa-nut palms he owns. another well-known tropical fruit is the fig, which grows on a bush or small tree about eighteen or twenty feet high. the fig-tree is now cultivated in all the mediterranean countries, but the larger portion of the american supply comes from western asia and the south of france. the varieties are extremely numerous, and the fruit is of various colors, from deep purple to yellow, or nearly white. the trees usually bear two crops--one in the early summer, the other in the autumn. when ripe, the figs are picked and spread out to dry in the sun. thus prepared, the fruit is packed closely in barrels, baskets, or wooden boxes, for commerce. oranges and lemons are cultivated in nearly all warm countries. they grow on trees somewhat smaller than apple trees, and must be picked for export while they are hard and green. they ripen during transportation, so that green oranges put up and sent to us from sicily or other distant points, change to a golden yellow color by the time they reach us. oranges are grown largely in florida and louisiana, extensive orange orchards being frequently met with in traveling through those states. the oranges grown there are considered very choice, and are generally sweeter than those brought from italy. * * * * * language lesson.--define the following words, giving the meaning of each part as indicated by hyphens: _ex-port-ing, un-common-ly, dis-trust-ful, pro-vid-ing, un-bear-able, un-hope-ful_. the syllables _placed before_ a stem are called _prefixes_; those _placed after_ a stem, _suffixes_. the words _shall_ and _will_ are used to indicate _future time_; as, i shall go; you will go; he will go. the three tenses of an action may in a general way be represented by the words _yesterday, to-day_, and _to-morrow_. let pupils fill blanks in the following statements, and state the tense of each action. we ---- go to see them next week. john ---- last night. you and i ---- in school at the present time. * * * * * lesson lxvii. found'ed, _established; placed_. gar'ri son, _soldiers stationed in a fort or town_. strode, _walked with long steps_. coun'cil, _a number of men called together for advice_. in cit'ing, _moving to action_. de vot'ed, _very much attached_. de feat'ed, _overcome_. cul'ture, _a high state of knowledge_. or'na ment ed, _adorned_. wam'pum, _shells used by the indians as money or for ornament_. fan tas'tic, _wild; irregular_. * * * * * the story of detroit. the early history of detroit is highly romantic. it was founded in as a military colony. it soon became one of the most important of the western outposts of canada, and as the french and indians were usually on the most friendly terms, the colony for a long time existed in a state of happiness and contentment. at the close of the french war, detroit contained over two thousand inhabitants. canadian dwellings with their lovely gardens lined the banks of the river for miles. within the limits of the settlement were several indian villages. here the light-hearted french-canadian smoked his pipe and told his story, and the friendly indian supplied him with game and joined in his merry-making. in the year , detroit was taken possession of by the english. the indians hated the english, as much as they had loved the french. pontiac, the ruling spirit of the forests at this time, was a most powerful and statesmanlike chief. when he found that his friends, the french, had lost their power, he sought to unite the indian tribes against the english colonies, and to destroy the english garrison at detroit by strategy. he was chief of the ottawas, but possessed great influence over several other tribes. pontiac believed, and that truly, that the establishment of english colonies would be fatal to the interests of the indian race. he strode through the forests like a giant, inciting the tribes to war. he urged a union of all the indian nations from the lakes to the mississippi for the common defense of the race. there lived near detroit a beautiful indian girl, called catharine. the english commander, gladwyn, was pleased with her, and showed her many favors, and she formed a warm friendship for him. one lovely day in may, this girl came to the fort and brought gladwyn a pair of elk-skin moccasins. she appeared very sad. "catharine," said gladwyn, "what troubles you to-day?" she did not answer at once. there was a silent struggle going on in her heart. she had formed a strong attachment for the white people, and she was also devoted to her own race. "to-morrow," she said at length, "pontiac will come to the fort with sixty of his chiefs. each will be armed with a gun, which will be cut short and hidden under his blanket. the chief will ask to hold a council. he will then make a speech, and offer a belt of wampum as a peace-offering. "as soon as he holds up the belt, the chiefs will spring up and shoot the officers, and the indians outside will attack the english. every englishman will be killed. the french inhabitants will be spared." gladwyn made immediate preparations to avoid the danger which threatened them. the soldiers were put under arms. orders were given to have them drawn up in line on the arrival of the indians the following day. the next morning indian canoes approached the fort from the eastern shores. they contained pontiac and his sixty chiefs. at ten o'clock the chiefs marched to the fort, in fantastic procession. each wore a colored blanket, and was painted, plumed, or in some way gaily ornamented. as pontiac entered the fort, a glance showed him that his plot was discovered. he passed in amazement through glittering rows of steel, he made a speech, expressing friendship; but he did not dare to lift the wampum belt which was to have been the signal for attack. he was allowed to depart peaceably. when he found that his plot had been discovered, his anger knew no bounds. he gathered his warriors from every hand and laid siege to detroit. he was defeated, and with his defeat ended the power of the indian tribes in the region of the upper lakes. detroit became an english town, and afterward an american city. she has gathered to herself the wealth of the fertile regions which lie around her, as well as the commerce of the broad inland seas on either hand. to-day she has more than one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants, and is famous for her wealth and culture. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils review, as a written exercise, the spelling of the following words. treasure rheumatism group desperate release mischievous courtesy separate weary approach redoubled vegetable stealthy caution mighty stratagem peasants exhausted fortnight spectator concealed draughts knowledge necessary freight guidance flickering particular in the sentences given below, change the verbs so as to represent the action as completed. "the chiefs march to the fort in fantastic procession. they find that their plot is discovered. pontiac immediately gathers his warriors from every hand, and lays siege to detroit. he is defeated, and with his defeat, the power of the indian tribes is at an end." in the last two sentences, change the verbs so as to represent future time. let pupils make out an _analysis_ and use it in treating the subject-- _the town (or city) that i live in._ _suggestion_.--include the location and early history of the town. its present population. its different manufactures. how to get to it. its chief points of interest to a stranger. anecdotes. * * * * * lesson lxviii. heave, _raise; lift_. mack'er el, _a fish spotted with blue, and largely used for food_. con geals', _freezes; grows hard from cold_. ant'lers, _branching horns_. a main', _suddenly; at once_. lurks, _lies hidden_. reels, _frames for winding fishing lines_. teem'ing, _containing in abundance_. car'i bou, _a kind of reindeer_. mick'mack, _a tribe of indians_. * * * * * the fishermen. hurra! the seaward breezes sweep down the bay amain; heave up, my lads, the anchor! run up the sail again! leave to the lubber landsmen the rail-car and the steed; the stars of heaven shall guide us the breath of heaven shall speed. from the hill-top looks the steeple, and the light-house from the sand; and the scattered pines are waving their farewell from the land. one glance, my lads, behind us, for the homes we leave, one sigh, ere we take the change and chances of the ocean and the sky. where in mist the rock is hiding, and the sharp reef lurks below, and the white squall smites in summer, and the autumn tempests blow; where, through gray and rolling vapor, from evening unto morn, a thousand boats are hailing, horn answering unto horn. hurra! for the red island, with the white cross on its crown! hurra! for meccatina, and its mountains bare and brown! where the caribou's tall antlers o'er the dwarf-wood freely toss, and the footsteps of the mickmack have no sound upon the moss. there we'll drop our lines, and gather old ocean's treasures in, where'er the mottled mackerel turns up a steel-dark fin. the sea's our field of harvest, its scaly tribes our grain; we'll reap the teeming waters as at home they reap the plain. though the mist upon our jackets in the bitter air congeals, and our lines wind stiff and slowly from off the frozen reels; though the fog be dark around us, and the storm blow high and loud, we will whistle down the wild wind, and laugh beneath the cloud! hurra!--hurra!--the west wind comes freshening down the bay, the rising sails are filling-- give way, my lads, give way! leave the coward landsman clinging to the dull earth like a weed-- the stars of heaven shall guide us, the breath of heaven shall speed! * * * * * directions for reading.--let some pupil in the class state in what manner the lesson should be read. * * * * * language lesson.--change the verbs throughout the sixth stanza so as to represent past action. give the time indicated in the following sentences. i _am thinking_ about it. i _am going_ to-morrow. as _verb-forms_ do not always determine the _time of an action_, we must call an action _past, present_, or _future_, in accordance with the meaning indicated by the verb. * * * * * lesson lxix. op er a'tions, _ways of working; deeds_. e vap'o rat ed, _has the moisture taken from it_. au'ger, _a tool used in boring holes_. shan'ty, _a hut; a poor dwelling_. e nor'mous, _of very large size_. su per in tend'ing, _directing; taking care of_. an nounce', _give first notice of; make known_. de li'cious, _affording great pleasure, especially to the taste_. de'tails, _small parts of any thing_. clar'i fied, _made clear or pure_. * * * * * making maple sugar. part i. there is no part of farming that a boy enjoys more than the making of maple sugar; it is better than "blackberrying," and nearly as good as fishing. and one reason he likes this work is that somebody else does the most of it. it is a sort of work in which he can appear to be very active, and yet not do much. in my day maple-sugar-making used to be something between picnicking and being shipwrecked on a fertile island, where one should save from the wreck, tubs and augers, and great kettles and pork, and hen's-eggs and rye-and-indian bread, and begin at once to lead the sweetest life in the world. i am told that it is something different nowadays, and that there is more desire to save the sap, and make good, pure sugar, and sell it for a large price. i am told that it is the custom to carefully collect the sap and bring it to the house, where there are built brick arches, over which it is evaporated in shallow pans, and that pains are taken to keep the leaves, sticks, ashes and coals out of it, and that the sugar is clarified. in short, that it is a money-making business, in which there is very little fun, and that the boy is not allowed to dip his paddle into the kettle of boiling sugar and lick off the delicious syrup. as i remember, the country boy used to be on the lookout in the spring for the sap to begin running. i think he discovered it as soon as anybody. perhaps he knew it by a feeling of something starting in his own veins--a sort of spring stir in his legs and arms, which tempted him to stand on his head, or throw a handspring, if he could find a spot of ground from which the snow had melted. the sap stirs early in the legs of a country boy, and shows itself in uneasiness in the toes, which, get tired of boots, and want to come out and touch the soil just as soon as the sun has warmed it a little. the country boy goes barefoot just as naturally as the trees burst their buds, which were packed and varnished over in the fall to keep the water and the frost out. perhaps the boy has been out digging into the maple-trees with his jack-knife; at any rate, he is pretty sure to announce the discovery as he comes running into the house in a state of great excitement, with "sap's runnin'!" and then, indeed, the stir and excitement begin. the sap-buckets, which have been stored in the wood-house, are brought down and set out on the south side of the house and scalded. the snow is still a foot or more deep in the woods, and the ox-sled is got out to make a road to the sugar camp. the boy is every-where present, superintending every thing, asking questions, and filled with a desire to help the excitement. it is a great day when the cart is loaded with the buckets, and the procession starts into the woods. the sun shines brightly; the snow is soft and beginning to sink down; the snow-birds are twittering about, and the noise of shouting and of the blows of the axe echoes far and wide. in the first place the men go about and tap the trees, drive in the spouts, and hang the buckets under. the boy watches all these operations with the greatest interest. he wishes that some time when a hole is bored into a tree that the sap would spout out in a stream, as it does when a cider-barrel is tapped. but it never does, it only drops, sometimes almost in a stream, but on the whole slowly, and the boy learns that the sweet things of the world have to be patiently waited for, and do not usually come otherwise than drop by drop. then the camp is to be cleared of snow. the shanty is re-covered with boughs. in front of it two enormous logs are rolled nearly together, and a fire is built between them. forked sticks are set at each end, and a long pole is laid on them, and on this are hung the great iron kettles. the huge hogsheads are turned right side up, and cleaned out to receive the sap that is gathered. the great fire that is kindled is never allowed to go out, night or day, so long as the season lasts. somebody is always cutting wood to feed it; somebody is busy most of the time gathering in the sap. somebody is required to watch the kettles that they do not boil over, and to fill them. it is not the boy, however; he is too busy with things in general to be of any use in details. he has his own little sap-yoke and small pails, with which he gathers the sweet liquid. he has a little boiling-place of his own, with small logs and a tiny kettle. * * * * * directions for reading.--in the second line of the lesson, after the word _more_, a pause should be made for the purpose of giving special effect to the words which follow. this is called a _rhetorical pause_. in the third and fourth lines, point out the _rhetorical pauses_. * * * * * language lesson.--let some pupil explain the meaning of the third paragraph of the lesson. change the verbs in the last paragraph so as to indicate _future time_. * * * * * lesson lxx. grim'y, _dirty_. re al i za'tion, _the act of coming true_. in vent'ed, _found out; contrived_. per mit'ted, _allowed_. dis solved', _melted; broken up_. a vid'i ty, _eagerness_. re duced', _made smaller in quantity_. sen sa'tion, _feeling_. crys'tal lize, _change into hard particles of a regular shape_. * * * * * making maple sugar. part ii. in the great kettles the boiling of the sap goes on slowly, and the liquid, as it thickens, is dipped from one to another, until in the end kettle it is reduced to syrup, and is taken out to cool and settle, until enough is made to "sugar off." to "sugar off" is to boil the syrup until it is thick enough to crystallize into sugar. this is the grand event, and is only done once in two or three days. but the boy's desire is to "sugar off" all the time. he boils his kettle down as rapidly as possible; he is not particular about chips, scum, or ashes. he is apt to burn his sugar; but if he can get enough to make a little wax on the snow, or to scrape from the bottom of the kettle with his wooden paddle, he is happy. a great deal is wasted on his hands, and the outside of his face, and on his clothes, but he does not care; he is not stingy. to watch the operations of the big fire gives him constant pleasure. sometimes he is left to watch the boiling kettles, with a piece of pork tied on the end of a stick, which he dips into the boiling mass when it threatens to go over. he is constantly tasting of it, however, to see if it is not almost syrup. he has a long, round stick, whittled smooth at one end, which he uses for this purpose, at the constant risk of burning his tongue. the smoke blows in his face; he is grimy with ashes; he is altogether such a mass of dirt, stickiness, and sweetness, that his own mother wouldn't know him. he likes to boil eggs with the hired man in the hot sap; he likes to roast potatoes in the ashes, and he would live in the camp day and night if he were permitted. to sleep there with the men, and awake in the night and hear the wind in the trees, and see the sparks fly up to the sky, is a perfect realization of all the stories of adventures he has ever read. he tells the other boys afterward that he heard something in the night that sounded very much like a bear. the hired man says that he was very much scared by the hooting of an owl. the great occasions for the boy, though, are the times of "sugaring off." sometimes this used to be done in the evening, and it was made the excuse for a frolic in the camp. the neighbors were invited; sometimes even the pretty girls from the village, who filled all the woods with their sweet voices and merry laughter, were there, too. the tree branches all show distinctly in the light of the fire, which lights up the bough shanty, the hogsheads, the buckets on the trees, and the group about the boiling kettles, until the scene is like something taken out of a fairy play. at these sugar parties every one was expected to eat as much sugar as possible; and those who are practiced in it can eat a great deal. it is a peculiar fact about eating warm maple sugar, that though you may eat so much of it one day as to be sick, you will want it the next day more than ever. at the "sugaring off" they used to pour the hot sugar upon the snow, where it congealed into a sort of wax, which i suppose is the most delicious substance that was ever invented. and it takes a great while to eat it. if you should close your teeth firmly on a lump of it, you would be unable to open your mouth until it dissolved. the sensation while it is melting is very pleasant, but it will not do to try to talk, for you can not. the boy used to make a big lump of it and give it to the dog, who seized it with great avidity, and closed his jaws on it, as dogs will on any thing. it was funny the next moment to see the expression of perfect surprise on the dog's face when he found that he could not open his jaws. he shook his head; he sat down in despair; he ran round in a circle; he dashed into the woods and back again. he did every thing except climb a tree, and howl. it would have been such a relief to him if he could have howled. but that was the one thing he could not do. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils change the verbs in the following lines, so that they will indicate _present time_. "he shook his head; he sat down in despair; he ran around in a circle; he dashed into the woods and back again." suggestion.--let the teacher, from time to time, select stories, and have them read before the class. after the reading, let pupils make oral _analyses_. the stories should be short, and the exercise conducted without the use of pencils or paper. * * * * * lesson lxxi. en'sign, _flag_. dis man'tled, _stripped of masts, sails, and guns_. pa tri ot'ic, _full of love for one's country_. hulk, _a dismantled ship_. frig'ate, _a ship of war_. tat'tered, _torn_. me'te or, _a fiery body in the heavens_. van'quished, _conquered; overcome_. har'pies, _destroyers_. manned, _supplied with men_. * * * * * old ironsides. during our second war with great britain, which began in the year , many battles were fought both on land and sea. among the ships of war belonging to the united states government, was a frigate named the constitution. she was built about the beginning of the present century, and owing to her good fortune in many engagements, her seamen gave her the name of "old ironsides." she was in active service throughout the entire war, and captured five ships of war from the british, two of which were frigates. in all her service, her success was remarkable. she never lost her masts, never went ashore, and though so often in battle, no very serious loss of life ever occurred on her decks. her entire career was that of what is called in the navy "a lucky ship." perhaps this may be explained by the fact that she always had excellent commanders, and that she probably possessed as fine a ship's company as ever manned a frigate. in , the government ordered the constitution to be dismantled and taken to pieces, because she had become unfit for service. at that time, oliver wendell holmes, who has since become famous as a writer, was a young man twenty years of age, about completing his studies at harvard college. when he heard of the intended destruction of "old ironsides," he went directly to his room, and, inspired by patriotic feelings, wrote the following poem. old ironsides. ay, tear her tattered ensign down! long has it waved on high, and many an eye has danced to see that banner in the sky; beneath it rung the battle shout and burst the cannons' roar: the meteor of the ocean air shall sweep the clouds no more. her deck, once red with heroes' blood, where knelt the vanquished foe, when winds were hurrying o'er the flood and waves were white below, no more shall feel the victors' tread, or know the conquered knee: the harpies of the shore shall pluck the eagle of the sea! o, better that her shattered hulk should sink beneath the wave!-- her thunders shook the mighty deep, and there should be her grave. nail to the mast her holy flag, set every threadbare sail, and give her to the god of storms, the lightning, and the gale! the effect of this poem upon the people was so great that a general outcry arose against the destruction of the gallant old ship. the government was induced to reconsider its determination. the old ship was saved, repaired, and for many years has delighted the eyes of thousands of people who have visited her. at present, she is used as a receiving-ship at the united states navy yard, portsmouth, new hampshire. * * * * * directions for reading.--with what tone of voice should the prose part of the lesson be read? read the poetry--first, slowly and quietly; then, in a loud tone of voice, expressing the feeling of anger. which method of reading the poem do the pupils prefer? which do they think represents the poet's feelings? let pupils pronounce in concert, and singly, the following words: _hero, year, people, deep, eagle, knee, serious, meteor, complete, pieces_. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils point out and explain the unusual expressions found in the first two stanzas, writing out a list of the changes made. * * * * * lesson lxxii. ver'tic al, _upright_. cat'a ract, _a great fall of water over a precipice_. pro vis'ions, _stock of food_. con struct'ed, _made; formed_. in cred'i ble, _not easily believed_. sta'tion a ry, _not moving; fixed_. ex tinct', _inactive; dead_. de pos'it, _that which is laid or thrown down_. ap'er ture, _an opening_. di am'e ter, _distance across or through_. com pris'es, _includes; contains_. * * * * * natural wonders of america. part i. within the vast extent of territory belonging to the united states, there are many wonderful natural curiosities which attract visitors from all parts of the world. a short description of some of the principal attractions is here given, with the hope that many who read this lesson, may at some time visit a part or all that are noticed. geysers of the yellowstone park. the yellowstone park is a tract of country fifty-five by sixty-five miles in extent, lying mainly in the northwest corner of the territory of wyoming, but including a narrow belt in southern montana. it contains nearly thirty-six hundred square miles, and is nearly three times as large as the state of rhode island. no equal extent of country on the globe comprises such a union of grand and wonderful scenery. numerous hot springs, steam jets, and extinct geyser cones exist in the yellowstone basin. just beyond the western rim of the basin, lies the grand geyser region of fire-hole river. scattered along both banks of this stream are boiling springs from two to twelve feet across, all in active operation. one of the most noted geysers of this district is "old faithful." it stands on a mound thirty feet high, the crater rising some six feet higher still. the eruptions take place about once an hour, and continue fifteen or twenty minutes, the column of water shooting upward with terrific force, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. the great mass of water falls directly back into the basin, flowing over the edges and down the sides in large streams. when the action ceases, the water recedes from sight, and nothing is heard but an occasional escape of steam until another eruption occurs. [illustration] just across the river and close to the margin, a small conical mound is observed, about three feet high, and five feet in diameter at the base. no one would suspect it to be an active geyser. but in , a column of water entirely filling the crater shot from it, which by actual measurement was found to be two hundred and nineteen feet high. not more than a hundred yards from the river, there is a large oval aperture eighteen feet wide and twenty-five feet long. the sides are covered with a grayish-white deposit which is distinctly visible at a depth of a hundred feet below the surface. this geyser is known as the "giantess," and a visitor in describing it states that "no water could be discovered on the first approach, but it could be distinctly heard gurgling and boiling at a great distance below. suddenly it began to rise, spluttering and sending out huge volumes of steam, causing a general scattering of our company. "when within about forty feet of the surface, it became stationary, and we returned to look upon it. all at once it rose with incredible rapidity, the hot water bursting from the opening with terrific force, rising in a column the full size of this immense aperture to the height of sixty feet. "through, and out of the top of this mass, five or six lesser jets or round columns of water, varying in size from six to fifteen inches in diameter, were projected to the marvelous height of two hundred and fifty feet." [illustration: view in the grand cañon] the caÃ�ons of the colorado river. the length of the colorado river, from the sources of the green river, is about two thousand miles. for five hundred miles of this distance, the river has worn deep cuts or gorges through the soft rock, called cañons. the rocky sides of these cañons form lofty vertical walls, which, in some places, rise to a height of more than a mile above the surface of the water. the largest and most noted of these vast gorges is the grand cañon, which extends a distance of more than two hundred miles. the height of the walls of this cañon varies from four thousand to seven thousand feet. the river, as it runs through it, is from fifty to three hundred feet wide. so swift is the current, that it is almost impossible to float a boat down the stream without having it dashed to pieces against the rocky walls on either side. the first descent through these cañons was made in , from a point on grand river, about thirty miles above its junction with green river. three men were prospecting for gold, and being attacked by indians and one of their number killed, the other two decided to attempt the descent of the river, rather than retrace their steps through a country where indians were numerous. they constructed a raft of a few pieces of drift-wood, and having secured their arms and provisions, commenced their journey down the stream. a few days afterward, while the raft was descending a cataract, one of the men was drowned and all the provisions were washed overboard. the third man, hemmed in by the walls of the cañon, continued the journey alone amid great perils from cataracts, rocks, and whirlpools. for ten days he pursued, his lonely way, tasting food but twice during the whole time. once he obtained a few green pods and leaves from bushes growing along the stream, and the second time from some friendly indians. at last he succeeded in reaching callville in safety, after having floated several hundred miles. * * * * * lesson lxxiii. pro por'tions, _relations of parts to each other_. in te'ri or, _the inside_. al a bas'ter, _a kind of whitish stone_. chasm, _a deep opening_. a're a, _any surface, as the floor of a room_. an'cient, _belonging to past ages_. un ex am'pled, _without a similar case_. co los'sal, _of great size_. feat'ure, _any thing worthy of notice_. dra'per y, _hangings of any kind_. o ver awed', _held in a state of fear_. sur pass'ing, _exceeding others_. * * * * * natural wonders of america. part ii. the mammoth cave. in the year , a hunter named hutchins, while pursuing a bear in edmondson county, kentucky, was surprised to see the animal disappear into a small opening in the side of a hill. upon examining the spot, hutchins found that the opening led into a cave. following up the examination soon after, it was discovered that the cave was immense in its proportions. on account of its great size, it was named mammoth cave. it has an area of several hundred square miles, and two hundred and twenty-three known and numbered avenues, with a united length of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles. the interior of this cave is divided by huge columns and walls of stone into chambers of various shapes and sizes. some of these are large enough to afford standing room for thousands of people. one of the largest of these chambers is called mammoth dome. this room is four hundred feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and two hundred and fifty feet in height. the walls of this grand room are curtained by alabaster drapery in vertical folds and present to the eye a scene of unexampled beauty and grandeur. a large gateway at one end of this room opens into another room, in which the position of the huge stone pillars, reminds one of the ruins of some ancient temple. six colossal columns, or pillars, eighty feet high and twenty-five feet in diameter, standing in a half circle, are among the imposing attractions of this wonderful room. another striking feature of mammoth cave is what is called the dead sea. this body of water is four hundred feet long, forty feet wide, and very deep. a curious fish is found in this dark lake. it is without eyes, and, in form and color, is different from any fish found outside the cave. there are found also a blind grasshopper, without wings, and a blind crayfish of a whitish color, both of which are very curious and interesting. the fact that these living creatures are blind would seem to indicate that nature had produced them for the distinct purpose of inhabiting this dark cave. niagara falls. of all the sights to be seen on this continent, there is none that equals the great falls of niagara river, situated about twelve miles north of buffalo, in the state of new york. on first beholding this most wonderful of all known cataracts, one is overawed by its surpassing grandeur, "and stunned by the sound of the falling waters as by a roar of thunder." for quite a distance above the falls, the niagara river is about one mile wide, and flows with great swiftness. just at the edge of the cataract stands goat island, which divides the waters of the river, and makes two distinct cataracts; one on the canadian side, and one on the american side of the river. the one on the canadian side, called from its shape the horse-shoe fall, is eighteen hundred feet wide, and one hundred, and fifty-eight feet high. the other, called the american fall, is six hundred feet wide, and one hundred and sixty-four feet high. as the immense body of water leaps over this vast precipice, it breaks into a soft spray, which waves like a plume in the wind. at times, when the rays of the sun strike this spray, a rainbow is formed which stretches itself across the deep chasm, and produces a beautiful effect. during the winter, much of the water and spray freezes, and as each moment adds to the frozen mass, some curious and wonderful ice formations are produced. sometimes, during a very cold winter, the ice at the foot of the falls forms a complete bridge from one shore to the other. an interesting feature of a visit to these falls is a descent to the level of the foot of the cataract behind the great sheet of water. a long flight of steps leads down to a secure footing between the rocky precipice and the falling torrent. by a narrow footpath, it is possible for the visitor to pass between this column of water and the wall of rock. once behind the sheet of water, the roar is deafening. one can only cling to the narrow railing or his guide, as he picks his way for more than a hundred feet behind the roaring torrent. a single misstep, a slip, or a fall, and nothing remains but a horrible death by being dashed to pieces upon the jagged rocks below. * * * * * directions for reading.--point out four places in the lesson where words would likely be run together by a careless reader. the word _cañon_ is pronounced _can'yon_. * * * * * language lesson.--give rules for marks of punctuation and capital letters used in the first paragraph of the account of niagara falls. let pupils make out an _analysis_ in five or six parts, treating some well-known scene. * * * * * lesson lxxiv. vo ra'cious, _greedy; very hungry_. o ver whelmed', _overcome by force of numbers_. a bound'ing, _existing in large numbers_. as cend'ing, _going up_. her'ald ed, _gave notice of_. im pet'u ous, _furious; without care for what happens_. crim'i nals, _those who have broken the law_. con'cen trate, _gather in a large mass_. in tol'er a ble, _not to be borne_. ir re sist'i ble, _can not be opposed_. * * * * * african ants. a strange kind of ant is very abundant in the whole region i have traveled over in africa, and is the most voracious creature i ever met. it is the dread of all living animals, from the leopard to the smallest insect. i do not think that these ants build nests or homes of any kind. at any rate they carry nothing away, but eat all their prey on the spot. it is their habit to march through the forests in a long, regular line--a line about two inches broad and often several miles in length. all along this line are larger ants, who act as officers, stand outside the ranks, and keep this singular army in order. if they come to a place where there are no trees to shelter them from the sun, whose heat they can not bear, they immediately build underground tunnels, through which the whole army passes in columns to the forest beyond. these tunnels are four or five feet underground, and are used only in the heat of the day, or during a storm. when, they grow hungry the long file spreads itself through the forest in a front line, and attacks and devours all it overtakes with a fury which is quite irresistible. the elephant and gorilla fly before this attack. the black men run for their lives. every animal that lives in their line of march is chased. they seem to understand and act upon the tactics of napoleon, and concentrate with great speed their heaviest forces upon the point of attack. in an incredibly short space of time the mouse, or dog, or leopard, or deer, is overwhelmed, killed, eaten, and the bare skeleton only remains. they seem to travel night and day. many a time have i been awakened out of a sleep, and obliged to rush from the hut and into the water to save my life, and after all suffered intolerable agony from the bites of the advance-guard, that had got into my clothes. when they enter a house they clear it of all living things. cockroaches are devoured in an instant. rats and mice spring round the room in vain. an overwhelming force of ants kill a strong rat in less than a minute, in spite of the most frantic struggles, and in less than another minute its bones are stripped. every living thing in the house is devoured. they will not touch vegetable matter. thus they are in reality very useful, as well as dangerous, to the natives, who have their huts cleaned of all the abounding vermin, such as immense cockroaches and centipedes, at least several times a year. when on their march the insect world flies before them, and i have often had the approach of an ant-army heralded to me by this means. wherever they go they make a clean sweep, even ascending to the tops of the highest trees in pursuit of their prey. their manner of attack is an impetuous leap. instantly the strong pincers are fastened, and they let go only when the piece gives way. at such times this little animal seems animated by a kind of fury which causes it to disregard entirely its own safety, and to seek only the conquest of its prey. the bite of these ants is very painful. the natives relate that in former times it was the custom to expose criminals in the path of these ants, as the most cruel way that was known of putting them to death. * * * * * directions for reading.--name the _emphatic words_ in the last paragraph of the lesson, and mark the _inflections_. in determining upon the _emphasis_ to be given to the words of a sentence, the only guide we have to follow is the _meaning_. we must ask ourselves, "which, words are of special importance to the meaning?" * * * * * language lesson.--change each of the sentences given below to _statements_, expressing as nearly as possible the same meaning. "what troubles you to-day?" "tell me at once what the matter is!" "let us shout for meccatina, and its mountains bare and brown!" model.--"what is your name?" changed to the form of a _statement_, becomes--"i wish you to tell me your name." let pupils write four _questions_, and then change them to _statements_, expressing as nearly as possible the same meaning. * * * * * lesson lxxv. plun'dered, _stripped of their goods by force_. surge, _a rolling swell of water; billows_. verge, _extreme side or edge_. sheer, _straight up and down_. frag'ments, _pieces; small portions_. vis'ion _scene; imaginary picture_. a byss', _chasm; deep space_. phan'tom, _ghost; airy spirit_. * * * * * the leap of roushan beg. mounted on kyrat strong and fleet, his chestnut steed with four white feet, roushan beg, called kurroglou, son of the road and bandit chief, seeking refuge and relief, up the mountain pathway flew. such was kyrat's wondrous speed, never yet could any steed reach the dust-cloud in his course. more than maiden, more than wife, more than gold, and next to life, roushan the robber loved his horse. in the land that lies beyond erzeroum and trebizond, garden-girt his fortress stood. plundered khan, or caravan journeying north from koordistan, gave him wealth and wine and food. seven hundred and fourscore men at arms his livery wore, did his bidding night and day. now, through regions all unknown, he was wandering, lost, alone, seeking without guide his way. suddenly the pathway ends, sheer the precipice descends, loud the torrent roars unseen; thirty feet from side to side yawns the chasm; on air must ride he who crosses this ravine. following close in his pursuit, at the precipice's foot, reyhan the arab of orfah halted with his hundred men, shouting upward from the glen, "la illah'illa allah'!" gently roushan beg caressed kyrat's forehead, neck, and breast; kissed him upon both his eyes; sang to him in his wild way, as upon the topmost spray sings a bird before it flies. "o my kyrat, o my steed, round and slender as a reed, carry me this peril through! satin housings shall be thine, shoes of gold, o kyrat mine, o thou soul of kurroglou! "soft thy skin as silken skein, soft as woman's hair thy mane, tender are thine eyes and true; all thy hoofs like ivory shine, polished bright; o, life of mine, leap and rescue kurroglou!" kyrat, then, the strong and fleet, drew together his four white feet, paused a moment on the verge, measured with his eye the space, and into the air's embrace leaped as leaps the ocean surge. as the ocean surge o'er sand bears a swimmer safe to land, kyrat safe his rider bore; rattling down the deep abyss, fragments of the precipice rolled like pebbles on a shore. roushan's tassled cap of red trembled not upon his head, careless sat he and upright; neither hand nor bridle shook, nor his head he turned to look, as he galloped out of sight. flash of harness in the air, seen a moment, like the glare of a sword drawn from its sheath; thus the phantom horseman passed, and the shadow that he cast leaped the cataract underneath. reyhan the arab held his breath while this vision of life and death passed above him. "allahu!" cried he. "in all koordistan lives there not so brave a man as this robber kurroglou!" * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils point out where changes in tone of voice occur in reading this lesson. what lines in the last two stanzas are to be joined in reading? keep the lungs sufficiently full of air to avoid stopping to breathe at such places as would injure the sense. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils select a subject, and then make out an _analysis_ to use in treating it. * * * * * lesson lxxvi mu se'um, _a place where curiosities are exhibited_. ban'daged, _bound with strips of cloth_. dy'nas ties, _governments; families of kings_. ex plored', _searched; examined_. pop'u lat ed, _peopled; filled with people_. gen era' tions, _succession of families or peoples_. e rect'ed, _raised; built_. cal'cu lat ed, _estimated_. flour'ished, _prospered; thrived_. * * * * * egypt and its ruins. part i. egypt embraces that part of africa occupied by the valley of the river nile. for many centuries, it was a thickly populated country, and at one time possessed great influence and wealth, and had reached an advanced state of civilization. the history of egypt extends through a period of about six thousand years. during this time great cities were built which flourished for hundreds of years. owing to wars and changes of government many of these cities were destroyed, and nothing of them now remains but massive and extensive ruins. pyramids were built, obelisks erected, canals projected, and many other vast enterprises were carried out. remains of these are to be seen to-day, some in ruins, some fairly preserved, and, altogether, they give present generations an idea of the wealth and power of the different dynasties under which they were built. [illustration] not far from cairo, which is now the principal city of egypt, are the famous pyramids. these are of such immense proportions, that from a distance their tops seem to reach the clouds. they are constructed of blocks of stone. some of these blocks are of great size, and how the builders ever put them into their places, is a question we can not answer. it is supposed that the construction of one of these pyramids required more than twenty years' labor from thousands of men. the largest pyramid is four hundred and sixty-one feet high, seven hundred and forty-six feet long at the base, and covers more than twelve acres of ground. in all, sixty-seven of these pyramids have been discovered and explored. they are the tombs in which the ancient kings and their families were buried. in the interior of these pyramids, many chambers were constructed to contain their stone coffins. it has been calculated that one of the principal pyramids could contain three thousand seven hundred rooms of large size. the bodies of those who were buried in the pyramids were preserved from decay by a secret process, known only to the priests. [illustration] after the bodies were prepared, they were wrapped in bands of fine linen, and on the inside of these was spread a peculiar kind of gum. there were sometimes a thousand yards of these bands on a single body. after they were thus prepared, a soft substance was placed around the bandaged body. this covering, when it hardened, kept the body in a complete state of preservation. [illustration] these coverings are now called mummy-cases, and the bodies they inclose, mummies. these bodies were finally placed, in huge stone coffins, many of which were covered with curious carvings. some of these mummies have been found, that are said to be over three thousand years old. however, when the wrappings are removed from them, many of the bodies have been so well preserved, as to exhibit the appearance of the features as in life. large numbers of these mummies have been carried to other countries and placed on exhibition in museums. among the mummies brought to this country, are some of the best specimens which have yet been discovered. * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils mark the _inflection_ and point out _emphatic words_ in the first two paragraphs of the lesson. show positions of the _rhetorical pauses_ in the first paragraph on page .[ ] * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils review, as a written exercise, the spelling of the following words. receding principal rubbish punctual precipice council orphan microscope justice civilized threshold muscles precious merchandise especially traveler physician recognize anecdote marvelous sufficient apologize character benefited vicious poisonous tremendous intelligent let pupils select a subject and make out an _analysis_ for its treatment. each point in the _analysis_ will require a separate paragraph for its treatment. be careful to use capital letters and marks of punctuation correctly. [ ] paragraph beginning, "remains of these are to be seen to-day...." * * * * * lesson lxxvii. de vic'es, _curious marks or shapes_. in scrip'tion, _any thing cut or written on a solid substance_. trans lat'ing, _expressing in another language_. mem'o ra ble, _worthy of being remembered_. spec'i mens, _small portions of things_. in ge nu'i ty, _skill in inventing_. tour'ists, _travelers; sight-seers_. ded'i cat ed, _set apart for a special purpose_. cer'e mo nies, _forms; special customs_. site, _the place where any thing is fixed_. mon'o lith, _a column consisting of a single stone_. o rig'i nal ly, _in the first place_. * * * * * egypt and its ruins. part ii. the ancient egyptians erected many obelisks in various parts of their country. these were monuments made from single pieces of hard stone, and in some cases reached a height of more than a hundred feet. they were placed before gateways leading to the principal temples and palaces, and were covered with curious carvings in the stone, which represented the language of the people at that time. it thus appears that their written language was not composed of letters and words alone, like our own; but that they used pictures of animals, including birds, human figures, and other devices of a singular nature, to express their thoughts and ideas. until the year , it was impossible for the scholars of modern nations to read this strange language. in that year, however, a stone tablet was discovered by a french engineer, containing an inscription written in three languages. one of these was in the characters of the ancient egyptian and another in those of the greek. upon translating the greek writing, it was discovered to be a copy of the inscription in the egyptian language. by comparing the words of these inscriptions with many others, the formation of this peculiar language was ascertained. it was then learned that the inscriptions on these obelisks were the records of memorable events, and the heroic deeds of their kings and heroes. many of these obelisks have been taken from their positions in egypt and transported with great labor to other countries. nearly two thousand years ago the roman emperors began to carry them to the city of rome. altogether, nearly fifty of these remarkable monuments were taken away and set up in that city. they were then, as now, regarded as curious examples of the ingenuity of the ancients who first made them. [illustration: the obelisk in central park, new york, and as it appeared in egypt.] in later years, specimens were taken to paris and london, and more recently one was brought to america, and set up in the central park, new york city. this one belongs to the largest class, being nearly seventy feet high and about eight feet square at the base. the accompanying cut shows the position of this obelisk as it appeared when standing near the city of alexandria, egypt. the difficulty of transporting one of these huge stone columns is so great, that for a long time it was thought impossible to remove it from egypt to this country. in their large cities, the egyptians built massive temples which were dedicated to religious ceremonies. some of them, although now in ruins, are considered to be among the most remarkable productions of the ancients. tourists who nowadays sail up the river nile and visit the site of the city of thebes, the ancient capital of egypt, are struck with amazement at the vast ruins surrounding them. on the eastern side of the nile lies what is left of the temple of karnak. imagine a long line of courts, gateways, and halls; here and there an obelisk rising above the ruins, and shutting off the view of the forest of columns! this mass of ruins, some lying in huge heaps of stone, others perfect and pointed as when they were first built, is approached on every side by avenues and gateways of colossal grandeur. the temple originally covered an area of two hundred and seventy acres, inclosed within a wall of brick. parts of this wall are still visible, while the rest lies crumbled and broken. it is difficult to realize the grand appearance of the thirty rows of stone columns standing within the wall. some of them that are still perfect, are capped with enormous monolith capitals, and it is said that one hundred men could stand on one of them without crowding. the hall itself is four hundred and twenty-two feet long by one hundred and sixty-five feet broad. the stones of the ceiling are supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns, which are still standing, and of which the largest measures ten feet in diameter, and more than seventy-two feet in height. they are covered with carvings and paintings whose colors are still bright, even after a lapse of forty centuries. gazing on what he sees around, the traveler becomes lost in an effort to form some idea of the grandeur and vastness of the original. * * * * * directions for reading.--let pupils read one or more of the paragraphs in a whisper, so as to improve _articulation_. mark _rhetorical pauses_ in the last paragraph of the lesson. name _emphatic words_ in the same paragraph, and state whether the _rhetorical pauses _occur before or after these words. * * * * * language lesson.--let pupils write _statements_, each containing one of the following words, used in such a manner as to show its proper meaning: _haul, hall; site, sight; piece, peace; our, hour; sum, some_. rules for the analysis of a subject.--select such points as are necessary to make the treatment of the subject complete. add such points as will increase the interest felt in the subject. arrange the points in a natural and easy order. note.--in treating an historical subject, it is necessary to arrange the points in the order in which they occurred. in description, it is best to adopt some plan of treatment, and arrange the points according to the plan decided upon. * * * * * definitions of new words used in this book, that do not appear at the heads of the lessons. _a_ a board', _on board of_. ac cept', _take; receive_. ac'ci dents, _effects; unusual results_. ac cord'ing ly, _agreeably to a plan_. ac count', _statement of facts; bill_. ad mit'tance, _permission to enter; entrance_. ad vice', _opinion worthy to be followed; counsel_. af ford', _give; produce_. a'gen cy, _office of an agent; action_. aid, _help; assistance_. al to geth'er, _with united action; completely_. a mid', _in the midst of; surrounded by_. anxi' e ty (ang zi'e ty), _concern respecting some future event_. ap plause', _praise_. ap ply', _suit; agree_. arch'es, _places made of stone, brick, etc_. art, _skill_. a shamed', _affected by a feeling of shame_. as sist'ing, _helping; aiding_. as sure', _tell truly; make sure or certain_. at tempt', _try; make an effort_. at ten'tion, _care; notice_. av'e nues, _broad streets; openings_. a wait'ed, _waited for_. a ware', _informed_. awk'ward, _clumsy; ungraceful_. ay, _yes_. _b_ bade, _said_. ban'dit, _robber_. ban'ner, _flag_. base, _lower part_. bid'ding, _command; order_. bil'lows, _large waves_. bon'ny, _handsome; beautiful_. bor'row, _to receive from another with the intention of returning_. bore, _carried_. bor'ders, _edges; outer parts_. braced, _took a firm stand_. braid'ed, _woven or twined together_ brick, _a body made of clay and water and hardened by fire_. bri'er, _a prickly plant or shrub_. brig, _a vessel with two masts, square-rigged_. brill'iant, _splendid; shining_. brim'ming, _full; nearly overflowing_. bris'tling, _standing erect_. bul'let, _small ball of lead_. bur'den, _that which is carried_. but'ter fly, _a winged insect of many colors_. _c_ cack'ling, _sharp and broken in sounds_. ca nals', _water-courses made by man_. ca'per ing, _playing; dancing_. capped, _covered over at the top_. cap tiv'ity, _state of being a prisoner_. car'go, _burden; load_. cas'ters, _rollers or small wheels_. ceil'ing, _the upper surface of a room_. cen'ter, _the middle point of any thing_. cen'ti pedes, _a kind of insect having a great number of feet_. cent'u ry, _one hundred years_. chan'nel, _the regular course of a river_. cheat'ed, _taken unfair advantage of; robbed_. chose, _wished; desired_. cin'ders, _small pieces of coal or wood partly burned_. cir'cu lar, _round; shaped like a circle_. cli'mate, _state or condition of the air as regards heat, cold, and moisture_. clink, _sharp ringing sound_. clum'sy, _awkward; ungraceful_. clus'ter, _number of things of the same kind growing together_. cock'roach es, _insects with long, flattish bodies_. cof'fins, _cases in which dead bodies are placed_. coin, _piece of stamped metal used for money_. col'umn, _a dark cloud of regular shape; a shaft of stone_. com mand'ed, _had charge of; ordered_. com plaint', _expression of anger_. com plete', _entire; perfect_. con clude', _make up one's mind_. con'duct, _manner of action_. con fined', _kept within limits_. con nect'ed, _joined_. con'quered, _subdued; overcome_. con'quest, _act of taking by force_. con sid'er a bly, _in a manner worthy of notice_. con sid'er ing, _thinking; regarding_. con'stant ly, _all the time_. con'tact, _touching; meeting_. con tained', _held_. con'ti nent, _a great extent of land unbroken by water_. con tin'u ally, _all the time_. con verse', _talk_. cour' age, _boldness_. cow'ard, _one who lacks courage_. crack'ling, _sharp noises_. creek, _a small river or brook; a bay_. crew (kru), _the sailors who man a ship_. croak'ing, _making a hoarse noise_. crook'ed, _not straight_. crop, _what grows in a season_. cured, _made well_. cu ri os'i ty, _eager desire to find out something_. cur'rent, _motion of a river_. cus'tom, _way of acting; habit_. cut'ter, _small boat used by ships of war_. _d_ dames, _women_. debt, _that which is owed_. de'cent, _fit; suitable_. de clare', _say with firmness_. deed, _act; that which is done_. de fence', _protection_. dense, _thick; close_. de scrip'tion, _an account_. de sert'ed, _left; given up_. de struc'tion, _ruin_. de ter'mine, _decided; resolved_. di'et, _what is eaten or drunk_. di rect'ly, _instantly; immediately_. dis ap point'ed, _grieved; filled with regret_. dis as'ters, _unfortunate events_. dis ease', _illness; sickness_. dis hon'est, _not honest; faithless_. dis miss' ing, _putting or sending away_. dis o beyed', _went contrary to orders_. dis pose', _sell; part with_. dis re gard', _lose sight of_. dis'trict, _part of a country; region_. di vide', _separate into equal shares or parts_. dome, _very high and broad roof_. drag, _pull; draw_. drays, _kinds of carts_. dread'ful, _full of terror_. drift, _borne along by the current of a river_. driz'zling, _falling in very small drops_. drowned, _deprived of life by water_. duck'ing, _plunging into water_. _e_ earth'quake, _a shaking or trembling of the earth_. ech'oes, _is heard_. ef fects', _results_. ef'fort (furt), _struggle; attempt_. em brace', _clasp; grasp_. em'pire, _the country of an emperor_. en'e my, _one who hates another_. en gaged', _occupied; taken_. en'gines, _machines used for applying force_. en raged', _made very angry_. en tire', _whole_. ere, _before_. er'rand, _short journeys on business_. ex am'ple, _a pattern; a copy_. ex'cel lent (ek), _very good_. ex cep'tion, _that which is left out or omitted_. ex cite'ment, _intense feeling_. ex cla ma'tion, _a cry; that which is cried out_. ex'er cise, _bodily exertion_. ex hi bi'tion, _show; display_. ex pla na'tion, _that which makes clear_. ex ten'sive ly, _widely; largely_. ex'tra, _more than usual_. _f_ fac'to ries, _places where things are made_. fare well', _good-by_. fa'vors, _kind acts_. fear'less ly, _without fear_. feast, _a joyous meal_. feat, _a difficult act_. fee'ble, _weak; sickly_. fer'ry, _a place to cross a river_. fig'ured, _ornamented with marks_. file, _a row of soldiers ranged behind one another_. flanks, _the fleshy parts of the sides of animals_. flee, _to run away_. flood, _great flow of water_. flour, _ground wheat_. flu'id, _water, or any liquid_. foot'men, _male servants_. for ma'tions, _things of certain shape or form_. for'tress, _a fort; a castle_. fort'une, _chance; luck_. frol'ic some, _merry; playful_. fu'el, _material for fire_. _g_ gal'lop, _a rapid movement, as of horses_. gar'ret, _the upper room of a house_. gems, _precious stones_. gen'eral ly, _usually; commonly_. gleam'ing, _shining brightly_. glee, _joy; happiness_. glim'mer, _a faint light_. glis'ten ing, _sparkling; shining_. globe, _the earth; a round body_. glo'ri ous, _grand; splendid_. glos'sy, _smooth; shining_. gor'ges, _narrow passages_. gos'sip, _foolish talk_. gov'ern ment, _the power that controls a people_. grand, _large; imposing_. grum'bled, _complained; found fault with_. guard, _that which protects_. guests, _visitors_. gur'gling, _flowing in a noisy current_. _h_ hatch, _the cover for an opening in a vessel's deck_. heath, _a meadow; cheerless tract of country_. hedg'es, _thickets of bushes_. hemmed, _shut in; surrounded_. hence forth', _hereafter_. he'ro, _a brave man_. high'way, _a public road_. hint, _something intended to give notice_. hitched, _tied; fastened_. hith'er, _in this direction_. hogs'head, _a large cask_. hoot'ing, _crying; shouting_. hor'ri ble, _dreadful; terrible_. howl'ing, _crying like a dog or wolf_. hub'bub, _a great noise; uproar_. husk, _the outside covering of certain fruits_. hust'le, _shake; push roughly_. _i_ i de'a, _thought_. ill'-nat ured, _cross; bad-tempered_. im ag'ine, _think; consider_. im me'di ate ly, _without delay_. im pos'si ble, _not possible_. in de pend'ence, _the state of being free_. in for ma'tion, _news; knowledge_. in formed', _told; gave notice of_. in hab'i tants, _persons living in a place_. in'jured, _hurt; harmed_. in'stant ly, _at once; without loss of time_. in tent', _eager; anxious_. in vi ta'tions, _requests for one's company_. is'sue, _come forth; flow out_. _j_ jag'ged, _having sharp points_. jew'els (ju'els), _precious stones_. jin'gling, _giving forth fine, sharp sounds_. _k_ kern'el, _the eatable part of a nut; a little grain or corn_. _l_ la'bor, _work; toil_. lapse, _passing away_. las'sie, _a young girl; a lass_. lat'ter, _last-named; nearer_. launched, _put into the water_ laws, _rules of action_. leath'er, _the skins of animals prepared for use_. ledge, _shelf of rocks_. lee'ward, _that part toward which the wind blows_. leop'ard, _a large animal of the cat kind_. lest, _for fear that_. lev'el, _smooth and flat; of equal height_. lin'ing, _inside covering_. lint, _linen scraped into a soft substance_. liq'uid, _any fluid, like water_. lisp'ing ly, _with a lisp_. liv'er y, _a peculiar dress_. load'stone, _a kind of magnetic ore_. loft'y, _very high_. low'ered, _let down_. lub'ber, _a heavy, clumsy fellow_. luck'y, _fortunate; meeting with good success_. lum'ber, _timber sawed or split for use; boards_. _m_ main'ly, _mostly; chiefly_. mam'moth, _of great size_. man'aged, _controlled; brought to do one's wishes_. mane, _the long hair on a horse's neck_. man'tel, _a narrow shelf over a fire-place, with its support_. mar'gin, _edge; border_. mark'et, _a place where things are sold_. mark'ings, _marks; stamped places_. mean'time, _during the interval; meanwhile_. mel'low ing, _ripening; growing soft_. melt'ed, _changed to a liquid form by the action of heat_. mem'o ry, _the power of recalling past events_. mer'chants, _those who buy goods to sell again_. mil'i ta ry, _belonging to soldiers, to arms, or to war_. mis'er y, _great unhappiness; extreme pain_. mod'ern, _of recent date; belonging to the present time_. mon'ster, _something of unusual size, shape, or quality_. mon'u ments, _those things which stand to remind us of the past_. mound, _a small hill, natural or artificial_. mo'tion, _movement; change of position_. must'y, _spoiled by age; of a sour smell_. _n_ neigh'bor, _a person who lives near one_. nerved, _strengthened; supplied with force_. night'-mare, _an unpleasant sensation during sleep_. nim'bly, _actively; in a nimble manner_. _o_ o be'di ence, _willingness to submit to commands_. o bliged', _forced; compelled_. oc'cu pied, _taken possession of; employed_. of'fi cer, _one who holds an office_. off'ing, _a part of the sea at a distance from the shore_. om'ni bus es, _large, four-wheeled carriages_. on'ion (un'yun), _a root much used for food_. out'posts, _advanced stations, as of an army_. o ver come', _affected; overpowered by force_. _p_ pace, _rate of movement_. pal'ace, _a splendid dwelling, as of a king_. par take', _share; take part in_. patch, _small piece of any thing, as of ground_. paus'es, _short stops; rests_. pave'ments, _coverings for streets, of stone or solid materials_. peb'bles, _small, roundish stones, worn by the action of water_. per cus'sion, _requiring to be struck; the act of striking_. per'fume, _scent or odor of sweet-smelling substances_. pe'ri od, _portion of time; an interval_. per'ished, _died; were destroyed_. per mis'sion, _the act of allowing; consent_. pic'nick ing, _having an outdoor party_. pier, _a landing-place for vessels_. pierce, _force a way into or through an object_. pil'lars, _columns; huge masses_. pin'cers, _jaws; pinchers_. pit'e ous, _fitted to excite pity; sorrowful_. pit'falls, _pits slightly covered for concealment_. plan ta'tions, _farms of great extent_. plots, _small pieces of ground, as garden plots_. plucked, _pulled out or off_. plunged, _dove; fell_. po'et, _a maker of verses_. pol'ished, _made bright and smooth by rubbing_. po lite', _obliging; pleasant in manner_. por'tion, _a part; that which is divided off_. prat'tling, _childish; talking like a child_. preach'ing, _speaking in public upon a religious subject_. pres'ent ly, _soon; in a short time_. prey, _any thing taken by force from an enemy_. pri'vate, _not publicly known; peculiar to one's self_. pro ces'sion, _regular movement, as of soldiers_. prod'ucts, _fruits; that which is brought forth_. proved, _turned out; showed the truth of_. pro vid'ed, _furnished; supplied with necessary articles_. puff'ing, _swelling with air; blowing in short, sudden whiffs_. pure, _clear; free from other matter_. _q_ quilt'ed, _stitched together with some soft substance between_. quo ta'tions, _portions of writings_. _r_ range, _reach, as of a gun_. ranks, _regular rows or lines, as of soldiers_. ray, _light; a line of light or heat proceeding from a certain point_. read'i ly, _without trouble or difficulty; easily_. reap, _gather by cutting, as a harvest_. re call'ing, _thinking of; bringing back to mind_. re con sid'er, _think of again; change one's mind_. rec'ords, _stories; descriptions of events_. re gard'ed, _considered; looked at earnestly_. re late', _tell_. re lig'ious, _relating to religion_. re main'der, _the rest; what is left_. re mind', _call attention to for a second time_. re moved', _moved away; took off_. rent'ed, _gave possession of for pay_. re paired', _mended_. re placed', _put in place of another_. rep re sent', _picture; tell about in an effective manner_. re quire', _need; demand_. re sist', _stand against; oppose with force_. re spect', _regard_. re tire', _withdraw; turn back_. re volv'er, _a fire-arm with several chambers or barrels_. rid, _free_. ridg'es, _a long range of hills; steep places_. ri'fle, _a gun having the inside of the barrel grooved_. rind, _the outside coat, as of fruit_. risk, _danger; peril_. riv'u let, _a small river or brook_. rob'ber, _one who commits a robbery_. ro man'tic, _strange and interesting, as a romantic story_. rouse, _awake; excite_. ru'in, _that change of any thing which destroys it_. rust'y, _covered with rust on account of long disuse_. _s_ sake, _purpose; reason_. sap, _the juice of plants_. sat'in, _a glossy cloth made of silk_. scene, _picture; view_. schol'ars, _men of learning; those who attend school_. scorch'ing, _burning slightly; affecting by heat_. scoured, _made clean and bright_. scram'bled, _moved with difficulty_. scum, _that which rises to the surface; worthless matter_. se'ri ous, _severe; sad in appearance_. serv'ice, _duty, as of a soldier_. se vere', _violent; hard_. shab'by, _worn to rags; poor in appearance_. shag'gy, _rough_. shal'lows, _places where the water is not deep_. shat'tered, _broken; broken at once into many pieces_. sheath, _a covering for a sword_. shep'herd, _one who has the care of sheep_. shield, _a broad piece of armor carried on the arm_. shock, _a sudden striking against_. shriek, _a sharp, shrill cry on account of surprise or pain_. siege, _a closing in on all sides of a fortified place_. sighs, _stifled groans; long breaths_. skein, _a number of threads of silk or yarn_. skel'e ton, _bony frame-work of the body_. skull, _the bony case which encloses the brain_. sleet, _frozen mist_. slopes, _declines by degrees_. slum'ber, _sleep_. sly'ness, _cunning; artfulness_. smites, _strikes, as with a weapon_. snort'ing, _forcing the air through the nose with a loud noise_. soaked, _moistened throughout_. soar, _fly high_. sought (sawt), _tried; went in search of_. spared, _saved from death or punishment_. splut'ter ing, _boiling noisily; speaking hastily_. spout, _run out with force_. sprained, _injured by straining_. spurred, _urged; encouraged_. stale, _not new; not fresh_. stee'ples, _high towers ending in a point_. stern, _hind part of a boat_. stock, _supply on hand_. stout, _large; broad_. strain'ing, _exerting to the utmost_. strict, _severe; exact_. stub'by, _short and thick_. sub'stan ces, _bodies; matters_. suc ceed'ed, _obtained the object desired_. suf'fered, _felt pain_. sul'try, _very hot; burning_. sup port', _prop; pillar_. sus pect'ed, _thought; considered quite probable_. sus pi'cious, _indicating fear; inclined to suspect_. _t_ tab'let, _a flat piece of stone_. tac'tics, _disciplined movements_. tem'per, _way of acting_. tem'ple, _a place for worship_. ten'drils, _tender branches of plants_. ter'ri fied, _filled with fear_. ter'ri to ry, _a large tract of land_. ter'ror, _fear; dread_. thieves _persons who steal_. thirst, _strong desire for drink_. thith'er, _to that place_. thorns, _woody points on some trees and shrubs_. thor'ough, _complete; perfect_. thread'bare, _worn out_. thrives, _prospers; flourishes_. till'er, _the bar used to turn the rudder of a boat_. ti'tle, _a name_. tor'rid, _violently hot_. trace, _mark; appearance_. tract, _a region_. treb'les, _the higher parts in music_. trick'led, _flowed in drops_. trop'ic al, _belonging to the tropics_. tuft, _a cluster or bunch_. tun'nels, _passages; openings_. twinge, _a sudden, sharp pain_. twink'ling, _a quick movement_. twit'ter ing, _a trembling noise_. _u_ uncom'forta ble, _causing uneasiness; not pleasant_. un der neath', _below; beneath_. un der take', _attempt_. un ea'si ness, _want of ease_. un grate'ful, _not thankful_. u nit'ed, _joined; combined_. un man'ly, _not worthy of a man_. un ru'ly, _not submissive_. un scarred', _not marked_. urg'ing, _encouraging_. ut'most, _to the furthest point_. _v_ val'u a ble, _of great value_. vel'vet, _a soft material woven from silk_. ver'min, _little animals or insects_. vic'tims, _persons destroyed in pursuit of an object_. vic'tor, _one who conquers_. vi'o lence, _force; power_. virt'u ous, _inclined to do right_. _w_ wa'ges, _what is paid for services_. wa'ter break (breakwater), _that which breaks the force of water_. weap'on, _any thing to be used against an enemy_. whence, _from which or what place_. whiff, _a quick puff of air_. whith'er, _to what place_. wig, _a covering for the head, made of hair_. wine, _a liquor made from grapes_. wits, _powers of the mind_. wrig'gled, _moved or twisted_. wrung, _distressed; twisted about_. _y_ yawns, _opens wide_. youth'ful, _young; belonging to early life_. none proofreading team. transcriber's note: phonetic characters are represented by the following symbols: [e] = upside-down "e" = schwa [er] = italicized inverted "e" = r-colored schwa [a] = lower-case alpha [o] = open "o" (appears as upside-down "c") = open-mid back rounded vowel [ng] = "eng" character = velar nasal [n.] = "n" with inferior dot = devoiced "n" [=u] = "u" with macron [s] = "esh" (or long "s") character = voiceless palatoalveolar (or postalveolar) fricative [z] = "ezh" (or "yogh") character = voiced palatoalveolar (or postalveolar) fricative [ts] = t + "esh" = voiceless palatoalveolar (or postalveolar) affricate [dz] = d + "ezh" = voiced palatoalveolar (or postalveolar) affricate _s.p.e._ _tract no. ii_ on english homophones by robert bridges mdccccxix * * * * * english homophones [sidenote: definition of homophone.] when two or more words different in origin and signification are pronounced alike, whether they are alike or not in their spelling, they are said to be homophonous, or homophones of each other. such words if spoken without context are of ambiguous signification. homophone is strictly a relative term, but it is convenient to use it absolutely, and to call any word of this kind a homophone.[ ] [footnote : homophone is a greek word meaning 'same-sounding', and before using the relative word in this double way i have preferred to make what may seem a needless explanation. it is convenient, for instance, to say that _son_ and _heir_ are both homophones, meaning that each belongs to that particular class of words which without context are of ambiguous signification: and it is convenient also to say that _son_ and _sun_ and _heir_ and _air_ are homophones without explaining that it is meant that they are mutually homophonous, which is evident. a physician congratulating a friend on the birth of his first-born might say, 'now that you have a son and heir, see that he gets enough sun and air'.] homophony is between words as _significant_ sounds, but it is needful to state that homophonous words must be _different_ words, else we should include a whole class of words which are not true homophones. such words as _draft_, _train_, _board_, have each of them separate meanings as various and distinct as some true homophones; for instance, a draught of air, the miraculous draught of fishes, the draught of a ship, the draft of a picture, or a draught of medicine, or the present draft of this essay, though it may ultimately appear medicinal, are, some of them, quite as distinct objects or notions as, for instance, _vane_ and _vein_ are: but the ambiguity of _draft_, however spelt, is due to its being the name of anything that is _drawn_; and since there are many ways of drawing things, and different things are drawn in different ways, the _same word_ has come to carry very discrepant significations. though such words as these[ ] are often inconveniently and even distressingly ambiguous, they are not homophones, and are therefore excluded from my list: they exhibit different meanings of one word, not the same sound of different words: they are of necessity present, i suppose, in all languages, and corresponding words in independent languages will often develop exactly corresponding varieties of meaning. but since the ultimate origin and derivation of a word is sometimes uncertain, the scientific distinction cannot be strictly enforced. [footnote : such words have no technical class-name; they are merely extreme examples of the ambiguity common to most words, which grows up naturally from divergence of meaning. true homophones are separate words which have, or have acquired, an illogical fortuitous identity.] [sidenote: false homophones.] now, wherever the same derivation of any two same-sounding words is at all doubtful, such words are practically homophones:--and again in cases where the derivation is certainly the same, yet, if the ultimate meanings have so diverged that we cannot easily resolve them into one idea, as we always can _draft_, these also may be practically reckoned as homophones. _continent_, adjective and substantive, is an example of absolute divergence of meaning, inherited from the latin; but as they are different parts of speech, i allow their plea of identical derivation and exclude them from my list. on the other hand, the substantive _beam_ is an example of such a false homophone as i include. _beam_ may signify a balk of timber, or a ray of light. milton's address to light begins o first created beam and chaucer has as thikke as motes in the sonne-beam, and this is the commonest use of the word in poetry, and probably in literature: shelley has then the bright child the plumèd seraph came and fixed its blue and beaming eyes on mine. but in tyndal's gospel we read why seest thou a mote in thy brother's eye and perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? the word beam is especially awkward here,[ ] because the beam that is proper to the eye is not the kind of beam which is intended. the absurdity is not excused by our familiarity, which shakespeare submitted to, though he omits the incriminating eye: you found his mote; the king your mote did see, but i a beam do find in each of three. [footnote : it is probable that in tyndal's time the awkwardness was not so glaring: for 'beam' as a ray of light seems to have developed its connexion with the eye since his date, in spite of his proverbial use of it in the other sense.] and yet just before he had written so sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not to those fresh morning drops upon the rose, as thy eye-beams when their fresh rays have smote the night of dew that on my cheeks down flows. let alone the complication that _mote_ is also a homophone, and that outside gulliver's travels one might as little expect to find a house-beam as a castle-moat in a man's eye, the confusion of _beam_ is indefensible, and the example will serve three purposes: first to show how different significations of the same word may make practical homophones, secondly the radical mischief of all homophones, and thirdly our insensibility towards an absurdity which is familiar: but the absurdity is no less where we are accustomed to it than where it is unfamiliar and shocks us. [sidenote: tolerance due to habit.] and we are so accustomed to homophones in english that they do not much offend us; we do not imagine their non-existence, and most people are probably unaware of their inconvenience. it might seem that to be perpetually burdened by an inconvenience must be the surest way of realizing it, but through habituation our practice is no doubt full of unconscious devices for avoiding these ambiguities: moreover, inconveniences to which we are born are very lightly taken: many persons have grown up to manhood blind of one eye without being aware of their disability; and others who have no sense of smell or who cannot hear high sounds do not miss the sense that they lack; and so i think it may be with us and our homophones. but since if all words were alike in sound there would be no spoken language, the differentiation of the sound of words is of the essence of speech, and it follows that the more homophones there are in any language, the more faulty is that language as a scientific and convenient vehicle of speech. this will be illustrated in due course: the actual condition of english with respect to homophones must be understood and appreciated before the nature of their growth and the possible means of their mitigation will seem practical questions. [sidenote: great number.] the first essential, then, is to know the extent and nature of the mischief; and this can only be accomplished by setting out the homophones in a table before the eye. the list below is taken from a 'pronouncing dictionary' which professes not to deal with obsolete words, and it gives over ambiguous sounds; so that, since these must be at least doublets, and many of them are triplets or quadruplets, we must have something between , and , words of ambiguous meaning in our ordinary vocabulary.[ ] [footnote : in skeat's _etymological dictionary_ there is a list of _homonyms_, that is words which are ambiguous to the eye by similar spellings, as homophones are to the ear by similar sounds: and that list, which includes obsolete words, has , items. , is the number of homophones which our list would show if they were all only doublets.] now it is variously estimated that , to , words is about the limit of an average educated man's talking vocabulary, and since the , are, the most of them, words which such a speaker will use (the reader can judge for himself) it follows that he has a foolishly imperfect and clumsy instrument. as to what proportion , (say) may be to the full vocabulary of the language--it is difficult to estimate this because the dictionaries vary so much. the word _homophone_ is not recognized by johnson or by richardson: johnson under _homo-_ has six derivatives of herbert spencer's favourite word _homogeneous_, but beside these only four other words with this greek affix. richardson's dictionary has an even smaller number of such entries. jones has entries of _homo-_, and these of only five words, but the oxford dictionary, besides words noted and quoted beginning with _homo-_, has others with special articles. dr. richard morris estimated the number of words in an english dictionary as , : jones has , words, exclusive of proper names, and i am told that the oxford dictionary will have over , . its _homo-_ words will show how this huge number is partly supplied. before the reader plunges into the list, i should wish to fortify his spirit against premature despair by telling him that in my tedious searching of the dictionary for these words i was myself cheered to find how many words there were which are _not_ homophones. list of homophones this list, the object of which is to make the reader easily acquainted with the actual defect of the language in this particular, does not pretend to be complete or scientific; and in the identification of doubtful words the clue was dictated by brevity. _s._, _v._, and _adj._ mean _substantive_, _verb_, and _adjective_. the sections were made to aid the conspectus. the main indictment is contained in sections i, ii, and iii. these three sections contain entries, involving some , words. the homophones in the other sections, iv, v, vi, vii, viii and ix, are _generally_ of such a kind that they would not of themselves constitute a very peculiar case against the english language; but their addition to the main list does very much strengthen the case. one intention in isolating them from the main list was to prevent their contaminating it with their weaker quality; but their separate classification crosses and sometimes overrides that more general distinction. section iv has some literary interest; vi is inconsistent; the other sections are more or less scientific. these six sections contain some entries involving about words, so that the total of words involved is about , . the order in this section is that of the phonetic alphabet. i. the main list of homophones. arc, ark. arm (_limb_), arm (_weapon_). alms, arms. aunt, ant, arn't. arch (_s._), arch (_adj._). eye, ay, i. idol, idle, idyll. aisle, isle, i'll. eyelet, islet. our, hour. bark (_dog_), bark (_tree_), bark (_boat_). balm, barm. bite, bight. buy, by, bye. bough, bow, bow (_of ship_). bound (_leap_), bound (_limit_), bound (fr. _bind_). bank (_ground_), bank (_money_). barren, baron. barrow (_hill_), barrow (_wheel-b._). bat (_club_), bat (_vespertilio_). batter (_s._), batter (_v._). buck (_various roots and senses_). bustle (_hurry_), bustle (_dress_). but, butt (_tub_), butt (_v._). bale (ill), bale (_pack_), bail (_bis_). base, bass. bate, bait. beck (_and nod_), beck (_a brook_). bell, belle. bury, berry. bear (_s._), bare (_adj._), bear, bare (_v._). berth, birth. bee, be. beat, beet. beetle (_insect_), beetle (_hammer_). beach, beech. bier, beer. blow (_a stroke_), blow (_of wind_). bow, beau. bogy, bogie. bole, bowl. bolt (_a weapon_), bolt (_sift_), bolt (_run_). bore (_perforate_), bore (_tidal_), bore (fr. _bear_), boar. board, bawd, bored. ball, bawl. born, borne. boy, buoy. boil (_s._), boil (_v._). box (_tree_), box (_receptacle_), box (_v._). bridal, bridle. bray (_of donkey_), bray (_to pound_), brae. break, brake (_fern_), brake (_of carriages, bis_). braze (_to solder_), braze (_to brazen_), braise (_to stew_), braes. breach, breech. breeze (_the wind_), breeze (_a fly_), breeze (_cinders_). broach, brooch. hue, hew. die (_v._), dye, die (_cast_). down (_dune_), down (_fluff_), down (_adv._). doubt, dout. dam (_mother_), dam (_obstruct_), damn. duck (_bird_), duck (_dear_), duck (_stuff_), duck (_v._). dun (_colour_), dun (_importune_), done. date (_fruit_), date (_datum_). dean, dene. deer, dear. desert, dessert. due, dew. doe, dough. dock (_plant_), dock (_basin_), dock (_shear_). drill (_sow_), drill (_bore_), drill (_training_). drupe, droop. jar (_vase_), jar (_discord_). jamb, jam. jet (_mineral_), jet (_squirt_). gin (_drink_), gin (_snare_), jinn. there, their. the, thee. eh! aye (_ever_). ale, ail. eight, ait or eyot, ate (fr. _eat_). egg, egg (_to incite_). elder (_tree_), elder (_senior_). air, heir, ere, e'er. airship, heirship. aery, airy. earn, urn, erne (_eagle_). alight (_adj._), alight (_v._). ascent, assent. foul, fowl. fallow (_untilled_), fallow (_colour_). fane, feign, fain. faint, feint. fast (_eccl._), fast (_adj. various_). fate, fête. fell (_fierce_), fell (_skin_), fell (_hill_), fell (fr. _fall_). fellow, felloe. ferule, ferrule. fair, fare [_doublet_], phare. fir, fur. feet, feat (_s._), feat (_adj. obs._). filter, philtre. fit (_befit_), fit (_conflict_), fytte [_obs._]. flag (_v._), flag (_ensign_), flag (_plant_), flag (_-stone_). flee, flea. flow, floe. flock (_herd_), flock (_of wool_). flue (_chimney_), flue (_velu_), flew (fr. _fly_). fluke (_fish_), fluke (_of anchor_), fluke (_slang word_). fold (_wrap_), fold (_of sheep_), foaled. four, fore, for. forego, forgo, and other compounds. fourth, forth. foil (_s._), foil (_v._), foil (_fencer's_). fray (_ravel_), fray (_combat_). fret (_eat away_), fret (_adorn_), fret (_on lute_). freeze, frieze (_archt._), frieze (_cloth_), frees (fr. _free_). gamble, gambol, gum (_resin_), gum (_teeth_). gage, gauge, gate, gait. gird (_encircle_), gird (_revile_). guild, gild. guilt, gilt. glare, glair (_white of egg_), + glary, glairy. gore (_pierce_), gore (_triangle_), gore (_blood_). groin, groyne (_breakwater_). great, grate (_s._), grate (_v._). heart, hart. high, hie. hide (_v._), hide (_skin_), hied. hack (_hew_), hack (_hackney_). hamper (_impede_), hamper (_hanaper_). hail! hail (_snow_), hale (_adj._), hale (_haul_). helm (_of ship_), helm (_helmet_). hair, hare. heel, heal, he'll. here, hear. hymn, him. hole, whole, + holy, wholly, holey. home, holm. hoar, whore, haw. hoard, horde, hawk (_bird_), hawk (_v. of hawker_), hawk (_hoquet_). hall, haul. halt (_v._), halt (_adj._). horse, hoarse. hock (_of horse_), hock (_wine_). hop (_jump_), hop (_plant_). hue, hew. humorous, humerus. even (_s._), even (_adj._). ear, ear (_plough_), ear (_of corn_). yoke, yolk. yew, ewe, you. ure, ewer, your. card (_s._), card (_v._). cask, casque. cast, caste. cart, carte, quart (_cards and fencing_). count (_s._), count (_v._). counter (_opp._), counter (_of shop_), counter (_in games_), &c. couch (_coucher_), couch (_grass_). caddy (_lad_), caddy (_box_). can (_s._), can (_v._). cannon, canon _bis._ currant, current. curry (_food_), curry (_comb_). colonel, kernel. cape (_dress_), cape (_headland_). caper (_skip_), caper (_plant_). case (_event_), case (_receptacle_). cashier (_s._), cashier (_v._). key, quay. keen (_adj._), keen (_v._). cue, queue. climb, clime. cleek, clique. coal, cole. cope (_v._), cope (_s._). coat, cote. core, corps, caw. cork, caulk. call, caul. corn (_grain_), corn (_horny growth_). course, coarse, corse. cobble (_to patch_), cobble (_boat_), cobble (_-stones_). cock (s. and _v._), cock (_of hay_). cockle (_v._), cockle (_s. var._). creak, creek. cricket (_insect_), cricket (_game_). cruel, crewel. cruise, cruse, crews. coombe (_valley_), coom (_dry measure_). choir, quire (_of paper_). quiver (_v._), quiver (_s._). queen, quean [_obs._]. last (_adj._, _verb_), last (_s._) lye (_s._), lie (_v._), lie (_s. and n._). lyre, liar. lichen, liken. light (_s._), light (_not heavy_), and hence lighten, lighten. lack, lac, lakh. lap (_lick up_), lap (_fold_), lap (_knees_). lay (_s., bis_), lay (_v._). lake (_pond_), lake (_colour_). let (_allow_), let (_lease, v._), let (_hinder, obs._). lee, lea. leaf, lief. league (_s._), league (_v. and s._) leak, leek. lean (_v._), lean (_adj._). leech (_sucker and doctor_), leech (_of sail_). leave (quit), leave (permit). limp (adj.), limp (v.). link (chain), link (torch), also golf-links, list (listen), list (heel over), list (of flannel). liver (organ), liver (who lives). lo! low (adj.), low (of cow's voice). load, lode, lowed, lone, loan. lock (of door), lock (of hair), loch. long (adj.), long (v.). lorn, lawn, lute, loot. mast (_of ship_), mast (_beech-m._). march (_step_), march (_boundary_), march (_month_). mine (_s._), mine (_poss. pron._). mite, might (_s._), might (_v._), [_and adj. -y_]. mitre (_headdress_), mitre (_carpentry, &c._). mass (_quantity_), mass (_office_). match (_equal_), match (_mèche_). muff (_dress_), muff (_a stupid_). may (_month_), may (_maid, obs._), may (_v._). male, mail (_coat of_), mail (_post_). mane, main. mace (_staff_), mace (_spice_). maze, maize, mays (_pl. of month_). mare, mayor. meed, mead (_meadow_), mead (_drink_). mean (_intend_), mean (_intermediate_), mean (_poor_), mien (_countenance_). meet, meat, mete (_adj. and v._). mere (_pool_), mere (_adj._). mint (_herb_), mint (_coining_). miss (_fail_), miss. mew (_cage_), mew (_bird_), mew (_of cat_). mute (_adj._), mute (_of birds_). muse (_think_), muse, mews (_stable_), mews (fr. _mew_). mote, moat. mow (_various senses_), mot (_french_). mole (_animal_), mole (_of skin_), mole (_breakwater_). mould (_to model_), mould (_earth_), mould (_rust_). maul (_disfigure_), mall (_place_), mahl (_-stick_). morn, mourn, and morning. moor (_country_), moor (_race_) night, knight. none, nun. need, knead, knee'd. neat (_s._), neat (_adj._). no, know. not, knot. oar, ore, or, o'er, awe. augur, auger. all, awl, orle (_heraldry_). altar, alter. oral, aural. ought (_zero_), ought (_pp. of owe_), ort [_obs._]. par, pas (_faus_). pie (_pica_), pie (_dish_). pale (_pole_), pale (_pallid_), pail. pile (_heap_), pile (_stake_), pile (_hair_). pine (_v._), pine (_tree_). pound (_weight_), pound (_enclosure_), pound (_to bruise_). pounce (_v._), pounce (=_pumice_). pallet, palette, palate. paten, patten, pattern. pulse (_beat_), pulse (_pease_). punch (_strike_), punch (_drink_), punch (_and judy_). page (_of bk._), page (_boy_). pane, pain. peck (_measure_), peck (_v._). pelt (_to throw_), pelt (_skin_). pen (_writing_), pen (_inclose_). pair, pear, pare. pearl, purl (_flow_), purl (_knitting_). pique, peak. peal, peel. peep (_to look_), peep (_chirp_). piece, peace. peach (_fruit_), peach (_impeach_). peer (_to look_), peer (_s._), pier. pill (_ball_), pill (_to pillage_). pink (_a flower_), pink (_a colour_), pink (_to pierce_). pip (_a seed_), pip (_a disease_), pip (_on cards_). pitch (_s._), pitch (_to fall, &c._). plight (_pledge_), plight or plite (_to plait_), and 'sad plight'. plat (_of ground_), plait. plum, plumb. plump (_adj._), plump (_to fall heavily_). plane (_tree_), plain [_both various_]. plot (_of ground_), plot (_stratagem_), + verbs. pole, poll. poach, (_eggs_), poach (_steal game_). pore (_of skin_), pore (_top. over_), paw. potter (_v._), potter (_s._). pall (_v._), pall (_cloak_), pawl (_mechanics_). pry (_inquisitive_), pry (_to prise open_). prise, prize. pray, prey. prune (_fruit_), prune (_s._). rye, wry. rime, rhyme. right, write, wright, rite. rabbit, rabbet (_carpentry_). rack [_various_], wrack. racket, racquet. rally (_assemble_), rally (=_raillery_). rank (_s._), rank (_rancid_). rap, wrap. rash (_s._), rash (_adj._). ruff, rough. rum (_queer_), rum (_drink_), rhumb (_naut._). rung (_s._), and past pp. rung, wrung. rush (_s._), rush (_v._). rape (_seed_), rape (_ravish_), rape (_divn. of county, obs._). race (_family_), race (_root_), race (_that is run_). rate (_proportion_), rate (_to chide_). rut (_furrow_), rut (_of animals_). rake (_tool_), rake (_a prodigal_), rake (_of a ship_). rail (_fence_), rail (_bird_). rain, reign, rein. raise, raze. reck, wreck. rent (_paymt._), rent (_s., tear_), rent (fr. _rend_). rest (_repose_), rest (_remainder_), wrest. reed, read. reef (_of rocks_), reef (_of sails_). reek, wreak. reel (_highland-_), reel (_cotton-_). reach, retch. reave, reeve (_naut._), reeve (_bailiff, obs._). rifle (_ransack_), rifle (_s.v., groove_). rear (_raise_), rear (_arrière_). rig (_of ship_), rig (_prank, riggish_), rig (_-s of barley_). rick (_of corn_), rick wrick (_strain_). ring, wring. repair (_mend_), repair (_resort, v._). row (_oaring_), row (_s. of things in line_), roe (_of fish_), roe (_fem. deer_). roll [_various_], rôle. rock (_stone_), rock (_v._), roc. rocket (_plant_), rocket (_firework_). rue (_plant_), rue (_v. of ruth_). rude (_adj._), rood (_s._), rued (fr. _rue_). room, rheum. root, route. rout, route (_military_). sign, sine (_trigonom._). site, sight, cite. size (_magnitude_), size (_glue_). sough, sow. sound (_noise_), sound (_to fathom_), sound (_adj._), sound (_strait of sea_), sound (_fish bladder_). sack (_bag_), sack (_to plunder_), sack (_wine_). swallow (_a willow_), sallow (_pale colour_). sap (_of trees_), sap (_mine_). sum, some. sun, son + sunny, sonnie. sage (_plant_), sage (_adj._). sale, sail. sell, cell. sense, cense. censual, sensual. surge, serge. surf, serf. scent, cent, sent (fr. _send_). session, cession. sea, see. seed, cede. seal (_animal_), ciel or ceil, seal (_sign_). seam, seem. sear, sere, cere, seer. serial, cereal. signet, cygnet. cist (_box_), cyst (_tumour, gr._). scar (_of wound_), scar (_a rock_). skull, scull. scale (_shell_), scale (_of balance_), scale (_of stairs_). scald (_burn_), skald (_poet, norse_). scrub (_of shrubs_), scrub (_v._). sledge (_vehicle_), sledge (_-hammer_). slight, sleight. slay, sleigh (_sledge_). slate (_s._), slate (_v., abuse_). sloe, slow. slop (_puddle_), slop (_loose garment_). slot (_track_), slot (_bar_). sole (_adj._), soul, sole (_a fish_). sow, sew. saw (_tool_), soar, sore, saw (_maxim_), saw (fr. _see_). soil (_ground_), soil (_defile_), soil (_v., of horses_). spar (_beam_), spar (_mineral_), spar (_to box_). salter (_who salts_), psalter. source, sauce. spell (_incantation_), spell (_letters_), spell (_turn of work_). spill (_upset_), spill (_match_). spit (_v._), spit (_roasting_), spit (_of land_). spray (_drizzle_), spray (_= sprig_). spruce (_tree_), spruce (_adj._) style, stile. stud (_nail_), stud (_of horses_). stake (_post_), steak, stake (_deposit_). step, steppe. stair, stare. stern (_adj._), stern (_of ship_). steal, steel, stele. steep (_adj._), steep (_v._). steer (_direct_), steer (_young ox_). still (_tranquil_), still (_distil_). stalk (_stem_), stalk (_v._), stork. story, storey. strand (_shore_), strand (_fibre_). strain (_v. and s._), strain (_a breed_). strait (_narrow_), straight (_upright_). stroke (_a blow_), stroke (_fondle_). stoup, stoop. shed (_scatter_), shed (_shelter_). tart (_adj._), tart (_a pie_). tyre (_of wheel_), tire (_fatigue_), tire (_attire_), + tier (_who ties_). time, thyme. tap (_to strike_), tap (_short pipe_). tale, tail, tail (_estate in t._). tender (_adj._), tender (_s., attender_). tent (_pavilion_), tent (_plug of lint, s. and v._), tent (_wine_). tare, tear (_v._). teem, team. tear (_eye_), tier. tick (_bedding_), tick (_sheep_), tick (_clock_), tic (_spasm_), tick (_credit_). till (_cash drawer_), till (_until_). tilt (_v., to make aslant_), tilt (_tourney_), tilt (_of caravan_). tip (_top_), tip (_make to slant_), tip (_a gift_). toe, tow (_hemp_), tow (_draw a boat_). two, too, to. toll (_lax_), toll (_of bells_). taut, taught, tort. toil (_labour_), toil (_a snare_). top (_summit_), top (_a toy_). truck (_vehicle_), truck (_naut._), truck (_barter_). trump (_trumpet_), trump (_at cards_). trunk (_box_), trunk (_of tree_), trunk (_of elephant_). tray, trait. trace (_track_), trace (_strap_). chair, chare. chap (_crack_), chap (_chapman_), chap (_cheek_). char (_burn_), char (_fish_), char (_-woman_). chop (_with hatchet_), chop (_and change_). chuck (_chick_), chuck (_strike gently_). chase (_hunt_), chase (_enchase_), chase (_printer's case_), chase (_groove_). vice (_depravity_), vice (_clench_), vice (_deputy_). valley, valet. van (_front of army_), van (_fan_), van (_caravan_). vale, vail, veil. vain, vein, vane. won, one. wake (_awake_), wake (_watch_), wake (_of ship_). wain, wane. waste, waist. wait, weight. wave, waive. well (_good_), well (_spring_). wee, we. weak, week. ween, wean. war, wore. would, wood. ii. all the following examples involve _wh. > w._[ ] ware (_earthen-_), ware (_aware_), wear, where, were. way, weigh, whey. weal (_wealth_), weal (_a swelling_), wheel. weald, wield, wheeled. while, wile. whine, wine, white, wight. whether, weather. whither, wither. whig, wig. whit, wit. what, wot. whet, wet. whirr, were = wer'. whin, win. whist, wist. which, witch, wych (_elm_). iii. group of homophones caused by loss of trilled r.[ ] ion, iron. father, farther. lava, larva. halm, harm. calve, carve. talk, torque. daw, door. flaw, floor. yaw, yore. law, lore. laud, lord. maw, more, gnaw, nor. raw, roar. shaw, shore. iv. the name of a species (of animals, plants, &c.) is often a homophone. where there is only one alternative meaning, this causes so little inconvenience that the following names (being in that condition) have been excluded from list i.[ ] bleak (_fish_), bleak (_adj._). dace, dais. gull (_bird_), gull (_s. and v._). carp, carp (_v._). cod, cod (_husk_). codling, coddling (fr. _coddle_). flounder (_fish_), flounder (_v._). quail (_bird_), quail (_v._). lark (_bird_), lark (_fun_). ling (_fish_), ling (_heather_). mussel, muscle. nit, knit. awk, orc. oriole, aureole. pike (_fish_), pike (_weapon_). pout (_fish_), pout (_v._). perch (_fish_), perch (_alight_). plaice, place. ray (_fish_), ray (_of light_). rook (_bird_), rook (_v._). skua, skewer. skate (_fish_), skate (_on ice_). smelt (_fish_), smelt (fr. _smell_). swift (_bird_), swift (_adj._). swallow (_bird_), swallow (_throat_). tapir, taper. tern, turn. teal (_fish_), teil (_tree_). thrush (_bird_), thrush (_disease_). [footnote : the following words in list involve _wr_ > _w_, write, wrach, wrap, wring, wrung, wreck, wrest, wreak, wrick.] [footnote : other similar words occurring in other sections are--awe, awl, ought, bawd, fought, gaud, gauze, haw, caw, cause, caught, lawn, paw, saw, sauce, sought, taut, caulk, stalk, alms, balm;--their correspondents being, oar, orle, ort (_obs._), board, fort, gored, gores, hoar, core, cores, court, lorn, pore, sore, source, sort, tort, cork, stork, arms, barm.] [footnote : other similar proper names of species, &c., which occur in some one of the other sections of the list: ant, bat, bear, bee, beet, beetle, beech, box, breeze, date, dock, daw, duck, deer, elder, erne, fir, flea, flag, fluke, hare, horse, hawk, hop, caper, carrot, couch, cricket, currant, leech, lichen, mace, maize, mint, mole, pear, peach, pink, pie, pine, plum, plane, pulse, rabbit, rye, rush, rape, rail, reed, roe, roc, rue, sage, seal, sloe, sole, spruce, stork, thyme, char, whale, whin, yew. also cockle.] v. the suffix _er_ added to a root often makes homophones. the following are examples. (and see in list vi.) byre, buyer (_who buys_). butter (_s._), butter (_who butts_). better (_adj._), better (_who bets_). border, boarder. dire, dyer. founder (_v._), founder (_who founds_). geyser, gazer. greater, grater (_nutmeg_). canter (_pace_), canter (_who cants_). medlar, meddler. moulder (_v._), moulder (_who moulds_). pitcher (_vessel_), pitcher (_who pitches_). pillar, piller. platter, plaiter. plumper (_adj._), plumper (_s._). sounder (_adj._), sounder (_who sounds_). cellar, seller, &c. vi. words excluded from the main list for various reasons, their homophony being rightly questioned by many speakers. actor, acta (_sanctorum_). brute, bruit. direst, diarist. descent, dissent. deviser, divisor. dual, duel. goffer, golfer. carrot, carat. caudle, caudal. choler, collar. compliment, complement. lumber, lumbar. lesson, lessen. literal, littoral. marshal, martial. minor, miner. manor, manner. medal, meddle. metal, mettle. missal, missel (_thrush_). orphan, often. putty, puttee. pedal, peddle. police, pelisse. principal, principle. profit, prophet. rigour, rigger. rancour, ranker. succour, sucker. sailor, sailer. cellar, seller. censor, censer. surplus, surplice. symbol, cymbal. skip, skep. tuber, tuba. whirl, whorl. wert, wort (_herb, obs._). vial, viol. verdure, verger (_in jones_). vii. homophones due only to an inflected form of a word. comparatives of adjectives, &c. adze, adds. art (_s._), art (_v._). bard, barred. band, banned. battels, battles (_bis_). baste, based. baize, bays (_bis_). bent, bent (_pp. bend_). bean, been. blue, blew. bode, bowed. bold, bowled, bolled (_obs._). bald, bawled. braid, brayed. bread, bred. brood, brewed. bruise, brews. depose, dépôts. divers (_adj._), divers (_plu._). dug (_teat_), dug (fr. _dig_). duct, ducked. dust, dost. daze, days. daisies, dazes (_both inflected_). doze, does (_plu. of doe_). aloud, allowed. fort, fought. found (_v._), found (fr. _find_) phase, fays (_pl. of fay_). felt (_stuff_), felt (fr. _feel_) furze, firs, and furs. feed (_s. and v._), fee'd. flatter (_v._), flatter (_adj._). phlox, flocks. phrase, frays. guise, guys (_plu._). gaud, gored. gauze, gores. guest, guessed. glose, glows. ground (_s._), ground (fr. _grind_). graze, greys. greaves, grieves. groan, grown. grocer, grosser. hire, higher. herd, heard. hist, hissed. hose, hoes. hawse (_naut._), haws, &c. eaves, eves. use (_v._), ewes, yews. candid, candied. clove (_s._), clove (fr. _cleave_). clause, claws. cold, coaled. courser, coarser. court, caught. cause, cores, caws. coir, coyer (fr. _coy_). crew (_s._), crew (fr. _crow_). quartz, quarts. lighter (_s._), lighter (fr. _light, adj._). lax, lacks, &c. lapse, laps, &c. lade (_v._), laid. lane, lain. lead (_mineral_), led. left (_adj._), left (fr. _leave_). lent, leant, lent (fr. _lend_). least, leased. lees (_of wine_), leas, &c. lynx, links. mind, mined. madder (_plant_), madder (fr. _mad_). mustard, mustered. maid, made. mist, missed. mode, mowed. moan, mown. new, knew, &c. nose, knows, noes. aught (_a whit_), ought (fr. _owe_). pact, packed. paste, paced. pervade, purveyed. pyx, picks. please, pleas. pause, paws, pores. pride, pried [_bis_]. prize, pries. praise, prays, preys. rouse, rows. rasher (_bacon_), rasher (fr. _rash_). raid, rayed. red, read (_p. of to read_). rex, wrecks, recks. road, rode, rowed. rote, wrote. rove (_v. of rover_), rove (fr. _reeve_). rose, rows (_var._), roes (_var._), rose (_v._). ruse, rues (fr. _rue_). side, sighed. size, sighs. scene, seen. seize, seas, sees. sold, soled (_both inflected_). sword, soared. sort, sought. span (_length_), span (fr. _spin_). spoke (_of wheel_), spoke (fr. _speak_). stole (_s._), stole (fr. _steal_). stove (_s._), stove (fr. _stave_). tide, tied. tax, tacks (_various_). tact, tacked. tease, teas, tees. toad, towed, toed. told, tolled. tract, tracked. trust, trussed. chaste, chased (_various_). choose, chews. throne, thrown. through, threw. wild, wiled. wind (_roll_), whined. wax, whacks. wade, weighed. weld, welled. word, whirred. wilt (_wither_), wilt (fr. _will_). ward, warred. wont, won't. warn, worn. viii. 'false homophones' [see p. ], doubtful doublets, &c. beam, beam (_of light_). bit (_horse_), bit (_piece_), bit (fr. _bite_). brace, brace. diet, diet. deck (_cover_), deck (_adorn_). deal (_various_). dram (_drink_), drachm. drone (_insect_), drone (_sound_). jest, gest (_romance, and obs. senses_). jib (_sail_), jib (_of horses_). fine (_adj., v. senses_), fine (_mulct_). flower, flour. fleet (_s._), fleet (_adj._), fleet (_stream_). grain (_corn_), grain (_fibre_). indite, indict. incense (_v. =cense_), incense (_incite_). kind (_adj._), kind (_s._). canvas, canvass. cuff (_sleeve_), cuff (_strife_). cousin, cozen. cord, chord (_music_). coin, coign. cotton (_s._), cotton (_v._). crank (_s._), crank (_adj._). quaver (_v._), quaver (_music_). levy, levee. litter (_brood_), litter (_straw_). mantle (_cloak_), mantle (_shelf_). mess (_confusion_), mess (_table_). mussel, muscle. nail (_unguis_), nail (_clavus_). patent (_open_), patent (_monopoly_). pommel (_s._), pummel (_v._). refrain (_v._), refrain (_s., in verse_). retort (_reply_), retort (_chemical vessel_). second (_number_), second (_of time_). squall (_v._), squall (_a gale_). slab (_s._), slab (_adj._). smart (_s. and v., sting_), smart (_adj._). stave (_of barrel_), stave (_of music_), [_stave in (v.)_]. stick (_s._), stick (_v._). stock (_stone_), stock (_in trade_), &c. strut (_a support_), strut (_to walk_). share (_division_), share (_plough_). sheet (_sail and clew_), sheet (_-anchor_). shear (_clip_), sheer (_clear_), sheer off (_deviate_). tack (_various_), tack (_naut._). ton, tun. wage (_earnings_), wage (_of war_). ix. the following words were not admitted into the main class chiefly on account of their unimportance. ah! are. arse, ass. ask, aske (_newt_) ayah, ire. bah! bar, baa. barb, barb (_horse_). bask, basque. barn, barne = bairn. budge, budge (_stuff_). buff, buff. buffer, buffer. berg, burgh (_suffixes_). bin, bin = been. broke (_v._ of _broke_), broke (fr. _break_). broom, brume (_fog_). darn, darn. fizz, phiz. few, feu. forty, forte. hay, heigh! hem (_sew_), hem (_v._, _haw_). hollow, hollo (_v._). inn, in. yawl (_boat_), yawl (_howl_). coup, coo. lamb, lam (_bang_). loaf, loaf (_v. laufen_). marry! marry (_v._). nag (_pony_), nag (_to gnaw_), knag. nap (_of cloth_), nap (_sleep_). nay, neigh. oh! owe. ode, owed. oxide, ox-eyed. pax, packs. pants, pants (fr. _pant_). prose, pros (_and cons_). sink (_var._), cinque. swayed, suede (_kid_). ternary, turnery. tea, tee (_starting point_). taw (_to dress skins_), taw (_game, marbles_), tore (fr. _tear_). cheap, cheep. tool, tulle, we! woe. ho! hoe. the facts of the case being now sufficiently supplied by the above list, i will put my attitude towards those facts in a logical sequence under separate statements, which thus isolated will, if examined one by one, avoid the confusion that their interdependence might otherwise occasion. the sequence is thus: . homophones are a nuisance. . they are exceptionally frequent in english. . they are self-destructive, and tend to become obsolete. . this loss impoverishes the language. . this impoverishment is now proceeding owing to the prevalence of the southern english standard of speech. . the mischief is being worsened and propagated by the phoneticians. . the southern english dialect has no claim to exclusive preference. . _that homophones are a nuisance._ an objector who should plead that homophones are not a nuisance might allege the longevity of the chinese language, composed, i believe, chiefly of homophones distinguished from each other by an accentuation which must be delicate difficult and precarious. i remember that max müller [ ] instanced a fictitious sentence ba bà bâ bá, 'which (he wrote) is said to mean if properly accented _the three ladies gave a box on the ear to the favourite of the princess._' this suggests that the bleating of sheep may have a richer significance than we are accustomed to suppose; and it may perhaps illustrate the origin as well as the decay of human speech. the only question that it raises for us is the possibility of distinguishing our own homophones by accentuation or by slight differentiation of vowels; and this may prove to be in some cases the practical solution, but it is not now the point in discussion, for no one will deny that such delicate distinctions are both inconvenient and dangerous, and should only be adopted if forced upon us. i shall assume that common sense and universal experience exonerate me from wasting words on the proof that homophones are mischievous, and i will give my one example in a note[ ]; but it is a fit place for some general remarks. [footnote : the homophones sun = son. there is a greek epigram on homer, wherein, among other fine things, he is styled, [greek: ellanon biotae deuteron aelion] which mackail translates 'a second sun on the life of greece'. but _second son_ in english means the second male child of its parents. it is plain that the greek is untranslatable into english because of the homophone. _the thing cannot be said._ donne would take this bull by the horns, pretending or thinking that genuine feeling can be worthily carried in a pun. so that in his impassioned 'hymn to god the father', deploring his own sinfulness, his climax is but swear by thyself that at my death thy sonne shall shine as he shines now, the only poetic force of which seems to lie in a covert plea of pitiable imbecility. dr. henry bradley in informed the international historical congress that the word _son_ had ceased to be vernacular in the dialects of many parts of england. 'i would not venture to assert (he adds) that the identity of sound with _sun_ is the only cause that has led to the widespread disuse of _son_ in dialect speech, but i think it has certainly contributed to the result.'] the objections to homophones are of two kinds, either scientific and utilitarian, or æsthetic. the utilitarian objections are manifest, and since confusion of words is not confined to homophones, the practical inconvenience that is sometimes occasioned by slight similarities may properly be alleged to illustrate and enforce the argument. i will give only one example. [sidenote: utilitarian objections not confined to homophones.] the telephone, which seems to lower the value of differentiating consonants, has revealed unsuspected likenesses. for instance the ciphers, if written somewhat phonetically as usually pronounced, are thus: nawt wun too three fawr faiv six sev'n eit nain by which it will be seen that the ten names contain eight but only eight different vowels, and having the same vowel _aw_, while and have _ai_. both these pairs caused confusion; the first of them was cured by substituting the name of the letter o for the name of the zero cipher, which happens to be identical with it in form,[ ] and this introduced a ninth vowel sound _ou_ (= owe), but the other pair remained such a constant source of error, that persons who had their house put on the general telephonic system would request the post office to give them a number that did not contain a or a ; and it is pretty certain that had not the system of automatic dialling, which was invented for quite another purpose, got rid of the trouble, one of these two ciphers would have changed its name at the post office. [footnote : there is a coincidence of accidents--that the arabic sign for zero is the same with our letter o, and that the name of our letter o (= owe) is the same as the present tense of _ought_, which is the vulgar name (for nought) of the arabic zero, and that its vowel does not occur in the name of any cipher.] [sidenote: Æsthetic objections.] in the effect of uniformity it may be said that utilitarian and æsthetic considerations are generally at one; and this blank statement must here suffice, for the principle could not be briefly dealt with: but it follows from it that the proper æsthetic objections to homophones are never clearly separable from the scientific. i submit the following considerations. any one who seriously attempts to write well-sounding english will be aware how delicately sensitive our ear is to the repetition of sounds. he will often have found it necessary to change some unimportant word because its accented vowel recalled and jarred with another which was perhaps as far as two or three lines removed from it: nor does there seem to be any rule for this, since apparently similar repetitions do not always offend, and may even be agreeable. the relation of the sound to the meaning is indefinable, but in homophones it is blatant; for instance the common expression _it is well_ could not be used in a paragraph where the word well (= well-spring) had occurred. now, this being so, it is very inconvenient to find the omnipresent words _no_ and _know_ excluding each other: and the same is true of _sea_ and _see_; if you are writing of the _sea_ then the verb _to see_ is forbidden, or at least needs some handling. i see the deep's untrampled floor with green and purple seaweeds strewn: here _seaweeds_ is risky, but _i see the sea's untrampled floor_ would have been impossible: even the familiar the sea saw that and fled is almost comical, especially because 'sea saw' has a most compromising joint-tenant in the children's rocking game see saw margery daw. the awkwardness of these english homophones is much increased by the absence of inflection, and i suppose it was the richness of their inflections which made the greeks so indifferent (apparently) to syllabic recurrences that displease us: moreover, the likeness in sound between their similar syllables was much obscured by a verbal accent which respected the inflection and disregarded the stem, whereas our accent is generally faithful to the root.[ ] this sensitiveness to the sound of syllables is of the essence of our best english, and where the effect is most magical in our great poets it is impossible to analyse. [footnote : wherever this is not so--as in _rhétoric_, _rhetórical_, _rhetorícian_, _cómpany_, _compánion_, &c.--we have a greater freedom in the use of the words. such words, as dr. bradley points out, giving _cánada_, _canádian_ as example, are often phonetic varieties due to an imported foreign syntax, and their pronunciation implies familiarity with literature and the written forms: but very often they are purely the result of our native syllabising, not only in displacement of accent (as in the first example above) but also by modification of the accented vowel according to its position in the word, the general tendency being to make long vowels in monosyllables and in penultimate accents, but short vowels in antepenultimate accents. thus come such differences of sound between _opus_ and _opera_, _omen_ and _ominous_, _virus_ and _virulent_, _miser_ and _miserable_, _nation_ and _national_, _patron_ and _patronage_, _legal_ and _legislate_, _grave_ and _gravity_, _globe_ and _globular_, _grade_ and _gradual_, _genus_ and _general_, _female_ and _feminine_, _fable_ and _fabulous_, &c. in such disguising of the root-sound the main effect, as dr. bradley says, is the power to free the derivative from an intense meaning of the root; so that, to take his very forcible example, the adjective christian, the derivative of christ, has by virtue of its shortened vowel been enabled to carry a much looser signification than it could have acquired had it been phonetically indissociable from the intense signification of the name christ. this freedom of the derivative from the root varies indefinitely in different words, and it very much complicates my present lesser statement of the literary advantage of phonetic variety in inflexions and derivatives. the examples above are all latin words, and since latin words came into english through different channels, these particular vowels can have different histories.] once become sensible of such beauty, and of the force of sounds, a writer will find himself in trouble with _no_ and _know_. these omnipresent words are each of them essentially weakened by the existence of the other, while their proximity in a sentence is now damaging. it is a misfortune that our southern dialect should have parted entirely with all the original differentiation between them; for after the distinctive _k_ of the verb was dropped, the negative still preserved (as it in some dialects still preserves) its broad open vowel, more like _law_ than _toe_ or _beau_, and unless that be restored i should judge that the verb _to know_ is doomed. the third person singular of its present tense is _nose_, and its past tense is _new_, and the whole inconvenience is too radical and perpetual to be received all over the world. we have an occasional escape by using _nay_ for _no_, since its homophone _neigh_ is an unlikely _neigh_bour; but that can serve only in one limited use of the word, and is no solution. [sidenote: punnage.] in talking with friends the common plea that i have heard for homophones is their usefulness to the punster. 'why! would you have no puns?' i will not answer that question; but there is no fear of our being insufficiently catered for; whatever accidental benefit be derivable from homophones, we shall always command it fully and in excess; look again at the portentous list of them! and since the essential jocularity of a pun (at least when it makes me laugh) lies in a humorous incongruity, its farcical gaiety may be heightened by a queer pronunciation. i cannot pretend to judge a sophisticated taste; but, to give an example, if, as i should urge, the _o_ of the word _petrol_ should be preserved, as it is now universally spoken, not having yet degraded into _petr'l_, a future squire will not be disqualified from airing his wit to his visitors by saying, as he points to his old stables, 'that is where i store my petrel', and when the joke had been illustrated in _punch_, its folly would sufficiently distract the patients in a dentist's waiting-room for years to come, in spite of gentlemen and chauffeurs continuing to say _petrol_, as they do now; nor would the two _petr'ls_ be more dissimilar than the two _mys_. [sidenote: play on words.] puns must of course be distinguished from such a play on words as john of gaunt makes with his own name in shakespeare's _king richard ii_. _k._ what comfort man? how is't with aged gaunt? _g._ o, how that name befits my composition! old gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old, &c. where, as he explains, misery makes sport to mock itself. this is a humorous indulgence of fancy, led on by the associations of a word; a pun is led off by the _sound_ of a word in pursuit of nonsense; though the variety of its ingenuity may refuse so simple a definition. [sidenote: an indirect advantage of homophones.] it is true that a real good may sometimes come indirectly from a word being a homophone, because its inconvenience in common parlance may help to drive it into a corner where it can be retained for a special signification: and since the special significance of any word is its first merit, and the coinage of new words for special differentiation is difficult and rare, we may rightly welcome any fortuitous means for their provision. examples of words specialized thus from homophones are _brief_ (a lawyer's brief), _hose_ (water-pipe), _bolt_ (of door), _mail_ (postal), _poll_ (election), &c.[ ] [footnote : it would follow that, supposing there were any expert academic control, it might be possible to save some of our perishing homophones by artificial specialization. such words are needed, and if a homophone were thus specialized in some department of life or thought, then a slight differential pronunciation would be readily adopted. both that and its defined meaning might be true to its history.] . _that english is exceptionally burdened with homophones._ this is a reckless assertion; it may be that among the languages unknown to me there are some that are as much hampered with homophones as we are. i readily grant that with all our embarrassment of riches, we cannot compete with the chinese nor pretend to have outbuilt their babel; but i doubt whether the statement can be questioned if confined to european languages. i must rely on the evidence of my list, and i would here apologize for its incompleteness. after i had patiently extracted it from the dictionary a good many common words that were missing occurred to me now and again, and though i have added these, there must be still many omissions. nor must it be forgotten that, had obsolete words been included, the total would have been far higher. that must plainly be the case if, as i contend, homophony causes obsolescence, and reference to the list from shakespeare in my next section will provide examples of such words. otto jespersen[ ] seems to think that the inconvenience of homophones is so great that a language will naturally evolve some phonetic habit to guard itself against them, although it would otherwise neglect such distinction. i wish that this admirable instinct were more evident in english. he writes thus of the lists of words which he gives 'to show what pairs of homonyms [homophones] would be created if distinctions were abolished that are now maintained: they [the lists] thus demonstrate the force of resistance opposed to some of the sound-changes which one might imagine as happening in the future. a language can tolerate only a certain number of ambiguities arising from words of the same sound having different significations, and therefore the extent to which a language has utilized some phonetic distinction to keep words apart, has some influence in determining the direction of its sound-changes. in french, and still more in english, it is easy to enumerate long lists of pairs of words differing from each other only by the presence or absence of voice in the last sound; therefore final _b_ and _p_, _d_ and _t_, _g_ and _k_, are kept rigidly apart; in german, on the other hand, there are very few such pairs, and thus nothing counterbalances the natural tendency to unvoice final consonants.' [footnote : _a modern english grammar on historical principles_, by otto jespersen, heidelberg, . streitberg's _germanische bibliothek_, vol. i, p. .] . _that homophones are self-destructive and tend to become obsolete._ for the contrary contention, namely, that homophones do _not_ destroy themselves, there is prima facie evidence in the long list of survivors, and in the fact that a vast number of words which have not this disadvantage are equally gone out of use. [sidenote: causes of obsolescence.] words fall out of use for other reasons than homophony, therefore one cannot in any one case assume that ambiguity of meaning was the active cause: indeed the mere familiarity of the sound might prolong a word's life; and homophones are themselves frequently made just in this way, for uneducated speakers will more readily adapt a familiar sound to a new meaning (as when my gardener called his pomeranian dog a panorama) than take the trouble to observe and preserve the differentiation of a new sound. there is no rule except that any loss of distinction may be a first step towards total loss.[ ] [footnote : to give an example of this. in old greek _we_ and _you_ were [greek: aemeis] and [greek: umeis]: and those words became absolutely homophonous, so that one of them had to go. the first person naturally held on to its private property, and it invented _sets_ for outsiders. now the first step towards this absurdest of all homophonies, the identity of _meum_ and _tuum_, was no doubt the modification of the true full _u_ to _ii_. the ultimate convenience of the result may in itself be applauded; but it is inconceivable that modern greek should ever compensate itself for its inevitable estrangement from its ancient glories.] it is probable that the working machinery of an average man's brain sets a practical limit to his convenient workable vocabulary; that is to say, a man who can easily command the spontaneous use of a certain number of words cannot much increase it without effort. if that is so, then, as he learns new words, there will be a tendency, if not a necessity, for him to lose hold of a corresponding number of his old words; and the words that will first drop out will be those with which he had hitherto been uncomfortable; and among those words will be the words of ambiguous meaning. [sidenote: no direct proof] it is plain that only general considerations can be of value, unless there should be very special evidence in any special case; and thus the caution of dr. henry bradley's remarks in note on page . i remember how i first came to recognize this law; it was from hearing a friend advocating the freer use of certain old words which, though they were called obsolete and are now rarely heard, yet survive in local dialects. i was surprised to find how many of them were unfit for resuscitation because of their homophonic ambiguity, and when i spoke of my discovery to a philological friend, i found that he regarded it as a familiar and unquestioned rule. but to prove this rule is difficult; and as it is an impossible task to collect all the obsolete words and classify them, i am proposing to take two independent indications; first to separate out the homophones from the other obsolete words in a shakespearian glossary, and secondly, to put together a few words that seem to be actually going out of use in the present day, that is, strictly obsolescent words caught in the act of flitting. [sidenote: obsolescence defined.] obsolescence in this connexion must be understood only of common educated speech, that is, the average speaker's vocabulary. obsolescent words are old words which, when heard in talk, will sound literary or unusual: in literature they can seem at home, and will often give freshness without affectation; indeed, any word that has an honourable place in shakespeare or the bible can never quite die, and may perhaps some day recover its old vitality. [sidenote: evidence of obsolescence.] the best evidence of the obsolescence of any word is that it should still be frequently heard in some proverb or phrase, but never out of it. the homophonic condition is like that of _aural_ and _oral_, of which it is impossible to make practical use.[ ] we speak of an _aural surgeon_ and of _oral teaching_, but out of such combinations the words have no sense. it happens that oral teaching must be aural on the pupil's side, but that only adds to the confusion. [footnote : the words _aural_ and _oral_ are distinguished in the pronunciation of the north midlands and in scotland, and the difference between the first syllables is shown in the oxford dictionary. in southern english no trace of differentiation remains.] in deciding whether any obsolete homophone has been lost by its homophony, i should make much of the consideration whether the word had supplied a real need, by naming a conception that no other word so fitly represented; hence its survival in a proverb is of special value, because the words of proverbs are both apt and popular; so that for the disuse of such a word there would seem to be no other cause so likely and sufficient as damage to its signification. the glossary is relied on to contain, besides its other items, all the obsolete words: the homophones separated out from these will show various grades of obsolescence, and very different values as examples bearing on the question at issue. _table of homophones taken from among the obsolete words in cunliffe's 'a new shakespearean dictionary,' blackie_, .] ancient: replaced by ensign. bate = remit. beck = a bow of the head: preserved in 'becks and nods', mutual loss with beck = rivulet. boot = to profit: sh. puns on it, showing that its absurdity was recognized. bottle (of hay): preserved in proverb. bourne = streamlet: preserved in sense of limit by the line of sh. which perhaps destroyed it. breeze = gadfly. brief (_subs._): now only as a lawyer's brief. brook (_verb_). buck = to steep (linen) in lye. cote: as in sheepcote. dole = portion, and dole = sorrow: probably active mutual destruction; we still retain 'to dole out'. dout. dun (_adj._): now only in combination as dun-coloured. ear = to plough. fain and feign: prob. mutual loss due to undefined sense of fain. n.b. fane also obsolete. feat (_adj._) and featly: well lost. fere. fit = section of a poem. flaw: now confined to a flaw in metal, &c. fleet (_verb_) and fleeting, as in the sun-dial motto, 'time like this shade doth fleet and fade.' foil: common verb, obsolete. gest: lost in _jest_. gird = to scoff: an old well-established word. gout = a drop of liquor. gust = taste (well lost). hale = haul (well lost). hight = named. hoar: only kept in combination, hoar-frost, hoar hairs. hose: lost, though hosier remains, but specialized in _garden-hose, &c._ hue: not now used of colour. imbrued (with blood): prob. lost in _brewed_. jade: almost confined to _jaded_(?). keel = cool. list: as in 'as you list'. mail: now only in combination, coat of mail, &c. marry! mated = confused in mind (well lost). meed: lost in _mead_ = meadow (also obs.) _and mead=metheglin_. mete and metely = fitting, also mete in 'mete it out', both lost in _meet_ and _meat_. mere (_subs._). mouse (_verb_): to bite and tear. mow = a grimace. muse = to wonder: lost in _amuse_ and _muse_. neat = ox. ounce = pard. pall = to fail. peak: survives only in 'peak and pine' and in _peaky_. pelting = paltry, also pelt = a skin, lost. pill = to plunder. pink = ornamental slashing of dress. poke = pocket. poll = to cut the hair. quarry (as used in sport). quean = a woman. rack (of clouds). raze (to the ground). the meaning being the very opposite of _raise_, the word _raze_ is intolerable. rede = counsel, n.b. change of meaning. rheum: survives in rheumatic, &c. scald = scurvy (_adj._). sleave = a skein of silk, 'the ravelled sleave of care', usually misinterpreted, the equivocal alternative making excellent sense. souse _(verb):_ of a bird of prey swooping. speed: as in 'st. francis be thy speed' = help, aid. stale = bait or decoy (well lost). tarre: to 'tarre a dog on' = incite. tickle = unstable. tire = to dress (the hair, &c.). vail = to let fall. wreak. besides the above may be noted wont (_sub._): lost in _won't_ = will not. fair: though we still speak of 'a fair complexion' the word has lost much of its old use: and the verb to fare has suffered; we still say 'farewell', but scarcely 'he fares ill'; also to fare forth is obsolete. bolt = to sift, has gone out, also bolt in the sense of a missile weapon; but the weapon may have gone first; we still preserve it in 'a bolt from the blue', a thunder-bolt, and 'a fool's bolt is soon shot', and we shoot the bolt of a door. barm: this being the name of an object which would be familiar only to brewers and bakers, probably suffered from the discontinuance of family brewing and baking. it would no longer be familiar, and may possibly have felt the blurring effect of the ill-defined balm, which word also seems rarely used. in the south of england few persons now know what barm is. arch: _adj._, probably obsolescent. there are also examples of words with the affix a-, or initials simulating that affix, thus: aby: lost in _abide_, with which it was confused. abode = bode (? whether ever in common use). accite: lost in _excite_. assay: quite a common word, lost in _say_ (?) atone: lost in _tone_. and thus _attempt_, _attaint_, _attest_, _avail_, all suffered from _tempt_, _taint_, _test_, _veil_, whereas _attend_ seems to have destroyed _tend_. _table of homophones that may seem to be presently falling out of use._[ ] ail. alms. ascent. augur (_v._). barren. bate. bier. bray (_pound_). bridal. broach. casque. cede. cession. cite. clime. corse. cruse. dene. dun (_colour_). desert. fain. fallow. feign. fell (_skin_). flue (_velu_). fray (_sub._). fry (_small-_). gait. gambol. gin (_snare_). gird (_abuse_). gore (_blood_). hart. horde. hue (_colour_). isle. lea. lessen. let (_hinder_). lief. main. march (_boundary_). meed. mien. mote. mourn. mute (_of birds_). neat (_animal_). ore. pale (_enclosure_). pall (_v._). pen (_enclose_). pelt (_skin_). pile (_hair_). pink (_v._). pulse (_pease_). quean. rail (_chide_). raze. reave. reck. repair (_resort_). rheum. rood. rue. sack (_v._). sage (_adj._). sallow (_willow_). sere. soar. spray (_sprig_). still (_adj._ n.b. _keep still_). stoup. surge. swift. teem. toil (_snare_). vane. van (_fan_). vail (_v._). wage (_war_). wain. ween. whit. wight. wile. wrack. wreak. wot. aught. [footnote : some of the words in this table are also in the last list. this list is an attempt to tabulate words falling out of use or seldom heard now in the conversation of average educated persons who talk southern english or what is called p.s.p. (see p. ); to some of them the word may be unknown, and if it is known, they avoid using it because it sounds to them strange or affected. it is difficult to _prove_ that any particular word is in this condition, and the list is offered tentatively. it is made from jones' dictionary, which is therefore allowed to rule whether the word is obsolescent rather than obsolete: some of these seem to be truly obsolete. some will appear to be convincing examples of obsolescence, others not; but it must be remembered that the fact of a word being still commonly heard in some district or trade (though that may seem to show that it is in 'common use') is no evidence that it is not dying out; it is rather evidence that it was lately more living, which is the same as being obsolescent.] . _that the loss due to homophony threatens to impoverish the language._ new words are being added to the dictionary much faster than old words are passing out of use, but it is not a question of numbers nor of dictionaries. a chemist told me that if the world were packed all over with bottles as close as they could stand, he could put a different substance into each one and label it. and science is active in all her laboratories and will print her labels. if one should admit that as many as ninety-nine per cent. of these artificial names are neither literary nor social words, yet some of them are, since everything that comes into common use must have a name that is frequently spoken. thus _baik_, _sackereen_, and _mahjereen_ are truly new english word-sounds; and it may be, if we succumb to anarchical communism, that margarine and saccharine will be lauded by its dissolute mumpers as enthusiastically as men have hitherto praised and are still praising butter and honey. 'bike' certainly would have already won a decent place in poetry had it been christened more gracefully and not nicknamed off to live in backyards with cab and bus. the whole subject of new terms is too vast to be parenthetically handled, and i hope that some one will deal with it competently in an early publication of the s.p.e. the question must here remain to be determined by the evidence of the words in the table of obsoletes, which i think is convincing; my overruling contention being that, however successful we may be in the coinage of new words (and we have no reason to boast of success) and however desirable it is to get rid of some of the bad useless homophones, yet we cannot afford to part with any old term that can conveniently be saved. we have the best bible in the world, and in shakespeare the greatest poet; we have been suckled on those twin breasts, and our children must have degenerated if they need asses' milk. nor is it only because the old is better than the new that we think thus. if we speak more proudly of trafalgar than of zeebrugge, it is not because trafalgar is so far finer a sounding word than zeebrugge, as indeed it is, nor because we believe that the men of nelson's time were better than our men of to-day, we know they were not, but because the spirit that lives on ideals will honour its parents; and it is thinking in this way that makes noble action instinctive and easy. nelson was present at zeebrugge leading our sailors, as shakespeare is with us leading our writers, and no one who neglects the rich inheritance to which englishmen are born is likely ever to do any credit to himself or his country. . _that the south english dialect is a direct and chief cause of homophones._ [sidenote: evidence of jones' dictionary.] evidence of the present condition of our ruling educated speech in the south of england i shall take from mr. daniel jones' dictionary,[ ] the authority of which cannot, i think, be disputed. it is true that it represents a pronunciation so bad that its slovenliness is likely to be thought overdone, but there is no more exaggeration than any economical system of phonetic spelling is bound to show. it is indeed a strong and proper objection to all such simplifications that they are unable to exhibit the finer distinctions; but this must not imply that mr. jones' ear is lacking in delicate perception, or that he is an incompetent observer. if he says, as he does say, that the second syllable in the words _obloquy_ and _parasite_ are spoken by educated londoners with the same vowel-sound (which he denotes by [e], that is the sound of _er_ in the word _danger_), then it is true that they are so pronounced, or at least so similarly that a trained ear refuses to distinguish them [óbl_er_quy, pár_er_site]. [footnote : _a phonetic dictionary of the english language_, by hermann michaelis, headmaster of the mittelschule in berlin, and daniel jones, m.a., lecturer on phonetics at university college, london, . there is a second edition of this book in which the words are in the accustomed alphabetical order of their literary spelling.] to this an objector might fairly reply that mr. jones could distinguish the two sounds very well if it suited him to do so; but that, as it is impossible for him to note them in his defective phonetic script, he prefers to confuse them. i shall not lose sight of this point,[ ] but here i will only say that, if there really is a difference between these two vowels in common talk, then if mr. jones can afford to disregard it it must be practically negligible, and other phoneticians will equally disregard it, as the oxford press has in its smaller dictionary. [footnote : i am not likely to forget it or to minimize it, for it is my own indictment against mr. jones' system, and since his practice strongly supports my contention i shall examine it and expose it (see p. ); but the objection here raised is not really subversive of my argument here, as may be judged from the fact that the oxford university press has adopted or countenanced mr. jones' standard in their small popular edition of the large dictionary.] [sidenote: its trustworthiness.] i suppose that thirty years ago it would have been almost impossible to find any german who could speak english so well as to pass for a native: they spoke as du maurier delighted to represent them in _punch_. during the late war, however, it has been no uncommon thing for a german soldier to disguise himself in english uniform and enter our trenches, relying on his mastery of our tongue to escape suspicion; and it was generally observed how many german prisoners spoke english _like a native_. now this was wholly due to their having been taught southern english on mr. jones' model and method. again, those who would repudiate the facts that i am about to reveal, and who will not believe that in their own careless talk they themselves actually pronounce the words very much as mr. jones prints them,[ ] should remember that the sounds of speech are now mechanically recorded and reproduced, and the records can be compared; so that it would betray incompetence for any one in mr. jones' position to misrepresent the facts, as it would be folly in him to go to the trouble and expense of making such a bogus book as his would be were it untrue; nor could he have attained his expert reputation had he committed such a folly. [footnote : this is a very common condition. the habitual pronunciation is associated in the mind with the familiar eye-picture of the literary printed spelling so closely that it is difficult for the speaker to believe that he is not uttering the written sounds; but he is not competent to judge his own speech. for instance, almost all englishmen believe that the vowel which we write _u_ in _but_, _ugly_, _unknown_, &c., is really a _u_, like the _u_ in _full_, and not a disguised _a_; and because the written _s_ is sometimes voiced they cannot distinguish between _s_ and _z_, nor without great difficulty separate among the plural terminations those that are spoken with an _s_ from those that are spoken with a _z_. i was shocked when i first discovered my own delusions in such matters, and i still speak the bad southern english that i learnt as a child and at school. i can hardly forgive my teachers and would not myself be condemned in a like reprobation.] again, and in support of the trustworthiness of the records, i am told by those concerned in the business that for some years past no englishman could obtain employment in germany as teacher of english unless he spoke the english vowels according to the standard of mr. jones' dictionary; and it was a recognized device, when such an appointment was being considered, to request the applicant to speak into a machine and send the record by post to the continent; whereupon he was approved or not on that head by the agreement of the record with the standard which i am about to illustrate from the dictionary. all these considerations make a strong case for the truth of mr. jones' representation of our 'standard english', and his book is the most trustworthy evidence at my disposal: but before exhibiting it i would premise that our present fashionable dialect is not to be considered as the wanton local creator of all the faults that mr. jones can parade before the eye. its qualities have come together in various ways, nor are the leading characteristics of recent origin. i am convinced that our so-called standard english sprang actively to the fore in shakespeare's time, that in the commonwealth years our speech was in as perilous a condition as it is to-day, and at the restoration made a self-conscious recovery, under an impulse very like that which is moving me at the present moment; for i do not look upon myself as expressing a personal conviction so much as interpreting a general feeling, shared i know by almost all who speak our tongue, americans, australians, canadians, irish, new zealanders, and scotch, whom i range alphabetically lest i should be thought to show prejudice or bias in any direction. but this is beyond the present purpose, which is merely to exhibit the tendency which this so-called degradation has to create homophones. [sidenote: mauling of words.] as no one will deny that homophones are to be made by mauling words, i will begin by a selection of words from mr. jones' dictionary showing what our southern english is doing with the language. i shall give in the first column the word with its literary spelling, in the second mr. jones' phonetic representation of it, and in the third column an attempt to represent that sound to the eye of those who cannot read the phonetic script, using such makeshift spellings as may be found in any novel where the pronunciation of the different speakers is differentiated. _examples from mr. jones' pronouncing dictionary._[ ] parsonage. p[a]:s[n.]i[dz] [-sn-] pahs'nidge _or_ pahsnidge. picture. pik[ts][e] pictsher. scriptural. skrip[ts][er]r[er]l scriptshererl _or_ scriptshrl. temperature. tempri[ts][e] tempritsher. interest. intrist intrist. senator. senit[e] _and_ senniter _and_ sen[e]tor sennertor. blossoming. bl[o]s[e]mi[ng] blosserming. natural. næ[ts]r[er]l natshrerl _or_ natshrl. orator. [o]r[e]t[e] orrerter. rapturous. ræp[ts][er]r[e]s raptsherers _or_ raptshrers. parasite. pær[e]sait parrersite. obloquy. [o]bl[e]kwi oblerquy. syllogise. sil[e][dz]aiz sillergize. equivocal. ikwiv[e]k[er]l ikwívverk'l. immaterial. im[e]ti[e]ri[e]l immertierierl. miniature. mini[ts][e] minnitsher. extraordinary. ikstr[o]:dnri ikstrordnry. salute. s[e]lu:t [-lju:-] serloot _and_ serlute. solution. s[e]lu:[s][e]n [-lju:-] serloosh'n _and_ serl[=u]sh'n. subordinate (_adj._). s[e]b[o]:d[n.]it serbord'nit. sublime. s[e]blaim serblime. [footnote : the dictionary allows mitigated variants of some of these words.] in culling these flowers of speech i was not blind to their great picturesque merits, but they must not be taken for jokes, at least they must not be thought of as conjuring smiles on the faces of messrs. jones, michaelis and rippmann: they are deadly products of honest study and method, and serious evidence whereby any one should be convinced that such a standard of english pronunciation is likely to create homophones: and yet in searching the dictionary i have not found it guilty of many new ones.[ ] for examples of homophones due to our 'standard' speech one might take first the _wh_- words (given on page ) which have lost their aspirate, and with them the _wr_- words: next the words in table iv and note, which have lost their trilled _r_: and then the words from table vi on page ; and that would start us with some words, the confusion of which is due to our southern english pronunciation, since the differentiation of all these words is still preserved in other dialects. the differentiation of these words would of course liberate their twins, so the total number of gains should be doubled. [footnote : a fair list might no doubt be made; the most amusing item would be--_ophelia_ = _aphelia_: then _illusion_ = _elusion_, _paten_ = _pattern_, _seaman_ = _seamen_, _phial_ = _file_, _custody_ = _custardy_, and of course _verdure_ = _verger_ and _fissure_ = _fisher_. it would also allow _partition_ = _petition_, _proscribe_ = _prescribe_, and _upbraid_ = _abrade_! i take these from the first edition.] [sidenote: example of one class.] but number is not so important as the quality and frequency of the words involved, so i will instance one class in detail, namely the words in which _aw_ and _or_ are confused. here are a dozen of them: core = caw. door = daw*. floor = flaw*. hoar* = haw. lore* = law. more = maw*. oar, ore = awe*. pore = paw. roar = raw. soar, sore = saw, saw. tore = taw. yore* = yaw. of these words, exhibit stages or symptoms of obsolescence. i should think it extremely unlikely that _yore_ has been in any way incommoded by _yaw_; and _flaw_, which is now more or less cornered to one of its various meanings, was probably affected more by its own ambiguities than by _floor_; but others seem to be probable examples: _shaw_ and _lore_, and i think _maw_, are truly obsoletes, while _hoar_ and _daw_ are heard only in combination. _awe_ is heard only in _awful_, and has there lost its significance. i should guess that this accident has strengthened its severity in literature, where it asserts its aloofness sometimes with a full spelling [_aweful_] as in speech two pronunciations are recognized, _awful_ and _awf'l_. now how do these words appear in jones' dictionary? if there is to be any difference between the _aw_ and _ore_ sounds either the _r_ must be trilled as it still is in the north, or some vestige of it must be indicated, and such indication would be a lengthening of the _o_ (=_aw_) sound by the vestigial voicing of the lost trill, such as is indicated in the word _o'er_, and might be roughly shown to the eye by such a spelling as _shawer_ for _shore_ [thus _shaw_ would be [s][o]: and _shore_ would be [s][o]:[e]] and such distinction is still made by our more careful southern english speakers, and is recognized as an existent variant by jones. since the circumflex accent properly indicates a rise and fall of voice-pitch on a vowel-sound such as almost makes a disyllable of a monosyllable (e.g. in milton's verse the word _power_ may fill either one or two places in the line) i will adopt it here to denote this fuller and differentiating pronunciation of _ore_. now to all these words, and to the finals of such words as _ad[ore]_, _impl[ore]_, _ign[ore]_, jones gives the diphthongal _aw_ as the normal south english pronunciation, and he allows the longer _[ore]_ sound only as a variant, putting this variant in the second place. hence, all these _[ore]_ words are being encouraged to cast off the last remnant of their differentiation, which it is admitted that they have not yet quite lost.[ ] [footnote : the two editions of jones' dictionary do not exactly correspond, e.g. in the first edition the words _boar_ and _bore_ are under _baw_, and no other pronunciation is mentioned. but in the second edition _b[ore]_ and _b[oar]_ are allowed as variants. in the first edition _four_, _fore_ and _for_ are all under _faw_ [f[e]:], and i find _pour_, _pore_, and _poor_ all under _paw_, though in every case there are variants, and on p. he records that _shore_ and _sure_ may be pronounced alike. again, in the first edition, _yerr_ [j[e]:] is one normal for _year_ and also dialectal for _ear_ (!), while in the second edition only _y[ear]_ [ji:] is given for _year_, and _yerr_ is not mentioned at all. as i am sure that this sort of stuff must be almost more tedious and annoying to read than it is to write, i desist from further details, but cannot resist the opportunity of pointing out that in their english pronunciation of latin our classical teachers and professors have wantonly introduced this mischievous homophony of _au_ and _or_ into latin, although the proper pronunciation of the 'diphthong' _au_ in latin is not like our _awe_, but like the _ou_ of _out_. thus with them _corda_ and _cauda_ are similar sounds, and the sacred _sursum corda_ means 'cock your tail' just as much as it means 'lift up your hearts'.] . _that the mischief is being propagated by phoneticians._ [sidenote: the use of phonetics in education.] the phoneticians are doing useful work in supplying an educational need. by the phonetic system any spoken language can now be learned quickly and easily, just as by the _sol-fa_ system the teaching of music was made easy and simple. if a clergyman who had no practical knowledge of music were offered the post of minor canon in a cathedral, he would find it very difficult to qualify himself passably, whereas any village schoolboy could learn all the music necessary for such an office, and learn that solidly too and soundly and durably, in a few lessons, truly in a few hours, by the _sol-fa_ method. the principle is the same in music and in speech, namely to have a distinct symbol for every separate sound; in music it is a name, the idea of which quickly becomes indissociable from the note of the scale which it indicates; in phonetics it is a written letter, which differs from the units of our literary alphabet only in this, that it has but one meaning and interpretation, and really is what all letters were originally intended to be. when you see it you know what it means. [sidenote: its general adoption certain.] the principle is but common sense, and practice confirms its validity. i am persuaded that as soon as competition has exposed the advantages which it ensures, not only in the saving of time, but in the rescuing of english children from the blighting fog through which their tender minds are now forced to struggle on the first threshold of life,[ ] then all spoken languages will be taught on that method. what now chiefly hinders its immediate introduction is not so much the real difficulty of providing a good simple system, as the false fear that all our literature may take on the phonetic dress; and this imagination is frightful enough to be a bugbear to reasonable people, although, so far as one can see, there is no more danger of this result than there is of all music appearing in sol-fa notation. [footnote : this is no exaggeration. let a humane teacher think what an infant's mind is, the delicate bud of intelligence opening on the world, eager to adjust its awakening wonder to the realities of life, absolutely simple, truthful, and receptive, reaching out its tender faculties like the sensitive antennae of a new-born insect, that feel forth upon the unknown with the faultless instinct of eternal mind--one has only to imagine that condition to realize that the most ingenious malignity could hardly contrive anything to offer it so perplexing, cramping, and discouraging as the unintelligible and unreasonable absurdities of english literary spelling. that it somehow generally wrestles through is only a demonstration of the wrong that is done to it; and i would say, better leave it alone to find its own way, better teach it nothing at all, than worry it with the incomprehensible, indefensible confusion of such nonsense.] [sidenote: demand of the market.] now here is a promising field for adventure. not only is the creation of a new fount of type an elaborate and expensive process, but the elaboration of a good system and its public recognition when produced involve much time; so that any industrial company that is early in the market with a complete apparatus and a sufficient reputation will carry all before it, and be in a position to command and secure great monetary profit. there is no doubt that the field is now strongly held by the anglo-prussian society which mr. jones represents.[ ] [footnote : the peril that we are in of having mr. jones' degraded pronunciation thus sprung upon us in england and taught in all our schools is really threatening. indeed, as things are, there is little prospect of escaping from it, supposing the democracy should once awake to the commercial and spiritual advantages of teaching language phonetically: and that would seem to be only a question of time: the demand may come at any moment, and a complete machinery which has been skilfully prepared to meet the demand will offer practical conveniences to outbalance every other consideration. even supposing the authorities in the education department sufficiently alive to the situation which it is the purpose of this section of my essay to bring to the fore, yet even then, were they all unanimous, they could not give effect to their convictions, because-- they are forbidden to recommend or give preference to any particular book. they may not order or prohibit the use of any book, however good or bad they may know it to be, and they probably desire to avoid the suspicion of favouring the authors of books that have the advantage of national circulation. however that may be, it is a lamentable situation that our high-salaried board of education, composed of the best trained intelligence of the country, should not be allowed to exercise its discretion efficiently. the people, no doubt, cannot be agreed as to the principles on which they desire to be educated, whether political, official, or religious, and they deprecate official control in such matters. every one objecting to some principle, they consent in requiring that the central authority should have no principle at all; but this lack of principle should not be extended to paralyse action in questions that demand expert knowledge and judgement, such as this question of phonetic teaching--and it shows that the public by grudging authority to their own officers may only fall under a worse tyranny, which they will suffer just because it has no authority.] in the preceding section mr. jones' dictionary was taken as authority for the actual condition of southern english pronunciation. it must now be considered in its other aspect, namely as the authoritative phonetic interpretation of our speech; my contention being that it is a wrong and mischievous interpretation. it is difficult to keep these two questions quite apart. the first, which was dealt with in section , was that southern english is actively productive of homophones. this present section is contending that the mischief is being encouraged and propagated by the phoneticians, and mr. jones' books are taken as an example of their method. [sidenote: fault of mr. jones' method.] the reason why the work of these phoneticians is so mischievous is that they have chosen too low a standard of pronunciation. the defence that they would make would be something like this. they might argue with some confidence, and not without a good show of reason, that the actual 'vernacular' talk of the people is the living language of any country: they would allege that a spoken language is always changing, and always will change; that the actual condition of it is the only scientific, and indeed the only possible basis for any system of tuition; and that it is better to be rather in advance of change than behind it, since the changes proceed inevitably by laws which education has no power to resist, nay, so inevitably that science can in some measure foresee the future. this would, i suppose, fairly represent mr. jones' contention. indeed, he plainly asserts that his work is merely a record of existing facts, and he even says that he chose southern english because it is most familiar and observable, and therefore capable of providing him with sufficient phenomena: and he might say that what i call 'low' in his standard is only the record of a stage of progression which i happen to dislike or have not nearly observed. and yet the argument is full of fallacies: and the very position that he assumes appears to me to be unsound. it is well enough to record a dialect, nor will any one grudge him credit for his observation and diligence, but to reduce a dialect to theoretic laws and then impose those laws upon the speakers of it is surely a monstrous step. and in this particular instance the matter is complicated by the fact that southern english is not truly a natural dialect; mr. jones himself denotes it as p.s.p.=public school pronunciation, and that we know to be very largely a social convention dependent on fashion and education, and inasmuch as it is a product of fashion and education it is not bound by the theoretical laws which mr. jones would attribute to it; while for the same reason it is unfortunately susceptible of being affected by them, if they should be taught with authority. these phoneticians would abuse a false position which they have unwarrantably created. this southern english, this p.s.p., is a 'fashionable' speech, fashionable that is in two senses; and mr. jones would fashion it. [sidenote: judged by practical effects.] but i wish to put my case practically, and, rather than argue, i would ask what are the results of learning english on mr. jones' system? what would be the condition of a man who had learnt in this way? [sidenote: his three styles.] i shall assume that the pupil has learnt his pronunciation from the dictionary, the nature of which is now known to my readers: but they should also know that mr. jones recognizes and teaches three different styles, which he calls the a, b, and c styles, 'a, the pronunciation suitable for recitation or reading in public; b, the pronunciation used in careful conversation, or reading aloud in private; and c, the pronunciation used in rapid conversation.' in a polemic against mr. jones his adversary has therefore to combat a dragon with three heads, and the heroic method would be to strike all three of them off at one blow. to effect this it seems to me that one has only to remark that a system which is forced to teach a dialect [a dialect, observe, not a language] in three forms where one is sufficient, is _ipso facto_ condemned. this objection i will establish presently; at present i am content to confine my attention to one head, for i maintain that in practice those who will take the trouble to learn three forms of one speech must be a negligible number; the practical pupils will generally be content to master one, and that will, no doubt, be the highly recommended style b, and its corresponding dictionary; they will rule out a and c as works of supererogation; and indeed those would be needless if b were satisfactory. [sidenote: in deliberate repititions.] so, then, we are asking what is the condition of a man who has learned the dictionary standard? ( ) in common talk if we speak so indistinctly as not to be understood, we repeat our sentence with a more careful articulation. as sweet used to say, the only security against the decay of language through careless articulation into absolute unintelligibility is the personal inconvenience of having to repeat your words when you are indistinctly heard. 'what' leaps out from the dictionary with a shout to the rescue of all his fellows. and when you have experienced this warcry 'what? what?' oftener than you like, you will raise the standard of your pronunciation (just as you would raise your voice to a deaf listener) merely to save yourself trouble, even though you were insensible to the shame of the affront. [sidenote: in asseveration.] and this more careful articulation obtains also in all _asseveration_. a speaker who wishes to provoke attention to any particular statement or sentiment will speak the words by which he would convey it more slowly and with more careful articulation than the rest of his utterance. under both these common conditions the man who has learned only the vernacular of mr. jones' phonetics has no resource but to emphasize with all their full horrors words like _seprit_, _sin'kerpate_, _din'ersty_, _ernoin't_, _mis'ernthrope_, _sym'perthy_, _mel'ernkerly_, _mel'erdy_, _serspe'ct_, _erno'y_, &c.[ ], which when spoken indistinctly in careless talk may pass muster, but when accurately articulated are not only vulgar and absurd, but often unrecognizable. [footnote : writing _er_, always unaccented, for [e].] [sidenote: in public speaking.] ( ) again, public speakers use a pronunciation very different from that in the dictionary, and mr. jones admits this and would teach it _sepritly_ as 'style a'. but it is wrong to suppose that its characteristics are a mere fashion or a pedantic regard for things obsolete, or a nice rhetorical grace, though mr. jones will have it to be mostly artificial, 'due to well-established, though perhaps somewhat arbitrary rules laid down by teachers of elocution'. the basis of it is the need of being heard and understood, together with the experience that style b will not answer that purpose. the main service, no doubt, of a teacher of elocution is to instruct in the management of the voice (clergyman's sore throat is a recognized disease of men who use their voice wrongly); but a right pronunciation is almost equally necessary and important. now if public speakers really have to learn something different from their habitual pronunciation, mr. jones is right in making a separate style of it, and he is also justified in the degraded forms of his style b, for those are what these speakers have to unlearn; nor is any fault to be found with his diligent and admirable analysis. these two practical considerations expose the situation sufficiently: we may now face the triple-tongued dragon and exhibit how a single whiff of common sense will tumble all his three heads in the dust. [sidenote: the natural right method.] the insideoutness, topsy-turviness, and preposterousness of mr. jones' method is incredible. in the natural order of things, children would be taught a careful 'high standard' articulation as a part of their elemental training, when in their pliant age they are mastering the co-ordinations which are so difficult to acquire later. then when they have been educated to speak correctly, their variation from that full pronunciation is a natural carelessness, and has the grace of all natural behaviour, and it naturally obeys whatever laws have been correctly propounded by phoneticians; since it is itself the phenomena from which those laws are deduced. this carelessness or ease of speech will vary naturally _in all degrees_ according to occasion, and being dependent on mood and temper will never go wrong. it is warm and alive with expression of character, and may pass quite unselfconsciously from the grace of negligence to the grace of correctness, for it has correctness at command, having learned it, and its carelessness has not been doctored and bandaged; and this ease of unselfconsciousness is one of the essentials of human intercourse: a man talking fluently does not consider what words he will use, he does not often remember exactly what words he has used, nor will he know at all how he pronounces them; his speech flows from him as his blood flows when his flesh is wounded. [sidenote: what mr. jones would substitute.] what would mr. jones' system substitute for this natural grace? in place of a wide scale of unconscious variation he provides his pupils with 'three styles', three different fixed grades of pronunciation,[ ] which they must apply consciously as suits the occasion. at dinner you might be called on to talk to a bishop across the table in your best style b, or to an archbishop even in your a , when you were talking to your neighbours in your best c.--nature would no doubt assert herself and secure a fair blend; but none the less, the three styles are plainly alternatives and to some extent mutually exclusive, whereas natural varieties are harmoniously interwoven and essentially one. [footnote : of course mr. jones knows that these are not and cannot be fixed. he must often bewail in secret the exigencies of his 'styles'.] argumentative analogies are commonly chosen because they are specious rather than just; but there is one here which i cannot forbear. if a system like mr. jones' were adopted in teaching children to write, we should begin by collecting and comparing all the careless and hasty handwritings of the middle class and deduce from them the prevalent forms of the letters in that state of degradation. from this we should construct in our 'style b' the alphabet which we should contend to be the genuine natural product of inevitable law, and hallowed by 'general use', and this we should give to our children to copy and learn, relegating the more carefully formed writing to a 'style a, taught by writing masters', explaining that its 'peculiarities' were 'modifications produced involuntarily as the result of writing more slowly or endeavouring to write more distinctly', &c.[ ] [footnote : _phonetic transcriptions of english_, by d. jones, , introd., p. v, 'the peculiarities of style a as compared with style b are especially marked. these differences are partly natural, i.e. modifications produced involuntarily as the result of speaking more slowly or of endeavouring to speak more distinctly, and partly artificial, i.e. modifications due to the well-established though perhaps somewhat arbitrary rules laid down by teachers of elocution,' &c., and mr. jones is quite right in complaining that his pupils make fools of themselves when they try to speak slower.] i believe that there has never been in europe a fluent script so beautiful and legible as that of our very best english writers of to-day. but their æsthetic mastery has come from loving study of the forms that conscious artistry had perfected, and through a constant practice in their harmonious adaptation. finally, it may be worth while to raise the question how it can be that a man of mr. jones' extreme competence in his science should commit himself to a position that appears so false and mischievous. [sidenote: reason of present discredit of phonetics.] the unpopularity of phonetics is not wholly undeserved: from its early elements, the comfortably broad distinctions of convincing importance, it has progressed to a stage of almost infinite differentiations and subtleties; and when machinery was called in to dispose of controversy, a new and unsuspected mass of baffling detail was revealed. the subject cannot be treated parenthetically, nor am i capable of summarizing it; but it seems clear that the complexity of the science has driven off public sympathy and dashed the confidence of scholars, withdrawing thereby some of the wholesome checks that common sense might else have imposed on its practical exponents. the experts thus left to themselves in despair of any satisfactory solution, are likely enough to adopt the simplifications most agreeable to their present ideas, and measure the utility of such simplifications by the accidental conveniences of their own science, independently of other considerations. [sidenote: the practical difficulty.] the main practical difficulty which they have to meet in providing a reasonably satisfactory phonetic script or type for the english language is this, that the symbols of their alphabet must not greatly exceed in number those of the literary alphabet, whereas the sounds that they have to indicate do greatly exceed. this discrepancy might be overcome by the use of what are called 'diacritical' marks, but here the universal prejudice against accents in english is forbidding, and it is true that even if printers did not rebel against them, they are yet distasteful and deterrent to readers out of all proportion to their complexity. [sidenote: the result of mr. jones' solution.] [sidenote: the true condition of modified vowels, &c.] mr. jones no doubt allowed himself as much liberty as he could venture on, but to what has this paucity and choice of symbols led him? it has led him to assert and teach that an unaccented vowel in english retains no trace of its proper quality[ ]: that is, that you cannot, or at least do not, modify an unaccented vowel; you either pronounce _a_, _e_, _o_, _u_, distinctly, or you must substitute an alien sound, generally 'er', or in some consonantal positions a short 'i'. thus we have _parersite_, _oblerquy_, _ikse'pt_, _ikspre'ss_, _iqua'ter_, _peri'sherner_, _perli'ce_, _spe'sherlize_, _pin'erkl_, _mes'esperta'mier_, &c., and one of his examples, which he advances with the confidence of complete satisfaction, is the name _margate_, which he asserts is pronounced _margit_,[ ] that is, with a short _i_. the vowel is no doubt short, and its shortness is enforced by its being closed by a _t_: but it is not a short _i_, it is an extremely hastened and therefore disguised form of the original and proper diphthong _ei_ (heard in _bait_ and _gate_); and the true way to write it phonetically would be _ei_, with some diacritical sign to show that it was obscured. there is no long vowel or diphthong in english which cannot in some positions be pronounced short; and when hurried over between accents it is easy to see that there is nothing, except an obstacle of consonants, which can prevent the shortening of any syllable; for long and short are relative, and when you are speaking very slowly 'short' sounds actually occupy as much time as 'long' sounds do when you are speaking quickly. you have therefore only to suppose a speed of utterance somewhat out of scale; and this is just what happens. in the second syllable of _margate_ the diphthong is hastened and obscured, but a trace of its quality remains, and will more distinctly appear as you speak the word slower. and so in the case of unaccented short vowels that are hurried over between the accents in talking, they are disguised and lose quality, but in good speakers a trace of the original sound will remain (as in _parasite_ and _obloquy_), where, on the ground of indistinctness, mr. jones introduces the symbol of an _alien unrelated_ sound, a sound, that is, which is _distinctly wrong instead of being indistinctly right_: and this fault vitiates all his books. economy of symbols has led him to perversity of pronunciation.[ ] [footnote : i do not deny that he allows some exceptions: and these, few as they are, concede the principle for which i contend.] [footnote : his own words are, 'thus margate trippers now generally speak of ma:geit instead of ma:git: teachers in london elementary schools now often say eksept for iksept 'except', ekstr[e][o]:din[er]ri for ikstr[o]dnri 'extraordinary', often for [o]:fn 'often'. we feel that such artificialities cannot but impair the beauty of the language.' dictionary, st edition, preface, p.v.] [footnote : in the first edition of the dictionary [ ] [e] has only one interpretation, the illustration being the _a_ of _about_. in the _phonetic transcriptions_ [ ] it was the _er_ of _over_, but in the new dictionary [ ] [e] has three interpretations with the following explanation: '[e] varies noticeably according to its position in the word and in the sentence. in final positions it is often replaced (_sic_) by "[greek: l]" [=_u_ of _up_], in other positions its quality varies considerably according to the nature of the surrounding sounds; the variations extend from almost "[greek: l]" to the half-close mixed position. three different values may be heard in the words _china_, _cathedral_: in the latter word the second "[e]" has a lower and more retracted tongue-position than the first [e].' the value of [e] when mr. jones first substituted it for a disguised unaccented vowel, was that the speaker might know what sound he had to produce. it was wrong, but it was definite. mr. jones would now make it less wrong by making it less definite. that is, in the place of something distinctly wrong we are offered something which has an offchance of being nearly right: but as it has entirely ousted and supplanted the original vowel i do not see how there is any means of interpreting it correctly. the _er_ of _over_ is a definite sound, and to print it where it was out of place was a definite error--to give it three interpretations makes it cover more ground: but its usurpations are still indefensible.] . _on the claim that southern english has to represent all british speech._ on this head certainly i can write nothing worth reading. whether there is any one with so wide a knowledge of all the main different forms of english now spoken, their historic development and chief characteristics, as to be able to summarize the situation convincingly, i do not know. i can only put a few of the most evident phenomena in the relation in which they happen to affect my judgement. and first of all i put the small local holding which the southern english dialect can claim on the map of the british empire. it is plain that with such a narrow habitat it must show proof that it possesses very great relative superiorities before it can expect to be allowed even a hearing: and such a claim must lie in its superiority in some practical or ideal quality: further than that it might allege that it was the legitimate heir of our great literature, and in possession of the citadel, and in command of an extensive machinery for its propaganda. now, in my opinion it could not establish any one of these claims except the last, namely its central position and wide machinery. i do not pretend to foresee the future, nor even to desire it in any particular form; but it seems to me probable that if the 'p.s.p.' continues its downward course as indicated by mr. jones, then, unless everything else worsens with it, so that it might maintain its relative flotation in a general confusion, it must fall to be disesteemed and repudiated, and give place to one or more other dialects which, by having better preserved the distinctions of pronunciation, will be not only more convenient vehicles of intercourse, but more truthful and intelligible interpreters of our great literature; and i believe this to be well illustrated by the conditions of our 's.e.' homophones: and that something better should win the first place, i hold to be the most desirable of possible events. but perhaps our 's.e.' is not yet so far committed to the process of decay as to be incapable of reform, and the machinery that we use for penetration may be used as well for organizing a reform and for enforcing it. there is as much fashion as inevitable law in our 'p.s.p.' or 's.e.' talk, and if the fashion for a better, that is a more distinct and conservative, pronunciation should set in, then at the cost of a little temporary self-consciousness we might, in one generation, or at least in two, have things again very much as they were in shakespeare's day. it is true that men are slaves to the naturalness of what is usual with them, and unable to imagine that the actual living condition of things in their own time is evanescent: nor do even students and scholars see that in the elizabethan literature we have a perdurable gigantic picture which, among all stages of change, will persistently reassert itself, while any special characteristics of our own day, which seem so unalterable to us, are only a movement, which may no doubt be determining the next movement, but will leave no other trace of itself, at least no more than the peculiarities of the age of queen anne have left to us. i have been told that the german experts believe that the cockney form of english will eventually prevail. this surprising opinion may rest on scientific grounds, but it seems to me that cockney speech will be too universally unintelligible; and, should it actively develop, will be so out of relation with other and older forms of english as to be unable to compete. i wish and hope that the subject of this section may provoke some expert to deal thoroughly with it. the strong feeling in america, in australia, and in new zealand, to say nothing of the proud dialects of our own islands, is in support of the common-sense view of the matter which i have here expressed. summary when i consented to write this inaugural paper, i knew that my first duty would be to set an example of the attitude which the society had proposed to take and hopes to maintain. this society was called into existence by the widespread interest in linguistic subjects which is growing on the public, and by the lamentable lack of any organized means for focussing opinion. it responds to that interest, and would supply that want.[ ] there is no doubt that public opinion is altogether at sea in these matters, and its futility is betrayed and encouraged by the amateurish discussions and _obiter dicta_ that are constantly appearing and reappearing in the newspapers. our belief is that if facts and principles were clearly stated and thoroughly handled by experts, it would then be possible not only to utilize this impulse and gratify a wholesome appetite, but even to attract and organize a consensus of sound opinion which might influence and determine the practice of our best writers and speakers. [footnote : neither the british academy nor the academic committee of the royal society of literature has shown any tendency to recognize their duties and responsibilities in this department.] the society absolutely repudiates the assumption of any sort of academic authority or orthodoxy; it relies merely on statement of fact and free expression of educated opinion to assure the verdict of common sense; and it may illustrate this method to recapitulate the various special questions that have arisen from following it in this particular discussion concerning english homophones. the main points are of course ( ) the actual condition of the english language with respect to homophones. [this is an example of statement of fact.] ( ) the serious nature of their inconvenience. ( ) the evidence that we are unconsciously increasing them. ( ) the consequent impoverishment of the language. from these considerations the question must arise ( ) whether it is not our duty to take steps to prevent the continuance and growth of this evil. [to give an example--the word _mourn_. if we persist in mispronouncing this word as _morn_, and make no distinction between _mourning_ and _morning_, then that word will perish. we cannot afford to lose it: it is a good example of our best words, as may be seen by looking it up in the concordances to shakespeare and the bible: and what is true of this word is true of hundreds of others.] ( ) it is pointed out that our fashionable southern english dialect, our public school pronunciation, is one chief source of this damage. ( ) attention is called to the low standard of pronunciation adopted by our professional phoneticians, and to the falsity of their orthodox teaching. ( ) the damage to the language which is threatened by their activity is exposed. ( ) it is questioned how far it is possible to adopt living dialectal forms to save words that would otherwise perish. ( ) respect for the traditions of neglected dialects is advocated. ( ) as to what differentiations of words should be insisted on [e.g. the _lore_ = _law_ class]. ( ) the necessity of observing vowel distinctions in unaccented syllables, [e.g. every one now pronounces the _o_ in the new word _petrol_, and yet almost every one thinks it impossible to pronounce the _o_ in the old word _symbol_; which is absurd.] ( ) the necessity for better phonetic teaching in our schools. ( ) the quality of the new words introduced into the language; and the distinction between mere scientific labels, and those names of common new objects which must be constantly spoken. ( ) the claims of the southern english dialect to general acceptance is questioned. ( ) the general consideration that the spread of the english language over the world must accelerate the disuse and loss of the most inconvenient homophones. these matters invite expert discussion, and it is our hope that every such question will receive due treatment from some one whose knowledge qualifies him to handle it; and that when any principle or detail is definitely recognized as desirable, then the consensus of good writers and speakers will adopt it. this implies wide recognition, support, and co-operation; and though the society has already gone far to secure this, it may yet seem that the small aristocracy of letters will be insufficient to carry through such a wide reform of habit: but it should be remembered that they are the very same persons whose example maintains the existing fashions. and, again, when it is urged against us that the democratic press is too firmly established in its traditions to be moved by such an influence, it is overlooked that the great majority of those who write for the press, and maintain or even create the style by which it holds the public ear, are men of good education, whose minds are thoroughly susceptible to all intellectual notions, and often highly sensitive to æsthetic excellence. they are all of them in a sense trained experts, and though working under tyrannous conditions are no less alive in pride and self respect than those who command more leisure, and they will readily and eagerly follow where their circumstances might forbid them to lead. the conviction too that they are honourably assisting in preserving the best traditions of our language will add zest to their work; while the peculiar field of it will provide a wholesome utilitarian test, which must be of good service to us by checking the affectations and pedantries into which it may be feared that such a society as the s.p.e. would conceivably lapse. their co-operation is altogether desirable, and we believe attainable if it be not from the first assured. r.b. none {transcribers notes: do you remember how to spell "pharmacopoeia" or "winnipiseogee"? this was for sixth grade! here is a chance to expand your vocabulary or just enjoy a trip to the grade school of . the original text uses a specialized font to indicate pronunciation. italics are used to specify words or syllables in the text. the approximations given here retain only the emphasis (accent). see the doc or pdf format for the original graphics. don kostuch} eclectic educational series. mcguffey's [registered] eclectic spelling-book. revised edition. mcguffey editions and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons, inc. new york-chichester-weinheim-brisbane-singapore-toronto preface. in revising this book, care has been taken to preserve all the excellences that have so long and so favorably distinguished mcguffey's eclectic spelling-book: and the chief changes that have been made, have been suggested by the evident plan of the original work. the old system of indicating the pronunciation by numerals, called "superiors," has been abandoned, and the diacritical marks used by webster have been adopted. the revised speller conforms in orthography, pronunciation, and syllabication to the latest edition of webster's unabridged dictionary. exercises have been given on each of the distinctive marks used in the book, as will be seen by reference to lessons - . a number of lessons have been added in the department of prefixes and suffixes, and now nearly all the more common of these etymological principles have been explained. (see lessons - .) in arranging the text of the several lessons, the object has been not to appeal merely to arbitrary memory, but to associate each lesson with some principle of sound, meaning, or accent, which would tend to aid the pupil in acquiring a knowledge of our language. several distinct lessons on pronunciation are given, and towards the close of the book numerous lessons of difficult words in orthography have been introduced. instead of indicating silent letters by italics, as has hitherto been done, a new type has been made in which such letters are canceled, thus enabling the pupil to discover their status at a glance. the pages have been enlivened, as in the other books of this series, by attractive engravings. the publishers take pleasure in acknowledging the valuable services of w. b. watkins, d. d., who planned and executed this revision. december, . copyright, , by van antwerp, bragg & co. the english alphabet. the english alphabet consists of twenty-six letters, viz.: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z. letters are divided into vowels and consonants. the vowels are those letters which can be perfectly sounded without the aid of any other letter. the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, w, and y. the vowel sounds of w and y are the same as those of u and i. a, e, and o are always vowels. i, u, w, and y are sometimes consonants. a diphthong is the union of two vowels in one sound. when both vowels are sounded, the diphthong is called proper, because then it is really a diphthong, or double sound; that is, the sounds of the vowels unite; as, oi in oil; ou in sound. when only one of the vowels is sounded, the diphthong is called improper, because then, as one of the vowels is silent, it is not properly a diphthong, though it takes that name; as, oa in boat, ui in suit, where a and i are silent. the following diphthongs are in common use, viz.: oi, oy, ou, ow, ae, ai, au, aw, ay, ea, ei, eo, eu, ew, ey, ia, ie, oa, oe, ua, ue, ui; as in toil, boy, round, plow, seal, coal, head, sail, say, aught, yeoman. of these, oi, oy, ou, and ow are generally proper diphthongs; though sometimes ou and ow are improper, as in famous, where o is silent, and in slow, where w is silent. a triphthong is the union of three vowels in one syllable; as, eau in beau, iew in view. the triphthong is properly a union of letters, not sounds. of the various sounds. all the vowels, and some of the consonants, have several sounds; in this book these sounds are indicated by diacritical marks, as in the following tables: table of vocals. long sounds. sound as is ----- ----- a ate a care a arm a last a all oo fool e eve e err i ice o ode u use short sounds. sound as is ----- ----- a am e elm i in o odd u up oo look diphthongs. oi,oy,as in oil, boy ou,ow, as in out, owl table of subvocals sound as is ----- ----- b bib d did g gig j jug n nine m maim ng hang l lull v valve th this z zinc zh azure r rare w we y yet table of aspirates sound as is ----- ----- f fife h him k cake p pipe s same t tart sh she ch chat th thick wh why note.--the foregoing forty-four sounds are those most employed in the english language. some of these sounds are represented by other letters, as shown in the following table. for further instruction concerning the sounds, see lessons - . table of substitutes. sound for as in ----- --- ----- a o what e a there e a feint i e police i e sir o u son o oo to o oo wolf o a fork o e work u oo full u e burn u oo rude y i fly y i myth c k can c s cite ch sh chaise ch k chaos g j gem n ng ink s z as s sh sure x gz exact gh f laugh ph f phlox qu k pique[ ] qu kw quit [footnote : the u is canceled in this book when qu is sounded like k.] w, in its vowel sounds, corresponds with u; an in new (pro. nu). a has, in a few words, the sound of e; as in any (pro. en'ny). u has, in a few words, the sound of e; as in bury (pro. ber'ry); or that of i, as in busy (pro. biz'y). of the consonants. the consonants are those letters which can not be perfectly sounded without the aid of a vowel. the consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, l, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, and sometimes i, u, w, and y. the consonants are divided into mutes and semi-vowels. the mutes are those consonants that admit of no sound without the aid of a vowel. they are b, d, k, p, q, t, and c and g hard. the semi-vowels are those consonants that can be sounded imperfectly by themselves. they are f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v, x, z, and c and g soft. four of the semi-vowels are called liquids; viz., l, m, n, and r. they are called liquids because they unite so readily with other sounds, or flow into them. of syllables and words. a syllable is a sound, or a combination of sounds, uttered by a single impulse of the voice: it may have one or more letters; as a, bad, bad-ness. a word is either a syllable or a combination of syllables; as, not, notion. a word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; as, man. a word of two syllables is called a dissyllable; as, manly. a word of three syllables is called a trisyllable; as, manliness. words of more than three syllables are called polysyllables. accent is a stress of voice placed upon some one syllable more than the others. every word composed of two or more syllables has one of them accented. this accent is denoted by a mark (') at the end of the accented syllable; as, mid'night, a ban'don. a primitive word is one which is not derived from any other word; as, man, great, full. a derivative word is one which is formed from some other word by adding something to it; as, manful, greatness, fully. a simple word is one which is not composed of more than one word; as, kind, man, stand, ink. a compound word is one that is composed of two or more simple words; as, ink-stand, wind-mill. spelling is naming or writing the letters of a word. script alphabet [illustration: the following letter are shown in an ideal hand-written script.] capital letters. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z lower-case letters. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z the alphabet. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z the alphabet. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z pictorial alphabet. a [illustration: axe] b [illustration: boy] c [illustration: cat] d [illustration: dog] e [illustration: elk] f [illustration: fox] g [illustration: girl] h [illustration: hen] i [illustration: ink] j [illustration: jug] k [illustration: kid (goat)] l [illustration: lark] m [illustration: man] n [illustration: nut] o [illustration: ox] p [illustration: pig] q [illustration: quail] r [illustration: rat s [illustration: sun] t [illustration: top] u [illustration: urn] v [illustration: vine] w [illustration: wren] x [illustration: letter x] y [illustration: yak] z [illustration: zebra] mcguffey's eclectic spelling-book. lesson . short sounds of vowels. short sound of a. am cat gap ban cap an bad bag can map as mad gag fan nap at pad hag pan rap ax sad lag ran hap rat gad tag tan jam sat sap fag van ham short sound of e. bed den net sell tent led ken pet nest rent red men set zest sent wed wen yet test went beg jet sex pest felt leg let fell rest pelt hen met bell jest melt lesson . short sounds of vowels.--continued. short sound of i. if rid him sin jig it lid rim tin rig is sip fix dig bib bit tip six fig jib hit nip din big rib sit lip pin pig fib short sound of o. on cob nod box dot ox job pod hop jot got rob rod mop lot cot sob log sop pot jot cod hog pop rot lot god dog top not short sound of u. up mud rum rut gush us dug sum hung dust cub mug bun bung must hub pug dun lung rust rub tug run sung gust bud jug sun hulk drum lesson . review of short sounds of vowels. man lap pat tap had fin get ten wet peg fit dim mix hid his hot rot fob dot con rug hum fun hut cut had fun hug gum flog den fog dip nag dram did tub fog bet help sod hod gun pen lift lad bet did cog rush lesson . long sound of a. date jade came cage bane late fade dame page lace mate rate same sage wake long sound of e. me we she heed weed fee jeer feed deed deep feel leer meek keep peep seek veer beef reel weep long sound of i. pile dike fire life bide file like tire rife hide mile pike sire wife ride long sound of o. code dolt bone hope dote node jolt cone pope note bode molt hone rope vote rove bolt tone cope hold long sound of u. lure cube mute lune huge cure tube duke dune pule pure lute jute use cue lesson . short sounds of vowels. crab bled chip shot bump grab fled ship blot lump drab sled whip spot pump slab sped slip plot jump stab then drip trot hump brag bent spit clog bulk cram best crib frog just clan hemp gift plod drug clad vest king stop shut dash west grit clod hush lesson . various vowel sounds. bard deal tank dell ill card veal rank tell bill hard meal sank well fill bark neat hank yell rill dark heat dank belt hill dint bang dime rave cull hint fang lime gave dull lint gang tine lave gull mint hang fine pave hull tint rang mine save mull lesson . long sounds of vowels. blaze sneer drive globe dean craze creed tribe drone bean shape steep brine stone bead state sleek spire probe beam crape fleet bride shore lean fume smite blame clear mope spume spite flame drear mold fluke quite slate blear tore flume whine spade spear robe dure spine prate smear poke lesson . various sounds of vowels. clasp small cramp bring moan grasp stall stamp cling coast flask fall grand sling toast graft wall stand swing roast craft squall lamp thing roach book boon stork wad pod good spoon horse was rob took bloom snort wash rock foot broom short wast soft hook stool north what lost lesson . long sounds of vowels under the accent. fa'tal le'gal lo'cal cu'bit na'tal re'gal fo'cal du'el pa'pal re'al vo'cal hu'man pa'gan pe'nal o'ral u'nit ba'by ta'per o'val du'ly la'dy di'al to'tal fu'ry la'zy tri'al bo'ny ju'ry ma'zy fi'nal co'ny pu'ny na'vy vi'tal go'ry pu'pil ra'cy ri'val ro'sy hu'mid sa'tan vi'al po'sy tu'mid lesson . short sounds of vowels under the accent. al'um el'der civ'il cul'prit al'to hec'tic dit'ty clum'sy can'ter helm'et gid'dy dul'cet mar'ry fen'nel fil'ly fun'nel ral'ly ken'nel sil'ly gul'ly nap'kin bel'fry liv'id buck'et hap'py ed'dy lim'it gus'set pan'try en'try lim'ber sul'len ram'mer en'vy riv'et sum'mon mam'mon test'y lin'en hur'ry tab'let self'ish mil'let mul'let lesson . various sounds of a. care fast charm camp war mare mast chart damp warp share cask lard hand warm spare mask arm land ward snare past yard sand warn game scar lake waft fray lame spar dale raft play name star gale chaff gray fame garb cape aft stay tame barb shame staff bray lesson . various sounds of a. dan'ger am'ber lard'er clat'ter man'ger ban'ter mar'gin flat'ter quak'er ban'ner ar'dent lat'ter qua'ver hand'y ar'my mat'ter dra'per man'na art'ist pat'ter wa'ger can'cer har'vest tat'ter fa'vor pan'der par'ty rag'ged fla'vor tam'per tar'dy rack'et sa'vor plan'et ar'dor van'ish ma'jor ham'per car'pet gal'lant ca'per stam'mer gar'ment pat'tern lesson . various sounds of e. sheep ce'dar bet'ter cler'gy creep fe'ver fet'ter fer'vor sleep tre'mor let'ter her'mit sweep ge'nus en'ter mer'cy speed se'cret ev'er ser'mon breeze re'bus nev'er ser'pent teeth se'quel sev'er mer'chant sneeze se'quence dex'ter ver'bal breed he'ro mem'ber ver'dict bleed ze'ro plen'ty per'son freed se'cant ven'om fer'ment lesson . various sounds of i. bird bri'er bib'ber thir'ty birch ci'der bit'ter thirst'y chirp mi'ser dif'fer third'ly flirt spi'der din'ner birch'en girl vi'per frit'ter chirp'er shirt cli'ent lit'ter girl'ish squirm gi'ant riv'er gird'er squirt i'tem shiv'er stir'less third i'cy sil'ver first'ly girt spi'ral in'ner birth'day gird i'vy liv'er mirth'ful lesson . various sounds of o. bro'ker col'ic cor'net worst clo'ver ton'ic cor'set come drov'er top'ic or'gan love gro'cer mor'al sor'did dove o'ver com'ma tor'pid shoot o'dor dog'ged form'al moon so'lar doc'tor for'ty moose po'lar cop'per lord'ly tooth pok'er fod'der morn'ing gorge home'ly fos'ter orb'it most po'em pon'der mor'tal prop lesson . various sounds of u. hu'mor but'ter mur'der pru'dent ju'ror mut'ter mur'mur fru'gal tu'mor rud'der tur'ban tru'ly stu'por shut'ter tur'nip tru'ant tu'tor suf'fer tur'key cru'et cu'rate sup'per pur'port bru'in lu'cid mum'my curl'y dru'id stu'dent mus'ket fur'ry ru'in stu'pid num'ber fur'nish ru'by lu'nar nut'meg cur'vet bru'tal tu'mult stut'ter bur'den gru'el lesson . various sounds of the vowels. june furl husk from halt dupe hurl musk pomp malt tune turn rusk romp salt flute churn stung long waltz plume hurt pluck song swan glue curl drunk strong wasp droop deck chill for sheath gloom neck drill corn shell loop next quill fork shorn hoof text skill form shout roof desk spill sort shrub proof nest frill torch shrug lesson . words accented on the last syllable. a wake' be hest' be hind' re cede' be came' be set' be side' con crete' be have' ca det' be tide' com pete' be take' de fend' de rive' se crete' e late' de pend' re cite' con cede' per vade' re pel' re tire' con vene' for sake' at tend' re vile' im pede' a bate' con sent' re mise' re plete' cre ate' im pend' re vive' un seen' es tate' im pel' con nive' su preme' re late' com pel' ex cite' re lease' lesson . be rate' a bode' ex pire' a cute' a pace' a lone' con fide' a buse' re bate' a tone' con fine' con fuse' de bate' af ford' con spire' de duce' de face' ca jole' po lite' de lude' de fame' de pose' re cline' ma ture' se date' com pose' re fine' pol lute' col late' en force' re pine' pro cure' re gale' en robe' re quire' re buke' em pale' ex plore' re spire' re duce' en gage' ex pose' u nite' se clude' en rage' im port' en twine' se cure' lesson . blade plash bream dress twine glade clash cream swim blind grade crash dream spend grind shade smash gleam speck spike trade trash steam fresh smile skate slash stream whelp while brisk drove blush cheap carve quilt grove flush peach farce filth stove slush teach parse pinch clove brush reach barge flinch smote crush bleach large mince store thrush glean snarl lesson . ab'bey rec'ord pit'y col'ter ab'bot check'er dis'tant fo'cus atom ed'it din'gy glo'ry ash'es lev'el diz'zy lo'cust cap'tor meth'od fin'ish mo'ment car'rot splen'did gim'let po'tent cav'il ves'per spir'it co'gent ehap'ter west'ern tim'id do'tage chat'tel bed'lam pig'gin no'ted fath'om des'pot tin'sel stor'age gal'lon ren'der tip'pet sto'ry gal'lop tem'pest wit'ness pro'test lesson . shake chose march pine oil snake prose parch wild moil baste those starch mild coil haste froze larch tile foil taste force lark slide soil paste porch stark glide toil bunch broth prism spent boy hunch cloth sixth fence coy lunch froth stint hence hoy punch moth smith pence joy plump botch whist thence toy stump stock midst whence cloy lesson . monosyllables miscellaneously arranged. free clip shelf quest shine spin hate chide flax wore shad tape fringe still think band race clock trim marsh pack mire cheek door booth bath kite full clung wince dock bank frock loft spray gold fell troop pulp join pipe pink glass grape friz club hilt lurk pose brow shop last cloud zest grace lesson . words in which the final e is silent. ca'ble nee'dle rab'ble bub'ble fa'ble bi'ble sam'ple bun'dle ga'ble ti'tle sim'ple crum'ble sa'ble ri'fle tem'ple muf'fle sta'ble no'ble dim'ple muz'zle cra'dle fick'le fid'dle pud'dle la'dle am'ple kin'dle ruf'fle ma'ple ap'ple lit'tle tum'ble sta'ple baffle bot'tle pur'ple bee'tle bat'tle cob'ble cir'cle fee'ble cat'tle fond'le sad'dle lesson . an'gel ab'sent bish'op blun'der ba'sis ac'rid big'ot blus'ter ca'ter blank'et bil'let cus'tom fla'grant clas'sic blis'ter cut'ler fra'grant crag'gy cin'der cut'ter has'ty dam'sel crick'et sum'mer ha'tred dan'dy fif'ty sun'der la'bel fab'ric fil'let shud'der pa'tent fam'ish lim'pid thun'der sa'cred fran'tic pil'fer tum'bler state'ment lath'er pil'lar ul'cer va'cate lav'ish print'er un'der lesson . dictation exercises. note to teachers.--these lessons are intended as exercises in the meaning as well as the spelling of words. distinguish carefully words of similar sound, but which differ in their spelling. at the recitation the sentences should be read aloud by the teacher, and the pupils required to write them out neatly and correctly upon their slates or on the blackboard. he ate seven or eight apples. send the pale maid with the pail of milk. he owed for the paper on which he wrote an ode to the moon. we are not quite ready for the quiet man. age gives edge to wine. he said the idol looked like a satyr. clever satire often rouses the idle. lesson . sounds of ai, ou, ow, and ea, paid bound cow cheat head grain found how treat dead staid ground town beast stead waif hound growl bleat tread rail mound clown preach dread flail pound frown speak thread quail round crown streak sweat snail sound drown feast death lesson . dissyllables with short sounds of vowels. ad'age fren'zy bick'er blos'som bal'last emp'ty crit'ic cot'ton bant'ling gen'try dig'it com'ic can'to mer'it flim'sy drop'sy ras'cal men'tal flip'pant flor'id las'so sher'iff frig'id frol'ic an'tic ten'dril in'fant gos'pel sad'ness vel'lum in'gress gos'sip sal'ver vel'vet in'mate hor'rid sand'y nec'tar in'quest jol'ly mag'got ves'try in'sect rock'et lesson . trisyllables with short sounds of the vowels. bal'co ny del'i cate lib'er ate bar'o ny des'o late lim'i tate cav'i ty der'o gate im'mo late fac'ul ty dev'as tate in'di cate grav'i ty em'u late in'ti mate mal'a dy hes'i tate in'du rate van'i ty med'i tate in'vo cate am'pu tate pet'ri fy ir'ri tate ab'so lute plen'i tude lit'i gate al'ti tude rec'ti tude mil'i tate am'bu lance res'o lute stip'u late lesson . miscellaneous sounds. prime swine straw crawl brawn snore gloss flank brick charge crow quench green tinge shark scotch chest goose brand thrift space prow twist flange crank wealth slice twain limp screw throb thrice chess flake soon flesh finch flash flaw twelve flung clean loaf scale lesson . long sounds of i and u, and short sounds of e and i. a bide' ac cuse' con tend' ad mit' a like' im pure' con tent' ad dict' a live' im pute' in tend' as sist' a rise' as sume' in tent' com mit' de cide' com mute' dis sect' con sist' de file' com mune' de ject' de pict' de fine' com pute' de test' dis till' de ride' con clude' de tect' emit' de sire' con fute' in spect' en list' di vide' dis pute' ob ject' en rich' di vine' en dure' re spect' for bid' lesson . silent letters. b is silent after m and before t, and p is silent before s. the silent letters are canceled in this lesson, as they are throughout the book. lamb numb debt debt'or comb bomb doubt doubt'ful tomb crumb psalm sub'tle dumb thumb pshaw psal'ter dictation exercises on the above. the lamb is a dumb animal. he climbed the hill to the tomb, but his limbs became numb. comb your hair, but do not thumb your book. bombs are now commonly called "shells." the debtor, who was a subtle man, doubted his word, and gave not a crumb of comfort. take your psalter and select a joyous psalm. his answer was, "pshaw!" lesson . sounds of igh, oa, shr, and thr. nigh load coax shrank thrash thigh oats hoax shrewd threat fight boat oath shrift throng light oak coach shrike throve flight foal float shrunk thrust fright goat poach thrill throat tight soap hoarse three thrum lesson . long and short sounds of a, and short sound of e. gain a bash' dis patch' pre tend' nail ca bal' dis tract' re flect' taint ca nal' ex pand' re fresh' trail cra vat' a bet' re lent' aim de camp' be deck' re ject' maim pro tract' be held' re quest' train re cant' be quest' re bel' strain re fract' de fect' re gress' chain re lax' e lect' re press' paint at tack' e rect' sub ject quaint at tract' e vent' neg'lect' lesson . short sounds of vowels under the accent. ac'ci dent ben'e fit dif'fer ent ad'a mant brev'i ty dif'fi cult am'i ty clem'en cy fil'a ment an'i mal des'ti ny in'cre ment an'nu al neg'li gent in'do lent can'is ter pend'u lum his'to ry flat'ter y rem'e dy in'ju ry fam'i ly reg'u lar pil'lo ry lax'i ty rel'e vant sim'i lar man'i fest pen'i tence tit'u lar man'i fold pen'e trate tim'or ous lesson . sounds of the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. in this lesson, and in the pages immediately following, will be found forty-three exercises on the various sounds of the english language. some of these have been given already, but are repeated here for the more thorough instruction of the pupil let the teacher carefully discriminate between the different sounds of the vowels, and fully drill the scholars in their correct enunciation. . regular long sound of a, marked a. make la'tent brave a base'ment safe cham'ber crave a bate'ment gaze pas'try grave ad ja'cent saint man'gy shave a wa'ken lesson . . regular short sound of a, marked a. span ad'der crack can'di date trap an'vil gland cal'i co plat ban'ish slack grat'i tude sham bran'dy plaid mag'is trate . sound of a before r in such words as air, care, marked a. dare af fair' chair trans par'ent rare de spair' prayer for bear'ance flare be ware' scare par'ent age glare com pare' square care'ful ness lesson . . sound of the italian a, as in arm, marked a. farm ar'bor guard ar'gu ment harm ar'mor daunt ar'ti choke barn bar'ber harsh car'di nal yarn car'go jaunt car'pen ter . sound of a in certain words before ff, ft, ss, st, sk, sp, and in a few before nce and nt, marked a, as in staff. mass chance gasp chan'cel lor class pass'port quaff chan'cer y vast mas'ter chant craft'i ness task graft'ed prance ad van'tage lesson . . sound of broad a. as in all, marked a. thrall de bauch' drawl au'di ence tall de fault' pawn laud'a ble wart de fraud' sprawl plaus'i ble awe as sault' warmth talk'a tive . short sound of broad a, as in what, marked a. wan wan'ton squash squal'id ness wand wan'der squab was'ish ly squat squan'der squad watch'ful ness wat'ch wal'low swamp what ev'er lesson . . regular long sound of e, as in eve, marked e. feel fe'male wean de'i ty keel pee'vish these de'cen cy glee que'ry priest e gre'gious deem nei'ther cheer fre'quen cy . regular short sound of e, as in end, marked e. ebb pen'ny sledge, en'e my fret sec'ond spread rec'og nize helm ten'der knelt len'i ty them rec'tor cleft mem'o ry lesson . . sound of e as in there, marked e, this corresponds with the sound of a in care. ne'er par terre' where up on' where ere long' where un to' there of' there by' where a bouts' heir'ess where at' where with al' . sound of e like a, as in prey, marked e. they neigh'bor neigh'bor hood whey hei'nous sur vey'or freight o bey' pur vey'ance deign in veigh' con vey'ance lesson . . sound of e before r, verging toward the sound of u in urge, and marked e. term er'mine terse ter'ma gant pearl ear'ly merge per'son al err per'fect yearn mer'chan dise learn mer'cer swerve ser'mon ize . regular long sound of i. as in ice, marked i. fife di'et christ brib'er y crime qui'et spice di'a dem shrine fi'at strive li'a ble thrive pli'ant slime i'ci cle lesson . . regular short sound of i, as in ill, marked i. sting piv'ot spring dif'fi dent bliss splin'ter twitch pin'a fore inch tin'der thick in'fa my strip wick'ed sphinx lit'ur gy . sound of i like that of long e, as in pique, marked i. pe tite' fa tigue' mag a zine' an tique' in trigue' sub ma rine' ca price' po lice' ver'di gris fas cine' va lise' quar'an tine lesson . . sound of i before r, verging toward u in urge, marked i. stir birth'right girth girl'ish ness first gird'le thirst mirth'ful ness firm irk'some firth thir'ti eth skirt vir'gin smirch flirt'ing ly . regular long sound of o, as in old, marked o. host po'et chrome fo'lio smoke to'ry blown glo'ri fy sport lo'cate scold o'pi ate slope so'lo droll po'et ry lesson . . regular short sound of o, as in not, marked o. bond mon'ster croft lon'gi tude frost pot'ter sconce prompt'i tude lodge lodg'ment mosque nom'i nate prong yon'der frond ob'li gate . sound of o like short u, as in dove, marked o. month blood'shed sponge cov'ert ly glove love'ly tongue cov'e nant shove noth'ing flood broth'er hood front cov'et blood moth'er iy lesson . . sound of o like oo long, as in do, marked o. whom tour'ist group who ev'er move rou tine' prove shoe'-mak er tour through out' douche en tomb'ment shoe en tomb' youth mov'ing ly . sound of o like oo short, as in wolf, marked o. wolf bo'som em bo'som wol ver ene' would wom'an un bo'som wom'an ly could wolf'ish wom'an hood wom'an ish should wolf'-net worst'ed wolf'ish ly lesson . . sound of like a (broad a), as in form, marked o. born tort'ure corpse form'al ist horn fork'ed thorn cor'mo rant morse' for'mer scorn hor'ta tive lorn for'ward scorch mor'ti fy . another mark has been added in this book to indicate a sound of o where it precedes r, as in work, marked o. work wor'thy worse wor'thi ly word wor'ship world world'li ness worm ef'fort whorl wor'ship er wort world'ly whort work'ing-man lesson . . regular long sound of double , as in moon, marked . tool moon'shine groom boor'ish ness noon noon'tide school gloom'i ly spool bloom'ing soothe room'i ness groove gloom'y smooth sooth'say ing . regular short sound of double o, as in wool, marked oo. wool hood'wink brook coop'er age look look'out crook rook'er y rook wood'land shook book'-bind er hood wool'ly stood crook'ed ness lesson . . regular long sound of u, as in mute. marked u. sue beau'ty deuce beau'ti ful lieu feud'al sluice cu'ti cle nude cu'bic juice mu'ti ny suit flu'id fugue pu'ri ty . regular short sound of u, as in but, marked u. lungs slum'ber clump but'ter y plush rus'set stunt cus'to dy dunce duch'ess skulk ux'u ry trump scuf'fle young sum'ma ry lesson . . sound of u when preceded by r in the same syllable, as in rude, marked u. it is the same sound as oo. true ru'mor prune cru'di ty crude ru'ral truce rhru'ma tism cruse truf fle spruce pru'dent ly rule bru'tish cruise pru'ri ent . sound of u like that of short oo, as in put, marked u. bull pul'pit ful'ly ful fill'ment pull pul'ley bush'y bul'le tin put cush'ion puss'y bull'ion ist push bul'wark butch'er bush'i ness lesson . . sound of u before r in such words as urge, marked u. urge jour'ney spurn ur'gen cy burn stur'geon nurse curl'i ness spur church'man curst jour'nal ist curb bur'gess burst hurt'ful ness . regular long sound of y, as in fly, marked y. ap ply' ty'rant pyre dy'nas ty de ny' hy'dra type an'ti type re ly' ty'phus fyke a sy'lum re ply' ty'ro chyme hy e'na lesson . . regular short sound of y, as in hymn, marked y. pyx sys'tem lymph sym'me try cyst syn'tax nymph syn'co pe tymp phys'ic tryst syn'dic ate styx lyr'ic rynd syn op'sis . the sound of oi or oy (unmarked), as heard in oil, oyster. oint re coil' spoil en joy'ment voice re joice' moist dis joint'ed troy de stroy' broil em ploy'ment poise em ploy' choice ap point'ment lesson . . the sound of ow (unmarked), as heard in owl. when the ow is sounded as in blown, the o is marked long (blown). howl al low' crowd flow'er y gown en dow' prowl pow'er ful cowl vow'el scowl em bow'el down row'el brown en dow'ment . the diphthong ou has two leading sounds: that of ow in words derived from the anglo-saxon, as in out; and that of oo in words derived from the french, as in soup. sour found'ling fount an nounce'ment pout ground'less mount un found'ed soup rou lette' croup crou'pi er roup group'ing wound trou'ba dour lesson . . the consonant c has two regular sounds: as soft c in cede, marked c; as hard c in cot, where it has the sound of k, and is marked c. cives ac'id trace de cem'ber mace sol'ace brace in ces'sant clot tac'tic curd en act'ment acts traf'fic cave e lect'or . the sound of n as heard in link, is marked thus, n, which is the same sound as that represented by ng. lank monk'ey drink con'gru ous monk con'gress trunk sin'gu lar sunk lan'guage conch drunk'en ness lesson . . s bas two regular sounds: when unmarked it has its sharp or hissing sound, as in yes; when marked thus, s, it has the buzzing sound of z in zeal. sick mass'y smelt pos sess'ive pest vest'ment gross as sess'or has a muse' grows re sem'ble ease in fuse' ruse res'o nant . ch has three sounds: unmarked (english ch), it has nearly the sound of tsh, as in child; marked thus, eh (french ch), it has the sound of sh, as in chaise; and marked thus, ch (latin ch), it has the sound of k, as in chorus. such speech'less child choc'o late chef ma chine' chaise chiv'al ry chasm chem'ist chrism char'ac ter lesson . . g has two regular sounds: marked thus, g (g hard), it has the sound of g in go; marked thus, g (g soft), it has the compound sound of j, as in gem. gear'ing gew'gaw slug gid'di ness gen'tile slug'gish crag guil'lo tine gen'der gest'ure gibe gen'er al . th has two sounds: its sharp sound, as in thing, which is unmarked, and its soft sound, as in thine, marked th. thin the'ist breath myth'ic al thaw the'sis theft the'o ry this gath'er thine hith'er to than both'er breathe oth'er wise lesson . . x has three sounds: its regular sharp sound (unmarked) like ks, as in expect, and its soft or flat sound like gz, as in exist, marked x;. at the beginning of words x has the sound of z as in xebec (ze'bec). ex'it ex pan'sive' ex tra'ne ous ex cel' ex'pi ate ex te'ri or ex alt' ex am'ple ex ec'u tive' ex empt' ex ult'ant ex or'di um . q is followed in all cases by u, and has usually the sound of kw, as in queen; but in a few words derived from the french, qu is sounded like k, as in coquette. quack queer'ly quoit qui e'tus queen quo'rum quote quo ta'tion plaque piqu'ant bisque co quet'tish clique' co quet' torque piqu'an cy lesson . cas cade' a base' in clude' a larm' ex change' a maze' ad jure' a far' in flame' a brade' de pute' re mark' ob late' cru sade' re fuse' de bark' par take' de base' ma nure' em bark' ad dress' re gret' in ject' ac quit' re flex' ex cept' in vent' a drift' ar rest' ex pect' mo lest' re miss' con test' ex pend' op press' be fit' de press' ex press' re dress' per sist' lesson . homophonous words. note.--these exercises on words of similar sound, instead of being gathered into a single department, are interspersed throughout the book. raised, lifted up. plait, a fold. razed, destroyed. plate, flattened metal. pries, inspects closely. plumb, perpendicular. prize, to value. plum, a fruit. pray, to supplicate. place, site; spot. prey, a spoil. plaice, a fish. pore, a small opening. please, to gratify. pour, to cause to flow. pleas, excuses. poll, the head. bell, a sounding vessel. pole, a rod; a perch. belle, a fine young lady. lesson . bight, a bay. piece, a part. bite, to seize with the teeth. peace, quietness. bloat, to swell. new, not old. blote, to dry and smoke. knew, did know. board, a plank. gnu, a quadruped. bored, did bore. limb, a branch. bread, food. limn, to draw or paint. bred, reared. arc, part of a circle. blue, a color. ark, a vessel. blew, did blow. prays, supplicates. boar, the male swine. praise, honor. bore, to pierce. preys, spoils. lesson . words accented on the last syllable. ab rupt' dis cuss' a cross' a gree' an nul' de duct' a dopt' a sleep' con struct' in duct' a loft' es teem' in struct' re but' a non' de cree' in trust' re sult' be long' de gree' at tire' in vite' com port' dis close' en tice' o blige' re port' dis pose' en tire' per spire' con sole' re store' in cline' sub lime' re pose' en throne' in cite' sur vive' con voke' ex plode' lesson . dictation exercises. dost consider that dust thou art? he paid the servant his hire, and the wages were higher than last year. with whoop and hurra they tore the hoop from the barrel. the mower will cut more grass to-morrow. the foreign consul took counsel with the enemy, and called a council of war. english consols are high. kings are sometimes guilty of flagrant wrongs. many a fragrant flower blooms unseen. he tore his clothes in a struggle to close the door. his course toward that coarse lad was wrong. lesson . words accented on the first syllable. con'tact nos'tril cur'ry pun'gent for'est prod'uct ful'crum rus'tic hob'by prob'lem hud'dle rub'bish loft'y ros'ter pub'lic sulk'y log'ic tor'rent pub'lish sul'try af'flux bank'rupt kin'dred scrib'ble am'bush cam'phor pick'et trip'let an'them hav'oc tick'et trick'le an'nals hag'gard wick'et liz'ard as'pect hatch'et in'voice vil'la lesson . cam'bric de'ist cy'press trib'al ca'dence e'qual fri'day cri'sis da'tive free'dom ice'berg hy'drant na'tive need'ful li'bel sci'ence pave'ment meet'ing mi'grate si'lent duke'dom boun'ty pow'der boy'hood dur'ance coun'ty prow'ess clois'ter cu'beb cow'ard sound'ings joy'ous pu'trid drow'sy tow'el loi'ter pur'ist fount'ain tow'er loy'al lesson . beard build palm verse witch crease built calf search script eaves squint half fern guess heave live talk kern start leap stick walk sperm wrath knee cliff chalk serve floor spleen writ lawn were czar have bronze daub herb haunch frank buzz fault strength flaunt slake snatch spawn sneak haunt smack dredge drift purse sharp clamp church fund clutch kneel lesson . en no'ble, in duce'ment a bu'sive, e lope'ment a cu'men pe ru'sal ex po'nent ac cu'sant pur su'ant he ro'ic al lure'ment re fus'al pro mo'tive a muse'ment sul phu'ric de tach'ment es tab'lish at tend'ant dog mat'ic fa nat'ic as sem'blage dra mat'ic fan tas'tic ap pend'ant ec stat'ic gi gan'tic in tes'tate e las'tic in hab'it com'pen sate lesson . cit, a citizen. wreak, to revenge. sit, to rest on a seat. reek, vapor. duct, a channel. bier, a carriage for the dead. ducked, plunged under. beer, fermented liquor. chuff, a clown. rest, quietness; ease. chough (chuf), a bird. wrest, to turn; to twist. coin, metal stamped. ring, a circle. coigne, a corner. wring, to twist. cole, a kind of cabbage. rote, repetition. coal, carbon. wrote, did write. find, to discover. strait, a narrow channel. fined, did fine; mulcted. straight, not crooked. prints, calicoes. wave, an undulation. prince, a king's son. waive, to refuse. lesson . bole, the body of a tree. hist, hush! bowl, a vessel. hissed, did hiss. boll, a pod. paws, the feet of beasts. nose, part of the face. pause, a stop. knows, does know. faun, a sylvan god. mote, a particle. fawn, a young deer. moat, a ditch. pride, vanity. toled, allured. pried, did pry. told, did tell. wain, a wagon. tolled, did toll. wane, to decrease. rein, part of a bridle. see, to behold. rain, falling water. sea, a body of water. reign, to rule. si, a term in music. lesson . a float' post pone' di lute' de mure' be low' pro rogue' a new' de plume' be moan' dis course' dis use' re cruit' be stow' de port' en sue' re cluse' de plore' re mote' im bue' re fute' a breast' at tempt' a bridge' e clipse' a head' dis tress' dis miss' e vince' be friend' con nect' a midst' ex tinct' be held' bur lesque' be twixt' for give' in flect' de flect' be witch' in flict' lesson . long sounds of vowels. au stere' de crease' ap peal' dis creet' be queath' in crease' ap pear' en treat' re vere' de mean' ap pease' ex treme' be seech' fu see' ar rear' gran dee' bo hea' re peal' blas pheme' im peach' a light' de scribe' ac quire' dis guise' a wry' de spise' at trite' es quire' be guile' pre scribe' as sign' ig nite' be lie' de cline' de mise' in quire' de prive' re quite' com prise' ma lign' lesson . words accented on the penult. a mend'ed con tent'ed di lem'ma an gel'ic re flect'ive dis tem'per ap pen'dix de crep'it do mes'tic as sem'bly de fend'ant em bel'lish as sess'ment de mer'it em bez'zle pa rent'al re fresh'ing re dun'dant po et'ic re plen'ish a sun'der pre sent'ed re sent'ment con cur'rent pu tres'cent re splen'dent ef ful'gent pre vent'ive sur ren'der en cum'ber lesson . trisyllables with the short sounds of the vowels. ac quit'tal de liv'er in sip'id be nig'nant di min'ish in trin'sic be wil'der con sist'ent ma lig'nant com mit'ment con tin'gent pa cif'ic con sid'er e nig'ma pro hib'it a bol'ish car bon'ic em bod'y ab hor'rent co los'sus har mon'ic ad com'plish de mol'ish im pos'tor ad mon'ish a pos'tate la con'ic al lot'ment des pot'ic ma son'ic lesson . hart, the male deer. hour, sixty minutes. heart, the seat of life. our, belonging to us. hear, to perceive by the ear in, within. inn, a hotel. here, in this place. key, a fastener. heard, did hear. quay (ke), a wharf. herd, a drove. rhyme, poetry. hie, to hasten. rime, white frost. high, lofty. knot, a fastening of cord. him, objective case of he. hymn, a song of praise. not, negation. hole, an opening. know, to understand. whole, all; entire. no, not so. lesson . the vowel in the last syllable silent. ba'con sweet'en dam'son bit'ten to'ken trea'son fat'ten driv'en bra'zen weak'en flax'en kit'ten ha'ven wea'sel glad'den pris'on ha'zel height'en hap'pen quick'en maid'en light'en mad'den ris'en ma'son lik'en rav'el smit'ten ra'ven rip'en sad'den stiff'en shak'en tight'en red'den swiv'el wea'zen wid'en fresh'en writ'ten tak'en bro'ken o'pen fast'en wak'en clo'ven leav'en glis'ten spok'en froz'en length'en drunk'en dea'con gold'en reck'on mut'ton lesson . the vowel in the last syllable not silent. cray'on asp'en tal'on glu'ten de'mon cab'in wag'on cit'ron ci'on drag'on sud'den kitch'en si'phon flag'on fel'on mit'ten co'lon lin'den lem'on pis'ton o'men grav'el mel'on her'on bar'rel bev'el chan'nel flan'nel par'cel plat'en chick'en slov'en lesson . dissyllables with the long sounds of the vowels. a'gue fa'mous cai'tiff ci'pher ca'lyx fail'ure fra'cas high'land cha'os faith'ful gate'-way mo'hair dai'ly frail'ty name'sake oak'um dai'sy game'ster stra'tum poul'tice bea'dle neat'ly mea'sles trea'cle bea'ver clear'ance peo'ple trea'tise drear'y cre'dence le'gion treat'ment ea'ger flee'cy re'gion twee'zers mean'ness greed'y stee'ple wea'ry lesson . words ending with ow, the last letter being silent. ar'row sal'low fel'low win'dow har'row tal' ow mel'low win'now nar'row shal'low fal'low wid'ow mar'row shad'ow mead'ow bor'row spar'row el'bow bil'low mor'row words containing ei or ie, promiscuously arranged. grieve re trieve' be siege' de ceiv'er thieve ag grieve' bre vier' de ceit'ful ceiled a piece' de ceive' dis sei'zin pieced con ceit' re lief' a chiev'ing sheik be lieve' re lieve' re ceiv'er lesson . aught, any thing. oar, for rowing. ought, should. ore, unrefined metal. wry, crooked. o'er, over. rye, a kind of grain. ow'er, one who owes. lead, a metal. adds, joins to. led, did lead. adz, a joiner's tool. read, perused. ale, a liquor. red, a color. ail, to feel pain. read, to peruse. ate, did eat. reed, a plant. eight, twice four. all, the whole. ant, an insect. awl, a sharp instrument. aunt, a relation. lesson . bald, without hair. air, the atmosphere. bawled, cried out. ere, before. bad, ill; vicious. e'er, ever. bade, past tense of bid. heir, one who inherits. baize, a kind of cloth. aisle, walk in a church. bays, plural of bay. isle, an island. bear, an animal. i'll, i will. bare, naked. cere, to cover with wax. bay, part of the ocean. sear, to burn; dry. bey, a turkish officer. seer, a prophet. be, to exist. ball, a round body. bee, an insect. bawl, to cry out. lesson . gai'ter plant'ain shriv'el jaun'dice clev'er das'tard jos'tle si'lex paint'er scab'bard but'ton mas'tiff way'ward scaf'fold pic'nic sar'casm di'gest sham'bles grum'ble tar'nish light'ning tran'script hus'tle tar'tar por'trait nest'ling mur'rain ha rangue' nov'ice men'ace rum'ble re lapse' tues'day pen'ance troub'le pro fess' cli'mate shep'herd ar'gue re venge' wrist'let whole'some pin'cers flight'y lesson . dictation exercises. to essay the task, requires courage. the discourse was an able essay. an agent will assay the ore, and forward a receipt. contemn a mean act; but do not always condemn the actor. they were to seize the fort, and cease firing. they affect great grief; but do not effect their purpose. do you dissent from my opinion? the hill was difficult of descent. a decent regard for others' ills is human. they advise the young to take the advice of the old. the enemy will invade the rich province. they were strongly inveighed against. lesson . ed'u cate em'er y meth'od ist eb'on y ex'o dus pen'i tent ef'fi gy fel'o ny sen'ti nel el'e phant gen'e sis fel'low ship em'bas sy fed'er al res'i dent ad'mi ral can'ni bal myr'i ad ag'o ny fac'to ry slip'per y al'i ment gal'ler y min'u end al'co hol man'u al tyr'an ny am'nes ty par'a sol sym'pho ny lesson . mul'ber ry cul'ti vate am'ulet mus'cu lar jus'ti fy an'ces try pun'ish ment mul'ti ply cal'va ry sub'se quent mul'ti tude cav'al ry sup'pli cant sub'sti tute mar'i gold am'pli fy cam'o mile bat'ter y grat'i fy pan'to mime can'o py pac'i fy rad'i cal char'i ty rar'e fy pat'ron ize chas'ti ty sanc'ti fy sat'el lite maj'es ty lesson . bail, surety. bold, brave. bale, a pack of goods. bowled, did bowl. bait, a lure. bourn, a limit. bate, to lessen. borne, carried. base, low; vile. bow, a weapon. bass, a part in music. beau (bo), a man of dress. beach, the shore. break, to sever by force. beech, a kind of tree. brake, a thicket. beat, to strike. bruise, to crush. beet, a vegetable. brews (bruz), does brew. bin, a box. by, near. been (bin), existed. buy, to purchase. lesson . berth, a sleeping-place. cast, to throw. birth, coming into life. caste, an order or class. braid, to weave. cede, to yield. brayed, did bray. seed, to sow; to scatter. breach, a gap. coarse, not fine. breech, the hinder part. course, way; career. broach, a spit; to pierce. dam, mother of beasts. brooch, an ornament. damn, to condemn. but, except. cane, a reed; a staff. butt, a cask; a mark. cain, a man's name. call, to name. ceil, to line the top of caul, a kind of net-work. seal, a sea animal. lesson . dictation exercises. the ensign would not sign the paper. his design was known. he maligned his rival, and suffered condign punishment. a benign face. he was arraigned after the campaign. he deigned not to feign surprise. squirrels gnaw the bark. he affirmed it with phlegm. the knight carried a knapsack. he had a knack for rhymes. she knew how to knead the dough. they cut the knot with a knife. the curfew tolls the knell of parting day. the knave had hard knuckles, but little knowledge. lesson . sounds of o and u. con'dor sol'id or'ange spon'dee doc'trine loz'enge os'trich toc'sin cos'tive of'fal pomp'ous jock'ey fos'sil of'fice pon'tiff mot'ley frost'y ol'ive prom'ise nos'trum ton'nage nov'el cum'brous buck'le won'der boot'y cus'tard bus'tle won'drous move'ment flour'ish dud'geon wont'ed stuc'co hun'dred dun'geon wor'ry buz'zard hus'band lunch'eon lesson . short sounds of vowels. doub'le bed'stead eb'on fend'er knuck'le cher'ub eph'od heav'y nour'ish cres'cent es'sence heif'er south'ern crev'ice eth'ics jeal'ous frus'trate dex'trous feath'er jel'ly rep'tile ster'ile brim'stone ab'bess ref'use ves'tige dic'tate ad'junct sen'tence wed'lock frig'ate dag'ger skep'tic wednes'day pil'lage bram'ble speck'le zeal'ous trib'ute cal'lous lesson . cell, a small room. cart, a vehicle. sell, to barter away. carte, a bill of fare. cent, a small coin. dear, costly; beloved. sent, did send. deer, an animal. scent, odor; smell. due, owing; fit. chased, did chase. dew (du), moisture condensed. chaste, pure. clause, part of a sentence. doe, the female deer. claws, the nails of a beast. dough, unbaked paste. cord, a small rope. dram, a glass of spirits. chord, musical tones in hamony drachm, a small weight. fane, a temple. cote, a pen; a fold. fain, gladly. coat, an outer garment. feign, to pretend. lesson . be speak' ab solve' ad judge' in dulge' nan keen' de volve' be grudge' re pulse' im plead' dis solve' sub duct' suc cumb' con ceal' re solve' be numb' af front' con geal' re spond' con vulse' a mong' re frain' re print' re proach' re take' re main' re strict' en croach' re trace' re strain' re sist' pa trol' re pay' re tain' sub mit' pa role' de lay' re tail' dis tinct' be fore' al lay' lesson . dust, powdered earth. day, twenty-four hours. dost, second person of do. dey, a turkish title. earn, to gain by labor. ewe (yu), a female sheep. urn, a kind of vase. you, the person spoken to. ern, the sea-eagle. die, to expire. yew (yu), a kind of tree. dye, to color. eye, the organ of sight. draught (draft), drawing i, myself. ay, yes. draft, a bill of exchange. aye, an affirmative vote. dun, a dark color. flee, to run away. done, performed. flea, an insect. fate, destiny. flew (flu) , did fly. fete, a festival. flue, a passage for smoke. lesson . ag'ile hack'ney pas'sive bis'cuit al'oes knap'sack prac'tice fil'bert dac'tyl lad'der rab'id im'age fash'ion lat'tice rap'id im'pulse gal'ley lan'cet tac'tics mil'dew bit'tern crys'tal crim'son kid'ney brisk'et dis'tance grid'dle lin'tel cis'tern dis'taff live'long liq'uid chim'ney dwin'dle gyp'sy liq'uor chis'el pick'le hith'er rid'dance lesson . slui'cy bol'ster cer'tain driz'zle jui'cy court'ship sur'ly tick'le stew'ard fro'ward sur'geon twink'le jew'el co'coa ear'nest thim'ble neu'tral nose'gay jour'nal vil'lain cor'ner gor'gon au'dit so'da cor'sair lord'ship caus'tic so'fa. corse'let mor'bid awk'ward so'ber for'feit mort'gage gaud'y sto'ic gor'geous mor'sel lau'rel to'paz lesson . dictation exercises. the awl is used by all shoe-makers. he said that he would do aught that he ought to do. the man who stole the bale of goods gave bail. the bey rode a bay horse around the bay. deer break through the brake and brush. he had just lain down in the narrow lane. the horse with the long mane ran through the main street of a town in maine. which of the pair of fine pears will you pare for the child? the joiner's plane will smooth the plain door. you can rein your horse, if it should rain. the kings reign wisely. lesson . bal'us trade fab'ri cate bev'er age al'ka li gal'ax y cher'u bim al'ka line mas'to don dem'o crat ap'o gee mack'er el den'i zen al'i quot mar'i ner den'si ty as'ter isk par'a graph ex'or cist az'i muth par'al lax ed'i fy bach'e lor par'a gon em'a nate cal'a bash par'a pet em'pha size cal'a mus par'a phrase ep'i cure lesson . fir, a kind of tree. fort, a stronghold. fur, soft hair. forte, one's strong point. faint, weak; languid. forth, forward. feint, a pretense. fourth, the next after third. fair, clear; handsome. fare, food; cost of passage. frays, quarrels. phrase, part of a sentence, feet, plural of foot. fore, toward the front. feat, an exploit. four, twice two. floe, a large piece of ice. foul, impure. flow, a current. fowl, a bird. flour, ground wheat. freeze, to become ice. flow'er, a blossom. frieze, a kind of cloth. lesson . ex'pe dite' ped'i ment cur'ren cy hel'le bore pel'i can ful'some ly per'i gee pet'u lant nul'li ty reg'i cide rec'om pense sub'si dy rec'on dite' spher'ic al sub'ter fuge fif'ti eth syn'o nym con'ju gate mir'a cle tyr'an nize con'tro vert nim'ble ness witch'er y con'se crate rig'or ous wil'der ness cor'o net ris'i ble whim'si cal dom'i nant lesson . ar'bi trate hard'i hood for'mu la ar'ma ment har'le quin gor'mand ize ar'mis tice car'ni val or'der ly ar'chi tect car'bon ate or'di nal arch'er y gar'den er or'di nate bar'ba rism gar'ni ture or'phan age dec'i mal met'a phor crit'i cism des'pot ism ed'it or cyl'in der em'pha sis sen'a tor mys'ter y ep'i taph ser'a phim mys'ti fy leth'ar gy spec'i men phys'ic al pen'ta teuch spec'u late typ'i fy lesson . short and long sounds of the vowels. but'ler com'mon dis'mal blem'ish buck'ler dog'ma dis'trict elem'ent cud'gel dol'phin mim'ic cher'ry judg'ment hos'tile mis'sive cred'it snuff'ers mod'ern syn'od em'bers bond'age con'vent cli'max aid'ance cot'tage soph'ist fi'brous bail'iff for'age sor'rel hy'brid base'ment hos'tage stop'ple hy'men brace'let pros'trate tod'dy hy'phen brave'ly lesson . furs, skins with soft hair. groan, a deep sigh. furze, a prickly shrub. grown, increased. gage, to pledge. gall, bile. gauge, to measure. gaul, old name of france. gate, door; entrance. gild, to overlay with gold. gait, manner of walking. guild, a corporation. gilt, adorned with gold. gloze, to smooth over. guilt, crime. glows, shines. great, large; vast. guest, a visitor. grate, a range of bars. guessed, did guess. grease, soft fat. hale, sound; healthy. greece, a country. hail, frozen rain. lesson . a lert' ex pert' sub vert' re move' as sert' in ert' su perb' a do' a ver' in fer' ab surd' a loof' a vert' in sert' re cur' bal loon' con cern' in vert' de mur' buf foon' per vert' pre fer' dis turb' hal loo' a vail' re claim' dis play" be fall' a wait' ab stain' en tail' re call' de cay' ac quaint' ob tain' en thrall' de claim' af fray' con tain' re sort' de fray' as suage' per suade' as sort' pre vail' block ade' a broad' be sought' lesson . al'pha pad'lock ad'dle hon'ey an'ise plac'id bar'rack com'fort brack'et sab'bath man'date moth'er dam'ask saf'fron man'ly oth'er mad'der stag'nant stag'nate smoth'er clos'et con'trite cher'ish ves'tal com'ment oc'tave den'tist leg'ate con'course vol'ume fresh'et mem'brane con'text bon'fire rel'ish mes'sage con'vex con'quer rem'nant res'cue lesson . flout a fresh' fir'kin a'er ate' meant con temn' serv'ile la'i ty wren con tempt' skir'mish de'vi ous quick com mand' ster'ling re'al ize solve com mence' sur'feit re'qui em wrong com mend' ur'gent co'gen cy quince com pact' fur'lough no'ti fy shrimp com plaint' jas'mine po'ten cy cause es tray' lack'ey o'ri ole gauze ap proach' latch'et o'ri ent quoin cor rode' mat'in jo'vi al squaw cur tail' scat'ter vo'ta ry cross re pute' sav'age zo'di ac lesson . dictation exercises. i accept all your presents except the last. his joy was in excess, at the news of his access to fortune. though your terms exceed my expectations, i must accede to them. the best cosmetic is air and exercise. he pretended to exorcise evil spirits. both assent to go up the ascent. he was indicted for inditing a false letter. champagne is made in france. the soldiers crossed the champaign. the law will levy a tax to build a levee. the levee was held at the mayor's residence. the senior brother was addressed as seignior. lesson . cer'ti fy for'ti fy cog'ni zance fer'ti lize for'ti tude con'ju gal herb'al ist fort'u nate glob'u lar serv'i tude or'di nance or'i gin ter'mi nate or'gan ism hom'i ly fer'ven cy ar'bi ter af'flu ent mer'cu ry ar'ter y bal'us ter nurs'er y har'mo ny bar'ri er per'fi dy lar'ce ny bar'ris ter per'ju ry har'mo nize car'ri on lesson . words accented on the first syllable. cler'ic al fes'ti val li'bra ry el'e gy eth'ic al like'li hood em'i grant her'ald ry mi'cro cosm em'per or her'e tic mi'cro scope ep'i gram her'o ism ni'tro gen pa'pa cy di'a lect ped'ant ry fla'gran cy di'a gram ped'es tal fra'gran cy di'a ry med'i cine ra'di ance fin'er y lex'i con sla'ver y i'vo ry sed'u lous main'te nance pli'a ble quer'u lous lesson . monosyllables representing different sounds. stray sleet strike trope curse ache fleece trite grope hearse bathe steer splice broke purge lathe speech stripe stroke scourge plaint sphere tithe cloak verge brain fief yield crock squeal slave field fierce block league quake thief pierce flock plead stave fiend tierce shock squeak plague shriek niece mock heath lesson . synthetic exercises. make sentences containing the following words. bough, a branch of a tree. grieves, laments. bow, to bend. greaves, armor for the legs. brute, a beast. hew (hu), to cut; to chop. bruit, to noise abroad. hue, a color; dye. cite, to summon. hugh, a man's name. site, a situation. kill, to deprive of life. sight, the sense of seeing. kiln, a large oven. climb, to ascend. leaf, of a tree or book. clime, climate; region. lief, willingly; gladly. core, the inner part. maze, an intricate place. corps, a body of soldiers. maize, indian corn. creek, a narrow inlet. mean, low; middle point. creak, a grating noise. mien, air; manner. lesson . miscellaneous sounds. bul'let coop'er nor'mal pre cise' bull'y wool'en or'phan pre side' bull'ock cool'ly tor'por pro scribe' bul'rush scoun'drel quar'ter com mode' bush'el bal'sam ac claim' en gross' bull'ion squad'ron o paque' con sume' crup'per war'rant sca lene' pre sume' cuck'oo quad'rant se cede' be dew' lesson . false naught pitch batch edge quart sought flitch match hedge sward bought stitch hatch ledge swarm bright fitch latch wedge thwart plight hitch patch fledge bilge budge fosse breadth twinge bridge judge thong breast print ridge drudge notch cleanse fling hinge grudge blotch friend string cringe plunge prompt knell swift lesson . hall, a large room. hoop, a ring; a band. haul, to drag by force. whoop, to make a noise. hay, dried grass. hied, made haste. hey! an exclamation. hide, to conceal. hare, an animal. hoard, to lay up. hair, of the head. horde, a tribe. heal, to cure. hoes, plural of hoe. heel, hinder part of the foot. hose, stockings. jam, a conserve of fruit. hire, wages. jamb, the sidepiece of a high'er, more high. door or fireplace. hoe, a farming tool. knead, to work dough. ho! an exclamation. need, want. lesson . faith theme length sor'row sol'emn scrape chime launch dur'ing hire'ling strange whilst morgue gib'bet tres'pass greet smart pledge bod'kin shil'ling perch badge gourd gos'ling mat'tock champ dodge schist lob'by ram'part drench brawl flounce tan'sy tran'quil squeeze dwarf screech lock'et cun'ning grist yawl spasm van'dal her'ring shrink grant starve ex'tra drug'gist copse spunk scalp cut'lass spon'sor lesson . knight, a title of honor. lee, the sheltered side. night, time of darkness. lea, a meadow; field. knave, a wicked person. lie, to deceive. nave, hub of a wheel. lye, water passed through ashes. loan, any thing lent. links, parts of a chain. lone, solitary. lynx, an animal. knap, a small protuberance. loch, a lake. nap, a short sleep. lough (lok), a lake. lac, a kind of gum. lock, to fasten a door. lack, to want; need. lax, loose; vague. laid, placed. lacks, wants; needs. lade, to load. lacs, plural of lac. lesson . words containing i consonant, sounded like y consonant; as alien, pronounced al'yen. al'ien on'ion bat tal'ion sav'ior bil'ious pe cul'iar pan'nier brill'iant re bell'ion un'ion fil'ial dis un'ion sen'ior mill'ion o pin'ion jun'ior pill'ion do min'ion gal'liard pin'ion com mun'ion span'iel trill'ion mut'u al val'iant coll'ier punc til'io bill'iards pon'iard punc til'ious bill'ion ruff'ian ver mil'ion in'dian chris'tian aux il'ia ry lesson . the following words, according to the analogy of the english language, should he spelled with the termination er, with the exception of the last word of each line. cen'ter mi'ter spec'ter sep'ul cher fi'ber ni'ter o'cher the'a ter lus'ter som'ber mau'ger ma neu'ver mea'ger sa'ber um'ber cal'i ber me'ter scep'ter om'ber ac cou'ter a'cre na'cre lu'cre mas'sa cre lesson . in the following words, ng is pronounced as if the g were doubled; as anger, pronounced ang'ger. an'ger lan'guor jin'gle youn'ger an'gle lan'guid min'gle con'ger an'gry man'gle sin'gle bun'gler an'guish man'go tin'gle hun'ger clan'gor san'guine din'gle hun'gry dan'gle span'gled lon'ger wran'gler fan'gled span'gle lon'gest fin'ger jan'gle tan'gle stron'ger lan'guish ban'gle wran'gle bun'gle un'guent lesson . in the following, s has the sound of sh as sure, (pro. shure). sure'ly cen'sure fis'sure is'su ance sure'ness press'ure ton'sure as sur'ance sure'ty is'sue as sure' in sur'ance sug'ar tis'sue in sure' in sur'er the following words are spelled, according to analogy, with the termination se. con dense' dis pense' im mense' pre tense' de fense' ex pense' of fense' sus pense' re cense' in cense' pre pense' li'cense lesson . lane, a narrow passage. main, chief lain, past participle of lie. mane, hair on the neck of a horse. mail, armor. lapse, to fall. male, masculine. laps, plural of lap. mark, a sign. leak, to run out. marque, letters of reprisal. leek, a kind of onion. mead, a drink. lo! behold! meed, reward. low, not high. meet, fit; proper. lore, learning. mete, to measure. low'er, more low. meat, food in general. maid, a maiden. might, strength; power. made, finished. mite, a small insect. lesson . mode', way; manner. nay, no. mowed, cut down. neigh, to cry as a horse. mule, an animal. nit, egg of an insect. mewl (mul), to squall. knit, to unite. mist, fine rain. gneiss, a kind of mineral. missed, did miss. more, a greater quantity. nice, delicate; fine. mow'er, one who mows. owe, to be bound. muse, to meditate. oh! alas! mews (muz), an inclosure. ode, a poem. owed, indebted. none, not one. one (wun), a single thing. nun, a religious woman. won, gained. lesson . a mal'gam ate cheese e man'ci pate as sas'sin ate dirt e rad'i cate ca pac'i tate bleak e vac'u ate co ag'u late goad a ban'don ment con cat'e nate slouch in fat'u ate con fab'u late gone in val'i date con grat'ulate scarf be at'i fy con tam'i nate nerve pro cras'ti nate de cap'i tate raid re tal'i ate e jac'u late graze e vap'o rate e lab'o rate stale pre var'i cate lesson . cir'cus ca pac'i ty an'a gram cur'few com par'i son am'bi ent cur'tain com par'a tive al'li gate fer'tile com pat'i ble cal'a mine fer'vid con cav'i ty hal'cy on fur'nace de clar'a tive jes'u it fur'long di ag'o nal ped'i gree mer'maid di am'e ter reg'is ter nerv'ous dog mat'ic al rev'el ry pur'chase em bas'sa dor skep'tic al sur'face de prav'i ty ver'i ly lesson . in words like the following, sier, zier, sure, zure, su, sion, and sia are pronounced zhur, zhur, zhu, zhun, and zha. bra'sier em bra'sure cas'u al ly gla'zier e ras'ure cas'u ist ry gra'zier e va'sion treas'ur er ship ras'ure in va'sion us'u al ly seiz'ure per sua'sion pleas'ur a ble ho'sier ad he'sion meas'ur a ble o'sier co he'sion oc ca'sion al fu'sion am bro'sia pro vis'ion al az'ure, dis clos'ure u su'ri ous meas'ure ex plo'sion dis com pos'ure pleas'ure col lu'sion in de cis'ion lesson . synthetic and dictation exercises. brid'al, belonging to a bride. met'al, a substance. met'tle, spirit. bri'dle, a check; a curb. vice, defect; fault. les'son, a task for recitation. vise, an instrument. wail, to lament. less'en, to make less. wale, to mark with stripes. filled with choler, he seized the youth by the collar. the priest filled the censer. he is a censor of the press. the ship took divers persons as divers for pearls. the plaintiff assumed a plaintive air. to lessen the number of exercises, will make an easier lesson. lesson . scrive'ner friv'o lous fru gal'i ty slug'gard im'age ry gram mat'ic al stub'born in'di go hi lar'i ty sub'urbs in'sti gate hu man'i ty symp'tom liq'ui date in hab'it ant med'ley pil'grim age i ras'ci ble peas'ant fish'er y le gal'i ty pheas'ant hick'o ry lo cal'i ty pen'sive in'ter est lo quac'i ty pres'ence mit'ti mus men dac'i ty read'y min'strel sy ra pac'i ty lesson . note.--these words are not exactly alike in sound, and should be carefully distinguished. as sist'ance, help; relief rab'bit, an animal. as sist'ants, helpers. rab'bet, a term in carpentry. de vis'er, an inventor. di vi'sor, a term in arithmetic. lin'e a ment, a feature. lin'i ment, an ointment. def'er ence, respect. prin'ci pal, chief dif'fer ence, variation. prin'ci ple, rule of action. in gen'u ous, open; free. li'ar, one who tells lies. in gen'ious, having skill. lyre, a kind of harp. lesson . dictation exercises on the above. his assistants gave him great assistance. he was the deviser of the machine. which is the larger, the divisor or the quotient? this difference being settled, he will pay due deference to your opinion. the ingenious mechanic was also an ingenuous man. not a lineament could be recognized by his friends. apply to the wound a healing liniment. the principal in the agreement was devoid of moral principle. though a great liar, he could play upon the lyre. the rabbit was tame. the carpenter will rabbet the boards. lesson . in words like the following, u should receive its proper consonant sound; as nature, pronounced nat'yur. nat'ure sig'na ture ag'ri cult ure creat'ure sep'ul ture leg'is la ture feat'ure fur'ni ture ar'chi tect ure fut'ure for'feit ure tem'per a ture capt'ure lig'a ture lit'er a ture rapt'ure ap'er ture flo'ri cult ure text'ure quad'ra ture ju'di ca ture pict'ure ad vent'ure hor'ti cult ure script'ure con ject'ure man u fact'ure lesson . pail, a wooden vessel. paul, a man's name. pale, not bright. pall, a covering. pear, a fruit. pique, to give offense. pare, to cut thin. peak, the top. pair, a couple. peer, a nobleman. raze, to pull down. pier, a wharf raise, to lift up. quartz, a kind of rock. rays, beams of light. quarts, measures. pain, uneasiness. plain, smooth. pane, a square of glass. plane, a surface; tool. peel, rind; skin. quire, twenty-four sheets of paper. peal, a sound of bells. port, a harbor. choir (kwir), a band of singers. porte, a turkish court. lesson . x with the sound of gz; as exact, pronounced egz act'. ex act' ex act'ly ex ag'g'er ate ex ist' ex am'ine ex an'i mate ex ult' ex em'plar ex as'per ate ex hale' ex er'tion ex ec'u trix ex haust' ex hib'it ex hil'a rate ex ert' ex ist'ence ex on'er ate ex hort' ex ist'ent ex em'pli fy ex ude' ex ot'ic ex or'bi tant ex ergue' ex haust'ive ux o'ri ous lesson . ti has often the sound of sh: followed by on, it is pronounced shun. na'tion ces sa'tion de vi a'tion pa'tient col la'tion dep re da'tion fac'tious cre a'tion des per a'tion frac'tious dic ta'tion lib er a'tion sta'tion do na'tion me di a'tion lo'tion du ra'tion mod er a'tion mo'tion e qua'tion nu mer a'tion no'tion tes ta'tion op er a'tion po'tion for ma'tion tol er a'tion por'tion frus tra'tion trep i da'tion quo'tient gra da'tion val u a'tion lesson . other examples in which final tion is pronounced shun. men'tion ab strac'tion ed u ca'tion sec'tion at trac'tion em ula'tion frac'tion de trac'tion ex cla ma'tion dic'tion dis trac'tion ex pec ta'tion fic'tion ex trac'tion ex por ta'tion fric'tion in frac'tion fer men ta'tion junc'tion pro trac'tion gen er a'tion ac'tion re frac'tion grav i ta'tion cap'tion re trac'tion hab i ta'tion op'tion con trac'tion il lus tra'tion fac'tion sub trac'tion im por ta'tion lesson . examples in which sci, ti, and ci have the sound of sh. auc'tion au da'cious ab er ra'tion cau'tion ca pa'cious ad mi ra'tion cau'tious ve ra'cious ad o ra'tion gla'cial fal la'cious ad u la'tion gra'cious fu ga'cious ag gra va'tion spa'cious lo qua'cious ap pli ca'tion gre'cian ra pa'cious ap pro ba'tion spe'cious sa ga'cious prep a ra'tion par'tial te na'cious pres er va'tion con'science vi va'cious proc la ma'tion spe'cie vo ra'cious prof a na'tion lesson . ci, ce, and si with the sound of sh. spe'cies ju di'cial ac ces'sion o'cean lo gi'cian com pres'sion so'cial ma gi'cian de clen'sion spe'cial mu si'cian ex pres'sion cru'cial tac ti'cian im pres'sion pre'cious op ti'cian op pres'sion pas'sion pa tri'cian pre ten'sion man'sion phy si'cian suc ces'sion pen'sion pro vin'cial trans gres'sion ten'sion fi nan'cial ad mis'sion tor'sion om nis'cient con cus'sion lesson dictation exercises. they propose to alter the place of the altar. he cast his ballot for mayor. the ballet dancer and the ballad singer arrived. the wine seller lived in a cellar. he said that the cymbal was a symbol of music. they sent an arrant rogue on the errand. his manner of conducting the manor did not suit the lord. the prophet of mammon foretold great profit. the relics of the kingdom were saved by the relict of the king. the stature of the statue of liberty is fixed by statute. lesson . rack, an engine of torture. write, to make letters. wrack, a sea-plant. wright, a workman. rap, to strike. roe, eggs of a fish. wrap, to roll together. row, to impel with oars. reck, to heed; to care. rose, a flower. wreck, destruction. rows, does row. rice, a kind of grain. roes, plural of roe. rise, increase; ascent. sees, beholds. rite, a ceremony. seas, large bodies of water. right, not wrong. seize, to lay hold of lesson . of affixes. many words are formed by adding something to the end of another word. the added part is called an affix; as ly, added to man, forms manly. in this, and the following seventeen lessons, the more common affixes are indicated. plurals formed by adding s to the singular. roofs so'los ty'ros al bi'nos hoofs ha'los jun'tos me men'tos scarfs las'sos can'tos oc ta'vos truths ze'ros quar'tos si roc'cos plurals formed by adding es to the singular. ech'oes to ma'toes po ta'toes car'goes mu lat'toes bra va'does mot'toes vol ca'noes por'ti coes grot'toes mos qui'toes vi ra'goes lesson . words in which f and fe are changed into ves in the plural: as, leaf, leaves; wife, wives. beeves lives thieves calves our selves' sheaves wives wolves halves them selves' leaves knives loaves shelves your selves' words in which y final is changed into ies in the plural. skies la'dies to'ries gro'cer ies spies du'ties can'dies for'ger ies cries beau'ties tro'phies gal'ler ies lesson . words ending in y which form the plural by adding a. toys chim'neys al'leys at tor'neys drays val'leys pul'leys sat'ur days buoys mon'eys tur'keys hol'i days whys jour'neys mon'keys cor du roys' words in which the plurals are formed irregularly. as the plural only is given, the teacher might require the pupil to ascertain the singular, and to spell it. mice cri'ses ter'mi ni chil'dren neb'u lae a lum'ni ver'te brae stra'ta syn op'ses geese { kine, cows } { staves, staffs} { broth'ers,breth'ren } { pease, peas} { dies, dice} lesson . ing signifies continuing to; as talking, continuing to talk. the following words, in taking their suffix, double the final letter. the last letter is doubled when the word ends with a single consonant preceded by a single vowel. plan'ning win'ning stop'ping a bet'ting fret'ting blot'ting gun'ning re bel'ling bid'ding rob'bing shut'ting o mit'ting other words ending with consonants, which do not double the final letter. act'ing fail'ing mean'ing ex pand'ing land'ing rain'ing coax'ing con sent'ing build'ing sail'ing suit'ing vis'it ing lesson . words ending in e silent, generally drop the e in adding ing. mak'ing seiz'ing rul'ing ex pir'ing nam'ing forc'ing lin'ing re fus'ing plagu'ing hedg'ing squeez'ing in trigu'ing ach'ing writ'ing schem'ing alleg'ing the final e is retained when it is necessary to prevent a change of pronunciation, or to maintain the identity of a word. hoe'ing shoe'ing change'a ble toe'ing singe'ing trace'able tinge'ing dye'ing peace'a ble foe'man blue'ness charge'a ble lesson . ed, as a suffix, generally signifies did. in words like the following the e in ed is silent, and the wards, though of two and three syllables, are pronounced in one and two. blazed wedged boiled be reaved drained solved coiled be sieged' hailed called soiled blas phemed' lamed hauled bowed ac quired' paved mauled crowned con trol ed' stowed warmed plowed a bused' saved warned roused ac cused' feared warped scoured com muned' flowed proved soured con fused' glued shoved dodged de coyed' begged loved filled en joyed' lesson . in words like the following, ed is pronounced as t; and, although of two and three syllables, the words are pronounced in one and two. graced fixed es caped' at tacked' scraped mixed em braced' con fessed' cracked boxed en grossed' op pressed' in other words formed by the affix ed, the last letter is doubled in words of one syllable, or in words accented on the last syllable, when they end with a single consonant preceded by a single vowel; as, wed, wed'ded. if the word ends in any other consonant than d or t, the e in ed becomes silent, and the two syllables become one; as, hem, hemmed, pronounced hemd. jut'ted shunned com pelled o mit'ted fret'ted tapped e quipped' im bed'ded fit'ted rubbed de murred' com mit'ted lesson . words not included in the ahove rule, do not double the final consonant. act'ed failed quar'reled ex pand'ed land'ed rained bar'reled mer'it ed rest'ed coaxed trav'eled vis'it ed y is sometimes changed into i; as cry, cried. cried dried mar'ried glo'ried tried fried tar'ried sto'ried shied spied car'ried wor'ried lesson . ar, er, and or signify one who does, or that which does; as, baker, one who bakes. if the word ends in e, r only is added. after a consonant y is generally changed into i. another letter is sometimes united to the affix; as law, law'yer. the final consonants are doubled, as in lesson . beg'gar bank'er bak'er cre a'tor dig'ger plant'er pa'cer cru sad'er dip'per build'er pav'er dic ta'tor clip'per giv'er stran'ger en grav'er trot'ter aw'yer writ'er sur viv'or los'er saw'yer boast'er be liev'er woo'er read'er mourn'er ad vis'er vouch'er rid'er own'er as sign'er wres'tler dy'er rul'er in vei'gler lesson . words formed by the affixes er or or. be gin'ner la'bor er nav'i ga tor in dors'er rea'son er ded'i ca tor de sert'er li'bel er cal'cu la tor dis turb'er wag'on er spec'u la tor u surp'er con'quer or pros'e cu tor con duct'or for'eign er cul'ti va tor tor ment'or cus'tom er mul'ti pli er en chant'er mur'der er nu'mer a tor sup port'er gov'ern or gen'er a tor ag gress'or pen'sion er ra'di a tor lesson . in adjectives, er is generally added to form the comparative, and est to form the superlative; as, rich, richer, richest. strict'er fierc'est wealth'i er wor'thi est broad'er slow'est greed'i er read'i est bright'er gaunt'est drear'i er haugh'ti est ly is an abbreviation of like; as manly for man-like, or like a man. ly is still further shortened into y; as, rock, rocky. bright'ly eas'y heav'i ly thor'oug ly gay'ly earth'y heart'i ly might'i ly no'bly speed'y read'i ly has'ti ly wind'y spon'gy tar'di ly stead'i ly lesson . ness is from the saxon nesse, and means state or quality; as, neatness, state of being neat. bleak'ness smooth'ness come'li ness fierce'ness numb'ness drow'si ness hoarse'ness wrong'ness naught'i ness calm'ness sweet'ness wea'ri ness the termination full adds its own meaning to the word; as, joyful, full of joy. the final l is omitted in the derivatives. change'ful mourn'ful skill'ful fan'ci ful fright'ful woe'ful will'ful pit'i ful spite'ful wrath'ful aw'ful du'ti ful lesson . the termination less gives a negative meaning to the derivative; as graceless, without grace. brain'less sight'less friend'less worth'less cease'less soul'less head'less house'less guile'less friut'less guilt'less noise'less the affix age signifies the pay for, a state of being, or composed of; as cartage, the pay for carting. mar'riage fer'ri age vag'a bond age herb'age her'mit age dis ad van'tage wharf'age pat'ron age es'pi on age lesson . the suffix al signifies relating to; an signifies pertaining to; ant and ent, in many instances, signify the agent or doer. tid'al com'ic al me dic'i nal ur'ban pub'li can di oc'e san claim'ant as sist'ant i tin'er ant a'gent pres'i dent cor re spond'ent able and ible signify that may be, capable of being, fit or worthy to be, or capacity. eat'a ble blam'a ble am'i ca ble sal'a ble laugh'a ble nav'i ga ble leg'i ble for'ci ble com bus'ti ble cred'i ble au'di ble in del'i ble lesson . ist, ster, ee, and ess, generally signify the person who, or thing which. the last is an affix denoting the feminine gender. aur'ist phys'i cist pi a'nist tap'ster chor'is ter for'est er grant ee' mort ga gee' as sign ee' em'press shep'herd ess mar'chion ess dom signifies the office of or state of being; hood, the state of being; ish, somewhat, like; and ism, the condition or doctrines of. king'dom chris'ten dom hea'then dom child'hood maid'en hood live'li hood knav'ish yel'low ish a'gu ish bud'dhism meth'od ism mor'mon ism lesson . eer or ier generally signifies one who has charge of; en means made of, or, with adjectives, to make; ic signifies pertaining to, belonging to, or like; and ise or ize, to make, to become, or to assimilate. cash ier' fin an cier' gon do lier' cloth'ier en gi neer' can non eer' beech'en be hold'en em bold'en bright'en en light'en en liv'en civ'ic ce phal'ic me tal'lic u'til ize cat'e chise crit'i cise sat'ir ize civ'il ize os'tra cize lesson . ion and ment denote the state of being, or the act of; fy, to make or become; ance or ence, the act or state of; ive, having a tendency to, or the power or nature of; ory, the power or nature of, or belonging to; and ous, partaking of, or full of. dis per'sion di ver'sion as per'sion ex cep'tion e lec'tion con di'tion a tone'ment a gree'ment dec're ment de'i fy stu'pe fy sat'is fy an noy'ance ac cord'ance con cord'ance oc cur'rence ab hor'rence in dul'gence a mu'sive con clu'sive of fen'sive cur'so ry ar'mo ry man'da to ry dan'ger ous li'bel ous har mo'ni ous lesson . kin, ling, let, and ule indicate smallness or diminution. lamb'kin man'i kin la'dy kin duck'ling un'der ling fos'ter ling leaf'let riv'u let flag'eo let glob'ule mol'e cule an i mal'cule some means like or same, full of, or very; ward denotes in the direction of; ure means state of; and y, full of, or composed of. tire'some cum'ber some vent'ure some east'ward heav'en ward aft'er ward verd'ure cur'va ture im post'ure smok'y sin'ew y sil'ver y lesson . ruff, an article of dress. roar, to make a loud noise. rough (ruf), uneven. row'er, one who rows. retch, to vomit. sail, a sheet of canvas. wretch, a miserable person. sale, the act of selling. rode, did ride. seen, beheld. road, a way; route. scene, a view. rowed, did row. seine, a net for fishing. room, an apartment. slay, to kill. rheum, a serous fluid. sleigh, a vehicle on runners. sow, to scatter seed. sley, a weaver's reed. sew (so), to use a needle. seem, to appear. so, thus; in like manner. seam, a line of junction. lesson . rude, uncivil; rough. slow, not fast. rood, fourth of an acre. sloe, a kind of fruit. serf, a slave; servant. sun, the source of light. surf, a swell of the sea. son, a male child. serge, a kind of cloth. steel, refined iron. surge, to rise; to swell. steal, to rob; to pilfer. sheer, pure; clear. stile, steps over a fence. shear, to cut or clip. style, manner of writing. side, a part; a margin. stare, to look fixedly. sighed, did sigh. stair, a step. slew (slu), did slay. sweet, pleasing to the taste. slue, to slip aside. suite (swet), retinue. lesson . of prefixes. when a syllable or word is placed before another word, it is called a prefix. the prefix re generally gives the idea of repetition or return; as, recall, to call back. re build' re ap pear' re an'i mate re touch' re as cend' re gen'er ate re seat' re im burse' re sus'ci tate re view' ro doub'le re ver'ber ate the prefix un generally gives a negative meaning; as, unapt, not apt. un paid' un friend'ly un court'ly un clean' un health'y un ea'sy un known' un stead'y un fruit'ful un nerve' un err'ing un learn'ed lesson . in, also, has a negative meaning; it often becomes im, il, ir, or ig, for the sake of sound. in act'ive in sin cere' ir res'o lute im prop'er im po lite' ir re lig'ious il le'gal il lu'sive irre spect'ive ig no'ble ig'no rant ir'ri ta ble im ma te ri al'i ty im prac ti ca bil'i ty in di vis i bil'i ty in de struc ti bil'i ty in com pat i bil'i ty ir re sist i bil'i ty in com press i bil'i ty im pen e tra bil'i ty lesson . dis is a latin particle, and has the force of a negative or privative; as, disagree, not to agree, disarm, to deprive of arms. dis please' dis ap pear' dis con tin'ue dis joint' dis be lieve' dis in her'it dis lodge' dis o blige' dis or'gan ize dis charge' dis cour'age dis sim'i lar dis grace' dis cov'er dis crim'i nate the prefix after conveys its own meaning. aft'er piece aft'er noon aft'er most aft'er guard aft'er math aft'er-thought lesson . post is a latin word, meaning after. post'script post-di lu'vi an post me rid'i an post'-date post po si'tion post'hu mous ly other words are formed by prefixing the english word post, a letter- carrier. post'al post'man post'mark post'-chaise post'-town post'-office post-haste' post'boy post'mas ter bene is a latin prefix, signifying well. ben'e dict ben e fac'tion be nef'i cence ben'e fice ben e fi'cial be nev'o lence lesson . fore adds its own meaning to the word; as foretaste, to taste before; pre is from the latin prae, before; ante (latin), before. anti (greek), means against or opposite. fore'sight fore tell'er fore bod'ing ly fore'most fore knowl'edge fore de ter'mine fore know' fore'cas tle pre med'i tate pre fix' pre cau'tion pre oc'cu py pre judge' pre ced'ing pre-em'i nent pre serve' pre des'tine an te pas'chal pre sage' an'te past an te mun'dane pre text' an'te date an te nup'tial fore warn' an'ti pode an ti cli'max fore'front an'ti dote an ti feb'rile lesson . the word miss signifies to err, to go wrong; in the compound the last s is omitted. mis guide' mis be lief' mis reck'on mis spell' mis con ceive' mis con'strue mis choose' mis di rect' mis gov'ern mis chance' mis re cite' mis guid'ance words formed by the prefixes up and under. up raise' un der lay' un'der hand up heave' un der write' un'der growth up'right un der sign' un'der brush up'ward un der neath' un'der shot lesson . words formed by the prefixes out and over. out brave' o ver reach' o'ver board out grow' o ver awe' o'ver alls out pour' o ver flow' o'ver night out talk' o ver freight' o'ver sight counter, from the latin contra, against. coun'ter pane coun'ter sign coun ter move' coun'ter feit coun'ter point coun ter weight' extra (latin), beyond. ex tra ju di'cial ex tra phys'ic al ex tra pro vin'cial ex tra trop'ic al lesson . semi (latin), and hemi (greek), ha f; super (latin), over or above; trans (latin), beyond or through; and inter (latin), among or between. sem'i breve sem'i co lon sem'i qua ver sem'i tone sem'i cir cle sem i ton'ic hem'i sphere hem'i cy cle hem i morph'ic hem'i trope hem i he'dral hem i spher'ic su per add' su per fi'cial su per in duce' su per scribe' su per'flu ous su per struct'ure tran scend'ent trans at lan'tic tran'si to ry trans fig'ure trans fus'i ble trans mis'si ble in'ter course in ter mit'tent in ter reg'num in'ter lude in ter ces'sor in ter sec'tion lesson . ad signifies to, and for euphony takes the forms of ac, af, ag, al, an, ap, ar, and as; as ad and verto, advert, to turn to. ad duce' al lure' as sail' ag'gre gate ac count' an nex' ad vance' ag'gra vate ac cord' ar rive' ad'verb ap pend'age af fix' as cend' ad'verse ar'ro gance bi (from latin bis, twice) means two, double, or in two. bi'fid bi den'tate bi no'mi al bi'form bi cor'nous bi en'ni al bi'nate bi fur'cate bi noc'ular bi'ped bi lin'gual bi valv'u lar bi sect' bi par'tite bi sul'phu ret lesson . con (latin cum, with) signifies with or together; it takes the forms of com, col, co, cog, and cor, for ease in pronunciation. con vert' con de scend' con ven'tion al com press' com pan'ion com pen sa'tion col lect' col'lo quy col lat'er al co here' co-ex ist' co-ex ten'sive cog'nate cog'ni zant cog nos'ci ble cor rect' cor re spond' cor o na'tion con cur' con vul'sion con sec'u tive con dign' con vey'er con se quen'tial con form' con tu'sion con nat'u ral lesson . de signifies down or from; epi significs on, near, during; and ex has the meaning out of. ex also becomes e, ec, or ef. de scend' ex tract' ep i dem'ic de tract' e vade' ep'i lep sy de note' ef fuse' ep i glot'tis de vote' ec'logue ep i derm'is dia, ob, per, and circum mean respectively apart, against, through, and around. with english words, dis gives a negative meaning. dis tend' dis sev'er dis em bar'rass ob trude' ob lique'ly ob lit'er ate per plex' per fect'ive per sist'en cy cir'cuit cir cum volve' cir cum ja'cent lesson . mal signifies evil, ill; mono is from greek monos, single; pan (greek), signifies all, every thing; and poly (greek polus), many. mal'con tent ma li'cious ma lev'o lent mon'o tone mon'o gram mo nop'o iy pan'o ply pan'the ist pan o ra'ma pol'y gon pol'y pus pol'y the ism pro is a latin preposition signifying for, before, and forth; uni (latin unus, one) signifies one or producing one; syn (sometimes syl and sym) signifies together; and sub (sometimes suf, sup, and sug) denotes under, below. pro'noun u'ni ty syn'the sis sub scribe' pro pel' u'ni form syl'la ble suf'fix pro duce' u'ni corn sym'pa thy sup press' pro vide' u'ni val ve syn tac'tic sug gest' lesson . compound words promiscuously arranged. ale'-house lime'-kiln hedge'hog hail'stone boat'man pen'knife lay'man four'score grist'-mill safe'guard load'stone mid'night waist'coat oat'meal pitch'fork bee'-hive pole'-star ship'wreck key'-stone snow'-drop wrist'band knee'-pan sports'man block'head bride'groom jew's'-harp cross'-bow light'-house luke'warm off'spring lesson . compound words. lisle'-glove night'fall harts'horn north-east' book'-case corn'-stalk joint'-stock foot'stool loop'-hole well'-bred cork'screw bur'dock snuff'-box watch'-word whirl'pool towns'man broom'stick fools'cap house'wife dooms'day work'shop char'coal brown'-bread for sooth' out weigh' down'right down'cast horn'pipe tooth'ache noon'day heir'loom air'brake law'suit lesson . compound words. can'dle stick post'al-card but'ter fly hand'ker chief cop'y-book wa'ter-fall bed'-cham ber oft'en times gas'-me ter ev'er green type'-writ er cler'gy man gen'tle man jour'ney man bric'-a-brac pep'per mint hum'ming-bird na'vy-yard camp'-meet ing musk'-mel on fool'-hard y mas'ter piece blood'-ves sel al might'y pass'o ver hon'ey-comb by'stand er fowl'ing-piece stem'-wind er bass'-vi ol pow'der-horn school'-mas ter tale'-bear er lesson . synthetic and dictation exercises. a'bel, a man's name. de scend'ent, falling. a'ble, powerful. cough'er, one who coughs. al'ley, a narrow passage. coffer, a chest. al ly', one who assists. can'died, covered with sugar. al lu'sion, a reference. can'did, honest; truthful. il lu'sion, mockery. cent'u ry, years. de scend'ant, offspring. sen'try, a guard. the able man's name was abel. a narrow alley. france was an ally of england in the crimean war. he made an allusion to the illusion that possessed him. his descendant was descendent from the same line. the cougher sat on the coffer. the candid youth ate the candied cakes. the sentry wore a costume of the last century. lesson . words spelled alike, whose pronunciation and meaning differ. aye, always. conjure, to enchant. aye, an affirmative vote. bow, a weapon. chose, did choose. bow, part of a ship. chose, a thing; a chattel. chap, a boy. bass, a term in music. chap, the jaw. bass, a fish. gout, a disease. conjure', to implore. gout, taste; relish. lesson . words spelled alike, whose pronunciation and meaning differ. mall, a public walk. scald, a poet. mall, a mallet. sew'er (so'er), one who sews. slough (sluf), a snake's skin. sew'er (su'er), a drain. slough, a miry place. court'e sy, civility. wear, a dam in a river. courte'sy, a slight bow. wear, waste. slav'er, a slave ship. min'ute (min'it), sixty seconds. slav'er, spittle. mi nute', very small. i'ron y (i'urn y), of iron. hind'er, in the rear. i'ron y, ridicule. hin'der, to obstruct. worst'ed, a kind of yarn. scald, a burn. worst'ed, defeated. lesson . words in which the letter a is often mispronounced. some of the words in this and succeeding lessons have two pronunciations, but in all cases the preferable one is given. hearth mam ma' an'cient fra'ter nize grass a slant' la'va com man dant' slant pa pa' saun'ter ti a'ra gape a las' pal'frey al ter'nate gaunt al'mond rap'ine af fla'tus far scath'less dra'ma hi a'tus swathe pag'eant la'ma ba na'na lance stal'wart da'ta sul ta'na calm aft'er ma'gi man da'mus laugh par'ent pa'thos oc ta'vo lesson . words in which a is frequently mispronounced. chal'dron ar ca'num u ra'ni urn na'tant er ra'tum a qua'ri um hal'berd ver ba'tim ap pa ra'tus tas'sel val'en tine ig no ra'mus sau'cy ca'ri ous ir ra'tion al mael'strom tra'che a lit er a'ti squa'lor bar bar'ic lit er a'tim dai'ry bar ri cade' ul ti ma'tum ca'ret ra'di us mar a nath'a gra'tis chol'e ra gym na'si um ra'dix ca na'ry ex pa'ti ate lesson . sounds of a frequently mispronounced. gla'mour sac'ra ment glance al'ways raft'er a'pri cot zouave a mass' scal'lop gar'ru lous drain ar'ab craft'y bra va'do stanch ba'thos grass'y de fal'cate scarce cal'dron em balm' ca ca'o cant chas'ten a ghast' rail'ler y can't fac'ile was'sail an dan'te strap fair'y balm'y hal'i but yacht ga'la al'der na'ive te scath qua'si al'dine fi na'le calk lo cale' lesson . sounds of a often mispronounced. swath pau'per gra va'men a men' halve ha'rem to ma'to gua'no jean pa sha' sa'li ent na'ive catch fac'et pa'ri ah har'ass balm fal'chion far ra'go sat'ire groat laugh'ter tap'es try jal'ap trance tar'iff de ca'dence e clat' yea ba salt' a're a prai'rie are hur ra' va ga'ry ra'tion shaft ba ton' cu'po la sal'ic scared quag'mire cu ra'tor ta'pis lesson . words in which the sounds of e are often mispronounced. ei'ther eq'ui ty leg'end a ry pre'cept ten'a ble ab ste'mi ous weap'on e'go tism a me'na ble prel'ate ter'ra pin a pe'ri ent yel'low al le'gro ste're o type ven due' in her'ent sac ri le'gious for get' le'ni ent be nef'i cent stead'y yes'ter day a men'i ty en'gine e'qua ble e le'gi ac ket'tle pe'o ny hy men e'al treb'le e'qui poise em py re'an lesson . words in which the sounds of e are often mispronounced. leant pet'rel cere'ment les see' dreamt se'ries lei'sure me lee' eyre seam'stress ef fete' deaf'en rear steel'yard en feoff' rou'e deaf sex'ton keel'son e lite' teat fe'brile' seck'ei khe dive' pert fec'und bes'tial res'pite tete sen'na fet'id there'fore feoff ten'et fe'tich pref'ace egg tep'id se'nile tet'ter yet le'ver he'lot met'ric lesson . words in which the sounds of e are often mispronounced. per'uke nep'o tism ter'ri ble neth'er as cet'ic res'in ous pet'al red'o lent rec'i pe res'in co te rie' tet'a nus ra ceme' em ploy e' ref'lu ent pre'lude at ta che' hy e'mal me'grim pre'mi er cer'e brum ven'ue o bei'sance ve'he ment bre vet' gen'er a def'i cit car tel' ma dei'ra splen'e tic e'pact her'o ine i de'a lesson . words in which the sounds of i are often mispronounced. fi'nite mer'can tile pa ri'e tal pro'file pi az'za rec i ta tive' de bris' he gi'ra an ni'hi late a'pril de cli'vous cal li'o pe fi nanec' o ri'on he li'ac al ox'ide i tal'ic zo di'ac al ar'chives ho ri'zon i soch'ro nous vis'or si'ne cure men in gi'tis sir'up so ri'tes ma ni'ac al bas tile' bron chi'tis scar la ti'na rib'ald trip'ar tite i so therm'al lesson . words in which the sounds of i are often mispronounced. rid ti rade' py ri'tes vive ton tine' fa ri'na rinse bro'mine mar'i time shire li'chen pi a'no width ob lique' vir'u lent si'ren vis'count cyn'o sure ti'ny vi'rile is'o late li'en spike'nard vol'a tile an'ile trib'une en fran'chise ei'der qui'nine, de ci'sive, tri'o di late' pu'er ile lesson . words in which the sounds of i are often mispronounced. fu'tile as pir'ant ad ver tis'er ar tiste' in quir'y tri syl'la ble fi nesse' sub sid'ence' ka lei'do scope stir'rup chas'tise ment ad ver'tise ment sub'tile di gres'sion in ter ne'cine chlo'rine di men'sion lar yn gi'tis al'pine di plo'ma mi rac'u lous chi cane' sim'o ny in ci'so ry cui sine' crin'o line vi vip'a rous li'lac par'a digm is o la'tion vic'ar e chi'nus si mul ta'ne ous lesson . words in which is sometimes mispronounced. holm tro'phy mon'as ter y yolk on'ly proc'u ra tor scoff mon'grel mi cros'co py nonce be troth' drom'e da ry cost proc'ess zo ol'o gy won't doc'ile al lop'a thy wont prov'ost au tom'a ton shone grov'e hy drop'a thy sloth fore'head la oc'o on forge joc'und pho tog'ra phy doth don'key in ter loc'u tor lesson . words in which o is sometimes mispronounced. front'ier ap ro pos' ab do'men plov'er vo'ca ble dis com'fit a mour' pos til'ion court'e ous hov'er pre co'cious pa rot'id sur tout' o'o lite con do'lence sloth'fu dol'or ous cog no'men sou chong' ca lor'ic op po'nent caout'choue front'is piece co ro'na re volt' prob'i ty col'port eur fort'night pome gran'ate po'ta ble com'pass sov'er eign a ro'ma lesson . words in which u is sometimes mispronounced. tulle col'umn in au'gu rate joust sut'ure ce ru'le an guide pup'pet vi tu'per ate yours su'mac ac cu'mu late ghoul ful'some co ad ju'tor gi'aour con'duit pu'pil la ry de but cu'cum ber in'sti tute duc'at tru'cu lent eu re'ka u'lan con nois seur' cae su'ra sup'ple ju'gu lar con'sti tute du'ty nu'mer ous tour'na ment lesson . words properly accented on the first syllable. con'strue com'bat ant pu'is sance trav'erse dis'pu tant in'ter im ramp'ant gon'do la au'top sy ath'lete pleth'o ra tym'pa num syr'inge mis'chiev ous wise'a cre ex'tant blas'phe mous or'ches tral brig'and con'ver sant im'po tent con'cord san'he drim con'gru ent dis'cord con'tra ry im'be cile do'nate pro'te an pha'e ton ob'long dis'ci pline ret'i na lesson . roll, to turn over and over. soar, to mount upward. role, a part performed. stake, a pointed stick. sign, a token; a mark. steak, a slice of flesh. sine, a line in geometry. step, a pace; a foot-print. skull, part of the head. steppe, a dreary plain. scull, to impel a boat. stoop, to bend forward. sleeve, an arm cover. stoup, a basin; a pitcher. sleave, untwisted silk. sum, the amount; whole. slight, to neglect; feeble. some, a part; a portion. sleight, dexterity. tale, that which is told. soul, the immortal spirit. tail, terminal appendage. sole, bottom of the foot. tare, allowance in weight. sore, a hurt; painful. tear, to rend; to lacerate. lesson . tacks, small nails. toe, part of the foot. tax, import; duty. tow, coarse part of flax. throne, seat of a king. tract, a region. thrown, cast. tracked, followed. team, horses hitched together their, belonging to them. teem, to bring forth. there, in that place. tear, water from the eye. throw, to cast; to hurl. tier, a row or rank. throe, agony. threw (thru), did throw. tide, rising of the sea. through, from end to end. tied, bound; fastened. time, duration. toad, a harmless reptile. thyme, a pungent herb. towed, drawn by a rope. lesson . words properly accented on the first syllable. prog'ress eq'ui page ex'qui site ly in'grate phos'phor us com'pa ra ble pae'an lu'di crous per'emp to ry cou'pon vic'i nage or'tho e py du'ress in'te gral ex'em pla ry good'man in'te ger lam'en ta ble o'zone an'ces tor in'ter est ing a'corn an'ti podes con'tu me ly pro'logue at'ro phy sub'lu na ry thir'teen com'plai sant va'ri o loid sar'dine det'o nate e'ti o late lesson . words properly accented on the second syllable. trust ee' he ral'dic ap pel'la tive mon soon' ple thor'ic a nem'o ne pro lix' re cu'sant ar tif i cer back slide' ple be'ian ar bit'ra ment where as' pre ced'ence con sum'mate ly gain say' le the'an ca mel'o pard re cess' il lus'trate con not'a tive pla card' im mob'ile in ter'po late a dept' phi lip'pic te leg'ra phy suc cess' o de'on pe riph'ra sis ro mance' e la'ine re con'nais sance lesson . words properly accented on the second syllable. cos tume' so no'rous re med'i less with draw' ly ce'um pre ced'en cy suc cinct' mu se'um hy per'bo le ex cess' e ner'vate py ram'i dal de funct' ac cli'mate te leph'o ny ca nine' in un'date il lus'tra tive' mo rale' con den'sate ex ec'u tor re lay' lin nae'an ex tem'po re si moom' ob jur'gate gla di'o lus re course' ad um'brate in fer'a ble ac cess' cho re'us chal ced'o ny lesson . words properly accented on the second syllable. ex traor'di na ry in ter'po la tor in com'pa ra ble con sol'a to ry ir ref'ra ga ble de lib'er a tive ir rep'a ra ble' pro thon'o ta ry ir rev'o ca ble dis crim'i na tive in dis'so lu ble com mem'o ra tive in dis'pu ta ble ac cel'er a tive in ex'o ra ble sa lu'ta to ry ab sol'u to ry pa ri'e ta ry de mon'stra tive ly nun cu'pa to ry oc tog'e na ry in ex'pli ca ble lesson . words properly accented on the third syllable. rev er ie' am a teur' dem o ni'ac al ob li gor' bom ba zine' ho me op'a thy jag u ar' tam bour ine' ap o the'o sis im pro vise' ric o chet' [noun] her e dit'a ment or mo lu' mule teer' spon ta ne'i ty et i quette' mau so le'um ep i zo'o ty av a lanche con ser va'tor hy per bo're an as sign or' cot y le'don ep i cu're an po lo naise' no men clat'ure pyth a go're an cat a falque' hy men e'an hip po pot'a mus dis ha bille' den u da'tion rec i proc'i ty lesson . words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented. mulet sa'chem jave'lin hos'tler soot asth'ma chest'nut de'tail [noun] noose le'gend wres'tle fa cade' twice de sign' [noun] or'chis strych'nine niche isth'mus list'en per'fume [noun] salve this'tle bay'ou mus tache' height rai'sn gib'bous bas'ket milch a dult' gla'cier gae'lic browse [noun] psalm'ist griev'ous le vant' [noun] vase oft'en na'sal soft'en lesson . words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented. though goose'ber ry da guerre'o type gist sooth'say er cab ri o let' fifth ju've nile min i a ture' drought lic'o rice leg er de main' nook a pos'tle char i ot eer' poor ar'gen tine an i mad vert' roil ar min'ian av oir du pois' sauce de co'rous cy clo pe'an rhythm cyc'la men eu ro pe'an schism so'journ er spo li a'tion root cov'et ous in'ter est ed lesson . words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented. pom'mel ab'jeet ness nu mis'ma tist bel'lows ab'a cus ig nit'i ble fig'ure ad'verse'ly jan'u a ry di rect' bur'gun dy feb'ru a ry as'sets bed'ou in in'ven to ry je june' en vi'rons cor'ol la ry ver'min ex'ple tive vi'o la ble ran'sack um'pi rage rep'a ra ble short'-lived o'a sis des'pi ca ble so'journ ar'se nic bap'tis ter y cais'son ar'ti san pres'by ter y lesson . words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented. in'nate chol'er ic se'cre to ry ter'mites gon'fa lon dec're to ry way'lay cen'tu ple ex'ple to ry slaugh'ter re'tro cede con sis'to ry frag'ile nu'cle us pre cep'to ry car'riage cen'tau ry rep'er to ry thor'ough co quet'ry chi rur'ger y sched'ule sto mach'ic sperm a ce'ti grand'eur in'ter stice pan e gyr'ist hir sute' ce ram'ic pan'e gy rize ben'zine re volt'ing mel lif'lu ous lesson . words frequently mispronounced, or impropedy accented. ag'gran dize dem'on strate tur'mer ic al'der man tre men'dous mne mon'ic al'co ran stu pen'dous vir'e lay al'ge bra gov'ern ment ex'pur gate mis'tle toe ar'a bic am'ber-gris pres'by ter com'bat ive min'a ret rasp'ber ry com'mu nist or'de al ven'i son com'plai sance plat'i num pos'i tive con'verse ly fem'i nine dis hon'est dis as'ter gen'u ine chiv'al ric dram'a tist por tent'ous lesson . words to be carefully discriminated. cor'po ral, an officer. ve'ni al, pardonable. cor po're al, bodily. ve'nal, mercenary; base. du'al ist, a believer in two gods. ap'po site, suitable; fit. op'po site, over against. du'el ist, one who fights a duel ac cla ma'tion, a slout. ac cli ma'tion, inurement to climate. de scen'sion, descent. dis sen'sion, strife. an'a lyze, to separate. ce're ous, like wax. an'nal ize. to record. se'ri ous, grave; solemn. or'a cle, a prophet. sir'i us, the dog-star. au'ri cle, the external ear. lesson . the words opposite one another in the lines have nearly the same meaning, and are called synonyms. au'thor ize com mis'sion em pow'er ap par'ent ob'vi ous ev'i dent ac cord'ant con'so nant a gree'ing de port'ment de mean'or be hav'ior di dac'tic pre cep'tive in struc'ive fla gi'tious a tro'cious out ra'geous ad her'ent par'ti san fol'low er in'di gence pen'u ry pov'er ty syc'o phant par'a site flat'ter er har'bin ger pre cur'sor fore run'ner lesson . to, towards; unto. vane, a weathercock. too, also. vain, proud; empty. two, one and one. vein, a blood-vessel. trey, three at cards. waste, to consume; loss. tray, a shallow vessel. waist, part of the body. vale, a valley; a dell. ware, merchandise. veil, a cover; a curtain. wear, to use; to waste. wait, to tarry; to stay. way, a road; manner. weight, heaviness; load. weigh, to balance. weighted, balanced. week, seven days. wade, to walk in water. weak, not strong. weth'er, a sheep. wood, timber; a forest. weath'er, state of the air. would, preterit of will. lesson . words sometimes incorrectly pronounced alike, but which should be carefully discriminated. line loin creek crick sex sects loam loom pint point yon yawn lose loose sat sot least lest morn mourn phase face scrawl scroll rout route laud lord tents tense stalk stock east yeast with withe can ken dawn don close clothes blanch blench dose doze coarse corse want wont wen when white wight wax whacks alms arms moor more lesson . words nearly alike in sound, to be carefully distinguished. as say' es say' ep'ic ep'och de cease' dis ease' bea'con beck'on de scent' dis sent' coffin cough'ing de vice' de vise' grist'ly gris'ly huz za' hus sar' di'vers di'verse in tense' in tents' cho'ral cor'al a loud' al lowed' gant'let gaunt'let im merse' a merce' mu'sic mu'cic af fect' ef fect' rad'ish red'dish e lude' al lude' sculp'tor sculpt'ure cas'tile cast'-steel hum'ble um'bel lesson . as cent', steepness. bur'y (ber'ry), to cover with earth. as sent', agreement. an'chor, for a ship. ber'ry, a small fruit. ank'er, a liquid measure. can'non, a great gun. al'ter, to change. can'on, a rule or law. al'tar, a place for sacrifice. ceil'ing, top of a room. au'ger, an instrument. seal'ing, as with wax. au'gur, to foretell. cel'lar, a lower room. bur'row, hole for shelter. sel'ler, one who sells. bor'ough, a corporate town. ces'sion, a giving up. ses'sion, a sitting. bold'er, more bold. cous'in, a relation. bowl'der, a large pebble. coz'en, to cheat. lesson . cen'su al, of the census. phil'ter, a love-charm. sen'su al, carnal. great'er, larger. coun'cil, an assembly. gra'ter, that which grates. coun'sel, advice. ho'ly, sacred; pure. can'vas, a kind of coarse cloth. whol'ly, entirely. can'vass, to discuss. mar'tin, a bird. crew'el, worsted yarn. mar'ten, a kind of weasel. cru'el, inhuman; savage. man'ner, form; method. cyg'net, a young swan. man'or, district. sig'net, a seal. man'tel, shelf over a fireplace. chol'er, anger; wrath. man'tle, a cloak. col'lar, for the neck. mar'tial, warlike. fil'ter, to strain. mar'shal, an officer. lesson . words nearly alike in sound, to be carefully distinguished. con'so nance con'so nants cen'sus sen'ses e lys'i an e lis'ion lat'in lat'ten e mer'sion im mer'sion con'cert con'sort for'mer ly form'ally cor'nice corn'ish pass'a ble pas'si ble hal'low halo pe ti'tion par ti'tion rel'ic rel'ict com'i ty com mit'tee or'der ord'ure dep ra va'tion dep ri va'tion fa'ther far'ther ve rac'i ty vo rac'i ty plaint'iff plaint'ive sta'tion a ry sta'tion er y pa'tience pa'tients lesson . words nearly alike in sound, to be carefully distinguished. bile boil ad her'ence ad her'ents wig whig con fi dant' con'fi dent god gaud at tend'ance at tend'ants dance daunts ac'ci dence ac'ci dents dome doom e lic'it il lic'it wheel weal em'i nence im'mi nence lease lees e rup'tion ir rup'tion sense since sal'a ry cel'er y dross draws bar'ren ness bar'on ess whit wit proph'e cy proph'e sy lesson . med'al, a stamped coin. pen'cil, used for writing. med'dle, to interfere. pen'sile, hanging. mi'nor, one under age. pet'ty, small; little. mi'ner, a worker in mines. pet'it', a term in law. mit'y, full of mites. pom'ace, ground apples. might'y, powerful. pum'ice, a spongy stone. na'val, of ships. rig'or, severity; stiffness. na'vel, the central part. rig'ger, one who rigs. cen'sor, one who censures. suck'er, a kind of fish. cens'er, a pan for incense. suc'cor, help; assistance. pan'nel, a kind of saddle. sur'plus, excess. pan'el, a jury roll. sur'pluce, a clerical dress. lesson . pal'let, a small bed. com'pli ment, regard. pal'ate, part of the mouth. com'ple ment, fullness. pal'ette, an oval board. coun'sel or, an adviser. em'i grate, to move out. coun'cil or, member of a council. im'mi grate, to move in. cas'tor, the beaver. straight'en, to make straight. cast'er, one who casts. strait'en, to narrow. cur'rent, running. cal'en dar, an almanac. cur'rant, a small fruit. cal'en der, a hot press. cap'i tol, a public edifice. sut'ler, an army trader. cap'i tal, principal. sub'tler, more subtle. lesson . words which require care in spelling. jilt dol'lar rip'ple nat'u ral gyre schol'ar trip'le gut'tur al jow grap'ple pop'py lit'er al troll chap'el cop'y diz'zi ly goal ren'net sun'ny bus'i ly knoll sen'ate mon'ey ver'ti cal dole freck'le glim'mer ar'ti cle turf shek'el prim'er du'te ous verb wit'ty tread'le beau'te ous pirn cit'y ped'dle fin'i cal perk hop'per cod'dle pin'na cle surd prop'er mod'el cyn'ic al lesson . words which require care in spelling. scream com'et peb'ble in ter cede' screen vom'it reb'el su per sede' sheave plum'met sib'yl col'o nize sheet sum'mit spin'et ad ver tise' shield ver'y lin'net par'a lyze twirl mer'ry cam'el se'cre cy churl bod'y tram'mel ec'sta sy clerk shod'dy mam'mal vac'il late quirk mud'dy sev'en fas'ci nate fraud stud'y heav'en co er'cion broad guin'ea par'rot de ter'sion awe'd nin'ny clar'et ex er'tion lesson . words which require care in spelling. grief do'ing a byss' hid'e ous sheaf stew'ing a miss' pre'vi ous guile, yeo'man as sess' im'pi ous chyle chlo'ral ab'scess a'que ous rend know'ing sick'le par'ti cle wrench go'ing nick'el crit'ic al dearth con dole' tal'ents dil'i gent worth con trol' bal'ance el'e gant mirth en roll' si'lence fal'li ble earth dis pel' com peer' prel'a cy spurt fore tell' ad here' jeal'ous y lesson . words which require care in spelling. which stom'ach re prieve' in i'tial ditich sau'sage con ceive' of fi'cial feud word'y de grade' es sen'tial sued tur'gid a fraid' sol sti'tial prude ver'ger pre pare' a bun'dant wooed vir'tue for bear' de pend'ent balk leop'ard bar'ter in veigh'er shawl lep'er tar'tar be tray'er guise fam'ine mar'tyr di'a logue sighs gam'mon suc ceed' dy nam'ics flies salm'on ac cede' me chan ics lesson . words which require care in spelling. wield scan'dal se rene' an'no tate weird han'dle un clean' an'o dyne swale clam'or be tween' col on nade' swain gram'mar ma rine' ser e nade' storm ham'mer com plete' dom i neer' swarm palm'er de feat' bel ve dere' scythe sa'tyr de ceit' pen'ni less writhe trai'tor co erce' mon'ey less sieve wait'er dis burse' joc'u lar give cra'ter dis perse' jock'ey ing lesson . words which require care in spelling. skein val'id kir'tle pol'i cy slain sal'ad tur'tle leg'a cy crane mal'let fer'tile cur'ti lage sword val'et myr'tle syn'a gogue boast breez'y wid'geon cod'i cil ghost greasy pig'eon dom'i cile queer gar'den mal'ice ver'sa tile brief par'don pal'ace hyp'o crite spoke e'vil tor'toise hip'po drome croak ea'gle mor'tise scen'er y self pole'ax sel'vage ple'na ry sylph poult'ry por'ridge dean'er y lesson . words which require care in spelling. zinc col'lege con fer' u ten'sil brink knowl'edge a stir' pre hen'sile fought leath'er oc cur' fa tigu'ing caught teth'er ef face' be lea'guer wrought cau'cus e rase' si li'ceous fuse mawk'ish chas tise' vex a'tious news au'thor bap tize' fa ce'tious views awn'ing a chieve' sus pi'cion choose ar'id per ceive' po si'tion wooes heir'ship be reave' in cis'ion ooze air'y re nown' de ris'ion whose car'ry re nounce' e di'tion lesson . words which require care in spelling. earl ran'cor in vade' di ur'nal knurl can'ker up braid' hi ber'nal shirk flux'ion ur bane' at tor'ney jerk suc'tion or dain' de ter'gent pith hos'pice a dieu' con ta'gion myth au'spice im brue' her ba'ceous growth bot'tom pre cede' frol'ic some loath au'tumn pro ceed' frol'ick ing loathe trunn'ion re deem' de pres'sion clothe bun'ion ex treme' dis cre'tion lesson . words which require care in spelling. risk coup'le wry'ness ve'hi cle wrist cup'board ri'ot typ'ic al shred cho'rus ly'rist ob'sta cle dread po'rous li'vre pro'to col scheme hill'y ten'on mys'tic al chief lil'y pen'non mis'ti ness siege san'dal ros'trum rec're ant seat can'dle phan'tom reck'on er seethe nu'tant fan'ion wretch'ed ly keyed neu'ter ver'sion of'fi cer tweed nui'sance ter'tian oph'i cleide lesson . words containing silent letters. thought hand'some re doubt' hec'a tomb wreathe vict'uals re scind' sci'o list wreath scis'sors gneis'sose co a lesce' rhomb schot'tish be nign' ap'a thegm gnat g'no'mon cam paign' di'a phragm rogue' for'eign ar raign' psy'chic al gnaw dough'ty op pugn' sac'cha rine gnash haugh'ty re sign' rheu mat'ic gnarl chron'ic de light' rhap'so dy gnome daugh'ter ex pugn' rhet'o ric phlegm ghast'ly af fright' ca tarrh'al lesson . silent letters. taught hon'est ca tarrh' pneu mat'ics source gher'kin con demn' psal'ter y brought chalk'y de mesne' pneu mo'ni a realm isl'and de pot' rhi noc'e ros vault naph'tha burgh'er ren'dez vous knob gris'tle calk'er jeop'ard y qualm thros'tle, rhom'boid hem'or rhage wroth chris'ten tme'sis rhiz'o pod fraugt jeop'ard ptis'an ptar'mi gan knock wrig'gle, psy'chic pseu'do nym knife bris'tle rhym'er psalm'ist ry lesson . words liable to be misspelled. tres'tle glu'ey ness collect'i ble' pa paw' crys'tal line e ras'a ble gey'ser chrys'a lis ac cor'di on gaug'ing lach'ry mose sac er do'tal co log'ne ker'o sene' ef fer ves'cence qua drille' glyc'er ine tran quil'li ty sky'ey ar'go naut com mit'ti ble sor'ghum fore'bod'ing cor us ca'tion sur vey' ex cheq'uer mac a ro'ni starve'ling sib'yl line pic'ca lil li pro'gramme sib'i lant fil'i bus ter lesson . words liable to be misspelled. fleam ey'ing gen e al'o gy glyph wee'vil bac ca lau're ate liege lac'quer ab o rig'i nes cuish du et' ar chae ol'o gy taunt quar tet' as a fet'i da drap phe'nix er y sip'e las fleche rogu'ish ho mo ge'ne ous frere whey'ey hy per crit'i cism jardes ledg'er ich thy ol'o gy crypt sach'el ig'nis-fat u us sou lar'ynx lack a dai'si cal lesson . words frequently mispronounced. for'tress dan'druff prod'uce con cise' car'bine fran'chise com'bat dis own' chlo'ride hom'age thith'er dis dain' cof'fee rhu'barb o'nyx di vulge' com'rade cov'ert dis arm' ex tol' sau'cer ma'tron jo cose' for bade' dec'ade mon'ad bour geois' suf fuse' quin'sy pa'tron cay enne' pos sess' gal'lows lith'arge con tour' fare well' mis'le par'tridge di verge' be neath' fau'cet wa'ter di vert' re source' lesson . words frequently mispronounced. di'a mond par'a dise cin cho'nit chan de lier' a'li as in vei'gle gran'a ry par'a chute stra te'gic cou'ri er pot-pour ri' ex cur'sion eg'lan tine hy'gi ene a cous'tics sor'cer y con'fis cate an cho'vy ex'tir pate psal'mo dy pa la'ver cor'di al guard'i an cau ca'sian cor'ri dor com'mu nism ap par'el gas'e ous sub al'tern so pra'no doc'i ble cou ra'geous im mor telle' lesson . words liable to be misspelled. som'er sault how'itz er bar'y tone stim'u lus syc'a more bil'lings gate sil'hou ette a bridg'ment bry'o ny pa vil'ion ad'di ble cen'ti ped quin till'ion aes thet'ic cim'e ter ci vil'ian al'che my col'an der cen'ti gram ar'que buse cop'i er ma nil'la ai'lan'tus nas tur'tium eu'pho ny as bes'tus chic'o ry pros'e lyte as cend'ant hei'nous ness pu'tre fy syz'y gy deb o nair' pro bos'cis bar'be cue por'phy ry lesson . words liable to be misspelled. bal'dric mal fea'sance cal lig'ra phy ban'yan sur'cin gle dys'en ter y bau'ble pleu'ri sy rem i nis'cence la pel' por'ce lain hy poc'ri sy ker'chief os'cil late hy pot'e nuse gnos'tic del'e ble syn ec'do che but'-end lau'da num si de're al cam'phene crys'tal lize ad sci ti'tious catch'up pol'y glot am au ro'sis cess'-pool guer ril'la lill i pu'tian ci gar' quin tes'sence lil i a'ceos lesson . words liable to be misspelled. clew coif'fure con fec'tion er y clinch fledge'ling klep to ma'ni a sleuth af'ghan cor nu co'pi a blonde che nille' cot y led'o nous glebe che mise' di u tur'ni ty gyves chas'seur terp sich o re'an guy chev'ron me temp sy cho'sis crutch cor'ymb me te or'o lite touch e leve' per ip neu'mo ny kraal hogs'head phar ma co poe'ia chintz meer'scham phar ma ceu'tic al ceirge buhr'-stone sac cha rif'er ous lesson . words liable to be misspelled or mispronounced. el e phan ti'a sis ir re cog'ni za ble par a di si'ac al gu ber na to'ri al par a pher na'li a el ee mos'y na ry ver i si mil'i tude pol y cot y le'don tin tin nab u la'tion het er o ge'ne ous su per e rog'a tive hi e ro glyph'ic al pu sil la nim'i ty hyp o chon dri'ac al phan tas ma go'ri a his to ri og'ra pher ob'li ga to ri ly in dis'so lu ble'ness id i o syn'cra sy in dis'pu ta ble'ness ir re me'di a ble' er y si pel'a tous ip e cac u an'ha ir ref'ra ga ble ness lesson . words of irregular pronunciation. of (ov) tough (tuf) trough (trawf) sice (siz) hough (hok) bus'y (biz'y) tige (tej) fiord (fyord) ma'ny (men'y) says (sez) bouy (bwoy) pret'ty (prit'ty) said (sed) cough (kawf) wom'en (wim'en) loir (lwar) mont (mong) cann on' (kan yun') a'ny (en'y) rouge (roozh) sa lon' (sa long') newt (nut) mauve (mov) chap'eau (shap'o) beaux (boz) ruche (roosh) cha teau' (sha to') once (wuns) czech (tchek) cro quet (kro ka') i'ron (i'urn) caf'e (kaf 'a) men age' (-azh') lesson . words of irregular pronunciation. pa tois' (pat wa') bou quet' (boo ka') bi jou (be zhoo') breech'es (brich'ez) phthis'ic (tiz'ik) por'poise (por'pus) bu'reau (bu'ro) a gain' (a gen') en'glish (ing'glish) dis cern' (diz zern') flam'beau (flam'bo) e nough' (e nuf') haut'boy (ho'boy) en nui' (ong nwe') hic'cough (hik'kup) ron deau' (ron do') right'eous (ri'chus) vign ette' (vin yet') cham'ois (sham'my) squir'rel (or skwur'rel) bou'doir (boo'dwor) suf fice' (suf fiz') ser'geant (sar'jent) cor'tege (kor'tazh) lesson . words of irregular pronunciation. sough (suf) men ag'e rie (men azh'e ry) myrrh (mer) ci ce ro'ne (che che- or sis'e-) suave (swav) chev'aux-de-frise (shev'o de frez) shew (sho) pap'ier-ma che (pap'ya ma sha) strew (stru) de col le te' (da kol le ta') bouffe (boof) tic-dou lou reux' (tik doo lo roo') nom (nong) ver mi cel'li (-chel'li or -sel'li) clough (kluf) su per fi'cies (su per fish'ez) nee (na) ra tion a'le (rash un a'le) ghat (gawt) ha bit u e (a bit n a') creux (kru) hal le lu jah (hal le lu'ya) lesson . words of irregular pronunciation. bus'i ness (biz'nes) roq'ue laure (rok'e lor) colo nel (kur'nel) sac'ri fice (sak'ri fiz) hau teur' (ho tur') chef-d'oeuvre' (sha doovr') bdell'ium (del'yum) es cri toire' (es kri twor') cui rass' (kwe ras') belles-let'tres (bel let'ter) gauch rie' (gosh re') res tau rant' (res to rang') trous seau' (troo so') mign on ette' (min yon et') gun'wale (gun'nel) fuch'si a (fook'si a) dah'lia (dal'ya) re veil'le (re val'ya) soi ree' (swa ra') pap e terie' (pap a tre') sap'phire' (saf'ir) sur veil'lance' (-val'yans) cog'nac (kon'yak) ple'ia des (ple'ya dez) lesson . words of irregular pronunciation. nes'cience (nesh'ens) re cher che' (ruh sher sha') ba rege' (ba razh') so bri quet' (so bre ka') diph'thong (dif-) aid'-de-camp (ad'de kong) sol'dier (sol'jer) mag gio're (mad jo'ra) fort'une' (fort'yun) made moi selle' (-mwa zel') neph'ew (nef'yu) fleur-de-lis' (flur de le') let'tuce (let'tis) deb au chee' (deb o she') en tree' (ong tra') res er voir' (rez er vwor') re gime' (ra zhem') eis tedd'fod (is teth'fod) scru toire' (skru twor') pro te ge' (pro ta zha') phy sique' (fe zek') de noue'ment (-noo'mong) lesson . words of irregular pronunciation. cri tique' (kri tek') en core' (ong kor') pen chant' (pong shong') se ance' (sa ongs') chig'non (shen'yong) mor ceau' (mor so') cha let' (sha la') dan seuse' (dong zurz') e lan' (a lang') sang-froid' (song frwa') mem'oir (mem'wor) qui vive (ke vev) mon sieur' (mo ser') faux pas' (fo pa') blanc-mange' (blo-monj') bon ton (bong tong) a mende' (a mongd') bon'mot (bong'mo) cen time' (son tem') mil lier' (mi lya') biv'ouac (biv'wak) sa vant' (sa vong') lesson . names of men. charles ad'am har'old a'sa frank al'bert hen'ry bas'il george an'drew ho'mer ca'leb hugh ar'thur i'saac ce'phas james clar'ence ja'cob cy'rus job da'vid jo'seph eu'gene john ed'ward lew'is fe'lix luke ed'win no'ah ja'bez mark ez'ra pat'rick leon'ard saul fran'cis pe'ter mo'ses ralph gil'bert will'iam rob'ert lesson . names of men. her'bert ab'sa lom al ex an'der hi'ram an'tho ny an dro ni'cus hor'ace ben'ja min bar thol'o mew ja'son e li'jah eb en e'zer jes'se fer'di nand em man'u el law'rence fred'er ick e ze'ki el le'vi i sa'iah (-ya) jer e mi'ah lu'ther le an'der le on'i das os'car ol'i ver na po'le on phil'ip sam'u el the oph'i lus rich'ard tim'o thy zech a ri'ah lesson . names of women. anne a'da es'ther lo'is blanche ag'nes eu'nice lu'cy eve al'ice e'va ma'bel grace an'na fan'ny mar'tha jane ber'tha flo'ra ma'ry jean clar'a fran'ces my'ra kate co'ra ger'trude nan'cy maud e'dith hel'en ra'chel may ed'na han'nah rho'da pearl el'la i'da sa'rah ruth em'ma lau'ra su'san lesson . names of women. a'my ad'e line a me'li a bet'sey a man'da ar a bel'la bridg'et bar'ba ra dor o the'a char'lotte be'a trice e liz'a beth chlo'e deb'o rah e van'ge line dor'cas e li'za fe lic'i a di'nah em'i ly fred er i'ca el'len mar'ga ret ge'or gi an'a flor'ence pris cil'la is a bel'la ja net' re bec'ca la vin'i a ro'sa su san'na vic to'ri a lesson . abbreviations used in writing and printing. a. or am., answer. bro., brother. a. b., bachelor of arts. c. h., court-house. a. c., or b. c., before christ. co., company; county. c. o. d., collect on delivery. a. d., in the year of our lord. a. m., master of arts; before cr., credit. noon; in the year of the world. d. d., doctor of divinity. do., or ditto, the same. bart., baronet. dr., doctor; debtor. bbl., barrel; barrels. e. g. (exempli gratia), for example. b. l., bachelor of laws. lesson . abbreviations used in writing and printing. ed., editor; edition. h. b. m., her britannic majesty. eng., england; english. esq., esquire. hhd., hogshead. etc. (et cetera), and so forth. h.r., house of representatives. fri., friday. fahr., fahrenheit. ibid., in the same place. f.r.s., fellow of the royal society. id.(idem), the same. i. e. (id est), that is. gen., general; genesis. jas., james. gov., governor. jun. or jr., junior. g.p.o., general post-office. lat., latitude. lb., pound; pounds. lesson . abbreviations used in writing and printing. ll. d., doctor of laws. mrs., mistress. long., longitude. n., north. l. s., place of the seal. n. a., north america. m., monsieur. ms., manuscript. m. c., member of congress. no., number. mon., monday. n. b. (nota bene), take notice. m. d., doctor of medicine. pp., pages. messrs., gentlemen. per., by the. m. p., member of parliament. p. m., postmaster; afternoon. p.o., post-office. mr., mister; master. prof, professor. lesson . abbreviations used in writing and printing. p. s., postscript. st., saint; street. pub. doc., public document. sun., sunday. supt., superintendent. pxt., he painted it. thurs., thursday. sc., he engraved it. tues., tuesday. q. m., quartermaster. v., vid., or vide, see. rec'd., received. viz.(videlicet), namely. rev., reverend. vol., volume. s., shilling; south. vs. (versus), against. s. a., south america. wed., wednesday. sat., saturday. w.i., west indies. sen., senior; senator. wt., weight. lesson . abbreviations of the states, with their pronunciation. ala., al a ba'ma. ia., i'o wa. ark., ar'kan sas. kan., kan'sas. cal., cal i for'ni a. ky., ken tuck'y. col. or colo., col o ra'do. lou. or la., lou i si a'na. conn. or ct., con nect'i cut mass., mas sa chu'setts. md., ma'ry land. del., del'a ware. me., maine. flor. or fla., flor'i da. mich., mich'i gan. geo. or ga., geor'gi a. minn., min ne so'ta. ill., il li nois'. miss., mis sis sip'pi. ind., in di an'a. mo., mis sou'ri. lesson . abbreviations of the states, with their pronunciation. neb., ne bras'ka. r. i., rhode is 'and. n. c., north car o li'na. s. c., south car o li'na. n. h., new hamp'shire tenn., ten nes see'. tex., tex'as. n. j., new jer'sey. uh., u'tah (yoo'ta). nev., ne va'da. u.s.a., u nit'ed states of a mer'i ca. n. y., new york. or., or'e gon. va., vir gin'i a. o., o hi'o. vt., ver mont'. pa. or penn., penn syl va'ni a. wis., wis con'sin. w va., west vir gin'i a. lesson . american and foreign geographical names. al'ba ny ba'den al le ghe'ny ayr (ar) bal'ti more a'si a (a'shi a) aulne (on) bor deaux' (-do') cin cin na'ti bos'ton chi ca'go eu phra'tes chey enne' cai'ro ha wai'i main cey'lon' pal'es tine mo bile' i'ser (e'zer) phil a del'phi a pau (po) mad rid' pyr'e nees saone mil wau'kee szeg ed in' seine mon ta'na vi en'na thames (temz) new or'leans wash'ing ton lesson . other geographical names of frequent mispronunciation. guanaxuato (gwa na hwa'to) aube (ob) poughkeepsie (po kip'si) caen (kon) worcester (woos'ter) dieppe (dyep) youghiogheny (yoh'ho ga'ni) foix (fwa) newfoundland (nu'fund land) joux (zhoo) chuquisaca (choo ke sa'ka) lisle (lel) guatemala (ga te ma'la) moux (moo) winnipiseogee (-pis sok'ki) oude (owd) venezuela (ven e zwe'la) sioux (soo) altamaha (al ta ma ha') thau (to) chautauqua (sha ta'kwa) y (i) lesson . of characters used in punctuation. a comma [, ] denotes the slightest degree of separation between the elements of a sentence. a semicolon [; ] denotes a degree of separation somewhat greater than that indicated by a comma. a colon [:] marks a still greater degree of separation than a semicolon. a period [.] usually indicates the close of a sentence. the interrogation point [?] is used at the end of a question. the exclamation point [!] denotes astonishment or other emotion. a hyphen [ - ] is used to join words or syllables. a dash [-] marks a sudden break or stop in a sentence. a parenthesis [( )] includes words which might be left out without injuring the sense. brackets [ ] inclose words, etc., intended to explain or rectify what precedes or follows. an apostrophe ['] indicates the omission of one or more letters; or denotes the possessive case. quotation marks [" "] show that the passage included, is taken from some other author. of capital letters. a capital should begin: ( ) the first word of every sentence, and of every line of poetry; ( ) proper names of persons, places, months, and days; ( ) all appellations of the deity; ( ) titles of honor; ( ) names of things personified; ( ) names denoting the race or nation of individuals; ( ) adjectives derived from proper names; ( ) the first word of a direct quotation or speech; ( ) the principal words in the titles of books; ( ) words denoting important events, the chief subject of a composition, etc. ( ) the pronoun i and the interjection o are always capitals. mr honey's insurance dictionary (german-english) (c) , by winfried honig this is a work in progress dictionary of phrases commonly used. this book contains english and equivalent german phrases. we are releasing two versions of this book, sorted for the english reader and sorted for the german reader. dieses buch wurde uns freundlicherweise von dem verfasser zur verfügung gestellt. this book was generously donated to us by the author. ------------------acknowledgement: in the s winfried honig, known as mr honey, started compiling and computerizing english/german dictionaries, partly to provide his colleagues and students with samples of the language of business, partly to collect convincing material for his state department of education to illustrate the need for special dictionaries covering the special language used in different branches of the industry. in mr honey began to feed his wordlists into the leo online dictionary http://dict.leo.org of the technische universität münchen, and in into the dicdata online dictionary http://www.dicdata.de while more than . daily visitors use the online versions, cd-rom versions are available, see: http://www.leo.org/dict/cd_en.html http://www.dicdata.de http://mrhoney.purespace.de/latest.htm mr. honey would be pleased to answer questions sent to winfried.honig@online.de. permission granted to use the word-lists, on condition that links to the sites of leo, dicdata and mr honey are maintained. mr honey's services are non-commercial to promote the language of business both in english and in german.------------------- history and philosophy die anfänge dieses wörterbuches gehen zurück in die zeit als england der europäischen gemeinschaft beitreten wollte. in einer gemeinschaftsarbeit von bbc, british council, dem dept. of educ. und der oup machte man sich gedanken, wie man dem führungsnachwuchs auf dem kontinent die englische wirtschaftssprache beibringen könnte. als einer der wenigen dozenten, die damals in london wirtschaftsenglisch lehrten, kam ich in kontakt mit dem projekt. da ich mich zu jener zeit für eine karriere in der daten-verarbeitung oder als hochschullehrer für wirtschaftsenglisch entscheiden musste, wählte ich eine kombination von beidem. als dozent der fh machte ich den einsatz von multimedia in der vermittlung von brauchbarem wirtschaftsenglisch zu meiner aufgabe. für die anforderungen verschiedener seminare, schwerpunkte, zielgruppen entstanden aus der praktischen arbeit die wortlisten und wörterbücher. aufgewachsen und geschult in der praktischen denkweise von a.s. hornby, einem fellow des university college london, legte ich besonderen wert auf die hohe zahl möglichst dienlicher anwendungsbeispiele. die indizierten sequentiellen wortlisten der kompaktversionen, --anders und meines erachtens noch viel besser--die großen sequentiellen wortlisten der cd-rom-versionen mit der stufenweisen bis globalen suche in den wort- und beispiellisten zunehmenden umfangs, ermöglichen eine optimale sprachliche orientierung in einem umfangreichen wirtschaftlichen sprachsschatz. dabei sehe ich neue wege und möglichkeiten des erwerbs und des umgangs mit der fachsprache. wahrscheinlich bietet sich hier weit mehr als sich im ersten eindruck erahnen läßt. spielerisch sollte es möglich sein, leichter, schneller und intensiver zu lernen. durch die vielzahl der assoziationen dürfte sich schneller als bisher eine gehobene fachsprachliche kompetenz entwickeln. a abandon abandonment abandon, Überlassen abandonment abandonnieren, überlassen, preisgeben abandon abenteuer, wagen adventure abfindung lump-sum settlement abfindungserklärung acceptance of lump-sum settlement abfindungswert amount payable on settlement abgelaufen expired abhanden gekommenes dokument lost document abhilfe, rechtsbehelf, heilmittel remedy ablauf des vertrages expiration of contract ablauf, ende expiration ablaufen, enden expire ablehnen decline abnehmendes risiko decreasing risk abnutzung, verschleiß wear and tear abändern amend abänderung amendment abonnentenversicherung subscribers' insurance abschlagszahlung payment on account abschluss acquisition abschlusskosten acquisition costs abschlussort place of signature abschlussprovision acquisition commission abschlussvermittlung acquisition agent abschätzung estimation abschätzung des schadens appraisal of damage abschreiben write off abschreibepolice declaration policy abschreibepolice floating policy absicht intent absicht intention absichtlich intentional absplittern chipping abtreten, zedieren cede abweichen deviate abweichung discrepancy abweichung von der reiseroute deviation from the voyage abwesend absent abwesender absentee abwesenheit absence abzug deduction abzugsfähiger betrag deductible amount ändern modify ändern, Änderung change Änderung modification Änderung des reiseziels change of voyage Änderung des risikos change in the risk ärztliche ansicht medical opinion ärztliche auslese medical selection ärztliche behandlung medical treatment ärztliche beobachtung medical observation ärztliche betreuung medical care ärztliche hilfe, ärztliche behandlung medical attendance ärztliche untersuchung medical examination ärztliche untersuchung medical inspection ärztliche untersuchung physical examination ärztliches attest medical certificate ärztliches gutachten medical estimate ärztliches honorar medical fee äußere beschädigung external damage agentur, vertretung agency aggregattafel aggregate table aktien von versicherungsgesellschaften insurance shares aktuar actuary alleininhaber sole owner allgemein verbindlich generally binding allgemeine kosten general expenses allgemeine versicherungsbedingungen general conditions of insurance allgemeine versicherungsbedingungen general policy conditions alterruhegeld, altersrente, pension old-age pension alterserhöhung addition to age altersgrenze age limit altersrente pension annuity altersrente retirement annuity altersruhegeld old age pension alterversicherung old-age insurance am verlust beteiligt sein participate in a loss amtlich beglaubigt legally attested an die stelle treten von take the place of an erster stelle stehen rank first anbieten, preisangabe machen quote anfangsprämie initial premium anfechtbar voidable anfrage, nachforschung inquiry anfragen, nachforschen inquire angelegenheit von bedeutung matter of consequences angemessene entschädigung adequate compensation angemessene entschädigung fair compensation angemessene entschädigung fair damages angemessene entschädigung reasonable compensation angemessene kündigungsfrist reasonable period of notice angemessene sorgfalt adequate care angemessene sorgfalt reasonable diligence angenommen accepted angenommener schaden constructive loss angenommener totalschaden constructive total loss angepasst adapted angrenzend adjoining anhäufung accumulation anlauf der versicherungspolice expiry of the policy anlieger adjacent owner anmeldung einer forderung filing of a claim anmerkung, kommentar, erläuterung annotation annahme acceptance annahme, vermutung assumption annahmepflicht obligation to accept annahmeschein acceptance slip annehmen accept annehmen, voraussetzen, vermuten assume annehmen, übernehmen adopt annähernd proximate annuität annuity anomal abnormal anpassbare versicherung, offene versicherung adjustable insurance anpassen adapt anpassung, schadensregulierung adjustment anschaffungswert acquisition value anschaffungswert cost value anschrift des antragstellers address of applicant ansichtssache matter of opinion ansonsten otherwise anspruch claim anspruch erheben raise a claim anspruchsbegründung proof of claim anspruchsteller claimant anteil des arbeitsgebers, arbeitgeberanteil employer's contribution anteil des arbeitsnehmers, arbeitnehmeranteil employee's contribution anteil, aktie share antragsformular proposal form antragsfrist term of application antragsteller applicant for insurance anwachsend, ansammelnd, auflaufend accruing anzeigepflicht obligation to disclose arbeitsfähigkeit, erwerbsfähigkeit capacity to work arbeitslosenversicherung unemployment insurance arbeitsunfall accident at work arbeitsunfall industrial accident arbeitsunfähigkeit disablement arbeitsunfähigkeit, erwerbsunfähigkeit invalidity arbeitsunfähigkeitsversicherung disability insurance arbitrage arbitration arglistige täuschung moral fraud arglistige täuschung willful deceit arglistige täuschung willful deception art der lebensversicherung type of assurance art der vereinbarung type of agreement art des schadens type of loss arzneikosten cost of medicaments arztgebühren medical fees atomrisiko, kernenergierisiko nuclear risk atomrisikoversicherung nuclear risk insurance attestieren, attest attest auf alle fälle at all hazards auf den inhaber ausstellen make out to bearer auf einen rechtsanspruch verzichten waive a claim auf neuesten stand bringen update auf schadensersatz verzichten waive the compensation aufgeben und abtreten abandon and cede aufgeben, verzichten abandon aufgegebenes schiffswrack abandoned shipwreck aufgelaufen, angewachsen accrued aufgelaufener zins accrued interest aufgeschobene rente deferred annuity aufgeschobene rente, verzögerte rente deferred annuity aufheben suspend aufhebung suspension aufhebung des versicherungsschutzes suspension of cover aufopferung sacrifice aufopferung von gütern unter großer havarie general averages sacrifice aufräumungskosten cost of clearance of debris aufruhrklausel riots clause aufsetzen draw up aufwand expenditure aus der haftung entlassen discharge from liability aus versehen, versehentlich by mistake ausbildungshilfe educational endowment ausbildungszeit period of training ausfuhrkreditversicherung export credit insurance ausgabetag date of issue ausgangsperiode base period ausgeben hand out ausgeschlossenes risiko hazard not covered ausgleichend compensatory ausgleichsverfahren method of compensation aushändigung, anlieferung delivery auskunft disclosure auskunftspflicht, anzeigepflicht duty of disclosure auslandsauftrag foreign order auslandsgeschäft business transacted overseas auslandsgeschäft foreign transaction auslandsreise journey abroad auslegen interpret auslegung interpretation auslegungsfrage, sache der auslegung question of construction auslegungsfrage, sache der auslegung question of interpretation ausmaß der entschädigung measure of indemnity ausmaß des schadens degree of damage ausmaß, umfang extent ausrecht erhalten hold up ausreichend, hinreichend adequate ausrüstung, maschinelle ausstattung equipment ausschaltung von risiken elimination of risks ausschließen eliminate ausschließen exclude ausschließlichkeit exclusiveness ausschluss, ausschließung exclusion aussichten, chancen chances ausstattungsversicherung child endowment insurance ausstellen issue aussteuerversicherung child's deferred assurance aussteuerversicherung dowry insurance auswahl choice auswahl von risiken selection of risks auszahlung des schadensersatzes loss payment automatenversicherung coin machine insurance automatisch automatic außendienst field service außendienstarbeit field work außendienstorganisation field organization außenseiter outsider außer frage out of question außer kraft setzen overrule außerhalb der arbeitszeit off the job außerordentliche sorgfalt extraordinary diligence außerstande, unfähig unable b bankeinlagenversicherung bank deposit insurance baratterie (form des betrugs) barratry barwert cash value basis base bauhaftpflichtversicherung builder's risk insurance beachten, beobachten, einhalten observe beachtung, einhaltung, beobachtung observance beanspruchbar claimable bedarf des förmlichen vertragsabschlusses subject to formal contract bedingung qualification bedingungen terms bedingungen der versicherungspolice terms of the policy bedingungen einhalten keep the conditions bedingungslos unconditional bedingungslos, absolut, unumschränkt absolute bedüftigkeitstest means test beeinträchtigen affect beeinträchtigen impair beeinträchtigung impairment beenden terminate beendigen terminate beendigen termination beendigung des vertrags termination of contract beerdigungskosten funeral expenses befrachter shipper befrachtungsvertrag contract of affreightment befristete garantie limited guarantee beginn inception beginn des risikos commencement of risk beginnen commence begrenzte prämie., gekürzte prämie limited premium begründen, verursachen, veranlassen cause begünstigt, gewünscht, beliebt favoured begünstigter beneficiary begünstigter, bezugsberechtigter beneficiary behindern hinder behinderung hindrance beidseitig, zweiseitig bilateral beipflichten assent beispiellos unparalleled beitrag zur sozialversicherung social security contribution beitragsleistung, beitragszahlung payment of contribution beitragszahler contributor bekräftigen, bestätigen affirm belasten, belastung debit beleihung einer police policy loan beraten advise beratungsfunktion advisory function beraubung pilferage berechnung calculation berechnung der wahrscheinlichkeit calculation of probability berechnungsgrundlage calculation basis berechnungsmethode method of calculation berechtigt entitled berechtigtes interesse legitimate interest bergen, retten, sparen, ersparen save bergung aus seenot maritime salvage bergung, bergelohn salvage bergung, rettung, einsparung, ersparnis saving bergungskosten salvage charges bergungskosten salvage costs bergungsmannschaft, rettungsmannschaft rescue party bergungsschaden salvage loss berichten, bericht report berichten, rechenschaft ablegen account berichtigen rectify berichtigte wahrscheinlichkeit corrected probability berufshaftpflichtversicherung professional liability insurance berufskrankheit occupational disease berufskrankheit occupational illness berufsrisiko occupational hazard berufsunfall occupational accident berufsunfallversicherung workmen's compensation insurance berufung einlegen lodge an appeal berücksichtigen consider berücksichtigen make allowance for berücksichtigen take into consideration berücksichtigung consideration bescheinigung certificate beschlagnahme confiscation beschlagnahmeklausel free of capture and seizure clause beschlagnahmerisiko risk of seizure beschleunigen accelerate beschäftigungsumfang volume of employment beschreibung des risikos description of risk beschränken restrain beschränkung restraint besondere gefahren extraneous perils besondere havarie particular average besondere risiken, besondere gefahren special risks besondere sorgfalt special diligence besonders, ungewöhnlich, speziell particular besprechen talk over bestand, portefeuille portfolio bestimmt, sicherlich certain bestimmtes ereignis definite event bestimmung destination bestätigen certify bestätigung acknowledgment beteiligung participation betrag, betragen amount betrieb eines kraftfahrzeugs operation of a vehicle betriebsgefahr operational risk betriebsgefahren operational hazards betriebshaftpflichtversicherung employer's liability insurance betriebsleitung general management betriebsunfall industrial accident betriebsunterbrechungsversicherung business interruption insurance betriebsversicherung factory insurance beträchtliche schadensersatzleistung substantial damages betrugsabsicht intention to defraud betrügerisch fraudulent beurteilen, richter judge beweggrund, motiv motive bewegliche gerätschaften movable equipment bewegliche sache chattel beweis erbringen supply evidence beweislast burden of proof beweismaterial means of evidence bewertet, veranlagen, bemessen assessed bewertung valuation bewertung, veranlagung, bemessung assessment bewohnbar habitable bezahlter schaden claim paid bezirksdirektion general agency bezirksdirektion regional head office bilanzwert book value billigung finden meet with approval binden, verpflichten bind binnenschifffahrtstransportversicherung inland marine insurance binnentransportversicherung inland marine insurance binnentransportversicherung inland transportation insurance binnenwasserstraßentransportversicherung inland waterways insurance binnenwassertransportversicherung inland marine insurance bonus bonus bonusrücklage bonus reserve branchenrisiko risk peculiar to the trade brandgefahr fire hazard brandgefahren fire hazards brandkasse fire office brandmauer fire wall brandrisiko, feuerrisiko fire risk brandschaden fire damage brandschaden fire loss brandschaden loss by fire brandschadenabteilung fire department brandschadenersatzleistung fire indemnity brandstiftung arson brandursache cause of conflagration brandversicherungspolice fire policy brauch usage brechen, zerbrechen break bruch, verlust durch bruch, bruchschaden breakage bruchschaden breakage bruttoprämie gross premium bruttoverlust gross loss buchen, verbuchen book buchmäßiger verlust book loss d damals then damals berechtigt then entitled damals gültig then in force dampfkesselversicherung steam boiler insurance darauf ankommen lassen, riskieren take one's chance darlehen loan darlehen gewähren grant a loan das ausland betreffend foreign datieren date dauer duration dauer der invalidität period of invalidity dauer der verlängerung period of extension dauer des zahlungsverzugs period of delay in payment dauer, zeit, zeitraum period dauerinvalidität permanent invalidity dauernde erwerbsunfähigkeit, dauerinvalidität permanent disability decken cover deckung anbieten offer cover deckung aufrechterhalten maintain cover deckung gewähren grant cover deckung, schutz cover deckungsbestätigung cover note deckungszeitraum, versicherungsdauer term of insurance deckungszusage (us) binder defizit deficit delcredereversicherung credit insurance dementsprechend accordingly detaillieren, volle angaben machen give full particulars diebstahl larceny diebstahl theft dienstunfähigkeit disability for service direkte versicherung direct insurance direkter schaden direct damage direktes geschäft direct business dispache general-average statement dispacheur general average adjuster doppelter schadensersatz double damages doppelversicherung double insurance dringend, dringlich urgent dringlichkeit urgency dringlichkeitsstufe degree of urgency drohen, bedrohung threat durchschnittsdauer average duration durchschnittserwartung average expectation durchschnittssatz average rate e echte gefahr genuine risk echter wert real value effektiver wert, realer wert, sachwert real value eid oath eigenes verschulden actual fault eigenhändig unterschreiben sign personally eigenrisiko, eigenes risiko own risk eigentumsrechte proprietary rights eigentumsübergang mutation eigentumsübergang passage of title eigentümer owner eigentümer eines gegenstandes owner of an article eigenversicherung insurance for one's own account ein darlehen aufnehmen take up a loan ein limit vorgeben give a limit ein recht aufgeben abandon a right ein recht übertragen confer a right ein risiko übernehmen underwrite a risk ein schiff verlassen abandon a ship einbezahlt paid up einbrecher housebreaker einbruch housebreaking einbruch- und diebstahlversicherung burglary insurance eine frage behandeln enter into a question eine frist bestimmen fix a time limit eine versicherungspolice ausstellen issue a policy einem hindernis begegnen meet with an obstacle einen antrag einreichen present an application einen bericht vorlegen submit a report einen eid ablegen take an oath einen unfall melden report an accident einer sache nachgehen, tiefer eindringen go further into a question einfache havarie simple average eingeschränkte garantie limited guarantee eingetragener sitz der firma registered office einhaltung von vorschriften compliance with formalities einheitspolice standard policy einklagbar actionable einkommen income einkommen der familie family income einkommensverlust loss of income einmalprämie single premium einreichen hand in einschließen include einschluss inclusion einschreibsendung registered mail einschränkende bedingung restrictive condition einseitig unilateral einseitiges risiko unilateral risk einspruch erheben, einspruch object einspruch, widerspruch objection einstufung tariff classification einsturzgefährdetes bauwerk dangerous structure eintrittsalter age at entry einträglich gainful einvernehmen, verständnis understanding einwand erheben raise an objection einzelheiten full particulars einzelheiten particulars einzelne sendung individual shipment einzelperson individual einzelprämie single premium einzelprämienversicherung single-premium insurance einzelversicherer individual insurer einzelversicherer individual underwriter einzelzahlung individual payment element, grundbestandteil element elementarrisiken natural hazards empfangstag date of receipt empfindlicher verlust considerable loss endalter age at expiry ende der versicherungsdauer expiration of period ende der versicherungsdauer expiry of the policy ende des risikos termination of risk endwert final value entbinden, entlassen, entlassung discharge entbindungsheim maternity home entgangener gewinn lost profit entgegenkommen accommodation entgegenkommen, unterbringen accommodate enthüllen, aufdecken disclose enthüllung, aufdeckung disclosure entscheiden decide entscheidung decision entschluss fassen take a decision entschädigen compensate entschädigen indemnify entschädigung indemnification entschädigung indemnity for damages entschädigung für verlust oder beschädigung compensation for loss or damage entschädigung für verluste indemnity for losses entschädigung in einer runden summe lump-sum settlement entschädigungsanspruch, entschädigungsklage claim for compensation entschädigungsbetrag indemnity sum entschädigungsforderung claim for compensation entschädigungspflichtige verletzung compensable injury entstandener schaden loss occurred entstehend arising erbschaftssteuerversicherung estate duty erdbebenrisiko earthquake hazard erdbebenversicherung earthquake insurance erdbebenrisiko, erdbebengefahr earthquake risk erfahren come to know erfahrung experience erforschung des sachverhalts fact finding erfüllung performance erfüllung einer verpflichtung performance of an obligation ergänzen amend ergänzend supplementary erhöhen, erhöhung increase erhöhen, erhöhung raise erhöht increased erhöhte kosten increased costs erhöhte lebenserwartung increased expectation of life erhöhte lebenshaltungskosten increased cost of living erhöhung des risikos increase in the risk erklären declare erklärter wille declared intention erklärung declaration erklärungsbasis declaration basis erlebensfallversicherung endowment insurance erlittener verlust sustained loss ermessen discretion ermessenentscheidung arbitrary decision ermächtigen authorize ermüdung fatigue erneuern renew erneuern, verlängern renew erneuerung der versicherungspolice renewal of the policy erneuerung wird fällig renewal falls due erneuerung, verlängerung renewal ernteverlust, verlust der ernte crop loss ernteversicherung crop insurance ernteversicherung growing crops insurance errechnen compute errechnung computation ersatz für einen schaden indemnity for a loss ersatz für mittelbaren schaden consequential damages ersatz, ersatzteil replacement ersatzwert, neuwert, wiederbeschaffungswert replacement value ersparnisse savings erstattet erhalten, wiedererlangen recover erstattungsfähig recoverable erste prämie first premium erstprämie first premium erstversicherer direct insurer erstzahlung initial payment ertrag yield erwartete gefahren expected perils erwarteter gewinn anticipated profit erwartung eines verlustes expectation of loss erwerb acquisition erwerben acquire erwerbsquelle means of subsistence erwerbsunfähig, arbeitsunfähig disabled erwerbsunfähigkeit incapacity to work erzielbare entschädigung recoverable sum erzwingungsmöglichkeit means of enforcing erörtern, begründen, grund, vernunft reason etwas wieder gut machen make up for something exportkreditgarantie export credits guarantee exportkreditversicherung export credit insurance f facharzt medical specialist fachkenntnisse technical know-how fachkenntnisse, erfahrung know-how fachmann, sachverständiger, experte expert fahrlässige handlung negligent act fahrlässigkeit negligence fahrraddiebstahlversicherung cycle theft insurance fahrradversicherung cycle insurance fahrzeug vehicle fahrzeughalter owner of a motor vehicle faktor, einfluss factor fakultativ, wahlfrei facultative fall, beispiel instance fallen unter come under falsch beurteilen misjudge falsch darstellen misrepresent falsche angaben false statement falsche auslegung misinterpretation falsche aussage false evidence falsche beschreibung misdescription falsche darstellung misstatement falscher alarm false alarm fehlberechnung, falsche berechnung miscalculation fehlend missing fehler mistake fehlerart type of error fehlerhaft defective fehlerhaft faulty fehlerhaftigkeit faultiness fehlschluss false conclusion fertigungsumfang volume of production feste bedingungen set terms feste prämie fixed premium feste summe fixed sum fester betrag fixed sum festgesetzt, festgelegt fixed festgestellt ascertained festsetzen ascertain feststehende tatsache established fact feststellung der brandursache fire inquest feststellung des schadens ascertainment of damage feststellung des schadens ascertainment of loss feststellung des schadens assessment of damage feststellung des schadenswertes assessment of damage feuerbestattungskosten cremation expenses feuerbestattungskostenversicherung cremation expenses insurance feuergefahr fire hazards feuerhemmend fire-resisting feuerleiter fire escape feuerlöscher fire extinguisher feuerlöschkosten fire extinguishing costs feuermeldesystem fire alarm system feuermeldevorrichtung fire alarm device feuersbrunst, brand conflagration feuerschutz fire protection feuerschutzabgabe fire brigade charge feuersgefahr fire peril feuersgefahr, feuerrisiko fire hazard feuersicherheit fire safety feuerverhütung fire prevention feuerversicherung, brandversicherung fire insurance feuerversicherungsgesellschaft fire underwriter feuerwehr fire brigade feuerwehrmann fireman filmtheaterversicherung cinema insurance finanzielle verluste pecuniary losses finanzieller verlust financial loss firmeninhaber owner of a firm firmenname firm name fluggastversicherung air passenger insurance fluggastversicherung aircraft passenger insurance fluglinie, fluggesellschaft airline flugrisiko aviation risk flugzeugentführer hi-jacker flugzeugentführung hi-jacking flugzeugkaskoversicherung aircraft hull insurance flut, Überschwemmung flood folge von ereignissen chain of events folgeprämie renewal premium folgeschaden consequential damage folgeschaden consequential loss fällig due fällig werden fall due fällig zur zahlung due for payment fällige entschädigung accrued compensation fällige prämie premium due fälligkeit der prämie premium due rate fälschen falsify fälschen forge fälschung falsification forderungsübergang subrogation formaler fehler lack of form formblatt ausfüllen fill in a form formsache matter of form formvorschrift formality forstversicherung insurance of growing timber fortdauer, fortsetzung continuation fortsetzen continue frachtaufkommen volume of cargo frachtversicherer cargo underwriter frachtversicherung cargo insurance frachtversicherung cargo policy frachtversicherung hull insurance frachtversicherung insurance on freight frage question frage von bedeutung question of substance franchise franchise franchiseklausel franchise clause frei von beschädigung außer im strandungsfall free of particular average frei von leckage free from leakage freie wahl free choice freie wahl des arztes free choice of medical practitioner freiwillige leistung, kulanzleistung ex-gratis payment freiwillige versicherung voluntary insurance frist einhalten comply with a term frist einhalten keep a term frist überschreiten exceed a term frist, zeitliche begrenzung time limit frostversicherung frost insurance fundbüro lost property office fundsache, verlorene sache lost property für den schaden aufkommen bear the damage für eine bestimmte zeit for a time certain für einen schaden haftbar liable for a loss für weniger als ein jahr for less than a year g garantie guarantee garantie, gewährleistung, zusicherung warranty garantiedauer duration of guarantee garantievertrag contract of indemnity garantiezeit guarantee period garantiezeit, versicherungsdauer duration of cover gebäudeversicherung insurance of buildings gebunden, verpflichtet bound geburtenziffer birth rate gebühr fee gebühr, belasten charge gebührentabelle table of fees gedeckt covered geeignet qualified gefahr danger gefahr, risiko, zufall hazard gefahren der see dangers of the sea gefahren der see hazards of the sea gefahren der see, seegefahren, seerisiken perils of the sea gefahren der seefahrt dangers of navigation gefahrenabnahme, gefahrenminderung decrease of risk gefahrenart type of risk gefahrengut, gefährliche ladung dangerous goods gefahrenklasse class of risk gefahrenzone danger zone gefährlich dangerous gefährlich, riskant hazardous gefährliche ladung dangerous cargo gefährliche tiere dangerous animals gefährliche vorführungen dangerous performances gegen alle gefahren against all risks gegen eine regel verstoßen infringe a rule gegen, zuwider contrary to gegenseitigkeit mutuality gegenstand subject-matter gegenstand der versicherung object insured gegenwärtiger wert, barwert present value geistige ermüdung mental fatigue geistige störung mental defect gekündigt, storniert cancelled gekürzte prämie limited premium geld heraus bekommen get money back geldtransport cash transport geldverlust loss of cash gelegenheit, grund, ereignis occasion gelegentlich occasional gemischt mixed gemischte police mixed policy gemäß according to genehmigungspflichtig subject to approval generalpolice open policy generalvertreter general agent genesungsheim, kuranstalt convalescent home genesungszeit, erholungszeit convalescence gepäckversicherung baggage insurance gerecht just gerecht und zumutbar just and reasonable gerichtliche maßnahmen ergreifen take legal measures gerichtskosten legal expenses gerichtsmedizinisch medico-legal gesamt overall gesamtbetrag aggregate amount gesamtprüfung general examination gesamtschuldnerisch haftend jointly and severally liable gesamtschuldnerische haftung joint liability gesamtversicherung all-risk insurance geschädigter aggrieved party geschäfte durchführen transact business geschäfte tätigen transact business geschäftliches risiko business risk geschäftsausfallversicherung loss of profit insurance geschäftsbedingungen terms and conditions geschäftshaftpflichtversicherung business liability insurance geschäftsräume business premises geschäftsstelle branch office geschäftsumfang volume of business geschätzter wert estimated value gesetz der großen zahl law of large numbers gesetzeslücke loophole in the law gesetzlich begründeter schadensersatzanspruch lawful damages gesetzlich haftbar legally liable gesetzliche haftpflicht legal liability gesetzliche rücklage legal reserve gesetzliche verpflichtung legal obligation gesiegelte urkunde deed gestohlenes fahrzeug stolen vehicle gestufter tarif graduated tariff gesund healthy gesundheit physical health gesundheit wiederherstellen restore health gesundheitsamt local health authority getrennt halten keep apart gewahrsam keeping gewahrsamsklausel bailee clause gewerbliche feuerversicherung industrial fire risk insurance gewerbliches fahrzeug commercial vehicle gewerbliches risiko industrial risk gewichtsverlust loss in weight gewinn, vorteil gain gewinnanteil, dividende dividend gewinnplan, dividendensystem bonus scheme gewinnverteilung bonus allocation gewissermaßen in some measure gewissheit, sicherheit certainty gewähren, gestatten allow gewässerverschmutzung water pollution gewöhnlich ordinary glasversicherung glass breakage insurance glasversicherung plate glass insurance gleichbleibende prämie level premium gleichbleibendes risiko constant risk gleichsam quasi gleichzeitig concurrent grad der invalidität degree of disablement grenze der entschädigung limit of indemnity grobe fahrlässigkeit gross fault große havarie, havarie-grosse general average große sorgfalt high diligence großenteils in a great measure großfeuer conflagration großlebensversicherung ordinary life insurance grund der kündigung cause of cancellation grund, ursache, veranlassung cause grundbesitz real property holding grundbesitz, immobilien real estate grundbesitzer land owner grundbesitzer landholder grundbesitzer owner of an estate grundgebühr base fee grundlos, ohne basis baseless grundprämie basic premium grundstückeigentümer, hausherr landlord grundstückeigentümerhaftpflicht landlord's liability grundstücksverwaltungsabteilung real estate department grundstückswert value of the property grundtarif basic rate gruppenlebensversicherung group life insurance gruppenversicherung collective insurance gruppenversicherung group insurance gruppenversicherung, kollektivversicherung group insurance grüne versicherungskarte green card gültig in force gültig valid gültiger einwand valid objection gültiger tarif tariff in force gültigkeit validity gültigkeitsdauer validity period günstigste bedingungen most favourable terms gütlich, außer gericht, außergerichtlich amicably gütlich, unter freunden amicable gütliche beilegung, schlichtung amicable adjustment gütlicher vergleich, vergleich amicable settlement h hafenrisiken port risks haftbar werden become liable haftbar, verantwortlich accountable haftbar, verantwortlich liable haftpflicht liability haftpflichthöchstgrenze maximum liability haftpflichtversicherung third-party insurance haftpflichtversicherung (us) liability insurance haftpflichtversicherung des arbeitsgebers employer's liability insurance haftung des grundpächters landholder's liability haftung gegen dritten third-party liability haftungsdauer indemnity period haftungsumfang accountability hagelschaden damage by hail hagelversicherung hail insurance halbamtlich quasi official halbjahresprämie semi-annual premium halten, festhalten, besitzen hold halten, lebensunterhalt keep handlung act harte bedingung, strenge bedingung stringent condition hauptberuflicher vertreter full-time agent hauptpolice master policy hauptursache chief cause haus- und geschäftsräume domestic and business premises hausbesitzer house owner hausbesitzer owner of a house hauseigentümer homeowner hauseigentümerversicherung house owner's policy hausrat- und haftpflichtversicherung householder's comprehensive insurance hausrat household and personal effects hausrat residence contents hausratsversicherung household insurance hausratversicherung insurance of contents hausschwamm dry rot hausversicherung home insurance hausversicherung residence insurance hausvertreter home-service insurance man havarie-grosse klausel general-average clause havariebericht, schadensbericht survey report havarieeinschuss general average deposit havariehandlung general average act havariekommissar average adjuster havariekommissar surveyor havariekommissar von lloyd lloyd's agent havarieverteilung adjustment of average hebegebühr collection charge heizkesselversicherung boiler insurance herabsetzen reduce herrenlos unowned herrenloses gut abandoned property herstellerhaftpflichtversicherung producer's liability insurance hilfe, fürsorge aid hilfeleistung assistance after accident hindernis obstacle hinreise outward journey hinterbliebene surviving dependants hinterbliebenenrente survivorship annuity hintertür loophole hinzufügen add honorar des arztes, ärztliches honorar doctor's fee häufig frequent häufigkeit frequency häuslicher unfall domestic accident hypothekenabteilung mortgage department hypothekendarlehen mortgage loan hypothetische frage hypothetical question höchstalter limiting age höchstalter, altersgrenze age limit höchstbetrag maximum amount höchstgrenze maximum limit höchstsatz, höchstprämie maximum rate höchstschaden maximum loss höchstwert maximum value höchstzahl maximum number höhe des schadens quantum of damages höher im rang sein rank before höhere gewalt act of god höhere gewalt force majeure i identität identity im auftrag des kunden on behalf of the client im ausland wohnhaft resident abroad im außendienst tätig sein work in the field im falle des verlusts in the event of loss im falle des verlusts, im schadensfalle in case of loss im falle von in case of im falle von in the event of im klagewege, durch eine klage by way of action im obligo on risk im schadensfalle in the event of damage im schadensfalle in the event of loss im todesfalle in the event of death im voraus bezahlt prepaid im voraus bezahlte prämie premium paid in advance imaginäre schadensersatzforderung imaginary damages imaginärer gewinn anticipated profit imaginärer gewinn imaginary profit in anbetracht in view of in arbeit befindliche ware goods in process in betracht kommen come into question in betracht ziehen take into consideration in gewisser hinsicht in a way in gutem zustand halten keep in good repair in pension gehen, in rente gehen go on pension in ruhestand gehen retire in zukunft, nachstehend hereafter in Übereinstimmung mit in accord with identifizieren identify index index indexklausel index clause indexversicherung insurance with index clause indirekter schaden indirect loss or damage indirekter schaden, mittelbarer schaden indirect damage indossieren, ergänzen endorse inflationsgefahr inflation peril inhaber holder inhalt, hausrat, mobilien contents inkasso vornehmen collect inkassoabteilung collection department inkassokosten collection costs inkrafttreten coming into force innendienstbelegschaft inside staff insbesondere in particular insolvenz insolvency instandsetzungsabteilung maintenance department interesse, zins interest internationale versicherungskarte international insurance card internationales versicherungsgeschäft international insurance business invalide disabled person invalidenrente disability benefits invalidität disability invaliditätegrad disability percentage invaliditätsrente, invalidenrente disability annuity investition investment irreführen mislead irreführend misleading irren be mistaken irrige auffassung mistaken idea irrtümlicherweise mistakenly j jagdhaftpflichtversicherung hunting liability insurance jagdunfall hunting accident jahr year jahresabrechnung annual account jahresprämie annual premium jedes frachtstück separat versichert each package separately insured jährlich yearly jährliche tilgungsrate annual amortization jährliche zahlung annual payment k kapitalanlagen capital investments karenzzeit qualifying period kartell cartel kassenbote cash messenger kassenbotenversicherung cash messengerv insurance katastrophe catastrophe katastrophenartig, katastrophal catastrophic katastrophenreserve, außerordentliche reserve catastrophe reserve katastrophenrückversicherung catastrophe reinsurance kausalzusammenhang causal connection kautionsversicherung fidelity guarantee insurance kautionsversicherung surety insurance kenntnis knowledge kindersterblichkeit infant mortality klage vor gericht legal action klage, beschwerde complaint klage, handlung action klar, ohne zweifel clear klassifizieren, einstufen classify klausel betreffend bürgerliche unruhen civil commotions clause klausel betreffend vorzeitige fälligkeit acceleration clause klein halten, minimieren minimize kleine havarie petty average kleinerer schaden, bagatellschaden minor loss kleingeld loose cash kleinlebensversicherung home service office kleinlebensversicherung industrial life insurance knappschaftsversicherung miners' insurance kollisionsklausel beidseitiges verschulden both-to-blame collision clause kompensation, entschädigung, ausgleich compensation kompromiss, kompromiss schließen compromise konnossementsklausel bill of lading clause konstruktionsfehler fault in construction kontinuität continuity konto auflösen, konto abschließen close an account konto, abrechnung account kontrollieren, kontrolle control konzession concession kraftfahrer motorist kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung motor car liability insurance kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung motor third party insurance kraftfahrzeuginsassenversicherung motor vehicle passenger insurance kraftfahrzeugmissbrauch misuse of motor cars kraftfahrzeugsbesitzer, fahrzeughalter owner of a car kraftfahrzeugskaskoversicherung motor hull insurance kraftfahrzeugversicherung automobile insurance kraftfahrzeugversicherung motor car insurance kraftfahrzeugversicherung motor vehicle insurance krankengeld sick pay krankengeld sickness benefits krankenhauskosten hospitality expense krankenhausunterbringung hospital accommodation krankenkasse sickness fund krankenversicherung health insurance krankheit illness krankheitsnachweis evidence of sickness krankienhauskosten hospital expense kreditgrenze credit margin kreditumfang volume of credit kreditversicherung bad debts insurance kreditversicherung guarantee insurance kriegsgebiet operational zone kriegsrente war pension kriegsrisikenvereinbarung war risk agreement kriegsrisiko war risk kriegsrisikoversicherung war risk insurance kumulative accumulative kursverlust loss by redemption kurzfristig short term kurzfristige deckung short period cover körperschaden, verletzung bodily harm körperschaden, verletzung bodily injury körperschaden, verletzung physical injury körperschaft corporation körperverletzung battery körperverletzung mit todesfolge bodily harm with fatal consequences kündbar, rückzahlbar terminable kündigen, stornieren cancel kündigung cancellation kündigung der versicherungspolice cancellation of the policy kündigungsfrist period of cancellation kündigungsschreiben letter of cancellation l lagerversicherung warehouse insurance landwirtschaftliche versicherung agricultural insurance langfristig long term last burden laufende risiken current risks laufende versicherung, offene police open policy laufzeit der garantie, garantiezeit term of guarantee laufzeit der versicherungspolice policy period lebendgeburt live birth lebenserwartung expectation of life lebenserwartung life expectancy lebensgefahr danger to life lebenshaltungskosten cost of living lebenshaltungskostenindex cost of living index lebenslänglich begünstigter life beneficiary lebenslängliche rente, leibrente life annuity lebensversicherung assurance lebensversicherung life assurance lebensversicherung life insurance lebensversicherung abschließen take out a life policy lebensversicherung auf erleben und todesfall mixed life assurance lebensversicherungsgesellschaft life insurance company lebensversicherungsgesellschaft life office lebensversicherungspolice life insurance policy lebensversicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeitmutual life office lebensversicherungsvertrag life insurance contract lebenswichtig vital lebenszeit life time leck leak leckage leakage leckage und bruch leakage and breakage leckageklausel leakage clause leibrente life annuity leibrentner life annuitant leiche dead body leichte fahrlässigkeit slight fault leihen gegen sicherheit, beleihen lend against security leihen, beleihen, ausleihen lend leistungen beantragen claim benefits leistungen beziehen draw benefits leistungsberechtigt entitled to benefits leistungsdauer period of indemnification leitungswasserversicherung water damage insurance leuchtstoffröhre fluorescent tube liegezeit, ruhezeit idle period liegezeit, stillstandszeit idle period lizenz license lloyds makler lloyd's broker lloyds schiffsregister lloyd's register of shipment lloyds versicherer lloyd's underwriter lohnausfall loss of pay londoner versicherungsbörse lloyd's luftfahrtversicherung aircraft insurance luftfahrtversicherung aviation insurance luftreise air journey lufttransportversicherung air transport insurance luftverschmutzung air pollution löschen delete löschfahrzeug fire engine löschfahrzeug fire truck löschung extinction m makler broker mangel defect mangels failing mangels for want of mangels beweis for want of evidence mangels deckung for want of cover mangels vertrauen for want of confidence mangels zahlung for want of payment manipulation, handhabung manipulation manipulieren manipulate marktwert, verkehrswert market value maschinenversicherung machinery breakdown insurance maschinenversicherung machinery insurance mathematischer erwartungswert actuarial expectation mathematischer wert mathematical value medizinischer beweis medical evidence mehrfache risiken multiple perils mehrzahl aller fälle majority of cases meistbegünstigt most favoured meistbegünstigter rückversicherer most favoured reinsurer meistbegünstigungsklausel most favoured reinsurer clause menge quantum messen, bemessen, maß, maßnahme measure mietverlustversicherung rent insurance minderlieferung short delivery minderung des wertes depreciation minderung des wertes, wertminderung loss in value mindestbetrag minimum amount mindestgebühr minimum charge mindestlohn minimum wage mindestprämie minimum premium mindestversicherung minimum insurance minenrisiko mine risk missachtung contempt missbrauch, missbrauchen misuse missbrauchen, missbrauch abuse missverhältnis, schlechte regelung maladjustment missverständnis, irrtum misapprehension mit ausnahme von other than mit ausreichender bestimmtheit with reasonable certainty mit besonderer havarie with particular average mit maschine geschrieben typewritten mit verlust at a sacrifice mit vollem namen unterzeichnen sign in full miteigentümer joint owner mitglied member mitversicherer co-insurer mitversicherung co-insurance mitwirken, zusammentreffen concur missverhältnis, unangemessenheit inadequacy monatsbeitrag monthly contribution monatsprämie monthly premium mord, totschlag, ermordung homicide motorradversicherung motor cycle insurance multiplizieren multiply musikinstrumenteversicherung musical instruments insurance muttergesellschaft parent company mutterschaftsgeld maternity benefit mutterschaftsversicherung maternity insurance mutterschutzfrist maternity period müßig idle n nach möglichkeit, soweit wie möglich as far as possible nachbarschaftsrisiko neighbouring risk nachfolgend subsequent nachfrist days of grace nachname family name nachprämie, anpassungsprämie adjustment premium nachschuss additional contribution nachschüssige zahlung payment in arrear nachteil disadvantage nachteilig disadvantageous nachversicherungspolice subsequent policy nachweis erbringen provide evidence nachweis, beweis, beweismaterial evidence nackte tatsachen hard facts name, benennen name namen feststellen, namen festhalten secure the name namens in the name of namenspolice named policy naturalersatz replacement in kind natürlicher tod natural death nebenberuflicher vertreter part-time agent nebengewinn extra gain nebenkosten related costs nettoprämie net premium nettoverlust clear loss neu für alt new for old neue art von risiko new type of risk neuwert reinstatement value neuwertversicherung reinstatement policy nicht beachten ignore nicht einklagbar non-actionable nicht erhältlich unavailable nicht formgerecht bad in form nicht klagbar unenforceable nicht mehr gut zu machender verlust irreparable loss nicht versicherbar uninsurable nicht wieder gut zu machender schaden irreparable damages nichtauslieferung non-delivery nichteinhaltung der garantie breach of warrantee nichtgelandete ware short-landed goods nichtgelieferte ware short-shipped goods nichtig void by law nichtlieferung non-delivery nichtmitglied nonmember nichtzahlung failure to pay noch nicht abgelaufen unexpired noch unerledigt still outstanding nähere angaben statement of particulars nominalwert nominal value nomineller schaden nominal damage nomineller schadensersatz nominal damages normalpolice standard policy normieren standardize notausgang emergency exit notausgang fire exit notfalls in case of emergency nothafen harbour of refuge notlage distress notlage emergency notmaßnahmen emergency steps notwendige sorgfalt necessary diligence null zero nummer der versicherungspolice policy number nur dem namen nach, nominell nominal nur für einen kurzen zeitraum for a short term only nur gegen totalverlust total loss only nutzen ziehen benefit from nutzfeuer friendly fire nutzungsschaden, entgang der nutzung loss of use o objektives risiko physical hazard obligatorisch obligatory obligatorische rückversicherung obligatory reinsurance obligatorische versicherung obligatory insurance offene deckung, generalpolice open cover offene police, abschreibepolice floating policy offene police, generalpolice open policy ohne datum, undatiert undated ohne frage without question ohne garantie without guarantee ohne ärztliche untersuchung without medical examination ohne vollmacht, nicht bevollmächtigt unauthorized operationskosten surgery costs operationskostenversicherung surgical fees insurance optimum, optimal optimum organisationsabteilung coordination department ort location oxydation oxidation p paketpolice package policy paketversicherung parcel post insurance paragraf, abschnitt, absatz paragraph partei, seite, beteiligter party passagierflugzeug airliner passagiergut registered luggage pauschale lump-sum pauschale, pauschalbetrag lump sum pauschalentschädigung damages at large pauschalversicherung global cover pauschalversicherung, gesamtversicherung all-in insurance pension pension pension retirement pay pension beantragen, rente beantragen apply for a pension pensionsalter pension age pensionsalter pensionable age pensionsberechtigt entitled to a pension pensionsberechtigt, rentenberechtigt pensionable personenversicherung insurance of persons personenversicherung personal insurance persönlich haftend individually liable pfand, verpfänden pledge pflichtrückversicherung obligatory reinsurance pflichtversicherung compulsory insurance pflichtversicherung obligatory insurance pfändung distraint physisch tot actually dead pirat, auf see überfallen pirate piraterie, seeräuberei piracy platzierung, unterbringung placement plünderung looting police abändern amend a policy police ausfertigen issue a policy police ausstellen effect a policy police beleihen borrow on a policy police erneuern renew a policy police für eine einzige fahrt voyage policy police kündigen cancel a policy police ohne wertangabe open policy policenbüro policy signing office policendarlehen, beleihung einer police loan on policy praktischer arzt medical practioner preisangebot quotation preisverlust loss in price prinzip der entschädigung principle of indemnity private unfallversicherung personal accident insurance privathaftpflichtversicherung personal liability insurance privatversicherer private insurer pro tag per diem produktionsausfall loss of production prämie premium prämie berechnen charge a premium prämie berichtigen adjust the premium prämie festsetzen fix the premium prämie für eigene rechnung premium for own account prämie ist fällig premium is due prämie rückerstatten refund a premium prämienabrechnung premium statement prämienart type of premium prämienfrei free of premium prämienfreie versicherung paid-up insurance prämieninkasso collection of premiums prämienquittung premium receipt prämienrabatt premium discount prämienrate installment premium prämienrate premium installment prämienrichtlinien, einstufungsrichtlinien rating principles prämienrückgewähr, prämienrückvergütung return of premium prämienrückzahlung refund of premium prämiensatz premium rate prämientarif insurance tariff prämienvolumen volume of premiums proportionale verteilung proportional allotment proportionalregel average clause provisorisch, einstweilig provisional prozent percent prozentsatz percentage prozesskostenversicherung legal expenses insurance prüfen, untersuchen examine prüfung des antrags examination of proposal psychische verfassung mental health q qualität, beschaffenheit quality quantitativ quantitative quote quota quotenrückversicherung quota share reinsurance r rabatt discount radioaktive strahlung nuclear radiation rahmenvereinbarung general agreement rang einnehmen, rangieren rank rat advice raub, beraubung robbery rechenschaftspflichtig liable to account rechnen, berechnen, errechnen calculate rechnungsjahr financial year recht der fahrlässigkeitshaftung law of negligence recht erwerben become entitled recht, anrecht right rechtfertigen justify rechtliche bedeutung legal meaning rechtmäßig lawful rechtmäßig vertretbar justifiable rechtmäßiger eigentümer lawful owner rechtmäßiger erbe true heir rechtsanwaltskosten lawyer's fees rechtsgeschäft transaction rechtskräftig werden become final rechtsmangel lack of title rechtsverbindlich legally binding rechtswidrig illegal rechtswidrig unlawful rechtswidrige handlung unlawful act rechtswirksam legally effective reduktionsfaktor, minderungsfaktor reduction factor reduktionswert reduction value reeder owner of a ship reeder ship owner regelmäßig wiederkehrende zahlung periodical payment regelmäßige leistungen regular periodical payments regelmäßige zahlungen regular payments regenversicherung pluvious insurance regenversicherung rain insurance regenwasser rainwater regenwasserschaden rainwater damage register, registrieren register regress, rückgriff recourse regulierung adjustment regulierungskosten adjustment costs rehabilitierung, wiedereingliederung rehabilitation reise journey reiseausfallkostenversicherung insurance of traveling expenses reisegepäckversicherung luggage insurance reisepolice voyage policy reiseunfallversicherung traveler's accident insurance reiseunfallversicherung travelers' accident insurance reiseversicherung travel insurance rente annuity rente bewilligen, pension bewilligen grant a pension rente beziehen, pension beziehen draw a pension rente beziehen, pension beziehen receive a pension rentenberechtigt, pensionsberechtigt eligible for pension rentenempfänger annuitant rentenempfänger holder of an annuity rentenversicherung annuity insurance rentenversicherungsvertrag annuity contract rentenzahlung pension payment rentner pensioner reparaturkosten cost of repair reparaturkosten cost of repairs reserve reserve reserve für leibrenten life annuity fund reserven des versicherers underwriting reserves restbetrag balance restwert salvage value richtlinie guideline risiken eingehen take hazards risiko begrenzen limit a risk risiko decken cover a risk risiko der aufbringung risk of capture risiko der kollision collision risk risiko der strandung stranding risk risiko der verfügungsbeschränkung restraint risk risiko des auf-grund-laufens risk of running aground risiko des aufruhrs riot risk risiko des aufstands insurrection risk risiko des maschinenschadens breakdown of machinery risk risiko des sinkens, risiko des untergangs sinking risk risiko kriegerischer handlungen warlike operations risk risiko verteilen spread a risk risiko von feindseligkeiten hostilities risk risiko übernehmen take a risk risiko, gefahr hazard risiko, gefahr risk risikobegrenzung bei katastrophen catastrophe limit risikoeinstufung classification of risks risikohäufung accumulation of risk rost rust ruhestand retirement rückdatieren backdate rückgang des geschäfts decline of business rückkaufswert surrender value rücklagen für schwebende schäden reserve for pending claims rücknahme einer klage waiver of an action rückreise return journey rücktrittsklausel cancellation clause rückvergütete prämie returned premium rückversicherer reinsurer rückversichern reinsure rückversicherung reinsurance rückversicherung annehmen accept reinsurance rückversicherungsgesellschaft reinsurance company rückversicherungspolice reinsurance policy rückversicherungsprovision reinsurance commission rückversicherungsvertrag reinsurance contract rückzahlung refund s sachlage circumstances sachschaden damage to property sachschaden material damage sachschaden property damage sachschaden, sachverlust loss of property sachverhalt circumstances of the case sachversicherung insurance of property sachversicherung property insurance sachverständigengutachten expertise sachverständiger in havarieangelegenheiten despacheur sammelversicherung group insurance sammelversicherung, gruppenversicherung collective insurance schaden damage schaden durch rost und oxydierung loss by rust and oxidation schaden durch seewasser, seewasserschaden damage by sea water schaden durch seewasser, seewasserschaden sea-water damage schaden durch süßwasser, süßwasserschaden damage by fresh water schaden durch süßwasser, süßwasserschaden fresh-water damage schaden erleiden meet with a loss schaden erleiden suffer a loss schaden erleiden sustain a loss schaden ersetzen make good a loss schaden mindern minimize loss schaden regulieren adjust a claim schaden regulieren settle a claim schaden vergüten, schaden ersetzen make up for a loss schaden verursachen occasion a loss schaden zufügen, verlust zufügen inflict a loss schaden, nachteil harm schadenbeteiligungsrückversicherung quota share reinsurance schadenersatz damages schadenersatz in nautura compensation in kind schadenersatzleistung payment of damages schadenfestsetzung fixing of damages schadenminderungsklausel sue and labour clause schadensabteilung claims department schadensabteilung claims office schadensanzeige loss advice schadensanzeige notice of claim schadensanzeige notice of loss schadensanzeige erstatten give notice of loss schadensbearbeiter adjuster schadensbearbeitungskosten claims expenses schadensbenachrichtigung, schadensmeldung notification of claim schadensbetrag amount of damage schadensbüro adjustment bureau schadensbüro adjustment office schadensbüro claims department schadensereignis damaging event schadensersatz indemnity schadensersatz für spätfolgen remote damages schadensersatz gewähren award damages schadensersatzbemessung measure of damages schadensersatzforderung, ersatzanspruch claim for indemnification schadensersatzklage action for damages schadensersatzpflichtig answerable for damages schadensersatzpflichtig held for damages schadensersatzpflichtig liable for damages schadensersatzpflichtig liable to indemnify schadensersatzpflichtig liable to pay damages schadenserwartung expectation of loss schadensfall case of loss schadensfall event of damage or loss schadensfestsetzung, schadenbegutachtung loss assessment schadensfeststellung, schadensausmaß measure of damages schadensfeuer hostile fire schadensfälle bearbeiten handle claims schadensfreiheitsrabatt no-claims bonus schadenshäufigkeit incidence of loss schadenshäufigkeit loss frequency schadensmeldung, meldung des schadens notification of loss schadensquote loss ratio schadensreferent claims agent schadensregulierung adjustment of a loss schadensregulierung claim settlement schadensregulierung loss settlement schadensrisiko durch aussperrung lockout risk schadensrisiko durch streikhandlungen strike risk schadenssachverständiger insurance adjuster schadensstatistik loss statistics schadenssumme amount of loss schadensumfang, schadensausmaß extent of loss schadensverhütung loss prevention schadensverteilung loss repartition schadenswahrscheinlichkeit chance of loss schadenswahrscheinlichkeit probability of loss schadenswert, schadensumfang, schadenshöhe amount of loss schadhaft damaged schiedsgericht court of arbitration schiedsgerichtsbarkeit arbitration schiedsspruch arbitration award schiedsspruch annehmen abide by an award schiedsverfahren arbitration proceedings schiffsschweiß ship's sweat schimmel, verschimmeln mould schlecht regeln maladjust schlecht verwalten mismanage schlichtung conciliation schmerzensgeld damages for pain and suffering schmuck, schmucksachen jewelry schmuckversicherung, juwelenversicherung jeweler insurance schädlich, nachteilig harmful schädlich, schädigend, nachteilig hurtful schätzen estimate schätzwert appraised value schätzwert estimated value schreibfehler clerical mistake schriftliche anzeige written information schriftliche zusicherung written agreement schriftliche Übereinkunft written agreement schriftlicher beweis literal proof schriftlicher vertrag written agreement schuttaufräumung clearance of debris schutz aufheben suspend cover schutz gewähren extend cover schutz gewähren give cover schutz gewähren provide cover schwachstromanlage low tension installation schwankungsrückstellung equalisation fund schwebender schaden, drohender schaden pending loss schwere einbußen, schwerer schaden heavy losses schwere körperverletzung grievous bodily harm schwere verluste heavy losses schwindel humbug seegefahren, seerisiko marine adventure seegefahren, seerisiko marine peril seehaftpflichtversicherung marine liability insurance seekaskoversicherer hull underwriter seekaskoversicherung marine hull insurance seeprotest ship's protest seeraub, piraterie piracy seetransport marine transport seetransportversicherung ocean marine insurance seeversicherer marine insurer seeversicherer marine underwriter seeversicherung marine insurance seeversicherung maritime insurance seeversicherung, seetransportversicherung marine insurance seeversicherung, Überseetransportversicherung ocean marine insurance seeversicherungspolice marine insurance policy seeversicherungspolice marine policy seewurf, Überbordwerfen, über bord werfen jettison selbstentzündung spontaneous combustion selbstversicherung self-insurance selbstverstümmelung maiming oneself sendung consignment sendung shipment sich beteiligen participate sich enthalten, sich zurückhalten abstain sicheres ereignis certain event sicherheit safety sicherheit stellen give security sicherheitsabstand, sicherheitsspanne safety margin sicherheitsbedingung safety condition sicherheitseinrichtungen safety installations sicherheitsfaktor safety factor sicherheitsingenieur, sicherheitsbeauftragter safety engineer sicherheitsmaßnahmen safety precautions sicherheitsmaßnehmen, sicherkeitsvorkehrungen safety measures sicherheitsreserve contingency fund sicherheitsrücklage reserve for contingencies sicherheitsvorrichtungen safety appliances sicherheitsüberwachungsabteilung safety engineering department sichern, schützen, gewähr leisten safeguard sichtbar visible sinnestäuschung mental delusion so bald wie möglich as soon as practicable sofort beginnende rente immediate annuity sofort und auf der stelle then and there sofortig immediately sofortiger tod instantaneous death sonderrechtsklausel liberties clause sonstige strittige punkte other matters in difference sorglos, unachtsam careless sorgsam, sorgfältig careful säumig dafaulting säumiger defaulter sozialversicherung social insurance sozialversicherung (br.) national insurance sozialversicherung (br.) national security sozialversicherungsbeiträge national insurance contributions sozialversicherungsgesetz (br.) national insurance act sozialversicherungskarte (br.) national insurance card sozialversicherungskarte (us) social security card sozialversicherungsleistungen social insurance benefits sozialversicherungsträger social insurance carrier spekulatives risiko speculative risk sperrgebiet prohibited zone spezialisieren specialize spezialisiert specialized spezialisierung specialization spezielle schadensversicherung specific insurance sportbootversicherung small craft insurance sprinkleranlage sprinkler installation staatliche aufsicht government supervision staatliche aufsicht state supervision staatliche versicherung state insurance staatlicher gesundheitsdienst (br.) national health service statisticshe tabelle statistical table statistiker statistician statistische aufstellung statistical table statistische aufzeichnungen statistical records steigendes risiko increasing risk sterbegeld death benefit sterbegeld death grant sterbegeld funeral benefit sterbegeldversicherung funeral costs insurance sterbegeldversicherung funeral expense insurance sterberegister register of deaths sterberisiko mortality risk sterbeurkunde death certificate sterblichkeit mortality sterblichkeitsgewinn mortality gain sterblichkeitsstruktur pattern of mortality sterblichkeitstafel mortality table sterblichkeitsverlust mortality loss sterblichkeitsziffer mortality rate stichhaltiges argument valid argument stillschweigend tacit stillschweigende biligung tacit approval stillschweigende vereinbarung tacit agreement stillschweigende zustimmung tacit consent strafrechtlich haftbar criminally liable strahlenrisiken radiation hazards strahlungsrisiko nuclear radiation risk straßenräuberei highway robbery streikklausel strikes clause streit, streiten quarrel strikt stringent strittige angelegenheit matter in dispute strittige frage question in dispute strittiger punkt question at issue sturmversicherung tornado insurance sturmversicherung windstorm insurance subjektiver schaden sentimental damage subjektives risiko moral hazard subjektives risiko des versicherten moral hazard summenrabatt discount for large sums t tabelle table tagesgeld daily allowance tagesgeld daily benefits tarif festlegen make a tariff tariffestsetzung tariff making tarifprämie tariff rate tatsache fact tatsächliche lage, stand der dinge actual state of affairs tatsächliche todesfälle actual deaths tatsächlicher betrag actual amount tatsächlicher gesamtschaden actual total loss tatsächlicher schaden actual loss tatsächlicher totalschaden actual total loss tatsächlicher verlust, tatsächlicher schaden actual loss tatsächlicher wert, wirklicher wert actual value taxpolice valued policy technische Überprüfung technical check technischer verlust technical loss teilabtretung partial assignment teilbetrag partial amount teilhaberversicherung business partnership insurance teilinvalidität partial disability teilinvalidität partial disablement teilnehmen participate teilnehmen an take an active part in teilschaden part damage teilschaden partial loss teilschaden, beschädigung partial damage teilschaden, teilverlust partial loss teilsendung partial shipment teilweise bezahlt, nur zum teil bezahlt partly paid teilweise, unvollständig, nur zum teil partial teilzahlung partial payment tierversicherung, viehversicherung livestock insurance tilgen amortize tilgung amortization todesfallrisiko death risk todesfallversicherung whole life insurance todesnachweis proof of death todestag day of death todesursache cause of death totalschaden, totalverlust total loss totalverlust total loss totalverlust, totalschaden total loss totenschein, sterbeurkunde death certificate täuschen deceive täuschend deceptive täuschung deceit transitverlust, transportschaden loss in transit transportrisiko peril of transportation transportrisiko risk of transport transportrisiko transportation risk transportversicherung goods in transit insurance transportversicherung insurance of goods in transit transportversicherung transit insurance transportversicherung transport insurance treibgut flotsam tresorfachversicherung safe deposit box insurance treten in kraft come into force treuhandvertrag deed of trust treulos unfaithful tropenkrankheit tropical disease tödlicher unfall fatal accident u Überbrückungszeitraum transitory period Übereinstimmung accord Überentschädigung overcompensation Überfall, überfallen raid Überlassung cession Überlebender survivor Überprüfung der gesundheit health examination Überschlagen eines fahrzeugs overturning of a vehicle Überschuss excess Überschwemmungsversicherung flood insurance Überversicherung double insurance Überversicherung excess insurance Überversicherung over-insurance Überversicherung over insurance Überwachungsstelle supervisory board Überzahlung overpayment örtliche bedingungen local terms über bord geworfene ladung, strandgut jetsam über durchschnitt, überdurchschnittlich above average überfluten, überschwemmen overflow überfällig overdue überfällige prämie premium overdue übergeben hand over übergeben, überlassen, aufgeben surrender überhöhter schadensersatz excessive damages überleben survive überprüfen check übertragbar transferable übertragen confer überversichern over insure überweisen, zahlen remit übliche abzüge customary deductions umfang extent umfang der versicherungen volume of insurances contracted umfassen, beinhalten, einschließen comprise umfassend comprehensive umfassende police comprehensive policy umgehend at your earliest convenience umsatzvolumen volume of trade umstand, sachlage circumstance umstände außer unserer kontrolle circumstances beyond control umzugsversicherung furniture-in-transit insurance unabänderlich unalterable unabwendbar, unvermeidlich, unvermeidbar inevitable unachtsamkeit carelessness unanfechtbar incontestable unangemessen, unzureichend inadequate unausgesprochen unexpressed unbeabsichtigt unintentional unbedacht unmindful unbeglaubigt unauthenticated unbegründet unfounded unbegründeter anspruch bad claim unbekannt unknown unbenutzt unused unberechtigte forderung false claim unbeschädigt undamaged unbeschränkt unlimited unbeschränkt haftbar liable without limitation unbeschränkter eigentümer absolute owner unbestimmt indefinite unbestimmt unascertained unbestritten uncontradicted unbezahlt unpaid unechter ersatzanspruch fictitious claim unerledigt outstanding unerledigt lassen, nicht tun fail unersetzlicher verlust irrecoverable loss unerwartet unexpected unfall accident unfall durch ermüdung fatigue accident unfallentschädigung accident indemnity unfallrente accident benefit unfallrisiko accident hazard unfallrisiko accident risk unfallsentschädigung compensation for an accident unfallstatistik accident statistics unfallverhütung accident prevention unfallvermeidung accident avoidance unfallversicherung accident insurance unfallversicherung casualty insurance unfallversicherung (us) casualty insurance unfallversicherungsgesellschaft casualty company unfallzusatzversicherung (verdoppelt wert) double-indemnity clause ungedeckt uncovered ungeeignet unfit ungeeignet unqualified ungerechtfertigt unjustified ungesichert unsecured ungewiss, unberechenbar incalculable ungültigkeit nullity unkontrolliert uncontrolled unlauter unfair unlautere methoden unfair practices unmittelbar. sofort immediate unmittelbare folge immediate consequence unmittelbarer schaden direct loss unregelmäßige zahlungen irregular payments unrichtige angabe false pretence unschädlich, ohne nachteil harmless unsicheres ereignis uncertain event unsichtbar invisible untauglich unfit unter ausschluss von havarie free from average unter eid on oath unterbewerten underrate unterbewertet, unter tarif underrated unterbrechen discontinue unterbrechen interrupt unterbrechung discontinuance unterbrechung interruption untergegangene sachen, verlorene sachen goods destroyed unterhalt, lebensunterhalt, versorgung maintenance unterhaltungskosten maintenance expenses unterlassen leave something undone unternehmerisches risiko business hazard unterschätzen underestimate unterschrift signature unterstützung benefit unterverpachten, untervermieten underlet unterversichern underinsure unterversichert underinsured unterversicherung underinsurance ununterbrochen uninterrupted ununterrichtet uninformed unverbrauchte prämie unearned premium unverfallbarkeit non-forfeiture unverheiratet unmarried unvermeidbares ereignis inevitable event unvermeidlich inevitable unvermeidlich unavoidable unvermeidlicher unfall inevitable accident unverändert unchanged unverpackt, lose loose unverschuldet unindebted unverschuldet without one's fault unversicherbar uninsurable unvorhergesehen unforeseen unvorteilhaft unprofitable unwesentlich unessential unwichtig unimportant unwissenheit ignorance unwissend ignorant unzureichend versichert inadequately insured ursache eines schadens cause of a loss ursache, verursachung, verursachen cause urteil judgment v valorenversicherung insurance of specie in transit vandalismus, mutwillige beschädigung vandalism variabel variable verantwortlich machen, haftbar machen hold responsible verbesserung betterment verbindlich binding verborgener fehler latent defect verbrauchte prämie earned premium verbunden joint verbundene versicherung comprehensive insurance verdeckter schaden hidden damage verdienstausfall loss of earnings vereinbarter wert agreed value verfalldatum expiry date verfallen, hinfällig werden, ablaufen lapse verfallene police lapsed policy vergleich compromise vergleichbar comparable vergleichen compare verhaltensstruktur behaviour pattern verheimlichen, verschweigen conceal verheimlichung, verschweigen concealment verjährung des anspruchs limitation of claim verjährungsfrist period of limitation verkaufsumfang volume of sales verkaufswert selling value verkehrsdelikt motoring offence verkehrsrisiko road risk verkehrsunfall automobile accident verkehrsunfall motoring accident verkehrsunfall traffic accident verkehrsunfallprozess, prozess wegen unfalls accident action verlangen, benötigen, wünschen want verlieren lose verlängern extend verlängerung extension verlängerung extension of a period verlängerung der frist extension of time verloren lost verloren gehen get lost verlust loss verlust ausgleichen set off a loss verlust der fracht loss of cargo verlust des arbeitsplatzes loss of employment verlust des schiffes loss of ship verlust durch auslaufen loss by leakage verlust durch auslaufen ullage, leakage verlust erleiden experience a loss verlust in kauf nehmen take a loss verlust tragen bear a loss verlust von dienstleistungen loss of services verlust, schaden loss verlustausgleich, entschädigung loss compensation verlustkonto loss account verlustrisiko durch bruchschaden breakage risk verlustrisiko durch kesselschaden boilers risk verlustrisiko durch revolution revolution risk verlustvortrag loss carried forward vermeiden avoid vermeidung avoidance vermögen fortune vermögensschaden pecuniary loss vermögensschaden property loss vermögensschaden erleiden suffer pecuniary loss vermögensschäden financial losses vernünftig, zumutbar reasonable veränderliches risiko, wechselndes risiko variable risk verpflichten oblige verpflichten undertake verpflichtung obligation verpflichtung nicht einhalten default verpflichtung zu zahlen obligation to pay verpflichtungen nachkommen meet one's obligations verrsicherung mit optionen insurance with options verschiedene risiken, gemischte risiken miscellaneous risks verschwiegenheit secrecy verschwiegenheitspflicht obligation of secrecy versehen accidental slip versicherbar insurable versicherbar, versicherungsfähig insurable versicherbare sache, versicherbares eigentum insurable property versicherbarer wert insurable value versicherbares interesse insurable interest versicherbares risiko insurable risk versicherer insurer versicherer, versicherungsgeber insurer versichern insure versichert covered by insurance versichert gegen feuer insured against fire versicherte gefahr peril insured against versicherte gefahren, gedeckte risiken perils insured against versicherte person insured person versicherte person person insured versicherte sache insured object versicherte sache property insured versicherte sache, versicherter gegenstand subject-matter insured versicherter, versicherungsnehmer insurant versichertes objekt, versicherter gegenstand object insured versicherung insurance versicherung nehmen take out insurance versicherung abschließen effect a policy versicherung abschließen effect insurance versicherung abschließen take out insurance versicherung auf gegenseitigkeit mutual office versicherung auf gegenseitigkeit reciprocal insurance versicherung auf verbundene leben joint life assurance versicherung beantragen apply for insurance versicherung beantragen propose an insurance versicherung decken cover insurance versicherung der seefrachtgüter cargo insurance versicherung der ware insurance of goods versicherung gegen alle risiken all-risk insurance versicherung gegen alle üblichen risiken insurance against all risks versicherung gegen beschädigung insurance against damage versicherung gegen bruchschaden insurance against breakage versicherung gegen erdbeben earthquake insurance versicherung gegen explosion explosion insurance versicherung gegen frostschäden frost damage insurance versicherung kündigen cancel a policy versicherung mit prämienrückgewähr insurance with bonus versicherung mit selbstbeteiligung co-insurance versicherung ohne prämienrückgewähr insurance without bonus versicherung ohne ärztliche untersuchung insurance without medical examination versicherung verkaufen sell insurance versicherung von lagerbeständen insurance of stocks versicherung von schiff und ladung insurance of ship and cargo versicherung zum wiederbeschaffungswert replacement value insurance versicherung übernehmen accept insurance versicherungs-aktiengesellschaft joint-stock insurance company versicherungsabteilung insurance department versicherungsanspruch insurance claim versicherungsanstalt insurance institution versicherungsantrag insurance proposal versicherungsantrag proposal form versicherungsantrag, antragsformular application form versicherungsart type of insurance versicherungsarten classes of insurance versicherungsaufsicht insurance control versicherungsbeamter insurance officer versicherungsbesteuerung insurance taxation versicherungsbestimmungen insurance regulations versicherungsbestimmungen provisions of an insurance policy versicherungsbetrag amount insured versicherungsbetrug insurance fraud versicherungsbrauch, versicherungstechnik actuarial practice versicherungsdauer term of insurance versicherungsdienst insurance service versicherungsfall insured event versicherungsfähigkeit insurability versicherungsgebühr insurance fee versicherungsgegenstand, versicherungsobjekt object insured versicherungsgenossenschaft co-operative insurance association versicherungsgeschäft insurance business versicherungsgeschäft nach einheitstarifen tariff business versicherungsgeschäft nach einheitstarifen tariff insurance versicherungsgeschäfte insurance transactions versicherungsgeschäfte tätigen transact insurance business versicherungsgesellschaft insurance company versicherungsgesellschaft auf gegenseitigkeit mutual insurance society versicherungsgesetzgebung insurance legislation versicherungsgewerbe, versicherungswesen insurance industry versicherungsinspektor insurance inspector versicherungsjahr insurance year versicherungskalkulation actuarial calculation versicherungsklausel insurance clause versicherungskombination insurance combination versicherungskonsortium syndicate of underwriters versicherungskosten insurance charges versicherungskosten insurance expenses versicherungsleistungen insurance payments versicherungsmakler insurance broker versicherungsmarkt insurance market versicherungsmathematik insurance mathematics versicherungsmathematiker actuary versicherungsmathematisch actuarial versicherungsmathematische abteilung actuarial department versicherungsmathematische tabellen actuarial tables versicherungsmedizin medico-actuarial science versicherungsnehmer insurance holder versicherungsnehmer policy owner versicherungsnehmer policyholder versicherungsnummer insurance policy number versicherungsort insurance location versicherungsperiode period of insurance versicherungspolice policy versicherungsprämie insurance rate versicherungsprämiensatz insurance rate versicherungsprovision insurance commission versicherungsrecht insurance law versicherungsrisiken underwriting risks versicherungssachverständiger insurance adjuster versicherungsschutz insurance cover versicherungsschutz insurance coverage versicherungsstatistik actuarial statistics versicherungsstatistik insurance statistics versicherungssteuer insurance tax versicherungssumme sum insured versicherungstätigkeiten insurance activities versicherungsträger insurance carrier versicherungsträger insurance company versicherungsträger insurer versicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit mutual insurance association versicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit (us) mutual insurance corporation versicherungsverkäufer insurance salesman versicherungsvertrag contract of insurance versicherungsvertrag insurance agreement versicherungsvertrag insurance contract versicherungsvertreter insurance agent versicherungsvertreter insurance canvasser versicherungsvertreter insurance salesman versicherungswerber insurance canvasser versicherungswert actuarial value versicherungswert insurable value versicherungswert insurance value versicherungswert, versicherter wert insured value versicherungswirtschaft insurance industry versicherungszertifikat certificate of insurance versicherungszertifikat insurance certificate versicherungszweig class of insurance versorgung, reserve, rücklage provision versorgungsklausel maintenance clause versäumnis failure versäumnis lapse versperren obstruct versteckter fehler hidden fault versteckter mangel hidden defect verstehen understand versteuerung von versicherungen insurance taxation verteilung der rückvergütung allotment of bonus verteilung des risikos, risikoverteilung distribution of risks verteilungsmethode method of allocation vertrag auf lebenszeit life contract vertrag für nichtig erklären avoid a contract vertrag unterzeichnen sign a contract vertraglich verpflichtet liable under a contract vertragliche vereinbarung contractual agreement vertragserfüllung performance of a contract vertragserneuerung renewal of contract vertragsähnliche vereinbarung quasi agreement vertragspartei party to the contract vertragsschaden damage for breach of contract vertrauen, vertrauen trust vertraulich confidential vertreter agent vertreter einer versicherungsgesellschaft insurance representative vertreterstab, vertreterorganisation sales force verursachter schaden damage caused verursachter schaden damage done verwaltung administration verwaltung management verwaltungsabteilung administration department verwaltungskosten management costs verwaltungskosten management expenses verwaltungsrat administrative board verwechseln, verwechslung mistake verwechslung mistake in name verzicht waiver verzichten waive verzichterklärung notice of abandonment viehversicherung cattle insurance vierteljahresprämie quarterly premium voll gedeckter schaden loss fully covered by insurance voller wert full value vollinvalidität total disability vollkasko- und insassenversicherung fully comprehensive cover vollkaskopolice comprehensive policy vollkaskoversicherung comprehensive insurance vollmacht authority vollständiger name full name von fall zu fall as the case arises von haus zu haus warehouse to warehouse von jetzt ab as from now vor verlust bewahren, vor schaden bewahren save from a loss voraussetzen, als gegeben annehmen take for granted vorbereiten prepare vordatieren antedate vordatieren date forward vorfall, ereignis incident vorfall, ereignis occurrence vorfallen, ereignen occur vorgehen, maßgeblich sein override vorherige krankheit previous illness vorherige versicherung, vorversicherung previous insurance vorlegen, einreichen, unterbreiten submit vorlegen, vorbringen lay vorliegende sache, vorliegender fall matter in hand vorläufiger versicherungsschein insurance note vorläufiger versicherungsschutz provisional cover vorrang haben take priority vorrang, vorrecht, priorität priority vorrecht eines anspruchs priority of a claim vorschlag, antrag proposal vorschrift, verordnung, bestimmung, klausel provision vorschriften einhalten comply with formalities vorschuss advance vorschüssige zahlung payment in advance vorsehen, verordnen, bestimmen provide vorsicht, warnung, warnen caution vorsorgereserve provident fund vorsätzlich willfully vorsätzliche handlung willful act vorsätzliche körperverletzung malicious injury vorsätzliche unterlassung willful default vorsätzliches missverhalten willful misconduct vorspiegelung falscher tatsachen false pretences vorspiegelung falscher tatsachen willful misrepresentation vorteil advantage vorteil ziehen aus take advantage of vorteilhaft advantageous vorvertrag preliminary contract vorwand pretence vorzeitige fälligkeit acceleration vorübergehend temporary vorübergehende arbeitsunfähigkeit temporary disability vorübergehende invalidität temporary disability vorübergehender zeitraum transitory period w wagendiebstahl car theft wahrheitsgetreue kopie true copy wahrscheinlich likely wahrscheinliche lebensdauer probable duration of life wahrscheinlichkeit likelihood wahrscheinlichkeit probability wahrscheinlichkeit eines ereignisses probability of an event wahrscheinlichkeit eines schadens probability of a loss wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung calculus of probability wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie theory of probability waldversicherung forest insurance warengattung type of goods warengattung type of merchandise warengattung, art von ware kind of goods warenversicherung insurance of merchandise warten wait wartezeit waiting period wasserschaden water damage wasserschadenversicherung water damage insurance wasserschadenversicherung sprinkler leakage insurance wegabweichungsklausel deviation clause wegen eines formfehlers for want of form weglassung omission weitere angaben, weitere einzelheiten further particulars weiteres beweismaterial other evidence weltpolice world-wide policy werbeabteilung advertising department werbeabteilung public relations department werbeabteilung publicity department wert value wert der beschädigten ware damaged value wert der unbeschädigten ware sound value wert des wagens value of car wert einer ware value of a good wert eines gebäudes value of a building wert im beschädigten zustand damaged value wert im unbeschädigten zustand sound value wertabnahme, wertminderung decrease in value wertbrief insured letter werterhöhungen, verbesserungen improvements wertminderung depreciation in value wertminderung, verfall deterioration wertpaket insured parcel wertsachen valuables wertsachenversicherung insurance of valuables wertvoll valuable wertzunahme increase in value wesentlich falsche darstellung material misrepresentation wesentlicher bestandteil essential element wetterversicherung, regenversicherung weather insurance wie vereinbart as per agreement wie üblich as customary wieder flott machen refloat wiedereingliederung, rehabilitation rehabilitation wiedererstattung, rückerstattung recovery wiederherstellen restore wiederinkraftsetzung reinstatement wiederinkraftsetzungsklausel reinstatement clause wiederinkraftsetzungswert reinstatement value willkürlich arbitrary wirklich berechtigt actually entitled wirkliche sachverhalt real facts wirksam werden come into operation wirksam werden take effect wirtschaftliches risiko economic risk wissentlich knowing witwenrente widow's annuity witwenrente widow's pension witwenversicherung widow's insurance wochenbeitrag weekly contribution wochengeld maternity allowance wochengeld, wochenhilfe, mutterschaftsgeld maternity benefit wohlbehalten safe and sound wohltätigkeitsverein auf gegenseitigkeit mutual benefit association wohngebiet residential zone wohnhaft resident wohnungseinbruchsversicherung residence burglary insurance während der arbeitszeit on the job x y z zahlbar werden become payable zahlung der prämie, prämienzahlung premium pay zahlung eines pauschalbetrages lump sum payment zahlung in raten payment by installments zahlungserleichterungen facilities of payment zahlungsfrist term of payment zahlungspflichtig liable to pay zahlungsunfähigkeit insolvency zahlungsweise mode of payment zahnärztliche behandlung dental treatment zeichnungsberechtigt authorized to sign zeitdauer term zeitpolice time policy zeitrente, rente auf zeit temporary annuity zeitverlust loss of time zeitwert present value zentrale general office zentrale, hauptbüro head office zentralverwaltung, hauptverwaltung head office zession cession zettel slip zinseszins compound interest zinssatz, zinsrate rate of interest zinstabelle interest table zinstabelle table of interest zone zone zu beanstanden objectionable zu den akten nehmen take on file zu einem vergleich kommen come to terms zu einer pension berechtigend pensionable zu erneuern renewable zu gunsten von for the benefit of zu günstigen bedingungen on easy terms zu hoch bezahlen overpay zu zahlender betrag amount payable zufall, aissicht chance zufällig accidentally zufällig accidental zufällig incidental zufälliger verlust, zufälliger schaden loss by accident zufälliges ereignis fortuitous event zum schein in pretence zur rückversicherung angenommen reinsurance accepted zur selbsthilfe greifen take the law into one's hands zur zeit, bis auf weiteres for the time being zurück erhalten get back zurück datieren date back zurückgeben return zurückziehen, widerrufen take back zusage, versprechen, zusagen, versprechen promise zusammenbruch breakdown zusammenfassung, kurzfassung, auszug abstract zusammenstoß collision zusammentreffen concurrence zusatz, abänderung amendment zusatz, ergänzung endorsement zusatz, zugang addition zusatzbedingungen additional conditions zusatzpolice supplementary policy zusatzprämie additional premium zusatzprämie supplementary premium zusatzversicherung, ergänzungsversicherung complementary insurance zusatzversicherung, zusätzliche versicherung additional insurance zusichern assure zusicherung assurance zusätzlich additional zusätzliche kosten additional expenses zusätzliche sicherheit additional security zusätzliche zahlung additional payment zuviel entschädigung zahlen overcompensate zuviel zahlen overpay zuwachs accrual zuwachsen, auflaufen accrue zuweisen allocate zuweisen allot zuweisung allocation zuweisung allotment zuweisung an die reserven allocation to reserves zweck, absicht, ziel purpose zweifel, bedenken, zweifeln, bezweifeln doubt zweifelhaft doubtful zweiseitiges risiko bilateral risk zweite versicherung eingehen effect a second policy zwingend, obligatorisch, obligat obligatory zzzzz zzzzz zzzz copyright winfried honig zzzzz zzzzz nuernberg zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz winfried honig zzzzz zzzzz franz-reichel-ring zzzzz zzzzz nuernberg zzzzz zzzzz germany zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz tel. / zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz winfried.honig@online.de zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz http://dict.leo.org zzzzz zzzzz http://www.dicdata.de zzzzz zzzzz http://mrhoney.purespace.de/latest.htm zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz end of mr honey's insurance dictionary (german-english) (c) , by winfried honig mr honey's banking dictionary (german-english) (c) by winfried honig this is a work in progress dictionary of phrases commonly used. this book contains english and equivalent german phrases. we are releasing two versions of this book, sorted for the english reader and sorted for the german reader. dieses buch wurde uns freundlicherweise von dem verfasser zur verfügung gestellt. this book was generously donated to us by the author. ------------------acknowledgement: in the s winfried honig, known as mr honey, started compiling and computerizing english/german dictionaries, partly to provide his colleagues and students with samples of the language of business, partly to collect convincing material for his state department of education to illustrate the need for special dictionaries covering the special language used in different branches of the industry. in mr honey began to feed his wordlists into the leo online dictionary http://dict.leo.org of the technische universität münchen, and in into the dicdata online dictionary http://www.dicdata.de while more than . daily visitors use the online versions, cd-rom versions are available, see: http://www.leo.org/dict/cd_en.html http://www.dicdata.de http://mrhoney.purespace.de/latest.htm mr. honey would be pleased to answer questions sent to winfried.honig@online.de. permission granted to use the word-lists, on condition that links to the sites of leo, dicdata and mr honey are maintained. mr honey's services are non-commercial to promote the language of business both in english and in german.------------------- history and philosophy die anfänge dieses wörterbuches gehen zurück in die zeit als england der europäischen gemeinschaft beitreten wollte. in einer gemeinschaftsarbeit von bbc, british council, dem dept. of educ. und der oup machte man sich gedanken, wie man dem führungsnachwuchs auf dem kontinent die englische wirtschaftssprache beibringen könnte. als einer der wenigen dozenten, die damals in london wirtschaftsenglisch lehrten, kam ich in kontakt mit dem projekt. da ich mich zu jener zeit für eine karriere in der daten-verarbeitung oder als hochschullehrer für wirtschaftsenglisch entscheiden musste, wählte ich eine kombination von beidem. als dozent der fh machte ich den einsatz von multimedia in der vermittlung von brauchbarem wirtschaftsenglisch zu meiner aufgabe. für die anforderungen verschiedener seminare, schwerpunkte, zielgruppen entstanden aus der praktischen arbeit die wortlisten und wörterbücher. aufgewachsen und geschult in der praktischen denkweise von a.s. hornby, einem fellow des university college london, legte ich besonderen wert auf die hohe zahl möglichst dienlicher anwendungsbeispiele. die indizierten sequentiellen wortlisten der kompaktversionen, --anders und meines erachtens noch viel besser--die großen sequentiellen wortlisten der cd-rom-versionen mit der stufenweisen bis globalen suche in den wort- und beispiellisten zunehmenden umfangs, ermöglichen eine optimale sprachliche orientierung in einem umfangreichen wirtschaftlichen sprachsschatz. dabei sehe ich neue wege und möglichkeiten des erwerbs und des umgangs mit der fachsprache. wahrscheinlich bietet sich hier weit mehr als sich im ersten eindruck erahnen läßt. spielerisch sollte es möglich sein, leichter, schneller und intensiver zu lernen. durch die vielzahl der assoziationen dürfte sich schneller als bisher eine gehobene fachsprachliche kompetenz entwickeln. nummern prozent unter dem betrag per cent less than the amount prozent über dem betrag per cent more than the amount liter kiloliter a ab fabrik (incoterm) ex factory ab lager (incoterm) ex warehouse ab werk (incoterm) ex works abandon abandonment abandon, Überlassen abandonment abandonnieren abandon abandonnieren, überlassen, preisgeben abandon abbuchungsverfahren direct debiting abdanken resign abdankung resignation abenteuer, wagen adventure abenteurer, spekulant adventurer abfahren depart abfahrt departure abfahrtshafen, verladehafen port of departure abfahrtsliste sailing list abfahrtstag sailing date abfahrtszeit time of departure abfall waste abfall waste material abfallprodukt waste product abfindung compensation for loss of office abfindung golden handshake abfindung lump-sum settlement abfindungserklärung acceptance of lump-sum settlement abfindungssumme sum of acquittance abfindungswert amount payable on settlement abfluss drain abfluss von gold drain of bullion abgabepflichtig dutiable abgelaufen expired abgelaufen out of date abgelaufener scheck stale check abgeleitete nachfrage, sekundäre nachfrage derived demand abgeleitetes einkommen, sekundäres einkommen derived income abgezahlt, voll eingezahlt paid-up abhanden gekommenes dokument lost document abheben, zurückziehen withdraw abhelfen remedy abhilfe, rechtsbehelf, heilmittel remedy abholfach, verteilfach pigeon-hole abhängig dependent abhängig sein von depend on abhängig von contingent on abklären, gegeneinander aufrechnen clear abkommen convention abkühlungsperiode cooling-off period abkürzung abbreviation ablauf expiry ablauf des vertrages expiration of contract ablauf, ende expiration ablaufen run off ablaufen, enden expire ablegen, akte file ablehnen decline ablehnen, entlassen dismiss ablehnung rejection ablösbarkeit redeemableness ablösen redeem ablösungssumme redemption sum abnahme decrease abnahme der liquidität decrease in liquidity abnahme der preise decrease of prices abnahmebescheinigung certificate of inspection abnehmender ertrag diminishing returns abnehmender nutzen diminishing utility abnehmendes risiko decreasing risk abnutzung wear and tear abnutzung, verschleiß wear and tear abändern amend abändern modify abänderung amendment abänderung modification abonnentenversicherung subscribers' insurance abonnieren subscribe abrechnen, rechnung legen render account abrechnung clearing abrechnung der konten settlement of accounts abrechnung verschieben postpone settlement abrechnungsposten clearing item abrechnungsstelle clearing house abrechnungstag account day abrechnungstag settling day abrechnungszeitraum accounting period abrechnungszeitraum fiscal period abruf call abrufbar callable abrunden round up abrundung rounding absatz paragraph absatzförderung merchandising absatzgebiet, ansatzkanal outlet abschaffen abolish abschalten switch off abschlagsdividende interim dividend abschlagszahlung payment on account abschlägige antwort negative answer abschluss acquisition abschluss von deckungsgeschäften hedging abschlusskosten acquisition costs abschlussprovision acquisition commission abschlussvermittlung acquisition agent abschluß der bücher closing of books abschlußort place of signature abschnitt counterfoil abschnitt coupon abschnitt, bereich sector abschätzen, bewerten rate sth abschätzung estimation abschätzung des schadens appraisal of damage abschreiben depreciate abschreiben write off abschreiben, abwerten depreciate abschreibepolice declaration policy abschreibepolice floating policy abschreibung depreciation abschreibung write-off abschreibung, abwertung depreciation abschreibungsbetrag amount of depreciation abschreibungskonto depreciation account abschreibungsmethode method of depreciation abschreibungssatz rate of depreciation abschwächung easing abschwächung weaker tendency abschwächung der geldsätze easing in money rates absenden, abfertigen, abfertigung dispatch absender consignor absender sender absichern hedge absichern, sichern, gewährleisten ensure absicht intent absicht intention absichtlich intentional absoluter höchststand all-time peak absoluter vorteil absolute advantage absolutes monopol absolute monopoly absperrung durch streikposten picketing absplittern chipping absprache gentlemen's agreement abstimmung reconcilement abteilung department abteilung division abteilung section abteilungskosten departmental costs abteilungsleiter head of department abteilungsleiterin, direktrice manageress abtrennbar detachable abtrennen detach abtrennen, trennen, lösen detach abtretbarkeit einer forderung transferability of a claim abtreten convey abtreten, zedieren cede abtretender assignor abtretung conveyance abtretung einer forderung assignment of a debt abtretung einer hypothek mortgage assignment abtretung, Überlassung abandonment abwanderung migration abweichen deviate abweichen von deviate from abweichung deviation abweichung discrepancy abweichung von der reiseroute deviation from the voyage abweichung, variation variation abwerbung labor piracy abwerten devaluate abwerten devalue abwertung devaluation abwesend absent abwesender absentee abwesenheit absence abwickeln wind up abwicklung des handels trade procedure abwicklung, liquidation winding-up abwärtstrend downtrend abzahlen, tilgen, zurückzahlen pay off abzahlung, abstottern (br.) never-never abzahlungsgeschäft, teilzahlungsgeschäft installment business abzahlungskauf, mietkauf hire-purchase abzahlungskredit installment credit abzahlungssystem tally system abzahlungssystem, teilzahlungssystem installment system abzahlungsverkauf (br.) sale on hire-purchase abzeichen badge abziehen deduct abziehen subtract abzug deduction abzug der spesen deduction of expenses abzugsfähig deductible abzugsfähiger betrag deductible amount abzugspflicht deduction at source abzüglich aufwendungen less disbursements abzüglich auslagen less expenses abzüglich gebühren charges to be deducted abzüglich gebühren less charges achtstundentag eight-hour day achtung, hochschätzung esteem addieren, hinzufügen add addiermaschine adding machine adresse address adressenliste mailing list adressiermaschine addressing machine advokat, rechtsanwalt solicitor Änderung alteration Änderung modification Änderung der anschrift change of address Änderung der stimmung change in mood Änderung des reiseziels change of voyage Änderung des risikos change in the risk Änderung des wechselkurses parity change Änderung vorbehalten subject to change Änderungen betreffend die dokumente changes in documentation Änderungen der verfahrensweise changes in procedures Änderungen vorbehalten subject to alterations Änderungsanzeige advice of amendment Änderungsbenachrichtigung notice of amendment Äquivalenzwert equivalent value Ärgernis nuisance ärztliche ansicht medical opinion ärztliche auslese medical selection ärztliche behandlung medical treatment ärztliche beobachtung medical observation ärztliche betreuung medical care ärztliche hilfe für alte leute (us) medicaid ärztliche hilfe, ärztliche behandlung medical attendance ärztliche untersuchung medical examination ärztliche untersuchung medical inspection ärztliche untersuchung physical examination ärztliches attest medical certificate ärztliches gutachten medical estimate ärztliches honorar medical fee äußere beschädigung external damage äußerliches erscheinungsbild appearance äußerst gedrückter markt demoralized market äußerste utmost ag public limited company agentur agency agentur, geschäftsstelle agency agentur, vertretung agency aggregattafel aggregate table aggressiv, angriffslustig aggressive aggressive verkaufstechnik high-pressure selling aggressivität aggressiveness agitator agitator agitieren agitate akkordarbeit job work akkordsatz job rate akkordzettel job sheet akkreditiv letter of credit akkreditiv-bedingungen credit terms akkreditive sind getrennte geschäfte credits are separate transactions aktentasche briefcase aktenzeichen reference number aktien besitzen hold shares aktien der elektronikindustrie electronics shares aktien der gummiindustrie rubber shares aktien der maschinenbauindustrie engineering shares aktien der nahrungsmittelindustrie foods shares aktien der schiffsbauindustrie shipbuilding shares aktien für die direktoren management shares aktien mit garantierter dividende debenture stock aktien von versicherungsgesellschaften insurance shares aktien zeichnen subscribe for shares aktien zuteilen allot shares aktienbank joint stock bank aktienbank joint-stock bank aktienbesitz holding of shares aktienbesitz shareholdings aktienbesitz stockholding aktiengesellschaft joint stock company aktiengesellschaft joint-stock company aktiengesellschaft public limited company aktiengesellschaft (us) corporation aktienindex index of stocks aktienkapital capital stock aktienkapital equity aktienkapital joint-stock capital aktienkapital share capital aktienkurs price of shares aktienmarkt shares market aktienmehrheit majority of shares aktiennotierung stock quotation aktienpaket block of shares aktienverkauf ohne beschränkung open market aktienzertifikat share certificate aktienübertragung stock transfer aktionär shareholder aktionär stock holder aktionär stockholder aktiva und passiva assets and liabilities aktivbilanz favorable balance aktive handelsbilanz favorable balance of trade aktiver teilhaber active partner aktives unternehmen operating company aktivieren activate aktivität, handlung activity aktivposten asset aktivposten der bilanz assets aktivseite der bilanz, aktiva assets aktivzinsen interest receivable aktuar actuary akzept acceptance akzept unter vorbehalt qualified acceptance akzept, angenommener wechsel accepted bill akzept-bank (br.) accepting house akzept-obligobuch acceptor's ledger akzeptant acceptor akzeptieren accept akzeptierende bank accepting bank akzeptierte standardrichtlinien an accepted standard akzeptierung acceptance akzeptkredit acceptance credit akzeptleistung soll erbracht werden acceptance is to be made akzeptleistung vornehmen to effect acceptance akzeptmeldung advice of acceptance akzeptobligo accept liability akzeptprovision commission for acceptance alkoholfreie getränkeindustrie soft drink industry alkoholfreies getränk soft drink alle anderen bedingungen des kredits all other stipulations of the credit alle auslagen, die den banken entstehen any expenses incurred by banks alle beteiligten parteien all parties concerned alle gebühren, die den banken entstehen any charges incurred by banks alle gehören der gewerkschaft an closed shop alle möglichen risiken all risks whatsoever alle zum inkasso übersandten dokumente all documents sent for collection alle zum verkauf gehörigen kräfte, personen sales force alle zwei jahre biennial alle zwei monate bimonthly alle zwei wochen biweekly allein aufgrund der dokumente on the basis of the documents alone alleininhaber sole owner alleinvertreter exclusive agent alleinvertreter sole agent alleinvertretung exclusive agency alleinvertretung sole agency alleinvertretungsrecht sole right of representation allen sei herzlich gedankt sincere thanks are given to them all allerniedrigster preis rock-bottom price allgemein general allgemein verbindlich generally binding allgemeine anerkennung global acceptance allgemeine kosten general expenses allgemeine regeln general provisions allgemeine versicherungsbedingungen general conditions of insurance allgemeine versicherungsbedingungen general policy conditions allgemeiner verrechnungsvermerk general crossing allgemeinverbindlich generally binding als hypothek geben, verpfänden give in mortgage als inkassobank einsetzen to utilize as the collecting bank als leihgabe as a loan als nachrichtenübermittlungsträger as a means of transmitting information als notadresse tätig werden to act as case-of-need als pfand annehmen accept as pledge als pfand annehmen take sth in pawn als pfand halten hold in pledge als sicherheit serve as security als sicherheit hinterlegt pledged as security alteingesessen old-established alternative alternative alternatives bedarfsdeckungsgut alternate demand alterruhegeld, altersrente, pension old-age pension alterserhöhung addition to age altersgrenze age limit altersrente old-age pension altersrente pension annuity altersrente retirement annuity altersruhegeld old age pension altersruhegeld old-age benefits alterung aging alterversicherung old-age insurance am gewinn beteiligte obligationen participating bonds am oder um den on or about am oder vor dem verfalldatum on or before the expiry date am ort loco am schalter over the counter am verlust beteiligt sein participate in a loss am zahlungsort in the place of payment amerikanische buchführung columnar bookkeeping amerikanische buchführung tabular bookkeeping amortisationsbetrag equity of redemption amortisationsschein bill of redemption amortisieren, abzahlen amortize amortisierung amortization amt, büro, geschäftsraum office amtlich beglaubigt legally attested amtlich notiert officially quoted amtliche bekanntmachung bulletin amtliche kursnotierung an der börse official quotation amtliche notierung official quotation amtlicher börsenverkehr official trading amtlicher kurs official quotation amtsblatt gazette amtsdauer term of office amtszeichen dialing tone an bord aboard an dem bestimmbaren datum on the date determinable an demselben tag on the same date an den aussteller zurück refer to drawer an der arbeit in the work an der börse geführte aktien listed stocks an der börse zugelassener angestellter authorized clerk an der kasse over the counter an die börse gehen go public an die inkassobank to the collecting bank an die order zahlen von pay to the order of an die stelle treten von take the place of an einem geschäft beteiligt engaged in a business an einen dritten to a third party an einen index gebundene anleihe index loan an erster stelle top priority an erster stelle stehen rank first an order zahlbar payable to order an sich gefährliches gut goods dangerous in themselves an wert verlieren lose in value analyse analysis analysen analyses analysieren analyze analytiker analyst anbieten quote anbieten, preisangabe machen quote anbieter bidder anbieter offerer andere ähnliche dokumente other similar instruments andere un-gremien other un bodies anderen verfahren unterworfen subjected to other processes anderweitig ausdrücklich vereinbart otherwise expressly agreed andeuten, hinweis, tip hint anfallen accrue anfallend incidental anfallende nebenkosten incidental expenses anfang commencement anfang april beginning of april anfangen commence anfangs, anfangsbuchstabe initial anfangsbuchstaben initials anfangsgehalt starting salary anfangsprämie initial premium anfangsvermögen original assets anfechtbar defeasible anfechtbar voidable anfechten contest anfechtung contestation anfrage inquiry anfrage letter of inquiry anfrage, erkundigung enquiry anfrage, nachforschung inquiry anfragen, nachforschen inquire anführer leader angabe von referenzen quotation of references angeben, staat, zustand state angeben, zitieren quote angebot offer angebot offerings angebot quotation angebot mit zwischenverkaufsvorbehalt offer subject to prior sale angebot und nachfrage supply and demand angebot von sicherheitsleistungen tender of securities angebot, anbieten offer angefallene kosten costs incurred angefallene kosten expenses incurred angefügt, in der anlage attached angegeben quoted angegebener wert declared value angegliederte gesellschaft associated company angehend prospective angelegenheit affair angelegenheit matter angelegenheit von bedeutung matter of consequences angelegenheit von öffentlichem interesse matter of public concern angelegtes geld, gebundene mittel tied-up money angelernt semi-skilled angemessen adequate angemessen appropriate angemessen apt angemessen versorgt adequately supplied angemessene entschädigung adequate compensation angemessene entschädigung fair compensation angemessene entschädigung fair damages angemessene entschädigung reasonable compensation angemessene kündigungsfrist reasonable period of notice angemessene sorgfalt adequate care angemessene sorgfalt reasonable diligence angemessenheit adequacy angenommen accepted angenommener schaden constructive loss angenommener totalschaden constructive total loss angenommener wechsel bill of acceptance angepasst adapted angeschlossen associated angeschlossene gesellschaften associated companies angesehen of good standing angesehene wohnlage, angesehene firma good address angespannt tight angewandte volkswirtschaftslehre applied economics angliederung affiliation angreifer aggressor angrenzend adjoining angrenzend bordering angriff aggression angstkäufe panic buying angstverkäufe panic selling anhang annex anhang appendix anhänger tag anhäufung accumulation anhäufung aggregation anhäufung von gewinnen durch spekulation pyramiding anhörung hearing ankergebühr anchorage anklage accusation anklagen accuse ankommen arrive ankunft arrival ankunftszeit time of arrival ankündigen announce ankündigung announcement anlage (z.b. eines briefes) layout anlageberater investment adviser anlageberater investment consultant anlageberater investment counsel anlagefonds investment trust anlageforschung investment research anlagegeschäft investment business anlagekapital invested capital anlagekredit investment credit anlageliste investment list anlagenbewertung valuation of assets anlagenkäufe investment buying anlagepolitik investment policy anlagerisiko investment risk anlagevermögen fixed assets anlagewert investment value anlageziel investment objective anlauf der versicherungspolice expiry of the policy anlaufkosten launching costs anleihe der öffentlichen hand civil loan anleihe, darlehen loan anleihekapital loan capital anleihenausgabe bond issue anleihenschuld bond debt anlieferung frei haus home delivery anlieferung, lieferung delivery anlieger adjacent owner anmeldefrist term of application anmeldung einer forderung filing of a claim anmeldung einer forderung, eines anspruchs filing of a claim anmerkung, kommentar, erläuterung annotation annahme acceptance annahme assumption annahme presumption annahme unter vorbehalt qualified acceptance annahme, vermutung assumption annahmefrist term of acceptance annahmepflicht obligation to accept annahmeschein acceptance slip annahmeverweigerung refusal of acceptance annehmbare qualität acceptable quality level annehmen accept annehmen assume annehmen presume annehmen, akzeptieren accept annehmen, voraussetzen, vermuetn assume annehmen, übernehmen adopt annehmer, akzeptant acceptor annehmlichkeiten amenities annehmlichkeitswert amenity value annähern approach annähernd approximate annähernd approximative annähernd proximate annähernd, ungefähr approximately annäherung approximation annuität amount of annuity annuität annuity annuität, rente annuity annullieren cancel annulliert cancelled annullierung eines auftrags cancellation of an order annullierung, stornierung cancellation annullierungsbenachrichtigung, kündigung notice of cancellation anomal abnormal anpassbare versicherung, offene versicherung adjustable insurance anpassen adapt anpassung adaptation anpassung der preise, anpassung der kurse adjustment of prices anpassung, schadensregulierung adjustment anrecht, titel title anruf telephone call anschaffung, erwerb acquisition anschaffungskosten original costs anschaffungswert acquisition value anschaffungswert cost value anschaffungswert original value anschlagtafel billboard anschlussflug interconnecting flight anschreibekonto charge account anschrift des antragstellers address of applicant ansehen standing ansehnlicher beitrag substantial contribution ansicht aspect ansicht view ansichtssache matter of opinion ansonsten otherwise anspannung der liquidität strain on liquidity ansporn, anreiz, bonus incentive anspruch claim anspruch auf schadensersatz claim for damages anspruch erheben raise a claim anspruch, forderung, klage claim anspruchsbegründung proof of claim anspruchsteller claimant ansprüche befriedigen satisfy claims anstatt in lieu of ansteigend rising anständig fair ansturm run ansturm auf die bank run on the bank ansturm auf eine bank run on a bank ansturm, lebhafte nachfrage rush anteil am gewinn haben receive a share in the profits anteil des arbeitsgebers, arbeitgeberanteil employer's contribution anteil des arbeitsnehmers, arbeitnehmeranteil employee's contribution anteil, aktie share anteilschein investment trust security anteilschein unit certificate anti-dumping-abgabe anti-dumping duty anti-dumping-politik anti-dumping policy anti-trust-gesetzgebung anti-trust legislation antrag auf börsenzulassung (br.) application for official quotation antrag auf erlass einer einstweiligen verfüg.action for an injunction antrag auf zuteilung von aktien application for shares antragsformular form of application antragsformular proposal form antragsfrist term of application antragsteller applicant for insurance antragsteller, bewerber, zeichner applicant anvertrauen confide anvertrauen entrust anvertrautes geld money in trust anwachsen accrue anwachsend, ansammelnd, auflaufend accruing anweisen instruct anweisung direction anweisung instruction anweisungen befolgen carry out instructions anweisungen befolgen follow instructions anwender user anwendergruppe user group anwesenheit attendance anzahlen pay down anzahlung down payment anzahlung leisten pay a deposit anzeichen indication anzeige der akkreditive notification of credits anzeigen indicate anzeigen, bezeichnen indicate anzeigepflicht duty to give notice anzeigepflicht obligation to disclose anziehen attract anziehen upward movement anziehungskraft force of attraction appellieren, rechtsmittel einlegen appeal applicable soweit anwendbar to the extent to which they may be arbeit labor arbeit im freien, außenarbeit outdoor job arbeiten, arbeit work arbeiter laborer arbeiter workpeople arbeiterschaft labor force arbeiterschaft working classes arbeiterschaft, belegschaft workforce arbeitgeber employer arbeitgeber-arbeitnehmer-beziehungen labor relations arbeitgeberverband federation of employers arbeitsablaufstudie time and motion study arbeitsamt labor exchange arbeitsbedingungen working conditions arbeitsberatung, ausbildungsberatung youth employment service arbeitsbereich field of activity arbeitseinsatz employment of labor arbeitsfähigkeit, erwerbsfähigkeit capacity to work arbeitskapital, betriebsvermögen working capital arbeitskolonne gang arbeitslos, arbeitsloser unemployed arbeitslos, nicht gebraucht, überzählig redundant arbeitslosenanteil unemployment rate arbeitslosenquote rate of unemployment arbeitslosenunterstützung redundancy payment arbeitslosenunterstützung unemployment benefit arbeitslosenversicherung unemployment insurance arbeitslosigkeit redundancy arbeitslosigkeit unemployment arbeitsmarkt labor market arbeitsniederlegung walkout arbeitspapiere working papers arbeitsplan working plan arbeitsplatzbeschreibung job description arbeitsplatzbeschreibung job specification arbeitsplatzbeurteilung, arbeitsstudie job analysis arbeitsplatzbewertungsmerkmal job factor arbeitssparend laborsaving arbeitsstudie work study arbeitsstunde man-hour arbeitssuche job hunting arbeitstag work day arbeitsteilung division of labor arbeitsumfang, arbeitsanfall volume of work arbeitsunfall accident at work arbeitsunfall industrial accident arbeitsunfähigkeit disablement arbeitsunfähigkeit, erwerbsunfähigkeit invalidity arbeitsunfähigkeitsversicherung disability insurance arbeitsverfahren method of operation arbeitsvermittlung employment exchange arbeitsverschwendung waste of effort arbeitsvorbereitung preparatory work arbeitszeit hours of work arbeitszeit working hours arbeitszeitverkürzung reduction of working hours arbitrage arbitration archiv archives arglistige täuschung moral fraud arglistige täuschung wilful deceit arglistige täuschung wilful deception argument argument argumentieren argue arithmetische progression arithmetic progression arithmetisches mittel arithmetic mean armenunterstützung pauper relief armer, arme person pauper arrangieren arrange art kind art der benachrichtigung method of advice art der lebensversicherung type of assurance art der vereinbarung type of agreement art des artikels type of product art des schadens type of loss art des unternehmens kind of business art von kommunalanleihe improvement bonds artikel, gegenstand article arzneikosten cost of medicaments arztgebühren medical fees aspirant, bewerber aspirant assessor assessor atomrisiko, kernenergierisiko nuclear risk atomrisikoversicherung nuclear risk insurance attestieren, attest attest attraktiv, reizvoll attractive attraktivität, anziehungskraft attractiveness auch die referenznummer including the reference number auf abruf at call auf alle fälle at all hazards auf anderem schnellem wege by other expeditious means auf anforderung on demand auf arbeitssuche hunting for a job auf baisse spekulieren operate for a fall auf bestellung hergestellt made to order auf container umsteigen containerize auf deck verladen to load on deck auf dem neuesten stand up-to-date auf dem neuesten stand halten keep up to date auf dem spiel stehen be at stake auf dem transportwege, unterwegs in transit auf den inhaber ausstellen make out to bearer auf den markt werfen dump auf den neuesten stand bringen update auf den tisch legen, tisch, tabelle table auf denen sie beruhen on which they are based auf denen sie beruhen können on which they may be based auf der bank hinterlegen deposit at the bank auf der börsenliste listed auf die die dokumente sich beziehen können to which the documents may relate auf eigene rechnung for own account auf ein konto einzahlen pay into an account auf einen rechtsanspruch verzichten waive a claim auf erfüllung klagen sue for performance auf ersuchen eines kunden acting at the request of a customer auf flaschen füllen, flasche bottle auf gefahr des at the risk of auf gefahr des letzteren at the risk of the latter auf geld bezogen pecuniary auf hausse spekulieren operate for a rise auf jemanden einen wechsel ziehen draw a bill on sb. auf kosten des auftraggebers at the expense of the principal auf neuesten stand bringen update auf rechnung des auftraggebers for the account of the principal auf schadensersatz verzichten waive the compensation auf tägliche kündigung at call auf verlangen at call auf verlangen by request auf wunsch optional auf zahlung drängen press for payment auf zahlung klagen sue for recovery aufbau buildup aufbau, organisation set-up aufbewahrung safe-keeping aufblähen inflate aufdecken disclose auferlegen impose auferlegen to impose auferlegung imposition aufforderung demand note aufforderung zur zahlung demand of payment aufgabe task aufgabenbereich field of functions aufgabenbereich scope of duties aufgabenkreis scope of functions aufgeben abandon aufgeben und abtreten abandon and cede aufgeben, quitt quit aufgeben, verzichten abandon aufgebracht upset aufgegebenes schiffswrack abandoned shipwreck aufgelaufen accrued aufgelaufen, angewachsen accrued aufgelaufene gebühren accrued charges aufgelaufene kosten accruals aufgelaufene schulden backlog of debts aufgelaufene verbindlichkeiten accrued liabilities aufgelaufene zinsen accumulated interest aufgelaufener zins accrued interest aufgelaufener zins broken-period interest aufgeld agio aufgeld, zuschlag agio aufgeschobene rente deferred annuity aufgeschobene rente, verzögerte rente deferred annuity aufgezählt im inkassoauftrag listed in the collection order aufgrund einer solchen unstimmigkeit in respect od such discrepancy aufgrund erhaltener weisung on instructions received aufheben override aufheben suspend aufhebung abolishment aufhebung suspension aufhebung des versicherungsschutzes suspension of cover aufhebung einer verordnung suspension of a regulation aufhebung, suspensierung suspension aufhören cease aufhören discontinue aufkauf buying-up aufkleber paste-on label aufklärung educational advertising auflaufen, sich anhäufen accumulate auflösen dissolve auflösung dissolution aufmerksamkeit attention aufnahmebereiter markt ready market aufnahmefähigkeit des marktes market capacity aufopferung sacrifice aufopferung von gütern unter großer havarie general averages sacrifice aufrechnen charge up against sth. aufrechterhalten maintain aufrichten, bauen erect aufrichtiger dank sincere thanks aufräumungskosten cost of clearance of debris aufruhr civil commotion aufruhr und unruhen riot and civil commotion aufruhrklausel riots clause aufs eigene haus gezogener wechsel house bill aufschieben defer aufschieben, verschieben defer aufschub deferment aufschub deferring aufschwung upswing aufschwung, geschäftsbelebung boom aufseher supervisor aufsetzen draw up aufsichtsbehörde supervisory body aufsichtsrat, vorstand board of directors aufsichtsratsposten directorship aufsichtsratsvergütung directors' remuneration aufstand insurrection aufsteigen, zunehmen, aufstieg, zunahme rise aufstellung, plan schedule auftauchen emerge aufteilung split auftrag order auftrag nur für diesen tag day order auftrag, ware auf rechnung zu liefern purchase order auftragsausführung execution of an order auftragsbestand goods on order auftragsbestätigung acknowledgement of order auftragsformblatt order form auftragskostensammelblatt job cost sheet auftragswelle rush of orders aufträge zu Änderungen instructions for any amendments aufträge zur akkreditiv-eröffnung instructions for the issuance of credits aufträge zur umgehenden ausführung short-term orders aufwand expenditure aufwand, auslagen outlay aufwendung disbursement aufwerten revalue aufwertung revaluation aufwertung einer währung revaluation aufwärtstrend up-trend aufzeichnen record aufzeichnung record aufzeichnung recording aufzeichnungen machen keep a record aufzeichnungen, akten records aufzeichnungen, unterlagen, akten records aufzeigen, hinweisen point out augenbelastung eye strain aus dem sich ergibt, dass indicating that aus dem verkehr ziehen withdraw from circulation aus der haftung entlassen discharge from liability aus einer verpflichtung entlassen sein to be relieved from an obligation aus irgendeinem grund for any reason aus versehen, versehentlich by mistake aus zweiter hand secondhand ausarbeitung elaboration ausbeutungsrechte exploitation rights ausbilder trainer ausbildungshilfe educational endowment ausbildungszeit period of training ausbreiten spread ausdehnen, verlängern extend ausdehnung expansion ausdehnung, verlängerung extension ausdrücken express ausdrücklich verbieten to prohibit specifically ausdrückliche zustimmung explicit consent auseinandernehmen dismantle auseinandersetzen, auseinandersetzung dispute ausfallbürgschaft deficit guarantee ausfallbürgschaft letter of indemnity ausfallversicherung bad debts insurance ausfindig machen locate ausfuhrkreditversicherung export credit insurance ausfuhrland exporting country ausfuhrprämie export bonus ausfuhrzoll export duty ausführen execute ausführen, durchführen perform ausführung execution ausführung performance ausführung eines vertrages execution of a contract ausführungsanzeige advice of deal ausfüllen, vollständig complete ausgabe issue ausgabe von banknoten issue of notes ausgabe, aufwand expenditure ausgabe, auslage outlay ausgaben expenses ausgaben machen incur expenditures ausgabenschätzung estimation of expenditure ausgabenumfang volume of expenditure ausgabeort place of issue ausgabeposten element of expenditure ausgabetag date of issue ausgang exit ausgangsdeklaration clearance outwards ausgangsperiode base period ausgangsposition starting position ausgearbeitet, durchdacht, ausarbeiten elaborate ausgeben dispense ausgeben hand out ausgeben spend ausgeben, aufwenden lay out ausgeben, emittieren issue ausgebildet trained ausgegebene aktien issued capital ausgegebenes kapital issued capital stock ausgeloste wertpapiere called bonds ausgenommen except ausgenommen, erlassen exempt ausgeschlossen von barred from ausgeschlossenes risiko hazard not covered ausgestellt an den absender issued to the consignor ausgestellt in drei originalen issued in three originals ausgleich, liquidation, abrechnung settlement ausgleichen equalize ausgleichen, ersetzen make up for ausgleichen, saldieren balance ausgleichend compensatory ausgleichsverfahren method of compensation ausgleichung equalization aushilfe, aushilfstätigkeit temporary job aushilfen, saisonarbeiter temporary staff aushändigen hand over aushändigung, anlieferung delivery auskunft disclosure auskunftei credit agency auskunftsabteilung, informationsabteilung intelligence department auskunftsbüro inquiry office auskunftsgeber informant auskunftspflicht, anzeigepflicht duty of disclosure auslagen machen incur expenses auslandsabteilung foreign department auslandsanlagen investments abroad auslandsanleihe external loan auslandsanleihe foreign loan auslandsauftrag foreign order auslandsauftrag über exporthaus (br.) indent auslandsgeschäft business transacted overseas auslandsgeschäft foreign business auslandsgeschäft foreign transaction auslandsguthaben foreign assets auslandsinvestition foreign investment auslandsinvestition investment abroad auslandsinvestitionen investment in foreign countries auslandsinvestitionen investments in foreign securities auslandsreise journey abroad auslandsschulden debts in foreign countries auslandsschulden foreign debts auslandsverbindlichkeiten external liabilities auslandsverbindlichkeiten foreign liabilities auslandsverschuldung foreign indebtedness auslandswechsel external bill auslandswechsel foreign bill auslassen omit auslassung, unterlassung omission auslegen disburse auslegen interpret auslegung interpretation auslegung von technischen ausdrücken interpretation of technical terms auslegungsfrage, sache der auslegung question of construction auslegungsfrage, sache der auslegung question of interpretation auslegungsschwierigkeiten interpretive problems ausliefern, anliefern deliver auslieferung, Übergabe delivery ausländer alien ausländisch foreign ausländisch, auslands- external ausländische sorten foreign coins and notes ausländische wertpapiere foreign securities ausländische währung foreign currency ausländische währung, devisen foreign currency ausländische zahlungsmittel foreign funds ausländisches kapital, ausländisches geld foreign funds auslosbare wertpapiere callable securities auslosen draw by lot auslosung drawing auslöschen, ausradieren erase auslöschen, widerrufen rescind ausmaß extent ausmaß der entschädigung measure of indemnity ausmaß des schadens degree of damage ausmaß, umfang extent ausnahme exception ausnahmebestimmung exemption clause ausnahmegenehmigung certificate of exemption ausnahmsweise exceptional ausnutzen, verwerten, ausbeuten exploit ausnutzung, ausbeutung exploitation ausrechnen calculate ausrecht erhalten hold up ausreichend sufficient ausreichend material sufficient material ausreichend, genügend, hinlänglich sufficient ausreichend, hinreichend adequate ausreichend, zufriedenstellend satisfactory ausreichende mittel sufficient resources ausreichendes guthaben sufficient funds ausrüstung, maschinelle ausstattung equipment ausschaltung des risikos elimination of the risk ausschaltung von risiken elimination of risks ausschließen eliminate ausschließen exclude ausschließen preclude ausschließlich exclusive ausschließliches recht sole right ausschließlichkeit exclusiveness ausschließung exclusion ausschließung preclusion ausschluss exclusion ausschreibung invitation to bid ausschreibung, angebot bidding ausschußware rejections aussichten prospects aussichten prospects of the market aussichten, chancen chances aussperrung lockout ausstatten equip ausstattung, ausrüstung outfit ausstattung, ausrüstung, gerätschaft equipment ausstattungsversicherung child endowment insurance ausstehende beträge outstanding sums ausstehende forderungen outstanding debts ausstehende zinsen outstanding interest ausstellen exhibit ausstellen issue ausstellen, schaufensterdekoration display aussteller drawer aussteller exhibiting company aussteller exhibitor aussteller issuer aussteller eines schecks maker of a check aussteller eines wechsels maker of a bill ausstellerliste list of exhibitors ausstellung exhibition ausstellungsgüter exhibited articles ausstellungstag des wechsels date of bill aussteuerversicherung child's deferred assurance aussteuerversicherung dowry insurance ausstoß, leistung output austausch von zahlungsmitteln currency exchange ausverkauf mit günstigen gelegenheiten bargain-sale auswahl choice auswahl selection auswahl von risiken selection of risks auswanderer emigrant auswandern emigrate auswanderung emigration auswirkung der krise effect of the crisis auswirkungen effects auswählen select auswählend, selektiv selective auszahlen, ausgeben pay out auszahlung des schadensersatzes loss payment auszahlungen payments-out auszahlungsanweisung cash note auszahlungssperre stop payment order auszubildender trainee auszug extract authentisch, echt genuine authentisieren to authenticate automat slot machine automat, warenautomat vending machine automatenversicherung coin machine insurance automatisch automatic automatisch self-controlled automatisierte systeme automated systems automatisierung automation automobilindustrie motor industry autorität authority autoschalter drive-in counter außendienst field service außendienstarbeit field work außendienstorganisation field organization außenhandel external trade außenhandel foreign trade außenseiter outsider außenseiter, nicht zugelassener makler outside broker außenstände active debts außenstände book debts außenstände money due außenstände outstanding accounts außenstände outstandings außenstände receivables außenstände, forderungen bills receivable außenwerbung outdoor advertising außer frage out of question außer in dem umfang und in der art except to the extent and in the manner außer kraft setzen overrule außer kraft setzen, umstoßen overrule außer proportion unproportional außerberuflich outside außergerichtliche vergleichsurkunde deed of arrangement außergewöhnlich extraordinary außergewöhnliche abschreibung extraordinary depreciation außergewöhnliche aufwendungen extraordinary expenditure außergewöhnliche umstände extraordinary circumstances außerhalb der arbeitszeit off the job außerhalb der saison off season außerordentliche erträge extraordinary income außerordentliche hauptversammlung extraordinary general meeting außerordentliche sorgfalt extraordinary diligence außerstande unable außerstande, unfähig unable aval surety for payment avis, benachrichtigung advice avis, versandanzeige advice note avisieren to advise b bahnhof railway station baisse bear market baisse slump baisse, wirtschaftskrise depression baisse-spekulant bear baissemarkt bearish market baissespekulation bearish speculation baissetendenz bearish tendency balkendiagramm bar chart ballast ballast ballen bale band tape bank bank bank die dienste einer anderen bank nutzen to utilise the services of another bank für internationalen zahlungsausgleich bank for international settlement bank spezialisiert in wechselakzept (br.) acceptance house bank von england als wechselkäufer lender of the last resort bank von england, britische zentralbank bank of england bank- und finanzwesen banking and finance bankakzept bank acceptance bankakzept banker's acceptance bankakzept eines wechsels bank acceptance bankakzept, finanzwechsel bank bill bankangestellter bank employee bankanweisung banker's order bankbeamter bank clerk bankbeamter bank official bankbote bank messenger bankdarlehen bank credit bankdarlehen bank loan bankdirektor, filialleiter bank manager bankeinlage bank deposit bankeinlagenversicherung bank deposit insurance banken haben in keiner hinsicht etwas zu tun banks are in no way concerned with banken müssen alle dokumente prüfen banks must examine all documents banken sind durch solche verträge gebunden banks are bound by such contracts banken sind nur berechtigt zu verfahren banks are only permitted to act banken, die mit einem inkasso befasst sind banks concerned with a collection banken, welche die dienste in anspruch nehmen banks utilizing the services bankenkonsortium banking syndicate bankenkonsortium group of banks bankfachmann banker bankfeiertag bank holiday bankgarantie bank guarantee bankgebühr bank charge bankgeheimnis banker's discretion bankgeheimnis banking secrecy bankgeld bank money bankgewerbe, bankgeschäft banking business bankguthaben bank balance bankguthaben cash at bank bankguthaben cash in bank bankhaus bank company bankier, bankbeamter, bankangestellter banker bankier, bankfachmann banker bankier, geldgeber financier bankkapital bank capital bankkapital bank stock bankkapital funds of a bank bankkonto bank account bankkonto banking account bankkredit bank credit bankkredit bank loan bankkreise banking circles bankkunde bank customer bankleitzahl code number banklombardgeschäft deposit business banknote bank note banknote bill banknoten treasury notes bankplatz bank place bankplatz, standort mehrerer banken banking center bankpraxis banking practice bankquittung bank receipt bankreserven bank reserves bankrevisor bank examiner bankrott bankrupt bankrott bankruptcy bankrott, zahlungseinstellung bankruptcy bankrotterklärung declaration of bankruptcy bankschalter counter bankscheck bank check bankscheck, banktratte cashier's check bankschließfach safe deposit box banksystem banking system banktechnik, bankmethoden banking technique banktratte banker's draft banktratte, von bank gezogener scheck banker's draft bankvereinigung, bankverein association of banks bankverschuldung bank indebtedness bankzusammenbruch bank failure banküberweisung bank transfer bar abzüglich skonto cash less discount bar anzahlen pay down bar, kassieren, kasse cash baratterie (form des betrugs) barratry barauslage cash expenditure bareinlage cash deposit bareinzahlung cash deposit bargeld ready cash bargeld ready money bargeld, kassenbestand cash bargeldlos cashless bargeldloser zahlungsverkehr payments without the use of cash bargeschäft cash business bargeschäft cash transaction bargeschäft transaction for cash barguthaben cash assets barkauf cash purchase barkredit cash credit barometer barometer baron, (financier mit großem einfluss) (br.) baron barpreis cash price barpreis spot price barren bar barreserven cash reserves barscheck cash check barscheck open check barscheck uncrossed check barsendung remittance in cash barverkauf cash sale barvorschuss cash advance barwert cash value barzahlung cash disbursement barzahlung cash payment barzahlungen cash payments barzahlungsskonto cash discount barzahlunsrabatt, skonto cash discount basis base basis, ausgangsebene basis basiszeitraum zum vergleich base period baubeschränkungen in einer zone zoning restrictions baudarlehen building loan bauhaftpflichtversicherung builder's risk insurance baulanderschließung site development bausparkasse building association bausparkasse building society bazar bazaar beabsichtigen intend beachten, beobachten observe beachten, beobachten, einhalten observe beachten, berücksichtigen take into account beachtung observance beachtung, beobachtung, einhaltung observance beachtung, einhaltung, beobachtung observance beamter civil servant beamter verantwortlich für das register registrar beanspruchbar claimable beanstandete ware rejected goods bearbeiten process bearbeitung handling bearbeitung des zuletzt hereingekommenen last in - first out bearbeitung durch banken handling by banks bearbeitung von dokumenten handling of documents bearbeitung, qualitätsarbeit, verarbeitung workmanship bearbeitungsgebühr handling charge beaufsichtigen supervise beaufsichtigen supervision bedarf requirements bedarf an zahlungsmitteln currency requirements bedarf des förmlichen vertragsabschlusses subject to formal contract bedenken, überlegen consider bedenkzeit time for consideration bedeutet means bedeutung impact bedeutung significance bedeutungsvoll, wichtig, wesentlich significant bediener, maschinenarbeiter operator bedingt conditional bedingte annahme conditional acceptance bedingung condition bedingung qualification bedingung, frist term bedingungen conditions bedingungen terms bedingungen der versicherungspolice terms of the policy bedingungen einer vereinbarung terms of an agreement bedingungen einhalten keep conditions bedingungen einhalten keep the conditions bedingungen für die amortisation terms of amortization bedingungen, zahlungsbedingungen terms bedingungslos unconditional bedingungslos, absolut, unumschränkt absolute bedingunsloses akzept clean acceptance bedüftigkeitstest means test beeidigter bücherrevisor chartered accountant beeinträchtigen affect beeinträchtigen impair beeinträchtigung impairment beenden terminate beenden, abschließen finish beendigen terminate beendigen termination beendigung der beschäftigung termination of employment beendigung des vertrags termination of contract beendigung eines vertrags termination of a contract beendigung, kündigung termination beerdigungskosten funeral expenses befaßt mit concerned with befestigt, festgelegt fixed befrachten affreight befrachter shipper befrachtung affreightment befrachtung freighting befrachtungsvertrag contract of affreightment befragen consult befragen, frage question befreit, ausgenommen exempt befreiung exemption befristet limited in time befristete garantie limited guarantee befugnis, sachliche zuständigkeit competence beförderungsart mode of transport begabt gifted begabt talented begebbare handelspapiere negotiable instruments begebbare wechsel negotiable bills begebbare wertpapiere negotiable securities begebbares papier negotiable document begebbarkeit, Übertragungsfähigkeit negotiability begeben, übertragen negotiate begebung eines wechsels negotiation of a b/l begebung, Übertragung negotiation begebungsanzeige advice of negotiation beginn inception beginn des risikos commencement of risk beginnen commence beglaubigen authenticate beglaubigter scheck certified check beglaubigtes dokument legalized document beglaubigung eines wechselprotests certificate of protest beglaubigungsschreiben credentials begleichung einer rechnung settlement of an account begleichung einer schuld discharge of a debt begleitet von handelspapieren accompanied by commercial documents begleitet von zahlungspapieren accompanied by financial documents begleitschreiben covering letter begleitschreiben covering note begrenzt haftende teilhaberschaft limited partnership begrenzte haftung limited liability begrenzte mittel limited means begrenzte prämie., gekürzte prämie limited premium begrenzung limitation begriffsbestimmungen definitions begründen found begründen, verursachen, veranlassen cause begründet eine feststehende verpflichtung constitutes a definite understanding begründet keine verpflichtung does not constitute any undertaking begünstigt, gewünscht, beliebt favoured begünstigter beneficiary begünstigter eines kreditbriefes beneficiary of a letter of credit begünstigter, bezugsberechtigter beneficiary begünstigungsklausel benefit clause behandeln, bearbeiten treat behaupten assert behindern hinder behindert handicapped behinderung hindrance behälter, container container behörde board bei der erstellung dieser neuausgabe in making this revision bei der Übermittlung von fernschreiben in the transmission of telex bei der Übermittlung von kabeln in the transmission of cables bei der Übermittlung von nachrichten in transit of any messages bei der Übermittlung von telegrammen in the transmission of telegrams bei einfachen inkassi in respect of clean collections bei erhalt der dokumente upon receipt of the documents bei fehlen solcher angabe in the absence of such indication bei fehlen solcher weisungen in the absence of such instructions bei fälligkeit at maturity bei höheren gerichten zugel. anwalt barrister bei monatlicher kündigung subject to a month's notice bei nichtakzeptierung in the event of non-acceptance bei nichtzahlung in the event of non-payment bei sicht zahlbare dokumente documents payable at sight bei verfall when due bei wiederaufnahme unserer geschäftstätigkeit upon resumption of our business beidseitig, zweiseitig bilateral beifügen attach beileidsbekundung letter of sympathy beim bezogenen die vorlegung vornehmen making presentation to the drawee beipflichten assent beispiel instance beispiellos unparalleled beitrag contribution beitrag zur sozialversicherung social security contribution beitragen contribute beitragsleistung, beitragszahlung payment of contribution beitragssatz rate of contribution beitragszahler contributor bekannt als reputed bekanntmachung, kündigung notice bekräftigen, bestätigen affirm belasten, belastung debit belasten, in rechnung stellen charge belasten, lastposten, schuldposten debit belastet mit burdened with belastung burden belastung strain belastung, gebühr, kosten, anklage charge belastungsanzeige debit advice belastungsanzeige, lastschrift debit note belegschaft staff beleihbar lendable beleihung hypothecation beleihung mortgaging beleihung einer police policy loan beleihungsgrenze lending limit beleihungswert loan value beleihungswert einer versicherungspolice loan value belohnen, entlohnen remunerate belohnung, entlohnung remuneration belohnung, preis, schiedsspruch award belohnung, preis, entlohnung reward bemerkenswert striking bemühen, bemühung endeavor benachrichtigen notify benachrichtigen to advise fate benachrichtigung notification benachrichtigung railway advice benachrichtigung (bezahltmeldung etc.) advice of fate benannte bank nominated bank benehmen conduct benennung nomination benennung durch die eröffnende bank nomination by the issuing bank benutzbar zur akzeptleistung available for acceptance benutzbar zur negoziierung available for negotiation benutzbar zur sichtzahlung available for sight payment benzinpreis gasoline price benötigen require benötigt auch in zukunft continues to require bequem, dienlich convenient bequemlichkeit convenience beraten advise beratend advisory berater consultant beratung consultation beratungsdienst counseling beratungsfunktion advisory function beraubung pilferage berechenbar calculable berechenbarkeit calculability berechnen charge berechnen charge for berechnung calculation berechnung computation berechnung der kosten calculation of charges berechnung der verfügbaren mittel cash flow berechnung der wahrscheinlichkeit calculation of probability berechnungsgrundlage calculation basis berechnungsmethode method of calculation berechtigen entitle berechtigt entitled berechtigt sein zu be entitled to berechtigte forderung justified claim berechtigtes interesse legitimate interest bereich range bereit halten keep ready bereitschaft zu investieren readiness to invest bereitstellung provision bereitstellung von mitteln allocation of funds bergelohn salvage bergen, retten, sparen, ersparen save bergung salvage bergung aus seenot maritime salvage bergung, rettung, einsparung, ersparnis saving bergungskosten salvage charges bergungskosten salvage costs bergungsmannschaft, rettungsmannschaft rescue party bergungsschaden salvage loss bergungswert salvage value bergwerksaktie mining share berichten, bericht report berichten, rechenschaft ablegen account berichtend an reporting to berichtigen correct berichtigen rectify berichtigte wahrscheinlichkeit corrected probability berichtsjahr year under review berichtsmonat month under report beruf, akademischer beruf profession beruflich, berufsbezogen occupational berufliche qualifikation professional qualification berufsausbildung professional training berufsausbildung vocational training berufsberater vocational advisor berufsberatung vocational counseling berufsberatung vocational guidance berufshaftpflichtversicherung professional liability insurance berufskrankheit occupational disease berufskrankheit occupational illness berufsleben working life berufsrisiko occupational hazard berufsunfall occupational accident berufsunfallversicherung workmen's compensation insurance berufswahl choice of occupation berufszählung occupation census berufung appointment berufung einlegen lodge an appeal beruhend auf ausländischem handelsbrauch imposed by foreign usages beruhend auf ausländischen gesetzen imposed by foreign laws berücksichtigen consider berücksichtigen make allowance for berücksichtigen take into consideration berücksichtigung consideration besatzungsgeld occupation money bescheiden, dürftig moderate bescheidenes einkommen, dürftiges einkommen moderate income bescheinigen attest bescheinigung attestation bescheinigung certificate bescheinigung des bezugsrechts warrant bescheinigung des gewichts certification of weight bescheinigung, testat attestation beschlagnahme confiscation beschlagnahmeklausel free of capture and seizure clause beschlagnahmerisiko risk of seizure beschleunigen accelerate beschleuniger accelerator beschleunigte abschreibung accelerated depreciation beschluss resolution beschluss mit einfacher mehrheit ordinary resolution beschneiden, kürzen curtail beschäftigen, einsetzen, anwenden employ beschäftigen, verpflichten engage beschäftigt, besetzt engaged beschäftigter, angestellter, arbeitnehmer employee beschäftigung employment beschäftigung job beschäftigung occupation beschäftigung bei nacht night employment beschäftigung ohne gewerkschaftszugehörigkeit open shop beschäftigung, verabredung, verpflichtung engagement beschäftigungsart mode of employment beschäftigungsniveau level of employment beschäftigungsniveau occupational level beschäftigungsumfang volume of employment beschäftigungszeit period of employment beschreiben describe beschreibend, erklärend descriptive beschreibende volkswirtschaftslehre descriptive economics beschreibung description beschreibung des risikos description of risk beschränken confine beschränken restrain beschränkt limited beschränkt aufnahmefähiger markt limited market beschränkte absatzmöglichkeiten limited market beschränkter kredit limited credit beschränkung restraint beschränkung der geburtenzahl limitation of birth beschränkung der haftung limitation of liability beschränkung der mitgliederzahl limitation of membership beschwerde complaint beschwerde grievance beschwerdeausschuss board of complaint beschwerdebrief letter of complaint beschützen protect beschützend, schützend protective besichtigungsfahrt sightseeing tour besichtigungsreise tour of inspection besitz possession besitzer der aktienmehrheit majority stockholder besitzwechsel change in ownership besondere gründe specific reasons besondere havarie particular average besondere risiken, besondere gefahren special risks besondere sorgfalt special diligence besondere sozialleistungen fringe benefits besondere vorzugsaktien (us) debenture stock besonderer verrechnungsvermerk special crossing besonderheit, spezialität specialty besonders particular besonders specific besonders markierter scheck marked check besonders, ungewöhnlich, speziell particular besorgen, ausstatten mit provide with besprechen talk over besprechung conference bestand an diskontwechseln discount holdings bestand aufnehmen take stock bestand, portefeuille portfolio bestandsaufnahme, bestandskontrolle inventory control bestandteil element bestechen bribe bestechung bribery bestellnummer order number bestellschein order form bestellschein order ticket bestellung von hypotheken creation of mortgages bestens-auftrag market order besteuern tax besteuern, steuer tax besteuert taxed besteuerung taxation bestimmbar, errechenbar ascertainable bestimmt und unbedingt unconditional and definite bestimmt, endgültig definite bestimmt, sicherlich certain bestimmtes ereignis definite event bestimmung destination bestimmungshafen, entladehafen port of destination bestimmungsland country of destination bestimmungsort destination bestmöglich at best bestmöglich at the best bestätigen certify bestätigen confirm bestätigen, bescheinigen certify bestätigter scheck certified cheque bestätigtes akkreditiv confirmed letter of credit bestätigung acknowledgment bestätigung confirmation bestätigungsschreiben confirmatory letter besuchen, besuch visit besucher visitor beteiligung participation beteiligung an einem geschäft investment in a business beteiligungen und andere wertpapiere bonds and other interests beteiligungskonto investment account betrag amount betrag, betragen amount betragend amounting to betraut mit dem schutz der ware entrusted with the protection of the goods betraut mit der verwahrung der ware entrusted with the custody of the goods betriebsbereit ready for operation betreffen, unternehmen, firma concern betreffs concerning betrieb eines kraftfahrzeugs operation of a vehicle betriebliche leistung operating efficiency betriebsart mode of operation betriebsausgaben operating expenses betriebsausstattung, produktionsanlagen manufacturing facilities betriebsberater management consultant betriebsbuchhaltung factory bookkeeping betriebseinkommen operating income betriebsergebnis operating result betriebsfähig ready for service betriebsführung durch delegation management by delegation betriebsführung durch motivierung management by motivation betriebsführung durch systemerneuerung management by innovation betriebsführung durch zielvorgaben management by objectives betriebsführung nach dem ausnahmeprinzip management by exception betriebsführung nach ergebnissen management by results betriebsgefahr operational risk betriebsgefahren operational hazards betriebshaftpflichtversicherung employer's liability insurance betriebshierarchie management hierarchy betriebskapital circulating capital betriebskapital floating assets betriebskosten cost of operation betriebskosten operating costs betriebskosten working expenses betriebsleiter works manager betriebsleitung general management betriebsleitung management committee betriebsobmann shop steward betriebspolitik management policy betriebspsychologie industrial psychology betriebsstörung, stillstand holdup betriebsunfall industrial accident betriebsunfall industrial accident betriebsunterbrechungsversicherung business interruption insurance betriebsverlust operating loss betriebsverlust operational loss betriebsvermögen working capital betriebsversicherung factory insurance betriebswirtschaftslehre managerial economics betriebsüberwachung control of operations beträchtlich considerable beträchtlich substantial beträchtliche kursansteigerungen substantial rises beträchtliche schadensersatzleistung substantial damages betroffen, beteiligt concerned betrug fraud betrug entsteht dann wenn fraud originates when betrugsabsicht intention to defraud betrügen defraud betrügen, betrug defraud betrügerisch fraudulent betrügerische falschbuchung fraudulent entry betrügerischer bankrott fraudulent bankruptcy beurteilen, richter judge beurteilung der kreditfähigkeit credit rating beurteilung, meinung estimation bevollmächtigen authorize bevollmächtigt authorized bevollmächtigter duly authorized person bevollmächtigung authorization bevorrechtigte forderung preferential claim bevorrechtigte forderung privileged claim bevorrechtigte schuld preferential debt bevorrechtigter gläubiger creditor by priority bevorrechtigter gläubiger preferential creditor bevorschussung von versanddokumenten advance against shipping documents bevorzugen prefer bevorzugt preferential bevorzugt, bevorrechtigt preferred bevorzugung durch den verbraucher consumer preference bevorzugung, vorrang, vorzugsrecht preference bevölkerung population bevölkerungspyramide population pyramid bevölkerungsstatistik demography bevölkerungstheorie von malthus malthusian theory of population bevölkerungswachstum growth of population bevölkerungsüberschuss surplus population bewegen move beweggrund, motiv motive beweglich mobile bewegliche gerätschaften movable equipment bewegliche güter movables bewegliche sache chattel bewegliches gut chattel bewegliches gut movable goods beweglichkeit mobility beweglichkeit, bereitschaft umzuziehen mobility of labour bewegung, antrag bei einer sitzung motion bewegungsstudie motion study beweis proof beweis der echtheit proof of authenticity beweis erbringen supply evidence beweis, beweismaterial evidence beweisen, vorführen demonstrate beweisführung argumentation beweislast burden of proof beweismaterial means of evidence bewerber applicant bewerberliste list of applicants bewerbung letter of application bewerbung, anwendung application bewerbungsformblatt application form bewerkstelligen accomplish bewerten evaluate bewerten value bewertet, veranlagen, bemessen assessed bewertung evaluation bewertung rating bewertung valuation bewertung des lagerbestands valuation of stocks bewertung einer tätigkeit, einstufung job grading bewertung nach wiederbeschaffungspreis last in - first out bewertung von wertpapieren valuation of securities bewertung, veranlagung, bemessung assessment bewilligung der eintragung authority for registration bewohnbar habitable bewährte wertpapiere seasoned securities bewusstseinstraining sensitivity training berufsgruppenindex occupation index bezahlen pay bezahlen pay up bezahlt paid bezahlt mit scheck paid by cheque bezahlt unter nutzung des rabatts paid under rebate bezahlte rechnung settled account bezahlter schaden claim paid bezahltmeldung advice of payment bezahlung pay bezeugen, zeuge witness beziehen refer beziehung zw. management und gewerkschaft industrial relations beziehungen, verwandtschaft relations beziehungspflege, firmenwerbung public relations bezirksdirektion general agency bezirksdirektion regional head office bezirksstelle, zweigstelle district office bezirksvertreter local agent bezogene bank bank drawn upon bezogener drawee bezogener payer bezug auf solche verträge reference to such contracts bezugnahme, referenz reference bezüglich in respect of bezüglich re bezüglich regarding bezüglich respective bezüglich respectively bietungsgarantie bid bond bietungsgarantie tender guarantee bilanz balance sheet bilanzposten item of the balance sheet bilanzstichtag date of balance bilanzverschleierung cooking of balances bilanzverschleierung doctoring of balances bilanzwert book value bilder auf banknoten denominational portraits bildschirm screen bildung von reserven creation of reserves bildungsaufwand cost of education billig cheap billigen approve billiger werden cheapen billiges darlehen cheap credit billiges geld cheap money billiges geld wegen billiger zinsen cheap money billiges geld, billiger kredit easy money billigkeit cheapness billigst kaufen buy at cheapest billigst kaufen buy best billigst kaufen buy cheapest billigung approval billigung finden meet with approval bimetallismus bi-metallic binden, verpflichten bind binnenhandel domestic trade binnenschifffahrtstransportversicherung inland marine insurance binnentransportversicherung inland marine insurance binnentransportversicherung inland transportation insurance binnenwasserstraßentransportversicherung inland waterways insurance binnenwassertransportversicherung inland marine insurance bis auf weiteres pending further notice bis auf widerruf until cancelled bis die gebühren bezahlt sind until the charges are paid blanko akzeptieren accept in blank blanko-rückseite blank back blankoabtretung transfer in blank blankoakzept blank acceptance blankoindossament assignment in blank blankoindossament blank endorsement blankoindossament endorsement in blank blankoindossament general endorsement blankoindossament endorsement in blank blankokredit blank credit blankokredit credit in blank blankoscheck blank check blankozession blank transfer blickfang eye catcher blindlings spekulierender neuling lamb block block block, notizblock pad blockieren, blockade blockade blockländer trade bloc blühen prosper blühen, gedeihen flourish blühend flourishing blühend prospering blüte, aufschwung, hochkonjunktur boom boden, niedrigster stand bottom bodenkredit land credit bodenschätze natural resources bonität soundness bonus bonus bonusrücklage bonus reserve borgen borrow bote messenger botengang errand botschaft embassy boykott boycott brachliegendes kapital inactive capital brachliegendes kapital loose capital brachliegendes, ungenutztes kapital unemployed capital branchenrisiko risk peculiar to the trade branchenverzeichnis mercantile directory brandgefahr fire hazard brandgefahren fire hazards brandkasse fire office brandmauer fire wall brandrisiko, feuerrisiko fire risk brandschaden fire damage brandschaden fire loss brandschaden loss by fire brandschadenabteilung fire department brandschadenersatzleistung fire indemnity brandstiftung arson brandursache cause of conflagration brandversicherungspolice fire policy brauch custom brauch usage brauch, gepflogenheit usage brauereiaktien breweries shares brechen infringe brechen, unterbrechen, pause break brechen, zerbrechen break brief letter brief mit eingelegten barmitteln cash letter briefkasten letter-box briefkopf head of a letter briefkopf heading briefkopf letter-head briefkurs asked quotation briefkurs offer price briefkurs price asked briefmarke postage stamp briefmarke, stempel stamp briefmarke, stempel, steuermarke stamp broschüre booklet broschüre brochure bruch eines versprechens breach of promise bruch, brechen breach bruch, bruchschaden breakage bruch, verlust durch auslaufen leakage bruch, verlust durch bruch, bruchschaden breakage bruchfrei free from breakage bruchschaden breakage bruchteil fractional amount bruchzins broken interest brutto gross bruttobetrag gross amount bruttoeinkünfte gross earnings bruttoeinnahmen gross receipts bruttoertrag gross proceeds bruttoertrag gross yield bruttogehalt gross salary bruttogewinn gross profit bruttogewinn gross weight bruttohandelsspanne gross margin bruttoprämie gross premium bruttosozialprodukt gross national product bruttoverdienst gross income bruttoverlust gross loss brückenwaage für fahrzeuge und deren ladung weighbridge buch, buchen, verbuchen book buchen, verbuchen book buchgeld credit money buchhalter accountant buchhalter bookkeeper buchhalter, kontenführer accountant buchhaltung bookkeeping buchmacher bookmaker buchmäßiger verlust book loss buchprüfer, revisor auditor buchschulden ordinary debts buchungsnummer number of entry buchwert book value buchzeichen, kennzeichen earmark budget, haushalt budget bummelstreik go-slow bundesobligationen government bond bundessteuer federal tax börse bourse börse stock exchange börsenbericht market report börsenfernschreiber quotation ticker börsengeschäfte stock exchange transactions börsengeschäfte stock transactions börsenhandel jobbing börsenhandel stock jobbing börsenhändler jobber börsenhändler stock jobber börsenhändler (br.) floor trader börsenkurs market rate börsenmakler stock broker börsenmakler stockbroker börsenordnung stock exchange regulations börsenschluss close of the exchange börsensituation regiert von sog. bullen bull market börsensituation, in der die bären dominieren bear market börsenspekulation gambling on the stock exchange börsentermingeschäft time bargain börsenumsatzsteuer stock exchange tax börsenumsatzsteuer (us) stock tax börsenwert stock exchange value börsenzentrum in new york wall street bücher führen keep accounts bücher führen keep books bühne, stufe stage bündel bundle bürge guarantor bürgerliches recht, gewohnheitsrecht common law bürgschaft bail bürgschaft, bürge, sicherheit surety bürgschaft, garante (br.) guarantee bürgschaftsvertrag contract of surety bürgschaftsvertrag guaranty agreement büro office büro, dienststelle office büroangestellter clerk büroangestellter white-collar worker büroarbeit clerical work büroarbeit desk work büroarbeit secretarial job büroarbeiten secretarial work bürobedarf office supplies büroeinrichtung office equipment bürogehilfe clerical assistant bürogehilfe junior clerk büroklatsch office gossip bürokratie bureaucracy bürolandschaft office landscape büroleiter office manager büromaschinen office machines büromöbel office furniture büroräume office accommodation bürovorsteher head clerk c c. & f., kosten und fracht (incoterm) cost and freight c.i.f. (incoterm) cost insurance and freight cent (us) cent charakteristikum feature charge, satz, beschickung batch charter, befrachtung, ein schiff mieten charter charterflugzeug charter plane chartervertrag charter party chef boss chef chief chef des unternehmens head of the business chef, auftraggeber principal chiffre cipher clearinghaus clearing house computer programme software computer, rechner computer computerisierte systeme computerized systems container-schiff container ship containerisierte fracht containerized freight containerisierung containerization containerisierung, umstellung auf container containerization couponabteilung coupon collection department couponbogen coupon sheet courtage, maklerprovision brokerage d da since dachgesellschaft, beteiligungsgesellschaft holding company dachverband der us handelskammern united states chamber of commerce damals then damals berechtigt then entitled damals gültig then in force dampfkesselversicherung steam boiler insurance dankschreiben letter of thanks darauf ankommen lassen, riskieren take one's chance darbietung, vorführung, präsentation presentation darf nicht erlassen werden, verzichtet werden may not be waived darlehen loan darlehen loan of money darlehen gewähren grant a loan darlehen für einen tag overnight loan darlehen für einen tag overnight money darlehen kündigen call in money darlehen mit festgelegter laufzeit time loan darlehen verbilligen make credit easier darlehen verteuern make credit more difficult darlehen, anleihe loan darlehensantrag application for a loan darlehensbedingungen terms of a loan darlehenskonto loan account darlehensmöglichkeiten credit facilities darlehensversprechen promise to grant a loan darlehensvertrag contract of loan darlehensvertrag loan agreement darlehensvertrag loan contract darlehenszinsen loan interest darlehnskasse loan society darüber hinaus moreover das akzept unterschreiben to sign the acceptance das arbeitsende registrieren clock out das ausland betreffend foreign das begleitende zahlungspapier the accompanying financial document das datum dieses verkerks the date of this notation das einen wechsel einschließt including a bill of exchange das gesetz beachten, einhalten observe the law das gewicht der ware the weight of the goods das handlungsvorgehen the course of action das höchstmaß an hilfeleistung the maximum possible assistance das höchstmaß an möglicher unterstützung the maximum possible guidance das inkasso von handelspapieren the collection of commercial paper das kapital erhöhen increase the capital das lager wieder auffüllen restock das leistungsvermögen des absenders the performance of the consignor das maßgebliche instrument the operative instrument das problem des betrugs the problem of fraud das protokoll führen take the minutes das risiko verbreiten, verteilen spread the risk das versprechen der bestätigenden bank the undertaking of the confirming bank das versprechen der eröffnenden bank the undertaking of the issuing bank das vorhandensein der ware the existence of the goods das zahlungsland the country of payment das zunehmende interesse in the increasing interest in dass zahlung veranlasst wird that payment will be made daten data datenblock block of data datenverarbeitung data processing datieren date datieren, datum, verabredung date datowechsel bill after date datumstempel dater datumstempel der post postmark dauer duration dauer der invalidität period of invalidity dauer der verlängerung period of extension dauer des zahlungsverzugs period of delay in payment dauer, zeit, zeitraum period dauerauftrag standing order dauerhaft, andauernd permanent dauerhaft, unverderblich durable dauerinvalidität permanent invalidity dauerinventur continuous inventory dauerkunde standing customer dauernde erwerbsunfähigkeit, dauerinvalidität permanent disability dauerstellung long-term appointment dazwischenzwängen squeeze in debitoren, forderungen accounts receivable debitposten debit item debitzinssatz overdraft interest rate deck deck decken cover decken, umschlag, deckung cover decken, unterstützen back deckfracht deck cargo deckung cover deckung insurance coverage deckung anbieten offer cover deckung aufrechterhalten maintain cover deckung beschaffen provide cover deckung gewähren grant cover deckung, schutz cover deckung, versicherungsschutz coverage deckungsbestätigung cover note deckungsbestätigung eines schecks certification of a cheque deckungsgeschäft hedging transaction deckungsgeschäfte hedging deckungskäufe des baisse-spekulanten bear covering deckungsverhältnis cover ratio deckungszeitraum, versicherungsdauer term of insurance deckungszusage (us) binder deferred-payment-akkreditive deferred payment credit defizit deficiency defizit deficit defizit, fehlbetrag deficit deflation deflation delcredereprovision delcredere commission delcredereversicherung credit insurance delegieren delegate dem bezogenen vorgelegt presented to the drawee dementsprechend accordingly dementsprechend benachrichtigen to advise accordingly den arbeitsbeginn registrieren clock in den bedarf decken satisfy needs den diskontsatz erhöhen (br.) put up the bank rate den diskontsatz herabsetzen lower the discount rate den diskontsatz senken (br.) lower the bank rate den empfang bestätigen acknowledge den gewinn teilen pool the profits den gewinn kassieren collect the proceeds den goldstandard verlassen abandon the gold standard den kosten nachgehen keep track of costs den kredit zur verfügung stellen to make the credit available den stand halten to maintain a position den verlust ausgleichen make up for losses den weisungen entsprechen comply with the instructions den zinssatz herabsetzen lower the interest rate depositenabteilung deposit department depositenabteilung deposit division depositenbank bank of deposit depositenbank deposit bank depositengeschäft deposit banking depositenkonto deposit account depositenzinsen interest on deposits depotgebühr deposit fee depotkonto custodianship account depotschein, hinterlegungsschein deposit receipt depotstelle, verwahrer depositary depotverwahrung safe deposit der absender the party dispatching the goods der akkredtitiv-auftraggeber the applicant for the credit der angegebene preis pro einheit the unit price stated der ansicht sein, dass to consider that der auftragsgeber the principal der begünstigte the beneficiary der berechnungszeitraum the period covered der beteiligte the party der betreffende fälligkeitstag the appropriate maturity date der bezogene the drawee der bezogene weigert sich zu zahlen the drawee refuses to pay der der bank zugegangene auftrag the order received by the bank der einfluss auf die entwicklung the influence on development der einfluss von handelserleichterungen the influence of trade facilitation der eingezogene betrag the amount collected der entwicklung rechnung tragen to stay abreast of changes der erstbegünstigte the first beneficiary der geforderte preis asked price der inkassovorgang the collecting operation der inkassovorgang the operation of collection der käufer ist verantwortlich für the buyer is responsible for der kunde the customer der markt erholte sich the market recovered der neue titel wurde gewählt the new title was chosen der ruf des absenders the standing of the consignor der umfang dem ausdrücklich zugestimmt wurde the extent expressly consented to der verzicht auf inkassogebühren the waiving of collection charges der verzicht auf spesen the waiving of expenses der wert der ware the value of the goods der wiederverwendung zuführen recycle der wirkliche verdienst the real reward der zinsbetrag the interest amount der zugegangene auftrag the order received der zunehmende einfluss the increasing influence der zunehmende einfluss von the increasing influence of derb, grob rough deren teilnahme whose participation deren unterstützung von wert war whose support has been of value derjenige dem der vorbehalt gegeben wurde the party to whom the reserve was made derjenige der bücher verschleiert cook of the books derjenige der solche ermächtigung erteilt the party giving such authority des handels und der industrie of commerce and industry detaillieren, volle angaben machen give full particulars deuten, punkt point devisen foreign currency devisen foreign exchange devisenausländer non-resident person devisenbedarf need of foreign exchange devisenbewirtschaftung exchange control devisenbewirtschaftung foreign exchange control devisengeschäft transaction in foreign exchange devisengeschäfte exchange transactions devisengeschäfte foreign exchange transactions devisenhändler foreign exchange dealer deviseninländer resident person devisenkontrolle control of exchanges devisenkontrolle control of foreign exchange devisenkontrolle exchange control devisenkurs exchange rate devisenmakler foreign exchange broker devisenmarkt foreign exchange market devisenterminabschluß foreign exchange contract devisenterminhandel future exchange devisenterminkurs forward exchange rate devisenzuteilung allocation of foreign exchange dezentralisieren decentralize dezentralisierung decentralization dezimal decimal dezimalisieren decimalize dezimalisierung decimalization diagramm, schaubild diagram die abgezogenen auslagen the expenses deducted die abgezogenen gebühren the charges deducted die adresse der bank the address of the bank die akkreditiv-bedingungen the conditions of the credit die akkreditiv-bedingungen the stipulations of the credit die allgemeinen bedingungen the general conditions die andere seite reverse side die angelegenheit als dringend erachtet considers the matter to be urgent die anlieferung der ware the delivery of the goods die anmerkungen, die angenommen werden the notations which may be accepted die anschrift der domizilstelle the address of the domicile die anschrift des bezogenen the address of the drawee die anwendung regeln to govern the use of sth. die arbeit des sekretariats betreffend secretarial die art der ausdrücklich zugestimmt wurde the manner expressly consented to die art der verfügbarstellung des erlöses the method of disposal of the funds die art der verlangten versicherung the type of insurance required die aufgetreten sind that have arisen die augenscheinliche echtheit prüfen to check the apparent authenticity die ausdrücke the expressions die ausdrücklich vermerkt which expressly states die ausdrücklichen weisungen the express terms die außerhalb ihrer kontrolle liegen beyond their control die bank die zahlung geleistet hat the bank which has effected payment die bank ist ermächtigt the bank is authorized die bank ist nicht verpflichtet zu the bank has no obligation to die bank muss benachrichtigen the bank must advise die bank muss entscheiden the bank must determine die bank muß dies mitteilen the bank must give notice to this effect die bedingungen sind erfüllt the conditions are complied with die bedingungen sind erfüllt the terms are complied with die behandlung der dokumente the handling of the documents die beschaffenheit der ware the condition of the goods die beschreibung der ware the description of the goods die besonderen bedingungen the particular conditions die bestehen zwischen existing between die bestimmungen von artikel the provisions of article die bestätigende bank the confirming bank die bestätigung hinzufügen to add the confirmation die beteiligten the parties thereto die beteiligten sind the parties hereto are die betreffende ausländische währung the relative foreign currency die bilanz ziehen draw the balance die briefliche bestätigung the mail confirmation die bücher abschließen close the books die dienste anderer banken the services of other banks die dokumente können zurückgesandt werden the documents may be returned die dokumente protestieren zu lassen to have the documents protested die dokumente prüfen to examine the documents die durch das dokument vertretene ware the goods represented by the document die echtheit von unterschriften the genuineness of any signature die einreicherbank the remitting bank die einzuhaltenden bedingungen the conditions to be complied with die entwicklung der praxis the evolution in practice die erforderlichen dokumente the documents required die erhaltenen dokumente the documents received die erleichterung des handels the facilitation of trade die ermächtigt ist, tratten zu akzeptieren which is authorized to accept drafts die ermächtigt ist, zu negoziieren which is authorized to negotiate die ermächtigt ist, zu zahlen which is authorized to pay die eröffnende bank the issuing bank die eröffnende bank ist verpflichtet the issuing bank is bound to die eröffnung eines kredits the issuance of a credit die folgenden artikel the following articles die form der akzeptierung eines wechsels the form of accepting a b/l die form, in der sie empfangen worden sind the form in which they are received die ganze nacht geöffnet open all night die gefahr der ware verbleibt bei the goods remain at the risk of die gegenwärtige größere problematik the current major problem die geographische verbreitung the geographical extension die grenze erhöhen raise the limit die großen fünf londoner banken big five die gültigkeit verlängern extend the validity die handelspapiere the commercial documents die handlungen des absender the acts of the consignor die icc landesgruppen the icc national committees die inkassobank the collecting bank die interessen und probleme des käufers the interests and problems of the buyer die keine zahlungspapiere darstellen not being financial documents die klauseln, die angenommen werden dürfen the clauses which may be accepted die kosten decken cover the expenses die maßgebliche Änderungsmitteilung the operative amendment die menge der ware the quantity of the goods die mit dem inkasso befaßten banken the banks concerned with the collection die nach äußerer aufmachung erscheinen which appear on their face die nachfrage befriedigen meet the demand die neuen richtlinien ersetzen die alten the new rules replace the old rules die nicht gelöst werden konnten that could not be solved die notwendige information the necessary information die ältesten anträge zuerst first in, first out die parität wurde erhalten the parity was maintained die qualität der ware the quality of the goods die regeln beachten, einhalten observe the rule die regeln nationaler gesetze the provisions of national law die regeln staatlicher gesetze the provisions of state law die regeln örtlicher gesetze the provisions of local law die revolutionäre entwicklung im der kommunikation the communcations revolution die richtige anschrift feststellen to ascertain the proper address die richtigkeit überprüfen verify die sich befassen mit which are concerned with die sich hieraus ergebende entwicklung the resultant development die sofort überwiesen werden kann which can immediately be remitted die spur verfolgen, einer spur nachgehen keep track die ständige fortentwicklung the continuing revolution in die tatsächlichen gegebenheiten the realities die umstellung im seetransport the revolution in maritime transport die unterlassungen des absenders the omissions of the consignor die usancen the existing usage die verbreitung der containerisierung the extension of containerization die verfügungsgewalt übertragen to transfer title die verpackung der ware the packing of the goods die verpflichtung des käufers the buyer's duty die versicherer der ware the insurers of the goods die vertraglichen beziehungen the contractual relationships die vollständige anschrift the complete address die vom auftraggeber benannte bank the bank nominated by the principal die vorgeschriebenen dokumente the stipulated documents die vorlegende bank the presenting bank die vorlegung the presentation die vorlegung hat zu erfolgen presentation is to be made die ware übernehmen to take delivery of the goods die weisungen des auftrags the instruction given in the order die zahlungsfähigkeit des absenders the solvency of the consignor die zeichnungsberechtigung eines unterzeichners the authority of any signatory die zinsen senken lower the rate of interest die zusätzlich zu deckenden gefahren the additional risks to be covered die übersendende bank the remitting bank diebstahl larceny diebstahl theft dienen serve dienlich, nützlich useful dienst, dienstleistung, kundendienst service dienstabwesenheit absence from duty dienstalter length of service diensteid oath of office dienstleistungen einer bank services of a bank dienstleistungsgewerbe service industries dienstleistungsverkauf sale of services dienststunden hours of attendance dienststunden, Öffnungsstunden official hours dienstunfähigkeit disability for service dienstvertrag contract of personal service dienstvorgesetzter, aufsichtführender supervisor dies gilt für alle inkassi this applies to all collections diese artikel gelten für these articles apply to diese dokumente sind vorschrieben these documents are called for diese regeln sind verbindlich these definitions are binding diese regeln sind verbindlich these provisions are binding diese richtlinien enthalten these rules give dieser kredit ist eröffnet worden such credit is issued diplomat diplomat diplomat diplomatist diplomatisch diplomatic diplomatische immunität diplomatic immunity direkt direct direkt straightforward direkt an die adresse von direct to the address of direkt vom begünstigten directly from the beneficiary direkte belastung direct debit direkte geschäfte inter-office dealings direkte kosten direct charges direkte kosten direct costs direkte versicherung direct insurance direkte zuschrift, direkte werbung direct mail direkter schaden direct damage direkter verkauf direct selling direktes geschäft direct business direktionsassistent manager's assistant direktor director direktoren, abteilungsleiter officers of the company diskont, nachlass, rabatt discount diskont, nachlass, skonto discount diskontbank discount bank diskontbank (br.) discount house diskonterhöhung raise of discount diskonterhöhung (br.) increase of the bank rate diskonterhöhung (br.) rise in the bank rate diskontfähig bankable diskontierbar discountable diskontieren discount diskontmakler discount broker diskontpolitik discount policy diskontsatz bank rate diskontsatz discount rate diskontsatz prime rate diskontsatz rate of discount diskontsatz der bank von england bank rate diskontsatz der großbanken market rate of discount diskontsatz erhöhen raise the discount rate diskontsenkung (br.) decrease of the bank rate diskontsenkung (br.) fall of the bank rate diskontwechsel discount bill diskretion, ermessen discretion diskriminieren, benachteiligen discriminate diskriminierung, benachteiligung discrimination dispache general-average statement dispacheur general average adjuster dispositionsdokument document of title diversifikation diversification diversifizieren diversify dividende dividend dividendenausschüttung dividend disbursement dividendenaussichten dividend prospects dividendenbevorrechtigt privileged as to dividend dividendencoupon dividend coupon dividendenfonds bonus fund dividendenpapiere equities dividendenpapiere equity securities dividendenreserve bonus reserve dividendensatz rate of dividend dividendenvoraussage dividend forecast divisenkursliste exchange list dock, trockendock dock dokument document dokumente aufnehmen to take up documents dokumente aushändigen to deliver documents dokumente freigeben to release documents dokumente gegen wechselakzept documents against acceptance dokumente müssen vorgelegt werden documents are to be presented dokumente verwendet zum instruments used for dokumente werden nur freigegeben documents will only be released dokumente zum inkasso documents for collection dokumente übergeben to hand over documents dokumente, mit den die gewalt übergeben wird documents transferring title to sb. dokumentenakkreditiv documentary credit dokumentenkredit paper credit dokumententratte documentary draft dokumentäres inkasso documentary collection dollarparität dollar parity dollarreserven dollar holdings dollarscheck dollar check dolmetschen interpret dolmetscher interpreter domizilwechsel addressed bill dämpfung moderation doppelte buchführung double entry bookkeeping doppelte sicherheit collateral securities doppelter schadensersatz double damages doppelverdiener moonlighter doppelversicherung double indemnity doppelversicherung double insurance drei grundlegende gesichtspunkte three basic principles drei tage zahlungsfrist days of grace dreiecksgeschäft triangular trade dreifach triplicate dreimonatsgeld ninety days' loan dringend urgent dringend, dringlich urgent dringende bestellung rush order dringender verdacht strong suspicion dringlichkeit urgency dringlichkeit, eile urgency dringlichkeitsstufe degree of urgency drohen, bedrohung threat druck pressure druck auf den geldmarkt pressure on the money market drucken, druck print druckerei print shop drucksache printed matter drücken squeeze down dubiose bad debts dubiose dubious debts dubiose uncollectible receivables dubiosenkonto delinquent account dumping, unterbietung dumping duplikat, zweifach duplicate durch akzeptleistung by acceptance durch automatische datenverarbeitung by methods of automated data processing durch die avisierende bank through the advising bank durch die benennung einer bank by nominating a bank durch die bisherigen richtlinien by existing rules durch die zulassung der negoziierung by allowing for negotiation durch dokumente belegt documentary durch eigene arbeit verdientes einkommen earned income durch ein telekommunikationsmittel beauftragen instruct by any teletransmission durch eine andere bank through another bank durch eine hypothek abdecken cover by a mortgage durch einen hinweis in dem kredit by wording in the credit durch elektronische datenverarbeitung by methods of electronic data processing durch ermächtigung einer bank zu handeln by authorizing a bank to act durch ersuchen einer bank zu handeln by requesting a bank to act durch handzeichen show of hands durch hinausgeschobene zahlung by deferred payment durch indossament begeben, übertragen negotiate by endorsement durch irgendeine bank by any bank durch negoziierung by negotiation durch sichtzahlung by sight payment durch verkauf von obligationen erworben debenture capital durch verluste gemindertes kapital impaired capital durchbruch breakthrough durchführbar feasible durchführbarkeit feasibility durchführen carry through durchführung accomplishment durchgangskonnossement through bill of lading durchgangsverkehr through traffic durchgangsverkehr transit traffic durchlaufende gelder cash in transit durchlaufender posten item in transit durchlaufplan flow chart durchschlag carbon copy durchschlagpapier flimsy paper durchschnitt average durchschnittberechnung averaging durchschnittsdauer average duration durchschnittserwartung average expectation durchschnittskurs market average durchschnittssatz average rate durchschnittssteuersatz composite rate durchschnittswert mean value durchsicht, nachprüfen review durchzählen enumerate dürfen vom erlös abgezogen werden may be deducted from the proceeds e eben sosehr ... wie auch as much ... as ebene level ebenso wie just as echt authentic echt genuine echt warranted echte gefahr genuine risk echte unterschrift genuine signature echter wert real value echtheit authenticity echtheit einer unterschrift genuineness of a signature echtheit eines dokuments genuineness of a document echtzeit real time ecke corner eckzins base lending rate eckzins base rate edelmetall precious metal edelmetallabteilung bullion department effektenabteilung securities department effektenbörse stock exchange effektendifferenzgeschäft margin business effektenemission capital issue effektenhändler securities broker effektenlombard advance against securities effektenmarkt stock market effektivbestand actual balance effektive vertragserfüllung specific performance effektiver wert, realer wert, sachwert real value ehe sie zahlen, vor der bezahlung before parting with their money ehe sie zahlung erhalten haben before receiving payment ehre, ehren, honorieren honor ehrenakzept acceptance for honor ehrenhalber honorary ehrenmitglied honorary member ehrenschuld debt of honor ehrenzahlung payment for honor eichen calibrate eichung calibration eid oath eidesstattliche erklärung affidavit eigene mittel own funds eigene wechsel zur annahme vorlegen present a bill for acceptance eigenes vermögen independent means eigenes verschulden actual fault eigenhändig unterschreiben sign personally eigenkapital equity eigenkapital net worth eigenrisiko, eigenes risiko own risk eigenschaft attribute eigentliche wert intrinsic value eigentum property eigentum, grundbesitz freehold eigentumsbescheinigung ownership certificate eigentumsrechte proprietary rights eigentumswohnung freehold flat eigentumsübergang mutation eigentumsübergang passage of title eigentumsübertragung transfer of ownership eigentumsübertragung transfer of title eigentümer owner eigentümer proprietor eigentümer eines gegenstandes owner of an article eigentümer in gutem glauben bona fide owner eigentümer von obligationen bondholder eigentümerschaft ownership eigenversicherung insurance for one's own account eigenwechsel note payable eilpaket express parcel eilzustellung express delivery ein akkreditiv eröffnen open a letter of credit ein akkreditivändern to amend a credit ein akzept einlösen discharge an acceptance ein anderer bezogener any other drawee ein anderes ähnliches dokument unterschreiben to sign another similar instrument ein angebot machen tender ein auftrag an order ein beispiel hierfür ist an example is ein darlehen aufnehmen raise a loan ein darlehen aufnehmen take up a loan ein darlehen gewähren grant a loan ein darlehen kündigen recall a loan ein darlehen kündigen recall money ein darlehen zurückzahlen repay a loan ein defizit decken make good a deficiency ein dokument amtlich hinterlegen lodge a document ein dokument bei gericht hinterlegen lodge a deed ein dokument fälschen falsify ein dokument unter vorbehalt annehmen to accept a document under reserve ein formblatt ausfüllen fill in a form ein geschäft aufgeben abandon a business ein geschäft aufgeben, sich zurückziehen give up a business ein geschäft eröffnen open a business ein geschäft fortführen continue a business ein geschäft führen run a business ein geschäft tätigen transact ein gesuch ablehnen refuse a request ein gesuch bewilligen grant a request ein grundstück beleihen lend on mortgage ein größerer beitrag a major contribution ein handelspapier a document of commercial character ein konto abschließen, saldo ziehen strike a balance ein konto begleichen, eine rechnung zahlen settle an account ein konto bei an account with ein konto belasten charge to an account ein konto belasten debit an account ein konto erkennen credit an account with ein konto eröffnen open an account ein konto haben bei bank with ein konto haben bei hold an account with ein konto unterhalten keep an account ein konto überprüfen examine an account ein konto überziehen (us) overcheck an account ein limit stellen fix a limit ein limit vorgeben give a limit ein mangelhafter zustand der verpackung a defective condition of the packaging ein mangelhafter zustand der ware a defective condition of the goods ein namentlich genannter frachtführer a named carrier ein namentlich genanntes schiff a named vessel ein pfand einlösen redeem a pledge ein produkt auf den markt bringen launch a product ein projekt aufgeben abandon a project ein recht aufgeben abandon a right ein recht übertragen confer a right ein reines transportdokument a clean transport document ein risiko auf sich nehmen take a risk ein risiko decken cover a risk ein risiko übernehmen incur a risk ein risiko übernehmen underwrite a risk ein scheck stoppen stop a check ein schiff verlassen abandon a ship ein schurke a rogue ein solcher vorbehalt such reserve ein unwiderrufliches akkreditiv bestätigen to confirm an irrevocable credit ein vermögen ansammeln hoard up a treasure ein vermögen erwerben gain a fortune ein versprechen der bank an undertaking of the bank ein versuch aufzunehmen an attempt to include ein zahlungspapier a document of financial character ein zugefügter vermerk a superimposed notation einbauten und zubehör fixtures and fittings einbehaltung der lohnsteuer pay-as-you-earn einberufung einer versammlung calling of a meeting einbezahlt paid in einbezahlt paid up einbezahlt paid-in einbezahltes kapital paid up capital einbrecher housebreaker einbringen yield einbringen, ertrag yield einbruch housebreaking einbruch- und diebstahlversicherung burglary insurance einbürgern naturalize einbürgerung naturalization eine andere als die einreicherbank other than the remitting bank eine angabe des zinssatzes an indication of the rate of interest eine anleihe tilgen redeem a loan eine anleihe zeichnen subscribe for a loan eine ansicht vertreten hold a view eine art von anschreibung depletion eine bank einsetzen to utilize a bank eine bedingung erfüllen to meet a stipulation eine bedingung in einem kredit a requirement in a credit eine beschränkung auferlegen impose a restriction eine bestellung annehmen take an order eine bestimmte zinsklausel a definite interest clause eine bürgschaft stellen put a guarantee eine dividende festlegen fix a dividend eine eingedruckte klausel a printed clause eine eintragung löschen cancel an entry eine entscheidung treffen reach a decision eine feststehende verpflichtung zur zahlung a definite understanding to pay eine filiale oder bank zu remboursieren to reimburse a branch or bank eine firma übernehmen, die leitung übernehmen take over a company eine forderung anmelden, klage einbringen lodge a claim eine frage aufbringen raise a question eine frage behandeln enter into a question eine frist bestimmen fix a time limit eine genau bestimmte frist a specified period of time eine grenze vorschreiben give a limit eine grundlage schaffen establish a basis eine hinzugefügte klausel a superimposed clause eine hypothek aufnehmen effect a mortgage eine hypothek aufnehmen raise a mortgage eine hypothek bestellen create a mortgage eine hypothek eintragen record a mortgage eine hypothek eintragen register a mortgage eine hypothek kündigen call in a mortgage eine hypothek löschen cancel a mortgage eine hypothek löschen discharge a mortgage eine hypothek tilgen wipe off a mortgage eine hypothek zurückzahlen redeem a mortgage eine hypothek übernehmen assume a mortgage eine karte studieren study a map eine konzession erteilen grant a concession eine kursangabe verlangen ask for a quotation eine liste erstellen make out a list eine lizenz erhalten obtain a licence eine lizenz erteilen grant a licence eine mannschaft anheuern hire a crew eine option aufgeben abandon an option eine politik aufgeben abandon a policy eine quittung unterschreiben to sign a receipt eine rechnung ausstellen make out an invoice eine rechnung begleichen settle an account eine rechnung bezahlen pay a bill eine rechnung bezahlen pay an account eine regel durchsetzen enforce a rule eine risiko übernehmen take a risk eine scheck bezahlen, einlösen pay a cheque eine schuld abarbeiten work off a debt eine schuld ablösen discharge a debt eine schuld begleichen settle a debt eine sicherheit hinterlegen deposit a security eine sicherheit stellen deposit as a security eine solche garantie such indemnity eine solche zahlung ausführen to effect such payment eine spanne lassen leave a margin eine stellung aufgeben, räumen vacate a position eine stellungnahme an item of written comment eine steuer umgehen dodge a tax eine ständig steigende zahl an ever increasing number eine telefonnummer anwählen dial eine unbedingte zinsklausel an unconditional interest clause eine unterschrift beglaubigen attest a signature eine unterschrift beglaubigen authenticate a signature eine unterschrift beglaubigen certify a signature eine urkunde ausstellen draw up a document eine vereinbarung treffen reach an agreement eine verpflichtung der benannten bank an undertaking by the nominated bank eine verpflichtung zu zahlen an undertaking to pay eine verpflichtung zur akzeptleistung an undertaking to accept eine verpflichtung zur negoziierung an undertaking to negotiate eine verpflichtung übernehmen to incur an undertaking eine versicherung abschließen effect an insurance eine versicherungspolice ausstellen issue a policy eine versicherungspolice beleihen lend money on an insurance policy eine vollmacht zurückziehen withdraw an authority eine weisung zum einzug von zinsen an instruction to collect interest eine zahlung anweisen authorize a payment eine zahlung leisten make a payment eine zahlung leisten to make a payment eine Änderung des akkredtivs an amendment to the credit einem begünstigten avisiert advised to a beneficiary einem dritten oder mehreren dritten to one or more other parties einem hindernis begegnen meet with an obstacle einem konto gutschreiben credit an account einen anspruch erheben lodge a claim einen anspruch erheben raise a claim einen antrag ablehnen dismiss an application einen antrag einreichen present an application einen antrag genehmigen allow an application einen antrag stellen make an application einen antrag zurückziehen withdraw an application einen artikel auszeichnen label an article einen artikel schreiben write an article einen aufkäuferring binden corner the market einen auftrag für jemanden platzieren place an order for sth. einen auftrag zurückziehen withdraw an order einen bericht vorlegen submit a report einen brief schreiben write a letter einen brief zustellen deliver a letter einen bürgen stellen provide surety einen dienst leisten render a service einen eid ablegen take an oath einen entschluss fassen take a decision einen gewinn abwerfen leave a margin einen kredit erhöhen increase a credit einen kredit gewähren allow a credit einen laden führen keep a shop einen markt bearbeiten work a market einen plan aufgeben abandon a plan einen posten abhaken tick off an item einen preis angeben quote a price einen rabatt gewähren allow a discount einen saldo ausgleichen settle a balance einen scheck auf eine bank ziehen draw a check on a bank einen scheck ausstellen make out a check einen scheck ausstellen write out a check einen scheck einlösen cash a check einen solawechsel zu unterschreiben to sign a promissory note einen termin anberaumen fix a day einen termin ansetzen fix a time-limit einen unfall melden report an accident einen vergleich annehmen accept a compromise einen vergleich vorschlagen offer a compromise einen verlust abdecken cover a loss einen verlust erleiden incur a loss einen vertrag schließen enter into a contract einen vertrag schließen make an agreement einen vertreter bestellen to nominate a representative einen wechsel akzeptieren accept a bill einen wechsel akzeptieren to accept a bill of exchange einen wechsel aufnehmen, einlösen take up the bill einen wechsel ausstellen make out a bill einen wechsel bei vorlage einlösen honor a bill on presentation einen wechsel bezahlen, eine tratte bezahlen to pay a bill of exchange einen wechsel diskontieren discount a bill einen wechsel einlösen honor a bill einen wechsel einlösen meet a bill einen wechsel nicht einlösen dishonor a bill einen wechsel nochmals ziehen redraft a bill of exchange einen wink geben give sb. a hint einer person vollmacht geben give a person full powers einer sache nachgehen, tiefer eindringen go further into a question einer spur nachgehen, ausfindig machen trace einer verbindlichkeit entheben discharge from liability einer verpflichtung nachkommen fulfill an obligation einer verpflichtung nachkommen meet an obligation einer ware zugeordnetes material direct materials einer zahlungsaufforderung nachkommen pay a claim einfach simple einfache buchführung single entry bookkeeping einfache havarie simple average einfache havarie simple average einfache mehrheit simple majority einfache verzinsung simple interest einfache zinsen simple interest einfaches inkasso clean collection einfaches prämiengeschäft single option einfrieren freeze einfuhrbeschränkungen import restrictions einfuhrerlaubnis import license einfuhrquote import quota einfuhrumsatzsteuer import-turnover tax einfuhrwaren imported goods einfuhrzoll import duty einfügen insert einführen introduce einführung introduction einführung von aktien an der börse introduction of shares einführungsschreiben, empfehlung letter of introduction einführungswerbung introductory campaign eingangsdatum date of receipt eingangsdeklaration clearance inwards eingangspost incoming mail eingefroren frozen eingefrorener preis, fester preis frozen price eingefrorenes kapital frozen capital eingegangene verpflichtungen incurred liabilities eingehende post incoming mail eingehende schecks incoming exchanges eingeplant scheduled eingeschlossen included eingeschränkte garantie limited guarantee eingeschränktes indossament qualified endorsement eingesetztes kapital capital employed eingetragen registered eingetragener eigentümer registered proprietor eingetragener firmensitz registered office eingetragener inhaber von wertpapieren registered holder eingetragener sitz der firma registered office eingetragener wohnsitz registered residence eingetragenes kapital nominal capital eingetragenes kapital registered capital eingetragenes warenzeichen registered trade mark eingeweihte kreise insiders eingezahltes kapital paid-up capital eingezogene beträge amounts collected eingänge receipts einhaltung von vorschriften compliance with formalities einheit entity einheit unit einheit, gerät, stück unit einheitlich uniform einheitliche richtlinien uniform rules einheitliche richtlinien für inkassi uniform rules for collections einheitlicher satz flat rate einheitlicher zinssatz flat rate of interest einheitliches gesetz uniform law einheitliches handelsgesetz uniform commercial code einheitspolice standard policy einheitspreis, normalpreis standard price einheitswert für die grundsteuer rateable value einige zentral gelegene banken a few centrally located banks einkassierung encashment einkaufen shopping einkaufsabrechnung des kommissionärs account purchases einkaufsabteilung, einkauf buying department einkaufskontrolle checking of purchases einkaufszentrum shopping center einklagbar actionable einkommen income einkommen aus kapitalvermögen income from capital einkommen der familie family income einkommensquelle source of earnings einkommensteuer income tax einkommensteuerabzugsfähig deductible from income tax einkommensteuerberechnung computation of income tax einkommensteuererklärung income tax return einkommensteuerzahler income tax payer einkommensverlust loss of income einkünfte earnings einkünfte proceeds einkünfte revenue einkünfte aus freiberuflicher tätigkeit professional earnings einkünfte aus kapitalvermögen income from capital einkünfte aus miete und verpachtung income from property einkünfte aus nichtselbständiger arbeit income from dependent work einkünfte aus selbstständiger arbeit income from independent work einlage deposit einlage mit mehrfacher ziehungsberechtigung alternate deposit einlage, anlage enclosure einlage, anzahlung deposit einlagekapital capital paid up einlagekapital deposit capital einlagen von privatpersonen individual deposits einlaufen, ankommen come in einlegen deposit einleitend, einführend, anfangs introductory einlösbar collectible einlösen honor einlösen, kassieren cash einlösung eines wechsels discharge of a bill einmalprämie single premium einmanngeschäft one-man business einmannunternehmen one-man concern einmischung interference einnahmen receipts einnahmen takings einnahmen und ausgaben receipts and expenditures einnahmen, ertrag returns einnahmequellen means of income einpacken, eintüten, beutel, tasche, tüte bag einreichen hand in einreicher presenter einreicher- und inkassobanken remitting and collecting banks einrichten institute einrichtungen, erleichterungen facilities einsatz, material- und kräfteeinsatz input einschalten switch on einschließen enclose einschließen include einschließen, beinhalten include einschließlich including einschließlich dividende cum dividend einschluss inclusion einschätzen, veranschlagen, bewerten estimate einschreibbrief registered letter einschreiben enroll einschreiben registered mail einschreibsendung registered mail einschränken restrict einschränkend restrictive einschränkende bedingung restrictive condition einschränkung, beschränkung restriction einseitig unilateral einseitiges risiko unilateral risk einsetzen appoint einsetzen to utilize einsetzung eines ausschusses appointment of a committee einsicht gewähren allow inspection einsicht, information intelligence einsparen economize einsparung, ersparnis saving einspruch objection einspruch erheben, einspruch object einspruch, widerspruch objection einstellen recruit einstellung weiterer entwicklung suspension of further development einstellung überflüssiger arbeitskräfte featherbedding einstimmig unanimous einstimmig (adv.) unanimously einstufung categorization einstufung rating einstufung tariff classification einstufung der kreditfähigkeit credit rating einsturzgefährdetes bauwerk dangerous structure einstweilige verfügung injunction einteilen in divide into eintrag, buchung entry eintragung einer firma incorporation of a company eintragung in ein register entry in a register eintragungsvermerk note of entry eintreibbar recoverable eintreibung von schulden debt collection eintreten enter eintreten, eintragen, buchen enter eintrittsalter age at entry einträglich gainful einträglichkeit profitableness einvernehmen, verständnis understanding einwand objection einwand erheben raise an objection einwandern immigrate einwanderungsquote immigration quota einwandfreier wechsel clean bill einwilligen, einwilligung assent einzahlen pay into the bank einzahler depositor einzahlung der aktien verlangen make calls on shares einzahlungen payments-in einzahlungsbeleg deposit slip einzahlungsbeleg pay-in slip einzahlungsschein credit slip einzahlungsschein deposit slip einzelheiten particulars einzelfall individual case einzelfirma sole proprietorship einzelhandel retail einzelhandel retail trade einzelhandelsgeschäft retail shop einzelhandelskostenindex index of retail prices einzelhandelspreisindex retail price index einzelheit detail einzelheiten full particulars einzelhändler retailer einzelkaufmann sole proprietor einzelkosten individual costs einzeln single einzeln aufführen specify einzeln oder insgesamt any or all of which einzelne sendung individual shipment einzelperson individual einzelposten single item einzelprämie single premium einzelprämienversicherung single-premium insurance einzelstück, einzelposten individual item einzelversicherer individual insurer einzelversicherer individual underwriter einzelversicherer individual underwriter einzelzahlung individual payment einziehung von außenständen collection of outstanding debts einziehung von banknoten withdrawal of banknotes einziehung von forderungen collection of debts einzug eines schecks collection of a check einzugskosten encashment charges eisenbahn railway eisenbahnbehörde railway authority eisenbahnfahrkarte railway ticket eisenbahnnetz network of railroads elastisch elastic elastische nachfrage elastic demand elastisches angebot elastic supply elastizität elasticity elastizität der nachfrage elasticity of demand elastizität des angebots elasticity of supply elektrizitätswerk power station elektronik electronics elektronisch electronic elektronische datenverarbeitung electronic data processing element element element, grundbestandteil element elementarrisiken natural hazards elementär elementary eliminieren, ausschließen eliminate eliminierung elimination embargo, handelssperre embargo emissionsbank investment bank emissionsbank issuing bank emissionsbank issuing house emissionsbedingungen terms of issue emissionsgeschäft investment banking emissionsmarkt market of issue emissionspreis issue price emissionspreis issuing price emissionspreis rate of issue emissionssteuer issue tax emissionssyndikat underwriting syndicate empfangsanzeige advice of receipt empfangsanzeige, eingangsanzeige advice of arrival empfangsbescheinigung receipt voucher empfangsbestätigung acknowledgement empfangsbestätigung acknowledgement of receipt empfangsdame receptionist empfangsquittung receipt of delivery empfangstag date of receipt empfehlen commend empfehlen recommend empfehlung letter of recommendation empfehlung recommendation empfehlungen, grüße regards empfehlungsschreiben commendatory letter empfindlich sensitive empfindlicher verlust considerable loss empfohlener einzelhandelsabgabepreis recommended retail selling price empfänger addressee empfänger consignee empfänger receiver empfänger remittee empfänger bezahlt die fracht (br.), unfrei freight forward empfänger bezahlt die fracht (us), unfrei freight collect endalter age at expiry endbescheid, endgültiger bescheid definite decision endbestand final stock endbetrag final amount ende april end of april ende der versicherungsdauer expiration of period ende der versicherungsdauer expiry of the policy ende des risikos termination of risk endgültig, letzte final endgültiger bestimmungsort place of final destination endlos endless endprodukt end product endstation terminal endverbraucher ultimate consumer endwert final value energieeinsparung saving of energy enger markt narrow market engpass bottleneck enorme nachfrage nach aktien run on stocks entbehrlich dispensable entbinden, entlassen, entlassung discharge entbindungsheim maternity home entehren, nichtachten, nicht einlösen dishonor enteignen dispossess enteignung dispossession entflechten decartelize entflechtung decartelization entgangener gewinn lost profit entgegenkommen accommodation entgegenkommen, unterbringen accommodate entgelten recompense entgeltliche gegenleistung valuable consideration enthalten contain enthalten in contained in enthaltsamkeit abstinence enthüllen reveal enthüllen, aufdecken disclose enthüllung disclosure enthüllung, aufdeckung disclosure entladehafen port of discharge entladekosten unloading charges entladen unload entlassen dismiss entlassen, entlassung discharge entlassung dismissal entlassung, entlastung discharge entlassungsschreiben notice of dismissal entlastung eines treuhänders discharge of a trustee entleiher der zu dem preis gerade noch leiht marginal borrower entleiher, borger borrower entlohnung remuneration entlohnung wages die mit dem vorgang betraute bank the bank to which the operation is entrusted entscheiden decide entscheidend decisive entscheidender punkt crucial point entscheidet sich die dokumente abzulehnen decides to refuse the documents entscheidet sich die dokumente aufzunehmen decides to take up the documents entscheidung decision entscheidungstheorie decision theory entschluss fassen take a decision entschädigen compensate entschädigen indemnify entschädigen, schadlos halten to indemnify entschädigung indemnification entschädigung indemnification entschädigung indemnity entschädigung indemnity for damages entschädigung bei grundstücksenteignung just compensation entschädigung für verlust oder beschädigung compensation for loss or damage entschädigung für verluste indemnity for losses entschädigung in einer runden summe lump-sum settlement entschädigungsanspruch claim for compensation entschädigungsanspruch claim for indemnity entschädigungsanspruch, entschädigungsklage claim for compensation entschädigungsbetrag indemnity sum entschädigungsforderung claim for compensation entschädigungspflichtige verletzung compensable injury entschädigungssumme amount of indemnification entschuldigung apology entschuldigungsschreiben letter of apology entsprechend buchen enter in conformity entsprechend, anstatt, an stelle von in lieu thereof entspricht ag-gesetz und gmbh-gesetz companies act entstandener schaden loss occurred entstehend arising entwerfen, ziehen, entwurf, tratte draft entwickeln develop entwicklung development entwicklung neuer dokumente development of new documents entwicklung neuer verfahren development of new methods entwicklungsfähiger markt potential market entwicklungsgebiet development areas entwicklungsland developing country entwicklungsmöglichkeiten development potentialities entwurf, gestaltung, konstruktion design epoche, zeitraum era er weigert sich solche zinsen zu zahlen he refuses to pay such interest erbauen, errichten, auslegen construct erbe heir erben inherit erbitten solicit erbschaft inheritance erbschaft legacy erbschaftssteuer death duties erbschaftssteuer inheritance tax erbschaftssteuerversicherung estate duty erdbebenrisiko earthquake hazard erdbebenrisiko, erdbebengefahr earthquake risk erdbebenversicherung earthquake insurance ereignis incidence erfahren come to know erfahrung experience erfassung von daten acquisition of data erfassung von daten collection of data erfinden invent erfinder inventor erfindung invention erfolgreiches experiment successful experiment erfolgschancen chances of success erfolgsentlohnung payment by results erfolgsrechnung income statement erforderlicher geldbetrag requisite money erforderliches kapital capital required erforschen, untersuchen investigate erforschen, forschung research erforschung der einstellung zu einer sache attitude survey erforschung des sachverhalts fact finding erfüllen comply with erfüllen fulfill erfüllung compliance erfüllung fulfillment erfüllung performance erfüllung einer verpflichtung performance of an obligation erfüllung eines vertrages performance of a contract erfüllung eines vertrags performance of a contract erfüllung zug um zug contemporaneous performance erfüllungsgarantie performance bond erfüllungsort place of performance ergebnisse results ergonomie ergonomics ergänzen amend ergänzen complement ergänzend supplementary ergänzung supplement ergreifen seize ergreifung, beschlagnahme seizure erhalt eines schreibens receipt of a letter erhalt von geld receipt of money erhalten obtain erhalten receive erhalten, empfangen receive erholen, wieder einbringen recover erhältlich obtainable erholung recovery erholungsgebiet recreation area erhöhen, erhöhung boost erhöhen, erhöhung increase erhöhen, erhöhung raise erhöht increased erhöht raised erhöhte kosten increased costs erhöhte lebenserwartung increased expectation of life erhöhte lebenshaltungskosten increased cost of living erhöhte nachfrage increased demand erhöhter bedarf increased requirements erhöhung der nachfrage increase in demand erhöhung des diskontsatzes increase in the bank rate erhöhung des diskontsatzes increase in the discount rate erhöhung des diskontsatzes raising of the bank rate erhöhung des kapitals increase of capital erhöhung des risikos increase in the risk erhöhung des zinssatzes raising of the rate of interest erhöhung, zunahme, erhöhen, zunehmen increase erinnern remind erkennungs-symbole anbringen to place identifying symbols erkennungszeichen anbringen to place identifying marks erklären declare erklären explain erklären, kommentar comment erklärter wille declared intention erklärung declaration erklärung explanation erklärung statement erklärung der dividende declaration of dividend erklärung einer absicht, willenserklärung declaration of intention erklärungsbasis declaration basis erlangen, erhalten obtain erlass einer gebühr waiver of a fee erlauben allow erlauben, erlaubnis permit erlaubnis allowance erlaubnis permission erlaubnis, zugeständnis concession erlaß einer schuld release of a debt erlebensfallversicherung endowment insurance erledigen, handhaben handle erleichtern facilitate erleichtern, erleichterung ease erleichtern, ermöglichen facilitate erlittener verlust sustained loss erläuterung, anmerkung annotation erlös proceeds erlös abtreten to assign proceeds erlöskonto account of proceeds ermessen discretion ermessen discretionary power ermessenentscheidung arbitrary decision ermessensfrage matter of discretion ermessensfreiheit power of discretion ermächtigen authorize ermächtigen empower ermächtigt eine andere bank authorizes another bank ermächtigter angestellter authorized clerk ermächtigung power of authority ermächtigung zur auszahlung withdrawal warrant ermäßigung von abgaben remission ermäßigung, kürzung, rabatt reduction ermäßigung, nachlass abatement ermutigen encourage ermutigung encouragement ermöglichen enable ermüdung fatigue ernennungsurkunde certificate of appointment erneuern renew erneuern, verlängern renew erneuerung renewal erneuerung der versicherungspolice renewal of the policy erneuerung wird fällig renewal falls due erneuerung, verlängerung renewal erneuerungsschein certificate of renewal erneut in betracht ziehen reconsider erneute kauflust fresh demand ernteverlust, verlust der ernte crop loss ernteversicherung crop insurance ernteversicherung growing crops insurance erpressung blackmail errechnen compute errechnung computation errichtung formation errichtung, bau, auslegung construction ersatz für einen schaden indemnity for a loss ersatz für mittelbaren schaden consequential damages ersatz, ersatzlieferung replacement ersatz, ersatzteil replacement ersatzkosten opportunity cost ersatzteile spare parts ersatzwert alternative costs ersatzwert, neuwert, wiederbeschaffungswert replacement value erscheinen to appear erscheinungsform form of appearance erschwerung des absatzes hardening of the market erschöpfen exhaust erschöpft, geleert exhausted ersetzen replace ersetzen die bestehenden richtlinien replace the existing rules ersetzen, ersatz substitute ersparnisse savings ersparnisse aufbrauchen eat up savings erstattet erhalten, wiedererlangen recover erstattungsfähig recoverable erstauftrag initial order erste emission first issue erste fassung first edition erste hälfte des monats first half of the month erste hypothek first mortgage erste hypothek first mortgage loan erste klasse, hervorragend a at lloyd's erste prämie first premium erstklassig first rate erstklassig first-class erstklassig first-grade erstklassig first-rate erstklassig high-class erstklassige kapitalanlage choice investment erstklassiger bankwechsel mit bankakzept prime bank bill erstprämie first premium erstrangige aktien blue chips erstversicherer direct insurer erstzahlung initial payment ersuchen zu bestätigen request to confirm ersuchen, ersuchen request ersucht eine andere bank requests another bank ertrag yield ertrag aus aktien yield on shares ertrag aus den anlagen yield on invested funds ertrag aus wertpapieren yield on securities ertragen, dulden endure ertragsberechnung calculation of proceeds ertragskraft earning power ertragsrate rate of return erträglich, tolerierbar tolerable erwartete gefahren expected perils erwartete kosten anticipated cost erwarteter gewinn anticipated profit erwarteter gewinn expected profit erwarteter gewinnverlust bei versicherungen imaginary profit erwarteter preis anticipated price erwartung eines verlustes expectation of loss erweiterter versicherungsschutz extended coverage erwerb acquisition erwerben acquire erwerber transferee erwerbsfähigkeit ability to earn one's livelihood erwerbsquelle means of living erwerbsquelle means of subsistence erwerbsunfähig, arbeitsunfähig disabled erwerbsunfähigkeit incapacity to work erworbenes recht vested interest erzeugen, erzeugnis produce erzeuger producer erziehen educate erziehung, bildung education erzielbare entschädigung recoverable sum erzwingen enforce erzwingungsmöglichkeit means of enforcing erzwungen forced eröffnung eines kontos opening of an account eröffnungsbilanz opening balance sheet eröffnungskurs beginning rate eröffnungskurs opening price eröffnungskurs opening rate eröffnungsnotierungen opening quotations erörtern, begründen, grund, vernunft reason erübrigen spare es begründet ein versprechen it constitutes a definite undertaking es betrifft nur die beziehungen zwischen it concerns only the relations between es bezieht sich auf it relates to es erscheint richtig it appears correct es erscheint vollständig it appears complete es fehlt die unterschrift signature is missing es hat seine ursache it originates es ist immer noch ein wesentliches element it remains a vital element es ist nur in seltenen fällen möglich it is rarely possible es macht eine erweiterung notwenig it necessitates amplification es macht sich bezahlt it pays well es macht vereinfachung notwendig it necessitates simplification es muß die unstimmigkeiten nennen it must state the discrepancies es soll im auftrag bestimmt werden ob the order should state whether es spielt eine rolle it becomes important es wurde berücksichtigt thought has been given to es wurde betont stress was laid etatsumme budget sum etikette label etikettierung, preisauszeichnung labeling etwa erforderliche indossamente vornehmen to make any necessary endorsements etwaige unstimmigkeiten in den dokumenten any discrepancies in the documents etwas anfordern, beantragen make application for sth. etwas annehmen adopt sth. etwas auf die lange bank schieben shelve sth. etwas beurteilen form an opinion etwas bewältigen cope with sth. etwas eintragen record sth etwas geheim halten keep a secret etwas notieren write sth. down etwas sichern, etwas erwerben to secure sth etwas weiter bearbeiten, verfolgen follow up a matter etwas wieder gut machen make up for something euro-dollar euro-dollars eurokreditkarte eurocard europa europe europäer european europäischer gemeinsamer markt eec euroscheck eurocheque existenzmittel means of subsistence exklusivvertrag exclusive agreement exotenfonds offshore funds expandieren, sich ausdehnen expand export, exportieren export exporteur, ausführer exporter exportförderung export promotion exportgenehmigung, ausfuhrgenehmigung export license exportgeschäfte, exportumsätze exports exportkreditgarantie export credits guarantee exportkreditversicherung export credit insurance exportland country of exportation exportsachbearbeiter export clerk exportvergünstigungen export incentives exportversicherung export credit insurance exportvertreter export agent externes konto external account extrem extreme f fabrik factory fabrikant manufacturer fabrikationsbetrieb manufacturing company fabrikgebäude factory building fabrikmäßig hergestellt factory-made fabriksystem factory system fabrikware manufactured goods facharbeiter skilled labor facharbeiter skilled worker facharzt medical specialist fachberater expert adviser fachkenntnisse specialized knowledge fachkenntnisse technical know-how fachkenntnisse technical knowledge fachkenntnisse, erfahrung know-how fachkundiger expert fachmann, sachverständiger, experte expert fachwissen, fachkenntnisse know-how factoring factoring factoring-geschäft factoring fahrraddiebstahlversicherung cycle theft insurance fahrradversicherung cycle insurance fahrer driver fahrkarte, flugschein ticket fahrkartenschalter ticket office fahrlässig negligent fahrlässige handlung negligent act fahrlässigkeit negligence fahrpreis fare fahrzeug vehicle fahrzeughalter owner of a motor vehicle faksimile facsimile faktor factor faktor, einfluss factor fakturierte ware, berechnete ware invoiced goods fakturierung invoicing fakultativ, wahlfrei facultative fall, beispiel instance fallen der aktienkurse fall of stocks fallen unter come under fallen, fallen lassen drop fallende tendenz downward drift falls in the event of falls als original gekennzeichnet if marked as original falls die anschrift unrichtig ist if the address is incorrect falls die anschrift unvollständig ist if the address is incomplete falls die bank es versäumt zu handeln if the bank fails to act falls die bank zu handeln bereit ist if the bank is prepared to act falls ein auftrag etwas verbietet should an order prohibit sth. falls eine solche negoziierung nicht erfolgt if such negotiation is not effected falls solche weisungen nicht eingehen if such instructions are not received falls waren versandt werden in the event of goods being dispatched fallstudie case study falsch false falsch adressieren, fehlleiten misdirect falsch beurteilen misjudge falsch darstellen misrepresent falsch klassifizieren misclassify falsch verbuchen mis-enter falsch, unrecht wrong falschbuchung, fehlbuchung false entry falsche angabe false statement falsche angaben false statement falsche auslegung misinterpretation falsche aussage false evidence falsche beschreibung misdescription falsche darstellung misstatement falsche klassifizierung misclassification falscher alarm false alarm falscher name false name falscher vorwand false pretences falschgeld bogus money falschgeld counterfeit money familienvorstand head of the household familienzulage family allowance familienzulage family income supplement fangen capture farm, bauernhof farm farmer, bauer farmer fass cask fehlanzeige negative report fehlberechnung, falsche berechnung miscalculation fehlbetrag deficiency fehlbuchung, falschbuchung erroneous entry fehlen der vollmacht absence of authority fehlend missing fehler mistake fehler bei der Übersetzung errors in the translation fehler, mangel defect fehler, verschulden fault fehlerart type of error fehlerhaft defective fehlerhaft faulty fehlerhafter vertrag defective contract fehlerhaftigkeit faultiness fehlinvestition false investment fehlschlag failure fehlschluss false conclusion fehlverhalten misdemeanor feilhalten keep for sale feingehaltsstempel hallmark feinheitsgrad fineness feldzug, kampagne campaign fenster window fensterumschlag window envelope fernmeldetechnik telecommunications fernschreiber teleprinter fernschreiber ticker fernschreiber, telegraph, börsenschreiber ticker fernsprechzelle call-box fernstraße highway fernstraße trunk road fernstraßennetz network of trunk roads fertig ready fertigungsindustrie manufacturing industry fertigungsstufe stage of production fertigungsumfang volume of production fertigwaren finished goods fertigwarenlagerung storage of finished goods fest firm fest angelegtes geld locked-up money fest angelegtes geld tied up money feste bedingungen set terms feste gebühr fixed charge feste kurse firm prices feste prämie fixed premium feste summe fixed sum fester betrag fixed sum festgeld cash on deposit festgeld fixed deposit festgeld time deposit festgelegt fixed festgesetzt, festgelegt fixed festgestellt ascertained festhalten adhere festlegen constitute festsetzen ascertain festsetzen fix festsetzung fixation feststehende tatsache established fact feststellbar ascertainable feststellung der brandursache fire inquest feststellung des schadens ascertainment of damage feststellung des schadens ascertainment of loss feststellung des schadens assessment of damage feststellung des schadenswertes assessment of damage festverzinslich fixed interest bearing feudalsystem feudal system feuerbestattungskosten cremation expenses feuerbestattungskostenversicherung cremation expenses insurance feuergefahr fire hazards feuerhemmend fire-resisting feuerleiter fire escape feuerlöscher fire extinguisher feuerlöschkosten fire extinguishing costs feuermeldesystem fire alarm system feuermeldevorrichtung fire alarm device feuersbrunst, brand conflagration feuerschutz fire protection feuerschutzabgabe fire brigade charge feuersgefahr fire peril feuersgefahr, feuerrisiko fire hazard feuersicherheit fire safety feuerverhütung fire prevention feuerversicherung fire insurance feuerversicherung, brandversicherung fire insurance feuerversicherungsgesellschaft fire underwriter feuerwehr fire brigade feuerwehrmann fireman filialbank affiliated bank filialbanksystem branch banking filiale branch office filialladen multiple shop filialladen multiple store filialleiter branch manager filmtheaterversicherung cinema insurance finanzamt revenue office finanzamt tax office finanzanalyseabteilung analysis department finanzaufstellung financial statement finanzausschuß financial committee finanzbehörden revenue authorities finanzbericht financial report finanzbuchführung financial accounting finanziell financial finanziell besser gestellt sein be better off finanziell unabhängig financially independent finanziell unterstützt financially supported finanzielle angelegenheiten financial affairs finanzielle hilfe financial aid finanzielle hilfe, finanzielle unterstützung pecuniary aid finanzielle lage financial position finanzielle lage financial status finanzielle lage, vermögenslage financial standing finanzielle unterstützung pecuniary aid finanzielle verlegenheit financial embarrassment finanzielle verluste pecuniary losses finanzielle verpflichtung financial obligation finanziellen verhältnisse financial circumstances finanzieller verlust financial loss finanzielles ansehen financial standing finanzieren finance finanzierung finance finanzierung financing finanzierungsart method of financing finanzierungsgesellschaft finance company finanzierungsgesellschaft financing company finanzierungskosten costs of financing finanzierungslücke money gap finanzierungsvermittler company promoter finanzkontrolle financial control finanzkreise financial circles finanzplatz financial center finanzpolitik financial policy finanzwirtschaft finance fingierte zahlung sham payment fingiertes konto pro forma account firma company firma firm firma mit bankartigen geschäften banking company firmenbriefpapier, büropapier, bürobedarf stationery firmeninhaber owner of a firm firmenkapital capital funds firmenname firm name firmenreserven company reserves fixe kosten fixed charges fixe kosten fixed costs flach flat flagge flag flau flat flaue geschäftszeit dull season flaute dullness flexibel, wendig flexible flink speedy fluchtkapital flight capital flug flight flugabfertigungsstelle mit busbahnhof air terminal flugblatt pamphlet flugblatt, handzettel, faltblatt leaflet fluggastversicherung air passenger insurance fluggastversicherung aircraft passenger insurance fluglinie, fluggesellschaft airline flugrisiko aviation risk flugsteig gate flugzeug aircraft flugzeugentführer hijacker flugzeugentführung hijacking flugzeugkaskoversicherung aircraft hull insurance fluktuationsarbeitslosigkeit frictional unemployment fluktuieren, schwanken fluctuate flut, Überschwemmung flood fluß flow flüssig, liquid, zahlungsfähig liquid flüssige geldmittel funds flüssige güter wet goods flüssige mittel, greifbare mittel liquid funds fähig able fähig capable fähigkeit ability fähigkeit capability folge der ereignisse order of events folge von ereignissen chain of events folgen follow folgen aus verlusten consequences arising out of loss folgen die sich ergeben aus consequences arising out of folgen von verzögerungen consequences arising out of delay folgeprämie renewal premium folgeschaden consequential damage folgeschaden consequential loss fällig due fällig mature fällig werden become due fällig werden fall due fällig werdende verbindlichkeiten maturing liabilities fällig zur zahlung due for payment fällige entschädigung accrued compensation fällige prämie premium due fällige schuld debt due fällige zinsen interest payable fälligkeit maturity fälligkeit der prämie premium due rate fälligkeitsakzept accommodation acceptance fälligkeitsdatum, fälligkeitstag maturity date fälligkeitstag day of maturity fälligkeitstag due date fälligkeitstermin day of falling due fälligkeitstermin due date fälligkeitstermin eines wechsels due date of a bill fälligkeitswert maturity value fälschen falsify fälschen forge fälschen, fälschung counterfeit fälscher eines dokuments falsifier fälschlicherweise wrongly fälschung counterfeit fälschung falsification fälschung forgery fälschungen counterfeits fond endowment fund fond fund fonds fund forderungen accounts receivable forderungen receivables forderungsübergang subrogation forfaitierung forfeiting forfaitierung non-recourse financing form der benachrichtigung form of advice form, aufmachung eines dokuments form of a document formaler fehler lack of form formaler gegenwert nominal consideration formalität formality formblatt ausfüllen fill in a form formblatt zur kreditbeantragung credit form formen der akkreditive forms of credit formfehler formal defect formlos informal formlose zusammenkunft informal meeting formsache formality formsache matter of form formvorschrift formality formvorschriften, förmlichkeiten formal requirements forscher researcher forschung und entwicklung research and development forschungsabteilung research department fortsetzen continue forstversicherung insurance of growing timber fortdauer, fortsetzung continuation fortlaufend numerieren number consecutively fortlaufend nummeriert consecutively numbered fortsetzen continue fortsetzung continuation fracht freight fracht bezahlt freight paid fracht im voraus bezahlt freight prepaid fracht im voraus zu zahlen freight to be prepaid fracht vorauszahlbar freight prepayable fracht, ladung, frachtgut cargo frachtaufkommen volume of cargo frachtbrief consignment note frachtbrief (us) waybill frachtfrei versichert bis freight and insurance paid to frachtführer carrier frachtkosten cost of freight frachtkosten freight costs frachtunternehmen carrier frachtversicherer cargo underwriter frachtversicherung cargo insurance frachtversicherung cargo policy frachtversicherung hull insurance frachtversicherung insurance on freight frachtvertrag contract of affreightment frage question frage von bedeutung question of substance frage, anfrage query fragebogen questionnaire franchise franchise franchiseklausel franchise clause frankiermaschine franking machine frei uncontrolled frei vacant frei an bord (incoterm) free on board frei haus free to the door frei längsseits schiff (incoterm) free alongside ship frei machen frank frei verladen ihr fahrzeug free on truck frei verladen unsere station free on rail frei von beschädigung außer im strandungsfall free of particular average frei von leckage free from leakage frei von mängeln free from defects frei, leer vacant freie marktwirtschaft free enterprise freie stelle vacancy freie stellen vacancies freie unterkunft free accommodation freie verfügungsgewalt discretionary power freie wahl free choice freie wahl des arztes free choice of medical practitioner freier markt free market freier wechselkurs floating freier wettbewerb open competition freies grundeigentum (br.) freehold freigabe, ausgabe release freigeben, ausgeben release freigegeben an den bezogenen released to the drawee freigestellt, wahlfrei optional freihafen free-harbour freihafen free-port freikarte free ticket freisprechen absolve freistellungsbescheid notice of exemption freiverkehr outside market freiverkehr over the counter market freiwillig voluntary freiwillige auflösung voluntary liquidation freiwillige leistung, kulanzleistung ex-gratia payment freiwillige versicherung voluntary insurance freizeit spare time fremdenverkehrsgewerbe tourist trade fremdenzimmer spare room fremdfinanzierung financing with outside capital fremdfinanzierung outside financing fremdkapital borrowed capital fremdkapital outside capital fremdmittel outside funds fremdmittel outside resources fremdwährungsschuldverschreibungen bonds in foreign currency frequentieren, aufsuchen frequent friedensrichter justice of the peace frist einhalten comply with a term frist einhalten keep a term frist überschreiten exceed a term frist, zeitliche begrenzung time limit fristenverlängerung extension of a period fristenüberschreitung failure to meet a deadline fristlos without notice fristlos without previous notice frostversicherung frost insurance früherer indossant previous endorser früherer indossant prior endorser frühwarnsystem early warning system fuhrgeld, transport haulage fuhrunternehmer carter fundamt lost property office fundbüro lost property office fundiert sound standing fundsache, verlorene sache lost property funktion, tätigkeit function funktionsstörung malfunction fusion merger fusion, verschmelzung fusion fusionieren merge fusionierung merger förderung von kapitalanlagen promotion of investments führen, führung lead führende aktie market leader führende geschäftsleute key businessmen führer, fremdenführer guide führungskräfte executives fülle, flut glut füllmaterial, beiwerk padding fünffach quintuplicate fünffach, in fünffacher ausfertigung quintuplicate für das schicksal der ware with regard to the fate of the goods für den schaden aufkommen bear the damage für den vorgang erforderlich required for the operation für den vorgang üblich customary to the operation für den zustand der ware with regard to the condition of the goods für die schulden haften liable for payment of the debts für dieses problem on this problem für ein handelsgeschäft relating to a trading transaction für eine bestimmte zeit for a time certain für einen posten geeignet qualified for an appointment für einen schaden haftbar liable for a loss für etwas anderes halten take for sth. else für hinausgeschobene zahlung zu remboursierento reimburse for deferred payment für ihre rechnung und gefahr for your account and risk für inkassi for collections für irgendwelche nicht gedeckten risiken for any risks not being covered für irrtümer for errors für jede akzeptleistung remboursieren to reimburse for any acceptance für jede negoziierung remboursieren to reimburse for any negotiation für jede zahlung remboursieren to reimburse for any payment für laufende rechnung on open account für rechnung des bezogenen for account of the drawee für rechnung des letzteren for the account of the latter für rechnung von for account of für rechnung von for the account of für weniger als ein jahr for less than a year für zahlung sorgen provide for payment g galoppierende inflation runaway inflation gang course ganztags, ganztägig full-time ganztägig arbeiten work full-time garantie guarantee garantie, bürgschaft, sicherheit guarantee garantie, bürgschaft, sicherheit guaranty garantie, gewährleistung, zusicherung warranty garantiebrief (br.) letter of guarantee garantiedauer duration of guarantee garantiefonds guarantee fund garantiefrist term of guarantee garantieren, garantie (us) guaranty garantiert guaranteed garantierte löhne guaranteed wages garantierte mindestbeschäftigung guaranteed employment garantierte preise guaranteed prices garantieschein certificate of guarantee garantieschein delcredere bond garantiesyndikat underwriters garantievertrag contract of guarantee garantievertrag contract of indemnity garantiezeit guarantee period garantiezeit period of guarantee garantiezeit, versicherungsdauer duration of cover gastronom caterer gastronomie catering gatt-abkommen general agreement on tariffs and trade gebiet area gebiet territory gebietsaufteilung division of territory gebietszuteilung, gebietsaufteilung territorial allocation gebilligt approved gebilligte dividende declared dividend gebot, angebot bid gebot, gebotener preis bid gebäudeversicherung insurance of buildings gebunden, verpflichtet bound gebundener preis maintained price gebundener verkauf, kupplungsverkauf tie-on sale geburtenrate birth rate geburtenziffer birth rate geburtsort place of birth gebühr fee gebühr, abgabe due gebühr, belasten charge gebühren im voraus bezahlt charges paid in advance gebühren im voraus bezahlt fees paid in advance gebühren sind einzuziehen charges to be collected gebührenabrechnung account of charges gebührenaufstellung, gebührenverzeichnis table of charges gebührenermäßigung reduction of fees gebührenfrei free of charge gebührenordnung scale of charges and fees gebührenrechnung bill of costs gebührentabelle table of fees gedeckt covered gedeihend prosperous gediegenes gold solid gold gedächtnis, datenspeicher memory geeignet qualified geeignet, anpassen fit geeignete weisungen erteilen give appropriate instructions gefahr danger gefahr peril gefahr, risiko, zufall hazard gefahren der hohen see perils of the sea gefahren der see dangers of the sea gefahren der see hazards of the sea gefahren der see marine perils gefahren der see, seegefahren, seerisiken perils of the sea gefahren der seefahrt dangers of navigation gefahrenabnahme, gefahrenminderung decrease of risk gefahrenart type of risk gefahrenerhöhung, risikozunahme increase of risk gefahrengut, gefährliche ladung dangerous goods gefahrenklasse class of risk gefahrenpunkt peril point gefahrenzone danger zone gefahrenzulage danger bonus gefährlich dangerous gefährlich, riskant hazardous gefährliche güter hazardous goods gefährliche ladung dangerous cargo gefährliche tiere dangerous animals gefährliche vorführungen dangerous performances gefährlicher beruf hazardous occupation gefälligkeitsflaggen flags of convenience gefälligkeitsindossament accommodation endorsement gefälligkeitswechsel accommodation bill gefälligkeitswechsel kite gefälschte münze forged coin gefälschte unterschrift forged signature gefälschter scheck forged check gefälschtes indossament forged endorsement geforderter preis asked price gefragt, gesucht sought gefragte wertpapiere active securities gefriergut frozen cargo gefunden found gegeben given gegebenenfalls as the case may be gegebenenfalls where appropriate gegebenenfalls, wo zutreffend where applicable gegen contra gegen akzeptierung against acceptance gegen alle gefahren against all risks gegen alle risiken against all risks gegen alle verantwortlichkeiten against all responsibilities gegen alle verpflichtungen against all obligations gegen bar for ready money gegen bestellung erhältlich obtainable on order gegen ein patent verstoßen infringe a patent gegen ein pfand geld leihen lend on pawn gegen ein warenzeichen verstoßen infringe a trade mark gegen eine garantie against an indemnity gegen eine regel verstoßen infringe a rule gegen entgelt for value gegen nachnahme cash on delivery gegen sofortige bezahlung kaufen buy outright gegen weisungen handeln disregard instructions gegen zahlung against payment gegen zahlung von upon payment of gegen Übergabe vorgeschriebener dokumente against stipulated documents gegen, zuwider contrary to gegenabschnitt counterfoil gegenbuchung counter entry gegenforderung counter claim gegengewicht counterbalance gegenleistung consideration gegenrechnen, gegenrechnung, aufrechnung offset gegenseitig mutual gegenseitig, auf gegenseitigkeit mutual gegenseitigkeit mutuality gegenstand subject matter gegenstand subject-matter gegenstand der versicherung object insured gegenstand, einwand erheben object gegenwartswert value at the present gegenwert erhalten value received gegenwärtig, jetzig, präsentieren, vorlegen present gegenwärtige und künftige forderungen debts owing and accruing gegenwärtiger wert present value gegenwärtiger wert, barwert present value gegenwärtiger wert, tageswert, marktwert current value gegenzeichnen countersign gegenzeichnung countersignature gegner, prozessgegner adversary gehalt salary gehaltserhöhung raise gehaltserhöhung raise of salary gehaltsvorschuß advance of salary gehilfe assistant geistige ermüdung mental fatigue geistige störung mental defect gekoppelte herstellungskosten joint costs gekoppelte nachfrage joint demand gekoppeltes angebot joint supply gekündigt, storniert cancelled gekürzte prämie limited premium gelbe seiten , branchenadressbuch der post yellow pages geld money geld abheben draw money geld abheben withdraw money geld anlegen place funds geld annehmen accept funds geld auf abruf money at call and short notice geld aufnehmen take up money geld aufnehmen, geld aufbringen raise money geld ausleihen, verleihen lend money geld bei einer bank anlegen place money with a bank geld binden, geld festlegen tie up money geld einzahlen deposit money geld heraus bekommen get money back geld im umlauf money in circulation geld schulden owe money geld verdienen make money geld von einem konto abheben draw cash from an account geld zurückerstatten refund money geld überweisen remit money geld überweisen transfer money geld- pecuniary geld- und kapitalmarkt money and capital market geldabfindung monetary indemnity geldabfluß cash drain geldanforderung money request geldangebot supply of money geldanlage money investment geldautomat automated teller machine geldautomat bancomat geldautomat cash dispenser geldbedarf money demand geldbedarf need of money geldbestände money holdings geldbetrag amount of money geldbewegung flow of money geldentwertung depreciation of currency gelder aufbringen raise funds gelder zusammenlegen pool funds geldfluß cash flow geldforderung claim for money geldgeber financier geldgeber money source geldgeber, geldverleiher, pfandleiher money lender geldgeschäft money transaction geldgeschäfte financial transactions geldhändler, makler in geldgeschäften money jobber geldinstitut lending institute geldkassette cash box geldkassette till geldklemme money squeeze geldknappheit lack of money geldknappheit money pinch geldknappheit money scarcity geldknappheit scarcity of money geldknappheit tightness of money geldkrise money crisis geldkurs bid geldkurs demand price geldkurs money rate geldkursnotierung demand quotation geldlich monetary geldliche abfindung monetary compensation geldliche gegenleistung money consideration geldmangel shortage of money geldmarkt finance market geldmarkt money market geldmarktschwankungen fluctuations in the money market geldmarktsätze money market rates geldmengentheorie quantity theory of money geldreserve money reserve geldreserven cash reserves geldschein, banknote bank note geldschrank safe geldschwemme glut of money geldschöpfung creation of money geldstrafe fine geldsystem, münzsystem monetary system geldtransport cash transport geldtransportfahrzeug bullion van geldumlauf circulation of money geldumlauf cycle of money geldumlauf monetary circulation geldverlegenheit pecuniary embarrassment geldverleiher money lender geldverlust loss of cash geldverschwendung waste of money geldversorgung money supply geldvolumen money supply geldvolumen volume of money geldwechsler money change geldwechsler money changer geldzuflüsse money inflows geldüberfluß glut of money geldüberhang glut of money geldüberweisung money transfer geldüberweisungsdienst money transmission service gelegen situated gelegenheit occasion gelegenheit opportunity gelegenheit, grund, ereignis occasion gelegenheit, günstiges angebot bargain gelegenheitsarbeiten odd jobs gelegenheitsarbeiten verrichten jobbing gelegenheitsarbeiter casual worker gelegentlich occasional gelernt, geschickt skilled geliehenes geld borrowed money gelten hold good geltend machen to claim geltender preis ruling price gelöscht defunct gemein, einfach, gewöhnlich common gemeinbürgschaft joint surety gemeinde borough gemeinde community gemeindeabgaben municipal rates gemeindebehörde municipal authority gemeindebehörden municipal authorities gemeindlich municipal gemeinkosten overheads gemeinnützig non-commercial gemeinnützige gesellschaft non-profit organization gemeinnützige sparkasse, auf gegenseitigkeit mutual savings bank gemeinsam joint gemeinsame steuererklärung der ehepartner joint return gemeinsamer bekannter mutual friend gemeinsamer markt common market gemeinsames konto joint account gemeinsames unternehmen joint venture gemeinschaftliche nutzung joint use gemeinschaftsbilanz, konzernbilanz consolidated balance sheet gemeinschaftsrechnung joint account gemeinschaftsschuld, gemeinschuld corporate debt gemeinschaftstelephon party line gemeinschaftsunternehmen joint venture gemischt mixed gemischte wirtschaftsform mixed economy gemischte police mixed policy gemischtes warenkonto trading account gemäß according to gemäß subject to gemäß den bestimmungen des akkreditivs as specified in the credit gemäß den richtlinien subject to the regulations gemäß den vorschriften arbeiten working to rule gemäß den weisungen as per instructions gemäß inkassoauftrag according to the collection order genau accurate genau jahre nach exactly years since genaue abschrift, ablichtung true copy genaue vorschriften a clear ruling genaue zeit exact time genauigkeit accuracy genauigkeit eines dokuments accuracy of a document genehmigen, billigen approve genehmigtes aktienkapital authorized stock genehmigung approbation genehmigung approval genehmigungspflichtig subject to approval genehmigungspflichtig subject to authorization generaldirektor director general generalpolice floating policy generalpolice open policy generalstreik general strike generalversammlung general meeting generalvertreter general agent generelle versicherung, dachvertrag blanket insurance genesungsheim, kuranstalt convalescent home genesungszeit, erholungszeit convalescence genossenschaft cooperative society genossenschaftlich cooperative genossenschaftlich, gemeinsam corporate genossenschaftliche basis cooperative basis genossenschaftliche basis, gemeinsame basis mutual basis genossenschaftliche sparkasse mutual savings bank genossenschaftliches absatzwesen cooperative marketing geometrische progression geometric progression geplatzter scheck bounced check gepäck baggage gepäck (br.) luggage gepäckanhänger luggage label gepäckaufbewahrung (br.) left-luggage office gepäckaufbewahrungsschein cloak room ticket gepäckaufbewahrungsschein luggage ticket gepäckversicherung baggage insurance gerade noch gewinn machen break even gerecht just gerecht und zumutbar just and reasonable geregelte geschäfte regulated dealings gerichtlich beglaubigen legalize gerichtlich entscheiden adjudicate gerichtliche maßnahmen legal measures gerichtliche maßnahmen ergreifen take legal measures gerichtliche maßnahmen ergreifen take legal measures gerichtliche schritte legal steps gerichtliches vorgehen legal action gerichtsgebühren law charges gerichtshof court gerichtskosten court fees gerichtskosten law costs gerichtskosten legal expenses gerichtsmedizinisch medico-legal gerichtsstand place of jurisdiction gerichtsverfahren law-suit gering slight geringer minor geringer, herabsetzen lower geringfügig negligible geringfügige angelegenheit, nebensache minor matter geringfügige reparaturen minor repairs geringfügige unsicherheit slight uncertainty gerissen, geschickt smart gerät appliance gerät device geräte (im computerbereich), eisenwaren hardware gerücht rumor ges. mit unbeschränkter haftung unlimited company gesamt overall gesamt total gesamtangebot aggregate supply gesamtbedarf composite demand gesamtbetrag aggregate amount gesamtbetrag total amount gesamteinnahmen total receipts gesamtertrag compound yield gesamtertrag total return gesamtgewinn overall profit gesamtgläubiger joint creditor gesamtgläubiger owner of joint rights gesamtnachfrage aggregate demand gesamtnutzen total utility gesamtprüfung general examination gesamtschuldner, mitschuldner joint debtor gesamtschuldnerisch joint and several gesamtschuldnerisch haftend jointly and severally liable gesamtschuldnerische haftung joint liability gesamtschule comprehensive school gesamtsumme aggregate gesamtsumme, endsumme sum total gesamtverbindlichkeiten total liabilities gesamtversicherung all-risk insurance geschenk, gabe gift geschenksendung gift parcel geschickt handy geschlossen closed geschädigter aggrieved party geschäft business geschäft transaction geschäft auf gemeinsame rechnung business on joint account geschäft, abschluß deal geschäfte am geldmarkt money operations geschäfte durchführen transact business geschäfte in kleinen mengen odd business geschäfte jeder art erledigen handle any sort of business geschäfte tätigen transact business geschäfte, umsätze dealings geschäftliche transaktionen business dealings geschäftliches risiko business risk geschäftsablauf course of business geschäftsanteil interest in the partnership geschäftsanteil share in the company geschäftsausfallversicherung loss of profit insurance geschäftsbedingungen terms and conditions geschäftseinlage investment in the business geschäftseröffnung, freie stelle opening geschäftsfähigkeit capacity to contract geschäftsfrau businesswoman geschäftsführend acting geschäftsführender direktor managing director geschäftsführung management geschäftshaftpflichtversicherung business liability insurance geschäftsjahr business year geschäftsjahr financial year geschäftsjahr, rechnungsjahr fiscal year geschäftsmann businessman geschäftspapiere business papers geschäftsräume business premises geschäftsräume office premises geschäftsräume der bank bank premises geschäftsräume, firmengelände premises geschäftsschluss close of business geschäftsschulden trade debts geschäftsstelle branch geschäftsstelle branch office geschäftsstunden hours of business geschäftsstunden office hours geschäftsumfang volume of business geschäftsumfang, geschäftsbereich scope of business geschäftszweig branch of business geschäftszyklus business cycle geschäftsübernahme takeover geschätzte inventur estimated inventory geschätzter wert estimated value geschwindigkeit speed geschwindigkeit velocity geselle journeyman gesellschaft association gesellschaft society gesellschaft für besondere transaktionen particular partnership gesellschaft mit beschränkter haftung limited liability company gesellschafter associate gesellschafter member of a company gesellschafter partner in a firm gesellschafter, partner partner gesellschaftskapital joint capital of a company gesellschaftsregister register of joint stock companies gesellschaftsvermögen assets of a company gesellschaftsvertrag contract of association gesellschaftsvertrag der gmbh memorandum of association gesellschaftsvertrag der ohg deed of partnership gesellschaftsvertrag der ohg memorandum of partnership gesetz statute gesetz betreffend den verkauf von waren sale of goods act gesetz betreffend fabriken factory acts gesetz der großen zahl law of large numbers gesetz der Ökonomie der zeit law of economy of time gesetz des komparativen nutzens law of comparative advantages gesetz gegen unlauteren wettbewerb fair trade law gesetz vom abnehmenden ertrag law of diminishing returns gesetz von angebot und nachfrage law of supply and demand gesetzeslücke loophole in the law gesetzesübertretung breach of law gesetzesübertretung malfeasance gesetzlich legal gesetzlich begründeter schadensersatzanspruch lawful damages gesetzlich festgelegt statutory gesetzlich haftbar legally liable gesetzlich, rechtsgültig legal gesetzliche haftpflicht legal liability gesetzliche rücklage legal reserve gesetzliche rücklagen legal reserves gesetzliche verpflichtung legal obligation gesetzlicher höchstzinssatz legal rate gesetzlicher schadensersatzanspruch damages at law gesetzliches zahlungsmittel legal tender gesetzliches zahlungsmittel (us) lawful money gesicherte verbindlichkeiten secured liabilities gesichertes darlehen secured credit gesiegelte urkunde deed gesperrte schuld, verjährte schuld barred debt gestalter designer gestattet nach geltendem recht authorized by the law in force gestell, ständer rack gestohlenes fahrzeug stolen vehicle gestufter tarif graduated tariff gesund healthy gesundheit health gesundheit physical health gesundheit wiederherstellen restore health gesundheitsamt local health authority gesundheitsrisiko health hazard gesundheitsversorgung für alte leute medicare getan, gehandelt done getätigter umsatz business done getrennt separate getrennt halten keep apart getrennt halten keep separate getrennt von anderen verträgen separate from other contracts getrennt von den kaufverträgen separate from the sales contracts gewagt risky gewahrsam custody gewahrsam keeping gewahrsamsklausel bailee clause gewebe, stoff fabric gewerbe, handel trade gewerbeerlaubnis trading certificate gewerbefreiheit freedom of trade gewerbegebiet industrial estate gewerblich genutztes gebäude industrial building gewerbliche ausbildung industrial training gewerbliche darlehen loans to trade and industry gewerbliche feuerversicherung industrial fire risk insurance gewerbliches fahrzeug commercial vehicle gewerbliches risiko industrial risk gewerkschaft trade union gewicht weight gewicht der verpackung tare gewicht der verpackung weight of packing gewichteter index weighted index gewichtsangabe declaration of weight gewichtsverlust loss in weight gewichtsverlust, untergewicht loss in weight gewichtung weighting gewinnaufteilung earnings statement gewinn earning gewinn gain gewinn profit gewinn abwerfen yield a profit gewinn aus handelsgeschäften trading profit gewinn aus kapitalanlagen investment gain gewinn, einnahmen gains gewinn- und verlustkonto profit and loss account gewinn- und verlustkonto profit-and-loss statement gewinnabschätzung estimation of prospective profits gewinnanteil share in the profits gewinnanteil, dividende dividend gewinnanteilschein dividend warrant gewinnberechnung calculation of profits gewinnbeteiligung profit-sharing gewinnbringend gainful gewinnbringend profitable gewinne wiederinvestieren ploughing back profits gewinnen gain gewinnplan, dividendensystem bonus scheme gewinnrendite earnings yield gewinnrückgang loss of profits gewinnsatz rate of profit gewinnspanne profit margin gewinnverteilung bonus allocation gewinnverteilung distribution of profits gewinnverteilung division of profits gewinnvortrag profit carried forward gewissenloser geschäftemacher racketeer gewissenloses praktizieren malpractice gewissermaßen in some measure gewissermaßen quasi gewissermaßen ein monopol quasi-monopoly gewissheit, sicherheit certainty gewogener mittelwert mean average gewähren, gestatten allow gewährleisten warrant gewährleistung warranty gewährleistung, garantie warranty gewährleistungsdauer length of warranty gewährte frist time allowed gewässerverschmutzung water pollution gewöhnlich ordinary gezeichnete aktie subscribed share gezeichnetes kapital subscribed capital gezielte werbung selective advertising gezogene auf die eröffnende bank drawn on the issuing bank gilt als is deemed to be girogläubiger creditor by endorsement girokontenüberziehung bank overdraft girokonto checking account girokonto current account girokonto (us) checking account girosystem check system glanzpunkt highlight glasversicherung glass breakage insurance glasversicherung plate glass insurance gleich equal gleich, entsprechend equal gleichartig similar gleichbleibende prämie level premium gleichbleibendes risiko constant risk gleiche entlohnung equal pay gleiches akkreditiv similar credit gleichgewicht equilibrium gleichgültigkeit indifference gleichlautend conform gleichlautend in conformity gleichlautende abschrift true copy gleichsam quasi gleichwertig, gegenwert equivalent gleichzeitig concurrent gleichzeitig simultaneous gleitende arbeitszeit flexible working hours gleitklausel escalator clause gleitskala, gestuft sliding scale gliederung der ausgaben classification of expenditures gläubiger creditor gläubigerausschuss committee of creditors gläubigerausschuß board of creditors gläubigerausschuß committee of creditors gläubigermehrheit majority of creditors glück, vermögen fortune glücksspiel gambling glücksspiel game of chance glücksspiel game of luck gmbh limited liability company gmbh private limited company gold in barren bullion gold in barren gold bullion gold- oder silberbarren bullion gold- und silberbestand bullion goldabfluß flow of gold goldabfluß gold outflow goldabfluß outflow of gold goldadagio gold premium goldagio premium on gold goldangebot gold supply goldausfuhr gold export goldbarren gold bar goldbarren gold ingot goldbestand gold holdings goldbestand gold stock golddeckung gold cover golddeckung gold coverage goldeinfuhr gold import goldklausel gold clause goldkurs gold rate goldkurs rate of gold goldmark gold mark goldmarkt bullion market goldminen, goldbergwerke gold mines goldmünzen gold coins goldoption gold option goldparität gold parity goldpreis gold price goldpreis price of gold goldreserven gold reserves goldreserven holdings of gold goldstandard gold standard goldstück gold piece goldwert gold value goldzufluß gold inflow goldüberschuss surplus gold grad der invalidität degree of disablement grafschaft county graphische darstellung graph gratifikation gratuity gratifikation, zuwendung gratuity gratis cost free gratis free of cost gratisaktie bonus share grauer markt gray market gremium, ausschuss board grenbzneigung zu sparen marginal propensity to save grenzbereich, grenzland borderland grenzbewohner borderer grenze border grenze der entschädigung limit of indemnity grenze, grenzlinie boundary grenze, limitieren, begrenzen limit grenzertrag marginal profit grenzertrag marginal revenue grenzkosten marginal cost grenzkostenrechnung marginal analysis grenzkostenrechnung marginal costing grenzleistung des kapitals marginal efficiency of capital grenzlinie borderline grenzneigung zu verbrauchen marginal propensity to consume grenznutzen marginal utility grenzproduktion marginal production grenzproduktivität marginal productivity grenzproduktivität der arbeit marginal productivity of labour grenzübergangsstelle point of entry grobe fahrlässigkeit gross fault grobe schätzung rough estimate großauftrag, auftrag für unverpackte ware bulk order große gemeinschaftliche havarie general average große havarie general average große havarie, havarie-grosse general average große sorgfalt high diligence großeinkauf, einkauf unverpackter ware bulk buying großenteils in a great measure großer auftrag large order großes passagierflugzeug airliner großfeuer conflagration großhandel wholesale großhandel wholesale trade großhandelsgenossenschaft wholesale cooperative großhandelsgeschäft wholesale business großhandelspreis wholesale price großhandelsrabatt wholesale discount großhändler wholesale dealer großhändler wholesaler großhändler an der börse, akkordarbeiter jobber großlebensversicherung ordinary life insurance grund der kündigung cause of cancellation grund, ursache, veranlassung cause grundbesitz estate grundbesitz freehold property grundbesitz landed estate grundbesitz real estate grundbesitz real property holding grundbesitz, immobilien real estate grundbesitzer land owner grundbesitzer landholder grundbesitzer owner of an estate grundbuch land register grundeigentum landed property grundeigentümer land owner grunderwerb land acquisition grunderwerbssteuer land purchase tax grundgebühr base fee grundgedanke keynote grundherr, hausherr landlord grundlegend basic grundlohn basic wage grundlos, ohne basis baseless grundpfand real security grundpreis basis price grundprämie basic premium grundsatz maxim grundsteuer rates grundsteuer (br.) rates grundsteuernachlaß rate relief grundsteuerpflichtiger, hausbesitzer ratepayer grundstück mit allen gebäuden premises grundstücke und gebäude land and buildings grundstückeigentümer, hausherr landlord grundstückeigentümerhaftpflicht landlord's liability grundstücksbesteuerung tax on real estate grundstücksertrag returns from landed property grundstückskonto landed property account grundstückskonto real estate account grundstücksmakler real estate agent grundstücksmakler, grundstücksverwalter land agent grundstücksmakler, immobilienmakler real estate broker grundstücksspekulation, bodenspekulation real estate speculation grundstücksverwaltungsabteilung real estate department grundstückswert land value grundstückswert value of the property grundtarif basic rate gruppe clique gruppe group gruppenakkord group piece rate gruppenbonus group incentives gruppenlebensversicherung group life insurance gruppenversicherung collective insurance gruppenversicherung group insurance gruppenversicherung, kollektivversicherung group insurance größe size größer, bedeutender major größere beträge substantial amounts größere schwierigkeit, größeres problem major difficulty gründer founder gründeraktien founder's shares gründerrechte founder's rights gründervorzugsrechte founder's preference rights gründung foundation gründung einer firma formation of a company gründungskapital original capital grüne versicherungskarte green card gummistempel rubber stamp gunst, gefallen favor gut ausgebildet well-trained gut erzogen well-educated gutachten expert opinion gutachten eines sachverständigen opinion of an expert gute zeitliche koordinierung timing guter glauben good faith gutgläubig without notice gutgläubiger empfänger bona fide receiver gutgläubiger erwerber bona fide transferee gutgläubiger erwerber einer hypothek bona fide mortgagee gutgläubiger erwerber eines pfandrechts bona fide pledgee gutgläubiger erwerber gegen entgelt bona fide purchaser for value gutgläubiger inhaber bona fide holder guthaben money on account guthaben bei einer bank credit at a bank guthabenüberschuss credit balance gutschein token gutschein voucher gutschreiben credit gutschrift credit advice gutschrift credit entry gutschrift credit note gültig in force gültig valid gültig bis auf widerruf valid until revoked gültige quittung valid receipt gültiger einwand valid objection gültiger tarif tariff in force gültigkeit validity gültigkeitsdauer period of validity gültigkeitsdauer validity period günstig favorable günstige gelegenheit, günstiges angebot bargain günstigste bedingungen most favorable terms güterbeförderung forwarding of goods güterfernverkehr (us) highway transport güterzug wagon train güteverfahren, schlichtungsverfahren conciliatory proceedings gütlich, außer gericht, außergerichtlich amicably gütlich, unter freunden amicable gütliche beilegung, schlichtung amicable adjustment gütlicher vergleich, vergleich amicable settlement h hab und gut goods and chattels haben alle aktiv teilgenommen have all played an active role haben sich grundlegend geändert have changed radically habenichts have-not habenzinsen credit interest habenzinsen interest due habenzinsen interest on credit balances hafen port hafenbehörde port authority hafengebühr harbor dues hafengebühren, dockgebühren dock dues hafenmeister harbor master hafenrisiken port risks haftbar sein für be liable for haftbar werden become liable haftbar, verantwortlich accountable haftbar, verantwortlich liable haftpflicht liability haftpflichthöchstgrenze maximum liability haftpflichtversicherung third-party insurance haftpflichtversicherung (us) liability insurance haftpflichtversicherung des arbeitsgebers employer's liability insurance haftung liabilities haftung des grundpächters landholder's liability haftung für die folgen liability for consequences haftung für die folgen liability for the consequences haftung für irgendwelche handlungen liability for any acts haftung für irgendwelche unterlassungen liability for any omissions haftung gegen dritten third-party liability haftungsdauer indemnity period haftungsumfang accountability hagelschaden damage by hail hagelversicherung hail insurance halbamtlich quasi official halber freier tag half a holiday halber preis half-price halbfertig semi-finished halbfertigwaren goods in process halbfertigwaren unfinished goods halbjahresprämie semi-annual premium halbjährlich half-yearly halbjährliche zinsen semi-annual interest halbmonatlich semi-monthly halbtags arbeiten work part-time halten hold halten keep halten, festhalten, besitzen hold halten, lebensunterhalt keep haltung attitude handarbeit manual work handel commerce handel dealing handel in aktien dealing in stocks handel in kleinen mengen odd trading handel in obligationen dealing in bonds handel und industrie trade and industry handel zwischen zwei staaten bilateral trade handeln to act handeln mit deal in handeln nicht mit anderen leistungen do not deal in other performances handeln nicht mit dienstleistungen do not deal in services handeln nicht mit waren do not deal in goods handeln, handlung, gesetz act handels- und geschäftsbank commercial bank handelsabkommen commercial agreement handelsabkommen trade agreement handelsakademie commercial academy handelsattache commercial attache handelsbank merchant bank handelsbarrieren trade barriers handelsbilanz balance of trade handelsbrauch commercial usage handelsbrauch practices handelsbrauch usance handelsdefizit trade deficit handelserleichternde maßnahmen trade facilitation activities handelserleichterung trade facilitation handelsgerichtliche eintragung incorporation handelsgeschäft commercial transaction handelsgesellschaft trading company handelsgesetzbuch commercial code handelsinteressen commercial interests handelskammer chamber of commerce handelskammer chamber of commerce handelskrieg tariff war handelsmesse trade fair handelsministerium department of commerce handelsministerium (br.) board of trade handelsmonopol trade monopoly handelspapier, dokument paper handelspapiere commercial documents handelspapiere gegen akzeptierung documents against acceptance handelspapiere gegen zahlung documents against payment handelspolitik commercial policy handelsrechnung commercial invoice handelsrecht commercial law handelsrecht mercantile law handelsregister register of companies handelsregisterauszug certificate of registration handelsreisender commercial traveler handelsschiff merchant vessel handelstratte commercial draft handelsunternehmen commercial enterprise handelsunternehmen mercantile concern handelsverband trade association handelsverbot interdiction of commerce handelsverhältnis import/export terms of trade handelsvertrag commercial treaty handelsware merchandise handelswechsel commercial bills handelswechsel, warenwechsel trade bill handelswert commercial value handelswert trade value handelswert trade-in value handelsüblich according to custom and usage handelsüblich usual in trade handgefertigt hand-worked handgeld earnest money handgeld, anzahlung earnest money handlung act handlung, klage action handlung, operation, betrieb operation handlungsbevollmächtigter officer handlungsreisender (br., veraltet) bagman handschrift handwriting handschriftlich handwritten handwerk craft handwerk, kunsthandwerk handicraft handwerker artisan handwerker craftsman handwerkskammer chamber of trade handzettel, flugblatt handbill hauptschuldner principal debtor harte bedingung, strenge bedingung stringent condition harte währung hard currency harter test acid test hartgeld coined money hartgeld hard cash hartgeld specie hat in betracht gezogen has taken into account hauptberuflicher vertreter full-time agent hauptbestandteil, wesentlicher bestandteil essential part hauptbuch general ledger hauptbuch ledger hauptbuchführer ledger keeper hauptbuchhalter chief accountant hauptbüro, zentrale main office hauptbüro, zentrale, stammhaus head office hauptgeschäftsstunden peak hours hauptgläubiger principal creditor hauptkassier cashier in charge hauptkassier chief cashier hauptkassier head cashier hauptkassierer chief cashier hauptkatalog main catalogue hauptkonto general account hauptlieferant main supplier hauptpolice master policy hauptquartier, hauptgeschäftsstelle headquarters hauptsitz head office hauptsächlich main hauptsächlich mainly haupturlaubszeit vacation period hauptursache chief cause hauptverbraucher main consumer hauptverkehrsstraße main artery road hauptverkehrszeit rush hour hauptversammlung shareholders' meeting haus möbliert vermieten let a house furnished haus vermieten let a house haus- und geschäftsräume domestic and business premises hausbesitzer house owner hausbesitzer owner of a house hausbock xylophaga hauseigentümer houseowner hauseigentümer owner of a house hauseigentümerversicherung house owner's policy haushalt household haushaltsführung housekeeping haushaltsgeld housekeeping allowance haushaltskontrolle budgetary control haushaltsmäßig, den haushalt betreffend budgetary haushaltsperiode budget period hausherrin, dame des hauses landlady hausrat household and personal effects hausrat residence contents hausrat- und haftpflichtversicherung householder's comprehensive insurance hausratsversicherung household insurance hausratversicherung insurance of contents hausschwamm dry rot hausse bull market haussier, hausse-spekulant bull hausversicherung home insurance hausversicherung residence insurance hausvertreter home-service insurance man hausverwalter caretaker havarie-grosse klausel general-average clause havariebericht, schadensbericht survey report havarieeinschuss general average deposit havariehandlung general average act havariekommissar average adjuster havariekommissar surveyor havariekommissar von lloyd lloyd's agent havarieverteilung adjustment of average hebegebühr collection charge heilmittel remedy heimarbeitssystem homework system heimatanschrift, privatanschrift home address heimathafen port of registry heimatland home country heimsparbüchse home safe heimstätte, eigenheim (us) homestead heizkesselversicherung boiler insurance heiß hot heiße aktien hot issues heißes geld hot money helfen assist helfer in steuersachen tax expert helikopter helicopter herabgesetzter preis marked down price herabsetzen abate herabsetzen lower herabsetzen reduce herabsetzen, herabsetzung von preisen markdown herabsetzen, senken cut herbst (us) fall herr, ehrenmann gentleman herrenlos unowned herrenloses gut abandoned property herrscher über geld, firmen und leute tycoon herstellen fabricate herstellen, herstellung manufacture hersteller, aussteller maker herstellerhaftpflichtversicherung producer's liability insurance herstellung manufacturing herstellungskosten manufacturing costs herstellungsland country of production herstellungsnebenkosten manufacturing expenses herstellungsverfahren manufacturing process hiermit bestätigt, hiermit beglaubigt certified herewith hilfe aid hilfe assistance hilfe, fürsorge aid hilfeleistung assistance after accident hilfsarbeit unskilled labor hilfsarbeiter unskilled worker himmelsschreiben skywriting hinausgeschobene zahlung deferred payment hindernis obstacle hinreise outward journey hinsicht regard hinterbliebene surviving dependants hinterbliebenenrente survivorship annuity hintergrund background hinterlegen lodge hinterlegen, deponieren lodge hinterlegung einer eingabe filing of a petition hinterlegung einer sicherheit deposit of a security hinterlegung eines antrags filing of an application hinterlegung zur sicherheit collateral security hinterlegungsschein certificate of deposit hinterlegungsschein letter of deposit hinterlegungsschein receipt of deposit hinterlegungsschein warrant of deposit hinterlegungsschein für wertpapiere collateral note hintertür loophole hinterzogene einkommensteuer evaded income tax hinzufügen add hinzufügen append histogramm histogram hoch im preis high priced hoch im preis high-priced hochachtungsvoll yours faithfully hochfinanz high finance hochgradig, hochwertig high-grade hochleistungs- high-performance hochschulgelände campus hochstapelei high-class robbery hochwertig high-quality hochwertige ware quality goods hohe zinsen dear interest hoher gewinn large profit hohes alter old-age holdinggesellschaft controlling company holdinggesellschaft holding company holdinggesellschaft holding society händler dealer händler trader händler am schwarzen markt blacketeer händlerrabatt trade discount honorar des arztes, ärztliches honorar doctor's fee härteklausel hardship clause horten hoard horten hoarding horten von zahlungsmitteln stock-piling of currency härten, verhärten harden härtezulage hardship allowance hortung hoarding hotel hotel hotelgewerbe hotel business hotelreservierung hotel reservation hotelunterkunft hotel accommodation häufig frequent häufigkeit frequency häufigkeit frequency of occurrence häufigkeit, frequenz frequency häufigkeitsverteilung frequency distribution häuslicher unfall domestic accident huckepacktransport piggyback trucking hungerlohn starvation wages hypothek mortgage hypothekarisch by mortgage hypothekarisch belasten, verpfänden, hypothek mortgage hypothekarische sicherheit hypothecary security hypothekarischer kredit credit on mortgage hypothekarschuld debt on mortgage hypotheken beleihen advance upon mortgage hypothekenabteilung mortgage department hypothekenabtretung transfer of mortgage hypothekenabzahlung mortgage amortization hypothekenauszug aus dem grundbuch mortgage note hypothekenbank land bank hypothekenbank mortgage bank hypothekenbetrag mortgage money hypothekenbrief mortgage deed hypothekendarlehen mortgage loan hypothekenforderung hypothecary claim hypothekenforderung money secured by mortgage hypothekenforderung mortgage claim hypothekenforderung mortgages receivable hypothekengeber mortgage lender hypothekengläubiger mortgage creditor hypothekengläubiger mortgagee hypothekenpfandbrief mortgage bond hypothekenpfandbrief mortgage debenture hypothekenregister mortgage register hypothekenrückzahlung mortgage repayment hypothekensatz mortgage rate hypothekenschuld debt on mortgage hypothekenschuld hypothecary debt hypothekenschuld mortgage debt hypothekenschulden mortgages payable hypothekenschuldner mortgage debitor hypothekenschuldner mortgagor hypothekenurkunde, hypothekenbrief mortgage deed hypothekenurkunde, hypothekenschein mortgage certificate hypothekenverschuldung mortgage indebtedness hypothekenversicherung mortgage insurance hypothekenzins mortgage interest hypothekenzinsen mortgage interests hypothetische frage hypothetical question höchstalter limiting age höchstalter, altersgrenze age limit höchstanbieter highest bidder höchstangebot highest bid höchstbetrag maximum amount höchstgrenze maximum limit höchstkontingent maximum quota höchstkurs maximum rate höchstkurs peak price höchstkurs, höchstpreis top price höchstleistung maximum capacity höchstlohn maximum wage höchstpreis ceiling price höchstpreis maximum price höchstpreis peak price höchstsatz, höchstprämie maximum rate höchstschaden maximum loss höchststand highest level höchstwert maximum höchstwert maximum value höchstzahl maximum number höhe der anlage amount of money invested höhe der sicherheitsleistung amount of security höhe des schadens quantum of damages höhe einer forderung amount of a claim höher im rang sein rank before höhere gewalt act of god höhere gewalt force majeure icc-bankenkommission icc's banking commission ideensammlungsmethode brainstorming identifizieren identify identität identity Ödland waste land Öffentlicher versorgungsbetrieb public utility ihrer natur nach by their nature Ökonometrie econometrics i illiquide illiquid illiquidität illiquidity im akkreditiv aufgenommen ist is included in the credit im akkreditiv-geschäft in credit operations im allgemeinen generally im auftrag des kunden on behalf of the client im auftrag von by order of im auftrag von on behalf of im ausland angelegtes kapital capital invested abroad im ausland hergestellte ware goods of foreign make im ausland wohnhaft resident abroad im ausland zahlbar payable abroad im ausland, ins ausland abroad im außendienst tätig sein work in the field im dokument nicht enthalten not embodied in the document im falle des verlusts in the event of loss im falle des verlusts, im schadensfalle in case of loss im falle von in case of im falle von in the event of im ganzen en bloc im ganzen in the aggregate im ganzen oder zum teil in whole or in part im ganzen zahlen pay in full im geschäft erfolgreich sein succeed in business im guten glauben bona fide im haben verbuchen enter on the credit side im handelsregister gelöschte firma defunct company im klagewege, durch eine klage by way of action im komitee vertretene länder countries represented in the committee im land der akzeptierung in the country of acceptance im land der zahlung in the country of payment im lauf der jahre, in der zwischenzeit over the intervening years im notfall in case of need im obligo on risk im rahmen von within the limits of im rang nachstehen rank behind im rang niedriger sein rank below im schadensfalle in the event of damage im schadensfalle in the event of loss im scheckheft verbleibender abschnitt counterfoil im sinne dieser artikel for the purpose of such articles im sinne dieser begriffsbestimmungen for the purpose of such definitions im sinne dieser regeln for the purpose of such provisions im soll verbuchen enter on the debit side im todesfalle in the event of death im umlauf in circulation im umlauf befindliche zahlungsmittel money in circulation im verhältnis proportional im voraus bestellen order in advance im voraus bezahlt prepaid im voraus bezahlte prämie premium paid in advance im voraus zahlbar payable in advance im welthandel in world trade im wert begrenzter scheck limited cheque im zunehmen on the rise im zusammenhang mit einem solchen protest in connection with such protest im zusammenhang mit irgendeiner maßnahme in connection with any action im Überfluss abundant im Überfluss vorhanden sein abound im übrigen gleich ceteris paribus imaginär imaginary imaginäre schadensersatzforderung imaginary damages imaginärer firmenwert goodwill imaginärer gewinn anticipated profit imaginärer gewinn imaginary profit immaterielle werte intangible assets immobilien immovable property immobilien immovables immobilienbüro estate agency immobilienfonds real estate fund immobilienmakler realtor immobilienmakler, grundstücksmakler estate agent implikation implication implizieren imply impliziert implicit import, einfuhr, importieren, einführen import importbeschränkung limitation of imports importeur, einführer importer importhafen port of importation importhafen (us) port of entry importland country of importation in aktien umtauschbare obligationen convertible bonds in allen fällen in all cases in anbetracht in view of in arbeit befindliche ware goods in process in ausländischem besitz foreign-controlled in bankkreisen in banking circles in bar in specie in betracht kommen come into question in betracht ziehen take in account in betracht ziehen take into consideration in bezahlung unserer rechnung in payment of our account in blanko akzeptieren accept in blank in container verladen containerize in den akten on record in der angabe einer bestimmten anzahl in terms of a stated number in der annahme dass assuming that in der form in the form in der neuen version in the new version in der praxis in practice in der regel normally in der regel wird ein kompromiss gefunden a compromise is normally agreed in der verantwortlichkeit des absenders at the responsibility of the sender in der vorgeschrieben art in the manner specified in der währung des landes in currency of the country in deutscher währung in german currency in die höhe schießende preise soaring prices in die höhe treiben enhance in diesem gebiet erfahren experienced in this area in eine firma eintreten join a company in englischer währung in english currency in ermangelung von failing which in erster linie primarily in französischer währung in french currency in gefahr bringen endanger in gefahr bringen jeopardize in geld schwimmen rolling in money in geld umsetzen, verflüssigen turn into money in geld umsetzen, zu geld machen turn into cash in geldverlegenheit hard up in getrenntem umschlag under separate cover in gewisser hinsicht in a way in gleicher weise similarly in grenzen halten keep within a limit in großem umfang large scale in großem umfang large-scale in großen gebinden, bulkware bulk in gutem glauben bona fide in gutem zustand halten keep in good repair in höhe von, belaufend auf amounting to in ihrer äußeren aufmachung on their face in inländischer währung in local currency in keiner hinsicht in no way in kommission on sale or return in kommission sale or return in kommission, als konsignationsware on consignment in konkurrenz sein mit compete with in kraft treten come into force in pension gehen, in rente gehen go on pension in pfand nehmen take as security in privatbesitz überführen denationalize in raten zahlen pay by installments in rechnung gestellte ware goods billed to customer in ruhestand gehen retire in solch einem inkassoauftrag in such collection order in umlauf befindliche mittel money in circulation in umlauf sein circulate in verbindung bleiben keep in touch with in verkehr bringen put in circulation in verlegenheit embarrassed in worten say in zahlung nehmen receive in payment in zukunft, nachstehend hereafter in Übereinstimmung mit in accord with in Übereinstimmung mit den richtlinien in accordance with the terms in Übereinstimmung mit diesen richtlinien in accordance with these rules in Übereinstimmung sein, entsprechen to be in accordance with in öffentlichem besitz, jedermann zugänglich in the public domain in örtlicher währung zahlbar payable in local currency inaktives konto dormant account inbesitznahme appropriation index index index, meßziffer index index-gebundene aktie index-linked stock indexklausel index clause indexnummer index number indexversicherung insurance with index clause indifferenzkurve indifference curve indifferenzpunkt point of indifference indirekt indirect indirekten steuern indirect taxes indirekter schaden indirect loss or damage indirekter schaden, mittelbarer schaden indirect damage individualismus individualism individuum, einzeln individual indossament endorsement indossament erforderlich endorsement required indossament mit vorbehalt conditional endorsement indossament ohne obligo restrictive endorsement indossament ohne verbindlichkeit endorsement without recourse indossant endorser indossatar endorsee indossieren endorse indossieren indorse indossieren, ergänzen endorse indossieren, girieren, begeben endorse indossierung endorsing induktive methode inductive method industrialisieren industrialize industrialisierung industrialization industrie industry industrieaktien industrials industriedarlehen loans to industry industrieemissionen industrial issues industriekapitän captain of industry industriell industrial industrielle erschließung industrial development industrielle revolution industrial revolution industrieobligation industrial obligation industrieobligationen industrial securities industriepotential industrial potential industrieverlagerung relocation of industry industriezweig line of industry inflation inflation inflationistische tendenz inflationary trend inflationär inflationary inflationsausgleich inflationary adjustment inflationsgefahr inflation peril inflationsgewinn inflation gain inflationsrate rate of inflation inflationsspirale inflationary spiral inflatorische lücke inflationary gap information, auskunft information informationsaustausch exchange of information informationsblatt handout informierend informatory infrastruktur infrastructure inhaber holder inhaber einer obligation bondholder inhaber einer schuldverschreibung debenture holder inhaber einer versicherungspolice policyholder inhaber eines schecks bearer of a cheque inhaber eines wechsels bearer of a bill inhaber eines wechsels holder of a bill of exchange inhaber eines wertpapieres, Überbringer bearer inhaberaktie bearer share inhaberaktie bearer stock inhaberpapier bearer paper inhaberscheck bearer cheque inhaberschuldverschreibung bearer bond inhaberschuldverschreibungen bonds payable to bearer inhalt contents inhalt, beinhaltete daten, inhaltsmerkmale data content inhalt, hausrat, mobilien contents inhaltsverzeichnis table of contents initiative initiative inkasso collection inkasso durch boten collection by hand inkasso von zahlungspapieren collection of financial documents inkasso vornehmen collect inkassoabteilung collection department inkassoanzeige advice of collection inkassoauftrag collecting order inkassoauftrag collection order inkassobüro collection agency inkassodokumente documents collected inkassogebühr charges for collection inkassogebühren collecting charges inkassoindossament endorsement for collection inkassokosten collection costs inkassokosten collection expenses inkassoposten item for collection inkassoprovision commission for collection inkassovollmacht collecting power inkassovollmacht power for collection inkassowechsel bill for collection inkorporationsurkunde certificate of incorporation inkrafttreten coming into force inlandsanleihe inland loan inlandserzeugnisse home produced goods inlandsinvestitionen domestic investments inlandsmarkt domestic market inlandsmarkt, binnenmarkt home market inlandsnachfrage home demand inlandspostanweisung inland money order inlandspreis domestic price inlandsschulden domestic debts inlandsumsätze domestic sales inlandsverbrauch domestic consumption inlandsverbrauch home consumption inlandswechsel domestic bill inlandswechsel inland bill inländisch domestic inländisches recht domestic law innenadresse inside address innendienstbelegschaft inside staff innenminister home secretary innenministerium home office innenstadt (us) downtown innenstadt, geschäftsstadt city innerbetrieblich interoffice innerbetrieblich, inländisch internal innerhalb von tagen nach benachrichtigung within days from its advice innerhalb von grenzen within limits innewohnende unsichtbare mängel latent defects innewohnender mangel inherent vice innovation innovation insbesondere in particular inserent advertiser insider insider insolventenliste blacklist insolvenz insolvency inspektion, nachschau inspection inspektionskomitee, gläubigerausschuss committee of inspection inspektor inspector inspizieren inspect installation, einbau, montage installation installieren, einrichten, einbauen install instandhaltungskosten costs of maintenance instandsetzungsabteilung maintenance department instanzenweg normal channel institut, einrichtung institution institutionell institutional institutioneller anleger institutional investor instrukteur instructor instrument instrument intelligent intelligent intelligenz, nachrichten intelligence intelligenztest intelligence test intensität intensity intensiv intensive intensive bearbeitung intensive cultivation interesse, zins interest interessen der minorität minority interests interessen, beteiligung, anteil interests interessengemeinschaft community of interests interessengemeinschaft pool interessenkonflikt conflict of interest interessensbereich sphere of interest interimsquittung provisional receipt interimsschein interim certificate interimsschein provisional certificate international international international anerkannt internationally accepted international chamber of commerce icc international gehandelte wertpapiere interbourse securities internationale handelsbedingungen der icc incoterms internationale handelsgeschäfte international trading operations internationale handelskammer icc internationale handelskammer international chamber of commerce internationale postanweisung international money order internationale versicherungskarte international insurance card internationale zahlungsbilanz balance of international payments internationales versicherungsgeschäft international insurance business interpolation interpolation intervenieren intervene interventionspunkt intervention point interview interview invalide disabled person invalidenrente disability benefits invalidität disability invaliditätsgrad disability percentage invaliditätsrente, invalidenrente disability annuity inventar aufnehmen raise an inventory inventar, bestand inventory inventuraufnahme taking of an inventory investieren invest investition investment investition, kapitalanlage investment investitionsbetrag amount of investment investitionsfonds mutual fund investitionsgüter capital goods investitionstätigkeit investment activity investitionszuschüsse investment grants investmentgesellschaft investment trust investmentgesellschaft unit trust investmentzertifikat investment trust certificate irgendeine bank any bank irgendeine bank, mit ausnahme von any bank, other than irgendwelche bezugnahme any reference whatsoever irgendwelche stempel anbringen to place any rubber stamps irgeneine bank nach eigener wahl any bank of his own choice irreführen mislead irreführend misleading irreführendes markenzeichen deceptive mark irren be mistaken irrige auffassung mistaken idea irrtum error irrtum, fehler error irrtümer bei der Übersetzung errors in translation irrtümer beim dolmetschen errors in interpretation irrtümer und auslassungen vorbehalten errors and omissions accepted irrtümer und auslassungen zugelassen e.& o.e. irrtümlicherweise mistakenly ist abgeändert worden has been the subject of amendments ist angewiesen zu avisieren is instructed to advise ist angewiesen zu bestätigen is instructed to confirm ist angewiesen zu eröffnen is instructed to issue ist auf den neuesten stand gebracht it has been updated ist benutzbar gestellt worden has been made available ist immer noch unentbehrlich has remained indispensable ist unentbehrlich geblieben has remained indispensable ist unentbehrlich geworden has become indispensable ist unwirksam is not effective ist verantwortlich, darauf zu achten, daß is responsible for seeing that j jagd nach qualifizierten arbeitskräften headhunting jagdhaftpflichtversicherung hunting liability insurance jagdunfall hunting accident jagen hunt jahr year jahrbuch yearbook jahresabrechnung annual account jahresbericht annual report jahresbericht director's report jahresende year-end jahreshauptversammlung annual general meeting jahresmeldung annual return jahresprämie annual premium jahresversammlung annual meeting jahreszeit season jahrshauptversammlung annual general meeting je kopf per capita je nach lage des falles as the case may be je nachdem welcher betrag höher ist whichever is the greater je tag per diem jederzeit kündbarer leasing-vertrag operating leasing jedes dokumentenakkreditiv each documentary credit jedes frachtstück separat versichert each package separately insured jemand der seinen zahlungen nicht nachkommt defaulter jemandem einen auftrag erteilen place an order with sb. jemandem geld schulden owe sb money jemandem leihen lend to sb jemanden ausnehmen, übervorteilen fleece jemanden unterrichtet halten keep sb informed jemanden unterstützen back up sb. jemanden wegen etwas verklagen sue sb. for sth. jemanden zur verantwortung heranziehen hold sb. liable jetziger wert present value jährlich annual jährlich yearly jährliche tilgungsrate annual amortization jährliche zahlung annual payment jährliche zahlung annuity journal journal jugendlicher zwischen und jahren young person junge aktien new shares junior junior junior, junior-partner junior partner jurist lawyer juristische person corporate body juristische person legal person k kabel, telegramm cable kabelkurs cable rate kai quay kaigebühren quay dues kalender calendar kalenderjahr calendar year kalendermonat calendar month kalendertag calendar day kalenderwoche calendar week kalkulation, berechnung calculation kalkulieren calculate kanal canal kanal channel kandidat candidate kann an die stelle von ... gesetzt werden can be substituted for ... kann annulliert werden may be cancelled kann auf den unterschiedsbetrag ziehen can draw for the difference kann eine vorläufige benachrichtigung geben may give preliminary notification kann geändert werden may be amended kann jemandem angekündigt werden may be advised to sb. kann nachgewiesen werden may be evidenced kann nicht entsprechen cannot comply kann sich in keinem falle bedienen can in no case avail himself of kann so erhöht werden may be increased in such a way kapazität, fassungsvermögen capacity kapital principal kapital aufbringen, kapital aufnehmen raise capital kapital aufnehmen raise capital kapital der ag joint stock kapital ohne ertrag dead capital kapital zur einzahlung aufrufen call for capital kapital, vermögen capital kapitalabgabe, kapitalsteuer capital levy kapitalabwanderung flow of capital kapitalanlage capital investment kapitalanlageabteilung investment department kapitalanlagegesellschaft investment company kapitalanlagen capital investments kapitalanlageplan investment plan kapitalanleger investor kapitalanleger, kapitalgeber investor kapitalanteil share in the capital kapitalaufnahme raising of capital kapitalaufwand capital expenditure kapitalbedarf need for capital kapitalbeschaffung finding of capital kapitalbewegungen capital movements kapitaldividende dividend on capital kapitaleinfuhr import of foreign capital kapitaleinlage capital brought in kapitaleinsatz capital expenditure kapitaleinsatz employment of capital kapitalerhöhung capital increase kapitalertrag capital yield kapitalertrag investment income kapitalertrag proceeds from capital kapitalertrag yield on capital kapitalflucht flight of capital kapitalgeber lender of capital kapitalintensiv capital-intensive kapitalisieren capitalize kapitalisierung capitalization kapitalismus capitalism kapitalist capitalist kapitalistisch capitalistic kapitalkonto capital account kapitalkonto stock account kapitalmangel lack of capital kapitalmangel scarcity of capital kapitalmangel shortage of capital kapitalmarkt capital market kapitalreserve reserve capital kapitalrückfluss reflux of capital kapitalrückzahlung return of capital kapitalschwach financially weak kapitalspritze injection of capital kapitalstark financially sound kapitalverkehrssteuer corporation property transfer tax kapitalvermögen capital assets kapitalverzinsung rate of return kapitalzinsen interest on capital kapitalzuwachssteuer capital gains tax karat carat karenzzeit qualifying period karte card karte für probeunterschrift signature card karte, graphische darstellung chart kartei card index kartell cartel kartellbildung cartelization karton cardboard kassa bei auftragserteilung cash with order kassabuch cash book kassabuch day book kassageschäft cash transaction kassageschäft dealing for cash kassageschäft spot deal kassageschäft spot operation kassakonto cash account kassakurs cash price kassakurs, kurs für kassageschäfte spot rate kassamarkt cash market kasse gegen dokumente cash against documents kasse machen, die kasse abrechnen cash up kasse vor lieferung cash before delivery kasse, kassette cash box kasse, ladenkasse till kassenanweisung cash order kassenanweisung pay voucher kassenausgang cash out kassenbestand cash assets kassenbestand cash balance kassenbestand cash in hand kassenbestand cash in vault kassenbestand cash on hand kassenbote cash messenger kassenbotenversicherung cash messenger insurance kassenbuch cash journal kassenbuchung cash entry kassendarlehen cash loan kasseneingang cash in kassenkladde cash diary kassenkonto cash account kassenrevision cash stock taking kassenstand cash position kassenüberschuss overage of cash kassier cashier kassier teller kassier der postalischen eingang bearbeitet mail teller katalog catalogue katastrophenartig, katastrophal catstrophic katastrophenreserve, außerordentliche reserve catastrophe reserve katastrophenrückversicherung catastrophe reinsurance kategorie category katastrophe catastrophe kauf (auf rechnung) purchase kauf auf probe purchase on approval kaufangebot offer to buy kaufanreiz inducement to buy kaufen buy kaufhaus department store kaufinteressent prospective customer kaufinteressentenliste list of prospective buyers kaufkraft purchasing power kaufkraft spending power kaufkraft des geldes value of money kaufkraft einer währung purchasing power of a currency kaufkraftlenkung control of purchasing power kaufkraftüberhang excess of purchasing power kaufkurs buying rate kauflust buying power kaufmann merchant kaufmännische kenntnisse commercial knowledge kaufmotiv motive for buying sth. kaufoption buyer's option kaufoption call option kaufpreis purchase price kausalzusammenhang causal connection kaution caution money kautionsversicherung fidelity guarantee insurance kautionsversicherung surety insurance kein konto no account keine deckung no funds keine deckung not provided for keine deckung not sufficient funds keine weitere verpflichtung no further obligation kellerwechsel kite kenntnis knowledge kenntnis der vorschriften knowledge of the provisions kenntnisse knowledge kennziffer code number kennziffer, parameter parameter kernenergie nuclear energy kette chain kettenladen chain store kfz-halter owner of a car kfz-steuer motor vehicle tax kilogramm kilogram kilometer kilometer kilowatt kilowatt kind infant kinderermäßigung child allowance kindersterblichkeit infant mortality kirchensteuer church tax kiste, fall case klage suit klage vor gericht legal action klage wegen nichtzahlung action for non-payment klage, beschwerde complaint klage, handlung action klagerecht right of action klagerücknahme abandonment of action klammer bracket klar clear klar und deutlich festlegen to stipulate clearly and precisely klar, ohne zweifel clear klasse class klassenbezeichnung grading klassifizieren classify klassifizieren, einstufen classify klassifizierung, einstufung classification klausel clause klausel betreffend bürgerliche unruhen civil commotions clause klausel betreffend die vertragsstrafe penalty clause klausel betreffend vorzeitige fälligkeit acceleration clause klein petty klein halten, minimieren minimize kleinanzeige small ad kleinanzeige small advertisement kleindiebstahl pilferage kleine auslagen petty expenses kleine geschäfte small transactions kleine havarie petty average kleine zweigstelle branchlet kleinere schwierigkeit minor difficulty kleinere Änderungen minor changes kleinerer schaden, bagatellschaden minor loss kleineres problem minor problem kleingeld loose cash kleingeld, wechselgeld change kleinlastwagen pickup car kleinlebensversicherung home service office kleinlebensversicherung industrial life insurance kleinstobligationen baby bonds klemme squeeze klient, kunde, mandant client kläger plaintiff knapp an geld short of money knapp an kapital short of capital knappes geld, geldknappheit tight money knappheit scarcity knappschaftsversicherung miners' insurance kode code kodierung, verschlüsselung coding koeffizient coefficient koeffizient der angebotselastizität coefficient of elasticity of supply koeffizient der nachfrageelastizität coefficient of elasticity of demand kohlepapier carbon paper kollektiv collective kollektivbesitz collective ownership kollisionsklausel beidseitiges verschulden both-to-blame collision clause kolonnenführer gang leader kombination, verbindung combination kombinierter transport combined transport kommanditgesellschaft limited partnership kommanditist partner liable to a fixed amount kommerziell commercial kommission committee kommission, ausschuss commission kommissionär commission agent kommissionsgeschäft commission business kommissionsware goods on consignment kommissionsware goods on sale or return kommunalabgaben local rates kommunalanleihe municipal loan kommunalobligation municipal bond kommunalobligationen municipal debentures kommunikationsbereich communications kommunikationsmittel means of communication kompakt, kurzgefasst, pakt, vertrag compact kompensation compensation kompensation, entschädigung, ausgleich compensation kompensationsgeschäft cross trade kompensationsgeschäfte compensation transactions kompensieren compensate kompensierung, abfindung compensation komplementär, ergänzend complementary komplementärprodukte complementary goods kompliziert complicated kompliziert machen, komplizieren complicate komponente, bestandteil component komprehensiv, umfassend comprehensive kompromiss, kompromiss schließen compromise konferenz, besprechung, versammlung meeting konfiszieren, beschlagnahmen confiscate konflikt conflict konjunkturaufschwung economic boom konjunkturbedingt depending on market conditions konjunkturbedingt, zyklisch cyclical konjunkturbedingte arbeitslosigkeit cyclical unemployment konjunkturbeobachter economic forecaster konjunkturpolitik business cycle policy konjunkturschwankung cyclical fluctuation konjunkturzyklus trade cycle konkurrent, mitbewerber competitor konkurrieren, im wettstreit liegen compete konkursgericht court of bankruptcy konkursmasse bankrupt's assets konkursvergehen act of bankruptcy konnossement bill of lading konnossement master's receipt konnossement ohne einschränkung clean bill of lading konnossementsindossament endorsement of a bill of lading konnossementsklausel bill of lading clause konsignationsware consigned goods konsolidierte bilanz consolidated balance sheet konsortium consortium konstant constant konstante kosten constant costs konstruktionsfehler fault in construction konsul consul konsularisch consular konsulatsfaktura consular invoice konsulatsgebühr consular fee konsultieren consult konsumbesteuerung tax on consumption konsumentenkredit loan for consumption konsumgenossenschaft retail cooperative konsumlenkung control of consumption konsumsteigerung growth in consumption kontakt, kontaktieren, kontakt aufnehmen contact konten fälschen, bücher frisieren manipulate accounts kontenabstimmung reconciliation of accounts kontenart type of account kontenauszug statement of account kontenauszug der bank bank statement kontenbezeichnung name of account kontenklasse class of accounts kontenplan chart of accounts kontenüberziehung overdraft kontingent contingent kontinuität continuity konto account konto auflösen, konto abschließen close an account konto des begünstigten account payee konto für reserven aus reingewinn earned surplus account konto für unklare posten overs and shorts konto in ausländischer währung foreign currency account konto ohne umsätze dead account konto, abrechnung account kontoabtretung assignment of account kontoauszug pass sheets kontoauszug statement of account kontoauszug, erklärung statement kontokorrent open account kontokorrentkonto, laufendes konto current account kontokorrentkredit open credit kontonummer account number kontoänderung change of account kontoumsatz account turnover kontoüberziehung overdraft konterbande contraband kontroll-liste check list kontrolle control kontrolle der bewegung der zahlungsmittel control of currency movement kontrolle, kontrollieren, beherrschen control kontrolleur, revisor controller kontrollieren, kontrolle control kontrollmaßnahmen means of control kontrollstelle board of control konventionell conventional konvertierbar convertible konvertierbarkeit convertibility konvertieren, umwandeln convert konzentration concentration konzentration qualifizierter arbeitskräfte localization of labor konzentrieren concentrate konzernbuchführung entity accounting konzession concession konzession, erlaubnis concession kooperieren cooperate koordinieren align koordinieren coordinate koordinierung coordination kopie, abschrift, ablichtung copy korrelation correlation korrespondenzbank correspondent bank kosten charges kosten cost kosten costs kosten der anlieferung cost of delivery kosten der errichtung von anlagen cost of construction kosten der gründung cost of foundation kosten niedrig halten keep down costs kosten sparen save costs kosten/nutzen-analyse cost benefit analysis kostenabweichung cost variance kostenart type of costs kostenaufgliederung breakdown of costs kostenaufstellung cost report kostenaufstellung specification of costs kostenberechnung calculation of costs kostenberechnung computation of costs kostenbewusst cost-conscious kostendenken thinking in terms of cost kostendämmung cost reduction kosteneinsparung saving kostenentwicklung development of costs kostenermittlung costing kostenersparnis durch massenproduktion economies of scale kostenänderung change in cost kostenrechnung cost accounting kostenrechnung eines produkts product costing kostenrechnung für einen auftrag job costing kostenreduzierung reduction of expenses kostensparend cost saving kostenstelle cost center kostentabelle scale of charges kostentabelle table of costs kostenvergleich comparison of costs kostenvoranschlag machen give an estimate for kostenwirksamkeit cost effectiveness kostenzuordnung cost allocating kostenüberwachung control of costs kostspielig costly käufer der zu dem preis gerade noch kauft marginal buyer käufer, einkäufer buyer käuferland purchasing country käuflich buyable krach, zusammenstoß, zusammenbruch crash kraft, zwingen force kraftfahrer motorist kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung motor car liability insurance kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung motor third party insurance kraftfahrzeuginsassenversicherung motor vehicle passenger insurance kraftfahrzeugmissbrauch misuse of motor cars kraftfahrzeugsbesitzer, fahrzeughalter owner of a car kraftfahrzeugskaskoversicherung motor hull insurance kraftfahrzeugversicherung automobile insurance kraftfahrzeugversicherung motor car insurance kraftfahrzeugversicherung motor vehicle insurance krangebühr cranage krankengeld sick pay krankengeld sickness benefits krankenhauskosten hospitality expense krankenhausunterbringung hospital accommodation krankenkasse sickness fund krankenversicherung health insurance krankheit illness krankheitsnachweis evidence of sickness krankienhauskosten hospital expense kredit aufnehmen raise a credit kredit mit kurzer laufzeit short-term credit kredit, guthaben, vertrauen credit kreditabteilung credit department kreditabteilung loan department kreditabteilung loan division kreditantrag borrowing request kreditaufnahme borrowing kreditaufnahme raising of credit kreditauskunft credit information kreditauskunftei mercantile agency kreditausweitung credit expansion kreditbedarf demand for advances kreditbetrug obtain credit by false pretences kreditbremse credit squeeze kreditbrief an eine bestimmte bank direct letter of credit kreditbrief, akkreditiv letter of credit kreditbrief, reisekreditbrief circular letter of credit kreditbürge guarantor of a credit kreditbürgschaft credit guarantee kreditbüro credit agency krediterleichterung credit accommodation krediterleichterung relaxation of credit squeeze krediterleichterungspolitik easy credit policy krediteröffnung opening of credit kreditfähigkeit borrowing power kreditgeber letzter instanz lender of last resort kreditgeber, darlehnsgeber lender kreditgebühren charges for credit kreditgenossenschaft cooperative credit association kreditgeschäfte credit transactions kreditgewährung grant of credit kreditgrenze credit limit kreditgrenze credit line kreditgrenze credit margin kreditgrenze, darlehensgrenze credit limit kreditkarte credit card kreditkartengeld plastic money kreditknappheit credit stringency kreditkunde credit customer kreditlaufzeit credit period kreditmarkt money and capital market kreditmöglichkeiten, krediteinrichtungen credit facilities kreditnehmer borrower kreditoren payables kreditoren, verbindlichkeiten accounts payable kreditorenkonto, schuldposten accounts payable kreditposten credit item kreditreserven credit reserves kreditschöpfung creation of credit kreditumfang volume of credit kreditumfang, kreditvolumen volume of credit kreditunwürdig unworthy of credit kreditverkauf sale on credit kreditverlängerung credit extension kreditvermögen borrowing power kreditversicherung bad debts insurance kreditversicherung credit insurance kreditversicherung guarantee insurance kreditwürdig worthy of credit kreditwürdigkeit credit standing kreditwürdigkeit creditworthiness kreditwürdigkeit financial standing kreditüberwachung credit control kreuzvermerk auf einem wechsel crossing kriegsgebiet operational zone kriegsrente war pension kriegsrisikenvereinbarung war risk agreement kriegsrisiko war risk kriegsrisikoversicherung war risk insurance krise crisis kummunalobligationen municipal bonds kummunalobligationen municipals kumulativ accumulative kumulativ cumulative kumulative accumulative kumulative vorzugsaktie cumulative preferred share kunde client kunde customer kunden verlieren lose customers kundenkontobetreuer (in werbeagentur) account executive kundenwechsel note receivable kundschaft clientele kunst des verkaufens salesmanship kupon abtrennen detach a coupon kurs am freien markt rate on the fee market kurs unter pari price below par kurs, preis rate kursanstieg rise in the market kursblatt list of quotations kursblatt quotation list kursbuch railway guide kursdifferenz difference in rates kurserhöhung price increase kurserhöhung, anstieg der preise appreciation of prices kursgefüge price structure kursgewinn advance kursgewinn capital gain kursgewinn market profit kursgewinn price gain kursgewinn des börsenhändlers jobber's turn kursindex price index number kursnotierung market quotation kursnotierung price quotation kursnotierung quotation kursnotierung quotation of prices kursänderung change in prices kursänderung change of rates kursparität parity of exchange kurspflege price management kursrisiko exchange risk kursrisiko, umtauschrisiko foreign exchange risk kursrückgang decline in prices kursschwankung currency fluctuation kursschwankungen price fluctuations kurssicherung rate guarantee kursstand price level kurssteigerung price advance kurssturz price drop kurstabelle exchange table kursverlust loss by exchange kursverlust loss by redemption kursverlust price loss kursverlust, abschlag disagio kurswert market value kurszettel price list kurszettel rate sheet kurszettel stock exchange list kurz short kurz fassen condense kurz gefasst, kurzfassung abstract kurz, kurz einweisen, kurz unterrichten brief kurz, kurzzeitig short-time kurzarbeiten work short-time kurzfassung precise kurzform short form kurzfristig at short notice kurzfristig short term kurzfristig short-dated kurzfristig short-term kurzfristige anlagewerte short-maturing securities kurzfristige deckung short period cover kurzfristige kapitalanlage temporary investment kurzfristige verschuldung short-term indebtedness kurzfristiges darlehen call loan kurzfristiges darlehen call money kurzfristiges darlehen day-to-day loan kurzfristiges darlehen demand loan kurzfristiges geld short-term money kurzfristiges geschäft machen be in and out again of the market kurzmitteilung, aktennotiz memo kurzmitteilung, aktennotiz memorandum kurzschrift shorthand kurzwarenhändler haberdasher königlicher kaufmann merchant prince königreich kingdom können angenommen werden may be accepted können direkt übersandt werden may be sent directly können ermäßigt oder verkürzt werden may be reduced or curtailed können über eine andere bank übersandt werden may be sent through another bank können übersandt werden may be sent körperschaden, verletzung bodily harm körperschaden, verletzung bodily injury körperschaden, verletzung physical injury körperschaft body körperschaft corporate enterprise körperschaft corporation körperschaft (br.) corporation körperschaft des öffentlichen rechts public corporation körperschaftssteuer corporation tax körperverletzung battery körperverletzung mit todesfolge bodily harm with fatal consequences kündbar callable kündbar terminable kündbar, rückzahlbar terminable kündbare obligationen optional bonds kündbare obligationen redeemable bonds kündbares darlehen callable loan kündigen give notice kündigen recall kündigen, stornieren cancel kündigung cancellation kündigung notice of determination kündigung notice of termination kündigung der versicherungspolice cancellation of the policy kündigung des kredits notice of credit kündigung einer hypothek notice of redemption kündigung eines kredits withdrawal of a credit kündigungsfrist period of cancellation kündigungsfrist period of notice kündigungsschreiben letter of cancellation künstlich artificial kürzen cut küstendampfer coastal steamer küstenschifffahrt, küstenhandel coasting trade küstenwache coast guards l laden, beladen, ladung load laden, werkstätte shop ladung zu einer konferenz notice of meeting lage position lager store lagerbestand stock lagerempfangsschein warehouse receipt lagerfläche storage space lagergeld warehousing charges lagerhalle, (us) güterbahnhof depot lagerhalter storekeeper lagerhaltung storage lagerist warehouseman lagermiete warehouse rent lagerraum storage room lagerung von waren storage of goods lagerungskosten cost of storage lagerversicherung warehouse insurance lagerverwalter warehouse keeper lahme ente lame duck land country landegebühren landing charges landen, ausladen land landwirtschaft agriculture landwirtschaftliche genossenschaft farm cooperative landwirtschaftliche versicherung agricultural insurance landwirtschaftslehre agricultural economics lang long langfristig long dated langfristig long term langfristig long-term langfristige einlage long-term deposit langfristige gelder money at long term langfristige kapitalanlage long-time investment langfristige verbindlichkeit long-term liability langfristige verbindlichkeiten fixed liabilities langfristige verbindlichkeiten long-term liabilities langfristige verschuldung long-term debt langfristige verschuldung long-term indebtedness langfristiger kredit long-sighted loan langfristiger kredit long-term loan langfristiges darlehen long-term loan lassen, überlassen, vermieten let last burden lastenverkehr heavy traffic lastschrift debit note lastwagen (br.), offener lastwagen lorry lattenverschlag crate laufbursche office boy laufend current laufend running laufende einnahmen current receipts laufende geschäfte current transactions laufende inventur perpetual inventory laufende maschine running machine laufende preis, gültige preis price current laufende reparaturen maintenance repairs laufende risiken current risks laufende verbindlichkeiten current liabilities laufende versicherung, offene police open policy laufende zahlungen current payments laufender credit open credit laufender kontostand running total laufender kredit standing credit laufzeit tenor laufzeit der garantie, garantiezeit term of guarantee laufzeit der hypothek mortgage term laufzeit der versicherungspolice policy period laufzeit eines darlehens term of a loan laufzeit eines mietvertrags life of a lease laufzeit eines vertrages, vertragsdauer life of a contract laufzeit eines wechsels currency of a bill laufzeit eines wechsels term of a bill laufzeit, frist term leasinggesellschaft leasing company lebendes inventar, vieh livestock lebendgeburt live birth lebensdauer length of life lebenserwartung expectation of life lebenserwartung expectancy of life lebenserwartung life expectancy lebensgefahr danger to life lebenshaltungsindex cost of living index lebenshaltungskosten cost of living lebenshaltungskosten living costs lebenshaltungskostenindex cost of living index lebenshaltungsniveau level of living lebenslänglich begünstigter life beneficiary lebenslängliche rente, leibrente life annuity lebensmittel foods lebensmittelladen grocery lebensmittellagerung storage of food lebensnotwendige güter necessities lebensnotwendige güter, lebenswichtige güter essentials lebensstandard standard of living lebensunterhalt subsistence lebensversicherung assurance lebensversicherung life assurance lebensversicherung life insurance lebensversicherung abschließen take out a life policy lebensversicherung auf erleben und todesfall mixed life assurance lebensversicherungsgesellschaft life insurance company lebensversicherungsgesellschaft life office lebensversicherungspolice life insurance policy lebensversicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit mutual life office lebensversicherungsvertrag life insurance contract lebenswichtig vital lebenswichtige güter essentials lebenswichtige interessen vital interests lebenszeit life time lebhaft active lebhaft brisk lebhaft, tätig active lebhafte eröffnung active opening lebhafte nachfrage keen demand lebhafte nachfrage rush leck leak leckage leakage leckage und bruch leakage and breakage leckageklausel leakage clause lecken leak leer blank leer empty leergewicht dead weight leergut empties legitimationspapier paper of identity lehrbeauftragter visiting lecturer lehre apprenticeship lehrgang course of instruction lehrling apprentice lehrvertrag articles of clerkship lehrzeit period of apprenticeship leibrente life annuity leibrentner life annuitant leiche dead body leicht realisierbare aktivposten quick assets leicht zu handhaben manageable leichte erhöhung slight increase leichte fahrlässigkeit slight fault leichtigkeit der kreditaufnahme ease of borrowing leichtverdientes geld easy money leihen gegen sicherheit, beleihen lend against security leihen, ausleihen lend leihen, beleihen, ausleihen lend leihgebühr lending fee leihhaus pawn shop leisten, erbringen render leistung achievement leistung performance leistungen beantragen claim benefits leistungen beziehen draw benefits leistungsberechtigt entitled to benefits leistungsdauer period of indemnification leistungsfähig efficient leistungsfähigkeit efficiency leistungsprämie incentive bonus leistungsprämie, leistungszulage efficiency bonus leistungsschwach inefficient leistungsschwäche inefficiency leistungssteigerung increase in efficiency leistungsunfähig unable to perform leistungsunfähigkeit inability to perform leitende bankleute banking executives leitende position managerial position leitender angestellter chief executive leitender angestellter executive leitender angestellter top executive leitender angestellter top manager leitender angestellter, direktor (us) officer leiter der abordnung head of a delegation leiter der produktion production manager leiter einer vertretung, abteilung (us) chief of an agency leitfaden handbook leitung, anleitung guidance leitungswasserversicherung water damage insurance leitwährung key currency lernen learn lerner, anfänger learner lernkurve learning curve lernprozess learning process lesbar readable letzter monat ultimo letzter tag closing date letzter tag des monats ultimo letzter termin deadline leuchtstoffröhre fluorescent tube lichtpause blueprint liebhaberwert sentimental value lieferanschrift address for delivery lieferbedingungen conditions of sale lieferbedingungen terms of delivery liefererskonto discounts received liefergarantie guarantee of delivery lieferschein delivery note liefertermin delivery date lieferverzug default in delivery lieferwagen, geschlossener lkw (br.) van liegegeld demurrage liegenschaften landed property liegezeit, ruhezeit idle period liegezeit, stillstandszeit idle period limitierter auftrag limit order lineare erhöhung linear increase lineare programmierung linear programming linie, branche, artikel, telephonverbindung line linienführung line management liquid, flüssig solvent liquidation dissolution liquidation liquidation liquidation, auflösung liquidation liquidationstag pay day liquidator liquidator liquide aktivposten quick assets liquidieren, auflösen liquidate liquidität liquidity liquidität solvency liquiditätsklemme liquidity sqeeze liquiditätsproblem liquidity problem liquiditätsquote liquidity ratio liquiditätsumschichtung change in liquidity liquiditätsvorschriften liquidity requirements liste list liste der direktoren register of directors liste der engeren wahl short list liste der mitglieder, mitgliederverzeichnis register of members listenpreis list price lizenz license lizenz royalty lizenz (br.) license lizenz (us) license lizenzgeber licensor lizenzinhaber holder of a license lizenznehmer licensee lizenzvergabe franchise lizenzvertrag licensing agreement lloyds lloyd's lloyds makler lloyd's broker lloyds schifffahrtsregister lloyd's register lloyds schiffsregister lloyd's register of shipment lloyds versicherer lloyd's underwriter lockartikel loss leaders locken entice lockerung der kreditbeschränkungen relaxation in credit restriction lockerung des kapitalmarktes easing of the capital market locopreis, preis am ort price loco logistik logistics lohn pay lohn, arbeitsentgelt wage lohn- und gehaltsliste payroll lohn- und preiskontrolle wage and price control lohn-preis-spirale wage-price spiral lohnabrechnung wage accounting lohnabtretung assignment of wages lohnangleichung wage adjustment lohnarbeiter wageworker lohnausfall loss of pay lohnempfänger wage earner lohnend remunerative lohnerhöhung pay increase lohnerhöhung rise in pay lohngruppe wage group lohnkonto pay account lohnkonto, lohnbuch, lohnliste payroll lohnkürzung wage cut lohnliste pay sheet lohnpause pay pause lohnsachbearbeiter wages clerk lohnscheck pay cheque lohnstop wage freeze lohnstreitigkeit wage dispute lohntheorie wages theory lohntüte wage packet lohntüte wages packet lohnverhandlung wage bargaining lokogeschäft, kassageschäft spot transaction lombardbank loan bank lombardfähig acceptable as collateral lombardgeschäft lombard business lombardierte wertpapiere collateral securities lombardierte wertpapiere pawned stock lombardierte wertpapiere pledged securities lombardierte wertpapiere securities lodged as collateral lombardkredit collateral loan lombardkredit loan upon collateral security lombardkredit lombard credit lombardsatz lending rate lombardsatz rate of interest on advance lombardwert hypothecary value lombardzinsfuß bank rate for loans länderrisikenindex business environment risk index londoner versicherungsbörse lloyd's längenmaßstab scale of length längsseits alongside ship lorenzkurve lorenz curve lose loose luftfahrtslinie airline luftfahrtversicherung aircraft insurance luftfahrtversicherung aviation insurance luftfracht airfreight luftkorridor airlift luftpost airmail luftreise air journey lufttransportversicherung air transport insurance luftverschmutzung air pollution lumpensammler rag and bone man lustlos dull lustlos slack lustlos sluggish lustlos, flau spiritless luxuriös, luxus luxury luxusgüter luxury goods luxussteuer luxury tax luxuswohnung luxury apartment löhne wages löschen delete löschfahrzeug fire engine löschfahrzeug fire truck löschung extinction löschung einer eintragung cancellation of an entry löschung einer hypothek liquidation of a mortgage löschung einer schuld extinction of a debt löschungsbewilligung authority for cancellation lösegeld ransom lösegeldforderung ransom demand lösung solution lücke gap m machbar feasible machen, herstellen make macht, kraft, energie power magister artium master of arts magistrat magistrate mahnbrief dunning letter mahnbrief (us) dunning letter mahnen remind mahnstatistik dunning statistics mahnung reminder mahnung (us) dunning mahnung, mahnschreiben reminder makler broker makler für investitionen investment broker makler in kleinen mengen odd broker maklergebühr broker's fee maklergebühr brokerage maklervertrag contract of brokerage makroanalyse macroanalysis makroökonomie macroeconomics managen, ein unternehmen leiten manage mandat, auftrag mandate mangel defect mangel shortage mangel an anerkennung want of appreciation mangel an arbeitskräften shortage of labor mangel an bargeld cash shortage mangel an barmitteln lack of funds mangel an etwas short of sth mangel an geld want of money mangel an kapital want of capital mangel an kapital want of funds mangel an rohstoffen want of raw material mangelhaft defective mangelnde sorgfalt want of care mangelndes geld, geldmangel want of money mangelndes vertrauen want of confidence mangels failing mangels for want of mangels beweis for want of evidence mangels deckung for want of cover mangels einer solchen benennung in the absence of such nomination mangels vertrauen for want of confidence mangels zahlung for want of payment mangelware goods in short supply manipulation, handhabung manipulation manipulieren manipulate mantelvertrag skeleton agreement marke brand marke, stempelmarke adhesive stamp markenartikel branded goods marketing, vertrieb marketing markieren, kennzeichnen earmark markierung check mark markierungsvorschriften marking requirements markt market markt für kapitalanlagen investment market markt für kurzfristige gelder money market markt für langfristige gelder capital market markt in obligationen bonds market markt mit anziehenden kursen rising market markt mit fallenden kursen falling market markt mit gleichbleibenden kursen steady market markt mit stetig fallenden kursen bear market markt mit stetig steigenden kursen bull market marktanalyse market analysis marktbeherrschend market dominating marktbericht market report marktbestimmt market-determined marktdurchdringung market penetration marktfähig, marktgängig marketable marktforschung market research marktforschung marketing research marktmonopol market monopoly marktplatz marketplace marktpotential market potential marktpreis market price marktschwankung fluctuation of the market marktschwäche weakness of the market marktstärke strength of the market markttendenz, markttrend, marktentwicklung trend of the market marktwert market value marktwert, verkehrswert market value maschine machine maschinell hergestellt machine-made maschinenarbeitsstunde machine hour maschinenarbeitsstundensatz machine hour rate maschinenerneuerung machine replacement maschinengeschrieben typewritten maschinengeschriebenes schriftstück typescript maschinenkonto machinery account maschinenunterhaltung maintenance maschinenversicherung machinery breakdown insurance maschinenversicherung machinery insurance maschinerie, maschinen, maschinenpark machinery masse, menge mass massenarbeitslosigkeit mass unemployment massengüterindustrie mass industry massenladung, schüttgut bulk cargo massenmedien mass media massenproduktion mass production material material materialeinsparung saving of material materialfluß flow of material materialknappheit scarcity of material materialmangel shortage of material materialprüfung material control materialverschwendung waste of material mathematik studieren study mathematics mathematische anordnung, array array mathematische entscheidungsvorbereitung operations research mathematischer erwartungswert actuarial expectation mathematischer wert mathematical value matrix matrix maßeinheit unit of measurement maßgebende bank leading bank maßgebende behörde proper authority maßgebendes kapitalinteresse controlling interest maßnahmen hinsichtlich der ware ergreifen to take action in respect of the goods maßnahmen zur arbeitseinsparung industrial engineering maßstab scale maßstab yardstick maßstab für die güte measure of quality maßstab, skala scale mechaniker fitter mechaniker mechanic mechanisch mechanical mechanisieren mechanize mechanisierung mechanization medizinischer beweis medical evidence mehrbedarf increased demand mehrbetrag surplus amount mehrbietender outbidder mehrdeutigkeit ambiguity mehrfach multiple mehrfache risiken multiple perils mehrgewinn surplus profit mehrheit majority mehrheit berechnet nach dem wert majority in value mehrheit nach köpfen majority in number mehrheitsbeschluss majority vote mehrkanalig multichannel mehrkosten incremental cost mehrlieferung excess delivery mehrseitig multilateral mehrsprachig multilingual mehrwertsteuer value added tax mehrwertsteuer value-added tax mehrzahl aller fälle majority of cases mehrzweckmaschine multifunctional machine meineid perjury meinung opinion meinungsaustausch exchange of ideas meinungsforscher pollster meinungsumfrage opinion poll meistbegünstigste nation most-favored nation meistbegünstigt most favored meistbegünstigter rückversicherer most favored reinsurer meistbegünstigungsklausel most favored reinsurer clause meistbegünstigungsklausel most-favored nation clause meistbietender highest bidder meister master meldung der durchführung eines geschäfts advice of execution meldung des umzugs notice of removal meldung über nichtakzeptierung advice of non-acceptance meldung über nichtzahlung advice of non-payment menge quantum menge geld great deal of money mengeneinheit unit of quantity menschlich human menschliche arbeitskraft manpower merkantilismus mercantilism marktenge narrowness of the market messe fair messen, bemessen, maß measure messen, bemessen, maß, maßnahme measure metallabfälle scrap metal methode der kleinsten quadrate, annäherung least-squares method methode, verfahren method metrisches maßsystem metric system meßziffer, kennziffer index number miete rent miete, pacht, mietsumme rental mieten hire mieten von anlagen leasing mieten, pachten, miete, pacht rent mieter eines schiffes charterer mieter eines tresorfaches hirer of a safe mieter, pächter tenant mietkauf hire purchase mietkaufsystem hire purchase system mietkaufvertrag hire purchase agreement mietverlustversicherung rent insurance mietvertrag, pachtvertrag tenancy agreement mietwert rent value mikroökonomie microeconomics mindereinnahmen deficiency in receipts minderheitenaktionäre minority shareholders minderheitsbeteiligung minority holding minderlieferung short delivery minderung decrease minderung der einkünfte decline in earnings minderung des wertes depreciation minderung des wertes, wertminderung loss in value minderwertig inferior minderwertige ware inferior goods mindestanforderungen minimum requirements mindestbeschäftigungszeit minimum period of employment mindestbetrag minimum amount mindesteinlage, mindestanzahlung minimum deposit mindestgebühr minimum charge mindestgrenze minimum limit mindestlohn minimum wage mindestpreis reserved price mindestprämie minimum premium mindestsatz minimum rate mindestunterstützung, mindestzulage minimum benefit mindestverdienst minimum pay mindestversicherung minimum insurance mindestwert minimum value minenrisiko mine risk minimal halten keep to a minimum minimum, mindest minimum minister minister ministerium government department ministerium ministry minorität minority mischkalkulation mixed calculation mischkonto mixed account missachten disregard missachtung contempt missbrauch abuse missbrauch, missbrauchen misuse missbrauchen, missbrauch abuse misskredit disrepute missverhältnis, schlechte regelung maladjustment missverhältnis, unangemessenheit inadequacy missverstehen misunderstand missverständnis misunderstanding missverständnis, irrtum misapprehension missverständnisse misunderstandings misswirtschaft maladministration mit aktien eingedeckt sein long of stock mit angemessenen mitteln with adequate means mit angemessener sorgfalt with reasonable care mit angemessener sorgfalt vorgehen to exercise reasonable care mit ausnahme von other than mit ausreichender bestimmtheit with reasonable certainty mit besonderer havarie with particular average mit bezug auf referring to mit bezug auf relating to mit datum und nummer bezeichnen identify by date and number mit datum versehen, datiert dated mit der durchführung befasst involved in processing mit detaillierter angabe des betrags detailing the amount mit dividende cum dividend mit einer hypothek belasten encumber with a mortgage mit etwas fertig werden, etwas schaffen cope with mit freundlichen grüßen yours sincerely mit genauen anweisungen giving precise instructions mit großen geldbeträgen umgehen handle large sums of money mit hypothek belastet mortgaged mit hypotheken belastbar mortgageable mit hypotheken belastet encumbered with mortgages mit hypotheken belasteter grundbesitz mortgaged property mit jemandem rücksprache nehmen confer with sb. mit maschine geschrieben typewritten mit monatlicher kündigung at a month's notice mit nächster rechnung zu verrechnen for the next account mit regressanspruch with recourse mit scheck bezahlen pay by cheque mit scheck zahlen remit by cheque mit schnellstem postversand by the quickest mail mit subventionen unterstützen subsidize mit verlust at a sacrifice mit verlust arbeiten operate at a deficit mit vertretern der industrie with representatives of industry mit vertretern des handels with representatives of commerce mit vollem namen unterzeichnen sign in full mit vollständigen anweisungen giving complete instructions mitarbeiter co-operator mitarbeiter co-worker mitarbeiter collaborator mitbesitz, gemeinsamer besitz joint possession mitbesitzer co-proprietor miteigentumsrecht co-ownership miteigentümer joint owner miteigentümer part owner mitglied member mitglied der börse member of the stock exchange mitglied der börse (us) insider mitglied des vorstands member of the board of directors mitgliedschaft membership mitherausgeber joint editor mitschuldiger accessory mittagessen lunch mittagessen luncheon mittagspause lunch break mitte mean mitte april middle of april mitte der woche, mittwöchig mid-week mitteilen communicate mitteilungen über elektronische systeme communication by electronic systems mittel means mittel median mittel medium mittel aufbringen raise of funds mittel und wege ways and means mittel, staatspapiere funds mittel, geldmittel means mittelbare kosten indirect costs mittelbeschaffung finding of means mittelfristig medium term mittelfristig middle-term mittelfristiger kredit medium-term credit mittellos without means mittellosigkeit lack of means mittels eines besonderen dokuments by means of a separate document mittelsmann intermediary mittelsmann middleman mittlere führungsebene middle management mittlere qualität middling quality mittlerer preis middle price mitunterzeichner joint undersigner mitversicherer co-insurer mitversicherung co-insurance mitwirken, zusammenarbeiten co-operate mitwirken, zusammentreffen concur mitwirkung, zusammenarbeit co-operation modeartikel fancy goods modell model modell der expandierenden wirtschaft model of expanding economy modell der freien wirtschaft model of competitive economy modell des wirtschaftlichen gleichgewichts model of economic equilibrium modernisieren modernize modernisierung modernization modus, verfahren mode monat month monatlich monthly monatlich fällige zahlungen monthly dues monatliche kündigungsfrist day's notice monatsbedarf monthly requirements monatsbeitrag monthly contribution monatsgehalt monthly salary monatsgeld money at one month monatsprämie monthly premium monatsrate monthly installment mängelrüge notice of defects monopol monopoly monopolist monopolist monopolistisch monopolistic montage assembly montageband assembly line monte-carlo-methode monte carlo method moral morale mord, totschlag, ermordung homicide motivation motivation motivforschung motivation research motorradversicherung motor cycle insurance mäßige preise reasonable prices multi multinational company multiplizieren multiply musikinstrumentversicherung musical instruments insurance muss alle benachrichtigungen senden must send all advises muss den beteiligten benachrichtigen must advise the party muss die bank entsprechend benachrichtigen must inform the bank accordingly muss die bank sofort benachrichtigen must immediately advise the bank muss die vorlegung vornehmen must make presentation muss geeignete einzelheiten enthalten must bear appropriate detail muss sofort benachrichtigen must advise immediately muss unverzüglich übersenden must forward without delay muss vom versicherer ausgestellt sein must be issued by the insurance company muster sample muster specimen muster, stoffmuster, ausfallmuster pattern musterauswahl range of patterns musterbuch pattern book musterzimmer showroom mutmaßlich presumably mutmaßlicher fehler probable error muttergesellschaft parent company muttergesellschaft, stammhaus parent company mutterschaftsgeld maternity benefit mutterschaftsversicherung maternity insurance mutterschutzfrist maternity period möbelwagen removal van möblierte unterkunft lodgings möbliertes zimmer furnished apartment mögliche umsätze potential sales möglicher käufer potential buyer möglicher kunde potential customer möglichkeit, gelegenheit, vergünstigung facility möglichst preferably müheloser gewinn easy profit mühevoll troublesome mühle, fabrik, walzwerk mill mündelsichere kapitalanlage gilt-edged investment mündelsichere wertpapiere gilt-edged securities mündlich verbal mündliche vereinbarung verbal agreement mündliches angebot verbal offer münze coin münze mint münzfernsprecher coin box münzgesetz monetary act münzpreis des goldes mint price of gold münzprägung coinage münzsystem system of coinage müssen begleitet sein von must be accompanied by müssen die bank benennen must nominate the bank müssen eindeutig angeben must clearly indicate müssen prüfen of must verify that müssen sofort verständigen must immediately advise müssen vollständig und genau sein must be complete and precise müssen vom auftraggeber getragen werden are to be borne by the principal müssen zur verfügung gestellt werden must be made available müßig idle n nach abtrennung des coupons ex dividend nach den regeln under the rules nach den umständen according to circumstances nach den weisungen in accordance with instructions nach den weisungen in conformity with instructions nach den weisungen eines kunden acting on the instruction of a customer nach der menge, mengenbezogen quantitative nach eigener wahl of his own choice nach eingang upon entry nach eingang upon receipt nach eingang when received nach erhalt der vollen zahlung when full payment has been received nach folgenden regeln in accordance with the following rules nach geschäftsschluss after hours nach maß made to measure nach möglichkeit, soweit wie möglich as far as possible nach posten aufgliedern itemize nach priorität order of priority nach schluss, nach dienstschluss after official hours nach sicht zahlbar payable after sight nach treu und glauben handeln to act in good faith nach wahl einer anderen bank of another bank's choice nach weisungen verfahren to act upon instructions nach wert ad valorem nach zahlungseingang when cashed nachahmen imitate nachahmung imitation nachbarschaftsrisiko neighbouring risk nachbörse kerbmarket nachbörsenpreise kerbmarket prices nachdatieren postdate nachfassen follow-up nachfaßtermin follow-up date nachfolge succession nachfolgend subsequent nachfolgender indossant subsequent endorser nachfolger successor nachfrage und angebot demand and supply nachfrage nach geld demand for money nachfrageflexibilität market flexibility nachfragegrenze limit of demand nachfragen, nachfrage demand nachfragestruktur pattern of demand nachfragestruktur pattern of requirements nachfrist days of grace nachfrist period of grace nachfrist, fristverlängerung extension of time nachgeben, nachlassen slacken nachgesandter brief forwarded letter nachhinken time lag nachindossament endorsement after maturity nachlassen der kurse fall in the market nachlassende preise sliding down prices nachlässigkeit negligence nachnahme cash on delivery nachnahme collect on delivery nachname family name nachprämie, anpassungsprämie adjustment premium nachprotestliches indossament endorsement super protest nachprüfen verify nachprüfung verification nachprüfung, feststellung der richtigkeit verification nachricht geben, informieren furnish information nachrichtenverbindung, nachrichtenverkehr communication nachrichtenweg line of communication nachrichtenübermittlungsträger means of communication nachschicht night shift nachschießen remargin nachschlagewerk work of reference nachschrift postscript nachschubquelle source of supply nachschuss additional contribution nachschusspflichtige wertpapiere assessable securities nachschüssige zahlung payment in arrear nachsenden forward nachsichttratte, zeitwechsel time bill nachstellige hypothek junior mortgage nachteil disadvantage nachteil drawback nachteil, missstand, hindernis drawback nachteilig disadvantageous nachttresor night safe nachversicherungspolice subsequent policy nachweis der identität proof of identity nachweis des gewichts attestation of weight nachweis des verlustes proof of loss nachweis erbringen provide evidence nachweis, beweis, beweismaterial evidence nachwirkung aftereffect nachzahlung additional payment nachzahlung back pay nachzahlung, nachschuss subsequent payment nackte tatsachen hard facts name name name, benennen name namen feststellen, namen festhalten secure the name namens in the name of namensaktie registered share namensobligation registered bond namenspolice named policy namensverzeichnis directory narrensicher fool-proof nation nation nationaleinkommen national income nationalität nationality naturaleinkommen income in kind naturalersatz replacement in kind naturalleistung, sachleistung payment in kind naturallohn wages in kind naturgesetz law of nature natürlicher tod natural death nebenabrede additional agreement nebenausgaben contingencies nebenausgaben extras nebenausgaben incidentals nebenberuflich part-time nebenberufliche tätigkeit part-time job nebenberuflicher vertreter part-time agent nebenbeschäftigung, zusätzliche artikel sideline nebeneinkommen additional income nebengewinn extra gain nebenkosten related costs nebenplatz our-of-town point nebenprodukt by-product nebenwirkung secondary effect negativ, verneinend negative negoziierende bank negotiating bank negoziierung durch eine andere bank negotiation by another bank negoziierung durch jede bank negotiation by any bank negoziierung vornehmen to effect negotiation neigung propensity neigung zu horten, neigung zu sparen propensity to hoard neigung zu investieren propensity to invest neigung zu verbrauchen propensity to consume neigungstest aptitude test nennbetrag face amount nennwert denomination nennwert face amount nennwert face value nennwert nominal par nennwert nominal value nennwert einer banknote denomination of a bank note nennwertlos no-par netto net netto kasse net cash nettobetrag net amount nettoeinkommen net income nettoeinnahmen net receipts nettoergebnis net effect nettoerlös net proceeds nettoertrag net yield nettogewicht net weight nettogewinn net income nettogewinn, reingewinn net profit nettolohn net wages nettolohn take-home-pay nettopreis net price nettoprämie net premium nettoverdienst net earnings nettoverkaufserlös net profit on sales nettoverlust clear loss nettoverlust net loss nettovorteile net advantages nettowert net worth netzplantechnik critical path analysis netzplantechnik network analysis netzwerk, netz network neu bewerten, aufwerten revaluate neu für alt new for old neuanfang, erholung comeback neuauflage, neuausgabe new issue neudruck, nachdruck reprint neue aktie fresh share neue art von risiko new type of risk neue arten von dokumentenakkreditiven new types of documentary credits neue methoden der dokumentenerstellung new methods of producing documents neuerung innovation neuerwerbung new acquisition neugestaltung reorganization neumodisch new-fashioned neuorganisieren, umorganisieren reorganize neuorganisierung, umorganisierung reorganization neuverhandlung renegotiation neuwert reinstatement value neuwertversicherung reinstatement policy nicht abgesichert, ohne sicherheit unsecured nicht abgesicherte verbindlichkeit unsecured debt nicht abzugsfähig non-deductible nicht am lager out of stock nicht amortisiert unamortized nicht an order not to order nicht angelegtes kapital idle money nicht annehmbar unacceptable nicht anwendbar unapplicable nicht aufgelistet unlisted nicht aufgerufen uncalled nicht ausgezeichnete ware unpriced goods nicht beachten disregard nicht beachten ignore nicht beansprucht unclaimed nicht begleitet von not accompanied by nicht bei sicht zahlbar payable at a tenor other than sight nicht beitreibbar uncollectible nicht berechenbar incalculable nicht berechtigt unauthorized nicht betroffen unconcerned nicht datiert undated nicht diskontierbar undiscountable nicht durch eigene arbeit erworben unearned income nicht eingelöster wechsel dishonoured note nicht eingeschränktes dokument unqualified document nicht eingetragen unrecorded nicht einklagbar non-actionable nicht einlösbar irredeemable nicht einwandfreie ware, fehlerhafte ware faulty goods nicht entnommener gewinn undrawn profit nicht erhältlich unavailable nicht feststellbar unascertainable nicht formgerecht bad in form nicht gewinnbringend unprofitable nicht greifbare aktiven intangible assets nicht im widerspruch zu not inconsistent with nicht informiert uninformed nicht interessiert uninterested nicht klagbar unenforceable nicht kompetent incompetent nicht konvertierbar inconvertible nicht lebensmittel dry goods nicht mehr gut zu machender verlust irreparable loss nicht mehr gültiger pfandbrief disabled bond nicht mehr modisch out of fashion nicht notiert unquoted nicht offiziell unofficial nicht produktiv unproductive nicht registriert unregistered nicht rehabilitierter konkursschuldner undischarged bankrupt nicht sicher unsafe nicht sortiert non-graded nicht später als am fälligkeitstag not later than the maturity date nicht verfügbar unavailable nicht versicherbar uninsurable nicht verteilter gewinn undivided profits nicht voll bezahlt partly paid nicht voll einbezahlte aktien partly paid shares nicht vollstreckbar unenforceable nicht wieder gut zu machender schaden irreparable damages nicht zugelassene wertpapiere unlisted securities nicht zweckgebunden uncommitted nicht übertragbar unassignable nicht übertragbar untransferable nichtakzeptierung non-acceptance nichtannahme non-acceptance nichtanwendbar non-applicable nichtausgegebene aktien unissued stock nichtauslieferung non-delivery nichtbeachtung non-observance nichtbefolgung des verfahrens failure to follow the procedures nichteigene mittel capital from outside sources nichteinhaltung der garantie breach of warrantee nichteinhaltung von bedingungen breach of condition nichterfüllung failure of performance nichterfüllung non-performance nichterfüllung, versäumnis default nichtgelandete ware short-landed goods nichtgelieferte ware short-shipped goods nichthonorierung eines wechsels dishonoring of a b/l nichtig void nichtig void by law nichtig, ungültig, null und nichtig null and void nichtigkeitserklärung annulment nichtlieferung non-delivery nichtmitglied nonmember nichtnotierte werte outside securities nichtnotierte werte unlisted securities nichtoffenbarung non-disclosure nichtoffizielle geschäfte unofficial dealings nichtzahlung default of payment nichtzahlung failure to pay nichtzahlung non-payment nichtzahlung, zahlungsversäumnis failure to pay nichtzulassung non-admission niedergang, rückgang decline niederlassung, kontenausgleich, zahlung settlement niederschreiben write down niedrig im preis low-priced niedrige preise low prices niedrigeres gebot lower bid niedrigste notierung lowest quotation niedrigster kurs lowest quotation niedrigster kursstand bottom price niedrigster preis bottom price niedrigstes angebot, mindestgebot lowest bid niedrigstes gebot lowest bid noch nicht abgehobene dividenden dividends not yet collected noch nicht abgelaufen unexpired noch nicht verrechneter scheck uncleared check nochgeschäft call of more nochgeschäft put of more nochmals durchsehen, nachprüfen, nachprüfung review nochmals entwerfen, neu entwerfen, ändern redraft nächster proximo näher prüfen examine more closely nähere angaben statement of particulars näheres, einzelheiten full particulars nominalwert face value nominalwert nominal amount nominalwert nominal value nominalwert par value nominell nominal nomineller preis nominal price nomineller schaden nominal damage nomineller schadensersatz nominal damages nominieren, benennen nominate normal, gewöhnlich normal normaler zins ordinary interest normales geschäftsjahr natural business year normalisieren normalize normalpolice standard policy normalverteilung normal curve of distribution normative volkswirtschaftslehre normative economics normieren standardize nostroguthaben bei ausländischen banken balances with foreign bankers nostroguthaben bei inländischen banken balances with home bankers nostrokonto nostro account notadresse address in case of need notadresse emergency address notadresse notify address notadresse referee in case of need notar notary public notariell beglaubigt notarially certified notausgang emergency exit notausgang fire exit notbehelf makeshift notenausgabe issue of bank notes notenausgabe note issue notenbank bank of circulation notenbank bank of issue notenprivileg right of issuing bank notes notenumlauf active circulation notenumlauf circulation of bank notes notenumlauf note circulation notfall case of need notfalls in case of emergency nothafen harbor of refuge notierte aktie listed share notierter kurs quoted price notlage distress notlage emergency notlage, unerwartetes ereignis emergency notleiden needy notleidend defaulted notleidende obligationen defaulted bonds notleidender wechsel overdue bill notmaßnahmen emergency steps notwendig necessary notwendige aufwendungen necessaries notwendige aufwendungen necessary expenditures notwendige auslagen reasonable expenses notwendige sorgfalt necessary diligence notwendige stempelmarken anbringen to affix any necessary stamps notwendigkeit necessity null naught null nil null nought null zero nullabweichung zero deviation numerierung numbering nummer der versicherungspolice policy number nummerieren, zahl number nummernkonto numbered account nur auf das konto des begünstigten account payee only nur bar ready money only nur dem namen nach, nominell nominal nur einmal once only nur für einen kurzen zeitraum for a short term only nur gegen bar cash only nur gegen bar cash only nur gegen totalverlust total loss only nur gegen zahlung only against payment nur in Übereinstimmung mit subject to compliance with nur zum inkasso for collection only nur zum teil genutzte hypothek open mortgage nur zur abrechnung, nicht übertragbar not negotiable nur zur information for information only nur zur verrechnung for deposit only nutzen benefit nutzen utilize nutzen ziehen benefit nutzen ziehen benefit from nutzen, benutzen utilize nutzfeuer friendly fire nutznießend beneficial nutzschwelle break-even point nutzung der ressourcen utilization of resources nutzungsschaden, entgang der nutzung loss of use nötigenfalls if necessary nützlichkeit usefulness nützlichkeit, nutzen utility ob ... oder whether ... or ob beauftragt oder nicht whether instructed or not ob geltend zu machen ist, dass whether to claim that ob sie benutzbar sind whether they are available ob solche dokumente abzulehnen sind whether to refuse such documents ob solche dokumente aufzunehmen sind whether to take up such documents oben, erstklassig top obenerwähnt above-mentioned obengenannter kurs above quotation obergrenze upper limit objektiv, sachlich objective objektives risiko physical hazard obligation bond obligation mit gewinnbeteiligung income bond obligation mit gewinnbeteiligung income debenture obligation, pfandbrief, versprechen bond obligationen (br.) debenture stock obligationen besitzen hold bonds obligationen mit verzögerter verzinsung deferred bonds obligationen ohne feste fälligkeit indeterminate bonds obligationen von körperschaften corporation stocks obligationenmakler bond broker obligatorisch obligatory obligatorische rückversicherung obligatory reinsurance obligatorische versicherung obligatory insurance oder andere ähnliche dokumente or other similar documents oder ein anderes rechtliches verfahren or other legal process oder irgendwelche andere dokumente or any other documents whatsoever oder irgendwelche andere personen or any other person whatsoever oder irgendwelche andere ursachen or any other causes oder worte ähnlicher bedeutung or words of similar effect fehler bei der Übermittlung errors arising in the transmission of messages offen open offene deckung, generalpolice open cover offene police, abschreibepolice floating policy offene police, generalpolice open policy offene rechnung open account offene rechnungen outstanding account offene reserven disclosed reserves offener markt open market offener posten open item offener posten unpaid item offensichtlich obvious offensichtlich (adv.) obviously offensichtlich, erwiesen, klar evident offenstehend, unbezahlt outstanding offenstehende beträge open items offerte tender offiziell, beamter official offizielle unterstützung official support offizieller kurs official rate offizieller wechselkurs official exchange rate ohne bezug, ohne rücksicht regardless ohne bezugsrecht ex new ohne datum dateless ohne datum, undatiert undated ohne die nötigen mittel with inadequate means ohne eigene verpflichtung without obligation on its part ohne eigene verpflichtung without responsibility on its part ohne einzug solcher zinsen without collecting such interest ohne frage without question ohne garantie without guarantee ohne gewährleistung without guarantee ohne indossament without endorsement ohne kosten no expenses to be incurred ohne lizenz unlicensed ohne ärztliche untersuchung without medical examination ohne regreß without recourse ohne regreßanspruch without recourse ohne rückgriff zu zahlen to pay without recourse ohne verbindlichkeit without engagement ohne vollmacht unauthorized ohne vollmacht, nicht bevollmächtigt unauthorized ohne vorherige benachrichtigung without prior notice ohne vorherige zustimmung without prior agreement ohne vorurteil without prejudice ohne zustimmung aller beteiligten without the agreement of all parties ohne Übersetzung without translation oligopol oligopoly ändern modify ändern, abändern alter ändern, Änderung change operationskosten surgery costs operationskostenversicherung surgical fees insurance optimal ideal optimale bevölkerungsdichte optimum population optimismus optimism optimist optimist optimistisch optimistic optimistische haltung bullish attitude optimum, optimal optimum option option option, vorkaufsrecht option optionenbörse options exchange optionsberechtigter owner of an option optionsvertrag option contract orderpapier instrument to order orderpapier order instrument orderpapier order paper orderscheck check to order orderscheck order check orderwechsel bill to order orderwechsel order bill organisation organization organisationsabteilung coordination department organisieren, gestalten organize original original original, ursprünglich original originalwechsel original bill ort location ort des verkaufs, verkaufsstelle point of sale ortspreis loco price ortstarif local rate oxydation oxidation p.e.r.t. programme evaluation and review technique pacht lease pacht, verpachten lease pachtdauer term of lease pachtgrundstück, erbpachtgrundstück leasehold pachtverhältnis tenancy pachtvertrag contract of lease packliste packing list packpapier packing paper packung pack paket parcel paketpolice package policy paketpost parcel-post paketversicherung parcel post insurance palette pallet panik panic papier wird ersetzt paper is being replaced papier, dokument paper papierabfälle, makulatur waste paper papiergeld paper money papierverschwendung waste of paper papierwährung paper currency paragraf, abschnitt, absatz paragraph parallel parallel pari, nennwert par pari-emission par emission parität parity paritätentabelle table of parities paritätspunkt parity point pariwert par value parkinsons gesetz parkinson's law parkplatz parking place parkuhr parking meter parkwächter parking attendant partei party partei, seite, beteiligter party parteien des vertrags parties to a contract partnerschaft, (ähnlich ohg) partnership pass passport passagier, fahrgast, fluggast passenger passagierflugzeug airliner passagiergut registered luggage passiva, verbindlichkeiten liabilities passivposten der bilanz liabilities passivsaldo debit balance passivzinsen interest payable passkontrolle passport control patent patent patentamt patent office patentiert, durch patent geschützt patented patentinhaber owner of a patent patentverlängerung extension of a patent pauschalbetrag lump sum pauschale lump-sum pauschale, pauschalbetrag lump sum pauschalentschädigung damages at large pauschalgeschäft package deal pauschalprämie flat-rate premium pauschalreise package tour pauschalsatz lump rate pauschalversicherung global cover pauschalversicherung open policy pauschalversicherung, gesamtversicherung all-in insurance pendler commuter penny penny penny (pl.) pence pension pension pension retirement pay pension superannuation pension beantragen, rente beantragen apply for a pension pension, rente pension pensionierung retirement pensionsalter pension age pensionsalter pensionable age pensionsberechtigt entitled to a pension pensionsberechtigt, rentenberechtigt pensionable pensionskasse pension fund pensionskasse pension pool pensionskasse staff pension fund perfekt perfect periodisch periodical periodisch wiederkehrend recurring personal personnel personalabteilung personnel department personalabteilung personnel division personalabteilung staff department personalausweis identity card personalchef staff manager personalchef, leiter der personalabteilung personnel manager personalkredit personal loan personenversicherung insurance of persons personenversicherung personal insurance persönlich personal persönlich bekannt of known identity persönlich haftend individually liable persönlich haftender gesellschafter partner liable to unlimited extent persönliche daten, personenbezogene daten personal data persönliche vereinbarung private arrangement persönlicher assistent personal assistant persönliches eigentum, sachbesitz personal property petition, eingabe petition pfand pawn pfand pledge pfand, verpfänden pledge pfandbriefe der öffentlichen hand civil bonds pfandbriefinhaber, obligationär bondholder pfandgeber pawner pfandgegenstand pawned object pfandgut pledged property pfandhalter holder of a pledge pfandleihe pawnshop pfandleiher pawnbroker pfandleihgeschäft pawn broking pfandnehmer pawnee pfandrecht lien pflanze, fabrik (us) plant pflicht, zoll duty pflichtaktien qualifying shares pflichtrückversicherung obligatory reinsurance pflichtversicherung compulsory insurance pflichtversicherung obligatory insurance pfändbar restrainable pfändung restraint, seizing pfändungsbefehl writ of attachment photographie photo photokopie photo-copy physisch tot actually dead pilot, lotse pilot pirat, auf see überfallen pirate piraterie, seeräuberei piracy plakat poster plan plan plan für die altersversorgung pension plan plan, aufstellung schedule plan, vorhaben scheme planerfüllung fulfillment of a plan planmäßig according to plan planspiel business game planungsabteilung planning department planwirtschaft planned economy platz site platz, fleck, stelle spot platz, ort place platzen (scheck) bounce platzierung, unterbringung placement platzwechsel local bill plazieren place plädieren plead plus plus plötzliche kurssteigerung jump in price plötzliche zunahme sudden increase plötzlicher anstieg abrupt rise plötzlicher wechsel sudden change plötzliches nachlassen sudden fall plünderung looting pächter leaseholder pächter lessee päckchen packet police abändern amend a policy police ausfertigen issue a policy police ausstellen effect a policy police beleihen borrow on a policy police erneuern renew a policy police für eine einzige fahrt voyage policy police kündigen cancel a policy police ohne wertangabe open policy policenbüro policy signing office policendarlehen, beleihung einer police loan on policy politik, versicherungspolice policy politisch political populär machen popularize populär, beliebt popular portfolio portfolio porto postage portokasse petty cash portokassenbuch petty cash book portokassenkonto petty cash account positiv, überzeugt positive positive volkswirtschaftslehre positive economics post, mit der post senden mail postamt post office postanweisung money order postanweisung postal order posteinlieferungsschein post receipt posten item posten post posten, artikel item postgirodienst national giro postgirodienst national giro service postgirokonto giro account postlagernd poste restante postleitzahl (br.) postal code postleitzahl (us) zip code postleitzahl (us) zipcode postscheck postal check postscheckdienst, postgirodienst giro postscheckdienste giro services postscheckkonto (br.) giro account postspardienst (us) postal saving postsparguthaben postal savings posttarif postal rate postversandbescheinigung certificate of posting postwertzeichen postal stamps postzustellbezirk postal zone potenzial, potenziell potential praktische anwendung practical application praktische erfahrung know-how praktische erfahrung practical knowledge praktischer arzt medical practioner praktizieren practise prämienlohn premium pay preis price preis nach börsenschluss price after hours preis, siegespreis prize preisabsprache price agreement preisabstützung pegging preisangabe indication of price preisangabe quotation of the price preisangabe, angebot quotation preisangebot quotation preisanstieg rise in prices preisbewegung price movement preisbildung formation of prices preisbindung price maintenance preisbindung zweiter hand resale price maintenance preisdifferenz price differential preise erhöhen raise prices preise haben sich erholt prices have recovered preise herabsetzen lower prices preise hochhalten keep up prices preise niedrig halten keep prices down preisentwicklung trend of prices preiserholung, erholung der preise recovery of prices preiserhöhung increase in price preiserhöhung markup preisermäßigung, preisnachlass reduction of prices preisfestlegung price fixing preisfrage matter of price preisführer price leader preisgrenze, limit price limit preisgünstig well-priced preiskrieg price war preislage price level preisliste price list preisnachlass, rabatt, diskont discount preisniveau level of prices preisschwankung fluctuation of price preisschwankungen price fluctuations preissenkung cut in prices preisspirale inflationary spiral preissteigerungsrate rate of price increase preissturz slump preissystem price system preisunterbietung, preisnachlass cutting of prices preisverlust loss in price preiswert worth the money preisüberwachung price control presse, pressen, drängen press prestigewerbung goodwill advertising prima super primawechsel first bill of exchange primawechsel first of exchange primärindustrie primary industries prinzip principle prinzip der entschädigung principle of indemnity priorität priority priorität erhalten obtain priority prioritätsgläubiger privileged creditor privat, persönlich private privatbank private bank privatbankier (us) individual banker privatbesitz private property private unfallversicherung personal accident insurance privates darlehen personal loan privathaftpflichtversicherung personal liability insurance privatsektor private sector privatunternehmen, freie wirtschaft private enterprise privatversicherer private insurer privatwirtschaftliches risiko commercial risk pro tag per diem probe trial probebilanz trial balance problem lösen solve a problem produkt, ware product produktauswahl, sortiment range of products produktenbörse commodity exchange produktenbörse produce exchange produktion production produktionsausfall loss of production produktionseinschränkung limitation of production produktionsfaktoren factors of production produktionsfaktoren production factors produktionskosten cost of production produktionsplanung production planning produktionssteigerung rise in output produktionszahlen output figures produktiv productive produktivität productivity produktivitätssteigerung rise in productivity professionell professional profite gainings proforma pro forma proformarechnung pro forma invoice prägen minting prägen von münzen coinage programm (br.) program programm (us) program programmierer programmer programmierte unterweisung programmed instruction progressiv progressive projekt project prokura power of procuration prokura procuration proletariat proletariat prolongation eines wechsels extension of a b/l prolongationsgebühr backwardation prolongationsgebühr, aufgeld contango prolongationskosten contango money prämie premium prämie berechnen charge a premium prämie berichtigen adjust the premium prämie festsetzen fix the premium prämie für eigene rechnung premium for own account prämie ist fällig premium is due prämie rückerstatten refund a premium prämie, aufgeld premium prämie, option option money prämienabrechnung premium statement prämienart type of premium prämienfrei free of premium prämienfreie versicherung paid-up insurance prämiengeschäft option business prämiengeschäft, optionsgeschäft option business prämieninkasso collection of premiums prämienlohnsystem bonus wages system prämienquittung premium receipt prämienrabatt premium discount prämienrate installment premium prämienrate premium installment prämienrichtlinien, einstufungsrichtlinien rating principles prämienrückgewähr, prämienrückvergütung return of premium prämienrückzahlung refund of premium prämiensatz premium rate prämiensatz rate of option prämiensatz rate of premium prämiensystem incentive scheme prämiensystem premium bonus system prämientarif insurance tariff prämienvolumen volume of premiums prompt, sofort, umgehend prompt proportionale verteilung proportional allotment proportionalregel average clause präsident president prospekt prospectus protektionismus protectionism protest protest protest erheben enter a protest protest erheben lodge a protest protest erheben raise a protest protest mangels zahlung protest for non-payment protest wegen nicht-annahme protest for non-acceptance protestaufnahme act of protest protestgebühren protest charges protestieren, protest protest protesturkunde deed of protest protesturkunde notarial protest certificate protesturkunde note of protest protokoll minutes protokoll führen keep the minutes protokollbuch minute book provinzbank country bank provision commission provision bei devisengeschäften exchange commission provisionsgrundlage commission basis provisionskonto commission account provisionspflichtig subject to commission provisionssatz rate of commission provisorisch, einstweilig provisional prozedur, verfahren procedure prozent per cent prozent percent prozentsatz percentage prozentualer anteil percentage prozess, verfahren process prozesskostenversicherung legal expenses insurance prüfen to examine prüfen, untersuchen examine prüfen, überprüfen to verify prüfung des antrags examination of proposal prüfungsausschuß board of examiners prüfungskommission board of examiners prüfungszeugnis certificate of inspection psychisch psychic psychische verfassung mental health psychologisch psychological psychologische faktoren psychological factors punkt point punkt der tagesordnung point of the agenda punkt einer vereinbarung article of an agreement punkt eines vertrags article of a contract pünktlich zahlen pay punctually qualifikation, befähigung qualification qualifizieren qualify qualifiziert, befähigt, berechtigt qualified qualität, beschaffenheit quality qualität, güte quality qualitätsgarantie guarantee of quality qualitätskontrolle quality control quantitativ quantitative quantität, menge quantity quarantäne quarantine quartalstag quarter day quelle source quellen, rohstoffquellen, ressourcen resources querschreiben cross quittieren receipt quittierte rechnung receipted bill quittung receipt quittungsbeleg voucher for receipt quittungsformular receipt form quittungsstempel receipt stamp quorum, mindestanzahl quorum quote quota quote, anteil quota quotenerhöhung quota increase quotenrückversicherung quota share reinsurance quotieren, notieren, kurse angeben quote rabatt discount rabatt rebate radioaktive strahlung nuclear radiation rahmen frame rahmen framework rahmenvereinbarung general agreement rang rank rang einer hypothek rank of a mortgage rang einnehmen, rangieren rank rang, prioritätenfolge order of priority rar scarce rat advice rat suchen seek advice rat, beratung counsel rat, ratschlag advice raten, beraten advise ratenzahlung payment by installments ratgeber adviser ratifizieren ratify ratifizierung ratification ration ration rationalisieren rationalize rationalisierung rationalization rationalisierungsbemühungen rationalization efforts rationiert rationed rationierung rationing ratsversammlung council raub, beraubung robbery raubbau, raubwirtschaft robber economy reagieren react reaktion response real, wirklich real reale vermögenswerte tangible assets realeinkommen real income realer wert real value realisierbar, verwertbar realizable realisierbarkeitsstudie feasibility study realkredit credit on landed property realkredit credit on real estate reallohn real wage rechenfehler miscalculation rechenmaschine calculator rechenschaftsbericht statement of accounts rechenschaftspflichtig liable to account rechnen count rechnen reckon rechnen, berechnen, errechnen calculate rechner calculator rechnung bill rechnung invoice rechnung (us), rechnung im restaurant bill rechnungsabschluss closing of accounts rechnungsabschluß balance of accounts rechnungsbetrag amount of an invoice rechnungsbetrag, rechnungssaldo balance of an invoice rechnungsbuch account book rechnungsdatum date of invoice rechnungsjahr financial year rechnungsmethode, buchungsverfahren method of accounting rechnungswesen accountancy recht law recht right recht der fahrlässigkeitshaftung law of negligence recht erwerben become entitled recht, anrecht right rechtfertigen justify rechtfertigen, begründen justify rechtfertigt justified rechtfertigung justification rechtliche bedeutung legal meaning rechtmäßig lawful rechtmäßig vertretbar justifiable rechtmäßiger eigentümer lawful owner rechtmäßiger erbe true heir rechtmäßiger inhaber holder in due course rechtsabteilung legal department rechtsanspruch legal claim rechtsanspruch legal title rechtsanspruch legitimate claim rechtsanspruch title rechtsanwalt (us) attorney-at-law rechtsanwalt, (br.) staatsanwalt (us) attorney rechtsanwaltskosten lawyer's fees rechtsberater legal adviser rechtsberatung legal advice rechtsgeschäft transaction rechtsgrundlage legal basis rechtshilfe legal assistance rechtskräftig werden become final rechtsmangel lack of title rechtsmittel legal means rechtsmittel legal remedy rechtsmittel remedy rechtssprechung jurisdiction rechtsverbindlich legally binding rechtswidrig illegal rechtswidrig unlawful rechtswidrig handeln act illegally rechtswidrig handeln act unlawfully rechtswidrige handlung unlawful act rechtswirksam effective in law rechtswirksam legally effective rechtswirksamkeit eines dokuments legal effect of a document redefreiheit freedom of speech rediskont rediscount rediskontieren, rediskont rediscount redlicher erwerber purchaser without notice reduktionsfaktor, minderungsfaktor reduction factor reduktionswert reduction value reduzieren, herabsetzen reduce reduzierter preis reduced price reduzierung reduction reduzierung, abbau cutback reeder owner of a ship reeder ship owner referenz, bezugnahme reference reformieren, reform reform regal shelf rege nachfrage brisk demand regel rule regelmäßig wiederkehrende zahlung periodical payment regelmäßig wiederkehrende zahlungen periodical payments regelmäßige leistungen regular periodical payments regelmäßige zahlungen regular payments regeln, anpassen, regulieren adjust regeln, beherrschen, regel rule regeln, regulieren regulate regelung regulation regelung, vereinbarung arrangement regenversicherung pluvius insurance regenversicherung rain insurance regenwasser rainwater regenwasserschaden rainwater damage reges geschäft brisk business regierung cabinet regierung government region, gebiet region regional regional regionale planung regional planning register register register, registrieren register registrierbeamter, standesbeamter registrar registrieren record registrierkasse cash register registrierung registration registrierung registry registrierung, anmeldung registration registrierungsbescheinigung von pfandbriefen certificate of bonds regress recourse regress regress regress nehmen recourse regress, rückgriff recourse regressiv regressive regresspflichtig liable to recourse regresspflichtig responsible for recourse regulierbar adjustable regulierung adjustment regulierungskosten adjustment costs regulär regular rehabilitierter konkursschuldner discharged bankrupt rehabilitierung, wiedereingliederung rehabilitation reibung friction reich, im Überfluss schwimmend affluent reichlich ample reichliche mittel ample means reichliche sicherheit ample security reichtum, Überfluss affluence reichweite in meilen mileage reif, fällig, verfallen mature reihe, serie serial rein, sauber, ohne einschränkung clean reine schulden net liabilities reines glücksspiel game of pure chance reines konnossement clean bill of lading reingewinn clear profit reinschrift clean copy reise journey reise, tour tour reiseagentur, reisebüro travel agency reiseausfallkostenversicherung insurance of travelling expenses reisebüro tourist office reisegepäckversicherung luggage insurance reisehandbuch, reiseführer, ratgeber guidebook reisekostenabrechnung travel expense report reisekreditbrief circular note reisekreditbrief traveler's letter of credit reisen traveling reisen, reise travel reisender traveler reisender, vertreter travelling salesman reiseplan, reiseroute itinerary reisepolice voyage policy reisescheck traveler's check reisespesen traveling expenses reiseunfallversicherung traveler's accident insurance reiseunfallversicherung travelers' accident insurance reiseversicherung travel insurance reißzwecke tack reklame publicity rekordjahr record year rekordumsatz record sales rektapapier instrument not to order rendite income return rendite der aktien yield on shares rennen run rentabilitätsanalyse analysis of profitability rentabilitätsgrenze limit of profitability rente annuity rente bewilligen, pension bewilligen grant a pension rente beziehen, pension beziehen draw a pension rente beziehen, pension beziehen receive a pension rentenbank annuity bank rentenberechtigt, pensionsberechtigt eligible for pension rentenbrief annuity certificate rentenempfänger annuitant rentenempfänger holder of an annuity rentenversicherung annuity insurance rentenversicherungsvertrag annuity contract rentenzahlung pension payment rentner pensioner reparaturkosten cost of repair reparaturkosten cost of repairs reparieren, reparatur repair reportkurs rate of contango repräsentationsfigur figurehead repräsentationskosten cost of entertainment repräsentationswerbung institutional advertising requirierung requisition reserve reserve reserve für leibrenten life annuity fund reserven capital surplus reserven money in reserve reserven des versicherers underwriting reserves reserven in ausländischer währung foreign funds reserven in ausländischer währung holdings of foreign currency reserven in fremder währung foreign exchange reserves reservieren reserve reservierte haltung bearish attitude reservierung reservation resolut, entschlossen resolute respekttage, tage gnade days of respite respekttage, verzugstage days of grace rest, restbestand remainder restbetrag balance restbetrag remainder restbetrag remaining amount restposten odd lot restriktive kreditpolitik restrictive credit policy restwert salvage value resultate findings retrozession retrocession retten save revision audit revision revision revisionsbeamter comptroller rezeption, empfang reception rezession, flaute recession rezession, konjunkturrückgang recession richter, beurteilen judge richtlinie guideline richtlinien instructions richtlinien und gebräuche customs and practice ring, vereinigung ring risiken eingehen take hazards risiko hazard risiko risk risiko begrenzen limit a risk risiko decken cover a risk risiko der aufbringung risk of capture risiko der kollision collision risk risiko der strandung stranding risk risiko der verfügungsbeschränkung restraint risk risiko des auf-grund-laufens risk of running aground risiko des aufruhrs riot risk risiko des aufstands insurrection risk risiko des eigentümers owner's risk risiko des maschinenschadens breakdown of machinery risk risiko des sinkens, risiko des untergangs sinking risk risiko kriegerischer handlungen warlike operations risk risiko verteilen spread a risk risiko von feindseligkeiten hostilities risk risiko übernehmen take a risk risiko, gefahr hazard risiko, gefahr risk risikoausschaltung elimination of risk risikobegrenzung bei katastrophen catastrophe limit risikoeinstufung classification of risks risikohäufung accumulation of risk risikokapital venture capital risikoprämie premium for risk risikoverteilung diversification of risks riskant risky riskieren, risiko risk rivale rival rohbilanz rough balance rohmaterial raw material rohmateriallagerung storage of raw material rohstoffindustrie extractive industry rohstoffmärkte commodity markets rollendes inventar, waggons und lokomotiven rolling stock rollgeld cartage rollgeld, fuhrgeld, fuhrkosten cost of cartage rost rust rotation rotation rotieren rotate räumung eines gebäudes vacation of a building routine routine routinetätigkeit, routineaufgabe routine job ruf reputation rufen, anrufen, telefonieren, aufsuchen call rufname first name ruhegehalt, pension pension ruhegehaltsempfänger pensioner ruhegehaltsfähig pensionable ruhendes konto broken account ruhestand retirement runde round rundfunkwerbung radio advertising rundreise circular trip rundreisefahrkarte circular ticket rundschreiben circular letter rundschreiben zum angebot von obligationen bond circular rückdatieren backdate rückerstattung reimbursement rückerstattung verlangen to claim refund rückfinanzieren refinance rückfinanzierung refinancing rückführung repatriation rückgang downward movement rückgang drop rückgang fall rückgang des geschäfts decline of business rückgängig machen countermand rückgriff recourse rückgriff auf den auftraggeber recourse to drawer rückgriff auf gutgläubige inhaber recourse to bona fide holders rückgriffsrecht right of recourse rückkauf repurchase rückkaufswert surrender value rückkaufwert repurchase value rückkaufwert surrender value rückkopplung, feedback feedback rücklagen reserves for contingencies rücklagen für dubiose reserve for bad debts rücklagen für schwebende schäden reserve for pending claims rückläufig, fallend declining rücknahme einer klage waiver of an action rücknahmepreis redemption price rückprämie premium for the put rückprämie put premium rückprämiengeschäft put option rückprämienkurs price of put rückreise return journey rückruf call-back rückschreitend retrograde rückseite back rücksendung von leergut return of empties rücksendungen returns rückstand arrear rückstand backlog rückstände, zahlungsrückstände arrears rückständig backward rückständige forderungen debts in arrears rückständige zinsen arrears of interest rückständige zinsen back interest rückständiger zins outstanding interest rückständiges gebiet backward area rücktrittsanzeige notice of withdrawal rücktrittsklausel cancellation clause rücktrittsklausel escape clause rückvaluta backvalue rückvergütete prämie returned premium rückversicherer reinsurer rückversichern reinsure rückversicherung reinsurance rückversicherung annehmen accept reinsurance rückversicherungsgesellschaft reinsurance company rückversicherungspolice reinsurance policy rückversicherungsprovision reinsurance commission rückversicherungsvertrag reinsurance contract rückware goods returned rückwechsel counterbill rückzahlbar repayable rückzahlung refund rückzahlung repayment rückzahlung einer hypothek redemption of a mortgage rückzahlungsbedingungen, tilgungsplan terms of redemption rückzahlungstermin date of redemption rückzahlungstermin date of repayment sachanlage real investment sachkonto impersonal account sachlage circumstances sachschaden damage to property sachschaden material damage sachschaden property damage sachschaden, sachverlust loss of property sachverhalt circumstances of the case sachvermögen tangible property sachversicherung insurance of property sachversicherung property insurance sachverständigengutachten expertise sachverständiger in havarieangelegenheiten despacheur sack sack sagenhafter reichtum fabulous wealth saisonbedingt seasonal saisonbedingt subject to seasonal influences saisonbedingte anpassung seasonal adjustment saisonbedingte schwankungen seasonal fluctuations saisonbereinigt seasonally adjusted saisondarlehen seasonal loan saisoneinflüsse seasonal influences saisongeschäft seasonal business saisonschwankungen unterliegen vary with the season saisonzuschlag seasonal price increase saldierung, abschluss balancing saldo balance saldo einer rechnung balance of an invoice saldo eines kontos balance of an account saldo zu ihren gunsten balance in your favor saldo zu ihren lasten debit balance saldovortrag balance to be brought forward saloübertrag balance forward sammelaufwendung collective expenditure sammelbuchung compound entry sammelkonto collective account sammelkonto omnibus account sammeln, einsammeln, inkasso vornehmen collect sammelposten compound item sammeltarif joint rate sammelversicherung group insurance sammelversicherung, gruppenversicherung collective insurance sammelverwahrung, sammeldepot collective deposit sanierung reorganization sanierungsmaßnahme reorganization measure sanktion sanction satz für devisentermingeschäft future rate satzung articles of association satzung einer ohg articles of partnership schaden damage schaden durch rost und oxydierung loss by rust and oxidation schaden durch seewasser, seewasserschaden damage by sea water schaden durch seewasser, seewasserschaden sea-water damage schaden durch süßwasser, süßwasserschaden damage by fresh water schaden durch süßwasser, süßwasserschaden fresh-water damage schaden erleiden meet with a loss schaden erleiden suffer a loss schaden erleiden sustain a loss schaden ersetzen make good a loss schaden leiden suffer damages schaden mindern minimize loss schaden regulieren adjust a claim schaden regulieren settle a claim schaden vergüten, schaden ersetzen make up for a loss schaden verursachen occasion a loss schaden zufügen, verlust zufügen inflict a loss schaden, beschädigen, schaden damage schaden, nachteil harm schadenbeteiligungsrückversicherung quota share reinsurance schadenersatz damages schadenersatz in natura compensation in kind schadenersatzleistung payment of damages schadenfestsetzung fixing of damages schadenminderungsklausel sue and labor clause schadensabschätzung estimation of damage schadensabteilung claims department schadensabteilung claims office schadensachverständiger adjuster schadensanzeige loss advice schadensanzeige notice of claim schadensanzeige notice of loss schadensanzeige erstatten give notice of loss schadensbearbeiter adjuster schadensbearbeitungskosten claims expenses schadensbenachrichtigung, schadensmeldung notification of claim schadensbetrag amount of damage schadensbüro adjustment bureau schadensbüro adjustment office schadensbüro claims department schadensereignis damaging event schadensersatz indemnity schadensersatz für spätfolgen remote damages schadensersatz gewähren award damages schadensersatzanspruch wegen nichterfüllung damages for non-performance schadensersatzbemessung measure of damages schadensersatzbetrag sum of indemnity schadensersatzforderung, ersatzanspruch claim for indemnification schadensersatzklage action for damages schadensersatzpflichtig answerable for damages schadensersatzpflichtig held for damages schadensersatzpflichtig liable for damages schadensersatzpflichtig liable to indemnify schadensersatzpflichtig liable to pay damages schadenserwartung expectation of loss schadensfall case of loss schadensfall event of damage or loss schadensfestsetzung, schadenbegutachtung loss assessment schadensfeststellung, schadensausmaß measure of damages schadensfeuer hostile fire schadensfälle bearbeiten handle claims schadensfreiheitsrabatt no-claims bonus schadenshäufigkeit frequency of loss schadenshäufigkeit incidence of loss schadenshäufigkeit loss frequency schadensmeldung, meldung des schadens notification of loss schadensquote loss ratio schadensreferent claims agent schadensregelung, berichtigung adjustment schadensregulierung adjustment of a loss schadensregulierung claim settlement schadensregulierung loss settlement schadensrisiko durch aussperrung lockout risk schadensrisiko durch streikhandlungen strike risk schadenssachverständiger insurance adjuster schadensstatistik loss statistics schadenssumme amount of loss schadensumfang, schadensausmaß extent of loss schadensverhütung loss prevention schadensverteilung loss repartition schadenswahrscheinlichkeit chance of loss schadenswahrscheinlichkeit probability of loss schadenswert, schadensumfang, schadenshöhe amount of loss schadenszertifikat certificate of damage schadhaft damaged schadloshaltung recoupment schalten, schalter switch schalter counter schalterbeamter clerk schaltsystem switching system scharf keen scharf, verwegen keen scharfe konkurrenz keen competition scharfer wettbewerb keen competition schatzamt treasury schatzanweisung treasury bond schatzanweisungen treasury bills schatzkanzler (br.) exchequer schatzkanzler (br.), finanzminister chancellor of the exchequer schatzmeister, kassier treasurer schatzschein treasury note schaufensterbummel window shopping schaufenstergestaltung, "spiegeln" window dressing schaufenstergestaltung, schaufensterreklame window display schaufensterpuppe dummy scheck check scheck cheque (br.) scheck (us) check scheckbuch (us) check book scheckbuch (us) checkbook scheckbuch, scheckheft cheque book (br.) scheckformblatt check form scheckinhaber holder of a check scheckkarte check card scheckkonto check account scheckschutzvorrichtung check protection device scheckschutzvorrichtung device for protection of check scheckverkehr check transactions scheidemünze token coin scheidemünze, münze token coin scheinauktion mock auction scheinbarer wert apparent value scheinen der auflistung zu entsprechen appear to be as listed scheinen zu sein appear to be scheinen, erscheinen appear scheingeschäft simulated transaction scheingewinn sham profit schema, plan, system scheme schematische aufstellung der organisation organization chart schenkung donation schenkungsurkunde deed of gift schicht, umschalten auf großbuchstaben shift schiebung jobbery schiedsgericht court of arbitration schiedsgerichtsbarkeit arbitrage schiedsgerichtsbarkeit arbitration schiedsgerichtsbarkeitsklausel arbitration clause schiedsgerichtskosten cost of arbitration schiedsrichter arbiter schiedsrichter conciliator schiedsrichter, richter am schiedsgericht arbitrator schiedsrichterlich arbitral schiedsspruch arbitration award schiedsspruch annehmen abide by an award schiedsverfahren arbitration proceedings schiff ship schiffsmakler ship broker schiffsschweiß ship's sweat schildchen, karteireiter tab schimmel, verschimmeln mould schlagzeile headline schlange stehen, reihe, warteschlange queue schlau, gerissen cunning schlecht regeln maladjust schlecht verwalten mismanage schlechte beschaffenheit badness schlechtes geld, falschgeld bad money schleichende inflation creeping inflation schleuderpreis underprice schlichter umpire schlichtung conciliation schließen, schluss close schließen, zum schluss kommen conclude schließlich finally schließung closure schließung eines kontos closing of an account schluss conclusion schluss der beweisführung close of argument schlussfolgerungen ziehen draw the consequences schlusskurs closing price schlusspreis, schlusskurs closing price schlussrechnung account of settlement schlußdividende final dividend schlußkurs closing rate schlußnotierung final quotation schlußquittung receipt for the balance schlüsse ziehen draw conclusions schlüssel key schlüsselbrett keyboard schlüsselindustrie key industry schlüsselperson key personality schlüsselposition key position schlüsselstellung key job schlüsselwort code word schmerzensgeld damages for pain and suffering schmiergeld an vorarbeiter kickback schmälern impair schmuck, schmucksachen jewelry schmuckversicherung, juwelenversicherung jewelry insurance schmuggelware smuggled goods schneiden clip schnell rapid schnell wachsend fast-growing schnellere methoden quicker methods schnellhefter folder schädlich, nachteilig harmful schädlich, schädigend, nachteilig hurtful schätzen estimate schätzung des wertes appraisal schätzungsmethode method of estimation schätzwert appraised value schätzwert estimated value schranke, hindernis barrier schreibarbeit paperwork schreibfehler clerical error schreibfehler clerical mistake schreibmaschine typewriter schreibraum typing pool schreibtisch desk schrieb, schriftsatz writ schriftlich written schriftlich niederlegen put into writing schriftliche anzeige written information schriftliche bewerbung written application schriftliche kündigung, benachrichtigung notice in writing schriftliche mitteilung note schriftliche zusicherung written agreement schriftliche zustimmung written agreement schriftliche Übereinkunft written agreement schriftlicher beweis literal proof schriftlicher beweis written evidence schriftlicher nachweis documentary proof schriftlicher vertrag contract in writing schriftlicher vertrag written agreement schritt pace schritt halten mit keep pace with schrittmacher pacesetter schräge skewness schrägstrich slash schrott scrap schrumpfen, minderung shrinkage schrumpfung contraction schuld debt schuldanerkenntnis acknowledgement of debt schuldbrief borrower's note schulden einer firma debts of a company schulden eingehen enter liabilities schulden übernehmen assume debts schuldeneinziehung encashment of debt schuldenfrei free of debt schuldenfrei not indebted schuldenfrei unindebted schuldenlast burden of debts schuldenlast, verschuldung indebtedness schuldensaldo balance of debt schuldner debtor schuldnerland debtor nation schuldschein certificate of indebtedness schuldschein note of hand schuldschein (i owe you) iou schuldverschreibung debenture schuldverschreibung an order debenture to order schuldverschreibung an order promissory not to order schuldverschreibung auf den inhaber bond to bearer schuldverschreibung auf den inhaber debenture to bearer schuldverschreibung auf den inhaber promissory not to bearer schuldverschreibung auf den namen debenture to registered holder schule im sekundarbereich, gymnasium u.a. secondary school schuttaufräumung clearance of debris schutz protection schutz aufheben suspend cover schutz der ware protection of goods schutz gewähren extend cover schutz gewähren give cover schutz gewähren provide cover schutzzölle protective tariffs schwache währung weak currency schwachstromanlage low tension installation schwankung fluctuation schwankungsbereich range schwankungsbreite der kurse price range schwankungsrückstellung equalization fund schwarze liste blacklist schwarzer markt, verbotener markt black market schwarzes brett bill-board schwarzes brett notice-board schwebend floating schwebend unadjusted schwebende schulden floating debt schwebender schaden, drohender schaden pending loss schweigegeld hush money schweigende zustimmung tacit approval schwer heavy schwer verkäuflich hard to sell schwer zu liquidierende aktivposten illiquid assets schwere einbußen, schwerer schaden heavy losses schwere körperverletzung grievous bodily harm schwere verluste heavy losses schwerindustrie heavy industry schwierigkeiten difficulties schwindel humbug schwindelbank bogus bank schwindelhaft bogus schwindeln, schwindel swindle schwindler confidence man schwitzen sweat schwäche softness schwächer werden weaken seefracht maritime freight seegefahren, seerisiko marine adventure seegefahren, seerisiko marine peril seehafenspediteur, schiffsmakler shipping agent seehaftpflichtversicherung marine liability insurance seekaskoversicherer hull underwriter seekaskoversicherung marine hull insurance seekonnossement bill of lading covering carriage by sea seekonnossement marine bill of lading seekonnossement ocean bill of lading seemäßige verpackung seaworthy packing seeprotest ship's protest seeraub, piraterie piracy seerecht maritime law seetransport marine transport seetransport maritime transport seetransportversicherung ocean marine insurance seeversicherer marine insurer seeversicherer marine underwriter seeversicherung marine insurance seeversicherung maritime insurance seeversicherung, seetransportversicherung marine insurance seeversicherung, Überseetransportversicherung ocean marine insurance seeversicherungsgesellschaft marine underwriter seeversicherungspolice marine insurance policy seeversicherungspolice marine policy seewurf, Überbordwerfen, über bord werfen jettison segelliste, liste der abfahrten list of sailings sein geld redlich verdienen turn an honest penny sein vermögen vermachen make over one's estate seine bank mit etwas betrauen entrusting sth. to his bank seine bestätigung hinzuzufügen to add one's confirmation seit since seit deren einführung im jahre since their introduction in seitens der avisierenden bank on the part of the advising bank seitens dritter on the part of any third parties sekretär, sekretärin secretary sektor sector sekundawechsel second bill of exchange sekundawechsel second of exchange selbst wenn even if selbstbedienung self-service selbstbedienungsladen self-service shop selbstentzündung spontaneous combustion selbstgemacht home made selbstkostenpreis cost price selbstkostenpreis cost-price selbstkostenpreis net cost price selbstkostenrechnung cost accounting selbständig self-dependent selbstversicherung self-insurance selbstverstümmelung maiming oneself selten seldom seltenheitswert scarcity value sendung consignment sendung shipment sendung, kommission consignment senior senior serie series seriennummer serial number serienweise rückzahlbare obligationen installment bonds setzen, stellen set show business, unterhaltungsgewerbe show business sich an das gesetz halten abide by the law sich angliedern affiliate sich auf etwas spezialisieren specialize in sth. sich ausweisen prove one's identity sich behaupten hold one's ground sich beim auftraggeber erholen to recover from the principal sich belaufen auf come to sth. sich bemühen to endeavor sich beraten lassen take legal advice sich beschweren complain sich bessern improve sich beteiligen participate sich beziehen auf refer to sich der dienste einer anderen bank bedient uses the services of another bank sich der mehrheit anschließen join the majority sich einem kartell anschließen join a cartel sich eines guten rufes erfreuen enjoy a good reputation sich einmischen interfere sich enthalten, sich zurückhalten abstain sich entschädigen recoup sich entschuldigen apologize sich ergebend aus ihrer nichtbefolgung arising from their failing sich erholen recover sich erneuernder kredit revolving credit sich erreignen occur sich etablieren, begründen establish sich frei nehmen take a day off sich für auslagen sofort zu erholen promptly to recover outlays sich hieraus ergebende kosten costs resulting from this sich hieraus ergebende verzögerungen delays resulting from this sich im geschäft niederlassen settle down in business sich ins nächste jahrhundert erstrecken to extend into the next century sich melden bei report to sich mit dokumenten befassen to deal in documents sich ändern vary sich schnell verkaufend fast-selling sich selbst erklärend self-explanatory sich spezialisieren auf specialize in sich um punkte verbessern gain points sich untereinander widersprechen to be inconsistent with one another sich unterscheiden, abweichen differ sich vergewissern ascertain sich verlassen auf rely on sich verpflichten commit sich verpflichten, jem. anstellen engage sich verrechnen miscalculate sich verschlechternde zahlungsbilanz deteriorating balance of payments sich zurückziehen, in pension gehen retire sicher safe sicher angelegt safely invested sicher aufbewahren keep in safe custody sicher, tresor safe sichere anlage safe investment sichere annahme safe assumption sichere aufbewahrung safekeeping sichere verwahrung safe custody sichere verwahrung safe keeping sicheres ereignis certain event sicherheit collateral sicherheit safety sicherheit security sicherheit anbieten offer guarantee sicherheit leisten provide security sicherheit stellen give security sicherheit stellen provide bail sicherheitsabstand, sicherheitsspanne safety margin sicherheitsanweisungen safety instructions sicherheitsbedingung safety condition sicherheitseinrichtungen safety installations sicherheitsfaktor safety factor sicherheitsfaktoren factors of safety sicherheitshypothek cautionary mortgage sicherheitsingenieur, sicherheitsbeauftragter safety engineer sicherheitsmaßnahmen safety precautions sicherheitsmaßnehmen, sicherkeitsvorkehrungen safety measures sicherheitsreserve contingency fund sicherheitsrücklage reserve for contingencies sicherheitstransportunternehmen security carrier company sicherheitsvorrichtungen safety appliances sicherheitsüberwachungsabteilung safety engineering department sichern, schützen, gewähr leisten safeguard sichern, sicherstellen secure sichern, sicherung, schutzmaßnahme safeguard sicherungsgeschäft hedge sicht sight sichtbar visible sichtbare exporte visible exports sichtbare importe visible imports sichtbarer teil des handels visible items of trade sichttratte sight bill sichttratte sight draft sichtwechsel bill on demand sichtwechsel cash order sichtwechsel sight bill sichtzahlung sight payment sie ziehen es vor die verfügungsgewalt zu haben they prefer to have control sie zögern they hesitate to do sth. sie übernehmen keine haftung they assume no liability sie übernehmen keine verantwortlichkeit they assume no responsibility siebentägige kündigungsfrist seven days' notice siegel seal siegel, dienstsiegel, amtssiegel official seal siegelwachs sealing wax silbermünzen silver coins silberstempel, feingehaltstempel hallmark simulieren simulate simulierung simulation sind viel benutzt worden have been widely used sind angehalten, sollen are to sind aufzunehmen in shall be incorporated into sind berechtigt zu shall be entitled to sind berechtigt, etwas zu tun are authorized to do sth. sind dahin auszulegen dass are to be construed as sind freizugeben are to be released sind für alle beteiligten bindend are binding on all parties sind für alle parteien verbindlich are binding upon all parties sind nicht verpflichtet zu have no obligation to sind wahrscheinlich are likely to sinken ease off sinken der preise decline in prices sinnestäuschung mental delusion situation, lage situation sitz der firma, gesellschaftssitz place of business sitzen sit sitzstreik sit-down strike sitzung, beratung session sitzungszimmer des aufsichtsrats boardroom slogan, spruch, werbespruch slogan so bald wie möglich as soon as practicable so genau wie möglich as accurately as possible sockel socket sofern das akkreditiv nicht zulässt unless the credit allows sofern der auftrag nicht ausdrücklich angibt unless the order expressly states sofern die dokumente vorgelegt werden provided that the documents are presented sofern dies der auftrag nicht gestattet unless the order so authorizes sofern dies nicht ausdrücklich zugelassen unless specifically authorized sofern es nicht aus dem dokument hervorgeht unless it appears from the document sofern keine andere weisung erteilt ist unless otherwise instructed sofern nicht anders vorgeschrieben unless otherwise stipulated sofern nicht anderweitig vereinbart unless otherwise agreed sofern nicht ausdrücklich anders vereinbart unless otherwise expressly agreed sofern nicht im widerspruch mit unless contrary to sofort immediate sofort beginnende rente immediate annuity sofort lieferbar und sofort zahlbar spot sofort und auf der stelle then and there sofort verfügbar immediately available sofortig immediately sofortig instant sofortig, umgehend promptly sofortige barzahlung bei kaufabschluß spot cash sofortige lieferung immediate delivery sofortiger tod instantaneous death solawechsel promissory note solawechsel sole bill solche wechsel zu akzeptieren to accept such bills of exchange solche wechsel zu negoziieren to negotiate such bills of exchange solche wechsel zu zahlen to pay such bills of exchange solidarbürgschaft joint security solidarische bürgschaft joint surety solidarische haftung, gemeinbürgschaft joint guarantee soll debit side soll als ... angesehen werden shall be deemed to be ... soll angemessen zeit haben shall have a reasonable time soll eindeutig angeben, dass should clearly indicate that soll mit angemessener sorgfalt prüfen shall take reasonable care to check soll und haben debit and credit soll versuchen den grund festzustellen should endeavor to ascertain the reasons sollbestand calculated assets sollen die anschrift tragen, enthalten should bear the address sollen eindeutig angeben should clearly indicate sollte klar und vollständig angeben should clearly and fully indicate sollte spezielle weisungen enthalten should give specific instructions sollten jedem versuch entgegentreten should discourage any attempt to sollten nicht direkt versandt werden should not be dispatched direct sollten nicht versandt werden an should not be consigned to sollzinsen debit interest sollzinsen interest earned sollzinsen interest on debit balances sämtliche meldungen oder nachrichten all advice or information sonderangebot exceptional offer sonderaufgabe specific function sonderausstattung optional equipment sonderpreis exceptional price sonderrechtsklausel liberties clause sondervergütung bonus sonstige irrtümer, die sich ergeben bei other errors arising in sonstige strittige punkte other matters in difference sorgen, sorge care sorgfalt walten lassen to exercise care sorglos, unachtsam careless sorgsam, sorgfältig careful sorte grade sorten foreign notes and coins sortenabteilung foreign money department sortieren assort sortiert, gemischt assorted sortiment assortment säumig defaulting säumiger defaulter säumiger zahler defaulter sowohl ... als auch both ... and sowohl ... und both ... and sozial social sozialarbeit welfare work sozialarbeiter welfare worker soziale dienste social services sozialismus socialism sozialist socialist sozialleistungen employee benefits sozialprodukt national product sozialversicherung social insurance sozialversicherung social security sozialversicherung (br.) national insurance sozialversicherung (br.) national security sozialversicherungsbeitrag social insurance contribution sozialversicherungsbeiträge national insurance contributions sozialversicherungsgesetz national insurance act sozialversicherungsgesetz (br.) national insurance act sozialversicherungskarte national insurance card sozialversicherungskarte (br.) national insurance card sozialversicherungskarte (us) social security card sozialversicherungsleistungen social insurance benefits sozialversicherungsträger social insurance carrier sozusagen quasi spalte column spalten split spanne margin spanne, marge margin spar- und darlehnkasse savings and loan association sparbriefe savings bonds sparbuch pass book sparbuch savings book sparbucheinlage bank deposit sparbüchse money box spareinlage saving deposit spareinlagen savings deposits spareinlagenbuch (us) passbook spareinlagenzuwachs growth of saving deposits sparen save sparen saving sparer depositor sparer saver sparförderung savings promotion sparkasse penny bank sparkasse providend bank sparkasse savings bank sparkasse trustee savings bank sparkasse auf gegenseitigkeit (br.) trustee savings bank sparkassenabteilung savings department sparkassenwesen savings banking sparkonto deposit account sparkonto savings account sparkonto, einlagenkonto deposit account sparpfennig nest-egg sparquote saving ratio sparsam thrifty sparsam, wirtschaftlich economical sparsamkeit thrift sparsamkeit thriftiness sparverein provident society spediteur forwarding agent spediteur freight forwarder spekulant adventurer spekulant gambler spekulant speculator spekulant auf gelegenheiten bargain hunter spekulation gambling spekulation speculation spekulatives kaufen speculative buying spekulatives risiko speculative risk spekulieren speculate spekulieren, spielen gamble spende donation sperre der auszahlungen stoppage of payments sperrgebiet prohibited zone sperrkonto blocked account spesen expense spesen eingeschlossen charges included spesenabrechnung note of expenses spesenkonto expense account spesenrechnung bill of costs spesenrechnung bill of expenses spezialgerät special equipment spezialisieren specialize spezialisiert specialized spezialisierung specialization spezialkenntnisse special knowledge speziell, besonders special spezielle probleme specific problems spezielle schadensversicherung specific insurance sphäre, kreis sphere spiel, glücksspiel, spielen gamble spielen game-playing spieler, spekulant gambler spielhölle gambling house spielschuld gambling debt spielschuld gaming debt spitzenverdienst top salary sponsor, gönner sponsor spontan spontaneous sportbootversicherung small craft insurance spätestens vom at the latest from spottpreis knocked-down price spottpreis, locopreis spot price sprachen lernen study languages sprinkleranlage sprinkler installation sprung nach vorn jump ahead sprunghafter anstieg jump sprunghaftes auf und ab der kurse pyrotechnics spur track spurweite gauge staatlich unterstützt grant-aided staatlich, staatsangehöriger national staatliche aufsicht government supervision staatliche aufsicht state supervision staatliche fürsorge national assistance staatliche versicherung state insurance staatlicher gesundheitsdienst national health service staatlicher gesundheitsdienst (br.) national health service staatlicher kontrolleur (br) (alte form) comptroller staatsanleihe government bond staatsanleihe government securities staatsanleihe state bond staatsanleihen state securities staatseinnahmen public revenue staatsobligationen (br.) gilt-edged stock staatsobligationen (br.) gilts stabil stable stabile währung stable money stabilisieren stabilize stabilisierung stabilization stabilität stability stadt london city of london stadterneuerung urban renewal stadtgebiet urban area stadtgrenzen city limits stadtplaner city planner staffelung differentiation stagflation stagflation stagnation stagnation stagnierend stagnant stahlkammer safe vault stahlkammer strong-room stahlkammer vault stammaktie ordinary share stammaktien common shares stammaktien common stock stammaktien common stocks stammaktien ordinaries stammaktien erstklassiger firmen blue chips stammaktienzertifikat stock certificate stammaktionär ordinary shareholder stammeinlage primary deposit stammkunde patron stammkunde, eingeschriebener kunde registered customer stammkundschaft patronage stand der dinge stage of affairs stand, messestand stand stand, messestand, verkaufsstand stall stand-by letter of credit stand-by credit standard standard standard der ausführung standard performance standardabweichung standard deviation standardartikel standardized product standardisieren standardize standardisierung standardization standardwerte barometer stocks standort location standpunkt point of view standpunkt standpoint stapelware staple goods stark angeboten freely offered stark favorisierte aktien high flyers starke nachfrage keen demand starkes anziehen der preise strong rise of prices statisch static statistische tabelle statistical table statistik statistics statistiker statistician statistisch statistical statistische aufstellung statistical table statistische aufzeichnungen statistical records status status statuten der gesellschaft (br.) articles of association statuten des gesellschaft (us) articles of corporation stehen für jegliche vereinbarung mean any arrangement steigen rise steigen der aktien rise of shares steigen der kosten rise in costs steigende aktien advancing stocks steigendes risiko increasing risk steiler anstieg rocket steiler anstieg steep rise stellagegeschäft put and call stellenangebot vacancy stellenbewerbung application for a job stelleninhaber holder of a position stellvertretender vorsitzender vice-chairman stellvertreter, stellvertretung proxy stempelmarke revenue stamp stempelsteuer stamp duty stenotypistin, schreibdame, schreiber typist stentypistin shorthand typist sterbegeld death benefit sterbegeld death grant sterbegeld funeral benefit sterbegeldversicherung funeral costs insurance sterbegeldversicherung funeral expense insurance sterberegister register of deaths sterberisiko mortality risk sterbeurkunde death certificate sterblichkeit death rate sterblichkeit mortality sterblichkeitsgewinn mortality gain sterblichkeitsstruktur pattern of mortality sterblichkeitstabelle mortality table sterblichkeitstafel mortality table sterblichkeitsverlust mortality loss sterblichkeitsziffer mortality rate sterling gebiet sterling area sterling silber sterling steuer tax steuer erheben raise a tax steuer, abgabe levy steuerabzug tax deduction steueraufkommen national revenue steuerbefreiung tax exemption steuerberater tax advisor steuerbestimmungen tax regulations steuereinkommen, einkünfte des staates revenue steuereinnahmen inland revenue steuereinnehmer tax collector steuererklärung tax return steuererleichterung tax relief steuerermäßigung relief steuerflucht tax evasion steuerfrei free of tax steuerfrei non assessable steuerfreibetrag, steuernachlass tax allowance steuerhinterzieher tax dodger steuerhinterziehung tax avoidance steuerjahr tax year steuerkasse tax collector's office steuerklasse tax class steuerlast tax burden steuerparadies tax haven steuerpolitik fiscal policy steuerprivileg, steuervergünstigung tax privilege steuersatz rate of taxes steuersenkung tax cutting steuertabelle tax table steuerumgehung evasion of taxes steuerveranlagung tax assessment steuerwohnsitz fiscal domicile steuerzahler taxpayer steuerzuschlag surtax stichhaltiges argument valid argument stichprobe random sampling stichprobenentnahme sampling stichtag key date stichtag test day stiften endow stiftung endowment stiftung, grundlage foundation still silent stille reserve inner reserve stille reserven hidden assets stille reserven hidden reserves stille reserven secret reserves stiller teilhaber dormant partner stiller teilhaber silent partner stiller teilhaber sleeping partner stillschweigend tacit stillschweigend übereinstimmen agree tacitly stillschweigende billigung tacit approval stillschweigende vereinbarung tacit agreement stillschweigende zustimmung silent consent stillschweigende zustimmung tacit consent stillschweigende Übereinkunft tacit consent stillstand deadlock stillstand standstill stimmen, stimme vote stimmenabgabe casting of votes städtisch urban städtische verkehrsmittel city transportation städtische verordnung bye-law stornieren cancel stornierung eines auftrags withdrawal of an order stornierung, annullierung cancellation strafe penalty strafrechtlich haftbar criminally liable strahlenrisiken radiation hazards strahlungsrisiko nuclear radiation risk strandgut flotsam and jetsam strandgut jetsam strategisch strategic strategische planung strategic planning straßengebühr road charge straßenhändler, wandergewerbetreibender hawker straßenräuberei highway robbery streit, streiten quarrel streichen delete streichen, annullieren, stornieren cancel streik strike streikdrohung threat of strike streiken, streik strike streikgeld strike-pay streikklausel strikes clause streikposten picket streikrecht right to strike streitigkeit mit den gewerkschaftsvertretern labor dispute streng stringent streng genommen strictly speaking streng verboten strictly forbidden streng vertraulich strictly confidential strenge stringency strenge prüfung acid test strikt strict strikt stringent strittig disputable strittige angelegenheit matter in dispute strittige frage question at issue strittige frage question in dispute strittiger punkt question at issue strohmann nominee stromlinie streamline struktur structure strukturveränderungen structural changes studie, untersuchung study studiengang, lehrgang course of studies stufe, schritt step stunde hour stundenleistung hourly output stundenleistung output per man-hour stundenlohn, stundensatz hourly rate stundungsgesuch request for respite sturmversicherung tornado insurance sturmversicherung windstorm insurance störanfällig accident sensitive stück piece stück, masse lump stückarbeit, stücklohn piece-work stückchen bit stückelung division into shares stückkosten unit cost stücklizenz quota license stückpreis unit price stückrechnung unit accounting stückzahl number of units stützen support stützung der währung backing of currency stützungskäufe pool support subjektiv subjective subjektiver schaden sentimental damage subjektiver wert subjective value subjektives risiko moral hazard subjektives risiko des versicherten moral hazard subsidiär haftbar liable in the second degree subskription subscription subskriptionsbedingungen, bezugsbedingungen terms of subscription subvention subsidy subvention, zuschuss subsidy subventionieren subsidize subventioniert subsidized suchbefehl search warrant suchen, suche search summe sum summenrabatt discount for large sums supermarkt supermarket swapgeschäft swap syndikat, verband syndicate synthetisch synthetic synthetische stoffe synthetics system framework system system system der ausbeutung der mieter rachmanism systematisch systematically systemorientierte betriebsführung management by system sühnemaßnahmen sanctions t t-konto t-account tabellarisieren tabularize tabelle table tabelle, tafel table tabellenform tabular form tabelliermaschine tabulating machine tagebuch diary tagebuch, terminkalender diary tagegeld daily allowance tageseinnahmen daily receipts tagesgeld daily allowance tagesgeld daily benefits tagesgeld day-to-day money tagesgeld demand loan tagesgeld money at call tagesgeld overnight loan tageskurs current quotation tageskurs current rate tageskurs day's rate tageskurs exchange of the day tageskurs quotation of the day tageskurs rate of the day tagesordnung agenda tagespreis current price tagesverdienst daily earnings tageszinsen daily interest talon talon tantiemen emoluments tarif tariff tarif festlegen make a tariff tariffestsetzung tariff making tarifierung rating tarifklasse wage bracket tarifpolitik tariff policy tarifprämie tariff rate tarifverhandlungen collective bargaining tasche pocket taschengeld pocket money tatsache fact tatsache matter of fact tatsachenfeststellung fact-finding tatsächliche kosten, gestehungskosten actual costs tatsächliche lage, stand der dinge actual state of affairs tatsächliche todesfälle actual deaths tatsächlicher betrag actual amount tatsächlicher gesamtschaden actual total loss tatsächlicher schaden actual loss tatsächlicher totalschaden actual total loss tatsächlicher verlust, tatsächlicher schaden actual loss tatsächlicher wert actual value tatsächlicher wert, wirklicher wert actual value tauschen, tausch swap tauschen, tauschhandel barter tauschmittel means of exchange tauschmittel medium of exchange tauschwert exchange value taxpolice valued policy team, arbeitsgruppe team teamwork, gruppenarbeit teamwork technisch technical technische ausdrücke technical terms technische bedingungen specifications technische einzelheiten, maßangaben specification technische gründe technical reasons technische schwierigkeiten technical difficulties technische stelle technical position technische unterstützung technical assistance technische Überprüfung technical check technischer leiter technical director technischer verlust technical loss technokratie technocracy technologie, verfahrenstechnik technology technologischer rückstand, abstand technological gap teepause tea break teil part teil des dukumentenbetrags part of the amount of the documents teil einer anleihe portion of a loan teilabtretung partial assignment teilbesitz part possession teilbetrag part teilbetrag partial amount teilen divide teilhaber member of a partnership teilhaberschaft mit beschränkter haftung limited partnership teilhaberversicherung business partnership insurance teilinanspruchnahmen partial drawings teilinvalidität partial disability teilinvalidität partial disablement teilnehmen participate teilnehmen an take an active part in teilnehmen, teilhaben participate teilnehmer participant teilschaden part damage teilschaden partial loss teilschaden, beschädigung partial damage teilschaden, teilverlust partial loss teilsendung partial shipment teilung, abteilung division teilverlust partial loss teilverschiffung partial shipment teilweise partial teilweise annahme von Änderungen partial acceptance of amendments teilweise bezahlt, nur zum teil bezahlt partly paid teilweise erfüllung des vertrags part performance teilweise, unvollständig, nur zum teil partial teilzahlung installment teilzahlung part payment teilzahlung partial payment teilzahlung payment in part teilzahlung, abschlagszahlung payment on account teilzahlungen installments teilzahlungen partial payments teilzahlungen werden angenommen partial payments will be accepted teilzahlungsplan installment plan teilzeitbeschäftigung part-time employment telefonteilnehmer telephone subscriber telegrafische anweisung cable money telegrafische anweisung telegraphic money telegrafische Überweisung cable transfer telegrafie telegraphy telegrafisch telegraphic telegrafische geldüberweisung cable transfer telegrafische Überweisung telegraphic transfer telefon phone telefon telephone telefonvermittlung telephone exchange telex, fernschreiben, fernschreiber telex tendenz drift tendenz tendency tendenz, trend trend tendieren tend termin für die zahlung date of payment termindollar forward dollar termingeschäft forward transaction termingeschäft future delivery termingeschäfte futures terminhandel futures trading terminkalender date book terminkalender diary terminkauf sale for future delivery terminkäufe forward purchases terminkäufe forward sales terminkäufer forward buyer terminkurs, kurs für termingeschäfte forward rate terminmarkt forward market terminmarkt market for futures terminnotierungen quotations for futures terminnotierungen bei warenlieferungen quotations for forward delivery terminpreis forward price terminspekulation speculation in futures terminverkäufer forward seller terminüberwachung follow-up of orders territoriale gewässer, hoheitsgewässer territorial waters testament last will testament testament testamentarisch testamentary testamentsvollstrecker administrator testamentsvollstrecker executor testen, test test teuer expensive teuer, aufwendig expensive teuerung dearness teuerungszulage cost of living bonus teure gelder, bei hohem zinssatz dear money teures geld, teurer kredit dear money textilien soft goods thema, gegenstand topic theoretisch theoretical theorie theory theorie der großen stichproben theory of large samples tief, tiefsstand low tiefstand low level tierversicherung, viehversicherung livestock insurance tilgbar subject to redemption tilgen amortize tilgung amortization tilgung einer anleihe redemption of a loan tilgung einer hypothek amortization of a mortgage tilgung einer hypothek paying off a mortgage tilgung einer hypothek satisfaction of a mortgage tilgung einer schuld satisfaction of a debt tilgung eines darlehens loan redemption tilgungsart method of amortization tilgungsfonds sinking-fund tilgungsleistung amortization payment tilgungsrate rate of redemption tilgungsrate rate of repayment tilgungsrücklage reserve for redemption tip, wink hint titel des haushaltsplanes item of the budget tochtergesellschaft subsidiary tochtergesellschaft subsidiary company todesfallrisiko death risk todesfallversicherung whole life insurance todesnachweis proof of death todestag day of death todesursache cause of death täglich daily täglich kündbares geld money at call toleranz von % mehr ist statthaft a tolerance of % more will be permissible toleranz von % weniger ist statthaft a tolerance of % less will be permissible tonbandgerät tape-recorder tonnage tonnage tonne ton tortengraphik, kuchengraphik pie-chart totalausverkauf clearance sale totalschaden, totalverlust total loss totalverlust total loss totalverlust, totalschaden total loss totenschein, sterbeurkunde death certificate totes kapital capital unemployed totes kapital idle capital totes konto nominal account tätig sein, betätigen operate tätigkeitsbewertung job evaluation tätigkeitseinstufung labour grade tätigkeitskategorie job classification täuschen deceive täuschend deceptive täuschend, betrügerisch deceitful täuschend, betrügerisch deceptive täuschung deceit täuschungsabsicht fraudulent intent tragen carry tragen, abnutzen wear tragfähigkeit loading capacity tragweite einer verpflichtung scope of an engagement trampschiff tramp steamer transferbeschränkungen restrictions on transfers transit transit transitorisches aktivum deferred charges to expense transitorisches passivum deferred charges to income transitverlust, transportschaden loss in transit transport transportation transportbedingungen terms of conveyance transportgewerbe, transportunternehmen carrying business transportgüter goods in transit transportieren, transport transport transportkosten cost of carriage transportkosten transportation costs transportkosten, beförderung carriage transportmittel means of transport transportrisiko peril of transportation transportrisiko risk of transport transportrisiko transportation risk transporttechnik transport technology transportunternehmen forwarder transportunternehmer common carrier transportversicherung goods in transit insurance transportversicherung insurance of goods in transit transportversicherung transit insurance transportversicherung transport insurance tratte draft tratten akzeptieren to accept drafts treffen meet treibgut flotsam trendanalyse analysis of trends trendänderung, umschwung change of tendency trennungsgeld severance pay tresorfach safe deposit box tresorfachversicherung safe deposit box insurance tresorraum strong room treten in kraft come into force treten in kraft am enter into force as from tretmühle sweat-mill treu und glauben des absenders the good faith of the consignor treuhandquittung trust receipt treuhandvertrag deed of trust treuhänder fiduciary treuhänder trustee treuhänderisch fiduciary treuhänderische einlagen trust deposits treuhänderische geschäfte fiduciary operations treulos unfaithful trinkgeld tip trocken halten, trocken aufbewahren keep dry träger means träger eines risikos bearer of a risk trägt alle verpflichtungen shall be bound by all obligations tropenkrankheit tropical disease typ, auf maschine schreiben type typistin, schreibkraft copy typist tödlicher unfall fatal accident u Überbewertung overvaluation Überbringer, inhaber bearer Überbringerscheck bearer check Überbringerscheck check to bearer Überbrückungsdarlehen bridging loan Überbrückungskredit interim loan Überbrückungskredit stop-gap loan Überbrückungszeitraum transitory period Übereignungsurkunde bill of sale Übereinkommen accord Übereinkommen mutual consent Übereinkommen, verständigung understanding Übereinstimmung accord Übereinstimmung accordance Übereinstimmung conformity Überentschädigung overcompensation Überfall, überfallen raid Überfluss abundance Überflussgesellschaft affluent society Übergabe, aushändigung handing over Übergangsposten deferred item Übergangsregelung temporary regulation Übergangsregelung transitional arrangement Übergewicht excess of weight Übergewicht overweight Übergewicht surplus weight Überkapazität excess capacity Überlassung cession Überlebender survivor Überlegung, gegenleistung consideration Übermaß excess Übernachfrage exaggerated demand Übernahme der ware taking in charge of the goods Übernahme einer effektenemission underwriting Übernahme einer haftung assumption of a liability Übernahme einer schuld assumption of a debt Übernahme einer schuld assumption of an obligation Übernahme eines risikos assumption of a risk Übernahme zu hoher verpflichtungen over-commitment Übernahmeangebot takeover bid Übernahmegebot takeover bid Übernahmepreis takeover price Übernahmevertrag takeover agreement Überproduktion overproduction Überprüfung der gesundheit health examination Überprüfung, untersuchung examination Überraschung surprise Überschlagen eines fahrzeugs overturning of a vehicle Überschrift caption Überschuldung excessive indebtedness Überschuldung liabilities exceeding the assets Überschuldung overextension Überschuss excess Überschuss surplus Überschuss, rücklage surplus funds Überschwemmungsversicherung flood insurance Übersee, (br.) ausland overseas Übersender remitter Übersendung transmission Übersendung, Überweisung remittance Übersetzer translator Übersetzung translation Übersetzungsbüro translation bureau Überstunden overtime Überstunden machen work overtime Übertrag carry-over Übertragbarkeit, begebbarkeit negotiability Übertragung durch aushändigung transfer by delivery Übertragung durch indossament transfer by endorsement Übertragung einer aktie transfer of a share Übertragung einer vollmacht delegation Übertragung mittels urkunde transfer by deed Übertragung von aktien assignment of shares Übertragung von vermögen conveyance of property Übertragungsurkunde deed of conveyance Übertreibung exaggeration Überversicherung double insurance Überversicherung excess insurance Überversicherung over-insurance Überversicherung over-insurance Überwachung supervision Überwachungsfunktion police function Überwachungsstelle supervisory board Überweisung credit transfer Überweisung remittance Überweisung auf ein konto transfer into an account Überweisung des betrags remittance for the amount payable Überweisung eines guthabens credit transfer Überweisung, Übertragung transfer Überweisungsauftrag order for remittance Überzahlung excess payment Überzahlung overpayment Überzahlung payment in excess Überzeichnung over-subscription Übung, gewohnheit practice öffentlich public öffentliche anleihe public loan öffentliche aufsicht, staatliche kontrolle state control öffentliche ausgaben zur belebung des handels deficit spending öffentliche ausschreibung, kostenvoranschlag tender öffentliche meinung public opinion öffentliche mittel public funds öffentliche schulden public debts öffentliche verschuldung public debt öffentlicher dienst, staatsdienst civil service örtliche bedingungen local terms örtliche zweigstelle local branch örtlicher handelsbrauch local custom überfluten, überschwemmen overflow über bord geworfene ladung, strandgut jetsam über bord werfen jettison über dem nennwert above par über den schalter, am schalter over the counter über durchschnitt, überdurchschnittlich above average über einen solch langen zeitraum over such a long period über nennwert at a premium über pari above par über wert above value überbieten outbid überbringen bear überbrücken, brücke bridge übereinstimmen tally übereinstimmen mit correspond with übereinstimmen, vereinbaren agree übereinstimmend conformable überfällig overdue überfällige prämie premium overdue überfälliger scheck stale check überfüllter markt glut in the market übergeben hand over übergeben surrender übergeben, überlassen, aufgeben surrender überholt outdated überhöhter schadensersatz excessive damages überleben survive überlegen, vorgesetzter superior übermäßig excessive übermäßiger aufwand extravagant expenses übernehmen undertake übernehmen keine haftung assume no liability übernehmen keine verantwortung assume no responsibility übernehmen, sich verpflichten undertake überprüfen check überraschender gewinn, unerwarteter gewinn windfall profit überraschenderweise surprisingly überschreiten exceed überschreiten, übersteigen exceed überschuldet over-indebted überschüssig, Überschuss surplus überschüssige zahlungsmittel surplus currency überschüssiges material surplus material übersehen oversee übersenden consign übersenden transmit übersenden, überweisen remit übersetzen translate übertragbar negotiable übertragbar transferable übertragbar durch indossament transferable by endorsement übertragbar, abtretbar transferable übertragbar, begebbar negotiable übertragbares handelspapier, wertpapier negotiable instrument übertragen carried forward übertragen confer übertragen, vortragen carry forward übertragen, Übertragung transfer übertragende bank transferring bank übertreiben exaggerate überversichern over-insure überweisen, zahlen remit überweisen, übertragen transfer überbewerten overestimate überbewertete währung overvalued currency überwiegen outbalance überzeichnen oversubscribe überzeichnet oversubscribed überziehen overdraw überzogen overdrawn überzogener betrag amount overdrawn überzogenes konto overdrawn account überzogenes konto overextended account übliche abnutzung fair wear and tear übliche abzüge customary deductions übliche sorgfalt ordinary care üblicher marktpreis fair market value üblicher zinssatz conventional interest übrig bleiben remain uhr clock uhrenstechkarte clock card ultimogeld money for monthly clearance um akzeptierung zu erlangen to obtain acceptance um auskunft bitten request information um das akkredtiv anzeigen zu lassen to have the credit advised um handelspapiere auszuhändigen to deliver commercial documents um irrtümern vorzubeugen in order to guard against confusion um kunden werben, kundenwerbung canvass um missverständnissen vorzubeugen in order to guard against misunderstandings um sich zu vergewissern to ascertain um zahlung zu erlangen to obtain payment um zu in order to umbuchung eines betrages transfer of an amount umbuchung eines konteneintrags transfer of an entry umfang extent umfang der verkäufe volume of sales umfang der ausgaben volume of expenditures umfang der geschäfte volume of business umfang der versicherungen volume of insurances contracted umfang der vollmacht scope of authority umfang der warenvorräte volume of stocks umfang des außenhandels volume of foreign trade umfang des handels volume of trade umfang des marktes size of the market umfang, spielraum scope umfang, volumen volume umfassen, beinhalten, in sich einschließen comprise umfassend comprehensive umfassend extensive umfassende police comprehensive policy umfassende versicherung comprehensive insurance umgang mit material materials handling umgehend at your earliest convenience umgehungsstraße bypass umgekehrt reverse umherziehend ambulatory umkommen, zugrunde gehen perish umladen to transship umladung transshipment umlauf, zirkulation circulation umlaufsgeschwindigkeit velocity of circulation umlaufvermögen current assets umlaufvermögen working assets umlaufvermögen, betriebskapital floating capital umlaufzeit time of circulation umrechnungskurs exchange rate umrechnungskurs parity umrechnungskurs rate of exchange umriss outline umsatz turnover umsatz, umsatzvolumen volume of sales umsatzgeschwindigkeit rate of turnover umsatzhöhe amount of turnover umsatzloses konto inoperative account umsatzsteuer turnover tax umsatzvolumen volume of trade umsatzvoraussage business forecasting umsatzvoraussage sales forecast umschalten switch over to umschlag envelope umschlagen, umsetzen transact umschlagsgeschwindigkeit rate of turnover umschlagskapazität handling capacity umschulden convert a debt umschuldung conversion of a debt umsicht, behutsamkeit cautiousness umstand, sachlage circumstance umstellen reorganize umstände circumstances umstände außer unserer kontrolle circumstances beyond control umständehalber owing to circumstances umtausch von wertpapieren switching umtausch, wechsel exchange umtauschen exchange umtauschkosten cost of exchange umtauschsätze currency rates umverteilen redistribute umverteilung redistribution umverteilung des einkommens redistribution of income umwandelbar convertible umwandelbarkeit convertibility umwandeln, einlösen convert umwandlung conversion umwandlung einer anleihe conversion of a loan umwandlung von schulden conversion of debts umwandlungsdifferenz conversion difference umwandlungskurs conversion rate umziehen, entfernen, entlassen remove umzug, entfernung, entlassung removal umzugsgeld moving allowance umzugskosten removal expenses umzugsversicherung furniture-in-transit insurance un-kommission für internationales handelsrecht uncitral unabhängig independent unabhängigkeit independency unabänderlich unalterable unabwendbar, unvermeidlich, unvermeidbar inevitable unachtsamkeit carelessness unanfechtbar incontestable unangemessen unreasonable unangemessen, unzulänglich inadequate unangemessen, unzureichend inadequate unangemessenheit, unzulänglichkeit inadequacy unannehmbar unacceptable unauffindbar untraceable unausgesprochen unexpressed unbeabsichtigt unintentional unbeantwortet unanswered unbeaufsichtigt, unbeschränkt uncontrolled unbedacht unmindful unbedingte annahme general acceptance unbedingte anweisung unconditional order unbeglaubigt unauthenticated unbegrenzt unlimited unbegründet unfounded unbegründet, grundlos unfounded unbegründeter anspruch bad claim unbekannt unknown unbelastet unencumbered unbelastet unmortgaged unbenutzt unused unberechtigte forderung false claim unbeschädigt undamaged unbeschränkt absolute unbeschränkt open-end unbeschränkt unlimited unbeschränkt haftbar liable without limitation unbeschränkt haftender partner general partner unbeschränkte haftung unlimited liability unbeschränkter eigentümer absolute owner unbeschränkter kredit unlimited credit unbestimmt indefinite unbestimmt unascertained unbeständig unstable unbeständig unsteady unbeständigkeit unsteadiness unbestätigt unconfirmed unbestätigtes akkreditiv unconfirmed letter of credit unbestritten uncontradicted unbeweglich immovable unbezahlbar priceless unbezahlbar unpayable unbezahlt unpaid unbillige härte undue hardship und/oder and/or undatiert undated unechter ersatzanspruch fictitious claim uneinbringlich irrecoverable uneinbringlich uncollectible uneinbringlich verloren past recovery uneinbringliche forderung irrecoverable debt uneinbringliche forderungen bad debts uneinbringliche forderungen irrecoverable debts uneingeschränkter freier wettbewerb perfect competition uneingeschränktes akzept clean acceptance uneinheitlich irregular unelastisch inelastic unelastische nachfrage inelastic demand unelastisches angebot inelastic supply unentgeltlich gratuitous unentschuldigtes fernbleiben absenteeism unentwickelt undeveloped unerlaubte geschäfte illicit dealing unerlaubte geschäfte von börsenmitgliedern insider dealings unerlaubter skontoabzug unearned discount unerledigt outstanding unerledigt lassen, nicht tun fail unerlässlich indispensable unersetzlicher verlust irrecoverable loss unerwartet unexpected unerwarteter großer gewinn bonanza unfall accident unfall durch ermüdung fatigue accident unfall, unfallopfer casualty unfallanzeige notice of accident unfallentschädigung accident indemnity unfallhaftpflichtversicherung third-party insurance unfallrente accident benefit unfallrisiko accident hazard unfallrisiko accident risk unfallsentschädigung compensation for an accident unfallstatistik accident statistics unfallverhütung accident prevention unfallvermeidung accident avoidance unfallversicherung accident insurance unfallversicherung casualty insurance unfallversicherung compensation insurance unfallversicherung (us) casualty insurance unfallversicherungsgesellschaft casualty company unfallzusatzversicherung (verdoppelt wert) double-indemnity clause unfähigkeit unability unfrei, frachtkosten per nachnahme carriage forward ungebührlicher einfluss undue influence ungedeckt uncovered ungedeckter kredit uncovered credit ungedeckter scheck uncovered cheque ungedeckter scheck, geplatzter scheck bounced cheque ungeeignet unfit ungeeignet unqualified ungeeignet, untauglich unqualified ungefähre zahl round figure ungelernter arbeiter common laborer ungemünzt uncoined ungenaue ausdrücke imprecise terms ungenutzt, stilliegend idle ungenutzte kapazität spare capacity ungenutztes geld idle money ungerade zahlen odd numbers ungerade, gelegentlich odd ungerade, ungewohnt odd ungerechtfertigt unjustified ungeschickt, nicht ausgebildet unskilled ungesetzlich, illegal illegal ungesetzlicher streik, spontaner streik (us) quickie strike ungesichert unsecured ungesicherte obligation naked debenture ungesicherte obligationen plain bonds ungesicherte verbindlichkeiten unsecured liabilities ungesichertes darlehen unsecured loan ungewiss dubious ungewiss, unberechenbar incalculable ungewöhnlich hoher, ausbeuterischer pacht rack rent ungleich uneven ungleichheit disparity ungültigkeit nullity ungünstig unfavorable ungünstige, passive handelsbilanz unfavorable balance of trade ungünstige, passive zahlungsbilanz unfavorable balance of payments unklare weisungen unclear instructions unkontrolliert uncontrolled unkostenaufstellung cost account unkündbar non-redeemable unkündbar not subject to call unkündbares darlehen uncallable loan unkündbares kapital capital not to be withdrawn unlauter unfair unlautere handlungen unfair practices unlautere methoden unfair practices unlauteres unternehmen racket unmittelbar. sofort immediate unmittelbare folge immediate consequence unmittelbarer schaden direct loss unmöbliertes zimmer unfurnished room unmöglichkeit der erfüllung impossibility of performance unpassend unsuitable unredlich dishonorable unregelmäßig irregular unregelmäßige zahlungen irregular payments unregelmäßigkeit irregularity unrentabel gainless unrentabel unprofitable unrentabel unremunerative unrichtig incorrect unrichtige angabe false pretence unrichtigkeit incorrectness unruhe riot unschädlich, ohne nachteil harmless unsicher uncertain unsicher unsettled unsichere kapitalanlage insecure investment unsicheres ereignis uncertain event unsichtbar invisible unsichtbare ausfuhren invisible exports unsichtbare einfuhren invisible imports unsichtbare exporte invisible exports unsichtbare hand invisible hand unsichtbare handelsgüter invisible items of trade unsichtbare handelsgüter invisibles unsichtbare posten invisibles unsichtbare transaktionen invisible transactions unstimmigkeit discrepancy untauglich unfit untauglich, uneingeschränkt unqualified unten definierte dokumente documents as defined below unter anderen bedingungen on other terms and conditions unter anderen bedingungen upon other terms unter ausschluss von havarie free from average unter dem tageskurs under today's quotation unter der linie, unter dem strich bellow the line unter diesen beschränkungen subject to these limitations unter diesen umständen under the circumstances unter eid on oath unter eine kategorie fallen fall in a category unter einhaltung einer frist von tagen subject to a term of days unter irgendeiner bestimmung dieses artikels under any provision of this article unter nennwert below par unter tarif bezahlen pay below tariff unter vorbehalt akzeptieren to accept under reserve unter vorbehalt negoziieren to negotiate under reserve unter vorbehalt zahlen to pay under reserve unter wert below value unter wert ansetzen under price unter üblichem vorbehalt under usual reserve unterabteilung subdivision unterbelegt, nicht genug arbeitskräfte under staffed unterbeschäftigt under employed unterbevölkert under populated unterbewerten under rate unterbewerten under value unterbewertet, unter tarif under rated unterbewertet under rated unterbewertung under valuation unterbezahlen under pay unterbezahlt under paid unterbieten under cut unterbieten under sell unterbietung under selling unterbrechen discontinue unterbrechen interrupt unterbrechung discontinuance unterbrechung interruption unterbrechung der geschäftstätigkeit interruption of business unterbrechung der geschäftstätigkeit interruption of the business unterbrechung durch höhere gewalt interruption by acts of god unterbrechung, einstellung discontinuation unterbreiten, vorlegen submit unterbringen, entgegenkommen accommodate unterbringung bei einer bank bank accommodation unterbrochen, eingestellt discontinued unterdrückung suppression untere paritätsgrenze lower limit of parity unterentwickeltes gebiet underdeveloped area unterentwickeltes land underdeveloped country untergegangene sachen, verlorene sachen goods destroyed untergeordnet ancillary untergewicht short weight untergewicht under weight unterhalt, lebensunterhalt living unterhalt, lebensunterhalt maintenance unterhalt, lebensunterhalt, versorgung maintenance unterhaltsklage action for support unterhaltungskosten cost of maintenance unterhaltungskosten maintenance costs unterhaltungskosten maintenance expenses unterlassen leave something undone unterlassung einer mitteilung non-disclosure unterlieferant sub-contractor unterliegen be liable to untermieter lodger unternehmen establishment unternehmen nur mit gewerkschaftsangehörigen union shop unternehmen, unternehmung enterprise unternehmen, verpflichtung undertaking unternehmensform form of enterprise unternehmensform type of enterprise unternehmensgruppe group of companies unternehmensleiter, geschäftsführer manager unternehmensleitung management unternehmensleitung top management unternehmenslustig enterprising unternehmer entrepreneur unternehmer, bauunternehmer contractor unternehmerisches risiko business hazard unternehmerlohn employer's salary unternehmertätigkeit entrepreneurial activity unterposten sub-item unterprivilegiert underprivileged unterschied difference unterschätzen underestimate unterschreiben undersign unterschreiben underwrite unterschrieben oder mit handzeichen versehen signed or initialed unterschrift signature unterschriftenkarte signature card unterschriftenprobe specimen signature unterschriftenverzeichnis list of authorized signatures unterschriftsbeglaubigung confirmation of signature unterschriftsberechtigung authority to sign unterschriftsberechtigung power to sign unterschriftsprobe specimen signature unterschwellig subliminal unterschwellige werbung subliminal advertising unterstreichen underline unterstützen, unterstützung support unterstützung backing unterstützung benefit unterstützung support unterstützung aller beteiligten assistance to all parties untersuchen check untersuchung fact-finding untersuchung investigation untersuchung der büroeffizienz organization and methods untersuchung der lebenshaltungskosten family expenditure survey untersuchung, umfrage survey untersuchungsausschuß board of inquiry unterteilung sub-division unterteilung in zonen zoning untertreibung understatement unterverpachten, untervermieten underlet unterversichern underinsure unterversichert underinsured unterversicherung underinsurance untervertreter sub-agent unterwerfen, untertan subject untätig, flau inactive unumstößlich unalterable ununterbrochen uninterrupted ununterrichtet uninformed unverbindlich without responsibility unverbindlich non-committal unverbindliches angebot offer without engagement unverbindliches indossament qualified endorsement unverbrauchte prämie unearned premium unverbürgt unauthenticated unverderbliche güter durable commodities unvereinbar mit inconsistent with unverfallbarkeit non-forfeiture unverfälscht unaltered unvergleichlich unmatched unverheiratet unmarried unverkäuflich unmerchantable unverkäuflich unsaleable unvermeidbares ereignis inevitable event unvermeidlich inevitable unvermeidlich unavoidable unvermeidlicher unfall inevitable accident unvermögen inability unveränderlicher markt pegged market unverändert unchanged unverpackt, lose loose unverpfändet unpledged unverschämt unreasonable unverschuldet unindebted unverschuldet without one's fault unversicherbar uninsurable unverteilte gewinne, nicht ausgeschüttete undistributed profits unverteilter reingewinn unappropriated earnings unverteilter reingewinn unappropriated profits unverzinslich bearing no interest unverzinsliche werte non-interest bearing securities unverzüglich without delay unvollkommen imperfect unvollständig unterzeichnet incompletely signed unvollständige anweisungen incomplete instructions unvollständige konkurrenz imperfect competition unvollständige verschiffung short shipment unvollständiger scheck inchoate check unvorhergesehen unforesee unvorhergesehen unforeseen unvorhergesehene ausgaben incidentals unvorteilhaft unprofitable unwesentlich unessential unwichtig unimportant unwiderruflich irrevocable unwirksam effectless unwirtschaftlich uneconomic unwissend ignorant unwissenheit ignorance unzeitgemäß out of time unzureichend versichert inadequately insured unzuverlässig unreliable urheberrecht copyright urkunde deed urkunde fälschen tamper urkunde, notarielle urkunde deed urkunden fälschen forge urkundenfälscher forger urkundenfälschung forging urlaub, ferien (us) vacation urlaubsgeld vacation allowance urlaubsgeld vacation money urlaubszulage holiday pay ursache eines schadens cause of a loss ursache, verursachung, verursachen cause ursprungsland country of origin ursprungsort place of origin ursprungszeugnis certificate of origin urteil judgment urteil, richterliche entscheidung judgment utopisch utopian v valorenversicherung insurance of specie in transit valuta availability date valuta interest date valuta value date vandalismus, mutwillige beschädigung vandalism variabel variable variable kosten running costs variable kosten variable costs variabler zins variable interest rate varieren vary verabredung appointment veraltert obsolete veraltert, unmodisch obsolete veralterung der lagerbestände, veralten obsolescence of stock veralterung eines gebrauchsgegenstandes obsolescence veraltet, datiert out of date veranlagen assess veranlagung assessment veranlagungsjahr year of assessment verantwortlich liable verantwortlich responsible verantwortlich für alle folgen responsible for any consequences verantwortlich für deren akzeptierung responsible for their acceptance verantwortlich für deren zahlung responsible for their payment verantwortlich für die festlegung responsible for stipulating verantwortlich machen, haftbar machen hold responsible verantwortlichkeit responsibilities verantwortlichkeit für die folgen responsibility for the consequences verantwortlichkeit, haftung liability verantwortung responsibility verantwortung für die folgen responsibility for the consequences verantwortungsbereich field of responsibility verarbeitung von aufgabensätzen (edv) batch processing verarbeitungskosten conversion cost verband federation verband der rechtsanwälte law society verbannen, verbot ban verbessern amend verbesserung amendment verbesserung betterment verbesserung der liquidität liquidity improvement verbesserung der situation improvement verbilligt, herabgesetzt at a discount verbinden connect verbinden, konzern combine verbindlich binding verbindlichkeiten eingehen enter into engagements verbindlichkeiten übernehmen take over liabilities verbindung connection verbindung, verbindungsglied link verbleiben remain verborgener fehler latent defect verbrauch consumption verbrauchen, konsumieren consume verbraucher consumer verbraucherkredit consumer credit verbraucherpreisindex consumer price index verbrauchsgüter consumer goods verbrauchsgüter convenience goods verbrauchsgüterindustrie consumer industry verbrauchssteuer consumption tax verbrauchssteuer excise tax verbrauchte prämie earned premium verbreiterung des kombinierten transports the extension of combined transport verbuchen enter in the books verbuchung booking verbunden joint verbundene versicherung comprehensive insurance verdammen condemn verdeckter schaden hidden damage verderblich perishable verderbliche güter perishable products verdienen earn verdienen, einbringen earn verdiener earner verdienst gainings verdienst merit verdienstausfall loss of earnings verdienstspanne des jobbers the jobber's turn verdienstspanne des jobbers turn of the jobber verdrehen, rechtsverdrehung tort veredelung finishing veredelungsverfahren finishing process vereidigt sworn vereinbarter wert agreed value vereinbarung agreement vereinbarung mit der gewerkschaft joint agreement vereinbarungen für die kreditaufnahme borrowing arrangements vereinigen, konsolidieren consolidate vereinigte ressourcen combined resources vereinigung union vereinte nationen united nations vererben bequest verfahren technique verfahrensstudie method study verfall expiration verfalldatum expiry date verfallen expired verfallen forfeit verfallen, hinfällig werden, ablaufen lapse verfallen, ungültig werden, auslaufen expire verfallene police lapsed policy verfallene wertpapiere obsolete securities verfallszeit time of maturity verfalltag date of expiration verfalltag date of maturity verfalltag expiration date verfalltag expiry date verfechter der schutzzölle protectionist verfälschung eines dokuments falsification of a document verfrachtung mit container containerization verfügbar available verfügbar machen make available verfügbar zur verwendung available for disposal verfügbare gelder floating money verfügbare mittel available funds verfügbare mittel funds at disposal verfügbare persönliche einkommen disposable personal income verfügbare ware goods on hand verfügbarkeit availability verfügen, verkaufen dispose verfügung disposal verfügungsgewalt power of disposition verfügungsgewalt über die ware control over the goods vergehen offence vergeudung des guten ansehens waste of goodwill vergleich comparison vergleich compromise vergleich mutual agreement vergleichbar comparable vergleichbar mit comparable with vergleichen compare vergleichsbasis basis of comparison vergleichsweise comparative vergnügen amusement vergnügungssteuer amusement tax vergnügungssteuer entertainment tax vergriffen out of print vergrößern enlarge vergrößerung enlargement vergüten refund vergüten reimburse vergüten remunerate verhaltensstruktur behavior pattern verhandeln bargaining verhandeln, weiterbegeben, girieren negotiate verhandlung negotiation verhandlungsführer negotiator verheimlichen, verschweigen conceal verheimlichung, verschweigen concealment verhindern, verbieten prohibit verhinderung prohibition verhältnis proportion verhältnis ratio verhältnis obligationen zu stammaktien leverage verhältnis von preis und ertrag price-earning ratio verhältnis, satz rate verhältnis, verhältniszahl ratio verhältnismäßig comparatively verhältnismäßig relative verjährung prescription verjährung des anspruchs limitation of claim verjährungsfrist period of limitation verkauf sale verkauf ab zolllager sale ex bond verkauf auf probe sale on trial verkauf auf rechnung sale on account verkauf nach muster sale by sample verkauf nach warenbeschreibung sale by description verkauf unter eigentumsvorbehalt conditional sale verkauf von forderungen factoring verkauf zur sofortigen lieferung sale for prompt delivery verkaufen sell verkaufen selling verkaufsabrechnung des kommissionärs account sales verkaufsangebot offer for sale verkaufsanreiz sales inducement verkaufsförderung sales promotion verkaufskurs selling rate verkaufsnote bill of sale verkaufspersonal sales force verkaufspersonal salespeople verkaufspreis price of sale verkaufsprovision sales commission verkaufsspesen selling expenses verkaufsstelle, abnehmer, absatz outlet verkaufssteuer purchase tax verkaufsumfang volume of sales verkaufsvertreter sales agent verkaufswert selling value verkaufszahlen, umsätze sales figures verkehrsdelikt motoring offence verkehrsrisiko road risk verkehrsstrom flow of traffic verkehrsunfall automobile accident verkehrsunfall motoring accident verkehrsunfall traffic accident verkehrsunfallprozess, prozess wegen unfalls accident action verknappung shortage verkäufer sales assistant verkäufer salesman verkäufer seller verkäufer vendor verkäuferin salesgirl verkäuferin saleslady verkäufermarkt sellers' market verkäuflich merchantable verkäuflich saleable verkäuflichkeit salability verladebescheinigung mate's receipt verladedokument shipping document verladehafen, verladeort, Übernahmeort place of taking in charge verladekosten loading charges verladung loading of goods verladung an bord loading on board verlagern relocate verlangen demand verlangen, benötigen, wünschen want verlangsamen, nachlassen slow down verlangt die zahlung von zinsen requires the payment of interest verlegenheit dilemma verleger publisher verleihen lend verleiher lender verletzung injury verletzung der geheimhaltung breach of secrecy verletzung der geheimhaltung violation of secrecy verletzung der gewährleistung breach of warranty verletzung der sorgfalt neglect verletzung des berufsgeheimnisses violation of professional secrecy verlieren lose verlängern extend verlängerte obligationen continued bonds verlängerung extension verlängerung extension of a period verlängerung prolongation verlängerung der frist extension of time verlängerung der genehmigung extension of permit verlängerung der gültigkeit extension of validity verlängerungsstück an wechsel allonge verloren lost verloren gehen get lost verlosung raffle verlust loss verlust ausgleichen set off a loss verlust bei der Übermittlung loss in transit verlust bei Übermittlung von briefen loss in transit of any letters verlust bei Übermittlung von dokumenten loss in transit of any documents verlust bei Übermittlung von nachrichten loss in transit of any messages verlust der fracht loss of cargo verlust der kundschaft loss of custom verlust des arbeitsplatzes loss of employment verlust des schiffes loss of ship verlust durch auslaufen loss by leakage verlust erleiden experience a loss verlust in kauf nehmen take a loss verlust tragen bear a loss verlust von dienstleistungen loss of services verlust, schaden loss verlustabzug loss deduction verlustanzeige advice of loss verlustausgleich, entschädigung loss compensation verluste erleiden suffer losses verlustgeschäft losing bargain verlustkonto loss account verlustmeldung notice of loss verlustrisiko durch bruchschaden breakage risk verlustrisiko durch kesselschaden boilers risk verlustrisiko durch revolution revolution risk verlustvortrag loss carried forward vermachen, überschreiben make over vermeiden avoid vermeiden, ausweichen evade vermeidung avoidance vermerk notation vermerk der registrierung note of registration vermerk der verladung notation of loading vermietung von maschinen leasing verminderung decrement vermischen, mischung blend vermischung blending vermittler go-between vermittler von privatkrediten personal loan broker vermittler, unterhändler mediator vermittler, vermittelnd, dazwischen geschaltet intermediary vermittlung mediation vermächtnis legacy vermögen fortune vermögen der ohg oder kg partnership assets vermögen im ausland assets abroad vermögend well-to-do vermögensanmeldung declaration of property vermögensbewertung valuation of property vermögensprüfung, bedürftigkeitsnachweis means test vermögensschaden pecuniary loss vermögensschaden property loss vermögensschaden erleiden suffer pecuniary loss vermögensschäden financial losses vermögenssteuer property tax vermögensverhältnisse pecuniary circumstances vermögensverwahrer custodian vermögensverwalter fund manager vermögensverwaltung administration of property vermögensvorteil pecuniary advantage vermögenswerte einer bank assets of a bank vernachlässigung der geschäftlichen pflichtenneglect of business vernehmung eines zeugen hearing of a witness vernünftig, zumutbar reasonable veränderlicher kurswert fluctuating market value veränderliches risiko, wechselndes risiko variable risk veränderung, wechsel change veränderungen des internationalen handels changes in international commerce verordnung, verordnungen regulation veräußern alienate veräußern dispose veräußerung disposal verpachten lease verpachtung lease of land verpacken packaging verpackt packaged verpackung package verpackung packing verpackung wrapping verpackung eingeschlossen packing included verpackungsabteilung packing department verpackungskosten packing costs verpackungsmaterial packing material verpflichten oblige verpflichten undertake verpflichtung commitment verpflichtung obligation verpflichtung nicht einhalten default verpflichtung vorbehaltlich übernehmen to incur an undertaking under reserve verpflichtung zu zahlen obligation to pay verpflichtung zur hinausgeschobenen zahlung a deferred payment undertaking verpflichtung, schuldverschreibung obligation verpflichtung, verbindlichkeit engagement verpflichtungen commitments verpflichtungen obligations verpflichtungen aus ... commitments arising from ... verpflichtungen begründen create obligations verpflichtungen eingehen incur debts verpflichtungen nachkommen meet obligations verpflichtungen nachkommen meet one's obligations verpfändbar pawnable verpfänden hypothecate verpfänden pledge verpfänden put sth in pawn verpfänden, pfand pledge verpfändet in pawn verpfändet pawned verpfändet, mit einer hypothek belastet mortgaged verpfändete wertpapiere pawned securities verpfändeter gegenstand pledged object verpfändung hypothecation verpfändung beweglicher sachen pledge of chattels verpfändungsurkunde letter of hypothecation verpfändungsurkunde letter of lien verpfändungsurkunde mortgage instrument verpächter lessor verrechneter scheck cleared check verrechnungsabkommen clearing agreement verrechnungsbank, verrechnungsstelle clearing bank verrechnungsgeschäft clearing transaction verrechnungskonto clearing account verrechnungsscheck crossed cheque verrechnungsstelle clearing centre verringern diminish verrrechnung clearing verrufene spekulative wertpapiere cats and dogs versagen, verfehlen, durchfallen fail versandabteilung shipping department versandanweisungen shipping instructions versandanzeige advice of dispatch versandart mode of dispatch versandauftrag mail-order versandhaus mail-order house versandhaus, versandgeschäft mail-order business versandkatalog mail-order catalogue versandkosten forwarding charges versandkosten forwarding expenses versandpapiere shipping documents versandpapiere shipping papers versandvorschriften forwarding instructions verschieben postpone verschiebung postponement verschiedene regeln miscellaneous provisions verschiedene risiken, gemischte risiken miscellaneous risks verschiedenes sundries verschiffung, sendung shipment verschiffungshafen port of shipment verschiffungskosten shipping costs verschleiern conceal verschleiern, verbergen conceal verschleierung concealment verschmelzen amalgamate verschmelzen, fusionieren merge verschmelzung affiliation verschmelzung amalgamation verschmutzte banknoten soiled banknotes verschmutzung, umweltverschmutzung pollution verschmutzungskontrolle pollution control verschuldet encumbered verschuldet indebted verschuldung indebtedness verschuldung des staates, staatsschuld national debt verschuldungsrate rate of indebtedness verschwenderisch wasteful verschwendung wastage verschwendung waste verschwendung öffentlicher gelder waste of public funds verschwendung öffentlicher mittel waste of public funds verschwiegenheit, geheimhaltung secrecy verschwiegenheitspflicht duty to keep confidential verschwiegenheitspflicht obligation of secrecy verschwören, verschwörung plot versehen accidental slip versehen furnish versehen oversight versehen mit furnished with versender forwarder versicherbar insurable versicherbar, versicherungsfähig insurable versicherbare sache, versicherbares eigentum insurable property versicherbarer wert insurable value versicherbares interesse insurable interest versicherbares risiko insurable risk versicherer assurer versicherer insurer versicherer underwriter versicherer, versicherungsgeber insurer versichern insure versichern, zusichern assure versichert assured versichert covered by insurance versichert gegen feuer insured against fire versicherte gefahr peril insured against versicherte gefahren, gedeckte risiken perils insured against versicherte person insured person versicherte person person insured versicherte sache insured object versicherte sache property insured versicherte sache, versicherter gegenstand subject-matter insured versicherter gegenstand insured property versicherter, versicherungsnehmer insurant versichertes objekt, versicherter gegenstand object insured versicherung insurance versicherung insurance company versicherung nehmen take out insurance versicherung abschließen effect a policy versicherung abschließen effect insurance versicherung abschließen take out insurance versicherung auf gegenseitigkeit mutual insurance versicherung auf gegenseitigkeit mutual office versicherung auf gegenseitigkeit reciprocal insurance versicherung auf verbundene leben joint life assurance versicherung beantragen apply for insurance versicherung beantragen propose an insurance versicherung decken cover insurance versicherung der seefrachtgüter cargo insurance versicherung der ware insurance of goods versicherung gegen alle risiken all-risk insurance versicherung gegen alle üblichen risiken insurance against all risks versicherung gegen beschädigung insurance against damage versicherung gegen bruchschaden insurance against breakage versicherung gegen erdbeben earthquake insurance versicherung gegen explosion explosion insurance versicherung gegen frostschäden frost damage insurance versicherung kündigen cancel a policy versicherung mit optionen insurance with options versicherung mit prämienrückgewähr insurance with bonus versicherung mit selbstbeteiligung co-insurance versicherung ohne ärztliche untersuchung insurance without medical examination versicherung ohne prämienrückgewähr insurance without bonus versicherung verkaufen sell insurance versicherung von lagerbeständen insurance of stocks versicherung von schiff und ladung insurance of ship and cargo versicherung zum wiederbeschaffungswert replacement value insurance versicherung übernehmen accept insurance versicherung, bes. lebensversicherung assurance versicherungs-aktiengesellschaft joint-stock insurance company versicherungsabteilung insurance department versicherungsanspruch insurance claim versicherungsanstalt insurance institution versicherungsantrag insurance proposal versicherungsantrag proposal form versicherungsantrag, antragsformular application form versicherungsart type of insurance versicherungsarten classes of insurance versicherungsaufsicht insurance control versicherungsbeamter insurance officer versicherungsbesteuerung insurance taxation versicherungsbestimmungen insurance regulations versicherungsbestimmungen provisions of an insurance policy versicherungsbetrag amount insured versicherungsbetrug insurance fraud versicherungsbrauch, versicherungstechnik actuarial practice versicherungsdauer term of insurance versicherungsdienst insurance service versicherungsfachmann actuary versicherungsfall insured event versicherungsfähigkeit insurability versicherungsgebühr insurance fee versicherungsgegenstand, versicherungsobjekt object insured versicherungsgenossenschaft co-operative insurance association versicherungsgeschäft insurance business versicherungsgeschäft nach einheitstarifen tariff business versicherungsgeschäft nach einheitstarifen tariff insurance versicherungsgeschäfte insurance transactions versicherungsgeschäfte tätigen transact insurance business versicherungsgesellschaft insurance company versicherungsgesellschaft auf gegenseitigkeit mutual insurance society versicherungsgesetzgebung insurance legislation versicherungsgewerbe, versicherungswesen insurance industry versicherungsinspektor insurance inspector versicherungsjahr insurance year versicherungskalkulation actuarial calculation versicherungsklausel insurance clause versicherungskombination insurance combination versicherungskonsortium syndicate of underwriters versicherungskosten cost of insurance versicherungskosten insurance charges versicherungskosten insurance expenses versicherungsleistungen insurance payments versicherungsmakler insurance broker versicherungsmarkt insurance market versicherungsmathematik insurance mathematics versicherungsmathematiker actuary versicherungsmathematisch actuarial versicherungsmathematische abteilung actuarial department versicherungsmathematische tabellen actuarial tables versicherungsmedizin medico-actuarial science versicherungsnehmer insurance holder versicherungsnehmer insurant versicherungsnehmer policy owner versicherungsnehmer policyholder versicherungsnummer insurance policy number versicherungsort insurance location versicherungsperiode period of insurance versicherungspolice insurance policy versicherungspolice policy versicherungspolice, politik policy versicherungsprämie insurance premium versicherungsprämie insurance rate versicherungsprämie premium versicherungsprämiensatz insurance rate versicherungsprovision insurance commission versicherungsrecht insurance law versicherungsrisiken underwriting risks versicherungssachverständiger insurance adjuster versicherungssatz insurance rate versicherungsschutz insurance cover versicherungsschutz insurance coverage versicherungsstatistik actuarial statistics versicherungsstatistik insurance statistics versicherungssteuer insurance tax versicherungssumme sum insured versicherungstätigkeiten insurance activities versicherungsträger insurance carrier versicherungsträger insurance company versicherungsträger insurer versicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit friendly society versicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit mutual insurance association versicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit mutual insurance company versicherungsverein auf gegenseitigkeit (us) mutual insurance corporation versicherungsverkäufer insurance salesman versicherungsvertrag contract of insurance versicherungsvertrag insurance agreement versicherungsvertrag insurance contract versicherungsvertreter insurance agent versicherungsvertreter insurance canvasser versicherungsvertreter insurance salesman versicherungswerber insurance canvasser versicherungswert actuarial value versicherungswert insurable value versicherungswert insurance value versicherungswert insured value versicherungswert, versicherter wert insured value versicherungswirtschaft insurance industry versicherungszertifikat certificate of insurance versicherungszertifikat insurance certificate versicherungszweig class of insurance versiegelt sealed versiegelt sealed up versilbern, zu geld machen convert into cash versorgen, liefern supply versorgen, sorgen cater for sth. versorgung, reserve, rücklage provision versorgungsklausel maintenance clause versorgungsweg channel of supply versäumnis failure versäumnis lapse versäumnisurteil judgment by default versäumte es anzuzeigen failed to inform versäumte es zu handeln failed to act versperren obstruct verspätungszuschlag default fine verstaatlichen nationalize verstaatlichung nationalization verstecken, beiseite schaffen hide versteckt hidden versteckte gewinnausschüttung hidden distribution of profits versteckte inflation hidden inflation versteckte reserven, stille rücklagen hidden reserves versteckte wirkung hidden effect versteckter fehler hidden fault versteckter fehler, mangel hidden fault versteckter mangel hidden defect verstehen understand versteigerer, auktionator auctioneer versteigerung auction versteuert tax paid versteuerung von versicherungen insurance taxation verständnis understanding verstärken, bekräftigen reinforce verstoß gegen ein recht, rechtsverletzung infringement verstreichen elapse verstreut scattered verstrichene zeit elapsed time verstümmelung von nachrichten mutilation of messages verstümmelungen, die sich ergeben bei mutilation arising in versuchen try versuchen, versuch attempt versuchsserie test series vertagen adjourn verteilen, vertreiben distribute verteilung distribution verteilung der rückvergütung allotment of bonus verteilung des reingewinns appropriation of net proceeds verteilung des risikos, risikoverteilung distribution of risks verteilung von geldmitteln appropriation of funds verteilungsmethode method of allocation verteilungsschlüssel distribution basis vertrag agreement vertrag contract vertrag auf lebenszeit life contract vertrag betreffend eine wette wagering contract vertrag für nichtig erklären avoid a contract vertrag unterzeichnen sign a contract vertrag zu festen preisen fixed-price contract vertrag zwischen regierungen treaty vertrag zwischen zwei partnern bilateral agreement vertraglich contractual vertraglich festlegen stipulate vertraglich verpflichtet liable under a contract vertragliche vereinbarung contractual agreement vertragliche vereinbarung, klausel stipulation vertragsbedingungen contract terms vertragsbruch breach of contract vertragschießende partei contracting party vertragsdauer contract period vertragsdauer life of an agreement vertragserfüllung fulfillment of a contract vertragserfüllung performance of a contract vertragserneuerung renewal of contract vertragshändler licensed dealer vertragsähnliche vereinbarung quasi agreement vertragspartei party to the contract vertragspflicht duty under a contract vertragsschaden damage for breach of contract vertragsverletzung violation of a contract vertrauen, vertrauen trust vertrauen, vertrauen, trust trust vertrauensperson confidant vertrauensvotum vote of confidence vertrauenswürdig trustworthy vertraulich confidential vertraut familiar vertreten represent vertreter proxy vertreter representative vertreter der das inkasso garantiert delcredere agent vertreter des auftraggebers principal's representative vertreter einer versicherungsgesellschaft insurance representative vertreter, agent agent vertreterstab, vertreterorganisation sales force vertretung representation vertretung im notfall ohne ermächtigung agency of necessity vertretungsprovision agent's commission vertretungsvertrag agency agreement vertrieb distribution vertriebsberater marketing consultant vertriebsdirektor marketing director vertriebserfahrung marketing know-how vertriebskanal channel of distribution vertriebsleiter marketing manager vertriebsorientiert, absatzorientiert marketing oriented vertriebspolitik, absatzpolitik marketing policy vertriebsvereinbarung marketing agreement vertriebsweg chain of distribution vertriebsweg sales channel verträge von rom treaty of rome veruntreuen embezzle veruntreuen, unterschlagen embezzle veruntreuen, unterschlagen misappropriate veruntreuung embezzlement veruntreuung, unterschlagung embezzlement veruntreuung, unterschlagung misappropriation verursacht durch die entwicklung des handels caused by the progress of trade verursacht durch die umstellung caused by the revolution verursachter schaden damage caused verursachter schaden damage done vervielfacher multiplier vervollständigung completion verwahrung keeping verwahrung safe custody verwahrungsvertrag contract of safe custody verwalten administer verwalter administrator verwaltung administration verwaltung management verwaltung von wertpapieren management of securities verwaltungsabteilung administration department verwaltungskosten management costs verwaltungskosten management expenses verwaltungsrat administrative board verwaltungsrat board of administration verwaltungsrat board of directors verwaltungstechnisch administrative verwechseln, verwechslung mistake verwechslung mistake in name verweisung cross reference verwenden, verwendung use verwendung der mittel application of funds verwendung des erlöses application of proceeds verwendung, anwendung application verwerfen, ablehnen reject verwerflich objectionable verwertung utilization verwickeln involve verwirklichen carry into effect verwirklichen, erkennen realize verwirklichen, realisieren, zu geld machen realize verwirklichung, liquidierung realization verwässerung des aktienkapitals equity dilution verzicht waiver verzichten waive verzichterklärung notice of abandonment verzichterklärung waiver verzinslich bearing interest verzollt duty paid verzug default verzugsaktien deferred shares verzugsaktien deferred stock verzugsschaden damage caused by delay verzugszinsen interest for default verzugszinsen interest on account of delay verzugszinsen interest on arrears verzögerte gebühren deferred charges verzögerte nachfrage deferred demand verzögerung oder verlust unterwegs delay or loss in transit verzögerung von nachrichten delay of messages verzögerung, verzögern delay verzögerungen, die sich ergeben bei delays arising in the verzögerungstaktik delaying tactics veröffentlichen publish veröffentlichung publication vetternwirtschaft nepotism viehversicherung cattle insurance vielfalt variety vielversprechend promising vierfach quadruplicate vierfach, in vierfacher ausfertigung quadruplicate viertel, quartier, vierteljahr quarter vierteljahr quarter of the year vierteljahresabrechnung quarterly account vierteljahresprämie quarterly premium vierteljährlich quarterly vierzehn tage, zwei wochen fortnight visaverlängerung extension of visa visum visa vizepräsident vice president vizepräsident vice-president volkswirtschaft national economy volkswirtschaft studieren study economics volkswirtschaftspolitik political economy volkszählung census of population voll belastete hypothek closed mortgage voll einbezahlt paid in full voll eingezahlt fully paid voll eingezahlte aktien fully paid shares voll eingezahlte aktien paid up stock voll eingezahltes kapital capital paid in full voll gedeckter schaden loss fully covered by insurance voll haftender teilhaber ordinary partner voll konvertierbar fully convertible voll und ganz besitzen own outright vollbeschäftigung full employment vollbringen achieve volle deckung, voller versicherungsschutz full coverage voller wert full value vollindossament endorsement in full vollindossament full endorsement vollinvalidität total disability vollkasko- und insassenversicherung fully comprehensive cover vollkaskopolice comprehensive policy vollkaskoversicherung comprehensive insurance vollmacht authority vollmacht certificate of authority vollmacht letter of attorney vollmacht power vollmacht power of attorney vollmacht warrant of attorney vollmacht erteilen give authority to sb vollmacht zu akzeptieren authority to accept vollmacht zu bestätigen authority to confirm vollmacht zu handeln authority to act vollmacht zu negoziieren authority to negotiate vollmacht zu unterschreiben authority to sign vollmacht zu zahlen authority to pay vollmachtsindossament procuration endorsement vollständige einzelheiten folgen full details to follow vollständiger name full name vollständiger satz von dokumenten full set of documents vollständigkeit eines dokuments sufficiency of a document vollstreckbar enforceable vollstreckung enforcement vollstreckungsbefehl writ of execution vom begünstigten gezogen drawn by the beneficiary vom begünstigten gezogene tratten drafts drawn by the beneficiary vom käufer bestimmter markt buyers' market vom parlament verabschiedetes gesetz act of parliament vom stapel laufen lassen launch vom text verursachte probleme problems caused by the text von allen vorgenannten beteiligten of all the above named parties von anfang an nichtig void from the beginning von atomkraft angetriebenes schiff nuclear vessel von außerordentlichem wert of extreme value von außerordentlicher bedeutung of extreme importance von dem der auftrag zuging from whom the order was received von dem die garantie gestellt wurde from whom the indemnity was obtained von dem es den auftrag erhielt from whom it received the order von denen man nicht abweichen kann which cannot be departed from von der genehmigung abhängig subject to approval von der stange, konfektionsware ready-made von der versicherung ausgestellt sein must be issued by the insurance company von dieser bank vorgenommen made by such bank von dieser filiale vorgenommen made by such branch von einem grundsatz abweichen deviate from a principle von einem inkassoauftrag by a collection order von einem konto abheben withdraw from an account von einem tag zum anderen, laufend day-to-day von einer arbeitsgruppe by a working party von einer verpflichtung befreien release sb from an obligation von etwas abstand nehmen refrain from von fall zu fall as the case arises von geringem wert of small value von großem wert of great value von haus zu haus warehouse to warehouse von hoher kapazität high-capacity von jeder ergriffenen maßnahme benachrichtigen to advise of any action taken von jemandem borgen borrow from sb von jetzt ab as from now von mittlerer größe middle-sized von niedriger qualität low grade vor eingang der nachricht prior to receipt of notice vor eröffnung, vor den dienststunden before official hours vor fälligkeit prior to maturity vor verlust bewahren, vor schaden bewahren save from a loss vorangegangener indossant preceding endorser vorangehend precedent voranschlag, schätzen estimate vorantreiben promote vorarbeiter foreman vorausbezahlt prepaid vorausdatieren dating forward vorausgesetzt provided that vorausgesetzt dass subject to the condition that vorausgesetzt dass bezahlt ist subject to being paid voraussage forecast voraussage prediction voraussage der geschäftlichen entwicklung business forecasts voraussagen predict voraussetzen take for granted voraussetzen, als gegeben annehmen take for granted voraussetzung supposition voraussicht foresight vorauszahlung advance payment vorauszahlung payment in advance vorauszahlung prepayment vorauszahlungsvermerk notice of prepayment vorbehaltslos unconditional vorbereiten prepare vorbescheid provisional decision vorbörsengeschäfte pre-market dealings vordatieren antedate vordatieren date forward vorderseite eines dokuments face vorderseite eines schecks face of a cheque vorfall, ereignis incident vorfall, ereignis occurrence vorfallen, ereignen occur vorfertigen, vorfabrizieren prefabricate vorführung, demonstration demonstration vorgehen, maßgeblich sein override vorgeschriebene bankreserven legal reserves vorgeschriebenes pensionsalter mandatory retiring age vorgesetzter superior vorhand first option vorher, vorherig prior vorherig previous vorherige billigung previous approval vorherige krankheit previous illness vorherige nachricht an den begünstigten prior notice to the beneficiary vorherige versicherung, vorversicherung previous insurance vorherrschend prevailing vorhersage, prognose, konjunkturprognose, forecasting vorhersagen, vorhersage, voraussage forecast vorhersehen foresee vorige tag previous day vorige woche previous week voriger monat, vormonat previous month voriges jahr, vorjahr previous year vorladung summons vorladung writ of summons vorlage zum akzept presentation for acceptance vorlegen present vorlegen, einreichen, unterbreiten submit vorlegen, vorbringen lay vorlegende banken presenting banks vorlegung presentation vorlegung zur zahlung presentation for payment vorliegende sache matter in hand vorliegende sache, vorliegender fall matter in hand vorliegender vertrag present contract vorläufig preliminary vorläufiger bericht preliminary report vorläufiger versicherungsschein insurance note vorläufiger versicherungsschutz provisional cover vormonat ultimo vormund guardian vorprämie call premium vorprämie premium for the call vorprämienkurs price of call vorrang haben take priority vorrang, vorrecht, priorität priority vorrangige hypothek senior mortgage vorrat an freien arbeitskräften pool of labor vorrecht privilege vorrecht eines anspruchs priority of a claim vorrätiges material material on hand vorschießen, vorschuss advance vorschlag proposal vorschlag, antrag proposal vorschlag, suggestion suggestion vorschlagen propose vorschlagen, suggerieren suggest vorschrift regulation vorschrift, verordnung, bestimmung, klausel provision vorschriften einhalten comply with formalities vorschuss advance vorschuss, darlehen advance vorschußweise by way of loan vorschüssige zahlung payment in advance vorsehen provide vorsehen, verordnen, bestimmen provide vorsicht caution vorsicht, warnung, warnen caution vorsichtig cautious vorsichtig precautious vorsichtig umgehen handle with care vorsichtsmaßnahme measure of precaution vorsichtsmaßnahme precaution vorsichtsmaßnahmen precautions vorsichtsmaßregel precaution vorsitzende chairperson vorsitzender chairman vorsorgereserve provident fund vorsätzlich willfully vorsätzliche handlung willful act vorsätzliche körperverletzung malicious injury vorsätzliche unterlassung willful default vorsätzliches missverhalten willful misconduct vorspiegelung falscher tatsachen false pretences vorspiegelung falscher tatsachen willful misrepresentation vorteil advantage vorteil benefit vorteil gain vorteil ziehen aus take advantage of vorteile eines standorts advantages of a location vorteilhaft advantageous vorteilhafte kapitalanlage paying investment vorteilhafte kapitalanlage profitable investment vortäuschen mock vortragen carry over vorurteil bias vorvertrag preliminary agreement vorvertrag preliminary contract vorwahlnummer (telefon) code number vorwand pretence vorwegnahme anticipation vorwegnehmen anticipate vorwegnehmend anticipatory vorwort foreword vorzeitige fälligkeit acceleration vorziehen prefer vorzug preference vorzugsaktie preferential share vorzugsaktie preferred share vorzugsaktien preference shares vorzugsaktienzertifikat preference share certificate vorzugsaktionär holder of preferential shares vorzugsaktionär preferential shareholder vorzugsdividende preference dividend vorzugsrecht preferential right vorzugsweise preferable vorzugszoll preferential duty vorzugszolltarif preferential tariff vorübergehend temporary vorübergehende arbeitsunfähigkeit temporary disability vorübergehende berufung, zeitlich begrenzt temporary appointment vorübergehende beschäftigung temporary employment vorübergehende invalidität temporary disability vorübergehender zeitraum transitory period vostrokonto vostro account w wachsen grow wachstum growth wachstumsrate growth rate wachstumsrate rate if increase wachstumsrate rate of economic growth wachstumsrate rate of increase wachstumsstillstand zero growth wachstumsstruktur pattern of growth wachstumstheorien economics of growth wachstumsziel growth target wagen auf rädern mobile shop wagendiebstahl car theft waggonladung wagon load wagnis, unternehmen, risiko venture wahl des richtigen zeitpunkts timing wahl, auswahl choice wahrer sachverhalt real facts wahrheitsgetreue kopie true copy wahrscheinlich likely wahrscheinlich probably wahrscheinliche lebensdauer probable duration of life wahrscheinlichkeit likelihood wahrscheinlichkeit probability wahrscheinlichkeit eines ereignisses probability of an event wahrscheinlichkeit eines schadens probability of a loss wahrscheinlichkeitskurve probability curve wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung calculus of probability wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung theory of probability wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie probability theory wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie theory of probability waldversicherung forest insurance wandelobligation convertible bond wandelpreis conversion price wandelprämie conversion premium wanderarbeiter migrant workers ware ware ware in gutem zustand good merchantable quality and condition ware ist bar zu zahlen und selbst zu transp. cash and carry waren goods waren mittlerer preislage medium-prized goods waren stapeln stockpile waren unter zollverschluss bonded goods waren übergeben to release goods waren- und dienstleistungsverkehr exchange of goods and services warenart kind of goods warenausgangsbuch sales journal warenauswahl range of goods warenbestand goods in stock warenbestandsaufnahme stocktaking warenbestandsliste stock list warenbörse commodity exchange warenbörse produce exchange wareneingang receipt of goods wareneingangsbuch purchase journal warengattung type of goods warengattung type of merchandise warengattung, art von ware kind of goods warenhäuser stores warenkorb basket of goods warenkosten und frachtkosten cost and freight warenkredit commercial credit warenkredit commercial loan warenkredit omnibus credit warenlager, lagerhalle warehouse warenliste list of articles warenlombard advance against goods warenstapelung, vorratsbildung stockpiling warenverkaufskonto sales account warenverkäufe sale of goods warenversand mit der post dispatch of goods warenversicherung insurance of merchandise warenwechsel commercial bill warenwert value of goods warenzeichen trade-mark warenzeicheninhaber owner of a trade-mark warnen warn warnung warning warten wait wartezeit waiting period wartezeit waiting time wartezeit, leerlaufzeit idle time wasserbehälter reservoir wasserdicht waterproof wasserschaden water damage wasserschadenversicherung sprinkler leakage insurance wasserschadenversicherung water damage insurance wasserstraßen waterways wasserversorgung water supply wechsel bill of exchange wechsel auf kurze sicht short bill wechsel auf kurze sicht short-dated bill wechsel einlösen honor a bill at maturity wechsel mit langer laufzeit long-dated bill wechsel ohne dokumentensicherung clean bill of exchange wechsel, wechselstube, telephonvermittlung exchange wechsel- und scheckbestand drafts and checks in hand wechselakzept acceptance wechselakzept acceptance of a draft wechselbank discount house wechselbestand bill holdings wechselbetrag amount of draft wechselbürge guarantor of a bill wechselbürge, wechselbürgschaft bill surety wechselbürgschaft aval wechselbürgschaft guarantee for a bill wechselbürgschaft surety for a bill wechseldelcredere delcredere for a bill wechseldepot deposit of bills wechseldiskontierung discounting of a bill wechselgesetz bills of exchange act wechselhaftung endorser's liability wechselinhaber bearer of a bill wechselklage action on a bill wechselkonto account of exchange wechselkredit bill credit wechselkursschwankungen fluctuations of the exchange rate wechselrecht exchange law wechselreiter bill jobber wechselreiter jobber in bills wechselreiterei bill jobbing wechselreiterei kite flying wechselschuld bill debt wechselschuld debt under a bill wechselstelle bureau de change wechselstempel, wechselsteuermarke bill stamp wechselstube exchange office wechselumlauf circulation of bills wechselverpflichtungen obligations arising out of a b/e wegabweichungsklausel deviation clause wegen eines formfehlers for want of form wegerecht, fuhrrecht right of way weglassung omission wegnehmen take away wegnehmen take off weich soft weigern refuse weigerung refusal weihnachtseinkäufe christmas shopping weise prudent weisungen ausführen to give effect to instructions weisungen befolgen comply with instructions weisungen der notadresse instructions from the case-of-need weisungen für die weitere behandlung instructions as to the further handling weisungen hinsichtlich des protestes instructions regarding protest weisungsgemäß according to instructions weisungslinie chain of command weisungslinie line of command weit verbreitet widely spread weitere angaben, weitere einzelheiten further particulars weiteres beweismaterial other evidence weitergeben pass on weitergeben, überreichen hand on weitergeber transferor weitersenden, nachsenden redirect weißbuch white paper welthandel world trade weltkrise world-wide crisis weltmarktpreis world price weltpolice world-wide policy weltpostverband universal postal union weltweit world-wide weltwirtschaft world economy weltwirtschaftszentrum london city wende der ereignisse, wende des schicksals turn of events wenden sie sich an den aussteller refer to drawer wenden, wende turn wenig Änderung little change weniger minus weniger als aktien odd lot weniger entwickelte länder nation which are less devemoped weniger erfahrene völker nations which are less experienced wenn akzeptierung verlangt wird where acceptance is called for wenn besondere bestimmungen fehlen failing specific stipulations wenn das akkreditiv akzeptierung vorsieht if the credit provides for acceptance wenn das akkreditiv negoziierung vorsieht if the credit provides for negotiation wenn das akkreditiv vorsieht if the credits provides for wenn der auftrag eine anweisung enthält if the order includes an instruction wenn gebühren so verweigert worden sind whenever charges are so waived wenn und soweit if and to the extent to which wenn zahlung verlangt wird where payment is called for werbeabteilung advertising department werbeabteilung public relations department werbeabteilung publicity department werbeagentur advertising agency werbefeldzug drive werbegeschenk free gift werbegeschenk giveaway werbekonzeption media concept werben advertise werber canvasser werbeträger, werbemittel advertising media werbung advertising werbung, inserat, anzeige advertisement werfen cast werftgebühr wharfage werkstatt workshop werkzeuge tools werkzeugmaschine machine-tool wert value wert worth wert worth wert der beschädigten ware damaged value wert der in produktion befindlichen ware value of goods in progress wert der ladung value of cargo wert der unbeschädigten ware sound value wert des wagens value of car wert einer ware value of a good wert eines gebäudes value of a building wert erhalten value received wert im beschädigten zustand damaged value wert im unbeschädigten zustand sound value wert, wert worth wertabnahme, wertminderung decrease in value wertberechnung calculation of value wertberichtigungskonto valuation account wertbrief insured letter werterhöhung, wertzunahme increase in value werterhöhungen, verbesserungen improvements wertgegenstände valuables wertlos worthless wertminderung decline in value wertminderung depreciation in value wertminderung reduction in value wertminderung shrinkage in value wertminderung, verfall deterioration wertänderung change in value wertpaket insured parcel wertpapier mit anspruch auf dividende dividend paper wertpapier, handelspapier instrument wertpapierbestände holdings of securities wertpapiere securities wertpapiere beleihen advance money on securities wertpapiere beleihen lend money on securities wertpapiere die zurückgekauft werden redeemable securities wertpapiere hinterlegen lodge securities wertpapiere kündigen call in securities wertpapiergattung category of securities wertpapierportefeuille bill case wertprüfung value analysis wertsachen valuables wertsachenversicherung insurance of valuables wertschätzung von obligationen bond ratings wertsendung consignment of valuables wertvoll valuable wertzunahme increase in value wertzunahme increment value wertzuwachs increment value wesentlich essential wesentlich falsche darstellung material misrepresentation wesentlicher bestandteil essential element wettbewerb competition wettbewerbsfähig competitive wettbewerbsfreiheit freedom of competition wetterversicherung weather insurance wetterversicherung, regenversicherung weather insurance widerruf countermand widerrufen countermand widerruflich revocable widerstandsgrenze resistance barrier widerstreitende interessen conflicting interests wie such as wie auch immer benannt however named wie auch immer bezeichnet however described wie banken vorgehen sollten the course of action banks should follow wie einem dokument hinzugefügt as superimposed on a document wie gegenseitig vereinbart as mutually agreed wie im kredit vorgeschrieben as stipulated in the credit wie immer es sein mag as the case may be wie in einem dokument niedergelegt as stipulated in a document wie jeweils anwendbar as appropriate wie oben zu entscheiden to determine as above wie unten unter (b) definiert as defined in (b) below wie vereinbart as per agreement wie üblich according to custom wie üblich as customary wieder auffüllen replenish wieder erlangen recover wieder exportieren, rückexportieren re-export wieder flott machen refloat wieder gut machen, etwas nachholen make good for sth. wieder importieren, rückimportieren re-import wieder in ordnung bringen readjust wieder zulassen readmit wiederanlage reinvestment wiederanpassung, neuverteilung readjustment wiederaufbau reconstruction wiederaufbereiten recycle wiederaufbereitung, wiederverwertung recycling wiederauffinden von information information retrieval wiederaufforstung reforestation wiederbeschaffungskosten costs of replacement wiederbeschaffungskosten replacement costs wiedereingliederung, rehabilitation rehabilitation wiedererstattung, rückerstattung recovery wiedergutmachung amends wiedergutmachung reparation wiederherstellen restore wiederholung eines auftrags repeat order wiederinkraftsetzung reinstatement wiederinkraftsetzungsklausel reinstatement clause wiederinkraftsetzungswert reinstatement value wiederverkauf resale wiederverkaufspreis resale price wiederverladung reloading wiederverwendung recycling wiedervorlageverfahren follow-up system wiegegeld weighing charges wilder streik wildcat strike willkürlich arbitrary winkelmakler outside broker wir bieten einen dienst we provide a service wir mußten zukunftsorientiert vorgehen we had to look at the future wir wenden sie täglich an we use them every day wird die bank remboursieren müssen shall be bound to reimburse the bank wird die dokumente aufnehmen müssen shall be bound to take up the documents wird für jeglichen verlust haften will be responsible for any loss wird haften shall be liable to wirklich actual wirklich berechtigt actually entitled wirkliche sachverhalt real facts wirklicher gesamtverlust actual total loss wirklicher wert, realwert real value wirksam effective wirksam werden come into operation wirksam werden take effect wirksam, rechtswirksam operative wirksam, wirkend effective wirksame nachfrage effective demand wirkung effect wirtschaft economy wirtschaft, wirtschaftlichkeit economy wirtschaftlich economic wirtschaftlich, kommerziell commercial wirtschaftliche nachfrage economic demand wirtschaftliche unabhängigkeit economic independence wirtschaftliche unabhängigkeit, autarkie autarchy wirtschaftlicher artikel, sparsames gerät money saver wirtschaftliches risiko economic risk wirtschaftsberater economic adviser wirtschaftsgebiet economic area wirtschaftsgeographie economic geography wirtschaftsgeschichte economic history wirtschaftsgüter commodities wirtschaftsliberales verhalten laissez-faire wirtschaftsministerium department of trade and industry wirtschaftsplanung economic planning wirtschaftsprüfer certified accountant wirtschaftsprüfer chartered accountant wirtschaftsrecht economic law wirtschaftssanktionen economic sanctions wirtschaftssystem economic system wirtschaftstheorie economic theory wirtschaftswachstum economic growth wirtschaftswerbung commercial advertising wirtschaftswissenschaftler, volkswirt economist wirtschaftszentrum commercial center wissenschaft science wissenschaftler scientist wissenschaftlich scientific wissenschaftliche betriebsführung management science wissenschaftliche betriebsführung scientific management wissenschaftliche verfahren scientific methods wissentlich knowing wissentlich knowingly witwengeld widow's allowance witwenrente widow's annuity witwenrente widow's pension witwenversicherung widow's insurance wo die vorlegung erfolgen soll at which presentation is to be made wo die vorlegung erfolgen soll where presentation is to be made wochenbeitrag weekly contribution wochenfahrkarte weekly ticket wochengeld maternity allowance wochengeld, wochenhilfe, mutterschaftsgeld maternity benefit wochenlohn weekly pay wochenlohn weekly wage wochenmiete weekly rent wählbar eligible wohlbehalten safe and sound wohlfahrt welfare wohlfahrtskomitee welfare committee wohlfahrtsstaat welfare state wohlfahrtssystem welfare system wohlhabend well off wohlstand prosperity wohlstand, reichtum wealth wohltätigkeitsverein auf gegenseitigkeit mutual benefit association wohngebiet housing area wohngebiet residential area wohngebiet residential zone wohnhaft resident wohnort domicile wohnrecht und nutzungsrecht auf lebenszeit life estate wohnsitz residence wohnsitzverlegung change of domicile wohnungsbaugenossenschaft building society wohnungseinbruchsversicherung residence burglary insurance wohnungsnot housing shortage wohnungssuche house hunting wohnungszuschuss housing allowance während der arbeitszeit on the job währung currency währungsbeschränkungen currency restrictions währungseinflüsse monetary influences währungseinheit monetary unit währungseinheit unit of currency währungsgebiet monetary area währungsklausel currency clause währungspolitik monetary policy währungsreform currency reform währungsreform monetary reform währungsreserve reserve währungssystem currency system währungssystem monetary system womit eine bank whereby a bank wortlaut eines briefes wording of a letter wortlaut eines vertrages wording of a contract wortlaut eines wechsels wording of a bill wortlaut, formulierung wording wucher usury wucherer usurer wucherische zinsen excessive interest wucherzins usurious interest wucherzins, überhöhter zins excessive interest wurde durchgeführt has been carried out wurden berücksichtigt have been borne in mind wurden heraufgesetzt were marked up wöchentlich weekly wöchentliches taschengeld weekly allowance würdigen appreciate würdigung appreciation x xerographie, kopierverfahren xerography xerox, schnelldrucken, kopieren xerox xeroxverfahren xerox process y z zahl figure zahl, figur figure zahlbar payable zahlbar an Überbringer payable to bearer zahlbar auf verlangen payable on demand zahlbar bei auftragserteilung cash with order zahlbar bei fälligkeit payable when due zahlbar bei sicht payable at sight zahlbar bei sicht payable on demand zahlbar bei verfall payable at expiration zahlbar bei verfall payable at maturity zahlbar bei vorlage payable on presentation zahlbar erst später payable at a future date zahlbar in raten payable by installment zahlbar mittels scheck payable by check zahlbar werden become payable zahlbarstellung domiciliation zahlen pay zahlen sie diesen scheck an mich selbst pay self zahlende bank paying bank zahllose aspekte innumerable aspects zahlmeister purser zahlreich numerous zahlstelle paying office zahltag pay day zahlung payment zahlung bei lieferung payment on delivery zahlung der dividende payment of dividend zahlung der miete payment of rent zahlung der prämie, prämienzahlung premium pay zahlung der rückstände payment of arrears zahlung eines pauschalbetrages lump sum payment zahlung eingestellt payment stopped zahlung einstellen suspend payment zahlung erbitten request payment zahlung gegen dokumente documents against payment zahlung in bar payment in cash zahlung in naturalien payment in kind zahlung in raten payment by installments zahlung leisten make payment zahlung leisten to effect payment zahlung leisten an die order von to make a payment to the order of zahlung mittels scheck payment by check zahlung nach belieben payment as you feel inclined zahlung ohne verpflichtung ex gratia payment zahlung soll geleistet werden payment is to be made zahlung unter protest payment supra protest zahlung verschieben postpone payment zahlung verweigern refuse payment zahlung von schulden payment of debts zahlung zug um zug matching payment with physical delivery zahlungen payments zahlungen leisten settle payments zahlungen, zahlungsverkehr payment transactions zahlungsadresse domicile of a bill zahlungsanspruch pecuniary claim zahlungsanweisung order to pay zahlungsaufforderung application for payment zahlungsaufforderung notice to pay zahlungsaufforderung request for payment zahlungsaufforderung request to pay zahlungsaufschub extension of payment zahlungsaufschub, stundung respite zahlungsauftrag banker's order zahlungsausgleich clearance of payments zahlungsbedingungen terms of payment zahlungsbefehl payment summons zahlungsbeleg voucher for payment zahlungsbestätigung confirmation of payment zahlungsbilanz balance of payments zahlungseingang receipt of payment zahlungseinstellung cessation of payment zahlungseinstellung suspension of payment zahlungseinstellung suspension of payments zahlungsempfänger payee zahlungserleichterungen facilities for payment zahlungserleichterungen facilities of payment zahlungsersuchen, mahnbrief letter requesting payment zahlungsfähigkeit ability to pay zahlungsfähigkeit capacity to pay zahlungsfrist term of payment zahlungsfrist time allowed for payment zahlungsgarantie guaranty of payment zahlungsmittel means of payment zahlungsort place of payment zahlungspapiere financial documents zahlungspflicht duty of payment zahlungspflichtig liable to pay zahlungspflichtiger payer zahlungsquittung payment receipt zahlungsregelung payments arrangement zahlungsschwierigkeiten pecuniary difficulties zahlungsstelle domicile zahlungstag date of payment zahlungstag day of payment zahlungstermin term of payment zahlungstermin, zahlungsfrist term of payment zahlungsunfähig unable to pay zahlungsunfähig insolvent zahlungsunfähig unable to pay zahlungsunfähig, nicht flüssig illiquid zahlungsunfähig, zahlungsunfähiger bankrupt zahlungsunfähigkeit illiquidity zahlungsunfähigkeit inability to pay zahlungsunfähigkeit insolvency zahlungsverbot interdiction of payment zahlungsverkehr payments zahlungsverpflichtungen liabilities to pay zahlungsversprechen promise to pay zahlungsverweigerung refusal of payment zahlungsverweigerung refusal to pay zahlungsverzug delay of payment zahlungsweise form of payment zahlungsweise method of payment zahlungsweise mode of payment zahlungswilligkeit willingness to pay zahlungsziel term of credit zahnärztliche behandlung dental treatment zedent assigner zehnersystem decade system zehrgeld für den tag, tagesgeld daily allowance zeichen sign zeichnen subscribe zeichnen von versicherungsrisiken underwriting zeichner subscriber zeichner underwriter zeichner dem aktien zugeteilt werden allottee zeichnungsbedingungen underwriting conditions zeichnungsberechtigt authorized to sign zeichnungsbetrag amount of subscription zeichnungsschluss closing of the subscription zeigen, show, darbietung show zeit time zeit sparen save time zeit zur Überprüfung der dokumente time in which to examine the documents zeitausfall loss of time zeitdauer term zeiterfassungsverfahren method of time measurement zeitgewinn gain of time zeitliche begrenzung, frist time limit zeitliche beschränkung, frist time limit zeitpolice time policy zeitraubend time consuming zeitraum period zeitrente, rente auf zeit temporary annuity zeitschrift, journal journal zeitschrift, warenlager magazine zeitstudien time studies zeitungsaktien newspapers shares zeitungsausschnitte clippings zeitverlust loss of time zeitverschwendung waste of time zeitwert present value zentralausschuss central committee zentralbank central bank zentrale general office zentrale, hauptbüro head office zentralisieren centralize zentralisierung centralization zentralkartei central file zentralverwaltung, hauptverwaltung head office zerbrechlich fragile zerfall breakup zertifikat certificate zession assignment zession cession zessionar assignee zessionsurkunde instrument of assignment zettel slip zettel ticket zettel, papier slip zeugenvorladung witness summons ziehen, einen wechsel ziehen draw ziehen, zeichnen draw ziel goal ziel, vorgabe target zielen, ziel aim ziellinie target line zielwechsel time bill ziemlich groß sizable ziffer digit zimmer vermieten let a room zimmerdienst room service zins, zinsen interest zinsanstieg interest increase zinsauftrieb rise in interest zinsaufwand interest expenditures zinsaufwendungen interest payable zinsbelastung interest charge zinsberechnung calculation of interest zinsberechnung computation of interest zinsbetrag amount of interest zinseingänge interest receipts zinsen aus kapitalanlagen interest on investments zinsen berechnen charge interest zinsen bringen carry an interest zinsen erbringen bear interest zinsen zahlen pay interest zinsen zum satz von interest at the rate of zinserhöhung increase of the interest rate zinserneuerungsschein renewal coupon zinsertrag interest earned zinsertrag interest earnings zinsertrag interest income zinseszins compound interest zinseszins compounded interest zinseszinsrechnung compound computation of interest zinsforderungen interest receivable zinsfrei free of interest zinsgefälle interest differential zinskonto interest account zinslos non-interest-bearing zinsloser Überziehungskredit swing zinsmarge interest margin zinsnachlass interest rebate zinspflichtig subject to interest zinssatz interest rate zinssatz rate of interest zinssatz für kurzfristige anleihen short-term interest rate zinssatz, zinsrate rate of interest zinsschein interest coupon zinsschein interest voucher zinsschein, kupon interest warrant zinsstaffel, zinsberechnung interest computation zinstabelle interest table zinstabelle table of interest zinstermin interest date zinstermin interest payment date zinsverlust loss of interest zinszahl interest number zinszahlung payment of interest zinszahlungen interest payments zirkulieren, im umlauf sein circulate zwischenbilanz interim balance sheet zählbar countable zähler meter zählung, volkszählung census zoll customs zollabfertigungsschein bill of clearance zollabkommen tariff agreement zollbarrieren, zollschranken tariff barriers zollbegleitschein carnet zollbehörde customs authorities zollfaktura customs invoice zollfrei duty free zollfreier laden duty-free shop zollfreigabebescheinigung clearance certificate zollhintergehung defraudation of customs zollmakler customs broker zollmauern, zollgrenzen tariff walls zollsatz rate of duty zollschranken customs barriers zollschuppen customs shed zollschutz tariff protection zollsenkungen tariff cuts zollsätze tariff rates zolltarif tariff zollunion customs union zollunion tariff union zollverschlusslager bonded warehouse zone zone zu beanstanden objectionable zu den akten nehmen take on file zu einem vergleich kommen come to terms zu einer pension berechtigend pensionable zu erneuern renewable zu geld machen convert into money zu getreuen händen überlassen entrust to one's safekeeping zu gleichen bedingungen similar in terms zu gunsten von for the benefit of zu günstigen bedingungen on easy terms zu herabgesetztem preis offered down zu hoch bezahlen overpay zu hohe berechnung overcharge zu sofortiger freigabe for immediate release zu verzinsen, verzinslich interest-bearing zu weit gehende einzelheiten aufnehmen to include excessive detail zu wenig berechnen undercharge zu zahlende aber nicht genutzte fracht dead freight zu zahlende rechnungen bills payable zu zahlender betrag amount payable zubehör, einbauten, festes inventar fixtures zufall chance zufall random zufall, aissicht chance zufällig accidental zufällig accidentally zufällig accidental zufällig haphazard zufällig incidental zufälliger verlust, zufälliger schaden loss by accident zufälliges ereignis fortuitous event zufrieden gestellt satisfied zufrieden stellen satisfy zufriedenstellend, befriedigend satisfactory zufriedenstellende ergebnisse satisfactory results zufriedenstellender arbeitsplatz satisfactory job zufriedenstellung, befriedigung satisfaction zugang access zugegen sein attend zugelassen licensed zugelassener händler authorized dealer zugelassener makler inside broker zugestandene zeit allowed time zugestandene zeit time allowed zugänglichkeit accessibility zugunsten von in favour of zugunsten von in one's favour zuhause home zukunft future zulage extra pay zulass admittance zulassen admit zulassung von aktien admission of shares zulassung von obligationen admission of bonds zulassung von wertpapieren admission of securities zulieferindustrie ancillary industry zulässig admissible zulässig allowable zulässigkeit admissibility zum erlangen von zahlungen for obtaining the payment of money zum gesetzlichen zinssatz at legal interest zum kontoausgleich in order to balance the account zum kurs von at the price of zum nennwert at par zum schein in pretence zum schutz der ware for the protection of the goods zum tageskurs at the current rate zum teil bezahlt paid in part zum teil, teilweise in part zum verkauf anbieten offer for sale zum verkauf bereit halten keep for sale zum vollen wert at full value zum zwecke for the purpose of zum zwecke der ausführung for the purposes of giving effect zunahme increase zunahme increment zunahme der liquidität increase in liquidity zunehmen increase zunehmend increasing zunft guild zur sofortigen annahme subject to immediate acceptance zur akzeptierung vorlegen make presentation for acceptance zur annahme innerhalb von tagen subject to acceptance within days zur ansicht on sale or return zur anzeige eventueller Änderungen for advising any amendments zur ausgabe berechtigtes aktienkapital authorized capital zur bank gehöriges grundstück bank premises zur barzahlung on cash terms zur deckung dienen serve as collateral zur probe, kauf auf probe sale on approval zur rückversicherung angenommen reinsurance accepted zur see gehörig maritime zur selbsthilfe greifen take the law into on'e hands zur sofortigen annahme subject to immediate acceptance zur verfügung des einreichers at the disposal of the presentor zur verschiffung entgegengenommen received for shipment zur verwendung in diesen artikeln for the purpose of these articles zur zahlung auffordern demand payment zur zahlung vorlegen make presentation for payment zur zeichnung auffordern invite tenders zur zeit, bis auf weiteres for the time being zurück erhalten get back zurück datieren date back zurückbehalten retain zurückbehaltung retention zurückdatieren backdate zurückfordern reclaim zurückforderung reclamation zurückführen repatriate zurückgeben return zurückgezogene aktie withdrawn share zurückkaufen rebuy zurückkehren return zurücknahme withdrawal zurücknahme einer lizenz withdrawal of a license zurücknahme eines antrags withdrawal of an application zurückreichen, zurücksenden, zurückgeben return zurückweisen, ablehnen reject zurückweisung rejection zurückzahlbar refundable zurückzahlen pay back zurückzahlen repay zurückzahlung repayment zurückziehen, widerrufen take back zurückziehen, zurücknehmen, annullieren withdraw zusage, versprechen, zusagen, versprechen promise zusammenarbeit collaboration zusammenarbeit cooperation zusammenarbeiten collaborate zusammenballung agglomeration zusammenbauen assemble zusammenbrechen, zusammenbruch collapse zusammenbruch breakdown zusammenfassen summarize zusammenfassung summary zusammenfassung, kurzfassung, auszug abstract zusammengefasst composite zusammengefasste form, gekürzte form condensed form zusammenlegen, interessenverband pool zusammenschließen affiliate zusammensetzung der kapitalanlage composition of investment zusammensetzung des kapitals composition of capital zusammensetzung, vergleich composition zusammenstellen compile zusammenstellung compilation zusammenstoß collision zusammentreffen concurrence zusammentreffen von umständen concurrence of circumstances zusatz addendum zusatz, abänderung amendment zusatz, ergänzung endorsement zusatz, zugang addition zusatzausstattung peripheral equipment zusatzausstattung supplementary equipment zusatzbedingungen additional conditions zusatzpolice supplementary policy zusatzprämie additional premium zusatzprämie supplementary premium zusatzversicherung, ergänzungsversicherung complementary insurance zusatzversicherung, zusätzliche versicherung additional insurance zuschlag acceptance of a tender zuschlag surcharge zuschlag an meistbietenden sale to the highest bidder zuschlagsprämie additional premium zuschuss grant zusichern assure zusichern, garantieren warrant zusicherung assurance zusätzlich additional zusätzlich extra zusätzlich zu in addition to zusätzlich zum hauptbetrag in addition to the principal amount zusätzlich zur fracht anfallende kosten costs additional to the freight charges zusätzliche dividende additional dividend zusätzliche kosten additional expenses zusätzliche sicherheit additional security zusätzliche sozialaufleistungen fringe benefits zusätzliche zahlung additional payment zustellungsbescheinigung recorded delivery zustimmen, zustimmung consent zustimmend, bejahend affirmative zustimmung affirmation zustimmung von seiten der bank agreement on the part of the bank zustimmung, zustimmen consent zustimmungserklärung declaration of consent zuständig competent zuständigkeit competence zuteilen allot zuteilen apportion zuteilung allocation zuteilung allotment zuteilung von aktien allotment of shares zuteilungsschein certificate of allotment zuverlässig reliable zuverlässig, sicher reliable zuverlässigkeit reliability zuviel berechnen overcharge zuviel entschädigung zahlen overcompensate zuviel zahlen overpay zuvorkommend, höflich, kulant obliging zuwachs accrual zuwachs increment zuwachsen, auflaufen accrue zuweisen allocate zuweisen allot zuweisen assign zuweisung allocation zuweisung allotment zuweisung assignment zuweisung an die reserven allocation to reserves zuweisung, kontingentierung allocation zuweisungszettel allotment note zuwendung für lebensunterhalt subsistence money zuzahlen pay extra zwangsanleihe forced loan zwangsauflösung compulsory liquidation zwangskurs forced exchange zwangsliquidation compulsory liquidation zwangsparen forced saving zwangsregulierung forced execution zwangssparen compulsory saving zwangsverkauf forced sale zwangsversteigerung forced sale zwangsverwalter, konkursverwalter official receiver zwangsvollstreckung distraint zwangswirtschaft controlled economy zweck object zweck des unternehmens scope of business zweck, absicht, ziel purpose zweck, verwendungszweck purpose zweckbau functional building zweckbestimmung von mitteln earmarking of funds zweckbestimmung von zahlungen appropriation of payments zwecks in order to zwecks auslieferung an einen bezogenen for delivery to a drawee zweifel, bedenken, zweifeln, bezweifeln doubt zweifelhaft doubtful zweifelhafte forderung doubtful claim zweifelhafter börsenmakler bucketeer zweifeln doubt zweig, filiale branch zweigniederlassung branch establishment zweigstelle branch zweigstelle local branch zweiseitig bilateral zweiseitiges risiko bilateral risk zweitbegünstigter second beneficiary zweitbeschäftigung außerhalb der arbeitszeit moonlighting zweite emission second issue zweite hälfte des monats second half of the month zweite hypothek second mortgage zweite versicherung eingehen effect a second policy zweitrangig second rate zweitrangig secondary zwingen squeeze zwingend, obligatorisch, obligat obligatory zwischen den abteilungen interdepartmental zwischen den banken between the banks zwischen den börsen interbourse zwischenbetrieblich inter-company zwischenbetrieblicher vergleich inter-firm comparison zwischengeschaltet as intermediary zwischengewerkschaftlicher streik jurisdictional strike zwischenhändler distributor zwischenkredit temporary credit zwischenmenschliche beziehungen im betrieb human relations zwischensumme sub-total zwischenverkauf vorbehalten subject to goods being unsold zwischenverkauf vorbehalten subject to prior sale zyklus, kreis cycle zögernd, versuchsweise tentatively zölle customs duties zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz copyright winfried honig zzzzz zzzzz nuernberg zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz winfried honig zzzzz zzzzz franz-reichel-ring zzzzz zzzzz nuernberg zzzzz zzzzz germany zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz tel. / zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz winfried.honig@online.de zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz http://dict.leo.org zzzzz zzzzz http://www.dicdata.de zzzzz zzzzz http://mrhoney.purespace.de/latest.htm zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz end of mr honey's banking dictionary (german-english) (c) by winfried honig [transcriber's notes: welcome to the schoolroom of . the moral tone is plain. "she is kind to the old blind man." the exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some contemporary alternatives. much is left to the teacher. explanations given in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. counting in roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson numbers. the author, not listed in the text is william holmes mcguffey. don kostuch ] eclectic educational series. mcguffey's® second eclectic reader. revised edition. mcguffey editions and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons, inc.. new york - chichester-weinheim-brisbane-singapore-toronto copyright, , by van antwerp, bragg & co. copyright, , by american book company copyright, and , by h. h. vail. ep preface in this book, as well as in the others of the revised series, most of the favorite drill selections, which constituted one of the leading excellences of mcguffey's readers, have been retained. new selections have been inserted only when they seemed manifest improvements on those formerly used. the plan of this reader is a continuation and extension of that pursued in the first reader. if the pupil is not familiar with the diacritical marks, he should be carefully drilled, as suggested on page , until the marked letter instantly suggests the correct sound. he is then prepared to study his reading lessons without any assistance from the teacher. all new words are given at the head of each lesson. when these are mastered, the main difficulties left for the pupil are those of expression. in the latter portion of the book the simpler derivatives,--such as are formed by adding one or two letters,--possessives, plurals, verbal forms, etc.,--are omitted if the primitive word has been given. in this way the pupil is gradually led to the mastery of words as ordinarily printed. a few of the most usual abbreviations have been introduced,--such as mr., mrs., etc. these should be carefully explained, not only as to their meaning and use, but as to the reason for their use. great care has been taken to have the illustrations worthy of the reputation mcguffey's readers have attained, and some of the foremost designers of this country have contributed to the embellishment of the book. many of these pictures will serve admirably for lessons in language, in extension and explanation of the text. the imagination of the artist has, in some cases, filled in details not found in the text. the thanks of the publishers are due to very many experienced teachers, who have contributed their valuable suggestions. june, . introductory matter. articulation punctuation selections in prose and poetry. lessons. . evening at home . bubbles . willie's letter (script) . the little star . two dogs . afraid in the dark . baby bye . puss and her kittens . kittie and mousie . at work . what a bird taught . susie sunbeam . if i were a sun beam . henry, the bootblack . don't wake the baby (script) . a kind brother . my good-far-nothing . the kingbird . evening hymn . the quarrel . the bee . the song of the bee . the torn doll . sheep-shearing . the clouds . patty and the squirrel . the sparrow . sam and harry . the little rill . the boat upset . mary's letter (script) . the tiger . the fireside . birdie's morning song . willie and bounce . willie and bounce . the kitchen clock . the new scales . the bear and the children . the little harebell (script) . the fishhawk . what the leaf said . the wind and the leaves . mamma's present . mary's story . ralph wick . coasting down the hill (script) . the fox and the ducks . pretty is that pretty does . the story-teller . the story-teller . the owl . the owl . grandfather's story . god is great and good . a good old man . the greedy girl . a place for everything . my mother (script) . the broken window . the broken window . frank and the hourglass . march . jenny's call . poor davy . alice's supper . a snowstorm . bessie . bessie . cheerfulness (script) . lullaby articulation. suggestions to teachers.-thorough and frequent drills on the elementary sounds are useful in correcting vicious habits of pronunciation and in strengthening the vocal organs. as a rule, only one or two sounds should be employed at one lesson. care should be taken that the pupils observe and practice these sounds correctly in their reading. table of vocals. long sounds sound as in sound as in a ate e err a care i ice a arm o ode a last u use a all u burn e eve oo fool short sounds. sound as in sound as in a am o odd e end u up i in oo look diphthongs. sound as in sound as in oi oil ou out oy boy ow now table of subvocals. sound as in sound as in b bib v valve d did th this g gig z zin j jug z azure n nine r rare m maim w we ng hang y yet l lull table f aspirates. sound as in sound as in f fifi t tat h him sh she k kite ch chat p pipe th thick s same wh why table of substitutes. sub for as in sub for as in a o what y i myth e a there c k can e a feint c a cite i e police ch sh chaise i e sir ch k chaos o u son g j gem o oo to n ng ink o oo wolf s z as o a fork s sh sure o u work x gz exact u oo full gh f laugh u oo rude ph f phlox y i fly qu k pique qu kw quit punctuation. punctuation marks are used to make the sense more clear. a period (.) is used at the end of a sentence, and after an abbreviation; as, james was quite sick. dr. jones was called to see him. an interrogation mark (?) is used at the end of a question; as, where is john going? an exclamation mark (!) is used after words or sentences expressing some strong feeling; as, alas, my noble boy! that thou shouldst die! the comma (,), semicolon (;), and colon (:) are used to separate the parts of a sentence. the hyphen (-) is used to join the parts of a compound word; as, text-book: it is also used at the end of a line in print or script, when a word is divided; as in the word "sentence," near the bottom of page . [illustration: bird perched on tree branch.] mcguffey's second reader. lesson i. news'paper cold or'der seem through stock'ings chat sto'ry light har'ry branch'es kiss burns mrs. e vents' an oth'er mr. stool lamp mends [illustration: family at evening; father reading newspaper, mother sewing, boy and girl reading.] evening at home. . it is winter. the cold wind whistles through the branches of the trees. . mr. brown has done his day's work, and his children, harry and kate, have come home from school. they learned their lessons well to-day, and both feel happy . tea is over. mrs. brown has put the little sitting room in order. the fire burns brightly. one lamp gives light enough for all. on the stool is a basket of fine apples. they seem to say, "won't you have one?" . harry and kate read a story in a new book. the father reads his newspaper, and the mother mends harry's stockings. . by and by, they will tell one another what they have been reading about, and will have a chat over the events of the day. . harry and kate's bedtime will come first. i think i see them kiss their dear father and mother a sweet good night. . do you not wish that every boy and girl could have a home like this? lesson ii. beau'ti ful porch rain'bow burst bub'bling same biggest sneeze col'ors main soap wash red ma'ny (men'y) [illustration: three children playing with bubbles and cat.] bubbles. . the boys have come out on the porch to blow bubbles. the old cat is asleep on the mat by the door. . "ha! ha!" laughs robert, as a bubble comes down softly on the old cat's back, and does not burst. . willie tries to make his bubble do the same. this time it comes down on the cat's face, and makes her sneeze. . "she would rather wash her face without soap," says harry. "now let us see who can make the biggest bubble." . "mine is the biggest," says robert. "see how high it floats in the air! i can see--ah! it has burst." . "i can see the house and the trees and the sky in mine," says willie; "and such beautiful colors." . "how many, willie?" . "red, one; blue, two; there--they are all out. let us try again." . "i know how many colors there are," says harry. "just as many as there are in the rainbow." . "do you know how many that is?" lesson iii. rub'ber gun par'lor street num'ber ten o'clock' shoot willie's letter. [illustration: script exercise: new york, dec. , . dear santa claus: papa is going to give me a christmas tree, and he says that you will put nice things on it if i ask you. i would like a gun that will shoot, and a rubber ball that i can throw hard, and that will not break mamma's windows or the big glass in the parlor. now, please don't forget to come. i live on fourth st., number ten. i will go to bed at eight o'clock, and shut my eyes tight. i will not look, indeed i won't. your little boy, willie. ] lesson iv. a bove' world dark oft nev'er spark dew till di'a mond twin'kle blaz'ing the little star . twinkle, twinkle, little star; how i wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky! . when the blazing sun is set, and the grass with dew is wet, then you show your little light; twinkle, twinkle, all the night. . then, if i were in the dark, i would thank you for your spark. i could not see which way to go, if you did not twinkle so. . and when i am sound asleep, oft you through my window peep; for you never shut your eye, till the sun is in the sky. lesson v. be hind' to geth'er nob'le scotch dodg'er min'utes crib wag'on ter'ri er coun'try scold fel'low shag'gy frisk'i ly fits cel'lar guards new'found land yard har'ness [illustration: two dogs, one large, the other a small puppy.] two dogs. . james white has two dogs. one is a newfoundland dog, and the other is a scotch terrier. . the newfoundland is a large, noble fellow. he is black, with a white spot, and with long, shaggy hair. his name is sport. . sport is a good watchdog, and a kind playfellow. every night he guards the house while james and his father are asleep. . in the daytime, james often uses sport for his horse. he has a little wagon, and a set of small harness which just fits the dog. . he hitches sport to this wagon, and drives over the country. in this way, he can go almost as fast as his father with the old family horse. . the name of james's scotch terrier is dodger. he is called dodger because he jumps about so friskily. he is up on a chair, under the table, behind the door, down cellar, and out in the yard,--all in a minute. . dodger has very bright eyes, and he does many funny things. he likes to put his paws up on the crib, and watch the baby. . the other day he took baby's red stocking, and had great fun with it; but he spoiled it in his play, and james had to scold him. . everyone likes to see james white with his two dogs. they always seem very happy together. lesson vi. bet ween' bu'reau (-ro) stairs nee'dle a fraid' shad'ow held stir afraid in the dark. . "willie, will you run upstairs, and get my needle book from the bureau?" . but willie did not stir. "willie!" said mamma. she thought he had not heard. . "i'm afraid," said willie. . "afraid of what?" . "it's dark up there." . "what is the dark?" asked mamma. "see! it is nothing but a shadow." and she held her hand between the lamp and the workbasket on the table. [illustration: mother, seated in rocking chair, kerosene lamp on table, boy standing, examining his shadow on the wall.] . "now it is dark in the basket; but as soon as i take my hand away, it is light." . "come and stand between the lamp and the wall, willie. see! there is your shadow on the wall. can your shadow hurt you?" . "oh no, mamma! i am sure it can not hurt me." . "well, the dark is only a big shadow over everything." . "what makes the big shadow, mamma?" . "i will tell you all about that, willie, when you are a little older. but now, i wish you would find me a brave boy who is not afraid of shadows, to run upstairs and get my needlebook." . "i am bravo, mamma. i will go. --here it is." . "thank you, my brave little man. you see the dark didn't hurt you." slate work. [illustration: script exercise: beautiful faces are they that wear the light of a pleasant spirit there; beautiful hands are they that do deeds that are noble good and true; beautiful feet are they that go swiftly to lighten another's woe. ] lesson vii. spi'ders tick'ling stay neck nose se'cret crawls legs beck ope goes toes speck choose dot nod shoes spread be lieve' six [illustration: mother and baby watching fly on the wall.] baby bye. . baby bye, here's a fly; we will watch him, you and i. how he crawls up the walls, yet he never falls! i believe with six such legs you and i could walk on eggs. there he goes on his toes, tickling baby's nose. . spots of red dot his head; rainbows on his back are spread; that small speck is his neck; see him nod and beck! i can show you, if you choose, where to look to find his shoes, three small pairs, made of hairs; these he always wears. . flies can see more than we; so how bright their eyes must be! little fly, ope your eye; spiders are near by. for a secret i can tell, spiders never use flies well; then away, do not stay. little fly, good day. eclectic series. lesson viii. serv'ant sud'den ly lon'ger re turned' lived tired since five anx'ious trou'ble cer'tain nea'ly doz'en sev'en at'tic strange great prop'er coal seemed [illustration: cat carrying kitten up stairs by the scruff of the neck.] puss and her kittens. . puss, with her three kittens, had lived in the coal cellar; but one day she thought she would carry them to the attic. . the servant thought that was not the proper place for them; so she carried them back to the cellar. . puss was certain that she wanted them in the attic; so she carried them there again and again, five, six, seven, --yes, a dozen times; for each time the servant took them back to the cellar. . poor puss was nearly tired out, and could carry them no longer. . suddenly she went away. where do you think she went? . she was gone a long time. when she returned, she had a strange cat with her that we had never seen before. . she seemed to tell him all about her great trouble, and he listened to her story. . then the strange cat took the little kittens, one by one, and carried them to the attic. after this he went away, and we have never seen him since. . the servant then left the kittens in the attic, for she saw how anxious puss was to have them stay there. . was not the strange cat kind to puss? this lesson should teach children to be ever ready to help one another. lesson ix. nine mous'ie fro frol'ic bit slipped spied crow teeth pearl used [illustration: white cat sneaking up on a mouse.] kitty and mousie. . once there was a little kitty, white as the snow; in a barn he used to frolic, long time ago. . in the barn a little mousie ran to and fro; for she heard the little kitty, long time ago. . two black eyes had little kitty, black as a crow; and they spied the little mousie, long time ago. . four soft paws had little kitty, paws soft as snow; and they caught the little mousie, long time ago. . nine pearl teeth had little kitty, all in a row; and they bit the little mousie, long time ago. . when the teeth bit little mousie, mousie cried out "oh!" but she slipped away from kitty, long time ago. lesson x. washed hours(ours) pre'cious game harm a'ny (en'y) brushed end at work. . a little play does not harm any one, but does much good. after play, we should be glad to work. . i knew a boy who liked a good game very much. he could run, swim, jump, and play ball; and was always merry when out of school. . but he knew that time is not all for play; that our minutes, hours, and days are very precious. . at the end of his play, he would go home. after he had washed his face and hands, and brushed his hair, he would help his mother, or read in his book, or write upon his slate. . he used to say, "one thing at a time." when he had done with work, he would play; but he did not try to play and to work at the same time. lesson xi. twit-twee bough (bow) twit-twit top'most lock spray mate close'ly ros'y an'swer (an'ser) [illustration: bird perched on tree branch.] what a bird taught. . why do you come to my apple tree, little bird so gray? twit-twit, twit-twit, twit-twit-twee! that was all he would say. . why do you lock your rosy feet so closely round the spray? twit-twit, twit-twit, twit-tweet! that was all he would say. . why on the topmost bough do you get, little bird so gray? twit-twit-twee! twit-twit-twit! that was all he would say. . where is your mate? come, answer me, little bird so gray. twit-twit-twit! twit-twit-twee! that was all he would say. alice cary. lesson xii. bright'ness pleas'ant learned dress play'mates un kind' rag'ged word ques'tions smil'ing crowed child sun'beam cheered sus'ie gave glad'ness un less' name gate susie sunbeam. . susie sunbeam was not her real name; that was susan brown. but every one called her susie sunbeam, because she had such a sweet, smiling face, and always brought brightness with her when she came. [illustration: older girls playing with younger girl. three children standing in background.] . her grandfather first gave her this name, and it seemed to fit the little girl so nicely that soon it took the place of her own. . even when a baby, susie laughed and crowed from morning till night. no one ever heard her cry unless she was sick or hurt. . when she had learned to walk, she loved to go about the house and get things for her mother, and in this way save her as many steps as she could. . she would sit by her mother's side for an hour at a time, and ask her ever so many questions, or she would take her new book and read. . susie was always pleasant in her play with other children. she never used an unkind word, but tried to do whatever would please her playmates best. . one day, a poor little girl with a very ragged dress was going by and susie heard some children teasing her and making fun of her. . she at once ran out to the gate, and asked the poor little girl to come in. "what are you crying for?" susie asked. . "because they all laugh at me," she said. . then susie took the little girl into the house. she cheered her up with kind words, and gave her a nice dress and a pair of shoes. . this brought real joy and gladness to the poor child, and she, too, thought that susie was rightly called sunbeam. lesson xiii. wood'lands di vine' raised un til' droop'ing blessed whose seek up'ward hov'els in'ner steal heav'en hearts lil'ies die roam'ing if i were a sunbeam. . "if i were a sunbeam, i know what i'd do; i would seek white lilies, roaming woodlands through. i would steal among them, softest light i'd shed, until every lily raised its drooping head. . "if i were a sunbeam, i know where i'd go; into lowly hovels, dark with want and woe: till sad hearts looked upward, i would shine and shine; then they'd think of heaven, their sweet home and mine." . are you not a sunbeam, child, whose life is glad with an inner brightness sunshine never had? oh, as god has blessed you, scatter light divine! for there is no sunbeam but must die or shine. second reader. lesson xiv. sup port' a long' boots be long' dol'lar years man'age taught cor'ner no'tice mon'ey black'ing gen'tle men hon'est (on'est) quite buy earned [illustration: boy offering to shine man's shoes.] henry, the bootblack. . henry was a kind, good boy. his father was dead, and his mother was very poor. he had a little sister about two years old. . he wanted to help his mother, for she could not always earn enough to buy food for her little family. . one day, a man gave him a dollar for finding a pocketbook which he had lost. . henry might have kept all the money, for no one saw him when he found it. but his mother had taught him to be honest, and never to keep what did not belong, to him. . with the dollar he bought a box, three brushes, and some blacking. he then went to the corner of the street, and said to every one whose boots did not look nice, "black your boots, sir, please?" . he was so polite that gentlemen soon began to notice him, and to let him black their boots. the first day he brought home fifty cents, which he gave to his mother to buy food with. . when he gave her the money, she said, as she dropped a tear of joy, "you are a dear, good boy, henry. i did not know how i could earn enough to buy bread with, but now i think we can manage to get along quite well," . henry worked all the day, and went to school in the evening. he earned almost enough to support his mother and his little sister. lesson xv. tread whis'per soft'ly talk cheer ful' care'ful don't wake the baby. [illustration: script exercise: baby sleeps, so we must tread softly round her little bed, and be careful that our toys don not fall and make a noise. we must not talk, but whisper low, mother wants to work, we know, that, when father comes to tea, all may neat and cheerful be. ] lesson xvi. full load heav'y mid'dle heav'i er slip wrong han'dle broth'er de ceived' [illustration: two boys carrying a basket on a pole between them.] a kind brother. . a boy was once sent from home to take a basket of things to his grandmother. . the basket was so full that it was very heavy. so his little brother went with him, to help carry the load. . they put a pole under the handle of the basket, and each then took hold of an end of the pole. in this way they could carry the basket very nicely. . now the older boy thought, "my brother tom does not know about this pole. . "if i slip the basket near him, his side will be heavy, and mine light; but if the basket is in the middle of the pole, it will be as heavy for me as it is for him. . "tom does not know this as i do. but i will not do it. it would be wrong, and i will not do what is wrong." . then he slipped the basket quite near his own end of the pole. his load was now heavier than that of his little brother. . yet he was happy; for he felt that he had done right. had he deceived his brother, he would not have felt at all happy. lesson xvii. bus'y (biz'zy) mis'chief looked un'to glee con triv'ing ring'lets nod'dle drew nun press'ing fin'gers car'pet wise lips em brace' pon'der lash'es climb true my good-for-nothing. . "what are you good for, my brave little man? answer that question for me, if you can,-- you, with your fingers as white as a nun,-- you, with your ringlets as bright as the sun. all the day long, with your busy contriving, into all mischief and fun you are driving; see if your wise little noddle can tell what you are good for. now ponder it well." . over the carpet the dear little feet came with a patter to climb on my seat; two merry eyes, full of frolic and glee, under their lashes looked up unto me; two little hands pressing soft on my face, drew me down close in a loving embrace; two rosy lips gave the answer so true, "good to love you, mamma, good to love you." emily huntington miller. lesson xviii. ber'ries strikes rob'in ea'gle short king rid foe dart fails sharp hawk worms ac'tive [illustration: bird perched on branch.] the kingbird. . the kingbird is not bigger than a robin. . he eats flies, and worms, and bugs, and berries. . he builds his nest in a tree, near some house. . when there are young ones in the nest, he sits on the top of a tree near them. . he watches to see that no bird comes to hurt them or their mother. . if a hawk, a crow, or even an eagle comes near, he makes a dash at it. . though he is so small, he is brave, and he is also very active. . he never fails to drive off other birds from his nest. . he flies around and around the eagle, and suddenly strikes him with his sharp bill. . he strikes at his eye, and then darts away before the eagle can catch him. . or he strikes from behind, and is off again before the eagle can turn round. . in a short time, the great eagle is tired of such hard blows, and flies away. he is very glad to get rid of his foe. . is not the little fellow a brave bird? . because he can drive off all other birds, he is called the kingbird. lesson xix. watch'ing gath'ers an'gels be gin' dark'ness a cross' lone'ly beasts [illustration: sunset;lake in foreground, town in background.] evening hymn. . now the day is over, night is drawing nigh, shadows of the evening steal across the sky. . now the darkness gathers, stars begin to peep; birds, and beasts, and flowers soon will be asleep. . through the lonely darkness, may the angels spread their white wings above me, watching round my bed. lesson xx. di vid'ed quar'rel a gree' thus sey'tle set'tling ker'nel e'qual apt parts the quarrel. . under a great tree in the woods, two boys saw a fine, large nut, and both ran to get it. . james got to it first, and picked it up. . "it is mine," said john, "for i was the first to see it." . "no, it is mine" said james, "for i was the first to pick it up." [illustration: three boys standing by a fence, one older than the others.] . thus, they at once began to quarrel about the nut. . as they could not agree whose it should be, they called an older boy, and asked him. . the older boy said, "i will settle this quarrel." . he took the nut, and broke the shell. he then took out the kernel, and divided the shell into two parts, as nearly equal as he could. . "this half of the shell," said he, "belongs to the boy who first saw the nut. . "and this half belongs to the boy who picked it up. . "the kernel of the nut, i shall keep as my pay for settling the quarrel. . "this is the way," said he, laughing, "in which quarrels are very apt to end." lesson xxi. crea'tures drones in'side hive i'dle de fense' driv'en killed cells size work'ers queen stings shape wax the bee. . bees live in a house that is called a hive. they are of three kinds,--workers, drones, and queens. . only one queen can live in each hive. if she is lost or dead, the other bees will stop their work. [illustration: three bee-hives; wooden boxes about two feet square and four feet high, with a sloped roof.] . they are very wise and busy little creatures. they all join together to build cells of wax for their honey. . each bee takes its proper place, and does its own work. some go out and gather honey from the flowers; others stay at home and work inside the hive. . the cells which they build, are all of one shape and size, and no room is left between them. . the cells are not round, but have six sides. . did you ever look into a glass hive to see the bees while at work? it is pleasant to see how busy they always are. . but the drones do not work. before winter comes, all the drones are driven from the hive or killed, that they may not eat the honey which they did not gather. . it is not quite safe for children to handle bees. they have sharp stings that they know well how to use in their defense. slate work. [illustration: script exercise: how doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour. and gather honey all the day from every opening flower! ] lesson xxii. blos'soms drear'y wea'ry pinks smell'ing toil'ing lev'ies buzz fra'grant this'tle weeds scent treas'ure yel'low mead'ow tax sum'mer clo'ver cloud'y dai'sy daf'fo dil lies columbine humming [illustration: flowers] the song of the bee. . buzz! buzz! buzz! this is the song of the bee. his legs are of yellow; a jolly, good fellow, and yet a great worker is he. . in days that are sunny he's getting his honey; in days that are cloudy he's making his wax: on pinks and on lilies, and gay daffodillies, and columbine blossoms, he levies a tax! . buzz! buzz! buzz! the sweet-smelling clover, he, humming, hangs over; the scent of the roses makes fragrant his wings: he never gets lazy; from thistle and daisy, and weeds of the meadow, some treasure he brings. . buzz! buzz! buzz! from morning's first light till the coming of night, he's singing and toiling the summer day through. oh! we may get weary, and think work is dreary; 'tis harder by far to have nothing to do. marian douglas. lesson xxiii. un hap'py prom'ised heed'less be came' grow'ing care'less harsh'ly leav'ing eas'i ly ef fects' an noy' ma'am blame worse torn hard'ly nic'est spend hab'it e'vil [illustration: mother and daughter sitting under a tree.] the torn doll. . mary armstrong was a pretty little girl, but she was heedless about some things. . her way of leaving her books and playthings just where she had used them last, gave her mother much trouble in picking them up and putting them in their proper places. . she had often told mary the evil effects of being so careless. her books became spoiled, and her toys broken. . but worse than this was the growing habit of carelessness, which would be of great harm to her all her life. it would make her unhappy, and would annoy her friends. . one day mary and her mother went out into their pleasant yard, to spend an hour in the open air. mrs. armstrong took her work with her. . mary ran about and played with dash, her pet dog, and was having a happy time. . but in a corner of the yard she found her nicest doll all torn and broken, and its dress covered with mud. . she knew, at once, that dash had done this, and she scolded him harshly. . carrying the broken doll to her mamma. she showed it to her, and could hardly keep from crying. . mrs. armstrong asked mary if she had not left the doll on the porch where dash could easily get it; and mary had to answer, "yes, ma'am." . "then you must not blame the dog, mary, for he does not know it is wrong for him to play with your doll. i hope this will be a lesson to you hereafter, to put your things away when you are through playing." . "i will try," said mary. and her mother promised to mend the doll as well as she could. lesson xxiv. thor'ough ly month dried dyed cuts shear'er sheep those spun dirt oth'er wise wov'en cloth wool rub [illustration: two men shearing sheep.] sheep-shearing. . sheep are washed and sheared some time in the month of june. this should be done quite early in the month, before the hot days begin. . it is fine sport for those who look on, but not much fun for the sheep. . it is best for the sheep to have the wool taken off; otherwise they would suffer in the summer time. . when the time comes for washing the sheep, they are driven to a pond or a little river. . then they are thrown into the water, one at a time. the men who are in the water catch them, and squeeze the wet wool with their hands to get the dirt all out of it. . then the wool is thoroughly dried, the sheep are taken to the shearer; and he cuts off the wool with a large pair of shears. . it is then dyed, spun, and woven into cloth. . in a short time, before the cold winter comes, new wool grows out on the sheep. by the corning of spring there is so much, that it must be cut off again. lesson xxv. bear'ers earth warm sul'try wan'der rays grain clouds o'er we're the clouds . "clouds that wander through the sky, sometimes low and sometimes high; in the darkness of the night, in the sunshine warm and bright. ah! i wonder much if you have any useful work to do." . "yes, we're busy night and day, as o'er the earth we take our way. we are bearers of the rain to the grasses, and flowers, and grain; we guard you from the sun's bright rays, in the sultry summer days." lesson xxvi. peo'ple for'est squir'rel cool near'est tame hol'low snug shoul'der miles sticks gen'tly though pat'ty [illustration: girl sitting under tree, play with squirrel.] patty and the squirrel. . little patty lives in a log house near a great forest. she has no sisters, and her big brothers are away all day helping their father. . but patty is never lonely; for, though the nearest house is miles away, she has many little friends. here are two of them that live in the woods. . but how did patty teach them to be so tame? patty came to the woods often, and was always so quiet and gentle that the squirrels soon found they need not be afraid of her. . she brought her bread and milk to eat under the trees, and was sure to leave crumbs for the squirrels. . when they came near, she sat very still and watched them. so, little by little, she made them her friends, till, at last, they would sit on her shoulder, and eat from her hand. . squirrels build for themselves summer houses. those are made of leaves, and sticks, and moss. they are nice and cool for summer, but would never do for the winter cold and snow. . so these wise little people find a hollow in an old tree. they make it warm and snug with soft moss and leaves; and here the squirrels live all through the long winter. lesson xxvii. fright'ened int end' wheat thom'as com plains' plums choose shock'ing spar'row rip'est rob'bing break'fast plen'ty share treat tales wait [illustration: sparrow perched on snow-covered branch.] the sparrow. . glad to see you, little bird; 'twas your little chirp i heard: what did you intend to say? "give me something this cold day"? . that i will, and plenty, too; all the crumbs i saved for you. don't be frightened--here's a treat: i will wait and see you eat. . shocking tales i hear of you; chirp, and tell me, are they true? robbing all the summer long; don't you think it very wrong? . thomas says you steal his wheat; john complains, his plums you eat-- choose the ripest for your share, never asking whose they are. . but i will not try to know what you did so long ago: there's your breakfast, eat away; come to see me every day. lesson xxviii. aft'er noon sup'per deep length car'riage threw hedge stood tru'ly road few sad [illustration: woman and boy riding in carriage pulled by horse. man in foreground holding gate open for carriage.] sam and harry. . one fine summer afternoon, sam was walking home from school. he went along slowly, reading a book. . sam had spent all his money for the book, but he was a happy boy. . at length he came into the highroad, where there was a gate. a blind man stood, holding it open. . the poor man said, "please give me a few cents to buy some bread!" but sam gave him nothing. . what! did sam give the poor blind man nothing? yes; for, as i told you, he had spent all his money. . so sam walked on, very sad. soon after, a fine carriage came up, and in it were harry and his mother. . the blind man stood, and held out his hat. "let us give the poor man something," said harry to his mother. . his mother gave him some cents. harry took them, but did not put them into the man's hat. . he threw them into the hedge as far as he could. the poor man could not find them, for, you know, ho was blind. . sam had turned back to look at the fine carriage. he saw harry throw the cents into the hedge; so he came back at once, and looked for the money until he found it all for the blind man. . this took so long a time, that he almost lost his supper. . which of the boys do you think was truly kind to the poor man? . i know which he thanked most in his heart. lesson xxix. rip'pling fringe stray thou mill vil'lage brink clear wild hill course bathe tiny pool rill the little hill. . run, run, thou tiny rill; run, and turn the village mill; run, and fill the deep, clear pool in the woodland's shade so cool, where the sheep love best to stray in the sultry summer day; where the wild birds bathe and drink, and the wild flowers fringe the brink. [illustration: mill, with mill pond in foreground.] . run, run, thou tiny rill, round the rocks, and down the hill; sing to every child like me; the birds will join you, full of glee: and we will listen to the song you sing, your rippling course along. lesson xxx. has'tened pos'si ble bal'ance ed'gar save boat'man dan'ger quick'ly move trip stretched sev'er al start'ed folks fell the boat upset. . "sit still, children. do not move about in the boat," said mr. rose to the young folks he was taking for a trip on the water. . the boat was a large one, and could not easily be upset. there were in it mr. and mrs. rose, the boatman, and several little boys and girls. . "keep still, please, young gentlemen," said the boatman, when edgar rose and thomas read began to move from one side to the other. . they kept quiet for a short time only. edgar soon wanted a stick which thomas held in his hand. he lost his balance in trying to get the stick, and fell into the water. [illustration: overturned boat, people clinging to boat and debris. another boat approaching.] . mr. and mrs. rose both started up, and stretched out their arms to save him; but in so doing, they upset the boat. . every one fell into the water, and all were in the greatest danger of being drowned. . another boat was near, with but one man in it. he hastened to them as quickly as possible, and saved them from drowning. . children should always be careful and quiet when they are in a boat on the water, and should obey what older people tell them. lesson xxxi. mary's letter. [illustration: script exercise: forest hill, june , my dear fanny: this morning while out rowing, we all came near being drowned. brother ed, in trying to take a stick from tom reed, tripped and fell out of the boat. papa and mamma caught at him to save him, and before we knew it we were all in the water. the boat upset and how we were all saved i can hardly tell. a man in another boat which was near, picked us up. had it not been for this, you would to-day have no cousin. mary rose. ] lesson xxxii. li'on bod'y stripes de light' eng'lish prey ti'ger col'lar ti'gress fright'ful seize chain un like' swift'est an'i mals roar gi'ant slight'est of'fi cers whisk'ers [illustration: tigress carrying cub away from tent. playing card scattered on ground.] the tiger. . the tiger is a giant cat. his body is nearly covered with black stripes. . unlike the lion, he runs so fast that the swiftest horse can not overtake him. he goes over the ground by making bounds or springs, one after another. . by night, as well as by day, the tiger watches for his prey. with a frightful roar, he will seize a man, and carry him off. . have you ever thought what use whiskers are to cats? lions have great whiskers, and so have tigers and all other animals of the cat kind. . whenever you find an animal with whiskers like the cat's, you may be sure that animal steals softly among branches and thick bushes. . by the slightest touch on the tiger's whiskers, he knows when there is anything in his road. . a few years ago, some english officers went out to hunt. when coming home from their day's sport, they found a little tiger kitten. . they took it with them and tied it, with a collar and chain, to the pole of their tent. it played about, to the delight of all who saw it. . one evening, just as it was growing dark, they heard a sound that frightened them greatly. it was the roar of a tiger. . the kitten pulled at the chain, and tried to break away. with a sharp cry, it answered the voice outside. . all at once, a large tigress bounded into the middle of the tent. she caught her kitten by the neck, and broke the chain which bound it. . then turning to the door of the tent, she dashed away as suddenly as she had come. lesson xxxiii. then u'su al cous'in fire'side sew'ing (so-) ka'tie bet'ter crac'kle knit'ting per haps' jane rea'son to-night' hap'pi er in struct'ive the fireside. . one winter night, mrs. lord and her two little girls sat by a bright fire in their pleasant home. the girls were sewing, and their mother was busy at her knitting. [illustration: mother and two girls sewing under a lamp.] . at last, katie finished her work, and, looking up, said, "mother, i think the fire is brighter than usual. how i love to hear it crackle!" . "and i was about to say," cried mary, "that this is a better light than we had last night." . "my dears," said their mother, "it must be that you feel happier than usual to-night. perhaps that is the reason why you think the fire better, and the light brighter." . "but, mother," said mary, "i do not see why we are happier now than we were then; for last night cousin jane was here, and we played 'puss in the corner' and 'blind man' until we all were tired." . "i know! i know why!" said katie. "it is because we have all been doing something useful to-night. we feel happy because we have been busy." . "you are right, my dear," said their mother. "i am glad you have both learned that there may be something more pleasant than play, and, at the same time, more instructive." lesson xxxiv. dew'drops hop'ping la'zi est bends sung pa'tience in stead' dar'ling ought rest slum'ber my self ' re ply' miss lose birdie's morning song. . wake up, little darling, the birdies are out, and here you are still in your nest! the laziest birdie is hopping about; you ought to be up with the rest. wake up, little darling, wake up! [illustration: three birds perched in bush.] . oh, see what you miss when you slumber so long-- the dewdrops, the beautiful sky! i can not sing half what you lose in my song; and yet, not a word in reply. wake up, little darling, wake up! . i've sung myself quite out of patience with you, while mother bends o'er your dear head; now birdie has done all that birdie can do: her kisses will wake you instead! wake up, little darling, wake up! george cooper. lesson xxxv. sent store bounce float'ing load cir'cle rip'ples catch'ing cake blocks strolled how ev'er willie and bounce. . two fast friends were willie brown and his little dog bounce. willie could never think of taking a walk without bounce. cake and play were equally shared between them. . willie taught his dog many cunning tricks, and often said that bounce could do almost anything in the world but talk. . there came a time, however, when bounce really told willie's father something, though he could not talk. let me tell you how he did this. [illustration: boy and dog walking through forest.] . it was on a bright summer afternoon. willie had strolled with bounce down to the river, which was not more than two blocks from his father's store. . willie began to throw stones into the water, and to watch the ripples as they made one circle after another. . bounce lay on the grass, watching the flies that buzzed around his nose, and catching any that came too near. . there were some logs floating in the river near the shore. willie jumped upon one of them, to see if he could throw a stone across the river. . he drew back, and sent the stone with all his might. just as it left his hand, the log turned, and he fell into the water. . he was very much frightened, for he did not know how to swim, and there was no one to hear, though he called as loud as he could for help. lesson xxxvi. yelp loud'ly against look'ing bark'ing spring clothes o'pened dis'tress scratched willie and bounce. (concluded.) . poor little bounce gave a great yelp of distress. if he had been a big water dog, he could have jumped in and brought his master out. [illustration: boy in water clinging to log. dog yelping.] . he ran up and down the bank two or three times, barking, looking first at willie and then around. then he started, as fast as he could run, up the street to the store. . when he got there the door was shut, but he scratched against it and barked loudly, until some one came and opened it. . he caught hold of mr. brown's clothes, then ran to the door, then back again, catching at him, barking, and jumping. . a friend who was in the store said to mr. brown, "something must be wrong; i would put on my hat, and go with the dog." bounce, seeing mr. brown take his hat, started for the river. . then mr. brown thought of willie. as he came to the river, he saw willie's hat floating on the water, and his small arm thrown up. . he sprang in and caught him just as he was going down for the last time, and quickly carried him to the bank. "willie soon got over his fright, and no one seemed to be more delighted than bounce. [illustration: father carrying boy from water.] lesson xxxvii. talk'a tive im prove' o bli'ging writ'ten tick-tock clock truth'ful it self' kitch'en fear reach'es most [illustration: girl holding younger sister, both watching clock.] the kitchen clock. . listen to the kitchen clock! to itself it ever talks, from its place it never walks; "tick-tock-tick-tock: " tell me what it says. . "i'm a very patient clock, never moved by hope or fear, though i've stood for many a year; tick-tock-tick-tock: " that is what it says. . "i'm a very truthful clock: people say about the place, truth is written on my face; tick-tock-tick-tock: " that is what it says. . "i'm a most obliging clock; if you wish to hear me strike, you may do it when you like; tick-tock-tick-tock: " that is what it says. . "i'm a very friendly clock; for this truth to all i tell, life is short, improve it well; tick-tock-tick-tock: " that is what it says. . what a talkative old clock! let us see what it will do when the hour hand reaches two; "ding-ding--tick-tock: " that is what it says. lesson xxxviii. her'bert or'ange find post inch'es thread beam thick pine next groove scales hole peel gim'let rib'bon [illustration: boy and girl near table holding balance scale.] the new scales. i. "herbert, will you please peel my orange?" said lucy. herbert was reading his new book, but he put it down at once, and took the orange from his little sister. . "shall i make a pair of scales, lucy, for you to use when you play store?" . "oh yes! but how can you do that'!" . "i'll show you. first, we must take the peel off in two little cups, one just as large as the other. while i do this, see if you can find me two nice sticks about ten inches long." . lucy ran out to the woodhouse to find the sticks.--" will these do?" . "no, they are too hard. find some pine sticks if you can." . "here are some." . "these will do nicely. now i must make a scale beam and a post. can you find me a little block for a post, lucy'!" . "will a ribbon block do, herbert?" . "yes, if it is not too thick." . "here is one an inch thick." . "that will be just right. now get the little gimlet." [footnote: gimlet: hand tool with a spiraled shank, a screw tip, and a cross handle; used for boring holes.] . herbert worked away until he had made the beam and the post. then he made a hole in the middle of the block, and put the post in. next, he put the beam into a little groove at the top of the post, so that it would balance nicely. . "now, lucy, we must have a needle and some thread. we must put four threads to each cup; then we will tie the threads to the ends of the beam. . "there, lucy, what do you think of that?" . "why, herbert, that is just as nice as the real scales in father's store; and you may have all my orange for making them." [illustration: orange halves and other parts of the scale.] lesson xxxix. smelt hide crept laid floor inn bear fur young'est danced joy'ful ly marched sol'diers bad'ly run'ning eld'est [illustration: three children and a bear; surprised woman in background.] the bear and the children. . in the parlor of an inn in a small town, sat a man who had been going about with a bear. he was waiting for his supper, and the bear was tied up in the yard. . up in the attic, three little children were playing together. the eldest might have been six years old; the youngest, not more than two. . stump! stump! stump! some one was coming up the stairs. . the door flew open suddenly, and there stood the great, shaggy bear. he had got tired of waiting, and had found his way to the stairs. . the children were badly frightened. each one crept into a corner, but the bear found them all out, and smelt their clothes, but did not hurt them. . "this must be a great dog," they said, and they began to pat him. . then the bear lay down on the floor, and the youngest boy climbed on his back, hid his head in the shaggy fur, and played at "hide and seek." . the eldest boy took his drum and began to strike it, when the bear rose on his hind legs and danced. at that the children gave a merry shout. . the two younger boys took their wooden guns, and gave the bear one. away they all marched around the room, keeping step. . now the frightened mother of the children came to the door. but the youngest boy shouted, joyfully. "see, we are playing soldiers!" . then the bear's master came running up, and took the bear away. lesson xl. fair la'dy drear cling'ing hare'bell fled ne'er de spair' nod'ding bloom'ing [footnote: harebell: perennial with slender stems, dense clusters of leaves, and bell-shaped blue or white flowers -- bluebell.] the little harebell. "tell me, little harebell, are you lonely here. blooming in the shadow on this rock so drear?" "clinging to this bit of earth, as if in mid-air, with your sweet face turned to me, looking strangely fair?" "lady" said the harebell, nodding low its head, "though this spot seem dreary, thought the sunlight's fled. "know that i'm not lonely that i ne'er despair. god is in the shadow god is everywhere." [illustration: flowers on hillside.] lesson xli. rough (ruf) of'ten (of'n) be neath' fierce'ly sea'side twen'ty tim'id ly com pels' rob'ber breast spots mode os'prey hook'ed [illustration: osprey catching fish.] the fishhawk. . the fishhawk, or osprey, is not so large as the eagle; but he has, like the eagle, a hooked bill and sharp claws. . his color is a dark brown, with black and white spots, and his length is from twenty to twenty-two inches. his breast is mostly white. his tail and wings are long. . the fishhawk is often found sitting upon a tree over a pond, or lake, or river. he is also found by the seaside. . he watches the fish as they swim in the water beneath him; then he darts down suddenly and catches one of them. . when he catches a fish in his sharp, rough claws, he carries it off to eat, and, as he flies away with it for his dinner, an eagle sometimes meets him. . the eagle flies at him fiercely with his sharp bill and claws, and compels the hawk to drop the fish. . then the eagle catches the fish as it falls, before it reaches the ground, and carries it off. . the poor fish hawk, with a loud cry, timidly flies away. he must go again to the water and catch another fish for his dinner. . thus you see, that the eagle is a robber. he robs fishhawks, whose only mode of getting a living is by catching fish. lesson xlii. leaf task twice sigh'ing hol'i days gay twig meant stopped dif'fer ent puff edge mat'ter au'tumn hun'dreds lead grew rus'tled oc to'ber trem'bling [illustration: several large trees; fence in foreground.] what the leaf said. . once or twice a little leaf was heard to cry and sigh, as leaves often do, when a gentle wind is blowing. and the twig said, "what is the matter, little leaf?" . "the wind," said the leaf, "just told me that one day it would pull me off, and throw me on the ground to die." . the twig told it to the branch, and the branch told it to the tree. when the tree heard it, it rustled all over, and sent word back to the trembling leaf. . "do not be afraid," it said; "hold on tight, and you shall not go off till you are ready." . so the leaf stopped sighing, and went on singing and rustling. it grew all the summer long till october. and when the bright days of autumn came, the leaf saw all the leaves around growing very beautiful. . some were yellow, some were brown, and many were striped with different colors. then the leaf asked the tree what this meant. . the tree said, "all these leaves are getting ready to fly away, and they have put on these colors because of their joy." . then the little leaf began to want to go, and grew very beautiful in thinking of it. when it was gay in colors, it saw that the branches of the tree had no bright colors on them. . so the leaf said, "o branch! why are you lead- colored while we are all beautiful and golden?" . "we must keep on our working clothes," said the tree, "for our work is not yet done; but your clothes are for holidays, because your task is now over." . just then a little puff of wind came, and the leaf let go without thinking, and the wind took it up and turned it over and over. . then it fell gently down under the edge of the fence, among hundreds of leaves, and has never waked to tell us what it dreamed about. lesson xliii. gold lambs fond'ly crick'et whirl'ing fields leaves flee'cy fare'well cov'er let glade vale dream con tent' flut'ter ing [illustration: large tree.] the wind and the leaves. . "come, little leaves," said the wind one day. "come o'er the meadows with me, and play; put on your dress of red and gold summer is gone, and the days grow cold." . soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call, down they came fluttering, one and all; over the brown fields they danced and flew, singing the soft little songs they knew. . "cricket, good-by, we've been friends so long; little brook, sing us your farewell song,-- say you are sorry to see us go; ah! you will miss us, right well we know. . "dear little lambs, in your fleecy fold, mother will keep you from harm and cold; fondly we've watched you in vale and glade; say, will you dream of our loving shade?" . dancing and whirling, the little leaves went; winter had called them, and they were content. soon fast asleep in their earthy beds, the snow laid a coverlet over their heads. george cooper. lesson xliv. wore green joke jessie pres'ents jol'ly deal trim ex pect' leg'gings mamma's present. . jessie played a good joke on her mamma. this is the way she did it. . jessie had gone to the woods with jamie and joe to get green branches to trim up the house for christmas. she wore her little cap, her white furs, and her red leggings. [illustration: three girls carrying a small christmas tree.] . she was a merry little girl, indeed; but she felt sad this morning because her mother had said, "the children will all have christmas presents, but i don't expect any for myself. we are too poor this year." . when jessie told her brothers this, they all talked about it a great deal. "such a good, kind mamma, and no christmas present! it's too bad." . "i don't like it," said little jessie, with a tear in her eye. . "oh, she has you," said joe. . "but i am not something new," said jessie. . "well, you will be new, jessie," said joe, "when you get back. she has not seen you for an hour." . jessie jumped and laughed. "then put me in the basket, and carry me to mamma, and say, 'i am her christmas present.' " . so they set her in the basket, and put green branches all around her. it was a jolly ride. they set her down on the doorstep, and went in and said, "there's a christmas present out there for you, mamma." . mamma went and looked, and there, in a basket of green branches, sat her own little laughing girl. . "just the very thing i wanted most," said mamma. . "then, dear mamma," said jessie, bounding out of her leafy nest, "i should think it would be christmas for mammas all the time, for they see their little girls every day." lesson xlv. pur'ple plumes pail hap'pened coat shal'low wad'ed charles nap yes'ter day [illustration: two girls playing in water; two boats are beached on the sand behind them.] mary's story. . father, and charles, and lucy, and i went to the beach yesterday. we took our dinner, and stayed all day. . father and charles went out a little way from the shore in a boat, and fished, while lucy and i gathered sea mosses. . we took off our shoes and stockings, and waded into the shallow water. we had a pail to put our seaweeds in. . we found such beautiful ones. some wore purple, some pink, and some brown. when they were spread out in the water, the purple ones looked like plumes, and the brown ones like little trees. . such a funny thing happened to lucy. she slipped on a stone, and down she went into the water. how we both laughed! but the wind and sun soon dried lucy's dress. . then father came and took us in the boat for a row. after that we had a picnic dinner in the woods. . then father spread his coat on the grass, and took a nap while we children played on the beach. lesson xlvi. bid sore smile ralph for get' hay stem shone wick scream tore point pluck thorns snatched [illustration: mother and boy walking in hay field.] ralph wick. . ralph wick was seven years old. in most things he was a fine boy, but he was too apt to cry. . when he could not have what. he wanted, he would cry for it and say, "i will have it." . if he was told that it would hurt him, and he could not have it, he would begin to tease and cry. . one day, he went with his mother into the fields. the sun shone. the grass was cut. the flowers were in bloom. . ralph thought he was, for once, a good boy. a smile was on his face. he wished to do as he was told. . he said, "mother, i will be good now. i will do as you bid me. please let me toss this hay." . "that i will," said his mother. so they threw the hay, as ralph wished, and he was very happy. . "now you must be tired," said his mother. "sit down here, and i will get a nice red rose for you." . "i would like to have one," said ralph. so his mother brought the red rose to him. . "thank you, mother," he said. "but you have a white one, also. please give me that." [illustration: mother and boy sitting in field.] . "no, my dear," said his mother. "see how many thorns it has on its stem. you must not touch it. if you should try to pluck a rose like this, you would be sure to hurt your hand." . when ralph found that he could not have the white rose, he began to scream, and snatched it. but he was soon very sorry. the thorns tore his hand. it was so sore he could not use it for some time. . ralph did not soon forget this. when he wanted what he should not have, his mother would point to his sore hand. he at last learned to do as he was told. lesson xlvii. slope voic'es rush'ing beam'ing track cheeks flood'ing laugh'ter health a glow' coast'ing trudg'ing frost'y is'a bel pleas'ure land'scape [illustration: several children sledding down snowy hill.] coasting down the hill. [illustration: script exercise: frosty is the morning; but the sun is bright, flooding all the landscape with its golden light. hark the sounds of laughter and the voices shrill! see the happy children coasting down the hill. there are tom and charley, and their sister nell; there are john and willie, kate and isabel,-- eyes with pleasure beaming, cheeks with health aglow; bless the merry children, trudging through the snow! now i hear them shouting, "ready! clear the track!" down the slope they're rushing, now they're trotting back. full of fun and frolic, thus they come and go. coating down the hillside, trudging through the snow. ] lesson xlviii. heed sight sly'ly stream drift'ing flock flight snaps hid'den cir'cling the fox and the ducks. . on a summer day, a man sitting on the bank of a river, in the shade of some bushes, watched a flock of ducks on the stream. . soon a branch with leaves came drifting among them, and they all took wing. after circling in the air for a little time, they settled down again on their feeding ground. [illustration: fox watching ducks from a distance.] . soon another branch came drifting down among them, and again they took flight from the river; but when they found the branch had drifted by and done them no harm, they flew down to the water as before. . after four or five branches had drifted by in this way, the ducks gave little heed to them. at length, they hardly tried to fly out of their way, even when the branches nearly touched them. . the man who had been watching all this, now began to wonder who had set these branches adrift. he looked up the stream, and spied a fox slyly watching the ducks. "what will he do next?" thought the man. . when the fox saw that the ducks were no longer afraid of the branches, he took a much larger branch than any he had yet used, and stretched himself upon it so as to be almost hidden. then he set it afloat as he had the others. . right among the flock drifted the sly old fox, and, making quick snaps to right and left, he seized two fine young ducks, and floated off with them. . the rest of the flock flew away in fright, and did not come back for a long time. . the fox must have had a fine dinner to pay him for his cunning, patient work. lesson xlix. saint silk'en sim'ple pov'er ty plain sin'ner spin'ner splen'dor worth stead'y mur'der plan'ning sil'ver ten'der prov'erb re mem'ber [illustration: spider spinning web.] pretty is that pretty does. . the spider wears a plain brown dress, and she is a steady spinner; to see her, quiet as a mouse, going about her silver house, you would never, never, never guess the way she gets her dinner. . she looks as if no thought of ill in all her life had stirred her; but while she moves with careful tread, and while she spins her silken thread, she is planning, planning, planning still the way to do some murder. . my child, who reads this simple lay, with eyes down-dropt and tender, remember the old proverb says that pretty is which pretty does, and that worth does not go nor stay for poverty nor splendor. . 'tis not the house, and not the dress, that makes the saint or sinner. to see the spider sit and spin, shut with her walls of silver in, you would never, never, never guess the way she gets her dinner. alice cary. lesson l. civil pe'ter tow'ser ap pear' a lone' pin'dar per'sons trav'el ers [illustration: man telling story to several children.] the story-teller . peter pindar was a great storyteller. one day, as he was going by the school, the children gathered around him. . they said, "please tell us a story we have never heard." ned said, "'tell us something about boys and dogs." . "well," said peter, "i love to please good children, and, as you all appear civil, i will tell you a new story; and it shall be about a boy and some dogs, as ned asks. . "but before we begin, let us sit down in a cool, shady place. and now, john, you must be as still as a little mouse. mary, you must not let towser bark or make a noise. . "a long way from this place, there is a land where it is very cold, and much snow falls. . "the hills are very high there, and traveler's are often lost among them. there are men there who keep large dogs. these are taught to hunt for people lost in the snow. . "the dogs have so fine a scent, that they can find persons by that alone. . "sometimes it is so dark, that they can not see anything. those who are lost often lie hid in the snowdrifts. " lesson li. lain weak stiff shrill rode bleak [illustration: dog searching on snowy mountain-side for lost traveler.] the story teller (concluded) . "one cold, bleak night, the snow fell fast, and the wind blew loud and shrill. it was quite dark. not a star was to be seen in the sky. . "these good men sent out a dog, to hunt for those who might want help. in an hour or two, the dog was heard coming back. . "on looking out, they saw him with a boy on his back. the poor child was stiff with cold. he could but just hold on to the dog's back. . "he had lain for a long time in the snow, and was too weak to walk. . "he felt something pull him by the coat, and heard the bark of a dog. he put out his hand, and felt the dog. the dog gave him another pull. . "this gave the poor boy some hope, and he took hold of the dog. he drew himself out of the snow, but ho could not stand or walk. . "he got on the dog's back, and put his arms round the dog's neck, and held on. he felt sure that the dog did not mean to do him any harm. . "thus he rode all the way to the good men's house. . "they took care of him, till the snow was gone. then they sent him to his home." lesson lii. oak dusk fight squeak ruf'fled bag fred whoo a wake' creep'ing the owl. . "where did you get that owl, harry?" . "fred and i found him in the old, hollow oak." . "how did you know he was there?" . "i'll tell you. fred and i were playing 'hide and seek' round the old barn, one night just at dusk. . "i was just creeping round the corner, when i heard a loud squeak, and a big bird flew up with something in his claws. . "i called fred, and we watched him as he flew to the woods. fred thought the bird was an owl, and that he had a nest in the old oak. . "the next day we went to look for him, and, sure enough, he was there." . "but how did you catch him? i should think he could fight like a good fellow with that sharp bill." . "he can when he is wide awake; but owls can't see very well in the daytime, and he was taking a nap. . "he opened his great eyes, and ruffled up his feathers, and said, "whoo! whoo!' 'never mind who,' fred said, and slipped him into a bag." lesson liii. while bones scarce'ly mous'er mice rolled sur prised' swal'lows wink'ing com'ic al duck'lings cap'ture [illustration: boy catching owl in tree.] the owl. (concluded.) . "what are you going to do with him, harry?" . "let him go. he doesn't like this cage half so well as his old oak tree. a young owl can be tamed easily, but this one is too old to tame." . "but won't he catch all your ducklings and little chickens?" . "no, not while there are any rats or mice around. father says an owl is a good mouser, and can catch more mice than half a dozen cats." . "i'm glad i had a look at him before you let him go. what soft feathers he has!" . "yes, he can fly so softly that you can scarcely hear him, and for this reason he can easily surprise and capture his prey." . "how comical he looks, winking his big eyes slowly, and turning his head from side to side!" [illustration: two boys talking.] . "yes; he is watching your dog. be still. bounce! . "we have just found out a funny thing about his way of eating. he breaks the bones of a mouse, and then swallows it whole. after an hour or two, he throws up the bones and fur rolled up in a little ball." lesson liv. broad knee fig fresh city trout un der neath' fought (fawt) sur prised' clap'ping gar'den car'ry ing fight'ing [illustration: old man with cane talking to young girl.] grandfather's story. . "come and sit by my knee, jane, and grandfather will tell you a strange story. . "one bright summer day, i was in a garden in a city, with a friend. "we rested underneath a fig tree. the broad leaves were green and fresh. . "we looked up at the ripe, purple figs. and what do you think came down through the branches of the fig tree over our heads?" . "oh, a bird, grandfather, a bird!" said little jane, clapping her hands. . "no, not a bird. it was a fish; a trout, my little girl." . "not a fish, grandfather! a trout come through the branches of a tree in the city'! i am sure you must be in fun." . "no, jane, i tell you the truth. my friend and i were very much surprised to see a fish falling from a fig tree. . "but we ran from under the tree, and saw a fishhawk flying, and an eagle after him. . "the hawk had caught the fish, and was carrying it home to his nest, when the eagle saw it and wanted it. . "they fought for it. the fish was dropped, and they both lost it. so much for fighting!" lesson lv. flow wide steep lakes twin'kling [illustration: lake in foreground; mountain in background.] god is great and good. . i know god made the sun to fill the day with light; he made the twinkling stars to shine all through the night. . he made the hills that rise so very high and steep; he made the lakes and seas, that are so broad and deep. . he made the streams so wide, that flow through wood and vale; he made the rills so small, that leap down hill and dale. . he made each bird that sings so sweetly all the day; he made each flower that springs so bright, so fresh, so gay. . and he who made all these, he made both you and me; oh, let us thank him, then, for great and good is he. lesson lvi. hoe grave knock ex cept' droll hymn prayed cot'tage [illustration: old man holding two little girls.] a good old man. . there once lived an old man in a snug, little cottage. it had two rooms and only two windows. a small garden lay just behind it. . old as the poor man was, he used to work in the fields. often he would come home very tired and weak, with his hoe or spade on his shoulder. . and who do you think met him at the door! mary and jane, his two little grandchildren. . they were too young to work, except to weed in the garden, or bring water from the spring. . in winter, as they were too poor to buy much wood or coal, they had little fire; so they used to sit close together to keep warm. mary would sit on one of the old man's knees, and jane on the other. . sometimes their grandfather would tell them a droll story. sometimes he would teach them a hymn. . he would often talk to them of their father, who had gone to sea, or of their good, kind mother, who was in her grave. every night he prayed god to bless them, and to bring back their father in safety. . the old man grew weaker every year; but the little girls were glad to work for him, who had been so good to them. [illustration: girls and grandfather greeting father at door.] . one cold, windy night, they heard a knock at the door. the little girls ran and opened it. oh, joy to them! there stood their father. . he had been at sea a long time. he had saved some money, and had now come home to stay. . after this the old man did not have to work. his son worked for him, and his grandchildren took care of him. many happy days they spent together. lesson lvii. hoe grave knock ex cept' droll hymn prayed cot'tage the greedy girl. . laura english is a greedy little girl. indeed, she is quite a glutton. do you know what a glutton is? a glutton is one who eats too much, because the food tastes well. . laura's mother is always willing she should have as much to eat as is good for her; but sometimes, when her mother is not watching, she eats so much that it makes her sick. . i do not know why she is so silly. her kitten never eats more than it needs. it leaves the nice bones on the plate, and lies down to sleep when it has eaten enough. . the bee is wiser than laura. it flies all day among the flowers to gather honey, and might eat the whole time if it pleased. but it eats just enough, and carries all the rest to its hive. [illustration: heavy girl eating two apples. plate on floor with food scraps. cat lying on footstool.] . the squirrel eats a few nuts or acorns, and frisks about as gayly as if he had dined at the king's table. . did you ever see a squirrel with a nut in his paws? how bright and lively he looks as he eats it! . if he lived in a house made of acorns, he would never need a doctor. he would not eat an acorn too much. . i do not love little girls who eat too much. do you, my little readers? . i do not think they have such rosy cheeks, or such bright eyes, or such sweet, happy tempers as those who eat less. lesson lviii. lend sa'rah com'fort a shamed' your wil'ling thim'ble else'where us'ing bor'row of fend'ed de pend'ed a place for everything. mary. i wish you would lend me your thimble, sarah. i can never find my own. sarah. why is it, mary, you can never find it? mary. how can i tell? but if you will not lend me yours, i can borrow one elsewhere. sarah. i am willing to lend mine to you, mary. but i would very much like to know why you come to me to borrow so often. [illustration: two girls seated, talking.] mary. because you never lose any of your things, and always know where to find them. sarah. and why do i always know where to find my things? mary. i do not know why, i am sure. if i did know, i might sometimes find my own. sarah. i will tell you the secret. i have a place for everything, and i put everything in its place when i have done using it. mary. o sarah! who wants to run and put away a thing as soon as she has used it, as if her life depended upon it? sarah. our life does not depend upon it, but our comfort does, surely. how much more time will it take to put a thing in its place, than to hunt for it or to borrow whenever you want to use it ? mary. well, sarah, i will never borrow of you again, you may depend upon it. sarah. you are not offended with me, i hope. mary. no, but i am ashamed. before night, i will have a place for everything, and then i will keep everything in its place. you have taught me a lesson that i shall remember. lesson lix. con'stant lead'ing ear lull didst meek hark thee none mild thine nurse ease thy re joice' fret'ful [illustration: mother rocking daughter.] my mother. [illustration: script exercise: hark! my mother's voice i hear, sweet that voice is to my ear; ever soft, it seems to tell, dearest child, i love thee well. love me, mother? yes, i know none can love so well as thou. was it not upon thy breast i was taught to sleep and rest? didst thou not, in hours of pain, lull this head to ease again? with the music of thy voice, bid my little heart rejoice? ever gentle, meek and mild, thou didst nurse thy fretful child. teach these little feet the road leading on to heaven and god. what return then can i make? this fond heart, dear mother take; thine its, in word and thought, thine by constant kindness bought. ] lesson lx. skip'ping mean george gift en gaged' mason el'let the broken window. . george ellet had a bright silver dollar for a new-year gift. . he thought of all the fine things he might buy with it. . the ground was all covered with snow; but the sun shone out bright, and everything looked beautiful. . so george put on his hat, and ran into the street. as he went skipping along, he met some boys throwing snowballs. george soon engaged in the sport. . he sent a ball at james mason, but it missed him, and broke a window on the other side of the street. . george feared some one would come out of the house and find him. so he ran off as fast as he could. [illustration: boy throwing snowball through window.] . as soon as he got round the next corner, george stopped, because he was very sorry for what he had done. . he said to himself, "i have no right to spend my silver dollar, now. i ought to go back, and pay for the glass i broke with my snowball." . he went up and down the street, and felt very sad. he wished very much to buy something nice. he also wished to pay for the broken glass. . at last he said, "it was wrong to break the window, though i did not mean to do it. i will go and pay for it, if it takes all my money, i will try not to be sorry. i do not think the man will hurt me if i pay for the mischief i have done." lesson lxi. mer'chant hon'est ly rang mind part'ner with out' rich bell the broken window. (concluded.) . george started off, and felt much happier for having made up his mind to do what was right. . he rang the doorbell. when the man came out, george said, "sir, i threw a snowball through your window. but i did not intend to do it. i am very sorry, and wish to pay you. here is the dollar my father gave me as a new- year gift." . the gentleman took the dollar, and asked george if he had no more money. george said he had not. "well," said he, "this will do." [illustration: george paying for broken window.] . so, after asking george his name, and where he lived, he called him an honest boy, and shut the door. . george went home at dinner time, with a face as rosy, and eyes as bright, as if nothing had gone wrong. at dinner, mr. ellet asked him what he had bought with his money. . george very honestly told him all about the broken window, and said he felt very well without any money to spend. . when dinner was over, mr. ellet told george to go and look in his cap. he did so, and found two silver dollars there. . the man, whose window had been broken, had been there, and told mr. ellet about it. he gave back george's dollar and another besides. . a short time after this, the man came and told mr. ellet that he wanted a good boy to stay in his store. . as soon as george left school, he went to live with this man, who was a rich merchant. in a few years he became the merchant's partner. lesson lxii. line fig'ure sec'ond grain verse per'fect ly ad vice' im pa'tient stud'y bus'i ly fol'lowed un der stand' [illustration: mother talking to small boy. hour-glass and flowers on table between them.] frank and the hourglass. . frank was a very talkative little boy. he never saw a new thing without asking a great many questions about it. . his mother was very patient and kind. when it was proper to answer his questions, she would do so. . sometimes she would say, "you are not old enough to understand that, my son. when you are ten years old, you may ask me about it, and i will tell you." . when his mother said this, he never teased any more. he knew she always liked to answer him when he asked proper questions. . the first time frank saw an hourglass, he was very much amused; but he did not know what it was. . his mother said, "an hourglass is made in the shape of the figure . the sand is put in at one end, and runs through a small hole in the middle. as much sand is put into the glass as will run through in an hour." . frank watched the little stream of sand. he was impatient, because it would not run faster. "let me shake it, mother," said he; "it is lazy, and will never get through." . "oh yes, it will, my son," said his mother, "the sand moves by little and little, but it moves all the time. . "when you look at the hands of the clock, you think they go very slowly, and so they do; but they never stop. , "while you are at play the sand is running, grain by grain, the hands of the clock are moving, second by second. . "at night, the sand in the hourglass has run through twelve times. the hour hand of the clock has moved all around its great face. . "this because they keep work every minute. they do not stop to think how much they have to do, and how long it will take them to do it." . now, frank's mother wanted him to learn a little hymn; but he said "mother, i can never learn it." . his mother said, "study all the time. never stop to ask how long it will take to learn it. you will be able to say it very soon." . frank followed his mother's advice. he studied line after line, very busily; and in one hour and a half he knew the hymn perfectly. lesson lxiii. sleet cheer'ly cru'el taps free [illustration: road through forest.] march. . in the snowing and the blowing, in the cruel sleet, little flowers begin their growing far beneath our feet. . softly taps the spring, and cheerly,-- "darlings, are you here?" till they answer, "we are nearly, nearly ready, dear." . "where is winter, with his snowing? tell us, spring," they say. then she answers, "he is going, going on his way. . "poor old winter does not love you; but his time is past; soon my birds shall sing above you;-- set you free at last." mary mapes dodge. lesson lxiv. late straw jen'ny snort'ed tem'plar aunt rogue re port' graz'ing di rect'ly ditch act'ed ser'vice sup pose' ca ressed' hired e rect' pricked mo'ment gro'cer ies jenny's call. . "it's of no use, mrs. templar; i have been trying the greater part of an hour to catch that rogue of a horse. she won't be caught." [illustration: man and boy chasing horse.] . such was the report the hired man brought in to mrs. templar one pleasant may morning, when she had been planning a ride. . "i suppose it can not be helped, but i wanted her very much," she said, as she turned away. . "what was it you wanted, mother?" asked jenny templar, a bright, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl of twelve, who had just come into the room. . "fanny," said the mother. "it is such a beautiful morning, i meant to drive down to the village, get some groceries, then call for your aunt ann, have a nice ride up the river road, and bring her home to dinner. . "but father is away for all day, and the men have been trying nearly an hour to catch fanny; one of the men says she can't be caught." . "maybe she can't by him," said jenny, with a merry laugh. "but, get ready, mother; you shall go if you like. i'll catch fanny, and harness her, too." . "why, my child, they say she jumped the ditch three or four times, and acted like a wild creature. you'll only be late at school, and tire yourself for nothing." . "it won't take me long, mother. fanny will come to me," said jenny, cheerily. she put on her wide straw hat, and was off in a moment, down the hill, to the field where the horse was grazing. . the moment fanny heard the rustle of jenny's dress, she pricked up her ears, snorted, and, with head erect, seemed ready to bound away again. [illustration: girl leading horse.] . "fanny! o fanny!" called jenny, and the beautiful creature turned her head. that gentle tone she well knew, and, glad to see her friend, she carne directly to the fence, and rubbed her head on the girl's shoulder. as soon as the gate was opened, she followed jenny to the barn. . the men had treated her roughly, and she remembered it. but she knew and loved the voice that was always kind, and the hand that often fed and caressed her. she gave love for love, and willing service for kindness. lesson lxv. rung da'vy vi'o let re cess' ar range' ferns ma'ple dain'ty lin'gered pret'ti est poor davy. . it was recess time at the village school. the bell had rung, and the children had run out into the bright sunshine, wild with laughter and fun. . all but poor davy. he came out last and very slowly, but he did not laugh. he was in trouble, and the bright, golden sunlight did not make him glad. . he walked across the yard, and sat down on a stone behind the old maple. a little bird on the highest branch sang just to make him laugh. . but davy did not notice it. he was thinking of the cruel words that had been said about his ragged clothes. the tears stole out of his eyes, and ran down his cheeks. [illustration: boy sitting alone under tree in schoolyard. other children playing in background.] . poor davy had no father, and his mother had to work hard to keep him at school. . that night, he went home by the path that led across the fields and through the woods. he still felt sad. . davy did not wish to trouble his mother; so he lingered a while among the trees, and at last threw himself on the green moss under them. [illustration: woman talking to boy.] . just then his teacher came along. she saw who it was, and stopped, saying kindly, "what is the matter, davy?" . he did not speak, but the tears began again to start. . "won't you tell me? perhaps i can help you." . then he told her all his trouble. when he ended, she said, cheerily, "i have a plan, davy, that i think will help you." . "oh, what is it?" he said, sitting up with a look of hope, while a tear fell upon a blue violet. l . "well, how would you like to be a little flower merchant?" . "and earn money?" said davy. "that would be jolly. but where shall i get my flowers?" . "right in these woods, and in the fields," said his teacher. " here are lovely blue violets, down by the brook are white ones, and among the rocks are ferns and mosses. bring them all to my house, and i will help you arrange them." . so, day after day, davy hunted the woods for the prettiest flowers, and the most dainty ferns and mosses. after his teacher had helped to arrange them, he took them to the city that was near, and sold them. . he soon earned money enough to buy new clothes. now the sunshine and the bird's songs make him glad. lesson lxvi. deep flour dough mill'er wheth'er cook a far' dust'y cra'dles grind'ing glow doth val'ley reap'ers a-knead'ing alice's supper. . far down in the valley the wheat grows deep, and the reapers are making the cradles sweep; and this is the song that i hear them sing, while cheery and loud their voices ring: "'tis the finest wheat that ever did grow! and it is for alice's supper--ho! ho!" . far down by the river the old mill stands, and the miller is rubbing his dusty hands; and these are the words of the miller's lay, as he watches the millstones grinding away: "'tis the finest flour that money can buy, and it is for alice's supper--hi! hi!" . downstairs in the kitchen the fire doth glow, and cook is a-kneading the soft, white dough; and this is the song she is singing to-day, as merry and busy she's working away: "'tis the finest dough, whether near or afar, and it is for alice's supper--ha! ha!" [illustration: mother serving supper to small girl seated at table.] . to the nursery now comes mother, at last, and what in her hand is she bringing so fast? 'tis a plateful of something, all yellow and white, and she sings as she comes, with her smile so bright: "'tis the best bread and butter i ever did see, and it is for alice's supper--he! he!" lesson lxvii. tall hung storm pick'et firs north gowns spar'ked roof flakes fair'ies cap'tains a snowstorm. . last night, the cold north wind blew great snow clouds over the sky. not a star, not a bit of blue sky could be seen. . soon the tiny flakes floated softly down, like flocks of little white birds. faster and faster they came, till they filled the air. they made no noise, but they were busy all night long. . they covered all the ground with a soft, white carpet. they hung beautiful plumes on the tall, green firs. the little bushes, they put to sleep in warm nightgowns and caps. [illustration: snow covering house, shed, and road. children playing.] . they hid the paths so that the boys might have the fun of digging new ones. they turned the old picket fence into a row of soldiers, and the gate posts into captains, with tall white hats on. . the old corn basket that was left out by the barn, upside down, they made into a cunning little snow house with a round roof. . when the busy little flakes had done their work, the sun came up to see what they had been about. . he must have been pleased with what he saw, for he smiled such a bright, sweet smile, that the whole white world sparkled as if it were made of little stars. . who would have thought that the black clouds could hide the little fairies that made the earth so beautiful! lesson lxviii. dug roots thump of fense' toad spool heaped smoothed forth a'pron clos'ets dan'de li ons bessie. . one day, bessie thought how nice it would be to have a garden with only wild flowers in it. so into the house she ran to find her aunt annie, and ask her leave to go over on the shady hillside, across the brook, where the wild flowers grew thickest. [illustration: girl planting small garden. toad sitting in garden.] . " yes, indeed, you may go," said aunt annie; "but what will you put the roots and earth in while you are making the garden?" . "oh," said bessie, "i can take my apron." . her aunt laughed, and said, "a basket will be better, i think." so they looked in the closets and the attic, everywhere; but some of the baskets were full, and some broken; not one could they find that would do. . then aunt annie turned out the spools and the bags from a nice large workbasket, and gave that to bessie. "you may have this for your own," she said, "to fill with earth, or flowers, or anything you like." . "oh i thank you," said bessie, and she danced away through the garden. she slipped through the gate, out into the field all starred with dandelions, down in the hollow by the brook, then up on the hillside out of sight among the shady trees. . how she worked that afternoon! she heaped up the dark, rich earth, and smoothed it over with her hands. then she dug up violets, and spring-beauties, and other flowers,--running back and forth, singing all the while. . the squirrels peeped out of their holes at bessie. the birds sang in the branches overhead. thump, came something all at once into the middle of the bed. bessie jumped and upset the basket, and away it rolled down the hill. . how bessie laughed when she saw a big, brown toad winking his bright eyes at her, as if he would say, "no offense, i hope." . just then bessie heard a bell ringing loudly. she knew it was calling her home; but how could she leave her basket? she must look for that first. . "waiting, waiting, waiting," all at once sang a bird out of sight among the branches; "waiting, bessie." . "sure enough," said bessie; "perhaps i'm making dear mother or auntie wait; and they are so good to me. i'd better let the basket wait. take care of it, birdie; and don't jump on my flowers, mr. toad." lesson lxix. visit soaked o be'di ent ru'ined [illustration: girl on couch looking out window.] bessie. (concluded.) . she was back at the house in a few minutes, calling, "mother! mother! auntie! who wants me?" . "i, dear," said her mother. "i am going away for a long visit, and if you had not come at once, i could not have said good-by to my little girl." . then bessie's mother kissed her, and told her to obey her kind aunt while she was gone. . the next morning, bessie waked to find it raining hard. she went into her aunt's room with a very sad face. "o auntie! this old rain!" , "this new, fresh, beautiful rain, bessie! how it will make our flowers grow, and what a good time we can have together in the house!" . "i know it, auntie; but you will think me so careless!" . "to let it rain?" . "no; don't laugh, aunt annie; to leave your nice basket out of doors all night; and now it will be soaked and ruined in this--this--beautiful rain." bessie did not look as if the beautiful rain made her very happy. . "you must be more careful, dear, another time," said her aunt, gently. "but come, tell me all about it." . so bessie crept very close to her auntie's side, and told her of her happy time the day before; of the squirrel, and the toad, and how the basket rolled away down the hill; and then how the bell rang, and she could not stop to find the basket. . "and you did quite right," said her aunt. "if you had stopped, your mother must have waited a whole day, or else gone without seeing you. when i write, i will tell her how obedient you were, and that will please her more than anything else i can say." lesson lxx. sought sure'ly (shu) wel'come light'some loft'y maid'en cher'ished in tro duce' cheerfulness. [illustration: script exercise: there is a little maiden-- who is she? do you know? who always has a welcome, wherever she may go. her face is like the may time, her voice is like the bird's; the sweetest of all music is in her lightsome words. each spot she makes the brighter, as if she were the sun; and she is sought and cherished and loved by everyone; by old folks and by children, by loft and by low; who is this little maiden? does anybody know? you surely must have met her. you certainly can guess; what! i must introduce her? her name is cheeerfulness. marian douglas ] lesson lxxi. west'ern breathe dy'ing moon babe sails lullaby. . sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea, low, low, breathe and blow, wind of the western sea! over the rolling waters go, come from the dying moon, and blow, blow him again to me; while my little one, while my pretty one sleeps. . sleep and rest, sleep and rest, father will come to thee soon; rest, rest, on mother's breast, father will come to thee soon; father will come to his babe in the nest, silver sails all out of the west, under the silver moon; sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. tennyson. dictionary of the vulgar tongue. a dictionary of buckish slang, university wit, and pickpocket eloquence. unabridged from the original edition with a foreword by robert cromie compiled originally by captain grose. and now considerably altered and enlarged, with the modern changes and improvements, by a member of the whip club. assisted by hell-fire dick, and james gordon, esqrs. of cambridge; and william soames, esq. of the hon. society of newman's hotel. preface. the merit of captain grose's dictionary of the vulgar tongue has been long and universally acknowledged. but its circulation was confined almost exclusively to the lower orders of society: he was not aware, at the time of its compilation, that our young men of fashion would at no very distant period be as distinguished for the vulgarity of their jargon as the inhabitants of newgate; and he therefore conceived it superfluous to incorporate with his work the few examples of fashionable slang that might occur to his observation. but our jehus of rank have a phraseology not less peculiar to themselves, than the disciples of barrington: for the uninitiated to understand their modes of expression, is as impossible as for a buxton to construe the greek testament. to sport an upper benjamin, and to swear with a good grace, are qualifications easily attainable by their cockney imitators; but without the aid of our additional definitions, neither the cits of fish-street, nor the boors of brentford would be able to attain the language of whippism. we trust, therefore, that the whole tribe of second-rate bang ups, will feel grateful for our endeavour to render this part of the work as complete as possible. by an occasional reference to our pages, they may be initiated into all the peculiarities of language by which the man of spirit is distinguished from the man of worth. they may now talk bawdy before their papas, without the fear of detection, and abuse their less spirited companions, who prefer a good dinner at home to a glorious up-shot in the highway, without the hazard of a cudgelling. but we claim not merely the praise of gratifying curiosity, or affording assistance to the ambitious; we are very sure that the moral influence of the lexicon balatronicum will be more certain and extensive than that of any methodist sermon that has ever been delivered within the bills of mortality. we need not descant on the dangerous impressions that are made on the female mind, by the remarks that fall incidentally from the lips of the brothers or servants of a family; and we have before observed, that improper topics can with our assistance be discussed, even before the ladies, without raising a blush on the cheek of modesty. it is impossible that a female should understand the meaning of twiddle diddles, or rise from table at the mention of buckinger's boot. besides, pope assures us, that "vice to be hated needs but to be seen;" in this volume it cannot be denied, that she is seen very plainly; and a love of virtue is, therefore, the necessary result of perusing it. the propriety of introducing the university slang will be readily admitted; it is not less curious than that of the college in the old bailey, and is less generally understood. when the number and accuracy of our additions are compared with the price of the volume, we have no doubt that its editors will meet with the encouragement that is due to learning, modesty, and virtue. dictionary of the vulgar tongue. abbess, or lady abbess, a bawd, the mistress of a brothel. abel-wackets. blows given on the palm of the hand with a twisted handkerchief, instead of a ferula; a jocular punishment among seamen, who sometimes play at cards for wackets, the loser suffering as many strokes as he has lost games. abigail. a lady's waiting-maid. abram. naked. cant. abram cove. a cant word among thieves, signifying a naked or poor man; also a lusty, strong rogue. abram men. pretended mad men. to sham abram. to pretend sickness. academy, or pushing school. a brothel. the floating academy; the lighters on board of which those persons are confined, who by a late regulation are condemned to hard labour, instead of transportation.--campbell's academy; the same, from a gentleman of that name, who had the contract for victualling the hulks or lighters. ace of spades. a widow. accounts. to cast up one's accounts; to vomit. acorn. you will ride a horse foaled by an acorn, i.e. the gallows, called also the wooden and three-legged mare. you will be hanged.--see three-legged mare. act of parliament. a military term for small beer, five pints of which, by an act of parliament, a landlord was formerly obliged to give to each soldier gratis. acteon. a cuckold, from the horns planted on the head of acteon by diana. active citizen. a louse. adam's ale. water. adam tiler. a pickpocket's associate, who receives the stolen goods, and runs off with them. cant. addle pate. an inconsiderate foolish fellow. addle plot. a spoil-sport, a mar-all. admiral of the blue, who carries his flag on the main-mast. a landlord or publican wearing a blue apron, as was formerly the custom among gentlemen of that vocation. admiral of the narrow seas. one who from drunkenness vomits into the lap of the person sitting opposite to him. sea phrase. adrift. loose, turned adrift, discharged. sea phrase. aegrotat, (cambridge), a certificate from the apothecary that you are indisposed, (i. e.) to go to chapel. he sports an aegrotat, he is sick, and unable to attend chapel. or hall. it does not follow, however, but that he can strum a piece, or sport a pair of oars. affidavit men. knights of the post, or false witnesses, said to attend westminster hall, and other courts of justice, ready to swear any thing for hire. after-clap. a demand after the first given in has been discharged; a charge for pretended omissions; in short, any thing disagreeable happening after all consequences of the cause have been thought at an end. against the grain. unwilling. it went much against the grain with him, i.e. it was much against his inclination, or against his pluck. agog, all-a-gog. anxious, eager, impatient: from the italian agogare, to desire eagerly. aground. stuck fast, stopped, at a loss, ruined; like a boat or vessel aground. air and exercise. he has had air and exercise, i.e. he has been whipped at the cart's tail; or, as it is generally, though more vulgarly, expressed, at the cart's a-se. alderman. a roasted turkey garnished with sausages; the latter are supposed to represent the gold chain worn by those magistrates. aldgate. a draught on the pump at aldgate; a bad bill of exchange, drawn on persons who have no effects of the drawer. ale draper. an alehouse keeper. ale post. a may-pole. all-a-mort. struck dumb, confounded. what, sweet one, all-a-mort? shakespeare. all holiday. it is all holiday at peckham, or it is all holiday with him; a saying signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of or alluded to. all hollow. he was beat all hollow, i.e. he had no chance of conquering: it was all hollow, or a hollow thing, it was a decided thing from the beginning. see hollow. all nations. a composition of all the different spirits sold in a dram-shop, collected in a vessel into which the drainings of the bottles and quartern pots are emptied. alls. the five alls is a country sign, representing five human figures, each having a motto under him. the first is a king in his regalia; his motto, i govern all: the second, a bishop in pontificals; motto, i pray for all: third, a lawyer in his gown; motto, i plead for all: fourth: a soldier in his regimentals, fully accoutred; motto, i fight for all: fifth, a poor countryman with his scythe and rake; motto, i pay for all. altamel. a verbal or lump account, without particulars, such as is commonly produced at bawdy-houses, spunging-houses, &c. vide dutch reckoning. altitudes. the man is in his altitudes, i.e. he is drunk. ambassador. a trick to duck some ignorant fellow or landsman, frequently played on board ships in the warm latitudes. it is thus managed: a large tub is filled with water, and two stools placed on each side of it. over the whole is thrown a tarpaulin, or old sail: this is kept tight by two persons, who are to represent the king and queen of a foreign country, and are seated on the stools. the person intended to be ducked plays the ambassador, and after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated to him, is led in great form up to the throne, and seated between the king and queen, who rising suddenly as soon as he is seated, he falls backwards into the tub of water. ambassador of morocco. a shoemaker. (see mrs. clarke's examination.) ambidexter. a lawyer who takes fees from both plaintiff and defendant, or that goes snacks with both parties in gaming. amen curler. a parish clerk. amen. he said yes and amen to every thing; he agreed to every thing. aminadab. a jeering name for a quaker. ames ace. within ames ace; nearly, very near. to amuse. to fling dust or snuff in the eyes of the person intended to be robbed; also to invent some plausible tale, to delude shop-keepers and others, thereby to put them off their guard. cant. amusers. rogues who carried snuff or dust in their pockets, which they threw into the eyes of any person they intended to rob; and running away, their accomplices (pretending to assist and pity the half-blinded person) took that opportunity of plundering him. anabaptist. a pickpocket caught in the fact, and punished with the discipline of the pump or horse-pond. anchor. bring your a-se to an anchor, i.e. sit down. to let go an anchor to the windward of the law; to keep within the letter of the law. sea wit. anglers. pilferers, or petty thieves, who, with a stick having a hook at the end, steal goods out of shop-windows, grates, &c.; also those who draw in or entice unwary persons to prick at the belt, or such like devices. angling for farthings. begging out of a prison window with a cap, or box, let down at the end of a long string. ankle. a girl who is got with child, is said to have sprained her ankle. anodyne necklace. a halter. anthony or tantony pig. the favourite or smallest pig in the litter.--to follow like a tantony pig, i.e. st. anthony's pig; to follow close at one's heels. st. anthony the hermit was a swineherd, and is always represented with a swine's bell and a pig. some derive this saying from a privilege enjoyed by the friars of certain convents in england and france (sons of st. anthony), whose swine were permitted to feed in the streets. these swine would follow any one having greens or other provisions, till they obtained some of them; and it was in those days considered an act of charity and religion to feed them. to knock anthony. said of an in-kneed person, or one whose knees knock together; to cuff jonas. see jonas. ape leader. an old maid; their punishment after death, for neglecting increase and multiply, will be, it is said, leading apes in hell. apostles. to manoeuvre the apostles, i.e. rob peter to pay paul; that is, to borrow money of one man to pay another. apostles. (cambridge.) men who are plucked, refused their degree. apothecary. to talk like an apothecary; to use hard or gallipot words: from the assumed gravity and affectation of knowledge generally put on by the gentlemen of this profession, who are commonly as superficial in their learning as they are pedantic in their language. apothecary's bill. a long bill. apothecary's, or law latin. barbarous latin, vulgarly called dog latin, in ireland bog latin. apple cart. down with his apple-cart; knock or throw him down. apple dumplin shop. a woman's bosom. apple-pye bed. a bed made apple-pye fashion, like what is called a turnover apple-pye, where the sheets are so doubled as to prevent any one from getting at his length between them: a common trick played by frolicsome country lasses on their sweethearts, male relations, or visitors. april fool. any one imposed on, or sent on a bootless errand, on the first of april; which day it is the custom among the lower people, children, and servants, by dropping empty papers carefully doubled up, sending persons on absurd messages, and such like contrivances, to impose on every one they can, and then to salute them with the title of april fool. this is also practised in scotland under the title of hunting the gowke. apron string hold. an estate held by a man during his wife's life. aqua pumpaginis. pump water. apothecaries latin. arbor vitae. a man's penis. arch duke. a comical or eccentric fellow. arch rogue, dimber damber upright man. the chief of a gang of thieves or gypsies. arch dell, or arch doxy, signifies the same in rank among the female canters or gypsies. ard. hot. cant. armour. in his armour, pot valiant: to fight in armour; to make use of mrs. philips's ware. see c--d--m. ark. a boat or wherry. let us take an ark and winns, let us take a sculler. cant. ark ruffians. rogues who, in conjunction with watermen, robbed, and sometimes murdered, on the water, by picking a quarrel with the passengers in a boat, boarding it, plundering, stripping, and throwing them overboard, &c. a species of badger. cant. arrah now. an unmeaning expletive, frequently used by the vulgar irish. ars musica. a bum fiddle. arse. to hang an arse; to hang back, to be afraid to advance. he would lend his a-e and sh-te through his ribs; a saying of any one who lends his money inconsiderately. he would lose his a-e if it was loose; said of a careless person. a-e about; turn round. arsy yarsey. to fall arsy varsey, i.e. head over heels. arthur, king arthur, a game used at sea, when near the line, or in a hot latitude. it is performed thus: a man who is to represent king arthur, ridiculously dressed, having a large wig made out of oakum, or some old swabs, is seated on the side, or over a large vessel of water. every person in his turn is to be ceremoniously introduced to him, and to pour a bucket of water over him, crying, hail, king arthur! if during this ceremony the person introduced laughs or smiles (to which his majesty endeavours to excite him, by all sorts of ridiculous gesticulations), he changes place with, and then becomes, king arthur, till relieved by some brother tar, who has as little command over his muscles as himself. articles. breeches; coat, waistcoat, and articles. article. a wench. a prime article. a handsome girl. she's a prime article (whip slang), she's a devilish good piece, a hell of a goer. ask, or ax my a-e. a common reply to any question; still deemed wit at sea, and formerly at court, under the denomination of selling bargains. see bargain. assig. an assignation. athanasian wench, or quicunque vult. a forward girl, ready to oblige every man that shall ask her. aunt. mine aunt; a bawd or procuress: a title of eminence for the senior dells, who serve for instructresses, midwives, &c. for the dells. cant. see dells. avoir du pois lay. stealing brass weights off the counters of shops. cant. autem. a church. autem bawler. a parson. cant. autem cacklers, autem prickears. dissenters of every denomination. cant. autem cackletub. a conventicle or meeting-house for dissenters. cant. autem dippers. anabaptists. cant. autem divers. pickpockets who practice in churches; also churchwardens and overseers of the poor. cant. autem goglers. pretended french prophets. cant. autem mort. a married woman; also a female beggar with several children hired or borrowed to excite charity. cant. autem quavers. quakers. autem quaver tub. a quakers' meeting-house. cant. awake. acquainted with, knowing the business. stow the books, the culls are awake; hide the cards, the fellows know what we intended to do. babes in the wood. criminals in the stocks, or pillory. babble. confused, unintelligible talk, such as was used at the building the tower of babel. back biter. one who slanders another behind his back, i.e. in his absence. his bosom friends are become his back biters, said of a lousy man. backed. dead. he wishes to have the senior, or old square-toes, backed; he longs to have his father on six men's shoulders; that is, carrying to the grave. back up. his back is up, i.e. he is offended or angry; an expression or idea taken from a cat; that animal, when angry, always raising its back. an allusion also sometimes used to jeer a crooked man; as, so, sir, i see somebody has offended you, for your back is up. bacon. he has saved his bacon; he has escaped. he has a good voice to beg bacon; a saying in ridicule of a bad voice. bacon-faced. full-faced. bacon fed. fat, greasy. back gammon player. a sodomite. back door (usher, or gentleman of the). the same. bad bargain. one of his majesty's bad bargains; a worthless soldier, a malingeror. see malingeror. badge. a term used for one burned in the hand. he has got his badge, and piked; he was burned in the hand, and is at liberty. cant. badge-coves. parish pensioners. cant. badgers. a crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered. cant. bag. he gave them the bag, i.e. left them. bag of nails. he squints like a bag of nails; i. e. his eyes are directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails. the old bag of nails at pimlico; originally the bacchanals. baggage. heavy baggage; women and children. also a familiar epithet for a woman; as, cunning baggage, wanton baggage, &c. bakers dozen. fourteen; that number of rolls being allowed to the purchasers of a dozen. baker-knee'd. one whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough. balderdash. adulterated wine. ballocks. the testicles of a man or beast; also a vulgar nick name for a parson. his brains are in his ballocks, a cant saying to designate a fool. balum rancum. a hop or dance, where the women are all prostitutes. n. b. the company dance in their birthday suits. balsam. money. bam. a jocular imposition, the same as a humbug. see humbug. to bam. to impose on any one by a falsity; also to jeer or make fun of any one. to bamboozle. to make a fool of any one, to humbug or impose on him. banaghan. he beats banaghan; an irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories. perhaps banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous. bandbox. mine a-se on a bandbox; an answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is proffered, like offering a bandbox for a seat. banbury story of a cock and a bull. a roundabout, nonsensical story. bandog. a bailiff or his follower; also a very fierce mastiff: likewise, a bandbox. cant. bang up. (whip.) quite the thing, hellish fine. well done. compleat. dashing. in a handsome stile. a bang up cove; a dashing fellow who spends his money freely. to bang up prime: to bring your horses up in a dashing or fine style: as the swell's rattler and prads are bang up prime; the gentleman sports an elegant carriage and fine horses. to bang. to beat. banging. great; a fine banging boy. bang straw. a nick name for a thresher, but applied to all the servants of a farmer. bankrupt cart. a one-horse chaise, said to be so called by a lord chief justice, from their being so frequently used on sunday jaunts by extravagant shop-keepers and tradesmen. banks's horse. a horse famous for playing tricks, the property of one banks. it is mentioned in sir walter raleigh's hist. of the world, p. ; also by sir kenelm digby and ben jonson. bantling. a young child. banyan day. a sea term for those days on which no meat is allowed to the sailors: the term is borrowed from the banyans in the east indies, a cast that eat nothing that had life. baptized, or christened. rum, brandy, or any other spirits, that have been lowered with water. barber's chair. she is as common as a barber's chair, in which a whole parish sit to be trimmed; said of a prostitute. barber's sign. a standing pole and two wash balls. bargain. to sell a bargain; a species of wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of queen anne, and frequently alluded to by dean swift, who says the maids of honour often amused themselves with it. it consisted in the seller naming his or her hinder parts, in answer to the question, what? which the buyer was artfully led to ask. as a specimen, take the following instance: a lady would come into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, it is white, and follows me! on any of the company asking, what? she sold him the bargain, by saying, mine a-e. bargees. (cambridge.) barge-men on the river. barker. the shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about monmouth-street, who walks before his master's door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of--clothes, coats, or gowns--what d'ye want, gemmen?--what d'ye buy? see bow-wow shop. barkshire. a member or candidate for barkshire, said of one troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking. barking irons. pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow or barking of a dog. irish. barn. a parson's barn; never so full but there is still room, for more. bit by a barn mouse, tipsey, probably from an allusion to barley. barnaby. an old dance to a quick movement. see cotton, in his virgil travesti; where, speaking of eolus he has these lines, bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly, and make the world dance barnaby. barnacle. a good job, or snack easily got: also shellfish growing at the bottoms of ships; a bird of the goose kind; an instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the noses of vicious horses whilst shoeing; a nick name for spectacles, and also for the gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses. barrel fever. he died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking. barrow man. a man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt. bartholomew baby. a person dressed up in a tawdry manner, like the dolls or babies sold at bartholomew fair. basket. an exclamation frequently made use of in cock-pits, at cock-fightings, where persons refusing or unable to pay their losings, are adjudged by that respectable assembly to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there to remain during that day's diversion: on the least demur to pay a bet, basket is vociferated in terrorem. he grins like a basket of chips: a saying of one who is on the broad grin. basket-making. the good old trade of basket-making; copulation, or making feet for children's stockings. bastard. the child of an unmarried woman. bastardly gullion. a bastard's bastard. to baste. to beat. i'll give him his bastings, i'll beat him heartily. basting. a beating. bastonading. beating any one with a stick; from baton, a stick, formerly spelt baston. bat. a low whore: so called from moving out like bats in the dusk of the evening. batch. we had a pretty batch of it last night; we had a hearty dose of liquor. batch originally means the whole quantity of bread baked at one time in an oven. battner. an ox: beef being apt to batten or fatten those that eat it. the cove has hushed the battner; i.e. has killed the ox. batchelor's fare. bread and cheese and kisses. batchelor's son. a bastard. battle-royal. a battle or bout at cudgels or fisty-cuffs, wherein more than two persons are engaged: perhaps from its resemblance, in that particular, to more serious engagements fought to settle royal disputes. bawbee. a halfpenny. scotch. bawbels, or bawbles. trinkets; a man's testicles. bawd. a female procuress. bawdy basket. the twenty-third rank of canters, who carry pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but live mostly by stealing. cant. bawdy-house bottle. a very small bottle; short measure being among the many means used by the keepers of those houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood: indeed this is one of the least reprehensible; the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for his money, the kinder they behave to him. bay fever. a term of ridicule applied to convicts, who sham illness, to avoid being sent to botany bay. bayard of ten toes. to ride bayard of ten toes, is to walk on foot. bayard was a horse famous in old romances, beak. a justice of-peace, or magistrate. also a judge or chairman who presides in court. i clapp'd my peepers full of tears, and so the old beak set me free; i began to weep, and the judge set me free. bean. a guinea. half bean; half a guinea. bear. one who contracts to deliver a certain quantity of sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got, like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin before the bear was killed. as the bear sells the stock he is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not money to pay for; but in case of any alteration in the price agreed on, either party pays or receives the difference. exchange alley. bear-garden jaw or discourse. rude, vulgar language, such as was used at the bear-gardens. bear leader. a travelling tutor. beard splitter. a man much given to wenching. bearings. i'll bring him to his bearings; i'll bring him to reason. sea term. beast. to drink like a beast, i.e. only when thirsty. beast with two backs. a man and woman in the act of copulation. shakespeare in othello. beater cases. boots. cant. beau-nasty. a slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty. beau trap. a loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and on being trod upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of white stockings; also a sharper neatly dressed, lying in wait for raw country squires, or ignorant fops. becalmed. a piece of sea wit, sported in hot weather. i am becalmed, the sail sticks to the mast; that is, my shirt sticks to my back. his prad is becalmed; his horse knocked up. beck. a beadle. see hermanbeck. bed. put to bed with a mattock, and tucked up with a spade; said of one that is dead and buried. you will go up a ladder to bed, i.e. you will be hanged. in many country places, persons hanged are made to mount up a ladder, which is afterwards turned round or taken away, whence the term, "turned off." bedfordshire. i am for bedfordshire, i.e. for going to bed. bedizened. dressed out, over-dressed, or awkwardly ornamented. bed-maker. women employed at cambridge to attend on the students, sweep his room, &c. they will put their hands to any thing, and are generally blest with a pretty family of daughters: who unmake the beds, as fast as they are made by their mothers. beef. to cry beef; to give the alarm. they have cried beef on us. cant.--to be in a man's beef; to wound him with a sword. to be in a woman's beef; to have carnal knowledge of her. say you bought your beef of me, a jocular request from a butcher to a fat man, implying that he credits the butcher who serves him. beef eater. a yeoman of the guards, instituted by henry vii. their office was to stand near the bouffet, or cupboard, thence called bouffetiers, since corrupted to beef eaters. others suppose they obtained this name from the size of their persons, and the easiness of their duty, as having scarce more to do than to eat the king's beef. beetle-browed. one having thick projecting eyebrows. beetle-headed. dull, stupid. beggar maker. a publican, or ale-house keeper. beggar's bullets. stones. the beggar's bullets began to fly, i.e. they began to throw stones. beilby's ball. he will dance at beilby's ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged. who mr. beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called, remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosopher's stone, and divers other desiderata yet undiscovered. belch. all sorts of beer; that liquor being apt to cause eructation. belcher. a red silk handkerchief, intermixed with yellow and a little black. the kiddey flashes his belcher; the young fellow wears a silk handkerchief round his neck. bell, book, and candle. they cursed him with bell, book, and candle; an allusion to the popish form of excommunicating and anathematizing persons who had offended the church. to bear the bell. to excel or surpass all competitors, to be the principal in a body or society; an allusion to the fore horse or leader of a team, whose harness is commonly ornamented with a bell or bells. some suppose it a term borrowed from an ancient tournament, where the victorious knights bore away the belle or fair lady. others derive it from a horse-race, or other rural contentions, where bells were frequently given as prizes. bellows. the lungs. bellower. the town crier. bellowser. transportation for life: i.e. as long. belly. his eye was bigger than his belly; a saying of a person at a table, who takes more on his plate than he can eat. bellyfull. a hearty beating, sufficient to make a man yield or give out. a woman with child is also said to have got her belly full. belly cheat. an apron. belly plea. the plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by female felons capitally convicted, which they take care to provide for, previous to their trials; every gaol having, as the beggar's opera informs us, one or more child getters, who qualify the ladies for that expedient to procure a respite. belly timber. food of all sorts. bell swagger. a noisy bullying fellow. bellwether. the chief or leader of a mob; an idea taken from a flock of sheep, where the wether has a bell about his neck. bene. good--benar. better. cant. bene bowse. good beer, or other strong liquor. cant. bene cove. a good fellow. cant. bene darkmans. goodnight. cant. bene fearers. counterfeiters of bills. cant. bene feakers of gybes. counterfeiters of passes. cant. beneshiply. worshipfully. cant. ben. a fool. cant. benish. foolish. benison. the beggar's benison: may your ***** and purse never fail you. bermudas. a cant name for certain places in london, privileged against arrests, like the mint in southwark, ben. jonson. these privileges are abolished. bess, or betty. a small instrument used by house-breakers to force open doors. bring bess and glym; bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lantern. small flasks, like those for florence wine, are also called betties. bess. see brown bess. best. to the best in christendom: i.e. the best **** in christendom; a health formerly much in vogue. bet. a wager.--to bet. to lay a wager. betty martin. that's my eye, betty martin; an answer to any one that attempts to impose or humbug. betwattled. surprised, confounded, out of one's senses; also bewrayed. bever. an afternoon's luncheon; also a fine hat; beaver's fur making the best hats, beverage. garnish money, or money for drink, demanded of any one having a new suit of clothes. bible. a boatswain's great axe. sea term. bible oath. supposed by the vulgar to be more binding than an oath taken on the testament only, as being the bigger book, and generally containing both the old and new testament. biddy, or chick-a-biddy. a chicken, and figuratively a young wench. bidet, commonly pronounced biddy. a kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash themselves, for which purpose they bestride it like a french poney, or post-horse, called in french bidets. bienly. excellently. she wheedled so bienly; she coaxed or flattered so cleverly. french. bill at sight. to pay a bill at sight; to be ready at all times for the venereal act. bilboa. a sword. bilboa in spain was once famous for well-tempered blades: these are quoted by falstaff, where he describes the manner in which he lay in the buck-basket. bilboes, the stock; prison. cant. to bilk. to cheat. let us bilk the rattling cove; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare. cant. bilking a coachman, a box-keeper, and a poor whore, were formerly, among men of the town, thought gallant actions. bill of sale. a widow's weeds. see house to let. billingsgate language. foul language, or abuse. billingsgate is the market where the fishwomen assemble to purchase fish; and where, in their dealings and disputes, they are somewhat apt to leave decency and good manners a little on the left hand. bing. to go. cant. bing avast; get you gone. binged avast in a darkmans; stole away in the night. bing we to rumeville: shall we go to london? bingo. brandy or other spirituous liquor. cant. bingo boy. a dram drinker. cant. bingo mort. a female dram drinker. cant. binnacle word. a fine or affected word, which sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up on the binnacle. bird and baby. the sign of the eagle and child. bird-witted. inconsiderate, thoughtless, easily imposed on. birds of a feather. rogues of the same gang. birth-day suit. he was in his birth-day suit, that is, stark naked. bishop. a mixture of wine and water, into which is put a roasted orange. also one of the largest of mrs. philips's purses, used to contain the others. bishoped, or to bishop. a term used among horse-dealers, for burning the mark into a horse's tooth, after he has lost it by age; by bishoping, a horse is made to appear younger than he is. it is a common saying of milk that is burnt too, that the bishop has set his foot in it. formerly, when a bishop passed through a village, all the inhabitants ran out of their houses to solicit his blessing, even leaving their milk, &c. on the fire, to take its chance: which, went burnt to, was said to be bishoped. to bishop the balls, a term used among printers, to water them. bit. money. he grappled the cull's bit; he seized the man's money. a bit is also the smallest coin in jamaica, equal to about sixpence sterling. bitch. a she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an english woman, even more provoking than that of whore, as may he gathered from the regular billinsgate or st. giles's answer--"i may be a whore, but can't be a bitch." to bitch. to yield, or give up an attempt through fear. to stand bitch; to make tea, or do the honours of the tea-table, performing a female part: bitch there standing for woman, species for genius. bitch booby. a country wench. military term. bite. a cheat; also a woman's privities. the cull wapt the mort's bite; the fellow enjoyed the wench heartily. cant. to bite. to over-reach, or impose; also to steal.--cant.--biting was once esteemed a kind of wit, similar to the humbug. an instance of it is given in the spectator: a man under sentence of death having sold his body to a surgeon rather below the market price, on receiving the money, cried, a bite! i am to be hanged in chains.--to bite the roger; to steal a portmanteau. to bite the wiper, to steal a handkerchief. to bite on the bridle; to be pinched or reduced to difficulties. hark ye, friend, whether do they bite in the collar or the cod-piece? water wit to anglers. biter. a wench whose **** is ready to bite her a-se; a lascivious, rampant wench. blab. a tell-tale, or one incapable of keeping a secret black and white. in writing. i have it in black and white; i have written evidence. black art. the art of picking a lock. cant. black a-se. a copper or kettle. the pot calls the kettle black a-se. cant. black book. he is down in the black book, i.e. has a stain in his character. a black book is keep in most regiments, wherein the names of all persons sentenced to punishment are recorded. black box. a lawyer. cant. black eye. we gave the bottle a black eye, i.e. drank it almost up. he cannot say black is the white of my eye; he cannot point out a blot in my character. black fly. the greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e. the parson who takes tithe of the harvest. black guard. a shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered roguish boys, who attended at the horse guards, and parade in st. james's park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. these, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black-guards. black jack. a nick name given to the recorder by the thieves. black jack. a jug to drink out of, made of jacked leather. black joke. a popular tune to a song, having for the burden, "her black joke and belly so white:" figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable. see monosyllable. black indies. newcastle upon tyne, whose rich coal mines prove an indies to the proprietors. blacklegs. a gambler or sharper on the turf or in the cockpit: so called, perhaps, from their appearing generally in boots; or else from game-cocks whose legs are always black. black monday. the first monday after the school-boys holidays, or breaking up, when they are to go to school, and produce or repeat the tasks set them. black psalm. to sing the black psalm; to cry: a saying used to children. black spice racket. to rob chimney sweepers of their soot, bag and soot. black spy. the devil. black strap. bene carlo wine; also port. a task of labour imposed on soldiers at gibraltar, as a punishment for small offences. blank. to look blank; to appear disappointed or confounded. blanket hornpipe. the amorous congress. blarney. he has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. the blarney stone is a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of cork in ireland, extremely difficult of access; so that to have ascended to it, was considered as a proof of perseverance, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honour, who never atchieved the adventure: and to tip the blarney, is figuratively used telling a marvellous story, or falsity; and also sometimes to express flattery. irish. a blasted fellow or brimstone. an abandoned rogue or prostitute. cant. to blast. to curse. blater. a calf. cant. bleached mort. a fair-complexioned wench. bleaters. those cheated by jack in a box. cant.--see jack in a box. bleating cheat. a sheep. cant. bleating rig. sheep stealing. cant. bleeders. spurs. he clapped his bleeders to his prad; be put spurs to his horse. bleeding cully. one who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely. bleeding new. a metaphor borrowed from fish, which will not bleed when stale. blessing. a small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by hucksters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables. blind. a feint, pretence, or shift. blind cheeks. the breech. buss blind cheeks; kiss mine a-se. blind excuse. a poor or insufficient excuse. a blind ale-house, lane, or alley; an obscure, or little known or frequented ale-house, lane, or alley. blind harpers. beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, &c. blindman's buff. a play used by children, where one being blinded by a handkerchief bound over his eyes, attempts to seize any one of the company, who all endeavour to avoid him; the person caught, must be blinded in his stead. blind cupid. the backside. blindman's holiday. night, darkness. block houses. prisons, houses of correction, &c. blocked at both ends. finished. the game is blocked at both ends; the game is ended. blood. a riotous disorderly fellow. blood for blood. a term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood. blood money. the reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, &c. bloody back. a jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat. bloody. a favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal. bloss or blowen. the pretended wife of a bully, or shoplifter. cant. to blot the skrip and jar it. to stand engaged or bound for any one. cant. blow. he has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods. cant. blowen. a mistress or whore of a gentleman of the scamp. the blowen kidded the swell into a snoozing ken, and shook him of his dummee and thimble; the girl inveigled the gentleman into a brothel and robbed him of his pocket book and watch. blower. a pipe. how the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy. to blow the grounsils. to lie with a woman on the floor. cant. to blow the gab. to confess, or impeach a confederate. cant. blow-up. a discovery, or the confusion occasioned by one. a blowse, or blowsabella. a woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern. blubber. the mouth.--i have stopped the cull's blubber; i have stopped the fellow's mouth, meant either by gagging or murdering him. to blubber. to cry. to sport blubber. said of a large coarse woman, who exposes her bosom. blubber cheeks. large flaccid cheeks, hanging like the fat or blubber of a whale. blue, to look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. blue as a razor; perhaps, blue as azure. blue boar. a venereal bubo. blue devils. low spirits. blue flag. he has hoisted the blue flag; he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, an allusion to the blue aprons worn by publicans. see admiral of the blue. blue pigeons. thieves who steal lead off houses and churches. cant. to fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off houses or churches. blue plumb. a bullet.--surfeited with a blue plumb; wounded with a bullet. a sortment of george r--'s blue plumbs; a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks. blue skin. a person begotten on a black woman by a white man. one of the blue squadron; any one having a cross of the black breed, or, as it is termed, a lick of the tar brush. blue tape, or sky blue. gin. blue ruin. gin. blue ribband; gin. bluff. fierce, surly. he looked as bluff as bull beef. bluffer. an inn-keeper. cant. blunderbuss. a short gun, with a wide bore, for carrying slugs; also a stupid, blundering fellow. blunt. money. cant. to bluster. to talk big, to hector or bully. boarding school. bridewell, newgate, or any other prison, or house of correction. bob. a shoplifter's assistant, or one that receives and carries off stolen goods. all is bob; all is safe. cant. bob. a shilling. bobbed. cheated, tricked, disappointed. bobbish. smart, clever, spruce. bob stay. a rope which holds the bowsprit to the stem or cutwater. figuratively, the frenum of a man's yard. bob tail. a lewd woman, or one that plays with her tail; also an impotent man, or an eunuch. tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people. to shift one's bob; to move off, or go away. to bear a bob; to join in chorus with any singers. also a term used by the sellers of game, for a partridge. body snatchers. bum bailiffs. body of divinity bound in black calf. a parson. bog lander. an irishman; ireland being famous for its large bogs, which furnish the chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom. bog trotter. the same. bog house. the necessary house. to go to bog; to go to stool. bog latin. barbarous latin. irish.--see dog latin, and apothecaries latin. bogy. ask bogy, i.e. ask mine a-se. sea wit. boh. said to be the name of a danish general, who so terrified his opponent foh, that he caused him to bewray himself. whence, when we smell a stink, it is custom to exclaim, foh! i.e. i smell general foh. he cannot say boh to a goose; i.e. he is a cowardly or sheepish fellow. there is a story related of the celebrated ben jonson, who always dressed very plain; that being introduced to the presence of a nobleman, the peer, struck by his homely appearance and awkward manner, exclaimed, as if in doubt, "you ben johnson! why you look as if you could not say boh to a goose!" "boh!" replied the wit. bold. bold as a miller's shirt, which every day takes a rogue by the collar. bolt. a blunt arrow. bolt upright. as erect, or straight up, as an arrow set on its end. to bolt. to run suddenly out of one's house, or hiding place, through fear; a term borrowed from a rabbit-warren, where the rabbits are made to bolt, by sending ferrets into their burrows: we set the house on fire, and made him bolt. to bolt, also means to swallow meat without chewing: the farmer's servants in kent are famous for bolting large quantities of pickled pork. bones. dice. bone box. the mouth. shut your bone box; shut your mouth. bone picker. a footman. boned. seized, apprehended, taken up by a constable. cant. bolus. a nick name for an apothecary. bonesetter. a hard-trotting horse. booby, or dog booby. an awkward lout, clodhopper, or country fellow. see clodhopper and lout. a bitch booby; a country wench. booby hutch. a one-horse chaise, noddy, buggy, or leathern bottle. books. cards to play with. to plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner. book-keeper. one who never returns borrowed books. out of one's books; out of one's fevor. out of his books; out of debt. boot catcher. the servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest. boots. the youngest officer in a regimental mess, whose duty it is to skink, that is, to stir the fire, snuff the candles, and ring the bell. see skink.--to ride in any one's old boots; to marry or keep his cast-off mistress. booty. to play booty; cheating play, where the player purposely avoids winning. bo-peep. one who sometimes hides himself, and sometimes appears publicly abroad, is said to-play at bo-peep. also one who lies perdue, or on the watch. borachio. a skin for holding wine, commonly a goat's; also a nick name for a drunkard. borde. a shilling. a half borde; a sixpence. bordello. a bawdy house. bore. a tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years and . born under a threepenny halfpenny planet, never to be worth a groat. said of any person remarkably unsuccessful in his attempts or profession. botch. a nick name for a taylor. bothered or both-eared. talked to at both ears by different persons at the same time, confounded, confused. irish phrase. botherams. a convivial society. bottle-headed. void of wit. bottom. a polite term for the posteriors. also, in the sporting sense, strength and spirits to support fatigue; as a bottomed horse. among bruisers it is used to express a hardy fellow, who will bear a good beating. bottomless pit. the monosyllable. boughs. wide in the boughs; with large hips and posteriors. boughs. he is up in the boughs; he is in a passion. to bounce. to brag or hector; also to tell an improbable story. to bully a man out of any thing. the kiddey bounced the swell of the blowen; the lad bullied the gentleman out of the girl. bouncer. a large man or woman; also a great lie. bouncing cheat. a bottle; from the explosion in drawing the cork. cant. boung. a purse. cant. boung nipper. a cut purse. cant.--formerly purses were worn at the girdle, from whence they were cut. boose, or bouse. drink. boosey. drunk. bowsing ken. an ale-house or gin-shop. bowsprit. the nose, from its being the most projecting part of the human face, as the bowsprit is of a ship. bow-wow. the childish name for a dog; also a jeering appellation for a man born at boston in america. bow-wow mutton. dog's flesh. bow-wow shop. a salesman's shop in monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. see barker. bowyer. one that draws a long bow, a dealer in the marvellous, a teller of improbable stories, a liar: perhaps from the wonderful shots frequently boasted of by archers. to box the compass. to say or repeat the mariner's compass, not only backwards or forwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its divisions. sea term. to box the jesuit, and get cock roaches. a sea term for masturbation; a crime, it is said, much practised by the reverend fathers of that society. brace. the brace tavern; a room in the s.e. corner of the king's bench, where, for the convenience of prisoners residing thereabouts, beer purchased at the tap-house was retailed at a halfpenny per pot advance. it was kept by two brothers of the name of partridge, and thence called the brace. bracket-faced. ugly, hard-featured. bragget. mead and ale sweetened with honey. braggadocia. vain-glorious fellow, a boaster. brains. if you had as much brains as guts, what a clever fellow you would be! a saying to a stupid fat fellow. to have some guts in his brains; to know something. bran-faced. freckled. he was christened by a baker, he carries the bran in his face. brandy-faced. red-faced, as if from drinking brandy. brandy. brandy is latin for a goose; a memento to prevent the animal from rising in the stomach by a glass of the good creature. brat. a child or infant. bray. a vicar of bray; one who frequently changes his principles, always siding with the strongest party: an allusion to a vicar of bray, in berkshire, commemorated in a well-known ballad for the pliability of his conscience. brazen-faced. bold-faced, shameless, impudent. bread and butter fashion. one slice upon the other. john and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion.--to quarrel with one's bread and butter; to act contrary to one's interest. to know on which side one's bread is buttered; to know one's interest, or what is best for one. it is no bread and butter of mine; i have no business with it; or rather, i won't intermeddle, because i shall get nothing by it. break-teeth words. hard words, difficult to pronounce. breaking shins. borrowing money; perhaps from the figurative operation being, like the real one, extremely disagreeable to the patient. bread. employment. out of bread; out of employment. in bad bread; in a disagreeable scrape, or situation. bread basket. the stomach; a term used by boxers. i took him a punch in his bread basket; i.e. i gave him a blow in the stomach. breast fleet. he or she belongs to the breast fleet; i.e. is a roman catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. breeched. money in the pocket: the swell is well breeched, let's draw him; the gentleman has plenty of money in his pocket, let us rob him. breeches. to wear the breeches; a woman who governs her husband is said to wear the breeches. breeches bible. an edition of the bible printed in , wherein it is said that adam and eve sewed figleaves together, and made themselves breeches. breeze. to raise a breeze; to kick up a dust or breed a disturbance. bridge. to make a bridge of any one's nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over. also to play booty, or purposely to avoid winning. brim. (abbreviation of brimstone.) an abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability. brisket beater. a roman catholic. see breast fleet, and craw thumper. bristol milk. a spanish wine called sherry, much drunk at that place, particularly in the morning. bristol man. the son of an irish thief and a welch whore. british champaigne. porter. broganier. one who has a strong irish pronunciation or accent. brogue. a particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in ireland, and figuratively used to signify the irish accent. brother of the blade. a soldier buskin. a player. bung. a brewer quill. an author. string. a fiddler. whip. a coachman. brother starling. one who lies with the same woman, that is, builds in the same nest. broughtonian. a boxer: a disciple of broughton, who was a beef-eater, and once the best boxer of his day. brown bess. a soldier's firelock. to hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier. brown george. an ammunition loaf, a wig without powder; similar to the undress wig worn by his majesty. brown madam, or miss brown. the monosyllable. brown study. said of one absent, in a reverie, or thoughtful. bruiser. a boxer; one skilled in the art of boxing also an inferior workman among chasers. brewes, or browes. the fat scum from the pot in which salted beef is boiled. to brush. to run away. let us buy a brush and lope; let us go away or off. to have a brush with a woman; to lie with her. to have a brush with a man; to fight with him. the cove cracked the peter and bought a brush; the fellow broke open the trunk, and then ran away. brusher. a bumper, a full glass. see bumper. bub. strong beer. bubber. a drinking bowl; also a great drinker; a thief that steals plate from public houses. cant. the bubble. the party cheated, perhaps from his being like an air bubble, filled with words, which are only wind, instead of real property. to bubble. to cheat. to bar the bubble. to except against the general rule, that he who lays the odds must always be adjudged the loser: this is restricted to betts laid for liquor. bubbly jock. a turkey cock. scotch. bubble and squeak. beef and cabbage fried together. it is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire. bube. the venereal disease. buck. a blind horse; also a gay debauchee. to run a buck. to poll a bad vote at an election.--irish term. buck bail. bail given by a sharper for one of the gang. a buck of the first head. one who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood or choice spirit. there are in london divers lodges or societies of bucks, formed in imitation of the free masons: one was held at the rose, in monkwell-street, about the year . the president is styled the grand buck. a buck sometimes signifies a cuckold. buck's face. a cuckold. buck fitch. a lecherous old fellow. buckeen. a bully. irish. bucket. to kick the bucket; to die. buckinger's boot. the monosyllable. matthew buckinger was born without hands and legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats of arms very neatly, and could write the lord's prayer within the compass of a shilling; he was married to a tall handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money. buckles. fetters. budge, or sneaking budge. one that slips into houses in the dark, to steal cloaks or other clothes. also lambs' fur formerly used for doctors' robes, whence they were called budge doctors. standing budge; a thief's scout or spy. to budge. to move, or quit one's station. don't budge from hence; i.e. don't move from hence, stay here. budget. a wallet. to open the budget; a term used to signify the notification of the taxes required by the minister for the expences of the ensuing year; as to-morrow the minister will go to the house, and open the budget. bufe. a dog. bufe's nob; a dog's head. cant. bufe nabber. a dog stealer. cant. buff. all in buff; stript to the skin, stark naked. buff. to stand buff; to stand the brunt. to swear as a witness. he buffed it home; and i was served; he swore hard against me, and i was found guilty. buffer. one that steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins; also an inn-keeper: in ireland it signifies a boxer. buffer. a man who takes an oath: generally applied to jew bail. buffle-headed. confused, stupid. bug. a nick name given by the irish to englishmen; bugs having, as it is said, been introduced into ireland by the english. to bug. a cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the exchanging some of the dearest materials of which a hat is made for others of less value. hats are composed of the furs and wool of divers animals among which is a small portion of beavers' fur. bugging, is stealing the beaver, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight of some cheaper ingredient.--bailiffs who take money to postpone or refrain the serving of a writ, are said to bug the writ. bug-hunter. an upholsterer. bugaboe. a scare-babe, or bully-beggar. bugaroch. comely, handsome. irish. buggy. a one-horse chaise. bugger. a blackguard, a rascal, a term of reproach. mill the bloody bugger; beat the damned rascal. bulk and file. two pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business. bulker. one who lodges all night on a bulk or projection before old-fashioned shop windows. bull. an exchange alley term for one who buys stock on speculation for time, i.e. agrees with the seller, called a bear, to take a certain sum of stock at a future day, at a stated price: if at that day stock fetches more than the price agreed on, he receives the difference; if it falls or is cheaper, he either pays it, or becomes a lame duck, and waddles out of the alley. see lame duck and bear. bull. a blunder; from one obadiah bull, a blundering lawyer of london, who lived in the reign of henery vii. by a bull is now always meant a blunder made by an irishman. a bull was also the name of false hair formerly much worn by women. to look like bull beef, or as bluff as bull beef; to look fierce or surly. town bull, a great whore-master. bull. a crown piece. a half bull; half a crown. bull beggar, or bully beggar. an imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones. bull calf. a great hulkey or clumsy fellow. see hulkey. bull chin. a fat chubby child. bull dogs. pistols. bull hankers. persons who over-drive bulls, or frequent bull baits. bull's eye. a crown-piece. bull's feather. a horn: he wears the bull's feather; he is a cuckold. to bullock. to hector, bounce, or bully. bully. a cowardly fellow, who gives himself airs of great bravery. a bully huff cap; a hector. see hector. bully back. a bully to a bawdy-house; one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess, or bawd; and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies, and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom he finds with her. see greenhorn. bully cock. one who foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling. bully ruffians. highwaymen who attack passengers with paths and imprecations. bully trap. a brave man with a mild or effeminate appearance, by whom bullies are frequently taken in. bum. the breech, or backside. to bum. to arrest a debtor. the gill bummed the swell for a thimble; the tradesman arrested the gentleman for a watch. bum trap. a sheriff's officer who arrests debtors. ware hawke! the bum traps are fly to our panney; keep a good look out, the bailiffs know where our house is situated. bum bailiff. a sheriff's officer, who arrests debtors; so called perhaps from following his prey, and being at their bums, or, as the vulgar phrase is, hard at their a-ses. blackstone says, it is a corruption of bound bailiff, from their being obliged to give bond for their good behaviour. bum brusher. a schoolmaster. bum boat. a boat attending ships to retail greens, drams, &c. commonly rowed by a woman; a kind of floating chandler's shop, bum fodder. soft paper for the necessary house or torchecul. bumfiddle. the backside, the breech. see ars musica. bumbo. brandy, water, and sugar; also the negro name for the private parts of a woman. bumkin. a raw country fellow. bummed. arrested. bumper. a full glass; in all likelihood from its convexity or bump at the top: some derive it from a full glass formerly drunk to the health of the pope--au bon pere. bumping. a ceremony performed on boys perambulating the bounds of the parish on whit-monday, when they have their posteriors bumped against the stones marking the boundaries, in order to fix them in their memory. bun. a common name for a rabbit, also for the monosyllable. to touch bun for luck; a practice observed among sailors going on a cruize. bundling. a man and woman sleeping in the same bed, he with his small clothes, and she with her petticoats on; an expedient practised in america on a scarcity of beds, where, on such an occasion, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to bundle with their wives and daughters. this custom is now abolished. see duke of rochefoucalt's travels in america, bung upwards. said of a person lying on his face. bung your eye. drink a dram; strictly speaking, to drink till one's eye is bunged up or closed. bunt. an apron. bunter. a low dirty prostitute, half whore and half beggar. buntlings. petticoats. cant. burn crust. a jocular name for a baker. burn the ken. strollers living in an alehouse without paying their quarters, are said to burn the ken. cant. burning shame. a lighted candle stuck into the parts of a woman, certainly not intended by nature for a candlestick. burner. a clap. the blowen tipped the swell a burner; the girl gave the gentleman a clap. burner. he is no burner of navigable rivers; i.e. he is no conjuror, or man of extraordinary abilities; or rather, he is, but a simple fellow. see thames. burnt. poxed or clapped. he was sent out a sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; a saying of seamen who have caught the venereal disease abroad. he has burnt his fingers; he has suffered by meddling. burr. a hanger on, or dependant; an allusion to the field burrs, which are not easily got rid of. also the northumbrian pronunciation: the people of that country, but chiefly about newcastle and morpeth, are said to have a burr in their throats, particularly called the newcastle burr. bushel bubby. a full breasted woman. busk. a piece of whalebone or ivory, formerly worn by women, to stiffen the forepart of their stays: hence the toast--both ends of the busk. buss beggar. an old superannuated fumbler, whom none but beggars will suffer to kiss them. bus-napper. a constable. cant. bus-napper's kenchin. a watchman. cant. busy. as busy is the devil in a high wind; as busy as a hen with one chick. butcher's dog. to be like a butcher's dog, i.e. lie by the beef without touching it; a simile often applicable to married men. butcher's horse. that must have been a butcher's horse, by his carrying a calf so well; a vulgar joke on an awkward rider. butt. a dependant, poor relation, or simpleton, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off; and who serves as a butt for all the shafts of wit and ridicule. butter box. a dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country. buttered bun. one lying with a woman that has just lain with another man, is said to have a buttered bun. butter and eggs trot. a kind of short jogg trot, such as is used by women going to market, with butter and eggs.--he looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, yet i warrant you cheese would not choak her; a saying of a demure looking woman, of suspected character. don't make butter dear; a gird at the patient angler. buttock. a whore. cant. buttock broker. a bawd, or match-maker. cant. buttock ball. the amorous congress. cant. buttock and file. a common whore and a pick-pocket. cant. buttock and twang, or down buttock and sham file. a common whore, but no pickpocket. buttock and tongue. a scolding wife. buttocking shop. a brothel. button. a bad shilling, among coiners. his a-se makes buttons; he is ready to bewray himself through fear. cant. buzman. a pickpocket. cant. buzzard. a simple fellow. a blind buzzard: a pur-blind man or woman. bye blow. a bastard. cabbage. cloth, stuff, or silk purloined by laylors from their employers, which they deposit in a place called hell, or their eye: from the first, when taxed, with their knavery, they equivocally swear, that if they have taken any, they wish they may find it in hell; or, alluding to the second, protest, that what they have over and above is not more than they could put in their eye.--when the scrotum is relaxed or whiffled, it is said they will not cabbage. cab. a brothel. mother: how many tails have you in your cab? how many girls have you in your bawdy house? cacafeogo. a sh-te-fire, a furious braggadocio or bully huff. cackle. to blab, or discover secrets. the cull is leaky, and cackles; the rogue tells all. cant. see leaky. cackler. a hen. cackler's ken. a hen roost. cant. cackling cheats. fowls. cant. cackling farts. eggs. cant. caddee. a helper. an under-strapper. cadge. to beg. cadge the swells; beg of the gentlemen. caffan. cheese. cant. cagg. to cagg; a military term used by the private soldiers, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; or, as the term is, till their cagg is out: which vow is commonly observed with the strictest exactness. ex. i have cagg'd myself for six months. excuse me this time, and i will cagg myself for a year. this term is also used in the same sense among the common people of scotland, where it is performed with divers ceremonies. cag. to be cagged. to be sulky or out of humour. the cove carries the cag; the man is vexed or sullen. cag magg. bits and scraps of provisions. bad meat. cagg maggs. old lincolnshire geese, which having been plucked ten or twelve years, are sent up to london to feast the cockneys. cake, or cakey. a foolish fellow. calf-skin fiddle. a drum. to smack calf's skin; to kiss the book in taking an oath. it is held by the st. giles's casuists, that by kissing one's thumb instead of smacking calf's skin, the guilt of taking a false oath is avoided. calves. his calves are gone to grass; a saying of a man with slender legs without calves. veal will be cheap, calves fall; said of a man whose calves fall away. calves head club. a club instituted by the independents and presbyterians, to commemorate the decapitation of king charles i. their chief fare was calves heads; and they drank their wine and ale out of calves skulls. calibogus. rum and spruce beer, american beverage. calle. a cloak or gown. cant. cambridge fortune. a wind-mill and a water-mill, used to signify a woman without any but personal endowments. cambridge oak. a willow. cambrade. a chamber fellow; a spanish military term. soldiers were in that country divided into chambers, five men making a chamber, whence it was generally used to signify companion. camesa. a shirt or shift. cant. spanish. camp candlestick. a bottle, or soldier's bayonet. campbell's academy. the hulks or lighters, on board of which felons are condemned to hard labour. mr. campbell was the first director of them. see academy and floating academy. canary bird. a jail bird, a person used to be kept in a cage; also, in the canting sense, guineas. candlesticks. bad, small, or untunable bells. hark! how the candlesticks rattle. candy. drunk. irish. cane. to lay cane upon abel; to beat any one with a cane or stick. cank. dumb. cannister. the head. to mill his cannister; to break his head. cannikin. a small can: also, in the canting sense, the plague. cant. an hypocrite, a double-tongue palavering fellow. see palaver. cant. to cant; to toss or throw: as, cant a slug into your bread room; drink a dram. sea wit. canticle. a parish clerk. canting. preaching with a whining, affected tone, perhaps a corruption of chaunting; some derive it from andrew cant, a famous scotch preacher, who used that whining manner of expression. also a kind of gibberish used by thieves and gypsies, called likewise pedlar's french, the slang, &c. &c. canters, or the canting crew. thieves, beggars, and gypsies, or any others using the canting lingo. see lingo. canterbury story. a long roundabout tale. to cap. to take one's oath. i will cap downright; i will swear home. cant. to cap. to take off one's hat or cap. to cap the quadrangle; a lesson of humility, or rather servility, taught undergraduates at the university, where they are obliged to cross the area of the college cap in hand, in reverence to the fellows who sometimes walk there. the same ceremony is observed on coming on the quarter deck of ships of war, although no officer should be on it. to cap. to support another's assertion or tale. to assist a man in cheating. the file kidded the joskin with sham books, and his pall capped; the deep one cheated the countryman with false cards, and his confederate assisted in the fraud. cap acquaintance. persons slightly acquainted, or only so far as mutually to salute with the hat on meeting. a woman who endeavours to attract the notice of any particular man, is said to set her cap at him. caper merchant. a dancing master, or hop merchant; marchand des capriolles. french term.--to cut papers; to leap or jump in dancing. see hop merchant. capping verses. repeating latin verses in turn, beginning with the letter with which the last speaker left off. capon. a castrated cock, also an eunuch. capricornified. cuckolded, hornified. capsize. to overturn or reverse. he took his broth till he capsized; he drank till he fell out of his chair. sea term. captain. led captain; an humble dependant in a great family, who for a precarious subsistence, and distant hopes of preferment, suffers every kind of indignity, and is the butt of every species of joke or ill-humour. the small provision made for officers of the army and navy in time of peace, obliges many in both services to occupy this wretched station. the idea of the appellation is taken from a led horse, many of which for magnificence appear in the retinues of great personages on solemn occasions, such as processions, &c. captain copperthorne's crew. all officers; a saying of a company where everyone strives to rule. captain lieutenant. meat between veal and beef, the flesh of an old calf; a military simile, drawn from the officer of that denomination, who has only the pay of a lieutenant, with the rank of captain; and so is not entirely one or the other, but between both. captain podd. a celebrated master of a puppet-shew, in ben johnson's time, whose name became a common one to signify any of that fraternity. captain queernabs. a shabby ill-dressed fellow. captain sharp. a cheating bully, or one in a set of gamblers, whose office is to bully any pigeon, who, suspecting roguery, refuses to pay what he has lost. cant. captain tom. the leader of a mob; also the mob itself. caravan. a large sum of money; also, a person cheated of such sum. cant. carbuncle face. a red face, full of pimples. cardinal. a cloak in fashion about the year . to carouse. to drink freely or deep: from the german word expressing all out. carriers. a set of rogues who are employed to look out and watch upon the roads, at inns, &c. in order to carry information to their respective gangs, of a booty in prospect. carriers. pigeons which carry expresses. carrion hunter. an undertaker; called also a cold cook, and death hunter. see cold cook and death hunter. carrots. red hair. carrotty-pated. ginger-hackled, red-haired. see ginger-hackled. carry witchet. a sort of conundrum, puzzlewit, or riddle. cart. to put the cart before the horse; to mention the last part of a story first. to be flogged at the cart's a-se or tail; persons guilty of petty larceny are frequently sentenced to be tied to the tail of a cart, and whipped by the common executioner, for a certain distance: the degree of severity in the execution is left to the discretion of the executioner, who, it is said, has cats of nine tails of all prices. carting. the punishment formerly inflicted on bawds, who were placed in a tumbrel or cart, and led through a town, that their persons might be known. carvel's ring. the private parts of a woman. ham carvel, a jealous old doctor, being in bed with his wife, dreamed that the devil gave him a ring, which, so long as he had it on his finger, would prevent his being made a cuckold: waking he found he had got his finger the lord knows where. see rabelais, and prior's versification of the story. to cascade. to vomit. case. a house; perhaps from the italian casa. in the canting lingo it meant store or ware house, as well as a dwelling house. tout that case; mark or observe that house. it is all bob, now let's dub the gig of the case; now the coast is clear, let us break open the door of the house. case vrow. a prostitute attached to a particular bawdy house. cash, or caffan. cheese; cant. see caffan. caster. a cloak. cant. castor. a hat. to prig a castor; to steal a hat. casting up one's accounts. vomiting. cat. a common prostitute. an old cat; a cross old woman. cat-heads. a woman's breasts. sea phrase. to cat, or shoot the cat. to vomit from drunkenness. cat and bagpipean society. a society which met at their office in the great western road: in their summons, published in the daily papers, it was added, that the kittens might come with the old cats without being scratched. cat call. a kind of whistle, chiefly used at theatres, to interrupt the actors, and damn a new piece. it derives its name from one of its sounds, which greatly resembles the modulation of an intriguing boar cat. cat harping fashion. drinking cross-ways, and not, as usual, over the left thumb. sea term. cat in pan. to turn cat in pan, to change sides or parties; supposed originally to have been to turn cate or cake in pan. cat's foot. to live under the cat's foot; to be under the dominion of a wife hen-pecked. to live like dog and cat; spoken of married persons who live unhappily together. as many lives as a cat; cats, according to vulgar naturalists, have nine lives, that is one less than a woman. no more chance than a cat in hell without claws; said of one who enters into a dispute or quarrel with one greatly above his match. cat lap. tea, called also scandal broth. see scandal broth. cat match. when a rook or cully is engaged amongst bad bowlers. cat of nine tails. a scourge composed of nine strings of whip-cord, each string having nine knots. cat's paw. to be made a cat's paw of; to be made a tool or instrument to accomplish the purpose of another: an allusion to the story of a monkey, who made use of a cat's paw to scratch a roasted chesnut out of the fire. cat's sleep. counterfeit sleep: cats often counterfeiting sleep, to decoy their prey near them, and then suddenly spring on them. cat sticks. thin legs, compared to sticks with which boys play at cat. see trapsticks. cat whipping, or whipping the cat. a trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of their strength, by laying a wager with them that they may be pulled through a pond by a cat. the bet being made, a rope is fixed round the waist of the party to be catted, and the end thrown across the pond, to which the cat is also fastened by a packthread, and three or four sturdy fellows are appointed to lead and whip the cat; these on a signal given, seize the end of the cord, and pretending to whip the cat, haul the astonished booby through the water.--to whip the cat, is also a term among tailors for working jobs at private houses, as practised in the country. catamaran. an old scraggy woman; from a kind of float made of spars and yards lashed together, for saving ship-wrecked persons. catch club. a member of the patch club; a bum bailiff. catch fart. a footboy; so called from such servants commonly following close behind their master or mistress. catch penny. any temporary contrivance to raise a contribution on the public. catch pole. a bum bailiff, or sheriff's officer. catching harvest. a dangerous time for a robbery, when many persons are on the road, on account of a horse-race, fair, or some other public meeting. cater cousins. good friends. he and i are not cater cousins, i.e. we are not even cousins in the fourth degree, or four times removed; that is, we have not the least friendly connexion. caterpillar. a nick name for a soldier. in the year , a soldier quartered at a house near derby, was desired by his landlord to call upon him, whenever he came that way; for, added he, soldiers are the pillars of the nation. the rebellion being finished, it happened the same regiment was quartered in derbyshire, when the soldier resolved to accept of his landlord's invitation, and accordingly obtained leave to go to him: but, on his arrival, he was greatly surprised to find a very cold reception; whereupon expostulating with his landlord, he reminded him of his invitation, and the circumstance of his having said, soldiers were the pillars of the nation. if i did, answered the host, i meant caterpiliars. caterwauling. going out in the night in search of intrigues, like a cat in the gutters. cathedral. old-fashioned. an old cathedral-bedstead, chair, &c. cattle. sad cattle: whores or gypsies. black cattle, bugs. cant. cavaulting school. a bawdy-house. caudge-pawed. left-handed. cauliflower. a large white wig, such as is commonly worn by the dignified clergy, and was formerly by physicians. also the private parts of a woman; the reason for which appellation is given in the following story: a woman, who was giving evidence in a cause wherein it was necessary to express those parts, made use of the term cauliflower; for which the judge on the bench, a peevish old fellow, reproved her, saying she might as well call it artichoke. not so, my lord, replied she; for an artichoke has a bottom, but a **** and a cauliflower have none. cautions. the four cautions: i. beware of a woman before.--ii. beware of a horse behind.--iii. beware of a cart side-ways.--iv. beware of a priest every way. caw-handed, or caw-pawed. awkward, not dextrous, ready, or nimble. caxon. an old weather-beaten wig. cent per cent. an usurer. chafed. well beaten; from chauffe, warmed. chalkers. men of wit, in ireland, who in the night amuse themselves with cutting inoffensive passengers across the face with a knife. they are somewhat like those facetious gentlemen some time ago known in england by the title of sweaters and mohocks. chalking. the amusement above described. chap. a fellow; an odd chap; a strange fellow. chaperon. the cicisbeo, or gentleman usher to a lady; from the french. chapt. dry or thirsty. charactered, or lettered. burnt in the hand. they have palmed the character upon him; they have burned him in the hand, cant.--see lettered. charm. a picklock. cant. charren. the smoke of charren.--his eyes water from the smoke of charren; a man of that place coming out of his house weeping, because his wife had beat him, told his neighbours the smoke had made his eyes water. chatter box. one whose tongue runs twelve score to the dozen, a chattering man or woman. chatter broth. tea. see cat lap and scandal broth. chatts. lice: perhaps an abbreviation of chattels, lice being the chief live stock of chattels of beggars, gypsies, and the rest of the canting crew. cant.--also, according to the canting academy, the gallows. chates. the gallows. cant. chaunter culls. grub-street writers, who compose songs, carrols, &c. for ballad-singers. cant. chaunt. a song. to chaunt. to sing. to publish an account in the newspapers. the kiddey was chaunted for a toby; his examination concerning a highway robbery was published in the papers. chaw bacon. a countryman. a stupid fellow. cheapside. he came at it by way of cheapside; he gave little or nothing for it, he bought it cheap. cheats. sham sleeves to put over a dirty shift or shirt. see shams. cheek by jowl. side by side, hand to fist. cheeks. ask cheeks near cunnyborough; the repartee of a st. gilse's fair one, who bids you ask her backside, anglice her a-se. a like answer is current in france: any one asking the road or distance to macon, a city near lyons, would be answered by a french lady of easy virtue, 'mettez votre nez dans mon cul, & vous serrez dans les fauxbourgs.' cheese-toaster. a sword. cheese it; be silent, be quiet, don't do it. cheese it, the coves are fly; be silent, the people understand our discourse. cheeser. a strong smelling fart. chelsea. a village near london, famous for the military hospital. to get chelsea; to obtain the benefit of that hospital. dead chelsea, by g-d! an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon-ball. chest of tools. a shoe-black's brush and wig, &c. irish. cherry-coloured cat. a black cat, there being black cherries as well as red. cherubims. peevish children, because cherubims and seraphims continually do cry. cheshire cat. he grins like a cheshire cat; said of anyone who shews his teeth and gums in laughing. chick-a-biddy. a chicken, so called to and by little children. chicken-breasted. said of a woman with scarce any breasts. chicken butcher. a poulterer. chicken-hammed. persons whose legs and thighs are bent or archward outwards. chicken-hearted. fearful, cowardly. chicken nabob. one returned from the east indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds, a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle. child. to eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. see greasy chin. chimney chops. an abusive appellation for a negro. chink. money. chip. a child. a chip of the old block; a child who either in person or sentiments resembles its father or mother. chip. a brother chip; a person of the same trade or calling. chips, a nick name for a carpenter. chirping merry. exhilarated with liquor. chirping glass, a cheerful glass, that makes the company chirp like birds in spring. chit. an infant or baby. chitterlins. the bowels. there is a rumpus among my bowels, i.e. i have the colic. the frill of a shirt. chitty-faced. baby-faced; said of one who has a childish look. chive, or chiff. a knife, file: or saw. to chive the darbies; to file off the irons or fetters. to chive the bouhgs of the frows; to cut off women's pockets. chivey. i gave him a good chivey; i gave him, a hearty scolding. chiving lay. cutting the braces of coaches behind, on which the coachman quitting the box, an accomplice robs the boot; also, formerly, cutting the back of the coach to steal the fine large wigs then worn. choak. choak away, the churchyard's near; a jocular saying to a person taken with a violent fit of coughing, or who has swallowed any thing, as it is called the wrong way; choak, chicken, more are hatching: a like consolation. choak pear. figuratively, an unanswerable objection: also a machine formerly used in holland by robbers; it was of iron, shaped like a pear; this they forced into the mouths of persons from whom they intended to extort money; and on turning a key, certain interior springs thrust forth a number of points, in all directions, which so enlarged it, that it could not be taken out of the mouth: and the iron, being case-hardened, could not be filed: the only methods of getting rid of it, were either by cutting the mouth, or advertizing a reward for the key, these pears were also called pears of agony. choaking pye, or cold pye, a punishment inflicted on any person sleeping in company: it consists in wrapping up cotton in a case or tube of paper, setting it on fire, and directing the smoke up the nostrils of the sleeper. see howell's cotgrave. chocolate. to give chocolate without sugar; to reprove. military term. choice spirit. a thoughtless, laughing, singing, drunken fellow. chop. a blow. boxing term. to chop and change. to exchange backwards and forwards. to chop, in the canting sense, means making dispatch, or hurrying over any business: ex. the autem bawler will soon quit the hums, for he chops up the whiners; the parson will soon quit the pulpit, for he hurries over the prayers. see autem bawler, hums, and whiners, chop churches. simoniacal dealers in livings, or other ecclesiastical preferments. chopping, lusty. a chopping boy or girl; a lusty child. chops. the mouth. i gave him a wherrit, or a souse, across the chops; i gave him a blow over the mouth, see wherrit. chop-stick. a fork. chouder. a sea-dish, composed of fresh fish, salt pork, herbs, and sea-biscuits, laid in different layers, and stewed together. to chouse. to cheat or trick: he choused me out of it. chouse is also the term for a game like chuck-farthing. christ-cross row. the alphabet in a horn-book: called christ-cross row, from having, as an irishman observed, christ's cross prefixed before and after the twenty-four letters. christening. erasing the name of the true maker from a stolen watch, and engraving a fictitious one in its place. christian poney. a chairman. christian. a tradesman who has faith, i.e. will give credit. christmas compliments. a cough, kibed heels, and a snotty nose. chub. he is a young chub, or a mere chub; i.e. a foolish fellow, easily imposed on: an illusion to a fish of that name, easily taken. chubby. round-faced, plump. chuck. my chuck; a term of endearment. chuck farthing. a parish clerk. chuckle-headed. stupid, thick-headed. chuffy. round-faced, chubby. chum. a chamber-fellow, particularly at the universities and in prison. chummage. money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the fleet and king's bench, to the poorer, for their share of a room. when prisons are very full, which is too often the case, particularly on the eve of an insolvent act, two or three persons are obliged to sleep in a room. a prisoner who can pay for being alone, chuses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room, and sleep on the stairs, or, as the term is, ruff it. chunk. among printers, a journeyman who refuses to work for legal wages; the same as the flint among taylors. see flint. church warden. a sussex name for a shag, or cormorant, probably from its voracity. church work. said of any work that advances slowly. churchyard cough. a cough that is likely to terminate in death. churk. the udder. churl. originally, a labourer or husbandman: figuratively a rude, surly, boorish fellow. to put a churl upon a gentleman; to drink malt liquor immediately after having drunk wine. cinder garbler. a servant maid, from her business of sifting the ashes from the cinders. custom-house wit. circumbendibus. a roundabout way, or story. he took such a circumbendibus; he took such a circuit. cit. a citizen of london. city college. newgate. civility money. a reward claimed by bailiffs for executing their office with civility. civil reception. a house of civil reception; a bawdy-house, or nanny-house. see nanny-house. clack. a tongue, chiefly applied to women; a simile drawn from the clack of a water-mill. clack-loft. a pulpit, so called by orator henley. clammed. starved. clan. a family's tribe or brotherhood; a word much used in scotland. the head of the clan; the chief: an allusion to a story of a scotchman, who, when a very large louse crept down his arm, put him back again, saying he was the head of the clan, and that, if injured, all the rest would resent it. clank. a silver tankard. cant. clank napper. a silver tankard stealer. see rum bubber. clanker. a great lie. clap. a venereal taint. he went out by had'em, and came round by clapham home; i.e. he went out a wenching, and got a clap. clap on the shoulder. an arrest for debt; whence a bum bailiff is called a shoulder-clapper. clapper. the tongue of a bell, and figuratively of a man or woman. clapper claw. to scold, to abuse, or claw off with the tongue. clapperdogeon. a beggar born. cant. claret. french red wine; figuratively, blood. i tapped his claret; i broke his head, and made the blood run. claret-faced; red-faced. clawed off. severely beaten or whipped; also smartly poxed or clapped. clear. very drunk. the cull is clear, let's bite him; the fellow is very drunk, let's cheat him. cant. cleaver. one that will cleave; used of a forward or wanton woman. clean. expert; clever. amongst the knuckling coves he is reckoned very clean; he is considered very expert as a pickpocket. clerked. soothed, funned, imposed on. the cull will not be clerked; i.e. the fellow will not be imposed on by fair words. cleymes. artificial sores, made by beggars to excite charity. click. a blow. a click in the muns; a blow or knock in the face. cant. to click. to snatch. to click a nab; to snatch a hat. cant. clicker. a salesman's servant; also, one who proportions out the different shares of the booty among thieves. clicket. copulation of foxes; and thence used, in a canting sense, for that of men and women: as, the cull and the mort are at clicket in the dyke; the man and woman are copulating in the ditch. climb. to climb the three trees with a ladder; to ascend the gallows. clinch. a pun or quibble. to clinch, or to clinch the nail; to confirm an improbable story by another: as, a man swore he drove a tenpenny nail through the moon; a bystander said it was true, for he was on the other side and clinched it. clink. a place in the borough of southwark, formerly privileged from arrests; and inhabited by lawless vagabonds of every denomination, called, from the place of their residence, clinkers. also a gaol, from the clinking of the prisoners' chains or fetters: he is gone to clink. clinkers. a kind of small dutch bricks; also irons worn by prisoners; a crafty fellow. to clip. to hug or embrace: to clip and cling. to clip the coin; to diminish the current coin. to clip the king's english; to be unable to speak plain through drunkenness. cloak twitchers. rogues who lurk about the entrances into dark alleys, and bye-lanes, to snatch cloaks from the shoulders of passengers. clod hopper. a country farmer, or ploughman. clod pate. a dull, heavy booby. clod pole. the same. close. as close as god's curse to a whore's a-se: close as shirt and shitten a-se. close-fisted. covetous or stingy. closh. a general name given by the mobility to dutch seamen, being a corruption of claus, the abbreviation of nicholas, a name very common among the men of that nation. cloth market. he is just come from the cloth market, i.e. from between the sheets, he is just risen from bed. cloud. tobacco. under a cloud; in adversity. cloven, cleave, or cleft. a term used for a woman who passes for a maid, but is not one. cloven foot. to spy the cloven foot in any business; to discover some roguery or something bad in it: a saying that alludes to a piece of vulgar superstition, which is, that, let the devil transform himself into what shape he will, he cannot hide his cloven foot to chuck. to shew a propensity for a man. the mors chucks; the wench wants to be doing. clout. a blow. i'll give you a clout on your jolly nob; i'll give you a blow on your head. it also means a handkerchief. cant. any pocket handkerchief except a silk one. clouted shoon. shoes tipped with iron. clouting lay. picking pockets of handkerchiefs. clover. to be, or live, in clover; to live luxuriously. clover is the most desirable food for cattle. clowes. rogues. cloy. to steal. to cloy the clout; to steal the handkerchief. to cloy the lour; to steal money. cant. cloves. thieves, robbers, &c. club. a meeting or association, where each man is to spend an equal and stated sum, called his club. club law. argumentum bacculinum, in which an oaken stick is a better plea than an act of parliament. clump. a lump. clumpish; lumpish, stupid. clunch. an awkward clownish fellow. to clutch the fist. to clench or shut the hand. clutch fisted; covetous, stingy. see close-fisted. clutches. hands, gripe, power. clutter. a stir, noise, or racket: what a confounded clutter here is! cly. money; also a pocket. he has filed the cly; he has picked a pocket. cant. cly the jerk: to be whipped. cant. clyster pipe. a nick name for an apothecary. coach wheel. a half crown piece is a fore coach wheel, and a crown piece a hind coach wheel; the fore wheels of a coach being less than the hind ones. to coax. to fondle, or wheedle. to coax a pair of stockings; to pull down the part soiled into the shoes, so as to give a dirty pair of stockings the appearance of clean ones. coaxing is also used, instead of darning, to hide the holes about the ancles. cob. a spanish dollar. cob, or cobbing. a punishment used by the seamen for petty offences, or irregularities, among themselves: it consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff; the number usually inflicted is a dozen. at the first stroke the executioner repeats the word watch, on which all persons present are to take off their hats, on pain of like punishment: the last stroke is always given as hard as possible, and is called the purse. ashore, among soldiers, where this punishment is sometimes adopted, watch and the purse are not included in the number, but given over and above, or, in the vulgar phrase, free gratis for nothing. this piece of discipline is also inflicted in ireland, by the school-boys, on persons coming into the school without taking off their hats; it is there called school butter. cobble. a kind of boat. to cobble. to mend, or patch; likewise to do a thing in a bungling manner. cobble colter. a turkey. cobbler. a mender of shoes, an improver of the understandings of his customers; a translator. cobblers punch. treacle, vinegar, gin, and water. cock, or chief cock of the walk. the leading man in any society or body; the best boxer in a village or district. cock ale. a provocative drink. cock alley or cock lane. the private parts of a woman. cock and a bull story. a roundabout story, without head or tail, i.e. beginning or ending. cock of the company. a weak man, who from the desire of being the head of the company associates with low people, and pays all the reckoning. cock-a-whoop. elevated, in high-spirits, transported with joy. cock bawd. a male keeper of a bawdy-house. cock hoist. a cross buttock. cockish. wanton, forward. a cockish wench; a forward coming girl. cockles. to cry cockles; to be hanged: perhaps from the noise made whilst strangling. cant.--this will rejoice the cockles of one's heart; a saying in praise of wine, ale, or spirituous liquors. cock pimp. the supposed husband of a bawd. cock robin. a soft, easy fellow. cock-sure. certain: a metaphor borrowed front the cock of a firelock, as being much more certain to fire than the match. cock your eye. shut one eye: thus translated into apothecaries latin.--gallus tuus ego. cocker. one fond of the diversion of cock-fighting. cockney: a nick name given to the citizens of london, or persons born within the sound of bow bell, derived from the following story: a citizen of london, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, lord! how that horse laughs! a by-stander telling him that noise was called neighing, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, do you hear how the cock neighs? the king of the cockneys is mentioned among the regulations for the sports and shows formerly held in the middle temple on childermas day, where he had his officers, a marshal, constable, butler, &c. see dugdale's origines juridiciales, p. .--ray says, the interpretation of the word cockney, is, a young person coaxed or conquered, made wanton; or a nestle cock, delicately bred and brought up, so as, when arrived a man's estate, to be unable to bear the least hardship. whatever may be the origin of this appellation, we learn from the following verses, attributed to hugh bigot, earl of norfolk, that it was in use, in the time of king henry ii. was i in my castle at bungay, fast by the river waveney, i would not care for the king of cockney; i.e. the king of london. cockshut time. the evening, when fowls go to roost. cod. a cod of money: a good sum of money. codders. persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas. codger. an old codger: an old fellow. cod piece. the fore flap of a man's breeches. do they bite, master? where, in the cod piece or collar?--a jocular attack on a patient angler by watermen, &c. cods. the scrotum. also a nick name for a curate: a rude fellow meeting a curate, mistook him for the rector, and accosted him with the vulgar appellation of bol--ks the rector, no, sir, answered he; only cods the curate, at your service. cod's head. a stupid fellow. coffee house. a necessary house. to make a coffee-house of a woman's ****; to go in and out and spend nothing. cog. the money, or whatsoever the sweeteners drop to draw in a bubble. cog. a tooth. a queer cog; a rotten tooth. how the cull flashes his queer cogs; how the fool shews his rotten teeth. to cog. to cheat with dice; also to coax or wheedle, to cog a die; to conceal or secure a die. to cog a dinner; to wheedle one out of a dinner. cogue. a dram of any spirituous liquor. coker. a lie. cokes. the fool in the play of bartholomew fair: perhaps a contraction of the word coxcomb. colcannon. potatoes and cabbage pounded together in a mortar, and then stewed with butter: an irish dish. cold. you will catch cold at that; a vulgar threat or advice to desist from an attempt. he caught cold by lying in bed barefoot; a saying of any one extremely tender or careful of himself. cold burning. a punishment inflicted by private soldiers on their comrades for trifling offences, or breach of their mess laws; it is administered in the following manner: the prisoner is set against the wall, with the arm which is to be burned tied as high above his head as possible. the executioner then ascends a stool, and having a bottle of cold water, pours it slowly down the sleeve of the delinquent, patting him, and leading the water gently down his body, till it runs out at his breeches knees: this is repeated to the other arm, if he is sentenced to be burned in both. cold cook. an undertaker of funerals, or carrion hunter. see carrion hunter. cold iron. a sword, or any other weapon for cutting or stabbing. i gave him two inches of cold iron into his beef. cold meat. a dead wife is the beat cold meat in a man's house. cold pig. to give cold pig is a punishment inflicted on sluggards who lie too long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes from them, and throwing cold water upon them. cold pudding. this is said to settle one's love. cole. money. post the cole: pay down the money. coliander, or coriander seeds. money. collar day. execution day. college. newgate or any other prison. new college: the royal exchange. king's college: the king's bench prison. he has been educated at the steel, and took his last degree at college; he has received his education at the house of correction, and was hanged at newgate. college cove. the college cove has numbered him, and if he is knocked down he'll be twisted; the turnkey of newgate has told the judge how many times the prisoner has been tried before and therefore if he is found guilty, he certainly will be hanged. it is said to be the custom of the old bailey for one of the turnkeys of newgate to give information to the judge how many times an old offender has been tried, by holding up as many fingers as the number of times the prisoner has been before arraigned at that bar. collegiates. prisoners of the one, and shopkeepers of the other of those places. collector. a highwayman. to collogue. to wheedle or coax. cook ruffian, who roasted the devil in his feathers. a bad cook. cool crape. a shroud. cooler. a woman. cooler. the backside. kiss my cooler. kiss my a-se. it is principally used to signify a woman's posteriors. cool lady. a female follower of the camp, who sells brandy. cool nants. brandy. cool tankard. wine and water, with lemon, sugar, and burrage. colquarron. a man's neck. his colquarron is just about to be twisted; he is just going to be hanged. cant. colt. one who lets horses to highwaymen; also a boy newly initiated into roguery; a grand or petty juryman on his first assize. cant. coltage. a fine or beverage paid by colts on their first entering into their offices. colt bowl. laid short of the jack by a colt bowler, i.e. a person raw or unexperienced in the art of bowling. colt's tooth. an old fellow who marries or keeps a young girl, is said to have a colt's tooth in his head. colt veal. coarse red veal, more like the flesh of a colt than that of a calf. comb. to comb one's head; to clapperclaw, or scold any one: a woman who lectures her husband, is said to comb his head. she combed his head with a joint stool; she threw a stool at him. come. to come; to lend. has he come it; has he lent it? to come over any one; to cheat or over reach him. coming wench; a forward wench, also a breeding woman. coming! so is christmas. said of a person who has long been called, and at length answers, coming! comfortable importance. a wife. commission. a shirt. cant. commode. a woman's head dress. commodity. a woman's commodity; the private parts of a modest woman, and the public parts of a prostitute. commons. the house of commons; the necessary house. company. to see company; to enter into a course of prostitution. compliment. see christmas. comus's court. a social meeting formerly held at the half moon tavern cheapside. confect. counterfeited. conger. to conger; the agreement of a set or knot of booksellers of london, that whosoever of them shall buy a good copy, the rest shall take off such a particular number, in quires, at a stated price; also booksellers joining to buy either a considerable or dangerous copy. congo. will you lap your congo with me? will you drink tea with me? conny wabble. eggs and brandy beat up together. irish. conscience keeper. a superior, who by his influence makes his dependants act as he pleases. content. the cull's content; the man is past complaining: a saying of a person murdered for resisting the robbers. cant. content. a thick liquor, in imitation of chocolate, made of milk and gingerbread. contra dance. a dance where the dancers of the different sexes stand opposite each other, instead of side by side, as in the minuet, rigadoon, louvre, &c. and now corruptly called a country dance. conundrums. enigmatical conceits. convenient. a mistress. cant. conveniency. a necessary. a leathern conveniency, a coach. cooped up. imprisoned, confined like a fowl in a coop. coquet. a jilt. corinth. a bawdy-house. cant. corinthians: frequenters of brothels. also an impudent, brazen-faced fellow, perhaps from the corinthian brass. cork-brained. light-headed, foolish. corned. drunk. cornish hug. a particular lock in wrestling, peculiar to the people of that county. corny-faced. a very red pimpled face. corporal. to mount a corporal and four; to be guilty of onanism: the thumb is the corporal, the four fingers the privates. corporation. a large belly. he has a glorious corporation; he has a very prominent belly. corporation. the magistrates, &c. of a corporate town. corpus sine ratione. freemen of a corporation's work; neither strong nor handsome. cosset. a foundling. cosset colt or lamb; a colt or lamb brought up by hand. costard. the head. i'll smite your costard; i'll give you a knock on the head. costard monger. a dealer in fruit, particularly apples. cot, or quot. a man who meddles with women's household business, particularly in the kitchen. the punishment commonly inflicted on a quot, is pinning a greasy dishclout to the skirts of his coat. cove. a man, a fellow, a rogue. the cove was bit; the rogue was outwitted. the cove has bit the cole; the rogue has got the money. cant. covent, or convent garden, vulgarly called common garden. anciently, the garden belonging to a dissolved monastery; now famous for being the chief market in london for fruit, flowers, and herbs. the theatres are situated near it. in its environs are many brothels, and not long ago, the lodgings of the second order of ladies of easy virtue were either there, or in the purlieus of drury lane. covent garden abbess. a bawd. covent garden ague. the venereal disease. he broke his shins against covent garden rails; he caught the venereal disorder. covent garden nun. a prostitute. coventry. to send one to coventry; a punishment inflicted by officers of the army on such of their brethren as are testy, or have been guilty of improper behaviour, not worthy the cognizance of a court martial. the person sent to coventry is considered as absent; no one must speak to or answer any question he asks, except relative to duty, under penalty of being also sent to the same place. on a proper submission, the penitent is recalled, and welcomed by the mess, as just returned from a journey to coventry. covey. a collection of whores. what a fine covey here is, if the devil would but throw his net! to couch a hogshead. to lie down to sleep. cant. counterfeit crank. a general cheat, assuming all sorts of characters; one counterfeiting the falling sickness. country harry. a waggoner. cant. country put. an ignorant country fellow. county work. said of any work that advances slowly. court card. a gay fluttering coxcomb. court holy water, court promises. fair speeches and promises, without performance. court of assistants. a court often applied to by young women who marry old men. cow. to sleep like a cow, with a **** at one's a-se; said of a married man; married men being supposed to sleep with their backs towards their wives, according to the following proclamation: all you that in your beds do lie, turn to your wives, and occupy: and when that you have done your best, turn a-se to a-se, and take your rest. cow juice. milk. cow's baby. a calf. cow's courant. gallop and sh---e. cow-handed. awkward. cow-hearted. fearful. cow itch. the product of a sort of bean, which excites an insufferable itching, used chiefly for playing tricks. cow's spouse. a bull. cow's thumb. done to a cow's thumb; done exactly. coxcomb. anciently, a fool. fools, in great families, wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. at present, coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow. crab. to catch a crab; to fall backwards by missing one's stroke in rowing. crab lanthorn. a peevish fellow. crab louse. a species of louse peculiar to the human body; the male is denominated a cock, the female a hen. crab shells. shoes. irish. crabs. a losing throw to the main at hazard. crabbed. sour, ill-tempered, difficult. crack. a whore. to crack. to boast or brag; also to break. i cracked his napper; i broke his head. the crack, or all the crack. the fashionable theme, the go. the crack lay, of late is used, in the cant language, to signify the art and mystery of house-breaking. cracker. crust, sea biscuit, or ammunition loaf; also the backside. farting crackers; breeches. crackish. whorish. cracking tools. implements of house-breaking, such as a crow, a center bit, false keys, &c. crackmans. hedges. the cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge, but we brought him back by a great blow on the head, which laid him speechless. cracksman. a house-breaker. the kiddy is a clever cracksman; the young fellow is a very expert house-breaker. crag. the neck. cramp rings. bolts, shackles, or fetters. cant. cramp words. sentence of death passed on a criminal by a judge. he has just undergone the cramp word; sentence has just been passed on him. cant. crank. gin and water; also, brisk, pert. crank. the falling sickness. cant. to crash. to kill. crash that cull; kill that fellow. cant. crashing cheats. teeth. craw thumpers. roman catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. see brisket beater, and breast fleet. cream-pot love. such as young fellows pretend to dairymaids, to get cream and other good things from them. to creeme. to slip or slide any thing into the hands of another. cant. creepers. gentlemen's companions, lice. crew. a knot or gang; also a boat or ship's company. the canting crew are thus divided into twenty-three orders, which see under the different words: men. rufflers upright men hookers or anglers rogues wild rogues priggers of prancers palliardes fraters jarkmen, or patricoes fresh water mariners, or whip jackets drummerers drunken tinkers swadders, or pedlars abrams. women. demanders for glimmer or fire bawdy baskets morts autem morts walking morts doxies delles kinching morts kinching coes crib. a house. to crack a crib: to break open a house. to crib. to purloin, or appropriate to one's own use, part of any thing intrusted to one's care. to fight a crib. to make a sham fight. bear garden term. cribbage-faced. marked with the small pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board. cribbeys, or cribby islands. blind alleys, courts, or bye-ways; perhaps from the houses built there being cribbed out of the common way or passage; and islands, from the similarity of sound to the caribbee islands. crim. con. money. damages directed by a jury to be paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for criminal conversation with his wife. crimp. a broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes of the cargoes of the newcastle coal ships; also persons employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the east indian and african companies. to crimp, or play crimp; to play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish alive, practised by the london fishmongers, in order to make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures. crinkum crankum. a woman's commodity. see spectator. crinkums. the foul or venereal disease. cripple. sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent and distorted. crispin. a shoemaker: from a romance, wherein a prince of that name is said to have exercised the art and mystery of a shoemaker, thence called the gentle craft: or rather from the saints crispinus and crispianus, who according to the legend, were brethren born at rome, from whence they travelled to soissons in france, about the year , to propagate the christian religion; but, because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers: the governor of the town discovering them to be christians, ordered them to be beheaded, about the year ; from which time they have been the tutelar saints of the shoemakers. crispin's holiday. every monday throughout the year, but most particularly the th of october, being the anniversary of crispinus and crispianus. crispin's lance. an awl. croaker. one who is always foretelling some accident or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven, supposed ominous. croakumshire. northumberland, from the particular croaking the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about newcastle and morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r. croakers. forestallers, called also kidders and tranters. crocodile's tears. the tears of a hypocrite. crocodiles are fabulously reported to shed tears over their prey before they devour it. crocus, or crocus metallorum. a nick name for a surgeon of the army and navy. croker. a groat, or four pence. crone. an old ewe whose teeth are worn out; figuratively, a toothless old beldam. crony. an intimate companion, a comrade; also a confederate in a robbery. crook. sixpence. crook back. sixpence; for the reason of this name, see cripple. crook your elbow. to crook one's elbow, and wish it may never come straight, if the fact then affirmed is not true--according to the casuists of bow-street and st. giles's, adds great weight and efficacy to an oath. crook shanks. a nickname for a man with bandy legs. he buys his boots in crooked lane, and his stockings in bandy-legged walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs. crop. a nick name for a presbyterian: from their cropping their hair, which they trimmed close to a bowl-dish, placed as a guide on their heads; whence they were likewise called roundheads. see roundheads. crop. to be knocked down for a crop; to be condemned to be hanged. cropped, hanged. cropping drums. drummers of the foot guards, or chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money. croppen. the tail. the croppen of the rotan; the tail of the cart. croppen ken: the necessary-house. cant. cropsick. sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness. cross. to come home by weeping cross; to repent at the conclusion. cross dishonest. a cross cove; any person who lives by stealing or in a dishonest manner. cross bite. one who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. cant.--this is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain crim. com. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband. cross buttock. a particular lock or fall in the broughtonian art, which, as mr. fielding observes, conveyed more pleasant sensations to the spectators than the patient. cross patch. a peevish boy or girl, or rather an unsocial ill-tempered man or woman. to crow. to brag, boast, or triumph. to crow over any one; to keep him in subjection: an image drawn from a cock, who crows over a vanquished enemy. to pluck a crow; to reprove any one for a fault committed, to settle a dispute. to strut like a crow in a gutter; to walk proudly, or with an air of consequence. crowd. a fiddle: probably from crooth, the welch name for that instrument. crowdero. a fiddler. crowdy. oatmeal and water, or milk; a mess much eaten in the north. crow fair. a visitation of the clergy. see review of the black cuirassiers. crown office. the head. i fired into her keel upwards; my eyes and limbs jack, the crown office was full; i s--k-d a woman with her a-e upwards, she was so drunk, that her head lay on the ground. cruisers. beggars, or highway spies, who traverse the road, to give intelligence of a booty; also rogues ready to snap up any booty that may offer, like privateers or pirates on a cruise. crummy. fat, fleshy. a fine crummy dame; a fat woman. he has picked up his crumbs finely of late; he has grown very fat, or rich, of late. crump. one who helps solicitors to affidavit men, or false witnesses.--'i wish you had, mrs. crump;' a gloucestershire saying, in answer to a wish for any thing; implying, you must not expect any assistance from the speaker. it is said to have originated from the following incident: one mrs. crump, the wife of a substantial farmer, dining with the old lady coventry, who was extremely deaf, said to one of the footmen, waiting at table, 'i wish i had a draught of small beer,' her modesty not permitting her to desire so fine a gentleman to bring it: the fellow, conscious that his mistress could not hear either the request or answer, replied, without moving, 'i wish you had, mrs. crump.' these wishes being again repeated by both parties, mrs. crump got up from the table to fetch it herself; and being asked by my lady where she was going, related what had passed. the story being told abroad, the expression became proverbial. crump-backed. hump-backed. crusty beau. one that uses paint and cosmetics, to obtain a fine complexion. crusty fellow. a surly fellow. cub. an unlicked cub; an unformed, ill-educated young man, a young nobleman or gentleman on his travels: an allusion to the story of the bear, said to bring its cub into form by licking. also, a new gamester. cuckold. the husband of an incontinent wife: cuckolds, however, are christians, as we learn by the following story: an old woman hearing a man call his dog cuckold, reproved him sharply, saying, 'sirrah, are not you ashamed to call a dog by a christian's name?' to cuckold the parson; to bed with one's wife before she has been churched. cucumbers. taylors, who are jocularly said to subsist, during the summer, chiefly on cucumbers. cuff. an old cuff; an old man. to cuff jonas; said of one who is knock-kneed, or who beats his sides to keep himself warm in frosty weather; called also beating the booby. cuffin. a man. cull. a man, honest or otherwise. a bob cull; a good-natured, quiet fellow. cant. cullability. a disposition liable to be cheated, an unsuspecting nature, open to imposition. cully. a fog or fool: also, a dupe to women: from the italian word coglione, a blockhead. culp. a kick or blow: from the words mea culpa, being that part of the popish liturgy at which the people beat their breasts; or, as the vulgar term is, thump their craws. cundum. the dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one colonel cundum. these machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of philips, at the green canister, in half-moon-street, in the strand. that good lady having acquired a fortune, retired from business; but learning that the town was not well served by her successors, she, out of a patriotic zeal for the public welfare, returned to her occupation; of which she gave notice by divers hand-bills, in circulation in the year . also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil-skin case for holding the colours of a regiment. cunningham. a punning appellation for a simple fellow. cunning man. a cheat, who pretends by his skill in astrology to assist persons in recovering stolen goods: and also to tell them their fortunes, and when, how often, and to whom they shall be married; likewise answers all lawful questions, both by sea and land. this profession is frequently occupied by ladies. cunning shaver. a sharp fellow, one that trims close, i.e. cheats ingeniously. cunny-thumbed. to double one's fist with the thumb inwards, like a woman. c**t. the chonnos of the greek, and the cunnus of the latin dictionaries; a nasty name for a nasty thing: un con miege. cup of the creature. a cup of good liquor. cup-shot. drunk. cupboard love. pretended love to the cook, or any other person, for the sake of a meal. my guts cry cupboard; i.e. i am hungry cupid, blind cupid. a jeering name for an ugly blind man: cupid, the god of love, being frequently painted blind. see blind cupid. cur. a cut or curtailed dog. according to the forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase, was obliged to cut or law his dog: among other modes of disabling him from disturbing the game, one was by depriving him of his tail: a dog so cut was called a cut or curtailed dog, and by contraction a cur. a cur is figuratively used to signify a surly fellow. curbing law. the act of hooking goods out of windows: the curber is the thief, the curb the hook. cant. cure a-se. a dyachilon plaister, applied to the parts galled by riding. curle. clippings of money, which curls up in the operation. cant. curmudgeon. a covetous old fellow, derived, according to some, from the french term coeur mechant. curry. to curry favour; to obtain the favour of a person be coaxing or servility. to curry any one's hide; to beat him. curse of scotland. the nine of diamonds; diamonds, it is said, imply royalty, being ornaments to the imperial crown; and every ninth king of scotland has been observed for many ages, to be a tyrant and a curse to that country. others say it is from its similarity to the arms of argyle; the duke of argyle having been very instrumental in bringing about the union, which, by some scotch patriots, has been considered as detrimental to their country. curse of god. a cockade. cursitors. broken petty-fogging attornies, or newgate solicitors. cant. curtails. thieves who cut off pieces of stuff hanging out of shop windows, the tails of women's gowns, &c.; also, thieves wearing short jackets. curtain lecture. a woman who scolds her husband when in bed, is said to read him a curtain lecture. curtezan. a prostitute. cushion. he has deserved the cushion; a saying of one whose wife is brought to bed of a boy: implying, that having done his business effectually, he may now indulge or repose himself. cushion thumper, or duster. a parson; many of whom in the fury of their eloquence, heartily belabour their cushions. custard cap. the cap worn by the sword-bearer of the city of london, made hollow at the top like a custard. custom-house goods. the stock in trade of a prostitute, because fairly entered. cut. drunk. a little cut over the head; slightly intoxicated. to cut; to leave a person or company. to cut up well; to die rich. to cut. (cambridge.) to renounce acquaintance with any one is to cut him. there are several species of the cut. such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime, the cut infernal, &c. the cut direct, is to start across the street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to avoid him. the cut indirect, is to look another way, and pass without appearing to observe him. the cut sublime, is to admire the top of king's college chapel, or the beauty of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight. the cut infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings, for the same purpose. to cut bene. to speak gently. to cut bene whiddes; to give good words. to cut queer whiddes; to give foul language. to cut a bosh, or a flash; to make a figure. cant. to cutty-eye. to look out of the corners of one's eyes, to leer, to look askance. the cull cutty-eyed at us; the fellow looked suspicious at us. dab. an adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. dab, quoth dawkins, when he hit his wife on the a-se with a pound of butter. dace. two pence. tip me a dace; lend me two pence. cant. daddles. hands. tip us your daddle; give me your hand. cant. daddy. father. old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. to beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the roll. daggers. they are at daggers drawing; i.e. at enmity, ready to fight. dairy. a woman's breasts, particularly one that gives suck. she sported her dairy; she pulled out her breast. daisy cutter. a jockey term for a horse that does not lift up his legs sufficiently, or goes too near the ground, and is therefore apt to stumble. daisy kickers. ostlers at great inns. dam. a small indian coin, mentioned in the gentoo code of laws: hence etymologists may, if they please, derive the common expression, i do not care a dam, i.e. i do not care half a farthing for it. damber. a rascal. see dimber. damme boy. a roaring, mad, blustering fellow, a scourer of the streets, or kicker up of a breeze. damned soul. a clerk in a counting house, whose sole business it is to clear or swear off merchandise at the custom-house; and who, it is said, guards against the crime of perjury, by taking a previous oath, never to swear truly on those occasions. damper. a luncheon, or snap before dinner: so called from its damping, or allaying, the appetite; eating and drinking, being, as the proverb wisely observes, apt to take away the appetite. dance upon nothing. to be hanged. dancers. stairs. dandy. that's the dandy; i.e. the ton, the clever thing; an expression of similar import to "that's the barber." see barber. dandy grey russet. a dirty brown. his coat's dandy grey russet, the colour of the devil's nutting bag. dandy prat. an insignificant or trifling fellow. to dangle. to follow a woman without asking the question. also, to be hanged: i shall see you dangle in the sheriff's picture frame; i shall see you hanging on the gallows. dangler. one who follows women in general, without any particular attachment dapper fellow. a smart, well-made, little man. darbies. fetters. cant. darby. ready money. cant. dark cully. a married man that keeps a mistress, whom he visits only at night, for fear of discovery. darkee. a dark lanthorn used by housebreakers. stow the darkee, and bolt, the cove of the crib is fly; hide the dark lanthorn, and run away, the master of the house knows that we are here. darkmans. the night. cant. darkman's budge. one that slides into a house in the dark of the evening, and hides himself, in order to let some of the gang in at night to rob it. dart. a straight-armed blow in boxing. dash. a tavern drawer. to cut a dash: to make a figure. david jones. the devil, the spirit of the sea: called necken in the north countries, such as norway, denmark, and sweden. david jones's locker. the sea. david's sow. as drunk as david's sow; a common saying, which took its rise from the following circumstance: one david lloyd, a welchman, who kept an alehouse at hereford, had a living sow with six legs, which was greatly resorted to by the curious; he had also a wife much addicted to drunkenness, for which he used sometimes to give her due correction. one day david's wife having taken a cup too much, and being fearful of the consequences, turned out the sow, and lay down to sleep herself sober in the stye. a company coming in to see the sow, david ushered them into the stye, exclaiming, there is a sow for you! did any of you ever see such another? all the while supposing the sow had really been there; to which some of the company, seeing the state the woman was in, replied, it was the drunkenest sow they had ever beheld; whence the woman was ever after called david's sow. davy. i'll take my davy of it; vulgar abbreviation of affidavit. to dawb. to bribe. the cull was scragged because he could not dawb; the rogue was hanged because he could not bribe. all bedawbed with lace; all over lace. day lights. eyes. to darken his day lights, or sow up his sees; to close up a man's eyes in boxing. dead cargo. a term used by thieves, when they are disappointed in the value of their booty. dead horse. to work for the dead horse; to work for wages already paid. dead-louse. vulgar pronunciation of the dedalus ship of war. dead men. a cant word among journeymen bakers, for loaves falsely charged to their masters' customers; also empty bottles. deadly nevergreen, that bears fruit all the year round. the gallows, or three-legged mare. see three-legged mare. dear joys. irishmen: from their frequently making use of that expression. death hunter. an undertaker, one who furnishes the necessary articles for funerals. see carrion hunter. death's head upon a mop-stick. a poor miserable, emaciated fellow; one quite an otomy. see otomy.--he looked as pleasant as the pains of death. deep-one. a thorough-paced rogue, a sly designing fellow: in opposition to a shallow or foolish one. deft fellow. a neat little man. degen, or dagen. a sword. nim the degen; steal the sword. dagen is dutch for a sword. cant. dells. young buxom wenches, ripe and prone to venery, but who have not lost their virginity, which the upright man claims by virtue of his prerogative; after which they become free for any of the fraternity. also a common strumpet. cant. demure. as demure as an old whore at a christening. demy-rep. an abbreviation of demy-reputation; a woman of doubtful character. derby. to come down with the derbies; to pay the money. derrick. the name of the finisher of the law, or hangman about the year .--'for he rides his circuit with the devil, and derrick must be his host, and tiburne the inne at which he will lighte.' vide bellman of london, in art. priggin law.--'at the gallows, where i leave them, as to the haven at which they must all cast anchor, if derrick's cables do but hold.' ibid. devil. a printer's errand-boy. also a small thread in the king's ropes and cables, whereby they may be distinguished from all others. the devil himself; a small streak of blue thread in the king's sails. the devil may dance in his pocket; i.e. he has no money: the cross on our ancient coins being jocularly supposed to prevent him from visiting that place, for fear, as it is said, of breaking his shins against it. to hold a candle to the devil; to be civil to any one out of fear: in allusion to the story of the old woman, who set a wax taper before the image of st. michael, and another before the devil, whom that saint is commonly represented as trampling under his feet: being reproved for paying such honour to satan, she answered, as it was uncertain which place she should go to, heaven or hell, she chose to secure a friend in both places. that will be when the devil is blind, and he has not got sore eyes yet; said of any thing unlikely to happen. it rains whilst the sun shines, the devil is beating his wife with a shoulder of mutton: this phenomenon is also said to denote that cuckolds are going to heaven; on being informed of this, a loving wife cried out with great vehemence, 'run, husband, run!' the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be; the devil was well, the devil a monk was he. a proverb signifying that we are apt to forget promises made in time of distress. to pull the devil by the tail, to be reduced to one's shifts. the devil go with you and sixpence, and then you will have both money and company. devil. the gizzard of a turkey or fowl, scored, peppered, salted and broiled: it derives its appellation from being hot in the mouth. devil's books. cards. devil catcher, or devil driver. a parson. see snub devil. devil's daughter. it is said of one who has a termagant for his wife, that he has married the devil's daughter, and lives with the old folks. devil's daughter's portion: deal, dover, and harwich, the devil gave with his daughter in marriage; and, by a codicil to his will, he added helvoet and the brill; a saying occasioned by the shameful impositions practised by the inhabitants of those places, on sailors and travellers. devil drawer. a miserable painter. devil's dung. assafoetida. devil's guts. a surveyor's chain: so called by farmers, who do not like their land should be measured by their landlords. devilish. very: an epithet which in the english vulgar language is made to agree with every quality or thing; as, devilish bad, devilish good; devilish sick, devilish well; devilish sweet, devilish sour; devilish hot, devilish cold, &c. &c. deusea ville. the country. cant. deusea ville stampers. country carriers. cant. dew beaters. feet. cant. dews wins, or deux wins. two-pence. cant. dewitted. torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman john de wit was in holland, anno . dial plate. the face. to alter his dial plate; to disfigure his face. dice. the names of false dice: a bale of bard cinque deuces a bale of flat cinque deuces a bale of flat sice aces a bale of bard cater traes a bale of flat cater traes a bale of fulhams a bale of light graniers a bale of langrets contrary to the ventage a bale of gordes, with as many highmen as lowmen, for passage a bale of demies a bale of long dice for even and odd a bale of bristles a bale of direct contraries. dick. that happened in the reign of queen dick, i. e. never: said of any absurd old story. i am as queer as dick's hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don't know what ails me. dicky. a woman's under-petticoat. it's all dicky with him; i.e. it's all over with him. dicked in the nob. silly. crazed. dickey. a sham shirt. dickey. an ass. roll your dickey; drive your ass. also a seat for servants to sit behind a carriage, when their master drives. to diddle. to cheat. to defraud. the cull diddled me out of my dearee; the fellow robbed me of my sweetheart. see jeremy diddler in raising the wind. diddeys. a woman's breasts or bubbies. diddle. gin. diggers. spurs. cant. dilberries. small pieces of excrement adhering to the hairs near the fundament. dilberry maker. the fundament. dildo. [from the italian diletto, q. d. a woman's delight; or from our word dally, q. d. a thing to play withal.] penis-succedaneus, called in lombardy passo tempo. bailey. diligent. double diligent, like the devil's apothecary; said of one affectedly diligent. dilly. (an abbreviation of the word diligence.) a public voiture or stage, commonly a post chaise, carrying three persons; the name is taken from the public stage vehicles in france and flanders. the dillies first began to run in england about the year . dimber. pretty. a dimber cove; a pretty fellow. dimber mort; a pretty wench. cant. dimber damber. a top man, or prince, among the canting crew: also the chief rogue of the gang, or the completest cheat. cant. ding. to knock down. to ding it in one's ears; to reproach or tell one something one is not desirous of hearing. also to throw away or hide: thus a highwayman who throws away or hides any thing with which he robbed, to prevent being known or detected, is, in the canting lingo, styled a dinger. ding boy. a rogue, a hector, a bully, or sharper. cant. ding dong. helter skelter, in a hasty disorderly manner. dingey christian. a mulatto; or any one who has, as the west-indian term is, a lick of the tar-brush, that is, some negro blood in him. dining room post. a mode of stealing in houses that let lodgings, by rogues pretending to be postmen, who send up sham letters to the lodgers, and, whilst waiting in the entry for the postage, go into the first room they see open, and rob it. dip. to dip for a wig. formerly, in middle row, holborn, wigs of different sorts were, it is said, put into a close-stool box, into which, for three-pence, any one might dip, or thrust in his hand, and take out the first wig he laid hold of; if he was dissatisfied with his prize, he might, on paying three halfpence, return it and dip again. the dip. a cook's shop, under furnival's inn, where many attornies clerks, and other inferior limbs of the law, take out the wrinkles from their bellies. dip is also a punning name for a tallow-chandler. dippers. anabaptists. dipt. pawned or mortgaged. dirty puzzle. a nasty slut. disguised. drunk. disgruntled. offended, disobliged. dished up. he is completely dished up; he is totally ruined. to throw a thing in one's dish; to reproach or twit one with any particular matter. dishclout. a dirty, greasy woman. he has made a napkin of his dishclout; a saying of one who has married his cook maid. to pin a dishclout to a man's tail; a punishment often threatened by the female servants in a kitchen, to a man who pries too minutely into the secrets of that place. dismal ditty. the psalm sung by the felons at the gallows, just before they are turned off. dispatches. a mittimus, or justice of the peace's warrant, for the commitment of a rogue. ditto. a suit of ditto; coat, waistcoat, and breeches, all of one colour. dispatchers. loaded or false dice. distracted division. husband and wife fighting. dive. to dive; to pick a pocket. to dive for a dinner; to go down into a cellar to dinner. a dive, is a thief who stands ready to receive goods thrown out to him by a little boy put in at a window. cant. diver. a pickpocket; also one who lives in a cellar. divide. to divide the house with one's wife; to give her the outside, and to keep all the inside to one's self, i.e. to turn her into the street. do. to do any one; to rob and cheat him. i have done him; i have robbed him. also to overcome in a boxing match: witness those laconic lines written on the field of battle, by humphreys to his patron.--'sir, i have done the jew.' to do over. carries the same meaning, but is not so briefly expressed: the former having received the polish of the present times. doash. a cloak. cant. dobin rig. stealing ribbands from haberdashers early in the morning or late at night; generally practised by women in the disguise of maid servants. to dock. to lie with a woman. the cull docked the dell all the darkmans; the fellow laid with the wench all night. docked smack smooth; one who has suffered an amputation of his penis from a venereal complaint. he must go into dock; a sea phrase, signifying that the person spoken of must undergo a salivation. docking is also a punishment inflicted by sailors on the prostitutes who have infected them with the venereal disease; it consists in cutting off all their clothes, petticoats, shift and all, close to their stays, and then turning them into the street. doctor. milk and water, with a little rum, and some nutmeg; also the name of a composition used by distillers, to make spirits appear stronger than they really are, or, in their phrase, better proof. doctors. loaded dice, that will run but two or three chances. they put the doctors upon him; they cheated him with loaded dice. dodsey. a woman: perhaps a corruption of doxey. cant. dog buffers. dog stealers, who kill those dogs not advertised for, sell their skins, and feed the remaining dogs with their flesh. dog in a doublet. a daring, resolute fellow. in germany and flanders the boldest dogs used to hunt the boar, having a kind of buff doublet buttoned on their bodies, rubens has represented several so equipped, so has sneyders. dog. an old dog at it; expert or accustomed to any thing. dog in a manger; one who would prevent another from enjoying what he himself does not want: an allusion to the well-known fable. the dogs have not dined; a common saying to any one whose shirt hangs out behind. to dog, or dodge; to follow at a distance. to blush like a blue dog, i.e. not at all. to walk the black dog on any one; a punishment inflicted in the night on a fresh prisoner, by his comrades, in case of his refusal to pay the usual footing or garnish. dog latin. barbarous latin, such as was formerly used by the lawyers in their pleadings. dog's portion. a lick and a smell. he comes in for only a dog's portion; a saying of one who is a distant admirer or dangler after women. see dangler. dog's rig. to copulate till you are tired, and then turn tail to it. dog's soup. rain water. dog vane. a cockade. sea term. dogged. surly. doggess, dog's wife or lady, puppy's mamma. jocular ways of calling a woman a bitch. doll. bartholomew doll; a tawdry, over-drest woman, like one of the children's dolls at bartholomew fair. to mill doll; to beat hemp at bridewell, or any other house of correction. dolly. a yorkshire dolly; a contrivance for washing, by means of a kind of wheel fixed in a tub, which being turned about, agitates and cleanses the linen put into it, with soap and water. domine do little. an impotent old fellow. domineer. to reprove or command in an insolent or haughty manner. don't think as how you shall domineer here. dommerer. a beggar pretending that his tongue has been cutout by the algerines, or cruel and blood-thirsty turks, or else that he yas born deaf and dumb. cant. done, or done over. robbed: also, convicted or hanged. cant.--see do. done up. ruined by gaming and extravagances. modern term. donkey, donkey dick. a he, or jack ass: called donkey, perhaps, from the spanish or don-like gravity of that animal, intitled also the king of spain's trumpeter. doodle. a silly fellow, or noodle: see noodle. also a child's penis. doodle doo, or cock a doodle doo; a childish appellation for a cock, in imitation of its note when crowing. doodle sack. a bagpipe. dutch.--also the private parts of a woman. dopey. a beggar's trull. dot and go one. to waddle: generally applied to persons who have one leg shorter than the other, and who, as the sea phrase is, go upon an uneven keel. also a jeering appellation for an inferior writing-master, or teacher of arithmetic. double. to tip any one the double; to run away in his or her debt. double jugg. a man's backside. cotton's virgil. dove-tail. a species of regular answer, which fits into the subject, like the contrivance whence it takes its name: ex. who owns this? the dovetail is, not you by your asking. douglas. roby douglas, with one eye and a stinking breath; the breech. sea wit. dowdy. a coarse, vulgar-looking woman. down hills. dice that run low. down. aware of a thing. knowing it. there is no down. a cant phrase used by house-breakers to signify that the persons belonging to any house are not on their guard, or that they are fast asleep, and have not heard any noise to alarm them. to dowse. to take down: as, dowse the pendant. dowse your dog vane; take the cockade out of your hat. dowse the glim; put out the candle. dowse on the chops. a blow in the face. dowser. vulgar pronunciation of douceur. doxies. she beggars, wenches, whores. drab. a nasty, sluttish whore. drag. to go on the drag; to follow a cart or waggon, in order to rob it. cant. drag lay. waiting in the streets to rob carts or waggons. draggletail or daggletail. one whose garments are bespattered with dag or dew: generally applied to the female sex, to signify a slattern. dragooning it. a man who occupies two branches of one profession, is said to dragoon it; because, like the soldier of that denomination, he serves in a double capacity. such is a physician who furnishes the medicines, and compounds his own prescriptions. drain. gin: so called from the diuretic qualities imputed to that liquor. dram. a glass or small measure of any spirituous liquors, which, being originally sold by apothecaries, were estimated by drams, ounces, &c. dog's dram; to spit in his mouth, and clap his back. dram-a-tick. a dram served upon credit. draper. an ale draper; an alehouse keeper. draught, or bill, on the pump at aldgate. a bad or false bill of exchange. see aldgate. draw latches. robbers of houses whose doors are only fastened with latches. cant. to draw. to take any thing from a pocket. to draw a swell of a clout. to pick a gentleman's pocket of a handkerchief. to draw the long bow; to tell lies. drawers. stockings. cant. drawing the king's picture. coining. cant. to dress. to beat. i'll dress his hide neatly; i'll beat him soundly. dribble. a method of pouring out, as it were, the dice from the box, gently, by which an old practitioner is enabled to cog one of them with his fore-finger. dripper. a gleet. dromedary. a heavy, bungling thief or rogue. a purple dromedary; a bungler in the art and mystery of thieving. cant. drommerars. see dommerer. drop. the new drop; a contrivance for executing felons at newgate, by means of a platform, which drops from under them: this is also called the last drop. see leaf. see morning drop. drop a cog. to let fall, with design, a piece of gold or silver, in order to draw in and cheat the person who sees it picked up; the piece so dropped is called a dropt cog. drop in the eye. almost drunk. dropping member. a man's yard with a gonorrhoea. drop coves. persons who practice the fraud of dropping a ring or other article, and picking it up before the person intended to be defrauded, they pretend that the thing is very valuable to induce their gull to lend them money, or to purchase the article. see fawny rig, and money droppers. to drop down. to be dispirited. this expression is used by thieves to signify that their companion did not die game, as the kiddy dropped down when he went to be twisted; the young fellow was very low spirited when he walked out to be hanged. to drub. to beat any one with a stick, or rope's end: perhaps a contraction of dry rub. it is also used to signify a good beating with any instrument. drummer. a jockey term for a horse that throws about his fore legs irregularly: the idea is taken from a kettle drummer, who in beating makes many flourishes with his drumsticks. drunk. drunk as a wheel-barrow. drunk as david's sow. see david's sow. drury lane ague. the venereal disorder. drury lane vestal. a woman of the town, or prostitute; drury-lane and its environs were formerly the residence of many of those ladies. dry bob. a smart repartee: also copulation without emission; in law latin, siccus robertulus. dry boots. a sly humorous fellow. dub. a picklock, or master-key. cant. dub lay. robbing houses by picking the locks. dub the jigger. open the door. cant. dub o' th' hick. a lick on the head. dubber. a picker of locks. cant. duce. two-pence. duck. a lame duck; an exchange-alley phrase for a stock-jobber, who either cannot or will not pay his losses, or, differences, in which case he is said to waddle out of the alley, as he cannot appear there again till his debts are settled and paid; should he attempt it, he would be hustled out by the fraternity. ducks and drakes. to make ducks and drakes: a school-boy's amusement, practised with pieces of tile, oyster-shells, or flattish stones, which being skimmed along the surface of a pond, or still river, rebound many times. to make ducks and drakes of one's money; to throw it idly away. duck f-ck-r. the man who has the care of the poultry on board a ship of war. duck legs. short legs. dudders, or whispering dudders. cheats who travel the country, pretending to sell smuggled goods: they accost their intended dupes in a whisper. the goods they have for sale are old shop-keepers, or damaged; purchased by them of large manufactories. see duffer. duddering rake. a thundering rake, a buck of the first head, one extremely lewd. dudgeon. anger. duds. clothes. duffers. cheats who ply in different parts of the town, particularly about water-lane, opposite st. clement's church, in the strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them spital-fields goods at double their current price. dugs. a woman's breasts, duke, or rum duke. a queer unaccountable fellow. duke of limbs. a tall, awkward, ill-made fellow. duke humphrey. to dine with duke humphrey; to fast. in old st. paul's church was an aisle called duke humphrey's walk (from a tomb vulgarly called his, but in reality belonging to john of gaunt), and persons who walked there, while others were at dinner, were said to dine with duke humphrey. dull swift. a stupid, sluggish fellow, one long going on an errand. dumb arm. a lame arm. dumb-founded. silenced, also soundly beaten. dumb glutton. a woman's privities. dumb watch. a venereal bubo in the groin. dummee. a pocket book. a dummee hunter. a pick-pocket, who lurks about to steal pocket books out of gentlemen's pockets. frisk the dummee of the screens; take all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef. throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out "stop thief." dumplin. a short thick man or woman. norfolk dumplin; a jeering appellation of a norfolk man, dumplins being a favourite kind of food in that county. dumps. down in the dumps; low-spirited, melancholy: jocularly said to be derived from dumpos, a king of egypt, who died of melancholy. dumps are also small pieces of lead, cast by schoolboys in the shape of money. dun. an importunate creditor. dunny, in the provincial dialect of several counties, signifies deaf; to dun, then, perhaps may mean to deafen with importunate demands: some derive it from the word donnez, which signifies give. but the true original meaning of the word, owes its birth to one joe dun, a famous bailiff of the town of lincoln, so extremely active, and so dexterous in his business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay, why do not you dun him? that is, why do not you set dun to attest him? hence it became a cant word, and is now as old as since the days of henry vii. dun was also the general name for the hangman, before that of jack ketch. and presently a halter got, made of the best strong hempen teer, and ere a cat could lick her ear, had tied it up with as much art, as dun himself could do for's heart. cotton's virgil trav. book iv. dunaker. a stealer of cows and calves. dunegan. a privy. a water closet. dunghill. a coward: a cockpit phrase, all but gamecocks being styled dunghills. to die dunghill; to repent, or shew any signs of contrition at the gallows. moving dunghill; a dirty, filthy man or woman. dung, an abbreviation of dunghill, also means a journeyman taylor who submits to the law for regulating journeymen taylors' wages, therefore deemed by the flints a coward. see flints. dunnock. a cow. cunt. to dup. to open a door: a contraction of do ope or open. see dub. durham man. knocker kneed, he grinds mustard with his knees: durham is famous for its mustard. dust. money. down with your dust; deposit the money. to raise or kick up a dust; to make a disturbance or riot: see breeze. dust it away; drink about. dustman. a dead man: your father is a dustman. dutch comfort. thank god it is no worse. dutch concert. where every one plays or signs a different tune. dutch feast. where the entertainer gets drunk before his guest. dutch reckoning, or alle-mal. a verbal or lump account, without particulars, as brought at spungiug or bawdy houses. dutchess. a woman enjoyed with her pattens on, or by a man-in boots, is said to be made a dutchess. die hard, or game. to die hard, is to shew no signs of fear or contrition at the gallows; not to whiddle or squeak. this advice is frequently given to felons going to suffer the law, by their old comrades, anxious for the honour of the gang. earnest. a deposit in part of payment, to bind a bargain. earth bath. a grave. easy. make the cull easy or quiet; gag or kill him. as easy as pissing the bed. easy virtue. a lady of easy virtue: an impure or prostitute. eat. to eat like a beggar man, and wag his under jaw; a jocular reproach to a proud man. to eat one's words; to retract what one has said. to edge. to excite, stimulate, or provoke; or as it is vulgarly called, to egg a man on. fall back, fall edge; i.e. let what will happen. some derive to egg on, from the latin word, age, age. eight eyes. i will knock out two of your eight eyes; a common billingsgate threat from one fish nymph to another: every woman, according to the naturalists of that society, having eight eyes; viz. two seeing eyes, two bub-eyes, a bell-eye, two pope's eyes, and a ***-eye. he has fallen down and trod upon his eye; said of one who has a black eye. elbow grease. labour. elbow grease will make an oak table shine. elbow room. sufficient space to act in. out at elbows; said of an estate that is mortgaged. elbow shaker. a gamester, one who rattles saint hugh's bones, i.e. the dice. ellenborough lodge. the king's bench prison. lord ellenborough's teeth; the chevaux de frize round the top of the wall of that prison. elf. a fairy or hobgoblin, a little man or woman. emperor. drunk as an emperor, i.e. ten times as drunk as a lord. english burgundy. porter. ensign bearer. a drunken man, who looks red in the face, or hoists his colours in his drink. equipt. rich; also, having new clothes. well equipt; full of money, or well dressed. the cull equipped me with a brace of meggs; the gentleman furnished me with. a couple of guineas. essex lion. a calf; essex being famous for calves, and chiefly supplying the london markets. essex stile. a ditch; a great part of essex is low marshy ground, in which there are more ditches than stiles. eternity box. a coffin. eves. hen roosts. eve's custom-house, where adam made his first entry. the monosyllable. eves dropper. one that lurks about to rob hen-roosts; also a listener at doors and windows, to hear private conversation. evil. a halter. cant, also a wife. ewe. a white ewe; a beautiful woman. an old ewe, drest lamb fashion; an old woman, drest like a young girl. execution day. washing day. expended. killed: alluding to the gunner's accounts, wherein the articles consumed are charged under the title of expended. sea phrase. eye. it's all my eye and betty martin. it's all nonsense, all mere stuff. eye-sore. a disagreeable object. it will be an eye-sore as long as she lives, said by a limn whose wife was cut for a fistula in ano. face-making. begetting children. to face it out; to persist in a falsity. no face but his own: a saying of one who has no money in his pocket or no court cards in his hand. facer. a bumper, a glass filled so full as to leave no room for the lip. also a violent blow on the face. fadge. it won't fadge; it won't do. a farthing. to fag. to beat. fag the bloss; beat the wench; cant. a fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to fag him, he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired. to stand a good fag; not to be soon tired. fagger. a little boy put in at a window to rob the house. faggot. a man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier. to faggot in the canting sense, means to bind: an allusion to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are all bound. faggot the culls; bind the men. faithful. one of the faithful; a taylor who gives long credit. his faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting too much, broke him. fair. a set of subterraneous rooms in the fleet prison. fakement. a counterfeit signature. a forgery. tell the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers to be careful not to forge another person's signature. fallalls. ornaments, chiefly women's, such as ribands, necklaces, &c. fallen away from a horse load to a cart load. a saying on one grown fat. family man. a thief or receiver of stolen goods. fam lay. going into a goldsmith's shop, under pretence of buying a wedding ring, and palming one or two, by daubing the hand with some viscous matter. fams, or fambles. hands. famble cheats; rings or gloves. cant. to famgrasp. to shake bands: figuratively, to agree or make up a difference. famgrasp the cove; shake hands with the fellow. cant. family of love. lewd women; also, a religious sect. fancy man. a man kept by a lady for secret services. to fan. to beat any one. i fanned him sweetly; i beat him heartily. fantastically dressed, with more rags than ribands. fart. he has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches. piss and fart. sound at heart. mingere cum bumbis, res saluberrima est lumbis. i dare not trust my a-se with a fart: said by a person troubled with a looseness. fart catcher. a valet or footman from his walking behind his master or mistress. farting crackers. breeches. fartleberries. excrement hanging about the anus. fastner. a warrant. fastnesses. bogs. fat. the last landed, inned, or stowed, of any sort of merchandise: so called by the water-side porters, carmen, &c. all the fat is in the fire; that is, it is all over with us: a saying used in case of any miscarriage or disappointment in an undertaking; an allusion to overturning the frying pan into the fire. fat, among printers, means void spaces. as fat as a hen in the forehead. a saying of a meagre person. fat cull. a rich fellow. fat headed. stupid. faulkner. a tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks; perhaps because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his hawks. cant. faytors, or fators. fortune tellers. fawney rig. a common fraud, thus practised: a fellow drops a brass ring, double gilt, which he picks up before the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he disposes of it for less than its supposed, and ten times more than its real, value. see money dropper. fawney. a ring. feague. to feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up. feak. the fundament. to feather one's nest. to enrich one's self. feather-bed lane. a rough or stony lane. fee, faw, fum. nonsensical words, supposed in childish story-books to be spoken by giants. i am not to be frighted by fee, faw, fum; i am not to be scared by nonsense. feeder. a spoon. to nab the feeder; to steal a spoon. feet. to make feet for children's stockings; to beget children. an officer of feet; a jocular title for an officer of infantry. feint. a sham attack on one part, when a real one is meant at another. fellow commoner. an empty bottle: so called at the university of cambridge, where fellow commoners are not in general considered as over full of learning. at oxford an empty bottle is called a gentleman commoner for the same reason. they pay at cambridge l. a year for the privilege of wearing a gold or silver tassel to their caps. the younger branches of the nobility have the privilege of wearing a hat, and from thence are denominated hat fellow commoners. fen. a bawd, or common prostitute. cant. to fence. to pawn or sell to a receiver of stolen goods. the kiddey fenced his thimble for three quids; the young fellow pawned his watch for three guineas. to fence invariably means to pawn or sell goods to a receiver. fencing ken. the magazine, or warehouse, where stolen goods are secreted. ferme. a hole. cant. fermerdy beggars. all those who have not the sham sores or clymes. ferrara. andrea ferrara; the name of a famous sword-cutler: most of the highland broad-swords are marked with his name; whence an andrea ferrara has become the common name for the glaymore or highland broad-sword. see claymore. ferret. a tradesman who sells goods to young unthrift heirs, at excessive rates, and then continually duns them for the debt. to ferret; to search out or expel any one from his hiding-place, as a ferret drives out rabbits; also to cheat. ferret-eyed; red-eyed: ferrets have red eyes. fetch. a trick, wheedle, or invention to deceive. feuterer. a dog-keeper: from the french vautrier, or vaultrier, one that leads a lime hound for the chase. to fib. to beat. fib the cove's quarron in the rumpad for the lour in his bung; beat the fellow in the highway for the money in his purse. cant.--a fib is also a tiny lie. fice, or foyse. a small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs. see fizzle. fid of tobacco. a quid, from the small pieces of tow with which the vent or touch hole of a cannon is stopped. sea term. fiddle faddle. trifling discourse, nonsense. a mere fiddle faddle fellow; a trifier. fiddlestick's end. nothing; the end of the ancient fiddlesticks ending in a point; hence metaphorically used to express a thing terminating in nothing. fidgets. he has got the fidgets; said of one that cannot sit long in a place. fidlam ben. general thieves; called also st. peter's sons, having every finger a fish-hook. cant. fiddlers money. all sixpences: sixpence being the usual sum paid by each couple, for music at country wakes and hops. fiddler's fare; meat, drink, and money. fiddler's pay; thanks and wine. field lane duck. a baked sheep's head. fieri facias. a red-faced man is said to have been served with a writ of fieri facias. figdean. to kill. figger. a little boy put in at a window to hand out goods to the diver. see diver. figging law. the art of picking pockets. cant. figure dancer. one who alters figures on bank notes, converting tens to hundreds. filch, or filel. a beggar's staff, with an iron hook at the end, to pluck clothes from an hedge, or any thing out of a casement. filcher; the same as angler. filching cove; a man thief. filching mort; a woman thief. file, file cloy, or bungnipper. a pick pocket. to file; to rob or cheat. the file, or bungnipper, goes generally in company with two assistants, the adam tiler, and another called the bulk or bulker, whose business it is to jostle the person they intend to rob, and push him against the wall, while the file picks his pocket, and gives'the booty to the adam tiler, who scours off with it. cant. fin. an arm. a one finned fellow; a man who has lost an arm. sea phrase. fine. fine as five pence. fine as a cow-t--d stuck with primroses. fine. a man imprisoned for any offence. a fine of eighty-four months; a transportation for seven years. finger in eye. to put finger in eye; to weep: commonly applied to women. the more you cry the less you'll p-ss; a consolatory speech used by sailors to their doxies. it is as great a pity to see a woman cry, as to see a goose walk barefoot; another of the same kind. finger post. a parson: so called, because he points out a way to others which he never goes himself. like the finger post, he points out a way he has never been, and probably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven. finish. the finish; a small coffee-house in coven garden, market, opposite russel-street, open very early in the morning, and therefore resorted to by debauchees shut out of every other house: it is also called carpenter's coffee-house. firing a gun. introducing a story by head and shoulders. a man wanting to tell a particular story, said to the company, hark! did you not hear a gun?--but now we are talking of a gun, i will tell you the story of one. to fire a slug. to drink a dram. fire priggers. villains who rob at fires under pretence of assisting in removing the goods. fire ship. a wench who has the venereal disease. fire shovel. he or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths. fish. a seaman. a scaly fish; a rough, blunt tar. to have other fish to fry; to have other matters to mind, something else to do. fit. suitable. it won't fit; it will not suit or do. five shillings. the sign of five shillings, i.e. the crown. fifteen shillings; the sign of the three crowns. fizzle. an escape backward, flabagasted. confounded. flabby. relaxed, flaccid, not firm or solid. flag. a groat. cant.--the flag of defiance, or bloody flag is out; signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to the redness of his face. sea phrase. flam. a lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum. to flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. flim flams; idle stories. flap dragon. a clap, or pox. to flare. to blaze, shine or glare. flash. knowing. understanding another's meaning. the swell was flash, so i could not draw his fogle. the gentleman saw what i was about, and therefore i could not pick his pocket of his silk handkerchief. to patter flash, to speak the slang language. see patter. flash panneys. houses to which thieves and prostitutes resort. next for his favourite mot (girl) the kiddey (youth) looks about, and if she's in a flash panney (brothel) he swears he'll have her out; so he fences (pawns) all his togs (cloathes) to buy her duds, (wearing apparel) and then he frisks (robs) his master's lob (till) to take her from the bawdy ken (house). flash song. flash. a periwig. rum flash; a fine long wig. queer flash; a miserable weather-beaten caxon. to flash. to shew ostentatiously. to flash one's ivory; to laugh and shew one's teeth. don't flash your ivory, but shut your potatoe trap, and keep your guts warm; the devil loves hot tripes. to flash the hash. to vomit. cant. flash ken. a house that harbours thieves. flash lingo. the canting or slang language. flash man. a bully to a bawdy house. a whore's bully. flat. a bubble, gull, or silly fellow. flat cock. a female. flawd. drunk. flaybottomist. a bum-brusher, or schoolmaster. to flay, or flea, the fox. to vomit. flea bite. a trifling injury. to send any one away with a flea in his ear; to give any one a hearty scolding. to fleece. to rob, cheat, or plunder. flemish account. a losing, or bad account. flesh broker. a match-maker, a bawd. flicker. a drinking glass. cant. flickering. grinning or laughing in a man's face. flicking. cutting. flick me some panam and caffan; cut me some bread and cheese. flick the peter; cut off the cloak-bag, or portmanteau. to fling. to trick or cheat. he flung me fairly out of it: he cheated me out of it. flints. journeymen taylors, who on a late occasion refused to work for the wages settled by law. those who submitted, were by the mutineers styled dungs, i.e. dunghills. flip. small beer, brandy, and sugar: this mixture, with the addition of a lemon, was by sailors, formerly called sir cloudsly, in memory of sir cloudsly shovel, who used frequently to regale himself with it. floating academy. see campbell's academy. floating hell. the hulks. to flog. to whip. flogger. a horsewhip. cant. flogging cully. a debilitated lecher, commonly an old one. flogging cove. the beadle, or whipper, in bridewell. flogging stake. the whipping-post. to floor. to knock down. floor the pig; knock down the officer. flourish. to take a flourish; to enjoy a woman in a hasty manner, to take a flyer. see flyer. to flout. to jeer, to ridicule. flummery. oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also compliments, neither of which are over-nourishing. flush in the pocket. full of money. the cull is flush in the fob. the fellow is full of money. flustered. drunk. flute. the recorder of a corporation; a recorder was an antient musical instrument. to flux. to cheat, cozen, or over-reach; also to salivate. to flux a wig; to put it up in curl, and bake it. fly. knowing. acquainted with another's meaning or proceeding. the rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about. fly. a waggon. cant. fly-by-night. you old fly-by-night; an ancient term of reproach to an old woman, signifying that she was a witch, and alluding to the nocturnal excursions attributed to witches, who were supposed to fly abroad to their meetings, mounted on brooms. fly slicers. life-guard men, from their sitting on horseback, under an arch, where they are frequently observed to drive away flies with their swords. flyer. to take a flyer; to enjoy a woman with her clothes on, or without going to bed. flyers. shoes. fly-flapped. whipt in the stocks, or at the cart's tail. flying camps. beggars plying in a body at funerals. flying giggers. turnpike gates. flying house. a lock in wrestling, by which he who uses it throws his adversary over his head. flying pasty. sirreverence wrapped in paper and thrown over a neighbour's wall. flying porters. cheats who obtain money by pretending to persons who have been lately robbed, that they may come from a place or party where, and from whom, they may receive information respecting the goods stolen from them, and demand payment as porters. flying stationers. ballad-singers and hawkers of penny histories. flymsey. a bank note. fob. a cheat, trick, or contrivance, i will not be fobbed off so; i will not be thus deceived with false pretences. the fob is also a small breeches pocket for holding a watch. fog. smoke. cant. fogey. old fogey. a nickname for an invalid soldier: derived from the french word fougeux, fierce or fiery. fogle. a silk handkerchief, fogram. an old fogram; a fusty old fellow. fogus. tobacco. tip me a gage of fogus; give me a pipe of tobacco. cant. fool. a fool at the end of a stick; a fool at one end, and a maggot at the other; gibes on an angler. fool finder. a bailiff. foolish. an expression among impures, signifying the cully who pays, in opposition to a flash man. is he foolish or flash? foot pads, or low pads. rogues who rob on foot. foot wabbler. a contemptuous appellation for a foot soldier, commonly used by the cavalry. footman's mawnd. an artificial sore made with unslaked lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, on the back of a beggar's hand, as if hurt by the bite or kick of a horse. footy despicable. a footy fellow, a despicable fellow; from the french foutue. forefoot, or paw. give us your fore foot; give us your hand. foreman of the jury. one who engrosses all the talk to himself, or speaks for the rest of the company. fork. a pickpocket. let us fork him; let us pick his pocket.--'the newest and most dexterous way, which is, to thrust the fingers strait, stiff, open, and very quick, into the pocket, and so closing them, hook what can be held between them.' n.b. this was taken from a book written many years ago: doubtless the art of picking pockets, like all others, must have been much improved since that time. forlorn hope. a gamester's last stake. fortune hunters. indigent men, seeking to enrich themselves by marrying a woman of fortune. fortune teller, or cunning man. a judge, who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot or doom. to go before the fortune teller, lambskin men, or conjuror; to be tried at an assize. see lambskin men. foul. to foul a plate with a man, to take a dinner with him. foul-mouthed. abusive. foundling. a child dropped in the streets, and found, and educated at the parish expence. fousil. the name of a public house, where the eccentrics assemble in may's buildings, st. martin's lane. fox. a sharp, cunning fellow. also an old term for a sword, probably a rusty one, or else from its being dyed red with blood; some say this name alluded to certain swords of remarkable good temper, or metal, marked with the figure of a fox, probably the sign, or rebus, of the maker. fox's paw. the vulgar pronunciation of the french words faux pas. he made a confounded fox's paw. foxed. intoxicated. foxey. rank. stinking. foxing a boot. mending the foot by capping it. foyst. a pickpocket, cheat, or rogue. see wotton's gang. to foyst. to pick a pocket. foysted in. words or passages surreptitiously interpolated or inserted into a book or writing. fraters. vagabonds who beg with sham patents, or briefs, for hospitals, fires, inundations, &c. free. free of fumblers hall; a saying of one who cannot get his wife with child. free and easy johns. a society which meet at the hole in the wall, fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry. free booters. lawless robbers and plunderers: originally soldiers who served without pay, for the privilege of plundering the enemy. freeholder. he whose wife accompanies him to the alehouse. freeman's quay. free of expence. to lush at freeman's quay; to drink at another's cost. freeze. a thin, small, hard cider, much used by vintners and coopers in parting their wines, to lower the price of them, and to advance their gain. a freezing vintner; a vintner who balderdashes his wine. french cream. brandy; so called by the old tabbies and dowagers when drank in their tea. french disease. the venereal disease, said to have been imported from france. french gout; the same. he suffered by a blow over the snout with a french faggot-stick; i.e. he lost his nose by the pox. french leave. to take french leave; to go off without taking leave of the company: a saying frequently applied to persons who have run away from their creditors. frenchified. infected with the venereal disease. the mort is frenchified: the wench is infected. fresh milk. cambridge new comers to the university. freshman. one just entered a member of the university. fribble. an effeminate fop; a name borrowed from a celebrated character of that kind, in the farce of miss in her teens, written by mr. garrick. friday-face. a dismal countenance. before, and even long after the reformation, friday was a day of abstinence, or jour maigre. immediately after the restoration of king charles ii. a proclamation was issued, prohibiting all publicans from dressing any suppers on a friday. to frig. figuratively used for trifling. frig pig. a trifling, fiddle-faddle fellow. frigate. a well-rigged frigate; a well-dressed wench. frisk. to dance the paddington frisk; to be hanged. to frisk. used by thieves to signify searching a person whom they have robbed. blast his eyes! frisk him. froe, or vroe, a woman, wife, or mistress. brush to your froe, or bloss, and wheedle for crop; run to your mistress, and sooth and coax her out of some money. dutch. froglander. a dutchman. frosty face. one pitted with the small pox. frog's wine. gin. fruitful vine. a woman's private parts, i.e. that has flowers every month, and bears fruit in nine months. frummagemmed. choaked, strangled, suffocated, or hanged. cant. fubsey. plump. a fubsey wench; a plump, healthy wench. fuddle. drunk. this is rum fuddle; this is excellent tipple, or drink. fuddle; drunk. fuddle cap; a drunkard. fudge. nonsense. fulhams. loaded dice are called high and lowmen, or high and low fulhams, by ben jonson and other writers of his time; either because they were made at fulham, or from that place being the resort of sharpers. full of emptiness. jocular term for empty. full march. the scotch greys are in full march by the crown office; the lice are crawling down his head. fumbler. an old or impotent man. to fumble, also means to go awkwardly about any work, or manual operation. fun. a cheat, or trick. do you think to fun me out of it? do you think to cheat me?--also the breech, perhaps from being the abbreviation of fundament. i'll kick your fun. cant. to funk. to use an unfair motion of the hand in plumping at taw. schoolboy's term. funk. to smoke; figuratively, to smoke or stink through fear. i was in a cursed funk. to funk the cobler; a schoolboy's trick, performed with assafoettida and cotton, which are stuffed into a pipe: the cotton being lighted, and the bowl of the pipe covered with a coarse handkerchief, the smoke is blown out at the small end, through the crannies of a cobler's stall. furmen. aldermen. furmity, or fromenty. wheat boiled up to a jelly. to simper like a furmity kettle: to smile, or look merry about the gills. fuss. a confusion, a hurry, an unnecessary to do about trifles. fussock. a lazy fat woman. an old fussock; a frowsy old woman. fustian. bombast language. red fustian; port wine. fusty luggs. a beastly, sluttish woman. to fuzz. to shuffle cards minutely: also, to change the pack. gab, or gob. the mouth. gift of the gab; a facility of speech, nimble tongued eloquence. to blow the gab; to confess, or peach. gab, or gob, string. a bridle. gabby. a foolish fellow. gad-so. an exclamation said to be derived from the italian word cazzo. gaff. a fair. the drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair. to gaff. to game by tossing up halfpence. gag. an instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance. gage. a quart pot, or a pint; also a pipe. cant. gage, or fogus. a pipe of tobacco. gaggers. high and low. cheats, who by sham pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on the credulity of well meaning people. see rum gagger. galimaufrey. a hodgepodge made up of the remnants and scraps of the larder. gall. his gall is not yet broken; a saying used in prisons of a man just brought in, who appears dejected. galley. building the galley; a game formerly used at sea, in order to put a trick upon a landsman, or fresh-water sailor. it being agreed to play at that game, one sailor personates the builder, and another the merchant or contractor: the builder first begins by laying the keel, which consists of a number of men laid all along on their backs, one after another, that is, head to foot; he next puts in the ribs or knees, by making a number of men sit feet to feet, at right angles to, and on each side of, the keel: he now fixing on the person intended to be the object of the joke, observes he is a fierce-looking fellow, and fit for the lion; he accordingly places him at the head, his arms being held or locked in by the two persons next to him, representing the ribs. after several other dispositions, the builder delivers over the galley to the contractor as complete: but he, among other faults and objections, observes the lion is not gilt, on which the builder or one of his assistants, runs to the head, and dipping a mop in the excrement, thrusts it into the face of the lion. galley foist. a city barge, used formerly on the lord mayor's day, when he was sworn in at westminster. gallied. hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like a galley slave. galligaskins. breeches. gallipot. a nick namefor an apothecary, gallore, or golore. plenty. galloper. a blood horse. a hunter. the toby gill clapped his bleeders to his galloper and tipped the straps the double. the highwayman spurred his horse and got away from the officers. gallows bird. a grief, or pickpocket; also one that associates with them. games. thin, ill-shapped legs: a corruption of the french word jambes. fancy gambs; sore or swelled legs. gambadoes. leathern cases of stiff leather, used in devonshire instead of boots; they are fastened to the saddle, and admit the leg, shoe and all: the name was at first jocularly given. gambler. a sharper, of tricking, gamester. game. any mode of robbing. the toby is now a queer game; to rob on the highway is now a bad mode of acting. this observation is frequently made by thieves; the roads being now so well guarded by the horse patrole; and gentlemen travel with little cash in their pockets. game. bubbles or pigeons drawn in to be cheated. also, at bawdy-houses, lewd women. mother have you any game; mother, have you any girls? to die game; to suffer at the gallows without shewing any signs of fear or repentance. game pullet; a young whore, or forward girl in the way of becoming one. gamon. to humbug. to deceive, to tell lies. what rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat; how finely the knowing old fellow humbugged the fool. gamon and patter. common place talk of any profession; as the gamon and patter of a horse-dealer, sailor, &c. gan. the mouth or lips. cant. gander month. that month in which a man's wife-lies in: wherefore, during that time, husbands plead a sort of indulgence in matters of gallantry. gang. a company of men, a body of sailors, a knot of thieves, pickpockets, &c. a gang of sheep trotters; the four feet of a sheep. gaoler's coach. a hurdle: traitors being usually conveyed from the gaol, to the place of execution, on a hurdle or sledge. gap stopper. a whoremaster. gapeseed. sights; any thing to feed the eye. i am come abroad for a little gapeseed. garnish. an entrance fee demanded by the old prisoners of one just committed to gaol. garret, or upper story. the head. his garret, or upper story, is empty, or unfurnished; i.e. he has no brains, he is a fool. garret election. a ludicrous ceremony, practised every new parliament: it consists of a mock election of two members to represent the borough of garret (a few straggling cottages near wandsworth in surry); the qualification of a voter is, having enjoyed a woman in the open air within that district: the candidates are commonly fellows of low humour, who dress themselves up in a ridiculous manner. as this brings a prodigious concourse of people to wandsworth, the publicans of that place jointly contribute to the expence, which is sometimes considerable. gawkey. a tall, thin, awkward young man or woman. gaying instrument. the penis. gazebo. an elevated observatory or summer-house. gee. it won't gee; it won't hit or do, it does not suit or fit. gelding. an eunuch. gelt. money, german.--also, castrated. gentle craft. the art of shoemaking. one of the gentle craft: a shoemaker: so called because once practised by st. crispin. gentleman commoner. an empty bottle; an university joke, gentlemen commoners not being deemed over full of learning. gentleman's companion. a louse. gentleman's master. a highway robber, because he makes a gentleman obey his commands, i.e. stand and deliver. gentleman of three ins. in debt, in gaol, and in danger of remaining there for life: or, in gaol, indicted, and in danger of being hanged in chains. gentleman of three outs. that is, without money, without wit, and without manners: some add another out, i.e. without credit. gentry cove. a gentleman. cant. gentry cove ken. a gentleman's house. cant. gentry mort. a gentlewoman. george. yellow george; a guinea. brown george: an ammunition loaf. german duck. haifa sheep's head boiled with onions. get. one of his get; one of his offspring, or begetting. gib cat. a northern name for a he cat, there commonly called gilbert. as melancholy as a gib cat; as melancholy as a he cat who has been caterwauling, whence they always return scratched, hungry, and out of spirits. aristotle says, omne animal post coitum est triste; to which an anonymous author has given the following exception, preter gallum gallinaceum, et sucerdotem gratis fornicantem. gibberish. the cant language of thieves and gypsies, called pedlars' french, and st. giles's greek: see st. giles's greek. also the mystic language of geber, used by chymists. gibberish likewise means a sort of disguised language, formed by inserting any consonant between each syllable of an english word; in which case it is called the gibberish of the letter inserted: if f, it is the f gibberish; if g, the g gibberish; as in the sentence how do you do? howg dog youg dog. gibbe. a horse that shrinks from the collar and will not draw. giblets. to join giblets; said of a man and woman who cohabit as husband and wife, without being married; also to copulate. gibson, or sir john gibbon, a two-legged stool, used to support the body of a coach whilst finishing. gifts. small white specks under the finger nails, said to portend gifts or presents. a stingy man is said to be as full of gifts as a brazen horse of his farts. gift of the gab. a facility of speech. gigg. a nose. snitchel his gigg; fillip his nose. grunter's gigg; a hog's snout. gigg is also a high one-horse chaise, and a woman's privities. to gigg a smithfield hank; to hamstring an over-drove ox, vulgarly called a mad bullock. gigger. a latch, or door. dub the gigger; open the door. gigger dubber; the turnkey of a jaol. to giggle. to suppress a laugh. gigglers; wanton women. giles's or st. giles's breed. fat, ragged, and saucy; newton and dyot streets, the grand head-quarters-of most of the thieves and pickpockets about london, are in st. giles's giles's parish. st. giles's greek; the cant language, called also slang, pedlars' french, and flash. gilflurt. a proud minks, a vain capricious woman, gill. the abbreviation of gillian, figuratively used for woman. every jack has his gill; i.e. every jack has his gillian, or female mate. gills. the cheeks. to look rosy about the gills; to have a fresh complexion. to look merry about the gills: to appear cheerful. gilly gaupus. a scotch term for a tall awkward fellow. gilt, or rum dubber. a thief who picks locks, so called from the gilt or picklock key: many of them are so expert, that, from the lock of a church door to that of the smallest cabinet, they will find means to open it; these go into reputable public houses, where, pretending business, they contrive to get into private rooms, up stairs, where they open any bureaus or trunks they happen to find there. gimblet-eyed. squinting, either in man or woman. gimcrack, or jimcrack. a spruce wench; a gimcrack also means a person who has a turn for mechanical contrivances. gin spinner. a distiller. gingambobs. toys, bawbles; also a man's privities. see thingambobs. ginger-pated, or ginger-hackled. red haired: a term borrowed from the cockpit, where red cocks are called gingers, gingerbread. a cake made of treacle, flour, and grated ginger; also money. he has the gingerbread; he is rich. gingerbread work. gilding and carving: these terms are particularly applied by seamen on board newcastle colliers, to the decorations of the sterns and quarters of west-indiamen, which they have the greatest joy in defacing. gingerly. softly, gently, tenderly. to go gingerly to work: to attempt a thing gently, or cautiously. ginny. an instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal what is in the window. cant. gip from gups a wolf. a servant at college. girds. quips, taunts, severe or biting reflections. gizzard. to grumble in the gizzard; to be secretly displeased. glass eyes. a nick name for one wearing spectacles. glaymore. a highland broad-sword; from the erse glay, or glaive, a sword; and more, great. glaze. a window. glazier. one who breaks windows and shew-glasses, to steal goods exposed for sale. glaziers; eyes. cant.--is your father a glazier; a question asked of a lad or young man, who stands between the speaker and the candle, or fire. if it is answered in the negative, the rejoinder is--i wish he was, that he might make a window through your body, to enable us to see the fire or light. glib. smooth, slippery. glib tongued; talkative. glim. a candle, or dark lantern, used in housebreaking; also fire. to glim; to burn in the hand. cant. glimfenders. andirons. cant. glimflashy. angry, or in a passion. cant. glim jack. a link-boy. cant. glimmer. fire. cant. glimmerers. persons begging with sham licences, pretending losses by fire. glimms. eyes. glimstick. a candlestick. cant. globe. pewter. cant. gloves. to give any one a pair of gloves; to make them a present or bribe. to win a pair of gloves; to kiss a man whilst he sleeps: for this a pair of gloves is due to any lady who will thus earn them. gluepot. a parson: from joining men and women together in matrimony. glum. sullen. glutton. a term used by bruisers to signify a man who will bear a great deal of beating. gnarler. a little dog that by his barking alarms the family when any person is breaking into the house. go, the. the dash. the mode. he is quite the go, he is quite varment, he is prime, he is bang up, are synonimous expressions. glybe. a writing. cant. go between. a pimp or bawd. go by the ground. a little short person, man or woman. go shop. the queen's head in duke's court, bow street, covent garden; frequented by the under players: where gin and water was sold in three-halfpenny bowls, called goes; the gin was called arrack. the go, the fashion; as, large hats are all the go. goads. those who wheedle in chapmen for horse-dealers. goat. a lascivious person. goats jigg; making the beast with two backs, copulation. gob. the mouth; also a bit or morsel: whence gobbets. gift of the gob; wide-mouthed, or one who speaks fluently, or sings well. gob string. a bridle. gobbler. a turkey cock. godfather. he who pays the reckoning, or answers for the rest of the company: as, will you stand godfather, and we will take care of the brat; i.e. repay you another time. jurymen are also called godfathers, because they name the crime the prisoner before them has been guilty of, whether felony, petit larceny, &c. gog. all-a-gog; impatient, anxious, or desirous of a thing. gog and magog. two giants, whose effigies stand on each side of the clock in guildhall, london; of whom there is a tradition, that, when they hear the clock strike one, on the first of april, they will walk down from their places. goggles. eyes: see ogles. goggle eyes; large prominent eyes. to goggle; to stare. going upon the dub. going out to break open, or pick the locks of, houses. gold droppers. sharpers who drop a piece of gold, which they pick up in the presence of some unexperienced person, for whom the trap is laid, this they pretend to have found, and, as he saw them pick it up, they invite him to a public house to partake of it: when there, two or three of their comrades drop in, as if by accident, and propose cards, or some other game, when they seldom fail of stripping their prey. gold finder. one whose employment is to empty necessary houses; called also a tom-turd-man, and night-man: the latter, from that business being always performed in the night. goldfinch. one who has commonly a purse full of gold. goldfinches; guineas. golgotha or the place of sculls. part of the theatre at oxford, where the heads of houses sit; those gentlemen being by the wits of the university called sculls. gollumpus. a large, clumsy fellow. goloshes, i.e. goliah's shoes. large leathern clogs, worn by invalids over their ordinary shoes. good man. a word of various imports, according to the place where it is spoken: in the city it means a rich man; at hockley in the hole, or st. giles's, an expert boxer; at a bagnio in covent garden, a vigorous fornicator; at an alehouse or tavern, one who loves his pot or bottle; and sometimes, though but rarely, a virtuous man good woman. a nondescript, represented on a famous sign in st. giles's, in the form of a common woman, but without a head. goodyer's pig. like goodyer's pig; never well but when in mischief. goose. a taylor's goose; a smoothing iron used to press down the seams, for which purpose it must be heated: hence it is a jocular saying, that a taylor, be he ever so poor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. he cannot say boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepish fellow. goose riding. a goose, whose neck is greased, being suspended by the legs to a cord tied to two trees or high posts, a number of men on horseback, riding full speed, attempt to pull off the head: which if they effect, the goose is their prize. this has been practised in derbyshire within the memory of persons now living. gooseberry. he played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance. gooseberry-eyed. one with dull grey eyes, like boiled gooseberries. gooseberry wig. a large frizzled wig: perhaps from a supposed likeness to a gooseberry bush. goosecap. a silly fellow or woman. gorger. a gentleman. a well dressed man. mung kiddey. mung the gorger; beg child beg, of the gentleman. gospel shop. a church. goree. money, chiefly gold: perhaps from the traffic carried on at that place, which is chiefly for gold dust. cant. gormagon. a monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, live on one side and three on the other, three arses, two tarses, and a *** upon its back; a man on horseback, with a woman behind him. gotch-gutted. pot bellied: a gotch in norfolk signifying a pitcher, or large round jug. to gouge. to squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb: a cruel practice used by the bostonians in america. to grabble. to seize. to grabble the bit; to seize any one's money. cant. grafted. cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on his head. to grab. to seize a man. the pigs grabbed the kiddey for a crack: the officers, seized the youth for a burglary. grannam. corn. grannum's gold. hoarded money: supposed to have belonged to the grandmother of the possessor. granny. an abbreviation of grandmother; also the name of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died nov. , . go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than themselves. grapple the rails. a cant name used in ireland for whiskey. grappling irons. handcuffs. grave digger. like a grave digger; up to the a-se in business, and don't know which way to turn. gravy-eyed. blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running humour. to grease. to bribe. to grease a man in the fist; to bribe him. to grease a fat sow in the a-se; to give to a rich man. greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in part of commutation for a bastard: called also, eating a child. great intimate. as great as shirt and shitten a-se. great joseph. a surtout. cant. greedy guts. a covetous or voracious person. greek. st. giles's greek; the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish. green. doctor green; i.e. grass: a physician, or rather medicine, found very successful in curing most disorders to which horses are liable. my horse is not well, i shall send him to doctor green. green. young, inexperienced, unacquainted; ignorant. how green the cull was not to stag how the old file planted the books. how ignorant the booby was not to perceive how the old sharper placed the cards in such a manner as to insure the game. green bag. an attorney: those gentlemen carry their clients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when they have no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an old pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselves the appearance of business. green gown. to give a girl a green gown; to tumble her on the grass. green sickness. the disease of maids occasioned by celibacy. greenhead. an inexperienced young man. greenhorn. a novice on the town, an undebauched young fellow, just initiated into the society of bucks and bloods. greenwich barbers. retailers of sand from the pits at and about greenwich, in kent: perhaps they are styled barbers, from their constant shaving the sandbanks. greenwich goose. a pensioner of greenwich hospital. gregorian tree. the gallows: so named from gregory brandon, a famous finisher of the law; to whom sir william segar, garter king of arms (being imposed on by brooke, a herald), granted a coat of arms. grey beard. earthen jugs formerly used in public house for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them; whence probably they took the name: see ben jonson's plays, bartholomew fair, &c. &c. dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on the coasts of essex and suffolk, are at this time called grey beards. grey mare. the grey mare is the better horse; said of a woman who governs her husband. grey parson. a farmer who rents the tithes of the rector or vicar. grig. a farthing. a merry grig; a fellow as merry as a grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or young eel. grim. old mr. grim; death. grimalkin. a cat: mawkin signifies a hare in scotland. grin. to grin in a glass case; to be anatomized for murder: the skeletons of many criminals are preserved in glass cases, at surgeons' hall. grinagog, the cat's uncle. a foolish grinning fellow, one who grins without reason. grinders. teeth. gooseberry grinder; the breech. ask bogey, the gooseberry grinder; ask mine a-se. to grind. to have carnal knowledge of a woman. groats. to save his groats; to come off handsomely: at the universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer, by every person standing for a degree; which if the depositor obtains with honour, the groats are returned to him. grog. rum and water. grog was first introduced into the navy about the year , by admiral vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating themselves with their allowance of rum, or spirits. groggy, or groggified; drunk. grog-blossom. a carbuncle, or pimple in the face, caused by drinking. grogged. a grogged horse; a foundered horse. grogham. a horse. cant. gropers. blind men; also midwives. ground sweat. a grave. ground squirrel. a hog, or pig. sea term. grub. victuals. to grub; to dine. grub street. a street near moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures booss for the booksellers. grub street news. lying intelligence. to grubshite. to make foul or dirty. grumble. to grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine. he grumbled like a bear with a sore head. grumbletonian. a discontented person; one who is always railing at the times or ministry. grunter. a hog; to grunt; to groan, or complain of sickness. grunter's gig. a smoaked hog's face. grunting peck. pork, bacon, or any kind of hog's flesh. gruts. tea. gudgeon. one easily imposed on. to gudgeon; to swallow the bait, or fall into a trap: from the fish of that name, which is easily taken. gull. a simple credulous fellow, easily cheated. gulled. deceived, cheated, imposed on. gullgropers. usurers who lend money to the gamesters. gum. abusive language. come, let us have no more of your gum. gummy. clumsy: particularly applied to the ancles of men or women, and the legs of horses. gumption, or rum gumption. docility, comprehension, capacity. gun. he is in the gun; he is drunk: perhaps from an allusion to a vessel called a gun, used for ale in the universities. gundiguts. a fat, pursy fellow. gunner's daughter. to kiss the gunner's daughter; to be tied to a gun and flogged on the posteriors; a mode of punishing boys on board a ship of war. gunpowder. an old woman. cant. guts. my great guts are ready to eat my little ones; my guts begin to think my throat's cut; my guts curse my teeth: all expressions signifying the party is extremely hungry. guts and garbage. a very fat man or woman. more guts than brains; a silly fellow. he has plenty of guts, but no bowels: said of a hard, merciless, unfeeling person. gutfoundered. exceeding hungry. gut scraper, or tormentor of catgut. a fiddler. gutter lane. the throat, the swallow, the red lane. see red lane. gutting a quart pot. taking out the lining of it: i. e. drinking it off. gutting an oyster; eating it. gutting a house; clearing it of its furniture. see poulterer. guy. a dark lanthorn: an allusion to guy faux, the principal actor in the gunpowder plot. stow the guy: conceal the lanthorn. guzzle. liquor. to guzzle; to drink greedily. guzzle guts. one greedy of liquor. gybe, or jybe. any writing or pass with a seal. gybing. jeering or ridiculing. gyles, or giles. hopping giles; a nick name for a lame person: st. giles was the tutelar saint of cripples. gyp. a college runner or errand-boy at cambridge, called at oxford a scout. see scout. gypsies. a set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of our police, are suffered to wander about the country. they pretend that they derive their origin from the ancient egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant and superstitious. to colour their impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of gibberish peculiar to themselves. they rove up and down the country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very considerable contributions. when a fresh recruit is admitted into the fraternity, he is to take the following oath, administered by the principal maunder, after going through the annexed forms: first, a new name is given him by which he is ever after to be called; then standing up in the middle of the assembly, and directing his face to the dimber damber, or principal man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity: i, crank cuffin, do swear to be a true brother, and that i will in all things obey the commands of the great tawney prince, and keep his counsel and not divulge the secrets of my brethren. i will never leave nor forsake the company, but observe and keep all the times of appointment, either by day or by night, in every place whatever. i will not teach any one to cant, nor will i disclose any of our mysteries to them. i will take my prince's part against all that shall oppose him, or any of us, according to the utmost of my ability; nor will i suffer him, or any one belongiug to us, to be abused by any strange abrams, rufflers, hookers, pailliards, swaddlers, irish toyles, swigmen, whip jacks, jarkmen, bawdy baskets, dommerars, clapper dogeons, patricoes, or curtals; but will defend him, or them, as much as i can, against all other outliers whatever. i will not conceal aught i win out of libkins or from the ruffmans, but will preserve it for the use of the company. lastly, i will cleave to my doxy wap stiffly, and will bring her duds, marjery praters, goblers, grunting cheats, or tibs of the buttery, or any thing else i can come at, as winnings for her weppings. the canters have, it seems, a tradition, that from the three first articles of this oath, the first founders of a certain boastful, worshipful fraternity (who pretend to derive their origin from the earliest times) borrowed both the hint and form of their establishment; and that their pretended derivation from the first adam is a forgery, it being only from the first adam tiler: see adam tiler. at the admission of a new brother, a general stock is raised for booze, or drink, to make themselves merry on the occasion. as for peckage or eatables, they can procure without money; for while some are sent to break the ruffmans, or woods and bushes, for firing, others are detached to filch geese, chickens, hens, ducks (or mallards), and pigs. their morts are their butchers, who presently make bloody work with what living things are brought them; and having made holes in the ground under some remote hedge in an obscure place, they make a fire and boil or broil their food; and when it is enough, fall to work tooth and nail: and having eaten more like beasts than men, they drink more like swine than human creatures, entertaining one another all the time with songs in the canting dialect. as they live, so they lie, together promiscuously, and know not how to claim a property either in their goods or children: and this general interest ties them more firmly together than if all their rags were twisted into ropes, to bind them indissolubly from a separation; which detestable union is farther consolidated by the above oath. they stroll up and down all summer-time in droves, and dexterously pick pockets, while they are telling of fortunes; and the money, rings, silver thirribles, &c. which they get, are instantly conveyed from one hand to another, till the remotest person of the gang (who is not suspected because they come not near the person robbed) gets possession of it; so that, in the strictest search, it is impossible to recover it; while the wretches with imprecations, oaths, and protestations, disclaim the thievery. that by which they are said to get the most money, is, when young gentlewomen of good families and reputation have happened to be with child before marriage, a round sum is often bestowed among the gypsies, for some one mort to take the child; and as that is never heard of more by the true mother and family, so the disgrace is kept concealed from the world; and, if the child lives, it never knows its parents. haberdasher of pronouns. a schoolmaster, or usher. hackney writer. one who writes for attornies or booksellers. hackum. captain hackum; a bravo, a slasher. had'em. he has been at had'em, and came home by clapham; said of one who has caught the venereal disease. hair splitter. a man's yard. halbert. a weapon carried by a serjeant of foot. to get a halbert; to be appointed a serjeant. to be brought to the halberts; to be flogged a la militaire: soldiers of the infantry, when flogged, being commonly tied to three halberts, set up in a triangle, with a fourth fastened across them. he carries the halbert in his face; a saying of one promoted from a serjeant to a commission officer. half a hog. sixpence. half seas over. almost drunk. hamlet. a high constable. cant. hams, or hamcases breeches. hand. a sailor. we lost a hand; we lost a sailor. bear a hand; make haste. hand to fist; opposite: the same as tete-a-tete, or cheek by joul. hand and pocket shop. an eating house, where ready money is paid for what is called for. hand basket portion. a woman whose husband receives frequent presents from her father, or family, is said to have a hand-basket portion. handle. to know how to handle one's fists; to be skilful in the art of boxing. the cove flashes a rare handle to his physog; the fellow has a large nose. handsome. he is a handsome-bodied man in the face; a jeering commendation of an ugly fellow. handsome is that handsome does: a proverb frequently cited by ugly women. handsome reward. this, in advertisements, means a horse-whipping. to hang an arse. to hang back, to hesitate. hang gallows look. a thievish, or villainous appearance. hang in chains. a vile, desperate fellow. persons guilty of murder, or other atrocious crimes, are frequently, after execution, hanged on a gibbet, to which they are fastened by iron bandages; the gibbet is commonly placed on or near the place where the crime was committed. hang it up. score it up: speaking of a reckoning. hang out. the traps scavey where we hang out; the officers know where we live. hanger on. a dependant. hangman's wages. thirteen pence halfpenny; which, according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted: one shilling for the executioner, and three halfpence for the rope,--n. b. this refers to former times; the hangmen of the present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices. the true state of this matter is, that a scottish mark was the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that piece was settled by a proclamation of james i. at thirteen pence halfpenny. hank. he has a hank on him; i.e. an ascendancy over him, or a hold upon him. a smithfield hank; an ox, rendered furious by overdriving and barbarous treatment. see bull hank. hanker. to hanker after any thing; to have a longing after or for it. hans in kelder. jack in the cellar, i.e. the child in the womb: a health frequently drank to breeding women or their husbands. hard. stale beer, nearly sour, is said to be hard. hard also means severe: as, hard fate, a hard master. hard at his a-se. close after him. hare. he has swallowed a hare; he is drunk; more probably a hair, which requires washing down, hark-ye-ing. whispering on one side to borrow money. harman. a constable. cant. harman beck. a beadle. cant. harmans. the stocks. cant. harp. to harp upon; to dwell upon a subject. have among you, my blind harpers; an expression used in throwing or shooting at random among the crowd. harp is also the irish expression for woman, or tail, used in tossing up in ireland: from hibernia, being represented with a harp on the reverse of the copper coins of that country; for which it is, in hoisting the copper, i.e. tossing up, sometimes likewise called music. harridan. a hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy, worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd's degree: derived from the french word haridelle, a worn-out jade of a horse or mare. harry. a country fellow. cant.--old harry; the devil. harum scarum. he was running harum scarum; said of any one running or walking hastily, and in a hurry, after they know not what. hash. to flash the hash; to vomit. cant. hasty. precipitate, passionate. he is none of the hastings sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the hastings pea, which is the first in season. hasty pudding. oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate thickness, and eaten with sugar and butter. figuratively, a wet, muddy road: as, the way through wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding. to eat hot hasty pudding for a laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes and fairs. hat. old hat; a woman's privities: because frequently felt. hatches. under the hatches; in trouble, distress, or debt. hatchet face. a long thin face. havil. a sheep. cant. havy cavy. wavering, doubtful, shilly shally. hawk. ware hawk; the word to look sharp, a bye-word when a bailiff passes. hawk also signifies a sharper, in opposition to pigeon. see pigeon. see ware hawk. hawkers. licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities, called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers. hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called oysters: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the act of hawkers and pedlars. to hazel gild. to beat any one with a hazel stick. head cully of the pass, or passage bank. the top tilter of that gang throughout the whole army, who demands and receives contribution from all the pass banks in the camp. head rails. teeth. sea phrase. hearing cheats. ears. cant. heart's ease. gin. hearty choak. he will have a hearty choak and caper sauce for breakfast; i.e. he will be hanged. heathen philosopher. one whose breech may be seen through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme. to heave. to rob. to heave a case; to rob a house. to heave a bough; to rob a booth. cant. heaver. the breast. cant. heavers. thieves who make it their business to steal tradesmen's shop-books. cant. hector. bully, a swaggering coward. to hector; to bully, probably from such persons affecting the valour of hector, the trojan hero. hedge. to make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let what will happen, a certain gain is secured, or hedged in, by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said to be on velvet. hedge alehouse. a small obscure alehouse. hedge creeper. a robber of hedges. hedge priest. an illiterate unbeneficed curate, a patrico. hedge whore. an itinerant harlot, who bilks the bagnios and bawdy-houses, by disposing of her favours on the wayside, under a hedge; a low beggarly prostitute. heels. to he laid by the heels; to be confined, or put in prison. out at heels; worn, or diminished: his estate or affairs are out at heels. to turn up his heels; to turn up the knave of trumps at the game of all-fours. heel tap. a peg in the heel of a shoe, taken out when it is finished. a person leaving any liquor in his glass, is frequently called upon by the toast-master to take off his heel-tap. hell. a taylor's repository for his stolen goods, called cabbage: see cabbage. little hell; a small dark covered passage, leading from london-wall to bell-alley. hell-born babe. a lewd graceless youth, one naturally of a wicked disposition. hell cat. a termagant, a vixen, a furious scolding woman. see termagant and vixen. hell hound. a wicked abandoned fellow. hell fire dick. the cambridge driver of the telegraph. the favorite companion of the university fashionables, and the only tutor to whose precepts they attend. helter skelter. to run helter skelter, hand over head, in defiance of order. hemp. young hemp; an appellation for a graceless boy. hempen fever. a man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever; and, in dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a bridport dagger; bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords. hempen widow. one whose husband was hanged. hen-hearted. cowardly. hen house. a house where the woman rules; called also a she house, and hen frigate: the latter a sea phrase, originally applied to a ship, the captain of which had his wife on board, supposed to command him. henpecked. a husband governed by his wife, is said to be henpecked. hen. a woman. a cock and hen club; a club composed of men and women. here and thereian. one who has no settled place of residence. herring. the devil a barrel the better herring; all equally bad. herring gutted. thin, as a shotten herring. herring pond. the sea. to cross the herring pond at the king's expence; to be transported. hertfordshire kindness. drinking twice to the same person. hick. a country hick; an ignorant clown. cant. hickenbothom. mr. hickenbothom; a ludicrous name for an unknown person, similar to that of mr. thingambob. hickenbothom, i.e. a corruption of the german word ickenbaum, i.e. oak tree. hickey. tipsey; quasi, hickupping. hide and seek. a childish game. he plays at hide and seek; a saying of one who is in fear of being arrested for debt, or apprehended for some crime, and therefore does not chuse to appear in public, but secretly skulks up and down. see skulk. hidebound. stingy, hard of delivery; a poet poor in invention, is said to have a hidebound muse. higgledy piggledy. confusedly mixed. high eating. to eat skylarks in a garret. high flyers. tories, jacobites. high jinks. a gambler at dice, who, having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon. high living. to lodge in a garret, or cockloft high pad. a highwayman. cant. high ropes. to be on the high ropes; to be in a passion. high shoon, or clouted shoon. a country clown. high water. it is high water, with him; he is full of money. highgate. sworn at highgate--a ridiculous custom formerly prevailed at the public-houses in highgate, to administer a ludicrous oath to all travellers of the middling rank who stopped there. the party was sworn on a pair of horns, fastened on a stick: the substance of the oath was, never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mistress, never to drink small beer when he could get strong, with many other injunctions of the like kind; to all which was added the saving cause of "unless you like it best." the person administering the oath was always to be called father by the juror; and he, in return, was to style him son, under the penalty of a bottle. hike. to hike off; to run away. cant. hind leg. to kick out a hind leg; to make a rustic bow. hinney, my honey. a north country hinney, particularly a northumbrian: in that county, hinney is the general term of endearment. history of the four kings, or child's best guide to the gallows. a pack of cards. he studies the history of the four kings assiduously; he plays much at cards. hoaxing. bantering, ridiculing. hoaxing a quiz; joking an odd fellow. university wit. hob, or hobbinol, a clown. hob or nob. will you hob or nob with me? a question formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the party challenged answered nob, they were to chuse whether white or red. this foolish custom is said to have originated in the days of good queen bess, thus: when great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called the hob; and behind it a seat. in winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so that the question, will you have hob or nob? seems only to have meant, will you have warm or cold beer? i.e. beer from the hob, or beer from the nob. hobberdehoy. half a man and half a boy, a lad between both. hobbled. impeded, interrupted, puzzled. to hobble; to walk lamely. hobbledygee. a pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot. hobby. sir posthumous's hobby; one nice or whimsical in his clothes. hobby horse. a man's favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse. it also means a particular kind of small irish horse: and also a wooden one, such as is given to children. hobby horsical. a man who is a great keeper or rider of hobby horses; one that is apt to be strongly attached to his systems of amusement. hobnail. a country clodhopper: from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron. the devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes; said of one pitted with the small pox. hobson's choice. that or none; from old hobson, a famous carrier of cambridge, who used to let horses to the students; but never permitted them to chuse, always allotting each man the horse he thought properest for his manner of riding and treatment. hocks. vulgar appellation for the feet. you have left the marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs; a frequent complaint from a mop squeezer to a footman. hockey. drunk with strong stale beer, called old hock. see hickey. hocking, or houghing. a piece of cruelty practised by the butchers of dublin, on soldiers, by cutting the tendon of achilles; this has been by law made felony. hocus pocus. nonsensical words used by jugglers, previous to their deceptions, as a kind of charm, or incantation. a celebrated writer supposes it to be a ludicrous corruption of the words hoc est corpus, used by the popish priests in consecrating the host. also hell hocus is used to express drunkenness: as, he is quite hocus; he is quite drunk. hod. brother hod; a familiar name for a bricklayer's labourer: from the hod which is used for carrying bricks and mortar. hoddy doddy, all a-se and no body. a short clumsy person, either male or female. hodge. an abbreviation of roger: a general name for a country booby. hodge podge. an irregular mixture of numerous things. hodmandods. snails in their shells. hog. a shilling. to drive one's hogs; to snore: the noise made by some persons in snoring, being not much unlike the notes of that animal. he has brought his hogs to a fine market; a saying of any one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary. a hog in armour; an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour. to hog a horse's mane; to cut it short, so that the ends of the hair stick up like hog's bristles. jonian hogs; an appellation given to the members of st. john's college, cambridge. hog grubber. a mean stingy fellow. hoggish. rude, unmannerly, filthy. hogo. corruption of haut goust, high taste, or flavour; commonly said of flesh somewhat tainted. it has a confounded hogo; it stinks confoundedly. hoist. to go upon the hoist; to get into windows accidentally left open: this is done by the assistance of a confederate, called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent. hoisting. a ludicrous ceremony formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field after being married; it was thus managed: as soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms to rest a while, three or four men of the same company to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost. he was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing the pioneers call, named round heads and cuckolds, but on this occasion styled the cuckold's march; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat: this, in some regiments, was practised by the officers on their brethren, hoisting, among pickpockets, is, setting a man on his head, that his money, watch, &c. may fall out of his pockets; these they pick up, and hold to be no robbery. see reversed. hoity-toity. a hoity-toity wench; a giddy, thoughtless, romping girl. holborn hill. to ride backwards up holborn hill; to go to the gallows: the way to tyburn, the place of execution for criminals condemned in london, was up that hill. criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards, as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the instruments with which they are going to operate. the last execution at tyburn, and consequently of this procession, was in the year , since which the criminals have been executed near newgate holiday. a holiday bowler; a bad bowler. blind man's holiday; darkness, night. a holiday is any part of a ship's bottom, left uncovered in paying it. sea term. it is all holiday; see all holiday. holy father. a butcher's boy of st. patrick's market, dublin, or other irish blackguard; among whom the exclamation, or oath, by the holy father (meaning the pope), is common. holy lamb. a thorough-paced villain. irish. holy water. he loves him as the devil loves holy water, i.e. hates him mortally. holy water, according to the roman catholics, having the virtue to chase away the devil and his imps. hollow. it was quiet a hollow thing; i.e. a certainty, or decided business. honest man. a term frequently used by superiors to inferiors. as honest a man as any in the cards when all the kings are out; i.e. a knave. i dare not call thee rogue for fear of the law, said a quaker to an attorney; but i wil give thee five pounds, if thou canst find any creditable person who wilt say thou art an honest man. honest woman. to marry a woman with whom one has cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest woman of her. honey moon. the first month after marriage. a poor honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. it is all honey or a t--d with them; said of persons who are either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either kissing or fighting. hood-winked. blindfolded by a handkerchief, or other ligature, bound over the eyes. hoof. to beat the hoof; to travel on foot. he hoofed it or beat the hoof, every step of the way from chester to london. hook and snivey, with nix the buffer. this rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis. hookee walker. an expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occour. hooked. over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile taken from fishing. **** hooks; fingers. hookers. see anglers. hoop. to run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays it on in earnest. this was anciently practised when a ship was wind-bound. to hoop. to beat. i'll well hoop his or her barrel, i'll beat him or her soundly. to hop the twig. to run away. cant. hop merchant. a dancing master. see caper merchant. hop-o-my-thumb. a diminutive person, man or woman. she was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se. hopkins. mr. hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or limping man, being a pun on the word hop. hopping giles. a jeering appellation given to any person who limps, or is lame; st. giles was the patron of cripples, lepers, &c. churches dedicated to that saint commonly stand out of town, many of them having been chapels to hospitals. see gyles. hopper-arsed. having large projecting buttocks: from their resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper or hoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn, when they sow the land. horns. to draw in one's horns; to retract an assertion through fear: metaphor borrowed from a snail, who on the apprehension of danger, draws in his horns, and retires to his shell. horn colic. a temporary priapism. horn fair. an annual fair held at charlton, in kent, on st. luke's day, the th of october. it consists of a riotous mob, who after a printed summons dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at cuckold's point, near deptford, and march from thence in procession, through that town and greenwich, to charlton, with horns of different kinds upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams horns, and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread figures have horns, the vulgar tradition gives the following history of the origin of this fair; king john, or some other of our ancient kings, being at the palace of eltham, in this neighbourhood, and having been out a hunting one day, rambled from his company to this place, then a mean hamlet; when entering a cottage to inquire his way, he was struck with the beauty of the mistress, whom he found alone; and having prevailed over her modesty, the husband returning suddenly, surprised them together; and threatening to kill them both, the king was obliged to discover himself, and to compound for his safety by a purse of gold, and a grant of the land from this place to cuckold's point, besides making the husband master of the hamlet. it is added that, in memory of this grant, and the occasion of it, this fair was established, for the sale of horns, and all sorts of goods made with that material. a sermon is preached at charlton church on the fair day. horn mad. a person extremely jealous of his wife, is said to be horn mad. also a cuckold, who does not cut or breed his horns easily. horn work. cuckold-making. hornified. cuckolded. horse buss. a kiss with a loud smack; also a bite. horse coser. a dealer in horses: vulgarly and corruptly pronounced horse courser. the verb to cose was used by the scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging. horse godmother. a large masculine woman, a gentlemanlike kind of a lady. horse ladder. a piece of wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow. horse's meal. a meal without drinking. hosteler, i.e. oat stealer. hosteler was originally the name for an inn-keeper; inns being in old english styled hostels, from the french signifying the same. hot pot. ale and brandy made hot. hot stomach. he has so hot a stomach, that he burns all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor. house, or tenement, to let. a widow's weeds; also an atchievement marking the death of a husband, set up on the outside of a mansion: both supposed to indicate that the dolorous widow wants a male comforter. hoydon. a romping girl. hubble-bubble. confusion. a hubble-bubble fellow; a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the east indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker. hubble de shuff. confusedly. to fire hubble de shuff, to fire quick and irregularly. old military term. hubbub. a noise, riot, or disturbance. huckle my buff. beer, egg, and brandy, made hot. hucksters. itinerant retailers of provisions. he is in hucksters hands; he is in a bad way. to hue. to lash. the cove was hued in the naskin; the rogue was soundly lashed in bridewell. cant. to huff. to reprove, or scold at any one; also to bluster, bounce, ding, or swagger. a captain huff; a noted bully. to stand the huff; to be answerable for the reckoning in a public house. hug. to hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier. he hugs it as the devil hugs a witch: said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losing it. hugger mugger. by stealth, privately, without making an appearance. they spent their money in a hugger mugger way. hugotontheonbiquiffinarians. a society existing in . hulky, or hulking. a great hulky fellow; an over-grown clumsy lout, or fellow. hulver-headed. having a hard impenetrable head; hulver, in the norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and solid wood. to hum, or humbug. to deceive, or impose on one by some story or device. a humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. to hum and haw; to hesitate in speech, also to delay, or be with difficulty brought to consent to any matter or business, hums. persons at church. there is a great number of hums in the autem; there is a great congregation in the church. hum box. a pulpit. hum cap. very old and strong beer, called also stingo. see stingo. hum drum. a hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator, a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (bailey says) used to meet near the charter house, or at the king's head in st. john's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery, than the free masons. hum durgeon. an imaginary illness. he has got the humdurgeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his a-se; i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits. humbugs. the brethren of the venerable society of humbugs was held at brother hallam's, in goodman's fields. hummer. a great lye, a rapper. see rapper. humming liquor. double ale, stout pharaoh. see pharaoh. hummums. a bagnio, or bathing house. hum trum. a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes, instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used. hump. to hump; once a fashionable word for copulation. humpty dumpty. a little humpty dumpty man or woman; a short clumsy person of either sex: also ale boiled with brandy. to hunch. to jostle, or thrust. hunch-backed. hump-backed. hung beef. a dried bull's pizzle. how the dubber served the cull with hung beef; how the turnkey beat the fellow with a bull's pizzle. hunks. a covetous miserable fellow, a miser; also the name of a famous bear mentioned by ben jonson. hunt's dog. he is like hunt's dog, will neither go to church nor stay at home. one hunt, a labouring man at a small town in shropshire, kept a mastiff, who on being shut up on sundays, whilst his master went to church, howled so terribly as to disturb the whole village; wherefore his master resolved to take him to church with him: but when he came to the church door, the dog having perhaps formerly been whipped out by the sexton, refused to enter; whereupon hunt exclaimed loudly against his dog's obstinacy, who would neither go to church nor stay at home. this shortly became a bye-word for discontented and whimsical persons. hunting. drawing in unwary persons to play or game. cant. hunting the squirrel. an amusement practised by postboys and stage-coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it, so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman or person that may be in it. a man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be hunted. huntsup. the reveillier of huntsmen, sounded on the french horn, or other instrument. hurdy gurdy. a kind of fiddle, originally made perhaps out of a gourd. see humstrum. hurly burly. a rout, riot, bustle or confusion. hush. hush the cull; murder the fellow. hush money. money given to hush up or conceal a robbery, theft, or any other offence, or to take off the evidence from appearing against a criminal. huskylour. a guinea, or job. cant. hussy. an abbreviation of housewife, but now always used as a term of reproach; as, how now, hussy? or she is a light hussy. huzza. said to have been originally the cry of the huzzars or hungarian light horse; but now the national shout of the english, both civil and military, in the sea phrase termed a cheer; to give three cheers being to huzza thrice. hyp, or hip. a mode of calling to one passing by. hip, michael, your head's on fire; a piece of vulgar wit to a red haired man. hyp. the hypochondriac: low spirits. he is hypped; he has got the blue devils, &c. jabber. to talk thick and fast, as great praters usually do, to chatter like a magpye; also to speak a foreign language. he jabbered to me in his damned outlandish parlez vous, but i could not understand him; he chattered to me in french, or some other foreign language, but i could not understand him. jack. a farthing, a small bowl serving as the mark for bowlers. an instrument for pulling off boots. jack adams. a fool. jack adams's parish; clerkenwell. jack at a pinch, a poor hackney parson. jack in a box, a sharper, or cheat. a child in the mother's womb. jack in an office, an insolent fellow in authority. jack ketch. the hangman; vide derrick and ketch. jack nasty face. a sea term, signifying a common sailor. jack of legs. a tall long-legged man; also a giant, said to be buried in weston church, near baldock, in hertfordshire, where there are two stones fourteen feet distant, said to be the head and feet stones of his grave. this giant, says salmon, as fame goes, lived in a wood here, and was a great robber, but a generous one; for he plundered the rich to feed the poor: he frequently took bread for this purpose from the baldock bakers, who catching him at an advantage, put out his eyes, and afterwards hanged him upon a knoll in baldock field. at his death he made one request, which was, that he might have his bow and arrow put into his hand, and on shooting it off, where the arrow fell, they would bury him; which being granted, the arrow fell in weston churchyard. above seventy years ago, a very large thigh bone was taken out of the church chest, where it had lain many years for a show, and was sold by the clerk to sir john tradescant, who, it is said, put it among the rarities of oxford. jack pudding. the merry andrew, zany, or jester to a mountebank. jack robinson. before one could say jack robinson; a saying to express a very short time, originating from a very volatile gentleman of that appellation, who would call on his neighbours, and be gone before his name could be announced. jack sprat. a dwarf, or diminutive fellow. jack tar. a sailor. jack weight. a fat man. jack whore. a large masculine overgrown wench. jackanapes. an ape; a pert, ugly, little fellow. jacked. spavined. a jacked horse. jackmen. see jarkmen. jackey. gin. jacob. a soft fellow. a fool. jacob. a ladder: perhaps from jacob's dream. cant. also the common name for a jay, jays being usually taught to say, poor jacob! a cup of sack for jacob. jacobites. sham or collar shirts. also partizans for the stuart family: from the name of the abdicated king, i.e. james or jacobus. it is said by the whigs, that god changed jacob's name to israel, lest the descendants of that patriarch should be called jacobites. jade. a term of reproach to women. jague. a ditch: perhaps from jakes. jail birds. prisoners. jakes. a house of office, a cacatorium. jammed. hanged. cant. janizaries. the mob, sometimes so called; also bailiffs, their setters, and followers. japanned. ordained. to be japanned; to enter into holy orders, to become a clergyman, to put on the black cloth: from the colour of the japan ware, which is black. jark. a seal. jarkmen. those, who fabricate counterfeit passes, licences, and certificates for beggars. jarvis. a hackney coachman. jason's fleece. a citizen cheated of his gold. jaw. speech, discourse. give us none of your jaw; let us have none of your discourse. a jaw-me-dead; a talkative fellow. jaw work; a cry used in fairs by the sellers of nuts. jazey. a bob wig. idea pot. the knowledge box, the head. see knowledge box. jeffy. it will be done in a jeffy; it will be done in a short space of time, in an instant. jehu. to drive jehu-like; to drive furiously: from a king of israel of that name, who was a famous charioteer, and mentioned as such in the bible. jem. a gold ring. cant. jemmy fellow. a smart spruce fellow. jemmy. a crow. this instrument is much used by housebreakers. sometimes called jemmy rook. jenny. an instrument for lifting up the grate or top of a show-glass, in order to rob it. cant. jerrycummumble. to shake, towzle, or tumble about. jerry sneak. a henpecked husband: from a celebrated character in one of mr. foote's plays, representing a man governed by his wife. jessamy. a smart jemmy fellow, a fopling. jesiut. see to box the jesuit. jesuitical. sly, evasive, equivocal. a jesuitical answer; an equivocal answer. jet. a lawyer. autem jet; a parson. jew. an over-reaching dealer, or hard, sharp fellow; an extortioner: the brokers formerly behind st. clement's church in the strand were called jews by their brethren the taylors. jew. a tradesman who has no faith, i.e. will not give credit. jew bail. insufficient bail: commonly jews, who for a sum of money will bail any action whatsoever, and justify, that is, swear to their sufficiency; but, when called on, are not to be found. jew's eye. that's worth a jew's eye; a pleasant or agreeable sight: a saying taken from shakespeare. jibber the kibber. a method of deceiving seamen, by fixing a candle and lanthorn round the neck of a horse, one of whose fore feet is tied up; this at night has the appearance of a ship's light. ships bearing towards it, run on shore, and being wrecked, are plundered by the inhabitants. this diabolical device is, it is said, practised by the inhabitants of our western coasts. jig. a trick. a pleasant jig; a witty arch trick. also a lock or door. the feather-bed jig; copulation. jigger. a whipping-post. cant. jilt. a tricking woman, who encourages the addresses of a man whom she means to deceive and abandon. jilted. rejected by a woman who has encouraged one's advances. jingle boxes. leathern jacks tipped with silver, and hung with bells, formerly in use among fuddle caps. cant. jingle brains. a wild, thoughtless, rattling fellow. jinglers. horse cosers, frequenting country fairs. impost takers. usurers who attend the gaming-tables, and lend money at great premiums. impudent stealing. cutting out the backs of coaches, and robbing the seats. impure. a modern term for a lady of easy virtue. inching. encroaching. indies. black indies; newcastle. india wipe. a silk handkerchief. indorser. a sodomite. to indorse with a cudgel; to drub or beat a man over the back with a stick, to lay cane upon abel. inexpressibles. breeches. inkle weavers. supposed to be a very brotherly set of people; 'as great as two inkle weavers' being a proverbial saying. inlaid. well inlaid; in easy circumstances, rich or well to pass. innocents. one of the innocents; a weak or simple person, man or woman. inside and outside. the inside of a **** and the outside of a gaol. job. a guinea. job's comfort. reproof instead of consolation. job's comforter. one who brings news of some additional misfortune. job's dock. he is laid up in job's dock; i.e. in a salivation. the apartments for the foul or venereal patients in st. bartholomew's hospital, are called job's ward. jobation. a reproof. jobbernole. the head. to job. to reprove or reprehend. cambridge term. job. any robbery. to do a job; to commit some kind of robbery. jock, or crowdy-headed jock. a jeering appellation for a north country seaman, particularly a collier; jock being a common name, and crowdy the chief food, of the lower order of the people in northumberland. to jock, or jockum cloy. to enjoy a woman. jockum gage. a chamber-pot, jordan, looking-glass, or member-mug. cant. jogg-trot. to keep on a jogg-trot; to get on with a slow but regular pace. johnny bum. a he or jack ass: so called by a lady that affected to be extremely polite and modest, who would not say jack because it was vulgar, nor ass because it was indecent. joint. to hit a joint in carving, the operator must think of a cuckold. to put one's nose out of joint; to rival one in the favour of a patron or mistress. jolly, or jolly nob. the head. i'll lump your jolly nob for you; i'll give you a knock on the head. jolly dog. a merry facetious fellow; a bon vivant, who never flinches from his glass, nor cries to go home to bed. jolter head. a large head; metaphorically a stupid fellow. jordain. a great blow, or staff. i'll tip him a jordain if i transnear; i.e. i'll give him a blow with my staff, if i come near him. cant. jordan. a chamber-pot. jorum. a jugg, or large pitcher. joseph. a woman's great coat. also, a sheepish bashful young fellow: an allusion to joseph who fled from potiphar's wife. you are josephus rex; you are jo-king, i. e. joking. joskin. a countryman. the dropcove maced the joskin of twenty quid; the ring dropper cheated the countryman of twenty guineas. jowl. the cheek. cheek by jowl; close together, or cheek to cheek. my eyes how the cull sucked the blowen's jowl; he kissed the wench handsomely. irish apricots. potatoes. it is a common joke against the irish vessels, to say they are loaded with fruit and timber, that is, potatoes and broomsticks. irish assurance. a bold forward behaviour: as being dipt in the river styx was formerly supposed to render persons invulnerable, so it is said that a dipping in the river shannon totally annihilates bashfulness; whence arises the saying of an impudent irishman, that he has been dipt in the shannon. irish beauty. a woman with two black eyes. irish evidence. a false witness. irish legs. thick legs, jocularly styled the irish arms. it is said of the irish women, that they have a dispensation from the pope to wear the thick end of their legs downwards. irish toyles. thieves who carry about pins, laces, and other pedlars wares, and under the pretence of offering their goods to sale, rob houses, or pilfer any thing they can lay hold of. iron. money in general. to polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to look out of grated or prison windows, or, as the irishman expresses them, the iron glass windows. iron doublet; a prison. see stone doublet. ironmonger's shop. to keep an ironmonger's shop by the side of a common, where the sheriff sets one up; to be hanged in chains. iron-bound; laced. an iron-bound hat; a silver-laced hat. island. he drank out of the bottle till he saw the island; the island is the rising bottom of a wine bottle, which appears like an island in the centre, before the bottle is quite empty. ivories. teeth. how the swell flashed his ivories; how the gentleman shewed his teeth. itchland, or scratchland. scotland. jug. see double jug. juggler's box. the engine for burning culprits in the hand. cant. jukrum. a licence. jumblegut lane. a rough road or lane. jump. the jump, or dining-room jump; a species of robbery effected by ascending a ladder placed by a sham lamp-lighter, against the house intended to be robbed. it is so called, because, should the lamp-lighter be put to flight, the thief who ascended the ladder has no means of escaping but that of jumping down. jumpers. persons who rob houses by getting in at the windows. also a set of methodists established in south wales. juniper lecture. a round scolding bout. jury leg. a wooden leg: allusion to a jury mast, which is a temporary substitute for a mast carried away by a storm, or any other accident. sea phrase. jury mast. a journiere mast; i.e. a mast for the day or occasion. just-ass. a punning appellation for a justice. ivy bush. like an owl in an ivy bush; a simile for a meagre or weasel-faced man, with a large wig, or very bushy hair. kate. a picklock. 'tis a rum kate; it is a clever picklock. cant. keel bullies. men employed to load and unload the coal vessels. keelhauling. a punishment in use among the dutch seamen, in which, for certain offences, the delinquent is drawn once, or oftener, under the ship's keel: ludicrously defined, undergoing a great hard-ship. to keep. to inhabit. lord, where do you keep? i.e. where are your rooms? academical phrase. mother, your tit won't keep; your daughter will not preserve her virginity. to keep it up. to prolong a debauch. we kept it up finely last night; metaphor drawn from the game of shuttle-cock. keeping cully. one who keeps a mistress, as he supposes, for his own use, but really for that of the public. keffel. a horse. welsh. kelter. condition, order. out of kelter; out of order. kelter. money. kemp's morris. william kemp, said to have been the original dogberry in much ado about nothing, danced a morris from london to norwich in nine days: of which he printed the account, a. d. , intitled, kemp's nine days wonder, &c. kemp's shoes. would i had kemp's shoes to throw after you. ben jonson. perhaps kemp was a man remarkable for his good luck or fortune; throwing an old shoe, or shoes, after any one going on an important business, being by the vulgar deemed lucky. ken. a house. a bob ken, or a bowman ken; a well-furnished house, also a house that harbours thieves. biting the ken; robbing the house. cant. ken miller, or ken cracker. a housebreaker. cant. kent-street ejectment. to take away the street door: a method practised by the landlords in kent-street, southwark, when their tenants are above a fortnight's rent in arrear. kerry security. bond, pledge, oath, and keep the money. ketch. jack ketch; a general name for the finishers of the law, or hangmen, ever since the year , when the office was filled by a famous practitioner of that name, of whom his wife said, that any bungler might put a man to death, but only her husband knew how to make a gentleman die sweetly. this officer is mentioned in butler's ghost, page , published about the year , in the following lines: till ketch observing he was chous'd, and in his profits much abus'd. in open hall the tribute dunn'd, to do his office, or refund. mr. ketch had not long been elevated to his office, for the name of his predecessor dun occurs in the former part of this poem, page : for you yourself to act squire dun, such ignominy ne'er saw the sun. the addition of 'squire,' with which mr. dun is here dignified, is a mark that he had beheaded some state criminal for high treason; an operation which, according to custom for time out of mind, has always entitled the operator to that distinction. the predecessor of dun was gregory brandon, from whom the gallows was called the gregorian tree, by which name it is mentioned in the prologue to mercurius pragmaticus, tragi-comedy acted at paris, &c. : this trembles under the black rod, and he doth fear his fate from the gregorian tree. gregory brandon succeeded derrick. see derrick. kettledrums. cupid's kettle drums; a woman's breasts, called by sailors chest and bedding. kettle of fish. when a person has perplexed his affairs in general, or any particular business, he is said to have made a fine kettle of fish of it. kicks. breeches. a high kick; the top of the fashion. it is all the kick; it is the present mode. tip us your kicks, we'll have them as well as your lour; pull off your breeches, for we must have them as well as your money. a kick; sixpence. two and a kick; half-a-crown. a kick in the guts; a dram of gin, or any other spirituous liquor. a kick up; a disturbance, also a hop or dance. an odd kick in one's gallop; a strange whim or peculiarity. to kick the bucket. to die. he kicked the bucket one day: he died one day. to kick the clouds before the hotel door; i.e. to be hanged. kickerapoo. dead. negro word. kickseys. breeches. kickshaws. french dishes: corruption of quelque chose. kid. a little dapper fellow. a child. the blowen has napped the kid. the girl is with child. to kid. to coax or wheedle. to inveigle. to amuse a man or divert his attention while another robs him. the sneaksman kidded the cove of the ken, while his pall frisked the panney; the thief amused the master of the house, while his companion robbed the house. kid lay. rogues who make it their business to defraud young apprentices, or errand-boys, of goods committed to their charge, by prevailing on them to execute some trifling message, pretending to take care of their parcels till they come back; these are, in cant terms, said to be on the kid lay. kidder. a forestaller: see crocker. kidders are also persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas. kiddeys. young thieves. kiddy nippers. taylors out of work, who cut off the waistcoat pockets of their brethren, when cross-legged on their board, thereby grabbling their bit. cant. kidnapper. originally one who stole or decoyed children or apprentices from their parents or masters, to send them to the colonies; called also spiriting: but now used for all recruiting crimps for the king's troops, or those of the east india company, and agents for indenting servants for the plantations, &c. kidney. disposition, principles, humour. of a strange kidney; of an odd or unaccountable humour. a man of a different kidney; a man of different principles. kilkenny. an old frize coat. kill care club. the members of this club, styled also the sons of sound sense and satisfaction, met at their fortress, the castle-tavern, in paternoster-row. kill devil. new still-burnt rum. kill priest. port wine. to kimbaw. to trick, cheat or cozen; also to beat or to bully. let's kimbaw the cull; let's bully the fellow. to set one's arms a-kimbaw, vulgarly pronounced a-kimbo, is to rest one's hands on the hips, keeping the elbows square, and sticking out from the body; an insolent bullying attitude. cant. kinchin. a little child. kinchin coes; orphan beggar boys, educated in thieving. kinchin morts; young girls under the like circumstances and training. kinchin morts, or coes in slates; beggars' children carried at their mother's backs in sheets. kinchin cove; a little man. cant. king's plate. fetters. king's wood lion. an ass. kingswood is famous for the great number of asses kept by the colliers who inhabit that place. king's bad bargain. one of the king's bad bargains; a malingeror, or soldier who shirks his duty. king's head inn, or chequer inn, in newgate street. the prison of newgate. king john's men. he is one of king john's men, eight score to the hundred: a saying of a little undersized man. king of the gypsies. the captain, chief, or ringleader of the gang of misrule: in the cant language called also the upright man. king's pictures. coin, money. kingdom come. he is gone to kingdom come, he is dead. kip. the skin of a large calf, in the language of the excise-office. kiss mine a-se. an offer, as fielding observes, very frequently made, but never, as he could learn, literally accepted. a kiss mine a-se fellow; a sycophant. kissing crust. that part where the loaves have touched the oven. kit. a dancing-master, so called from his kit or cittern, a small fiddle, which dancing-masters always carry about with them, to play to their scholars. the kit is likewise the whole of a soldier's necessaries, the contents of his knapsack: and is used also to express the whole of different commodities: as, here, take the whole kit; i.e. take all. kit-cat club. a society of gentlemen, eminent for wit and learning, who in the reign of queen anne and george i. met at a house kept by one christopher cat. the portraits of most of the members of this society were painted by sir godfrey kneller, of one size; thence still called the kit-cat size. kitchen physic. food, good meat roasted or boiled. a little kitchen physic will set him up; he has more need of a cook than a doctor. kittle pitchering. a jocular method of hobbling or bothering a troublesome teller of long stories: this is done by contradicting some very immaterial circumstance at the beginning of the narration, the objections to which being settled, others are immediately started to some new particular of like consequence; thus impeding, or rather not suffering him to enter into, the main story. kittle pitchering is often practised in confederacy, one relieving the other, by which the design is rendered less obvious. kittys. effects, furniture; stock in trade. to seize one's kittys; to take his sticks. knack shop. a toy-shop, a nick-nack-atory. knappers poll. a sheep's head. cant. knave in grain. a knave of the first rate: a phrase borrowed from the dyehouse, where certain colours are said to be in grain, to denote their superiority, as being dyed with cochineal, called grain. knave in grain is likewise a pun applied to a cornfactor or miller. knight of the blade. a bully. knight of the post. a false evidence, one that is ready to swear any thing for hire. knight of the rainbow. a footman: from the variety of colours in the liveries and trimming of gentlemen of that cloth. knight of the road. a highwayman. knight of the sheers. a taylor. knight of the thimble, or needle. a taylor or stay-maker. knight of the whip. a coachman. knight of the trencher. a great eater. knight and barrow pig, more hog than gentleman. a saying of any low pretender to precedency. knob. the head. see nob. knock. to knock a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. to knock off; to conclude: phrase borrowed from the blacksmith. to knock under; to submit. knock me down. strong ale or beer, stingo. knot. a crew, gang, or fraternity. he has tied a knot with his tongue, that he cannot untie with his teeth: i.e. he is married. knowing ones. sportsmen on the turf, who from experience and an acquaintance with the jockies, are supposed to be in the secret, that is, to know the true merits or powers of each horse; notwithstanding which it often happens that the knowing ones are taken in. knowledge box. the head. knuckles. pickpockets who attend the avenues to public places to steal pocket-books, watches, &c. a superior kind of pickpockets. to knuckle to, to submit. to knuckle one's wipe. to steal his handkerchief. knuckle-dabs, or knuckle-confounders. ruffles. konoblin rig. stealing large pieces of coal from coalsheds. laced mutton. a prostitute. lacing. beating. i'll lace your jacket handsomely. ladder. to go up the ladder to rest; to be hanged. lady. a crooked or hump-backed woman. lady of easy virtue. a woman of the town, an impure, a prostitute. ladybirds. light or lewd women. lady dacre's wine. gin. lag. a man transported. the cove was lagged for a drag. the man was transported for stealing something out of a waggon. lag fever. a term of ridicule applied to men who being under sentence of transportation, pretend illness, to avoid being sent from gaol to the hulks. to lag. to drop behind, to keep back. lag last; the last of a company. lage. water. cant. lage of duds. a buck of linen. laid on the shelf, or laid up in lavender. pawned. to lamb, or lambaste. to beat. lamb pye; a beating: from lambo. lamb's wool. apples roasted and put into strong ale. lambskin men. the judges: from their robes lined and bordered with ermine. lamp. an eye. the cove has a queer lamp. the man has a blind or squinting eye. land. how lies the land? how stands the reckoning? who has any land in appleby? a question asked the man at whose door the glass stands long, or who does not circulate it in due time. land lopers, or land lubbers. vagabonds lurking about the country who subsist by pilfering. land pirates. highwaymen. lank sleeve. the empty sleeve of a one armed man. a fellow with a lank sleeve; a man who has lost an arm. lansprisado. one who has only two-pence in his pocket. also a lance, or deputy corporal; that is, one doing the duty without the pay of a corporal. formerly a lancier, or horseman, who being dismounted by the death of his horse, served in the foot, by the title of lansprisado, or lancepesato, a broken lance. lanthorn-jawed. thin-visaged: from their cheeks being almost transparent. or else, lenten jawed; i.e. having the jaws of one emaciated by a too rigid observation of lent. dark lanthorn; a servant or agent at court, who receives a bribe for his principal or master. lap. butter-milk or whey. cant. lark. a boat. lark. a piece of merriment. people playing together jocosely. larry dugan's eye water. blacking: larry dugan was a famous shoe-black at dublin. latch. let in. lathy. thin, slender. a lathy wench; a girl almost as slender as a lath. latitat. a nick-name for an attorney; from the name of a writ. lavender. laid up in lavender; pawned. laugh. to laugh on the wrong side of the mouth; to cry. i'll make him laugh on the wrong (or t'other) side of his mouth. launch. the delivery, or labour, of a pregnant woman; a crying out or groaning. law. to give law to a hare; a sporting term, signifying to give the animal a chance of escaping, by not setting on the dogs till the hare is at some distance; it is also more figuratively used for giving any one a chance of succeeding in a scheme or project. lawful blanket. a wife. lay. enterprize, pursuit, or attempt: to be sick of the lay. it also means a hazard or chance: he stands a queer lay; i.e. he is in danger. cant. laystall. a dunghill about london, on which the soil brought from necessary houses is emptied; or, in more technical terms, where the old gold collected at weddings by the tom t--d man, is stored. lazy. as lazy as ludman's dog, who leaned against the wall to bark. as lazy as the tinker, who laid down his budget to f--t. lazy man's load. lazy people frequently take up more than they can safely carry, to save the trouble of coming a second time. lazybones. an instrument like a pair of tongs, for old or very fat people to take any thing from the ground without stooping. leaf. to go off with the fall of the leaf; to be hanged: criminals in dublin being turned off from the outside of the prison by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving on a hinge, like the leaf of a table. irish term. to leak. to make water. leaky. apt to blab; one who cannot keep a secret is said to be leaky. leaping over the sword. an ancient ceremonial said to constitute a military marriage. a sword being laid down on the ground, the parties to be married joined hands, when the corporal or serjeant of the company repeated these words: leap rogue, and jump whore, and then you are married for evermore. whereupon the happy couple jumped hand in hand over the sword, the drum beating a ruffle; and the parties were ever after considered as man and wife. least in sight. to play least in sight; to hide, keep out of the way, or make one's self scarce. leather. to lose leather; to be galled with riding on horseback, or, as the scotch express it, to be saddle sick. to leather also meant to beat, perhaps originally with a strap: i'll leather you to your heart's content. leather-headed; stupid. leathern conveniency; term used by quakers for a stage-coach. leery. on one's guard. see peery. left-handed wife. a concubine; an allusion to an ancient german custom, according to which, when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior, he gave her his left hand. leg. to make a leg; to bow. to give leg-bail and land security; to run away. to fight at the leg; to take unfair advantages: it being held unfair by back-sword players to strike at the leg. to break a leg; a woman who has had a bastard, is said to have broken a leg. leggers. sham leggers; cheats who pretend to sell smuggled goods, but in reality only deal in old shop-keepers or damaged goods. lenten fare. spare diet. letch. a whim of the amorous kind, out of the common way. levite. a priest or parson. to lib. to lie together. cant. libbege. a bed. cant. libben. a private dwelling-house. cant. libken. a house to lie in. cant. to lick. to beat; also to wash, or to paint slightly over. i'll give you a good lick o' the chops; i'll give you a good stroke or blow on the face. jack tumbled into a cow t--d, and nastied his best clothes, for which his father stept up, and licked him neatly.--i'll lick you! the dovetail to which is, if you lick me all over, you won't miss--. lickspittle. a parasite, or talebearer. lift. to give one a lift; to assist. a good hand at a dead lift; a good hand upon an emergency. to lift one's hand to one's head; to drink to excess, or to drink drams. to lift or raise one's elbow; the same. lift. see shoplifter, &c. lifter. a crutch. lig. a bed. see lib. light bob. a soldier of the light infantry company. light-fingered. thievish, apt to pilfer. light-heeled. swift in running. a light-heeled wench; one who is apt, by the flying up of her heels, to fall flat on her back, a willing wench. light house. a man with a red fiery nose. light troops. lice; the light troops are in full march; the lice are crawling about. lightmans. the day. cant. lightning. gin. a flash of lightning; a glass of gin. likeness. a phrase used by thieves when the officers or turnkeys are examining their countenance. as the traps are taking our likeness; the officers are attentively observing us. liliputian. a diminutive man or woman: from gulliver's travels, written by dean swift, where an imaginary kingdom of dwarfs of that name is described. lily white. a chimney-sweeper. lily shallow. (whip slang) a white driving hat. limbs. duke of limbs; a tall awkward fellow. limb of the law. an inferior or pettyfogging attorney. limbo. a prison, confinement. to line. a term for the act of coition between dog and bitch. line of the old author. a dram of brandy. line. to get a man into a line, i.e. to divert his attention by a ridiculous or absurd story. to humbug. lingo. language. an outlandish lingo; a foreign tongue. the parlezvous lingo; the french language. linen armourers. taylors. lion. to tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. to shew the lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to westminster abbey, and the tower, where the tombs and lions are shewn. a lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of oxford to an inhabitant or visitor. it is a standing joke among the city wits to send boys and country folks, on the first of april, to the tower-ditch, to see the lions washed. liquor. to liquor one's boots; to drink before a journey: among roman catholics, to administer the extreme unction. little barbary. wapping. little breeches. a familiar appellation used to a little boy. little clergyman. a young chimney-sweeper. little ease. a small dark cell in guildhall, london, where disorderly apprentices are confined by the city chamberlain: it is called little ease from its being so low that a lad cannot stand upright in it. little snakesman. a little boy who gets into a house through the sink-hole, and then opens the door for his accomplices: he is so called, from writhing and twisting like a snake, in order to work himself through the narrow passage. live lumber. a term used by sailors, to signify all landsmen on board their ships. live stock. lice or fleas. loaf. to be in bad loaf, to be in a disagreeable situation, or in trouble. lob. a till in a tradesman's shop. to frisk a lob; to rob a till. see flash panney. lob. going on the lob; going into a shop to get change for gold, and secreting some of the change. lob's pound. a prison. dr. grey, in his notes on hudibras, explains it to allude to one doctor lob, a dissenting preacher, who used to hold forth when conventicles were prohibited, and had made himself a retreat by means of a trap door at the bottom of his pulpit. once being pursued by the officers of justice, they followed him through divers subterraneous passages, till they got into a dark cell, from whence they could not find their way out, but calling to some of their companions, swore they had got into lob's pound. lobcock. a large relaxed penis: also a dull inanimate fellow. lobkin. a house to lie in: also a lodging. loblolley boy. a nick name for the surgeon's servant on board a man of war, sometimes for the surgeon himself: from the water gruel prescribed to the sick, which is called loblolley. lobonian society. a society which met at lob hall, at the king and queen, norton falgate, by order of lob the great. lobscouse. a dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt beef, biscuit and onions, well peppered, and stewed together. lobster. a nick name for a soldier, from the colour of his clothes. to boil one's lobster, for a churchman to become a soldier: lobsters, which are of a bluish black, being made red by boiling. i will not make a lobster kettle of my ****, a reply frequently made by the nymphs of the point at portsmouth, when requested by a soldier to grant him a favour. lock. a scheme, a mode. i must fight that lock; i must try that scheme. lock. character. he stood a queer lock; he bore but an indifferent character. a lock is also a buyer of stolen goods, as well as the receptacle for them. lock hospital. an hospital for venereal patients. lock up house. a spunging house; a public house kept by sheriff's officers, to which they convey the persons they have arrested, where they practise every species of imposition and extortion with impunity. also houses kept by agents or crimps, who enlist, or rather trepan, men to serve the east india or african company as soldiers. lockeram-jawed. thin-faced, or lanthorn-jawed. see lanthorn jawed. locksmith's daughter. a key. loggerhead. a blockhead, or stupid fellow. we three loggerheads be: a sentence frequently written under two heads, and the reader by repeating it makes himself the third. a loggerhead is also a double-headed, or bar shot of iron. to go to loggerheads; to fall to fighting. loll. mother's loll; a favourite child, the mother's darling, loll tongue. he has been playing a game at loll tongue; he has been salivated. lollipops. sweet lozenges purchased by children. to lollop. to lean with one's elbows on a table. lollpoop. a lazy, idle drone. lombard fever. sick of the lombard fever; i.e. of the idles. long one. a hare; a term used by poachers. long. great. a long price; a great price. long gallery. throwing, or rather trundling, the dice the whole length of the board. long meg. a jeering name for a very tall woman: from one famous in story, called long meg of westminster. long shanks. a long-legged person. long stomach. a voracious appetite. long tongued. loquacious, not able to keep a secret. he is as long-tongued as granny: granny was an idiot who could lick her own eye. see granny. long-winded. a long-winded parson; one who preached long, tedious sermons. a long-winded paymaster; one who takes long credit. loo. for the good of the loo; for the benefit of the company or community. looby. an awkward, ignorant fellow. looking as if one could not help it. looking like a simpleton, or as if one could not say boh! to a goose. looking-glass. a chamber pot, jordan, or member mug. loon, or lout. a country bumkin, or clown. loonslate. thirteen pence halfpenny. loophole. an opening, or means of escape. to find a loophole in an act of parliament; i.e. a method of evading it, lop-sided. uneven, having one side larger or heavier than the other: boys' paper kites are often said to be lop-sided. to lope. to leap, to run away. he loped down the dancers; he ran down stairs. lord. a crooked or hump-backed man. these unhappy people afford great scope for vulgar raillery; such as, 'did you come straight from home? if so, you have got confoundedly bent by the way.' 'don't abuse the gemman,' adds a by-stander, 'he has been grossly insulted already; don't you see his back's up?' or someone asks him if the show is behind; 'because i see,' adds he, 'you have the drum at your back.' another piece of vulgar wit is let loose on a deformed person: if met by a party of soldiers on their march, one of them observes that that gentleman is on his march too, for he has got his knapsack at his back. it is said in the british apollo, that the title of lord was first given to deformed persons in the reign of richard iii. from several persons labouring under that misfortune being created peers by him; but it is more probably derived from the greek word [greek: lordos], crooked. louse. a gentleman's companion. he will never louse a grey head of his own; he will never live to be old. love begotten child. a bastard. lounge. a loitering place, or gossiping shop. louse bag. a black bag worn to the hair or wig. louse house. the round house, cage, or any other place of confinement. louse ladder. a stitch fallen in a stocking. louse land. scotland. louse trap. a small toothed comb. lout. a clumsy stupid fellow. lowing rig. stealing oxen or cows. low pad. a footpad. low tide, or low water. when there is no money in a man's pocket. lowre. money. cant. lubber. an awkward fellow: a name given by sailors to landsmen. luck, or good luck. to tread in a surreverence, to be bewrayed: an allusion to the proverb, sh-tt-n luck is good luck. lud's bulwark. ludgate prison. lugs. ears or wattles. see wattles. lullaby cheat. an infant. cant. lullies. wet linen. cant. lully triggers. thieves who steal wet linen. cant. lumb. too much. lumber. live lumber; soldiers or passengers on board a ship are so called by the sailors. lumber troop. a club or society of citizens of london. lumber house. a house appropriated by thieves for the reception of their stolen property. to lump. to beat; also to include a number of articles under one head. to lump the lighter. to be transported. lumpers. persons who contract to unload ships; also thieves who lurk about wharfs to pilfer goods from ships, lighters, &c. lumping. great. a lumping penny worth; a great quantity for the money, a bargain. he has'got a lumping penny-worth; frequently said of a man who marries a fat woman. lun. harlequin. lurch. to be left in the lurch; to be abandoned by one's confederates or party, to be left in a scrape. lurched. those who lose a game of whist, without scoring five, are said to be lurched. lurcher. a lurcher of the law; a bum bailiff, or his setter. lurries. money, watches, rings, or other moveables. lush. strong beer. to lush. to drink. lushey. drunk. the rolling kiddeys hud a spree, and got bloody lushey; the dashing lads went on a party of pleasure, and got very drunk. lye. chamber lye; urine. maccaroni. an italian paste made of flour and eggs. also a fop: which name arose from a club, called the maccaroni club, instituted by some of the most dressy travelled gentlemen about town, who led the fashions; whence a man foppishly dressed, was supposed a member of that club, and by contraction styled a maccaroni. mace cove. a swindler, a sharper, a cheat. on the mace; to live by swindling. machines. mrs. phillips's ware. see cundum. mackerel. a bawd: from the french maquerel. mackerel-backed; long-backed. mad tom, or tom of bedlam, otherwise an abram man. a rogue that counterfeits madness. cant. madam. a kept madam; a kept mistress. madam ran. a whore. cant. made. stolen. cant. madge. the private parts of a woman. madge culls. sodomites. cant. magg. a halfpenny. maggot boiler. a tallow-chandler. maggotty. whimsical, capricious. magnum bonum. a bottle containing two quarts of wine. see scotch pint. mahometan gruel. coffee: because formerly used chiefly by the turks. maiden sessions. a sessions where none of the prisoners are capitally convicted. make. a halfpenny. cant. make weight. a small candle: a term applied to a little slender man. malingeror. a military term for one who, under pretence of sickness, evades his duty. malkin, or maulkin. a general name for a cat; also a parcel of rags fastened to the end of a stick, to clean an oven; also a figure set up in a garden to scare the birds; likewise an awkward woman. the cove's so scaly, he'd spice a malkin of his jazey: the fellow is so mean, that he would rob a scare-crow of his old wig. malkintrash. one in a dismal garb. malmsey nose. a red pimpled snout, rich in carbuncles and rubies. man of the town. a rake, a debauchee. man of the turf. a horse racer, or jockey. manoeuvring the apostles. robbing peter to pay paul, i.e. borrowing of one man to pay another. man trap. a woman's commodity. man of the world. a knowing man. man, (cambridge.) any undergraduate from fifteen to thirty. as a man of emanuel--a young member of emanuel. manufacture. liquors prepared from materials of english growth. mare's nest. he has found a mare's nest, and is laughing at the eggs; said of one who laughs without any apparent cause. margery prater. a hen. cant. marine officer. an empty bottle: marine officers being held useless by the seamen. sea wit. marplot. a spoil sport. marriage music. the squalling and crying of children. married. persons chained or handcuffed together, in order to be conveyed to gaol, or on board the lighters for transportation, are in the cant language said to be married together. marrowbones. the knees. to bring any one down on his marrow bones; to make him beg pardon on his knees: some derive this from mary's bones, i.e. the bones bent in honour of the virgin mary; but this seems rather far-fetched. marrow bones and cleavers; principal instruments in the band of rough music: these are generally performed on by butchers, on marriages, elections, riding skimmington, and other public or joyous occasions. martinet. a military term for a strict disciplinarian: from the name of a french general, famous for restoring military discipline to the french army. he first disciplined the french infantry, and regulated their method of encampment: he was killed at the siege of doesbourg in the year . mason's maund. a sham sore above the elbow, to counterfeit a broken arm by a fall from a scaffold. master of the mint. a gardener. master of the rolls. a baker. master of the wardrobe. one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor. matrimonial peace-maker. the sugar-stick, or arbor vitae. maudlin drunk. crying drunk: perhaps from mary magdalene, called maudlin, who is always painted in tears. mauled. extremely drunk, or soundly beaten. maundering broth. scolding. maunding. asking or begging. cant: mawkes. a vulgar slattern. mawley. a hand. tip us your mawley; shake hands. with me. fam the mawley; shake hands. maw-wallop. a filthy composition, sufficient to provoke vomiting. max. gin. may bees. may bees don't fly all the year long; an answer to any one who prefaces a proposition with, it may be. mealy-mouthed. over-modest or backward in speech. medlar. a fruit, vulgarly called an open a-se; of which it is more truly than delicately said, that it is never ripe till it is as rotten as a t--d, and then it is not worth a f--t. mellow. almost drunk. melting moments. a fat man and woman in the amorous congress. to melt. to spend. will you melt a borde? will you spend a shilling? the cull melted a couple of decusses upon us; the gentleman spent a couple of crowns upon us. cant. member mug. a chamber pot. men of straw. hired bail, so called from having straw stuck in their shoes to distinguish them. men of kent. men born east of the river medway, who are said to have met the conqueror in a body, each carrying a green bough in his hand, the whole appearing like a moving wood; and thereby obtaining a confirmation of their ancient privileges. the inhabitants of kent are divided into kentish men and men of kent. also a society held at the fountain tavern, bartholomew lane, a.d. . merkin. counterfeit hair for women's privy parts. see bailey's dict. merry andrew, or mr. merryman. the jack pudding, jester, or zany of a mountebank, usually dressed in a party-coloured coat. merry a-se christian. a whore. merry-begotten. a bastard. man of the world. a knowing man. mess john. a scotch presbyterian teacher or parson. messmate. one who eats at the same mess, companion or comrade. mettle. the semen. to fetch mettle; the act of self pollution. mettle is also figuratively used for courage. mettlesome. bold, courageous. michael. hip, michael, your head's on fire. see hyp. midshipman's watch and chain. a sheep's heart and pluck. milch cow. one who is easily tricked out of his property; a term used by gaolers, for prisoners who have money and bleed freely. milk and water. both ends of the busk. to milk the pigeon. to endeavour at impossibilities. milling cove. a boxer. how the milling cove served the cull out; how the boxer beat the fellow. mill. a chisel. to mill. to rob; also to break, beat out, or kill. i'll mill your glaze; i'll beat out your eye. to mill a bleating cheat; to kill a sheep. to mill a ken; to rob a house. to mill doll; to beat hemp in bridewell. cant. mill lay. to force open the doors of houses in order to rob them. miller. a murderer. mine a-se on a bandbox. an answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is wanted, just as a bandbox would be if used for a seat. mine uncle's. a pawnbroker's shop; also a necessary house. carried to my uncle's; pawned. new-married men are also said to go to their uncle's, when they leave their wives soon after the honey moon. minikin. a little man or woman: also the smallest sort of pin. minor clergy. young chimney sweepers. mint. gold. a mint of money; common phrase for a large sum. mischief. a man loaded with mischief, i.e. a man with his wife on his back. mish. a shirt, smock, or sheet. cant. mish topper. a coat, or petticoat. miss. a miss or kept mistress; a harlot. miss laycock. the monosyllable. mite. a nick name for a cheesemonger: from the small insect of that name found in cheese. mix metal. a silversmith. moabites. bailiffs, or philistines. mob; or mab. a wench, or harlot. mobility. the mob: a sort of opposite to nobility. mohair. a man in the civil line, a townsman, or tradesman: a military term, from the mohair buttons worn by persons of those descriptions, or any others not in the army, the buttons of military men being always of metal: this is generally used as a term of contempt, meaning a bourgeois, tradesman, or mechanic. moiety. half, but vulgarly used to signify a share or portion: as, he will come in for a small moiety. moll. a whore. moll peatly's gig. a rogering bout. moll thompson's mark. m. t. i.e. empty: as, take away this bottle, it has moll thompson's mark upon it. molly. a miss molly; an effeminate fellow, a sodomite. monday. saint monday. see saint. money. a girl's private parts, commonly applied to little children: as, take care, miss, or you will shew your money. money droppers. cheats who drop money, which they pretend to find just before some country lad; and by way of giving him a share of their good luck, entice him into a public house, where they and their confederates cheat or rob him of what money he has about him. mongrel. a hanger on among cheats, a spunger; also a child whose father and mother are of different countries. monks and friars. terms used by printers: monks are sheets where the letters are blotted, or printed too black; friars, those letters where the ink has failed touching the type, which are therefore white or faint. monkey. to suck the monkey; to suck or draw wine, or any other liquor, privately out of a cask, by means of a straw, or small tube. monkey's allowance; more kicks than halfpence. who put that monkey on horseback without tying his legs? vulgar wit on a bad horseman. monosyllable. a woman's commodity. mooncurser. a link-boy: link-boys are said to curse the moon, because it renders their assistance unnecessary; these gentry frequently, under colour of lighting passengers over kennels, or through dark passages, assist in robbing them. cant. moon-eyed hen. a squinting wench. moon men. gypsies. moon rakers. wiltshire men: because it is said that some men of that county, seeing the reflection of the moon in a pond, endeavoured to pull it out with a rake. moonshine. a matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle, nothing. the white brandy smuggled on the coasts of kent and sussex, and the gin in the north of yorkshire, are also called moonshine. mop. a kind of annual fair in the west of england, where farmers usually hire their servants. to mop up. to drink up. to empty a glass or pot. moped. stupid, melancholy for want of society. mopsey. a dowdy, or homely woman. mopsqueezer. a maid servant, particularly a housemaid. mopusses. money. morglag. a brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly carried by watchmen; corruption of more, great or broad, and glave, blade. morning drop. the gallows. he napped the king's pardon and escaped the morning drop; he was pardoned, and was not hanged. morris. come, morris off; dance off, or get you gone. allusion to morris, i.e. morisco, or moorish dancing. mort. a woman or wench; also a yeoman's daughter. to be taken all-a mort; to be confounded, surprised, or motionless through fear. moses. to stand moses: a man is said to stand moses when he has another man's bastard child fathered upon him, and he is obliged by the parish to maintain it. moss. a cant term for lead, because both are found on the tops of buildings. mossy face. the mother of all saints. mot. a girl, or wench. see mort. mother, or the mother. a bawd. mother abbess: the same. mother midnight; a midwife. mother in law's bit; a small piece, mothers in law being supposed not apt to overload the stomachs of their husband's children. mother of all saints. the monosyllable. mother of all souls. the same. irish. mother of st. patrick. the same. irish. mother of the maids. a bawd. mouchets. small patches worn by ladies: from the french word mouches. moveables. rings, watches, or any toys of value. mouse. to speak like a mouse in a cheese; i.e. faintly or indistinctly. mousetrap. the parson's mousetrap; the state of matrimony. mouth. a noisy fellow. mouth half cocked; one gaping and staring at every thing he sees. to make any one laugh on the wrong, or t'other side of his mouth; to make him cry or grieve. mouth. a silly fellow. a dupe. to stand mouth; i.e. to be duped. to mow. a scotch word for the act of copulation. mow heater. a drover: from their frequent sleeping on hay mows. cant. mower. a cow. muck. money; also dung. muckworm. a miser. muckinder. a child's handkerchief tied to the side. mud. a fool, or thick-sculled fellow; also, among printers the same as dung among journeymen taylors. see dung. mud lark. a fellow who goes about by the water side picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud. also a duck. muff. the private parts of a woman. to the well wearing of your muff, mort; to the happy consummation of your marriage, girl; a health. muffling cheat. a napkin. muggletonians. the sect or disciples of lodowick muggleton. mulligrubs. sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness. mum. an interjection directing silence. mum for that; i shall be silent as to that. as mute as mumchance, who was hanged for saying nothing; a friendly reproach to any one who seems low-spirited and silent. mumchance. an ancient game like hazard, played with dice: probably so named from the silence observed in playing at it. mum glass. the monument erected on fish-street hill, london, in memory of the great fire in . mumble a sparrow. a cruel sport practised at wakes and fairs, in the following manner: a cock sparrow whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off the sparrow's head, but is generally obliged to desist, by the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged bird. mummer. the mouth. mumpers. originally beggars of the genteel kind, but since used for beggars in general. mumpers hall. an alehouse where beggars are harboured. mundungus. bad or rank tobacco: from mondongo, a spanish word signifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails of a beast, full of filth. mung. to beg. muns. the face, or rather the mouth: from the german word mund, the mouth. toute his muns; look at his face. munster plums. potatoes. irish. munster heifer. an irish woman. a woman with thick legs is said to be like a munster heifer; i.e. beef to the heels. murder. he looked like god's revenge against murder; he looked angrily. murphies. potatoes. mushroom. a person or family suddenly raised to riches and eminence: an allusion to that fungus, which starts up in a night. music. the watch-word among highwaymen, signifying the person is a friend, and must pass unmolested. music is also an irish term, in tossing up, to express the harp side, or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head. mute. an undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of a person lying in state: so named from being supposed mute with grief. mutton-headed. stupid. mutton monger. a man addicted to wenching. mutton. in her mutton, i.e. having carnal knowledge of a woman. muzzle. a beard. muzzler. a violent blow on the mouth. the milling cove tipped the cull a muzzler; the boxer gave the fellow a blow on the mouth. mynt. see mint. myrmidons. the constable's assistants, watchmen, &c. nab, or nab cheat. a hat. penthouse nab; a large hat. to nab. to seize, or catch unawares. to nab the teaze; to be privately whipped. to nab the stoop; to stand in the pillory. to nab the rust; a jockey term for a horse that becomes restive. to nab the snow: to steal linen left out to bleach or dry. cant. to nab girder, or nob girder. a bridle. nack. to have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have a turn-for it. nacky. ingenious. nailed. secured, fixed. he offered me a decus, and i nailed him; he offered me a crown, and i struck or fixed him. nanny house. a brothel. to nap. to cheat at dice by securing one chance. also to catch the venereal disease. you've napt it; you are infected. napping. to take any one napping; i.e. to come upon him unexpectedly, to find him asleep: as, he caught him napping, as morse caught his mare. napper. the head; also a cheat or thief. napper of naps. a sheep stealer. cant. nappy ale. strong ale. nask, or naskin. a prison or bridewell. the new nask; clerkenwell bridewell. tothil-fields nask; the bridewell at tothil-fields. cant. nation. an abbreviation of damnation: a vulgar term used in kent, sussex, and the adjacent counties, for very. nation good; very good. a nation long way; a very long way. natty lads. young thieves or pickpockets. cant. natural. a mistress, a child; also an idiot. a natural son or daughter; a love or merry-begotten child, a bastard. navy office. the fleet prison. commander of the fleet; the warden of the fleet prison. nay word. a bye-word, proverb. nazakene foretop. the foretop of a wig made in imitation of christ's head of hair, as represented by the painters and sculptors. nazy. drunken. nazy cove or mort; a drunken rogue or harlot. nazy nabs; drunken coxcombs. neb, or nib. the bill of a bird, and the slit of a pen. figuratively, the face and mouth of a woman; as, she holds up her neb: she holds up her mouth to be kissed. neck stamper. the boy who collects the pots belonging to an alehouse, sent out with beer to private houses. neck verse. formerly the persons claiming the benefit of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a latin manuscript psalter: this saving them from the gallows, was termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of the fiftyfirst psalm, miserere mei,&c. neck weed. hemp. needle point. a sharper. negligee. a woman's undressed gown, vulgarly termed a neggledigee. negroe. a black-a-moor: figuratively used for a slave. i'll be no man's negro; i will be no man's slave. negroe's heads. brown leaves delivered to the ships in ordinary. nescio. he sports a nescio; he pretends not to understand any thing. after the senate house examination for degrees, the students proceed to the schools, to be questioned by the proctor. according to custom immemorial the answers must be nescio. the following is a translated specimen: ques. what is your name?--ans. i do not know. ques. what is the name of this university?--ans. i do not know. ques. who was your father?-ans. i do not know. this last is probably the only true answer of the three! nettled. teized, provoked, out of temper. he or she has pissed on a nettle; said of one who is peevish or out of temper. new college students. golden scholars, silver bachelors, and leaden masters. new drop. the scaffold used at newgate for hanging of criminals; which dropping down, leaves them suspended. by this improvement, the use of that vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off. new light. one of the new light; a methodist. newgate bird. a thief or sharper, frequently caged in newgate. newgate solicitor. a petty fogging and roguish attorney, who attends the gaols to assist villains in evading justice. newman's lift. the gallows. newman's tea gardens. newgate. newman's hotel. newgate. to nick. to win at dice, to hit the mark just in the nick of time, or at the critical moment. nick. old nick; the devil. nickname. a name given in ridicule or contempt: from the french nom de niqne. niqne is a movement of the head to mark a contempt for any person or thing. nick ninny. a simpleton. nickin, nikey or nizey. a soft simple fellow; also a diminutive of isaac. nicknacks. toys, baubles, or curiosities. nlcknackatory. a toyshop. nickumpoop, or nincumpoop. a foolish fellow; also one who never saw his wife's ****. niffynaffy fellow. a trifler. nig. the clippings of money. nigging; clipping. nigler, a clipper. cant. niggling. cutting awkwardly, trifling; also accompanying with a woman. night magistrate. a constable. nightingale. a soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. it is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet. nightman. one whose business it is to empty necessary houses in london, which is always done in the night; the operation is called a wedding. see wedding. nigmenog. a very silly fellow. to nim. to steal or pilfer: from the german nemen, to take. nim a togeman; steal a cloak. nimgimmer. a physician or surgeon, particularly those who cure the venereal disease. nine lives. cats are said to have nine lives, and women ten cats lives. ninny, or ninnyhammer. a simpleton. nip. a cheat. bung nipper; a cutpurse. nip cheese. a nick name for the purser of a ship: from those gentlemen being supposed sometimes to nip, or diminish, the allowance of the seamen, in that and every other article. it is also applied to stingy persons in general. nipperkin. a small measure. nipps. the sheers used in clipping money. nit squeeger, i.e. squeezer. a hair-dresser. nix. nothing. no catchy no havy. if i am not caught, i cannot be hurt. negro saying. nob. a king. a man of rank. nob. the head. nobthatcher. a peruke-maker. nock. the breech; from nock, a notch. nocky boy. a dull simple fellow. nod. he is gone to the land of nod; he is asleep. noddle. the head. noddy. a simpleton or fool. also a kind of low cart, with a seat before it for the driver, used in and about dublin, in the manner of a hackney coach: the fare is just half that of a coach, for the same distance; so that for sixpence one may have a set down, as it is called, of a mile and half, and frequently a tumble down into the bargain: it is called a noddy from the nutation of its head. knave noddy; the old-fashioned name for the knave of trumps. noisy dog racket. stealing brass knockers from doors. nokes. a ninny, or fool. john-a-nokes and tom-a-stiles; two honest peaceable gentlemen, repeatedly set together by the ears by lawyers of different denominations: two fictitious names formerly used in law proceedings, but now very seldom, having for several years past been supplanted by two other honest peaceable gentlemen, namely, john doe and richard roe. noll. old noll; oliver cromwell. non-con. a nonconformist, presbyterian, or any other dissenter. none-such. one that is unequalled: frequently applied ironically. nonsense. melting butter in a wig. noozed. married, hanged. nope. a blow: as, i took him a nope on the costard. norfolk capon. a red herring. norfolk dumpling. a nick name, or term of jocular reproach to a norfolk man; dumplings being a favourite food in that county. north allertons. spurs; that place, like rippon, being famous for making them. northumberland. lord northumberland's arms; a black eye: so called in the last century. norway neckcloth. the pillory, usually made of norway fir. nose. as plain as the nose on your face; evidently to be seen. he is led by the nose; he is governed. to follow one's nose; to go strait forward. to put one's nose out of joint; to rival one in the favour of any person. to make a bridge of any one's nose; to pass by him in drinking. to nose a stink; to smell it. he cut off his nose to be revenged of his face; said of one who, to be revenged on his neighbour, has materially injured himself. nose. a man who informs or turns king's evidence. to nose. to give evidence. to inform. his pall nosed and he was twisted for a crack; his confederate turned king's evidence, and he was hanged for burglary. to nose. to bully. nose bag. a bag fastened to the horse's head, in which the soldiers of the cavalry put the oats given to their horses: whence the saying, i see the hose bag in his face; i.e. he has been a private man, or rode private. nose gent. a nun. nostrum. a medicine prepared by particular persons only, a quack medicine. notch. the private parts of a woman. note. he changed his note; he told another sort of a story. nous-box. the head. nozzle. the nose of a man or woman. nub. the neck; also coition. nubbing. hanging. nubbing cheat: the gallows. nubbing cove; the hangman. nubbing ken; the sessions house. nug. an endearing word: as, my dear nug; my dear love. nugging dress. an out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress, or rather a loose kind of dress, denoting a courtesan. nugging-house. a brothel. to null. to beat: as, he nulled him heartily. numbers. to consult the book of numbers: a term used in the house of commons, when, instead of answering or confuting a pressing argument, the minister calls for a division, i.e. puts the matter to the vote. numbscull. a stupid fellow. numms. a sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt. nunnery. a bawdy house. to nurse. to cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. an estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of bdebts, is said to be at nurse. nuts. it was nuts for them; i.e. it was very agreeable to them. nuts. fond; pleased. she's nuts upon her cull; she's pleased with her cully. the cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl. nutcrackers. the pillory: as, the cull peeped through the nutcrackers. nutmegs. testicles. nyp, or nip. a half pint, a nip of ale: whence the nipperkin, a small vessel. nyp shop. the peacock in gray's inn lane, where burton ale is sold in nyps. nypper. a cut-purse: so called by one wotton, who in the year kept an academy for the education and perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses: his school was near billingsgate, london. as in the dress of ancient times many people wore their purses at their girdles, cutting them was a branch of the light-fingered art, which is now lost, though the name remains. maitland, from stow, gives the following account of this wotton: this man was a gentleman born, and sometime a merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay: he kept an alehouse near smart's key, near billingsgate, afterwards for some misdemeanor put down. he reared up a new trade of life, and in the same house he procured all the cut-purses about the city, to repair to his house; there was a school-house set up to learn young boys to cut purses: two devices were hung up; one was a pocket, and another was a purse; the pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung about with hawks bells, and over the top did hang a little sacring bell. the purse had silver in it; and he that could take out a counter, without noise of any of the bells, was adjudged a judicial nypper: according to their terms of art, a foyster was a pick-pocket; a nypper was a pick purse, or cut-purse. o be joyful. i'll make you sing o be joyful on the other side of your mouth; a threat, implying the party threatened will be made to cry. to sing o be easy; to appear contented when one has cause to complain, and dare not. oaf. a silly fellow. oafish. simple. oak. a rich maa, a man of good substance and credit. to sport oak; to shut the outward door of a student's room at college. an oaken towel; an oaken cudgel. to rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him. oats. he has sowed his wild oats; he is staid, or sober, having left off his wild tricks. oaths. the favourite oaths of the thieves of the present day are, "god strike me blind!" "i wish my bloody eyes may drop out if it is not true!" "so help me god!" "bloody end to me!" oar. to put in one's oar; to intermeddle, or give an opinion unasked: as, to be sure, you must put in your oar! obstropulous. vulgar misnomer of obstreperous: as, i was going my rounds, and found this here gemman very obstropulous, whereof i comprehended him as an auspicious parson. occupy. to occupy a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. oddfellows. a convivial society; the introduction to the most noble grand, arrayed in royal robes, is well worth seeing at the price of becoming a member. odds plut and her nails. a welch oath, frequently mentioned in a jocular manner by persons, it is hoped, ignorant of its meaning; which is, by god's blood, and the nails with which he was nailed to the cross. odd-come-shortlys. i'll do it one of these odd-come-shortly's; i will do it some time or another. office. to give the office; to give information, or make signs to the officers to take a thief. ogles. eyes. rum ogles; fine eyes. oil of barley, or barley broth. strong beer. oil of gladness. i will anoint you with the oil of gladness; ironically spoken for, i will beat you. oil of stirrup. a dose the cobler gives his wife whenever she is obstropulous. oi poaaoi (proofreaders note: greek letters). (cambridge.) the many; the multitude; who take degrees without being entitled for an honor. all that is required, are three books of euclid, and as far as quadratic equation's in algebra. see plucked. old. ugly. cant. old dog at it. expert, accustomed. old hand. knowing or expert in any business. old harry. a composition used by vintners to adulterate their wines; also the nick-name for the devil. old ding. see old hat. old mr. gory. a piece of gold. old nick. the devil: from neken, the evil spirit of the north. old one. the devil. likewise an expression of quizzical familiarity, as "how d'ye do, old one?" old pegg. poor yorkshire cheese, made of skimmed milk. old poger. the devil. old stager. one accustomed to business, one who knows mankind. old toast. a brisk old fellow. cant. old doss. bridewell. oliver's scull. a chamber pot. olli compolli. the name of one of the principal rogues of the canting crew. cant. omnium gatherum. the whole together: jocular imitation of law latin. one in ten. a parson: an allusion to his tithes. one of us, or one of my cousins. a woman of the town, a harlot. onion. a seal. onion hunters, a class of young thieves who are on the look out for gentlemen who wear their seals suspended on a ribbon, which they cut, and thus secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch. open arse. a medlar. see medlar. optime. the senior and junior optimes are the second and last classes of cambridge honors conferred on taking a degree. that of wranglers is the first. the last junior optime is called the wooden spoon. organ. a pipe. will you cock your organ? will you smoke your pipe? orthodoxy and heterodoxy. somebody explained these terms by saying, the first was a man who had a doxy of his own, the second a person who made use of the doxy of another man. oschives. bone-handled knives. cant. ostler. oatstealer. ottomy. the vulgar word for a skeleton. ottomised. to be ottomised; to be dissected. you'll be scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case: you'll be hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass case at surgeons' hall. oven. a great mouth; the old woman would never have looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there herself. overseer. a man standing in the pillory, is, from his elevated situation, said to be made an overseer. out at heels, or out at elbows. in declining circumstances. outrun the constable. a man who has lived above his means, or income, is said to have outrun the constable. outs. a gentleman of three outs. see gentleman. owl. to catch the; a trick practised upon ignorant country boobies, who are decoyed into a barn under pretence of catching an owl, where, after divers preliminaries, the joke ends in their having a pail of water poured upon their heads. owl in an ivy bush. he looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze. owlers. those who smuggle wool over to france. ox house. he must go through the ox house to bed; a saying of an old fellow who marries a young girl. oyes. corruption of oyez, proclaimed by the crier of all courts of justice. oyster. a gob of thick phlegm, spit by a consumptive man; in law latin, unum viridum gobbum p's. to mind one's p's and q's; to be attentive to the main chance. p.p.c. an inscription on the visiting cards of our modern fine gentleman, signifying that they have called pour prendre conge, i.e. 'to take leave,' this has of late been ridiculed by cards inscribed d.i.o. i.e. 'damme, i'm off.' packet. a false report. packthread. to talk packthread; to use indecent language well wrapt up. pad. the highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. footpads; foot robbers. to go out upon the pad; to go out in order to commit a robbery. pad borrowers. horse stealers. to pad the hoof. see to beat the hoof. paddington fair day. an execution day, tyburn being in the parish or neighbourhood of paddington. to dance the paddington frisk; to be hanged. paddy. the general name for an irishman: being the abbreviation of patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that island. painter. i'll cut your painter for you; i'll send you off; the painter being the ropfe that holds the boat fast to the ship. sea term. pair of wings. oars. cant. to palaver. to flatter: originally an african word for a treaty, talk, or conference. palliards. those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or beggars born, and who themselves follow the same trade: the female sort beg with a number of children, borrowing them, if they have not a sufficient number of their own, and making them cry by pinching in order to excite charity; the males make artificial sores on different parts of their bodies, to move compassion. pall. a companion. one who generally accompanies another, or who commit robberies together. pam. the knave of clubs. pannam. bread. pannier man. a servant belonging to the temple and gray's inn, whose office is to announce the dinner. this in the temple, is done by blowing a horn; and in gray's inn proclaiming the word manger, manger, manger, in each of the three courts. panny. a house. to do a panny: to rob a house. see the sessions papers. probably, panny originally meant the butler's pantry, where the knives and forks, spoons, &c. are usually kept the pigs frisked my panney, and nailed my screws; the officers searched my house, and seized my picklock keys. cant. panter. a hart: that animal is, in the psalms, said to pant after the fresh water-brooks. also the human heart, which frequently pants in time of danger. cant. pantile shop. a presbyterian, or other dissenting meeting house, frequently covered with pantiles: called also a cock-pit. pantler. a butler. pap. bread sauce; also the food of infants. his mouth is full of pap; he is still a baby. paper scull. a thin-scull'd foolish fellow. papler. milk pottage. parell. whites of eggs, bay salt, milk, and pump water, beat together, and poured into a vessel of wine to prevent its fretting. parenthesis. to put a man's nose into a parenthesis: to pull it, the fingers and thumb answering the hooks or crochets. a wooden parenthesis; the pillory. an iron parenthesis; a prison. parings. the chippings of money. cant. parish bull. a parson. parish. his stockings are of two parishes; i.e. they are not fellows. parish soldier. a jeering name for a militiaman: from substitutes being frequently hired by the parish from which one of its inhabitants is drawn. park pailing. teeth. parson. a guide post, hand or finger post by the road side for directing travellers: compared to a parson, because, like him, it sets people in the right way. see guide post. he that would have luck in horse-flesh, must kiss a parson's wife. parson's journeyman. a curate. parson palmer. a jocular name, or term of reproach, to one who stops the circulation of the glass by preaching over his liquor; as it is said was done by a parson of that name whose cellar was under his pulpit. partial. inclining more to one side than the other, crooked, all o' one hugh. pass bank. the place for playing at passage, cut into the ground almost like a cock-pit. also the stock or fund. passage. a camp game with three dice: doublets, making up ten or more, to pass or win; any other chances lose. pat. apposite, or to the purpose. pate. the head. carroty-pated; red-haired. patrico, or pater-cove. the fifteenth rank of the canting tribe; strolling priests that marry people under a hedge, without gospel or common prayer book: the couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the wedding is ended. also any minister or parson. pattering. the maundering or pert replies of servants; also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be cheated. pattering of prayers; the confused sound of a number of persons praying together. to patter. to talk. to patter flash; to speak flash, or the language used by thieves. how the blowen lushes jackey, and patters flash; how the wench drinks gin, and talks flash. paviour's workshop. the street. to paum. to conceal in the hand. to paum a die: to hide a die in the palm of the hand. he paums; he cheats. don't pretend to paum that upon me. paunch. the belly. some think paunch was the original name of that facetious prince of puppets, now called mr. punch, as he is always represented with a very prominent belly: though the common opinion is, that both the name and character were taken from a celebrated italian comedian, called polichenello. paw. a hand or foot; look at his dirty paws. fore paw; the hand. hind paw; the foot. to paw; to touch or handle clumsily. paw paw tricks. naughty tricks: an expression used by nurses, &c. to children. to pay. to smear over. to pay the bottom of a ship or boat; to smear it over with pitch: the devil to pay, and no pitch hot or ready. sea term.--also to beat: as, i will pay you as paul paid the ephesians, over the face and eyes, and all your d---d jaws. to pay away; to fight manfully, also to eat voraciously. to pay through the nose: to pay an extravagant price. to peach. to impeach: called also to blow the gab, squeak, or turn stag. peak. any kind of lace. peal. to ring a peal in a man's ears; to scold at him: his wife rang him such a peal! pear making. taking bounties from several regiments and immediately deserting. the cove was fined in the steel for pear making; the fellow was imprisoned in the house of correction for taking bounties from different regiments. peccavi. to cry peccavi; to acknowledge one's self in an error, to own a fault: from the latin peccavi, i have sinned. peck. victuals. peck and booze; victuals and drink. peckish. hungry. peculiar. a mistress. ped. a basket. cant. pedlar's french. the cant language. pedlar's pony; a walking-stick. to peel. to strip: allusion to the taking off the coat or rind of an orange or apple. peeper. a spying glass; also a looking-glass. track up the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs, and run off with the looking-glass. cant. peepers. eyes. single peeper, a one-eyed man. peeping tom. a nick name for a curious prying fellow; derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of coventry, who, when godiva countess of chester rode at noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck blind. his figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept up in remembrance of the transaction. peepy. drowsy. to peer. to look about, to be circumspect. peery. inquisitive, suspicious. the cull's peery; that fellow suspects something. there's a peery, tis snitch we are observed, there's nothing to be done. peg. old peg; poor hard suffolk or yorkshire cheese. a peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the professors of gymnastic arts. a peg in the day-light, the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the eye, stomach, or under the ear. peg trantum's. gone to peg trantum's; dead. pego. the penis of man or beast. pell-mell. tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together. pelt. a heat, chafe, or passion; as, what a pelt he was in! pelt is also the skin of several beasts. penance board. the pillory. penny-wise and pound foolish. saving in small matters, and extravagant in great. pennyworth. an equivalent. a good pennyworth; cheap bargain. penthouse nab. a broad brimmed hat. peppered. infected with the venereal disease. peppery. warm, passionate. perkin. water cyder. perriwinkle. a wig. persuaders. spurs. the kiddey clapped his persuaders to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him. pet. in a pet; in a passion or miff. peter. a portmanteau or cloke-bag. biter of peters; one that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind stage coaches or out of waggons. to rob peter to pay paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled also manoeuvring the apostles. peter gunner, will kill all the birds that died last summer. a piece of wit commonly thrown out at a person walking through a street or village near london, with a gun in his hand. peter lay. the department of stealing portmanteaus, trunks, &c. peter lug. who is peter lug? who lets the glass stand at his door, or before him. petticoat hold. one who has an estate during his wife's life, called the apron-string hold. petticoat pensioner. one kept by a woman for secret services. pettish. passionate. petty fogger. a little dirty attorney, ready to undertake any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the french words petit vogue, of small credit, or little reputation. pharaoh. strong malt liquor. philistines. bailiffs, or officers of justice; also drunkards. phoenix-men. firemen belonging to an insurance office, which gave a badge charged with a phoenix: these men were called likewise firedrakes. phos bottle. a. bottle of phosphorus: used by housebreakers to light their lanthorns. ding the phos; throw away the bottle of phosphorus. phrase of paper. half a quarter of a sheet. see vessel, physog. physog. the face. a vulgar abbreviation of physiognomy. phyz. the face. rum phyz; an odd face or countenance. picaroon. a pirate; also a sharper. pickaniny. a young child, an infant. negro term. picking. pilfering, petty larceny. pickle. an arch waggish fellow. in pickle, or in the pickling tub; in a salivation. there are rods in brine, or pickle, for him; a punishment awaits him, or is prepared for him. pickle herring; the zany or merry andrew of a mountebank. see jack pudding. pickt hatch. to go to the manor of pickt hatch, a cant name for some part of the town noted for bawdy houses in shakespeare's time, and used by him in that sense. pickthank. a tale-bearer or mischief maker. picture frame. the sheriff's picture frame; the gallows or pillory. to piddle. to make water: a childish expression; as, mammy, i want to piddle. piddling also means trifling, or doing any thing in a small degree: perhaps from peddling. piece. a wench. a damned good or bad piece; a girl who is more or less active and skilful in the amorous congress. hence the (cambridge) toast, may we never have a piece (peace) that will injure the constitution. piece likewise means at cambridge a close or spot of ground adjacent to any of the colleges, as clare-hall piece, &c. the spot of ground before king's college formerly belonged to clare-hall. while clare piece belonged to king's, the master of clare-hall proposed a swop, which being refused by the provost of king's, he erected before their gates a temple of cloacina. it will be unnecessary to say that his arguments were soon acceded to. pig. a police officer. a china street pig; a bow-street officer. floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away. pig. sixpence, a sow's baby. pig-widgeon; a simpleton. to pig together; to lie or sleep together, two or more in a bed. cold pig; a jocular punishment inflicted by the maid seryants, or other females of the house, on persons lying over long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes, and leaving them to pig or lie in the cold. to buy a pig in a poke; to purchase any thing without seeing. pig's eyes; small eyes. pigsnyes; the same: a vulgar term of endearment to a woman. he can have boiled pig at home; a mark of being master of his own house: an allusion to a well known poem and story. brandy is latin for pig and goose; an apology for drinking a dram after either. pig-headed. obstinate. pig running. a piece of game frequently practised at fairs, wakes, &c. a large pig, whose tail is cut short, and both soaped and greased, being turned out, is hunted by the young men and boys, and becomes the property of him who can catch and hold him by the tail, above the height of his head. pigeon. a weak silly fellow easily imposed on. to pigeon; to cheat. to milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities, to be put to shifts for want of money. to fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church. pigeons. sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready mounted near guildhall, and, as soon as the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive from a confederate on a card, ride with them full speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on, where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the number, which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting the biter. pigeon's milk. boys and novices are frequently sent on the first of april to buy pigeons milk. to pike. to run away. pike off; run away. pilgrim's salve. a sirreverence, human excrement. pill, or peele garlick. said originally to mean one whose skin or hair had fallen off from some disease, chiefly the venereal one; but now commonly used by persons speaking of themselves: as, there stood poor pill garlick: i.e. there stood i. pillaloo. the irish cry or howl at funerals. pimp. a male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot used about london for lighting fires, named from introducing the fire to the coals. pimp whiskin. a top trader in pimping. pimple. the head. pin. in or to a merry pin; almost drunk: an allusion to a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, having silver pegs or pins set at equal distances from the top to the bottom: by the rules of good fellowship, every person drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow the quantity contained between two pins; if he drank more or less, he was to continue drinking till he ended at a pin: by this means persons unaccustomed to measure their draughts were obliged to drink the whole tankard. hence when a person was a little elevated with liquor, he was said to have drunk to a merry pin. pin basket. the youngest child. pin money. an allowance settled on a married woman for her pocket expences. pinch. at a pinch; on an exigency. pinch. to go into a tradesman's shop under the pretence of purchasing rings or other light articles, and while examining them to shift some up the sleeve of the coat. also to ask for change for a guinea, and when the silver is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad ones; then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had sufficient silver to pay the bill, ask for the guinea again, and return the change, by which means several bad shillings are passed. to pinch on the parson's side. to defraud the parson of his tithe. pinchers. rogues who, in changing money, by dexterity of hand frequently secrete two or three shillings out of the change of a guinea. this species of roguery is called the pinch, or pinching lay. to pink. to stab or wound with a small sword: probably derived from the holes formerly cut in both men and women's clothes, called pinking. pink of the fashion; the top of the mode. to pink and wink; frequently winking the eyes through a weakness in them. pinking-dindee. a sweater or mohawk. irish. pins. legs. queer pins; ill shapen legs. piper. a broken winded horse. piscinarians. a club or brotherhood, a.d. . piss. he will piss when he can't whistle; he will be hanged. he shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not have my money to spend in liquor. he who once a good name gets, may piss a bed, and say he sweats. piss-burned. discoloured: commonly applied to a discoloured grey wig. piss maker. a great drinker, one much given to liquor. piss pot hall. a house at clapton, near hackney, built by a potter chiefly out of the profits of chamber pots, in the bottom of which the portrait of dr. sacheverel was depicted. piss prophet. a physician who judges of the diseases of his patients solely by the inspection of their urine. piss-proud. having a false erection. that old fellow thought he had an erection, but his--was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife. pissing down any one's back. flattering him. pissing pins and needles. to have a gonorrhea. pit. a watch fob. he drew a rare thimble from the swell's pit. he took a handsome watch from the gentleman's fob. pit. to lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery or copulation, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut through, broken, and demolished: a simile borrowed from the playhouse, when, for the benefit of some favourite player, the pit and boxes are laid together. the pit is also the hole under the gallows, where poor rogues unable to pay the fees are buried. pitt's picture. a window stopt up on the inside, to save the tax imposed in that gentleman's administration. party wit pit-a-pat. the palpitation of the heart: as, my heart went pit-a-pat. pintledy-pantledy; the same. pitch-kettled. stuck fast, confounded. pitcher. the miraculous pitcher, that holds water with the mouth downwards: a woman's commodity. she has crack'd her pitcher or pipkin; she has lost her maidenhead. pizzy club. a society held, a. d, , at the sign of the tower, on tower hill: president, don pizzaro. plaister of warm guts. one warm belly'dapped to another; a receipt frequently prescribed for different disorders. plant. the place in the house of the fence where stolen goods are secreted. any place where stolen goods are concealed. to plant. to lay, place, or hide. plant your wids and stow them; be careful what you say, or let slip. also to bury, as, he was planted by the parson. plate. money, silver, prize. he is in for the plate; he has won the keat, i.e. is infected with the venereal disorder: a simile drawn from horse-racing. when the plate fleet comes in; when money comes to hand. platter-faced. broad-faced. play. to play booty; to play with an intention to lose. to play the whole game; to cheat. to play least in sight; to hide, or keep out of the way. to play the devil; to be guilty of some great irregularity or mismanagement. pluck. courage. he wants pluck: he is a coward. against the pluck; against the inclination. pluck the ribbon; ring the bell. to pluck a crow with one; to settle a dispute, to reprove one for some past transgression. to pluck a rose; an expression said to be used by women for going to the necessary house, which in the country usually stands in the garden. to pluck also signifies to deny a degree to a candidate at one of the universities, on account of insufficiency. the three first books of euclid, and as far as quadratic equations in algebra, will save a man from being plucked. these unfortunate fellows are designated by many opprobrious appellations, such as the twelve apostles, the legion of honor, wise men of the east, &c. plug tail. a man's penis. plumb. an hundred thousand pounds. plummy. it is all plummy; i.e. all is right, or as it ought to be. plump. fat, full, fleshy. plump in the pocket; full in the pocket. to plump; to strike, or shoot. i'll give you a plump in the bread basket, or the victualling office: i'll give you a blow in the stomach. plump his peepers, or day-lights; give him a blow in the eyes. he pulled out his pops and plumped him; he drew out his pistols and shot him. a plumper; a single vote at an election. plump also means directly, or exactly; as, it fell plump upon him: it fell directly upon him. plump currant. i am not plump currant; i am out of sorts. plumpers. contrivances said to be formerly worn by old maids, for filling out a pair of shrivelled cheeks. plyer. a crutch; also a trader. pogy. drunk. point. to stretch a point; to exceed some usual limit, to take a great stride. breeches were usually tied up with points, a kind of short laces, formerly given away by the churchwardens at whitsuntide, under the denomination of tags: by taking a great stride these were stretched. poisoned. big with child: that wench is poisoned, see how her belly is swelled. poison-pated: red-haired. poke. a blow with the fist: i'll lend you a poke. a poke likewise means a sack: whence, to buy a pig in a poke, i.e. to buy any thing without seeing or properly examining it. poker. a sword. fore pokers; aces and kings at cards. to burn your poker; to catch the venereal disease. pole. he is like a rope-dancer's polo, lead at both ends; a saying of a stupid sluggish fellow. polish. to polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to be in gaol, and look through the iron grated windows. to polish a bone; to eat a meal. come and polish a bone with me; come and eat a dinner or supper with me. poll. the head, jolly nob, napper, or knowledge box; also a wig. polt. a blow. lend him a polt in the muns; give him a knock in the face. to pommel. to beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called pomelle; in spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. as the clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs. pomp. to save one's pomp at whist, is to score five before the adversaries are up, or win the game: originally derived from pimp, which is welsh for five; and should be, i have saved my pimp. pompaginis. aqua pompaginis; pump water. see aqua. pompkin. a man or woman of boston in america: from, the number of pompkins raised and eaten by the people of that country. pompkinshire; boston and its dependencies. poney. money. post the poney; lay down the money. pontius pilate. a pawnbroker. pontius pilate's guards, the first regiment of foot, or royal scots: so intitled from their supposed great antiquity. pontius pilate's counsellor; one who like him can say, non invenio causam, i can find no cause. also (cambridge) a mr. shepherd of trinity college; who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative rapidity with which they read the liturgy, offered to give him as far as pontius pilate in the belief. pope. a figure burned annually every fifth of november, in memory of the gunpowder plot, which is said to have been carried on by the papists. pope's nose. the rump of a turkey. pops. pistols. popshop: a pawnbroker's shop. to pop; to pawn: also to shoot. i popped my tatler; i pawned my watch. i popt the cull; i shot the man. his means are two pops and a galloper; that is, he is a highwayman. poplers. pottage. cant. pork. to cry pork; to give intelligence to the undertaker of a funeral; metaphor borrowed from the raven, whose note sounds like the word pork. ravens are said to smell carrion at a distance. porker. a hog: also a jew. porridge. keep your breath to cool your porridge; i. e. held your tongue. porridge island. an alley leading from st. martin's church-yard to round-court, chiefly inhabited by cooks, who cut off ready-dressed meat of all sorts, and also sell soup. posey, or poesy. a nosegay. i shall see you ride backwards up holborn-hill, with a book in one hand, and a posey in t'other; i.e. i shall see you go to be hanged. malefactors who piqued themselves on being properly equipped for that occasion, had always a nosegay to smell to, and a prayer book, although they could not read. posse mobilitatis. the mob. post master general. the prime minister, who has the patronage of all posts and places. post nointer. a house painter, who occasionally paints or anoints posts. knight of the post; a false evidence, one ready to swear any thing for hire. from post to pillar; backwards and forwards. postilion of the gospel. a parson who hurries over the service. pot. the pot calls the kettle black a-se; one rogue exclaims against another. pot. on the pot; i.e. at stool. pot converts. proselytes to the romish church, made by the distribution of victuals and money. pot hunter. one who hunts more tor the sake of the prey than the sport. pot valiant; courageous from drink. potwallopers: persons entitled to vote in certain boroughs by having boiled a pot there. potatoe trap. the mouth. shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent. irish wit. pothooks and hangeks. a scrawl, bad writing. pot-wabblers. persons entitled to vote for members of parliament in certain boroughs, from having boiled their pots therein. these boroughs are called pot-wabbling boroughs. poulain. a bubo. french. poulterer. a person that guts letters; i.e. opens them and secretes the money. the kiddey was topped for the poultry rig; the young fellow was hanged for secreting a letter and taking out the contents. pound. to beat. how the milling cove pounded the cull for being nuts on his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow for taking liberties with his mistress. pound. a prison. see lob's pound. pounded; imprisoned. shut up in the parson's pound; married. powder powder monkey. a boy on board a ship of war, whose business is to fetch powder from the magazine. powdering tub. the same as pickling tub. see pickling tub. prad lay. cutting bags from behind horses. cant. prad. a horse. the swell flashes a rum prad: the e gentleman sports a fine horse. prancer. a horse. prancer's nab.; a horse's head, used as a seal to a counterfeit pass. at the sign of the prancer's poll, i.e. the nag's head. prate roast. a talkative boy. prating cheat. the tongue. pratts. buttocks; also a tinder box. cant. prattle broth. tea. see chatter broth, scandal broth, &c. prattling box. the pulpit. pray. she prays with her knees upwards; said of a woman much given to gallantry and intrigue. at her last prayers; saying of an old maid. preadamite quacabites. this great and laudable society (as they termed themselves) held their grand chapter at the coal-hole. p---k. the virile member. prick-eared. a prick-eared fellow; one whose ears are longer than his hair: an appellation frequently given to puritans, who considered long hair as the mark of the whore of babylon. pricklouse. a taylor. priest-craft. the art of awing the laity, managing their consciences, and diving into their pockets. priest-linked. married. priest-ridden. governed by a priest, or priests. prig. a thief, a cheat: also a conceited coxcomical fellow. prig napper. a thief taker. priggers. thieves in general. priggers of prancers; horse stealers. priggers of cacklers: robbers of hen-roosts. prigging. riding; also lying with a woman. prigstar. a rival in love. prime. bang up. quite the thing. excellent. well done. she's a prime piece; she is very skilful in the venereal act. prime post. she's a prime article. priminaky. i had like to be brought into a priminary; i.e. into trouble; from premunire. prince prig. a king of the gypsies; also the head thief or receiver general. princes. when the majesty of the people was a favourite terra in the house of commons, a celebrated wit, seeing chimney sweepers dancing on a may-day, styled them the young princes. princod. a pincushion. scotch--also a round plump man or woman. princox. a pert, lively, forward fellow. princum prancum. mrs. princum prancum; a nice, precise, formal madam. prinking. dressing over nicely: prinked up as if he came out of a bandbox, or fit to sit upon a cupboard's head. print. all in print, quite neat or exact, set, screwed up. quite in print; set in a formal manner. priscian. to break priscian's head; to write or speak false grammar. priscian was a famous grammarian, who flourished at constantinople in the year ; and who was so devoted to his favourite study, that to speak false latin in his company, was as disagreeable to him as to break his head. prittle prattle. insignificant talk: generally applied to women and children. prog. provision. rum prog; choice provision. to prog; to be on the hunt for provision: called in the military term to forage. props. crutches. property. to make a property of any one; to make him a conveniency, tool, or cat's paw; to use him as one's own. proud. desirous of copulation. a proud bitch; a bitch at heat, or desirous of a dog. provender. he from whom any money is taken on the highway: perhaps provider, or provider. cant. prophet. the prophet; the cock at temple bar: so called, in , by the bucks of the town of the inferior order. prunella. mr. prunella; a parson: parson's gowns being frequently made of prunella. to pry. to examine minutely into a matter or business. a prying fellow; a man of impertinent curiosity, apt to peep and inquire into other men's secrets. public man. a bankrupt. public ledger. a prostitute: because, like that paper, she is open to all parties. pucker. all in a pucker; in a dishabille. also in a fright; as, she was in a terrible pucker. pucker water. water impregnated with alum, or other astringents, used by old experienced traders to counterfeit virginity. puddings. the guts: i'll let out your puddings. pudding-headed fellow. a stupid fellow, one whose brains are all in confusion. pudding sleeves. a parson. pudding time. in good time, or at the beginning of a meal: pudding formerly making the first dish. to give the crows a pudding; to die. you must eat some cold pudding, to settle your love. puff, or puffer. one who bids at auctions, not with an intent to buy, but only to raise the price of the lot; for which purpose many are hired by the proprietor of the goods on sale. puff guts. a fat man. puffing. bidding at an auction, as above; also praising any thing above its merits, from interested motives. the art of puffing is at present greatly practised, and essentially necessary in all trades, professions, and callings. to puff and blow; to be out of breath. pug. a dutch pug; a kind of lap-dog, formerly much in vogue; also a general name for a monkey. pug carpenteter. an inferior carpenter, one employed only in small jobs. pug drink. watered cyder. pugnosed, or pugified. a person with a snub or turned up nose. pully hawly. to have a game at pully hawly; to romp with women. pull. to be pulled; to be arrested by a police officer. to have a pull is to have an advantage; generally where a person has some superiority at a game of chance or skill. pump. a thin shoe. to pump; to endeavour to draw a secret from any one without his perceiving it. your pump is good, but your sucker is dry; said by one to a person who is attempting to pump him. pumping was also a punishment for bailiffs who attempted to act in privileged places, such as the mint, temple, &c. it is also a piece of discipline administered to a pickpocket caught in the fact, when there is no pond at hand. to pump ship; to make water, and sometimes to vomit. sea phrase. pump water. he was christened in pump water; commonly said of a person that has a red face. punch. a liquor called by foreigners contradiction, from its being composed of spirits to make it strong, water to make it weak, lemon juice to make it sour, and sugar to make it sweet. punch is also the name of the prince of puppets, the chief wit and support of a puppet-show. to punch it, is a cant term for running away. punchable; old passable money, anno . a girl that is ripe for man is called a punchable wench. cobler's punch. urine with a cinder in it. punk. a whore; also a soldier's trull. see trull. puny. weak. a puny child; a weak little child. a puny stomach; a weak stomach. puny, or puisne judge; the last made judge. pupil mongers. persons at the universities who make it their business to instruct and superintend a number of pupils. puppy. an affected or conceited coxcomb. purblind. dim-sighted. purl. ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk warm. purl royal. canary wine; with a dash of tincture of wormwood. purse proud. one that is vain of his riches. pursenets. goods taken up at thrice their value, by young spendthrifts, upon trust. purser's pump. a bassoon: from its likeness to a syphon, called a purser's pump. pursy, or pursive. short-breathed, or foggy, from being over fat. pushing school. a fencing school; also a brothel. put. a country put; an ignorant awkward clown. to put upon any one; to attempt to impose on him, or to make him the but of the company. puzzle-cause. a lawyer who has a confused understanding. puzzle-text. an ignorant blundering parson. quack. an ungraduated ignorant pretender to skill in physic, a vender of nostrums. quack-salver. a mountebank: a seller of salves. quacking cheat. a duck. quag. abbreviation of quagmire; marshy moorish around. quail-pipe. a woman's tongue; also a device to take birds of that name by imitating their call. quail pipe boots; boots resembling a quail pipe, from the number of plaits; they were much worn in the reign of charles ii. quakers. a religious sect so called from their agitations in preaching. quaking cheat. a calf or sheep. quandary. to be in a quandary: to be puzzled. also one so over-gorged, as to be doubtful which he should do first, sh--e or spew. some derive the term quandary from the french phrase qu'en dirai je? what shall i say of it? others from an italian word signifying a conjuror's circle. quarrel-picker. a glazier: from the small squares in casements, called carreux, vulgarly quarrels. quarromes, or quarron. a body. cant. quartered. divided into four parts; to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, is the sentence on traitors and rebels. persons receiving part of the salary of an office from the holder of it, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, are said to be quartered on him. soldiers billetted on a publican are likewise said to be quartered on him. to quash. to suppress, annul or overthrow; vulgarly pronounced squash: they squashed the indictment. quean. a slut, or worthless woman, a strumpet. queen dick. to the tune of the life and death of queen dick. that happened in the reign of queen dick; i.e., never. queen street. a mart governed by his wife, is said to live in queen street, or at the sign of the queen's head. queer, or quire. base, roguish, bad, naught or worthless. how queerly the cull touts; how roguishly the fellow looks. it also means odd, uncommon. cant. queer as dick's hatband. out of order, without knowing one's disease. to queer. to puzzle or confound. i have queered the old full bottom; i.e. i have puzzled the judge. to queer one's ogles among bruisers; to darken one's day lights. queer wedges. large buckles. queer bail. insolvent sharpers, who make a profession of bailing persons arrested: they are generally styled jew bail, from that branch of business being chiefly carried on by the sons of judah. the lowest sort of these, who borrow or hire clothes to appear in, are called mounters, from their mounting particular dresses suitable to the occasion. cant. queer birds. rogues relieved from prison, and returned to their old trade. queer bit-makers. coiners. cant. queer bitch. an odd, out-of-the-way fellow. queer bluffer. the master of a public-house the resort of rogues and sharpers, a cut-throat inn or alehouse keeper. queer bung. an empty purse. queer checkers. among strolling players, door-keepers who defraud the company, by falsely checking the number of people in the house. queer cole fencer. a putter off, or utterer, of bad money. queer cole maker. a maker of bad money. queer cove. a rogue. cant. queer cuffin. a justice of the peace; also a churl. queer degen. an ordinary sword, brass or iron hilted. queer ken. a prison. cant. queer kicks. a bad pair of breeches. queer mort. a diseased strumpet. cant. queer nab. a felt hat, or other bad hat. queer plungers. cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the humane society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each; and the supposed drowned persons, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket. queer prancer. a bad, worn-out, foundered horse; also a cowardly or faint-hearted horse-stealer. queer rooster. an informer that pretends to be sleeping, and thereby overhears the conversation of thieves in night cellars. queer street. wrong. improper. contrary to one's wish. it is queer street, a cant phrase, to signify that it is wrong or different to our wish. quitam. a quitam horse; one that will both carry and draw. law wit. to quibble. to make subtle distinctions; also to play upon words. quick and nimble. more like a bear than a squirrel. jeeringly said to any one moving sluggishly on a business or errand that requires dispatch. quid. the quantity of tobacco put into the mouth at one time. to quid tobacco; to chew tobacco. quid est hoc? hoc est quid; a guinea. half a quid; half a guinea. the swell tipped me fifty quid for the prad; the gentleman gave fifty pounds for the horse. quids. cash, money. can you tip me any quids? can you lend me some money? quiffing. rogering. see to roger. quidnunc. a politician: from a character of that name in the farce of the upholsterer. quill driver. a clerk, scribe, or hackney writer. quim. the private parts of a woman: perhaps from the spanish quemar, to burn. (cambridge) a piece's furbelow. quinsey. choked by a hempen quinsey; hanged. quipps. girds, taunts, jests. quire, or choir bird. a complete rogue, one that has sung in different choirs or cages, i.e. gaols. cant. quirks and quillets. tricks and devices. quirks in law; subtle distinctions and evasions. quiz. a strange-looking fellow, an odd dog. oxford. quod. newgate, or any other prison. the dab's in quod; the poor rogue is in prison. quota. snack, share, part, proportion, or dividend. tip me my quota; give me part of the winnings, booty, or plunder. cant. rabbit. a welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e. a welch rare bit. rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use. rabbit catcher. a midwife. rabbit suckers. young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices. rack rent. rent strained to the utmost value. to lie at rack and manger; to be in great disorder. rackaback. a gormagon. see gormagon. raffs. an appellation given by the gownsmen of the university of oxford to the inhabitants of that place. rag. bank notes. money in general. the cove has no rag; the fellow has no money. rag. a farthing. to rag. to abuse, and tear to rags the characters of the persons abused. she gave him a good ragging, or ragged him off heartily. rag carrier. an ensign. rag fair. an inspection of the linen and necessaries of a company of soldiers, commonly made by their officers on mondays or saturdays. rag water. gin, or any other common dram: these liquors seldom failing to reduce those that drink them to rags. ragamuffin. a ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a tatterdemallion. rails. see head rails. a dish of rails; a lecture, jobation, or scolding from a married woman to her husband. rainbow. knight of the rainbow; a footman: from being commonly clothed in garments of different colours. a meeting of gentlemen, styled of the most ancient order of the rainbow, was advertised to be held at the foppington's head, moorfields. rainy day. to lay up something for a rainy day; to provide against a time of necessity or distress. rake, rakehell, or rakeshame. a lewd, debauched fellow. ralph spooner. a fool. ram cat. a he cat. rammish. rank. rammish woman; a sturdy virago. rammer. the arm. the busnapper's kenchin seized my rammer; i.e. the watchman laid hold of my arm. cant. to ramp. to snatch, or tear any thing forcibly from the person. ramshackled. out of repair. a ramshackled house; perhaps a corruption of ransacked, i.e. plundered. randle. a set of nonsensical verses, repeated in ireland by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty of breaking wind backwards before any of their companions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers admonitory couplets. randy. obstreperous, unruly, rampant. rangling. intriguing with a variety of women. rank. stinking, rammish, ill-flavoured; also strong, great. a rank knave; a rank coward: perhaps the latter may allude to an ill savour caused by fear. rank rider. a highwayman. rantallion. one whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be longer than his penis, i.e. whose shot pouch is longer that the barrel of his piece. rantipole. a rude romping boy or girl; also a gadabout dissipated woman. to ride rantipole; the same as riding st. george. see st. george. rantum scantum. playing at rantum scantum; making the beast with two backs. to rap to take a false oath; also to curse. he rapped out a volley; i.e. he swore a whole volley of oaths. to rap, means also to exchange or barter: a rap is likewise an irish halfpenny. rap on the knuckles; a reprimand. rapparees. irish robbers, or outlaws, who in the time of oliver cromwell were armed with short weapons, called in irish rapiers, used for ripping persons up. rapper. a swinging great lie. raree shew men. poor savoyards, who subsist by shewing the magic lantern and marmots about london. rascal. a rogue or villain: a term borrowed from the chase; a rascal originally meaning a lean shabby deer, at the time of changing his horns, penis, &c. whence, in the vulgar acceptation, rascal is conceived to signify a man without genitals: the regular vulgar answer to this reproach, if uttered by a woman, is the offer of an ocular demonstration of the virility of the party so defamed. some derive it from rascaglione, an italian word signifying a man. without testicles, or an eunuch. rat. a drunken man or woman taken up by the watch, and confined in the watch-house. cant. to smell a rat; to suspect some intended trick, or unfair design. rats. of these there are the following kinds: a black rat and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat. rattle. a dice-box. to rattle; to talk without consideration, also to move off or go away. to rattle one off; to rate or scold him. rattle-pate. a volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or woman. rattle-traps. a contemptuous name for any curious portable piece of machinery, or philosophical apparatus. rattler. a coach. rattle and prad; a coach and horses. rattling cove. a coachman. cant. rattling mumpers. beggars who ply coaches. cant. rawhead and bloody bones. a bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats. reader. a pocket-book. cant. reader merchants. pickpockets, chiefly young jews, who ply about the bank to steal the pocket-books of persons who have just received their dividends there. ready. the ready rhino; money. cant. rebus. a riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in sculpture or painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun, for bolton; death's head, and a ton, for morton. receiver general. a prostitute. reckon. to reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous judgment in one's own favour. to cast-up one's reckoning or accounts; to vomit. to recruit. to get a fresh supply of money. recruiting service. robbing on the highway. red fustian. port wine. red lane. the throat. gone down the red lane; swallowed. red ribbin. brandy. red lattice. a public house. red letter day. a saint's day or holiday, marked in the calendars with red letters. red letter men; roman catholics: from their observation of the saint days marked in red letters. red rag. the tongue. shut your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and let your tongue rest. too much of the red rag (too much tongue). red sail-yard dockers. buyers of stores stolen out of the royal yards and docks. red shank. a scotch highlander. regulars. share of the booty. the coves cracked the swell's crib, fenced the swag, and each cracksman napped his regular; some fellows broke open a gentleman's house, and after selling the property which they had stolen, they divided the money between them. religious horse. one much given to prayer, or apt to be down upon his knees. religious painter. one who does not break the commandment which prohibits the making of the likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the earth. the relish. the sign of the cheshire cheese. relish. carnal connection with a woman. remedy critch. a chamber pot, or member mug. remember parson melham. drink about: a norfolk phrase. rendezvous. a place of meeting. the rendezvous of the beggars were, about the year , according to the bellman, st. quinton's, the three crowns in the vintry, st. tybs, and at knapsbury: there were four barns within a mile of london. in middlesex were four other harbours, called draw the pudding out of the fire, the cross keys in craneford parish, st. julian's in isleworth parish, and the house of pettie in northall parish. in kent, the king's barn near dartford, and ketbrooke near blackheath. rep. a woman of reputation. repository. a lock-up or spunging-house, a gaol. also livery stables where horses and carriages are sold by auction. rescounters. the time of settlement between the bulls and bears of exchange-alley, when the losers must pay their differences, or become lame ducks, and waddle out of the alley. resurrection men. persons employed by the students in anatomy to steal dead bodies out of church-yards. reverence. an ancient custom, which obliges any person easing himself near the highway or foot-path, on the word reverence being given him by a passenger, to take off his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his station to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls into the excrement; this was considered as a punishment for the breach of delicacy, a person refusing to obey this law, might be pushed backwards. hence, perhaps, the term, sir-reverence. reversed. a man set by bullies on his head, that his money may fall out of his breeches, which they afterwards by accident pick up. see hoisting. review of the black cuirassiers. a visitation of the clergy. see crow fair. rhino. money. cant. rib. a wife: an allusion to our common mother eve, made out of adam's rib. a crooked rib: a cross-grained wife. ribaldry. vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken by ribalds. ribalds were originally mercenary soldiers who travelled about, serving any master far pay, but afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti. ribbin. money. the ribbin runs thick; i.e. there is plenty of money. cant. blue ribbin. gin. the cull lushes the blue ribbin; the silly fellow drinks common gin. to ribroast. to beat: i'll ribroast him to his heart's content. rich face, or nose. a red pimpled, face. richaud snary. a dictionary. a country lad, having been reproved for calling persons by their christian names, being sent by his master to borrow a dictionary, thought to shew his breeding by asking for a richard snary. rider. a person who receives part of the salary of a place or appointment from the ostensible occupier, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, or great man appointing. the rider is said to be quartered upon the possessor, who often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. see quartered. ridge. a guinea. ridge cully; a goldsmith. cant. riding st. george. the woman uppermost in the amorous congress, that is, the dragon upon st. george. this is said to be the way to get a bishop. riding skimmington. a ludicrous cavalcade, in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. it consists of a man riding behind a woman, with his face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating him with a ladle; a smock displayed on a staff is carried before them as an emblematical standard, denoting female superiority: they are accompanied by what is called the rough music, that is, frying-pans, bulls horns, marrow-bones and cleavers, &c. a procession of this kind is admirably described by butler in his hudibras. he rode private, i.e. was a private trooper. riff raff. low vulgar persons, mob, tag-rag and bob-tail. rig. fun, game, diversion, or trick. to run one's rig upon any particular person; to make him a butt. i am up to your rig; i am a match for your tricks. rigging. clothing. i'll unrig the bloss; i'll strip the wench. rum rigging; fine clothes. the cull has rum rigging, let's ding him and mill him, and pike; the fellow has good clothes, let's knock him down, rob him, and scour off, i.e. run away. right. all right! a favourite expression among thieves, to signify that all is as they wish, or proper for their purpose. all right, hand down the jemmy; every thing is in proper order, give me the crow. rigmarole. roundabout, nonsensical. he told a long rigmarole story. ring. money procured by begging: beggars so called it from its ringing when thrown to them. also a circle formed for boxers, wrestlers, and cudgel-players, by a man styled vinegar; who, with his hat before his eyes, goes round the circle, striking at random with his whip to prevent the populace from crowding in. to ring a peal. to scold; chiefly applied to women. his wife rung him a fine peal! ring the changes. when a person receives silver in change to shift some good shillings and put bad ones in their place. the person who gave the change is then requested to give good shillings for these bad ones. rip. a miserable rip; a poor, lean, worn-out horse. a shabby mean fellow. rippons. spurs: rippon is famous for a manufactory of spurs both for men and fighting cocks. roaratorios and uproars. oratorios and operas. roaring boy. a noisy, riotous fellow. roarer. a broken-winded horse. roaring trade. a quick trade. to roast. to arrest. i'll roast the dab; i'll arrest the rascal.--also to jeer, ridicule, or banter. he stood the roast; he was the butt.--roast meat clothes; sunday or holiday-clothes. to cry roast meat; to boast of one's situation. to rule the roast; to be master or paramount. roast and boiled. a nick name for the life guards, who are mostly substantial house-keepers; and eat daily of roast and boiled. robert's men. the third old rank of the canting crew, mighty thieves, like robin hood. roby douglass, with one eye and a stinking breath. the breech. rochester portion. two torn smocks, and what nature gave. rocked. he was rocked in a stone kitchen; a saying meant to convey the idea that the person spoken of is a fool, his brains having been disordered by the jumbling of his cradle. roger. a portmanteau; also a man's yard. cant. roger, or tib of the buttery. a goose. cant. jolly roger; a flag hoisted by pirates. to roger. to bull, or lie with a woman; from the name of roger being frequently given to a bull. rogues. the fourth order of canters. a rogue in grain; a great rogue, also a corn chandler. a rogue in spirit; a distiller or brandy merchant. rogum pogum, or dragrum pogram. goat's beard, eaten for asparagus; so called by the ladies who gather cresses, &c. who also deal in this plant. romboyles. watch and ward. romboyled; sought after with a warrant. rome mort. a queen. romeville. london. cant. romp. a forward wanton girl, a tomrig. grey, in his notes to shakespeare, derives it from arompo, an animal found in south guinea, that is a man eater. see hoyden. rook. a cheat: probably from the thievish disposition of the birds of that name. also the cant name for a crow used in house-breaking. to rook; to cheat, particularly at play. room. she lets out her fore room and lies backwards: saying of a woman suspected of prostitution. roost lay. stealing poultry. ropes. upon the high ropes; elated, in high spirits, cock-a-hoop. rose. under the rose: privately or secretly. the rose was, it is said, sacred to harpocrates, the god of silence, and therefore frequently placed in the ceilings of rooms destined for the receiving of guests; implying, that whatever was transacted there, should not be made public. rosy gills. one with a sanguine or fresh-coloured countenance. rotan. a coach, cart, or other wheeled carriage. rot gut. small beer; called beer-a-bumble--will burst one's guts before it will make one tumble. rovers. pirates, vagabonds. rough. to lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes: called also roughing it. likewise to sleep on the bare deck of a ship, when the person is commonly advised to chuse the softest plank. rough music. saucepans, frying-paps, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and cleavers, bulls horns, &c. beaten upon and sounded in ludicrous processions. rouleau. a number of guineas, from twenty to fifty or more, wrapped up in paper, for the more ready circulation at gaming-tables: sometimes they are inclosed in ivory boxes, made to hold exactly , , or guineas. round dealing. plain, honest dealing. roundheads. a term of reproach to the puritans and partizans of oliver cromwell, and the rump parliament, who it is said made use of a bowl as a guide to trim their hair. round robin. a mode of signing remonstrances practised by sailors on board the king's ships, wherein their names are written in a circle, so that it cannot be discovered who first signed it, or was, in other words, the ringleader. round sum. a considerable sum. round about. an instrument used in housebreaking. this instrument has not been long in use. it will cut a round piece about five inches in diameter out of a shutter or door. round mouth. the fundament. brother round mouth, speaks; he has let a fart. rout. a modern card meeting at a private house; also an order from the secretary at war, directing the march and quartering of soldiers. row. a disturbance; a term used by the students at cambridge. row. to row in the same boat; to be embarked in the same scheme. rowland. to give a rowland for an oliver; to give an equivalent. rowland and oliver were two knights famous in romance: the wonderful achievements of the one could only be equalled by those of the other. royal scamps. highwaymen who never rob any but rich persons, and that without ill treating them. see scamp. royal stag society. was held every monday evening, at seven o'clock, at the three tuns, near the hospital gate, newgate-street. royster. a rude boisterous fellow; also a hound that opens on a false scent. to rub. to run away. don't rub us to the whit; don't send us to newgate. cant.--to rub up; to refresh: to rub up one's memory. a rub: an impediment. a rubber; the best two out of three. to win a rubber: to win two games out of three. ruby faced. red-faced. ruff. an ornament formerly worn by men and women round their necks. wooden ruff; the pillory. ruffian. the devil. cant.--may the ruffian nab the cuffin queer, and let the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins about his colquarren; may the devil take the justice, and let the constable be hanged with his children about his neck. the ruffian cly thee; the devil take thee. ruffian cook ruffian, who scalded the devil in his feathers; a saying of a bad cook. ruffian sometimes also means, a justice. ruffles. handcuffs. cant. rufflers. the first rank of canters; also notorious rogues pretending to be maimed soldiers or sailors. ruffmans. the woods, hedges, or bushes. cant. rug. it is all rug; it is all right and safe, the game is secure. cant. rug. asleep. the whole gill is safe at rug; the people of the house are fast asleep. rum. fine, good, valuable. rum beck. a justice of the peace. cant. rum bite. a clever cheat, a clean trick. rum bleating cheat. a fat wether sheep. cant. rum blowen. a handsome wench. cant. rum bluffer. a jolly host. cant. rum bob. a young apprentice; also a sharp trick. rum booze. wine, or any other good liquor. rum boozing welts; bunches of grapes. cant. rum bubber. a dexterous fellow at stealing silver tankards from inns and taverns. rum bugher. a valuable dog. cant. rum bung. a full purse. cant. rum chub. among butchers, a customer easily imposed on, as to the quality and price of meat. cant. rum chant. a song. rum clout. a fine silk, cambric, or holland handkerchief. cant. rum cod. a good purse of gold. cant. rum cole. new money, or medals. rum cove. a dexterous or clever rogue. rum cull. a rich fool, easily cheated, particularly by his mistress. rum degen. a handsome sword. cant. rum dell. see rum doxy. rum diver. a dextrous pickpocket. cant. rum doxy. a fine wench. cant. rum drawers. silk, or other fine stockings. cant. rum dropper. a vintner. cant. rum dubber. an expert picklock. rum duke. a jolly handsome fellow; also an odd eccentric fellow; likewise the boldest and stoutest fellows lately among the alsatians, minters, savoyards, and other inhabitants of privileged districts, sent to remove and guard the goods of such bankrupts as intended to take sanctuary in those places. cant. rum file. see rum diver. rum fun. a sharp trick. cant. rum gaggers. cheats who tell wonderful stories of their sufferings at sea, or when taken by the algerines, cant. rum ghelt. see rum cole. cant. rum glymmer. king or chief of the link-boys. cant. rum kicks. breeches of gold or silver brocade, or richly laced with gold or silver. cant. rum mawnd. one that counterfeits a fool. cant rum mort. a queen, or great lady. cant. rum nab. a good hat. rum nantz. good french brandy. cant. rum ned. a very rich silly fellow. cant. rum pad. the highway. cant. rum padders. highwaymen well mounted and armed. cant. rum peepers. fine looking-glasses. cant. rum prancer. a fine horse. cant. rum quids. a great booty. cant. rum ruff peck. westphalia ham. cant. rum snitch. a smart fillip on the nose. rum squeeze. much wine, or good liquor, given among fiddlers. cant. rum tilter. see rum degen. rum tol. see rum degen. rum topping. a rich commode, or woman's head-dress. rum ville. see romeville. rum wiper. see rum clout. rumbo. rum, water, and sugar; also a prison. rumboyle. a ward or watch. rumbumtious. obstreperous. rumford. to ride to rumford to have one's backside new bottomed: i.e. to have a pair of new leather breeches. rumford was formerly a famous place for leather breeches. a like saying is current in norfolk and suffolk, of bungay, and for the same reason.--rumford lion; a calf. see essex lion. rump. to rump any one; to turn the back to him: an evolution sometimes used at court. rump and a dozen; a rump of beef and a dozen of claret; an irish wager, called also buttock and trimmings. rump and kidney men; fiddlers that play at feasts, fairs, weddings, &c. and live chiefly on the remnants. rumpus. a riot, quarrel, or confusion. run goods. a maidenhead, being a commodity never entered. running horse, or nag. a clap, or gleet. running smobble. snatching goods off a counter, and throwing them to an accomplice, who brushes off with them. running stationers. hawker of newspapers, trials, and dying speeches. runt. a short squat man or woman: from the small cattle called welsh runts. rushers. thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in london, in summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house; also housebreakers who enter lone houses by force. russian coffee-house. the brown bear in bow-street, covent garden, a house of call for thief-takers and runners of the bow street justices. rusty. out of use, to nab the rust; to be refractory; properly applied to a restive horse, and figuratively to the human species. to ride rusty; to be sullen; called also to ride grub. rusty guts. a blunt surly fellow: a jocular misnomer of resticus. rutting. copulating. rutting time; the season, when deer go to rut. sacheverel. the iron door, or blower, to the mouth of a stove: from a divine of that name, who made himself famous for blowing the coals of dissension in the latter end of the reign of queen ann. sack. a pocket. to buy the sack: to get drunk. to dive into the sack; to pick a pocket. to break a bottle in an empty sack; a bubble bet, a sack with a bottle in it not being an empty sack. sad dog. a wicked debauched fellow; one of the ancient family of the sad dogs. swift translates it into latin by the words tristis canis. saddle. to saddle the spit; to give a dinner or supper. to saddle one's nose; to wear spectacles. to saddle a place or pension; to oblige the holder to pay a certain portion of his income to some one nominated by the donor. saddle sick: galled with riding, having lost leather. saint. a piece of spoilt timber in a coach-maker's shop, like a saint, devoted to the flames. saint geoffrey's day. never, there being no saint of that name: tomorrow-come-never, when two sundays come together. saint luke's bird. an ox; that evangelist being always represented with an ox. saint monday. a holiday most religiously observed by journeymen shoemakers, and other inferior mechanics. a profanation of that day, by working, is punishable by a fine, particularly among the gentle craft. an irishman observed, that this saint's anniversary happened every week. sal. an abbreviation of salivation. in a high sal; in the pickling tub, or under a salivation. salesman's dog. a barker. vide barker. salmon-gundy. apples, onions, veal or chicken, and pickled herrings, minced fine, and eaten with oil and vinegar; some derive the name of this mess from the french words selon mon goust, because the proportions of the different ingredients are regulated by the palate of the maker; others say it bears the name of the inventor, who was a rich dutch merchant; but the general and most probable opinion is, that it was invented by the countess of salmagondi, one of the ladies of mary de medicis, wife of king henry iv. of france, and by her brought into france. salmon or salamon. the beggars'sacrament or oath. salt. lecherous. a salt bitch: a bitch at heat, or proud bitch. salt eel; a rope's end, used to correct boys, &c. at sea: you shall have a salt eel for supper. sammy. foolish. silly. sandwich. ham, dried tongue, or some other salted meat, cut thin and put between two slices of bread and butter: said to be a favourite morsel with the earl of sandwich. sandy pate. a red haired man or woman. sangaree. rack punch was formerly so called in bagnios. sank, sanky, or centipee's. a taylor employed by clothiers in making soldier's clothing. sapscull. a simple fellow. sappy; foolish. satyr. a libidinous fellow: those imaginary things are by poets reported to be extremely salacious. sauce box. a term of familiar raillery, signifying a bold or forward person. save-all. a kind of candlestick used by our frugal forefathers, to burn snuffs and ends of candles. figuratively, boys running about gentlemen's houses in ireland, who are fed on broken meats that would otherwise be wasted, also a miser. saunterer. an idle, lounging fellow; by some derived from sans terre; applied to persons, who, having no lands or home, lingered and loitered about. some derive it from persons devoted to the holy land, saint terre, who loitered about, as waiting for company. saw. an old saw; an ancient proverbial saying. sawny or sandy. a general nick-name for a scotchman, as paddy is for an irishman, or taffy for a welchman; sawny or sandy being the familiar abbreviation or diminution of alexander, a very favourite name among the scottish nation. scab. a worthless man or woman. scald miserables. a set of mock masons, who, a.d. , made a ludicrous procession in ridicule of the free masons. scalder. a clap. the cull has napped a scalder; the fellow has got a clap. scaly. mean. sordid. how scaly the cove is; how mean the fellow is. scaly fish. an honest, rough, blunt sailor. scamp. a highwayman. royal scamp: a highwayman who robs civilly. royal foot scamp; a footpad who behaves in like manner. to scamper. to run away hastily. scandal broth. tea. scandal proof. one who has eaten shame and drank after it, or would blush at being ashamed. scapegallows. one who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows, a slip-gibbet, one for whom the gallows is said to groan. scapegrace. a wild dissolute fellow. scarce. to make one's self scarce; to steal away. scarlet horse. a high red, hired or hack horse: a pun on the word hired. scavey. sense, knowledge. "massa, me no scavey;" master, i don't know (negro language) perhaps from the french scavoir. scheme. a party of pleasure. schism monger. a dissenting teacher. schism shop. a dissenting meeting house. a scold's cure. a coffin. the blowen has napped the scold's cure; the bitch is in her coffin. school of venus. a bawdy-house. school butter. cobbing, whipping. sconce. the head, probably as being the fort and citadel of a man: from sconce, an old name for a fort, derived from a dutch word of the same signification; to build a sconce: a military term for bilking one's quarters. to sconce or skonce; to impose a fine. academical phrase. scot. a young bull. scotch greys. lice. the headquarters of the scotch greys: the head of a man full of large lice. scotch pint. a bottle containing two quarts. scotch bait. a halt and a resting on a stick, as practised by pedlars. scotch chocolate. brimstone and milk. scotch fiddle. the itch. scotch mist. a sober soaking rain; a scotch mist will wet an englishman to the skin. scotch warming pan. a wench; also a fart. scoundrel. a man void of every principle of honour. scour. to scour or score off; to run away: perhaps from score; i.e. full speed, or as fast as legs would carry one. also to wear: chiefly applied to irons, fetters, or handcuffs, because wearing scours them. he will scour the darbies; he will be in fetters. to scour the cramp ring; to wear bolts or fetters, from which, as well as from coffin hinges, rings supposed to prevent the cramp are made. scourers. riotous bucks, who amuse themselves with breaking windows, beating the watch, and assaulting every person they meet: called scouring the streets. scout. a college errand-boy at oxford, called a gyp at cambridge. also a watchman or a watch. cant. scragged. hanged. scraggy. lean, bony. scragg'em fair. a public execution. scrap. a villainous scheme or plan. he whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers the whole plan or scheme. scrape. to get into a scrape; to be involved in a disagreeable business. scraper. a fiddler; also one who scrapes plates for mezzotinto prints. scraping. a mode of expressing dislike to a person, or sermon, practised at oxford by the students, in scraping their feet against the ground during the preachment; frequently done to testify their disapprobation of a proctor who has been, as they think, too rigorous. scratch. old scratch; the devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated. scratch land. scotland. scratch platter, or taylor's ragout. bread sopt in the oil and vinegar in which cucumbers have been sliced. screen. a bank note. queer screens; forged bank notes. the cove was twisted for smashing queer screens; the fellow was hanged for uttering forged bank notes. screw. a skeleton key used by housebreakers to open a lock. to stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but merely locked. to screw. to copulate. a female screw; a common prostitute. to screw one up; to exact upon one in a bargain or reckoning. screw jaws. a wry-mouthed man or woman. scrip. a scrap or slip of paper. the cully freely blotted the scrip, and tipt me forty hogs; the man freely signed the bond, and gave me forty shillings.--scrip is also a change alley phrase for the last loan or subscription. what does scrip go at for the next rescounters? what does scrip sell for delivered at the next day of settling? scroby. to be tipt the scroby; to be whipt before the justices. scrope. a farthing. cant. scrub. a low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work. scrubbado. the itch. scull. a head of a house, or master of a college, at the universities. scull, or sculler. a boat rowed by one man with a light kind of oar, called a scull; also a one-horse chaise or buggy. scull thatcher. a peruke-maker. scum. the riff-raff, tag-rag, and bob-tail, or lowest order of people. scut. the tail of a hare or rabbit; also that of a woman. scuttle. to scuttle off; to run away. to scuttle a ship; to make a hole in her bottom in order to sink her. sea crab. a sailor. sea lawyer. a shark. sealer, or squeeze wax. one ready to give bond and judgment for goods or money. secret. he has been let into the secret: he has been cheated at gaming or horse-racing. he or she is in the grand secret, i.e. dead. seedy. poor, pennyless, stiver-cramped, exhausted. sees. the eyes. see daylights. served. found guilty. convicted. ordered to be punished or transported. to serve a cull out; to beat a man soundly. seraglio. a bawdy-house; the name of that part of the great turk's palace where the women are kept. send. to drive or break in. hand down the jemmy and send it in; apply the crow to the door, and drive it in. set. a dead set: a concerted scheme to defraud a person by gaming. setter. a bailiff's follower, who, like a setting dog follows and points the game for his master. also sometimes an exciseman. to settle. to knock down or stun any one. we settled the cull by a stroke on his nob; we stunned the fellow by a blow on the head. seven-sided animal. a one-eyed man or woman, each having a right side and a left side, a fore side and a back side, an outside, an inside, and a blind side. shabbaroon. an ill-dressed shabby fellow; also a mean-spirited person. shaftsbury. a gallon pot full of wine, with a cock. to shag. to copulate. he is but bad shag; he is no able woman's man. shag-bag, or shake-bag. a poor sneaking fellow; a man of no spirit: a term borrowed from the cock-pit. shake. to shake one's elbow; to game with dice. to shake a cloth in the wind; to be hanged in chains. shake. to draw any thing from the pocket. he shook the swell of his fogle; he robbed the gentleman of his silk handkerchief. shallow pate. a simple fellow. shallow. a whip hat, so called from the want of depth in the crown. lilly shallow, a white whip hat. sham. a cheat, or trick. to cut a sham; to cheat or deceive. shams; false sleeves to put on over a dirty shirt, or false sleeves with ruffles to put over a plain one. to sham abram; to counterfeit sickness. to shamble. to walk awkwardly. shamble-legged: one that walks wide, and shuffles about his feet. shanker. a venereal wart. shanks. legs, or gams. shanks naggy. to ride shanks naggy: to travel on foot. scotch. shannon. a river in ireland: persons dipped in that river are perfectly and for ever cured of bashfulness. shapes. to shew one's shapes; to be stript, or made peel, at the whipping-post. shappo, or shap. a hat: corruption of chapeau. cant. shark. a sharper: perhaps from his preying upon any one he can lay hold of. also a custom-house officer, or tide-waiter. sharks; the first order of pickpockets. bow-street term, a.d. . sharp. subtle, acute, quick-witted; also a sharper or cheat, in opposition to a flat, dupe, or gull. sharp's the word and quick's the motion with him; said of any one very attentive to his own interest, and apt to take all advantages. sharp set; hungry. sharper. a cheat, one that lives by his wits. sharpers tools; a fool and false dice. shaver. a cunning shaver; a subtle fellow, one who trims close, an acute cheat. a young shaver; a boy. sea term. shavings. the clippings of money. she house. a house where the wife rules, or, as the term is, wears the breeches. she lion. a shilling. she napper. a woman thief-catcher; also a bawd or pimp. sheep's head. like a sheep's head, all jaw; saying of a talkative man or woman. sheepish. bashful. a sheepish fellow; a bashful or shamefaced fellow. to cast a sheep's eye at any thing; to look wishfully at it. sheepskin fiddler. a drummer. shelf. on the shelf, i.e. pawned. sheriff's journeyman. the hangman. sheriff's ball. an execution. to dance at the sheriff's ball, and loll out one's tongue at the company; to be hanged, or go to rest in a horse's night-cap, i.e. a halter. sheriff's bracelets. handcuffs. sheriff's hotel. a prison. sheriff's picture frame. the gallows. to sherk. to evade or disappoint: to sherk one's duty. to sherry. to run away: sherry off. shifting. shuffling. tricking. shifting cove; i.e. a person who lives by tricking. shifting ballast. a term used by sailors, to signify soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board. shillaley. an oaken sapling, or cudgel: from a wood of that name famous for its oaks. irish. shilly-shally. irresolute. to stand shilly-shally; to hesitate, or stand in doubt. shindy. a dance. sea phrase. shine. it shines like a shitten barn door. ship shape. proper, as it ought to be. sea phrase, sh-t sack. a dastardly fellow: also a non-conformist. this appellation is said to have originated from the following story:--after the restoration, the laws against the non-conformists were extremely severe. they sometimes met in very obscure places: and there is a tradition that one of their congregations were assembled in a barn, the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants, where the preacher, for want of a ladder or tub, was suspended in a sack fixed to the beam. his discourse that day being on the last judgment, he particularly attempted to describe the terrors of the wicked at the sounding of the trumpet, on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show, who had taken refuge in that barn, and lay hid under the straw, sounded a charge. the congregation, struck with the utmost consternation, fled in an instant from the place, leaving their affrighted teacher to shift for himself. the effects of his terror are said to have appeared at the bottom of the sack, and to have occasioned that opprobrious appellation by which the non-conformists were vulgarly distinguished. sh-t-ng through the teeth. vomiting. hark ye, friend, have you got a padlock on your a-se, that you sh-te through your teeth? vulgar address to one vomiting. shod all round. a parson who attends a funeral is said to be shod all round, when he receives a hat-band, gloves, and scarf: many shoeings being only partial. shoemaker's stocks. new, or strait shoes. i was in the shoemaker's stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes that were too small for me. to shoole. to go skulking about. to shoot the cat. to vomit from excess of liquor; called also catting. shop. a prison. shopped; confined, imprisoned. shoplifter. one that steals whilst pretending to purchase goods in a shop. short-heeled wench. a girl apt to fall on her back. shot. to pay one's shot; to pay one's share of a reckoning. shot betwixt wind and water; poxed or clapped. shotten herring. a thin meagre fellow. to shove the tumbler. to be whipped at the cart's tail. shove in the mouth. a dram. shovel. to be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. he or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth. shoulder feast. a dinner given after a funeral, to those who have carried the corpse. shoulder clapper. a bailiff, or member of the catch club. shoulder-clapped; arrested. shoulder sham. a partner to a file. see file. shred. a taylor. shrimp. a little diminutive person. to shuffle. to make use of false pretences, or unfair shifts. a shuffling fellow; a slippery shifting fellow. shy cock. one who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs. sice. sixpence. sick as a horse. horses are said to be extremely sick at their stomachs, from being unable to relieve themselves by vomiting. bracken, indeed, in his farriery, gives an instance of that evacuation being procured, but by a means which he says would make the devil vomit. such as may have occasion to administer an emetic either to the animal or the fiend, may consult his book for the recipe. side pocket. he has as much need of a wife as a dog of a side pocket; said of a weak old debilitated man. he wants it as much as a dog does a side pocket; a simile used for one who desires any thing by no means necessary. sidledywry. crooked. sign of a house to let. a widow's weeds. sign of the: five shillings. the crown. ten shillings. the two crowns. fifteen shillings. the three crowns. silence. to silence a man; to knock him down, or stun him. silence in the court, the cat is pissing; a gird upon any one requiring silence unnecessarily. silent flute. see pego, sugar stick, &c. silk snatchers. thieves who snatch hoods or bonnets from persons walking in the streets. silver laced. replete with lice. the cove's kickseys are silver laced: the fellow's breeches are covered with lice. simeonites, (at cambridge,) the followers of the rev. charles simeon, fellow of king's college, author of skeletons of sermons, and preacher at trinity church; they are in fact rank methodists. simkin. a foolish fellow. simon. sixpence. simple simon: a natural, a silly fellow; simon suck-egg, sold his wife for an addle duck-egg. to simper. to smile: to simper like a firmity kettle. simpleton. abbreviation of simple tony or anthony, a foolish fellow. simples. physical herbs; also follies. he must go to battersea, to be cut for the simples--battersea is a place famous for its garden grounds, some of which were formerly appropriated to the growing of simples for apothecaries, who at a certain season used to go down to select their stock for the ensuing year, at which time the gardeners were said to cut their simples; whence it became a popular joke to advise young people to go to battersea, at that time, to have their simples cut, or to be cut for the simples. to sing. to call out; the coves sing out beef; they call out stop thief. to sing small. to be humbled, confounded, or abashed, to have little or nothing to say for one's-self. single peeper. a person having but one eye. singleton. a very foolish fellow; also a particular kind of nails. singleton. a corkscrew, made by a famous cutler of that name, who lived in a place called hell, in dublin; his screws are remarkable for their excellent temper. sir john. the old title for a country parson: as sir john of wrotham, mentioned by shakespeare. sir john barleycorn. strong beer. sir loin. the sur, or upper loin. sir reverence. human excrement, a t--d. sir timothy. one who, from a desire of being the head of the company, pays the reckoning, or, as the term is, stands squire. see squire. sitting breeches. one who stays late in company, is said to have his sitting breeches on, or that he will sit longer than a hen. six and eight-pence. an attorney, whose fee on several occasions is fixed at that sum. six and tips. whisky and small beer. irish. sixes and sevens. left at sixes and sevens: i.e. in confusion; commonly said of a room where the furniture, &c. is scattered about; or of a business left unsettled. size of ale. half a pint. size of bread and cheese; a certain quantity. sizings: cambridge term for the college allowance from the buttery, called at oxford battles. to size. (cambridge) to sup at one's own expence. if a man asks you to sup, he treats you; if to size, you pay for what you eat--liquors only being provided by the inviter. sizar (cambridge). formerly students who came to the university for purposes of study and emolument. but at present they are just as gay and dissipated as their fellow collegians. about fifty years ago they were on a footing with the servitors at oxford, but by the exertions of the present bishop of llandaff, who was himself a sizar, they were absolved from all marks of inferiority or of degradation. the chief difference at present between them and the pensioners, consists in the less amount of their college fees. the saving thus made induces many extravagant fellows to become sizars, that they may have more money to lavish on their dogs, pieces, &c. skew. a cup, or beggar's wooden dish. skewvow, or all askew. crooked, inclining to one side. skin. in a bad skin; out of temper, in an ill humour. thin-skinned: touchy, peevish. skin. a purse. frisk the skin of the stephen; empty the money out of the purse. queer skin; an empty purse. skin flint. an avaricious man or woman, skink. to skink, is to wait on the company, ring the bell, stir the fire, and snuff the candles; the duty of the youngest officer in the military mess. see boots. skins. a tanner. skip jacks. youngsters that ride horses on sale, horse-dealers boys. also a plaything made for children with the breast bone of a goose. skip kennel. a footman. skipper. a barn. cant.--also the captain of a dutch vessel. to skit. to wheedle. cant. skit. a joke. a satirical hint. skrip. see scrip. skulker. a soldier who by feigned sickness, or other pretences, evades his duty; a sailor who keeps below in time of danger; in the civil line, one who keeps out of the way, when any work is to be done. to skulk; to hide one's self, to avoid labour or duty. sky blue. gin. sky farmers. cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of sky, or some other remote place, and were ruined by a flood, hurricane, or some such public calamity: or else called sky farmers from their farms being in nubibus, 'in the clouds.' sky parlour. the garret, or upper story. slabbering bib. a parson or lawyer's band. slag. a slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront. slam. a trick; also a game at whist lost without scoring one. to slam to a door; to shut it with violence. slamkin. a female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes. slang. a fetter. double slanged; double ironed. now double slanged into the cells for a crop he is knocked down; he is double ironed in the condemned cells, and ordered to be hanged. slang. cant language. slap-bang shop. a petty cook's shop, where there is no credit given, but what is had must be paid down with the ready slap-bang, i.e. immediately. this is a common appellation for a night cellar frequented by thieves, and sometimes for a stage coach or caravan. slapdash. immediately, instantly, suddenly. slasher. a bullying, riotous fellow. irish. slat. half a crown. cant. slate. a sheet. cant. slater's pan. the gaol at kingston in jamaica: slater is the deputy provost-marshal. slattern. a woman sluttishly negligent in her dress. sleeping partner. a partner in a trade, or shop, who lends his name and money, for which he receives a share of the profit, without doing any part of the business. sleepy. much worn: the cloth of your coat must be extremely sleepy, for it has not had a nap this long time. sleeveless errand. a fool's errand, in search of what it is impossible to find. slice. to take a slice; to intrigue, particularly with a married woman, because a slice off a cut loaf is not missed. slipgibbet. see scapegallows. slippery chap. one on whom there can be no dependance, a shuffling fellow. slipslops. tea, water-gruel, or any innocent beverage taken medicinally. slipslopping. misnaming and misapplying any hard word; from the character of mrs. slipslop, in fielding's joseph andrews. slop. tea. how the blowens lush the slop. how the wenches drink tea! slops. wearing apparel and bedding used by seamen. slop seller. a dealer in those articles, who keeps a slop shop. slouch. a stooping gait, a negligent slovenly fellow. to slouch; to hang down one's head. a slouched hat: a hat whose brims are let down. slubber de gullion. a dirty nasty fellow. slug. a piece of lead of any shape, to be fired from a blunderbuss. to fire a slug; to drink a dram. slug-a-bed. a drone, one that cannot rise in the morning. sluice your gob. take a hearty drink. slur. to slur, is a method of cheating at dice: also to cast a reflection on any one's character, to scandalize. slush. greasy dish-water, or the skimmings of a pot where fat meat has been boiled. slush bucket. a foul feeder, one that eats much greasy food. sly boots. a cunning fellow, under the mask of simplicity. smabbled, or snabbled. killed in battle. to smack. to kiss. i had a smack at her muns: i kissed her mouth. to smack calves skin; to kiss the book, i.e. to take an oath. the queer cuffin bid me smack calves skin, but i only bussed my thumb; the justice bid me kiss the book, but i only kissed my thumb. smacksmooth. level with the surface, every thing cut away. smacking cove. a coachman. small clothes. breeches: a gird at the affected delicacy of the present age; a suit being called coat, waistcoat, and articles, or small clothes. smart. spruce, fine: as smart as a carrot new scraped. smart money. money allowed to soldiers or sailors for the loss of a limb, or other hurt received in the service. smasher. a person who lives by passing base coin. the cove was fined in the steel for smashing; the fellow was ordered to be imprisoned in the house of correction for uttering base coin. smash. leg of mutton and smash: a leg of mutton and mashed turnips. sea term. to smash. to break; also to kick down stairs. cant. to smash. to pass counterfeit money. smear. a plasterer. smear gelt. a bribe. german. smeller. a nose. smellers: a cat's whiskers. smelling cheat. an orchard, or garden; also a nosegay. cant. smelts. half guineas. cant. smicket. a smock, or woman's shift. smirk. a finical spruce fellow. to smirk; to smile, or look pleasantly. smiter. an arm. to smite one's tutor; to get money from him. academic term. smithfield bargain. a bargain whereby the purchaser is taken in. this is likewise frequently used to express matches or marriages contracted solely on the score of interest, on one or both sides, where the fair sex are bought and sold like cattle in smithfield. smock-faced. fair faced. to smoke. to observe, to suspect. smoker. a tobacconist. smoky. curious, suspicious, inquisitive. smouch. dried leaves of the ash tree, used by the smugglers for adulterating the black or bohea teas. smous. a german jew. smug. a nick name for a blacksmith; also neat and spruce. smug lay. persons who pretend to be smugglers of lace and valuable articles; these men borrow money of publicans by depositing these goods in their hands; they shortly decamp, and the publican discovers too late that he has been duped; and on opening the pretended treasure, he finds trifling articles of no value. smuggling ken. a bawdy-house. to smush. to snatch, or seize suddenly. smut. bawdy. smutty story; an indecent story. smut. a copper. a grate. old iron. the cove was lagged for a smut: the fellow was transported for stealing a copper. snack. a share. to go snacks; to be partners. to snabble. to rifle or plunder; also to kill. snaffler. a highwayman. snaffler of prances; a horse stealer. to snaffle. to steal. to snaffle any ones poll; to steal his wig. snaggs. large teeth; also snails. snakesman. see little snakesman. snap dragon. a christmas gambol: raisins and almonds being put into a bowl of brandy, and the candles extinguished, the spirit is set on fire, and the company scramble for the raisins. to snap the glaze. to break shop windows or show glasses. snappers. pistols. snapt. taken, caught. snatch cly. a thief who snatches women's pockets. sneak. a pilferer. morning sneak; one who pilfers early in the morning, before it is light. evening sneak; an evening pilferer. upright sneak: one who steals pewter pots from the alehouse boys employed to collect them. to go upon the sneak; to steal into houses whose doors are carelessly left open. cant. sneaker. a small bowl. sneaking budge. one that robs alone. sneaksby. a mean-spirited fellow, a sneaking cur. sneering. jeering, flickering, laughing in scorn. snicker. a glandered horse. to snicker, or snigger. to laugh privately, or in one's sleeve. to snilch. to eye, or look at any thing attentively: the cull snilches. cant. snip. a taylor. snitch. to turn snitch, or snitcher; to turn informer. to snite. to wipe, or slap. snite his snitch; wipe his nose, i.e. give him a good knock. to snivel. to cry, to throw the snot or snivel about. snivelling; crying. a snivelling fellow; one that whines or complains. to snoach. to speak through the nose, to snuffle. snob. a nick name for a shoemaker. to snooze, or snoodge. to sleep. to snooze with a mort; to sleep with a wench. cant. snoozing ken. a brothel. the swell was spiced in a snoozing ken of his screens; the gentleman was robbed of his bank notes in a brothel. snow. linen hung out to dry or bleach. spice the snow; to steal the linen. snout. a hogshead. cant. snowball. a jeering appellation for a negro. to snub. to check, or rebuke. snub devil. a parson. snub nose. a short nose turned up at the end. snudge. a thief who hides himself under a bed, in order to rob the house. snuff. to take snuff; to be offended. to snuffle. to speak through the nose. snuffles. a cold in the head, attended with a running at the nose. snug. all's snug; all's quiet. to soak. to drink. an old soaker; a drunkard, one that moistens his clay to make it stick together. socket money. a whore's fee, or hire: also money paid for a treat, by a married man caught in an intrigue. soldier's bottle. a large one. soldier's mawnd. a pretended soldier, begging with a counterfeit wound, which he pretends to have received at some famous siege or battle. soldier's pomatum. a piece of tallow candle. soldier. a red herring. solfa. a parish clerk. solo player. a miserable performer on any instrument, who always plays alone, because no one will stay in the room to hear him. solomon. the mass. cant. son of prattlement. a lawyer. song. he changed his song; he altered his account or evidence. it was bought for an old song, i.e. very cheap. his morning and his evening song do not agree; he tells a different story. sooterkin. a joke upon the dutch women, supposing that, by their constant use of stoves, which they place under their petticoats, they breed a kind of small animal in their bodies, called a sooterkin, of the size of a mouse, which when mature slips out. sop. a bribe. a sop for cerberus; a bribe for a porter, turnkey, or gaoler. soph. (cambridge) an undergraduate in his second year. sorrel. a yellowish red. sorrel pate; one having red hair. sorrow shall be his sops. he shall repent this. sorrow go by me; a common expletive used by presbyterians in ireland. sorry. vile, mean, worthless. a sorry fellow, or hussy; a worthless man or woman. sot weed. tobacco. soul case. the body. he made a hole in his soul case; he wounded him. soul doctor, or driver. a parson. sounders. a herd of swine. souse. not a souse; not a penny. french. sow. a fat woman. he has got the wrong sow by the ear, he mistakes his man. drunk as david's sow; see david's sow. sow's baby. a sucking pig. sow child. a female child. spado. a sword. spanish. spangle. a seven shilling piece. spank. (whip) to run neatly along, beteen a trot and gallop. the tits spanked it to town; the horses went merrily along all the way to town. spanish. the spanish; ready money. spanish coin. fair words and compliments. spanish faggot. the sun. spanish gout. the pox. spanish padlock. a kind of girdle contrived by jealous husbands of that nation, to secure the chastity of their wives. spanish, or king of spain's trumpeter. an ass when braying. spanish worm. a nail: so called by carpenters when they meet with one in a board they are sawing. spanks, or spankers. money; also blows with the open hand. spanking. large. spark. a spruce, trim, or smart fellow. a man that is always thirsty, is said to have a spark in his throat. sparkish. fine, gay. sparking blows. blows given by cocks before they close, or, as the term is, mouth it: used figuratively for words previous to a quarrel. sparrow. mumbling a sparrow; a cruel sport frequently practised at wakes and fairs: for a small premium, a booby having his hands tied behind him, has the wing of a cock sparrow put into his mouth: with this hold, without any other assistance than the motion of his lips, he is to get the sparrow's head into his mouth: on attempting to do it, the bird defends itself surprisingly, frequently pecking the mumbler till his lips are covered with blood, and he is obliged to desist: to prevent the bird from getting away, he is fastened by a string to a button of the booby's coat. sparrow-mouthed. wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow: it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i.e. from ear to ear. one whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears, and who when they yawn have their heads half off. spatch cock. [abbreviation of dispatch cock.] a hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled: an irish dish upon any sudden occasion. to speak with. to rob. i spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; i robbed the man on the black horse. cant. speak. any thing stolen. he has made a good speak; he has stolen something considerable. specked whiper. a coloured hankerchief. cant. spice. to rob. spice the swell; rob the gentleman. spice islands. a privy. stink-hole bay or dilberry creek. the fundament. spider-shanked. thin-legged. to spiflicate. to confound, silence, or dumbfound. spilt. a small reward or gift. spilt. thrown from a horse, or overturned in a carriage; pray, coachee, don't spill us. spindle shanks. slender legs. to spirit away. to kidnap, or inveigle away. spiritual flesh broker. a parson. spit. he is as like his father as if he was spit out of his mouth; said of a child much resembling his father. spit. a sword. spit fire. a violent, pettish, or passionate person. spliced. married: an allusion to joining two ropes ends by splicing. sea term. split crow. the sign of the spread eagle, which being represented with two heads on one neck, gives it somewhat the appearance of being split. split cause. a lawyer. split fig. a grocer. split iron. the nick-name for a smith. spooney. (whip) thin, haggard, like the shank of a spoon; also delicate, craving for something, longing for sweets. avaricious. that tit is damned spooney. she's a spooney piece of goods. he's a spooney old fellow. spoil pudding. a parson who preaches long sermons, keeping his congregation in church till the puddings are overdone. to sport. to exhibit: as, jack jehu sported a new gig yesterday: i shall sport a new suit next week. to sport or flash one's ivory; to shew one's teeth. to sport timber; to keep one's outside door shut; this term is used in the inns of court to signify denying one's self. n.b. the word sport was in great vogue ann. and . spunge. a thirsty fellow, a great drinker. to spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: a house where every species of fraud and extortion is practised under the protection of the law. spunk. rotten touchwood, or a kind of fungus prepared for tinder; figuratively, spirit, courage. spoon hand. the right hand. to spout. to rehearse theatrically. spouting club. a meeting of apprentices and mechanics to rehearse different characters in plays: thus forming recruits for the strolling companies. spouting. theatrical declamation. spouted. pawned. spread. butter. spread eagle. a soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped; his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs. spree. a frolic. fun. a drinking bout. a party of pleasure. spring-ankle warehouse. newgate, or any other gaol: irish. squab. a fat man or woman: from their likeness to a well-stuffed couch, called also a squab. a new-hatched chicken. square. honest, not roguish. a square cove, i.e. a man who does not steal, or get his living by dishonest means. square toes. an old man: square toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men. squeak. a narrow escape, a chance: he had a squeak for his life. to squeak; to confess, peach, or turn stag. they squeak beef upon us; they cry out thieves after us. cant. squeaker. a bar-boy; also a bastard or any other child. to stifle the squeaker; to murder a bastard, or throw it into the necessary house.--organ pipes are likewise called squeakers. the squeakers are meltable; the small pipes are silver. cant. squeeze crab. a sour-looking, shrivelled, diminutive fellow. squeeze wax. a good-natured foolish fellow, ready to become security for another, under hand and seal. squelch. a fall. formerly a bailiff caught in a barrack-yard in ireland, was liable by custom to have three tosses in a blanket, and a squelch; the squelch was given by letting go the corners of the blanket, and suffering him to fall to the ground. squelch-gutted; fat, having a prominent belly. squib. a small satirical or political temporary jeu d'esprit, which, like the firework of that denomination, sparkles, bounces, stinks, and vanishes. squint-a-pipes. a squinting man or woman; said to be born in the middle of the week, and looking both ways for sunday; or born in a hackney coach, and looking out of both windows; fit for a cook, one eye in the pot, and the other up the chimney; looking nine ways at once. squire of alsatia. a weak profligate spendthrift, the squire of the company; one who pays the whole reckoning, or treats the company, called standing squire. squirish. foolish. squirrel. a prostitute: because she like that animal, covers her back with her tail. meretrix corpore corpus alit. menagiana, ii. . squirrel hunting. see hunting. stag. to turn stag; to impeach one's confederates: from a herd of deer, who are said to turn their horns against any of their number who is hunted. to stag. to find, discover, or observe. staggering bob, with his yellow pumps. a calf just dropped, and unable to stand, killed for veal in scotland: the hoofs of a young calf are yellow. stall whimper. a bastard. cant. stalling. making or ordaining. stalling to the rogue; an ancient ceremony of instituting a candidate into the society of rogues, somewhat similar to the creation of a herald at arms. it is thus described by harman: the upright man taking a gage of bowse, i.e. a pot of strong drink, pours it on the head of the rogue to be admitted; saying,--i, a.b. do stall thee b.c. to the rogue; and from henceforth it shall be lawful for thee to cant for thy living in all places. stalling ken. a broker's shop, or that of a receiver of stolen goods. stallion. a man kept by an old lady for secret services. stam flesh. to cant. cant. stammel, or strammel. a coarse brawny wench. stamp. a particular manner of throwing the dice out of the box, by striking it with violence against the table. stamps. legs. stampers. shoes. stand-still. he was run to a stand-still; i.e. till he could no longer move. star gazer. a horse who throws up his head; also a hedge whore. to star the glaze. to break and rob a jeweller's show glass. cant. starched. stiff, prim, formal, affected. staring quarter. an ox cheek. start, or the old start. newgate: he is gone to the start, or the old start. cant. starter. one who leaves a jolly company, a milksop; he is no starter, he will sit longer than a hen. starve'em, rob'em, and cheat'em. stroud, rochester, and chatham; so called by soldiers and sailors, and not without good reason. star lag. breaking shop-windows, and stealing some article thereout. stash. to stop. to finish. to end. the cove tipped the prosecutor fifty quid to stash the business; he gave the prosecutor fifty guineas to stop the prosecution. state. to lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots. stay. a cuckold. staytape. a taylor; from that article, and its coadjutor buckram, which make no small figure in the bills of those knights of the needle. steamer. a pipe. a swell steamer; a long pipe, such as is used by gentlemen to smoke. steel. the house of correction. steel bar. a needle. a steel bar flinger; a taylor, stay-maker, or any other person using a needle. steenkirk. a muslin neckcloth carelessly put on, from the manner in which the french officers wore their cravats when they returned from the battle of steenkirk. steeple house. a name given to the church by dissenters. stephen. money. stephen's at home; i.e. has money. stepney. a decoction of raisins of the sun and lemons in conduit water, sweetened with sugar, and bottled up. stewed quaker. burnt rum, with a piece of butter: an american remedy for a cold. sticks. household furniture. sticks. pops or pistols. stow your sticks; hide your pistols. cant. see pops. stick flams. a pair of gloves. stiff-rumped. proud, stately. stingrum. a niggard. stingo. strong beer, or other liquor. stirrup cup. a parting cup or glass, drank on horseback by the person taking leave. stitch. a nick name for a taylor: also a term for lying with a woman. stitchback. strong ale. stiver-cramped. needy, wanting money. a stiver is a dutch coin, worth somewhat more than a penny sterling. stock. a good stock; i.e. of impudence. stock and block; the whole: he has lost stock and block. stock drawers. stockings. stock jobbers. persons who gamble in exchange alley, by pretending to buy and sell the public funds, but in reality only betting that they will be at a certain price, at a particular time; possessing neither the stock pretended to be sold, nor money sufficient to make good the payments for which they contract: these gentlemen are known under the different appellations of bulls, bears, and lame ducks. stomach worm. the stomach worm gnaws; i am hungry. stone. two stone under weight, or wanting; an eunuch. stone doublet; a prison. stone dead; dead as a stone. stone jug. newgate, or any other prison. stone tavern. ditto. stoop-nappers, or overseers of the new pavement. persons set in the pillory. cant. stoop. the pillory. the cull was served for macing and napp'd the stoop; he was convicted of swindling, and put in the pillory. stop hole abbey. the nick name of the chief rendzvous of the canting crew of beggars, gypsies, cheats, thieves, &c. &c. stoter. a great blow. tip him a stoter in the haltering place; give him a blow under the left ear. stoup. a vessel to hold liquor: a vessel containing a size or half a pint, is so called at cambridge. stow. stow you; be silent, or hold your peace. stow your whidds and plant'em, for the cove of the ken can cant'em; you have said enough, the man of the house understands you. strait-laced. precise, over nice, puritanical. strait waistcoat. a tight waistcoat, with long sleeves coming over the hand, having strings for binding them behind the back of the wearer: these waistcoats are used in madhouses for the management of lunatics when outrageous. strammel. see stammel. stranger. a guinea. strangle goose. a poulterer. to strap. to work. the kiddy would not strap, so he went on the scamp: the lad would not work, and therefore robbed on the highway. strapper. a large man or woman. strapping. lying with a woman. cant. straw. a good woman in the straw; a lying-in woman. his eyes draw straw; his eyes are almost shut, or he is almost asleep: one eye draws straw, and t'other serves the thatcher. stretch. a yard. the cove was lagged for prigging a peter with several stretch of dobbin from a drag; the fellow was transported for stealing a trunk, containing several yards of ribband, from a waggon. stretching. hanging. he'll stretch for it; he will be hanged for it. also telling a great lie: he stretched stoutly. strike. twenty shillings. cant. strip me naked. gin. stroke. to take a stroke: to take a bout with a woman. strollers. itinerants of different kinds. strolling morts; beggars or pedlars pretending to be widows. strommel. straw. cant. strong man. to play the part of the strong man, i.e. to push the cart and horses too; to be whipt at the cart's tail. strum. a perriwig. rum strum: a fine large wig. (cambridge) to do a piece. foeminam subagitare. cant. to strum. to have carnal knowledge of a woman; also to play badly on the harpsichord; or any other stringed instrument. a strummer of wire, a player on any instrument strung with wire. strumpet. a harlot. stub-faced. pitted with the smallpox: the devil ran over his face with horse stabs (horse nails) in his shoes. stubble it. hold your tongue. cant. stuling ken. see stalling ken. cant. stum. the flower of fermenting wine, used by vintners to adulterate their wines. stumps. legs. to stir one's stumps; to walk fast. sturdy beggars. the fifth and last of the most ancient order of canters, beggars that rather demand than ask cant. successfully. used by the vulgar for successively: as three or four landlords of this house have been ruined successfully by the number of soldiers quartered on them. irish. such a reason pist my goose, or my goose pist. said when any one offers an absurd reason. suck. strong liquor of any sort. to suck the monkey; see monkey. sucky; drunk. to suck. to pump. to draw from a man all be knows. the file sucked the noodle's brains: the deep one drew out of the fool all he knew. sucking chicken. a young chicken. suds. in the suds; in trouble, in a disagreeable situation, or involved in some difficulty. sugar stick. the virile member. sugar sops. toasted bread soked in ale, sweetened with sugar, and grated nutmeg: it is eaten with cheese. sulky. a one-horse chaise or carriage, capable of holding but one person: called by the french a desobligeant. sun. to have been in the sun; said of one that is drunk. sunburnt. clapped; also haying many male children. sunday man. one who goes abroad on that day only, for fear of arrests. sunny bank. a good fire in winter. sunshine. prosperity. supernacolum. good liquor, of which there is not even a drop left sufficient to wet one's nail. supouch. a landlady of an inn, or hostess. surveyor of the highways. one reeling drunk. surveyor of the pavement. one standing in the pillory. sus per coll. hanged: persons who have been hanged are thus entered into the jailor's books. suspence. one in a deadly suspence; a man just turned off at the gallows. sutrer. a camp publican: also one that pilfers gloves, tobacco boxes, and such small moveables. swabbers. the ace of hearts, knave of clubs, ace and duce of trumps, at whist: also the lubberly seamen, put to swab, and clean the ship. swad, or swadkin. a soldier. cant. to swaddle. to beat with a stick. swaddlers. the tenth order of the canting tribe, who not only rob, but beat, and often murder passenges. cant. swaddlers is also the irish name for methodist. swag. a shop. any quantity of goods. as, plant the swag; conceal the goods. rum swag; a shop full of rich goods. cant. swagger. to bully, brag, or boast, also to strut. swannery. he keeps a swannery; i.e. all his geese are swans. sweating. a mode of diminishing the gold coin, practiced chiefly by the jews, who corrode it with aqua regia. sweating was also a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century, who styled themselves mohocks: these gentlemen lay in wait to surprise some person late in the night, when surrounding him, they with their swords pricked him in the posteriors, which obliged him to be constantly turning round; this they continued till they thought him sufficiently sweated. sweet. easy to be imposed on, or taken in; also expert, dexterous clever. sweet's your hand; said of one dexterous at stealing. sweet heart. a term applicable to either the masculine or feminine gender, signifying a girl's lover, or a man's mistress: derived from a sweet cake in the shape of a heart. sweetness. guinea droppers, cheats, sharpers. to sweeten to decoy, or draw in. to be sweet upon; to coax, wheedle, court, or allure. he seemed sweet upon that wench; he seemed to court that girl. swell. a gentleman. a well-dressed map. the flashman bounced the swell of all his blunt; the girl's bully frightened the gentleman out of all his money. swelled head. a disorder to which horses are extremely liable, particularly those of the subalterns of the army. this disorder is generally occasioned by remaining too long in one livery-stable or inn, and often arises to that height that it prevents their coming out at the stable door. the most certain cure is the unguentum aureum--not applied to the horse, but to the palm of the master of the inn or stable. n. b. neither this disorder, nor its remedy, is mentioned by either bracken, bartlet, or any of the modern writers on farriery. swig. a hearty draught of liquor. swigmen. thieves who travel the country under colour of buying old shoes, old clothes, &c. or selling brooms, mops, &c. cant. to swill. to drink greedily. swill tub. a drunkard, a sot. swimmer. a counterfeit old coin. swimmer. a ship. i shall have a swimmer; a cant phrase used by thieves to signify that they will be sent on board the tender. to swing. to be hanged. he will swing for it; he will be hanged for it. swing tail. a hog. to swinge. to beat stoutly. swinging. a great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow. a swinging lie; a lusty lie. swindler. one who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, and sells them for ready money at any price, in order to make up a purse. this name is derived from the german word schwindlin, to totter, to be ready to fall; these arts being generally practised by persons on the totter, or just ready to break. the term swindler has since been used to signify cheats of every kind. swipes. purser's swipes; small beer: so termed on board the king's ships, where it is furnished by the purser. swish tail. a pheasant; so called by the persons who sell game for the poachers. to swive. to copulate. swivel-eyed. squinting. swizzle. drink, or any brisk or windy liquor. in north america, a mixture of spruce beer, rum, and sugar, was so called. the th regiment had a society called the swizzle club, at ticonderoga, a. d. . sword racket. to enlist in different regiments, and on receiving the bounty to desert immediately. swop. an exchange. syebuck. sixpence. syntax. a schoolmaster. tabby. an old maid; either from tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. to drive tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family. tace. silence, hold your tongue. tace is latin for a candle; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject. tackle. a mistress; also good clothes. the cull has tipt his tackle rum gigging; the fellow has given his mistress good clothes. a man's tackle: the genitals. taffy, i.e. davy. a general name for a welchman, st. david being the tutelar saint of wales. taffy's day; the first of march, st. david's day. tag-rag and bobtail. an expression meaning an assemblage of low people, the mobility of all sorts. to tag after one like a tantony pig: to follow one wherever one goes, just as st. anthony is followed by his pig. tail. a prostitute. also, a sword. taken in. imposed on, cheated. tale tellers. persons said to have been formerly hired to tell wonderful stories of giants and fairies, to lull their hearers to sleep. talesman; the author of a story or report: i'll tell you my tale, and my talesman. tale bearers; mischief makers, incendiaries in families. tall boy. a bottle, or two-quart pot. tally men. brokers that let out clothes to the women of the town. see rabbit suckers. tallywags, or tarrywags. a man's testicles. tame. to run tame about a house; to live familiarly in a family with which one is upon a visit. tame army; the city trained bands. tandem. a two-wheeled chaise, buggy, or noddy, drawn by two horses, one before the other: that is, at length. tangier. a room in newgate, where debtors were confined, hence called tangerines. tanner. a sixpence. the kiddey tipped the rattling cove a tanner for luck; the lad gave the coachman sixpence for drink. tantadlin tart. a sirreverence, human excrement. tantrums. pet, or passion: madam was in her tantrums. tantwivy. away they went tantwivy; away they went full speed. tantwivy was the sound of the hunting horn in full cry, or that of a post horn. tap. a gentle blow. a tap on the shoulder;-an-arrest. to tap a girl; to be the first seducer: in allusion to a beer barrel. to tap a guinea; to get it changed. tappers. shoulder tappers: bailiffs. tape. red tape; brandy. blue or white tape; gin. taplash. thick and bad beer. tar. don't lose a sheep for a halfpennyworth of tar: tar is used to mark sheep. a jack tar; a sailor. taradiddle. a fib, or falsity. tarpawlin. a coarse cloth tarred over: also, figuratively, a sailor. tarring and feathering. a punishment lately inflicted by the good people of boston on any person convicted, or suspected, of loyalty: such delinquents being "stripped naked", were daubed all over wilh tar, and afterwards put into a hogshead of feathers. tart. sour, sharp, quick, pert. tartar. to catch a tartar; to attack one of superior strength or abilities. this saying originated from a story of an irish-soldier in the imperial service, who, in a battle against the turks, called out to his comrade that he had caught a tartar. 'bring him along then,' said he. 'he won't come,' answered paddy. 'then come along yourself,' replied his comrade. 'arrah,' cried he, 'but he won't let me.'--a tartar is also an adept at any feat, or game: he is quite a tartar at cricket, or billiards. tat. tit for tat; an equivalent. tats. false dice. tatler. a watch. to flash a tatler: to wear a watch. tat monger. one that uses false dice. tatterdemalion. a ragged fellow, whose clothes hang all in tatters. tattoo. a beat of the drum, of signal for soldiers to go to their quarters, and a direction to the sutlers to close the tap, and draw no more liquor for them; it is generally beat at nine in summer and eight in winter. the devil's tattoo; beating with one's foot against the ground, as done by persons in low spirits. taw. a schoolboy's game, played with small round balls made of stone dust, catted marbles. i'll be one upon your taw presently; a species of threat. tawdry. garish, gawdy, with lace or staring and discordant colours: a term said to be derived from the shrine and altar of st. audrey (an isle of ely saintess), which for finery exceeded all others thereabouts, so as to become proverbial; whence any fine dressed man or woman said to be all st audrey, and by contraction, all tawdry. tawed. beaten, tayle. see tail. tayle drawers. thieves who snatch gentlemens swords from their sides. he drew the cull's tayle rumly; he snatched away the gentleman's sword cleverly. taylor. nine taylors make a man; an ancient and common saying, originating from the effeminacy of their employment; or, as some have it, from nine taylors having been robbed by one man; according to others, from the speech of a woollendraper, meaning that the custom of nine, taylors would make or enrich one man--a london taylor, rated to furnish half a man to the trained bands, asking how that could possibly be done? was answered, by sending four, journeymen and and apprentice.--puta taylor, a weaver, and a miller into a sack, shake them well, and the first that, puts out his head is certainly a thief.--a taylor is frequently styled pricklouse, assaults on those vermin with their needles. taylors goose. an iron with which, when heated, press down the seams of clothes. tea voider. a chamber pot. tea gueland. ireland. teaguelanders; irishmen. tears of the tankard. the drippings of liquor on a man's waistcoat. teddy my godson. an address to a supposed simple fellow, or nysey, teize. to-nap the teize; to receive a whipping. cant. temple pickling. pumping a bailiff; a punishment formerly administered to any of that fraternity caught exercising their functions within the limits of temple. ten toes. see bayard of ten toes. ten in the hundred. an usurer; more than five in the hundred being deemed usurious interest. tenant at will, one whose wife usually fetches him from the alehouse. tenant for life. a married man; i.e. possessed of a woman for life. tender parnell. a tender creature, fearful of the least puff of wind or drop of rain. as tender as parnell, who broke her finger in a posset drink. termagant. an outrageous scold from termagantes, a cruel pagan, formerly represented in diners shows and entertainments, where being dressed a la turque, in long clothes, he was mistaken for a furious woman. terra firma. an estate in land. tester. a sixpence: from teston, a coin with a head on it. tetbury portion. a **** and a clap. thames. he will not find out a way to set the thames on fire; he will not make any wonderful discoveries, he is no conjuror. thatch-gallows. a rogue, or man of bad character. thick. intimate. they are as thick as two inkle-weavers. thief. you are a thief and a murderer, you have killed a baboon and stole his face; vulgar abuse. thief in a candle. part of the wick or snuff, which falling on the tallow, burns and melts it, and causing it to gutter, thus steals it away. thief takers. fellows who associate with all kinds of villains, in order to betray them, when they have committed any of those crimes which entitle the persons taking them to a handsome reward, called blood money. it is the business of these thief takers to furnish subjects for a handsome execution, at the end of every sessions. thimble. a watch. the swell flashes a rum thimble; the gentleman sports a fine watch. thingstable. mr. thingstable; mr. constable: a ludicrous affectation of delicacy in avoiding the pronunciation of the first syllable in the title of that officer, which in sound has some similarity to an indecent monosyllable. thingumbob. mr. thingumbob; a vulgar address or nomination to any person whose name is unknown, the same as mr. what-d'ye-cal'em. thingumbobs; testicles. thirding. a custom practised at the universities, where two thirds of the original price is allowed by the upholsterers to the students for household goods returned to them within the year. thirteener. a shilling in ireland, which there passes for thirteen pence. thomond. like lord thomond's cocks, all on one side. lord thomond's cock-feeder, an irishman, being entrusted with some cocks which were matched for a considerable sum, the night before the battle shut them all together in one room, concluding that as they were all on the same side, they would not disagree: the consequence was, they were most of them either killed or lamed before the morning. thomas. man thomas; a man's penis. thorns. to be or sit upon thorns; to be uneasy, impatient, anxious for an event. thornback. an old maid. thorough churchman. a person who goes in at one door of a church, and out at the other, without stopping. thorough-good-natured wench. one who being asked to sit down, will lie down. thorough go nimble. a looseness, a violent purging. thorough cough. coughing and breaking wind backwards at the same time. thorough stitch. to go thorough stitch; to stick at nothing; over shoes, over boots. thought. what did thought do? lay'in bed and beshat himself, and thought he was up; reproof to any one who excuses himself for any breach of positive orders, by pleading that he thought to the contrary. three to one. he is playing three to one, though sure to lose; said of one engaged in the amorous congress. three-penny upright. a retailer of love, who, for the sum mentioned, dispenses her favours standing against a wall. three-legged mare, or stool. the gallows, formerly consisting of three posts, over which were laid three transverse beams. this clumsy machine has lately given place to an elegant contrivance, called the new drop, by which the use of that vulgar vehicle a cart, or mechanical instrument a ladder, is also avoided; the patients being left suspended by the dropping down of that part of the floor on which they stand. this invention was first made use of for a peer. see drop. three threads. half common ale, mixed with stale and double beer. threps. threepence. to throttle. to strangle. throttle. the throat, or gullet. to thrum. to play on any instrument stringed with wire. a thrummer of wire; a player on the spinet, harpsichord, of guitar. thrums. threepence. thumb. by rule of thumb: to do any thing by dint of practice. to kiss one's thumb instead of the book; a vulgar expedient to avoid perjury in taking a false oath. thummikins. an instrument formerly used in scotland, like a vice, to pinch the thumbs of persons accused of different crimes, in order to extort confession. thump. a blow. this is better than a thump on the back with a stone; said on giving any one a drink of good liquor on a cold morning. thatch, thistle, thunder, and thump; words to the irish, like the shibboleth of the hebrews. thumping. great! a thumping boy. thwack. a great blow with a stick across the shoulders. tib. a young lass tibby. a cat. tib of the buttery. a goose. cant. saint tibb's evening; the evening of the last day, or day of judgment: he will pay you on st. tibb's eve. irish. tick. to run o'tick; take up goods upon trust, to run in debt. tick; a watch. see sessions papers. tickle text. a parson. tickle pitckeb. a thirsty fellow, a sot. tickle tail. a rod, or schoolmaster. a man's penis. tickrum. a licence. tidy. neat. tiffing. eating or drinking out of meal time, disputing or falling out; also lying with a wench, a tiff of punch, a small bowl of punch. tilbuky. sixpence; so called from its formerly being the fare for crossing over from gravesend to tilbury fort. tilt. to tilt; to fight with a sword. to run full tilt against one; allusion to the ancient tilling with the lance. tilter. a sword. tim whisky. a light one--horse chaise without a head. timber toe. a man with a wooden leg. tiny. little. to tip. to give or lend. tip me your daddle; give me your hand. tip me a hog; give me a shilling. to tip the lion; to flatten a man's nose with the thumb, and, at the same time to extend his mouth, with the fingers, thereby giving him a sort of lion-like countenance. to tip the velvet; tonguing woman. to tip all nine; to knock down all the nine pins at once, at the game of bows or skittles: tipping, at these gaines, is slightly touching the tops of the pins with the bowl. tip; a draught; don't spoil his tip. tip-top. the best: perhaps from fruit, that growing at the top of the tree being generally the best, as partaking most of the sun. a tip-top workman; the best, or most excellent workman. tipperary fortune. two town lands, stream's town, and ballinocack; said of irish women without fortune. tipple. liquor. tipplers. sots who are continually sipping. tipsey. almost drunk. tiring. dressing: perhaps abbreviation of attiring. tiring women, or tire women: women that used to cut ladies hair, and dress them. tit. a horse; a pretty little tit; a smart little girl. a *** or tid bit; a delicate morsel. tommy tit; a smart lively little fellow. tit for tat. an equivalent. to titter. to suppress a laugh. titter tatter. one reeling, and ready to fall at the least touch; also the childish amusement of riding upon the two ends of a plank, poised upon the prop underneath its centre, called also see-saw. perhaps tatter is a rustic pronunciation of totter. tittle-tattle. idle discourse, scandal, women's talk, or small talk. tittup. a gentle hand gallop, or canter. tizzy. sixpence. toad eater. a poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. this appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous. swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach. toad. toad in a hole; meat baked or boiled in pye-crust. he or she sits like a toad on a chopping-block; a saying of any who sits ill on horseback. as much need of it as a toad of a side-pocket; said of a person who desires any thing for which he has no real occasion. as full of money as a toad is of feathers. toast. a health; also a beautiful woman whose health is often drank by men. the origin of this term (as it is said) was this: a beautiful lady bathing in a cold bath, one of her admirers out of gallantry drank some of the water: whereupon another of her lovers observed, he never drank in the morning, but he would kiss the toast, and immediately saluted the lady. toasting iron, or cheese toaster. a sword. toby lay. the highway. high toby man; a highway-man. low toby man; a footpad. tobacco. a plant, once in great estimation as a medicine: tobacco hic will make you well if you be sick. tobacco hic if you be well will make you sick. toddy. originally the juice of the cocoa tree, and afterwards rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg. toddle. to walk away. the cove was touting, but stagging the traps he toddled; be was looking out, and feeing the officers he walked away. todge. beat all to a todge: said of anything beat to mash. toge. a coat. cant. togemans. the same. cant. togs. clothes. the swell is rum-togged. the gentleman is handsomely dressed. token. the plague: also the venereal disease. she tipped him the token; she gave him a clap or pox. tol, or toledo. a sword: from spanish swords made at toledo, which place was famous for sword blades of an extraordinary temper. tolliban rig. a species of cheat carried on by a woman, assuming the character of a dumb and deaf conjuror. tom t--dman. a night man, one who empties necessary houses. tomboy. a romping girl, who prefers the amusement used by boys to those of her own sex. tom of bedlam. the same as abram man. tom cony. a simple fellow. tom long. a tiresome story teller. it is coming by tom long, the carrier; said of any thing that has been long expected. tom thumb. a dwarf, a little hop-o'my-thumb. tommy. soft tommy, or white tommy; bread is so called by sailors, to distinguish it from biscuit. brown tommy: ammunition bread for soldiers; or brown bread given to convicts at the hulks. to-morrow come never. when two sundays come together; never. tongue. tongue enough for two sets of teeth: said of a talkative person. as old as my tongue, and a little older than my teeth; a dovetail in answer to the question, how old are you? tongue pad; a scold, or nimble-tongued person. tony. a silly fellow, or ninny. a mere tony: a simpleton. tools. the private parts of a man. tool. the instrument of any person or faction, a cat's paw. see cats paw. tooth music. chewing. tooth-pick. a large stick. an ironical expression. topper. a violent blow on the head. top ropes. to sway away on all top ropes; to live riotously or extravagantly. to top. to cheat, or trick: also to insult: he thought to have topped upon me. top; the signal among taylors for snuffing the candles: he who last pronounces that word word, is obliged to get up and perform the operation.--to be topped; to be hanged. the cove was topped for smashing queerscreens; he was hanged for uttering forged bank notes. top diver. a lover of women. an old top diver; one who has loved old hat in his time. top heavy. drunk. top lights. the eyes. blast your top lights. see curse. top sail. he paid his debts at portsmouth with the topsail; i.e. he went to sea and left them unpaid. sct soldiers are said to pay off their scores with the drum; that is, by marching away. toper. one that loves his bottle, a soaker. see to soak. topping fellow. one at the top or head of his profession. topping cheat. the gallows. cant. topping cove. the hangman. cant. topping man. a rich man. tofsy-turvy. the top side the other way; i.e. the wrong side upwards; some explain it, the top side turf ways, turf being always laid the wrong side upwards. torchecul. bumfodder. tormenter of sheep skin. a drummer. tormenter of catgut. a fiddler. tory. an advocate for absolute monarchy and church power; also an irish vagabond, robber, or rapparee. toss pot. a drunkard. toss off. manual pollution. totty-headed. giddy, hare-brained. touch. to touch; to get money from any one; also to arrest. touched in the wind; broken winded. touched in the head; insane, crazy. to touch up a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. touch bone and whistle; any one having broken wind backwards, according to the vulgar law, may be pinched by any of the company till he has touched bone (i.e. his teeth) and whistled. touch bun for luck. see bun. tovt. a look-out house, or eminence. touting. (from tueri, to look about) publicans fore-stalling guests, or meeting them on the road, and begging their custom; also thieves or smugglers looking out to see that the coast is clear. touting ken; the bar of a public house. tow row. a grenadier. the tow row club; a club or society of the grenadier officers of the line. towel. an oaken towel, a cudgel. to rub one down with an oaken towel; to beat or cudgel him. tower. clipped money: they have been round the tower with it. cant. to tower. to overlook, to rise aloft as in a high tower. tower hill play. a slap on the face, and a kick on the breech. town. a woman of the town; a prostitute. to be on the town: to live by prostitution. town bull. a common whoremaster. to roar like a town bull; to cry or bellow aloud. to track. to go. track up the dancers; go up stairs. cant. trading justices. broken mechanics, discharged footmen, and other low fellows, smuggled into the commission of the peace, who subsist by fomenting disputes, granting warrants, and otherwise retailing justice; to the honour of the present times, these nuisances are by no means, so common as formerly. tradesmen. thieves. clever tradesmen; good thieves. translators. sellers of old mended shoes and boots, between coblers and shoemakers. to transmography, or transmigrify. to patch up vamp, or alter. to transnear. to come up with any body. tranter. see crocker. trap. to understand trap; to know one's own interest. trap sticks. thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball. traps. constables and thief-takers. cant. to trapan. to inveigle, or ensnare. trapes. a slatternly woman, a careless sluttish woman. traveller. to tip the traveller; to tell wonderful stories, to romance. travelling piquet. a mode of amusing themselves, practised by two persons riding in a carriage, each reckoning towards his game the persons or animals that pass by on the side next them, according to the following estimation: a parson riding a grey horse, without furniture; game. an old woman under a hedge; ditto. a cat looking out of a window; . a man, woman, and child, in a buggy; . a man with a woman behind him; . a flock of sheep; . a flock of geese; . a post chaise; . a horseman; . a man or woman walking; . tray trip. an ancient game like scotch hop, played on a pavement marked out with chalk into different compartments. trencher cap. the square cap worn by the collegians. at the universities of oxford and cambridge. trencher man. a stout trencher man; one who has a good appetite, or, as the term is, plays a good knife and fork. treswins. threepence. trib. a prison: perhaps from tribulation. trickum legis. a quirk or quibble in the law. trig. the point at which schoolboys stand to shoot their marbles at taw; also the spot whence bowlers deliver the bowl. to trig it. to play truant. to lay a man trigging; to knock him down. trigrymate. an idle female companion. trim. state, dress. in a sad trim; dirty.--also spruce or fine: a trim fellow. trim tram. like master, like man. trimming. cheating, changing side, or beating. i'll trim his jacket; i'll thresh him. to be trimmed; to be shaved; i'll just step and get trimmed. trine. to hang; also tyburn. tringum trangum. a whim, or maggot. trining. hanging. trinkets. toys, bawbles, or nicknacks. trip. a short voyage or journey, a false step or stumble, an error in the tongue, a bastard. she has made a trip; she has had a bastard. tripe. the belly, or guts. mr. double tripe; a fat man. tripes and trullibubs; the entrails: also a jeering appellation for a fat man. to troll. to loiter or saunter about. trolly lolly. coarse lace once much in fashion. trollop. a lusty coarse sluttish woman. trooper. you will die the death of a trooper's horse, that is, with your shoes-on; a jocular method of telling any one he will be hanged. trot. an old trot; a decrepit old woman. a dog trot; a gentle pace. trotters. feet. to shake one's trotters at bilby's ball, where the sheriff pays the fiddlers; perhaps the bilboes ball, i.e. the ball of fetters: fetters and stocks were anciently called the bilboes. to trounce. to punish by course of law. truck. to exchange, swop, or barter; also a wheel such as ship's guns are placed upon. trull. a soldier or a tinker's trull; a soldier or tinker's female companion.--guteli, or trulli, are spirits like women, which shew great kindness to men, and hereof it is that we call light women trulls. randle holm's academy of armory. trumpery. an old whore, or goods of no value; rubbish. trumpet. to sound one's own trumpet; to praise one's self. trumpeter. the king of spain's trumpeter; a braying ass. his trumpeter is dead, he is therefore forced to sound his own trumpet. he would make an excellent trumpeter, for he has a strong breath; said of one having a foetid breath. trumps. to be put to one's trumps: to be in difficulties, or put to one's shifts. something may turn up trumps; something lucky may happen. all his cards are trumps: he is extremely fortunate. trundlers. peas. trunk. a nose. how fares your old trunk? does your nose still stand fast? an allusion to the proboscis or trunk of an elephant. to shove a trunk: to introduce one's self unasked into any place or company. trunk-maker like; more noise than work. trusty trojan, or trusty trout. a true friend. try on. to endeavour. to live by thieving. coves who try it on; professed thieves. tryning. see trining. tu quoque. the mother of all saints. tub thumper. a presbyterian parson. tucked up. hanged. a tucker up to an old bachelor or widower; a supposed mistress. tuft hunter. a it anniversary parasite, one who courts the acquaintance of nobility, whose caps are adorned with a gold tuft. tumbler. a cart; also a sharper employed to draw in pigeons to game; likewise a posture-master, or rope-dancer. to shove the tumbler, or perhaps tumbril; to-be whipt at the cart's tail. to tune. to beat: his father tuned him delightfully: perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, or from a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instruments when tuning. to tup. to have carnal knowledge of a woman. tup. a ram: figuratively, a cuckold. tup running. a rural sport practised at wakes and fairs in derbyshire; a ram, whose tail is well soaped and greased, is turned out to the multitude; any one that can take him by the tail, and hold him fast, is to have him for his own. t--d. there were four t--ds for dinner: stir t--d, hold t--d, tread t--d, and mus-t--d: to wit, a hog's face, feet and chitterlings, with mustard. he will never sh--e a seaman's t--d; i.e. he will never make a good seaman. turf. on the turf; persons who keep running horses, or attend and bet at horse-races, are said to be on the turf. turk. a cruel, hard-hearted man. turkish treatment; barbarous usage. turkish shore; lambeth, southwark, and rotherhithe side of the thames. turkey merchant. a poulterer. turncoat. one who has changed his party from interested motives. turned up. acquitted; discharged. turnip-pated. white or fair-haired. turnpike man. a parson; because the clergy collect their tolls at our entrance into and exit from the world. tuzzy-muzzy. the monosyllable. twaddle. perplexity, confusion, or any thing else: a fashionable term that for a while succeeded that of bore. see bore. twangey, or stangey. a north country name for a taylor. tweague. in a great tweague: in a great passion. tweaguey; peevish, passionate. to tweak. to pull: to tweak any one's nose. twelver. a shilling. twiddle-diddles. testicles. twiddle poop. an effeminate looking fellow. in twig. handsome; stilish. the cove is togged in twig; the fellow is dressed in the fashion. to twig. to observe. twig the cull, he is peery; observe the fellow, he is watching us. also to disengage, snap asunder, or break off. to twig the darbies; to knock off the irons. twiss. (irish) a jordan, or pot de chambre. a mr. richard twiss having in his "travels" given a very unfavourable description of the irish character, the inhabitants of dublin, byway of revenge, thought proper to christen this utensil by his name--suffice it to say that the baptismal rites were not wanting at the ceremony. on a nephew of this gentleman the following epigram was made by a friend of ouis: perish the country, yet my name shall ne'er in story be forgot, but still the more increase in fame, the more the country goes to pot. twist. a mixture of half tea and half coffee; likewise brandy, beer, and eggs. a good twist; a good appetite. to twist it down apace; to eat heartily. twisted. executed, hanged. to twit. to reproach a person, or remind him of favours conferred. twitter. all in a twitter; in a fright. twittering is also the note of some small birds, such as the robin, &c. twittoc. two. cant. two handed put. the amorous congress. two thieves beating a rogue. a man beating his hands against his sides to warm himself in cold weather; called also beating the booby, and cuffing jonas. two to one shop. a pawnbroker's: alluding to the three blue balls, the sign of that trade: or perhaps to its being two to one that the goods pledged are never redeemed. two-handed. great. a two-handed fellow or wench; a great strapping man orwoman, tye. a neckcloth. tyburn blossom. a young thief or pickpocket, who in time will ripen into fruit borne by the deadly never-green. tyburn tippet. a halter; see latimer's sermon before. edward vi. a. d. . tyburn top, or foretop. a wig with the foretop combed over the eyes in a knowing style; such being much worn by the gentlemen pads, scamps, divers, and other knowing hands. tyke. a dog, also a clown; a yorkshire tyke. tyney. see tiney. vagaries. frolics, wild rambles. vain-glorious, or ostentatious man. one who boasts without reason, or, as the canters say, pisses more than he drinks. valentine. the first woman seen by a man, or man seen by a woman, on st. valentine's day, the th of february, when it is said every bird chuses his mate for the ensuing year. to vamp. to pawn any thing. i'll vamp it, and tip you the cole: i'll pawn it, and give you the money. also to refit, new dress, or rub up old hats, shoes or other wearing apparel; likewise to put new feet to old boots. applied more particularly to a quack bookseller. vamper. stockings. van. madam van; see madam. van-neck. miss or mrs. van-neck; a woman with large breasts; a bushel bubby. vardy. to give one's vardy; i.e. verdict or opinion. varlets. now rogues and rascals, formerly yeoman's servants. varment. (whip and cambridge.) natty, dashing. he is quite varment, he is quite the go. he sports a varment hat, coat, &c.; he is dressed like a gentleman jehu. vaulting school. a bawdy-house; also an academy where vaulting and other manly exercises are taught. velvet. to tip the velvet; to put one's tongue into a woman's mouth. to be upon velvet; to have the best of a bet or match. to the little gentleman in velvet, i. e. the mole that threw up the hill that caused crop (king william's horse) to stumble; a toast frequently drank by the tories and catholics in ireland. venerable monosyllable. pudendum muliebre. venus's curse. the venereal disease. vessels of paper. half a quarter of a sheet. vicar of bray. see bray. vice admiral of the narrow seas. a drunken man that pisses under the table into his companions' shoes. victualling office. the stomach. vincent's law. the art of cheating at cards, composed of the following associates: bankers, those who play booty; the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage. vinegar. a name given to the person who with a whip in his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps the ring clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also, in cant terms, a cloak. vixen. a termagant; also a she fox, who, when she has cubs, is remarkably fierce. to vowel. a gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the vowels i. o. u. or perhaps from giving his note for the money according to the irish form, where the acknowledgment of the debt is expressed by the letters i. o. u. which, the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a sufficient security among gentlemen. uncle. mine uncle's; a necessary house. he is gone to visit his uncle; saying of one who leaves his wife soon after marriage. it likewise means a pawnbroker's: goods pawned are frequently said to be at mine uncle's, or laid up in lavender. understrapper. an inferior in any office, or department. under dubber. a turnkey. unfortunate gentlemen. the horse guards, who thus named themselves in germany, where a general officer seeing them very awkward in bundling up their forage, asked what the devil they were; to which some of them answered, unfortunate gentlemen. unfortunate women. prostitutes: so termed by the virtuous and compassionate of their own sex. ungrateful man. a parson, who at least once a week abuses his best benefactor, i.e. the devil. unguentum aureum. a bribe. unicorn. a coach drawn by three horses. unlicked cub. a rude uncouth young fellow. unrigged. undressed, or stripped. unrig the drab; strip the wench. untruss. to untruss a point; to let down one's breeches in order to ease one's self. breeches were formerly tied with points, which till lately were distributed to the boys every whit monday by the churchwardens of most of the parishes in london, under the denomination of tags: these tags were worsteds of different colours twisted up to a size somewhat thicker than packthread, and tagged at both ends with tin. laces were at the same given to the girls. untwisted. undone, ruined, done up. unwashed bawdry. rank bawdry. up to their gossip. to be a match for one who attempts to cheat or deceive; to be on a footing, or in the secret. i'll be up with him; i will repay him in kind. uphills. false dice that run high. upper benjamin. a great coat. cant. upper story, or garret. figuratively used to signify the head. his upper story or garrets are unfurnished; i.e. he is an empty or foolish fellow. upping block. [called in some counties a leaping stock, in others a jossing block.] steps for mounting a horse. he sits like a toad on a jossing block; said of one who sits ungracefully on horseback. uppish. testy, apt to take offence. upright. go upright; a word used by shoemakers, taylors and their servants, when any money is given to make them drink, and signifies, bring it all out in liquor, though the donor intended less, and expects change, or some of his money, to be returned. three-penny upright. see threepenny upright, upright man. an upright man signifies the chief or principal of a crew. the vilest, stoutest rogue in the pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who afterwards are used in common among the whole fraternity. he carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in whatsoever is gotten in the society. he often travels in company with thirty or forty males and females, abram men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. sometimes the women and children who are unable to travel, or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an ass, or two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose. upstarts. persons lately raised to honours and riches from mean stations. urchin. a child, a little fellow; also a hedgehog. urinal of the planets. ireland: so called from the frequent rains in that island. used up. killed: a military saying, originating from a message sent by the late general guise, on the expedition at carthagena, where he desired the commander in chief to order him some more grenadiers, for those he had were all used up. wabler. footwabler; a contemptuous term for a foot soldier, frequently used by those of the cavalry. to waddle. to go like a duck. to waddle out of change alley as a lame duck; a term for one who has not been able to pay his gaming debts, called his differences, on the stock exchange, and therefore absents himself from it. wag. an arch-frolicsome fellow. waggish. arch, gamesome, frolicsome. wagtail. a lewd woman. waits. musicians of the lower order, who in most towns play under the windows of the chief inhabitants at midnight, a short time before christmas, for which they collect a christmas-box from house to house. they are said to derive their name of waits from being always in waiting to celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening within their district. wake. a country feast, commonly on the anniversary of the tutelar saint of the village, that is, the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. also a custom of watching the dead, called late wake, in use both in ireland and wales, where the corpse being deposited under a table, with a plate of salt on its breast, the table is covered with liquor of all sorts; and the guests, particularly, the younger part of them, amuse themselves with all kinds of pastimes and recreations: the consequence is generally more than replacing the departed friend. walking cornet. an ensign of foot. walking poulterer. one who steals fowls, and hawks them from door to door. walking stationer. a hawker of pamphlets, &c. walking the plank. a mode of destroying devoted persons or officers in a mutiny or ship-board, by blindfolding them, and obliging them to walk on a plank laid over the ship's side; by this means, as the mutineers suppose, avoiding the penalty of murder. walking up against the wall. to run up a score, which in alehouses is commonly recorded with chalk on the walls of the bar. wall. to walk or crawl up the wall; to be scored up at a public-nouse. wall-eyed, having an eye with little or no sight, all white like a plaistered wall. to wap. to copulate, to beat. if she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport. wapper-eyed. sore-eyed. ware. a woman's ware; her commodity. ware hawk. an exclamation used by thieves to inform their confederates that some police officers are at hand. warm. rich, in good circumstances. to warm, or give a man a warming; to beat him. see chafed. warming-pan. a large old-fashioned watch. a scotch warming-pan; a female bedfellow. warren. one that is security for goods taken up on credit by extravagant young gentlemen. cunny warren; a girl's boarding-school, also a bawdy-house. wash. paint for the face, or cosmetic water. hog-wash; thick and bad beer. wasp. an infected prostitute, who like a wasp carries a sting in her tail. waspish. peevish, spiteful. waste. house of waste; a tavern or alehouse, where idle people waste both their time and money. watch, chain, and seals. a sheep's head and pluck. water-mill. a woman's private parts. water sneaksman. a man who steals from ships or craft on the river. water. his chops watered at it; he longed earnestly for it. to watch his waters; to keep a strict watch on any one's actions. in hot water: in trouble, engaged in disputes. water bewitched. very weak punch or beer. waterpad. one that robs ships in the river thames. watery-headed. apt to shed tears. water scriger, a doctor who prescribes from inspecting the water of his patients. see piss prophet. wattles. ears. cant. wear a--e. a one-horse chaise. weasel-faced. thin, meagre-faced. weasel-gutted; thin-bodied; a weasel is a thin long slender animal with a sharp face. wedding. the emptying of a necessary-house, particularly in london. you have been at an irish wedding, where black eyes are given instead of favours; saying to one who has a black eye. wedge. silver plate, because melted by the receivers of stolen goods into wedges. cant. to weed. to take a part. the kiddey weeded the swell's screens; the youth took some of the gentleman's bank notes. weeping cross. to come home by weeping cross; to repent. welch comb. the thumb and four fingers. welch fiddle. the itch. see scotch fiddle. welch mile. like a welch mile, long and narrow. his story is like a welch mile, long and tedious. welch rabbit, [i. e. a welch rare-bit] bread and cheese toasted. see rabbit.--the welch are said to be so remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the janua vita to attract and entice the young taffy, who on smelling it makes most vigorous efforts to come forth. welch ejectment. to unroof the house, a method practised by landlords in wales to eject a bad tenant. to well. to divide unfairly. to conceal part. a cant phrase used by thieves, where one of the party conceals some of the booty, instead of dividing it fairly amongst his confederates. well-hung. the blowen was nutts upon the kiddey because he is well-hung; the girl is pleased with the youth because his genitals are large. westminster wedding. a match between a whore and a rogue. wet parson. one who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together. wet quaker. one of that sect who has no objection to the spirit derived from wine. whack. a share of a booty obtained by fraud. a paddy whack; a stout brawney irishman. whapper. a large man or woman. wheedle. a sharper. to cut a wheedle; to decoy by fawning or insinuation. cant. wheelband in the nick. regular drinking over the left thumb. whelp. an impudent whelp; a saucy boy. whereas. to follow a whereas; to become a bankrupt, to figure among princes and potentates: the notice given in the gazette that a commission of bankruptcy is issued out against any trader, always beginning with the word whereas. he will soon march in the rear of a whereas. whet. a morning's draught, commonly white wine, supposed to whet or sharpen the appetite. whetstone's park. a lane between holborn and lincoln's-inn fields, formerly famed for being the resort of women of the town. whids. words. cant. to whiddle. to tell or discover. he whiddles; he peaches. he whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers all he knows. the cull whiddled because they would not tip him a snack: the fellow peached because they would not give him a share, they whiddle beef, and we must brush; they cry out thieves, and we must make off. cant. whiddler. an informer, or one that betrays the secrets of the gang. whiffles. a relaxation of the scrotum. whifflers. ancient name for fifers; also persons at the universities who examine candidates for degrees. a whiffling cur, a small yelping cur. whimper, or whindle. a low cry. to whine. to complain. whinyard. a sword. to whip the cock. a piece of sport practised at wakes, horse-races, and fairs in leicestershire: a cock being tied or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily. whip jacks. the tenth order of the canting crew, rogues who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence they sailed. to whip off. to run away, to drink off greedily, to snatch. he whipped away from home, went to the alehouse, where he whipped off a full tankard, and coming back whipped off a fellow's hat from his head. whip-belly vengeance, or pinch-gut vengeance, of which he that gets the most has the worst share. weak or sour beer. whipper-snapper. a diminutive fellow. whipshire. yorkshire. whipster. a sharp or subtle fellow. whipt syllabub. a flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise, without solidity. whirlygigs. testicles. whisker. a great lie. whisker splitter. a man of intrigue. whiskin. a shallow brown drinking bowl. whisky. a malt spirit much drank in ireland and scotland; also a one-horse chaise. see tim whisky. whistle. the throat. to wet one's whistle; to drink. whistling shop. rooms in the king's bench and fleet prison where drams are privately sold. whit. [i. e. whittington's.] newgate. cant.--five rum-padders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of newgate in the night, and are gone into the country. white ribbin. gin. white feather. he has a white feather; he is a coward; an allusion to a game cock, where having a white feather is a proof he is not of the true game breed. white-livered. cowardly, malicious. white lie. a harmless lie, one not told with a malicious intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance. white serjeant. a man fetched from the tavern or ale-house by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant. white swelling. a woman big with child is said to have a white swelling. white tape. geneva. white wool. geneva. whitechapel. whitechapel portion; two smocks, and what nature gave. whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and saucy: see st. giles's breed. whitechapel beau; one who dresses with a needle and thread, and undresses with a knife. to play at whist whitechapel fashion; i.e. aces and kings first. whitewashed. one who has taken the benefit of an act of insolvency, to defraud his creditors, is said to have been whitewashed. whitfielite. a follower of george whitfield, a methodist. whither-go-ye. a wife: wives being sometimes apt to question their husbands whither they are going. whittington's college. newgate; built or repaired by the famous lord mayor of that name. whore's bird. a debauched fellow, the largest of all birds. he sings more like a whore's bird than a canary bird; said of one who has a strong manly voice. whore's curse. a piece of gold coin, value five shillings and three pence, frequently given to women of the town by such as professed always to give gold, and who before the introduction of those pieces always gave half a guinea. whohe's kitling, or whore's son. a bastard. whore-monger. a man that keeps more than one mistress. a country gentleman, who kept a female friend, being reproved by the parson of the parish, and styled a whore-monger, asked the parson whether he had a cheese in his house; and being answered in the affirmative, 'pray,' says he, 'does that one cheese make you a cheese-monger?' whore pipe. the penis. whow ball. a milk-maid: from their frequent use of the word whow, to make the cow stand still in milking. ball is the supposed name of the cow. wibble. bad drink. wibling's witch. the four of clubs: from one james wibling, who in the reign of king james i. grew rich by private gaming, and was commonly observed to have that card, and never to lose a game but when he had it not. wicket. a casement; also a little door. widow's weeds. mourning clothes of a peculiar fashion, denoting her state. a grass widow; a discarded mistress. a widow bewitched; a woman whose husband is abroad, and said, but not certainly known, to be dead. wife. a fetter fixed to one leg. wife in water colours. a mistress, or concubine; water colours being, like their engagements, easily effaced, or dissolved. wigannowns. a man wearing a large wig. wigsby. wigsby; a man wearing a wig. wild rogues. rogues trained up to stealing from their cradles. wild squirt. a looseness. wild-goose chase. a tedious uncertain pursuit, like the following a flock of wild geese, who are remarkably shy. willing tit. a free horse, or a coming girl. willow. poor, and of no reputation. to wear the willow; to be abandoned by a lover or mistress. win. a penny, to win. to steal. the cull has won a couple of rum glimsticks; the fellow has stolen a pair of fine candlesticks. wind. to raise the wind; to procure mony. winder. transportation for life. the blowen has napped a winder for a lift; the wench is transported for life for stealing in a shop. wind-mill. the fundament. she has no fortune but her mills; i.e. she has nothing but her **** and a*se. windfall. a legacy, or any accidental accession of property. windmills in the head. foolish projects. window peeper. a collector of the window tax. windward passage. one who uses or navigates the windward passage; a sodomite. windy. foolish. a windy fellow; a simple fellow. wink. to tip one the wink; to give a signal by winking the eye. winnings. plunder, goods, or money acquired by theft. winter cricket. a taylor. winter's day. he is like a winter's day, short and dirty. wipe. a blow, or reproach. i'll give you a wipe on the chops. that story gave him a fine wipe. also a handkerchief. wiper. a handkerchief. cant. wiper drawer. a pickpocket, one who steals handkerchiefs. he drew a broad, narrow, cam, or specked wiper; he picked a pocket of a broad, narrow, cambrick, or coloured handkerchief. to wiredraw. to lengthen out or extend any book, letter, or discourse. wise. as wise as waltham's calf, that ran nine miles to suck a bull. wise men of gotham. gotham is a village in nottinghamshire; its magistrates are said to have attempted to hedge in a cuckow; a bush, called the cuckow's bush, is still shewn in support of the tradition. a thousand other ridiculous stories are told of the men of gotham. wiseacre. a foolish conceited fellow. wiseacre's hall. gresham college. wit. he has as much wit as three folks, two fools and a madman. witches. silver. witcher bubber; a silver bowl. witcher tilter; a silver-hilted sword. witcher cully; a silversmith. to wobble. to boil. pot wobbler; one who boils a pot. wolf in the breast. an extraordinary mode of imposition, sometimes practised in the country by strolling women, who have the knack of counterfeiting extreme pain, pretending to have a small animal called a wolf in their breasts, which is continually gnawing them. wolf in the stomach. a monstrous or canine appetite. wood. in a wood; bewildered, in a maze, in a peck of troubles, puzzled, or at a loss what course to take in any business. to look over the wood; to ascend the pulpit, to preach: i shall look over the wood at st. james's on sunday next. to look through the wood; to stand in the pillory. up to the arms in wood; in the pillory. wood pecker. a bystander, who bets whilst another plays. woodcock. a taylor with a long bill. wooden habeas. a coffin. a man who dies in prison is said to go out with a wooden habeas. he went out with a wooden habeas; i.e. his coffin. wooden spoon. (cambridge.) the last junior optime. see wrangler, optime. wooden horse. to ride the wooden horse was a military punishment formerly in use. this horse consisted of two or more planks about eight feet long, fixed together so as to form a sharp ridge or angle, which answered to the body of the horse. it was supported by four posts, about six feet long, for legs. a head, neck, and tail, rudely cut in wood, were added, which completed the appearance of a horse. on this sharp ridge delinquents were mounted, with their hands tied behind them; and to steady them (as it was said), and lest the horse should kick them off, one or more firelocks were tied to each leg. in this situation they were sometimes condemned to sit an hour or two; but at length it having been found to injure the soldiers materially, and sometimes to rupture them, it was left off about the time of the accession of king george i. a wooden horse was standing in the parade at portsmouth as late as the year . wooden ruff. the pillory. see norway neckcloth. wooden surtout. a coilin. woman of the town, or woman of pleasure. a prostitute. woman and her husband. a married couple, where the woman is bigger than her husband. woman's conscience. never satisfied. woman of all work. sometimes applied to a female servant, who refuses none of her master's commands. woolbird. a sheep. cant. wool gathering. your wits are gone a woolgathering; saying to an absent man, one in a reverie, or absorbed in thought. woolley crown. a soft-headed fellow. word grubbers. verbal critics, and also persons who use hard words in common discourse. word pecker. a punster, one who plays upon words. word of mouth. to drink by word of mouth, i.e. out of the bowl or bottle instead, of a glass. world. all the world and his wife; every body, a great company. worm. to worm out; to obtain the knowledge of a secret by craft, also to undermine or supplant. he is gone to the diet of worms; he is dead and buried, or gone to rothisbone. wranglers. at cambridge the first class (generally of twelve) at the annual examination for a degree. there are three classes of honours, wranglers, senior optimes, and junior optimes. wranglers are said to be born with golden spoons in their mouths, the senior optimes with silver, and the junior with leaden ones. the last junior optime is called the wooden spoon. those who are not qualified for honors are either in the gulf (that is, meritorious, but not deserving of being in the three first classes) or among the pollot [proofreaders note: greek letters] the many. see pluck, apostles, &c. wrap rascal. a red cloak, called also a roquelaire. wrapt up in warm flannel. drunk with spirituous liquors. he was wrapt up in the tail of his mother's smock; saying of any one remarkable for his success with the ladies. to be wrapt up in any one: to have a good opinion of him, or to be under his influence. wrinkle. a wrinkle-bellied whore; one who has had a number of bastards: child-bearing leaves wrinkles in a woman's belly. to take the wrinkles out of any one's belly; to fill it out by a hearty meal. you have one wrinkle more in your a-se; i.e. you have one piece of knowledge more than you had, every fresh piece of knowledge being supposed by the vulgar naturalists to add a wrinkle to that part. wry mouth and a pissen pair of breeches. hanging. wry neck day. hanging day. wyn. see win. xantippe. the name of socrates's wife: now used to signify a shrew or scolding wife. yaffling. eating. cant. to yam. to eat or stuff heartily. yankey, or yankey doodle. a booby, or country lout: a name given to the new england men in north america. a general appellation for an american. yarmouth capon. a red herring: yarmouth is a famous place for curing herrings. yarmouth coach. a kind of low two-wheeled cart drawn by one horse, not much unlike an irish car. yarmouth pye. a pye made of herrings highly spiced, which the city of norwich is by charter bound to present annually to the king. yarum. milk. cant. yea and nay man. a quaker, a simple fellow, one who can only answer yes, or no. yellow. to look yellow; to be jealous. i happened to call on mr. green, who was out: on coming home, and finding me with his wife, he began to look confounded blue, and was, i thought, a little yellow. yellow belly. a native of the fens of lincolnshire; an allusion to the eels caught there. yellow boys. guineas. to yelp. to cry out. yelper; a town cryer, also one apt to make great complaints on trifling occasions. yest. a contraction of yesterday. yoked. married. a yoke; the quantum of labour performed at one spell by husbandmen, the day's work being divided in summer into three yokes. kentish term. yorkshire tyke. a yorkshire clown. to come yorkshire over any one; to cheat him. young one. a familiar expression of contempt for another's ignorance, as "ah! i see you're a young one." how d'ye do, young one? to yowl. to cry aloud, or howl. zad. crooked like the letter z. he is a mere zad, or perhaps zed; a description of a very crooked or deformed person. zany. the jester, jack pudding, or merry andrew, to a mountebank. zedland. great part of the west country, where the letter z is substituted for s; as zee for see, zun for sun, preface to a dictionary of the english language by samuel johnson it is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pionier of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which learning and genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. every other authour may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few. i have, notwithstanding this discouragement, attempted a dictionary of the english language, which, while it was employed in the cultivation of every species of literature, has itself been hitherto neglected; suffered to spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance; resigned to the tyranny of time and fashion; and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation. when i took the first survey of my undertaking, i found our speech copious without order, and energetick without rules: wherever i turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection; adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity; and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writers of classical reputation or acknowledged authority. having therefore no assistance but from general grammar, i applied myself to the perusal of our writers; and noting whatever might be of use to ascertain or illustrate any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary, which, by degrees, i reduced to method, establishing to myself, in the progress of the work, such rules as experience and analogy suggested to me; experience, which practice and observation were continually increasing; and analogy, which, though in some words obscure, was evident in others. in adjusting the orthography, which has been to this time unsettled and fortuitous, i found it necessary to distinguish those irregularities that are inherent in our tongue, and perhaps coeval with it, from others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced. every language has its anomalies, which, though inconvenient, and in themselves once unnecessary, must be tolerated among the imperfections of human things, and which require only to be registered, that they may not be increased, and ascertained, that they may not be confounded: but every language has likewise its improprieties and absurdities, which it is the duty of the lexicographer to correct or proscribe. as language was at its beginning merely oral, all words of necessary or common use were spoken before they were written; and while they were unfixed by any visible signs, must have been spoken with great diversity, as we now observe those who cannot read catch sounds imperfectly, and utter them negligently. when this wild and barbarous jargon was first reduced to an alphabet, every penman endeavoured to express, as he could, the sounds which he was accustomed to pronounce or to receive, and vitiated in writing such words as were already vitiated in speech. the powers of the letters, when they were applied to a new language, must have been vague and unsettled, and therefore different hands would exhibit the same sound by different combinations. from this uncertain pronunciation arise in a great part the various dialects of the same country, which will always be observed to grow fewer, and less different, as books are multiplied; and from this arbitrary representation of sounds by letters, proceeds that diversity of spelling observable in the saxon remains, and i suppose in the first books of every nation, which perplexes or destroys analogy, and produces anomalous formations, that, being once incorporated, can never be afterward dismissed or reformed. of this kind are the derivatives length from long, strength from strong, darling from dear, breadth from broad, from dry, drought, and from high, height, which milton, in zeal for analogy, writes highth; quid te exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una [horace, epistles, ii. ii. ]; to change all would be too much, and to change one is nothing. this uncertainty is most frequent in the vowels, which are so capriciously pronounced, and so differently modified, by accident or affectation, not only in every province, but in every mouth, that to them, as is well known to etymologists, little regard is to be shewn in the deduction of one language from another. such defects are not errours in orthography, but spots of barbarity impressed so deep in the english language, that criticism can never wash them away: these, therefore, must be permitted to remain untouched; but many words have likewise been altered by accident, or depraved by ignorance, as the pronunciation of the vulgar has been weakly followed; and some still continue to be variously written, as authours differ in their care or skill: of these it was proper to enquire the true orthography, which i have always considered as depending on their derivation, and have therefore referred them to their original languages: thus i write enchant, enchantment, enchanter, after the french and incantation after the latin; thus entire is chosen rather than intire, because it passed to us not from the latin integer, but from the french entier. of many words it is difficult to say whether they were immediately received from the latin or the french, since at the time when we had dominions in france, we had latin service in our churches. it is, however, my opinion, that the french generally supplied us; for we have few latin words, among the terms of domestick use, which are not french; but many french, which are very remote from latin. even in words of which the derivation is apparent, i have been often obliged to sacrifice uniformity to custom; thus i write, in compliance with a numberless majority, convey and inveigh, deceit and receipt, fancy and phantom; sometimes the derivative varies from the primitive, as explain and explanation, repeat and repetition. some combinations of letters having the same power are used indifferently without any discoverable reason of choice, as in choak, choke; soap, sope; jewel, fuel, and many others; which i have sometimes inserted twice, that those who search for them under either form, may not search in vain. in examining the orthography of any doubtful word, the mode of spelling by which it is inserted in the series of the dictionary, is to be considered as that to which i give, perhaps not often rashly, the preference. i have left, in the examples, to every authour his own practice unmolested, that the reader may balance suffrages, and judge between us: but this question is not always to be determined by reputed or by real learning; some men, intent upon greater things, have thought little on sounds and derivations; some, knowing in the ancient tongues, have neglected those in which our words are commonly to be sought. thus hammond writes fecibleness for feasibleness, because i suppose he imagined it derived immediately from the latin; and some words, such as dependant, dependent, dependance, dependence, vary their final syllable, as one or another language is present to the writer. in this part of the work, where caprice has long wantoned without controul, and vanity sought praise by petty reformation, i have endeavoured to proceed with a scholar's reverence for antiquity, and a grammarian's regard to the genius of our tongue. i have attempted few alterations, and among those few, perhaps the greater part is from the modern to the ancient practice; and i hope i may be allowed to recommend to those, whose thoughts have been perhaps employed too anxiously on verbal singularities, not to disturb, upon narrow views, or for minute propriety, the orthography of their fathers. it has been asserted, that for the law to be known, is of more importance than to be right. change, says hooker, is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better. there is in constancy and stability a general and lasting advantage, which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction. much less ought our written language to comply with the corruptions of oral utterance, or copy that which every variation of time or place makes different from itself, and imitate those changes, which will again be changed, while imitation is employed in observing them. this recommendation of steadiness and uniformity does not proceed from an opinion, that particular combinations of letters have much influence on human happiness; or that truth may not be successfully taught by modes of spelling fanciful and erroneous: i am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to i forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: i wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote. in settling the orthography, i have not wholly neglected the pronunciation, which i have directed, by printing an accent upon the acute or elevated syllable. it will sometimes be found, that the accent is placed by the authour quoted, on a different syllable from that marked in the alphabetical series; it is then to be understood, that custom has varied, or that the authour has, in my opinion, pronounced wrong. short directions are sometimes given where the sound of letters is irregular; and if they are sometimes omitted, defect in such minute observations will be more easily excused, than superfluity. in the investigation both of the orthography and signification of words, their etymology was necessarily to be considered, and they were therefore to be divided into primitives and derivatives. a primitive word, is that which can be traced no further to any english root; thus circumspect, circumvent, circumstance, delude, concave and complicate, though compounds in the latin, are to us primitives. derivatives are all those that can be referred to any word in english of greater simplicity. the derivatives i have referred to their primitives, with an accuracy sometimes needless; for who does not see that remoteness comes from remote, lovely from love, concavity from concave, and demonstrative from demonstrate? but this grammatical exuberance the scheme of my work did not allow me to repress. it is of great importance in examining the general fabrick of a language, to trace one word from another, by noting the usual modes of derivation and inflection; and uniformity must be preserved in systematical works, though sometimes at the expence of particular propriety. among other derivatives i have been careful to insert and elucidate the anomalous plurals of nouns and preterites of verbs, which in the teutonick dialects are very frequent, and though familiar to those who have always used them, interrupt and embarrass the learners of our language. the two languages from which our primitives have been derived are the roman and teutonick: under the roman i comprehend the french and provincial tongues; and under the teutonick range the saxon, german, and all their kindred dialects. most of our polysyllables are roman, and our words of one syllable are very often teutonick. in assigning the roman original, it has perhaps sometimes happened that i have mentioned only the latin, when the word was borrowed from the french, and considering myself as employed only in the illustration of my own language, i have not been very careful to observe whether the latin word be pure or barbarous, or the french elegant or obsolete. for the teutonick etymologies, i am commonly indebted to junius and skinner, the only names which i have forborn to quote when i copied their books; not that i might appropriate their labours or usurp their honours, but that i might spare a perpetual repetition by one general acknowledgment. of these, whom i ought not to mention but with the reverence due to instructors and benefactors, junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning, and skinner in rectitude of understanding. junius was accurately skilled in all the northern languages. skinner probably examined the ancient and remoter dialects only by occasional inspection into dictionaries; but the learning of junius is often of no other use than to show him a track by which he may deviate from his purpose, to which skinner always presses forward by the shortest way. skinner is often ignorant, but never ridiculous: junius is always full of knowledge; but his variety distracts his judgment, and his learning is very frequently disgraced by his absurdities. the votaries of the northern muses will not perhaps easily restrain their indignation, when they find the name of junius thus degraded by a disadvantageous comparison; but whatever reverence is due to his diligence, or his attainments, it can be no criminal degree of censoriousness to charge that etymologist with want of judgment, who can seriously derive dream from drama, because life is a drama, and a drama is a dream? and who declares with a tone of defiance, that no man can fail to derive moan from [in greek], monos, single or solitary, who considers that grief naturally loves to be alone. [footnote: that i may not appear to have spoken too irreverently of junius, i have here subjoined a few specimens of his etymological extravagance. banish. religare, ex banno vel territorio exigere, in exilium agere. g. bannir. it. bandire, bandeggiare. h. bandir. b. bannen. aevi medii s criptores bannire dicebant. v. spelm. in bannum & in banleuga. quoniam vero regionum urbiumq; limites arduis plerumq; montibus, altis fluminibus, longis deniq; flexuosisq; angustissimarum viarum anfractibus includebantur, fieri potest id genus limites ban did ab eo quod [word in greek] & [word in greek] tarentinis olim, sicuti tradit hesychius, vocabantur [words in greek], "obliquae ac minime in rectum tendentes viae." ac fortasse quoque huc facit quod [word in greek], eodem hesychio teste, dicebant [words in greek] montes arduos. empty, emtie, vacuus, inanis. a. s. aemtiz. nescio an sint ab [word in greek] vel [word in greek]. vomo, evomo, vomitu evacuo. videtur interim etymologiam hanc non obscure firmare codex rush. mat. xii. . ubi antique scriptum invenimus [unknown language]. "invenit cam vacantem." hill, mons, collis. a. s. hyll. quod videri potest abscissum ex [word in greek] vel [word in greek]. collis, tumulus, locus in plano editior. hom. ii. b. v. , [words in greek]. ubi authori brevium scholiorum [ words in greek]. nap, to take a nap. dormire, condormiscere. cym. heppian. a. s. hnaeppan. quod postremum videri potest desumptum ex [word in greek], obscuritas, tenebrae: nihil enim aeque solet conciliare somnum, quam caliginosa profundae noctis obscuritas. stammerer, balbus, blaesus. goth. stamms. a. s. stamer, stamur. d. stam. b. stameler. su. stamma. isl. stamr. sunt a [word in greek] vel [word in greek] nimia loquacitate alios offendere; quod impedite loquentes libentissime garrire soleant; vel quod aliis nimii semper videantur, etiam parcissime loquentes.] our knowledge of the northern literature is so scanty, that of words undoubtedly teutonick the original is not always to be found in any ancient language; and i have therefore inserted dutch or german substitutes, which i consider not as radical but parallel, not as the parents, but sisters of the english. the words which are represented as thus related by descent or cognation, do not always agree in sense; for it is incident to words, as to their authours, to degenerate from their ancestors, and to change their manners when they change their country. it is sufficient, in etymological enquiries, if the senses of kindred words be found such as may easily pass into each other, or such as may both be referred to one general idea. the etymology, so far as it is yet known, was easily found in the volumes where it is particularly and professedly delivered; and, by proper attention to the rules of derivation, the orthography was soon adjusted. but to collect the words of our language was a task of greater difficulty: the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent; and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry should find, or chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of a living speech. my search, however, has been either skilful or lucky; for i have much augmented the vocabulary. as my design was a dictionary, common or appellative, i have omitted all words which have relation to proper names; such as arian, socinian, calvinist, benedictine, mahometan; but have retained those of a more general nature, as heathen, pagan. of the terms of art i have received such as could be found either in books of science or technical dictionaries; and have often inserted, from philosophical writers, words which are supported perhaps only by a single authority, and which being not admitted into general use, stand yet as candidates or probationers, and must depend for their adoption on the suffrage of futurity. the words which our authours have introduced by their knowledge of foreign languages, or ignorance of their own, by vanity or wantonness, by compliance with fashion or lust of innovation, i have registred as they occurred, though commonly only to censure them, and warn others against the folly of naturalizing useless foreigners to the injury of the natives. i have not rejected any by design, merely because they were unnecessary or exuberant; but have received those which by different writers have been differently formed, as viscid, and viscidity, viscous, and viscosity. compounded or double words i have seldom noted, except when they obtain a signification different from that which the components have in their simple state. thus highwayman, woodman, and horsecourser, require an explanation; but of thieflike or coachdriver no notice was needed, because the primitives contain the meaning of the compounds. words arbitrarily formed by a constant and settled analogy, like diminutive adjectives in ish, as greenish, bluish, adverbs in ly, as dully, openly, substantives in ness, as vileness, faultiness, were less diligently sought, and sometimes have been omitted, when i had no authority that invited me to insert them; not that they are not genuine and regular offsprings of english roots, but because their relation to the primitive being always the same, their signification cannot be mistaken. the verbal nouns in ing, such as the keeping of the castle, the leading of the army, are always neglected, or placed only to illustrate the sense of the verb, except when they signify things as well as actions, and have therefore a plural number, as dwelling, living; or have an absolute and abstract signification, as colouring, painting, learning. the participles are likewise omitted, unless, by signifying rather habit or quality than action, they take the nature of adjectives; as a thinking man, a man of prudence; a pacing horse, a horse that can pace: these i have ventured to call participial adjectives. but neither are these always inserted, because they are commonly to be understood, without any danger of mistake, by consulting the verb. obsolete words are admitted, when they are found in authours not obsolete, or when they have any force or beauty that may deserve revival. as composition is one of the chief characteristicks of a language, i have endeavoured to make some reparation for the universal negligence of my predecessors, by inserting great numbers of compounded words, as may be found under after, fore, new, night, fair, and many more. these, numerous as they are, might be multiplied, but that use and curiosity are here satisfied, and the frame of our language and modes of our combination amply discovered. of some forms of composition, such as that by which re is prefixed to note repetition, and un to signify contrariety or privation, all the examples cannot be accumulated, because the use of these particles, if not wholly arbitrary, is so little limited, that they are hourly affixed to new words as occasion requires, or is imagined to require them. there is another kind of composition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty. we modify the signification of many verbs by a particle subjoined; as to come off, to escape by a fetch; to fall on, to attack; to fall off, to apostatize; to break off, to stop abruptly; to bear out, to justify; to fall in, to comply; to give over, to cease; to set off, to embellish; to set in, to begin a continual tenour; to set out, to begin a course or journey; to take off, to copy; with innumerable expressions of the same kind, of which some appear wildly irregular, being so far distant from the sense of the simple words, that no sagacity will be able to trace the steps by which they arrived at the present use. these i have noted with great care; and though i cannot flatter myself that the collection is complete, i believe i have so far assisted the students of our language, that this kind of phraseology will be no longer insuperable; and the combinations of verbs and particles, by chance omitted, will be easily explained by comparison with those that may be found. many words yet stand supported only by the name of bailey, ainsworth, philips, or the contracted dict. for dictionaries subjoined; of these i am not always certain that they are read in any book but the works of lexicographers. of such i have omitted many, because i had never read them; and many i have inserted, because they may perhaps exist, though they have escaped my notice: they are, however, to be yet considered as resting only upon the credit of former dictionaries. others, which i considered as useful, or know to be proper, though i could not at present support them by authorities, i have suffered to stand upon my own attestation, claiming the same privilege with my predecessors of being sometimes credited without proof. the words, thus selected and disposed, are grammatically considered; they are referred to the different parts of speech; traced, when they are irregularly inflected, through their various terminations; and illustrated by observations, not indeed of great or striking importance, separately considered, but necessary to the elucidation of our language, and hitherto neglected or forgotten by english grammarians. that part of my work on which i expect malignity most frequently to fasten, is the explanation; in which i cannot hope to satisfy those, who are perhaps not inclined to be pleased, since i have not always been able to satisfy myself. to interpret a language by itself is very difficult; many words cannot be explained by synonimes, because the idea signified by them has not more than one appellation; nor by paraphrase, because simple ideas cannot be described. when the nature of things is unknown, or the notion unsettled and indefinite, and various in various minds, the words by which such notions are conveyed, or such things denoted, will be ambiguous and perplexed. and such is the fate of hapless lexicography, that not only darkness, but light, impedes and distresses it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily illustrated. to explain, requires the use of terms less abstruse than that which is to be explained, and such terms cannot always be found; for as nothing can be proved but by supposing something intuitively known, and evident without proof, so nothing can be defined but by the use of words too plain to admit a definition. other words there are, of which the sense is too subtle and evanescent to be fixed in a paraphrase; such are all those which are by the grammarians termed expletives, and, in dead languages, are suffered to pass for empty sounds, of no other use than to fill a verse, or to modulate a period, but which are easily perceived in living tongues to have power and emphasis, though it be sometimes such as no other form of expression can convey. my labour has likewise been much increased by a class of verbs too frequent in the english language, of which the signification is so loose and general, the use so vague and indeterminate, and the senses detorted so widely from the first idea, that it is hard to trace them through the maze of variation, to catch them on the brink of utter inanity, to circumscribe them by any limitations, or interpret them by any words of distinct and settled meaning; such are bear, break, come, cast, full, get, give, do, put, set, go, run, make, take, turn, throw. if of these the whole power is not accurately delivered, it must be remembered, that while our language is yet living, and variable by the caprice of every one that speaks it, these words are hourly shifting their relations, and can no more be ascertained in a dictionary, than a grove, in the agitation of a storm, can be accurately delineated from its picture in the water. the particles are among all nations applied with so great latitude, that they are not easily reducible under any regular scheme of explication: this difficulty is not less, nor perhaps greater, in english, than in other languages. i have laboured them with diligence, i hope with success; such at least as can be expected in a task, which no man, however learned or sagacious, has yet been able to perform. some words there are which i cannot explain, because i do not understand them; these might have been omitted very often with little inconvenience, but i would not so far indulge my vanity as to decline this confession: for when tully owns himself ignorant whether lessus, in the twelve tables, means a funeral song, or mourning garment; and aristotle doubts whether [word in greek] in the iliad, signifies a mule, or muleteer, i may surely, without shame, leave some obscurities to happier industry, or future information. the rigour of interpretative lexicography requires that the explanation, and the word explained, should always be reciprocal; this i have always endeavoured, but could not always attain. words are seldom exactly synonimous; a new term was not introduced, but because the former was thought inadequate: names, therefore, have often many ideas, but few ideas have many names. it was then necessary to use the proximate word, for the deficiency of single terms can very seldom be supplied by circumlocution; nor is the inconvenience great of such mutilated interpretations, because the sense may easily be collected entire from the examples. in every word of extensive use, it was requisite to mark the progress of its meaning, and show by what gradations of intermediate sense it has passed from its primitive to its remote and accidental signification; so that every foregoing explanation should tend to that which follows, and the series be regularly concatenated from the first notion to the last. this is specious, but not always practicable; kindred senses may be so interwoven, that the perplexity cannot be disentangled, nor any reason be assigned why one should be ranged before the other. when the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a consecutive series be formed of senses in their nature collateral? the shades of meaning sometimes pass imperceptibly into each other; so that though on one side they apparently differ, yet it is impossible to mark the point of contact. ideas of the same race, though not exactly alike, are sometimes so little different, that no words can express the dissimilitude, though the mind easily perceives it, when they are exhibited together; and sometimes there is such a confusion of acceptations, that discernment is wearied, and distinction puzzled, and perseverance herself hurries to an end, by crouding together what she cannot separate. these complaints of difficulty will, by those that have never considered words beyond their popular use, be thought only the jargon of a man willing to magnify his labours, and procure veneration to his studies by involution and obscurity. but every art is obscure to those that have not learned it: this uncertainty of terms, and commixture of ideas, is well known to those who have joined philosophy with grammar; and if i have not expressed them very clearly, it must be remembered that i am speaking of that which words are insufficient to explain. the original sense of words is often driven out of use by their metaphorical acceptations, yet must be inserted for the sake of a regular origination. thus i know not whether ardour is used for material heat, or whether flagrant, in english, ever signifies the same with burning; yet such are the primitive ideas of these words, which are therefore set first, though without examples, that the figurative senses may be commodiously deduced. such is the exuberance of signification which many words have obtained, that it was scarcely possible to collect all their senses; sometimes the meaning of derivatives must be sought in the mother term, and sometimes deficient explanations of the primitive may be supplied in the train of derivation. in any case of doubt or difficulty, it will be always proper to examine all the words of the same race; for some words are slightly passed over to avoid repetition, some admitted easier and clearer explanation than others, and all will be better understood, as they are considered in greater variety of structures and relations. all the interpretations of words are not written with the same skill, or the same happiness: things equally easy in themselves, are not all equally easy to any single mind. every writer of a long work commits errours, where there appears neither ambiguity to mislead, nor obscurity to confound him; and in a search like this, many felicities of expression will be casually overlooked, many convenient parallels will be forgotten, and many particulars will admit improvement from a mind utterly unequal to the whole performance. but many seeming faults are to be imputed rather to the nature of the undertaking, than the negligence of the performer. thus some explanations are unavoidably reciprocal or circular, as hind, the female of the stag; stag, the male of the hind: sometimes easier words are changed into harder, as burial into sepulture or interment, drier into desiccative, dryness into siccity or aridity, fit into paroxysm; for the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated into one more easy. but easiness and difficulty are merely relative, and if the present prevalence of our language should invite foreigners to this dictionary, many will be assisted by those words which now seem only to increase or produce obscurity. for this reason i have endeavoured frequently to join a teutonick and roman interpretation, as to cheer, to gladden, or exhilarate, that every learner of english may be assisted by his own tongue. the solution of all difficulties, and the supply of all defects, must be sought in the examples, subjoined to the various senses of each word, and ranged according to the time of their authours. when first i collected these authorities, i was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration of a word; i therefore extracted from philosophers principles of science; from historians remarkable facts; from chymists complete processes; from divines striking exhortations; and from poets beautiful descriptions. such is design, while it is yet at a distance from execution. when the time called upon me to range this accumulation of elegance and wisdom into an alphabetical series, i soon discovered that the bulk of my volumes would fright away the student, and was forced to depart from my scheme of including all that was pleasing or useful in english literature, and reduce my transcripts very often to clusters of words, in which scarcely any meaning is retained; thus to the weariness of copying, i was condemned to add the vexation of expunging. some passages i have yet spared, which may relieve the labour of verbal searches, and intersperse with verdure and flowers the dusty desarts of barren philology. the examples, thus mutilated, are no longer to be considered as conveying the sentiments or doctrine of their authours; the word for the sake of which they are inserted, with all its appendant clauses, has been carefully preserved; but it may sometimes happen, by hasty detruncation, that the general tendency of the sentence may be changed: the divine may desert his tenets, or the philosopher his system. some of the examples have been taken from writers who were never mentioned as masters of elegance or models of stile; but words must be sought where they are used; and in what pages, eminent for purity, can terms of manufacture or agriculture be found? many quotations serve no other purpose, than that of proving the bare existence of words, and are therefore selected with less scrupulousness than those which are to teach their structures and relations. my purpose was to admit no testimony of living authours, that i might not be misled by partiality, and that none of my cotemporaries might have reason to complain; nor have i departed from this resolution, but when some performance of uncommon excellence excited my veneration, when my memory supplied me, from late books, with an example that was wanting, or when my heart, in the tenderness of friendship, solicited admission for a favourite name. so far have i been from any care to grace my pages with modern decorations, that i have studiously endeavoured to collect examples and authorities from the writers before the restoration, whose works i regard as the wells of english undefiled, as the pure sources of genuine diction. our language, for almost a century, has, by the concurrence of many causes, been gradually departing from its original teutonick character, and deviating towards a gallick structure and phraseology, from which it ought to be our endeavour to recal it, by making our ancient volumes the ground-work of stile, admitting among the additions of later times, only such as may supply real deficiencies, such as are readily adopted by the genius of our tongue, and incorporate easily with our native idioms. but as every language has a time of rudeness antecedent to perfection, as well as of false refinement and declension, i have been cautious lest my zeal for antiquity might drive me into times too remote, and croud my book with words now no longer understood. i have fixed sidney's work for the boundary, beyond which i make few excursions. from the authours which rose in the time of elizabeth, a speech might be formed adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance. if the language of theology were extracted from hooker and the translation of the bible; the terms of natural knowledge from bacon; the phrases of policy, war, and navigation from raleigh; the dialect of poetry and fiction from spenser and sidney; and the diction of common life from shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind, for want of english words, in which they might be expressed. it is not sufficient that a word is found, unless it be so combined as that its meaning is apparently determined by the tract and tenour of the sentence; such passages i have therefore chosen, and when it happened that any authour gave a definition of a term, or such an explanation as is equivalent to a definition, i have placed his authority as a supplement to my own, without regard to the chronological order, that is otherwise observed. some words, indeed, stand unsupported by any authority, but they are commonly derivative nouns or adverbs, formed from their primitives by regular and constant analogy, or names of things seldom occurring in books, or words of which i have reason to doubt the existence. there is more danger of censure from the multiplicity than paucity of examples; authorities will sometimes seem to have been accumulated without necessity or use, and perhaps some will be found, which might, without loss, have been omitted. but a work of this kind is not hastily to be charged with superfluities: those quotations, which to careless or unskilful perusers appear only to repeat the same sense, will often exhibit, to a more accurate examiner, diversities of signification, or, at least, afford different shades of the same meaning: one will shew the word applied to persons, another to things; one will express an ill, another a good, and a third a neutral sense; one will prove the expression genuine from an ancient authour; another will shew it elegant from a modern: a doubtful authority is corroborated by another of more credit; an ambiguous sentence is ascertained by a passage clear and determinate; the word, how often soever repeated, appears with new associates and in different combinations, and every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. when words are used equivocally, i receive them in either sense; when they are metaphorical, i adopt them in their primitive acceptation. i have sometimes, though rarely, yielded to the temptation of exhibiting a genealogy of sentiments, by shewing how one authour copied the thoughts and diction of another: such quotations are indeed little more than repetitions, which might justly be censured, did they not gratify the mind, by affording a kind of intellectual history. the various syntactical structures occurring in the examples have been carefully noted; the licence or negligence with which many words have been hitherto used, has made our stile capricious and indeterminate; when the different combinations of the same word are exhibited together, the preference is readily given to propriety, and i have often endeavoured to direct the choice. thus have i laboured by settling the orthography, displaying the analogy, regulating the structures, and ascertaining the signification of english words, to perform all the parts of a faithful lexicographer: but i have not always executed my own scheme, or satisfied my own expectations. the work, whatever proofs of diligence and attention it may exhibit, is yet capable of many improvements: the orthography which i recommend is still controvertible, the etymology which i adopt is uncertain, and perhaps frequently erroneous; the explanations are sometimes too much contracted, and sometimes too much diffused, the significations are distinguished rather with subtilty than skill, and the attention is harrassed with unnecessary minuteness. the examples are too often injudiciously truncated, and perhaps sometimes, i hope very rarely, alleged in a mistaken sense; for in making this collection i trusted more to memory, than, in a state of disquiet and embarrassment, memory can contain, and purposed to supply at the review what was left incomplete in the first transcription. many terms appropriated to particular occupations, though necessary and significant, are undoubtedly omitted; and of the words most studiously considered and exemplified, many senses have escaped observation. yet these failures, however frequent, may admit extenuation and apology. to have attempted much is always laudable, even when the enterprize is above the strength that undertakes it: to rest below his own aim is incident to every one whose fancy is active, and whose views are comprehensive; nor is any man satisfied with himself because he has done much, but because he can conceive little. when first i engaged in this work, i resolved to leave neither words nor things unexamined, and pleased myself with a prospect of the hours which i should revel away in feasts of literature, with the obscure recesses of northern learning, which i should enter and ransack; the treasures with which i expected every search into those neglected mines to reward my labour, and the triumph with which i should display my acquisitions to mankind. when i had thus enquired into the original of words, i resolved to show likewise my attention to things; to pierce deep into every science, to enquire the nature of every substance of which i inserted the name, to limit every idea by a definition strictly logical, and exhibit every production of art or nature in an accurate description, that my book might be in place of all other dictionaries whether appellative or technical. but these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer. i soon found that it is too late to look for instruments, when the work calls for execution, and that whatever abilities i had brought to my task, with those i must finally perform it. to deliberate whenever i doubted, to enquire whenever i was ignorant, would have protracted the undertaking without end, and, perhaps, without much improvement; for i did not find by my first experiments, that that i had not of my own was easily to be obtained: i saw that one enquiry only gave occasion to another, that book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and to find was not always to be informed; and that thus to persue perfection, was, like the first inhabitants of arcadia, to chace the sun, which, when they had reached the hill where he seemed to rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them. i then contracted my design, determining to confide in myself, and no longer to solicit auxiliaries, which produced more incumbrance than assistance: by this i obtained at least one advantage, that i set limits to my work, which would in time be ended, though not completed. despondency has never so far prevailed as to depress me to negligence; some faults will at last appear to be the effects of anxious diligence and persevering activity. the nice and subtle ramifications of meaning were not easily avoided by a mind intent upon accuracy, and convinced of the necessity of disentangling combinations, and separating similitudes. many of the distinctions which to common readers appear useless and idle, will be found real and important by men versed in the school philosophy, without which no dictionary shall ever be accurately compiled, or skilfully examined. some senses however there are, which, though not the same, are yet so nearly allied, that they are often confounded. most men think indistinctly, and therefore cannot speak with exactness; and consequently some examples might be indifferently put to either signification: this uncertainty is not to be imputed to me, who do not form, but register the language; who do not teach men how they should think, but relate how they have hitherto expressed their thoughts. the imperfect sense of some examples i lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compensated by innumerable passages selected with propriety, and preserved with exactness; some shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom. the orthography and etymology, though imperfect, are not imperfect for want of care, but because care will not always be successful, and recollection or information come too late for use. that many terms of art and manufacture are omitted, must be frankly acknowledged; but for this defect i may boldly allege that it was unavoidable: i could not visit caverns to learn the miner's language, nor take a voyage to perfect my skill in the dialect of navigation, nor visit the warehouses of merchants, and shops of artificers, to gain the names of wares, tools and operations, of which no mention is found in books; what favourable accident, or easy enquiry brought within my reach, has not been neglected; but it had been a hopeless labour to glean up words, by courting living information, and contesting with the sullenness of one, and the roughness of another. to furnish the academicians della crusca with words of this kind, a series of comedies called la fiera, or the fair, was professedly written by buonaroti; but i had no such assistant, and therefore was content to want what they must have wanted likewise, had they not luckily been so supplied. nor are all words which are not found in the vocabulary, to be lamented as omissions. of the laborious and mercantile part of the people, the diction is in a great measure casual and mutable; many of their terms are formed for some temporary or local convenience, and though current at certain times and places, are in others utterly unknown. this fugitive cant, which is always in a state of increase or decay, cannot be regarded as any part of the durable materials of a language, and therefore must be suffered to perish with other things unworthy of preservation. care will sometimes betray to the appearance of negligence. he that is catching opportunities which seldom occur, will suffer those to pass by unregarded, which he expects hourly to return; he that is searching for rare and remote things, will neglect those that are obvious and familiar: thus many of the most common and cursory words have been inserted with little illustration, because in gathering the authorities, i forbore to copy those which i thought likely to occur whenever they were wanted. it is remarkable that, in reviewing my collection, i found the word sea unexemplified. thus it happens, that in things difficult there is danger from ignorance, and in things easy from confidence; the mind, afraid of greatness, and disdainful of littleness, hastily withdraws herself from painful searches, and passes with scornful rapidity over tasks not adequate to her powers, sometimes too secure for caution, and again too anxious for vigorous effort; sometimes idle in a plain path, and sometimes distracted in labyrinths, and dissipated by different intentions. a large work is difficult because it is large, even though all its parts might singly be performed with facility; where there are many things to be done, each must be allowed its share of time and labour, in the proportion only which it bears to the whole; nor can it be expected, that the stones which form the dome of a temple, should be squared and polished like the diamond of a ring. of the event of this work, for which, having laboured it with so much application, i cannot but have some degree of parental fondness, it is natural to form conjectures. those who have been persuaded to think well of my design, will require that it should fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. with this consequence i will confess that i flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that i have indulged expectation which neither reason nor experience can justify. when we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary nature, and clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation. with this hope, however, academies have been instituted, to guard the avenues of their languages, to retain fugitives, and repulse intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain; sounds are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength. the french language has visibly changed under the inspection of the academy; the stile of amelot's translation of father paul is observed by le courayer to be un peu passe; and no italian will maintain that the diction of any modern writer is not perceptibly different from that of boccace, machiavel, or caro. total and sudden transformations of a language seldom happen; conquests and migrations are now very rare: but there are other causes of change, which, though slow in their operation, and invisible in their progress, are perhaps as much superiour to human resistance, as the revolutions of the sky, or intumescence of the tide. commerce, however necessary, however lucrative, as it depraves the manners, corrupts the language; they that have frequent intercourse with strangers, to whom they endeavour to accommodate themselves, must in time learn a mingled dialect, like the jargon which serves the traffickers on the mediterranean and indian coasts. this will not always be confined to the exchange, the warehouse, or the port, but will be communicated by degrees to other ranks of the people, and be at last incorporated with the current speech. there are likewise internal causes equally forcible. the language most likely to continue long without alteration, would be that of a nation raised a little, and but a little above barbarity, secluded from strangers, and totally employed in procuring the conveniencies of life; either without books, or, like some of the mahometan countries, with very few: men thus busied and unlearned, having only such words as common use requires, would perhaps long continue to express the same notions by the same signs. but no such constancy can be expected in a people polished by arts, and classed by subordination, where one part of the community is sustained and accommodated by the labour of the other. those who have much leisure to think, will always be enlarging the stock of ideas, and every increase of knowledge, whether real or fancied, will produce new words, or combinations of words. when the mind is unchained from necessity, it will range after convenience; when it is left at large in the fields of speculation, it will shift opinions; as any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice. as by the cultivation of various sciences, a language is amplified, it will be more furnished with words deflected from original sense; the geometrician will talk of a courtier's zenith, or the excentrick virtue of a wild hero, and the physician of sanguine expectations and phlegmatick delays. copiousness of speech will give opportunities to capricious choice, by which some words will be preferred, and others degraded; vicissitudes of fashion will enforce the use of new, or extend the signification of known terms. the tropes of poetry will make hourly encroachments, and the metaphorical will become the current sense: pronunciation will be varied by levity or ignorance, and the pen must at length comply with the tongue; illiterate writers will at one time or other, by publick infatuation, rise into renown, who, not knowing the original import of words, will use them with colloquial licentiousness, confound distinction, and forget propriety. as politeness increases, some expressions will be considered as too gross and vulgar for the delicate, others as too formal and ceremonious for the gay and airy; new phrases are therefore adopted, which must, for the same reasons, be in time dismissed. swift, in his petty treatise on the english language, allows that new words must sometimes be introduced, but proposes that none should be suffered to become obsolete. but what makes a word obsolete, more than general agreement to forbear it? and how shall it be continued, when it conveys an offensive idea, or recalled again into the mouths of mankind, when it has once become unfamiliar by disuse, and unpleasing by unfamiliarity? there is another cause of alteration more prevalent than any other, which yet in the present state of the world cannot be obviated. a mixture of two languages will produce a third distinct from both, and they will always be mixed, where the chief part of education, and the most conspicuous accomplishment, is skill in ancient or in foreign tongues. he that has long cultivated another language, will find its words and combinations croud upon his memory; and haste and negligence, refinement and affectation, will obtrude borrowed terms and exotick expressions. the great pest of speech is frequency of translation. no book was ever turned from one language into another, without imparting something of its native idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehensive innovation; single words may enter by thousands, and the fabrick of the tongue continue the same, but new phraseology changes much at once; it alters not the single stones of the building, but the order of the columns. if an academy should be established for the cultivation of our stile, which i, who can never wish to see dependance multiplied, hope the spirit of english liberty will hinder or destroy, let them, instead of compiling grammars and dictionaries, endeavour, with all their influence, to stop the licence of translatours, whose idleness and ignorance, if it be suffered to proceed, will reduce us to babble a dialect of france. if the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses of humanity? it remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure. life may be lengthened by care, though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language. in hope of giving longevity to that which its own nature forbids to be immortal, i have devoted this book, the labour of years, to the honour of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology, without a contest, to the nations of the continent. the chief glory of every people arises from its authours: whether i shall add any thing by my own writings to the reputation of english literature, must be left to time: much of my life has been lost under the pressures of disease; much has been trifled away; and much has always been spent in provision for the day that was passing over me; but i shall not think my employment useless or ignoble, if by my assistance foreign nations, and distant ages, gain access to the propagators of knowledge, and understand the teachers of truth; if my labours afford light to the repositories of science, and add celebrity to bacon, to hooker, to milton, and to boyle. when i am animated by this wish, i look with pleasure on my book, however defective, and deliver it to the world with the spirit of a man that has endeavoured well. that it will immediately become popular i have not promised to myself: a few wild blunders, and risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly with laughter, and harden ignorance in contempt; but useful diligence will at last prevail, and there never can be wanting some who distinguish desert; who will consider that no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away; that a whole life cannot be spent upon syntax and etymology, and that even a whole life would not be sufficient; that he, whose design includes whatever language can express, must often speak of what he does not understand; that a writer will sometimes be hurried by eagerness to the end, and sometimes faint with weariness under a task, which scaliger compares to the labours of the anvil and the mine; that what is obvious is not always known, and what is known is not always present; that sudden fits of inadvertency will surprize vigilance, slight avocations will seduce attention, and casual eclipses of the mind will darken learning; and that the writer shall often in vain trace his memory at the moment of need, for that which yesterday he knew with intuitive readiness, and which will come uncalled into his thoughts tomorrow. in this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the authour, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the english dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow. it may repress the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our language is not here fully displayed, i have only failed in an attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed. if the lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages, inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge, and co-operating diligence of the italian academicians, did not secure them from the censure of beni; if the embodied criticks of france, when fifty years had been spent upon their work, were obliged to change its oeconomy, and give their second edition another form, i may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, which, if i could obtain, in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? i have protracted my work till most of those whom i wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: i therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise. the end [transcriber's notes: about this book: _a booke called the foundacion of rhetorike_ was published in . only five copies of the original are known to exist. this e-book was transcribed from microfiche scans of the original in the bodleian library at oxford university. the scans can be viewed at the bibliothèque nationale de france website at http://gallica.bnf.fr.
typography: the original line and paragraph breaks, hyphenation, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, inconsistent use of an acute accent over "ee", the use of u for v and vice versa, and the use of i for j and vice versa, have been preserved. all apparent printer errors have also been preserved, and are listed at the end of this document. the following alterations have been made: . long-s has been regularized as s. . the paragraph symbol, resembling a c in the original, is rendered as ¶. . missing punctuation, hyphens, and paragraph symbols have been added in brackets, e.g. [-]. . a decorative capital followed by a capital letter is represented here as two capital letters, e.g. nature. . except for the dedication, which is in modern italics, the majority of the original book is in blackletter font, with some words in a modern non-italic font. all modern-font passages are marked by underscores. . sidenotes have been placed in-line, approximately where they appear in the original. . incorrect page numbers have been corrected, but are included in the list of printer errors at the end of this e-book. . abbreviations and contractions represented as special characters in the original have been expanded as noted in the table below. a "macron" means a horizontal line over a letter. "supralinear" means directly over a letter; "sublinear" means directly under a letter. the "y" referred to below is an early modern english form of the anglo-saxon thorn character, representing "th," but identical in appearance to the letter "y." original expansion vowel with macron vowel[m] or vowel[n] y with supralinear e y^e (i.e., the) accented q with semicolon q[ue] w with supralinear curve w[ith] e with sublinear hook [ae] pagination: this book was paginated using folio numbers in a recto-verso scheme. the front of each folio is the recto page (the right-hand page); the back of each folio is the verso page (the left-hand page in a book). in the original, folio numbers (beginning after the table of contents) are printed only on the recto side of each leaf. for the reader's convenience, all folio pages in this e-book, including the verso pages, have been numbered in brackets according to the original format, with the addition of "r" for recto and "v" for verso, e.g., [fol. x.r] is folio recto, [fol. x.v] is folio verso. sources consulted: the uneven quality of the microfiche scans, as well as the blackletter font and some ink bleed-through in the original, made the scans difficult to read in some places. to ensure accuracy, the transcriber has consulted the facsimile reprint edited by francis r. johnson (scholars' facsimiles and reprints, new york, ). the facsimile reprint was prepared primarily from the bodleian copy, with several pages reproduced from the copy in the chapin library at williams college, williamstown, massachusetts, where the bodleian copy was unclear.] ¶ a booke cal- _led the foundacion of rhetorike, be-_ cause all other partes of _rhetorike_ are grounded thereupon, euery parte sette forthe in an oracion vpon questions, verie profitable to bee knowen and redde: made by ri- chard rainolde maister of arte, of the uniuersitie of cambridge. . _mens. marcij. vj._ _¶ imprinted at london, by ihon kingston._ the epistle dedicatorie ¶ _to the right honorable and my singuler good lorde,_ my lorde robert dudley, maister of the queenes maiesties horse, one of her highes pri- uie counsaile, and knight of the moste honou- rable order of the garter: richard rai- nolde wisheth longe life, with increase of honour. _aristotle the famous phi- losopher, writing a boke to king alexa[n]der, the great and migh- tie conquerour, began the epi- stle of his booke in these woor- des. twoo thynges moued me chieflie, o king, to betake to thy maiesties handes, this worke of my trauile and labour, thy nobilitie and vertue, of the whiche thy nobilitie encouraged me, thy greate and singuler vertue, indued with all humanitie, forced and draue me thereto. the same twoo in your good lordshippe, nobilitie and vertue, as twoo migh- tie pillers staied me, in this bolde enterprise, to make your good lordshippe, beyng a pere of honour, indued with all nobilitie and vertue: a patrone and possessoure of this my booke. in the whiche although copious and aboundaunte eloquence wanteth, to adorne and beau- tifie thesame, yet i doubte not for the profite, that is in this my trauaile conteined, your honour indued with all singuler humanitie, will vouchsaufe to accepte my willyng harte, my profitable purpose herein. many fa- mous menne and greate learned, haue in the greke tongue and otherwise trauailed, to profite all tymes their countrie and common wealthe. this also was my ende and purpose, to plante a worke profitable to all ty- mes, my countrie and common wealthe._ _and because your lordshippe studieth all singula- ritie to vertue, and wholie is incensed thereto: i haue compiled this woorke, and dedicated it to your lorde- shippe, as vnto who[m] moste noble and vertuous. wher- in are set forthe soche oracions, as are right profitable to bee redde, for knowledge also necessarie. the duetie of a subiecte, the worthie state of nobilitie, the prehe- minent dignitie and maiestie of a prince, the office of counsailours, worthie chiefe veneracion, the office of a iudge or magestrate are here set foorthe. in moste for- tunate state is the kyngdome and common wealthe, where the nobles and peres, not onelie daiely doe stu- die to vertue, for that is the wisedome, that all the graue and wise philophers searched to attaine to. for the ende of all artes and sciences, and of all noble actes and enterprises is vertue, but also to fauour and vphold the studentes of learnyng, whiche also is a greate ver- tue. whoso is adorned with nobilitie and vertue, of necessitie nobilitie and vertue, will moue and allure the[m] to fauour and support vertue in any other, yea, as tul- lie the moste famous oratour dooeth saie, euen to loue those who[m] we neuer sawe, but by good fame and brute beutified to vs. for the encrease of vertue, god dooeth nobilitate with honour worthie menne, to be aboue other in dignitie and state, thereupon vertue doeth encrease your lordshipps honor, beyng a louer of vertue and worthie no- bilitie._ your lordshippes humble ser- uaunt richard rainolde. _to the reader._ aphthonivs a famous man, wrote in greke of soche declamacions, to en- structe the studentes thereof, with all fa- cilitée to grounde in them, a moste plenti- ous and riche vein of eloquence. no man is able to inuente a more profitable waie and order, to instructe any one in the ex- quisite and absolute perfeccion, of wisedome and eloquence, then _aphthonius quintilianus_ and _hermogenes_. tullie al- so as a moste excellente orator, in the like sorte trauailed, whose eloquence and vertue all tymes extolled, and the of- spryng of all ages worthilie aduaunceth. and because as yet the verie grounde of rhetorike, is not heretofore intreated of, as concernyng these exercises, though in fewe yeres past, a learned woorke of rhetorike is compiled and made in the englishe toungue, of one, who floweth in all excellencie of arte, who in iudgement is profounde, in wisedome and elo- quence moste famous. in these therefore my diligence is em- ploied, to profite many, although not with like eloquence, beutified and adorned, as the matter requireth. i haue cho- sen out in these oracions soche questions, as are right ne- cessarie to be knowen and redde of all those, whose cogitacio[n] pondereth vertue and godlines. i doubte not, but seyng my trauaile toucheth vertuous preceptes, and vttereth to light, many famous histories, the order of arte obserued also, but that herein the matter it self, shall defende my purpose aga- inste the enuious, whiche seketh to depraue any good enter- prise, begon of any one persone. the enuious manne though learned, readeth to depraue that, which he readeth, the ignoraunt is no worthie iudge, the learned and godlie pondereth vp- rightly & sincerely, that which he iudgeth, the order of these oracions followeth afterward, and the names of the[m]. ¶ _the contentes of_ this booke. an oracion made, vpon the fable of the shepher- des and the wolues, the wolues requestyng the bandogges: wherein is set forthe the state of eue- ry subiecte, the dignitie of a prince, the honoura- ble office of counsailours. an oracion vpon the fable of the ante and the gres- hopper, teachyng prouidence. an oracion historicall, howe semiramis came to bee quéene of babilon. an oracion historicall, vpon kyng richard the thirde sometyme duke of glocester. an oracion historicall, of the commyng of iulius ce- ser into englande. an oracion ciuill or iudiciall, vpon themistocles, of the walle buildyng at athenes. an oracion poeticall vpon a redde rose. a profitable oracion, shewyng the decaie of kingdomes and nobilitie. an oracion vpon a sentence, preferryng a monarchie, conteinyng all other states of common wealthe. the confutacion of the battaile of troie. a confirmacion of the noble facte of zopyrus. an oracion called a common place against theues. the praise of epaminundas duke of thebes, wherein the grounde of nobilitée is placed. the dispraise of domicius nero emperour of roome. a comparison betwene demosthenes and tullie. a lamentable oracion of hecuba queene of troie. a descripcion vpon xerxes kyng of persia. an oracion called _thesis_, as concerning the goodly state of mariage. an oracion confutyng a certaine lawe of solon. [fol. j.r] _the foundacion of_ rhetorike. nature hath indued euery man, with a certain eloquence, and also subtili- [sidenote: rhetorike and logike giuen of na- ture.] tée to reason and discusse, of any que- stion or proposicion propounded, as _aristotle_ the philosopher, in his booke of _rhetorike_ dooeth shewe. these giftes of nature, singuler doe flowe and abounde in vs, accordyng to the greate and ample indumente and plentuousnes of witte and wisedome, lodged in vs, there- fore nature it self beyng well framed, and afterward by arte [sidenote: arte furthe- reth nature.] and order of science, instructed and adorned, must be singular- lie furthered, helped, and aided to all excellencie, to exquisite [sidenote: logike.] inuencion, and profounde knowledge, bothe in _logike_ and [sidenote: rhetorike.] _rhetorike_. in the one, as a oratour to pleate with all facili- tee, and copiouslie to dilate any matter or sentence: in the other to grounde profunde and subtill argument, to fortifie & make stronge our assercion or sentence, to proue and defende, by the [sidenote: logike.] force and power of arte, thinges passyng the compasse & reach of our capacitée and witte. nothyng can bee more excellently [sidenote: eloquence.] giuen of nature then eloquence, by the which the florishyng state of commonweales doe consiste: kyngdomes vniuersally are gouerned, the state of euery one priuatelie is maintained. the commonwealth also should be maimed, and debilitated, [sidenote: zeno.] except the other parte be associate to it. _zeno_ the philosopher comparing _rhetorike_ and _logike_, doeth assimilate and liken [sidenote: logike.] them to the hand of man. _logike_ is like faith he to the fiste, for euen as the fiste closeth and shutteth into one, the iointes and partes of the hande, & with mightie force and strength, wrap- [sidenote: similitude[.] logike.] peth and closeth in thynges apprehended: so _logike_ for the deepe and profounde knowlege, that is reposed and buried in it, in soche sort of municion and strength fortified, in few wor- des taketh soche force and might by argumente, that excepte [fol. j.v] like equalitée in like art and knowledge doe mate it, in vain the disputacion shalbe, and the repulse of thaduersarie readie. [sidenote: rhetorike like to the hande.] _rhetorike_ is like to the hand set at large, wherein euery part and ioint is manifeste, and euery vaine as braunches of trées [sidenote: rhetorike.] sette at scope and libertee. so of like sorte, _rhetorike_ in moste ample and large maner, dilateth and setteth out small thyn- ges or woordes, in soche sorte, with soche aboundaunce and plentuousnes, bothe of woordes and wittie inuencion, with soche goodlie disposicion, in soche a infinite sorte, with soche pleasauntnes of oracion, that the moste stonie and hard har- tes, can not but bee incensed, inflamed, and moued thereto. [sidenote: logike and rhetorike absolute in fewe.] these twoo singuler giftes of nature, are absolute and perfect in fewe: for many therebe, whiche are exquisite and profound in argument, by art to reason and discusse, of any question or proposicion propounded, who by nature are disabled, & smal- lie adorned to speake eloquently, in whom neuertheles more aboundaunt knowlege doeth somtymes remaine then in the other, if the cause shalbe in controuersie ioined, and examined to trie a manifeste truthe. but to whom nature hath giuen soche abilitée, and absolute excellencie, as that thei can bothe [sidenote: the vertue of eloquence.] copiouslie dilate any matter or sentence, by pleasauntnes and swetenes of their wittie and ingenious oracion, to drawe vn- to theim the hartes of a multitude, to plucke doune and extir- pate affeccio[n]s and perturbacions of people, to moue pitee and compassion, to speake before princes and rulers, and to per- swade theim in good causes and enterprises, to animate and incense them, to godlie affaires and busines, to alter the cou[n]- saill of kynges, by their wisedome and eloquence, to a better state, and also to be exquisite in thother, is a thing of all most [sidenote: demosthe- nes. tisias. gorgias. eschines[.] tullie. cato.] noble and excellent. the eloquence of demosthenes, isocra- tes, tisias, gorgias, eschines, were a great bulwarke and staie to athens and all grece, rome also by the like vertue of eloquence, in famous and wise orators vpholded: the wise and eloquente oracions of tullie againste catiline. the graue and sentencious oracions of cato in the senate, haue [fol. ij.r] [sidenote: the empe- rors of rome famous in eloquence.] been onelie the meane to vpholde the mightie state of rome, in his strength and auncient fame and glorie. also the chro- nicles of auncient time doe shewe vnto vs, the state of rome could by no meanes haue growen so meruailous mightie, but that god had indued the whole line of cesars, with sin- guler vertues, with aboundaunt knowlege & singuler elo- quence. thusidides the famous historiographer sheweth, [sidenote: thusidides.] how moche eloquence auailed the citees of grece, fallyng to [sidenote: corcurians.] dissencio[n]. how did the corcurians saue them selues from the [sidenote: pelopone- sians.] inuasio[n] and might, of the poloponesians, their cause pleated before the athenians, so moche their eloquence in a truthe [sidenote: corinthians[.]] preuailed. the ambassadours of corinth, wanted not their copious, wittie, and ingenious oracions, but thei pleated before mightie, wise, and graue senators, whose cause, ac- cordyng to iudgeme[n]t, truthe, and integritée was ended. the [sidenote: lacedemo- nians. vitulenia[n]s. athenians.] eloque[n]t embassages of the corinthia[n]s, the lacedemonia[n]s, & the vituleneans, the athenians, who so readeth, shall sone sée that of necessitee, a common wealth or kyngdome must be fortefied, with famous, graue, and wise counsailours. how [sidenote: demosthe- nes.] often did demosthenes saue the co[m]mon wealthes of athens, how moche also did that large dominion prospere and florish [sidenote: socrates. cato. crassus. antonius. catulus. cesar.] by isocrates. tullie also by his eloque[n]t please, cato, cras- sus, antonius, catulus cesar, with many other, did support and vphold the state of that mightie kyngdo[m]. no doubte, but that demosthenes made a wittie, copious, and ingenious o- racions, when the athenians were minded to giue and be- [sidenote: philippe the kyng of the macidonia[n]s[.]] take to the handes of philip kyng of the macedonians, their pestiferous enemie moste vile and subtell, the orators of a- thens. this philip forseyng the discorde of grece, as he by subtill meanes compassed his enterprices, promised by the faithe of a prince, to be at league with the athenians, if so be thei would betake to his handes, the eloquente oratours of [sidenote: the saiyng of philippe.] athens, for as long saith he, as your oratours are with you declaryng, so longe your heddes and counsaill are moued to variaunce and dissencion, this voice ones seased emong you, [fol. ij.v] [sidenote: demosthe- nes.] in tranquilitée you shalbee gouerned. demosthenes beyng eloquente and wise, foresawe the daungers and the mischie- uous intent of him, wherevpon he framed a goodly oracion vpon a fable, whereby he altered their counsaile, and repul- sed the enemie. this fable is afterward set forth in an ora- cion, after the order of these exercises, profitable to _rhetorike_. ¶ a fable. [sidenote: the ground of al learning[.]] firste it is good that the learner doe vnderstand what is a fable, for in all matters of learnyng, it is the firste grounde, as tullie doeth saie, to knowe what the thing is, that we may the bet- [sidenote: what is a fable.] ter perceiue whervpo[n] we doe intreate. a fable is a forged tale, co[n]taining in it by the colour of a lie, a matter [sidenote: morall.] of truthe. the moralle is called that, out of the whiche some godlie precepte, or admonicion to vertue is giuen, to frame and instruct our maners. now that we knowe what a fable is, it is good to learne also, how manifolde or diuers thei be, [sidenote: three sortes of fables. i. a fable of reason.] i doe finde three maner of fables to be. the first of theim is, wherein a man being a creature of god indued with reason, is onely intreated of, as the fable of the father and his chil- dren, he willing the[m] to concorde, and this is called _rationalis fabula_, whiche is asmoche to saie, as a fable of men indued [sidenote: ii. morall.] with reason, or women. the second is called a morall fable, but i sée no cause whie it is so called, but rather as the other is called a fable of reasonable creatures, so this is contrarilie named a fable of beastes, or of other thinges wanting reason or life, wanting reason as of the ante and the greshopper, or of this the beame caste doun, and the frogges chosyng their [sidenote: iii. mixt.] king. the thirde is a mixt fable so called, bicause in it bothe man hauyng reason, and a beaste wantyng reason, or any o- ther thing wanting life, is ioyned with it, as for the example, of the fable of the woodes and the housebandman, of whom [sidenote: poetes in- uentours of fables.] he desired a helue for his hatchet. aucthours doe write, that poetes firste inuented fables, the whiche oratours also doe [fol. iij.r] vse in their perswasions, and not without greate cause, both [sidenote: oratours vse fables.] poetes and oratours doe applie theim to their vse. for, fa- [sidenote: good doctrin in fables.] bles dooe conteine goodlie admonicion, vertuous preceptes [sidenote: hesiodus.] of life. hesiodus the poete, intreatyng of the iniurious dea- lyng of princes and gouernours, against their subiectes, ad- monished them by the fable of the goshauke, and the nigh- [sidenote: ouide.] tyngale in his clause. ouid also the poete intreated of di- uers fables, wherein he giueth admonicion, and godly coun- [sidenote: demosthe- nes vsed fa- bles.] saile. demosthenes the famous oratour of athens, vsed the fable of the shepeherdes, and wolues: how the wol- ues on a tyme, instauntlie required of the shepeherdes their bande dogges, and then thei would haue peace and concorde with theim, the shepeherdes gaue ouer their dogges, their dogges deliuered and murdered, the shepe were immediat- ly deuoured: so saieth he, if ye shall ones deliuer to philip, the king of the macedonians your oratours, by whose lear- nyng, knowlege and wisedome, the whole bodie of your do- minions is saued, for thei as bandogges, doe repell all mis- cheuous enterprises and chaunses, no doubte, but that raue- nyng wolfe philip, will eate and consume your people, by this fable he made an oracion, he altered their counsailes and heddes of the athenians, from so foolishe an enterprise. also thesame demosthenes, seyng the people careles, sloth- full, and lothsome to heare the oratours, and all for the flo- rishing state of the kingdome: he ascended to the place or pul- pet, where the oracions were made, and began with this fa- [sidenote: the fable of demosthe- nes, of the asse and the shadowe.] ble. ye men of athens, saied he, it happened on a tyme, that a certaine man hired an asse, and did take his iourney from athens to megara, as we would saie, fro[m] london to yorke, the owner also of the asse, did associate hymself in his iour- ney, to brynge backe the asse againe, in the voyage the weather was extreame burning hotte, and the waie tedious the place also for barenes and sterilitée of trees, wanted sha- dowe in this long broyle of heate: he that satte one the asse, lighted and tooke shadowe vnder the bellie of the asse, and [fol. iij.v] because the shadowe would not suffice bothe, the asse beyng small, the owner saied, he muste haue the shadowe, because the asse was his, i deny that saieth the other, the shadowe is myne, because i hired the asse, thus thei were at greate con- tencion, the fable beyng recited, demosthenes descended fro[m] his place, the whole multitude were inquisitiue, to knowe [sidenote: the conten- cion vpon the shadowe and the asse.] the ende about the shadowe, demosthenes notyng their fol- lie, ascended to his place, and saied, o ye foolishe athenians, whiles i and other, gaue to you counsaill and admonicio[n], of graue and profitable matters, your eares wer deafe, and your mindes slombred, but now i tell of a small trifeling matter, you throng to heare the reste of me. by this fable he nipped their follie, and trapped them manifestlie, in their owne dol- tishenes. herevpon i doe somwhat long, make copie of wor- [sidenote: fables well applied bee singuler.] des, to shewe the singularitee of fables well applied. in the tyme of kyng richard the thirde, doctour mourton, beyng bishop of elie, and prisoner in the duke of buckynghams house in wales, was often tymes moued of the duke, to speake his minde frelie, if king richard wer lawfully king, and said to him of his fidelitée, to kepe close and secret his sen- tence: but the bishop beyng a godlie man, and no lesse wise, waied the greate frendship, whiche was sometyme betwene the duke & king richard, aunswered in effect nothyng, but beyng daily troubled with his mocions & instigacions, spake a fable of esope: my lorde saied he, i will aunswere you, by [sidenote: the fable of the bisshop of elie, to the duke of buc- kyngham.] a fable of esope. the lion on a tyme gaue a commaunde- ment, that all horned beastes should flie from the woode, and none to remain there but vnhorned beastes. the hare hea- ring of this commaundement, departed with the horned bea- stes from the woodde: the wilie foxe metyng the hare, de- maunded the cause of his haste, forthwith the hare aunswe- red, a commaundemente is come from the lion, that all hor- ned beastes should bee exiled, vpon paine of death, from the woode: why saied the foxe, this commaundement toucheth not any sorte of beast as ye are, for thou haste no hornes but [fol. iiij.r] knubbes: yea, but said the hare, what, if thei saie i haue hor- nes, that is an other matter, my lorde i saie no more: what he ment, is euident to all men. in the time of king he[n]ry theight (a prince of famous me- morie) at what time as the small houses of religio[n], wer giuen ouer to the kinges hand, by the parliament house: the bishop of rochester, doctour fisher by name stepped forthe, beyng greued with the graunt, recited before them, a fable of esope to shewe what discommoditee would followe in the clergie. [sidenote: the fable of the bisshop of rochester, againste the graunt of the chauntries.] my lordes and maisters saieth he, esope recited a fable: how that on a tyme, a housebande manne desired of the woodes, a small helue for his hatchet, all the woodes consented thereto waiyng the graunt to be small, and the thyng lesse, therevpo[n] the woodes consented, in fine the housbande man cut doune a small peece of woodde to make a helue, he framyng a helue to the hatchette, without leaue and graunt, he cut doune the mightie okes and cedars, and destroyed the whole woodd, then the woodes repented them to late. so saith he, the gift of these small houses, ar but a small graunt into the kinges ha[n]- des: but this small graunt, will bee a waie and meane to pull doune the greate mightie fatte abbees, & so it happened. but there is repentau[n]ce to late: & no profite ensued of the graunte. ¶ an oracion made by a fable, to the first exer- cise to declame by, the other, bee these, { a fable, a narracion. _chria_, } { sentence. confutacion, } an oracion { confirmacion. common place. } made by a { the praise. the dispraise. } { the comparison, _ethopeia_. } { a discripcion. _thesis, legislatio_ } of euery one of these, a goodlie oracio[n] maie be made these excercises are called of the grekes _progimnas- mata_, of the latines, profitable introduccions, or fore exercises, to attain greater arte and knowlege in _rhetorike_, [fol. iiij.v] and bicause, for the easie capacitée and facilitée of the learner, to attain greater knowledge in _rhetorike_, thei are right pro- fitable and necessarie: therefore i title this booke, to bee the foundacio[n] of _rhetorike_, the exercises being _progimnasmata_. i haue chosen out the fable of the shepeherdes, and the wolues, vpon the whiche fable, demosthenes made an elo- quente, copious, and wittie oracion before the athenians, whiche fable was so well applied, that the citée and common wealth of athens was saued. [sidenote: the firste exercise.] ¶ a fable. these notes must be obserued, to make an oracion by a fable. ¶ praise. . firste, ye shall recite the fable, as the aucthour telleth it. . there in the seconde place, you shall praise the aucthoure who made the fable, whiche praise maie sone bee gotte of any studious scholer, if he reade the aucthours life and actes ther- in, or the godlie preceptes in his fables, shall giue abundant praise. . then thirdlie place the morall, whiche is the interpreta- cion annexed to the fable, for the fable was inuented for the moralles sake. . then orderlie in the fowerth place, declare the nature of thynges, conteined in the fable, either of man, fishe, foule, beaste, plante, trées, stones, or whatsoeuer it be. there is no man of witte so dulle, or of so grosse capacitée, but either by his naturall witte, or by reading, or sences, he is hable to saie somwhat in the nature of any thyng. . in the fifte place, sette forthe the thynges, reasonyng one with an other, as the ant with the greshopper, or the cocke with the precious stone. . the[n] in the vj. place, make a similitude of the like matter. . then in the seuenth place, induce an exa[m]ple for thesame matter to bée proued by. . laste of all make the _epilogus_, whiche is called the con- clusion, and herein marke the notes folowyng, how to make [fol. v.r] an oracion thereby. ¶ an oracion made vpon the fable of the shepeherdes and the wolues. ¶ the fable. the wolues on a tyme perswaded the shepeher- des, that thei would ioyne amitée, and make a league of concord and vnitee: the demaunde plea- sed the shepeherdes, foorthwith the wolues re- quested to haue custodie of the bande dogges, because els thei would be as thei are alwaies, an occasion to breake their league and peace, the dogges beyng giuen ouer, thei were one by one murthered, and then the shepe were wearied. ¶ the praise of the aucthour. the posteritee of tymes and ages, muste needes praise the wisedome and industrie, of all soche as haue lefte in monumentes of writyng, thynges worthie fame, [sidenote: inuentours of al excellent artes and sci- ences, com- mended to the posteritee.] what can bee more excellently set foorthe: or what deserueth chiefer fame and glorie, then the knowledge of artes and sci- ences, inuented by our learned, wise, and graue au[n]cestours: and so moche the more thei deserue honour, and perpetuall commendacions, because thei haue been the firste aucthours, and beginners to soche excellencies. the posteritée praiseth [sidenote: apelles. parthesius. polucletus.] and setteth forth the wittie and ingenious workes of apelles, parthesius, and polucletus, and all soche as haue artificial- ly set forth their excellent giftes of nature. but if their praise for fame florishe perpetuallie, and increaseth for the wor- thines of theim, yet these thynges though moste excellent, are [sidenote: the ende of all artes, is to godlie life.] inferiour to vertue: for the ende of artes and sciences, is ver- tue and godlines. neither yet these thynges dissonaunt from vertue, and not associate, are commendable onely for vertues sake: and to the ende of vertue, the wittes of our auncestours were incensed to inuent these thynges. but herein polucle- tus, apelles, and perthesius maie giue place, when greater [sidenote: esope wor- thie moche commendacio[n][.]] vertues come in place, then this my aucthour esope, for his godly preceptes, wise counsaill and admonicion, is chiefly to [fol. v.v] bée praised: for, our life maie learne all goodnes, all vertue, [sidenote: philophie in fables.] of his preceptes. the philosophers did neuer so liuely sette forthe and teache in their scholes and audience, what vertue [sidenote: realmes maie learne concorde out of esopes fables.] and godlie life were, as esope did in his fables, citees, and common wealthes, maie learne out of his fables, godlie con- corde and vnitee, by the whiche meanes, common wealthes florisheth, and kingdoms are saued. herein ample matter ri- seth to princes, and gouernours, to rule their subiectes in all [sidenote: preceptes to kynges and subiectes. preceptes to parentes and children.] godlie lawes, in faithfull obedience: the subiectes also to loue and serue their prince, in al his affaires and busines. the fa- ther maie learne to bring vp, and instructe his childe thereby. the child also to loue and obeie his parentes. the huge and monsterous vices, are by his vertuous doctrine defaced and extirpated: his fables in effect contain the mightie volumes and bookes of all philosophers, in morall preceptes, & the in- [sidenote: the content of al lawes.] finite monume[n]tes of lawes stablished. if i should not speake of his commendacion, the fruictes of his vertue would shewe his commendacions: but that praise surmounteth all fame of [sidenote: a true praise comme[n]ded by fame it self.] glory, that commendeth by fame itself, the fruictes of fame in this one fable, riseth to my aucthour, whiche he wrote of the shepeherd, and the wolues. ¶ the morall. wherein esope wittely admonisheth all menne to be- ware and take heede, of cloked and fained frendship, of the wicked and vngodlie, whiche vnder a pretence and offer of frendship or of benefite, seeke the ruin, dammage, miserie or destruccion of man, toune, citée, region, or countree. ¶ the nature of the thyng. of all beastes to the quantitée of his bodie, the [sidenote: the wolue moste raue- ning & cruell.] wolue passeth in crueltee and desire of bloode, alwaies vnsaciable of deuouryng, neuer conten- ted with his pray. the wolfe deuoureth and ea- teth of his praie all in feare, and therefore oftentymes he ca- steth his looke, to be safe from perill and daunger. and herein [fol. vj.r] his nature is straunge fro[m] all beastes: the iyes of the wolfe, tourned from his praie immediatlie, the praie prostrate vnder [sidenote: the wolues of all beastes, moste obliui- ous.] his foote is forgotten, and forthwith he seeketh a newe praie, so greate obliuion and debilitée of memorie, is giuen to that beaste, who chieflie seketh to deuoure his praie by night. the [sidenote: the wolue inferiour to the bandogge[.]] wolues are moche inferior to the banddogges in strength, bi- cause nature hath framed the[m] in the hinder parts, moche more weaker, and as it were maimed, and therefore the bandogge dooeth ouermatche theim, and ouercome them in fight. the wolues are not all so mightie of bodie as the bandogges, of diuers colours, of fight more sharpe, of lesse heddes: but in [sidenote: the dogge passeth all creatures in smellyng.] smellyng, the nature of a dogge passeth all beastes and creatures, whiche the historie of plinie dooe shewe, and ari- stotle in his booke of the historie of beastes, therein you shall knowe their excellente nature. the housholde wanteth not faithfull and trustie watche nor resistaunce, in the cause of the [sidenote: plinie.] maister, the bandogge not wantyng. plinie sheweth out of his historie, how bandogges haue saued their maister, by their resistaunce. the dogge of all beastes sheweth moste loue, and neuer leaueth his maister: the worthines of the ba[n]- dogge is soche, that by the lawe in a certaine case, he is coun- ted accessarie of felonie, who stealeth a bandogge from his maister, a robberie immediatly folowing in thesame family. [sidenote: the worthi- nes of shepe[.]] as concernyng the shepe, for their profite and wealthe, that riseth of theim, are for worthines, waiyng their smalle quantitie of bodie, aboue all beastes. their fleshe nourisheth purely, beyng swete and pleasaunt: their skinne also serueth [sidenote: the wolle of shepe, riche and commo- dious.] to diuers vses, their wolles in so large and ample maner, commmodious, seruyng all partes of common wealthes. no state or degrée of persone is, but that thei maie goe cladde and adorned with their wolles. so god in his creatures, hath [sidenote: man a chief creature.] created and made man, beyng a chief creatour, and moste ex- cellent of all other, all thinges to serue him: and therefore the [sidenote: stoike phi- losophers.] stoicke philosophers doe herein shewe thexcellencie of man to be greate, when all thinges vpon the yearth, and from the [fol. vj.v] yearth, doe serue the vse of man, yet emong men there is a di- uersitee of states, and a difference of persones, in office and co[n]- [sidenote: the office of the shepeher- des, are pro- fitable and necessarie.] dicion of life. as concernyng the shepherde, he is in his state and condicion of life, thoughe meane, he is a righte profi- table and necessarie member, to serue all states in the commo[n] wealthe, not onely to his maister whom he serueth: for by his diligence, and warie keping of the[m], not onely from rauenyng beastes, but otherwise he is a right profitable member, to all [sidenote: wealth, pro- fit, and riches riseth of the wolles of shepe.] partes of the common wealth. for, dailie wée féele the co[m]mo- ditie, wealth and riches, that riseth of theim, but the losse wée féele not, except flockes perishe. in the body of man god hath created & made diuerse partes, to make vp a whole and abso- lute man, whiche partes in office, qualitée and worthinesse, are moche differing. the bodie of man it self, for the excellent workemanship of god therein, & meruailous giftes of nature [sidenote: man called of the philo- sophers, a lit- tle worlde.] and vertues, lodged and bestowed in thesame bodie, is called of the philosophers _microcosmos_, a little worlde. the body of man in all partes at co[n]cord, euery part executing his func- cion & office, florisheth, and in strength prospereth, otherwise [sidenote: the bodie of man without concord of the partes, peri- sheth.] thesame bodie in partes disseuered, is feeble and weake, and thereby falleth to ruin, and perisheth. the singuler fable of esope, of the belie and handes, manifestlie sheweth thesame [sidenote: the common wealthe like to the bodie of manne.] and herein a florishing kingdom or common wealth, is com- pared to the body, euery part vsing his pure vertue, stre[n]gth & [sidenote: menenius.] operacion. menenius agrippa, at what time as the romai- were at diuision against the senate, he vsed the fable of e- sope, wherewith thei were perswaded to a concorde, and vni- [sidenote: the baseste parte of the bodie moste necessarie.] tée. the vilest parte of the bodie, and baseste is so necessarie, that the whole bodie faileth and perisheth, thesame wantyng although nature remoueth them from our sight, and shame fastnes also hideth theim: take awaie the moste vilest parte of the bodie, either in substaunce, in operacion or function, and forthwith the principall faileth. so likewise in a kyngdome, or common wealth, the moste meane and basest state of man taken awaie, the more principall thereby ceaseth: so god to [fol. vij.r] [sidenote: the amiable parte of the body doe con- siste, by the baseste and moste defor- meste.] a mutuall concorde, frendship, and perpetuall societie of life, hath framed his creatures, that the moste principall faileth, it not vnited with partes more base and inferiour, so moche the might and force of thynges excellente, doe consiste by the moste inferiour, other partes of the bodie more amiable and pleasaunt to sight, doe remain by the force, vse and integritée of the simpliest. the prince and chief peres doe decaie, and al the whole multitude dooe perishe: the baseste kinde of menne [sidenote: the shepe- herdes state necessarie.] wantyng. remoue the shepeherdes state, what good follo- weth, yea, what lacke and famine increaseth not: to all states [sidenote: the state of the husbande manne, moste necessarie.] the belie ill fedde, our backes worse clad. the toilyng house- bandman is so necessarie, that his office ceasyng vniuersallie the whole bodie perisheth, where eche laboureth to further and aide one an other, this a common wealth, there is pro- sperous state of life. the wisest prince, the richest, the migh- tiest and moste valianntes, had nede alwaies of the foolishe, the weake, the base and simplest, to vpholde his kingdomes, not onely in the affaires of his kyngdomes, but in his dome- sticall thinges, for prouisio[n] of victuall, as bread, drinke, meat[,] clothyng, and in all soche other thynges. therefore, no office or state of life, be it neuer so méete, seruyng in any part of the [sidenote: no meane state, to be contempned.] common wealthe, muste bée contemned, mocked, or skorned at, for thei are so necessarie, that the whole frame of the com- mon wealth faileth without theim: some are for their wicked behauiour so detestable, that a common wealthe muste séeke [sidenote: rotten mem[-] bers of the co[m][-] mon wealth.] meanes to deface and extirpate theim as wéedes, and rotten members of the bodie. these are thefes, murtherers, and ad- ulterers, and many other mischiuous persones. these godly lawes, vpright and sincere magistrates, will extirpate and cutte of, soche the commo wealth lacketh not, but rather ab- horreth as an infectiue plague and pestilence, who in thende through their owne wickednesse, are brought to mischief. [sidenote: plato.] read plato in his booke, intiteled of the common wealth who sheweth the state of the prince, and whole realme, to stande and consiste by the vnitee of partes, all states of the co[m]- [fol. vij.v] [sidenote: a common wealth doe consiste by vnitie of all states.] mon wealth, in office diuers, for dignitée and worthines, bea- ring not equalitée in one consociatée and knit, doe raise a per- fite frame, and bodie of kingdome or common wealthe. [sidenote: aristotle. what is a co[m]- mon wealth.] aristotle the philosopher doeth saie, that a co[m]mon welth is a multitude gathered together in one citée, or region, in state and condicion of life differing, poore and riche, high and low, wise and foolishe, in inequalitee of minde and bodies dif- feryng, for els it can not bée a common wealthe. there must be nobles and peres, kyng and subiect: a multitude inferiour and more populous, in office, maners, worthines alteryng. [sidenote: a liuely exa[m]- ple of commo[n] wealthe.] manne needeth no better example, or paterne of a common wealthe, to frame hymself, to serue in his state and callyng, then to ponder his owne bodie. there is but one hedde, and many partes, handes, feete, fingers, toes, ioyntes, veines, si- newes, belie, and so forthe: and so likewise in a co[m]mon welth there muste be a diuersitee of states. ¶ the reasonyng of the thynges conteined in this fable. thus might the wolues reason with them sel- ues, of their embassage: the wolues dailie molested and wearied, with the fearce ragyng masties, and ouercome in fight, of their power and might: one emong the reste, more politike and wise then the other, called an assemble and counsaill of [sidenote: the counsail of wolues.] wolues, and thus he beganne his oracion. my felowes and compaignions, sithe nature hath from the beginnyng, made vs vnsaciable, cruell, liuyng alwaies by praies murthered, and bloodie spoiles, yet enemies wée haue, that séeke to kepe vnder, and tame our woluishe natures, by greate mightie bandogges, and shepeherdes curres. but nature at the firste, did so depely frame and set this his peruerse, cruell, and bloodie moulde in vs, that will thei, nill thei, our nature wil bruste out, and run to his owne course. i muse moche, wai- yng the line of our firste progenitour, from whence we came [fol. viij.r] firste: for of a man wee came, yet men as a pestiferous poison doe exile vs, and abandon vs, and by dogges and other sub- [sidenote: lycaon.] till meanes doe dailie destroie vs. lycaon, as the poetes doe faine, excedyng in all crueltées and murthers horrible, by the murther of straungers, that had accesse to his land: for he was king and gouernor ouer the molossians, and in this we maie worthilie glorie of our firste blood and long auncientrée, that [sidenote: the firste progenie of wolues.] he was not onelie a man, but a kyng, a chief pere and gouer- nour: by his chaunge and transubstanciacion of bodie, wée loste by him the honour and dignitee due to him, but his ver- tues wée kepe, and daily practise to followe them. the fame [sidenote: the inuen- cion of the poet ouide to compare a wicked man, to a wolue.] of lycaons horrible life, ascended before iupiter, iupiter the mightie god, moued with so horrible a facte, left his heauen- lie palace, came doune like an other mortall man, and passed doune by the high mountaine minalus, by twilighte, and so to licaons house, our firste auncestoure, to proue, if this [sidenote: lycaon.] thing was true. lycaon receiued this straunger, as it semed doubtyng whether he were a god, or a manne, forthwith he feasted him with mannes fleshe baked, iupiter as he can doe [sidenote: lycaon chau[n]- ged into a wolue.] what he will, brought a ruine on his house, and transubstan- ciated hym, into this our shape & figure, wherein we are, and so sens that time, wolues were firste generated, and that of manne, by the chaunge of lycaon, although our shape is chaunged from the figure of other men, and men knoweth [sidenote: wolue. manne.] vs not well, yet thesame maners that made wolues, remai- neth vntill this daie, and perpetuallie in men: for thei robbe, thei steale, and liue by iniurious catching, we also robbe, al- so wée steale, and catche to our praie, what wee maie with murther come to. thei murther, and wee also murther, and so in all poinctes like vnto wicked menne, doe we imitate the like fashion of life, and rather thei in shape of men, are wol- ues, and wee in the shape of wolues menne: of all these thynges hauyng consideracion, i haue inuented a pollicie, whereby we maie woorke a slauter, and perpetuall ruine on the shepe, by the murther of the bandogges. and so wée [fol. viij.v] shall haue free accesse to our bloodie praie, thus we will doe, wee will sende a embassage to the shepeherdes for peace, [sidenote: the counsail of wolues.] saiyng, that wee minde to ceasse of all bloodie spoile, so that thei will giue ouer to vs, the custodie of the bandogges, for otherwise the embassage sent, is in vaine: for their dogges being in our handes, and murthered one by one, the daunger and enemie taken awaie, we maie the better obtain and en- ioye our bloodie life. this counsaill pleased well the assem- ble of the wolues, and the pollicie moche liked theim, and with one voice thei houled thus, thus. immediatlie co[m]muni- cacion was had with the shepeherdes of peace, and of the gi- uyng ouer of their bandogges, this offer pleased theim, thei co[n]cluded the peace, and gaue ouer their bandogges, as pled- ges of thesame. the dogges one by one murthered, thei dis- solued the peace, and wearied the shepe, then the shepeher- des repented them of their rashe graunt, and foly committed: [sidenote: the counsail of wicked me[n] to mischief.] so of like sorte it alwaies chaunceth, tyrauntes and bloodie menne, dooe seke alwaies a meane, and practise pollicies to destroye all soche as are godlie affected, and by wisedome and godlie life, doe seke to subuerte and destroie, the mischeuous [sidenote: the cogita- cions of wic- ked men, and their kyngdo[m] bloodie.] enterprise of the wicked. for, by crueltie their woluishe na- tures are knowen, their glorie, strength, kyngdome and re- nowne, cometh of blood, of murthers, and beastlie dealynges and by might so violent, it continueth not: for by violence and blooddie dealyng, their kyngdome at the last falleth by blood and bloodilie perisheth. the noble, wise, graue, and goodlie counsailes, are with all fidelitée, humblenes and sincere har- [sidenote: the state of counsailours worthie chief honour and veneracion.] tes to be obeied, in worthines of their state and wisedome, to be embraced in chief honour and veneracion to bee taken, by whose industrie, knowledge and experience, the whole bodie of the common wealth and kyngdome, is supported and sa- ued. the state of euery one vniuersallie would come to par- dicion, if the inuasion of foraine princes, by the wisedom and pollicie of counsailers, were not repelled. the horrible actes of wicked men would burste out, and a confusion ensue in al [fol. ix.r] states, if the wisedom of politike gouernors, if good lawes if the power and sword of the magistrate, could uot take place. the peres and nobles, with the chief gouernour, standeth as [sidenote: plato.] shepherds ouer the people: for so plato alledgeth that name well and properlie giuen, to princes and gouernours, the [sidenote: homere.] which homere the poete attributeth, to agamemnon king of grece: to menelaus, ulisses, nestor, achillas, diomedes, [sidenote: the shepe- herdes name giue[n] to the of- fice of kyngs.] aiax, and al other. for, bothe the name and care of that state of office, can be titeled by no better name in all pointes, for di- ligent kepyng, for aide, succoryng, and with all equitie tem- peryng the multitude: thei are as shepeherdes els the selie poore multitude, would by an oppression of pestiferous men. the commonaltee or base multitude, liueth more quietlie [sidenote: the state or good counsai- lers, trou- blous.] then the state of soche as daily seke, to vpholde and maintaine the common wealthe, by counsaill and politike deliberacion, how troublous hath their state alwaies been: how vnquiete from time to time, whose heddes in verie deede, doeth seke for a publike wealth. therefore, though their honor bée greater, and state aboue the reste, yet what care, what pensiuenesse of minde are thei driuen vnto, on whose heddes aucthoritée and regiment, the sauegard of innumerable people doeth depend. [sidenote: a comparison from a lesse, to a greater.] if in our domesticall businesse, of matters pertainyng to our housholde, euery man by nature, for hym and his, is pensiue, moche more in so vaste, and infinite a bodie of co[m]mon wealth, greater must the care be, and more daungerous deliberacion. we desire peace, we reioyce of a tranquilitée, and quietnesse to ensue, we wishe, to consist in a hauen of securitée: our hou- ses not to be spoiled, our wiues and children, not to bee mur- [sidenote: the worthie state of prin- ces and coun- sailours.] thered. this the prince and counsailours, by wisedome fore- sée, to kéepe of, all these calamitées, daungers, miseries, the whole multitude, and bodie of the common wealthe, is without them maimed, weake and feable, a readie confusion to the enemie. therefore, the state of peeres and nobles, is with all humilitée to be obaied, serued and honored, not with- out greate cause, the athenians were drawen backe, by the [fol. ix.v] wisedome of demosthenes, when thei sawe the[m] selues a slau- ter and praie, to the enemie. ¶ a comparson of thynges. what can bée more rashly and foolishly doen, then the shepeherdes, to giue ouer their dogges, by whose might and strength, the shepe were saued: on the o- ther side, what can be more subtlie doen and craftely, then the wolues, vnder a colour of frendship and amitee, to séeke the [sidenote: the amitie of wicked menne.] blood of the shepe, as all pestiferous men, vnder a fained pro- fer of amitée, profered to seeke their owne profite, commoditee and wealthe, though it be with ruine, calamitie, miserie, de- struccion of one, or many, toune, or citée, region and countree, whiche sort of men, are moste detestable and execrable. ¶ the contrarie. as to moche simplicitie & lacke of discrecion, is a fur- theraunce to perill and daunger: so ofte[n]times, he ta- [sidenote: to beleue lightly, afur- theraunce to perill.] steth of smarte and woe, who lightly beleueth: so con- trariwise, disimulacio[n] in mischeuous practises begon w[ith] fre[n]d- ly wordes, in the conclusion doeth frame & ende pernisiouslie. ¶ the _epilogus_. therefore fained offers of frendship, are to bee taken heede of, and the acte of euery man to bee examined, proued, and tried, for true frendship is a rare thyng, when as tullie doth saie: in many ages there are fewe cou- ples of friendes to be found, aristotle also co[n]cludeth thesame. ¶ the fable of the ante, and greshopper. ¶ the praise of the aucthour. [sidenote: the praise of esope.] esope who wrote these fables, hath chief fame of all learned aucthours, for his philosophie, and giuyng wisedome in preceptes: his fables dooe shewe vnto all states moste wholsome doctrine of vertuous life. he who- ly extolleth vertue, and depresseth vice: he correcteth all states and setteth out preceptes to amende them. although he was deformed and ill shaped, yet nature wrought in hym soche [fol. x.r] vertue, that he was in minde moste beautifull: and seing that the giftes of the body, are not equall in dignitie, with the ver- tue of the mynde, then in that esope chiefly excelled, ha- uyng the moste excellente vertue of the minde. the wisedom [sidenote: cresus.] and witte of esope semed singuler: for at what tyme as cre- sus, the kyng of the lidians, made warre against the sami- ans, he with his wisedome and pollicie, so pacified the minde of cresus, that all warre ceased, and the daunger of the coun- [sidenote: samians.] tree was taken awaie, the samia[n]s deliuered of this destruc- cion and warre, receiued esope at his retourne with many honours. after that esope departyng from the isle samus, wandered to straunge regions, at the laste his wisedome be- [sidenote: licerus.] yng knowen: licerus the kyng of that countrée, had hym in soche reuerence and honor, that he caused an image of gold to be set vp in the honour of esope. after that, he wanderyng [sidenote: delphos.] ouer grece, to the citée of delphos, of whom he beyng mur- thered, a greate plague and pestilence fell vpon the citee, that reuenged his death: as in all his fables, he is moche to bee commended, so in this fable he is moche to be praised, which he wrote of the ante and the greshopper. ¶ the fable. in a hotte sommer, the grashoppers gaue them sel- ues to pleasaunt melodie, whose musicke and melo- die, was harde from the pleasaunt busshes: but the ante in all this pleasaunt tyme, laboured with pain and tra- uaile, she scraped her liuyng, and with fore witte and wise- [sidenote: winter.] dome, preuented the barande and scarce tyme of winter: for when winter time aprocheth, the ground ceasseth fro[m] fruict, [sidenote: the ante.] then the ante by his labour, doeth take the fruicte & enioyeth it: but hunger and miserie fell vpon the greshoppers, who in the pleasaunt tyme of sommer, when fruictes were aboun- dauute, ceassed by labour to put of necessitée, with the whiche the long colde and stormie tyme, killed them vp, wantyng al sustinaunce. [fol. x.v] ¶ the morall. here in example, all menne maie take to frame their owne life, and also to bryng vp in godlie educacion their children: that while age is tender and young, thei maie learne by example of the ante, to prouide in their grene and lustie youth, some meane of art and science, wher- by thei maie staie their age and necessitée of life, al soche as do flie labour, and paine in youth, and seeke no waie of arte and science, in age thei shall fall in extreme miserie and pouertée. ¶ the nature of the thyng. not without a cause, the philosophers searchyng the nature and qualitee of euery beaste, dooe moche com- [sidenote: the ante.] mende the ante, for prouidence and diligence, in that not oneie by nature thei excell in forewisedome to the[m] selues, [sidenote: manne.] but also thei be a example, and mirrour to all menne, in that thei iustlie followe the instincte of nature: and moche more, where as men indued with reason, and all singulare vertues and excellent qualitées of the minde and body. yet thei doe so moche leaue reason, vertue, & integritée of minde, as that thei had been framed without reason, indued with no vertue, nor adorned with any excellent qualitée. all creatures as nature hath wrought in them, doe applie them selues to followe na- ture their guide: the ante is alwaies diligent in his busines, and prouident, and also fore séeth in sommer, the sharpe sea- son of winter: thei keepe order, and haue a kyng and a com- mon wealthe as it were, as nature hath taught them. and so haue all other creatures, as nature hath wrought in the[m] their giftes, man onelie leaueth reason, and neclecteth the chief or- namentes of the minde: and beyng as a god aboue all crea- tures, dooeth leese the excellent giftes. a beaste will not take excesse in feedyng, but man often tymes is without reason, and hauyng a pure mynde and soule giuen of god, and a face to beholde the heauens, yet he doeth abase hymself to yearth- [sidenote: greshopper.] lie thynges, as concernyng the greshopper: as the philoso- phers doe saie, is made altogether of dewe, and sone perisheth[.] [fol. xj.r] the greshopper maie well resemble, slothfull and sluggishe persones, who seke onely after a present pleasure, hauyng no fore witte and wisedom, to foresée tymes and ceasons: for it is [sidenote: a poincte of wisedome.] the poinct of wisedo[m], to iudge thinges present, by thinges past and to take a co[n]iecture of thinges to come, by thinges present. ¶ the reasonyng of the twoo thynges. thus might the ante reason with her self, althoughe the seasons of the yere doe seme now very hotte, plea- [sidenote: a wise cogi- tacion.] saunt and fruictfull: yet so i do not trust time, as that like pleasure should alwaies remaine, or that fruictes should alwaies of like sorte abounde. nature moueth me to worke, and wisedome herein sheweth me to prouide: for what hur- teth plentie, or aboundaunce of store, though greate plentie commeth thereon, for better it is to bee oppressed with plen- tie, and aboundaunce, then to bee vexed with lacke. for, to whom wealthe and plentie riseth, at their handes many bee releued, and helped, all soche as bee oppressed with necessi- tie and miserie, beyng caste from all helpe, reason and proui- dence maimed in theim: all arte and science, and meane of life cutte of, to enlarge and maintain better state of life, their [sidenote: pouertie.] miserie, necessitie, and pouertie, shall continuallie encrease, who hopeth at other mennes handes, to craue relief, is decei- ued. pouertie is so odious a thing, in al places & states reiected for where lacke is, there fanour, frendship, and acquaintance [sidenote: wisedome.] decreaseth, as in all states it is wisedome: so with my self i waie discritlie, to take tyme while tyme is, for this tyme as a [sidenote: housebande menne.] floure will sone fade awaie. the housebande manne, hath he not times diuers, to encrease his wealth, and to fill his barne, at one tyme and ceason: the housebande man doeth not bothe plante, plowe, and gather the fruicte of his labour, but in one tyme and season he ploweth, an other tyme serueth to sowe, and the laste to gather the fruictes of his labour. so then, i must forsee time and seasons, wherin i maie be able to beare of necessitie: for foolishly he hopeth, who of no wealth and no abundaunt store, trusteth to maintain his own state. for, no- [fol. xj.v] [sidenote: frendship.] thyng soner faileth, then frendship, and the soner it faileth, as [sidenote: homere.] fortune is impouerished. seyng that, as homere doeth saie, a slothfull man, giuen to no arte or science, to helpe hymself, or an other, is an vnprofitable burdein to the yearth, and god dooeth sore plague, punishe, and ouerthrowe citees, kyng- domes, and common wealthes, grounded in soche vices: that the wisedome of man maie well iudge, hym to be vnworthie of all helpe, and sustinaunce. he is worse then a beast, that is not able to liue to hymself & other: no man is of witte so vn- [sidenote: nature.] descrite, or of nature so dulle, but that in hym, nature alwa- yes coueteth some enterprise, or worke to frame relife, or help [sidenote: the cause of our bearth.] to hymself, for all wée are not borne, onelie to our selues, but many waies to be profitable, as to our owne countrie, and all partes thereof. especiallie to soche as by sickenes, or infirmi- tie of bodie are oppressed, that arte and science can not take place to help the[m]. soche as do folowe the life of the greshop- per, are worthie of their miserie, who haue no witte to foresée seasons and tymes, but doe suffer tyme vndescretly to passe, [sidenote: ianus.] whiche fadeth as a floure, thold romaines do picture ianus with two faces, a face behind, & an other before, which resem- ble a wiseman, who alwaies ought to knowe thinges paste, thynges presente, and also to be experte, by the experience of many ages and tymes, and knowledge of thynges to come. ¶ the comparison betwene the twoo thynges. what can be more descritlie doen, then the ante to be so prouident and politike: as that all daunger of life, & necessitie is excluded, the stormie times of winter ceaseth of might, & honger battereth not his walles, hauyng [sidenote: prouidence.] soche plentie of foode, for vnlooked bitter stormes and seasons, happeneth in life, whiche when thei happen, neither wisedo[m] nor pollicie, is not able to kepe backe. wisedome therefore, it is so to stande, that these thynges hurte not, the miserable ende of the greshopper sheweth vnto vs, whiche maie be an example to all menne, of what degree, so euer thei bee, to flie [fol. xij.r] slothe and idelnesse, to be wise and discrite. ¶ of contraries. [sidenote: diligence.] as diligence, prouidence, and discrete life is a singu- lare gift, whiche increaseth all vertues, a pillar, staie and a foundacion of all artes and science, of common wealthes, and kyngdomes. so contrarily sloth and sluggish- nesse, in all states and causes, defaseth, destroyeth, and pul- leth doune all vertue, all science and godlines. for, by it, the mightie kyngdome of the lidia[n]s, was destroied, as it semeth [sidenote: idelnes.] no small vice, when the lawes of draco, dooe punishe with death idelnesse. ¶ the ende. [sidenote: the ante.] therefore, the diligence of the ante in this fable, not onelie is moche to be commended, but also her example is to bee followed in life. therefore, the wiseman doeth admonishe vs, to go vnto the ant and learne prouidence: and also by the greshopper, lette vs learne to auoide idelnes, leste the like miserie and calamitie fall vpon vs. ¶ narratio. this place followyng, is placed of tullie, after the exordium or beginnyng of oracion, as the seconde parte: whiche parte of _rhetorike_, is as it were the light of all the oracion folowing: conteining the cause, mat- ter, persone, tyme, with all breuitie, bothe of wordes, and in- uencion of matter. ¶ a narracion. a narracion is an exposicion, or declaracion of any thyng dooen in deede, or els a settyng forthe, for- ged of any thyng, but so declaimed and declared, as though it were doen. a narracion is of three sortes, either it is a narracion hi- storicall, of any thyng contained, in any aunciente storie, or true chronicle. [fol. xij.v] or poeticall, whiche is a exposicion fained, set forthe by inuencion of poetes, or other. or ciuill, otherwise called iudiciall, whiche is a matter of controuersie in iudgement, to be dooen, or not dooen well or euill. in euery narracion, ye must obserue sixe notes. . firste, the persone, or doer of the thing, whereof you intreate. . the facte doen. . the place wherein it was doen. . the tyme in the whiche it was doen. . the maner must be shewed, how it was doen. . the cause wherevpon it was doen. there be in this narracion, iiij. other properties belo[n]ging[.] . first, it must be plain and euident to the hearer, not obscure, . short and in as fewe wordes as it maie be, for soche amatter. . probable, as not vnlike to be true. . in wordes fine and elegante. ¶ a narracion historicall, vpon semiramis queene of babilon how and after what sort she obtained the gouernment thereof. [sidenote: tyme. persone.] after the death of ninus, somtime kyng of ba- bilon, his soonne ninus also by name, was left to succede hym, in all the assirian monarchie, semiramis wife to ninus the firste, feared the tender age of her sonne, wherupon she thought [sidenote: the cause. the facte.] that those mightie nacions and kyngdomes, would not obaie so young and weake a prince. wherfore, she kept her sonne from the gouernmente: and moste of all she feared, that thei [sidenote: the waie how.] would not obaie a woman, forthwith she fained her self, to be the soonne of ninus, and bicause she would not be knowen to bee a woman, this quene inuented a newe kinde of tire, the whiche all the babilonians that were men, vsed by her commaundement. by this straunge disguised tire and appa- rell, she not knowen to bee a woman, ruled as a man, for the [sidenote: the facte. the place.] space of twoo and fourtie yeres: she did marueilous actes, for she enlarged the mightie kyngdome of babilon, and builded [fol. xiij.r] thesame citée. many other regions subdued, and valiauntlie ouerthrowen, she entered india, to the whiche neuer prince came, sauing alexander the greate: she passed not onely men in vertue, counsaill, and valiaunt stomacke, but also the fa- mous counsailours of assiria, might not contende with her in maiestie, pollicie, and roialnes. for, at what tyme as thei knewe her a woman, thei enuied not her state, but maruei- led at her wisedome, pollicie, and moderacion of life, at the laste she desiryng the vnnaturall lust, and loue of her soonne ninus, was murthered of hym. ¶ a narracion historicall vpon kyng ri- chard the third, the cruell tiraunt[.] [sidenote: the persone[.]] richard duke of glocester, after the death of ed- ward the fowerth his brother king of england, vsurped the croune, moste traiterouslie and wic- kedlie: this kyng richard was small of stature, deformed, and ill shaped, his shoulders beared not equalitee, a pulyng face, yet of countenaunce and looke cruell, malicious, deceiptfull, bityng and chawing his nether lippe: of minde vnquiet, pregnaunt of witte, quicke and liue- ly, a worde and a blowe, wilie, deceiptfull, proude, arrogant [sidenote: the tyme. the place.] in life and cogitacion bloodie. the fowerth daie of iulie, he entered the tower of london, with anne his wife, doughter to richard erle of warwick: and there in created edward his onely soonne, a child of ten yeres of age, prince of wa- les. at thesame tyme, in thesame place, he created many no- ble peres, to high prefermente of honour and estate, and im- mediatly with feare and faint harte, bothe in himself, and his [sidenote: the horrible murther of king richard[.]] nobles and commons, was created king, alwaies a vnfortu- nate and vnluckie creacion, the harts of the nobles and com- mons thereto lackyng or faintyng, and no maruaile, he was a cruell murtherer, a wretched caitiffe, a moste tragicall ty- raunt, and blood succour, bothe of his nephewes, and brother george duke of clarence, whom he caused to bee drouned in a butte of malmsie, the staires sodainlie remoued, wher- [fol. xiij.v] [sidenote: the facte.] on he stepped, the death of the lorde riuers, with many other nobles, compassed and wrought at the young princes com- myng out of wales, the .xix. daie of iuly, in the yere of our lorde . . openly he toke vpon him to be king, who sekyng hastely to clime, fell according to his desart, sodainly and in- gloriously, whose embassage for peace, lewes the frenche king, for his mischeuous & bloodie slaughter, so moche abhor- red, that he would neither sée the embassador, nor heare the embassage: for he murthered his .ij. nephues, by the handes [sidenote: the tyme. the maner how.] of one iames tirrell, & .ij. vilaines more associate with him the lieutenaunt refusyng so horrible a fact. this was doen he takyng his waie & progresse to glocester, whereof he was before tymes duke: the murther perpetrated, he doubed the good squire knight. yet to kepe close this horrible murther, he caused a fame and rumour to be spread abrode, in all par- tes of the realme, that these twoo childre[n] died sodainly, there- [sidenote: the cause.] by thinkyng the hartes of all people, to bee quietlie setteled, no heire male lefte a liue of kyng edwardes children. his mischief was soche, that god shortened his vsurped raigne: he was al together in feare and dread, for he being feared and dreaded of other, did also feare & dread, neuer quiete of minde faint harted, his bloodie conscience by outward signes, conde[m]- pned hym: his iyes in euery place whirlyng and caste about, [sidenote: the state of a wicked ma[n].] his hand moche on his dagger, the infernall furies tormen- ted him by night, visions and horrible dreames, drawed him from his bedde, his vnquiet life shewed the state of his consci- ence, his close murther was vttered, fro[m] the hartes of the sub- iectes: thei called hym openlie, with horrible titles and na- mes, a horrible murtherer, and excecrable tiraunt. the peo- [sidenote: a dolefull state of a quene.] ple sorowed the death of these twoo babes, the queene, kyng edwardes wife, beeyng in sanctuarie, was bestraught of witte and sences, sounyng and falling doune to the grounde as dedde, the quéene after reuiued, knéeled doune, and cal- led on god, to take vengaunce on this murtherer. the con- science of the people was so wounded, of the tolleracion of the [fol. xiiij.r] [sidenote: the wicked facte of kyng richard, a horror and dread to the commons.] facte, that when any blustryng winde, or perilous thonder, or dreadfull tempest happened: with one voice thei cried out and quaked, least god would take vengauce of them, for it is al- waies séen the horrible life of wicked gouernors, bringeth to ruin their kyngdom and people, & also wicked people, the like daungers to the kyngdome and prince: well he and his sup- porters with the duke of buckyngham, died shamefullie. [sidenote: god permit meanes, to pull doune tyrauntes.] the knotte of mariage promised, betwene henrie erle of richemonde, and elizabeth doughter to kyng edward the fowerth: caused diuerse nobles to aide and associate this erle, fledde out of this lande with all power, to the attainmente of the kyngdome by his wife. at nottyngham newes came to kyng richard, that the erle of richmonde, with a small co[m]- paignie of nobles and other, was arriued in wales, forthe- with exploratours and spies were sent, who shewed the erle [sidenote: lichefelde. leicester.] to be encamped, at the toune of litchfield, forthwith all pre- paracion of warre, was set forthe to leicester on euery side, the nobles and commons shranke from kyng richarde, his [sidenote: bosworthe[.]] power more and more weakened. by a village called bos- worthe, in a greate plaine, méete for twoo battailes: by lei- cester this field was pitched, wherin king richard manfully fightyng hande to hande, with the erle of richmonde, was [sidenote: kyng ri- chard killed in bosworth fielde.] slaine, his bodie caried shamefullie, to the toune of leicester naked, without honor, as he deserued, trussed on a horse, be- hinde a purseuaunte of armes, like a hogge or a calfe, his hedde and his armes hangyng on the one side, and his legges on the other side: caried through mire and durte, to the graie friers churche, to all men a spectacle, and oprobrie of tiran- nie this was the cruell tirauntes ende. ¶ a narracion historicall, of the commyng of iulius cesar into britaine. [sidenote: the tyme. the persone.] when iulius cesar had ended his mightie and huge battailes, about the flood rhene, he marched into the regio[n] of fraunce: at thesame time repairing with a freshe multitude, his legio[n]s, but the chief cause of his warre [fol. xiiij.v] in fraunce was, that of long time, he was moued in minde, [sidenote: the cause. the fame and glorie of britaine.] to see this noble islande of britain, whose fame for nobilitée was knowen and bruted, not onelie in rome, but also in the vttermoste la[n]des. iulius cesar was wroth with the[m], because in his warre sturred in fraunce, the fearce britaines aided the fenche men, and did mightilie encounter battaill with the romaines: whose prowes and valiaunt fight, slaked the proude and loftie stomackes of the romaines, and droue the[m] [sidenote: the prowes of iulius cesar.] to diuerse hasardes of battaill. but cesar as a noble warrier preferryng nobilitee, and worthinesse of fame, before money or cowardly quietnes: ceased not to enter on y^e fearce britai- nes, and thereto prepared his shippes, the winter tyme fo- lowyng, that assone as oportunitee of the yere serued, to passe [sidenote: the maner how. cesars com- municacion with the mar[-] chauntes, as concernyng the lande of britaine.] with all power against them. in the meane tyme, cesar in- quired of the marchauntes, who with marchaundise had ac- cesse to the islande: as concernyng the qua[n]titée and bignes of it, the fashion and maner of the people, their lawes, their or- der, and kinde of gouernmente. as these thynges were in all poinctes, vnknowen to cesar, so also the marchau[n]tes knewe [sidenote: the ware & politike go- uernement of y^e britaines. aliaunce in tyme traite- rous.] no more tha[n] the places bordring on the sea side. for, the bri- taines fearing the traiterous and dissembled hartes of aliau[n]- ces, politikelie repelled them: for, no straunger was suffered to enter from his shippe, on the lande, but their marchaun- dice were sold at the sea side. all nacions sought to this land, the felicitee of it was so greate, whereupon the grekes kno- wyng and tastyng the commoditée of this islande, called it by [sidenote: britain som- tyme called of the grekes olbion, not albion.] a greke name _olbion_, whiche signifieth a happie and fortu- nate countrie, though of some called _albion_, tyme chaunged the firste letter, as at this daie, london is called for the toune of kyng lud. cesar thereupon before he would marche with [sidenote: caius uo- lusenus, em[-] bassadour to britaine.] his armie, to the people of britain, he sent caius uolusenus a noble man of rome, a valiaunte and hardie capitaine, as embassadour to the britaines, who as he thoughte by his embassage, should knowe the fashion of the island, the ma- ner of the people, their gouernemente. but as it seemeth, the [fol. xv.r] embassadour was not welcome. for, he durste not enter fro[m] his ship, to dooe his maisters embassage, cesar knewe no- [sidenote: comas a- trebas, seco[n]de embassador from cesar.] thing by him. yet cesar was not so contented, but sent an o- ther embassadour, a man of more power, stomack, and more hardie, comas atrebas by name, who would enter as an embassadour, to accomplish the will & expectacion of cesar, comas atrebas was so welcome, that the britains cast him in prison: embassages was not common emong theim, nor the curteous vsage of embassadours knowen. al these thin- ges, made cesar more wrothe, to assaie the vncourtous bris[-] [sidenote: cassibelane king of lon- don, at the a- riue of cesar[.] cassibelane a worthie prince.] taines. in those daies cassibelan was kyng of london, this cassibelan was a prince of high wisedom, of manly stomacke and valiaunt in fight: and for power and valiauntnesse, was chosen of the britaines, chief gouernour and kyng. dissen- cion and cruell warre was emong the[m], through the diuersitie of diuers kinges in the lande. the troinouau[n]tes enuied the [sidenote: imanue[n]cius[.]] state of cassibelan, bicause immanuencius, who was kyng of london, before cassibelan, was put to death, by the coun- sail of cassibelan. the sonne of immanuencius, hearing of the commyng of cesar, did flie traiterouslie to cesar: the troinouauntes fauoured immanue[n]cius part, & thereupon [sidenote: the troy- nouauntes by treason let in cesar.] promised, as moste vile traitours to their countrie, an ente- ryng to cesar, seruice and homage, who through a self will, and priuate fauour of one, sought the ruine of their countrie, and in the ende, their own destruccion. but cassibelan gaue many ouerthrowes to cesar, and so mightelie encountred with hym, so inuincible was the parte of cassibelane: but by treason of the troinouauntes, not by manhod of cesars po- wer, enteryng was giuen. what house can stande, where- [sidenote: treason a confusion to the mightiest dominions.] in discord broile? what small power, is not able to enter the mightiest dominions or regions: to ouercome the strongeste fortresse, treason open the gate, treason giuyng passage. al- though cesar by treason entered, so cesar writeth. yet the fame of cesar was more commended, for his enterprise into britain, and victorie: then of all his conquest, either against [fol. xv.v] [sidenote: a sente[n]ce gra[-] uen of bri- taine, in the commendaci- on of cesar.] pompey, or with any other nacion. for in a piller at rome this sentence was engrauen: of all the dominions, citees, and regions, subdued by cesar, his warre atte[m]pted against the fearce britaines, passeth all other. after this sort cesar entred our islande of britaine by treason. ¶ a narracion iudiciall, out of theusidides, vpon the facte of themistocles. the athenians brought vnder the thraldome of the lacedemonians, soughte meanes to growe mightie, and to pull them from the yoke, vnder the lacedemonians. lacedemonia was a citee enuironed with walles. athenes at thesame tyme without walles: whereby their state was more feeble, and power weakened. themistocles a noble sage, and a worthie pere of athens: gaue the athenia[n]s counsaile to wall their citée stro[n]gly, and so forthwith to be lordes and rulers by them selues, after their owne facion gouerning. in finishing this enterprise, in all poinctes, policie, and wittie conuei- aunce wanted not. the lacedemonians harde of the pur- pose of the athenians, & sent embassadours, to knowe their doynges, and so to hinder them. themistocles gaue counsaill to the athenians, to kepe in safe custodie, the embassadours of lacedemonia, vntill soche tyme, as he from the embas- sage was retourned fro[m] lacedemonia. the lacedemonians hearyng of the commyng of themistocles, thought little of the walle buildyng at athens. themistocles was long loo- ked for of the[m], because themistocles lingered in his embas- sage, that or the matter were throughly knowen: the walle of athens should be builded. the slowe commyng of the- mistocles, was blamed of the lacedemonians: but themi- stocles excused hymself, partly infirmitie of bodie, lettyng his commyng, and the expectacion of other, accompaignied with hym in this embassage. the walle ended, necessitie not artificiall workemanship finishing it, with al hast it was ended: then themistocles entered the senate of lacedemo- [fol. xvj.r] nia, and saied: the walle whom ye sought to let, is builded at athens, ye lacedemonians, that wee maie be more strong. then the lacedemonians could saie nothyng to it, though thei enuied the athenians state, the walle was builded, and leste thei should shewe violence or crueltie on themistocles, their embassabours were at athens in custodie, whereby themistocles came safe from his embassage, and the athe- nians made strong by their walle: this was politikely dooen of themistocles. ¶ a narracion poeticall vpon a rose. who so doeth maruaile at the beautée and good- ly colour of the redde rose, he must consider the blood, that came out of uenus the goddes foot. the goddes uenus, as foolishe poetes dooe feigne, beyng the aucthour of loue: loued ado- nis the soonne of cynara kyng of cypres. but mars called the god of battaile, loued uenus, beyng nothyng loued of uenus: but mars loued uenus as feruently, as uenus lo- ued adonis. mars beyng a god, loued uenus a goddes, but uenus onely was inflamed with the loue of adonis, a mor- tall man. their loue was feruent, and exremely set on fire in bothe, but their kinde and nature were contrary, wherev- pon mars beyng in gelousie, sought meanes to destroie, faire amiable, and beautifull adonis, thinkyng by his death, the loue of uenus to be slaked: adonis and mars fell to fighting uenus as a louer, ranne to helpe adonis her louer, and by chaunce she fell into a rose bushe, and pricked with it her foote, the blood then ran out of her tender foote, did colour the rose redde: wherevpon the rose beyng white before, is v- pon that cause chaunged into redde. [¶] _chria._ _chria_, this profitable exercise of _rhetorike_, is for the porfite of it so called: it is a rehersall in fewe wordes, of any ones fact, or of the saiyng of any man, vpo[n] the [fol. xvj.v] whiche an oracion maie be made. as for example, isocrates did say, that the roote of learnng was bitter, but the fruictes pleasaunt: and vpon this one sentence, you maie dilate a am- ple and great oracion, obseruyng these notes folowyng. the saiyng dooeth containe so greate matter, and minister soche plentie of argumente. aucthors intreatyng of this exercise, doe note three sortes to bee of theim, one of theim a _chria verball_, that is to saie, a profitable exercise, vpon the saiyng of any man, onely con- teinyng the wordes of the aucthour, as the sentence before. the seconde is, conteinyng the facte or deede of the per- sone: as diogines beyng asked of alexander the greate, if he lacked any thyng, that he was able to giue hym, thinkyng his demau[n]de vnder his power, for diogenes was at thesame tyme warmyng hymself in the beames of the sunne: dio- genes aunswered, ye take awaie that, that ye are not able to giue, meanyng that alexander by his bodie, shadowed hym, and tooke awaie that, whiche was not in his power to giue, alexander tourned hymself to his men, and saied, if i were not alexander, i would be diogenes. the thirde is a _chria_ mixt, bothe _verball_ and notyng the facte, as diogenes seyng a boie wanton & dissolute, did strike his teacher with a staffe, vtteryng these woordes: why dooest thou teache thy scholer so dissolutlie. you shall learne to make this exercise, obseruyng these notes. firste, you shall praise the aucthour, who wrote the sen- tence, waighing his life, if his life be vnknowen, and not easie to finde his sentence or sentences: for godlie preceptes will minister matter of praise, as if these saiynges bee recited, thei are sufficient of them selues, to praise the aucthour. then in the seconde place, expounde the meanyng of the aucthour in that saiyng. then shewe the cause, why he spake this sentence. then compare the matter, by a contrary. [fol. xvij.r] then frame a similitude of thesame. shewe the like example of some, that spake the like, or did the like. then gather the testimonies of more writers of thesame[.] then knit the conclusion. ¶ an oracion. isocrates did saie, that the roote of learnyng is was bit- ter, but the fruictes were pleasaunt. ¶ the praise. this oratour isocrates, was an athenian borne, [sidenote: lusimachus[.]] who florished in the time of lusimachus the chief gouernor of athens: this isocrates was brought vp in all excelle[n]cie of learning, with the moste fa- [sidenote: prodicus. gorgias le- ontinus.] mous and excellent oratour prodicus, gorgias leontinus indued him with all singularitie of learnyng and eloquence. the eloque[n]ce of isocrates was so famous, that aristotle the [sidenote: demosthe- nes learned eloquence of isocrates.] chief pholosopher, enuied his vertue & praise therin: demo- sthenes also, who emong the grecians chieflie excelled, lear- ned his eloquence, of the oracions whiche isocrates wrote, to many mightie and puisaunt princes and kinges, do shewe his wisedome, & copious eloque[n]ce, as to demonicus the king to nicocles, euagoras, against philip the king of the mace- donia[n]s, by his wisedome and counsaill, the senate and vni- uersal state of athens was ruled, & the commons and multi- tude thereby in euery part florished: chieflie what counsaill, what wisedome, what learnyng might bee required, in any man of high fame and excellencie: that fame was aboundant[-] ly in isocrates, as in all his oratio[n]s he is to be praised, so in this sentence, his fame importeth like commendacion. ¶ the exposicion. in that he saieth, the roote of learnyng is bitter, and the fruictes pleasaunt: he signifieth no excellent qua- [sidenote: all excellen- cie with labor is attained.] litie or gift, vertue, arte or science can bee attained, except paine, labour, diligence, doe plant and sette thesame: [fol. xvij.v] but when that noble gift, either learnyng, or any excellente qualitee, is lodged and reposed in vs, then we gather by pain- full labours, greate profite, comforte, delectable pleasures, wealth, glorie, riches, whiche be the fruictes of it. ¶ the cause. and seyng that of our owne nature, all men are en- clined from their tender yeres and infancie, to the ex- tirpacion of vertue, folowyng with all earnest studie and gréedie, the free passage to vice, and specially children, whose iudgementes and reason, are not of that strengthe, to rule their weake mindes and bodies, therefore, in them chief- lie, the roote of learning is bitter, because not onely many ye- res thei runne their race, in studie of arte and science. with care and paine also, with greuous chastisment and correccio[n], thei are compelled by their teachers and maisters, to appre- hende thesame: the parentes no lesse dreaded, in the educacio[n] of their children, in chastisement and correction, so that by all [sidenote: the roote of learnyng bit- ter.] meanes, the foundacion and roote of all learnyng, in what sort so euer it is, is at the firste vnpleasaunte, sower, and vn- sauerie. to folowe the times and seasons, appoincted for the same, is moste painfull, and in these painfull yeres: other greate pleasures, as the frailtie of youth, and the imbecilitie of nature iudgeth, dooeth passe by, but in miserable state is [sidenote: who is a vn- fortunate childe.] that childe, and vnfortunate, that passeth the flower of his youth and tender yeres, instructed with no arte or science, whiche in tyme to come, shalbe the onelie staie, helpe, the pil- ler to beare of the sore brent, necessitie, and calamities of life. [sidenote: good educa- cion the foun- dacion of the romaine empire.] herein the noble romaines, laied the sure foundacion of their mightie dominion, in the descrite prouidente, and poli- tike educacion of children: to whom the grecians gaue, that necessarie bulwarke and faundacion, to set vp all vertue, all arte and science. in grece no man was knowen, to liue in that common wealth, but that his arte and science, gaue ma- nifest probacion and testimonie, how and after what sorte he liued. the romaines in like sorte, the sworde and aucthori- [fol. xviij.r] tie of the magistrate, executyng thesame, did put forthe, and draw to the attainment of learnyng, art or science, all youth hauyng maturitie and ripenesse to it, and why, because that in a common wealth, where the parentes are vndescrete and foolishe, as in all common wealthes, there are not a fewe, but many, thei not ponderyng the state of the tyme to come, bringing vp their children without all ciuilitie, vnframed to vertue, ignoraunt of all arte and science: the children of their owne nature, vnbrideled, vntaught, wilfull, and heddie, doe run with free passage to all wickednes, thei fall into al kinde of follie, oppressed with all kinde of calamitie, miserie, and [sidenote: euill educa- cion bringeth to ruine migh[-] tie kingdoms[.]] vnfortunate chaunces, whiche happen in this life. nothyng doeth soner pulle doune a kyngdome, or common wealthe, then the euill and leude educacion of youth, to whom neither substaunce, wealth, riches, nor possessions doe descende, from their auncestours and parentes, who also of them selues wa[n]t all art, science and meanes, to maintain them to liue, who of them selues are not able to get relief, for onely by this mea- nes, life is maintained, wealth and riches ar possessed to ma- ny greate siegniories, landes, and ample possessions, left by their parentes, and line of auncetours, haue by lacke of ver- tuous educacion, been brought to naught, thei fell into ex- treme miserie, pouertie, and wantyng learnyng, or wealth, to maintaine their state and delicate life, thei haue robbed, spoiled, murthered, to liue at their owne will. but then as rotten, dedde, and putride members fro[m] the common wealth thei are cutte of by the sworde, and aucthoritie of the magi- strate. what kyngdome was more mightie and strong, then [sidenote: lydia.] the kyngdome of lidia, whiche by no other meanes was brought to ruine and destruccion, but by idlenes: in that thei were kepte from all vertuous exercise, from the studie of ar- tes and sciences, so longe as thei meditated and liued in the schoole of vertuous life: no nacion was hable to ouerthrowe them, of them selues thei were prone and readie, to practise all [sidenote: cyrus.] excellencie. but cyrus the kyng of persians, by no other [fol. xviij.v] meanes was able to bring them weaker. he toke from the[m] al furtherance to artes, destroied all occupacio[n]s of vertue wher- vpon by commaundeme[n]t aud terrour, wer driuen to practise [sidenote: the decay of a kyngdome.] the vaine and pestiferous practise, of cardes and dice. har- lottes then schooled them, and all vnhoneste pastyme nurte- red them, tauernes an quaffyng houses, was their accusto- med and moste frequented vse of occupacion: by this meanes their nobilitie and strengthe was decaied, and kyngdome made thrall. ill educacion or idlenes, is no small vice or euill when so mightie a prince, hauyng so large dominions, who[m] all the easte serued and obaied. whose regimente and go- uernemente was so infinite, that as zenophon saieth, tyme [sidenote: the mightie dominions of cyrus.] would rather want, then matter to speake of his mightie and large gouernement, how many nacions, how diuerse people and valiaunte nacions were in subieccion to hym. if this mightie prince, with all his power and populous nacions, was not hable to giue the ouerthrowe, to the kyngdome of [sidenote: euill educa- cion.] lidia, but by ill educacion, not by marciall atte[m]ptes, sworde or battaill: but by giuyng them scope and libertie, to dooe as he would. no doubt but that cyrus sawe, by the like exam- ple of other kyngdomes, this onelie pollicie to bee a ruine [sidenote: pithagoras.] of that kyngdome. pythagoras the famous and godlie phi- losopher, saued the kyngdome and people of crotona, thei leauyng all studie of arte, vertue and science. this people of [sidenote: catona.] crotona, was ouercome of the people of locrus, thei left all exercise of vertue, neclectyng the feates of chiualrie, whervpo[n] pythagoras hauyng the profitable and godlie lawes of ly- curgus, which he brought from lacedemonia: and the lawes of minos kyng of creta, came to the people of crotona, and by his godlie teachyng and philosophie, reuoked & brought backe the people, giuen ouer to the neglectyng of all vertue, declaryng to them the nobilitie and excellencie thereof, he li- uely set foorthe the beastlinesse of vice. pithagoras recited to them, the fall and ruine of many regions, and mightie king- domes, whiche tooke after those vices. idlenes beyng forsa- [fol. xix.r] ken, vertue embrased, and good occupacions practised, the kyngdome and people grewe mightie. [sidenote: lycurgus.] emong the godlie lawes of lycurgus, lycurgus omit- ted not to ordaine lawes, for the educacion of youthe: in the whiche he cutte of all pamperyng of them, because in tender yeres, in whose bodies pleasure harboreth, their vertue, sci- ence, cunnyng rooteth not: labour, diligence, and industrie [sidenote: uertue. uice.] onelie rooteth vertue, and excellencie. uices as vnprofitable weedes, without labour, diligence and industrie growe vp, and thereby infecteth the minde and bodie, poisoneth all the mocions, incensed to vertue and singularitie. who euer at- tained cunnyng, in any excellent arte or science, where idle- nes or pleasure helde the swaie. philosophie sheweth, plea- [sidenote: pleasure. idlenes. ignoraunce.] sure to bée vnmete for any man of singularitie, for pleasure, idlenes, and ignoraunce, are so linked together, that the pos- session of the one, induceth the other. so many godlie monu- me[n]tes of learning, had not remained to this posteritie of ours and of all ages: if famous men in those ages and tymes, had hu[n]ted after immoderate pleasure. thindustrie of soche, who left to the posteritie of all ages, the knowlege of astronomie is knowen: the monumentes of all learnyng of lawes, and of all other woorkes of antiquitie, by vertue, noble, by indu- strie, labour, and moderacion of life in studie, not by plea- sure and wantones, was celebraied to all ages. the migh- tie volumes of philosophers, bothe in morall preceptes, and in naturall causes, knewe not the delicate and dissolute life of these our daies. palingenius enueighyng against the pa[m]- pered, and lasciuious life of man, vttereth a singulare sente[n]ce _qui facere et qui nosce, cupit quam plurima et altum, in terris virtute aliqua sibi querere nomen: hunc vigilare opus est, nam non preclara geruntur, stertendo, et molles detrectat gloria plumas._ who so coueteth to purchase fame by actes, or whose minde hunteth for aboundaunte knowledge, or by vertue in this life, to purchause good fame. he had not nede to slugge [fol. xix.v] and slepe in his doynges: for good fame is not vpholded by gaie pecockes feathers. of this, demosthenes the famous oratour of athens, vttereth a worthie saiyng to the athe- nians in his epistle: if any will iudge alexander the greate, to be famous and happie, in that he had successe in all his do- [sidenote: alexander the great, co[m]- mended for diligence.] ynges, let this be his cogitacion, that alexander the greate, alwaies did inure hymself to doe thynges, and manfullie to assaie that he enterprised. the felicitie of his successe came to hym not slepyng, or not cogitatyng thereof: alexander the greate now dedde, fortune seketh with whom she maie ac- companie, and associate her self. thusidides comparyng the lacedemonians, and the a- thenians together, shewed a rare moderacion, and tempera- ture of life, to be in the athenians: wherupon thei are moste commended, and celebrated to the posteritie. ¶ the contrarie. euen as idlenes and a sluggishe life, is moste pleasant to all soche, as neglecte vertuous exercises, and god- lie life. so paine, labour, and studie, bestowed and emploied, in the sekyng out of vertue, arte, or science is moste pleasaunt to well affected mindes: for no godlie thyng can be attained to, without diligence and labour. ¶ the similitude. euen as housbandmen, with labour and trauaile, dooe labour in plantyng and tillyng the grounde, before thei receiue any fruicte of thesame. euen so no vertue, arte, or science, or any other thyng of ex- cellencie is attained, without diligence and labour bestowed thereto. ¶ the example. let demosthenes, the famous oratour of athenes, bee an example of diligence to vs, who to auoide all let from studie, vsed a meanes to kepe hymself ther- to: preuentyng also the industrie of artificers. thesame de- [fol. xx.r] mosthenes, wrote seuen tymes out the storie of thusidides, to learne thereby his eloquence and wisedome. ¶ the testimonie. plinie, plato, and aristotle, with many other mo, are like examples for diligence to vs: who wrote vpon vertue and learnyng like sentences. ¶ the conclusion. therefore, isocrates dooeth pronounce worthelie, the roote of learning and vertue to be bitter, and the fru- tes pleasaunte. ¶ a sentence. the oracion, whiche must be made by a sente[n]ce is in al partes like to _chria_, the profitable exer- cise, onelie that the oracion made vpon a sen- tence, as aucthours do saie: hath not alwaie the name of the aucthour prefixed in the praise, a small matter of difference, who so can make the one, is ex- pert and exquisite in the other, aucthours doe define a sente[n]ce in this maner. a sentence is an oracion, in fewe woordes, shewyng a godlie precept of life, exhorting or diswadyng: the [sidenote: _gnome._] grekes dooe call godly preceptes, by the name of _gnome_, or _gnomon_, whiche is asmoche to saie, a rule or square, to direct any thyng by, for by them, the life of manne is framed to all singularitie. thei are diuers sortes of sentences, one exhor- teth, an other diswadeth, some onely sheweth: there is a sen- tence simple, compounde, profitable, true, & soche like. frame your oracion vpon a sentence, as in the oracion before. { . the praise of the aucthour. { . the exposicion of the sentence. { . a confirmacion in the strength of the cause. { . a conference, of the contrarie. { . a similitude. { . the example. { . the testimonie of aucthors, shewing y^e like. { . then adde the conclusion. [fol. xx.v] ¶ an oracion vpon a sentence. ¶ the sentence. in a common wealthe or kyngdome, many kynges to beare rule, is verie euill, let there be but one kyng. ¶ the praise of the aucthour. homere, who of all the poetes chiefly excelled, spake this sentence in the persone of ulisses, vpon the king agamemnon, kyng of grece. this homere intrea- ting of all princely affaires, and greate enterprices of the grecians: and of the mightie warre againste the troians, emong whom soche discorde rose, that not onely the warre, for lacke of vnitie and concorde, continued the space of tenne yeres. but also moche blood shed, hauocke, and destruccion, came vpon the grecians, vttered this sente[n]ce. this homere for his learnyng and wisedome remaineth, intteled in many monumentes of learnyng: with greate fame and commen- [sidenote: the praise of homere.] dacion to all ages. what region, isle, or nacion is not, by his inuencion set foorthe: who although he were blinde, his minde sawe all wisedome, the states of all good kyngdomes [sidenote: the content of homers bookes.] and common wealthes. the verie liuely image of a prince or gouernour, the faithfull and humble obedie[n]ce of a subiect, toward the prince, the state of a capitaine, the vertue and no- ble qualities, that are requisite, in soche a personage, be there set forthe. the perfite state of a wiseman, and politike, is in- treated of by hym. the iustice, and equitie of a prince, the strength of the bodie, all heroicall vertues: also are set forthe his eloquence and verse, floweth in soche sorte, with soche pleasauntnes: so copious, so aboundaunt, so graue and sen- tencious, that his singularitie therein excelleth, and passeth. [sidenote: alexander.] the mightie prince alexander, in all his marciall enter- prices, and great conquestes, did continually night by night, [sidenote: the ilias of homere, mete for prin- ces to looke vpon.] reade somewhat of the ilias of the poete homere, before he slepte, and askyng for the booke, saied: giue me my pillowe. alexander as it semeth, learned many heroical vertues, poli- cie, wisedome, & counsaill thereof, els he occupied in so migh- [fol. xxj.r] tie and greate warres, would not emploied studie therein. iulius cesar the emperour, commendeth this poete, for his singularitie, his commendacion giueth, ample argu- ment, in this singulare sentence, whiche preferreth a monar- chie aboue all states of common wealthes or kyngdome. ¶ the exposicion. homere the poete, signified by this one sentence, no kyngdome or common wealthe can prospere, or flo- rishe to continue, where many holde gouernement as kynges. for, the mindes of many rulers and princes, doe moste affecte a priuate wealthe, commoditie and glorie: and where, many doe beare soche swaie and dominion, the com- mon wealth can not be good. for, thei priuatly to theim sel- ues, doe beare that regiment, and alwaie with the slaughter of many, do seke to attain and clime, to the whole gouerme[n]t[.] ¶ the cause. [sidenote: the state of many kinges in one lande.] many occasions dooe rise, whereby many princes, and gouernours in a common wealth, be diuerslie affec- ted, so that the gouernme[n]t of many, can not prosper. for, bothe in quiete state, their counsailes must bee diuerse, and vncertaine: and where thei so differ, the kyngdome stan- deth in great ieopardy and daunger. isocrates intreatyng of [sidenote: athenes.] a monarchie, sheweth that the common wealth of athenes, whiche detested and refused, that forme and state, after the ruine and fall of their citee: beyng vnder the thraldome of the lacedemonia[n]s, bothe in their externall chiualrie and feates, bothe by sea and by lande, and also in regimente otherwise, their citee grewe mightie, and state stedfast. [sidenote: carthage in a monarchie.] the carthagineans also, gouerned by one, had their go- uernment stedfaste, and kyngdome roiall: who in puisaunte actes, might compare with the noble romaines. as the obe- dience to one ruler and chief gouernour, sekyng a common wealth, is in the hartes of the subiectes: feruent and maruei- lous with loue embraced, so the maiestie of hym is dreade, [fol. xxj.v] with loue serued, and with sincere harte, and fidelitie obeied, [sidenote: the state of many kinges in one lande.] his maners folowed, his lawes imitated. many gouernours bearyng regiment, as their maners be diuers, and fashion of life: euen so the people bee like affected, to the diuersitie of di- uers princes. and if we weigh the reuolucion of the heauens and the marueiles of god therein, the maker of thesame, who [sidenote: a monarchie in heauen.] beyng one god, ruleth heauen and yearth, and all thynges co[n]tained in thesame. the heauen also adorned with many a [sidenote: one sunne[.]] starre, and cleare light, haue but one sunne to gouerne the[m]: who being of a singulare vertue aboue the rest, by his vertue and power, giueth vertue to the reste. also in small thynges [sidenote: the ante. the bee.] the ante and the bee, who for prouidence and wisedome, ar moche commended: haue as it were a common wealth, and a king to gouerne the[m], so in all thinges as a confusion, the state of many kings is abhorred in gouernme[n]t. after the death of [sidenote: constancius[.] licinius[.] marabodius[.]] constantinus the greate, constancius his sonne was made emperour, and licinius with him, partaker in felowship of the empire. but forthwith, what blood was shed in italie, with all crueltie, vntill constancius had slaine licinius, partaker of the empire, and marabodius was slaine also, whom licinius did associate with hym in the gouernment. so moche princes and chief gouernours, doe hate equalitie, [sidenote: pompey. cesar. marius. silla.] or felowship in kingdomes. after thesame sort, in this migh- tie monarchie of rome, diuerse haue attempted at one and sondrie tymes, to beare the scepter and regiment therein, but that mightie monarchie, could not suffer but one gouernor. the kyngdome of thebes, was in miserable state, the twoo sonnes of oedipus, eteocles, and polunices: striuing bothe [sidenote: assiria the first monar- chie.] to be monarche, and onely kyng. the kyngdome of assiria, whiche was the golden kyngdome, and the first monarchie: hauyng . . kynges by succession, continued . . yeres, this kyngdome for all nobilitie and roialnes excelled, and all in a monarchie. the kyngdome of the medes, in a monarchie florished in wealthe and glorie and all felicitie: who in domi- nion had gouernmente . . lackyng . . yeres. after that, the [fol. xxij.r] [sidenote: the monar- chie of the medes. the persia[n]. macedonia.] monarchie of the medes ceased, the persia[n] people rose migh- tie, bothe in people and princes, and continued in that state and monethes. macedonia rose from a base and meane people, to beare the whole regiment, and power ouer all king[-] domes. so god disposeth the state and seate of princes, ouer- throwyng often tymes mightier kyngdomes at his will: the continuaunce of this monarchie was . . and eight mone- [sidenote: asia[.] siria[.]] thes, ten kynges linealie descendyng. asia and siria, was gouerned by one succedyng in a sole gouernement. nicanor gouerned siria . . yeres. in the other antigonus raigned, demetrius poliorchetes one yere, antiochus soter also, the scepter of gouernment, left to the succession of an other, then antiochus soter, ruled all asia and siria, hauyng . . kin- [sidenote: egipte in a monarchie[.]] ges whiche in a monarchie, co[n]tinued yeres. the egipci- ans, had famous, wise, and noble princes, whose kyngdome and large dominion, in all felicitée prospered: whiche was in the tyme of ninus, the first king of the assiria[n]s, who hauing . princes, one by one succedyng, cleopatra their quéene, gouerning, stoode in a monarchie . . this one thyng she- weth, that kinde of gouernmente to bee roiall, and moste fa- mous, not onely for the felicitée and glory therof: but also for the permanent and stedfast state thereof. aristotle and plato setteth forthe, thother formes of gouernme[n]t. but in all those, no long co[n]tinuaunce of felicitee, nor of happy state can appere [sidenote: tirannis[.] nero[.] domicianus[.] caligula.] in them, as for the contrarie to a monarchie, is tirannis, pe- stiferous, and to be detested, where one man gouerneth to his priuate gaine, pillyng and polyng his subiectes, murderyng with all crueltie, neither lawe nor reason, leadyng thereto: but will bearyng regiment ouer lawe, iustice and equitee, whiche princes often tymes see not. how the wilfull rashe- nes, or tirannicall minde doeth abase them, and make them, though in vtter porte thesame princes, yet in verie déede, thei [sidenote: what doeth beautifie the throne of a prince[.]] bee thrall and slaue to beastlie affeccion. nothyng dooeth so moche adorne and beautifie, the seate and throne of a prince, as not onely to beare dominion, ouer mightie people and re- [fol. xxij.v] [sidenote: aristocratia.] gions, then to be lorde ouer hymself. the state of a fewe pée- res or nobles, to holde the chief and whole gouernment, who bothe in vertue, learnyng, and experience dooe excelle, is a goodlie state of common wealth. but the profe of that com- mon wealthe and ende sheweth, and the maner of princes: who, although thei be, of life godlie, wise, graue, expert and politike. for, these vertues or ornamentes, ought to be repo- sed in soche noble personages, thei doe marueilously chaunge and alter: so honour and preeminente state, puffeth theim vp, and blindeth theim, that euery one in the ende, seeketh to climbe ouer all, as hed and gouernour. shewe me one kinde of this state, and forme of gouernmente, whiche either longe prospered, or without bloodshed, and destruccion of the rest of the nobles and peres, haue not caught the whole regimente. seyng that in all common wealthes and kingdomes, equa- litée or felowshippe, will not be suffred in gouernmente: for, it can not bee, that this forme of common wealthe maie bée [sidenote: the ende of aristocratia.] good, as aristotle and plato sheweth: the ende of this go- uernemente, fell euer to one, with a ruine of the kingdome [sidenote: politcia.] and people. the multitude to beare dominion, and though a publike wealth bée sought for a tyme, moche lesse thei conti- nue in any good state: for in the ende, their rule and gouerne- ment, will be without rule, order, reason, modestie, and their lawe must bee will. the other three states, are the refuse of good common wealthes, not to bée tollerated in any region. [sidenote: tirannis.] the one of them is a tyraunte, to bée gouernour onely to his owne glorie, with crueltie tormented his subiectes, onelie to [sidenote: oligarthia.] haue his will and lust, ouer all lawe, order, and reason. the nobilitée rulyng to them selues, euery one for his owne time[.] [sidenote: democratia.] the third, the base and rude multitude, euery one for hym- self, and at his will. this troublous state, all regions and common wealthes, haue felte in open sedicions and tumul- tes, raised by theim, it is a plagued and pestiferous kinde of gouernemente. the example of a good monarchie, is of greate force, to confounde the state of al other common weal- [fol. xxiij.r] thes, and formes of regimente. [sidenote: a monarchie preferred of the persians[.]] the nobilitée of persia hauyng no kyng, linially des- cendyng, to rule that mightie dominion of persia, cambises beyng dedde, the vsurper murthered, thei tooke counsaill in their assemble, what state of gouernment was beste, thei ha- uyng the profe of a monarchie: in their longe counsaill, thei knewe the felicitie of that state, thei knewe as it seemed, the perilous state of the other gouernmentes. if these noble and peres had been ambicious, and that eche of them would haue had felowshippe, or participacion in kyngdomes: thei would not haue preferred a monarchie aboue the reste. the anti- quitie of that tyme sheweth, their personages, wisedome, grauitie, and maiestie was soche, that eche one of theim was mete for his vertues, to haue a whole kyngdome. if aristo- cratia would haue contented them, then was tyme and occa- sion offered, no kyng remainyng to haue preferred that state. [sidenote: the duetie of al noble peres[.]] but thei as vpright nobles, sincere and faithfull, hauyng al- together respecte to a publique wealthe: to a permanent state and felicitie of kingdome, sought no participacion by priuate wealthe, to dissolue this monarchie. but thei beyng moste godlie, eche were content to proue, whose chaunce might be, to set vp againe that monarchie. the kyngdome at the laste [sidenote: darius.] came to the handes of darius, who was after kyng of the persians. this is a goodly example, to shewe the worthines of a monarchie, the persian kingdome after many yeres de- clinyng, from his power and state, not for any faulte of go- [sidenote: kyngdomes rise and fall.] uernment, but god as he seeth tyme, raiseth vp kyngdomes and plucketh them doune. afterward darius the kyng, not able to make his parte good with alexander the greate: of- fered to hym the greatest parte of his kyngdome, euen to the flood of euphrates, and offred his daughter to wife: alexan- der was content to take the offer of darius, so that he would bee seconde to hym, and not equall with hym in kyngdome. [sidenote: the answer of alexander to darius, as co[n]cernyng a monarchie.] for, alexander saied, that as the worlde can not bee gouer- ned with twoo sunnes, neither the worlde can suffer twoo [fol. xxiij.v] mightie kingdomes: wherupon it is manifest, that no king- dome will suffer equalitie or felowship, but that if the will & minde of princes might brust out, the state of all the worlde, would bee in one mightie gouernours handes. for, alwaies [sidenote: alexa[n]der the great prefar- red a mo- narchie.] princes dooe seke to a sole regimente. alexander the greate co[n]querour also, preferring for worthines a monarchie, at the tyme of his death, demaunded who[m] he would haue to succede him in his mightie dominio[n]s, he by one signifiyng a monar- chie, saiyng: _dignissimus_, that is to saie, the worthiest. after [sidenote: alexanders monarchie fel by many kin- ges. antipater. crates. meliagrus. perdiccas. ptolomeus. learcus. cassander. menander. leonatus. lusimacus. eumenes[.] seleucus.] the death of alexander, antipater caught the gouernmente of macedonia and grece, and crates was treasurer. me- leagrus and perdiccas caught other of his dominions, then ptolemeus possessed egipte, africa and a parte of arabia, learcus, cassander, mena[n]der, leonatus, lusimachus, eu- menes, seleucus and manie other, who were for their wor- thines in honor and estimacion with alexander, caught in- to their handes other partes of his dominions, euerie one se- kyng for his time, his owne priuate glorie, dignitie, and ad- uauncemente, but not a publike wealthe, and so in fine, am- bicion broiled in their loftie stomackes, eche to attaine to o- thers honor. whereupon bloodshed, destruction of the peo- ple and countries, the fall of these princes ensued. so moche kingdomes hate equalitie or felowship: let vs laie before our [sidenote: fraunce. spaine. germanie. britaine.] iyes, the kyngdomes nere at hand. fraunce, from the tymes of faramundus vntill this daie haue stoode, and did florishe in a monarchie. the state of spaine, from the tyme of the firste kyng, vntill this daie, hath florished continually in a monarchie. the great seigniories of germanie, by one suc- cedyng in gouernment, haue been permanent in that good- lie state. our noble isle of britain from brutus, hath stoode by a monarchie: onely in those daies, the state of gouernme[n]t chaunged, at the commyng of iulius cesar, emperour of rome. the lande beyng at diuision, and discorde, through the diuersitie of diuerse kynges: so moche the state of diuerse kynges in one lande, is to be expelled, or the gouernment of [fol. xxiiij.r] the base multitude, to haue vniuersally power of dominion, or the state of peres, to bee chief in regiment, no kyng lefte to commaunde ouer the people, and nobles, or els there can not be but discorde in thende, whiche pulleth doune moste migh- tie regions and dominions, so that the beste state, the moste stedfaste and fortunate, is in all tymes, in all ages, in all la- wes, and common wealthes, where one king sekyng the ad- uauncement, wealthe, glorie, of hym and his people. ¶ the contrarie. that housholde or familie, can not be well gouerned, where many and diuerse beareth gouernment, nec- lectyng the state prosperous vniuersallie: for where obedience is drawen to diuers and many, there can not bee good gouernment, nor faithfull obedience. and so in a king- dome where one chiefly gouerneth, and to a common wealth there the hartes of the subiectes, be moste knitte to obaie. ¶ the similitude. euen as thei, whiche serue one maister, shall soneste with labour please, and with fidelitie, accomplishe his will and pleasure. for, the maners of many me[n] be diuerse, and variable, so in a monarchie, the state of one is sone obaied, the minde and lawe of one prince sone folowed, his maiestie dreaded and loued. ¶ the example. let the fower chief monarchies of the assirian, the persian, grecian, and the romaine, whiche haue continued from the beginnyng mightie, moste hap- pie, bee an example herein. if that state of gouernement, had not been chiefe of all other, those mightie kyngdomes would not haue preferred, that kinde of gouernment. ¶ the testimonie of auncient writers. therefore, aristotle, plato, and all the chief philoso- phers, intreatyng of the administracion of a common wealthe: doe preferre before all states of gouernment [fol. xxiiij.v] a monarchie, bothe for the felicitie of it, and stedfaste state. ¶ the conclusion. homere therefore deserueth greate commendacion, for this one sentence, whiche preferreth a monarchie before all states. ¶ the destruccion. this exercise of _rhetotike_, is called destruccion, or subuersion, because it is in a oracion, a certain re- prehension of any thyng declaimed, or dilated, in the whiche by order of art, the declaimer shall pro- cede to caste doune by force, and strengthe of reason, the con- trarie induced. in this exercise of _rhetorike_, those proposicions are to be subuerted, whiche are not manifeste true, neither it so repu- gnaunt from reason, as that there can appere no holde, to in- duce a probable reason to confounde thesame. but soche pro- posicions are meete for this parte, as are probable in both si- des, to induce probabilitie of argument, to reason therupon. . it shall behoue you firste, for the entryng of this matter, to adde a reprehension there against those, whiche haue con- firmed as a truthe, that, whiche you will confute. . in thesame place, adde the exposion, and meanyng of his sentence. . thirdly, shew the matter to be obsure, that is vncertain[.] . incrediblie. . impossible. . not agreyng to any likelihode of truthe. . uncomlie to be talked of. . unprofitable. this exercise of _rhetorike_ doeth contain in it al strength of arte, as who should saie, all partes of _rhetorike_, maie co- piouslie be handled in this parte, called confutacion, so am- ple a matter tullie doeth note this parte to be. ¶ the theme or proposicion of this oracion. [fol. xxv.r] it is not like to be true, that is said of the battaill of troie. ¶ the reprehension of the auc- thor, and of all poetes. not without a cause, the vanities of poetes are to bee reproued, and their forged inuencions to bee reiected: in whose writynges, so manifestlie are set forthe as a truthe, and chronicled to the posteritie of ages and times, soche forged mat- [sidenote: the vanities of poetes.] ters of their poeticall and vain wittes. who hath not heard of their monsterous lies against god, thei inuentyng a gene- alogie of many goddes procreated, where as there is but one god. this vanitie also thei haue set forthe, in their mo- numentes and woorkes. how a conspiracie was sometyme emong the goddes and goddes, to binde the great god iu- piter. how impudentlie doe thei set forthe the goddes, to bee louers of women, and their adulterous luste: and how thei haue transformed theim selues, into diuers shapes of beastes and foules, to followe after beastly luste. the malice and en- uie of the goddes, one to an other: the feigne also the heaue[n] to haue one god, the sea an other, helle an other, whiche are mere vanities, and false imaginacio[n]s of their poeticall wit- tes. the like forged inuencion haue thei wrote, of the migh- [sidenote: the battaill of troie .x. yeres for a herlotte.] tie and terrible battaill bruted of troie, for a beautifull har- lot susteined ten yeres. in the whiche, not onely men and no- ble péeres, gaue the combate of battaile, but the goddes toke partes against goddes, and men wounded goddes: as their [sidenote: the vain in- uention of poetes.] lies exceade all nomber, because thei bee infinite, so also thei passe all truthe, reason, and iudgemente. these fewe exam- ples of their vanities and lies, doe shewe the feigned ground and aucthoritie of the reste. accordyng to the folie and super- sticiousnes of those tymes, thei inuented and forged folie vp- pon folie, lye vpon lye, as in the battaill of troie, thei aggra- uate the dolour of the battaill, by pitifull and lamentable in- [sidenote: plato reie- cteth poetes from the com[-] mon wealth.] uencion. as for the poetes them selues, plato in his booke, made vpon the administracion of a common wealth, maketh [fol. xxv.v] theim in the nomber of those, whiche are to bee banished out of all common wealthes. ¶ the exposicion. homere dooeth saie, and many other poetes, that the warres of the grecians against the troians, was for beautifull helena, and continued tenne yeres. the goddes and goddis toke partes, and all the people of grece, aided menelaus, and the kyng aga- memnon, to bryng home again helena, neclecting their own countrie, their wife and chidre[n], for one woma[n]. the grekes inuentyng a huge and mightie horse made of firre trée, and couered with brasse, as huge as a mou[n]tain, out of the whiche the grecians by treason issuyng, brought troie to ruine. ¶ the obscuritie of the matter. it semeth a matter of folie, that so many people, so mightie nacions should bee bewitched, to raise so mightie a armie, hassardyng their liues, leauyng their countrie, their wiues, their children, for one [sidenote: helena.] woman: be it so, that helena passed all creatures, and that nature with beautie had indued her with all vertue, and sin- gularitie: yet the grecians would not be so foolishe, that vni- uersallie thei would seke to caste doune their owne wealthe, and moche more the common wealthe of grece, and kyng- dome to stande in perill. neither is it to be thought, the gre- cians, sekyng to aduau[n]ce the beautie of helena: would leaue [sidenote: the cause of the forged in- uencion.] their owne state. but it is like, the wittes of poetes did im- magine so forged a chronicle, that the posteritie of ages fol- lowyng, should rather wounder at their forged inuencion, then to beleue any soche warre truly mencioned. there was no soche cause, seyng that the kyngdome of grece, fell by no title of succession to helena, for them to moue warre, for, the bringyng backe of that beutifull harlotte helena. neither in helena was there vertue, or honestie of life, to moue and ex- asperate the grecians, to spende so greate treasures, to raise [fol. xxvj.r] [sidenote: no commen- dacion in vp- holdyng and maintainyng of harlottes.] so mightie an armie on euery side. what comme[n]dacion had the troians to aduaunce helena, and with all roialnesse to entreate her, she beyng a harlotte: the folie of the grecians and the troians, is so on euery side so greate, that it can not be thought, soche a warre truely chronicled. if violence and power, had taken helena from her housebande, and not her [sidenote: helena follo- wed paris.] owne will and luste, caught with the adulterous loue of pa- ris, beyng a straunger. if her moderacion of life had been so rare, as that the like facte for her chastitie, had not been in a- ny age or common wealthe, her vertues would haue giuen occasion: the princes and nobles of grece to stomacke the matter. the example of the facte, would with all praise and [sidenote: uertuous life, worthie commendaci- on in al ages. lucrecia. tarquinius the kyng ba- nished for ra- uishyng lu- crecia, and all of his name banished.] commendacion be mencioned, and celebrated to al ages. lu- cretia for her chastite, is perpetuallie to be aduanunced, wher- vpon the romaines banished tarquinius their kyng, his stocke and name from rome. the rare chastite of penelope, is remainyng as a example herein: so many snares laied to caste doune her vertuous loue towarde her housebande u- lisses. but ulisses made hauocke by murder, on these gaie and gallante ruffins, who in his absence sought to alienate [sidenote: penelopes chastitie.] and withdrawe, the chaste harte of penelope, consumyng his substance. a greater example remaineth in no age, of the like chastite. as for the battaile of troie, raised for helena, could wise men, and the moste famous nobles of grece: so occupie their heddes, and in thesame, bothe to hasarde their liues for a beautifull strumpet or harlot. the sage and wise [sidenote: nestor. ulisses.] nestor, whom agamemnon for wisedome preferred, before the moste of the péeres of grece, neither it ulisses wanted at thesame tyme, hauyng a politike and subtill hedde, to with- drawe theim from so leude and foolishe a enterprise. grece [sidenote: grece the lande of faire women.] wanted not beautifull creatures, nature in other had besto- wed amiable faces, personage, and comelie behauiour. for, at those daies, grece thei called _achaida calligunaica_, that is, grece the lande of faire women. the dolorous lamentacion of the ladies and matrons in grece, would haue hindered [fol. xxvj.v] soche a foolishe enterprise, seyng their owne beautie neclec- ted, their honestie of life caste vp to perilles, one harlot of in- [sidenote: uncomelie.] numerable people followed and hunted after, in whom neither honestie, vertue, nor chastite was harbored. ¶ uncredible. although the folie of men is greate, and the will of princes and gouernours beastlie and rashe, yet by no meanes it can be so many yeres, so greate folie to take roote in their hartes, and that the wisedom [sidenote: beautie without ver- tue, nothyng of valour.] of the grecia[n]s, should not rather caste of as naught, the beau- tie of helena: rather then the whole multitude, the state of the prince, the welfare of the subiecte, to stande in perill for [sidenote: beautie a poison, in a adulterous mynde.] the beautie of one. what is beautie, when a beastlie and ad- ulterous minde is possessed: beautie without chastitie, har- boreth a monsterous rabelmente of vices, a snare and baite, [sidenote: beautie sone fadeth.] to poison other. beautie in fewe yeres, is not onely blemi- shed, but decaied, and wholie extinguished: it is vncredible, that the grecians would seeke to bryng home helena, who had loste the chaste loue toward her housband, beyng caught [sidenote: paris hele- nas louer. phrigia.] with the adulterous loue of paris, soonne to priamus kyng of troie. the lande of phrigia was a mightie region, the people noble, puissaunte in warre: the kyng for nobilitie of actes famous. the citee of troie, wherein the kyng helde his scepter of gouernement, was riche, mightie, and popu- lous: ruled and gouerned, by the wisedome and policie of fa- mous counsailours, so that by all meanes it is vncredible, [sidenote: uncomelie.] without any possibilitie. thei neclectyng their owne state and kyngdo[m], so to preferre the beautie of one, that the whole multitude of grece thereby to perishe. it is a matter vncre- [sidenote: grece the fountain of al learnyng.] dible in all grece, whiche for the fame of wisedome, is moste celebrated emong all nacions, not one wiseman at thesame tyme to be therein: whose cou[n]saile and politike heddes, might ponder a better purpose. grece, whiche was the mother and fountaine of all artes and sciences, all eloquence, philoso- phie, wisedome flowyng from theim, and yet wisedome to [fol. xxvij.r] want in their breastes. reason can not make any perswasion that any probabilitie can rise, of any soche matter enterpri- sed, what could the intent be of the grecians, as concerning [sidenote: menelaus housbande to helena.] menelaus. in menelaus there was no wisedom, to seke and hunte after helena, or by any meanes to possesse her, she be- yng a harlotte, her loue alienated, her hart possessed with the loue of an other manne: foolishlie he hopeth to possesse loue, [sidenote: harlottes loue dissem- bled.] that seeketh to enioye the cloked, poisoned, and dissembled harte of a harlotte, grece was well ridde of a harlotte, troie [sidenote: troians.] harbouryng helena. in the troians it is not to be thought, that either the kyng, or nobles, for a harlotte, would see the the people murthered, their owne state, the king to be in dan- [sidenote: grecians.] ger of ruine. in the grecians there was neither wisedome, neither commendacion, to pursue with a maine hoste, with a greate nauie of shippes, to bryng backe againe a harlotte, whose enterprise rather might better bee borne, to banishe & exile soche a beastlie disposed persone. the troians mighte [sidenote: absurditie.] well scorne the grecians, if that the possession of a beautifull moste amiable, and minsyng harlotte, was of soche valour, estimacion, and price with theim, not onely the beautie of all other to bee reiected. but moste of all the vertuous life, and chastitie of all their matrons and honourable ladies, to bee caste of as naught. grece that had the name of all wisedome, [sidenote: the defence of helena.] of all learnyng and singularitie, might rather worthelie bee called, a harbouryng place of harlottes: a stewe and vphol- der of whoredome, and all vncleanes. wherefore, these ab- surdities ought to bee remoued, from the minde and cogita- cion of all menne, that should worthelie ponder the state of [sidenote: troie a king[-] dome of whor[-] dome.] grece. troie of like sorte to bee a kyngdome and common wealthe of all vice: whoredome in soche price with the kyng, and people, that moste fortunate should the harlotte bee, and the adulterour in soche a common wealthe, that for adulte- rous loue, putteth rather all their state to hasarde and perill, for the maintenaunce of beastlie loue, brutishe societie moste in price with soche a nacion, chastitie, and moderaciou of life, [fol. xxvij.v] abandoned and caste of. ¶ unpossible, and not agreyng. [sidenote: nature ab- horreth the warre of the grecians.] if wee weigh naturall affeccion, it can not bee, that the grecians so moche abhorring fro[m] nature, should cast of the naturall loue of their wifes, their children and countrie, to bryng home againe, by slaughter of infinite people: soche an one as had left honestie, and chaste loue of her housbande. for, what praise can redounde to the greci- [sidenote: helena.] ans by warre, to bryng home helena, though she of all crea- tures was moste beautifull, beyng a harlotte: followyng the bridell and will of an other man. maie shame or commenda- cion rise to the troians, can wisedome, counsaile, or grauitie, [sidenote: priamus.] defende the adulterous luste of priamus soonne, yea, could priamus so loue helena, for paris his sonnes sake, as that he had rather venter the ruine and destruccion of his citée, and the falle of his people, the murder and ruine of his children, and wife for the beautie of one. for what is beautie, where honestie and vertue lacketh, it is an vncomly matter, though the poetes so faigne it, not onely that in heauen, a contencio[n] should fall emong the goddises of their beautie, or that iu- piter of whom thei make an ignoraunt god, to chuse paris the kynges sonne of troie, chief arbitratour & iudge of that matter, to who[m] he should giue the golde[n] apell to her beautie, as chief of al other, was ascribed these thynges, are vndecent to thinke of the goddeses, and moste of all, to thinke there is more goddes then one. and euen as these are vanities, and forged imaginacions of the goddes, so of the battaile. ¶ uncomelie and vnprofitable. the daunger of many people doeth shewe, that no soche thyng should happen, either of the grecians or of the troians: for, it is a matter dissonaunt fro[m] all truthe, that thei should so moche neclecte the quiete state, and prosperous renoume of their kyngdome, in all tymes and ages, since the firste constitucion of all monar- [fol. xxviij.r] chies and kyngdomes. who euer harde soche a forged mat- ter to be chronicled, and set forthe. or who can giue credite to soche warre, to be enterprised of so small a matter: to leaue the state of waightier thynges for one woman. all the wo- men of that countrie to stande in perill, the slaughter of their deare housbandes, the violent murder of their children to in- sue. therefore, the wilfulnesse of people and princes, are the cause of the falle and destruccion, of many mightie kyngdo- mes, and empires. the fall of grece ensued, when the chief [sidenote: ambicion. cesar fell by ambicion.] citées, athenes and lacedemonie tooke partes, and did con- federate diuers citees to them, to assiste theim, and aide theim in battaile onely: ambicion and desire of glorie, moued bothe [sidenote: discorde.] the athenians and lacedemonians, fro[m] concorde and vnitie by whiche meanes, the power, glory, and stre[n]gth of all king- [sidenote: pompey.] domes falleth. ambicion was the cause that mightie pom- pey fell, and died violently. cesar likewise caught with am- bicion, not bearyng the equalitée, or superioritie of pompei, was tourned of violentlie fro[m] fortunes whéele. many prin- ces of like sorte and kingdomes. by ambicion onely, had the cause of their ruine. the glorie of the assirian monarchie grewe moste mightie, by the ambicion of ninus kyng of babilon: the ofspring of ninus, whiche were kynges line- allie descendyng to the firste kyngdome of the medes, bothe inlarged their kyngdomes, and also had the decaie of theim by ambicion. let the medes also associate them selues to the[m], from arbactus the first kyng, vnto astiages the laste: the be- ginnyng and falle of the persian monarchie. the mightie [sidenote: romulus kil[-] led remus by ambicion.] state of grece, the seate imperiall of rome, by ambicio[n] first extolled theim selues: and also by it, their glorie, scepter, and kyngdome was translated, but the falle of troie came not, by ambicion, that the grecians sought. but as the poetes doe faigne, the beautie of one woman so wounded their har- tes, that the grecians did hasarde, the perilles of their coun- trie. the troians so moche estemed, the beautie of helena, as that the state of all their kyngdome perished. it was no [fol. xxviij.v] glorie nor honour to the grecians, to resiste by armour, and to defende the violente takyng awaie of helena, from her housbande: nor it was no honour, the grecians to pursue by armour, the takynge awaie of helena, beyng a harlotte. so that by no meanes it can followe, these thynges to bee true, of the battaile of troie. ¶ confirmacion. the other part, contrary to destruccion or subuersion, is called confirmacion. confirmacion, hath in it so greate force of argumente, to stablishe and vpholde the cause or proposicion: as destruccion hath in castyng doune the sentence or proposicion. confirmacion is a certain oracion, whiche with a certain reprehension of the persone or facte, by order and waie of art, casteth doune, the contrary propounded. as in the other parte called destruccion, those proposici- ons are to bee subuerted, whiche are not manyfestlie true, with all other notes before specified: so in contrariwise, this oracion by contrary notes is declaimed by, as for example. . it shall behoue you first, for the entring of the oracion, to induce a reprehension againste those, whiche haue confuted as a truthe, that whiche you will confirme. . in the seconde parte, place the exposicion and meanyng of the aucthours sentence. . shewe the matter to be manifest. . credible. . prossible. . agreyng to the truthe. . shewe the facte comelie. . profitable. this exercise of _rhetotike_, doeth contain in it all stre[n]gth of arte, as who should saie, all partes of _rhetorike_ maie co- piouslie bee handled in this parte, called confirmacion. you maie as matter riseth, ioigne twoo notes together, as the reason of the argumente cometh in place, whiche apthonius [fol. xxix.r] a greke aucthour herein vseth. as manifest and credible, pos- sible and agreyng to truthe, comelie and profitable, but in al these, as in all the reste: the theme or proposicion by it self, is to bee placed, the reprehension of the aucthour by it self, the exposicion of the theme by it self. ¶ the theme or proposicion. it is true that is saied of zopyrus, the noble per- sian, who ve[n]tered his life: & did cause the deformi- tie of his bodie, for the sauegarde of this countrie. ¶ the praise. [sidenote: iustinus.] iustinus the historiographer, for worthinesse of fame and wisedome, deserueth in the poste- ritie of all tymes, immortall fame, by whom the famous actes of princes, and other noble [sidenote: chronicles moste neces- sary to be red.] men, doe remaine chronicled. giuyng exam- ples of all valiauntnesse and vertue: for, bothe the actes and worthie feactes of princes, would passe as vnknowen in all ages, excepte the worthinesse of them, were in monumentes of writyng chronicled. for, by the fame of their worthines, and vertues, co[m]mon wealthes and kyngdomes, doe stablishe and make lawes, the hartes of people are incensed, and in- flamed, to the like nobilitie of actes, and famous enter- [sidenote: the worthi- nesse of histo- ries.] prices, histories of auncient tymes, bee vnto vs witnesses of all tymes and ages, of kyngdomes and common wealthes, a liuely example. a light to all truthe and knowlege, a schole- [sidenote: what is a hi- storie.] maister: of maners a memorie of life, for, by it we se the wise- dom of all ages, the forme of the beste and florishing common wealthes. we learne by the vertues of princes and gouer- nours, to followe like steppe of vertue: to flie and auoide vi- ces, and all soche thynges, as are to the destruccion and de- [sidenote: an ignorant life, a brutish life.] caie, of realme and countrie. how brutishe wer our life, if we knewe no more then we se presently, in the state of our com- mon wealthe and kyngdome. the kyngdomes of all prin- ces and common wealthes that now florisheth, doe stande by [fol. xxix.v] the longe experience, wisedome, pollicy, counsaile, and god- lie lawes of princes of auncient times, no smal praise and [sidenote: the know- lege of histo- ries maketh vs as it were liuyng in all ages. historiogri- phers.] commendation can be attributed, to all suche as doe trauell in the serching out the veritie of auncient histories, for bi the knoledge of them, we are as it were liuyng in all ages, the fall of all kyngdomes is manifeste to vs, the death of prin- ces, the subuersions of kingdomes and common wealthes, who knoweth not the first risyng & ende of the assiriane mo- narchie, the glorie of the persians, and the ruynge of the same, the mightie empire of the grekes, risyng & fallyng, the romane state after what sorte florishyng and decaiyng, so that no state of common wealthe or kyngdome is vnkno- wen to vs, therefore iustine, and all suche as doe leue to the posteritie, the state of al things chronicled, deserue immortal commendacions. ¶ the exposicion. [sidenote: the treason of the assy- rians.] in the time of darius kyng of the persians, the assyria[n]s who ware subiects to him, sence the time of cirus the firste kynge of the persians, rebel- led, inuaded and toke the myghtie citie of babi- lon, whiche beyng possessed, with much difficultie, and not [sidenote: darius.] withoute greate daungers coulde bee attained. darius the kynge hearyng of the treason of the assyrians and that the [sidenote: babilon ta- ken of the as- syrians.] mightie citie of babilon was taken, was very wroth wai- ynge with him selfe, that there by, the ruyne of the persian kyngdome mighte happen. zopyrus one of the .vij. noble peres of persia, seing the daunger of the countrie, the state of the prince, and the welfare of the subiectes to decaie, in the safegarde of his countrie, leuyng all priuate commoditie, for the behoufe and felicitie of the persian kyngdome, did ven- [sidenote: the fact of zopyrus.] ter his owne life, commaunded his seruauntes at home to teare and re[n]te his bodie with whippes, to cut of his nose, his lippes and his eares, these thinges being vnknowen to da- rius the kynge. as sone as darius sawe zopyrus so torne [fol. xxx.r] [sidenote: zopyrus cau[-] sed the defor- mitie of his bodie, for the good state of his countrie.] and deformed, bewailed his state being astonished, at so hor- rible a faict: but zopyrus shewed to the kynge his hole in- tente and purpose that he mynded to go to babylon, whiche the assyrians dyd traitorouslie possesse, & complained as that these things had ben don by the tyrannie and crueltie of da- rius, he we[n]t to babilon, and there complained of the cruel- tie of his kyng, whereby purchasyng the fauor and loue of the assyrians, he shewed them how darius came to be kyng not by worthines, not by vertue, not by the common consent of men, but by the neynge of a horse. zopyrus therefore ad- monished them, that they should trust more to their armour, [sidenote: the pollicie of zopyrus.] then to their walles, he willed them to proclame ope[n] warre, forthwith they encountred with the persians, and for a time victorie fel on the babilonians side, suche was the pollice of zopyrus. the assyrians reioised of the successe and felicitie of their warres, the king of the babilonians gaue to zopy- rus, the chiefe power & office, to leede a mightie armie, of the whiche beynge lieutenaunt, he betraied the babilonians and their citie. ¶ manifeste. [sidenote: trogus po[m][-] peius.] not onlie trogus pompeius the famous historio- grapher, and iustine which tooke the story of him, but also the greke writers doe sette forthe, as matter of truthe, the valiaunte enterprises of zopyrus: so that the straunge and mightie facte of him can not seme vncredible, [sidenote: zopyrus.] hauyng testimonie of it in all ages. zopyrus hauing not re- spect to his owne life, to his owne priuate wealthe or glorie, did thereby put of the daunger that insued to the persiane kyngdome: it maie seme a greate matter, to a mynde not well affected towarde his countrie, to destroie or deforme his [sidenote: the saiyng of tullie.] owne bodie, for the sauegarde of countrie or common welth. but if we waie the state of oure bearth, oure countrie cha- lengeth more at oure handes then frindes or parentes, so [sidenote: plato. aristotel.] muche price plato the philosopher, and aristotle doe attri- bute vnto our countrie, the volumes of all lawes and bokes [fol. xxx.v] doe prefare oure naturall countrie before the priuate state of [sidenote: the state of a publike wealthe, is to bee preferred before a pri- uate wealth. pericles.] owne manne, wealthe, glorie, honor, dignitie, and riches of one or fewe, the statutes of all princes, sekyng the glorie of their countrie, doe prefare a vniuersal welthe, before a pri- uate and particulare commoditie. pericles the noble athe- nian in his oration made to the athenians, sheweth that the glorie and welthe of one man or manie, cannot plante suche glorie, and renowne to their countrie, as that in all partes thereby to be beautified and decorated, but whe[n] glorie a hap- pie and florishyng state redoundeth to the kyngdome, the subiectes, the nobelles and hye peres, the gouuernour stan- deth happie and fortunate. who so hopeth in sparing costes and charges, monie or ornaments, to the behouf and imploi- ment of his countrie and not by all meanes to his power and strength aydeth and defendeth his naturall countrie, from [sidenote: a good sub- iecte is redie to liue and die for his countrie.] the daunger and inuasion of his enemie, what state inioyeth he, or what wealth remaineth priuatlie, when the trone and scepter of his kyng faileth, the enemie wasteth, spoileth and destroieth all partes of his state, with the reste his life pe- risheth, so that no daunger, coste, is to bee refused, to serue the kingdom and prince, by whose scepter, iustice, lawes, and equitie we are gouuerned, there is no subiect well affected, but that he onlie liueth to proffite his countrie, to liue & dye therein. ¶ probabell. if only zopyrus had enterprised this valiaunt act, and that no memorie were remainyng in anie age of the noble acts of other men, it may seme not true- lie chronacled, but from time to time, in all ages & co[m]mon wealthes, famous men for their acts & nobilitie haue ben, whiche with like courrage and magnanimitie haue sa- [sidenote: horacius co[-] cles.] ued their countrie, by the losse of their owne liues. horatius cocles is bothe a witnesse and a light to the same, by whose aduenture the mightie and stronge citie rome was saued: for at what time as the hetruscians entred on the citie, and [fol. xxxj.r] were on the bridge, horatius cocles defendid the ende of the same, baryng of the brunte, and stroke of the enemie, vntill the romans, for the sauegarde of the cytie, had broken doun the bridge, as sone as horatius cocles sawe the cytie thus deliuered, and the repulse of the enemie, he lepte with his ar- mours into the flud tibar, it semed he had not regard to his life, that beyng burdened with the waighte and grauitie of his armour, durst venter his life to so main and depe a water. [sidenote: marcus attilius.] marcus attilius in the defence of his prince, his right hand being cut of, the which he laide on the ship of the massilians, forthwith he apprehended with the lefte hand, and ceased not [sidenote: cynegerus.] vntill he hadde soouncke thesame ship. cynegerus the athe- nian lineth by fame and like nobilitie of actes, ve[n]teryng his life for his countrie. the mightie cytie of athenes, brought [sidenote: hismenias. thrasibulus[.]] vnder the dominions of the lacedemonians. thrasibulus, hismenias and lisias bi their aduenture, and noble atchiue reduced athenes to his felicitie so moche loue, soo faithefull hartes they hadde towardes theire countreie. leonides the king of the lacedemonians, defendyng the narow straights of the cytie thermopolie with fower thousand men against the mightie and huge armie of xerxes, for xerxes contemned [sidenote: leonides kyng of the lacedemo- nians.] theire smalle number and armie: leonides the kyng hearde that the place and hill of the battell was preue[n]tid of .xx. thou- sande enemies, he exorted his souldiours parte of them to de- parte vntill a better time might be locked for, and onlie with the lacedemonians he proued the conflicte and the combate, although the campe of xerxes was mightier & more in num- ber: yet leonides the kyng thought it good for the sauegarde of his contrie, for saieth he, i must rather saue it, then to haue respecte to my life, although the oracle of delphos had fore- shewed, that euen leonides muste die in the fielde or battell of the enemie, and therefore leonides entred battail, & com- fortid his men for their countrie sake, as to die therein, there- fore he preuented the narrowe straightes of the countrie, and the dangerous places, where the force of the enemie mought [fol. xxxj.v] bruste in, he lingered not, leste the enemie mighte compasse him in, but in the quiet season of the nighte, he set vppon his enemie vnloked for, and they beynge but sixe hundred men [sidenote: leonides.] with the kyng leonides, brust into the ca[m]pe of their enemies beyng sixe hundred thousand menne, their valiauntnes was suche, and the ouerthowe of their enemies so great, and xer- xes the kyng hauyng two woundes, retired with shame and [sidenote: agesilaus. conon.] loste the honor. agesilaus and conon valiaunte in actes, and excellynge in all nobilitie, what great and mightie dan- gers haue thei atchiued and venterid for their countrie sake, howe moche haue thei neglectid their owne wealth, riches, life and glorie, for the aduauncement and honor of their cou[n]- [sidenote: lisander.] trie. lisander also the lacedemonian, was indued with like nobilitie with faithfull and syncéer harte towarde his coun- [sidenote: archidamus[.] codrus.] try. archidamus also lieth not in obliuio[n], whose fame death buried not the famous aduenture of codrus kyng of the a- thenians is maruelous and almoste incredible, but that the histores, truelie set forth, and declare a manifest truthe ther- [sidenote: epamniun- das.] of, who is more famous then epaminundas, bothe for vir- tue, nobilitie and marciall feates among the thebans, the [sidenote: grecians.] mightie armie of the grecians, at the longe sege of troie, what valiaunte capitains hadde thei, whiche in the defence [sidenote: troians.] of their countrie hasarde their life: the troians also wanted not for proues valiauntnes and al nobilitie, their péeres and [sidenote: romans.] nobles: amonge the romans, what a greate number was of noble peres, whose studie alwaies was to liue and dye in the glorie, aide and defence of their countrie, for he liueth not by whose cowardlines fainted harte and courage, the contrie [sidenote: who liueth in shame.] or kyngdome standeth in perrill, he liueth in shame, that re- fuseth daunger, coste or charge, in the defence or procuryng, better state to his countrie. the worthie saiyng of epami- nundas declareth, who liueth to his countrie, who diyng va- liauntlie in the felde, beyng thrust thorow with the speare of his enemie, asked those questions of these that stoede by him at the poincte of deathe, is my speare manfullie broken, and [fol. xxxij.r] my enemies chassed awaie, the whiche things his co[m]panions [sidenote: epameunn- das a most no[-] ble and vali- aunt pere.] in warre affirmed, then saide he: nowe your capitaine epa- minundas beginneth to liue in that he dieth valiauntlie for his countrie, and in the proffite & aduauncement of the same, a worthie man, noble and valiaunte, his sentence also was worthie to be knowen, and followed of all suche as bee well affected and godlie mynded to their countrie. marcus mar- cellus of like sorte, and titus manlius torquatus, & sci- pio aemilianus, marcus attilius shewed in what hye price our naturall countrée ought to bee had, by their valiaunt at- chifes, and enterprises: i might passe by in sile[n]ce scipio ca- to, and publius scipio nasica, but that thei by like fame, honour and glorie liue immortall to their countrie, the same also of uibeus, ualerius flaccus, and pedanius centurio giueth ampell and large matter to all menne, endued with nobilitie and valiaunt proues, for the defence of their coun- trie with quintus coccius, marcus sceua and sceuola. ¶ possibilitie. there nedeth no doute to rise of possibilitie, seinge that examples doe remain of famous men, of god- lie and well affected persones, whiche haue with like magnanimitie putte in daunger their life, to [sidenote: the order of athenes.] saue their prince, kyngdome, and countrie. greate honour was giuen of the athenians, to soche noble and valiaunte men, whiche ventered their liues for their common wealthe, to maintaine the florishyng state thereof. the eloquente and [sidenote: thusidides.] copious oracion of thusidides, the true, faithfull, and elo- quente historiographer doeth shewe: what honour and im- mortall fame was attributed, to all soche as did venter their liues, in the florishyng state of their countrie, in supportyng, mainteinyng, and defendyng thesame. who, although thei loste their liues, whiche by death should bee dissolued, their fame neuer buried, liueth with the soule to immortalitie, the losse of their priuate wealthe, glorie, riches, substaunce, or dignitie, hath purchased and obtained fame, that withereth [fol. xxxij.v] not, and glorie that faileth not. ¶ agreyng and comelie. bothe the true histories, doe leaue in commenda- cion, the facte of zopyrus, and the noble and wor- thie enterprises of other: whiche haue giuen the like assaie, and their fame is celebrated and titeled with immortall commendacion and glorie, to the posteritie [sidenote: the duetie of all good subiectes.] of all ages followyng. what harte can bee so stonie, or bru- tishly affected, that wil not venter his life, goodes, landes, or possessions: if with the daunger of one, that is of hymself, the whole bodie and state of his countrie, is thereby supported, and saued. what securitie and quietnesse remained, what wealth, honour, or fame to zopyrus: if not onely zopyrus had perished, but the kyng & people vniuersally had been de- stroied. therevpon zopyrus weighing and co[n]sideryng, the [sidenote: the cause of our birthe.] state of his birthe, that his countrie chalenged his life, rather then the dissolucion of the whole kyngdome, the decaie of the prince, the takyng awaie of the scepter, the slaughter of in- finite people to ensue. he was borne to be a profitable mem- ber to his countrie, a glorie and staie to thesame: and not spa- ryng his life, or shunnyng the greate deformitie of his bo- die, to bee a ruine of thesame. was it not better that one pe- rished, then by the securitie of one, a whole lande ouer run- ned, as partes thereby spoiled: it was the duetie of zopirus, to take vpon hym that greate and famous enterprise. it was also comelie, the kyngdome standyng in perill, a sage and descrite persone to preuente and putte of, soche a daunger at [sidenote: the facte of zopyrus.] hande: the faicte altogether sheweth all vertue and greate singularitie, and a rare moderacion of minde, to cast of all re- spectes and excuses, forsakyng presentlie honour, quietnesse and obiecting himself to perill, he sawe if he onelie died, or by ieopardie saued his countrie, many thereby liued, the kyng- dome & people florished, where otherwise, he with his prince and kyngdome might haue perished. ¶ proffitable. [fol. xxxiij.r] [sidenote: the fact of zopyrus.] al the power of the babilonians, was by his pol- icie throwen doune, the citee taken, the enemie brought to confusion: on the other side, the persi- ans rose mightie, soche a mightie enemie put vn- derfoote. the fame of zopyrus and glorie of the facte, will neuer be obliterated, or put out of memorie, if this were not profitable to the kyngdome of persia: if this were not a re- noume to the prince and people, and immortall glory to zo- [sidenote: zopyrus de- formed, a beautie of his countree.] pryus iudge ye. zopyrus therfore, beautified his countrée, by the deformitie of his bodie. better it wer to haue many soche deformed bodies, then the whole state of the realme destroied or brought to naught: if we weigh the magnanimitie of that man, and his enterprise, there is so moche honour in the fact, that his fame shall neuer cease. ¶ a common place. [sidenote: why it is cal- led a common place.] a common place is a oracion, dilatyng and ampli- fiyng good or euill, whiche is incidente or lodged in any man. this oracion is called a common place, because the matter conteined in it, doeth agree vniuersally to all menne, whiche are partakers of it, and giltie of thesame[.] a oracion framed againste a certaine thefe, extorcio- ner, murderer, or traitor, is for the matter conteined in it, metelie and aptlie compiled, against all soche as are giltie of theft, murder, treason, or spotted with any other wickednes. this oracion of a common place, is like to the laste argu- ment or _epilogus_ of any oracion, whiche the grekes doe call _deuterologian_, whiche is as moche to saie, as a rehearsall of that whiche is spoken of before. wherefore, a common place hath no _exhordium_, or be- ginnyng, yet neuerthelesse, for the profite and exercise of the learner, you maie place soche a _proemium_, or beginnyng of the oracion, as maie be easie to induce the learner. this parte of _rhetorike_ is large to intreate vpon, for the aboundaunce of matter. this part of _rhetorike_ is large to intreate vpon, for the [fol. xxxiij.v] aboundaunce of matter. the common place, whiche aphthonius intreateth of, is to be aplied against any man, for the declaimor to inuade, ei- ther against vices, or to extoll and amplifie his vertues. this oracion of a common place, serueth bothe for the ac- cuser and the defender. for the accuser, to exasperate and moue the iudges or hearers, against the offender, or accused. for the defendour to replie, and with all force & strength of matter, to mollifie and appease the perturbacions of the iudges and hearers, to pulle doune and deface the contrarie alledged. there is greate force in this oracion, on bothe the sides. properlie this kinde of _rhetorike_, is called a common place, though it semeth to be made againste this man, or that man: because the matter of thesame shall properly pertain to all, giltie of thesame matter. [sidenote: pristianus.] pristianus sheweth, that this parte of _rhetorike_, is as it were a certaine exaggeracion of reason, to induce a manifest probacion of any thyng committed. as for example, a theife taken in a robberie, in whom neither shamefastnesse, nor sparcle of grace appereth against soche a one: this oracion maie be made, to exasperate the iud- ges from all fauour or affeccion of pitie, to be shewed. ¶ the order of the oracion followeth with these notes to be made by. ¶ the firste proheme. demosthenes the famous orator of athenes in his oracio[n] made against aristogito[n] doeth saie, [sidenote: what are lawes.] that lawes wherewith a common wealthe, ci- tie or region is gouerned, are the gifte of god, a profitable discipline among men, a restraint to with holde and kepe backe, the wilfull, rashe, and beastilie [sidenote: aristotle. plato.] life of man, and therupo[n] aristotle and plato doe shewe, that through the wicked behauour of men, good lawes were first [fol. xxxiiij.r] ordained, for, of ill maners, saie thei, rose good lawes, where [sidenote: order.] lawes doe cease, and good order faileth, there the life of man will growe, rude, wild and beestlie: man beyng a chiefe crea- [sidenote: man borne by nature to societee.] ture or god, indued with manie singuler vertues, is framed of nature to a mutuall and godlie societie of life, without the whiche moste horrible wolde the life bee, for not onlie by concorde and agremente, the life of man dothe consiste but al things on the earth haue therin their being: the heauens and lightes conteined in the same, haue a perpetuall harmonie & concente in finishyng their appointed race. the elementes [sidenote: all thinges beyng on the yearth, dooe consiste by a harmonie or concorde.] of the worlde, where with the nature and substaunce of all thinges, doe consiste onlie by a harmonie and temperature of eche parte, haue their abidyng increase & prosperous beyng, otherwise their substaunce, perisheth and nature in all partes decaieth: kyngdomes and common wealthes doe consiste in a harmonie, so long as vertue and all singularitie tempereth their state and gouernemente, and eche member thereof obe- ieth his function, office and callynge, and as partes of the- same bodie, euerie one as nature hath ordained theim occu- piyng, their roume and place, the vse of euerie parte, all to the vse and preseruacion of the hole bodie, and as in the bodie so in the common wealthe, the like concorde of life oughte to be in euery part, the moste principall parte accordyng to his di- gnitie of office, as moste principall to gouerne thother inferi- or partes: and it thei as partes moste principal of thesame bo- die with all moderacion and equabilitie te[m]peryng their state, [sidenote: order con- serueth com- mon wealth.] office and calling. the meanest parte accordyng to his lowe state, appliyng hym selfe to obeie and serue the moste prin- cipall: wherein the perfecte and absolute, frame of common wealthe or kyngdome is erected. and seyng that as the phi- losophers doe saie, of ill maners came good lawes, that is to saie, the wicked and beastlie life of man, their iniurius beha- uiour, sekyng to frame themselues from men to beastes mo- [sidenote: euil maners was the occa- sion of good lawes.] ued the wise and godlie, elders to ordaine certaine meanes, to rote discipline, whereby the wickedlie disposed personne [fol. xxxiiij.v] should bee compelled to liue in order, to obeie godlie lawes, to the vpholdyng of societie. therefore, all suche as dissolue lawes, caste doune good order, and state of common wealth, out as putride and vnprofitable weedes, to be extirpated and plucked vp from citie and common wealthe, from societie, who by mischeuous attemptes seke, to extinguishe societie, amitie, and concord in life. princes & gouernors with al other magistrates ought in their gouernment to imitate the prac- tise of the phisician, the nature of man, wekedned and made feble with to moche abundaunce of yll humors, or ouermoch with ill bloode replenished, to purge and euacuate that, and all to the preseruacion and healthe of the whole bodie: for so was the meanyng of the philosopher, intreatyng of the po- litike, gouernment of kingdome and commonwealth, when [sidenote: theiues not mete to be in any societie.] thei compared a kingdome to the bodie of man: the thefe and robber as a euill and vnprofitable member, and all other as without all right, order, lawe, equitie and iustice, doe breake societie of life, bothe against lawe and nature: possessing the goodes of a other man, are to bee cutte of, as no partes, méete to remaine in any societie. ¶ the seconde proheme. [sidenote: why theiues and wicked men, are cut of by lawe.] the chifest cause that moued gouernours and ma- gistrates, to cutte of the race of theues, and viole[n]te robbers, and of all other mischeuous persons, was that by them a confusion would ensue in al states. what citee could stande in prosperous state, yea, or what house priuatlie inhabited, where lawes and aucthoritee were exiled: where violence, will, luste, and appetite of pestiferous men, might without terrour bee practised. if the labour and industrie of the godlie, should be alwaie a praie to y^e wicked, and eche mannes violence and iniurious dealyng, his owne lawe, the beaste in his state, would bee lesse brutishe and in- iurious. who so seketh to caste doune this societée, he is not méete to be of any societée, whiche he dissolueth. who so rob- beth or stealeth, to liue by the gooddes of an other manne, as [fol. xxxv.r] his possession, is by violence and againste nature: so by vio- [sidenote: a due rewar[-] des for thie- ues and mur- therers.] lence and against nature, their pestiferous doinges do frame their confusion: their execrable & destetable purpose, do make theim a outcaste from all good people, and as no members thereof, cut of from all societée, their euill life rooteth perpetu- al ignomie and shame. and thus is the tragicall ende of their enterprise. ¶ the contrarie. [sidenote: democratia.] herein the lose and dissolute state of gouernmente called of the grekes democratia, haue conten- ted the wilfull heddes of pestiferous men: where- in euery man must bee a ruler. their owne will is their lawe: there luste setteth order, no magistrate, but euery one to hymself a magistrate. all thynges in common, as long as that state doeth remain emong the wicked, a most happie state coumpted, a wished state to idell persones, but it [sidenote: the thiefe. the mur- therer.] continueth not. herein the murtherer, the thiefe were meete to be placed. the greater thiefe, the better manne: the moste execrable murtherer, a moste mete persone, for soche state of gouernemente. there is no nacion vnder the sunne, but that one tyme or other, this troublous state hath molested theim: and many haue sought to sette vp soche a monsterous state of regiment, a plagued common wealthe, and to be de- tested. soche was the order of men, when thei liued without lawes. when the whole multitude were scattered, no citee, toune, or house builded or inhabited, but through beastlie maners, beastlie dispersed, liued wilde and beastlie. but the wise, sage, and politike heddes reduced by wisedome, into [sidenote: houses. families. tounes. citees.] a societie of life, nature leadyng thereto: houses and habita- cions, were then for necessitie made, families multiplied, vil- lages and tounes populouslie increased, and citees raised emong so infinite people. nature by god inuented and sta- blished lawe, and the sage and wise persones, pronounced and gaue sentence vpon lawes. whereupon, by the obedi- ence of lawes, and preeminente aucthoritie of magistrates: [fol. xxxv.v] the state of mightie kyngdomes and common wealthes, haue growen to soche a roialnesse and loftie state, many fa- mous kingdomes haue been on the face of the yearth: many noble princes from tyme to tyme succedyng, whiche with- [sidenote: obedience of lawes did stablishe the mightie mo- narchies.] out a order of godlie lawes, could not haue continued. what was the cause that the mightie monarchies, continued many hundred yeres: did the losse of dissolute life of subiectes and princes, cause thesame but good lawes, and obedience to or- ders. therefore, where magistrates, bothe in life and office, [sidenote: the life of the magi- strate, a lawe[.]] liue in the obedience of lawes: the multitude inferiour, by example of the magistrates singularitie, incensed dooe place before them, their example of life, as a strong lawe. [sidenote: the epistle of theodosi- uus empe- ror of rome[.]] theodosius emperor of rome, writyng to uolusianus his chief pretor, as concernyng his office, in these woordes, saieth: _digna vox est maiestate regnantis legibus alligatum se principem profiteri. adeo de autoritate iuris nostra pendet autoritas et reuera maius imperio est submittere legibus prin[-] cipatum & oraculo presentis edicti quod nobis licere non pa- timur alijs indicamus._ it is a worthie saiyng, and meete for the maiestie of a prince, to acknowledge hymself vnder his lawe. for, our aucthoritie, power, and sworde, doeth depende vpon the force, might, and aucthoritie of lawes, and it pas- seth all power and aucthoritie, his gouernemente and kyng- dome to be tempered by lawe, as a moste inuiolable oracle and decrée, so to doe as we prouulgate to other. whereupon it is manifeste, what force godlie lawes gaue to the prince, what aucthoritie. take lawes awaie, all order of states fai- [sidenote: princes lawe.] leth, the prince by lawe, is a terrour to the malefactour: his maiestie is with all humblenesse serued, feared, and obeied. by lawes, his state maketh hym as a god, emong menne, at whose handes the preseruacion of eche one, of house, citee and countrie is sought. seing bothe lawes and the prince, hane that honour and strength, that without them, a _chaos_ a con- fusion would followe, in the bodie of all common wealthes and kyngdomes. let them by aucthoritie and lawe bee con- [fol. xxxvj.r] founded, that practise to subuerte aucthoritie, to neclecte the prince, and his godlie lawes. ¶ the exposicion. [sidenote: theiues and all iniurious persones.] the theife, or any other iniurious persone, doeth seke to bée aboue all lawes, exempted from all order, vn- der no obedience, their pestiferous dealyng, dooe vt- [sidenote: demosthe- nes in ari- stogiton.] ter thesame: for, as demosthenes the famous orator of a- thenes doeth saie. if that wicked men cease not their viole[n]ce if that good men in all quietnes and securitie, can not enioye their owne goddes, while lawe and aucthoritie of the magi- strate, seuerelie and sharply vseth his aucthoritie and sword. if dailie the heddes of wicked men, cease not to subuerte la- wes, orders, and decrees godlie appoincted. whiles that in all citees and common wealthes, the princes and gouer- [sidenote: the force of lawes.] nours, are by lawes a terror to them. lawes then ceasyng, the dreadfull sente[n]ce of the iudge and magistrate wanting. the sworde vndrawen, all order confounded, what a con- fusion would followe: yea, what an open passage would bee lefte open to all wickednesse. the terrour of lawes, the sworde and aucthoritie of the magestrate, depresseth and put[-] teth doune, the bloodie cogitacions of the wicked, and so hin- dereth and cutteth of, many horrible and bloodie enterprises. els there would bee neither prince, lawe, nor subiecte, no hedde or magistrate: but euery manne his owne hedde, his owne lawe and magistrate, oppression and violence should bee lawe, and reason, and wilfull luste would bee in place of reason, might, force, and power, should ende the case. where- fore, soche as no lawe, no order, nor reason, will driue lo liue as members in a common wealthe, to serue in their functio[n]. [sidenote: wicked men burdeins of the yearth.] thei are as homere calleth the:m, burdeins to the yearth, for thei are of no societie linked with nature, who through wickednesse are disseuered, abhorryng concorde of life, socie- tie and felowship. whom sinister and bitter stormes of for- tune, doe daiely vexe and moleste, who in the defence of their [fol. xxxvj.v] [sidenote: maimed sol- diours muste be prouided for.] countrie are maimed, and thereby their arte and science, for, imbecilitie not practised, all art otherwise wantyng, extreme pouertee fallyng on them, reason muste moue, and induce all hartes, to pitée chieflie their state: who in defence and main- teinaunce of our countrie, prince, and to the vpholdyng of our priuate wealthe at home, are become debilitated, defor- med and maimed, els their miseries will driue them to soche hedlesse aduentures, that it maie bee saied, as it was saied to [sidenote: the saiyng of a souldiour to alexander the greate.] alexander the greate. thy warres, o prince, maketh ma- ny theues, and peace will one daie hang them vp. wherein the grecians, as thusidides noteth, had a carefull proui- dence, for all soche as in the defence of their countrie were maimed, yea, euen for their wiues, and children of all soche, as died in warre, to be mainteined of the commo[n] charge and threasure of grece. reade his oracion in the seconde booke, made vpon the funerall of the dedde soldiours. ¶ a comparison of vices. [sidenote: the dru[n]kard[.] the proude persone. the prodigal[.] the couei- teous. the robber.] the dronkarde in his state is beastlie, the proude and arrogante persone odious, the riotous and prodigall persone to be contempned, the couei- tous and nigardlie manne to bee reiected. but who so by violence, taketh awaie the goodes of an other man, or by any subtill meanes, iniustlie possesseth thesame, is detestable, with all seueritée to be punished. the [sidenote: the adul- terer. the harlot.] adulterer and the harlotte, who by brutishe behauiour, leude affection, not godlines leadyng thereto: who by their vnchast behauior, and wanton life doe pollute, and co[n]taminate their bodie, in whom a pure minde ought to be reposed. who tho- rowe beastly affeccion, are by euill maners transformed to beastes: and as moche as in theim lieth, multipliyng a bru- [sidenote: the homi- cide.] tishe societie. the homicide in his state more horrible, accor- dyng to his outragious and bloodie life, is to bee tormented, in like sort all other vices, accordyng to their mischiues, rea- son, lawe and iustice, must temper and aggrauate due re- [fol. xxxvij.r] ward, and sentence to them. ¶ the sentence. [sidenote: thefte horri[-] ble amo[n]g the scitheans.] no vice was more greuous, and horrible emong the scithians then thefte, for this was their sai- yng: _quid saluum esse poterit si licet furari_, what can be safe, if thefte bee lefull or tolerated. herein [sidenote: a sentence a- genst thefte.] the vniuersalle societée of life is caste doune, hereby a confu- sion groweth, and a subuersion in all states immediatlie fol- loweth, equitee, iustice, and all sincere dealyng is abaundo- ned, violence extirpateth vertue, and aucthoritie is cutte of. ¶ the digression. the facte in other maie be with more facilitée to- lerated, in that to theim selues, the facte and con- uersacion of life is moste pernicious, and hurtfull, but by soche kinde of menne, whole kyngdomes and common wealthes would bee ouerthrowen. and for a prosperous state and common wealthe, a common woe and [sidenote: horrible vi- ces.] calamitée would fall on them, tumultes and vprores main- tained, right and lawe exiled: neither in field quietnes, welth or riches, houses spoiled, families extinguished, in all places sedicion, warre for peace, violence for right, will and lust for [sidenote: userers.] lawe, a hedlesse order in all states. and as concernyng usu- rers, though their gaines be neuer so ample, and plentifull, to enriche them, whereby thei growe to be lordes, ouer many thousandes of poundes: yet the wealthe gotten by it, is so in- iurious, that thei are a greate plague, to all partes of the co[m]- mon wealthe: so many daungers and mischiues, riseth of the[m][.] cato the noble and wise senator of rome, being demaun- ded diuers questions, what was firste to bee sought, in a fa- milie or housholde, the aunsweres not likyng the demaun- [sidenote: the sentence of cato a- gainst vsu- rers. usure is mur[-] ther.] der: this question was asked, o cato, what sente[n]ce giue you of usurie, that is a goodlie matter to bee enriched by. then cato aunswered in fewe woordes. _quid hominem occidere._ what saie you to be a murderer? soche a thyng saieth he, is [fol. xxxvij.v] usurie. a brief sentence againste usurers, but wittely pro- nounced from the mouth of a godlie, sage, noble, and descrite persone, whiche sentence let the usurer, ioigne to his usury retourned, and repeate at the retourne thereof, this sentence [sidenote: the sentence of cato a dis- comfort to v- surers.] of cato, i haue murthered. this one sentence will discou- rage any usurer, knowyng hymself a murtherer. though moche more maie be spoken against it, this shalbe sufficient. the hebrues calleth usurie, by the name of _shecke_, that is a bityng gaine, of the whiche many haue been so bitten, that whole families haue been deuoured, & beggerie haue been their gaine. and as palingenius noteth. _debitor aufugiens portat cum fænore sortem._ the debtour often tymes saieth he, runneth awaie, and carieth with hym, the debte and gaines of the usurie. the grekes calleth usurie _tokos_, that is properlie the trauaile of women of their childe: soche is their usurie, a daungerous gettyng. demosthenes likeneth their state as thus, as if ter- restriall thynges should be aboue the starres: and the heaue[n]s [sidenote: usure a dan- gerous gaue.] and celestialle bodies, gouerned by the base and lowe terre- striall matters, whiche by no meanes, can conserue the ex- cellencie of them, for, of them onely, is their matter, substau[n]ce and nature conserued. ¶ exclusion of mercie. wherefore, to whom regimente and gouerne- mente is committed, on whose administracion, the frame of the co[m]mon wealth doe staie it self: thei ought with al wisedome and moderacion, to procede in soche causes, whose office in wor- [sidenote: princes and magistrates be as gods on the earth.] thinesse of state, and dignitée, maketh the[m] as goddes on the yearth, at whose mouthes for wisedome, counsaill, and for- tunate state, infinite people doe depende. it is no smal thing in that their sword & aucthoritée, doeth sette or determine all thinges, that tendereth a prosperous state, whereupon with all integritée and equitée, thei ought to temper the affeccions of their mynde: and accordyng to the horrible facte, and mis- [fol. xxxviij.r] chiues of the wicked, to exasperate & agrauate their terrible iudgemente, and to extirpate from the yearth, soche as be of [sidenote: the homicide. the theue. the adulte- rer.] no societie in life. the bloodie homicide, the thief, the adul- terer, for by these all vertue is rooted out, all godlie societie extinguished, citees, realmes, and countrées, prostrate & pla- gued for the toleracion of their factes, against soch frendship in iudgemente muste cease, and accordyng to the state of the cause, equitee to retaine frendship, money muste not blinde, nor rewardes to force and temper iudgementes: but accor- dyng to the veritee of the cause, to adde a conclusion. wor- [sidenote: whey the pi- ctures of ma- gistrates bee picturid with- oute handes.] thelie the pictures of princes, gouernours and magistrates in auncient tymes doe shewe this, where the antiquitée ma- keth theim without handes, therein it sheweth their office, and iudgemente to proceade with equitée, rewardes not to blind, or suppresse the sinceritée of the cause. magistrates not to bee bounde to giftes, nor rewardes to rule their sentence. _alciatus_ in his boke called _emblemata, in senatu[m] sancti prin- cipis_. [sidenote: princes and magistrates graue & con- stante.] _effigies manibus trunc[ae] ante altaria diuum hic resident, quarum lumine capta prior signa potestatis summ[ae], sanctiq[ue] senatus, thebanis fuerant ista reperta viris. cur resident? quia mente graues decet esse quieta iuridicos, animo nec variare leui. cur sine sunt manibus? capiant ne xenia, nec se pollicitis flecti muneribus ve sinant. cecus est princeps quod solis auribus, absq[ue] affectu constans iussa senatus agit._ where vertue and integritée sheweth it self, in the persone and cause, to vpholde and maintein thesame. roote out hor- rible vices from common wealthe, that the more surer and stronge foundacion of vertue maie be laied: for, that onelie cause, the scepter of kinges, the office of magistrates was left to the posteritée of all ages. ¶ lawfull and iuste. [fol. xxxviij.v] ¶ lawfull and iust. [sidenote: lawes giue equitie to all states.] seyng that lawes bee godlie, and vniuersally thei temper equitée to all states, and giue according to iustice, euery man his owne: he violateth vertue, that dispossesseth an other manne of his own, and [sidenote: what driueth y^e magistrate to horrible sentence a- gainst wicked persons.] wholie extinguisheth iustice. and thereupon his beastly life by merite forceth and driueth, lawe and magistrate, to terri- ble iudgement. for, who so against right, without order, or lawe, violateth an other man, soche a one, lawes of iustice, muste punishe violentlie, and extirpate from societée, beyng a dissoluer of societee. ¶ profitable. if soche wicked persones be restrained, and seuerelie punished, horrible vices will be rooted out: all artes[,] sciences, and godlie occupacions mainteined, vphol- ded and kept. then there must bée a securitée in all states, to [sidenote: magistrate. subiect.] practise godlines, a mutuall concorde. the magistrate with equitée, the subiecte with faithful and humble obedience, ac- complishyng his state, office, and callyng. whereupon by good magistrates, and good subiectes, the common wealthe and kyngdom is in happie state stablished. for, in these twoo [sidenote: plato.] poinctes, as plato doeth saie, there is vertuous rule, and like obedience. ¶ easie and possible. [sidenote: the begyn- nyng of vice is to be cut af.] al this maie easely be doen, when wickednes is cutte of, in his firste groweth, when the magistrate driueth continually, by sworde and aucthoritée, all menne to obedience, bothe of lawes and gouernuurs. then in al good common wealthes, vices are neuer tolerated to take roote: be- cause the beginnyng and increase of vices, is sone pulled vp, his monsterous kyngdome thereby ouerthrowen. ¶ the conclusion. so doyng, happie shall the kyng be, happie kyngdome, and moste fortunate people. [fol. xxxix.r] ¶ the parte of rhetorike, called praise. his oracion, which is titeled praise, is a declamacio[n] of the vertuous or good qualitées, propertees belon- gyng to any thyng, whiche doeth procede by certaine notes of arte. all thynges that maie be seen, with the iye of man, tou- ched, or with any other sence apprehended: that maie be prai- sed, or dispraised. { manne. citees. } { fisshe. floodes. } { foule. castles. } { beaste. toures. } as { orchardes. gardeins. } { stones. stones. } { trees. artes. } { plantes. sciences. } { mettals. } any vertue maie be praised, as wisedome, rightuousnes[,] fortitude, magnanimitée, temperaunce, liberalitée, with all other. these are to be celebrated with praise. the persone, as iulius cesar, octauius augustus, hieremie, tullie, cato, demosthenes. thynges, as rightuousnes, temperaunce. tymes, as the spryng tyme of the yere, sommer, har- uest, winter. places, as hauens, orchardes, gardeins, toures, castles, temples, islandes. beastes wantyng reason, as horse, shepe, oxen[,] pla[n]- ntes, as uines, oliues. in the praise of vertue, this maie be saied. the excellencies of it, the antiquitee and originalle be- ginnyng thereof, the profite that riseth to any region by it, as no kyngdome can consiste without vertue, [fol. xxxix.v] and to extoll the same, in makyng a comparison, with other giftes of nature, or with other giftes of fortune, more infe- riour or base. [sidenote: wherein the praise of a ci- tie consisteth[.]] upon a citée, praise maie be recited, consideryng the good- lie situacion of it, as of paris, uenice, london, yorke: con- sideryng the fertilitie of the lande, the wealthe and aboun- daunce, the noble and famous goueruours, whiche haue go- uerned thesame. the first aucthors and builders of thesame, the politike lawes, and godlie statutes therein mainteined: the felicitée of the people, their maners, their valeaunt pro- wes and hardines. the buildyng and ornatures of thesame, with castles, toures, hauens, floodes, temples: as if a manne would celebrate with praise. the olde, famous, and [sidenote: the praise of london. brutus buil[-] ded londo[n] in the .x. yeare of his raine.] aunciente citée of london, shewyng the auncient buildyng of thesame: the commyng of brutus, who was the firste au- cthor and erector of thesame. as romulus was of the migh- tie citée rome, what kyngs haue fro[m] tyme to tyme, lineal- ly descended, and succeded, bearing croune and scepter there- in: the valiauntnes of the people, what terror thei haue been to all forraine nacions. what victories thei haue in battaile obteined, how diuers nacions haue sought their amitée and [sidenote: fraunce and scotlande vpholded by y^e gouernors of this lande.] league. the false scottes, and frenche menne truce brea- kers: many and sonderie tymes, losyng their honour in the field, and yet thei, through the puissaunt harte of the kynges of this lande, vpholdyd and saued, from the mighte and force [sidenote: cambridge. oxforde.] of other enemies inuadyng theim. the twoo famous uni- uersitées of this lande, from the whiche, no small nomber of greate learned men and famous, haue in the co[m]mon wealthe sprong, with all other thynges to it. the praise of a kyng, prince, duke, erle, lorde, ba- ron, squire, or of any other man be maie declaimed of obser[-] uing the order of this parte of _rhetorike_. this parte of _rhetorike_ called praise, is either a particu- ler praise of one, as of kyng henry the fifte, plato, tullie, demosthenes, cyrus, darius, alexander the greate. [fol. xl.r] or a generalle and vniuersalle praise, as the praise of all the britaines: or of all the citezeins of london. ¶ the order to make this oracion, is thus declared. firste, for the enteryng of the matter, you shall place a _exordium_, or beginnyng. the seconde place, you shall bryng to his praise, _genus eius_, that is to saie: of what kinde he came of, whiche dooeth consiste in fower poinctes. { of what nacion. } { of what countrée. } { of what auncetours. } { of what parentes. } after that you shall declare, his educacion: the educacion is conteined in thrée poinctes. { institucion. } in { arte. } { lawes. } then put there to that, whiche is the chief grounde of al praise: his actes doen, whiche doe procede out of the giftes, and excellencies of the minde, as the fortitude of the mynde, wisedome, and magnanimitée. of the bodie, as a beautifull face, amiable countenaunce[,] swiftnesse, the might and strength of thesame. the excellencies of fortune, as his dignitée, power, au- cthoritee, riches, substaunce, frendes. in the fifte place vse a comparison, wherein that whiche you praise, maie be aduaunced to the vttermoste. laste of all, vse the _epilogus_, or conclusion. ¶ the example of the oracion. ¶ the praise of epaminundas. in whom nature hath powred singuler giftes, in whom vertue, & singularitée, in famous en- terprises aboundeth: whose glorie & renoume, rooteth to the posteritée, immortall commen- dacion. in the graue, their vertues and godlie [fol. xl.v] [sidenote: obliuion.] life, tasteth not of obliuion, whiche at the length ouerthro- weth all creatures, citées, and regions. thei liue onelie in all ages, whose vertues spreadeth fame and noble enterpri- [sidenote: who liue in all ages.] ses, by vertue rooteth immortalitée. who so liueth, as that his good fame after death ceaseth not, nor death with the bo- die cutteth of their memorie of life: soche not onely in life, but also in death are moste fortunate. in death all honor, di- [sidenote: good fame chieflie rou- teth after death.] gnitée, glorie, wealthe, riches, are taken from vs: the fame and glorie of singulare life is then, chieflie takyng his holde and roote, wise men and godlie, in life, knowen famous, af- ter death, remain moste worthie & glorious. who knoweth [sidenote: tullie. demosthe- nes. iulius ce- sar. octauius augustus. uespasianus[.] theodosius. traianns. adrianus.] not of tullie, the famous oratour of rome. doeth de- mosthenes lieth hidden, that noble oratour of athenes. is not y^e fame of iulius cesar, octauius augustus remainyng of uespasianus: of theodosius, of traianus, of adrianus, who by praise minded, be left to the ende of al ages. soche a one was this epaminundas, the famous duke of thebe, whose vertues gaue hym honour in life, and famous enter- prises, immortalitée of fame after death. what can bee saied more, in the praise and commendacion, of any peere of estate, then was saied in the praise of epaminundas, for his ver- tues were so singulare, that it was doubted, he beyng so good a manne, and so good a magistrate, whether he were better manne, or better magistrate: whose vertues were so vnited, that vertue alwaies tempered his enterprises, his loftie state as fortune oftentymes blindeth, did not make hym vnmind- full of his state. no doubt, but that in all common wealthes, famous gouernours haue been, but in all those, the moste parte haue not been soche, that all so good men, and so good magistrates: that it is doubted, whether thei were better me[n], [sidenote: good man, good magi- strate, boothe a good man and a good magistrate.] or better magistrates. it is a rare thyng to be a good manne, but a more difficult matter, to bee a good magistrate: and moste of all, to be bothe a good man, and a good magistrate. honour and preeminent state, doeth sometyme induce obli- uion, whereupon thei ought the more vigilantlie to wade: [fol. xlj.r] in all causes, and with all moderacion, to temper their pree- [sidenote: the saiynge of the philo- sophers.] minent state. the philosophers ponderyng the brickle and slippere state of fortune, did pronounce this sentence: _diffici- lius est res aduersas pati, quam fortunam eflantem ferre_, it is more easie to beare sharpe and extreme pouertie, then to rule and moderate fortune, because that the wisest menne of all [sidenote: obliuion.] haue as chronicles doe shewe, felte this obliuion, that their maners haue been so chaunged, as that natures molde in the[m] had ben altered or nuelie framed, in the life of epaminu[n]das moderacion and vertue, so gouerned his state, that he was a honor and renowne to his state, nothing can be more ample in his praise, then that which is lefte chronicled of him. [¶] of his countrie. epaminundas was borne in thebe a famous citie in [sidenote: cadmus. amphion. hercules.] beotia, the which cadmus the sone of agenor buil- ded, whiche amphion did close & enuiron with wal- les, in the whiche the mightie and valiaunt hercules was borne, & manie noble princes helde therin scepter, the which citie is tituled famous to the posterity by the noble gouern- ment of epaminundas. ¶ of his auncetours. epaminundas came not of anie highe nobilitie or blood, but his parentes were honeste and verteous who as it semed were verie well affected to vertue, instructyng their soonne in all singulare and good qualities, for by good and vertuous life and famous enter- prises from a meane state, manie haue bene extolled to beare scepter, or to attaine greate honour, for as there is a begyn- [sidenote: nobility rose by vertue.] nyng of nobilitie, so there is an ende, by vertue and famous actes towarde the common wealthe, nobilite first rose. the [sidenote: cesar. scipio.] stock of cesar and cesars was exalted from a meaner state, by vertue onelie to nobilitie. scipios stocke was not alwais noble, but his vertues graffed nobilitie to the posteritie of his line and ofspryng followynge. and euen so as their fa- [fol. xlj.v] mous enterprices excelled, nobilite in theim also increased. [sidenote: catilina.] catilina wicked, was of a noble house, but he degenerated from the nobilitie of his auncestours, the vertues that graf- fed nobilitie in his auncestors, were first extinguished in ca- [sidenote: marcus antonius.] iline. marcus antonius was a noble emperour, a prince indued with all wisedome and godlie gouernme[n]t, who was of a noble pare[n]tage, it what a wicked sonne succeded him, the [sidenote: commodus.] father was not so godlie, wise, and vertuous, as commo- dus was wickedlie disposed and pestiferous. there was no vertue or excellence, méete for suche a personage, but that marcus attained to. who for wisedome was called marcus philosophus, in his sonne what vice was the[m] that he practi- sed not, belie chier, druncknes and harlottes, was his delite, his crueltie and bluddie life was suche that he murthered all the godlie and wise senatours, had in price with marcus [sidenote: seuerus.] his father. seuerus in like maner, was a noble and famous emperor, in the senate moste graue, politike, and in his [sidenote: marcus antonius caracalla.] warres moste fortunate, but in his sonne marcus antoni- nus caracalla, what wickednes wanted, whose beastlie life is rather to be put in silence, then spoken of. in the assemble of the grecians, gathered to consulte vpon the contencion of [sidenote: aiax. ulisses.] achilles armour, aiax gloriouslie aduaunceth hymself of his auncestrie, from many kinges descended, whom ulisses his aduersarie aunswered: makyng a long and eloquente ora- cion, before the noble péeres of grece, concernyng aiax his auncetours. these are his woordes. _nam genus et proauos et que non fecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco, sed enim quia retulit aiax, esse iouis pronepos._ as for our parentage, and line of auncetours, long before vs, and noble actes of theirs: as we our selues haue not doen the like, how can we call, and title their actes to be ours. let them therefore, whiche haue descended from noble blood, and famous auncetours: bee like affected to all nobilitée of their auncetours, what can thei glory in the nobilitée of their aun- [fol. xlij.r] cetours. well, their auncetours haue laied the foundacion, [sidenote: nobilitee.] and renoume of nobilitee to their ofspryng. what nobilitee is founde in them, when thei builde nothyng, to their aunce- tours woorke of nobilitée. euen as their auncetours, noblie endeuoured them selues, to purchase and obtain, by famous actes their nobilitée) for, nobilitée and vertue, descendeth al- waies to the like) so thei contrary retire and giue backe, fro[m] all the nobiliée of their auncestours, where as thei ought, [sidenote: a beginnyng of nobilitee.] with like nobilitée to imitate them. many haue been, whiche through their wisedome, and famous enterprises, in the af- faires of their prince, worthelie to honour haue been extol- led and aduaunced: who also were the firste aucthours and founders of nobiliée, to their name and ofspring. whose of- spring indued with like nobilitée of vertues, and noble actes haue increased their auncestors glorie: the childre[n] or ofspring lineally descendyng, hauyng no part of the auncestours glo- rie, how can thei vaunte them selues of nobiliée, whiche thei lacke, and dooe nothyng possesse thereof, euen from lowe [sidenote: galerius a shepherds sonne empe- ror of rome. probus a gardeiners sonne, em- perour.] birthe and degrée. galerius armentarius was aduaunced, euen from a shepherdes sonne, to sit in the imperiall seat of roome. galerius maximinus whom all the easte obaied, his vertues and noble acts huffed hym to beare scepter in the empire of roome. probus a gardiners soonne, to the like throne and glorie asce[n]ded, so god disposeth the state of euery man, placyng and bestowing dignitée, where it pleaseth him as he setteth vp, so he pulleth doune, his prouidence & might is bounde to no state, stocke, or kindred. ¶ of his educacion. epaminu[n]das beyng borne of soche parentes, was brought vp in all excellente learnyng, for, vnder hym philippe the kyng of the macedonians, the soonne of amintas, was brought vp. this epa- minundas, the histories note hym to be a chief philosopher, and a capitaine moste valiaunte. in musike, in plaiyng, and [fol. xlij.v] singyng finelie to his instrumente, notable and famous, no kinde of learnyng, arte, or science, wanted in his breaste: so greate and aboundante were his vertues, that aboue all go- uernours, whiche haue been in thebe, his name and fame is chieflie aduaunced. ¶ the praise of his actes. [sidenote: the dutie of good gouer- nors.] epaminundas beyng moste valiaunte and no- ble, leauing all priuate commoditée, glory, and riches a side: sought the renoume of his coun- tree, as all rulers and gouernours ought to do. [sidenote: howe a king[-] dome riseth to all felicitie.] for, a kyngdome or common wealth, can not rise to any high nobilitée or roialnesse, where gouernours, rulers, and magistrates, neclecting the vniuersall, and whole body of the common wealthe, doe cogitate and vigilantly en- deuour them selues, to stablish to them and theirs, a priuate, peculiar, and domesticall profite, glorie, or renoume. couei- teousnes, whiche is in all ambicious magistrates the poison, plague, destruccion, and ruine of the beste and florishing co[m]- mon wealthes, of al wickednes and mischief the roote: a vice, [sidenote: couetousnes a great euill.] whereupon all vice is grounded, from whom all mischiefe floweth, all execrable purposes issueth. that wanted in epaminundas, for in the ende of his life, his coffers were so thin and poore, that euen to his funerall, money wanted to solempnise thesame. priuate glorie nor excesse, was hunted after of hym, yet his vertues were of soche excellencie, that honour, dignitée, and preeminent state, was offered and gi- uen to hym vnwillinglie. this epaminundas was in go- uernement so famous, and so vertuouslie and politikelie ru- led thesame, that he was a glorie, renoume, honour, and fe- licitée to his kingdome, by his state. before the time of epa- [sidenote: beotia. thebes.] minundas, the countree of beotia was nothyng so famous in their enterprises: neither the citee of thebe so roiall, puis- saunt or noble, the antiquitee of that tyme sheweth, that e- paminundas wantyng the power of thebes, their glorie, strength, and felicitee fell and decaied. the learning of epa- [fol. xliij.r] minundas and knowlege, was so aboundant and profounde bothe in philosophie, and in all other artes and sciences, that it was wounderfull. in chiualrie and in feates of warre, no péere was more couragious and bolde, or hardie, neither in that, whiche he enterprised, any could be of greater counsaile in hedde more pollitike, of minde more sage and wittie: his gouernement so good, that beyng so good a magistrate, it is doubted, whether he be better man, or better magistrate, e- paminundas died in the defence of his countrée. the athe- nians were enemies to the thebanes, and many greate bat- tailes were assaied of theim and foughten: and often tymes the athenians felt many bitter stormes, and fortune loured of them, he beyng so valiaunt a capitain. epaminundas be- yng dedde, the athenians ceased to practise, any one parte of chiualrie, their prowesse and dexteritée decaied: thei hauyng no aliaunte, and forraine enemie to moleste theim, or whom [sidenote: a valiant ca- pitain, to his countrie a pil[-] lar[,] to his ene[-] mie, a occasio[n] to dexteritie.] thei feared. so that a famous, wise, pollitike, and valiaunte capitaine, is not onely a staie, a pillar and strong bulwarke to his countrée. but also forraine nacions, hauyng one, who[m] for his valiauntnes thei dreade, doe practise and inure them selues, to all dexteritee, counsaile, wisedome, and pollicie: soche a one was epaminundas, to his enemies and cou[n]trée. ¶ the comparison. [sidenote: hector. achilles. numa pom[-] peius. adrianus.] neither hector of troie, nor achilles of grece, might bee compared with epaminundas, numa pompili- us was not more godlie, adriane the emperour of roome, no better learned, nor galba the emperour more valiaunte, nerua no more temperate, nor traianus more noble, neither cocles nor decius, scipio nor marcus regu[-] lus, did more valianntly in the defence of their countrie, soche a one was this epaminundas. ¶ the conclusion. of many thynges, these fewe are recited, but if his whole life and vertues, wer worthely handeled: fewe would beleue, soche a rare gouernour, so vertuous a [fol. xliij.v] prince, so hardie and valiaunte a capitaine, to haue remai- ned in no age. ¶ the parte of rhetorike, called dispraise. this parte of _rhetorike_, which is called dispraise, is a in- uectiue oracion, made againste the life of any man. this part of _rhetorike_, is contrary to that, whiche is be- fore set, called _laus_, that is to saie, praise: and by contrary no- tes procedeth, for the oratour or declaimer to entreate vpo[n]. this parte of _rhetorike_, is called of the grekes _psogos_. in praise, we extoll the persone: first by his countrée. then by his auncestours and parentes. in the third place, by his educacion and institucion. then in the fowerth place, of his actes in life. in the fifte place vse a comparison, comparyng the per- sone with other, whiche are more inferiour. then the conclusion. now in dispraise, contrarily we doe procede. firste, in the dispraise of his countrée. of his auncetours and parentes. his educacion is dispraised. then his actes and deedes of life. also in your comparison with other, dispraise hym. then in the laste place, adde the conclusion. all thynges that maie be praised, maie be dispraised. ¶ the dispraise of nero. [sidenote: uertue.] as vertue meriteth commendacion and immor- tall renoume, for the nobilitée and excellencie reposed in it: so ougle vices for the deformitée of them, are in mynd to be abhorred and detested, and with all diligence, counsaile, and wisedome [sidenote: uice.] auoided. as pestiferous poison extinguisheth with his cor- rupcion and nautinesse, the good and absolute nature of all thinges: so vice for his pestiferous nature putteth out vertue and rooteth out with his force all singularitée. for, vice and [fol. xliiij.r] vertue are so of nature contrary, as fire and water, the vio- lence of the one expelleth the other: for, in the mansion of ver- tue, vice at one tyme harboreth not, neither vertue with vice [sidenote: what is ver- tue.] can be consociate or vnited, for, vertue is a singuler meane, or mediocrite in any good enterprise or facte, with order and reason finished. whose acte in life, doeth repugne order and reason, disseuered from all mediocrite, soche do leaue iustice, equitée, wisedome, temperaunce, fortitude, magnanimitée, and al other vertues, bothe of minde and body: onely by ver- tues life men shewe theim selues, as chief creatures of god, with reason, as a moste principall gifte, beautified and deco- rated: in other giftes, man is farre inferiour to beastes, both in strength of bodie, in celeritée and swiftnesse of foote, in la- bour, in industrie, in sense, nothyng to bee compared to bea- stes, with beastes as a peculier and proper thyng, wee haue our bodie of the yearth: but our minde, whiche for his diuini- tée, passeth all thynges immortall, maketh vs as gods emo[n]g other creatures. the bodie therefore, as a aliaunt and forain enemie, beyng made of a moste base, moste vile and corrup- tible nature, repugneth the mynde. this is the cause, that wickednesse taketh soche a hedde, and that the horrible facte and enterprise of the wicked burste out, in that, reason exiled and remoued from the minde, the ougle perturbacions of the minde, haue their regiment, power, and dominio[n]: and where soche state of gouernemente is in any one bodie, in priuate and domesticalle causes, in forraine and publike affaires, in kyngdome and co[m]mon wealthe. uertue fadeth and decaieth, and vice onely beareth the swaie. lawe is ordered by luste, and their order is will, soche was the tyme and gouernment of this wicked nero. ¶ of his countree. nero was a romaine borne, though in gouerne- ment he was wicked, yet his cou[n]trée was famous, and noble: for, the romaines wer lordes and hed- des ouer all the worlde. the vttermoste indians, [fol. xliiij.v] the ethiopes, the persians, feared the maiestie and auctho- [sidenote: rome.] ritée of the romaines. from romulus, who was the firste founder, and builder of that citee: the romaines bothe had their name of hym, and grew afterward to marueilous pui- saunt roialnes. there was no nacion vnder the sunne, but it dreaded their maiestie, or felte their inuincible handes: there hath been many mightie kyngdomes, on the face of the yearth, but no kyngdome was able, with like successe and fe- licitée in their enterprise, or for like famous gouernors, and continuance of their state, to compare with them. this was, and is, the laste mightée monarchie in the worlde. roome a olde aunciente citée, inhabited firste of the aborigines, which [sidenote: carthage.] came from troie. the prouidence of god, so disposeth the tymes and ages of the world, the state of kyngdomes, by the fall of mightier kyngdomes, meaner grewe to power and glorie. the carthagineans, contended by prowes, and ma- gnanimitee, to be lordes ouer the romaines. carthage was a greate, mightie, olde, auncient & famous citée, in the whiche valiaunte, wise, and pollitike gouernours, helde therein re- giment, long warres was susteined betwene the romaines and carthagineans, emong whom infinite people, and ma- ny noble péeres fell in the duste. fortune and happie successe fell to the romaines: the people of carthage va[n]quished, and prostrate to the grounde. scipio the noble consull, beyng at the destruccion of it, seeyng with his iye, carthage by fire brunte to ashes, saied: _talis exitus aliquando erit rome_: eue[n] [sidenote: destruction of rome to ashes in time.] as of carthage, like shall the destruccion of rome bee, as for continuaunce of the romaine state, of their glorie, power, and worthie successe, no nacion vnder the sunne, can com- pare with theim: soche was the state of rome, wherein wic- ked nero raigned. ¶ of his anncestours. domitianus nero, the sonne of domitius enobar- bus, agrippina was his mothers name: this agrip- pina, was empresse of rome, wife to claudius ti- [fol. xlv.r] [sidenote: agrippina.] berius, the daughter of his brother germanicus. this a- grippina, the chronicle noteth her, to be indued with al mis- chief and crueltée: for, tiberius her housbande, hauyng by his firste wife children, thei were murthered by her, because she might, thei beyng murthered, with more facilitée, fur- ther the empire, to her soonnes handes, many treasons con- spired against them oftentimes, agrippina poisoned her hus- bande, then nero succeded. ¶ of his educacion. [sidenote: seneca schol maister to nero.] seneca the famous poete & philosopher, was schole- maister to nero, who brought hym vp in all nobili- tie of learnyng, mete for his state: though that nero was wickedlie of nature disposed, as his beastlie gouerne- ment sheweth, yet wickednes in him, was by the seueritie of seneca, and his castigacion depressed: for traianus empe- rour of rome, would saie, as concernyng nero, for the space of fiue yeres, no prince was like to hym, for good gouerne- ment, after fiue yeres, losely and dissolutly he gouerned. ¶ of his actes. [sidenote: the dreame of agrippina mother to nero, in his concepcion.] this nero, at what tyme as his mother was con- ceiued of him, she dreamed that she was conceiued of a uiper: for, the young uiper alwaies killeth his dame. he was not onely a uiper to his mo- ther whom he killed, but also to his kyngdome and common wealthe a destroier, whiche afterward shalbe shewed, what [sidenote: nero a viper[.]] a tyraunte and bloodie gouernour he was. this nero made in the citee of rome, the rounde seates and scaffoldes, to be- holde spectacles and sightes, and also the bathes. he subdued [sidenote: pontus. colchis. cappadocia. armenia.] pontus a greate countrée, whiche ioineth to the sea pontus: whiche countrée containeth these realmes, colchis, cappa- docia, armenia, and many other countrées, and made it as a prouince, by the suffraunce of polemon regulus, by whose name it was called pontus polemoniacus. he ouer came the alpes, of the king cotteius, cottius the king being dedde[.] [fol. xlv.v] [sidenote: nero vnwor[-] thie to be chron[-] icled. seneca.] the life followyng of nero was so abhominable, that the shame of his life, will make any man a fraied, to leaue any memorie of hym. this domitius nero, caused his schole- maister seneca to be put to death, seneca chosing his owne death, his veines beyng cutte in a hotte bathe died, bicause he corrected wicked nero, to traine hym to vertue. he was out- ragious wicked, that he had co[n]sideracion, neither to his own honestie, nor to other, but in continuaunce, he tired hymself as virgines doe when thei marie, callyng a senate, the dou- rie assigned, and as the maner of that solemnitée is, many re- sortyng and frequentyng, in maidens tire and apparell. he [sidenote: the shamful life of nero.] went beyng a man, to be maried as a woman: beside this, at other tymes he cladde hymself with the skin of a wilde beast, and beastlie did handle that, whiche nature remoueth from the sight. he defiled hymself with his owne mother, whom he killed immediatlie. he maried twoo wiues, octauia, and sabina, otherwise called poppea, firste murtheryng their [sidenote: galba. caius iu- lius.] housbandes. in that tyme galba vsurped the empire, and caius iulius: as sone as nero heard that galba came nere towardes rome, euen then the senate of rome had deter- mined, that nero should bee whipped to death with roddes, accordyng to the old vsage of their auncestours, his necke yo- ked with a forke. this wicked nero, seyng himself forsaken of all his friendes, at midnight he departed out of the citée, ephaon, and epaphroditus waityng on hym, neophitus and sporus his eunuche: whiche sporus before tyme, had [sidenote: the death of nero.] nero assaied to frame and fashion out of kinde. in the ende, nero thruste himself through, with the poinct of his sworde, his wicked man sporus, thrustyng foreward his trembling hande: this wicked nero before that, hauyng none to mur- ther hym, he made a exclamacion, in these woordes. is there neither friende nor enemie to kill me, shamefullie haue i li- ued, and with more shame shall i die, in the .xxxij. yere of his age he died. the persians so entirely loued hym, that after his death thei sente ambassadours, desiryng licence to erecte [fol. xlvj.r] to hym a monumente, all countrées and prouinces, and the whole citée of rome, did so moche reioyce of his death, that thei all wearyng the toppintant hattes, whiche bonde men doe vse to ware, when thei bée sette at libertie, and so thei tri- umphed of his death, deliuered from so cruell a tyraunte. ¶ a comparison. [sidenote: nero. caligula. domitianus[.] antoninus.] as for wicked gouernement, nero doeth make ca- ligula like to comodus, domitianus, antoninus caracalla, thei were all so wicked, that the senate of rome thought it méete, to obliterate their name, from all memorie and chronicle, because of their wickednesse. ¶ the conclusion. moche more the life and gouernement of wicked ne- ro, might be intreated of, but this shall be sufficient: to shewe how tyrannically and beastly, he gouerned vnmete of that throne. ¶ a comparison. a comparison, is a certain oracion, shewyng by a collacion the worthines, or excelle[n]cie of any thing: or the naughtines of thesame, compared with any other thyng or thynges, either equalle, or more in- feriour. in a comparison good thynges, are compared with good as one vertue with an other: as wisedome & strength, whiche of them moste auaileth in peace and warre. euill thynges maie bee compared with good, as iustice, with iniustice, wisedome with foolishnes. euill thynges maie be compared, with euill thynges, as wicked nero, compared to domitianus, or caligula to co[m]- modus, theft to homicide, drunkenes with adulterie. small thynges maie be compared with greate: the king with his subiect, the elephant or camell to the flie, a cro- codile to the scarabe. in a comparison, where argumente is supputated on [fol. xlvj.v] bothe the sides, worthelie to praise, or dispraise. where a comparison is made, betwene a thyng excel- lente, and a thyng more inferiour: the comparison shall pro- cede with like facilitee. all thynges that maie bee celebrated with praise, or that meriteth dispraise: al soche thynges maie be in a comparison. the persone, as cato being a wise man, maie be compa- red with nestor, the sage péere of grece: pompei with ce- sar, as lucane compareth them, and so of all other men. thynges maie bee compared, as golde with siluer: one mettall with an other. tymes maie be compared, as the spryng with som- mer: harueste with winter. places maie be compared, as london with yorke, ox- forde with cambridge. beastes without reason, as the bée with the ante, the oxe with the shepe. plantes, as the uine, and the oliue. first, make a _proemium_ or beginnyng to your co[m]parison[.] then compare them of their countrée. of their parentes. of their auncestours. of their educacion. of their actes. of their death. then adde the conclusion. ¶ a comparison betwene de- mosthenes and tullie. to speake moche in the praise of famous men, no argument can wante, nor plentie of matter to make of them, a copious and excellent ora- cion. their actes in life through nobilitée, will craue worthelie more, then the witte and penne of the learned, can by eloquence expresse. who can worthelie expresse and sette foorthe, the noble philosopher [fol. xlvij.r] [sidenote: plato. aristotle.] plato, or aristotle, as matter worthelie forceth to commend, when as of them, all learnyng, and singularitée of artes hath flowen. all ages hath by their monuments of learning, par- ticipated of their wisedome. grece hath fostered many noble wittes, from whom all light of knowlege, hath been deriued by whose excellencie rome in tyme florishyng, did seeke by nobilitée of learnyng, to mate the noble grecians. so moche italie was adorned, and beautified with the cunnyng of the grecians. emong the romaines many famous oratours and other noble men hath spronge vp, who for their worthi- nesse, might haue contended with any nacion: either for their [sidenote: tullie.] glorie of learnyng, or noble regiment. emong whom tul- lie by learning, aboue the rest, rose to high fame, that he was a renoume to his countree: to learnyng a light, of all singuler eloquence a fountaine. whom demosthenes the famous oratour of athenes, as a worthie mate is compared with, whom not onely the nobilitée, and renoume of their coun- trée shall decorate, but the[m] selues their owne worthines & no- bilitée of fame. no age hath had twoo more famous for lear- nyng, no common wealthe hath tasted, twoo more profitable to their countrée, and common wealthe: for grauitée and cou[n]- saile, nor the posteritée of ages, twoo more worthie celebra- [sidenote: thusidides.] cion. thusidides speakyng, in the commendacion of famous men sheweth: as concernyng the fame of noble men, whose [sidenote: the enuious manne.] vertue farre surmounteth the[m], and passeth al other. thenui- ous man seketh to depraue, the worthinesse of fame in other, [sidenote: the igno- raunte.] his bragging nature with fame of praise, not decorated. the ignoraunte and simple nature, accordyng to his knowlege, iudgeth all singularitée, and tempereth by his owne actes the praise of other. but the fame of these twoo oratours, nei- ther the enuious nature can diminishe their praise, nor the ignoraunt be of them a arbitrator or iudge, so worthely hath all ages raised fame, and commendacion of their vertues. ¶ of their countree. [fol. xlvij.v] in grece demosthenes, the famous oratour of a- thenes was borne, whose countrée or citee, lacketh no co[m]mendacion: either for the nobilitée of the lande, or glorie of the people. what nacion vnder the sunne, hath not heard of that mightie monarchie of grece: of their migh- tie citees, and pollitike gouernaunce. what famous poetes how many noble philosophers and oratours, hath grece brede. what science and arte, hath not flowne from grece, so that for the worthinesse of it, it maie bee called the mother of all learnyng. roome also, in whom tullie was brought vp, maie contende in all nobilitée, whose power and puisant glorie, by nobilitée of actes, rose to that mightie hed. in bothe soche excellencie is founde, as that no nacion might better contende, of their singularitée and honour of countrée, then grece and rome: yet first from the grekes, the light of phi- losophie, and the aboundant knowledge of all artes, sprange to the romaines, from the grecians. the godlie lawes, wherewith the romaine empire was decorated and gouer- ned, was brought from the grecians. if the citee maie bee a honour and glorie, to these twoo oratours, or their citees a singuler commendacion, there wanteth in bothe, neither ho- nour, or nobilitée. ¶ of their auncestours, and parentes. bothe demosthenes and tullie were borne, of ve- rie meane parentes and auncestours: yet thei tho- rowe their learnyng and vertues, became famous, ascendyng to all nobilitée. of their vertues and learnyng, not of their auncestours, nobilitée rose to them. ¶ of the educacion. the singuler vertues of theim bothe, appered euen in their tender youth: wherupon thei being brought vp, in all godlie learnyng and noble sciences, thei became moste noble oratours, and by their copious elo- quence, counsaile, and wisedom, aspired to nobilitée & honor. ¶ of their scholyng. [fol. xlviij.r] bothe were taught of the mouthe of the best learned, demosthenes of iseus, a man moste eloquent: ci- cero of philo and milo, famous in wisedome and eloquence. ¶ of their exercise. cicero did exercise hymself verie moche, to declaime, bothe in greke and latine, with marcus piso, and with quintus pampeius. demosthenes wanted not industrie and labour, to attain to that singularitée, whi- che he had, bothe in eloquence, and pronounciacion. ¶ of the giftes of their minde. in bothe, integritee, humanitee, magnanimitee, and all vertue flowed: at what time as demosthe- nes was commaunded of the athenians, to frame a accusacion, againste a certaine man, demosthe- nes refused the acte. but when the people, and the whole multitude, were wrothe with hym, and made a exclamacion against hym, as their maner was. then demosthenes rose, and saied: o ye men of athenes, againste my will, you haue me a counsailer, or pleater of causes before you: but as for a accuser, & calumniator, no, not although ye would. of this sorte tullie was affected, excepte it were onely in the saue- gard of his conutrée: as against catiline, bothe were of god- lie, and of vpright conuersacion, altogether in mediocrite, and a newe leadyng their life. ¶ of their actes. demosthenes and tullie bothe, gaue them selues to trauail, in the causes and affaires of their com- mon wealthe, to the preseruacion of it. how ve- hemently did demosthenes pleate, and ingeni- ouslie handle the cause of all his countrée, against philip, for the defence of their libertee: whereupon he gatte fame, and greate glory. whereby not onely, he was coumpted a great wise counsailour: but one of a valiaunte stomacke, at whose [fol. xlviij.v] [sidenote: darius. philip. demosthe- nes.] wisedome, all grece stode in admiracion. the kyng of per- sia, laboured to enter fauour with him. philip the king of the macedonians, would saie often tymes, he had to doe against a famous man, notyng demosthenes. tullie also by his e- loquence and wisedome, saued roome and all partes of that dominion, from greate daungers. ¶ of their aucthoritee. their aucthoritee and dignitee was equalle, in the common wealthe: for, at their twoo mouthes, roome and athenes was vpholed. demosthenes was chief in fauour with caretes, diophetes, le[-] ostines, cicero with pompei: iulius cesar, ascending to the chief seate and dignitée of the consulship. ¶ of a like fall that happened to them, before their death. you can not finde soche twoo orators, who borne of meane & poore parentes, that attained so greate honour, who also did obiecte themselues to tyran- tes a like, thei had losse of their children a like, bothe were out of their countree banished men, their returne was with honour, bothe also fliyng, happened into the han- des of their enemies. ¶ of their death. [sidenote: antipater. demosthe- nes. archias. marcus antonius. tullie.] bothe a like, demosthenes and tully wer put to death, demosthenes died, antipater gouernyng by the handes of archias. cicero died by the com- maundement of marcus antonius: by herenius his hedde was cutte of, and sette in marcus antonius halle. his handes also were cutte of, with the whiche he wrote the vehement oracions against marcus antonius. ¶ the conclusion. to speake as moche as maie bee saied, in the praise of theim: their praise would rise to a mightie volume, but this is sufficiente. [fol. xlix.r] ¶ _ethopoeia._ _ethopoeia_ is a certaine oracion made by voice, and la- mentable imitacion, vpon the state of any one. this imitacion is in { _eidolopoeia._ } iij. sortes, either it is. { _prosopopoeia._ } { _ethopoeia._ } that parte, whiche is called _ethopoeia_ is that, whiche hath the persone knowne: but onely it doeth faigne the ma- ners of thesame, and imitate in a oracion thesame. _ethopoeia_ is called of priscianus, a certaine talkyng to of any one, or a imitacio[n] of talke referred to the maners, apt- ly of any certaine knowen persone. quintilianus saieth, that _ethopoeia_ is a imitacion of o- ther meane maners: whom the grekes dooe calle, not onelie _ethopoeia_, but _mimesis_, & this is in the maners, and the fact. this parte is as it were, a liuely expression of the maner and affeccion of any thyng, whereupon it hath his name. the _ethopoeia_ is in three sortes. the firste, a imitacion passiue, whiche expresseth the af- fection, to whom it parteineth: whiche altogether expresseth the mocion of the mynde, as what patheticall and dolefull o- racion, hecuba the quene made, the citee of troie destroied, her housbande, her children slaine. the second is called a morall imitacio[n], the whiche doeth set forthe onely, the maners of any one. the thirde is a mixt, the whiche setteth forthe, bothe the maners and the affection, as how, and after what sorte, a- chilles spake vpon patroclus, he beyng dedde, when for his sake, he determined to fight: the determinacion of hym she- weth the maner. the frende slaine, the affection. in the makyng of _ethopoeia_, lette it be plaine, and with- out any large circumstaunce. [fol. xlix.v] in the makyng of it, ye shall diuide it thus, to make the oracion more plaine, into three tymes. { a presente tyme. } { a tyme paste. } { a tyme to come. } _eidolopoeia_ is that part of this oracion, whiche maketh a persone knowne though dedde, and not able to speake. [sidenote: _eidolopoeia_[.]] _eidolopoeia_ is called of priscianus, a imitacion of talke of any one, vpon a dedde manne, it is then called _eidolopoeia_, when a dedde man talketh, or communicacion made vpon a dedde manne. _eidolopoeia_, when a dedde manne talketh, is set forthe of euripides, vpon the persone of polidorus dedde, whose spi- rite entereth at the prologue of the tragedie. hector slain, speaketh to eneas in _eidolopoeia_. o eneas thou goddes sonne, flie and saue thy self, from this ruine and fire: the enemies hath taken the walles, and loftie troie is prostrate to the grounde. i would haue thought, i had died valiantlie inough to my countrée, and my father priamus, if with this my right hande, troie had bee defended. polidorus beyng dedde, in _eidolopoeia_ talketh to eneas whiche uirgil sheweth in his thirde booke of eneados. iulia the wife of pompei beyng dedde, spake to pompe, preparyng his arme against cesar, _eidolopoeia_. reade lu- cane, in the beginnyng of his thirde booke. tullie vseth _eidolopoeia_, when he maketh talke vpon hiero beyng dedde. if that kyng hiero were reduced fro[m] his death, who was a aduauncer of the romaine empire, with what counte- naunce, either siracusa or rome, might be shewed to hym, whom he maie beholde with his iyes. his countree brought to ruin, & spoiled, if that kyng hiero should but enter rome, euen in the firste entryng, he should beholde the spoile of his countree. tullie also vseth the like _eidolopoeia_, as thus, vpon lu- [fol. l.r] cius brutus dedde. [sidenote: lucius brutus.] if it so wer, that lucius brutus, that noble and famous manne were on liue, and before your presence: would he not vse this oracion: i brutus, somtyme did banishe and cast out for crueltee, the state and office of kinges, by the horrible fact of tarquinius, againste lucretia, and all that name bani- shed, but you haue brought in tyrauntes. i brutus did re- duce the romain empire, to a fredome and libertée: but you foolishly can not vphold and maintein, thesame giuen to you. i brutus, with the daunger of my life, haue saued my coun[-] tree of roome, but you without all daunger, lose it. ¶ _prosopopoeia._ as co[n]cerning _prosopopoeia_, it is as pristianus saith, when to any one againste nature, speache is feigned to bee giuen. tullie vseth for a like example this, when he maketh roome to talke againste cateline. ¶ _prosopopoeia_ of roome. [sidenote: catiline.] no mischief hath been perpetrated, this many yeres, but by thee catiline, no pestiferous acte enterprised, without thee: thou a lone, for thy horrible murther perpetrated vpon the citee of rome, for the spoile and robbe- ries of their gooddes art vnpunished. thou onelie haste been of that force and power, to caste doune all lawes and aucthori- tee. although these thinges were not to be borne, yet i haue borne them: but now thy horrible factes are come to soche an issue, that i feare thy mischiues. wherfore leaue of cateline and deminishe this feare from me, that i maie be in securitée[.] lucane the poete, intreating of mightie and fearce war- res, againste pompei and cesar, maketh roome to vse this _prosopopoeia_ againste cesar. _quo tenditis vltra quo fertis mea signa viri, si iure venitis si aues hucusq[ue] licet._ _prosopopoeia_ is properlie, when all thinges are faigned bothe the maners, the persone, as of roome in this place. [fol. l.v] ¶ what lamentable oracion hecuba quene of troie might make, troie being destroied. [sidenote: kyngdomes.] what kyngdome can alwaies assure his state, or glory? what strength can alwaies last? what [sidenote: okes. cedars.] power maie alwaies stande? the mightie o- kes are somtyme caste from roote, the ceadars high by tempestes falle, so bitter stormes dooe force their strength. soft waters pearseth rockes, and ruste the massie iron doeth bryng to naught. so nothyng can by stre[n]gth so stande, but strength maie ones decaie: yea, mightie kingdoms in time decaie haue felt. kingdomes weake haue rose to might, and mightie kyngdomes fallen, no counsaile can preuaile, no power, no strength, or might in lande. god disposeth princes seates, their kyngdome there with stan- des. i knewe before the brickell state, how kyngdomes ruine caught, my iye the chaunge of fortune sawe, as priamus did aduaunce his throne, by fauour fortune gat, on other for- tune then did froune, whose kingdom did decaie. well, now [sidenote: fortune hath no staie.] i knowe the brickle state, that fortune hath no staie, all rashe her giftes, fortune blind doeth kepe no state, her stone doth roule, as floodes now flowe, floodes also ebbe. so glory doth remaine, sometyme my state on high, was sette in princelie throne, my porte and traine ful roiall was, a kyng my father also was, my housband scepter held. troie and phrigia ser- ued his becke, many kynges his power did dreade, his wille their power did serue. the fame of troie and brute, his glorie and renoume, what landes knoweth not? but now his falle, all toungues can speake, so greate as glorie was, though kyngdomes stronge was sette, loftie troie in duste prostrate doeth lye, in blood their glorie, people, kyng are fal- len, no quene more dolefull cause hath felte. the sorowes depe doe passe my ioyes, as phebus light with stormes caste [sidenote: hector.] doune. hectors death did wounde my hart, by hectors might troie stiffe did stande, my comforte hector was, priamus ioye, of troie all the[m] life, the strength, and power, his death [fol. lj.r] did wound me for to die, but alas my dolefull and cruell fate to greater woe reserueth my life, loftie troie before me felle, sworde, and fire hath seate and throne doune caste. the dedde on heapes doeth lye, the tender babes as lions praies [sidenote: priamus.] are caught in bloode, before my sight, priamus deare mur- dered was, my children also slain, who roiall were, and prin- ces mates. no queene more ioye hath tasted, yet woe my io- yes hath quite defaced. my state alwaie in bondage thrall, to serue my enemies wille, as enemie wille, i liue or dye. no cruell force will ridde my life, onely in graue the yearth shal close my woes, the wormes shall gnawe my dolefull hart in graue. my hedde shall ponder nought, when death hath sence doune caste, in life i sought no ioye, as death i craue, no glorie was so wished as death i seeke, with death no sence. in prison depe who dolefull lieth, whom fetters sore dooeth greue. their dolefull state moste wisheth death, in dongion deepe of care my harte moste pensiue is, vnhappie state that wisheth death, with ioye long life, eche wight doeth craue, in life who wanteth smart? who doeth not féele, or beare som- time, a bitter storme, to doleful tune, mirth full oft chaunged is, the meaner state, more quiet rest, on high, who climes more deper care, more dolefull harte doeth presse, moste tempestes hie trees, hilles, & moutaines beare, valleis lowe rough stor- mes doeth passe, the bendyng trees doeth giue place to might by force of might, okes mightie fall, and ceders high ar re[n]t from the roote. the state full meane in hauen hath ancre caste, in surgyng seas, full ofte in vaine to saue the maste, the shippe ancre casteth. ¶ the descripcion. this exercise profitable to _rhetorike_, is an ora- cio[n] that collecteth and representeth to the iye, that which he sheweth, so priscianus defineth it: some are of that opinion, that descripcion is not to bee placed emo[n]g these exercises, profitable to _rhetorike_. because [fol. lj.v] that bothe in euery oracion, made vpon a fable, all thyn- ges therein conteined, are liuely described. and also in euery narracion, the cause, the place, the persone, the time, the fact, the maner how, ar therin liuely described. but most famous and eloquente men, doe place descripcion, in the nomber of these exercises. descripcio[n] serueth to these things, the person, as the poete lucane describeth pompei & cesar: the person is described, thynges or actes, tymes, places, brute beastes. _nec coiere pares, alter vergentibus annis in senium longo que toge, tranquilior vsu. dedidicit. &c._ homer describeth the persone of thersites, in the second booke of his ilias. homer setteth out helena, describing the persone of me- nalaus and ulisses, in the fowerth booke of ilias. thynges are described, as the warres attempted by sea and lande, of xerxes. lucan describeth the war of the massilia[n]s against cesar[.] thusidides setteth forthe in a descripcion, the warres on the sea, betwene the corcurians, and the corinthians. tymes are described, as the spryng tyme, sommer, winter, harueste, daie, night. places are described, as citees, mountaines, regions, floodes, hauens, gardeines, temples: whiche thynges are sette out by their commoditees, for thusidides often ty- mes setteth forthe hauens and citees. lucane also describeth at large, the places, by the whiche the armie of cesar and pompei passed. the descripcion of a- ny man, in all partes is to bee described, in mynde and bodie, what he was. the acttes are to bee described, farre passed, by the pre- sente state thereof, and also by the tyme to come. as if the warre of troie, should be set forthe in a descrip- cion, it must bée described, what happened before the greci- ans arriued at troie, and how, and after what sorte it was [fol. lij.r] ouerthrowne, & what thing chaunced, troie being destroid. so likewise of carthage, destroied by the romaines. of hierusalem, destroied by titus uespasianus, what ad- monicion thei had before: of what monsterous thynges hap- pened also in that ceason: of a comete or blasyng starre, and after that what followed. lucane also setteth forthe the warres of pompe and ce- sar, what straunge and marueilous thynges fell of it. ¶ a descripcion vpon xerxes. when darius was dedde, xerxes his soonne did succede hym, who also tooke vpon him to finishe the warres, bego[n] by his father darius, against grece. for the whiche warres, preperacion was made, for the space of fiue yeres, after that [sidenote: the armie of xerxes.] xerxes entered grece, with seuen hundred thousande persi- ans, and thrée hundred thousande of forrain power aided him that not without cause, chronicles of aunciente tyme dooe shewe, mightie floodes to be dried vp of his armie. the migh[-] tie dominions of grece, was not hable to receiue his houge, and mightie power, bothe by sea and lande: he was no small prince, whom so many nacions, so mightie people followed hym, his nauie of shippes was in nomber tenne hundred [sidenote: xerxes a cowarde.] thousande, xerxes had a mightie power, but xerxes was a cowarde, in harte a childe, all in feare the stroke of battaile moued. in so mightie an armie it was marueile, the chiefe prince and capitaine to be a cowarde, there wanted neither men, nor treasure, if ye haue respecte to the kyng hymself, for cowardlinesse ye will dispraise the kyng, but his threasures beeyng so infinite, ye will maruaile at the plentie thereof, whose armie and infinite hoste, though mightie floodes and streames, were not able to suffice for drinke, yet his richesse [sidenote: xerxes laste in battaile, and first to runne awaie.] semed not spente nor tasted of. xerxes hymself would be laste in battaile to fight, and the firste to retire, and runne awaie. in daungers he was fearfull, and when daunger was paste, [fol. lij.v] he was stoute, mightie, glorious, and wonderfull crakyng, [sidenote: the pride of xerxes.] before this hassarde of battaile attempted. he thought hym self a god ouer nature, all landes and seas to giue place to hym, and puffed with pride, he forgatte hymself: his power was terrible, his harte fainte, whereupon his enteryng into grece was not so dreaded, as his flight fro[m] thence was sham[-] full, mocked and scorned at, for all his power he was driuen backe from the lande, by leonides king of the lacedemoni- ans, he hauing but a small nomber of men, before his second battaile fought on the sea: he sente fower thousande armed men, to spoile the riche and sumpteous temple of apollo, at delphos, from the whiche place, not one man escaped. after that xerxes entered thespia, platea, and athenes, in the whiche not one man remained, those he burned, woorkyng his anger vpon the houses: for these citees were admonished to proue the maisterie in wodden walles, whiche was ment to bee shippes, the power of grece, brought into one place [sidenote: themi- stocles.] themistocles, fauoryng their part, although xerxes thought otherwise of themistocles, then themistocles perswaded xerxes to assaie the grecians. artemisia the quene of hali- carnasis aided xerxes in his battaile: artemisia fought man[-] fullie, xerxes cowardly shronke, so that vnnaturally there was in the one a manlie stomacke, in the other a cowardlie harte. the men of ionia, that fought vnder xerxes banner, by the treason of themistocles, shra[n]ke from xerxes, he was not so greate a terrour or dreade, by his maine hoste, as now smally regarded & least feared. what is power, men, or mo- ney, when god chaungeth and pulleth doune, bothe the suc- cesse, and kyngdome of a prince. he was in all his glorie, a vnmanlie, and a cowardly prince, yet for a time happie state fell on his side, now his might and power is not feared. he flieth awaie in a fisher boate, whom all the worlde dreaded and obaied, whom all grece was not able to receiue, a small boate lodgeth and harboureth. his owne people contemned hym at home, his glorie fell, and life ingloriously ended, who[m] [fol. liij.r] whom god setteth vp, neither treason nor malice, power nor money can pull doune. worthelie it is to be pondered of all princes, the saiyng of uespasianus emperour of rome, at a certain time a treason wrought and conspired against him, the conspiratours taken, uespasianus satte doune betwene [sidenote: the saiyng of uespasi- anus.] theim, commaunded a sworde to be giuen to either of theim, and saied to them: _nonne videtis fato potestatem dari._ dooe you not see? power, aucthoritée, and regimente, by the ordi- [sidenote: a sentence comfortable to al princes.] naunce of god, is lefte and giuen to princes: a singuler sen- tence, to comforte all good princes in their gouernemente, not to feare the poisoned hartes of men, or the traiterous har- tes of pestiferous men. no man can pull doune, where god exalteth, neither power can set vp and extoll, where god dis- plaseth or putteth doune: soche is the state of princes, and their kyngdomes. ¶ _thesis._ _thesis_, is a certain question in consultacion had, to bée declaimed vpon vncertaine, notyng no certaine per- sone or thyng. as for example. whether are riches chieflie to be sought for, in this life, as of all good thynges, the chief good. whether is vertue the moste excellente good thynge in this life. whether dooe the giftes of the mynde, passe and excelle the giftes and vertues of fortune, and the bodie. whether doeth pollicie more auaile in war, then stre[n]gth of menne. who so will reason of any question of these, he hath nede with reason, and wittie consultacion to discourse, and to de- claime vpon thesame. the greke oratours doe call this exercise _thesis_, that is to saie, a proposicion in question, a question vncertain, in- cluded with no certaintée, to any perticuler thyng. [fol. liij.v] the latine men doeth call it a question infinite, or vni- uersall: tullie in his booke of places called topickes, doeth call _thesis_, _propositum_, that is to saie, a question, in deter- minacion. priscianus calleth it _positionem_, a proposicion in question on ether parte to be disputed vpon. as for example. whether is it best to marie a wife? whether is frendship aboue all thynges to be regarded. is warre to be moued vpon a iuste cause? is the greke tongue mete, and necessarie to be learned? there is an other kinde of question called _hypothesis_, _hy[-] pothesis_ is called _questio finita_, that is to saie, a question cer- taine notyng a certaine persone, or thyng, a certaine place, tyme, and so forthe. as for example. is it mete for cesar to moue warre against pompei? is not there a certain persone? is the greke tongue to be learned of a diuine? is the greke tongue meete for a phisicion? in this kinde of exercises, famous men of auncient time did exercise youth, to attain bothe wisedome and eloquence therby, to make a discourse vpo[n] any matter, by art of lerning[.] aristotle the famous philosopher, did traine vp youthe, to be perfite in the arte of eloquence, that thei might with all copiousnes and ingenious inuencion handle any cause. nothing doeth so moche sharpe and acuate the witte and capacitée of any one, as this kinde of exercise. it is a goodly vertue in any one man, at a sodain, to vtter wittely and ingeniouslie, the secrete and hid wisedome of his mynde: it is a greate maime to a profounde learned man, to wante abilitée, to vtter his exquisite and profounde knowe- ledge of his mynde. ¶ _thesis._ this question _thesis_, which is a question, noting no cer- taine persone or thyng: is moche like to that oracion, [fol. liiij.r] intreated of before, called a common place. ¶ a common place. but a common place, is a certaine exaggeracion of matter, induced against any persone, conuicted of a- ny crime, or worthie defence. ¶ _thesis._ _thesis_ is a reasonyng by question, vpon a matter vncer- taine. _thesis_, that is to saie, a questio[n] generall is in two sortes. { ciuill. a question { { contemplatiue. questions ciuill are those, that dooe pertaine to the state of a common wealth: and are daily practised in the common wealthe. as for example. is it good to marie a wife. is usurie lefull in a citee, or common wealthe. is a monarchie the beste state of gouernement. is good educacion the grounde and roote, of a florishyng common wealthe. ¶ a contemplatiue question. the other _thesis_ is a question contemplatiue, which the grekes dooe call _theoricas_, because the matter of them is comprehended in the minde, and in the in[-] telligence of man. the example. is the soule immortall? had the worlde a beginnyng? is the heauen greater then the yearth? { simple. a question is either { { compounde. is it good for a man to exercise hymself in wrastlyng, or [fol. liiij.v] is it profitable to declaime. [¶] a compounde. is vertue of more value then gold, to the coueitous man[?] doeth wisedome more auaile, then strength in battaile? doe olde men or young men, better gouerne a common wealthe? is phisicke more honourable then the lawe? a oracion made vpon _thesis_, is after this sorte made. use a _exordium_, or beginnyng. unto the whiche you maie adde a narracion, whiche is a exposicion of the thyng doen. then shewe it lawfull. iuste. profitable. and possible. then the conclucion. to this in some parte of the oracion, you maie putte in certaine obieccions, as thus. upon this question: is it good to marie a wife? in mariage is greate care, and pensiuenesse of minde, by losse of children, or wife, whom thou loueste. there is also trouble of dissolute seruauntes. there is also greate sorowe if thy children proue wicked and dissolute. the aunswere to this obiection, will minister matter to declaime vpon. ¶ is it good to marie. since the tyme of all ages, and the creacio[n] of the worlde, god hath so blessed his creacion, and meruailous workemanship in manne: as in all his other creatures, that not onelie his omnipo- teucie, is therby set forthe. but also from tyme to tyme, the posteritee of men, in their ofspring and procrea- [sidenote: kyngdomes continue by mariage and co[m]mon welth[.]] cion, doe aboundantlie commonstrate thesame. the state of all kyngdomes and common wealthes: by procreacion deri- ued, haue onelie continued on the face of the yearth, thereby [fol. lv.r] many hundred yeres. how sone would the whole worlde be dissolued, and in perpetuall ruine, if that god from tymes and ages, had not by godlie procreacion, blessed this infinite [sidenote: the dignitee of man, she- weth the worthines of mariage.] issue of mankinde. the dignitée of man in his creacion, she- weth the worthie succession, maintained by procreation. in vaine were the creacion of the worlde, if there were not as manne so excellente a creature, to beholde the creatour, and his meruailous creacion. to what vse were the elementes and heauens, the starres and planettes, all beastes and foules, fisshe, plantes, herbes and trees, if men wer not, for mannes vse and necessitée, all thinges in the yearth were made and procreated. wherein the stoike philosophers do note the excellencie of man to be greate: for saie thei, _que in terris gignuntur omnia ad vsum hominum creari_. to what vse then were all thynges, if man were not, for whose cause, vse, & necessitée these thynges were made. if a continuaunce of gods procreacion were not, immediatlie a ruine and ende would ensue of thinges. what age remaineth aboue a hun- dred yeres? if after a hu[n]dred yeres, no issue wer to be, on the [sidenote: godlie pro- creacion.] face of the yearth, how sone wer kyngdoms dissolued, where as procreacion rooteth, a newe generacion, issue and ofspring, and as it were a newe soule and bodie. a continuaunce of la- wes, a permanente state of common wealthe dooeth ensue. though the life of manne be fraile, and sone cutte of, yet by mariage, man by his ofspryng, is as it were newe framed, his bodie by death dissolued, yet by issue reuiued. euen as plantes, by the bitter season of winter, from their flowers fadyng and witheryng: yet the seede of them and roote, vegi- table and liuyng, dooe roote yerelie a newe ofspryng or flo- [sidenote: a similitude.] wer in them. so mariage by godlie procreacion blessed, doth perpetually increase a newe bodie, and therby a vaste world, and infinite nacions or people. xerxes the mightie kyng of persia, vewing and beholding his maine and infinite hoste, wéeped: who beyng demaunded, why he so did. _doleo inquit post centum annos, neminem ex hijs superesse._ it is a pitée- [fol. lv.v] fulle and dolefull case, that after a hundred yeres, not one of these noble capitaines, and valiant soldiers to be left. ¶ the obieccion. but you will saie parauenture, mariage is a greate bon- dage, alwaies to liue with one. ¶ the solucion. to followe pleasure, and the beastlie mocions of the mynde: what libertée call you that, to liue in a godly, meane, [sidenote: the libertie in mariage.] and mediocritée of life, with thy spoused wife. there is no greater ioye, libertée, or felicitée, who so practiseth a dissolute life: whose loue and luste is kindeled, and sette on fire with a [sidenote: a brutishe societie with harlottes.] harlotte, he followeth a brutishe societée. what difference is there, betwene them and beastes? the beaste as nature lea- deth, he obaieth nature. reason wanteth in beastes, manne then indued with reason, whiche is a guide to all excellencie how is it that he is not ruled by reason. whom god hath clothed and beautified, with all vertue and all singularitée: if a godly conuersacion of life, moueth thée to passe thy daies without mariage, then must the mocions of thy minde, be ta- [sidenote: chastitee in mariage.] med and kepte vnder. other wise, execrable is thy purpose, and determinacio[n] of the life. if thou hopest of loue of a harlot though thou enioye her otherwise, thou art deceiued. bac- chis the harlot, whom terence maketh mencion of, in the persone of her self, sheweth the maners of all harlots to an- tiphila, saiyng. _quippe forma impulsi nostra nos amatores colunt: hec vbi immutata est, illi suum animum alio conferunt. nisi prospectu[m] est interea aliquid nobis, deserte viuimus._ for saieth she, the louer anamoured with our loue, and sette on fire therewith, it is for our beautie and fauour: but when beautie is ones faded, he conuerteth his loue to an o- ther, whom he better liketh. but that we prouide for our sel- ues in the meane season, wée should in the ende liue vtterlie forsaked. but your loue incensed with one, whose maners and life contenteth you: so you bothe are linked together, [fol. lvj.r] [sidenote: the loue of a harlotte.] that no calamitée can separate you: who so hopeth loue of a harlotte, or profite, he maie hope as for the fructe of a withe- red tree, gaine is all their loue, vice their ioye and delite. in vertue is libertée, in vertue is felicitee, the state of mariage is vertuous, there can be no greater bo[n]dage, then to obaie ma- ny beastly affections, to the whiche whoredome forceth hym vnto, loue is fained, cloked amitée, a harte dissembled, ma- ny a mightie person and wise, hath been ouerthrowen by the deceiptes of harlottes: many a citee plagued, many a region ouerthrowen for that mischief, to obaie many affections is a greate bondage. who so serueth the beastlie affections of his [sidenote: hercules. omphala.] mynde to that purpose, he must also as hercules to ompha- la bee slaue, not onely to his owne will and affection: but to the maners, will, and exspectacion of the harlotte. so serued thraso, and phedria thais, that gorgious harlot, antony and iulius cesar, cleopatra, this is a bondage, to liue slaue from reason and all all integritee, to a monsterous rableme[n]t [sidenote: the harlot- tes lesson, to her louers.] of vices, who so serueth a harlot, thei must learne this lesson. _da mihi & affer_, giue and bryng. the women of scithia, abhorryng the godly conuersa- cion of mariage, with their housbandes, lefte theim, who in tyme ware so mightie, that thei repelled theim by force: thei called mariage not matrimonie, but bondage. for, the chro- nicles doe testifie, thei became conquerours ouer many kyn- ges, all asia obaied them: thei did builde many a great citee, and for theire successe, thei might compare with many prin- [sidenote: the life of the amazo- nes.] ces. these women were called amazones afterwarde, the order of their life was this, ones in the yere thei would en- ioye the compainie of a man: if it so were that thei had a man childe, the father to haue it, if a daughter, then thei possessed her, and foorthwith burned her right pappe: for thei were all archers, and wonderfully excelled therein, but in the ende, [sidenote: thalestris.] thei came all to ruine. one of them, thalestris their quene in the tyme of alexander the greate, came to alexander, thinkyng that he had been, some monstrous man of stature: [fol. lvj.v] [sidenote: the offer of a woman to alexander.] whom, when she did beholde (for alexander was of no migh- tie stature) did contemne hym, and offered him hand to hande [sidenote: the answer of alexander to the offer.] to fight with hym. but alexander like a wise prince, saied to his men, if i should ouercome her, that were no victorie, nor manhoode againste a woman: and being ouercome, that were greater shame, then commendacion in all my victories and conquestes, but afterwarde, there was a greate familia- ritée betwene them. the adulterer and the adulteris, neuer prospereth, for many mischiues are reserued, to that wicked and beastly loue. sincere loue is not rooted, frendship colou- red: the sober and demure countenaunce, is moche to be com- mended in a chaste woman, whose breaste pondereth a chaste [sidenote: the facte of the matrones of rome.] life. the facte of the matrones of rome, semeth straunge to be tolde, of papirius a senators soonne, beyng taken to the senate house, of his father: the childe beyng indued with a singuler wit, harde many causes in the assemble, talked and consulted vpo[n], at his retourne home, his mother was inqui- sitiue of their consultacion, to heare somewhat. the childe was commaunded by his father, to vtter no secrete that he heard, wherevpon of a long tyme, he refused his mothers de- maunde: but at the laste subtelie, he satisfied his mothers re- [sidenote: papirius.] quest. truth it is, my father willed me, to vtter no secret, you keping my counsaill, i will shewe you, it is concluded by the senate house, that euery man shall haue twoo wiues, that is a straunge matter, saieth the mother: foorthwith she had communicacion with all the matrones of roome, that could doe somewhat in this matter, thei also full willyngly assem- bled themselues, to let this purpose, to the senate house, thei went to vtter, their swollen griues. the senators were a- mased at their commyng, but in this matter bolde thei were, [sidenote: the oracio[n] of a matrone, to the sena- tours.] to enterprise that, whiche thei wer greued at. a dame more eloquente then all the reste, and of stomacke more hardie, be- gan in these woordes. otherwise then right, we are iniuri- ously handled, and that in this assemble, that now we should be caste of and neclected: that whereas it is concluded in this [fol. lvij.r] counsaile, that euery manne should haue twoo wiues, more meter it were, that one woman should haue twoo housban- des. straunge it was in the senators eares soche a request, whereupon a proofe made how that rumour rose, papirius was found the aucthor, who tolde before the senate, his mo- ther alwaies inquisitiue to knowe that, whiche he should not tell, and thereupon he faigned that, whiche he might better tell. it is to be supposed the senators mused thereat, and the matrones of rome went home ashamed: but their secrete co- gitacion of minde was manifest, what willingly in hart thei wished. what greater felicitee can there bee, then in a vnitée of life, the housebande to liue with his wife. the beastes in their kinde, doe condemne mannes brutishe affections here- in: there is no facte that sheweth a man or woman, more like to beastes, then whoredome. ¶ the obieccion. but you will saie, many calamitées happeneth in mariage? ¶ the solucion. fortunne herein is to bee blamed, and not mariage, if a- ny misfortune happeneth to manne therein, the felicitée and [sidenote: eleccion in mariage.] quiet state that any man enioieth thereby. the discrete elec- cion is therein approued, in the state it self, nothyng can bee founde worthie reprehension, if a man will impute the bit- ter stormes of life to mariage: whatseouer happeneth, our owne reason maie iudge contrary. place before thy iyes all the affaires, and occupacions of this life, bee all tymes plea- saunte to the housebande man, many a colde storme perceth his bodie, and many a mightie tempeste, dooeth molest hym and greue hym. sommer is not the tyme, to caste his seede in the grounde, or implowyng to occupie hymself: shall he ther- fore leaue his housebandrie, or doeth he rather neclecte it, his diligence therein is the more, and labour more industrious. from whence commeth the tempeste, the stormes and bitter seasons? from his house, from his wife, from his art and oc- cupacion, all those thynges by violence are expelled from the [fol. lvij.v] aire. no state of life is able to giue riches, healthe, or securitée [sidenote: emperours.] to his state. there hath been princes and emperours, nedie, full of infirmitées and sickenes, in daungerous state, oppres- sed with many calamitées: was their dignitie and office, the cause of their calamitées? no, god tempreth the state of eue- ry one, how, and after what sorte to possesse thesame. some [sidenote: mariage.] are fulle fortunate in mariage, if mariage were of necessitée the cause, then all should be onely fortunate, or onely vnfor- tunate: then in mariage is not the cause, if in marige the ma- ners doe disagrée, and loue is extinguished, blame thyn own [sidenote: the mari- ners.] maners, thy choise, and thy eleccion. the mariner that pas- seth the daungerous seas, and by dreadfull tempestes, and huffyng waues is alwaies in perille, and many often tymes [sidenote: the mar- chauntes.] drouned. the marchaunt lesyng his marchaundise by ship- wrack, shall thei impute the daunger and losse, to their wife at home? or doe the mariners leaue for all these tempestes, their arte of nauigacion? or the owner breake his shippe? or the marchaunt proue no aduentures, because of his losse, and many haue been of this sort drouned. no. but more ear- [sidenote: warre.] nestlie thei dooe assaie theim selues thereto. because warre spoileth many a man of his life, doe princes therefore, leaue to moue armour againste the enemie, but because, who so in the defence of his countrée, dieth manfullie, is worthelie ad- uaunced, and in perpetuall memorie, no daunger is refused, because euill thynges happeneth in life, is the state of good thynges to be auoided and eschued. were it not vnsemelie, if housebande men, for no storme or tempeste, doe leaue their state, their laborious and rough co[n]dicion of life, nor the ship- man his arte of nauigacion, because he seeth many drouned venteryng thesame, and he hymself often tymes in daunger, nor the soldiour or capitain, their perilous condicion of life, doe leaue for daunger. should mariage bée lesse sette by, be- cause alwaies riches and quietnes happeneth not. ¶ the obieccion. the losse of a good wife and children, is a greate grefe to [fol. lviij.r] any man, and a cause to blame mariage. ¶ the aunswere. [sidenote: the lawe of nature.] you your self are borne to dye, thei also by death obaye likewise nature, this is the lawe of nature ones to dye, whiche you séeme to blame. then the death of thy wife and childre[n], is not the blame in mariage. what is the cause that you dye? natures imbecillitée and weakenes, then in theim[.] mariage is not the cause: nature in her firste molde hath so framed all, wherefore doe you ascribe that to mariage, that is founde faultée in nature. thei die that marie not, what infirmitie, daunger or peril happeneth to any in mariage, as sharpe and perilous, doe molest and torment the other. if any manne by death, leaseth a right honeste wife, clothed with all chastitée, demurenesse, sobrietée, and also with all singulari- tée of vertue adorned: he hath loste a rare treasure, a iewell of [sidenote: a chaste wo- man.] price, not in all to bee founde. did you loue your wife, that was so goodlie, so honeste and vertuous: there was greate cause saie you, for her vertuous sake, god hath chosen her fro[m] a mortall creature, to immortalitée, with her it can not bée better. there is no cause why you should blame mariage, for the losse of her, or of thy children, or for the losse of thee, she to blame mariage. if for thy owne sake, this sorowe bee, _est seipsum amantis non amici_, it is then of a self loue, to thy self, not for her cause: for i muste aunswere as lelius did to affricanus, _cum ea optime esseactu[m] quis neget, quid est quod no[n] assecuta est immortalitatem_. who can deny saieth he, but that with her it can not bee better? what is it that she hath not attained. immortalitée. she was vertuous, chaiste, so- ber, descrete, of behauiour womanlie: for her vertues belo- ued. well, now she hath immortalitee and blesse, are you so- rie thereat, that were enuious. did you loue her liuyng, loue her also departed, her vertuous shewed vnto vs, her immor- talitée. ¶ the obieccion. there is a care for the wife and children, if the housband [fol. lviij.v] dye before theim. ¶ the aunswere. [sidenote: a wretched executour.] if thou leaue them riches, hope not that thy riches shalbe a staie to theim, though thei bee innumerable: a wretched, a miserable executour, wasteth and destroieth oftentymes, the fruictes of thy trauaile, who reioyseth more of thy death, then of thy life. or thy childrens father in lawe, shall spoile and spende with a merie harte, that whiche thou haste long tera- [sidenote: gods pro- uidence.] uailed for. staie thy self and thyne vpon gods prouidence, for it hath been seen, many a riche widowe, with infinite treasure lefte, to her children also like porcions descendyng: afterwarde bothe wife and children, haue been brought to miserie and beggerlie state. otherwise, poore children com- mitted to the prouidence of god, and vertuouslie brought vp, and the wife in like state, yet thei haue so passed their daies, that thei haue rose to a goodlie state. see that thy richesse bée not iniuriouslie gotten by falshode, by liyng, by usurie, if it so be, then _male parta male dilabuntnr_. that is this, gooddes euill gotte, euill spente, soche riches neuer giue déepe roote to their ofspryng. that is an euill care, by a iniurious care, to purchase thynges and gooddes wickedlie. also mariage taketh awaie widowhed, and doeth repare with a newe freshe mariage, the lacke and priuacion of the [sidenote: death. mariage.] other. she that was by death left a widowe, mariage again hath coupled her to a newe housbande: and doeth restore that whiche death tooke awaie. that that death dissolueth and destroieth, mariage increaseth, augme[n]teth, and multiplieth. bee it so, but mariage is a painfull life, it forceth euery one to trauaile, to vpholde and maintaine his state, i commende not the idell life, neither a life occupied to no vertuous ende. nature moueth euery manne to loue hymself and his, so thy care and paine be to a godlie purpose. it is commendable. it is the duetie of euery man, as his power, witte, and industrie is able, to emploie thereto his cogitacion. to laboure for thy wife, whom thou loueste, and deare children, thy laboure is [fol. lix.r] pleasure, the ioye easeth thy labour. to behold thy self in thy children, thei beyng vertuouslie broughte vp, it is a goodlie [sidenote: the mariage of a chaste woman.] comfort, to liue with a chaste woman, sober and continente, her vertues be a continuall pleasure, a passyng ioye. in ma- riage ought to be greate deliberacion, whom thou chosest to thy continuall compainie or felowshippe, her life paste well knowen, her parentes and kindrede how honeste and vertu- ous, her maners, her fame, how commendable, her counti- [sidenote: the choise of a wife.] naunce sober, a constaunt iye, and with shamefastnes beau- tified, a mouthe vttering fewe woordes discretlie. she is not to be liked, who[m] no vertuous qualitées in her educacio[n], beu- tifieth and adorneth, the goodlie qualitees sheweth, the well framed and nurtured mynde. these thynges maie be suffi- ciente, to shewe what excellencie is in mariage and how ne- cessarie it is, to the procreacion and preseruacio[n] of mankind. ¶ _legislacio._ ¶ a oracion either in the defence of a lawe, or againste a lawe. many learned menne are in this opinion, that vpon a lawe alledged, a oracion maie bee made in the defence of it: or matter maie be suppeditated, to in- uaigh by force of argument againste it. although the lawe alleged be in maner the whole cause, bicause it doeth co[n]tain al the matter included in the oracion. in this oracion, the persone is induced to be spoken vp- pon, vnknowne, vncertaine: wherefore it is to be placed, ra- ther in the state and forme of consultacion, and to bée exami- ned with iudgement. the induccion of a lawe, is in twoo sortes. a confirmacion of any olde lawe, or a confutacion. as for example. the ciuill lawe doeth well commende, bondmen to be manumised, that is, to be made free. the lawe is herein to be praised, that willeth the cou[n]sail of the parentes & frendes, to be knowne before the contracte. [fol. lix.v] upon a lawe alledged, worthelie matter maie rise, waigh- yng the godlie ende, whereunto the lawe was firste inuen- ted, decreed and stablished, what profite thereof ensueth and foloweth. what it is to vertue a mainteiner, otherwise if it be not profitable? what moued any one to frame and ordain soche a lawe, as was to a common wealthe vnprofitable, to vertue no aider, if it were a profitable lawe and godlie, it is as demosthenes saieth, of god inuented, though by famous [sidenote: lawe.] wise, and godlie menne, stablished and decréed. good lawes tempereth to all states equitee and iustice, without fauour or frendship, no more to the one then the other. the order to make an oracion by a lawe, is in this sort. first, make a prohemiu[m] or beginning to enter your matter. in the seconde place, adde a contrary to that, whiche you will entreate vpon. then shewe it lawful. iuste. profitable. possible. you maie as in _thesis_, whiche was the oracion before, vse a contradiction or obiection: and to that make an answere or solucion. ¶ a confutacion of that lawe, whiche suffered adultrie to bee punished with death, no iudgement giuen thereupon. [sidenote: the moste rigorous and moste cruell lawe of solo[n][.]] solon, who was a famous philosopher, in the time of cresus king of lidia, and a lawe giuer to the athenians: by whose lawes and godlie meanes, the athenians were long and prospe- rouslie gouerned. emong many of his lawes, this solon set forthe againste adulterers. _fas esse deprehen- denti mæchum in ipso adulterio interficere_: it shalbee lawfull saieth he, who so taketh an adulterer in his beastlie facte, to kill hym. solon beyng a wise man, was more rigorous and cruell, in this one lawe, then he ought to be. a meruailous [fol. lx.r] matter, and almoste vncredible, so wise, so noble and worthy a lawe giuer, to bruste out with soche a cruell and bloodie lawe, that without iudgement or sentence giuen, the matter neither proued nor examined, adulterie to be death. where- fore, reason forceth euery manne, to iudge and ponder with [sidenote: adulterie a horrible vice.] hymself, that either adulterie is a moste horrible vice, moste beastlie & pestiferous, and not mete to tary vpon the censure, and sentence of a iudge: or solon was not so wise, discrete, and a politike persone, but a rashe and fonde lawe giuer, that in soche a terrible voice, he should burste out, as adulterie so horrible, as not worthie to be pondered, examined and boul- ted of in iudgemente. the athenians receiued that lawe, thei did also obaie his other lawes. their dominions there- by in felicitée was gouerned: there was no populous nom- ber of adulterers, to let that lawe, thei liued moste godlie, a straunge worlde, a rare moderacion of that age and people. [sidenote: plato aga- inste adultrie made a lawe.] plato the godlie philosopher, who lefte in his woorkes, and monumentes of learnyng, greate wisedome and also godlie lawes in his bookes: intiteled vpon lawes, and gouerne- ment of a common wealth, did not passe by in silence, to giue and ordain a lawe against adulterie. who also as it semed iudged adulterie as moste horrible and detestable, in his .ix. booke _de legibus_. this is the lawe. _adulteram deprehen- sam impune occidi a viro posse._ the adultrous woman saith he, taken in the crime, her housbande maie without daunger of death, or feare of punishement slea her. a straunge matter twoo so noble, so famous for wisedome, to make adulterie present death, no iudgement or sentence of magistrate, pro- cedyng to examine and iudge, vpon the state of the cause. a man maie saie, o goodlie age, and tyme in vertue tempered, eche state as seemeth brideled and kepte vnder, and farre fro[m] voluptuousnes remoued. there was no stewes or baudes houses, where soche lawes and lawmakers were. sobrie- tée was in maides, and chastitée harboured in matrones and wedded wiues, a harte inuiolable to honeste conuersacion. [fol. lx.v] where adulterie is cutte of, there many detestable vices, [sidenote: catos sen- tence vpon adulterie.] and execrable purposes are remoued. cato the sage peere of rome, indued with like seueritée, did fauour that lawe and highlie extolled it. although adulterie bee a detestable vice horrible, yea, although it be worthie death, better it were by iudgemente, and the sentence of the magistrate, the faute to [sidenote: lawe.] bee determined: then at the will of euery manne, as a lawe by death to bee ended, the common wealthe shalbee in more quiet state, when the horrible factes of wicked menne, by the [sidenote: the iudge, a liuely lawe.] lawe made worthie of deathe: are neuerthelesse by a liuelie lawe, whiche is the iudge, pronounced and condemned, ac- cordyng to the lawe. els many mischiues might rise in all kyngdomes and common wealthes, vnder a colour of lawe, many a honeste persone murthered: and many a murtherer, by cloke of a lawe, from daunger saued. in rome somtime a lawe there was ordained againste adulterie, whiche was called _lex iulia_, this lawe octauius augustus set foorthe. the lawe was thus, _gladio iussit animaduerti in adulteros_[.] the lawe commaunded adulterers to be hedded. the chro- nicles of aunciente tymes herein doe shew, and the decrées of auncient elders also, how horrible a thing adulterie is, when thei punishe it with death. who knoweth not emo[n]g the is- raelites, and in the olde lawe thei wer stoned to death. well as magistrates are in common wealthes remoued, or as ti- mes chaunge, lawes also are chaunged and dissolued: and as the prouerbe is, _lex vt regio_, the lawes are accordyng to the region. afterwarde ualerius publicola, a man ascen- dyng to high nobilitée of honour, and fame emong, the ro- maines gaue this lawe. _qua neminem licebat indicta causa necare._ by this lawe it was not lefull, any manne to be put [sidenote: a godly law.] to death, their cause not examined in iudgemente, this was a goodlie lawe. then afterwarde, lawe giuers rose in the common wealth, that with more facilitee tolerated that vice, then wickednesse flowed, adulterie not punished by death. and sence that, the romaine empire, wrapped and snared [fol. lxj.r] with soche mischiues hath decaied, in fame, nobilitée and ver- tue. many a parte of their dominion plagued, deuoured, and [sidenote: the good manne.] destroied. the good and godlie menne, nede not to feare any lawe godlie, their life beyng in vertue and godlines nurtu- red. the terrible sentence of a lawe, forceth the good and god- lie, to perseuere and continue in godlines. the terrible sen- [sidenote: lawe.] tence of a lawe, cutteth of the wicked enterprises of pestife- rous menne. uice where lawe is not to correcte, will inure it [sidenote: uice as a lawe by cu- stome.] self by custome as a lawe, or borne and tolerated againste a [sidenote: adulterie.] lawe. therefore as adulterie without iudgemente, to bee punished worthie of death is vngodlie: so it ought not to bee passed ouer, or tolerated in any region or common wealth, as no lawe seuerely to punishe thesame. ¶ the contrarie. al other lawes doe differ, from that rigorous lawe of solon and plato herein, yea, and though thei be vices horrible, yet thei ar not determined, with out the sente[n]ce of the magistrate and iudge. but this cruell lawe of solon, doeth repugne all lawes, stabli- [sidenote: the lawe v- niuersall and equall to all menne.] shed in all citees and common wealthes. and sithe the lawe is of hymself vniuersall, with equitée, giuing and tempering to all states. fonde muste that lawe bee of solon, whiche rashely, without consideracion of iudgement doeth procede, no man ought in his own cause, to be his own iudge or ma- gistrate. this is argument sufficient to confounde the lawe of solon. all lawes are repugnaunte to that, because with iudgement thei procede against vices moste pestiferous. in [sidenote: thefte.] common wealthes theft is by lawe, pronounced worthie of death, whereupon also the magistrate and iudge, determi- neth the matter, and heareth of bothe the action of the case, before he condempneth, so in all other mischiues. but you maie saie, many mischiues riseth of adulterie. although it so be, the iudge determineth vpon murder, whiche is in like sort horrible, soche also as dooe séeke to caste into perill their countrée, and by treason to destroie thesame, [fol. lxj.v] iudgemente proceadeth by determinacion of the lawe and iudge. and so in all other wicked factes, and mischiuous en- terprises, the iudgement in euery cause procedeth, as lawe [sidenote: the iudge a liuely lawe.] and right willeth, from the mouthe of the iudge, he beyng a liuelie lawe, to the lawe written. the cruell lawe of so- lon, is like to the phantasie and wille of a tyraunte, who, as phantasie and will leadeth, murdereth at his pleasure, whose will is alwaies a sufficient lawe to hymself, as who should [sidenote: the will of a tyraunte his owne lawe.] saie, so i wille, so i commaunde, my wille shall stande for a lawe: but godlie lawes doe iustlie, accordyng to reason and vertue, tempereth the cause of euery man. no godlie lawe, maketh the accuser his owne iudge. ¶ lawfull. [sidenote: lawes were made for two causes.] who so by lawe is iudged, and the offence proued, there is no excuse in the malefactour, nor suspicion seing that, accordyng to lawe, the fact is punished, and as demosthenes saieth, twoo thynges moued the wise elders to make lawes, that the wicked should bee hindered, and cutte of from their purpose, and that good men seyng by a lawe, the actes of pestiferous men kepte vnder, by the terrour of them, are afraied to commit the like facte. this was euen accordyng to lawe. the terrible sentence of a law executed, vpon moste wicked persones, doe kepe vnder many a mischiuous enterprise, whiche through the dolefull and la- mentable ende of the wicked, doe driue and force all other to all godlines. ¶ iuste. the accuser by lawe and iudge, is able to defende hymself, whe[n] his cause is ended accordyng to law. uertue thereby vpholded, when by order of lawe, vice is condempned. the malifactour hath no ex- cuse, all staie and colour remoued, the accuser by iuste lawe pleateth, when the law is thereby supported and saued. and herein a greate parte of iustice is placed, when the fauour of the iudge or frendship, is onely on the cause, the persone nec- [fol. lxij.r] lected, that is iustice, to giue to euery one his owne. ¶ profitable. it must be profitable to the whole bodie of the com- mon wealthe, when by the iustice of godlie lawes, vertue is in high price aduaunced, vice by the open sentence, and manifeste profe conuicted, the malefa- ctour shall be knowen, the sincere and godlie deliuered, and from tyme to tyme maintained. lawes as thei be vniuersall so thei openlie ought to giue sentence. ¶ possible. then without lawe to procede, and iudgemente of the magistrate, as solon did in this lawe, it were not possible, any common wealthe to florishe ther- by. therefore in iudgemente ought the cause of euery one to be pleated and examined, that thereby all suspi- cion, & greuous enormitées, maie be put of. uice is not there- fore tolerated, because for a tyme, iudgemente ceaseth, but hereupon vices are more depely rooted out, all people know- yng the determinacion of the lawe, and the manifest sente[n]ce of the iudge heard. a terrour ensueth to al malefactours and pestiferous men, good men are incensed to all godlines, whe[n] vice by lawe is condempned, cutte of, and destroied. good menne by lawe and aucthoritée, vpholded and maintained. [sidenote: the state of good lawes.] this is the state of good lawes, by order to procede, the cause in iudgemente examined, the facte proued, vertue in any persone vpholded, vice in all caste doune and defaced, so there is good lawe, as demosthenes saieth, sincere iudge, and sentence inuiola- ble. * * * * * [transcriber's note: the following is a list of printer errors in the original.] page original correct fol. j.r faith he faith be fol. ij.r poloponesians peloponesians fol. ij.r oracions, when oracion, when fol. v.r perthesius parthesius fol. vj.v romai- romains [or romaines] fol. vij.r valianntes valiauntes fol. vij.r commo wealth commo[n] wealth fol. ix.r uot not fol. ix.r state or state of fol. ix.v comparson comparison fol. x.r aboundauute aboundaunte fol. x.v oneie onelie fol. xj.r fanour fauour fol. xiiij.r vengauce vengau[n]ce fol. xiiij.v fenche frenche fol. xv.r bristaines britaines fol. xvj.r porfite profite fol. xvj.v learnng learning [or learnyng] fol. xvij.r is was was fol. xvij.r pholosopher philosopher fol. xvij.v faundacion foundacion fol. xviij.v aud and fol. xviij.v catona crotona fol. xix.r celebraied celebrated fol. xx.v intteled intiteled fol. xxj.r gouerme[n]t gouernme[n]t fol. xxij.v politcia politia fol. xxiiij.v rhetotike rhetorike fol. xxiiij.v exposion exposicion fol. xxiiij.v incrediblie incredible fol. xxv.r the feigne thei feigne fol. xxvij.r the the the fol. xxvij.r moderaciou moderacion fol. xxviij.v prossible possible fol. xxviij.v rhetotike rhetorike fol. xxix.r fol. xxxj. fol. xxix. fol. xxix.v historiogriphers historiographers fol. xxxj.r fol. xxxiij. fol. xxxj. fol. xxxj.r lineth liueth fol. xxxj.v ouerthowe ouerthrowe fol. xxxj.v epamniundas epaminundas fol. xxxij.r epameunndas epaminundas fol. xxxiij.r zopryus zopyrus fol. xxxiiij.r or god of god fol. xxxiiij.r wekedned wekened fol. xxxv.r destetable detestable fol. xxxv.v theodosiuus theodosius fol. xxxv.v prouulgate promulgate fol. xxxv.v hane haue fol. xxxvj.r goddes goodes [or gooddes] fol. xxxvj.r lo liue to liue fol. xxxvj.r the:m theim fol. xxxvij.r fol. xxxix. fol. xxxvij. fol. xxxvij.v dangerous gaue dangerous game fol. xxxviij.v cut af cut of fol. xxxviij.v gouernuurs gouernours fol. xxxix.r fol. xxxvij. fol. xxxix. fol. xxxix.r his oracion this oracion fol. xxxix.v goueruours gouernours fol. xl.v traianns traianus fol. xlij.r nobilitée) for nobilitée (for fol. xliij.r valianntly valiauntly fol. xliiij.v anncestours auncestours fol. xlviij.r conutrée countrée fol. liiij.v omnipoteucie omnipotencie fol. lvj.r all all all fol. lvij.r whatseouer whatsoeuer fol. lviij.v terauailed trauailed fol. lviij.v dilabuntnr dilabuntur the original contains the following additional printer errors: fol. j.r decorative capital "n" reversed fol. xxxiij.r last sentence repeated fol. xxxviij.v section heading repeated fol. liij.r first word repeats last word on previous page fol. liiij.r remainder of last sentence missing? the following do not appear to be printer errors, as they are consistently used in the original: "thesame" for "the same"; "shalbe" for "shall be"; the use of "a" instead of "an" before a noun beginning with a vowel; the combination of "the" and a word beginning with "e" into a single word, as in "theight" for "the eight." a short _system_ of english grammar. for the use of the boarding school in worcester. _by_ henry bate _a. b._ _worcester:_ printed by r. lewis, bookseller, in _high-street_. the preface. _usage and custom are the rules and measures of every_ language, _and the rules of_ grammar _have nothing more to do, than to teach it. the_ grammar _is to be fashioned from the particular_ language, _it treats of, and not the language from the_ grammar. _for want of following this regular plan, our modern_ grammarians_ have introduced the_ grammar rules _of other_ languages _into their own; as if all_ language _was founded on_ grammar, _and the rules in one_ language _would serve the same end and purpose in another._ the latin, _for instance, has only_ eight parts of speech, _and the writers of_ english grammar _have unthinkingly adopted the same number; whereas with the article, which the_ latin _has not, and which is of great service in a_ language, _we have no less than nine. the_ latin _admits of_ cases; _but as different_ cases, _properly speaking, are nothing more than the different inflections and terminations of nouns_, english nouns _have no_ cases. _it is not agreeable to the principles of_ grammar _to say that_--of a rose--_is the genitive case of_--rose, _or_--to a rose, _the dative; for_ of _and_ to _are no part of the word_ rose, _but only_ prefix particles _or_ prepositions, _which shew the different relation of the word_ rose. _so likewise when we say_ alexander's horse, _the word_ alexander's _is not the genitive case of_ alexander; _for strictly speaking the_ 's _is no part of the word_ alexander _but the final letter of the pronoun possessive_ his, _and without the_ apostrophe _we shou'd read it thus;_ alexander his horse. _if any of the_ parts of speech _have_ cases, _the_ pronouns _have, and some of the_ pronouns _may perhaps have_ two; _but for the sake of making every thing as easy as i can to the learner, i have taken the liberty of distinguishing such_ pronouns _into_ prefix _and_ subsequent, _and entirely laid aside_ cases _as useless and unnecessary. the_ latin _has_ genders, _the_ adjective _in that language always varying to correspond with the_ substantive; _but our_adjectives _never vary, and therefore the distinction of_ genders _has nothing to do with_ english grammar, _but is idle, trifling, impertinent._ experience _shews, that this sort of pedantick ignorance and folly, has made that dark and obscure, which it was intended to elucidate, and unhappily puzzled and perplexed a great many more, than it has ever instructed. every attempt to make_ english easy _must be fruitless, that is not formed upon a different plan, and such is the following_ short system of english grammar. a short _system_ of english grammar. _of_ grammar _and it's_ divisions. grammar is the science of letters or language, and is the art of speaking and writing properly. it's divisions are four; orthography analogy prosody syntax _of_ orthography. orthography comprehends _writing_, and _articulation_. _articulation_ treats of simple sounds, which are made by the organs of speech, and by which we communicate our ideas and sentiments to one another. _writing_ represents the living speech, and makes as it were these sounds and sentiments visible. _of_ prosody. prosody treats of pronunciation with respect of _accent_, _time_, and _quantity_. but as the science of letters, sounds, and pronunciation is instilled into the minds of the english youth very early in life, and as this grammar is not intended for the use of _foreigners_, but for them; i shall not trifle away their time, in teaching them, what they cannot be supposed to be unacquainted with; but proceed to the third part of grammar called _analogy_. _of_ analogy. analogy is the mutual relation, or agreement of words with one another, and treats of all the _parts of speech_, which in english are _nine_. _article_ _verb_ _conjunction_ _noun_ _participle_ _preposition_ _pronoun_ _adverb_ _interjection_ _of an_ article. an article is a _part of speech_ put before _nouns_ to ascertain and fix their vague signification. there are three articles, _a_, _an_, and _the_. _a_ and _an_ are indefinite articles and applied to persons or things indifferently; as _an oyster_, _a prince_. the article _the_ distinguishes individually or particularly; as _the oyster_, _the prince_. _of a_ noun. a noun is a _part of speech_ which expresses the subject spoke of; as _ink_, _paper_, _witness._ a noun is either _substantive_, or _adjective_. a noun _substantive_ is the name of a thing considered simply in itself, and without any regard to it's qualities; as _a man_, _a woman_, _a child_. a noun _adjective_ is a word added to the _noun substantive_, expressing the circumstance or quality thereof; as _a good man_, _an old woman_, _a young child_. _of a_ pronoun. a pronoun is a _part of speech_ substituted in the place of a _noun_, to avoid the frequent and disagreeable repetition of the same word; as _the bird_ is joyous, _he_ chirps, _he_ sings; which without the _pronoun_ wou'd be thus; _the bird_ is joyous, _the bird_ chirps, _the bird _ sings. pronouns personal. _i_ _he_ _myself_ _i myself_ _me_ _him_ _yourself_ _you yourself_ _you_ _she_ _thyself_ _thou thyself_ _thou_ _her_ _himself_ _he himself_ _thee_ _one's self_ _herself_ _she herself_ pronouns relative. _who_, _whose_, _whom_, _what_, _which._ pronouns demonstrative. _this_, _that._ pronouns possessive. _my_ _ours_ _your_ _theirs_ _mine_ _thy_ _yours_ _her_ _our_ _thine_ _his_ _hers_ _of_ number. number expresses the difference betwixt one thing and many, and is either _singular_ or _plural_. when a thing is considered as single, or a multitude of things considered as united together, it is of the _singular number_; as _a man_, _a troop_. when several things are considered as distinct from each other it is of the _plural number_, as _men_, _soldiers_. the _plural_ is usually formed in _noun substantives_ by adding _s_ to the _singular_; as _article articles_, _noun nouns_. but when the pronunciation requires it, or when the _singular_ ends in _s_, _x_, _sh_, or _ch_, the _plural_ is usually formed by adding the syllable _es_; as _ass asses_, _fox foxes_, _sash sashes_, _church churches_. when the _singular_ ends in _f_ or _fe_, the _plural_ is usually form'd by changing the _f_ or _fe_ into _ves_; as _wife wives_, _self selves_. sometimes the _plural_ is formed by adding the syllable _en_; as _ox oxen_; sometimes by changing the _vowel_; as _man men_; and sometimes the _vowels and consonants_; as _penny pence_, _mouse mice_, _louse lice_. some of the _pronouns_ form their _plural_ very irregular; as _i we_, _me us_, _thou ye_, _thee you_, _he they_, _him them_, _she they_, _her them_. some _nouns_ have no _singular number_; as _scissors_, the _east-indies_, the _west-indies_. some have no _plural_; the names of kingdoms for instance; as _england_, _ireland_, _portugal_. cities, towns and villages; as _worcester_, _kinver_, _hagley_. seas, and rivers; as the _mediterranean_, _severn_. _wheat_, _barley_, _gold_, _silver_, _pewter_, and a great many words, that cannot be reduced to any rule want the _plural number_; as _ale_, _beer_, _bread_, _butter_, _honey_, _milk_, _hunger_, _thirst_, _drunkenness_. the termination of some _nouns_ is the same both in the _singular_ and _plural_; as _a sheep_, _a swine_, a flock of _sheep_, a herd of _swine_, &c. _of_ comparison. comparison is the comparing the different circumstances of persons or things with each other, and serves to alter the signification of a word, either by a gradual increase, or a gradual diminution; as _long longer longest_, _short shorter shortest_. adjectives, _adverbs_, and _substantives_, have three degrees of comparison, the _positive_, the _comparative_, and the _superlative_. the _positive_ lays down the natural signification simply and without excess or diminution; as _long_, _short_, _often_. the _comparative_ raises or lowers the _positive_ in signification, and is formed of the _positive_ by adding the syllable _er_; as _long longer_, _short shorter_, _often oftener_. the _superlative_ raises or lowers the signification as much as possible, and if formed of the _positive_ by adding the syllable _est_; as _long longest_, _short shortest_, _often oftenest_. sometimes they are compared by the _adverbs_ _very, infinitely_; and the _adjectives_ _more, most_; _less, least_; as _long, very long, infinitely long_; _short, more short, most short_; _commonly, less commonly, least commonly_. these _adjectives_ deviate from the general rule, _good better best_, _bad worse worst_, _little less least_, _much more most_. substantives are compared by the _adjectives_ _more, most_, the words _than_, or _that_, always following; as a dunce, _more_ a dunce _than_ i or me, the _most_ a dunce _that_ ever i did see. _of a_ verb. a verb is a _part of speech_, which serves to express, what we affirm of, or attribute to any subject, and is either _active_ or _passive_. a verb _active_ is that which expresses an _action_; as _i kick_, _i see_. a verb _passive_ is that which receives the _action_ or expresses the _passion_; as _i am kick'd_, _i am seen_. a verb has two _numbers_ the _singular_ and the _plural_; and three _persons_ in each _number_; as _i am, thou art, he is_. _we are, ye are, they are._ the same is to be observed in every _mood_ and in every _tense_ but in the _infinitive_, which has neither _number_ nor person. _of_ moods. a mood is the manner of _conjugating verbs_ agreeably to the different actions or affections to be expressed. there are _four moods_, the _indicative_, the _imperative_, the _conjunctive_, and the _infinitive._ the _indicative mood_ expresseth the _action_ or _passion_ simply directly and absolutely; as _i love, i have loved, i will love_. the _imperative_ commands or forbids; as _come_, _go_, _begone_. the _conjunctive_ expresses the _action_ or _passion_ conditionally and is always joined with the _indicative_, or the same _mood_; as _i will love you, if you wou'd love me_; _i wou'd dance, if you wou'd dance_. the _infinitive_ expresses the _action_ or _passion_ indeterminately without any regard to _time_, _place_, _number_, or _person_; as _to love, to be loved_. _of the_ tenses. tense is an inflection of verbs, whereby they are made to signify, and distinguish the circumstance of _time_. there are _five tenses_, _the present tense_, _the preterimperfect_, _the preterperfect_, _the preterpluperfect_, and _the future_. . the _present tense_ expresses the time, that now is; as _i sup_. . the _preterimperfect tense_ denotes the historical relation of a past action, but yet not perfectly compleated, when joined to another action that is perfectly compleated; as _when or while i supped he came in_. . the _preterperfect tense_ expresses the time past perfectly; as _i have supped_. . the _preterpluperfect tense_ expresses the time past doubly; as _i had supped_. . the _future tense_ expresses the time to come; as _i shall sup, i will sup_. _of the_ conjugation. conjugation is the variation of verbs through all their _moods and tenses_; and the english verbs are chiefly conjugated by _auxiliary signs_; as _to love_; or by _auxiliary verbs_; as _i am loved, i have loved_. _of the_ auxiliary signs. the _auxiliary signs_ are words that serve to express the variations of the _verb_. the _imperative mood_ has the _signs_ _do, let_; as--_do thou love, let him love_. the _infinitive mood_ has the _signs_ _to, about_; as _to love, about to love_. the other _moods_ have the _auxiliary signs_ following. _singular_ st _person_ { i do, did, must, may, { can, might, wou'd, cou'd, { shou'd, shall, _or_ will. d _person_ { thou do'st, did'st, must, { may'st, can'st, might'st, { wou'd'st, cou'd'st, shou'd'st, { shalt _or_ wilt. d _person_ { he does, or do'th, did, must, { may, can, might, wou'd, { cou'd, shou'd, shall, _or_ { will. _plural_ st _person_ { we do, did, must, may, { can, might, wou'd, cou'd, { shou'd, shall, _or_ will. d _person_ { ye do, did, must, may, { can, might, wou'd, cou'd, { shou'd, shall _or_ will. d _person_ { they do, did, must, may, { can, might, wou'd, cou'd, { shou'd, shall _or_ will. _of the_ auxiliary verbs. the _auxiliary verbs_ are only two, _to have_ and _to be_; which cannot be conjugated without the _auxiliary signs_, and without the reciprocal assistance of each other. _to have._ indicative mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i have; thou hast; he hath, _or_ has. _plur._ we have; ye have; they have. _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i had; thou hadst; he had. _plur._ we had; ye had; they had. _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i have had; thou hast had; he hath, _or_ has had. _plur._ we have had; ye have had; they have had. _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i had had; thou hadst had; he had had. _plur._ we had had; ye had had; they had had. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, or will have; thou shalt, or wilt have; he shall, _or_ will have. _plur._ we shall, _or_ will have; ye shall, _or_ will have; they shall, _or_ will have. imperative mood. _present_ and _future_. _sing._ let me have; do thou have, _or_ have thou; let him have. _plur._ let us have; do ye have, _or_ have ye; let them have. conjunctive mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i may, _or_ can have; thou may'st, _or_ can'st have; he may, _or_ can have. _plur._ we may, _or_ can have; ye may, or can have; they may, _or_ can have. _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have; thou must, might'st, woud'st, coud'st, _or_ shoud'st have; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have. _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st have had; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had. _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd had had; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st had had; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd had had; _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd had had; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd had had; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd had had. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, _or_ will have had; thou shalt, _or_ wilt have had; he shall, _or_ will have had; _plur._ we shall, _or_ will have had; ye shall, _or_ will have had; they shall, _or_ will have had. infinitive mood. _present_ ---- to have _perfect_ ---- to have had _future_ ---- about to have. participles. _present_ ---- having _preterperfect_ ---- having had. _to be._ indicative mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i am; thou art; he is. _plur._ we are; ye are; they are. _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i was; thou wast; he was; _plur._ we were; ye were; they were. _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i have been; thou hast been; he hath been. _plur._ we have been; ye have been; they have been. _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i had been; thou hadst been; he had been. _plur._ we had been; ye had been; they had been. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, _or_ will be; thou shalt, _or_ wilt be; he shall, _or_ will be. _plur._ we shall, _or_ will be; ye shall, _or_ will be; they shall, _or_ will be. imperative mood. _present_ and _future_. _sing._ let me be; do thou be, _or_ be thou; let him be. _plur._ let us be; do ye be, _or_ be ye; let them be. conjunctive mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i may, _or_ can be; thou may'st, _or_ canst be; he may, _or_ can be. _plur._ we may, _or_ can be; ye may, _or_ can be; they may, _or_ can be. _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd be; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st be; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd be. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd be; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd be; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd be. _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have been; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st have been; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd, have been. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have been; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have been; they must, might, wou'd cou'd, _or_ shou'd have been. _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had been; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st, have had been; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had been. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had been; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had been; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had been. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, _or_ will have been; thou shalt, _or_ wilt have been; he shall _or_ will have been. _plur._ we shall, _or_ will have been; ye shall, _or_ will have been; they shall, _or_ will have been. infinitive mood. _present_ ---- to be _preterperfect_ ---- to have been _future_ ---- about to be. participles. _present_ ---- being _preterperfect_ ---- having been. _of_ regular verbs. regular _verbs_ are those that are _conjugated_ by some established rules. the _termination_ of the _infinitive mood present tense, of the verb active, in regular verbs_, is always the same as the _first person_ of the _indicative mood present tense singular_; as _to love, i love_. the _termination_ of the _second person singular_ is formed out of the _first_ by adding _st_ or _est_; as _i love, thou loves_t; _i read, thou readest_. the _termination_ of the _third person singular_ is formed out of the _first_ by adding _th_ or _eth_; as _i love, he loveth, i read, he readeth_; or only by adding _s_; as _he loves, he reads_. the _termination_ of the _first person preterimperfect tense singular_, is formed out of the _first person present tense singular_ by adding the syllable _ed_; as _i love, i loved_. the _termination_ of the _participle present of the verb active_, is always formed out of the _first person present_ by adding the syllable _ing_; as _i love_, _loving_. the _termination_ of the _preterimperfect, the preterperfect, and the preterpluperfect of the indicative mood; and the preterperfect, the preterpluperfect and the future of the conjunctive, and the participle passive_ is in regular verbs the same; as _i loved, i have loved, i had loved, i may have loved, i might have loved, i shall have loved, i am loved_. and the _termination_ of every other _tense, number or person_, is the same with the _infinitive_. _of a_ verb active. a verb _active regular_ is conjugated by the _auxiliary signs, the auxiliary verbs_, and the general rules foregoing. _to love._ indicative mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i love, _or_ do love; thou lovest, _or_ dost love; he loveth, _or_ loves, _or_ doth love. _plur._ we love, _or_ do love; ye love, _or_ do love; they love, _or_ do love. _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i loved, _or_ did love; thou loved'st, _or_ did'st love; he loved, _or_ did love. _plur._ we loved, _or_ did love; ye loved, _or_ did love; they loved, _or_ did love. _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i have loved; thou hast loved; he hath loved, _or_ has loved. _plur._ we have loved; ye have loved; they have loved. _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i had loved; thou hadst loved; he had loved. _plur._ we had loved; ye had loved; they had loved. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, _or_ will love; thou shalt, _or_ wilt love; he shall, _or_ will love. _plur._ we shall, _or_ will love; ye shall, _or_ will love; they shall, _or_ will love. imperative mood. _present_ and _future_. _sing._ let me love; do thou love, _or_ love thou; let him love. _plur._ let us love; do ye love, _or_ love ye; let them love. conjunctive mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i may, _or_ can love; thou may'st, or can'st love; he may, _or_ can love. _plur._ we may, _or_ can love; ye may, _or_ can love; they may, _or_ can love. _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd love; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st love; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd love. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd love; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd love; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd love. _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have loved; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st have loved; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have loved. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have loved; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have loved; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have loved. _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had loved; thou must, might'st, wou'd'st, cou'd'st, _or_ shou'd'st have had loved; he must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had loved. _plur._ we must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had loved; ye must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had loved; they must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had loved. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, _or_ will have loved; thou shalt, _or_ wilt have loved; he shall, or will have loved. _plur._ we shall, _or_ will have loved; ye shall, _or_ will have loved; they shall, _or_ will have loved. infinitive mood. _present_ ---- to love _preterperfect_ ---- to have loved _future_ ---- about to love. participles. _present_ ---- loving _preterperfect_ ---- having loved. _of a_ verb passive. the _verb passive_ is nothing more than the _participle passive_ joined to the _auxiliary verb to be_; as indicative mood. _present tense_ i am loved; _&c._ _preterimperfect_ i was loved; _&c._ _preterperfect_ i have been loved; _&c._ _preterpluperfect_ i had been loved; _&c._ _future_ i shall or will be loved; _&c._ imperative mood. _present_ and _future_. let me be loved _&c._ conjunctive mood. _present tense._ _sing._ i may, _or_ can be loved; thou _&c._ _preterimperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd be loved; thou _&c._ _preterperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have been loved; thou _&c._ _preterpluperfect tense._ _sing._ i must, might, wou'd, cou'd, _or_ shou'd have had been loved; thou _&c_. _future tense._ _sing._ i shall, _or_ will have been loved; thou _&c._ infinitive mood. _present_ ---- to be loved _preterperfect_ ---- to have been loved _future_ ---- about to be loved. participles. _present_ ---- being loved _preterperfect_ ---- having been loved. _of a_ participle. a participle is a _part of speech_, which partaketh of a _verb_ and a _noun_. when it has a relation to time it may be considered as a _verb_; but when it is joined to a _substantive_ or admits of _comparison_, it may be considered as an _adjective_. when the _termination_ of the _participle passive_ is not formed by adding the syllable _ed_ to the _first person_ of the _indicative mood present tense singular_; or when the _termination_ of the _participle passive_ differs from the _termination of the preter tenses_, the _verb_ becomes _irregular_; but in all other respects is conjugated as the regular verb; as i abide, thou abidest, &c. _pres. tense._ _preter._ _participle passive._ abide abode abode bite bit bitten catch caught catched do did done eat eat eaten fall fell fallen get got gotten hold held holden know knew known lie lay laid make made made rise rose risen shine shone shined tread trod trodden weave wove woven _&c._ _&c._ _&c._ to these may be added the _auxiliary verbs_ ---- _to have, and to be_. _of an_ adverb. an adverb is a _part of speech_ joined to a _verb_, a _noun substantive_, an _adjective_ or _participle_, and sometimes to another _adverb_, to express the manner or circumstance of the thing signified; as _he speaks properly_, _an orderly man_, _truly good_, _extreamly loving_, _very devoutly_. adverbs are very numerous, and have relation to time; as _now_, _lately_, _always_. place; as _here_, _there_, _no-where_. order; as _by turns_, _abreast_, _orderly_. quantity; as _enough_, _more_, _entirely_. number; as _once_, _twice_, _thrice_. dobting; as _perhaps_, _may be_, _peradventure_. asking; as _why?_ _whence?_ _wherefore?_. affirmation; as _yes_, _indeed_, _certainly_. negation; as _no_, _never_, _not at all_. comparison; as _more_, _less_, _likewise_. quality; as _justly_, _prudently_, _indifferently_. _of a_ conjunction. a conjunction is _a part of speech_, which serves to connect and join the several parts of a discourse together, and is of various kinds. copulative; _as and_, _also_, _moreover_. disjunctive; _as or_, _neither_, _whether_. adversative; _as but_, _yet_, _notwithstanding_. conditional; _as if_, _unless_, _provided_. casual; _as for_, _because_, _forasmuch_. conclusive; _as then_, _so that_, _therefore_. _of a_ preposition. a preposition is _a part of speech_, that serves to express the particular relation and circumstance of some other _part of speech_, and is either used in _apposition_, as _in heaven_; or in _composition_, as _invisible_. prepositions _used in_ apposition. above between of about betwixt on after beyond over against by through among for throughout amongst from towards at in under before into unto behind near upon beneath near to with below nigh within beside nigh to without. prepositions _used in_ composition. a-base ap-point ab-use as-certain abs-tract at-taint ac-commodate be-friend ad-apt circum-ambient af-fix co-adjutor after-noon com-pound amphi-theatre com-plot ante-date con-strain anti-christ contra-diction an-archy counter-balance. de-camp op-pression dis-appoint over-reach dif-fusive out-landish di-minish per-form e-mission post-master em-brace pre-eminence en-close preter-natural es-say pro-long ex-terminate re-gain extra-ordinary retro-grade for-bear sub-join fore-see super-fine im-perfect trans-migration in-glorious un-worthy inter-view under-written intro-duction up-right ob-noxious with-draw off-spring _&c._, _&c._, _&c._ _of an_ interjection. an interjection _is a part of speech_, that serves to express some sudden motion or passion of the mind, transported with the sensation of pleasure or pain. of pleasure; as, _o brave!_ _o heavens! o joy!_ of pain; as _alas! o my god! o lord!_ interjections _of a_ lower order. of caution; as, _hold! take care!_ of admiration; as, _see! look! behold!_ of aversion; as, _fie! away you fool!_ of silence; as, _be still! silence!_ _of_ syntax. syntax is the manner of constructing one word with another prescribed by the _rules of_ grammar. rule st. the article _a_ is usually placed before a word that begins with a _consonant_, the article _an_ before a word that begins with a _vowel_, and either _a_ or _an_ before a word that begins with an _h_; and the article _the_, before a word that begins either with a _vowel_ or a _consonant_; as, _a christian_, _an infidel_, _a heathen_, or _an heathen_; _the christian_, _the infidel_, _the heathen_. rule d. a noun _substantive_ is usually placed after its _noun adjective_; as the _second chapter_, a _great man_. but sometimes for the sake of greater distinction the _adjective_ is placed after, with the article _the_ before it, as _george the second_, _peter the great_. in _poetry_ the _adjective_ is placed either before or after its _substantive_ indifferently, as the versification requires it. rule d. all _nouns and pronouns_ are of the _third person_ except _i and we_, which are of the _first person_, and _thou, you and ye_, which are of the _second person_; and except the _relative pronouns_ which are always of the _same person_ with the _personal pronoun_ to which they relate; as _i love, thou lovest, he loveth; i who love, thou who lovest, he who loveth_. rule th. the _prefix pronouns_, _i, we, thou, you, ye, he, she, they, who_, are usually placed before the _verb_; and the _subsequent pronouns_, _me, us, thee, him, her, them, whom_, are usually placed after; as _i love the dog, the dog loves me_. but when a _question_ is asked, or when the _verb_ is of the _imperative mood_, or in short sentences, the _prefix pronouns_ are usually placed after; as _lovest thou me? love thou thyself, said he, said they_. rule th. when a question is asked, and the _verb_ has an _auxiliary sign_, or an _auxiliary verb_, the _governing noun_ or _pronoun_ is placed immediately after such _auxiliary_; as _does the sun shine? has he washed his hands?_ and when the _verb_ has two or more _auxiliaries_, the _noun or pronoun_ is placed after the first; as _have i been taught? cou'd the truth have been known?_ rule th. the _verb_ agrees with its _governing noun_, _pronoun personal_, or _pronoun relative_, in _number_ and _person_; as _the birds sing_, _thou lovest_, _he who loveth_. rule th. a noun of _multitude_ may have a _verb_ either _singular_ or _plural_; as _the people is mad_, or _the people are mad_. but if a _substantive_ of the same signification follows, that is not a _noun of multitude_, then the _verb_ is always plural; as we do not say _the people is a mad man_, but _the people are mad men_. rule th. two or more _nouns_ or _pronouns singular_, will have a _verb plural_; as _the dog and cat are very loving_. but when two or more _substantives singular_ signify the same _thing_ or _person_, or when the _preposition_ of intervenes, the _verb_ is always _singular_; as _the river severn is navigable._ _william the conqueror was a great man._ _this system of grammar is compendious_. rule th. the _subsequent pronouns_ are usually placed after _prepositions and interjections_; as _of me, to us, for thee, with her, from them, against whom, o me!_ _of the_ points _or_ pauses. the _points_ or _pauses_ have a sort of musical proportion. the _period_ is marked thus (.)----its _time_ is equal to two _colons_ and is never placed but at the end of a sentence, the sense of which is perfect and compleat; as _by me kings reign, and princes decree justice._ the _colon_ is marked thus (:) ---- its _time_ is equal to two _semicolons_, and is placed where the sense seems to be perfect and compleat; but to which notwithstanding something may still be added; as _give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man and he will increase in learning_. the _semicolon_ is marked thus (;) ---- its _time_ is equal to two _commas_, and is placed where the sense is less compleat than the _colon_, and more compleat than the _comma_; as _a wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart is at his left_. the _comma_ is marked thus (,) ---- it is the last and least _pause_ or _time_ that is made use of, and serves to distinguish the simple numbers of a _period_; as _arise, my friend, and come away_. _of the other notes or characters._ a note of _interrogation_ (?) is used when a question is asked; as _who comes there?_ a note of _admiration_ (!) is used after _interjections_ or _short sentences_ to express our wonder and surprize; as _o!_ _o lord!_ a parenthesis (_rarely made use of by a good writer_) is used to inclose one sentence within another. the _paragraph_ is marked thus (¶) and denotes the beginning of a new discourse. an (') _apostrophe_ is used when some part of a word is left out; as _alexander's horse_, for _alexander his horse_. a _hyphen_ (-) is used to join together two words, as _foot-stool_, _&c._ and is used also when part of a word is written in one line, and part in another. the _caret_ is marked thus, (^) to shew where the words in any sentence that are left out, shou'd come in; as is _the lady ^ beautiful._ the _subdivision_, or part of a chapter is marked usually thus, §. the _index_ points to some remarkable passage thus, index finger, pointing to the right]. a _quotation_ is a double _comma_ reverse and set against some lines on the left side of a _page_, to shew that they are quoted from another _author_, thus, ". the _notes_ that refer to the _margin_ are an _asterisk_ made thus, *, an _obelisk_ thus, [dagger symbol], also thus, ||. besides these there are _literal characters_, _numeral characters_, and _abbreviations_, the knowledge of which is not so easily to be acquired by grammar _rules_, as by diligent observation and experience. _the_ end. none none [transcriber's notes: welcome to the schoolroom of . the moral tone is plain. "she is kind to the old blind man." the exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some contemporary alternatives. much is left to the teacher. explanations given in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. counting in roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson numbers. don kostuch ] eclectic educational series. mcguffey's[registered] eclectic primer. revised edition. [illustration: two children in hammock.] mcguffey editions and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons, inc. new york - chichester - weinheim - brisbane - singapore - toronto copyright, , by van antwerp, brag & co. copyright, , by american book company. copyright, , by henry h. vail. ep preface the flattering success of mcguffey's revised readers, and the inquiry for more primary reading matter to be used in the first year of school work, have induced the publishers to prepare a revised primer, which may be used to precede the first reader of any well arranged series. the method pursued is the same as that in mcguffey's revised readers, and the greatest possible care has been taken to insure a gradation suited to the youngest children. only about six new words are to be mastered in each lesson. these new words and the new elementary sounds are always to be found in the vocabulary of the lesson in which they are first used. the plan of the book enables the teacher to pursue the phonic method, the word method, the alphabet method, or any combination of these methods. illustrations of the best character have been freely supplied, and the skilled teacher will be able to use them to great advantage. the script exercises throughout the book and the slate exercises at the close, have been specially written and carefully engraved for this primer; they may be used to teach the reading of script, and as exercises in learning to write. in the full confidence that the public will appreciate a cheap and attractive primer of this character, the publishers have spared no expense to make this book equal, in type, paper, and illustrations, to any that have been issued from their press. (iii) the alphabet. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z the alphabet. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z [illustration: cat watching moth.] mcguffey's eclectic primer lesson a and cat rat a e d n r t [illustration: rat] a rat a cat a cat a rat a cat and a rat. a rat and a cat. lesson ii. at the ran has ann h th s [illustration: cat] the cat the rat the cat has a rat. the rat ran at ann. ann has a cat. the cat ran at the rat. lesson iii. nat hat fan can f [illustration: children playing at the seashore.] a fan a hat ann and nat. ann has a fan. nat has a hat. ann can fan nat. lesson iv. man cap lad sat l m p s [illustration: boy running and old man, with gout, sitting.] a cap the lad a man and a lad. the man sat; the lad ran. the man has a hat. the lad has a cap. lesson v.--review. the cat and the rat ran. ann sat, and nat ran. a rat ran at nat. can ann fan the lad? the man and the lad. the man has a cap. the lad has a fan. has ann a hat? ann has a hat and a fan. [illustration: script exercise: a at rat sat can cap lad and the cat ran. ann ran. the man has a hat. ] lesson vi. dog rab fat nat's o b g [illustration: boy and dog watching cat on post.] nat's cap a fat dog has the lad a dog? the lad has a fat dog. the dog has nat's cap. nat and rab ran. rab ran at a cat. lesson vii. see sees frog on log e [illustration: boy sitting on fence, watching frog sitting on log.] a log the frog see the frog on a log. rab sees the frog. can the frog see rab? the frog can see the dog. rab ran at the frog. lesson viii. it stand ann's is lamp mat i [illustration: mother with girl holding cat, by lamplight.] a mat the stand see the lamp! it is on a mat. the mat is on the stand. the lamp is nat's, and the mat is ann's. lesson ix. tom nag not him catch he his ch [illustration: boy and dog chasing horse.] see the nag! it is tom's nag. can tom catch his nag? he can not catch him. the dog ran at the nag, and the nag ran. lesson x.--review. tom's nag is fat; his dog is not fat. nat is on tom's nag. nat's dog, rab, can not catch the rat. see the frog on the log. a lad sees the frog. the lad can not catch it. a cat is on the mat; the cat sees a rat. ann's fan is on the stand. the man has a lamp. a dog ran at the man. ann sat on a log. [illustration: script exercise: tom sees nat's dog. a fat frog is on the log. can not rab catch it? ] lesson xi nest this eggs she in get box hen e x sh [illustration: cat watching hen, watching eggs in nest.] the box a nest this is a fat hen. the hen has a nest in the box. she has eggs in the nest. a cat sees the nest, and can get the eggs. lesson xii. old run fox o u [illustration: dog chasing fox away from a hen.] can this old fox catch the hen? the fox can catch the hen, and get the eggs in the nest. run, rab, and catch the fox. [illustration: script exercise: this nest has eggs in it. ] lesson xiii. pond ducks them feed nell i by will i y ch w [illustration: girl watching ducks on pond.] nell is by the pond. i see ducks on the pond. nell sees the ducks, and will feed them. she can not get the ducks lesson xiv. holds to blind mary hand kind a o k y [illustration: girl lead old, blind man.] this old man can not see. he is blind. mary holds him by the hand. she is kind to the old blind man. lesson xv.--review. i see ducks on the pond; tom will feed them. tom is blind; he holds a box in his hand. nell is kind to him. this old hen has a nest. mary will run and get the eggs. lesson xvi. sue doll dress new her let e u ew [illustration: two girls sitting by tree, playing with dolls.] sue has a doll. it has a new dress. she will let ann hold the doll in her hands, and ann will fan it. sue is kind to ann. lesson xvii. there five bird tree rob do e i v [illustration: cat watching bird and eggs in nest on tree top.] a bird is in the tree. it has a nest there. the nest has five eggs in it. do not rob the nest. will the bird let the cat get her five eggs? lesson xviii. cage pet sing lives so loves o g ng [illustration: bird perched on girl's hand.] this is a pet bird. it lives in a new cage. it will stand on sue's hand, and sing. sue loves her pet bird. so do i love it. lesson xix. are you yes fast too like boys of (ov) play a a y oy [illustration: boys playing in snow by a canal. town in background.] do you see the boys at play? yes, i see them; there are five of them. tom is too fat to run fast. nat can catch him. i like to see boys play. lesson xx.--review. sue has a doll and a pet bird. her doll has a new dress and a cap. sue loves mary, and will let her hold the doll. the pet bird lives in a cage. sue and mary will stand by the cage, and the bird will sing. there are birds in the tree by the pond. can you see them? yes; there are five of them in a nest. tom will not rob a bird's nest. he is too kind to do so. [illustration: script exercise: nell will feed the ducks. sue has a new dress. ] lesson xxi. what night owl day an but well big eyes best a ow wh [illustration: owl perched on tree branch.] what bird is this? it is an owl. what big eyes it has! yes, but it can not see well by day. the owl can see best at night. nat pond has a pet owl. lesson xxii. grass they come off barn shade hot cows out e ou [illustration: cows standing under a tree.] the day is hot. the cows are in the shade of the big tree. they feed on the new grass. our cows do not run off. at night they come to the barn. lesson xxiii. soon sun neck set way bell one (wun) their oo [illustration: cows leaving pasture at subset.] the sun will soon set. the cows are on their way to the barn. one old cow has a bell on her neck. she sees our dog, but she will not run. our dog is kind to the cows lesson xxiv. brave if ship boat drown men rock save [illustration: men rowing through storm to shipwreck.] the ship has run on a rock. five men are on the ship. if the boat can not get to them, they will drown. the boat has brave men in it. they will save the five men. lesson xxv.--review. come, boys, and feed the cows. the sun has set, and they are at the barn. sue has a bell on the neck of her pet cat. one hot day ann and nell sat on the grass in the shade of a big tree. they like to rock their dolls, and sing to them. the brave men in our boat are on their way to the ship. they will save the men in the ship, if they can. they will not let them drown. what bird has big eyes? the owl. can an owl see at night? yes, an owl can see best at night. lesson xxvi. fall ice skates cry with had stone did a c sk [illustration: children skating on pond in winter.] the boys are on the ice with their skates. there is a stone on the ice. one boy did not see it, and has had a fall. but he is a brave boy, and will not cry. [illustration: sawmill near river; town and hillside in background. two children playing near river in foreground.] lesson xxvii. look go john here all wheel mill have round oo j look! there are john and sue by the mill pond. they like to see the big wheel go round. they have come to play on the logs and in the boat. john and sue will play here all day. [illustration: script exercise: the cows like grass. they stand in the shade. ] lesson xxviii. or jane girls floor roll some which black o here are some girls with skates; but they are not on the ice. their skates roll on the floor. which way do you like to skate,--on the ice, or on the floor? the girl with the new black dress is jane bell. [illustration: four girls roller-skating.] lesson xxix. for out as how try horse should hurt ears be o no u [illustration: train approaching railroad crossing; two boys and a horse and wagon waiting to cross tracks.] look out for the cars! how fast they come! no horse can go as fast as the cars. i will not try to catch them, for i should fall and be hurt. see the horse look at the cars. will he not run? lesson xxx.--review. there is ice on the pond, and the mill wheel can not go round. the boys are all out on the ice with their skates. i will let you and tom try to skate; but do not fall, for you will be hurt. look! here come the cars. john and nat try to skate as fast as the cars go, but they can not. john has had a fall. the girls are not on the pond; but some of them have skates which roll on the floor. [illustration: script exercise: how fast the cars go! can you see them? ] lesson xxxi. work ax pile ned think wood saw hard cut o th n [illustration: two boys, one sawing, the other chopping logs.] ned and john are hard at work. john has a saw, and ned has an ax. they will try to cut all of the wood which you see in the pile. do you think they can do this in one day lesson xxxii. noise air hear gone may walk cool two a oi [illustration: two girls walking near a lake. men working and boys playing in background.] two girls have gone out for a walk. it is may, and the air is cool. they hear the birds sing in the trees, and they hear the noise of the frogs in the pond. they see men at work and boys at play. lesson xxxiii. pull cart goats bess up ride hill u [illustration: girl riding in small cart pulled by two goats.] bess has a cart and two goats. she likes to ride in her cart. see how the goats pull! bess is so big, i think she should walk up the hill. the goats love bess, for she feeds them, and is kind to them. lesson xxxiv. blaze put yet house fire roof call ring we z [illustration: boys running in front of burning house.] this house is on fire. look! the roof is in a blaze. run, boys, and ring the bell. call some men to put out the fire. we may yet save the house, if we work hard lesson xxxv.--review. bess, do you hear a noise? yes, tom; what is it? it is the mill by our house; logs are cut there. how do they cut the logs, tom,--with an ax? not with an ax, bess; it is too hard work; they cut them with a saw. may we not go and see the mill at work, tom? yes, i think so. the air is cool, and we can walk in the shade. we should go soon, bess, or the pile of wood will be gone. our two goats and the cart are here, tom; we can ride to the mill. it is not up hill, and the goats can pull us fast. lesson xxxvi. miss wants would tells rule keep good that each u [illustration: six children surrounding young woman.] the girls and boys all love miss may; she is so kind to them. miss may tells them there is a rule that she wants them to keep. it is, "do to each one as you would like each one to do to you." this is a good rule, and all boys and girls should keep it. lesson xxxvii. school child church when books skates [illustration: several people standing in front of school that appears similar to a small church.] what kind of house is this? do you think it is a schoolhouse, or a church? it looks like a church, but i think it is a schoolhouse. i see the boys and girls with their books and slates. when the bell rings, they will go in. a good child likes to go to school. lesson xxxviii. quail quick seen kill me oh eat first know henry qu [illustration: quail in brush.] "john! come here. be quick, and tell me what kind of bird this is." "do you not know, henry?" "oh, no! what is it?" "it is a quail." "it is the first quail i have seen. is it good to eat?" "yes; but i should not like to kill it." lesson xxxix. kate dear name blue baby near shut crib sit [illustration: baby sleeping in crib.] is not this a dear baby in the crib? her name is kate, and she has big, blue eyes. you can not see her eyes, for they are shut. kate is a good baby; but she will cry if she is hurt, or if she is not well. bess likes to sit near the baby, and to rock her in the crib. lesson xl.--review. henry black and ned bell live near our house. they go to school, and i see them go by each day with their books and slates. miss may tells the girls and boys that they should be at the schoolhouse when the bell rings. so henry walks fast, and is first at school. he is a good boy, and wants to keep the rule of the school. ned is not a good boy. i do not think he likes to go to school or to church. i saw him try to kill a quail with a stone. the quail is too quick a bird for that, and ned did not hurt it; but i know that a good child would not try to kill a bird. [illustration: script exercise: there is a baby at ned's house. her name is kate. ned is not a good boy, but he loves kate, and i do not think he would hurt her. ] lesson xli. light far its high where sea tall were the tall house which you see on that high rock is a lighthouse. at night its light is seen far out at sea, and the men on ships can tell where to go. if it were not for this, they would run on the rocks. how would you like to live in a lighthouse? [illustration: lighthouse on cliff above pounding surf.] lesson xlii. wrong wolf us my took sheep more watch lambs [illustration: sheep grazing under a tree. two boys watching from fence in the background.] let us watch the sheep as they feed on the hills. they like to eat the new grass. do you see my two lambs? i had two more; but an old wolf took them one night. i love my pet lambs. it would be wrong to hurt them lesson xliii. laugh snow head fun mouth made pipe gh (as f) [illustration: three boys making a snowman; two children in foreground carrying water buckets.] the boys have made a big snow man. they have put a tall hat on his head, and an old pipe in his mouth. hear them laugh as they play! it is good fun for the boys. they would like to have it snow all day and all night. lesson xliv. sweets mean please bee buzz vine could said (sed) once (wuns) [illustration: bee flying near vine.] "buzz! buzz!" a bee said to mary. "what do you mean?" said mary. "please tell me once more." "buzz! buzz! buzz!" but mary could not tell its wants. i think it said, "please let me get some sweets in this vine. lesson xlv.--review. one day nat and i sat on the high hill by the sea, where the tall lighthouse stands. we could look far out, and could see the ships at sea. as we sat there, we saw a man near by, with some sheep and lambs. the man had a pipe in his mouth. he sat with us, and let the sheep eat the grass. what fun it is to see lambs play! it made us laugh to see them. the man said that once, when the sheep and lambs were out in the snow, an old wolf took one of the lambs, and ran off with it. i think that men should watch their sheep, so that a wolf can not catch them. lesson xlvi. while might time things done right your halves [illustration: script exercise: work while you work, play while you play, one thing each time, that is the way. all that you do, do with your might, things done by halves, are not done right. ] lesson xlvii. went fish fell safe arms sprang was thank got [illustration: boy fishing from log.] one day john went to the pond to fish. his dog, watch, went with him. john sat on a log for a time, but did not catch a fish. as he got up to go, he fell off the log. watch sprang in to save him. john put his arms round the dog's neck, and was soon safe on the log once more. "thank you, my brave old dog," said john to watch. lesson xlviii. james asks warm town then drives been(bin) show [illustration: girl talking to boy leading horse and wagon.] james has been to the mill. the day is warm, and he lets his horse stand in the shade. a girl asks him to show her the way to the town. he tells her the way, and then drives on. lesson xlix. i'll she'll don't puss pur pat fur harm deeds [illustration: kitten.] i love my dear puss, her fur is so warm; and, if i don't hurt her, she'll do me no harm. i'll pat my dear puss, and then she will pur, and show me her thanks for my kind deeds to her. lesson l. now wreaths who queen woods shall crown [illustration: children playing in wood. two boys in foreground playing a fife and drum.] it is the first of may. the boys and girls have gone to the woods to have a good time. see them at their play. the girls have wreaths in their hands. now they will crown some one queen of the may. who shall it be? it should be the best girl, and that is kate. lesson li. god small from world moon shine nut long ago [illustration: small girl watching a tree. two acorns shown in inset.] do you see that tall tree? long ago it sprang up from a small nut. do you know who made it do so? it was god, my child. god made the world and all things in it. he made the sun to light the day, and the moon to shine at night. god shows that he loves us by all that he has done for us. should we not then love him? lesson lii. lord smile joys tears nigh morn griefs woes stars say [illustration: sunset; lake in foreground; moon and stars.] when the stars, at set of sun, watch you from on high; when the light of morn has come, think the lord is nigh all you do, and all you say, he can see and hear; when you work and when you play, think the lord is near. all your joys and griefs he knows, sees each smile and tear; when to him you tell your woes, know the lord will hear slate exercises [illustration: script exercise: n u n nun u r n urn s u n sun c o w cow s a w saw r i m rim c a t cat l a d lad b o x box h e n hen k i d kid q u o quo p e n pen j a r jar e y e eye g u n gun v i z viz i v y ivy f a n fan ] script alphabet [illustration: script exercise: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s y u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z script figures ] the bird-woman of the lewis and clark expedition a supplementary reader for first and second grades by katherine chandler author of "habits of california plants" and "in the reign of coyote: folk-lore from the pacific" to my friend genevra sisson snedden whose interest in this little book has encouraged its completion preface. because children invariably ask for "more" of the stories they find interesting, this little book of continuous narrative has been written. every incident is found in the lewis and clark journals, so that the child's frequent question, "is it true?" can be answered in the affirmative. the vocabulary consists of fewer than words. over half of these are found in popular primers. therefore, the child should have no difficulty in reading this historical story after completing a first reader. the illustrations on pages , , , , and the last one on page , are redrawn from catlin's "letters and notes on the manners, customs, and conditions of the north-american indians." my acknowledgments are due miss lilian bridgman, of san francisco, for help in arranging the vocabulary. katherine chandler. san francisco, california. july , . contents the bird-woman who the white men were why sacajawea went west at fort mandan the black man sacajawea's baby making friends with the indians sacajawea saves the captains' goods sacajawea's river the first sight of the rocky mountains sacajawea is ill how the indians hunted buffalo the falls of the missouri the cache near the falls of the missouri how sacajawea cured rattlesnake bites going around the falls grizzly bears at the top of the falls the cloud-burst at the source of the missouri sacajawea finds roots and seed sacajawea's people sacajawea's brother sacajawea's people will show the way the indians try to leave the whites crossing the rocky mountains at the columbia river how the indians dried salmon the wappatoo to the pacific ocean the pacific ocean sacajawea on the ocean beach the whale sacajawea's belt at fort clatsop the start home at camp chopunnish over the rocky mountains going home east of the rocky mountains again sacajawea says good-bye to the soldiers the centennial [illustration: the statue of sacajawea, the bird woman, unveiled at the lewis and clark centennial, in portland, oregon, in ] a go hun dred sa ca ja we a years the bird-woman. the bird-woman was an indian. she showed the white men the way into the west. there were no roads to the west then. that was one hundred years ago. this indian woman took the white men across streams. she took them over hills. she took them through bushes. she seemed to find her way as a bird does. the white men said, "she goes like a bird. we will call her the bird-woman." her indian name was sacajawea. clark a mer i can lew is met cap tains part sol diers twen ty nine peo pie mis sou ri riv er who the white men were. the white men sacajawea went with were soldiers. there were twenty-nine soldiers. there were two captains. the name of one captain was lewis. the name of the other captain was clark. they were american soldiers. [illustration: captain clark.] [illustration: captain lewis.] they carried the american flag into the west. no white men knew about that part of the west then. the captains wished to learn all about the west. they wished to tell the people in the east about it. they had been going west a long time before they met sacajawea. they had rowed up the missouri river. they had come to many little streams. they did not know what the indians called these streams. so they gave them new names for the white men. camp fourth of ju ly man dan cheered french man rest ed ice in de pend ence creek hus band kan sas snow on fourth of july they named one stream fourth of july creek. they named another independence creek. we still call this stream by that name. you can find it on the map of kansas. on fourth of july the men rested. the soldier who woke first fired a gun. then they all woke up and cheered for the fourth of july. at night they fired another gun. then the soldiers danced around the camp fire. after a time the ice and snow would not let them go on. they made a winter camp near the mandan indians. here they met sacajawea and her husband. her husband was a frenchman who knew a little about the west. sacajawea was the only one there who had been to the far west. lewis and clark told the frenchman they would pay him to go with them. he said he would go. then he and sacajawea came to live at the soldiers' camp. be longed roots tribe mar ried snake twelve rocky mountains thought war why sacajawea went west. sacajawea belonged in the west. her tribe was called the snake indians. they lived in the rocky mountains. sacajawea lived in the mountains until she was twelve years old. then her tribe went to war with the mandans from the east. one day sacajawea and some other girls were getting roots. they were down by a stream. some mandans came upon them. the girls ran fast to get away. [illustration: mandan drawing on a buffalo robe] sacajawea ran into the stream. an indian caught her. he took her up on his horse. he carried her away to the east, to the country of the mandans. there she married the frenchman. there the americans found her. she was glad when her husband said he would go west with lewis and clark. she thought she would see her own tribe again. an i mals coun try friends med i cine read y chiefs froz en plants wrote fort sweat house at fort mandan. the soldiers called their winter camp fort mandan. they had a hard winter there. it was so cold that many men were ill. they had no time to be ill. they had to work to be ready to go west when spring opened. the captains wrote in their books about the indians and animals and plants they had seen. they made maps of the country they had come through. they had long talks with the indian chiefs. they made friends with the indians by giving them medicine. an indian boy had his feet frozen near the soldiers' camp. the captains kept him until his feet were well again. his people all came and thanked the captains. [illustration: an indian sweat-house] the indians told each other about the white men's medicine. they said, "the white men's medicine is better than our sweat-house." so they came for miles to the white camp to get the medicine. they gave the captains food. they wanted to be friends with them. ar rows din ner hunt ed mon ey beads fid dle knives pie ces blan kets gal lons med als stove the soldiers hunted animals for food and for their skins. one soldier cut an old stove into pieces. the indians wanted these pieces to make arrows and knives. they would give eight gallons of corn for one piece. the indians did not know what money was. the captains did not carry money with them. they took flags and medals, knives and blankets, looking-glasses and beads, and many other things. with these they could get food from the indians. on christmas day, , the soldiers put the american flag up over the fort. they told the indians not to come to see them on that day. they said it was the best day of their year. it was a cold day, with much ice and snow. they had a good dinner and after dinner the soldiers danced. on new year's day, , they fired off all their guns. the captains let the soldiers go to the mandan camp. they took their fiddle and danced for the indians. one soldier danced on his hands with his head down. the indians liked this dancing very much. they gave the soldiers some corn and some skins. sur prised hair paint ed stran ger fin ger wa ter helped york the black man. captain clark had his black man, york, with him. the indians were always surprised to see the black man. they thought he was stranger than the white men. one mandan chief said, "this is a white man painted black." he wet his finger and tried to wash the black off york's skin. the black would not come off. then york took off his hat. the chief had not seen such hair before. then the chief said, "you are not like a white man. you are a black man." the indians told each other of this black man. they came from far to see him. york helped make them friends with the whites. the captains named a river for york. the river had only a little water in it. they named it york's dry river. bas ket laugh weeks born su gar sacajawea's baby. at fort mandan, sacajawea's baby boy was born. he was only eight weeks old when the white men began to go to the far west. sacajawea made a basket of skins for her baby. she put it on her back. the baby could sleep in the basket as sacajawea walked. the soldiers liked the baby. they gave it sugar. they made it playthings of wood. they danced to make it laugh. indian babies do not laugh much and they do not cry much. once in the west the baby was ill. then the soldiers camped for some days. they were very still. captain lewis gave the baby medicine. this made the baby well again. then the men laughed. they said, "let us sing and dance for the baby." the baby laughed as it looked at the men. a pril par ty shot broke shoot warm the warm april sun broke up the ice in the missouri river. then the party got into their boats and rowed on up the river. from this time on, sacajawea and her baby were a help to the soldiers. when the indians saw a woman and a baby with the men, they knew it was not a war party. indians would not take a woman and baby to war. only men go to war. the indians did not shoot at the men. they came up to see what they wanted. if sacajawea had not been there, they would have shot the white men. the indians thought that all strangers wanted war. they thought this until the strangers showed that they were friends. bare foot ed cov ered prick ly threw cor ners pears same moc ca sins true making friends with the indians. sacajawea showed the captains how to make friends with the indians. the indians on the upper missouri river and in the rocky mountains showed that they wanted to be friends in the same way. when they saw strangers, they stood still and talked to each other. if they wished to be friends, the chief walked out ahead of his people. he took off his blanket. he took hold of it by two corners. he threw it up high. then he put it on the ground. this showed that he was putting down a skin for a friend to sit on. he did this three times. then the strangers came up to him. they sat down together. they took off their moccasins. this showed that they wished to be true friends. if they were not true friends, they would go barefooted all their days. they thought it hard to go barefooted. the ground was covered with prickly pears. the prickly pears would hurt their feet. great pres ents smoked pipes send wash ing ton when the strangers had their moccasins off, they smoked some pipes together. then they gave each other presents. then they told each other why they had come together. captain lewis and captain clark always told the indians: "we have come from the great father in washington. he sends you these presents. he wants you to be friends with the white men. he wants you to be friends with the other indians. when you all are friends, the men can get many animals and the women can get many roots. the great father will send you out the white men's goods when you are all friends." the indians always said to lewis and clark: "we are glad to hear from the great father in washington. we like his presents. we shall be glad to get the white men's goods. we will be friends with all men with indians and with white men." a fraid com pass canoe straight ened turned hit rud der sacajawea saves the captains' goods. going up the missouri, the compass, the books, and the maps were in one canoe. the captains had the compass to find the west. one day a big wind hit this canoe and turned it nearly over. sacajawea's husband was at the rudder. he was afraid and let go. the water came into the canoe. the maps and books came up to the top of the water. sacajawea saw them going out into the river. she took the compass into her lap. she caught the books. she called to her husband. he took the rudder again. he straightened the boat again. then sacajawea caught the maps that were on top of the river. crook ed mon ta na wide hand some saved yards sacajawea's river. as the maps and books were wet, the soldiers had to camp two days. they put the maps and the books and the compass in the sun. when these were dry, they went on again. ten days after, they came to a river that no white man had seen before. captain lewis wrote in his book, "it is a handsome river about yards wide." they did not know the indian name for it. the captains were so glad sacajawea had saved their things that they named it for her. they said, "we will call it the sacajawea or bird-woman's river." this river is still running. look on a map of montana. do you see a stream named "crooked creek?" that is the stream lewis and clark named sacajawea's river. which do you think is the prettier name? which do you think we should call it? blew elk pleas ure cross plains steep buf fa lo mos qui toes sight the first sight of the rocky mountains. going up the missouri, the party had to drink the river water. it was not good and it made them ill. the sand blew in their eyes. the mosquitoes bit them all the time. but still the soldiers were happy. they carried their goods in boats. they walked when they wished to. they hunted buffalo and elk on the plains near the river. they had all they wanted to eat. one day in may, captain lewis was out hunting. he went up a little hill. then far off to the west he saw the rocky mountains high and steep. captain lewis was the first white man to see these mountains. he wrote in his book that he felt a great pleasure on first seeing them. he knew they would be very hard to cross. they were all white with snow. but he was ready to go on so as to get to the west. he went back to the boats and told the others about the mountains. the men were happy and worked harder to get near them. grew fell hot sul phur worse sacajawea is ill. going up the missouri, sacajawea fell ill. she could not eat. she grew worse each day. captain clark gave her some medicine. it did not make her well. the soldiers had to camp until she could go on. they could not go on without her. they wanted her with them to make friends with her tribe. one day the soldiers found a hot sulphur spring. they carried sacajawea to this spring. the water made her well. in a week she could go on. bank killed hole to ward how the indians hunted buffalo. on the plains of the missouri there were many buffaloes. sacajawea told the soldiers how the indians hunted them. an indian put on a buffalo skin. the buffalo's head was over his head. he walked out to where the buffaloes were eating. he stood between them and a high bank of the river. the other indians went behind the buffaloes. the buffaloes ran toward the man in the buffalo skin. he ran fast toward the river. then the buffaloes ran fast toward the river. at the high bank the man ran down and hid in a hole. the buffaloes came so fast that they could not stop at the bank. they fell over the bank on to the rocks near the river. many were killed. then the indians came around the bank. they skinned the buffaloes. they dried the meat. they dried the skins to make blankets and houses. june won der ful draw pic ture spray write cache the falls of the missouri. one june day captain lewis was walking ahead of the boats. he heard a great noise up the river. he pushed on fast. after walking seven miles, he came to the great falls of the missouri. he was the first white man to see these falls. he sat down on a rock and watched the water dash and spray. he tried to draw a picture of the falls. he tried to write about it in his book. but he said it was so wonderful that he could not draw it well nor picture it in words. when the men came up, they could not take their boats near the falls. the falls are very, very high. the highest fall is eighty-seven feet high, and the water comes down with a great rush. so the soldiers had to go around the falls. that was a long, long way. it would be hard to carry all their things around the falls. the captains said, "we will make a cache here. "we will put in the skins and plants and maps. "we can get them all again when we are coming home." the soldiers made two caches. in these they hid all the things they could do without. without so much to carry, it would not be so hard to go around the falls. dried dug ring sod bot tom branch es earth sides the cache near the falls of the missouri. to make a cache, the soldiers made a ring on the ground. they took up the sod inside the ring. they dug straight down for a foot. they put dried branches on the bottom and at the sides of this hole. they put dried skins over the branches. then they put their goods into the hole, or cache. they put dried skins over the goods. then they put the earth in. then they put the sod on. the ring did not look as if it had been dug up. the indians would not think to look there for goods. bite fresh rat tle snakes cure morn ing sev en teen beat how sacajawea cured rattlesnake bites. near the falls of the missouri, the party met many rattlesnakes. the snakes liked to lie in the sun on the river banks. some times they went up trees and lay on the branches. one night captain lewis was sleeping under a tree. in the morning he looked up through the tree. he saw a big rattlesnake on a branch. it was going to spring at him. he caught his gun and killed it. it had seventeen rattles. sometimes the soldiers had to go barefooted. the snakes bit their bare feet. sacajawea knew how to cure the bite. she took a root she called the rattlesnake root. she beat it hard. she opened the snake bite. she tied the root on it. she put fresh root on two times a day. it cured the snake bite. the root would kill a man if he should eat it, but it will cure a snake bite. ax les even hail tongues bears e nough knocked wheels griz zly cot ton wood mast wil low going around the falls. the party had to go up a high hill to get around the falls. it would take too long to carry the canoes on their backs. they could see only one big tree on the plains. it was a cottonwood. the soldiers cut it down. they cut wheels and tongues from it. the cottonwood is not hard enough for axles. the soldiers cut up the mast of their big boat for axles. they began to go up the hill. in a little time the axles broke. they put in willow axles. then the cottonwood tongues broke. then the men had to carry the goods on their backs. it was very hot. the mosquitoes and blow-flies bit them all the time. the prickly pear hurt their feet. it hurt them even through their moccasins. if they drank water, they were ill. one day it hailed hard. the hail knocked some of the men down. at night the grizzly bears took their food. load point ed large safe mouth roared fierce waist grizzly bears. after many hard days, they got all the goods to the top of the falls. the party saw many grizzly bears near the falls. they were the first white men to see the grizzly bear. they found it a very large and very fierce bear. one day captain lewis was out hunting. he had killed a buffalo for dinner. he turned around to load his gun again. he saw a big bear coming after him. it was only twenty feet away. he did not have time to load his gun. there was no tree near. there was no rock near. the river bank was not high. captain lewis ran to the river. the bear ran after him with open mouth. it nearly caught him. captain lewis ran into the river. he turned around when the water was up to his waist. he pointed his gun at the bear. it stopped still. then it roared and ran away. captain lewis did not know why the bear roared and ran, but he was glad to be safe. body de feat ed shoul der brave ly ing angry one day six of the soldiers saw a big bear lying on a little hill near the river. the six soldiers came near him. they were all good shots. four shot at him. four balls went into his body. he jumped up. he ran at them with open mouth. then the two other men fired. their balls went into his body, too. one ball broke his shoulder. still he ran at them. the men ran to the river. two jumped into their canoe. the others hid in the willows. they loaded their guns as fast as they could. they shot him again. the shots only made him angry. he came very near two of the men. they threw away their guns and jumped down twenty feet into the river. the bear jumped in after them. he nearly caught the last one. then one soldier in the willows shot the bear in the head. this shot killed him. the soldiers pulled the bear out of the river. they found eight balls in him. they took his skin to show the captains. they said he was a brave old bear. they named a creek near-by for him. they called it "the brown-bear-defeated creek." be cause fright ened climb kicked wait one day a grizzly bear ran after a soldier. the soldier tried to shoot the bear. his gun would not go off. the gun was wet because he had been in the river all day. he ran to a tree. he got to the tree just in time. as the soldier climbed, he kicked the bear. the grizzly bear can not climb a tree. this grizzly sat at the foot of the tree to wait until the soldier would come down. the soldier called out loud. two other soldiers heard him. they came running to help him. they saw the man in the tree. they saw the bear at the foot of the tree. they shot off their guns and made a big noise. the grizzly grew frightened. it ran away. then the soldier came down from the tree. he was glad that his friends had come to his help. a ble beans su et ba con dump lings played a mused them selves shake at the top of the falls. after the men had carried all the goods to the top of the falls, they made canoes to take them up the river. they were camping at the top of the falls on the fourth of july, . captain lewis wrote that they had a good dinner that day. he said they had as good as if they were at home. they had "bacon, beans, buffalo meat, and suet dumplings." after dinner a soldier played the fiddle. captain lewis wrote: "such as were able to shake a foot amused themselves in dancing on the green." burst fif teen ra vine cloud clothes wave the cloud-burst. one day captain clark took sacajawea and her husband with him to look over the top of the falls. sacajawea's baby was in his basket on her back. captain clark saw a black cloud. he said, "it will rain soon. let us go into that ravine." they sat under some big rocks. sacajawea took off the baby's basket and put it at her feet. all the baby's clothes were in the basket. sacajawea took the baby in her lap. it began to rain a little. the rain did not get to them. it rained harder. then the cloud burst just over the ravine. the rain and hail made a big wave in the little ravine. captain clark saw the wave coming. he jumped up and caught his gun in his left hand. with his right hand he pushed sacajawea up the bank. the wave was up to their waists. they ran faster and got to the top of the bank. then the wave was fifteen feet high. it made a big noise as it ran down the ravine. soon it would have caught them and carried them over the falls. it did carry away the baby's basket and his clothes, and captain clark's compass. the next day a soldier found the compass in the mud. a live be stride min er als be gin ning ra pid nar row source co lum bia at the source of the missouri. when the canoes were ready, the party started up the river above the falls. as they reached the mountains, the river grew narrow. it was not deep, but it was rapid. the soldiers had to pull the canoes with ropes. the river did not run straight. one day the men dragged the canoes twelve miles. then they were only four miles from where they had started. they had to walk in the river all day. their feet were cut by the rocks. they were ill from being wet so much. it was hot in the day and cold at night. they had no wood but willow. they could not make a good fire. but they had enough to eat. then the river grew very narrow. the canoes could not go up it. the soldiers put the canoes under water with rocks in them. they made another cache. in it they put skins, plants, seeds, minerals, maps, and some medicines. captain lewis and some men went ahead. they were looking for indians. they wanted to buy some horses. after a time the river grew so narrow that a soldier put one foot on one bank and his other foot on the other bank. then he said, "thank god, i am alive to bestride the mighty missouri." before this, people did not know where the missouri began. a little way off was the beginning of the mighty columbia river. the soldiers reached this place in august. captain lewis was very happy as he drank some cold water from the beginnings of these two rivers. captain clark and the other men were coming behind. sacajawea was with them. they had all the goods and walked slowly. a nise grease pound bread mixed pow der hun gry mush roast ed tastes um brel la yamp sacajawea finds roots and seeds. far up on the missouri, sacajawea knew the plants that were good to eat. the captains and soldiers were glad that she did. they had only a little corn left, and there were not many animals near. sacajawea told captain clark all about the yamp plant, as her tribe knew it. it grew in wet ground. it had one stem and deeply cut leaves. its stem and leaves were dark green. it had an umbrella of white flowers at the top of the stem. the indian women watched the yamp until the stem dried up. then they dug for the roots. the yamp root is white and hard. the indians eat it fresh or dried. when it is dry, they pound it into a fine white powder. the indian women make the yamp powder into a mush. indian children like yamp mush as much as white children like candy. it tastes like our anise seed. the soldiers liked the yamp mush that sacajawea made. sacajawea also made a sunflower mush. she roasted sunflower seeds. then she pounded them into a powder and made a mush with hot water. she made a good drink of the sunflower powder and cold water. she mixed the sunflower powder with bear grease and roasted it on hot rocks. this made a bread the soldiers liked very much. without sacajawea the soldiers would have been hungry. they did not know the plants. some plants would kill them. but sacajawea knew those good to eat. meet sang sucked own short taken sacajawea's people. one day near the head of the missouri, sacajawea stopped short as she walked. she looked hard to the west. she saw far away some indians on horseback. she began to dance and jump. she waved her arms. she laughed and called out. she turned to captain clark and sucked her fingers. this showed that these indians were her own people. she ran ahead to meet them. after a time a woman from the indians ran out to meet sacajawea. when they came together, they put their arms around each other. they danced together. they cried together. this woman had been sacajawea's friend from the time when they were babies. she had been taken east by the same indians that took sacajawea. on the way east she got away from these indians. she found her way home. she had been afraid she would never see sacajawea again. now they were happy to meet. they danced and sang and cried and laughed with their arms around each other. broth er sent tied sell shells sacajawea's brother. the party went with sacajawea's people to their camp. captain clark was taken to the chief's house. the house was made of a ring of willows. the chief put his arms about captain clark. he made him sit on a white skin. he tied in his hair six shells. each one then took off his moccasins. then they smoked without talking. when they wanted to talk, they sent for sacajawea. she came into the house and sat down. she looked at the chief. she saw that he was her brother. she jumped up and ran to him. she threw her blanket over his head. she cried aloud in joy. he was glad to see her. he did not cry nor jump. he did not like to show that he was glad. sacajawea told him about the white men. she said they wanted to go across the rocky mountains to the big water in the west. she did not know the way across the mountains. the indians could help them. they could sell them horses and show them the way across the steep mountain tops. ca me ah wa it kind sacajawea said the white men had many things the indians would like. if they found a good way over the mountains, the white men would send these things to the indians each summer. sacajawea said the white men were kind to her and her baby. if they had not taken care of her when she was ill, she would not have seen her brother again. her brother said he was glad that the white men had been kind to her. he would help them over the mountains. he would talk to his men about it. he said to captain clark: "you have been kind to sacajawea. i am your friend until my days are over. you shall own my house. you shall sit on my blanket. you shall have what i kill. you shall bear my name. my name belonged to me only, but now it is yours. you are cameahwait." after that, all this tribe called captain clark "cameahwait." ah hi e! death oars pleased bought nev er sad dles sacajawea's people will show the way. cameahwait told his people how good the white men were. he told them what good things they had. he said, "if we sell them horses and take them over the mountains, they can get back soon. no goods will come to us until they go back to their home. if we do not help them, they cannot cross the mountains. they do not know the way. they cannot carry food enough. they will meet death in the mountains. then we shall never get their goods. shall we help them, my brothers?" and the people said, "ah hi e! ah hi e!" that means, "we are pleased." they got horses to carry the goods. they could not get enough horses to give the men to ride. the captains bought a horse for sacajawea to ride. the soldiers made saddles from the oars tied together with pieces of skins. then they started up the steep mountain. heard must to-night slipped the indians try to leave the whites. when they were in the mountain tops, sacajawea overheard some indians talking. they said: "we do not want to go across the mountains with the whites. we want to go down to the plains and hunt buffalo. we are hungry here. on the plains are many buffalo. we must hunt them now for our winter food. we do not care for the white men's goods. our fathers lived without their goods. we can live without them. we will go off to-night and leave them. they will meet death in the mountains. in the spring we can come back and get their goods." sacajawea went to captain lewis. she told him what she had heard. he called the chiefs together. they smoked a pipe together. sacajawea slipped a piece of sugar into cameahwait's hand. as he sucked it, she said, "you will get this good thing from the white men if you are friends with them." gone land word keep prom ise yes then captain lewis said, "are you men of your word?" the indians said, "yes." he said, "did you not promise to carry our goods over the mountains?" the indians said, "yes." "then," he said, "why are you going to leave us now? if you had not promised, we would have gone back down the missouri. then no other white man would come to your land. you wish the whites to be your friends. you want them to give you goods. you should keep you promise to them. i will keep my promise to you. you seem afraid to keep your promise." the chiefs said, "we are not afraid. we will keep our promise." they sent out word to all their men to keep their promise. captain lewis thanked sacajawea. if she had not told him, the indians would have gone off in the night. the whites would have been left in the steep rocky mountains with no horses and no way of getting food. stiff pa cif ic o cean melt sharp trip crossing the rocky mountains. the trip across the mountains was very hard. the mountain tops were steep. there was no road. the ground was made of sharp rocks. the horses slipped and fell down. the men's feet were cut and black and blue. it rained many days and snowed nights. they had no houses. before they could start on each day, they had to melt the snow off their goods. the men grew stiff from the wet and the cold. the only way they could get warm was to keep on walking. they had little food. they had only a little corn when they started across the mountains. this was soon gone. there were no animals, no fish, and no roots on the way. they had to kill their horses. they had only horsemeat to eat. the soldiers grew sick. some could hardly stand. but they did not want to turn back. they knew the indians could find the way down to the columbia river. then they could get to the pacific ocean without the indians. so they went on. sud den ly fun salm on watch at the columbia river. at last they got across the mountains and down on the columbia river. the indians who had showed them the way went home again. there were other indians near the columbia. these indians gave the men salmon and roots. they ate so much that they were ill. the captains and all the soldiers were ill. but they started to make canoes to ride down the columbia. they did not get well. so they bought some dogs. they cooked the dogs and ate them. for days they could eat only dog. the indians laughed at them for eating dog. they said, "dogs are good to watch the camp. they are not good to eat. we do not eat them. what poor men these must be to eat dog!" suddenly the captains fired off their guns and a soldier played the fiddle. then the indians stopped laughing. they had never heard a gun before. they had never before heard a fiddle. they thought the white men must be wonderful people to have guns and fiddles. they wished to be friends with such wonderful people. so they did not make fun of them any more. full grass stones how the indians dried salmon. the soldiers left their horses here on the columbia river. they asked the indians to keep them until they should come back from the west. then they started down the river in canoes. on the columbia, the party saw some indians drying salmon. they opened the fish. then they put it in the sun. when it was well dried, they pounded it to powder between two stones. then they put it into a basket. the basket was made of grass. it had dried salmon skin inside. the indians pounded the powdered salmon down hard into the basket. when a basket was full, they put dried salmon skin on the top. then the basket was put where it would keep dry. the salmon powder would keep for years. only one tribe of indians knew how to make it well. the other tribes bought it from them. all the tribes liked it. the white men, too, liked it. gath ered ar row head sum mer wap pa to pond toes the wappato. the party found a root new to them on the lower columbia. the indians called it wappato. captain clark called it arrowhead. the wappato grew all the year. the indian women gathered it. a woman carried a light canoe to a pond. she waded into the pond. she put the canoe on the water. with her toes she pulled up the wappato from the bottom of the pond. the woman caught it and put it in the canoe. she was in the water many hours, summer and winter. when her canoe was full, she put it on her head and carried it home. she roasted the wappato on hot stones. it tasted very good. the soldiers said it was the best root they had tasted. the indian women used to put some wappato in grass baskets and sell it to the tribes up the river. anx ious cheer ful view break ing dis tinct ly shores to the pacific ocean. the party went down the columbia river in canoes. it was a hard trip. it rained all the time. each day the men were wet to the skin. they had to carry their goods around some rapids. they could not be very cheerful. one day it stopped raining for a little time. the low clouds went away. the party saw that the river was very wide. they rowed on. then they saw the great ocean lying in the sun. they became very happy. they cheered and laughed and sang. they rowed on very fast. captain lewis wrote in his book: "ocean in view! o! the joy! we are in view of the ocean, this great pacific ocean, which we have been so long anxious to see. the noise made by the waves breaking on the rocky shores may be heard distinctly." half for got jour ney troub les the pacific ocean. the party saw that they had come to the end of their journey. they had come , miles from the mouth of the missouri river. it had taken them a year and a half to come. but now they forgot their troubles. they forgot the times they had been hungry. they forgot their cut feet and their black and blue backs. they forgot the bears and the snakes and the mosquitoes. they saw the pacific ocean before them. they sang because they were the first white men to make this journey. they did not care for the troubles going back. they knew that they could go home faster than they had come. and they sang together, "the ocean! the ocean! o joy! o joy!" beach blub ber line thun der clat sop salt whale sand sacajawea on the ocean beach. the party made a winter camp at the mouth of the columbia river. they called it fort clatsop. the indians near-by were the clatsop tribe. these indians gave the whites some whale blubber. they said that a whale was on the ocean beach. captain clark and some men got ready to go to see it. sacajawea came to captain clark and said, "may i go, too? i have come over the mountains with you to find the great water and i have not been to it yet. now i would see the big animal and the great water, too." captain clark was glad to have her go. he wrote in his book that this was the only time she asked for anything. she took her baby on her back and walked with captain clark. when she got near the ocean, she was afraid. the noise seemed to her like thunder. she always had been afraid of thunder. when she saw the waves, she was afraid they would come over the earth. she had never before seen any big body of water. she had seen only rivers and ponds. the ocean looked very big. she would not go near the waves. then captain clark showed her the high water line. he told her that the waves would not go over that line. she sat down on the sand with her baby in her lap. she watched the waves a long time. then she was not afraid. she walked out to the waves. when they came to shore, she ran before them. she let them come over her feet. she took some ocean water in her hand and tasted it. she did not like its salt taste. but she did like to run after the waves. bags oil wood en eight y pork trough the whale. captain clark and his party walked all day before they came to where the whale lay. the waves had carried it up on the shore. it was a very big animal. it was longer than most houses. it was eighty feet long. the indians were cutting it up. they put the meat into a large wooden trough. then they put hot stones into the trough. the hot stones melted out the oil. the indians put the oil into skin bags. they used it to eat with roots and mush. they did not wish to sell the oil. but after a time, they did sell some oil to captain clark. they sold him some blubber, too. the blubber was white and looked like pork fat. the soldiers cooked some and ate it. they liked it very much. sacajawea was happy to see the whale. she walked all around it. she made her baby to look well at it. she told him he might never see one again. the baby did not care for the whale, but he laughed because sacajawea laughed. beau ti ful robe sor ry belt sea-ot ter wear sacajawea's belt. the clatsop chief came to fort clatsop to see the captains. he had on a robe made of two sea-otter skins. the skins were the most beautiful the captains had yet seen. they wanted the chief to sell the robe. he did not want to sell it, as sea-otters are hard to get. they said they would give him anything they had for it. still he would not sell it. sacajawea saw him looking at her blue bead belt. she had made this belt from beads captain clark had given her. she used to wear it all the time. she said to the clatsop chief, "will you sell the robe for my belt?" he said, "yes, i will sell it for the chief beads." the indians called blue beads "chief beads." sacajawea thought a little time. then she gave her belt to him. he put it around his neck. he gave her his sea-otter robe. she gave it to captain clark for a present. she was sorry to give up her belt. the captains had no more blue beads to give her to make another. but she was glad to give captain clark the beautiful sea-otter skins. boiled crust five pairs burned filled kegs treat at fort clatsop. at fort clatsop, the captains wrote in their books. they wrote about all they had seen coming to the pacific. they wrote about things near fort clatsop. they made maps of the land near the missouri river, in the rocky mountains, and on the banks of the columbia. some of the men hunted. they made the skins of animals into clothes and moccasins. they made between three and four hundred pairs of moccasins. they saved these to wear on the way home. five soldiers were sent down to the ocean beach to make salt. each had a big kettle. they filled the kettles with ocean water. they burned a fire under the kettles day and night. in time, the water all boiled away. a crust of salt was left on the inside of the kettles. the soldiers gathered this salt into wooden kegs. it took seven weeks to make enough salt for their journey home. captain lewis wrote, "this salt was a great treat to many of the party." he liked salt very much. captain clark wrote that he did not care if he had salt or not. hand ker chief un der wear wea sel mer ry wak en wel come on christmas day, , the soldiers got up without making any noise. they fired their guns all at one time to waken the captains. then they sang an old christmas song. then they wished the captains "merry christmas." they gave each other presents. captain clark wrote that he had twelve weasel tails, some underwear, some moccasins, and an indian blanket for his christmas presents. he gave a handkerchief or some little present to each man. there was no snow and no ice, but there was much rain. the soldiers had to stay in their log fort all day. they had only poor elk, poor roots, and some bad dried salmon for dinner. but they were cheerful. they danced and sang into the night. on new year's day, they fired their guns to welcome in the new year. they had more to eat than on christmas day. the captains wrote, "our greatest pleasure to-day is thinking about new year's, . then we shall be home." game or der let ters stol en the start home. in march, the elk left the woods near fort clatsop. the soldiers could not get enough to eat. the captains said, "it is time to start home." they bought a canoe with a soldier-coat and some little things. they took another canoe from the clatsops for some elk meat that the indians had stolen. they had not many things left to get food and horses with on the way home. but their guns were in good order. they had good powder and balls. they could kill game on the way. they cut up their big flag into five robes. they could sell them robes for food. the captains gave the clatsops letters to give to any white men who should come there. these letters told about the party's trip out west. they told how they were going back east. the clatsops promised to give these letters to the first white men who should come. then the party said good-bye to the clatsops. this was in the month of march. they started up the columbia river, singing. they were happy because they were going home. awl nee dles skeins cho pun nish ounce thread knit ting-pin rib bon ver mil ion at camp chopunnish. on the way up the columbia, the soldiers killed game. they gave some to the indians for roots. they came to the foot of the mountains in may. there was too much snow then for them to cross they made a camp near the chopunnish indians. they called it camp chopunnish. they sent out to get the horses they had left when camping there before. they tried to get enough food to last them over the mountains. many of the indians were ill. captain clark gave them medicine. they gave him food and horses for the medicine. captain lewis talked with the indian chiefs all day. they promised to let some young indians show the way over the mountains. the captains gave each soldier some of their goods and sent him out to get food. captain lewis wrote that each man had "only one awl and one knitting- pin, half an ounce of vermilion, two needles, a few skeins of thread, and a yard of ribbon." two of the men took their goods with them in a canoe. the canoe turned over. they lost all their goods. they just saved their lives. bot tles bush els pris on ers' base box es but tons raft ra ces two other men went up the river with their goods on a horse. the horse slipped down a steep bank into the river. he got safe to the bank across the river. an indian made him swim back to the two soldiers. on the way, most of the goods were lost. the paint melted, and the horse's back was all red. the indians on the bank across the river saw what the soldiers wanted. they loaded some roots and bread on a raft. they tried to cross to the soldiers. a high wind sent the raft on a rock. the raft turned over. the roots and bread were lost. then the captains and men felt unhappy. they cut the buttons from their clothes. they gathered up all the bottles and medicine boxes they had. with these things, two soldiers went out to get food. they got three bushels of roots and some bread. the other men hunted. they dried some meat, and gave some to the indians for roots. they became good friends with the chopunnish indians. they used to run fast races together. both soldiers and indians could run fast. the soldiers took sides and played prisoners' base. ear ly sec ond fold ed means yo me kol lick la ter over the rocky mountains going home. the party wanted to start over the mountains in early june. the indians were not ready to go with them then. the party started to go without the indians. they could not find food for the horses. there was snow all over the ground. they had to turn back and camp where there was grass. a week later the indians were ready to go with them. they started a second time. the indians showed them the way. they found food for the horses each night. the trip across the mountains was not so hard as it had been the year before. now the snow covered all the sharp rocks. the snow was so hard that the horses could walk on it. now they had enough food. all the men had horses. they went many miles each day. all were happy. one of the indians liked captain lewis so much that he gave him his name, "yomekollick." [illustration: yomekollick] this means "white bear-skin folded." the indians thought their names were the best thing they could give to any one. dif fer ent di vide ser vice third good-bye south yel low stone east of the rocky mountains again. before they left the mountains, the captains said: "we will divide our party. then we can go different ways. then we shall see more of the country east of the rocky mountains." so captain lewis and nine men started in a straight line to the falls of the missouri. captain clark and the others went more to the south. sacajawea went with captain clark. the two parties promised to meet again down on the missouri. they said good-bye to each other on july third. on the next day, captain clark wrote that they had a good fourth of july dinner. they had fat deer and roots. then they went on until time to sleep. they had no time to dance now. they were going home. captain lewis and his men pushed on all day. he did not write that they thought of the fourth of july. captain clark sent ten men down the missouri river the way they had come west. he went with sacajawea and ten other men across to the yellowstone river. sacajawea found the way for him. she also found roots good to eat. captain clark wrote that she was of "great service" to him. captain clark's party went down the yellowstone river to the missouri river. here they met two white men. these were the first white men besides themselves that they had seen for a year and four months. they were glad to hear news from the east. soon after they met these white men, captain lewis and the other soldiers came down to them. this was in august. captain lewis had been shot by one of his best men. the man thought that captain lewis was an elk, because his clothes were brown. the man was very sorry for having shot him. captain lewis soon got well. the soldiers were happy to be together again. they forgot their troubles. they went down the missouri, singing. [illustration: the white-fronted goose as drawn by captain lewis in his journal] they were glad they had gone west. they had taken the country for the americans. they had made friends with the indians. they knew where food could be found. they knew about the animals and plants. now other people could find the way from the maps the captains had made. dol lars vil lage sacajawea says good-bye to the soldiers. sacajawea's husband would not go to the captains' home. he wanted to live with the mandans. [illustration: a mandan earth lodge] so sacajawea had to say good-bye to the soldiers. the captains gave her husband five hundred dollars. they did not give sacajawea any money. in those days, people did not think of paying women. all the party were sorry to leave sacajawea and the baby. sacajawea was sorry to stay behind. she stood on the bank of the river watching the soldiers as long as she could see them. the soldiers went down the missouri to its mouth. when they saw the village there, they fired off all their guns. the people came out to see them and cheered that they were home again. cen ten nial port land or e gon for est ry build ing not ed fair hon or stat ue suc cess the centennial. the american people have always been glad that lewis and clark made this long, hard journey. that was just one hundred years ago. in this year of , the american people are holding a centennial fair in honor of the lewis and clark journey. the fair is at portland, oregon, because lewis and clark reached the pacific ocean in oregon. at the fair, there is a statue of sacajawea and her baby. this statue is put there because lewis and clark wrote in their books: "the wonderful bird-woman did a full man's share to make the trip a success, besides taking care of her baby. she was one of the best of mothers." some day, you can read these books for yourself, and learn more about sacajawea and captains lewis and clark. [illustration: the forestry building, lewis and clark centennial] the forestry building is made from the large trees for which oregon is noted. fort clatsop was built from the large trees of oregon, too, but the soldiers did not know how to make such a fine building as this one hundred years ago. none [transcriber's notes: welcome to the schoolroom of . the moral tone is plain. "she is kind to the old blind man." the exercises are still suitable, and perhaps more helpful than some contemporary alternatives. much is left to the teacher. explanations given in the text are enough to get started teaching a child to read and write. counting in roman numerals is included as a bonus in the form of lesson numbers. each lesson begins with vocabulary words, followed by the description of a picture (if any) related to the lesson's reading exercise. the lesson then consists of printed text for reading and sometimes script (handwriting) for reading or copying. don kostuch ] eclectic educational series. mcguffey's [registered] first eclectic reader revised edition mcguffey edition and colophon are trademarks of john wiley & sons, inc. new york - chichester - weinheim - brisbane - singapore - toronto suggestions to teachers. this first reader may be used in teaching reading by any of the methods in common use; but it is especially adapted to the phonic method, the word method, or a combination of the two. i. phonic method.--first teach the elementary sounds and their representative, the letters marked with diacriticals, as they occur in the lessons; then, the formation of words by the combination of these sounds. for instance, teach the pupil to identify the characters a, o, n, d, g, r, and th, in lesson i, as the representatives of certain elementary sounds; then teach him to form the words at the head of the lesson, then other words, as nag, on, and, etc. pursue a similar course in teaching the succeeding lessons. having read a few lessons in this manner, begin to teach the names of the letters and the spelling of words, and require the groups, "a man," "the man," "a pen," to be read as a good reader would pronounce single words. ii. when one of the letters in the combinations ou or ow, is marked in the words at the head of the reading exercises, the other is silent. if neither is marked, the two letters represent a diphthong. all other unmarked vowels in the vocabularies, when in combination, are silent letters. in slate or blackboard work, the silent letters may be canceled. iii. word method.--teach the pupil to identify at sight the words placed at the head of the reading exercises, and to read these exercises without hesitation. having read a few lessons, begin to teach the names of the letters and the spelling of words. iv. word method and phonic method combined.--teach the pupil to identify words and read sentences, as above. having read a few lessons in this manner, begin to use the phonic method, combining it with the word method, by first teaching the words in each lesson as words; then the elementary sounds, the names of the letters, and spelling. v. teach the pupil to use script letters in writing, when teaching the names of the letters and the spelling of words. copyright, , by van antwerp, bragg & co. copyright, , by american book company. copyright, and , by h.h. vail. ep preface in presenting mcguffey�s revised first reader to the public, attention is invited to the following features: . words of only two or three letters are used in the first lessons. longer and more difficult ones are gradually introduced as the pupil gains aptness in the mastery of words. . a proper gradation has been carefully preserved. all new words are placed at the head of each lesson, to be learned before the lesson is read. their number in the early lessons is very small, thus making the first steps easy. all words in these vocabularies are used in the text immediately following. . carefully engraved script exercises are introduced for a double purpose. these should be used to teach the reading of script; and may also serve as copies in slate work. . the illustrations have been designed and engraved specially for the lessons in which they occur. many of the engravings will serve admirably as the basis for oral lessons in language. . the type is large, strong, and distinct. the credit for this revision is almost wholly due to the friends of mcguffey�s readers,--eminent teachers and scholars, who have contributed suggestions and criticisms gained from their daily work in the schoolroom. cincinnati, june, . (iii) the alphabet. a a n n b b o o c c p p d d q q e e r r f f s s g g t t h h u u i i v v j j w w k k x x l l y y m m z z [illustration: script alphabet a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s y u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z script figures ] [illustration: dog] mcguffey's first reader. lesson i. dog the ran a o n d g r th [illustration: running dog.] the dog. the dog ran. lesson ii. cat mat is on c t i m s [illustration: cat] the cat. the mat. is the cat on the mat? the cat is on the mat. lesson iii. it his pen hand a in has man p h e [illustration: man with glasses writing at a desk.] the man. a pen. the man has a pen. is the pen in his hand? it is in his hand. lesson iv. hen fat rat box big run from can f b x u [illustration: hen watching a rat.] a fat hen. a big rat. the fat hen is on the box. the rat ran from the box. can the hen run? lesson v. rab ann hat catch see e ch s [illustration: girl chasing dog with hat in his mouth.] see rab! see ann! see! rab has the hat. can ann catch rab? lesson vi. she pat too now let me sh oo ow l [illustration: girl with dog] ann can catch rab. see! she has the hat. now ann can pat rab. let me pat rab, too. lesson vii. ned eggs black left fed nest them get will a black hen the nest w ck [illustration: boy feeding a hen.] ned has fed the hen. she is a black hen. she has left the nest. see the eggs in the nest! will the hen let ned get them? lesson viii. head he nat come with and o [illustration: three children, boy seated, boy standing with large top hat, followed by girl adjusting the hat.] let me get the black hat. now ned has it on his head, and he is a big man. come, nat, see the big man with his black hat. lesson ix. review. pat catch has left hat can black eggs rab ann fed get ned is on the box. he has a pen in his hand. a big rat is in the box. can the dog catch the rat? come with me, ann, and see the man with a black hat on his head. the fat hen has left the nest. run, nat, and get the eggs. slate work. [illustration: script exercise: the cat ran. ann ran. the man has a hat. ] lesson x. nell some pan him yes do you have i to i y v o [illustration: girl holding eggs.] do you see nell? yes; she has a pan with some eggs in it. let me have the pan and the eggs, will you, nell? has the black hen left the nest? i will now run to catch rab. will you run, too? lesson xi. o whip ben up still sit if stand jip o wh j [illustration: girl, boy, goat pulling cart.] o ben! let me get in, will you? yes, if you will sit still. stand still, jip, and let ann get in. now, ben, hand me the whip. get up, jip! , . lesson xii. kitty nice sweet sing just hang cage then song pet put not k g c a y ng u [illustration: girl sitting at window with bird cage.] kitty has a nice pet. it can sing a sweet song. she has just fed it. she will now put it in the cage, and hang the cage up. then the cat can not catch it. lesson xiii. tom top kit'ty's at back look good doll think spot th n oo [illustration: boy and dog] look at tom and his dog. the dog has a black spot on his back. do you think he is a good dog? tom has a big top, too. it is on the box with kitty's doll. lesson xiv. sun we how pond stop for go swim her us hot duck e o [illustration: man and girl standing by a pond.] the sun is up. the man has fed the black hen and the fat duck. now the duck will swim in the pond. the hen has run to her nest. let us not stop at the pond now, for it is hot. see how still it is! we will go to see tom and his top. lesson xv. john rock set jump fun must may un'der skip bank but touch o john! the sun has just set. it is not hot, now. let us run and jump. i think it is fun to run, and skip, and jump. see the duck on the pond! her nest is up on the bank, under the rock. we must not touch the nest, but we may look at it lesson xvi. review. the sun has set, and the pond is still. john, ned, ben, tom, and nell stand on the bank, and look at the duck. the dog with a black spot on his back, is with tom. see! tom has his hat in his hand. he has left his big top on the box. kitty's doll is on the rock. nell has put her pet in the cage. it will sing a sweet song. the duck has her nest under the rock. it is not hot now. let us run, and skip, and jump on the bank. do you not think it is fun? lesson xvii. are ink moss this tub up set' a slate work [illustration: script exercise: the pen and the ink are on the stand. is this a good pen? the moss is on the rock. this duck can swim. ben upset the tub. ] lesson xviii. nut did shut shall lost fox men met step in'to hunt mud slate work. [illustration: script exercise: will the dog hunt a fox? ben lost his hat. shall i shut the box? i met him on the step. did you jump into the mud? i have a nut. i met the man. ] lesson xix. kate old no grass dear likes be drink milk cow out gives a [illustration: cow standing in pond.] o kate! the old cow is in the pond: see her drink! will she not come out to get some grass? no, john, she likes to be in the pond. see how still she stands! the dear old cow gives us sweet milk to drink. lesson xx. mam ma' large as pa pa arms ride far barn both prince trot your [illustration: man and girl riding a horse.] papa, will you let me ride with you on prince? i will sit still in your arms. see, mamma! we are both on prince. how large he is! get up, prince! you are not too fat to trot as far as the barn. lesson xxi. of that toss fall well fan'ny ball wall was pret'ty(prit-) done what a a [illustration: two girls standing in meadow play with a ball.] o fanny, what a pretty ball! yes; can you catch it, ann? toss it to me, and see. i will not let it fall. that was well done now, fanny, toss it to the top of the wall, if you can. lesson xxii. had went call might flag near swam swing [illustration: woman and two girls standing by gate in fence.] did you call us, mamma? i went with tom to the pond. i had my doll, and tom had his flag. the fat duck swam to the bank, and we fed her. did you think we might fall into the pond? we did not go too near, did we, tom? may we go to the swing, now, mamma? lesson xxiii. here band hear horse play they pass where front fine hope comes e e [illustration: two boy standing on porch as band passes in street.] here comes the band! shall we call mamma and fanny to see it? let us stand still, and hear the men play as they pass. i hope they will stop here and play for us. see the large man in front of the band, with his big hat. what has he in his hand? how fine he looks! look, too, at the man on that fine horse. if the men do not stop, let us go with them and see where they go. lesson xxiv. bess hap'py make cart tent woods lit'tle ver'y bed rob'ert gone draw [illustration: boy and girl with goat-cart in woods; tent in background.] bess and robert are very happy; papa and mamma have gone to the woods with them. robert has a big tent and a flag, and bess has a little bed for her doll. jip is with them. robert will make him draw bess and her doll in the cart. lesson xxv. james ma'ry made sang my lay sport spade lap dig doll's sand said (sed) y [illustration: boy talking to girl sitting on steps with a doll.] "kate, will you play with me?" said james. "we will dig in the sand with this little spade. that will be fine sport." "not now james" said kate; "for i must make my doll's bed. get mary to play with you." james went to get mary to play with him. then kate made the doll's bed. she sang a song to her doll, and the doll lay very still in her lap. did the doll hear kate sing? lesson xxvi. its shade brook picks all by help stones glad soft [illustration: two girls and boy in the woods.] kate has left her doll in its little bed, and has gone to play with mary and james. they are all in the shade, now, by the brook. james digs in the soft sand with his spade, and mary picks up little stones and puts them in her lap. james and mary are glad to see kate. she will help them pick up stones and dig, by the little brook. , . lesson xxvii. review "what shall we do?" said fanny to john. "i do not like to sit still. shall we hunt for eggs in the barn?" "no" said john; "i like to play on the grass. will not papa let us catch prince, and go to the big woods?" "we can put the tent in the cart, and go to some nice spot where the grass is soft and sweet." "that will be fine," said fanny. "i will get my doll, and give her a ride with us." "yes," said john, "and we will get mamma to go, too. she will hang up a swing for us in the shade." lesson xxviii. peep while take sleep tuck safe oh wet feet chick can't feels wing [illustration: girl kneeling by small chicken coop.] peep, peep! where have you gone, little chick? are you lost? can't you get back to the hen? oh, here you are! i will take you back. here, hen, take this little chick under your wing. now, chick, tuck your little, wet feet under you, and go to sleep for a while. peep, peep! how safe the little chick feels now! lesson xxix. wind time there fence kite high eyes bright flies why day shines [illustration: boys playing with kite. a dog stand by the boys.] this is a fine day. the sun shines bright. there is a good wind, and my kite flies high. i can just see it. the sun shines in my eyes; i will stand in the shade of this high fence. why, here comes my dog! he was under the cart. did you see him there? what a good time we have had! are you not glad that we did not go to the woods with john? slate work. [illustration: script exercise: the pond is still. how it shines in the hot sun! let us go into the woods where we can sit in the shade. ] lesson xxx. wish float tie know rope boat try shore give pole don't push drag won't oar fun'ny [illustration: two girls standing by fence, one is pulling a small wooden tub with a rope along the path.] "kate, i wish we had a boat to put the dolls in. don't you?" "i know what we can do. we can get the little tub, and tie a rope to it, and drag it to the pond. this will float with the dolls in it, and we can get a pole to push it from the shore." "what a funny boat, kate! a tub for a boat, and a pole for an oar! won't it upset?" "we can try it, nell, and see." "well you get the tub, and i will get a pole and a rope. we will put both dolls in the tub, and give them a ride." slate work. [illustration: script exercise: the dolls had a nice ride to the pond. a soft wind made the tub float out. nell let the pole fall on the tub, and upset it. ] lesson xxxi. bound rose called got drown found brave came pon'to jumped mouth a round' brought wa'ter [illustration: two girls standing by pond. one girl is using a pole to push a small wooden tub containing dolls. ] "here, ponto! here, ponto!" kate called to her dog. "come, and get the dolls out of the pond." rose went under, but she did not drown. bess was still on the top of the water. ponto came with a bound, and jumped into the pond. he swam around, and got bess in his mouth, and brought her to the shore. ponto then found rose, and brought her out, too. kate said, "good, old ponto! brave old dog!" what do you think of ponto? lesson xxxii. june lu'cy's air kind trees sing'ing blue when pure says (sez) sky pic'nic u a [illustration: woman and girl sitting under a tree.] "what a bright june day! the air is pure. the sky is as blue as it can be. lucy and her mamma are in the woods. they have found a nice spot, where there is some grass. they sit in the shade of the trees, and lucy is singing. the trees are not large, but they make a good shade. lucy's kind mamma says that they will have a picnic when her papa can get a tent. lesson xxxiii. review. james and robert have gone into the shade of a high wall to play ball. mary and lucy have come up from the pond near by, with brave old ponto, to see them play. when they toss the ball up in the air, and try to catch it, ponto runs to get it in his mouth. now the ball is lost. they all look for it under the trees and in the grass; but they can not see it. where can it be? see! ponto has found it. here he comes with it. he will lay it at little lucy's feet, or put it in her hand. lesson xxxiv. boy our spoil hur rah' own coil noise fourth such join thank a bout' hoist pay ju ly' playing oi [illustration: five boys carrying a large american flag. man in background is smoking a pipe.] "papa, may we have the big flag?" said james. "what can my little boy do with such a big flag?" "hoist it on our tent, papa. we are playing fourth of july." "is that what all this noise is about? why not hoist your own flags?" "oh! they are too little." "you might spoil my flag." "then we will all join to pay for it. but we will not spoil it, papa." "take it, then, and take the coil of rope with it." "oh! thank you. hurrah for the flag, boys!" lesson xxxv. fin'ished bon'net les'son saved white a way' i've am work scam'per read'y gar'den [illustration: white kitten lapping milk from a bowl.] the white kitten. [illustration: script exercise: kitty, my pretty, white kitty. why do you scamper away? i've finished my work and my lesson and now i am ready for play. come, kitty, my own little kitty. i've saved you some milk come and see. now drink while i put on my bonnet, and play in the garden with me. ] lesson xxxvi. care al'ways line frank row been (bin) keeps home [illustration: boy untying a white boat from post in pond.] frank has a pretty boat. it is white, with a black line near the water. he keeps it in the pond, near his home. he always takes good care of it. frank has been at work in the garden, and will now row a while. lesson xxxvii. much one (wun) yet hun'gry seen grand'ma corn would o [illustration: two children on porch. girl is holding a bowl. boy is seated on the step holding a model sailboat.] "what is that?" said lucy, as she came out on the steps. "oh, it is a little boat! what a pretty one it is!" "i will give it to you when it is finished," said john, kindly. "would you like to have it?" "yes, very much, thank you, john. has grandma seen it?" "not yet; we will take it to her by and by. what have you in your pan, lucy?" "some corn for my hens, john; they must be very hungry by this time." lesson xxxviii. mar'ket bread bas'ket bought meat tea try'ing tell which [illustration: woman and boy walking on path next to fence. woman is carrying a basket.] james has been to market with his mamma. she has bought some bread, some meat, and some tea, which are in the basket on her arm. james is trying to tell his mamma what he has seen in the market. lesson xxxix. reads so wears please could hair fast love eas'y gray chair who glass'es [illustration: girl standing by old woman in rocking chair.] see my dear, old grandma in her easy-chair! how gray her hair is! she wears glasses when she reads. she is always kind, and takes such good care of me that i like to do what she tells me. when she says, "robert, will you get me a drink?" i run as fast as i can to get it for her. then she says, "thank you, my boy." would you not love a dear, good grandma, who is so kind? and would you not do all yon could to please her? lesson xl. does won'der moth'er oth'er bee hon'ey lis'ten flow'er [illustration: girl standing next to woman seated on porch.] "come here, lucy, and listen! what is in this flower?" "o mother! it is a bee. i wonder how it came to be shut up in the flower!" "it went into the flower for some honey, and it may be it went to sleep. then the flower shut it in. "the bee likes honey as well as we do, but it does not like to be shut up in the flower. "shall we let it out, lucy?" "yes; then it can go to other flowers, and get honey." lesson xli. best hitched their should or rid'ing live holds hay driv'ing tight ear'ly [illustration: one boy riding a horse, and another boy riding a cart pulled by a horse.] here come frank and james white. do you know where they live? frank is riding a horse, and james is driving one hitched to a cart. they are out very early in the day. how happy they are! see how well frank rides, and how tight james holds the lines! the boys should be kind to their horses. it is not best to whip them. when they have done riding, they will give the horses some hay or corn. slate work [illustration: script exercise: some horses can trot very fast. would you like to ride fast? one day i saw a dog hitched up a little cart. the cart had some corn in it. ] lesson xlii. look'ing thought pick'ing heard chirp were told birds search dear'ly young girl loved chil'dren be sides' [illustration: girl picking flowers.] a little girl went in search of flowers for her mother. it was early in the day, and the grass was wet. sweet little birds were singing all around her. and what do you think she found besides flowers? a nest with young birds in it. while she was looking at them, she heard the mother bird chirp, as if she said, "do not touch my children, little girl, for i love them dearly." the little girl now thought how dearly her own mother loved her. so she left the birds. then picking some flowers, she went home, and told her mother what she had seen and heard. lesson xliii. eight ask aft'er town past ah tick'et right half two train ding light'ning [illustration: boy and girl sitting in wicker clothes basket. woman sitting in chair.] "mamma, will you go to town?" "what do you ask for a ticket on your train?" "oh! we will give you a ticket, mamma." "about what time will you get back? " "at half past eight." "ah! that is after bedtime. is this the fast train?" "yes, this is the lightning train." "oh! that is too fast for me." "what shall we get for you in town, mamma?" "a big basket, with two good little children in it." "all right! time is up! ding, ding!" lesson xliv. school e'ven (e'vn) three room small book teach'er noon rude read'ing poor [illustration: several children in woods. three are holding books, others are playing with a ball.] it is noon, and the school is out. do you see the children at play? some run and jump, some play ball, and three little girls play school under a tree. what a big room for such a small school! mary is the teacher. they all have books in their hands, and fanny is reading. they are all good girls, and would not be rude even in playing school. kate and mary listen to fanny as she reads from her book. what do you think she is reading about? i will tell you. it is about a poor little boy who was lost in the woods. when fanny has finished, the three girls will go home. in a little while, too, the boys will give up their playing. lesson xlv. ap'ple mew tease crack'er down new sil'ly a sleep' wants calls knew friends up on' flew poll pol'ly [illustration: girl sitting at dinner table. parrot is on a perch in the foreground.] lucy has a new pet. do you know what kind of bird it is? lucy calls her polly. polly can say, "poor poll! poor poll! polly wants a cracker;" and she can mew like a cat. but polly and the cat are not good friends. one day polly flew down, and lit upon the cat's back when she was asleep. i think she knew the cat would not like that, and she did it to tease her. when lucy pets the cat, polly flies up into the old apple tree, and will not come when she calls her. then lucy says, "what a silly bird!" lesson xlvi. review. "well, children, did you have a nice time in the woods?" "oh yes, mother, such a good time! see what sweet flowers we found, and what soft moss. the best flowers are for grandma. won't they please her?" "yes; and it will please grandma to know that you thought of her." [illustration: dog sitting by picnic basket in woods. two dolls are lying next to the basket.] "rab was such a good dog, mother. we left him under the big tree by the brook, to take care of the dolls and the basket. "when we came back, they were all safe. no one could get them while rab was there. we gave him some of the crackers from the basket. "o mother, how the birds did sing in the woods! "fanny said she would like to be a bird, and have a nest in a tree. but i think she would want to come home to sleep." "if she were a bird, her nest would be her home. but what would mother do, i wonder, without her little fanny?" lesson xlvii. beach shells these seat waves go'ing ev'er sea watch e'ven ing la'zy side [illustration: horses pulling family in wagon.] these boys and girls live near the sea. they have been to the beach. it is now evening, and they are going home. john, who sits on the front seat, found some pretty shells. they are in the basket by his side. ben white is driving. he holds the lines in one hand, and his whip in the other. robert has his hat in his hand, and is looking at the horses. he thinks they are very lazy; they do not trot fast. the children are not far from home. in a little while the sun will set, and it will be bedtime. have you ever been at the seaside? is it not good sport to watch the big waves, and to play on the wet sand? lesson xlviii. log qui'et proud pulled fish stump riv'er fa'ther [illustration: father and son fishing from under a tree.] one evening frank's father said to him, "frank, would you like to go with me to catch some fish?" "yes; may i go? and with you, father?" "yes, frank, with me." "oh, how glad i am!" here they are, on the bank of a river. frank has just pulled a fine fish out of the water. how proud he feels! see what a nice, quiet spot they have found. frank has the stump of a big tree for his seat, and his father sits on a log near by. they like the sport. lesson xlix. rain out'side of'ten pit'ter say win'dow sound pat'ter drops some'times on'ly mu'sic slate work [illustration: script exercise: i wish, mamma you would tell me where the rain comes from. does it come from the sky? and when the little drops pitter-patter on the window do you think they are playing with me? i can not work or read for i love to listen to them. i often think their sound is pretty music. but the rain keeps children at home and sometimes i do not like that, then. the little raindrops only say, "pit, pitter, patter, pat; while we play on the out-side, why can't you play on that?" ] lesson l. sled throw win'ter hurt ice cov'er hen'ry next skate ground mer'ry snow sister laugh'ing (laf'ing) pair [illustration: children skating and playing in the snow.] i like winter, when snow and ice cover the ground. what fun it is to throw snowballs, and to skate on the ice! see the boys and girls! how merry they are! henry has his sled, and draws his little sister. there they go! i think henry is kind, for his sister is too small to skate. look! did you see that boy fall down? but i see he is not hurt, for he is laughing. some other boys have just come to join in the sport. see them put on their skates. henry says, that he hopes his father will get a pair of skates for his sister next winter. lesson li. paw po lite' means isn't speak sir shake fi'do tricks teach din'ner el'len bow'wow [illustration: girl and boy playing with dog. dog on hind legs, seated on chair, with hat on head.] ellen, do look at fido! he sits up in a chair, with my hat on. he looks like a little boy; but it is only fido. now see him shake hands. give me your paw, fido. how do you do, sir? will you take dinner with us. fido? speak! fido says, "bowwow," which means, "thank you, i will." isn't fido a good dog, ellen? he is always so polite. when school is out, i will try to teach him some other tricks. lesson lii. puss shed pain way stole saw hid eat hat'tie suf'fer sor'ry some'thing caught tried ne'ro [illustration: cat sitting on box.] "o hattie! i just saw a large rat in the shed; and old nero tried to catch it." "did he catch it, frank?" "no; nero did not; but the old cat did." "my cat?" "no, it was the other one." "do tell me how she got it, frank. did she run after it?" "no, that was not the way. puss was hid on a big box. the rat stole out, and she jumped at it and caught it." "poor rat! it must have been very hungry; it came out to get something to eat." "why, hattie, you are not sorry puss got the rat, are you?" "no, i can not say i am sorry she got it; but i do not like to see even a rat suffer pain." lesson liii. roll build grand'pa hard foam ships hous'es long sail break wood'en blow [illustration: two girls play in sand. man with cane and top hat is seated on beach.] mary and lucy have come down to the beach with their grandpa. they live in a town near the sea. their grandpa likes to sit on the large rock, and watch the big ships as they sail far away on the blue sea. sometimes he sits there all day long. the little girls like to dig in the sand, and pick up pretty shells. they watch the waves as they roll up on the beach, and break into white foam. they sometimes make little houses of sand, and build walls around them; and they dig wells with their small wooden spades. they have been picking up shells for their little sister. she is too young to come to the beach. i think all children like to play by the seaside when the sun is bright, and the wind does not blow too hard. lesson liv. asked want'ed four wil'lie's night rab'bits lad car'ried cents tell'ing fif'ty mas'ter [illustration: two boys playing with rabbits.] one day, willie's father saw a boy at the market with four little white rabbits in a basket. he thought these would be nice pets for willie; so he asked the lad how much he wanted for his rabbits. the boy said, "only fifty cents, sir." willie's father bought them, and carried them home. here you see the rabbits and their little master. he has a pen for them, and always shuts them in it at night to keep them safe. he gives them bread and grass to eat. they like grass, and will take it from his hand. he has called in a little friend to see them. willie is telling him about their funny ways. slate work. [illustration: script exercise: some rabbits are as white as snow, some are black, and others have white and black spots. what soft, kind eyes they have. ] lesson lv. bush cun'ning place show find bro'ken o'ver bring a'gain (a gen') fas'ten (fas' n ) [illustration: boy and girl looking over a fence in woods.] "come here, rose. look down into this bush." "o willie! a bird's nest! what cunning, little eggs! may we take it, and show it to mother? " "what would the old bird do, rose, if she should come back and not find her nest?" "oh, we would bring it right back, willie!" "yes; but we could not fasten it in its place again. if the wind should blow it over, the eggs would get broken." lesson lvi. strong round dry bill worked sends claws flit god spring "how does the bird make the nest so strong, willie?" "the mother bird has her bill and her claws to work with, but she would not know how to make the nest if god did not teach her. do you see what it is made of?" "yes, willie, i see some horse-hairs and some dry grass. the old bird must have worked hard to find all the hairs, and make them into such a pretty, round nest." "shall we take the nest, rose?" "oh no, willie! we must not take it; but we will come and look at it again, some time." slate work. [illustration: script exercise: god made the little birds to sing, and flit from tree to tree; 'tis he who sends them in the spring to sing for you and me. ] lesson lvii. feathers a go' fly worm crumb feed'ing ug'ly off feed brown guess things [illustration: boy and girl examining bird's nest.] "willie, when i was feeding the birds just now, a little brown bird flew away with a crumb in its bill." "where did it go, rose?" "i don't know; away off, somewhere." "i can guess where, rose. don't you know the nest we saw some days ago? what do you think is in it now?" "o willie, i know! some little brown birds. let us go and see them." "all right; but we must not go too near. there! i just saw the old bird fly out of the bush. stand here, rose. can you see?" "why, willie, what ugly little things! what big mouths they have, and no feathers!" "keep still, rose. here comes the old bird with a worm in her bill. how hard she must work to feed them all!" lesson lviii. fallin'g counts woes nigh be gun' griefs stars tear morn'ing lord each joys [illustration: script exercise: when the stars at set of sun watch you from on high when the morning has begun think the lord is nigh. all you do and all you say, he can see and hear: when you work and when you play, think the lord is near. all your joys and griefs he knows counts each falling tear. when to him you tell your woes, know the lord is near. ] lesson lix. whis'tle (whis'l) poc'ket wil'low note filled dead sick walk ev'ery blew lane lame tak'ing cane took [illustration: girl holding doll and boy with cane standing in woods.] one day, when mary was taking a walk down the lane, trying to sing her doll to sleep, she met frank, with his basket and cane. frank was a poor, little, lame boy. his father and mother were dead. his dear, old grandma took care of him, and tried to make him happy. every day, mary's mother filled frank's basket with bread and meat, and a little tea for his grandma. "how do you do, frank?" said mary. "don't make a noise; my doll is going to sleep. it is just a little sick to-day." "well, then, let us whistle it to sleep." and frank, taking a willow whistle out of his pocket, blew a long note. "oh, how sweet!" cried mary. "do let me try." lesson lx. turned face cried low al'most soon more cry once(wuns) be cause' [illustration: boy and girl sitting on log.] "yes, mary, i will give it to you, because you are so good to my grandma." "oh! thank you very much." mary blew and blew a long time. "i can't make it whistle," said she, almost ready to cry. "sometimes they will whistle, and sometimes they won't," said frank. "try again, mary." she tried once more, and the whistle made a low, sweet sound. "it whistles!" she cried. in her joy, she had turned the doll's face down, and its eyes shut tight, as if it had gone to sleep. "there!" cried frank, "i told you the way to put a doll to sleep, is to whistle to it." "so it is," said mary. "dear, little thing; it must be put in its bed now." so they went into the house. frank's basket was soon filled, and he went home happy. lesson lxi. stood him self' flap'ping first twelve flapped walked flap o bey' bet'ter chip'py food stone be fore' chick'ens kept [illustration: hen and chicks.] there was once a big, white hen that had twelve little chickens. they were very small, and the old hen took good care of them. she found food for them in the daytime, and at night kept them under her wings. one day, this old hen took her chickens down to a small brook. she thought the air from the water would do them good. when they got to the brook, they walked on the bank a little while. it was very pretty on the other side of the brook, and the old hen thought she would take her children over there. there was a large stone in the brook: she thought it would be easy for them to jump to that stone, and from it to the other side. so she jumped to the stone, and told the children to come after her. for the first time, she found that they would not obey her. she flapped her wings, and cried, "come here, all of you! jump upon this stone, as i did. we can then jump to the other side. come now!" "o mother! we can't, we can't, we can't!" said all the little chickens. "yes you can, if you try," said the old hen. "just flap your wings, as i did, and you can jump over." "i am flapping my wings," said chippy, who stood by himself; "but i can't jump any better than i could before." lesson lxii. chirped nev'er in deed' slow'ly re'ally brood be gan' did n't use door bite piece [illustration: hen with chicks.] "i never saw such children," said the old hen. "you don't try at all." "we can't jump so far, mother. indeed we can't, we can't!" chirped the little chickens. "well," said the old hen, "i must give it up." so she jumped back to the bank, and walked slowly home with her brood. "i think mother asked too much of us," said one little chicken to the others. "well, i tried," said chippy. "we didn't," said the others; "it was of no use to try." when they got home, the old hen began to look about for something to eat. she soon found, near the back door, a piece of bread. so she called the chickens, and they all ran up to her, each one trying to get a bite at the piece of bread. "no, no!" said the old hen. "this bread is for chippy. he is the only one of my children that really tried to jump to the stone." lesson lxiii. last slates write waste neat taken clean learn read'er par'ents sec'ond [illustration: teacher with four students in classroom.] we have come to the last lesson in this book. we have finished the first reader. you can now read all the lessons in it, and can write them on your slates. have you taken good care of your book? children should always keep their books neat and clean. are you not glad to be ready for a new book? your parents are very kind to send you to school. if you are good, and if you try to learn, your teacher will love you, and you will please your parents. be kind to all, and do not waste your time in school. when you go home, you may ask your parents to get you a second reader. phonic chart. long vocals sound as in sound as in a ate e err a care i ice a arm o ode a last u use a all u burn e eve oo fool short vocals a am o odd e end u up i in oo look diphthongs oi oil ou out oy boy ow now aspirates f fifi t tat h him sh she k kite ch chat p pipe th thick s same wh why subvocals sound as in sound as in b bib v valve d did th this g gig z zin j jug z azure n nine r rare m maim w we ng hang y yet l lull substitutes sub for as in sub for as in a o what y i myth e a there c k can e a feint c a cite i e police ch sh chaise i e sir ch k chaos o u son g j gem o oo to n ng ink o oo wolf s z as o a fork s sh sure o u work x gz exact u oo full gh f laugh u oo rude ph f phlox y i fly qu k pique qu kw quit proofreading team. note: italics indicated by _ bold print by <...> the century handbook series the century handbook of writing. by garland greever and easley s. jones. the century vocabulary builder. by garland greever and joseph m. bachelor. the century desk book of good english. by garland greever and joseph m. bachelor. a business man's desk book. by garland greever and joseph m. bachelor. the facts and backgrounds of literature, english and american. by george f. reynolds, university of colorado, and garland greever. parliamentary practice. by general henry m. robert. _other volumes to be arranged_ the century vocabulary builder. by garland greever and joseph m. bachelor to dana h. ferrin whom this book owes more than a mere dedication can acknowledge preface you should know at the outset what this book does _not_ attempt to do. it does not, save to the extent that its own special purpose requires, concern itself with the many and intricate problems of grammar, rhetoric, spelling, punctuation, and the like; or clarify the thousands of individual difficulties regarding correct usage. all these matters are important. concise treatment of them may be found in the century handbook of writing and the century desk book of good english, both of which manuals are issued by the present publishers. but this volume confines itself to the one task of placing at your disposal the means of adding to your stock of words, of increasing your vocabulary. it does not assume that you are a scholar, or try to make you one. to be sure, it recognizes the ends of scholarship as worthy. it levies at every turn upon the facts which scholarship has accumulated. but it demands of you no technical equipment, nor leads you into any of those bypaths of knowledge, alluring indeed, of which the benefits are not immediate. for example, in chapter v it forms into groups words etymologically akin to each other. it does this for an end entirely practical--namely, that the words you know may help you to understand the words you do not know. did it go farther--did it account for minor differences in these words by showing that they sprang from related rather than identical originals, did it explain how and how variously their forms have been modified in the long process of their descent--it would pass beyond its strict utilitarian bounds. this it refrains from doing. and thus everything it contains it rigorously subjects to the test of serviceability. it helps you to bring more and more words into workaday harness--to gain such mastery over them that you can speak and write them with fluency, flexibility, precision, and power. it enables you, in your use of words, to attain the readiness and efficiency expected of a capable and cultivated man. there are many ways of building a vocabulary, as there are many ways of attaining and preserving health. fanatics may insist that one should be cultivated to the exclusion of the others, just as health-cranks may declare that diet should be watched in complete disregard of recreation, sanitation, exercise, the need for medicines, and one's mental attitude to life. but the sum of human experience, rather than fanaticism, must determine our procedure. moreover experience has shown that the various successful methods of bringing words under man's sway are not mutually antagonistic but may be practiced simultaneously, just as health is promoted, not by attending to diet one year, to exercise the next, and to mental attitude the third, but by bestowing wise and fairly constant attention on all. yet it would be absurd to state that all methods of increasing one's vocabulary, or of attaining vigor of physique, are equally valuable. this volume offers everything that helps, and it yields space in proportion to helpfulness. aside from a brief introductory chapter, a chapter (number x) given over to a list of words, and a brief concluding chapter, the subject matter of the volume falls into three main divisions. chapters ii and iii are based on the fact that we must all use words in combination--must fling the words out by the handfuls, even as the accomplished pianist must strike his notes. chapters iv and v are based on the fact that we must become thoroughly acquainted with individual words--that no one who scorns to study the separate elements of speech can command powerful and discriminating utterance. chapters vi, vii, viii, and ix are based on the fact that we need synonyms as our constant lackeys--that we should be able to summon, not a word that will do, but a word that will express the idea with precision. exercises scattered throughout the book, together with five of the six appendices, provide well-nigh inexhaustible materials for practice. for be it understood, once for all, that this volume is not a machine which you can set going and then sit idly beside, the while your vocabulary broadens. mastery over words, like worthy mastery of any kind whatsoever, involves effort for yourself. you can of course contemplate the nature and activities of the mechanism, and learn something thereby; but also you must work--work hard, work intelligently. as you cannot acquire health by watching a gymnast take exercise or a doctor swallow medicine or a dietician select food, so you cannot become an overlord of words without first fighting battles to subjugate them. hence this volume is for you less a labor-saving machine than a collection and arrangement of materials which you must put together by hand. it assembles everything you need. it tags everything plainly. it tells you just what you must do. in these ways it makes your task far easier. _but the task is yours_. industry, persistence, a fair amount of common sense--these three you must have. without them you will accomplish nothing. even with them--let the forewarning be candid--you will not accomplish everything. you cannot learn all there is to be learned about words, any more than about human nature. and what you do achieve will be, not a sudden attainment, but a growth. this is not the dark side of the picture. it is an honest avowal that the picture is not composed altogether of light. but as the result of your efforts an adequate vocabulary will some day be yours. nor will you have to wait long for an earnest of ultimate success. just as system will speedily transform a haphazard business into one which seizes opportunities and stops the leakage of profits, so will sincere and well-directed effort bring you promptly and surely into an ever-growing mastery of words. contents chapters i. reasons for increasing your vocabulary. ii. words in combination: some pitfalls. tameness exercise sovenliness exercises wordiness exercises verbal discords exercise . abstract vs. concrete terms; general vs. specific terms exercise . literal vs. figurative terms exercise . connotation exercise iii. words in combination: how mastered preliminaries: general purposes and methods . a ready, an accurate, or a wide vocabulary? . a vocabulary for speech or for writing? the mastery of words in combination . mastery through translation exercise . mastery through paraphrasing exercise . mastery through discourse at first hand exercise . mastery through adapting discourse to audience exercise iv. individual words: as verbal celibates what words to learn first the analysis of your own vocabulary exercise the definition of words exercise how to look up a word in the dictionary exercise prying into a word's past exercise v. individual words: as members of verbal families words related in blood exercise words related by marriage exercise prying into a word's relationships exercise two admonitions general exercise for the chapter (with lists of words containing the same key-syllables) second general exercise (with additional lists) third general exercise fourth general exercise latin ancestors of english words latin prefixes greek ancestors of english words greek prefixes vi. words in pairs. opposites exercise words often confused exercise parallels (with lists) exercise vii. synonyms in larger groups ( ) how to acquire synonyms exercise (with lists) viii. synonyms in larger groups ( ) exercise (with lists) ix. many-sided words exercise literal vs. figurative applications exercise imperfectly understood facts and ideas exercise x. supplementary list of words exercise xi. retrospect appendices . the drift of our rural population cityward (an editorial) . causes for the american spirit of liberty (by edmund burke) . parable of the sower (gospel of st. matthew) . the seven ages of man (by william shakespeare) . the castaway (by daniel defoe) . reading lists index century vocabulary builder i reasons for increasing your vocabulary sometimes a dexterous use of words appears to us to be only a kind of parlor trick. and sometimes it _is_ just that. the command of a wide vocabulary is in truth an accomplishment, and like any other accomplishment it may be used for show. but not necessarily. just as a man may have money without "flashing" it, or an extensive wardrobe without sporting gaudy neckties or wearing a dress suit in the morning, so may he possess linguistic resources without making a caddish exhibition of them. indeed the more distant he stands from verbal bankruptcy, the less likely he is to indulge in needless display. again, glibness of speech sometimes awakens our distrust. we like actions rather than words; we prefer that character, personality, and kindly feelings should be their own mouthpiece. so be it. but there are thoughts and emotions properly to be shared with other people, yet incapable of being revealed except through language. it is only when language is insincere--when it expresses lofty sentiments or generous sympathies, yet springs from designing selfishness--that it justly arouses misgivings. power over words, like power of any other sort, is for use, not abuse. that it sometimes is abused must not mislead us into thinking that it should in itself be scorned or neglected. our contempt and distrust do not mean that our fundamental ideas about language are unsound. beneath our wholesome dislike for shallow facility and insincerity of speech, we have a conviction that the mastery of words is a good thing, not a bad. we are therefore unwilling to take the vow of linguistic poverty. if we lack the ability to bend words to our use, it is from laziness, not from scruple. we desire to speak competently, but without affectation. we know that if our diction rises to this dual standard, it silently distinguishes us from the sluggard, the weakling, and the upstart. for such diction is not to be had on sudden notice, like a tailor-made suit. nor can it, like such a suit, deceive anybody as to our true status. a man's utterance reveals what he is. it is the measure of his inward attainment. the assertion has been made that for a man to express himself freely and well in his native language is the surest proof of his culture. meditate the saying. can you think of a proof that is surer? but a man's speech does more than lend him distinction. it does more than reveal to others what manner of man he is. it is an instrument as well as an index. it is an agent--oftentimes indeed it is _the_ agent--of his influence upon others. how silly are those persons who oppose words to things, as if words were not things at all but air-born unrealities! words are among the most powerful realities in the world. you vote the republican ticket. why? because you have studied the issues of the campaign and reached a well-reasoned conclusion how the general interests may be served? possibly. but nine times in ten it will be because of that _word_ republican. you may believe that in a given instance the republican cause or candidate is inferior; you may have nothing personally to lose through republican defeat; yet you squirm and twist and seek excuses for casting a republican ballot. such is the power--aye, sometimes the tyranny--of a word. the word _republican_ has not been selected invidiously. _democrat_ would have served as well. or take religious words--_catholic, methodist, presbyterian, episcopalian, baptist, lutheran,_ or what not. a man who belongs, in person or by proxy, to one of the sects designated may be more indifferent to the institution itself than to the word that represents it. thus you may attack in his presence the tenets of presbyterianism, for example, but you must be wary about calling the presbyterian name. _mother, the flag_--what sooner than an insult coupled with these terms will rouse a man to fight? but does that man kiss his mother, or salute the flag, or pay much heed to either? probably not. words not realities? with what realities must we more carefully reckon? words are as dangerous as dynamite, as beneficent as brotherhood. an unfortunate word may mean a plea rejected, an enterprise baffled, half the world plunged into war. a fortunate word may open a triple-barred door, avert a disaster, bring thousands of people from jealousy and hatred into coöperation and goodwill. nor is it solely on their emotional side that men may be affected by words. their thinking and their esthetic nature also--their hard sense and their personal likes and dislikes--are subject to the same influence. you interview a potential investor; does he accept your proposition or not? a prospective customer walks into your store; does he buy the goods you show him? you enter the drawing room of one of the elite; are you invited again and again? your words will largely decide--your words, or your verbal abstinence. for be it remembered that words no more than dollars are to be scattered broadcast for the sole reason that you have them. the right word should be used at the right time--and at that time only. silence is oftentimes golden. nevertheless there are occasions for us to speak. frequent occasions. to be inarticulate _then_ may mean only embarrassment. it may--some day it will--mean suffering and failure. that we may make the most of the important occasions sure to come, we must have our instruments ready. those instruments are words. he who commands words commands events--commands men. ii words in combination: some pitfalls you wish, then, to increase your vocabulary. of course you must become observant of words and inquisitive about them. for words are like people: they have their own particular characteristics, they do their work well or ill, they are in good odor or bad, and they yield best service to him who loves them and tries to understand them. your curiosity about them must be burning and insatiable. you must study them when they have withdrawn from the throng of their fellows into the quiescence of their natural selves. you must also see them and study them in action, not only as they are employed in good books and by careful speakers, but likewise as they fall from the lips of unconventional speakers who through them secure vivid and telling effects. in brief, you must learn word nature, as you learn human nature, from a variety of sources. now in ordinary speech most of us use words, not as individual things, but as parts of a whole--as cogs in the machine of utterance by which we convey our thoughts and feelings. we do not think of them separately at all. and this instinct is sound. in our expression we are like large-scale manufacturing plants rather than one-man establishments. we have at our disposal, not one worker, but a multitude. hence we are concerned with our employees collectively and with the total production of which they are capable. to be sure, our understanding of them as individuals will increase the worth and magnitude of our output. but clearly we must have large dealings with them in the aggregate. this chapter and the following, therefore, are given over to the study of words in combination. as in all matters, there is a negative as well as a positive side to be reckoned with. let us consider the negative side first. correct diction is too often insipid. there is nothing wrong with it, but it does not interest us--it lacks character, lacks color, lacks power. it too closely resembles what we conceive of the angels as having-- impeccability without the warmth of camaraderie. speech, like a man, should be alive. it need not, of course, be boisterous. it may be intense in a quiet, modest way. but if it too sedulously observes all the _thou shalt not's_ of the rhetoricians, it will refine the vitality out of itself and leave its hearers unmoved. that is why you should become a disciple of the pithy, everyday conversationalist and of the rough-and-ready master of harangue as well as of the practitioner of precise and scrupulous discourse. many a speaker or writer has thwarted himself by trying to be "literary." even burns when he wrote classic english was somewhat conscious of himself and made, in most instances, no extraordinary impression. but the pieces he impetuously dashed off in his native scotch dialect can never be forgotten. the man who begins by writing naturally, but as his importance in the publishing world grows, pays more and more attention to felicities--to "style"--and so spoils himself, is known to the editor of every magazine. any editorial office force can insert missing commas and semicolons, and iron out blunders in the english; but it has not the time, if indeed the ability, to instil life into a lifeless manuscript. a living style is rarer than an inoffensive one, and the road of literary ambition is strewn with failures due to "correctness." cultivate readiness, even daring, of utterance. a single turn of expression may be so audacious that it plucks an idea from its shroud or places within us an emotion still quivering and warm. sustained discourse may unflaggingly clarify or animate. but such triumphs are beyond the reach of those, whether speakers or writers, who are constantly pausing to grope for words. this does not mean that scrutiny of individual words is wasted effort. such scrutiny becomes the basis indeed of the more venturesome and inspired achievement. we must serve our apprenticeship to language. we must know words as a general knows the men under him--all their ranks, their capabilities, their shortcomings, the details and routine of their daily existence. but the end for which we gain our understanding must be to hurl these words upon the enemy, not as disconnected units, but as battalions, as brigades, as corps, as armies. dr. johnson, one of the most effective talkers in all history, resolved early in life that, always, and whatever topic might be broached, he would on the moment express his thoughts and feelings with as much vigor and felicity as if he had unlimited leisure to draw on. and patrick henry, one of the few really irresistible orators, was wont to plunge headlong into a sentence and trust to god almighty to get him out. exercise - tameness . study appendix i (the drift of our rural population cityward). do you regard it as written simply, with force and natural feeling? or does it show lack of spontaneity?--suffer from an unnatural and self- conscious manner of writing? is the style one you would like to cultivate for your own use? . express, if you can, in more vigorous language of your own, the thought of the editorial. . think of some one you have known who has the gift of racy colloquial utterance. make a list of offhand, homely, or picturesque expressions you have heard him employ, and ask yourself what it is in these expressions that has made them linger in your memory. with them in mind, and with your knowledge of the man's methods of imparting his ideas vividly, try to make your version of the editorial more forceful still. . study appendix (causes for the american spirit of liberty) as an example of stately and elaborate, yet energetic, discourse. the speech from which this extract is taken was delivered in parliament in a vain effort to stay england from driving her colonies to revolt. some of burke's turns of phrase are extremely bold and original, as "the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the protestant religion." moreover, with all his fulness of diction, burke could cleave to the heart of an idea in a few words, as "freedom is to them [the southern slave-holders] not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege." find other examples of bold or concise and illuminating utterance. . read appendix (parable of the sower). it has no special audacities of phrase, but escapes tameness in various ways--largely through its simple earnestness. . make a list of the descriptive phrases in appendix (the seven ages of man) through which shakespeare gives life and distinctness to his pictures. . study appendix (the castaway) as a piece of homely, effective narrative. (defoe wrote for the man in the street. he was a literary jack-of-all-trades whom dignified authors of his day would not countenance, but who possessed genius.) it relies upon directness and plausibility of substance and style rather than temerity of phrase. yet it never sags into tameness. notice how everyday expressions ("my business was to hold my breath," "i took to my heels") add subtly to our belief that what defoe is telling us is true. notice also that such expressions ("the least capful of wind," "half dead with the water i took in," "ready to burst with holding my breath") without being pretentious may yet be forceful. notice finally the naturalness and lift of the sinewy idioms ("i fetched another run," "i had no clothes to shift me," "i had like to have suffered a second shipwreck," "it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off"). . once or twice at least, make a mental note of halting or listless expressions in a sermon, a public address, or a conversation. find more emphatic wording for the ideas thus marred. . to train yourself in readiness and daring of utterance, practice impromptu discussion of any of the topics in activity for exercise - discourse. though we are to recognize the advantage of working in the undress of speech rather than in stiffly-laundered literary linens, though we are not to despise the accessions of strength and of charm which we may obtain from the homely and familiar, we must never be careless. the man whose speech is slovenly is like the man who chews gum--unblushingly commonplace. we must struggle to maintain our individuality. we must not be a mere copy of everybody else. we must put into our words the cordiality we put into our daily demeanor. if we greeted friend or stranger carelessly, conventionally, we should soon be regarded as persons of no force or distinction. so of our speech and our writing. nothing, to be sure, is more difficult than to give them freshness without robbing them of naturalness and ease. yet that is what we must learn to do. we shall not acquire the power in a day. we shall acquire it as a chess or a baseball player acquires his skill--by long effort, hard practice. one thing to avoid is the use of words in loose, or fast-and-loose, senses. do not say that owning a watch is a fine proposition if you mean that it is advantageous. do not say that you trembled on the brink of disaster if you were threatened with no more than inconvenience or comparatively slight injury. do not say you were literally scared to death if you are yet alive to tell the story. exercise - slovenliness i give moderate or accurate utterance to the following ideas: the burning of the hen-coop was a mighty conflagration. the fact that the point of the pencil was broken profoundly surprised me. we had a perfectly gorgeous time. it's a beastly shame that i missed my car. it is awfully funny that he should die. the saleslady pulled the washlady's hair. a cold bath is pretty nice of mornings. to go a little late is just the article. another thing to avoid is the use of words in the wrong parts of speech, as a noun for a verb, or an adjective for an adverb. sometimes newspapers are guilty of such faults; for journalistic english, though pithy, shows here and there traces of its rapid composition. you must look to more leisurely authorities. the speakers and writers on whom you may rely will not say "to burglarize," "to suspicion," "to enthuse," "plenty rich," "real tired," "considerable discouraged," "a combine," or "humans." an exhaustive list of such errors cannot be inserted here. if you feel yourself uncertain in these details of usage, you should have access to such a volume as _the century desk book of good english_. exercise - slovenliness ii . for each quoted expression in the preceding paragraph compose a sentence which shall contain the correct form, or the grammatical equivalent, of the expression. . correct the following sentences: the tramp suicided. she was real excited. he gestured angry. he was some anxious to get to the eats. all of us had an invite. them boys have sure been teasing the canine. another thing to avoid is triteness. the english language teems with phrases once strikingly original but now smooth-worn and vulgarized by incessant repetition. it can scarcely be said that you are to shun these altogether. now and then you will find one of them coming happily as well as handily into your speech. but you must not use them too often. above all, you must rid yourself of any dependence upon them. the scope of this book permits only a few illustrations of the kinds of words and phrases meant. but the person who speaks of "lurid flames," or "untiring efforts," or "specimens of humanity"--who "views with alarm," or has a "native heath," or is "to the manner born"--does more than advertise the scantness of his verbal resources. he brands himself mentally indolent; he deprives his thought itself of all sharpness, exactness, and power. exercise - slovenliness iii replace with more original expressions the trite phrases (italicized) in the following sentences: _last but not least_, we have _in our midst_ one who began life _poor but honest_. after we had _done justice to a dinner_ and gathered in the drawing room, we listened _with bated breath_ while she _favored us with a selection_. _a goodly number_ of _the fair sex_, perceiving that _the psychological moment_ had come, _applauded him to the echo_. we were _doomed to disappointment; the grim reaper_ had already gathered unto himself _all that was mortal_ of our comrade. _no sooner said than done_. i soon found myself _the proud possessor_ of that for which i had acknowledged _a long-felt want_. after _the last sad rites_ were over and her body was _consigned to earth_, we began talking _along these lines_. with _a few well-chosen words_ he _brought order out of chaos_. the way my efforts were _nipped in the bud_ simply _beggars description_. i am somewhat _the worse for wear. hoping you are the same_, i remain yours sincerely, ned burke. finally, to the extent that you use slang at all, be its master instead of its slave. you have many times been told that the overuse of slang disfigures one's speech and hampers his standing with cultivated people. you have also been told that slang constantly changes, so that one's accumulations of it today will be a profitless clutter tomorrow. these things are true, but an even more cogent objection remains. slang is detrimental to the formation of good intellectual habits. from its very nature it cannot be precise, cannot discriminate closely. it is a vehicle for loose-thinking people, it is fraught with unconsidered general meanings, it moves in a region of mental mists. it could not flourish as it does were fewer of us content to express vague thoughts and feelings instead of those which are sharply and specifically ours. unless, therefore, you wish your intellectual processes to be as hazy and haphazard as those of mental shirkers and loafers, you must eschew, not necessarily all slang, but all heedless, all habitual use of it. now and then a touch of slang, judiciously chosen, is effective; now and then it fulfils a legitimate purpose of language. but normally you should express yourself as befits one who has at his disposal the rich treasuries of the dictionary instead of a mere stock of greasy counterfeit phrases. exercise - slovenliness iv replace the following slang with acceptable english: we pulled a new wrinkle. he's an easy mark. oh, you're nutty. beat it. i have all the inside dope. you can't bamboozle me. what a phiz the bloke has! you're talking through your hat. we had a long confab with the gink. he's loony over that chicken. the prof. told us to vamoose. take a squint at the girl with the specs. ain't it fierce the way they swipe umbrellas? goodnight, how she claws the ivory! nix on the rough stuff. and there i got pinched by a cop for parking my tin lizzie. as a precaution against tameness you should cultivate spontaneity and daring. as a precaution against slovenliness you should cultivate freshness and accuracy. but to display spontaneity, daring, freshness, accuracy you must have or acquire a large stock, a wide range, of words. now this possession, like any other, brings with it temptation. if we have words, we like to use them. nor do we wait for an indulgence in this luxury until we have consciously set to work to amass a vocabulary. verbosity is, in truth, the besetting linguistic sin. most people are lavish with words, as most people are lavish with money. this is not to say that in the currency of language they are rich. but even if they lack the means--and the desire--to be extravagant, they yet make their purchases heedlessly or fail to count their linguistic change. the degree of our thrift, not the amount of our income or resources, is what marks us as being or not being verbal spendthrifts. the frugal manager buys his ideas at exactly the purchase price. he does not expend a twenty-dollar bill for a box of matches. have words by all means, the more of them the better, but use them temperately, sparingly. do not think that a passage to be admirable must be studded with ostentatious terms. consider the gettysburg address or the parable of the prodigal son. these convey their thought and feeling perfectly, yet both are simple--exquisitely simple. they strike us indeed as being inevitable--as if their phrasing could not have been other than it is. they have, they are, finality. what could glittering phraseology add to them? nothing; it could only mar them. yet lincoln and the scriptural writers were not afraid to use big words when occasion required. what they sought was to make their speech adequate without carrying a superfluous syllable. "the sun set" is more natural and effective than "the celestial orb that blesses our terrestrial globe with its warm and luminous rays sank to its nocturnal repose behind the western horizon." great writers--the true masters--have often held "fine writing" and pretentious speaking up to ridicule. thus shakespeare has kent, who has been rebuked for his bluntness, indulge in a grandiloquent outburst: "sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity, under the allowance of your grand aspect, whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire on flickering phoebus' front,--" no wonder kent is interrupted with a "what meanest by this?" sometimes great writers use ornate utterance for humorous effects. thus dickens again and again has mr. micawber express a commonplace idea in sounding terms which at length fail him, so that he must interject an "in short" and summarize his meaning in a phrase amusing through its homely contrast. but humor based on ponderous diction is too often wearisome. better say simply "he died," or colloquially "he kicked the bucket," than "he propelled his pedal extremities with violence against the wooden pail which is customarily employed in the transportation of the aquatic fluid." exercise - wordiness i express these ideas in simpler language: the temperature was excessive. the most youthful of his offspring was not remarkable for personal pulchritude. henry clay expressed a preference for being on the right side of public questions to occupying the position of president of the united states of america. he who passes at an accelerated pace may nevertheless be capable of perusing. a masculine member of the human race was mounted on an equine quadruped. but the number of the terms we employ, as well as their ostentatiousness, must be considered. most of us blunder around in the neighborhood of our meaning instead of expressing it briefly and clearly. we throw a handful of words at an idea when one word would suffice; we try to bring the idea down with a shotgun instead of a rifle. of course one means of correction is that we should acquire accuracy, a quality already discussed. another is that we should practice condensation. first, let us learn to omit the words which add nothing to the meaning. thus in the sentence "an important essential in cashing a check is that you should indorse it on the back," several words or groups of words needlessly repeat ideas which are expressed elsewhere. the sentence is as complete in substance, and far terser in form, when it reads "an essential in cashing a check is that you should indorse it." next, let us, when we may, reduce phrases and even clauses to a word. thus the clause at the beginning and the phrase at the close of the following sentence constitute sheer verbiage: "men who have let their temper get the better of them are often in a mood to do harm to somebody." the sentence tells us nothing that may not be told in five words: "angry men are often dangerous." finally, let us substitute phrases or clauses for unnecessary sentences. the following series of independent assertions contains avoidable repetitions: "one morning i was riding on the subway to my work. it was always my custom to ride to my work on the subway. this morning i met harry blake." the full thought may better be embodied in a single sentence: "one morning, while i was, as usual, riding on the subway to my work, i met harry blake." by applying these instructions to any page at hand--one from your own writing, one from a letter some friend has sent you, one from a book or magazine--you will often be able to strike out many of the words without at all impairing the meaning. another means of acquiring succinct expression is to practice the composition of telegrams and cable messages. you will of course lessen the cost by eliminating every word that can possibly be spared. on the other hand, you must bear it in mind that your punctuation will not be transmitted, and that the recipient must be absolutely safeguarded against reading together words meant to be separated or separating words meant to be read together. that is, your message must be both concise and unmistakably clear. exercise - wordiness ii . condense the editorial (appendix ) by eliminating unnecessary words and finding briefer equivalents for roundabout expressions. . try to condense similarly the parable of the sower (appendix ) and the seven ages of man (appendix ). (the task will largely or altogether baffle you, but will involve minute study of tersely written passages.) . condense the following: a man whose success in life was due solely to his own efforts rose in his place and addressed the man who presided over the meeting. a girl who sat in the seat behind me giggled in an irritating manner. we heard the wild shriek of the locomotive. any sound in that savage region seemed more terrible than it would in civilized surroundings. so as we listened to the shriek of the locomotive, it sounded terrible too. i heard what kind of chauffeur he was. a former employer of his told me. he was a chauffeur who speeded in reckless fashion because he was fond of having all the excitement possible. . condense the following into telegrams of ten words or less: arrived here in toledo yesterday morning talked with the directors found them not hostile to us but friendly. detectives report they think evidence now points to innocence of man arrested and to former employee as the burglar. . the following telegrams are ambiguous. clarify them. jane escaped illness i feared charley better. buy oil if market falls sell cotton. . base a telegraphic night letter of not more than fifty words upon these circumstances: (a) you have been sent to buy, if possible and as cheaply as possible, a majority of the stock in a given company. you find that many of the stockholders distrust or dislike the president and are willing to sell. some of these ask only $ a share for their holdings; the owners of shares want as much as $ ; the average price asked is $ . by buying out all the president's enemies, which you can now do beyond question, you would secure a bare majority of the stock. but $ a share seems to you excessive; that is, you think that by working quietly among the president's friends you can get shares at $ or thereabouts and thus save approximately $ . on the other hand, should your dealings with the friends of the president give him premature warning, he might stop the sales by these friends and himself begin buying from his enemies, and thus make your purchase of a majority of the stock impossible. is the $ you would save worth the risk you would be obliged to take? you call for instructions. (b) you are telegraphing a metropolitan paper the results of a congressional election. philput, the republican candidate, leads in the cities, from which returns are now complete. wilkins, the democratic candidate, leads in the country, from only certain districts of which-- those nearest the cities--returns have been heard. if the present proportionate division of the rural vote is maintained for the total, philput will be elected by a plurality of three hundred votes. philput asserts that the proportions will hold. wilkins points out, however, that he is relatively stronger in the more remote districts and predicts that he will have a plurality of seven hundred votes. smallbridge, an independent candidate, is apparently making a better race in the country than in the city, but he is so weak in both places that the ballots cast for him can scarcely affect the outcome unless the margin of victory is infinitesimal. . compress a and b each into a telegram of not more than ten words. . (do not read this assignment until you have composed the night letters and telegrams called for in and .) compare your first night letter in and your first telegram in with the versions given below. decide where you have surpassed these versions, where you have fallen short of them. _night letter_: two factions in company i can buy from enemies president bare majority stock at average seventy-six but hundred of these shares held at ninety-two i could probably get hundred quietly from friends president about seventy-seven but president might detect move and buy majority stock himself wire instructions. (fifty words.) _telegram_: wire whether buy safe or risk control saving fifteen hundred. (ten words.) a final device for escaping wordiness you will have discovered for yourself while composing telegrams and telegraphic night letters. it is to pass over details not vital to your purpose. of course you must have due regard for circumstances; details needed for one purpose may be superfluous for another. but all of us are familiar with the person who loses her ideas in a rigmarole of prosaic and irrelevant facts. such a person is shakespeare's scatter-brained dame quickly. on one occasion this voluble woman is shrilly reproaching sir john falstaff for his indebtedness to her. "what is the gross sum that i owe thee?" he inquires. she might answer simply: "if thou wert an honest man, thyself and the money too. thou didst promise to marry me. deny it if thou canst." instead, she plunges into a prolix recital of the circumstances of the engagement, so that the all-important fact that the engagement exists has no special emphasis in her welter of words. "if thou wert an honest man," she cries, "thyself and the money too. thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon wednesday in wheeson week, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to a singing-man of windsor, thou didst swear to me then, as i was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady thy wife. canst thou deny it? did not goodwife keech, the butcher's wife, come in then and call me gossip quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some, whereby i told thee they were ill for a green wound? and didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying that ere long they should call me madam? and didst thou not kiss me and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? i put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it if thou canst." exercise - wordiness iii . study the following paragraph, decide which ideas are important, and strike out the details that merely clog the thought: as i stepped into the room, i heard the clock ticking and that caused me to look at it. it sits on the mantelpiece with some layers of paper under one corner where the mantel is warped. when the papers slip out or we move the clock a little as we're dusting, the ticking stops right away. of course the clock's not a new one at all, but it's an old one. it has been in the family for many a long year, yes, from even before my father's time. let me see, it was bought by my grandfather. no, it couldn't have been grandfather that bought it; it was his brother. oh, yes, i remember now; my mother told me all about it, and i'd forgotten what she said till this minute. but really my grandfather's brother didn't exactly buy it. he just traded for it. he gave two pigs and a saddle, that's what my mother said. you see, he was afraid his hogs might take cholera and so he wanted to get rid of them; and as for the saddle, he had sold his riding-horse and he didn't have any more use for that. well, it isn't a valuable clock, like a grandfather clock or anything of that sort, though it is antique. as i was saying, when i glanced at it, it read seven minutes to six. i remember the time very well, for just then the factory whistle blew and i remember saying to myself: "it's seven minutes slow today." you see, it's old and we don't keep it oiled, and so it's always losing time. hardly a day passes but i set it up--sometimes twice a day, as for the matter of that--and i usually go by the factory whistle too, though now and then i go by dwight's gold watch. well, anyhow, that tells me what time it was. i'm certain i can't be wrong. . study, on the other hand, the castaway (appendix ) for its judicious use of details. defoe in his stories is a supreme master of verisimilitude (likeness to truth). as we read him, we cannot help believing that these things actually happened. more than in anything else the secret of his lifelikeness lies in his constant faithfulness to reality. he puts in the little mishaps that would have befallen a man so situated, the things he would have done, the difficulties he might have avoided had he exercised forethought. though defoe had little insight into the complexities of man's inner life, he has not been surpassed in his accumulations of naturalistic outer details. these do not cumber his narrative; they contribute to its purpose and add to its effectiveness. in this selection (appendix ) observe how plausible are such homely details as crusoe's seeing no sign of his comrades "except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows"; as his difficulty in getting aboard the ship again; and as his having his clothes washed away by the rising of the tide. find half a dozen other such incidents that you consider especially effective. we may pitch our talk or our writing in almost any key we choose. our mood may be dreamy or eager or hilarious or grim or blustering or somber or bantering or scornful or satirical or whatever we will. but once we have established the tone, we should not--except sometimes for broadly humorous effects--change it needlessly or without clear forewarning. if we do, we create one or the other of two obstacles, or both of them, for whoever is trying to follow what we say. in the first place, we obscure our meaning. for example, we have been speaking ironically and suddenly swerve into serious utterance; or we have been speaking seriously and then incongruously adopt an ironic tone. how are our listeners, our readers to take us? they are puzzled; they do not know. in the second place, we offend--perhaps in insidious, indefinable fashion--the esthetic proprieties; we violate the natural fitness of things. for example, we have been speaking with colloquial freedom, sprinkling our discourse with _shouldn't_ and _won't;_ suddenly we become formal and say _should not_ and _will not_. our meaning is as obvious as before, but the verbal harmony has been interrupted; our hearers or readers are uneasily aware of a break in the unity of tone. a speaker or writer is a host to verbal guests. when he invites them to his assembly, he gives each the tacit assurance that it will not be brought into fellowship with those which in one or another of a dozen subtle ways will be uncongenial company for it. he must never be forgetful of this unspoken promise. if he is to avoid a linguistic breach, he must constantly have his wits about him; must study out his combinations carefully, and use all his knowledge, all his tact. he will make due use of spontaneous impulse; but that this may be wise and disciplined, he will form the habit of curiosity about words, their stations, their savor, their aptitudes, their limitations, their outspokenness, their reticences, their affinities and antipathies. thus when he has need of a phrase to fill out a verbal dinner party, he will know which one to select. certain broad classifications of words are manifest even to the most obtuse user of english. _shady_, _behead_, and _lying_ are "popular" words, while their synonyms _umbrageous,_ decapitate,_ and _mendacious_ are "learned" words. _flabbergasted_ and _higgledy-piggledy_ are "colloquial," while _roseate_ and _whilom_ are "literary." _affidavit_, _allegro_, _lee shore_, and _pinch hit_ are "technical," while _vamp_, _savvy_, _bum hunch_, and _skiddoo_ are "slang." it would be disenchanting indeed were extremes of this sort brought together. but offenses of a less glaring kind are as hard to shut out as february cold from a heated house. unusual are the speeches or compositions, even the short ones, in which every word is in keeping, is in perfect tune with the rest. for the attainment of this ultimate verbal decorum we should have to possess knowledge almost unbounded, together with unerring artistic instinct. but diction of a kind only measurably inferior to this is possible to us if we are in earnest. to attain it we must study the difference between abstract and concrete terms, and let neither intrude unadvisedly upon the presence or functions of the other; do the same by literal and figurative terms and instruct ourselves in the nature and significance of connotation. before considering these more detailed matters, however, we may pause for a general exercise on verbal harmony. exercise - discords . study the editorial in appendix for unforewarned changes in mood and assemblages of mutually uncongenial words. rewrite the worst two paragraphs to remove all blemishes of these kinds. . compare burke's speech (appendix ) with defoe's narrative (appendix ) for the difference in tone between them. does each keep the tone it adopts (that is, except for desirable changes)? . note the changes in tone in the seven ages of man (appendix ). do the changes in substance make these changes in tone desirable? . in the following passages, make such changes and omissions as are necessary to unify the tone: how i loved to stroll, on those long indian summer afternoons, into the quiet meadows where the mild-breathed kine were grazing! an old cow that switches her tail at flies and puts her foot in the bucket when you milk her, i absolutely loathe. how i loved to hear the birds sing, to listen to the fall of ripe autumnal apples! it wasn't the girl yclept sally. this girl was not so vivacious as sally, but she had a mug on her that was a lot less ugly to look at. gee, when she stood there in front of me with those mute, ineffable, sympathetic eyes of hers, i was ready to throw a duck-fit. old grimes is dead, that dear old soul; we'll never see him more; he wore a great long overcoat, all buttoned down before. abstract terms convey ideas; concrete terms call up pictures. if we say "honesty is the best policy," we speak abstractly. nobody can see or hear or touch the thing _honesty_ or the thing _policy_; the apprehension of them must be purely intellectual. but if we say "the rat began to gnaw the rope," we speak concretely. _rat_, _gnaw_, and _rope_ are tangible, perceptible things; the words bring to us visions of particular objects and actions. now when we engage in explanations and discussions of principles, theories, broad social topics, and the like--when we expound, moralize, or philosophize,--our subject matter is general. we approach our readers or hearers on the thinking, the rational side of their natures. our phraseology is therefore normally abstract. but when, on the other hand, we narrate an event or depict an appearance, our subject matter is specific. we approach our readers or hearers on the sensory or emotional side of their natures. our phraseology is therefore normally concrete. you should be able to express yourself according to either method. you should be able to choose the words best suited to make people understand; also to choose the words best suited to make people realize vividly and feel. now to some extent you will adopt the right method by intuition. but if you do not reinforce your intuition with a careful study of words, you will vacillate from one method to the other and strike crude discords of phrasing. of course if you switch methods intelligently and of purpose, that is quite another matter. an abstract discussion may be enlivened by a concrete illustration. a concrete narrative or portrayal may be given weight and rationalized by generalization. moreover many things lie on the borderland between the two domains and may properly be attached to either. thus the abstraction is legitimate when you say or write: "a man wishes to acquire the comforts and luxuries, as well as the necessaries, of life." the concreteness is likewise legitimate when you say or write: "john smith wishes to earn cake as well as bread and butter." in most instances general terms are the same as abstract, and specific the same as concrete. some subtle discriminations may, however, be made. of these the only one that need concern us here is that the wording of a passage may not be abstract and yet be general. suppose, for example, you were telling the story of the prodigal son and should say: "he was very hungry, and could not obtain food anywhere. when he had come to his senses, he thought, 'i should be better off at home.'" this language is not abstract, but it is general rather than specific. when jesus told the story, he wished to put the situation as poignantly as possible and therefore avoided both abstract and general terms: "and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. and when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and i perish with hunger!" many a person who shuns abstractions and talks altogether of the concrete things of life, yet traps out circumstance in general rather than specific terms. to do this is always to sacrifice force. exercise - abstract . discuss as abstractly as possible such topics as those listed in activity for exercise - discourse, or as the following: is there any such thing as luck? is the golden rule practicable in the modern business world? is modesty rather than self-assertion regarding his own merits and abilities the better policy for an employee? are substantial, home-keeping girls or girls rather fast and frivolous the more likely to obtain good husbands? is it desirable for a young man to take out life insurance? is self-education better than collegiate training? should one always tell the truth? . discuss as concretely as possible the topics you have selected from . use illustrations drawn from life. . restate in concrete terms such generalizations as the following: experience is the best teacher. self-preservation is the first law of nature. to him who in the love of nature holds communion with her visible forms, she speaks a various language. necessity is the mother of invention. the bravest are the tenderest. vanity of vanities, all is vanity. pride goeth before destruction. the evil that men do lives after them. . compare the abstract statement "truths and high ethical principles are received by various men in various ways" with the concrete presentation of the same idea in appendix . which expression of the thought would be the more easily understood by the average person? why? which would you yourself remember the longer? why? . compare the statement "the second period of a human being's life is that of his reluctant attendance at school" with shakespeare's picture of the schoolboy in appendix . . burke, near the close of his speech (appendix ), presents an idea, first in general terms, and then in specific terms, thus: "no contrivance can prevent the effect of...distance in weakening government. seas roll, and months pass, between the order and the execution, and the want of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system." find elsewhere in burke's speech and in the editorial (appendix i) general assertions which may be made more forceful by restatement in specific terms, and supply these specific restatements. . state in your own words the general thought or teaching of the parable of the prodigal son. (_luke_ : - .) . make the following statements more concrete: in front of our house was a tree that at a certain season of the year displayed highly colored foliage. a celebrated orator said: "give me liberty, or give me death!" on the table were some viands that assailed my nostrils agreeably and others that put into my mouth sensations of anticipated enjoyment. from this window above the street i can hear a variety of noises by day and a variety of different noises by night. as he groped through the pitch-dark room he could feel many articles of furniture. . state in general terms the thought of the following sentences: a burnt child dreads the fire. a stitch in time saves nine. a cat may look at a king. a barking dog never bites. if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? if two men ride a horse, one must ride behind. stone walls do not a prison make. a merry heart goes all the day. thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just. as the twig is bent, so the tree is inclined. . describe a town as seen from a particular point of view, or at a particular time of day, or under particular atmospheric conditions. make your description as concrete as possible. . compare your description with this from stevenson: "the town came down the hill in a cascade of brown gables, bestridden by smooth white roofs, and spangled here and there with lighted windows." stevenson's sentence contains twenty-five words. how many of them are "color" words? how many "motion" words? how many of the first twenty-five words in your description appeal to one or another of the five senses? . narrate as vividly as possible an experience in your own life. compare what you have written with the account of crusoe's escape to the island (appendix ). which narrative is the more concrete? how much? < . literal vs. figurative terms> phraseology is literal when it says exactly what it means; is figurative when it says one thing, but really means another. thus "he fought bravely" is literal; "he was a lion in the fight" is figurative. literal phraseology as a rule appeals to our scientific or understanding faculties; figurative to our emotional faculties. here again, as with abstraction and concreteness, you should learn to express yourself by either method. both have their advantages and their drawbacks. we all admire the man who has observed, and can state, accurately. it is upon this belief of ours in the literal that defoe shrewdly traffics. (see appendix .) he does not stir us as some writers do, but he gains our implicit confidence. dame quickly, on the contrary, makes egregious use of the literal. (see paragraph above exercise - wordiness iii above.) her facts are accurate, yes; but how strictly, how unsparingly accurate! and how many of them are beside the point! she quite convinces us that the devotee of the literal may be dull. an advantage of the figurative also is that it may make meanings lucid. thus when burke near the close of his discussion (appendix ) wishes to make it clear that by a law of nature the authority of extensive empires is slighter in its more remote territories, he has recourse to a figure of speech: "in large bodies, the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. nature has said it." more often, however, the function of the figurative is to drive home a thought or a mood of which a mere statement would leave us unmoved--to make us _feel_ it. thus burke said of the americans "their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on this specific point of taxing." he added: "here they felt its pulse, and as they found that beat they thought themselves sick or sound." had you been one of his parliamentary hearers, would not that second sentence have made more real and more important the colonial attitude to taxation? the poets of course make frequent and noble use of the figurative. this is how coleridge tells us that the descent of a tropical night is sudden: "the sun's rim dips; the stars rush out; at one stride comes the dark." the words _rush out_ and _at one stride comes_ convert the stars and the darkness into vast beings or at least vast personal forces; the comparisons are so natural as to seem inevitable; we are transported to the very scene and feel the overwhelming abruptness of the nightfall. but if a figure of speech seems artificial, if it is strained or far-fetched or merely decorative, it subtracts from the effectiveness of the passage. thus when tennyson says: "when the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free in the silken sail of infancy." we must stop and ponder before we perceive that what he means is "when i was a happy child." the figure is like an exotic plant rather than a natural outgrowth of the soil; it appears to us something thought up and stuck on; it is a parasite rather than a helper. of course, as with abstraction and concreteness, you should develop facility in gliding from literalness to figurativeness and back again. but you are always to remember that your gymnastics are not to militate against verbal concord. you must never set words scowling and growling at each other through injudicious combinations like this: "she was five feet, four and three-quarter inches high, had a small, round scar between her nose and her left cheek-bone, and moved with the lissom and radiant grace of a queen." exercise - literal . give the specifications for a house you intend to build. . make a list of comparisons (as to a nest, a haven, a goal) to show what such a house might mean in the life of a man. expand as many of these comparisons as you can, but do not carry the process to absurd lengths. (in the figure of the nest you may mention the parent birds, their activities, the nestlings; in the figure of the haven you may mention the quiet, sheltered waters in contrast to the turbulent billows outside; in the figure of the goal you may mention the struggle necessary to reach it.) . describe the looks of the house. use as many figures of speech as you can. if you can find no appropriate figures, at least make your words specific. . give a surveyor's or a tax assessor's or a conveyancer's description of a piece of land. then describe the land through figures of speech which will vivify its outward appearance or its emotional significance to the owner. . observe that the parable of the sower (appendix ) is an extended figure of speech. is the main figure effective? are its detailed applications effective? . the seven ages of man (appendix ) is also an extended figure of speech. does it, as shakespeare intends, bring vividly to your consciousness the course, motives, stages, evolution of a human being's life? there are several subsidiary figures. do these add force, definiteness to the picture shakespeare is drawing at that moment? . observe from appendix , appendix , and the sentences listed in activity for exercise - abstract above, that a thing meant to be concrete is likely to be stated figuratively. . examine the castaway (appendix ) for its proportionate use of literal and figurative elements. see activity of exercise - wordiness iii above for a statement of defoe's purpose. could he have effected this purpose so well had he employed more figures of speech? . examine appendix for its use of figures. are the figures appropriate to the subject matter? are there enough of them? . galvanize the thought of any sentence or paragraph in editorial (appendix ) by the use of a figure of speech. . summarize or illustrate your opinion on any of the topics listed in activity for exercise - discourse, through the employment of figure of speech. . are these figures effective? man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. the flower of our young manhood is scaling the ladder of success. fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky. silence, like a poultice, comes to heal the blows of sound. in my head many thoughts of trouble come, like to flies upon a plum! let me tell you first about those barnacles that clog the wheels of society by poisoning the springs of rectitude with their upas-like eye. the day is done, and the darkness falls from the wings of night, as a feather is wafted downward from an eagle in his flight. yea, though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil. life, like a dome of many-colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity. mountains stood out like pimples or lay like broken welts across the habitable ground. life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. i saw him in russia, where the infantry of the snow and the cavalry of the wild blast scattered his legions like winter's withered leaves. . recast the following sentences to eliminate the clashing of literal and figurative elements: life is like a rich treasure entrusted to us, and to sustain it we must have three square meals a day. she glanced at the mirror, but did not really see herself. she was trying to puzzle out the right course, and could only see as through a glass darkly. arming himself with the sword of zeal and the buckler of integrity, he wrote the letter. he swept the floor every morning, and was a ray of sunshine in the office. he also emptied the waste baskets and cleaned the cuspidors. < . connotation> the connotation of a word is the subtle implication, the emotional association it carries--often quite apart from its dictionary definition. thus the words _house_ and _home_ in large measure overlap in meaning, but emotionally they are not equivalents at all. you can say _house_ without experiencing any sensation whatever, but if you utter the word _home_ it will call back, however slightly, tender and cherished recollections. _bald heads_ and _gray hair_ are both indicative of age; but you would pronounce the former in disparaging allusion to elderly persons, and the latter with sentiments of veneration. you would say, of a clodpole that he plays the _fiddle_, but of fritz kreisler that he plays the _violin_. and just as you unconsciously adapt words to feelings in these obvious instances, you must learn, on peril of striking false notes verbally, to do so when distinctions are less gross. moreover circumstance as well as sentiment may control the connotation of a word. a word or phrase may have a double or triple connotation, and depend upon vocal inflection, upon gesture, upon the words with which it is linked, upon the experience of speaker or hearer, upon time, place, and external fact, or upon other forces outside it for the sense in which it is to be taken. you may be called "old dog" in an insulting manner, or (especially if a slap on the shoulder accompanies the phrase) in an affectionate manner. you may properly say, "calhoun had logic on his side"; add, however, the words "but his face was to the past," and you spoil the sentence,--for _face_ gives a reflex connotation to _side_, slight perhaps and momentary, but disconcerting. think over the funny stories you have heard. many of them turn, you will find, on the outcropping of new significance in a phrase because of its environment. thus the anecdote of the servant who had been instructed to summon the visiting english nobleman by tapping on his bedroom door and inquiring, "my lord, have you yet risen?" and who could only stammer, "my god! ain't you up yet?" or the anecdote of the minister who in a sermon on the parable of the prodigal son told how a young man living dissolutely in a city had been compelled to send to the pawnbroker first his overcoat, next his suit, next his silk shirt, and finally his very underclothing--"and then," added the minister, "he came to himself." only by unresting vigilance can you evade verbal discords, if not of this magnitude, at least of much frequency and stylistic harm. exercise - connotation . note the contrast in emotional suggestion that comes to you from hearing the words: "sodium chloride" and "salt" "a test-tube of h o" and "a cup of cold water" "a pair of brogans" and "a little empty shoe" "bump" and "collide" "a brilliant fellow" and "a flashy fellow" "bungled it" and "did not succeed" "tumble" and "fall" "dawn" and " a.m." "licked" and "worsted" "fat" and "plump" "wept" and "blubbered" "cheek" and "self-assurance" "stinks" and "disagreeable odors" "steal" and "embezzle" "thievishness" and "kleptomania" "educated" and "highbrow" "job" and "position" "told a lie" and "fell into verbal inexactitude" "a drunkard" (a stranger) and "a drunkard" (your father). . make a list of your own similar to that in exercise . . read the sentences listed in exercise - slovenliness iii and iv. what do these sentences suggest to you as to the social and mental qualifications of the person who employs them? . read the second paragraph of appendix . what does it suggest to you as to burke's social and mental qualifications? . suppose you were told that a passage of twenty-eight lines contains the following expressions: "mewling and puking," "whining schoolboy," "satchel," "sighing like furnace," "round belly," "spectacles on nose," "shrunk shank," "sans [without] teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." would you believe the passage is poetry?--that its total effect is one of poetic elevation? read the seven ages of man (appendix ). _is_ it poetry? how does shakespeare reconcile the general poetic tone with such expressions as those quoted? . what is wrong with the connotation of the following? the servant told us that the young ladies were all in. all my poor success is due to you. he insisted on carrying a revolver, and so the college authorities fired him. the carpenter too had his castles in spain. he rested his old bones by the wayside, and his gaunt dog stood sniffing at them. on the other hand, he had a white elephant to dispose of. when he came to the forks of the road, he showed he was not on the square. body, for funeral purposes, must be sold at once. city automobile agency. . can you express the following ideas in other words without sacrifice of emotional suggestion? try. the music, yearning like a god in pain. alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide, wide sea! but o for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still! old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago. it was night in the lonesome october. how they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, in the icy air of night! while the stars, that oversprinkle all the heavens, seem to twinkle with a crystalline delight. the moan of doves in immemorial elms, and murmuring of innumerable bees. ay, but to die, and go we know not where; to lie in cold obstruction and to rot. merrily, merrily, shall i live now, under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 'tis as easy now for the heart to be true as for grass to be green or skies to be blue,-- 'tis the natural way of living. we are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. . with the most connotative words at your command describe the following: your first sweetheart a solemn experience a ludicrous experience a terrifying experience a mysterious experience the circus parade you saw in your boyhood a servant girl a dude an odd character you have known the old homestead your boarding house a scene suggesting the intense heat of a midsummer day night on the river the rush for the subway car the traffic policeman your boss anything listed in the first part of activity of exercise - discourse. iii words in combination: how mastered the more dangerous pitfalls for those who use words in combination--as all of us do--have been pointed out. the best ways of avoiding these pitfalls have also been indicated. but our work together has thus far been chiefly negative. to be sure, many tasks assigned for your performance have been constructive as well as precautionary; but _the end_ held ever before you has been the avoidance of feeble or ridiculous diction. in the present chapter we must take up those aspects of the mastery of words in combination which are primarily positive. before coming to specific aspects and assignments, however, we shall do well to consider certain large general purposes and methods. first, what kind of vocabulary do we wish to acquire? a facile, readily used one? an accurate one? or one as nearly as may be comprehensive? the three kinds do not necessarily coexist. the possession of one may even hinder and retard the acquisition of another. thus if we seek a ready vocabulary, an accurate vocabulary may cause us to halt and hesitate for words which shall correspond with the shadings of our thought and emotion, and a wide vocabulary may embarrass us with the plenitude of our verbal riches. but _may_ is not _must_. though the three kinds of vocabulary may interfere with each other, there is no reason, except superficially, why they should. our purpose should be, therefore, to acquire not a single kind but all three. we should be like the boy who, when asked whether he would have a small slice of apple pie or a small slice of pumpkin pie, replied resolutely, "thank you, i will take a large piece of both." that the assignments in this chapter may help you develop a vocabulary which shall be promptly responsive to your needs, you should perform some of them rapidly. your thoughts and feelings regarding a topic may be anything but clear, but you must not pause to clarify them. the words best suited to the matter may not be instantly available, but you must not tarry for accessions of language. stumble, flounder if you must, yea, rearrange your ideas even as you present them, but press resolutely ahead, comforting yourself with the assurance that in the heat and stress of circumstances a man rarely does his work precisely as he wishes. when you have finished the discussion, repeat it immediately--and with no more loitering than before. you will find that your ideas have shifted and enlarged, and that more appropriate words have become available. further repetitions will assist you the more. but the goal you should set yourself, as you proceed from topic to topic, is the attainment of the power to be at your best in the first discussion. you may never reach this goal, but at least you may approach it. that the assignments in this chapter may assist you in making your vocabulary accurate, you should perform some of them in another way. when you have selected a topic, you should first of all think it through. in doing this, arrange your ideas as consistently and logically as you can, and test them with your reason. then set them forth in language which shall be lucid and exact. tolerate no slipshod diction, no vaguely rendered general meanings. send every sentence, every word like a skilful drop-kick--straight above the crossbar. when you have done your best with the topic, lay it by for a space. time is a great revealer of hidden defects, and you must not regard your labors as ended until your achievement is the maturest possible for you. if the quantity of what you accomplish is meager, suffer no distress on that account. the desideratum now is not quantity, but quality. the assignments in this chapter will do less toward making your vocabulary wide than toward making it facile and precise. to be sure, they will now and then set you to hunting for words that are new. better still, they will give you a mastery over some of your outlying words--words known to your eyes or ears but not to your tongue. but these advantages will be somewhat incidental. means for the systematic extension of your verbal domain into regions as yet unexplored by you, are reserved for the later chapters of this book. < . a vocabulary for speech or for writing?> in the second place, are we to develop a vocabulary for oral discourse or a vocabulary for writing? it may be that our chief impediment or our chief ambition lies in one field rather than in the other. nevertheless we should strive for a double mastery; we ought to speak well _and_ write well. indeed the two powers so react upon each other that we ought to cultivate both for the sake of either. true, some men, though inexpert as writers, have made themselves proficient as speakers; or though shambling and ineffective as speakers, have made themselves proficient as writers. but this is not natural or normal. moreover these men might have gleaned more abundantly from their chosen field had they not shut it off from the acres adjacent. fences waste space and curtail harvests. the assignments in this chapter are of such a nature that you may perform them either orally or in writing. you should speak and write alternately, sometimes on the same topic, sometimes on topics taken in rotation. in your oral discussions you should perhaps absent yourself at first from human auditors. a bedstead or a dresser will not make you self-conscious or in any way distract your attention, and it will permit you to sit down afterward and think out the degree of your failure or success. ultimately, of course, you must speak to human beings--in informal conversations at the outset, in more ambitious ways later as occasion permits. in your writing you may find it advantageous to make preliminary outlines of what you wish to say. but above all, you must be willing to blot, to revise, to take infinite pains. you should remember the old admonition that easy reading is devilish hard writing. these purposes and methods are general. we now come to the specific fields in which we may with profit cultivate words in combination. of these fields there are four. if you read a foreign language, whether laboriously or with ease, you should make this power assist you to amass a good english vocabulary. take compositions or parts of compositions written in the foreign tongue, and turn them into idiomatic english. how much you should translate at a given time depends upon your leisure and your adeptness. employ all the methods--the spontaneous, the carefully perfected, the oral, the written--heretofore explained in this chapter. in your final work on a passage you should aim at a faultless rendition, and should spend time and ransack the lexicons rather than come short of this ideal. the habit of translation is an excellent habit to keep up. for the study of an alien tongue not only improves your english, but has compensations in itself. exercise - translation . translate from any accessible book in the foreign language you can read. . subscribe for a period of at least two or three months for a newspaper or magazine in that language, if it is a modern one. translate as before, but give most of your time to rapid oral translation for a real or imaginary american hearer. . when you have completed your final written translation of a passage from the foreign language, make yourself master of all the english words you have not previously ( ) known or ( ) used, but have encountered in your work of translation. < . mastery through paraphrasing> it may be that you are not familiar with a foreign language. at any rate you have some knowledge of english. put this knowledge to use in paraphrasing; for thus you will enrich your vocabulary and make it surer and more flexible. the process of paraphrasing is simple, though the actual work is not easy. you take passages written in english--the more of them the better, and the more diversified the better--and both reproduce their substance and incarnate their mood in words you yourself shall choose. you may have a passage before you and paraphrase it unit by unit. more often, however, you should follow the plan adopted by franklin when he emulated addison by rewriting the _spectator papers_. that is, you should steep yourself in the thought and emotion of a piece of writing, and then lay the piece aside until its wording has faded from your memory, when you should reëmbody the substance in language that seems to you natural and fitting. much of the benefit will come from your comparing your version, as franklin did his, with the original. when you perceive that you have fallen short, you should consider the respects wherein your inferiority lies--and should make another attempt, and yet another, and another. when you perceive that in any way you have surpassed the original, you should feel a just pride in your achievement--and should resolve that next time your cause for pride shall be greater still. even after you have desisted from formal paraphrasing, you should cling to the habit, formed at this time, of observing any notable felicities in whatever you read and of comparing them with the expression you yourself would likely have employed. exercise - paraphrasing . paraphrase the editorial in appendix . you should improve upon the original. keep trying until you do. . paraphrase the second paragraph in burke's speech (appendix ). burke lacked the cheap tricks of the ordinary orator, but his discussions were based upon a comprehensive knowledge of facts, a sympathetic understanding of human nature, a vast depth and range of thought, and a well-meditated political philosophy. in short, he is a model for _elaborated_ discussions. set forth the leading thought of this paragraph; you can give it in fewer words than he employs. but try setting it forth with his full accompaniments of reflection and information; you will be bewildered at his crowding so much into such small compass. . try to rival the pregnant conciseness of the parable of the sower (appendix ). . paraphrase in prose the seven ages of man (appendix ). catch if possible the mood, the "atmosphere," of each of the pictures painted by shakespeare. condense your paraphrase as much as you can. . in each of the preceding exercises compare your vocabulary with that of the original as to size, precision, and the grace and ease with which words are put together. does the original employ terms unfamiliar to you? if so, look up their meaning and make them yours; then observe, when you next paraphrase the passage, whether your mastery of these terms has improved your expression. < . mastery through discourse at first hand> models have their use, but you can also work without models. it is imperative that you should. you must learn to discuss, explain, analyze, argue, narrate, and describe for yourself. here again you should diversify your materials to the utmost, not only that you may become well-rounded and versatile in your ability to set forth ideas and feelings in words, but also that your knowledge and your sensibility may receive stimulation. it is feasible to begin by discussing or explaining. most of the intercourse conducted through language consists in either discussion or explanation. analysis, ordinarily, is almost ignored. argument is indulged in, and so is description (though less freely), but they are of the bluntest and broadest. narration--the recounting of incidents of everyday existence--is, however, widely employed. in your work of discussion or explanation you may seize upon any current topic--industrial, social, political, or what not--that comes into your mind. or you may make a list of such topics, writing each on a separate piece of paper; may jumble the slips in a hat; and may thus have always at your elbow a collection of satisfactory themes from which you may take one at random. or you may invest in language of your own selection the substance of an address or sermon you have heard, or give the burden of some important conversation in which you have participated, or explain the tenor of an article you have read. you should of course try to interest your hearers, and above all, you should impart to what you say complete clarity. in analyzing you should select as your topic a process fairly obscure, the implications of a certain statement or argument, the results to be expected from some action or policy that has been advocated, or the exact matter at issue between two disputants. any topic for discussion, explanation, or argument may be treated analytically. your analysis in its final form should be so carefully considered that its soundness cannot be impeached. in arguing you may take any subject under the sun, from baseball to bolshevism, for all of them are debated with vehemence. any topic for discussion or explanation becomes, when approached from some particular angle, material for argument. thus the initial topic in the exercise that follows is "the aeroplane's future as a carrier of mail." you may convert it into a question for debate by making it read: "the aeroplane is destined to supplant the railroad as a carrier of mail," or "the aeroplane is destined to be used increasingly as a carrier of transcontinental mail." in arguing you may propose for yourself either of two objectives: ( ) to silence your opponent, ( ) to refute, persuade, and win him over fairly. the achievement of the first end calls for bluster and perhaps a grim, barbaric strength; you must do as johnson did according to goldsmith's famous dictum--if your pistol misses fire, you must knock your adversary down with the butt end of it. this procedure, though inartistic to be sure, is in some contingencies the only kind that will serve. but you should cultivate procedure of a type more urbane. let your very reasonableness be the most potent weapon you wield. to this end you should form the habit of looking for good points on both sides of a question. as a still further precaution against contentiousness you should uphold the two sides successively. in narrating you should, as a rule, stick to simple occurrences, though you may occasionally vary your work by summarizing the plot of a novel or giving the gist and drift of big historical events. you should confine yourself, in large part, to incidents in which you have been personally involved, or which you yourself have witnessed, as mishaps, unexpected encounters, bickerings, even rescues or riots. you should omit non-essentials and make the happening itself live for your hearer; if you can so interest him in it that he will not notice your manner of telling it, your success is but the greater. finally, in describing you should deal for the most part with beings, objects, and appearances familiar to you. description is usually hard to make vivid. this is because the objects and scenes are likely to be immobile and (at least when told about) to lack distinctiveness. try, therefore, to lay hold of the peculiar quality of the thing described, and use words suggestive of color and motion. moreover be brief. long descriptions are sure to be wearisome. exercise - discourse . select topics from the following list for discussion or explanation: the aeroplane's future as a carrier of mail the commercial future of the aeroplane a recent scientific (or mechanical or electrical) invention a better type of newspaper--its contents and makeup a better type of newspaper--how it can be secured the connection between the advertising and news departments of a newspaper--the actual condition the connection between the advertising and news departments of a newspaper--the ideal special features in a newspaper that are popular a single standard for the sexes--is it possible? a single standard for the sexes--how it can be attained (or approximated) should the divorce laws be made more stringent? should a divorced person be prohibited from remarrying? what further marriage restrictions should be placed upon the physically or mentally unfit? what further measures should be taken by the cities (states, nation) for the protection of motherhood? is the division of men into strongly contrasted groups as to wealth one of nature's necessities, or is it the result of a social and economic system? some shortcomings of the labor unions are the shortcomings of the labor unions accidental or inherent? some ways of bettering the condition of the working classes how municipal (state, national) bureaus for finding employment for the laborer may become more serviceable wrongs committed by big business (or some branch of it) should a man's income above a stipulated amount be confiscated by the government? income taxes--what exemptions should be granted? the right basis for business--competition or coöperation? are the courts equally just to labor and capital? how can legal procedure be changed to enable individuals to secure just treatment from corporations without resorting to prolonged and expensive lawsuits? where our interests clash with those of great britain how our relations with great britain may be further improved how our relations with japan may be further improved how may closer commercial relations with other countries be promoted? what to do about the railroads and railroad rates a natural resource that should be conserved or restored do high tariffs breed international ill-will? should we have a high tariff at this juncture? to what extent should osteopathy (chiropractic) be permitted (or protected) by law? what is wrong with municipal government in my city how woman suffrage affects local government how to make rural life more attractive the importance of the rotation of crops the race problem as it affects my community the class problem as it affects my community the school-house as a social center how to americanize the alien elements in our population to what extent, if at all, should foreign-born citizens of our country be encouraged to preserve their native traditions and culture? censorship of the moving picture educational possibilities of the moving picture how to bring about improvement in the quality of the moving picture the effect of the moving picture upon legitimate drama a church that men will attend how young men may be attracted to the churches how far shall doctrine be insisted upon by the churches? to what extent shall the church concern itself with social and economic problems? to what extent, if at all, shall sunday diversions be restricted? the advantages of using the free public library can the cities give children in the slums better opportunities for physical (mental, moral) development? should all cities be required to establish zoölogical gardens, as well as schools, for the children? how my city might improve its system of public parks the most interesting thing about the work i am in opportunities in the work i am in the qualities called for in the work i am in the ideals of my associates something i have learned about life something i have learned about human nature a book that has influenced me, and why a person who has influenced me, and how my favorite sport or recreation why baseball is so popular what i could do for the people around me what i should like for the people around me to do for me. . discuss or explain the ideas listed in exercise for 'abstract vs. concrete' in "words in combination: some pitfalls" above. . analyze the debatable questions included in the two preceding exercises or suggested by them. that is, find the issues in each question, and show what each disputant must prove and what he must refute. . analyze the results to be expected from the adoption of some policy or course of action by: a newspaper a business firm the city the farmers the producers in some business or industry the consumers the retail merchants of your city some group of reformers some social group those interested in a social activity, as dancing your neighbors yourself. . analyze or explain: the testing of seed grain how to raise potatoes (any other vegetable) how to utilize and apportion the space in your garden how to keep an automobile in good shape how to run an automobile (motor boat) how to make a rabbit trap how to lay out a camp how to catch trout (bass, codfish, tuna fish, lobsters) how to conduct a public meeting how a bill is introduced and passed in a legislative body how food is digested how to extract oxygen from water how a fish breathes how gold is mined how wireless messages are sent how your favorite game is played how to survey a tract of land how stocks are bought and sold on margins how public opinion is formed how a man ought to form his opinions the responsibility of individuals to society the responsibility of society to the individual. . argue one side or the other, or the two successively, of queries contained or implied in exercises and . . argue one side or the other, or the two successively, of queries listed in exercise in exercise - abstract. . give a narrative of: the earning of your first dollar how somebody met his match an amusing incident an anxious moment a surprise the touchdown that fatal seventh inning how you got the position why you missed the train when you were lost your first trip on the railroad (a motor boat, a merry-go-round, snowshoes, a burro) a mishap how jenkins skated your life until the present (a summary) something you have heard your father tell what happened to your uncle your partner's (chum's) escapade meeting an old friend meeting a bore a conversation you have overheard when myrtle eavesdropped when the girls didn't know algy was in the parlor a public happening that interests you an incident you have read in the papers an incident from your favorite novel backward ben at the party something that happened to you today. . describe ... for the mood or general "atmosphere": anything you deem suitable in activity in exercise - connotation. an old, deserted house your birthplace as you saw it in manhood the view from an eminence a city as seen from a roof garden by night your mother's bible a barnyard scene the lonely old negro at the supper table a new immigrant gazing out upon the ocean he has crossed the downtown section at closing hour a scene of quietude a scene of bustle and confusion a richly colored scene a scene of dejection a scene of wild enthusiasm a scene of dulness or stagnation. with attention to homely detail: the old living-room my aunt's dresses barker's riding-horse the business street of the village a cabin in the mountains the office of a man approaching bankruptcy the potters' backyard the second-hand store the ugliest man. for general accuracy and vividness: the organ-grinder the signs of an approaching storm the arrival of the train mail-time at the village post office the crowd at the auction the old fishing-boat a country fair (or a circus) the inside of a theater (or a church) the funeral procession the political rally the choir. < . mastery through adapting discourse to audience> for convenience, we have heretofore assumed that ideas and emotions, together with such expression of them as shall be in itself adequate and faithful, comprise the sole elements that have to be reckoned with in the use of words in combination. but as you go out into life you will find that these things, however complete they may seem, are not in practice sufficient. another factor--the human--must have its place in our equation. you do not speak or write in a vacuum. your object, your ultimate object at least, in building up your vocabulary is to address men and women; and among men and women the varieties of training, of stations, of outlooks, of sentiments, of prejudices, of caprices are infinite. to gain an unbiased hearing you must take persistent cognizance of flesh and blood. in adapting discourse to audience you must have a supple and attentive mind and an impressionable and swiftly responsive temperament as well as a wide, accurate, and flexible vocabulary. unless you are a fool, a zealot, or an incorrigible adventurer, you will not broach a subject at all to which your hearers feel absolute indifference or hostility. normally you should pick a subject capable of interesting them. in presenting it you should pay heed to both your matter and your manner. you should emphasize for your listeners those aspects of the subject which they will most respond to or most need to hear, whether or not the phases be such as you would emphasize with other auditors. you should also speak in the fashion you deem most effective with them, whether or not it be one to which your own natural instincts prompt you. let us say you are discussing conditions in europe. you must speak in one way to the man who has traveled and in an entirely different way to the man who has never gone abroad--in one way to the well-read man, in an entirely different way to the ignoramus. let us say you are discussing urban life, urban problems. you must speak in one way to the man who lives in the city, in another to the man who lives in the country. let us say you are discussing the labor problem. you must speak in one way to employers, in another to employees, possibly in a third to men thrown out of jobs, possibly in a fourth to the general public. let us say you are discussing education, or literature, or social tendencies, or mechanical principles or processes, or some great enterprise or movement. you must speak in one way to cultivated hearers and in another to men in the street, and if you are a specialist addressing specialists, you will cut the garment of your discourse to their particular measure. the same principle holds regardless of whether you expound, analyze, argue, recount, or describe. you must always keep a finger on the mental or emotional pulse of those whom you address. but your problem varies slightly with the form of discourse you adopt. in explanation, analysis, and argument the chief barriers you encounter are likely to be those of the mind; you must make due allowance for the intellectual limitations of your auditors, though many who have capacity enough may for some cause or other be unreceptive to ideas. in description you must reckon with the imaginative faculty, with the possibility that your hearers cannot visualize what you tell them--and you must make your words brief. in narration you must vivify emotional torpor; but lest in your efforts to inveigle boredom you yourself should induce it, you must have a wary eye for signals of distress. exercise - adapting . explain to (a) a rich man, (b) a poor man the blessings of poverty. . discuss before (a) farmers, (b) merchants the idea that farmers (merchants) make a great deal of money. . explain to (a) the initiate, (b) the uninitiate some piece of mechanism, or some phase of a human activity or interest, which you know at first hand and regarding which technical (or at least not generally understood) terms are employed. (the exact subject depends, of course, upon your own observation or experience; you are sure to be familiar with something that most people know hazily, if at all. bank clerk, chess player, bridge player, stenographer, journalist, truck driver, backwoods-man, mechanic--all have special knowledge of one kind or another and can use the particular terms it calls for.) . explain to (a) a supporter of the winning team, (b) a supporter of the losing team why the baseball game came out as it did. . discuss before (a) a democratic, (b) a republican audience your reasons for voting the democratic (republican) ticket in the coming election. . explain to (a) your own family, (b) the man who can lend you the money, why you wish to mortgage your house (any piece of property). . explain to the owner of an ill-conducted business why he should sell it, and to a shrewd business man why he should buy it. . discuss before (a) old men, (b) young men, (c) women the desirability of men's giving up their seats in street cars to women. (also modify the question by requiring only young men to give up their seats, and then only to old people of either sex, to sick people, or to people with children in their arms.) . explain the necessity of restricting immigration to (a) prospective immigrants, (b) immigrants just granted admission to the country, (c) persons just refused admission, (d) exploiters of cheap labor, (e) ordinary citizens. . discuss the taking out of a life insurance policy with (a) a man not interested, (b) a man interested but uncertain what a policy is like, (c) a man interested and informed but doubtful whether he can spare the money, (d) the man's wife (his prospective beneficiary), whose desires will have weight with him. . discuss the necessity of a reduction in wages with (a) unscrupulous employers, (b) kind-hearted employers, (c) the employees. . advocate higher public school taxes before (a) men with children, (b) men without children. . advocate a further regulation of the speed of automobiles before (a) automobile-owners, (b) non-owners. . urge advocacy of some reform upon (a) a clergyman, (b) a candidate for office. . combat before (a) advertisers, (b) a public audience, (c) a lawmaking body, the defacement of landscapes by advertising billboards. . describe life in the slums before (a) a rural audience, (b) charitable persons, (c) rich people in the cities who know little of conditions among the poor. . describe the typical evening of a spendthrift in a city to (a) a poor man, (b) a miser, (c) the spendthrift's mother, (d) his employer, (e) a detective who suspects him of theft. . describe the city of washington (any other city) to (a) a countryman, (b) a traveler who has not visited this particular city. (if it is washington you describe, describe it also for children in whom you wish to inculcate patriotism.) . give (a) a youngster, (b) an experienced angler an account of your fishing trip. . recount for (a) a baseball fan, (b) a girl who has never seen a game, the occurrences of the second half of the ninth inning. . describe a fight for (a) your friends, (b) a jury. . narrate for (a) children, (b) an audience of adults some historical event. . give (a) your partner, (b) a reporter an account of a business transaction you have just completed. . narrate an escapade for (a) your father, (b) your cronies in response to a toast at a banquet with them. iv individual words: as verbal celibates thus far we have studied words as grouped together into phrases, sentences, paragraphs, whole compositions. we must now enter upon a new phase of our efforts to extend our vocabulary. we must study words as individual entities. you may think the order of our study should be reversed. no great harm would result if it were. the learning of individual words and the combining of them into sentences are parallel rather than successive processes. in our babyhood we do not accumulate a large stock of terms before we frame phrases and clauses. and our attainment of the power of continuous iteration does not check our inroads among individual words. we do the two things simultaneously, each contributing to our success with the other. there are plenty of analogies for this procedure. a good baseball player, for instance, tirelessly studies both the minutiae of his technique (as how to hold a bat, how to stand at the plate) and the big combinations and possibilities of the game. a good musician keeps unremitting command over every possible touch of each key and at the same time seeks sweeping mastery over vast and complex harmonies. so we, if we would have the obedience of our vocabularies, dare not lag into desultory attention to either words when disjoined or words as potentially combined into the larger units of thought and feeling. we might therefore consider either the individuals first or the groups first. but the majority of speakers and writers pay more heed to rough general substance than to separate instruments and items. hence we have thought best to begin where most work is going on already--with words in combination. as you turn from the groups to the individuals, you must understand that your labors will be onerous and detailed. you must not assume that by nature all words are much alike, any more than you assume that all men are much alike. of course the similarities are many and striking, and the fundamental fact is that a word is a word as a man is a man. but you will be no adept in handling either the one or the other until your knowledge goes much farther than this. let us glance first at the human variations. each man has his own business, and conducts it in his own way--a way never absolutely matched with that of any other mortal being. all this you may see. but besides the man's visible employment, he may be connected in devious fashions with a score of enterprises the public knows nothing about. furthermore he leads a private life (again not precisely corresponding to that of any other), has his hobbies and aversions, is stamped with a character, a temperament of his own. in short, though in thousands of respects he is like his fellows, he has after all no human counterpart; he is a distinct, individual self. to know him, to use him, to count upon his service in whatsoever contingency it might bestead you, you must deem him something more than a member of the great human family. you must cultivate him personally, cultivate him without weariness or stint, and undergo inconvenience in so doing. even so with a word. commonplace enough it may seem. but it has its peculiar characteristics, its activities undisclosed except to the curious, its subtle inclinations, its repugnances, its latent potentialities. there is no precise duplicate for it in all the wide domain of language. to know it intimately and thoroughly, to be on entirely free terms with it, to depend upon it just so far as dependence is safe, to have a sure understanding of what it can do and what it cannot, you must arduously cultivate it. words, like people, yield themselves to the worthy. they hunger for friendship--and lack the last barrier of reserve which hedges all human communion. thus, linguistically speaking, you must search out the individuals. you must step aside from your way for the sake of a new acquaintance; in conversations, in sermons, in addresses, in letters, in journalistic columns, in standard literature you must grasp the stranger by the hand and look him straight in the eye. nor must you treat cavalierly the words you know already. you must study them afresh; you must learn them over and learn them better; you must come to understand them, not only for what they are, but for what they will do. what, then, is your first task? somebody has laid down the injunction-- and, as always when anything is enjoined, others have given it currency-- that each day you should learn two new words. so be it,--but which two? the first two in the dictionary, or hitherto left untouched in your systematic conquest of the dictionary? the first two you hear spoken? the first two that stare at you from casual, everyday print? the first two you can ferret from some technical jargon, some special department of human interest or endeavor? in any of these ways you may obey the behest of these mentors. but are not such ways arbitrary, haphazard? and suppose, after doing your daily stint, you should encounter a word it behooves you to know. what then? are you to sulk, to withhold yourself from further exertion on the plea of a vocabulary-builder's eight-hour day? to adopt any of the methods designated would be like resolving to invest in city lots and then buying properties as you encountered them, with no regard for expenditure, for value in general, or for special serviceability to you. surely such procedure would be unbusinesslike. if you pay out good money, you meditate well whether that which you receive for it shall compensate you. likewise if you devote time and effort to gaining ownership of words, you should exercise foresight in determining whether they will yield you commensurate returns. what, then, is the principle upon which, at the outset, you should proceed? what better than to insure the possession of the words regarding which you know this already, that you need them and should make them yours? the natural way, and the best, to begin is with an analysis of your own vocabulary. you are of course aware that of the enormous number of words contained in the dictionary relatively few are at your beck and bidding. but probably you have made no attempt to ascertain the nature and extent of your actual linguistic resources. you should make an inventory of the stock on hand before sending in your order for additional goods. you will speedily discover that your vocabulary embraces several distinct classes of words. of these the first consists of those words which you have at your tongue's end--which you can summon without effort and use in your daily speech. they are old verbal friends. numbered with them, to be sure, there may be a few with senses and connotations you are ignorant of-- friends of yours, let us say, with a reservation. even these you may woo with a little care into uncurbed fraternal abandon. with the exception of these few, you know the words of the first class so well that without thinking about it at all you may rely upon their giving you, the moment you need them, their untempered, uttermost service. you need be at no further pains about them. they are yours already. a second class of words is made up of those you speak on occasions either special or formal--occasions when you are trying, perhaps not to show off, but at least to put your best linguistic foot foremost. some of them have a meaning you are not quite sure of; some of them seem too ostentatious for workaday purposes; some of them you might have been using but somehow have not. words of this class are not your bosom friends. they are your speaking acquaintance, or perhaps a little better than that. you must convert them into friends, into prompt and staunch supporters in time of need. that is to say, you must put them into class one. in bringing about this change of footing, you yourself must make the advances. you must say, go to, i will bear them in mind as i would a person i wished to cultivate. when occasion rises, you must introduce them into your talk. you will feel a bit shy about it, for introductions are difficult to accomplish gracefully; you will steal a furtive glance at your hearer perchance, and another at the word itself, as you would when first labeling a man "my friend mr. blank." but the embarrassment is momentary, and there is no other way. assume a friendship if you have it not, and presently the friendship will be real. you must be steadfast in intention; for the words that have held aloof from you are many, and to unloose all at once on a single victim would well-nigh brand you criminal. but you will make sure headway, and will be conscious besides that no other class of words in the language will so well repay the mastering. for these are words you _do_ use, and need to use more, and more freely--words your own experience stamps as valuable, if not indeed vital, to you. the third class of words is made up of those you do not speak at all, but sometimes write. they are acquaintance one degree farther removed than those of the second class. your task is to bring them into class two and thence into class one--that is, to introduce them into your more formal speech, and from this gradually into your everyday speech. the fourth class of words is made up of those you recognize when you hear or read them, but yourself never employ. they are acquaintance of a very distant kind. you nod to them, let us say, and they to you; but there the intercourse ends. obviously, they are not to be brought without considerable effort into a position of tried and trusted friendship. and shall we be absolutely honest?--some of them may not justify such assiduous care as their complete subjugation would call for. but even these you should make your feudal retainers. you should constrain them to membership in class three, and at your discretion in class two. apart from the words in class four, you will not to this point have made actual additions to your vocabulary. but you will have made your vocabulary infinitely more serviceable. you will be like a man with a host of friends where before, when his necessities were sorest, he found (along with some friends) many distant and timid acquaintance. outside the bounds of your present vocabulary altogether are the words you encounter but do not recognize, except (it may be) dimly and uncertainly. some counselors would have you look up all such words in a dictionary. but the task would be irksome. moreover those who prescribe it are loath to perform it themselves. your own candid judgment in the matter is the safest guide. if the word is incidental rather than vital to the meaning of the passage that contains it, and if it gives promise of but rarely crossing your vision again, you should deign it no more than a civil glance. plenty of ways will be left you to expend time wisely in the service of your vocabulary. exercise - analysis . make a list of the words in class two of your own vocabulary, and similar lists for classes three and four. (to make a list for class one would be but a waste of time.) procure if you can for this purpose a loose-leaf notebook, and in the several lists reserve a full page for each letter of the alphabet as used initially. do not scamp the lists, though their proper preparation consume many days, many weeks. try to make them really exhaustive. their value will be in proportion to their accuracy and fulness. . con the words in each list carefully and repeatedly. your task is to transfer these words into a more intimate list--those in class four into class three, those in three into two, those in two into one. you are then to promote again the words in the lower classes, except that (if your judgment so dictates) you may leave the new class three wholly or partially intact. to carry out this exercise properly you must keep these words in mind, make them part and parcel of your daily life. (for a special device for bringing them under subjection, see the next exercise.) . to write a word down helps you to remember it. that is why the normal way to transfer a word from class four into class two is to put it temporarily into the intermediary class, three; you first _see_ or _hear_ the word, next _write_ it, afterwards _speak_ it. the mere writing down of your lists has probably done much to bring the words written into the circuit of your memory, where you can more readily lay hold of them. also it has fortified your confidence in using them; for to write a word out, letter by letter, makes you surer that you have its right form. with many of your words you will likely have no more trouble; they will be at hand, anxious for employment, and you may use them according to your need. but some of your words will still stubbornly withhold themselves from memory. weed these out from your lists, make a special list of them, copy it frequently, construct short sentences into which the troublesome words fit. by dint of writing the words so often you will soon make them more tractable. . make a fifth list of words--those you hear or see printed, do not understand the meaning of, but yet feel you should know. obtain and confirm a grasp of them by the successive processes used with words in the preceding lists. another means of buttressing your command of your present vocabulary is to define words you use or are familiar with. do not bewilder yourself with words (like _and, the_) which call for ingenuity in handling somewhat technical terms, or with words (like _thing, affair, condition_) which loosely cover a multitude of meanings. (you may, however, concentrate your efforts upon some one meaning of words in the latter group.) select words with a fairly definite signification, and express this as precisely as you can. you may afterwards consult a dictionary for means of checking up on what you have done. but in consulting it think only of idea, not of form. you are not training yourself in dictionary definitions, but in the sharpness and clarity of your understanding of meanings. about the only rule to be laid down regarding the definition of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs is that you must not define a word in terms of itself. thus if you define _grudgingly_ as "in a grudging manner," you do not dissipate your hearer's uncertainty as to what the word means. if you define it as "unwillingly" or "in a manner that shows reluctance to yield possession," you give your hearer a clear-cut idea in no wise dependent upon his ability to understand the word that puzzled him in the first place. normally, in defining a noun you should assign the thing named to a general class, and to its special limits within that class; in other words, you should designate its genus and species. you must take care to differentiate the species from all others comprised within the genus. you will, in most instances, first indicate the genus and then the species, but at your convenience you may indicate the species first. thus if you affirm, "a cigar is smoking-tobacco in the form of a roll of tobacco-leaves," you name the genus first and later the characteristics of the species. you have given a satisfactory definition. if on the other hand you affirm, "a cigar is a roll of tobacco-leaves meant for smoking," you first designate the species and then merely imply the genus. again you have given a satisfactory definition; for you have permitted no doubt that the genus is smoking-tobacco, and have prescribed such limits for the species as exclude tobacco intended for a pipe or a cigarette. in defining nouns by the genus-and-species method, restrict the genus to the narrowest possible bounds. you will thus save the need for exclusions later. had you in your first definition of a cigar begun by saying that it is tobacco, rather than smoking-tobacco, you would have violated this principle; and you would have had to amplify the rest of your definition in order to exclude chewing-tobacco, snuff, and the like. exercise - definition . define words of your own choosing in accordance with the principles laid down in the preceding section of the text. . define the following adjectives, adverbs, and verbs: miserable rebuke wise angrily rapidly boundless swim paint whiten haughtily surly causelessly . so define the following nouns as to prevent any possible confusion with the nouns following them in parentheses: wages (salary) ride (drive) planet (star) truck (automobile) watch (clock) reins (lines) jail (penitentiary) iron (steel) vegetable (fruit) timber (lumber) flower (weed) rope (string) hail (sleet, snow) stock (bond) newspaper (magazine) street car (railway coach) cloud (fog) revolver (rifle, pistol, etc.) mountain (hill) creek (river) letter (postal card) . while remembering that the following words are of broad signification and mean different things to different people, define them according to their meaning to you: gentleman courage honesty beauty honor good manners generosity a good while charity a little distance modesty long ago so much for the words which are already yours, or which you can make yours through your own unaided efforts. for convenience we have grouped with them some words of a nature more baffling--words of which you know perhaps but a single aspect rather than the totality, or upon which you can obtain but a feeble and precarious grip. these slightly known words belong more to the class now to be considered than to that just disposed of. for we have now to deal with words over which you can establish no genuine rulership unless you have outside help. you must own a dictionary, have it by you, consult it carefully and often. do not select one for purchasing upon the basis of either mere bigness or cheapness. if you do, you may make yourself the owner of an out-of-date reprint from stereotyped plates. what to choose depends partly upon personal preference, partly upon whether your need is for comprehensiveness or compression. if you are a scholar, _murray's_ many-volumed _new english dictionary_ may be the publication for you; but if you are an ordinary person, you will probably content yourself with something less expensive and exhaustive. you will find the _century dictionary and cyclopedia_, in twelve volumes, or _webster's new international dictionary_ an admirable compilation. the _new standard dictionary_ will also prove useful. all in all, if you can afford it, you should provide yourself with one or the other of these three large and authoritative, but not too inclusive, works. of the smaller lexicons _webster's collegiate dictionary, webster's secondary school dictionary_, the _practical standard dictionary_, and the _desk standard dictionary_ answer most purposes well. a dictionary is not for show. you must learn to use it. what ordinarily passes for use is in fact abuse. wherein? let us say that you turn to your lexicon for the meaning of a word. of the various definitions given, you disregard all save the one which enables the word to make sense in its present context, or which fits your preconception of what the word should stand for. having engaged in this solemn mummery, you mentally record the fact that you have been squandering your time, and enter into a compact with yourself that no more will you so do. at best you have tided over a transitory need, or have verified a surmise. you have not truly _learned_ the word, brought it into a vassal's relationship with you, so fixed it in memory that henceforth, night or day, you can take it up like a familiar tool. this procedure is blundering, farcical, futile, incorrect. to suppose you have learned a word by so cursory a glance at its resources is like supposing you have learned a man through having had him render you some temporary and trivial service, as lending you a match or telling you the time of day. to acquaint yourself thoroughly with a word--or a man-- involves effort, application. you must go about the work seriously, intelligently. one secret of consulting a dictionary properly lies in finding the primary, the original meaning of the word. you must go to the source. if the word is of recent formation, and is native rather than naturalized english, you have only to look through the definitions given. such a word will not cause you much trouble. but if the word is derived from primitive english or from a foreign language, you must seek its origin, not in one of the numbered subheads of the definition, but in an etymological record you will perceive within brackets or parentheses. here you will find the anglo-saxon (old english), latin, greek, french, german, italian, scandinavian, or other word from which sprang the word you are studying, and along with this authentic original you may find cognate words in other languages. these you may examine if you care to observe their resemblance to your word, but the examination is not necessary. it could teach you only the earlier or other _forms_ of your word, whereas what you are after is the original _meaning_. this too is set down within the brackets; if your search is in earnest, you cannot possible miss it. and having discovered this original meaning, you must get it in mind; it is one of the really significant things about the word. your next step is to find the present import of the word. look, therefore, through the modern definitions. of these there may be too many, with too delicate shadings in thought between them, for you to keep all clearly in mind. in fact you need not try. consider them of course, but out of them seek mainly the drift, the central meaning. after a little practice you will be able to disengage it from the others. you now know the original sense of the word and its central signification today. the two may be identical; they may be widely different; but through reflection or study of the entire definition you will establish some sort of connection between them. when you have done this, you have mastered the word. from the two meanings you can surmise the others, wherever and whenever encountered; for the others are but outgrowths and applications of them. one warning will not be amiss. you must not suppose that the terms used in defining a word are its absolute synonyms, or may be substituted for it indiscriminately. you must develop a feeling for _the limits_ of the word, so that you may perceive where its likeness to the other terms leaves off and its unlikeness begins. thus if one of the terms employed in defining _command_ is _control_, you must not assume that the two words are interchangeable; you must not say, for instance, that the captain controlled his men to present arms. such, abstractly stated, is the way to look up a word in the dictionary. let us now take a concrete illustration. starting with the word _tension_, let us ascertain what we can about it in the _century dictionary and cyclopedia_. our first quest is the original meaning. for this we consult the bracketed matter. there we meet the french, spanish, portuguese, and italian kinsmen of the word, and learn that they are traceable to a common ancestor, the latin _tensio(n)_, which comes from the latin verb _tendere_. the meaning of _tensio(n)_ is given as "stretching," that of _tendere_ as "stretch," "extend." thus we know of the original word that in form it closely resembles the modern word, and that in meaning it involves the idea of stretching. what is the central meaning of the word today? to acquaint ourselves with this we must run through the definitions listed. here (in condensed form) they are. ( ) the act of stretching. ( ) in _mechanics_, stress or the force by which something is pulled. ( ) in _physics_, a constrained condition of the particles of bodies. ( ) in _statical electricity_, surface-density. ( ) mental strain, stress, or application. ( ) a strained state of any kind, as political or social. ( ) an attachment to a sewing-machine for regulating the strain of the thread. now of these definitions ( ), ( ), ( ), and ( ) are too highly specialized to conduct us, of themselves, into the highway of the word's meaning. they bear out, however, the evidence of ( ), ( ), and ( ), which have as their core the idea of stretching, or of the strain which stretching produces. we must now lay the original meaning alongside the central meaning today, in order to draw our conclusions. we perceive that the two meanings correspond. yet by prying into them we make out one marked difference between them. the original meaning is literal, the modern largely figurative. to be sure, the figure has been so long used that it is now scarcely felt as a figure; its force and definiteness have departed. consequently we may speak of being on a tension without having in mind at all a comparison of our nervous system with a stretched garment, or with an outreaching arm, or with a tightly strung musical instrument, or with a taut rope. what, then, is the net result of our investigation? simply this, that _tension_ means stretching, and that the stretching may be conceived either literally or figuratively. with these two facts in mind, we need not (unless we are experts in mechanics, physics, statical electricity, or the sewing-machine) go to the trouble of committing the special senses of _tension_; for should occasion bid, we can--from our position at the heart of the word--easily grasp their rough purport. and from other persons than specialists no more would be required. exercise - dictionary for each of the following words find (a) the original meaning, (b) the central meaning today. (other words are given in the exercises at the end of this chapter.) bias supersede sly aversion capital meerschaum extravagant travel alley concur travail fee attention apprehend superb magnanimity lewd adroit altruism instigation quite benevolence complexion urchin charity bishop thoroughfare unction starve naughty speed cunning moral success decent antic crafty handsome savage usury solemn uncouth costume parlor window presumption bombastic colleague petty vixen alderman queen doctor engage to thread with minute fidelity the mazes of a word's former history is the task of the linguistic scholar; our province is the practical and the present-day. but words, like men, are largely what they are because of what they have been; and to turn a gossip's eye upon their past is to procure for ourselves, often, not only enlightenment but also entertainment. this fact, though brought out in some part already, deserves separate and fuller discussion. in the first place, curiosity as to words' past experience enables us to read with keener understanding the literature of preceding ages. of course we should not, even so, go farther back than about three centuries. to read anything earlier than shakespeare would require us to delve too deeply into linguistic bygones. and to read shakespeare himself requires effort--but rewards it. let us see how an insight into words will help us to interpret the seven ages of man (appendix ). in line of this passage appears the word _merely_. in shakespeare's time it frequently meant "altogether" or "that and nothing else." as here used, it may be taken to mean this, or to have its modern meaning, or to stand in meaning midway between the two and to be suggestive of both; there is no way of determining precisely. in line the word _pard_ means leopard. in line _saws_ means "sayings" (compare the phrase "an old saw"); _modern_ means "moderate," "commonplace"; _instances_ means what we mean by it today, "examples," "illustrations." (line as a whole gives us a vivid sense of the justice's readiness to speak sapiently, after the manner of justices, and to trot out his trite illustrations on the slightest provocation.) the word _pantaloon_ in line is interesting. the patron saint of venice was st. pantaleon (the term is from greek, means "all-lion," and possibly refers to the lion of st. mark's cathedral). _pantaloon_ came therefore to signify ( ) a venetian, ( ) a garment worn by venetians and consisting of breeches and stockings in one. the second sense is preserved, substantially, in our term _pantaloons_. the first sense led to the use of the word (in the mouths of the venetians' enemies) for "buffoon" and then (in early italian comedy) for "a lean and foolish old man." it is this stock figure of the stage that shakespeare evokes. in line _hose_ means the covering for a man's body from his waist to his nether-stock. (compare the present meaning: a covering for the feet and the _lower_ part of the legs.) in line _mere_ means "absolute." in line _sans_ means "without." of the words we have examined, only _sans_ is obsolete, though _pard_, _saws_, and _pantaloon_ are perhaps not entirely familiar. that is, only one word in the passage, so far as its outward form goes, is completely alien to our knowledge. but how different the matter stands when we consider meanings! the words are words of today, but the meanings are the meanings of shakespeare. we should be baffled and misled as to the dramatist's thought if we had made no inquiries into the vehicle therefor. in the second place, to look beyond the present into the more remote signification of words will put us on our guard against the reappearance of submerged or half-forgotten meanings. we have seen that the word _tension_ may be used without conscious connection with the idea of stretching. but if we incautiously place the word in the wrong environment, the idea will be resurrected to our undoing. we associate _ardor_ with strong and eager desire. for ordinary purposes this conception of the word suffices. but _ardor_ is one of the children of fire; its primary sense is "burning" (compare _arson_). therefore to pronounce the three vocables "overflowing with ardor" is to mix figures of speech absurdly. we should fall into a similar mistake if we said "brilliant fluency," and into a mistake of another kind (that of tautology or repetition of an idea) if we said "heart-felt cordiality," for _cordiality_ means "feelings of the heart." _appreciate_ means "set a (due) value on." we may perhaps say "really appreciate," but scrupulous writers and speakers do not say "appreciate very much." a _humor_ (compare humid) was once a "moisture"; then one of the four moistures or liquids that entered into the human constitution and by the proportions of their admixture determined human temperament; next a man's outstanding temperamental quality (the thing itself rather than the cause of it); then oddity which people may laugh at; then the spirit of laughter and good nature in general. normally we do not connect the idea of moisture with the word. we may even speak of "a dry humor." but we should not say "now and then a dry humor crops out," for then too many buried meanings lie in the same grave for the very dead to rest peacefully together. even apart from reading old literature and from having, when you use words, no ghosts of their pristine selves rise up to damn you, you may profit from a knowledge of how the meaning of a term has evolved. for example, you will meet many tokens and reminders of the customs and beliefs of our ancestors. thus _coxcomb_ carries you back to the days when every court was amused by a "fool" whose head was decked with a cock's comb; _crestfallen_ takes you back to cockfighting; and _lunatic_ ("moonstruck"), _disaster_ ("evil star"), and "thank your lucky stars" plant you in the era of superstition when human fate was governed by heavenly bodies. further, you will perceive the poetry of words. thus to _wheedle is_ to wag the tail and to _patter_ is to hurry through one's prayers (paternoster). what a picture of the frailty of men even in their holiness flashes on us from that word _patter! breakfast is_ the breaking of the fast of the night. _routine_ (the most humdrum of words) is travel along a way already broken. _goodby_ is an abridged form of "god be with you." _dilapidated_ is fallen stone from stone. _daisy_ is "the day's eye," _nasturtium_ (from its spicy smell) "the nose-twister," _dandelion_ "the tooth of the lion." _a lord_ is a bread-guard. you will perceive, moreover, that many a dignified word once involved the same idea as some unassuming or even semi-disreputable word or expression involves now. thus there is little or no difference in figure between understanding a thing and getting on to it; between averting something (turning it aside) and sidetracking it; between excluding (shutting out) and closing the door to; between degrading (putting down a step) and taking down a notch; between accumulating (heaping up) and making one's pile; between taking umbrage (the shadow) and being thrown in the shade; between ejaculating and throwing out a remark; between being on a tension and being highstrung; between being vapid and having lost steam; between insinuating (winding in) and worming in; between investigating and tracking; between instigating (goading on or into) and prodding up; between being incensed (compare _incendiary_) and burning with indignation; between recanting (unsinging) and singing another tune; between ruminating (chewing) and smoking in one's pipe. nor is there much difference in figure between sarcasm (a tearing of the flesh) and taking the hide off; between sinister (left-handed) and backhanded; between preposterous (rear end foremost) and cart before the horse; between salary (salt-money, an allowance for soldiers) and pin-money; between pedigree (crane's foot, from the appearance of genealogical diagrams) and crowsfeet (about the eyes); between either precocious (early cooked), apricot (early cooked), crude (raw), or recrudescence (raw again) and half-baked. to ponder is literally to weigh; to apprehend an idea is to take hold of it; to deviate is to go out of one's way; to congregate is to flock together; to assail or insult a man is to jump on him; to be precipitate is to go head foremost; to be recalcitrant is to kick. again, you will perceive that many words once had more literal or more definitely concrete meanings than they have now. to corrode is to gnaw along with others, to differ is to carry apart, to refuse is to pour back. polite is polished, absurd is very deaf, egregious is taken from the common herd, capricious is leaping about like a goat, cross (disagreeable) is shaped like a cross, wrong is wrung (or twisted). crisscross is christ's cross, attention is stretching toward, expression is pressed out, dexterity is right-handedness, circumstances are things standing around, an innuendo is nodding, a parlor is a room to talk in, a nostril is that which pierces the nose (thrill means pierce), vinegar is sharp wine, a stirrup is a rope to mount by, a pastor is a shepherd, a marshal is a caretaker of horses, a constable is a stable attendant, a companion is a sharer of one's bread. on the other hand, you will find that many words were once more general in import than they have since become. _fond_ originally meant foolish, then foolishly devoted, then (becoming more general again) devoted. _nostrum_ meant our own, then a medicine not known by other physicians, then a quack remedy. _shamefast_ meant confirmed in modesty (shame); then through a confusion of _fast_ with _faced_, a betrayal through the countenance of self-consciousness or guilt. _counterfeit_ meant a copy or a picture, then an unlawful duplication, especially of a coin. _lust_ meant pleasure of any sort, then inordinate sexual pleasure or desire. _virtue_ (to trace only a few of its varied activities) meant manliness, then the quality or attribute peculiar to true manhood (with the romans this was valor), then any admirable quality, then female chastity. _pen_ meant a feather, then a quill to write with, then an instrument for writing used in the same way as a quill. a _groom_ meant a man, then a stableman (in _bridegroom_, however, it preserves the old signification). _heathen_ (heath-dweller), _pagan_ (peasant), and _demon_ (a divinity) had in themselves no iniquitous savor until early christians formed their opinion of the people inaccessible to them and the spirits incompatible with the unity of the godhead. words betokening future happenings or involving judgment tend to take a special cast from the fears and anxieties men feel when their fortune is affected or their destiny controlled by external forces. thus _omen_ (a prophetic utterance or sign) and _portent_ (a stretching forward, a foreseeing, a foretelling) might originally be either benign or baleful; but nowadays, especially in the adjectival forms _ominous_ and _portentous_, they wear a menacing hue. similarly _criticism_, _censure_, and _doom_, all of them signifying at first mere judgment, have come--the first in popular, the other two in universal, usage--to stand for adverse judgment. the old sense of _doom_ is perpetuated, however, in _doomsday_, which means the day on which we are all to be, not necessarily sent to hell, but judged. you will furthermore perceive that the exaggerated affirmations people are always indulging in have led to the weakening of many a word. _fret_ meant eat; formerly to say that a man was fretting was to use a vigorous comparison--to have the man devoured with care. _mortify_ meant to kill, then killed with embarrassment, then embarrassed. _qualm_ meant death, but our qualms of conscience have degenerated into mere twinges. oaths are shorn of their might by overuse; _confound_, once a tremendous malinvocation, may now fall from the lips of respectable young ladies, and _fie_, in its time not a whit less dire, would be scarcely out of place in even a cloister. words designating immediacy come to have no more strength than soup-meat seven times boiled. _presently_ meant in the present, _soon_ and _by and by_ meant forthwith. how they have lost their fundamental meaning will be intelligible to you if you have in ordering something been told that it would be delivered "right away," or in calling for a girl have been told that she would be down "in a minute." you will detect in words of another class a deterioration, not in force, but in character; they have fallen into contemptuous or sinister usage. many words for skill or wisdom have been thus debased. _cunning_ meant knowing, _artful_ meant well acquainted with one's art, _crafty_ meant proficient in one's craft or calling, _wizard_ meant wise man. the present import of these words shows how men have assumed that mental superiority must be yoked with moral dereliction or diabolical aid. words indicating the generality--indicating ordinary rank or popular affiliations--have in many instances suffered the same decline. _trivial_ meant three ways; it was what might be heard at the crossroads or on any route you chanced to be traveling, and its value was accordingly slight. _lewd_ meant belonging to the laity; it came to mean ignorant, and then morally reprehensible. _common_ may be used to signify ill-bred; _vulgar_ may be and frequently is used to signify indecent. _sabotage_, from a french term meaning wooden shoe, has come to be applied to the deliberate and systematic scamping of one's work in order to injure one's employer. _idiot_ (common soldier) crystallizes the exasperated ill opinion of officers for privates. (_infantry_--an organization of military infants--has on the contrary sloughed its reproach and now enshrines the dignity of lowliness.) somewhat akin to words of this type is _knave_, which first meant boy, then servant, then rogue. terms for agricultural classes seldom remain flattering. besides such epithets as _hayseed_ and _clodhopper_, contemptuous in their very origin, _villain_ (farm servant), _churl_ (farm laborer), and _boor_ (peasant) have all gathered unto themselves opprobrium; _villain_ now involves a scoundrelly spirit, _churl_ a contumelious manner, _boor_ a bumptious ill-breeding; not one of these words is any longer confined in its application to a particular social rank. terms for womankind are soon tainted. _wench_ meant at first nothing worse than girl or daughter, _quean_ than woman, _hussy_ than housewife; even _woman_ is generally felt to be half-slighting. terms affirming unacquaintance with sin, or abstention from it, tend to be quickly reft of what praise they are fraught with; none of us likes to be saluted as _innocent_, _guileless_, or _unsophisticated_, and to be dubbed _silly_ no longer makes us feel blessed. besides these and similar classes of words, there are innumerable individual terms that have sadly lost caste. an _imp_ was erstwhile a scion; it then became a boy, and then a mischievous spirit. a _noise_ might once be music; it has ceased to enjoy such possibilities. to live near a piano that is constantly banged is to know how _noise_ as a synonym for music was outlawed. a backward glance over the history of words repays you in showing you the words for what they are, and in having them live out their lives before you. do you know what an _umpire_ is? he is a non (or num) peer, a not equal man, an odd man--one therefore who can decide disputes. do you know what a _nickname_ is? it is an eke (also) name, a title bestowed upon one in addition to his proper designation. do you know what a _fellow_, etymologically speaking, is? he is a fee-layer, a partner, a man who lays his fee (property) alongside yours. do you know that _matinée_, though awarded to the afternoon, meant primarily a morning entertainment and has traveled so far from its original sense that we call an actual before-noon performance a morning matinée? do you know the past of such words as _bedlam_, _rival_, _parson_, _sandwich_, _pocket handkerchief?_ _bedlam_, a corruption of _bethlehem_, was a hospital for the insane in london; it came to be a general term for great confusion or discord. _rivals_ were formerly dwellers--that is, neighboring dwellers--on the bank of a stream; disputes over water-rights gave the word its present meaning. a _person_ or _parson_, for the two were the same, was a mask (literally, that through which the sound came); then an actor representing a character in a play; then a representative of any sort; then the representative of the church in a parish. a _sandwich_ was a stratification of bread and meat by the earl of sandwich, who was so loath to leave the gaming table that he saved time by having food brought him in this form. a _kerchief_ was originally a cover for the head, and indeed sundry amiable, old-fashioned grandmothers still use it for this purpose. afterward people carried it in their hands and called it a _handkerchief_; and when they transferred it to the pocket, they called it a _pocket handkerchief_ or pocket hand head-cover. a scrutiny of such words should convince you that the reading of the dictionary, instead of being the dull occupation it is almost proverbially reputed to be, may become an occupation truly fascinating. for clustered about the words recorded in the dictionary are inexhaustible riches of knowledge and of interest for those who have eyes to see. exercise - past . for each of the following words look up (a) the present meaning if you do not know it, (b) the original meaning, (c) any other past meanings you can find. exposition corn cattle influence sanguine turmoil sinecure waist shrew potential spaniel crazy character candidate indomitable infringe rascal amorphous expend thermometer charm rather tall stepchild wedlock ghostly haggard bridal pioneer pluck noon neighbor jimson weed courteous wanton rosemary cynical street plausible grocer husband allow worship gipsy insane encourage clerk disease astonish clergyman boulevard realize hectoring canary bombast primrose diamond benedict walnut abominate piazza holiday barbarous disgust heavy kind virtu nightmare devil gospel comfort whist mermaid pearl onion enthusiasm domino book fanatic grotesque cheat auction economy illegible quell cheap illegitimate sheriff excelsior emasculate danger dunce champion shibboleth calico adieu essay pontiff macadamize wages copy stentorian quarantine puny saturnine buxom caper derrick indifferent boycott mercurial gaudy countenance poniard majority camera chattel. . the following words are often used loosely today, some because their original meaning is lost sight of, some because they are confused with other words. find for each word (a) what the meaning has been and (b) what the correct meaning is now. nice awful atrocious grand horrible pitiful beastly transpire claim weird aggravate uncanny demean gorgeous elegant fine noisome mutual (in "a mutual friend") lovely cute stunning liable immense. . the following sentences from standard english literature illustrate the use of words still extant and even familiar, in senses now largely or wholly forgotten. the quotations from the bible and shakespeare (all the biblical quotations are from the king james version) date back a little more than three hundred years, those from milton a little less than three hundred years, and those from gray and coleridge, respectively, about a hundred and seventy-five and a hundred and twenty-five years. go carefully enough into the past meanings of the italicized words to make sure you grasp the author's thought. and now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is _charity_.( _corinthians_ : ) i _prevented_ the dawning of the morning. (_psalms_ : ) our eyes _wait_ upon the lord our god. (_psalms_ : ) the times of this ignorance god _winked_ at. (_acts_ : ) and jesus said, somebody hath touched me; for i perceive that _virtue_ is gone out of me. (_luke_ : ) to judge the _quick_ and the dead. ( _peter_ : ) be not wise in your own _conceits_. (_romans_ : ) in maiden meditation, _fancy_-free. (shakespeare: _a midsummer night's dream_) is it so _nominated_ in the bond? (shakespeare: _the merchant of venice_) would i had met my _dearest_ foe in heaven. (shakespeare: _hamlet_) the _extravagant_ and _erring_ spirit. (said of a spirit wandering from the bounds of purgatory. shakespeare: _hamlet_) the _modesty_ of nature. (shakespeare: _hamlet_) it is a nipping and an _eager_ air. (shakespeare: _hamlet_) _security_ is mortals' chiefest enemy. (shakespeare: _macbeth_) most _admired_ disorder. (shakespeare: _macbeth_) upon this _hint_ i spake. (from the account of the wooing of desdemona. shakespeare: _othello_) this lodovico is a _proper_ man. a very handsome man. (shakespeare: _othello_) mice and rats and such small _deer_. (shakespeare: _king lear_) this is no sound that the earth _owes_. (shakespeare: _the tempest_) every shepherd _tells_ his _tale_. (milton: _l'allegro_) bring the _rathe_ primrose that forsaken dies. (_rathe_ survives only in the comparative form _rather_. milton: _lycidas_) can honor's voice _provoke_ the silent dust? (gray: _elegy_) the _silly_ buckets on the deck. (coleridge: _the ancient mariner_) . in technical usage or particular phrases a former sense of a word may be embedded like a fossil. the italicized words in the following list retain special senses of this kind. what do these words as thus used mean? can you add to the list? to _wit_ might and _main_ time and _tide_ christmas_tide_ _sad_ bread a bank _teller_ to _tell_ one's _beads_ aid and _abet_ _meat_ and drink shop_lifter_ fishing-_tackle_ getting off _scot_-free an _earnest_ of future favors a _brave_ old hearthstone _confusion_ to the enemy! giving aid and _comfort_ to the enemy without _let_ or hindrance a _let_ in tennis _quick_lime cut to _the quick_ _neat_-foot oil to _sound in_ tort (legal phrase) to bid one god_speed_ i had as _lief_ as not the child _favors_ its parents on _pain_ of death widow's _weeds_ i am _bound_ for the promised land to _carry_ a girl to a party (used only in the south) to give a person so much _to boot_ . each of the subjoined phrases contradicts itself or repeats its idea clumsily. the key to the difficulty lies in the italicized words. what is their true meaning? a weekly _journal_ _ultimate_ end final _ultimatum_ _final_ completion previous _preconceptions_ _nauseating_ seasickness _join_ together _descend_ down _prefer_ better _argent_ silver completely _annihilate_ _unanimously_ by all most _unique_ of all the other _alternative_ _endorse_ on the back _incredible_ to believe a _criterion_ to go by an _appetite_ to eat _a panacea_ for all ills _popular_ with the people _biography_ of his life _autobiography_ of his own life _vitally_ alive a new, _novel_, and ingenious explanation _mutual_ dislike for each other _omniscient_ knowledge of all subjects a _material_ growth in mental power _peculiar_ faults of his own fly into an _ebullient_ passion to _saturate_ oneself with gold and silver elected by _acclamation on_ a secret ballot. v. individual words: as members of verbal families our investigation into the nature, qualities, and fortunes of single words must now merge into a study of their family connections. we do not go far into this new phase of our researches before we perceive that the career of a word may be very complicated. most people, if you asked them, would tell you that an individual word is a causeless entity--a thing that was never begotten and lacks power to propagate. they would deny the possibility that its course through the world could be other than colorless, humdrum. now words thus immaculately conceived and fatefully impotent, words that shamble thus listlessly through life, there are. but many words are born in an entirely normal way; have a grubby boyhood, a vigorous youth, and a sober maturity; marry, beget sons and daughters, become old, enfeebled, even senile; and suffer neglect, if not death. in their advanced age they are exempted by the discerning from enterprises that call for a lusty agility, but are drafted into service by those to whom all levies are alike. indeed in their very prime of manhood their vicissitudes are such as to make them seem human. some rise in the world some sink; some start along the road of grandeur or obliquity, and then backslide or reform. some are social climbers, and mingle in company where verbal dress coats are worn; some are social degenerates, and consort with the ragamuffins and guttersnipes of language. some marry at their own social level, some above them, some beneath; some go down in childless bachelorhood or leave an unkempt and illegitimate progeny. and if you trace their own lineage, you will find for some that it is but decent and middle-class, for some that it is mongrelized and miscegenetic, for some that it is proud, ancient, yea perhaps patriarchal. it is contrary to nature for a word, as for a man, to live the life of a hermit. through external compulsion or internal characteristics a word has contacts with its fellows. and its most intimate, most spontaneous associations are normally with its own kindred. in our work hitherto we have had nothing to say of verbal consanguinity. but we have not wholly ignored its existence, for the very good reason that we could not. for example, in the latter portions of chapter iv we proceeded on the hypothesis that at least some words have ancestors. also in the analysis of the dictionary definition of _tension_ we learned that the word has, not only a latin forebear, but french, spanish, portuguese, and italian kinsmen as well. one thing omitted from that analysis would have revealed something further--namely, that the word has its english kinfolks too. for the bracketed part of the dictionary definition mentions two other english words, _tend_ and _tense_, which from their origin involve the same idea as that of _tension_-- the idea of stretching. now words may be akin in either of two ways. they may be related in blood. or they may be related by marriage. let us consider these two kinds of connection more fully. as an illustration of blood kinships enjoyed by a native english word take the adjective _good_. we can easily call to mind other members of its family: goodly, goodish, goody-goody, good-hearted, good-natured, good- humored, good-tempered, goods, goodness, goodliness, gospel (good story), goodby, goodwill, goodman, goodwife, good-for-nothing, good den (good evening), the good book. the connection between these words is obvious. next consider a group of words that have been naturalized: scribe, prescribe, ascribe, proscribe, transcribe, circumscribe, subscriber, indescribable, scribble, script, scripture, postscript, conscript, rescript, manuscript, nondescript, inscription, superscription, description. it is clear that these words are each other's kith and kin in blood, and that the strain or stock common to all is _scribe_ or (as sometimes modified) _script_. what does this strain signify? the idea of writing. the _scribes_ are a writing clan. some of them, to be sure, have strayed somewhat from the ancestral calling, for words are as wilful--or as independent--as men. _ascribe_, for example, does not act like a member of the household of writers, whatever it may look like. we should have to scrutinize it carefully or consult the record for it in that verbal who's who, the dictionary, before we could understand how it came by its scribal affiliations honestly. but once we begin to reflect or to probe, we find we have not mistaken its identity. _ascribe_ is the offspring of _ad_ (to) and _scribo_ (write), both latin terms. it originally meant writing to a person's name or after it (that is, imputing to the person by means of written words) some quality or happening of which he was regarded as the embodiment, source, or cause. nowadays we may saddle the matter on him through oral rather than written speech. that is, _ascribe_ has largely lost the writing traits. but all the same it is manifestly of the writing blood. the _scribes_ are of undivided racial stock, latin. consider now the _manu_, or _man_, words which sprang from the latin _manus_, meaning "hand." here are some of them: manual, manoeuver, mandate, manacle, manicure, manciple, emancipate, manage, manner, manipulate, manufacture, manumission, manuscript, amanuensis. these too are children of the same father; they are brothers and sisters to each other. but what shall we say of legerdemain (light, or sleight, of hand), maintain, coup de main, and the like? they bear a resemblance to the _man's_ and _manu's_, yet one that casual observers would not notice. is there kinship between the two sets of words? there is. but not the full fraternal or sororal relation. the _mains_ are children of _manus_ by a french marriage he contracted. with this french blood in their veins, they are only half-brothers, half-sisters of the _manu's_ and the _man's_. your examination of the family trees of words will be practical, rather than highly scholastic, in nature. you need not track every word in the dictionary to the den of its remote parentage. nor need you bother your head with the name of the distant ancestor. but in the case of the large number of words that have a numerous kindred you should learn to detect the inherited strain. you will then know that the word is the brother or cousin of certain other words of your acquaintance, and this knowledge will apprise you of qualities in it with which you should reckon. to this extent only must you make yourself a student of verbal genealogy. exercise - blood (simple exercises in tracing blood relationships among words are given at the end of the chapter. therefore the exercises assigned here are of a special character.) . each of the following groups is made up of related words, but the relationship is somewhat disguised. consult the dictionary for each word, and learn all you can as to (a) its source, (b) the influence (as passing through an intermediate language) that gave it its present form, (c) the course of its development into its present meaning. captain cathedral governor capital chaise gubernatorial decapitate chair chef shay guardian chieftain ward camp cavalry campaign guarantee chivalry champion warrant camera inept incipient chamber apt receive serrated inimical poor sierra enemy pauper influence espionage work influenza spy wrought playwright isolate insular . the variety of sources for modern english is indicated by the following list. do not seek for blood kinsmen of these particular words, but think of all the additional words you can that have come into english from indian, spanish, french, any other language spoken today. alphabet (greek) piano (italian) folio (latin) car (norman) boudoir (french) rush (german) binnacle (portuguese) sky (icelandic) anger (old norse) yacht (dutch) isinglass (low german) hussar (hungarian) slogan (celtic) samovar (russian) polka (polish) chess (persian) shekel (hebrew) tea (chinese) algebra (arabic) kimono (japanese) puttee (hindoo) tattoo (tahitian) boomerang (australian) voodoo (african) potato (haytian) skunk (american indian) guano (peruvian) buncombe (american) renegade (spanish) that words marry and are given in marriage, is too generally overlooked. any student of a foreign language, german for instance, can recall the thrill of discovery and the lift of reawakened hope that came to him when first he suspected, aye perceived, the existence of verbal matrimony. for weeks he had struggled with words that apparently were made up of fortuitous collocations of letters. then in some beatific moment these huddles of letters took meaning; in instance after instance they represented, not a word, but words--a linguistic household. let them be what they might--a harem, the domestic establishment of a mormon, the dwelling-place of verbal polygamists,--he could at last see order in their relationships. to their morals he was indifferent, absorbed as he was in his joy of understanding. in english likewise are thousands of these verbal marriages. we may not be aware of them; from our very familiarity with words we may overlook the fact that in instances uncounted their oneness has been welded by a linguistic minister or justice of the peace. but to read a single page or harken for thirty seconds to oral discourse with our minds intent on such states of wedlock is to convince ourselves that they abound. consider this list of everyday words: somebody, already, disease, vineyard, unskilled, outlet, nevertheless, holiday, insane, resell, schoolboy, helpmate, uphold, withstand, rainfall, deadlock, typewrite, football, motorman, thoroughfare, snowflake, buttercup, landlord, overturn. every term except one yokes a verbal husband with his wife, and the one exception (_nevertheless_) joins a uxorious man with two wives. these marriages are of a simple kind. but the nuptial interlinkings between families of words may be many and complicated. thus there is a family of _graph_ (or write) words: graphic, lithograph, cerograph, cinematograph, stylograph, telegraph, multigraph, seismograph, dictograph, monograph, holograph, logograph, digraph, autograph, paragraph, stenographer, photographer, biographer, lexicographer, bibliography, typography, pyrography, orthography, chirography, calligraphy, cosmography, geography. there is also a family of _phone_ (or sound) words: telephone, dictaphone, megaphone, audiphone, phonology, symphony, antiphony, euphonious, cacophonous, phonetic spelling. it chances that both families are of greek extraction. related to the _graphs_--their cousins in fact--are the _grams_: telegram, radiogram, cryptogram, anagram, monogram, diagram, logogram, program, epigram, kilogram, ungrammatical. now a representative of the _graphs_ married into the _phone_ family, and we have graphophone. a representative of the _phones_ married into the _graph_ family, and we have phonograph. a representative of the _grams_ married into the _phone_ family, and we have gramophone. a representative of the _phones_ married into the _gram_ family, and we have phonogram. of such unions children may be born. for example, from the marriage of mr. phone with miss graph were born phonography, phonographer, phonographist (a rather frail child), phonographic, phonographical, and phonographically. intermarriage between the _phones_ and the _graphs_ or _grams_ is a wedding of equals. some families of words, however, are of inferior social standing to other families, and may seek but not hope to be sought in marriage. compare the _ex's_ with the _ports_. an _ex_, as a preposition, belongs to a prolific family but not one of established and unimpeachable dignity. hence the _ex's_, though they marry right and left, lead the other words to the altar and are never led thither themselves. witness exclude, excommunicate, excrescence, excursion, exhale, exit, expel, expunge, expense, extirpate, extract; in no instance does _ex_ fellow its connubial mate--it invariably precedes. the _ports_, on the other hand, are the peers of anybody. some of them choose to remain single: port, porch, portal, portly, porter, portage. here and there one marries into another family: portfolio, portmanteau, portable, port arms. more often, however, they are wooed than themselves do the pleading: comport, purport, report, disport, transport, passport, deportment, importance, opportunity, importunate, inopportune, insupportable. from our knowledge of the two families, therefore, we should surmise that if any marriage is to take place between them; an _ex_ must be the suitor. the surmise would be sound. there is such a term as _export_, but not as _portex_. now it is oftentimes possible to do business with a man without knowing whether he is a man or a bridal couple. and so with a word. but the knowledge of his domestic state and circumstances will not come amiss, and it may prove invaluable. you may find that you can handle him to best advantage through a sagacious use of the influence of his wife. exercise - marriage . for each word in the lists of exercise - dictionary and activity for exercise - past, determine (a) whether it is single or married; (b) if it is married, whether the wedding is one between equals. . make a list of the married words in the first three paragraphs of the selection from burke (appendix ). for each of these words determine the exact nature and extent of the dowry brought by each of the contracting parties to the wedding. hitherto in our study of verbal relationships we have usually started with the family. having strayed (as by good luck) into an assembly of kinsmen, we have observed the common strain and the general characteristics, and have then "placed" the individual with reference to these. but we do not normally meet words, any more than we meet men, in the domestic circle. we meet them and greet them hastily as they hurry through the tasks of the day, with no other associates about them than such as chance or momentary need may dictate. if we are to see anything of their family life, it must be through effort we ourselves put forth. we must be inquisitive about their conjugal and blood relationships. how, then, starting with the individual word, can you come into a knowledge of it, not in its public capacity, but in what is even more important, its personal connections? you must form the habit of asking two questions about it: ( ) is it married? ( ) of what family or families was it born? if you can get an understanding answer to these two questions, an answer that will tell you what its relations stand for as well as what their name is, your inquiries will be anything but bootless. let us illustrate your procedure concretely. suppose you read or hear the word _conchology_. it is a somewhat unusual word, but see what you can do with it yourself before calling on the dictionary to help you. observe the word closely, and you will obtain the answer to your first question. _conchology_ is no bachelor, no verbal old maid; it is a married pair. your second and more difficult task awaits you; you must ascertain the meaning of the family connections. with mr. conch you are on speaking terms; you know him as one of the shells. but the utmost you can recall about his wife is that she is one of a whole flock of _ologies_. what significance does this relationship possess? you are uncertain. but do not thumb the dictionary yet. pass in mental review all the _ologies_ you can assemble. wait also for the others that through the unconscious operations of memory will tardily straggle in. be on the lookout for _ologies_ as you read, as you listen. in time you will muster a sizable company of them. and you will draw a conclusion as to the meaning of the blood that flows through their veins. _ology_ implies speech or study. _conchology_, then, must be the study of conches. your investigations thus far have done more than teach you the meaning of the word you began with. they have brought you some of the by-products of the study of verbal kinships. for you no longer pass the _ologies_ by with face averted or bow timidly ventured. you have become so well acquainted with them that even a new one, wherever encountered, would flash upon you the face of a friend. but now your desires are whetted. you wish to find out how much you _can_ learn. you at last consult the dictionary. here a huge obstacle confronts you. the _ologies_, like the _ports_ (above), are a haughty clan; they are the wooed, rather than the wooing, members of most marital households that contain them. now the marriage licenses recorded in the dictionary are entered under the name of the suitor, not of the person sought. hence you labor under a severe handicap as you take the census of the _ologies_. let us imagine the handicap the most severe possible. let us suppose that no _ology_ had ever been the suitor. even so, you would not be entirely baffled. for you could look up in the dictionary the _ologies_ you your self had been able to recall. to what profit? first, you could verify or correct your surmise as to what the _ological_ blood betokens. secondly, you could perhaps obtain cross-references to yet other _ologies_ than those you remembered. but you are not reduced to these extremities. the _ologies_, arrogant as they are, sometimes are the applicants for matrimony, and the marriage registry of the dictionary so indicates. to be sure, they do not, when thus appearing at the beginning of words, take the form _ology_. they take the form _log_. but you must be resourceful enough to keep after your quarry in spite of the omission of a vowel or two. also from some lexicons you may obtain still further help. you may find _ology, logy, logo_, or _log_ listed as a combining form, its meaning given, and examples of its use in compounds cited. by your zeal and persistence you have now brought together a goodly array of the _ologies_--all or most, let us say, of the following: conchology, biology, morphology, phrenology, physiology, osteology, histology, zoology, entomology, bacteriology, ornithology, pathology, psychology, cosmology, eschatology, demonology, mythology, theology, astrology, archeology, geology, meteorology, mineralogy, chronology, genealogy, ethnology, anthropology, criminology, technology, doxology, anthology, trilogy, philology, etymology, terminology, neologism, phraseology, tautology, analogy, eulogy, apology, apologue, eclogue, monologue, dialogue, prologue, epilogue, decalogue, catalogue, travelogue, logogram, logograph, logo-type, logarithms, logic, illogical. (moreover you may have perceived in some of these words the kinship which exists in all for the _loquy_ group--see ( ) soliloquy below.) of course you will discard some items from this list as being too learned for your purposes. but you will observe of the others that once you know the meaning of _ology_, you are likely to know the whole word. thus from your study of _conchology_ you have mastered, not an individual term, but a tribe. in _conchology_ only one element, _ology_, was really dubious at the outset. let us take a word of which both elements give you pause. suppose your thought is arrested by the word _eugenics_. you perhaps know the word as a whole, but not its components. for by looking at it and thinking about it you decide that its state is married, that it comprises the household of mr. eu and his wife, formerly miss gen. but you cannot say offhand just what kind of person either mr. eu or the erstwhile miss gen is likely to prove. have you met any of the _eu's_ elsewhere? you think vaguely that you have, but cannot lay claim to any real acquaintance. to the dictionary you accordingly betake yourself. there you find that mr. eu is of a family quite respectable but not prone to marriage. _euphony, eupepsia, euphemism, euthanasia_ are of his retiring kindred. the meaning of the _eu_ blood, so the dictionary informs you, is well. the _gen_ blood, as you see exemplified in gentle, general, genital, engender, carries with it the idea of begetting, of producing, of birth, or (by extension) of kinship. _eugenics_, then, is an alliance of well and begotten (or born). your immediate purpose is fulfilled; but you resolve, let us say, to make the acquaintance of more of the _gens_, whose number you have perceived to be legion. you are duly introduced to the following: genus, generic, genre, gender, genitive, genius, general, gentile, gentle, gentry, gentleman, genteel, generous, genuine, genial, congeniality, congener, genital, congenital, engender, generation, progeny, progenitor, genesis, genetics, eugenics, pathogenesis, biogenesis, ethnogeny, palingenesis, unregenerate, degenerate, monogeny, indigenous, exogenous, homogeneous, heterogeneous, genealogy, ingenuous, ingenious, ingenue, engine, engineer, hygiene, hydrogen, oxygen, endogen, primogeniture, philoprogeniture, miscegenation. some of these are professional rather than social; you decide not to leave your card at their doors. others have assumed a significance somewhat un_gen_-like, though the relationship may be traced if you are not averse to trouble, thus _engine_ in its superficial aspects seems alien to the idea of born. but it is the child of _ingenious_ (innate, inborn); _ingenious_ is the inborn power to accomplish, and _engine_ is the result of the application of that power. whether you care to bother with such subtleties or not, enough _gens_ are left to make the family one well worth your cultivation. thus by studying two words, _conchology_ and _eugenics_, you have for the first time placed yourself on an intimate footing with three verbal families--the _ologies_, the _eu's,_ and the _gens_. observe that though you studied the _ologies_ apart from the _eu's_ and the _gens_, your knowledge--once you have acquired it--cannot be kept pigeonholed, for the _ologies_ have intermarried with both the other families. hence you on meeting _eulogy_ can exclaim: "how do you do, mr. eu? i am honored in making your acquaintance, mrs. eu--i was about to call you by your maiden name; for i am a friend of your sister, the miss ology who married mr. conch. and you too, mr. eu--i cannot regard you as a stranger. i have looked in so often on the family of your brother--the euphony family, i mean. what a beautiful literary household it is! yet it has been neglected by the world-yea, even by the people who write. well, the loss is theirs who do the neglecting." and _genealogy_ you can greet with an equal parade of family lore: "don't trouble to tell me who you are. i am hob and nob with your folks on both sides of the family, and my word for it, the relationship is written all over you. mr. gen, i envy you the pride you must feel in the prominence given nowadays to the _eugenics_ household. and it must delight you, miss ology-that-was, that connoisseurs are so keenly interested in _conchology_. how are grandfather gen and grandmother ology? they were keeping up remarkably the last time i saw them." do you think words will not respond to cordiality like this? they will work their flattered heads off for you! exercise - relationships . for each of the following words (a) determine what families are intermarried, (b) ascertain the exact contribution to the household by each family represented, and (c) make as complete a list as possible of cognate words. reject oppose convent defer omit produce expel . test the extent of the intermarriages among these words by successively attaching each of the prefixes to each of the main (or key) syllables. (thus re-ject, re-fer, re-pel, etc.) in tracing verbal kinships you must be prepared for slight variations in the form of the same key-syllable. consider these words: wise, wiseacre, wisdom, wizard, witch, wit, unwitting, to wit, outwit, twit, witticism, witness, evidence, providence, invidious, advice, vision, visit, vista, visage, visualize, envisage, invisible, vis-à-vis, visor, revise, supervise, improvise, proviso, provision, view, review, survey, vie, envy, clairvoyance. perhaps the last six should be disregarded as too exceptional in form to be clearly recognized. and certainly some words, as _prudence_ from _providentia_, are so metamorphosed that they should be excluded from practical lists of this kind. but even in the words left to us there are fairly marked divergences in appearance. why? because the key-syllable has descended to us, not through one language, but through several. as good verbal detectives we should be able to penetrate the consequent disguises; for _wis, wiz, wit, vid, vic_, and _vis_ all embody the idea of seeing or knowing. on the other hand, you must take care not to be misled by a superficial resemblance into thinking two unrelated key-syllables identical. let us consider two sets of words. the first, which is related to the _tain_ group (see below), has a key-syllable that means holding: tenant, tenement, tenure, tenet, tenor, tenable, tenacious, contents, contentment, lieutenant, maintenance, sustenance, countenance, appurtenance, detention, retentive, pertinacity, pertinent, continent, abstinence, continuous, retinue. the second has a key-syllable that means stretching: tend, tender, tendon, tendril, tendency, extend, subtend, distend, pretend, contend, attendant, tense, tension, pretence, intense, intensive, ostensible, tent, tenterhook, portent, attention, intention, tenuous, attenuate, extenuate, antenna, tone, tonic, standard. the form of the key-syllable for the first set of words is usually _ten, tent_, or _tin_; that for the second _tend, tens, tent_, or _ten_. you may therefore easily confuse the two groups until you have learned to look past appearances into meanings. thenceforth the holdings and the stretchings will be distinct in your mind--will constitute two great families, not one. of course individual words may still puzzle you. you will not perceive that _tender_, for example, belongs with the stretchings until you go back to its primary idea of something stretched thin, or that _tone_ has membership in that family until you connect it with the sound which a stretched chord emits. first general exercise for the chapter each of the key-syllables given below is followed by ( ) a list of fairly familiar words that embody it, ( ) a list of less familiar words that embody it, ( ) several sentences containing blank spaces, into each of which you are ultimately to fit the appropriate word from the first list. (the existence of the two lists will show you that learned words may have commonplace kinfolks.) first, however, you are to study each word in both lists for ( ) its exact meaning, ( ) the influence of the key-syllable upon that meaning, ( ) any variation of the key-syllable from its ordinary form. (a few words have been introduced to show how varied the forms may be and yet remain recognizable.) also, as an aid to your memory, you are to copy each list, underscoring the key-syllable each time you encounter it. (the lists are practical, not meticulously academic. in many instances they contain words derived, not from a single original, but from cognates. no list is exhaustive.) (carry on, do, drive): ( ) agent, agitate, agile, act, actor, actuate, exact, enact, reaction, counteract, transact, mitigate, navigate, prodigal, assay, essay; ( ) agenda, pedagogue, synagogue, actuary, redact, castigate, litigation, exigency, ambiguous, variegated, cogent, cogitate. _sentences_ (inflect forms if necessary; for example, use the past tense, participle, or infinitive of a verb instead of its present tense): it was ____ into law. the legislators had been ____ by honest motives, but the popular ____ was immediate. the ____ of the mining company refused to let us proceed with the ____. nothing could ____ the offense. the father was ____, the son ____. the student handed in his ____ at the ____ time designated. though ____ enough on land, he could not ____ a ship. the ____ by missing his cue so ____ the manager that his good work thereafter could not ____ the ill impression. (burn): ( and combined) burn, burnish, brunette, brunt, bruin, brand, brandish, brandy, brown. _sentences_: he plucked a ____ from the ____. the ____ hair of the ____ was so glossy it seemed ____. he ____ his sword and bore the ____ of the conflict. after drinking so much ____ he saw snakes in his imagination, he staggered off into the woods and met old ____ in reality. (fall): ( ) cadence, decadent, case, casual, casualty, occasion, accident, incident, mischance, cheat; ( ) casuistry, coincide, occidental, deciduous. _sentences_: the period was a ____ one. he gave but ____ attention to the ____ of the music. on this ____ an ____ befell him. to the general it was a mere ____ that his ____ were heavy. as a result of this ____ he was accused of trying to ____ them. (go): ( ) cede, recede, secede, concede, intercede, procedure, precedent, succeed, exceed, success, recess, concession, procession, intercession, abscess, ancestor, cease, decease; ( ) antecedent, precedence, cessation, accessory, predecessor. _sentences_: he ____ the existence of a ____ that justified such ____. the delegate ____ his authority when he consented to ____ the territory. he would not ____ from his position or ____ for mercy. at ____ the pupils ____ in forming a ____. his ____ was suffering from an ____ at the time the southern states ____. his agony ____ only with his ____. (take): ( ) receive, deceive, perceive, deceit, conceit, receipt, reception, perception, inception, conception, interception, accept, except, precept, municipal, participate, anticipate, capable, capture, captivate, case (chest, covering), casement, incase, cash, cashier, chase, catch, prince, forceps, occupy; ( ) receptacle, recipient, incipient, precipitate, accipiter, capacious, incapacitate. _sentences_: though she ____ the officers, she did not prevent the ____ of the fugitive. he ____ that the man was very ____. the mayor skilfully ____ the alderman and proposed that ____ bonds be issued. the sight of the money ____ him and he quickly gave me a ____. he uttered musty ____, which were not always given a friendly ____. from the ____ of the movement he plotted to ____ the leadership in it. the ____ took part in the ____, but failed to ____ any of the game. (cut, kill): ( ) decide, suicide, homicide, concise, precise, decisive, incision, scissors, chisel, cement; ( ) patricide, fratricide, infanticide, regicide, germicide, excision, circumcision, incisors, cesura. _sentences_: he could not ____ whether to make the ____ with a ____ or a pair of ____. there was ____ evidence that he was the ____. in a few ____ sentences he explained why his friend could never have been a ____. the prim old lady had very ____ manners of speech. (run): ( ) current, currency, incur, concur, occurrence, cursory, excursion, course, discourse, intercourse, recourse; ( ) curriculum, precursor, discursive, recurrent, concourse, courier, succor, corridor. _sentences_: he ____ in the request that payment be made in ____. the ____ was so strong that the ____ by steamer had to be abandoned. in the ____ of his remarks he had ____ to various shifts and evasions. by his ____ with one faction, though it was but ____, he ____ the enmity of the other. it was a disgraceful ____. (speak, say): ( ) dedicate, vindicate, indication, predicament, predict, addict, verdict, indict, dictionary, dictation, jurisdiction, vindictive, contradiction, benediction, ditto, condition; ( ) abdicate, adjudicate, juridical, diction, dictum, dictator, dictaphone, dictograph, edict, interdict, valedictory, malediction, ditty, indite, ipse dixit, on dit. _sentences_: the man ____ to drugs was ____ for ____ treatment of his wife, and the ____ were that the ____ would be against him. he said, on the contrary, that his character would be ____. the attorney for the defense ____ that the judge would rule that the matter did not lie within his ____. this would leave the prosecution in a ____. but the prosecution issued a strong ____ of this theory, and said ____ were favorable for proving the man guilty. (lead): ( ) induce, reduce, traduce, seduce, introduce, reproduce, education, deduct, product, production, reduction, conduct, conductor, abduct, subdue; ( ) educe, adduce, superinduce, conducive, ducat, duct, ductile, induction, aqueduct, viaduct, conduit, duke, duchy. _sentences_: we ____ the company to ____ the fare. they ____ ten cents from the wages of each man, an average ____ of four per cent. they ____ us when they say we have wilfully lessened ____. the highwaymen ____ the ____. if you have an ____, you can ____ an idea in other words. (wander): ( ) error, erroneous, erratic, errand; ( ) errata, knight errant, arrant knave, aberration. _sentences_: that ____ fellow came on a special ____ to tell us we had made an ____. and his statement was ____ at that! (make, do): ( ) fact, factory, faction, manufacture, satisfaction, suffice, sacrifice, office, difficult, pacific, terrific, significant, fortification, magnificent, artificial, beneficial, verify, simplify, stupefy, certify, dignify, glorify, falsify, beautify, justify, infect, perfect, effect, affection, defective, feat, defeat, feature, feasible, forfeit, surfeit, counterfeit, affair, fashion; ( ) factor, factotum, malefaction, benefaction, putrefaction, facile, facsimile, faculty, certificate, edifice, efficacy, prolific, deficient, proficient, artifice, artificer, beneficiary, versification, unification, exemplification, deify, petrify, rectify, amplify, fructify, liquefy, disaffect, refection, comfit, pontiff, ipso facto, de facto, ex post facto, au fait, fait accompli. _sentences_: the opposing ____ by incredible ____ had found it ____ to take over the ____ of the goods. by this ____ it ____ what goodwill the owner of the ____ had for it, but it won the ____ of the public. the owner, though seemingly ____ at first, soon ____ a scheme to make the success of the enterprise more ____. by an ____ lowering of the price of his own goods and by ____ that those of his rivals were ____, he hoped to ____ the public mind with unjust suspicions. but all this did not ____. in truth the ____ of it was the hastening of his own ____ and a ____ heightening of the public ____ toward his rivals. his directors, seeing that his policy had failed to ____ itself, met in his ____ and urged him to take a more ____ attitude. (bear, carry): ( ) transfer, prefer, proffer, suffer, confer, offer, referee, deference, inference, indifferent, ferry, fertile; ( ) referendum, lucifer, circumference, vociferate, auriferous, coniferous, pestiferous. _sentences_: with real ____ to their wishes he ____ to ____ the goods by ____. the ____ of the sporting writers was that the ____ was ____ to his duties. after ____ apart, the farmers ____ the use of their most ____ acres for this experiment. to be mortal is to ____. (trust, believe, have faith): ( ) fidelity, confide, confident, diffident, infidel, perfidious, bona fide, defiance, affiance; ( ) fiduciary, affidavit, fiancé, auto da fé, santa fé. _sentences_: he was ____ that the man was an ____. he had ____ in a ____ rascal. he had been ____ for years and had proved his ____. though we are somewhat ____ in making it, you may be sure it is a ____ offer. his attitude toward his father is one of gross ____. (walk, go): ( ) grade, gradual, graduate, degrade, digress, congress, aggressive, progressive, degree; ( ) gradation, centigrade, ingress, egress, transgression, retrogression, ingredient. _sentences_: his failure to ____ from college made him feel ____ especially as his cronies all received their ____. the engine lost speed ____ as it climbed the long ____. i ____ to remark that some members of ____ are more ____ than ____. (have, hold): ( ) habit, habitation, inhabitant, exhibit, prohibition, ability, debit, debt; ( ) habituate, habiliment, habeas corpus, cohabit, dishabille, inhibit. _sentences_: the ____ of the island ____ an ____ to live without permanent ____. it was his ____ to glance first at the ____ side of his ledger, as he was much worried about his ____. most women favor ____. (sound): ( ) hale, hallow, hallowe'en, heal, health, unhealthy, healthful, holy, holiday, hollyhock, whole, wholesome; ( ) halibut, halidom. _sentences_: though he lived in a ____ climate, he was ____. the food was ____, the man ____ and hearty. he did not think of a ____ as ____. we had ____ in our garden almost until ____. he wept at hearing the ____ name of his mother. for a ____ month the wound refused to ____. (go): ( ) exit, transit, transition, initial, initiative, ambition, circuit, perishable; ( ) itinerant, transitory, obituary, sedition, circumambient. _sentences_: the ____ was broken. it was his ____ shipment of ____ goods, and they suffered a good deal in ____. his ____ was to be regarded as a man of great ____. his ____ was less effective than his entrance. (throw): ( ) eject, reject, subject, project, objection, injection, dejected, conjecture, jet, jetty; ( ) abject, traject, adjective, projectile, interjection, ejaculate, jetsam, jettison. _sentences_: with ____ mien he watched the waves lash the ____. his scheme was ____ to much ridicule and then ____, and he himself was ____ from the room. from a pipe that ____ from the corner of the building came a ____ of dirty water. he could only ____ what their ____ was. the ____ brought immediate relief. (law, right): ( ) judge, judicious, judicial, prejudice, jurist, jurisdiction, just, justice, justify; ( ) judicature, adjudicate, juridical, jurisprudence, justiciary, de jure. _sentences_: the eminent ____ said the matter did not lie within his ____. though ____ in most matters, he admitted to ____ in this. the ____ said he would comment in an unofficial rather than a ____ way. she could not ____ her suspicions. he was not only ____ himself, but devoted to ____. (join): ( ) junction, juncture, injunction, disjunctive, conjugal, adjust; ( ) adjunct, conjunction, subjunctive, conjugate. _sentences_: a ____ force had entered their ____ relationships. at this ____ he gave the ____ that disturbances should cease. the tramp halted at the ____ to eat his lunch and ____ his knapsack. (swear): ( and combined) juror, jury, abjure, adjure, conjurer, perjury. _sentences_: they ____ their loyalty. he ____ them to remember their duty as ____. the ____ held the ____ guilty of ____. (read, choose, pick up): ( ) elegant, illegible, college, negligent, diligent, eligible, elect, select, intellect, recollect, neglect, lecturer, collection, coil, cull; ( ) legend, legion, legacy, legate, delegate, sacrilegious, dialect, lectern, colleague, lexicon. _sentences_: in ____ he listened to the ____ and took an occasional note in an ____ hand. she ____ an ____ costume. they ____ the only man who was ____. he did not ____ to take up the ____. he was ____ rather than ____. her mind was too ____ to ____ all the circumstances. (bind): ( and combined) ligament, ligature, obligation, ally, alliance, allegiance, league, lien, liable, liaison, alloy. _sentences_: it was a pleasure that knew no ____. to belong to the ____ carries ____. in studying anatomy you learn all about ____ and ____. the two nations were in ____. we may be sure of their ____. we will take a ____ upon your property. as a ____ officer he was ____ for the equipment which our ____ reported lost. (light): ( ) lucid, translucent, luminous, illuminate, luminary, luster, illustrate, illustrious; ( ) lucent, lucifer, lucubration, elucidate, pellucid, relume, limn. _sentences_: the ____ author spoke very ____. he gave us a ____ explanation of a very abstruse subject. the material was ____ even to the rays of the feeblest of the heavenly ____. he ____ his theory by the following anecdote. this deed added ____ to his fame. (order): ( and combined) mandate, mandamus, mandatory, demand, remand, countermand, commandment. _sentences_: the superior court issued a writ of ____. the case was ____ to the lower court. his instructions were not discretionary, but ____. at your ____ the ____ has been issued. the ____ promptly ____ the orders of the offending officer. (send): ( ) permit, submit, commit, remit, transmit, mission, missile, missionary, remiss, omission, commission, admission, dismissal, promise, surmise, compromise, mass, message; ( ) emit, intermittent, missive, commissary, emissary, manumission, inadmissible, premise, demise. _sentences_: the ____ could only ____ why so many of his people had not attended ____. the ____ contained a ____ that no one would be held ____. the request was ____ that he would please ____. he ____ to his ____ without a protest. a ____ was appointed to investigate whether the territory should be granted ____ as a state. his ____ was such as to ____ him to tarry if he chose. (move): ( ) move, movement, removal, remote, promote, promotion, motion, motive, emotion, commotion, motor, locomotive, mob, mobilize, automobile, moment; ( ) immovable, motivate, locomotor ataxia, mobility, immobile, momentum. _sentences_: the next ____ was his, and his ____ was profound. the ____ of the ____ from across the alley enabled the ____ to surge in a threatening ____ toward the rear of the building. at this ____ the ____ was great. the officer whose ____ had seemed so ____ was now enabled to ____ strong forces for the campaign. the ____ began a slow ____ forward. his exact ____ was not known. (suffer): ( ) passion, passive, impassive, impassioned, compassion, pathos, pathetic, impatient, apathy, sympathy, antipathy; ( ) passible, impassible, dispassionate, pathology, telepathy, hydropathy, homeopathy, allopathy, osteopathy, neuropathic, pathogenesis. _sentences_: with an ____ countenance he spoke of the ____ of our lord. the ____ of the story moved her to ____. he allowed his ____ no further expression than through that one ____ shrug. with a ____ smile he settled back into dull ____. his plea was ____. (foot): ( ) pedal, pedestrian, pedestal, expedite, expediency, expedition, quadruped, impediment, biped, tripod, chiropodist, octopus, pew; ( ) centiped, pedicle, pedometer, velocipede, sesquipedalian, antipodes, podium, polypod, polyp, piedmont. _sentences_: a ____ suggested that we could ____ matters by each mounting a ____. the loss of the ____ was a serious ____ to the rider of the bicycle. the ____ had me place my foot on an artist's ____. the purpose of this nautical ____ was to capture a live ____. the ____ of having so large a ____ for the statue had not occurred to us. a ____ scarcely recognizable as human occupied my ____. (drive): ( ) dispel, compel, propeller, repellent, repulse, repulsive, impulse, compulsory, expulsion, appeal; ( ) appellate, interpellate. _sentences_: after the ____ of the attack the mists along the lowlands were ____. his manner was ____, even ____. the revolutions of the ____ soon ____ the boatmen to shove farther off. after his ____ he ____ for a rehearing of his case. the act was ____, but he felt an ____ toward it anyhow. (hang, weigh): ( ) pending, impending, independent, pendulum, perpendicular, expenditure, pension, suspense, expense, pensive, compensate, ponder, ponderous, preponderant, pansy, poise, pound; ( ) pendant, stipend, appendix, compendium, propensity, recompense, indispensable, dispensation, dispensary, avoirdupois. _sentences_: the veterans felt great ____ while action regarding their ____ was ____. we shall ____ you. an arm of it stood in a position ____ to the ____ mass. he knew that fate was ____, and he watched the ____ swing back and forth slowly. he gave a ____ argument in favor of the ____ of the money. there is ____, that's for thoughts. let us ____ the question whether the ____ is needful. she was a woman of rare social ____. penny-wise, ____ foolish. (seek): ( and combined) petition, petulant, impetus, impetuous, perpetuate, repeat, compete, competent, appetite, centripetal. _sentences_: a great ____ force keeps the planets circling about the sun. the complaints of a ____ woman led him to ____ for the prize. the sexual ____ leads men to ____ the race. the ____ was pronounced upon ____ authority to be ill drawn up. with ____ wrath he ____ the assertion. the ____ became noticeably weaker. (fold): ( ) ply, reply, imply, plight, suppliant, explicit, implicit, implicate, supplicate, duplicate, duplicity, complicate, complicity, accomplice, application, plait, display, plot, employee, exploit, simple, supple; ( ) pliant, pliable, replica, explication, inexplicable, multiplication, deploy, triple, quadruple, plexus, duplex. _sentences_: we ____ the thief's ____ with questions. he ____ that others were ____ with him. the king ____ to the ____ that such ____ must never be ____ in the realm thereafter. it would be a ____ matter to ____ the order. the manager had ____ confidence in his ____. she admired his courage in this ____, perceived his ____ in the crime, and deplored his participation in the ____. they ____ him for an ____ promise that mercy would be shown. she was in a ____, for she had not had time to arrange her hair in its usual broad ____. he was ____ of body. the ____ was refused. (place): ( ) expose, compose, purpose, posture, position, composure, impostor, postpone, post office, positive, deposit, disposition, imposition, deponent, opponent, exponent, component; ( ) depose, impost, composite, apposite, repository, preposition, interposition, juxtaposition, decomposition. _sentences_: the ____ said he would ____ the manner in which the cashier had made away with the ____. the true ____ of the ____ was now known, yet he retained his ____. for you to make yourself an ____ of these wild theories is an ____ on your friends. the closing hour at the ____ is ____ thirty minutes on account of the rush of christmas mail. he was ____ that his ____ had ____ the letter. one of the ____ elements in his ____ was gloom. (seize): ( ) prize, apprise, surprise, comprise, enterprise, imprison, comprehend, apprehension; (a) reprisal, misprision, reprehend, prehensile, apprentice, impregnable, reprieve. _sentences_: he had no ____ as to what the ____ would ____. his ____ was so great that he could scarcely ____ the fact that the ____ was his. the judge ____ them of the likelihood that they would be ____. (prove): ( and combined) probe, probation, probate, probity, approbation, reprobate, improbable. _sentences_: the young ____ was placed on ____. the will was brought into the ____ court. it is ____ that such ____ as his will win the ____ of evil-doers. (break): ( and combined) rupture, abrupt, interrupt, disrupt, eruption, incorruptible, irruption, bankrupt, rout, route, routine. _sentences_: the volcano was in ____. though ____, he remained ____. the ____ of the barbarians ____ these reforms. the organization was ____ after having already been put to ____. the ____ he had chosen led to a ____ in their relationships. it was ____ work. (seat): ( ) sedulous, sedentary, supersede, subside, preside, reside, residue, possess, assessment, session, siege; ( ) sediment, insidious, assiduous, subsidy, obsession, see (noun), assize. _sentences_: the ____ was so small that he scarcely noticed he ____ it. the officer was ____ in making the ____ upon every tax-payer fair. during the ____ congress remained in ____. he ____ in the city and has a ____ occupation. when the officer who ____ is firm, such commotions will quickly ____. he ____ the disgraced commander. (follow): ( ) sequel, sequence, consequence, subsequent, consecutive, execute, prosecute, persecute, sue, ensue, suitor, suitable, pursuit, rescue, second; ( ) obsequies, obsequious, sequester, inconsequential, non sequitur, executor, suite. _sentences_: on the ____ day they continued the ____. in the ____ chapter of the ____ the heroine is ____. the ____ of events is hard to follow. the ____ was that her brother began to ____ her ____. the district attorney ____ six ____ offenders, but thought it useless to bring any ____ offender to trial. it was a ____ occasion. (cut, separate): ( and combined) shear, sheer, shred, share, shard, scar, score, (sea)shore, shorn, shroud, shire, sheriff. _sentences_: the ____ had on his face a ____ made by a ____ thrown at him. in that ____ an old custom for every one to ____ in the ____ the sheep. there was, instead of the usual ____, a cliff that rose from the sea. all ____ as the freshman was, he had hardly a ____ of his former dignity. the ____ was very one-sided. a ____ of mist was about him. (sign): ( ) sign, signal, signify, signature, consign, design, assign, designate, resignation, insignificant; ( ) ensign, signatory, insignia. _sentences_: he ____ his approval of the ____. the disturbance caused by his ____ was ____. he ____ no reason for ____ those particular men. as he could not write his own ____, i ____ the document for him. it was a ____ defeat. (loosen): (r) solve, resolve, dissolve, solution, dissolute, resolute, absolute; ( ) solvent, absolution, indissoluble, assoil. _sentences_: on account of his ____ course he had given his parents many a problem to ____. he ____ the powder in a cupful of water and ____ to give it to the patient. this ____ of the difficulty did not win the ____ approval of his employer. the obstacles were many, but he was ____. (look): ( ) spectator, spectacle, suspect, aspect, prospect, expect, respectable, disrespect, inspection, speculate, special, especial, species, specify, specimen, spice, suspicion, conspicuous, despise, despite, spite; ( ) specter, spectrum, spectroscope, prospector, prospectus, introspection, retrospect, circumspectly, conspectus, perspective, specie, specification, specious, despicable, auspices, perspicacity, frontispiece, respite. _sentences_: his ____ was conducted in such a manner as to show the utmost ____. in ____ she noticed an odor of ____. from his ____ you would have taken him to be a ____ of wild animal. the ____ was better than we had ____ it to be. though you have no ____ fondness for children, you will enjoy the ____ of them playing together. the ____ did not ____ what underhand tactics some of the players were resorting to. in ____ of all this, we made a ____ showing. the ____ is one you cannot ____. ____ this ____ of matters, she did not ____ the cause of her ____, but let him ____ what it might be. (breathe, breath): ( and combined) spirit, spiritual, perspire, transpire, respire, aspire, conspiracy, inspiration, expiration, esprit de corps. _sentences_: at the ____ of a few days it ____ that a ____ had actually been formed. the ____ of the division was such that every man ____ to meet the enemy forthwith. he was a man of much ____ and marked powers of ____. as he lay there, he merely ____ and ____; he had no thought whatsoever of things ____. (stand): ( ) stand, stage, statue, stall, stationary, state, reinstate, station, forestall, instant, instance, distance, constant, withstand, understand, circumstance, estate, establish, substance, obstacle, obstinate, destiny, destination, destitute, substitute, superstition, desist, persist, resist, insist, assist, exist, consistent, stead, rest, restore, restaurant, contrast; ( ) stature, statute, stadium, stability, instable, static, statistics, ecstasy, stamen, stamina, standard, stanza, stanchion, capstan, extant, constabulary, apostate, transubstantiation, status quo, armistice, solstice, interstice, institute, restitution, constituent, subsistence, pre-existence, presto. _sentences_: the ____ of the motion was that the student who had been expelled should be ____. he ____ in his ____ resolution to go on the ____. she could not ____ the pleas of ____ people. he ____ her to alight at the ____. in an ____ you shall ____ what the ____ was that drove me to tempt ____ thus. we had gone but a little ____ when i perceived by the hungry working of his jaws that his ____ was the ____ in the next block. no ____ could cause him to ____. she was ____ in a ____ at the bazaar. (place): ( and combined) stead, steadfast, instead, homestead, farmstead, roadstead, bestead. _sentences_: ____ of resting in a harbor, the ships were tossed about in an open ____. little did it ____ him to cling to the old ____. a ____ nestled by the highway. to be known as ____ now stood him in good ____. (bind): ( ) district, restrict, strictly, stringent, strain, restrain, constrain; ( ) stricture, constriction, boa constrictor, astringent, strait, stress. _sentences_: we ____ them by means of ____ regulations. he ____ them to this course by his mere example. he attended ____ to his duties. you should not ____ your pleasures in this way. the ____ of long effort was telling on him. (touch): ( ) tact, contact, intact, intangible, attain, taint, stain, tinge, contingent, integrity, entire, tint; ( ) tactile, tactual, tangent, distain, attaint, attainder, integer, disintegrate, contagion, contaminate, contiguous. _sentences_: his appointment is ____ upon his removing this ____ from his name. his ____ is such that no ____ with evil could leave any ____ upon him. the contents were ____. with ____ he hopes to ____ the ____ approval of his auditors. it was a dark ____. the reason is ____. (cut): ( and combined) detail, curtail, entail, retail, tailor, tally. _sentences_: he held the property in ____. he kept the reckoning straight by means of ____ cut in a shingle. he resolved to ____ expenses by visiting the ____ less often. we need not go into ____. the profit lies in the difference between wholesale and ____ prices. (hold--for related _ten_ group see above under two admonitions): ( and combined) detain, abstain, contain, obtain, maintain, entertain, pertain, appertain, sustain, retain. _sentences_: village life and things ____ thereto i shall willingly ____ from. i ____ that precepts of this kind in no sense ____ to public morals. if the gentleman can ____ the consent of his second, the chair will ____ the motion as he restates it. though your forces may ____ heavy losses, they must ____ their position and ____ the enemy. (end, bound): ( and combined) term, terminus, terminal, terminate, determine, indeterminate, interminable, exterminate. _sentences_: at the ____ of the railroad stands a beautiful ____ station. the manner in which we may ____ the agreement remains ____. he ____ that rather than yield he would make the negotiations ____. during the second ____ they ____ all the rodents about the school. (twist): ( ) torture, tortoise, retort, contort, distortion, extortionate, torch, (apple) tart, truss, nasturtium; ( ) tort, tortuous, torsion, dry tortugas. _sentences_: by the light of the ____ he saw a ____ fowl by the fireside and a ____ in the cupboard. the ____ of his countenance was due to the ____ he was undergoing. ____ his face into a very knowing look, he ____ that a man with a ____ in his buttonhole and ____ shell glasses on his nose had leered at the girls as he passed. (draw): ( ) tract, tractor, intractable, abstracted, retract, protract, detract, distract, attractive, contractor, trace, trail, train, trait, portray, retreat; ( ) traction, tractate, distraught, extraction, subtraction. _sentences_: in an ____ manner he drove the ____ across a large ____ of ground. he ____ his gaze at the ____ girl. the ____ was now willing to ____ his statement that in the house as it stood there was no ____ of departure from the specifications. down the weary ____ of the pioneer dashes the palatial modern ____. to be ____ was one of his ____. the artist ____ her as in a ____ state. the ____ of his forces ____ but little from his fame. (come): ( ) convene, convenient, avenue, revenue, prevent, event, inventor, adventure, convention, circumvent; ( ) venire, venue, parvenu, advent, adventitious, convent, preventive, eventuate, intervention. _sentences_: the legislature ____ in order to pass a measure regarding the public ____. at the ____ the wily old politician was able to ____ his enemies. the ____ saw no means of ____ this infringement of his patent right. in that ____ we are likely to have an ____. through the long, shaded ____ they strolled together. (turn): ( ) avert, divert, convert, invert, pervert, advertize, inadvertent, verse, aversion, adverse, adversity, adversary, version, anniversary, versatile, divers, diversity, conversation, perverse, universe, university, traverse, subversive, divorce; ( ) vertebra, vertigo, controvert, revert, averse, versus, versification, animadversion, vice versa, controversy, tergiversation, obverse, transverse, reversion, vortex. _sentences_: though he carried a large ____ of goods, he was ____ to ____ them. he had ____ forgotten that it was his wedding ____. the ____ was on ____ subjects. they ____ a broad area where nothing had been done to ____ the danger that threatened them. with ____ stubbornness he held to his ____ of the story. he held that the reading of ____ is ____ of masculine qualities. his professors at the ____ soon ____ him to new social and economic theories. her husband was such a ____ creature that she resolved to secure a ____. americans are the most ____ people in the ____. the anecdote ____ his ____ himself. her answer not only was ____, it revealed her ____. he had undergone grave ____ in his time. (conquer): ( and combined) evince, convince, province, invincible, evict, convict, conviction, victorious. _sentences_: he was ____ that the campaign against the rebels in the ____ could not be ____. he ____ a lively interest in my theory that the fugitive could not be ____. he felt an ____ repugnance to ____ the man, and this in spite of his ____ that the man was guilty. (call, voice): ( ) vocal, vocation, advocate, irrevocable, vociferous, provoke, revoke, evoke, convoke; ( ) vocable, vocabulary, avocation, equivocal, invoke, avouch, vouchsafe. _sentences_: he was a ____ ____ of the measure, but no sooner was the order issued than he wished it ____. in ____ the assembly he ____ the enthusiasm of his followers. that he should give ____ utterance to this thought ____ me; but the words, once spoken, were ____. (roll, turn): ( ) involve, devolve, revolver, evolution, revolutionary, revolt, voluble, volume, vault; ( ) circumvolve, convolution, convolvulus. _sentences_: it ____ upon me to put down the ____. in this ____ the heroine is ____ and the hero handy with a ____. he was ____ in a ____ uprising. he had laid the papers away in a ____. the ____ of civilization is a tedious story. second general exercise copy both sections (the first consists of fairly familiar terms, the second of less familiar terms) of each of the following word-groups. find the key-syllable, underscore it in each word, observe any modifications in its form. decide for yourself what its meaning is; then verify or correct your conclusion by reference to the dictionary. study the influence of the key-syllable upon the meaning of each separate word; find the word's original signification, its present signification. add to each word-group as many cognate words as you can ( ) think of for yourself, ( ) find in the dictionary by looking under the key-syllable. fill the blanks in the sentences after each word-group with terms chosen from the first section of words in that group. ( ) animosity, unanimous, magnanimity; ( ) animate, animadvert, equanimity. _sentences_: it was the ____ opinion that to so noble a foe ____ should be shown. the spiteful man continued to display his ____. ( ) annual, annuity, anniversary, perennial, centennial, solemn; ( ) superannuate, biennial, millennium. _sentences_: the amateur gardener made the ____ discovery that the plant was a ____. the ____ celebration of the great man's birth took a ____ and imposing form in our city. by a happy coincidence the increase in his ____ came on his wedding ____. ( ) audit, auditor, auditorium, audience, inaudible, obey; ( ) aurist, auricular, auscultation. _sentences_: his voice may not have been ____, but it certainly did not fill the ____. not one ____ in all that vast ____ but was willing to ____ his slightest suggestion. he was not willing that they should ____ his accounts. ( ) automatic, automobile, autocrat, autobiography; ( ) autograph, autonomy. _sentences_: the ____ dictated to his secretary the third chapter of his ____. the habit of changing gear properly in an ____ becomes almost ____. ( ) cant, descant, incantation, chant, enchant, chanticleer, accent, incentive; ( ) canto, canticle, cantata, recant, chantry, chanson, precentor. _sentences_: he ____ upon this topic in a queer, foreign ____. such utterances are mere sanctimonious ____; i had rather listen to the ____ of a voodoo conjurer. the little girl from the city was ____ with the crowing of ____. the ____ of the choir somehow gave him the ____ to try again. ( ) cent, per cent, century, centennial; ( ) centenary, centime, centurion, centimeter, centigrade. _sentences_: for nearly a ____ this family has been living on a small ____ of its income. i wouldn't give a ____ for ____ honors; i want my reward now. ( ) chronic, chronological, chronicle; ( ) chronometer, synchronize, anachronism. _sentences_: it is a ____ record of changing activities and ____ ills. this page is a ____ of athletic news. ( ) corps, corpse, corporal, corpulent, corporation, incorporate; ( ) corpus, habeas corpus, corporeal, corpuscle, corpus christi. _sentences_: the ____ gentleman said he did not believe in ____ punishment. the hospital ____ carried the ____ into the office of a great ____. he resolved to ____ this idea into the reforms he was introducing. ( and combined) creed, credulous, credential, credit, accredit, discredit, incredible. _sentences_: he was not so ____ as to suppose that his ____ would be accepted and his statements ____ without some investigation. it is to his ____ that he refused to be bound by his former religious ____. that such ____ has been heaped upon him is ____. ( ) crescent, increase, decrease, concrete, recruit, accrue, crew; ( ) crescendo, excrescence, accretion, increment. _sentences_: the ____ now had ____ evidence that military life was not altogether pleasant. in the olden days on the sea deaths from scurvy might bring about a dangerous ____ in the size of the ____. his courage ____ with the profits that ____ to him. the ____ moon rode in the sky. ( ) cure, secure, procure, sinecure, curious, inaccurate; ( ) curate, curator. _sentences_: occupying the position for a while will ____ you of the notion that it is a ____. he was ____ to know so a bookkeeper had managed to ____ so high a salary. he ____ the equipment required. ( and combined) indignity, indignation, undignified, condign, deign, dainty. _sentences_: we must not be too ____ about visiting ____ punishment upon those responsible for this ____. he did not ____ to express his ____. it was an ____ act. ( ) durable, endure, during, duration, obdurate; ( ) durance, duress, indurate, perdurable. _sentences_: ____ the whole interview she remained ____. it is a ____ cloth; it will ____ all sorts of weather. the session was one of prolonged ____. ( ) finite, infinite, define, definite, confine, final, in fine, unfinished; ( ) definitive, infinitesimal. _sentences_: one cannot ____ the ____. he ____ himself to purely ____ topics. ____ it was a ____ offer and the ____ one he expected to make. the bridge is still ____. ( ) flexibility, inflexible, deflect, inflection, reflection, reflex; ( ) circumflex, genuflection. _sentences_: the ____ influence of this act was great. i did not like the ____ of his voice. after some ____ he decided to remain ____. he was not to be ____ from his purpose. i could but admire the ____ of her tones. ( ) fluent, affluent, influence, influenza, superfluous, fluid, influx, flush (rush of water), fluctuate; ( ) confluent, mellifluous, flux, reflux, effluvium, flume. _sentences_: when you ____ the basin, an ____ of water fills it again. he is an ____ man and a ____ writer. when i had ____, the doctor gave me a disgusting ____ to drink. the wind must have an ____ in making the waves ____ as they do. any more would be ____. ( ) fort, forte, effort, comfort, fortitude, fortify, fortress; ( ) aqua fortis, pianoforte. _sentences_: the defenders of the ____ held out with great ____. though a ____ or two stood at important passes, the border was not really ____. his ____ was not public speaking. it was the only by an ____ that he could ____ them. ( ) fraction, infraction, fracture, fragility, fragment, suffrage, frail, infringe; ( ) diffract, refractory, frangible. _sentences_: it was in the course of his ____ of the rules that he suffered the ____ of his collar-bone. he told the committee of ladies that he was as fond of ____ as of ____. it is hardly a proof of ____ that he is so willing to ____ upon the rights of others. the ____ scaffolding bent and swung as he trod it. ( and combined) fugitive, fugue, refuge, subterfuge, centrifugal. _sentences_: closing his eyes as if to listen better to the ____ was a little ____ of his. the upward movement of the missile was arrested by the ____ attraction of the earth. the ____ took ____ in an abandoned barn. ( ) refund, confound, foundry, confuse, suffuse, profuse, refuse, diffuse; ( ) fusion, effusion, transfuse. _sentences_: with ____ cheeks and ____ utterance he made a ____ apology. the amount we lost through the defective work at your ____ should be ____ to us. such a blow might ____ but not ____ him. he ____ the appointment. ( ) belligerent, gesture, suggest, congested, digestion, register, jest; ( ) gerund, congeries. _sentences_: as he stopped before the cash ____ he gave a ____ which showed that his ____ was none too good. his look was ____, but he lightly made a ____. amid the ____ traffic she stopped to ____ that pink would be more becoming than lavender. ( ) relate, translate, legislate, elation, dilated, dilatory; ( ) collate, correlate, prelate, oblation, superlative, ablative. _sentences_: with ____ eyes he ____ the passage for me. the ____ was very ____ in agreeing upon the measure to be passed. he ____ the story with pride and ____. ( ) locate, locality, locomotive, dislocate; ( ) locale, allocate, collocation. _sentences_: in trying to ____ the mine as near the fissure as possible he fell and ____ his hip. it was only ____ in that entire ____. ( ) soliloquy, loquacious, loquacity, colloquial, eloquent, obloquy, circumlocution, elocution; ( ) magniloquent, grandiloquent, ventriloquism, interlocutor, locutory, allocution. (for related _log_ and _ology_ words see above under prying into a word's relationships.) _sentences_: ____ always, he indulged at this time in a great deal of ____. though it was mere ____, yet there was something ____ about it. amid all this ____ he managed to rid himself of a good deal of ____ regarding standish. hamlet's ____ on suicide is a famous passage. ( ) allude, elude, delude, ludicrous, illusory, collusion; ( ) prelude, postlude, interlude. _sentences_: such evidence is ____, and belief in it is ____. he ____ to a possible ____ between them. the more credulous ones he ____, and the skeptical he manages to ____. ( ) metrical, thermometer, barometer, pedometer, diametrically, geometry; ( ) millimeter, chronometer, hydrometer, trigonometry, pentameter. _sentences_: he was careful to consult both the ____ and the ____. he always wore a ____ on these trips. the two were ____ opposed to each other. the poet has great ____ skill. ____ is an exact science. ( ) monotone, monotonous, monoplane, monopoly, monocle, monarchy, monogram, monomania; ( ) monosyllable, monochrome, monogamy, monorail, monograph, monolith, monody, monologue, monad, monastery, monk. _sentences_: his eye held a ____, his gold ring bore a ____ seal, and his voice was a stilted ____. one thing i hate about a ____ is the ____ reference to everything as his majesty's. he had a ____ of the trade in his town. he is suffering, not from madness, but from ____. ( ) mortal, immortality, mortify, postmortem, mortgage, morgue; ( ) mortmain, moribund, À la mort. _sentences_: after a hasty ____ examination, the body was taken to the ____. she was ____ at this reminder of the ____ on her father's property. the ____ shall put on ____. ( and combined) mutual, mutation, permutation, commute, transmute, immutable, moult. _sentences_: as he ____ that morning he reflected upon the ____ and combinations of fortune. we suffer the ____ of this worldly life, but ourselves are not ____. god's love is ____, and our love for each other should be ____. birds when they ____ are weakened in body and depressed in spirit. ( ) native, prenatal, innate, nature, unnatural, naturalize, nation, pregnant, puny; ( ) denatured, nativity, cognate, agnate, nascent, renascence, née. _sentences_: it was some ____ influence, he thought, that gave him his ____ physique. it was a ____ reply, but its heartlessness was ____. he was not ____ to the country, but ____. ____ in his ____ was the love of his own ____. ( ) note, notion, notable, notice, notorious, cognizant, incognito, recognize, noble, ignoble, ennoble, ignore, ignorance, ignoramus, reconnoiter, quaint, acquaintance; ( ) notary, notation, connotation, cognition, prognosticate, reconnaissance, connoisseur. _sentences_: in complete ____ of the enemy's position, he decided that he would ____ it. ____ himself, he was ____ of what was going on about him. you must ____ the conduct of such an ____. his ____ with this ____ gentleman ____ him. he ____ but would not ____ this ____ fellow. the ____ is a ____ one. he could but ____ how ____ his brother had become. ( ) panacea, panoply, panorama, pantomime, pan-american, pandemonium; ( ) pantheist, pantheon. _sentences_: arrayed in all the ____ of savages, they acted the scene out in ____. from this point the ____ of the country-side unrolled itself before him. it is no ____ for human ills; any supposition that it is will lead to ____. it is a ____ movement. ( ) peter, petrify, petrol, stormy petrel, petroleum, saltpeter, pier; ( ) petrology, parsley, samphire. _sentences_: as he walked along the ____, he observed the flight of the ____. the english name for gasoline is ____. ____ is used in the manufacture of gunpowder. he was almost ____ at hearing of this enormous stock of ____. the crowing of the cock caused ____ to weep bitterly. ( and combined) petty, petite, petit jury, petit larceny, petticoat, pettifogger. _sentences_: charged with ____, he was tried by the ____. the contemptible ____ hid behind the ____ of his wife. she was a winsome maiden, dainty and ____. it is a ____ fault. ( and combined) philosophy, philanthropy, philadelphia, bibliophile, anglophile. _sentences_: his ____ was generous, but his ____ was not profound. that queer old ____ hangs to the library like a caterpillar. it was the love of humankind that caused penn to name the city ____. most americans are not ____. ( and combined) cosmopolitan, metropolitan, politics, policy, police. _sentences_: those who engage in ____ lack, as a rule, a ____ outlook. it is merely ____ intolerance of towns and villages. the ____ of the mayor was to increase the ____ force. ( and combined) potential, potency, potentate, impotent, omnipotent, plenipotentiary. _sentences_: so far from being ____, we possess a ____ difficult to estimate. the ____ sent an ambassador ____. a ____ solution of the problem is this. ____ god. ( ) impute, compute, dispute, ill repute, reputation, disreputable; ( ) putative, indisputable. _sentences_: she could not ____ the cost. there was some ____ as to the cause of his ____. let them ____ to me what motives they will. though somewhat ____, he was extremely solicitous about his ____. ( ) abrogate, arrogate, interrogate, arrogant, derogatory, prerogative; ( ) surrogate, rogation, prorogue. _sentences_: in an ____ manner he ____ these ____ to himself. to ____ authority is to give opportunity for remarks ____ to one's reputation. he skilfully ____ the witness. ( ) salmon, sally, assail, assault, insult, consult, result, exultation, desultory; ( ) salient, salacious, resilient. _sentences_: after the ____ the firing was ____. the defenders ____ out and ____ us, but the ____ of this effort only added to our ____. we sat there watching the ____ leap over the waterfall and ____ about our arrangements for taking them. to accept the remark as an ____ is to acknowledge the speaker as an equal. ( ) science, conscience, unconscious, prescience, omniscience, nice; ( ) sciolist, adscititious, plebiscite. _sentences_: by his ____ understanding of the issues he was able to gain a reputation for ____. we thought he possessed ____, but he seemed ____ of his erudition. except under the sharp necessities of ____, he was ruled by a ____ thoroughly tender. ( ) sect, section, non-sectarian, dissect, insect, intersection, sickle, vivisection, segment; ( ) bisect, trisect, insection, sector, secant. _sentences_: he stood at the ____ of the roads, leaning on the shank of a sharp ____. the foreman of the ____ gang is a member of our ____. the boy was ____ an ____ with a butcher knife he had previously used to cut for himself a large ____ of the sunday cake. it is a ____ movement. he defended the ____ of animals. ( ) sense, consent, assent, resent, sentimental, dissension, sensation, sensibility, sentence, scent, nonsense; ( ) sentient, consensus, presentiment. _sentences_: a woman of her ____ would shrink from a ____ of this sort. he ____ in a single, crisp ____. to be ____ is to be guilty of ____. he had the good ____ to ____ to this course. he ____ such ____ and the causes that produced them. a hound hunts by ____. ( ) despond, respond, correspond, corespondent, sponsor; ( ) sponsion, spouse, espouse. _sentences_: she ____ that her husband had been ____ with the ____. the ____ of the movement could as yet see no reason to ____. ( and combined) structure, instructor, construct, obstruct, instrument, destructive, misconstrue. _sentences_: the student ____ the intentions of his ____. he resolved to ____ every effort to complete the ____. the ____ was one that might easily be turned to ____ work. they ____ a grandstand overlooking the racetrack. ( ) terrace, territory, subterranean, inter, terrier; ( ) terrene, tureen, terrestrial, terra cotta, mediterranean, terra firma, parterre. _sentences_: the ____ was tearing a great hole in the ____ in order to ____ a bone. he found rich ____ deposits. the discoverers laid claim to the entire ____. ( ) thesis, parenthesis, antithesis, anathema, theme, epithet, treasure; ( ) hypothesis, synthesis, metathesis. _sentences_: to set two ideas in ____ to each other makes both more vivid. by way of ____ he informed me that the subject was ____ to his father. on this ____ he can summon a host of picturesque ____. the ____ is one you will find it hard to establish. he was seeking captain kidd's buried ____. ( and combined) tumor, tumidity, tumult, tumulus, contumacy. _sentences_: the ____ of his joints was due to rheumatism. his ____ led to a ____ of opposition. so excited was he at the discovery of the ____ that he did not permit the ____ on his hand to restrain him from beginning the excavation. ( and combined) turbid, disturb, perturbation, turbulence, trouble, imperturbable. _sentences_: his ____ manner gave no hint of the ____ within him. the ____ sweep of the stream caused her not the slightest ____. do not ____ yourself with the thought that you are putting me to any ____. ( and combined) pervade, invade, evasion, vade mecum. _sentences_: he promised that there would be no ____ of payments. byron's _childe harold_ was my ____ during my travels in switzerland and italy. the fragrance of heliotrope ____ the room. you must not ____ my privacy like this. ( ) avail, prevail, prevalent, equivalent, valiant, validity, invalid, invalidate; ( ) valetudinarian, valediction, valence. _sentences_: the ____ of the agreement has been thoroughly established. our cause is just, and must ____. it is ____ to admitting that the terms are now ____. it was a ____ act and ____ the concessions previously wrested from us. the ____ impression is that mere ingenuity will not ____. ( ) virtue, virile, virgin, virtually; ( ) virago, virtuoso, triumvir. _sentences_: it was ____ a new arrangement. it is ____ soil. to be ____ and daring is every boy's dream. ____ is its own reward. ( ) revive, survival, convivial, vivid, vivify, vivacious, vivisection; ( ) vive (le roi), qui vive, bon vivant, tableau vivant. _sentences_: he has a ____ manner, a ____ spirit. the ____ of the opposition to the ____ of animals is very marked. you cannot ____ a dead cause or scarcely ____ memories of it. the ____ coloring of her cheeks was a sure sign of health, or of skill. third general exercise find the key-syllable (in a few instances the key-syllables) of each of the following words. how does it affect the meaning of the word? does it appear, perhaps in disguised form, in any of the words immediately preceding or following? can you bring to mind other words that embody it? innovation commonwealth welfare wayfarer adjournment rival derivation arrive denunciation denomination ignominy synonym patronymic parliament dormitory demented presumptuous indent dandelion trident indenture contemporary disseminate annoy odium desolate impugn efflorescent arbor vitae consider constellation disaster suburb address dirigible dirge indirectly desperate inoperative benevolent voluntary offend enumerate dilapidate request exquisite exonerate approximate insinuate resurgence insurrection rapture exasperate complacent dimension commensurate preclude cloister turnpike travesty atone incarnate charnal etiquette rejuvenate eradicate quiet requiem acquiesce ambidextrous inoculate divulge proper appropriate omnivorous voracious devour escritoire mordant remorse miser hilarious exhilarate rudiment erudite mark marquis libel libretto vague vagabond extravagant souse saucer oyster ostracize fourth general exercise with a few exceptions like the hale-heal group above under verbal families, most verbal families of straight english or of germanic- scandinavian-english descent are easily recognizable as families. witness the _good_ family and the _stead_ family. the families in which kinship may be overlooked are likely to be of latin or greek ancestry, though perhaps with a subsequent infusion of blood from some other foreign language, as french. hitherto our approach to verbal families has been through the descendants, or through that quality in their blood which holds them together. but we shall also profit from knowing something of the founders of these families--from having some acquaintance with them as individuals. below (in separate lists) the more prominent of latin and of greek progenitors are named, their meaning is given, and two or three of their living representatives (not always direct descendants) are designated. starred [*] words are those whose progeny has not been in good part assembled in the preceding pages; for these words you should assemble all the living representatives you can. (inflectional forms are given only where they are needed for tracing english derivatives.) _latin word meaning english representatives_ ago, actum do, rouse agile, transact *alius other alias, inalienable *alter other alteration, adultery *altus high altitude, exalt *ambulo walk perambulator, preamble *amicus friend amicable, enemy *amo, amatum love inamorata, amateur, inimical *anima life animal, inanimate animus mind animosity, unanimous annus year annuity, biennial *aqua water aquarium, aqueduct audio, auditum hear audience, audit *bellum war rebel, belligerent *bene well benefit, benevolence *bonus good bonanza, bona fide *brevis short abbreviate, unabridged cado, casum fall cadence, casual caedo, cecidi, caesum cut, kill suicide, incision cano, cantum sing recant, chanticleer capio, captum take, hold capacious, incipient *caput, capitis head cape (cape cod), decapitate, chapter, biceps cedo, cessum go concede, accessory centum hundred per cent, centigrade *civis citizen civic, uncivilized *clamo shout acclaim, declamation *claudo, clausum close, shut conclude, recluse, cloister, sluice cognosco (see _nosco_) *coquo, coxi, coctum cook decoction, precocious *cor, cordis heart core, discord, courage corpus body corpse, incorporate credo, credituin believe creed, discreditable cresco, cretum grow crescendo, concrete, accrue *crux, crucis cross crucifix, excruciating cura care curate, sinecure curro, cursum run occur, concourse *derigo, directum direct dirge, dirigible, address *dexter right, right hand ambidextrous, dexterity dico speak, say abdicate, verdict *dies day diary, quotidian dignus worthy, fitting dignity, condign do, datum give condone, data *doceo, doctum teach document, doctor *dominus lord dominion, danger *domus house domicile, majordomo *dormio sleep dormant, dormouse duco lead traduce, deduction *duo two dubious, duet durus hard durable, obdurate eo, itum go exit, initial error, erratum wander erroneous, aberration facio, feci, factum make, do manufacture, affect, sufficient, verify fero, latum carry transfer, relate fido trust, believe confide, perfidious finis end confine, infinity flecto, flexum bend reflection, inflexible fluo, fluxum flow influence, reflux fortis strong fortress, comfort frango, fractum break infringe, refraction *frater brother fraternity, fratricide fugio, fugitum flee centrifugal, fugitive fundo, fusum pour refund, profuse, fusion gero, gestum carry belligerent, gesture, digestion gradior, gressus walk degrade, progress *gratia favor, pleasure, ingratiate, congratulate, good-will disgrace *grex, gregis flock segregate, egregious habeo, habitum have, hold habituate, prohibit itum (see eo) jacio, jeci, jactum throw, hurl reject, interjection jungo, junctum join conjugal, enjoin, juncture juro swear abjure, perjury jus, juris law, right justice, jurisprudence judex (from jusdico) judge judgment, prejudice *juvenis young rejuvenate, juvenilia latum (see fero) *laudo, laudatum praise allow, laudatory lego, lectum read, choose elegant, lecture, dialect *lex, legis law privilege, illegitimate, legislature *liber book libel, library *liber free liberty, deliberate ligo bind obligation, allegiance, alliance *linquo, lictum leave delinquent, relict, derelict *litera letter illiterate, obliterate locus place collocation, dislocate loquor, locutus speak soliloquy, elocution ludo, lusum play prelude, illusory /lux, lucis light\ lucid, luminary \lumen, luminis / *magnus great magnate, magnificent *malus bad, evil malaria, malnutrition mando order mandatory, commandment manus hand manual, manufacture *mare sea maritime, submarine *mater mother maternal, alma mater *medius middle mediocre, intermediate *mens mind mental, demented *miror wonder mirror, admirable mitto, missum send commit, emissary *mordeo, morsum bite mordant, morsel, remorse mors, mortis death mortal, mortify moveo, motum move remove, locomotive *multus many multiform, multiplex muto, mutatum change transmute, immutable, moult nascor, natus be born renascence, cognate *nihil nothing nihilism, annihilate *nomen, nominis name denomination, renown *norma rule abnormal, enormous /nosco, notum cognosco \ \ cognitum know / notation, incognito *novus new novelty, renovate *nuntio announce denounce, renunciation *opus, operis work magnum opus, inoperative *pater father patrician, patrimony patior, passus suffer impatient, passion pello, pulsum drive propeller, repulse pendeo, pensum hang pendulum, appendix pendo, pensum weigh compendium, expense pes, pedis foot expedite, biped peto seek impetus, compete *plaudo, plausum clap, applaud explode, plausible *plecto, plexum braid perplex, complexion *pleo, pletum fill complement, expletive *plus, pluris more surplus, plural plico, plicatum fold reply, implicate pono, positum place opponent, deposit porto carry report, porter potens, potentis powerful impotent, potential prendo, prehensum seize comprehend, apprise *primus, primatis first primary, primate probo, probatum prove improbable, reprobate *pugno fight impugn, repugnant puto think impute, disreputable *quaero, quaesitum seek require, inquest, exquisite *rapio, raptum seize enraptured, surreptitious *rego, rectum rule, lead region, erect *rideo, risum laugh deride, risible rogo, rogatum ask prorogue, abrogate rumpo, ruptum break disrupt, eruption salio, saltum leap salient, insult *sanguis blood sang froid, ensanguined scio, scitum know prescience, plebiscite scribo, scriptum write prescribe, manuscript, escritoire seco, sectum cut secant, dissect sedeo, sessum sit supersede, obsession sentio, sensum feel presentiment, consensus sequor, secutus follow sequence, persecute, ensue signum sign insignia, designate *solus alone solitude, desolate solvo, solutum loosen solvent, dissolute *somnus sleep somnambulist, insomnia *sono sound consonant, resonance *sors, sortis lot sort, assortment specio, spectum look despicable, suspect spiro, spiratum breathe perspire, conspiracy *spondeo, sponsum promise respond, espouse sto, steti, statum stand constant, establish sisto, stiti, statum cause to stand consistent, superstition stringo, strictum bind stringent, restrict struo, structum build construe, destruction tango, tactum touch intangible, tact tempus, temporis time temporize, contemporary tendo, tensum stretch distend, intense teneo, tentuin hold tenure, detention *tendo try tentative, attempt terminus end, boundary terminal, exterminate terra earth territory, inter torqueo, tortum twist distort, tortuous traho, tractum draw extract, subtraction tumeo, tumidum swell tumor, contumacy turba tumult, crowd turbulent, disturb *unus one unify, triune, onion *urbs city urbane, suburban vado, vasum go pervade, invasion valeo, validum be strong prevail, invalid venio, ventum come intervene, adventure verto, versum turn divert, adverse *verus true verdict, veracity *via way obviate, impervious, trivial video, visum see provide, revise vinco, victum conquer province, convict vir man triumvir, virtue vivo, victum live vivacious, vivisect voco, vocatum call revoke, avocation *volo wish malevolent, voluntary volvo, volutum turn revolver, evolution vox voice equivocal, vociferate _prefix meaning english embodiments_ *a, ab from, away avert, abnegation, abstract *ad to adduce, adjacent, affect, accede *ante before antediluvian, anteroom *bi two biped, bicycle *circum around circumambient, circumference *cum, com, with, together combine, consort, coadjutor con, co *contra against contradict, contrast *de from, negative deplete, decry, demerit, declaim down, intensive *di, dis asunder, away from, divert, disbelief negative *e, ex from, out of evict, excavate *extra beyond extraordinary, extravagant *in in, into, not innate, instil, insignificant *inter among, between intercollegiate, interchange *intro, into, within introduce, intramural intra *non negative nonage, nondescript *ob against, before (facing), toward obloquy, obstacle, offer *per through, extremely persecute, perfervid, pursue, pilgrim, pellucid *post after postpone, postscript *pre before prepay, preoccupy *pro before proceed, proffer *re back, again return, resound *retro back, backward retroactive, retrospective *se apart, aside seclude, secession *semi half semiannual, semicivilized *sub under, less than, subscribe, suffer, subnormal, inferior subcommittee *super above, extremely superfluous, supercritical, soprano *trans across, through transfer, transparent *ultra beyond, extremely ultramundane, ultraconservative (scientific terms in english are largely derived from the greek) _greek word meaning english representatives_ *aner, andros, man, stamen androgynous, philander, anthropos philanthropy *archos chief, primitive archaic, architect *astron star asterisk, disaster autos self autograph, automatic, authentic *barvs heavy baritone, barites *biblos book bible, bibliomania *bios life biology, autobiography, amphibious *cheir hand chiropody, chirurgical, surgeon *chilioi a thousand kilogram, kilowatt *chroma color chromo, achromatic chronos time chronic, anachronism *cosmos world, order cosmopolitan, microcosm *crypto hide cryptogam, cryptology *cyclos wheel, circle encyclopedia, cyclone *deca ten decasyllable, decalogue *demos people democracy, epidemic *derma skin epidermis, taxidermist *dis, di twice, doubly dichromatic, digraph *didonai, dosis give dose, apodosis, anecdote *dynamis power dynamite, dynasty *eidos form, thing seen idol, kaleidoscope, anthropoid *ethnos race, nation ethnic, ethnology eu well euphemism, eulogy *gamos marriage cryptogam, bigamy *ge earth geography, geometry genos family, race gentle, engender gramma writing monogram, grammar grapho write telegraph, lithograph *haima blood hematite, hemorrhage, anemia *heteros other heterodox, heterogeneous *homos same homonym, homeopathy *hydor water hydraulics, hydrophobia, hydrant *isos equal isosceles, isotherm *lithos stone monolith, chrysolite logos word, study theology, dialogue metron measure barometer, diameter *micros small microscope, microbe monos one, alone monoplane, monotone *morphe form metamorphosis, amorphous *neos new, young neolithic, neophyte *neuron nerve neuralgia, neurotic nomos law, science, astronomy, gastronomy, economy management *onoma name anonymous, patronymic *opsis view, sight synopsis, thanatopsis, optician *orthos right orthopedic, orthodox *osteon bone osteopathy, periosteum *pais, paidos child paideutics, pedagogue, encyclopedia pas, pan all diapason, panacea, pantheism pathos suffering allopathy, pathology petros rock petroleum, saltpeter *phaino show, be visible diaphanous, phenomenon, epiphany, fantastic philos loving bibliophile, philadelphia *phobos fear hydrophobia, anglophobe phone sound telephone, symphony *phos light phosphorous, photograph *physis nature physiognomy, physiology *plasma form cataplasm, protoplasm *pneuma air, breath pneumatic, pneumonia polis city policy, metropolitan *polys many polyandry, polychrome, polysyllable pous, pados foot octopus, chiropodist *protos first protoplasm, prototype *pseudes false pseudonym, pseudo-classic *psyche breath, soul, psychology, psychopathy mind *pyr fire pyrography, pyrotechnics *scopos watcher scope, microscope *sophia wisdom philosophy, sophomore *techne art technicality, architect *tele far, far off telepathy, telescope {*temno cut } {*tomos that which is } epitome, anatomy, tome { cut off } *theos god theosophy, pantheism *therme heat isotherm, thermodynamics {tithenai place } epithet, hypothesis, {thesis a placing, } anathema { arrangement } *treis three trichord, trigonometry *zoon animal zoology, protozoa, zodiac _prefix meaning english embodiments_ *a, an no, not aseptic, anarchy *amphi about, around, ambidextrous, amphitheater (latin ambi) both *ana up, again anatomy, anabaptist *anti against, opposite antidote, antiphonal, antagonist *cata down catalepsy, cataclysm *dia through, across diameter, dialogue *epi upon epidemic, epithet, epode, ephemeral *hyper over, extremely hypercritical, hyperbola *hypo under, in smaller hypodermic, hypophosphate measure *meta after, over metaphysics, metaphor *para beside paraphrase, paraphernalia *peri around, about periscope, peristyle *pro before proboscis, prophet *syn together, with synthesis, synopsis, sympathy vi words in pairs our first task in this volume was the study of words in combination. our second was the study of individual words in two of their aspects--first, as they are seen in isolation, next as they are seen in verbal families. now our third task confronts us. it is the study of words as they are associated, not in actual blood kinship, but in meaning. such an association in meaning may involve only two words (pairs) or larger groups. in this chapter we shall confine ourselves to the study of pairs. of the relationship between pairs there are three types. in the first the words are hostile to each other. in the second they may easily be confused with each other. in the third they are parallel with each other. we shall examine the three types successively. but we must make an explanation first. although we shall, in this and the following chapters, have frequent occasion to give the meanings of individual words, we shall give them without regard to dictionary methods. we shall not attempt formal, water-tight, or exhaustive definitions; our purpose is to convey, in the simplest and most human manner possible, brief general explanations of what the words stand for. pairs of the first type are made up of words by nature opposite to each other, or else thought of as opposite because they are so often contrasted. here is a familiar, everyday list: east, west straight, crooked myself, others large, small pretty, ugly major, minor laugh, cry walk, ride light, darkness top, bottom hard, soft friend, enemy sweet, sour clean, dirty temporal, spiritual meat, drink merry, sad means, extremes land, water private, public jew, gentile man, woman noisy, quiet independent, dependent old, new general, particular sublime, ridiculous age, youth wholesale, retail give, receive sick, well savage, civilized pride, humility brain, brawn wealth, poverty constructive, destructive soul, body positive, negative none of these words needs explaining. if you think of one of them, you will think of its opposite; at least its opposite will be lurking in the back of your mind. as proof of this fact you have only to glance at the following list, from which the second member of each pair is omitted: hot -- black -- boy -- in -- off -- over -- love -- wrong -- strong -- wet -- first -- day -- long -- fast -- good -- hope -- least -- asleep -- buy -- left -- alive -- winter -- war -- succeed -- creditor -- fat -- internal -- wise -- drunk -- many words of a more difficult kind are thus pitted against each other, and we learn them, not singly, but in pairs. at least we should. as good verbal hunters we should be alert to the chance of killing two birds with one stone. _allopath_ and _homeopath_, for example, are difficult opposites. we know of the existence of the two classes of medical practitioners; we know that they use different methods; but beyond this our knowledge is likely to be hazy. let us set out, then, to _learn_ the two words. the best way is to learn them together. _allopathy_ means other suffering, _homeopathy_ like suffering. an allopath uses remedies which create within the patient a condition that squarely conflicts with the further progress of the disease. a homeopath prescribes medicines (in small doses) which produce within the patient the same condition that the disease would produce; he "beats the disease to it," so to speak--takes the job himself and leaves the disease nothing to do. the allopath travels around a race-track in the opposite direction from the disease, and thwarts it through a head-on collision. the homeopath travels around the race-track in the same direction as the disease, and thwarts it by pulling at the reins. if we consider the two words together and get these ideas in mind, we shall have no further trouble with allopaths and homeopaths--except, perhaps, when they have rendered their services and presented their bills. _objective_ and _subjective_ are also a troublesome pair. a thing is objective if it is an actual object or being, if it exists in itself rather than in our surmises. a thing is subjective if it is the creature of a state of mind, if it has its existence in the thought or imagination of some person or other. thus if i meet a bear in the wilds, that bear is objective; whatever may be the state of my thoughts, _he is there_--and it would be to my advantage to reckon with this fact. but if a child who is sent off to bed alone says there is a bear in the room, the bear is subjective; it is not a living monster that will devour anybody, but a creature called into the mind of the child through dread. exercise - opposites study the following words in pairs. consult the dictionary for actual meanings. then test your knowledge by embodying each word of each pair in a sentence, or in an illustration like those of the race-track and the bear in the preceding paragraphs. superior, inferior concord, discord export, import domestic, foreign fact, fiction prose, poetry verbal, oral literal, figurative predecessor, successor genuine, artificial positive, negative practical, theoretical optimism, pessimism finite, infinite longitude, latitude evolution, revolution oriental, occidental pathos, bathos sacred, profane military, civil clergy, laity capital, labor ingress, egress element, compound horizontal, perpendicular competition, coöperation predestination, freewill universal, particular extrinsic, intrinsic inflation, deflation dorsal, ventral acid, alkali synonym, antonym prologue, epilogue nadir, zenith amateur, connoisseur anterior, posterior stoic, epicure ordinal, cardinal centripetal, centrifugal stalagmite, stalactite orthodox, heterodox homogeneous, heterogeneous monogamy, polygamy induction, deduction egoism, altruism unitarian, trinitarian concentric, eccentric herbivorous, carnivorous deciduous, perennial esoteric, exoteric endogen, exogen vertebrate, invertebrate catalectic, acatalectic pairs of the second type are made up of words which are often confused by careless writers and speakers, and which should be accurately discriminated. sometimes the words are actually akin to each other. _continuous- continual_ and _enormity-enormousness_ are examples. sometimes they merely look or sound much alike. _mean-demean_ and _affect- effect_ are examples. sometimes the things they designate are more or less related, so that the ideas behind the words rather than the words themselves are responsible for the confusion. _contagious-infectious_ and _knowledge-wisdom_ are examples. let us distinguish between the two members of each of the pairs named. a thing is _continuous_ if it suffers no interruption whatever, _continual_ if it is broken at regular intervals but as regularly renewed. thus "a continuous stretch of forest"; "the continual drip of water from the eaves." _enormity_ pertains to the moral and sometimes the social, _enormousness_ to the physical. thus "the enormity of the crime," "the enormity of this social offense"; "the enormousness of prehistoric animals." _demean_ is often used reproachfully because of its supposed relation to _mean_. but it has nothing to do with _mean_. the word with which to connect it is _demeanor_ (conduct). thus "we observed how he demeaned himself" implies no adverse criticism of either the man or his deportment. both may be debased to be sure, but they may be exemplary. to _affect_ means to feign or to have an influence upon, to _effect_ to bring to pass. thus "he affects a fondness for classical music," "the little orphan's story affected those who heard it"; "we effected a compromise." _affect_ is never properly used as a noun. _effect_ as a noun means result, consequence, or practical operation. thus "the shot took instant effect"; "he put this idea into effect." a disease is _contagious_ when the only way to catch it is through direct contact with a person already having it, or through contact with articles such a person has used. a disease is _infectious_ when it is presumably caused, not by contact with a person, but through widespread general conditions, as of climate or sanitation. our _knowledge_ is our acquaintance with a fact, or the sum total of our information. our _wisdom_ is our intellectual and spiritual discernment, to which our knowledge is one of the contributors. _knowledge_ comprises the materials; _wisdom_ the ability to use them to practical advantage and to worthy or noble purpose. _knowledge_ is mental possession; _wisdom_ is mental and moral power. exercise - confused . consult the dictionary for the distinction between the members of each of the following pairs. in each blank of the illustrative sentences insert the word appropriate in meaning. ____ to receive knowledge. ____ to impart knowledge. he ____ from laughter. he steadfastly ____ from evil courses. though he always displayed ____, he did not carry it to the point of ____. i shall ____ most of the suggestions, but must ____ the one made by mr. wheeler. . when the package was ____ at the local post office, bayard refused to ____ it. . the dull ____ of his head. a sharp ____ below shoulder-blade. i have known the ____ of cold hands. "my heart ____, and a drowsy numbness ____ my sense, as though of hemlock i had drunk." . with firmness and ____ he set about reconciling the factions. her ____ enabled her to perceive that something was amiss. . the magnetized iron filings ____. the cold iron ____ to the boy's tongue. . the ____ of the heated particles to each other was instantaneous. amid these trials their ____ to the cause was unshaken. . his ____ to the room was forced. he obtained ____ into a fraternal order. . when he ____ that he had a weapon, he practically ____ that he had slain the man. . he was ____ to going. their answer was ____. . in this emergency he sought ____. he asked my ____ as to the best place to hang the picture. . to let these mishaps ____ you is to ____ your suffering. . it is an ____ to suppose that i made any ____ to you. . it was more than a possible ____; it was an unmistakable ____. . though we call him a(n) ____, he is in skill by no means the ____ you might think him. . you are unintentionally ____. these words are deliberately ____. . since we ____ the enemy to advance, would it not be wise to ____ him? . he was handsome in ____. the ____ of the sky was ominous. . "lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that ____ more than cool reason ever ____." . the ____ of the worshipers. the ____ of the soldiers. . the ____ who was decorating the walls called to an ____ who was mixing mortar. . we easily made the ____ of the slope, and from the summit witnessed the balloon ____. he gave his ____ when i proposed that we wait for the others to complete the ____ to this point. i ____ it to you as a fault rather than ____ it to you as an honor. it was an informal ____. the ____ considered the matters it had been called to discuss. when told that the measure would advance his interests, he ____; but he would not ____ to it. the injury was slight, but he ____ it with unsparing malice. "____, o lord, thy slaughtered saints." the lawyer, besides his regular ____, had the collecting of birds' eggs as his ____. though not ____ of the seriousness of his malady, he was ____ of the pain it caused him. darrell added the ____ of the coins, but not even they brought about the ____ he sought between assets and obligations. though ____ socially, he was not what you would term a ____ man. his ____ in this time of trial was exemplary. she praised the ____ of the children at the party. he possibly had ____, but not an active ____. her social manner was ____. the ____ influence of sunlight. ____ his personal friends, many people he had not even met stood ____ his sickbed. at this threat the face of the heroine ____. with a pail of cheap paint he ____ the dingy wall. after telling his parishioners to be mindful of their ____, the clergyman pronounced the ____. daily attacks on exposed redoubts marked the progress of the ____. the fleet lay there in silent ____ of the port. the incident proved that his ____ was not founded in real ____. when you come, ____ the official documents with you. ____ me the scales you will find in the granary yonder. a man with ____ shoulders stood in the ____, open doorway. after they had solemnly ____ their comrade, they ____ the treasure. they also ____ their comrade's dog. . consult the dictionary for the distinction between the members of each of the following pairs. determine whether the words are correctly used in the illustrative sentences. (some are; some are not.) can i stay at home this afternoon, papa? because of the floods, the train beyond doubt may not get through. his character among them was very good. a man's reputation can never be taken from him. your conduct is peevish; it is childishly so. her innocence was childlike. he was always citing snatches of tennyson. we might quote hamlet's soliloquy on suicide as an example of shakespeare's ability to go to the heart of deep questions. he claimed that jefferson was our third president. he asserted that bears sleep through the winter. at the masquerade ball we each wore special clothing. the mariner who had swum from the wreck to the desert shore had not a shred of costume. comfort after labor. the ease of owning a home. petty commercial transactions. a mercantile treaty. this pavilion was the common play-house for the children of the neighborhood. ward and aker held this property as their mutual possession. this addition is the complement of our quota. he paid his dancing partner a compliment. his downrightness is the complement of his uprightness. as a supplement to his wages he received an occasional bonus. he put in the completing touches. he had finished the task. his composure was not to be shaken. after this inner tumult came equanimity. numbers of such magnitude are scarcely comprehensible. that men by the million should die for a cause is a thing not really comprehensive. who does not feel within him a compulsion to help the weak? it was through obligation, through having slave-drivers stand over them, that these wretched folk built the pyramids. i congratulated my friend on his appointment to the commission. i also felicitated the stranger on his appointment. three consecutive convictions proved the ability of the prosecuting attorney. the quiet passing of successive summer days. its size was insignificant, even contemptible. he won the prize by a contemptuous trick. the investigator was surprised to find the tradition of such long continuation. we waited impatiently for the continuance of the story in the next issue. i am more and more amazed at the perfection of man's corporal frame. his corporeal vigor was unusual. a man may correct many of his false judgments on current affairs by studying history. the mistake is ours; it shall be rectified. the cozy fit of a garment. a snug place by the fire. we crawled forward at dawn to surprise their outposts. in his humility he fairly crept on the earth. i do not doubt it; it is entirely credible. the success of the antidote seemed scarcely creditable. though he is the official and credited ambassador, his assertions are not accredited. i cured the dog's wounds. the physician declared he could heal leprosy. "a custom more honor'd in the breach than the observance." is it your custom to watch the clock while you eat? the habit in that region was to rise at cockcrow. a decided battle. a decisive fault in manners. we still await a definite edition of this author's works. his answer was so definitive that we no longer doubted what he meant. clive added india to the british demesne. the king went riding through his personal domain. the german mark has deprecated in value. he depreciated the praise they were lavishing upon him. they tied themselves together with a rope in order to make their dissent safer. the dissent to a lower plane of conversation was what he most desired. the discovery of the wireless telegraph is marconi's chief claim to remembrance. the invention of a water passage between tierra del fuego and the mainland was the work of magellan. he could not discriminate individuals at that distance. any man can distinguish right from wrong. his course was entirely generous and disinterested. most visitors to art galleries have an uninterested manner. this disposal of the matter is authoritative, final. his disposition of his forces was well-considered. though the colonists were dissatisfied for the moment, they could hardly be called discontented. the distinct quality of his character was aggressiveness. there were four separate and distinctive calls. an affected, dramatic manner. a truly theatrical situation. a dry plain. an arid place to sleep in. the man stood dumb with surprise. always be kind to mute animals. our joy is durable. oak is a lasting wood. . consult the dictionary for the distinction between the members of each of the following pairs. frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of the words. (some of the words in this list, as well as some in other parts of the chapter, are considered in larger groups in the chapters following.) earth, world efficiency, efficacy egoism, egotism eldest, oldest elemental, elementary elude, evade emigrate, immigrate enough, sufficient envy, jealousy equable, equitable equal, equivalent essential, necessary esteem, respect euphemism, euphuism evidence, proof exact, precise exchange, interchange excuse, pardon exempt, immune expect, suppose expedite, facilitate facsimile, copy familiar, intimate fancy, imagination farther, further feeling, sentiment feminine, effeminate fervent, fervid fewer, less fluid, liquid first (or last) two, two first (or last) food, feed foreign, alien force, strength forgive, pardon gayety, cheerfulness genius, talent gentle, tame genuine, authentic glance, glimpse grateful, thankful grieve, mourn hanged, hung happen, transpire happiness, pleasure healthy, healthful hear, listen heathen, pagan honorable, honorary horrible, horrid human, humane illegible, unreadable image, effigy imaginary, imaginative impending, approaching imperious, imperial imply, infer in, into inability, disability ingenious, ingenuous intelligent, intellectual insinuation, innuendo instinct, intuition involve, implicate irony, sarcasm irretrievable, irreparable judicious, judicial just, equitable justify, warrant lack, want languor, lassitude later, latter lawful, legal lax, slack leave, let lend, loan liable, likely libel, slander lie, lay like, love linger, loiter look, see loose, lose luxurious, luxuriant majority, plurality marine, maritime martial, military moderate, temperate mood, humor moral, ethical moral, religious mutual, reciprocal myth, legend natal, native nautical, naval near, close necessaries, necessities needy, needful noted, notorious novice, tyro observance, observation observe, perceive obsolete, archaic omnipresent, ubiquitous on, upon oppose, resist opposite, contrary oppress, depress palliate, extenuate passionate, impassioned pathos, pity patron, customer peculiar, unusual perspicuity, perspicacity permeate, pervade permit, allow perseverance, persistence pertain, appertain pictorial, picturesque pitiable, pitiful pity, sympathy pleasant, pleasing politician, statesman practicable, practical precipitous, precipitate precision, preciseness prejudice, bias prelude, overture pride, vanity principal, principle process, procedure procure, secure professor, teacher progress, progression propitious, auspicious proposal, proposition tradition, legend truth, veracity quiet, quiescent raise, rear raise, rise ransom, redeem rare, scarce reason, understanding reasonable, rational recollect, remember regal, royal reliable, trustworthy requirement, requisite restive, restless reverse, inverse ride, drive rime (or rhyme), rhythm sacred, holy salutation, salute scanty, sparse scholar, student science, art scrupulous, conscientious serf, slave shift, expedient sick, ill silent, taciturn sit, set skilled, skilful slender, slim smart, clever sociable, social solicitude, anxiety stay, stop stimulus, stimulation strut, swagger suppress, repress termination, terminus theory, hypothesis tolerate, permit torment, torture tradition, legend truth, veracity unbelief, disbelief unique, unusual varied, various variety, diversity venal, venial vengeance, revenge verse, stanza vindictive, revengeful visit, visitation visitant, visitor wander, stray warn, caution will, volition wit, humor witness, see womanish, womanlike worth, value pairs of the third type are made up of words parallel in meaning. this class somewhat overlaps the second; many terms that are frequently confused are parallels, and parallelism is of course a cause of confusion. parallels are words that show likeness in meaning. likeness, not sameness. yet at one time actual sameness may have existed, and in many instances did. nowadays this sameness has been lost, and the words have become differentiated. as a rule they still are closely related in thought; sometimes, however, the divergence between them is wide. why did words having the same meaning find lodgment in the language in the first place? the law of linguistic economy forbids any such happening, and only through sheer good fortune did english come to possess duplications. the original anglo-saxon did not contain them. but the roman catholic clergy brought to england the language of religion and of scholarship, latin. later the normans, whose speech as a branch of french was an offshoot of latin, came to the island as conquerors. for a time, therefore, three languages existed side by side in the country--anglo- saxon among the common folk, latin among the clergy, and norman-french at the court and among the nobility. the coalescing of the three (or of the two if we count latin in its direct and indirect contributions as one) was inevitable. but other (mostly cognate) languages also had a part in the speech that was ultimately evolved. the anglo-saxon element was augmented by words from dutch, scandinavian, and the germanic tongues in general; and latin was reinforced by greek. thus to imply, as is sometimes done, that modern english is simply a blend of anglo-saxon and latin elements is misleading. _native_ and _classic_ are the better terms to use, provided both are used broadly. _native_ must include not only anglo-saxon but the other germanic elements as well, and _classic_ must include french and greek as well as latin. the welding of these languages made available two--in some instances more than two--words for a single object or idea. what became of these duplicates? sometimes one of the words was dropped as needless. oftentimes, however, both were retained--with such modifications in meaning that thereafter they designated, not the same object or idea, but different forms or aspects of it. thus they became parallels, and the new language waxed rich with discriminations which neither of the component tongues had possessed. scott in _ivanhoe_ gives the basis upon which the unification of the languages proceeded. the jester wamba in conversation with the swineherd gurth explains how the anglo-saxon term took on the homelier, rougher, more workaday uses and left the more refined and fastidious uses for the norman-french. a domestic animal, says wamba, was cared for by the conquered people, and in consequence bore while living a "good saxon" name--swine, ox, or calf; but it was served at the tables of the conquerors, and therefore when ready for consumption bore a "good norman-french" name--pork, beef, or veal. "when the brute [a sow] lives, and is in charge of a saxon slave, she goes by her saxon name; but becomes norman and is called pork, when she is carried into the castle hall to feast among the nobles.... he [a calf] is saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a norman name [monsieur de veau] when he becomes matter of enjoyment." let us see how scott's contention fares if we extend his list of terms relative to animal life. as throughout the rest of this chapter, with the single and necessary exception of list b, the first word in each pair is native, the second classic: sheep, mutton deer, venison horse, equine cow, bovine bull, taurine sheep, ovine wolf, lupine hog, porcine bear, ursine fox, vulpine cat, feline dog, canine fish, piscatorial mouse, vermin rat, rodent mankind, humanity man, masculine woman, feminine childish, infantile boyish, puerile a glance at this list will show that, at least as regards animal life, the native word is likely to be the more familiar and unpretentious. but we must not leap to the conclusion that, taking the language as a whole, the simple, easy word is sure to be native, the abstruse word classic. in the following list one word in each pair is simpler, oftentimes much simpler, than the other; yet both are of classic origin. (in some instances the two are doublets; that is, they spring from the same stem.) boil, effervesce plenty, abundance force, coerce clear, transparent sound, reverberate echo, reverberate toil, labor false, perfidious prove, verify join, unite join, annex try, endeavor carry, convey save, preserve save, rescue safe, secure poor, pauper poor, penurious poor, impecunious native, indigenous strange, extraneous excuse, palliate excusable, venial cannon, ordnance corpse, cadaverous parish, parochial fool, stultify fool, idiot rule, govern governor, gubernatorial wages, salary nice, exquisite haughty, arrogant letter, epistle pursue, prosecute use, utility use, utilize rival, competitor male, masculine female, feminine beauty, esthetics beauty, pulchritude beautify, embellish poison, venom vote, franchise vote, suffrage taste, gust tasteful, gustatory tasteless, insipid flower, floral count, compute cowardly, pusillanimous tent, pavilion money, finance monetary, pecuniary trace, vestige face, countenance turn, revolve bottle, vial grease, lubricant oily, unctuous revive, resuscitate faultless, impeccable scourge, flagellate power, puissance barber, tonsorial bishop, episcopal carry, portable fruitful, prolific punish, punitive scar, cicatrix hostile, inimical choice, option cry, vociferate ease, facility peaceful, pacific beast, animal chasten, castigate round, rotunda imprison, incarcerate bowels, viscera boil, ebullient city, municipal color, chromatics nervous, neurotic pleasing, delectable accidental, fortuitous change, mutation lazy, indolent fragrance, aroma pay, compensate face, physiognomy joy, rapture charitable, eleemosynary blame, blaspheme priest, presbyter coy, quiet prudent, provident pupil, disciple story, narrative pause, interval despise, abhor doctor, physician fate, destiny country, rustic aged, senile increase, increment gentle, genteel clear, apparent eagle, aquiline motion, momentum nourishment, nutrition pure, unadulterated closeness, proximity number, notation ancestors, progenitors confirm, corroborate convert, proselyte benediction, benison treasury, thesaurus egotism, megalomania sometimes the native word is less familiar than the classic: seethe, boil loam, soil fare, travel abide, remain bestow, present bestow, deposit din, noise quern, mill learner, scholar shamefaced, modest hue, color tarnish, stain ween, expect leech, physician shield, protect steadfast, firm withstand, resist straightway, immediately dwelling, residence heft, gravity delve, excavate forthright, direct tidings, report bower, chamber rune, letter borough, city baleful, destructive gainsay, contradict cleave, divide hearten, encourage hoard, treasure again, the native word is sometimes less emphatic than the classic: fly, soar old, venerable flood, cataclysm steep, precipitous wonder, astonishment speed, velocity sparkle, scintillate stir, commotion stir, agitate strike, collide learned, erudite small, diminutive scare, terrify burn, combustion fire, conflagration fall, collapse uproot, eradicate skin, excoriate hate, abominate work, labor bright, brilliant hungry, famished eat, devour twisted, contorted thin, emaciated sad, lugubrious mirth, hilarity despite these exceptions, the native word is in general better known and more crudely powerful than the classic. thus of the pair _sweat-perspiration_, _sweat_ is the plain-spoken, everyday member, _perspiration_ the polite, even learned member. the man of limited vocabulary says _sweat_; even the sophisticated person, unless there is occasion to soften effects, finds _sweat_ the more natural term. no one would say that a horse perspires. no one would say that human beings must eat their bread in the perspiration of their faces. but _sweat_ is a word of connotation too vigorous (though honest withal) for us to use the term in the drawing room. a questionable woman in _the vicar of wakefield_ betrays her lack of breeding by the remark that she is in a muck of sweat. the native word, besides being in itself simpler and starker than the classic, makes stronger appeal to our feelings and affections. in nearly every instance the objects and relationships that have woven themselves into the very texture of our lives are designated by native terms. even if they are not so designated solely, they are so designated in their more cherished aspects. we warm more to the native _fatherly_ than to the classic _paternal_. we have a deeper sentiment for the native _home_ than for the classic _residence_. that the native is the more downright term may be seen from the following words. (these pairs are of course merely illustrative. with them might be grouped a few special pairs, like _devilish-diabolical_ and _church_-_ecclesiastical_, of which the first members are classic in origin but of such early naturalization into english that they may be regarded as native.) belly, stomach belly, abdomen navel, umbilicus suck, nurse naked, nude murder, homicide dead, deceased dead, defunct dying, moribund lust, salacity lewd, libidinous read, peruse lie, prevaricate hearty, cordial following, subsequent crowd, multitude chew, masticate food, pabulum eat, regale meal, repast meal, refection thrift, economy sleepy, soporific slumberous, somnolent live, reside rot, putrefy swelling, protuberant soak, saturate soak, absorb stinking, malodorous spit, saliva spit, expectorate thievishness, kleptomania belch, eructate sticky, adhesive house, domicile eye, optic walker, pedestrian talkative, loquacious talkative, garrulous wisdom, sapience bodily, corporeal name, appellation finger, digit show, ostentation nearness, propinquity wash, lave handwriting, chirography waves, undulations shady, umbrageous fat, corpulent muddy, turbid widow, relict horseback, equestrian weight, avoirdupois blush, erubescence the word of classic origin in many instances survives only or mainly in the form of an adjective; as a noun (or other part of speech) it has completely or largely disappeared. this fact may be observed in lists already given, particularly list a. it may also be observed in the following words: moon, lunar star, stellar star, sidereal sun, solar earth, terrestrial world, mundane heaven, celestial hell, infernal earthquake, seismic ear, aural head, capital hand, manual foot, pedal breast, pectoral heart, cardial hip, sciatic tail, caudal throat, guttural lung, pulmonary bone, osseous hair, hirsute tearful, lachrymose early, primitive sweet, dulcet, sweet, saccharine young, juvenile bloody, sanguinary deadly, mortal red, florid bank, riparian hard, arduous wound, vulnerable written, graphic spotless, immaculate sell, mercenary son, filial salt, saline meal, farinaceous wood, ligneous wood, sylvan cloud, nebulous glass, vitreous milk, lacteal water, aquatic stone, lapidary gold, aureous silver, argent iron, ferric honey, mellifluous loving, amatory loving, erotic loving, amiable wedded, hymeneal plow, arable priestly, sacerdotal arrow, sagittal wholesome, salubrious warlike, bellicose timely, temporary fiery, igneous ring, annular soap, saponaceous nestling, nidulant snore, stertorous window, fenestral twilight, crepuscular soot, fuliginous hunter, venatorial the fact that english is a double-barreled language, and that of parallel terms one is likely to be native and the other classic, is interesting in itself. our lists of parallels, however, though (with the exception of list b) they are arranged to bring out this duality of origin, have other and more vital uses as material for exercises. for after all it matters little whether we know where a word comes from, provided we know thoroughly the meaning and implications of the word itself. the lists already given and those to follow show the more important words actually yoked as parallels. your task must be to ascertain the differences in import between the words thus joined. exercise - parallels study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs. at each blank in the illustrative sentences insert the appropriate word. _brotherly_ is used of actual blood kinship, or indicates close feeling, deep affection, or religious love. _fraternal_ is used less personally and intimately; it normally betokens that the relations are at least in part formal (as relations within societies). "the sight of the button on the stranger's lapel caused wilkes to give him the cabalistic sign and ask his ____ assistance." "though the children of different parents, we bear for each other a true ____ devotion." "because we both are newspaper men i feel a ____ interest in him." _daily_, the popular word, is often used loosely. we may say that we eat three meals daily without implying that we have never gone dinnerless. _diurnal_, the scientific term, is used exactly, whether applying to the period of daylight or to the whole twenty-four hours. a diurnal flower closes at night; a diurnal motion is precisely coincident with the astronomical day. in poetry, however, _diurnal_ is often used for _daily_. "give us this day our ____ bread." "the ____ rotation of the earth on its axis is the cause of our day and night." "fred and i went for our ____ ramble through the hills." which is the more popular word? let us see. would the man in the street be more likely to use one than the other? which one? does this answer our question? another question: which word is the more inclusive in meaning? again, let us see. a blacksmith is beating iron; does the iron grow cold or frigid? which term, then, approaches the closer in meaning to the idea of mere coolness? on the other hand, may that same term represent a temperature far beyond mere coolness? would you speak of a morning as bitterly cold or bitterly frigid? now think of the term you have not been using. _can_ it convey as wide meanings, or is it limited in range? does the word _frigid_ carry for you a geographical suggestion (to the frigid zone)? do you yourself use the term? if so, do you use it chiefly (perhaps entirely) in connection with human temperament or demeanor? is _cold_ used thus figuratively also? which is the more often thus used? "i suffer from ____ hands and feet." "the slopes of mont blanc are ____ with eternal snow." "he did not warm to the idea at all. his inclinations are absolutely ____." . _manly_ implies possession of traits or qualities a man should possess; it may be used of immature persons. _virile_ implies maturity and robust masculinity; it is also used of the power to procreate. "a ____ lad." "a ____ reply." "____ energy." "____ and aggressive." "____ forbearance." . _inner_ is somewhat within, or more within than something else is; it is also used in figurative and spiritual senses. _internal_ is entirely within. "the ____ organs of the human body." "the ____ layer of the rind." "the injury was ____." "the ____ nature of man." "the ____ meaning of the occurrence." . "he was five feet, eleven inches in height." can you substitute _altitude_? is _altitude_ used of persons? "at an altitude of eleven feet from the ground." would _height_ be more natural? does _altitude_ betoken great height? if so, does hamlet speak jestingly when he greets the player, "your ladyship is nearer heaven than when i saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine?" what of the sentence: "the altitude of galveston was not sufficient to protect it from the tidal wave"? does the magnitude or importance of the object (galveston) compensate for its lack of elevation and thus justify _altitude_? could _height_ be substituted? if so, would the words _above sea-level_ have to follow it? does this fact give you a further clue as to the distinction between the two words? you are comparing the elevation of two peaks, both plainly visible; you measure them merely by your eye. do you say "this exceeds the other in height" or "this exceeds the other in altitude"? suppose the peaks are so distant from each other that the two are not visible simultaneously, and suppose you are speaking from a knowledge of the scientific measurements. do you say "this exceeds the other in height" or "this exceeds the other in altitude"? . _talk_ may be one-sided and empty. _conversation_ requires that at least two shall participate, and it is not spoken of as empty, though it may be trivial. "our ____ was somewhat desultory." "thought is less general than ____." "his ____ was so lively that i had no chance to interrupt" "that is meaningless ____." . all of us have heard physicians call commonplace ailments by extraordinary names. when homesickness reaches the stage where a physician is or might be called in, it becomes nostalgia. the latter term suggests morbid or chronic suffering. a healthy boy away from home for the first time is homesick. an exile who has wasted himself with pining for his native land is nostalgic. "his ____ was more than ____; it had so preyed upon his thoughts that it had grown into ____." rise, ascend. _rise_ is the more general term, but it expresses less than _ascend_ in degree or stateliness. "he had foretold to them that he would ____ into heaven." "do not ____ from your seat." "the diver slowly ____ to the surface." "the travelers ____ the mountain." . _sell_ is the more dignified word socially, but may express greater moral degradation. _vend_ is used of the petty (as that which can be carried about in a wagon), and may suggest the pettily dishonest. "that man would ____ his country." "we shall ____ a million dollars' worth of goods." "the hucksters ____ their wares." study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs. determine whether the words are correctly used in the illustrative sentences. (some are; some are not.) . _friendly_ denotes goodwill positive in quality though perhaps limited in degree; we may be friendly to friends, enemies, or strangers. _amicable_ is negative, denoting absence of open discord: it is used of those persons between whom some connection already exists. "the newcomer has an amicable manner." "both sides were cautious, but at last they reached a friendly settlement." "i have only amicable feelings for an enemy who is thus merciful." "the two met, if not in a friendly, at least in an amicable way." . both words imply an act of the will; but _willing_ adds positive good-nature, desire, or enthusiasm, whereas _voluntary_ conveys little or nothing of the emotional attitude. _voluntary_ is often thought of in contrast with _mechanical_. "they made willing submission." "they rendered whole-hearted and voluntary service." "though torn by desire to return to his mother, he willingly continued his journey away from her." "the sneeze was unwilling." _greedy_ denotes excessiveness (usually habitual) of appetite or, in its figurative uses, of desire; it nearly always carries the idea of selfishness. _voracious_ denotes intense hunger or the hasty and prolonged consumption of great quantities of food; it may indicate, not habitual selfishness, but the stress of circumstances. "nobody else i know is so greedy as he." "the young poet was voracious of praise." "trench, though a capital fellow, was so hungry that he ate voraciously." _offspring_ is likely to be used when our thought is chiefly on the children, _progeny_ when our thought is chiefly on the parents. _offspring_ may be used of one or many; _progeny_ is used in collective reference to many. "he was third among the progeny who won distinction." "they are the progeny of very rich parents." "clayton left his offspring well provided for." _ghost_ is the narrower term. it never expresses, as _spirit_ does, the idea of soul or of animating mood or purpose. with reference to incorporeal beings, it denotes (except in the phrase "the holy ghost") the reappearance of the dead in disembodied form. _spirit_ may denote a variety of incorporeal beings--among them angels, fairies (devoid of moral nature), and personalities returned from the grave and manifested--seldom visibly--through spiritualistic tappings and the like. "the superstitious natives thought the spirit of their chief walked in the graveyard." "the ghost of the ancestors survives in the descendants." "i can call spirits from the vasty deep." nowadays the chief difference between the two terms is that _foe_ is the more used in poetry, _enemy_ in prose. but _foe_ tends to express the more personal and implacable hostility. we do not think of foes as bearing any friendship for each other; enemies may, or they may be enemies in public affairs but downright friends in their private relations. a man is hardly spoken of as being his own foe, but he may be his own enemy. "for the moment we found ourselves foes." "suspicion is an enemy to content." "i paid a tribute to my friend, who was the dominant personality among the enemy." _truth_ has to do with the accuracy of the statement, of the facts; _veracity_ with the intention of the person to say nothing false. "i cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, but i can for the truth of the teller." "though he is not a man of veracity, i believe he is now speaking the truth." "veracity, crushed to earth, will rise again." . _break_ is the broader term. it need not refer clearly to the operation or result of external force, nor need it embody the idea that this force is brought against a hard substance. in these respects it differs from _fracture_, as also in the fact that it may designate a mere interruption. furthermore it has figurative uses, whereas _fracture_ is narrowly literal. "there was a fracture in the chain of mountains." "the break in his voice was distinct." "the fracture of the bones of his wrist incapacitated him." "the fracture of the rope." . to _hug_ is to clasp violently or enthusiastically, and perhaps ludicrously. to _embrace_ is to clasp in a more dignified, perhaps even in a formal, way; the term also means to include, to comprise. "this topic embraces the other." "did you see that ardent bumpkin embracing his sweetheart?" "her sister gave her a graceful but none too cordial hug." "the wounded bear hugged the hunter ferociously." . the two terms overlap; but there is a fairly strong tendency to use _shorten_ for reduction in length, and _abridge_ for reduction in quantity or mass. both words are used figuratively as well as literally. "the tyrant shortened the privileges of his subjects." "we shortened the rope." "the teacher abridged the recitation." "the report of the committee appears in abridged form in volume of our records." with the help of the dictionary discriminate between the members of the following pairs. determine whether the words are correctly used in the illustrative sentences. (some are; some are not.) . "he delivered a fiery address." "the underbrush was dry and fiery." "your disposition is too inflammable." . "the fat man had grown attenuated." "yon cassius has a lean and hungry look." "the hot metal was then drawn into an attenuated wire." "only a lean line of our soldiers faced the dense masses of the enemy." . "the scene was quiet and domestic." "it is home-like, inexpressibly dear." "to waltham, heartsick from his wanderings, the room in all its arrangements was thoroughly domestic." . "we must be vigilant if we would maintain our liberty." "he was wakeful, even watchful, though not from set purpose." "he was vigilant for evidences of friendship." . "it is a big, barn-like building." "spare yonder sacred edifice." "this is the most imposing building i ever saw." . "i poked a stick into the aperture which the crawfish had made." "through the aperture of the partly open door i gazed out on the street." "the hole of the hornet's nest was black with the emerging and angry insects." . "two hundred students graduated this year from the college of farming." "for long years he had devoted himself to the homely, grinding tasks of agriculture." "i have looked rather carefully into the theories of farming." . "he obtained some repose even while standing." "we wished for a moment's rest from our exertions." "worn out, he was compelled to seek repose." "lincoln's face in repose was very melancholy." . "the man was so injured he could do nothing for himself; i had to aid him." "help, help!" "aid us, o god, in our sore distress." "the little fellow could not quite get the bundle to his shoulder; a passerby helped him." . "by refraining from comment he hid his connection with the affair." "wild creatures hide themselves by means of their protective coloring." "the frost on the panes conceals the landscape from you." "do not hide your misdeeds from your mother." in the following list only the native member of each pair is given. determine what the classic member is, and frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of the two words. (make a conscientious effort to find the classic member by means of its parallelism with the native. if, and after, you definitely fail in any instance to find it, obtain a clue to it through study of the words in list g. every pair in that list is clearly suggestive of one or more pairs in this list.) nightly,-- motherly,-- breadth,-- buy,-- hot,-- fall,-- thought,-- sleeplessness,-- fatherly,-- yearly,-- outer,-- depth,-- womanly,-- speech,-- discriminate between the members of each of the following pairs, and frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of the two words. freedom, liberty well, cistern freedom, independence give, donate free, acquit happen, occur door, portal lessen, abate begin, commence lessen, diminish behead, decapitate forefathers, ancestors belief, credence friend, acquaintance belief, credulity lead, conduct swear, vow end, finish curse, imprecate end, complete curse, anathema end, terminate die, expire warn, admonish die, perish warn, caution die, succumb rich, affluent lively, vivacious wealthy, opulent walk, ambulate help, assistance leave, depart help, succor leave, abandon answer, reply go with, accompany find out, ascertain go before, precede take, appropriate hasten, accelerate shrewd, astute quicken, accelerate breathe, respire speed, celerity busy, industrious hatred, animadversion growing, crescent fearful, timorous grow, increase cover with a piece of paper the classic (right-hand) members of the following pairs, and if possible ascertain what they are by studying the native members. frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of both words in each pair. neighborhood, vicinity hang, impend hang, suspend rash, impetuous flood, inundation drunk, intoxicated harmful, injurious tool, instrument mind, intellect mad, insane birth, nativity sail, navigate sailor, mariner ship, vessel lying, mendacious upright, erect early, premature upright, vertical first, primary shake, vibrate raise, elevate swing, oscillate lift, elevate leaves, foliage greet, salute beg, importune choose, select beggar, mendicant choose, elect smell, odor same, identical sink, submerge name, nominate dip, immerse follow, pursue room, apartment follow, succeed see, perceive teach, instruct see, inspect teach, inculcate sight, visibility teacher, pedagogue sight, vision tiresome, tedious sight, spectacle empty, vacant glasses, spectacles farewell, valediction cover with a piece of paper the native (left-hand) members of the following pairs, and if possible ascertain what they are by studying the classic members. frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of both words in each pair. skin, cuticle thunder, fulminate skin, integument sleep-walking, somnambulism hide, epidermis bird, ornithology fleshly, carnal bird, aviary hearer, auditor bee, apiary snake, serpent bending, flexible heap, aggregation wrinkle, corrugation laugh, cachinnation slow, dilatory laughable, risible lime, calcimine fear, trepidation coal, lignite live, exist man, anthropology bridal, nuptial winter, hibernate wed, marry gap, hiatus husband/wife, spouse right, ethical shore, littoral showy, ostentatious forswear, perjure spelling, orthography steal, peculate time, chronology steal, embezzle handbook, manual lockjaw, tetanus hole, cavity mistake, error dig, excavate mistake, erratum boil, tumor wink, nictation tickle, titillate blessing, benediction dry, desiccated wet, humid warm, tepid flirt, coquet forgetfulness, oblivion fiddle, violin sky, firmament sky, empyrean flatter, compliment flee, abscond flight, fugitive forbid, prohibit hinder, impede hold, contain for each of the following pairs frame a sentence which shall contain one of the members. can the other member be substituted without affecting the meaning of the sentence? read the discrimination of _height-altitude_ in exercise - parallels. ask yourself similar questions to bring out the distinction between the two words you are considering. threat, menace call, summon talk, commune cleanse, purify short, terse short, concise better, ameliorate lie, recline new, novel straight, parallel lawful, legitimate law, litigation law, jurisprudence flash, coruscate late, tardy watch, chronometer foretell, prognosticate king, emperor winding, sinuous hint, insinuate burn, incinerate fire, incendiarism bind, constrict crab, crustacean fowls, poultry lean, incline flat, level flat, vapid sharpness, acerbity sharpness, acrimony shepherd, pastor word, vocable choke, suffocate stifle, suffocate clothes, raiment witness, spectator beat, pulsate mournful, melancholy beginning, incipient drink, imbibe light, illuminate hall, corridor stair, escalator anger, indignation fight, combat sleight-of-hand, prestidigitation build, construct tree, arbor ask, interrogate wench, virgin frisk, caper fill, replenish water, irrigate silly, foolish coming, advent feeling, sentiment old, antiquated forerunner, precursor sew, embroider unload, exonerate grave, sepulcher readable, legible tell, narrate kiss, osculate nose, proboscis striking, percussion green, verdant stroke, concussion grass, verdure bowman, archer drive, propel greed, avarice book, volume stingy, parsimonious warrior, belligerent bath, ablution owner, proprietor wrong, incorrect bow, obeisance top, summit kneel, genuflection food, nutrition work, occupation seize, apprehend shut, close field, agrarian turn back to lists a, b, c, d, e, and f. discriminate between the members of each pair contained in these lists. frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of the words. vii synonyms in larger groups ( ) in considering pairs we have, without using the word, been studying synonyms. for most pairs are synonyms (or in some instances antonyms) that hunt in couples. we must now deal with synonyms, and incidentally antonyms, as they associate themselves in larger groups. a vocabulary is impoverished. why? nine times in ten, because of a disregard of synonyms. listen to the talk of the average person. whatever is pleasing is _fine_ or _nice_ or _all to the good_; whatever is displeasing is _bum_ or _awful_ or _a fright_. life is reflected, not as noble and complex, but as mean and meager. out of such stereotyped utterance only the general idea emerges. the precise meaning is lazily or incompetently left to the hearer to imagine. the precise meaning? there is none. a person who does not take the trouble to speak clearly has not taken the trouble to think clearly. but the master of synonyms expresses, instead of general, hazy, commonplace conceptions, the subtlest shadings of thought and feeling. he has so trained himself that he selects, it may be unconsciously, from a throng of possible words. one word may be strong, another weak. one may be broad, another narrow. one may present an alternative in meanings, another permit no liberty of choice. one may be suggestive, another literal or colorless. one may penetrate to the core of the idea, another strike only in the environs. with these possibilities the master of synonyms reckons. he must have the right word. he chooses it, not at haphazard, but in conformity with a definite purpose. for synonyms are not words that have the same meaning. they are words that have similar meanings. they may be compared to circles that overlap but do not coincide. each embraces a common area, but each embraces also an area peculiar to itself. though many words cluster about a given idea, rarely if ever are even two of these words entirely equivalent to each other. in scope, in suggestion, in emotional nuance, in special usage, or what not, is sure to lurk some denial of perfect correspondence. and of synonyms, so of antonyms. antonyms are words opposite in meaning; but the opposition, for the same reasons as the likeness, is seldom or never absolute. in your study of synonyms you will find most of the dictionaries previously named of great help. you may also profitably consult the following books of synonyms (heavy, scholastic works not suited for ordinary use are omitted): edith b. ordway: _synonyms and antonyms_. a compact, practical volume, with antonyms (in italics for contrast) immediately following synonyms. louis a. flemming: _putnam's word book_. a book of the ordinarily used synonyms of words, with antonyms after some of them, and with lists of associated words wherever these are likely to be useful. samuel fallows: _ , synonyms and antonyms_. a handy little volume, with useful lists of various kinds in appendices. richard soule: _dictionary of english synonyms_ [revised and enlarged by george h. howison]. a much larger and more expensive book than the others, and less practical for ordinary use, but fuller in treatment of material, with words of more than one meaning carefully divided into their various senses. george crabb: _english synonyms_. a standard volume for over years. has close distinctions, but is somewhat scholarly for ordinary use. revised edition of , omitting illustrative quotations from literature, not so good as editions before that date. james c. fernald: _english synonyms, antonyms, and prepositions_. a pleasing book to read, with much information about the use of words and their shades of meaning (with exercises), also with proper prepositions to follow words. material taken from the _standard dictionary_. peter mark roget: _thesaurus of english words and phrases_. issued in many editions and revisions. words grouped under general ideas. an excellent book for serious and laborious study, but not for quick use. the best principle for the extension of one's mastery of synonyms is the principle already used over and over in this book--that of proceeding from the known to the unknown. it is the fundamental principle, indeed, of any kind of successful learning. we should build on what we have, fit each new piece of material into the structure already erected. but normally it is our ill fortune to learn through chance rather than through system. we perceive elucidation here, draw an inference there. these isolated fragments of knowledge may mislead rather than inform us. the principle of proceeding from the known to the unknown may be applied to synonyms in various ways. two of these--the two of most importance--we must consider here. first, you should reckon with your personal, demonstrated needs. just as you have already analyzed your working vocabulary for its general limits and shortcomings, so should you analyze it with particular reference to your poverty in synonyms. watch your actual speech; make a list of the words--nouns, verbs, and adjectives particularly--that you employ again and again. make each of these words the starting-point for a linguistic exploring expedition. first, write the word down. then under it write all the synonyms that come forthwith to your mind. these constitute your present available stock; in speaking or writing you could, if you kept yourself mentally alert, summon them on the moment. but the list, as you know, is not exhaustive. draw a line under it and subjoin such synonyms as come to you after reflection. these constitute a second stock, not instantaneously available, yet to be tagged as among your resources. next add a list of the synonyms you find through research, through a ransacking of dictionaries and books of synonyms. this third stock, but dimly familiar if familiar at all, is in no practical sense yours. and indeed some of the words are too abstruse, learned, or technical for you to burden your memory with them. but many--most--are worth acquiring. by writing down the words of these three classes you have done something to stamp them upon your memory as associates. you must now make it your business to bring them into use. never call upon them for volunteers, but like a wise commander summon the individual that can rightly perform a particular service. thus will your speech, perhaps vague and indolent now, become exact, discriminating, competent, vital. in the second place, you should obtain specific and detailed command of general ideas. not of out-of-the-way ideas. but of the great basic ideas that are the common possession of all mankind. for through these basic ideas is the most natural and profitable approach to the study of synonyms. each of them is represented by a generic word. so elementary are idea and word alike that a person cannot have the one in mind without having the other ready and a-quiver on his tongue. every person is master of both. but it is unsafe to predicate the person's acquaintance with the shades and phases of the idea, or with the corresponding discriminations in language. he may not know them at all, he may know them partially, he may know them through and through. let us suppose him ignorant of them but determined to learn. his progress, both in the thought and in the language, will be from the general to the specific. his acquaintance with the idea in the large he will gradually extend to an acquaintance with it in detail, and his command of the broad term for it he will little by little supplement with definite terms for its phases. an illustration will make this clear. we are aware that the world is made up of various classes and conditions of men. how did we learn this? let us go back to the time when our minds were a blank, when we were babes and sucklings, when we had not perceived that men exist, much less that mankind is infinitely complex. a baby comes slowly to understand that all objects in the universe are divisible into two classes, human and non-human, and that a member of the former may be separated from the others and regarded as an individual. it has reached the initial stage of its knowledge on the subject; it has the basic idea, that of the individual human being. as soon as it can speak, it acquires a designating term--not of course the sophisticated _human being_, but the simpler _man_. it uses this word in the generic sense, to indicate _any_ member of the human race; for as yet it knows nothing and cares nothing about differences in species. with increasing enlightenment, however, it discerns five species, and distinguishes among them by swelling this branch of its vocabulary to five words: man (in the sense of adult male), woman, boy, girl, baby. (to be sure, it may chance to have acquired a specific term, as _boy_ or _baby_, before the generic term _man_; but if so, it has attached this term to some particular individual, as the grocer's boy or itself, rather than to the individuals of a species. its understanding of the species as a species comes after its understanding of the genus.) as time passes, it divides mankind into yet further species by sundry other methods: according to occupation, for example, as doctors, chauffeurs, gardeners; to race or color, as white men; negroes, malays, chinese; to disposition, as heroes, gift-givers, teasers, talkers; and so on. it perceives moreover that species are made up of sub-species. thus instead of lumping all boys together it begins to distinguish them as big boys, little boys, middle-sized boys, boys in long trousers, boys in short trousers, barefoot boys, schoolboys, poor boys, rich boys, sick boys, well boys, friends, enemies, bullies, and what not. it even divides the sub-species. thus it classifies schoolboys as bright boys, dullards, workers, shirkers, teachers' favorites, scapegoats, athletes, note-throwers, truant-players, and the like. and of these classes it may make yet further sub-divisions, or at least it may separate them into the individuals that compose them. in fine, with its growing powers and experience, it abandons its old conception that all persons are practically alike, and follows human nature through the countless ramifications of man's status, temperament, activities, or fate. and it augments its vocabulary to keep pace, roughly at least, with its expanding ideas. in thought and terminology alike its growth is from genus to species. so it is with all our ideas and with all our words to cap them. we radiate from an ascertained center into new areas of knowledge; we proceed from the broad, fundamental, generic to the precise, discriminatory, specific. upon this natural law are based the exercises in this chapter and the two to follow. the starting-point is always a word representative of an elementary idea--a word and an idea which everybody knows; the advance is into the unknown or the unused, at any rate into the particular. now fundamental ideas are not very numerous, and these exercises include the commoner ones. such a method of studying synonyms must therefore yield large and tangible results. one matter, however, should be explained. most books of synonyms start with a word and list all the terms in any way related to it. the idea of the compilers is that the more they give the student the more they help him. but oftentimes by giving more than is strictly pertinent they actually hinder and confuse him. they may do this in various ways, of which two must be mentioned. first, they follow an idea too far afield. thus in listing the synonyms of _love_ they include such terms as _kindness_ and _lenity_, words only through stretched usage connected with _love_. secondly, they trace, not one meaning of a word, but two or more unrelated meanings when the word chances to possess them. thus in listing the synonyms of _cry_ they include both the idea of weeping and the idea of calling or screaming. what are the results of these methods? the student finds a clutter where he expects rationalized order; he finds he must exclude many words which lie in the borders and fringes of the meaning. moreover he finds mere chance associations mingled with marked kinships. in both cases he finds dulled distinctions. this book offers synonyms that are apropos and definite rather than comprehensive. starting with a basic idea, it finds the generic term; it then disregards dim and distant relationships, confines itself rigorously to one of perhaps two or three legitimate senses, and refuses to consider the peculiar twists and devious ways of subsidiary words when they wander from the idea it is tracing. it thus deliberately blinds itself to much that is interesting. but this partial blindness enables it to concentrate attention upon the matter actually under study, to give sharper distinctions and surer guidance. exercise a after three introductory groups (dealing with thoroughly concrete ideas and words) the synonyms in this exercise are arranged alphabetically according to the first word in each group. this first word is generic. it is immediately followed by a list of its synonyms. these are then informally discriminated or else (in a few instances) questions are asked about them. perhaps a few less closely related synonyms are then listed for you to discriminate in a similar way. finally, illustrative sentences are given. each blank in these you are to fill with the word that conveys the meaning exactly. (to prevent monotony and inattention, the number of illustrative sentences varies. you may have to use a particular word more than once, and another word not at all.) any one may be said to _walk_ who moves along on foot with moderate speed. he _plods_ if he walks slowly and heavily, and perhaps monotonously or spiritlessly as well. he _trudges_ if he walks toilsomely and wearily, as though his feet were heavy. he _treads_ if his walk is suggestive of a certain lightness and caution--if, for instance, he seems half-uncertain whether to proceed and sets one foot down carefully before the other. he _strides_ if he takes long steps, especially in a firm, pompous, or lofty manner. he _stalks_ if there is a certain stiffness or haughtiness in his walking. he _struts_ if he walks with a proud or affectedly dignified gait, especially if he also raises his feet high. he _tramps_ if he goes for a long walk, as for pleasure or enjoyment out-of-doors. he _marches_ if he walks in a measured, ordered way, especially in company with others. he _paces_ if he engages in a measured, continuous walk, as from nervousness, impatience, or anger. he _toddles_ if his steps are short, uneven, and unsteady, like those of a child. he _waddles_ if his movement is ungainly, with a duck-like swaying from side to side. he _shuffles_ if he drags his feet with a scraping noise. he _minces_ if he takes short steps in a prim, precise, or affectedly nice manner. he _strolls_ or _saunters_ if he goes along in an easy, aimless, or idle fashion. he _rambles_ if he wanders about, with no definite aim or toward no definite goal. he _meanders_ if he proceeds slowly and perhaps listlessly in an ever-changing course, as if he were following the windings of the crooked phrygian river, meander. he _promenades_ if he walks in a public place, as for pleasure or display. he _prowls_ if he moves about softly and stealthily, as in search of prey or booty. he _hobbles_ if he jerks along unevenly, as from a stiff or crippled condition of body. he _limps_ if he walks lamely. he _perambulates_ when he walks through, perhaps for observation or inspection. _(perambulates_ is of course a learned word.) _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: they ____ down the lane in the moonlight. rip van winkle loved to ____ about the mountains. "the plowman homeward ____ his weary way." the old man ____ down the street with his cane. the excavators ____ about the ruins in search of relics. he ____ about the room, almost bursting with importance. the nervous man ____ up and down the station platform. they ____ along the beach at the sea resort. the baby learned to ____ when it was eleven months old. the two of them ____ about the field all day hunting rabbits. a ghost, so they tell me, ____ about the haunted house at midnight. he carefully ____ the plank that spans the abyss. the baby ____ toward us with outstretched arms. the chinaman ____ out of the back room of the laundry in his carpet slippers. they caught glimpses of gaunt wolves ____ about their campfire. he was terrified when the giant ____ into the room. the fat lady ____ down the aisle of the street car. the sick man will ____ a few steps each day until he is stronger. a turkey cock ____ about the barnyard. a boy with a rag tied around his toe ____ painfully down the street. they reported to the police that a man had been ____ about the place. she held her skirts daintily and ____ along as if she were walking on eggs. the lovers ____ along the banks of the stream. he ____ through the hall like a conqueror. the children wore themselves out by ____ through the snow to school. we ____ through the meadows, often stooping to pick flowers as we went. the soldiers ____ into camp at nightfall. what differences in human nature, conditions, and disposition are revealed by laughter! if a person gives audible expression to mirth, gayety, or good-humor, the simplest word to apply to what he does is _laugh_. but suppose a girl, with slight or insufficient provocation, engages in silly or foolish though perhaps involuntary laughter. we should say she _giggles_. suppose a youngster is amused at an inappropriate moment and but partly suppresses his laughter; or suppose he wilfully permits the breaking forth of just enough laughter to indicate disrespect. he _snickers_. suppose a person gives a little, light laugh; or more especially, suppose a crowd gives such an one as the result of slight, simultaneous amusement. our word now is _titters_. suppose we laugh low or gently or to ourselves. we _chuckle_. suppose some one laughs loudly, boisterously, even coarsely, in a manner befitting a lumber camp rather than a drawing room. that person _guffaws_. suppose a man engages in explosive and immoderate laughter. he _cachinnates_. _assignment for further discrimination_: . _second assignment_: name all the words you can that designate inaudible laughter (for example, ). _sentences_: the rough fellow ____ in the lecturer's face. "if you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not ____?" he kept ____ at the thought of the surprise he would give them. "the swain mistrustless of his smutted face, while secret laughter ____ round the place." the ill-bred fellow was ____ with strident, violent, irritating sounds. "the little dog ____ to see such sport." the audience ____ when the speaker's glasses began to slip from his nose. the girl kept ____ in a way that embarrassed us both. the small boy ____ when the preacher's notes fluttered out of the bible to the floor. the rude fellows ____ at this evidence of my discomfiture. he ____ very kindly and told me not to feel any regrets. the little maids tried to be polite, but ____ irrepressibly. a person simply directs his eyes to see. he _looks_. but eyes may speak, we are told, and since this person undergoes many changes of mood and purpose, we shall let his eyes tell us all they will about his different manners of looking. at first he but looks momentarily (as from lack of time) or casually (as from lack of interest). he _glances_. soon he makes a business of looking, and fastens his eyes for a long time on something he admires or wonders at. he _gazes_. presently he looks with a blank, perhaps a rude, expression and with eyes opened widely; he may be for the moment overcome with incomprehension, surprise, or fright, or perhaps he wishes to be insolent. he _stares_. now he is looking narrowly or closely at something that he sees with difficulty. he _peers_. the next moment he looks over something with care or with an encompassing sweep of vision. he _scans_ it. his interest thoroughly enlisted, he looks at it carefully point by point to see that it is right in each detail. he _scrutinizes_ it. he then alters his mood, and looks with scornful or malignant satisfaction upon something he has conquered or has power over. he _gloats_. anger, perhaps fierceness, takes possession of him, and he looks with piercing eyes. he _glares_. threat mingles with anger, and in all likelihood he looks scowlingly or frowningly. he _glowers_. an added expression of sullenness or gloom comes into his look. he _lowers_. he throws off his dark spirit and looks slyly and playfully, let us say through a small opening. he _peeks_. playfulness gives place to curiosity; he looks quickly and furtively, perhaps through some tiny aperture, and probably at something he has no business to see. he _peeps_. the while he looks his mouth falls open, as from stupidity or wonder. he _gapes_. he looks at something a long time to study it. he _cons_ or _pores_. his study is not of the thing itself; it is meditation or reverie. he _pores_. a member of the opposite sex is present; he looks at her with the effort of a flirt to attract attention to himself, or less scrupulous, he directs toward her amorous or inviting glances. he _ogles_. _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: the inspecting officer ____ the men's equipment. the student ____ his lessons carefully. at this unexpected proposal dobbett merely ____. jimmie ____ at the fellow who had kicked the pup. the inquisitive maid ____ into all the the closets. he ____ over his fallen adversary. the bookkeeper ____ over his ledger. in the darkened hallway he ____ at the notices on the bulletin board. "the poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth ____ from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven." from the way her father ____ the foolish, young man should have known it was time to go. he ____ long and lovingly upon the scenes he was leaving. the newcomer ____ insolently at his host and ____ the young ladies. _abandon_ denotes absolute giving up, as from force of circumstances or shirking of responsibility. _desert_ refers to leaving or quitting in violation of obligation, duty, or oath. _forsake_, which may involve no culpability, usually implies a breaking off of intimate association or attachment. _sentences_: the sailor ____ his ship. necessity compelled him to ____ his friends in a time of sore trouble. they hated to ____ their old haunts. a brave man never ____ hope. an unscrupulous man will ____ his principles when it is to his advantage. "when my father and my mother ____ me, then the lord will take me up." we ____ our attempt to save the ship. to _abase_ is to bring down so that the victim feels himself lowered in estate or external condition. to _debase_ is to produce a marked decline in actual worth or in moral quality. to _degrade_ is to lower in rank or status. to _humble_ is to lower in dignity or self-esteem, or as used reflexively, to restrain one's own pride; the word often implies that the person has been over-proud or arrogant. to _humiliate_ is to deprive of self-esteem or to bring into ignominy. to _disgrace_ is to bring actual shame upon. _sentences_: they ____ the guilty officer from captain to lieutenant. a man should ____ himself before god. he had so ____ himself that i no longer expected good of him. his detection at cheating had ____ him before the students. by successive overlords they had been ____ into a condition of serfdom. the aristocratic old lady was ____ by her loss of social position. the conversion of so much bullion into money had ____ the coinage. an interesting thing about the _answer_ group is that the generic term has a somewhat strong rival in _reply_, itself fairly inclusive. we must therefore discriminate rather fully between _answer_ and _reply_. the former is a return in words to a question, a communication, or an argument. the latter suggests a more or less formal answer, as one carefully prepared or intelligently thought out. we might give an _answer_ offhand, but are less likely to give a _reply_ so. we may give any kind of _answer_ to a question, but if we give a _reply_, the implication is that we have answered it definitely, perhaps satisfactorily. on the other hand, in controversial matters we may, though we by no means always do, imply a more conclusive meeting of objections through _answer_ than through _reply_. a _response_ is an expected answer, one in harmony with the question or assertion, or in some way carrying the thought farther. a _rejoinder_ is a quick reply to something controversial or calling forth opposition. a _retort_ is a short, sharp reply, such as turns back censure or derision, or as springs from anger. a _repartee_ is an immediate and witty reply, perhaps to a remark of similar character which it is intended to surpass in cleverness. _sentences_: the detailed ____ to our letter should reach us within a week. the plays of oscar wilde abound in brilliant ____. the speaker's ____ to the heckler was incisive and scathing. my ____ to that third question in the examination in history was incorrect. the congregation read the ____ in unison. you have enumerated objections to my course; here is their ____. "this is no ____, thou unfeeling man, to excuse the current of thy cruelty." there was silence throughout the chamber as the old statesman rose to make his ____. to the tenderfoot's remark the guide mumbled an indifferent ____. our appeal for the sufferers elicited but a poor ____. from the general tree of asking grow many branches, different in size, in the direction they take, in the shades of meaning they cast. what can we learn from a rapid scrutiny of each? that to _inquire_ is to ask for specific information. that to _question_ is to keep asking in order to obtain detailed or reluctantly given information. that to _interrogate_ is to question formally, systematically, or thoroughly. that to _interpellate_ is to question as of unchallenged right, as in a deliberative body. that to _query_ is to bring a thing into question because of doubt as to its correctness or truth. that to _quiz_ is to question closely and persistently, as from meddlesomeness, opposition, or curiosity. that to _catechize_ is to question in a minute, perhaps impertinent, manner in order to ascertain one's secrets or the amount of his knowledge or information. that to _request_ is to ask formally and politely. that to _beg_ is to ask for deferentially or humbly, especially on the ground of pity. that to _solicit_ is to ask with urgency. that to _entreat_ is to ask with strong desire and moving appeal. that to _beseech_ is to ask earnestly as a boon or favor. that to _crave_ is to ask humbly and abjectly, as though unworthy of receiving. that to _implore_ is to ask with fervor and intense earnestness. that to _supplicate_ is to ask with urgent or even desperate appeal. (both _implore_ and _supplicate_ imply humility, as of a prayer to a superior being.) that to _importune_ is to ask for persistently, even wearyingly. that to _petition_ is to ask a superior, usually in writing, for some favor, grant, or right. _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: the leader of the minority ____ the upholders of the measure sharply as to a secret understanding. i ____ you to keep your promise. i shall ____ that solution for the present. the colonists ____ great britain for a redress of grievances. she ____ the governor to grant her husband a pardon. a child is naturally inquisitive and ____ many questions. i ____ you to show mercy. on bended knees he ____ god's forgiveness. "i'm stopp'd by all the fools i meet and ____ in every street." the policeman ____ the suspect closely. the prosecuting attorney ____ the witness. we are ____ funds to aid the famine-stricken people of india. he ____ me about your health. you should ____ at the office about the lost package. she ____ your presence at the party. every one resents being ____. i ____ you to care for the child after i am gone. a fool can ____ questions a wise man can't answer. she annoyed them by constantly ____ them for favors. the reporter ____ into the causes of the riot. "____ and it shall be given you." i ____ your pardon, though i well know i do not deserve it. the man ____ me to give him some money for food. if you consume or injure something by bringing it in contact with fire or heat, you _burn_ it. if you do not consume it but burn it superficially so as to change the texture or color of its surface, you _scorch_ it. if you burn off ends or projections of it, you _singe_ it. if you burn its surface to dryness or hardness, you _sear_ it. if you dry or shrivel it with heat, you _parch_ it. if through heat you reduce it to a state of charcoal, or cinders, you _char_ it. if you burn it to ashes, you _incinerate_ it. (this word is learned and but little used in ordinary discourse.) if you burn a dead body to ashes, you _cremate_ it. if you burn or sear anything with a hot iron or a corrosive substance, you _cauterize_ it. _sentences_: the hired girl ____ the cloth in ironing it. by getting too close to the fire he ____ the nap of his flannels. the doctor at once ____ the wound. the cook had picked the chicken and now ____ its down over the coals. i used to ____ grains of field corn on the cookstove, while my mother prepared dinner. shelley's body was ____ on a funeral pyre. the lecturer spoke of the time when the whole earth might be ____. the earth was ____ and all growing things were ____ by the intense summer heat. from much of the talk that we hear nowadays it might be supposed that the earnest devotion of one's self to a task is a thing that has disappeared from the earth. but a good many people are exhibiting this very devotion. let us see in what different degrees. the man who actively applies himself to something, whether temporarily or habitually, is _busy_. the man who makes continued application to work a principle or habit of life, is _industrious_. the man who applies himself aggressively to the accomplishment of some specific undertaking or pursuit, is _diligent_. the man who quietly and determinedly sticks to a task until it is accomplished, no matter what its difficulties or length, is _assiduous_. the man who makes steady and painstaking application to whatever he is about, is _sedulous_. _sentences_: early in life he acquired ____ habits. by patient and ____ study you may overcome those defects of your early education. "how doth the ____ little bee improve each shining hour." the manager gave such ____ attention to details that he made few mistakes. he is ____ at present. oh, yes, he is always ____. "nowher so ____ a man has he ther has, and yet he seemed ____ than he was." words descriptive of brief utterance are, in nearly every instance, in their origin figurative. the brevity is brought out by comparison with something that is noticeably short or small. let us examine the words of our list for their figurative qualities. a _concise_ statement is one that is _cut down_ until a great deal is said in a few words. a _terse_ statement is _rubbed off_, rid of unessentials. a _succinct_ statement has its important thoughts _bound_ into small compass, as by a girdle. a _compendious_ statement _weighs together_ the various thoughts and aspects of a subject; it shows by means of a few effective words just what these amount to, gives a summary of them. a _compact_ statement has its units of thought _fastened together_ into firmness of structure; its brevity is well-knit. a _sententious_ statement gives _feelings_ or _opinions_ in a strikingly pointed or axiomatic way, so that they can be easily grasped and remembered; if _sententious_ is unfavorably used, the statement may be filled with paraded platitudes. a _pithy_ statement gives the very _pith_, the heart of a matter; it is sometimes slightly quaint, always effective and arresting. a _laconic_ statement is made in the manner of _the spartans_, who hated talk and used as few words as possible. a _curt_ statement is _made short_; its abruptness is oftentimes more or less rude. _sentences_: "a tale should be judicious, clear, ____, the language plain, and incidents well link'd." "charles lamb made the most ____ criticism of spenser when he called him the poet's poet." with a ____, disdainful answer she turned away. the sermon was filled with ____ sayings. by omitting all irrelevant details, he made his statement of the case ____. it requires great skill to give a ____ statement of what such a treatise contains. a proverb is a ____ statement of a truth. men are as mindful of rank and pretension in their terms for the cessation of life as in their choice of tombstones for the departed. _death_ is the great, democratic, unspoilable word. it is not too good for a clown or too poor for an emperor. _decease_ is a more formal word. its employment is often legal--the death proves to be of sufficient importance for the law (and the lawyers) to take notice. _demise_, however, is outwardly the most resplendent term of all. it implies that the victim cut a wide swath even in death. it is used of an illustrious person, as a king, who transmits his title to an heir. ordinary people cannot afford a _demise_. if the term is applied to their shuffling off of this mortal coil, the use is euphemistic and likely to be stilted. _sentences_: "the crown at the moment of ____ must descend to the next heir." "____ is a fearful thing." "in their ____ they were not divided." at the ____ of his father he inherited the estate. "each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of ____." "many a time i have been half in love with easeful ____." _early_ is the simple word for that which was in, or toward, the beginning. that is _primitive_ which has the old-fashioned or simple qualities characteristic of the beginning. that is _primeval_ which is of the first or earliest ages. that is _primordial_ which is first in origin, formation, or development. that is _primal_ which is first or original. (the word is poetic.) that is _pristine_ which has not been corrupted from its original state. _assignment for further discrimination_: _sentences_: it was a hardy mountain folk that preserved the ____ virtues. the ____ history of mankind is shrouded in uncertainty. "this is the forest ____." "it hath the ____ eldest curse upon 't, a brother's murder." "a ____ leaf is that which is immediately developed from the cotyledon." as the explorers penetrated farther into the country, they beheld all the ____ beauties of nature. some countries still use the ____ method of plowing with a stick. we hear some one say that he reads faces. how? through long study of them and what they indicate. the human race as a whole has been reading faces through the centuries. it has felt such need to label certain recurring aspects of them that it has invented the designating terms. of these terms the simple, inclusive one is of course _face_ itself. if, however, we are thinking of the face as its look or expression reveals thoughts, emotions, or state of mind, our term is _countenance_. if we are thinking of it as distinguished or individualized by the contour, lines, etc., we speak of the _features_. if we are thinking of its external appearance or aspect, we call it the _visage_. if, finally, we are thinking of it as indicative of mind, disposition, or fundamental character, we say _physiognomy._ _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: his grotesque ____ reminded one of a gargoyle. it is said that the ____ of persons living constantly together tend to become alike. "behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling ____." the teacher told the students to wash their ____ every morning. "a ____ more in sorrow than in anger." the firm but kind ____ of the old statesman shone happily at this ovation. "for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then ____ to ____." she turned an eager ____ up to me as she spoke. one's ____ is moulded by one's thoughts. cosmetics injure the ____. his clear-cut ____ impressed his employer. _financial_ is usually applied to money matters of considerable size or moment. _monetary_ applies to money, coin, or currency as such. _pecuniary_ refers to practical matters in which money is involved, though not usually in large amounts. _fiscal_ refers especially to the time when money, receipts, and accounts are balanced or reckoned. _sentences_: a ____ reward has been offered. we gave the unfortunate man ____ assistance. the ____ system of the country was sound. it was hamilton who more than any one else shaped the ____ policies of the new government. experts audit the company's accounts at the end of the ____ year. the ____ interests of the country were behind the bill. to _flee_ is to run away from what one would avoid, as danger, arrest, or the like. to _abscond_ is to steal off secretly and hide one's self, as from some disgraceful reason or to avoid arrest. to _decamp_ is to leave suddenly in great haste to get away; the word is often used humorously. _sentences_: they went to have their money refunded, but the swindler had ____. the bank teller ____ after having squandered most of the deposits. yes, we were in proximity to a polecat, and without further parley we ____. "resist the devil, and he will ____ from you." william wallace, when pursued by the english, ____ into the highlands. _foretell_ is the general word for stating or perceiving beforehand that which will happen. _predict_ implies foretelling based on well-founded or precise knowledge. _prophesy_ often implies supernatural inspiration to foretell correctly. the word is especially so used in connection with the scriptures; but in the scriptures themselves it frequently expresses insight and admonition without the element of foretelling. _forecast_ involves a marked degree of conjecture. _presage_ usually means to give as a presentiment or warning. _forebode_ expresses an uncertain foreknowledge of vague impending evil. _portend_ indicates the likelihood that something will befall which is threatening or evil in its consequences. _augur_ means foretelling from omens. _prognosticate_ means foretelling through the study of signs or symptoms. _sentences_: "for we know in part, and we ____ in part." (insert in the blank, successively, the terms just distinguished. in each instance how is the meaning affected? do any of the terms fail to make sense at all? which term do you think the right one? bearing in mind the distinctions we have made, frame sentences of your own to embody the terms.) _get_, the general term, may be used of whatever one comes by whatsoever means to possess, experience, or realize. to _acquire_ is to get into more or less permanent possession, either by some gradual process or by one's determined efforts. to _obtain_ is to get something desired by means of deliberate effort or request. to _procure_ is to get by definitely planned effort something which, in most instances, is of a temporary nature or the possession of which is temporary. to _attain_ is to get through striving that which one has set as a goal or end of his desire or ambition. to _gain_ is to get that which is advantageous. to _win_ is to get as the result of successful competition or the overcoming of opposition. to _earn_ is to get as a deserved reward for one's efforts or exertions. _sentences_: with such wages as those, he can barely ____ a living. he ____ a pardon by appealing to the governor. the speaker ____ his point by forcing his opponent to admit that the figures were misleading. by buying in june i can ____ a good overcoat at half price. did you ____ only seven thousand dollars for your house? walpole believed in ____ one's ends in the surest and easiest way possible. it is illegal to ____ money through false pretences. a junior ____ the prize in the oratorical contest. kirk ____ his advancement by taking a personal interest in the firm's welfare. the painter ____ a foreign accent while he was studying in paris. he ____ their gratitude by loyally serving them. it was through sacrifices that he ____ an education. . we _give_ that which we transfer from our own to another's possession or ownership, usually without compensation. we _bestow_ that which we give gratuitously, or of which the recipient stands in especial need. we _grant_ that which has been requested by one dependent upon us or inferior to us, and which we give with some formality. from a position of superiority we _confer_ as a favor or honor that which we might withhold or deny. we _present_ that which is of importance or value and which we give ceremoniously. _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: william the conqueror ____ english estates upon his followers. the rich man ____ his wonderful art collection to the museum. my application for a leave of absence has been ____. the ticket agent ____ us complete information. every year he ____ alms upon the poor in that neighborhood. the school board may ____ an increase in the salaries of teachers. many merchants ____ premiums with the articles they sell. the college ____ an honorary degree upon the distinguished visitor. the pilgrims ____ thanks to god for their preservation. "not what we ____, but what we share." . what did john wesley mean by saying, "though i am always in _haste_, i am never in a _hurry_"? does lord chesterfield's saying "whoever is in a _hurry_ shows that the thing he is about is too big for him" help explain the distinction? explain the distinction (taking _speed_ in the modern sense) in the saying "the more _haste_, ever the worse _speed_." "the tidings were borne with the usual _celerity_ of evil news." give the well-known saying in four simple words that express the same idea. which of the two statements is the more forceful? which is the more literary? why did prescott use the former in his _ferdinand and isabella_? "_despatch_," says lord chesterfield, "is the soul of business." what does _despatch_ suggest about getting work done that _haste_ or _speed_ does not? in which way would you prefer for your employee to go about his task--with _haste_, with _speed_, or with _despatch_? "with wingéd _expedition_, swift as the lightning glance, he executes his errand on the wicked." why is it that this use of _expedition_ in milton's lines is apt? would _despatch_ have served as well? if not, why not? . to _hate_ involves deep or passionate dislike, sometimes bred of ill-will. to _detest_ involves an intense, vehement, or deep-seated antipathy. to _abhor_ involves utter repugnance or aversion, with an impulse to recoil. to _loathe_ involves disgust because of physical or moral offensiveness. to _abominate_ involves strong moral aversion, as of that which is odious or wicked. to _despise_ is to dislike and look down upon as inferior. _sentences_: when he had explained his fell purpose, i could only ____ him. who would not ____ a slimy creature like uriah heep? it is natural for us to ____ our enemies. she ____ greasy food. there suddenly in my pathway was the venomous reptile, darting out its tongue; oh, i ____ snakes! a wholesome nature must ____ such principles as these. a child ____ to kiss and make up. the pampered young millionaire ____ those who are simply honest and kind. these daily practices of her associates she ____. . (with this group contrast the _disease_ group below.) the words of this group are assuredly blessed. every one of them has to do with the giving, promotion, or preservation of health. but health is of various kinds, and therefore the words apply differently. _healthful_ is the most inclusive of them; it means that the thing it refers to is full of health for us. _wholesome_ also is a very broad term; what is wholesome is good for us physically, mentally, or morally. _salutary_ is confined to that which affects for good our moral (including civic and social) welfare, especially if it counteracts evil influences or propensities. _salubrious_ is confined to the physical; it is used almost solely of healthful air or climate. _sanitary_ and _hygienic_ apply to physical well-being as promoted by the eradication of the causes for sickness, disease, or the like; _sanitary_, however, is used of measures and conditions affecting people in general, whereas _hygienic_ connects itself with personal habits. _assignment for further discrimination_: the word _healthy_ is often confused with _healthful_. you have already discriminated between these two terms, but you should renew your knowledge of the distinction between them. _sentences_: colorado is noted for its ____ air. he offered the young people some ____ advice. a person should brush his teeth every day for ____ reasons. in spite of its horrors, the french revolution has had a ____ effect upon civilization. damp, low places do not have a ____ climate. cities in the middle ages were not ____. his is a very ____ way of life. my doctor recommends buttermilk as ____. . he knew that it was a ____ responsibility. (insert the four words in the blank space in turn, and analyze the differences in meaning thus produced.) . he made a ____ donation to the endowment fund. (insert the four words in the blank space in turn, and analyze the differences in meaning.) . "a man's a man for a' that," sang the poet. so he is, but not all the adjectives allusive to his state are equally complimentary. _masculine_ betokens the qualities and characteristics belonging to men. _male_ designates sex and is used of animals as well as human beings. _manly_ (used of boys as well as men) implies the possession of qualities worthy of a man, as strength, courage, sincerity, honesty, independence, or even tenderness. _manlike_ refers to qualities, attributes, or foibles characteristically masculine. _manful_ suggests the valor, prowess, or resolution properly belonging to men. _mannish_ (a derogatory word) indicates superficial or affected qualities of manhood, especially when inappropriately possessed by a woman. _virile_ applies to the sturdy and intrepid qualities of mature manhood. _sentences_: the chinese especially prize ____ children. he was a ____ little fellow. she walked with a ____ stride. with ____ courage he faced the crisis. it was a ____ defense of an unpopular cause. ____ strength is the complement of female grace. the old sailor still retained the rugged and ____ strength of a man much younger. with ____ bluntness he told her what he thought. such gentleness is not weak; it is ____. he made a ____ struggle against odds. "his ____ brow consents to death, but conquers agony." now isn't that assumption of omniscience ____? . a _name_ is the word or words by which a person or thing is called or known. if the name be descriptive or characterizing, even though in a fanciful way, it is an _appellation_. if it particularizes an individual through reference to distinctive quality or nature, perhaps without employing any word the individual is usually known by, it is a _designation_. if it specifies a class, especially a religious sect or a kind of coin, it is a _denomination_. if it is an official or honorary description of rank, office, place within a profession, or the like, it is a _title_. if it is assumed, as to conceal identity, it is an _alias_. _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: yes, it is a five-dollar gold piece, though one doesn't often see a coin of that ____ nowadays. the little corporal is the ____ applied to napoleon by his soldiers. the eldest son of the king of england bears the ____ of the prince of wales. the government issues stamps in various ____. "that loafer" was his contemptuous ____ of the man who could not find work. "duke" is the highest ____ of nobility in england. the crook was known to the police under many ____. at the battle of bull run jackson received the ____ "stonewall." "what's in a[n] ____? that which we call a rose by any other ____ would smell as sweet." the head of the american government bears the ____ of president. the mist of spring was the little indian maiden's ____. his ____ was thornberg. . we reserve the right to judge for ourselves when told that something-- especially a joke--is "the very latest." so may we likewise discriminate among degrees of age. _old_ is applied to a person or thing that has existed for a long time or that existed in the distant past. the word may suggest a familiarity or sentiment not found in _ancient_, which is used of that which lived or happened in the remote past, or has come down from it. _olden_ applies almost wholly to time long past. _antique_ is the term for that which has come down from ancient times or is made in imitation of the style of ancient times, whereas _antiquated_ is the term for that which has gone out of style or fashion. _archaic_ and _obsolete_ refer to words, customs, or the like, the former to such as savor of an earlier period though they are not yet completely out of use, the latter to such as have passed out of use altogether. _immemorial_ implies that a thing is so old that it is beyond the time of memory or record. _elderly_ is applied to persons who are between middle age and old age. _aged_ is used of one who has lived for an unusually long time. _hoary_ refers to age as revealed by white hair. _venerable_ suggests the reverence to be paid to the dignity, goodness, or wisdom of old age. _decrepit_ conveys a sense of the physical infirmities and weakness which attend old age; _senile_ of the lessening powers of both body and mind that result from old age. _superannuated_ is applied to a person who on account of old age has been declared incapable of continuing his activities. _sentences_: he liked to read romances of the ____ days. dana records that he once saw a man so ____ that he had to raise his eyelids with his fingers. many writers use ____ words to give quaintness to their work. he liked to sit around in his ____ clothes. "the moping owl does to the moon complain of such as, wandering near her secret bower, molest her ____ solitary reign." some of these ____ sequoia trees were old before the white man discovered this continent. they are building the church in the ____ roman style of architecture. "be not ... the last to lay the ____ aside." many of chaucer's words, being ____, cannot possibly be understood without a glossary. most churches now have funds for ____ ministers. a man is as ____ as he feels; a woman is as ____ as she looks. the ____ old man could scarcely hobble across the room. what better proof that he is ____ do you ask than that he babbles constantly about what happened when he was young? "i am a very foolish fond ____ man, fourscore and upward." they revered the ____ locks of the old hero. at sixty a man is considered a[n] ____ person. that the earth is flat is a[n] ____ idea. the young warriors listened respectfully to the ____ chief's advice. they unearthed a[n] ____ vase. "____ wood best to burn, ____ wine to drink, ____ friends to trust, and ____ authors to read." his favorite study was ____ history. "grow ____ along with me." "the most ____ heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong." . most men are willing to receive what is due them. they might even be persuaded to receive a bit more. why should they not be as scrupulous to receive what they are entitled to in the medium of language as of money? sometimes they are. offering to _pay_ some people instead of to _compensate_ them is like offering a tip to the wrong person. why? because there is a social implication in _compensate_ which is not contained in _pay_. to _pay_ is simply to give what is due, as in wages (or even salary), price, or the like. to _compensate_ is to make suitable return for service rendered. does _compensate_ not sound the more soothing? but save in exceptional circumstances the downrightness of _pay_ has no hint of vulgarity. to _recompense_ is to make a return, especially if it is not monetary, for work, pains, trouble, losses, or suffering; or some quality or blessing (as affection or happiness) may be said to recompense one. to _remunerate_ is to disburse a large amount to a person, or to give it to him as a reward, or otherwise to make him a return in a matter of importance. to _requite_ is to put a just value upon one's work, deeds, or merit and to make payment strictly in accordance with his deserts. to _reimburse_ is to make good what some one has spent for you. to _indemnify_ is to secure some one against loss or to make restitution for damages he has sustained. _assignment for further discrimination_: . _sentences_: let us ____ him for his efforts in our behalf. let us ____ their kindness with kindness, their cruelty with cruelty. to ____ them adequately for such patriotic sacrifices is of course impossible. the government demanded that it be ____ for the injury to its citizens. i shall ____ you for all sums expended. he ____ the bill by a check. the success of her children ____ a mother for her sacrifices for them. wages are ____ to laborers; salaries are ____ to judges. . most persons feel in their hearts that their claims and merits are superior to those of other people. but they do not like for you, in describing them, to imply that their self-appraisal is too high. "comparisons are odious," and therefore in comparing their fancied with their real selves you must choose your terms carefully. of the words that suggest an exaggerated estimate of one's merits or privileges the broadest, as well as the least offensive, is _proud_. in fact this word need not carry the idea of exaggeration. a proud man may but hold himself in justifiable esteem, or wish to measure up to the demands of his station or to the expectations of others. on the other hand, he may overvalue his attainments, possessions, connections, etc. to say that the man is _arrogant_ means that he combines with pride a contempt for others, that he claims for himself greater attention, consideration, or respect than he is entitled to. to say that he is _presumptuous_ makes him an inferior (or at least not a superior) who claims privileges or takes liberties improperly. to say that he is _haughty_ means that he assumes a disdainful superiority to others, especially through fancied or actual advantage over them in birth or social position. to say that he is _supercilious_ means that he maintains toward others an attitude of lofty indifference or sneering contempt. to say that he is _insolent_ means that he is purposely and perhaps coarsely disrespectful toward others, especially toward his superiors. to say that he is _insulting_ means that he gives or offers personal affront, probably in scornful or disdainful speech. _assignment for further discrimination_: